Category: Reviews

  • Save time for ‘Saving Mr. Banks’

    Save time for ‘Saving Mr. Banks’

    Tom Hanks as Walt Disney in 'Saving Mr. Banks'
    Tom Hanks as Walt Disney in ‘Saving Mr. Banks’

    Saving Mr. Banks is a movie that tells two tales to its audience.  The expected story of how the fictional character created by writer P. L. Travers (Emma Thompson) finally becomes a major motion picture thanks to Walt Disney (Tom Hanks), and the childhood of the author.  Known as Ginty (Annie Rose Buckley) in those days, this story tells the audience just how Ms Travers became the stubborn, difficult woman she was.

    During World War II, when she was in Manhattan, P. L. Travers was approached by Roy Disney at the behest of his brother Walt.  Disney wanted to make Mrs. Travers’ Mary Poppins novels into a movie.  Mrs. Travers had no interest in this project and refused the annual requests from Walt Disney to reconsider.  But in 1961, she was out of money.  She hadn’t written a Mary Poppins novel in nearly a decade.  At the urging of her agent, Diarmuid Russell (Ronan Vibert), she agrees to travel to Southern California to at least listen to what Disney has to say.  She isn’t committed to signing away the rights without keeping control of how her creation moves from the written page to the big screen.

    Annie Buckley as the young P. L. Travers (Ginty) and Colin Farrell as her father, Travers Goff in 'Saving Mr. Banks'
    Annie Rose Buckley as the young P. L. Travers (Ginty) and Colin Farrell as her father, Travers Goff in ‘Saving Mr. Banks’

    The initial contacts do not go well.  She meets the Sherman brothers, Richard (Jason Schwartzman) and Robert (B. J. Novak), who are writing the music for the movie.  She also gets to meet Don DaGradi (Bradley Whitford), co-writer of the screenplay.  She doesn’t want it to be a musical.  She doesn’t want anything but proper English to be spoken by the characters.  She refuses to approve the casting of Dick Van Dyke.  She insists that all of their working sessions be recorded on audiotape.

    These are just some of the hurdles that Walt Disney must overcome in order to get Mrs. Travers (interestingly, though she never married, she insists on being called Mrs. Travers, even though Walt Disney wants to be on a first name basis with everyone at the studio) to sign on the dotted line.  Without that signature, the promise he made to his daughters to make a movie from their favorite books will be broken.

    Annie Buckley as "Ginty" (young P. L. Travers) and Colin Farrell as her father, Travers Goff in 'Saving Mr. Banks'
    Emma Thompson and Paul Giamatti in ‘Saving Mr. Banks’

    Director John Lee Hancock has a gift for taking true stories and bringing them to the big screen with a minimal amount of fictionalization.  It’s a gift we’ve been treated to in The Rookie and The Blind Side.  Now this affinity for real stories is on display in a non-sports film and it’s a treat to watch.  Paul Giamatti’s turn as the chauffeur assigned to Mrs. Travers is especially nice.  His character manages to pierce the hard shell of this enigmatic woman and it is interesting to watch the development of their relationship.  Tom Hanks makes a very good Walt Disney, although the fact we only see him smoking once in the entire film is a bit surprising.  Disney was known for being a chain smoker (he died of lung cancer) although he went to great lengths to not be seen by children whenever he was smoking.

    The casting and cast are excellent, the music and sets perfect for the period.  This is a very good film.

  • Dance on down to ‘American Hustle’, it is amazingly awesome

    Dance on down to ‘American Hustle’, it is amazingly awesome

    hustle4 (480x280)
    The five main characters in the outstanding ‘American Hustle’ from writer/director David O. Russell

    If you ask any fan of film to name a few of the best movies involving con artists, the first few that will be mentioned are almost certain to include The Sting, House of Games, Catch Me If You Can, and a few others.  The first two are the best of the genre.  Until now.  American Hustle, a film from David O. Russell is definitely a contender to be among the best movies involving a con or cons, ever.

    Based somewhat loosely on the ABSCAM sting operation of the 1970s, it is the story of “Irving” (Christian Bale), his wife “Rosalyn” (Jennifer Lawrence), the woman who becomes his business partner, “Sydney” (Amy Adams) and the FBI agent who comes into their lives.  That is “Special Agent Richie DiMaso” (Bradley Cooper) and he has a plan.

