Margot Robbie – Spinning Platters

Film Review: “Barbie”

Gerwig delivers with a playful and clever Barbie movie

First, here’s a bit of context and factoids for your next trivia night: Barbie (the doll) was created by Ruth Handler and manufactured by the toy company Mattel, Inc. in 1959. A live-action Barbie movie had been rumored and tossed around in studio purgatory for many years before landing in the hands of Warner Bros. and director Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird; Little Women). There are over forty previously released Barbie movies, most if not all straight-to-video and all animated, but Gerwig’s vision was bound to be different. With each new set photograph, marketing ad, and interview released, anticipation grew to a fever pitch. Now it’s finally arrived: Barbie the live action blockbuster summer movie! And it’s as playful as a child could want and as incisive as everyone older yearned for.

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Film Review: “Babylon”

Chazelle’s trip to Babylon leaves us cold

Aspiring actress Nellie LaRoy (Margot Robbie) meets Manny Torres (Diego Calva) at a wild party.

Babylon, this season’s third (yes, third!) movie about the movies is by far the worst of the trio. While The Fabelmans and Empire of Light have a few pluses, Babylon is too bloated and draggy to recommend. Writer/director Damien Chazelle (La La Land; First Man; Whiplash) clearly loves the movies, but with Babylon, he’s made one that might actually steer his audience away from the form instead of toward it.

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Film Review: “The Suicide Squad”

DC brings a Gunn to a knife fight

DC, which obviously stands for Demolition Crew due to their incessant need to destroy CGI buildings in each film they release…. Oh, wait, it stands for Detective Comics? Ah. Well, in that case, they have a lot of repairing to do, both to their brand and to their movies, which have suffered from every production snafu, PR mess, and critical upheaval possible in the last decade. With the exception of the first Wonder Woman film in 2017, and delightful detours with Shazam! and Birds of Prey, the headlining slate of Batman, Superman, and Justice League-related films have been atrocious, including 2016’s Suicide Squad. Thankfully, The Suicide Squad (emphasis on ‘The’) pulls no punches as it blows up any trace of the previous film’s legacy. It’s a fun movie that requires no homework; you can enter the theater a DC expert or fresh-faced, and Suicide Squad provides a gory good time at the movies. Sure, it’s too long. Sure, its middle third is boring, forgettable, and obnoxiously sullen. Nevertheless, Director James Gunn has infused a sense of silly violent fun that studio rivals over at Marvel have been employing for over a decade, and which DC has been incapable of featuring until now (note: Birds of Prey was actually a better, under-appreciated righting of the ship). The Suicide Squad is not perfect, but it’s a helluva good time.

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Film Feature: Carrie and Chris Pick the 2020 Oscars

Film critics Carrie and Chris on who will – and who should – win the 92nd Academy Awards

The 92nd Academy Awards air tomorrow, Sunday, February 9th, on ABC at 5:00 pm PST. Once again, Spinning Platters film critics Carrie Kahn and Chris Piper share their predictions — and hopes — for the major categories. A lot of the winners feel like locks, based on earlier award season wins, but, honestly, we’d rather have some upsets to make for an interesting show then have all our predictions come true. Fingers crossed for some liveliness!

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Film Review: Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood

A tarnished Golden State, and overripe fruit

Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) in Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood — Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) are cruisin’ for a bruisin’.

Let’s face it, we all want another Pulp Fiction. We all remember, either on opening night (me!), a bit later, or maybe way later through a TV the way we felt during, and right after, living through that unique moment in American cinema. How did Quentin Tarantino get away with gangsters talking about the Royale with cheese? Is that really John Travolta? Can we like him again? Did we just see Christopher Walken pop off a two-minute monologue about hiding family heirlooms in anal cavities? And wait, how could the middle of the story happen at the end of the film? Yep, we all remember, and let’s also face it that we’ve been waiting, WANTING another Pulp Fiction ever since. We should just stop with all that, because Tarantino’s ninth film, the excellent Once Upon a Time in … Hollywood proves, finally and triumphantly, that all the peculiar elements of his films can come together gracefully to create a dissimilar but still profoundly satisfying cinematic experience.

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Film Feature: Carrie and Chris Pick the 2018 Oscars

Film critics Carrie and Chris on who will – and who should – win the 90th Academy Awards

The 90th Academy Awards air this Sunday, March 4th on ABC at 5:00 pm PST (pre-show festivities start well before, if you want to weigh in on Oscar fashions). Spinning Platters film critics Carrie Kahn and Chris Piper share their predictions – and hopes – for the major categories, and discuss their reasoning for six of the biggest categories in the podcast below. Will there be another Moonlight/La La Land fiasco? Tune in on Sunday to find out – and to see how we – and you – do on the big night!

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Film Review: Suicide Squad

Suicide Squad dies a slow, painfully disappointing death.

maxresdefault-1 — More like an awkward dance than a ballroom blitz.

Watch the Suicide Squad trailer one more time. Do you feel that insane energy? Well, that same energy exuding from all the Suicide Squad trailers, posters, and marketing materials doesn’t exude from the feature film. All the hype, and true potential, of this anti-hero DC property has been damaged by over-bloated character introductions, weak villains, and a restrained take on some of the DC Universe’s most iconic psychopaths — looking at YOU, Joker! Suicide Squad could’ve been so much more, but unfortunately the DC film producers, again, trivialize a tremendous premise into an “extended trailer” for the Justice League movie, which is becoming less and less enticing with every preceding related release.

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Film Review: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

Fey brings depth, dry wit to war correspondent role

American reporter Kim Baker (Tina Fey) reports on a story from Afghanistan.

I walked into Book Passage in the Ferry Building the other day and noticed it had a display of books labeled as movie tie-ins; the title Whiskey Tango Foxtrot was among them. Having seen the trailer for the Tina Fey-helmed film (she both produces, along with her old Saturday Night Live boss Lorne Michaels, and stars in the picture), and knowing I’d be reviewing the movie, I was curious, and picked up a copy from the large stack. I was immediately confused, as the book in my hand was about a female photographer in Iraq, not a reporter in Afghanistan, which I knew the Fey film was supposed to be about. What was going on? Did the producers change the story that much?

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Film Review: Focus

A smooth, fun star vehicle for Will Smith and Margot Robbie

I love a good con man movie. My favorites are The Sting, The Spanish Prisoner, House of Games, and Diggstown. Each of these movies features both the players in the film being conned as well as the audience. Focus doesn’t enter the realm of classic cinema, but it’s stylish, fun, and full of joyous reveals. Everything else I’m about to say is unnecessary exposition. Who wants to know the details of a good con?

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