McConaughey: More than Naked Bongo Drumming

by Hope Madden

It took the man almost 20 years in the business to find his real calling, but god damn, Matthew McConaughey knows how to create a character. And Ron Woodruff was nothing if not a character.

McConaughey plays the role of the real life AIDS victim and Texan in the compelling and surprisingly entertaining Dallas Buyers Club.

Woodruff was a part-time bull rider, an occupation that almost defines him as fearless, determined, thrill-seeking, and probably not long for this world. He was man who “preferred to die with his boots on,” and he makes for an unlikely hero. After a lifetime of dangerous behavior on every level, Woodruff lands in the hospital with the news that he has HIV and a predicted 30 days to get his affairs in order.

Well, he saw that news as bullshit, and thanks to those defining characteristics, his subsequent journey makes for a singularly fascinating film.

A character-driven historical piece on the grinding reality of the dawning AIDS crisis, Dallas Buyers Club offers a glimpse at desperation, isolation, bigotry and resilience. Regardless of the facts, this is not the tragic story of a charismatic straight man struggling with AIDS. It’s the story of AIDS in Texas in 1985.

There is something formulaic, even predictable, about the film’s structure, and the screenplay speechifies here and there, but Jean-Marc Vallee’s understated direction and the performances of the entire ensemble buoy the effort above its “socially relevant biopic” label.

McConaughey’s charmingly assholish depiction is never less than compelling. He doesn’t make a saint of this man because there’s no saint to be made. What he makes him is human, an effort aided immeasurably by the supporting work of Jared Leto.

Leto plays Rayon, Woodruff’s reluctantly-accepted partner in a health care whirlwind. Their work together recalls the barbaric money grab at the heart of any attempt to cure those dying every day of AIDS. Quietly and with genuine tenderness, Leto’s performance reminds you that no one was defined by this disease alone.

Both actors are likely to be remembered come awards time, and some will point to Oscar’s preference for true stories and physical transformation. (Because of the weight lost for the roles, both McConaughey and Leto are almost unrecognizable.) Celebrating their superficial metamorphoses, though, limits their work. With the aid of a director’s steady hand and an ensemble’s quietly powerful work, they provide the heart and soul of an exceptional and surprisingly fresh true tale.

 

Verdict-4-0-Stars

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cC6mv0KhOBY

Family Matters

 

by George Wolf

 

Mother of George is a stylish, visual feast, a film steeped in cultural traditions surviving in the modern world, and the universal anguish over complicated life choices.

Isaach De Bankole (The Limits of Control)  and Danai Gurira (The Walking Dead) are both excellent as, respectively, Ayodele and Adenike, a Nigerian couple living in Brooklyn. At their wedding, Ayodele’s mother proclaims the couple’s first son will be named George, a responsibility that weighs heavily on Adenike as the months pass without a pregnancy to announce.

Family and friends present homemade solutions such as fertility blessings and traditional teas, but the situation grows dire. Finally, Adenike”s mother-in-law offers her a shocking solution.

Director Andrew Dosunmu, blessed with the sublime cinematography of Bradford Young, often keeps his camera still, letting the characters move in and out of frame, while embracing the vibrant colors ever present in the traditional garments and in other neighborhood surroundings.  As Ayodele and Adenike continue their attempts at conceiving a child, Dosunmu bathes the lovers in a tender, sensual tableau.

The script, a first from playwright Darci Picoult, is often understated and poetic, but eventually turns to moments of melodrama and contrivance as Adenike becomes more desperate to please her husband and extended family.

Those moments aside, Mother of George is a lush, richly visual work from a director who shows much potential for originality.

 

Verdict-3-5-Stars

 

 

Heaping Helping of Holiday Pandering

Best Man Holiday

by Hope Madden

One film opening this weekend guarantees to make you laugh and cry, or kill you trying. It’s Best Man Holiday, the most exuberantly emotionally manipulative film, perhaps ever.

The entire cast of 1999’s Best Man returns, gathering to celebrate the holidays at the home of the old bride and groom, Mia (Monica Calhoun) and Lance Sullivan (Morris Chestnut). It appears that the Sullivans are doing well for themselves, living in a New York mansion with four well behaved and impossibly well groomed children.

The formulaic gathering lets us all catch up on how life treated Quentin (Terrence Howard), Shelby (Melissa de Sousa), Candace (Regina Hal) and Julian (Harold Perrineau), and Jordan (Nia Long). Did they all settle down? Find success?

