Articles by Carl Kozlowski
Triple Review: 'The Night Before'; 'Love the Coopers'; and 'Mockingjay: Part 2'
Nov 20, 2015 / 00:00 amIt seems every holiday season brings with it at least a couple of new Christmas movies. They’re often ensemble affairs, with up to a dozen name actors handling small yet plum parts in a sweet confection that is guaranteed to be played in cable reruns and streamed on Netflix forever. This year’s double dose of sugar-coated cinematic cheer has already arrived, with this weekend’s “The Night Before” starring Seth Rogen, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Anthony Mackie in a raunchy R-rated romp that is aimed at a younger crowd. Last weekend brought us “Love the Coopers,” a much more traditional Christmas tale that aims to please the whole family, or at least those with a gentler sense of humor. “Night” stars Rogen as Isaac, a nice but sloppy married Jewish man awaiting the birth of his first child; Gordon-Levitt as Ethan, a musician who’s been spinning his wheels in life ever since the sudden death of his parents 14 years before; and Mackie as Chris, an NFL athlete who is suddenly having the best year of his career at an age when he should be forced to retire. The three of them have been going out every Christmas Eve for the past 14 years in order to cheer Ethan up at the loneliest night of the year, but this year, there are added complications. With Isaac about to take on the added responsibilities of fatherhood, the trio has already agreed that this year will be their last wild romp. The guys know they have to make it count and Ethan finds the perfect solution when he steals three tickets to New York City’s most exclusive party of the year, the Nutcracker Ball, where the best deejays and the wildest psychedelic drugs await the city’s hottest singles. The party alone would make a crazy night, but Chris is eager to break into the posse of his team’s superstar quarterback and promises to bring him a load of primo marijuana. That quest leads to all manner of havoc, as the pot gets stolen by a woman who hates Christmas and they have to chase her all over the city to get it back. Add in multiple run-ins with their high school drug dealer, Mr. Green (Michael Shannon in a terrifically sleazy performance), Ethan’s attempts to win back his girlfriend (Lizzy Caplan) and settle down, a drug trip in the middle of midnight Mass for Isaac, and a surprisingly winning (and fully clothed) cameo by Miley Cyrus, and “The Night Before” is hoping to be a new holiday favorite with teens through thirtysomethings. But for those who are seeking sweet holiday solace, steer clear. “Night” is also packed with profanity, a wild bathroom sex scene and a whole lot of drug humor en route to a conventionally moral happy ending. It also features a blasphemous scene in which Rogen’s character has the sudden need to vomit from all the drugs he’s taken – right in the middle of his wife celebrating midnight Mass with her family. He does so in the center aisle of the church before calling out Jesus’ name in vain. It’s a shame, because “The Night Before” continues Rogen’s string of movies in which his character and his costars engage in disreputable behavior en route to learning positive and even morally conservative life lessons. He has said in a Rolling Stone interview that “we make conservative movies for stoners,” meaning he and his mentor Judd Apatow try to send conservative messages subversively into the kind of audience that would never consciously seek such messages out. Marriage, fatherhood, and faith are all expounded upon favorably by the end of “The Night Before,” but Catholic audiences should approach with extreme caution because there are plenty of moral pitfalls along the way. There is a place for outrageous and even raunchy humor since it is not possible to take it seriously and emulate it, but in a Christmas movie like this, it’s harder than usual to justify. “Love The Coopers” is the much safer bet for a movie the whole family can enjoy, as it features Diane Keaton and John Goodman as Charlotte and Sam Cooper. They’re two former hippies who fell in love during the ’60s and have been married for 40 years, although Sam is determined to leave her after the family’s annual Christmas get-together. Sam is frustrated that Charlotte has aged into a fearful, boring woman who has found multiple excuses not to go on Sam’s dream vacation: an African safari. He sees her lack of adventures as symptomatic of much broader problems and is determined to break free, take the trip himself and start a new life before it’s truly too late for him to go. Their extensive family and friends have plenty of their own problems, including daughter Emma (Marisa Tomei), who was just caught shoplifting and has them all wondering where she’s at. Meanwhile, son Hank (Ed Helms) has been dumped by his own wife for being stingy and uninspired, and a cute waitress (Amanda Seyfried) who’s a friend of the Coopers is about to make a dramatic move that could break the heart of her favorite customer (Alan Arkin). “Love The Coopers” isn’t as funny as “The Night Before,” but it does have a fair share of laughs and exudes warmth and charm with solid performances bringing to life characters you come to care about deeply. With families often unable to agree on anything from dessert to what to watch on TV after the football game’s over, these two choices make it easy for everyone to find something they’ll like on their own terms. On a final side note, "Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2" is out this weekend, and I have left it out of being my main review because it is the kind of movie that's critic-proof: those who want to see it will see it no matter what a critic says. But I'm happy to report that it is vastly better than last year's "Mockingjay Part 1," which provided almost no action and all talk in a tale of battling propaganda streams between lead heroes Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta (Josh Hutcherson). This new film has all the payoffs for the entire series, as the final rebellion against evil President Snow (Donald Sutherland) is finally happening, and there are numerous impressive action setpieces. As always in the series, there is no foul language, no sex and no nudity, but this one has some of the most intense action violence of the four-film series. There is an especially frightening sequence involving our heroes being chased by "mutts," a zombie-like mutant species of creatures that rampage after them in the capital city's sewers to amazing effect. It's an utterly stunning sequence, but is definitely more intense than anything else in the series and means that parents should take the PG13 rating seriously this time.
'The 33' highlights the power of prayer in Chilean miners' tale
Nov 16, 2015 / 00:00 amThere are harrowing moments when the entire world’s attention is riveted upon a tragedy, such as 9/11 or this past Friday’s terror attacks in Paris. Thankfully, there are also uplifting moments that unite the planet, and the rescue of 33 Chilean miners in 2010 after 69 days trapped in a mine after its collapse is a prime example of that kind of magic. The fact that the men, by any normal standard of science, should have been dead weeks before they were rescued was considered a modern-day miracle – especially because the men relied on the power of prayer to keep their spirits up and their minds and bodies whole. Now, the new movie “The 33” brings their incredible experience to life in a way that puts viewers smack in the heart of it all. Directed by Patricia Riggen, and based on the book “Deep Down Dark” by Hector Tobar, “The 33” manages to make a few of the miners stand out from the crowd and thus give viewers a few specific brave figures to hold onto throughout the depicted ordeal. Antonio Banderas and Lou Diamond Phillips of “La Bamba” fame should both be writing thank you notes to Warner Brothers studio and their agents, because these are the best roles they’ve had in a very long time. They make the most of the opportunity, bringing to life the normally mundane daily lives of these average, working-class men in Chile, most with families and all just wanting to make a living from the gold buried deep in the core of a desert mountain far outside their town. They trusted their bosses to keep them safe, but the mining chiefs were more concerned with making money than they were in investing in maintaining the infrastructure, and the resulting mine collapse showed that the only figures they could really trust were God Himself, their devoted wives and families, and each other. “The 33” sets the stage well for the drama that follows the collapse, as some men want to find any means of escape they can, another grabs too much of the emergency food for himself, and others draw strong battle lines between whether they are going to engage in hope or despair. But it also brings vibrant life to the strong and spirited women who gave unflagging support in the form of prayer, building a tent city with a school to keep themselves and their children near the collapse, and humanizing the daring government minister who, time and again, instructed teams of drillers and scientists to try every possible angle to save the men. Sure, the world knows that they survived, but everyone involved here does a masterful job of creating and maintaining suspense throughout. “The 33” is a superb mix of humor and hope, but and one that stands several steps above the recent crowd of other faith-based movies at the box office.
'Spotlight' handles extremely difficult subject with class
Nov 13, 2015 / 00:00 amEver since the priestly sex-abuse scandals emerged out of the Boston Archdiocese in 2002, setting off a domino chain of events that brought shame to dioceses around the world, it seemed inevitable that Hollywood would make a movie about them. With studios often seeming eager to make the Catholic Church and other Christian believers and institutions look bad, it’s surprising that it took so long for such a movie to be released, especially amid an improved climate for faithful filmgoers who have helped make a string of faith-based films score at the box office. But next weekend is when the first movie to deal with the scandals finally arrives. “Spotlight” is its name, and before I get into details, I’ll make it clear that it handles the extremely difficult topic with as much fairness and class as we could possibly hope for. Tackling the Globe’s major expose of the Catholic Church in Boston and beyond back in the early 2000s, “Spotlight” focuses on the paper’s Spotlight reporting team, which handles the paper’s most extensive and complicated investigations. As the movie begins, the team’s leader Walter “Robby” Robinson (Michael Keaton) is having dinner with a new chief editor, Marty Baron (Liev Schreiber), who is focused on making staff cuts and tells Robinson that his team had better find a hot story quick or risk being cut. They soon encounter a man who leads a group of Bostonians who claim to be sexual abuse survivors, and who had been victimized by a particular Catholic priest as children. While this man claims the paper had ignored his evidence five years before, Baron wants the Spotlight team to jump on the investigation into these allegations. The team of reporters is asked by Baron whether they are Catholic or have a bias against the Church, and all four respond that they are lapsed Catholics. One is now a practicing Presbyterian, while Sacha Pfeiffer (Rachel McAdams) considers herself lapsed but takes her devout grandma to Mass sometimes. Robby and Michael Rezendes (Mark Ruffalo) nonchalantly note their lapsed status. Before I continue the review, it needs to be made clear that despite their lapsed status, the movie depicts the reporters as objective and unbiased. There are absolutely no anti-Church or anti-Christian comments made in the movie, as it makes it clear that it’s men in the Church who caused the problem, not God Himself allowing it: the principle of humans failed us, not God. Even as they come to discover that six percent of Boston’s priests were accused (87 priests in total), that still makes it clear that 94 percent did nothing wrong. The movie does also claim in an offhand comment that according to a study by studies 50 percent of Catholic priests are believed to be breaking their vows of celibacy, which is certainly open to major questioning, but makes it clear that any such illicit relationships are mostly with women. Back to the story: as the reporters engage in trying to track down other abuse survivors and the priests who are accused of harming them, the investigation takes a personal toll on their emotions and spiritual lives. SPOILER ALERT: Sacha makes excuses to get out of bringing her grandma to church, leaving her to make it on her own; while Michael has the hardest time with it all, breaking down crying one night and saying he always felt bad about leaving the Church and wanted to go back to Mass, but now feels he has been betrayed nearly as much as the abuse victims. END SPOILER. Intriguingly, “Spotlight” doesn’t just show the Catholic Church’s abuses in this matter and the coverups, but also shows that there was an entire culture of corruption and cover ups across Boston, including the police and even one of their own editors. Everyone was afraid to take on an institution that was seen as representing God. The one Church official who comes off very negatively in detail is the former leader of Boston’s Archdiocese, or church government – Cardinal Law (Len Cariou), who is shown dismissing the problem and refusing to comment on their investigation, even as they find records showing he helped in the coverup. “Spotlight” is an extremely well-made and compelling movie, showing the hard work that goes into investigative journalism and the effects that a depressing story can have on those who report it. Director/co-writer Thomas McCarthy has made great films like “Win Win” and “The Station Agent” before, as well as the unfortunate Adam Sandler disaster “The Cobbler,” but he handles this movie and its difficult subject matter with as much taste and discretion as possible. Even as the movie focuses on the moral corruption of dozens of priests and their higher leaders, and ends with a shocking list of other cities around the US and the globe where similar scandals were quickly discovered after Boston, “Spotlight” never appears to have a heavy agenda. Even the darkest corners of history can merit a movie, and this is one that does it as well as could possibly be hoped.