    Christian Bale, Amy Adams and Bradley Cooper in 'American Hustle'
    Christian Bale, Amy Adams and Bradley Cooper in ‘American Hustle’

    Agent DiMaso caught Irving and Sydney in a scam and could have just put them in jail.  Instead he intends to use them as a springboard to catch higher level crooks.  Mobsters, politicians, or whoever, all that matters is that Richie make a big splash in the media with a major bust, to boost his career.  Considering that he lives at home and curls his own perm, it is evidently a career in need of help.

    Richie blackmails Irving and Sydney who reluctantly agree to go along with the plan.  They target “Carmine Polito” (Jeremy Renner) who is the mayor of a town in New Jersey, who wants to find investors to bring in the money needed to reopen the casinos that lie empty and abandoned.  Carmine insists that Rosalyn accompany Irving to their business/social events and she’s thrust into a difficult situation.  Suddenly there are high level mobsters involved and who is going to come out on top will remain in doubt until the very end.

    Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Adams face off in 'American Hustle'
    Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Adams face off in ‘American Hustle’

    Calling David O. Russell a genius is somewhat of an understatement.  This is a story he co-authored with Eric Singer, a film he directed, and it features incredible performances from an extraordinarily talented cast.  Jennifer Lawrence does not have much screen time with Bradley Cooper, but the sparks that sizzled in last year’s Silver Linings Playbook are there, but in a different form.  The difference makes them no less satisfying in any way.  Christian Bale has a way of altering his physicality to make his acting so much more compelling and realistic.  He gained weight for this role and the humor found in his “elaborate combover” is delicious.  Amy Adams was at her absolute best in this role, creating a character with the chameleon-like abilities that real-life con artists have to fool others into thinking they are something they are not.  Four superb performances added to the outstanding writing and direction adds up to a film of epic proportions.  I can’t wait to see it again.

  • ‘Homefront’ is incomplete and underdeveloped

    ‘Homefront’ is incomplete and underdeveloped

    Jason Statham faces off against backwoods drug dealers in 'Homefront'
    Jason Statham faces off against backwoods drug dealers in ‘Homefront’

    While lately movies made from kids and teen books have been all the rage and able to develop as franchises, adult-oriented fare hasn’t been as lucky. Last year gave us the very disappointing Alex Cross and Jack Reacher, which likely stopped any plans for follow-ups dead in their tracks. Now Phil Broker comes to the screen in Homefront, and although not renaming the film after the character was a good start, more wrong choices were made than right.

    Here, Broker (Jason Statham) is a DEA agent who resigns when an operation ends with a suspect (Linds Edwards) receiving the Amadou Diallo treatment. Two years after that incident, he and his daughter Maddy (Izabela Vidovic) move to a Louisiana town where the late Mrs. Broker grew up. One day at school, classmate Teddy Klum (Austin Craig) provokes her into a fight and gets his clock cleaned. The school calls in Broker and the boy’s parents Jimmy (Marcus Hester) and Cassie Klum (Kate Bosworth). Jimmy tries to attack Broker but his reflexes are still sharp and he easily counters.

    For some reason this really gets to Cassie, so she enlists the help of Gator Bodine (James Franco), her brother and the town’s meth dealer, Cassie herself being an addict. Gator breaks in and in the process of abducting a cat and stuffed animal, comes across something infinitely more valuable: Broker’s file. Familiar with the players in Broker’s final case, Gator has his sidekick/lover Sheryl Marie Mott (Winona Ryder) reach out to biker leader Danny T (Chuck Zito), imprisoned by Broker and the father of the suspect killed. Gator plans to spill the beans on Broker in exchange for state-wide control of the meth trade.

