At the Cinema - October 2015

The Martian – 10
Rarely are big budget movies as well constructed and crowd pleasing as The Martian.  Screenwriter Drew Goddard has crafted a film that blends humor and urgency.  He won’t win an Oscar for Adapted Screenplay, but I’ll be rooting for him.

Matt Damon plays Mark Watney, an astronaut left for dead on Mars after a storm cuts a mission short.  His crew is on its way back to earth, and NASA gets busy trying to mount a rescue.  With supporting stars like Jeff Daniels, Jessica Chastain, and Kate Mara, this resembles a sports movie.  You end up rooting for the home team to come back and win the game by rescuing Rudy, I mean Matt.

The attention to detail that has been employed is terrific, and seems plausible and within reach of the audience’s grasp.  That’s an impressive achievement.  It may be the most fun you’ll have at the movies this year.

The master stroke of this movie is in getting the whole world involved in the rescue.  The world-wide interest in bringing Matt home is displayed in huge crowd scenes that look like New Year’s Eve.  It’s cool as hell, and if you’re not swallowed up and engaged, something’s wrong.  Go and have some pure escapist fun.

Bridge of Spies – 10

Non-Fiction movies are just the best.  Like last year’s The Imitation Game, Bridge of Spies opens up a history book to an audience that has no clue.  I certainly didn’t.  I vaguely remember the story of Gary Powers, but I had never heard of James Donovan, just like I had never heard of Alan Turing in Imitation Game.  Donovan, played with great resolve here by Tom Hanks, as it turns out, is a great American hero. 

He was an insurance lawyer recruited by the FBI to put on a showy but ultimately impossible defense of accused Russian Spy Rudolph Abel.  Later he is called upon to negotiate a prisoner swap with captured US pilot Francis Gary Powers.

Director Steven Spielberg does his best work in years, as he avoids the heart-tugging and loud flourishes.  They aren’t needed.  The story stands on its own and needs no embellishment, although I don’t know how true to the facts it is.  There is a very odd disclaimer as the movie opens – “This story is based on true events.”  Isn’t it usually “actual events?”  I hate to split hairs, but what exactly is a “true event?”

Like all great historical movies, it made me want to start researching and learn more.  But, the movie serves an even grander purpose.  Young people today don’t remember the cold war, and it may be laughable to them, but the portrayals here of the smallest details, from classroom preparations for an atomic bomb, to the Berlin Wall’s erection are amazing.

I love a movie that perfectly captures a different time and place, even different values and judgements. This will be an Oscar contender, but will also go down as a beloved movie that will not only be watched forever, but will be sending viewers to history books, or at the very least Wikipedia to learn more.

Black Mass – 9

I really didn’t have any interest in seeing the story of Whitey Bulger, the notorious Boston mobster who was captured in 2012 after 12 years on the run.  Then I heard it compared to The Departed.  Then I found out he was the mobster that Martin Scorcese based The Departed on.  Had to see it.  In a movie like this you either totally buy it, or you don’t, and I felt like I was watching a violent sociopath in Johnny Depp’s portrayal of Bulger.  It’s the first Depp role in years that is more than a caricature.  He’s terrific.

The best part of the movie was actually in the portrayals of Bulger’s henchmen.  They are featured in interviews telling the story, and their deadpan reaction to unspeakable crimes is what will make me see this movie again. Joel Edgerton plays the boyhood friend turned FBI agent who uses and gets used by Bulger.  Expect some Supporting Oscar buzz for Edgerton, who has had a very good summer.  (He was the director of The Gift.)  But, it is Rory Cochrane as a Bulger hitman who I would like to see get some recognition.  He is riveting in several chilling scenes as a spectator and an active participant.  Yep, the supporting players elevate this movie to a must-see, and only a true story could be this far-fetched.  Let’s just say Efram Zimbalist Jr. is rolling over in his grave over what the FBI was doing.

Steve Jobs – 7

So far the most action-packed movie of the year has been Mad Max:  Fury Road.  Steve Jobs is second, and the far less credible of the two.  Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin takes a huge risk by trying to encapsulate a biography into virtually three scenes – 3 product launches.  Steve Jobs excelled at getting on stage and firing up an audience, even about sub-par products, and we don’t get to see the actual presentations, but we assume they were great.    

Sorkin and Director Danny Boyle attempt to bring every other piece of Jobs’ life drama into the 30 minutes before each launch.  That contrivance, involving walking and talking, and a whole lot of confrontation is unconvincing versus doing just a standard biopic.  Are there some great confrontations?  Yes.  Is the dialogue often brilliant? Of course, although there’s no “You can’t handle the truth.”  Is the acting great?  Yes, Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslett, and company are terrific.  There’s much to like, but the structure is more irritating than Jobs himself.   

Here’s what I suspect.  Maybe the movie will improve upon each viewing, much like Sorkin’s other movies have.  Maybe, it really is “an American Classic” as is quoted on the advertising.  Maybe upon repeated viewings the layers will be revealed and the movie’s complexity will be more easily appreciated.  That’s a whole lot of “maybe’s.”

Sicario – 6

Well done, but so dark it is depressing, this movie continues the star-making of Emily Blunt, but does little else but portray the U.S./Mexican border as a horrible place that I wouldn’t want to visit, and wish I hadn’t made a virtual visit.

Blunt plays an FBI agent in over her head in the dark world inhabited by Benecio Del Toro and Josh Brolin.  To say they bend the rules of law enforcement in trying to slow the drug trade would be the understatement of the year.  If this is Donald Trump’s reference point for his assessment of immigration, it’s easy to see why he wants to build a wall, although the movie makes clear that there’s little to stop the drugs that flow in to the US.  You might stop the immigrants.  You’ll never stop the drugs.

Crimson Peak – 5

Lovely to look at, unable to hold,

Guillermo Del Toro is one of the most imaginative directors working today.  His Pan’s Labyrinth will go down as a classic, and The Orphanage is not far behind.  He can paint a picture with the great artist.   In Crimson Peak the sets and atmosphere are incredible as he takes us into a truly chilling haunted house.  Unfortunately, the plot can’t keep up.  It is a predictable and obvious story that may have been shocking 30 years ago, but falls flat in 2015.   Mildly engaging, no cigar.

SCANNING THE SATELLITE

Compared to What – The Improbable Journey of Barney Frank – 9

This is a terrific documentary available on Showtime.  Don’t get me wrong.  It’s full of controversy as it describes the 40 year political and personal experience of a US Representative that had a huge impact on governmental policy.  The best thing is it explains how we’ve gotten to where we are today in the gridlock of Congress.  Fascinating and disturbing, in different ways for different peoples

Fargo – After three episodes of the second season, this FX series continues its rise to the top of the television heap.  Great stuff.