MOVIE: Captain Phillips

Captain Phillips: a Paul Greengrass movie.   There are a few directors that if I know they’ve made a movie, I’ll make a point of seeing it.   With this excellent movie about Somali pirates and a ship’s captain played by Tom Hanks, Greengrass stays on that list.  As with United 93, you know how the movie will end because the film is based on true events.  In this case, what took place over 5/6 days is condensed into 134 minutes, including a preamble showing Captain Phillips with his wife before arriving in Oman and heading out to sea.   It is the British filmmaker’s camera work that initially draws you in, however, it is the excellent acting that keeps you involved.  Hanks is superb as Captain Phillips but what also holds you is the fact that the primary Somali characters are presented as real people.  Barkhad Abdi, as Muse, the “captain” of the small pirate boarding party, matches up quite well with Hanks.  Muse is the only member of the boarding party who is still alive; he is serving time in a U S prison.  These four pirates, as were the ones I read about as a youngster, are in it only for the money; they have no knowledge of the cargo they are hijacking.   One of the interesting twists in this storyline is that the cargo on Captain Phillips’ ship included a significant number of food containers from the United Nations’ World Food Program bound for various African countries.   There has also been some controversy over the incident.  A lawsuit was filed by crew members against Captain Phillips and the ship’s owner questioning whether the course navigated by the Captain was too close to shore; the movie has a scene where some of the crew raise this issue.  However, the movie points out that the pirates were operating from a mother ship and that the cargo ship itself was hundreds of miles off the African coast.  I believe the lawsuit is still pending.  A pirate side note: pirates also operate off the coasts of Vietnam and the Philippines; the Strait of Hormuz is not the only area infected with pirates.  Although the movie focuses on Captain Phillips, it also shows that other crew members acted bravely.  Shane Murphy and Mike Perry, played by Michael Chernus and David Warshofsky respectively, are two of the crew who are highlighted.  What I found incredible was the merchant ship’s utter lack of any defensive weapons.  I understand this has now changed but even as of 2009 when the incident occurred, there had been sufficient pirate activity in the Hormuz Strait to render the total lack of any weapons shocking.  The SEAL rescue operation is all business with no light talk.  Greengrass has the reputation for being factually accurate while engrossing the viewer in a storyline we already know.  United 93 was one of the best films of 2006 and more people should have seen it.   With Tom Hanks being at the top of his trade, this film is deservedly receiving a wider viewer audience. 

MOVIE: Gravity

 

Gravity:  a simple story told with some of the greatest special effects you’ve ever seen.  Sandra Bullock gives the best acting performance of her career and George Clooney is his usual charming self.  Functionally , there are only two actors in this movie.  There is the voice of Houston, Ed Harris, and a third person you see in the opening sequence before things start happening.  But once the action commences, it is the Bullock-Clooney show.  The movie opens with Mission Specialist Ryan Stone (Bullock) working in space on her NASA experiment and Mission Commander Matt Kowalski flying around having a joking dialogue with Houston (there are some funny lines in this movie).  Houston then announces that a missile has struck a Russian satellite creating a bunch of space debris.  The initial announcement is for information purposes only, however, a few minutes later Houston issues a warning that the debris is more extensive and dangerous than originally thought.  This is when the movie gets interesting.  I had no clue how they were going to end this relatively short film (91 minutes) and therefore, I won’t say anything more about the storyline.   Gravity was directed by Alfonso Cuaron, who also co-wrote the story with his son, Jonas.  The director of photography was Emmanuel Lubezki.  These two gentlemen, along with Tim Webber for visual effects, have earned themselves Oscar nominations.  A well done space film can be special.  2001: A Space Odyssey has been the gold standard.  Because the technology has improved, it now has a rival.  I strongly recommend that you see this film in 3D.  Most 3D showings are not worth the extra money, however, Gravity is the exception.  The film is not limited to its special effects and beautiful Earth shots.  This survivor story will keep you interested and is well worth seeing.  I’ve heard chatter as to the storyline not being realistic.  But like those who criticized The Butler for inventing a son and giving him an unrealistic life history, they are missing the glory of what Cuaron has accomplished using state of the art technology.  The scenes of silence are particularly spectacular.  I may see this film again.

