You Can See Everything

You Can See Everything is LONG. Dramatic pauses make it seem even longer than it is.

But if you have three hours to devote to a documentary about convicted fraudster Elizabeth Holmes, you will find there’s much real-life drama to be unwrapped here. Questions are answered. More are raised. 

Does Holmes really believe she committed no crime? Does her partner Billy Evans share that belief? Are they seriously making plans for Theranos 2.0? Or are they both just master bullshitters? Watch the film and then you be the judge. 

Nathan Fielder who is her on-camera interrogator (and co-director of the film) serves as a probing, confrontational skeptic as the film unspools. Later though, after spending considerable time with Holmes and her partner Billy Evans, he appears to have softened his feelings toward her. A variation of Stockholm Syndrome?

You Can See Everything is really a two-part movie. In the first part, in 2023, Fielder and his camera/audio crew begin wall-to-wall coverage of Holmes and Evans, who are spending their final few weeks together before she is to be incarcerated in a federal lockup in Texas. Partway in, Fielder moves into the adjoining guest house. In the second part of YCSE, after she’s in prison, Fielder probes more deeply into Evans and his psyche. And in a genius move, Fielder brings in actress Amanda Seyfried.

The Dropout, a 2022 TV miniseries, starred Seyfried as Holmes who famously dropped out of Stanford to lead Theranos, a startup that achieved a peak valuation of $9 billion, according to Google AI. You Can See Everything shows Holmes (the real life version) watching some of that show before shutting it off.

Fielder recruits Seyfried to recreate several of Fielder’s conversations with Holmes. And Seyfried embraces the mission with gusto. Not just his phone chats which were transcribed when Holmes called from prison but also his in-person visits with her at the prison. Seyfried also offers some of her personal takes in conversations with Fielder. Her participation makes the film richer in its examination of Holmes and Evans. 

As with any such documentary for which hours and hours of content were recorded, one has to wonder what did not make it into the final film version. Were there segments sympathetic (or unsympathetic) to Holmes and/or Evans that did not make the final cut? Were there comments from Elizabeth Holmes’s parents, both of whom appear on camera, that might have shed more light on her actions? 

The best documentaries have a point of view. YCSE offers a number of viewpoints to be sifted through. Yes, she’s a convicted criminal who engaged in fraud, but Holmes also has a human side not revealed in earlier coverage of her work and her life. She was a brilliant entrepreneur who snookered investors from many walks of life, but she was clueless when trying to understand the humor in the classic Who’s On First comedy routine. She’s a villain, yes, but she’s also a caring mom whose two young kids see her only in short visits.

And what about Billy? He’s her loyal mate. While she’s in the slammer he watches the kids. His sex life involves Pam Anderson videos, he reveals. Some of his comments that he shares with Fielder sound a bit unhinged. Is he a flaming a-hole? Is he her best hope for success after she does her time?

In the six or so weeks since YCSE was shown in a surprise screening at the Telluride Film Festival, the film has garnered considerable buzz. And rightly so. While it has similarities to other films and TV shows shot by embedded crews, the inclusion of Seyfried adds a special flavor. Fielder’s handling of the conversations with Holmes and Evans is brilliant. There are some uncomfortable gaps that a less patient interviewer might’ve felt obliged to fill in or to remove in editing.

You Can See Everything, directed by Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, is rated R.

Leave a comment

The Social Reckoning

Is Facebook evil? Well, yes and no.

It connects people. It informs people. You may have, in fact, clicked on a link posted on Facebook to find this review of the new movie The Social Reckoning. But Facebook is guilty of many sins, several of which are explored in this film.

Its leader Mark Zuckerberg (Jeremy Strong) is portrayed in The Social Reckoning as a hard-nosed strongman whose mission is to grow Facebook’s user numbers and its stock price. 

Aaron Sorkin, who wrote the script and directed the movie, shows Zuckerberg’s boardroom meetings in stark black-and-white. The most telling scenes of Zuck’s ego and insecurity come when he is being prepped for testimony before congressional committees. During that media training, Zuckerberg is peppered with advice from early Facebook investor Charlie Garrigan (Bill Burr) but pushes back against that input.

Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz (Jeremy Allen White) arrives in San Francisco to investigate what’s going on at Facebook. He messages numerous employees via LinkedIn and gets one response, from Frances Haugen (Mikey Madison).

She believes in Facebook as a force for good, for connecting people. But she sees the dark side, too, and begins sharing information with Horwitz. She even chooses to move beyond being an anonymous source to being identified as a whistleblower.

Zuckerberg regards Facebook as a vessel for content though not the generator of that content. He calls the platform a “corkboard.” But Haugen’s inside info shows that Facebook controls who sees what. And that leads to Trump and the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol building. Clips depicting that event are included in the film.

Two big differences between this film and 2010’s The Social Network:

The earlier film shows Zuckerberg (played by Jessie Eisenberg) as an energetic young college student, maneuvering to seize control of the emerging platform. The new film shows him as a more settled adult. Also, in 2010 Facebook was still new and fresh, unknown to many and less known than now even to heavy users. Today Facebook and its sibling Instagram are part of popular culture, accessed daily by a large portion of the world’s population. (Sorkin wrote the screenplay for the the 2010 film which was directed by David Fincher.) 

The Social Reckoning is the sort of movie that, considering its story, could just crawl but it moves along at a good, tight pace, clocking in at just under two hours. There are a few humorous throwaway lines which are worth a few chuckles. Curiously, Madison who played a sex worker in the film Anora, shows up for some of her meetings with Horwitz in provocative attire—Sorkin’s attempt to add a bit of allure to her character?

Unlike with the buzzy at the time 2010 Facebook movie, there may be less urgency to see The Social Reckoning. Not that it is flawed but because much of its tale has been told already. The Social Reckoning is rated R.

Leave a comment

Digger

In the first few days following its release, Digger has become moviedom’s most polarizing film since Napoleon Dynamite. And, as was the case in 2004 with that oddball comedy, the extreme opinions shared about Digger make it a film that must be seen.

Either to join the chorus of those who offer angry putdowns of the film as a misguided ego trip. Or to praise the film as a work of genius. Which is it? 

The creativity of Digger cannot be denied. It is filled with memorable scenes and memorable lines of dialogue. The structure of the film which is gradually revealed is clever. Oh, there are clues along the way but some are subtle and part of the suspension of belief that is necessary when viewing many films, even those that are more direct in their exposition. 

The transformation of Tom Cruise from a fit, athletic action movie star to an overweight middle-aged guy with thinning hair is an impressive prosthetic trick. You saw Tom in his underwear in Risky Business but this version of Tom in he underwear is not so sexy. And his Texas accent is spot on.

But, is the movie… um, good? Um, yes.

Digger digs (pun intended) into the ecological crisis that the world has been mired in for decades and does it in a way that’s not overly preachy. But the film’s point is clearly made.

Digger Rockwell (Tom Cruise) is awakened with news of a disaster brewing in Greenland. Drilling for oil has caused a chunk of ice to break away and float in the direction of Europe. His reaction is to go into damage control. He consults with the US President Compson (John Goodman) and science consultant Ganesh (Riz Ahmad). 

In a scene that has the feel of a classic movie moment, Digger delivers a passionate speech to a gathering of world leaders, chastising them for failing to embrace alternate energy sources because they are addicted to his product, oil. I was reminded of the passion of Ned Beatty’s speech directed to Peter Finch in Network. One can imagine Digger might even have included Colonel Jessep’s line from another Cruise movie: “You can’t handle the truth!”

The real question this movie asks is “is Tom Cruise Oscar-worthy?” Digger’s director and co-writer Alejandro Iñárritu got Leo his Oscar for The Revenant. He almost got Michael Keaton an Oscar for Birdman. (Keaton was excellent anchoring that best picture winner but lost to an actor playing a more sympathetic character.) 

And now, Tom Cruise, who has never won an Oscar, is making his bid with Digger. Will it work? The film has received numerous pans from critics but its IMDB user rating is 7.3 which is not bad. The old line “it’s an honor just to be nominated” may be true but after a while it must get old. 

