Green Book - Review

Green Book

Academy Award Winner Mahershala Ali (“Moonlight” and the upcoming new season 3 of HBO “True Detective”) and Viggo Mortensen (“Lord of the Rings” and “Hidalgo”) , star in the largely 2 character driven film called “Green Book”. An abbreviated title to at times a more stylized title “The Negro Motorist Green-Book” which was an annually updated guidebook for African-American travelers during the early and mid-1900’s of the Jim Crow segregated South.

While racial discrimination and poverty limited black car ownership an emerging African-American middle class bought Negro travelers in the South.  When on the road driving they would often face a variety of dangers and inconveniences along the journey from refusal of food and lodging to arbitrary arrest. The “Green Book" was an essential guide to services and places relatively friendly to African-Americans during that time.

The film starts taking place in 1962 where we see early a happily married Tony Lip (Mortensen), a bouncer from an Italian-American neighborhood in the Bronx, NY. When a fight breaks out at the upscale Copacabana Night Club with a made member of The Mob the owner is told to close the club until the heat dies resulting in Tony being laid off with no readily employment insight.

When a friend of Tony’s makes a few calls he finds out a Doctor living at the Carnegie Hall needs a driver for two months. When Tony goes to his potential client he soon discovers that he is not a medical doctor but rather Dr. Don Shirley (Ali), a world-class Black pianist, who is going on a concert tour from Manhattan to the Deep South. He needs a driver who will be reliable and adhere to use of "The Green Book" to guide them to the few establishments that were then safe for African-Americans.

REVIEW: Based on true events “Green Book” the film is a by the book feel good story of two decent honorable men from completely opposite worlds and cultures who become bonded from their violent and bigoted experiences in the deep south that eventually forges them to having a deep seeded friendship lasting the remainder of their lives.

Actors Mortensen and Ali do an exceptional and expert job in elevating the screenplay that ebbs back and forth from genuine heart felt moments to rather pedestrian dialogue that seem almost so predictable that I found myself literally saying the words before they were uttered on the screen. And while the film is mostly a dramatics reimagining of their personal story, it’s the humor that keeps the overall story afloat as we watch both Tony and Dr. Shirley navigated racism together leading to shared growth.

My main criticism with the film is the specific projection of NY Italian Americans and the racist whites in the south who were at times both seen to be so over the top in their moments that their actions and conversation’s teetered on buffoonery and beyond normal believability. On the other hand the film is its more genuine and moving when the two men are talking and sharing stories their past lives in the car and on the side of the road. Its especially touching when Tony needed the Dr’s help in writing his weekly romantic letters to his supportive and loving wife back home.

In the end the real reason to see this film is the rapport that developed between the two principle male characters. We watch them as the miles go by grow closer and closer helping and learning from the other, even protecting the other. But it is Actor Viggo Mortensen's work in the film that you will find hugely entertaining, humorous and touching as he delivers the quality goods for some serious Oscar nomination consideration.

3.50 Stars

A Private War - Review

A Private War

Actress Rosemund Pike known for her previous strong performances in “An Education”, “Gone Girl” and “Hostiles” tells the riveting film story based on the book “A Private War”. The real life professional story of American journalist Marie Colvin who worked as a foreign affairs correspondent for the British newspaper The Sunday Times from 1985 until her 2012 death in Homs, Syria during its then and ongoing civil war uprising where 500,000 civilians have died.

Probably more readily recognized for her having a black pirates patch over her left eye, the result of an IED explosion in Iraq, the film focuses largely on Colvin repeatedly going into dangerous environments, time and time again, risking her life to tell the unvarnished truth by reporting on tragic stories of human horror during military conflicts or as she stated in the film “to tell stories when one side or both try to obscure the truth”.

REVIEW: Rosemund Pike is both stupendous and astonishing in her performance and is completely deserving of strong consideration for a Best Actress Nomination. We watch her portrayal of Marie Colvin living her life on the razors edge with very little regard for ever thinking about fear; ever contemplating fear as she worked a perilous journalist life. And when not working in some far away desert she also lived her personal life with the same exposed tough minded determination, not suffering anything less than equal respect from men she worked with or slept with or married. 

Her external persona showed when she is seen chain smoking too much or drinking too much or avoiding bombs too much, she never relented in staring down anything in her way from high society's elite to warlords and to rapid gunfire. Her external persona on the other hand revealed that while she may have been driven by an enduring desire to bear witness as a voice to the voiceless, Colvin appeared to suffer greatly from PTSD from the many mutilated bodies she saw from the ravages of war. And yet she would continue to go back to danger with even more determination than the last, as if on her own she decided to use her PTSD as a drug to keep going further than no man or woman would ever dare to.

