Fear City (2020) * * * (showing on Netflix)

Directed by:  Sam Hobkinson

Fear City, the new Netflix three-part documentary series, starts with a harrowing depiction of a 1970's New York City under the thumb of organized crime.   Lawlessness nearly ruled the day, and law enforcement agencies' efforts to put a dent in the mob's power were ineffective.    Sure, the police would arrest lower level mobsters and put them away, but they were quickly replaced and the bosses of the infamous five New York crime families were insulated from prosecution.

Dr. Robert Blakey of Cornell University offered the FBI training in the little-used RICO statute passed in 1970.   RICO allowed for entire crime organizations to be prosecuted for conspiracies and crimes if those were linked to the powerful bosses at the top.  Now the FBI had its in to prosecute, but how to do this?   Technological advents in surveillance and issuance of surveillance warrants made it possible for the FBI to build its cases against the Genovese, Bonnano, Gambino, et al crime families.  The agents in charge of the investigations had to rely on nerve and ingenuity to plant bugs in the Mafia bosses' homes, offices, and cars.    One agent arranged for phone and cable trouble in the home of Paul Castellano so an agent can enter his home disguised as a phone or cable company employee and plant the devices.

Many FBI agents, district attorneys, mobsters, and even Rudy Guiliani himself, who was the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York leading the prosecution of the mob in the 80's. 
Listening to Guiliani speak with such intelligence and passion about the tightrope which was the
case against The Commission (the name for the five families' conglomerate), it is both sad and baffling that he has since become a punchline while working as a Trump lackey.   It is difficult to see Guiliani interviewed and in archival footage and not think about his relationship with Trump.

Save for a few lapses, Fear City fascinatingly recreates the FBI investigation and replays snippets of the thousands and thousands of hours of surveillance tapes.    You would think you were listening to excerpts from Goodfellas, but the voices were of real mobsters making decisions on whether to kill someone or commit some other heinous crime.    They are chilling to hear.

After nearly a decade of building an intricate case against The Commission, the trial inevitably comes down to the jury decision.   150 counts and after five days of deliberation, Guiliani's confidence in a guilty verdict waned to the point where he was praying to whomever would listen to hear the word "guilty".   The eventual guilty verdict would end Mafia reign in this country as we knew it.   The former mobsters interviewed in Fear City understood this as well, and wound up leaving a life of crime.   

A subtext in Fear City is a mutual respect and fear between law enforcement and the mob.   Each has a job to do, and each side understood that.    Killing an FBI agent would bring unwanted heat down on a mob family, while killing a high-level gangster would erase years of hard work and investigation.   One mobster said to an agent who was sitting outside in a surveillance van, "You do what you gotta do, and I'll do what I gotta do.   If you get me, then you get me,"   Another agent said after hearing Paul Castellano on phone conversations for years, he felt a strange kinship with him; to the point where he sent Castellano birthday and get-well cards.    This was a world before No Country for Old Men, and further illustrates that movie's point. 

Mr. and Mrs. Smith (2005) * * *

Directed by:  Doug Liman

Starring:  Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Vince Vaughn, Adam Brody, Kerry Washington, Keith David, Stephanie March

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie mine these characters and for all they are worth.   They play a married couple named John and Jane Smith (likely not their real names) whose marriage is on the rocks and in counseling.   One reason for the discord may be a lack of honesty, because neither has divulged to the other what they really do for a living:   Both are professional assassins working for rival factions.   It isn't hard to understand why neither Mr. or Mrs. Smith would want to spill the beans on this potentially dicey topic, but circumstances make it impossible for them not to broach the subject.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith is an action comedy which builds to a climax full of gun play, car chases, fistfights, and gadgets which would make James Bond proud.   The buildup is more fun than the payoff, but Pitt and Jolie (who of course would soon become a real-life couple) have palpable chemistry, and this makes Mr. and Mrs. Smith much more involving than if we had the same plot with different actors. 

John meets Jane roughly five years prior in Colombia, where they spot each other in a hotel and become instantly attracted.    They fall in love and marry.   How it takes their employers five years to discover whom the other is married to is something not answered here.   But as far as John and Jane go, each stashes their weapons in secret hideouts around their suburban home, and both are pretty good at lying to the other about how their workdays went over Jane's homecooked dinners.  

This subterfuge doesn't last, and soon both John and Jane are contracted to kill the same target. 
John discovers Jane is a hired killer and vice versa, and soon each is hired to kill the other.   Will they be able to pull the trigger when the time comes?   Or will love prevail?   How do they even know they love each other because they don't know anything about each other's real lives?   In one of the better sequences, John and Jane tell some truths about themselves as they evade enemy gunfire. 

