SAG nominees announced: The Outrage!

They do it to me every time: the actors who vote on the Screen Actors Guild Awards get it wrong every year!

In the 2014 edition, they ignored the two most-vital performances of the year: by Jessica Chastain and by Jessica Chastain! (in, respectively, Interstellar and A Most Violent Year). I can't help but think Jennifer Aniston stole a nomination from someone in the little-seen "Cake." But, realistically, it was Meryl Streep ("Into the Woods") who swiped the Supporting Actress slot -- only her 16th nomination! -- that was Jessica's. I can't fault Naomi Watts for earning a well-deserved nod for her superb impersonation of a Russian prostitute in "St. Vincent"; or Patricia Arquette for what should have been a lead-performance nomination in "Boyhood."

That said, the Best Actor and Ensemble categories do track the favorites for Oscar nominations (I would add FOXCATCHER, INTERSTELLAR, and GONE GIRL to the Best Picture mix). I must give the SAGs due credit for honoring the one category of performers that the Oscars do not have the guts to recognize: OUTSTANDING STUNT ENSEMBLES. I cannot comment on the movie nominees (I haven't seen any of them), but the TV Series category is a two-team race: Game of Thrones and Walking Dead. Both worthy winners.

While on the subject of TV, the SAGs have sadly become as lame and predictable as the EMMY's: "Big Bang Theory" and "Modern Family"?? Give it a rest!! I don't know why they ignored "Mad Men" and "The Walking Dead." At least they have corrected two egregious wrongs committed by the Emmy's by recognizing the cast of "Game of Thrones" and the stellar work of Tatiana Maslany in BBC America's "Orphan Black."

Hope springs eternal, as the GOLDEN GLOBES have the power to correct these slights with their nominations -- released Thursday!!

The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby

"Her/Him"

"Him/Her"

"Them"

(it is all so confusing!)

Directed by Ned Benson

Starring: Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy

Originally conceived as two movies relating a relationship break-up from two opposing perspectives -- that of Eleanor and Conor in an always romantic Manhattan -- the inevitable studio pressure (i.e., Harvey Weinstein) led to the commercial release of a 'condensed' version of the story. I waited to see the original intent of the director: two movies, back-to-back, totalling 3 hours and 10 minutes of my time. As much as I hate to admit it, Harvey may have been right on this one: Rashomon, this is not!

Intrepid movie-goers (in New York, LA, and Houston) had the choice of watching one of three versions: the first version is the story from Eleanor's perspective, followed immediately by Conor's version (no intermission; my bladder objected!). Or, you could see His version first, followed by Hers (I can't imagine that being as effective as in the order I saw them). Or you can give in to Harvey and watch the "commercial" condensed version, clocking-in at a tolerable 123 minutes. (As far as I can tell, none of these options attracted large crowds)..

If all of this sounds very high-concept, it is: but does the story warrant this multi-layered treatment? In my humbe opinion, No. Neither film is completely satisfying. Given the running time, you see very little of what drew these two people together in the first place. So the story of their post-break-up relationship doesn't carry the weight it should: the viewer has never become invested in their relationship to begin with. Sure, by the end of Part Two, the story has reached a cumulative emotional power, but three hours?

The dramatic pacing was oddly flat throughout both films: the fault for this lies either with the Writer or the Director. That makes it easy, because they are the same person! Ned Benson. A surer directorial hand could have made something of this conceit. Benson got in over his head, pure and simple.

The actors do their best with the material. I was especially struck by the supporting performances of Viola Davis, as Eleanor's professor at the New School, and Ciaran Hinds as Conor's Dad. But the best scene in all of these movies involves William Hurt, as Eleanor's Dad, who delivers a heart-breaking monologue towards the end of "Her" that makes you wish the entire movie contained the emotional weight of that scene. Alas, it does not.

P.S. For die-hard Jessica Chastain fans (like moi), spending three-plus hours in her company is never a chore! (here she is playing with her dog Chaplin).

Super-Human Scarlett Johansson vs. Alien Scarlett Johansson

Scarlett Johansson's two latest movies are in the sci-fi action-thriller genre, so it is appropriate to review the two side-by-side. And we have a clear winner. 

