Greed

First Hit: Confusing movie about important subjects; income discrepancy, responsibility, and revenge.

I’m not very sure on how to write this review as the disjointed presentation of the subjects mentioned above left me wondering about the film’s intent.

At the end of the movie, next to still photos of the film’s scenes, we are given information about how clothing designers, companies, and sellers make billions of dollars of profit while the people who sew the clothing make as little as $2.47 for a 10-hour day of work.

The overall story follows Sir Richard McCreadie (Steve Coogan), Greedy McCreadie, as he’s referred to by many, from his high school days when he left school, focused on making money to his 60th birthday party. As we learn, he was always conniving someone to play cards or playing a game called find the queen. If not that he finds ways to buy something low and sell it high.

How he got into the fashion industry was more of an accident than a purpose. From a part-time endeavor, McCreadie excelled at the art of negotiating extremely low clothing manufacturing prices. Seeing an opportunity to make a lot of money with these skills, he decides to open a clothing store, and it becomes very successful. We see him in various scenes negotiating rock bottom prices. We also see the aftermath and conditions these workers work and live under given these negotiated low manufacturing costs.

The film’s plot centers on McCreadie’s preparations for a 60th birthday party that he’s giving himself in a Greek Beachside villa. We know it is expensive because he’s trying to spend less than £1,000,000 for entertainment. He’s also invited some celebrities, and because many cannot make it, he hires celebrity stand-ins. One funny bit has McCreadie looking at these stand-ins in the makeup room, and when he says, and you’re George Michael, the guy says “yes,” and McCreadie looks at his assistant and says, “well how’s that going to work, George Michael is dead.” They are also building a small version of a coliseum where there will be a gladiator scene with a real lion.

Then there are vital scenes showing McCreadie’s privileged ways by wanting the refugees who are living on a public beach removed because it won’t look good for the guests. There are scenes where a government agency is questioning McCreadie about his businesses, the number of bankruptcies he has gone through, how he has all his assets in offshore accounts and countries so he can live so well. In contrast, others that work for him or his manufacturers suffer.

Then there are the personal relationships. McCreadie’s son Finn (Asa Butterfield) hates him, as revealed, by his open discussion about killing his father. His ex-wife Samantha (Isla Fisher), is still very close with him, and as we discover early in the story, she care-takes much of his offshore money.

Lastly, the revenge component is shared through a couple of characters. All through the film, we track McCreadie’s official biographer Nick (David Mitchell), who is probably weak and influenced to write a positive book, as he is talking with family and party attendees.

One of the key people who is planning and setting up the party for McCreadie is Naomi (Shanina Shaik). We learn of her decades long dislike for McCreadie’s ways because a decision by him, got her mother fired. Naomi’s mother had to find another job and ended up in a factory that burned down where her mother suffocated to death. Naomi has a sincere dislike for McCreadie. Her unattachment from the revenge she gets is a fascinating subject that stayed with me for hours after seeing the film.

Coogan is rather good as this arrogant, self-aggrandizing, prick of a man.

The scene in which he chastises a color decorator in a new store location about the interior color and he holds up a Fuchsia sample is funny and sad. What’s precious about it is that later scene we revisit this store, and nobody wants to shop there because of the color. McCreadie rails at the staff, who pick this color? Fisher is compelling as the ex-wife who lays back and reaps the benefits of her ex-husband's ways. Mitchell is terrific as the hesitant biographer. In the end, his understanding of Naomi’s actions is well done. Shaik was probably the best in this film. Her compassion for the Greek children living on the beach, finding ways to make everything work, and her explanation for pushing the button was sublime. Butterfield was keen as the intimidated son who just wanted to be seen, heard, and respected. Sophie Cookson (as the daughter Lily McCreadie) was great as the daughter trying to live a Kardashian life by having her every moment filmed. The scene where she gives food to the homeless on the beach is so telling. Michael Winterbottom both wrote and directed this film, and I just didn’t think it came together well. The oddly timed switching between different scenes, McCreadie’s early life, the party, and being questioned in front of the government committee were not well placed. It came across as confusing.

Overall: There are good points made by this movie, but the confusing story made it difficult to piece it all together.

Stan & Ollie

First Hit: This is an outstanding, beautiful, love story about how two men spent their lives together making audiences laugh.

Like a married couple, Stan Laurel (Steve Coogan) and Oliver Hardy (John C. Reilly) spent years of their lives together. In that time together, their bond of respect and friendship developed while on the road doing shows and making films making people laugh.

This film begins with the men doing a scene for a movie in their heyday. They are kibitzing in a trailer talking about the number of marriages Oliver had, all the money he had to give to these ex-wives, and his love for the ponies. The scene they shoot is one of their favorite dance routines, and it is a sight to behold.

Stan, on the other hand, was always working, writing, and thinking of gags for the duo to use in their films or stage act. As they enter the set to shoot a scene, Stan wants Oliver and himself to start their own production company because they do all the work and manager-producer Hal Roach (Danny Huston) and the film company is making all the money. Stan can get out of his contract, but Oliver cannot. They split up.