Vince Vaughn turns in some funny supporting work as John's right-hand man and fellow assassin, who shows unexpected loyalty instead of taking his company up on the $400,000 bounty placed on both John and Jane.   But, this is Pitt's and Jolie's movie to look good, kick ass, kill people, and even show some depth in places you wouldn't anticipate. 

Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (2020) * 1/2 (streaming on Netflix)

Directed by:  David Dobkin

Starring:  Will Ferrell, Rachel McAdams, Pierce Brosnan, Dan Stevens, Demi Lovato, Graham Norton, Mikael Persbrandt, Melissanthi Mahut

Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams reunite with their Wedding Crashers director David Dobkin in Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga, a title nearly as long as the movie's bloated running time.   I couldn't find a single laugh in the movie, and boy were they trying.   Ferrell does his schtick as the obsessive, oblivious Lars, who is singularly focused on appearing on Eurovision, Europe's most popular televised musical contest which launched the career of ABBA many years ago.  McAdams is his sweet and sincere best friend and musical partner Sigrit, who is inexplicably in love with him.   The Icelandic duo calls themselves Fire Saga, and manage through a series of accidents to appear on Eurovision and fulfill their dreams.    Ho-hum.

Fire Saga aren't horrible musicians, just rather ordinary.   Since there aren't any laughs to be had there, the movie relies on tired slapstick and homoerotic humor to squeeze whatever guffaws they can out of this thin material.    Pretty soon, Eurovision just starts to feel desperate.   Even McAdams and Dan Stevens, who plays a Russian contestant, and their considerable charms can't save the movie.
Eurovision may be trying to satirize the contest itself, but what good is it to satirize something which most of the streaming audience probably never heard of?    The contest appears to be played pretty straightforward, so what is the point?   Is Iceland being satirized?   How would we know if it is?
Is there something about Iceland's fishing industry just dying to be made fun of?

What's left is a lame romantic comedy in which the clueless Lars doesn't seem to realize Sigrit is in love with him.    There isn't much to Lars that would make Sigrit fall for him, since he's a juvenile loser who lives with his disapproving father (Brosnan-who is supposed to be Icelandic but can't shake his Irish accent).   Everyone in this movie speaks with an accent, which I guess is Icelandic but just as well could've been Swedish for all we know.   We have to take a moment to condition ourselves to the reality that this is one of those movies where the characters speak in tortured accents.

We also have a subplot in which an Icelandic banker actually doesn't want the Fire Saga to win because that means Iceland will host the contest next year and the nation can't afford to host it.    So, the banker tries to swing the contest through nefarious means to ensure Fire Saga doesn't win.    He doesn't have to try so hard, but the payoff ends abruptly and isn't funny anyway.    Ferrell is very hit and miss with his movies.    He's had some good comedies (Talladega Nights) and even a few dramatic winners (Everything Must Go).    But, when he picks a bad comedy, he really picks a bad comedy.   Eurovision is another example why Will Ferrell's crap-o-meter desperately needs a battery change.

Modern Love (2019) * * 1/2

Created by:  John Carney

Starring:  Dev Patel, Catherine Keener, Andy Garcia, Anne Hathaway, John Slattery, Tina Fey, Sofia Boutella, John Gallagher, Jr., Cristin Milioti, Gary Carr, Andrew Scott, Olivia Cooke, Shea Whigham, Julia Garner

Try as I might, I was unable to view the first episode of the eight-part anthology Modern Love, so I'll skip right to the second episode.   Modern Love tells eight different tales of Love in all of its imperfections, complications, and hey, it's even positive once in a while!   The second episode titled, "When Cupid Is A Prying Journalist" stars Catherine Keener as a reporter interviewing Dev Patel, a dating app founder whose own love life is in shambles after his girlfriend cheats on him.   The reporter is not unfamiliar with this territory, as she and the love of her life (Garcia) broke up many years ago in Europe.   Garcia returns to the scene and takes the now-married Keener on an all-night date, stirring up old emotions and regrets.   "Cupid" effectively documents two tales of lost love, and Keener's piece on Patel brings his story to a happy ending.

I won't review the episodes which follow in any particular order, but here goes:  The best episode of the series "Take Me As I Am, Whoever I Am" stars Anne Hathaway as Lexi, who asks out a handsome man (Carr) at the grocery store one morning and, after the man accepts, she is overjoyed to the point where she is dancing in the parking lot with brightly colored backup dancers behind her in an impromptu musical number.    You would think this would be hokey, until you witness when Lexi arrives home and she is suddenly depressed and stays in bed for days.   Yep, Lexi is bipolar and struggling mightily with it.   When she's up, she's really up, but when she's down, she is but a shell of a person.    Hathaway is remarkable (she rarely isn't) here, and Carr is also good as the poor guy who had no idea the Lexi who asked him out only shows up momentarily and can be snatched away at any moment.   The happy ending to this story isn't what you'd expect, but instead a breakthrough for Lexi as she finally learns to ask for and accept help for her condition. 

