Children of Men (2006) * 1/2

Directed by:  Alfonso Cuaron

Starring:  Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Michael Caine, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Clare-Hope Ashitay

The world of Children of Men is a bleak one.    It is 2027.   The human race faces eventual extinction because humans can no longer reproduce.     No person has reproduced in 18 years and CNN grimly reports the death of  "the world's youngest human", who was just 18.    Other cities and countries have crumbled, while Britain remains the only semblance of civilized society left despite being a police state.     Everything has an Orwellian feel to it.    The grayness and emptiness is straight out of Michael Radford's adaptation of Nineteen Eighty Four (1985).

Until the actual plot kicks in, Children of Men depicts an eerie, doomed world.    Theo Faron (Owen) is a microcosm of the apathy that engulfs society.    The coffee shop where he buys his daily morning coffee blows up moments after he leaves.     It is tough to say what bothered Theo more: the explosion or that he wasn't in it.    The nation is on the brink of civil war between the government and revolutionaries.    This will not be the last violence anyone will see.   

Theo is soon contacted by his former lover Julian (Moore), with whom he had lost a child.   Their mutual pain is apparent with every word they speak.    She is now with the resistance and asks Theo to help protect a young woman named Kee (Ashitay), the world's first pregnant woman in 18 years.    This is where Children of Men steps wrongly into peculiar territory.    The movie does not make it clear why a pregnant woman, who should be seen as a beacon of hope that humans may not go extinct, is a threat and needs to be protected.     She is seen as a potential pawn in the ongoing war between the government and the resistance, but how would she be one?    Is the movie trying to say that the government, despite imposing a police state, wouldn't welcome living proof that humankind's days aren't necessarily numbered?     You would think the first pregnant woman in 18 years wouldn't have to be smuggled out of Britain.

Owen provides Children of Men with a satisfactory hero.    He changes from being an apathetic loner to a father figure who protects Kee at all costs.     It doesn't occur to him or anybody else in the movie that he shouldn't have to protect her at all.    If you consider the worldwide grief people express over the lost of the 18-year old, then how would Kee not be the most welcome story on Earth?     Maybe there was an explanation as to why Kee needed to escape Britain, but I missed it.    The resistance also has designs on the child, but it is unclear why.  

Cuaron is technically well done and sets up an intriguing, albeit bleak future.    Then the story kicks in with its puzzling lack of clarity and all is lost.     We know the whole story about the pregnant woman, but why hasn't anyone tracked down the father?    Is Kee meant to be a virgin Mary and her pregnancy is the result of a virgin birth?     If that were the case, then Kee would be even more of a celebrity, no?    Who in their right mind would want to hurt her?    Once I figure that out, then maybe I can enjoy Children of Men more. 



 

Everest (2015) * * *

Directed by: Baltasar Kormakur

Starring:  Jason Clarke, Josh Brolin, Sam Worthington, John Hawkes, Jake Gyllenhaal, Emily Watson, Keira Knightley, Robin Wright

At one point in Everest, the climbers are asked by a reporter why they would risk life and limb to climb to the top of Mount Everest.     They are stuck for an answer.     One says, "Because it's there," but no psychological reasons are revealed.      Do the climbers even know?     The same character admits that he is at home and peace only when he trying to climb the mountain.      He feels lost anywhere else.      Everest depicts a 1996 ill-fated climb based on true events in almost documentary-like fashion.     We don't learn much about the people, except that some have tried and failed, but we do learn that they pay hefty sums to scale this mountain.      Hefty sums to the tune of $65,000.     It makes you wonder.

Mount Everest, of course, is the world's tallest mountain.     Team leader Rob Hall (Clarke), who leads the expedition up the mountain, explains that once they cross a certain altitude, "Your body starts to die."     Everest peaks at a height near where 747's hit their cruising altitudes.      Getting to the top is hard enough.    The bigger problems occur when two consecutive winter storms hit and some of the climbers can't get back down.      Humans are not meant to exist in temperatures that cold and altitudes that high.      That doesn't stop people from risking everything to climb it.     I think it should be illegal to climb, but that's just pie-in-the-sky thinking.

Climbing Mount Everest means the possibility of falling, freezing to death, passing out from lack of oxygen, frostbite which may quickly advance to losing body parts, and oxygen tanks freezing up.     Is the risk really worth the reward?     It is to these climbers.     If someone is willing to fork over $65,000 to attempt the climb, then no amount of logic or sensibility will be able to dissuade that person.      Character development is not a priority here.     The people all have the same goal, which is to get to the top and back down in one piece.     We are not any more in sympathy with one person over another, although Rob has a baby due in about two months.      Another named Beck Weathers (Brolin) has a family at home worried about him, but don't all of the climbers?

