SNOWDEN Review

For the second year in a row now we have a fictionalized account of real-life events that were already well-documented in award-winning documentaries starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt doing weird accents. And, much like The Walk, the biggest obstacle Snowden was going to need to overcome was that of the one for its own relevancy. Not only did most of the American public see the splattering of media coverage when the Snowden story broke in the summer of 2013, but many also watched Laura Poitras' Oscar-winning documentary, Citizenfour, that was released in 2014 and chronicled how Poitras along with Guardian reporters Glenn Greenwald and Ewen MacAskill traveled to Hong Kong to meet with Edward Snowden and discuss how to break the news of the information the whistleblower was willing to leak. That rather riveting documentary was more than enough to give us a portrait of who this man was and why he did what he did without going into overly dramatized flashbacks or even divulging all of his professional history with the CIA and the military. Solely through how he presented himself in the current circumstances he was facing at the time of Citizenfour viewers glimpsed what type of man Edward Joseph Snowden is and what he might have done were he presented with the dilemma of going along with a CIA field operatives dirty plan or standing up to that more seasoned field agent and doing what he felt was right no matter if it meant him resigning from the agency or not. While we could have likely guessed what path Snowden would have taken given the virtues and sentiments he doles out in his Citizenfour interviews for some reason director Oliver Stone has found it necessary to go back and fill in those gaps just in case you didn't get it. While the idea of a feature film around Snowden isn't inherently a bad one what Stone has chosen to do with the material in telling a straightforward account on the life and times of Snowden in the twelve years leading up to the incident that would make him the, "World's Most Wanted Man" make the idea seem downright unnecessary. Given this is exactly the type of territory Stone has always enjoyed covering, especially when he has a particular point of view on the subject and wants nothing more than to convince you he's right, I expected Snowden to offer a compelling and thoughtful argument and examination for and of the actions Snowden took and why they should be celebrated rather than slammed, but while Stone's position is evident there is nothing here to compel an indifferent viewer one way or the other.

Full Trailer for Oliver Stone's SNOWDEN

It seems as if we've been talking about Oliver Stone's Edward Snowden film for two years now, but today we finally have the first full trailer after a teaser that debuted last June. I wasn't sure what to expect from the film given it seemed a rushed project to capitalize on current events. It didn't help my optimism that the fascinating documentary, Citizenfour, had already come out and with the involvement of the real Snowden had already shed as insightful a light on the situation as possible. Seeing actors go through similar motions would seemingly only feel like watching people play dress up. This is certainly a concern still given the vocal choices star Joseph Gordon-Levitt has seemed to adopt for his portrayal of Snowden, but this trailer also displays the advantages of having a dramatic narrative around a popular public figure. This aspect comes into play mostly in the early parts of the trailer as we are given highlights of what led Snowden to work for the NSA in the first place. His desire to serve his country and honor its legacy is an admirable quality no matter where one falls in line politically and will undoubtedly set the character up as a likable and endearing individual who audiences will find it hard to turn on once the events he's well-known for begin to happen. The story of Edward Snowden is certainly ripe for an adaptation by a filmmaker who has made his name on interpreting history and historical figures, but only time will tell if this is the Stone that brought us JFK and Born on the Fourth of July or the one who brought us Savages. Snowden also stars Shailene Woodley, Melissa Leo, Zachary Quinto, Tom Wilkinson, Rhys Ifans, Nicolas Cage, and opens on September 16th, 2016.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS Review

