Silver Linings Playbook

Leonard Cohen once wrote, “There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.” In his new film, Silver Linings Playbook, David O. Russell focuses on the process of finding the light through the eyes of two people living on the edges of sanity. Pat is a former history teacher, recently discharged from a mental institution and living with his football fanatic father and mother. His mood swings and pining over his ex-wife are subdued when he comes across someone as equally unhinged as him. Enter Tiffany, a young widow who finds solace in sex and dancing and manages to strike a roller-coaster of a friendship with Pat. There unhinged emotions and attitude are a match made in Freudian heaven as they express their mental wounds through dancing and non-filtered dialogue.

David O. Russell is no stranger to looking at dysfunctional families if you look at his previous work; from the incestuous Spanking the Monkey, the existential I (Heart) Huckabees, and the Oedipal boxing match that is The Fighter. In Silver Linings Playbook, he combines the raw, mentally straining look at working-class families in a similar manner that John Cassavetes did with A Woman Under the Influence. Russell’s dialogue, based on Matthew Quick’s novel, is raw, funny, and poignant and is expressed by a brilliant cast.

Bradley Cooper gives an incredible performance as Pat as his emotions bob and weave through every breath of dialogue and idiosyncratic movement, which is a sigh of relief after the slew of unbearable films he has worked on in the past three years. Jennifer Lawrence is a hybrid of Audrey Hepburn and Gena Rowlands as she delivers an unforgettable performance as Tiffany. Only 22, she has managed to deliver a slew of amazing performances from Winter’s Bone to The Hunger Games. Robert De Niro gives his best performance in almost twenty years as Pat’s father, a Philadelphia Eagles fan who tries to bond with his son.

In addition to the leading actors, the supporting cast was equally superb. John Ortiz (Jack Goes Boating) is funny and charming as Pat’s heartfelt friend who confides in Pat over the frustration of his marriage. Chris Tucker gives an unforgettable performance as Danny, Pat’s friend from the mental institution, who adds the humor amidst the bleakness in Pat’s life. Despite the film ending as an atypical romantic-comedy, it is the performances by Cooper, Lawrence, and De Niro that make Silver Linings Playbook a pleasure to watch.                

Three out of Four Stars 

Zero Dark Thirty

Four out of Four Stars

On May 2^nd, 2011, President Obama and the CIA confirmed that Osama bin Laden was successfully terminated during Operation Geronimo, the raid orchestrated by Seal Team Six.  The CIA’s ceaseless attempts at tracking down Bin Laden and the raid on his Abbottabad compound is captured by Kathryn Bigelow in her latest film, Zero Dark Thirty. Based on the research conducted by screenwriter/journalist, Mark Boal, Zero Dark Thirty follows Maya (Jessica Chastain), a CIA operative and her decade long search for the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks.

 Despite the recent controversy the film has received by Senator John McCain and others over the dramatization of CIA’s use of torture to obtain information, it is necessary to see both sides of the ethical coin. As Neil Gaiman once wrote, “There's never been a true war that wasn't fought between two sets of people who were certain they were in the right.” The names of those involved in capturing Bin Laden are changed to protect their anonymity, despite the recent succession of books and first-hand accounts of Operation Geronimo.

Zero Dark Thirty is a film set in three acts: the CIA’s actions after 9/11, Maya’s obsession into tracking down Bin Laden despite the shadow of doubt by her superiors, and the raid on Bin Laden’s compound. Boal’s script and Bigelow’s vérité-styled camera leave you on the edge of your seat from beginning to end. Bigelow and Boal collaborated together on The Hurt Locker four years earlier by focusing on man’s obsession with war. In Zero Dark Thirty, Bigelow and Boal show war through the eyes of those behind the desk and on the front lines.

Jessica Chastain’s performance as Maya is astonishing as she gives a voice to the unknown operative involved in taking down Bin Laden. In the past two years, Chastain has delivered a succession of outstanding performances; from the lovable Celia Foote in The Help to the ethereal mother in Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life. Her performance in Zero Dark Thirty is intense and bold as it matches up with Jodie Foster’s performance in The Silence of the Lambs; it is, by far, the best performance of the year.

