Barry- Season 4 (2023) * * * 1/2

 

All episodes directed by:  Bill Hader

Starring:  Bill Hader, Stephen Root, Sarah Goldberg, Henry Winkler, Anthony Carrigan, Zachary Golinger, Michael Irby

After Barry Berkman is finally imprisoned for his crimes at the finale of season three of Barry, it seemed a fourth season would be unnecessary, but how wrong I was.  Barry was nudging itself away from the comedy portion of dark comedy last season and in season four, it is immersed in darkness and loving it.  Barry Berkman says fewer words than ever, but we witness a man not at peace no matter where he is.  He escapes from prison, settles down with his on-again, off-again love interest Sally Reed (Goldberg), moves to middle America where he builds a house seemingly in the center of endless miles of farmland, and raises a son he adores.  Barry turns to God and listens to sermons on the radio, but this is more the mark of a man desperate for redemption than a true believer.  Sally wears a brunette wig and works as a waitress, but she can only fake happiness for so long despite being an actor by trade.   Their son John (Golinger) doesn't know his parents' history.  When Barry tells John his story, he tells him he was a soldier and leaves the hired assassin part out.   

While Barry is hiding out as a fugitive, his former friends NoHo Hank (Carrigan) and Monroe Fuches (Root) are going through transitions of their own.  NoHo Hank starts the season retired from the criminal life and living with his lover Cristobal (Irby).  Cristobal can't resist the urge to try and run a legit business, while NoHo Hank wants to involve other criminals in the enterprise.  This results in Hank ordering the death of his beloved in order to save himself from doom in a critical moment.   Years later, Hank is running a legitimate business with a statue of Cristobal adorning the lobby, but this doesn't stop Hank from being haunted by his actions.

Fuches spends years in prison, assembling an army to go after Barry once he is released.  Fuches was overjoyed that he and Barry reconnected in prison, but now that Barry has escaped and left Fuches behind, Fuches is pissed at him yet again.   No matter how many hired guns Fuches has or how many tattoos now reside on his body, we sense that his anger is embedded in rejection.  He loves Barry like a son, or a brother, and he can barely conceal his hurt.   When the chips are down, will Fuches be able to pull the trigger?  And will he be able to trust Hank?  

Then there is Gene Cousineau (Winkler), who has been on the run for years after accidentally shooting his son while hiding from Barry.   Gene could have just stayed in seclusion because no one was looking for him anyway, but once he hears about a movie being made about Barry's life, Gene emerges from seclusion to protest the movie's production.   Being the egomaniac Gene is, all it takes is an agent telling him Daniel Day-Lewis wants to come out of retirement to play him in the movie for Gene to change his tune.   Gene's fate is determined by plenty of bad luck, bad timing, and a lack of patience at the worst possible time, which also flips Barry's fate as well.  

The fourth and final season of Barry provides dimensions for the characters the previous season did not.  It is tough in the way it follows its logic to its conclusion, while at the same time criticizing the media and Hollywood for being so easily led away from the truth.   Barry ends on a darker note, but only for some, while others find the light that was evading them all their lives, or at least since they met Barry. 

Blackberry (2023) * * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Matt Johnson

Starring:  Jay Baruchel, Glenn Howerton, Matt Johnson, Michael Ironside, Cary Elwes, Rich Sommer, Saul Rubinek

Before the iPhone, there was Blackberry, and it ruled the technology world for close to a decade before Steve Jobs decided to hide the keyboard on the screen.  After that, Blackberry was unable to compete and eventually went the way of the dodo.  Blackberry, the movie, is based on the rise and fall of the Canadian company and it is a riveting tale of genius and hard work giving way to irrelevance.  That's technology for you.  Today's innovation is tomorrow's outdated tech.   First there was a record player, then cassettes, then CD's...you know the drill.

Blackberry was the first smartphone, but as is the way with technology, wasn't the last.  Its creator is the hopelessly backward tech genius Mike Lazaridis (Baruchel), the CEO of a Canadian firm called Research in Motion (RIM).  He and the company's co-founder Douglas Fregin (Johnson) pitch investment capitalist Jim Balsillie (Howerton) on the device in what Balsillie calls "the worst pitch he's ever heard,"  Mike is no pitchman (he reads from his notes and never makes eye contact with Jim), but he can throw together a working prototype within 24 hours.  Balsillie is soon fired from his job for being an arrogant, overstepping jerk, but soon he offers his services to Mike as co-CEO.   While Jim isn't a people person, he whips the lackluster RIM into shape and within days is selling thousands of units to Bell Atlantic.  