What is Vince Vaughn doing with his time? Was making Delivery Man such a great experience and one that ultimately garnered him the profits and adulation he so desires that he thought following it up with another collaboration with the director was the way to go? He might have had a good time making the movie, sure, and I liked it more than most probably because I still like Vaughn more than most, but if Delivery Man was anything to the public it was an insignificant comedy that has already been forgotten and it isn't hard to see the same fate happening to this second collaboration between the actor and Ken Scott. Unfinished Business is a comedy you'd hardly recognize as such because it feels so half-baked, but regardless I can't help but to feel Vaughn is giving it his all here despite having to know that the story is paper thin and his supporting characters (sans Dave Franco) are a far cry from those he once surrounded himself with in Swingers and Wedding Crashers. Much like Adam Sandler, Vaughn has become a comedian no one expects much from anymore, but continue to tolerate because he has a relatability factor and is inherently charming with his fast-talking comedic style endearing him to many who now try to resist. It would be easy to go the contrarian route with a movie like Unfinished Business due to the fact there is a semblance of something more at the core of this fluff, but it is all too half-assed and slight to actually be anything of note. Not only is this a movie that fails to be entertaining half of the time, but it offers nothing new or insightful in terms of corporate America, the working class or even the stiff that has been so spread thin he forgets to stop and appreciate the good things in life that Vaughn has now played a total number of I've lost count he's done it so much. I want to like what Vaughn does with his precious time and I want to trust (like I do with Sandler) that he wants to be better than this; that he craves to create something substantial in a comedy that truly brings a smile to peoples faces that they continue to quote for years after its release, but what he's doing lately with that precious time seems to be little more than wasting it on dreck like this.  

SELMA Review

First things first: if you get your history from movies you get the history you deserve. Amid the controversy of historical inaccuracies that feel more like a play to dismantle Selma's award chances than anything else it must be remembered that director Ava DuVernay's is an interpretation of many historical narratives boiled down into a comprehensive two hours. Things must be compacted and slightly compromised, but never does it feel like any one character is given the shaft more than the others. The flurry of controversy here is dealing with the portrayal of the thirty-sixth President, Lyndon B. Johnson, who is historically regarded as completely behind not only Dr. King, but the civil rights movement in general and the passing of the voting-rights act in 1965. The movie doesn't portray a President resistant to the passing of this legislation, but more a man who has a set of priorities not in line with our protagonists. The extent to which this is true or not certainly matters, but more to the point of the films major goals is that this is not a movie about the relationship between Johnson and King (which a very interesting movie could be made from), but rather larger issues at hand to the point I'd say Selma isn't about Dr. King either. More, it is about a movement, a moment in time that is compelling and inspiring enough to make for a good story and serve as a nice reminder and a bit of perspective especially considering the relevancy of the message it's preaching. Despite all of this controversy swirling around it, the actual content of the film is what matters and that is where the dispute between telling history as accurately as possible and telling a good story comes into play. There is no one clearly defined version of history despite what we are taught to believe in grade school and so it is completely open and fair for DuVernay (working from a script by first-time screenwriter Paul Webb) to tell this story from her own perspective, influenced by her own ideologies. It may be slightly unfortunate that her interpretation isn't completely fair to Johnson, but I doubt this will tarnish his legacy in the grand scheme of things. The film itself and what is actually the subject of this review is a rousing, expertly paced film that truly has the ability to inspire despite its structural conventions. The film itself is a solid four-star historical drama that is elevated to perfection by David Oyelowo's exceptional performance.

First Trailer for SELMA

Is it me or does this awards season seem more packed than usual? It is late to the game releases such as Selma and American Sniper that make me wonder just how far some of these films will wait to really start their engines. It seems December is more ripe than usual with the likes of Wild, Inherent Vice, Into the Woods, Unbroken and Big Eyes all releasing within a few weeks of one another and all seeming to want to put in their bids for certain categories. Selma and the aforementioned Clint Eastwood film though will stagger there releases over the Christmas/New Year season in hopes of capitalizing on the January drag by escaping the overcrowded Christmas day schedule and boosting their box office by drawing on those unable to see some of the more prestigious pictures until after the new year.  I imagine director Ava DuVernay's prime focus will settle on that of the lead performance by David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King Jr., but there is a lot of potential here and if it turns out well first-time screenwriter Paul Webb is looking at good odds and the supporting cast is almost as massive as last years The Butler, which this immediately conjures up comparisons to. What feels better about Selma though is that it inherently seems to have the importance, rage and vitality to it that Lee Daniels film thrust upon itself. I am extremely intrigued by the film and really hope it delivers on what this great teaser promises. Selma also stars Carmen Ejogo, Tom Wilkinson, Andre Holland, Omar J. Dorsey, Tessa Thompson, Tim Roth, Common, Wendell Pierce, Giovanni Ribisi, Cuba Gooding Jr., Colman Domingo, Oprah Winfrey and opens in limited release on Christmas Day before expanding on January 9, 2015.

THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL Review

Wes Anderson's latest, The Grand Budapest Hotel is many things, but at its heart it feels like a quiet epic, a love letter to time gone by with a narrative spanning decades that chronicles the exceptionally unexceptional life of one young man who was influenced by another and would have his world forever changed because of him. It is as much about the world one creates around themselves and how it determines the outcome of ones life as it is about the actual plot of the story which, be not afraid, contains prison break-outs, gun fights, affairs with older women and a fair amount of lies and deception. Over the course of his career, Anderson has created many an interesting world where his characters find their typically odd yet perfect little worlds rocked by some kind of event. Whether it be the Tennenbaums, Steve Zissou or even Mr. Fox each of these characters have a way of trying to retain the normality that has escaped them in the time of their lives that Anderson's films have chosen to document. With The Grand Budapest Hotel things are only slightly different in that the screenplay itself, for the first time in his career, was written solely by Anderson and this more intimate relationship with the material certainly makes for a strong showing by the director, one in which it feels this film is the epitome of Anderson's imagination, that he is fully operating within the confines of his own imagination that he has come to be inspired to create through the works of Stefan Zweig and his consistent themes of becoming lost in ones reality and while not only has Anderson seemed to inhabit the role of Zweig here he has also come to imprint that same mentality on his main character, M. Gustave (Ralph Fiennes). Gustave, as one of our two storytellers overseeing the main narrative insinuates near the end of the film, may have come to live in a world that ceased to exist before he even entered it. It is this kind of thinking, these ideas beyond that of simply telling an entertaining story, but rather inspecting the mind of someone and how they look at their world and take on the challenges laid before them that makes Anderson's work so engaging and off-kilter, while this film in particular beautifully demonstrates the thin line that sometimes exists between real life and imagination.

THE LONE RANGER Review

It's hard to complain about a movie when you know so much hard work and care went into the production of it. The movie adaptation of The Lone Ranger has traveled a long and rugged road in order to reach the big screen and along the way I'm sure has seen many more tribulations than the common cinephile has been exposed to. As the whispers of production issues didn't come into play with World War Z's box office success a few weeks ago I was hoping the highly-publicized budgetary problems with Gore Verbinski's latest might play out the same way, but where the reviews were surprisingly glowing for the Max Brooks adaptation it almost seems critics were ready to jump on this latest Johnny Depp adventure before it was even out of the gate. Quite the opposite happened last summer when hopes were high for the Depp/Tim Burton collaboration Dark Shadows, but released only a week after The Avengers the film was lost in the shuffle and word of mouth was not kind. Still, I found myself enjoying the film rather immensely and have since re-watched it more than once on blu-ray trying to find what was so repulsive about it. I can't help but feel the same way about The Lone Ranger. I can certainly see where some of the criticism is coming from. The biggest issue the film faces is that of a tone and pacing crisis. There is never anything that jump starts the film and allows the audience to settle into their seats and enjoy the adventure about to take place and while there are fits and starts of rather harsh violence the film predominantly tries to take a comedic if not mostly slapstick approach to things. These kind of blunt tonal shifts can sometimes take us out of the experience we are trying to become a part of, but in the end it would be a disservice to this film and the people who might count on your opinion to decide if they'll see it or not to call this a bad movie. It is not a bad movie, it is a beautifully shot film with a layered story and some fine performances. It took a while to get going and though it doesn't really find its stride until the last half hour, one has to at least ask themselves what did they expect? It certainly couldn't have been much better than what we've been given.