Structurally the movie itself occasionally does meander a bit at times early on from being smart dialogue to basic conversational minutia. However, the film running 1:50 minutes does keep growing towards a finale that is quite compelling due to the acting prowess of Rosemund Pike.

In the end the film does capture who Colvin was for about a 12 year period as an immensely brave woman who was committed to justice and who kept tireless working “to make enough people care so as to illicit their humanity into doing something”.

On a lighter note the film also captures her occasional very witty sense humor even when she is discussing her own mortality. When her photographer walks into her hotel room and sees her standing in the mirror getting dressed in dirty blue jeans and a dirty white shirt, he  asks her why she is putting on what is clearly a very clean expensive woman’s bra, Colvin says........”Hey look, when they dig up my corpse from the rubble, I want to make sure they are all impressed”.

3.50 Stars

Widows - Review

Widows

Oscar Winning Director Steve R. McQueen (12 Years A Slave) corals a stellar cast including Oscar Winners Viola Davis and Robert Duval, along with Oscar nominees Llam Neeson (Shindler’s List) and Daniel Kaluuya (Sicario and Get Out) and rounded out with  Jon Bernthal (Sicario and The Walking Dead), Michelle Rodriquez (Fast and Furious), Colin Farrell (Miami Vice), Carrie Coon (Gone Girl and Fargo 3), Brain Henry (FX’s Atlanta), Garret Dillahunt (Deadwood and Fear the Walking Dead), Lukas Haas ( Witness and The Revenant) and Jacki Weaver (Silver Linings Playbook and Animal Kingdom) in the modern day heist drama “Widows”.

“Widows” a screenplay developed by McQueen and Gillian Flynn and based upon the British 1983 ITV series of the same name has the film story taking place in 2008 Chicago where we see early Harry Rawlings (Liam Neeson) a renowned thief and his crew of partners Carlos (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), Florek (Jon Bernthal), and Jimmy (Coburn Goss). Harry is happily married for 20 years to Veronica (Davis) a high-ranking officer with the Chicago Teachers Union who has essentially looked the other way all these many years to her husband’s career in crime.

One day when the heist of a lifetime goes horribly wrong, Harry and his partners are all killed in blaze of gun fire shootout with Chicago PD. Veronica living in a state of shock at the loss of her husband has her pain even more magnified when a South Side Chicago crime boss named Jamal Manning (Brian Henry) running for political office pays a visit to her apartment and gives Veronica a month’s time to pay back the $2 million that went up in flames with Harry and his gang’s botched robbery.

Left with virtually no means of paying Jamal off legitimately, the widows, Veronica, Linda, Alice and Belle, have nothing in common except their debt left behind by their spouses' criminal activities. Hoping to forge a solution on their own terms, the collection of women join forces to pull off a heist that their husbands were planning to remedy their do or die deadline situation.

REVIEW: “Widows” is less a crime heist caper and more to paraphrase Winston Churchill “a crime riddle, wrapped in a crime mystery, inside a crime enigma”.  With a 2:10 minutes running time, it’s a cellular microscopic examination of small-time players in a big city environment encompassing all levels of the social economic strata who are intertwined at the metaphoric street intersection of “Devious and Deceit Blvd.”. Where criminal corruption and need for power are their singular motivating means for prosperity and personal survival. And without any relevance to race, sexual orientation, economic class, religious and politics their brazen willingness to use deceit is the one common denominator they all share.

The film's trailer seems to be marketing the theme of a group of mournful crestfallen women who quickly turn bad ass taking demonstrative charge of their lives. For me I found a more subdued theme of women who were initially naive and are the constant unfortunate victims of being undervalued and oppressed at every turn exclusively by men. Where only in the very last few minutes of the movie we see them garnering their full measure of empowerment, strength and personal redemption rectifying a dire situation that was never really of their own making. The fact is the only thing I could see they were really guilty of;......... of having any shared identity with one another (retrospectively speaking) is that they “chose poorly” when it came to spouses and fathers of their children.

Overall, we see on the screen a tapestry of criminals and crime and eventual meaningful self-discovery.  But it also a tapestry where the multiple subplots encapsulated under the heading of “crime drama” does lose some of its focus as to who is the primary story the director is actually trying to tell. Conceptually its a very imaginative idea, but it appears McQueen is trying to tie way too many genres of players both good and diabolical from so many backgrounds into one tight thematic package that it gets a little fuzzy at times on the film’s journey who is what, when and how..

