Review – Page 206 – We Are Movie Geeks

CAPTIVE – The Review

As bland as its title, CAPTIVE is an indifferent home invasion thriller in which a drug-addicted single mom is held hostage by a desperate man who’d just murdered four people. Hostage movies follow such age-old patterns that it’s rare to be surprised by one and CAPTIVE is no exception. Occasionally the genre will be transformed by brilliant filmmaking, as it was in something like THE DESPERATE HOURS or DOG DAY AFTERNOON. Not this time. The true subject should have been given energy but all I felt while watching CAPTIVE was a big yawn.

Taking place over a single day, CAPTIVE closely follows an event that took place in Atlanta in 2005. Brian Nichols (played by David Oyelowo) was on trial for rape when he overpowered and beat a female guard, then took her gun. He calmly walked into a courtroom and fatally shot a judge and a court reporter then another guard before escaping the facility. He became the subject of a city wide manhunt and killed a detective before finding his way to the apartment of 27-year old waitress Ashley Smith (Kate Mara), a complete stranger. A mess herself, Ashley had lost her husband to drug-related violence and was battling her own meth addiction. Her daughter Paige (Elle Graham) is staying with her aunt (Mimi Rogers) while she tries to get her act together. The movie mostly focuses on the 8 hours Ashley and Brian spend together. He threatens her and ties her up in the tub, but she’s never hurt. “Got any weed?” No, but she has some meth lying around so he smokes that (that’ll calm him down!). Ashley turns for guidance to Rick Warren’s inspirational best-seller The Purpose Driven Life, a book forced on her by a well-meaning co-worker that very day. She reads it aloud, hoping it will bring out some humanity in the killer. Meanwhile, Detective John Chestnut (Michael Kenneth Williams) is taking charge, barking orders at his underlings, though he has no clue where the fugitive is hiding.

CAPTIVE presents a basic movie situation and delivers it in an uninspired and pedestrian manner. It’s based on Ashley Smith’s book about the encounter, so knowing she’s the only hostage and that she survives diminishes any tension. Limiting much of the action to Ashley’s small apartment eliminates distractions and allows for a closer focus on these two characters but the story is inert and fails to excite. Much of the problem is the direction by 81-year old Jerry Jameson whose TV career goes all the way back to The Andy Griffith Show and Gomer Pyle. He sets an appropriately gloomy tone but his TV-level compositions and close-ups fill the space where motivation and character-building ought to be. He fails to exploit the claustrophobia of the premise while Lorne Balfe’s low-rent synthetic score adds a cheapness to the proceedings.

David Oyelowo is a powerful screen presence but underplays his role. Brian Nichols had just murdered four people, but by the time he arrives at Ashley Smith’s home, he seems much too calm and composed. He bounces off the walls perfunctorily when he smokes the meth, but you’d think the adrenaline from his crimes would have already put him at least halfway there. We’re told Brian is desperate to make contact with his newborn son but even the actor best known for playing Martin Luther King (in SELMA) makes it impossible to have a speck of sympathy for a character who’s introduced gunning down four innocents. Kate Mara is fine but does not make much of an impression. This may be a true story but the enterprise seems contrived–more like an actors’ workshop than a drama. The poster for CAPTIVE depicts Oyelowo running, gun in hand, like this in an action film. The producers of CAPTIVE (including Oyelowo) may have been wise to have played up the Christian angle (as some recent box-office surprises have proven). Preserving the original title of Ashley Smith’s book Unlikely Angel, would have been a good start instead of the generic CAPTIVE, and more emphasis on how The Purpose Driven Life affected this story may have helped but as is, neither the dramatic or religious details of Ashley Smith and Brian Nichol’s encounter ever come into satisfying focus.

1 1/2 of 5 Stars

Read my recent interview with actor David Oyelowo HERE

PAWN SACRIFICE – The Review

The kid faces the champion, loses, fights his way back, and takes the rematch. It’s a familiar sports trope and PAWN SACRIFICE, the biography of volatile chess champ Bobby Fischer, is as formulaic in its own way as ROCKY (or if you prefer, SEARCHING FOR BOBBY FISCHER). The good news is that it’s an intense and fascinating drama capable of involving those who know little about chess as well as avid players.

Raised by his single Jewish mother, Brooklyn native Fischer was born in 1943 and was proficient on the chess board by the age of six. A self-taught player, he continued mastering his game though his early teens, when he defeated star players. As an adult (played by Tobey Maguire) Fischer’s success at the game grows, but his mental state begins to unravel and he suspects the government is watching his every move. Two men enter Bobby’s life to help manage his career – attorney Paul Marshall (Michael Stuhlbarg) and Father Bill Lombardy (Peter Sarsgaard), a heavy-drinking ex-chess champ. Much of the second half of PAWN SACRIFICE focuses on Fischer famously winning the world title from defending champion Boris Spassy in Reykjavik, Iceland in 1972.

