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Spotlight (2015)
"They knew and they let it happen. To kids!"
When news of child abuse in the Catholic church began to start filtering out, I immediately had a visceral reaction to it. It's something you just don't want to acknowledge is happening to young kids at the hands of those who are supposed to be the most trusted and credible members of a community. But then, when it became common knowledge that the perpetrators of that abuse were not held accountable, and in fact were reassigned to another parish to begin the cycle all over again, it was a turning point in the practice of my faith. As a Roman Catholic I had faithfully gone to Mass on Sunday for fifty years. No more.
Now I don't begrudge people from practicing their faith and I'm not on a personal mission to dissuade those who find solace in religion. It's just that the hypocrisy in this instance is simply beyond the realm. It leaves me with a conflicted feeling as well because a good part of my schooling was at the parochial level as well as Catholic high school, and those years were rewarding and fulfilling. So this was not an easy choice to make.
The power of the film lies in the tenacity and perseverance of the Spotlight reporting team in taking on a task against overwhelming odds and stigmatization. It didn't look like it was going to go that way at first, but as each revelation became known, circumstances kept multiplying to such a degree that the story almost began writing itself. It's a tribute to the power of intense investigative journalism that an evil like child abuse in the Church has been uncovered and reported on, and is finally bringing some measure of closure, if not relief, to it's victims.
The picture features a fine ensemble cast and it's noteworthy that no single actor overpowers the rest. As an Oscar contender for 2016, I think it stacks up about equally with "The Big Short", which means it's probably not going to win the big prize as "The Revenant" appears to be formidable. But it's a good film and an important story, so a viewing recommendation is in order.
The West Point Story (1950)
"I could've done it better with two legs."
The movie would have been a lot more entertaining if there was a consistent story line. The romance angle in particular between cadet Tom Fletcher (Gordon MacRae) and Jan Wilson (Doris Day) appeared to have an on/off/on again quality that had you questioning just how committed they could have been to each other. And why Cagney's character had to become a cadet himself was just the strangest stretch for a plot element to take that I had to wonder how this story was put together. But hey, Cagney is one of my favorite actors of any era, and it was a hoot catching him here with the strange gyrations wigging out over some poor dancer's inability to express themselves favorably with their feet. When he did get into the act himself, it was cool to see some of that old time Yankee Doodle Dandy exhibit itself in a handful of numbers. With the West Point backdrop, the story has it's share of patriotic gestures and tributes to the American spirit to offset some of the inconsistencies in the story. And when push came to shove, it was a genuine relief not to have to endure Alan Hale Junior as a Princess.
Song of the Thin Man (1947)
"If this rampage of respectability persists, we'll have to get you a bulletproof girdle."
Most of the reviewers here for this film appear to fall right in line with the common perception that this was one of, if not the weakest of the Thin Man films. But you know what? I liked it. I think a lot of it had to do with the hep-cat dialog coming from clarinetist Clinker Krause (Keenan Wynn), and if there was a better supporting cast in the series elsewhere, I think you'd be hard pressed to find it. Besides Wynn, you had Leon Ames, Gloria Grahame and Jayne Meadows, and the kicker would be Dean Stockwell, still a kid as young Nick Charles Jr.
As usual, and despite my best efforts to follow the characters and situations, it's virtually impossible to solve the mystery presented, but getting there is much of the fun. I knew that necklace would wind up being instrumental in solving a murder as soon as Nick (William Powell) picked it up the first time, but gee, what's with Mrs. Talbin (Patricia Morrison)? She would have gotten her revenge when her husband confessed to killing Drake (Phillip Reed). I think you'd have to call her shooting of Mitchell Talbin (Ames) an unforced error. Oh well, too bad.
So for a swan song, I think Nick and Nora Charles went out respectably. Powell by this time was showing his age a bit but Myrna Loy still looked great, though both conceding that perhaps their party hearty days may have been well behind them. Even Asta still had a few good scenes left in him, working the bedroom gimmick for maximum effect. Spanning a period of slightly over a dozen years, I think the Thin Man series came to a successful conclusion with this entertaining swan song.
