Category: Reviews

  • ‘Creed’ goes the distance and delivers brilliance

    ‘Creed’ goes the distance and delivers brilliance

    Sylvester Stallone and Michael B. Jordan in 'Creed'.
    Sylvester Stallone and Michael B. Jordan in ‘Creed’.

    One of the toughest tests a director can be faced with is taking on a film in a franchise that features a truly iconic, larger than life character.  That’s the task writer/director Ryan Coogler (Fruitvale Station) accepted with Creed.  “Adonis Creed” (Jordan) is the illegitimate son of the late “Apollo Creed” (Weathers, seen only in flashback).  Born after the tragic death of his father, Adonis’ mother dies soon after his birth and he has moved from group home to group home before winding up in Juvenile Hall.  “Mary Ann Creed” (Rashad) decides to open her home to her late husband’s son.

    Flash forward to the present and going by the name Donny Johnson, Adonis is enjoying a successful career.  He’s educated and polished and at the same time goes down to Mexico to fight in hole-in-the-wall venues.  Without having worked with a trainer he is an amazing 15-0 and now wants to pursue boxing as a career.  He quits his job and after the son of Apollo’s trainer refuses to train him, take off for Philadelphia.

    The plan is to convince “Rocky Balboa” (Stallone for the seventh time) to train Donny while he continues to keep his legacy as the son of Apollo Creed hidden.  He wants to make it on his own without playing on his father’s name.  But Rocky doesn’t want anything to do with boxing at this point in his life.  Adrian and Paulie are gone and his son is living far away because it is just too tough to live in Philly when you’re the son of a living legend.  Rocky is content to run his restaurant and live a quiet life.  But you know from the moment Rocky first says no, he will ultimately say yes and train the son of his rival and friend.

    Michael B. Jordan and Tessa Thompson in 'Creed'
    Michael B. Jordan and Tessa Thompson in ‘Creed’

    The formula of the underdog being given a shot at a title is present, but done better than in any of the prior sequels to 1976’s original Rocky film.  That movie won three Academy Awards including Best Picture, and it must be noted that Creed is on that level.  When the secret of Donny’s origin is unveiled and he winds up facing “Pretty” Ricky Conlan for the light-heavyweight child, another epic contest in the squared circle is in the offing.  It also wouldn’t be a Rocky franchise film without a compelling love story, this one featuring Adonis and his neighbor “Bianca” (Thompson).  Part of the appeal of this film is that she, Adonis and Rocky are all fighting an individual battle while they work together to give Adonis a shot at his lifelong dream.

    Michael B. Jordan is the titular star of this movie and he is excellent.  But this is Sylvester Stallone’s magnum opus performance.  He’d already proven he has serious acting chops in films like the original Rocky and Cop Land; but in Creed he surpasses anything and everything he’s ever done.  Like others who write, direct and act, it appears that Stallone does his best acting with someone else in charge behind the lens.  That’s not a knock on his ability to helm a film, he’s a terrific director.  It’s just that sometimes you can’t be brilliant both behind and in front of the camera.

    Michael B. Jordan and Phylicia Rashad in 'Creed'
    Michael B. Jordan and Phylicia Rashad in ‘Creed’

    We were already aware of the brilliance of Ryan Coogler from the superb Fruitvale Station.  If his next film is another leap forward as Creed was, I can’t wait to see it.  I’m also impatient to see Creed again.  It’s worth more than one viewing.

    Creed is dedicated to producer Robert Chartoff who passed away in June of this year.  RIP.

  • ‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2’ brings franchise to an epic close

    ‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2’ brings franchise to an epic close

    Jennifer Lawrence in 'The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2'.
    Jennifer Lawrence in ‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2’.

    The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 ends with Peeta (Hutcherson) trying to choke the life out of Katniss (Lawrence) who has become the Mockingjay, symbol of the rebellion against President Snow (Sutherland) and the capitol of Panem.  Part 2 begins with Katniss recovering from that assault and the rebels attempting to undo what had been done to Peeta.  He’d been tortured and brainwashed using the venom of tracker-jackers.

    Alma Coin (Moore) is the leader of the rebellion and she has plans to take the capital.  It involves destroying the capital’s weapons supply stored in District 2, followed by a direct assault on the capital.  The game-makers who work for President Snow have made the second phase of this plan extremely difficult, hiding multiple pods all through the outer edges of the capital.  These pods contain highly lethal, extremely diabolical booby traps.

