Part 87: 2014
MOVIES:
Gravity
Philomena
Nebraska (hidden gem)
Dallas Buyers Club
The Wolf of Wall Street
12 Years a Slave (winner)
Her
American Hustle
Captain Phillips
Gravity
Director: Alfonso Cuaron
Starring: Sandra Bullock, George Clooney, Ed Harris, Orto Ignatiussen, Phaldut Sharma, Amy Warren, Basher Savage
Oscar Wins: Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Sound Mixing, Best Music (Original Score), Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Editing
Other Nominations: Best Actress (Sandra Bullock), Best Production Design, Best Picture
When a human is in a life-or-death situation, all bets are off the table. Our brains want to survive and will do anything to ensure that happens. Movies like 127 Hours or Cast Away offer examples of how the human psyche tackles survival in some of the Earth’s most inhospitable places.
But what about those places where life is impossible?
In Gravity, director Alfonso Cuaron takes us into the final frontier – the infinite bounds of the universe where nothing survives. Though the film offers stunning visuals of astronauts tumbling through star fields and floating through space stations, this is not a movie about outer space…it’s a story about survival, about what happens to the human psyche, as well as the body, in the aftermath of catastrophe.
Considering its setting, Gravity is a minimalist movie with a pretty straight-forward plot. Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) is a biomedical engineer on her first mission in space. Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) is a veteran rocket jockey with a snarky attitude. Their crew is in space on a mission to repair the Hubble Telescope.
However, a deadly debris field from a nearby Russian satellite catastrophically damages their ship, cutting off all communication to mission control (voiced by Ed Harris, star of both The Right Stuff and Apollo 13). This leaves Ryan and Kowalski in a bit of a one-room play, albeit a room the size of the universe. Somehow, they must work together to figure out how to get home without the help of their ship or the guidance of mission control.
Ryan Stone, who is quite the opposite of the jovial and talkative Kowalski, is not an easy person to like…at least not at the beginning of the movie. She’s quiet and withdrawn, still broken from the loss of her daughter who died from a fall on the playground (aka – from gravity…was this a film joke? I don’t know.). Stone mentions that no one would mourn her if she didn’t come back, and we get the sense that she detached from the world long before she started floating above it.
Kowalski, on the other hand, jets around on his little robotic chair like a kid on a rope swing. He tries to cheer her up with stories about ex-wives and playing country music and is constantly talking about the beauty of the world from space. In fact, these two characters spend a lot of time talking – both to themselves and to each other – to literally fill the space. The beginning of the movie is so chatty that it almost detracts from the staggering visual grandeur of what Cuaron was able to achieve here.
But when the film is quiet, it’s eerily quiet. Gravity does an amazing job of using sound and silence to add to the horror of this journey. Indeed one of the most horrifying aspects of being in space must be the lack of sound, not to mention the agoraphobia of darkness extending infinitely in every direction and the claustrophobia of being sealed inside tiny shuttles that are the only insulation you have from instant death.
But even with a semi-weak script, Gravity is a stunning movie to watch. The visuals are so good that it feels like it was actually filmed in outer space. And while some of the scientific aspects of the film were downright wrong or impossible, it was still a thrilling ride that made every one of its 90 minutes count.
In the end, Gravity offers a thoughtful lesson – one that’s not new but is motivating just the same. It’s a story about that moment when you suffered misfortune that seemed unendurable…the moment when you thought all hope was lost and that you might as well curl up and die…and then you didn’t. Why? Why did you decide to keep going? Was it your own survival or something greater? It’s a mystery as great and profound as the universe itself.
Philomena
Director: Stephen Frears
Starring: Judi Dench, Steve Coogan, Michelle Fairley, Barbara Jefford, Anna Maxwell Martin, Mare Winningham, Sophie Kennedy Clark, Kate Fleetwood, Simone Lahbib, Cathy Belton, Charlie Murphy, Amy McAllister, Sean Mahon, Peter Hermann
Oscar Wins: No wins.
Other Nominations: Best Actress (Judi Dench), Best Music (Original Score), Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay), Best Picture
When this movie hit theaters, I made the mistake of judging it before even giving it a chance to impress me. I remember thinking, “oh, it’s probably just another syrupy sweet British movie with a mean curmudgeon and a sweet, little, old lady who breaks him out of his shell.” And while that turned out to be true, Philomena is so much more than that. From its odd-couple pairing to its emotional conclusion that avoids many cliches, Philomena is a multi-faceted affair: part mystery, part buddy comedy, part road trip adventure, and all heart and soul.
In one passionate evening, a young Philomena Lee (Sophie Kennedy Clark) lost her virginity and her independence. After an evening with a young boy she met at the fair results in a pregnancy, Philomena is sent to a convent in Ireland, where she is humiliated by the nuns who view her as a fallen women, deserving of God’s wrath for her sexual promiscuity. In reality, however, Philomena knew nothing of sex or making babies.
