The Pursuit of Happyness: A Review

THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS

Inspirational tales do not come more inspirational than The Pursuit of Happyness, the biopic of Chris Gardner. Time has softened the film's impact, but it still holds up relatively well.

Chris Gardner (Will Smith) has put all his family's savings into portable bone-density machines that he is convinced will be great sellers. Unfortunately, in 1981 San Francisco these bulky devices are seen by many doctors as an unnecessary extravagance. To make ends meet his wife Linda (Thandie Newton*) works double shifts at a hotel. This puts a strain not just on their finances but on their marriage, with only their son Chris, Jr. (Jaden Christopher Syre Smith*) holding them together.

The Gardners continue struggling, though, until Chris notices a sign for interns with the Dean Witter Brokerage Firm. He through sheer will makes a positive impression on Jay Twistle (Brian Howe), a partner at the firm, with a little help from a Rubik's Cube that Gardner is able to solve. This internship, which can lead to getting hired at Dean Witter, may be a way out of the Gardner family financial struggles. Chris, however, is devastated when he learns that it will not only be unpaid, but that there is no guarantee that he will get a job there if he makes it through.

Despite this, he agrees to enter the internship. This is the end for Linda, who leaves him for a job in New York. Eventually conceding to Chris' insistence, Chris, Jr. stays with him instead of his mother. Now, Chris Sr. and Jr. continue struggling to keep body and soul together. It is not that Chris, Sr. does not work. It is that unpaid parking tickets, poor bone-density machine sales (including the theft of two of them) and the unpaid nature of the internship continue to wreak havoc. It is to where Chris Sr. and Jr. are made homeless, having to sleep in BART restrooms and homeless shelters.

Chris, however, will not give up. He boldly goes to the home of a potential client whom he barely missed an appointment with: Walter Ribbon (Kurt Fuller). Gardner never lets on to his potential clients or fellow interns that he is living in a homeless shelter or that he is beyond broke. Will Chris Gardner earn that coveted job post-internship and save his son from poverty?

I remember watching The Pursuit of Happyness  (the spelling of "Happyness" coming from a misspelled mural at Chris, Jr.'s daycare) and being deeply moved at the time. Perhaps I have grown more cynical in the almost twenty years since The Pursuit of Happyness premiered. Perhaps the antics of Smith pere et fil in the ensuing years now colors somewhat my view of them in the film. I was surprised that I did not have the same reaction to the film now. 

What I mostly thought was how dumb Gardner was at times. Why could he not bring in that bone-density machine to his initial internship interview? Certainly, it would have made more sense than to leave it with some hippie street singer. Granted, he did say in voiceover that "this part of the story is called Being Stupid", so credit where it is due. However, he also seemed genuinely surprised that the police would come for him over unpaid parking tickets or that the IRS would raid his banking account. 

I will leave aside how he probably should not have invested everything into those bone-density machines. I kept thinking that Gardner kept making one lousy decision after another. 

Another element that now has me less enthusiastic about The Pursuit of Happyness is on the portrayal of the homeless. I figure that there are such cases like the Gardners, who through poor economic choices and circumstances do end up in homeless shelters. However, I think this is more the exception than the rule. Many homeless have mental health issues, some downright delusional and with various chemical dependency problems. I could not shake the idea that The Pursuit of Happyness was attempting to suggest that homelessness was strictly and purely financial when it is a very complex issue. To be fair, the film is not about homelessness but about Chris Gardner's personal story. As such, I may be reading too much into things, but I digress.

I think that one element that pushes The Pursuit of Happyness down is Will Smith's voiceover. I understand what Steven Conrad's screenplay was going for whenever he had Chris Gardner tell us his thoughts. I just thought that there was too much of it to where it veered close to parody. It did give Will Smith a nice Oscar clip when he tells Chris, Jr. to never let anyone tell him he cannot do something. Oddly, this was not the clip that was used at the Academy Awards presentation when Smith was nominated for Best Actor. Perhaps the overt nature of the "Follow your dreams" speech was too much even for the Academy. 

I think the film would have done better to cut back on the voiceovers. Again, I think it wanted to suggest a more intimate conversation with Gardner. I just found it distracting and excessive. This is not to take away from a good performance from Will Smith as Chris Gardner. His best scenes were when playing off against his real-life son Jaden. There was a natural manner to those scenes which made them effective. His last scene, when he learns that he did get the job, is quite good in its understated manner. We see only the tears forming, but it is the quite manner that gets the viewer more than if he had broken down and had a big dramatic moment. He was less effective when he was working with others. His scenes with Newton seemed a bit more forced, as if they wanted to push the drama but were pushing too hard.

Speaking of Newton, I felt that The Pursuit of Happyness portrayed Linda Gardner in perhaps an unfair light. She came across as almost irrationally angry when in reality she had every right to be frustrated at Chris' poor decision making. Here she is, attempting to keep a steady job and care for her son, and her husband continues to struggle to have an even income. I did not think that she was wrong in her frustrations or worry or anger. I think the film did.

Jaden Smith was precocious as Chris, Jr., with some good moments. Of particular note is when he and Chris, Sr. are pretending to have gone back in time and see dinosaurs. In retrospect, we can see that Jaden Smith is good when he is not the central character. 

It is nice to see that the stockbrokers in The Pursuit of Happyness were not portrayed as Gordon Gekko types who celebrate greed. Instead, they were decent people who cared for their own families and in a nice moment, showed both gratitude and respect for past kindnesses. 

Again, I was surprised that The Pursuit of Happyness did not hit me as hard as it did the first time. It is still a pretty good movie. It is appropriately inspirational and with a good performance from both Smiths. Time may have diminished some of its power, but I think people will still get something out of The Pursuit of Happyness.

DECISION: C+

*Mr. Smith was billed as "Jaden Christopher Syer Smith" and Ms. Newton was billed as "Thandie" at the time they appeared in The Pursuit of Happyness. Smith now goes by his first and last names and Newton has since returned to her original name of "Thandiwe". To avoid any potential confusion, I used the names used at the time of the film's release.  

Dead Man Walking: A Review

DEAD MAN WALKING

There are some issues that are very contentious that stir up fierce passions. Abortion is one such issue. Another is the death penalty. Dead Man Walking does something rare: provide balance between the opposing views. It is not a screed against or for execution, but a journey to find the humanity among the victims and victimizers.

Sister Helen Prejean (Susan Sarandon) works among the Louisiana poor at Hope House. She has been corresponding with Matthew Ponselet (Sean Penn), who is on death row for the killing of teenagers Walter Delacroix (Peter Sargaard) and his girlfriend, Hope Percy (Missy Yager). She agrees to help him with his final appeal.

Sister Helen meets Ponselet in person. She also brings attorney Hilton Barber (Robert Prosky) to attempt to change the sentence to life in prison, which is what the other man convicted of the Delacroix/Percy murders received. Their efforts fail and Ponselet will be executed. 

While Sister Helen is opposed to the death penalty, she also has the chance to meet Walter and Hope's parents. Earl Delacroix (Raymond J. Barry) is more receptive to seeing Sister Helen than his wife, the agony of their only child's death eventually breaking up the marriage. Clyde and Mary Beth Percy (R. Lee Ermey and Celia Weston) are under the mistaken idea that Sister Helen has come around to support the execution. None are pleased to see Sister Helen serve as Ponselet's spiritual adviser as the execution date grows. Through her work, Ponselet finally takes responsibility for his actions. She is able to be with him until the actual execution. Wiser, having seen both sides now, Sister Helen can now help Earl Delacroix find his own way back.