Fischer’s story seems a natural for a movie, yet it’s a tricky one. Tasked with the challenge of making a two-player strategy board game seem cinematic is Ed Zwick, director of big-scale epics like GLORY and THE LAST SAMURAI and he does a terrific job working on a smaller battlefield. If you’re expecting close-ups of pawns and rooks being shuffled about in slow motion while dramatic music plays, there is a little of that, but Zwick wisely saves it until the film’s final half hour. He makes other good choices, including having the first match between Fischer and Spassky take place off-screen. Screenwriter Steven Knight provides an insightful look at not only chess but serious mental illness, the psychology of competition, and a battle the film refers to as “World War Three on a chessboard” that would prove to be a major propaganda win for America during the Cold War. James Newton Howard’s score has the right combination of wonder and the hint of something sinister. Period details are impeccable – not just in the costuming and art design but in the vintage newscasts about the event that are perfectly chosen and incorporated along with references to Watergate and the Vietnam War.

PAWN SACRIFICE is anchored by the outstanding performance of Tobey Maguire as Fischer. Mercurial and highly-strung, his interpretation of this tortured genius is textured and complex. There may bit a bit too much focus on his paranoia (how many times do we have to see him dismantling his phone?), but Maguire makes Fischer’s journey from a swaggering “ego-crushing” genius to a shaken shell of a man believable. Liev Schreiber, 90% of whose part is spoken in Russian, is perfect as the arrogant, confident Spassky. Bobby Fischer eventually descended into madness, arrests, crazed outbursts and allegiance to a religious doomsday cult before his death at age 65 from kidney disease. The film addresses some of this in a brief addendum complete with startling archival footage. Fischer’s bizarre post-Spassky life might one day make for an interesting film of its own.

4 1/2 of 5 Stars

PAWN SACRIFICE opens in St. Louis Friday September 18th exclusively at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Theater

BLACK MASS – The Review

Hit the deck! Rat-a-tat-tat!! These are the sounds of a cinema staple, the gangster genre. From the early silent days, “thugs with dirty mugs” were the source of many a “hit” at the box office, of course. Soon after the Brothers Warner began their studio, they quickly became the premiere producers of these “blood and thunder” morality plays, featuring a “murderers’ row” of movie icons headed by James Cagney, Edward G Robertson, and Humphrey Bogart. In the waning years of Hollywood’s Golden Age, these thrillers often merged with the biography genre with the stories of real-life 20’s and 30’s criminals like John Dillinger, Bonnie Parker, and Clyde Barrow, and, the big man himself, “Scarface” Al Capone. With the phenomenal success of THE GODFATHER, these “public enemies” were back in vogue, continuing even to this day. Now the Warners are back in the true tale gangster biz, but they’re not offering up a new spin on those tommy-gun toting terrors. Here’s a crime kingpin from a much more recent era who’s actually still around. Now, this isn’t a look at his rise and fall. Rather it’s the tale of an unlikely alliance between this brutal underworld czar and a “G-Man”! Suit up for a truly pitch-dark BLACK MASS.

As the film opens, we’re in an interrogation room, as the “lieutenant” of Boston’s infamous “Winter Hill Gang”, Kevin Weeks (Jesse Plemons) talks about his boss, the crime ruler of the Irish south side, James “Whitey” Bulger (Johnny Depp). We then flashback to FBI agent John Connolly (Joel Edgerton) who has returned to his hometown in 1975, along with his bride Marianne (Julianne Nicholson), and is now part of the bureau’s Boston HQ. The local agents are frustrated with their lack of progress in stopping the illegal activities of the Italian mob to the north and Whitey’s south stronghold. Then John gets an idea. He grew up in the same neighborhood as the Bulgers, why not reach out to state Senate politico Billy Bulger (Benedict Cumberbatch) and see if he can put him in contact with Whitey, so that he can recruit him as an informant on his Italian rivals (in exchange, the feds would look the other way on Whitey’s petty crimes). John’s supervisor Charles McGuire (Kevin Bacon) is skeptical, but another agent, John Morris (David Harbour) is supportive. Billy Bulger is insulted by John, but to his shock, Whitey calls the agent. So, an agreement is forged. As long as Whitey supplies the info and steers clear of felonies (particularly murder), the FBI will ease up on his operations. But the hair-trigger Whitey is not so easily restrained, and soon he’s setting up shop in Miami, while providing guns and cash to the IRA. As he and John become a close team (and the agent become a rising star at the bureau), a new prosecutor, Fred Wyshak (Corey Stoll) questions this “relationship”. Can he possibly reign in Whitey’s gang , who’s now protected by the ambitious Connolly?

