The Great Gatsby

 Directed by Baz Luhrman

Based on the novel by F Scott Fitzgerald

 

With Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Joel Edgerton, Carey Mulligan,
Isla Fisher, and Jason Clarke

Discard any literary pretensions you may have regarding F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel

about the decadence of the 1920’s jazz age in New York.  Baz Lurhman’s film The Great Gatsby is a simply spectacular piece of razzle dazzle sight and sound filmmaking that stands mightily on its own.

Most of you have read the novel about Jay Gatsby, enigmatic rags to riches millionaire

who throws ultra lavish parties which he never attends at his grandiose mansion in East Egg Long Island.  His entertainments with legions of glitzy flapper girls, dozens of tuxedoed help and gallons of bootleg booze are the talk of New York.

Jay Gatsby(Leonardo DiCaprio)  has built his manor smack across the Long Island Sound from blueblood Tom(Joel Edgerton) Buchanan and his wife Daisy’s(Carey Mulligan) own mansion.  Gatsby is obsessed with Daisy, with whom he had a fling before she and Tom married.

Gatsby recruits his neighbor Nick Carraway(Tobey Maguire) to help him win back Daisy’s affections..  It is Nick who narrates the story.  Nick is also pursuing the American Dream.

 

There have been six film versions of The Great Gatsby.  Luhrman’s film is a glittery showcase of the early 1920’s with its bootleg behaviors, frantic flappers, and the frenzied search for more thrills.
The theme is nothing new: a girl is attracted to a boy from the wrong side of the tracks, but she marries the one with the money.  The poor boy makes good and tries to woo her back.  It doesn’t always work.

Leonardo DiCaprio embraces the complexity and mystery of Jay Gatsby.  His handsome

good looks got gasps from the audience with whom I viewed the film. Including me.

Carry Mulligan is perfect as the insubstantial, listless, pampered Daisy who wants it both ways.
Joel Edgerton is superb as the philandering, buffoonish Tom.  Tobey Maguire is excellent as the wide eyed innocent foil to DiCaprio’s sophistication.

Baz Luhrman’s Gatsby is homage as well as a blistering critique of the excesses of

Materialism.  The shimmering gowns and jewels, the high kicking sequined flappers,
the flowers by the truckload, the perfectly cut suits, the garish settings, the gleaming
vehicles are a resplendent, but also vulgar  feast for the eyes.  This Flashy Gatsby
captures the shallowness of that milieu.  It’s a delicious bon bon, not much substance, but oh so tasty.

Disconnected

 

Written by Andrew Storm
Directed by Harry Alex Rubin

With Jason Bateman, Alexander Skarsgard, Paula Patton, Andrea Riseborough,

Colin Ford, Frank Grillo, Hope Davis, Jonah Bobo, Max Thrieriot

 

“Disconnected” thrills with a timely and riveting story about the perils of an Internet-oriented society. Writer Andrew Storm and director Harry Alex Rubin have expertly woven three loosely related storylines that illustrate how seeking social connection on the Internet can lead to devastating consequences.

In one story, a couple, Cindy (Paula Patton) and Derek (Alexander Skarsgard), are grieving over the death of their toddler. It is too painful for them to share their grief with each other. So Cindy clicks on to a grief sharing Web site. Derek deals with his grief though online gambling, creating huge debt.

Their information is hacked and they become victims of enormous identity theft. They are now bankrupt, and hire a private detective, Mike (Frank Grillo) to help track down the perpetrator. It may take months to rectify the situation, so they take matters into their own hands.

Another story involves Mike, the private detective , who is a widower and is trying to connect with his teenage son, Jason (Colin Ford). Jason is friends with Frye (Avrad Bernstein). Both are smartass teens, constantly playing pranks. They target a lonely classmate, Ben (Jason Bobo) by creating a fictional girl online who elicits personal information from Ben. The information is posted online with a disastrous aftermath. Ben’s distracted parents (Jason Bateman and Hope Davis) don’t have a clue as to their bullied son’s silent suffering.

Another narrative involves an ambitious TV reporter, Nina (Andrea Riseborough) who does an exposé of teens being exploited for online sex. She goes online with an engaging Kyle (Max Theirot),an underage sex performer. She then exposes the operation, but there are fateful consequences.

All actors in “Disconnect” give fine and sensitive performances. The film is handsomely shot, with many in- your -face closeups. There is an intimate and real tone to the film. That you really “feel” for the actors is a testament to their acting.