I think many would be leery about the subject matter of Dead Man Walking as it stood. Knowing that Tim Robbins (who wrote and directed the film) and his then-partner Sarandon were the people behind the project might also give some people pause. Robbins and Sarandon were very much politically active at the time, so the thought that Dead Man Walking would be some anti-death penalty lecture might cross a viewer's mind. However, Robbins, adapting Sister Helen Prejean's book, did something extremely wise.

It humanized both sides.  

Had Robbins and Sarandon merely wanted to make a purely anti-death penalty film, it would have fallen into the trap of painting Ponselet as almost a victim. He could have been portrayed as innocent. The focus could have shifted to his own suffering mother (Roberta Maxwell) and his brothers. However, Dead Man Walking took the time to have Sister Helen meet and talk to Earl Delacroix and the Percys. She saw them not as monsters baying for the blood of Matthew Ponselet.

She saw them as deeply grieving parents, ones who wanted justice for their children and felt that Ponselet's death would be that justice. The scenes with Earl and the Percys, as they talk about Walter and Hope, are difficult to watch. Robbins includes flashbacks to their killings as the parents talk to Sister Helen, which I imagine is what she is seeing in her mind. 

At one point, Clyde Percy firmly berates Sister Helen for siding with that "monster". Dead Man Walking makes the case that Matthew Ponselet is a terrible man, but not a "monster". He is a racist and a murderer who comes to repentance and acceptance only at the bitter end. However, he is also a human, with a family that loves him and a daughter that he will never see. 

At the same time, Dead Man Walking also shows that the Percy and Delacroix families, along with those who side with them, are also human. They have lost loved ones, had their lives wrecked perhaps beyond repair, and are left to live their lives with this permanent pain. It is not that they want to inflict pain on the Ponselets. They may not even want that eye for an eye that is quoted by them. They just want peace. 

Tim Robbins' script does well in guiding the viewer through a complex subject that does not tell one what conclusion to reach. At the execution, Matthew Ponselet asks forgiveness of Mr. Delacroix and tells the Percys that he hopes that his death will bring them peace. He also says that he thinks killing is wrong, no matter who does it. When he is executed, we see Walter and Hope reflected. It may be a bit poetic, and perhaps this is either symbolism or Matthew's vision. It works so well that one can read all sorts of things into this scene. 

Dead Man Walking is well-directed by Robbins as well, earning one of the film's four Oscar nominations. There are no big dramatic scenes, no grandiose rages or self-righteous speeches in favor or opposed to someone's view. It is, in fact, a surprisingly quiet film. 

Sarandon, the film's only Oscar win for Best Actress, is very quiet even when Sister Helen is firm. She communicates so much with her eyes, expressing deep sympathy for the parents who lost their children. She is comforting but also realistic, carrying a quiet strength throughout. Sister Helen, however, is not afraid to be firm when needed. Near the end, she quietly but firmly tells Matthew that he bears responsibility for his actions. Other actresses or directors might have made this a big scene, one where there is shouting and grand movement. Dead Man Walking has Sarandon speaking firmly but still in relatively hushed tones. She is not sotto voce, but she is not yelling either. That makes it more effective.

Penn, the third Oscar nomination (the film's fourth being for Bruce Springsteen's closing title song) also does well as Ponselet. He too does not rage, though he shows anger. That makes his final scenes where he tearfully breaks down all the more effective. Perhaps the Louisiana accent was a bit much, but that is a minor point. Everyone else in the cast was ably guided to where the film did something that should be standard: have us see the characters and not the performers.

There are moments of levity to ease the tension, but they are built into the story. Sister Helen and her fellow Sister, Colleen (Margo Martindale) are discussing where to bury Ponselet. Sister Colleen points out that the first available grave is to a deceased sister who left her fiancee at the convent and swore never to so much as touch another man. Now she was going to spend eternity next to one. After a brief pause, the two nuns burst out laughing. It is a natural moment, and one that cuts the tension of the situation.

For a film that runs a little over two hours, Dead Man Walking moves very fast. Perhaps the score with vocalizations by the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Eddie Vedder, was a bit much. The same goes for Springsteen's song, which I was not big on. I do not know if having Tim Robbins' brother David write the score was a good or bad thing. 

In retrospect, Dead Man Walking is well-crafted, ably acted and surprisingly balanced. Whatever your views on the death penalty, it is worth watching Dead Man Walking to give some thought to the opposing view.

DECISION: B+

The Three Faces of Eve: A Review

THE THREE FACES OF EVE

The Three Faces of Eve accomplished something rare in Academy Award history. It won its sole Oscar nomination, in this case for Lead Actress. It certainly allowed a chance for Joanne Woodward to play three different roles, which might have played a role in her Oscar victory. Looking at it now, The Three Faces of Eve was done in by one specific performance and slightly elevated by two others. 

With opening on-camera narration and occasional voiceover from Alistair Cooke, we learn of meek Southern housewife Eve White (Woodward). She is seemingly happy in her marriage to Ralph (David Wayne) and with their daughter Bonnie. However, she has headaches that precipitate memory gaps. In between those gaps there are strange moments where Eve is not herself. It culminates into Eve seemingly trying to strangle Bonnie with a curtain cord.

She now seeks treatment with Dr. Luther (Lee J. Cobb). Dr. Luther makes a shocking discovery: there is a second, distinct personality within Eve White. It is Eve Black, a good-time girl who likes to go drinking and carousing. Eve Black knows all about Eve White, but Eve White knows nothing of Eve Black. Ralph thinks that Eve is a tramp making up stories to excuse her double life. Dr. Luther knows better. Eve is temporarily institutionalized, released and still struggling with her split personality.

Eventually, Ralph divorces her and both Eves attempt to build up a life. Into this mix, Dr. Luther makes a more shocking discovery: another woman inside the two Eves. Eventually adopting the name of Jane, this third woman attempts to navigate the memories to find where, when and how the three faces of Eve came to be. Will the real woman eventually emerge? Which of the three is the real Eve?

The Three Faces of Eve was written and directed by Nunnally Johnson, who had a long and established career when the film was released. This was not Johnson's first directorial effort, but somehow it felt that way. I think the reason I think that is because of two elements in the film. 

The first is Cooke's opening narration and voiceover. Somehow, Cooke's very serious manner lends itself to parody. Long before he gained fame as the host of television's Masterpiece Theater, Cooke is pretty much doing the same here. I think the opening narration and voiceover were a mistake. It sounds slightly pompous and if they were removed, The Three Faces of Eve would have flowed just as well if not better.

The second element is David Wayne. Wayne is a fine actor, but in The Three Faces of Eve, he seemed to play his scenes as if the film was a comedy. When Eve Black finally presents herself to him, his reaction to seeing his wife looked comical more than shocked. I actually started laughing, which I do not think was the effect that the film was going for. Whenever Wayne was on screen, the effect was more humor than heartfelt. He kept referring to Eve's condition as "multiplied personality", which I think was The Three Faces of Eve's efforts to make him a simple man. Even in the dramatic moments, such as shocking scene where Ralph slaps Eve, the overall effect is less impactful and more unintentionally funny.

The film also let us know when Eve White went out and Eve Black went in when sexy jazz music starts playing. That too inadvertently makes The Three Faces of Eve look funny. I think if Johnson wanted music to make the transition from the innocent Eve White to the trampish Eve Black, he could have gone about it another way. The names themselves: Eve White and Eve Black, are a bit too on-the-nose about how the former is demure and the latter is loose. 

As the film is The Three Faces of Eve (emphasis mine), it is slightly over an hour before we get to the third face. Given that the film runs 91 minutes, that gives us little time to touch on Jane. It also does not make the case for why, out of the three, it is Jane would be the final girl, so to speak. While the film, very late, gives us the traumatic moment that began her situation, I think the actual trigger may not hit as hard today as it did in 1957. 

Lee J. Cobb tended to play gruff and tough characters. Here, his Dr. Luther was not gentle, but he was more contemplative. Cobb handled his role well as Luther, the man of science and compassion helping guide our troubled woman to the light.

