Movie: Birdman

Birdman or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance:  a comedy, sort of.  I decided to see this film in violation of one of my self-imposed rules: if the preview leaves you uninterested, don’t spend money to see more of the same.  This film, however, is not more of the same.  In fact, I’m wondering how many Oscars nominations Birdman will receive, including a best actor nod to Michael Keaton for his portrayal of Birdman, aka Riggan.  So who is Birdman?  - -  an invented movie character who made 3 films, the last one at least 20 years in the past.  Riggan, in an attempt to show the world that he is a real actor,  has written a play based upon the Raymond Carver story “What We Talk about When We Talk About Love.”  The film opens with the play’s New York preview to occur in just a few hours.  The film moves between getting the play ready for opening night and Riggan’s fantasies about being Birdman.  Another self-imposed rule blown:  if you’re really aware of the music but are not watching a musical, there is a problem.  I became extremely aware of the music and I loved it.  Antonio Sanchez should receive an Oscar nomination for best original score.  Oscar nominations could also include Edward Norton as the actor with the oversized ego and, perhaps, Zach Galifianakis as Riggan’s lawyer and the play’s producer.  Galifianakis has no comedy lines, which is a pleasant surprise.  There is also Emma Stone’s supporting role as Sam, Riggan’s daughter, who initially comes across as a stoner but is much more.  There are also fine performances by Naomi Watts and Amy Ryan.   The original script is by the director, Alejandro G. Inarritu, along with Nicolas Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris Jr. and Amando Bo.   An excellent cast working with a very imaginative director and a creative script produces what is definitely a picture to be both seen and heard.  The 119 minute film is not predictable.  The presentation includes showing a specific scene from the play many times but each time there are distinct  differences.   Much of this movie takes place at the St. James Theatre in Times Square.  The camerawork is outstanding and another probable Oscar nomination.   The NY Times theater critic, played by Lindsay Duncan, also offers an interesting rip on critics.  I was entertained from the beginning to the end.  I highly recommend this movie.

Movie: Fury

Fury:  a WWII film starring Brad Pitt.  Timeline is Spring 1945.  The Allies have crossed the German border but Germany’s war defense effort remains substantial.  Pitt’s character, Sgt. Don Collier, is a tank commander.  His crew has been with him since North Africa.  When the film opens, we learn that Collier’s tank is the sole survivor from an encounter.  This film is presented in the style of Saving Sargent Ryan, and war is shown in all its brutality.  There is also a sense of Tarantino’s Inglorious Bastards present, a prior Pitt WWII film.  Both films are clear that the enemies are the Nazis  and they deserve to be killed.  The tank’s crew is diverse, which is expected in a 21^st century movie.  Michael Pena as Gordo, the Mexican-American, and Jon Bernthal as Grady Travis, the Southerner, play effectively off each other.  Shia LeBeouf gives an Oscar quality performance as the Bible quoting Christian.  The counterpoint character is a private, played by Logan Lerman,  who is assigned to the crew as they are heading into another battle.  Lerman is a transferee from the typing pool and has no experience with death.  He is also presented as an intellectual who has read Hemingway and plays classical piano, which we learn during an interlude between the taking of a German town and the next battle.  The break in the fighting allows Pitt to reveal the complexity of the tank sergeant.  Collier speaks fluent German but how that came to be is left unexplained.  The film was written and directed by David Ayer.  The battles have a realism that propels the movie.  The film’s title is taken from the name painted on the tank’s main gun.  This emotion is also reflected in Sgt. Collier character and in the battle scenes.  Veterans of war speak of the savagery of battle and the need to act with decency once the fighting has ended.  My father did not watch war movies because he found their treatment of war silly and unrealistic.  I think he’d find this 134 minute film to be the exception.  This film grabs your attention with the opening scenes and holds it firmly to the end.  

