Drama – Page 10 – Splatter: on FILM

AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY (2013) movie review

January 11, 2014October 25, 20154 Comments

Please run from not to this film.

It’s a modern mid-western Alice in Wonderland tale without the dreamy Disney flair. The foul unfiltered Alice character, Julia Roberts, ventures into her prairie Wonderland: Osage County, Oklahoma. Following her white rabbit father, Sam Shepard, down the rabbit hole of dysfunction, addiction, and death, where she meets the Queen of Hearts herself, the former Devil in Prada with undeniable talent and swagger, Meryl Streep. Threatening to bite her daughter’s head off, she verbally rips at the entire cast reducing each one to a flimsy fellow card in her wild deck. Off with their heads.

It’s heartbreaking and that is all. Real? I suppose. While most people crave resolve of some kind, this offers none. Conflict and tension aplenty, but an absence of resolve.

“Why is a raven like a writing desk?” queries the author Lewis Carroll through the mouth of his Mad Hatter. The riddle has no answer, and neither does the question of why this perfect cast, (including Benedict Cumberbatch who attempted an Oklahoma accent while most native to the US didn’t bother), came together to perform this…everyone’s worst Thanksgiving. Family holidays are the worst, second only to family funerals. August offers both wrapped in tragedy, tied with the bow of summer heat and midwest prairie dust. The sister Tweedles, Dee and Dum, cannot refute incest and prostitution. Nor can the caterpillar stop offering his drug of choice to the littlest and future Alice, played by Indie cutie, little miss Abigail Breslin.

Roberts central, losing her marriage to the smiling Cheshire Cat, Ewan Mcgregor, takes a final step through the looking glass and sees… herself, that she has become her greatest enemy: her own mother, the queen of Osage County.

AMERICAN HUSTLE (2013) movie review

January 11, 2014October 25, 20153 Comments

Christian Bale will break your heart. His soft-spoken badger-like hunched persona seeks redemption, grace, requited love.

Amy Adams will make you question a million motives. She’s snake-like, a survivor. The tin-man shell coating, like clear polish, only glosses over her wounded, exposed red-beating soul.

Bradley Cooper will finally allow you past his pretty boy image and let you almost dislike him. He pitches back and forth, buoyed by power potential, by recognition, by attention-deficient, by hunger, by ideas unexamined and unrealized.

Jennifer Lawrence will make you laugh a hearty Napoleon Dynamite type laugh that you feel guilty for exhaling once it’s out. She’s the available one, the ironic truth teller, the unwanted wife.

Jeremy Renner will win your vote. He’s cool, collected, the honest family man politician from a time when most thought that men like him told the truth.

This film is a foul glimpse at underbelly life in the attempted pursuit at middle class. It’s untaught good intentions misguided and nearly mobbed out of existence. It’s life in the 70’s. It’s ABSCAM and FBI half-truths. It’s the birth of the “science oven.” It’s a masters class in acting. It’s David O. Russell on his A-game.

Every character actively pursues love, to know and be known, the internal meditative dialogue of need and desire. All seek redemption. All hunger for normalcy and fight to find it.

SAVING MR. BANKS (2013) movie review

December 27, 2013October 25, 20158 Comments

Saving Mr. Banks is a beautiful film reawakening Mary Poppins as an eternal classic. Etched into the psyches of most adults who watched it as children, we all know, for instance, that a spoon full of sugar actually does make the medicine go down. For every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. Children should play games, all sorts. Height can be measured by one’s character and be “practically perfect in every way.” Birds are meant to be sung to and fed, tuppence-a-bag. Sister suffragettes have earned a glee-filled “well done!” Neighbors have their quirks and canons. Street art is best. Carousels are magical. Uncles often get lost in their own jokes and must be brought back down to earth. Chimney sweeps were the first dirty dancers. Mothers should all be allowed to hire governesses, cooks, and cleaners. Fathers must be forgiven for working hard and then we must teach them to fly kites.

