Breaking Away (1979) * * * *

Directed by:  Peter Yates

Starring:  Dennis Christopher, Dennis Quaid, Daniel Stern, Jackie Earle Haley, Robyn Douglass, Barbara Barrie, Paul Dooley, Hart Bochner

Breaking Away truly understands its characters and what they feel.    At 19, Dave (Christopher), Mike (Quaid), Moocher (Haley), and Cyril (Stern) are content with hanging around Bloomington, Indiana yearning to belong.    They are derisively called "Cutters" by the frat boys at Indiana University, which is right in their backyard.    Cutters refers to the working class masons who constructed the buildings that neither they nor their children have the means to enter.   "We're good enough to build them, but never good enough to go inside," one character astutely says.    Dave, Mike, Cyril, and Moocher are the children of cutters, but to the college boys that is guilt by association.     

The movie was a surprise hit in 1979.    The conflict between the frat guys and the Cutters is settled in a bicycle race called the "Little 500", but Breaking Away isn't satisfied with being a sports movie.     Its people are alive, unique, and memorable.     Dave is the most colorful of the Cutters.   He worships the Italian cycling team so much so that he adopts a phony Italian accent and drives his father crazy.    ( "No more foods with eenie in them.   I want American food like French fries,")    The relationship between Dave and his cutter turned used car salesman father (Dooley) is a touching and complex one.     The payoff scene in which these two finally learn to understand each other causes tears to well up. 

Also complex is Dave's burgeoning relationship with a college girl.   He poses as an Italian exchange student, because he doesn't think she would accept him as he is.     His friends also feel the same way, but show it in different ways.     Mike is a resentful former high school quarterback who fears his best days are behind him.     He also would rather curse the darkness than light a candle.    Moocher is a short kid who isn't afraid to throw punches when he is insulted.      He brings a new meaning to "punching the clock" after his boss calls him shorty.    Cyril took the college entrance exam and failed, but operates under the façade of going with the flow.    

Breaking Away won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for its writer Steve Tesich, who grew up in Indiana and fully understands this world from the inside out.     The movie operates with a vibrancy in nearly every frame.     The frat guys are dickheads, of course, but they also behave as if they are as resentful of the Cutters as the Cutters are of them.     A few bad breaks and they could be Cutters themselves.     But we look forward to the Cutters finally winning some respect in the big race.    

The big race itself is a grueling, sweaty, tiring one.     I loved the way the final lap was shot.    It is shot from far away and without close ups.     There is no slow motion.    We see it as if it were being shown live on TV with all of the built-in suspense you would expect.     We are truly rooting for these kids to emerge as hometown heroes over the hateful outsiders.     Breaking Away could not have worked if Tesich, Yates, and the cast did not give their all to make it special.    

The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000) * * *

 

Directed by:  Robert Redford

 

Starring:  Matt Damon, Will Smith, Charlize Theron, Bruce McGill, J. Michael Moncrief, Jack Lemmon, Joel Gretsch

 

Robert Redford's The Legend of Bagger Vance is reminiscent of his own A River Runs Through It (1992).     Both are studies of men who learn life's lessons and are healed through doing what they do best.    In Bagger Vance, it is golf.     Golf is a game of efficiency in every aspect, from the swing of the club to the ultimate goal of sinking the ball in the cup in fewer strokes than your opponents.  

There are no teammates.    It is just the golfer against the world...and himself.

 

Matt Damon stars as Rannulph Junuh, a golf wunderkind from Savannah, GA who would have become Bobby Jones had World War I not interfered.     He went to war and came back broken.     The experience scarred him to the point that he never wanted to do anything but drink and play cards.     He was once in love with Adele Invergordon (Theron), daughter of the richest man in town who commits suicide after the stock market crashes.     Broke and stuck with a new golf course her father built but no one plays on, Adele dreams up a plan to bring a golf exhibition to Savannah.    The players?    Jones and Walter Hagen (McGill), an 11-time major champion.     She persuades both men to play for the $10,000 prize and manages to lure her former flame Junuh out of retirement so the town can have a rooting interest.