And what about Harper (Taye Diggs) and Robyn (Sanaa Lathan)? Happily ever after? New book?

This is a film that knows its audience. If you fell in love with this crew back in 1999, Best Man Holiday is looking at you. Don’t you want to check back in, see how the fellas are faring 14 years later? Maybe, like you, they’ve moved on to family, career. How do they look mid-life without their shirts?

Pretty damn good.

If you are not this very specific target audience, you don’t mean much to Best Man Holiday. It’s a movie that is out to please, but not to please everyone. The target audience is like a woman who wants bacon and eggs for breakfast, so her man makes her bacon and eggs.  If you prefer pancakes, who cares? This breakfast is not for you.

With its one, very specific goal, there is no denying that BMH succeeds. As a real movie, though, it has more than a few problems.

The cast generates a charming chemistry, and their sense of fun and tenderness buoys the otherwise cliché riddled, wildly heavy-handed script by director Malcolm D. Lee. No serving of side dishes with this holiday ham is light, whether it’s the raucous sex, the silly comedy, the sermonizing, or the tear jerking.

You will foresee every single plot point 40 minutes before it happens, as this film is bound and determine to surprise no one. But Terrence Howard gets off some very funny lines and Morris Chestnut looks good, and if you’re not paying close attention, it might not even occur to you to wonder where they found matching boy band outfits for their talent show.

On the whole, you won’t want to pay very close attention to this one.

 

Verdict-2-0-Stars

 

 

Unforgettably Explicit

 

by George Wolf

 

Make no mistake, though the sex depicted in Blue Is the Warmest Color (La vie d’Adele) is explicit enough to earn an NC-17 rating, it is the way the film is emotionally explicit that makes it one of the very best of the year.

The focus is Adele (Adele Exarchopoulos), a French teenager nearing the end of high school who loves literature and has designs on a future teaching career. Her blasé interest in a new boyfriend is forgotten when she passes the blue-haired, twenty-something Emma (Lea Seydoux) on a city street. Instantly captivated, Adele is left confused by her new feelings, and by the newfound pleasure that her fantasies of Emma can bring.

In adapting the source comic book by Julie Maroh, director/co-writer Abdellatif Kechiche has created a completely engrossing drama, one that totally immerses you in the romantic arc between Adele and Emma. Kechiche doesn’t follow a by-the-numbers narrative, choosing instead to present sketches of the the two women’s lives – both together and apart.

Kechiche’s camera lingers on nearly every moment, and though this results in a full three hour running time, the film, almost miraculously, never feels self-indulgent. Rather, the pace seems a necessity, as Exarchopoulos and Seydoux slowly allow us to develop a bond with their characters that is deep enough to share in their joys and heartaches.

The film won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, and though this has historically been a prize for directors exclusively, the jury made an exception this year, choosing to also honor the two lead actors. Indeed, their performances go beyond fearless, reaching a point of emotion so raw you begin to feel self-conscious for intruding.

Exarchopoulos, in particular, is mesmerizing. She invites you into Adele’s journey for fulfillment, never once allowing a crack in her authenticity. If there has been a better performance on screen this year, I haven’t seen it.

A film this sexually frank will inevitably attract attention, especially when a male director is presenting girl-on-girl sex scenes with this much intensity and duration (one nearly ten minutes long). It is a fact that is not lost on Kechiche.

Throughout the film, lessons from Adele’s literature studies are deftly woven into the story, with one character remarking how seldom art ponders female sexual pleasure. While this is clearly not the case here, Kechiche gives the sex scenes (including one between Adele and her early boyfriend) a messy, natural quality, devoid of swelling music or rampant romanticism.

Lust is a major part of Adele and Emma’s relationship, and though Kechiche certainly presents it in a powerful way, he doesn’t employ empty titillation in the process.

Look beyond the distractions, and Blue Is the Warmest Color becomes a love story that nearly explodes with a timely urgency, one told with such depth, humor and humanity it simply cannot be ignored.

 

 

Verdict-4-5-Stars

 

 

Two Indie Gems for Your Queue

Earlier this year the indie gem Frances Ha was released, not that the world noticed. Well, world, here’s your opportunity to make amends, because this loosely articulated but deftly crafted character study of a New York dork could come home with you today on DVD.

