Jeff Lubeck

In most relationships – business or personal – there comes a time when the person in which you have been involved decides it is time for you to meet the parties for which they are associated or tied.  In business it may mean meeting the boss. When dating, it usually means meeting the parents. Invariably if your relationship is to continue these meetings require at least minimal discussion on straightforward and touchy subjects; morals, positions on topics of the day, race, religion, and sexual orientation. At best this experience is full of angst.  At worst the experience proves to be a nightmare.

Jordan Peele’s clever film Get Out projects all the elements of such an event and more.  Get Out provides comedy, drama, horror, and thriller scenes in taught fashion.  Peele (Key and Peele, The Daily Show, MAD T.V.) sets up the viewer to be the observer\participant in Get Out.  Get Out deliberately telegraphs foreshadowing on foreshadowing – so as to convince you that you know where this story is going and are simply along for the ride.  Sometimes you are right and sometimes you are wrong.  Regardless, the trip is fun viewing.

Get Out stars Daniel Kaluuya (Sicario) and Allison Williams (Girls) as the handsome couple in love.  Both are superb in their roles and Peele’s dialog for both cements their believability.  The parents are played by Katherine Keener (Capote, 40 year-old Virgin, Out of Sight) and Bradley Whitford (West Wing).  There casting is smart because both are the same age and logically could be parents of a women in her late 20’s.  Keener and Whitford have a history of being able to play supporting actors who’s roles are key to the success of the production.  In Get Out they both succeed.

Get Out deliberately leverages off of tried and true filmmaking techniques and provides it in a fresh and enjoyable package.

Greta Gerwig’s film Lady Bird is a masterpiece.  Gerwig (Frances Ha, Mistress America) provides us an insight into life and a part of ourselves few films endeavor let alone accomplish.

Lady Bird stars Saoirse Ronan (Atonement – AAN, Hanna, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Brooklyn – AAN) as a high-school senior experiencing all that comes with this time of life.  Instead of being a programmatic re-tread of Hollywood story-line(s) and character(s) presented in out sized and or and overly simplistic form, Lady Bird feels real from start-to-finish.  Ronan – as almost always – is perfect in the role.

Better than any film in recent memory, Lady Bird shows us youth, age, inexperience, experience, warmth, cold, sincerity, insincerity, happiness, sadness, the ability to communicate feelings, and the lack thereof, the lack of appreciation and (ultimately) appreciation.

Laurie Metcalf (Mom’s voice in Toy Story movies, The Big Bang Theory, Roseanne) and Tracy Letts (U.S. Marshals, The Big Short, Elvis & Nixon) are Lady Bird’s parents. Lucas Hedges (Manchester By the Sea – AAN, Moonrise Kingdom), Beanie Feldstein (Orange is the New Black),  Timothée Chalamet (Interstellar) and Odeya Rush (Goosebumps) are Lady’s Birds circle of friends.  Each of these six characters have roles that are rich and well developed.  The actors prove to be more than capable in the role. Some with a level of true brilliance.

Jeff’s Worthless Trivia and Notes:

If you have not seen Atonement (AAN Best Film 2007) do so.  All five films nominated in 2007 (Atonement, No Country for Old Men, Michael Clayton, Juno, There Will Be Blood) were worthy of the statue.  Atonement, Michael Clayton and No Country for Old Men are in the Lubeck film library and watched repeatedly.

Gerwig is a strong actor. She is great at appearing to be completely self-centered with a total lack of self awareness.  However her writing and directing skills may win the day.

The personality of Hedges character in Lady Bird is a 180 degree turn from that in Manchester By the Sea – a performance for which he was nominated for an Academy Award.  He is so convincing in both – uncanny.