 

Since Junuh hasn't swung a club in years, he can not get himself right until one night Bagger Vance (Smith) appears out of nowhere and into his life.    He offers to be Junuh's caddy, but he provides greater insight than just what club to use and how to play the holes.     He has an instinct for saying the right things at the right time.     We sense some of this advice is not just aimed for winning a tournament.      Who is this mysterious Vance?     Is he a person?   A spirit?   A guardian angel?    The movie leaves that for us to decide.     Whatever he is, he sure helps Junuh and makes an impression on a 10-year old boy named Hardy (Moncrief), Junuh's biggest supporter.

 

The golf tournament is a study in styles.    Jones and Hagen are both golf superstars, but neither is arrogant nor dismissive of Junuh.    They respect the game too much to disrespect their opponents.    Hagen is more extravagant, while Jones is quiet and reserved.     Their games reflect their personalities.     Junuh is 12 strokes behind these titans after the first day, but we know he is not out of it.   

 

Who wins the tournament is not as important as how Junuh's life is forever changed.      He learns to put away the past and just focus.     Golf is about focus and concentration.     If you have neither, the game can be unbelievably frustrating.      Ask anyone who has ever two-putted on the green.     Redford uses golf as a metaphor for improving by life by being focused and efficient.      There should not wasted time or motion.     As Bagger Vance himself says, "Golf isn't a game to be won, only played."    We know he is talking about life itself.   

 

The Legend of Bagger Vance looks and sounds beautiful.    I especially liked the finale in which the final hole was played at dusk and car lights were illuminating the area.    The golf course is lush, but foreboding.    Games live and die on each hole and its own individual hazards.     The performances are all the more effective for being quiet and internalized.      We know what they're feeling with just the right economy of words.      They seemed to have taken Bagger's message to heart too.  

 

 

 

 

 

Heat (1995) * * * 1/2

Directed by:  Michael Mann

Starring:  Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro, Val Kilmer, Tom Sizemore, Jon Voight, Danny Trejo, Dennis Haysbert, Wes Studi, Ted Levine, Amy Brennaman, Ashley Judd, Diane Venora, Natalie Portman

Heat is the study of two professionals who excel at their jobs.     One of those professionals is an expert armed robber, but that does not stop the cop on his tail from admiring his work.    Still, these men must act according to their nature.    Respect does not play into this.     It is a luxury neither can afford.     Heat examines these men who do not exist without their jobs.     They have little room for joy or family.   They spend their off hours itching to get back to work again.    It is a sad, lonely existence, even in Los Angeles.

Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro occupy the same screen for the first time in their careers.  They co-starred in The Godfather Part II, but did not share any scenes.   Both have played cops and/or criminals so often they could be honorary members of the police force or the mob.   They do it so well.  Heat is a prime example.  DeNiro is Neil McCauley, a career criminal who organizes and carries out carefully planned heists with nothing left to chance.   His last heist would have gone off without any sort of trail, except for a trigger-happy cohort who kills a bank security guard.   This gives the cops a slim lead to go on, but it is a lead.   Neil beats the crap out of his cohort, but he escapes before Neil can kill him.  

The detective on the case is Vincent Hanna (Pacino), who admires the efficiency of Neil's work, even if he doesn't know who he is just yet.   "These guys are good, real good," he says as he examines the crime scene.     Hanna is determined to catch his foe, even at the expense of a crumbling home life caused by his perpetual absence.     Neil is not married and has no family, but he sees a possible alternative to his criminal life with a young woman he meets.    He falls for her, but he always recalls the advice given to him by his friend and mentor Nate (Voight): "Don't take on anything you can't leave behind in thirty seconds flat."    For Neil, up to now, these were words to live by.

