Captain America: Winter Soldier

I didn’t want to go to the new Captain America movie The Winter Soldier – I was pressured into it. I justified my cave in by noting that Soldier had been getting some positive reviews. Lesson learned: stick with your instincts and pay no attention to movie reviews… except my own of course.

Winter Soldier is the sequel to Joe Johnson’s 2011 introductory effort – Captain America: The First Avenger. The first Cap film was easy enough to forget, so I’ll remind you that we were all introduced back then to Steve Rogers, a scrawny WWII army enlistee who, after being deemed unfit for service, volunteers for a top secret research project that transforms him into Captain America – a super soldier dedicated to defending America’s ideals against all those who threaten them like the evil Hydra organization. It’s now two years after the Battle for New York in which Cap participated as part of The Avengers in the 2012 film of the same name. Although he’s been thawed out for a while now from the deep freeze that allowed him to time travel to our present, he’s still trying to decipher the new tech and the post-9/11, war-on-terror infringements on the freedoms he fought for back in the WW-2. 

The first Captain America film (The First Avenger) felt like a rushed, and obligatory effort made just to get Cap introduced to the world in time for the first Avengers movie. Winter Soldier breaks out a bit, but still feels like simply one more cog in the big Marvel money-making movie wheel. I’m not going to call Winter Soldier a bad film. But it’s not a good film either. It’s a really, really, really average film – like smack-dab-in-the-middle, nothing-special, mainly forgettable, how-many-times-is-he-going-to-slug-that-guy, super-hero film. Punch up the definition of “average” on your iPhone Dictionary App and this movie should come up. And it’s not that I am holding the bar too high on these Marvel films. I grew up reading these guys in the 12-cent drug store comics. I understand the genre – they’re not The Grapes of Wrath or Of Mice and Men – I get that these movies are based on outrageous premises and plots that accompany colored pages inside really thin little magazines. But the good ones can still move us a little beyond the POW! and BANG! of it all – maintaining the fantasy and maybe the camp of their source, but adding something special and sophisticated. Batman Begins and Spiderman II (Doc Ock) are examples of this type of moderate transcendence. And Winter Soldier does try to step up… it tries hard not to be ordinary. The story’s creators (directed by Anthony and Joe Russo) serve up a present-day-relevant security vs. freedom theme in a conspiracy/espionage wrapping, and the addition of Robert Redford to the cast definitely brings some weight to the screen. But the nothing-is-as-it-seems and don’t-trust-anybody (Col. Fury actually vocalizes this cliché) plot tools eventually devolve toward heavy, and not so special, CGI mayhem and the ritual audience-endurance test that is the final battle between the super hero and super villain.

One could think that the odd selection of directors Anthony and Joe Russo, whose previous work has been almost exclusively in comedies, was made to add some spark to this bland entry into the Marvel film universe. At the least, I expected the film to have a sharp comic undertone. But there are few laughs in Winter Soldier. What we are offered, however, is a lot impressive ninja moves. Everybody is a ninja in this one. It appears that both S.H.I.E.L.D and Hydra have top-notch ninja training programs. And that is important in a Captain America film because Cap is not nigh immortal like some of his other Avenger teammates (i.e. Thor and the Hulk – by the way… where were the rest of these S.H.I.E.L.D heroes while all the chaos was going on? – Cap could’ve used the help). Cap is just a suped-up mortal and you can’t have too many bombs blowing up or shots fired off around him since they’d actually do some damage if contact were made… hand-to-hand is a better option for Captain America. Oh, shots were fired every now and then but the aim wasn't quite right – memorandum to the bad guys… when you finally get a chance to shoot your weapon at Captain America, don’t aim at the shield… it just bounces off you see. And so it went. Really nothing new here, although the film's makers would like you to think there is. Don’t trust anyone. 5 out of 10.

Philomena - 2014 Oscar Nominee for Best Picture

What is Philomena? None of us common folk (didn’t make it to the Sundance festival again this year dang it) would know. Do we go to a show with this title? Take a look at the theater poster above... that’s not doing much for us either. Nobody’s exclaiming to their buddy after gazing on that advertisement that “they’ve just got to see this one.” But choose the most boring looking film on the marquee and you’ve probably got the one with the most weight - sometimes you’re a better person for seeing it. I think this is the case with Philomena. A few others think so too… it’s been nominated for four Oscars in this years Academy Awards including best picture.  

Philomena is a 70 year old Irish women who has kept a secret for a very long time. The film is based on the true story of Philomena Lee (The Lost Child of Philomena Lee by journalist (Martin Sixsmth)  who, as a pregnant teenager, is exiled by her ashamed father to a type of convent known as a Magdelene Laundry - institutions that had been established at the time ostensibly to house “fallen women”. There Philomena labors and in return receives shelter and care during her pregnancy. The convent’s nuns deliver her baby son but she is forced to give up all parental rights. At 3 years of age her son is taken away by an American family as Philomena watches from afar - gone without trace. All this, she is told, a penance for her grave sin. 

