The Interview

The Interview

Of course I went, I had to. This film was a product of a brofest between James Franco, Seth Rogan and other writers sitting around a table eating Cool Ranch Doritos, drinking Mountain Dew and Blitz soda and saying the word “cool” one million times. Sony had a choice between artistic freedom and stupid; they chose stupid. The guy who green lighted this film was either color blind or just blind. This is an ego movie where to mollify their stars the studio acquiesces to the film’s development. At a production budget of $44m this was a moderate bet for Sony. Not understanding or caring about the geopolitical fall out of this film rests on Sony’s shoulders. If they sought advice, they ignored it.

The movie met my expectations. It was juvenile with gratuitous violence and an abundance of overacting acting. If Franco’s horrible acting were a generator it could light up the east coast for months. Franco was so hyper he could be the poster boy for ADHD. Seth Rogan played the usual laid back lumbering dude with the basso profundo voice. Acting was not a factor since this was farce. The writing was just to get from point A to point B. Point B was assignation of Kim Jung-un and everything leading up to it was not worth the price of admission.

The point of all this is not this silly movie, but rather our right to see whatever stupid movie we want to. Our right shall not be abridged by some pudgy dictator with a bad haircut. I have written too much for this piece and paid too much to see this flick. I want a refund!

Big Eyes

Big Eyes

You have seen these posters. Those kids with huge dewy saucer plate eyes on the verge of crying. I always thought it was kitsch, produced in some Philippine sweat shop. But in the 50’s and 60’s Big Eye paintings were considered art; big money art. They were praised by Andy Warhol and collected by Joan Crawford and sold for thousands of dollars. This is the true fantastic story of Walter Keane and his wife Margret. Margret was the artist of the Big Eye paintings but Walter convinced her art made by a man would sell better and he posed as the artist. Walter was a great con man and extremely successful in promoting Big Eye paintings and posters. The story is Margret’s journey from subjugation to liberation.

Christoph Waltz’s acting was a bit over the top. He played the megalomaniac well but his mood swings were abrupt. He is much more effective playing low keyed emotional roles with simmering fury as he did in Inglourious Basterds and Jango Unchained.

Walter was the consummate poser and Waltz captured his persona with a toothy smile and a charming manner. What he lacked in artistic talent he made up in chutzpa. His fabrications of his artistic prowess grew so wild they crushed him. Waltz’s enjoyed riding this emotional roller coaster, and it shows in his performance.

Amy Adams truly inhabited her character. Margret displayed a mix of confidence in her art and at the same time subservience to her husband believing his lies. Her rebellion was slow in coming but when it came she owned it. She was loathsome of herself for letting her husband take the credit for her art. Her liberation is the apex of the movie. Adams plays Margaret with steady confidence, but with a dose of underlying fragility. She always believed in her art.

My favorite cameo appearance was Terence Stamp. He usually plays evil characters with his deep dark eyes and pursed lips. Here he plays the senior art critic for the New York Times; evil personified. His dust up with Waltz was priceless, shedding Keane with his caustic critique.

This movie is a time capsule. The 50’s and 60’s were not so long ago. Some of us even went to the World’s Fair in Flushing Queens (I did). Attitudes towards women back then are foreign today. Posters we think as schlock were considered art. This whole movie is a bit odd. All this fantasy and weirdness is Tim Burton’s hallmark. See it, the ending is great.

The Imitation Game

Benedicit Cumberbatch brilliantly plays Alan Turing the English math genius and cryptanalyst who with a few men and a women changed the course of World War II. This is a great true story that modern day geeks can appreciate and Turing’s life makes fascinating drama. Turing was insufferable, but he was indispensable. He was humorless but inadvertently funny. He was not a people person. He was as good reading human emotions as Ray Charles was reading the morning paper.

Cumberbatch powerfully conveys Turing’s arrogance, loneliness, apprehension and fears. Turing was a man ahead of his time to the consternation naval intelligence and MI6 who could not grasp his genius. He was unorthodox and did not care for protocol or chain of command. Turing was not of their class but his intellect out ranked them. He was committed more to himself than King and country. Cumberbatch plays this emotional tightrope with drama. Burdened with impossible deadlines, fighting for material and personal, mostly without his superior’s support, these conflicts and resolution drive the movie.

Turing and his crew where trying to decipher the unbreakable Enigma code used by the Nazis. The codes changed every day and possible combinations were in the millions of millions. Turing took an unorthodox approach to break the code putting him at odds with his handlers. He broke away from conventional code deciphering instead using a machine he invented. Cumberbatch is very passionate in these scenes. His frustration at the narrow mindedness of his superiors is tangible.

Turing was gay and being gay in England then was a punishable offense. He kept his sexual preference secret, not out of shame but to avoid blackmail or prison. Turing deified society and willingly engaged in his homosexual affairs, but was deeply afraid of the consequences to himself and his work. This seesaw battle between who he wants to be and who he has to be torments him.