Woodward won the Best Actress Oscar for this performance. I thought that it was a good performance, where she was able to balance the three characters pretty well. However, I also felt that there was a deliberately calculated manner in Woodward's acting. It is as if she knew she was acting versus being Eve White, Eve Black and plain Jane. I think that if not for Woodward's win, few people would even remember The Three Faces of Eve.

The Three Faces of Eve is not a terrible film. It has some issues that hamper it (David Wayne, Alistair Cooke) but with Woodward and Cobb lifting the material, I think audiences will find interest in all our Eves. 

DECISION: C+

I'm Still Here (2024): A Review

 I'M STILL HERE

History is filled with great figures, but there is room enough for those small individuals who accomplished great things despite the obstacles against them. I'm Still Here is a deeply moving powerful film about courage.

Brazil, 1970. The nation is under a military dictatorship, but the wealthy Paiva lives with little to no concern for themselves. Rubens Paiva (Selton Mello), a former Congressman, is not worried despite his work for those opposing the current dictatorship. His wife, Eunice (Fernanda Torres) is oblivious to her husband's work, which Rubens works hard to keep hidden.

However, the Paiva family is rocked when Rubens is taken into custody. Eunice, already having the indignity of having armed men stay in her home against her wishes, is now astonished to be taken into custody herself along with her second-eldest daughter Eliana (Luisa Kovoski), her oldest daughter Veroca (Valentina Herszage) having gone to London for school and a de facto exile.

Twelve days of psychological torture for Eunice, who is stubbornly refused information about Rubens or Eliana. She is eventually released without any information on Rubens and finding Eliana alive and safe back home. Eunice continues to push for information about Rubens, all while attempting to keep her children as unaware as possible and keep body and soul together. She gets information that Rubens is dead, but nothing concrete. Eunice will not be deterred, though she has her struggles with trying to raise her children. Eventually, even with government spies openly observing her home, she decides to move to Sao Paola with them.

Twenty-five years later in 1996, Brazil is no longer under a dictatorship and Eunice now has a death certificate for Rubens. She continues her efforts for the indigenous community, having become an attorney at age 48. In 2014, the extended Paiva family gather together and even with Eunice (Fernanda Montenegro) now debilitated from Alzheimer's disease, a television report on those who disappeared, including Rubens, triggers a moment of recognition. 

I'm Still Here expertly balances the transition from frivolity to fear in the Paiva family and by extension in Brazil. We see this early on when Veroca and her friends are happily driving down Rio de Janeiro, filming themselves and singing along to a pop song. During the drive though, they and all the other drivers encounter a military checkpoint, where they are pulled out and mocked by the soldiers as hippies. The mix of fear and irritation at the military's action are just a taste of what the Paivas have to endure.

We spend a great deal of time early in I'm Still Here with the Paivas at play. We get to know them as they mingle with each other and their circle of friends. They are jolly, lively and loving. This allows us to recognize how this one act of Rubens Paiva's forced arrest begins a shattering process. That alone makes I'm Still Here a sometimes-hard watch. It is the arrest and torture of Eunice that is almost too shocking to bear.

Director Walter Salles builds up the tension by what is not shown. The film uses great sound effects to make Eunice's imprisonment all the more harrowing. We hear the screams and torture from other prisoners while not losing focus on Eunice herself. Here, we see this tense set of days where, apart from a somewhat sympathetic guard who tells her that he finds this not to his liking, the patterns of forced interrogations and demands to repeat her full name all the more gripping, terrifying and sad.

In the entire film, it is Fernanda Torres' performance that holds the viewer. It is an exceptional one, for we see Eunice as someone who puts her family first. Her efforts to keep the children as unaware as possible, her quiet efforts to find both her husband and/or his fate and manner to keep the family going reveal a woman of strong character. For the most part, Torres' Eunice does not rage or become hysterical. 

Torres remains a firm manner in I'm Still Here. She is not stiff or stoic or making efforts to show outward courage. Rather, her Eunice reveals her strength whenever she smiles or attempts to keep calm through very tense circumstances. You see in Torres' face that mix of worry and resoluteness, a woman attempting to keep things together while holding in her rage and fear. 

It is neither a quiet nor loud performance, though it is closer to the former. In the few times where Eunice has a stronger, more intense reaction, Torres resists any efforts to make it a big moment. Whether it is when she slaps her daughter for pushing her to tell more than she wants to or berating the government spies who watched the family dog get run down, Torres is in full command. We even get a nice touch when Torres' real-life mother, Fernanda Montenegro, makes a brief appearance as the older Eunice. Even if this brief moment, we see Montenegro's skills when she communicates by just her eyes.

The film is well-acted by the entire cast. It manages to move mostly well and fast despite its runtime of slightly over two hours. Perhaps the extended scenes of the happiness of the Paiva family could have been trimmed. However, that is a minor detail. 

I'm Still Here holds the audience's attention and never releases it. Eunice Paiva is a woman who had fear but who was not afraid. The acceptance of things as they are, as brutal as the truth is, is hard. I'm Still Here works to show that strength comes in many forms.

1929-2018

DECISION: A+

A Complete Unknown: A Review (Review #1920)

A COMPLETE UNKNOWN

Biopics can go one of two ways. They can attempt to cover the entirety of the subject's life, or they can attempt to cover certain time periods of the subject's life. The recent Reagan, which I did like, attempted the former to various degrees of success. A Complete Unknown, conversely, goes for the latter, covering the life of Bob Dylan from when he arrived in New York City to when he shocked the folk world by plugging in at the Newport Folk Festival. With standout performances and a well-crafted story, A Complete Unknown is a complete triumph.

Little Bobby Dylan (Timothee Chalamet) arrives in New York City to seek out his hero, ailing folk pioneer Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNary). Guthrie is impressed by the young aspiring singer/songwriter, as is Guthrie's friend and fellow comrade Pete Seeger (Edward Norton). With nowhere to stay, Seeger has Bobby stay with him and his wife Toshi (Eriko Hatsune). 

Dylan starts making a name for himself through his songs and soon is drawn to two different women. One is pretty Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning), a student committed to social change with whom he soon moves in with. The other is Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro), Queen of the Folk Singers who soon sees in Dylan a kindred and romantic partner. Dylan's successful folk music oeuvre delights everyone but also becomes something of a burden to him. Seeger and folk music impresario Alan Lomax (Norbert Leo Butz) want Dylan to stay the same, playing his "finger-pointing songs" the same way and be that "voice of his generation".

Robert Zimmerman, however, wants to be released. He wants to expand his work and emulate another musician he admires, Johnny Cash (Boyd Holbrook), who can shift from country to folk to even rock. As Dylan's personal and professional lives keep colliding, will he manage to express himself freely and rock out? Will Sylvie and Joan be with him?

I admit that I am a big Bob Dylan fan, having seen him twice in concert. I will also admit that his voice, especially now, is not what I would call silky smooth (that second concert where he performed songs from the Great American Songbook, was interesting to say the least). However, I figure that his rendition of these standards is typical of this iconoclast, who is forever shifting and changing to fit his mercurial nature. A Complete Unknown, adapted by Jay Cocks and director James Mangold from Elijah Wald's Dylan Goes Electric! gives us a nice overview of the world that Dylan was both entering and shaping. We jump in quickly to when Dylan, this very young, almost naive man, comes to meet his hero and over the course of an admittedly long film, we see him writing, performing, loving and stretching artistically.

