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.

Crazy Stupid Love

Crazy Stupid Love

Directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa; written by Dan Fogelman

With Steve Carell, Julianne Moore, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Analeigh Tipton, Jonah Bobo, Kevin Bacon, Josh Groban and Marisa Tomei

Tis the season of big noisy, expensive ‘blockbuster’ films. How refreshing to have a summertime film that is both sweet and smart and also studded with dynamite performances. The romantic comedy “Crazy Stupid Love” does not follow the usual formula for that genre. Instead the viewer encounters lots of surprises and satisfactions.

Cal Weaver (Steve Carrel) and his wife Emily (Julianne Moore) are 40 something childhood sweethearts who are living the American dream, including a beautiful home, good careers and two children, Robbie (Jonah Bobo) and Molly (Joey King). As “Crazy Stupid Love” opens, they are about to order dessert at a restaurant. After Cal orders crème brulee, Emily announces that she wants a divorce. She has been having an affair with David Lindhagen (Kevin Bacon), a co worker.

Shell shocked Cal, a nebbish of a fellow, drowns his sorrows with cranberry juice and vodka at upscale singles bars loaded with beautiful women.. He hasn’t a clue of how to meet any of them until a very suave lothario, Jacob (Ryan Gosling), decides to do a physical and mental makeover on him. Cal becomes a ladies man, but all he really wants is to reunite with Emily.

But there are other threads of plot in this engaging film. Cal’s 14-year-old son, Robbie, is in love with his 17-year-old babysitter, Jessica (Analeigh Tipton). Jessica has a massive crush on Cal. Hannah (Emma Stone), a recent law school graduate, is  pursued by the casanova Jacob, but she has eyes only for Richard (Josh Groban), a self-involved lawyer at the firm for which she works. The script is very busy. And very funny.

The screenwriter Dan Fogelman and directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa have balanced both comedy and drama in these pairings. Everyone is looking for love, and the course of true love does not run smoothly. 

The performances in “Crazy Stupid Love” couldn’t be better. Steve Carrel is poignant as the somewhat clumsy cuckolded Cal. Ryan Gosling adds sensitivity and decency to the lothario stereotype Jacob. Jonah Bobo is simply wonderful as the adolescent Bobbie, who refuses to take no for an answer from his bewildered babysitter, Jessica. Analeigh Tipton as Jessica is captivating with her huge eyes and  gawky innocence. Emma Stone is terrific as the straightforward Hannah, who sees through Jacob’s smooth operator persona.

With its plot digressions and one large surprise, “Crazy Stupid Love” defies the conventions of the romantic film formula. It will have you laughing from beginning to end. But most of all it is a touching look at love, its complications and how it maddens us and satisfies us all at the same time.

A Better Life

A Better Life

Directed by Chris Weitz

With Damien Bichir, Jose Julien, and Eddie Sotelo

The deeply compassionate and absorbing film, “A Better Life,” deals with those untold numbers of people who are mostly invisible to us. This simple and understated story is about an illegal Mexican alien, Carlos (Damien Bichir), and his U.S. born 14-year-old son, Luis (Jose Julien), who live in borderline poverty in  the barrios of  East Los Angeles. Luis rejects his Dad’s Mexican ways. These two  males seem worlds apart.

Carlos is a hardworking gardener who spends exhausting hours working to keep the wealthy Los Angeles residents’ yards looking impeccable. He sleeps on the couch of his little apartment so his son Luis can sleep in the bedroom to be rested for school. Luis skips school and aspires to becoming a member of one of the barrio gangs. His father is too exhausted to do anything about it. All Carlos wants to do is to work hard so Luis can get a good education and a better life, but all Luis wants to do is to hang out with his buddies.

Carlos finally gets an opportunity to improve their lives. He borrows money from his sister and is able to buy a truck and equipment so he can have his own landscaping business. Of course, he has no driver’s license, and a simple traffic misstep could lead to his deportation. Carlos has learned to keep his head down and not to draw attention to himself.

Carlos’s happiness at owning his own truck is shattered when his truck is stolen. He can’t report the incident to the police because he is an illegal with no driver’s license. Luis and he set out together to find the stolen vehicle. “A Better Life” then takes the viewer on an odyssey of the streets of East Los Angeles, including its street people, its gangs, political rallies, people waiting for buses, laborers looking for work, and the omnipresent police helicopters flying overhead. The tension mounts as the search continues.

“A Better Life” is two stories. One is the plight of the illegal alien and the other a story of father and son. You can feel Carlos’ powerlessness and anxiety and a sense of what it feels like to be an undocumented alien. Our political rhetoric clouds the plight of these usually hardworking, law-abiding people living on the edge of poverty. 

Luis begins to see that his father is not a wimp, but a strong individual outraged at the theft of his truck who will stop at nothing to retrieve the stolen property. The father and son soon begin to see eye to eye.

“A Better Life” puts a human face on illegal aliens, each of whom has his or her own story to tell. 

