The Glance of Music (Ennio) (2021)

Director: Giuseppe Tornatore. 156 min. Documentary. 

• It's true: Ennio Morricone is one of those rare movie music composers, that if you've seen just a few movies he's composed, when the next one comes by, you know it's him (Danny Elfman, Alan Silvestri and James Horner are some other stylists with that attribute that come to mind). And this film is a tribute to that grandeur. Following his career through interviews with the recently deceased artist and some other shining stars of film and music (Clint Eastwood, Hans Zimmer, John Williams, Oliver Stone, Quentin Tarantino, Wong Kar-Wai, Dario Argento, Barry Levinson, Bernardo Bertolucci, Bruce Springsteen, Quincy Jones), in a film directed by none other than Giuseppe Tornatore (whose Cinema Paradiso was graced by the master's heavenly themes), we watch how some of Morricone greatest melodies came to fruition - from the coyote cry of The Good the Bad, and the Ugly, to the thrilling tension of The Untouchables, to the choir melodies of The Mission. And while his "Ecstasy of Gold" is certifiably one of the greatest synchronizations of film and music in cinema history, by the time he was describing "Jill's theme" in Once Upon a Time in America, I was almost teary-eyed. This long documentary is worth your time, even if you think you don't know Morricone's work ... to realize how well you do.

MoGo's rating: 8/10

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The Black Phone (2021)

Director: Scott Derrickson. Cast: Stars Mason Thames, Ethan Hawke, Jeremy Davies. 103 min. Horror/Thriller.

• When we were kids in the 70's, we would see black-and-white photos on milk cartons, or posters in grocery stores ... of missing children. I was always mesmerized by these photos, and would stare: what happened to this kid? Where is he now? While my imagination never ventured beyond that, to this day I'm still disturbed by the notion. The Black Phone is based on that horror. It happens in the late 70s, and it knows exactly how it felt to be a kid, and worry about a prowler jumping out of a corner in broad daylight, for your picture to end up on a milk carton.  
• The movie takes this horror one step further: it shows you what happened to that kid, or what will eventually happen to them. Trapped by one such monster (unfortunately played by one of my favorite actors alive, Ethan Hawke), the story's young hero discovers through an ingeniously written screenplay where those other kids are - via a black phone on the wall. Without spoiling anything, let's just say the movie adds another familiar element of horror, and plays that element extremely well, to the point that you can easily suspend disbelief, and follow along with the gripping story.
• Horror movies are too numerous to count. Good horror movies are a rarity. The Black Phone is a good horror movie - of the kind that comes every five years or so. My pet peeve in movies has always been violence against children, but even with its subject matter, the film didn't cross that cross that line for me. If you're a horror buff, don't miss it. 

MoGo's rating: 8/10

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Thirteen Lives (2022)

Director: Ron Howard. Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell, Joel Edgerton. Adventure/Biography. 147 min.

• Generally, I consider Ron Howard a "director-for-hire". Yes, he has had some major hits (A Beautiful Mind, Willow), but based on his filmography, he looks like a guy whom they hire for a project, not him becoming excited about one and going after (like the major auteurs do). Great examples are how he botched the ending of Inferno, based on the third Dan Brown/Robert Langdon novel, and how he was brought in to complete the disaster Han Solo movie. Directors who respect their own status never do things like that.  
• That said, Thirteen Lives is a decent film. Based on the real-life 2018 rescue mission of a junior soccer team trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand, the film, although quite long, has its moments. There is some interesting character development here, making you feel for the scuba divers who occasionally lose it and break into tears under pressure, or others who are callous to what's at stake and are there just to get a job done. These moments compensate for the movie's flaws, such as when local farmers agree, too rapidly, to have their fields (their entire life investments) flooded to rescue the boys; or when one diver initially is hesitant to go in for one last dive, but then agrees to go without any explanation - as though the movie length was too long and some segments ended up on the cutting room floor.
• My biggest advice, is that if you don't know much about the event (specifically, about the manner and method of which the kids were rescued), don't read anything about it before seeing the movie. Because that part of the story is what took my breath away. That's what Hollywood is loved for, and why the likes of Ron Howard have a job. 

MoGo's rating: 7/10

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Ambulance (2022)

Director: Michael Bay. Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Eiza González. 136 min. Action/Crime.

• There used to be a time when in the realm of action, Michael Bay used to make fairly decent movies (I regard The Rock as one of the best action movies ever made). But then he started making those Transformers flicks, and now this is where we are: Ambulance. IMDb puts the synopsis very well: "Two robbers steal an ambulance after their heist goes awry." That's it. Two robbers steal an ambulance and the police chase them - the most simple, most primitive form of entertainment catering to the lowest denominator capitalism could have ever conceived. Just that now, in addition to the CGI technology he abused to its fullest in Transformers, Bay is equipped (or better said ... armed) with drone shots, twisting and twirling around cars and skyscrapers, for no reason other than to sustain an artificial momentum on an action movie. This movie is so crazy, the robbers listen to Christopher Cross' relaxing "Sailing" in the heat of one of its innumerable, boring chase scenes. By the end, I predicted I may have seen my worst movie of 2022.

MoGo's rating: 3/10

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