MOVIE: Lore

Lore: a German 14 year old in the year 1945 surviving.  The movie opens with Lore’s parents destroying written records of their involvement with the Holocaust.  The movie is not clear as to the specific  S.S. position held by the father but it is clear he is not a mere soldier.  Lore is the oldest of five children with the youngest being a baby brother.  After the parents are arrested by the Allies, the five children, on their own, must find their way to grandmother’s house (honestly) in Hamburg.  The arrests of the parents occur off camera and the movie’s unusual storyline commences after their departure.  To reach their designation, the children have to travel through a forest and lands controlled by different allies (Russians, Americans, British).  In a war torn country, survival is difficult and food is always an issue.  The mother left Lore with cash, jewelry, silverware and trinkets to bargain for food.  Lore exchanges the items long before they leave the forest.  A young man named Thomas appears in the forest and for reasons not entirely clear, helps Lore, her younger sister, the twin boys and the baby.  Thomas is a Jewish survivor.  The movie presents the German perspective of the Holocaust as the war comes to an end.  Saskia Rosendahl, in her introductory role, is superb as Lore.  As Lore interacts with people who continue to believe in Hitler, she learns that what her parents taught her is a lie.  The film poses the question: what do you feel when you learn that your father was a murderer and your mother was complicit in the killing?  As Lore learns, hate spills from her mouth as she and her siblings become increasingly dependent on Thomas, played by Kai Malina.  The German citizenry believe the newspaper photos of concentration camps are merely portrayals by Hollywood actors.  The startling contrast between the background horror and the forest scenery is part of the film’s excellence.  The  director is Cate Shortland, an Australian.   Lines such as “Hitler loved his country too much” are hard to digest.  The story is based on actual events.  Source material is from a novel “The Dark Room” written by the daughter of the real life Lore.  The horror of the times is presented with surreal imagery.  This 108 minute German film (subtitled) does not have a Hollywood ending.  However, it is clear that by the end of this film Lore is no longer a naïve 14 year old with a racist belief system.  The movie attacks stereotypes, reminds you that horrors are perpetrated by individuals, and leaves you pondering the ability of humans to commit evil.   Showing the Holocaust aftermath from a German perspective makes for an unusual but brilliant film. 

Side note: the photos in Thomas’ wallet are from the director’s husband’s grandmother who left Berlin in 1937.  

MOVIE: The Sapphires

The Sapphires: an old story line with an interesting twist.  This movie, based upon real events, is about three sisters and a cousin who form a quartet.  The timeline for most of the story is 1968.  The place is Australia.  The twist lies not just with the fact that these are talented Aboriginal women but also in the presentation of blatant racism and the evil treatment of the Aborigine people within the context of an overall feel good movie about individuals overcoming Society’s plans for them.  The movie opens approximately ten years earlier with the girls performing for friends and family.  We later learn that at this performance the cousin, Kay (Shari Sebbens), was separated from her family by agents of the government to be raised as “white” due to her light skin color.  After the opening sequence, the sisters are in an Australian outback town to perform at a singing contest.  Although the sisters are clearly the star performers, they are ignored and a white girl who barely can sing is pronounced the winner.   At the contest, they meet Dave, the emcee who has alcohol issues.  One of the sisters shows Dave a Variety-type announcement regarding a tryout for singers in Vietnam.  Of course, the sisters get the gig and most of the second half of the movie takes place in Vietnam with a terrific assortment of ‘60s songs.  Pre-Dave, the sisters sing Country.  Dave introduces them to Soul music with a great line about how Country music embraces misfortune while Soul defiantly insists on hope in the face of misery.  Prior to the audition, the sisters reconnect with Kay, who was living “white” but shamed by Gail (Deborah Mailman), the oldest of the sisters, to rejoin the group.  Chris O’Dowd is excellent as Dave and is the only actor I recognized.  Julie, played by Jessica Mauboy, has the best voice.  Miranda Tapsell plays the fourth sister.  Each of the four women is a distinct character and the interactions among them are quite real.  The contrast with what was happening in America on the race issue is presented with short historical videos (King’s march speech, Ali’s defiance, RFK announcing King’s death), which are integrated into the storyline.  Although the war and racism issues may make the film sound heavy, it is, as I noted in the beginning of this commentary, mostly a feel good movie with a lot of good sounds.  The movie is based upon a play written by the son of one of the sisters.  The director is Wayne Blair and he pulls off the difficult task of presenting serious social issues while entertaining us.   With great music, some funny scenes, primarily involving O’Dowd, and very credible performances, you will have a fun 98 minutes watching this movie.

