Review: The Homesman

Image courtesy of Roadside Attractions.

Tommy Lee Jones' "The Homesman" is a strange little movie in all the right ways. Both a feminist western and a tale of grueling life on the prairie - oh yeah, and also a character piece, although which character is given more emphasis goes back and forth - the picture proves that Jones is formidable both in front of and behind the camera.

The story is set in the Nebraska territory, where a single woman (Hilary Swank) must take on a task that the cowardly men of her hometown refuse - to escort three insane women in a covered wagon for hundreds of miles and drop them off at a church in Iowa that has agreed to house them.

On her desolate journey, Swank's Mary Bee Cuddy comes across a ne'er do well named Briggs (Jones), whom she saves from a hangman's noose on the agreement that he will help her with her errand. At first, Briggs is mostly along for comedic effect, but his relationship to Cuddy eventually deepens and so does his character.

For a western, "The Homesman" is relatively nonviolent. There is one encounter with Native Americans that is quickly defused. And the film's only villains are a group of men (led by James Spader) who lack character and empathy.

One of the elements that makes Jones' film work so well is its ability to surprise. As I'd mentioned, this is a strange film and there is at least one major shock you won't see coming. But rather using this scene, which I wouldn't dare give away, as a plot point, it is put to use to further develop one of the film's characters.

The movie's desolate mood and sequences of frightening behavior - a baby being thrown in a privy hole, an insane woman banging her head against a wagon wheel, a sudden outburst of violence over a doll - create a sense of unease, which is juxtaposed with the general goodness of the picture's two lead characters.

Jones, whose impressive debut "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada" was also difficult to classify, has proven to be one of the greater success stories in recent years of actors trying their hand at directing. As a filmmaker, he has a distinctive voice as well as a favored genre ("Estrada" was western themed, while "The Homesman" is a straight-up western). And he's a great director of actors. Here's to hoping that he again steps behind the camera - only, this time, doesn't wait nine years to do so.

Review: Foxcatcher

Image courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.

On the surface, Bennett Miller's "Foxcatcher" is a riveting - if chilly - true crime thriller with some performances unlike any other previously seen by its cast. But the picture is obviously much more, using the story of the peculiar friendship between millionaire John du Pont (Steve Carell) and Olympic wrestling brothers Mark (Channing Tatum) and David Schultz (Mark Ruffalo) that led to murder as a microcosm for the death of the American dream and the dangers of American exceptionalism.

For those unaware of this strange story, both Schultz brothers were Olympic gold medalists during the 1980s, although Mark - at least according to this movie - lived under his older brother's shadow. When Mark receives a call from du Pont, the obvious black sheep in his Pennsylvania family dynasty, he is curious enough to meet with the man, who immediately proclaims his love of birds and his conception of being a "patriot" with aims to restore the United States' former glory.

In a relationship bordering on homoerotic, Schultz moves in to a small home on du Pont's property - but first, in one of the film's rarely humorous scenes, must watch a dry video tape on the du Pont dynasty - and begins training in the gym constructed by the millionaire as a spot for U.S. wrestlers to prepare for the Olympics. At du Pont's request, Mark attempts to draw his brother to the Foxcatcher estate, but to no avail.

One of the film's most interesting threads is how it juxtaposes du Pont - a seemingly aimless silver spoon-type whose attempts to fund a wrestling training site appears to be merely an attempt to impress his aging mother (Vanessa Redgrave) - with David Schultz. Du Pont inflates his own sense of importance to great magnitude, constantly lecturing Mark on the importance of American glory and - with no hint of irony - insisting that his friends refer to him as "Eagle... or The Golden Eagle." David Schultz, meanwhile, is a humble man who has worked hard to become one of the best at his sport and prefers to stay home with his family, rather than galavant around upper crust circles with du Pont as his younger brother does.

But eventually, du Pont convinces David to move his family to the Foxcatcher estate, where he will act as head trainer for the U.S. wrestling team. As David's star rises in du Pont's eyes, Mark's goes on the decline, pushing him into overeating, fits of rage and drug abuse.