    Katniss’ role in President Coin’s plan is to be the face of the rebellion through shooting propaganda films while she is safely ensconced in District 13.  But she sneaks out to get to join the rebel forces just outside the capital.  She plans to somehow get through to where President Snow is and kill him herself.  Once she reaches the rebel staging area, she finds herself attached to a squad with Gale (Hemsworth) and Finnick (Clafin).  Led by Boggs (Ali) with Lieutenant Jackson (Phillips) as the second in command, the squad’s job is to shoot those propaganda films but within the capital.  They are heavily armed and have a holo that has the most up to date map of the pods the rebels have.  The question is, can they make it safely through the capital to the center of the city where President Snow’s palace lies.  But much lies ahead for Katniss and her squad members as they try to move through the city.

    Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Elizabeth Banks and Woody Harrelson in 'The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2'
    Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Elizabeth Banks and Woody Harrelson in ‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2’

    For those who have read the book, they know the story and what happens in the city.  The main plot points of the novel are present in the film.  The action is intense and some of the violence may disquiet members of an audience who are a little more squeamish than others.  Even if you haven’t read the book, you know that not all of the members of Katniss’ squad will survive the mission.  The question is who will, and why.  And what will happen at the climactic moment.

    A dystopian future, a struggle between the haves and the have-nots and much more of what is here is typical of many films of the last ten years or so.  What made these films different was the struggle of the annual Hunger Games, and here that is barely present in the battle of Katniss and her squad to battle through the defenses of the capital.  The difference is that they are fighting machines and game-maker constructs, rather than other tributes.  It isn’t as satisfying.

    Jennifer Lawrence is one of the most talented actresses of her generation and she’s been recognized for it.  Here she’s stuck with a role that’s already been defined by three prior films and is therefore somewhat limited.  But she still makes the most of it.  The acting by all is good, the visuals and special effects are extremely pleasing to watch and the running time of two hours and 17 minutes seems to fly by.

  • ‘Legend’ isn’t quite legendary, but it’s damn close

    ‘Legend’ isn’t quite legendary, but it’s damn close

    Tom Hardy portrays both of the Kray twins in ‘Legend’

    Tom Hardy has the difficult task of playing twin brothers Ronald and Reginald Kray in the film Legend and he is more than up to the task.  The Kray twins were gangsters in London’s East End and this film concentrates on their exploits during the 1960s.  Both had boxed in their youths and this was something that would be part of their violent natures throughout their lives, although Reg was the brains and Ron the true muscle.  They owned clubs, ran protection rackets and they wanted to ‘rule’ London.

    Reg has a driver/gofer named Frankie (Morgan) who has a non-twin sister names Frances (Browning).  Reg meets Frances and falls in love.  She has no desire to be involved with a gangster and tries to convince Reg to go straight.  During a prison stint early in the film, she makes this very clear to him and he promises he will never again be in prison.

    Ron has been incarcerated as well, and it takes some machinations to get him out of the asylum to which he has been committed.  He’s a bit of an odd duck, clearly well-read but a bit of a doofus in other ways.  He’s also clearly out of the closet and not ashamed to admit his homosexuality.  He is very close to Edward “Mad Teddy” Smith (Egerton) who is also part of the Firm, which is the name of the Kray’s gang.

    After a war with a rival London gang, the Krays begin to expand into the tonier areas of London and they draw the attention of the American Mafia.  Meyer Lansky dispatches Angelo Bruno (Palminteri) to negotiate a deal with the Kray twins to partner in gambling, money laundering and other nefarious enterprises.  Eventually they wind up owning Esmeralda’s Barn.  Reg brings in a ‘fixer’ named Leslie Payne (Thewlis).  He has connections but Ron doesn’t trust him one iota.  Their world becomes a hurricane of violence against which the backdrop of the love between Reg and Frances tries to work itself out.

    Emily Browning and Tom Hardy in 'Legend'
    Emily Browning and Tom Hardy in ‘Legend’

    Brian Helgeland’s fifth feature film isn’t quite as brilliant as some of his prior works like 42 and A Knight’s Tale, but it is a very good movie.  It is taut and mixes in an excellent mix of laughs, drama and violence that isn’t gratuitous.  The few exterior shots aren’t overly long or self-serving, while the interiors are just beautiful to see.

