Tag Archives: film

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

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

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

Crime 101

Crime 101 has all the ingredients. Blended together nicely. Overall, a decent, fast-moving caper film set in Los Angeles. However, there’s nothing particularly distinctive or unique here. It’s good but not quite great. Enjoy Crime 101 for what it is!

The players: Davis (Chris Hemsworth), a jewel thief who robs without killing. Lou (Mark Ruffalo), an observant LAPD detective who is rough around the edges. Sharon (Halle Berry), a wellness-obsessed insurance exec who courts high money clients but has yet to make partner at her firm. Ormon (Barry Keoghan), a violent thug who steps in to pull a theft that Davis passes on. 

Also: Maya (Monica Barbaro), Davis’s girlfriend who can’t figure out what he’s hiding. (She was Joan Baez in A Complete Unknown.) Angie (Jennifer Jason Leigh), Lou’s soon to be ex-wife. And Nick Nolte! He plays Davis’s mentor. So… a pretty good cast here!

The story involves jewel thefts that occur nearby to the 101 freeway, hence the title. The “101” designation on a college course connotes that the material to be covered is basic stuff. And since many of the tropes in Crime 101 are those that provide the foundation for many such stories, it’s an appropriate title. (If rather generic for marketing purposes, to be honest.)

A few plot elements are curious. Like why is it necessary for a cache of diamonds to be couriered in from Antwerp to LA for a rich guy’s wedding to his young trophy wife? On the day of their nuptials? (Except, of course, to provide fodder for the film’s climatic scene!) 

Crime 101 is written and directed by Bart Layton. (From a novella by Don Winslow.) Layton’s upside down cityscapes add a different touch to the skyline/freeway transition shots that many films and TV shows use as punctuation. And one scene late in the film with Hemsworth and Ruffalo is written and performed beautifully—what does each of them know about the other? 

Crime 101 is rated R.

Leave a comment

Marty Supreme

What a character! Marty Mauser (Timothée Chalamet) AKA Marty Supreme is one of the more memorable rare birds seen onscreen in a long time. He’s an over-confident table tennis hustler, a schemer and a romancer. And a shoe salesman!

He’s based on a real life person but the Marty created by co-writer and director Josh Safdie and fleshed out by Chalamet is an over-the-top can’t-be-real guy who’s full of surprises and seemingly fearless moves and feints. Somehow all his ventures seem to work out.

And the characters he encounters during the time of the movie—a year or so in the early 1950s—are a clever mix of individuals. Rachel (Odessa A’zion) is a neighborhood girl friend who engages in a tryst with Marty in the back room of the shoe store where he works and becomes pregnant. Kay Stone (Gwyneth Paltrow) is a sort of washed up actress who Marty spots and seduces. Her husband Milton Rockwell (Kevin O’Leary of Shark Tank fame), is a crusty businessman who Marty hits on for financial sponsorship. Marty’s mom is played by Fran Drescher and magician Penn Gillette has a memorable role as an angry dog owner.

Marty Supreme moves at a breakneck pace. The tale and the lead character are audacious and frequently funny. It’s not quite Tarantino level but there’s a collection of episodes here that seem to whipsaw in unexpected directions.

And what about the table tennis? Just like he practiced guitar to play Bob Dylan, Timothée Chalamet practiced for years to become a ping-ping wizard. Not that the sports competition is the main reason to see Marty Supreme, but the ping-pong play is a vital element. And director Safdie includes just about the right amount. Will Marty Supreme lead to a boom in sales of ping-pong tables? It could happen!

Chalamet, who turns 30 on December 27, is likely to receive his third Academy Awards nomination for his portrayal of this beguiling character. Will he grab the trophy this time? It could happen!

For pure entertainment and engagement, Marty Supreme is a winner. One of this year’s best.

Marty Supreme is rated R for language, sexual content and violence. It runs two-and-a-half hours.

Leave a comment

Hamnet

Jessie Buckley! Bravura performance! Awards worthy!

Hamnet (not a typo) is slow, dark and moody. But, like the words you sometimes see posted next to online videos, “wait for the end!” Not to spoil things, but the third act of this new movie serves up a nice payoff.

Agnes (Buckley) is an earth mother, a free spirit type of woman. A birder. She even has a glove she wears to keep talons from piercing her arm. She runs through the woods.

Will (Paul Mescal) spots her, they hook up, marry and have three kids. Two girls and a boy, Hamnet. They live in a woodsy idyll with family close by. Emily Watson appears as Will’s mom Mary. Will, by the way, is Will Shakespeare.

Childbirth is not always easy, even in our modern times. 440 or so years ago, it was a real challenge, especially so for Agnes. And then, to lose her beautiful boy… 

Well, speaking as one who knows, the loss of a child, at any age, brings a pain that is unfathomable. The hurt is palpable, emotionally and even physically. 

Agnes grieves. Will grieves. Following the death of their young son Hamnet, Will goes back to London where he writes and stages his classic tragedy, Hamlet.

The depiction of the Globe Theater in the film is impressive. The real Globe exists in London but was deemed not appropriate for Hamnet. The one is the movie was built especially for the film. But it gives a good feel for the intimacy of the Globe, back in the day.

