Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

I promise that this is a good movie, a good spy movie with intrigue and complex plotting and great acting. Here's what it isn't-it isn't The Bourne Whatever. Jason Bourne is a fake spy. He's a fun and exciting fake spy but he's a fake spy. George Smiley, as written by John LeCarre and performed by Gary Oldman is much closer to the real world of espionage. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy gives you more insight into the reality of the Cold War. But there is a problem- reality isn't all that cinematic. This is a British spy film-more akin to Howard's End than the Bourne Series. The first hour is sleepy. Like double-espresso sleepy. You have to stick with it. The rewards of this intelligent film about the intelligence business come slower, sneakier and more understated. So chug some caffeine and put it in the Blu-ray.
The plot is this: Control (John Hurt) is the dying head of a British Spy Agency. He has figured out that there's a highly placed mole in the outfit and has given several leaders code names-tinker, tailor, soldier, poorman and beggerman-one of these guys works for the Russians. After Control dies, it falls to aging spy master George Smiley to find out which one is the mole, and he methodically sets out to do so. The result is an intriguing exercise in spy work, suspenseful in its own way, and totally worth watching. Gary Oldman's understated work earned him an Oscar nomination. The word understated has been used to describe Oldman's work exactly, ummmm...never. At least until now. He is brilliant in the role.
This is a good watch, especially if the spy genre interests you, but prepare for it--with lots of caffeinated beverages.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

This film is the American version of the Swedish films that were a worldwide phenomenon. It's set in Sweden and all the actors speak with a generalized accent that I suppose might be Swedish. I'm really not sure why they remade a good foreign film except to recast---and cash in. But let's talk about this as if those other films didn't matter.
This is a whodunit. A bleak, dark, and often disturbing whodunit. In point of fact it is three mysteries rolled into one, which is why this film feels like it has three endings. A journalist (Danial Craig) is hired to research a murder that happened long ago in a very rich and powerful Swedish family, all of whom have been living with this crime for decades and none of whom want to rehash the thing again. A lot of stonewalling ensues. Enter crack investigator/researcher Lisbeth (Rooney Mara), a darkly pierced and somewhat disturbed young woman who has her own issues with violence toward women. Together the intrepid duo track down a serial killer and begin to untangle the problems in their own lives.
The reason to see this film is for it's characterizations and uniqueness. The mystery genre has never seen a character like Lisbeth. And Rooney Mara plays her with fierceness and steel. She got a well-deserved Oscar nomination. But be warned-this film is disturbing to a high degree both in specific scenes and in general tone. If violence toward women disturbs you this might not be for you (even though the women often prevail and survive). I often felt, well, kind of unclean watching this film. This is a rough-textured genre piece, but Rooney Mara is often brilliant and the journey is ultimately worth the bumpy ride.

Hugo

Martin Scorsese must have seen the children's book "Hugo" as the perfect way to pay homage to some of his early film heroes and bring attention to the cause of film preservation. It's a film that is spectacular to look at. I mean it. Spectacular. And I only saw it in 2D on my little flat screen. You are probably well advised to see it in 3D on a big screen. The sets and props have a magical feel. It's when we get to the people who inhabit the world that we run in to a little trouble.
The protagonist of this story is 12 year old Hugo Cabret, who lives a solitary life in the Paris train station winding all the clocks and fixing mechanical devices while his Uncle drinks the day away. He lives by his wits, avoiding the station security guard (the always oddball Sasha Baron Cohen). He meets a solemn toy vendor (Ben Kingsley) and his pretty niece Isabella (Chloe Grace Moretz) and soon an adolescent love story blossoms. That's the first half of the film. The second (and better) half is concerned with early filmmakers and film making and is if nothing else a master class on the early days of motion pictures. This is, of course Martin Scorsese's passion and he is much more sure-handed with this portion of the story.
Directing children is another matter. The two young leads are really not very engaging. Their not terrible, but their stiff Frenchness and odd character look makes them just slightly more creepy than heroic, almost like a Tim Burton film. Part of the problem may be that these characters are of French ancestry and live in Paris, but are played by English actors with decidedly English accents, and all of it directed by an American director. It's a mish-mosh. The world straddles the simplistic tone of a children's book and Scorsese's prodigious intellect and it just doesn't mesh.
The second half of the film is fascinating for any one who loves cinema or history or (especially) cinema history. It almost makes "Hugo" a great movie, but not quite. Beautiful yes, interesting indeed, but not quite a satisfying movie-watching experience.