This Dylan is not some pure young man seeking out to speak truth to his generation. He is evasive, flawed, sometimes funny, arrogant but also filled with determination to do things his way. Timothee Chalamet bookends his year with a standout performance as Zimmy. He not only gets Dylan's speaking voice and at times halting manner but his persona, at times worshipful to people like Guthrie or Cash but also a bit contemptuous of how others hold him back. Dylan may see Seeger as well-meaning, but he also sees that Pete is in his way stuck in the past, determined to be pure in folk even if that means stifling Dylan's muse. 

Edward Norton is also extremely strong as Pete Seeger. He is seemingly sweet with his banjo and apparently innocent songs. Just as Chalamet does an excellent job sounding and speaking like Dylan, Norton does as well in sounding and singing like Seeger. Norton even manages to make Seeger's elevated head cock look natural rather than actory. 

Fanning and Barbaro were standouts as the two women in Dylan's life. Fanning has the look of love mixed with great regret that she lost Bobby to someone more like him in terms of music and worldview. Her last scene as she leaves Dylan is quite moving. Barbaro too has great moments when dealing with Dylan's work style both on and offstage.

Even the smallest parts were well acted. Dan Folger was good as Albert Grossman, Dylan's manager forever attempting to both protect and promote Dylan's interests whether Dylan helped or hindered his efforts. Butz's Alan Lomax had the arrogance and self-righteousness of someone determined to be what would now be labeled a "gatekeeper" of pure folk music. I did not think Holbrook hit all the right notes as Johnny Cash (no pun intended), but he did well enough.

A Complete Unknown did a fine job production wise, taking you to this folk scene in New York and Newport and making this world come fully alive to the viewer. For those of us who love Dylan's music, A Complete Unknown gives us some wonderful songs sung quite well by those performing. 

I was thoroughly pleased with A Complete Unknown in all aspects. The performances are excellent. The story, despite its two-and-a-half-hour runtime, never feels long or padded. How does it feel? It feels like A Complete Unknown is one of the best films of the year.

DECISION: A-

The Order: A Review

THE ORDER

The scourge of white supremacists remains lurking in the shadows, mercifully not dominant but still a menace. The Order, based on true events, chronicles the lengths some would go to make their genocidal dreams into reality. While respectable and with some good performances, I found a curious remoteness to The Order that robbed it of being a more gripping rendition of events.

The charismatic and youthful Bob Mathews (Nichoal Hoult) is the leader of The Order, a breakaway group from the white supremacists Church of Jesus Christ-Christian and its leader Richard Butler (Victor Slezak). While both advocate the overthrow of the government, Mathews is impatient and wants to take action. He takes inspiration from The Turner Diaries, a novel where a group of white supremacists commit various crimes to bring about their white utopia. Among those acts are bank robberies and even murder of friend and foe culminating in the assassination of local Jewish radio host Alan Berg (Marc Maron). 

Into this comes world weary FBI Agent Terry Husk (Jude Law). He has come to sleepy Idaho as a kind of informal semi-retirement after years of stressful undercover work investigating the Mafia. Now he finds himself drawn to investigate this group of bank robbers who pose a greater danger than mere theft. Aided by local Deputy Jamie Bowen (Tye Sheridan), who is acquainted with some of the supremacists, the Order's crimes escalate. Along with fellow FBI Agent Joanne Carney (Jurnee Smollett), they now work to bring the Order down. Lives will be lost and upended before Matthews is brought down in a fiery finish.

The Order has an interesting story to tell. It is told efficiently, but perhaps that is why I was not as impressed with the film as I could have been. Despite the horrors of the Order and their odious worldview, the film itself felt a bit remote, removed, almost clinical. I did not sense great passion from any of the characters. Instead, I could not shake the idea that everyone behind The Order, while well-intentioned, was slightly removed from things. 

A case in point is when, through a mix of accident and intent, Mathews and Husk meet and interact. I figure that this would be a great moment to build up tension or a sense of danger for Husk, unaware that the fellow hunter was the one he was hunting. However, it felt a bit clinical, as if both Hoult and Law were not fully committed. The same can be said for director Justin Kurzel, who was efficient but not passionate. I did not feel any sense of tension or suspense when Mathews and Husk interact. 

I did not feel that way when Mathews interrupts Butler's speech. The Order wants us to believe that Mathews, this young Turk, has now rallied Butler's group against him to adopt full-on revolution versus mere conversation. It could have been tense or suspenseful, building on the fear of Mathews' growing power. Instead, like in almost all of The Order, it felt dispassionate and slightly remote. 

That is also the case when Mathews meets new recruit Tony Torres (Matias Lucas). Despite the surname, Torres insists that he is not Mexican but of European Spaniard descent. This moment, I think, is trying to build tension as to whether or not Mathews will include this light-skinned potentially non-Aryan into the fold (he does). However, it was not as gripping as it could have been. Later, when Husk confronts Torres in jail about his connection to the Order and its crimes, he tells him what could happen if his associates discover that he is in fact Mexican. More often than not, The Order fails to build up tension or menace, and having Husk break out into a nosebleed in this scene might come across as unintentionally comical. 

That is not to say that there weren't moments of shock and horror. Alan Berg's assassination is creatively filmed, taking things from his point-of-view. It comes almost out of nowhere, and even if you know of Berg's murder prior to seeing the film, this scene still shocks with its presentation. Later on, someone else is gunned down in a well-filmed and acted moment. It elicits both shock and deep sympathy. Had The Order had more moments like those, it would have elevated the film more. 

The Order is respectively acted. Hoult is fine as Mathews, who is driven by a sense of arrogance and superiority of all kinds. It takes a particular kind of person to flaunt his pregnant mistress to all his friends and associates. Law was appropriately morose as the troubled FBI agent, missing his children and wondering if people would have his back. The performances were fine, but again a bit remote. I think only Sheridan, while still not as passionate one way or another, was the best performance in The Order. His Deputy Bowen was no hick, but he also was at times afraid and aware that he was over his head. As the film went on, I saw his growing rage at what he saw as the FBI's hesitancy in bringing this group of racist criminals down. Smollett, while showing some promise, was more like Hoult and Law, a bit aloof from things. 

The Order is a good film that I think could have been great. That perhaps is why I ended up not as enthusiastic as others have been. I found it efficient but dispassionate, which is a lost opportunity in my view. 

DECISION: C+

BlackBerry: A Review

BLACKBERRY

Technology, trends, things that seem to be eternally ubiquitous have a strange way of fading away into history. Once, the nation had Blockbuster Video stores seemingly on every corner to where the expression "Make it a Blockbuster night" was as dominant as the company that spawned it. Now, it is a relic of a lost world. The same can be said for the BlackBerry device. None other than former President Barack Obama seemed to never be without his "Crack Berry". Now, a BlackBerry device is fit for a museum, relegated to the same historic section one would find typewriters or rotary telephones. BlackBerry chronicles the rise and fall of both the device and the minds behind it. While it has some good performances, its length and one specific performance push it ever-so-slightly down.

Out in the wilds of Waterloo, Ontario, the nerds of startup company Research in Motion (RIM) are tinkering away with their PocketLink device that will put communication within people's pockets. The pitch meeting is a disaster, with RIM heads Mike Lazaridis (Jay Baruchel) and Doug Fregin (cowriter/director Matt Johnson) making a poor impression on financier Jim Balsillie (Glenn Howerton). Fortune, however, smiles on the duo when, owing to his belligerent manner, Jim is now able to provide his own financing in exchange for a stake in the company.

Balsillie, for all his bullying, knows a good thing when he sees it, and the PocketLink is a good thing. What is not is RIM's rather laidback manner, which he finds immature. There is a sense of arrested development among the RIM employees, where they will break for video games and Movies. RIM appears more like an afterschool STEM program than a serious company. If there is one thing that Balsillie is, it is serious. Eventually, he gets Lazaridis to bring a prototype to New York, but Mike manages to bungle this effort too by forgetting the prototype back at the hotel. Despite this, Balsillie and Lazaridis manage to bring investors to the newly dubbed BlackBerry.

