[Sculpt]

Two DVD rentals:

Split (2016)
7/10

A guy captures three young ladies.

Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. As the title may suggest, the lead antagonist has multiple personalities and is played, dare I say a tour de force performance, by James McAvoy (played the young Professor X in Xmen First Class and Future Past). But beyond that, it's simply mildly entertaining and surprisingly cliche. The writing has some depth, but not nearly deep, sharp or emotional enough that we ever care or take much notice. Lot's of old, old ground here.

Hacksaw Ridge (2016)
8/10

A true story, during WWII an young American Seventh-day Adventist Christian joins the Army to be a combat medic, while also being a conscious objector who will not kill, nor even carry a weapon. His fight begins in basic training and ends in the Battle of Okinawa.

Directed by Mel Gibson, including stars Vince Vaughn, Hugo Weaving and Sam Worthington, the film was nominated for many awards including Best Picture. The film is well made, and a very interesting true story. The film is packed with vicious Pacific War combat scenes. The script felt a bit simple and the characters largely caricatures of real people, but not to the extent that it was ruining my film immersion.


Netflix offering:

The Dinner (2017)
7/10

Two brothers, one a US congressman (Richard Gere) and their wives meet at a restaurant to discuss what to do about their teen boys who have gotten into some very serious trouble.

I haven't seen this level of character and background exposition in a film perhaps since Ordinary People. It's based on a Dutch novel of the same name, which explains the extensive novel-esque exposition. It has a bit of a The Great Gasbey going on. Has plenty of witty dialogue. For some reason the film leaves an ending issue unresolved. Along with that the ending is a bit unsatisfying.