Four out of Four Stars
Bennett Miller, the director of Capote and Moneyball, delivers another powerful and fact-based film, Foxcatcher. On January 26, 1996, John E. DuPont murdered Olympic wrestler, David Schultz. Miller's new film chronicles the fatal relationship between John DuPont, David Schultz, and his younger brother, Mark. Miller manages to create a film that is as intensely and remarkably character driven as his previous films.
At the 1984 Summer Olympics, Mark and David Schultz won gold medals in competitive wrestling. Three years later, both brothers are working to make ends meet; for David (Mark Ruffalo), he is content in training for the 1988 Olympics and living the life as a family man. As for Mark (Channing Tatum), he craves to get another gold medal and to step out of his brother's shadow. Fate knocks on Mark's door as he is commissioned by eccentric millionaire, John DuPont (Steve Carrell), to train for the 1988 Olympics and live out on his sprawling Pennsylvania estate known as Foxcatcher. Mark embraces DuPont's warmth and fatherly presence until it turns into an intense and turbulent relationship based on DuPont's eccentricity and their individual desires to be recognized as winners; for Mark, he wants to not just be known as "Dave Schultz's brother" while John wants to win the acceptance of his mother, June (a chilling Vanessa Redgrave), with the grand illusions of trying to make America stand out as a supreme country through his wrestling team, Team Foxcatcher.
Steve Carrell, who has made a successful career with his presence as a comedic leading man, gives one of his most haunting and phenomenal performances as John DuPont by channeling his mannerisms and unpredictable behavior with the same deviousness and eccentricity as Welles did as Charles Foster Kane, whether it be gloating his mother's foxcatching trophies to his guests or doing lines of cocaine while riding in his helicopter. Channing Tatum gives a masterclass in acting with his portrayal of the naive, yet self-destructive, Mark Schultz as his unbridled ambition to be the best is conflicted while under the fatherly embrace of DuPont. Mark Ruffalo gives a remarkable performance as David Schultz as he walks the fine balance of being a relaxed family man and a tenacious coach towards his brother.
Dan Futterman (who wrote the screenplay for Capote) and co-screenwriter, E. Max Frye, deliver a solid script that screams Greek Tragedy such as tapping into the spite-fueled relationship between DuPont and his mother and the Cain and Abel relationship between Mark and David Schultz.
Greig Fraser's cinematography is stunning as in his previous work on Zero Dark Thirty as he captures the stark beauty of the Foxcatcher estate and his use of lighting adds an element of depth into the troubled psyche of DuPont and the mental breakdown of Mark Schultz. Foxcatcher is nothing short of an incredible and harrowing film.
Sunday, November 23, 2014
Friday, November 21, 2014
Rosewater
3 out of 4 Stars
Rosewater, Jon Stewart's directorial debut, is a fascinating adaptation of Maziar Bahari's memoir, "Then They Came For Me." In June of 2009, Bahari, a Canadian-Iranian journalist for Newsweek magazine, covered the build up and aftermath of the Iranian elections in which Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was re-elected causing thousands of Iranians to march to the streets in protest over what was considered a rigged election; thousands were arrested by the police and several were killed during the protests. Bahari captured the atrocities on film and was arrested, tortured, and held for 118 days in Tehran's Evin prison. However, he wasn't arrested over his raw footage of the protests, but over an appearance he made on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. In the televised segment, Bahari compared America to Iran despite the misconceptions that Iran was anti-American. What was supposed to be a light television interview led by Daily Show correspondent/comedian, Jason Jones, who joked that he was an American spy, led to Bahari's imprisonment. His arrest made headlines leading to thousands of people to petition for his freedom.
Gael Garcia Bernal stars as Bahari and gives a genuine performance that balances between humor and despair; such as when he reveals fake sexual encounters to appease his arresting officer known only as Rosewater, played by Kim Bodina, or when he his talking to the ghosts of his father and sister who were both arrested during the 1953 coup in Iran and the rise of Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979. Bernal manages to use his solitary confinement to his advantage by having the music of Leonard Cohen and sounds of his family run through his head.
Jon Stewart, the host of the satirical fake news program, The Daily Show, gives an ambitious directorial debut that cuts against the grain of his nightly humor and satirical analysis of current events. That being said, the film does come across as another story of false imprisonment over a conspiracy or overly-paranoid police force as seen in Jim Sheridan's In The Name of The Father or Norman Jewison's Hurricane. Stewart does manage to make the topic relevant in terms of how social media devices, like Twitter and Facebook, have overshadowed the comments of fixed-news organizations since it is the people's perspective that trumps over newspapers and television. The result, a poignant David vs. Goliath story that may have been repeated many times before, but still manages to as relevant today as when the events unfolded in Bahari's life.