Whitey-United-States-of-America-v-James-J-Bulger-2014-6 — The real James “Whitey” Bulger

The film’s main selling point is Depp as the almost reptilian mob boss, Whitey, and he most certainly delivers. After more than a decade of maximum quirk as the MVP of Tim Burton and Gore Verbinski flicks, he’s tossed the eyeliner and eccentric duds and nails the complexity of this real life monster mobster. He can be sweet and charming as in the scenes with his sainted mother and adored young son. But then, almost without warning, a switch is flipped and the killer is freed from its shackles. With his hair slicked back to a bullet-like sheen, Depp evokes the image of a human cobra, one that gives no hiss as a warning. On the contrary, he takes great giddy pleasure from lulling his prey into relaxed calm, even shaking their hands, before the out-of-nowhere death strike. With a performance recalling Cagney classics (THE PUBIC ENEMY and WHITE HEAT), it’s nice to see Deep back on earth after so many years in on the planet of the weird. While his image adorns the ads and posters, the film is really the story of the seduction and corruption of Connolly ,and Edgerton, coming off his excellent work on THE GIFT, shows us the ambitious longing in the compromised lawman. He will truly bargain with the devil himself in order to advance his career and get to that next level with the grander title and the bigger office. Later we see the desperation in his eyes as Connolly frantically tries to talk himself out of the deep, deep hole that he has dug, one that traps him as its walls collapse about his feet.

Actually the entire cast is stellar as they support these two very compelling leads. Nicholson as Mrs. Connolly presents a woman quickly falling out of love, with a real sense of disgust as she realizes that her husband shares their emotional bed with a creature of pure evil (a creepy confrontation with Whitey is quite unnerving). Harbor is enthralling as Connolly’s cheerleader/sidekick who slowly learns that he’s very much out of his depth. Bacon is an entertaining hardcase as the big FBI boss, but the terrific Adam Scott has little to do besides modeling tacky 70’s fashions and hairstyles, unfortunately. Stoll proves to be a most capable verbal sparring partner for Edgerton. From his introduction, we sense that he’s a legal pit bull. Cumberbatch tempers his small screen charisma and gives us an original take on an “old school” career politician, one with fierce family pride. He can’t turn his back on his family, especially his brother, no matter the horror tales told behind his back. Peter Sarsgaard shines in a terrific small role as a “coked up” Miami wheeler-dealer nicknamed “Balloonhead”. Plemons and W. Earl Brown are very convincing as two of Whitey’s most trusted enforcers, both morphing into dead-eyed real human terminators, while their cohort Rory Cochrane lets his sadness escape through the eyes of his bulldog-like mug. He lets us see how the humiliation and degradation meted out by his boss has taken its toil on him. That “50 Shades” lady, Dakota Johnson brings out the human side of Whitey in her soft, subtle turn as his common-in-law wife Lindsey Cyr. Great cameo turns by Bill Camp and Juno Temple round out this impressive ensemble.

In his third outing as a director (CRAZY HEART, OUT OF THE FURNACE) former actor Scott Cooper fights a difficult battle to keep this long, meandering screenplay moving forward. Unfortunately it usually gets the better of him, despite his considerable efforts. Although it mainly focuses in on a ten-year period going from the disco 70’s to the grim and gritty 80’s, the script quickly becomes an illustrated rap sheet, checking off a list of crimes (then he did this, then this, then…). There are a few moments between murders where the characters rather than the blood-splattered set pieces take command. One such sequence is the very tense BBQ dinner at the Connolly home, going right from a recipe inquiry (probably too similar to Joe Pesci’s iconic “How am I funny?” monologue, but still strong) to the threat-laced passive-aggressive duet between Whitey and Marianne (just watch the other audience members squirm during this). Bulger supposedly was the inspiration for Jack Nicholson’s “Paddy” Costello character in Martin Scorsese’s THE DEPARTED. Ultimately this new film is swallowed up in the shadow of that Oscar winner, and especially by the even earlier GOODFELLAS (Depp often seems to be doing a mash-up of its DeNiro and Pesci characters). This is a shame, since the movie gets the period look, from autos to fashions, down perfectly and the Boston location work is exceptional. Perhaps another script draft, or a bit more narration would have helped keep things moving. At least the film reminds us of what a terrific actor Depp can be when given challenging material. But really all the actors are superb, it’s just truly frustrating that the narrative fumbles what should be a cinema touchdown. BLACK MASS, like the law man’s plan at its center, is a flawed attempt at greatness.

3.5 Out of 5

HELLIONS – The Review

Bruce McDonald is a name with whom few readers will likely associate with anything, but for those few of us who do, we know this Canadian-born filmmaker has some under-appreciated talent. Perhaps his best-known film, McDonald wowed genre film fans in 2008 with his groundbreaking PONTYPOOL. Since then, rumors and theories about a follow-up sequel have endured endless revivals in smaller circles of horror fandom. So, despite having a few lesser-known non-horror films to his name since 2008, I and others were excited to see McDonald return to horror just in time for Halloween.