Balsillie is always pushing Lazaridis to do more despite Mike's objections on technical grounds. Balsillie is also alarmed at an attempted hostile takeover of RIM, forcing him to come up with more BlackBerrys that the system can handle. The chaos eventually has Balsillie bring in the pushy network engineer Charles Purdy (Michal Ironside), a terror to the RIM engineers but who to be fair does whip them into shape.

By this time Balsillie, who is hockey-crazed, becomes fixated on buying the Pittsburgh Penguins NHL team and moving them, secretly, to Hamilton, Ontario once he purchased the team. Lazaridis, no pitchman, is forced to try to drum up support to counter the new threat of Steve Jobs' iPhone. Totally lost, Lazaridis promises a better device he calls "The Storm" even though he knows no such product is even in development. Now, it has to be, forcing RIM to outsource things to China over Fregin's very loud and vocal opposition. Balsillie, for his part, is MIA in the oncoming Storm fiasco, so focused on getting the Penguins that he forgoes a chance to save the company by meeting with Penguin officials over AT&T officials. 

The meetings for Lazaridis and Balsillie are disasters. Worse, when the Storms finally arrive, Lazaridis, technician at heart, hears a strange buzzing and begins attempting to fix each Storm phone. With that, the BlackBerry finally collapses. 

BlackBerry, at heart I think, wants to be something like The Social Network, a tale of the rise and fall of both a company and a long friendship. Granted, Facebook, unlike BlackBerry, has not fallen, but my sense is that BlackBerry wanted to paint a similar story. What BlackBerry has as a major positive are many of its performances.

I have sensed that Jay Baruchel has more to him than just Hiccup from the How to Train Your Dragon films. BlackBerry allows him a chance to show that untapped range with his performance as Mike Lazaridis. He is still something of a nebbish, which Baruchel has played more often than not. However, he also shows Lazaridis to be totally committed to the product, one who loves the technology and wants it to be the best. Lazaridis' fears and struggles with people are well-played by Baruchel. Of particular note is when he has a break with Fregin over Lazaridis' impromptu declaration of the Storm device. Baruchel plays the mix of paranoia, anger and genuine loss that the situation forced him into.

The real standout in BlackBerry is Howerton as Jim Balsillie. Best known for the comedy It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Howerton makes Balsillie into a coldhearted, ruthless but efficient businessman. There is nothing funny about Balsillie, a driven, hard-headed and hard-hearted man who let power go to his head. Balsillie was not afraid to cut down the jolly atmosphere at RIM if it meant getting things done, but he also let his hubris and delight in machinations get the better of him. Seeing him so utterly enraptured by owning an NHL team to the point where he would skip an important meeting to try and finalize the deal already makes for great viewing. Seeing Balsillie deflate when the Penguins organization informs him that they learned about his scheme to relocate the team and as such, deny his offer makes for greater viewing.

BlackBerry is Howerton's picture, and he makes the most of his time. One almost sympathizes with Jim, a man who put himself in the hands of bright morons. However, Howerton shows how Jim could be ruthless, bullying and downright cruel. 

In smaller roles, Ironside's Purdy and Cary Elwes as Carl Yankowski, the man who tried to take over RIM, also do strong work. Ironside in particular makes Purdy into a no-nonsense figure who does not give a damn that making the core RIM staff work late upsets their routine. "It's bad luck to work on Movie Night," one of them tells him when Purdy orders them to start creating Storm. The look of disbelief to anger Ironside has does much to convey Purdy's mix of contempt, irritation and fury at the immaturity that he sees.

My one caveat, the one aspect of BlackBerry that does bother me, is its director/cowriter and costar Matt Johnson. As the goofy Doug Fregin, the yang to Mike Lazaridis' yin, I think Johnson perceived himself to be the real star of BlackBerry. I would not be surprised if Johnson saw himself that way given that he directed, cowrote (with Matthew Miller, adapting the nonfiction book Losing the Signal: The Untold Story of the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry) and was the third costar of BlackBerry. I get what Johnson was going for in making Fregin this total goofball who was still a technical whiz. I just never bought it. Moreover, I found Johnson quite annoying as Fregin. Try as I might, I could never shake the sense that Johnson was trying too hard to make Fregin into this loveable eccentric when he ended up being someone I wanted to see fired.

BlackBerry, which I understand was reedited into a three-part miniseries, is a good film that could have been better. In that sense, it is a bit like a BlackBerry Storm: something that had a lot of potential but was brought down by an infernal and incessant buzzing. 

DECISION: C-

Reagan: A Review (Review #1865)

 

REAGAN

How one feels about Reagan, the biopic on the 40th President, might, more than likely will, depend on how one feels about the man himself and what he represents to the viewer. Those who love the Gipper will adore the film. Those who hate the Great Communicator will despise it. It is unfortunate that most cannot get past their own feelings on the man and his ideology to see the film itself. Respectful without being too reverential, Reagan is a positive though placid look at one of the most consequential Presidents in living memory.

Reagan uses the framing device of Russian Communist Andrei Novikov (Alex Sparrow) visiting former KGB operative Viktor Petrovich (Jon Voight). Novikov wants to know why the Soviet Union fell. Petrovich tells him the story of how he had been tracking Ronald Reagan (David Henrie as a teen, Dennis Quaid as an adult) since at least from his time as a Hollywood actor and president of the Screen Actors Guild.

Petrovich repeatedly warned the Politburo that Reagan was dangerous. He had a mix of firm anticommunism with a religious bent that made it a crusade. He'd even earned the mocking nickname of Crusader from Petrovich. Reagan was a generally affable fellow, mixing with other Hollywood personalities and firmly allied with the SAG until he saw that the Communists were trying to muscle in on them. This began his shift to the Right. Reagan's commitment to his political causes cost him his first marriage to Jane Wyman (Mena Suvari). However, hope came when aspiring actress Nancy Davis (Penelope Ann Miller) turned to Reagan for help in getting her name removed from a blacklist when she was confused with another Nancy Davis. From that, a romance blossomed.

Reagan soon started moving up in the political world, first as Governor of California and then after a thwarted effort in 1976, the Presidency four years later. His assassination attempt and dealings with the Soviet Union brought about the eventual collapse of the Iron Curtain and the Communist dictatorships in Eastern Europe. However, Alzheimer's would soon take over, leading to his death.

I am not surprised at the divide Reagan has between critics (21% positive) and audiences (98% positive). My sense is that professional reviewers are seeing Reagan through their own biases on the subject. Some, no doubt, do find elements in Reagan that are worthy of criticism. I too will do that. However, I also see this, or any film, based on what it is attempting to do and whom its target audience is. Reagan is for those who do not think he or his views are demonic.

As a side note, I have lived long enough to see Reagan and both Bushes described as "literally the New/Worse Than Hitler", so there is that.

I see Reagan as something of comfort food for conservatives and center-right individuals who do not want either a long lecture or a hagiography closer to Southside with You (91% and 71% positive from critics and audiences respectively). The question that I ask is, "Is Reagan (the movie) terrible?" not "Is Reagan (the man or his ideas) terrible?"

Reagan is not a hagiography in that it does touch on some controversial matters. It does not shy away from Iran-Contra. It gives time for a montage of negative reactions from those opposed to him in the 1984 reelection. In a nice montage to Genesis' Land of Confusion (itself an anti-Reagan song), we see teens and young adults dancing while also noting the various protesters opposed to his lack of action on AIDS or nuclear disarmament. That Reagan tackles these subjects at all is a plus to the film.

I can see where Reagan made a few wrong turns. The framing device was a mistake in Howard Klausner's adaptation of Paul Kengor's The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism. Perhaps opening and closing Reagan with this conversation would have worked. Going back to it over and over again cut out the flow the film gets into. A better use might have been if Petrovich had been lecturing a group of students about the fall of the Soviet Union.