She reveals her secret nearly 50 years later to her daughter who connects with an un-employed journalist she hopes can tell her mother’s story and help with the search for her son. This links Philomena, played with expected perfection by Dame Judi Dench (M of recent bond films) with journalist Martin Sixsmith played by comedian Steve Coogan (Night at the Museum, Tropic Thunder). They form a magnificent odd couple - the simple, naive (maybe), and faithful Philomena juxtaposed with the educated, jaded, and agnostic Sixsmith. Dench’s performance is poignant - never over the top. Coogan is sharp but not overbearing. 

Yes, Philomena is sentimental, it is a tear jerker… but of course it is, it’s about a mother’s worse loss - how can it not be? But the sentiment is heartfelt - the kind that feels real because it is something close to what we’ve all felt - loss and understanding - at some time. So don’t let the odd name and lack of hype keep you away from this one - you’ll be a better person for seeing it. Ok, maybe you wont be but at least you’ll feel something. 8 out of 10.

Enders Game - Coming to DVD in February

I read the book - Orson Scott Card’s Nebula and Hugo Award winning novel - back in 85. I’ve read a lot of science fiction, before and since, and I still put Enders Game near the top of the best list. Card’s concepts back then were fresh and engrossing… and disturbing – children bred, filtered, and trained to lead the human race in a war against an alien force, waged through what is effectively an elaborate video game. But it has taken so long for Ender to reach the big screen that many of its key points may now seem old hat. Some of Card’s themes, such as push-button, virtual war, are now real life. Others, like the story’s prepubescent battle school, have been duplicated in more recent pop literature like the Hunger Game series. But Ender’s story still carries weight and although the film does not have enough time to do more than touch the surface of some of Card’s more complex statements, it’s still worth experiencing.

Ender’s world is a future earth that has narrowly survived an invasion by bug-like aliens and is now in a state of heightened paranoia over, what is assumed to be, an inevitable second attack.  The planet’s youth - intuitive, malleable, and unbiased by long-evolved and tried strategies - have been found to be the best suited to plan or improvise unanticipated battle strategies and lead the world’s forces in a preemptive first-strike against the bug nation. Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfied) is a “third”. Although the film does not spend much time on this concept, one can intuit that earth’s families are generally limited to two children and that Ender’s allowed birth had much to do with a bloodline that promises a potential battle leader. His siblings have both been in and out of the same battle-training program that Ender is now starting as a pre-teen. His sister washed out because she was too companionate, his brother was on the other side… booted because he displayed overly violent tendencies. Ender seems to have both pieces in his make up and he battles throughout his training and ascension to command to understand and balance both. He confesses this core paradox of his story to his sister while contemplating his role in this ultimate battle - 

“In the moment when I truly understand my enemy, understand him well enough to defeat him, then in that very moment I also love him. I think it’s impossible to really understand somebody, what they want, what they believe, and not love them the way they love themselves. And then, in that very moment when I love them.... I destroy them.”

Butterfield (Hugo) is well cast as Ender – slowly convincing the audience, as his character does his peers, that he is something special… a standout. Harrison Ford, as Colonel Hyrum Graff, the head of the selection and training program, seems out of place early in the film but revs up nicely as the Colonel becomes obsessed over the possibility that Ender might be “the one”.  Ben Kingsley is also good as Ender’s mentor but Nonso Anozie’s doughy battle-school Drill Sergeant Dap strikes fear into no one.

Enders Game is a handsome film, shining in the battle-room training skirmishes and the final remote control engagement. The film is a generally faithful, although limited, presentation of Card’s outstanding novel and nicely balances the glint of its sci-fi environment with the core questions of the cost of victory and if it really matters how we win. 7 out of 10

All Is Lost

“All is lost here.” The movie begins with that line… one of the few uttered in this film. It is a black screen behind the opening voice over. “Our Man” (the title given to Robert Redford’s sailor in the films credits – we never learn his actual name) words a letter, to his family maybe, relating his desperate state… his dwindling rations, his battle to survive, his regret.

Sunlight and noise… we are moved back 8 days in time as Our Man awakens to the sound of a loud collision. His yacht has struck a stray shipping container and is taking on water. The box’s freight of cheap tennis shoes bobs in foot-deep water in the cabin.  Our Man is alone in the damaged yacht in the Indian Ocean. Why is he there? Why is he sailing alone? Who is he? What is he? We know none of these things. We know only that there is a man in a boat far from land and that the boat has hole in it.