HELLIONS is McDonald’s latest film, written by Pascal Trottier, best known for screenwriting THE COLONY (2013), combines McDonald’s unconventional storytelling sense and Trottier’s knack for cerebral flair. The film stars Chloe Rose as Dora Vogel, an apathetic teenager who unexpectedly discovers she’s pregnant and must survive Halloween night when her home is invaded my trick or treaters wanting much more than candy. An overbearing mother and a lack of direction in her life are quickly the least of her worries as she stays home alone on Halloween night and finds herself the target of some creepy child-like tormenters.

The first thing I noticed about HELLIONS was how familiar it felt. The film serves up a number a standard features for Halloween-themed horror films. The devilish trick or treaters often reminded me of the beloved Sam from TRICK ‘R TREAT (2007) but also, as the film progresses, brought back nostalgic memories of watching Stephen King’s CHILDREN OF THE CORN (1984). The film takes place in a small town, one which certainly evokes that of Haddonfield, Illinois. There’s even a moment when Dora cracks a joke about how the town would probably disappear from the map if not for Halloween.

These are all things that lead one to believe HELLIONS is McDonald’s ode to the cherished holiday of horrors. We can read even further into this, if we like, including connections to such films as Roman Polanski’s 1968 classic, or as a stretch, even to Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 masterpiece, as Dora lives on Overlook Road. I’ll refrain from digging any deeper at this time, given the spoiling nature of such a pursuit. Ultimately, all of this alleged homaging is not the purpose of the film.

In returning to the meat of the film, HELLIONS also stars veteran actor Robert Patrick as the town’s sheriff Corman, who has a close relationship with Dora. Corman serves as a crucial supporting role later in the film, but Dora is not just the central character in the film but also damn near the sole focus. In many ways, HELLIONS is a single character-driven psychological mind-screw as we travel through the fears and nightmares Dora endures. McDonald does not spoon-feed his audience, shying away from any traditional horror formula, even if the film as a whole fails to present any truly original idea of its own.

Once the film comes full-circle, certain to have lost some viewers and engaged others into giving birth to a far-reaching tangent of theories and side stories connected to the film, HELLIONS is a sonically and visually captivating horror film that will serve well for Halloween viewing, given its relatively short 80-minute run time. Anything more and the meat of the film would have rotted off the bone, leaving just the skeleton of a good idea. McDonald successfully pares down the film, keeping it smart and spunky.

HELLIONS also co-stars Rossif Sutherland as Doctor Henry and Rachel Wilson as Dora’s mother Kate. Once again, these characters have minor significance in the grand scheme of the film, but rather serve as pawns in McDonald’s game of gory chess to setup the ensuing insanity. The film boasts some respectfully accomplished special effects that are low-key but highly effective and also an eerie, intensely-disturbing score that is beyond creepy, if not somewhat repetitive in its recycled usage. I will give special acknowledgment to cinematographer Norayr Kaspar, who captured Dora’s tormented mind and soul as an external interpretation on film. This goes a long way in making McDonald’s vision an intriguing experience, despite the film’s flaws.

HELLIONS opens in theaters and VOD on Friday, September 18th, 2015.

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

MAZE RUNNER: THE SCORCH TRIALS – The Review

By Cate Marquis

The second in a trilogy based on the young adult science fiction series, MAZE RUNNER: THE SCORCH TRIALS picks up where the first one left off. The sequel gets Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) and friends from point A to point B, that is, across the burnt desert landscape known as the “Scorch,” with a few detours and twists along the way. Although they have left the maze behind, there is still lots of running.

The second installment has relatively few plot points, which leaves lots of time for chases, pursued by the wicked forces of WCKD or the zombie-like Cranks. The chases and battles take place in a variety of devastated landscapes, each filled with imaginative FX obstacles. This second movie reportedly follows the second book fairly closely but this installment may be the weakest book of the three. Still, fans will want to see the film anyway, to get to the final book. Anyone who was not hooked by the first Maze Runner (or did not see it) is unlikely to be drawn in by this sequel.

Thomas and the Gladers – Min Ho (Ki Hong Lee), Newt (Thomas Brodie-Sangster), Frypan (Dexter Darden), Winston (Alexander Flores) and Teresa (Kaya Scodelario) – arrive by the helicopter that rescued them at a military outpost headed by Janson (Aiden Gillen). Thomas is unsure about Jansan’s motives or even what the military facility is all about. The group is given bunks and food in a cafeteria with other kids from other mazes, awaiting some kind of reassignment. Thomas is wary Janson because Teresa has been separated from the group, without explanation. When a kid who has been at the facility awhile, Aris (Jacob Lofland), shows Thomas a hidden room with disturbing contents, it is time for them to get out of there. There goal is a rumored resistance camp on the other side of the desolate Scorch.

However, the journey is not a straight path, there are plenty of detours and back-tracking as they make their way to the hope-for goal of the resistance camp.

