Darkest Hour

★★★★★ - A Review by Cameron Kanachki

Winston Churchill was arguably the greatest Prime Minister in the history of Great Britain. With his grand speeches & extreme tenacity, he unified the people of Britain in the fight against the Nazi regime in World War II, giving hope to the people & the soldiers. While he was despised by most members of the British House of Commons, including members from his own Conservative party, he managed to become respected at the end of it all.

Darkest Hour is an excellent portrayal of Churchill's turbulent first month in office. Set in 1940, the film follows Winston Churchill (played by Gary Oldman), the Conservative Member of Parliament for the constituency of Epping & the First Lord of the Admiralty. Parliament is at a deadlock: the opposing partiesin Parliament demand that the current Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain (played by Ronald Pickup), resign due to his policy of appeasement & due to the belief that he is to weak to protect Britain. Chamberlain announces his resignation in a meeting with the Cabinet, naming Viscount Halifax (played by Stephen Dillane) as his successor; however, Halifax declines, despite the full support of him by the Cabinet. Chamberlain then selects Churchill as his successor, believing him to be the only man who can be supported by all parties in Parliament.

Churchill is an interesting man: he's loud, large, & brash. Always at his side is his wife, Clementine (played by Kristin Scott Thomas). Clementime tells Winston that he must warm up in order to win over the population. Also at his side is his new secretary, Elizabeth Layton (played by Lily James), who also types Winston's speeches.

When he is officially named Prime Minister by King George VI (played by Ben Mendelsohn), he is told that he will not be treated with the same respect that he treated Chamberlain, as he considers Churchill to be a bad choice for Prime Minister.

Churchill's first speech in Parliament, calling for a full war against Nazi Germany, without no peace negotiation, is met with disapproval from the Conservatives, forcing Chamberlain & Halifax to consider resigning from the War Cabinet & force Chamberlain out of office. But Operation Dynamo, the operation to evacuate the British soldiers from the beaches of Dunkirk, may save Churchill after all.

The cast is superb. Gary Oldman is phenomenal, & this is definitely the best performance of his career. His performance is an absolute transformation, & his resemblance to Churchill with the makeup is absolutely uncanny. Oldman also gets a lot of Churchill's mannerisms down correctly.

Mendelsohn also does a great job as King George VI, proving himself to be a great actor that is criminally underrated. I personally consider his portrayal of King George VI to be a better portrayal than Colin Firth's Oscar-winning portrayal in 2010's The King's Speech.

Scott Thomas also delivers one of her best performances in a while, probably since her Golden Globe-nominated performance in 2008's I've Loved You So Long. Scott Thomas manages to be a powerful force in her short screen time.

James, Dillane & Pickup are also great in their roles. But this film belongs to Oldman, who we might as well consider him to be the eventual Oscar winner for Best Actor.

Joe Wright's direction is excellent. Wright brings a lot of great panache to the film, livening up the film's to extreme heights.

Anthony McCarten's screenplay is brilliant. Full of dialogue & sharp wit, the script livens up the already energetic plot.

Bruno Delbonnel's cinematography is phenomenal. Delbonnel uses a series of terrific tracking shots, including one that is one of the best shots I've seen this entire year.

Valerio Bonelli's editing is excellent. Bonelli uses a series of quick cuts, much like the cuts popularized by Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson & Edgar Wright.

Sarah Greenwood's production design is amazing. Although it doesn't draw attention to itself, it manages to immerse the audience in the film's time period.

Jacqueline Durran's costume design is excellent. The costumes are similar to the ones worn by the elites & the politicians of 1940s Britain.

The makeup & hairstyling is nothing short of terrific. The makeup & hairstyling have such immense transformative powers, allowing the actors to disappear into their performances.

And Dario Marinelli's score is amazing. The score has such a tense feeling to it, led by the booming orchestral sounds.

This is one of the best films of the year. It is a deeply involving story of a turbulent time in history, led by a truly astounding performance from Gary Oldman.

