Brooklyn

Love is an amazing thing. It can bring a person out of his or her shell. It can make a person love life itself more than he or she imagined. In Brooklyn, the transformation Eilis Lacey (Saoirse Ronan) undergoes when she falls in love is inspiring and heartwarming.

Brooklyn is a classic. In 1950, young Eilis works in bakery in a small town in Ireland. She lives with her widowed mother (Jane Brennan)and her sister (Fiona Glascott). She takes the bold step of moving to America, specifically Brooklyn.

She moves into a boarding house run by the entertaining Mrs. Kehoe (Julie Walters). She gets a job as a department store clerk where her boss (Jessica Paré) gives encouragement, even though Eilis is shy and tentative with customers.

Her local priest (Jim Broadbent) helps with night school tuition. At a church dance she meets Tony (Emory Cohen) and falls in love. His is a working class Italian family. Her romance is not the only factor that brings her out of her shell, but it is the big one.

A tragedy at home sends her back to Ireland for a visit. While there, a friend introduces her to Jim (Domhnall Gleeson), a handsome single man from a well-to-do family. Now that life and love have opened her up to new possibilities, she is torn between two men and two countries.

Should she stay in Ireland or should she return to Brooklyn? Should she stay with Jim or return to Tony?

Brooklyn is a film that bears similarities to movies made in the early 50s era where it is set. This is the kind of movie for people who say, “Why don’t they make movies like they used to?” (Tip your grandparents about this one!) The script is by Nick Hornby from a novel by Colm Toibin. Director is John Crowley.

Saoirse Ronan is a certain Oscar nominee for best actress. She is blessed with an expressive face that shows a wide range of emotions. Her understated beauty and her acting skill make her perfect for this dream role. With a strong resumé already at age 21, her future appears limitless. See the film, enjoy her performance!

 

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Trumbo

Trumbo is one of 2015’s best films. Its amazing story, its serious message and its sense of humor make it a “must see” for lovers of movies and movie history.

Dalton Trumbo (Bryan Cranston) was a real-life screenwriter who wrote scripts for numerous hit movies. He was also a Communist. Along with like-minded members of the movie community such as actor Edward G. Robinson (Michael Stuhlberg) and writers Arlen Hurd (Louis CK) and Ian McLellan Hunter (Alan Tudyk), Trumbo went up against right-wingers like John Wayne (David James Elliott) and gossip queen Hedda Hopper (Helen Mirren) in Hollywood.

In one of the film’s memorable scenes, Hurd questions Trumbo about an apparent contradiction: he earns riches and enjoys the fruits of his labors while supporting the socialist philosophy of Communism. Another favorite scene features a confrontation between Trumbo and Wayne, in which Trumbo asks Wayne to let him remove his glasses first in case the Duke plans to punch him.

After World War II, Trumbo and other Hollywood figures are summoned to testify before Congress. Trumbo is held in contempt and incarcerated. Upon his return to L.A., because he is blacklisted, he has to work under assumed names. Much of that work is on “B-movies” for Frank King (John Goodman). Another favorite scene has King grabbing a baseball bat and menacing a right-winger who threatens to lead a boycott of King’s movies. Trumbo’s script for Roman Holiday (written under an alias) earned a screenwriting Oscar.

With love and support from his family, including wife Cleo (Diane Lane) and daughter Niki (Elle Fanning), Trumbo gradually edges back into the mainstream. Courageously, actor Kirk Douglas (Dean O’Gorman) and director Otto Preminger (Christian Berkel) step up and hire Trumbo to script Spartacus.

Trumbo deals with a serious topic but has many good laughs. Cranston plays the role with sincerity but a bit of bemusement at the way his career careens. The director is Jay Roach who directed the hilarious Austin Powers and Fockers movies.The script is by John McNamara.

