Richard Jewell (2019) * * *

Directed by:  Clint Eastwood

Starring:  Paul Walter Hauser, Sam Rockwell, Jon Hamm, Olivia Wilde, Kathy Bates

Richard Jewell, a Centennial Park security guard during the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, discovered a pipe bomb in an abandoned backpack and saved lives by warning bystanders away from the eventual explosion.    He was rightfully lauded as a hero, and after an interview with Katie Couric, his world was rocked by an FBI investigation targeting him as the bomber.   The reason for the initial investigation, detailed by Agent Tom Shaw (Hamm), is the natural suspicion akin to suspecting the person who discovered a murder victim's body.    What made Jewell a target of intense media scrutiny was Shaw's leak of the investigation to reporter Kathy Scruggs (Wilde), who promised sexual favors as quid pro quo for the tip, at least in the movie.  

Jewell went from hero to perceived monster in a matter of days.   The hefty, socially awkward Jewell and his mother Bobi (Bates) did not anticipate the media would be camped outside their home 24/7.   Because of Jewell's worship of law enforcement, he is entirely too cooperative with the agents looking to build a case against him.    Jewell's lawyer, Watson Bryant (Rockwell), commands Jewell not to talk, but the guy just can't help himself.    It's as if he is giddily picking out just the right size noose for his own hanging.

Clint Eastwood's Richard Jewell is a story of an innocent man's life being wrecked by an overly ambitious FBI agent and a reporter looking for a scoop.    Both refuse to even contemplate the possibility that Jewell is innocent.    Despite the mounting lack of evidence and unsubstantiated speculation, Shaw and Scruggs dig in like ticks, mostly because they don't wish to look foolish.   They've painted themselves into a corner and come out swinging, mostly because they must.

Jewell, as played by Hauser (he was one of the dimwitted conspirators in I, Tonya), is not a lovable teddy bear, but someone who doesn't quite understand the situation he's found himself in.    In the early scenes, he is a police officer wannabe who insufferably throws his weight around as a college dormitory security guard.    The dean fires him for doing his job with too much zeal.   Years later, he is in Centennial Park pathetically trying to ingratiate himself with the police officers on duty, who don't see him as an equal.    That changes briefly following the explosion, until Shaw and Scruggs intervened.   We sympathize with Jewell because, how could we not?  

Eastwood moves things along efficiently as he usually does.    Despite the two-hour plus running time, Richard Jewell doesn't drag.    Eastwood, working from a script by Billy Ray, doesn't pound us over the head with a damnation of the media or government who got this whole story wrong.    Sam Rockwell's Bryant is not on a crusade, he simply wants to have his client exonerated and protect him, even from himself if necessary.    Kathy Bates gives the movie's most passionate performance, as a mother who only wants everyone to leave her and her son alone.    She implores in a statement to the press to declare her son innocent so she and her son can go on with their lives.   It is a speech that resonates.

At 89, Clint Eastwood is a marvel.    He has made a copious output of films in recent years tackling misunderstood heroes and older characters who can teach the technologically advanced youngsters a thing or two.    Richard Jewell is an example of the type of movie Eastwood does best:   Lean, efficient storytelling with resonant themes.    He likes the audience to think, not simply react.    His Richard Jewell is human, and not simply a symbol of what happens when professionals with the power to wreck lives recklessly perform their duties.    The aftermath of the Olympic bombing should've been one of professional pride for Jewell.   Instead, he is fighting for his life against allegations which had no substance, and may have eventually hastened his death in 2007. 

Marriage Story (2019) * * *

Directed by:  Noah Baumbach

Starring:  Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson, Laura Dern, Alan Alda, Ray Liotta, Julie Hagerty, Azhy Robertson, Wallace Shawn

We hear in voiceover narration and witness in montages what Charlie (Driver) and Nicole (Johansson), married for a dozen years or so, love about one another.    They speak so glowingly that we think this is an ideal marriage, but we soon discover they are headed for divorce.    The list of things they write is part of a couples therapy assignment, and Nicole refuses to read hers aloud.    Charlie and Nicole don't want to involve lawyers in their divorce.    They delude themselves into thinking it will be amicable all the way down the line.    Once Nicole moves with their son Henry (Robertson) to L.A. and Charlie stays in New York, the amicability flies out the window.

Noah Bambauch's Marriage Story could've easily been called Divorce Story, since the bulk of the story focuses on Charlie's and Nicole's split.    It is dramedy, to be sure, and some of the material is paced and spoken in ways which would make Woody Allen proud.    At two hours plus, there are superfluous scenes which slow things down, but Marriage Story is grounded with relatable, vulnerable performances by Driver and Johansson.    Each person has strengths, weaknesses, and long-held resentments which took a while to bubble to the surface.   