When her due date finally arrives, Philomena has a hell of a time giving birth. She’s denied any drugs or pain killers because, as the nuns say, “the pain is her penance” for her promiscuity.
For the next three years, Philomena cherishes the one hour a day she gets to spend with her son, Anthony. The rest of her time is spent working in a sweat-shop laundry with the other disgraced mothers. Little does Philomena know, though, that the nuns have a secret business where they sell these children to wealthy families for adoption. One day, Philomena watches helplessly from an upstairs window as her three-year-old son is taken away by two strangers, bound for America.
Fifty years later, Philomena (now played by Judi Dench) has never forgotten about her son. Bound and determined to find him, she joins forces with a former BBC correspondent named Martin Sixsmith (Steve Coogan), who is still licking his wounds after being fired from his prestigious advisory job. With no employment prospects on the horizon, he agrees to turn his road trip with Philomena into a human-interest story for a local newspaper.
The duo begin their search for Anthony at the convent where he was born. The nuns there claim that the adoption records were destroyed in a fire years earlier…yet the contract Philomena was forced to sign forbidding her from contacting her child somehow survived…something Martin finds very suspicious.
Through government birth and travel records, Martin comes to learn that Anthony was adopted by an American couple living in Washington DC and was given a new name: Michael A. Hess. It doesn’t take long for Martin to convince Philomena to board a plane bound for the United States.
And I will stop the synopsis here, because divulging much more of this movie (which is based on a true story) would ruin the magic of seeing it for yourself. I’ll just say be prepared for all the emotions…all at once.
The driving force of Philomena is faith – both the faith we have in ourselves as well as the faith we have in a higher power. As a girl, Philomena suffered at the hands of religious authorities, yet still maintains a belief in God and a strong connection to her religious upbringing. This is far from a simple-minded surrender, though…it’s a clear struggle for her and a yearning for grace.
Martin Sixsmith, on the other hand, is an atheist who constantly belittles the Church and the people who still cling to it. This toxic love triangle between Philomena, Martin and the Church takes this film beyond the syrupy sweet ideation I had of it before even seeing it and offers something much more profound: the tension of contemporary religious life, the ugliness of religious history, and the aspiration for grace and redemption among all of that. Though the Catholic Church takes a big hit here, this is not an anti-religious movie…rather, it’s an exploration of how to hold onto religious values in contemporary society.
Ending somewhat where it began, Philomena gives equal weight to both sides of the battle many of us feel about religion and the ever-evolving ideas of skepticism and faith. By using a young unbelieving reporter and an elderly woman who can’t help but have faith in something bigger, Philomena not only entertains, but manages to have its cake and eat it, too.
Nebraska
Director: Alexander Payne
Starring: Bruce Dern, Will Forte, June Squibb, Bob Odenkirk, Stacy Keach, Mary Louise Wilson, Angela McEwan, Rance Howard, Devin Ratray, Tim Driscoll, Melinda Simonsen
Oscar Wins: No wins.
Other Nominations: Best Actor (Bruce Dern), Best Supporting Actress (June Squibb), Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Writing (Original Screenplay), Best Picture
I think most Midwesterners would agree that Nebraska is what’s known as “flyover country”. It’s a barren landscape with an aging population. Some of the worst characterizations of rural American places like Nebraska are that they’re filled with rednecks – the gun-toting, hyper-religious, Joe Six-Pack types – who aren’t just simple, they’re uncivilized.
The landscape of places like this also leaves a lot to be desired. To someone who didn’t grow up in the Midwest, the Nebraska Plains may look somewhat cold, brutal, lifeless. In the fall or winter, after the crops have been harvested and the fields are empty, the great vastness of Nebraska can be harsh and isolating.
It’s a landscape that seems to mirror the life of Woody Grant (Bruce Dern), a senile and alcohol-addled Korean War veteran who, we learn later, is foolish enough to believe everything he’s told.
Woody, like the town where he lives, is simple – all he wants in life is a new truck and his old air compressor back from a friend he “loaned” it to 40 years ago. When we first meet Woody, he’s slowly meandering down the side of a highway, his scraggly white hair blowing in the breeze. His mission – to walk all the way from his home in Billings, Montana to Lincoln, Nebraska (that’s about 900 miles, by the way) in order to collect his one-million-dollar prize.
The prize, it turns out, is from one of those sweepstakes letters most of us toss in the trash…but Woody is hell-bent on cashing in. Living a simple, uneventful existence with his nagging wife, Kate (June Squibb), Woody keeps sneaking out of the house on foot as he tries to make his way to Nebraska. With all the fortitude he can muster, his tired body stammers on down the road, and we get the distinct feeling that this may be the first time in Woody’s life when he knows exactly where he’s headed.
