Nebraska

3 1/2 out of 4 Stars

Nebraska is a dark, yet heartfelt, comedy about the conflicts of aging and father-son relationships. Directed by Alexander Payne (About Schmidt, Sideways), the film stars Bruce Dern as Woody Grant, a beer-swigging octogenarian on the edge of dementia and deafness who tries to go from Montana to Nebraska to claim a million-dollar prize, which he thinks is real. After Woody's multiple attempts of trying to walk to Nebraska and wandering away from his nagging wife (Jane Squibb), Woody's son, David (Will Forte), drives him to Nebraska to claim his prize. Along the way to Nebraska, David gets to know the father he never really knew apart from his alcoholism.

Bruce Dern has been on screen for almost fifty years and has delivered memorable performances in films as diverse as Hitchcock's Marnie, Hal Ashby's Coming Home, and Patty Jenkins' Monster. Dern's portrayal of Woody Grant is, without a doubt, one of his finest performances in the last 35 years. His performance is not as extroverted and intense as his previous roles, but he portrays Grant in the same fashion as he did when he played Jason Staebler in The King of Marvin Gardens; a man with big dreams that break away from rationality and reality. Funny and moving, Dern's performance will leave you in tears.

Will Forte gives a stunning performance as David Grant. Known for his hilarious shtick on Saturday Night Live, Forte forgoes the extroverted comedic side and successfully manages to deliver a dramatic performance that delivers subtle laughs, but with so much heart and warmth. Jane Squibb is amazing and hilarious as Kate, Woody's long-suffering wife, who tries to look after him as he slowly fades from reality. Squibb, who is usually underused in films like About Schmidt and Scent of a Woman, manages to give a towering performance with so much spry and humor.

Among other members of the superb cast, Bob Odenkirk, reeling from the success as the corrupt Saul Goodman on Breaking Bad, adds to the humor as David's older brother with an ego the size of a Midwestern corn field. Also, Stacy Keach oozes with snake-like charm and greed as Ed, Woody's former business partner, who wants a piece of Woody's prize money like the rest of Woody's relatives.

Alexander Payne is no stranger in looking at dysfunctional families with humor and poignancy in films like About Schmidt and The Decemberists. Payne succeeds in crafting Bob Nelson's story into a riveting yarn about the follies of aging and the flaws of the American Dream. Payne beautifully filmed Nebraska in black and white to encapsulate the sense of loneliness Woody and Dave share, as well as the starkness of small-town America as Bogdonovich did in The Last Picture Show. Some may think the revival of black and white films is pretentious, but I beg to differ. With an incredible cast under the command of Alexander Payne, Nebraska is a riveting and moving film.

12 Years A Slave

4 out of 4 Stars

There are two parts of life; surviving and living. For Solomon Northup, he had experienced both parts of life with immense pain and pride, which is expressed in Steve McQueen’s new film, 12 Years a Slave. From 1841 to 1853, Northup witnessed hell incarnate as a slave in the Antebellum South. Based on Northup’s memoir, the one-time father, intellectual and resident of Saratoga Springs, New York was sold into the slave trade through two charlatans posing as entertainers requesting Northup’s talents on the violin.                                                                                                                                                                                          

Solomon’s life of respect and independence ends when he is chained up and sold under the name of Platt into the hands of two plantation owners, one soft and one sadistic. Under the control of the somewhat benevolent Ford (Benedict Cumberbatch), Solomon’s work is praised until his backwoods and moronic lackey (Paul Dano) tries to murder Solomon. As a result, he is shipped off to work for the masochistic Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender) and his vindictive wife (Sarah Paulson). The Epps’ unflinching violence inflicted upon Solomon and his fellow captors makes your stomach churn until the final act of the film occurs leaving you holding back tears of sorrow and joy.                                                             
        
