Brexit (2019) * * *

Directed by:  Toby Haynes

Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Rory Kinnear, John Heffernan, Richard Goulding, Simon Paisley Day, Lucy Russell, Paul Ryan

Watching Brexit is like tearing a scab off of a wound.   The wound is now exposed before it is fully healed, and process has to start again from square one.    It doesn't matter if you aren't British when you see Brexit.    The 2016 campaign for the UK to leave the European Union eerily mirrors the 2016 U.S. Presidential election, with many of the same themes at play.    Fear, check.   Immigration is going to be the death of us, check.   Unsubstantiated accusations, check.    Social media databases plumbed and targeted, check.   A nation's voters ultimately voting against their best interests, check. A battle which got ugly and sometimes violent?   Definitely. 

How did Brexit come to pass?    The movie Brexit tells us how.   It is troublesome to understand that even though we have access to more information than ever before, people seem less informed than ever before.    The Remain side, led by then-Prime Minister David Cameron's director of communications Craig Oliver (Kinnear), spread their message through substance and facts, while the Leave side, piloted by political strategist Dominic Cummings (Cumberbatch), weaponizes fear, xenophobia, unsubstantiated claims, and racism to plead its case.   

Brexit is not a good vs. evil story, however.   It explains in fast-paced detail how the Leave side controlled the game, with the Remain side seemingly on the defensive and catch-up at nearly every turn.   As Oliver puts it, "we keep putting out fires the Leave side starts,"   Does this sound familiar?   The Leave message ultimately prevailed by a slim margin, but it seems the UK has been dealing with buyer's remorse ever since.    Three years later, an exit strategy to leave the EU is still not in place.  
But, that is of little consequence to Cummings, who as Brexit opens is looking for a job and trying to distance himself from the Brexit campaign.  

Cumberbatch's performance reminds us of his stellar work in The Imitation Game (2014).  In both films, he rubs his superiors the wrong way with his coarse manner and arrogance, but he knows his stuff and his message of "Let's Take Back Control," resonates with enough UK voters to win the referendum.    It is ironic that Cummings seemingly distrusts and dislikes most people, but finds a way to understand their fears and disenfranchisement.    What are they disenfranchised about?    It doesn't matter.    Being so is enough to swing the vote, and a social media database company opens up access to millions of unregistered voters to the Leave side, many of which are open to exploitation.

But, where Brexit stumbles is how it seems to want to paint Cummings as having something of a conscience.    Does he have one?    The movie clumsily suggests so, but it feels more like the movie hedging its bets, as if we would not be able to tolerate a story with an amoral main character.    The movie's attempts to humanize Cummings is a weakness, but not a fatal one.    Brexit is at its best when it confronts the overall feeling which allowed such a referendum to pass even though it is against the best interest of voters.    If there is anything the Brexit and Trump campaigns have taught us, is that voters are sometimes swayed by emotion over logic and fact.    Trump somehow convinced enough voters that he is the champion of the working class, and the Leave campaign convinced UK voters that setting a course on a ship bound for nowhere was also a good idea.    How's that working out so far? 

Dave (1993) * * *

Directed by:  Ivan Reitman

Starring:  Kevin Kline, Frank Langella, Sigourney Weaver, Kevin Dunn, Ben Kingsley, Ving Rhames, Laura Linney, Charles Grodin

In our currently combative political climate, watching Dave again feels like a breath of fresh air, and perhaps a fairy tale.    Dave is a political satire which doesn't mention liberalism, conservatism, Democrats, Republicans, or immigration.   The problems plaguing the nation in the time of Dave are financially driven and fixable.    How do we save shelters from closing?   By getting rid of programs which spend millions on ad campaigns so "people can feel better about cars they've already bought,"   Or maybe we should stop paying contractors on time for work they haven't completed.    Sounds reasonable enough.   Dave was made during, if not a simpler time, a time in which the responsibilities of the presidency were taken more seriously.

We first meet the stoic, charisma-free President Bill Mitchell (Kline), who sleeps in a separate bedroom at the White House from his wife Ellen (Mitchell), and, besides being engulfed in a savings and loan scandal, suffers a debilitating stroke during sex with one of his assistants.    While keeping Mitchell's incapacitation a secret from the American people, Chief of Staff Bob Alexander (Langella) hatches a plan:   Quickly find a lookalike to play the part of the President, and Alexander can pull the strings and run the country from behind the scenes.   The last thing Alexander wants is to hand the country over to "that boy scout" Vice-President Nance (Kingsley), who he plans to frame for the savings and loan fiasco.   