    Many actors have portrayed twins in the past.  Sometimes for humor as done twice by Jean-Claude Van-Damme and by Jackie Chan in martial-arts movies.  Sometimes in truly awful fashion as Lindasy Lohan, Adam Sandler and Eddie Murphy demonstrated.  In fact, Adam Sandler won Worst Actor and Worst Actress Razzies for his twin roles in Jack and Jill.  Occasionally we see one actor portraying twins brilliantly as done by Leonardo DiCaprio, Christian Bale and Nicolas Cage.  Tom Hardy’s work here compares favorably with the best of those.  The nuances he creates in differentiating between the two Kray twins is simply astonishing.  He is ably aided by superb work from Emily Browning and the rest of the cast.

    This isn’t a perfect film but it is easy to view and a lot of fun to experience.

    legend3
    Chazz Palminteri and Tom Hardy in ‘Legend’

    For the curious, some spoilers follow solely for the purpose of articulating the differences between the real story of the Kray twins and what we see in this film  Read on only at your own risk.

    The movie portrays Ron Kray as a homosexual.  In fact he self-identified as bi-sexual and was married twice to different women.

    Although it seems to have lasted longer, only eight months passed between the marriage of Reg Kray and Frances Shea, and her leaving him.  That happened in 1965 and she did not die until 1967.  The film shows her committing suicide and that was the ruling of the coroner’s inquest.  However an ex-lover of Ronnie Kray and one of his cellmates both claim that Ron confessed to killing her in a jealous rage.

    The newspaper that alleged Ron Kray had an affair with Robert Lord Boothby not only retracted the story, but paid Lord Boothby a settlement of 40,000 pounds.  This is why the Conservative party had no interest in investigating the Krays.  There are also rumors that Ron Kray had a sexual relationship with a Labour Party MP (Member of Parliament), Tom Driberg and this is why the Labour Party also had no desire to open that particular can of worms.

  • Documentary film ‘Kingdom of Shadows’ tries to shine a light on the drug trade

    Documentary film ‘Kingdom of Shadows’ tries to shine a light on the drug trade

    The crosses mourning those who were "disappeared" in 'Kingdom of Shadows'.
    The crosses mourning those who were “disappeared” in ‘Kingdom of Shadows’.

    Documentary films that run less than 85 minutes raise an immediate question.  Would this have been better as a PBS special stretched out to two hours with pledge breaks, rather than as a feature project?  It is a valid question for Kingdom of Shadows, from writer/director Bernardo Ruiz.  Don’t take this to mean this is a “bad” film, because it isn’t.  It attempts to look at the utter failure of the so-called War on Drugs, through the lives of three very different individuals.  Drugs and the attempt to stop them from being imported into the U. S. across the border with Mexico has had major impact upon all of their lives.

    Sister Consuelo Morales is a nun in Monterrey, Mexico.  She spends almost all of her time trying to assist the families of those who have been “disappeared” by the drug cartels.  This work is endless and almost always unsuccessful.  The cartels do their utmost to prevent identification of their victims, often dismembering and/or burning the corpses.  Mass graves have been found in multiple locations.  An article published by the Los Angeles Times in October of 2015 claims that the Mexican government says the official number of people who have been disappeared since 2006 is in excess of 25,000.  Journalists covering the story and those working to find the missing believe the actual number to be much higher.

    Don Henry Ford, Jr., is a convicted marijuana smuggler.  He was the perfect choice to tell the history of smuggling pot across the border prior to the development of high-tech surveillance equipment that could be used to make such smuggling more difficult.  He told his story in a book, Contrabando: Confessions of a Drug-Smuggling Texas Cowboy, which was published in 2006.

    Sister Consuelo Morales in ‘Kingdom of Shadows’

    Oscar Hagelsieb is a Homeland Security Agent who had worked in a number of undercover drug operations designed to catch cartel smugglers.  He certainly looks the part, riding a big motorcycle and with a number of tattoos.  But he is actually a high ranking officer who head the unit he is assigned it.  It’s interesting that he allows his face to be shown, something he wouldn’t do if he were worried about being discovered to have been a snitch rather than as a cop.

    But we do get to see someone who isn’t willing to show his face.  A member of Los Zetas, a particularly brutal cartel that has a number of former Mexican military members among its forces, appears with his face obscured by a mask.  Like all of those who take part in this documentary, he describes what’s gone on rather than being able to actually show what happened.