In fact, I think Reagan might have done better if it had focused on his war with Soviet Communism instead of attempting to put almost every part of Reagan's life in the film. It starts getting bogged down, and sometimes one feels like one is rushing through things. Take for example the character of Dana (Derek Richardson). Starting out as essentially a Hippie for Reagan (he shows up unannounced on their yard, disheveled with long hair and a vaguely stoned-out speaking style that understandably alarms Nancy), we next see him coming to the White House as a speechwriter, still wearing casual wear in the Oval Office. Reagan might have done well covering these events through his eyes.

Instead, characters come in and out so quickly that you rarely if ever get a sense of who they are. Things went so fast that I was surprised to read that Creed frontman Scott Stamp appeared as Frank Sinatra. I didn't realize Sinatra was even in the movie. If not for my own knowledge, I would not know who "Trumbo" or "Holden" were when Ronald and Jane were at a nightclub. Other incidents, such as his speech at the Brandenburg Gate or an amusing moment when he shushes a group of protesters who greeted him with silence, are nice. However, they again show that Reagan tried to pack too much in.

The reason Reagan is not getting a negative review from me is due to a few factors. At the top of them is Penelope Ann Miller as Nancy. She did a standout job in the role. Miller made Nancy into a genuine person, neither the overprotective power-hungry shrew nor the zombified political spouse. I was genuinely moved when Nancy is at the hospital after the assassination attempt. The mix of fear and hope that Miller shows was effective. Credit should also be given to the makeup work on Miller, who looks convincingly like the former First Lady. Her scenes with Dennis Quaid really do well in selling their great love story. 

As the title character, I think Dennis Quaid had a difficult task. Ronald Reagan had a distinct speaking manner and voice, trained from decades as a radio announcer and actor. As such, Quaid could do only so much in his interpretation of the role. I think he did as well as he could, which is not a slam on his performance. There were times when he sounded more like Ronald Reagan and less like Dennis Quaid. Other times, it was the reverse. There was, again, only so much he could do with the script he was presented. On the whole though, Quaid was a serviceable Reagan. 

The scope of the film did not let David Henrie do much as the younger Reagan. That is a shame since he could have done well in Reagan: The Early Years. While I think Miller was spot-on as Nancy Reagan, I was not convinced by Suvari as Jane Wyman. Dan Lauria was good in his small role as House Speaker and Reagan frenemy Tip O'Neill, one moment bon vivant with Ronnie, the next being fiercely antagonistic. John Coda's score was an error, not so much in that it was bad but that it was dead set on being stirring when it might have done well to take a "less is more" approach.

Reagan is, I found, a film that is perhaps not as in-depth as it could have been but not filled with fierce fury and hatred for its subject either. It may not be the definitive portrait of the man behind the myth. It does serves as a good primer into this man, loved and hated in equal terms then and now.

Ronnie, we hardly knew you...

1911-2004

DECISION: B-

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: A Review (Review #1830)

THE MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE

How to appeal to the young kids to learn about such things as sacrifice, courage, fighting a monstrous evil. The answer is simplicity itself: turn everything into a joke. The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare took a true story and turned it into something so outlandish and cartoonish that it makes one doubt that it is remotely based on a true story. Even that could be forgiven if it were fun and exciting. Instead, director/co-writer Guy Ritchie's answer to Inglourious Basterds is all style, not substance.

In 1942 the Second World War looks on the verge of ending with a British defeat. Prime Minister Winston Churchill (Rory Kinnear) decides that extraordinary methods must be used against a ruthless enemy. The Nazis are not playing by the rules, so the British should not either. With that, Brigadier Gubbins also known as "M" (Cary Elwes) is tasked to recruit a team for an unauthorized mission. This team must destroy the support system for German U-boats which are chocking off British supplies. The problem is that the U-boat cache is on a remote Spanish island off the African coast. With Spain officially neutral, an open British raid risks dragging the fascist Spanish government into the war. As such, Operation Postmaster must be completely hush-hush.

"M", with help from his aid Ian Fleming (Freddy Fox), finds Gus March-Phillips (Henry Cavill), whose unorthodox and dangerous methods are not to the government's liking but whose unorthodox and dangerous methods are what Operation Postmaster needs. He insists on recruiting his own team, an international and Academy Award-qualifying multicultural cast of figures to take on this mission. There's Irishman Henry Hayes (Hero Fiennes Tiffin), Swede Anders Lassen (Alan Ritchson), and Freddy Alvarez (Henry Golding). Helping him also are American actress Marjorie Stewart (Eliza Gonzalez) and their man on the island of Fernando Po, Richard Heron (Babs Olusanmokun). 

Gus also insists on rescuing his BFF, Geoffrey Appleyard (Alex Pettyfer) from a Nazi prison, requiring a side mission. Finally arriving on Fernando Po, the groups perform their tasks, with Marjorie set out to seduce and distract Nazi Heinrich Luhr (Til Schwieger), the Nazi head at Fernando Po. With the various pieces put together, this Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare sets to work on their most dangerous mission. Will they succeed? Will they all make it out alive?

If you are physically capable of staying awake to find those answers, you are made of stronger stuff than I am. I have not read Damien Lewis' Churchill's Secret Warriors, the nonfiction book on which The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare was very loosely based on. I figure that the true-life story is a fascinating and exciting one to attempt a film version. 

However, I cannot think of a few films as boring as The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. The problem is in how Ritchie as both director and cowriter, took this story and decided to make everything deadpan. Perhaps by now I should not be astonished that there are four credited screenwriters in The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. However, I am still astonished that four people managed to take a true-life war story and turn it into a thoroughly fictional project.

The problem is a simple one but one that doomed The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: the tone. The film is so deadpan and stylized that it looks artificial. Everyone acts in such a nonchalant manner that it makes both the action and the comedy look fake. It is one thing to have someone make a quip at what is meant to be a tense or exciting scene. It is another when your film is almost nothing but quips. The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare simply tries too hard to be breezy and fun, which has the opposite result. 

Take the Appleyard rescue. Leaving aside how we got a recap of information that we already received, everyone in the rescue is directed to be so deadpan in their delivery that it comes across almost as spoof. I get that the filmmakers were trying to make everything look breezy, fun and almost a lark. However, they went overboard in their endeavors. Anders has shot a group of Nazis with his bow and arrows. Gus, Hayes and Freddy all see the Nazis fall to their deaths and they register no reaction, apart from perhaps a wry bemusement. It is as if they are so removed from things that it is of no consequence what actually happens.

The whole cast is trying so hard, so very hard, to be so cool and blase that it looks fake. It tells the audience, "None of this is real". If it is not real, why should we care what happens to these people? 

During the Appleyard rescue, Christopher Benstead's jazz score, while enjoyable, underscores the falseness of it all. There are no stakes, no potential for moments of genuine tension or suspense. It is all very remote, very separated, very off-putting. 

It ends up looking forced, mannered and worse of all, dull.

I struggled mightily to stay awake through it. I wrote in my notes how I was both fighting and desperate to stay awake. I would not be surprised if some of the actors struggled to stay awake during filming. My disdain for Henry Cavill is well-known and, in some corners, openly mocked. The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare does not suggest that Cavill is an actor. It manages to remove the idea that he is even an action star. To be fair, Cavill is asked to be deadpan, which is at about his level of acting skills, so he is not too bad. However, Cavill's character is all raised eyebrows and "old boy" this and "old girl" that. Elwes genuinely made me wonder whether he was deliberately hamming it up with the British aplomb manner. 

