The Artist

The Artist

Directed by Machel Hazanavicius

With Jean DuJardin, Berenice Bejo, John Goodman, and

John Cromwell

“The Artist,” an all new silent film in black and white, is as much fun as any ‘talkie.’ This utterly delightful film doesn’t need words to tell its story. French Director and writer Michel Hazanavicius  has composed a love letter to the past. The time is 1927 and we find matinee idol George Valentin (Jean DuJardin) on top of the world. He is a silent film star with a thousand-watt smile, starring in everything from adventure films to romances. His loyal Jack Russell terrier (Uggi) accompanies him wherever he goes. One day he literally bumps into Peppy (Berenice Bejo), a walk-on extra. The sparks fly. And he takes her under his wing, getting her successively larger parts in his films.  

But then it is 1929. Not only is the stock market about to crash, but so is Valentin. The studio Boss (John Goodman) has noticed Peppy and has also decided that the future of film is in the “talkies.” Peppy gets the starring roles, but Valentin wants nothing to do with these new kind of movies.

He finances his own silent film, which is a colossal flop. His fortunes crumble.

Valentin is now a “has been,”  and quickly discovers his own insignificance. Peppy is the exciting new star du jour. The scenes of Valentin losing his self esteem and his fortunes are cleverly realized and acted with a poignancy that will surely tug at your heartstrings. As much as Valentin suffers, Peppy’s stardom accelerates. Nonetheless, he longs for her and she has never forgotten his kindnesses to her. 

“The Artist” is not a totally silent film. Aside from some printed subtitles, there is a musical score as well as several spoken words. But dialogue is irrelevant because the silence speaks volumes.  Both Jean DuJardin and Bernice Bejo give flawless performances, never overacting. A film such as “The Artist” could have been done in a campy manner, but the lead performances are just right.

For people who are familiar with silent film, “The Artist” serves up a nostalgia that is nearly painful. There is a sense of a longing for the innocence and simplicity reflected in that medium: free of the murmur of voices, the clinking of glassware , the blaring of horns, the racket of car chases, the cacophony of life. That “The Artist” is in black and white makes it all the more reminiscent of that bygone era. It seems we have lost much with the technology and sophistication of modern filmmaking.

Director Michel Hazanavicius has made it possible for us to take a joyous and fun-filled journey to the past. You will surely embrace the experience as also the most delightful and exciting film to come our way in a long time. This charming film gives us a joyous journey to the past.

The Descendents

The Descendents

Directed by Alexander Payne

With George Clooney, Amara Miller, Alex Woodley. Beau Bridges, Robert Forster, Matthew Lillard, and Judy Greer

A drama about a family grieving over the loss of a mother might not sound like cinema amusement. But “The Descendents,” directed by Alexander Payne, is exactly that. This heartfelt film is both tragic and humorous at the same time.

The drama unfolds in Hawaii. Matt King (George Clooney) has buried himself in a real estate deal involving 25,000 unspoiled acres of Hawaiian paradise that have been owned by his extended family for generations. This land is about to be sold to a land developer. He is the trustee and must sign for the deal to go through. Meanwhile, he has also been a remote husband and father.

However, Matt is distracted. His wife, Elizabeth, has had a boating accident and lies in a coma from which the doctors say she will not recover. He now must break the news to his daughters, 10-year-old Scotty (Amara Miller), and a troublesome teenage Alexandra (Shailene Woodley). As he is reeling from this tragedy, his surly and resentful daughter Alexandra informs him that Elizabeth was cheating on him with a local real estate guy.  

Matt struggles with becoming both mother and father to his daughters as he confronts his rage towards his comatose wife. He is furious with her, but has no way to reach her, since she lies in a coma.  

In the meantime, Alexandra is accompanied by Sid (Nick Krause), a sweet but baffled looking boy, who adds comic perspective to what is going on in the family drama. Complicating Matt’s life is Elizabeth’s father (Robert Forster), who blames Matt for Elizabeth’s accident and thinks his daughter was a saint. Alexandra remains contemptuous of her father. Scotty is lost in grief.

Matt contemplates the meaning of his family heritage as he ponders whether to sign off on the sale of the family ‘Eden” on Kuai. His extended clan fully expects him to sign. He also must create a future for his own family.

George Clooney’s performance is nuanced and honest, and surely he will receive an Oscar nod. His Matt is a study of mixed emotions. Shailene Woodley is right on as the sullen daughter. Robert Forster is excellent as the father who has no where to displace his hostility except towards his son-in-law . 

Alexander Payne, whose last film was ‘Sideways,’ is a director who is a keen and tender observer of people in crisis and who understands human foibles. He seems to be saying: In life you certainly will make mistakes, but don’t let that keep you from going forward. His characters are remarkably human and real. And he is able to make us laugh throughout this beautiful, emotionally complex film that deals with tragic loss. In addition, the setting in lush Eden- like Hawaii is pure pleasure to experience on the big screen.