    Oscar Hagelsieb is a Homeland Security Agent appearing in 'King of Shadows'
    Oscar Hagelsieb is a Homeland Security Agent appearing in ‘King of Shadows’

    This is the film’s fatal flaw that took what could have been excellent documentary filmmaking and lowered it down to a more ordinary level.  We know that the violence and brutality have been going on for decades, and have worsened significantly since the turn of the century, but we don’t see that on the screen.  This is more like a bunch of people who are sitting around a campfire, telling us the stories of what they have seen and experienced, rather than recreating those experiences.  It just doesn’t communicate the story with nearly the effectiveness of recreating or at least giving us some more satisfying visual imagery of what really happened.

    After seeing Sicario earlier this year, I really wanted this to be a more in-depth examination of what’s gone on for so long and was disappointed it wasn’t what I’d hoped for.  That doesn’t mean it should be ignored.  It’s interesting.  It is informative.  In talking about those who were taken alive and never seen again, it is quite compelling.

  • ‘Spotlight’ shines brilliantly across the big screen

    ‘Spotlight’ shines brilliantly across the big screen

    Rachel McAdams, Michael Keaton and Mark Ruffalo in 'Spotlight'.
    Rachel McAdams, Michael Keaton and Mark Ruffalo in ‘Spotlight’.

    On January 6, 2002, the Boston Globe published a front-page story that exposed the scandal of sexual abuse by Catholic priests in Massachusetts and around the world.  You can read  that story here.  Spotlight is both the name of the Globe’s investigative reporting unit and the title of this outstanding film.

    Michael Keaton portrays Walter “Robby” Robinson, editor of the Spotlight unit.  He grew up in Boston and went to the Catholic high school across the street from the Globe’s building.  His reporters, Mike Rezendes (Ruffalo), Sascha Pfeiffer (McAdams) and Matt Carroll (James) are working on a story on the Boston PD when the paper’s new editor Marty Baron (Schreiber) takes over.

    There is a lawyer named Mitchell Garabedian who has 84 sexual abuse cases pending against the Boston Archiocese, led by Cardinal Bernard Law (Cariou) and his claims that he has proof that the Cardinal knew about what Father John Geoghan and other priests were doing and did nothing to stop it.  That caught the attention of the Spotlight team and they were off and running.  But not without many attempts to keep a lid on the scandal.  It would be a long road to travel to finally uncover the evidence needed to run the story.

    Stanley Tucci as attorney Mitchel Garabedian in ‘Spotlight’

    The problem with most films about reporting the news is that the story being reported on isn’t nearly compelling enough, or they are just not told well.  In 1994 two such films were released.  I Love Trouble starring Nick Nolte and Julia Roberts had a great story the reporters were attempting to break, but it wasn’t told well.  The Paper, which starred Keaton along with Glenn Close, Robert Duvall and Randy Quaid was told very well, but the story they were reporting on wasn’t all that interesting.  Here with Spotlight we have a true story that is engrossing, and it is told brilliantly.

    Writer/director Tom McCarthy keeps the focus where it should be, on the incredible amount of work done by the Spotlight team; but he does it while telling the stories of the victims and the toll that this work is taking on the journalists.  It’s a very tightly paced and directed film.  It manages to provide great backdrops for the actors to work in front of.  It allows the actors to stretch within their roles.  This may be the best work Michael Keaton has ever done.  The entire casting of Spotlight is close to perfection, including the use of an uncredited Richard Jenkins as the voice of a psychologist who is of immense help to the Spotlight team in his insight to what was going on within the priesthood and with their victims.  Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams and basically everyone else does a great job.

    Before the closing credits run, there is a montage of factoids about the aftermath of this story being broken.  There were a few that were either left out or that I missed.  I’m sharing them here, and so they may be spoilers.  You were warned.

    Rachel McAdams, Mark Ruffalo and Brian D’Arcy James portray the Spotlight reporters in ‘Spotlight’

    Father John Geoghan, the priest at the center of the molestation cases that led to the unraveling of the cover-up was dismissed from the priesthood by Pope John Paul II in 1998.  He was convicted of indecent assault and battery in January of 2002.  In August of the following year he was murdered in prison.

    Eric MacLeish was the lead attorney in a number of civil suits against the Boston Archdiocese.  He left the practice of law for a time and in 2010 the Boston Globe published a story where MacLeish revealed that he himself had been a victim of abuse as a child at a boarding school in England.  He showed the author of the story the scars on his back from when he’d been caned.  Mr. MacLeish takes issue with how he was portrayed in the film in a Facebook post.