“Widows” does work well with its sharp and snappy dialogue, stark execution, powerful emotional moments and an amazing commanding performance by Viola Davis. It also has some scenes that are as truly imaginative including one where you hear two people for about 3 good minutes without ever seeing their faces argue intensely. Literally moving in a blacked out window limousine car you see a powerful simultaneous use of camera and dialogue as we feel the raw tension between the two people without ever seeing the anger expressed on their faces. It’s a fabulously executed scene.

To his credit Director McQueen has made an intricately stylish, bold, nuanced and astute film. A deep dark melancholy tale of the many personal and varying contradictions that exist in a modern, free capitalistic society and country. A power obsessed society and country we call America. Where some individuals freely choose criminal behavior both great and small, on any economic level as their legitimate pathway to financial success. A dark belief that to be completely unencumbered  while operating outside the normal realms of human morality and decency makes them no less an honest American as anyone else.

In, “Widows” you witness four saintly women who by an inevitable necessity become criminals. With a blink of an eye they were no longer living ordinary lives. With a blink of an eye criminality became their business. And in the blink of an eye they were no longer naïve women but a focus team about the business of getting paid……. just like everyone else in America. 

3.75 Stars

What They Had - Review

What They Had

Two time Oscar winner Hillary Swank along with Blythe Danner, Michael Shannon and Robert Forester tell the moving story of a family dealing with the painful consequences of their mother - wife  losing their memory in the drama “What They Had”. 

Directed and written by Elizabeth Chomko we see early “Ruth” (Danner) getting up in the middle of night during a Chicago blizzard to wonder off. “Ruth” thinks she is twelve years old trying to catch the train back home from school. When her husband "Burt" (Forester) realizes she’s gone he calls their son “Nicky” (Shannon) to help in the search. “Nicky” in turn also calls his younger sister “Bridgett” (Swank) who’s married and living in LA who then catches an immediate flight home to help. But by the time she arrives with her own daughter in tow "Ruth" has been found safe and fine. But “Nicky” who works weird and long hours as a bar owner has had enough of his father stubbornness in not putting their mother in a facility. He asks his sister "Bridgett" to help persuading their father to reconsider. But in short order she's forced more into refereeing between her father's stubborn insistence that his wife, their mother, remain at home with him and her equally determined brother's efforts to place her in the "memory care" facility now. 

“Bridgett” tries mightily to be accommodating to both her brother and her father while she secretly deals with her own marriage troubles and a daughter who is increasingly becoming more rebellious adding more resentment all around for the entire family to deal with and be trust into.

REVIEW: This is as a captivating and effective story as you will ever see of what most children and families will have to and has to deal with when a parent is aging and ill. With the help of some really great writing and exceptionally superb acting this ensemble cast really captures the full dynamic of love ones who no longer can take care of themselves. And while essentially the story is a drama, “What They Had” has some moments of both authentic and appropriate humor that felt timely and self healing. 

Running 1:40 minutes as the film unfolds you see over time that the use of humor in the film is a reflection of the primordial see-saw  back and forth of deep seeded emotions people go through. Eventually and inevitably, medical events unlike any other life long human experience changes everyone lives. With heartfelt uncertainty and raw angst families decisions making can range from being collectively and individually harmonious to collectively and individual in contentious disagreement and resentment. But regardless of the range of emotions the one prevailing question that comes to their minds every waking moment is …………….    "Are we, am I doing the right thing here?”

This is one of those truly rare films everyone should watch. Not as some preparatory lesson  about the surface issues they must endure (i.e.bathing, dressing, feeding etc.) or the financial upheaval and impact Dementia and Alzheimer can have. Nor as some advance guide on how surviving families begin to actually grieve even when the parent that they love is still alive; physically healthy and fit. No, the film shows that no matter what anyone might imagine what it is like to deal with an aging parent, there is nothing in the world that prepares you for the day that the person you have loved you and loved you back as your husband, as your wife and or as your mother....................when they no longer recognize who you are.

“What They Had” structurally is a unique and effectively made film. Underneath emotionally it's a smart, loving, sensitive, touching and funny story. But above all while the film adroitly navigates this hard subject that all of us will have to contemplate one day as I myself have had to, it's still a very precious film to enjoy cinematically. It's never depressing and in fact I found it thematically very uplifting. Specifically, uplifting in that even when family differences occur while dealing with aging sick parents, everyone is operating in the singular belief they are doing what they think is best for the person they all love dearly.