Nicole was once a teen actress who moved with Charlie to New York to work in his fledgling theater company.    He is meticulous in his direction of a play, how he cooks dinner, and how he keeps his home.    Nicole doesn't mind leaving a bra lying around and leaving the apartment a little messy once in a while.  Through the years, she feels she has allowed herself to lose her own voice in the marriage.  Charlie has a way of getting what he wants, until one day he doesn't.   Despite their deal to divorce without contention, Nicole hires hardball divorce attorney Nora Fanshaw (Dern) after gentle persuasion from her mother (Hagerty).   Charlie responds in kind by hiring the less aggressive Bert Spitz (Alda) and then his own pit bull lawyer (Liotta), who is expensive but willing to go low blow for low blow with Nora.

Besides the leads, there is excellent supporting work from Dern, Alda, Liotta, and Shawn, an actor in Charlie's company who advises him to get laid as much as possible now that he's divorcing.    There is a critical scene, maybe even Marriage Story's best, in which Nicole and Charlie start out with a superficial conversation which disintegrates into shouting, accusations, and crying.   The pent-up anger toward each other comes spewing forth like spitting lava from an erupting volcano, and there's no stopping it.    We now know this marriage can't be saved, and it is sad.

Baumbach made 2005's The Squid and the Whale, which semi-autobiographically depicted his parents' divorce.    They too deluded themselves into thinking they could be friendly with each other and cool about each dating other people.    That didn't work, no more than Nicole's and Charlie's futile attempts at civility.    Now, Marriage Story mirrors his own divorce, and it is told with insight and knowledge he wishes he didn't have to go through such pain to obtain.  

Honey Boy (2019) * * 1/2

Directed by:  Alma Har'el

Starring:  Shia LaBeouf, Noah Jupe, Lucas Hedges, Laura San Giacomo, Clifton Collins, Jr.

Honey Boy works best when Shia Labeouf's James is onscreen.   He is the Little League Dad and Stage Dad rolled into one, which is to say he is resentful, insufferable, and his rage is like a powder keg threatening to explode any second now.    When James isn't around, the movie loses focus and drifts, like it's just marking time until James comes back. 

Shia LaBeouf wrote the screenplay for Honey Boy based on his life as a child actor and his subsequent battles against substance abuse.    When Honey Boy opens, Otis (Hedges) is a working actor who finds it more difficult to keep pace with the Hollywood lifestyle without drugs or alcohol.    He is soon arrested for his third DUI and put in rehab.    Rehab is a bit tougher this time around.   He can leave, yes, but then he will go to prison for four years.    He figures he can b.s. his way past the counselors and be out in a matter of days.   The rehab psychologist (San Giacomo) wants him to dig deep into his past and figure out what fills him with such seething anger towards everyone.   We don't have to wait long to find out.

Circling back to 1995, Otis (Jupe) is a twelve-year child actor on the rise.   James, his father, lives with him in a fleabag motel on the edge of town.    Otis rides on the back of James' motorcycle too and from the studio.    While Otis is performing, James is growing marijuana on the side of the highway.    James is a former rodeo clown, convicted sex offender, recovering user, and takes his resentment at his lot in life out on his son while ostensibly supporting him.    Otis pays his father to be his guardian, otherwise James would probably want nothing to do with him.

When the adult Otis is diagnosed with PTSD, he is stunned.   PTSD is something an Iraq war veteran experiences, not an actor, but as we witness his interactions with his father, we see he had to survive a trauma not unlike a war.   James is a veteran himself, and his sobriety is just one more pressure he endures in his daily life.    James' issues are self-inflicted, but he in turn inflicts them on his son, who experiments with drugs and hangs out with a teen prostitute in order to find some relief.

With The Peanut Butter Falcon and now Honey Boy, LaBeouf has given us his two most powerful and multi-dimensional performances.    We would feel more sorry for James if he didn't take his grudge against the universe out on Otis, who didn't ask to bear James' burdens.   Otis' mother is absent, and a potential Big Brother named Tom (Collins) is soon attacked by a threatened James simply for wanting to help Otis.    Tom is a much more stable force, but James will have none of it because he's his, gulp, father.

Honey Boy has all the parts in place for a searing drama, but only electrifies when LaBeouf is on screen.    The rest meanders and turns a potentially heartfelt conclusion into a dud.   The Jupe and Hedges performances are also spot on.  We see the evidence of James' destructive influence in both, but in the end, we aren't exactly happy or moved for Otis.   We just remember some strong performances in search of a captivating story.