Carell is impressive as he disappears - including physically as his character comes equipped with a fake nose - into the role of the frosty du Pont, but it is Tatum who is onscreen for most of the film's running time and he shows new depths as an actor. Gone is the friendly swagger of his Magic Mike as he painfully brings to life Mark's troubled soul. And Ruffalo, providing the most sympathetic portrayal in the picture, holds the whole thing together as David in an understated performance that should not get lost amid the award season hoopla.

At its heart, "Foxcatcher" explores the dangerous naivete of American exceptionalism, especially the type that brings together folks who have never known how to lose with those who must struggle to win. Tatum's belief in du Pont's absurd vision of success is tragic, while du Pont's own belief in it is outright disturbing. And a scene late in the film when du Pont himself takes part in a wrestling match clearly outlines which character has the most at risk.

I won't give away the end for those who are unfamiliar with the case - but, suffice it to say, it doesn't end well for all those involved. And Miller, whose previous films include "Capote" and "Moneyball," culminates the picture with a cynical - but deservedly so - take on what happens when you have to reconcile the American Dream with just getting by. The finale is complete with a chant equally as unsettling as the chest pounding and whooping rallying cry of last year's "The Wolf of Wall Street." This is a stark, powerful movie that ranks among the year's best.

Top Tens Archive

Image courtesy of Universal Pictures.

Last fall, I finally knocked off a long gestating project to post my all-time lists of movies, music, books and TV shows and, now, I've finally found the time to put up my archive of top 10 lists dating back to the birth of cinema.

Every year, I will update this list with a new top 10 (this year, 2014, for instance) and I'll occasionally rearrange other years' top 10s as I see fit over time. You'll notice in some of the lists that I have included runners-up. I've primarily done this during years that had a number of great films that did not make it into the top 10, but I felt should be recognized.

So, below you'll find the lists. As always, I'd love to hear your comments.

Note: There are several films listed in a few of these top 10s that could be considered quite controversial, mostly due to issues of insensitivity. Those of you with a sense of film history will likely know what I mean when you see them on the lists. In those rare cases, it should be noted that the films are being judged based on their importance to film history and as works of art and not, I repeat, not due to the nature of their content. In other words, they are not among my personal favorite films - but I would be remiss not to recognize their significance.

Note, Pt. II: I'm an enormous fan of Michael Apted's "Up" series - but since they originated as a television series, I'm not including them in the list, mostly because each film adds to the sum of a whole rather than acting as an individual movie. Just in case anyone wondered where they were.

Review: The Theory of Everything

Image courtesy of Focus Features.

It is just slightly ironic that the movie released this week about which Stephen Hawking might be most likely to relate is not "The Theory of Everything," a bio film about his life, but rather Christopher Nolan's "Interstellar," an often wondrous sci-fi spectacle about intergalactic travel and black holes.

This is not to imply that "Theory" isn't good - it is, but in the way that most bio pics that aim to accurately capture the lives of their subjects are. Hawking - who authored "A Brief History of Time" and set forth a cosmology that combined the theory of relativity with quantum mechanics - is a brilliant man and a scientific innovator and James Marsh's film takes great pains to ensure us of this fact, but also to place a significant amount of emphasis on his unusual relationship with his wife.

The early scenes between Hawking (Eddie Redmayne) and Jane (Felicity Jones) are among the best as the two flirt and create a friendship that blossoms into romance. The filmmakers spend much time and energy chronicling Hawking's difficult existence as a result of his being afflicted with ALS. Jane is the stalwart wife and nurse, taking care of her husband and raising their three children, that is, until she falls for a male choir teacher and Hawking himself takes a shine to his speech therapist.

One of the film's faults is how it portrays the Hawking's romantic trysts as having worked out just peachy with little drama. The manner in which their foibles is handled is more suggestive of Hollywood screen-writing than real life. And there's a disconnect in presenting how the two no longer felt romantically inclined toward each other, all the while insisting on showing that they remained good friends.

Regardless, while "The Theory of Everything" is a by-the-numbers bio in its presentation, the performances are strong. Redmayne has mostly played supporting roles - most recently in "Les Miserables" - but here he makes a strong case for leading man material. It's a very challenging role and Redmayne not only gets Hawking's physical tics down impressively, but he also brings a level of humanity to the role, which includes little dialogue during its second half. And although Jane Hawking becomes a bit of an under-written character during the picture's later scenes, Jones does her justice.

