Tag: True Story

HOUSE OF GUCCI – Review

Lady Gaga stars as Patrizia Reggiani in Ridley Scott’s HOUSE OF GUCCI A Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures film. Photo credit: Courtesy of Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures Inc © 2021 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved.

HOUSE OF GUCCI is based on a true story, one filled with wealth, power, ambition, family, tradition, high fashion, and murder, a story that plays like Italian opera, equal parts tragedy and farce. Ridley Scott directs, and the lush production stars Adam Driver, Lady Gaga, Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons and Jared Leto.

Filled with gorgeous period clothes and cars, lovely sets and locations, mostly in Milan, and fine photography, HOUSE OF GUCCI delivers visual delights and jet-set style in this story that runs from the ’70s to the ’90s. The raw story material of a grand operatic epic is there too, but somehow HOUSE OF GUCCI never achieves epic levels, although it does make for a pretty good true crime thriller, set in a posh world of wealth and Italian fashion, with a satiric bent. HOUSE OF GUCCI was adapted from Sara Gay Forden’s non-fiction bestseller by writers Becky Johnston and Roberto Bentivegna. It is one of those story that would leave audiences skeptical if it weren’t true.

Patrizia Reggiani (Lady Gaga), the pretty young daughter of the owner of small trucking company, meets Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver) at a party, when she mistakes him for the bartender. As soon as she hears his name, she is taken with the shy scion of the famous fashion house. Maurizio is similarly dazzled, calling her Elizabeth Taylor rather than her name. Although he is too shy to ask her out, the resourceful Patrizia finds a way through Maurizio’s armor. Although Patrizia is definitely working-class, little educated and working as a secretary for her father, while Maurizio is a scholarly law student who is not much interested in his family’s fashion business, she adds a spark of fun his life lacks. It’s love, and soon he is willing to defy his coldly aristocratic father Rodolfo Gucci (Jeremy Irons), who thinks Patricia is both low-class and a gold-digger. Dad’s not entirely wrong but his son marries her anyway, despite threats of being cut off.

Patrizia’s father (Vincent Riotta) gives the now-homeless student a job, and the pair find happiness in a little apartment. For a while the film unfolds along this path, a sexy romantic comedy, with the couple enjoying an idyll in a small apartment, Maurizio ironing his own shirts and horse-playing with co-workers.

Patrizia does her best to charm her way into the Gucci family, by building bridges. Making little headway with her chilly father-in-law, she finds a pathway with Maurizio’s uncle Aldo Gucci (Al Pacino), who shares running the family firm with his brother Rodolfo. While Rodolfo is aristocratically aloof, Aldo is warm and charming, inviting the couple to visit him in New York, and treating Patrizia to a shopping spree in the family store. He seems as much to want to befriend his niece-in-law as much she wants to be accepted as part of the Gucci family, although Aldo has his reasons for that.

Aldo invites the couple to family gathering where Patrizia meets the extended Gucci family, a sequence that is a delight of over-the-top characters and comic misadventures. Chief among those characters is Uncle Aldo’s son Paolo Gucci (an unrecognizable Jared Leto with facial prosthetics), a chubby, balding, loudly-dressed klutz who fancies himself a fashion designer. As his father puts it, more than once, “Paolo’s an idiot but he’s my idiot.”

Then this fun, romantic comedy romp gives way to something darker, a twisty crime thriller with family intrigue, drama, back-stabbing and finally murder. When Patrizia marries in, the Gucci business is very much a family business handed down through generations, a well-oiled machine with its own internal rules. Patrizia becomes the wrench in those works, sparking events that never would have happened otherwise, with consequences no one could foresee.

HOUSE OF GUCCI is certainly an entertaining film, particularly fun in the more comic earlier part. But as the film becomes darker, it stumbles a bit with that turn, with the various parts sometimes failing to mesh. At a running time of over two hours, all those moving parts need to work together for it to step up from good film to the great film it could have been.

Ridley Scott gives us actors speaking English with Italian-ish accents, set in a glorious Milan straight out of old movies. This rather tongue-in-cheek approach will amuse some audiences and irritate (or maybe even offend) others. There is a strong farcical element to the first portion, so the shift to crime thriller and tragedy almost feels like you are watching a different movie, although the satiric undercurrent is still there. Audiences might also be divided on Lady Gaga’s performance, feeling she is the best thing in the film, or the weakest link in the more problematic second part, although she is perfect in the first.

The cast is stellar, if the casting is a bit puzzling at times. Adam Driver nicely plays the awkward, shy Maurizio with a firm reserve. By contrast, Lady Gaga is splendid to start as Patrizia, a broadly-drawn character more out of “Good Fellas” than anything else, whose grammar is not great and whose cultural knowledge is seriously lacking. But she is certainly fun, as she tells Maurizio when they first meet. Plus, Gaga and Driver have an unexpected mismatch chemistry together.

Jeremy Irons is at his chilly best as Rodolfo Gucci, a cold fish who can barely manage any affection for the son he claims to adore, while living in the past with memories of his late wife and long-ago movie career. In contrast, Al Pacino as his brother is the complete opposite personality, all affection and family warmth, using charm to get what he wants. The brothers are on opposite ends of the business spectrum as well, with the New York-based Aldo eager to embrace branding and coffee mugs with the logo, while Rodolfo is about tradition and dignity for the Gucci brand.

Rodolfo relies on lawyer and advisor Domencio De Sole (Jack Huston, who has his own interesting pedigree with grandfather John Huston), who is almost family although not a Gucci. At some point, Patrizia picks up her own trusted advisor, a fortune teller, Pina Auriemma, played by Salma Hayek, although the advice is mostly ego-stroking, a fateful choice.

Where the trouble for the movie, as well as for the Gucci family, comes in is when the film takes it’s darker turn, from fun and farce to thriller and tragedy. What happens blends ambition, greed and murder, in a stranger-than-fiction true story. If you don’t know the history, it is better to just wait and watch it unfold on screen. However, whether the script that is at fault or something else, Patricia’s character seems to undergo changes that do not fit well with what went before, which seems to muddy the film as it makes this shift.