'Spectre' brings more depth to Bond franchise
Nov 6, 2015 / 00:00 amDaniel Craig may be the sixth man to play James Bond, but he sure knows how to breathe new life into a series that has now spawned 26 films in 52 years. While 2009’s “Quantum of Solace” was a misfire, the others he’s made since taking over the iconic role of Britain’s top assassin — “Casino Royale,” “Skyfall,” and this weekend’s “Spectre” — have been infused with a mix of timely grit and a much greater depth of character for Bond, his support team and his arch-criminal rivals. With “Skyfall,” which soared to become the biggest box office hit in the series by miles, director Sam Mendes took the reins for a bracing escapade that brought Bond back to his boyhood roots. The final showdown was at his parents’ long-abandoned estate, while Bond also endured the shocking death of his dear friend and spy boss M (Judi Dench) and the destruction of his beloved Aston Martin. Mendes returns again with “Spectre,” sending Bond back into globetrotting action and into a worldwide race against time to stop the launch of an all-encompassing surveillance network that would make the NSA’s abusive programs look like a neighborhood Peeping Tom. The fact that Bond is battling forces that are both frightening in scope yet rooted in today’s headlines gives the movie a compelling kick beyond its amazing action sequences. “Spectre” opens with Bond going rogue in Mexico City, determined to assassinate a master assassin named Sciarra as a final favor to M. As often happens to guys like Bond, he received a video secretly after M’s death, with her asking him to avenge her by bringing down a far greater conspiracy — only to find that that assassination is only the beginning of much bigger problems. Bond takes Sciarra out with a clean shot, but seconds later an epic explosion brings down the entire building his prey was in, and an ensuing chase after an associate of Sciarra’s leads to a mayhem-filled helicopter ride that endangers a crowd of thousands below. While Bond makes it back to England in one piece, the new M (Ralph Fiennes) is furious that the Mexican mission was not official state business and he subjects Bond not only suspension, but also embeds him with a tracking device in his arm to make sure he doesn’t leave the country. The reason why he’s trying to keep Bond under wraps is that the two main British intelligence agencies are merging to form a more powerful operation, headed by C (Andrew Scott). C thinks that the idea of a one-man killing machine like Bond is outdated in times of ever-improving technology and wants to eliminate Bond’s position. But as Bond follows the other part of M’s videotaped wishes and attends Sciarra’s funeral in Rome, he discovers that the shadowy globalist society Spectre is meeting there as well, and that C’s plans for global surveillance have very sinister roots. While Bond thinks he can infiltrate their meeting in secrecy, Spectre’s apparent leader — a man named Oberhauser (Christoph Waltz) — is one step ahead of him and forces Bond to go on the run around the world if he wants to save it. “Spectre” is impressive on every level, from its cutting-edge plot and whiplash-fast pacing to a plethora of amazing action sequences that would each serve well as the climax for most any other film. With two-time Oscar winner Waltz aboard as the villain, following Javier Bardem’s bizarre turn as the bad guy in “Skyfall,” the movie also gives Bond a charismatic counterpoint to match his every move. But what really makes “Spectre” shine is its sense of fun, a quality that has been missing in Craig’s prior Bond movies as he attempted to ground the character in some reality. Here, Craig finally cuts loose with such absurd moments as falling several stories in a collapsing building only to land on a couch, or gleefully smirking as he deploys a series of top-notch technology in the new super-car he steals from his MI6 spy headquarters. As far as moral issues go, if you’re not aware of Bond’s illicit propensities towards one night stands and short-term affairs, then you likely haven’t ever seen one of these movies. In this one, Bond almost immediately engages in a casual one-nighter with the widow of Sciarra right after his funeral, a situation that is not only immoral but illogical – the one logic weak spot in the movie. Viewers will see the widow (who despised her criminal husband, but that of course still doesn’t justify promiscuity) with her bare back exposed after her dress slips off, but the scene fades out with passionate kisses. Bond’s other liaison with another woman, which actually manages to last through the few days of the film’s escapades, also is shown through passionate kissing that fades out. There is very little foul language – just a couple of S words – and of course there’s plenty of violence, most of which is the non-bloody, over-the-top ridiculous style that could never be taken seriously and provides undeniable thrills. There is one gruesome moment in which a vicious bad guy proves his skills to the Spectre meeting by gouging a man’s eyes out and snapping his neck, but again, this is really too ludicrous to be offensive. For teens and adults, it’s a fine film as long as teens are grounded in the reality that promiscuity is a serious moral offense. Otherwise, it’s a great time at the movies, and a great start to a holiday season that still offers epic fun with the new Quentin Tarantino film “The Hateful Eight” and the rebirth of the “Star Wars” series. With Bond in peak form at the top of November, there will be a lot more than 12 days of Christmas for movie buffs this year.
'Steve Jobs' an emotional portrait of a complex man
Oct 23, 2015 / 00:00 amThe TV ads for the new movie “Steve Jobs,” about the legendary business mogul who founded Apple and gave the world the Macintosh and iMac computers in addition to iPods, iPads and smartphones, ask an intriguing question: “Can a great man also be a good man?” It’s the kind of question Jesus asked frequently in offering His listeners parables such as the one about the Pharisee and the publican, and it’s truly a question for each of us to ask ourselves. Written by Aaron Sorkin, who won an Oscar for “The Social Network” screenplay, and directed by Danny Boyle, who scored a Best Director and Best Picture Oscar for “Slumdog Millionaire,” “Steve Jobs” takes a unique stylistic approach with its portrait of a man who was beloved by millions worldwide, yet couldn’t be a loving father to his first daughter for most of her childhood. Rather than following him in a straight narrative line from his childhood to his death, it follows Jobs and how he handled the pressure on the three biggest days of his career: the launches of the Macintosh and iMac, and the unveiling of his newer company, Next, which he founded after being chased out of Apple. In each segment, he is dealing with backstage drama on two levels: corporate intrigues in which products are at risk of failure and business partners argue with him over receiving fair credit for their efforts, and personal intrigues involving his ex-girlfriend Chrisanne Brennan and their daughter, Lisa. The corporate intrigues center on moments such as Jobs’ insistence that the Macintosh computer be able to say “Hi” to a huge live audience of shareholders, even as the technology is failing him right up until the last minutes before its unveiling. There are also battles over whether his newer company, Next, will fail because he was more concerned with creating a perfectly measured cube casing for a computer that doesn’t work properly, and whether he can make a comeback with his seemingly last-gasp launch of the IMac personal computer. Boyle and Sorkin wring maximum suspense and drama out of these moments, aided greatly by the winning efforts of an ace cast including Michael Fassbender as Jobs, Kate Winslet as his top lieutnenant Joanna and especially Seth Rogen as Steve Wozniak, Apple’s co-founder who spends years in frustration just trying to get Jobs to offer public thanks for the team that launched the company’s first (and, for a long time, only) successful product, the Apple II computer. Yet it’s the personal side of the story that’s even better, and which makes “Steve Jobs” a potential classic. For here we see Jobs as a fascinatingly flawed man, one who could inspire thousands of workers and hundreds of millions of consumers worldwide into embracing his visionary ideas, but who still often couldn’t be a decent partner to the mother of his child or a father to that girl. In fact, the movie makes much drama out of the fact that Jobs told Time magazine that Lisa wasn’t his child, and even told the magazine that, based on his blood type alone, over 28 percent of American men could have been the father. Yet it’s here, in showing a coldblooded and ruthless man start to melt over the years into having genuine affection for his child, that “Steve Jobs” becomes both magical and memorable. There are quite a few of Jobs’ former colleagues and family members who feel that the movie offers an unfair portrait of the man, and his wife (whom he married years after Lisa was born, and with whom he had three other children who seem to regard him as a good father) even actively interfered in the movie’s casting by begging Christian Bale not to play the role of Jobs. His life is far too complex to analyze in-depth, but it’s hard to believe any audience member won‘t be so entertained by this expertly made movie to really care. “Steve Jobs” is rated R for its foul language, and there certainly about 50 F words, and at least 20 uses of God’s name in vain including uses of “GD” scattered throughout the movie. Yet it doesn’t feel exploitative in the context of its emotionally charged scenes, and certainly shouldn’t pose a problem for most adult viewers.