The action cuts to 2003, Blackberry is now riding high with a 45-percent market share and celebrities like Oprah Winfrey hawking the device on her show.   Mike and Jim are co-CEO, but Jim does a lot of the dirty work while Mike holes up in his office working on the latest Blackberry device with an updated tracking ball.  Soon, Palm Pilot's obnoxious CEO Carl Yankowski (Elwes-at his smug best) floats the probability of a hostile takeover of Blackberry, which ups the stakes higher, causing Jim to pilfer the best tech and executive talent from Google and other huge companies promising millions in dubious and manipulated stock options.  

Once 2007 rolls around, Steve Jobs is announcing the iPhone and Mike, whether in denial or true belief that his creation will survive Apple's new product, announces to Verizon and his other customers that Blackberry will feature an updated tracking ball (remember those?), who are naturally underwhelmed.  Then, the SEC starts making polite phone calls which turn into a full-fledged raid when they decide to stop being courteous, mostly due to Jim's stock option shenanigans.  

The prologue promises a movie which doesn't necessarily stick to the facts, and upon research, some of the timelines and situations depicted in Blackberry were fudged or exaggerated for dramatic purposes.  What matters isn't whether Blackberry is 100% accurate, but whether it's absorbing and challenging; showing us how the market can make you a conquering hero one year and irrelevant the next.   Think about how hard the Blackberry company worked to update models and keep Blackberry atop the marketplace, only to be vanquished by Apple and the ever-changing desires of consumers.  By the time Blackberry made a phone with a touch screen, all of the units were faulty and Verizon sued Blackberry.  The movie Blackberry is a fast-paced look at how the mighty fell, and it's quite entertaining to boot.   

The Brady Bunch Movie (1995) * * *

 

Directed by:  Betty Thomas

Starring:  Gary Cole, Shelley Long, Christopher Daniel Barnes, Christine Taylor, Paul Sutera, Michael McKean, Jean Smart, Jesse Lee Soffer, Henriette Mantel, David Graf, Jennifer Elise Cox, Olivia Hack

A Brady Bunch feature film was inevitable due to its popularity explosion in syndication.   The Brady Bunch Movie features the timeless Brady family inhabiting mid-90's Southern California.  They remain unflappable in the face of carjacking, hip-hop music, and a $20,000 tax bill they must pay before the end of the week or be evicted from their home.  This news brings mild discomfort to the Brady household, who are as cheerful and plucky as ever while their neighbors and the rest of the world see them as oddballs.  

The actors inhabit the Brady characters of the early 1970's television series effortlessly.  Gary Cole as the ever-optimistic patriarch Mike Brady and Shelley Long as his supportive wife Carol could play Robert Reed and Florence Henderson if a movie was ever made about the making of the series.  The Brady clan uses words like "groovy" and drive around in their 1970's model station wagon while using CB radio.  They are hardly affected at all by the outside world.  When a young punk tells them this is a carjack, Greg smiles and says, "Yes, this is a car, but my name's not Jack, it's Greg,"  The kid barely knows what hit him.  The Brady guilelessness serves as a shield against the harder-edged modern world.

The Brady Bunch movie satirizes the modern world while gently poking fun at the Bradys themselves.  Some of the plotlines from the series are followed, with scheming neighbor Larry (McKean) trying to force the Bradys and the rest of the block to sell to make way for a mall or something.  Some of the slapstick here doesn't mesh with the rest of the movie, but like the Brady family, the movie manages to remain good-natured and high-spirited. 

Domestic Disturbance (2001) * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Harold Becker

Starring:  John Travolta, Vince Vaughn, Teri Polo, Matthew O'Leary, Steve Buscemi, Susan Floyd, Chris Ellis

Domestic Disturbance is no worse or better than your run-of-the-mill family thriller.  It moves swiftly with nicely contrasting performances by John Travolta and Vince Vaughn in a plot with few surprises, but Domestic Disturbance doesn't seek to transcend its genre or elevate it.  It is ninety minutes (including credits) of fluff meant to be enjoyed in the moment but then hastily forgotten.  You could do much worse with your time. 