If you get tired of seeing characters running, running, running, this is not the film for you. The film is mostly a long race, from one danger to the next, interrupted by pauses to rest or by a battle, with an occasional looping back for some critical mission. Those who like non-stop action will be pleased.

The cast from the first film are back, including Patricia Clarkson as WCKD head Ava Paige. As Janson, Gillen seems to be doing a version of his smooth, slippery “Game of Thrones” character, Lord Balish, but with an American accent (although his native Irish one keeps peeking through). Other new additions to the case include Giancarlo Esposito as Jorge, Rosa Salazar as Brenda, Lili Taylor as Mary and Barry Pepper as Vince.

The film meets the needed plot points to advance the story but most of the entertainment value rests on the many battles and chases in lavish special effects locations. The Gladers battle the forces of WCKD, but also the zombie-like Crank victims of the plague they are supposedly immune to, and a variety of sinister types in the lawless area of the Scorch. The kids travel through devastated landscapes, encountering an abandoned shopping mall buried under sand, a pair of broken city high-rise buildings teetering on collapse, and a factory taken over by hardened survivors. The heroes dangle over precipices, narrowly escape evil doers and navigate through a drug-laced party of shady survivors.

The effects are appropriately sweeping, including views of what looks like a wrecked San Francisco. The actors all do their parts well enough but no performance really transcends the material. Fans of young O’Brien should be pleased with his performance.

New characters are introduced (some only briefly), some established characters are lost, and seeming enemies turn out to be allies and vice versa.

Fans of the first film, or of the book series, will want to see Scorch Trials to get to the next chapter in the saga. Audience members who were not taken with the first one probably will not find much to hook them on the series with this second part.

MAZE RUNNER: THE SCORCH TRIALS opens Friday, September 18.

OVERALL RATING: 2 1/2 OUT OF 5 STARS

GRANDMA – The Review

Review by Cate Marquis

Lily Tomlin delivers a tour-de-force performance in GRANDMA, an inter-generational comedy road trip. The title may bring to mind a sweet little old lady baking cookies but Tomlin’s Grandma Elle is something else. Elle Reid is a fierce, sharp-tongued lesbian poet, academic and early feminist who raised her daughter with her longtime woman partner. When Elle’s high school senior granddaughter Sage (Julia Garner) comes to her in need of help, afraid to go to her domineering CEO mother Judy (Marcia Gay Harden), grandma and granddaughter take off on quest that indirectly recaps the many cultural shifts around subjects such as feminism, LGBT rights, birth control, out-of-wedlock birth, single mothers, and other social issues since Grandma’s heyday in the ’70s.

At one time, any of those subjects might have made this film controversial or provoked outrage, but now only one topic the film touches on will do that – abortion. Due to that subject, a certain segment of the population will not want to see this well-made, insightful, thoughtful film, and some may even will recoil at the idea of a film from this family’s particular viewpoint, although there have been plenty of films on the subject of abortion from the opposing view. While this one issue is not this main topic in this film, it is to the film’s credit that it handles the subject with a certain balance and sensitivity, exploring the feelings and rights of fathers, differing opinions on the subject, and underlining that this is not a decision taken lightly.

The reason the granddaughter needs Grandma’s help is to pay for an abortion. But when Sage comes to her for help, Grandma is struggling with her own emotional issues. A virtual recluse, Elle is still mourning the death of her longtime partner Violet, the woman with whom she raised her driven businesswoman daughter. Worse, on the morning Sage turns up at her door, Elle has just broken up with her younger girlfriend Olivia (Judy Greer). Nonetheless, Elle puts all that aside to help her granddaughter.

The problem is that Grandma is broke too, being between teaching jobs, having just paid off her debts and then cut up her credit cards and now waiting on a check for past work. Like her granddaughter, Grandma is reluctant to go to her strong-willed successful daughter, from whom she is estranged, knowing she will not take the news of Sage’s pregnancy well. The father, Sage’s slacker ex-boyfriend (Nat Wolff), is no help and really not interested. So, armed with Grandma’s first editions of books by feminist icons like Betty Friedan and Simone de Beauvoir, which Elle is sure are worth hundreds, the two set off in Grandma’s creaky old car to raise the money from her old friends around Los Angeles, before her granddaughter’s appointment at a clinic for the procedure at 5 o’clock.

Director Paul Weitz has crafted a polished, well-made road trip film that both paints a warm portrait of family bonds, and handles its topics intelligently and with a light touch. Weitz skillfully, subtly blends the social issues into the plot and peppers the comedy with sharp, witty observations, but the film’s greatest strength is Lily Tomlin. Tomlin is at the center of the film’s comedy and its drama, creating a complex character. Elle is both sarcastic and kind-hearted, a character that feels like a true portrait of an early feminist and lesbian, a person with a chip on her shoulder from spending her life defying conventions and resisting pressure to change who she is. It is a wonderful, touching and funny performance. The film touches on the personal for Tomlin, a gay woman herself, and she brings all her comedy and dramatic skills to bear in this film.