J Edgar

Directed by Clint Eastwood; written by Dustin Lance Black

With Leonardo DiCaprio, Armie Hammer, Naomi Watts, and Judi Dench

Film director Clint Eastwood has succeeded once again in proving he really knows how to tell a story.  This time his subject is J. Edgar Hoover.

“J. Edgar” spans five decades of FBI Director Hoover’s life spanning seven presidential terms. Because Hoover’s personal files were shredded at the time of his death, there is much we will never know about most of his FBI activities.  Instead, this film is a fascinating character study of the mind of the repressed, rigid and paranoid Hoover, who saw threats to America wherever he looked. 

Tons of history are packed into the film, including the “Crime of the Century”: The kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh’s baby and Hoover’s capture of the kidnapper.

Hoover, who never married, was a Mama’s boy whose mother (Judi Dench), both smothered and made him feel inadequate. Their relationship illustrates a Freudian bond if ever there was one. It is no surprise that Hoover was reputed to be a homosexual and a cross dresser. He also was obsessed with homosexuals, communists, civil rights workers, or anyone else he felt trampled his nation’s moral fiber. To uncover these “enemies,” he implemented forensics such as wiretaps, crime labs and bugs to collect his information. He devised America’s first criminal database and insisted the country needed an armed national police force.

“J. Edgar” is shown mostly in flashbacks as he tells his story to a biographer.

He ages from a slender, handsome, 24 year old in 1919 to a paunchy old man whose suits are too tight. He was someone desperate for companionship, but unwilling to allow the vulnerability that a relationship requires, except with one man: Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer), with whom he works at the Bureau. Clyde can get through to him as no one else can. The two had a life-long companionship.

Material covered in “J. Edgar” includes his bugging of Eleanor Roosevelt’s hotel room in which she allegedly had a liaison with another woman, as well as his bugging Martin Luther King’s hotel room to record a sexual encounter. He also had “proof” of JFK’s sexual liaisons, which he attempted to use to blackmail the president. He had confidential files on dozens of the rich and powerful.

Leonardo DiCaprio gives a towering performance as Hoover. He captures the enthusiasm of the 24-year-man all the way to the guardedness and paranoia that drives his character as the years pass. The prosthetic make up works to age him effectively. He never once caricatures J. Edgar.

Armie Hammer gives a sympathetic performance as Clyde Tolson, whose gentleness is a foil for Hoover’s rage and stubbornness. Unfortunately, his prosthetic make up as an old man is off, even somewhat grotesque and thus distracting.

Judi Dench does well as the overpowering mother. However, a younger woman would have been more suitable to play that part, particularly in the

early scenes of J. Edgar’s youth.

The only other woman in Hoover’s life was his secretary Helen Gandy, played Naomi Watts. Her acting is understated, and she ages realistically. She often exhibits her distaste for his methods with a subtle facial expression, but she is loyal to him until the end.

Eastwood’s film is character study at its best. It packs an abundance of history into its 135 minutes. The enigmatic and powerful Hoover shaped our FBI, but he was also responsible for dirty tricks, wiretaps, and extending the reach of the law. He was a tortured and repressed soul who wielded tremendous influence. Someone might be watching you. You never know.

Martha, Marcy, May, Marlene

 Martha, Marcy, May, Marlene

Directed and written by Scott Durkin

With Elizabeth Olsen, John Hawkes, Sarah Paulson, and Hugh Dancy

In the riveting “Martha, Marcy, May, Marlene” two stars are born. Sean Durkin makes his debut as writer and film director and Elizabeth Olsen gives her first performance in a feature film.  

Durkin has crafted a potent psychological thriller about a young woman cult member who is unwinding as she tries to reclaim her previous life. Elizabeth Olsen, the younger sister of the Olsen twins, is that young woman. Both are extraordinary.

Nothing could be more serene than the pastoral calm at a Catskill’s farm where the film begins. What goes on there is initially not clear, but is slowly revealed throughout “Martha, Mary, May, Marlene.” In the beginning scenes, Martha slips away from the farm into the woods and makes a plaintive phone call to her estranged sister, Lucy (Sarah Paulson), who she has not seen in two years. Lucy lives with her husband Ted (Hugh Dancy), in gracious yuppie comfort at a spacious weekend  home on a lake. Lucy

takes Martha to their home. Martha, guarded and remote, never reveals what has happened to her. 

The narrative switches back and forth between Patrick’s farm and Lucy and Ted’s very comfortable life. The flashbacks reveal how Martha becomes indoctrinated into the cult. There are 10 women and five men overseen by Patrick (John Hawks), who is both charismatic and sinister.