Damien Bichir is magnificent in this film. With tiny changes in expression, he projects the fears and anxieties bottled up in his character. You get a feeling of what it must be like to be an illegal, constantly aware of the possibility of being rounded up and deported. These are ordinary people with families, hopes, and dreams who live under the radar. Maybe the next time you look at a busboy, a housekeeper or the person who cuts your grass, you will see them as a whole person.  “A Better Life” will tweak your own compassion and heighten your awareness. And that’s not a bad thing.

BUCK

BUCK

Directed by Cindy Meehl; directors of photography, Guy Mussman and Luke Geissbuhler; edited by Julie Goldman

It seems that whenever we pick up a newspaper or click on the TV, we hear about climate crises, war, overthrow of governments, terrorist attacks of some sort and political maliciousness..  What a total pleasure and relief to learn about Buck Brannamen, a real life Wyoming cowboy, the central figure in the documentary BUCK.  The film The Horse Whisperer was inspired by Buck and his approach to horses. You don't need to be a horse lover to enjoy this beautiful film.

  The film covers Buck’s childhood horrors to his adulthood fame and success with horses.  Buck and his brother were trained by their brutal father to do rope tricks in rodeos.  They even appeared on TV in the 60’s.. Their loving mother was a line of protection against the sadistic father.  She died when Buck was young so he was at the mercy of this cruel and often drunk man.  When a gym teacher discovered angry welts and scars on Buck's and his brother's backs, they were placed by court order in the foster care of the Shirleys, a loving and gentle couple who enabled Buck to overcome his terrors and shyness..  Thank heavens for this. 

Having suffered terrible cruelty and pain from his father, Buck empathizes with the horses.  He does not believe they need to be 'broken' by abusive methods.  He is legend in the horse world.  He travels 40 weeks of the year to hold 4 day clinics in which horses are trained not by a whip, but by him waving a flag.  There exists a communion between horse and man when Buck is in charge.

  Although Robert Redford speaks in several clips, the real star here is the totally engaging and soft spoken Buck.  As he waves the flags in the various clinics, he explains his philosophy.  He says that his job is to' help horses with people problems' not’ people with horse problems.'  He explains that 'everything is a dance:' meaning he and his horse in synch together..  You want to hear more of his folksy wisdom.

The film is not all warm and fuzzy.  There is a violent and very sad interlude in which a teary woman brings her 3 year old stallion to Buck to train.  The horse suffered a birth defect and as a result is a dangerous creature, at times biting and trampling his human keepers.  Buck handles this horse with respect and calming words. He patiently eases the wild horse back into its trailer which will transport the animal to its euthanization..  He never blames the animal.  Instead he believes the fault lies with the owner. 

  The director, Cindy Meehl , is a fashion designer turned artist.  This is her first film, and it won Best Documentary at Cannes.   She trails Buck to many of his 4 day clinics and includes historical shots of young Buck and his brother doing rope tricks as well as footage of horses being broken by cruel methods.  Then there is gentle Buck, hypnotically waving his flag to soothe and calm the animals, training them without the use of harsh methods.

The understated Buck never dwells on the childhood mistreatment which would have destroyed most people.  Somehow this wise man was able to transcend that past and turn it to uncanny understanding, compassion and success with horses.  We could all learn a lot from Buck’s life lessons.  You will remember Buck Brannamen for a long time after you leave the theater.

Tree of Life

Tree of Life

Written and directed by Terrence Malick

With:  Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Jessica Chastain, Fiona Shaw, Hunter McCracken, Laramie Eppler and Tye Sheridan

     Not since 2001 Space Odyssey, has a film so powerfully and beautifully dealt with the Big Picture until now, with the release of Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life.  This very challenging film tackles not only the mysteries of life, death and eternity, but also the awe of the creation of Earth and the universe, indeed, the meaning of our existence.  The scope of this film is so vast that   that director Malick seems to have performed a miracle in putting it all into one magnificent 2 ½ hour film.  The Tree of Life won the top prize, the Palme d’ Or at Cannes this Spring.

     It is the 1950’s in Waco Texas and a young couple, the O’Briens, is starting their family which will eventually be three sons.   The neat lawns, crew cuts, vintage automobiles, women in aprons recall that bygone era with scrupulous detail.

Mrs. O’Brien (Jessica Chastain) gives birth to her first son, Jack.  Later on we see Jack (Sean Penn) as a middle aged man, in a gleaming  Houston high rise.  He is a lost soul searching for the meaning of  life  as he reflects on his childhood.    Whispered narrations lead us from scene to scene.  When, as a child, Jack’s brother is killed by some unnamed force, the film’s tone takes a tragic turn.  Jack asks God “Where are you?”

     Tree of Life then turns to the maelstrom of creation.  There are exploding galaxies, pulsing nebulae, rivers of molten eruptions, cells dividing, jellyfish forming, hammerhead sharks circling, deafening thunderstorms, dinosaur appearing.   Finally we see young Jack emerging from the water, when finally he is an infant in his mother’s arms.   Every child’s story is a story of all creation, Malick seems to say.

     Jack’s father (Brad Pitt) is a square- jawed, often abusive disciplinarian, who demands hugs from his sons as instruments of control.  He is a frustrated inventor who also plays classical music on the family piano.  His son Jack (Hunter McCracken) is too often the recipient of his father’s rage. Mr. OBrien’s wife is a warm and kind woman who delights in cavorting with her sons, dancing in the rain, serving three squares a day.  She is as close to an angel as one can get.