Travolta is Frank Morrison, a boat maker still on good terms with his ex-wife, Susan (Polo) and shares custody with his troubled son Danny (O'Leary), who is angry about his parents' split and takes it out on the world by starting fights and causing trouble designed to get his parents' attention.  Frank is such a nice man that we wonder why Susan divorced him, but now she has a new man in her life named Rick Barnes (Vaughn).  Rick is fairly new to town and has money, but Danny doesn't trust him because, well he's not his father.   Frank befriends Rick and the two even offer to venture into business together, but that all changes on Rick and Susan's wedding day when a shady character named Ray Coleman (Buscemi) shows up claiming to be an old friend of Rick's.  

Rick is none too pleased to see Ray, offers to put him up in a motel outside of town, and mostly keeps him at bay while Ray grouses to Rick about money owed to him.  Rick is not who he seems, of course, and one night while Danny stows away in Rick's car, Rick stabs Ray to death in the front seat and disposes of his body in a crematorium.   It's only in movies that Danny could lie uncovered on the floor behind the front seat and go undetected.  It's also only in movies that Rick could stab Ray in the back and only a few spots of blood need to be cleaned up.  

Danny reports the murder to his father and then the police, but his claims are dismissed out of hand after no evidence is found and due to Danny's troubled history.   You would think that Susan would be leery of continuing to live with someone accused of murder, but Susan spends most of the movie offscreen when the juicy stuff is happening.   Frank decides to take matters into his own hands and do some research on Rick's past, which the police likely could've done just as quickly if they had bothered.   Frank's breakthrough hinges on which basketball team Ray roots for.  The final confrontation between Rick and Frank of course is a battle of fisticuffs and using whatever items aren't lying around.  Domestic Disturbance is that kind of movie, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.  

I Think I Love My Wife (2007) * * *

 

Directed by:  Chris Rock

Starring:  Chris Rock, Kerry Washington, Gina Torres, Stephen A. Smith, Steve Buscemi, Edward Herrmann, Michael Kenneth Williams

Chris Rock plays Richard Cooper, a married man with a great-paying job at a Manhattan financial company and a wife and kids.  He and the Mrs. haven't had sex in a while because she's just too darn tired from working as a teacher and raising the kids.  Richard doesn't know it yet, but he's ripe for temptation which comes in the form of Nikki Tru (Washington), a former girlfriend of Richard's old buddy.  Nikki has a bod for sin, to quote Working Girl.   She drops by Richard's work, coaxes him into meeting daily for lunch, and this causes gossip to spread around the office quickly.  Nikki must spend a lot of money on cigarettes, since she is suggestively sucking on one in nearly every scene.  (Yuck).

Richard admits he's bored and is open to a possibility of an affair with Nikki.  He doesn't outwardly do anything, but he holds his hand close to the flame, such as going to lunch with Nikki, going shopping with her on his lunch hour, and taking an ill-advised trip to Washington, DC to help her clear out of the rest of her belongings from her old apartment because she insists her ex-boyfriend is out of town.  No points for guessing that he isn't and things take a wrong turn quickly.  Almost as surely as night follows day, Richard will be in Manhattan on the weekend with his wife and run into Nikki.  Richard tries to break it off, but finds he's a goner when Nikki pleads with him and gives him the puppy-dog eyes.

I Think I Love My Wife is Rock's best movie among those he has directed.   He plays a likable guy caught up in temptation of which he can't, or doesn't want to, free himself.   In that regard, I Think I Love My Wife is engaging and funny with a keen insight into the male mind.   We also meet Richard's polar opposite, his co-worker George (Buscemi), who has a wife and a mistress and is perfectly happy.  Richard might even envy George, not because he has a side piece, but because it doesn't bother him. 

Seven (1995) * * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  David Fincher

Starring:  Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kevin Spacey, R. Lee Ermey

I don't know if Seattle receives as much rainfall as the unnamed city in Seven, but the chilling, dank atmosphere of the crime drama Seven is now set and never wavers.   Seven doesn't seem like it takes place in an urban landscape, but almost a world of its own in which morals and laws are hanging on by their fingernails.  The two detectives who occupy the foreground of Seven are veteran, nearly retired William Somerset (Freeman), who takes on newly transferred David Mills (Pitt) as his partner to investigate a bizarre series of murders inspired by the seven deadly sins.