All the over-the-top events of this story, both tragic and absurd, are matched with some over-the-top performances, particularly Jared Leto. All that suggests Ridley Scott intended this film as satire. It partly succeeds as in that, as a grand, operatic one at that, although the second, tragic part feels less focused.

HOUSE OF GUCCI is an entertaining, engrossing film that mixes crime thriller with farce. While it is a good film, an enjoyable film, one can’t help but feel it could have been more. All the elements were there for a great film, starting with the true story. It just didn’t get there, although it is still worth the ticket price. HOUSE OF GUCCI opens Wednesday, Nov. 24, in theaters.

RATING: 3 out of 4 stars

HIVE – SLIFF Review

Yllka Gashi as Fahrije in HIVE, which will be shown at the 2021 St. Louis International Film Festival, Photo credit Alexander Bloom.

A triple winner at Sundance and Kosovo’s official submission for the Oscars, HIVE is one of several outstanding international films featured at this year’s St Louis International Film Festival.

Writer/director Blerta Bashollo’s HIVE is her feature film debut. The moving drama about women in Kosovo struggling in the aftermath of war is based on a true story about one of the many women left in limbo when their husbands disappeared during the war. Fahrije (Yllka Gashi) continues her endless search for her missing husband, showing up as mass graves or buried clothing are found periodically by aid workers, but with little hope of finding him. At the same time, she also struggles to support her two children and her wheelchair-bound father-in-law by tending the beehives her husband once cared for, while her elderly father-in-land sells the honey at the local market, But the bees are not as productive now in the devastated landscape, and sales of honey bring a meager income for the family.

Fahrije also works for a local organization that tries to help other women in her small village, women and families left in the same limbo by missing husbands and fathers. As long as their deaths are not confirmed, the women are not widows, although in practical terms they are. As long as there is the chance their husbands might be alive, she and the other widows face harsh restrictions in the male-dominated traditional culture of her village, including vehement opposition to learning to drive or having a job.

Despite these threats, the desperate Fahrije starts a home-based food business, making a popular local condiment of peppers for a grocery store in a nearby city. The little business faces angry backlash from the men in the village and vicious gossip, but it also gives her and the other widows a means to survive, and hope.

HIVE is a touching, inspiring drama about the power of sisterhood, filled with fine performances, particularly by star Yllka Gashi, and an insightful glimpse into another culture and an inspiring look at a world of women enduring and succeeding under tough circumstances. One of the best touches in this uplifting drama are the shots of the real Fahrije shown with with the end credits.

HIVE, in Albanian with English subtitles, plays SLIFF on Nov. 5 at 1pm and Nov. 6 at 7pm at the Tivoli Theater. See the SLIFF website, https://www.cinemastlouis.org/sliff/festival-home, for tickets and other information. Covid procedures are in place, so all audience members must show proof of Covid vaccination and wear masks.

RATING: 3 out of 4 stars

12 MIGHTY ORPHANS – Review

Rusty Russell (Luke Wilson), Snoggs (Jacob Lofland) and Doc Hall (Martin Sheen) discuss the next play, in 12 MIGHTY ORPHANS.
Photo by Laura Wilson. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

This true-story film is a feel-good lesson in brains over brawn and the value of persistence, a Depression-era underdog story about a team of orphans who revolutionizing how football is played. Viewers do not have to be a football fans to be charmed by this tale of scrappy outsiders that no one expects to succeed, overturning all those assumptions. “The Mighty Mites” is a team of 12 undersized orphans at Mason Hall, a Masonic orphanage and school, led by their science teacher, Rusty Russell, who was an orphan himself.

It is a classic story told in a classic style, but with a kind of Jimmy Stewart charm. Director Ty Roberts has a lot of fun with this historical sports story, giving it a scrappy energy, with the special help of Martin Sheen and Luke Wilson, which makes it just enjoyable to watch. The story is set in football-mad Texas, in the 1930s Great Depression, as farm families are struggling with the one-two punch of that and the Dust Bowl’s extreme drought, a blow that sent many off to California, after losing their farms to foreclosure. But hope arrives in dusty Fort Worth, Texas, in the form of a new president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and a new science teacher for Mason Hall, Rusty Russell (Luke Wilson). Russell is going to teach high school science and his wife Juanita (Vinessa Shaw) is going to teach English at the charitable institution run by the Masons, but the real reason Russell was hired is his reputation as a football coach at his previous, more-prosperous high school. The Masonic home and school houses both girls and boys, and while we see a few scenes

On the recommendation of Mason Hall’s resident doctor, Doc Hall (Martin Sheen), the Masons hire Russell with the hope of creating a football team for the school, to give the boys some hope and encouragement. The school does not have much – there is no football field, just a field. The boys don’t even have shoes, much less a football. While the boys are called orphans, that does not necessarily mean their parents are dead, as many were given up by parents unable to support them or even just abandoned, particularly older boys. It is a daunting challenge for Russell, but buoyed by his own inherent optimism and encouragement from wisecracking, alcohol-nipping Doc Hall, the coach/science teacher sets out to make the boys want to play football and become a team.

Russell knows his underfed, scrawny boys can’t just power though the opposing teams, so he draws on his knowledge of physics and a bit of psychology to remake the game of football to give his boys’ speed and grit the advantage. Some of the boys are standouts, like Hardy Brown (Jake Austin Walker). The team has a bare 12 players, not really enough for a full team, and they need to fight to even be able to play against other high school teams. But Russell is driven by his own history as an orphan and his experiences in World War I.

There is just a lot of fun in watching this brains-over-brawn process take place. The cast also features Robert Duvall and Rooster McConaughey,(Texan Mathew’s millionaire brother) in smaller roles. The film is a kind of love letter to dedicated teachers, not just coaches, and there is plenty of inspiration material here but the cast and director frame it with a kind of playful bravura that keep things from getting weighted down by that. While there is little that takes place in the plot that is unexpected, Luke Wilson and Martin Sheen are marvelous, providing plenty of entertainment as they trade quips and tackle their impossible task. There is inspiration galore but lots of pure fun, watching the unlikely coach and players tweak the noses of their snobby opponents.