Rosewater, Jon Stewart's directorial debut, is a fascinating adaptation of Maziar Bahari's memoir, "Then They Came For Me." In June of 2009, Bahari, a Canadian-Iranian journalist for Newsweek magazine, covered the build up and aftermath of the Iranian elections in which Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was re-elected causing thousands of Iranians to march to the streets in protest over what was considered a rigged election; thousands were arrested by the police and several were killed during the protests. Bahari captured the atrocities on film and was arrested, tortured, and held for 118 days in Tehran's Evin prison. However, he wasn't arrested over his raw footage of the protests, but over an appearance he made on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. In the televised segment, Bahari compared America to Iran despite the misconceptions that Iran was anti-American. What was supposed to be a light television interview led by Daily Show correspondent/comedian, Jason Jones, who joked that he was an American spy, led to Bahari's imprisonment. His arrest made headlines leading to thousands of people to petition for his freedom.
Gael Garcia Bernal stars as Bahari and gives a genuine performance that balances between humor and despair; such as when he reveals fake sexual encounters to appease his arresting officer known only as Rosewater, played by Kim Bodina, or when he his talking to the ghosts of his father and sister who were both arrested during the 1953 coup in Iran and the rise of Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979. Bernal manages to use his solitary confinement to his advantage by having the music of Leonard Cohen and sounds of his family run through his head.
Jon Stewart, the host of the satirical fake news program, The Daily Show, gives an ambitious directorial debut that cuts against the grain of his nightly humor and satirical analysis of current events. That being said, the film does come across as another story of false imprisonment over a conspiracy or overly-paranoid police force as seen in Jim Sheridan's In The Name of The Father or Norman Jewison's Hurricane. Stewart does manage to make the topic relevant in terms of how social media devices, like Twitter and Facebook, have overshadowed the comments of fixed-news organizations since it is the people's perspective that trumps over newspapers and television. The result, a poignant David vs. Goliath story that may have been repeated many times before, but still manages to as relevant today as when the events unfolded in Bahari's life.
Mr. Nichols, You Have Seduced Me.
Mike Nichols, one of the most prolific directors of both cinema and the stage, died on Wednesday at the age of 83. Born in Germany and raised in New York after he and his parents fled Nazi-occupied Europe, Nichols developed a passion for theatre and film at an early age. When he attended the University of Chicago, comic gold was struck when he fell into company with Elaine May, in which both of them formed the iconic comic duo, Nichols and May. Both received glowing reviews for their live performances on Broadway in the late-Fifties and early-Sixties before Nichols made his directorial debut with the controversial adaptation of Edward Albee's play, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? The film was a success and led Nichols to his second film in 1967, which earned him his only Academy Award for Best Director, The Graduate. For his work as a director on Broadway, he would be awarded thirteen Tony awards for his productions as diverse as Barefoot in the Park, Spamalot, and Death of a Salesman.
I remember the first time I watched The Graduate when I was 14. I was sitting in my brother's bedroom flipping through the channels until I saw Dustin Hoffman walking through an airport as the sounds of Simon & Garfunkel filled the screen. For the next two hours, I was hooked to the surreal and hilarious story of Benjamin Braddock's sordid affair with Mrs. Robinson. The last shot of the film, in which Benjamin helps Elaine, Mrs. Robinson's daughter, escape her own wedding via bus, left me scratching my head with its anti-climatic ending as both of them go from laughing to just staring aimlessly from the back of the bus as it drove off to wherever it was going. It wasn't until I graduated both high school and college that I felt like Dustin Hoffman in the back of the bus staring aimlessly and wondering what would happen next.
A second revelation I had regarding my connection to Mike Nichols was when I saw his 2003 adaptation of Tony Kushner's play, Angels in America. The story of two HIV/AIDS patients questioning their own mortality struck me at a time when I realized that death was coming close to those near and dear to me. At the time when the film was released, my grandmother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease and she would have another 5 years left to live on this earth. I would watch Angels In America as a form of catharsis as it channelled the anger and frustration of dealing with one of the most inevitable things in our lives, which is death. Rather than observing death in a morbid manner, Mike Nichols and Tony Kushner examined the power of beliefs; not in any religious sense, but in terms of an idea beholden to us that we need to face the day. Last week, after my second grandmother passed away, I retreated back to that film.
Mike Nichols once said, "A movie is like a person; either you trust it or you don't." Nichols' films ranged from the deeply poignant, such as Wit and Regarding Henry, to the deeply funny, like The Graduate or The Birdcage. In the case of his films, they were an extension of who he was as a comic, dramatist, a lover of film, and of the stage. Mike Nichols remains a person anyone can trust as were his films.