    James Franco is a bad ass
    James Franco is a bad ass

    I have not read the novel by Chuck Logan, but a look on Amazon’s page for it shows this synopsis:

    Nina Pryce, one of a select few women attached to the Army’s elite Delta Force, is on an extended medical leave, recovering from a firefight with a terrorist that claimed the lives of two teammates and left her badly injured. While her body has begun to heal, her psychic wounds are still raw; unable to care for her daughter, repair the damage to her marriage, or face the fact that her military career is over, she and her family take refuge in a remote Minnesota town. But trouble seems to follow in her wake, and what begins as a schoolyard fight between her daughter and a bullying classmate soon escalates into a terrifying standoff with a clan of backwoods methamphetamine “cookers” and a hitman bent on revenge against Nina’s husband Phil Broker, a former undercover cop. Logan expertly balances the tough and the tender, as Broker attempts to nurse his wife back to health, protect eight-year-old Kit from the effects of her mother’s post-traumatic depression, and guard those he loves from the legacy of his own violent past.

    While the second half of that matches up, that first half, the one that actually sounds interesting, is completely MIA. Heck, simply having that as a story would make a compelling picture in its own right, certainly moreso than what we ended up with. It’s curious too that the setting was changed for no good reason. Why the needless hixploitation?

    Winona Ryder in 'Homefront'
    Winona Ryder in ‘Homefront’

    But what did make it to the screen is still incomplete and underdeveloped. In Sheryl’s negations with the biker, they make it quite clear that they will not relinquish distribution, but this leads nowhere. Gator learning of this and turning on them – and thereby proving to be the true threat to Broker – is what should have ensued. Another noticeable place is with Cassie and her addiction. They go out of their way to show that Jimmy and Gator worry for her, with the latter accusing the former of not doing a proper job as a husband. However, this is neither followed up on nor given any prior hint towards.

    The plot holes are as glaring as they come. Halfway through the movie, it becomes established that Broker keeps in contact with the DEA and reaches out to them when he starts to learn of Gator. But later on when he inevitably realizes his cover’s been blown and is in serious danger, he doesn’t call them. He has plenty of time to do so, but doesn’t. Is this supposed to make any sense?

    But the action is pretty satisfying and the actors are more than serviceable. Statham continues to hold his mettle as an action star and Vidovic shows promise. But it’s Franco, fresh from a similar wild-card part in Spring Breakers, who is the most fun to watch.

    Director Gary Fleder coincidentally is also the director of Kiss the Girls, the first – and best – of the Alex Cross films. It’s really too bad he couldn’t do for Broker what he did for Cross. Then again, given that the most intriguing elements of the story were excised, it’s just as well.

  • ‘Mandela: A Long Walk to Freedom’ runs a bit long

    ‘Mandela: A Long Walk to Freedom’ runs a bit long

    Idris Elba as Nelson Mandela in 'Mandela: A Long Walk to Freedom'
    Idris Elba as Nelson Mandela in ‘Mandela: A Long Walk to Freedom’

    The problem with making a film about the life of Nelson Mandela is that unless you focus on a brief period, there’s just too much material to deal with.  Movies like Lincoln and Hitchcock worked so well because they focused on a narrow period of the subject’s life.  When you do what director Justin Chadwick does here, try to cover a large part of the life of someone who was in fact, larger than life, it is usually an overreach.

    That’s not to say this is an awful or even bad film.  It is just less than it could have been.  Based on the amazing autobiography by Nelson Mandela with the same title, it tells the story of how a man who was dedicated to nonviolence made the difficult choice to use violence.  How this man was kept in prison for 27 years, often under horrible conditions, emerged without seeking revenge on his jailers.  How this man became the first black president of South Africa, a nation where apartheid had been the guiding principle of the white minority for decades following World War II.

    Idris Elba as Nelson Mandela shows off the Nobel Laurete's skill at inspiring with words
    Idris Elba as Nelson Mandela shows off the Nobel Laureate’s skill at inspiring with words

    Idris Elba is outstanding as Nelson Mandela.  Taking on the role of a real-life person who had already been portrayed by the likes of Sidney Poitier and Morgan Freeman is no easy task.  The lack of any physical verisimilitude did not help either.  Elba overcame these factors and you can see the effort and preparation he undertook in order to be as excellent as he was on the screen.

    There is honesty in the portrayal of Mandela as a human being.   We learn that like the rest of us, he is imperfect.  His philandering is front and center early in the film, along with some of what made him the man he became.  A quick visit to his tribal beginnings, his boxing, his time as an attorney trying to protect the victims of apartheid from further inequities and more.  But it’s a wandering beginning and it doesn’t crystalize until he joins the ANC.