In the past five years, Steve McQueen burst onto the film scene with his chilling portrait of the Irish hunger strikes in Hunger and his intense look at sex addiction in Shame. With only a few films under his belt, McQueen has managed to capture the energy and rhythm of the human condition with the eye of a painter. As 12 Years a Slave is his third film, it is proof positive that he is one of the most revered and phenomenal filmmakers of the last decade as Paul Thomas Anderson was a decade ago. Beyond the intense visuals of violence that mirror that of Pasolini’s Salo-minus the body mutilation and coprophagia- the imagery of the plantations and South are as vibrant as a Gainsborough painting, which emphasize the beauty and evil of the world. Next to McQueen’s direction, his longtime cinematographer Sean Bobbitt captures the pathos of pre-Civil War South as John Toll captured the beauty and violence in Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line. Adding emphasis to the majestic quality of the film and its subject matter is Hans Zimmer’s experimental score that pales in comparison to his work on his previous film soundtracks.                         
                                                                                                                                                    
Chiwetel Ejiofor gives an astonishing and mesmerizing performance as Solomon Northup. The pain he endures is unbearable to watch, but his quest for optimism and freedom leaves you cheering for him from the beginning to the end. Michael Fassbender gives an over-the-top and sadistic performance as Epps. His obsession with power through an intense sexual relationship with one of his slaves and violent outbursts mirror Sean Penn’s performance in Casualties of War. Lupita Nyong’o’s performance as Epps’ forced mistress is harrowing as she endures a gauntlet of pain as shown in an unforgettable scene involving a whipping post.                                           
                                                                                                                   
 For the brief time they are on screen Paul Dano, Benedict Cumberbatch and Brad Pitt manage to stretch out every minute to be memorable. Dano’s performance as a redneck field hand is like watching Eli Sunday’s (his character in There Will Be Blood) distant relative in control. Cumberbatch is subtle in his sympathy and sheer denial over purchasing Solomon is exemplified in a scene between him and Solomon in the hall of his house. Not to give too much away regarding Brad Pitt’s performance, but his performance is almost allegorical to a certain figure in the Bible who was a carpenter, and I am not just talking about his facial hair.                           
                                                                                                                                              
12 Years a Slave is not a movie for the faint of heart or to those expecting a sequel to Django Unchained, it is a visual and emotionally-draining masterpiece that pulls no sympathetic punches towards observing one of the bleakest periods in American history, just as McQueen’s Hunger was a stark look at Ireland in the 1980s. 12 Years a Slave is a film that will leave you stunned and shaken by its performances, imagery and story of survival.

Captain Phillips

4 out of 4 stars
On April 8^th, 2009, Captain Richard Phillips and his crew aboard the Maersk Alabama cargo ship were hijacked by Somali pirates in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Phillips was captured in a lifeboat and spent over a week out at sea under the watch of the heavily armed hijackers as they hold Phillips ransom for millions of dollars to be shipped back to their tribes. His rescue and survival are brilliantly captured by the suspenseful eyes of Paul Greengrass in his new movie, Captain Phillips.                                                 
             
A no-nonsense seaman with a New England accent as thick as the film’s suspense, Captain Richard Phillips (Tom Hanks) sails along the Horn of Africa as if it were another day at work. Meanwhile, Muse (Barkhad Adbi) and his crew of armed robbers battle against the waves of the Indian Ocean towards the Alabama to steal as much money they can to take them out of their impoverished lives. The stillness of the Alabama in contrast to the Somali-manned speedboats fills the screen with suspense until gunshots ring out and all hell breaks loose.         
                                                                                              
Captain Phillips is not just about a story of survival of a man facing death in the face, it is a film about two people at opposite ends of the moral spectrum trying to make another dollar. For Phillips, its sailing around the world and unloading cargo while Muse blindly volunteers to bring back money by any means necessary. Greengrass brilliantly shows the comparison and contrasts between Phillips going about his monotonous, daily routine and Muse dreaming about being free from Somalia, yet still being a prisoner in its criminal cycle. As Phillips explains that his ship was full of food for starving people in Mombasa, Muse explains how the ships bringing food were destroying the fish they needed to survive.     
      