Full-Length Trailer For THE LONE RANGER

Summer 2013 is starting to look all the more interesting as we've had several trailers coming out over the past few days. We've already seen a glimpse of Armie Hammer and Johnny Depp as The Lone Ranger and Tonto in a teaser back in early October but now we get our first full, fleshed out look at what is sure to be one of the more interesting stories of summer '13. The film has already encountered many problems in getting to the screen, but now that the dust has settled all that is left to discover is how good the quality of the film will be and if any of the budget concerns or production woes will ultimately affect the quality. I have not jumped off the Depp train yet, though I believe he needs to steer clear of any more Jack Sparrow roles. I know the guy is good at what he does and the collaboration between he and director Gore Verbinski in 2011 made my top 10 list of the year, so needless to say I have high hopes for this one. With Verbinski at the helm Depp has created Jack Sparrow and Rango; I only hope that magic continues with Tonto. Still, the sidekick is not the focus here and as this trailer proves Armie Hammer seems to be handling leading man duties just fine. The film looks gorgeous and besides Hammer and Depp contains an all star cast that includes Tom Wilkinson, Barry Pepper, and Helena Bonham Carter. The Lone Ranger is set to open July 3, 2013. Hi-yo, Silver!

BATMAN BEGINS Review

Looking back on Christopher Nolan's first venture into Gotham City it does show us how far he has come as a filmmaker. His confidence alone in what he can accomplish and what he can control to the point he can put it on screen in an organized fashion is stunning. When going into Batman Begins though, we had no impression of what was to come and so we took it for what it was at the time: the best Batman movie that had ever been made. I've always been a huge Batman fan, and like anyone from my generation, a child of the 90's, they likely gained their fondness for the character through the animated series of that decade. What was odd about the correlation between that series and the live action films coming out at the time was that there really wasn't any. The Tim Burton films painted an eccentric and somewhat dark picture of the caped crusader. Certainly, to that point they were the closest thing anyone had to the original comics of Bob Kane. Still, after Burton and Keaton retired from the series it crashed and burned under Joel Schumacher who turned the live action adaptations into more of kids entertainment than the 1992-1995 animated series. This cartoon series, partially inspired by the success of Burton's films gave my generation a better idea of what Batman really was.  With Batman Begins Nolan and writer David S. Goyer delivered the extension of that series to the kids who grew up watching it every day after school. Begins gave a darker and more realistic tone to the gritty world of Gotham city and the rich boy who in one act gained fear and despair for what his world truly was. It didn't simply deliver the superhero in a suit fighting bad guys, but it gave us the motivation for a man to cover his face and force out the evil.

Ducard (Liam Neeson) trains Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale)
in the ways of the League of Shadows.

What I found particularly appealing about Batman Begins was the fact tn filled in those gaps that had always been left out of the Batman origin story. Anyone who has ever seen a Batman movie knows the part where Bruce watches his parents be murdered at a young age. We know this is what motivates him to fight for what is not necessarily revenge, but justice. How though, did such a young boy decide to take on the persona of a bat? Where did he learn to fight? Where did he gather his theories and divulge the psychology of the criminal mind? What made him any kind of authority to try and stop those who threatened what he desired to salvage? The questions are endless yet somehow Nolan and Goyer were able to blend this analysis of a hero into the story of Batmans coming to be and his first face-off with the mob and a criminal mastermind. Beginning with and going in a non-linear fashion to reconstruct the struggle of a boy through his young adult years and on into manhood the film does a wonderful job of painting a full picture of who Bruce Wayne is as a man. In doing this, Batman Begins was able to do something few superhero films had accomplished before. The audience was not simply counting the time until the man put on the suit, but instead we became just as engaged in the story of what was psychologically going on underneath that mask. When Wayne leaves Gotham after seemingly closing a chapter in his life dealing with the death of his parents he carries the sorrow and spark of a realization from mobster Carmine Falcone (Tom Wilkinson) around with him as he explores the criminal mind. He is searching to find a way to avenge the guilt he feels for his parents death by ridding the world of the filth that took his parents from him.

Batman watches over and protects the city of Gotham.