    Idris Elba and Naomie Harris in 'Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom'
    Idris Elba and Naomie Harris in ‘Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom’

    The development of the relationship of Mandela and his wife Winnie, and what took them in different directions during his 27 years in captivity is the best slice of this movie.  Naomie Harris does a fine job of showing us the journey of a woman from went from supportive wife to activist who was willing to do anything to bring about the end of apartheid.  With her husband becoming more and more an advocate of peace during and subsequent to her release, and her growing endorsement (and possible complicity in) extreme violence, the end of their marriage is a fait accompli.

    Again, the flaws are not with the actors, who are excellent, or with any of the elements of the film itself.  It is the attempt to do too much with more material than can be properly presented in just one feature film.  Even extending the running time to nearly 2.5 hours is just not enough to capture the entire life of Nelson Mandela.

  • Don’t wait even 12 minutes before seeing ‘12 Years A Slave’

    Don’t wait even 12 minutes before seeing ‘12 Years A Slave’

    Chiwetel Ejiofor and Paul Giamatti in '12 Years A Slave'
    Chiwetel Ejiofor and Paul Giamatti in ’12 Years A Slave’

    In 1852, the novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin (or Life Among the Lowly)” by Harriet Beecher Stowe was published for the first time.  It was like pouring gasoline over the already raging argument over slavery in the U.S.  11 years earlier, Solomon Northrup was a free man living a good life in Saratoga, NY.  He played the violin and worked at other skilled professions to earn a living.  He was married with two children.  Then he was kidnapped and sold into slavery in the South.  He would remain there until being freed a dozen years later.  Then he wrote his own book, “12 Years A Slave” which also became a bestseller.  However, while the novel is very well known in this era, the story of Solomon Northrup was virtually unknown.   Until his book was made into an outstanding film.

    Chiwetel Ejiofor gives an incredible performance as Solomon Northrup.  The film opens with his wife Anne (Kelsey Scott) going away for a couple of weeks with their two children.  As loose ends, Solomon is given an intriguing offer.  Join up with Brown (Scoot McNairy) and Hamilton (Taran Killiam).  They are entertainers and they propose to pay Solomon a princely sum for playing his violin.

    Chiwetel Ejiofor and Kelsey Scott in '12 Years A Slave'
    Chiwetel Ejiofor and Kelsey Scott in ’12 Years A Slave’

    But on their last night together they drug Solomon and he awakens in chains.  Held in a slave pen in Washington, D.C. he is beaten mercilessly until he agrees not to reveal his true identity.  From that point forward he is “Platt”, an escaped slave.  He is shocked and horrified by the degradation and mistreatment of other slaves, and has no idea what is yet to come.

    His first owner, William Ford (Bennedict ) recognizes that Solomon is a man of intelligence and skills and he shows favor to him; upsetting the carpenter he employs.  Tibeats (DPaul ano) resents the growing relationship between owner and slave and does everything he can to undermine it.  Eventually their conflict forces Ford to sell Solomon to Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender).  Solomon’s life spirals downward as his new owner is at the extreme edge of cruel masters.  But he never stops trying to find a way home.

    Michael Fassbender, Lupita Nyong'o and Chiwetel Ejiofor in '12 Years A Slave'
    Michael Fassbender, Lupita Nyong’o and Chiwetel Ejiofor in ’12 Years A Slave’

    For director Steve McQueen, clearly the third feature’s a charm.  He managed to obtain the best from every actor in his cast.  His deft touch at using a limited amount of music beneath his visual presentation results in the emotional impact being enhanced rather than injected.  Ejiofor stands out in a cast of standout performances.  It helped having talented actors like Cumberbatch, Dano, Fassbender, Lupita Nyong’o, Paul Giamatti and Brad Pitt in front of his camera.  Expect to see several of them as part of the awards season equation this year.

    Like Schindler’s List before it, 12 Years A Slave manages to capture as much of the horrific nature of what the lives of the victims endured as it can without becoming unwatchable.  The violence is there to show what that kind of life was like, rather that satisfy the salacious nature of those who enjoy such things.  While some of it is difficult to watch, it is definitely a must-see movie.