Director Ty Robert’s script was drawn from Jim Dent’s fact-based book. Of course, the story has a villain (besides the opposing football players) and that is the school’s brutal shop/trade school teacher Frank Wynn (Wayne Knight), playing the kind of despicable character he so often does. Wynn runs the school’s printing shop, which is supposed to teach the boys a trade and also help support the institution, a common thing for institutions of all types in that era but something ripe for abuse. And Wynn is abusive – he has little regard for the boys and proudly proclaims he “runs a tight ship,” always eager to beat the boys for even small infractions and subjecting them to constant demeaning verbal abuse.

There is much to like in this classic underdog story, which was inspired by real events although this is not a documentary-like historical recreation. Some of the events are real, like the big game that starts and ends the film. Mason Hall orphanage and school was real, as well as many of the characters, include coach Russell, Dr. Hall and the boys in the team in that big game. One of the highlights of the film comes with with the end credits, where we get to see photos of the real people and a little bit about what they went on to do, including that quarterback Hardy Brown went on to play 12 seasons in the NFL and the Dr. Hall, who never took a dime for his work at the school, inspired 47 of the home’s students to become doctors.

The film does a wonderful job of capturing the time period, with nice period detail and giving us a sense of the dusty run-down state of the drought-stricken landscape. The photography is fine, with a slight sepia tone and warm tones. Director does a nice job, with nicely framed shots, editing and pacing are perfect, and the right mix of character detail for involving story telling.

The film has a few flaws, some almost surprising given how well-made it is. One is the improbable casting of Larry Pine as FDR, who pops up as a character a couple of times. Despite that FDR is one of the easiest presidents to imitate, Pine doesn’t look like Roosevelt apart from the wheelchair and cigarette holder, but more surprising does not sound anything like him. Instead of FDR’s signature upper-crust New York accent, Pine sports a Southern accent. like the rest of the cast. Maybe Pine thought he was supposed to be playing President Woodrow Wilson. The accent is just so weirdly off, that it is actually distracting in those few scenes.

12 MIGHTY ORPHANS is a winner, an enjoyable and inspiring underdog historical story that transcends its period to connect with the present due to wonderful cast, led by Martin Sheen and Luke Wilson, and its skillful narrative. What could have been just a historic or football story becomes something more, a delightful classic tale anyone can enjoy. 12 MIGHTY ORPHANS opens Friday, June 18, at several theaters.

RATING: 3 out of 4 stars

SIX MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT – Review

Judi Dench as Miss Rocholl in Andy Goddard’s “Six Minutes to Midnight.”
Courtesy of IFC Films. An IFC Films Release.

A Nazi-run boarding school for girls on the British coast? Sound preposterous but in fact there really was such a school, which is the inspiration for the period spy thriller SIX MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT.

Judi Dench, Eddie Izzard, and Jim Broadbent headline the film, a Hitchcock-like British historical thriller set in the summer of 1939, just as WWII loomed. The Augusta-Victoria College is a finishing school for German girls at Bexhill-on-Sea on the southeast coast of England.

The film has been a pet project for many year for Eddie Izzard, who grew up in the area., and not only stars in the film but co-wrote the script along with co-star Celyn Jones and director Andy Goddard. The idea sparked when Izzard visited a Bexhill museum and saw the school’s insignia patch, which features a small Swastika along side a British flag.

The school, which existed from 1932 to 1939, was intended for German girls, many of them the daughters of the Nazi elite, to learn the English language and about English culture, as part of a plan to spread Nazi ideology to Britain. Actually, Augusta-Victoria College was one of many international schools in the area prior to WWII, in an area long noted for such foreign-run boarding schools. However, this is a fictional film. While it is it is unclear what, if any, of the story is factual, although it seems likely that British authorities were keeping an eye on the school as tensions rose prior to the Nazi’s invasion of Poland in 1939.

After the mysterious disappearance of the school’s previous English teacher, teacher Thomas Miller (Eddie Izzard) goes for an interview as a replacement for the job at Augusta-Victoria College for girls at Bexhill. He is interviewed by the German school’s British headmistress, Miss Rocholl (Oscar-winner Dame Judi Dench), who describes the school as a place to promote understanding between British and German people. She chooses to focus on that aspect of the school rather than its Nazi sponsorship, and is genuinely devoted to “her girls” and their care and education. Although the headmistress is less than impressed with Miller, who has a spotty employment history, she does need to quickly find a replacement to maintain the girls’ English language skills. In the end, she agrees to hire him on a trial basis, swayed in part by the fact that he is half-German and bilingual.

Miller isn’t there just to teach English but to keep tabs on the German school. The school is on summer break and only the other teacher who seems to be present is the physical education teacher Ilise Keller (Carla Juri), who drills the girls in exercise routines and takes them on outings to the beach to swim. On one such seaside outing, they make a shocking discovery – the body of the former English teacher, which has washed up on shore. The discovery sparks tensions at the school, mirroring the tensions rising on the international scene as war approaches.

With everyone on edge, a tale of secrets and espionage begins. There is a distinct Hitchcock flavor to this spy thriller set in the late ’30s, specifically echoing THE 39 STEPS, although the plot is wholly different.

Audiences are used to seeing Eddie Izzard in comic roles or doing stand-up, so seeing him in a straightforward dramatic role is a bit of a shift, yet the actor handles is well. He couldn’t have better supporting cast with Dame Judi, who plays the well-meaning if deluded headmistress, and Jim Broadbent, who adds the comic relief as a colorful, outgoing local bus driver who ends up playing a critical role. Izzard’s co-writer Celyn Jones plays a policeman, a crafty veteran of the last war, who is assisting the local police captain, played by James D’Arcy, in investigating the events around the discovery of the body of the missing man.

Many characters are not what they seem, and secrets, betrayals and chases abound. Izzard’s Miller is very much a Hitchcock character, a man falsely accused of a crime who must go on the run to clear his name, although Miller has his secrets too.

Unsurprisingly, the acting is excellent, particularly Dench’s portrayal of the well-meaning headmistress, whose affection for “her girls” blinds her to what is really going on. Dame Judi gives a touching performance as the headmistress, so devoted to her young charges that she is willing to ignore the glaring warning signs right in front of her. As the spy thriller story unfolds, her position becomes more tenuous and she reaches a breaking point.

