Argo (and a bit of history)

Valerie, you're spot on in your review below about Argo.  You indicated that it's a nail-biter and a great film.  And you said that good ol' Ben is a better director than actor.  I could not agree more.

Like Valerie, I'd suggest that readers RUN out and see Argo.  It's a great history lesson.  And it makes us proud of some very brave heroes who saved lives back in the late 70s.

Just wanted to add an interesting bit of information.  I and others were very frustrated with the Carter administration, and this is a comment coming from a Democrat.  Carter was so lovey-dovey in his manner that the Iranians did not respect him.  Was it something about perceiving our president as weak?

Then the cowboy came along!  That's him above.  Ronald Reagan said and implied in his campaign speeches of 1979 that he'd get those hostages back...and pronto!  He spoke of NEGOTIATION THROUGH STRENGTH repeatedly.

Friends of Reagan quietly revealed his plan: he'd bomb Tehran daily until the hostages were returned.

Here was the result, and the quote is from the NY Times in 1980:

Reagan Takes Oath as 40th President; Promises an ‘Era of National Renewal’–Minutes Later, 52 U.S. Hostages In Iran Fly to Freedom After 444-Day Ordeal

Argo

I don't know what you were doing in 1979, but chances are, you were glued, for a time, to the Iran hostage crisis.  A lesser known, yet equally dramatic tale was unraveling at the same time, one that neither I, nor anyone I've asked knew anything about.

When the hostage take-over happened, six American Foreign Service personnel escaped and were hidden by the Canadian diplomat for months.

True to keeping my posts brief, I'll just say that the true life story of their ingenious, amazing, nail-biting rescue has been masterfully brought to film by Ben Affleck.  The boy isn't the greatest actor, but dang, he's been evolving into a major player as a director. 

This film has a strong cast, including Alan Arkin, Bryan Cranston (of Breaking Bad), and John Goodman.  the pacing barely allows the audience to breathe. 

A good, GOOD, solid movie, and its authenticity pays due reverence to those unsung heroes of American military life who risk all for no glory, as they are members of an invisible club.

Cloud Atlas

Can you read what's at the bottom of this image?  "Everything is connected."

Keep that in mind.

I am probably writing this blog too soon after having viewed this conundrum of a film, as we took a sabbatical from trick-or-treaters this year and went to see this instead.  MUCH more value-added.

I shall start with the math: 

     3 directors 

+ 15 major actors

+ each actor playing 5 or 6 roles

+ a plot spanning 6 historical eras

+ a film running 2 hours and 40 minutes (with not one moment of dragging).

= one head-scratching, soul-searching, mesmerizing tour de force that secondarily pays homage to the art of acting and whose protagonist seems to be the phenomenal make-up department.  

Based on an award-winning novel by David Mitchell (which I will promptly add to my Nook), it is most briefly synopsized this way:  "An exploration of how the actions of individual lives impact one another in the past, present and future."

Said of the novel:  "Mitchell combines flat-out adventure, a Nabokovian lore of puzzles, a keen eye for character, and a taste for mind-bending philosophical and scientific speculation....The result is brilliantly original fiction that reveals how disparate people connect, how their fates intertwine, and how their souls drift across time like clouds across the sky."

This film leaves this film-goer with SOOOO much to think about.  I like that.  I am also likely to go see it again; there is just so much to absorb.  Directing and acting were superb. 

David, this film has you written all over it.  Go see it so we can discuss.  

To everyone else reading this:  Please weigh in with your comments if you've seen any of the films we post.  We'd love to hear more voices!

The 19th Wife

Remember the great TV series Big Love?  It was one of my favorites!  The multi-year show was so unusual because it gave us a sympathetic portrait of Mormonism.  The 19th Wife does the opposite:  It skewers Mormons' treatment of women.  Wow.  What a scathing view!

Before lauding the LMN movie, which I intend to do (sans spoiler, of course!), we must be fair in our use of the word Mormon.  Every religion has its extremes.  The far right of Judaism and Christianity must not be confused with mainstream folks.  So, a priori, let's agree that the Big Love style of Mormonism is a very observant, highly regulated, rule-orieted sect that is a small segment of the Mormon population.

The 19th Wife portrays Mormons who live in a commune with a dogmatic leader (The Prophet) who dictates when 15  year old girls will become brides to much older men.  In this world, girls become slaves and young men are often kicked out of the family like young male lions expelled by the resident male.

Chyler Leigh, pictured above, plays a young woman happily married to a cop, who is a pariah because she and her husband have chosen not to be part of the multiple-wife culture.  Chyler's character is quite the rebel:  her best friend is a guy, she does what she wants rather than what her husband sys, and she is a liberal shining light in an otherwise dark and gloomy culture.

All is well in Mormonland until there's a murder!  Who committed the crime?  Why?  Someone who did not do the deed is sitting in prison awaiting trial.  She is innocent!  But she will take the rap for a man in order not to sully the Mormon world.

Sound interesting?

LMN is fantastic at mysteries.  I personally stay clear of the usual themes of cheating, abusive men and unhappily married women.  But when LMN does a whodunnit, it really does the theme well.  In my mind, not one channel matches the top LMN mysteries.

Chyler Leigh got her start in a corny parody movie called Not Another Teen Movie.  She was great in the flick that satirized the very popular She's All That with Freddie Prinze.  Chyler now stars in Grey's Anatomy.  She's a talented actress.

One last word:  The 19th Wife is a true story, based on a book written by one of Brigham Young's unhappy wives back in the 1800s.  She's pictured above.  Eliza Ann Young blasted the condition of Mormon women.  I will order the classic from Amazon.