The creative pairing of unrepentant misanthrope, writer/director Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale) and unabashedly likeable writer/star Greta Gerwig, the film gives Baumbach the opportunity to explore the lives of damaged neurotics, as usual, but gifts us with a protagonist we cannot help but love. As Frances tumbles, limbs akimbo, out of her arrested adolescence and into her long-dormant adulthood, a delightful journey emerges.

For something as impressive, if not quite so effervescent, you must see Baumbach’s masterpiece of awkward family dysfunction, The Squid and the Whale. This dark, semi-autobiographical comedy follows a self-absorbed adolescent, his divorcing narcissist parents, and his perhaps irrevocably weird little brother. Baumbach’s wicked writing created endless opportunities for the film’s dream cast, boasting, among other triumphs, the most brilliant performance of Jeff Daniels’s career.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQEnAtMxVXw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hpg1f6ZVxh0

This Week’s Countdown of Capes, Masks and Tights

We were impressed enough by the Thor sequel to begin pondering … which are the best superhero movies ever made?

10. Iron Man

Among the most inspired pieces of casting in cinematic history, indie film’s bad boy Robert Downey Jr. shoulders a blockbuster superhero flick and becomes the highest paid actor in history. He may even deserve it. Wry humor, believable bouts of self loathing and narcissism, and the intelligence to pull off the character of Tony Stark, he redefined superhero and caused a ripple effect still being felt in the genre.

9. The Incredibles

Pixar takes on the superhero with heart, humor and the kind of spot-on insight that made their image of toy life, robot romance, and elderly adventure so magnificent. Consistently fun and full of surprises and wisdom, The Incredibles rocks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZbzbC9285I

 

8. Batman

Back in the Eighties, goth-god Tim Burton breathed new life into the superhero concept with this dark, stylish, almost campy classic. It would be nearly 20 years before Jack Nicholson’s then-iconic version of The Joker was outdone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlsM2_8u_mk

 

7. X-Men: First Class

Michael Fassbender keeps his pants on for this inspired origins story. Writer Jane Goldman and director Matthew Vaughn, who’d done the genre proud with Kick-Ass just one year earlier, re-team to collect mutants in time to thwart the Cuban Missile Crisis. A killer cast and really clever writing mark this as easily the best X-Men movie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8ccSiH4olo

 

6. Kick-Ass

Hey, speaking of Kick-Ass – how great was that?! In a sea of mock superhero movies, this one turned out to be fresh, a bit twisted and incredibly funny. It also delivered on action. Endearing, relentlessly entertaining, fearlessly violent yet well-meaning, the film hits on all fronts. Plus, Nicolas Cage, with his Adam West impersonation, is utterly priceless.

5. Batman Begins

Talk about a game changer. When Memento director Christopher Nolan turned his attention to the genre, well, the genre was never the same. Any hint of camp is abandoned. Dark and brooding, the film is as interested in story and character as it is in action and bat-gizmos. For the first time, an outright brilliant actor is cast in the hero’s role, and the weight of the decisions made by a vigilante crime fighter is finally felt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zdFsoUF-Fg

 

4. Spider-Man 2

Like Superman 2 back in ’80, the second of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man flicks ponders the ramifications of true love on superherodom. Tobey Maguire’s inherent tenderness helps the most moving scenes stick with you, in a movie that celebrates humanity in a way few films – superhero or no –  have managed to do.

 

3. The Dark Knight Rises

Finally, someone gets Cat Woman right! Nolan’s trilogy capper is a wildly satisfying, emotionally resonant, dramatically impeccable ride. Every choice is as fitting as it is surprising. He’s responsible to the source material without giving an inch of his own creative control, plumbing cultural currency and comic ethos to create a movie that leaves a mark.

 

2. The Avengers

Joss Whedon, everybody! He’s every fanboy’s dream. If there any nerdy thing this man cannot do? Buffy, Serenity, The Cabin in the Woods – hell, he even made Shakespeare hip! Plus, he wrote Toy Story – how awesome is that? And while it looked like the Avengers franchise would amount to the gathering of multiple barely interesting individual heroes, plus another Hulk debacle, it turned out to be one of the most enjoyable, well crafted, character driven and fun superhero flicks of all time. And someone finally did the Hulk justice! Well played, Mr. Whedon.