Everyone in the cast appears to treat everything as a joke, one where they can be so "veddy proper" that it is not fun or funny. Playing into the stereotype of the forever unbothered British sucks the life out of things. Ritchson, this mountain of a man, attempts what I think is a Swedish accent. I doubt anyone would mistake him for Ingrid Bergman's brother. 

There is a stubborn remoteness to everything in The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. The action scenes, culminating in what is meant to be a massive series of explosions, looks so distant and dull. The shocking discovery that Luhr makes about Stewart's heritage when she inadvertently uses Yiddish while singing Mack the Knife is not tense. That she gets out of it rather easily and quickly undercuts even the pretense of tension.  

Yes, I suppose the entire sequence is pretty. It is also pretty dull.

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is a waste. Boring, trying too hard to be fun and breezy, it might have been better to have stuck to a more realistic adaptation than this stab at war hijinks. 

DECISION: F

The Bikeriders: A Review (Review #1825)

 

THE BIKERIDERS

I was brought up to be leery of bikers, forever tainted as hooligans and criminals. The Bikeriders, based on a book of photographs, brings us into this world, with strong performances and a well-crafted story.

Essentially narrated by Kathy (Jodie Comer), we learn how she came to be involved with The Vandals, a Chicago-based motorcycle club headed by Johnny (Tom Hardy). Johnny is no bum: he has a job as a truck driver, a wife and two daughters. Yet there is something about Marlon Brando in The Wild One that opens his world. A racing enthusiast, Johnny shifts his friends and associates from a mere racing club to a motorcycle club.

Kathy, who initially is appalled at this world, is drawn in due to Johnny's friend and fellow Vandal, Benny Cross (Austin Butler). While he is smoldering, he also has a gentle side, down to waiting outside Kathy's house all night. Despite herself, she and Benny marry. 

Things appear find within the Vandals, but the organization starts growing too big with new chapters established across the Midwest. Benny, forever loyal to his colors, is almost killed for them. As we go from 1965 to 1973, we see the Vandals devolve from the old guard to the young Turks. Vietnam veterans who join the Vandals are slipping into harder drugs. Older members are attacked by younger ones. Kathy is almost raped. Eventually, one of the next generation Vandals, known as The Kid (Toby Wallace) decides to challenge Johnny for leadership, which under the rules he can. The end result will be the death of what the Vandals were, with lives shattered and the new pushing out the old. Benny and Kathy make it out, but whether they are happier now or then remains unknown.

The Bikeriders moves surprisingly fast without leaving audiences behind. We get an inside look into this subculture, but it also allows for character studies of Johnny, Benny and Kathy. Kathy is our entry into this world through voiceover and on-screen narration through interviews with Danny Lyon (Mike Faist), a photojournalist chronicling the motorcycle club. 

A lot of The Bikeriders' success is due to the three central performances. I know that many were put off by Comer and Hardy's Chicago accents. I think they worked fine and after a while you forget whatever issues you have with them. I found Comer to give one of the best performances of the year. Kathy was a real person: aware that her actions at times were irrational but still standing by her man. The annoyance at some of the Vandals' behavior to the terror of her near assault were all displayed exceptionally well. We end up liking her, even understanding how she came to fall for the leader of the pack, to coin a phrase. 

It is near impossible to not look at Austin Butler and not marvel as his beauty or in Benny's stoic nature. It could have turned into parody: the too cool for school rebel in a leather jacket who can melt women with just an upward glance from his beautiful blue eyes. However, Butler brings a quiet intensity to Benny. He is forever loyal, even when it hurts him be it at the opening or when he nearly loses his foot. As quiet as Benny is, we see the vulnerability beneath the somewhat taciturn manner. The scene when he allows himself to mourn, while quiet, is still moving.

I admit to not being the biggest Tom Hardy fan. Sometimes I find him as an actor someone trying too hard to convince me he is the character. In The Bikeriders, his efforts to sound like someone from Chicago did take away from some of his performance. Still, on the whole I thought he did well as Johnny, who found meaning through the Vandals but who did not see that he could not control the evolution of his creation.

The Bikeriders is filled with small parts which come as a surprise. Both Michael Shannon and Norman Reedus, while not on screen for long, handle their roles well and never feel shoehorned in. My one issue would be with Faist, who is supposed to be the link between our world and the Vandals' world. He is seen interviewing mostly Kathy with one or two instances when he is with the Vandals themselves. I get that this is supposed to be The Bikeriders' author Danny Lyon. Maybe he was there too much. Maybe the permanently dangling cigarette was a sign that he was trying too hard. Somehow, I think the film could have done a little less with him. 

The Bikeriders reminds me in many ways of Goodfellas. There is the voiceover narration, the look into this insular world, the evolution from a fun and an almost innocent appeal to criminality to the tragedy and horror of that criminal world. Even the ending draws inspiration from Goodfellas: ending in a more respectable life only to quietly yearn for what no longer is, or perhaps ever was. The Bikeriders is a portrait of a world so far removed from us, of rebels who have endless rules, of loyalty that goes beyond reason. Well-acted, directed and written by Jeff Nichols, while not perfect, The Bikeriders is a ride worth taking. 

DECISION: B+

Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis: The Television Movie

 JACKIE BOUVIER KENNEDY ONASSIS

Former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, later dubbed Jackie O after her marriage to Greek shipping billionaire Aristotle Onassis, is more an American Sphinx than America's Rani. Visible yet opaque, Mrs. Onassis forever remained out of reach. She has been the subject of fascination, not just for the public, but for film and television producers even before her death in 1994. Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, based on the Donald Spoto biography, manages a surprising feat. It takes a well-respected, well-researched biography and turns it into a snoozefest. 

Paying respects at the grave of her first husband, former President John F. Kennedy, his widow Jacqueline (Joanne Whalley) remembers her extraordinary life. Daughter of wealth and privilege, she soon finds herself romanced and won over by Congressman John Kennedy (Tim Matheson). His father, Ambassador Joseph Kennedy (Tom Skerritt) is won over by the elegant Miss Bouvier. Not won over is Jackie's mother, Janet Auchincloss (Frances Fisher). She thinks the Kennedy men are all like her first husband, John "Black Jack" Bouvier (Fred Ward).

The fact that Jackie adores her flawed father might have been a clue to why she found Jack Kennedy someone worth loving. Once in the White House, they both plot schemes: he political, her fashion. Their rocky relationship is sorely tested but perhaps healed by the death of their newborn, Patrick, before President Kennedy's own death. After the assassination of her beloved brother-in-law Robert "Bobby" Kennedy (Andrew McCarthy), Jackie essentially flees America. She finds refuge with Greek tycoon Aristotle Onassis (Philip Baker Hall), eventually having her own big fat Greek wedding. While never fitting in with Onassis' children, particularly Christina (Melanie Sara), Jackie found true love in beau Maurice Tempelsman (Jerry Adler) before her own death.

I did read Donald Spoto's biography of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and thought it was up to his excellent standards. As such, I am amazed that Eric Overmyer and Tina Andrews' adaptation could be so bland. There was no sense of drama, very little conflict, and a very rapid pace to what should be interesting, even fascinating lives. 

I think a good part of Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis' failure is in the casting. Almost everyone in the film is miscast. Whalley barely looks like Mrs. Onassis, but that is not the worst of it. She does have the soft speaking style that Mrs. Kennedy was known, at times parodied, for. However, it was surprisingly nasal. Moreover, Whalley never made a case as to what made Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis such a figure of fascination and interest. She came across as rather dull for the most part. There was one good scene, where she has to tell her children Caroline and John, Jr. that their father won't be coming back. It was a well-acted, even moving, moment.

That, however, was about the only time that Whalley came close to being Jackie. Most of the time, she was not interesting. 

