By Susan Granger
Special to WestportNow
Ever since 1933, the huge gorilla-like creature named Kong has been a cinema icon. Its newest incarnation, “Kong: Skull Island,” is an action-packed sci-fi adventure that evokes legendary monster movies of bygone years with a fresh perspective.
In 1973, just after the United States withdrew from the Vietnam War, Earth-mapping satellite photos revealed a long-hidden landmass in the South Pacific, known as Skull Island, surrounded by a perpetual storm system.
That prompts investigator Bill Randa (John Goodman) to initiate an exploratory expedition, muttering, “There will never be a more screwed-up time in Washington” — a line which immediately elicits audience laughter.
To guide his team of scientists (China’s Tian Jing, Corey Hawkins), Randa hires black-ops survivalist James Conrad (Tom Hiddleston). They’re joined by Mason Weaver (Brie Larson), a plucky “anti-war” photo-journalist, and given a military escort, headed by embittered Lt. Col. Packard (Samuel L. Jackson) with his intrepid squadron.
After dropping bombs to shake up the island’s seismic core, they discover prehistoric beasts that boggle the imagination, particularly the wrath of gigantic Kong as he swats helicopters out of the sky.
Those who survive meet up with grizzled Hank Marlow (John C. Reilly), a W.W.II pilot who was shot down in 1944, and embark on a perilous trek through primeval jungle terrain.
Scripted by Dan Gilroy, Max Borenstein and Derek Connolly from John Gatins’ pulpy story, it’s filled with allusions to Joseph Conrad’s novella “Heart of Darkness” and Francis Ford Coppola’s adaptation “Apocalypse Now.”
Competently directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts (“The Kings of Summer”), it’s enhanced by an assortment of menacing CGI beasts created by Industrial Light & Magic, particularly Tony Kebbell’s authentic facial-capture Kong performance which surpasses Peter Jackson’s 2005 remake that won the VFX Oscar.
This Kong is a 100-foot tall gorilla/man hybrid, walking upright and roaring mightily before munching the tentacles of a huge octopus and battling the massive Skullcrawler lizard.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Kong: Skull Island” is a spectacular 7. It’s a fun-filled creature-feature, concluding with a post-credit franchise promotion.
“Get Out” gives a satirical jolt to what’s been described as “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” meets “The Stepford Wives.” In his directing debut, Jordan Peele has created one of the most critically acclaimed horror movies in recent years.
As Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya) packs to join his girlfriend, Rose Armitage (Allison Williams), on a weekend in the country to meet her parents, he hesitantly asks her if she’s told them that he’s black. Amplifying the edginess, Chris’ paranoid TSA buddy Rod (Lil Rel Howery) repeatedly urges him not to go.
(The audience is already wary, witnessing a prologue in which a black pedestrian in suburbia is stalked and stuffed into the trunk of a car.)
But Rose quickly assures anxious Chris that her parents, Missy (Catherine Keener) and Dean (Bradley Whitford), will welcome him with open arms. Yet their overt geniality is suspicious.
Dean’s a neurosurgeon, an Obama-admirer who says it’s cool to be black, and Missy’s an Earth Motherly hypnotherapist who offers to help Chris kick his smoking addiction.
Chris’ uneasiness is understandable, particularly in the eerily ominous presence of the African-American housekeeper (Betty Gabriel) and gardener (Marcus Henderson) who previously cared for Rose’s elderly grandparents and are “like family.” Plus, Rose’s pugnacious brother (Caleb Landry Jones) seems overly competitive.
As an observant photographer, Chris’s discomfort heightens during a garden party at which the elite guests’ stereotypical veneer cracks. Their bizarre behavior heightens Chris’s feeling of vulnerability, impelling him to escape.
Having honed his skill on Comedy Central’s “Key & Peele,” writer/director Jordan Peele knows the difference between satire and parody. His subversive, surrealist sequences are stunning, depicting the soul-sucking danger posed by so-called liberals.
“The real thing here is slavery and sex,” Peele says. “In a social thriller, like this, the monster is society.”
As the black Everyman surrogate, British Daniel Kaluuya (“Sicario”) is superb, exuding the sensitivity of Sidney Poitier with a touch of Jimmy Stewart.
On the Granger Gauge, “Get Out” is an astute 8, an insidiously scathing, cinematic commentary on racial tension in America.
(Editor’s Note: Westport resident Susan Granger grew up in Hollywood, studied journalism with Pierre Salinger at Mills College, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with highest honors in journalism. In addition to writing for newspapers and magazines, she has been on radio/television as an anchorwoman and movie/drama critic for many years. See her reviews at www.susangranger.com.)