Dark Waters (2019) * * *

Directed by:  Todd Haynes

Starring:  Mark Ruffalo, Anne Hathaway, Tim Robbins, Bill Pullman, Bill Camp, Victor Garber

Like 1998's A Civil Action, one of the best movies ever made about the litigation process, Dark Waters names its defendant (DuPont) and takes us through a startling, yet not unexpected series of revelations in which the monster chemical company knowingly poisoned the rivers and streams near its West Virginia plant while manufacturing Teflon.    DuPont had to know, yet do those who are looking to oppose the chemical giant have enough money and fortitude to see through the years of soul-sucking litigation to its end?   We find one in Rob Billott (Ruffalo), a Cincinnati attorney (and former West Virginia resident) who was recently made partner in a law firm which specializes in defending corporations like DuPont.    A farmer named Wilbur, a family friend of Rob's, asks for his help in bringing suit against DuPont for poisoning his animals, and soon himself.   Rob, sensing a conflict of interest, humors Wilbur (Camp), but soon discovers DuPont may indeed be dumping its chemicals into the local water supply endangering people and animals alike.

Rob asks his boss Tom Terp (Robbins) to work the case, and before we know it, years pass and Rob is plowing through boxes and boxes of discovery documents by himself in hopes of finding the smoking gun linking DuPont to the sick and dying people near its plant.    DuPont hopes Rob will simply be overwhelmed and give up, but they underestimate Rob's indefatigable spirit.    He knows DuPont is wrong, and will do everything in his power to bring them to justice.    Not that it will be that easy.   

As per the tradition of such movies, Rob is a married man with three children who spends more time at the office than at home.    At first, his wife Sarah (Hathaway) supports her husband, but soon openly laments that he isn't spending any time at home.    Hathaway's role is the epitome of thankless.  She is there either to chide him about his lack of quality time with his family, and to support him when the screenplay requires her to.   She isn't allowed much of a personality of her own, which is a pity.    Since many movies based on true events play loose with the facts, it wouldn't have been such a bad idea to make Rob a bachelor so we are spared the perfunctory domestic squabbles with the Mrs.    It worked for A Civil Action.

What is refreshing is how Rob's bosses support him in his endeavor (within reason) and aren't there to try and dissuade him from working the case to its bitter end.  Robbins is permitted a convincing speech in which he blasts DuPont for their negligence and their lies, and it doesn't seem forced or redundant.    When you see Robbins and Ruffalo stand next to each other, the stark difference in their respective height makes me wonder if Robbins is that tall, or Ruffalo is that short.    Maybe a bit of both.

Dark Waters isn't a legal thriller in which spunky attorneys crack a big case and reveal their findings in a courtroom finale.    It instead takes us through a legal process which is flawed, painful, and most of all very, very long.    Months drag into years, and Rob clears one hurdle while only to have to jump another.    His clients grow sicker, while others settle for a fraction of what they could receive.   We don't see DuPont executives conspiring behind the scenes to cover anything up or hatch a plot to pollute the world, and we don't need to.    Ruffalo is our guide, and while being stressed and exhausted, still plunges forward because he cares so deeply.   This is a story near and dear to Ruffalo the actor, producer, and environmental activist. 

Knives Out (2019) * * *

Directed by:  Rian Johnson

Starring:  Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Toni Collette, Don Johnson, Michael Shannon, LaKeith Stanfield, Christopher Plummer, Noah Segan

Even at a two-hour, ten-minute running time, Knives Out moves briskly and keeps us guessing, although the resolution suggests many of the suspects were kept around just to be suspects.    Knives Out contains an A-list supporting cast with each given a scene or two to relish and then more or less kept on the sidelines.    The major players are led by Benoit Blanc (Craig), a private investigator anonymously hired to get to the bottom of the apparent suicide of Harlan Thrombrey (Plummer), a wealthy mystery writer whose death is shrouded in a cloud of suspicion.    He seemingly slit his own throat, so the local police think it's an open and shut case.    Blanc suspects foul play, but how was it done?   And by whom?

Knives Out, written and directed by Rian Johnson (The Last Jedi, Looper), is a whodunit in the Agatha Christie tradition in which each player's guilt or innocence is toyed with.   We can't rule out anyone, yet we know only one or two cast members' involvement will emerge as significant.   The ending doesn't cheat, and it plays fair by not springing another suspect on us in the eleventh hour.   Harlan's family, consisting of daughter Linda (Curtis),a successful business owner, Linda's cheating husband Richard (Johnson), their openly freeloading son Hugh (Evans), hapless Walt (Shannon), who runs Harlan's publishing business, and Harlan's ultra liberal daughter-in-law Joni (Collette), has reasons to want to kill Harlan, and have a particular interest in the will reading with a revelation which stuns the gold-digging Thrombreys. 