The rest of the cast also do fine work, with Celyn Jones and Jim Broadbent particularly memorable in their smaller but pivotal roles.

The whole tale is set in the scenic British countryside, with the stately home that houses the school, the area’s picturesque historic sites, and the lovely rolling hills and windswept coast. The sets and period details are just right, and scenic location setting adds both to the film’s visual appeal and its authentic feel.

Those period details include that Augusta-Victoria school crest, with its unsettling mix of British and Nazi symbols, which so struck Izzard when he first saw it.

SIX MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT offers fine historical spy thriller entertainment, nice performances and a glimpse into a little-known, curious bit of British history. It opens Friday, March 26, at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinema, and Marcus’ Chesterfield, Ronnie’s, St. Charles and Arnold Cinemas.

RATING: 3 out of 4 stars

THE COURIER – Review

Benedict Cumberbatch in THE COURIER.
Photo Credit: Liam Daniel. Courtesy of Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions

Benedict Cumberbatch stars in the true-story THE COURIER, an entertaining Cold War-era spy tale told in a pleasingly classic style. Grounded by sterling performances by Cumberbatch and Merab Ninidze, from TV’s “McMafia,” this is a true story about an ordinary British citizen Greville Wynne (Cumberbatch) recruited by MI6 and the CIA to contact a high-level Soviet military intelligence colonel Oleg Penkovsky (Ninidze), and who ends up at a courier carrying intelligence back to London as the Cold War heats up, intelligence that proves crucial in the Cuban Missile Crisis. The two men form a unexpected friendship, bonding as family men who both want to avoid nuclear war, something the Russian colonel fears Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev is moving towards.

In the long Cold War, the most heated moment was the Cuban Missile Crisis, when the world stood on the brink of nuclear war as President Kennedy and Soviet Premier Khrushchev faced off over Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba. In the run-up to this crisis, the high-ranking Russian in this spy tale provided crucial information that averted nuclear war.

THE COURIER is done in the style of a old-fashioned spy thriller, the kind they don’t much make any more – an entertaining, satisfying tale driven more by character and tense situations than explosions and chases, although there are a few of the later. But the biggest strength of the film lies in its two central performances, particularly the excellent Cumberbatch, and its true-story basis.

As readers may know, Khrushchev was the Soviet leader who banged on a table with his shoe and later promised “we will bury you” to capitalist Western nations. He might have meant economically but the heated tone was shockingly different from his predecessor Stalin. The Cold War was reaching its most heated period in the early 1960s, culminating in the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. THE COURIER gives enough information about that crisis and the Cold War period to make the story work without bogging down the thriller in a history lesson.

Cumberbatch’s and Ninidze’s excellent performances are the major strength of the film, and the tale is built around their friendship, but director Dominic Cooke (ON CHESIL BEACH) keeps the pace and focus just right, working from a script by Tom O’Connor, and supported by moody photography by Sean Bobbitt and a perfect score by Abel Korzeniowski.

There is a lot of fun in the first two-thirds of the film, before the film takes a darker turn towards its end, which does not work as well but is a necessary part of the whole story. At the start, the tone is almost breezy, as British salesman Greville Wynne (Cumberbatch) is contacted by MI6’s Dickie Franks (Angus Wright) and CIA’s Emily Donovan (Rachel Brosnahan), about a one-time mission to Moscow to contact a high ranking official. Wynne is skeptical and dismissive, even joking a bit about having lunch with spies, and protests that he is unqualified because he is just a salesman. But Franks assures him that is exactly why he can do the job, and then reassures him he will be “perfectly safe.” If there was any risk, the MI6 agent tells him, “you are the last person we would send,” bluntly telling Wynne he drinks too much and is out of shape, which leaves the salesman winching.

Eventually, Wynne agrees to do the job but, of course, it turns out not to be a one-off. After he meets the Russian intelligence colonel Oleg Penkovsky (Ninidze), Penkovsky takes an instant liking to him and insists Wynne continue as the courier.

Most of the characters in this true story are based on real people, although Rachel Brosnahan’s CIA operative is a composite. But there were indeed women in MI6 and the CIA at the time, and making the character a woman allows the filmmakers to explore a little bit the challenges of women working in that male-dominated field in that male-dominated era.

It is no surprise Penkovsky likes Wynne, as Cumberbatch’s Wynne is indeed a likable fellow, whether joking with his young wife Sheila (Jessie Buckley) and their young son, or in early scenes with the MI6 and CIA operatives, where he can’t help making spy jokes. He is nervous at first about going to Moscow, but quickly falls into his familiar salesman persona, telling the Soviets he is trying to open up a new business partnership with their factories to sell them the kind of scientific and manufacturing equipment the company he works for makes.

Wynne clearly is having a bit of fun playing his dual role, and Cumberbatch seems to be too, and is at his most charming and entertaining in these scenes. There is a lot of wining and dining of Soviet officials in his cover of selling them factory equipment. Early on, Penkovsky tells Wynne that the key to his success with the Russians will depend on his ability to hold his liquor, to which Wynne replies, with a sly smile, that it is his greatest skill.

Wynne and Penkovsky bond as fellow family men and over their shared concerns about nuclear war, an ever-present worry in that era. Indeed, Penkovsky had reached out to the Brits over his concerns about war, and the intentions of the Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, who seemed to be moving in that direction.

Although the story starts in 1960, this is the Sixties before they began to swing. The period feels more late ’50s and director Dominic Cooke captures that perfectly, with excellent period locations, sets and costumes. As befits these characters, the film goes with muted tones and conservative outfits, which better suit the conservative middle-class Wynne and the buttoned-down espionage pros. The choice works best for a story that is much more John LeCarre than Ian Fleming and his creation James Bond.

