hopscotchee: bill camp score: 81 rating: R time: 141 minutes
nominated for best screenplay motion picture and best adapted screenplay at the 2018 golden globes and oscars, molly's game, a double recommended watch by our parents, is a captivating crime-slash-drama-slash-based-on-true-events-biopic with quick escalation, narrated storytelling, and actual correlation to real life hollywood celebrities that keeps your attention devotedly focused to the story, while, simultaneously, the fantabulous acting and emotions on screen draw your heart in even more. on top of that, the movie is extravagantly stylish, one could say it's quality eye candy, but sorkin equally delivers an alluring and enticing story that's hard to beat. basically, if you haven't seen it, we are, personally, super stoked for your case and advise you to go all in.
for starters, the beginning of this movie was beautifully and creatively done. intriguing the audience with the intersplizion (intercutting) of the plot and clips that went along with jessica chasten / molly's speedy narration, it's clear that the hats go off to the editors here. this sequencing of the scenes (fast cuts and lots of motion) immediately picks up the pace of the movie and abruptly gets the audience's attention, queuing their eagerness as they wait on-edge to find out what's about to happen. this dafty technique is also a hecka smart way to introduce the characters, setting, and backstory - basically everything that needs to be set up in the first 30 minutes of your story. breaking this traditional mold sets the movie apart from the beginning and gives the movie plenty of time to making the plot complex and extra picante (which we love!!) also, side note time, we just have to ask, is it just us or does the (spoiler) lead up to and molly's ski crash downright resembles kt tunstall's if only music video? (hashtag flashbacks - this is just a music video we grew up on).
anyway. shuffling the deck. the next mentionable in this film is, obviously, obviously, the acting. um, hence jessica chastain being up for a golden globe for best performance by an actress in a motion picture for her role. more specifically though, what was super impressive was the delivery of the actor's and actresses' dialogue. just in general, this movie had some pretty chunky lines, and the actors and actresses pulled them off so seamlessly. instead of feeling shakespearean or like the they were being recited from memory without any emotion, the lines felt fluid, natural, and not over-done. one scene worth spotlighting for this is (spoiler) idris elba's monologue while talking to the FBI. this approximately 3 minute speech (2 minutes and 87 seconds, for those who care) is full of retorts, pleas, and convictions and is perfectly placed in the movie, that you'd think why wouldn't it be in the movie, right? however, when you think about it some more, in this approximately 3 minute speech (spoiler) charlie jaffey responds to the FBI agents in the scene, emphasizes his case to not persecute molly, goes through a list of dirt she has on her clients, explains why her choice to not name names shows her character's moral code, and then closes with, again, an overall reason to persecute her. it's packed. now, yes, his character's a lawyer, and yes, lawyers do talk, so, yes, for his charter this makes sense, and you could say that this is just what the role required, but, still, that doesn't take away from the lengthiness of the line. and, jeeezzzzz, to memorize that. . . . that's some pretty nifty talent.
finally, the full house of the entire movie was the directing. it always grabs our attention when there's a lot done in a movie, whether that be the amount of scenes total or the orchestration of it all of a movie's elements, and it's done well, because that suggests that the director had a clear and organized layout (or as we like to say, plan of attack) for the project, and though this movie caught our attention there, there was something else that stood out more. like we said, this is a fast moving drama centered around a whip-smart and cleverly savvy woman, and what we noticed was that sorkin captured and embraced the movie in this impeccably. with little nuances from small details to big thrills of the film, it was as if he directed this, not as himself, but in the mindset of molly. even if he meant to or not, this spectacular directing style's equivalent tactical design aligned and synced up the movie to her character so well and curated a precise and strategic personality to the film that effectively communicated and amplified the magnitude of ms. bloom. this made the movie not about a woman who ran the world's most exclusive high-stakes poker game, it made the movie what it is molly's game.
folding for the night, this movie is spectacularly well-done with a great hand of fun, flair, and pizzazz. we (with our parents) highly recommend it to anyone who's been looking for a no-fail-all-round-entertaining movie that won't lose your interest and will keep you wondering who all the 'celebrities' at her tables are. viewers note: even though we encourage you to do this after your watch for the enjoyment of the guessing, if you are wondering who player x is throughout the movie, you can just look it up. :-)
-- thanks, bill (again) xo