Anyone with a parent or grandparent like this knows that it’s often hard to reason with them. Woody’s sons David (Will Forte) and Ross (Bob Odenkirk) try to tell him it’s a scam, but nothing seems to shake Woody’s spirit. Knowing that his father will not give up until he lands in Nebraska one way or another, David sees an opportunity to spend some time with him, maybe even enjoy some father-son bonding with a man who made little to no effort as a parent.
Thus begins Nebraska, a buddy road tip movie involving a son who knows he’s on a fool’s errand but is also eager to learn more about his father before it’s too late…and an elderly man who can barely communicate and whose wounds are as broad as the Nebraskan horizon.
Along the way, Woody and David make a stop to visit Woody’s hometown in Nebraska. While in town, Woody bumps into an old business partner and lets him in on his million-dollar prize. In a town like this, news spreads almost instantly, and Woody suddenly finds himself painted as a celebrity. Old acquaintances and relatives alike regard him with an uneasy mix of pride, greed, and envy as word spreads that Woody is on his way to becoming a millionaire.
Everything about Nebraska gives off a reverence of nostalgia, of what has come before. It’s probably part of the reason the film was shot in black and white. We all have empty memories of places and times in our own lives that still hold meaning to us, moving photographs that capture a certain moment or feeling. For Woody, these memories capture the sadness of time, the realities of life, and the desolation that ultimately comes with growing old.
Though Nebraska is melancholy at times, it’s also gloriously funny – with plenty of acutely witty lines, a handful of sharp sight gags, and a few jokes Midwesterners are sure to appreciate. For example, when Ross arrives at the family home in Nebraska to meet Woody and David, everyone asks how long it took him to drive from Billings to Lincoln. This, along with the weather, is the hottest possible topic among small-town Americans.
Though sometimes harsh and desolate, Nebraska offers a big, beating heart that warms this film from the inside out. David loves his father, some would say more than he deserves, and looks forward to spending what little time he has left with him on this journey across the country. For David, this isn’t about the destination…it’s about the journey.
But for Woody, the destination is paramount. Woody, we learn, is determined to get the money so he can leave something behind for his boys when he dies. He knows he hasn’t been a good father and is hoping this money can help make up for that. Of course, what Woody doesn’t realize is he’s already given them something – the trip (and the memories) of a lifetime.
Regardless of what happens in the end, Nebraska leaves us all feeling like a million bucks.
Dallas Buyers Club
Director: Jean-Marc Vallee
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner, Jared Leto, Denis O'Hare, Steve Zahn, Michael O'Neill, Dallas Roberts, Griffin Dunne, Kevin Rankin, Bradford Cox, Scott Takeda, Adam Dunn
Oscar Wins: Best Actor (Matthew McConaughey), Best Supporting Actor (Jared Leto), Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Other Nominations: Best Film Editing, Best Writing (Original Screenplay), Best Picture
If someone were to tell past-me that Matthew McConaughey would win his first Oscar for playing a homophobic string bean with HIV/AIDS, I would have thought they were both dazed and confused.
Even though there are several scenes in which McConaughey takes his shirt off in Dallas Buyers Club, it’s still a role way outside his comfort zone as an actor, maybe even as a person. Far from the surfer-safe-zone-rom-com-playboys he’s used to playing, McConaughey literally transforms himself into a near human skeleton, dropping a reported 50 lbs. from his already thin body for this biographical drama of Ron Woodroof, a Texas cowboy who was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in the mid-1980s.
What makes Dallas Buyers Club stand out in the swarm of biopics about terminal cases is that the film focuses on Woodroof’s commitment to living, not his relegation to death. This is a man who simply refuses to lay down and die – science be damned! Ron Woodroof is going to fight for every minute of every day of whatever time he has left, and McConaughey has us under his spell the entire time.
The film opens with rangy cowboys bucking and thrashing on wild bulls, while in a shady area under the bleachers, Ron Woodroof (McConaughey) is bucking and thrashing with two women. The guys on the bulls aren’t using saddles and neither, in a more metaphorical sense, is Ron. Fueled by cigarettes, liquor, and arrogance (not to mention a few doses of cocaine), Ron grabs life by the horns, so to speak.
When a work accident lands him in the hospital, his doctors make another shocking discovery – Ron Woodroof has HIV/AIDS…and it’s well advanced. “Frankly, we’re surprised you’re still alive,” his doctors say, then tell him he probably has about 30 days to get his affairs in order.