In addition to Cruise who does a masterful job with a unique (for him, anyway) role, others in the cast must be lauded. Goodman does not hold back one iota in his over the top performance. Ahmad, Jesse Plemons, Michael Stuhlbarg, among others, add to the overall high level of screen presence.

And how about that soundtrack? Credit Cosmo Sheldrake for the odd music touches, another signal that this is an unusual film.

Digger is rated R. 

Leave a comment

Verity

Verity means truth. But in the new movie Verity, what’s true and what’s not true is not always easy to discern. 

Verity Crawford (Anne Hathaway) is a successful novelist. She suffers a debilitating injury. Her husband Jeremy (Josh Harnett) recruits writer Lowen Ashleigh (Dakota Johnson) to take Verity’s notes and outlines and write the novels that Verity had planned. He tells Lowen that Verity was a fan of Lowen’s work. 

Jeremy even invites Lowen to move into the family’s home deep in the woods of Vermont to use Verity’s office and to bunk in the master bedroom. Verity is in another part of the house in a hospital bed with a nurse nearby. Verity does not speak and while she IS alive she appears to be catatonic. 

As Lowen gets to work, she finds a thumb drive that has Verity’s autobiography, written sometime before her disability. She is stunned by what she reads. An added layer to the story: Verity and Jeremy’s young daughter was killed in a boating accident. Their young son survived.

Will there be sparks between Jeremy and this younger woman who, like his wife, is beautiful and has long black hair? And will this younger woman manage to suppress her thoughts about this handsome young husband who is always in close proximity? And what about the suspicion Lowen has that Verity is possibly not as completely out of it as she seems?

The mysterious happenings in the story and the relationships between the characters develop a bit clumsily in the film. Verity is adapted from a book by the prolific Coleen Hoover. One assumes that those developments play out more smoothly on the printed page. 

Hoover is a pop novelist whose sales figures are beyond impressive. At one point in the movie, a disparaging remark is made about “books that are sold in airport bookstores.” Presumably that’s a joke as Hoover likely records huge sales to folks who want something to occupy their minds on a long flight.

It’s not a spoiler to mention that things are not always what they appear to be in Verity. The long and winding road leading up to the house in the woods could be judged to be symbolic of the directions the narrative takes. Or maybe not. Verity is rated R for some sexual content and a bit of nudity. 

Leave a comment

Primetime

Another bravura performance from Robert Pattinson! If you’re a Pattinson fan, here’s one more example for you of his talent and his range as an actor.

Primetime is a behind-the-scenes look at Chris Hansen (Pattinson) and NBC-TV’s To Catch A Predator. Hansen has a healthy ego. He is hungry for TV ratings. And confronting would-be sex offenders on camera turns out to be ratings gold. 

NBC programming chief Jeff Zucker (played by… Jeff Zucker!) makes it clear that he finds Hansen’s show distasteful but that since his work attracts viewers, the show it is about to get a primetime time slot opposite Lost.

A key to Hansen’s efforts comes from his support team and from the decoys he employs to lure the men when they physically show up for sexual favors. Producer Andie (Merritt Wever) and keyboard guru Xavier (Matthew Maher) try to keep the show and Hansen under control. Del (Phoebe Bridgers) and “Decoy Dan” (Skyler Gisando) are bait for the pervs. These four actors bring commendable performances to their roles.

The tale is full of conflicted people. Hansen assumes high moral ground with his “gotchas” but is cheating on his wife. The organization that launched TCAP wants to stop predators but sells thongs on its website. Dan has qualms about what he’s doing but keeps at it to get TV credits and, ultimately, his union card. Andie is loyal to Hansen but ponders a job offer from ABC-TV.

Director Lance Oppenheim adds stylish touches to the film without overwhelming it. Hansen has a reddish tone to his face through much of the film. Lighting effects add an air of mystery to the later scenes of the movie. Parts of the film have the feel of a documentary. (Oppenheim’s prior works have been docs.) TV camera perspectives and hand-held camera shots add energy to what would otherwise be static scenes. 

The script is by Ajon Singh based on an Esquire magazine article about the TV show and Hansen. Rooted in true events, the film has dramatic embellishment. Not that that’s a bad thing.