  • ‘Trumbo’ is a movie that’s every bit as outstanding as the scripts he wrote

    ‘Trumbo’ is a movie that’s every bit as outstanding as the scripts he wrote

    Diane Lane and Bryan Cranston in 'Trumbo'
    Diane Lane and Bryan Cranston in ‘Trumbo’

    “There was bad faith and good, honesty and dishonesty, courage and cowardice, selflessness and opportunism, wisdom and stupidity, good and bad on both sides; and almost every individual involved, no matter where he stood, combined some or all of these antithetical qualities in his own person, in his own acts” – Dalton Trumbo in a 1970 speech.

    In October of 1947, a group of men involved in the film industry were subpoenaed to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and were asked a question that was essentially, “are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party”?  They refused to answer and the Hollywood Ten was born.  Trumbo is the story of one of those men, Dalton Trumbo (Cranston) and what happened to him after that fateful moment.

    Prior to his testifying, albeit briefly, before Congress, Dalton Trumbo had signed a contract with MGM’s Louis B. Mayer (Portnow) that made him the highest paid writer in Hollywood.  He and the others were all fired after being charged with contempt of Congress.  They had hoped to avoid prison and put an end to HUAC’s witch hunt by having the U. S. Supreme Court overturn their convictions on constitutional grounds.  That didn’t happen, in spite of some of Hollywood’s most notables speaking out in support of the group’s First Amendment rights.  Dalton Trumbo wound up in prison in Kentucky and served 11 months there.  While there he met a man named Virgil Brooks (Akinnuoye-Agbaje) who helps him out during his incarceration.

    John Goodman as Frank King in 'Trumbo'
    John Goodman as Frank King in ‘Trumbo’

    Blacklisted in Hollywood, Trumbo and the rest of the Hollywood Ten cannot find work.  He’s happy to be reunited with his wife Cleo (Lane) and their three kids but he wants and needs to write.  He has no other skills with which to earn a living. He writes a script and gives it to Ian McLellan Hunter (Tudyk) who sells it to Paramount.  That script happened to be Roman Holiday, which won Hunter an Academy Award for Best Story (today it’s known as Best Original Screenplay).

    Trumbo continues to find a way to make money by writing when he approaches Frank King (Goodman), producer of “shlock” movies, who agrees to buy scripts from Trumbo.  They avoid the blacklist issue by not using Trumbo’s name.  This leads to the second Academy Award for one of Trumbo’s screenplays, this time one he wrote under the pseudonym “Robert Rich.”  That film was The Brave One.  Hedda Hopper (Mirren), the famed Hollywood gossip columnist and fervent supporter of HUAC and the blacklisting of suspected Communists appears throughout the film, attempting to nail Trumbo and his fellow writers for works done under fake names.

    It was Dalton Trumbo who put a ‘killshot’ into the blacklist when director Otto Preminger (Berkel) announced that he would give credit to Trumbo for writing Exodus, followed by Kirk Douglas insisting that Trumbo get full credit for his work on Spartacus.

    Bryan Cranston as Dalton Trumbo testifying before HUAC in 'Trumbo'
    Bryan Cranston as Dalton Trumbo testifying before HUAC in ‘Trumbo’

    It isn’t just the attention to proper details of the period that make Trumbo such a great film, although they certainly help.  The work of Bryan Cranston as the famed writer, his ability to speak with the literary aplomb of the man, and his capturing of the extreme range of emotions that he must have felt during these years is simply astonishing.  The rest of the cast is outstanding, particularly Diane Lane as his long-suffering wife, Helen Mirren as the staunch conservative who hates Communism and Communist and Elle Fanning as Trumbo’s daughter Nicola.

    Director Jay Roach’s sense of comic timing proves potent as he has paced this movie like a perfectly tuned Swiss watch.  The visuals are lush and pleasing and this winds up being the kind of movie you want to see again.  And again.

    It is worth pausing to pay tribute to the men who were made to suffer due to “Red paranoia” when they became the Hollywood Ten:

    Alvah Bessie

    Herbert Biberman

    Edward Dmytryk

    Ring Lardner, Jr.

    John Howard Lawson

    Albert Maltz

    Samuel Ornitz

    Adrian Scott

    Dalton Trumbo

  • ‘Spectre’ is an excellent Bond film, but pales in comparison to ‘Skyfall’

    ‘Spectre’ is an excellent Bond film, but pales in comparison to ‘Skyfall’

    Daniel Craig is James Bond in 'Spectre'.
    Daniel Craig is James Bond in ‘Spectre’.