Some scary movies worth seeing this weekend
Oct 16, 2015 / 00:00 amEveryone loves getting a little scared during Halloween season, and this weekend offers two distinctly different kinds of frights for distinctly different audiences – yet both are highly recommended as being among the best films of the year so far. “Goosebumps” offers Jack Black at his best in a “Ghostbusters”-quality romp that is the most entertaining family movie of the year (though any age will absolutely love it on their own, regardless of family), while the powerful indie drama “Room” offers a unique kind y of fright that’s strictly for adults before transforming into an incredibly uplifting and one-of-a-kind experience. We’ll start with “Goosebumps,” since I can’t recommend it highly enough for any viewer of any age. Based on a series of children’s novels that were half-humorous, half-horror stories involving monsters on rampages and kids who always saved the day, “Goosebumps” has long confounded Hollywood producers eager to build a successful film on top of the books, which have sold 400 million copies worldwide. There were just too many wild adventures to choose from. But Sony Pictures has succeeded, big time, by casting Black as the actual, real-life author of the “Goosebumps” books: R.L. Stine. In the movie, he plays the dad of a mysterious and witty teen girl named Hannah (Odeya Rush), who loves surprising and joking with her new next-door neighbor and fellow teen, Zach (Dylan Minnette) – who has just moved to Hannah’s small Delaware town from New York City with his mom after the death of his father. At first, Zach is content to just blend into his new town, but when R.L. keeps warning Zach to stay away from Hannah before Zach sees him yelling at her, he’s afraid she’s being abused and enlists his odd and geeky new friend Champ (Ryan Lee, who steals the show) to go save her. But it turns out that what’s really happening is much stranger, as the two would-be heroes sneak into his house and discover who R.L. is and that his handwritten collection of first edition books have a surprising secret: when they are opened, the creatures in each story actually spring to life and enter the real world. And so it is that an epic and hilarious series of misadventures ensues over the course of that long night, with the teen trio and Stine himself racing across their town to catch up with everything from an abominable snowman and a werewolf to a giant praying mantis. The only person who can stop the creatures is Stine, first by luring the creatures back into the books they sprang out of, and then by writing an entirely new novel that imagines the capture of every creature they’ve unleashed. “Goosebumps” has a perfectly pitched tone, balancing laughs and thrills in equal measure thanks to a terrific script by Darren Lemke and expert direction by Rob Letterman. Black is the only possible choice for the role of Stine, since he plays perfectly into his unique screen persona with just the right amount of mischievous energy to be appealing to both kids and adults. The trio of teen actors is perfectly cast as well, mixing comedy, a bit of sadness and a whole lot of action into performances that bodes well for long careers, and especially further monster-mashup adventures. Tie all this together with great monster effects, and you’ve got a real winner anytime of year, but especially perfect for the Halloween season. This PG-rated film is ok for all ages, but while it’s likely even more fun in 3D, it’s perfectly entertaining in the normal 2D format I saw it in. Meanwhile, “Room” – which opens this weekend in New York and LA before expanding nationwide on Oct. 30 – offers an entirely different kind of chills in its first hour or so. It tells the emotionally wrenching but ultimately highly uplifting story of a five year old boy who has spent his entire life trapped in a storage shed room with his mother, who was forced to conceive him when she was raped by a man who kidnapped her as a teenager. While this might sound like an unbelievably bleak and hopeless idea for a movie, the fact that it’s presented through the eyes of young Jack (Jacob Tremblay) and his innocent view of the world around him mitigates matters considerably. We see and hear his thoughts, which are fantastical views of the limited world around him – falsely positive and imaginative views taught to him by his Ma (Brie Larson, in a performance that merits a surefire Oscar nomination) in order to distract him from their horrific circumstances. Those circumstances include still being under the control of Ma’s kidnapper, Old Nick, who brings them barely edible food for survival but subjects her to forced sex on a regular basis outside the view of both Jack and the audience. After Nick attempts to choke her one night in a fit of anger, Ma decides it’s time to give Jack a crash course in the real world and teach him how to carry out a daring escape plan that’s their only hope for survival in the real world. That plan is so daring and nervewracking in its execution that the audience I saw it with all hunched forward on the edge of their seats in slack-jawed suspense. I do have to give away that it succeeds in the most unlikely of ways, because the mother and son’s newfound freedom opens up an entirely new story of opportunity as well as difficulties adjusting to the outside world. It’s exceedingly rare to find a movie like “Room,” which has such a unique plot (by Emma Donohue, based on her own novel of the same name) that it offers up three movies in one: a claustrophobic drama of tragedy, terror and selfless motherly devotion, a nervewracking thriller and an uplifting tale of wonder, all in the space of two hours. This is absolutely a movie for adults, but it does handle its most disturbing aspects offscreen and with great restraint, and aside from its initially harrowing subject matter, its R rating only comes from about ten F words and a few uses of God’s name in vain, rather than a fusillade of profanity. As its characters manage to find hope even from the bleakest of circumstances, “Room” also manages to make viewers appreciate every little positive aspect of their own lives. This is meaningful art of the highest order, and a thorough recommendation for viewers who can handle its emotional rollercoaster.
'The Walk' is worth running to the theater for
Oct 9, 2015 / 00:00 amWhen we’re children, we all have a crazy dream inside of us, a secret wish that we could do something so truly amazing that the whole world would notice. For many, it’s a desire to be able to fly, soaring like Superman through the skies. Most of us get over those dreams as we become more aware of the world and our limitations. But for one Frenchman named Phillippe Petit, the dream of doing something daring in the sky and having the whole world notice never went away. He even found a way to come closer to the experience of flying than almost any person in history, by walking a tightrope between the rooftops of those iconic buildings an amazing eight times one morning in 1974. And thanks to an utterly astonishing ability to use the most cutting-edge film technology available today, director Robert Zemeckis has managed to make audiences feel they’re right there with Petit in the amazing – and family-friendly – new movie, “The Walk.” Starring Joseph-Gordon Levitt as Petit, “The Walk” immediately makes use of its star’s innate charm by having him talk to the audience in character, setting up Petit’s highly unusual story in unusual fashion. Petit is standing in the narrow walkway surrounding the flame held aloft by the Statue of Liberty, and speaks enthusiastically to the audience in a way that wins them over with the same charisma the real-life daredevil used to build a team of accomplices who helped him pull off his near-impossible feat. The narration guides us further through Petit’s childhood, showing how he accomplished daring feats from a young age, and developed a passion for learning all manner of circus tricks from juggling to tightrope walking. Kicked out of his home by his parents during his teen years, Petit managed to get taken under the wing of Papa Rudy (Ben Kingsley), the patriarch of a family of daredevils traveling as acrobats in a circus. Moving up from street performing to walking a rope between the towers of Notre Dame Cathedral, Petit had one dream above all: to move to New York City, where he could find the ultimate skyscrapers to walk between. And so he arrived in New York in 1974 with his supportive girlfriend in tow and a team of friends with different types of expertise who could help him plot and execute his walk at what were about to be two of the tallest and most secure buildings in the world. That elaborate setup, involving Petit and friends using a number of disguises to gain access to the World Trade Center’s inner workings in preparation for an early-morning sneak-in that was more finely conceived than the best bank heists, is what moves ”The Walk” into entertaining overdrive. Director Robert Zemeckis, who has helmed classics ranging from “Back to the Future” and “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” to “Forrest Gump” and “Flight,” then takes every trick he’s ever learned as a master of special effects to suck the audience in right alongside Petit as he steps out onto the wire and makes jaw-dropping history. Now, I can’t vouch for how the movie comes across in regular 2D viewing, and I understand that 3D and “The Walk” is like no other movie you have ever seen, and I am telling you that if you can afford it, see it in 3D and if possible at an IMAX theater, because you WILL feel like you’re up there with Petit, and the stunning sense of making entire audiences feel the thrill just as much as Petit did is a truly rare entertainment experience that will likely be appreciated fondly for a lifetime. Kudos go out to Zemeckis and everyone involved for managing to make the movie spine-tinglingly tense while somehow making it OK for kids to handle the tension, in addition to keeping it clean with little or no foul language. The only thing that might make parents get annoyed is that Petit decides the best way to feel if a narrow piece of rope reached his rooftop from the other Trade Center rooftop is to strip naked and feel around for it in the dark with every available inch of skin. But the moment is so off the wall and silly, offering comic relief from all the tension while devoid of any sexual pretext, that seeing a bare-bottomed Petit dancing around in the dark for five to ten seconds should not spark any sinful thoughts in any viewer and should also not spark any parental concerns. Filled with wondrous special effects that seem all too real, a witty and tension-packed screenplay that ultimately inspires viewers to make their own dreams come true, and a highly charismatic performance from Gordon-Levitt, “The Walk” is worth running to the theater for.
