Category: Movie Reviews


Most Important Black Films: A Soldier’s Story

Filed under: 25 MIF & TV, Inspirations, Movie Reviews — 2 Comments
January 9, 2012

 

So like a lot of you, I’m getting geared up to see Red Tails in a couple of weeks.  To get my mind ready for that, I went on Netflix Instant this weekend and rewatched A Soldier’s Story for the first time in what must have been 2o years.  The trailers already let us know that in terms of action sequences there’s not going to be a contest between the two films.  But as far as story goes…the jury is going to be out for a few more weeks.  I never wrote about this really good film when I did this blog’s signature list a couple of years back, but it’s never too late to do an honorable mention breakdown.  You can search the blog if you aren’t aware/forgot what the five categories stand for:

Relevance: The film is about a black captain going down to Louisiana during World War II to do an investigation of the murder of another black officer, most likely by the Ku Klux Klan.  Need I say more?

Legacy: Men of Honor is a great film, and I have a soft spot for Cadence (Oh don’t you know, that’s the sound of the man, working on the chain…ga-a-ang!), but I can’t look at Red Tails without looking at A Soldier’s Story as a direct descendant with its period story and primarily black male cast.  Is there a Denzel Washington, a David Alan Grier, a Howard Rollins, a Robert Townsend in the movie about to come out?  Could be; time will tell I guess.

Craft: I named four black actors and there’s another five faces you know in this movie as ‘That Guy’ even if you would have to look up their names.  The film is based on an off Broadway play, and there’s enough A game in this film to replace the actors who were replaced from the Broadway production.

Crossover: Not much.  To this day this is one of those, by us for us films.

Apollo: Outside of the references to the Negro Leagues that definitely went over my head as a kid, I completely forgot Patti LaBelle was in this movie.  Doing Patti LaBelle things. And yes, that’s a compliment.

So we’re all on to Red Tails in a couple weeks.  The standard has been estabished…

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J. Edgar

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January 5, 2012

 

I heard a lot of mild criticism when J. Edgar came out so I didn’t have my hopes real high when I finally got a chance to see it.  It’s not a bad film by any means, but against the best work of either Clint Eastwood or Leonardo DiCaprio, this film definitely falls into both men’s second tier.

The film tells the story of the rise of the F.B.I. and its controversial figurehead, J. Edgar Hoover.  This film isn’t an action flick by any stretch, so the sections about the Bureau (like the Lindbergh case) aren’t dramatically interesting until a third act revelation.  Like most character studies, this film revolves around the relationship the main character has with others.  In this case it’s Hoover’s relationship with his mother (an icy Judi Dench), and his ‘right hand man’ at the Bureau (played by Armie Hammer).  The real Hoover was supposedly a closeted homosexual, and where Eastwood’s film really shines is in exploring both why J. Edgar was repressed in his sexuality and even more telling, how living a secret life possibly opened the door to an obsession with other people’s secrets.  If you want to go all the way with it, does selling the world on one big lie make it easier to sell others (including yourself) on a hundred other smaller lies over the course of a lifetime?  It’s an interesting thought.

You can add me to the chorus of those who think Leo was miscast in this role, but can’t say it was a bad business decision.  Even with Clint’s pedigree, I doubt Warners would have signed off on Philip Seymour Hoffman playing the title character (but that would have been something!)

 

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Hugo

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January 4, 2012

 

I went into Hugo with literally no expectations.  It was a Scorsese picture, but definitely not a typical “Martin Scorsese’ picture.  It’s a 3D film (bleh) but Hugo is a complete family film (by far the best use for that technology in my opinion).  I came out of Hugo not overwhelmed, but pleasantly surprised that the film I thought I walked into 5 minutes in, morphed into something more ambitious by the time I walked out.