Another fairly strong entry is "Rallying to Keep the Game Alive", based on an article by Ann Leary about her marriage to her husband, actor/comedian Denis Leary.   Tina Fey plays the Ann character and John Slattery is Denis, her actor husband.   The couple is about to give up on marriage counseling and seem resigned to the fact that their marriage will break up once the kids leave home.   Then, the couple takes up tennis, and find it is one way to stay connected and focused on each other.   They even get pretty good at it.   Fey and Slattery are appealing actors who turn something which could've been overly melodramatic into a grounded, believable story about fear of the next phase of life. 

"So He Looked Like Dad.  It Was Just Dinner, Right?" stars Julia Garner (Ozark) as a young woman whose father died years ago and begins "dating" an older co-worker (Whigham) who reminds her of her dad.    I say "dating" because the older man thinks he is dating, and the young woman thinks she is having quality dad time with a man who isn't her father, but who fills a psychological need.   When he tries to kiss his younger date, she shoves him away in repulsion.   Well-acted by Garner and Whigham, the story ends on a hopeful note where both can finally be on the same page in their offbeat relationship.

"At the Hospital, an Interlude of Clarity" stars John Gallgher, Jr. and Sofia Boutella as a couple out on a first or second date interrupted by the guy having to go to the hospital after cutting himself.   The mismatched couple talk, find out about each other, and even grow to love one another in a segment which plays long and moves like molasses in January towards its inexorable conclusion. 

"Hers Was a World of One" is about a gay couple who take in the abandoned woman pregnant with the child they plan to adopt.    Andrew Scott (so good in Fleabag) stars along with Olivia Cooke as the pregnant woman with the rebellious spirit who grows more annoying by the second.   The men would be better off finding another child to adopt than to have to put up with this.   If there was an episode which felt like an hour, even though it was only thirty minutes, this is the one.

"The Race Grows Sweeter Near Its Final Lap" features Jane Alexander as an elderly woman who jogs, but serves more as an unnecessary dovetailing of previous episodes.    It was like a wrap-up show we weren't asking for.   Everybody's happy and in Love.   Yay!

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018) * *

Directed by:  Joel Coen and Ethan Coen

Starring:  Tim Blake Nelson, James Franco, Liam Neeson, Harry Melling, Tom Waits, Zoe Kazan, Brendan Gleeson, Saul Rubinek

The Coens anthology tribute to the Old West is something I can't make heads or tails of.   Broken down into six unrelated tales of the often romanticized West, the opening story starring Tim Blake Nelson as the singing, gunslinger crack shot title character is the best of the bunch.   Scruggs is a wanted outlaw, but he disarms those (and us) with his charisma and singing.   He can't possibly be the nasty guy he is purported to be, could he?   Well, he can be that mean fella if you start a fight with him, and many do with deadly consequences.    This story is part musical, part choreography, and mostly gets by on Nelson's charms as an actor. 

The second story stars James Franco as a bank robber who meets a sad, yet somewhat happy (under the circumstances) ending.  You'll see what I mean.    Franco's bank robber should've tried his hand at something else, because he has zero luck as a criminal.   

The third story, which works in its own quiet, ruthless way, stars Liam Neeson (who does not kick anyone's ass or blow holes in any bad guys here) as a businessman whose star client is an armless, legless British actor (Melling) who recites poetry and speeches from famous plays to ever-dwindling crowds.    With a shrinking profit margin and increasing overhead needed to feed and shelter his act, Neeson coldly looks at the disappearing bottom line and makes a cruel, yet financially necessary (in his mind) decision.   

Fourth story stars Tom Waits as a gold prospector who, after days of patiently and painstakingly attempting to find gold in a small river, finally strikes it rich only to have his partner turn on him.    This takes too long to build and leads to an ending which would surprise and even delight us if we cared more. 

Our fifth story starring Zoe Kazan as a young woman widowed while traveling on a stagecoach train out west.    We have a lot of stodgy dialogue in which Kazan and a would-be suitor use formality to hide their real feelings for each other, ending in a shootout with local Native American fighters. 
Yawn.