'Sicario' explores moral dilemmas against action-packed backdrop
Oct 8, 2015 / 00:00 amWhen faced with pure evil, how far can one go in the pursuit of justice and revenge? That is the fascinating question at the heart of the drug-war thriller “Sicario,” which puts audiences smack in the middle of the action as well as the moral dilemmas of a young female FBI agent surrounded by supervisors who might be corrupt themselves. Set amid the dusty, almost lunar landscapes of Arizona border towns and the notoriously crime-ridden Mexican city of Juarez, “Sicario” gives audiences a harrowingly close-up look at the US war against drug cartels. The movie’s point of view comes from Kate (Emily Blunt), an idealistic young FBI agent who is shaken to the core by a raid gone wrong in which a massive explosion kills and injures fellow agents and leaves her momentarily deaf and disoriented. Even worse, she finds that the house they were raiding has secret spaces inside its walls – enough so that she and her team find over 30 rotting corpses, wrapped in plastic and entombed where no one was ever supposed to find them. Kate wants to know who was responsible for this so she can get righteous revenge by bringing the murderous drug gang to justice, and is pulled from her unit to meet with a team of CIA officials who want her to join a daring and covert CIA mission to take down the drug lord responsible. Her two main bosses on the CIA side are the cocky and swaggering Matt (Josh Brolin), and the mysterious Mexican smooth talker Alejandro (Benicio del Toro), who it slowly emerges is a man willing to cross the ethical lines of torture to get answers. Kate’s desire to play by the books conflicts with Matt’s idea to nab criminals at all costs, and she finds herself in the grip of a plot that is ever darker and more ethically and morally questionable at every turn. “Sicario” is a Mexican slang word for hitman, and that is the approach that Kate’s new supervisors adopt towards their work and expect her to follow. But since she has ideals and a clear-cut moral view of the world and her work in it, Kate doesn’t see herself as just a killer. She’s torn about whether to seek the drug lord’s murder at all costs, or to play by the rules of engagement that she has been trained with. In her role as Kate, Blunt expertly conveys her confusion and rattled emotional state, giving her a conscience that almost no other character in the movie has. Her performance is a bit off-beat, as Blunt doesn’t play hers with the righteous swagger that Brolin brings to his character, and instead draws viewers in by making them relate to her moral confusion. Brolin brings a more conventional macho-man approach to his role as a veteran agent who can only laugh in the face of the horrors he’s experienced, and who has become nearly desensitized to concerns about the ethical boundaries he’s supposed to contend with. But It’s Del Toro who nearly steals the show, with a character who bears strong similarities to the heroic Mexican cop he played to Oscar-winning effect in the 2000 movie “Traffic.” As Kate and the audience learn the full extent of Alejandro’s pain, “Sicario” asks viewers to really take themselves to the ethical edge and ask: what would they do if they knew the person responsible for costing them everything they held dear? Can you forgive them truly? Does justice mean killing them and wiping out all chance of them ever committing wrong again, or letting them simply face a trial that could let them off easy? And is it ok that innocent people are caught in the literal and metaphorical crossfire along the way? All of these are tough and valid questions to ask, especially in a political season in which building a wall on the Mexican border has been widely debated, and “Sicario” never feels exploitative in dealing with them. Director Denis Villeneuve shows us the horrors involved in fighting against cartels, but it all feels justifiable in the context of its R rating and subject matter. Viewers should be forewarned that there is frequent foul language throughout, as well as a disturbing quick scene from mid-distance of four dead naked bodies who were killed by drug cartels and are left hanging upside down off a bridge in the middle of Juarez. As ugly as that is, it is also a sad reality the movie is justified in making viewers aware. Yet make no mistake, this is a hard movie to watch, even as it’s rivetingly difficult to look away from. If you’re squeamish, stay away, but most adults should find plenty to consider and discuss in this brilliant movie.
'The Intern' offers something for everyone
Sep 28, 2015 / 00:00 amIn a movie world awash in clichéd romantic comedies or raunchy sex romps, there’s something downright refreshing about the new movie “The Intern.” It’s a story about a friendship between a man and a woman – one that never threatens to be sexualized, and which shows that there can be great beauty and wisdom shared between the genders, and even more importantly between generations. Coming amid a week in which Pope Francis’ visit to the US is helping (among other things) draw attention to the dignity of the human spirit, this is a beautiful example of putting those values in action. The movie stars Robert DeNiro and Anne Hathaway, both of whom have Oscar-winning pedigrees and who team up with writer-director Nancy Meyers to create a film that’s not only refreshingly clean in its values but also in its often hilarious comedic sense. Meyers has established herself as Hollywood’s greatest female director of comedies, thanks to modern classics like “Something’s Gotta Give,” “It’s Complicated” and “The Holiday,” and here she comes up with perhaps her biggest winner yet. The movie follows a 70-year-old widower named Ben (Robert DeNiro), who is retired and lonely and has been filling the void in his life with a slew of classes and activities like tai chi. When a hip Web-based fashion company owned by a much younger married mom named Jules Ostin (Anne Hathaway) announces that it’s looking for senior citizens as interns as part of a community outreach, Ben applies and scores a position. Yet while Ben quickly ingratiates himself with the 20somethings who dominate the staff, giving them valuable life lessons and the wisdom of his years, Jules is distant to him and barely gives him anything to do. She thinks that the internship is a dumb publicity stunt created by her partner, but when Ben takes over for her driver one day after he sees the man sneaking swigs of alcohol, Jules gets to know him well and realizes he’s magic. Thus begins a fresh and wonderful friendship, in a series of incidents that alternate hilarious comic moments with touchingly tender ones. Along the way, Ben has to lead a break-in into Jules’ mom’s house so he and a trio of the young guys can find the mom’s laptop and delete a mean-spirited email from Jules before she gets home, and he also finds himself serving as Jules’ emotional lifeline when he discovers her stay-home-dad husband (Anders Holm) is having an affair. He also begins a sweet relationship with the company masseuse (Rene Russo). “The Intern” sneaks up on viewers, at first appearing to be an almost-random series of events from the characters’ lives. But as they are drawn into their well-written and acted characters, audiences will find that they genuinely care about these people – even the goofy young-guy interns and the cheating husband – in a way that’s all too rare in today’s mainstream Hollywood movies. One other bonus in “The Intern” is that writer-director Meyers has a lot of spot-on things to say about marriage, forgiveness, and what constitutes a real man in today’s Peter Pan culture. The young guys learn from Ben to spiff up their attire, appreciate briefcases, and truly talk to women rather than merely text or email them. Meanwhile, Meyers shows Jules and her husband learning that switching traditional gender/parent roles can go too far, and stands up for a more traditional way of life. For a female director who’s drawn to creating strong female roles in her movies, Meyers has a surprisingly pro-masculine take on relationships both at work and at home. With the savvy casting of two of our classiest current stars, “The Intern” literally has something for everyone young and old, male and female. And with its adultery plotline merely implied and discussed in non-graphic terms and just one F word constituting the reason for its PG13 rating, it’s perfectly acceptable fare for any teen or adult who wants to see it.
'Black Mass' proves to be empty and depressing
Sep 18, 2015 / 00:00 amJohnny Depp is an actor who knows how to completely submerge himself in a role, and for most of his career, he has been putting those skills into the service of quirky movies kids could enjoy, ranging from “Pirates of the Caribbean” to “Alice in Wonderland” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” But in the last few years, he’s had one flop after another with flicks like “Dark Shadows” and “The Lone Ranger,” and many fans have been wondering when he’s going to try something completely different than being whimsical and painted in makeup. Well, he’s delivered that switcheroo this weekend, with the unfortunately titled “Black Mass,” in which he plays the real-life, legendary crime lord Jim “Whitey” Bulger, who terrified Boston for years before abruptly disappearing when the feds closed in on him. Bulger lived in hiding for a dozen years before the law caught up with him in Santa Monica, California in 2011 and finally brought him to justice. Before I get into the plot or anything else, I do want to address that I think Hollywood’s timing in putting out the movie is, well, interesting. The release date for “Black Mass” was set right around the time that Pope Francis’ American visit was first announced by the Vatican, and so it’s at best odd timing that His Holiness will have to travel around big cities with the movie’s poster and its title constantly shoved in his face. But the title of the movie may not be as nefarious as it seems. It’s the same as the book it’s based upon, and that book referred to “Black Mass” not for any direct Satanic purpose but as a hint towards Bulger’s odd dual life as a man who was a ruthless killer and drug kingpin at the same time he attended Mass and sat silently in his local parish even amidst his worst reign. The movie kicks off in the 1970s and South Boston, aka “Southie,” the same kind of place seen in Ben Affleck’s far more involving films “Gone Baby Gone” and “The Town” (for my money, the best heist movie of the past 20 years next to “Heat.”) An FBI agent named John Connolly (Joel Edgerton) wants to bring down the Italian Mob from the north side of Boston, and decides the fastest and easiest way to do it is by teaming up with his old childhood buddy, Whitey Bulger (Johnny Depp). When they first talk, Bulger is still a fairly small-time street king, but as he provides info that can take down the Italians and other criminals, Connolly starts looking the other way about his criminal activities. Soon, the Mob is brought down and Bulger has managed to take over much of their trade – and all the lies, double-talk and other help Connolly has provided comes back to haunt him when a new FBI boss notices just how chummy he and Whitey are. From there, the movie is a slow-burn examination of corruption and what the lines are that good men will cross and that bad men ultimately won’t. While this is interesting philosophical and moral territory (albeit STRICTLY for adult viewers, and even then, only those not easily offended), it’s ultimately empty and depressing as well. The problem with a true-crime picture is that it’s almost impossible to hide the ending from viewers, because their sensational subjects often made national news when they were finally shot dead or apprehended. So the point of watching the movie has to lie in how well it casts its spell along the way to that foregone conclusion, and providing moviegoers with a fascinating portrait of how someone becomes evil. Usually, Hollywood remembers to include a heroic lawman to root for along the way. Yet while the movie is beautifully shot, has a fantastic score that would be worth listening to aside from the film, and has terrific acting across the board, it’s strangely offputting at best and scummy at worst. When everyone in it is evil, and their actions get progressively worse throughout the movie, it’s impossible to sympathize with anyone. As you’ll see in another movie column coming over this weekend or Monday at the latest, there are plenty of more uplifting movies out there now. In fact, there’s likely to be three Christian-themed movies at the box office this weekend – “War Room,” “90 Minutes in Heaven,” and “Captive” – and any of those will put your mind in a better pre-Papal-visit place than “Black Mass.”