An orphan boy lives in a train station and keeps the clocks tuned.  He’s constantly at odds and on the run from a local shopkeeper (played by Ben Kingsley) who accuses him of theft, and a beat cop (played with subtle humor by Sasha Baron Cohen) whose trying to send him straight to the orphanage.  The story of how these various men (and others) relate to and are connected to each other is charming, and another tribute to the master storytelling ability of Scorsese.  Like any of us have doubted that ability for the past 30 years!

Without giving away the plot points that I didn’t know about walking in, I will say it’s interesting to wonder if this is the direction Scorsese may be going next.  The Departed got him his Oscar but to me that’s not even among his top 3 crime films; recently he’s done more documentaries which are nice change of pace pieces.  Is ‘Marty’ going to take a cue from his buddy DeNiro and start doing more family friendly fare?  Hmm, don’t know how I feel about that but I guess we’ll see.

Regardless Hugo is a nice film that at the moment seems to be stuck in a year (or an awards season at least) of several high quality films.  I guess we’ll see where it lands…

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Midnight in Paris

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January 2, 2012

 

First off, hope everyone had a nice New Year.  Now let’s get back to business…

As I watched Midnight in Paris, I appreciated the irony of this particular story.  A writer who spends quite a bit of time daydreaming about his idols finds a time warp that allows him to hang out with Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein and company.  Some people have been hyping this film as Woody Allen’s best film in years (I disagree).   But I will say this film more closely ‘feels’ like Woody’s most celebrated films (such as Annie Hall and Manhattan) than anything he’s made recently.  So I wonder how many of the critics who’ve fawned over the film are overly nostalgic themselves for the Woody Allen films of the 70s and 80s?  Is he making a comment about his own career arc and fan base?  I don’t think so actually but it’s a sign of respect for the man that I’m even thinking about it and throwing it out there.

Led by Owen Wilson in the ‘Woody’ role, and featuring a stacked supporting cast including Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Kathy Bates, and Adrien Brody, the thing I took away the most from Midnight is that Woody still has ‘it.’  I know a lot of film lovers, but I know very few (I think) who still plan to be active when they get to Woody’s age, let alone put out high quality work.  That statement alone makes the film worth watching.

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Moneyball

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December 21, 2011

As far as book to film translations go, Moneyball is an entertaining movie that keeps the spirit of the book.  ’How does a small market team compete/win in the imbalanced world of modern baseball?’  Brad Pitt produces and stars as Billy Beane, the Oakland A’s GM who ‘revolutionized’ the game by incorporating new math formulas into figuring out how to build a good baseball team for little to no money.

Now, that plot description is not remotely cinematic; what the film does well is frame the story as a forward thinking man (Beane and his mathematical genius sidekick played by a still portly Jonah Hill) who comes up against friction at every turn.  The old school scouts whose years of expertise are being thrown out; the players who have been conditioned to believe they’re washed up, Beane’s own self doubt at knowing this is his ‘last chance’ to make something of himself.  I’m enough of a sports fan to know (SPOILER ALERT) the Oakland Athletics haven’t won a World Series in this timeframe.  I won’t ruin where the film ends, but I thought it was satisfying.

So does that make it a good film?  It is.  But like making a crime film, the bar is impossibly high for what makes a ‘great sports film’.  During the Q&A after the screening I attended, someone asked the filmmakers how they felt their baseball film stacked up against Field of Dreams or 61*.  Whether you feel the question was a little rude or not, the filmmakers said they only focused on making the film they were making (good answer).  And the film they made was entertaining.

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The Artist

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December 20, 2011

I’ll say this upfront; I won’t be remotely surprised if this wins Best Picture next year.  It’s not exactly a genre, but Hollywood loves a well done film about ‘the making of Hollywood’. Sunset Boulevard, Singin in the Rain, and the list goes on.  ”The Artist” makes fairly direct references to these and other films. That’s not meant to be a slight at all; this film is probably the most charming movie I’ve seen since Slumdog Millionaire.