The lookalike falls from the sky in the form of a temp staff agency head named Dave Kovic (also Kline), who was hired as a stand-in when the Prez is having his tryst.    After some coaxing, Dave agrees to play the part of President permanently.   It's easy enough to avoid Ellen, since Mitchell rarely sees her, and things go as planned...until Dave actually wants to use his role to actually do some good for the country and have some fun at the same time.    This causes a slow, intense burn for Alexander, played with appropriate, sinister teeth-gnashing by Langella.    His monster has now grown out of his control.  

Naturally, Ellen won't stay on the sidelines.   Her passion project is a local homeless shelter for children which will soon be closed due to budget cuts.   She confronts Dave about the matter while he is taking a shower, which one would think would lead to discovery, but doesn't.   Dave promises to save the shelter, and hires his accountant friend Murray (Grodin, in a funny cameo) to help him sort out the budget.   As Murray pores over the confusing federal government books, Murray observes, "If I ran my business like this, I'd be out of business,"

Dave is satirical to be sure, but warm and with a heart.   The movie, directed by Canadian Ivan Reitman, still believes in utilizing the power of the presidency to do good.    The American people put their trust in the President to make their lives better, to paraphrase Dave during an important speech.   Kline brings just the right amount of everyman and decency to the role, with Weaver being his match.   The inevitable romantic complications are less interesting than the main event, and the final scene brings about a payoff which would lead to rumblings and questions by anyone with half a brain.  

However, the bulk of Dave fights for the positives a President can bring to enrich the lives of his (or one day her) constituents.    People in positions of power have that duty.   A President's job isn't simply to figure out how he will be re-elected in four years.   Even though the film was made twenty-five years ago, its message is more welcome now than ever before.

The 25th Annual Screen Actor's Guild Awards: Some Thoughts

At least this broadcast is kept at two hours, and while Megan Mullally hosted, after her initial monologue we forget she was the host.   She reappeared in a couple of segments which fell flat, and that was it for the very talented Will & Grace star.    This year's Oscars telecast is unlikely to have a host, and that is just fine with me.    Please, don't assume nature abhors a vacuum and fill the void with film clip montages.   Thank you.

The 25th SAG Awards yielded some thoughts about the upcoming Oscars.    The SAG awards are sometimes a decent barometer as to which way the Academy will lean in its acting categories.    The Best Motion Picture Ensemble is supposed to be the Best Picture of the SAG Awards, but it tends to go to the movie with the largest cast.    Black Panther won the Ensemble award, but don't count on it winning Best Picture.   

*  A Star Is Born's chances for Best Picture and any acting awards are dead in the water.   The film netted four nominations, the most for any film this year, but came away empty-handed.    Bradley Cooper again had to sit quietly and pretend to be happy that Rami Malek took home a Best Actor trophy instead of him.    Lady Gaga is clearly not going to best Glenn Close, and Mahershala Ali is on too much of an awards season roll to be tripped up at the Oscars by Sam Elliott.   Roma was not nominated for Best Ensemble, and A Star Is Born didn't even come away with that prize in Roma's absence.

*  Rami Malek may be more of a serious Best Actor contender than I realized.    I picked Christian Bale to win the Oscar for Best Actor and I stick by it, but Malek now has two major acting prizes.    Did Malek suddenly seize Bale's momentum?   

*  Malek played Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody, but lip-synced the musical performances.   Bradley Cooper played guitar and sang in A Star Is Born, and is now probably wondering aloud why he tried so hard after seeing Malek win again.    Bohemian Rhapsody's success in awards season continues to baffle me.    It plays more like a safe TV-movie of the week about Mercury than providing him with much life or insight.    Cooper's performance was much more resonant, although neither actor was as memorable as Viggo Mortensen's Tony Lip in Green Book.

*  The Best Supporting Female Actor award went to Emily Blunt for A Quiet Place, even though she was shut out of any Oscar nominations this year.    Oscar front-runner Regina King was not nominated for a SAG Award oddly enough, and neither Amy Adams, Emma Stone, or Rachel Weisz, all up for the Oscar, benefited from King's absence with a trophy here.   This solidifies my belief in King's eventual Oscar win.

