The Childhood of a Leader

This is almost definitely a film that has completely missed your radar, it’s a small indie film that I probably never would have found myself, had it not been nominated for a couple Independent Spirit Awards.  The film essentially tells the story of the childhood of a post-World War I leader.  The character is a fictional one, but is clearly inspired by the many ruthless leaders of the 20th century.  Now reading the brief summary I knew that this would be right up my alley.  I love coming of age films, I love historical and political settings, and I love character studies, especially those dealing with incredibly flawed characters.

The film is set in France during the peace talks of Versailles.  Our main character’s father is an Undersecretary of State and was sent to live in France during the peace talks.  The boy’s mother, played by the ever charming Berenice Bejo, was born to German parents but grew up travelling the world and eventually fell in love with an American.  As they were settling into their new life in France, the boy was given a French tutor in order for him to more quickly pick up the language.

The film is told in three main parts and then a brief epilogue and in each one we get a glimpse of this young boy’s behavior in very subtle ways.  The script is never heavy-handed with it’s portrayal of the child’s mental state.  It simply shows us a glimpse of the boy’s world and his response to it and allows us to draw conclusions about how this would affect his future state of mind.

The parents are rarely cruel, but certainly stern.  You can certainly see why a boy with a troubled mental state could be affected negatively by their parenting style.  When we think of dictators or just all around terrible people, we often wonder what their parents did wrong to make them that way.  However this film does a nice job of not necessarily placing the blame on any one person or thing.  As in reality it’s never just one thing that causes someone to turn out the way they do, but a number of different things.

This was the directorial debut of a former child actor, Brady Corbet, and I’m excited to see what else he can bring to the table.  Simply due to the film’s subject matter I knew I was going to enjoy it, but I didn’t expect the film to be so professionally put together.  The cinematography is excellent, and the overall style really elevated the film.  Rarely does a film manage to keep a constant state of dread and anticipation up throughout the length of the film, but Corbet succeeded in doing so.  The eerie score helped drive that sense of dread as well.

The performances were excellent, and the standouts were clearly Berenice Bejo and in a much smaller role, Robert Pattinson.  He plays a family friend that really doesn’t have much screen time, but his performance is so good it leaves you wanting so much more and creates a sense of mystery about his character, which I believe was the intention.  This is one of those films that just sticks with you long after it ends and I’m still digesting everything that I watched.  Simply an excellent film, one of the best of the year.

Rating 9/10

Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Midnight Special

I chose these two movies because they both share the same idea of a group of people being drawn to a specific location by an unusual force.  One is a classic and the other is a little known film released just this year, but both excellently represent the scifi genre.  

Close Encounters is one of a number of excellent sci-fi films to come out in 1977, and represents along with Star Wars an evolution in special effects.  It also presents an interesting take on the genre.  It is clearly a drama and not action heavy like its contemporary Star Wars.  However, the feeling it gives goes beyond drama, it’s not quite a mystery and not quite a thriller, but it has elements of both.

Richard Dreyfuss plays a blue color electrician who has an encounter with what he believes is an Alien craft.  His obsession over the craft and what it could possibly mean for him takes over and eventually drives his family away.  He meets a young mother whose son was abducted by the Aliens and they end up travelling together to Devil’s tower in Wyoming.  They just feel drawn there as if it is where they are meant to be.

A secondary story follows a French professor who has been tasked with understanding the strange encounters and trying to find a way to communicate with the Aliens.  Combined the two stories tell us very little about the aliens or what their purpose might be.  The whole films seems to be an exploration of our place and the universe and a search for our identity and purpose.  

It’s a beautiful film and most definitely a classic.  I’d get into more detail, but it’s a such a well known film that if you haven’t seen it yet you should just go watch as soon as you can.  

Midnight Special is a modern film with a modern take on a similar idea.  Whereas Close Encounters is an optimistic view about humanity’s place in the universe, which is kind of a reflection of the time in which it was made.  The same can be said about Midnight Special in that our current time has a much more pessimistic idea of where humanity is and where it’s going.