As prickly, outspoken Elle, Tomlin shoulders the bulk of the comedy duties but the film also builds up a sense of family and emotional warmth, no matter how unconventional that family is. Tomlin is greatly aided by a strong supporting cast. Julie Garner is charming as the granddaughter, who clearly loves her grandma but often does not get her views or is sometimes embarrassed by her bull-in-china shop approach. Fine performances are also offered by Marcia Gay Harden as Elle’s success-driven daughter, who raised her daughter Sage as a single parent, Judy Greer as Elle’s jilted young lover, Laverne Cox as a transgender tattoo artist and especially by Sam Elliot in a moving, dramatic role a long-ago ex-lover.

Much of the comedy is built around Grandma’s reaction to the changes time has brought – that the free clinic where a woman could get an inexpensive abortion is now a trendy coffee shop, that the owner of the lesbian coffee shop she remembers is now more about business than politics, that her treasured books by feminist icons are not worth what she imagined they should be, and other shocks to her ideals. Her sarcastic responses are funny but there is a touching underlying melancholy too. The three generations also indirectly illustrate women’s changing roles and opportunities – from the radial feminist lesbian grandma to her all-business career woman daughter (directing her company from her treadmill desk), to the gentle but unfocused granddaughter who takes for granted much of her mother’s and grandmother’s hard-won social victories.

This smart, funny film also gets at some human truths but never gets bogged down in lectures on social issues. It remains a warm, human character-driven film about a particular family, with a sparkling performance by a comedy great and feminist pioneer at its center.

RATING: 4 ½ OUT OF 5 STARS

GRANDMA opens in St. Louis September 11, 2015

LISTENING – The Review

Do we really want to know what other people are thinking? Do we want anybody listening in on our thoughts? That possibility is explored in an incredible new, Independent thriller called LISTENING.

David (Thomas Stroppel) and Ryan (Artie Ahr) are graduate students at Cal Tech who are working on the very real possibility of translating human thoughts into computer language. Thus translated other people can “listen” in to our thoughts. They develop hardware and software with equipment borrowed from the University. Unknown to them a shadowy, secret Government agency (is there any other kind?) is working on the same idea.

David and Ryan are both desperately poor, they want their system to work in order to become tech millionaires, or least be able to pay their bills. David and his wife and daughter are due to be evicted, Ryan lives in an efficiency apartment with his Grandmother and has to steal food so they can eat.

Enter a girlfriend for Ryan, Jordan (Amber Marie Bollinger) who helps them with the project. Of course she is not what she seems to be. The project is pitched to money men, word gets out, both tech geeks are expelled and in deep trouble.

Enter the shadowy Government agency who offers them both jobs on their project. The goal? The implanting of hardware in human brains that can read every single thought, eliminating computers, smart phones, and every other tech gizmo we have all become addicted to. And, of course, the end of all human freedom.

David manages to get away to, I’m guessing, Thailand and enters a Buddhist Monastery to learn how to control his thoughts through meditation (hooray for Buddhism!) and returns in order to throw a monkey wrench into the plans for world domination.

I am continually astonished at the smartness and quality of these Independent productions. I have never seen any of the actors in LISTENING before, and they are all excellent, especially the two leads and the Government characters. Even minor characters are well written and acted.

This is one science fiction thriller that is way close to being fact. The techs are right now working on exactly the process we see laid out in LISTENING.

There are echoes of mind control movies all the way back to Electronic Monster, and of course 1984. The idea of invading another person’s thoughts references DREAMSCAPE and SCANNERS. The hardware and ideas are reminiscent of BRAINSTORM and STRANGE DAYS, the shaved heads and the need to control human thought recalls THX1138. And the ramped up paranoia recalls Darren Aronofsky’s breakthrough film PI. The Government project involves a dog, clearly recalling Pavlov’s famous experiments with thought control.

But LISTENING is its own special animal, smart, edgy, and way too close to what’s happening in our world right now.

I sincerely hope every person involved in LISTENING continues to work regularly in motion picture production. Especially Director Khalil Sullins and every one of his actors.

This is great stuff folks, I have to give LISTENING 5 out of 5 stars. Catch it in a theater if you can.

LISTENING opens in theaters and On Demand September 11th.

iTunes Pre-order link: http://geni.us/Listening

THE VISIT – The Review

M. Night Shyamalan sure knows what scares us. Dead people who can only be seen by a sad young boy. Mysterious crop circles suggesting something more frightening to come. And now with his latest film THE VISIT – a shed full of soiled adult diapers! It’s difficult to discuss an M. Night movie without referring to what disasters his last several films have been and the downward path his career has taken, but THE VISIT is his best movie in years. That’s not saying much, but it might be all the beleaguered director needs right now.