In doing this, he comes across a man who presents himself strictly as Ducard (Liam Neeson) a recruiter for a  mysterious group of vigilantes known as the league of shadows, who at first glance seem to have the same goals in mind as Bruce. When it becomes clear that Ducard and his leader Ra's al Ghul (Ken Watanabe) do not view the way in which a criminal should be treated with the same ideals a rift is formed between the billionaire and the boys in black. Wayne fights back and seemingly makes his way back to Gotham, a lesson well learned. Despite their differences in theory Bruce has taken a few cues from his teacher and implied the use of theatrics into his plan to rid Gotham of those that have torn down everything his idealistic father worked to build. Thus we are now given the complications of corrupt cops and officials in nearly every office in Gotham. Using long time friend Rachel Dawes (Katie Holmes, later to be replaced by Maggie Gylenhaal) and reaching out to new ally Sgt. James Gordon (a flawless Gary Oldman) Wayne begins the revolution to clean up the corrupt. It also helps that he has the family butler Alfred (Michael Caine) at his side to guide him and serving as a kind of father figure as well as Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) a Wayne Enterprises employee in the applied sciences division that provides the cool gadgets Wayne uses as his alter ego. In one of my favorite aspects of this film though, we were given a live action interpretation of what I always found to be one of the creepier batman villains. As personified by Cillian Murphy, Dr. Jonathan Crane is at the same time what brings this first installment out of its strictly grounded reality while also assuring the audience that such an outlandish kind of villain can fit into Nolan's world as well.

Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) summons Batman when a
crook with the same flair for theatrics shows up in town.

Besides the story though, it is everything about the film that consistently captivated me. Never has the music felt so integral to the actions that are taking place on screen. Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard set the tone for the entire series with this score by giving this Gotham a completely different feel than we had ever related to it before. The look of the film was integral, the orange and yellow tones tinted with shadows in each shot. The imagery, how Bale and Nolan made a point to get stoic shots of Batman and truly bring to life that persona of Batman from the comics. There was the reinvented batmobile aka "The Tumbler" and the way in which each actor complimented that tone the script gave off. It all falls into place and creates a coherent picture where while still having a few flaws, made it clear that director Nolan took this superhero stuff seriously and we were in for something we had not seen before. The complaints are few, though after seeing the renovated batsuit for The Dark Knight I wished that they might have discovered it a few yeas earlier so that our first introduction to bale's Batman might not have been the clunky, stiff hero we have here. There is also the case of the final act slightly desolving into standard action movie stuff. The plot becomes slightly predictable when a ship is hijacked and a Wayne enterprises tool is stolen. I remember thinking the first time I watched the film that the pacing had been perfect up to the point when it became evident how much they were trying to accomplish. Early on, despite having so much going on and placing so many implications for later in the story in front of us we were unaware of it. The script gave us what we needed to know in the most subtle of ways. As we neared the climax of the film though it simply felt more of a mess and not as smooth. Still, it could not take away from the excitement Batman Begins roused in me by seeing the Bruce Wayne/Batman story get the treatment it had always needed, what it had always deserved. If I only knew what was to come.

BATMAN BEGINS Review

Looking back on Christopher Nolan's first venture into Gotham City it does show us how far he has come as a filmmaker. His confidence alone in what he can accomplish and what he can control to the point he can put it on screen in an organized fashion is stunning. When going into Batman Begins though, we had no impression of what was to come and so we took it for what it was at the time: the best Batman movie that had ever been made. I've always been a huge Batman fan, and like anyone from my generation, a child of the 90's, they likely gained their fondness for the character through the animated series of that decade. What was odd about the correlation between that series and the live action films coming out at the time is that the only correlation had already passed in the Burton films. The Tim Burton films painted an eccentric and somewhat dark picture of the caped crusader. Certainly, to that point they were the closest thing anyone had come to the original comics of Bob Kane. Still, after Burton and Keaton retired from the series it crashed and burned under Joel Schumacher who turned the live action adaptations into more kid-centric entertainment than the 1992-1995 animated series. This cartoon series, partially inspired by the success of Burton's films gave my generation a better idea of what Batman was supposed to be (not you, George Clooney!). With Batman Begins Nolan and writer David S. Goyer delivered the extension of that series to the kids who grew up watching it every day after school. Begins gave a darker and more realistic tone to the gritty world of Gotham City and the rich boy who in one act gained fear and despair for what his world truly was. It didn't simply deliver the superhero in a suit fighting bad guys, but it gave us the motivation for a man to cover his face and force out evil.