Contestant No. 1: "LUCY" (Directed by Luc Besson) 

Number 1 at the box office on its opening weekend (which was when I saw it), it earned a cool $43.9 million. I am here to tell you not to contribute any more money to this empty, increasingly-ridiculous, pseudo-intellectual nonsense. French director Luc Besson is noted for providing a Gallic flair to the standard Hollywood genre film, usually with strong female characters in the lead. Yet Besson films have always been about style over substance (even in his best work, "The Professional" and "La Femme Nikita," you leave the theater with an empty feeling). 

This is not his best work. It starts promisingly enough: ScarJo is a party girl in Taiwan (?) who gets forced to deliver a briefcase by her loser boyfriend (it's okay: he only has one scene). She is dragged into a lush hotel suite that has been recently splattered in blood by the intended recipient of the briefcase (played by a very menacing South Korean actor named Choi Min-Sik). This scene plays out with a deft blend of terror and humor, as she is forced into being a drug mule for a new super-drug that is very cinematically-friendly: it looks like fluorescent blue rock candy--who doesn't want to snort that? In the first of many plot developments that make no sense at all, one of the thugs employed by the drug dealer ruptures the bag of drugs surgically-implanted into her body, allowing it to enter her bloodstream in massive quantities. 

Following the tenet "That which doesn't kill her makes her stronger," the drug allows her brain to function at increasingly higher capacity (I learned all this from the deathly dull lecture delivered by God/President/Professor Morgan Freeman which intercuts with (and dilutes) the scene in the hotel room). Then the movie takes off, as ScarJo is able to control people's minds, weaponry, cellphones -- yet she neglects to kill the people who are trying to kill her. Instead, she speed reads all of Dr. Freeman's theories about brain capacity, and pays him a visit in Paris. Then, the movie half-heartedly dips its toes into territory already covered by two better films: "The Matrix" and "Tree of Life." If you are saying to yourself: "Those two movies have nothing in common!", then you have hit on why "Lucy" is such a train wreck of a movie. 

Contestant No. 2: "UNDER THE SKIN" (Directed by Jonathan Glazer)

In this uncompromising sci-fi tale, Scarlett Johansson plays the hunter, not the hunted. Unrecognizable in a black wig and British accent (literally un recognizable, since many of the men she picks up on the streets of Glasgow are non-actors filmed with a hidden camera), she is the woman who fell to earth to prey upon men for her home planet's consumption (I got that plot point from the novel, as the film only obliquely references that point of her drawing these men into an icky black pool). 

Much of the movie is shot from her point of view, so the harsh landscape and heavy Glaswegian accents, combined with several wordless scenes and a sound design that is more at home in an experitmental film than a feature film (credit to Brit Mica Levi for the imaginative soundtrack), gives the audience feeling that they have entered an alien landscape, too. The director, British Jonathan Glazer, is known to embrace controversy: his previous film, "Birth" (2004) starred a radiant, short-haired Nicole Kidman as a widow who falls in love with a 10-year-old boy (who she thinks is her reincarnated husband). It was a moody/creepy tour de force. 

Glazer ups the creepiness level considerably here. We are treated not only to full frontal nudity (male and female), but to a lengthy, wordless scene on a windswept Scottish beach that is shocking in its inhumanity. The shocks keep coming throughout this unsettling film, up to and including its heart-breaking end (when the alien sees what it is like to be human). Major credit to a star of Johansson's stature to take on this challenging, exposing, non-commercial role. As in "Lucy," she is in almost every scene, and she carries each movie like a pro. We have a winner!

Return to the Classics

MOGAMBO

1953

Directed by John Ford

Starring Clark Gable, Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly

It may be a sign of age, but more and more I find myself checking the schedule of Turner Classic Movies--and there are plenty of movies I have neglected to see: chief among them "Bridge on the River Kwai" (inexcusable!) and "Risky Business" (excusable).

So at the strong urging of foreignfilmguy's brother, I DVR-ed "Mogambo" -- a Technicolor extravanga filmed on location in Africa with 3 big name stars (see above). In spite of its impressive credentials (directed by the great John Ford, three years before his classic "The Searchers"), it received a measly two Academy Award nominations--for its female leads. Not even a nod for Best Cinematography (color)?? The nomination that year went instead to a swashbuckler called “All the Brothers Were Valiant" (I'd never heard of it, either).

