What I've Seen...
Nightcrawler
There’s a standing motto in the news business of “If it bleeds it leads” and that axiom informs “Nightcrawler” a riveting look at the business of television news from the machinations of the intensely creepy Louis Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal).
After a fortuitous run-in with a crime scene videographer (Bill Paxton), Louis becomes intensely interested in crime journalism and getting the most graphic shots by any means necessary. Louis and his beleaguered intern Rick (RIz Ahmed)
began making a name for themselves providing content to a local news director Nina (Rene Russo) desperate for ratings.
Written and directed by Russo’s husband Dan Gilroy (“The Bourne Legacy”, “Freejack”), “Nightcrawler” is a beautiful homage to the seedy underbelly of Los Angeles and its denizens. As Louis Gyllenhaal is a frayed, yet taut wire and the viewer is left waiting for the moment where his barely there control snaps. It’s a career defining role for him filled with intense monologues that go from funny to terrifying.
Russo is great as a woman in the tail end of her career and willing to compromise her ethics for job security, as is Riz Ahmed is Rick who realizes too late that he’s been dragged into madness.
But it’s Gyllenhaal who shoulders this film and after a previous intense turn in “Prisoners”, Gyllenhaal finally seem to have found his footing in Hollywood. Never quite the leading man (“Prince of Persia”, “Love and Other Drugs”) “Nightcrawler” shows that he is a formidable dramatic actor who, given the right material, shines.
Boyhood
“Boyhood” is a subtly beautiful film about twelve years in the life of a divorcee (Patricia Arquette), her ex (Ethan Hawke) and their two children Samantha (Lorelei Linklater, daughter of the director)
and told through the eyes of the youngest child Mason (Ellar Coltrane).
Shot for three to four days once a year for twelve years, Richard Linklater’s film unfolds just like life the, small moments and big moments but mostly life experiences learned that shape us. There is no real plot to speak of which makes the fact that the film goes by so quickly even more remarkable. It is so much like life where you blink and the time-in this instance three hours-has gone by so quickly. There’s a supreme beauty in that which carries through the film. It’s a very special piece of cinema.
The cast through the twelve years of filming
Father and daughter: Richard and Lorelei
I attended the Q&A with Arquette and Hawke and even they couldn’t really quite explain the film except to talk about how personal and treasured the experience was, so much so that they really hate that it’s been released.
Arquette: So many people have come up to me and told me how much they love the film and…it’s selfish..but if I had to trade all of that just to keep this for ourselves, I would.
They both said that it’s hard to reconcile that they don’t have this to look forward to anymore.
*They said there was just a bare bones script and Linklater would use conversations between the cast and their experiences as parents or as children to inform the script. Ethan said that he talked about wanting there to be a baseball game scene because that’s a memory he has of his father and Linklater agreed there was to be one…in three to four years from that conversation.
*Linklater never showed the kids any of the footage instead waiting until it was completed and telling them to watch it alone. Early in the process Arquette would watch scenes but decided she wanted to wait until it was finished. Because Hawke filmed “Before Sunset” and “Before Midnight” with Linklater during the making of “Boyhood” he saw all of the footage and the edits and it made him want to be in more of the film. He would suggest that there should be a scene where the kids have Thanksgiving at his character house but it was shot down.
He said what informed his character was the knowledge that his own father is not the man he remembered at six years of age. So he wanted to show this guy who went from being cool dad to being a more conscientious father.
He said it was this disconnection that made it hard for him when the shoot ended. He said Linklater sent him a picture of Linklater and Coltrane hugging after a final scene and because neither men are huggers Hawke knew it was a special moment and that this chapter had closed. He said he felt like a glass was broken and he fell apart looking at the picture.
*Arquette said that the film wasn’t hard work, just something she would do outside of “Medium”. Hawke seemed surprised at this and said that he was glad to hear her say that because he knew that she would come to this project while on break from “Medium” start rehearsals at 11pm, have wardrobe the next morning and shoot for three or four days and go right back to her family and the show so to him and others on the set it seemed like it was hard work for her. He then said how much he loved working with her.
*He said that things were plotted abstractly but Linklater was opened to the possibility of things being jettisoned. Because a person cannot be signed to a contract longer than seven years, there was a slight worry that Ellar or Lorelei wouldn’t want to be in the film any longer. Ellar said that other than complaining about having to allow his hair to grow, he was open to continuing on. Lorelei however wanted out and suggested that her character die but she stayed with the production.
The moderator asked Hawke about the challenge of making the film and Hawke said, like Arquette, he didn’t view it as hard work and that it definitely wasn’t challenging. Hawke: Daniel Day Lewis said that playing “Lincoln” was challenging and I had to role my eyes at that. You’re playing one of the best characters to play, working with the best director, with the best script with the best director of photography and that’s challenging? I want that fcuking challenge! Challenging is working with a shitty script and numbskulls. That’s challenging!
Fury
Another movie that isn’t really plot centric. Written and directed by David Ayer of high drama/high tension dramas “Training Day” and “End of Watch”, “Fury” is yet another WWII story centering on the five men inside the tank named Fury. There’s Sergeant Don “WarDaddy” Collier (Brad Pitt) whose job is to keep his men Gordo (Michael Pena, “Gracepoint”), Bible (Shia LaBouf, Being Stupid ) and Coon (Jon Berenthal, “The Walking Dead”)alive and keep himself together in the throes of the final journey into Germany. Collier gets another challenge when Norman (Logan Lerman, “Percy Jackson”) military office clerk turned gunner is foisted on him.
Collier works on beating the naivete out of the morally conscientious Norman and instilling the same cutthroat kill-them-before-they-kill-you attitude that he and his men have but that soon jibes against Collier’s growing protectiveness over the newbie who, unlike the others, still has a strong moral compass.