All of the incidents in “Disconnected” are initiated either through iPhones, iPads,

or laptops. In each case there are severe consequences for sharing confidences
online. Not only is “Disconnect” a cautionary tale of living online, but
 it is a timely and moving meditation of the modern family. And it’s not “Leave It to Beaver.”

“SPRING BREAKERS”

 

Directed by Harmony Korine

With James Franco, Selena Gomez, Ashley Benson, Vanessa Hudgens,

and Rachel Korine

 

If you think “Spring Breakers” is an empty headed “Beach Blanket Bingo,” you couldn’t be more mistaken.  This film is about audacious as any you have ever seen.  It is a brilliant social commentary about what happens when teens and college kids have too much. 

They are bored with everything, always needing more—including booze, drugs, sex. The counter culture director Harmony Korine shows what happens when having a good time becomes very dangerous.

“Spring Breakers” begins with a sunlit hazy feeling. Four very pretty coeds, Faith (Slenena Gomez), Brit (Ashley Benson), Candy (Vanessa Hudgens) and Cotty (Rachel Korine) have been best friends since grade school. They are making plans to get away from their boring college campus and go to St Petersburg Florida for “Spring Break.”

The girls realize they don’t have enough money to make the trip. They come up with a plan to rob a local diner. They will “pretend it is a video game.” They don black hoods, and screaming, use water pistols and sledge hammers to terrorize the diner’s patrons and grab the money from the register. It was so easy.

Next they arrive in St Petersburg along with thousands of other spring breakers. For the remainder of the movie, all girls are bikini clad, although occasionally some wear no bikinis. Gallons and gallons of booze are drunk, many times through hoses. The drugs and the sex escalate. The music is deafening. The four girls get into trouble and are put in jail (wearing those bikinis). They have no money for bail and think their fun is over.  

But they are observed by Alien (James Franco), a local rapper/drug dealer who bails them out. He is a scary enough looking guy, with dreadlocks, tattoos and silver teeth. He charms them, and asks them to stay with him. Alien offers them the excitement they seek, which includes more drugs, booze, and much more dangerous stuff.

“Spring Breakers” is a hypnotic, sensory experience. Harmony Korman has filmed it in short sequences interspersed with brief flashbacks. It feels like a dream, or perhaps a pastel-colored nightmare. At times music is relentless. You can’t take your eyes of the perfect bodies, the excesses, the mayhem. The tone becomes increasingly ominous as the film progresses.

Mr. Korman’s film both celebrates and mocks the “Spring Break” experience. It is a vivid caricature of a youth culture in which it is cool to be audacious and arrogant, not caring about consequences. The girls throw caution to the wind with chilling results. “Spring Breakers” is a crazy quilt of unabridged hedonism, all in Day Glo colors. Social commentary can be very disturbing, but in this film it is also dazzling.

“Amour”

 

Directed by Michael Haneke

With Jean Louis Trintignant, Emmanuelle Rivas and Isabelle Huppert

 

“Amour,” directed by Michael Henecke, is not an easy film to watch. It graphically deals with mortality: the indignities and decline of aging. But this unsettling film will affect you emotionally long after you have left the theater. “Amour” has won the Palme d’Or for best picture and at least a dozen more awards, including the Golden Globes.

Anne (Emanuelle Riva) and Georges (Jean Louis Trintignant) are a cultivated octogenarian couple who live in a fine Paris apartment. When the film opens, they are enjoying a concert. They go home, chatting amicably. At breakfast the next morning Anne goes blank for a few minutes. 

Georges doesn’t know what to do, but she soon regains consciousness. They see a doctor. Apparently she suffered a stroke. She then has surgery that leaves her right side paralyzed.

She returns to the apartment in a wheelchair and forcefully demands that George promise he will never ever take her to a hospital again. “Amour” examines the bonds of love between the couple as Anne begins her downward slide.

Georges becomes her caretaker, lovingly helping her to her wheelchair, cooking and cutting her food for her. He is determined to keep his promise to her. Their daughter, Eva ( Isabelle Huppert), a self-absorbed woman, insists he put her in  a “home.” He won’t hear of it. He has no time for his daughter. He is alone in his grief and can only watch as Anne descends to helplessness.

Soon Anne goes from a manual wheelchair to an electric one. Initially there is physical therapy, then nurses, sponge baths, bed sores, and finally diapers. Anne cannot move or speak. She is confined to her bed, undergoing the indecencies that accompany it.

Nearly all of “Amour” is filmed inside the apartment. Mr. Haneke wants us to feel how totally confined Anne and Georges are. The camera lingers on them as they eat, sleep, and bathe. He wants us to feel how onerous everything is to Anne.