Everest is not meant to be exhilarating.     It is at its strongest when it clearly and brutally shows us the hell the climbers must endure.     The film convincingly places us on the treacherous slopes of this daunting mountain.     The weather screams at people to keep away.     The climbers themselves probably realize that not everyone will make it back alive.     The bodies of those who perish stay buried in the snow since it is too high to send a helicopter up to bring them down.    Climbers certainly aren't going to carry the bodies.     They have enough trouble just getting themselves down.

Everyone has a personal goal.    For the climbers of Mount Everest, the ability to one day tell others they climbed to the top of Mount Everest is their goal.     Is it the ultimate adrenaline rush?    Likely.   Is it the ultimate test of human endurance?    Likely.     Is it stupid even to attempt?     We may think so, but these climbers probably think running marathons is too easy.    Everest maintains an intrinsic level of suspense because of our universal fear of possibly not returning from a treacherous situation alive.    Of course, the climbers put themselves there, but our judgment won't help them much.

       

Room (2015) * * * *

Directed by:  Lenny Abrahamson

Starring:  Brie Larson, Jacob Tremblay, Joan Allen, William H. Macy, Tom McCamus, Sean Bridgers

Room is one of the most emotionally devastating films I've seen in a long time. When it's over, I was drained.  It didn't step wrong.  This is not a feel-good movie, even though it ends on a note of hope.    I thought about its implications and how it affected my own life.  Great movies allow you to think, debate, and feel.   This is one of them.  With that being said, I do not know how quickly I would want to revisit it.  There is only so much raw emotion I can handle.

Room begins in a sparsely furnished room so tiny the mice are probably hunchback.    The occupants are Ma (Larson) and Jack (Tremblay), who turns 5 years old today.  Jack is the child of rape and abuse.  Ma was kidnapped 7 years ago and forced to live in this tiny shed with only a skylight and a TV with bad reception to remind her there is an outside world.   Ma's captor, Old Nick (Bridgers) brings them supplies and food, but rapes Ma almost nightly.  He has the door locked which can only be opened by a security code. Jack is hidden in a tiny closet, but still can see through the slits.  It is not clear if Old Nick has ever had any contact with Jack.  He refers to Jack as if he were a stranger.

To date, Ma has been able to shield Jack from this horrifying existence by putting on her best face and pretending to be strong.  She does not reveal the true nature of their predicament.  Jack is the only reason Ma probably has not committed suicide up to this point.  How Ma did not give in to despair is a question best left unexplored.  She can not stop the natural progression of Jack's curiosity.  She knows she can not keep the truth hidden forever, so she concocts a daring plan to escape.  Ma reveals in stories she tells Jack about she attempted to escape before, but was punished severely for it. She is so focused on keeping Jack happy and safe that she neglects her own needs, including a rotting tooth she soon simply has to pull out.  

I won't reveal the escape plan itself, but it does work.  I am not spoiling anything because it is common knowledge that the mother and child manage to free themselves through ingenuity and taking a cue from The Count of Monte Cristo.  Room's second half is about how Ma and Jack have to adjust to the outside world.  Jack has never known anything but Room (the euphemism Ma uses to describe the shed they were trapped in.)   Ma remembers life before being kidnapped, but that may as well have been a lifetime ago.   Her mother and father, now divorced, have a tearful reunion with Ma (whose real name is Joy Newsome), but things become dicey.   The trauma Joy suffered for seven years has taken its toll.    She can not function in the real world.   "I thought I would be happy," she tells her mother.   Most of the time, she is miserable and stays confined to her mother's home.  It is as if she exchanged one room for another.

Brie Larson won an Oscar for Best Actress for her role.  It was completely deserved.  What conflicting emotions she had to convey.   She doesn't play the role for sympathy or to pull at the audience's heartstrings.   She is simply a woman trying to process the almost unimaginable psychological trauma enacted on her by a monster.  Her love for Jack took top priority and she unselfishly put his well-being before hers.  We can't even imagine what she went through. That transcends acting and into total embodiment.

Jacob Tremblay is a nine-year old actor who was seven when Room was made.   Where did he find the strength and the know-how to take on so much of the emotional heavy lifting?   I have to believe director Lenny Abrahamson instilled it in him.   His performance transcends as well.  He is not just a young boy playing a young boy. He is a boy forced to save his mother on more than one occasion because he is tuned in to her suffering.  Ma sacrificed so much to allow him to cope. He copes and flourishes with intelligence and sensitivity you rarely see in such a young child.    