Trumbo concludes with a heartfelt speech at an awards ceremony that allows Dalton Trumbo to say how he feels about what happened to him. In postwar America, just three decades after Russia’s revolution, there was serious concern about the threat of Communism. It is easy to look back now and see how the response to Trumbo’s activism was an gross overreaction.

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The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2

 

Panem’s long national nightmare is over. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 brings the saga to a resolution, at last. The film starts slowly, but soon things get real and things go boom.

The first three Hunger Games movies have seen the beginnings of the revolution against President Snow (Donald Sutherland). It’s time for Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence), Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), Finnick (Sam Claflin), Gale (Liam Hemsworth) and the others to lead the assault on the Capitol.

After dodging bullets from huge mounted machine guns, then escaping a rising black tide that threatens to drown the rebel advance squad, a challenge to Katniss’s leadership is thwarted. A decision to cross the Capitol underground leads to a violent encounter in the sewers with creepy creatures.

As the rebels close in on Snow’s HQ, the final battle feels like an anticlimax. After the surrender and her meeting with Snow, Katniss, prepares to publicly execute him with a well-targeted arrow. A coda that ties things up will make hardcore THG fans happy.

This final film shows again how derivative The Hunger Games saga is. Of course, the game itself is TV reality competition taken to a new, fatal level. The Panem palace guards look amazingly like the Empire’s storm troopers in the Star War films. The sewer creatures resemble Valdemort from the Harry Potter films. The depiction of a structure breaking up recalls similar scenes from Inception. A feline-costumed woman who provides momentary refuge to the rebels could’ve stepped out of the cast of Cats or an Anime convention.

The movies, overall, have been vastly entertaining, thanks to strong casting and brilliant costuming. Considering the billions this franchise has generated, it seems odd to say a final goodbye. Should we be surprised if, in five years maybe, someone floats a possible new movie idea with a story rooted in this universe? I will not be.

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Secret In Their Eyes

 

Here’s a mystery that offers a large number of questions. What exactly happened? Who did it? How good is the evidence? Were Muslims involved? Who was that guy at the office picnic? Is the suspect really that big a Dodgers fan? Did someone spend 13 years looking at photos of inmates? Secret In Their Eyes throws out many questions, a handful of hints, but few solid answers until the final act.

Secret In Their Eyes is notable because it features Julia Roberts as a haggard, world-weary, older woman who dresses in drab attire. Audiences have seen many looks from Julia over the last quarter century, but this may be the least glamorous face she’s shown the world.

Roberts plays Jess, an investigator in the L.A. district attorney’s office. Her daughter is found dead in 2002 in a dumpster next door to a mosque. In the year after 9/11, law enforcers, including the D.A. (Alfred Molina) are obsessed with terror threats.

Her former colleague, Ray (Chiwetel Ejiofor) returns to L.A. in present day with a lead on the murder. He tries to convince the current D.A. Claire (Nicole Kidman) to let him pursue the man he suspects did the deed 13 years earlier. He claims to have pored over online photos of prisoners across America and found the one whose eyes match those of a man in a photo.

As plain jane-ish as Julia appears, Nicole is as gorgeous as she’s ever been, with a top-notch wardrobe. Both women, by the way, are 48 years old.

A problem with the film and its storytelling (Billy Ray is writer and director) is the transitions between 2015 and 2002. They are not always clearly demarcated. The film is adapted from a 2009 Argentinian film El Secreto De Sus Ojos, which is ranked #134 on IMDB’s list of the all-time Top 250 films.

Secret In Their Eyes has a simmering unrequited romance between Ray and Clare. He has the hots for her but she keeps him away, mentioning her fiancé back east.

A scene I loved was a drone flyover shot of Dodger Stadium showing purported game action, just before a scene where Ray and fellow investigator Bumpy (Dean Norris) pursue the alleged perp.

Despite flaws in pacing, choppy delivery of the narrative and a few misdirections, Secret In Their Eyes is a decent, if not great, well-acted crime mystery.