As Zucker tells Hansen in the film, TV was changing in the early part of this century. Spending less money on “reality” TV shows not only makes economic sense but also brings plenty of viewers to the various networks. If To Catch A Predator seemed sleazy or sordid back in the day, compare it to what’s on your television as you flip through cable channels tonight (or to what’s on certain true crime podcasts) and maybe reconsider your appraisal.

Primetime is rated R for various sexually related elements and one scene of graphic male nudity.

Leave a comment

Coyote vs. Acme

Coyote vs. Acme is an excellent film. It’s funny, it’s clever and it features cartoon characters we’ve known and loved for decades. And it features some fine work from all the humans involved as well.

Melding cartoon characters onscreen with live action people has not always been done well but in Coyote vs. Acme, the toons and the actors share the same world seamlessly. 

However… seeing and enjoying this great new movie leads to the question: why did Warner Brothers bury it? Oh, supposedly it was an accounting thing. Corporations do it all the time. But, typically, if a company takes a “write down,” it’s for a product or service that has not done well in the marketplace. This movie never even got a chance. Only via the efforts of many individuals has Coyote vs. Acme seen the light of day.

You’ve seen the Roadrunner cartoons. Back in the day they ran just before feature film screenings. Wile E. Coyote fails time and time again in his efforts to nab the speedy Roadrunner. He employs numerous devices from Acme corporation. Often, his failures are due to Coyote’s own missteps but frequently they are the results of flawed products from Acme. Coyote generally suffers severe physical damage.

In Coyote vs. Acme, the frustrated Coyote hires small time Albuquerque attorney Kevin Avery (Will Forte), one of those lawyers whose face is on billboards and TV ads, to seek damages from Acme corporation. Avery’s assistant Paige (Lana Condor) helps keep him on the right track. Acme’s lawyer the arrogant Buddy Crane (John Cena) is condescending in his treatment of Avery, an old law school classmate.

Things go badly for Coyote in the courtroom until a surprise witness shows up in the final act. 

Among the highlights of Coyote vs. Acme are the appearances of numerous Warner Brothers cartoon characters: Daffy, Porky, Bugs, Tweety, Elmer. Plus a personal favorite, Foghorn Leghorn, who is on Acme’s side in this face-off. Also, there’s an animated version of movie great Peter Lorre, a toon who’s been hidden away by Acme for decades.

The whole wacky tale comes from a short story in the New Yorker magazine in 1990 by Ian Frazier. The movie’s script is by Samy Burch and the director is Dave Green. Eric Bauza is the new Mel Blanc. Bauza voices Bugs, Daffy, Elmer, Porky, Tweety and Foghorn Leghorn.

Coyote vs. Acme is a true delight! Fun for all ages. Rated PG.

Leave a comment

Mutiny

For a film director, a cat and mouse game on a large container ship presents a world of opportunities. Such a ship has all sorts of nooks and crannies, ladders and stairs to climb up or down, corners to lurk behind or spring from. Not to mention the containers and what might be inside them.

Intrigue in the innards of a ship (or above on various decks) has been a movie staple for decades, most famously maybe in Titanic.

Director Jean-François Richet has exploited these possibilities well in his new film Mutiny. It helps that he has the excellent action-adventure actor Jason Statham in the lead role. 

Cole Reed (Statham) is the security guy and driver for a Bangkok billionaire Tibu Campallo (Ramon Tikaram) who is selling his shipping empire. On the evening of the event marking his stepping away from the business, the billionaire is murdered and Reed is blamed. Reed, needing to disappear, manages to stow away on a cargo ship, the Artemis, that he discovers is involved in human trafficking.

In an early scene aboard the Artemis, captain Marko Madsen (Roland Moller) fondles a necklace in what may be a reverential nod to The Caine Mutiny in which Caine (Humphrey Bogart) nervously rolls steel balls around in his hands.

Angie Ellis (Annabelle Wallis) is a last-minute addition to the ship’s crew. She quickly sniffs out that something is not quite right. She soon becomes Reed’s ally in the effort to control the ship. She and he are the mice, moving throughout the ship to avoid being caught by the cats, the captain and his henchmen. She also adds sex appeal to a male-dominated cast. 