Deadly Shootouts: The Great Northfield Raid (2016)
"Time slows down when bullets fly."
Add another treatment to the famed saga of the James-Younger Gang and the infamous Great Northfield Minnesota Raid. The most recent prior TV version of events premiered less than a year ago courtesy of Bill O'Reilly's Warm Springs Productions, and because of that, comparisons between the two efforts can be reasonably expected. At a full hour, the 'Legends and Lies' series had a bit more time to develop the events leading up to the failed bank robbery. With only about twenty two minutes of screen time, this current series keeps things crisp and to the point.
Both series wound up using a technique that I find kind of interesting, but because L&L came first, I have to wonder if there was a bit of swiping here. It's when one of the principals fires a weapon, the camera tracks the path of the bullet 'Matrix' style in slow motion to it's intended target.
What I haven't seen in other documentaries regarding this event is the emphasis that was placed on naming the Northfield citizens who came to the defense of their town. Chief among them was young Henry Wheeler, a twenty two year old medical student working at his father's drug store who embraced the now well documented 'if you see something, say something' approach. Along with other town-folk who grabbed whatever weapon they could get their hands on, the good people of Northfield began firing away as the gunmen from Missouri attempted to rob their bank.
The one stunning revelation made here that I haven't seen or heard of before had to do with the aftermath of the gun battle. Bank clerk Joseph Lee Heywood was killed by one of the outlaws after stating that the bank's safe couldn't be opened because it was on a time lock. This is not new information, however the episode goes on to reveal that the safe was unlocked the entire time! I have never heard this before, and it seems quite improbable to me that one of the gang members who entered the bank would not have attempted a pull on the safe's handle just for the sport of it. Nevertheless, an expected haul of seventeen thousand dollars (a quarter million in today's terms) wound up being a twenty six dollar heist!
Minor discrepancies like that aside, this was a nice, quick capsule sized version of one of history's most notorious incidents. The story cites the 1972 movie "The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid" starring Cliff Robertson and Robert Duvall as one of cinema's better movie treatments, but for my money, I'd go with 1980's "The Long Riders".
Deadly Shootouts: Gunfight at the OK Corral (2016)
"Sons of b...... been looking for a fight. Now you got one."
Virtually every documentary and movie treatment of the Earp Brothers and the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral contains differing elements, so it's no surprise that this new entry would do the same. But what I find in this episode are a couple of astonishing discrepancies from a historical perspective. The first, and this is fairly major, was the number of cowboys to stand in opposition to the Earp Brothers and Doc Holliday. Virtually every other treatment I've ever seen or read about has five men for the cowboy faction, but this episode only has four - young Billy Claiborne is not even mentioned.
The other has to do with the casualties inflicted by both sides. This episode shows Wyatt Earp getting shot, but among the brothers and Doc Holliday, he was the only one left unscathed in the dramatic shootout. I also found something else kind of interesting. This story gives the impression that Wyatt Earp took the first shot citing his knowledge of Frank McLaury being handy with a gun. In the recent Bill O'Reilly produced series 'Legend and Lies', the episode on Doc Holliday, perhaps because the emphasis was on Doc, insinuates that it might have been Holliday to get the gunfight rolling.
The one idea that's consistent with most of the better documentary and movie versions of the Gunfight is that there were about thirty shots fired within about thirty seconds. This is the first time however, that I've ever heard it mentioned with a breakout, with the Earps and Holliday firing twenty two times against the Clanton and McLaury's eight bullets. I guess on site forensics could have established that at the time, but I wonder if anyone might have thought of it.
With only about twenty two minutes of screen time, there's not enough time to develop much of the back story to the Earp - Clanton feud, and what's offered doesn't do much to add clarity to their disagreement. This leads me to be wary of ensuing episodes in the series, particularly ones where I've done a little bit of my own research.
Straight Outta Compton (2015)
"Even a great talent can crash and burn."
