13 Going on 30 (2004) * * *

Directed by:  Gary Winick

Starring:  Jennifer Garner, Mark Ruffalo, Judy Greer, Andy Serkis, Kathy Baker, Christa B. Allen, Sean Marquette

13 Going on 30 does not cover new ground.    It is Big starring Jennifer Garner instead of Tom Hanks, but it has heart and a warm, charming performance by Garner.     If you're expecting logic, tune the channel to something else, like a Donald Trump rally.  

As the movie begins in the mid-1980's, Jenna Rink (played as a teen by Christa B. Allen) is a teen desperate to join the school's most exclusive clique of snobby girls.     Initiation includes playing a nasty prank on her friend Matt, who adores her and builds her a dollhouse with "magical" fairy dust sprinkled on top.     She cruelly dismisses Matt, feels bad about it, and wishes to be 30.     Then, Jenna wakes up in present-day Manhattan as a 30-year old fashion editor for her favorite magazine and living in a large apartment.    She apparently has a boyfriend who plays for the New York Rangers, but is put off by him walking around the apartment wrapped in a towel.     "Gross" is a term she aptly uses to describe anything that goes beyond kissing.

Jenna has no idea how she got there, since she was just 13 yesterday, but the leader of the clique Lucy (Greer) is now her best friend and co-worker.      Her magazine is facing a steep decline in readership, but she has the brightness and freshness of a 13-year old mind on her side, which allows her to track down her former friend Matt (Ruffalo).     Matt is 30 in both age and spirit, engaged, and a bit leery of being hurt again by Jenna despite the years that have passed between them.    (At least for Matt).

Do Jenna and Matt have romantic feelings for each other?    Yes, but the movie wisely sidesteps any hanky panky and confusing questions about whether Matt is truly having sex with an underage girl.   He is not, technically, but still...    Ruffalo is not a pushover for Garner's obvious charms.    He makes her work at it, which is refreshing in itself.    It's not like he was waiting around for 17 years for Jenna to come to her senses.    Ruffalo is as versatile an actor as there is.    Here he shows the chops to be a leading man in a romantic comedy.  

What I enjoyed about 13 Going on 30 is how Jenna learns to play the part of a 30-year old while being a scared 13 year old inside.    She misses her parents and the scene where she reconciles with them causes some misty eyes.    The movie is full of nice emotional touches like that.    It plumbs its plot for its intelligence and emotional truths rather than aiming for sitcom level humor.     13 Going on 30 maintains a warm, sweet tone throughout, fighting off any temptation to go in other more obvious, but less satisfying directions.





 

The People vs. OJ Simpson: American Crime Story (2016) * * * * (FX series)

Directed by:  Ryan Murphy

Starring:  Courtney B. Vance, John Travolta, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Sterling K. Brown, Nathan Lane, Evan Handler, Sarah Paulson, Bruce Greenwood, David Schwimmer, Selma Blair, Malcolm Jamal Warner

The People vs. OJ Simpson is a trainwreck unfolding in slow motion before your very eyes.     How on Earth did the Los Angeles District Attorney's office fail to convict O.J. Simpson of the murders of Simpson's ex-wife Nicole and Ronald Goldman?     The series takes into account juror unrest, bias, racism, and America's love of celebrities.     But, Marcia Clark (Paulson) and Christopher Darden (Brown) made enough dunderheaded moves on their own to dismantle their own case.     There was a mountain of evidence against Simpson, probably more than enough to easily convict him, yet he secured a not guilty verdict.     Perhaps that was the issue.     Clark and Darden treated the case as if it couldn't be lost and made costly mistakes, such as allowing themselves to be goaded into letting Simpson try on the blood-soaked glove.    Through subtle acting or whatever means, the glove did not fit, and that became the lasting visual in the minds of the public and the jurors.   

The series takes us through the investigation that began hours after the brutally slain bodies of Nicole and Ronald Goldman were found at her Brentwood home on June 12, 1994.     Simpson was an immediate suspect because witnesses placed his famed white Ford Bronco at the scene and a blood trail led to his backyard.    Simpson had no believable alibi, the blood was found all over the Bronco, the glove found on Simpson's property, and there was motive.    Days later, Simpson was to be charged with the murders, but in the first of many, many mistakes, the DA allowed Simpson's attorney Robert Shapiro (Travolta) to arrange for his surrender instead of arresting him.   Simpson, along with his friend A.C. Cowlings (Warner), had other plans as the world soon learned.