Exteriors where shot in London and in Prague, which stands in for Moscow. The action takes place in gray streets and alley, and in often half-lit and shadowed rooms. De-saturated colors and stone buildings emphasize the similarities between London and Moscow rather than the differences. However, there is a flash of period color and show of cultural differences when Wynne and Penkovsky trade cultural experiences in each other’s home cities. They bond over theater when Penkovsky takes Wynne to the ballet in Moscow, and the salesman is overwhelmed by the beauty of the experience. When the Russian visits London, Wynne takes him to their theater district, which instead is filled with modern hit musicals, and they end up in a bright, glittering nightclub.

The film’s breezy fun tone takes a darker turn when the Cuban Missile Crisis heats up and the world stands on the brink of nuclear war, averted in part by information from Penkovsky. As the Soviets search for the leak, Wynne insists on returning to Moscow in an effort to get his friend out. Things don’t go well but what follows is moving, if sometimes hard to watch, and an essential part of the story, demonstrating the inner strength of the real Wynne and Penkovsky, their friendship and common commitment to peace.

THE COURIER is not a perfect film but it certainly a worthy one, grounded by excellent performances and an inspiring story of friendship.

RATING: 3 1/2 out of 4 stars

TAPE – Review

Isabelle Fuhrman as Isabelle in Deborah Kampmeier’s harrowing, true-story based #MeToo drama TAPE. Photo courtesy Full Moon Films.

TAPE opens with images of the mutilated character Lavinia from Shakespeare’s “Titus Andronicus,” followed by horrific footage of a young woman strapping a camera to her belly to film herself engaged in self-mutilation. The scene looks like something out of a horror film but the film shifts gears, as she turns her camera towards secretly filming a predatory male director/producer as he moves in on a young actress, with a pretense of coaching her acting. The echos of Harvey Weinstein and his ilk are unmistakable, and this based-on-a-true story about a Me Too experience offers a harrowing journey with a gut-punch ending.

The fact that it is based on a true story adds power to director/writer Deborah Kampmeier’s taut drama TAPE, is a chilling drama for the MeToo era, with an actress tracking a predatory director’s moves on another young actress. “I would never want you to do anything that made you uncomfortable” is the prelude to “but if you want a career” pressure. It is a familiar theme in the era of Harvey Weinstein but watching it unfold step-by-step in this taut tale is more disturbing than one might expect.

Deborah Kampmeier is known for her feminist films, and while this one fits neatly into that group, it is also a rallying cry on a timely topic. Most powerfully, it is a step-by-step examination of how young women are lured into these kinds of destructive situations, by someone playing on ambition and skilled in manipulation.

Although the film was clearly shot on a shoestring budget, that fact does nothing to diminish its impact. The film’s edge-of-your-seat effect is largely thanks to following the subjects step-by-step descent into the trap, and the emotionally-jarring final sequence. That effect is greatly aided by fine acting by the trio of performers at its center.

Annarosa Mudd plays Rosa, the woman with the camera, who pierces her tongue, shaves her head and cuts her wrists in an homage to Shakespeare’s’ Lavinia, before setting up camera and strapping one to herself, as she stalks a young actress named Pearl. Rose seems unbalanced, obsessive, maybe jealous, until we gradually see what is really happening. Her searing performance and haunting screen presence grips us, so we cannot look away.

As Pearl, Isabelle Fuhrman wavers between self-assured and confident in her own values, and an ambitious performer driven to seize every opportunity. Pearl is also pursued by director/producer Lux (Tarek Bishara), with praise of her talent and offers to mentor her. As handsome, charming Lux, Bishara veers, in astonishingly convincing manner, between a charismatic mentor who seems only want to guide her to the full expression of her talent, and a selfish predator bent on his own seamy goals. Their dance along the knife edge of truth and deceit is truly harrowing to watch.

This is not an easy film to watch but it rewards the audience with its thought-provoking content. Even though the Covid-19 pandemic has pushed all other issues to the side for now, the issue of abuse of women in the entertainment and other industries has not gone away and will resurface again. This gripping drama gives compelling insights how a reasonable young woman might find herself drawn into this destructive situation.

TAPE begins streaming Friday, April 10, on Amazon, iTunes, GooglePlay and Microsoft.

RATING: 3 1/2 out of 4 stars

RESISTANCE – Review

Jesse Eisenberg as “Marcel” in Jonathan Jakubowicz’s Resistance. Courtesy of IFC Films. An IFC Films Release.

Who knew legendary mime Marcel Marceau was a member of the French Resistance as a very young man? That startling and intriguing fact is the basis of RESISTANCE, a well-made inspirational historical film which follows the young French-born Polish Jewish aspiring actor, as he is drawn into the fight against the Nazis in France in World War II.

The great strength of RESISTANCE is its remarkable true-story basis, bolstered by a top-notch cast and high-quality production values. The film is more drama and biopic than historical thriller, although it has some suspenseful action sequences. Jesse Eisenberg stars as Marcel Marceau, who starts out life as Marcel Mangel, the son of a Polish-born Jewish butcher who resists his father’s efforts to draw him into the family butcher shop business in Strasbourg, then a part of France on the border with Germany. Young Marcel is an actor and a painter, and only cares about his budding career, secretly sneaking off to perform in cabarets, where he does a Charlie Chaplin-like silent comedy act. Marcel’s older brother Sigmund (Edgar Ramirez) is the serious one, politically opposed to Hitler and active in a group rescuing and sheltering refugee Jewish orphans fleeing Germany.

The group Marcel’s brother is working with is led by the self-sacrificing Georges (Geza Rohrig) but Marcel is drawn to join in his brother’s activism not by politics, but by his attraction to Emma (Clemence Poesy), who also is part of the rescue group. As a cover, they poses as a hiking organization, wearing Boy Scout-like uniforms, and organizing camp like activities for the refugee children. Marcel sees his work as an actor as something serious and for adults, and he resists both being labeled a “clown” and being pushed to entertain children. However, after he meets the traumatized children, particularly young Elsbeth (Bella Ramsey, who played Lorna Luft in JUDY), who saw her parents murdered by the Nazis, he is moved. Slowly he discovers a knack for connecting with the children through humor and mime.

As the Nazis invade France, Marcel and his brother find themselves on the run with the children, and eventually join the Resistance, where Marcel puts his skills as a painter to work forging passports.