From the troubles of Northern Ireland in Bloody Sunday to the tragedy and heroism in United 93, Greengrass is no stranger to recreating historical events without pulling any punches or using melodrama to pull at the audience’s heartstrings; his guerilla styled filmmaking and use of intense silence leaves you clutching to the arms of your chair and emotionally drained from the experience. Behind every great director is a  great cinematographer and Barry Ackroyd successfully captures the horror and beauty of the Indian Ocean as he did with the barren landscape of Baghdad in The Hurt Locker. The gritty camera angles and dim lighting are complemented by Henry Jackman’s score, which is reminiscent to his collaboration with James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer on The Dark Knight.                      
   
At the center of the film is Tom Hanks, who gives a stunning and gripping portrayal of Richard Phillips. Hanks is no stranger to capturing the fear and humanity of those in great peril, such as he did in his performance as Jim Lovell in Apollo 13, except the transformation from the calmness he displays at gunpoint and anguish expressed in the last ten minutes of the movie is astonishing. In a long list of iconic performances, Hanks’ performance as Phillips is another notch in his belt. Barkhad Adbi’s portrayal of Muse mirrors that of Pacino’s gun-wielding Sonny in Dog Day Afternoon; naïve, blindly ambitious and self-destructive.                                                                                                                                                                                                   

In the end, you are left shaking and mesmerized by the sheer intensity of Greengrass’ vision of what happened over one week in the Indian Ocean and by the sheer volume of energy and suspense from Hanks and Adbi’s performances.  Captain Phillips is, so far, one of the most memorable films of the year.                                                       

Rush

3 1/2 out of 4 stars

 Let's face it, who gets the pleasure of seeing a bunch of people make left turns around a racetrack full of half-drunk spectators (no offense to the people of New Hampshire)? For me, watching NASCAR or Formula One racing on television can be as excruciating as watching a Michael bay marathon. As for racing movies, they are diamonds in the rough; you have classy, existential films like Two Lane Blacktop or IQ dropping comedies like Talladega Nights. Then, you have Ron Howard's new film, Rush, which made my inhibitions and prejudices regarding professional racing fly out the window at 100 mph as this film is a sexy and exhilarating look at the world of Formula One racing and the six-year long rivalry between two titans of the track; James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) and Niki Lauda (Daniel Brühl).

In the early Nineteen-Seventies, James Hunt was a fast-living playboy with a lust for life on the track and off the track, who made love to any woman in his grasp- such as his supermodel wife (Olivia Wilde) - as well as made love to his ego. Check out his mile high club encounter as he watches himself in the mirror satisfying his competitive spirit more than his libido. From 1970 to 1976, Hunt locked horns with Austrian racer, Niki Lauda, a reserved and serious driver, who calculated the speed and suspension of his cars with total punctuality and nearly faced death in the Nurburgring Grand Prix when his car was caught on fire leaving him physically scarred for life.

Hunt and Lauda's encounters off the track mature as time progresses; first, name calling and snide comments elevate to Lauda being labeled as scared before his near-death crash in Nurburgring as he tries to talk the racers to cancel the race. When both encounter each other on the track, it is reminiscent of the iconic chariot race in Ben Hur; turbulent, bold, and giving you the feeling that you are riding shotgun in the cars, or as Hunt calls them, "small coffins with high octane energy."

Hemsworth delivers the suaveness and vulnerability of Hunt with class and cockiness, making his performance mirror that of Erroll Flynn mixed with the energy and excess of a rock star. However, it is Brühl's performance as Laura that stands out; his sheer determination and pride in the midst of nearly facing death is astonishing and humorous as he manages not to tower over the flamboyance of Hemsworth's performance. Ron Howard knows how to deliver excitement behind the wheel as he did with his 1976 directorial debut, Grand Theft Auto. The campy energy behind the engine, mixed with the edge-of-your-seat suspense he delivered in Apollo 13, makes Rush a wild and thrilling ride to savor in the midst of the rat race of potential award contending films this season.