The first great twist in Dallas Buyers Club is learning that Ron Woodroof isn’t some ignorant hick. He goes to the library and pours over research on AIDS and HIV. He prints articles and brings them to his appointments. And when he can’t get on a drug trial that guarantees him the “miracle” drug, he buys stolen medication.
Days come and go…Day 9, Day 15, Day 28…eventually Day 30 arrives and ol’ Ron Woodroof is still alive and kickin’. With the help of his transgender friend, Rayon (Jared Leto), this accidental antihero takes on both the medical establishment and the government by circumventing FDA regulations and importing unlicensed drugs that he distributes for free through a club, which instead charges an admission fee – a loophole that means he’s technically not selling the medication.
Unfortunately, Dallas Buyers Club loses a little steam at this point. We spend so much time focusing on the business aspect of Ron Woodroof’s life (taking on the FDA, etc.) rather than developing the story we want much more – the friendship with the prissy cross-dresser, Rayon. Their partnership is purely platonic but goes from enemies to friends so quickly that, by the time they’re grocery shopping together, you may think you missed something.
I think the reason we want so much more of them is that the casting here is truly phenomenal. McConaughey isn’t so much giving a performance as he is committing to a part. It’s one thing to go through a physical change for a role; it’s another to completely embody the emotional state of a man who has literally nothing to lose. Woodroof isn’t even a likeable person, yet when he bursts into tears in his car, you can’t help but cry with him – and for him.
And Jared Leto showcases a performance that never feels tasteless or Oscar-baity because his character is so genuine and flawed. His chemistry with McConaughey feels real and authentic – not unlike that shared between Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman in Midnight Cowboy. In both cases, at least one of the characters is doomed, but when they’re together, hope seems possible.
When the Ron receives his terminal diagnosis, he leaves the hospital with a slam-dunk line: “There ain’t nothin’ out there can kill f*ckin’ Ron Woodroof in 30 days.” And, it would turn out, he was right. In the end, Ron Woodroof would see more than 2,500 days before his death from pneumonia on September 12, 1992. And while his work may have been illegal, it certainly helped those suffering with AIDS/HIV live longer, better lives – and to that I say alright, alright, alright.
The Wolf of Wall Street
Director: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Kyle Chandler, Rob Reiner, Jon Bernthal, Matthew McConaughey, Jon Favreau, Jean Dujardin, Joanna Lumley, Cristin Millioti, Christine Ebersole, Shea Whigham, Katarina Cas, Stephanie Kurtzuba, P.J. Byrne, Kenneth Choi, Brian Sacca, Henry Zebrowski, Ethan Suplee, Jake Hoffman, Mackenzie Meehan, Natasha Kojic, Bo Dietl, Jon Spinogatti, Aya Cash, Jordan Belfort, Catherine Curtin, Stephen Kunken, Barry Rothbart, Welker White, Danny Flaherty, Ted Griffini, Steven Boyer, Danny A. Abeckaser, J.C. MacKenzie, Ashlie Atkinson, Giselle Eisenberg, Thomas Middleditch, Fran Lebowitz
Oscar Wins: No wins.
Other Nominations: Best Actor (Leonardo DiCaprio), Best Supporting Actor (Jonah Hill), Best Director, Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay), Best Picture
The Wolf of Wall Street shares a lot of characteristics with its main character, Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio)…it’s abashed and shameless, exciting and exhausting, disgusting and illuminating. It’s an excessive film about excess, a movie about appetites whose own appetite for compulsive pleasures seems endless. Director Martin Scorsese directs the film like a mad rush, throwing more and more explicit things at us as Belfort continues to rise closer and closer to the sun. It’s like mainlining cinema for 3 hours – by the end, we’re exhausted from the high.
Similar to its gangster siblings, Wolf of Wall Street shows how Belfort went from humble beginnings to having so much money that he takes pleasure in throwing it off his multi-million dollar yacht. His success has nothing to do with luck and everything to do with performance – he’s a natural salesman. With the perfect balance of psychology and chutzpah, Belfort is a gifted stockbroker. Yet unlike his co-workers, it’s not really about the money for him – at least not at first. He certainly takes pleasure in filling his pockets but seems to like the power dynamic even more. Greed isn’t good. Greed is fun. He loves what he does…and frankly, he’s good at it. It’s thrilling for Belfort to use and abuse his power, and it’s even more thrilling for us to watch.
Eventually the desire for more drives Belfort to open his own pump and dump brokerage called Stratton Oakmont, along with his friend, Donnie Azoff (Jonah Hill). This Robin Hood-in-reverse builds himself a team of merry men, drawn from the various corners of his life, and trains them on the art of the “hard sell”.