Almost everyone else is equally bad. Probably the worst is Hall as Aristotle Onassis. Looking nothing like Onassis or even a plausible Greek, Hall did not bother trying to sound Greek either. He clearly was slumming through a third-rate television biopic. Matheson, to his credit, gave former President Kennedy's distinctive Massachusetts accent as good a go as he could. However, there was no sense of his being charming or the shameless lothario that he was. McCarthy's Robert Kennedy was bordering on laughable. He did not look like Bobby, he did not sound like Bobby, and the mixing of gunshots as Bobby fell while playing football was both too overt in its symbolism and a surprisingly dumb way to move past the assassination.

Skerritt's Joe was equally unconvincing, as if he thought the whole thing was a lark versus a calculated way to get his son into the White House. Diane Baker's Rose Kennedy and Fisher as the snobbish but shrewd Janet were the sole bright spots acting-wise. Baker's side-eye glance at Joe when he appears to flirt with Jacqueline is perfect. 

Well, maybe Sara's psycho-bitch Christina Onassis was effective if perhaps more operatic than her father's longtime mistress Maria Callas.

It may be that Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis was almost too reverential to be interesting. Joseph Conlan's opening "stirring" score was so overdone as to be slightly comical. 

The curious thing about Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis is how devoid of drama it is. The miniseries rushes through both the death of her son Patrick and two assassinations and treats the Onassis marriage like a blip. The offer of a million dollars to stay in the Kennedy marriage has surprisingly somber music with it, which is a strange dichotomy.

In the end, Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis is charming but with no drama, having little conflict and no insight into the former First Lady who enchanted the world. 

1929-1994

4/10

Killers of the Flower Moon: A Review (Review #1765)

KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON

At a time when people can call Joy Ride the best comedy of 2023 and Across the Spider-Verse "one of the greatest films ever made in the history of cinema" (both said by the same person I might add), I am despairing about both film reviewing and cinema itself. Killers of the Flower Moon is the first film in a long time that had me think there is still hope, even if its creator is entering the twilight of his career. 

The Osage Native American people are both blessed and cursed. Having been pushed off their original land for Oklahoma reservations, the discovery of oil has made them among the wealthiest people in America. Their traditional ways have them share in the profits, but as the saying goes, "mo' money, mo' problems". Soon, the Osage are given "guardians" to watch over their fortune. The guardians, however shady as they are, pale in comparison to the vultures waiting to take over.

Into this comes Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio), a World War I veteran come to live with his uncle, William "King" Hale (Robert DeNiro). Hale appears to be the friend to the Osage, a benevolent white figure that sides with them. In reality, he is a greedy man who lusts after the Osage people's mineral rights. Hale pushes Ernest to court and marry Mollie (Lily Gladstone), a wealthy Osage whose family has vast holdings. Mollie is pretty and pretty shrewd, fully aware that the "coyotes want money". Nevertheless, Ernest is very handsome, and they marry.

Hale knows that the fewer members of Mollie's family are around, the greater the share of Ernest's inheritance will be. Slowly, Mollie's other sisters and mother start succumbing to death. While matriarch Lizzie (Tantoo Cardinal) dies of natural causes (at least I think she did), the other sisters are not so lucky. Drunk troublemaker Anna (Cara Jade Myers) is brutally shot. Mollie's other sister Reta (JaNae Collins) is literally blown up. All the while Mollie is slowly growing weaker physically and morally. Her illness is diabetes, but Hale is not above pushing Ernest into putting a little something in her insulin (a new product for the time) to help get Mollie out of the way.

Despite her illness, Mollie has enough strength to join a group of Osage and plead their case with President Calvin Coolidge. This gets the then-Bureau of Investigation to look into the Reign of Terror that the Osage have been living through. Agent Tom White (Jesse Plemons) comes looking around to investigate the various killings. It is not long before Ernest is caught in his involvement with the targeting of Mollie's family but that of Mollie's first husband, the depressed Henry Roan (William Belleau), who mistakenly trusted Hale, unaware that Hale benefited from his death. A trial against Hale gets temporary justice, but as the radio show that has chronicled the Osage murders tells us, things did not end well.

At its heart, Killers of the Flower Moon is a tragedy, chronicling the evil that men do out of greed. Scorsese shocks the viewer with the randomness of some of the killings. Early on, an Osage mother meets a shocking and ghastly end. The coldness of that act, coupled with Gladstone's voiceover that it was ruled "a suicide" makes it all the crueler. The refrain of "no investigation" to clear acts of murder makes it more chilling. 

The film does not shrink from being graphic, but it also brilliantly builds up suspense. We the audience, for example, know that Rita and her family are in grave danger. Scorsese, however, keeps us waiting by pulling the camera in Mollie and Ernest's bedroom, the windows prominent on the screen. Even though we know something is coming, we are still jolted by the ferocity and horror of Rita's brutal end.

Visually, Killers of the Flower Moon is arresting. A sequence where Ernest sees Hale burning down his fields to Blind Willie Johnson's Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground looks like a vision of Hell, with Hale as Satan himself. 

Killers of the Flower Moon also has truly exceptional performances. I think Leonardo DiCaprio has done some of his best work here as the gullible, corrupt and weak Ernest Burkhart. DiCaprio makes him dumb, weak, sometimes sleazy, sometimes remorseful but also unwilling to face the truth of his actions. Ultimately, Ernest comes across as thoroughly pathetic in every meaning of the word. Near the end of the film, with his life and family in tatters, he remarks, "I ain't got nothing but regret". It is an admission both painful and slightly dishonest. 

Lily Gladstone is the heart of Killers of the Flower Moon as Mollie. She brings a quiet dignity and grace to a woman caught up in terrible circumstances. Gladstone makes Mollie an intelligent woman, one aware that she is a target for gold-diggers but also susceptible to false promises of love. There is also a quiet resignation to the indignities she must endure, such as when she has to call herself "incompetent" when asking her guardian for her own money. Gladstone captures you every time she is on screen. I keep thinking the word "quiet" when it comes to her performance. That, however, does not suggest a passivity or weakness. Far from it: Gladstone brings great strength to Mollie.

DeNiro has come out of the fog of his mugging and Bad Grandpa stage to deliver the goods. The evil face behind the mask of benevolence, DeNiro's William Hale is a thoroughly evil man. What makes DeNiro more effective is that he rarely if ever rages. There are maybe one or two scenes when Hale is out of control. There is when he is whacking his nephew for botching a job. Another is when he screams out, "GIVE ME MY HENRY ROAN MONEY!" when he is attempting to collect on the life insurance policy he took out on an unwitting Roan. Even then, his moments of overwhelming anger fit into Hale's character, that of a man used to getting his way. 

Martin Scorsese masterfully directs all his cast to fine performances, except for recent Best Actor winner Brendan Fraser as Hale's defense attorney W.S. Hamilton. Hammy and fat, Fraser devoured the screen whole in his brief role. That might have been what Scorsese wanted, but it comes across as wildly over-the-top. 

Killers of the Flower Moon also has exceptional production work. Rodrigo Prieto's cinematography is at times spellbinding (the closing scene is beautiful), and the late Robbie Robertson's score mixes Native American elements with almost a bit of rock, building menace when needed. Longtime Scorsese editor Thelma Schoonmaker rarely lets the pacing lag, even at almost three and a half hours.

There are aspects that people have criticized. The length is one. Could it have been shorter or with an intermission? I think it could have and might have benefitted from one. The closing scene of the FBI Stories radio show with Scorsese has also, I think, been called into question. I thought it was a clever and period-appropriate way to sum up what happened after the events of the film versus having online text tell us. I also think Scorsese's appearance is fine. It is almost his way of summarizing both the film and the real-life horror & tragedy we have seen. 

Killers of the Flower Moon is the best film I have seen so far this year. Intelligent, gripping, with excellent performances, this is a strong film of a story that needs to be better known and remembered. 

DECISION: A+