Despite the amazing sound mixing that depicts with fine reality the din of war time, “Fury” comes off as a very quiet film. In between the harrowing battle scenes, there are these moments of reflection between the men; some fraught with fine tension such as a scene where Collier’s men exhibit jealousy over his bonding with Norman and some of realistic depictions of the despair of war and the fear that war instills.
Berenthal and Pena are perfectly fine as animalistic Coon and Gordo
When they’re really gents
, and Pitt starts out the film channeling his Aldo the Apache character of “Inglorious Basterds” before settling into a more relatable and human Collier.
But it is LaBeouf and Lerman who carry the emotional heft of the film.
Good looking son of former good looking man Clint Eastwood also has a small role.
From another film he shot with Danny Glover
Birdman
I’ve had a few days to reflect on this film and while I still find it too esoteric, too hypocritical and ponderous under its own self-aggrandizement it did make me think so I consider that a win for a film that is so I AM ART! LOOK AT ME! That even Jim Jarmusch would be like, “Can we please just turn it down a notch or three?”
“Birdman” officially titled “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)” is directed beautifully, artfully and inspired..ly by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu who wrote/directed “21 Grams” and “Babel”. The film is co-written by Inarritu and his writing partners Nicolas Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris and Armando Bo and details the existential crisis of actor Riggan Thomson (Michael Keaton) who walked away from blockbuster franchise Birdman and is now desiring to leave behind a legacy as an important actor. His resolve? To put on a Broadway adaptation of a Raymond Carver play directing and starring himself. But the dream that he built for himself threatens to crumble under the weight of a difficult, yet brilliant actor Mike Shiner (the sublime Edward Norton) who makes Riggan question his own talent;
his newly sobered daughter/assistant Sam (Emma Stone) who Riggan can’t seem to connect with,
a younger girlfriend/costar Laura (Andrea Riseborough) who he can’t figure where she stands in his life and another costar Lesley (Naomi Watts), Mike’s girlfriend who is trying her best but can’t quite handle Mike’s artistic intensity.
On top of that Riggan is hounded by his former alter ego-a nefarious Jiminy Cricket-that tells Riggans to just embrace his Birdman past and ride the character to wealth.
The casting couldn’t be more perfect: Keaton who walked away from the Batman films
and Norton an actor who is notorious for being temperamental and pushing for writing credits he doesn’t deserve. It’s like this film was culled from their lives. But this isn’t the fascinating aspect of the film. It’s the fact that the film doesn’t so much as asks the audience to decide on art versus commerce; if theater or some films are more valid than blockbuster action films it’s telling the audience that blockbuster films have no artistic merit. The film beats the audience over the head with the notion that these film are the death of art. Which is where my problem with the film lies.
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and his cowriters have said in press for this film that they would never, or at least, hope to never, work on a superhero film; that these films are for 7-year olds and for hedge fund guys who just want to milk the box office for money. And while yes, franchise films are the cash cows for studios but to say these films have no value would mean that there is a cinematic hierarchy in place. To me if one isn’t important than the other isn’t important. Filmmakers are storytellers and that’s not as important as being a teacher or a doctor or any other real jobs that create real change in a person’s life. So if a filmmaker or an actor is casting dispersion over one film than they should really look at the big picture and realize that your stageplay, your art film, your serious drama at the end of the day holds as much real world importance as Transformers 65. It’s just film. So that really was a touchy point for me in the film, especially when there’s a scene where a theater critic (Lindsay Duncan, “Alice in Wonderland”, “Mansfield Park”) in a brief, but weighty scene) gets a tongue lashing about how critics few caustic words destroy the actual hard work of artists.
Book of Life
This is a kids film. Not a kids film like Dreamworks films where there’s something for older kids and adults. No, no. This is a kiddie film for ten and under so I can’t really say it’s good or bad, just for it’s demo.
Wonderfully colorful and unique tale about forging your own destiny and embracing life as told by a museum docent (Christina Applegate) to a couple of kids on a field trip.
On Día de Muertos ruler of the underworld, Land of the Forgotten, Xibalba (Ron Perlman) makes a wager with his counterpart who ushers souls to the afterlife La Muerta (Kate del Castillo)
La Muerta makes for a fantastic Halloween costume
: if young headstrong Maria (Zoe Saldana) marries the valiant Joaquin (Channing Tatum) Xibalba can take over La Muerta’s realm. If Maria marries matador in training who really wants to be a singer Manolo (Diego Luna) Xibabla cannot interfere with human life any longer.
As Joaquin and Manolo vie to show their affection to Maria, a looming threat hangs over their village with the impending raid of their town by marauders.
Written by cartoon writers Jorge R. Gutierrez (El Tigre) and Douglas Langdale (Nickelodeon’s “Kung Fu Panda”) and directed by Gutierrez and produced by Guillermo Del Toro (“The Strain”, “Pacific Rim”)
It’s a charming film. Channing Tatum is used will as the brawn minus brain Joaquin. It’s a character Brendan Fraser would have played. Luna is good as the earnest Manolo but this role calls for singing and Luna isn’t the best singer. He’s a throaty singer like Antonio Banderas and Russell Crowe. But it is his and Saldana’s cover of Us the Duo’s “No Matter What” that is the best song of the film. Too bad it’s not an original song thus not being eligible for a Golden Globe or Oscar.
Wherever You Are: Us, The Duo
Click to viewThe greatest thing about this film is that Placido Domingo voices one of Manolo’s ancestors and he gives a brief solo. It is why he’s the master. It was incredible.
Book of Life cast