Director Jonathan Jakubowicz’s polished English-language historical drama recreates the time period perfectly, and is filled with beautifully shot scenes, picture-perfect European locations, period costumes and careful attention to details, in as high-quality a historical production as one could want.

Eisenberg does a fine job as Marcel Marceau (a non-Jewish name he adopted for a forged passport while in hiding from the Nazis). Yes, Eisenberg does imitate some of Marceau’s signature mime moves (although not the famous “trapped in a box” routine). Unsurprisingly, Eisenberg is much better in the dramatic and comic portions of the film than the mime, although he does a serviceable job.

The title refers not just to the French Resistance but to Marcel’s resistance of many things – his father’s efforts to push him into the family butcher business, entertaining children, his older brother’s political activism, entertaining children – but it also means resisting the loss of hope, of being consumed by hate, or having tragedy define him. It is an inspiring story, an uplifting survivor’s tale about a figure one does not generally associate with WWII, and a wonderful untold tale of personal bravery, one that will particularly resonate with Jewish audiences. Like many biopics or heroic tales, it follows a certain feel-good formula, although these days a feel-good film is not a bad thing, although not a ground-breaking film artistically.

The cast is so good in this film that it lifts it above some of the usual shortcomings of historical biopics. The acting is strong enough to almost overcome those inherent limits of biopics. Eisenberg is excellent but so are Clemence Poesy and young Bella Ramsey, who has screen presence and a piercing gaze. The excellent international cast also includes Ed Harris, as General George Patton narrating the story to a crowd of G.I.s right after the war’s end, plus Geza Rohrig, the astounding actor from SON OF SAUL, Edgar Ramirez as Marcel’s older brother, Matthias Schweighofer as a chilling Klaus Barbee. Karl Markovics from THE COUNTEFEITERS, and a host of other lesser-known but talented actors. Young Bella Ramsey is very good as the lead child character in this story, with nice chemistry with both Eisenberg and Poesy, serving as a kind of surrogate daughter to the pair. Poesy and Eisenberg have nice chemistry together, creating the right balance of warmth and reserve, as jokester Marcel works shyly to win the heart of serious, skeptical Emma.

If you are looking for an inspirational true-story to lift the spirits and a bit of historical film escape, RESISTANCE is an very good choice. RESISTANCE was originally set for a theatrical debut on March 27 but instead is streaming on demand on various platforms, including Amazon and Vudu.

RATING: 3 out of 4 stars

BURDEN – Review

(l-r) Usher Raymond and Garrett Hedlund, in BURDEN. Photo: Mark Hill/101 Studios

In this strange but true story, Garrett Hedlund plays a young white man is persecuted after leaving the Ku Klux Klan he was raised in but finds shelter with a forgiving black reverend (Forest Whitaker) in BURDEN.

The title hints at various meanings, although it is also the last name of the person at the center of this inspiring drama. A strong, nuanced performance by Garrett Hedlund adds greatly to director Andrew Heckler’s true story-inspired drama about redemption and compassion, In fact, the film benefits in many ways from an impressive cast, including Forest Whitaker, Tom Wilkinson, Andrea Riseborough and Usher Raymond, each of whom give affecting performances in this tale of human transformation.

Garrett plays Mike Burden, a young man abandoned by his abusive parents and raised by Tom Griffin (Tom Wilkinson), the powerful leader of a branch of the KKK in a small Southern town in the 1990s. Mike is intensely loyal to Griffin, who regards Mike as a son, and Mike becomes Griffin’s right hand man as he rises to the position of Grand Dragon in the Klan. Tom Griffin is also Mike’s employer, in his repo business for a local rent-to-own shop.

When Tom Griffin buys the local shuttered movie theater, he transforms the space into a museum dedicated to the KKK, with an attached gift shop of Klan and Confederate merchandise called the Redneck Shop. Appalled by Griffin’s boldness of opening this racist establishment, the town’s activist African American preacher Rev. David Kennedy (Whitaker) organizes protests outside the Redneck shop.

Mike is right there at Griffin’s side but in his work as a repo man, he meets both two people who change the direction of his life. One a brave young single mother, Judy (Andrea Riseborough), with whom he falls in love, and the other is a former childhood friend, a black man named Clarence (Usher Raymond).

The film does a nice job of capturing a sense of time and place, and Hedlund and Riseborough add some nice believable touches to their impoverished rural characters. Reconnecting with Clarence and falling in love with Judy sets Mike on a new path. When they first meet, Judy is unaware of Mike’s Klan , and balks when she finds out, as her son’s best friend is Clarence’s son. Torn between his love of Judy and loyalty to Griffin, Mike is forced to take a hard look at his violent life and his long-held racist beliefs.

When Mike finally decides to leave the Klan, the Klan retaliate. He and Judy suddenly find themselves homeless and unemployed, reduced to begging, when Rev. Kennedy encounters them. He buys them a meal, and then brings them home, much to the horror of his own wife and son. The situation puts them all in danger and sets them on path of confrontation with Tom Griffin and the Klan.

Dramatically, not everything works in this story, but the fine performances of all the cast elevate the film over its flaws. Hedlund brings out layers and complexities in the character that help make this drama more than the heart-tugging, inspiring message film it is at heart. Hedlund’s fine performance take us inside the head of this young man, grateful to the man who virtually adopted him and showed him the affection his parents did not, while indoctrinating him into the Klan’s culture of hate. The actor peels back Mike’s hard armored shell, as we see him changed by the power of love and kindness. A moving scene gives insight into the evolution of the character, when he encounters a curious young deer, and then talks with Judy about his memories of his brutal father speaks volumes about the forces that made him into the violent thug he seemed at first, while revealing the potential for human warmth underneath

At the same time, Hedlund is aided by strong performances by all the cast. Forest Whitaker’s reverend is a man who almost has a compulsion for kindness, sometimes neglecting his own family in his commitment to his work, while still giving the character a sincerity and personal warmth the way Whitaker always does so well. Tom Wilkinson is likewise excellent, as the charismatic but violent Griffin, charming and manipulating Mike into joining him in his hatreds. Andrea Riseborough delivers a nice performance as a young woman beaten down in life but refusing to give up on hope. Usher Raymond, in the smaller role of Clarence, exudes an air of human warmth and serves as a voice of reason and normalcy that steadies the volatile Mike.