While I believe that’s true, it doesn’t actually feel like a pessimistic film.  It starts with a news report about a kidnapping only to see that the people watching it are the kidnapped child and the two men who kidnapped him in a hotel room.  We quickly learn that one of the men is the boy’s birth father (Michael Shannon) and the other is his childhood friend (Joel Edgerton) and that they were taking him away from the cult.  

It becomes clear that there is something very unique about the boy who is constantly wearing goggles.  We also see that they block out all sunlight in their hotel rooms with cardboard.  We learn bit by bit that the boy has some kind of unique ability, the nature of which is unclear, however he was prone to delivering strange messages that the cult he was stolen away from saw as gospel.  This is why the cult leader had adopted him in order to keep him safe.

The Government was also after the boy as it seemed many of his revelations was actually just top secret military chatter.  As the movie goes along we learn more and more about the extent of the boy’s powers.  We meet his mother (Kirsten Dunst) and they are all headed to a set of coordinates that they were able to decipher from the strange messages that the young boy had given out.  

It all culminates in members of the cult, the government and the outlaw family all converging on this one location.  The cult members expecting some kind of religious experience, the government unsure of whether the boy’s powers were a danger to them or a weapon they could use.  The mother and father just wonder if maybe the special boy they love belongs to something beyond them and their understanding.

A big criticism I’ve heard for this film is that the ending isn’t satisfying.  That the payoff doesn’t live up to the rest of the film, but I think that’s the whole point of the film.  That maybe there isn’t always a satisfying payoff.  That there is something beyond our understanding.  Where Close Encounters puts humanity at the center of a universal community, Midnight Special paints humanity as just a tiny piece of a much broader universe that we can’t come close to comprehending.  Midnight Special remains one of my favorite films of the year.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind 8/10

Midnight Special 9/10

Hell or High Water

Hell or High Water is a film that has mostly flown under the radar.  However it’s a western set in modern day west Texas center on two brothers committing a series of bank robberies and the Texas Rangers sent to track them down.  This is one of those films that sadly gets lost in the sea of blockbusters and awards bait films.  It doesn’t really fall under either category, however it’s a film that most would enjoy if they gave it a chance.

The two brothers are played by Chris Pine, of Star Trek fame, and Ben Foster.  Chris Pine plays the mastermind and is also the upstanding citizen.  There is clearly something driving him to commit these robberies as it is obvious he would never do so if he didn’t have a good reason.  His brother, on the other hand, is a loose cannon who has been in and out of prison for most of his life.  

They are being tracked throughout the film by a Texas Ranger on his final case before retirement, who is played by Jeff Bridges.  He channels his inner Rooster Cogburn from True Grit and delivers an excellent performance as the aging but talented investigator, who is clearly not ready for retirement.

The two stories that unfold do an excellent job of showing rather than telling us how the master plan of the two brothers.  It also reveals the motivations of the two brothers and that they might not be the same.  Chris Pine’s character is trying to create a better life for his kids, whereas Ben Foster just seems to enjoy robbing banks.

This film is carried by a great script and excellent performances from the three men mentioned above.  Were it a more high profile film I’d say Bridges and Foster would have a good chance at Oscar nominations, but it seems their film just isn’t getting enough attention.  There is some language and a brief sex scene, but if that doesn’t bother you, I’d highly recommend giving this movie a watch.  It’s one of those gems that will probably become more popular as people catch it on BluRay or Netflix, and now you know to keep your eye out for it.

Rating 8/10

Loving

Loving is a film from a promising Independent film director, Jeff Nichols.  He has seen success with such films as Take Shelter, Mud, and Midnight Special.  His latest film is getting some serious Oscar buzz and could get Nichols his first nomination.  The films stars Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga, who are both getting Oscar buzz of their own.  The film centers on the true story of the interracial couple whose legal fight to have their marriage recognized in their home state led to the pivotal supreme court decision of Loving V. Virginia.

Richard Loving was a young white man who grew up in a largely black community in Virginia in the 50s.  He fell in love with Mildred and refused to let the world tell him who he could love.  He proposed on the land he just purchased to build their home on and they drove up to DC to get married there.  Mildred was pregnant, but that didn’t stop the police from pulling them out of bed a few weeks later and putting them both in jail.

