At The Cinema - February 2014

Philomena – 9

You’ll like this movie if you like:  
a.  Anger
b.  Sadness
c.  Happiness

But not necessarily in that order.  This is one of those interesting movies that successfully takes you on a roller coast ride through those and many other emotions.

Philomena Lee is a real person, and this is a true story.  She is played by Dame Judi Dench, and the movie opens with Philomena breaking the news to her grown daughter that she has a brother.  That’s because a long time ago Philomena had a young son out of wedlock and was forced to give him up for adoption.

The anger will come from how that happened.  Maybe you’re old enough to remember the days when there was no greater shame than being unwed and pregnant.  You may have known a young girl who went off to live with an Aunt for 6 months.  Many years later you may have found out that she’d had a baby.  Maybe you never found out.  In this story the young Philomena is shuffled off to an Ireland convent where she toils, has a son, watches the son she loves as only a mother can love a son get wisked away for adoption, then toils 4 more years to pay off her “debt.”  Yes, it’s slavery (or maybe punishment) and when she finds out later that the many children were sold to Americans, she is less angry than you will be. 

Philomena’s daughter has enlisted the help of journalist Martin Sixsmith, played by Steve Coogan, to help Philomena find her son.  Their journey is one of discovery on many levels.  Coogan is the co-writer and driving force behind this adaptation of Sixsmith’s book, The Lost Child of Philomena Lee.  Stephen Frears is the director that pulls off the portrayal of an Irish Catholic woman who has all the reason in the world to not forgive for the atrocities she is put through, but really just wants to find her son. 

Sometimes a movie can deliver a message in the most understated way.  If you hate someone because of their religion, color, sexual orientation, nationality, habits, car they drive, team they root for, clothes they wear, how long they wear their hair, something they said to you 4 years ago, what they eat, or any number of other reasons, Philomena’s got a message for you, and it’s baked into a wonderful little movie.

The Monuments Men – 6

You’ll like this movie if you like
a.  History

b.  George Clooney
c.  Art

You have to hand it to Clooney and his movie partner Grant Heslov.  They make the movies they want to make and tell the stories they want to tell, the way they want to tell them.  They’ve got the power, and while they have it, they’re going to churn ‘em out.  The oohs and ahs of the mostly mature audience I watched this with suggests that there’s room for their projects.  Nope, this isn’t the typical studio fare that appeals to people who text each other over the dinner table. 

As World War II is winding down, there is concern that Adolf Hitler is going to destroy the incredible mass of art he has pilfered while he has ravaged Europe.  Frank Stokes (Clooney) is the art director who convinces FDR that he can assemble a team of art historians, played by the likes of Matt Damon, John Goodman and Bill Murray, run them through basic training (sure) and go over and help save the art and return it to their original locations.  Sounds like a piece of cake.  There are ups and downs, because well, there is a war going on, and there are gasps when the art is shown.  No shortage of impressive detail here. 

This is a true story.  There were actually about 350 monuments men who tracked down over 5 million works of art across Europe, and there are still some major works missing to this day.  It is a fascinating story, that for some reason doesn’t translate to a fascinating movie.

This is Clooney’s fifth directorial effort, and for some reason it just falls flat.  Maybe it’s because he usually has to also star in his movies to get financial backing, and he shouldn’t be directing himself.  I had the feeling watching this movie that had it been made in the 60’s sandwiched between Lawrence of Arabia and The Sound of Music, it would have seemed more impressive.  Too much water has gone under the bridge (on the river Kwai) and the History Channel does this kind of thing just as well.  It made me want to text my movie companions “you bored?”

OSCAR TIME

So, I’ll take my run at the Oscars, otherwise known as “Scorcese gets screwed again.”

Best Picture

Will win:  !2 Years a Slave, although Gravity could pull a mild upset.

Should Win:  The Wolf of Wall Street. 

12 Years is an important movie, but I predict it will be forgotten faster as a work of cinema than The Little Emperor, and countless other Best Pictures (most recently The King’s Speech) while the Wolf is an epic achievement that will join Best Picture losers like Citizen Kane and Raging Bull and live on as a classic.