"Mogambo" is a good, not great, piece of big studio Hollywood entertainment, but it is revealing in many ways. I found it quite sexually frank for 1953, even though (predictably) it was the male character who gets the free pass for his sexual adventures, while the females suffer guilt and remorse throughout the film (the ending is completely unearned, but not surprising given the attitudes of the time).

The movie also reveals why its three stars were box office gold in 1953: Clark Gable, the aging movie idol; Grace Kelly in all her cool glamour (even while sweating in the African jungle); and especially Ava Gardner, who has never looked lovelier -- and not coincidentally, is given the best lines, wardrobe, and most-flattering photography. Her comedic talents are fully on view here: she handles a cute bit of physical comedy in a scene of her feeding the wildlife, but there is a tacked-on scene later on involving her, a hippo, and a boat that feels completely gratuitous.

Here I was about to say that John Huston would later come along and show John Ford how to make a movie set in Africa that is authentic, compelling, and smart, but then I realized that "The African Queen" was released the year BEFORE Mogambo!

Finally, the studio that commissioned the movie posters -- seen below -- should be sued for false advertising! It is a grave injustice to the gorillas in the movie, who 1) aren't that big, and 2) were not exactly involved in a fair fight.

"IDA" (Poland 2014)

IDA

Directed by Pawel Pawlikowski

Ida (Agata Trzebuchowska) is a young, orphaned novice a few days from taking her vows in the convent that has been her only home since infancy when she learns of the existence of a previously unknown aunt named Wanda (Agata Kulesza). Wanda, a Communist judge, could have adopted her, but didn't. Her reasons are slowly, and painfully, revealed.

That's all the synopsis I'm going to give you: two actresses named 'Agata'--that is enough reason to see this movie! That they are both exceptional actresses is a plus. But the star of this movie is the cinematographer: it is shot in a rich, evocative Black & White that not only harkens back to the classic Polish films of the early Sixties (when the story takes place), but heightens the well-earned comparisons to the films of Robert Bresson.

Like a Bresson film, you have to let this movie envelope you: each scene is paced and framed to reveal its characters slowly. The early convent scenes are near-wordless wonders: most of the scenes are blocked to reveal the enormous space above the characters heads--so much so, that even the subtitles are forced to move up the frame to avoid hitting faces in the scene! When the movie hits the road, the true nature of the post-war, Communist Polish society -- buried secrets, mistrust, cynicism -- is depicted. 

The family secret that Wanda shares with Ida is too gut-wrenching to reveal here. It is both the strength and drawback of this film that Ida's reaction to the news is hidden from the audience--much like her beautiful red hair is hidden under her habit (metaphor alert!) -- but since she is practiced at hiding her emotions in the convent, it would be forced and manipulative for the director to tug at our heartstrings for an easy payoff. Instead, the movie takes another (predictable) route: two scenes in particular (late in the film) do not ring true to me.

But that won't stop me from recommending "IDA" as a genuine work of art.

Ida--she's a Polish Claire Danes!

Dallas Film Festival 2014

In my sporadic quest to attend any and all film festivals I can, I made a brief appearance at the DALLAS FILM FESTIVAL on Friday, April 4th (also NCAA Final Four Weekend in North Texas) to catch the red carpet arrivals and see one film: LITTLE ACCIDENTS (USA). I would have gone to the opening night film (WORDS and PICTURES starring Clive Owen and the lovely Juliette Binoche), but at $50 a ticket--NOT including any kind of reception or party--I decided to spend my money at the Kimbell Museum of Art in Fort Worth listening to a classical Guitar Quartet from the UK (take THAT, pretentious Dallas!)

More on the film later, but I must start with the lovely actresses I spotted on the carpet prior to the evening's screenings:

Brina Michelle Palencia

 

Heather Kafka

- Brina Palencia stars in the indie horror flick LADIES OF THE HOUSE and attended North Texas and Weatherford High School (danke, IMDB!).

- Austin native Heather Kafka was here representing two films: JOE and ABOUT MOM AND DAD (and she looked lovely in a chic Black & White outfit).

Erin Elizabeth Reed

- The actress I really wanted to meet was the lovely ERIN ELIZABETH REED, making her Hollywood debut in David Gordon Green's JOE. We have so much in common! Texas natives; graduates of UT Law School; gave up a promising (and profitable) career at a high profile downtown Houston law firm -- me: Fulbright & Jaworski; her: Haynes & Boone -- to pursue a dream to be in the motion picture business (OK, her dream is closer to reality than mine...). AND she was in the "Assault and Flattery" musical troupe at UT, while I KNEW PEOPLE who were in "Assault and Flattery!" You go, Erin!