MOVIE: Enough Said

Enough Said: a comedy with adult humor and conversations.   Yes, the rare film that is funny without slapstick humor or a stream of what was once called foul language.   Instead, this is a movie about two intelligent divorced individuals, each having a teenage daughter who is a senior in high school when the movie commences.   Repeat: it is a film about two adults and it does not focus on the teenagers.    The primary character is Eve, a massage therapist working in LA played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus.   From Seinfeld, no surprise as to her abilities as a film comedian.  Male lead is played James Gandolfini.  As Albert, he is excellent.  His grin is enough to make you know this is a good man.  A very different role than the gangsters he frequently played.   I understand there is at least one more film to be released with Gandolfini.   He is an actor we are going to miss.  His role is secondary to Eve.   In the opening scenes we learn that Eve has been divorced for a few years and has no steady boyfriend.   Her friend Sarah (Toni Collette) invites her to a party where she meets two new people, Albert  and Marianne (Catherine Keener).    Marianne becomes a client.   Unbeknownst to Eve when relationship commences, Marianne is also the ex-wife of Albert.   As the movie unfolds, you have Eve developing a relationship with Albert as she is hearing negative information about the fellow from Marianne.   The setup allows for a number of funny scenes and the writer/director Nicole Holofcener expertly exploits them.   Her characters appear as real people living real lives.   Both teenagers are centered with relationships with both their mothers and fathers.   There is no Hollywood scene as to them becoming acquainted.   The script will probably get Holofcener an Oscar nomination for original script.    Humor runs throughout the movie but flows from who these people are.   The film is short, only 91 minutes.  Viewing this film will be one of the more delightful 91 minutes you will spend.

 

Movie: Hannah Arendt

Hannah Arendt:  there are reasons to see films beyond their entertainment value.  This movie about author and philosopher Hannah Arendt is one of those films.  The movie’s focus is on the controversy that arose from her commentary on Adolph Eichmann and his trial.  While there are historical biographical scenes of her pre-WW II life as a student in Germany, the flashbacks, with one exception, are really a distraction.  The movie assumes the viewer has knowledge as to who is Hannah Arendt.  The opening is a slow go.  The dialogue shifts back and forth between German (subtitled) and English.  The director, Margarethe von Trotta, presumably intended the use of both languages to add realism as well as to illustrate the Arendt’s complexity.  Arendt’s reputation stemmed from the publication of “The Origins of Totalitarianism”, which I read as a college student.  The movie does not give us a start date but most of the film takes place in 1961 when Arendt contacted The New Yorker to write about the Eichmann trial.  One of the few light moments in the film are the scenes with William Shawn (Nicholas Wodeson), the legendary New Yorker editor.  The controversy, which arose after five segments ran in The New Yorker,  involves 10 pages in a 300+ page essay published as a book entitled “Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil”.  In these 10 pages, Arendt notes that in an attempt to survive, various local Jewish community leaders in Eastern Europe cooperated with the Germans.  Her comments were interpreted by some as blaming Jews for their own massacre.  The movie portrays Arendt as becoming fixated on this issue after hearing testimony about this factual reality.  The movie also notes that the underlying point of Arendt’s essays was that you can never cooperate with evil regardless of what the short term gains (food, for example) appear to be.  Arendt speculated that although millions would still have died, the total number may have been smaller if there had been no cooperation.  Her speculation is impossible to prove or disprove.  But many survivors were still alive in 1961, and reading that they may have assisted in the killing of family and friends brought wrath upon Arendt; her reputation still suffers.  Arendt died in 1975 but the ending of the movie appears to occur in the Fall of 1962.  Barbara Sukowa plays Arendt as a serious woman in a loving relationship with her husband, Heinrich Blucher (Axel Milberg).  Her biography of having escaped to America from a French detention camp is noted but the only pre-1960 events shown are scenes with her professor mentor/lover  Martin Heidegger (Klaus Pohl), another controversial figure.  Heidegger joined the Nazi Party in 1933 and never publicly repented although he survived the war.  In other words, there is a minefield of fascinating storytelling that could have occurred but was not present.  However, in the 113 minutes, the viewer is given serious, thought provoking material.  This is a film to watch at home.  The film’s Honolulu showing was limited to the Doris Duke Theatre and it is unlikely to have a general run, therefore, an at-home viewing is probably the only way you will be able to see it.  But make the time and then be prepared for some serious thinking.  For those of you who have seen the film or have read about Heidegger, the pun is intended