A Better Life

"A Better Life" has a point to make, specifically a political point to make- and that could be the death of any independent film. It is a credit to the film that it isn't heavy-handed or didactic. It sticks to the basic tenants of good story-telling and in doing so the film accomplishes what it sets out to do, namely telling an illegal immigrant story from the POV of the immigrant.
Demian Bishir plays Carlos Galindo, a hardworking Dad and resident of L.A. who is here illegaly. Hardworking-Dad-illegal, in that order. They are the three things that define his life. His 14 year old son is dodging the pitfalls of gangs and teen stupidity. It's a hard life but an honest one, apart from their immigration status. Carlos is a good person who has to hide like he was a bad person. His dream is for a better life for his son but that dream is a house of cards.
"A Better Life" does an excellent job showing the hidden and stress-filled world that illegals must navigate and the assumptions that the authorities go to automatically when they deal with them. There is a great scene where Carlos' son is made to strip to the waist in order to photograph his gang tats. They're shocked to find that he doesn't have any.
This is a film with a narrow focus. It doesn't concern itself with grand political statements, only with a Dad and his son. It may be a bit simplistic in that respect but the character of its characters make it a good watch and a cautionary tale.
As a side note Demian Bichir's Oscar nomination (well-deserved) is why the Oscars (and in this case the SAG Awards) continue to rate high on the integrity scale. This film and performance might have been easy to overlook and that would have been a shame.

Oscar Nominations

Well it was an off year for me as far as Oscar prognostication goes. 35 of 49 in the major categories, going up to 38 of 49 if you give me the benefit of my alternate pics. No excuses but I haven't seen everything yet plus this was a really a weak year in film plus there were some big surprises. Hmmm.... in retrospect, those sound like excuses. "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" did very well. I was in denial about "The Tree of Life" because I don't like Terrence Malick films. And I never even heard of two films up for Best Animated Film, "A Cat in Paris" and "Chico and Rita". Really? Okay, here they are:

Best Picture (9 of them. Yes 9. Because the Academy can't make up their freakin' minds)
The Descendants
The Artist
War Horse
Midnight in Paris
The Help
Moneyball
Hugo
The Tree of Life
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Actor
George Clooney - The Descendants
Damian Bechir - A Better Life
Brad Pitt - Moneyball
Jean DesJardin - The Artist
Gary Oldman - Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Actress-
Meryl Streep - The Iron Lady
Glenn Close - Albert Nobbs
Michelle Williams - My Week With Marilyn
Rooney Mara - The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Viola Davis - The Help

Supporting Actor
Christopher Plummer - Beginners
Kenneth Branagh - My Week With Marilyn
Jonah Hill - Moneyball
Nick Nolte = Warrior
Max Von Sydow - Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Supporting Actress
Berenice Bejo - The Artist
Janet McTeer - Albert Nobbs
Jessica Chastain - The Help
Octavia Spencer - The Help
Melissa McCarthy - Bridesmaids

Director
Michel Hazanavicius - The Artist
Woody Allen - Midnight in Paris
Alexander Payne - The Descendants
Martin Scorsese - Hugo
Terrence Malick - The Tree of Life

Original Screenplay
The Artist
Midnight in Paris
Bridesmaids
Margin Call
A Seperation (A well-reviewed Iranian film)

Adapted Screenplay
Moneyball
The Descendants
The Ides of March
Hugo
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Animated Feature
Puss N Boots
Kung Fu Panda 2
A Cat in Paris
Chico and Rita
Rango

Weird year.

Oscar Predictions

Well I'm shooting a bit blind this year with my Oscar predictions so don't expect my usual clairvoyance. Let's see how it goes.

Best Picture

The Descendants
The Artist
Midnight in Paris
The Help
Hugo
War Horse
Moneyball
The Ides of March
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Albert Nobbs
Alt- Harry Potter

Actress
Meryl Streep - The Iron Lady
Glenn Close- Albert Nobbs
Michelle Williams - My Week with Marilyn
Rooney Mara - The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Viola Davis - The Help
Alt- Tilda Swinton

Actor
George Clooney - The Descendants
Brad Pitt - Moneyball
Leo DiCaprio - J. Edgar
Ryan Gosling - The Ides of March
Jean DuJardin - The Artist
Alt-Michael Fassbinder

Supporting Actor
Christopher Plummer - Beginners
Albert Brooks - Drive
Kenneth Branagh - My Week With Marilyn
Jonah Hill -Moneyball
Philip Seymour Hoffman - The Ides of March
Alt-Nick Nolte

Supporting Actress
Janet McTeer - Albert Nobbs
Octavia Spencer - The Help
Berenice Bejo - The Artist
Melissa McCarthy - Bridesmaids
Shailene Woodley - The Descendants
Alt Jessica Chastain