Heat mercilessly focuses on the toll the job takes on Vincent and Neil.    Vincent's stepdaughter attempts suicide, while his wife laments and damns him for his marriage to his job.    For Vincent, being a cop isn't just a job.    It is his being.     If he could spend 24 hours a day doing it, he would.    Neil has made serious money off of his scores and could retire at any time.    But retire to what?    His partners tell him, "It's the juice.  It's the action."  Neil agrees.   He gets a jolt out of the action more.   It is true that he has generated more exposure on himself than ever before, but that doesn't stop him from trying another heist.  

Heat takes its time examining the lives of its characters.    It has action and suspense, including a loud, terrifying shootout in the middle of a busy Los Angeles street.    We care about the outcome because Michael Mann invests thought and time into his people.    The ending will not be tidy because Vincent and Neil can not go against their grain.   Neil could have gotten away clean, but the lure of taking care of one last piece of unfinished business is too much to resist.   It costs him.     The price Vincent pays to catch Neil is one many would not pay.   He does pay it because it would go against his nature not to.   

DeNiro and Pacino give us some of their best work in Heat.   They are wounded pros who can't (or won't) escape their fates.     They would rather die than go against how they are wired.    For one or more of these people, that is what happens.    

 

Big Eyes (2014) * * *

Directed by:  Tim Burton

Starring:  Amy Adams, Christoph Waltz, Danny Huston, Jason Schwartzman, Krysten Ritter, Delaney Raye, Madeleine Arthur

Big Eyes is not as much a biopic of artist Margaret Keane as it is a document of her struggle to have her voice heard and her work rightly credited to her.     Her arrangement with her husband Walter was simple.    She does the work, he sells it and puts his name on the paintings.     They make a lot of money, although Walter appears on the cover of magazines, but all should be well right?     Only a fool would upset this apple cart, no?    It is not that easy.    Walter's egomaniacal control over Margaret and practically locking her in a room to create an assembly line of art wears on Margaret.    She is forced to lie to her daughter about what she is doing in the room and this will not do.      For Margaret, this is worth the risk of upsetting Walter's apple cart.

Tim Burton's Big Eyes is based on true events.    Keane's paintings of large eyed children are known worldwide, even if you don't remember who actually made them.     I remember seeing them, but I never looked into who the artist was.     But, the paintings are indelibly etched in memory as part of pop culture.     Burton has made a career of telling stories that were part sci-fi fantasy and part spooky horror stories.     Don't forget he also directed Pee Wee's Big Adventure.     Big Eyes is told more or less straightforward without bells and whistles.     It is a different, refreshing direction for him.   

When Big Eyes opens, Margaret (Adams) is a recently divorced woman with a young child who moves to San Francisco trying to sell her paintings.     Her work is scoffed and sales aren't good.     She meets Walter Keane (Waltz) in a park one day while both are painting.    Walter regales Margaret and her daughter with stories of living and studying art in Paris.    They are both wowed.    A romance blossoms and the two soon are married.     Walter convinces Margaret of his artistic brilliance by showing her work he allegedly did, but we soon find out he may have studied art without ever actually creating any.     Since he is a born salesman (and maybe even a con man), he convinces Margaret to allow him to sell her work and take credit.   Oodles of money will flow in, which it does, and life will be good for all.

It is surely good for Walter, whose face graces magazine covers as his celebrity and fame rises on the back of Margaret's incessant work.     She may receive ancillary benefit, but soon she is weary of lying to her child about why she's confined to a room for sixteen hours a day.    Walter, drunk with fame and fortune, is not about to let the gravy train stop on account of Margaret's qualms.     Margaret feels like a prisoner and her relationship with her daughter suffers.  

Adams and Waltz are two top-notch actors whose performances are a study in contrasts.    Adams' Margaret is gullible, reticent, but eventually finds the strength to stand up to Walter.    We understand why she feels as she does and we sympathize.    Waltz projects the right amount of charisma, sneaky charm, and a natural knack for sales.     We respond to his going over the top because, let's face it, Walter brings nothing else to the table and he knows it.     The bravado is part of his misdirection.    

