Category Archives: 2020

The Nest

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The Nest                              4 stars

Sean Durkin, the director who brought us Martha Marcy May Marlene in 2011 has returned to the director’s chair to make the slow burning domestic thriller, The Nest. Englishman Rory (Jude Law of The Talented Mr. Ripley and The New Pope) is a successful commodities trader in 1980’s New York, has a great family and is living in an expensive house. His American wife Allison (Carrie Coon of Fargo, The Leftovers and Gone Girl) is a horse trainer and is now in her second marriage. Between them they have two children. Rory suddenly announces that there is an opportunity for him back in London at his old company so they should all move to England, an idea that Allison is not very happy with. Soon the family is in England living in a centuries old mansion that is in need of some work. (We are told that Led Zeppelin once stayed here, so there’s that.) The mansion is expansive, yet empty and seems to serve as a symbolic character for extravagance. The dining room table is so massive we are told that few houses could ever accommodate it. Carrie Coon effectively conveys mistrust toward Rory with her eyes and secretly hides a stash of cash as if anticipating what is to come. Soon enough things start to go sour as Rory’s skills as a dealmaker don’t measure up to his ambitions and he finds that he is running short of cash and has to beg Allison for help. Allison and the two children have little to connect to in this foreign country. The movie is memorable for the slow building tension between the two lead characters and for showing the cost of the desire to appear rich. In a memorable scene Rory talks with a cabdriver and when asked what he does he responds, “I pretend to be rich.” Then when asked what it is he wants, he says, “I don’t know”. The movie shows us a family that is headed for ruin, but ultimately leaves us with a feeling that there is at least a chance at redemption, if only they would take it. The best performance has to go to Carrie Coon, who conveys feeling with a look and body movements without saying a word.

One Night in Miami

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One Night in Miami                         5 stars

There has recently been an abundance of movies concerned with the civil rights era and/or racial injustice. One that should not be missed is One Night in Miami, written by Kemp Powers and directed by Regina King in her directorial debut. The movie takes a real event, the one night meeting of four legendary black figures in February of 1964 and imagines what transpired in the Miami motel, after Cassius Clay claimed the heavy weight boxing title at the age of 22. The four, black activist Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir), boxing champion Cassius Clay (to become Muhammed Ali) (Eli Goree), football star Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge) and singer/song writer Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom, Jr.) have gathered at the motel presumably to celebrate Clay’s unexpected win over Sonny Liston. Malcolm X though has brought the legends together for a private affair free of alcohol and women in order to challenge the men to take stronger action in the fight for racial justice in the 1960’s movement. Each of the men is at a pivotal point in their careers and must deal with their shortcomings and face what their role will be in the coming struggle. The script was adapted from the stage play also by Powers. Each of the four lead actors gives a commanding performance, especially Ben-Adir who shows Malcolm X’s doubts about breaking with the Nation of Islam and senses that something foreboding is coming. (He is to be assassinated only one year later.) One of the first scenes with Jim Brown visiting one of his “friendly” long time white neighbors played by Beau Bridges serves to remind us of what blacks in the south were facing at the time. Regina King said that the movie was still in production at the time of the George Floyd death, making the movie even more relevant to today. She wanted to get the film released as soon as possible. Look for One Night in Miami to receive several Academy Award nominations including Best Picture.

Pieces of a Woman

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Pieces of a Woman                          3 stars

The title of Kornel Mundruczo’s Pieces of a Woman gives one the picture of a person being broken into pieces. This is truly the objective of the movie as we follow several months of Martha’s (Vanessa Kirby of The Crown) suffering after the loss of a baby daughter immediately after a difficult home birth. Sharing in the grief are her blue collar husband, Sean (Shia LaBeouf) and her elderly mother, Elizabeth (Ellen Burstyn). We see how each character deals with the loss differently and how it tears relationships apart. It is Kirby who gives a realistic performance of a woman broken by the experience, but then recovers from it on her own terms. For most of the movie I felt like I was watching people who were wallowing in self pity, who cannot feel empathy for the suffering of others. This is especially true of Sean, the working class husband who Elizabeth thinks is not good enough for her daughter. His reaction is one of rage as he fails to show up for work, has a brief affair and can’t find a way to cooperate in a sex scene with Martha. He is basically an ass, which makes it a perfect role for LaBeouf. Burstyn gives an excellent performance as the mother who is more concerned with making the midwife pay for the baby’s death than helping her daughter through the pain. The movie really belongs to Kirby who has been nominated for Best Actress by the Academy Awards for the role. The movie’s early scene showing the labor and delivery deserves a special mention as it is all done in a continuous take that lasts more than twenty minutes. The movie does have a courtroom scene about the lawsuit against the midwife, but it feels more like a subplot than the focus of the movie. For a better movie about the emotions of parents going through the loss of a child, I recommend Manchester by the Sea.