Director
Michel Hazanavicius - The Artist
Martin Scorsese - Hugo
Woody Allen - Midnight in Paris
Alexander Payne - The Descendants
Steven Spielberg - War Horse
Alt-David Fincher

Original Screenplay
The Artist
Midnight in Paris
50/50
Bridesmaids
Beginners
Alt- Win Win

Adapted Screenplay
The Descendants
Moneyball
The Help
The Ides of MArch
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Alt-Hugo

Animated

Rango
Puss N Boots
The Adventures of Tin Tin
--------------------
Kung Fu Panda
Arthur Christmas
Alt- Cars 2

Beginners

This is a film that seems destined to win an Oscar. That's because Christopher Plummer is riding a streak of award ceremony wins for Best Supporting Actor that has that old sense of inevitability about it. More on this later.
The film actually belongs to Ewan MacGregor as a Los Angeles artist/designer who has recently lost his Dad (Plummer) to cancer. In the wake of his grief, he has started a relationship with a French actress, played oddly enough by a French actress, named Melanie Laurent. But he is working through some burdensome grief and guilt and self-reflection and that complicates his new relationship.
The story is told in flashback both of his childhood and the last stages of his father's battle with disease. Plummer's character has come out of the closet at age seventy-five after his wife's death and the disease seems arbitrary and cruel now that he is finally living a life true to himself. His gay life is happy and active, if a bit confusing to his son who must now take a second look at his own upbringing in the light of new information.
I thought this was a film about a father and son coming to terms with who they really are. Maybe I was mislead (the talk was all about Plummer's out-of-the closet subplot, but that isn't it at all). This is MacGregor's movie, a love story underscored by a battle with grief. And the tone is not light or amusing, that's for sure. This is a film with an undercurrent of pervasive sadness. It is sometimes quirky, with odd voice over montages, and sometimes fragmented (a result of cutting back and forth between three separate time frames). It makes "Beginners" an unusual and melancholy film, but one worth seeing.
Now, about Christopher Plummer as this year's anointed Oscar frontrunner, it fascinates me why some films or performances get so much traction come awards time.
Plummer does a fine job, certainly worth considering, but really there isn't anything all that compelling about the work, not that would place it as an overwhelming frontrunner. If he wins, it will be because of an accumulation of accomplishments over a distinguished career. But really, is this the film that should come to mind when you think of Plummer's work? Not so much. If he does win, he'll fall into the same category as Pacino whose Oscar for "Scent of a Woman" should actually say "....but we really mean "The Godfather" and "Serpico" and "Scarface" etc. Ahhh, the eccentricities of award season.

Albert Nobbs

"Albert Nobbs" is a film that knows exactly what it's about. Every scene underscores the theme. In this case, we're concerned with identity and the consequences of living in opposition to who you are. Every frame of this film explores identity (especially gender identity), both in plot and character. It gives the story focus and a sense of clarity.
Albert Nobbs is a waiter in Ireland in the mid 1800's. It wasn't easy to be a waiter back then. The management was demanding, the customers even more so. You can believe me in this since I was a waiter for a long while and had it been me instead of Albert, I would've shoved their mid-day meal up their snobby Irish arses. But Albert has a cultivated calm and has lifted subservience to an art form. You see, Albert Nobbs has a secret. Albert is a woman who has lived for decades as a man in order to survive and also because being a man is true to who he is. Yes, "he" because in all things except physiology, Albert is a man.
He also has big dreams. Albert has saved his money and longs to open a Tobacconist Shop and take a "wife". He has to figure out how exactly to let his future love know about his true gender without having her run for the hills on their wedding night. It's a dilemma, but Albert may have found a good source of information in Janet McTeer's character. That's all I can give you without spoilers.
Glenn Close plays Albert with earnestness and innocence. She is fantastic, Oscar worthy even. It would be a great cap to a great career and she deserves it both for her performance and for being the driving force behind this passion project (she also co-wrote the script and even the lyrics of the credit roll song). Janet McTeer is so wonderful that I would call it a revelation if I didn't already know just how good an actress she is.
"Albert Nobbs" is one of those films that comes as a delightful surprise and offers hope for the state of cinema in the face of big budget craziness and lowest-common-denominator story telling. Make a point of seeing this one.