  • ‘Hunger Games: Catching Fire’ is an intense, fast-paced experience

    ‘Hunger Games: Catching Fire’ is an intense, fast-paced experience

    Jennifer Lawrence is back in the hunt in 'Hunger Games: Catching Fire'
    Jennifer Lawrence is back in the hunt in ‘Hunger Games: Catching Fire’

    When The Hunger Games was released in 2012, the talk around town was how a story that involves killing kids could keep a PG-13 rating in order to attract the audience that propelled the original novels to the top of the bestselling lists. The filmmakers were creative. Violence was shrouded by foliage. The filming, choppy and chaotic.

    Clearly, with Catching Fire, the much anticipated sequel to the blockbuster film, director Francis Lawrence was not too concerned with such petty details. The series has taken off its gloves, entered the ring, and is a no-holds barred death fest that makes the TrackerJackers from the first film seem like honeybees from Pooh Corner.

    The story starts off right where the last one ends. Katniss is back in District 12 with some understandable post-traumatic stress, about to go on the Hunger Games Victory Tour of all the districts in Panem.  As much as she wants to put the games behind her, she is still a pawn of the Capital, forced to maintain a public relationship with Peeta, her fellow victor, and under the constant, watchful eye of President Snow. The last Hunger Games has sparked a revolution in Panem, and Snow places the blame squarely on the shoulders of the Girl on Fire.

    Jennifer Lawrence is on fire at Katniss in 'Hunger Games: Catching Fire'
    Jennifer Lawrence is on fire at Katniss in ‘Hunger Games: Catching Fire’

    In order to quell the restlessness brewing in the districts, Snow, together with the new Game Master, Plutarch Heavensbee, devise a plan. For the next Hunger Games, tributes will be chosen from past victors. Which means, surprise! Katniss is going back to the arena.

    The story follows the same pattern as the first – the public reaping, the Capital, the clothes, the talk show with Caesar Flickerman, the arena, the violent deaths – all the familiar elements that made the first movie so enjoyable. But the characters are older now and they are damaged. With revolution whispered everywhere, there is more at stake this time around. So even though we’ve seen this journey before, every aspect of it is different. The scenes are dark and intense and the humor, mainly from Haymitch and Johanna Mason, a tribute from District 7(played spot-on by Jena Malone), come as much needed relief to the building stress pervading every scene.

    Make no mistake, this is an intense movie. Not just in terms of the action in the arena, but in the emotional punch the actors deliver. Everyone on the screen has stepped it up a notch, even Josh Hutcherson, as Peeta, who spends most of his time in the role of “dude in distress.” Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss, while still a bad-ass with a bow, is a much more emotional character than in the first film and Lawrence, not surprisingly, carries it off. Liam Hemsworth as Gale, Katniss’s boy-back-at-home, is more than just the pretty face he was last time. Granted, he’s still nice to look at, especially in IMAX, but this time he will have you crying quicker than fawning. Most impressive though is Donald Sutherland’s evil-incarnate President Snow, and Philip Seymur Hoffman’s Plutarch. They are terrifying in their indifference. Just watching their scenes is worth the admission price alone.

    Josh Hutcherson and Jennifer Lawrence are running for their lives again in 'Hunger Games: Catching Fire'
    Josh Hutcherson and Jennifer Lawrence are running for their lives again in ‘Hunger Games: Catching Fire’

    Of course, the highlight of the film is the battle in the arena. The tributes are subjected to all sorts of sick torture – from insane monkeys, to poisonous fog, to rainstorms of blood. Their alliances are more complex, though and their  characters more defined. The new tributes, particularly Sam Claflin as Finnick Odair, are far more than the two-dimensional killers of the first film. The violence here is intense and swift, the effects jarring, and the tragedy of the Hunger Games themselves much more overt than last time.  This is definitely a film that needs to be seen in IMAX, not just for the elaborate effects in the arena but also for the scenes in the always garish Capital.

    Book purists will balk at the glaring omissions and subtle changes from Suzanne Collins original novel, but the movie maintains the important parts and delivers them at such a fast pace that you will swear the movie is shorter than its two hour and forty minute run-time. It is powerful and compact, and builds to a shocking “Luke! I am your father!” climax that will no doubt bring in the crowds once again for the next, eagerly anticipated chapter in the franchise. This will be a tough act to follow. Let’s hope they keep up the pace.