Movie: The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby: a combination of exquisite scenes and one dimensional characters.  It is a beautiful movie deserving of Oscar nominations for cinematography and costume.  The clothing, jewelry and autos offer much to behold.  If only the actors had a stronger script.  Leonardo DiCaprio is a credible Jay Gatsby.  Tobey Maguire plays Nick Carraway and he has more screen time than DiCarpio.  I think we are close to 30 minutes into the movie before we meet Gatsby.  This would not be a problem if Tobey had something to do besides observe and narrate.  There are too many scenes of Toby just observing.  The one dimensional characters are Daisy and Tom Buchannan, played by Carey Mulligan and Joel Edgerton.  Tobey is second cousin to Daisy and lives next door to Gatsby in the equivalent of servants’ quarters.  The Daisy character in the original F. Scott Fitzgerald novel is an idolized persona and is part of the reason none of the previous Gatsby movies worked, not including the lost silent movie version.  In this movie, Daisy is beautiful but without substance.  But the real weak link is Tom.  His performance would be apropos in a silent film but amidst all the spectacle in this movie, it is unfortunate.  Edgerton is at his best in the only traditionally filmed scene: a hotel room with all the major characters present.  The love both Gatsby and Tom have for Daisy is presented with Nick observing.  This is one of the few conventional movie scenes.  For me, there is enough glitter to sustain the movie.  The director, Baz Luhrmann, brings to life the times about which Fitzgerald wrote.  Using Jay-Z’s score works for most of the movie but, for this jazz age tale, not completely.  Most of you know the story: Gatsby lives in a mansion outside NYC and has virtually unlimited funds to throw elaborate parties.  In an earlier life, he met and fell in love with Daisy.  He recreated himself and became rich by being the public face for a Jewish mobster, all of which was done to reconnect with Daisy who during the intervening time had married Tom.  Gatsby befriends Nick to reconnect with Daisy.  The screenplay is jointly written by Luhrmann and Craig Pearce and the anti-Semitism and racism of the times is presented.  But why cast an Indian actor, Amitabh Bachchan, as the Jewish mobster?  It has been years since I read the novel but I think the movie is true to the underlying story, which arguably has some of the same faults.  However, Fitzgerald’s work is closer to a novella while the movie lasts 143 minutes.  With tighter editing, this movie could have been worth all the promotional dollars spent.  Still, it is worth seeing and the viewing should be in a big screen theater with a wall to wall audio system.

Movie: Iron Man 3

Iron Man 3: the latest Robert Downey, Jr. installment.  My one sentence review: installment 3 is better than installment 2 but substantially short of installment 1.  This installment involves a character named The Mandarin.  For those of you who read the Marvel comics, you will remember The Mandarin as a racist character invoking a Fu Manchu image.  With Ben Kingsley playing the part, this is a very different character from the Marvel presentation, and Kingsley’s performance is one of the highlights of this film.  The introduction of The Mandarin character presents an Osama bin Laden-like bomber who has the technological ability to take over the television airwaves and broadcast a mass bombing live.  With Boston events still lingering in our memory banks, certain early scenes provoked an uneasy feeling.   After Downey’s character, Tony Stark, issues a mano a mano challenge to The Mandarin, Stark’s Pacific Ocean mansion is destroyed.  Of course, Stark survives and the rest of the film is his comeback victory.  When Downey is on the screen without the mask, the film is entertaining.  A fun interlude is an interaction that occurs after the house bombing when Stark finds himself in Tennessee and meets up with a fatherless kid played by Ty Simpkins.  As in certain scenes with Kingsley, the elements not going boom work.  Unfortunately , we have too much time spent with things blowing up and the ending sequence is way too long.  Also, the truly evil character is a mad scientist named Aldrich Killian, played by Guy Pearce, and he is not credible.  Aldrich’s evilness is partly Stark’s fault because he stood him up a few years earlier by failing to keep an appointment.  Aldrich is out for revenge.  Gwyneth Paltrow plays Stark’s girlfriend, Pepper Potts, and is given some macho scenes in the drawn out ending to this 129 minute movie.  The director is Shane Black (“Lethal Weapon”) and he is given credit as co-scriptwriter.  Whoever is responsible for the Simpkins character and the remake of The Mandarin deserves praise.  Bottom line is that if you are a fan of watching comic book characters turned into movie heroes, there is enough good stuff in this movie to make it an enjoyable experience.  Downey makes the Stark character likeable and that is a key component.  Editing down the quantity of the boom-boom scenes would have made for a better movie.  With the huge gross revenue for this film, there will be an Iron Man 4.  As long as Downey is playing Stark, I will continue to watch the Iron Man films.