Lee Daniels’ The Butler: a love story weaving civil rights events with family dynamics.   The Butler is inspired by the life of Eugene Allen, an individual who worked at the White House from 1952, at the end of President Truman’s term, through 1986, when he retired as head butler and Ronald Reagan was president.  The movie ends with a sequence involving the election of President Obama.   The film intersects White House scenes with what is happening in the USA by having the butler, Cecil Gaines, overhear political discussions and then having his oldest son, Louis Gaines, being involved in the civil rights actions.   Louis attends Fisk University and becomes part of the first lunch counter sit-in at a Woolworths.  He then becomes a Freedom Bus rider, a Black Panther and present at the Lorraine Motel when Dr. King is assassinated.   Danny Strong’s script, by intertwining Presidential behavior with the butler’s physical reactions as he is hearing of events he knows his son is a participant while also presenting working class family life, should result in his receiving an Oscar nomination.   Because so much American history is being covered within 130 minutes of movie time, the characters, with the notable exceptions of the butler, his wife and their two sons, are not given a lot of depth.  It is a tribute to Strong’s writing skills that you care about the central characters while being both entertained and reminded as to just how much has occurred in this country during the life time of a single man.

However, this film is not a biography.   At the end of this review variants between the movie character Cecil Gaines and Allen’s life are outlined.   

Forest Whitaker gives another Oscar nominating performance as Cecil Gaines, the butler.   During the course of the movie, Whitaker goes from a young man in his late ‘30s to an individual approximately 90 years old.   The aging is more body movement than makeup.   Whitaker is a remarkable actor and this role allows him to show a range of emotion and not just that he can play old.  Cecil’s wife, Gloria, is played by Oprah Winfrey and her performance is also praiseworthy.   In her 15 years away from the movie screen, she has not lost any of her acting talent.  This film is loaded with big name stars.   In the opening sequence on a cotton planation in Georgia, Miriah Carey plays Cecil’s mother, Hattie Pearl, and she does not say a word.  Daniel Banner plays the father.  We then have Vanessa Redgrave appear as Annabeth Westfall, the owner of the planation.   The movie has Cecil starting his career at the White House under Dwight Eisenhower.  Robin Williams plays Eisenhower and there are no comic lines in the performance.   John Kennedy is played by James Marsden followed by Liev Schreiber as LBJ.   Liev is given some of the few comic scenes.  John Cusack plays Nixon and his performance is a stereotype characterization.    Ford and Carter are only shown in news videos.   In real life, Ford and Allen had the same birthday.  The President who I thought came across as the most human was Reagan, played by Alan Rickman.   Interesting selection having Jane Fonda play Nancy Reagan.  Her short screen presence was nicely done.   Also deserving special praise is David Oyelowo's performance as Louis.   The film is not all seriousness and LBJ doesn’t have the only comic lines.   Cuba Gooding Jr. plays Carter Wilson, another butler at the White House, and he brings lightness to the screen whenever he is on camera.  Two other stars are Terrence Howard, a neighbor to Cecil and Gloria, and Lenny Kravitz as James Holloway, the individual who oversaw the daily running of the White House.   Daniels shows his breath as a director as this is a very different film from the ones that made his reputation (Precious and Shadowboxer).   But the real reason this film works and is more than a telling of historical events is the interplay between Whitaker and Oprah.     As they age on screen, the depth of the relationship also grows.   Daniels skill is in using the butler, an “invisible man” when doing his job correctly, to present with positive force a family and a country coping with the struggle for equal rights to all its citizens.  This is a film worth seeing.

As to why this is a film “inspired” by Allen’s life and not a biography.   Allen was born in Virginia in 1919, not Georgia.  He was a planation “houseboy” and there is no evidence of the movie opening scenes being part of Allen’s life.  He met his wife at a birthday party, not at work.   She called him for the first date.  They had only one son, not two.   The son, Charles, served in Vietnam and is still alive.   While Allen apparently was present when Eisenhower spoke with his advisors as to sending troops to Little Rock, it did not happen on his first day at the White House.  He had already been there a few years having started with Truman as a pantry hire, not a butler. The tie incident in the movie is partly true, Jackie Kennedy did give Allen a tie worn by JFK after JFK was killed.  Allen framed the tie and never wore it.  Also true is the Reagan invitation for him and his wife to attend a White House dinner involving the West German Chancellor.   Allen and his wife were married for 65 years and she died a few days prior to President Obama’s election.  Allen had a VIP invitation and attended the swearing in ceremony with a Marine guard escort.  There is no evidence as to Allen, who died at 90 in 2010, ever having personally met President Obama.  