The case was a media sensation and became "the trial of the century".   There was round-the-clock media coverage, endless debates, relentless public scrutiny, and of course the permission to allow the trial to be filmed as if it were some reality TV show.    Each day, the worldwide audience witnessed the ebb and flow of the nearly year-long trial.     O.J. Simpson was, and is, the most famous person ever charged with murder, and the world couldn't get enough of it.     Did the attorneys, even the prosecution, play subtly to the cameras?    You betcha.    Especially Johnny Cochran (Vance), who saw the case as his opportunity to make a larger point about inherent racism present in the LAPD, which only three years earlier made headlines with the Rodney King incident.    To me, it's hard to categorize the LAPD as racist in its treatment of Simpson when evidence and testimony showed some of its officers did everything but genuflect in front of Simpson when they were called to the scene of his domestic disputes with Nicole.   They didn't see black or white.  They saw rich and famous, so did many others.  

We all know how the trial turned out.     The series is not so much a documentary about the trial as it a reflection of the issues and feelings surrounding it.     We see the intense pressure put on Clark and Darden to convict.     Clark herself is going through a divorce on top of everything else.     Sarah Paulson uncannily captures Clark in her performance, along with all of the inner conflicts she went through.     She internalizes everything Clark must have felt during the trial and how people felt about her.    Mock juries did not like her, believing she came off as a bitch.    Her hair, which started out curly, was soon straightened and styled to soften her look.    

On the other side is O.J.'s legal team, led at first by Shapiro, then by Cochran, which led to internal strife between the two.      The performances by Travolta and Vance are studies in contrast.     Travolta plays Shapiro, a celebrity attorney, as a showman himself to the press.     It is a sublime piece of acting to see the public Shapiro and the private Shapiro.    We wonder which is which after a while.     Vance also allows us to see inside Cochran even if we don't agree with his tactics.    His job is to win an acquittal for his client.    Whether he can sleep at night afterwards is anyone's guess.   It's also fascinating to see the internal struggles of Chris Darden, who as played by Brown is a look at a black man prosecuting another one.   Brown reveals so many things with just his eyes.  David Schwimmer also undergoes interesting changes as Robert Kardashian, who at first completely believes in his friend O.J.'s innocence, but changes his mind as the evidence piles up.     In his mind, how could the murderer be anyone else?      He poses this revealing question and, in a way, represents those who at first could not or did not want to believe in O.J.'s guilt, but then the guilt became obvious.  

It took some getting used to Cuba Gooding, Jr. as O.J Simpson.    Gooding is such a recognizable actor that we have to get past the fact that it is Cuba Gooding Jr. playing Simpson instead of Gooding embodying him.     Would a lesser known actor have been less of a distraction?     Probably.    Aside from the first two episodes of the series, Simpson is mostly on the sidelines while his legal team maneuvers its way from one tap dance to another.  

The trouble is, only the 12 people in the jury box had the power to determine Simpson's guilt and they voted for acquittal.     The People vs. OJ Simpson is riveting, fascinating drama in which both the prosecution and defense have to put on their best show for the jury.    This is how the legal system is set up for better or for worse.     Those who work in the legal system are somewhat in show business already, even without the cameras. 

A Hologram for the King (2016) * *

Directed by:  Tom Tykwer

Starring:  Tom Hanks, Alexander Black, Sarita Choudhury

In most movies, Tom Hanks' everyman quality and humanity shines through to the point we would follow him on even the harshest journeys.     That idea is put to the extreme test in A Hologram for the King, an ambitious, but ultimately very distracted movie.     It can't wait to send Hanks on flights of fancy that deter from the main story, which is a middle-aged businessman's attempts at personal and professional redemption (or even resurrection).

Hanks' presence in the film is the only thing that makes it bearable.    If another actor were cast as Alan Clay, the lost protagonist of A Hologram for the King, the movie might have been completely irredeemable.     Hanks is not the problem.     The story is.    Or should I say the nonsense surrounding it.

The movie starts off on an intriguing note.    Talking Heads' Once in a Lifetime plays as Hanks speaks (or kind of sings) the lyrics.    It is shorthand for how Clay's life has suddenly fallen apart.    The film is off to an energetic start.    But it isn't to last.     Soon, Alan is shipped to Saudi Arabia to gain audience with the Saudi king in order to land a business deal with the Arab nation.     Alan's company is pitching meeting technology in which one or more of the participants could attend as a hologram.      Alan's career, which had faced its own hardships, hangs in the balance.    He was once a member of the board of Schwinn and made a catastrophic decision to outsource the manufacturing to China.     He is now a salesman selling silly meeting technology to governments.     His recent divorce left him without much money and a tenuous relationship with his daughter.    