I remember the first time I watched The Graduate when I was 14. I was sitting in my brother's bedroom flipping through the channels until I saw Dustin Hoffman walking through an airport as the sounds of Simon & Garfunkel filled the screen. For the next two hours, I was hooked to the surreal and hilarious story of Benjamin Braddock's sordid affair with Mrs. Robinson. The last shot of the film, in which Benjamin helps Elaine, Mrs. Robinson's daughter, escape her own wedding via bus, left me scratching my head with its anti-climatic ending as both of them go from laughing to just staring aimlessly from the back of the bus as it drove off to wherever it was going. It wasn't until I graduated both high school and college that I felt like Dustin Hoffman in the back of the bus staring aimlessly and wondering what would happen next.
A second revelation I had regarding my connection to Mike Nichols was when I saw his 2003 adaptation of Tony Kushner's play, Angels in America. The story of two HIV/AIDS patients questioning their own mortality struck me at a time when I realized that death was coming close to those near and dear to me. At the time when the film was released, my grandmother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease and she would have another 5 years left to live on this earth. I would watch Angels In America as a form of catharsis as it channelled the anger and frustration of dealing with one of the most inevitable things in our lives, which is death. Rather than observing death in a morbid manner, Mike Nichols and Tony Kushner examined the power of beliefs; not in any religious sense, but in terms of an idea beholden to us that we need to face the day. Last week, after my second grandmother passed away, I retreated back to that film.
Mike Nichols once said, "A movie is like a person; either you trust it or you don't." Nichols' films ranged from the deeply poignant, such as Wit and Regarding Henry, to the deeply funny, like The Graduate or The Birdcage. In the case of his films, they were an extension of who he was as a comic, dramatist, a lover of film, and of the stage. Mike Nichols remains a person anyone can trust as were his films.
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Inherent Vice
4 out of 4 Stars
Paul Thomas Anderson’s seventh film, Inherent Vice, is a surreal, kinky, and stoned epic of mammoth proportions. The fact that Anderson decided to be the first director adapt the wild prose of Thomas Pynchon is an achievement in of itself. Set in Los Angeles in the early Seventies, Larry “Doc” Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix) awakens from his stony stupor when his ex-girlfriend (Katherine Waterston) tries to find sanctuary from her real-estate mogul boyfriend, his wife, and her boyfriend. In traditional noir fashion, not all is simple as it sounds as a bigger presence is involved with a cavalcade of characters thrown into Doc’s world; a heroin-addicted sax player from a surf-rock band (Owen Wilson), a coked-up dentist with the libido of a rabbit (Martin Short), and an LAPD officer/failed actor (Josh Brolin) busting anyone with long-hair and forming a strange love/hate bond with Doc.
The film is a hybrid of comedy, romance, and mystery inspired by the major film-noir flicks of the 1940s, such as Howard Hawks' The Big Sleep and Fritz Lang's Ministry of Fear, except that rather than having Sam Spade chain smoke cigarettes and drink gimlets, you have Doc Sportello smoking endless joints and drinking tequila zombies. Anderson's perspective of Los Angeles in the Seventies has been shown before in Boogie Nights in all its hedonistic glory, but in the case of Inherent Vice, he manages to capture the mood of L.A. in an earthy, yet naive glow that mirrors the energy and fear that erupted in the wake of the Manson murders and the rise of Nixon's silent majority. No matter how you slice it, Anderson's film fits in the tapestry of other L.A. noir classics like Chinatown and L.A. Confidential, but with the comedic antics of a Cheech and Chong film or an episode of Gilligan's Island.
Joaquin Phoenix gives a brilliantly-nuanced performance as Pynchon's anti-hero private eye. Unlike his last collaboration with Anderson on The Master, Phoenix reigns in his eccentricity with a relaxed, yet stoned, approach and manages to not make Sportello into a cliched character of the counterculture thanks to the sharp wit and dialogue of Anderson's screenplay. Josh Brolin's performance as Bigfoot Bjornsen is brilliantly comical and tragic as he tries to walk amongst the Indica-smoke streets with the power and authority of Jack Webb from Dragnet. Katherine Waterston gives a remarkable performance as Doc's former flame as she gives a raw and naked performance that is both sympathetic and mysterious. Despite being on film for only ten minutes, Martin Short gives a performance of comedic gold with the eccentricity and insanity as equally as funny as his alter egos like Ed Grimley and Jiminy Glick. Among the other actors who fill out the film, Reese Witherspoon as an assistant D.A. and Doc's part-time love interest, Benecio Del Toro as Doc's confidant and Owen Wilson each give solid performances.
Jonny Greenwood, in his third collaboration with Anderson as composer, creates a score that mirrors the Noir-fashioned sounds of Jerry Goldsmith mixed with the psychedelic sounds of the Laurel Canyon music scene of the early Seventies. Also, the music of Neil Young's Harvest album adds an emotional depth to the romantic interludes between Doc and the women in his life. Robert Elswit's cinematography is as excellent as his previous collaborations with Anderson as he manages to capture the long, strange trip into the underbelly of Los Angeles. Inherent Vice may be at times incoherent and somewhat dense as Pynchon's novel, but it is one hell of a trip!
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