If nothing I described makes Room sound like a fun night at the movies, well that's because it isn't.    Movies don't always have to have fun subject matter.   Room invites us to walk in Ma and Jack's shoes for a little while.  The screenplay by Emma Donoghue is based on her novel (which was based on similar real life events), but it allows us to truly feel their situation from the inside out.   How exactly would I react losing seven years of my life in the most dehumanizing way imaginable?  Holocaust survivors did the same thing and 70 years later we are still trying to figure out how it happened and how they survived.  The difference is, we can leave the theater and go back to our normal lives where no such distress has ever happened.  Joy and Jack must live on with it forever.  How do people even process that?  Room unblinkingly explores this.   A lesser movie would have probably had the movie end with a trial or something more "Hollywood".  Room is clearly not a lesser movie.  It stays with you.  

Straight Outta Compton (2015) * * *

Directed by:  F. Gary Gray

Starring:  O'Shea Jackson Jr, Jason Mitchell, Corey Hawkins, Paul Giamatti, R. Marcus Taylor

I admit I am not the intended audience for NWA.    The rap super group was formed in the late 80's and spoke to disenfranchised African Americans living in crime-ridden neighborhoods and dealing with the horrors of drugs.     Their debut album "Straight Outta Compton" sold millions and soon in-fighting and money squabbles forced them to break up just as they were peaking.    Two of its members, Ice Cube and Dr. Dre, are still prominent in entertainment today.    Straight Outta Compton documents the groups rise and fall, but their influence is still felt today. 

The movie follows the standards of biopics, but doesn't sugarcoat things.    It tells the NWA story with raw honesty.    It comes in a bit long at 2 hours and 20 minutes and the musical performances did little for me, but I admired the performances and its sense of time and place.    The movie doesn't sanctify NWA or make them misunderstood heroes.     They survived the mean streets, but even as they grew famous and rich, they still had to survive other challenges.   

O'Shea Jackson Jr. is Ice Cube's real-life son and he gives an honest portrayal of his father.    I can not say I'm entirely familiar with the stories of Dr. Dre and Eazy-E (Mitchell), who died from AIDS-related illnesses shortly before the group was to reunite.    However, they emerge as distinct individuals.    Not as much time or focus is spent on the group's other two members, MC Ren and DJ Yella.    During the concert scenes, it is hard to say where they are on stage.  

The group was managed by Jerry Heller (Giamatti), who between this film, Love and Mercy, and Rock of Ages is making a career out of playing weasel managers.    Eazy-E is loyal to Heller long after Ice Cube and the others leave him.    They were suspicious that Heller was up to something and they weren't entirely wrong.    It takes Eazy-E a bit longer to catch up.    Giamatti is still in fine form in the role despite the fact that his storyline will end predictably.  

The film does not shy away from the group's misogynistic attitudes towards women.   Scantily clad women are everywhere, even in the parties that curiously resemble rap videos from the era.    Art imitated life.    Straight Outta Compton deals with these attitudes, and the attitude of the time, realistically and honestly.    Of all of the group's members, Dr. Dre comes across as the most sensible member who loves the music business.    He is just as comfortable behind the scenes producing as he is in front of the camera.     Also emerging on the scene is Suge Knight (Taylor), who creates his own record label and is not above using intimidation and beatings to secure his empire.    Based on his depiction in this film, it comes as little surprise that Knight found himself in and out of legal troubles over the years. 

NWA was around when I was a teenager and in my early 20's, but they made mainstream news more because of run-ins with the law and their antagonistic relationship with the police.    "Fuck Tha Police" is one of their anthems.    Yet, their full impact was lost on me because I was not part of their target audience.    I admired the film for what it was, but I still find myself on the outside looking in.    There is no denying their influence nor their place in music history, however, and we can see a whole of generation of artists thanking them for paving the way.  



 

Our Brand Is Crisis (2015) * * *

Directed by:  David Gordon Green

Starring:  Sandra Bullock, Billy Bob Thornton, Anthony Mackie, Ann Dowd, Joaquim de Almeida

Our Brand Is Crisis works best when we see political consultants Jane Bodine (Bullock) and Pat Candy (Thornton) working opposing campaign strategies for their respective clients running for President of Bolivia.      Jane had been retired for a few years and living in seclusion in the mountains, but is lured out of hiding by an old colleague.    She could not resist the challenge of bringing up the polling numbers of Pedro Castillo, who has a very hard time relating to the constituency he wishes to govern.     He is trailing the front runner badly with 80 days to go before the elections.     Candy's candidate is comfortably in the lead, but neither Candy nor the candidate is above getting his hands dirty to secure a win.

