Boyhood (REDUX)

My illustrious colleague, Valerie, already reviewed this film back in August.  In her review, she said, "You're being handed LIFE on a platter."  How true!

I'd like to add a few additional thoughts.  You have no doubt heard about the originality of this film, which Valerie noted:  You get to watch two kids grow up over a period of fifteen years....and see two big film stars, Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette, grow older too!

Once you get past the oddity of actually watching kids and movie actors change before your very eyes, you can focus on the real worth of the film:  a searing portrait of divorce and the struggle two kids face having to grow up amid turmoil in a changing world.

Patricia Arquette brilliantly plays the single mom who keeps choosing lousy men as husbands and stepfathers to her kids.  Our hearts go out to her: she struggles to be a wage earner and caring mom in spite of the miserable men she garners.

In the first half of the film, we see all the angst of the broken home.  We feel for the poor kids who must deal with new step-fathers and siblings as they come of age.  We are gripped by portraits of men who would impose, with drunken meanness, their definition of macho upon the kids.

In the second half, the camera shifts more on the boy...thus the title Boyhood.  We watch a young man go through rites of passage in middle school, high school, and early college.  The boy is an artistic, sensitive individual, who seeks answers to some of the larger questions of life.

I must agree with Valerie that his film is a must-see for it's pure originality.  But as a viewer I would strive to look beyond the gimmick and examine the power of the story.  The film offers one of the most memorable, shocking, riveting portraits of marriage, parenting, and coming of age ever presented on screen.

As I read the history of this film project, I was astonished to learn that the film was a joint creative venture.  The film is the brainchild of Richard Linklater, who included his daughter as a main character.  Apparently, the major actors, Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette, also helped in the writing process, contributing themes from their own life experiences.

Over the twelve years of filming, the story evolved organically from the minds of those involved.  Every actor helped work out the plot and characterizations.  What a concept!


This is a work of art that cannot be missed.

Interstellar

See the picture above?

You might wonder what it depicts.  Well, it's simply a spaceship going through a wormhole.  Why?  How else can you cross galaxies?  Why cross galaxies?  To discover new worlds.  Why discover new worlds?  Well, the earth is dying!

OK, enough of the cryptic questions and answers.  You get the drift.  Interstellar is sic-fi pushed to the limit of reasonableness and common sense.  But hey, it's sci-fi, so let's get into the spirit, shall we?

No spoiler, so you can safely read on.  The basic plot is about earth going downhill due to cosmic disturbances.  It's in the future of course.  There are miserable dust storms and no one can grow crops.  Better find another place to live!

Matthew McConaughey is the hero-astronaut who undertakes the Great Adventure.  He is accompanied by a brilliant young scientist, played by Anne Hathaway.  The two of them, and a few others, must fly light years to get to other worlds to find one that is habitable.

No more details than that. Suffice it to say that the space voyagers have more than a few mishaps along the way.  An example of one?  Well, they land on a planet where one hour of time equates to seven years of earth time.  Think about that.  If they spend just three hours exploring the planet, folks on earth will be 21 years older when they return.

Uh oh!

You can see how you have to stretch your imagination to get into this film.  The common expression is "suspension of disbelief."  This reviewer had no problem doing that.  But what I could not fathom was why the film had to be so convoluted in plot.  And I could not figure out why it had to be over three hours long.

The acting was solid.  Jessica Chastain, who plays the astronaut's grown up daughter wondering about her absent father, is great.  Young Mackenzie Foy, who plays the astronaut's teenage daughter, is even better.  Casey Affleck, Topher Grace, and Michael Caine also play solid roles.  Matt Damon is a good evil bad guy!

My overall review?  Tough to say.  The effects are wonderful.  Some of the time dimension issues are awesome.  The plot, however, is a bit ragged.  Can't say you should rush out and see this one. But opinions differ.

Probably best to check it out for yourself.  Be sure to drive to your nearest theatre.  It's a bit quicker than trying to fly through a Black Hole to find a theater in the nearest galaxy.

