Molly's Game You already know Jessica Chastain is one of the most amazing women I've never met, and she's a ginger but this empress never ceases to impress and Molly's Game is no exception to this golden rule. It's quite a journey to witness someone shift their talent and focus from one dream to the next hardly missing a breath or beat. That's exactly what happens in this story which by the by is also solidly based on the true life story of ex US ski team member Molly Bloom who suddenly changes direction ending her promising athletic career to surreptitiously host and run an illegal high stakes poker game frequented by A list celebs earning her the nickname "poker princess."
Now if that isn't a recipe that whets your goatee well hell, you've been out of the saloon way too long.
Red Sparrow While she ain't no Winter Soldier, Jennifer Lawrence, as Dominika Egorova certainly does give us good face, grace and everything in-between. It's been too long since we've seen a red operative charm and chill us this well since Connery in The Hunt For Red October. Lawrence pulls you into the scene like few others, her talent for flipping an internal hot and cold switch certainly keeps the audience at a slow burn. To be ten steps ahead of this game, Dominika must be cunning, sage and feral. Will it be enough to ensure her survival? Dasvidaniya dyadya.
The Woodsman Kevin earns his bacon in this dramatic role that you may find hard to watch and even harder to look away from. Mos Def adds the right amount of je ne sais quoi by playing an attitudinal copper in a minuscule yet memorable role as Bacon's parole officer. And none other than Sedgwick, Bacon's real life wife gives new life and a more understanding perspective to an old character we tend to see more often than not. The Woodsman will have you pondering days perhaps weeks or longer, debating one's comprehension of good and evil and the wavering percentages each of us hold in our hearts.
The Killing of a Sacred Deer Say what now? While you don't have to call PETA as no deer were slaughtered in this movie, the audience will still catch the bullet that slayed Bambi's madre I can guar-ON-T you on that mon frere. There appears to be a growing number of these movies on the market today and I've discovered I'm attracted to them all. What's that you say, description? Let's call it the filth noir of human nature shall we? And I know what you're thinking, you see it on the news all day everyday. Nope. These type of films explore an archaic, primordial human character that we pretend civilization has obliterated. To see the naked, stripped to the bone perverse nature play out against a 20th century backdrop is jolting to say the least. What's even worse is our response and dare I say attraction drawing parallels of relate-ability and justification with these flawed characters. Could it be that we are witnessing something we recognize, maybe in ourselves?
Wind River There's something to be said for movies that bring darkness into light even when the tragedy is unbearable to witness. Wind River brutally splinters onscreen depicting the desperate escape of a young girl plunging into the snow and wilderness so vividly that we feel the condensation from her vaporized breath and feel the futility and sorrow as she and the audience both calculate her odds of survival. Fish and Wildlife tracker Remmer teams up with green FBI Agent Olsen to investigate and it is the answers to the who, why, what, where and when that illuminates a continuity of the decimation of a people who hardly have anything left to take.