Castillo is a former President of Bolivia who is clearly uncomfortable smiling and shaking the hands of the masses.     When someone smashes an egg on his forehead, he punches him in the face.    Political disaster?    No.     Jane finds a way to reinvent Castillo as a tough guy the country needs and his numbers begin to skyrocket.     The only other person that may work for is Donald Trump.     Jane correctly sees the landscape and how high the ceiling for her client truly is.    ( "He's a mid-20's guy at best, we have to bring everyone else's numbers down." )

I enjoy movies where the characters are able to convince me that they know what they're talking about.     Their expertise is fascinating to watch.     At no time am I convinced that Bullock nor Thornton are dummies.     They play intelligent well, which makes the movie good for long stretches.     The scenes that don't quite fit are ones in which Jane befriends an idealistic young man who hero worships Castillo.      These tend to slow the momentum, but things pick up again as the election draws near.

Jane and Candy have a history, but not a romantic one thank goodness.     They worked on the same campaign long ago and one or both of them sabotaged their client by committing a crucial mistake.     It is not made clear why this was done or whether it was purposeful or not.     It actually creates a backstory where none is really needed.      They could just be professional rivals and leave it at that.     Their best scenes together involve talking shop anyway.

There are enough good aspects of Our Brand Is Crisis for me to recommend it.     The performances are difficult to fault and it understands that politics is politics no matter what the country.     Jane and Candy are not Americanizing the Bolivian Presidential race because politics is a universal language of double speak, broken promises, and image shaping.    The best consultants create the candidate people want to see, even if it is far from the truth.     To quote Robert Duvall from A Civil Action, "You will find the truth at the bottom of a bottomless pit."    People may say differently, but they wouldn't have their politics any other way.     If they did, they wouldn't fall for the same tricks time and time again. 

   

Smokey and the Bandit (1977) * * * 1/2

Directed by:  Hal Needham

Starring:  Burt Reynolds, Sally Field, Jerry Reed, Jackie Gleason, Mike Henry, Pat McCormick, Paul Williams

No I have not taken leave of my senses.    Those who dismiss Smokey and the Bandit as inane, redneck trash may want to leave this review now.     There will be others and life is too short to read about a movie that you won't like.     Smokey and the Bandit is goofy fun and full of sly humor.     There are chases featuring the famed black Trans Am driven by the famed bootlegger known as The Bandit (Reynolds), but there is also plenty of wit and laughs.      Yes, it is silly in a good way too.

Reynolds plays The Bandit, a famed bootlegger offered an $80,000 wager by the filthy rich Big Enos (McCormick) and Little Enos (Williams) to travel to Arkansas, pick up a truckload of beer, and drive it back to Georgia within 36 hours.     He enlists his truck driver buddy Cletus Snow (Reed) to haul the load while The Bandit runs interference.     This means he drives like a madman on the road, catches the attention of the police, and allows Cletus to drive through untouched.     If Bandit doesn't meet the deadline, he doesn't get paid.     The wager gives the movie the urgency needed for all of the chases and crashes that come later.

Along the way, Bandit picks up a woman hitchhiking in a wedding dress.     She is Carrie (Field), who left her husband-to-be at the altar and thus drawing the ire of her would-be father-in-law Sheriff Buford T. Justice (Gleason).    So Bandit not only has to meet the deadline, but escape the wrath of the pursuing Sheriff Justice.      Sheriff Justice is a loud, self-important blowhard who becomes apoplectic every time the Bandit escapes his clutches.     His car is turned into a mess and his witless son Junior (Henry) isn't much help.     Gleason is hilarious here.     He milks the role with every bit of overacting excess he can muster.     His eyes pop out and his cheeks puff up at the mere mention of the Bandit's name, which he hears often over the CB (remember that?).     The irony here is Justice is the law, but we root for the outlaw Bandit to escape from him.     Yes, I am discussing irony while reviewing Smokey and the Bandit.

Carrie and Bandit begin a sweet courtship at 100 mph.    There are tender moments when they actually have time to pull over and kiss.     Cletus doesn't have nearly as much luck during his pit stops.     In one instance, he is beaten up by a biker gang, but he gleefully gets his revenge.     Jerry Reed has a good time and is energetic.     The entire film itself is a bundle of energy.     Everyone involves knows it is absurd and turns up the wattage.   