If you go, check your logic at the door.  And be sure to have fun!

American Sniper

Clint Eastwood, the director of American Sniper, did it again.  He filmed a stellar cast in a remarkable tale about an American war hero.

The title of the film might not appeal to all viewers.  For those involved in guns and shooting, perhaps the title might grab.  For others, it might do quite the opposite!  Do most folks care about a guy who went to war and killed the enemy with mile long sniper shots?

Perhaps.  But the film transcends the title.  It is the story of a young man who, raised by a father who instilled tough American values, stands proudly to defend the American Way.  He is a hero, a very brave man, who voluntarily leaves wife and family to go to Iraq to fight a war that is dirty, ugly, and gritty.

What fascinates about this film is not the soldier's bravery or uncanny ability to shoot.  What truly captivates the viewer is how hard it is for a man to go to war and then come home to spouse and kids. So many veterans go abroad and do things that soldiers have to do in war.  When they return, they find it nearly impossible to get over the images that haunt them and the violence that kept them alive.

Our hearts go out to soldiers like Chris Kyle who go abroad and fight.  They become brutalized by war, and in a world where it's kill or be killed, they learn to survive.  They often have to do things that are unthinkable in a non-war setting.  Then, when they are done, they have to figure out how to be civilized husbands and fathers again, kind and gentle, caring and loving, sweet and non-violent.  

The main actor, Brad Cooper, is brilliant as the war-torn soldier.  He already dazzled in a prior film, Silver Lining Playbook. There, opposite Jennifer Lawrence, he played to perfection the confused, slow to grow up, slow to fall in love, young man who lives at home with mom and dad.  Cooper is even better as the sniper.  Watch him act and be amazed.

His love interest, Sienna Miller, is good to a point.  Then, in this viewer's opinion, she over-emotes and does not quite convince us.  But that is for you to determine.  The support cast of little known actors is strong and effective.

Clint Eastwood continues to do original and brilliant work in Hollywood.  His western, The Unforgiven, still stands out in my mind as an extraordinary revisionist look at the wild west hero, or anti-hero, as the case may be.

One sad irony:  The real hero, who survived four tours of duty and very close calls, lost his life at the hands of a crazed vet here at home.

American Sniper is a solid film, entertaining, gripping, and enlightening.

Selma

It's incredibly painful to go back and look at how, in the great land of freedom, we shut people of color out of our society.  Selma is not easy to watch.  But I must recommend it for a very perceptive look at history.

Martin Luther King is an amazing profile in courage.  Lest we forget that the South in the 1960s was a battle zone where racists could bully, beat, and murder African Americans, the film reminds us that Dr King and his entourage were willing to lay down their lives for the sake of justice.

MLK was a complex man.  He was driven.  He was a man of principle and dignity.  He was brave beyond all definitions of bravery.  

Did you know that LBJ, who has gone down in history as a champion of civil rights in America, was not quite the champion of human rights that we have been led to believe?  The film shows us how he dragged his feet on helping people of color get the vote, and how he refused to send in troops to protect those who protested.

And there's more:  The famous Pettus bridge, where infamous bloody Sunday occurred, which included the beating and murder of peaceful protesters, still exists as it once was.  No big deal?  Well, it is.  The bridge was named after a grand marshall of the KKK, a man full of hatred who was a legend in the south for his bigotry and racism.  Has the name of the bridge been changed?  Hmmm....

My reaction to the film: Anger.  I must say that I felt rage at those who abused others.  My only wish was that I had been older at the time, so I could have joined those brave folks who stood up to injustice in Selma.

Selma, the movie, is a must-see.  The acting and scripting are great.  My only criticism is wanting even more...more history, more information, more details about a shameful time in American history.  

Prepare to have an incredible movie adventure.  Prepare to get mad.

We all need to get angry again at the thought of what this country did to a minority.

The movie gets  a grade of A+, and I would recommend it above all others.  Be sure to take family and friends. No one must forget.