Keira Knightley is Joan Clarke the female code breaker.  Clarke is unequivocally confident, firmly resisting the push to the secretarial pool for her seat at the table with Turing. Her mathematical prowess impressed Turing. They liked each other; their relationship was more than plutonic and was complicated. Knightley did not overplay this role. She was very sincere for her affection to Turing.  Knightly and Cumberbatch had great chemistry.

Another character of note is Mark Strong who played Maj. Gen. Stewart Menzies, the MI6 liaison (one of the characters said, “there is no MI6 only MI5. To which Strong relies, “then we are keeping our secrets well”). He is so British he is almost brittle. He is Turing’s nemeses and champion, depending what he wants. He represents the government and the ends to which it will go to win.

Flash backs are like a pinch of salt, less is best. They are done right here. They augment the narrative at the right time and explain the present using the past. Here the flash backs concern Turing’s public school days where he was subjected to cruelties and where a great loving friendship blossomed.

Turing was truly a tragic figure, a label surely he would reject. The West owes him a great debt of gratitude for his contributions. His inventions were called Turing Machines. Now we call them computers. 

The Hunger Games-Mockingjay Part 1

The Hunger Games-Mockingjay Part 1

If this picture was not part of the Hunger Game franchise it would have less audience and less box office. Thanks to the HG devotees they flocked to this movie like moths to a flame. This movie lacks the Lord of the Fly motif of the prior two films. Instead of a hunt or be hunted movie with big brother watching it is just a rebellion movie. There are references to the prior movies and the roles of some characters but this movie can stand on its own. I think Part 1 was put in the title to distance this movie from the others and garner a broader audience.

Part 1 means this is the pen ultimate movie. This is movie is a place holder for the final movie. It keys up atrocities committed by the Capital and retaliations by the Districts. All of this conflict will be resolved in the final film. Unlike the other movies Katniss does relatively little fighting.  This is here least energetic role and she looks shabby and unglamorous.  There are no flaming dresses here, rather grey jump suits are de rigueur. Grey is the dominant color of the movie; it could be seen as a metaphor, “the grey before the dawn”. On the whole this movie is a set up for a hoped for mega box office in the final picture.

There are old and new characters. I think this is Philip Seymour Hoffman’s last movie. He looked like a card board cut out of himself. The twinkle in his eye was gone. Woody Harrelson’s character was more fun drunk. Donald Sutherland returned with his evil Cheshire smile. He is basically Hitler with a white Santa beard. Stanley Tucci does not even stand up in this picture, he smugly reclines in a chair; he is still very annoying. Even poor Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks), the over the top image consultant, with much chagrin is forced to wear a grey jump which she accessories with grey bandana.

Julianne Moore plays President Alma Coin, leader of the rebellion. Her personality is best described as akin to cold salmon. She too is grey all over. It seems she went to the same hair stylist as Morticia Adams. There are other new characters. One is a video journalist who is a propagandist for the rebellion. Her most notable feature is the half shorn haircut currently in vogue adorned with a flower tattoo on the bald side. Her body will be easy to identify on the battlefield.

I know you join me in my anticipation for the final movie. How will I fill the void?

Birdman

For best picture the Golden Globes has Birdman under the category of comedy. The category should be black comedy. The film is about a former movie star whose fame came from playing the superhero Birdman. Now in his sixties he wants to revive his career and find meaning for himself as a Broadway actor/writer, directing himself in his own play. He is a man looking for resurrection.

There are parallels between Michael Keaton and his character Riggan Thomson (aka Birdman). Like Thomson, Keaton was a big star in the late 80’s and early 90’s with two Batmen movies under his belt and playing the lead in the iconic movie Beetlejuice. Even his minor movies were watchable. Then lead roles stopped coming and his star faded. Keaton has firsthand motivation to play this role. He is nominated for best actor by the Golden Globes.

 Keaton’ reputation was as a lighthearted comedic roles. When he branched out as Batman the role was confident and in control. Playing Riggan, Keaton is in uncharted water. Riggan is an emotional train wreck due for a collision.  Keaton delivers an intense and very paranoid (psychotic) performance. The script plays with your perception. Keaton coexists in the fields of madness and sanity. His hallucinations are a product of doubt and insecurity. His alter ego, Birdman, eggs him on to go back to the big screen and leave the uncertainty and pettiness of Broadway. Keaton desperately wants the legitimacy of Broadway more than a big box office. His character has two personas, Riggan the actor and Birdman. Contrary to physics they occupy the same space. Managing this conflict gives Keaton’s performance tension and the chance for his own resurrection.

Edward Norton plays a huge prick. He is the matinee idol that sells ticks, but his conceit and self-centeredness make him loathsome. What is worse he is a good actor. Norton plays the role with aplomb. It takes him out of his comfort zone as being mild mannered and almost nebbish. With his thick ego he has no compunction standing nude in front of a mirror in a dressing room with his privates strategically shielded.  He steals scenes and infuriates his co-stars. There is a great fight scene between Keaton and Norton seminude in their Fruit of the Loom underwear; Yuk. Norton was a bit over the top, but he relished the role.