THE VISIT begins with single mom/Wal-Mart worker (Kathryn Hahn) revealing to her 15-year old daughter Becca (Olivia DeJonge), who’s filming her, that she ran away from home as a teen and has had no communication with her elderly parents since. She wants to go on a cruise with her new boyfriend and her parents have suddenly re-entered her life – offering to watch the kids for a week while she’s gone. Reluctantly mom sends Becca and 13-year old Tyler (Ed Oxenbould) by train to the rural Pennsylvania farmhouse in which she grew up, hoping the visit will mend the rift with her estranged parents and provide the kids, abandoned by their dad years earlier, with some family bonding. Once they arrive, things seem pleasant enough with ‘Nana’ and ‘Pop Pop’ (Deanna Dunagan and Peter McRobbie). “Don’t leave your room after 9:30”, they’re told, which is good advice since Nana and Pop Pop are up to some bizarre behavior after sundown. Becca is a budding filmmaker and has conveniently decided to make a documentary about their week away so the entirety of THE VISIT is made up of the footage she shoots. That’s right, THE VISIT is M. Night’s addition to the found-footage genre (or is it a ‘mockumentary’? – I’m unclear on the difference in this case) because I guess he figures, with that famed ego of his, he’s got something new to add to the overused gimmick. Unfortunately for the audience, he doesn’t.

THE VISIT is briskly-paced, well-edited, and the director is clearly comfortable playing with the tools of the mockumentary format. His script is an episodic series of set-ups and pay-offs with Nana and Pop Pop exhibiting progressively peculiar behavior. A game of hide and seek under the porch takes a creepy turn when Nana suddenly joins in, scattering about like a rabid spider crab. Pop Pop takes the kids to town and is convinced a younger man is following him, resulting in a startling beat-down from the seemingly frail old coot. The scene from the trailer where Nana asks Becca to help clean the oven by climbing in it (“all the way inside”) happens twice and doesn’t go where you’re expecting , but it’s still giddy fun.

I had trouble with THE VISIT’s uneasy mix of horror and comedy. Much of the humor is at the expense of Nana and Pop Pop with cheap shots about the ‘hilarity’ of advancing age and senility. Young Tyler looks at the camera and performs improv rap several, painful times. Most of the horror is of the cheap jump-scare variety but there is one terrifyingly good performance at the center of THE VISIT. Deanna Dunagan (a Tony Award-winner) as Nana is amazing in the film, doing some subtle (and not-so-subtle) work with her voice and her face and her body language. Puking and shrieking and scratching the walls one moment, while calm and grandmotherly sweet the next, it’s a startling physical performance, complete with a peek at her withered bare bottom. The 75-year old actress is a bold standout and Nana is the best horror character of the year. Peter McRobbie is content to hold back, sometimes so much so that Pop Pop seems to be in some kind of daze or trance, until all Hell breaks loose near the end – it’s a good approach and works well in contrast to Nana. Less successful are the two young actors, forced to spout the grown screenwriter’s awkward version of a teen’s words. Kathryn Hahn is always likeable and makes the most of her limited screen time as Mom. The cinematography by Maryse Alberti is slick and filmic, perfectly lit with the golden hues one would expect from the rustic farm setting…. which sort of negates the premise that the whole thing is shot by a 15-year old on her camcorder!

Since this is an M. Night, there is a twist, but it’s not a game-changer and affects little of the action that preceded it, just sending the story in a slightly different direction. I wish Shyamalan had dialed the berserk level in THE VISIT up a bit more. It’s not for a moment dull but it never reaches the delirious heights I was hoping for, nor does it achieve anything like the so-bad-it’s-transcendent madness he accomplished with THE HAPPENING (still my favorite post-SIXTH SENSE M. Night). There’s one nasty-wicked scene when gramps comes at germophobe Tyler armed with those poopy Depends. It’s a stupid, gross bit, one that will have audiences screaming in revulsion and I wish there had been more moments like it.

2 1/2 of 5 Stars

STEVE JOBS: THE MAN IN THE MACHINE – The Review

Review by Dane Marti

Anyone who has ever used a personal computer, Mac Book Pro, iPhone, iMac or any other special form of interactive communication device (Um…everyone), will enjoy this quality film: STEVE JOBS: THE MAN IN THE MACHINE shall completely enthrall a hell of a lot of souls in the world. I know, it’s just a documentary, but it captivated me.

Very few people in the late 20th/21st Century have transformed the way we live, work, create and think to the extent that Steve Jobs did. He had an amazing life. Some documentaries, although compelling in many unique and special ways, are not essential viewing for everyone. This is. It’s definitely a dynamic work, a first-rate compendium of both the genius of Jobs and the far-reaching power and beauty of the Personal Computer.
Along with his brilliance, his genius in changing the world through his incredible ‘iSuccess’, he could also be a monster with co-workers and family. Many mavericks that change the world have this sad quality; perhaps it makes them able to obsessively focus on their dreams and goals without having to deal with more sweet and humanistic traits. It also makes the film more dramatic. The filmmakers, while pointing out his charisma as a salesman, visionary, with an ability to “think differently,” also brought forth interesting questions: They were slightly perplexed: they—as well as people interviewed, wonder why so many people in America and throughout the world were so emotionally moved by his death, as if he were John Lennon. Well…they loved him for what he brought magically to their lives!