"The Theory of Everything" may end up being just be a good movie about a brilliant man, but the people inhabiting its characters are exceptional. And for them alone, it's worth a watch.

Review: Interstellar

Image courtesy of Paramount Pictures.

You can't fault Christopher Nolan's "Interstellar" for lack of chutzpah. The film has its flaws, but it's bolder in vision than virtually every other blockbuster released this year and has more than a few moments of greatness in it. If it doesn't quite rise to the level of a great movie, it's certainly a very good one and fill with fascinating ideas.

In the picture, Matthew McConaughey plays Cooper, a former astronaut turned farmer who is trying to help his family survive somewhere in the American Southwest at a time in the not-so-distant, bleak future. When he and his daughter stumble upon a project to send explorers to the far reaches of the universe in order to find a new home for humanity, he is enlisted to be its pilot.

While "Interstellar" is a science fiction drama - with a heavy emphasis on the science, which is often laid out in overly descriptive detail - it is also a movie about a dysfunctional family. McConaughey's daughter, Murphy (who grows up to be Jessica Chastain and then Ellen Burstyn), resents her father's leaving her, her brother (who grows up to be Casey Affleck) and grandfather (John Lithgow) behind for his mission, which is organized by an aging scientist (Michael Caine) and carried out by his daughter (Anne Hathaway).

If I were able to further explain the film's concepts about black holes and wormholes, I would. Suffice it to say, it's a heady experiment that occasionally mingles in emotional turmoil and includes some stunning visuals, especially during a sequence on a planet filled with tidal waves.

McConaughey carries the film and proves that his terrific work of recent years need not only be saved for independent films, but also for big budget extravaganzas. Chastain and Caine nicely fulfill the obligations of the human drama down on Earth, which is being engulfed by dust and fires.

For a point of comparison, last year's "Gravity" was much simpler - at least, narratively and scientifically - but it is a better film in its execution. "Interstellar" occasionally stumbles, especially during a later sequence in its near three-hour running time during which Cooper discovers a betrayal on a distant planet, which is intercut with Chastain's attempts to convince her bull-headed brother to move off his farm. The editing is a little jarring and, at points, the loud thrum of the film's soundtrack drowns out the voices.

That being said, this is a monumentally ambitious sci-fi spectacle. For my money, "Memento" is still Nolan's greatest film, but "Interstellar" rivals "The Dark Knight" for second place. Much like that Batman film, his latest is a little too long and, on occasion, a little clunky in its exposition.

But on the whole, there's nothing else out there like it this year and there are few filmmakers who can get the green light in Hollywood for movies as full of ideas as this one. "Interstellar" may not be perfect, but it's occasionally full of wonder and spectacular vision.

Review: Goodbye to Language

Image courtesy of Kino Lorber.

The title of Jean-Luc Godard's latest film could refer to any number of things, including the possible retirement of the 83-year-old French cinematic pioneer as well as a farewell to cinematic language as we know it and the death of communication in the information age.

"Goodbye to Language" is pretty similar to most of the films the prolific filmmaker has made during the past three decades and it's not likely to sway the opinion of those who have long held the belief that Godard is taking the piss, so to speak, at the expense of his audience. It's just as enigmatic as his most opaque work of recent years, but slightly more lively than the dour "In Praise of Love" and better than "Film Socialisme" - oh yeah, and it's in 3D.

In his latest film, Godard is having a little more fun than in previous exercises and he uses the 3D technology both to create some pretty memorable images, but also to poke fun at modern cinematic techniques. There is one explosion in the film, but most of the images that pop out during its brief running time include flowers, windshield wipers, water and Godard's beloved dog, Roxy, who acts as a stand-in for the filmmaker much like many of the lead male protagonists do for Woody Allen in his films.

As always, it's a little difficult to parse exactly what Godard is going for here and the picture is, to quote Winston Churchill, a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. But it seems clear from the film's semi-ironic title, the director's use of 3D and a sequence during which several characters communicate by merely typing into their iPhones and passing them back and forth to each other that the goodbye to language references a communication breakdown, of sorts.