 

1. The Dark Knight

For the first – and likely last – time in history, the villain from a superhero flick earned the actor an Oscar. And it was flat out obvious, because Heath Ledger’s hauntingly perfect performance as The Joker left a blood chilling impression. And though he is the best reason to watch The Dark Knight, he’s hardly the only exceptional element the film has going for it. The emotional weight to some of the scenes will leave you breathless, and though Nolan has established a very dark view in this series, there is a single, blistering scene in this film that emphasizes the deep optimism the filmmaker and his franchise have for humanity.

Don’t Expect Mints on the Pillow

The Motel Life

by Hope Madden

Emile Hirsch is a talented actor most effective when playing against that cherubic mug. As drifters, outsiders and struggling lowlifes (Into the Wild, Killer Joe, Prince Avalanche), he animates the hope inside the hopeless like few others. His open tenderness is half the reason The Motel Life is such a stingingly lovely portrait of American poverty.

Hirsch plays Frank, storyteller and brother’s keeper. That brother, forever getting the two into serious trouble, is played with heartbreaking frailty by Stephen Dorff – the second half of the film’s one-two punch.

Dorff’s Jerry Lee has gotten the rawer end of a pretty raw deal. His brother and his own ability with a pencil and drawing pad are all he has to show for his time on this planet. Missing part of his leg and drawn to trouble, Jerry Lee has given Frank a lifetime of clean-up work.

The film is at its most entertaining during story time. To keep his brother’s mind at east, Frank spins outlandish yarns where Jerry Lee can be a hero with two good legs and a voluptuous babe on his arm. Directors Alan and Gabe Polsky set these to great illustrations that bespeak the brothers’ arrested adolescence.

Based on Willy Vlautin’s acclaimed novel, the film offers an off-kilter, smoky image of hope, and the choices that kick triumph – sometimes even survival – in the teeth.

The Motel Life exists in the same basic universe as Killer Joe (but with far less insanity or humor). It’s a world belonging to the broken and haunted, where a would-be mentor has to remind you, “Don’t make decisions thinking you’re a lowlife. Make decisions thinking you’re a great man. Or at least a good man.”

Who offers such advice? Kris Kristofferson – duh. Oh, one more thing he says. “And don’t be a pussy.”

The pace the Polskys set is deliberate, sometimes frustratingly so, and Hirsch is far too pretty to have led this life. (It doesn’t help that the brother who appears to be maybe 2 years his senior in flashbacks is played as an adult by an actor 12 years older than Hirsch.) But there’s an offhanded authenticity to the story of underdogs who might break free in one beautiful instant, only to fall back to what holds them in chains, whether it’s gambling, strippers, or a brother with a head full of bad wiring.

Verdict-3-5-Stars

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmcIEoYsnww

Growing Up Too Fast

 

by George Wolf

 

In her new film, gifted young actress Saoirse Ronan plays a teenager forced to fend for herself, fighting for survival in the wilderness.

Wait, is this a sequel to Hanna?

No, it’s How I Live Now, adapted from the young adult novel and sporting a storyline that actually follows eerily close to a recent foreign film not many here at home ever saw.

Ronan plays Daisy, an American brat sent to stay with her Aunt and cousins in the English countryside. Daisy’s mother has died, she “hates” her father, and in a very typical teenage fashion, is mad at the world.

It isn’t long before the world is mad right back.

War breaks out and martial law is declared, separating Daisy and her young cousin Piper from their family. The males and females are transported to different camps, though not before Daisy makes a promise to reunite.

In an opportune moment, Daisy and Piper break away, taking off on foot for a long and dangerous trek back home.

Two years ago, Lore covered very similar terrain, though in a World War II setting and with a much heavier historical context.

How I Live Now is more cavalier with the teen girl’s awakening to the ways of the adult world (yes, sexual included). Though Ronan is characteristically captivating, Daisy’s journey, both physical and spiritual, seems rushed and not quite sure-footed.

Director Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland/State of Play) attempts to channel the popular book by getting inside Daisy’s head, voices and all. That, plus the arresting landscape shots, handheld camera angles, and Ronan’s performance, is enough to keep your attention.

Ultimately, though, How I Live Now feels like a like a well-executed shot that falls a bit short of the mark.