The Iron Lady

Alright, let's face it. Meryl Streep is playing on a different field from everyone else. She is asked to play the most diverse and difficult roles in current cinema and she consistently lives up to, actually exceeds expectations. This has been the case for more than two decades. Nothing new there. But sometimes great characters don't equate to great movies. Sadly this is the case with "The Iron Lady". You may have noticed that Streep is getting serious awards consideration. Did ya wonder why the film isn't being talked about for said awards? Well, I'm about to tell you.
"The Iron Lady" is a biography (of sorts) of English Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, a tough minded conservative who became the first women to lead a European Democracy. The story is told in flashback but it starts with Thatcher in her dotage, physically frail and losing a battle with dementia. She is seeing (and talking to) her dead husband (Jim Broadbent). This once powerful woman, the most powerful woman in the world in her day, has been diminished by nature. We see her early triumphs and troubles as fragments of an aging mind. And therein lies the problem.
This film is a patchwork of people and events sewn together from a faulty memory. We see them unfold with such fragmented speed that it's like watching a Margaret Thatcher highlight reel. We get facts and figures and results but we know little about the actual history. We don't know any more about The Falklands War or the IRA bombings, or Thatcher's rise to power than we did before the film started. The movie is a Cliff's Notes version of British History. It tells us little of the story and nothing of the woman who shaped the story. Scenes don't play out fully. And that is a crime. The finest actress in the English speaking world and she never really gets to play a full scene.
The film also wants to have it both ways in terms of the Thatcher legacy. It can't decide whether to play her as a feminist hero or a conservative villain, so they try to do both and they fail on each account.
Streep manages to rise above the the material, channeling Thatcher's authoritative bravado and stern will juxtaposed with the frailty of old age, her inner workings all visible through her face, lined with the limitations of her decline. In close-up, no one has ever been better. Is she really that good? Well, she makes a bad movie worth seeing, and that's no small trick.

The Help

"The Help" has Oscar movie written all over it. Serious subject, interracial cast, uplifting message etc. Based on a novel, "The Help" is a story of the segregated south, the deep south in fact, because in 1963, you couldn't get any deeper south than Mississippi.
This is the story of two sets of women, the privileged young white housewives who have houses and kids and husbands, and the black maids who actually do the work of cleaning those houses and taking care of those kids. It's the story of injustice, both institutional and petty, and it's the story of how the women of 1960's Mississippi deal with those injustices. It tells of the struggles of the civil rights era one personal story at a time, one slice of revenge at a time.
Emma Stone plays Skeeter Phelan, an aspiring journalist who longs to write something important. She sees her chance in the stories of the black maids that have to swallow their pride and their dignity in order to keep their jobs. What one of the racist housewives has to swallow is the grand secret of the film. It's an irreverent metaphor but you'll have to see the movie. No spoilers here.
This film is sometimes funny, sometimes poignant, and very well acted. But it is often a little too black and white (excuse the pun) for my tastes. There are shades of gray that are trampled in the telling. And in this story the true terrors of the segregated south don't make much of an appearance. After all it's right around this time that three voting rights workers are murdered in Mississippi. "The Help" is a film that's more interested in bigots getting their come-uppance than any true sense of justice. It was well described as a tale of segregation suited perfectly for the Oprah Show. The edge isn't there but the characters are interesting and revenge gets served up as a satisfying side dish. I don't think it deserves quite this much awards attention but "The Help" is certainly a good watch.

Bridesmaids

If you have read this blog, you know I have a prejudice against film comedies written by or for the alumni of Saturday Night Live. "Bridesmaids" doesn't change my view, but it is probably better than most.
Kristen Whig (also the writer), plays a goofy screw-up. Her love life is a mess, her business went belly up and she is sharing a living space with the roommates from hell. Her best friend (Maya Rudolph, also SNL)is faring much better. She's about to be married and Whig's character is to be Maid of Honor. Enter a collection of oddball bridesmaids around whom the story (what there is of it) revolves. This includes Melissa McCarthy as a heavy, homely, hard ass who has managed to grow a healthy harvest of self-esteem in some very thin topsoil. More on her later.
"Bridesmaids" then becomes a series of sketches, some funny, some sweet, some not so much. All typical pre-wedding stuff. Whig does manage to pull off a scene where the bathroom humor is slightly more funny than gross. I guess that's something.
This film is typical of all SNL-fostered comedies. Funny scenes (mostly) strung together on the thinnest thread of dramatic structure. That may sound hoity-toity of me but the result is a thoroughly forgettable movie. This one has some funny stuff, some interesting and likable characters, but it doesn't add up to much of a movie. Good try though.
"Bridesmaids" also has Melissa McCarthy whose character does have a complete arc and who does do some excellent character work. She's gotten a lot of awards attention, maybe even enough to wrangle an Oscar nomination. I have no problem with that. She's outstanding. But other talk of Oscar nominations....Best Picture? Best Screenplay? Please. That's just crazy talk.