Emma Thompson plays P L Travers, British author of the Mary Poppins books. Her character appears to be the quintessential British matron with grand expectations and low tolerance for superfluous nonsense. What a pairing with the original imaginarian, Tom Hanks as Walt Disney himself. This film peaks through the office doorway into the early glory years of Disney. As an adult, I still believe that Disneyland is the best place, “happiest on earth” as it claims to be. I love it so much. It remains quaint but moves forward, new and inventive while reviving vaulted delights at will. Creativity personifies within those gates, often showing up as the Mouse.

The brilliantly cast Colin Farrell is Mr. Banks, the one who must be saved. And Paul Giamatti delights with his quiet affirmations. He won me over as well. Jason Schwartzman and B.J. Novak march in as the brilliant unsung jolly song writing duo who turned so many children’s books into a show giving characters musical life.

What we don’t realize while watching Mary Poppins that it battles heart wrenching issues, offering hope to children when real life gets them down. Though slower-paced than Poppins, edgier and more emotional, Banks is all heart as it endears and renders fathers forgivable at long last.

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THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE (2013) movie review

December 16, 2013October 25, 20152 Comments

So far, both fans of the first film and book fan purists that I have spoken to agree in favor of Catching Fire.

No spoilers here. You’ll have to see it for yourself. Avoid bringing kids. The violence is overwhelming and the storyline intense.

Finally heroism is about sacrifice. Finally mercy trumps judgement.
Finally a film allows its heroes to fight for a cause bigger than personal survival.

The build up intensifies to climax AND payoff.

Jennifer Lawrence inhabits our Katniss as bow dragging, ugly crying, Liam kissing arena queen.

Welcome new characters. Fall hard for the old. Find yourself trying to choose between team Peeta or Gale. Enjoy the fancy friend to popular book-to-film adaptations, Jena Malone.

For a while, it seems that film writers hit a dry spell and the best writing went to television. If films keep this up, there just might be a revolution, a new dawn for good films with solid characters in the writing. I like it.

ENDER’S GAME (2013) movie review

November 20, 2013October 25, 20151 Comment

Heartbreaking. As essential questions go, this film delves deeper into the empathetic psyche forcing a mirror glance into beliefs about war and genocide than most want to explore.

A jocund former Juliet becomes starfighter as Hailee Steinfeld lifts lazer blaster to teach Ender, the young Asa Butterfield, how to win a very serious anti-gravity laser tag sphere game. The guarantee from the start is that it is all a game. The government recruits children because they lack the fear and hesitation that comes with a fully developed frontal lobe. Instinct and impulse rule decisions, so in the training camps they learn to lead and develop war strategies in interactive gaming scenarios.

Warning, this film is NOT for children, despite promotional ploys. Children love games until the mask is lifted and the game becomes real. Young men feel bulletproof in war until they understand the gravity of the task before them and see themselves in the reflection of those they are fighting. This film lifts the mask, albeit slowly.

The Last Starfighter is a parallel precursor film of sorts, and my favorite pre-teen film. It is fun,lively, and oh so 80’s. Alex Rogan, least likely intergalactic warrior, breaks the record on a video game at his trailer park only to be approached and recruited by the game’s creator who needs a Starfighter in space. Alex is left with a decision to sacrifice known for unknown and use his innate skills to take down the enemy in the real universe or go back to playing games.

Or is he? Where ignorance is bliss, knowledge negates choice. Just as Truman could never have continued the Truman Show once he knew the… truth. In the same way, Jack from Lost, knows he must go back and save the island and the Little Mermaid will never be content to swim for life. Heroes like these stand alone, optionless on the platform only to bow and wish the afflicters a hopeful “Good afternoon, good evening, and good night.

Innocence has its own beauty. It equates with child-likeness. Harrison Ford and Viola Davis do an excellent job in this film of grieving its loss when weighing the cost in the light of war. Highlighting defensive strategies allows audiences to root for underdogs. Good guys must win, until the plot twists and we don’t recognize the good guys anymore. Ender’s twist ending unmasks the essential question of the film, and therein his heartache as well.

WORLD WAR Z (2013) movie review

November 18, 2013October 25, 20153 Comments

They run faster, stare harder, scale walls, headbang, stick around for a quick bite, and have no feelings. Sound like your last relationship?