Zero Dark Thirty is not a guts-for-glory film like Rambo, or an anti-war tissue-grabber like Platoon; it is a neutral, yet suspenseful, view of global terrorism. The last thirty minutes of the film leaves you glued to the screen, but it’s the close-up on Chastain’s face that symbolizes the weariness of war and the uncertainty over the end of the War on Terror.                     

Lincoln

 
For almost twenty years, Steven Spielberg tried to bring the life of Abraham Lincoln on the big screen; now, he has succeeded with his sprawling two and a half hour depiction of the last three months of Lincoln's presidency. The first shots of the film are a montage of soldiers being bayoneted and pummeled into the muddy ground as the Civil War is at its peak in January of 1865. However, do not expect a drawn-out battle sequence as in Saving Private Ryan as Spielberg focuses on the nation's divide and bitterness towards Lincoln (Daniel-Day Lewis) as he tries to pass the 13th Amendment, which would abolish slavery. While not sitting with his staff trying to get the pro-slavery Democrats trying to side with him, Lincoln is trying to be a dutiful father and husband to his two surviving sons and his wife, Mary Todd (Sally Field) as she is still in shock over the death of their son, William.

Spielberg reunites with Pulitzer-playwright, Tony Kushner (Angels in America, Munich), as his prose is as eloquent as the history he compresses into his screenplay, which is thanks to the research done by Doris Kearns Goodwin. Think of it as The West Wing set in the 19th Century. Spielberg also reunites with cinematographer, Janusz Kaminski, as his use of shadows and piercing light reflect the period of time as well as act as a metaphor to the divide Lincoln stands between the Union and Confederacy. In addition to the screenplay and cinematography, John Williams' score (minimal compared to his past work) is stripped down and subtle in contrast to the boisterous activity thriving on Capitol Hill throughout the film.  

Lincoln has been portrayed in the past by such leading men as Henry Fonda and Hal Holbrook (who gives a great performance as Preston Blair), yet it is Daniel Day-Lewis' portrayal of the 16th President that stands out as the best. One score and seven years ago, Day-Lewis graced the screen with a canon of roles that cement him as the best actor since Jack Nicholson; from Christy Brown in My Left Foot to Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood. His tenor voice and physical transformation into Abraham Lincoln is amazing as it is audacious.

Next to Day-Lewis, Sally Field shines as Mary Todd Lincoln as she veers in and out of her sanity when she is behind closed doors or anxiously observing the divided members of Congress. Joseph Gordon-Levitt gives a solid performance as Robert Lincoln, who is portrayed in the film as a historical Biff Lohman; stubborn and rebellious by going against his father's ambitions. Tommy Lee Jones is sensational as Thaddeus Stevens as he gives a tongue-lashing to Congress with such glee and gusto over the passing of the 13th Amendment.

Although Lincoln is not Steven Spielberg's greatest work, it is a visually descriptive look at American politics and humanity as was his 1997 film, Amistad. The story of Lincoln's life is well known, but it is the journey of seeing him at the peak of his presidency and his life depicted by Day-Lewis that makes Lincoln a memorable film.

Three out of Four Stars

Django Unchained

If Sergio Leone and Sam Peckinpah had a baby, they would have named it Quentin Tarantino. Django Unchained is Tarantino's latest film that pays homage to the western genre with copious amounts of blood and humor that would even make John Wayne shiver in his grave. After being rescued by a gun-wielding dentist/bounty hunter named Dr. King (Christoph Waltz), Django (Jamie Foxx) seeks vengeance against the sadistic plantation owner, Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio), who bought his wife, Broomhilda (Kerry Washington) by searching high and low over the Confederate South. Along the way, Django and King go from plantation to plantation building up their bounty and the body count of sheet-wearing horsemen who step in their way.

After a succession of hit and miss films, such as the Kill Bill movies and Death Proof, Tarantino closed out the last decade with the successful Inglourious Basterds and has now raised the blood-soaked bar with Django Unchained. The gun-toting action amidst the sprawling landscape mirror that of the red shades of Peckinpah's Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia and Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Western films of the Sixties. Tarantino's wide-eyed look at the Pre-Confederate South is complimented with Robert Richardson's lighting showing that he is no stranger to the wild work of Tarantino and Oliver Stone.