My Week with Marilyn

I never really got why Marilyn Monroe was considered the greatest sex symbol of all time. Beautiful, yes, but not classically. She was rounder and thicker than the typical Hollywood standard of the day and certainly she wasn't the impossibly slim waif that is the measure of modern sex appeal. And her sexual celebrity was in fact a male fantasy, as opposed to today where woman (or sometimes girls) are more of a determining factor in selecting the "it" chick. (The Kardashians are creatures born of a woman's sensibility-and un-sexier sex symbols there have never been) But Marilyn was different. Hell, she remains different. She is to this day the gold standard of sex appeal. But I never really saw it that way.
A new film "My Week with Marilyn", based on a supposedly true story, shed a bit more light on this for me. Here's how the story goes:
Our young protagonist, Colin Clark, 23 years old,(played by a perfectly cast Eddie Redmayne), a bit naive but really more ambitious, becomes the assistant to Lawrence Olivier in 1956, just when Olivier is about to shoot "The Prince and the Showgirl". Olivier is to star and direct the film and has hired Marilyn Monroe, just coming into the height of her popularity, to co-star with him.
She is newly married to Arthur Miller and shows up in England a vulnerable mess. She is accompanied by an entourage that includes Miller and acting coach Paula Strasberg (Lee's wife) whose job it is to keep the fragile star on an even emotional keel and whisper acting advise in her ear. But Marilyn is a mess, intimidated and full of self doubt, and absolutely driving Olivier to distraction. It becomes Colin's job to get Marilyn to work and over the course of the shoot they become pals and confidants, both inside and outside of the bedroom. So much for the plot.
This film is a character study and Michelle Williams has done her homework. She inhabits and reveals Marilyn completely, revealing her as fun, fragile, savvy if not really smart, insecure, and manipulative. Now other films or books may have given us pieces of all of these traits but under Ms. Williams, they fuse into something more complete. At one point Marilyn and young Colin are on a day trip to an English estate. Coming down a stairwell, they are met by a small mob of castle staff. Marilyn turns to Colin and says "Shall I be her?" and then goes through a series of sexy poses, blowing kisses to the crowd. Well, ya gotta give the people what they want.
I was even more fascinated by Kenneth Branagh's turn as Laurence Olivier. Vain and brilliant, his fascination with Marilyn and rage against her unprofessional work habits are the central conflict of the film. He doesn't approve of this "method" thing that all the Americans are involved with. Larry is a "show up on time, know your lines, don't bump into the furniture" type of actor. Marilyn clearly is not. Olivier rages but recognizes that Marilyn really does have something special on screen. The best insight in the script for me was the line about Olivier being a great actor who wanted to be a movie star while Marilyn was a movie star who wanted to be a great actress. It was a joy watch Branagh bring Olivier to life.
"My Week with Marilyn" has some flaws as a film but the cast wins you over. You'll see more than one at Oscar time, I think. Judi Dench, Zoe Wanamaker, Julia Ormand (as Vivien Leigh)and even our young heroine from Harry Potter Emma Watson give wonderful supporting turns.
In the end, I loved this film despite its shortcomings. It was engaging, sexy and fascinating, flaws be damned. Hmmm...that's kind of what people must have felt about Marilyn Monroe.

The Artist

Lots of people, friends and family, have fallen in love with "The Artist". There's a lot to fall in love with here. It's one of the best films of this year though a Facebook friend or two would like to expand the time line to the best of the decade. Not too sure about that, but this is certainly a cinematic wonder to behold.
I was afraid at first that this was going to be a gimmick----oh, for those of you living under the proverbial cinematic rock, "The Artist" is a silent movie (almost) set in the silent movie era, about people who make silent movies. And of course it's about the advent of talking pictures. In unskilled hands it could make for some awful filmmaking. Gratefully, no unskilled hands here.
The wonderful thing about the silent era was that it fostered, well, really invented a visual language for cinema. Story had to be conveyed through movement, action, expression, angle, etc. mit out sound as the Germans used to say. (By the way, for all my industry friends that's where the phrase M.O.S. comes from). The silent era was the era of story told through motion and picture---motion pictures.
History lesson done.
Jean Dujardin plays George Valentin, a suave and charismatic silent film star. With a cute sidekick dog, fan adoration, and a big house with a life size portrait of himself, he would seem to have it all. Actually he does have it all. What he can't see (or hear) is the advent of the talking picture that's about to send his career in a downward spiral.
A young actress with star-making potential and a name to match,
Peppy Miller, (played sweetly by Berenice Bejo) has a flirtation with George and a love interest is born. But Peppy is the future and George, well, not so much. His inevitable spiral is where the story bogs down a little. It's pretty predictable all things considered and moves forward to a resolution as old as the hills. If this movie was about the plotline, we'd have trouble.
"The Artist" isn't about the destination, it's about the journey. And this journey is often breathtakingly original. As Peppy pines for George in his dressing room, she sees his coat and hat on a rack and slips her arm into the sleeve, caressing her own body as if it were George. It's intimate and beautiful. And that's just a taste. The film is by turns delightful, original, charming, honest and surprising in execution if not in storyline. "The Artist" is a whimsical and wonderful journey on a familiar road. Best of the year? Quite possibly. Best of the decade? Ummm.... there's a lot of room for debate.