The men eat before the women do. The women sleep together on mattresses strewn on the floor; they share the same clothes. And Patrick rapes all of them. He even changes their names. Martha becomes Marcy May. The women collectively are Marlene and are totally dominated and controlled by Patrick. They are supposedly “cleansed” by giving up their freedom to be part of his utopian farm.

Martha’s behavior at Lucy’s house is bizarre.. She skinny dips in the daylight, she crawls into Lucy and Ted’s bed while they are making love, she breaks items, she laughs at the wrong things, she disdains her sister’s possessions. She asks Lucy to justify her spacious home. The farm flashbacks illustrate why she is so disturbed.  

“Martha, Marcy, May, Marlene” is really a horror film, It’s very real and you can’t help but think about Charles Manson, David Koresh, Jim Jones, cult leaders who have been able to manipulate and dominate their followers.

Elizabeth Olsen gives an incredible performance. Initially she is a wide eyed innocent, but eventually she becomes paranoid and someone whose inner life is totally out of reach. The film is a psychological case study of her character. She will get an Academy Award nomination.

As Patrick, John Hawks is all sinew and charming when he needs to be. He is unnerving, sometimes appealing, seemingly sincere, but definitely the scariest of villains.

The script, style, and performances make “Martha, Marcy, May, Marlene” an engrossing film going experience. This is director/writer Sean Durkin’s debut film. The film is unsettling and unforgettable

50/50

50/50

Directed by Jonathan Levine

Written by Will Reiser

With Joseph Gordon- Levitt, Seth Rogan, Anjelica Huston, and Anna Kendrick

“50/50,” a jewel of a film, is good news for people who are dealing with cancer. Writer Will Reiser based its script on his own experiences with the disease. The film shows how illness can provide a transformative journey for the afflicted as well as those around them. What makes this film so special is that it is also a comedy that finds humor in the most uncomfortable of places. And 50/50 delivers.

Adam Lerner(Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a 27-year-old Seattle radio producer who finds out that he has a massive tumor growing on his spine. He lives with his vain and beautiful artist girlfriend, Rachel (Bryce Dallas Howard), and is pals with Kyle (Seth Rogan), a big-hearted and foul-mouthed doofus of a guy. 

He has an overprotective worry-wart mother (Angelica Huston), whose nervous Nelly phone calls he declines to answer. Adam is a quiet, agreeable sort who underplays his illness but now must deal with the biggest issue in life: his mortality. And he is a man so cautious that he does not have a driver’s license because of the chance he might be involved in an automobile accident.

Meanwhile, Rachel, who is in denial about Adam’s illness, is cheating on him. He has shaved his head and is undergoing the chemo that renders him nauseated and weak. Exuberant Kyle , the most faithful of friends, drives him to the hospital for his chemo and takes him to bars to pick up women in Adam has no interest. He is too ill, and his life is now all about his cancer. But Seth is always there for him.

At the hospital Adam bonds with two older men, Alan  (Philip Baker Hall) and Mitch (Matt Frewer)who are also getting chemo. They convince straight-laced Adam to try marijuana laced cookies to lessen his discomfort. He has psychotherapy sessions with 24-year-old Catherine (Anna Kendrick), an untested but well intended psychotherapist. His ordered life is crumbling, and he is at a loss as to how to deal with it.

All of this could be a big downer for the audience, but Adam’s friend Kyle creates an escape by telling crude jokes and creating funny distractions. But “50/50” never sinks to TV Sit Com shenanigans.. It is too thoughtful and intelligent for that.

The acting couldn’t be better. Joseph Gordon- Levitt  holds back as the reserved and agreeable Adam. Seth Rogan was born for his role as the big-hearted often bumbling clod of a guy. Anjelica Huston is every bit the hysterical, ever annoying and anxious Mother. Anna Kendrick is perfect as the insecure starting-out psychotherapist stumbling along as she tries to get Adam in touch with his feelings.

“50/50” could have been a much darker film, but director Jonathan Levine and writer Will Reiser have kept the tone light and upbeat although there are moments when your eyes will well over. 

Dealing with death before the age of 30 is a pretty heavy topic. “50/50” keeps it light. And in the end we understand that all that really matters is being true to oneself and to the others in our lives. Not a bad thing to learn.

Contagion

Contagion’

Directed by Steven Soderbergh

With Gwyneth Paltrow, Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law, Marion Cttillard,

Kate Winslet, Jennifer Ehle and Elliot Gould

The terror resulting from seeing the brilliant and gripping Steven Soderburgh film, “Contagion,” comes not from terrorists; but from a virus. The content of this unnerving story about a worldwide pandemic was carefully researched and fact checked by epidemiologists. It is very, very real.