MOVIE: Mud

Mud: a well told coming of age movie focusing on a 14 year old named Ellis and his best friend Neckbone.  Movie takes place in Arkansas.  Ellis lives on a riverboat with his parents.  For you Arkansas people, the entire film takes place in the Arkansas Delta near the confluence of the Arkansas, White and Mississippi rivers.  The year is 2011 – only know this because of a wall calendar.  Story begins with Bone showing Ellis a boat that got lodged in a tree on an overgrown island in the Delta during a flood.  As they are rummaging through the boat, Ellis realizes that someone is living on the boat.  This is when we meet the Matthew McConaughey character, Mud.  We are never told his real name.  Mud had grown up in the area but left to follow his true love, Juniper, played by Reese Witherspoon.  As the movie unfolds, we learn that Mud and Juniper met when Mud was 10 years old.  Mud is hiding out on the island because he killed Juniper’s husband after the husband had seriously beaten Juniper.  The backstory is told as current events unfold.  For most of this 140 minute film, the focus is on the two kids and Ellis learning about becoming a man.  I usually don’t read movie reviews prior to seeing the film however, in this case, I made an exception because the preview – let alone the title – offered very little sense of what this film was about, let alone its superb quality.  The reviewer drew an analogy to Mark Twain and, yes, this film is a modern Huck Finn tale.  The movie is written and directed by Jeff Nichols.  Way too early to invoke Oscar but, at a minimum, Nichols should receive a nomination for best original movie script.  Nichols hits all the right buttons as to life learning experiences while keeping you guessing as to how he will wrap up his story.  McConaughey is  excellent.  The Juniper character strikes me as not a particularly challenging role for Witherspoon.  Sam Shepard is excellent as the man who raised Mud and who also happens to be a neighbor of Ellis, although they’d never spoken prior to Mud’s appearance.  Ray McKinnon’s character, Ellis’ father and a man trying to survive as a fisherman, is also excellent.  The family’s economic status and the emotional consequences are presented as a dying reality.  But the focus and the star is Tye Sheridan as Ellis.  He is the central character and his reactions to events is consistently believable.  Ellis is drawn to Mud and their relationship is credible; Bone’s skepticism is equally credible.  I should note that Bone (Jacob Lofland) has some of the best lines in the movie.  Even the minor roles, such as Michael Shannon as the adult raising Neckbone, are well played.  During his short time before the camera your impression of Uncle Galen will change – for the better.  Joe Don Baker also has a small but critical role.  I loved Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn as a kid (I still own copies of the Twain novels).  Ellis and Bone are similar characters in a similar environment placed in the 21^st century.  The only physical  violence is near the end of the film and it is short and stylized.  Do you get the idea I really liked this movie?   Go see Mud.

