Hitoshi Ozawa (center, white hair) as Torada, in BAD CITY. Courtesy of WellGoUSA
The subtitled Japanese crime flick, BAD CITY, delivers the goods on two essential counts – an atypically complex plot with a handful of switches and double-crosses, building to an adrenaline-satisfying series of hard-nosed fight sequences. This is the second feature from director Kensuke Sonomora, after nearly 20 years of steady stunt work, including many gigs as stunt coordinator or action director. Experience shows, as this film seems more cohesive and focused than his first crime drama, HYDRA, while still dishing out the mayhem that motivates most potential viewers.
Disgraced police captain Torada (Hitoshi Ozawa) is granted parole by an idealistic prosecutor to go after the city’s most powerful tycoon/criminal, Gojo (Lily Franky), who’d just been undeservedly acquitted on racketeering charges. Gojo’s tentacles reach high into every branch of government and law enforcement, making regular attempts to nail him futile. So Torada is put in charge of an off-the-books force of a few trusted detectives to finish the job. The plot centers around a major construction project Goro is pushing that will displace many citizens in favor of a sprawling resort casino. That involves one or more Yakuza families and the local branch of the Korean Mafia.
It takes some concentration to follow the story, as many players turn out differently than they begin, or seem. There are several fights scattered through the first 80 minutes, with much greater time allotted to character and plot development. Ozawa anchors the proceedings with the world-weary gravitas of a Takeshi Kitano; or more familiarly for most U.S. audiences, an unsmiling 60-ish Gene Hackman or Brian Dennehy. His landing in jail for what some believe was a frame-up, also landed him afoul of the Koreans, since he supposedly killed the son of the dragon lady running that organization.
But all of that is prelude to Sonomora’s payoff purpose. The last 25 minutes are filled with gritty, fast-paced battles among the various factions in the tangle of conflicts. As in HYDRA, there are few guns. The damage is inflicted mostly with fists, baseball bats and occasional blades. Stunt performances are stunning in the mass encounters, as well as in a bunch of exciting one-on-ones. No wire-work or CGI enhancements. Minimizing the background music highlights the audio of every strike and all the times people are hurled against a floor or wall. That element is comparable to the impressive stunt fighting I’ve relished in many recent Korean action flicks.
When you’re looking for relatively realistic action (nobody could *really* take that many punches and keep going), with a bit more of a mental component than average, this one’s a solid choice.
BAD CITY, in Japanese with English subtitles, is available digitally on-demand starting Tuesday, Aug. 1, and will be available on DVD and Blu-ray starting on Sept. 19.
Cillian Murphy is J. Robert Oppenheimer in OPPENHEIMER, written, produced, and directed by Christopher Nolan. Courtesy of Universal
“Now I am become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds” is the famous quote from the Bhagavad Gita that physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer spoke upon witnessing the first denotation of a nuclear device, as the world entered the new era of nuclear weapons. OPPENHEIMER is Christopher Nolan’s epic drama about Oppenheimer, his work on the Manhattan Project, and his treatment after the war. The biographical drama starts like a historical thriller and ends like a profound warning to the world, all set against the sweep of history that changed the world.
Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography “American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer” by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, Nolan’s epic film in fact opens with a reminder of that myth of the man who stole fire from the gods and was punished eternally for his deed. OPPENHEIMER explores the theoretical physicist’s life, particularly his work on the WWII race to build a nuclear bomb before the Nazi Germany, known as the Manhattan Project, and then the post-war aftermath, when Oppenheimer, haunted by the world-destructive weapon that he helped unleash on the world, sought to rein in that danger, which pitted him against a military eager to launch the Cold War arms race, making Oppenheimer a target for communist-hunting investigations.
J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) was the brilliant theoretical physicist who was selected to run the Manhattan Project, the secret U.S. project to beat Nazi Germany to building an atomic bomb. The young physicist is recruited for that job by Lt. General Leslie Groves Jr. (Matt Damon). Oppenheimer seemed an unlikely choice, the New York-born son of a wealthy Jewish family and an autodidact who read literature and poetry, spoke several languages and read the Hindu sacred text, the Bhagavad Gita, in the original Sanskrit, yet Oppenheimer actively seeks the job, eager to help defeat the Nazis, partly because of what was happening to Jewish people in Europe. Oppenheimer shared his family’s left-leaning political views, and even partied with some communists, but none of that was remarkable or uncommon in that time period, when Americans were still unaware of what was really happening in Stalin’s Soviet Union.
Immediately, Oppenheimer realizes the Manhattan Project has an unexpected edge over the Nazis, despite Germany’s over-a-year head start on developing a nuclear bomb. Hitler’s hatred of the Jews will drive the Germans to purge Jewish scientists from their nuclear bomb research, and Oppenheimer, having visited Europe as a student, knows many of the top physicists are Jewish or have Jewish backgrounds or links. Oppenheimer sets out to recruit as many of those Jewish refugee physicists as possible, using Hitler’s hatred against him.
And recruit them he does, including Edward Teller (Benny Safdie), Niels Bohr (Kenneth Branagh), and Hans Bethe (Gustaf Skarsgard), along with Jewish-Americans Richard Feynman (Jack Quaid) and Robert Serber (Michael Angarano). Enrico Fermi (Danny Deferrari) wasn’t Jewish but his wife was, causing them to flee fascist Italy, and he joins the effort too. Although Oppenheimer knew Albert Einstein (Tom Conti), and the two were friends, he did not invite Einstein to join the project, but Einstein does appear in the film at a couple of points, and has an important part in the film’s powerful ending.
For the secret project, Oppenheimer selects a remote location in the New Mexico desert, Los Alamos, near an area he has vacationed many times, a region he loves. The desert landscape creates a perfect canvas for Nolan to build this thrilling chase for the bomb.
The impressive cast also includes Robert Downey Jr as Lewis Strauss, the non-scientist who heads the Princeton academy that includes Einstein. Josh Hartnett as Ernest Lawrence (as in Lawrence Livermore laboratory) and David Krumholtz as Oppenheimer’s friend Isidor Rabi.. Emily Blunt plays Oppenheimer’s wife Kitty, a biologist frustrated by the era’s confining roles of wife and mother, and Florence Pugh as Oppenheimer’s troubled ex-lover, leftist psychiatrist Jean Tatlock. Many other recognizable faces appear, in a host of small roles.