As in real life, the Keanes took their battle over authorship of the paintings to court.    The judge comes up with a brilliantly easy solution:  Have Margaret and Walter each create a painting in front of him and the jury.    It is hilarious watching Walter attempt to weasel out of this.     He summons up every bit of energy and excuse to avoid being exposed, but soon he finds no amount of conning will get him out of this.    

Big Eyes is not a movie with a flashy story, just great performances by actors with tons of charm and plenty to spare.     We see what drives them and we see why Margaret eventually has to say "enough".     This is not a word in Walter's vocabulary.    He is indifferent to his family's wants and needs.     As long as he is making money and achieving any sort of recognition which has eluded him his whole life, he can live with that.   

Find Me Guilty (2006) * * *

Directed by:  Sidney Lumet

Starring:  Vin Diesel, Ron Silver, Peter Dinklage, Alex Rocco, Paul Borghese, Linus Roache, Annabella Sciorra


Vin Diesel is an actor who combines streetwise intelligence with physicality.    These days, he is content making Fast and Furious movies because they make tons of money and there seems to be no end to the sequels.    I've enjoyed him in movies in which he challenged himself and the audience, such as Boiler Room, Saving Private Ryan, The Pacifier, and this movie.     He has a strong screen presence.    Once he realizes he can't make Fast & Furious movies forever (or can he?), then he can certainly throw himself into non-action roles and be effective.

Find Me Guilty is based on a mid-1980's federal mob trial in which the defendants (about 10 of them in all) were known gangsters.    The counts against the defendants ranged from conspiracy to extortion to drug charges and even murder.     There were dozens of counts and the trial lasted well over a calendar year.     Diesel plays Jackie DiNorscio, who is serving a 30-year drug sentence and is among the defendants.     He is offered a deal to testify against his co-defendants and receive a reduced sentence.     DiNorscio refuses.    "Jackie D don't rat," he says in the third person, which happens a lot.  

Jackie is the only defendant without a lawyer.    He acts as his own attorney and he is surprisingly effective at cross-examining witnesses and endearing himself to the jury.     He makes the jurors and the crowd laugh, which exasperates the prosecutor Sean Kearney (Roache) and gives the defense hope.    "A laughing jury is not a hanging jury," says attorney Ben Klandis (Dinklage), who advises DiNorscio on the side.     "I'm not a gangster, I'm a gagster," Jackie tells the jury and from the looks of things, they may believe him.

The irony here is that even if Jackie is acquitted, he must still return to prison to serve out his sentence.     His co-defendants will go free.    This is fine by Jackie, who is loyal to these men even though some of them tried to have him killed.     Others aren't nearly as impressed with his sideshow antics, including crime boss Nick Calabrese (Rocco), who makes his disdain for Jackie well known. 
Perhaps his loyalty impresses the jury.    They are the only people in the entire room whose opinion truly matters anyway.

Diesel is among some strong character actors and is not overpowered by them.    He proves what a good actor he can be when he plays someone who doesn't shoot, fight, or drive fast cars.    The outcome of the trial is one for the books.     The jury's decision was likely more based on their affection for Jackie and their resentment against Kearney for having them sequestered for a 15-month long trial.      Kearney really underestimates the jury's impatience.     Their impatience allowed Jackie to sneak in, tell some jokes, and avoid spending the rest of his life in jail.     Talk about timing. 

Starman (1984) * *

Directed by:  John Carpenter

Starring:  Jeff Bridges, Karen Allen, Charles Martin Smith, Richard Jaeckel

Starman is all too reminiscent of E.T. and suffers in comparison.    In E.T., an alien is stranded on Earth and befriends a human while awaiting the day when a ship will come to bring him home.     In Starman, an alien is stranded on Earth, assumes the identity of a woman's dead husband, and the two travel cross country to the rendezvous point where he will be picked up and brought home.     Coincidentally, both E.T. and Starman were written at about the same time, but E.T. was filmed first.    Starman is not a ripoff, but it was released two years after the unprecedentedly successful E.T. and I couldn't help but realize how similar they are.   