The World's End

3 1/2 out of 4 stars

From the warped and hilarious minds of Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright, The World's End is a belly full of beer, laughs and blue blooded robots. Gary King (Pegg in pitch perfect hilarity) is a forty-something lush who reunites his four childhood friends (Nick Frost, Paddy Considine, Martin Freeman and Eddie Marsan) to go on a pub crawl that they did twenty years ago. Along their boozy quest from bar to bar, an unknown species of robots causes the group into fending for their lives from a fate worse than a New Year's Day hangover. The World's End is a hilarious clash of comedy and science fiction; think of it as Withnail and I meets Re-Animator.

Pegg and Wright's witty dialogue and unforgettable one-liners are as funny as their two previous films (Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz), as well as turning the English countryside into an Orwellian war zone with humor and paranoia. Beyond the in-your-face action and liver corroding laughter is a poignant story about friendship and being stuck in the past. Unlike the crocodile tears shed from previous hapless comedies about middle age, like Grown Ups 2 and This is 40, Pegg and company deliver laughs about the follies of youth in the midst of impending doom brought on by an army of blue-blooded robots. Do the robots personify British aristocracy saturating the working class, or do they represent the desire to indulge in the days of lager and roses before confronting the harsh realities of aging? In any case, The World's End is an endless amount of fun that will leave you laughing until last orders.

Karen Black (1939-2013)

Karen Black, Academy-award nominated actress and siren of the late-sixties and seventies, died Thursday after a long struggle with cancer. Known for her come-hither looks and warmhearted roles,  the Illinois-native studied acting under Lee Strasberg, the iconic method acting teacher whose list of students included James Dean, Marlon Brando, and Al Pacino. During the mid-sixties, she appeared on off-Broadway productions before getting recognized by Francis Ford Coppola and made her film debut in his 1966 film, You're a Big Boy Now. In 1969, she appeared as a New Orleans prostitute opposite Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper in the counter-cultural masterpiece, Easy Rider.

In 1970, she earned a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Oscar for her performance as the ditzy, yet loyal, Rayette Dipesto in Five Easy Pieces and won a second Golden Globe for her performance in Jack Clayton's adaptation of The Great Gatsby. Throughout the Seventies, Black worked with the decade's most sought-after filmmakers like Robert Altman, John Schlesinger and Alfred Hitchcock. By the Eighties, the films of the counterculture were overshadowed by blockbusters and Black's career faded to B-movie obscurity. Her career and contribution to the era penned by Peter Biskind as the era of "Easy Riders and Raging Bulls" will be remembered by many. She is survived by her husband Stephen Eckelberry and two children.  

This Is The End

 
Add every disaster movie known to man with The Exorcist and an ounce of pot and you have This Is The End, a spoof on the apocalypse and star-fueled decadence of Los Angeles. Written and Directed by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, the creators of Superbad and Pineapple Express, Seth Rogen plays himself and reunites with his fellow actors/friends at a party that encompasses almost every actor in the Judd Apatow niche (Jonah Hill, Danny McBride, James Franco, Craig Robinson and Jay Baruchel). As drinks are devoured and cannabis is smoked, the apocalypse descends on Los Angeles leaving the six actors to try and survive the hell and earth and, more importantly,  each other.

The film begins with a satirical edge on modern Hollywood that is made up of gossip and hedonistic excess at James Franco's house. As the film progresses and disaster movies are spoofed with originality- unlike the unbearable Scary Movie franchise- the rest of movie leaves one to ask if Rogen and Goldberg were high making the film. The high hijinks give you the giggles at first, but leads to absurdity with a subtext as small as a half-eaten Milky Way bar.  In any case, This Is The End is a fun trip for the summer as well as a relief from the actual disaster movies with little or no humor or action (I'm looking at you, Grown Ups 2 and White House Down!). If your looking for a humorous satire on egocentric Hollywood and what is has produced, check out This Is The End, beautiful friends.     

3 out of 4 Stars