The Descendents

Before I review this really good film, I need to get something off my chest. Have you seen the TV adds for "The Descendents"? OK, what kind of film did you think this was? Kind of whimsical? A quirky family comedy? That's where I went. The trailer leads us to believe that this is a cute comedy featuring George Clooney's patented dry delivery. Fraud!!! Bullshit marketing fraud!! This is a serious pet peeve of mine, especially because this is a really terrific film. It simply isn't funny----at all. A minor chuckle once or twice maybe, but this film is being marketed as a comedy simply because the filmmakers don't trust their own work. It's ridiculous, it's a lie and it's still an excellent film. Shame on their greedy, lying asses. There, I feel better.
Ok, now for the film. Writer/director Alexander Payne specializes in normal shlubs in crisis. In his "Sideways" Paul Giamatti was the normal shlub. Jack Nicholson was the shlub du jour in "About Schmidt". In "The Descendents" George Clooney picks up that mantle. Hard to make George Clooney shlubby you say? Not really. Clooney is almost as good in the acting department as he is in the good looks department. In fact a couple of times he looks shlubby indeed, almost paunchy.
He plays a real estate lawyer who has been for many years an absentee husband and father. Now his wife has had a tragic accident and is on life support, leaving him to deal with two daughters who are completely alien to him. Since the accident, his ten year old is acting out. The seventeen-year-old is angry and uncontrollable. Clooney must go through a crash course in coping with young women without the benefit of his wife.
Eventually Clooney and his eldest daughter (played beautifully with just the right highlights of anger by Shailene Woodley) form an uneasy alliance thanks to a common enemy and the film becomes about their journey toward understanding in the midst of tragedy.
The film is framed by a subplot involving the sale of a parcel of land that has been passed down to Clooney and a bevy of laid back Hawaiian cousins, all of whom are descendents of Hawaiian Royalty with liberal amounts of Anglo/Howly blood. The land is pristine and amazingly beautiful and worth like a half a billion (with a B) dollars. Hawaii becomes another character in the film and Payne perfectly captures the Island zeitgeist. I've only been to Hawaii once but it really was just like this film portrays. And beautiful....well, I don't have time or space to capture the beauty of Hawaii in my little blog. I wish I did.
"The Descendents" is understated and poetic and great to look at and interesting and sometimes even adventurous. The acting is admirable, the writing and directing insightful and honest. It's just not really funny. So accept for those morons in marketing, job well done everyone. Seek this wonderful film out.

The Ides of March

"The Ides of March" is a film about the death of idealism at the hands of a murderously cutthroat political system. It is not a political thriller. No guns blaze in leather-clad hands. No pricey sedans try to run people down in shadowy parking garages. This is more about political manipulation than plot twists. The only assassins in "The Ides of March" are out to kill the democratic process. It can trace it's cinematic lineage back to "The Candidate" and "All the President's Men", films about the corruption of American ideals in the quest for power. That's highfalutin' prose about what turns out to be a very simple and straight-forward story. And if this film is even a little bit truthful, man, America is screwed.

George Clooney plays a presidential candidate in a two-way race for the nomination. He has the inside track but there are still some dirty political tricks to play. His campaign manager, (an excellent Philip Seymour Hoffman) and his political strategist and media coordinator (Ryan Gosling) have the nomination almost sewn up when that old nemesis of political candidates everywhere shows up-the pretty campaign intern. God, by now you'd think that these guys would learn to keep their pants zipped.

The idealistic Gosling now has messes to clean up- the girl needs an abortion, there's a nosy reporter from the Times (Marissa Tomei is really terrific-what a great career she has) and then he has to deal with the rival campaign manager who is a master manipulator of the process (another excellent performance by Paul Giamatti).
The plot is really not all that complicated, sparse even. But who comes out on top and how they do it is a fascinating treatise on the process. It ain't pretty but it's fascinating. When you combine crisp writing and sparkling acting with a point of view, good filmmaking is sure to follow. It does so here.

This film is the George Clooney show. He co-writes, directs and stars. But as usual lately, the brightest star in the constellation is Ryan Gosling. His talent level doesn't really surprise me anymore. Now it's all about the kind of roles he chooses and this choice adds admirably to his catalogue.
It'll be interesting to see if this one gets the same kind of awards traction that "Goodnight and Good Luck" did. It just might score big time. It really does deserve it.