Mills is forever impatiently waiting for action, while Somerset stoically understands that the bulk of detective work is sitting around awaiting test results and doing library research.  The men discover an obese man drowned in a giant bowl of pasta, a man tied to a bed and allowed to atrophy for a full year, a prostitute hacked to death by a strap-on knife, a disfigured woman who committed suicide, and an attorney who has cut a pound of flesh from himself.   These represent gluttony, sloth, lust, vanity, and greed, but how will envy and wrath play into these diligently planned and mercilessly executed murders?  

Somerset almost is in awe of the killer's patience and nerve.  Leads and clues are followed up, but the murderer stays just out of reach while taunting Somerset and Mills.  David's wife Tracy (Paltrow) questions their move to such a crime-ridden city and expresses her loneliness and anxiety to Somerset over lunch one afternoon.  She tells Somerset she is pregnant, but doesn't know whether she wants to bring the child into the world.  In the universe of Seven, we don't know if she'll ever have the chance.

Freeman is the calming influence over the hot-headed Pitt as a cop who thinks he's seen it all until he realizes this is entirely new territory.  The killer's identity is revealed strategically in a key moment, but only because he wants it that way for his own reasons which are soon made clear to Somerset and Mills at a critical juncture and oddly enough, when the sun is peaking through for the first time in a week.  Director Fincher establishes the dark tone of Seven while moving the story along even in the silences and waiting which accompany police work.  Mills thirsts to be out of the office and in the middle of the action, but later he finds he should be careful what he wishes for, as we understand this world is growing more and more realistic by the day. 

Where's My Roy Cohn? (2019) * * *

 

Directed by:  Mark Tyrnauer

Where's My Roy Cohn? is a documentary about the late, controversial, and ultimately disgraced attorney whose name has resurfaced recently in connection to former president Donald Trump, whom Cohn once represented and mentored.   Cohn's life was portrayed brilliantly in Citizen Cohn (1992), in which Cohn was played by James Woods, and again by Al Pacino in Angels in America (2003), where Cohn professed to his doctor that he couldn't possibly have AIDS and, despite having sex with men, he is not gay either.  Roy Cohn was a mass of contradictions and hypocrisies and wasn't much bothered by ethics or scruples.  He was disbarred in 1986 a few months before his passing for forging a client's signature which awarded him control of the man's fortune.   The rumor is he dressed as a nurse to gain access to the man's hospital room.  It is not established whether the story is true, but after watching Where's My Roy Cohn?, we wouldn't put it past him.

Roy Cohn rose to fame, or infamy, during the McCarthy hearings as Senator McCarthy's right-hand man.  After McCarthy's demise, he graduated to representing mobsters and other notorious figures while enriching himself and becoming one of the most powerful men in New York.  During the 1970's, Cohn was a fixture at Studio 54 and began representing Trump in a series of lawsuits and other legal issues.  Cohn taught Trump to never apologize and never admit wrongdoing, which Trump has obviously mastered.   He was able, to the amazement of his friends and family, to bring his male lovers to Republican functions without being ostracized or shunned.   I'm reminded of Al Pacino as Cohn telling his doctor that he can call the White House at any time and within five minutes he would be connected to not the President, but the First Lady, whom he deemed even more influential.   He was intoxicated by power and knowing the right people.  This documentary reflects a man for whom cognitive dissonance was a way of life.   It will shock you and anger you, and those are the fitting emotions when discussing Roy Cohn.  

When privately diagnosed with AIDS, Cohn publicly announced he had liver cancer, not only to protect himself from publicly disclosing his homosexuality, but because in his mind, gay men are weak and contract AIDS.   Liver cancer somehow seemed like something a stronger man would have.   Through witnesses and news stories, we see Cohn's full-blown denial of his lifestyle in full effect.   What makes Roy Cohn at once fascinating and repulsive was his ability to destroy the lives of others without blinking an eye and his imperviousness to his own hypocrisy.  He would publicly and privately deny he had AIDS, but then used his political connections to seek experimental treatments for the same disease.  Cohn contracted the syndrome when it was in essence a death sentence and died on August 2, 1986.  I don't know how many mourners he had at his funeral, but I can't imagine he had many.