A basic story of man against nature follows. The struggle hits fairly predictable plot notes – storms, thirst, near-miss rescues. It is writer/director J.C. Chandor’s minimalist approach to moving through these points that truly sets this film apart from the common. Elemental sounds – wind, rain, sea - and a spartan but haunting sound track (from Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros) fill in where dialogue might have been. We watch Our Man move wordlessly, pragmatically through the logical, by-the-manual steps to survival. He is experienced at sea, but not with this type of challenge. He is practical and realistic and he is whatever else we can deduce from his labored movements and exhaustive attempts to stay alive. But we really don’t know this person. The depiction seems like an exercise that uses the main character as a variable… a fine experiment in story telling to see if such an approach can produce a compelling film. That said, All Is Lost is certainly more than a curiosity. Chandor’s tactics are effective. The film is intriguing… even captivating in parts. Yet I watched this hypothesis and proof unfold from afar – more intellectually engaged than emotionally connected. Chandor’s bold strategy holds the film apart but also ties it down. It was interesting to watch but I didn’t really care that much about what happened to Our Man in the end. 7 out of 10. 

Gravity… or the lack there of

“Zero Gravity” or “The Quest for Gravity” might be more appropriate titles for director Alfonso Cuaron’s (Children of Men) stunning outer-space obstacle course of a movie. But maybe Cuaron was going for the double meaning in his one-word title to symbolize his setting of the beauty and strangeness of weightless space against that cold vacuum’s hostility to life. Gravity’s space is breathtaking, but also a place where danger is only millimeters away… and most grave.

The skill and technique with which these two – the spectacular and the terrifying - are combined in this film are rare… maybe even unique. Cuaron's Gravity is an epic spectacle, obviously taking a nod from Kubrick’s iconic 2001 Space Odyssey in its use of imagery in place of traditional narrative or dialogue. But Gravity is even more stunning and balletic than 2001 in its framing and choreography. The long opening shot moves us toward a space shuttle, a piece of the blue globe earth and its sun glistening behind… pure silence is finally broken by the faint sound of communications between working astronauts. The film’s opening scene is truly glorious and I felt it almost a shame when my silent trance was broken by human voices. Sandra Bullock, playing Dr. Ryan Stone, a medical research engineer on her first shuttle mission, is speaking to George Clooney who is mission leader astronaut Matt Kowalski. If you can’t picture Bullock as an astronaut, that’s ok because she’s really not in this one. She’s a novice, on board to implement and oversee experiments she designed back on earth. Clooney’s Kowalski, on the other hand, is an old vet on his last mission and looking to break the combined mission space-walk record in what appears to be a routine workday in the void. As Bullock’s Dr. Stone struggles with the weightless work environment, the gallant and self-assured Kowalski putts around the outside of the shuttle in his jet pack telling stories about his glory days, fast cars, and fast times. Early, Clooney teeters precariously close to a caricature of a G.I. Joe action figure with his phlegmatic Kowalski, but it works here somehow and fortunately the quick-arriving chaos forces a more serious commander before he becomes distractingly corny.

You already know from the trailers that the shuttle they’re working on is destroyed, leaving the astronauts marooned in space – even Houston falls silent in the initial mayhem. What follows is a Rube Goldberg-like chain reaction that poses increasingly more treacherous and impossible challenges to our space walkers and their rescue. The trip is truly stunning, heart pounding… griping. If you go, be prepared to find yourself gasping for air along with Stone as her suit oxygen level drops slowly… 10 percent… 5 percent… gone – or twisting in your seat to help her grasp on to a passing hand hold. But know that Gravity is first a real-time disaster movie and foremost a visual experience. You’ll not find the cerebral and supernatural elements of other acclaimed sci-fier’s such as 2001, or Solyaris, or even last years Prometheus. Gravity will not give you a point of view on man’s purpose or origin – it simply pits the possibility and will to survive against the seemingly insurmountable barriers of a magnificent but completely foreign realm. The film does have poignancy, however, and is strongest emotionally when conveying the human need for anchor and the power of the concept and the hope of going home. It’s just that these more ethereal points are no match for the awesomeness of what is pictured on the screen.

Watch Gravity three dimensionally. I suppose you can’t be disappointed in this film whether it has a z coordinate or not, but the imagery will have more weight and depth (literally) if you’ve got the glasses on. You’ll find Bullock and Clooney are fine of course – playing to type. And you may find Gravity more substantial emotionally than I did. But it doesn’t matter either way… you’ll be glad you bought the ticket. 8.5 out of 10.