We see a brief scene where Oliver does a movie (“the elephant film”) with someone else.

The film then shifts to sixteen years later, and they are in their sixties. Their old movies still show in theaters, but few people see them, and they receive no royalties for their work. They both need money and Stan, who has never stopped working, is attempting to get financing together for a Laurel & Hardy film version of Robin Hood. To help them finance the film and to demonstrate their draw, they decide to tour England, Ireland, and Scotland to drum up interest. The hope is that the possible financier will see them in a London show.

The tour starts slowly, and they play tiny second-rate houses, stay in second-rate hotels, and the crowds are small. However, the people who do come to the shows, love them. Harry Landon (Richard Cant), their tour organizer decide they have to do some promotional newsreels. So, the film shows them promoting their shows and all of a sudden, the theaters are packed and their playing in front of audiences of 2,000.

When they reach London their respective wives, Lucille Hardy (Shirley Henderson) and Ida Kitaeva Laurel (Nina Arlanda) show up to see the big show in one of London’s most prominent theaters.

Lucille and Ida are a hoot together and separately as they are very different people and care about their husbands differently. However, the tour has been tough on both, especially Oliver. His weight challenges his heart, and his ability to move has been difficult. Then the underlying animosity, because Oliver did a film without Stan, comes out in a public argument.

Oliver has a mild heart attack and decides to retire. Stan tries to go on with a British replacement, but he cannot, it’s not Oliver, his partner, friend, and original cohort.

As the film winds up, Stan and Oliver do one more show and do their dance routine, it is sublime and brought such joy to my heart watching them.

Reilly was amazing. His expressions and ability to be Oliver Hardy was beyond anything I thought he could do. I was transported to 1957 as a little boy laughing out loud watching Laurel and Hardy on our black and white television. Coogan was equally fantastic as Stan Laurel. His routines, the one with the egg, were sublime. Arlanda and Henderson, Laurel and Hardy’s respective wives, were hilarious. I loved watching them snipe at each other and then, when watching their husbands’ last show, holding hands. Huston was superb as Hal Roach as was Cant in his role. Jeff Pope wrote a divine script. Jon S. Baird took this script and these amazing actors and made superb, finely crafted film.

Overall: I thoroughly enjoyed watching this film and would watch it again.

The Dinner

First Hit:  Could have been more interesting and watchable without the distractions.

The previews had led me to believe that this might be a strong film about two estranged couples having dinner resolving an issue involving their sons. However, it seemed to be mostly a deep dive into Paul Lohman’s (Steve Coogan) mental illness and how his family works around it.

Paul and his wife Claire (Laura Linney) are meeting his brother Congressman Stan Lohman (Richard Gere) and his wife Katelyn (Rebecca Hall), for dinner at a very exclusive restaurant. Paul does not want to go, and we see him fade in and out of being present with what is going on. He is fascinated with the battle of Gettysburg.

Throughout the film, the director lobs us into Paul's fantasies, his issues with teaching students, and difficulty staying with and on one rational thought and discussion. Not that this wasn’t warranted to understand Paul’s state of mind, but that it did this so much and that the loud distorted sounds used during some of these scenes was difficult on my ears, and very distracting to the story.

All of this gets thrown into this dinner, where Stan gets interrupted by his aid to help get votes on a mental health bill he’s created. Each of the dinner guests, occasionally gets up and leaves the table for 10 or more minutes. The service, although exquisite, gets broken up by the transient way the dinner guests sit and leave. When a conversation starts at the table, it gets railroaded by Stan leaving to deal with a legislative issue, or Paul’s rants, or Claire and Katelyn’s attempts to settle the feuding brothers.

We are given additional hints at Paul's inabilities to deal with life when we learn that Claire had cancer and Paul struggled to visit his wife and take care of their son Michael (Charlie Plummer). Stan and his first wife Barbara (Chloe Sevigny) tried to intervene in Paul’s difficulty but was rebuffed. Stan and Barbara had two kids of their own Rick (Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick) and Beau (Miles J. Harvey) who Barbara and Stan adopted. Despite the broken relationship between Stan and Paul, the boys hung out together.

The subject that finally gets fully aired is that Michael lit a homeless person on fire while Rick watched. Beau threatened to make their murder public which will ruin the boy’s lives and Stan’s run for governor. We learn that Paul was not informed when it happened and he’s upset, Stan wants to turn the boys in and the mothers’ want to keep it quiet because the police have not figured out who was responsible for the death. They hope the event will be forgotten by the public.

As I previously stated, I really disliked the myriad of segues into Paul’s psychosis. I disliked that there was so little direct conversation around the dinner and only when the group goes into a small private room at the restaurant that there was any real discussion. I disliked the sound track of noises during Paul’s altered states.

However, I did like the dialogue that came up around being truthful and paying attention to one's conscious. Additionally, questions about right action and how best to keep family together were also very interesting. Overall, I thought the acting was very strong.