Jamie Foxx is amazing as Django by undergoing the transformation from a slave to a redeemer with a six-shooter. Christoph Waltz is unforgettable as the flamboyantly verbose Dr. King as he takes Django under his wing and grooms him into "the finest shot in the south." Leonardo DiCaprio is wickedly charming and sadistic as Candie giving a villainous performance that would make his mentor, Martin Scorsese, grin like a Cheshire cat. Samuel L. Jackson rounds off the stellar cast as Candie's house slave, Steven, whose baritone voice and utterance of every f-word is like Olivier reciting Shakespeare.  

As the year winds down, Django Unchained stands as one of the best films of the year, if not one of Tarantino's finest achievements as a filmmaker. Despite the controversy he has been getting by the peanut gallery, it is overshadowed by bringing the western genre to a new generation of film-goers mixed with an eclectic soundtrack ranging from Ennio Morricone, Jim Croce, and Rick Ross. It may not be as groundbreaking as Pulp Fiction, but it's no matter as Django Unchained rings in the new year with a bang.            

Four out of Four Stars

Cinema After Newtown

On Friday, December 14th, tragedy struck the small town of Newtown,CT when 26 people were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School, including the gunman who took his own life afterwards. I didn't hear the news until after I walked home from substitute teaching at Merrimack Valley High School. As someone who works in the education field, I was shocked and saddened by the news. No words can ease the pain to the families of those who have suffered a great loss.

In the wake of the Newtown tragedy, film premieres of Jack Reacher and Django Unchained were pushed back out of respect for the events that occurred a week ago. Last night, Dr. Chuck Williams of the University of Pennsylvania went on Bill O'Reilly's Fox News program stating that "After what happened on Friday, everybody has to look at what part thay have to play in creating this culture of violence." He continues by  citing the research of Albert Bandura and his "Bobo doll" experiement in which children mimicked the behavior they witnessed on television by hitting an inflatable doll and how today's films show gratuitous violence for the sake of being violent.

The knee-jerk reactions are not uncommon in the wake of such tragedies. Consider the release of Oliver Stone's 1994 film, "Natural Born Killers", which was based on Quentin Tarantino's screenplay; the satire on the supersaturation of mass-media was put on the witness stand by John Grisham and Patsy Byers after a couple of kids allegedly took LSD, watched "Natural Born Killers", and murdered William Savage, a cotton gin manager from Hernando, Mississippi. Warner Bros. and Oliver Stone were sued for being culpable of inciting mass-violence by releasing the film. The case was eventually thrown out in March of 2001.

The same knee-jerk reactions came after the release of Stanley Kubrick's 1971 film, "A Clockwork Orange." In 2010, I wrote a research paper for the Eastern Communication Association on the film and pointed out the reactionary measures and rhetoric taken by those persecuting indivuduals for committing violent acts based on the film:

In Vincent LoBrutto’s biography of Stanley Kubrick, the link to the film and violence caused Judge Desmond Baily, who presided over convicting a sixteen year old boy of beating a homeless person to death, stated that “‘We must stamp out this horrible trend of which had been inspired by this wretched film. We appreciate that what you did was inspired by the wicked film, but that does not mean that you are blameworthy’” (LoBrutto 368). When has a judge ever mentioned that they appreciated the actions of one person who killed someone based on a film or a piece of music? In essence, Judge Baily’s words were part of a witch hunt over films that shied away from the traditional merits of cinema by making a subversive film, not the person who committed acts of violence, a menace to society. (Stewart, 26)

It is common for analysts and pundits to point the finger at music, video games, and film as the enablers of violent behavior. However, the expression of violence in the aforementioned mediums comes from holding up a mirror to society and acts as a catharsis to the artists expressing the flaws of society. In conclusion, those guilty of their crimes should be punished for their acts, not the artists who have no control over how their work is perceived by one out of a million people.          