Enough Said

The annual lull between summer-season blockbusters and the late-fall trickling out of Oscar bait seems to now be over with the release, or near release, of such titles as Gravity (Sandra Bullock) and Captain Phillips (Tom Hanks). It has been a dark, dark month for those trying to decide if they should venture out to see “Percy Jackson Sea of Monsters” or “We’re the Millers”… and then going to the park for a run instead (good decision). But if you’re looking for a good film to segue you into the critically acclaimed heavy hitters of winter, might I suggest Enough Said.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus and James Gandolfini are Eva and Albert, both divorcees with daughters leaving their homes for college. Eva is a massage therapist and Albert is a television historian. They meet at a party. Neither is really looking for anything – they even admit to each other that they’re not attracted to anybody in attendance – but it’s obvious that something has clicked. Coincidentally, however, Eva also meets Albert’s ex at the party and enlists her as a client. The ensuing Seinfeldian fix Eva gets herself into as part of this triangle provides the mechanism that moves the story along and gives Eva and Albert something to work against. But the film is really about the common fear of getting hurt, losing at love, life change and loneliness. Issues of what we want out of love and relationship, what we usually get instead, and the ridiculous (and sometimes petty) issues we let get in the way of our feelings for someone are presented and debated through a group of interesting and well played characters while chatting at dinner, or arranging furniture, or crocheting a blanket. In this sense, Enough Said has sort of a When Harry Met Sally feel but with less production. Louis-Dreyfus and Gandolfini are extremely believable in this one and have a homey chemistry that makes you want them to be together… to succeed. The film, as a whole, has a very natural and intrinsic quality.

There is nothing very weighty in Enough. But it is an insightful film, sharply written and warmly preformed. The plot, although unlikely, does not feel forced but rather flows naturally from its flawed and vulnerable pieces. The subtle and wide-ranging expressions that served Louis-Dreyfus so well when she was with Jerry and the gang are on display again and give additional likeability to Eva and those around her. There is some sadness, however, in watching one of Gandolfini’s last performances - Sopranos fans will be surprised how easy he makes playing a big softy look. Regardless of your taste… or gender, I think this film will win you over.  8 out of 10

Mud - New release DVD

Mud is a love story… or a story about loves. But it doesn’t deal in the simple or the clean. Mud is about complicated love… the messy, sometimes misplaced, can’t-help-ourselves, confusing, dangerous, strained-but-binding loves. Or in other words, that real-life stuff that is between most all of the caring relationships we’ve shared in or been witness to in our own lives. For our entertainment and enlightenment, several strains of this emotion have been balanced and mixed skillfully together by writer/director Jeff Nichols (Shotgun Stories, Take Shelter) and injected onto the screen. The result is a sort of fable. But it is more familiar than dark fairy tale. It feels authentic and honest… earthy real – and is simultaneously sobering and gratifying.

The love stories begin with a Huck-and-Tom-like adventure. Two 14-year-old boys Ellis (Tye Sheridan) and his best friend, Neckbone (Jacob Lofland), living in a poor community of ramshackle houseboats on the Mississippi, have heard from another boy of a grand spectacle on a nearby island. They find it – a boat wedged high in a tree by a flood. After scaling the tree and entering the boat, they lay claim to it imagining what glorious adventures could be had there. But they quickly find that the boat is already called for by the island’s sole inhabitant - Mud (Mathew McConaughey)… that’s his name, Mud.

“Hell of a thing boys” Mud begins, “a boat in a tree… that’s a hell of a thing.”

Mud’s a mess – grungy, and down to his last loaf of bread for food. He’s full of odd information and questions, and equipped with a magic shirt that protects him but also a .45 tucked in his pants just in case.  He’s killed a man, he confesses early to the two boys, after the man assaulted the women he loves - Juniper (Reese Witherspoon), and is hiding on the island waiting to rendezvous with her and make an escape. He’s in a bad fix and appeals to the boys for help in his cause and ambitious plan. Ellis needs only to hear that the bad things Mud has done have been done for love to be hooked. Neckbone is less convinced and senses the danger, but looks up to Ellis and reluctantly agrees to assist - and their adventure begins.

Nichols weaves other relationships into and around this core four, mostly vertexed through Ellis, the young romantic trying to understand love, find evidence of its endurance and anchor to it. The binding ties explored include those between husband and wife and various forms of connections between fathers (of sorts) and sons. All have their complications and deficiencies. Nichols leaves us to our own to decide what is wrong or right about the people involved… what is true and what is not about their actions and motivations. "You can't trust love," Ellis’ father tells him. "If you're not careful it'll up and run out on you." And one might think this is the moral of Mud – that love doesn’t last. But it might be just the opposite – that love is one of the few things that endures, in different times and odd forms wherever it may.

Marvelously cast, beautifully shot, splendid story telling – Mud gets 9 out of 10.