Emmanuelle Riva is magnificent as she shows Anne’s initial shame at being helpless to how she struggles to emit sounds to communicate at the very end. She is transformed from an elegant woman to an angry invalid. It is truly remarkable how Ms. Riva captures this decline. 

Jean Louis Trintignant, who is a French film icon, quietly shows Georges’ concern, his frustrations, his bewilderment. He dutifully responds to Anne’s each and every need. There is never a false note in his towering performance.

Director Haneke does not include the background music that might tell the audience how it should feel. The filming is restrained and at times “Amour” feels like a documentary. It makes the viewer regard his or her own humanity. It can be agonizing to watch, but it is a realistic look at what may lie ahead. Things happen to secure people like Georges and Anne and everything changes.

Is it better to die young and quickly or to live a long life then slowly lose your abilities one by one? “Amour” is potent filmmaking about the hardships and often horrors of aging, something usually not addressed in the cinema. This honest and totally unflinching film will make you think.

“Quartet”

 

Directed by Dustin Hoffman

With Maggie Smith, Pauline Collins, Tom Courtenay, Billy Connelly, and Michael Gambon.

 

“Quartet” may deal with the struggles of aging, but it actually turns out to be a celebration of life. This touching and fun film looks at a group of elderly musicians who live in the elegant, but slightly decaying Beecham House situated in the pastoral English countryside. Dustin Hoffman makes his directorial debut with this film, which shows it is never to late to begin a new chapter in life…. for him at age 75 or for his characters.

The storyline is simple. The residents of Beecham House are trying to put a show together, a fund raiser to save their beloved residence, which has fallen on hard times. They are to put on a concert to honor the birthday of Giuseppe Verdi.

Wilfred Bond (Billy Connelly) is an outspoken wit, a flirt, a man who never fails to inject sexual innuendo at any opportunity. Reference is made to a stroke he has suffered. Reginald (Tom Courtenay, his old friend) is a reserved and proper gentleman. The ever-kind and energetic Cecily Robeson (Pauline Collins) loves life, but is beginning to suffer dementia. All three were famed opera singers, but those days are over long ago.

The Beecham house residents are all atwitter because a new resident is arriving. Jean Horton (Maggie Smith), a diva extraordinaire, is surely the most renowned of all of them. A feisty woman of huge ego and an aura of superiority, she refuses to take part in the planned gala performance. Her voice isn’t what it used to be and she has a bad hip. She and the courtly Reginald were once married until she was unfaithful to him. He has never forgiven her. This is the main conflict of “Quartet.” He refuses to acknowledge her and she snubs him.

“Quartet” examines life for the retired Beecham residents years after the applause has ended. The film deals with the unhappy challenges of aging. It seems as if every one of them has an ailment to overcome. Dustin Hoffman makes it all work. Far from being depressing, “Quartet” is fresh and vital. Most characters in the film are, in reality, one-time musicians or singers. They do a terrific job.

Like the “Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” “Quartet” is a film that includes senior actors at the top of their game. It is a satisfying and sweet fairytale for seniors. However, younger viewers will also relate to it: They have aging parents, grandparents, and aunts and uncles. And the show must go on for all of us. I suppose some viewers may find “Quartet” predictable and the ending too Hollywood. Who cares? I didn’t.

Django Unchained

 

Directed and written by Quentin Tarantino

With Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Samuel L Jackson, Kerry

Washington, Don Johnson, Jonah Hill and Quentin Tarantino

 There appear to be two kinds of filmgoers: those who embrace Quentin Tarantino’s

bold and bloody films (as  in Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Inglorious Basterds) and those who simply refuse to watch his films.  For the former, Django Unchained is a Quentin Tartantino entertainment extravaganza, an action /revenge flick par excellence.  Mr Tarantino is a noted aficionado of B movies and spaghetti westerns, and this film pays lavish  tribute to those genres wherein the heros are anti heroes with little respect for social order.   He also has something to say about slavery.

  It is two years before the Civil War, and Dr King Schultz(Christoph Waltz) is a German bounty hunter looking for some stagecoach robber killers.  Django is a slave who happens to know where they are.  He is filthy, in chains, wearing rags.  Dr Shultz buys his freedom and they join forces to find(kill) the bounty hunter’s quarry.  In payment, Dr Shultz Offers to help Django find his wife, Broomhilda, a slave who has learned to speak German—thus the name Broomhilda.  Shultz is a businessman, but he also has a sense of humanity, unlike most of the other players in this film.  He has a distaste for slavery but thinks nothing of cold-bloodedly killing the bad guys for whom he receives bounty.

