Molly's Game

Molly’s Game                                                                                                                January 20, 2018

This movie is a patch work of scenes from Molly Bloom’s life. From little Molly learning how to ski, to an Olympic skier, to a novice poker manager, to a high stakes poker entrepreneur, to a felon. These scenes are managed through flash backs but make the narration awkward. The problem with this segmentation is it limits character development. Michael Cera (whose acting is best described as warm milk on a warm day) is Player X in a key poker sequence. The relationship with Molly could have been good or bad, but was equivocal because the scene ended

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Molly, played by Jessica Chastain, is an Olympian skier who suffers a career ending accident. She takes a gap year on her way to law school which lasts about ten years. She becomes an entrepreneur of a high stakes poker attracting film celebrities, athletes and Wall Street titans. Pots are in the hundreds of thousands. The film feels like a docudrama. A lexicon of poker terms are explained  and are quickly forgotten. Little poker cards float in the air displaying winning and losing hand. Like a docudrama Chastain practically narrates the entire movie.

Chastain’s roles vary from rebellious daughter to damaged athlete to a high stakes poker entrepreneur. She gives a good performance, but the material limits her scope. This film lacks pathos. The film’s moral imperative is not whether to publish the Pentagon papers or to seek revenge for a murdered daughter, but to keep Molly in the game and out of prison. The tawdriness of the film is like a gossip magazine.

The two strongest interactions are Chastain with her father and her lawyer. Kevin Costner plays her father as a hard driving perfectionist, whose unyielding parenting drives her away. Costner plays the role cold and detached, not a stretch for him.

 The best scenes are with her lawyer played by Idris Elba. Their interaction is spirted and heated. He is a reluctant lawyer and she an unsympathetic client. The exchange is compelling because he strips her down to the essential and she is vulnerable and needs his help. They have good chemistry.

This is not a movie about pulling yourself out of poverty by your boot straps, but rather balancing yourself on stiletto heels wearing a skin tight mini dress. This movie is more voyeuristic than dramatic. Rather than a must see movie it is at best a nice to see movie.

The Post

The Post         

                                                                                                                                     January 5, 2018

In 1970 my draft number for the Vietnam war was 254, not good. My college deferment kept me out of the draft for four years. By 1974 the war was winding down along with my chances for selection. That is the closest I got to the Vietnam war.

This movie is brilliant. With the trifecta of Streep, Hanks and Spielberg it is hard to miss. They deliver on the movie’s hype. Spielberg captures the electricity of the Pentagon Papers drama. It was a time when the freedom of the press was in peril and the Nixon Justice Department was in full tilt trying to crush publication and the First Amendment. Nixon’s Machiavellian paranoia makes Trump look like a hand puppet.  

Robert McNamara was the Secretary of State under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. He commissioned the Pentagon Papers which documented the history of the war from Presidents Truman to Johnson. The study revealed lies perpetrated by the US government, political assassinations, coup de tas and clandestine wars. The study concluded the war was unwinnable.

Streep was fantastic, she delivered a master class in acting. Katrin Graham became the publisher of the Washington Post after her husband committed suicide. Graham never worked in her life and now she was the publisher of the Post. Streep displays Graham’s trepidation with darting eyes, nervous hands and heavy sighs. These nuances are make her character rich.

I am reluctant to say there was a subplot in the movie, it is more of a co-plot. In 1970 Graham was a woman in a man’s world. She sought the support and advise of the all-male board of directors. As the movie progresses she becomes her own boss with daring boldness.

Tom Hanks pays Ben Bradlee. He plays the role with a bit too much cheek. Hanks was not reinventing himself for the is role he rather was pulling in parts from older characters he played. Nonetheless, his brashness was a counterpart to Streep’s trepidation.

There are a number of other actors. Bob Odenkirk (Better Call Sol) plays Ben Bagdikian who precures the Pentagon Papers from Daniel Ellsberg. Odenkirk plays the role with a mixture determination and fear. Peddling government secrets leads to jail time. Bruce Greenwood is a dead ringer for Robert McNamara.  Even on the verge of revelations of government’s lies, he was unapologetic and still rationalizing the war.

Streep has twenty Oscar nominations and won three. I think another nomination is a good bet. Her performance is good enough to win. This movie can win best picture.