The movie stars Jeff Bridges as the unnamed alien whose ship is shot down over rural Wisconsin.     He finds refuge in a cabin belonging to a young widow named Jenny (Allen), whose husband died a year earlier.     The alien awkwardly assumes the human form of Jenny's late husband and soon they are traveling to Arizona to meet up with the mother ship.      They fall in love while on the road and outrunning government agents who suspect correctly that Bridges is from another planet.     Like in E.T., when the government starts poking around, it's time to head for higher ground.  

Bridges and Allen have nice chemistry together.    Jenny takes her time to patiently teach Starman about human traditions and emotions, all of which are foreign to him.    While trying to learn to move in his new body, Starman (as the credits call him) resembles a walking ostrich.     He is a benevolent alien fascinated by the human species, while the only humans he meets other than Jenny are hostile and violent.     Bridges (Oscar-nominated for his role) hits all the right notes and makes for a likable alien.     Allen is sweet, kind, sad, and confused while coming to grips that her husband is back...sort of.     Charles Martin Smith has the thankless task of being the sympathetic bureaucrat who has to track down the couple and capture the alien.   

Starman inevitably moves toward its predictable conclusion with a couple of nice touches, including a scene where he brings a dead deer tied to the roof of a car back to life.     The hunter who killed the deer is none too happy about this, although he should be at least somewhat curious about a man who can bring things back to life.    I guess he is not a big-picture kind of guy.     But the sweet scenes are islands onto themselves.     The rest is just formula chase/road movie stuff.   

In the movies, anyway, humans are forever desiring to make contact with alien life forms only to chase them down and make life generally miserable for the poor things.     Starman must have seen E.T. so he knows what's in store.    

A Walk Among the Tombstones (2014) * * 1/2

Directed by:  Scott Frank

Starring:  Liam Neeson, Dan Stevens, David Harbour, Brian Bradley

Matt Scudder (Neeson) is an ex-cop and recovering alcoholic who hires himself out as "an unlicensed private eye."   He tells a prospective client, "I do favors for people and they give me gifts."   This client is a wealthy drug dealer whose wife was kidnapped and then killed even though the dealer paid the ransom.    Scudder knows he is dealing with a special breed of sicko and agrees to investigate.     This line of work is not the best way for Scudder to temper his demons, but we sense he takes these jobs as penance for accidentally shooting a child dead during a shootout.  

A Walk Among the Tombstones is not wall-to-wall fistfights, chases, and shootouts (at first).    It patiently allows Scudder to do the detective work and discover the true nature of the monsters he is trailing.     Then it plateaus and never recovers about midway through.    It hedges its bets and gives us the ending we would expect in a film these days starring Liam Neeson.     He starts out as Matt Scudder and ends up as Bryan Mills.    Tombstones covers some of the same territory as Joel Schumacher's splendid 8MM (1999), but does not have the courage to go all the way like 8MM did.   Pity.

Neeson, of course, is an imposing physical presence who has made a career lately out of playing wounded characters who still have a shot at redemption.    Oh, and yes he looks at right at home carrying a gun.     He can play characters with tortured souls with the best of them.     He also creates a touching friendship with a homeless teen (Bradley), who sleeps in libraries and becomes Scudder's partner and ostensibly the son he never had.     In the grand scheme of Tombstones, the teen isn't really necessary.     He becomes one more character you have to keep track of, although at least he does not become a target of the villains that Scudder must rescue.

The characters here are given different dimensions which is an interesting choice.    The drug dealer (Stevens) is seen as refined, even civilized and not altogether unredeemable.    He would have turned out okay if it weren't for the profession he chose.    The kidnappers are monsters driven by uncontrollable desires that we can not fathom having.     Tombstones is not afraid to lead us down this terrifying path, until it suddenly is.   

Tombstones becomes a film with brilliant parts that don't add up to a satisfying whole.    It is like closing your hand on something but just coming up with air.    Things reach a resolution and an ending that may satisfy some people.     Maybe because Liam Nesson is the star, audiences expect a certain type of ending and we know whatever issues Neeson is having won't prevent him from kicking ass.    It's all kind of a letdown.