Sorry I am so late with the official year end movie
blogs. Everything is late in
Mississippi. For a movie nut, it’s tough
to admit that I have yet to see movies like Under the Skin, Whiplash, and
Birdman, which haven’t made it here yet, and I had to go buy the Blu-ray of
Boyhood because it never made it here. But here’s my last report on 2014 movies.
Let’s start with the original stories:
Boyhood – 9
This fascinating film is the odds on favorite for a Best
Picture Oscar. Director Richard
Linklater shot this over the course of 12 years. The young man whose boyhood is at the center
of the film is played by Ellar Coltrane who was cast when he was just 5 years old. Imagine that gamble for just a minute. You are going to shoot a film for 12 years
and you have to guess what this young man will be like as he grows up. Did the director write the story as the years
went by? Or did he stick with his
script? The mind races as the movie
moves along.
You will be enthralled.
Top Five – 8
Chris Rock’s star vehicle is at times brilliant, hilarious,
and downright gross, about what you would expect from this incisive comedian. It’s a day in the life of a comedian going
through a career crisis.
Andre Allen is most famous for his portrayal, in costume, of
Hammie the Bear in 3 movies that I wouldn’t want to see. He longs to be taken seriously as an artist,
although his agent warns him that he is dangerously close (in one of the best
lines of the year) to Dancing with the Stars.
His upcoming marriage to a reality TV star, played by Gabrielle Union,
is plowing ahead despite his misgivings and he agrees to an interview with a
journalist (Rosario Dawson) who is not what she seems to be. He’s smitten.
He’s revealing. He’s
hilarious.
What is the top five?
Throughout the movie there is an extended debate about the top 5 rappers
of all time, and they might as well have been ranking the top 5 vegetables for
all I care about that. But, it’s just a
plot device for a more meaningful transformation, as Rock begins to realize
what is important.
The comedy is not for the easily offended, especially when
Rock and Rosario trade exceedingly gross stories. Chris Rock is progressing as a writer and
filmmaker. Expect even better things ahead.
The Grand Budapest Hotel – 8
Wes Anderson makes eccentric movies. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t. This one works from the standpoint that the visual
uniqueness supports a story that could be out of the Marx Brothers or Charlie
Chaplin. I confess there was much I
couldn’t follow. This guys got an
imagination and a vision like no one else working today. But, it’s not for everyone.
And now for the true stories.
The Imitation Game -10
You’ll like this movie if you like historical movies, great
acting, and computers. This movie makes
the case that the father of modern computer science was Alex Turing, a
brilliant mathematician who was one of Great Britain’s codebreakers during
World War II. Germany’s war
transmissions are easily intercepted but impossible to decipher due to their “Enigma”
code. It is up to Turing to build
“Christopher” a thinking machine that can perform enough calculations fast
enough to break a code that changes daily.
Benedict Cumberbatch inhabits Turing in one of the year’s
great performances. Turing was a
homosexual in a time when that had dire consequences, and he ultimately paid a
very stiff penalty. His recognition as
someone who may have saved the world from the Nazi’s has come posthumously
because the story was kept secret for 50 years by the British.
I have only one minor quibble with this movie. Like every Hollywood movie made today, it
jumps around in time, back and forth telling the story. This story is so good, it doesn’t need that
gimmick. Straight forward, linear
fashion would have been just fine. The
story is that good. Nevertheless,
here’s the ultimate compliment. I can’t wait to see this movie again. And again.
If it ends up in heavy TV rotation I suspect I won’t be able to not
pause and watch, like I do with Tombstone and A Few Good Men, and many
others. The “crisis scenes” crackle that
much! Don’t miss.
Selma – 9
This is a focused and riveting history lesson about the
civil rights movement of the early 60’s.
Martin Luther King leads the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery in
protest of the Alabama voting laws. It’s
tough to watch at times, because it graphically shows several deaths during the
events, and doesn’t skimp on the brutality.
What makes the movie work so well is David Oyelowo’s amazing
performance as Dr. King. It’s easy to
see the charisma he brought to his quest, but Oyelowo also digs into King’s
insecurities and transgressions as he deals with pressures from LBJ, his wife,
his constituents, and his enemies. Get
ready to feel every ounce of every character’s pain, both physical and
emotional. It’s a near epic movie in its
scope and importance. Best of all, it captures King’s oratory and strategic
skills, as well as the price he paid to move a nation.
American Sniper - 9
Director Clint Eastwood makes a thumper of a
war movie. Whether you consider this an
indictment of war, or an endorsement of it, the fact is that this movie is so
well done that the box office and word of mouth potential is through the roof. This
movie is right in Eastwood’s wheel house. But it’s not just a war movie. It’s a little bit western. It’s a little bit character study.
