Movie: Transcendence

Transcendence: a slow moving science fiction film.  I believe this is the first time I’ve ever combined the words “slow moving” and “science fiction” in the same sentence.  While there are positive aspects to this  119 minute movie, it is long 119 minutes.  The film has an excellent cast, including Johnny Depp as the lead character, Will Caster.  However, for the first time ever, Depp’s performance bored me.   While his Tonto can be criticized on many counts, boredom is not among them.  At its foundation, Transcendence has an intriguing premise: artificial intelligence using the brain of a single individual.  The opening sequence, which held my interest, shows Caster giving a Steve Job type presentation about where his research is heading.   As he is leaving the auditorium, he is shot but not killed.  For storyline convenience, the bullet, which is laced with radiation, guarantees Caster’s death over time.  The assassination is part of an organized eradication of people involved with artificial intelligence.  From this initial premise, which makes scientists the bad guys, the story winds through a series of implausible events that are told with too much verbiage and too little action.  Intertwined with the sci-fi/ thriller threads, the movie also tells a love story between Caster and his scientist wife, Evelyn, played by Rebecca Hall.  While Caster and Evelyn’s love for each other is eternal, there is no comparable chemistry between Depp and Hall and the connection falls flat.  Morgan Freeman appears briefly as a colleague of Caster but his role is very limited.  Also underused is Paul Bettany who plays Caster’s neurobiologist partner.  Roger Ebert often talked about the need for a film to be believable within its defined framework.  Transcendence falls far short of Ebert’s test.  This failure combined with the film’s painfully slow pace leads me to say for the first time ever about a Johnny Depp movie: it is not worth seeing.  The script, written by Jack Paglen, raises some fundamental issues about the potential power of machines and it is easy to understand what attracted Depp to the movie.  Unfortunately, the director, Wally Pfister, fails to overcome the script’s defects.  I hope Paglen and Pfister do not work together again.  

Movie: Bethehem

Bethlehem: a contemporary Israeli movie.  The primary characters are an Israeli secret service officer and a Palestinian teenage informant.  In 2013, the movie was given an Ophir for Best Film.  The Ophir is the Israeli Academy of Film and Television’s equivalent of an Oscar.  In its 99 minutes, this movie offers a case study as to why there has been no peace in the West Bank.  In this Cain and Abel tale, the political and social difficulties existing in the West Bank are starkly presented.  Sanfur (Shadi Mar’i) is a 17 year old living with his parents in Bethlehem.  His brother, Ibrahim, is a Palestinian militant responsible for the death of Israelis.  Razi (Tsahi Halevy) is a married Israeli secret service officer working for an antiterrorism unit and who has gotten Sanfur to assist him in tracking terrorists.  The film gives different reasons as to why Sanfur chose to cooperate with Razi.  You may view the Sanfur character as complex or as just a confused teenager living in a violent society.  Ibrahim’s mission is simple - to kill Israelis - and while Ibrahim’s story is essential to the movie, the focus is on Sanfur and Razi.  Bethlehem is written by Ali Waked, an Israeli Arab, and Yuval Adler, who also directed this excellent film.  The violence of the place and times are shown primarily through Sanfur’s interactions with his family, friends and society.  The film shows the mistrust many Israelis have for Palestinians as well as the mistrust that lies within the Palestinian community itself.  Through the presence of the individual in Ibrahim’s Cell No. 2, the movie also makes the point that Bedouins are viewed as second class citizens within the Palestinian community.  Hiham Omari, as the Bedouin Badawi, gives a powerful performance.  This film appears to be an honest presentation of what is currently happening in the West Bank.  Subtitled. 