With Belfort at the helm, Stratton Oakmont becomes immensely successful. An expose in Forbes dubs him “The Wolf of Wall Street”, causing hundreds of ambitious young financiers to flock to his doors looking for a job. They're lured by the promise of huge bonuses and endless debauchery, but their enterprise is held together by Belfort’s charisma.
Bigger offices, bigger pay checks, bigger problems. As Belfort’s professional life explodes overnight, his personal life slides into a world of prostitutes and drugs. Soon the FBI is involved, wondering how a young 20-something could bring in this much money this quickly. But for a guy like Belfort, the risk is part of the pleasure. Half the fun is thinking he can get away with it and all the fun of watching The Wolf of Wall Street is watching him try.
For a three-hour movie, it’s kind of ironic that everything in The Wolf of Wall Street moves so quickly. Things escalate rapidly as more and more money comes into the brokerage…and Belfort’s antics become more and more insane. Trips to and from Switzerland, death-defying boat rides, candles being inserted in various body holes, quaalude trips, orgies, eating live goldfish…and those don’t even scratch the surface.
But the movie makes the smart decision to laugh with Belfort as well as at him. It’s disgusted by its own story and by the people in it, often filming them from distorted angles or in unflattering moments. It also keeps the focus directly on Belfort and not on his victims, which is important for making Belfort a likeable person. Instead of humanizing him by showing the consequences of his actions, the movie keeps the focus on how his own decisions affect his life. We rise and fall with him and can even take some pleasure in some of the messed-up shit he does – mostly because we, like him, don’t see the outcome of it.
Like most of Scorsese's films, The Wolf of Wall Street isn’t going to be for everyone. It’s often crude and misogynistic. It is rated “R” for basically every reason possible and set a Guiness World Record for the most instances of swearing in a motion picture (averaging about 2.81 profanities per minute). There will be moments in the film when you question not only why you’re tolerating this behavior, but why you’re also getting a thrill out of it. At those moments, it’s important to remember that people like Belfort represent America. Despite his horrible crimes, he was never really punished on a level befitting the magnitude of pain he inflicted on poor Americans. Even today, Belfort travels the world as a motivational speaker (he even makes an appearance in Wolf). He’s clearly not that sorry about what he did as much as he’s sorry about getting caught.
In a film like The Wolf of Wall Street, it’s easy to laugh at Belfort’s obnoxious behavior, but the sad truth of the matter is that people like Belfort will never stop laughing at us.
12 Years a Slave
Director: Steve McQueen
Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano, Garret Dillahunt, Paul Giamatti, Scoot McNairy, Lupita Nyong'o, Adepero Oduye, Sarah Paulson, Brad Pitt, Michael Kenneth Williams, Alfre Woodard, Chris Chalk, Taran Killam, Bill Camp, J.D. Evermore, Christopher Berry, Rob Steinberg, Bryan Batt, Tom Proctor, Jay Huguley, Storm Reid, Quvenzhane Wallis, Dwight Henry
Oscar Wins: Best Supporting Actress (Lupita Nyong'o), Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay), Best Picture
Other Nominations: Best Actor (Chiwetel Ejiofor), Best Supporting Actor (Michael Fassbender), Best Film Editing, Best Costume Design, Best Production Design, Best Director
I think it would be hard for anyone with a moral compass to comfortably sit through a movie about slavery, particularly one as honest and brutal as 12 Years a Slave. This edgy, poignant, and uncomfortable drama takes a no-holds-barred approach in its depiction of one of America’s darkest times, jarring us out of our comfort zone so that we can truly understand the weight of the subject matter. Through it all we squirm. We wince. We’re forced to look at slavery from a position that is so often ignored in movies about the Antebellum South.
12 Years a Slave isn’t the first movie about slavery in America, but it’s an important one. It tells the true story of Solomon Northup, an African-American free man who, in 1841, was snatched off the streets of Washington DC and sold into slavery. Similar to Django Unchained, which was a slap in the face of inequality, 12 Years a Slave is a punch to the gut. It’s a deeply American story in which the period trappings long beloved by Hollywood – sprawling plantations, men and women with toxic Southern charm – are the backdrop of outrage.
We begin 20 years before the Civil War, in the town of Saratoga Springs, New York. Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is a violinist there, where he lives with his wife and two children. He’s also a free Black man, capable of walking the same streets, dining in the same restaurants, and shopping in the same stores as the white folks who live there.
One day Northup is approached by two men who offer him a brief, high-paying job as a musician with their traveling circus. Everything seems good to start, but as soon as the crew lands in the nation’s capital, Solomon finds himself drugged and sold into slavery.
Despite his pleas that he’s a free man, he’s shipped off to New Orleans, where slave trader Theophilus Freeman (Paul Giamatti) sells him to plantation owner, William Ford (Benedict Cumberbatch).