Darkest Hour was seen by me at The Maple Theater in Bloomfield Hills, MI on Saturday, December 16, 2017. It is in theaters everywhere. Its runtime is 125 minutes, & it is rated PG-13 for some thematic material.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

★★★★★ - A Review by Cameron Kanachki

I'm just going to get something off of my chest here: I've never been an entirely huge Star Wars fan. I've liked the films (except for 2 of the prequels), but I've never delved deep into the whole saga. I'd only watched all of the films for the first time only before 2015's Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which I thoroughly enjoyed. 2016's Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, while not as great as any of the original Star Wars films or The Force Awakens, was another Star Wars film that I really enjoyed.

But something different happened with Star Wars: The Last Jedi. From the first trailer, I knew that I would really love this film. The second trailer further assured this assumption. And when I walked in the theater to see this film, I felt more anticipation than any other Star Wars film that I've seen.

And it did not disappoint one bit. In fact, it exceeded my expectations. It's fun & extremely well-made. The film once again follows Rey (played by Daisy Ridley), who, along with Chewbacca (played by Joonas Suotamo) & R2-D2 (played by Jimmy Vee) has just found Luke Skywalker (played by Mark Hamill) on the remote planet of Ahch-To. Rey is trying to recruit him for the Resistance, led by General Leia Organa (played by Carrie Fisher). However, Luke declines, still feeling immense guilt over his past involving Kylo Ren (played by Adam Driver), whom he says was corrupted by Supreme Leader Snoke (played by Andy Serkis). However, after some thought, he decides to teach Rey to use the Force.

Meanwhile, after Kylo Ren (played by Adam Driver) & General Hux (played by Domhnall Gleeson) lead a First Order fleet against the Resistance, leading to several TIE fighters destroying part of the Resistance ship, forcing Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo (played by Laura Dern) to become interim leader. Poe Dameron (played by Oscar Isaac), who was recently demoted by Leia after a recent counterattack against the First Order, is against the passive strategy used by Holdo. Poe, Finn (played by John Boyega), BB-8 & mechanic Rose Tico (played by Kelly Marie Tran) leave the ship to destroy a tracking device on the First Order ship that tracks the Resistance through hyperspace, with the help of Maz Kanata (played by Lupita Nyong'o), while C-3PO (played by Anthony Daniels) stays behind to help with Leia.

The four are led to the planet of Canto Bight, where they meet DJ (played by Benicio del Toro), a servicable codebreaker, who joins them to help destroy the tracking device. But they reach some trouble when they run into Captain Phasma (played by Gwendoline Christie) & are betrayed.

Also, Rey discovers more into what happened with Kylo's defection to the First Order, & finds out things are not as they seem.

The cast is superb. Ridley is phenomenal, & has definitely proved she can act as well as she uses the Force. Isaac, Boyega, Driver & Hamill are also great. Fisher is excellent in her final performance. But the standout is Kelly Marie Tran, who lights up the screen every time we see her.

Rian Johnson's direction is excellent. He further expands the world of Star Wars, & takes a lot of risks that I haven't seen in any Star Wars films that pay off really well.

Rian Johnson's screenplay is amazing. He makes sure all the characters are fully developed, & he adds a lot of humor to the film, which livens up the film even more.

Steve Yedlin's cinematography is excellent. Yedlin showcases many great wide shots, especially in space & on Canto Bight & Ahch-To.

Bob Ducsay's editing is excellent. The film's pacing is excellent, making the 152-minute runtime feel like an absolute breeze.

Rick Heinrichs's production design is phenomenal. The sets, especially the sets of the ships & the planets, are so immersive.

Michael Kaplan's costume design is amazing. The costumes fit perfectly with the sci-fi fantasy themes of the film, with the costumes looking very futuristic & awesome.

The makeup & hairstyling is excellent. The makeup & hairstyling, just like the costumes, are so futuristic & awesome.

The sound design is incredible. Every sound is loud & jarring, & complete immerses the audience. Also, one instance of absolute silence works so perfectly.

John Williams's original score is impeccable. Williams, who is definitely one of the best composers in history, has composed a score that ranks among his best, with his orchestra pulsating throughout the film.

And the visual effects, as always for a Star Wars film, are stunning. The explosions & ships & planets are created with such amazing CGI that they become their own character.