A man and a woman sort of act as the film's central characters, prancing around (mostly) nude in their home and failing to adequately communicate with one another. Roxy, when not prowling around a colorful field or walking along the shores of bodies of water, sits observing these humans as they speak in tongues to each other. One day, the woman tells the man, everyone will need a translator to communicate with one another. During another sequence, she bemoans the uselessness of words.

There are a few incredible sequences in "Goodbye to Language," most notably one in which Godard places two images - of a man and a woman taking part in an interaction - on top of one another, but then the two split off and move in different directions before meeting up once again. During this sequence, you can close your left eye and see the man on the right and then close your right eye and see the woman on the left. It's pretty visually incredible.

That being said, I still prefer the Godard of old - that is, virtually all of his work from the 1960s and some of his early 1970s movies. I appreciate some of his pictures from the 1980s and 1990s, but find just as many of them enigmatic in a calculated way. His films since the turn of the century have been scattershot ("Notre Musique" is probably the most complete and "Language" the most unique). And yet I'm always fascinated to see what he will come up with next.

I hope this is not his last film, although I get the sense that it could be. Towards the film's end, Roxy wanders away from his human masters and plays by a stream. It's as if Godard is saying he's had enough of humans and their language and would prefer to engage with something less convoluted.

Review: Nightcrawler

Image courtesy of Open Road Films.

If 2013 was all about Matthew McConaughey's reinvention, then this year is the one in which Jake Gyllenhaal took his career in an exciting new direction. Technically, the Gyllensaince began in late 2013 with the criminally underrated "Prisoners" and, to be fair, the actor has always had a knack for landing roles in thoughtful films by great filmmakers ("Zodiac," "Donnie Darko" and "Brokeback Mountain," for example).

This year has so far seen Gyllenhaal's disturbing double take in Denis Villeneuve's creepy "Enemy" and, now, his knockout work as Lou Bloom, the sociopathic news cameraman in Dan Gilroy's debut, "Nightcrawler."

Many of this fall's most talked about movies have, in some form or fashion, taken a stance on the current state of our nation and the role that the media has in it. "Birdman" tackled social media and criticism, while "Gone Girl" presented a cynical, but well earned, vision of a world constantly plugged in, whether it's to exploitative talk shows or taking selfies in front of an establishment possibly owned by a murder. And Jason Reitman's "Men, Women and Children," which was ultimately unsuccessful, tsk-tsked about the internet's role in our lives.

"Nightcrawler" follows Bloom's story as he makes a name for himself as a night-time cameraman who understands that if "it bleeds, it leads." Using a police scanner and, eventually, the assistance of a down-on-his-luck man named Rick (Riz Ahmed), Bloom pops up at the scenes of fires, traffic accidents and horrific crimes, documenting it all with his camera and then selling the footage to a local news station.

Rene Russo is the news anchor who is enticed by Bloom's capacity to be first on the scene and how his lack of ethics allows him to get gruesome footage through means that are not always legal. Her fellow producer - Kevin Rahm ("Mad Men") - on the other hand, sees through Lou and is somewhat repulsed. One of Gilroy's talents as a filmmaker is his ability to convince his audience to be somewhere in between. Much like Bryan Cranston's Walter White, we find Lou's behavior abhorrent - and yet, we don't want to see him get caught.

Gyllenhaal disappears into the role with frightening intensity. Lou strikes a resemblance to Robert De Niro's Rupert Pupkin, but he also has the psychotic tendencies of Travis Bickle. He is the monster our society encourages - he delivers the gruesome goods for those who believe that the news is meant to be a form of grim entertainment and he takes pride in his work ethic and sense of entrepreneurship.

At the same time, he does not lack in self awareness, noting to Russo (also great here) how her late night program devotes 22 seconds to education, government and other facets of the news and focuses primarily on the grotesque. "Nightcrawler" is pretty on-point in its portrayal of the TV news, although it's obviously exaggerated for dramatic effect and there are a few scenes that are not entirely believable - most notably, Russo's outright admittance to Lou that crime coverage's most important angle is that of white people being attacked by minorities in white neighborhoods.

The film has been labeled as a satire and it is occasionally funny, but you can detect a sense of outrage in its pitch black humor. "Nightcrawler" is also creepy, intense and thrilling and a terrific showcase for its cast, which also includes Bill Paxton and Ann Cusack. Much like its disturbed protagonist, the picture is pretty unforgettable.