Released as a black and white film, and driven by a great sound design, “The Artist” tracks the end of the silent film era and the birth of ‘the talkies’ through its two main characters: the Douglas Fairbanks-esque George Valentin, and up and coming starlet Peppy Miller.  The love story of the film is fairly straight forward; the appeal of ‘The Artist’ comes from three great performances (yes, I’m including the scene stealing dog), a good concept, and exceptional execution.  The fact that it was made by a French director doesn’t hurt either.  Again, not a crack, just saying that it adds to the film’s ‘exotic/outsider’ appeal.

This one was fun to watch, I’m sure we’ll be talking about this one again in a couple of months…

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The Descendants

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December 20, 2011

In various interviews, I’ve heard George Clooney say that his attraction to this project was in playing a character who didn’t have all the answers.  The main character of ‘The Descendants’ is the anti-Danny Ocean so to speak.  It’s a fine line for Clooney to walk on professionally; most actors will get jaded or resentful when they’re asked to play the same type of character over and over again; but being a ‘movie star’ is selling the audience on a ‘brand’, a persona that they know they’re getting no matter what movie you’re in or what story is being told (see Smith, Will).

George Clooney is the acting community’s movie star (see what I did there?) because he makes choices like this.  In this case, playing a character who’s borderline unsympathetic.  By Matt King’s own admission, he’s the ‘understudy’ parent.  His wife has been having an affair and apparently Matt is the only one who is completely in the dark about it.  His father in law doesn’t hide his disdain for him, blaming Matt for an accident to his ‘perfect and loyal’ daughter.  The strength of Clooney’s performance in this film is in how with all of this thrown at him, you still do root for the guy.  This isn’t a revenge or ‘overcoming the odds’ story.

In a film that takes its laid back tone from its Hawaiian backdrop, Matt King has several opportunities to ‘get back’ at those who have wronged him.  But with two daughters who he’s now raising on his own, he makes the conscious decision to be the bigger man.  Anger is natural, letting go and moving on are difficult, but (ideally) when you’re gone you want people to remember the good things that you did and not the mistakes that you made.  And as an audience we get this not in a dramatic third act monologue, but as a progression.  Clooney acts it out and we follow.

Like I said, the actor’s favorite movie star.

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The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

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December 12, 2011

Fight Club, Se7en, Zodiac, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Social Network.  When you think of good, intellectual filmmaking, David Fincher may (or may not) have peers, but there isn’t anyone better.  Now let’s add The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo to that already extremely impressive directing career.

Before I go on, let me say I haven’t read the books or watched the original films, so I went into this one as John Q. Public. If John Q. Public saw Daniel Craig in the trailer, and ‘A Film by David Fincher’ and said “Say nothing else, sold!”

So how do I pitch this?  OK, a disgraced journalist (Daniel Craig) is hired by a semi-retired magnate (the always great Christopher Plummer) to solve the oldest mystery of his family.  Along the way, the journalist needs help and he hears about the researcher who investigated him: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Rooney Mara).

If that’s not much to go on, good!  One of Fincher’s strengths if you’re somehow not familiar with his filmography, is taking the audience along for the ride as the main characters come up with their own theories and try to solve the mystery of the plot.  Not to sound like too much of an old fogey, but while I can’t say this is my favorite Fincher film (almost unfair to compare the man to his own work), I can say that as always, Fincher treats his audience like adults, and you get a quality adult film out of it.  Is this story for everybody?  No I don’t think it is.  But if you’re a fan of the works of David Fincher, I highly doubt you’ll be disappointed.  Daniel Craig anchors a solid cast, and Rooney Mara brings the right amount of creepiness/intelligence/sexuality to the title character.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo opens next Wednesday.