Exile from Hollywood: 65 years later

Charlie Chaplin, Clifford Odets, and Paul Robeson: these are a few of the hundreds of names that were the casualties of one of the darkest periods in film history, The Hollywood Blacklist. From 1947 to the early 1960s, actors, writers, and directors were prosecuted in a witch-hunt orchestrated by the House of Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and Senator Joseph McCarthy in an attempt to weed out the threat of Communism in post-war America. Those who were associated to unions, or groups that had Communist philosophies, were subpoenaed by the HUAC and forced to name names of fellow entertainers. Those who did name names held on to their careers in Hollywood, such as Elia Kazan and Ronald Reagan, but at the cost of their dignity in the eyes of many who stood up against the Blacklist. For those who didn’t reveal names of their fellow friends and associates were either arrested, prevented from working in Hollywood, or committed suicide.                                                                                                         

This year marks the 65^th anniversary of the Blacklist, which is highlighted in the November 30^th edition of The Hollywood Reporter. THR has devoted the issue to the survivors and family members of the Blacklist, by revealing their time in exile from the American film industry; some never entered the gates of film studios again, while others have managed to rise again in Hollywood. Sean Penn writes about his father, Leo Penn, and how his acting/directing career rose as quickly as it fell when he was blacklisted. Kirk Douglas risked his own career by producing and starring in Spartacus, which was penned by Blacklisted screenwriter and author, Dalton Trumbo. Throughout the 1950s, Lee Grant was exiled from the film and television industry until she starred in Peyton’s Place, co-starred opposite Sidney Poitier in In the Heat of the Night, and won an Academy Award in 1975 for her performance in Hal Ashby’s film, Shampoo.                                                                                                                                                                                               
Up until his death in 2003, Elia Kazan remained synonymous for being the director who gave up the names of his fellow actors and directors rather than as the filmmaker behind On the Waterfront and East of Eden. When Kazan received the Lifetime Achievement Oscar in 1999, half the audience applauded while the other half sat in protest over the Academy’s decision to reward him after naming names.  65 years on, shades of the Hollywood Blacklist lingers over the country; from the finger-pointing of conservative pundits and their views on Hollywood liberals, to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences failing to apologize and admit their role during a period that has tarnished the lives of many based on the assumption that Communism would plague America through the medium of film.      

Skyfall

Neil Young penned the infamous question, “is it better to burn out than to fade away?”  When you ask that question regarding film franchises, answers vary (The Batman films? No. Superman films? Yes. Star Wars? Yes). In the case of the James Bond films, which have been around for fifty years, they age like good scotch; the latest 007 film, Skyfall, leaves you intoxicated with a story as explosive as the gauntlet of bombs and bullets Bond runs through. With Academy Award-winning director Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Road to Perdition) behind the camera, he manages to resurrect the 007 series after Mark Forster’s failed attempt four years earlier, Quantum of Solace.

                                                                                              

After a list of active NATO secret agents is leaked online and a terrorist attack on MI6 headquarters, James Bond (Daniel Craig) tries to find the mastermind behind the attacks. Bond’s search leads him to Silva (Javier Bardem), a sadistic and flamboyant renegade agent. Meanwhile, M’s (Judi Dench) trust comes into question as she is under scrutiny by the British Government for the failed attempt of securing the identities of the NATO agents.  Can Bond keep England safe from the hands of Silva, or has he lost his luster?

Daniel Craig fails to disappoint as Bond as he casts aside the high-tech weapons with the standard pistol and radio at his disposal. Judi Dench is at her best as M, as she carries the role she has played for almost twenty years with dignity and grace when faced with public scrutiny and fear for her life. Javier Bardem is as equally vicious and charismatic in this film as he was in No Country For Old Men five years earlier; in particular, when he decides to play William Tell with a glass of scotch. Rounding up the stellar cast is Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, and a sawed off shotgun-toting Albert Finney.

Mendes steps aside from the canon of dramatic films he is well-known for and raises the bar with a sleek and seductive film that finds the balance between the suspense and drama, which is similar to how he blended the violence and emotional fragility of his protagonists in Road to Perdition. Roger Deakins’ cinematography is bold and expansive as his previous work with the Coen Brothers. Thomas Newman’s score emphasizes every punch and bullet flying through the air with such intensity as the strings and horns peel throughout the film. Plus, the opening song performed by Adele foreshadows the soul and beauty that unfolds throughout the next two hours and twenty minutes.

Fifty years on, James Bond remains an icon in cinema. Despite a few flawed 007 films from the past, Skyfall will live on as a stunning achievement celebrating Ian Fleming’s stellar vision of espionage that manages to shake and stir generations of Bond-aficionados.                      

Four out of Four Stars