Smokey and the Bandit is mostly one long chase scene.     This was made during a time when movie chase scenes still had some new angles to offer.     Now, chase scenes are almost ways for filmmakers to kill time.     Smokey and the Bandit produced two subpar sequels, both of which unable to match the magic of this film.     If you still don't believe my assertion that this film has some sneaky wit to it, observe this scene between Sheriff Justice and another local sheriff whose toes he is stepping on.

Justice:   "I'm in hot pursuit.    Don't you hear good?"

Branford:  "Your pursuit is not germane to the situation."

Justice:  "The doggone Germans have nothing to do with it."

99 Homes (2015) * * *

Directed by:  Ramin Bahrani

Starring:  Andrew Garfield, Michael Shannon, Laura Dern, Tim Guinee, Noah Lomax

99 Homes is a provocative, hard-hitting, relentless drama which allows the viewers to ask what they would do if confronted with the thought of losing their home.     Would they bend some rules in the name of making more money than they ever could honestly?     Would they be able to perform the soul-sucking work someone like Dennis Nash has to?     Could they steal, lie,  and cheat?    

Actually, 99 Homes is this type of drama that poses these questions.    Also, is there a point in which even the most desperate wouldn't go beyond?    It provides an extreme example of what some would be willing to do to keep themselves afloat at the expense of the little guy.     And then it would ask, what would you do?    At first, I admit I had some trouble with the ending because it felt a little too morally upright, but the more I reflect on it, I realized that there was a point in which Dennis, the film's hero, would not go beyond.    Is it something others would do?    Who knows. 

Andrew Garfield plays Dennis, a hard working construction worker who defaults on his home loan and is quickly, coldly evicted by real estate broker Rick Carver (Shannon).    Carver is thriving in these harsh economic times.    He flips the foreclosed homes for a profit.     He is the epitome of a banking system that recklessly approved loans to less than creditworthy applicants.     Carver explains that his job before the housing crash was to put people into homes.     Now, his job is kicking them out.     He does not take any special glee in removing people from their property, but he sure doesn't mind the cash flow it generates.     He approaches his job with a certain ruthlessness that Dennis may or may not possess.    

After Dennis and his mother (Dern) and son (Lomax) are kicked out of their house and forced to live in a nearby motel, he travels to Carver's office to get back tools stolen by Carver's crew.    Carver offers him a job cleaning up a sewage backup at one of his properties.     He finds Carver needs a lot of work done on his properties and Dennis now has a job making more money than ever.     Dennis soon graduates to becoming that guy who knocks on the door and evicts families early in the morning.     This isn't pleasant work.    Dennis sometimes has to muster up all of his strength just to perform his duty.     But as the cash rolls in and the prospect of possibly reclaiming his former home grows brighter, he finds he can live with it.    

Garfield's character is the one most can identify with.     He is someone who is forced to do things he doesn't necessarily like in order to put food on the table.     Many people go to jobs each day they don't enjoy in order to pay bills.     Dennis' issue is he makes more money off of other people's misery than he will ever make in construction.      Business is booming and things are great for him financially.     99 Homes could be The Big Short as seen through the eyes of actual homeowners. 

Things are not black and white in this world or in the real world in general.     Garfield and Shannon deliver humanizing portraits of two men who do what they do because it keeps the sheriff from kicking them out of their homes one day.       At first, Rick Carver may seem like the heartless bad guy, but he reveals more as we get to know him.     We hear his stories of his father and his background and we see he is driven by fear as much as anyone else.      Shannon does a particularly good job of not showing us all the cards at first, but soon gives us a man who came to terms with what he has to do a long time ago.      He was where Dennis is now and he is numb to the suffering.

Then, 99 Homes steps into interesting waters, whether you believe the ending or not.     It involves one home in particular which holds the key to growing Rick's business.     Rick is willing to bend the law to see that the owner is evicted.     Dennis reaches a crossroads and has to decide how much he is willing to see someone wrongfully evicted from his home.    Up until that point, 99 Homes was an unblinking portrayal of these harsh times, but I suppose the true moral quandary needed to be introduced so we could see for ourselves whether there is a point in which someone stands his moral ground.     It challenged the viewer to determine how far they would go to protect what they have.     The ending may have you saying, "What a dope this guy is," instead of "Wow, what a good thing he just did."    Or it may be the other way around.     What would you do?    It all depends.