This zombie apocalypse has a new face. In our world, the slow moving, cannibalistic, “Walking Dead” reign. However, director Mark Forster, a favorite since his Finding Neverland (2004) and Stranger Than Fiction (2006), and WWZ‘s producer Brad Pitt have reinvented the franchise.

Some criticized the action zoom in at minute 5 or so in the film initiating the continuous conflict, but character development, schmaracter development, right? Pitt and Jolie have laid the foundation for Pitt’s trustworthy, fatherly character by adding a new child to their brood each year. We buy that he is the hatchet-wielding family man with a heart of gold whose war-shredded past shows in each line of his face and in his stringy beard. He is apt for the task, a believable and beautifully clever team player father figure rushing to save the world.

Back to nuts and bolts. To see or not to see. Despite its furious filming foibles and over budget fear-driven rewrites, they succeeded. Zombie flix can easily ring cheesy, but true to genre, it is scary. Rental was a good call for me. I can’t do gore or 2 hours of breathless intensity. So, the catchy bird-like zombie squawk that introduces each toothsome attack became my cue to get up and fold some laundry or send an email. The Zombies weren’t skip-trudging toward their next human meals; they rushed for the bite to turn the next victim. Anxiety comes in ocean waves, then pulls back long enough for audiences to breathe.

Don’t miss Jimmy Fallon’s “Yodel” interview with Brad Pitt: (linked below)

ROMEO & JULIET (2013) movie review

October 26, 2013October 25, 20154 Comments

I teach Romeo & Juliet to freshmen. So, how thrilled am I when a film does justice to a story and offers yet another visual option to help students connect with literature, especially their first taste of Shakespeare.

This version is beautiful. Filmed in the actual city of Verona in Italy, you feel transported by the orange-hued sunrises, the castled landscape, and the constant flavors in renaissance artwork layered on each backdrop.

It’s visually perfect. Certainly Julien Fellowes, Downton Abbey writer, takes his literary liberties as screenwriter, allowing for a medieval tournament and fewer characters. He does, however, speed up the action and include scenes and characters rarely enjoyed in film versions. He is also somehow able to keep it clean (classroom appropriate) without losing the romantic heart of the play. I believe that Shakespeare himself would have approved of Fellowes’s translation.
Paul Giamatti, never before a favorite of mine, flawlessly endeared the Friar character and stole the show.
Damian Lewis (brilliant as Winters in Band of Brothers and currently starring in tv’s Homeland) played Lord Capulet perfectly. His performance was unexpected and fresh. Hailee Steinfeld, the True Grit lovely, sweetened Juliet with youth and believability. The statuesque and stunning Douglas Booth played well the lovestruck son and heir Romeo.

Any attempt at Romeo & Juliet begs a comparison.

There is no better teaching tool to offer freshmen boys than replacing swords with guns, an orchard below the balcony with a swimming pool, and awkward tights with khakis and Hawaiian shirts. Baz Luhrmann‘s 1996 version with gorgeously brooding Fortune’s fool Leo and a pre-pubescent Claire Danes helps students relate and hear actual Shakespeare with modern connections. We scaffold to what we know, and suddenly learning is not a chore.

Most stage versions cast the couple too old, so it’s a hard sell in a classroom. Zeffirelli’s classic 1968 version, though prominent in schools and sporting a boastable Zac Efron look-alike as Romeo, is now nearly unrelatable to students who mock the forced lines, abundance of cleavage, and laughable characterizations.

The flaw in Fellowe’s version is that students will forget to treat it as an adaptation and No Fear Shakespeare will reign over actual script. Well, we shall all take a tip from Juliet in this and, “Look to like, if looking liking move, but no more deep endart my eye than your content gives strength to make it fly.”

PRISONERS (2013) movie review

October 26, 2013October 25, 20153 Comments

…or rather 1/2 of Prisoners.

A cold, dank landscape mirrors an even colder script as hopelessness banks the curbs of this one-way highway of a film. I had to pull over and get off.

If my metaphor is lost on you, then you feel a bit like I did 20 min. into this film when long pan shots lingered over sticks from the woods and panels on an old RV. These are not clues. They are B-role.