If the movie had stuck to this plotline, we would have had something here.    Then, the movie introduces extraneous characters and subplots.      First is Youssef (Black), a cab driver who takes Alan daily to his worksite in the middle of the desert since he always oversleeps.    Alan and Youssef become friends and at one point they visit Youssef's family somewhere near Mecca, if I was keeping track of it right.     That sequence ends with Alan refusing to shoot a wolf during a wolf hunt.    I don't know what significance that has to the rest of the movie.

Alan also has to deal with a large, noticeable cyst on his back, which he attempts to lance and soon requires surgery to remove.     He falls for his doctor (Choudhury), who maintains an aura of mysterious sexiness which arouses Alan in more ways than one.     They will fall in love and at least give Alan some hope in the relationship department.     Then, there is the matter of Alan's Saudi contact who is never in town when he promises to be.     This hooks Alan up with a Danish associate and I could go on and on.  

Somewhere stashed in there is the deal with the king which begins to feel like an afterthought.     The movie is so busy being sidetracked that I wonder if it knew what it was really about.     All of this activity comes in at just under 90 minutes, but it played a lot longer.     There came a time when I wished the movie would just get down to business.     It is not a good idea to cast Tom Hanks adrift in a movie in which his natural charm is wasted.     I would have liked the movie's 90-minute running time filled in other ways than all of this whimsical stuff.   

A Beautiful Mind (2001) * * * *

Directed by:  Ron Howard

Starring:  Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Ed Harris, Adam Goldberg, Josh Lucas, Christopher Plummer, Judd Hirsch, Paul Bettany

John Nash was a Nobel prize winning mathematician, a Princeton professor, and a paranoid schizophrenic haunted by delusions throughout his adult life.     The fact that Nash was still so brilliant despite his mental illness is what makes A Beautiful Mind so compelling.     There was plenty of criticism of Ron Howard's film (despite winning four Oscars including Best Picture) about how Howard's film somehow glossed over the seedier aspects of Nash's life.     A Beautiful Mind is a study of how one man was processed the world and still found a way to contribute so much to it.     For many, the descent into insanity would be the end.     For Nash, it was an obstacle he felt he could work around.     The Nobel Prize in 1994 showed that he did indeed work around it.    The stories of Nash's alleged homosexual affairs and the fact that he and his wife actually divorced then remarried serve only to muddy the waters.   

As I've stated many times, I don't go into biopics fully expecting 100% accuracy.    I go to see how the filmmakers will depict their subject and find the emotional center.     A Beautiful Mind is mainly interested in how Nash was able to improve his life after diagnosis and a stay in a mental institution where he received daily electric shock treatments.     The delusions never did leave, but he still thrived.     His suggestion that he could reason his way out of his dilemma was scoffed at by his doctor (Plummer), but yet, in this film anyway, he manages to do so.    It's likely not a recommended course of action for the mentally ill.

When we meet Nash, he is a socially awkward graduate student at Princeton.    He is brutally honest and abrasive with others.     He is all elbows.     He meets someone on the first day and denounces the lack of originality in the man's work.     His roommate Charles (Bettany) thinks he should get out more instead of writing endless equations on his dorm window.     He soon develops theories that earn him a doctorate and place him at a lab doing top secret government work for a shadowy G-man named Parcher (Harris), who appeals to Nash's vanity by saying, "You are, quite simply, the best codebreaker I've ever seen."

John soon meets the beautiful Alicia (Connelly), a student in one of his classes.    They are attracted and she likes his quirky, awkward ways.     They soon marry, but afterward the true nature of Nash and his work comes into focus.    Let's just say some of the people we take for granted as real are not, much like Nash surely did.     Did Nash suffer such intricate delusions?    Maybe, maybe not.    But does it matter when the story is this good?

Russell Crowe turns in his finest film work in A Beautiful Mind.     We are fascinated to know what makes him tick, especially before we know the exact depth of his illness.     I thoroughly believe Jim Parsons based his Big Bang Theory Dr. Sheldon Cooper on Crowe's performance, which is quite a compliment.     After his diagnosis, he learns to love more, appreciate his family more, and stare down his demons.     Crowe's work here is of considerable nerve and depth.    Connelly (Oscar winner for this film) is no pushover.     She perceptively knows how to handle John and loves him, which carries her through some tricky emotional scenes.     She is John's partner in his journey (although in real life they were divorced for nearly 40 years before remarrying in 2001).   

John Nash continued to contribute to the world of economics and mathematics until he and Alicia's death in May 2015.    They died in a taxi accident on the New Jersey turnpike and when news of their deaths came, I thought of this movie.    It creates a Nash that may or may not be close to the real one, but it is absorbing and lovingly tended to by Howard.     He directs with a clear love and admiration for his subjects and it allows us to be a witness to the end and then the beginning again of a long road for the Nash family. 