MOVIE: Blue Jasmine

Blue Jasmine: did you ever wonder about Mrs. Madoff after her husband went to jail?  This movie presents Woody Allen’s perspective on a spouse’s afterlife following exposure of the Ponzi scheme.  Cate Blanchett, in an Oscar caliber performance, is Jasmine French, the spouse who lived the Good Life.  In the opening scene, Jasmine is on a flight from New York to San Francisco, talking non-stop to the elderly lady sitting next to her.  We learn that Jasmine has a sister named Ginger, played by Sally Hawkins, whom Jasmine has always looked down on (Jasmine “has the good genes”).  Jasmine’s former life is told through a series of flashbacks.  Alex Baldwin is excellent as Alex, the Madoff-type husband (all smiles and no substance).  The entire cast is superb, including some folks who are not your usual suspects: Andrew Dice Clay as Augie, the former husband of Ginger who invested $200,000 with Alex; and Louis C. K. as a would-be Ginger boyfriend.  Bobby Cannavale also gives a noteworthy performance as Ginger’s boyfriend.  But the primary reason to see this film is Blanchett’s performance.  Jasmine still dresses as if she has money.  Although she claims to be destitute, her NY to SF flight is via a first class ticket.  She is in denial of her circumstances and clearly has mental health issues as well as a love for vodka and Xanax pill popping.  During the film’s 96 minutes, Blanchett presents a range of emotions that are incredible.  I understand she has played Blanche in “A Streetcar Named Desire”, which must have been incredible to watch.  There are parts of Blue Jasmine that may remind you of Williams’ play.  This movie is a series of set pieces starting with our introduction to Jasmine, then moving on to her relationship with her sister and finally to her attempt to create a new life in SF.  The film is presented with a musical score that is also excellent.  Allen wrote and directed the film but does not appear in it.  To those of you who have placed yourselves in the anti-Allen category, make an exception for this movie.  You can pick at the script but not at the actors’ performances.

 

MOVIE: Fruitvale Station

Fruitvale Station: Oakland, California, New Year’s Eve and Morning 2009.  The movie opens with a phone camera sequence of what occurred at the BART station that fateful New Year’s morning.  The film shows us what happened in the life of Oscar Grant III during the approximate 20 hours leading up to the fatal interplay between BART security guards and Oscar Grant at approx. 2:00 a.m. on January 1, 2009.  The film’s goal and that of Ryan Coogler, the writer and first time director of this excellent film, was to show that Oscar’s death was absolutely unnecessary, and this was accomplished by focusing on the individual and not the actual tragic event.  Michael B. Jordon, playing 22 year old Oscar, gives an Oscar-worthy performance.  We are shown his flaws and his temper; for instance, the flashback scene to Oscar’s time at San Quentin (drugs).  We are also shown Oscar’s devotion to his five year old daughter, “T” for Tatiana, played delightfully by Ariana Neal.  The power of the film lies in the honesty with which it presents its characters as well as the excellent acting.  Octavia Spencer plays Oscar’s mother.  One of the film’s more powerful scenes is when she is visiting Oscar at San Quentin.  All the scenes between Oscar and his mother have a real honesty to them.  Melonie Diaz plays Sophina, the mother of T, and she shows the right amount of skepticism about whether Oscar will make good on turning his life around.  Diaz and Jordon play well off each other although not quite to the extent as Jordon and Spencer.  The events at BART comprise only a short part of this short film (just 85 minutes long), and occur more than an hour into the film.  Oscar was an unarmed Black man who was restrained and shot in the back.  The postscript tells us that a BART officer was convicted of involuntary manslaughter (defense was he confused his gun for his laser) and served 11 months of a 2 year sentence.  Unlike the Florida events involving Martin and Zimmerman, there were numerous camera shots from people heading home on BART so we know what happened, including the fact that Oscar and his friends didn’t need to be restrained by the BART police in the first place.  This is a well done film that shows the randomness of a Black man being killed.  To say more would go beyond reviewing a film.  The movie is a Sundance Film Festival award winner and truly deserves the honors it has received.  BART allowed the film to be shot at the Fruitvale Station – this film has realism that can bring tears.  Forest Whittaker gave Coogler the backing to make this film.