Nolan’s film, perhaps his best, is a true epic and its length is epic too, at about 3 hours, but OPPENHEIMER is so engrossing and tense that one does not feel the running time. This excellent film has much to recommend it – its riveting and significant content, timely message about ethical consequences of technology, its outstanding performances from an impressive cast (particularly Cillian Murphy), its powerful and largely accurate historical storytelling, plus its visual artistry and technical achievements – to mention a few of its admirable aspects, meaning that it is hard to know where to start in describing the film. Those who know Nolan’s work will find that OPPENHEIMER is very much in his wheelhouse, perhaps the film he was always meant to make.
OPPENHEIMER is divided in two parts, which Nolan labels “Fission” and “Fusion,” for the pre-bomb and post-bomb world. The epic starts out as biography and a gripping thriller, as the young Oppenheimer ascends and the Manhattan Project races to build the first atomic bomb. Post-war, it shifts to taut drama about his fall, as the now-famous Oppenheimer is haunted with guilt over giving mankind the power to destroy the world, and seeks use his fame to limit nuclear weapons, which angers the Pentagon, eager to start the arms race, and makes him the target of a investigation in the rising tide of the Cold War and a shifting political climate. The pivot point between these two parts is the testing of the first nuclear device, Trinity, in which what had been theoretical suddenly becomes horrifying reality, prompting that famous quote from Oppenheimer.
The film jumps back and forth in time, as Nolan film’s sometimes do, and has three threads it follows. But there is no trouble following the narrative, even if the significance of a single scene might not be immediately clear, and the director aids that by presenting one of these threads is in black-and-white. Two of the thread are focused on Oppenheimer, before and after the Trinity nuclear test, while the third, in black-and-white, is centered on a Congressional hearing to confirm Lewis Strauss for a cabinet-level post. What that thread has to do with the story is not clear until later in the film, but it’s significance is powerful.
From the start, ethical and moral questions are part of the equation. Why try to create the most destructive weapon ever seen? In one scene, the physicists debate that question but one fact looms over all: Hitler’s Germany is already working on such a weapon. If they can’t be stopped, the next best thing is to get the weapon first. “I don’t know if we can be trusted to have such a weapon but I know the Nazis can’t,” Oppenheimer says in the film.
The film’s pivotal moment is the test of the first nuclear device, the Trinity test, where what had been only theoretical becomes devastatingly real, and changes the world forever. It is a heart-stopping, showstopper sequence that is the cinematic highlight as well as pivot point of the film, where the realization of the true significance of what they have done causes Oppenheimer to utter that famous quote. Nolan handles this immersive sequence with brilliance, giving the audience an unsettling feeling of being there in the moment. The lack of awareness of the danger of radiation actually poses is one reason some scenes are so harrowing to watch.
The scenes of the detonation are riveting but the film does not include footage of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as the story is told from Oppenheimer’s view and it is not something he witnessed. Once the two bombs are created, they are whisked away, and Oppenheimer learns about their use and targets the same time and way as everyone else- on the radio. Instead, there is a sequence after the bombs are dropped, where Oppenheimer speaks to the Manhattan Project scientists and staff. As he speaks, shots of the jubilant people in the crowd sometimes slowly morph into images that suggest the bombs’ victims, a haunting, horrifying effect that reflects Oppenheimer’s inner turmoil at that world-changing moment.
Post-war, Oppenheimer finds himself suddenly famous but consumed with guilt, and tries to use that fame to press for limits on nuclear weapons, hoping the horror of the atomic bombs will put an end to all wars. But not everyone has grasped how the world has been transformed by the new technology, and Oppenheimer fails to see the shifting political landscape of the coming Cold War, making him a target.
The post-war second half adopts a deeper, more thoughtful tone, more like a courtroom drama, as it examines how Oppenheimer was treated after the war. Suddenly, Oppenheimer is world famous, and the scientist tries to use that fame to press the government of the nation he served so well to take seriously the danger of new power unleashed on the world. He wants them to grasp, as one character notes in the film, that this is not a weapon but a new reality for the world. But even after Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the devastating effects of ionizing radiation emerged, many do not see it. Instead, Oppenheimer’s activities, particularly his opposition to the development of a hydrogen bomb, angers the Pentagon, focused the dawning Cold War and arms race.
The film basically gets the history and science right, although it is careful not to overload the audience with the latter. However, this is important to note this is basically biography, told from the subject’s view, and not a definitive exploration of the Manhattan Project and the resulting bombings. That means that some may feel that there are things it overlooks or doesn’t cover in sufficient depth but historical completeness was never the intent of the film. As the film depicts, Oppenheimer did not pick the targets, and after the Trinity test, all control is taken out of his hands. Oppenheimer learns about the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki the same way every American did, on the radio.
Much of the reason the film is so immersive and gripping is how Nolan shot the film, which is analog, on 65mm film in large-format15-perf IMAX, with ten times the resolution of standard film, and the highest resolution film ever used. This is a must-see epic that is best seen on an large IMAX screen. In 19 lucky locations around the U.S., it is also being shown in 70mm format, the best choice.
Oppenheimer’s lack of understanding of the political shift underway post-war as the Cold War dawns is illustrated in a scene where he meets President Truman (Gary Oldman). The physicist wants to take the opportunity to speak out against developing the more-powerful hydrogen bomb, but Truman isn’t open to that topic. Frustrated, Oppenheimer tells Truman he feels he has “blood on his hands” a grave error in speaking to the President who ordered the dropping of those bombs, who abruptly ends the meeting.
The scene also illustrates the way in which Oppenheimer became his own worst enemy in the post-war world he helped create, as well as the target of an angered Pentagon, a theme further expanded as Oppenheimer faced an investigation about renewing his security clearance, where questions about his pre-war left-leaning political associations, once considered inconsequential, were raised anew in the commie-hunting atmosphere. The film culminates in a powerful sequence that brings all its threads together and leaves us stunned.
OPPENHEIMER seems a sure thing for Oscar nominations, an engrossing, brilliant epic that mixes a rise-and-fall biography of a complicated genius, with tremendous ticking-clock historical thriller followed by a revealing drama about a struggle over a technology with the power to destroy the humankind, and the ethical choices around it.