3.50 Stars.

Overlord - Review

Overlord

In Producer J.J. Abrams latest financed film “Overlord” he and Director Julius Avery use the actual code name of the military operation for the June 6th, 1944 Battle of Normandy, when the Allied operation launched their successful invasion of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II. And it is with this information we see the beginning of the 2018 film “Overlord” reimagining of events of that invasion.

In the film “Overlord” we see from the air the arrival of a US Airborne paratrooper division being readied to drop behind Nazi enemy lines in France. Led by their Captain this mix bag of Americans has to carry out a time urgent mission that's crucial to the overall invasion's success of destroying a radio transmitter atop a fortified church. Once on the ground the desperate soldiers join forces with a young woman French villager to penetrate the walls and take down the tower. But, in their life and death struggle to get to the heavily fortified church a mysterious Nazi lab is discovered beneath the church itself. The clearly outnumbered American G.I.s soon discover that not only are they outnumbered but that they have also come face-to-face with an enemy unlike any the world has ever seen before.

REVIEW: Let me be clear, “Overlord” ………….is totally preposterous. Well I certainly hope so. But again, as brilliant tactically the Germans were in the 1940’s militarily speaking, the movie also reminds us just how diabolically sinister, murderous and evil that regime was. Apparently Old uncle Adolf had charged his brilliant scientists to develop some serum that look like someone mixed in a bowl pink Pepto Bismol and cherry Kool Aid (my childhood favorite) as some forward thinking antidote to insuring Old Uncle Adolph’s goal of have a 1000 years Third Reich where Nazi Germany would inherited the earth for 10 centuries; never falling.

So, damn it Lester is this preposterous film any good………..Well,………Hell yes its good.

With an opening 10 minutes as intense as “Saving Private Ryan”, along with a well-crafted screenplay, a mixture of war films classics like “The Dirty Dozen”, and Inglorious Basterds, with just a smidgen of cable’s AMC’s “The Walking Dead, this film was a total blast of plain old dramatic fun. With scenes seemingly rooted in the moment as real, with life and death situations throughout and just overall plausible tense drama, I found the entire film very compelling from beginning to end.

Now there was one character who was the well-intended moral barometer of goodness played by actor Jovan Adepo as infantry “Boyce”. He got on my nerves at times with his overabundance of always being kind and doing the right thing. But in retrospect his persona was genuinely needed for this type of drama - science fiction – horror film to work as effectively as it does.

But the real star and future star was actor Wyatt Russell who played “Lt Ford”………..Who? Well you might know him better by his parents Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell. He had a lot of natural screen presence and rugged charisma. And trust me you won’t miss recognizing him. He looks like his father Kurt. He smiles like his father Kurt. His eyes are like his father Kurt. And he sounds just like Kurt ……………eerie.

“Overlord” is the type of film that has a good plot, with great action sequencing from frame to frame and nothing more. No odd detractions in the story that will tax your brain or multiple layered subplots infused in attempt to be strategically clever here and there with the hopes of connecting it all at the end of the film. It just works on the basic premise................. “Americans good” & “Nazi’s bad”,………..and also what the F is that running around in the dark and damp church basement. And yes I even jumped in my seat once.  

Go have some war film - science fiction - action thriller preposterous fun. See “Overlord”.

3.75 Stars

Wildlife - Review

Wildlife

Oscar nominees Carey Mulligan and Jake Gyllenhaal, along with 17 year old Australian actor Ed Oxenbould all collectively star in actor Paul Dano’s (There Will Be Blood) first directorial effort in the film “Wildlife”. A story about a 1960 young married couple who moved from Oregon to get a fresh start in life, only to see their move to the rural Midwest region be the cause unexpectantly of their marriage going completely off the rails in a blink of the eye.

PLOT: Jeannette (Mulligan) and Jerry Brinson (Gyllenhaal) have recently moved to Great Falls, Montana with their teenage son Joe. Tensions soon build up after Jerry is fired from a job as a golf pro at a country club  for making gambling bets with the members there. However, in short order he is offered his old job back but refuses out of male pride and instead takes a very low-paying job fighting an uncontrolled forest fire raging in the nearby mountains.

While Jerry is away, Jeannette takes a job as a swimming instructor where she meets a middle-aged man that she becomes romantically involved with named Warren Miller, a prosperous older man who owns an automobile dealership. Jeanette not only becomes involved with Warren but has a complete change of life experience that results in their young and decent son Joe the only one seemed vested in keeping the family together.