This is one of the best films of the year, & also, quite possibly, the best Star Wars film I've ever seen. It's fun & action-packed, with some of the best technical achievements in the Star Wars saga. I think you can consider me to be a full-on Star Wars fan now.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi was seen by me at the MJR Marketplace Digital Cinema 20 in Sterling Heights, MI on Saturday, December 16, 2017. It is in theaters everywhere. Its runtime is 152 minutes, & it is rated PG-13 for sequences of sci-fi action & violence.

Wonder Wheel

★★ - A Review by Cameron Kanachki

Annie Hall. Manhattan. Hannah & Her Sisters. Midnight in Paris. These are all some of the greatest films of writer/director Woody Allen. From his earlier slapstick comedies to the later existential dramedies, Woody Allen has always been at the forefront of bringing the neurotic to the big screen. While he has made some bad films in his career (albeit more recently than in the past), Allen has, for the most part, had great success with most of his films.

Sadly, Wonder Wheel, Woody Allen's newest film, is one of his worst films yet. Set in 1950s Brooklyn, the film follows Ginny (played by Kate Winslet), a troubled woman living in a small house near Coney Island. Besides working at the clam house on the boardwalk, she lives an uneventful life at home with her loud & uncouth husband, Humpty (played by Jim Belushi), & her pyromaniac son, Richie (played by Jack Gore).

All this changes with a chance meeting with Mickey Rubin (played by Justin Timberlake), an aspiring writer (also the narrator of the film & this film's Woody Allen-esque character). They start an affair, giving Ginny a much-needed break from the doom & gloom of her everyday life.

This also changes with the return of Humpty's daughter (& Ginny's stepdaughter), Carolina (played by Juno Temple). She's on the run from her gangster husband, & she knows where the bodies are buried. Mickey also takes a liking to her, stating that "the heart has its own hieroglyphics" (an eerily close statement to what Woody Allen stated about his marriage to his ex-partner, Mia Farrow's adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Previn). But this is only just the tip of the iceberg of the problems about to hit their lives.

The cast is great. Winslet is excellent, as always, turning what could've been a lifeless caricature into a living, thriving human character. Temple, Timberlake & Belushi are great as well.

Woody Allen's direction is mediocre. It's a far cry from the direction of his glory days, as the film doesn't know whether it wants to be a neurotic comedy or a melodrama.

Woody Allen's screenplay is terrible. The plot is awful & cliched, & the dialogue is nowhere near what Woody Allen's dialogue used to be. It's trite & way too melodramatic, to the point where the film seems like an unintentional parody of a 1950's melodrama. Also, the subplot of Timberlake's character being attracted to Temple's character is disturbing, considering Allen's aforementioned marriage to Soon-Yi Previn & the allegations of molestation brought on by his adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow.

The cinematography by Vittorio Storaro is excellent. The color palette switches between strong hues of red & blue that shine on the characters.

Alisa Lepstetter's editing is awful. There were several bad cuts throughout the film, & unlike Woody Allen's other films, this film dragged along, even though it had a relatively short 101-minute runtime.

Suzy Benzinger's costume design is amazing. The costumes are very similar to the clothing of working-class Brooklynites in the 1950s.

Santo Loquasto's production design is excellent. Loquasto accurately captures the look & feel of the architecture of 1950s Brooklyn.

And the makeup & hairstyling is great. The makeup & hairstyling match the makeup & hairstyle of the 1950s.

This is a real disappointment. Although it features some great performances & awe-inspiring visuals & design, the direction, screenplay & editing bog the film down a lot. It's time we asked the question: has Woody Allen lost his mojo? And also, what happens when the artist's notably indecent acts in real life start to blur with his work?

Wonder Wheel was seen by me at the MJR Marketplace Digital Cinema 20 in Sterling Heights, MI on Friday, December 15, 2017. It is showing in 1 theater in the Detroit area: the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor, MI. Its runtime is 101 minutes, & it is rated PG-13 for thematic content including some sexuality, language & smoking.