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) * * 1/2

Directed by:  Milos Forman

Starring:  Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, Brad Dourif, Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd, Will Sampson, William Redfield, Sydney Lassick, Scatman Crothers

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest contains moments of inspiration and brilliance which don't add up to a satisfying whole.    The film won five Oscars and is one of three films to win Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay (Adapted) in the same year.     The performances are brilliant, the film creates a convincing depiction of a cold, sterile mental hospital whose unsympathetic caregivers simply want to keep the patients medicated, but why did the film not fully work for me?   

The film centers on R.P. McMurphy (Nicholson), a prisoner who is transferred to a mental hospital for observation.     Is McMurphy insane?     Probably not, but he sees living in the psych ward as a step up from doing hard labor at a prison farm.     He is rebellious, intelligent, and able to rally his fellow patients to disrupt the inflexible Nurse Mildred Ratched (Fletcher), who runs the ward with an iron fist cloaked in a façade of caring and calm.     She pretends to be calm, rational, and have the patients' best interests at heart, but she and her staff would rather just keep the patients quiet and zonked on medication.

McMurphy by nature is a nightmare for Ratched.     His very presence is a threat to her reign.    He is able to see his fellow patients' needs more clearly than the doctors can.    He tries unsuccessfully to have the World Series shown on TV, but Nurse Ratched insists on a majority vote from the patients, who are either terrified of Ratched  or have no idea what they are voting on.     McMurphy soon steals a bus and takes the group on an unauthorized fishing trip, which is supposed to be an emotional highlight, but the scene drags on beyond any reasonable dramatic impact.

Nicholson won his first Oscar for playing McMurphy as the shifty lifeforce that he is.    He is playing an angle, to be sure, but he truly cares about his fellow patients.     He takes great pride in their small improvements.     When he sets up young, naïve Billy with a prostitute, he wants to show the kid a good time, not foreseeing its tragic consequences because Nurse Ratched knows just how to manipulate him.     McMurphy is unable to save himself in the end, but he does influence Chief (Samspon), a tall Native American who seemingly can not speak, to finally muster his strength and courage to escape from the institution.      Sampson is a powerful screen presence as a man who is more than we assume he is.

Fletcher is of course the recognizable villain in the film, but she is a microcosm of the shift in medical care over the decades.     It is more lucrative to keep patients hooked on meds than actually trying to cure them.     A cure for any of the patients here may be good for the patient, but bad for profits.     McMurphy is shocked to learn that some of the patients were not committed, but are voluntarily residents.     They can leave at any time.     Why don't they go?     Probably because the institution provides safety and structure to a degree they can not find out in the real world.     The real world is scarier to them than Nurse Ratched.

Cuckoo's Nest sets itself up as sly social commentary but never emerges as powerful as it could be.    Because some scenes are so brilliantly observed, it is frustrating when others fall flat.    The turning points of the fishing trip and the late night party after Nurse Ratched leaves are simply too cumbersome.      The movie then has to gather up its momentum again.     Milos Forman is a brilliant director who went on to win a second Oscar for Amadeus (1984) and direct such great films as Ragtime (1981), The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996), Man on the Moon (1999), and others.    He captures a dreadful environment here and does his best to bring it to life.     This is a film I really wanted to like, but can't quite do so. 

The Boss (2016) * *

Directed by:  Ben Falcone

Starring:  Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Bell, Peter Dinklage, Ella Anderson, Tyler Labine

The Boss is better than recent Melissa McCarthy vehicles The Heat, Identity Thief, Tammy, and I could go on.     I suppose the difference in The Boss is McCarthy's character isn't intolerably unlikable.     Sure, she's aloof and rude, but not irretrievably so.    After being rejected by foster family after foster family, Michelle Darnell (McCarthy) decides she doesn't need anyone and in a few years rises to the top of the corporate world.     She's rich, alone, and soon thrown in jail for insider trading violations.      We know Michelle will learn to love and trust others, but at least we don't completely reject the notion.     With that being said, The Boss is not a successful comedy.    It isn't very funny and seems to be marking time until Michelle's inevitable change of heart.

I am not a fan of McCarthy's rude persona she has taken on in previous films.     It goes so far over the top there is no going back.   So when her characters suddenly decide to play nice, why should we accept her?    It is a disturbing trend in comedies lately (i.e. The Bronze, Bad Words) to make the main character so over-the-top unlikable and then expect us to understand they have their reasons for being that way.     Why even bother?   McCarthy is better at playing more sympathetic characters.     When she curses out someone, it feels shoehorned in.  