Indy’s back, in a new chapter that is a throw-back to that original Steven Spielberg RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK that hooked us to begin with. While Harrison Ford returns as archaeologist/adventurer Indiana Jones, along with a bunch of other Spielberg characters from the first one (along with some new ones), and this is the final film in the series and a farewell to Ford as the character, Spielberg does not direct INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY. Fear not, director James Mangold (FERRARI VS FORD) seamlessly captures the Spielberg vibe. You’d never know if you didn’t look at the credits. Plus, the story is still by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman, with a screenplay by co-written by Mangold, Jez Butterworth, David Koepp and John-Henry Butterworth.
James Mangold may be less well known that Spielberg but he has a string of excellent films to his credit, including LOGAN, the 310 TO YUMA remake, and GIRL, INTERRUPTED. While the original RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK was gangbusters, a film that hearkened back to 1940s adventure films, the Indiana Jones sequels that followed were more a mixed bag, with some better than others. This final Indiana Jones movie recaptures some of the original’s magic.
INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY is a wonderful farewell to the role for Harrison Ford, who is no longer the young thing he was in the 1981 RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. Unlike other Indy sequels, this one acknowledges that passage of time, and even makes it work for the story. The film opens with a fabulous flashback sequence, that takes us back to the early days, battling Nazis who are looting archaeological treasures.
Harrison Ford plays the part as the young Indy thanks to some impressive visual sampling, motion-capture and other special effects. The result is so effective, it is thrilling, even awe-inspiring, and worth the price of admission alone.
Actually, Harrison Ford, young or old, alone is worth the price of admission; he is that good . Going back to the ’40s lets this Indiana Jones movie do something that is always a mark of a good one in the series – have Indy punch Nazis. Having Harrison Ford play the part, instead of a younger actor playing Ford playing the part, is part of the fun, thanks to modern movie magic.
Late in WWII, Indiana Jones, disguised in a Nazi uniform, and his fellow archaeologist Basil Shaw (Toby Jones) infiltrate a Nazi operation that is smuggling art and archaeological treasures back to the Reich. The Nazi in charge of this operation is looking for a certain item rumored to have mystical powers but a young Nazi scientist Dr. Voller (Mads Mikkelsen, also de-aged) alerts him to an object with more impressive power, the Archimedes Dial (inspired by, and resembling, a real-life archaeological treasure, the Antikythera mechanism). Fights and a thrilling chase onboard a racing train ensues, as Indy and the Nazi scientist struggle for control of the object.
After the flashback, the story moves to 1969, where an older Indy (Ford) is jolted out of bed – in just his boxer shorts – by a blast of rock music and a parade celebrating the moon landing just outside the window of his little big-city apartment. We see Harrison Ford, in all his craggy glory, as the older Indy, long past his adventuring days and actually getting ready to retire from his job as professor of archaeology But the wrench in the works for that plan, is his long-lost god-daughter Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), the child of his buddy in the adventure we just saw, who turns up seeking a lost archaeological treasure she believes Indy has. But there is a hitch because that same Nazi scientist (Mikkelsen again), now working for NASA and hiding his past, is after it too. And of course, he’s still secretly a Nazi.
Echoing the original, this young woman draws a reluctant Indy into the adventure, in this case by stealing the object. We also get brief appearances by old friends, like John Rhys-Davies as Sallah, and a whole lot of fast-paced adventuring fun.
The MacGuffin that both the Nazis and Indy are chasing, the Archimedes Dial, looks a lot like the real-world Antikythera device, but the ancient device in the movie is not only in working order but has the power to find fissures in time. Or could, if they had both halves.
Pursuit of this object sparks a chase across continents and plenty of thrilling action and adventures (including punching Nazis), with call-backs to scenes from the original. The abundant chases and fight scenes are breathless and exciting, with danger mixed with touches of humor. We also get a car chase in Tangiers, in tuk tuks, those tiny three-wheeler vehicles that are small enough to navigate the narrow, twisting lanes, which is great fun.
While many fans of the original will delight in this throw-back film, built to wrap up the Indiana Jones story while providing that nice farewell to the role for Harrison Ford, INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY is also a bit of a love-it-or-hate-it film because it departs from the basic premise of what might happen in a 1940s adventure movie, by introducing a bit of sci-fi. No details, to avoid spoilers, but sci-fi haters won’t be happy.
To be honest, the plot does run a bit out-of-control late in the film. Some extra suspension of disbelief is required, but no more so than needed for the typical MISSION IMPOSSIBLE gravity- and physics-optional CGI stunt fest.
While some of this plot is a stretch, a little forgiveness is warranted, as INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY does right by the characters and by the spirit of the Indiana Jones series. It ties up everything nicely, in a touching, reasonable and satisfying bow. Why ask for more?
INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY opens in theaters on Friday, June 30.
Jonathan Rhys Meyer (top) in the crime action thriller MERCY. Courtesy of Paramount
There isn’t much mercy in MERCY but there is a lot of action and stunt in this crime thriller set in a hospital, starring Leah Gibson (Jessica Jones), Jonathan Rhys Meyers (Vikings) and Jon Voight (Coming Home).
Leah Gibson plays a surgeon at Mercy hospital, a former military doctor in the Afghanistan War, who finds herself caught in difficult spot when the wounded son of an Irish mafia leader (Jon Voight) is brought to her hospital, and the Irish mafia seize control of the hospital. As the mafia head and his hot-headed son (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) battle FBI agents guarding the wounded man, the doctor finds herself, and her young son, caught in the crossfire, forcing her to call upon her battlefield past.
There is a DIE HARD vibe to MERCY but a little TAKEN too, as this ex-military doctor has a “special set of skills” besides in the operating room, skills these criminals aren’t expecting. That is no spoiler, since the film gives away that history early on.