As a sixty five year old retired white male, I'm certainly not part of the targeted demographic for this movie. However since it came my way I took advantage of the opportunity because I think one can gain perspective from most anything that's new and unfamiliar. Without knowing a single thing about any of the performers depicted in the picture, I'd have to say that if one's goal for society is to improve racial harmony, you won't find a champion here. The idea that First Amendment freedom is the flip side of inciting people to violence and anarchy just isn't going to cut it with this viewer. Now granted, the portrayal of both white and black cops in the picture, if accurate, demonstrates that there are bad apples in all segments of society. The problem I have is that some proponents on both sides of the black and white divide see only all the bad, all the time, with no apparent room for compromise or reason to work things out. Taken as a biopic of the founders of rap music, the picture does a credible job I guess, but I don't see how it would inspire an appreciation of the music for non-rap fans with it's vile and disgusting lyrics.
Deadpool (2016)
"I may be super but I'm no hero."
The movie was an amazingly, astonishingly, stunningly - pile of crap. I would have walked out after twenty minutes like the gentleman to my right in the theater did, but then I wouldn't have remained true to my conviction of watching an entire film before rating it. Reading mostly positive reviews for the picture here on IMDb, and many of them glowing tributes, I can only surmise that cultural rot has deeply permeated and affected the minds of many of the current generation of film goers. I say all this quite sadly because I've seen and enjoyed most of the Marvel Comic movie product out there, as well as DC, but with this venture, the film makers have hit a new low in entertainment.
So why the glum. For starters, I'm not a prude, but there's a limit to the number of times I need to hear the 'F' word in a picture. I can deal with it in Bad Santa and gangster pictures because Joe Pesci and Billy Bob Thornton have a demeanor that allows them to pull it off with some semblance of artfulness. By comparison, I just watched "Straight Outta Compton", and the thugs in that film have nothing on Deadpool. Punctuated by anatomical references to one's backside, this film's vulgarity sets a bar in the wrong direction.
Then there's the sex and nudity. Is this the direction the super-hero genre is going to next? Now granted, I've never read a Deadpool comic, so I don't know if this is par for the course on the printed page, but if it is, it's pretty much bordering on pornographic. As far as the violence goes, well that's pretty much a given in these pictures.
With most of the picture nearly complete, I was beginning to feel better about not having Marvel Comic creator Stan Lee show up in one of his regular cameo spots, but then he shows up as a DJ at a strip bar. I want to assume that he filmed his spot without knowing how the rest of the picture was going to play out, otherwise my respect for the man would be severely diminished.
Lest this all sounds like a total downer, there were three elements of the picture I enjoyed well enough. First was the opening credits that were done quite cleverly and with spot on humor. Second, I got a kick out of Wade Wilson's (Ryan Reynolds) statement about not making his super suit too green. And finally, there was the moment when Wade announced the moment we had all been waiting for - the closing credits. As for the rest of the entire movie, to me it resembled a dead pool.
Brooklyn (2015)
"I'm not sure I have a home any more."
What the picture made me do was reflect on what my grandmother must have felt like when she emigrated to America as a teenager. She too left family behind for a better life and I had never really given much thought to what that experience might have entailed in terms of longing for the past while trying to assimilate into a new environment and culture. For her, that occurred at the turn of the Twentieth Century, much earlier than this picture's setting. In fact the story does seem to take place quite a few decades prior to 1952, at least that's the impression I had while watching until the time frame presented itself.
This was my first glimpse of Saoirse Ronan and I thought she gave a thoughtful portrayal of someone challenged to face the unknown with a determination to persevere and succeed. What's interesting about the story is that there are no insurmountable obstacles to overcome, but simply day to day life that needs to be dealt with as opportunities present themselves. Back in Ireland following the death of her sister Rose (Fiona Glascott), Eilis (Ronan) successfully resists the attempts of her mother and former acquaintances to reconsider her life, with a pivotal moment occurring when shopkeeper Mrs. Kelly attempts her blackmail routine on the young woman. In a finely crafted scene Eilis puts the woman in her place with an uncommon strength of character that defined her newly acquired maturity.