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Shame

Filed under: Inspirations, Lady In My Life, Movie Reviews — Leave a comment
December 4, 2011

So everyone knows I’m a Brando guy, and I’ve talked about how ‘Last Tango in Paris’ was a major influence on how I built the character I used in “Lady In My Life.” So when one of the first things I heard about ‘Shame’ was that it was on some ‘Last Tango’ type ish, I was instantly like “Oh Really?!?”  I wasn’t going to hold any film to that  standard but I was intrigued.  And, as fate would have it, when I literally went from the Stella Adler Theatre in Hollywood to the Arclight only a few blocks away to catch a screening, I was really in a “Method” mood.

So let’s start there.  By own scale of 1 to 10 for commitment to a role, Michael Fassbender went for the 10 here; all in surrender of his body and spirit for the character.  Full salute from me for that.  For those unfamiliar, ‘Shame’ is about a young bachelor in his 30s, not a bad looking dude, stable in his job and living situation, who, for reasons never explained, is both unable and frankly uninterested in building and sustaining an emotional relationship with a woman.

(Let me pause this review here because I can here a certain peanut gallery picking up their phones to text me.  To you I say, shut it.)

What the main character of this film does have a passion for is sex.  But as the title implies, his passion for sex is…off.  He doesn’t do it for social status, for pleasure, for procreation, or as noted, for emotional connection.  He just…does it.  As often as possible and in plenty of inappropriate ways and places.  One of the things that director Steve McQueen (a brother from across the pond) gets right in this film is showing you in the first 20 minutes, there is nothing glamorous in this sexual perversion.

Casey Mulligan shows up as the sister of our protagonist. Not as one of the ‘normal sweet, girl next door’ types she’s played in other films, but as a desperate, really desperate for attention seeking little sister.  It was certainly an interesting choice for the audience to get no backstory on these two siblings, one emotionally vacant and one in constant need for approval, but in my opinion at least, it kept the film from maybe reaching its true potential.  If “Last Tango” is the standard, in that film there are little moments here and there where, if you don’t know, you (as the audience) can at least infer “Oh that’s why he’s an asshole.”  The audience of “Shame” doesn’t get that luxury.  For shame. (See what I did there?)

All that said, I think it’s a good film.  And the performances by the two leads are really good.  The film is rated NC-17, which I guess is its own reference to the high degree of sexuality in the film.  But to me all that NC-17 does is remind me how with the US ratings boards you can blow off all the heads and chop off all the arms you want and get an R, but you have one too many penis shots in your film and it’s immediately X-rated.  Another debate for another day…

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The Rum Diary

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November 7, 2011

 

My interests cover a lot of ground, but I can’t say I’m anyone’s Hunter S. Thompson fan.  Don’t dislike the man, just not in my wheelhouse.  I ‘got’ Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas as one big acid trip (and a good Terry Gilliam piece) but that’s as far as it moved me.

So I went into The Rum Diary without any real expectations.  I knew with Johnny Depp again playing the Hunter doppleganger, this film was basically a prequel to Fear & Loathing, but that didn’t really shade me one way or another.  Coming out of the film I still feel nonplussed.

As much as anything, I thought this film was a great travelogue (for the most part) for Puerto Rico.  The story is about a struggling writer who finds his voice after spending many days and nights running wild and loose in 1960s Puerto Rico, but when you watch this film…you’re really just watching it.  Admiring how beautiful the beaches are, how the people have their own culture. As one character remarks, we can act like it’s ‘foreign’ but for all intents and purposes you’re technically still in America.

Depp by Johnny Depp standards is extremely low key in this movie.  No over the top makeup, not a huge stretch with the voice (especially since he’s done it before).  He’s not on autopilot but he’s blending in with this role.  Amber Heard has her moments where she’s a dead ringer for a younger and less curvy Scarlett Johannsen (and apple of the main character’s eye).  Aaron Eckhart is as close to a villain as this film has, he plays his part.  If this review feels middle of the road, that’s just how I felt about this film.

But, there is a nice sequence at the end of the second act which was as blatant as I can remember in recent memory on preying on the old ‘black man lusting after white woman’ stereotype.  I mean, it was really blatant!  So you have that to look forward to I guess.

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