After Michelle is turned in by her business rival/former lover Renault (Dinklage-who seems to relish being at war with himself over Michelle), Michelle loses everything and winds up staying on the couch of her former assistant Claire (Bell).    Michelle exasperates Claire, but forms a bond with Claire's daughter Rachel (Anderson) and attends her girl scout meetings.     At the meetings, Michelle has a eureka moment.     Why not sell the awesome brownies Claire bakes for a larger profit margin than the girl scouts sell their cookies?     Mobilize the girls to be relentless sales machines and Michelle soon finds herself back in the big time, much to Renault's disappointment.     Renault (formerly Ronald) is still in love with Michelle and can't stand that he is, so his villainy towards her is like a cold shower.

The Boss more or less moves along predictably with few surprises.     There is a fight between rival girl scout factions shown in slow motion in all of its violent glory.    I never caught on to how this is funny.    Is the idea of girl scouts thrashing each other supposed to be a laugh riot?    Fights in movies can be funny (as in Dumb and Dumber) when there is an angle presented towards them.    In Jim Carrey's case in that movie, he was fantasizing about impressing his girlfriend and somehow assumes ripping a guy's heart out will please her.    Just showing girls punch, kick, bite, and chop at each other looks and sounds like a real fight.      

The Boss still goes for the lowest common denominator whenever possible, which is really just a movie hedging its bets.     But occasionally, there are glimpses of real emotion here and motivations which make some of the characters more interesting than expected.    To me, it is more nervy for a Melissa McCarthy comedy to not aim its gags to a built-in audience, but maybe take the laughs in another direction.      There is nothing more than can be milked out of this McCarthy persona.  

Sully (2016) * * * 1/2

Directed by:  Clint Eastwood

Starring:  Tom Hanks, Aaron Eckhart, Laura Linney, Mike O'Malley, Jamey Sheridan

In what was termed "The Miracle on the Hudson", on January 15, 2009 US Airways flight 1549 piloted by Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger suffered dual engine failure shortly after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport, thanks to a flock of birds who flew into the engines.    He decided to land the airplane directly on the Hudson River instead of diverting to a nearby airport, which would've taken more time and perhaps caused a deadly crash    Everyone on board survived after a quick rescue and Sully was lauded as a hero, even as he modestly retorted he was just doing his job.  

 
The National Transportation Safety Board didn't quite see it that way.    They believed at first the plane could've landed safely on a runway instead of the freezing waters of the Hudson.    After all, their computer flight simulations say so.    They neglect Sully's 42 years of flying experience and don't believe him when he says, "I felt both engines go,"  They are skeptical of his claims that he never would have been able to land safely elsewhere.    This conflict is at the heart of Clint Eastwood's taut, tense drama Sully, which captures not only the water landing itself, but Sully's efforts to defend his actions against bureaucrats who don't much care that the world sees him as a hero.

Tom Hanks has the role of everyman nailed down pat.    In performance after performance, he leaves us in awe with his humanity.    We identify with his characters and their determination, their desire to go above and beyond their call of duty, and in some cases the sacrifices that entails.    It is astounding Hanks, winner of consecutive Best Actor Oscars in 1993 and 1994, has not been nominated for an Oscar since 2000's Cast Away.    Is he taken for granted now by the Academy?    Sully may force the Academy to look again.     This is a role Hanks was born to play.    It is difficult to think of another actor who can pull this role off.  

I don't know if the story Sully tells about the NTSB is accurate, but it makes for great drama.    The NTSB is seen as a collectively stiff group of heartless bean counters who pore over policies, procedures, computer data, and numbers, all in the name of heading off potential litigation.     They treat Sully's experience not as a valuable resource, but as an excuse to imminently put him out to pasture.   To them, Sully's feel for the plane and his knowledge of the equipment takes a back seat to what rehearsed flight simulations show.    Sully acts as the audience's voice when he observes how simulations don't capture the human element of the event itself.    What happened to Flight 1549 was unprecedented in flight history and the time needed to process the surprise and analysis of the situation should certainly be factored in.

I doubt the NTSB would allow itself to go into a public hearing as unprepared as it does in Sully, but it does lead to a satisfactory payoff as Sully and his supportive co-pilot Jeff Skiles (Eckhart) tear apart the board's case.    If Hanks is the correct actor to play Sully, then Eastwood is the correct director for this material.    Eastwood is above all things a master storyteller.    In his successful movies, he tells his stories lean without the gristle and fat.    Sully clocks in at just over 90 minutes while telling us everything it needed to tell and saying everything it needed to say.       

Sully believed he was just doing his job, but watch how he ensures all of the passengers are safely off the plane before he leaves himself.   Watch how he can't rest until he is assured all 155 souls on board survived.    His actions as well as his professionalism and cool head under pressure further define what the world already knows about him.

