Reviews of albums, films, concerts, and more from the Bay Area Music and Movie Nerds
Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to man, Greek mythology tells us, and for that he was punished for all eternity. While physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer’s fate wasn’t quite as brutal, it proves nearly as tragic, as we see in Oppenheimer, writer/director Christopher Nolan’s epic new film about the father of the atomic bomb.
With Jordan Peele’s Get Out follow-up Us opening today and receiving a ton of buzz, you may not realize there actually are a few other quieter, less high-profile films opening today as well. One of these is The Aftermath, an old-fashioned historical drama that, while somewhat forgettable and ultimately predictable, is a serviceable alternative for those searching for something less intense than Peele’s headline-grabbing horror flick.
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Readers of a certain age may remember the spring of 1997, when the must-read, buzz generating new release was Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air, his account of the tragic Mt. Everest climbing expedition from the year prior. With Everest, Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur has crafted a cinematographically stunning and emotionally powerful dramatization of the events of that climb. Basing the film not just on Krakauer’s book, but also on other published survivor accounts, screenwriters William Nicholson (Gladiator; Unbroken) and Simon Beaufoy (127 Hours) bring us another a heart-pounding, riveting story of both the best and worst of the human spirit.
In Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, the follow-up to the surprising and emotionally resonant 2011 reboot, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, we are treated to another slice of the 50-year-old Planet of the Apes universe that had, until now, only been hypothesized. Part of the consuming mystery surrounding the original 1968 Planet of the Apes ending was wondering how the humans had destroyed the Earth and fallen prisoner to ape overlords. Dawn offers just a small, yet undoubtedly significant, step on this inevitable path. And yet, under the confident direction of Matt Reeves (Cloverfield, Let Me In), Dawn of the Planet of the Apes has an epic feel that looms large with great performances, memorable and haunting action, and deep social commentary.
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