*   There is a lot of union business discussed in the acceptance speeches and the address by Screen Actor's Guild President Gabrielle Carteris.    The audience at home relates to this union talk as much as they do when winners thank their teams and agents.    A big thanks to Patricia Arquette for reminding actors to make copies of their call sheets so they can be paid right.   Am I watching an employee union meeting at a factory or an awards show?   

Serenity (2019) *

Directed by:  Stephen Knight

Starring:  Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jason Clarke, Djimon Hounsou, Diane Lane, Jeremy Strong, Rafael Sayegh

It now makes sense why Serenity's trailers were so vague in an age in which they reveal almost everything about a movie but the end credits.    But, the trailers aren't hiding anything deep or next level, instead it is concealing just what an odd duck of a movie this is.    No worries.   The opening weekend box-office grosses suggest Serenity won't be around long enough to be discovered by audiences.   It will be available at Redbox quicker than you can say Serenity.

Matthew McConaughey stars and continues his string of duds since his Oscar-winning role in Dallas Buyers Club (2013).    The exception is Interstellar, but only barely.   Free State of Jones (2016) and White Boy Rick (2018) failed to impress, and now we have Serenity, which reunites McConaughey with his Interstellar co-star Hathaway and leaves both looking adrift in a bizarre story.   McConaughey plays Baker Dill, a chain-smoking, rum-guzzling fishing boat captain who is so intent on catching a massive, elusive tuna that he takes over the fishing line from his customers who pay hundreds of dollars to go deep sea fishing on his boat.    Baker's first mate Duke (Hounsou) not unreasonably objects to Baker wanting to catch the tuna himself, because this makes the paying customers mad.    The tuna is Baker's Moby Dick, for reasons revealed later if not exactly made clear.

The island on which Baker resides is seemingly in the middle of nowhere, and everyone knows everyone's business, which is discussed at the one bar on the island or in the local bait shop.    Baker lives in what looks like a converted mini-mobile, and "takes showers" by jumping naked off a cliff into the sea below.    When Baker is short on funds, he becomes a trick for a lonely woman (Lane), who has an off-putting habit of wearing a robe while having sex.   She pays him, and longingly looks out the window awaiting Baker's return.    What role will she play in the events to come?    None, as it seems.    Lane's character is completely unnecessary, although she won't be the only one.

Baker is seemingly an Iraq war veteran who came home to find his wife Karen (Hathaway) with another man and he lit out for this remote island while pining to see his son again.    One night, Karen reappears and offers Baker $10 million to kill her abusive husband (Clarke), who appears to be a rich asshole with a nasty streak just waiting to rear its ugly head.   Baker balks at this proposal, while Duke flat out tries to talk him out of it and a bespectacled, buttoned-up man in a suit tries to track down Baker and keeps missing him by twenty seconds.

Because the people behave strangely and the island is like no place on Earth, it is not difficult to realize all is not what it seems.    We see cutaway shots of Baker's son pounding away furiously on a computer keyboard while his mother and her no-good new husband argue in the next room.    But, when the twist is revealed, and then another twist on top of that one, I was aghast at the silliness of it all.    Serenity is maddening in its attempt to attach some deep meaning to these events and characters, and simply keeps burying itself in stupidity.  

Once everything is sorted out, it becomes understood Serenity is just biding its time until it can spring its Big Reveal on you, so I stopped caring.    Why bother investing my energy into something which I know isn't really real anyway?    The film's ending is supposed to be an emotional high, but how could it be based on how things turned out?    Are we expected to even care about anything by that point?    Serenity is constructed around its plot twists, without any thought to how ludicrous and telegraphed they are.    If Serenity is the best work McConaughey and Hathaway could find, McConaughey should stick to Lincoln car ads, while Hathaway should inquire as to whether a sequel to Les Miserables is somehow in the works. 

Roma (2018) * 1/2

Directed by:  Alfonso Cuaron

Starring:  Yalitza Aparicio, Marina de Tavira, Marco Graf, Diego Cortina Autrey

It took me a couple of days to gather my thoughts about Roma.   I read the glowing, almost genuflecting critical reviews and I started to wonder if something was wrong with me because I missed the boat.   Roma succeeds in authentically capturing a time and place near and dear to director Alfonso Cuaron's heart.    There is no doubt a personal attachment to Roma for Cuaron, but for me the movie wasn't just slow, it stopped.    Roma has a "you had to be there" feel to it, like someone telling a personal story or joke he or she no doubt thinks is hilarious or meaningful, but you sit there and nervously smile along for fear of revealing your boredom.

