Monday, May 12, 2014
Movie Challenge
Tough movie challenge - name three female directors who have produced top films since 1995. Outside of Sofia Coppola and Kathryn Bigelow the field gets very weak.
Thursday, May 8, 2014
Prisoners (2013)
Time for the second review dealing with Torture, but this time a much
closer to home form of torture. What would you do to get your
daughter back? That is the general theme of Prisoners, the dark and very underrated 2013 film.
Movie: Prisoners (2013)
Rating: R
Starring: Hugh Jackman as Keller Dover, Jake Gyllenhaal as Detective David Loki, Viola Davis as Nancy Birch, Maria Bello as Grace Dover, Tarrence Howard as Franklin Birch, Melissa Leo as Holly Jones, Paul Dano as Alex Jones
Score: 8.5 out of 10 stars
Family Friendly: 2/5 (dark themes, personal violence)
Recommended: Anyone who enjoyed Zodiac and anyone who wants to see the best ensemble acting of 2013.
Plot Summery (No Spoilers):
Two families meet for thanksgiving, and the youngest daughters go missing, driving everyone involved to the edge of darkness in each persons heart.
Plot Summery (Spoilers):
Hugh Jackman (aka Wolverine) is a god fearing preper who in the opening sequence is taking his son to hunt deer. Soon you learn it is thanksgiving, and the Dovers go to the Birch family to share thanksgiving.
In the moment that I have been told that is every parents nightmare (I am childless, and at the current rate, will remain childless) the two youngest girls go missing. Soon the police id a suspicious RV, and find a man-child (Alex Jones, played by the always excellent Paul Dano) in on it. He is the main suspect.
Detective Loki questions him, but is unable to pin any crime on him, as the RV is clean and there is nothing to hold him on. Jackman's Keller assaults Jones and then is told to calm down and be with his family.
The plot then goes into two main threads, both of them excellent, one is Detective Loki's investigation as he increasingly deals with darker matter as he carries out his investigation, and we watch the two families deal with the horror of missing the girls.
Keller decides to take the investigation in his own hands, and kidnaps Alex Jones (the character, not the crazy radio host) and ties him up in a old apartment complex to question him. Leading to the moments where Keller does anything to try to save his daughter.
Near the third act the plot gets more convoluted and to sum it all up, Alex Jones mother is not really his mother, but her and her late husband would kidnap kids to make religious parents loose faith. Loki is forced to kill her and rescue the remaining girl, while Keller is buried in a pit on the property to die. The last moments of the film is Loki perhaps hearing Keller to rescue him.
My thoughts:
My thoughts focus on these catagories
excellence in acting.
Well crafted storytelling
God, faith, and and prepping
Plot Issues
Excellence in Acting
This is one of the best acted films of 2013. Everyone is at the top of their game. Jake Gyllenhaal does a older reprise of his excellent Zodiac characterization, but with many minor changes. He is able to carry the movie, but even if he does excellent work, the amazing work by his fellow cast almost overshadows him.
Maria Bello is a gorgeous woman and talented actress, and has the thankless role of a woman who cannot handle the situation. She plays it with aplomb, going from cheerful, to stunned, to the so depressed she can't get out of bed.
Tarrence Howard takes a very unexpected and wonderful turn as the emotional center of his family, playing a role that many times would be reserved for the female, but works so well as the father of his family that you buy it from the first moment to the end of the movie.
Viola Davis plays the wife of Howard's sensitive type, and is the rock to the family. She is unforgettable as the woman who daughter is missing and makes the final choices on what the Birch family will do to resolve the horror of their missing girl.
Then we have Paul Dano and Hugh Jackman. Both play their near leading roles with skill. Dano has a very tough role. As anyone who seen Tropic Thunder knows, you never want to go full retard. (Before anyone gets offended, that is the quote of the movie, and send the complaints to the producers of the movie) But Dano's LSD addled man-child really is a amazing performance, both showing the raw emotion and the complete confusion on why he is being singled out for Keller's desperate drive to find his daughter.
Jackman's character of Keller could of easily been cartoonish, and to many Hollywood directors, he would be. He is a God fearing man who feels duty bound to protect his family, thus is a prepper once you see his basement, a recovering alcoholic, and is willing to do horrible things so that he might have a chance to get his daughter back. Any of these traits with a lazy director or actor could be made excessive, but it hangs in balance and you feel compelled for Keller, even when he makes bad choices.
Also, Melissa Leo (who been in in dozens of TV shows and movies, most famous most likely for "Homicide, life in the street") is unreconizable under her makeup, but plays the villain with just the right taint so that near the end, you look into those eyes and you know she is capable of what she done.
Well crafted storytelling
I will be first to say that plot issues exist in this movie. However the movie is well told and compelling as we move forward. Late in the third act it gets a little over complicated (But not as disappointing as say, Sunshine) but the well shot, top performances and general plot movies it along for much of the movie. It also has little things that made me enjoy the film.
Of the main families, one is white, one is black, and its not even mentioned. They are both middle class and nothing feels wrong with it. It also handles some subjects that movies almost always get wrong.
God, faith, and and prepping
God and faith is something that Hollywood movies almost always get wrong. Most of the time, you can tell the director feels that it so quaint that it is silly. However in this movie you see a deeply flawed person in Keller who has faith, and while he in no way lives up to the heights of his faith, you can see that his faith is one of the foundational eliments of his life and it how he is able to hold on for the most part. And is never condescending.
Also Keller is a Prepper, and while I expected him to be made into a fool for it, it is just shown as part of his charicter, a man who is dedicated to protect his family, and the crisis when his daughter goes missing and what steps he is willing to get her back.
Plot Issues
At times the plot goes for too many plot twists, this movie would of been a truly great film except that it falls apart a bit at the end, with a suicide as the cutoff moment where it goes from perfection to a flawed masterpeace. Everything up to and including that moment is brilliant, and then it falls to "Just" a 7 out of 10.
This is a adult movie. I am not talking about it being Porn, but it is a movie intended for mature adults and how they deal with horrific situations. There is no teen romance angle, or other distractions, it is just pure storytelling of a investigation and two families being torn apart by the seismic forces of a missing member. It is a top five movie of 2013.
Movie: Prisoners (2013)
Rating: R
Starring: Hugh Jackman as Keller Dover, Jake Gyllenhaal as Detective David Loki, Viola Davis as Nancy Birch, Maria Bello as Grace Dover, Tarrence Howard as Franklin Birch, Melissa Leo as Holly Jones, Paul Dano as Alex Jones
Score: 8.5 out of 10 stars
Family Friendly: 2/5 (dark themes, personal violence)
Recommended: Anyone who enjoyed Zodiac and anyone who wants to see the best ensemble acting of 2013.
Plot Summery (No Spoilers):
Two families meet for thanksgiving, and the youngest daughters go missing, driving everyone involved to the edge of darkness in each persons heart.
Plot Summery (Spoilers):
Hugh Jackman (aka Wolverine) is a god fearing preper who in the opening sequence is taking his son to hunt deer. Soon you learn it is thanksgiving, and the Dovers go to the Birch family to share thanksgiving.
In the moment that I have been told that is every parents nightmare (I am childless, and at the current rate, will remain childless) the two youngest girls go missing. Soon the police id a suspicious RV, and find a man-child (Alex Jones, played by the always excellent Paul Dano) in on it. He is the main suspect.
Detective Loki questions him, but is unable to pin any crime on him, as the RV is clean and there is nothing to hold him on. Jackman's Keller assaults Jones and then is told to calm down and be with his family.
The plot then goes into two main threads, both of them excellent, one is Detective Loki's investigation as he increasingly deals with darker matter as he carries out his investigation, and we watch the two families deal with the horror of missing the girls.
Keller decides to take the investigation in his own hands, and kidnaps Alex Jones (the character, not the crazy radio host) and ties him up in a old apartment complex to question him. Leading to the moments where Keller does anything to try to save his daughter.
My thoughts:
My thoughts focus on these catagories
excellence in acting.
Well crafted storytelling
God, faith, and and prepping
Plot Issues
Excellence in Acting
Maria Bello is a gorgeous woman and talented actress, and has the thankless role of a woman who cannot handle the situation. She plays it with aplomb, going from cheerful, to stunned, to the so depressed she can't get out of bed.
Tarrence Howard takes a very unexpected and wonderful turn as the emotional center of his family, playing a role that many times would be reserved for the female, but works so well as the father of his family that you buy it from the first moment to the end of the movie.
Viola Davis plays the wife of Howard's sensitive type, and is the rock to the family. She is unforgettable as the woman who daughter is missing and makes the final choices on what the Birch family will do to resolve the horror of their missing girl.
Jackman's character of Keller could of easily been cartoonish, and to many Hollywood directors, he would be. He is a God fearing man who feels duty bound to protect his family, thus is a prepper once you see his basement, a recovering alcoholic, and is willing to do horrible things so that he might have a chance to get his daughter back. Any of these traits with a lazy director or actor could be made excessive, but it hangs in balance and you feel compelled for Keller, even when he makes bad choices.
Also, Melissa Leo (who been in in dozens of TV shows and movies, most famous most likely for "Homicide, life in the street") is unreconizable under her makeup, but plays the villain with just the right taint so that near the end, you look into those eyes and you know she is capable of what she done.
Well crafted storytelling
I will be first to say that plot issues exist in this movie. However the movie is well told and compelling as we move forward. Late in the third act it gets a little over complicated (But not as disappointing as say, Sunshine) but the well shot, top performances and general plot movies it along for much of the movie. It also has little things that made me enjoy the film.
Of the main families, one is white, one is black, and its not even mentioned. They are both middle class and nothing feels wrong with it. It also handles some subjects that movies almost always get wrong.
God, faith, and and prepping
God and faith is something that Hollywood movies almost always get wrong. Most of the time, you can tell the director feels that it so quaint that it is silly. However in this movie you see a deeply flawed person in Keller who has faith, and while he in no way lives up to the heights of his faith, you can see that his faith is one of the foundational eliments of his life and it how he is able to hold on for the most part. And is never condescending.
Also Keller is a Prepper, and while I expected him to be made into a fool for it, it is just shown as part of his charicter, a man who is dedicated to protect his family, and the crisis when his daughter goes missing and what steps he is willing to get her back.
Plot Issues
This is a adult movie. I am not talking about it being Porn, but it is a movie intended for mature adults and how they deal with horrific situations. There is no teen romance angle, or other distractions, it is just pure storytelling of a investigation and two families being torn apart by the seismic forces of a missing member. It is a top five movie of 2013.
Monday, May 5, 2014
Zero Dark Thirty
Okay, today I will be posting the first of two reviews that deal with torture and the American mindset. This one deals with Zero Dark Thirty (2012), and I will be following it up with Prisoners (2013), both of which I feel are highly underrated as movies.
Zero Dark thirty is one of the more honest portrayals of the war on terror. It was blacklisted for the very reason that it did not try to make political statements about the war, and instead told a story, that depending on sources is very true or at least reasonably true, and shot in a near documentary style.
Movie: Zero Dark Thirty
Rating: R
Starring: Jessica Chastain as Maya, Jason Clarke as Dan, Kyle Chandler as Joseph Bradley
Score: 9 out of 10 stars
Family Friendly: 0.5/5 (Brutal violence in the first 23 minutes of the film)
Recommended: Anyone who can stand the first 23 minutes and can enjoy a film that assumes that you are intelligent.
Plot Summery (No Spoilers)
The story of a CIA worker Maya as she follows a lead that leads to the events that lead to the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden.