A very gripping, well-done film.

Grade of  A+

Looper

Looper is going to make you think.  So, movie fans, brain-stress alert!  Why?  Well, the story centers on time travel in a very novel sort of way!

I must begin this review by giving a mild SPOILER warning.  I am usually quite cautious about giving away too much, but I believe I can help readers enjoy the film more if I put in more than my usual two cents.

My daughter, a philosophy prof who just happens to teach courses on time and space, cautioned me and declared that I, being of close-to-senile-mental function and not nearly as well informed on time travel concepts, might well misconstrue the story.  SO, yet another CAVEAT:  My opinion may well be wrong!

Haha!  Yes, sports fans, it's that kind of movie. Very, very convoluted and quite open to discussion.  Well, here goes!

First off, Gordon G-L and Bruce Willis are one and the same person. Gordon's character is the younger version in today's time, and Bruce's character is the grown-up character in future time.  Via time travel, the two meet, and young/old protagonist/s must have a meeting of the minds lest they kill each other!

You see, they are assassins.

Well, not assassins in the common understanding of the word.  The younger man, Gordon G-L, is paid to kill fellow assassins who have had a good life of killing, and now, grown men of the future, are being sent back to face their maker thirty years earlier.

Huh?  Hahahaha.  Exactly.  Weird.  The young assassin shoots the older, forcibly "retired" assassins, in the present, so the future powers-that-be won't have to worry about messy things like bodies.  In exchange for this service of dubious ethical worth, the young assassin gets blocks of gold.

Fine and dandy.

BUT:  What if the young assassin suddenly finds himself having to shoot the older version of himself????

Ouch!  Big problem.

Add to this already wildly imaginative story a few other plotlines:  A kid today who will turn into the world's worst super bad guy tomorrow must be found and eliminated.  Easier said than done.  The kid has super powers a la little Drew Barrymore in Firestarter.  When the boy gets upset, he can make folks float!  Wait, there's more.  Little evil boy's mother, played by the talented Emily Blunt, will protect her boy at all costs....even if she can't control his madness.

What a delightful mish-mosh!  Be sure to catch the moral dilemma:  young/old killer/s need to kill the child now to save the future world, yet younger version of assassin says no to killing the kid and older version of assassin says yes. Big conflict!   Hmmmm.......

All of the story makes sense to crazy time-thinkers like me ....until the end, when, in an effort to create an effective denouement, the writers commit a cardinal time-travel movie sin:  time paradox.

The paradox is simple to understand: if you go back and accidentally run over your grandfather, your parents don't exist and neither do you.  But what about the life you have just been leading?   And if you don't exist, how can you do in good ol' grandpa?

OK, I will say nothing more about the pathetically weak ending which, to me, disappointed all the more since most of the other time-travel issues had been resolved.

But I must recommend that my esteeemed readers RUN out and see this film.  SUSPEND your disbelief and enjoy!  It's truly one of a kind.  And among time-travel stories, it really pushes the envelope in a sometimes logical sort of way.

A+++

Scarred City

Stephen Baldwin used to be an amazing action actor.  Recently, he found religion and declared he would no longer act in films that offered sex and violence!  What a shame!

Baldwin has a certain swagger, an arrogance, that typifies his tough-guy roles.  Unlike brother Alec, who is more of a looker, Stephen walks bow-legged like a rugged cowboy and stares stoically like a fearless warrior at his enemies.

Scarred City is a very, very entertaining film.  It's about police corruption.  The bad cops, led by the always-effective-bully-type, Chas Parminteri, blackmail the good cop, Baldwin, into joining their vigilante hit squad.  Baldwin rebels....and then the fun begins!

No spoiler, but I might say that pretty Tia Carrere goes on the lam with Stephen.  Just watch 'em take on the baddies.  Great shoot-em-up scenes complement a stellar cast and some fine gangster grit.  Not for the faint-hearted.  There's no small quantity of folks succumbing to the barrages of bullets.

The city is indeed scarred.  But the film is not.  Except maybe the ending.  I'll leave that one up to you, dear readers.

Two Days in the Valley

Let's face it.  One of the reasons we love the movies is to look at the beautiful people:  we enjoy the eye candy as much as the plot!

When I go back and view a film like Two Days in the Valley, which was made 17 tears ago, I marvel at the actors and actresses who were so damn attractive way back then.  Of course, they're still pretty folks, but check 'em out when they were in their 20's!  I'll stay on this superficial plane just long enough to laud the dazzling looks of a very young Charlize Theron....and for you ladies, go back and see James Spader.  Wow, true Hollywood Good-Lookers!

OK, sorry, films are more than good looks, right?  (Should I ask that question??!!)

This flick is a fine piece of work.  In it, five or six plots unfold and eventually mingle to create a cogent, powerful story.  No spoiler, of course, but here's the basic gist:  Two gangsters, hit men, are hired to do a job.  Then one turns on the other.  Then one takes hostages and bonds with them. Then the other returns to his girlfriend.  Eventually, all become entwined in a very engaging and weird plot.

Just one more comment that might pique your interest:  Teri Hatcher and Charlize Theron get into a wicked girl fight that very nearly spoils their good looks!  Oh my!

Now add to a very creative story a cast of extraordinary actors:  Danny Aiello, Jeff Daniels, Teri Hatcher, Marsha Mason, Eric Stoltz, Keith Carradine, Louise Fletcher, and the beautiful ones, Theron and Spader.

Go back to 1996, where a film gem awaits!  You won't be disappointed.  And...if you don't like the movie, you can at least enjoy some very pretty faces!