     Jack’s loss of innocence is chronicled as he runs with a gang of youngsters, breaking some windows, torturing a frog and injuring a dog.  It is disturbing to watch, but a metaphor for his fall from grace.   Tree of Life is replete with allusions to brute nature (Jack’s father) and spiritual grace (his mother).

     God has a leading role in Tree of Life.   Questions that are whispered to Him by Jack are answered in the form of a rustle of a curtain, shadows on the wall, the gurgling of a stream.  Those answers are necessarily oblique.  Because there are no answers.

     Beautiful orchestral and choral music by Brahms, Berlioz and other classical composers accompany many scenes of the film.  The score turns ominous at times such as when Jack is being unreasonably punished by his father. The cinematography captures not only the violence of creation but also the tidy Eisenhower Era  streets of Waco Texas.  There are exquisite panoramas over rustling fields, rolling rivers, and quiet views of the spotless interiors of the O’Brien house.

    Tree of Life is not a mainstream film, and undoubtedly it will frustrate many viewers.  A film that is elliptical, allegorical and, at times, surreal demands patience and reflection.  For example, towards the end, adult Jack, in his business suit, walks on the  endless bleached sands of eternity, encountering  long deceased friends and family members.  The presence of God is a constant in this film.  Aside from the cosmic concerns of the film, the scenes of the O’ Brien family demonstrate Malick’s deep understanding of family dynamics: the tenderness, the sadness, the tensions.  Indeed, there is enough material about this family for a separate movie.  Hunter McCracken who plays the young hurt, fearful and angry Jack, delivers a spectacular performance of depth. And watching the gorgeous Jessica Chastian is one of the films many pleasures.

     Very rarely does a film come along that is as provocative, powerful, and groundbreaking as Tree of Life.   It inspires us to think in ways we rarely do.  This film is simply a great work of Art.  Seeing it is an extraordinary experience.

Midnight in Paris

Midnight in Paris

Written and directed by Woody Allen

With: Kathy Bates, Adrien Brody, Carla Bruni, Marion Cotillard, Rachel McAdams,

Michael Sheen, Owen Wilson, Tom Hiddelston, Alison Pill, Corey Stoll, Kurt Fuller,

Mimi Kennedy, and Lea Seydoux

If you love Paris when it sizzles, you will love Woody Allen’s captivating and smart “Midnight in Paris.” The film is packaged throughout with exquisite daytime Paris scenes bathed in golden light as well as nighttime scenes shrouded in mists and cobbled streets wet with rain. This film is another of Allen’s valentines to Paris. Air France must be delighted with the release of this film.

Gil Pender (Owen Wilson) is the quintessential American in Paris. He and his fiancée, Ines, are accompanying her parents on one of her father’s business trips. Gil is a successful but frustrated hack Hollywood screen writer who hates what he does. He is working on a novel about nostalgia. Spoiled Ines’s only goal is to live in Malibu on Gil’s residuals while he would be delighted to live in an artist’s garret in Paris. Unfortunately for Gil, they run into Paul, a smug and pedantic professor friend of Ines, and have to spend time with him. Ines thinks Paul is great; Gil thinks he is pompous and pretentious. Gil and Ines seem ill suited for each other.

But Gil lucks out as “Midnight in Paris” takes an unexpected turn. Escaping from Ines’

boring friends, Gil wanders the streets of Paris. At the stroke of midnight, an

ancient Rolls Royce pulls up and its occupants, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, urge Gil to come to a soiree with them. He finds himself at a lost generation party alongside Cole Porter, Ernest Hemmingway, Salvador Dali and others. Since Gil’s specialty is nostalgia, this is right up his alley. He is understandably awestruck, enchanted and almost speechless—but not totally speechless because he asks both Hemingway and Gertrude Stein to read his manuscript. 

Nothing lasts forever, however,and  Gil has to come back to present time and spend time with temperamental Ines and her grouchy Tea Party member parents, whose main interests seem to be shopping and eating in expensive restaurants.  

This is Woody Allen at his best. Nostalgia has repeatedly been a theme for him. The story is loaded with stars and a celebrity or two. Even Carla Bruni, President Nicolas Sarkozy’s wife has a part in this oh so Francophile film. “Midnight in Paris” is filmed exquisitely with tantalizing views of the Eiffel tower, Monmartre, the flea markets, the Seine and, of course, the cafes and bistros.

Each cast member shines. They obviously love the film and the chance to impersonate literary giants and artists of the 1920s. Owen Wilson could not be better. He embodies the Woody Allen persona, a man full of self-doubt, dissatisfied with many things. Mostly he longs to inhabit a bygone era and to be able to have the challenging and intellectual conversations absent from his present life with Ines.

Time travel may be a wacky concept but it seamlessly works in “Midnight and Paris,” something not easy to pull off. But Allen succeeds. All of this is silly and fun. And, of course, it is always entertaining to see how many stars Allen can squeeze into a film. And did I mention how very romantic it is?