2011. Dir: Clint Eastwood. Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Armie Hammer, Naomi Watts, Judi Dench and Josh Lucas. ●●○○○
Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? I have asked before and I will shout it from the rooftops if absolutely necessary. Biopics (much like any other film genre) must exist for a reason, you must decide whether you want to draw parallels with the human condition, or prescient societal factors, or you must seek to restore or destroy a reputation, alternative aim to explain your protagonists public actions through their private history. J. Edgar does none of these. Instead it throws events and personal relations onto the screen, with three distinct elements of the film all failing to relate with each other and therefore failing to relate with the greater context.
The first element of the film, and perhaps the most compelling, establishes, through the unreliable narrative of Hoover himself played sympathetically by Leonardo DiCaprio, the origin mythology of the FBI from it's beginnings in the anti trade union movement through the war against organised crime in the 1930's and the development of modern police procedural to catch and prosecute Bruno Hauptmann, the kipnapper of Charles Lindbergh jr. (notably dubbed the "crime of the century" at the time). This section celebrates J. Edgar as a nerdy modernist standardising the process for catching criminals against a backward looking establishment. This alone may have been an interesting picture, in spite of it's glorification of his early achievements and the missed opportunities to discuss his political talents or his much publicised fear of Bolshevism not to mention the constraints of using the scientific method for raising convictions.
The first element is narrated by an older Hoover (during the Presidential tenure of JFK and later) a deeply paranoid man, clinging on to power through blackmail and illegal wire tapping. The film barely plays homage to the unspeakable acts of criminality and suppression that Hoover exercised through his COINTELPRO programme, a bitter taste in the mouth of anyone with a degree of knowledge of the civil rights movement, he may have associated equality with Communism but as we have no basis for the genesis of those beliefs there's no explanation for his acts (save a clunky scene with his dominant mother - Judi Dench - regurgitating anti-Black rhetoric).
What makes this worse is the disfiguring make-up plastered over the younger cast members by this time. Leo's jowls are surprisingly solid but he compensates with a determined physical presence and some possible expression, Naomi Watts as his long-term secretary Helen Gandy largely gets away with her transformation, but poor Armie Hammer playing Associate Director Clyde Tolson peers helplessly through an impenetrable mask of latex unable to contort any facial muscles even before his debilitating stroke. Given the excellent make-up work in The Iron Lady and the modern advances in CGI aging techniques (not something the one take Eastwood would be interested in I expect) this seems utterly baffling.
Finally crowbarred into the narrative is a attempt to clarify Hoover personal relationship with his mother and with Tolson, alluding to the rumoured relationship between the two but without firmly decided whether the rumours are true or not. The film seems to side with an asexual love affair, with Hoover admitting he loves/needs Tolson only to himself and the relationship remaining unconsummated. There are a couple of scenes of hand-holding and one fist-fight inexorably heading towards a kiss but nothing towards romanticism or even hidden passion. Even Tolson's occasional calls for restraint are ignored by Hoover indicating there's little shared intellectual or emotional connection.
I am confused about where the blame lies in this muddled production. I considered laying it Eastwood's door, after all if I believe in auteur theory than the strengths of the director as author are also their failures, however whilst this clearly fits within his back-catalogue it's also his most hack-for-hire directorial work since 2002's Blood Work. The workmanlike approach and unfussy editing is all there, but there's no great resolve for story-telling, even his trademark themes of guilt, retribution and repentance are absent.
I can't even lay it at the hands of cinematographer Tom Stern (although it was terribly dark) or Eastwood's over-present score.
No, the finger of blame lies with Dustin Lance Black, Oscar winning screenwriter for Milk he hews too close to the successful formula he used previously. In Milk Sean Penn, as the titular Supervisor records a statement to be read after his death on a dictaphone detailing his career and personal life. With Harvey the political was the personal, his campaigns relate directly to the discrimination he experienced and the private and public life were visibly entangled. Hoover is writing a (massively embellished) history of the early years of the FBI to a string of untrusted lower level agents, people he sacks merely for not identifying Lindbergh as the most famous American of the 20th Century, so therefore he is unlikely to slip details of his weekend pursuits with Tolson, let alone the kiss, in which case where did those memories come from and how have the audiences heard/experienced them?
It's almost as if Black is using alleged homosexuality as an excuse for his criminality. If he's one of us then he's alright. Compounded by the crass repression by his mother in the absurd daffodil speech, and don't get me started on the cross-dressing grief bit seemingly lifted from a Dummies guide to Freud. No, Dustin, the relationships Hoover had with Tolson, his mother and Gandy are irrelevant and unconnected to his career, or at least if you think they are why didn't you make the point clear in the screenplay.
Ultimately it's what I said in the opening paragraph, decide why you're writing this biography, what is the aim, and simply skirting around the possibility of gay men in power is simply not enough. Audiences deserve better.
Monday, 23 January 2012
J. Edgar
Tuesday, 10 January 2012
Mother and Child
2009. Dir: Rodrigo Garcia. Starring: Naomi Watts, Annette Bening, Kerry Washington, Jimmy Smits and Samuel L. Jackson. ●●●○○
As I said last weekend I was steadfast in refusing to see the Meryl does Maggie movie and so chose the less controversial adoption melodrama Mother and Child, and indeed this was a wise choice as Rodrigo Garcia's gentle paced picture was a delightful piece of sentimentality even if it slightly unravelled with it's slew of coincidences towards the end.
The film opens on a flashback/dream with the young Karen, later to become Annette Bening, making the sort of mistake many 14 year olds do and then offering the outcome to the local Nuns for adoption. We then move forward 37 years to the present day, Karen now outwardly a successful physiotherapist remains bitter and emotionally stunted, unable to connect with her co-workers or her maid/mother's carer. Meanwhile Naomi Watts is a high-flying attorney, with a penchant for asserting her authority through sex and struggling with abandonment issues stemming from being adopted. Have you guessed yet? Finally we meet Kerry Washington following the process to adopt, Juno-like from grad student Shareeka Epps.
All three women will find their lives changed by motherhood, and ultimately all three will learn that being mothers is the most rewarding and wonderful experience even if they won't get the opportunity to fully establish that sort of relationship. Perhaps oddly (perhaps not, let's remember the title) the men are defined purely in terms of their relationships to women, either as weak pawns of stronger characters (Washington's husband David Ramsey, controlled by his mother, Marc Blucas or to a lesser extent the snazzily dressed Samuel L. Jackson) or at best quite and supportive - Jimmy Smits as the patient colleague of Bening who eventually settles down with her helping her find a less painful existence.
The film bears all the hallmarks of being produced by Alejandro González Iñárritu with it's structural coincidences, especially in the final act as all the remaining loose ends get tidied up - although there's one neat twist involving Bening walking somewhere which makes for a nice opportunity to see her emotional as well as physical journey.
The performances are what really works in this film, Bening especially gives a wonderful turn as a woman who can not let get of the daughter she never met. The moment when she hears - second hand - of her own mothers regret at making her give the baby up is incredibly moving. The turn makes for an interesting companion piece to Lisa Cholodenko's The Kids are All Right and I imagine most fans of that film will also be drawn to Garcia's picture. S. Epatha Merkerson is also great in potentially a thankless role as Washington's mother.
The design of the film and direction is largely uninvolving, and overall the film could do with some hefty cuts as there are sections where it labours unnecessarily, nonetheless this is a fine melodrama and I look forward to seeing what writer/director Garcia does next. (After Albert Nobbs that is.)
By the way - to my readers this doesn't feel like one of my best reviews. I guess I'm a little rusty after a couple of months off. Next week I'm seeing War Horse which will hopefully put me back on track.
Saturday, 7 January 2012
The Blogger's not for Turning (Out this week - 06/01/11)
And we're back. An all new style of presenting the out this week column, with trailers attached. Note that I watch all the trailers, and I fully encourage taking a look at some if they are films you're not immediately interested in seeing. Luckily I'm also back in time for one of the most controversial releases in some time, dividing the friends and enemies of the former Prime Minister at the centre of the piece in loving and loathing this big screen adaptation of her life, and not always in ways you expect. Film is the week is unsurprisingly The Iron Lady.
Of the new releases there's no doubt that Meryl Streep's uncanny impersonation will lead the field in terms of box office clout, although I suspect Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol will remain the box office champion when all is counted up.
The Iron Lady
Hagiography or hatchet job, that might depend on your opinion of Thatcherism, the defining economic policy of the 80's. Personally I approve of some aspects of small Government and de-regulated industry, even if I disagree with the pursuit of low inflation at the cost of employment or most of the bleak social policies of the period and I am generally confused with the persistent hatred of Margaret by modern-day freedom movement protesters who weren't even born during her tenure. By all accounts though the movie soft-pedals the politics of the Tory Government and dovetails key points in her life (with little or no context) with a frail old woman struggling to buy milk. Distasteful and irrelevant I refuse to see this film in cinemas - although it's possible I'll pick it up later in the year and review then.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●●●●○○
Mother and Child
What I will be seeing is Rodrigo Garcia's family melodrama starring Annette Bening, Naomi Watts and Kerry Washington as three women affected by adoption trying to make sense of their lives.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●●○○○○
Players
The first of our Bollywood releases for the week is this Hindi thriller about an accountant who leads a double life as a master criminal about to commit the biggest Gold heist of all time. It certainly looks like they're not holding back with the action.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Goon
Seann William Scott's career has been on a surprise downward trajectory for some time, following the breakout success in American Pie many people thought he was going places, however the momentum has stuttered to a halt until he finds himself in this sports comedy (always the last refuge of a failing actor) actually the TV spots and reviews paint it as sweeter and funnier than I'm ranking it but this trailer does no good at all.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●○○○○○○○○
Uchithanai Muharnthaal
Tamil movie which confronts the widespread brutalisation of Sri Lankan women during the civil war and the continued mistrust of immigrants into India. Although oddly all I could think of watching the trailer is whether the distracting movement of the frame was deliberate.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●○○○○○○○○
Wednesday, 23 March 2011
You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger
2010. Dir: Woody Allen. Starring: Gemma Jones, Anthony Hopkins, Naomi Watts, Josh Brolin and Antonio Banderas. ●●○○○
There's a sense of trepidation that sinks in whenever Woody Allen releases another picture. Where will it fit in the canon? How many times will I laugh? Will I regret the ticket price? Will it be better or worse than his last picture (like a neverending higher or lower card game)? Well the answers for You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger are as follows: Pretty low. Very few. Yes. And this is both better and worse than Whatever Works - better because the characters and morality is nowhere near as repugnant and worse because there isn't the experimentation and concepts that drove his previous film.
The overstuffed plot follows couples Gemma Jones and Anthony Hopkins and their daughter Naomi Watts with Josh Brolin as their relationships breakdown and they find themselves back on the dating game with (respectively) Roger Ashton-Griffiths, Lucy Punch, Antonio Banderas and Freida Pinto. Each of these relationships seems to be doomed to failure for the exact reasons that they are brought together - a mix of ennui and foreshadowing covers the players clearly indicating their individual fates.
The performances range from the reasonably entertaining - Antonio Banderas gets away with a hesitant charm and a tendancy to prevaricate - to the downright offensive; Lucy Punch doing to English high-class hookers what Mira Sorvino did for her American contemporaries only making it sound like a Catherine Tate impersonator. With some of the others barely registering. Anthony Hopkins in particular needs to get a new phone to deliver his performances through.
Of course this smorgasboard of talent would be forgiven if the writing was clever or witty. Unfortunately there's little realism in the script - nearly everytime Naomi Watts as the patient Sally, trying to remain sane as everyone else falls apart, speaks I found myself screaming inside "But no-one talks like that". Recrimination led arguments come and go with no sense of tension around them, mildly offensive chat-up lines seem to have the female cast gazing tenderly into their male counterparts eyes.
The are whole sub-plots that appear and drift away with no real meaning or connection to the whole including Brolin's writing career, Pinto's engagement and the dead son of Hopkins and Jones which seems to exist only to make a cheap psychological connection to forward momentum of Hopkins. All this would be forgiveable if the central fortune telling storyline (featuring the delicious Pauline Collins hammily doling out phoney advice to the neurotic Gemma Jones) was given the necessary room to breathe and develop.
The design is fine, location shooting fine and the jazzy score fine - but nothing we haven't seen before from Allen and it's not a London that I recognise that's for sure.
I wouldn't bother with this one, if I were you, just cross your fingers that Woody will find form again with his next picture so I can ask those leading questions again.
Saturday, 12 March 2011
A song to remember (Out this week - 11/03/11)
I probably won't go to the cinema this weekend. It's a oddly downbeat selection, none of which are really drawing me in spite of the far reviews and interesting subject matter involved in some of them. Oddly the film with the best looking trailers has had the worst reviews so I won't be seeing that. Film of the week is Norwegian Wood.
Norwegian Wood
Period Japanese movie about a student (Kenichi Matsuyama) establishing his identity in a cold but rapidly changing culture whilst falling for the ex-girlfriend (Rinku Kikuchi) of his best friend who recentl commited suicide. Gorgeously filmed adaptation of Haruki Murakami's seminal novel.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●●○○○○
Company Men
Ben Affleck (continuing to shakeup his filmstar persona) leads an all-star cast in this unemployment drama focusing on white collar workers with nowhere to go in the recent financial meltdown. Tommy Lee Jones, Chris Cooper and Kevin Costner are all feeling the pinch.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●○○○○○
Fair Game
The Valerie Plame story, as interpreted by Bourne director Doug Liman. Naomi Watts plays the CIA agent suddenly left out in the cold with Sean Penn as her noble husband standing by her in the wake of dodgy dossiers and the Iraq invasion.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●○○○○○
Hall Pass
The Farrelly brothers used to be box office gold, their gross-out comedy of the Nineties was able to attract top performers as well as audiences. This latest, about two marrieds getting a week off, barely hit the box office champ against Gnomeo and Juliet's third week of release. Richard Jenkins has a small role, so there must be something worthwhile about it.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●○○○○○○
Heartbeats
Canadian sexual drama about two friends (one male, one female) falling for the same stranger, competing for his desire and the knock on effect on their friendship. Feted on the estival circuit for it's crisp design and urgency.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Life Goes On
British Hindi film about a widow coming to terms with losing the love of his life. Looks a bit cloying and over-emotional.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
The Resident
The resurrected Hammer studios are going back to their roots with this horror with Christopher Lee in a supporting role. Hilary Swank rents a surprisingly cheap apartment only to find all is not right with her neighbours.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
All American Orgy
The clue's in the title. Three couples go on a sex retreat to reinvigorate their relationships in the sub-American Pie farce.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●○○○○○○○○
Battle: Los Angeles
Disappointing reviews for ths Alien invasion pic have destroyed allthe good will the thumping trailershad built up. I hear it's like World of the Worlds meets Saving Private Ryan, only nowhere near as good as that sounds.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●○○○○○○○○
Legacy: Black Ops
I don't care if Idris Alba was brilliant in "The Wire" he's going to need to pick his game up if he wants to break into movies, and avoid this part-Nigerian-funded psychbabble about hallucinating soldiers.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●○○○○○○○○
Last week I actually missed five new releases, but given that four were limited release low-budget interchangable American horror movies I'm not going to give individual summaries of those. Suffice to say, having watched the trailers, that Prowl, Scream of the Banshee, Seconds Apart and The Task all deserve a Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●○○○○○○○○.
Lion of the Punjab
Faring slightly better, but only because I'm generous to non-English movies is this Bollywood enigma with plenty of action in the short trailer, but not much to indicate a plot.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Saturday, 29 January 2011
20 for 2011: 2 - Dream House
Straining the credibility of my countdown at number 2 is Dream House.
I've been very lucky with the timing as the first shot of Dream House was released just this week, don't Daniel and Rachel look awfully vexed to you? I'm quite partial to high quality drama based direcors slumming it, and after the excellent Brothers I think this is Jim Sheridan's chance to have a bit of genre fun.
The premise involves stars Craig and Weisz moving into their dream property only to find out from the neighbours (Naomi Watts and Martin Csokas) that the previous tenants went on a Manson like killing spree. Oh, and there's a group of cult supporters of the imprisoned mass murderer who keep turning up. Cue some dramatic changes of character and nice jump cuts.
I'm hoping that the mix of Sheridan and thi fine cast indicate there's a quality script from David Loucka underneath the tired cliches of a plot. (Although frankly without this could still be a couple of hours of hokum and fun.)
Tuesday, 28 September 2010
Naomi Watts
Happy Birthday to
Naomi Watts
42 today
It's been nearly ten years since Naomi Watts hit the mainstream with David Lynch's Mulholland Drive and whilst the full brilliance of th film took some time to sink in there was little doubt that Naomi would go far. Since then she's done some great work in both genre and art-house fare but nothing's quite hit the headlines in the way that film did. Coming up are the minor looking Woody Allen (based on recent reports from Toronto) You will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, the psychopath thriller Dream House and a chance to play Marilyn Monroe in Blonde all of which look very interesting propects.
Thursday, 7 January 2010
20 for 2010 - You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger
Next on the countdown, and just missing the top ten at 11, is Woody Allen's You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger.
At 74 Woody Allen is showing no signs of letting his work rate slip - he has made at least one film per year since 1982 and there were a further 10 in the 15 years previous, and it's fair to say that within that time he's made more than his fair share of masterpieces. But will this be one of them?
I have been a loyal fan for most of those years, I evenly enjoyed Anything Goes, and the mere mention of Allen will usually get me into a theatre so there's no surprise in seeing this on my list. Saying that there is no denying the general direction the quality of the films is going. Even Vicky Cristina Barcelona, which had some of the best reviews Woody's seen in years, was markedly below his best output. In fact last years Whatever Works still doesn't have a UK release date, some 7 months after it was seen in America.
His latest London-set project - which should make it more likely to score over here - has a truly international flavour with a cast that includes Antonio Banderas, Frieda Pinto, Anthony Hopkins, Naomi Watts, Josh Brolin and Carla Bruni(!).
That sort of cast alone is enough to get me tingling. But I'm reserving judgement on the film itself until I see it.