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The 33

Another true story, thrillingly told. The 33 chronicles the 2010 Chilean mining disaster and the survival instincts of the 33 men who were underground for 69 days.

With limited food and water, in a stifling hot area where the men take refuge when the mine collapses, conflict ensues. Under the leadership of Mario Sepulvida (Antonio Banderas), supplies are rationed and sagging spirits are lifted. Among the 33 is an actor you may not have seen in a while, Lou Diamond Phillips.

The film’s actors speak English with Hispanic accents. This, presumably, is to make the film accessible to American audiences who prefer not to read subtitles. This works okay for the most part. (There are a handful of characters who speak in Español with English translations superimposed.)

We’re accustomed to hearing Banderas in that manner. But when Bob Gunton employs an accent, it sounds totally inauthentic. (Gunton, who is instantly recognizable as the warden in The Shawshank Redemption, plays the Chilean president.)

Immediately after the incident, family members set up camp right outside the mining area’s gates. Juliette Binoche is most outspoken to government and mine officials, urging them to accomplish the rescue.

Initial contact is made nearly three weeks into the ordeal. Food, water and other supplies are sent down via a narrow tube. But a wider passageway will need to be drilled to bring the 33 back home. Gabriel Byrne appears as a geologist who’s working with big machines to rescue the miners. He becomes frustrated with equipment shortcomings.

Two scenes in The 33 are particularly emotional. First, there’s a fantasy sequence with all the hungry men enjoying an imaginary feast. Second, footage of the actual 33 Chileans miners serves as an effective upbeat coda to their moving story.

For those of use whose work is mainly done at a keyboard and/or on a phone, The 33 serves as a reminder that many men and women work hard every day in dangerous conditions. While watching The 33, I thought of my dad who worked in a pipe factory and often came home with welding burns on his arms and legs.

The 33 honors the workers, their families and those who got the men out alive with a clearly-told story that reminds us just how tragic the event was.

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Love The Coopers

Every family is dysfunctional to a degree, some more than others. The Coopers, Sam (John Goodman) and Charlotte (Diane Keaton), a couple whose 40-year marriage has lost its energy, have a family with issues galore. Charlotte wants one more happy family Christmas celebration before they split.

Love, The Coopers is like an edgier Hallmark Christmas movie, with cast members who are better known. Like a Hallmark movie, things generally work out. Like a Hallmark movie, there are few non-white faces. Unlike a Hallmark movie, a few impolite phrases are uttered and bodily functions draw attention. But don’t worry: LTC is safely PG-13.

Cooper offspring include Hank (Ed Helms) and Eleanor (Olivia Wilde). Hank’s marriage to Angie (Alex Borstein, best known as the voice of Lois Griffin on Family Guy) is breaking up. Among their three kids is son Charlie (Timothee Chalet) who is at that awkward age and is especially awkward at kissing.

Eleanor (Olivia Wilde) is a flirty type who picks up cute serviceman Joe (Jack Lacy) at the airport and drags him to the family’s Christmas Eve dinner as her pretend boyfriend. Their verbal jousting (over political and religious differences) provides some of the film’s highlights.

Emma (Marisa Tomei) is Charlotte’s younger sister with whom a sibling rivalry persists. She is busted for shoplifting at the mall. She does some amateur counseling from the back seat of the patrol car for the quiet cop (Anthony Mackie), who opens up about his sexuality.

Guests at the Christmas dinner table also include Charlotte and Emma’s dad Bucky (Alan Arkin) and his favorite diner waitress Ruby (Amanda Seyfried). Also, an addled aunt played by June Squibb is more cute than funny. Narration for the story is by Steve Martin.

Love, The Coopers—I added the comma to indicate that it refers to a Christmas card signature, not a command—is a not unpleasant holiday film. But it’s not as touching as The Family Stone (which also starred Keaton) or It’s A Wonderful Life, not as funny as Christmas Vacation or the Santa Clause movies. I’d put it right around Christmas With The Kranks level in the Christmas movie rankings.