You might guess what some of the key elements of this drawn out battle are. Gunplay for sure. Knives and other weapons get their turn too. 

After Reed departs the Artemis, there’s more revenge to be taken before the film ends. Run time is just over 90 minutes. The film is tight. Never drags. Yes, it is filled with action-adventure clichés, but it satisfies. Director Richet and star Statham accomplish exactly what this sort of film sets out to do. Kudos to all!

Mutiny is rated R. No sex or nudity but violence galore.

Leave a comment

Tony

A 19-year-old college student spends his summer break in a strange town far away from his school and his family home. He sees and hears new things, has new experiences. The summer for the young man is… LIFE CHANGING!

That’s MY story. That summer happened for me when I was 19. 

And it happened to Anthony Bourdain when he was 19. The new movie Tony is his story. To a small degree, I can relate.

In his 2000 book Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain writes about his culinary experiences, starting with the summer he spent in the resort town of Provincetown, Massachusetts working in a restaurant. This film is fictional, based on (inspired by? Adapted from? What’s the legal term here?) Bourdain’s recollections he shares in the book. 

Tony (Dominic Sessa) takes a bus to Cape Cod mainly because Nancy (Emilia Jones), a girl he likes, tells him she’s spending her summer there. Sessa, who was excellent in his rookie outing in The Holdovers, is convincing as the smart ass who keeps telling people he’s a writer. His first restaurant gig is washing dishes. Meanwhile, his pursuit of the girl moves along slowly.

Here are the real Anthony Bourdain’s words that appear on screen at the beginning of the film: “I was—to be frank—a spoiled, miserable, narcissistic, self-destructive and thoughtless young lout, badly in need of a good ass-kicking.”

Sessa is good. He looks a bit like Bourdain, tall and lanky. But it’s the supporting cast that makes this movie better. 

The restaurant owner (Antonio Banderas) provides Tony with a gig and a place to stay. But it’s his guidance and tolerance in the kitchen that makes this fictional portrayal so appealing. When it’s time to hand out awards in a few months, Banderas should be in the mix.

Kitchen crew mate Sal (Leo Woodall) turns young Tony on to various vices including cocaine. Sal is a lady killer who, when a wedding party celebrates at the restaurant, has his way with the bride.

Tony, the movie, and Sessa, the actor, demonstrate palpable changes in the young future media giant. Does a person grow up that much over one summer? As noted, this is a fictional depiction and there’s been embellishment. Then again, was Bourdain’s book, the source material,  fact-checked? Should we take his words in the book at face value? Hmmm.

For Tony Bourdain, at the start of the summer he turns 19, he wanted to be a writer. At the end of his summer, he wanted to pursue a culinary career. He learned a lot about the industry and about himself. Of course he had a restaurant career and then went on to hone his talent as a writer years later.

Tony is one of my favorite movies of the year. And not just because it has led me to recall a similar summer in my life. It has an enjoyable story and an overall good vibe, not to mention a few big laughs.

Tony is directed by Matt Johnson who is a co-writer of the script with three others. Tony is rated R.

Leave a comment

The Invite

Title is wrong. Should be plural. InviteS. Is that a spoiler? No, it’s a tease!

Have you and your mate ever invited another couple over for a visit and realized in short order that it might’ve been a bad idea? Maybe even before the other couple arrives?

Angela (Olivia Wilde) and Joe (Seth Rogen) invite their intriguing upstairs neighbors Piña (a blonde Penelope Cruz) and Hawk (Edward Norton) to join them in their San Francisco apartment for dinner and drinks. Or did they? Joe is confused about the details of the invite and doesn’t seem to remember agreeing to it. 

When the neighbors show up, there’s some initial discomfort as they feel each other out. Not literally—that’s later in the story!

Joe is a frustrated music teacher who once played in a pop music band. Angela is a frustrated visual artist. Hawk is a retired fireman whose current interest is rolfing, a massage therapy. Pina is a sexologist. These are not boring people.

Thanks to an excellent script and talented actors who can convey those lines in skillful ways that make this conversation seem real, the audience listens in on an evening that goes in multiple directions: some hilariously funny, others tense and uncomfortable. 