The Disaster Artist

★★★★★ - A Review by Cameron Kanachki

The 2003 film The Room has been noted as "the Citizen Kane of bad movies." It is infamous for its horrible acting, terrible direction, awful screenplay, & cheap production values. However, these huge shortcomings have made it into a cult classic that's so bad it's good. It's spawned sold-out midnight screenings around the world every month, where people dress up as their favorite characters, yell at the film, & throw plastic spoons at the screen. In this case, it is this generation's The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

But what if I told you that the craziest film ever made isn't as crazy as the people behind it or the making of the film itself?

The Disaster Artist brilliantly shows the story of the making of The Room, showcasing a successful failure behind the scenes. Based on the 2013 book of the same name by Greg Sestero & Tom Bissell, & set from 1998-2003, the film follows Tommy Wiseau (played by James Franco), a man of unknown heritage (he says he's from New Orleans, which we can definitely tell is false due to his obviously Eastern European accent), undeterminable age (he says he's 19, but we can definitely tell he's at least in his late 40's), & untraceable wealth (he's rich, but we definitely can't tell how he got his wealth). He is unapologetically brash, secretive, & just overall incredibly odd. He lives in San Francisco, but wants to make it big in Hollywood as an actor & director. He is fearless & wants to show everyone what he can do.

One day after an acting class run by Jean Shelton (played by Melanie Griffith), Tommy meets Greg Sestero (played by Dave Franco), a 19-year-old aspiring actor suffering from stage fright. Eventually, they begin a bizarre but strong friendship, & move to Los Angeles to pursue their careers.

In Los Angeles, Greg signs with noted talent agent Iris Burton (played by Sharon Stone), while Tommy is rejected again & again. Greg also starts a relationship with Amber (played by Alison Brie), a bartender. Tommy wants to move back to San Francisco after countless rejections, & Greg's career has stagnated after many failed auditions. Frustrated with their lack of success, Tommy & Greg decide to make their own film.

Out of this situation comes The Room. Over the course of 3 years, Tommy writes the film, which he will also direct. The plot of the film is simple: Johnny, a "true American hero" with good looks & many friends (who Tommy will be playing), lives with his fiancée, Lisa, who is secretly disillusioned with Johnny & is having an affair with his best friend, Mark (who Greg will be playing). Greg, although realizing the script is horrible, tells Tommy it's great & accepts the offer to do the film.

Tommy's approach to film production is awkward to say the least. Instead of renting cameras from Birns & Sawyer, he buys them, & instead of filming on either 35mm film or HD Digital, he films with both cameras simultaneously. Due to this, Bill Meurer (played by Hannibal Burress) & Peter Anway (played by Jason Mantzoukas), the owners of Birns & Sawyer, offer to have them film The Room at their studios. The cast & crew are eventually set: Juliette Danielle (played by Ari Graynor) will play Lisa; Philip Haldiman (played by Josh Hutcherson) will play Denny, the surrogate son of Johnny & Lisa; Carolyn Minnott (played by Jacki Weaver) will play Claudette, Lisa's mother; Dan Janjigian (played by Zac Efron) will play Chris-R, a drug dealer; Robyn Paris (played by June Diane Raphael) will play Michelle, Lisa's best friend; Scott Holmes (played by Andrew Santino) will play Mike, Michelle's boyfriend; & Kyle Vogt (played by Nathan Fielder) will play Peter, Johnny's psychologist friend. The crew includes Sandy Schklair (played by Seth Rogen), who will be the script supervisor (but ends up taking over most of the directorial responsibilities); Raphael Smadja (played by Paul Scheer), who will be the director of photography; & Safowa Bright (played by Charlyne Yi), who will be the costume designer.

The filming goes smooth at first, but manages to get really bad. The film goes past the original shooting schedule, Tommy's narcissism bubbles to the surface, the work environment is extremely toxic, & Tommy forgets his lines from the script that he himself wrote. All of these problems just get bigger & bigger, & when the film finally sees the light of day, no one will be the same.

The cast is excellent. James Franco is nothing short of spectacular. His performance is one of the best of the century, & he should definitely win the Oscar for Best Actor. He completely disappears into Tommy Wiseau, & nails down his mannerisms & the accent.

Dave Franco is also amazing as Greg Sestero. He nails his look, & a great amount of his great performance here comes from his amazing chemistry with his brother, James.