This is the biography of a soldier with a particular set of
skills. From the moment that Chris Kyle’s
dad taught him to use a rifle for hunting, he had an uncanny aim which combined
with his desire to protect and serve, created a perfect prescription for a Navy
Seal. With this movie we get terrific
insight into the mind of a successful soldier.
Doubt never enters Chris’s mind, even while there is doubt all around
him. He will lose friends, he will kill
until he is called “The Legend.” But
doubt or hesitation would have hindered him and impacted his ability to do his
job. It was not just his ability that
made him the sniper with the most confirmed kills in U.S. history. It was a relentless and perfect mental makeup
for the job at hand.
I am predisposed here.
Some of my favorite scenes in movies are about snipers, starting with
the great desert scene of Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon. For some reason, they make great film. This movie takes that inherent drama and maxes
it out. There probably will never need
to be another sniper movie. It serves
another function as well. Much like The
Hurt Locker, it shows the true hell that is war. The everyday task of “clearing buildings” of
insurgents, the activity that Kyle is usually protecting from a rooftop, is
dangerous and tedious. Can you imagine
going through an American city building by building?
Chris Kyle comes back after four tours and has to begin to
re-aclimate himself to his family. His
wife, played to perfection by Sienna Miller is a relentless force of her own in
her determination to have a normal husband and a normal family. It is Chris’s simple approach to what he has
done that allows him to recover more quickly than the doubters he was
surrounded by, or the wounded he begins to counsel whose scars are physical,
mental, and emotional. Bradley Cooper
pulls all this off as the actor, and as the visionary who wanted to make this
movie about an American hero. The next
few months will probably feature a lot of discussion about the glorification of
war pictured here, but this is what patriotism looks like to much of America
and it’s what Eastwood does best. Whether or not you think this glorifies war,
or justifies this particular war, this is American movie making at its most
powerful.
Unbroken – 8
You’ll like this movie if you like nails across a
blackboard, in a good way. True stories
are the most fascinating movies, even with the embellishments that sometimes
come with them. This is Angelina Jolie’s
straightforward story of Louis Zamporelli, who lived more in 10 minutes than
most of us do in a lifetime. First, he
was an Olympic athlete. Then he was
onboard a fighter jet in World War II over the Pacific. His plane crashes into the Pacific, and he
survives over 40 days in a raft. That’s
the good news. The bad news is that he
is then captured by the Japanese and tortured for years in a prison camp. Jolie pulls no punches. It’s all graphic and brutal.
The best scenes in this movie though, are right up
front. The footage of the dogfights over
the Pacific are terrific. That the movie
can’t keep up that pace is natural, but it’s a fitting tribute to the greatest
generation.
Wild – 7
You’ll like this movie if you like endurance, Reese
Witherspoon, and walking.
Witherspoon plays the real-life Cheryl Strayed, a promiscuous, drug using divorcee
who has lost her mother to a short illness.
She is scarred and scared, lost, and lonely and decides there is only
one way to get her life on track. Take a
hike. A long one. So this movie very calmly follows her up the
Pacific Coast while interspersing flashbacks of her sordid past. Reese goes without makeup and essentially
shows that she should always go without makeup.
Reese says “star.” The movie says "you won’t remember this."
Foxcatcher – 7
You’ll like this movie if you like wrestling, Steve Carell,
and murder.
This is an important movie - it’s just not a very good
one. It’s important because it reveals
that Steve Carell can be a good dramatic actor.
His transformation into John E. Dupont is amazing. Unfortunately, I was not as impressed with
the depth of his performance as I was his physical presence, because I never
really figured out what Dupont was all about.
Yes, he was a mama’s boy, and he had a desire to be successful on his
own, despite being in the richest family in America. Going to work in a drug store was never
really an option. So he essentially bought
himself the American Olympic wrestling team and brings them to his Valley Forge
estate to the training facility he has built.
It starts with two brooding brothers, played by Channing Tatum and Mark
Ruffalo, who are both totally convincing.
It all ends in a famous murder, which Dupont commits. I never understood why. Maybe you will.
Scanning the Satellite
Olive Kittredge – This is a 4 hour HBO mini-series dominated
totally by the incredible Frances McDormand who plays one of the realest
characters you’ll see on a screen. She’s
ornery, unforgiving, and miserable. She is often at odds with her family and
friends and is one of those souls who just never found her place in life. Amazingly entertaining.
Next up - my year end movie ranking.