BOOK: Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pigrimage

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage is the latest novel by Haruki Murakami.  If you haven’t read any of his novels, you are missing a very talented writer.  This summer I read Kafka on the Shore.  When I saw the announcement of Murakami’s newest novel, I immediately ordered a copy.  Colorless is relatively short making for a good weekend read.  The story opens with Tsukuru, as a college sophomore, learning that his four closest friends from high school cut off all communication with him.  This act changes Tsukuru for life.  The novel has three time periods:  Tsukuru’s high school years in Nagoya; his college years in Tokyo; and as a 36 year old employed engineer.  Although much of the storyline takes place during Tsukuru’s adulthood, the story keeps returning to his time in school, and it is only towards the end of the novel that we learn why his friends, 2 males and 2 females, terminated their relationship with Tsukuru.  Unlike his friends, Tsukuru’s name does not translate to a particular color.  His friends’ surnames reflect a color:  Miss White; Miss Black; Mr. Red and Mr. Blue.  Tsukuru’s name means “to make”.  Tsukuru’s only other college friend’s name, Haida, means gray.  The colors are  metaphors for personalities.  As in Kafka on the Shore, this novel explores the difficulties of a young male coming of age in a society without the companionship or relationship of a father; Kafka and Tsukura, however, are very different males as were their fathers.  Tsukuru’s  efforts to learn what happened with his friends allows him to finally grow as an adult.  Interestingly,  the individual who pushes Tsukuru to make peace with his own history also has no color in her name.  Her dress and her life, however, are very color-coordinated.  The underlying story holds your interest and the quality of Murakami’s writing is world class.  For example:  “There is no silence without a cry of grief, no forgiveness without bloodshed, no acceptance without a passage of acute loss.”  I’ve read that Murakami has been considered for the Nobel Prize in literature.  Colorless, a relatively short work, will give you a feel as to why he is deserving of such consideration.  Then, after reading longer tales such as Kafka on the Shore, I believe that you, too, will be convinced that Murakami is deserving of such an honor.

 

Movie: Dear White People

Dear White People:  a comedy addressing current issues.  This film takes place on a fictional Ivy League campus named Winchester.  The source of the film’s title is the lead character’s campus radio show, “Dear White People”.  The movie can be viewed as an updated version of Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing set on a college campus.  Samantha (“Sam”) White, who is more than just a witty radio host, is played by Tessa Thompson.  Through Sam’s eyes, we are shown the complexities of stereotypes.  For example, Sam informs a professor that the 1984 movie Gremlins is about suburban white fear of black culture as “Gremlins are loud, talk in slang, are addicted to fried chicken and freak out when you get their hair wet”.  I would need to see the film more than once to remember more of Sam’s clever lines as well as those of the second lead character, Lionel Higgins (Tyler James Williams).  Lionel is initially presented as a shy, gay student who insists he does not identify with anything while not fitting in anywhere on campus.  Lionel is told by a white person, who thinks she’s complimenting him, “You’re only technically black.”  The incident that is the catalyst for the movie is a Halloween party sponsored annually by a satirical magazine.  Blackface hip-hop becomes the party’s theme and this leads to some serious scenes.  Writer and first time director, Justin Simien, did not invent the party concept; post-film credits show photos from such parties at Dartmouth, UC San Diego, Pennsylvania State University and other schools.  Simien has a person from the Southside of Chicago present the idea of having the hip-hop party (Teyonah Paris as Coco Connors).  Coco’s character presents other issues underlying human relations.  This film isn’t limited to the Black/White issue.  The sons of both the University President and its Dean of Students attend Winchester and both sons have issues with their fathers.  Dean Haysbert plays the Dean of Students and Peter Syvertsen the school President.  There are also core Black issues presented such as how Black is Black.  A lot happens during this 108-minute film and it is all presented with a sense of humor.  You will be amused as the movie unfolds.  Then, when you further consider what you saw, you’ll have a lot to think about regarding race relations in the USA.  I highly recommend this film.

 

Movie: The Notebook (Le Grand Cahier)

The Notebook:  Hungarian WW II film.  The story revolves around 12 year old twin boys.  The twins are played by actual brothers, Laszlo and Andras Gyemant.  The time period is 1944/1945.   The opening scene shows the father returning home on military leave to a loving wife and two sons.  When the father returns to the front, the wife takes the boys to her mother’s farm.  We quickly learn that the grandmother has neither seen her grandchildren nor met her son-in-law.  The boys’ mother left home upon the death of her father.  There are hints as to how the father died and why a schism exists between mother and daughter.  If you understand Hungarian, the background story may be clearer.  The film’s focus is on what happens to the boys when they are left at their grandmother’s house, not on the mother-daughter relationship.  The title originates from the father giving the twins a notebook and telling them to write down everything that happens to them while he is gone.  The boys are diligent in their task.  The fact there is a war is very present throughout the film, and the village’s anti-Semitism is part of the story.  The twins are not Jewish and the anti-Semitism we witness is viewed through their eyes.  We never learn the names of the twins; they are either “One” or the “Other” or, per the grandmother, “the Bastards”.   Until the twins’ father arrives at the farm, the grandmother believes there is no husband.  This 112 minute film, directed by Janos Szasz, is based on a French novel by a Hungarian author named Agota Kristof, who also co-wrote the script.  The story deals with unpleasant times.  The grandmother initially appears to be an angry and evil woman.  She is undoubtedly angry, however, as to the story develops, not evil.   The twins learn to survive and in the process, are changed; they are not the same individuals they were when the films opens.  Some of the characters are stereotypes, but the film’s focus remains on the twins and what happens when young males are forced to grow up without the presence of a sane adult male to interpret the barbaric events of wartime.  The Gyemant brothers give an excellent performance.  The film will linger in your thoughts for a long while.