And that is part of MERCY’s problem. While the action thriller has a talented supporting cast in bad guys Jon Voight and Jonathan Rhys Meyers, and the delight of a strong female action protagonist in Leah Gibson, the script gives away too much too soon. Director Tony Dean Smith does not help by doing little to build suspense, although the potential is there. Still, there are plenty of thrilling martial arts action scenes featuring Gibson, who trained as a dancer and really has some moves, but early on we get a flashback to Afghanistan that lets us know this hard-working female doctor is more than a widowed mother hoping to take a day off to spend with her young son on his birthday. After further flashbacks tells us she is a decorated sharpshooter too, we are not surprised she is a crack shot, although the bad guys are pretty taken aback by that discovery. Time and again, the script tips us off to the good doctor’s other skills before we get to see them in action.
But the real point of MERCY is the action. And the action sequences are good, with some thrilling martial arts work in the hospital corridors and stairwells. The action is kicked off with a nice, thrilling shoot-out car chase. An array of criminal henchmen are there to be picked off as this action-er unspools, and an internal divide in the Irish mafia gang, with a sibling conflict that dad Jon Voight is unaware of, gives dad and son Rhys Meyers different goals, adds to the tension.
Jon Voight and Jonathan Rhys Meyer do their best to breath life into their underwritten bad guy characters. A lot of that burden falls on Rhys Meyer, in his larger role playing the loose-cannon son that his father Voight is always trying to rein in. Rhys Meyer’s character is violent and slightly crazy and his motivations don’t always completely make sense, but the actor does well menacing hostages in the hospital and the doctor, while directing his loyal gang of odd-character criminals in a hunt for the wounded brother.
MERCY delivers a series of action confrontations as Voight and Rhys Meyers separately hunt the wounded brother, while the doctor, other staff and FBI try to hide him, a cat-and-mouse game that whittles down the participants on both sides.
If you are just looking for fast and bloody action thriller, with clear good guy – bad guy lines and a kick-ass female hero, MERCY will fit that bill, as long as you aren’t looking also for plot surprises or character depth, or much mercy. But this thriller with a female doctor with a military background as a protagonist had potential to be a more suspenseful film, with a script that had taken a different approach to the idea. As is, it largely wastes the talents of Jonathan Rhys Meyer and Jon Voight in a script that just mechanically moves from one fight scene to the next without the suspense and character depth it could have had.
MERCY opens Friday, May 19, in select theaters and on digital, and will be available On Demand on June 2.
(l-r) Jeremy Pope and Raul Castillo in THE INSPECTION. Photo credit: Patti Perret/A24 Films. Courtesy of A24 Films.
A homeless young Black man, rejected by his mother and with few options, decides to join the Marines, but the catch is the young man is gay and an earlier time when gays were banned from serving in the military, the era of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” Gabrielle Union plays the mother of this young man, whom she kicked out ten years earlier, in this moving drama inspired by writer/director Elegance Bratton’s own experiences. The drama has garnered strong praise for its powerful drama, in an impressive directorial debut for writer/director Elegance Bratton.
Ellis French (Jeremy Pope) has been living on the streets since his mother kicked him out at the age of 15. Now 25, he sees little ahead for him and decides to do something desperate, specifically entering the military. Not just the military but the Marines, rather than a less-tough branch like the army or navy. However, before he can be inducted, Ellis must get his birth certificate from his mother, who does not want any contact with him. Showing up at her door, his mother (Gabriel Union), a ramrod-straight, strict corrections officer, is both shocked and cold towards him, treating her son as if he is a threat to her safety and barring the door to him. She responds to his decision to join the Marines with a mix of skepticism and mild amusement. Eventually, reluctantly, she warily lets him in.
Her behavior raises questions in our minds about their past history but the film offers little on that past. Her apartment is filled with objects that tell us she is deeply religious, so we guess that her religious feelings are at least part of why she rejected her gay son, but her reaction is so extreme, we wonder if there is something more.
Joining the Marines hardly seems like the best idea for a gay Black man in this more homophobic era, so his estranged mother’s skepticism about that decision might be something we share as well. Yet Ellis is making a very deliberate choice in picking the Marines. He is offering himself up to be remade, with a hope for a rebirth into a different life. That mix of desperation and determination drives him but it seems a long reach.
Marine boot camp is tough for any recruit but more so for someone concealing a secret like Ellis French. Induction calls for recruit French to declare he is not a communist or planning to overthrow the government, along with a litany of other things, including being homosexual. He does that without blinking. Once at boot camp, French finds himself among mostly white recruits, who already think of themselves as Marines. Yet he finds he is not the only one facing special challenges, including a Muslim recruit named Ismail (Eman Esfandi).
The drill instructors are led by tough Sergeant Laws (Bokeem Woodbine), a Black sergeant who, unlike the rest of the instructors, has actual combat experience. It is something he wears like a medal on his chest, something which both he and the other instructors clearly feel sets him on a different plane, but it also has a toxic effect. “I hate recruits,” Laws says early on, “But I love Marines.” Since both Laws and recruit Ellis French are Black, one expects a connection between them, but it is a Hispanic drill instructor, Rosales (Raul Castillo), who quietly offers some encouragement and something more, albeit more in private.
Jeremy Pope gives a moving performance as Ellis French, who reveals a level of commitment to his goal and courage in the face of the abuse he receives once they figure out he is gay, as you know they will. In an unusual role for her, Gabriel Union gives us a harsh, rigid and religious woman as Ellis’ mother, although we catch glimpses of a motherly impulse to hope for success for her son, even as she keeps him at arm’s length.
Other outstanding performances sharpen the raw emotion of this powerful drama, notably Raul Castillo as the more kind drill instructor. Bokeem Woodbine is alternately terrifying and riveting Laws, the hardened lead drill instructor.
It is a grueling experience, as one expects, but THE INSPECTION is unblinking and unrestrained in its depiction of the boot camp’s bullying, abuse and hardship. That brutal honesty goes a ways to elevating this film above the usual boot camp tale, but the film is also a salute to what the Marines gave Bratton, a personal rebirth on several levels. We have to assume French’s unseen ten years spent on the streets have given him an inner strength and resourcefulness we don’t expect at first. Along with the bullying and violence, we also see moments of friendship, humor, and even tenderness. It is not just a sense of camaraderie that grows between the recruits but a pride in accomplishment, and a deeper kind of personal transformation for the lead character.
The camera often focuses closely on faces, and a surprising number of scenes are shot in dim light or half lit, giving the film a far different tone than most boot camp dramas, one that is more contemplative. The pace is contemplative too, at least early on, requiring us to let things develop. We are given little about Ellis’ previous life, or details of what happen between him and his mother, leaving the audience wondering about what has to have been pivotal years. Instead, the focus is firmly on the boot camp experience, and its powerful ending, which eschews pat conclusions.