  • ‘Gravity’ is likely the best science fiction film of 2013

    ‘Gravity’ is likely the best science fiction film of 2013

    Sandra Bullock fights to survive in 'Gravity'
    Sandra Bullock fights to survive in ‘Gravity’

    Gravity is probably the best movie in which the main character spends half the time in her underwear. But to leave it at that does the movie a big disservice; it may well end up being the best science fiction film of the year.

    Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock), Commander Matthew Kowalski (George Clooney), and some redshirts are in space repairing a satellite, connected with NASA below (Ed Harris). But soon wreckage debris rushes through, destroying the satellite, the shuttle, and communications, and of course leaving the two of them as the only survivors. Tethered together, they must explore the immediate area to find an operational station and/or craft that can get them home.

    With this simple a set up, Gravity is kind of film that’s hard to believe hasn’t already been made. But when seeing it, the reason why becomes clear: 3D. It and the other visual effects are truly what make this an enthralling experience, so much so that a standard viewing will not impress the same impact. So pony up the extra money for this one, it’ll be worth it.

    Sandra Bullock spends a good portion of film in nothing but her skivvies
    Sandra Bullock spends a good portion of film in nothing but her skivvies

    To some, this might just seem like something that could be pitched as Open Water in space (a comparison to the more recent All is Lost might also be in order). And sure the basic tenants are there: man and woman marooned in a vast void, no one coming to the rescue, fast-ticking clock on survival, and so on. This however comes from a different place tonally. The focus is more on the adventure for survival rather than a meditation on hopelessness.

    Looking more into this movie, I was surprised that many young actresses were considered for Dr. Stone. Were that to pass, it would have been a major detriment. Bullock provides the maturity needed for a character who’s not only a scientist but an astronaut that we need to believe has had years of training and experience in these fields. While I’m sure that Blake Lively and Olivia Wilde look equally as lovely in their undergarments, they just can’t deliver that. Bullock’s work here is a career best and proof that the Academy Award on her shelf was no fluke.

    At this point I’m not sure how many out there haven’t yet experienced this film or if they are going to need any more persuading for doing so. But as the theaters are becoming crowded with space saga titles of a more fantastical sort, Gravity is the one to go to for something real. Something, um, grounded.

  • Join the line to see ‘Dallas Buyers Club’

    Join the line to see ‘Dallas Buyers Club’

    Matthew McConaughey portraying Ron Woodroof in 'Dallas Buyers Club'
    Matthew McConaughey portraying Ron Woodroof in ‘Dallas Buyers Club’

    Ron Woodroof (Matthew McConaughey) gets the wake-up call of his life when he is told by doctors that he is HIV-positive and has roughly 30 days to live.  Considering he’s a hard-living rodeo cowboy who ekes out a living as an electrician and who never used intravenous drugs, he begins by denying he has the virus.  But soon he’s scrambling to find a way to live beyond the month he was given.  This is the true story at the root of the new film Dallas Buyers Club.

    AZT is just being tested in clinical trials and Woodroof tries to get his favorite doctor, “Eve Saks” (Jennifer Garner) to put him into the trial and ensure he gets the medication rather than the placebo (the risk of taking part in a double-blind study).  She of course refuses.  He finds a way to get some AZT at first, but it doesn’t help.  In his search to get some he meets “Rayon” (Jared Leto), a transgendered woman who is also HIV-positive but is getting AZT which she refuses to share with Woodroof.

    Jared Leto and Matthew McConaughey are amazing in 'Dallas Buyers Club'
    Jared Leto and Matthew McConaughey are amazing in ‘Dallas Buyers Club’

    Newly self-educated on alternative treatments for his illness, Woodroof heads to Mexico where he meets “Dr. Vass” (Griffin Dunne).  Vass is a doctor who lost his license in the U.S. and moved South to continue to heal people.  His research into AZT has revealed it to be toxic and he prescribes alternative treatments for Ron that make a vast improvement in his condition.  These are treatments not available in the U.S.