The picture finds itself in good company for this year's Academy Award nominations. As good as Ronan's performance was though, I don't think it's enough to carry the film to a Best Picture win against some of it's more dramatic competition. However it's a genuinely heartwarming picture, beautifully filmed, with a nostalgic feel for anyone that might have grown up during the era.
The Big Short (2015)
"It's possible that we are in a completely fraudulent system".
The film's best strength is probably also it's greatest weakness. Though it quite accurately and at times humorously portrays the prior decade's mortgage meltdown and financial crisis, for those uninterested in the financial jargon of mortgage backed securities, credit default swaps, and collateralized debt obligations, the story can quickly turn into a bore fest. A lot of the negative reviews of the picture on this board speak to that issue and I guess you can't blame folks who don't want to get into the weeds with all the investment lingo when all they're looking for is movie entertainment.
For my part, I thought the picture did deliver entertainingly well; the three celebrity spots breaking the fourth wall were cleverly done and presented the brewing financial crisis in plain English as opposed to Wall Street Journal jargon. After viewing the picture it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that the language used by the financial world is intentionally used to confuse, obfuscate and intimidate would-be intruders into the world of investing. Taken as a cautionary tale, the film's message ought to be readily apparent, look before you leap and only after doing your own due diligence.
The movie has a lot in common with 2011's "Margin Call" and demonstrates how even the guys with the noblest of intentions like Mark Baum (Steve Carell) can get involved in a situation that leaves them feeling disillusioned and powerless. What's more problematic however, even with the benefit of hindsight as to how the mortgage scandal was engineered and carried out, is that it's about to happen all over again. As I write this, the next looming credit crisis we'll be hearing more about will have to do with corporate junk bond debt, defaults on student loans and where did we hear this word before - sub-prime auto loans. Watch for the movie in 2025.
The Hanging Tree (1959)
"If you ain't the devil, he's sure sittin' on your shoulder."
Gary Cooper portrays a conflicted man of extreme contrasts in this tale set in a mining camp with the dubious name of Skull Creek. His character is Doctor Joe Frail and he arrives with a mysterious past, having changed his name from Temple to become a man of frail hope. A couple of different interpretations are offered as to why he torched his former home where the Ohio meets the Mississippi. I'll go with the version that says he caught his wife in an affair with his own brother, and their deaths, either by his own hand or theirs, has resulted in a man who wears his inner scars on the outside.
Cooper shows his age and illness from cancer in this, his last Western movie role, which may account for the strained appearance of his character. However he does acquit himself well in a realistic looking brawl against miner Frenchy Plante (Karl Malden) midway through the story. Yet despite the gruff exterior, Doc Frail exhibits a tender and compassionate side, most notably when he removes the bandages from the eyes of Elizabeth Mahler (Maria Schell), severely injured and blinded when her stagecoach was attacked and plundered. As a newly arrived immigrant to America, Miss Mahler is a fiercely independent and strong willed woman whose devotion to the doctor becomes apparent following his treatment and care.
There were a couple of elements in the story that didn't mesh for this viewer, the first one involving the character of Grubb (George C. Scott). Apparently Grubb had some history with Doc Frail in the past, but that was never elaborated on, and so it seems he was in the story primarily to lead the lynch mob near the end of the picture. Otherwise the character didn't seem all that necessary. There was also a loose end left with Rune (Ben Piazza), Frail's bonded servant after the Doc tended him for a gunshot wound after he tried to rob Frenchy's gold sluice. I would have expected at some point that Rune's attempt would have come to light and that he and Frenchy would square off, but that never came to pass.
In a nod to the hanging tree of the title, the picture's finale has Grubb inciting the villagers to form a lynch mob with Doc Frail as it's target over the death of Frenchy. In the midst of this frenzy, Miss Mahler and Rune offer up the spoils of their recent gold strike, in effect to buy Frail's life, at which point the mob dissipates and simply wanders off. I can't say that that seemed very realistic to me, though it did provide for the expected reconciliation of feelings between Doc and his patient.