That crime carried a one year prison sentence, but in lieu of that the judge gave them the very generous choice to either dissolve their marriage or leave the state and all their family and friends for twenty-five years.  They chose to leave and went to DC to live with some friends.  Mildred hated the city and didn’t want to have the baby away from her family, so they returned home, only to be arrested again shortly after the birth of their son.

Their lawyer got them off on a technicality and warned them not to return as that wouldn’t work a second time.  They moved to DC and had 2 more children and spent a number of years there.  Mildred was never happy in DC as she hated that her children had no grass to run around on.  She was inspired by the civil rights movement to right a letter to Bobby Kennedy explaining her situation.  That led to a call from an ACLU lawyer offering to take on their case.

He told them he would investigate all options and get back to them.  In the meantime, Mildred had enough of the city and worked with a friend of there’s a rent a home in a remote part of Virginia where they would be left alone.  The ACLU lawyers encouraged them to accept interviews and requests for photographs as a way to put the case in the public eye.  Richard hated the attention, but Mildred just wanted to be free to live with her husband, so they both agreed to the publicity.  The case was won by unanimous decision and allowed for interracial marriage not only in Virginia, but in the seventeen other states that still had it outlawed.

The actors in this film play their roles very well.  The characters are just simple country people that wanted to live their lives without trouble.  They were forced into becoming activists and seemed to do so reluctantly, at least on Richard’s part.  The performances while subtle seem to capture the personalities of the real life people they are representing.  

It’s a fascinating story and it kept me engaged, but it did feel like it lacked a sense of urgency.  There were moments where the films tried to show just how much was on the line for them, but those moments fell a little flat.  It felt like we were simply watching them live their life instead of following their struggles to fight for equality.  It was a more passive film than I would have expected for the subject that it covers.  I still think it is a fine film, but it lacks the purpose to make me ever want to revisit it.  All in all I’d recommend this film if civil rights is a passion of yours or if you’re a cinephile that wants to watch as many of the oscar films as you can.  This seems like a likely nominee at this point, but it’s still early so that can certainly change.

Rating 7/10

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

The Harry Potter series was one that I was slow to become a fan of, in fact, they were 4 films in by the time I started watching the movies.  I learned to love them though and the wonderful characters of the wizarding world.  So when I heard they were making more films in that universe I was really excited.  When I heard the first one would be set in 1920s New York I was even more excited.  Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, doesn’t fully live up to my high expectations.

Newt Scamander, played by Eddie Redmayne, shows up in New York with his case full of magical creatures.  We are introduced to a protest group trying to root out and destroy and witches, though they are largely seen as crazy since the magical world was still hidden away.  We also come to learn that there is some strange magical force roaming the city destroying buildings and causing mayhem.  One of Newt’s creature’s gets out in a bank and causes all sorts of mayhem for him and a no-mag (American term for muggle), Kowalski, who is just at the bank to get a loan and open a bakery.

The two men get their bags mixed up and a number of creatures get loose that they have to track down.  They are joined by a former magical law enforcement officer and her flirtatious sister.  This cast of characters, while not quite as lovable as the the Hogwarts kids, is still an endearing bunch that you can’t help but root for.  The plot is messy, but the conclusion is very satisfying and I think future films will be much better.

My biggest disappointment with this film is that it had a distinct lack of magical creatures.  The missing creatures plot line felt like a throw in compared to all of the broader storylines that were introduced.  Its a very different world than the one we know of from the Harry Potter films and that becomes very clear.  For as silly as some of the moments are the film takes itself incredibly seriously. 

There was one action sequence that was present in slow motion with very intense music, that I couldn’t help but laugh at because of how ridiculous it was.  It just seems so odd to try to add so much weight and sense of urgency to such a far-fetched and laughable situation.  The film was a good time, but little else.  Its certainly no Harry Potter, but I do think there is hope for the sequels to be better.  

Rating 7/10

Arrival (2016)

High concept science fiction has found it’s way back to movies in the last few years with films like Interstellar, The Martian, and now Arrival.  What I’ve always loved about the sci-fi genre is it’s ability to tell very normal human stories in different ways, by using situations and technologies that are otherworldly.  Arrival tells a very intimate story about what would happen if an alien race just showed  up and invited us into their ships for a good conversation.