Ford takes a liking to Northup, even allowing him to play music at his parties. However, not everyone on Ford’s plantation so nice…
John Tibeats (Paul Dano – barf) is cruel to Northup and the other slaves, beating and mocking them to entertain himself. When Northup finally gets fed up with Tibeat’s actions, a fight breaks out that nearly results in Northup’s death. Knowing Northup is no longer safe on his plantation, Ford sells him to another plantation owner, Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender).
Unlike Ford, Epps is a broiling cauldron of psychotic rage whose desire for his slave girl Patsey (Lupita Nyong’o) appears to be pushing him even further into an abyss of uncontrollable cruelty. Epps regularly rapes her, and his jealous wife (Sarah Paulson) abuses her. These scenes are often the hardest to watch, because that’s when the camera lingers…when it refuses to look away…when it gets closest to their faces and reveals their most intimate emotions.
In a film packed with so many emotional scenes, you need a powerhouse cast to back them up – and 12 Years a Slave certainly has that. Ejiofor’s performance as Solomon is an emotionally and physically taxing role, as we see him move quickly from happy family man to brutalized slave. Through it all, he must not only remain positive, but hopeful that the mistake will be corrected and he will be granted his freedom again. The skill with which Ejiofor handles some of these scenes is truly mind-blowing.
He's helped and supported by an all-star cast, most of whom give great performances. Fassbender’s utterly abhorrent plantation owner is like a real-life Calvin Candie, a man whose violence knows no bounds. He’ll make your skin crawl and his actions will have you questioning whether or not he’s actually human.
While a few things do keep 12 Years a Slave from being a masterpiece (I’m not even going to talk about Paul Dano and Brad Pitt in this), it’s still incredibly effective in giving us a look at slavery that is both piercing and heart-wrenching. It’s incredibly personal and meaningful, hard to watch in all the right ways. By the time Brad Pitt does arrive with his Jesus hair and weird Amish accent, you almost too stunned to even notice or care. And as the credits role and the tears fall, you may just have to sit in your seat and think about how you’ve actually witnessed American slavery in all it’s appalling horror for the first time.
Her
Director: Spike Jonze
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Scarlett Johansson, Amy Adams, Rooney Mara, Olivia Wilde, Matt Letscher, Luka Jones, Chris Pratt, Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader, Portia Doubleday, Brian Cox, Spike Jonze, Steve Zissis, Alia Janine
Oscar Wins: Best Writing (Original Screenplay)
Other Nominations: Best Production Design, Best Music (Song) ("The Moon Song"), Best Music (Original Score), Best Picture
First off, if the future isn’t this aesthetically pleasing, I want no part of it.
Her is a different kind of love story. Both a brilliant conceptual gag and a deeply sincere romance, Her is the unlikely yet plausible story about a man – who sometimes resembles a machine – and an operating system – who very much resembles a living woman – falling in love. Set in a futuristic Los Angeles-type city, this film challenges what it means to be in love, to have connections, to be human.
The first words we hear in Her are of a man professing his love to someone. “I remember when I first started to fall in love with you,” he begins. “…it suddenly hit me that I was part of this whole larger thing, just like our parents…and our parents’ parents. Before that, I was just living my life like I knew everything and suddenly this bright light hit me and woke me up…and that light was you.” A few moments later, it’s revealed that he’s penning a love letter for someone else, inputting words into a highly intelligent computer that can turn audio into handwritten letters. Right from the start, we’re met with the union of man and machine. Something as intimate and human as writing a love letter has become a mass-produced job, with Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix) just one of many lonely humans acting as the middleman between lovers he will never know.
On his way to and from work, Theo is surrounded by people…yet he seems lonely. A recent divorce from his ex-wife, Catherine (Rooney Mara) has also damaged his heart and psyche. The only time we see him communicate is when he’s talking to the Siri-like AI feature on his phone. Constantly searching for something to take him out of reality, Theo dives deep into emails, chatrooms, and highly advanced VR games that distract his brain, even for a little while, from the loneliness that surrounds him.
Still reeling from the pain of his separation, Theo invests in a new operating system, one that promises a better, more realistic, user experience. The set-up is quick…and soon “Samantha”, as she calls herself, knows everything about Theo, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
It’s in these initial stages that Her is most interesting…and troubling. Samantha being, you know, a machine, has the ability to process data much faster than Theo. And while her programming is designed to make her likeable to him, her assimilation of humanity’s tics soon has the OS feeling emotion, or at least the simulation of it. Eventually Theo finds himself falling in love with Samantha and the two begin a relationship.