Seth Rogen is also great in his role. At first, his character acts like he's seen & done everything, but realizes that's false later on as he watches the trainwreck unfold.

The rest of the cast, especially Hutcherson, Efron, Graynor & Weaver, nail their small roles & are uncannily similar to the actors they portray & the characters their actors portray.

James Franco's direction is excellent. Franco has directed many duds in his career. But here, he has managed to break out of that bad spell & direct what is by far his best film yet. He seems to have been influenced by Paul Thomas Anderson, as noted when Franco compared the film to a mixture of Boogie Nights & The Master, both films directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. But Franco uses that directorial style extremely well.

The screenplay by Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber is brilliant. The film stays very true to the book, & the dialogue is both hilarious & heartfelt. The script could've easily portrayed the cast & crew's efforts as foolish, but instead portrays the efforts in a respectful manner, knowing that at the forefront of The Room, it was made by a man following his dreams.

And the makeup & hairstyling is amazing. The makeup & hairstyling helps allow James Franco to disappear into the role, as Tommy Wiseau's infamous long black hair is enough to make James Franco look unrecognizable.

This is one of the 3 best films of the year. Along with being a hilarious documentation of the making of the best worst film ever made, it's a shining testament to never giving up on your dreams.

The Disaster Artist was seen by me at the MJR Troy Grand Digital Cinema 16 in Troy, MI on Friday, December 8, 2017. It is in theaters everywhere. Its runtime is 104 minutes, & it is rated R for language throughout & some sexuality/nudity.

Coco

★★★★★ - A Review by Cameron Kanachki

Most of the Pixar films in the 2010s have ranged from great (Inside Out) to bad (Cars 2). As many great films they've had, they're starting to put out some duds.

Thankfully, Coco is not a dud. It's a spectacular piece of animated perfection. The film follows Miguel Rivera (voiced by Anthony Gonzalez), a 12-year-old boy in a small Mexican village. He lives with his mother, Luisa (voiced by Sofia Espinosa), his father, Enrique (voiced by Jaime Camil), his grandmother, Elena (voiced by Renée Victor), & his great-grandmother, Coco (voiced by Ana Ofelia Murguía). The family has been making shoes for decades. However, Elena follows the strict tradition set by her grandmother, Imelda (voiced by Alanna Ubach), that no music can be played by any family member. This proves problematic for Miguel, as he wants to become a famous musician like Ernesto de la Cruz (voiced by Benjamin Bratt), who was around during Imelda's generation.

During the Day of the Dead, Miguel discovers a picture on the ofrenda with a person with their face cut out holding a guitar like Ernesto de la Cruz's guitar. Deducing that this is the husband that left Imelda, starting the family ban on music, Miguel enters Ernesto's tomb & takes his guitar to use in a talent show. When he strums the guitar, he discovers he is invisible to everyone in the plaza except for his dog, Dante, & his dead relatives, including Imelda. However, since Miguel accidentally broke the picture when he discovered it, Imelda can't cross over to the Land of the Living. Also, Miguel must return to the Land of the Living before sunrise or he will stay in the Land of the Dead forever. In order to return, he must receive a blessing from a dead relative. Imelda blesses him on the condition that Miguel stops playing music; however, he refuses.

On his way to find Ernesto, Miguel meets Héctor (voiced by Gael García Bernal), a skeleton who once played with Ernesto. In return for helping Miguel find Ernesto, Miguel must help Héctor cross over to the Land of the Living & see his daughter, as she is the only person alive who remembers him. But secrets start to rise to the surface, & the familial bonds will be tested.

The voice cast is excellent. Gonzalez & Bratt are great. But Bernal & Ubach are the standouts, with both providing humor & heartache to their character.

Lee Unkrich's direction is excellent. The world he has created & the vision for the world are both so extremely wondrous beyond belief.

The screenplay by Lee Unkrich, Jason Kats, Matthew Aldrich & Adrian Molina is amazing. The characters are so excellently written, & the script has so much respect for Mexican culture.

Michael Giacchino's score is spectacular. The Mexican-style guitar-driven score is so fun to listen to, & is one of Giacchino's best.