The film is a simple narrative of Django and Shultz’s bounty hunter partnership and revenge on those who enslaved Django and  Broomhilda.  Because this is a Tarantino film, the violence is over the top as the two ruthlessly kill the ‘bad guys.’  The viewer doesn’t feel bad because ‘they had it coming.’  Geysers of blood abound throughout Django, almost as in a comic strip.  Also, the ‘N’ word is heard constantly, over 100 times.  Remember it was in the 1850’s and that word was in constant use.

It is good versus evil, and the evil is really evil.  You see the relentless brutality used towards the slaves.  So when revenge is exacted, you want to cheer.   You have witnessed what it is like to be somebody’s property, not protected by the law.  One particularly violent Southerner is Calvin Candie(Leonardo DiCaprio) a wealthy plantation owner who watches his slaves fight to the death or perhaps thrown to his dogs to tear apart.

Django is not just an action entertainment.  It is a complex film with a message.  The performances are excellent.  Christoph Waltz is a sublime Dr.Schultz, often subtly moved by emotion.  Jamie Foxx is great as the single minded freed slave who will liberate Broomhilda, no matter what the obstacles which include dozens of Calvin Candie’s henchmen and the formidiable Uncle Tom, Samuel L Jackson, who is the House Slave, for Mr Candie.  Baby faced Leonardo DiCaprio is the quintessential Southern Gentleman, polite and sadistic all at once.

Django has plenty of cruelty, violence, vengeance.  After all, Quentin Tarantino is the unchallanged expert of brazen bloodshed.  There is also a lot of silliness, as when the hooded Klu Klux Klaners can’t get their hoods on straight.  The point to the film is ethically on target.   Slavery was an arrangement full of pain for the servants.  The standoff at the conclusion is astoundingly bloody.  But, remember they had it coming. 

‘Flight’

 

Directed by Robert Zemeckis

Written by John Gains

With Denzel Washington, Don Cheadle, Kelly Reilly, Bruce Greenwood

And John Goodman

 

Fasten your seat belts. Flight will have you searching for any alternative to flying to get to your next faraway destination. This film, brilliantly directed by Robert Zemeckis(“Forrest Gump,” “Glory,” “Training Day,” “Castaway”) is not just an air disaster nailbiter, but really a character study of its lead character, Whip Whitaker, astutely played by Denzel Washington.

Whip, a former Navy ace, is a commercial pilot who likes his booze, coke and weed. In the opening scenes he wakes up after a night of sex and drugs with a flight attendant. He takes a long swig of alcohol, chugs a couple of  beers. To wake himself, he does a few lines of coke. Next you see him in his pilot’s uniform boarding a plane in Orlando, Fla., bound for Atlanta, Ga. 

He is higher than a kite. He straps himself into his seat after drinking three mini bottles of vodka. Finally he guides the plane into the sky. After takeoff, mechanical difficulties cause the plane to lose its power: it is in free fall.  There are terrifying scenes of chaos and frenzy. Somehow he calmly and masterfully crashes the plane with the loss of only a few lives. He is hailed as a hero.

Until the inquiries begin. Whip’s blood alcohol levels indicate he was drinking. Legions of media people want explanations. The pilots’ union and the airlines want a cover up. Insurance companies are circling. An attorney (Don Cheadle)is hired. Whip’s drinking is the issue. Was he drunk when he flew that plane?

The real story of “Flight” is about a man coming to terms with the truth about himself.

Whip has a drinking problem. He has an ex-wife who hates him. His son hates him. Now his flying career is over. He is tough, but also frail. He has a haunted look, he stumbles, blacks out, is often falling down drunk. He does not seek help. He has saved 96 lives, but he can’t save himself.

There is a NTSB hearing to determine Whip’s state of mind while flying. Ellen Block (Melissa Leo) leads the examination. He has been carefully prepped by the attorneys.

Denzel Washington gives a simply perfect in-depth performance as a man struggling to come to the truth about himself. A bit of comic relief is provided by John Goodman who plays Hurling Mays, Whip’s drug pusher. This comic element is a little out of place in this hard-nosed story.

“Flight” is not about the horrific airplane crash. It is a thoughtful film about how a person can fake it, how one tries to get through life as an alcoholic. It is a thriller, a legal drama with some romance, a bit of melodrama. Will there be redemption? See “Flight” and you will find out.