I have no issues with stories which quietly build characters and reveal their personal natures in dramatic ways.    But, Roma is stilted in the drama department.    We see things happen, but they are about as involving as an acquaintance's Facebook video clips posted on someone's timeline.   The person who shot them may adore the subjects, but all you see is people engaging in activity who have little if any connection to you.    Roma is more professionally photographed, but the effect is still the same.

Roma is not a movie about plot as much as it is a document.    The focus is Cleo (Aparicio), the maid for a well-off family in the Roma section of Mexico City in the early 1970's.   The family itself is undergoing some underlying tension due to a largely absent father who goes away on business seemingly for weeks at a time.    Cleo is considered part of the family, but that doesn't mean she won't be chastised for failing to scoop up dog poop in the driveway or keeping lights on.    Cleo herself soon becomes pregnant after hooking up with a friend of her cousin's.    The baby's father flees from her life right after she breaks the news to him, and she will soon face the prospect of being a single mother.    The movie soon drifts along quietly, and the lack of a score soon becomes noticeable, which I'm sure was Cuaron's intention. 

This may sound like the setup for a rich family drama, but Roma never builds to that or even a satisfactory payoff.    Shot in lush black and white cinematography, Cuaron adores the visuals to be sure, but the subjects are a crushing bore.    The reviews I've read for Roma highlight Cuaron's visual flair and emotional power, and I agree with the former while being completely not feeling the latter.    Roma means a great number of things to many people, but I can only speak for myself when I say the movie works aesthetically while failing on other levels.    Cuaron won an Oscar for directing the gripping space drama Gravity (2013), and is a skilled filmmaker, but Roma didn't resonate with me as clearly as it did others. 

Saints-Rams Refereeing Controversy: SMH

Yes.   Los Angeles Rams cornerback Nickell Robey-Coleman clearly committed pass interference on New Orleans Saints wide receiver Tommylee Lewis on the 3rd and 10 pass play with 1:49 left in the fourth quarter of a 20-20 game.   And yes, no flag was to be found anywhere on the field.    It was an egregious no-call, which cost the Saints an automatic first down at the spot of the foul and a chance to continue to drive for a game-winning touchdown or at least a game-winning field goal attempt with little or no time left on the clock.   But, did it cost them the game?   No.  

I know this is not a popular opinion; nor one which people, especially Saints fans, want to hear, but the game's outcome was still firmly in the Saints control as it became clear the Saints would not benefit from a pass interference call.    But the Saints kicked a go-ahead field goal which put them up 23-20, but then the Rams drove down the field into Greg Zuerlein's field goal range and by the end of the fourth quarter, the game was tied at 23.    The Saints then won the coin toss and the offense had first crack at the ball in overtime, but Drew Brees threw a costly interception which the Rams turned into a game-winning 57-yard field goal by Zuerlein which sent the Rams to Super Bowl LIII and the Saints and their fans to misery.   And insanity.

Saints coach Sean Payton was furious, and continued to express his displeasure to referee Bill Vinovich and his crew even while the game was still going on.    As a poker player, I know what it is like to suffer a bad loss on a hand and go on tilt.   That is what Payton did.   His comment after the game, "We will never get over this," was very revealing.   He sure didn't get over it while the game was still happening, and it cost the Saints.     The Saints went on tilt, and never recovered from the bad break.    Again, I know this is not a popular opinion, but the results speak for themselves.

So, what has happened since?   Two Saints fans filed federal lawsuits against the NFL, while many more demanded Commissioner Roger Goodell order the final 1:49 of the game to be played again.    I'm sure he will get right on that.    Saints fans want to hold a parade to honor the Saints anyway even though they did not win the NFC title.    Louisiana's governor and a member of the House of Representatives from Louisiana called for a congressional hearing.   What, we don't have more pressing matters the House should be attending to right about now?   

