Saving Mr. Banks

First Hit:  A well told story based on an interesting personality.

I’ve never read any of the Mary Poppins series of books nor have I seen the Disney film based on the books and I found that it isn’t necessary to enjoy the film. That is a very good thing.

Here we have T.L. Travers (played by Emma Thompson) living in England and running out of money. She doesn’t care about money because of things her father said, but she loves her home. Walt Disney (played by Tom Hanks) has made a promise to his daughters that he would bring Mary to the big screen. He spent 20 years trying to convince Travers to let him do this.

With her money issues she comes to the US and stubbornly tells Walt, give me the contract, record on audio tape all the development sessions and I’ll let you know at the end of two weeks whether I'll sign the rights away or not. 

The working sessions with Robert and Richard Sherman (played by B.J. Novak and Jason Schwartzman respectively) were testy and frustrating for all of them with Travers saying “no, no, no” more than any other set of words. Don DaGradi (played by Bradley Whitford) the producer was in the mix all the time and tried his best to soothe the oil and water mix of creative people.

Disney would continue to intercede, talk with Travers and even took her to Disneyland (the happiest place on earth). When she refuses to sign the rights over, heads back home, Walt follows here there and with a bearing of his soul about his own childhood she sees he’s out to make good and that he gets her protective angst of her stories.

The audience is treated to her past story with segues of her life growing up in Australia. If you see this film, stay through the credits long enough to hear part of one of the recording tapes from which the film is based – true to form.

Thompson plays her somewhat unsavory character excellently. Her actions come from the fear of exposing her childhood experience and family. Colin Farrell plays Travers Goff T.L.’s father and he is very good at bringing the angst of alcohol abuse and fighting Tuberculosis. Paul Giamatti as Ralph, T.L.’s driver while in Los Angeles, was priceless. He slowly massages T.L. into understanding herself in a different way. Tom Hanks was very good as Walt Disney and the signature wave Walt used is mimicked perfectly. Novak and Schwartzman were amazing and perfect as the Disney song writing team. Kelly Marcel and Sue Smith wrote an outstanding script which appears to have come, in part, from the recorded tapes. John Lee Hancock directed segments, Travers past childhood and the work with Disney, with wonderful touches of brilliance.

Overall:  Almost made me want to see the film Mary Poppins.

Dallas Buyers Club

First Hit:  A very strong, poignant and wonderful story about wanting to live.

This story highlights the fear of and struggles with HIV/AIDS in the mid-1980s. Ron Woodruff (Matthew McConaughey) lives a really hard life.

He’s an electrician, bull rider, while trying to un-protectively screw every woman he sees. He’s drunk or high much of the time and in today's terms he lives, what we would call, an extremely risky life. Ron and his friends are homophobic and take pride in being “real men”.

The opening scenes of him screwing a woman in a bull stall while peeking through the fence at a bull rider being thrown from his mount which segues into him taking bets and drinking and hitting a cop tells a specific story. Due to an accident while trying to fix an electrical connection, he ends up in the hospital.

The doctors, after doing numerous blood tests on him, tell him he’s got HIV/AIDS and has about 30 days to live. He’s denies he’s got a homo disease, but his predicament catches up and catches hold in his mind and he begins to learn about his disease. He cannot get dosages of AZT which has been shown to both help fight the virus but in doing so breaks down the immune system completely. As an alternative for himself and others, he goes to Mexico and gets drugs (protein and other antiviral concoctions) and sells them to others who are suffering. He then learns that selling unapproved drugs is illegal so he starts a Club where people pay monthly memberships and get their drugs for free (patients self-administer).

Keeping the club alive for himself and others who are suffering is rough going because the government wants him and other clubs like his, shut down. Helping him develop his club is gay crossdresser Rayon (Jared Leto) and Dr. Eve Saks (Jennifer Garner) who walks a fine line until she sees that her hospital’s philosophy is not assisting HIV/AIDS patients is not helping.

McConaughey will be nominated for his portrayal of Woodruff. He physically and mentally did what it took to climb into this role and share the story of a man who lived more than 2,200 days past the expiration date he was given of 30 days. He powerfully showed how humans will do what it takes to survive. Leto was absolutely amazing as Rayon and will probably be nominated for a supporting role. Garner was very good as a doctor attempting to toe the line of her job and also act with empathy towards her HIV/AIDS patients. Denis O’Hare was excellent as the head doctor and administrator holding the line of policy. Craig Borten and Melisa Wallack wrote an amazing script and Jean-Marc Vallee delivered Oscar worthy direction.

Overall:  A very powerful film about human perseverance.

12 Years a Slave

First Hit:  A very powerful film about a man’s abduction into slavery.

Despite serving active time in a war, it is hard for me to believe man’s inhumanity to man, as expressed in this film.

In this film, we are witness to a true story of how Solomon Northup (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor), a “free black man”, was abducted in Washington DC, shipped to Louisiana and sold to a southern slave owner. Northup is intelligent, talented and strong in spirit, and to stifle himself while submitting to slavery so that he doesn’t get beat to death is difficult. The story follows Northrup as he is transferred from owner to owner while being beat, ostracized by fellow slaves and then admired by his fellow slaves because of his ingenuity. All the while he keeps wondering how he can escape and get back to his family in upstate New York.

