Elvis

 

Elvis

This movie is unique not only for the electric performance of Austin Butler and manipulative Col. Tom Parker played by Tom Hanks but for the entire production. The film is not in chronical order, it jumps around depicting Presly’s milestones. Scenes of his impoverished childhood are brief but important showing the influence of gospel music and the frenetic gyrations of parishioners becoming a hallmark of his “wiggling”. Elvis is a bridge between gospel/ R&B and rock and roll. The film has a litany of black musicians  including BB King, Little Richard, Fats Domino and Sister Rosetta Tharpe who influenced Elvis. When a reporter called Elvis the King of Rock and Roll, he replied no Fats Domino is the King.

Austin Butler gives a dramatic and  brilliant physical performance. His Elvis is fragile and insecure. He was a mama’s boy and needed reassurance. But Butler gives a mean rendition of Elvis’s classic songs. He sings some of the early songs but later songs use Elvis’s voice. His dancing is kinetic and mimics the original. Elvis was known for his wicked hips which Butler performs superbly (when Elvis was on the Ed Sullivan show he was filmed from the waist up). Butler said the secret to the dancing is not so much the hips but the ankles. The movie covers the arch of Elvis’s life. The scenes of his demise are brief but powerful. Butler gives a masterful  performance of all his life’s chapters.

Tom Hanks plays Colonel Tom Parker as a cartoonish Svengali. In a fat suit with a floppy jowl, Hanks is in a constant state sweat affecting a nondescript European accent (the real Parker was Dutch). Elvis and Parker had a toxic symbiotic relationship. A critic said showing Mr. Rogers as a scoundrel would detract from the film. On the contrary, Hanks disdainful swindling portrayal defines their complicated relationship. Elvis needed someone, good or bad.

 Besides his mother the other important woman in his life was Pricilla Presley played by Olivia DeJong. She has good chemistry with Butler and depicts the downward spiral of their relationship. Even after their divorce they still loved each other.

Waring to senior citizens, the is a two bathroom movie with a run time of about two and a half hours.

News of the World

 

News of the World (Amazon Prime)

Let’s get to it. This is a slow movie, 115 minutes slow. For a western most of the plot is pretty  predictable. The heart of the movie is the tender relationship Hanks develops with his co-star, Helena Zengel. Tom plays Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, a former Confederate soldier and Helena plays Johanna, an orphaned ten year old German girl who was abducted by Indians after they massacred her family. Tom travels from town to town reading the news to rural towns people charging a dime for admission. Besides informing the locals of the news the readings were a welcomed distraction from their hardscrabble life.  The film takes place in post-Civil War Texas. Under Reconstruction confederate soldiers had to show loyalty cards and could not carry firearms. The Texas landscape is bleak and baren, a metaphor for a defeated state and its people.

Captain Kidd finds Johanna abandoned on the road. After her parents were killed by Indians she was raised by the Kiowas and no longer speaks English. The majority of her dialogue is a few native words  and some broken English. Kidd obligates himself to return Johanna to her only relatives, her aunt and uncle.

This is basically a two actor film. There is a smattering of Indians and ex-confederate soldiers, but the main drama is between Captain Kidd and Johanna. Tom Hanks is a versatile actor who has played roles from the beloved Forest Gump to a cast away FedEx executive. Here Hanks is like Mr. Rogers on horseback. He is sincere and caring. Over the course of their journey he develops a fatherly affection for Johanna.

Helena Zengel is a Germain actress (what else) with little screen time in the US. With limited dialogue the majority of her performance is portraying emotions and nonverbal communication which she does  well. She is sad but strong willed. Their relationship is not easy. She is defiant and resists returning to the white world. Her relationship with Captain Kidd is tumultuous but they bond over time.

This movie is like comfort food, welcomed and easy to digest. News of the World is a reprieve from cable news.

 

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood                                                                             March 28, 2020

I never watched Mr. Rogers on TV. On the Lower East Side when a middle aged man wearing a red sweater, or more likely an old Budweiser t-shirt, invited you into his room nothing good came of it. Enough of my cynicism. This a wonderful touching movie. The film is not only about Mr. Rogers but also his relationship  Lloyd Vogel, the Esquire writer.

Tom Hanks wonderfully conveys the genuineness and sincerity of Mr. Rogers. For humans Mr. Rogers was too perfect and this idle was the root of Lloyd Vogel’s skepticism. Lloyd Vogel is damaged goods and it is hard for him to believe in the goodness of Mr. Rogers. The heart of the film is Vogel’s resurrection of humanity after meeting Mr. Rogers.

Tom Hanks’s acting is sublime. His mannerisms and intonation capture the real Mr. Rogers. It is not simply an impression but an dramatic interpretation. Aside from the ubiquitous red sweater Tom Hanks does not resemble Mr. Rogers but his acting transforms him. Hanks received an Oscar nomination for best actor.

Lloyd Vogel is  brilliantly played by the Welsh actor Matthew Rhys. He is not a fan of Mr. Rogers and feels the assignment to interview Rogers below him. His character has a lot of baggage mainly from a strained relationship with his father. Rhys conveys skepticism and wears  his pain on his face. His  reconciliation with his father comes from his friendship with Mr. Rogers. Chris Cooper plays the father who is trying to mend things with his son but does a poor job of it. Cooper is the consummate actor and  portrays Vogel’s father as  a self-centered irresponsible cad seeking forgiveness. 

The movie’s production design is very clever. Intermittently Lego like cities are shown to depict different locations. Mr. Roger’s TV set and puppets are also featured. This makes the story more believable. It is a true story.

I watched the movie on Netflix. I had no desire to see it in the movies since I thought it was silly, my loss. In a quarantine your choices are limited, a feel good movie is a terrific substitute for Haagen Dazs.

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.