M. Night Shyamalan thrills in new film, 'The Visit'
Sep 11, 2015 / 00:00 amPaying a visit to your grandparents when you’re a kid should be one of the best memories of your childhood. But what if you just knew that something was, well, a little bit odd and off-kilter about them – and that that oddness could possibly be hiding something downright sinister? That’s the delicious premise of writer/director M. Night Shyamalan’s delicious new scarefest “The Visit,” one of the year’s most innovative and entertaining movies. I guarantee you’ll be moved at moments, be laughing hard at others, and be thoroughly on the edge of your seat throughout nearly the entire movie. It’s one of the year’s best, in my opinion. The story follows Becca (Olivia DeJonge), a girl in her early teens who volunteers to go visit her mom’s parents for the first time, along with her younger brother Tyler (Ed Oxenbould) so that their mom (Kathryn Hahn) can enjoy a getaway cruise with her boyfriend and hopefully come back engaged. The children and mom had been abandoned by their dad for a younger woman several years ago, causing deep emotional trauma for the kids that the movie reveals in pieces throughout as they finally learn to deal with it in a healthy way. Becca is shooting the weeklong visit with Nana (Deanna Dunagan) and Pop Pop (Peter McRobbie) as a homemade video documentary gift for her mom, and the movie is shown through the point of view of the camera. This approach of “found footage” has been overused in the past 15 years, but here the actual writer-director M. Night Shyamalan finds countless inventive and visually stunning ways to employ the tactic to expert effect. The visit starts pleasantly enough, though the grandparents are extremely out-of-touch with modern society and technology. But as the days – and especially nights – go by, they realize that Nana and Pop Pop are prone to extremely strange behavior after 9:30 p.m. each night, and they start to investigate the strange noises from around the house despite being warned not to leave their rooms after that time. The movie has an ingenious balance of scares and laughs throughout, as the kids and the audience are left to wonder if the grandparents are just odd, or flat-out dangerous, and why they act in such strange fashion. SPOILER ALERT: There is a shocking twist, as in the best of Shyamalan’s movies, which we won’t give away here. However, the climax has two disturbing implied (unseen yet vivid in the imagination) moments: a child stabbing an elderly person to death in self-defense, and another child having to kill another elderly person in self-defense by smashing a refrigerator door repeatedly into their head. END SPOILER “The Visit” is a great return to form for Shyamalan, who was being hailed as the new Hitchcock-meets-Spielberg after his early run of classics (“The Sixth Sense,” “Unbreakable,” “Signs”) before he tumbled into one of the worst career losing streaks in modern times. The movie constantly keeps viewers on the edge of their seats, wondering if the kids are in danger, then how much danger, then how the kids will get out of that danger. The only real problem with the movie is in its climax, which is hidden within the spoiler alert above. Here, the kids are in so much peril and are forced to find such unpleasant ways out of danger, that the movie almost loses viewer sympathy before coming back strongly with its aftermath. The fact that the movie has sparse foul language, implies most of its violence, and has no sex – though the rear nudity shown from Nana in her deranged state is a momentary shock that’s also played for awkward laughs – means that any adult can enjoy this without much caution and older teens will love it too. In fact, having older teens see a truly masterful horror thriller like “The Visit” might inspire them to check out other smartly done thrillers from masters like Hitchcock and elevate their movie interests from much of the schlock perpeatrated in the name of thrills these days. It also has a beautiful denouement in which the kids’ mother comes to terms with the sad end she had to her relationship with her parents 15 years before, and inspires the filmmaking daughter to also forgive her own heartache with a family member. This message of family and forgiveness is a powerful and valuable asset to the movie, making “The Visit” well worth a visit in the theater on scary, funny and touching levels.
'A Walk in the Woods' and 'The Gift'
Sep 5, 2015 / 00:00 amThere’s something to be said for expert craftsmanship, whether one is considering a car or a fine piece of furniture. It can also apply to artistic formats like movies, and the new film “A Walk in the Woods” is a prime example of how truly ace veteran actors can elevate what might seem to be a simple story into absolutely exquisite entertainment. Starring Robert Redford in the best role he’s had this century, as well as Nick Nolte in the kind of career-capping role that could win him an Oscar next year, “Walk” is based on the wildly popular book of the same name by popular humorist and nature writer Bill Bryson. Redford plays Bryson, who in his senior years developed an itch to go on one last great manly adventure by hiking the Appalachian Trail. But because his wife (Emma Thompson) finds a trove of news articles listing people who have died via accidents, animal attacks or outright murder along the trail while hiking solo, she is so worried that Bill decides to find a hiking partner to assuage her fears. He invites lots of friends, but everyone has an old-age excuse not to go – except for Stephen Katz (Nick Nolte), the very definition of a frenemy, or friend/enemy, who still owes Bill $600 from a disastrous escapade they shared 40 years ago. Bill wants to hike the entire trail, a total of five million steps up most of the East Coast through wilderness and mountains, in all kinds of weather from sunny to snow-driven. Stephen wants to cheat the process any chance he can, always looking for hotels to sleep in or a ride to move them up the road. Together, the comic differences between the reserved Bill and the earthy Stephen create comedy gold, and while there is profanity scattered fairly frequently throughout the movie, it’s the kind of good-natured man-to-man smack-talking that is nearly impossible to be offended by. Redford looks like he’s having a ball, thankfully leaving behind the dreary political pseudo-thrillers that have constituted much of his output in the past decade. Nolte is a wonder to behold, using his genuinely craggy old looks and rough real life to give deep shadings to Stephen, especially in a couple of moving scenes where he discusses his lifelong struggle with alcohol – a battle Nolte has famously faced as well. But more than that, Nolte’s timing and physical comedy sense is astonishingly well-used. Nearly every movement he makes from falling down to struggling through a doorway, is packed with little bits of motion that take the mundane to mirth. Add in breathtaking scenery, a terrific supporting cast with name veterans like Mary Steenburgen and Nick Offerman in even the smallest roles, and a fantastic screenplay plus sterling direction from Ken Kwapis, and you’ll want to run, not walk to see this movie. Trust me, even if you’re way younger than the likely target audience of retirees, this is a highly enjoyable movie. A great film of an entirely different sort has been scaring up good word-of-mouth for the past month, but I somehow missed it until last weekend. “The Gift” stars Jason Bateman, who normally acts in raunchy comedies like “Horrible Bosses,” in a thoughtful, foreboding and intelligent thriller that would make Hitchcock proud. Focusing on Bateman’s character Simon, who has followed a promotion to a new job and life in California after bad luck in Chicago that is only mysteriously hinted at in the script, “The Gift” shows what happens when Simon and his wife Robyn (Rebecca Hall) run into a strange old high school acquaintance of his named Gordo (played by Joel Edgerton, who also wrote and directed the movie). Gordo seems a little too eager to reconnect, and sure enough, he soon leaves a bottle of fine wine on their front doorstep that has to be reciprocated with a dinner invitation – and that’s where the cat and mouse games begin. Now, most movies of this type would just be potboilers in which it’s easy to determine the heroes and villains, and where the lines of black and white, good and bad, are clearly drawn. But “The Gift” is vastly smarter than that, and instead keeps viewers’ heads spinning throughout as one unexpected revelation after another is made and the back and forth of revenge and retribution escalate – yet impressively with a minimum of violence and foul language compared to most R-rated thrillers. Yet even on that level, this isn’t a prurient movie that’s merely existing to draw viewers in for cheap thrills. It’s also a deep mediation on forgiveness, and whether we can truly escape our pasts or always live in fear of having our worst moments be discovered. And by the end, a Bible verse plays a key part in all of the proceedings, as Edgerton realizes he’s crafted a modern parable for our times. “The Gift” is definitely not the feel-good movie of the summer, but it may be the most intelligent and genuinely exciting one. It will also certainly give you plenty to talk about on the way home, and that’s a rare gift indeed in the current cinematic climate.
'No Escape' movie review
Aug 29, 2015 / 00:00 amImagine being a dad with a wife, two young daughters, and a well-paying engineering career, and then losing your job abruptly. The best new job that comes up is overseas, in Southeast Asia, which seems like a culture shock, but you hope for the best and sign on. The company wants you so badly, they’ve even put your image on a giant welcoming banner and hung it outside the finest hotel in the city. Everything should be great – but you don’t speak the language and haven’t seen a newspaper in three days, so you have no idea that your new country’s leader was just executed in a bloody coup. Only when you leave the hotel to find a copy of USA Today do you realize that the unruly mob that has taken over the city hates Americans and wants every one of them to die – especially you, the face on the banner representing American imperialism to them. What do you do? Where do you run? How do you get your family out safely? Those are the bone-chilling questions at the heart of the new movie “No Escape,” a white-knuckle thriller that expertly uses its star, Owen Wilson, as an American everyman in a horrific situation that will have viewers on the edge of their seats and fully engaged throughout most of its running time. Packed with one harrowing twist after another, the movie also manages to make Wilson’s character, Jack Dwyer, and his family people worth rooting for. The movie, written by the brother filmmaking team of John Erick and Drew Dowdle, with John Erick directing, sets events up calmly and efficiently in the opening moments by showing the Dwyer family on the plane over to Asia. They make acquaintances with a mysterious British man named Hammond (Pierce Brosnan), who says some cryptically strange things about the unnamed country they’re headed towards and then, upon landing, introduces them to a friendly local driver who nicknamed himself after country singer Kenny Rogers. It seems like the family is one that is happy yet in a stressful transition, and when anti-American rioting breaks out while Jack is buying that newspaper, his wife Annie (Lake Bell, in a terrific performance) breaks down crying and admits that she doesn’t know if she can trust his judgment anymore. But to stay alive, she’ll have to put on a brave face and keep her kids calm and very very quiet if they are to survive amid all the running, jumping, Moped-racing and gunfights that ensue. While most of the movie is a pulse-pounding thriller as well as a positive portrait of utmost devotion to family, “No Escape” has one particularly astonishing sequence that set the entire audience into audible gasps. Jack and his family are trapped on a rooftop where they were waiting with other Americans for rescue helicopters, only to find that the copter has been hijacked by coup member determined to shoot everyone on sight. There’s only one way out: jump to the rooftop of another building. But this is nowhere near being easy, and sets off an utterly ingenious action setpiece that should leave no viewer able to watch without rooting and gasping loudly. Too bad that sequence comes a half hour into the film, rather than at its climax. But other than a too-perfect appearance from a person who can save the family at the very moment that all seems hopeless, “No Escape” is solid entertainment for adults. The movie features brief bursts of F words scattered far apart, along with a few lesser swear word. Most of the film’s R rating comes from its violence, which can seem harsh at a few moments but is largely left to the imagination or shot from afar. In particular, Annie is grabbed by a group of native bad guys who are attempting to sexually assault her, but the scene is shot with discretion and she is saved from that situation before anything can happen to her. All in all, “No Escape” is surprisingly effective escapism amid the late-summer drought of good films at the box office and is solid entertainment for thriller fans 17 and over.
