Battle of the Sexes

First Hit:  Thoroughly enjoyable, entertaining and educational.

What makes this film work really well are the actors and clear direction that added insight into one of the most outrageous and important moments in women’s sports history.

Being old enough to recall the original battle of the sexes tennis matches (both one and two), it was important to make it true to the story while adding depth of character. That is what this film did. Learning more about Billie Jean King (Emma Stone), her husband Larry (Austin Stowell), Bobby Riggs (Steve Carell) and their paths was powerful, clearly defined and heartwarming.

King wanted equal money for the women who played in the same tournaments that men played in. Receiving less than 10% of what the men earned in winning the U.S. Open was degrading to women and women’s tennis everywhere. She wanted equal pay because they put people in the seats just as well as the men.

USLT (United States Lawn Tennis) leader, tennis great, Jack Kramer (Bill Pullman) told King that this wasn’t possible and that men were just better, stronger, and more interesting tennis players. Being rebuffed on her request, she and Gladys Heldman (Sarah Silverman), founder of World Tennis magazine decided to start their own tennis tour.

This tour got off to a rocky start but when Virginia Slims (cigarette maker) started sponsoring their events with real prize money, women’s tennis started to take hold and capture their supportive audiences.

Then there was incurable gambler Bobby Riggs who lived very well off of his wife’s money. Priscilla (Elisabeth Shue) loved her husband, his funny ways but struggled with his constant gambling. Fed up after he comes home with a Rolls Royce he won in a card game, she kicks him out of the house.

Nowhere to go, Bobby as a former Wimbledon singles, doubles and mix doubles tennis champion, he carries through with an idea one of his gambling buddies comes up with. Could a fifty-five-year-old former Wimbledon champ beat the best women’s tennis player? Capitalizing on this idea, he hounds Billie Jean to play him and offers her $35K. She refuses him and eventually Bobby calls on the new women’s #1 player, Margaret Court (Jessica McNamee) to take on the challenge. She does and gets publicly trounced by Bobby in two straight sets. As expected this hurts women's tennis and therefore Billie Jean decides to make this right.

All through this Billie slowly is discovering she is attracted to women, which in those days was not well accepted. The scene where Billie becomes gob-socked by her attraction to a woman was amazing. As she’s getting her hair done for photos just prior to their first Virginia Slims tournament, the hairdresser Marilyn Barnett (Andrea Riseborough), starts touching Billie’s hair and you can feel them both melt away. This was one of the best, most effective scenes in the film because of the acting and direction. I sat there and felt Billie Jean breaking down and opening up with barely any words spoken.

Of course, as we all know, after the Court fiasco, King plays Bobby and makes history.

The tennis was extremely well done. The director recreated many of the winning points just like they actually happened. Billie and women’s tennis did get invited back into the USLT tour for equal pay because of Billie Jean’s perseverance and skill.

Learning what drove Billie Jean as a little girl to excel in tennis, how her husband supported her throughout her personal discovery and how chauvinistic men thought of women was superbly covered.

Stone was amazing. The scene of her sitting in the hair salon meeting Marilyn for the first time was amazing. How she slowly evolved Billie’s character towards acceptance of both her tennis greatness and her attraction to women was sublime. Carell was perfect. He played Bobby just as we saw him on television. But what made this really work besides the physical likeness was giving his home life honest depth. Risenborough was wonderful as Billie’s first lover. Pullman was great as Kramer. Silverman was exquisite as the woman who put together the Virginia Slims tour together out of nothing. Natalie Morales as co-tennis player Rosie Casals was super. She reflected the persona of the real Rosie. Shue as Riggs wife was perfect. It was wonderful to see Shue again and her reflection of a wealthy woman of the era was spot-on. Stowell was good as Billie Jean’s understanding and supportive husband. McNamee was good as tennis rival Margaret Court. In real life Court’s current homophobic rants echo the subtle opinions her and her husband expressed in the film. Alan Cumming as Cuthbert ‘Ted’ Tinling tennis clothing designer for the women on the Virginia Slims tour was excellent. I liked his encouragement to King at the end of the film. Simon Beaufoy wrote an excellent script. He caught all the nuances of the time and I appreciated it. Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris as co-directors were spot on in all ways. I loved how they integrated television clips of the time, 1973, (Howard Cosell and Chrissy Evert among them) into a film made in 2017. Their vision was sublime.

Overall:  For anyone interested in knowing how today’s women’s tennis stars got the equal money recognition they deserve, see this film.

Everest (3-D)

First Hit:  Having read Krakauer’s book, the film was generally weak and disappointing.

I do not read many books that are tuned into films and I had read this book when it first came out.

Because it was some time ago, I hoped to just view the film without the prejudice of the book in the back of my mind. However, there was little or no back story as to why Scott Fisher (Jake Gyllenhaal) was the way he was. In fact the backstories were minimal and the attempt to build them during an evening when Krakauer (played by Michael Kelly) asked “Why” the climbers were climbing Everest fell far short of providing the needed information.

The audience needs to know why the characters are doing what they are doing - it is the primary set-up job of the director and scriptwriters. The gist of this story has too many people climbing Everest as part of their bucket list. With so many untrained and unskilled people trying to climb Everest we know something is going to happen.

Having been to Lukla, Namche Bazar, Tengboche and Kala Pattar, I’ve seen Everest reasonably close. I’ve seen hikers/climbers tossed onto the backs of Yaks to bring them expediently down the mountain because of altitude sickness. There just doesn’t seem to be enough respect for the mountain.