 

Verdict-3-0-Stars

 

 

We Are Not Ideal Dinner Hosts

We Are What We Are

by Hope Madden

The little seen but magnificent 2010 Mexican import We Are What We Are offered perhaps the most biting social commentary set to film that year. The fact that this revelatory work happened to fit into the horror genre – and no doubt about that! – made the film that much more provocative and fascinating.

Writer/director Jim Mickel and his writing partner Nick Damici tackle an American remake, but wisely use the source material as more of an inspiration than an actual blueprint.

As in Jorge Michel Grau’s original, one family’s religious custom is thrown into havoc when the family leader dies unexpectedly, leaving the ritual unfinished and the children left to determine who will take over. Both films look at a particularly religious family as a sort of tribe that evolved separately but within the larger population. Grau has better instincts for mining this paradigm to expose the flaws of the larger population, but Mickel takes an American Gothic tone to create an eerily familiar darkness that treads on common urbanite fears.

Mickel and Damici created 2010’s surprisingly fresh Stake Land, a post-apocalyptic vampire tale that packed a real punch. Their second effort is a more polished piece, aided by impressive performances from a mostly seasoned cast.

The always exceptional Michael Parks plays a gentle, rural doctor heartbroken over the years-old disappearance of his daughter and intrigued by some grisly bits unearthed by the recent flood. Meanwhile, the devout and desperate Parker family prepares for Lamb’s Day.

While the subtext, subtle authenticity and almost Shakespearean family drama of the original are missing, this version is comfortable in its setting, drawing from a very American style of horror.  Along with Parks, Kelly McGillis adds a nice turn in a supporting role, while Ambyr Childers and Julie Garner ably embody the horrifyingly put upon children of a deceased matriarch with a really tough job to do.

The film sets a tone that sneaks up and settles over you, like the damp from a flood. Mickel proves adept with traditional horror storytelling, casting aside any flash in favor of smothering atmosphere and a structure that slowly builds tension, and the impressive climax is worth the wait.

Needless flashback sequences seek to explain what’s better left unsaid, and many surprises will be obvious too soon, but the creepy atmosphere, solid performances and fine writing help to make this remake a worthwhile counterpart to the ingenious Mexican original.

Verdict-3-5-Stars

 

 

 

More Adorably Smitten Brits

About Time

by Hope Madden

Even if you’re not a romantic comedy fan, it’s hard to dislike Love Actually, right? Sure, pieces of writer/director/Brit Richard Curtis’s film drag. Still, the fact that so many story lines – big and small – fit together so nicely, telling tales of heartache as well as true love, helps to make it an entertaining gem. So, why not give About Time – the latest from its creator – a shot?

Well, actually, it helps if you are not a fan of romantic comedies because, regardless of the marketing campaign, that label fits this film loosely at best.

About Time is perhaps the most understated time travel movie ever. The Lake family has a secret. Their men can travel – briefly and with very mild manners –  through time. One New Year’s Day, this intel is passed from father (Bill Nighy – hooray!) to son (and unrepentant ginger), Tim (Domnhall Gleeson – son of the great character actor Brendan Gleeson, but best known as a Weasley boy from Harry Potter).

Tim mostly uses his power to improve his luck with girls, though he fails as often as succeeds because Richard Curtis loves adorably, politely, pitifully smitten Brits.

Tim’s big success is the love of his life, Mary (Rachel McAdams, aggressively adorable, as always).

The end.

Surprisingly enough, that is not true because bumbling awkwardly but endearingly toward true love is not the film’s real focus.

Rather, Curtis’s interest lies on the fringes of Tim’s life, with everyone and everything he fails to notice because of his dogged attention to his pursuit of true love. And in the end, that’s what Curtis wants of us: to slow down and notice everything. Live life fully and you won’t need time travel to go back and fix things.

If that sounds trite and patronizing, credit Curtis for developing it at a leisurely enough pace and with sound enough acting that it does not feel that way. The life lessons Tim learns are thoughtful, and Gleeson’s performance sells the tenderness and the hard-won wisdom.

What it doesn’t really settle is the almost creepy dishonesty of Tim’s wooing of Mary, and for all of the rest of the film’s Nice Guy Tim-isms, it’s hard to look past the SciFi trickery he utilizes to dupe this woman into loving him.

But I suppose you can look past that, since the romance is hardly the point. Unless you’re a fan of romantic comedies, in which case, may I recommend Love Actually?

Verdict-3-0-Stars