The final story involves a bounty hunter who tells his professional tales to a group of passengers on a train.   At that point, I was not inspired to watch the rest to see how it turned out, as the characters drone on endlessly.   Whatever payoff existed wasn't worth the journey.

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs paints the Old West in more violent and likely realistic terms than previous movies or stories covering the period and locale.   Buster Scruggs has convincingly dusty, dry, or even cold and dark landscapes with its top flight production values.   The movie looks right, but it's an ultimately overlong and overdrawn exercise. 

Proximity (2020) * 1/2

Directed by:  Eric Demeusy

Starring:  Ryan Masson, Highdee Kuan, Christian Prentice, Shaw Jones, Don Scribner

It's possible to have a low budget film that doesn't look cheap.   Proximity has a small budget, to be sure, and has a style reminiscent of schlocky sci-fi movies from three or four decades ago.
However, it is a poor man's Close Encounters, where our hero Isaac (Masson) is kidnapped by an alien spacecraft and after his story is dismissed by the media, he is chased by federal agents (I think) who channel Agent Smith from the Matrix movies.   Why are the agents after him and another young girl who had a close encounter (Kuan) is anyone's guess.    Are the agents aliens themselves?
They dispatch two Star Wars storm trooper knockoffs to follow Isaac to British Columbia, where everyone is searching for another man who was taking hostage by aliens three decades ago and returned to earth like Isaac was. 

The storm trooper fellas ride on motorcycles, and must receive strange looks and lots of questions when they stop for gas.   What's even more ludicrous is when Issac and his friends (including a hacker named Zed who seems to know where to find the British Columbia guy) travel by plane from Costa Rica to Canada and somehow, the storm trooper ripoffs manage to cycle all the way from Costa Rica to catch up with him.   Maybe the cycles are futuristic and run on some other type of power source.

It is tough to tell in which "present day" Proximity takes place.   Some of the technology (flip phones, older computers) seem to suggest maybe the early to mid-2000's.   I think the filmmakers used any equipment they could get their hands on, and hoped we wouldn't notice the outdated techno stuff. 
Proximity also lacks the goofy energy of a silly science fiction film.   It takes this story with utmost seriousness, and doesn't allow any fun into the proceedings.   Proximity seems to have been made with the belief that its audience has never seen a movie about aliens or alien abductions before.
But we have, and we've seen much better.

Point Break (1991) * * *

Directed by:  Kathryn Bigelow

Starring:  Keanu Reeves, Patrick Swayze, Gary Busey, Lori Petty, John C. McGinley

The Ex-Presidents are a group of bank robbers who confound local authorities and the FBI.   They enter banks wearing masks of former presidents, swiftly and efficiently take the money they need, and vanish quickly.   One veteran FBI agent named Pappas (Busey) has a theory:  "The Ex-Presidents are surfers,"  To his new rookie partner Johnny Utah (Reeves), the idea may seem ludicrous, until Pappas shows him a robber's tan line caught on camera and a strand of hair containing contaminants found at a popular California surfing beach.   Another clue?  Once the summer ends, so do the robberies.   The surfers rob banks to finance their surfing, and are on a quest to bankroll their endless summer.

Since Johnny is young enough, he infiltrates the surfing world to identify and track the Ex-Presidents.  It doesn't take long, for the leader is Bodhi (Swayze), who approaches his life of surfing and crime with equal Zen.   He takes a liking to Johnny, knows of Johnny's college football past, and soon brings him along on adrenaline-pumping excursions like skydiving and, of course, surfing.  Johnny even falls for Bodhi's ex-girlfriend Tyler (Petty), who shows Johnny the ins and outs of the surfing culture, and of course how to surf. 

Kathryn Bigelow, who would later win the first and so far only Best Director Oscar awarded to a female filmmaker, directs the action sequences with skill and Point Break has first-class production values which carry it along.    Is it preposterous at times?   Sure, especially when Johnny leaps out of a plane without a parachute in order to chase Bodhi, who has a parachute.   Would it surprise you that Johnny manages to catch up with Bodhi, land on him, and engage in fisticuffs while plummeting hundreds of miles per hour towards the ground?   If this does shock you, you're watching the wrong movie. 

But, there is also an energy to the performances as well.   Swayze has charisma and charm enough to lure the novice Johnny into his world.    Some of Reeves' readings are a bit awkward ("I am an FBI agent!), but we see the genesis of future action roles for him.   And Busey gives his best performance since Lethal Weapon as a burnout who finds purpose when his protege actually believes his story. 
All of this adds up to satisfying and effective action film with an ending that hits some poignant notes.  Bodhi finds what he was looking for his whole life: the perfect wave.   And we feel a bit of pity that it happens when it does.