What I've Seen
First Man
And we are off! We are now officially in Oscar season and the recent offering of "A Star is Born"
and now "First Man" gives hope that this will be a very rewarding few months of filmmaking.
Returning to the director chair after his Oscar win and the infamous "Moonlight"/"LaLaLand" mixup
is Damien Chazelle who paired up with his "LaLaLand" star in this adaption (by way of Josh
Singer, "Spotlight") of astronaut Neil Armstrong's biography "First Man:The Life of Neil
Armstrong" covering the period right before he joined the space program to the successful moon
landing.
It's 1961 and Neil and Janet Armstrong (Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy, "The Crown") are dealing with
the unimaginable - the imminent death of their toddler, Karen, due to a brain tumor. After Karen's death, he pushes forward with something he put off while coping with her illness: involvement in the space program.
A pilot who has seen perilous missions and the losses involved in it, but that doesn't deter Armstrong and his fellow astronauts, namely Ed White (Jason Clark, Chappaquiddick), Buzz Aldrin (Cory Stoll, The Strain), Michael Collins (Lukas Haas in a non-Leonardo DiCaprio starring or produced film),
Elliott See (Patrick Fugit, Gone Girl) and Pete Conrad (Ethan Embrey, Tower Records).
A spiritual cousin of sorts to 2017's "Hidden Figures" which showed us how the "calculators" at NASA helped get the course correction and functionality for the mission, this film shows us the face of NASAs and their courageousness.
I am of an age where space exploration was always in existence. I've taken for granted the steps that were needed to make it happen. It's utterly fascinating: from getting the pilots, to the tragedies on the ground and ultimately the hugeness of actually achieving a moon landing.
The star of the film is the direction and cinematography. Chazelle takes the audience on the journey with the astronauts thanks to his shaky cam work that simulates the turbulence that happens when in flight. It's claustrophobic, it's tense, it's awe inspiring. To that end, the film as a whole does play like an IMAX NASA film that is released to Science museums. Armstrong, by nature, was a stoic and somber individual and Gosling plays him as that - a space program version of "Just the facts, Ma'am" Joe Friday type, who only allow glimpses of the beating heart within him show through.
Foy, is great, in the typical role of worried spouse. There's not much she gets to do besides stare at him with unshed tears or stare are a radio or out the window worriedly.
I can't wait for "Girl In the Spider's Web" to see her unleashed.
Typically, I need character centered pieces to really love a film but I found this riveting on so many levels that I don't need to know the ins and outs of Armstrong's thoughts (though the end scene did get me to shed a tear). It was illuminating to take in the process that went into the achievement of space exploration.
Beautiful Boy
Adapted by Luke Davis (Lion) and Felix Van Groeningen ( from the biography and autobiography of David Sheff (Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction) and Nic Sheff (Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines),
Nic and David Sheff with Steve Carell and Timothee Chalamet
"Beautiful Boy" is a non-linear look at a distraught father trying to get to the root of his son's addiction and how his beautiful boy's addiction affects their family.
When David Sheff's (Steve Carell), eighteen year old, newly high school graduated son Nic (Timothee Chalamet) begins exhibiting behavior of a drug addict, he takes him to a drug counselor and finds out the reality: Nic, who he assumed dabbled in weed, was a multi drug user doing heroin, coke, crack and the drug that had its hooks in him the deepest: meth.
A writer, David wants to know why meth is so insidious as a better way to get understanding on what Nic is going through and how he can kick the habit. This journey is showed by way of intercuts of snapshots of their lives from when Nic was 5, 12 and at present.
When there's a film I really am excited about I avoid all press and fan reviews about it, but ahead of "Beautiful Boy" I was curious as to what fans and critics would say as the Cult of Chalamet is hardcore. Chalamet was praised, and rightfully so, but the biggest criticism was the use of music cues. It's like how Quentin Tarantino creates a playlist when he's writing a movie, but instead of just creating one for the writing process, the director took that playlist and splashed it across the screen. It's like being in a car with someone who can't decide on a radio station. While disconcerting and jarring, some needle drops work like when Nic first shoots up interwoving with Sigur Ros' "Svefn-g-englar" --the song reaches its peak as the hit of the drug reaches Nic.
While Chalamet is getting the raves for his volatile, yet vulnerable performance as someone reaches out but pulling back, Carrell deserves accolades as a man trying to keep it together for his youngest children as he tries to walk the balance of being upfront about what they're brother is going through, yet not wanting to rob them of their innocence and their love for their older brother.