    Using Rayon as a way to gain access to the gay community of Dallas, Woodroof’s entrepreneurial nature results in his “importing” of these alternative treatments for sale.  But that’s not legal and he runs afoul of the FDA.  So he comes up with the idea of a “club”.  Members get the treatments for free, and therefore he isn’t selling unapproved medications.  The substances themselves aren’t illegal.  But the FDA won’t go quietly and they will continue to work to stop Ron’s operation.

    Matthew McConaughey "importing" treatments for his members in 'Dallas Buyers Club'
    Matthew McConaughey “importing” treatments for his members in ‘Dallas Buyers Club’

    This is not a great film, but part of that is due to the fact that two amazing performances overshadow the storyline.  Matthew McConaughey follows up brilliant performances in Bernie, Killer Joe and Magic Mike with what might be his best work to date.  After an extended absence, Jared Leto returns to the big screen and most superlatives seem insufficient to describe just how awesome his work here is.  Both men underwent major physical transformations for their roles in this film, but that’s only part of their portrayals of these characters.  They are so good ,  the rest of the cast’s fine work seems to be less than it is.

    Yes, the filmmakers took poetic license with the true story.  The FDA didn’t work all that hard to put a stop to the buyer’s club that Ron Woodroof organized.  They treated it with a wink and a nod for the same reasons that AZT was rushed through the approval process.  The epidemic of AIDS in that time was killing so many people so quickly that whatever might work would be tried.  The value of this ‘fiction’ makes what might have been a pedestrian story into a real drama.

  • Alexander Payne’s ‘Nebraska’ is well-worth the journey

    Alexander Payne’s ‘Nebraska’ is well-worth the journey

    Bruce Dern gives the performance of a lifetime in 'Nebraska'
    Bruce Dern gives the performance of a lifetime in ‘Nebraska’

    Just to clear things up for some of the people who were sitting near me when I watched Nebraska, the terrific new film from director Alexander Payne (Election, Sideways, About Schmidt, The Descendants), it has no connection to the album of the same name by Bruce Springsteen.  Bob Nelson based his screenplay on his own experiences visiting a small town in Nebraska and from news stories about people showing up at the offices of Publisher’s Clearing House, believing they’d won the big sweepstakes prize.

    “Woody Grant” (Bruce Dern) thinks he has won that big prize.  He and his wife “Kate” (June Squibb) met, married and lived a good chunk of their adult lives in Hawthorne, Nebraska before relocating to Billings, Montana.  It is in Billings that the film opens with Woody’s son “David” (Will Forte) having to go to pick up his father at the police station.  Woody was planning to walk the 800 or so miles to Lincoln, NE to claim the million he’s convinced he won.  After all, he got a letter saying he’d won, somehow ignoring the conditional “if” portion that made winning contingent on his number having been selected.

    David doesn’t agree with his mother or brother “Ross” (Bob Odenkirk) that it’s time to put Woody in a home.  Realizing his father really wants to make this trip, and that it would be a chance to spend some of whatever time Woody may have left with him; so he decides to drive him to Lincoln.

    nebraska4 (500x351)
    Will Forte, Bruce Dern and Stacy Keach in a small bar in Hawthorne, NE in ‘Nebraska’

    After some interesting adventures along the way, they wind up in Hawthorne, forced to spend the weekend there.  Family gathers and as word of Woody’s good fortune spreads, everyone wants to congratulate and make a fuss over him.  Then there is his old business partner “Ed Pegram” (Stacy Keach) who wants more, along with some family members who want to share in Woody’s newfound wealth.  The plot thickens when Kate and Ross come to Hawthorne.

    Payne makes brilliant films and this is no exception.  Many of the familiar themes of his movies are present here.  Infidelity.  Travel.  Complex relationships between parents and children.  But there are also differences.  Perhaps this is due to the fact Nebraska is the first film of Payne’s where he did not write the screenplay.  If that’s the case, he chose the perfect vehicle with which to begin directing the works of others.  Nelson’s script is very funny, moving and combines drama and humor in perfect balance.  It also shows just how difficult the dynamic between parent and child is when the child is an adult and must take on more of a caretaking/parenting role.  A deft touch is needed to do this without humiliating the parent.