50/50

There are lots of movies about cancer and cancer survivors on Lifetime Network and Oprah's new station. But what elevates a film out of cheap soap opera manipulation into one that operates on a more honest and daring level? Two things: script and cast.
It's hard to make a feel-good movie about a cancer diagnosis. The right approach is to make an honest film that has dignity and humor. Bingo. That's what happened here. The film is written by Will Reiser. At a young age, Reiser was diagnosed with a tumor of the same type as 50/50's protagonist. It's the kind of research you would wish on no one. But having lived through it, Reiser is able to dramatize the situation with authority and insight. Well done.
Adam, played with a gentle dignity by Joseph Gordon Levitt, has back pain that is found to be a malignant tumor on his spine. The science of this is conveyed by a jackass of an oncologist who understands lots about cancer and nothing of humanity. The rest of the film is about how the people in Adam's life deal with the disease. His best friend (Seth Rogan) sees an opportunity to use the diagnosis as a tool to get him laid. His mother (a brilliant Angelica Huston) is overwhelmed. His girlfriend (Bryce Dallas Howard) gives the supportive thing the old college try but is incapable of that kind of unselfish behavior. Anna Kendrick plays a young therapist struggling to apply her book-learned sympathy in a real-life situation.
And of course Adam himself must learn to overcome a soul-sucking numbness and deal with his own mortality at a far-too-young age. The antagonist in this film is cancer, or more specifically, what we all think of cancer. It's a movie about overcoming fear.
Let me list out the other thing that makes this film pretty terrific. Joseph Gordon Levitt, Angelica Huston, Anna Kendrick, Philip Baker Hall, Bryce Dallas Howard. It's an all-star list and each of these fine actors bring it, and I mean they bring it in spades. Not a weak link in the chain. (Sag voters take note-Best Ensemble?).
Don't let the heavy subject matter deter you. 50/50 is a story well-told, a script well-written and a film well-acted.

Moneyball

Most movies that involve baseball can be watched and enjoyed by fans and non-fans alike. "Field of Dreams" has family struggle at it's heart and who doesn't want a kid to have a catch with his dead Dad. "The Natural" taps into the mythic side, a Homeric journey and return to what is good and right in the world. Baseball is often used to frame what is quintessentially American. "Moneyball" is about none of that. It is a peek behind the curtain at the ugly sausage-making side of a modern team. It is as much about payroll as it is about play-making. It does not shy away from the stats that make modern baseball a matter of math. You have to be a fan of the game to care about On Base Percentage and hits with men in scoring position. I am such a fan. Baseball, old and new, is in my DNA. I come from generations of Embardo Red Sox fans that date back to the early 1900's, the very roots of the modern game. I loved this movie. Of course it doesn't hurt that the film was penned by two of the best screenwriters of the past three decades, Steve Zallian (Schindler's List, Searching for Bobby Fischer) and Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network). There's Oscar gold on them thar mantles.
Brad Pitt plays Billy Beane, a washed out player-turned-general manager for the Oakland A's in the early 2000's. He has a small market budget in a big market world and teams like the Red Sox and Yankees have picked him clean. His challenge is to put together a winning team without a lot of cash. Enter Peter Brand (an admirable Jonah Hill) who has a modern take on stats and player selection, finding undervalued players by running their numbers on his PC. The old guard scouts and coaches HATE this newfangled reliance on statistics. They prefer relying on their gut. Problem is their guts aren't winning games. This is the central conflict of the film. If Beane succeeds, it'll change the nature of the game.
"Moneyball" is a baseball movie of ideas, and like "The Social Network" it's about the nature of societal change in the face of entrenched interests. It is not as compelling as "The Social Network', nor is it as crisply written. Like baseball itself, it is often slow to get to the point, laconic. And at 2 hours and 10 minutes it is perhaps a little overlong. Pitt's performance is terrific, mixing bravado with humor and a touch of worried uncertainty. Jonah Hill is perfect in his role as front office rookie, learning the ropes and all the while changing the very nature of those ropes. Hill is an enigma to me, a character actor who doesn't really have a fundamental grasp of how to change character. But he does play the naive neophyte to perfection and here it serves him well.
This film may be too much baseball for the non-baseball fan but for me it was like a good pitcher's duel, a bit long and understated, but a thing of beauty to watch.

Side note: This movie opened during what may be a real-life historic collapse by my Red Sox. Perfect timing to point up the timeless appeal of baseball even when the circumstances are painful (and boy are they painful right now). As a long-time Sox fan, it's something I'm used to, trust me. It's just another example of how baseball provides the markers on the timeline of my life. I just hope that before it's too late, the Red Sox pitching staff sees this film. They need the inspiration.