That’s what this film is.  It tells the story of a brilliant linguist who is brought in to try and communicate with this strange alien race.  She along with a scientist, who wants to discover how they got here and what we could learn from their technologies.  He quickly comes to understand how important understanding their language is and commits fully to helping decipher the strange symbols the aliens use to communicate.  

The scenes of them trying to figure out a way to understand what brought the aliens to earth are intercut with scenes of a the linguist, Dr. Banks, and her daughter.  These flashes of her life with her daughter clearly affect her emotionally and you begin to wonder whether she’s up to the job with which she’s been tasked.

The film moves a bit slowly, but you’re given just enough information to keep you wanting more.  It keeps you on the edge of impatience throughout it without ever pushing it too far.  Which exactly what a good suspense film should do.  It’s that fine line between keeping you on the edge of your seat, and dragging it out so long that you relax again resign to the fact that you might never get your questions answered.  Arrival skirts it perfectly and trust me the payoff is completely worth it.

I try to avoid spoilers with my reviews but this film neither caused me to break that rule, about putting in a little disclaimer when the spoilers would start, but it just didn't feel right, the simple fact that someone could ignore the warning and spoil the movie saddened me.  The real meat of this film and what it means lies in the spoilers, but I went into it knowing very little about what I was getting into and was blown away the incredible payoff that the director, Denis Villeneuve presented to us.  So this is one of my shortest reviews because there's just so little I can say about it without spoiling the ending.

This is easily my favorite film of the year and I will happily discuss it in more detail with anyone else who has seen it.  So for this film I will simply encourage anyone who’s seen it to comment on this article and we’ll get all the spoilers out there.  Or if you happen to see me in real life we can talk about it there too.  This is a film that just cries out for further discussion and it carries as strong of a recommendation as I can give.  It’s what science fiction should be all about.

Arrival 10/10

Kubo and the Two Strings

Kubo and the Two Strings is the fourth stop-motion animation film from Laika studios, the other three being Coraline, ParaNorman, and The Box Trolls.  I have yet to see Coraline, but their most recent effort far exceeds either of their last two films.  The story is simple and somewhat predictable, but the characters are fantastically loveable.  The simplicity of the story works well as it allows the viewer to focus on the beauty of the design of the characters and the world in which they live.

Kubo is a young one-eyed storyteller, who spends his days telling stories to the townspeople, using magic to animate origami to show what is happening in his stories.  Each night he races back to the cave he lives in with his mother.  This is where we learn that the great samurai, whose story he was telling the townspeople, was actually his father, and the villainous Moon King of his story was actually his mother’s father.

His mother warned him to never be out at night as the Moon King would find him and come to finish the job and take Kubo’s other eye.  Inevitably Kubo stays out after dark and is immediately found by his evil aunts who try to capture him and return him to their father.  He is saved by his mother, who gives her life and the last of her magic to animate the wooden monkey charm that Kubo kept on him, in hopes that the monkey would protect him.

Kubo is determined to try and defeat the Moon King so he wants to seek out the 3 pieces of mystical armor said to be the only way to defeat him.  The Monkey is hesitant but agrees.  Along the way they are joined by an animated origami samurai and a samurai with amnesia who was cursed to become a beetle-like man.  

This odd bunch travel around facing various monsters and growing closer as a result.  The characters are incredibly endearing and you can’t help but fall in love with all of them.  Things get more harrowing as the film draws to its conclusion, but the conclusion is incredibly satisfying and sweet.  It really should be incredibly corny and sappy, but somehow it doesn’t feel that way.

The design of the film is the true star, but the voice talent involved does an excellent job of bringing life to the characters.  Charlize Theron, Matthew McConaughey, Rooney Mara, and Ralph Fiennes all help bring the characters to life.  There’s even a small role for George Takei!  It’s an excellent film and exactly the kind of film that children should be watching as it does not sacrifice quality in an attempt to dumb the film down to a child’s level.  Too often Hollywood fails to give children enough credit and this film breaks that trend in a big way.  It’s good enough to be enjoyed by the whole family.  