Interestingly, the man who plays Hamlet (in the stage play) is Noah Jupe who is the older brother of Jacobi Jupe who plays young Hamnet. 

Hamnet is being marketed as a mass appeal type of movie but it does still have a tinge of artsy-fartsy. Yes, it delivers an emotional punch and yes, the acting is superb. It has its sweet, light moments. But the feel is that this is an “important” film, which is something you should know going in. 

Hamnet is one of the answers to the question: Why don’t they make movies for grownups anymore? Well, they do. And this is a movie for grownups. (AARP recently published its annual list of “Movies for Grownups” and Hamnet is included.)

Hamnet is directed by Chloe Zhao who co-wrote the script with Maggie O’Farrell who wrote the novel that the movie is based on. Hamnet is rated PG-13. 

Leave a comment

The Running Man

Does America harbor a sadistic society? Are stunt-based TV competitions a last refuge for the desperate? Is “reality” TV real or is it faked? How close are we to a dystopian police state? 

These are legitimate questions one might ask after seeing the new film The Running Man. But if you want to ENJOY the movie, it’s best to table those questions for now and let the almost non-stop action take you along on Ben Richards’s quest for survival. It’s a fun ride with new challenges for The Running Man popping up constantly.

Richards (Glen Powell) is a husband and father whose baby daughter needs meds. He can’t keep a job and keeps getting fired for insubordination. His wife Sheila (Jayme Lawson) works at a strip joint as a waitress. Richards goes to network studios to pursue a spot on a game show and ends up as one of three contestants on The Running Man. The odds that he will survive the hunters who chase him are small but the potential reward is a huge pile of money. 

The film is a revised remake of the 1987 film The Running Man which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger as Richards and Richard Dawson as Damian Killian, the producer and host of the TV show. The new film stars Josh Brolin as producer Dan Killian and Colman Domingo as Bobby, the show’s host. The prize money is in “new dollars” and the currency shown has Schwarzenegger’s photo on it!

Richards’s journey takes him from the dystopian city where he lives to New Hampshire and Maine. The tale is from a book by Bangor resident Stephen King, originally published under the nom de plume Richard Bachman.

Before he hits the road he gets disguises and fake IDs from a crafty anarchist played by the always excellent Willam H. Macy.

In a beautiful old New England home Richards is given refuge by Elton, a strange man played by Micheal Cera whose crazed mother (Sandra Dickinson) ID’s Richards and calls in the Hunters to take him in. For Cera, this is his second odd ball role this year, following his appearance in The Phoenician Scheme back in the spring. 

Richards escapes, ending up in a highway chase, riding with a young woman Amelia (Emilia Jones) before boarding an airplane where he faces off with a prior Running Man contestant Evan McCone (Lee Pace) on his way to the story’s conclusion.

The action is intense and the story moves fast. The movie isn’t exactly one long chase scene but Richards has to stay on the move. A one word review of The Running Man might be “kinetic.” As mentioned, it’s a fun film and Glen Powell is up to the task of carrying it to the finish line. Enjoy it with the large bucket of popcorn.

The Running Man is directed by Edgar Wright, written by Wright and Michael Bacall. Rated R.

Leave a comment

Regretting You

The new family drama film Regretting You has some of the hallmarks, um, characteristics of a Hallmark Channel movie. Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing.

A young, attractive cast. Small town setting. Much communication via text messages. Wine drinking. Plus a widow.

And, like many Hallmark films, once the scene is set, you pretty much know where the story is going to go. Getting there is what makes such a film work. Or not. (That, too, is not necessarily a bad thing. I mean… you knew the boat was gonna sink but you watched all three hours of Titanic anyway, right?)

Unlike Hallmark films, Regretting You has sex (but no nudity), drug use and some kissing that’s hotter than what you’ll encounter in Hallmark land. It’s rated PG-13.

Morgan (Allison Williams, daughter of TV newsman Brian) is a thirty-something mom of a 17-year-old daughter Clara (McKenna Grace). Morgan became pregnant with Clara when she was Clara’s age, so she’s overly protective.

Morgan’s life is hit with a double whammy when her husband Chris (Scott Eastwood, Clint’s son) and her sister Willa (Jenny Davidson) die in a car crash. That shock is followed by a life-altering revelation. An old platonic friend of Morgan’s, Jonah (Dave Franco), was involved with sister Willa and he begins showing up often at Morgan’s house.

Meanwhile young Clara is hot to trot and begins a flirtation with fellow high school student Miller (Mason Thames). So mom Morgan has to deal with her own issues and keep a watchful eye on daughter.

The great actor Clancy Brown has a small role in the film. He was a prison guard in The Shawshank Redemption. He supervised the duel at the end of John Wick 4. And, of course, he’s the voice of Mr. Krabs on SpongeBob SquarePants. Always good to see him AND to hear his amazing voice.

Regretting You is based on a book by the prolific best-selling author Colleen Hoover. Unlike the previous Hoover movie It Ends With Us, this new film will hopefully remain free of the bad vibes, controversy and litigation that followed in the wake of its production and release.

A spicier Hallmark sort of movie is how I’d describe Regretting You. If that sounds like something you’d like, check it out.

Leave a comment