It is not a perfect film but this semi-autobiographical drama is surprising, effective and deeply, movingly human, and an impressive debut for writer/director Elegance Bratton, full of promise.
Gabriel LaBelle as Sammy Fabelman, in THE FABELMANS, co-written, produced and directed by Steven Spielberg. Photo credit: Courtesy of Universal
In his semi-autobiographical film THE FABELMANS, director Steven Spielberg looks back on growing up and how he fell in love with movie-making, a remembrance told through the lens of his parents’ marriage. Of course, “semi-autobiographical” means not everything we see is true but the story is by turns funny, touching and heartbreaking, as Sammy Fabelman, the stand-in for young Spielberg, grows up while his determination to make movies also grows, and his parents’ marriage falls apart. The film features a stellar cast, including Paul Dano, Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen, and Judd Hirsch with a nice cameo by David Lynch. Spielberg co-wrote the script with Tony Kushner, who also co-wrote “Munich” with the director, and with music by John Williams, the stage is set for something wonderful – and we get exactly that.
There seems to be a spate of partly-biographical films from big-name directors in the last couple of years, maybe partly due to reflection during pandemic lock-down or just to reaching an age for looking back (Spielberg is now 75). This one joins Kenneth Branagh’s semi-autobiographical “Belfast” from last year and Sam Mendes’ partly-biographical ode to his mother, “Empire of Light.”
THE FABELMANS starts out with the family in 1950s New Jersey, as we meet 6-six-year-old Sammy Fabelman (Mateo Zoryon Francis-Deford) while he is standing in line with his parents Mitzi (Michelle Williams) and Burt (Paul Dano) to see his very first movie. However, young Sammy is not too sure about this experience because he is afraid of the dark. It does not help matters when his mother, in an effort to reassure him, describes movies as “like dreams” – which Sammy quickly notes can sometimes be scary. But his parents tell him the movie is about the circus, and Sammy loves the circus and clowns (in an earlier era when clowns were seen as harmless and funny rather than scary). And the movie? Cecil B. DeMille’s “The Greatest Show On Earth.” If you have seen this epic, you know it is less a light, happy comedy than a dramatic epic, with a showstopper scene of a circus train wreck.
Sammy’s parents obviously expected a more light-hearted movie (and what parent hasn’t made this kind of mistake?), so they are nervous about Sammy’s reaction after the show. Sammy does indeed seem stunned afterwards, but it is because he wants to know how they did that train-wreck scene. But Hanukkah is coming, and the lighting of the menorah candles, and Sammy gets an electric train set, one car at a time until the final piece, the transformer to power it all. Yup – train-wreck re-enactment is inevitable, and when his mother hands him a home movie camera so he can record it, the pattern is set.
Sammy’s fascination with making movies is encouraged actively by his artistic mother Mitzi, who even gives him his first movie camera, but it puzzles his science-inclined father Burt. The film follows Sammy’s early efforts at making movies, along with growing up with his three sisters (one a baby) and his parents. His brilliant engineer/inventor father Burt (Paul Dano) is working on the cutting edge of the nascent computer industry, developing the machines that will drive the future. His mother Mitzi (Michelle Williams) is a talented pianist but gave up her dreams of the concert stage to raise her family.
Scenes of little Sammy crashing his train and filming it with his dad’s home movie camera give way to more movie-making, often starring his older sisters, who seem to enjoy the process nearly as much as their brother.
Burt Fabelman’s soaring career takes the family from the suburbs of New Jersey, to Arizona, and then to northern California. Tagging along is fellow computer engineer Bennie Loewy (Seth Rogen), a family friend who is kind of an uncle to the kids as well as Burt’s co-worker in early computer research.
For anyone who grew up making little movies (or knew someone who did), this film is pure catnip. At the same time, this is a universal coming-of-age story for anyone who grew up in the later half of the 20th century. The film-making sequences are among the most fun, and punctuate the family’s story as well as illuminating young Sammy’s growth as he approaches adulthood. This beautifully constructed family story has humor and heart-break, and a winning coming-of-age story.
While scientist Burt is supportive of his son, he sees his son’s movie-making as a hobby, and something he will grow out of. It’s pretty clear Burt wants his son to follow in this footsteps but as much as Sammy loves his quiet, kindly father, he is just not the same. As a sister points out, Sammy doesn’t even like math, but he sure loves making movies. Dad’s gentle efforts to interest his son – in fact any of this children – in his world of science is often undermined by jokes by ever-present pal Bennie. Although Bennie is in the same nascent computer field as Burt, his playful, jokester temperament is more like Sammy’s mom Mitzi.
While the family’s Jewish identity is clear, it is not always at the forefront in the story and instead is integrated into it in a pleasingly natural way. Interestingly, the Fabelmans never seem to live in neighborhoods with many other Jewish families around, as they move from place to place. In New Jersey, they drive home after in winter through a subdivision full of houses decorated with Christmas lights, until they reach their own unlit house. Yet later, we see a festive menorah in the window, as extended family gathers to celebrate Hanukkah. Later in Arizona, we see both grandmothers visit them, Mitzi’s warm mother Tina Schildkraut (Robin Bartlett) and Burt’s more critical one, Hadassah Fabelman (Jeannie Berlin). But by the time the family reaches northern California, as Dad’s career is reaching the top, the family finds itself in very different territory, a place where, as Sammy comments, “there are hardly any Jews.” Here Sammy is confronted by open antisemitism, in the form of a hate-filled fellow student in high school.
Both Michelle Williams and Paul Dano are marvelous as Sammy’s parents, two good but mismatched people. Michelle Williams is particularly brilliant as Sammy’s artistic mother, in one of her best performances in a career of them. Mitzi is encouraging to her son while frustrated in her own life, and the two do not always get along. Paul Dano is surprisingly good in the less-showy, more-challenging role as Sammy’s quiet, kind, steady, more reserved father. Dano manages effectively the difficult job of portraying a man who, while not understanding his creative son’s passion for movie-making, ever-hopeful that he will grow out of it, and fearing for his financial future if he doesn’t, is still supportive and kindly towards him, even if he doesn’t understand, In fact, both actors present these people as good parents who put their children first, even as things between them are breaking down.