Rob Hall (Jason Clarke) had developed a company that took less experienced people up to the top of Everest. One of his rivals was Fisher. They are different in their attitude towards the mountain and they team up to try to get both their parties up and down the mountain safely. I heard this from the first time I hiked in to Lukla, “Everest makes its own weather”.

Having flown over the Everest from Gonggar airport in Lhasa, Tibet, seeing the way the wind whips across the top and the ridges the statement seemed so true. In this story a weather front comes in and seals the fate of many climbers who didn’t put their safety over the goal. There are great shots of Khumbu Icefall and the treacherous ladder bridges.

One of the best stories out of the book and one of the main stories in the film is of the rich arrogant Texan Beck Weathers (Josh Brolin) who ends up surviving the trek but ends up with a severe case of frostbite. The other sub-story is of the wives and supporting women of the men (and one woman) climbing the mountain.

The worst part of the film for me is seeing (and it is true) how much garbage and oxygen bottles are left on the mountain (from Base Camp on up) - lack of respect for nature.

Clarke was OK as Rob Hall. I didn’t believed his character but that could have been the direction. Gyllenhaal was OK, but with a lack of a backstory I just kept wondering why he acted the way he did. Kelly as Krakauer seemed like a very minor character, however his book raised the awareness of Everest and these climbers. Brolin was very good as the abrasive ego centric Texan. Emily Watson as Helen Wilton was strong as base camp manager. Keira Knightly was very strong as Hall's pregnant wife waiting for him to return for the birth of his daughter. William Nicholson and Simon Beaufoy wrote a weak script that really developed only 2 characters (Hall and Weathers). Baltasar Kormakur directed the film and given the intensity of the event and the decisions that were made, I was very disappointed in the result.

Overall:  This film did not deliver a very intense story.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

  First Hit:  Longer than it needed to be and despite some good acting it certainly didn’t catch fire.

I enjoyed the first of film of this series and was hoping that this middle film in the series would hold up.

Unfortunately it didn’t mostly because Francis Lawrence didn’t keep the film crisp, moving along, and with a clear end in sight. From an acting point of view Jennifer Lawrence was strong as Katniss Everdeen and it was obvious that she was hampered by the script.

The basic story is that Katniss and Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), winners of the 74th Hunger Games, are moving public opinion against the government. Therefore President Snow (Donald Sutherland) wants these two to go on tour to each of the districts and soothe the citizens. However, it doesn’t happen and the government, under the guidance of Plutarch Heavensbee (William Seymour Hoffman) – chief game engineer, decides to pit a selection of the surviving Hunger Games winners against each other. By doing this Katniss will probably die and hope could be extinguished.

Many of the faces in the previous film are part of this film like Cinna (Lenny Kravitz) who is Katniss’ dress designer, Cesar Flickerman (Stanley Tucci) as MC of the Hunger Games television program, Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks) as stager of Katniss and Peeta, and Haymitch Abernathy (Woody Harrelson) as a Hunger Games winner and coach.

Jennifer Lawrence was very good as Katniss although, she seemed to be constrained by the script. Hutcherson was strong as the guy who loves Katniss but she doesn't return it. Sutherland seemed totally un-leader like and un-presidential in his role. I don’t think it was his fault but the issue resides in a week script. Tucci does the most with his role and, as before, was outstanding. Kravitz role is minor, yet his makes his presence known. Banks was OK as the stager, and Harrelson was strong as the coach. Lastly, Hoffman was good, but the telegraphed way the script had him show that he was part of the resistance, was poor. Simon Beaufoy and Michael Arndt wrote a lazy, long and uninteresting script. Francis Lawrence had some nice staging but overall the week script kept this film long and not very interesting.

Overall:  A mediocre middle film in this series.

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

First Hit:  This was a very delightful film to watch.

Sheikh Mohammed (played by Amr Waked) believes that by introducing Salmon fishing in Yemen, his countrymen will learn patience while creating a new food resource, (with the fish and using the water to make the desert green) and an appreciation for life itself.

Harriet (played by Emily Blunt) works for a British investment company that manages much of the Sheikh’s money. There is a skirmish in the Middle East and the British and 10 Downing Street want to deflect the negative press by creating a feel good story.

They pick this idea of introducing Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. The guy charged with this from the fisheries department is Dr. Alfred Jones (played by Ewan McGregor). He scoffs at this idea and turns them down.

But the Prime Minister guided by his press secretary Patricia Maxwell (played by Kristin Scott Thomas) orders Alfred to take the project on. At home Dr. Jones’ married life is very sterile and the defining moment is a scene where he and his wife make love. Harriet is involved in the project because she is the lead for the Sheikh.

One of the themes in this film is “faith”. The Sheikh poses the discussion of faith at various moments and he does this effectively. The humor between the uptight Dr. Jones and the open Harriet was perfect.

Although this film is formulaic, it executes in its own unique way.

Waked was beautiful in his execution of the Sheikh’s role. The “1,000 apologies” statement when he has an argument with a fellow countryman was perfect as was his fishing in his robes. Blunt is amazing in her performance. She can be vulnerable, strong, and beautiful all in the same moment. Here she does this perfectly and her voice – simply intoxicating. McGregor was sublime as an uptight intellectual who prefers talking with fish versus humans. As he unfolds his life in-front of the Sheikh and Harriet, he unfolds his life in front of himself. McGregor was extremely effective doing this. Scott Thomas was funny and in full bloom in this characterization of an overzealous PR person for a head of government. Simon Beaufoy and Paul Torday wrote a fun and poignant script. Lasse Hallstrom directed this film with a wonderfully perceptive hand while paying attention to the subtle details that make films good.

Overall: This is a joyous and enjoyable film – worth watching.