MOVIE: The Company You Keep

The Company You Keep: a Robert Redford film.  The movie opens with TV news pictures from the late ‘60s and a short history lesson about the Weather Underground.  An appropriate beginning as many viewers are not going to understand the movie if they have no remembrance of how part of the anti-Vietnam war protest went violent.  This movie, which takes place in the present, is about individuals who were active participants in a Weather Underground incident and who then went underground.  Robert Redford plays the lead character, Nick Sloan.  He also directed the film.  After going underground, Sloan resurfaces as a public interest lawyer in Albany, NY.   His fabricated persona becomes suspect after the character played by Susan Sarandon is arrested.  This occurs at the beginning of the film.  The Sarandon character, who has decided to surrender, is instead arrested by the FBI.  The lead FBI agent is played by Terrence Howard.  The movie is not FBI friendly and Howard’s performance is not helpful.   Sloan is flushed out by a young newspaper reporter, Ben Shepard, played by Shia LeBeouf.  The film moves between how the reporter discovers what three decades of FBI work had not, and Redford on the run.  Turns out that some of the old radicals had maintained communication channels over the past 30 years.  It is these minor roles that make this film an enjoyable viewing experience.  Nick Nolte is not on screen very long but he dominates for his duration.  Julie Christie was Redford’s girlfriend in the day and he is traveling the country to find her because she is the one who knows the true story regarding the incident that forced Redford to recreate himself.  Christie is now a drug runner living in Northern California with Mac, played by Sam Elliot.  Christie does not look her 71 years and she remains excellent.  We also have actors Richard Jenkins and Stephen Root playing other members of the University of Michigan group.  Stanley Tucci plays the newspaper editor and Ben Shepard’s boss.  The film cast is excellent.  As to the storyline, I had mixed emotions after the recent events in Boston.  I bet if you asked most Americans to name the most successful organization in planting bombs in American history, they would not guess Weather Underground; in this instance, my reference to “success” relates to number of incidents and not death count.  Since I’m old enough to have been in college when much of what led to the formation of the Weather Underground occurred, I remember the incidents that are the understory for this movie.  I also recall that the acts of the Underground were not the modern indiscriminate bombings by religious zealots.   Still, a bomb is a bomb is a bomb.  The fact that the movie made me think is another plus to go with the excellent acting.  The movie kept my attention for the 125 minutes.  Unfortunately, Redford could not resist a Hollywood ending to his film.  I would have preferred the film ending about 5 minutes earlier than it does.  I will place at the end of my blog what should have been the closing scene.  One additional comment: the script is weak and most of the characters, despite the excellent acting, are too one dimensional.  Nolte and Sarandon were notable exceptions and more screen time for them would have been a plus.  Redford’s time as a lead actor has passed. 

POSTSCRIPT ON MOVIE ENDING:   Redford and Christie meet at a cabin in Upper Minnesota.  The FBI had tracked Redford character but has no idea Christie is present. They run from the cabin in opposite directions and Christie makes it to a lake wharf where a small boat is present.  Then there is a long shot of the boat in the lake.   I would have ented the movie with that scene. 

Movie: 42

42: telling the story of Jackie Robinson integrating major league baseball.   The movie covers the period from 1945 through Robinson’s rookie season with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.   This is not a biography of Jackie Robinson.  Instead, using baseball and the Robinson story, a snapshot of America right after winning WWII is being told.  While every baseball fan should see this movie, “42” is more than just a  baseball film.  The movie opens with a background voice talking about the soldiers returning home but despite the victory over fascism, segregation through Jim Crow laws remain rampant throughout much of the country.  The racism that existed was blatant and the movie does not hide this fact.   Nor does it hide the anti-Semitism which was also prevalent.  A scene shows the manager of the Philadelphia Phillies asking reporters why can’t I call Robinson a Nigger if I can call Hank Greenberg a Kike.  The adventures of Leo Durocher (Christopher Meloni) provide an interesting counterpoint.  For you non-baseball fans, Durocher was the manager of the Dodgers who got suspended in 1947 for his lack of morals - he was dating a Hollywood starlet who got divorced over the relationship.  I could launch into a discussion of sexual morality verses treating each human as an equal, but I won’t.  Chadwick Boseman is a credible Jackie Robinson and Nicole Beharie plays his wife Rachel.  The movie is also a love story as they appear to have had a remarkable relationship.  Mrs. Robinson is still alive and actively working with the education foundation bearing Jackie’s name.  The integration of baseball happened as early as 1947 due to one man, Branch Rickey.  He was a lone voice.  Rickey was the general manager of the Dodgers and it was through his drive and the character of Robinson that baseball integration occurred when it did, with success.  Harrison Ford does a marvelous job portraying Rickey.  The movie was written and directed by Brian Helgeland and he is not into complexity.  The movie score is unfortunate.  It has the sound of a ‘40s movie, which is not meant as a compliment.  Using a movie score to tell the viewer what is important is not a device I endorse.  The 128 minute movie is complimentary to some baseball players (Pee Wee Reese and Ralph Branca) and shows the blatant racism of others (Dixie Walker and Enos Slaughter).  An individual who is shown to have evolved thorough his interaction with Robinson was Bobby Bragan.  There is also a father/son scene which shows how racist acts are passed from father to son.   I recommend that you watch history being told in an entertaining movie but afterwards think about what has transpired during the past 66 years.