Little Miss Sunshine (2006) * * * 1/2

Directed by:  Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Farris

Starring:  Greg Kinnear, Alan Arkin, Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Paul Dano, Abigail Breslin, Bryan Cranston

There is nothing like a road trip to bring a dysfunctional family together.    For the sake of the Hoovers' youngest daughter Olive (Breslin), the family heads to California so she can compete in the Little Miss Sunshine pageant.    It's one of those pageants involving children way, way too young to be wearing that much makeup.     Olive is six and very cute, but she doesn't look like the other contestants, nor does she act like them.    Thank heaven for small favors.

Little Miss Sunshine may sound predictable in its broad description, but it is a triumph of character development and big moments borne out of small gestures.    Everyone learns something along the way about themselves and each other.    No heavy-handed drama here.    Little Miss Sunshine is a warm comedy about very edgy, unique people.    Warm, at least until the spectacle at the end when Olive performs her dance routine taught to her by her heroin-sniffing grandfather (Arkin in his Oscar- winning role).

The Hoovers are in turmoil as the film opens.    Grandpa was kicked out of another nursing home for drug use.    Cheryl (Collette) keeps the family together and is forced to take in her scholarly brother Frank (Carell), who recently tried to commit suicide.    The oldest brother Dwayne (Dano) voluntarily doesn't speak and hates everyone.     Olive is Olive, forever waiting for her moment to shine as Little Miss Sunshine, and then there is Richard (Kinnear), who is an unsuccessful motivational speaker trying desperately to sell his "9-step program" guaranteed to turn losers into winners.    He thinks a deal for a major company to buy his program is imminent, if only he can get his agent to return his calls.

The family's problems are introduced during a family dinner featuring fried chicken as the main dish again.     There is plenty of palpable tension between the group as the dinner wears on, but soon Olive gets the call to go to California, and the family sets aside their differences to support her.    Not that setting aside all of these resentments will necessarily be easy.     Plus, their mode of transportation is an ancient van with a burnt-out clutch.   How do they start the van?    The group has to push the van along in unison and then ensure everyone can hop in before the vehicle gains too much speed.   

Little Miss Sunshine moves along anything but predictably.    But, we witness subtle changes in the characters.     One scene, perhaps the best in the movie, involves Grandpa's attempts to console Richard after the deal falls through.     At first, Richard dismissively barks out "Thanks, Dad", but then Grandpa touches his shoulder, Richard touches Grandpa's hand and says in a much gentler tone, "Thanks, Dad."     It is a small moment physically that pays big dividends emotionally. 

Another great scene involves body language after another's aspirations are dashed.    Dwayne wants to get into flight school, but learns he is colorblind.     He freaks out and inconsolably stands on the side of the road.    Everyone's pleas to get back in the van fail.    Olive walks over to him and takes his hand.    We sense the closeness of their relationship in that one gesture.     Little Miss Sunshine, with its Oscar-winning screenplay by Michael Arndt, is about those moments more than it is about plot.   

The ensemble is top notch with gifted comic actors.     No one attempts to steal the spotlight.    Each knows his or her role and one of the reasons Little Miss Sunshine works so successfully is because it is not about individuals, but a collective healing.   

U.S. Marshals (1998) * * *

Directed by:  Stuart Baird

Starring:  Tommy Lee Jones, Wesley Snipes, Robert Downey Jr., Joe Pantoliano, Kate Nelligan, Irene Jacob

U.S. Marshals is not The Fugitive and doesn't need to be.    Tommy Lee Jones returns to his Oscar-winning role from The Fugitive as U.S. Marshal Sam Gerard.     This time he is chasing a fugitive whose innocence may be a little murkier than Dr. Richard Kimble's.    The fugitive is Mark Sheridan (Snipes), a government black ops agent forced to kill other treacherous agents when an undercover deal goes bad.     Something to do with top secret documents.    Who is to know?     Sheridan insists he killed in self-defense.     A government agent (Downey) assigned to tag along with Gerard's team feels differently.     

Jones once again plays Gerard effectively.    As in The Fugitive, he gradually becomes convinced of his prey's innocence, but still must catch him because that is what he does.     There are no face-to-face moments like Gerard had with Kimble in the tunnel.     ("I didn't kill my wife."   "I don't care.")
He doggedly pursues Sheridan and has his moments of cragginess with his staff.     He maintains an informal, but constructive working relationship with his team, working with an easy familiarity.    As in The Fugitive, Gerard's team may be behind, but not far behind.     Snipes is a sympathetic figure even though he is obviously much more physically capable than Dr. Kimble.     He can fight or shoot his way out of things, while Kimble relied more on ingenuity and humanity.     Nonetheless, we care about the outcome, making U.S. Marshals not a simple retread.