Don't be fooled -- 'Grandma' lacks any redeeming qualities
Aug 27, 2015 / 00:00 amWe’ve entered the dog days of summer, in which all the cool movies were released weeks ago, and we’re stuck with the movies consigned to the cinematic trash heap. This week’s big releases, “American Ultra” and “Hitman: Agent 47,” were barely even shown to critics, if at all. But sneaking into the bottom of the pile is one movie, “Grandma,” that most critics seem to like – with 80 percent approval according to Rotten Tomatoes, a site that collects dozens of the nation’s critics’ reviews. Don’t believe the hype on this one, though, as it’s the most vile movie to come down the pike in years. Maybe ever. And I’ve seen a lot of movies, folks. This isn’t so much a movie, as it is an 80-minute piece of pro-abortion propaganda that Planned Parenthood itself couldn’t have made more offensive. The plot is simple, as a nasty, foul-mouthed small-town lesbian grandma (one of those oppressed small-town women who had to hide their true nature and get married before America came to its senses, of course) named Elle (Lily Tomlin) finds that her granddaughter Sage (Julia Garner) has gotten pregnant and wants an abortion that she has no funds for. Over the course of a day, we follow Elle as she takes Sage on a string of ugly visits to friends and family in search of raising the $600 needed for the abortion. The two confront the father of the child, Sage’s worthless boyfriend (Nat Wolff); an old boyfriend of Elle’s (Sam Elliott); a transsexual hairdresser friend of Elle’s (Laverne Cox) who says Elle helped her with something in the past that’s implied to be morally illicit; Elle’s much-younger ex-girlfriend (Judy Greer) and finally Elle’s daughter (Marcia Gay Harden), whom she convinces to pay for the remaining portion of Sage’s abortion fee. In other words, it’s just a sweet little slice of small-town American life. Or rather, how Hollywood likes to imagine small-town America, while actually scoffing at it from their elite West Coast perches. Throughout, the subject matter is utterly offensive and the characters are shrill, profane, unlikeable loudmouths, with no one winning over any sane viewer’s heart. Writer-director Paul Weitz co-directed the morally abominable “American Pie” and sinks to even lower depths here, which is a shame because he’s also proven capable of making wonderfully heartfelt movies like “About A Boy.” It’s a shame that Lily Tomlin, who in the 1970s and ‘80s was a comic genius, seems committed to advancing as thoroughly twisted a message as possible into her work as she fades out into the twilight of her years. A lesbian herself, who married her longtime partner in 2013, Tomlin has also managed to draw critical praise in recent months as the co-star (with Jane Fonda, go figure) of “Frankie & Grace,” a Netflix sitcom about two senior citizen females who discover their longtime husbands have been carrying on an affair together for decades. Shame on Martin Sheen for taking on the role of one of those husbands and making light of what has to be a devastating situation for the thankfully rare women who go through it in real life. But the critics loved that show too, proving that there’s no message too weird and immoral to gain praise from the mainstream media. But “Grandma” is a truly curious case, a movie in which even if you think Tomlin’s character is doing a great thing, has a tone-deaf ear for what’s funny and what’s just histrionic anger. Be thankful for the fact that its studio is only putting it out in a small release that’s unlikely to expand far into the Middle American towns it claims to respect but in actuality despises. Utterly lacking in redeeming values, “Grandma” is unpleasant to sit through from start to finish. It’s too bad its funders didn’t terminate the production funding instead.
Three movies to look out for this weekend
Aug 14, 2015 / 00:00 amYou never know when you’re going to strike gold at the movie theater. Last week featured choices so dire, including “Ricki and the Flash” starring Meryl Streep in a seemingly ridiculous role as a former rock star in her 60s who takes a second chance at fame, and an absolutely Dead On Arrival reboot of “The Fantastic Four.” This week offers three distinct choices, all of which have their own distinct audiences. I’ll do briefs on two of them – “Straight Outta Compton” and “The Man from UNCLE” – and dig in more on what I think is the sleeper movie of the year so far, aka a movie that comes out of nowhere to stun you with how good it is: “Mistress America.” “Compton” is a true-story biopic of the infamous rap group N.W.A., whose acronym I can’t even explain on this site. They were the first gangster-rap group to explode in popularity and are today more famous for spawning members Ice Cube and Dr. Dre (a mega music producer who co-invented the wildly popular Beats headphones) than their own music. Cube and Dre teamed up to tell their story, and what’s most impressive is that they don’t appear to gloss over any of their own bad behavior. The movie follows the rap group’s rise from the hard streets and police racism of mid-1980s Los Angeles to national stardom and controversy, then back down into the perils that come with stardom that arrives too fast and too soon. “Compton” is not likely to appeal to most of the readers of CNA, or any other traditional Catholic or Christian site. It’s loaded with profanity, has a wild orgy scene (nothing too graphic motion-wise, but lots of female nudity), and has several shocking moments of violence as the group faces down police threats as well as danger from thugs in the streets they rose from. And as one might expect, there’s more than its fair share of marijuana smoking at several points. But on an artistic level, “Compton” is a stunning achievement, making a highly controversial group of people understandable and relatable even to those who, like me, had nothing but contempt for them before. It’s extremely well-made on every level, with moments that fully cross the spectrum of emotions, and its young dynamic cast makes you feel like you’re truly a witness to history. If you’re intrigued by the subject matter and want to learn insights into what drives the rage some in the black community have towards police to this day, this is an eye-opening film that will teach you a lot. Speaking of history, “The Man From UNCLE” arrives this week, bringing to new life the Cold War era hit spy TV series and doing it stylishly if not too excitedly. Henry Cavill, the latest big-screen Superman, and Armie Hammer (the guy who bombed as the Lone Ranger two years ago) play an American and a Russian superspy, respectively, who are forced to team up to stop a rogue cabal of criminals from getting their hands on new bomb technology. “UNCLE” relies more on spiffy style and clever dialogue than amazing action to succeed, but what action there is is good throwback fun. I’d still recommend the new “Mission Impossible” or even “Ant-Man” over it, if you haven’t seen those, however. But the movie I most want to recommend is a little flick called “Mistress America.” It’s the latest in a string of small but winning films (particularly 2013’s “Frances Ha”) from the boyfriend-girlfriend co-writing team of Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig. Baumbach is an ace rising director who’s likely to wind up as Woody Allen’s main successor, given his already having had a couple Oscar nominations for Best Screenplay, while Gerwig is a luminous young actress who has both the magic of the big screen’s best screwball-comedy queens, and real acting chops. The movie follows Tracy (Lola Kirke, in a fantastic debut lead performance), a college freshman overwhelmed by life in New York City when she enters college there. Having a hard time making friends, and drawn to a boy who turns out to have a girlfriend already, Tracy is ready to give up when she remembers that her mother asked her to call Brooke (Greta Gerwig), the daughter of her mom’s new fiancé. Brooke instantly invites Tracy out on the town, completely involving her in her adventurous artistic life surrounded by musicians and other artists. She enables Tracy to get drunk underage, but Tracy winds up throwing up off-screen. Filled with a desire to be accepted by her college’s top literary society and magazine, Tracy starts immediately writing notes about Brooke that form the basis of an ultimately unflattering story based on her life. As she hides her notes and story writing, Tracy gets ever more immersed into Brooke’s world, while also dealing with the frustration of a boy she likes having another, comically jealous, girlfriend. When Brooke is dumped by her boyfriend for kissing another man and he backs out of investing with her, she is in danger of losing her dream restaurant. Brooke’s solution is to go to Greenwich, Connecticut to find an old boyfriend and his wife, who ripped Brooke off of a T-shirt design years ago which went on to be a hugely-selling shirt. With Tracy, Tracy’s male friend and the guy’s girlfriend in tow, the hilarious showdown over the money Brooke feels the couple owes her for stealing her shirt design begins. Building on the strongly appealing “While We’re Young” (starring Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts, it’s out on DVD now and highly recommended) from this spring, Baumbach has now had two winning movies this year that depict adult characters with intelligence, wit and a minimum of indecent behavior. The movie explores the relationships we build and the trust people put in strangers in a very deep and realistic way, even as it remains hilarious throughout. Its insights into the lengths writers should go ethically in writing about real people is also fascinating, and has emotional consequences before a satisfying conclusion that upholds forgiveness. The new movie is mainly rated R for language issues, but because most of its F words are used in quick bursts, there are several segments of the movie with almost no foul language at all. Aside from the swear words, there are three quick but fairly graphic sexual jokes. Brooke also uses a psychic twice in the movie, although the tone of the scenes is comical and appears to make the idea of using a psychic absurd. The movie also makes one character extremely PC, forcing Tracy to answer a questionnaire about how much she supports abortion rights, but that too is shown as extreme and ludicrous behavior. One other slight annoyance is that Brooke and Tracy discuss her unseen dad’s extreme devotion to Catholicism in two quick moments with a bit of eye-rolling, but it’s not an attack on the church or faith but rather on an overbearing personality. Mixing strong performances to unique characters and brilliantly witty, fast-paced dialogue in the best traditions of screwball comedy, “Mistress America” is highly satisfying viewing for most adults. It's only starting in a couple New York and Los Angeles theaters this weekend, but will be expanding nationwide over the next month.