Emma Stone is super. I think she gave one of the best performances of the movie. She looks fragile and just came out of rehab. She is Riggan’s daughter and their relationship is on the mends after years of neglect and divorce.   Her anger is explosive and her deliverance is muscular; she is in your face. She also plays coy with Norton’s character and gets under his skin, maybe more. If not the femme fatale, she is the femme to watch.

Much has been said about Zack Galifianakis’s performance as being normal and not looney. Bravo for acting like a human. With his weight loss he looked good.

This movie is not for everyone. Keaton gives a forceful performance. I am rooting for him because I am big Beetlejuice fan. Good luck Mike

John Wick

Dust off your Matrix sunglasses, Keanu is back and he is pissed. Not sure if he is pissed because he turned 50 or because someone killed his puppy. John Wick is a retired assassin who worked for the Russian mob and is reluctantly pulled back into the game to settle a score. This movie is a throwback to the simplicity of the Spaghetti Westerns where Clint Eastwood let hot lead do his talking. John does not say much either and he uses a lot of lead among other things. This movie is focused and efficient. There are no distracting side plots.

Keanu Reeves plays Wick like a video game hit man. He is a dispassionate cold killer who is impeccably dressed in twenty shades of black in an Armani suite. His killing prowess include guns, knives, cars and pencils; No. 2 pencils to be exact. The bad guys are Russians who garner no empathy. I think the Russian actors were Russian and they spoke Russian. Da.

Most of the action takes place in Manhattan, specifically the Financial District. Some of the logistics were screwy. The arches in front of the Municipal Building face Delmonico and Delmonico was transformed into a hotel for mobsters. There are plenty of car chases. John’s 1969 Mustang is stolen and his loner car is a Shelby Mustang, very cool.

Supporting actors, besides the Red Army, were John Leguizamo, William Defoe, and Ian McShane among others. None were sidekicks and their roles were well tuned for the script. I cannot recall if there was any sex in the movie but this could be the debilitations of old age on my part. There was a women in a very tight black leather outfit, but see locked nasty.

This is not a date movie. It has no redeeming social values; climate change was not mentioned once. It appeals to my inner hedonist. This is the perfect movie for adolescents and guys in their sixties, since thinking is not required.

Interstellar

 Interstellar is the much ballyhooed film of the season. Making the cover of Time magazine with its stellar stars blitzing late night shows, Interstellar has some bumps. Christopher Nolan usually deals with fantasy or comic book hero scripts is now tackling the hard science of astrophysics. Real science trumps fantasy and makes the script complex. At times I lost the tread of the movie.

 The scientific concepts in the film are not new. Wormholes, black holes, singularity and relativity theory are established theories. Einstein’s Twin Paradox (Where one twin travels into space and the other remains on earth. When the space traveler returns his earthbound twin has aged but he has not) is a main element of the script. Nolan coops these concepts into his story with Hollywood spin and gives them a veneer of newness. He could have used these tenets of cosmology for a more dramatic, even fantastic effect, in his movie.

The tenure of the film is mopey. Worldwide blight threatens life on earth (the last okra crop was lost, who cares). McConaughe and fellow astronauts are tasked with finding a habitable plant in distant galaxies. The movie runs 165 minutes (or in old man time three bathroom visits) and has some pockets of boredom. How much can you talk about the effect of time and gravity in one movie? It took almost two hours before a fist fight broke out and it was not much of a fight since they were in space suits.

The actors played their roles very well. McConaughe is a farmer/engineer/astronaut the reluctant leader of the stellar explorers. His motivation for taking the mission was the salvation of his family. I was pleasantly surprised how well Anne Hathaway handled her role. I thought she had too much glam to fit in to a space suit and get helmet hair, but she carried off the role. Regarding Jessica Chastain I cannot say anything about her role. Matt Damion plays a marooned astronaut whose space suit fit a bit too tight. With his Amish beard Casey Affleck is barely recognizable.  Michael Cain mumbles. I never complain about Hans Zimmer, the conductor, but the music was too loud (I could even hear it in the bath room) and overwrought.

Cinematically Interstellar pales compared to stunning scenes of Gravity. I expected better shots considering the expanse the space trip covered. The wormhole looked like some distant button and the black hole was some passive swirl. One of the explored plants was interesting while the other looked like a meat locker.

Towards the end of the movie Nolan resorts to his Inception bag of tricks. Now fantasy trumps science; rooms distort and phenomena abound. The movie became a bit schizophrenic; frankly this part was more interesting and fun.

I know I am whining but I expected more from Nolan and his brother.  He tried to be too true to science, which does not go well with popcorn. Nova never won an Oscar.