U.S. Marshals is full of chases, shootouts, and fisticuffs.    It is more action-oriented than its predecessor (although this film is not technically a sequel, but a further adventure involving Gerard).    The plane crash from which Sheridan first escapes is handled well.    Other shadowy figures lurk, including a Chinese would-be assassin who continually misses on chances to kill Snipes.    And who exactly is Sheridan looking for?    We know someone wants him dead before he can uncover the conspiracy that's afoot.  

Taken for what it is, U.S. Marshals gets the job done.     It doesn't make the mistake of trying to hard to be The Fugitive (very few movies are).     It gives us one more fugitive for Gerard to catch and one more opportunity to see such an interesting character onscreen again.     Sometimes that's all you need. 







 

Hell or High Water (2016) * * 1/2

Directed by:  David Mackenzie

Starring:   Chris Pine, Ben Foster, Jeff Bridges, Gil Birmingham

Hell or High Water is an exercise in viewer frustration.    It has greatness in its grasp, yet loses it before nearly grasping it again.    It's like trying to corral that nasty fly by trying to clap your hands on it.    You get close, but you get mostly frustrated.     Hell or High Water has its self-contained moments where we think we really have something here.    Then, there are others which meander.  

With its lonely, desolate West Texas scenery and a near-retiring lawman trying to do good one last time, I couldn't help (and I'm sure many people couldn't either) think we are watching an update of No Country for Old Men.     This isn't quite the case.    The bank robbers in this film, brothers Toby (Pine) and Tanner (Foster), are knocking over financial institutions to be sure, but they are not the cold-blooded criminals of the Coen Brothers movie.    Their mission is to rob a few banks to pay off the mortgage on the family ranch.     Their method seems sloppy (grab the small single bills and not the packs of larger ones and start robbing before there are too many witnesses present), but it works and they escape without a trace to pursue other banks.

Marshal Marcus Hamilton (Bridges) and his half-Comanche partner Alberto (Birmingham) are soon on the case and Hamilton more or less decodes the process and mindset of the robbers while expounding a begrudging admiration for their planning.    Hamilton is never far behind as the brothers hit one bank after another, launder the money at an Indian gambling casino, and then pay off the bank's mortgage with its own money.     Very clever.    Toby is the quieter planner while Tanner is the career criminal and potential loose cannon.    Tanner isn't afraid to shoot someone and go off on his own to knock over a bank while at a local diner.  

Hell or High Water devotes a lot of time with the men paired off.    Toby and Tanner, like Alberto and Marcus, have a nice, easy familiarity with each other.     We don't need to be reminded of their closeness.     We get the sense, especially between Alberto and Marcus, that they will miss each other when they are separated.     This provides some scenes of funny dialogue which only people as close as these guys are to each other can get away with.  

I admired the performances, even if Pine does a little too much of the brooding intensity thing, but they have distinct personalities which makes me wish they were in a better finished product.    Hell or High Water tends to start, sputter, stop, and then start again like an old car.     It plays longer than its 100 minute running time, at times being a little too reluctant to crank up the wattage and get to the finish line.

The Sting (1973) * * * *

Directed by:  George Roy Hill

Starring:  Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Robert Shaw, Charles Durning, Ray Walston, Harold Gould, Eileen Brennan

You won't find too many movies like The Sting, which manages to keep everything straight through meticulous, gleeful story construction.     The plot throws you curveballs, then fastballs, and then the breaking stuff.    It is a joy to watch unfold.    How exactly does a poker player dealt four threes manage to turn his hand into four jacks and defeat his equally devious opponent who was dealt four nines?    This is the type of movie where you don't ask because it spoils the mood.

There is so much plot in The Sting that even attempting to recap plot points without sounding either too vague or confused would be a fool's errand.    Let's just say, two con men friends Henry Gondorf (Newman) and Johnny Hooker (Redford) target burly, mean Irish gangster Doyle Lonnegan (Shaw) for a con.    They want to fleece as much out of him as they can before either he, the cops, the feds, or any combination of those figure out what's happening.    We like Gondorf and Hooker and we don't like Lonnegan, so we won't mind seeing him getting his.    There is some motivation of revenge by Hooker and Gondorf, but it doesn't much matter anyway.     We see guys go to work on a villain whom we wouldn't mind seeing brought down a peg, and we sit back and gleefully witness it.