    Bruce Dern and June Squibb are perfection in 'Nebraska'
    Bruce Dern and June Squibb are perfection in ‘Nebraska’

    The choice to shoot in black and white was an inspired one.  It helps to paint the portrait of the fictional town of Hawthorne as stark and barren as well as highlighting what seems to be a limited amount of emotional connections between the main characters.  The feelings are there, buried beneath the façade that decades of troubled relationships will create.

    Bruce Dern gives what is probably the best performance of his life.  Known most for his portrayal of villains and heavies, this performance is reminiscent of his more understated performances, like Smile and Middle Age Crazy.  His Woody is restrained but still incredibly well-done.  More so because the character is actually quite limited in scope.   June Squibb is wonderful as Kate, as plain-spoken and graphic as Betty White was in Lake Placid.  They both, along with Will Forte, are worthy of consideration as awards season approaches.

    I look forward to seeing Nebraska again.

  • The best time to see ‘About Time’ is now!

    The best time to see ‘About Time’ is now!

    Rachel McAdams and Dohmnall Gleeson in 'About Time'
    Rachel McAdams and Dohmnall Gleeson in ‘About Time’

    “Our lives are the sum total of the choices we have made” – Dr. Wayne Dyer

    The ability of Richard Curtis to write brilliant romantic comedy films is well known.  Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill and the adaptation of the novel Bridget Jones’s Diary show off his chops in the genre.  His directorial debut Love Actually was an amazing debut film.  Now he once again intertwines love and tough choices in About Time.  “Tim” (Gleeson) has just turned 21 and suffered through another disappointing New Year’s Eve party at the home where he lives with his father “Dad” (Nighy), “Mum” (Duncan) and his beloved sister “Kit Kat” (Wilson).

    Then his father drops a bombshell on him.  The men in their family have a limited ability to move backward through time.  They can’t go into the future and they can only go back as far as the beginning of their own lives.  Also, there are risks and consequences, although these aren’t laid out in their entirety.  Tim thinks his father is joking until he tries to move through time himself and gets a do-over of an awkward moment at midnight during the party.  Now he faces a life where he isn’t permanently tied to his choices.  He can go back and make different choices.

    Dohmnall Gleeson and Bill Nighy in 'About Time'
    Dohmnall Gleeson and Bill Nighy in ‘About Time’

    Resolving not to use his gift for avarice, he decides to focus on finding a girlfriend.  Having moved from the family home in Cornwall to London, where he is working as a lawyer, he chances to meet a woman named “Mary” (McAdams).  Thanks to his ability to go back and improve his interactions with her things are going well until something else he must go back and fix to help a friend change things so that he and Mary had never met.  This can be remedied and soon Tim and Mary are happily ensconced in love and deciding to get married.

    Mary gets pregnant and a lovely daughter named Posy becomes the center of his universe.  However, a family crisis forces him to travel back in time to save a loved one and when he returns he discovers that his daughter is now a son.  This is when he learns that a choice that leads to even a miniscule change can have major consequence.  He is able to put things right to bring Posy back into his life, but at the cost of being unable to prevent that loved one from suffering.

    Tim eventually learns the last fact about his gift and that being once his own son is born, he will no longer be able to travel back to any point prior to that son’s birth. It means that his ability to continue to see his father in the past will be gone.  Will he therefore refuse to have another child, to prevent a son?

    Dohmnall Gleeson's "Tim" finds himself having to meet Rachel McAdams' "Mary" in 'About Time'
    Dohmnall Gleeson’s “Tim” finds himself having to meet Rachel McAdams’ “Mary” in ‘About Time’

    The cast is terrific.  McAdams plays this role as an American Anglophile living her dream in London with an understated sense of wonder and joy.  She’s a strong character who knows what she wants and how to get it.  But it is Domhnall Gleeson who shines like a shooting star throughout this excellent film.  I will admit to liking the work of Bill Nighy in every film I’ve seen him in and this is no exception.

    Curtis’ effective use of words and imagery to evoke feelings and then matching the sequence on screen to just the right background music is one of the reasons he makes really good films.  A very talented writer/director told me once that music shouldn’t be used to create the emotions, or inject them into a shot where they wouldn’t otherwise exist.  They should enhance how the writer, director, and actor combine to create those feelings among the audience.  This is a very, very solid rom-com, well worth a full-price admission.  I plan to see it again.