Win Win

Director Thomas McCarthy is known for directing intensely personal films about lonely, isolated people and the situations that break through that isolation. His two other films as director (The Station Agent, The Visitor) are masterful films about finding human connection. Win Win is a fitting and wonderful addition to that legacy. It may not be the best of the three but that's fine. Taken as a whole, a resume with these three films would be something to be proud of.
Paul Giamatti is a low level lawyer and a wrestling coach in small town New Jersey. He has screwed over an elderly client, taking on the paid responsibility of guardianship but placing the client in a nursing home anyway. A slimy move but he is desperate for the fifteen hundred bucks a month to keep his family above water.
Enter Kyle, the client's grandson, on the run from his own bad family situation. Giamatti's character finds Kyle perched on his granddad's porch and ends up taking him home to stay with his family. How Kyle comes to be an accepted member of the family is the first half of the story. Kyle also happens to be top notch wrestler (ok that may be a smidge convenient but go with it). The team that Giamatti coaches is, well, let's just say they aren't a top notch team. Voila! The birth of the major subplot. Things get complicated when Kyle's real Mom, fresh out of rehab, shows up. Betrayals are exposed and things get bumpy. Some may say the ending is a bit predictable but I'm going with inevitable as my adjective of choice.
A word about the script and the acting: honest stories with honest dialogue make for honest moments in honest scenes. Giamatti is excellent. Bobby Cannivale is excellent, Jeffrey Tambor-excelent. And Amy Ryan-excellent. Ryan may even be awards consideration excellent. And the kid-they went with a kid named Alex Shaffer who could wrestle and hoped he could act. That is a dangerous move. They got lucky.
Young Alex is excellent. This is all probably directly attributable to the writing and direction of Thomas McCarthy. "Win Win" lives up to its billing. It's a winner.

Kaboom

Director Gregg Araki had been moving from a camp/cult status gay filmmaker to a rather interesting chronicler of the gay experience as told with offbeat flare and raw honesty. His film "Mysterious Skin" starring Joseph Gordon Levitt represented a giant leap forward in his approach to film and his storytelling skill. "Kaboom" is a giant step backward. This film takes us to college with a confused young man of ambivalent sexuality. He's having dreams of weird abductions and strange sex and mysterious men in masks. I went with it for a while. Then the story degenerates in to a psychotic nonsensical nightmare involving a lost relative, outer space and the end of the world. I was less concerned with the end of the world than I was with the end of the movie. It seems like this film was constructed by a half dozen frat boy film students on a tequila bender. It's that silly. There are very few talented gay filmmakers that have the kind of platform that Araki has. Squandering that opportunity is shameful. Araki should re-watch "Mysterious Skin", grow up and make better films about gay people and gay culture.

The Conspirator

Okay, so last year my writing partner and I wrote a historically-based script and got some producers interested in it. Don't sweat it--I haven't made a nickel yet. But those producers suggested I watch this film, "The Conspirator" directed by Robert Redford. History interests me. Movies interest me. Unfortunately, this film did not interest me. Mainly because it was uninteresting. And I know why. I'll get to that.
This film tells the story of the Lincoln assassination and the conspiracy that surrounded the murder and the attempted murder of other government officials by Confederate loyalists. Everybody knows the infamous John Wilkes Booth and the tragedy at Ford's Theater but there were others involved. One of these was Mary Serratt, who ran a boarding house where the conspirators did their conspiring. One of these conspirators was her young son. It was the government's contention that she knew what was going on and was thus part of the conspiracy. This film concerns itself with her story and that of her lawyer (James MacAvoy). It is the script's contention that the government had no real proof (or at best sketchy proof) and that she was railroaded on to the gallows. The script carefully constructs parallels between this injustice and situations that have been a part of our own recent history--Guantanamo Bay for example and the post 9/11 legislation that trampled on a bunch of civil rights. Remember, I told you Robert Redford directed it.
It makes for fascinating discussion and an interesting and relevant argument.
And that's the problem. This would have been a memorable history lecture back at USC or an interesting debate on Point/Counterpoint. Here the actors think and brood and debate and wring their hands. It makes for some crappy drama. The performances albeit by some outstanding actors (MacAvoy, Robin Wright, Kevin Kline, Evan Rachel Wood) are stiff and lifeless, more like a historical recreation on the History Channel than a flesh and blood feature. And the direction doesn't help. It's almost as stodgy as the script. Too bad. It's really a great story. A great story that needed Jeff and me to write it.