Let me be clear by stating the refereeing crew made an indefensible non-call of an obvious pass interference penalty.   The league office will likely take action against the official who failed to throw the flag.    Maybe there is some merit to looking into adding pass interference penalties as part of the review process.    I don't think it is wise to stop the action every time there is contact between defenders and receivers because the game will take five hours.    And don't tell me it is worth it to have a game be five hours long as long as the calls are right.   Baloney.   Let's see how patient you are when you have to sit through a five-hour game.   You can add pass interference to the list of reviewable plays, but let the coaches determine if they really want to throw a challenge flag before having it reviewed and potentially burning a time out on a failed review.   I don't feel adding five more challenges to each coach is the way to right this supposed wrong.   

But, are we really going to say the Saints have never benefitted from refs keeping flags in their pockets?    Earlier in the same game, the refs missed a face masking penalty against the Saints on Rams quarterback Jared Goff which would've added 15 yards to their drive.    I wasn't hearing about congressional hearings when that happened.    Refereeing is an inexact science.    Calls are missed.  Flags are sometimes thrown when they shouldn't be and not thrown when they should be.   Teams benefit from this and are sometimes burned by it.   It balances out during the course of a game or a season.   

It is easier to blame a handful of referees for heartbreak than it is an entire team you love.    The Saints had a lead erased twice during the NFC Championship game, including a 13-0, 20-10, and 23-20 lead.    The fans are champing at the bit to hear the league office comment on the matter.   What could they say but the call was blown?    What confession would fans like to hear which would assuage their outrage?    Assuming we add pass interference to reviewable plays, then should be add holding?   Face masks?    Blocks in the back?   

The Saints caught a bad break.   No doubt.   At some point, they likely benefitted from getting away with a penalty also.    We can't be calling for Congressional hearings every time hometown fans experience heartbreak from perceived outside forces.    In nearly every circumstance, there is still plenty of game to be played following the error.    Bad breaks happen.   Errors suck, but there are errors and always will be in the world of sports.    But, Congress has enough on its plate without worrying about why the New Orleans Saints aren't playing in next week's Super Bowl in Atlanta.    

Overboard (1987) * * * 1/2

Directed by:  Garry Marshall

Starring:  Kurt Russell, Goldie Hawn, Edward Hermann, Katherine Helmond, Michael Hagerty, Hector Elizondo, Roddy McDowall

While the 2018 remake of Overboard had its charms, the original 1987 comedy works just that much better.    Russell and Hawn have undeniable chemistry, not surprising considering their decades-long relationship, and the supporting cast doesn't just stand around acting grateful to be in the same scenes as Russell and Hawn, they create some hilarity of their own.   

The plot is sly fun.   A working-class carpenter named Dean (Russell) is contracted to build a new shoe closet aboard the yacht owned by the haughty, filthy-rich, and bored Joanna Staten (Hawn).   Dean finishes the work, but Joanna is not satisfied because of some ticky-tack reasons and, after a verbal dispute, she tosses Dean's tools and Dean himself overboard.    He is out his money and his tools, and plots revenge, although how he would accomplish isn't known until fate and opportunity intervene.

Soon after, Joanna falls overboard while at sea and swims to shore with amnesia.   She has no idea who she is, but is still insufferable to the local hospital staff.    Dean sees the story on television and has a plan:   He will pretend to be her husband and take her home to have her work off her debt to him and make her life hell.    Dean, a single father with four out-of-control kids, lives in a pig sty of a house which looks like it has never been cleaned, and can barely contain his grin when he gives Joanna a laundry list of house chores. 

Since Overboard is a romantic comedy, we know Dean and Joanna will fall in love, but it is done more or less logically and touchingly.   Joanna learns how the other half lives, and becomes a better person for it.    Even Dean learns from the experience to be a better father and a potentially fitting partner for Joanna, if the whole lie about their relationship wasn't in the way.    Joanna's husband Grant (Hermann) meanwhile, takes off after learning of Joanna's dilemma and parties on the yacht.    He only reenters the scene when Joanna's even wealthier mother (Helmond) forces him to find her or be cut off.    Also on the scene helping Dean keep up the false front is his pal Bad Billy Pratt (Hagerty), who realizes more quickly than Dean that he and Joanna belong together.

Overboard transcends simply being a romantic comedy and takes it a step further.   It is just as interested in having its characters grow, mature, and transform into better people.    As Joanna's long-suffering butler Andrew, Roddy McDowall has a scene with Joanna which rings absolutely true, and nails the point home.    Director Garry Marshall, who made other successful comedies about familial relationships like The Flamingo Kid (1984) and Nothing in Common (1986), makes extra effort to make Overboard something special and lasting.