The acting of slave owner Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender) and his wife (Sarah Paulson) is outstanding. Tibeats (Paul Dano) and Freeman (Paul Giamatti) are also impactful in their roles as managers and traders of slaves.  Then there is transcendent acting in the roles of Patsy (Lupita Nyong’o) and Ejiofor. That is not to say anything less of the acting by the rest of the crew – it was brilliant.

Letting the story settle within me over the last 18 hours, I realize how profound the story reflects how far we’ve come as a country and how much farther we must go.

The taglines of the film stating that the people who abducted and held him illegally escaped punishment were profoundly disappointing.

Ejiofor embodied the character so fully and completely that when he finally comes home his tears were his and all of ours for the injustice we do to each other. Fassbender, in an unenviable role, was amazing at being the selfish, arrogant, and self-centered slave owner. Paulson as Fassbender’s wife carried her frustration and meanness towards her husband’s fondness to Patsy perfectly. Dano in a brief but important role was perfect. Giamatti was amazingly cruel as the seller of slaves. Nyong’o was sublime as Epps’ slave love interest. All the acting in this film was amazing. John Ridley wrote a profoundly detailed script from the real Solomon Northup’s book. Steve McQueen expertly directed this film. My only criticism of the film was its length but I couldn’t name a scene that I’d remove.

Overall:  This is an Oscar caliber film and it will be honored so at the Academy Awards.

The Fifth Estate

First Hit:  Although interesting, don’t think I learned much about Assange through its 2+ hours.

This film is very topical in that the US Government just sent Bradley Manning to prison and Edward Snowden is now living in Russia.

The tie between these two is the publication of documents showing the underbelly of our government. However, the film and camera spends a lot of time on Julian Assange (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) but outside a few statements about his past, he ends up being an enigma. Do his decisions make sense? Sometimes.

Does he really believe in what he is doing? It appears so. Does he use people? If the film is to be believed, yes at times. One statement in the film that seemed to fit the character as Cumberbatch portrayed him was: “Julian is out for himself.” For the 2+ hours we float from scene to scene watching and waiting to see how Wikileaks handles the exposure of a plethora of US Government documents.

The suspense is minimal, because we know the answer already. The worst part of the film is that it didn’t leave much of a lasting impression about Assange. I did feel compassion for Daniel Berg (Daniel Bruhl) as he was a believer of Assange’s drive and belief, but ended up feeling betrayed by him.

Did the film move forward the Wikileaks cause? I don’t know. My personal dilemma with Wikileaks is that, although I think exposure of information is really good, if it is posted anonymously, one has to trust that the information is fully validated before it goes public; else it becomes a personal bitch Yelp posting. So far so good; I can only hope it stays that way.

Cumberbatch is excellent at giving the illusion of an enigma of a person. Bruhl is really good as Berg and I could feel him become a believer and how he provided traction to the cause. Daniel Domscheit-Berg and David Leigh wrote the book on which the film is based and it shows the elusiveness of Assange. Bill Condon seemed lost, as we spend 2+ hours getting to the big test of Wiki Leaks but the breadcrumbs along the way weren’t necessarily interesting or engaging.

Overall:  Maybe this film comes too early in Assange’s life. It might have been a better film if there was in-depth character development – as there was none here.

Captain Phillips

First Hit:  Tom Hanks is Oscar worthy as was Barkhad Abdi in their respective roles although the film is longer than needed.

This is a great story of two men from different cultures with different objectives colliding.

We meet Captain Phillips (Hanks) with his wife as he heads towards the airport to be dropped off for another trip. He’s a rules guy and wants his crew to shape up – he takes his job seriously. Just as he’s testing the crew on their readiness, a set of boats are approaching fast.

As he discerns that they are pirates, he implores his crew to follow procedure and lock-down the ship, hide, and don’t take chances. He on the other hand, will take intentional chances to keep his crew, the ship and the cargo safe.

Muse (Abdi) is leading a small group of pirates to hijack Phillip's ship and take it back to Somalia for “millions of dollars”. His "boss" has control of Muse's village and forces them to hijack ships or their village will suffer casualties. The ship he attacks is a US registered ship and the US Navy isn’t going to let his dreams of millions come true.

That’s the overall plot. But the action is the dialog between Phillips and Muse. It is intense, crisp, and objective driven.

Director Paul Greengrass uses hand-held cameras and for the most part makes effective use of them by not shaking them just for shakings’ sake. Ships use space effectively and there are a lot of close quarters so his use of these cameras is required to make this film work.

Where the film didn’t work for me was that we are required to spend well over an hour (of a 2+ hour film) waiting for it to get toward the inevitable conclusion. It just seemed to me that some of the extended scenes in the lifeboat weren’t needed.

Hanks is phenomenal. He will win an Oscar nomination for best actor. His final scenes of going through the shock of his experience were transcendent. Abdi’s performance was equally remarkable as Hanks. His intensity as expressed through his eyes showed through. He deserves a best supporting actor nomination for his portrayal of the “Captain” of the hijackers. Everyone else was good. Billy Ray wrote an engaging script and Greengrass did an extraordinary job of bringing this true story for life.

Overall:  Although too long, this is a great story and film to watch.