Two young actors play Sammy Fabelman, Mateo Zoryon Francis-Deford as little Sammy, and Gabriel LaBelle as the teenage Sammy. The former is cute but newcomer Gabriel LaBelle does a truly impressive job, delivering a fine, strong performance often laced with a dry humor. Also very good are the girls playing Sammy’s two older sisters, his companions in movie-making in his early attempts. Both Julia Butters as Sammy’s sister Reggie and Keeley Karsten as sister Natalie give appealing, effective performances.
Other supporting roles offer humor and more. Seth Rogen plays Bennie, a part largely based on Spielberg’s favorite uncle. Rogen’s Bennie is often silly but role isn’t always comic, as his constant presence sometimes disrupts serious Burt’s attempts to connect with his family, and Rogen does well in the part. Yet Bennie encourages also Sammy’s movie-making ambitions along with Mitzi, and he plays a crucial role at a pivotal moment for the budding director. Judd Hirsch plays Mitzi’s oddball Uncle Boris, who comes to visit at one point, telling tales of working in early movies, and having a profound effect on Sammy. Hirsch’s bit as crazy Boris is short but a comic highlight. Another actor notable in a smaller role is Jeannie Berlin, who is dryly funny as Burt’s disapproving mother Haddash Fabelman. “This is brisket?” she asks after marching into Mitzi’s kitchen and opening her oven door to inspect the meal.
Spielberg recreates his own earliest films – which include a dentist horror one, a Western, and a war movie – but the director has admitted in interviews that he improved them over the originals, as he found the originals too embarrassing to show. And why not? The admission is its own kind of charming for fans and film buffs, and more of that catnip for the childhood movie-makers among us.
“The Fabelmans” is a lovely love letter to film-making, and to Spielberg’s family, with a message about good parenting and what matters in life. This film is very well-constructed, weaving together Sammy’s movie-making and growing up, with what is happening to his parents’ marriage, in a cohesive tale of family life. It is film that is entertaining but has something real to say about growing up and following dreams.
“The Fabelmans” is a wonderful cinematic Thanksgiving treat, particularly for those who dabbled in movie-making as kids.
Every few weeks, a “feel good” story will get scooped up by news outlets, usually in an effort to combat the notion that the “Nightly News’ is full of “downer” depressing tales of despair. Such was the case of the young man at the center of this new film, as his story almost exploded a dozen or so years ago (he was eventually interviewed by Jon Stewart on “The Daily Show”). Many who heard him, may have thought “Hey, this should be a movie!’, and some who could make that happen shared the idea. Unfortunately, many movies “inspired by true events” will “movie-fy” true tales, smoothing out the “rough edges”, cleaning it up for general audience consumption, perhaps making it indistinguishable from regular TV fare, making it a “spruced-up” Lifetime or Hallmark uplifting flick of the week. Though this film is premiering on a streaming service, it was the passion project of one of our most gifted actors who has decided to make his feature directing debut with THE BOY WHO HARNESSED THE WIND.
The story begins at the turn of the century outside the dusty city of Kasungu in Malawi in the village of Wimbe. After the sudden death of the Kamkwamba patriarch, his farmland is split between sons Jeremiah and Trywell (Chiwetel Ejiofor). Jeremiah sells his land to local tobacco growers, but Trywell is determined to work the land for and with his family: wife Agnes (Aissa Maiga), teen daughter Annie (Lily Banda), pre-teen William (Maxwell Simba) and his adorable baby brother Tiyamike. William tries to help out with family finances by scouring nearby trash dumps in order to get parts for his radio repair business. It pays off when he finally gets to go to school. He devours his lessons and makes the school’s meager library a second home. But due to the harsh seasons (floods and then long droughts), the tuition can’t be paid and William is expelled. As things become more desperate, Williams sneaks back into the library (with the aid of a teacher who is Annie’s secret boyfriend), where he pours over a battered copy of “Using Electricity”. He also becomes fascinated with that teacher’s bicycle headlamp, which uses the front wheel to power and light the bulb. As the family faces possible starvation (along with most of the village) William hatches the plans for a machine that will use the wind to irrigate the crops. But he’ll need to use parts from the family bicycle. Can he convince his proud, determined father to allow him to build this device, risking all they have left?
Ejiofor provides a solid performance as the formidable family patriarch, anchoring what could be a fairy tale into a story of courage and survival. His Trywell (there’s an apt moniker) is determined to keep his household together, adhering to traditional work values, while striving to provide a better future for his children (they all must attend school). We see his efforts to achieve his goals constantly thwarted by greed (his brother sells out) and by political upheaval (a visit from the president results in ugly violence), and Ejiofor shows us how frustration can lead to the depths of despair. Finally, pride takes hold, as he resists and rejects the helping hand from his son. Fortunately, he has great chemistry with Simba as the title character. His William is a scrappy underdog hero for the ages. We see that sense of childhood wonder and curiosity channeled and focused on a way to save all those he loves, especially his pappa. Along with his bursts of invention and creativity (scouring the landfills and studying well into the night), he struggles to connect with his father while not chipping away at what’s left of his spirit. The bond between the two is strengthened by the solid performance of Maiga who provides the emotional glue that binds the family as it strains and, in one case, snaps. While fiercely supportive of her husband, she takes him to task for heading off to political rallies leaving them to fend off the destitute. Plus she must encourage William while never disparaging her husband in front of him.