Newset 'Mission Impossible' flick confusing but enjoyable
Jul 31, 2015 / 00:00 amWe’re turning the corner on August, with only a month left in the year’s most fun movie season. So this week, I’m going to let everyone know about the new “Mission Impossible” movie, while giving a quick recommendation to both “Pixels” and “Ant-Man” as exciting and funny fun for the whole family. They’re rated PG-13, but mostly for the cartoon-style action violence found within. But let’s dig into the new “Mission”, which is the fifth in the series of movies starring Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, the lead agent of the USA’s top secret Impossible Mission Force. This edition continues the trend that producer J.J. Abrams wisely established when he took over the series with the third film, by making Cruise truly be part of a team rather than egomaniacally trying to act like he alone can save the world. This time, a senator played by Alec Baldwin has decided he’s had enough of the IMF team’s mysterious globe-trotting adventures, and winds up disempowering and defunding the team just as Hunt has survived a surprise gas attack, kidnapping and torture at the hands of evil Eastern Europeans. Hunt refuses to submit quietly, determined to find out who the mysterious gunman was who shot a fellow female agent dead before his eyes and unleashed a roomful of poison gas upon him. The rest of his team – played enjoyably again by Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames – spring into illicit action with him, discovering that the baddies who captured Hunt were part of a secret criminal syndicate that could be the most dangerous the world has ever known. And thus, another globe-trotting adventure begins, with the IMF team leaping from Paris to Havana to Vienna and much more in an effort to prevent the Austrian leader’s assassination and eventually a much more nefarious scheme. To go into much more detail on a “Mission Impossible” movie’s plot is pointless, both because it’s fun to know as little as possible and then be wowed by the amazing surprises thrown at you throughout the two hour running time, and because the plots are always so convoluted that in the end they barely make sense anyway. You don’t see these movies for great writing, but rather dashing performances and amazing stunts. We are living in a golden era again in movies, one in which modern technology allows nearly every action series with ambition – particularly the “Fast & Furious,” James Bond and “MI” series – constantly top each other. This movie features Hunt jumping onto the side of an airplane and hanging on for dear life by his hands as it races into the sky at takeoff – and that’s just in the opening scene! Among the film’s other amazing action centerpieces are a stunning motorcycle chase, a daring heist that requires Hunt to dive fearlessly into a narrow tunnel amid a torrent of water and having to hold his breath for three minutes to stay alive while attempting even more stunts, and in the movie’s best scene, attempting to foil two assassins while suspended above a packed crowd at an opera house. That opera sequence is a wordless wonder that’s nearly 12 minutes long, with fistfights, kicking and shooting all taking place on a series of rising and falling scaffolds above the stage in an opera house packed with unsuspecting audience members. I don’t use the word Hitchcockian lightly, but the filmmaking team behind this pull off a lengthy sequence that would make even the Master Of Suspense slackjawed with envy. As always, this “MI” film keeps it clean, with no sex or nudity and little or no profanity. It’s PG13 comes from the wall to wall action, which is always tense and exciting without being bloody or gruesome. The movie’s only weakness comes in its final 20 minutes or so, when all the doublecrosses wind up confusing more than entertaining the viewer, but a final humorous twist sends audiences home with a big laugh of wonder and appreciation. Amid the dog days of summer, what more can you ask for?
'Vacation' -- a sleazier, sloppier version of the original
Jul 29, 2015 / 00:00 amThere’s an old saying that “You can’t go home again,” meaning that there’s no point in reliving and regretting past glories. But judging by the terribly conceived new reboot of the 1983 Chevy Chase comedy classic “National Lampoon’s Vacation,” the new movie “Vacation” (out today) shows that, at least in this case, you can’t relive a great vacation again either. While the original Chase version was rated R, it was relatively tame for the rating and maintained a sweetly goofy charm throughout even its naughty moments. But the new movie wallows in moral muck from start to finish, making the movie’s few genuinely funny and clever clean moments feel like an afterthought. The movie follows Rusty (Ed Helms), who has grown up to be a pilot for the cheap airline Econo Air and has no self-esteem about himself and his career status. He does love his family, however, but when neighbors tell his wife (Christina Applegate) about their glamorous trip to Paris, he realizes that his annual family trip to a lake cabin just won’t cut it anymore. Instead he decides to take them on a cross-country road trip to Walley World, the amusement park his dad took him to as a boy in the original 1983 movie. While that movie was R-rated, it was relatively tame for the rating, while this movie unfortunately spends about 60 percent of its attempts at comedy on extremely offensive or gross attempts at humor that go too far and fall flat. There’s no real point to detailing the plot in depth, as it unfolds in episodic fashion. Because he decided to take the trip last minute on Memorial Day week, Rusty is stuck with an Albanian car that has seemingly endless bizarre features that make it a nightmare to drive. The fact that the movie’s writer-directors, Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, come up with some truly funny and inventive moments with a car from Albania shows that they do have talent and know better than to wallow in comic muck. But sadly, scatological or outright sexual humor overwhelms the movie. The family smears themselves in what they think is healing mud while wading in a spring, only to find that they’re covered in raw sewage. The younger son unleashes terrible profanity against both his brother and parents, while also attempting to humiliate him at every turn. The mom is revealed to have been legendarily promiscuous and an alcohol abuser while in college, and then gets drunk and vomits in front of her sons when she’s accused of having become too sedate as a mom. And the parents stumble across a large group of people waiting to have sex on the Four Corners National Monument, just as they are about to try to do so. There you have the examples that can be mentioned in a Christian family site – it actually has worse moments. And the movie’s central role of Rusty is badly miscast: not only would Will Ferrell look much more plausible as original star Chevy Chase’s son, but he would have had the same goofy spirit as Chase. Instead, Helms is alternately too sad-sack or flat-out creepy in many of the scenes, as the movie’s most cringe-inducing moments have him making wildly inappropriate comments by accident to his son as he tries to give him advice on sex or tries to make him look good to a girl, failing disastrously. Instead of being a caring dad, he comes off almost like a pedophile with his comments. Despite her gross moments, Christina Applegate delivers the movie’s strongest performance and gets some real laughs in the cleaner moments of the movie. The boys who play their sons are also funny at moments, though the parents of the younger actor should perhaps be investigated by child protection authorities for letting a preteen say some truly terrible dirty talk. There is a brief scene with Chevy Chase when the family visits him and original movie wife/mom Beverly D’Angelo, but both of these actors from the original movie have so little to do their roles are pointless. And the strangest moment comes at what should be the movie’s comedic climax, when the action stops abruptly and cuts to the aftermath without remotely touching on the climax’s full laugh potential. Despite all the trashy moments, the Griswolds do stay together and are brought closer by their trip, so the movie does ultimately endorse the strength of family. However, it comes across too little too late, and any Catholic viewer would know this limited lesson anyway without having to be taught by the movie. Anyone with comic or moral taste is advised to take a vacation away from any theater showing this movie.
'Paper Towns' movie review
Jul 27, 2015 / 00:00 amNearly everyone has one huge crush or outright love interest that got away. But what if that person came back into your life one night, and you were single and available, and seemed to be giving you another chance? Would you take it? That’s the sweeping romantic question that kicks off the new movie “Paper Towns,” the second film based on the books of mega-popular Young Adult fiction writer John Green. Following on the smash hit success of last year’s “The Fault In Our Stars” – which depicted the tragic romance of two teens afflicted with cancer, and the grace and hope with which they handled it – the new movie is a lighter, more adventurous and fun road-trip movie. But it is still resonant enough to give hope that Hollywood has found another teen master like John Hughes (“Pretty in Pink,” “The Breakfast Club,” “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”) in Green. And any teen film that rises above an obsession with sex, ala the trashy “American Pie” trilogy of adecade ago, is something to commend. The movie follows a boy nicknamed Q (Nat Wolff), who is shown as a young boy meeting and developing a friendship with a new mysterious girl named Margo (played as a teen by Carla Delavigne). She is always far more adventurous than he is, and when he becomes a study-driven teenager and she stays always in mischief, they grow distant. Then one night, she climbs in his bedroom window and asks him to sneak out in his parents’ car and drive her on a series of nine pranks in one night. The pranks are built around revenge on her boyfriend for sleeping with her best friend, and their friends who covered up the affair from her. Against his initial thoughts, but with his youthful feelings for her restoked, Q agrees to help her and they embark on a series of mildly destructive yet comically portrayed pranks. These involve sneaking into their targets’ houses and include spray painting “M” for Margo on the wall of each house, but in general they are ridiculous and not serious enough to take great moral outrage over, aside from scaring her old boyfriend into jumping out a window naked from her best friend’s house and snapping a picture of him from behind as he runs away. The night veers nearly into romance by its end, with Margo saying she can’t wait to see Q the next day and his assuming they are now going to date. But instead she disappears, leaving a trail of mysterious clues that culminate with her saying she’s run off to a “Paper Town” - a fake town that exists only on a map to protect a map designer’s copyright. Margo believes that her hometown of Orlando is also a paper town in its own way – a pretty surface with no true meaning behind it, and her life is a quest for meaning through various adventures. The rest of the movie becomes a very fun and often moving road trip, as Q and his buddies, plus one of their girlfriends and the girl whose car was Saran wrapped by Margo, all team up to follow clues to go find Margo at her paper town in New York state. Along the way, they wrestle with the fact that they are about to graduate and split off from each other’s lives for the first time ever while at college. Unfortunately, this intriguing mystery involving smart, mostly moral and appealing teens is somewhat weakened by a couple of scenes involving sex talk – with each guy either goading each other to have sex or sharing fake stories of conquests they falsely claim to have already made. This ultimately culminates in one boy and his girlfriend deciding to break their decision to have sex for the first time on prom night, as they have sex while sleeping on the trip overnight, and then the boy smirks and gloats to his friends the next day. Adults should certainly have no problem handling that content, and certainly shouldn’t dismiss “Paper Towns” as a mere flick for teens. Its sweeping sense of comic adventure and romance – the main couple stays chaste – might awaken the sense of joy and wonder that these young people maintain as they face the transition to college and adult life. And perhaps that’s a good reminder of the simple joys and pleasures to be found in life during an age when everything in society seems far too rushed and only looks good on paper.