LITTLE ACCIDENTS (USA) - Directed by Sara Colangelo

Starring Elizabeth Banks; Boyd Holbrook; Jacob Lofland; Chloe Sevigny

Synopsis: "In a small West Virginia coal-mining town still living in the shadow of a terrible mine accident, the disappearance of a teenage boy draws together a surviving miner, the lonely wife of a mine executive, and a local boy in a web of secrets."

Sounds good, right? With support from Sundance (where it premiered this year), this film is inspired by Sara Colangelo's 2010 short film of the same name--but it is not a remake. She has created something new: a complex and moody piece about flawed characters in desperate situations. 

For her first feature, Colangelo elicits nuanced performances from her fine cast: Boyd Holbrook plays the surviving miner with sensitivity and shyness (a blue-collar Ryan Gosling, if you will). The young actor Jacob Lofland has quite a niche playing neglected, usually Southern boys (as he did in MUD and JUSTIFIED). But it is Elizabeth Banks who shines as the mine executive's wife: she communicates the range of conflicting emotions of her character -- guilt, neglect, passion -- with a raw but understated intensity. It is time we started thinking of Ms. Banks as more than a comedic actress.

The soundtrack and cinematography further enhance the mood of this self-assured debut feature. Nor does Colangelo shy away from the socio-economic-environmental tensions surrounding the mining industry and the communities it both provides for and exploits.  I can't wait for her next film.

TOP TEN FILMS OF 2013

Feb. 16th -- It has never taken me this long to announce a Top Ten Movie List. I can only blame the glut of quality movies that were released last year (especially in December). My only regrets are the ones I missed (Act of Killing, Frozen, Fruitvale Station, Her), and a few I didn't (Elysium, To the Wonder, World War Z).

The first three films stand apart from the pack:

1. 12 YEARS A SLAVE

2. INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS

3. GRAVITY

4. La Grande Bellezza ("The Great Beauty") - ITALY * the only foreign film on the foreignfilmguy's list!

5. Blue Jasmine

6. Nebraska

7. American Hustle

8. The Wolf of Wall Street

9. All Is Lost

10 (tie). Mud and Dallas Buyer's Club 

Honorable Mention

The East

The Invisible Woman

Much Ado About Nothing

Philomena

Rush

Stoker

Saw & Enjoyed

Captain Phillips

The Great Gatsby

Hunger Games: Catching Fire

In A World . . . 

MAMA ** Preserving the streak of a Jessica Chastain movie on every list since 2011

Saving Mr. Banks

Side Effects

In case you are unfamiliar with some of my choices:

12 Years A Slave

January 1, 2014 --

Happy New Year, everyone. I will not be releasing my TOP TEN MOVIE LIST for another three weeks, but the odds-on favorite for my number 1 movie of the year is Steve McQueen's "12 Years A Slave" -- a searing look at slavery in the Antebellum South that (apparently) only a British director has the gumption to depict in all its horrors. For this is as graphic and unrelenting a portrait of slavery as I have seen on screen. 

No attempt is made to 'soften' the portrayal of a slave's lot in this most-heinous facet of U.S. history, nor to acquit white society's complicity in its propagation: for, indeed, this was not an aberration committed by a few psychotic racists, but a way of life, an accepted institution, for the majority of our ancestors.

The violence is depicted so matter-of-factly that it drives home the point that the slaves were mistreated not as human beings, but as animals to be bought, sold, and abused as any chattel owner sees fit. The white actors must be commended for realizing their characters fully (without resort to the mustache-twirling caricatures we have come to expect): Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Giamatti, Paul Dano, Sarah Paulson, and Michael Fassbender all give believable performances (the latter two are Oscar-worthy).

Most of the credit for making this 133-minute experience captivatiing without being depressing goes to the lead performances by Chiwetel Ejiofor and Lupita Nyong'o. Mr.McQueen, who has flirted with pretension in his two previous features ("Hunger" and "Shame") does not strike a false note in this movie. Make-up, art direction, and soundtrack (by Hans Zimmer) all contribute to realizing the whole: it truly respects the subject matter in the same way Steven Spielberg memorably respected the Holocaust in "Schindler's List" (another No. 1 on my list).