The strange, yet beautiful, part of Her is how it explores emotion. It may feel weird at times, particularly when Theo and Samantha take their relationship to a physical level, but there’s still something so sweet and honest about it. Anyone who’s ever been in love even a little bit can look at Theo and know this man is smitten. It’s enough to make us question what a real relationship is…You feel for him because you’re just as invested as he is…yet a part of us still knows it can’t last forever. Our dependency on technology can’t fully replace the need we have as humans to connect with other humans. Theo can do his best to convince himself that Samantha is “the one”, but the reality is she is just a machine that knows every single detail about him. She can never replace someone holding your hand, giving you a hug, spooning you in bed at night. No matter how advanced technology gets, there are certain things that ground us in humanity, that prove to us that we’re loved…that we matter…that we’re alive.
The film’s perspective on love is also a unique one – it makes the case that every relationship matters. Just because one ends doesn’t mean that it wasn’t worth it, that we didn’t learn something from it. It echoes 500 Days of Summer in a very real way, with Samantha and Summer transforming as they gain more independence and Theo and Tom being weighed down psychologically by a deeply flawed, almost infantile, view of romance. But sometimes we need that one horrible breakup, the one that shakes us to the core, to remind us of the very real fact that love doesn’t last forever. It ends…and begins again.
American Hustle
Director: David O. Russell
Starring: Christian Bale, Zachariah Supka, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Jeremy Renner, Louis C.K., Jack Huston, Michael Pena, Elisabeth Rohm, Danny Corbo, Sorbo Corbo, Shea Whigham, Alessandro Nivola, Paul Herman, Said Taghmaoui, Adrian Martinez, Colleen Camp, Dawn Olivieri, Erica McDermott
Oscar Wins: No wins.
Other Nominations: Best Actor (Christian Bale), Best Actress (Amy Adams), Best Supporting Actor (Bradley Cooper), Best Supporting Actress (Jennifer Lawrence), Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Costume Design, Best Production Design, Best Writing (Original Screenplay), Best Picture
Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale) isn’t, as his mistress admits, much to look at. With a beer keg belly and a torturously complicated comb-over that he arranges with the fastidiousness of a Michelin-star pastry chef, appearances are nothing but a part of the swindle that is his life’s work as a professional conman.
But what Irving lacks in looks he makes up for in shear confidence. I gotta say, the man’s got swagger.
He meets his match at a pool party – a woman named Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams) who dreams of reinventing herself in high style. It’s her idea to don a fake accent and take on the alter ego of the posh Lady Edith, a Londoner with elite baking connections. In doing so, she helps Irving kick his cons into high gear.
These two quickly become partners in crime and love, swindling desperate people who, unable to secure legitimate bank loans, hand over wads of cash in hopes of receiving bigger payouts. Unfortunately, one of their marks turns out to be Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper), an FBI agent who then ends up using Irving and Sydney to run an even bigger con on crooked politicians, like New Jersey mayor, Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner).
Things get more complicated when we learn that Irving has been swindling us, too…he’s already got a wife, Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence), and kid back home. Oopsies! With a brash fake tan, high hair, and long nails, Rosalyn is a force of nature. She’s needy, vulnerable, and spectacularly passive-aggressive with her husband. She knows just enough about Irving to be dangerous, which may make her an even bigger threat to Irving and Sydney’s operation.
Based on the Abscam sting operation of the late 70s, in which a con artist helped the FBI catch members of Congress taking bribes, American Hustle is a messy movie. It focuses a lot on its cast – so much so that we eventually lose interest in the actual con taking place. The story and the actors seem at odds with each other, both fighting for space in a movie that’s already too long and complicated to keep my interest.
Instead, I was way more focused on the costumes (which were great) and the hair (which was horrible). Every piece of costuming in American Hustle was chef’s kiss perfection, from Christian Bale’s open-shirt-thick-chain look to Amy Adams’ plunging necklines that show off her va-va-voomies. The same cannot be said about the hair, however, which was so obnoxious in almost every instance. Christian Bale’s hair was a joke in and of itself, but at least he tried to make it work. Bradley Cooper’s truly hilarious perm was so bad that I didn’t even hear half the things he was saying (honestly, the scene that shows Cooper wearing those itty-bitty curlers at the kitchen table was quite adorable, TBH).
There’s something else strangely familiar with American Hustle…with a voiceover narration, a pop culture soundtrack, and a male-dominated cast with an appearance by the one and only wise guy himself (Robert De Niro), you’d think you’re watching a Scorsese film…yet it can’t stand up to that hype. It almost feels like a fan tribute to the director, complete with all his trademarks, but falling short on delivery.
Overall, I think American Hustle has all the ingredients of a great film, but they just didn’t come together in my opinion. It’s either miscast and misdirected or wrongly written, because so much of this felt like style over actual substance. Yet, I can’t deny that it was fun to hang out with all these losers for a little bit. I don’t think it has much staying power and I don’t think I’ll remember it as a great film, but there is something about these unlikeable characters that is appealing in a way, particularly Bale’s character who is easily the best one of the lot. Maybe the biggest con of all is just that – it draws you in with a killer cast, then bores you to death with a weak story.