And the animation is miraculous. It's so colorful & pays so much attention to detail that even people who have noticed Pixar's attention to detail will be shocked by the detail here.

This is the best animated film of the year, & one of the best Pixar films of the decade. It's a heartfelt & respectful insight to Mexican culture & the familial ties that bind.

Coco was seen by me at the MJR Marketplace Digital Cinema 20 in Sterling Heights, MI on Friday, December 1, 2017. It is in theaters everywhere. Its runtime is 105 minutes, & it is rated PG for thematic elements.

Novitiate

★★★½ - A Review by Cameron Kanachki

In the early 1960's, the Roman Catholic Church, facing a changing world landscape, instituted a series of changes through the Second Vatican Council, commonly referred to as Vatican II. These changes included the ending of speaking in Latin during Mass, the acceptance of other religions, & the ability for the priest to directly face the congregation. However, not all of the changes were positive. The main negative was the downgrading of nuns in the Catholic Church to that of the congregation, a far cry below their previous status in the Catholic Church. These issues are still very controversial in the Catholic Church to this day, 50 years after Vatican II closed.

Novitiate, while not always great, provides a good & realistic snapshot into a Vatican II-era novitiate. Set in 1964, the film follows Cathleen Harris (played by Margaret Qualley), a 17-year-old girl at a Catholic school in Tennessee. Her father, Chuck (played by Chris Zylka), left when she was 7. She has decided to become a nun, much to the chagrin of her mother, Nora (played by Julianne Nicholson), a chain-smoking agnostic.

Cathleen enters a convent where she meets fellow postulates Evelyn (played by Morgan Saylor), Sissy (played by Maddie Hasson), Emily (played by Liana Liberato), Candace (played by Eline Powell), Charlotte (played by Chelsea Lopez), & Margaret (played by Ashley Bell). The postulates are helped in their endeavors by Sister Mary Grace (played by Dianna Agron), & led by the Reverend Mother Marie St. Clair (played by Melissa Leo). The Reverend Mother is strict, cruel, & extremely devoted to God.

The Reverend Mother is alarmed by the reforms of Vatican II, wanting the ways of the Church to stay the same, unlike Archbishop McCarthy (played by Denis O'Hare), who is open to the reforms. Meanwhile, the postulates, mainly Cathleen, start to release their repressed sexual urges towards one another, which Cathleen's are amplified when Sister Emanuel (played by Rebecca Dayan) arrives as a transfer nun. The sexual urges, combined with the Reverend Mother's cruel ways & Vatican II's reforms, will change the women forever.

The cast is superb. Qualley & Nicholson are excellent. But this film definitely belongs to Melissa Leo. Leo is absolutely horrifying & disturbing as the Reverend Mother. Her character has been considered by some as a female counterpart to J.K. Simmons's Terence Fletcher in Whiplash. I agree with this comparison, as Leo is just as terrifying as Simmons.

Maggie Betts's direction is good. Although her flaws as a debut feature film director are noticable, moreso in some of the scenes involving the sexual tension, her direction is overall good, & is a formidable start to her career as a feature film director.

Maggie Betts's screenplay is excellent. The characters, who could've been caricatures (especially Melissa Leo's character, who could've easily been just a loud but unterrifying character), are fully fleshed out here.

Kat Westergaard's cinematography is excellent. The dim lighting & the cool color tone match the cold & unforgiving atmosphere of the film, its characters, & its setting.

And Susan E. Morse's editing is good. The flaws in her editing are noticeable, especially in the pacing, but she keeps the film headed in a straight & unmeandering direction.

This is an overall good film. Although the direction & editing aren't the best, the performances, especially Melissa Leo's performance, are more than enough to elevate the film past those flaws.

Novitiate was seen by me at the Landmark Main Art Theatre in Royal Oak, MI on Friday, November 24, 2017. It is in 2 theaters in the Detroit area: the Landmark Main Art Theatre in Royal Oak, MI & the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor, MI. Its runtime is 123 minutes, & it is rated R for language, some sexuality & nudity.