Plot Summery (Spoilers)
Starting with a brutal CIA interrogation of a Al-Qaeda moneyman in a undisclosed site, the movie first twenty minutes is dedicated to show, not tell, what enhanced interrogation is. The man being questioned is holding back information on a future attack, and they are racing to find this information before the terror attack happens. Then 23 minutes into the movie, the 2004 Kohbar attack happens (where 22 non-Saudi's where shot in a mass shooting). And Maya, who has been following along, presents the idea to tell the isolated terrorist being questioned that the attacked failed and he gave information since they now know what the attack was. Soon the man is telling all that he knows, and he tells of a messenger from Bin Laden named Abu Ahmed. Other detained prisoners say the same thing, that Abu Ahmed is one of, if not the most trusted men to Bin Laden.
Maya, relentless in her pursuit, follows this lead. As attacks are shown, including the London attacks and the Fort Chapman attack (which is the biggest single lost of CIA personnel in history). Soon she thinks she knows who Abu Ahmed really is. And he is traced to Pakistan. A tale of spycraft goes on as this man is pinpointed to a walled off compound in a Major Pakistani city. Unsure if its a drug dealer or Bin Laden, the US sends in a Seal Team, and the last 1/3 of the film is the raid on the compound and the assassination of Bin Laden.
My Thoughts
Okay, I have a lot of thoughts on this film, so I will break it down into the following subjects.
1) Torture
2) Spycraft
3) Mary Sue Maya
4) Political stuff
5) Why you should stop worrying and love this film
Torture
Lets not dance around the issue, the United States of America tortured real and suspected terrorists. No I do not think that Bush needs to stand for war crimes, nor do I think its a nice thing to do to people.
However, causing discomfort, humiliation, Sleep deprivation, and many other forms of torture have been used for centuries, and in 2400, will still be used. Intelligence is not worried about legally admissible evidence, it is about obtaining information that is vitally important to the state. Just as the Military is about using lethal force to carry out the policies of the state. I am not saying we are mistake free, the biggest being not understanding that you never want to give intelligence agencies to do law enforcement for the very reason that the concepts of rights is not in the vocabulary of any intelligence agencies.
The brilliancy of this movie is that it does not condone nor condemn this, it presents it to the public in a matter of fact way that is needed for us in a democratic society to make the choice on where we want to go.
This does not mean that the actions carried out by our country are not horrific. I have friends who think water-boarding is a fun way to baptize terrorists, and others who find the idea of causing discomfort to a non-POW prisoner as a war crime. There is no clean answer to this and anyone who says otherwise is far too sure of the vagaries of the wind in life. My opinion has always been that a good society needs a core of bad men in the shadows to secure the good society from other bad men. Perhaps it is just the Hobbes from my college days that stuck with me.
(Note: I use men in the gender neutral, I am not a social justice worrier who will clutter my poor writing with him/her and so on.)
Spycraft
After that long passage on torture, guess what, this movie really isn't about torture. After 23 minutes it actually goes into the real movie, which is amazing. It is what is rare today, a true spy film that does not depend on bond gadgets or Borne Ubermen. It is a story of a core of Intelligence officers who give up family, a decade of life, and in some cases, their lives on the hunt for a 6'4 Arab who does not have working kidneys.
The movie assumes you are are in the same zip code of intelligence as the very smart officers. No one stops and tells the audience "By the way, ISI is the Pakistani intelligence service", or any other hand-holding. It tells the story and you better strap yourself in as the cards fall and the circle on the target gets smaller and smaller till the moment of the raid.
The Spycraft is at all nodes, ranging from spy satellites, computer databases, questioning, picking up suspects, hunting down a cell phone in a crowded street, to old fashioned gumshoe work. And its played brilliantly, including one of my most enjoyed moments, buying a car.
One of the characters, Dan, has a contact in Kuwait, and needs to get information. The friend points out that Dan is not a real friend, he just asks and never gives in return. Dan accepts that, and says "Do friends buy Lamborghinis for each other?" and proceed to go to the dealership, and let the contact pick out a car. In return he wants just one phone number. It is well played in the movie and shows the pure drive the United States had in hunting down Bin Laden.
Mary Sue Maya
The movie does have a issue, and it is not what most talk about. Maya, played by the amazing actress Jessica Chastain (Who was robbed of awards due to political stuff) carries the movie, this is a movie about her, as she single minded drive to hunt Bin Laden. It is deeply compelling, but there is one major flaw.