The character who takes center stage is Marta (de Armas), Harlan's Paraguayan nurse who is the picture of innocence and may or may not be the prime suspect, or someone who is being framed.    Harlan is not shown as an irascible codger, but a sensible, caring man who is tired of his family sponging off of him.    The free ride is over for many of his kin, and that doesn't sit well.   

As played by Craig, Blanc is a private eye with a Foghorn Leghorn Southern drawl and an eye for detail which would rival Sherlock Holmes.   Or at least Hercule Poirot.    Craig has fun with the role; fun he didn't allow himself when playing James Bond.    There are even political debates between Richard (a clear Trump supporter) and Joni (a clear Trump non-supporter), although these are pigeonholed in without any reason for existing.   This crew has enough to fight over without introducing modern-day politics into the mix.

The Irishman (2019) * * *

Directed by:  Martin Scorsese

Starring:  Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, Ray Romano, Jesse Plemons, Harvey Keitel, Bobby Cannavale, Stephen Graham, Anna Paquin

Roger Ebert once wrote, "No good movie is too long,"   Now we have The Irishman, which is good, but entirely too long and bloated.   Yet, there is enough here to recommend, especially the contrasting performances of Al Pacino as Jimmy Hoffa and Robert De Niro as Frank Sheeran, the Philadelphia mobster who answers the question once and for all about Hoffa's fate following his 1975 disappearance.

Sheeran, an Irish fella who got in good with the Angelo Bruno crime family in the 1960's and later became Hoffa's trusted confidante, claimed shortly before his death that he indeed shot Hoffa and had his body shipped off to be cremated.    There was once an urban legend that Hoffa's body was buried under underneath one of the end zones in old Giants Stadium in North Jersey.    As if mobsters would risk detection by murdering Hoffa in suburban Detroit and shipping his body to East Rutherford, New Jersey for burial during construction of a football stadium.    The method of disposal depicted in The Irishman is more logical and a whole lot cleaner.    I hope my revelation that Hoffa was indeed murdered isn't a spoiler for you.

Frank Sheeran started his career as a truck driver who stole meat from his own truck and delivered it to the mob instead of Food Fair's customers.   He is fired, and with help from mob boss Russell Bufalino (Pesci), he avoids being sent to jail and becomes a gofer for Bruno and Bufalino.   A World War II combat veteran who killed more than a few Nazis in Italy;  Sheeran is not above putting a bullet in anyone's head who crosses Bruno or Russell.   Frank then is elevated to the position of trusted right-hand man of Jimmy Hoffa, who owes the mob more than a few favors and allows them unfettered access to the Teamsters pension fund worth billions. 

Frank plays things close to the vest.   He sees, he observes, and he tries to steer clear of conflict with his superiors.   He may not like having to be the one to kill Jimmy after years of loyal friendship, but he is one of the few people Jimmy trusts who can get close to him without Jimmy smelling a rat.   Pacino's Hoffa is a bombastic, stubborn politician whose mouth gets him into hot water with the mob one too many times.    We witness how Jimmy Hoffa was able to gain control of the Teamsters and how that same personality caused his downfall.

Frank narrates the story by breaking the fourth wall and telling us his story as he withers away in a wheelchair in a nursing home.   He is old, hardened, and wants to tell us his secrets before death silences him forever.   Scorsese employed a seamless de-aging CGI method which took decades off of De Niro's, Pacino's, and Pesci's faces.   Unlike Goodfellas and Casino, De Niro and Pesci not only don't swear much, but they don't smoke either.    This is rather refreshing to see.

De Niro's Frank is as quiet and cool as Pacino's Hoffa is loud and hotheaded.   They are a study in opposites, and their chemistry is palpable.   Pesci, whose famous role is that of hothead Tommy DeVito in Goodfellas, is a man of power who no longer needs to remind others of his status.   His presence can either diffuse a situation or bring it to a swift, violent conclusion.    There is violence, to be sure, but in each instance we understand why it had to be used, and how De Niro feels about it.    He refuses to dime out anyone to the authorities, but he allows us to be his confidantes.    He needs to let us in on what drives him and what is in his soul, because human nature dictates that he can't hold it all inside.

The Irishman contains numerous instances which could've been left on the cutting room floor, including the scenes of back and forth communication between Hoffa and Russell, with Frank as a willing mediator.    The Irishman could've clocked in at two hours, forty-five minutes without losing any power.    The Irishman doesn't have the energy of 1990's Goodfellas or even 1995's Casino, both of which depicted mob influence on various facets of American life, but Scorsese is now 77 and prefers a methodical, reflective approach.   His camera forever moves, as if it is pulling back the curtain to allow us to witness events we shouldn't.    Is The Irishman good Scorsese?   Yes.   But it is not excellent Scorsese, and the fact that Scorsese made The Irishman elevates the material while at the same time fomenting disappointment for not being as strong as his past cinematic gems.