    One thing every movie sequel has in common with other sequels is that it will be compared to the film or films that came before it.  With the 24th film in the official James Bond line of films (ignoring the original farcical version of Casino Royale in 1967 and the non EON Production movie Never Say Never again in 1983), the problem is only magnified.  Especially since 2012’s Skyfall was one of the best Bond films in a long time.  If we evaluate Spectre solely by comparing it to Skyfall, it suffers greatly.  However, the proper way to critique Spectre is to evaluate it without such comparison.  On that level it is an excellent effort.

    Spectre opens with Bond (Daniel Craig’s fourth turn as the spy who is licensed to kill) in Mexico City on the Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) chasing another assassin.  We learn later that the last “M” (Dench) left an order to Bond before her death to take care of “Marco Sciara” (Cremora).  The stalk and chase of Sciara is the film’s opening action piece and it is superb.  I’d like to rate it against the other outstanding opening action pieces from prior Bond films but I won’t since I’m trying not to evaluate on a comparison basis.  It is important to note that Bond took a ring from the finger of Sciarra.

    Ralph Fiennes as "M" in 'Spectre'
    Ralph Fiennes as “M” in ‘Spectre’

    When Bond returns to London, we discover he was not on a sanctioned operation in Mexico when the current “M” (Fiennes) suspends him.  The videotaped instructions of the former “M” tell Bond not to miss Sciarra’s funeral where he borrows a page from the book of “Chazz Reinhold” (Will Farrell) in Wedding Crashers, as Bond follows Sciarra’s widow (Bellucci) home where he seduces her.  She point Bond in the direction of the criminal organization her late husband had worked for.

    Meanwhile M is in a battle with “C” (Scott) over the future of MI6 and the Double O program.  Following a merger between MI6 and MI5, C has become director of the combined agency and is now M’s boss.  He wants the UK to join eight other nations forming a consortium of the world’s top intelligence agencies.

    Bond tracks down “Mr. White” (Christensen) who we saw in Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace.  White is dying and makes a deathbed deal with Bond.  Bond swears to protect White’s daughter, Madeleine Swann (Seydoux) and in return she will give him some information he needs to pursue the leader of SPECTRE (Waltz).

    Christoph Waltz as "Franz Oberhauser/Ernst Stavro Blofeld" in 'Spectre'
    Christoph Waltz as “Franz Oberhauser/Ernst Stavro Blofeld” in ‘Spectre’

    With a running time of two hours and twenty-eight minutes, Spectre is a bit long and could use a bit of trimming.  The formulaic elements of the franchise are done well, which is important.  Poorly done, they would make the film seem tired.  The only tired moments are a few instances where it appears that Daniel Craig might well be done with Bond.  But the majority of the movie finds him on his game and it’s good to see he isn’t fully burnt out just yet.  Lea Seydoux is not just easy on the eyes, but might well be the best of the Bond girls since the franchise was rebooted in 2006.  There’s a bit of a giggly aspect to Christoph Waltz’s evil maniac performance but I don’t think he is capable of ever giving a bad performance.  This is just a bit less stellar than what we’ve come to expect from this two-time Academy Award winning actor.

    In the end, Spectre winds up being much like the favorite cocktail of Commander James Bond.  Shaken, not stirred, very smooth, but with a solid kick as you swallow it.

  • ‘Our Brand is Crisis’ is an excellent fictionalization of a true story

    ‘Our Brand is Crisis’ is an excellent fictionalization of a true story

    Academy Award winners Sandra Bullock and Billy Bob Thornton in 'Our Brand is Crisis'.
    Academy Award winners Sandra Bullock and Billy Bob Thornton in ‘Our Brand is Crisis’.

    “Truth is relative in politics.  The truth is what I tell the electorate it is.” – ‘Calamity’ Jane Bodine

    In 2002, Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada was elected to his second term as the President of Bolivia.  He hired American political consultants James Carville, Stan Greenberg and Bob Shrum as his campaign advisors and they brought him a victory.  Three years later, an excellent documentary on the election and the role of the American consultants in it, written, produced and directed by Rachel Boynton came out.  The 2015 movie of the same title is a fictionalization of the story, and is a project George Clooney began working to bring to the big screen nearly nine years ago.

    Joaquim de Almeida in 'Our Brand is Crisis'
    Joaquim de Almeida in ‘Our Brand is Crisis’

    Joaquim de Almeida, known for his roles in action films like Clear and Present Danger, Desperado and Behind Enemy Lines is “Pedro Castillo.”  The former president is a wealthy man who wants to regain the presidency but is trailing very badly in the polls to “Rivera” (Arcella).  So he hires “Ben” (Mackie) and “Nell” (Dowd) who reach out to the fiery trainwreck “Jane Bodine” (Bullock).  ‘Calamity’ Jane gave up her work as a campaign strategist after losing several times to her nemesis, “Pat Candy” (Thornton).