Rating 9/10

Hacksaw Ridge

Hacksaw Ridge is Mel Gibson’s return to directing after a ten year hiatus and he brings us the true story of the incredible war hero, Desmond Doss.  Andrew Garfield delivers an excellent performance as the strangely charming Virginia mountain boy who joins the army despite refusing to touch a firearm.  The incredible story and the charm Garfield brings to the character elevate this movie beyond most war films.  The violence of this film is disturbingly real and if you have a weak stomach it may not be your cup of tea, but it is a wonderful story of faith and conviction set in the midst of one of the bloodiest battles of the second world war.

The film starts out with Desmond and his brother as young boys in the mountains of Virginia.  We learn a few important things through this, one that his Father was a violent drunk scarred by the loss of his best friends in the Great War.  And two, we see Desmond’s struggles with anger and violence and the understanding that his actions have serious consequences.  The scene ends with him in shock over his actions staring at a poster of the ten commandments, specifically the one that reads, “Thou Shalt Not Kill.”

The film then fast forwards fifteen years to him as a young man, devout in his faith and beginning to find his place in the world.  He meets an attractive nurse and begins what might be one of the most charmingly awkward relationships ever put on film.  Garfield’s performance shines here as he so easily endears the audience to his character through his innocence and naivety.  Doss’s brother reveals to his family that he’s joined the army and they are appalled that he would go against their faith and agree to kill other men.  The call to serve is just too strong even for Desmond and he seeks to serve without ever having to even pick up a weapon.  So he decides to enlist as a medic and save lives rather than take them.

At boot camp Desmond is ridiculed and ostracized for his beliefs and unwillingness to pick up a rifle.  His drill sergeant, the perfectly cast Vince Vaughn, all but welcomes attacks on him by his fellow soldiers, as both he and the Captain seek to get Desmond to quit of his own accord.  His refusal to quite seems to spark an odd respect from the sergeant and some of the other soldiers, but when he refuses an order to pick up a rifle for target practice, he is brought up on charges and nearly kicked out of the military.  However his father pulls some strings and uses and old connection to allow Desmond to remain in the military without compromising his beliefs.

He and his company are sent to Okinawa and Desmond is confronted with the terrifying reality that the Japanese specifically target medics and that he should shed and markings that reveal his role.  He is now no different than any other soldier except that he is not carrying a rifle.  In the early stages of the battle we see him refuse to give up on soldiers even when others say there is no hope.  Their company is eventually overrun and forced to retreat down the cliff that they came up.  Desmond however stops at the top and asks the lord to give him guidance, only to be answered by the cry of the wounded still on the field as an artillery barrage explodes around him.

Without a weapon and with no other healthy soldiers around him, Desmond goes back out onto the battlefield again and again to retrieve more wounded and lower them down the cliffside for help.  He saved the lives of seventy five soldiers all while remaining hidden and dodging Japanese bullets.  As the wounded kept coming down the cliff, and word that he was still up there saving lives came to the rest of his unit, respect for him grew and they saw it as nothing short of a miracle.  

It’s an incredible story and there is little to complain about with how it is told on the screen.  Yes, the violence and gore are a bit much even for a war film, but that doesn’t take away from the story, instead it simply brings more gravity to what Desmond Doss did on that ridge.  Garfield is the star and gives an excellent performance, but he supporting turns from Hugo Weaving, as Doss’s father, Vince Vaughn as his Sergeant, and Sam Worthington as his Captain are especially well suited to their roles.  They are incredibly effective in supporting Garfield’s character and moving the story forward.  I was especially impressed with Vaughn, widely known for his comedic roles, his delivery of the insults you normally get from movie drill instructors was fantastic, but he manages to handle the more dramatic moments with a lot of respect.

Hacksaw Ridge is an excellent war film that shows the true power of faith and conviction in the face of ridicule and eventually certain death.  Mel Gibson returns to form as a director and brings this powerful story to life.  I expect his rather checkered past will keep this film from any awards consideration, but it probably deserves some.  If you are not too disgusted or disturbed by graphic depictions of war violence, then I suspect you will enjoy this film thoroughly.

Rating 8/10