Movie: Gone Girl

Gone Girl:  a mystery based upon the same-named novel.  I suspect those of you who haven’t read the novel will enjoy the movie more than those who have as the underlying story is premised on a gimmick.  The script is by the book’s author, Gillian Flynn.  Because I had not read the book, the movie held my interest.  Notwithstanding the manipulative plotline, there are some quality acting performances.  The story raises the question of who can you trust.  After a short, chilling opening scene, we are introduced to Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck), a husband whose marriage is off track.  We learn of the teetering marriage through a conversation Nick has with a bartender, whom we later learn is his twin sister, Margo (Carrie Coon).  Nick and Margo operate “The Bar” in North Carthage, a fictional town in Missouri.  Following the bar scene, Nick returns home to find signs of a break-in and his wife missing.  Nick calls the police and we meet detectives Boney (Kim Dickens) and Gilpen (Patrick Fugit).  The police are suspicious and we begin wondering whether Nick’s wife, Amy (Rosamund Pike), has been killed.   Amy is a public personality due to her parents having written and promoted “Amazing Amy”, a famous series of children’s books based on enhanced episodes of Amy’s life.  The media become promptly involved.  The parents, Rand (David Clennon) and Marybeth (Lisa Banes), through years of exposure, are very media savvy.  Media personalities include a Nancy Grace character who pounds on the evils of men.  As the story unfolds, the institution of marriage takes a beating.  One of the more interesting characters is an individual named Greta (Lola Kirke), but explaining how she fits in would detract from the suspense created by director David Fincher.  There is also Amy’s very wealthy but naïve ex-boyfriend, Desi (Neil Patrick Harris).  Desi becomes a key character.  Tyler Perry gives a good performance as the high profile defense attorney.  The story from Nick’s perspective is told in the first person; Amy’s story is told primarily through her diary.  The first half of this 145 minute film focuses on Nick while the second half focuses on Amy and the backstory of their relationship.  There are some violent scenes.  David Fincher directed “Fight Club” and, if you saw that film, you know Fincher enjoys inter-personal violence.  Ben Affleck is outstanding and the two detectives, Boney and Gilpin, are entertaining as Fargo-type characters.  The story held my attention.  In retrospect, however, I enjoyed the film more before I had a chance to think about the numerous  defects in the storyline, but discussing the film’s plot problems would reveal too much.  This movie works because the ending is not obvious.  On a scale of 5.0, this is a 3.5 star flick.  

 

Movie: A Walk Among teh Tombstones

A Walk Among the Tombstones: a Liam Neeson film with a quality script.   I enjoy Neeson’s acting but, generally speaking, not the films he appears in.  This time, however, Neeson is working with a quality script and director, Scott Frank, who wrote the screenplay for Get Shorty.  The film is based on a novel by Lawrence Block and takes place in 1999.   Neeson’s character, Matt Scudder, is a former New York city cop and a recovering alcoholic.  Technically, Scudder is not a private investigator because he never obtained a license.  He just does “favors” for people who, in turn, offer him “gifts”.  In the film, Scudder is approached by a prospective client, Kenny Kristo (Dan Stevens), who asks that Scudder find the individual who kidnapped and killed Kristo’s wife despite payment of the ransom.  Because Kristo’s income is related to drugs, he chooses not to go to the cops.  Scudder discovers that the kidnappers/killers have a prior history.  Part of the drama is finding out the killers’ connection to the DEA since it’s obvious they are targeting drug dealers.   Another kidnapping occurs and the story’s details are further revealed along with the reason why Scudder retired from the police force.  Scudder does his research at a library, a refreshing departure from today’s omnipresent internet, and meets TJ (Brian Bradley), a teenager with artistic talents.  TJ provides a lightness to what is mostly a serious crime story.  Boyd Holbrook also gives a good performance as Kristo’s drug addicted brother, Peter.  There is onscreen violence.  The two bad dudes are truly evil, particularly Ray, played by David Harbour.  A lot happens during the film’s 113 minutes and, as with The Drop, if you enjoy crime stories, you will be entertained.