The elephant in the room is Hawk and Piña’s noisy lovemaking. Will it be addressed? And will it lead to other, possibly dangerous, developments? And maybe another sort of invite?

The apartment itself is a key element of the movie with scenes occurring not just in the main living area. Sometimes a movie set within a limited area can feel like a recycled stage play. The Invite does not. A new rug in that living area gets a good amount of attention. A window in the downstairs apartment provides small views into the upstairs apartment. And, just as importantly, it offers views of Joe and Angela’s apartment from upstairs. Scenes occur in the kitchen, the hallway, Joe’s office and the bedroom.

The Invite is clever and amusing but some moviegoers may cringe when the talk takes a shift to the carnal. How open-minded are you? 

Another qualm: Seth Rogen. He’s funny. But he’s also big. And loud. Would an less boisterous actor have filled that role better? Topic for future discussion!

The Invite is directed by Olivia Wilde whose previous directing efforts include Don’t Worry Darling and Booksmart. The script is by Will McCormack and Rashida Jones (Quincy’s daughter!), adapted from a Spanish film.

The Invite is rated R.

Leave a comment

Disclosure Day

What a beautifully constructed movie! Everything works. The visuals, the script, the acting. There’s reality and fantasy. Incredible tech. Religious overtones. Symbolic animals. Jackie Gleason—what? Memorable shots that make you say, “wow!” All fueled by that eternal question: Do aliens exist? 

Steven Spielberg keeps asking that question. And answering it! His newest film Disclosure Day tells the story of a massive conspiracy to keep information about the presence of aliens on our planet a secret. (For fear that it would cause the world’s populace to panic.)

Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt) is a Kansas City TV meteorologist who gets a visit from a cardinal—a bird, that is, not a cleric or a ballplayer. That visit stirs a mental upgrade that gives her extraordinary insight but also causes bizarre behavior. After an MRI, she senses that she needs to leave town.

Meanwhile, Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor) wants to share the secrets he carries with him, which he obtained from the Wardex corporation, an outfit that has worked with the U.S. government for decades to keep the keep the alien info hidden. Kellner, too, has incredible vision in his mental makeup.

Wardex, led by Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth), wants to stop Kellner before he is able to spill the beans. Is Scanlon a bad guy? Well, kinda but not totally. Scanlon has the ability to teleport himself and does so as he tries to track down Kellner via his girlfriend Jane (Eve Hewson. Bono’s daughter!) and grab the evidence that Kellner carries. 

Scanlon employs a device, a handheld geometrically-shaped object about a foot long, that gives him powers including teleportation. 

(Wardex headquarters, by the way, has more video screens than any NASA mission or any TV network control room. It looks real.)

Fairchild and Kellner go on the run together and their journey includes a car versus train collision that results in a memorable escape from peril, one of those “wow” shots. 

Hugo Wakefield (Colman Domingo) is a former Wardex employee who offers guidance to the two via cell phone as they manage to elude Wardex goons and law enforcement. 

The pace of Disclosure Day slows noticeably in the third act when more backstory is introduced. Fairchild revisits her childhood. And the fantastical resolution of the story steps gingerly to its conclusion. 

Disclosure Day has Spielberg trademarks like an excellent John Williams soundtrack that is not at all subtle in telegraphing moods. There are creative uses of lighting as seen often in Spielberg movies. But no shooting star, dang it, another treat enjoyed in several of his films. Is it his best movie in twenty years, as some critics have said? I’d say it’s his best since Minority Report (2002.)

Emily Blunt is an established star but her performance in Disclosure Day will move her another notch up the Hollywood ladder. Firth is, as always, solid. Domingo continues to be a perfect “go to” guy for strong supporting characters. (He’s also the lone American born actor among Brits Blunt, Firth, O’Connor and Irish born Hewson.)

Disclosure Day runs two hours and twenty-five minutes. According to Wikipedia, screenwriter Daniel Koepp developed forty-two drafts of his screenplay. The result of his work that you see onscreen is impressive. 

Disclosure Day is rated PG-13. 

Leave a comment