Movie: The Great Budapest Hotel

The Grand Budapest Hotel: a Wes Anderson film.  I usually don’t lead with the name of the director but Anderson has become the leading off-beat comedy film director and, with The Grand Budapest Hotel, he hits a home run.  The script, which Anderson co-authored, was inspired by the writings of Stefan Zweig, an Austrian Jew from the 1930’s who may have been the most widely read German author of his time.  This zany tale takes place at the dawn of WW II in a fictitious Eastern European country located somewhere between Germany and Russia.  The movie was actually filmed in Gorlitz, Germany.  The lead character, M. Gustave, played marvelously by Ralph Fiennes, is the concierge and ruler of the Hotel.  The movie opens in 1985 and the  country is under communist rule.  An elderly writer, played by Tom Wilkinson,  is recalling his visit to the Hotel in 1968 and his introduction to the Hotel’s owner, a Mr. Moustafa, played by F. Murray Abraham.   Moustafa then proceeds to tell the then young writer, played by Jude Law, how he came to own the Hotel.  The Hotel is the centerpiece of the story and the timeline morphs to the 1930’s where we meet Gustave and a newly hired lobby boy called Zero (Tony Revolori), who is the young Moustafa.  Then the fun begins in earnest.  The Gustave character reminded me of Max Bialystock of The Producers - both romance older women and are financially rewarded.  Tilda Swinton plays Madame D, who is 84.  Madame D does not want to leave the Hotel because she has a premonition she will die.  And, off screen, she does die; Zero shows Gustave the newspaper article about her death.  Gustave and Zero head off to Madame D’s home where they meet her family, who are reminiscent of Marx Brothers characters with Adrien Brody playing Madame D’s son and Willem Dafoe playing the family hit man.  There are also three bizarre sisters.  As the inheritance story unfolds, the totalitarianism of the era presents itself with Harvey Keitel appearing as Ludwig and various prisoners and other characters played by Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Owen Wilson and Jeff Goldblum.  Unlike many movies with star ridden casts, everyone stays in character.  The 100 minute film moves at a brisk pace and you never know what oddity will happen next.  There is an undercurrent in the film as to the reality that will befall the region where the Hotel is located, however, it is presented with irony and charm and plain old fun.   

NOVEL: Songs of Willow Frost

Songs of Willow Frost, a novel by Jamie Ford.   The story takes place in Seattle.  It is 1934 when the story commences.   A twelve year old Chinese-American boy is living in a Catholic orphanage. He has been living in the orphanage for the past five years.  As with his prior novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, this novel addresses the issue of discrimination by sharing a story about the life of a young oriental male and his family.  Hotel focused on a Japanese male living in Seattle and carried the story through the WW II internment camps.  Willow ends in 1935 and backtracks in time to 1921 to tell the story of the boy’s mother and how the son ended up in an orphanage.  The chapters are labeled by the year in which the events occur.  Ford is an excellent storyteller and the 319 page novel will keep you interested to the end.  First you become interested in the orphaned child, William Eng.  You are then told about Liu Song, the boy’s mother, who takes the stage name, Willow Frost.  Willow returns to Seattle in 1934 as an actress and singer.  Her touring cast includes Stepin Fetchit, who, in real life, appeared on stage as well as in cinema.  William’s father is Liu Song’s stepfather.  The rape occurs shortly after Liu Song’s mother dies.  As with Ford’s first novel, this is a story of bitterness and sweetness.  William, who has believed for years that his mother is dead, sees a trailer in a movie theatre and recognizes his mother’s voice.  While the nominal storyline is William’s hunt for his mother, the novel tells a far more complex tale with two very interesting lead characters.  I enjoyed Ford’s first novel and Songs of Willow Frost is an excellent second novel.

Movie: Pompeii

Pompeii: a gladiator disaster film that is my first nomination for worst film of 2014.   Mount Vesuvius is going to erupt, the year is 79 AD, and the question is whether you care if any of the characters survive.   After observing them, you may be routing for the volcano by the time it erupts.   The special effects people did their part.  The problem is a weak script with horrendous acting as to most of the characters.   The lead character is named Milo, played by Kit Harington.   He is miscast as the lone survivor of a Celtic horse tribe.   Never thought I’d miss Steve Reeves.   From the opening sequence when we see Kiefer Sutherland order the massacre of Milo’s family, you know the film is going to be violent.  I don’t know why the movie has a PG-13 rating.  What you don’t know is that Sutherland, as Roman Senator Corvus,  gives a terrible performance: worse I’ve seen from him.   A love story is intertwined with the gladiator and volcano rumbling scenes.   Emily Browning plays the aristocrat daughter Cassia who falls in love with Milo after observing him kill a horse.   Cassia has returned to Pompeii after a year in Rome.  As the story unfolds, we learn that she left Rome to distant herself from Corvus.    Corvus, observing her affection for Milo, sets out to have him killed in the gladiator arena.  Yes, the script is that silly.   The only credible actor is Adewale Akinnouye-Agbaje, as gladiator Atticus.  The interplay between him and Milo works.   Of course, you have to ignore the question of whether gladiators became friends before going into the arena to kill each other.  The sword fighting scenes are well done.   The director is Paul W. S. Anderson and as long as he is not doing drama, the movie has entertainment value.  But the 105 minute movie is not limited to sword fighting and the volcano.     