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SPECTRE

After all the “inspired by true events” movies we’ve been getting lately, purely fictional escapism such as that provided by SPECTRE is welcome. This is a true fact.

Director Sam Mendes and the four guys who collaborated on the script have brought to the screen a film that includes all the things a James Bond fan expects from a 007 movie.

The James Bond movie checklist:

  • Peril for Bond (Daniel Craig) in opening scene. This time it’s a fight inside a copter, following an explosion.
  • Chase scenes: on foot, in cars, in cars and planes.
  • Discipline for Bond from a stern M. (Ralph Fiennes)
  • Flirtation between Bond and Moneypenny. (Naomie Harris)
  • Cool gadgets from the quirky Q. (Ben Whishaw)
  • Attractive Bond “girls.” (Monica Belluci—the oldest Bond girl ever, looking gorgeous at 50. Also Léa Seydoux of Blue Is The Warmest Color fame).
  • Sex with gorgeous babes.
  • “Shaken not stirred.”
  • Exotic locations: Mexico City, Rome, Austria, Morocco, London.
  • Generous amounts of gunplay.
  • A timer, counting down to an possible explosion.
  • A generous number of fiery crashes and explosions.
  • Painful torture and/or death.
  • Outrageous architecture.
  • An eccentric villain. (Christoph Waltz.)
  • A memorable title song. Writing’s On The Wall by Sam Smith.

It’s all there. The movie may be a bit long for some at two-and-a-half hours. For me, it was time well spent.

In case you’re wondering, it’s not quite as good as 2012’s Skyfall. Few Bond films are. Be happy that you have this (supposedly) final movie from Daniel Craig as Bond and enjoy SPECTRE for what it is—a solid film with all those Bond things we’ve come to expect and embrace.

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Suffragette

In century-ago London, women are getting angry. They want the right to vote but it is not forthcoming. They make noise. They create chaos. They get attention.

Suffragette, a grim tale of Maud Watts (Carey Mulligan) and her cohorts, shows the actions taken to get government leaders to acknowledge their demands. When Maud witnesses suffragettes throwing rocks to break store windows, she gets fired up and joins in.

She works in a laundry, where she and other female coworkers are subject to verbal and physical abuse by their male bosses. These men are not happy with her activism. She’s married with a young son at home. But her involvement in the cause leads to the breakup of her family and, ultimately, incarceration. (Ben Whishaw is Mr. Watts.)

While the film is inspired by real-life events, most of the characters including Maud Watts are fictional. Emmeline Pankhurst (Meryl Streep) is a real person who is the leader of the movement. Because Pankhurst lives her life in hiding, Streep’s presence in the movie is fleetingly brief. Other women in the cast include Helena Bonham Carter, Anne-Marie Duff, Natalie Press and Romola Garai.

Like certain other period films, Suffragette is generally devoid of color. Clothing is mostly black and white, settings are dark and poorly lighted and sepia tones are occasionally employed by director Sarah Gavron. (The film was written by a woman, Abi Morgan.)

It’s always great to see Brendan Gleason in a movie; in Suffragette he’s a police inspector who has several conversations with Maud. He’s concerned that the movement will generate a martyr, perhaps from the hunger strike Maud stages while in prison. In the end, it is a martyr who becomes a touchstone for change in women’s suffrage in the U.K.

Sadly, Suffragette disappoints on many levels. The second-class status of women is plainly stated but the depths of anguish this condition causes in not deeply explored. Compared to, say, Norma Rae or Selma, Suffragette fails to build empathy for those who are beaten down. Feminists may experience strong emotional connections to these characters, but it’s likely a general audience will not.

Then again, I am a male. As Maud Watts points out, half the people in the world are female. I found the storytelling less than compelling but, hey, women sometimes have different viewpoints from men. (Editor’s note: “sometimes?????”) Certainly, women’s rights is an important issue, but I call Suffragette a nice try that falls short.