Coogan was amazing in his portrayal of a mentally ill man who could, at times, be very clear and wonderful. Linney was clearly strong as well. Her support and ability to calm Paul down and keep him somewhat present was very good. Gere was excellent as a congressman who also discovered he had to start showing up to his family. Hall was outstanding. Her big scene was telling Stan how she’s the one who has held his family together, raised boys, and showed up for and to him every day, was perfect. Plummer was strong as the boy who’s got struggles and issues needing assistance. Adepero Oduye (as Congressman Lohman’s assistant Nina) was very good in how she kept her cool during the dinner and when pushed by Katelyn. Oren Moverman wrote and directed a convoluted and confusing script and screenplay that overdid the segues into Paul’s neuroses.

Overall:  Although the subjects of family, family history, doing what is right and dealing with mental illness are good subjects, this film meandered and wasn’t clearly focused.

What Masie Knew

First Hit:  Extremely well-acted film about a young girl surviving her parent’s egos and righteousness.

The first scene is hearing Susanna (Julianne Moore) and Beale (Steve Coogan) fighting. The audience hears the cutting remarks, each person downgrading the others’, careers, parenting ability and egos.

Masie (Onata Aprile) sits in her room, listening – expressionless. You see that he’s heard it all before, again and again. Susanna is a “has been” rocker who is trying to find her career again. Beale is a businessman dealmaker and he’s trying to chase down a new deal down.

It is obvious their own career struggles affect their conversations with each other. Masie loves her parents and they profess their love for her. The time comes; Beale and Susanna get a divorce and unknown to everyone, except Beale and Margo (Joanna Vanderham), the current nanny, Beale gets custody of Masie and Margo moves in with Beale.

They quickly get married and the shocked, angry and upset Susanna decides to do one better, so she thinks by marrying a bartender named Lincoln (Alexander Skarsgard) she hangs out with. She tries for custody again but her anger and lack of emotional stability keep her from getting Masie. All through the missed custody pickups and angry phone calls, Masie soldiers on with maturity and strength. It becomes clear that the two non-parents, Lincoln and Margo care more about Masie’s day to day welfare and their actions show it.

The scenes of New York, the locations of the apartments and the whole atmosphere of this film were very good and reflective of the characters and story.

Moore was very strong as the aging rock star and her drive to let nothing get in her way of coming back. Coogan as the more calming parent is good. Aprile is fantastic as Masie and I suspect that if she continues to act we’ll see more of her. Skargard is very good as the flunky bartender who has a heart of gold. Vanderham is genuinely wonderful as the nanny who is slowing beginning to see how she was being used. Nancy Doyne and Carroll Cartwright wrote a very strong and insightful screenplay. Scott McGehee and David Siegel co-directed this film with sensitivity and clarity – well edited.

Overall:  Very good film.

The Trip

First Hit: At times very funny, insightful and interesting and at other times repetitively slow.

This film is about two friends, Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, on a road trip through northern England to tour the finest restaurants.

Originally Steve was to do this trip with his girlfriend Misha (played by Margo Stilley) but she left him before the trip started, so Steve contacts Rob to go with him. Interestingly they are both very different in their lives as we learn while watching them on the trip, but they also share some aggravating habits and behavior.

The first joke to me was that they were on a road trip to taste the fine cuisine of England. Although there are some fine restaurants in England, the country isn’t known for its fine food, not like France or Italy.

The differences in their lives is expressed in how Rob is happily married to a woman who loves, understands and accepts him. They have a baby daughter and when we watch him converse with his wife over the phone, we feel his love.

Steve, on the other hand, is separated from a woman he loves. He is very jealous and insecure when we see him converse on the phone with her and then he turns around and sleeps with other women he runs into while on this trip. In those scenes we get the sense of how meaningless these encounters are because all we see of the intimacy is the woman leaving in the very early morning and Steve’s non-caring look.

They both are actors, comedians and impressionists. Steve longs for a big film role and Rob is quite happy with his “little man in a box” routine. Rob’s forte is impressions which are on display non-stop throughout the film. Some of them we have to hear over and over and over again. Steve is quite sarcastic to his friend and challenges him with his own version of the same impressions (one ups man-ship). They get a little testy during these exchanges over dinner but they are quite happy when they are singing songs together while driving.

Steve has a penchant for sharing his knowledge whether anyone else wants to hear it or not. His comeuppance is when he climbs a rock and gets bridled by an elderly gentleman who knows everything there is to know about the rocks they are standing on. Don’t think Steve quite gets that he is just like this intruder but the audience does. In the end, Rob goes home to his loving family and Steve goes home to his cold empty flat.

Coogan is pretty much himself I think. I don’t know him but it didn’t seem like this was a role for him but just showing up as he is. The same thing can be said about Brydon. Again I don’t know him, but the film seem to express these two as they are. Stilley had a short and somewhat lifeless part as the woman who loves Coogan, would like to settle down with him, but sees that he is still searching for his inner peace. Coogan, Brydon and Claire Keelan wrote this script and I dare say it was a bit longer than needed. Although I thought the Woody Allen impressions were the highlight, 6 less Michael Caine impressions would have made it work better. Michael Winterbottom directed this and overall did a good job of giving the look and feel of northern England and British humor.

Overall: This was an OK film with some very funny parts but a bit long overwrought.