 

Movie: Charles Lloyd: Arrows into Infinity

Charles Lloyd: Arrows Into Infinity:  a documentary tribute to a great musician.    If you are a Charles Lloyd fan, you should see this film.    The approximate two hour film traces Lloyd’s career from the late 1950’s through a performance in 2011.  The movie splices commentary from a number of individuals such as Herbie Hancock, Robbie Robertson and Stanley Crouch with Lloyd’s music.  The movie could have been edited better, however, due to the music, I didn’t mind.  The movie was co-directed by Jeffrey Morse and Dorothy Darr, Lloyd’s wife of 40 years.  Lloyd, who is now 75 years old, was born in Memphis in March 1938.  Although the movie references his place of birth, the film is more a celebration of his music.  The film hints at some of the negatives that occurred during Lloyd’s life (drugs) but skips over why he disappeared from the music scene for more than 15 years (there were no Lloyd recordings in the 1980’s).  If you are under 40, you probably haven’t heard of Charles Lloyd, who became famous as a jazz crossover playing the Fillmore and Monterey in the 60’s and 70’s.  Historical tidbit: as a result of Lloyd’s non-government sanctioned performance in Russia in 1967, Russia literally banned the saxophone from the country for a period of time and the private promoters who had sponsored Lloyd’s Russian performance ended up with a stay in Siberia.  Arrows Into Infinity was shown at the Doris Duke Theatre as part of the African American Film Festival.  I don’t know if the DVD is available or if any other venue will present this film.  It has been shown at a number of film festivals but does not appear to have had a general theatre release.  The film shown at Doris Duke was not of the best technical quality.  But I was there for the music and sufficient performance sequences were on screen to please this viewer. 

Movie: The Monuments Men

The Monuments Men: soldiers saving art.  The movie is based upon a true story.  During the war, Hitler plundered Europe’s art collections and planned to build a museum to house his stolen treasures.  However, when the war turned against him, Hitler issued a decree to have  the art destroyed.  A small group was formed to save the art work from destruction.  The actual unit was a joint effort among a coalition of British and American military men.   At the end of the war, this Monuments Unit consisted of approximately 66 men.  The Unit continued to operate through 1951 but remained small, approximately 350 individuals.  The first part of the movie tells how the Unit was assembled.  It then goes on to describe the Unit’s efforts during WW II,  which were remarkably successful given the limited number of individuals involved.  The movie focuses on eight of the individuals, all of whom are played by high profile actors.  George Clooney, in the lead, plays an individual named Frank Stokes in the movie but clearly represents George Leslie Stout.  Clooney also co-wrote and directed this 159 minute film.  The script is based upon a book by Robert Edsel and Bret Witter, which is quite readable and provides a lot more detail as to what occurred.  Despite the seriousness of the subject, there is a lightness to the film:  the war is a backdrop to explaining the importance of art to civilization.  With John Goodman and Bill Murray among the prominent characters, it should not have come as any surprise that there was as much humor as there was, the seriousness of the subject notwithstanding.  The manner by which each member joins the Unit is also presented with humor.  By their facial expressions alone, both Murray and Goodman can bring a smile to the viewer.  The interaction between Murray and Bob Balaban is particularly funny.  Due to the international affiliations of the Monuments Unit, the casting of Hugh Bonneville from “ Downton Abbey” and Jean Dujardin from “The Artist” was appropriate.  Part of the Unit’s success was due to information provided by a French female art curator who had monitored the looting of the French Museum.  This character is played by Cate Blanchett.  Matt Damon also has a prominent role.  If you want to learn what really happened with respect to the Monuments Men, those individuals who served in the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives unit of the American and British military, you should read the book.  The movie is enjoyable but touches only upon the depth of Hilter’s plan for the destruction of great art and the effort that was made to save the art from destruction.