She does not make mistakes.
On review it gets old that she is always right, never even makes a minor mistake (even if its a office politics or some other minor flaw) and it does lead to the fact that she is a Mary Sue. This is the only major flaw of this film.
Political stuff
This movie makes a major mistake. It does not make Bush the younger a buffoon, it does not make Obama as the savior. In fact, outside of the late great James Gandolfini playing a obvious Leon Panetta (head of the CIA under Obama) most major political types are never mentioned. It makes no moral mallet over the head that torture is wrong (even if anyone who says that it says torture is a good thing needs to rewatch the film). It almost to the point makes sure that it tells its story as it sees itself, and not what it "should" be.
Thus Hollywood freaking hates this film. It was buried in the awards (not even giving a director a nomination) since it dared not be the standard Hollywood fair that assumes that the person watching needs to be spoon fed and told what to think. It
Why you should stop worrying and love this film
Bin Laden body was still being eaten by fishes when this film went into production. It is noteworthy for three things that will make this film a classic.
1) Old fashioned storytelling.
2) brings up the torture issue while it still fresh, even France took years before they admitted they did what they did in Algeria in movies.
3) People keep talking about strong woman. Perhaps it the female director, but there is more truly strong female characters in this film then you can see in a year of multiplex watching.
And no, I didn't discuss the raid. Why? As every movie goer needs to see this unspoiled as much as seeing the ending of Das Boot.
Zero Dark thirty is one of the more honest portrayals of the war on terror. It was blacklisted for the very reason that it did not try to make political statements about the war, and instead told a story, that depending on sources is very true or at least reasonably true, and shot in a near documentary style.
Movie: Zero Dark Thirty
Rating: R
Starring: Jessica Chastain as Maya, Jason Clarke as Dan, Kyle Chandler as Joseph Bradley
Score: 9 out of 10 stars
Family Friendly: 0.5/5 (Brutal violence in the first 23 minutes of the film)
Recommended: Anyone who can stand the first 23 minutes and can enjoy a film that assumes that you are intelligent.
Plot Summery (No Spoilers)
The story of a CIA worker Maya as she follows a lead that leads to the events that lead to the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden.
Plot Summery (Spoilers)
Starting with a brutal CIA interrogation of a Al-Qaeda moneyman in a undisclosed site, the movie first twenty minutes is dedicated to show, not tell, what enhanced interrogation is. The man being questioned is holding back information on a future attack, and they are racing to find this information before the terror attack happens. Then 23 minutes into the movie, the 2004 Kohbar attack happens (where 22 non-Saudi's where shot in a mass shooting). And Maya, who has been following along, presents the idea to tell the isolated terrorist being questioned that the attacked failed and he gave information since they now know what the attack was. Soon the man is telling all that he knows, and he tells of a messenger from Bin Laden named Abu Ahmed. Other detained prisoners say the same thing, that Abu Ahmed is one of, if not the most trusted men to Bin Laden.
Maya, relentless in her pursuit, follows this lead. As attacks are shown, including the London attacks and the Fort Chapman attack (which is the biggest single lost of CIA personnel in history). Soon she thinks she knows who Abu Ahmed really is. And he is traced to Pakistan. A tale of spycraft goes on as this man is pinpointed to a walled off compound in a Major Pakistani city. Unsure if its a drug dealer or Bin Laden, the US sends in a Seal Team, and the last 1/3 of the film is the raid on the compound and the assassination of Bin Laden.
My Thoughts
Okay, I have a lot of thoughts on this film, so I will break it down into the following subjects.
1) Torture
2) Spycraft
3) Mary Sue Maya
4) Political stuff
5) Why you should stop worrying and love this film
Torture
Lets not dance around the issue, the United States of America tortured real and suspected terrorists. No I do not think that Bush needs to stand for war crimes, nor do I think its a nice thing to do to people.