    There is very little difference in the methods of Ms Bodine and Mr. Candy.  Either will stoop just as low as necessary to bring victory to their candidate.  Not because they are true believers, but because they have that intense, Vince Lombardi inspired belief that second place is merely first loser.  Just when you think one of them has stooped to a level beneath the baby bump of a pregnant ant, the other manages to out-do them.  It’s an interesting, but eventually painful battle to watch.  The question is, have the experiences of Jane Bodine that drove her to become a recluse and what she sees and hears in Bolivia been enough to cause her to grow a conscience?

    Ann Dowd in 'Our Brand is Crisis'
    Ann Dowd in ‘Our Brand is Crisis’

    Sandra Bullock and Billy Bob Thornton are both gifted actors, but they are only as good as the material they are given and how they are directed.  There was some seriously untapped potential in this film that did not make it onto the screen.  But I don’t want to make it seem that they weren’t good in this movie, as they were.  Just not as good as I know they are capable of being.  Conversely, I found the performance of Joaquim de Almeida to be exceptional.  As the billionaire former chief executive of a nation, he puts just the right touches on how he communicates with others, at every level of society.  He is completely believable in the role.  Anthony Mackie and Ann Dowd are solid.  Zoe Kazan was the perfect choice for her small but important part.

    What Our Brand is Crisis does extremely well is illustrate how much elections are more about convincing the electorate that their particular candidate isn’t so much the better choice, but the best choice among a bevy of bad choices.  Once again proving that the lesser of two (or more) evils is the evil of two (or more) lessers.

  • A walk across the ‘Bridge of Spies’ is well worth the trip

    A walk across the ‘Bridge of Spies’ is well worth the trip

    Tom Hanks as James Donovan in ‘Bridge of Spies’

    Steven Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies tells the story of how a Russian spy named Vilyam “Willie” Genrikhovich Fisher and an American U-2 pilot named Gary Francis Powers wound up being exchanged for each other during the Cold War. While the movie is labeled as “Inspired by True Events” it is worth noting that the few alterations of what really happened in no way detract from this telling.

    In an excellent script from Matt Charman and the Coen Brothers, Bridge of Spies opens in 1957 when a man known as Rudolf Abel (Rylance) is captured by the FBI. Because even an accused Soviet spy must be given an adequate defense before being convicted, the Bar Association selects James Donovan (Hanks), an insurance lawyer to defend him. He had criminal trial experience, having served as part of the prosecution team at the Nuremburg trials.

    Donovan does his best but the “fix” was clearly in as evidenced by the actions of Judge Mortimer Byers (Matthews) before and during the trial. But Donovan is able to convince the judge not to sentence his client to death, arguing that Abel might be useful in the future to exchange for an American captured by the Soviets.

    Mark Rylance as Rudolf Abel in 'Bridge of Spies'
    Mark Rylance as Rudolf Abel in ‘Bridge of Spies’

    Air Force Lieutenant Gary Francis Powers (Stowell) passes a lie detector test and an extensive background investigation before being seconded to the CIA for a highly classified mission. To overfly the USSR in a U-2 reconnaissance aircraft, equipped with the most powerful cameras ever used in aerial spying. He and the other pilots are briefed that they cannot allow the airplane or themselves to fall into Soviet hands. To ensure this, the plane is equipped with a self-destruct switch and the pilots are given a way to easily kill themselves.

    Following the Soviets shooting down the U-2 flown by Powers, he is captured, tried and sentenced to ten years in a Soviet prison. We see him in what is intended to portray the dreaded Lubyanka Prison in Moscow undergoing intense interrogation. While the U.S. had had no success in getting Abel to talk, both sides were worried that their man in the custody of the enemy would eventually begin to disclose the highly classified information they had. This led to James Donovan journeying to East Berlin to negotiate an exchange where both men could be returned to their own countries. Add in the wrinkle of American citizen Frederic Pryor (Rogers) being taken into custody at the moment the Berlin Wall is going up and things get really complicated.

    There a number of factors that make this an excellent film, even by the elevated standard one comes to expect from a genius like Steven Spielberg. The first is the incredible attention to detail in accurately portraying the era of the late 1950s/early 1960s. While this is the first time in three decades that John Williams was not the composer of music for a Spielberg film (he was unavailable due to illness), Thomas Newman did a very good job. He’d been the conductor for Saving Mr. Banks and his score was perfectly suited to the movie.