Captain Phillips
Director: Paul Greengrass
Starring: Tom Hanks, Catherine Keener, Michael Chernus, David Warshofsky, Corey Johnson, Chris Mulkey, Mark Holden, Angus MacInnes, Louis Mahoney, Vincenzo Nicoli, Maria Dizzia, John Magaro, Gigi Raines, Riann Steele, Barkhad Abdi, Barkhad Abdirahman, Faysal Ahmed, Mahat M. Ali, Mohamed Ali, Ibrahim Maalim, Idurus Shiish, Azeez Mohammed, Nasir Jamas, Yul Vazquez, Max Martini, Omar Berdouni, Danielle Albert, Nathan Cobler
Oscar Wins: No wins.
Other Nominations: Best Supporting Actor (Barkhad Abdi), Best Sound Mixing, Best Film Editing, Best Sound Editing, Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay), Best Picture
Anyone who was old enough to watch the news in 2009 might remember hearing about how the “Maersk Alabama” was taken over by Somali pirates as it made its way through dangerous waters. It was the first American ship to be hijacked in more than 200 years and, for a short while, captured the attention of the entire world.
Headlines documented the latest news in real time, including the grueling five days Captain Phillips was held prisoner in a lifeboat and the daring rescue mission orchestrated by the US military to get him back. Released just four years after all of that, Captain Phillips the movie had a daunting task – telling a gripping story that almost everyone knew already.
For the most part, it succeeded in that task. Captain Phillips is a harrowing tale, but a long one – and it loses speed drastically towards the end. The movie could have been cut down by at least 45 minutes and been better for it, but I digress.
Captain Richard Phillips (Tom Hanks), as portrayed in the film, is no typical American hero. If he was, he would have gunned down the pirates himself while wearing some obnoxious American flag bandana on his head. No, Captain Phillips is an ordinary guy…a husband, a dad, a leader who takes his work seriously. When we first meet him, he’s in his home, with his wife, packing for his trip. His body shows a happy life, one probably filled with good food and good company. These beginning scenes are low on drama, but work to make Phillips’ arc believable and, more importantly, make him likeable.
The best action scenes in Captain Phillips take place in the moments right before the siege, when the crew of the “Alabama” work frantically to protect their ship. Using only what they have at their disposal (which isn’t much), the “Alabama” is essentially a sitting duck trying to outsmart a vicious and relentless hunter.
After the Somali pirates take over the ship, the action downshifts and the story settles into a tense standoff between two very different captains, both pawns in a game where neither one of them has control. And for those whose idea of a pirate is Captain Jack Sparrow – this real-life account will be a rude awakening as to what constitutes a 21st century version.
It’s also important to note here that this is not a pro-American patriotic puke fest, as it so easily could have been. There’s great attention given to the Somali side of things, both where they came from and the conditions they’re under to perform this job. The film isn’t scared to make the audience sympathize with the four hijackers, and we do – even as tensions rise on both sides.
As Captain Phillips, Tom Hanks offers a fine performance. He’s one of the few movie stars who, like Gary Cooper once upon a Hollywood time, can convey a sense of old-fashioned American decency just by standing in a frame. Hanks puts a lot of himself into this character, giving an authenticity to Phillips as he tries to keep himself, his crew, and his ship together – even as the world as he knows it comes violently undone.
But the true surprise is from newcomer Barkhad Abdi, who plays the pirate leader, Muse. Starring opposite Tom Hanks in your first movie is quite the task, but Abdi does a wonderful job. Speaking a language that’s mostly unintelligible for most of us and then speaking broken English the rest of the time, Abdi must somehow make Muse someone relatable and sympathetic, while also instilling enough fear to scare this seasoned captain. As we learn in Muse’s side story, he doesn’t actually WANT to be a pirate – he wants to be a fisherman. He wants to go to America and own a car. But life has denied him these possibilities. As Muse, Abdi does a great job wearing these injustices on his gaunt, dopey face and there are times we actually feel for him, even when he has our favorite all-American dad in the throat of danger.
The ending offers a poetic conclusion. Both Phillips and Muse come from worlds foreign to the other, with Phillips fearing the barbarity of Somalia and Muse seeing America as the great mythical land of opportunity. Both are wrong about the other, and by the end they’ve come to realize that to a certain extent. Phillips realizes he’s just dealing with a bunch of frightened kids who have no way out of the circumstances they’ve put themselves in, while Muse finally gets to the land of freedom – in chains. It’s hard to tell who really wins in the end.
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