Mank

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Mank                    4 ½ stars

Mank, now available on Netflix, is a rarity as it portrays 1930’s Hollywood while also being filmed in the style of the thirties. Directed by David Fincher (of The Social Network and Gone Girl), it stars Gary Oldman as Hollywood screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz who is best known for writing the screenplay of Orson Welles’ masterpiece Citizen Kane. The film is in black and white and looks much like the movies of the thirties, not only by the tones and shots on the screen, but also by the quick paced dialogue of that era. At the beginning we learn that in 1940 the young 24 year old phenomenon Orson Welles has been given free reign to make whatever movie he wants with whatever resources he needs. Welles has chosen Mankiewicz to write a screenplay about a corrupt media mogul who has even greater ambitions. Throughout the movie we see Mank confined to a bed following a car accident as he dictates to a secretary and receives visits from associates and occasional phone calls from Welles. The rest of the story is done in flash backs to Mankiewicz activities in the thirties where we really get a view of what old Hollywood was like, featuring such figures as Louis B. Mayer of MGM and an aging William Randolph Hearst, the ultrarich media mogul. Amanda Seyfried portrays Marion Davies, Hearst’s mistress and confidant of Mankiewicz. There is a good deal of social commentary on the politics of the age, so it helps to have some historical background. It is set in the midst of the depression at the beginning of the Roosevelt administration with labor strikes going on and with Hitler creating a stir in Europe. There is a socialist movement going on in California with writer Upton Sinclair challenging incumbent Republican Frank Merriam for the Governor’s office. The scene featuring a gathering of big wigs and socialites at Hearst castle engaged in a political discussion is fascinating as the socialist leaning Mankiewicz goes toe to toe with the Republican backers in the room. Much like Welles film, Mank can be viewed as an indictment of the superrich who live off the backs of the workers that keep their enterprise going. It is really Oldman who makes the film work though he is much older than Mankiewicz was at the time. Mank leads the Academy Award nominations with a total of ten, including Beast Actor for Oldman, Best Supporting Actress for Amanda Seyfried, Best Picture and Best Director for David Fincher. The screenplay was written by David Fincher’s father Jack who died in 2003 so never got to see it become reality.

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

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Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom            5 stars

There are some truly commanding performances in the George C. Wolfe directed Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (on Netflix). Viola Davis stars as the legendary 1920’s blues singer Ma Rainey in the film based on the August Wilson play of the same name. Alongside her is Chadwick Bozeman as the ambitious cornet player, Levee. This was to be Bozeman’s final performance as he unfortunately passed away last year. The movie is set in 1927 Chicago with most of the story centered around a recording session for Ma and her band as the members of the band and her white manager wait on Ma’s late arrival. Davis gives us a special performance portraying the domineering performer of the blues who won’t let any man walk over her, be he black or white. Her appearance has been transformed with gold teeth and dark makeup giving her a formidable look. Although the movie focuses on the recording session, it is really a way to show the racial injustices that existed for black Americans in the Jim Crow era. We hear examples of it in the stories the characters tell and in their treatment by the white men around them. Ma even says “They don’t care nothing about me. All they want is my voice.” Bozeman also makes the movie exceptional with his character’s dialect and confident nature who wants to break out on his own as a songwriter with his own band, but then falls victim to prejudice and his own temper. Bozeman is nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor and has to be the favorite to take the statue. Viola Davis already has one Oscar for Fences, also based on an August Wilson play. She is again nominated for Best Actress and this very could be her second win. The movie is one of a series of movies that Denzel Washington is producing that are based on the works of playwright August Wilson. It will be interesting to see what else there is in store.