The film opens to the Lord’s prayer as Hugh Jackman teaches his son how to hunt for an odd venison Thanksgiving dinner. Jake Gyllenhaal eats his holiday meal alone avoiding the flirty waitress who must have been drawn to the cross tattoo on his hand. The priest is classically portrayed as the drunkard. Purposeful signs of a director’s devotion to faith perhaps, but more likely part of the frigid bitterness plaguing each scene.

Lost in details but not plot points, the cast of A-listers never actually gets to develop these absent-seeming characters. They say everything, pepper it all with profanities, and care little for the emotion of the audience. It goes 0-60 in intensity without allowing us a buy in. Hugh Jackman barely has time to pet a dog before the girls are missing and he is torturing the only witness, bringing Terrance Howard and Viola Davis along to…watch?

Even television shows like Law and Order SVU and Criminal Minds that deal with this subject matter in re-run ad nauseam, allow for comic relief or the odd splash of color between commercials knowing that viewers need it.

Titles often have meaning. Perhaps each character is prisoner in some way to his own stubbornness or addiction or fear or need for control. Jackman’s character claims that he prides himself on being able to handle any situation. His own wife accuses him of failure since he had claimed he could protect them from anything. The confines of grey hues in this film look very much like a prison. Suddenly the theater felt enclosed, cold, four-walled, and I felt the need for escape.

Hugh Jackman was about to pummel a mentally challenged boy for information. Torture him. Wow. One child ruined to save another. I liked this cast too much to want to remember them like this. I quickly clutch and brake, turn, and head for higher ground.

WHITE HOUSE DOWN (2013) movie review

July 4, 2013October 25, 20156 Comments

It’s worth it. The lines never felt forced. Everything worked. The actors were great. There was enough felt tension to make the comic relief enjoyable. I thought Channing Tatum would overcompensate with sincerity to knotch up from eye-candy, but he didn’t. He made it feel real. I thought Jamie Foxx might overly-Obamatize his character, but he did not. And, as promised, the White House does indeed go down. The rule of thumb in Hollywood seems to be: release the same concept in the same month and see which film tanks. This is all about Antz (1998) vs. A Bug’s Life (1998). Or Mirror Mirror (2012) and Snow White and the Huntsman (2012), although those two are are a toss-up. They pushed a quick release this year for Olympus has Fallen with Gerard Butler. Somehow I knew to wait, and I was glad I did. White House Down is the same in name only. The story works, it’s fun, and it stars some trusted names like Maggie Gyllenhaal and Richard Jenkins.

Though director Roland Emmerich unforgivably released the torturous film 2012 (2009), he also made the film Independence Day (1996). So, it seems appropriate to write this review today, July 4th.

Independence Day. Now there’s an American classic. Nothing screams freedom better than Will Smith punching Aliens in the face, than Jeff Goldblum solving the alien math-speak while wooing women, than Randy Quaid yelling “Up yours” while flying kamikaze into an alien ship, or than Bill Pullman giving his presidential speech. Now that’s a national treasure.

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THE COMPANY YOU KEEP (2012) movie review

June 27, 2013October 25, 20151 Comment

Directed by the one and only Robert Redford, this film is a thoughtful who-dunnit from the journalist’s perspective.

Redford once made history playing the thorough journalist sniffing out sources to break the Watergate story in the 1976 film All the President’s Men co-starring Dustin Hoffman.

In this film, Redford plays the hunted, trading roles with young-un lead-on-point, Shia LaBeouf.

Shia has skill. If directed well, he stops screeching and becomes his characters. He plays this more like the Hoffman character from ATPM (above). He is the likable hound dog with endless motivation and investigative prowess.

Beautifully acted, every scene boasts a familiar face. It’s like a Gary Marshall film, but with a well-written script. And a plot.

Watch a story that works in this film. Sure, it’s a bit slow. It’s not an action film. If action is what you want, see Fast 6. But if you crave facial expressions that speak story before the characters have to, see this film. I love a good mystery to solve. The Company You Keep does preach with political purpose, but the overarching message remains: Seek truth. Pursue it.