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Burnt

The world’s obsession with food and the people who cook creatively has led to the third film in 18 months about a chef seeking acclaim and/or redemption. After last year’s Chef and The Hundred Foot Journey, here comes Burnt.

Liked the 2014 films, Burnt is filled with “food porn,” beautiful images of food that will make you hungry. The story is standard fare about overcoming life challenges, learning to trust others, etc.

Most people, when they hit bottom and then get a new chance, come back humbled and grateful. Adam Jones (Bradley Cooper) is not most people.

After a flameout in Paris, the acclaimed chef returns to Europe clean and sober, yes, but still arrogant. He chastises a rookie cook for being humble and even coaches the kid to get an attitude and say, “F.U.” to his cooking rivals.

He manages to line up a restaurant in London and even puts his name on it, Adam Jones at The Langham. He is a talented tyrant who demands perfection. “If it’s not perfect, throw it out” is his guidance.

Complicating his comeback attempt is a debt Jones owes. A pair of thugs hovering in the wings promise serious damage if Jones doesn’t pay off what he owes for all the drugs he consumed in Paris.

Opening night is a disaster. Slowly, things get better. Is it because of Jones’ intimidation of his kitchen staff or despite it?

After the thugs administer the inevitable beating, Jones bravely heads back to the kitchen. Michelin reps are spotted in the dining room. Their food is so bad it gets sent back. Jones has a breakdown.

Helene (Sienna Miller) is a kitchen staffer who provides Jones’ romantic interest. Their chemistry simmers but rarely reaches the boiling point. (Could it be because of her awful haircut?) Emma Thompson plays a London doctor who Jones visits for drug testing. She dispenses motherly advice along with good cheer. Alicia Vikander is a face from Jones’ Paris past who appears at an opportune moment.

Those of us who love dining at great restaurants rarely go behind the scenes into the kitchens except via TV cooking shows. In Burnt, we get to see Adam Jones in his sparkling clean, beautifully equipped kitchen with plenty of staff to make sure his dishes are perfect. As industry personnel know, when a kitchen is humming smoothly, it’s a beautiful thing.

Burnt challenges audiences to root for Bradley Cooper’s character, whose charm is somewhat muted by his raging ego. If you can embrace Adam Jones and his comeback attempt, you’re more likely to enjoy Burnt.

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Our Brand Is Crisis

Despite its awful title, Our Brand Is Crisis has a few things going for it—mainly, its two stars.

Sandra Bullock is Jane Bodine, a political consultant who is lured to work for losing presidential candidate Castillo (Joaquim de Almeida) in Bolivia. Billy Bob Thornton is her rival consultant, Pat Candy, working with the front-running candidate Riviera (Louis Arcella). The consultants have a history between them, going back to a long ago mayoral election in the U.S.

Working with a team from the U.S. (Anthony Mackie, Ann Dowd, Scoot McNairy and Zoe Kazan), Bodine decides that Castillo’s message to voters will focus on all the urgent crises the Bolivia faces. She works to make him appear less arrogant, more a “man of the people.”

(The film’s title comes from a 2005 documentary of the same name, which told the story of a real-life Bolivian election consulted by James Carville. Thornton, with a shaved head in OBIC, closely resembles Carville. The screenplay for this new film, by Peter Straughan, was inspired by the decade-ago doc.)

Candy flirts with Bodine but she resists all advances. The sexual tension that might have made the story more interesting is one-sided. Along with verbal jousting between the two, there are dirty tricks that are marginally amusing. A race between two campaign busses down a narrow jungle road provides thrills and a memorable moment of silliness.

Our Brand Is Crisis is a film with a decent setup but a lackluster payoff. The mix of drama and light comedy could’ve been dialed a bit more to the funny side. Also, a couple of elements on the serious side rang completely inauthentic.

To director David Gordon Green (who directed stoner films Pineapple Express and Your Highness), I say, “Nice try. Do better next time.”

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