While the shifting timelines didn't work for a lot of people, I liked the effect because it simulated the memories of both David and Nic of happier times or times where maybe the clues were all there but David didn't / couldn't see what was going on with his son. Addiction is a journey with many paths so this format - while a nightmare even for director Felix Van Groeningen who had to recut the film five times - portrays the dizzying reality for those who has an addict in their lives.
I wish the film went deeper than the cursory hints at Nic's feelings of isolation, but I think the film didn't want to look as if it was trying to present a causality of Nic's drug use since it wants to be viewed as more of a universal look at addiction from the points of views of those who are suffering from it or those who are suffering watching their loved ones go through it.
The film also stars Amy Ryan (Jack Ryan) as Nic's mother Vicki who is at odds with David on how they tackle Nic's addiction;
Maury Tierney (Parenthood) as David's wife Karen who, as a stepmother, seems to not know how involved she can be in dealing with David's son and what needs to be done.
The best bit of casting is Jack Dylan Grazer (IT), who plays Nic at 12. Grazer doesn't look that much like Chalamet, but he is on the path of needing rehab himself if he doesn't get his trifling a** in check. Fourteen year old Grazer garnered fans as the wise-arse in "IT" so of course his fans are teens (I hope) and they exposed his Snapchats where he and his friends used homophobic slurs and another of them smoking a blunt.
At the time the vids surfaced he was one of the stars of CBS' "Me, Myself and I" and was preparing to return to the sequel of “It”. People were calling for him to be fired from both, so he immediately made a video apologizing which looked like he was a hostage reading from the scripted words of their abductor.
<>Can You Ever Forgive Me?
This adaptation (by writer/director Marielle Heller, The Diary of a Teenage Girl) of the biography of late author Lee Israel was originally slated to star Julianne Moore. It's unconceivable, not because I can't see Moore playing a crotchety, hard-drinking, hard talking, misanthropic piece of work as Israel, but because Melissa McCarthy has made a career out of playing this type of character that it's only right that she stars as Israel.
With over twenty years in writing which included biographies of such notables as Katherine Hepburn, Tallulah Bankhead, Dorothy Kilgallen and Estee Lauder, Lee Israel's (Melissa McCarthy) career had a steep drop. Her proposed book on actress Fanny Brice wasn't going anywhere, her agent Marjorie (Jane Curtain) was ducking her calls, she was fired from her menial job at a paper and she was watching as men she didn't view as talented as she was like Tom Clancy rake in the bucks.
While doing research on Fanny Brice, she finds an original letter penned by Brice in the archives. Desperate for money, she swipes said letter and sells it to book shop owner and Brice fan Anna (Dolly Wells, Doll & Em). Realizing that there is money to be had using her skills as a writer, she expertly mimics the "voices" of famous figures and begins forging and selling these "authentic" letters.
Riding shotgun during her walk on the criminal side is her newfound friend Jack Hock (Richard E. Grant), a man with his own shady history.
It's a trim 1 hour and 47 minutes, with Israel going into forgeries within 30 minutes of the film. The rest is mostly getting to see her away from the typewriter by way of her friendship with Jack who is as much as a screw up as she is, but he holds no qualms about his station in life. Also, the tentative relationship between Israel and Anna, the bookseller.
Again, this is nothing new for McCarthy, so I'm curious if the early Oscar nomination talks will go further. Grant has a showier role, almost like a return of his "Whitnall and I" character.
The film also stars Stephen Spinella as Paul, one of the book collectors Israel suckers and McCarthy's husband, Ben Falcone as a shady book collector, Alan Schmidt.
No, this isn't the alert system sounding the commencing of THE PURGE but the start of excitement over The First Monday in May. Yes, I'm talking about the Met Gala!!
Preliminary information has been released on the theme and next year's co-chairs.
Who Will Not Follow the Theme AT ALL.
::in my best Billy Porter intonation:: Next year's theme is CAMP: NOTES ON FASHION derived from a Susan Sontag interview.
The co-chairs: As always Anna Wintour and her Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka mushroom cut, Lady Gaga, Serena Williams, Gucci's creative director and Jared Leto's future ex-husband Alessandro Michele, and former One Direction-er Harry Styles.
Gucci was the official wardrobe of Styles' tour
I am excite. While I wouldn't describe Michele's fashion as camp. I think of it more as kitschy with his floral cowboy inspired suits.
Who has Michele styled?
Jared Leto and Lana Del Rey at 2018's Met Gal
Dakota Johnson
Elton John