Tenet

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Tenet                    2 ½ stars

From the director of Inception and Dunkirk comes a truly mind bending work called Tenet that arrived in theaters last summer in the middle of the pandemic. Christopher Nolan has created an espionage spy thriller featuring time travel with a twist. John David Washington, known for BlacKKKlansman, is simply called Protagonist and is a sort of special agent who must save the world from a weapon sent from the future that is intended to destroy the world. The premise of the weapon, inverted matter that moves backwards through time while interacting with our world is much too involved to try to explain so I won’t even try. In fact one has a hard time comprehending what is going on through much of the movie as people can alternately move forward and backwards. That’s what is wrong with the movie since the more you think about it the less it seems to make sense. This is even implied by some of the lines of Robert Pattinson who plays Neil, a team member of the Protagonist. The film is beautifully shot in many parts of the world which gives it a look of a 007 movie with just as much action. The score is interesting, but I wouldn’t call it exactly musical. Tenet is nominated for Best Production Design and for Best Visual Effects in the upcoming Academy Awards. I found Nolan’s earlier works to be more entertaining than this film.

Onward

Onward                                4 stars

Last year’s addition to the Pixar library of films, Onward, takes us to a new fantasy world, one where magic has given way to use of technology and comfort. The creatures that inhabit this world are less skillful and out of shape versions of their ancestors that lived long ago. Director Dan Scanlon who also co-wrote, gives us a story of two elf brothers who lost their father at a young age and still miss him. Through unusual circumstances Ian and Barley have the chance to bring him back for one day through the use of magic spells, but first must go on a quest for an enchanted stone. Barley, who is into role playing magic games sees it as a great adventure that he is prepared for, but Ian, who is only 16, is more nervous about the whole proposition. Together they face the challenges and comical situations as they solve riddles and flee from the cops on their great quest. (They are accompanied by the lower half of the reincarnated dad who can only be restored upon completion of the quest.) The movie has much in common with other Pixar productions like Toy Story including the messages of human relationships and how we rely on one another. It doesn’t quite measure up to the standards set by the best Pixar creations, but is worth seeing for the younger audiences. Scanlon (who also directed Monsters University) took the idea from his own life experiences as he and his older brother lost their father when they were very young. Onward is nominated for the Best Animated Feature Academy Award.

Nomadland

Nomadland                        4 ½ stars

Chloe Zhao’s movie Nomadland is likely not for everyone but is one that I found to be fascinating. The 2020 film stars Francis McDormand as Fern, a 60ish woman who finds herself jobless, a widow and without a home after spending much of her life working in a small Nevada town at a US Gypsum factory that closed its doors after 88 years. Like the factory, Fern is a casualty of the Great Recession and must find a new path in life. With only a van and her few possessions that she can pack inside, she adopts the life of many of her generation and becomes a nomad and travels from one campground to another picking up service jobs at tourist attractions and plants. (Some viewers may recognize sights from the famous Wall Drug.) Everywhere she finds a community of fellow nomads who cooperate with one another and are willing to help with her needs. The movie is about many things really, about loss, about finding fellowship and comfort from fellow humans and of course about the beauty of the American West and the Plains. Chloe Zhao not only wrote and directed the movie, but also produced and edited it as well. While not a western, Nomadland has much in common with her earlier work, The Rider as that movie dealt with a young cowboy losing his loved profession and included some remarkable cinematic filming. Many of the characters were portrayed by nonprofessional actors playing fictional versions of themselves, people who society has left behind and travel wherever opportunity takes them. As Fern says, they are not homeless, just houseless. The movie is very low on plot relying instead on the characters, the camera work and the score to make a real masterpiece. Nomadland is nominated for Best Picture and Best Director and could very well pick up both Oscars.