Not only does Ejiofor delivers a superb acting job as Trywell, but he’s also balancing several jobs behind the camera. This is his feature directing debut (after making a couple of shorts) and he wrote the screenplay based on the book by Bryan Mealer and William. Kudos to Ejiofor for making no attempt to romanticize nor “sugar-coat’ the tough, grueling task of working the land. The extreme weather is almost another character in the film, turning from torrential downpours to searing heat almost “on a dime”. Plus the film gives us an intimate look at the community, a small town with strong ties whether they’re meeting with Chief (from tribal days) Wembe, racing to buy government grain, or gathering around a barely functioning radio to listen to the big game. We’re given a sense of how valued education is to them, as William smiles with joy at the school uniform (slacks, crisp dress shirt, and tie) waiting for him, neatly folded on top his bed (like toys under the Christmas tree). Plus Ejiofor really pulls at the heartstrings especially in a frightening moment when desperate neighbors turn on each other to survive. Even the sweet bond of boy and dog (William has a frisky sandy-haired mutt that follows him faithfully) is not safe from the cruelties of life. The story does stumble a bit when devoting too much time to a wandering band of costumed tribal performers (wearing masks and using stilts) that reek of heavy-handed symbolism. And the scenes of starvation and sun-baked misery feel too drawn out (a ten minute trim may have helped), while the actual “harnessing” is very rapid, almost a montage of building and “results”. Still, it’s a story worth telling once more, full of triumph and a celebration of the unbreakable human spirit while advocating accessible education for all. THE BOY WHO HARNESSED THE WIND is an “inspired by true events” film that is itself is very inspiring.
3.5 out 5
THE BOY WHO HARNESSED THE WIND is in theatres and is streaming now on Netflix
In the Swedish dark comedy A MAN CALLED OVE, director/scriptwriter Hannes Holm takes us on a roller-coaster trip through the life of old curmudgeon. Ove (Rolf Lassgard) is the kind of guy every neighborhood seems to have, the obsessively neat, angry rule-enforcer who checks up on things and sees that everyone follows the rules – all of them.
Ove cracks down on his neighbors during his daily rounds to check up on things, a habit left over from when he was the chair of the neighborhood committee. But Ove definitely is not a friendly neighbor. Basically, this crabby widower just wants to be left alone. Recently widowed, he visits his late wife Sonja’s (Ida Engvoll) grave every day, to bring flowers and complain. Suddenly without a job at age 59, he decides to join her. But people keep interrupting his suicide attempts, with friendly visits or requests for help. Particularly bothersome is his friendly new neighbor Parvaneh, an Iranian woman, and her Swedish husband Patrick (Tobias Almborg) and their their two cute little girls.
Nobody does twisty, dry, dark comedy as well as the Swedes. Both funny and touching, the film takes us through Ove’s up-and-down life through a series of flashbacks. Based on a best-selling novel, this film was a huge hit in Sweden, but this neighborhood curmudgeon character is a universal type. While we recognize Ove’s type, this dry and dark comedy turns him into a fully rounded, more complex person, and also goes off in completely unexpected story directions. This film will remind some viewers of another clever comedy about an old man with an unexpected past “THE 100 YEAR OLD MAN WHO CLIMBED OUT A WINDOW AND DISAPPEARED.” This film is a bit more touching and Ove’s remembered life is not near as wild as that one, but it has its surprises too, a life filled with ups and downs, heartbreak and love, and unexpected twists.
Two of the joys of this film are its beautiful photography, particularly stunning in the flashbacks, and its fine acting. Lassgard is perfect as the older Ove, glowering and suppressing a snarl every time he encounters another human interruption. All he wants to do is join his wife in death. Every time Ove attempts suicide, he drifts off into reveries of his earlier life as he waits for death – a wait that is always interrupted by something or someone.
Lassgard is not the only gem in this cast, although his performance and the director’s deft touch in presenting the sometimes traumatic events of his life really lift the already-good story. Filip Berg is moving as young Ove, a decent young man coping with a challenging start in life, as is Ida Engvoll, who sparkles as lively Sonja in the flashbacks.
Bahar Pars is wonderful too as irrepressible Parvaneh, a lively, strong-willed pregnant woman who shrugs off her neighbor’s grouchy manner. The cracks in Ove’s armor begin to appear around her, as well as her two little girls and a stray cat, that Ove defends from another neighbor.
The film is funny, surprising, moving, and even romantic as it unspools Ove’s story. This gentle, delightful film touches on an unexpected range of contemporary issues. In other hands, sentiment could have gotten the better of this film but director Holm keeps enough comic edge to rescue it from that fate, keeping it funny but warm, a little gem that will have you leaving the theater with a smile.
A MAN CALLED OVE, in Swedish with English subtitles, opens in St. Louis on Friday, Oct. 14, at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinema.
Ben Affleck plays an accountant with some special skills and special challenges in the mystery/action thriller THE ACCOUNTANT. Directed by Gavin O’Connor, what makes THE ACCOUNTANT different from other high-body count thrillers is the protagonist at its center, an autistic math savant. Christian Wolff (Affleck) is brilliant with numbers but has trouble with social interactions. His social difficulties look like autism spectrum, possibly the high-functioning type that used to be called Asperger’s, but his unusual upbringing by his brutal military operative father, designed to help him ward off bullies, has equipped him with skills in martial arts and weapons.
On the surface, Wolff is an accountant with a small office in a strip mall outside Chicago but his real profession is as a forensic accountant auditing the books of big-time criminal organizations, to uncover who is skimming money within those organizations. Wolff’s work has drawn the attention of the Treasury Department’s Crime Enforcement Division and its department head Ray King (J.K. Simmons), who has brought in a promising young analyst, Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson), to help track down this mysterious accountant.
Aware he is under scrutiny, Wolff decides to keep a low profile by taking a job for a legitimate company instead. Lamar Blackburn (John Lithgow) is CEO and founder of Living Robotics, a high-tech company making robotic prosthetics that is on the verge of an IPO. A low-level accountant, Dana Cummings (Anna Kendrick), has uncovered a multi-million dollar discrepancy in the books and Wolff has been called in to unravel that puzzle, before the company’s public offering.
Ben Affleck delivers a strong performance as Wolff, who has been shaped by his autism and by his odd and harsh upbringing. Affleck makes Wolff a touching character with dazzling math skills, and the film develops a bit of romance with Kendrick’s character. It is kind of fun to see math whizzes, two of whom are women – both Kendrick and Addai-Robinson play math girls – and an autistic character in lead roles but the film’s story doesn’t always make a lot of sense.
Early in the film, we meet Chris as a child, played by Seth Lee, who displays symptoms of autism and is only close to his younger brother (Jake Presley). Their father (Rob Treveiler) and mother (Mary Kraft) meet with a neurologist (Jason Davis) at his treatment facility, to talk about their difficult son. The scenes act as a sort of clinical description of autism spectrum, although the film is coy about Chris’ diagnosis and never uses those words, allowing the story some wiggle room in developing the fictional character.