The true story is inspiring but it is the powerful acting that makes the film so affecting. The film ends with footage of the real people behind this unusually tale, and an update on the aftermath.

BURDEN opens Friday, March 13.

RATING: 3 out of 4 stars

THE BANKER – Review

Anthony Mackie, Nia Long, Samuel L. Jackson and Nicholas Hoult in “The Banker,” coming soon to Apple TV+. Photo courtesy of Apple TV+

In the true-story based THE BANKER, two black businessmen have an audacious plan in pre-Civil Rights 1954: use a white former handyman as a front to to buy real estate in whites-only areas of segregated Los Angeles, circumventing then-legal discrimination, with the intention to rent to black lawyers and doctors who integrate those neighborhoods. Having made a fortune with that plan, the pair come up with an even bolder one, to buy a small town bank in Jim Crow-era Texas, with the intention of making home loans available to black families.

Anthony Mackie and Samuel L. Jackson star as the two black entrepreneurs, young, buttoned-down, math genius Bernard Garrett (Mackie) and born-rich, playboy club owner Joe Morris (Jackson). THE BANKER starts out with a fun, caper film vibe to it. Nicholas Hoult plays Matt Steiner, the young white handyman who works for Garrett on the first buildings the would-be real estate entrepreneur buys and renovates in LA, who gets tapped for the role of front The three form an unlikely partnership to do an end run on prejudice and disrupt the rules of real estate in 1954 Los Angeles, then move on to even more ambitious plans for buying a bank in 1963 Jim Crow segregated Texas.

THE BANKER is based on an amazing true story (although why it is “banker” instead of “bankers” is entirely not clear) and so the filmmakers deserves credit for bringing it to the big screen, even though the film has been criticized for historical inaccuracies. This is Apple TV+’s first foray into film releasing, and it features a top-notch cast, nice production values, and an appealing mid-’50s to early ’60s period visual style with plenty of gorgeous costumes and cool cars. However, the film itself is pretty conventional film-making, and not everything about it works, despite the strong efforts of the cast, particularly Mackie. Still, the first half is entertaining, fun and inspirational, with a classic underdog story and a winking caper film approach. Add to that a sepia-toned visual style and loads of period details, it has plenty of popcorn movie appeal. But when the story turns more serious in the second half, when they relocate from California to Jim Crow-era small town Texas, the film struggles to shift from the playful caper film approach to something more appropriate to the more dramatic material, which makes THE BANKER feel a bit like two different films.

This story takes place before the Civil Rights era, when Jim Crow segregation laws severely restricted the rights of blacks in the South, and racial prejudice and restricting neighborhoods to whites-only neighborhoods and redlining were perfectly legal in other places of the US. After a brief prologue to set the period tone, we meet young Garrett in 1954 Los Angeles, as he relocates from his native small town Texas with his wife Eunice (Nia Long) and young son, with an ambitious plan to become a real estate mogul. A math genius, Garrett picked up basics of finance and banking as a young boy, by listening to bankers while he shined shoes outside the town’s bank. Hoping to find some place more open to black entrepreneurs, Garrett is frustrated to find he can’t even get LA bankers talk to him, much less lend to a black man. Eventually, he forms a partnership with a white real estate owner Patrick Barker (Colm Meaney), an Irishman who has encountered prejudice himself, Barker serves as the public face for their real estate purchases, which makes it easier to get loans and buy property in whites-only areas.

When Barker suddenly dies, Garrett is left in a bind, and he turns to the brash Joe Morris for cash to restart. But as two black men looking to buy property in areas still legally restricted to whites-only, they need a white face to negotiate with would-be white sellers. They hatch a bold plan, to re-make Garrett’s working class handyman Matt (Hoult) into the kind of fellow that white bankers and upper-crust real estate moguls will see as one of their own.

This is the most fun part of THE BANKER, thanks largely to the talented cast. Reversing the familiar movie trope, Jackson’s born-rich Joe Morris teaches Hoult’s working-class Matt Steiner how to pass himself off as part of the bankers’ upper-class world, coaching his clueless charge to how to play golf like a pro, which fork to use in formal dining, and generally how to present himself as a social equal to the wealthy bankers. Meanwhile, Mackie’s Garrett launches the overwhelmed Matt on a crash course in finance and math skills, with equally comic results.

They form a partnership in which all three names appear as owners of the properties, although the sellers only ever see Matt. But as the brains and money behind this business, Morris and Garrett are the ones really running the business, and Matt is really more an employee than a full partner. To keep their front on track, Morris even dresses up to pose as a chauffeur, to listen in and provide help in a bind.

In the first half of the film, the caper film style works well and the film is entertaining, largely thanks to the efforts of Jackson, Hoult and Mackie. The heaviest dramatic acting load falls to Mackie, and his strong performance often lifts the film above its conventional trappings and grabs the audience’s heartstrings with a stirring, inspirational appeal.

The scheme proves wildly successful, making the partners lots money while racially integrating large areas of previously segregated LA. But when Garrett returns to his home town in Texas, he confronts the hardships that Jim Crow laws place on the black community. He is seized with the urge to do something for the community where he grows up, and he decides the best way to help is to buy the local bank, and make home loans to worthy black borrowers. However, the idea proves a hard-sell with Morris and Steiner, as it seems more about social activism than just making money – and it is.

THE BANKERS starts out strong with its winking caper film vibe, and there is a lot of fun as the three partners circumvent the racial restrictions of 1954. However, when the film shifts to more serious territory in the second half, as the partners take on buying a bank in a small town in 1963 Jim Crow Texas, the film’s playful caper film vibe has to give way. And it does, largely, but the change is not smooth and makes it feel like two different films. When the partners become embroiled with a Southern senator who wants to change banking rules for his own political advantage, things get really dicey. Further, returning to the caper film style near the film’s end feels particularly awkward.

THE BANKER has its flaws but deserves credit for presenting this untold true story of creative black entrepreneurs, and for the fine work of its talented cast. THE BANKER opens Friday, March 6, at the Chase Park Plaza Cinema.