Best Actor

Will win:  Matthew McConaughey

Should win:  Leonardo DeCaprio

McConaughey deserves accolades for his recreation of himself as a serious actor (I’ll get to True Detective in a minute) and in fact his brief appearance in The Wolf is pivotal.

But DeCaprio gives a monumental performance in The Wolf that can only be described as a master class in acting.  He won’t win, but he was incredible.

Best Actress

Will win:  Cate Blanchett

Should win:  Amy Adams

Blanchett has the juiciest role of the year and knocks it out of the park.  My problem is that she does it in a film that is implausible and just not very good.

Amy Adams is riveting and even better, and doesn’t usually get these kind of roles.  She gives the kind of performance that will often result in a make-up Oscar next year.

Best Director

Will win:  Alfonso Cuaron for Gravity

Should win:  Scorcese

Gravity is good and is a wonderful technical achievement.

Scorcese won an Oscar for The Departed, but will add The Wolf of Wall Street to his list of movies that he didn’t win for.  Let’s see – Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, The Aviator, New York New York, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, The Last Temptation of Christ, Cape Fear, Gangs of New York, The Color of Money, The Last Waltz…blah blah blah.

Reminds me – Here’s a quiz.  Who didn’t win a Best Director Oscar for the following pictures?

Rebecca, Psycho, Rear Window, Strangers on a Train, The 39 Steps, Vertigo, The Birds, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Frenzy, Rope, Dial M for Murder, To Catch A Thief, Shadow of A Doubt, Notorious, North by Northwest, blah, blah, blah.   I guess classics don’t equal Oscars.

Best Supporting Actor

Will win:  Jared Leto
Should win:  Jared Leto

Leto should join McConaughey for their heart breaking roles in Dallas Buyer’s Club

Best Supporting Actress

Will Win:  Nupita Lyong’o

Should Win:  Jennifer Lawrence

This is the toughest race of the night for me, because both are terrific.  I’ll be rooting for a tie.

Best Documentary: 

Will Win:  20 Feet From Stardom, the popular favorite

Should Win:  The Act of Killing, the critical favorite

Just want to mention this one because I think it was a fantastic year for documentaries, I saw more of them than I would have dreamed, and my favorite, Stories We Tell, didn’t even get nominated.  The Act of Killing is unreservedly intense, but probably will suffer from the fact it is 100% subtitled.

Rest of My Predictions, with a strong preference for what I want to win.

Best Adapted Screenplay:  Philomena

Best Original Screenplay:  Her

Best Foreign Language Film:  The Hunt

Best Animated Film:  Frozen

Best Song:  Let It Go, from Frozen

Best Cinematography:  Gravity

Best Editing:  Captain Phillips

Best Production Design:  The Great Gatsby

Best Costume Design:  The Great Gatsby

Best Musical Score:  Philomena

Best Makeup:  Dallas Buyer’s Club

Best Sound Editing:  Gravity 

Best Sound Mixing:  Gravity

Best Visual Effects:  Gravity, the lock of the night

Scanning the Satellite

True Detective – 10

No, I don’t usually write about television, but HBO’s 8 episode anthology series (6 of which have aired as I write this) is the most enthralling week to week build up I’ve seen since Twin Peaks, when we were hauntingly trying to figure out who killed Laura Palmer.  True Detective is dark, and by no means perfect because sometimes I still don’t know where it’s going or where it has been, but two things make it stand out.  First, the acting.  Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harelson play Louisiana detectives investigating a serial killer.  Or are they?  The writing is superb, but the contentious relationship of the 2 detectives played out in scene after scene is amazing.

Second, there’s the Louisiana locale.  There is just something about Louisiana.  As they go back and forth through the voodoo like bayou, they somehow capture the mystical nature better than anything I’ve ever seen.  Better than True Blood, better than Southern Comfort, better than Treme.  It’s must see television.  Prepare to be challenged.  Darkly.