Last Flag Flying

★★★★★ - A Review by Cameron Kanachki

The Vietnam War. The Iraq War. What do these 2 wars have in common? The majority of American people believe that the United States shouldn't have been involved in either of those wars, & because of our involvement, hundreds of thousands died that shouldn't have died, & millions more have suffered irreperable mental & physical damage that they shouldn't have suffered.

While I was not alive during the Vietnam War, I was alive during the Iraq War. I remember, even when I was 4, the news reports coming out of the war. And I honestly do believe our involvement there should've never happened.

Last Flag Flying, while being a perfect mix of comedy & drama, also raises questions of our involvement in both of those wars, how do we help the veterans of the wars, & how we deal with the grief of losing a loved one in war. Based on the 2005 novel of the same name by Darryl Ponicsan, & set in December 2003, the film follows Larry "Doc" Shepherd (played by Steve Carell), a former Navy corpsman & Vietnam veteran living in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He leaves his home & travels to Norfolk, Virginia to the bar of a Marine whom he served with in Vietnam, the foul-mouthed & cantankerous Sal Nealon (played by Bryan Cranston). Doc asks Sal to accompany him on the trip, to which Sal agrees, leaving the keys to his bar to the drunk guy asleep at the bar. They drive to a church, where thery discover another Marine they served with in Vietnam, Richard Mueller (played by Laurence Fishburne), now a pastor using a cane.

After going to Richard's house, Doc reveals his reason for the trip: earlier in the year, his wife died of breast cancer, & 2 days earlier, his son, Larry Jr., was killed in Iraq fighting heroically. His body will be transferred to Dover Air Force Base, where he will then be sent to Arlington National Cemetery to be buried. Richard is reluctant to join them at first, but he eventually agrees.

They head out to Dover, where they meet the strict Lt. Col. Willits (played by Yul Vazquez) & the young Lance Cpl. Charlie Washington (played by J. Quinton Johnson), who was with Larry when he died. Charlie reveals to Doc, Sal & Richard the truth about Larry Jr.'s death. Extremely disheartened & upset by the news, & also much to the chagrin of Lt. Col. Willits, Doc decides to not bury Larry Jr. at Arlington & decides to bury him next to his mother in Portsmouth, as he is sickened after being lied to by the military.

The 3 men, along with Charlie, leave by train to Portsmouth for Larry Jr.'s funeral & burial. But a haunting memory from their past leads Doc, Sal & Richard to take a detour & meet with the mother of a fellow Marine in Vietnam, Mrs. Hightower (played by Cicely Tyson). All of this raises questions about American values, the never-ending war machine, & above all, grief.

The cast is phenomenal. Steve Carell's performance is the finest of his career. Much like Casey Affleck's amazing performance last year in Manchester by the Sea, Carell is withdrawn at first, but begins to become more warm & even humorous as the film goes on. It is the best male performance of the year so far.

Cranston's performance is the finest of his film career so far. Cranston is a source of a lot of the amazing comic relief, & he uses his cantankerous attitude to amplify the humor. But he does reach back into drama, & he also does that extremely well here.

Fishburne's performance is one of the 3 best of his career, along with his performances in Boyz n the Hood & What's Love Got to Do with It. He is reserved at first, but as his long-controlled cantankerousness comes to the surface, his performance gets even better.

Richard Linklater's direction is excellent. Linklater, who is one of my favorite directors, has directed one of his best films yet, along with Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, Before Midnight, & Boyhood. Like those films, his direction is subdued & steady, exhuming a calm & cool atmosphere.

And the screenplay by Richard Linklater & Darryl Ponicsan is perfect. Linklater, known for his humanistic dialogue & characters, has excellently adapted Ponicsan's novel & made the characters even more human & deals with heavy topics while focusing on the humorous side of life for the characters. And when the script brings the humor, it really brings the humor, as it made me laugh like only a few other films have made me laugh in a while.

This is one of the 5 best films of the year so far. It has 3 amazing actors at the top of their game, & a director & screenwriter still at the top of his game.

Last Flag Flying was seen by me at the Maple Theater in Bloomfield Hills, MI on Friday, November 24, 2017. It is no longer in theaters in the Detroit area. Its runtime is 125 minutes, & it is rated R for language including some sexual references.