When the boys’ father refuses to let his older son go the home-like residential facility for treatment, their mother abandons the family. The boys’ father, who works as a shadowy, globe-trotting military psychologist, then takes the two young boys with him around the world, immersing them in a brutal training program of martial arts and weaponry, purportedly to help them deal with bullies but which looks more like cruelty.
The film then flashes forward to the adult Chris, living his secretive loner life while earning big money, which he mostly stashes away in his plan to stay mobile. Christian may be socially awkward but he makes a few emotional connections, particularly with a mob-connected prison cellmate Francis Silverberg (Jeffrey Tambor), who puts him in contact with the criminal underworld figures who might be interested in Wolff’s remarkable accounting skills. Meanwhile, an underworld enforcer (Jon Bernthal) seems to be trailing Wolff, or at least his employers.
Affleck’s performance is good, even lifting the movie at times, and the restrained interactions between him and Kendrick have a certain quirky romantic charm. The action is well-done, fast-paced and entertainingly good, but the underlying story tends to unravel, particularly at the end where a couple of surprise reveals make little sense.
THE ACCOUNTANT may has been intended as a kind of Bourne-like thriller, with an action hero character with a particular problem and a mystery at its heart. It does not reach that level but it does give the audience a pretty good action thrill ride, as long as you do not look too deep into its inner workings.
The big screen adaptation of the bestselling THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN has been subject of considerable buzz, seeming to promise a GONE GIRL-like thriller. There are indeed some parallels to that earlier film adaptation of a bestselling thriller but maybe less than you might expect.
Like GONE GIRL, this story is part psychological thriller and part crime mystery. Also like that earlier film, as you get to know these characters, you discover they are not what they at first seemed, nor is the situation what is seems at first either. But anyone expecting a taut mystery will be disappointed. Instead, director Tate Taylor (THE HELP) delves into the characters’ inner make-up and complex relationships. While Tate does give the audience moments of heartbreak (and some psycho-sexual sparks as well) as we get glimpses into troubled lives, how it all links to the plot is not always clear.
The film is more a psychological exploration of its characters – at least until, like in a French movie, everything happens at the end.
Whatever the film’s shortcomings, it is not for lack of effort on the part of Emily Blunt, who brilliantly plays the central character Rachel, with a raw emotion and heartbreaking sincerity that lifts the film.
Rachel rides a train as she commutes to New York City, a daily ride that takes her past a particular neighborhood of nice suburban homes. Every day, she sits in the same car on the same side of the train and near the window, so she can watch this one couple on their back porch. In her voyeuristic obsession, Rachel daydreams a whole story for this couple, one of true love, while she sketches them in the notepad she carries with her. One day, Rachel sees something unexpected on the couple’s back porch, and shortly after, the woman goes missing.
It is an intriguing premise. Who has not indulged in a little people-watching on a routine commute, or even daydreamed. But this story takes what seems to start as an imaginative woman’s daydream and morphs it into both voyeurism and obsession.
Rachel is sure what she saw is a clue, but she is not the stable person she appears to be at first. Rachel has a tenuous grip on reality, fueled by her heavy drinking and frequent blackouts, someone prone to drunk-dialing her ex several times a day. Rachel imagines the couple living the perfect life she longs for, and her attachment to her fantasy and her growing belief in it are disturbing.
With a puffy, tear-streaked face, Blunt breaks our hearts as Rachel, stumbling self-destructively and piteously through her broken life, while indulging her fantasy about a couple she sees on her daily train commute. She has been living with her friend Cathy (Laura Prepon) since the divorce but instead of getting her life together, it is unraveling. In the book, Rachel is a chubby gone-to-seed character, even a creepy one, but Blunt’s performance makes her a more sympathetic character, although still clearly a mess.
Of course, the house Rachel watches is not really a random location. It is a few doors down from the home she once shared with her now ex-husband Tom (Justin Theroux), where he still lives with his new wife Anna (Rebecca Ferguson) and their baby.
While Rachel is at the center of the plot, the whole film really focuses on three main female characters. Megan is the blonde-haired young woman Rachel watches We get to know her through sequences where she interacts with her husband Scott (Luke Evans) and especially with her psychiatrist Dr. Kamal Abdic (Edgar Ramirez). Likewise, we get to know Anna in scenes with her and Tom, sketching out their relationship, sometimes flashing back to when Tom was still married to Rachel.
The film starts out well enough but then seems drift. Near the beginning, the main three women in the story are introduced with titles for “chapters,” a device used in the novel, followed by a sequence in which we delve into their lives and psychological background. But the chapter device is quickly abandoned in favor of jumping back and forth in time, transitions again marked by titles, and jumping between the three characters’ story lines. The effect, intended or not, is to disorient the audience, as to what is going on and when.
The cast includes Allison Janney, who is almost unrecognizable as tough policewoman Detective Riley. Lisa Kudrow also appears in the film, as Rachel’s ex’s former boss Martha, in a couple of pivotal scenes, and Darren Goldstein plays a mysterious man on the train in a couple of other key scenes.
The acting is good throughout but things often seems off in this film. Tom’s new wife Anna is a blonde like her neighbor Megan, and the resemblance between the two is close enough that the audience may have trouble telling the characters apart early on. That may be intended to hint at a reason behind Rachel’s obsessive fantasy about Megan but it is not clear.
It is one of several sort of odd casting choices, another being casting Venezuelan actor Edgar Ramirez (HANDS OF STONE, THE LIBERATOR) as psychiatrist Dr. Kamal Abdic. Ramirez speaks with a Hispanic accent,yet the character he plays has a Bosnian name and seems to be Bosnian.
Much of what we learn about the characters is touching, even heartbreaking, but how it all connects to the main plot is not always clear. After developing as a drama with a languid pace, director Tate suddenly trades it for a more pulse-pounding thriller style, in which several things crystallize in rapid succession.
THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN is an uneven drama, unfurled slowly until everything happens at the end. The film is a mixed-bag, and whether someone likes it or not might partly depend on whether they liked the novel. Either way, what THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN does offer is greatly elevated by a strong performance from Emily Blunt.
3 out of 5 stars
THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN opens in St. Louis, Friday, October 7th