    Austin Stowell as Gary Francis Powers flying his U-2 spy plane as Russian SA-2 missiles are fired at him in 'Bridge of Spies'
    Austin Stowell as Gary Francis Powers flying his U-2 spy plane as Russian SA-2 missiles are fired at him in ‘Bridge of Spies’

    The casting was better than first-rate. Putting Tom Hanks in a Spielberg film is a no-brainer but selecting Mark Rylance, primarily a stage actor was awesome. His performance as Rudolf Abel is definitely worthy of award consideration. Mikhail Gorevoy as a top-level KGB official and Sebastian Koch as an East German lawyer were quite excellent. Also worthy of notice is Laurie Dawn who appears in two brief scenes on the subway and doesn’t say a word aloud. But she speaks volumes with just her facial expressions. Top-notch filmmaking!

    A couple of historical notes about the real story versus the way it is told in this film. There are things here that most would consider spoilers. You’ve been warned.

    The investigation, arrest and conviction of Rudolf Abel was known as The Hollow Nickel case. One of the nickels used by the Soviets for passing secrets back and forth wound up in the hands of a newspaper boy. When he found it was hollowed out he turned it over to police.

    Gary Francis Powers was a Captain in the USAF, not a lieutenant as depicted. Further, he’d been discharged from the Air Force before he began working for the CIA. That actually took place in 1956, almost a year before the arrest of Rudolf Abel.

    It was actually 21 months from the time Powers was shot down until he was exchanged for Abel on the bridge in Berlin.

  • ‘Freeheld’ tells an important story, but doesn’t do that story justice

    ‘Freeheld’ tells an important story, but doesn’t do that story justice

    Julianne Moore and Ellen Page in 'Freeheld'
    Julianne Moore and Ellen Page in ‘Freeheld’

    In the United States, only New Jersey labels its county legislators as “freeholders” and this is a film about what the freeholders who ran Ocean County did to one of its long-time county employees.

    Laurel Hester (Moore) had been a detective with the county police force for more than two decades before she was diagnosed with late stage cancer.  Laurel had met and fallen in love with Stacie Andree (Page) years earlier.  The two had registered with the state as domestic partners.  While the county’s negotiated contract with the police force did not call for domestic partners to be covered by any of their benefits programs, in 2004 the state legislature had enacted a domestic partnership act.  It mandated such benefits for state employees and allowed other employers to grant these benefits.

    Freeheld tells the story of how Laurel, a very private woman, met and fell in love with Stacie.  How they came to live together and form their bond.  In the film it is Stacie who notices Laurel grimacing in pain and insists she seek medical help.  For Laurel, once she has been told she has Stage IV cancer in her lungs, she is on a mission to accomplish one thing.  Gain equality of treatment, so that her pension will go to Stacie.  This is the only way Stacie can stay in the house the two of them restored.

    They are aided and abetted in this task by two very different men.  One of them is her partner, Detective Dane Wells (Shannon) a very straight, very conservative man who doesn’t care that his partner is a lesbian.  The other is Steven Goldstein (Carrell) a self-described “gay Jewish lawyer” who founded Garden State Equality, a group focused on equality for the LGBT community.

    Steve Carell as Steven Goldstein in 'Freeheld'
    Steve Carell as Steven Goldstein in ‘Freeheld’

    The five county Freeholders consider and deny Laurel’s request in a private meeting.  Bryan Kelder (Charles) is the newest Freeholder and he wants to support the request, but is pressured by the others.  Once the request is denied, Steven enters the picture and ratchets up the heat on the Freeholders by bringing in protesters.  As Laurel’s condition worsens, time becomes their biggest enemy.  Can they convince the Freeholders to reverse a decision for the first time in well over a century?

    The cast all give wonderful performances.  It is especially nice to see Skipp Sudduth, late of NBC’s Third Watch police procedural given a chance to show his talents on the big screen.  Moore and Page are amazing, bringing two real people to life, near mirror-images of the real Laurel Hastert and Stacie Andree in the 2007 short documentary film on which this film is based.

    Sadly, the film itself has very uneven pacing.  The first two acts wander aimlessly, before the much better third act rescues what is left of the nearly two hour film.  The true story of Laurel Hastert and her grace under the enormous pressure of her dual struggles with a terminal illness and the intransigent stance of conservative politicians deserved a better telling.