However, causing discomfort, humiliation, Sleep deprivation, and many other forms of torture have been used for centuries, and in 2400, will still be used. Intelligence is not worried about legally admissible evidence, it is about obtaining information that is vitally important to the state. Just as the Military is about using lethal force to carry out the policies of the state. I am not saying we are mistake free, the biggest being not understanding that you never want to give intelligence agencies to do law enforcement for the very reason that the concepts of rights is not in the vocabulary of any intelligence agencies.
The brilliancy of this movie is that it does not condone nor condemn this, it presents it to the public in a matter of fact way that is needed for us in a democratic society to make the choice on where we want to go.
This does not mean that the actions carried out by our country are not horrific. I have friends who think water-boarding is a fun way to baptize terrorists, and others who find the idea of causing discomfort to a non-POW prisoner as a war crime. There is no clean answer to this and anyone who says otherwise is far too sure of the vagaries of the wind in life. My opinion has always been that a good society needs a core of bad men in the shadows to secure the good society from other bad men. Perhaps it is just the Hobbes from my college days that stuck with me.
(Note: I use men in the gender neutral, I am not a social justice worrier who will clutter my poor writing with him/her and so on.)
Spycraft
After that long passage on torture, guess what, this movie really isn't about torture. After 23 minutes it actually goes into the real movie, which is amazing. It is what is rare today, a true spy film that does not depend on bond gadgets or Borne Ubermen. It is a story of a core of Intelligence officers who give up family, a decade of life, and in some cases, their lives on the hunt for a 6'4 Arab who does not have working kidneys.
The movie assumes you are are in the same zip code of intelligence as the very smart officers. No one stops and tells the audience "By the way, ISI is the Pakistani intelligence service", or any other hand-holding. It tells the story and you better strap yourself in as the cards fall and the circle on the target gets smaller and smaller till the moment of the raid.
The Spycraft is at all nodes, ranging from spy satellites, computer databases, questioning, picking up suspects, hunting down a cell phone in a crowded street, to old fashioned gumshoe work. And its played brilliantly, including one of my most enjoyed moments, buying a car.
One of the characters, Dan, has a contact in Kuwait, and needs to get information. The friend points out that Dan is not a real friend, he just asks and never gives in return. Dan accepts that, and says "Do friends buy Lamborghinis for each other?" and proceed to go to the dealership, and let the contact pick out a car. In return he wants just one phone number. It is well played in the movie and shows the pure drive the United States had in hunting down Bin Laden.
Mary Sue Maya
The movie does have a issue, and it is not what most talk about. Maya, played by the amazing actress Jessica Chastain (Who was robbed of awards due to political stuff) carries the movie, this is a movie about her, as she single minded drive to hunt Bin Laden. It is deeply compelling, but there is one major flaw.
She does not make mistakes.
On review it gets old that she is always right, never even makes a minor mistake (even if its a office politics or some other minor flaw) and it does lead to the fact that she is a Mary Sue. This is the only major flaw of this film.
Political stuff
This movie makes a major mistake. It does not make Bush the younger a buffoon, it does not make Obama as the savior. In fact, outside of the late great James Gandolfini playing a obvious Leon Panetta (head of the CIA under Obama) most major political types are never mentioned. It makes no moral mallet over the head that torture is wrong (even if anyone who says that it says torture is a good thing needs to rewatch the film). It almost to the point makes sure that it tells its story as it sees itself, and not what it "should" be.
Thus Hollywood freaking hates this film. It was buried in the awards (not even giving a director a nomination) since it dared not be the standard Hollywood fair that assumes that the person watching needs to be spoon fed and told what to think. It
Why you should stop worrying and love this film
Bin Laden body was still being eaten by fishes when this film went into production. It is noteworthy for three things that will make this film a classic.
1) Old fashioned storytelling.
2) brings up the torture issue while it still fresh, even France took years before they admitted they did what they did in Algeria in movies.
3) People keep talking about strong woman. Perhaps it the female director, but there is more truly strong female characters in this film then you can see in a year of multiplex watching.
And no, I didn't discuss the raid. Why? As every movie goer needs to see this unspoiled as much as seeing the ending of Das Boot.
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