With seemingly endless streams of money in depression era Chicago, the guys go to work, setting up a room to appear as a high class gambling joint where people bet on horse races announced over the radio.    Well, they may or may not be actual races, and as in every movie featuring con artists doing their thing, all isn't as it seems.    When developments occur that may hinder the con, was it already considered part of the strategy to deal with them?    Being a con man involves a great bit of acting as someone else and thinking on the fly as you lure the prey in.    Lonnegan, who is gruff, no-nonsense, and will not hesitate to kill anyone, is nobody's fool, but even he is enraptured by the thought of easy money on supposedly fixed races.

As a fledgling screenwriter myself, I find one of the biggest challenges is keeping plot points straight. Loose ends need to be tidied up somewhere.    How writer David S. Ward was able to meet that challenge with his script for The Sting is miraculous.     He must have given himself a great number of pats on the back.    But what makes The Sting so worthy is how fun it is.    With stylish production values and an adapted score by Marvin Hamlisch (Scott Joplin's The Entertainer is a theme), the movie never takes itself too seriously.    The actors are truly enjoying the experience.    Newman can hardly play any of his scenes without a knowing, sneaky grin.    The rest of the remarkable cast plays it pretty much the same way.     The only character with any hint of melancholy is Redford's, who is lonely and takes comfort in the company of another seemingly lonely diner waitress.    Would it shock anyone to know this subplot also pays off in a stunning revelation?     Not in this movie you wouldn't.

Florence Foster Jenkins (2016) * * *

Directed by:  Stephen Frears

Starring:  Meryl Streep, Hugh Grant, Simon Helberg, Rebecca Ferguson, Nina Arienda

There comes a point in Florence Foster Jenkins in which we realize Madame Florence knows she can't carry a tune in a bucket.     She says, "People may say I couldn't sing, but they will never say I didn't sing,"     For Florence, singing to 3,000 people at Carnegie Hall is a fulfillment of a dream.     She loves to sing, even if she is the only one who thinks she has any ability.    She just wants to sing something.    This allows Florence Foster Jenkins to be a touching portrait of a woman who may or may not be delusional, but definitely can't sing.    The eponymous film is based on true events, so take from that what you will.

Milking laughs from this premise only goes so far.    We hear her sing and our reflex is to wince.    Her voice is an assault on the ears, but that doesn't stop a voice coach from giving her vague feedback that passes as praise.    When asked if he would be able to watch her perform live, the coach promises to be in Florida at the time.     No matter when that time is.     Instead, Florence Foster Jenkins focuses on the two men in her life, her husband St. Clair Bayfield (Grant), who lives in a separate apartment and her new pianist Cosme McMoon (Helberg), who can't help but suppress his laughter when Florence belts out notes.     He asks Bayfield if he could play piano during her lessons, but not on stage.    He has a rep to protect, but soon he grows to love Florence like a cherished grandmother.

Florence (Streep) is still someone we want to see succeed, even if its only on her terms.    Stricken with syphilis early in life, she manages to live with her illness for nearly 50 years.     Her doctor is astounded that she lived this long.    Bayfield suggests her love of music has kept her going.     She is wealthy and a patron of the arts in World War II Manhattan, but wishes to do more for the musical community.    She wants to sing opera, despite a flat, shrill voice that sounds like Curly when he sings in the shower.

There are enough scenes with Florence singing to hammer the point home without becoming a one-joke movie,     The best qualities of Florence Foster Jenkins, the movie and the person, are not about her glaring lack of talent, but how music enables Florence to have a goal and something to live for.   A private recording of her music soon hits the airwaves and she becomes a cult favorite.     This provides enough leverage for Bayfield to book Carnegie Hall and the rest is obscure history.

Florence Foster Jenkins captures the elegance and opulence of New York high society.    Jenkins' apartment is palatial, while Carnegie Hall is vast while suggesting intimacy.     Streep is 100% convincing as a very bad singer.    This takes someone of Streep's talent to pull off and is a lot harder than it sounds.    Grant gives the most multi-layered performance in the film.     He dotes on his wife, sometimes protecting her, sometimes encouraging, and sometimes absolutely understanding the fine line between both.    Yet, through it all, their underlying love is there.    Helberg has some big laughs with alternating aghast expressions and muffled laughs.    The movie implies his homosexuality which at least explains his future obsession with bodybuilding.    His growing loyalty to Florence is touching and the two have a nice scene in Cosme's apartment where Florence acts as the maternal figure missing from his life while they play Chopin,  

Florence Foster Jenkins doesn't make the mistake of making too much fun of its title character's singing.     If she is a joke, then why should we be all involved in her lifelong dreams and whether they succeed?    But the movie has enough heart for us to be moved when she receives a standing ovation at the film's end.    Whether it's deserved is another matter.