“Contagion” unfolds in countdown style beginning on “Day 2” of the epidemic. A businesswoman, Beth Emhoff (Gwenth Paltrow), is returning from Hong Kong and is on a layover in Chicago en route to her family in Minneapolis. She coughs. She has just been on a long flight from Hong Kong. She uses her credit card, she nibbles from a bowl of peanuts, she touches door handles, her face, stair rails, napkins. In the meantime, a waiter in Hong Kong sneezes all over the people and the food he is serving and returns to his teeming apartment complex. A Tokyo businessman home from a meeting in Hong Kong collapses on a very crowded train. And so it begins.

The film jumps all over the world showing everything happening at once. Places and dates and numbers of those infected are shown. The virus has spread lickity-split.

The Center for Disease Control headed by Dr. Ellis Cheever (Laurence Fishburne) is mobilized into action to try to track and fight the spread of the disease. Dr. Orantes (Marion Cotillard) is in Geneva mobilizing the forces of the World Health Organization. Erin Meers (Kate Winslet), a scrupulous medical intelligence specialist, goes to Minneapolis to convert huge sports stadiums into makeshift hospitals. Soon there will be no medical personnel left to treat the sick and dying.

Charts show how far the virus has spread, how many thousands, then millions, have died. Clearly the Internet and the media play crucial roles in information and misinformation. A self-serving blogger, Alan Krumwiede (Jude Law), posts incorrect information on the Web, also stating he has found a homeopathic cure called Forsythia. He meets with hedge fund guys who back the pseudo cure. Panicked people line up at pharmacies, there are riots, supermarkets are looted, whole cities are quarantined. The social fabric has been disrupted and a sense of helplessness prevails. There is a frantic race to develop a vaccine.

“Contagion” is full of human touches. Beth Emhoff’s husband, Mitch (Matt Damon), frantically tries to protect his family from the virus. Amidst all the chaos, Dr Cheever is desperately trying to convince his wife to go to a safe area.

Director Soderburgh could have ratcheted up the horror by showing the agonies of death, bodies putrifying and the like. But he tells the story straight. The human dimension is explored by introducing specific people and their personal  involvement with the epidemic. Mentions are made of AIDS, SARS, SWINE FLU, H1N1, the Ebola Virus, the Spanish Flu of 1918. It is all very real. And you don’t find out the source of the virus until the very last moments of the film. We really should be scared.

Sarah's Key

Sarah’s Key

Directed by Gilles Paquet-Brenner

With Kristin Scott Thomas, Melusine Mayance, Aiden Quinn, Frederic

Pierrt and Niels Arestrup

In July 1942, the  French police rounded up thousands of Jews, warehousing them for days in absolutely horrific conditions in the Vel d hiv bicycle stadium..  There were no toilets, no water, no food, no ventilation.  They were then herded into trains and trucks and sent to Auschwitz.    The French inflicted these horrors on their own people.

Sarah’s Key, a serious and handsomely produced film, directed by  Gilles Paquet –Brenner, examines this infamous incident and the aftershocks which continue to the present.    The movie tells parallel stories of a present day American journalist Julia Jarmond(Kristin Scott Thomas) and  a victim of the round up, Sarah Starzynski(Melusine Mayance). 

Julia stumbles upon the history of Sarah when she and her French husband                     (Frederic Pierrot) begin to renovate the Paris apartment that has been owned by her husband’s family for years.   It is the very apartment from which Sarah’s family was seized 60 years before.   Julia is writing about the Vel d hiv incident for a French Magazine and becomes obsessed with finding out what happened to the Jewish family snatched from the apartment.  In doing so, she uncovers her husband’s family secret.

On the day of the round up, 8 year old Sarah hides her younger brother in a closet.  Her family is sent to the nightmarish fetid and filthy transit

camp and finally is trucked to a concentration camp, separated forever.  Sarah is determined to somehow get back to her brother who she locked in a closet. 

Through assiduous research and travels to Italy and New York City,

Julia pieces together Sarah’s story.   Her findings cause problems in her own relationship with her husband and his family. 

The time shifting narrative shows what becomes of Sarah who eventually has her own family.  But the horrors are etched on her soul and she cannot get beyond her pain.

Overhead shots pan the transit camp; there are close-up hand held camera shots that capture the terror, desperation, exhaustion on the faces of the prisoners.   A sense of doom is pervasive.

Kristin Scott Thomas is absolutely radiant throughout Sarah’s Key.

Melusine Mayance as the poignant young Sarah is perfect as a child determined to protect her sibling and then to somehow survive.

There are scores of Holocaust dramas.  However, audiences want happy endings,so many of these stories end on an ‘up’ note.  Sarah’s Key refuses

to make the audience feel good and to show a bright side.   What happened then is beyond horrific; the film expresses an important truth.