News of the World

News of the World                           3 ½ stars

The man who directed the Jason Bourne films and Captain Phillips, Paul Greengrass brought us the film adaptation of News of the World last year, working again with Tom Hanks who stars again as a true to life hero. Hanks is well cast as Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, a former Confederate officer who, in the years since the Civil War has become a traveling reader, who brings stories of the outside world to the townsfolk of Texas towns who are willing to listen. The animosity present during the war has not been lost and there are plenty of expressions of intolerance in this part of the country and with it the accompanying violence. Kidd happens upon a lost ten year old girl on his journey who knows no English as she was captured by the Kiowa years earlier and only thinks of herself as an Indian. She is an orphan twice, having lost her German immigrant family and then her Kiowa family. It then becomes Kidd’s reluctant responsibility to take her to her only known relatives who live hundreds of miles away. Much of the movie centers on the moments when the unlikely pair get to know each other despite the great language barrier between them, but then there are the incidents of terror when Kidd becomes protector from the unsavory inhabitants of this savage world. The movie is aided by some impressive cinematography of the Texas landscape (actually filmed in New Mexico), a good score as well as the supporting cast that includes Mare Winningham, Bill Camp and Elizabeth Marvel. It is a bit on the long side with some slow stretches. It is mainly the performances of Hanks and the girl (Helena Zengal) that will keep your attention. News of the World has earned four Academy Awards nominations that include Original Score, Best Sound, Best Cinematography and Best Production Design.

Tesla/ The Current War

Tesla                                    2 stars

The Current War               3 stars

Within one year two movies were released about how the power of electricity was harnessed in America in the 1880’s and 1890’s. Both Tesla, directed by Michael Almereyda and The Current War, directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon cover the events when Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse were competing over the building of the fledgling powergrid that would light up American cities into the twentieth century. Immigrant Nikola Tesla also figures prominently in the stories with his designs of an electric motor that could efficiently utilize alternating current. While covering the same subject the two films are very different in focus and style. Tesla, of course centers on the life of the genius inventor from the Austro-Hungarian Empire with Ethan Hawke in the starring role who plays him as a moody, silent individual often lost in thought. He is more concerned with changing the future of mankind with his inventions than seeking personal gain. (He, of course, eventually loses his fortune and dies penniless.) Edison is portrayed by Kyle MacLachlan who is far too old for the part and Westinghouse is played by Jim Gaffigan to comic effect. The Current War stars Benedict Cumberbatch as the genius Thomas Edison who is fighting for DC current to be used as the basis for powering cities while Michael Shannon portrays brilliant businessman George Westinghouse who is selling the idea of alternating current as a more efficient means of transmitting power. As the title suggests the movie centers on the battle between the two over whose company will build and control the transmission of electric power across the country. Tesla (Nicholas Hoult) is a supporting character in The Current War who first works for Edison, goes on his own and then partners with Westinghouse. In both films it’s curious that the filmmakers chose to have Tesla speak without the hint of an accent which seems unlikely for the European immigrant. Wealthy entrepreneur J. P. Morgan features prominently in both movies (Donnie Keshawarz in Tesla and Matthew MacFadyen in The Current War) as the man who ultimately finances the whole enterprise. The style of the two films is what makes the difference between them. Tesla takes a post-modern artistic approach using the character of Anne Morgan, J. P. Morgan’s daughter, to tell the story as the woman who falls for Tesla while also narrating the background of the film’s people and events, but from our present using Google searches and iPads. There are other anachronisms used in the movie such as a cell phone and electric vacuum cleaner. I presume this is a way of showing the influence Tesla’s genius was to have on future developments, but I found it to be distracting. There are even fictional scenes such as an ice cream fight between Tesla and Edison that Anne fortunately tells us never happened. Another device used is to introduce characters without identifying them until later that I found to be confusing. By contrast The Current War is a biopic about the two men done strictly chronologically that puts the names of the characters on screen as each appears. It’s a less artistic approach but it gets the job done. The criticism I have with The Current War is the fast pace of it and quick editing. You need to pay attention, but it is less confusing than Tesla. Both are less than perfect films, but you will learn a lot from them, such as how the execution of a condemned prisoner was used by Edison to further his argument that Westinghouse’s alternating current was too dangerous to use around people. Tesla premiered at Sundance in 2020 while The Current War premiered at Toronto in 2017 and was then shelved for 2 years until its release in 2019.