Judd Apatow's 'Trainwreck': does it glamorize or criticize sin?
Jul 17, 2015 / 00:00 amIt’s been impossible to miss the ads for the movie “Trainwreck” this month, and thanks to its extensive cast of comedy stars and basketball great LeBron James, you couldn’t watch a talk show this week that didn’t have someone from the movie as a guest. Every ad and actor made it seem like it was a raunchy celebration of a drunk and promiscuous woman’s wild life. And that it is, to a point. But because it’s a movie directed and produced by Judd Apatow, (“The 40-Year-Old Virgin”, “Knocked Up,” “This is 40”), there’s much more on its mind and in its heart as well. The question is, does it coarsen the culture further with its boundary-pushing comically risqué moments, or is it actually criticizing how smutty our culture has become and seeking to improve it? The movie opens with a scene that is darkly funny in the movie but tragic if taken as reality: Amy’s father Gordon (Colin Quinn) abandons them as young children, but before he leaves he explains marriage and divorce in terms that mess up their minds. He uses the analogy of having a favorite doll and then “having to play with it forever,” when there are other dolls they might find attractive as well. He then drills them to say that monogamy is bad, infusing that idea in their minds. Cut to Amy’s life in her early 30s, working at a men’s magazine that has a mean-spirited sense of humor and an obsession with discussing sex. Amy’s boss decides to challenge her and give her the assignment to cover a famous sports doctor named Dr. Aaron Conners (Bill Hader), even though she hates sports. The idea is that the conflict between their interests will spark deeper questions and a better story. Aaron introduces her to basketball’s biggest current star (LeBron James, playing himself) and he finds it charming that she is so clueless about sports and who he is. James, who is a comic delight in the movie, is determined to make Aaron and Amy a couple. It turns out that he doesn’t have to try hard. At the end of their first day together, Amy tells the cab driver they only need one address: Aaron’s. After she surprises him by initiating sex, Aaron – a “nice guy” who hasn’t quite reserved sex for marriage but has only had sex with the three women he loved – surprises her in return by managing to keep her sleeping next to him all the way to morning, and breaking a fundamental rule of hers. In keeping with his breakthrough movie, “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” Apatow isn’t looking to mock the sexually inexperienced Aaron here despite how easily most Hollywood filmmakers would do so. Just as in “Virgin,” Hader’s more traditional-values-minded character, who’s eager to find a wife even as Amy abhors monogamy due to her father’s poisonous lessons, starts to have a positive influence on her in many ways. Meanwhile, Amy’s dad is now dying of Muscular Dystrophy, in a touching subplot that gives the movie surprisingly strong emotional and dramatic depth. Despite his abandonment of her, she visits him regularly and fights with her sister to keep him in the best nursing home possible. When he dies and Amy delivers the eulogy, her realizations about his life spur her to improve her own as well. But can she really change? That question, which is as old as time for every man and woman who has to make the choice in life to be a willful sinner or a person who struggles to be good, is addressed here in extremely modern terms. The question that faithful viewers have to ask is: does a movie like “Trainwreck” drive more people into lives of sin by the fact that their comedic tone lightens the real-life sadness derived from moral decadence? Or is a filmmaker like Apatow striving to wake modern society up and believing the only way to reach the people who need a moral message the most is by appearing on the surface to be as raunchy as so much of today’s entertainment? In effect, Apatow is luring people in with the promise of decadent fun and then reaching them with a moral message they might otherwise have tuned out from more conventionally moral forums. Having spoken to Apatow in the past and having heard him personally tell me that “Virgin” was an attempt to take a stand for goodness in a sex-drenched society, I believe he is still working that mission field. Beneath the raunch, his movie “Knocked Up” was unquestionably a pro-life movie, and he defended it as such to major media. “This Is 40” showed a long-time marriage undergoing major crises in a highly profane way, yet true love and family learned the need to take a kinder tone among themselves. Thus, “Trainwreck” is a movie that is made for our times. Times that have grown far too crass, and this movie has plenty of that material in its four depicted sex scenes (all played for laughs, but graphic nonetheless) and plethora of sex jokes and foul language. Yet its portrayal of a woman who comes to realize she’s miserable as the proverbial trainwreck of the title is one that might be sorely needed to be seen by the people who are living in that fashion. Discerning viewers should take extreme caution with this movie, and absolutely no one under 17 should see it. But for those who know what they’re getting into and are willing to embrace its ultimately good messages and terrific performances by all involved, “Trainwreck” can be worth the ride.
"Amy" makes for a fascinating and tragic documentary
Jul 10, 2015 / 00:00 amAmy Winehouse’s entire life was a cautionary tale. A British singer who came blasting out of nowhere at the age of 21 with her 2003 debut album “Frank,” she instantly won acclaim and popularity in her homeland, and built on that with the international smash hit “Rehab” three years later. But this vibrant, unique young woman with a cheeky sense of humor and a voice that could rival some of the greatest soul and jazz singers of all time achieved that fame through a tune that mocked the very treatment she needed to break free from intense addictions to booze and drugs. And as she wagged her finger and coyly scoffed at the camera in her video for that song and in her countless TV appearances singing it, the world responded with a fascination reserved for watching aberrant behaviors and trainwrecks alike. The more Winehouse sang and said that she didn’t have an addiction, the further she spiraled into the disease. And the more money music fans and record labels gave her, the more she sowed the seeds of her own destruction, with the world media egging her on the entire way. When she died in 2009 at the tender age of 27, she joined other rock and pop icons who died at the same age ranging from Kurt Cobain to Jimi Hendrix to Janis Joplin. Her tragedy made no sense – that is, until now. The fascinating and tragic new documentary “Amy” illuminates what happened to her, using an impressive array of video footage and voiceover interviews from people in seemingly every corner of her life: her parents, friends, ex-husband, and the music managers and executives. The filmmaker behind it all is Asif Kapadia, who previously made a splash with the 2012 documentary “Senna,” in which he tracked the impressive career and ultimately tragic end of world-class race driver Ayrton Senna using a similar non-stop barrage of video footage in lieu of traditional talking heads. The effect of both movies’ stylistic approach is to draw viewers fully into the world and mindset of their subjects, eliminating the cold distance felt in most documentaries. Yet while “Senna” had some truly exciting footage of the Formula One world of racing, “Amy” surpasses it with a vast array of deeply personal moments that offer heartbreaking insight into what drove Winehouse’s artistry and ultimately, her self-destructiveness. The film opens with footage of Winehouse as a 14-year-old hanging out at her best friend’s birthday party. While the other kids sang “Happy Birthday” weakly, Winehouse’s stunningly soulful voice burst forth, putting them all to shame while she coyly smiled at the home video camera. Soon, we see and hear her singing with a national youth choir and taking the lead to magical effect as people who knew her described her passion from an early age for legendary African-American singers Sarah Vaughn and Dinah Washington. But Winehouse came from a severely broken home, in which her father largely abandoned her family when she was 9 and inspired her to engage in all manner of wild behavior to get attention from her parents. At one point later in the film, her eventual husband and fellow addict Blake Fielder says that he felt she was saw and used sex like a man and was highly promiscuous, and throughout we see and hear her talk about drinking and smoking weed on a frequent and eventually constant basis. Yet “Amy “ rightly keeps its focus on her undeniable genius as a singer and surprising depth as a songwriter, particularly as a lyricist. From her earliest teen years, Winehouse had the ability to write about broken relationships in a way that belied a lifetime of hard lessons. She was clearly ahead of her time, both as an artist and as a human being, often stating “life is short” to rationalize her quest for thrills and her dangerous relationship with Fielder, who eventually introduced her to a horrifying addiction to crack cocaine. If only she knew just how short her life would actually be, perhaps she would have slowed down and cried for help. Instead, she scoffed at the idea of rehab, even in her biggest hit song. And people around the world cheered her on as both an entertainer and as ghoulish entertainment – obsessively reading and watching tabloid coverage of her every move, dancing all the way to her grave. Despite its potentially lurid subject matter, “Amy” was crafted with as much taste as possible. There is only a smattering of foul language overheard throughout the film, with about 5 to 10 F-words in more than two hours of running time and nothing else noticeable. Some of her lyrics reflect a casual attitude towards adultery and promiscuity, but she manages to write those with inventiveness and humor, rather than the base and directly sexual lyrics found in much of today’s pop music. Winehouse is seen canoodling and groping with her boyfriend-turned-husband Fielder at several points in the film, but no actual sex or nudity is shown. The most harrowing images of the film concern her drug abuse, with a couple of photos showing her with crack vials and several videos of her looking disoriented in interviews and even onstage, but again these are shown with maximum restraint, giving viewers just enough to realize the depths to which she had fallen without exploiting her. What shines through throughout is that Winehouse never was raised with a proper sense of God and traditional values in her life. Her parents betrayed her by being neglectful when she was a child, and told her she was fine when she asked if she needed help for bulimia and her addictions as an adult. What also shines through, however, is a stunning voice, clever lyrics and snappy music - even if you're not a fan, you can see this film and come away with an appreciation for talent lost and an urgent need to buy her two CDs up at once. Both a celebration of her musical genius and a tragic recounting of her loss as a person, “Amy” is a powerful and compelling view. But more importantly, it’s a sonically soaring primer about an incredible voice that will hopefully never be silenced completely.