REVIEW: With a Rotten Tomato score of 95%, and with great actors Mulligan and Gyllenhaal and a superb actor in Paul Dano directing all in tow, I had very high hopes for this nuanced slice of life story. But what started out as a promising story quickly turned into a very odd screenplay who transitions from the beginning of the story to the middle part of the story to the film’s finale made very little sense as far as the principle characters motives and decisions they made. Especially in regards on how it would impact their well-adjusted and kind son.  

The film wants to be a thorough examination of a  conventional era “she stays at home while the father works” marriage that on the slightest of reasons crumbles rapidly. And while the acting, the pacing and the atmospherics of the story were great, I just could not buy the overall premise that the actions of the respective parents made any real sense.

Analogy speaking, their transitions as some perfect, nurturing loving couple devolving into the dark side of TV’s Married with Children Peg and Al Bundy” back to the perfect couple was just not very plausible, at least not for me. The one shinning, compelling and highly entertaining component of the entire film was the eloquent and touching performance by Ed Oxenbould who was both the embodiment of a gentle adolescence child while being the mature heart and soul adult in the room. We watch him viscerally struggle to respect both parents even while they have little regard on how their action may affect him. You empathize with young Joe  as he earnestly desires never to judge his parents as he loves them both equally even when they seem to be hell bent on hurting themselves and everyone else in the room with them.

“Wildlife” I suggest to you on some snowy, freezing rain kind of day is definitely worth a rental, if you are drawn to these types of stories and actors. It’s really a great movie in spades and parts, in pieces here and there, but not overall in the end where it counts the most.

2.75 Stars

Can You Ever Forgive Me? - Review

Can You Ever Forgive Me?

“Can You Ever Forgive Me?” is a 2018 American biographical drama film directed by Marielle Heller and a screenplay by Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty, based on Lee Israel's memoir of the same title. Melissa McCarthy plays Israel in the film as it follows her true story as a down on her luck writer she tries to revitalize her failing career by forging letters from deceased authors and playwrights.

Specifically, it’s 1992 and Lee is financially broke.  While her much earlier works on celebrities that she has profiled to the likes of Katharine Hepburn, Tallulah Bankhead, Estee Lauder and journalist Dorothy Kilgallen were once very successful, she seems now either unable or unwilling or both to write about anything else. As a result she is no longer able to get anything published at all, largely because she has fallen out of step with current writing tastes of the times.

On the off chance while doing research in a library one day she finds inside a book an original note from a famous writer that gave her the idea for a way to make money;……… lots of money. She starts to turn the art form of literary deception by forging 400 letters to sell to wealthy collectors along with the help of her loyal friend and drinking partner Jack Hock. And it works, it works very well financially that until……………… “Tis some visitor came tapping at her chamber door, rap tap taping at her chamber door called the FBI”.

REVIEW: On the surface this is a small slice of life story from beginning to end without any real dramatic moments to speak of. But as the old story goes great things come in small packages and so is the case with “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” as Melissa McCarthy delivers the best acting performance I have seen and likely to see, man or woman, for 2018.

McCarthy in a rather subdued manner brings to life someone, a virtually unknown, who is interesting and vibrant, full of sarcasm and cynicism; realistic and self-assured all the while looking almost homeless in drab clothing, unkempt hair and rather questionable hygiene. And if that wasn’t enough McCarthy delivers a no holds barred interpretation of Israel as some who is abundantly and routinely rude, caustic, bitter, confrontational and overall just not a very nice person.

But its McCarthy performance that stands out as she is flawless and perfect the entire film. She take her unlikable Israel on a journey where you begin to actually feel sympathy for her, even begin to root for her to get away with her crimes. And while she transforms her Lee Israel into a full body real person both highly intelligent and equally flawed………………you like her in spite of her many flaws with an overall story that is a straight drama which has some moments that are very humorous that McCarthy is only well suited to deliver. And she delivers the line with just the right measure of seriousness while equally trying not to be overly funny in the moment.

McCarthy and her costar Richard Grant as “Jack Hock” are nothing short of superb together on the screen as they have natural chemistry when on the screen together. I have no doubt both of them will be nominated for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor respectfully when the nominations come out in January. Their interplay was a pure delightful rich and authentic experience every frame.

As it stands now I believe Glenn Close is likely the front runner to win for Best Actress for her performance in “The Wife” and deservingly so. But as much as I admired Close’s performance, as well as her career which includes 7 previous Oscar nominations, if I were a voting member, I would easily cast my ballot for Melissa McCarthy, she is brilliant..

“Can You Ever Forgive me?” is one of the five best films in 2018 hands down and definitely the best acting performance you will see as well.

4.00 Stars