RATING: 3 out of 4 stars

RICHARD JEWELL – Review

Sneaking in before the end of the year, nearly buried in the glut of award-contenders based on or inspired by true events, comes an intimate profile that’s also a cautionary fable that’s still relevant to today. Perhaps with the advent of social media, it hits home now more than in the late 1990s. Yes, unlike those films based on very recent headlines, like BOMBSHELL, DARK WATERS, THE TWO POPES, and THE REPORT, this one rolls back the clock more than two decades (as opposed to the century plus of 1917). But it also evokes the themes of classic fiction thrillers with a man (or in this case a trio) facing impossible odds in order to clear his name and prove his innocence ala THE FUGITIVE of TV and film. But, this is very real, dominating the news media for many days. And the very unlikely hero at the center of it all was the man named RICHARD JEWELL.


When we meet Richard (Paul Walter Hauser), he’s a derided supply manager of a legal office. His only “work friend” is lawyer Watson Bryant (Sam Rockwell). During a game of Galaga at the nearby arcade, Richard tells him that he’s leaving to pursue his dream job in law enforcement. The route leads him to a short time as a security officer at a local college. An altercation at the dorm leads to his dismissal, but Richard has a goal to work at the upcoming Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta. He’s happy to leave the apartment he shares with his mama Bobi (Kathy Bates) and trek downtown to work as a private security staffer at Centennial Park for the free outdoor concerts. Less happy to be there is FBI agent Tom Shaw (Jon Hamm) and ambitious newspaper reporter Kathy Scruggs (Olivia Wilde), as each considers this a dull assignment. During the show, Richard accosts a group of teens tossing empty beer bottles at the side of an audio/video control tower. But as they leave, something under a nearby bench catches his eye, an abandoned backpack. After much persuading and pleading, Richard’s bosses finally bring in the bomb squad. Meanwhile, threatening calls warning of a device come in to the FBI and police switchboards. Richard’s suspicions prove true, chaos ensues, and two lives are lost. In the next couple of days, he’s hailed as a hero whose prompt actions may have saved many. But the pressure is on to find the real culprit, quickly. Thinking she can get a scoop, Kathy uses her…uh…journalistic skills to squeeze a scoop out of Agent Shaw: they are looking at Jewell as the bomber. Wanting to be first with the story, her bosses splash Richard’s face over the front page of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. As the media begins to hound him while the feds question him in, he calls the only lawyer he knows, Watson, who now has his own small firm. But can these two “little guys” get the truth out there as Richard’s reputation goes from media darling to evil murdering mastermind?

A great deal of the film’s strength comes from the superb casting, particularly in the title role. Rather than going for a big or medium name actor (Jonah Hill is an executive producer, in part because of his early interest in starring), they’ve wisely recruited Hauser, who made an impact a couple of years ago as the self-proclaimed “intelligence consultant” in I, TONYA. Here, minus that character’s clueless bravado, Hauser immerses himself in the complexities of Jewell’s personality. We sympathize with him over his obsessive desire to “serve the public”, but he frustrates us with his allegiance to those who would take advantage, making us squirm until Bryant snaps him out of her subservient stupor. This makes the powerfull last act, when he finally, as Bryant says pleads, he “gets mad”. For many, his strutting, socially awkward persona makes him the butt of derision ala Paul Blart or closer to Seth Rogen in OBSERVE AND REPORT, but Hauser imbues him with quiet dignity, going from easy caricature to rounded (yes, he is “husky”) human being. This is a remarkable performance.

Happily, Hauser has some great “back up” from several screen vets. Rockwell brings some great motor-mouthed energy in the role of Jewell’s pal and defender, who knows that he’s playing David to the law and media Goliath twins. At times he seems to be acting as Jewell’s “big brother” who, like Captain America, doesn’t like bullies. But he’s gotta’ be tough with his client, playing the “bad cop” to Bates as mother Bobi as “good cop”. Actually “adoring, loyal cop” may be more like it. Similar to Hauser, she brings dignity to this simple, soft-spoken lady who wants to protect her only son, perhaps close to a “mama grizzly”. Hamm truly makes a compelling villain as the swaggering, arrogant Shaw. He’s the “idol cop” that Jewell seems to dream of being, but he’s closer to a mean-spirited jock who’s trying to pin something on a kid he stuff into lockers. He’s Don Draper with a badge and less booze. But like that iconic TV role, he likes the ladies a bit too much, which brings in the fabulous Wilde as the temptress who may cause his (and Richard’s) downfall. Her Kathy sees the future of print media (newspapers appeared to have no serious rival in 96′) and doesn’t care about climbing over her co-workers (especially the other women who see right through her). Ms. Wilde proved herself a gifted director this year with BOOKSMART, but let’s hope she continues in front of the camera with spirited work like this.

The real Richard Jewell

Speaking of actor/directors, this film is yet another triumph from one of the most prolific ones, Clint Eastwood. Really, it’s his most compelling since AMERICAN SNIPER. He has tackled tales of the wrongly accused before, in the underrated CHANGELING, TRUE CRIME, and even SULLY, but here his subject allows him to comment on being tried by the media. Reporters and camera crew swarm around the entrance to the apartment complex of the Jewells, acting like piranhas circling prey, crushing anyone trying to plow through while pelting them with a Gatling gun of questions, “Where were you?” “Didya’ do it?” “Make a statement!”. These paparazzi are closer to vultures picking at the flesh of a wounded animal. Eastwood is also skilled in turning the drabbest surroundings into a grim cage, particularly the Jewell living room when he’s told to repeat a threat into the phone. The same can be said of the film’s most suspenseful sequence, when Eastwood turns the festive park concert into a nail-biting, edge of your seat thrill ride, reminding us of Hitchcock’s theories of building tension for an audience (we know it’s gonna’ happen, but not when). It helps that he’s working from a terrific script by Billy Ray based on Marie Brenner’s magazine article. There’s great location work at the actual spots (I could almost feel the humidity) and Eastwood’s expert guidance of his gifted cast. All of them combine to make RICHARD JEWELL one of the year’s most engaging and provocative films.

3.5 Out of 4