This film is powerful and unflinching, detailing how Jobs and Apple became a massive global phenomenon. Easily one of the best documentaries that I’ve seen in at least a few years, this highly entertaining film is essential viewing for every human that lives, inhales oxygen and dreams of changing the world.

4 of 5 Stars

STEVE JOBS: THE MAN IN THE MACHINE is playing in ST. Louis exclusively at Landmark’s The Tivoli Theater

LEARNING TO DRIVE – The Review

Review by Cate Marquis

Patricia Clarkson and Ben Kingsley give us a pair of well-drawn, likeable characters as a New Yorker learning to drive from a Indian-American driving instructor, in LEARNING TO DRIVE.

LEARNING TO DRIVE is the kind of little film – smart, often funny, thoughtful – for grown-ups seen too little in theaters. But what really makes this film are the careful crafted, lived-in performances by Kingsley and Clarkson.

A cross-cultural story about two people driving around might bring “Driving Miss Daisy” to mind, but this film is really nothing like that sentimental tale. Although this story is built around a New Yorker learning to drive, the film is really about taking the wheel of one’s own life, a lesson for both the student and the teacher.

In St. Louis, like most of the country, nearly everyone learns to drive, usually as a teenager. In New York, it is a different case. Many people never learn to drive there, instead using public transportation and cabs. So it takes a certain courage and determination for a middle-aged woman to decide to learn to drive in a culture where not everyone does.

Patricia Clarkson plays Wendy Shields, a successful, well-known book critic whose college professor husband suddenly announces he is leaving her for another woman. Her husband gives her the news at a restaurant, hoping to limit the drama, but when he tries to leave, shocked Wendy jumps in his cab and continues asking him why The cab driver, a South Asian immigrant named Darwan (Kingsley), politely pretends not to hear what is going on in his back seat but he is clearly moved by her heartbroken reaction. The husband asks the cabbie to pull over, gets out and tells the cabbie to drive her home.

The next day, Wendy finds comfort from the couple’s only child Tasha (Grace Gummer), who is home from her college in upstate New York. Tasha wants to be supportive but turns down her mother’s request that she transfer to a university in town. So if Wendy wants to see her, she’ll have to drive there. Which means, she will have to learn to drive. When she calls a driving school, the instructor that shows up at her door is the same cabbie who drove her home, the second of his two jobs.

This film takes a smart, drily witty, literary spin that quashes any drift towards the sentimental. The strength of this charming, warm, often funny film is the appealing characters Clarkson and Kingsley build up. The two actors have great chemistry together and bring a little romantic attraction, never acted on, that gives a little extra boost. A lesser film would make this all about the New Yorker, but this film rounds out both characters.

Because of the cab ride, Darwan understands a little more of what Wendy is going through and as he guides her through the basics of driving, he builds up her confidence for taking control of her own life. Darwan’s calm effortlessness in teaching these dual lessons suggest this is not the first time he has helped a middle-aged New York woman find new self-confidence in driving. However, as the story unfolds, Darwan and Wendy become more like friends, and Darwan learns from Wendy as well as the reverse, as he faces his own life changes.

Darwan lives in Queens, in an apartment he shares with a bunch of other Sikh men, a minority religion in the Indian subcontinent men. Most of his roommates, including his nephew, are not in the country legally but Darwan is a legal resident, granted political asylum to escape persecution for his religion and political beliefs. Back home, he was a professor at a university, here he teaches driving and moonlights driving a cab. An immigration raid scatters his roommates and he finds himself living alone, which prompts him to finally agree to his sister’s plan to find him a wife in their village back in India, an idea he had resisted previously.

Since Sikh men wear turbans, they are often mistaken in this country for Muslims, and the film touches on that fact in one scene. While Wendy copes with her pending divorce, her role in the its end and explores her new life, Darwan gets some help from her about romancing his new wife, who arrives uncertain about adjusting to her new country. The film keeps things light but always intelligent

LEARNING TO DRIVE is a charming little film, with fine performances, appealing characters and nice little message about both friendship and learning something new, no matter your age.

LEARNING TO DRIVE opens Friday, September 4, at Plaza Frontenac Cinema.

OVERALL RATING: 4 OUT OF 5 STARS

Photo Credit: Broad Green Pictures

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Share this:

OVERALL RATING: 2 1/2 OUT OF 5 STARS

Share this:

RATING: 4 ½ OUT OF 5 STARS

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

OVERALL RATING: 4 OUT OF 5 STARS

Share this: