Free State of Jones

First Hit:  Ambitious telling of a few southern men who really wanted to be free of the South’s prejudicial way of life.

The film begins with Newton Knight (Matthew McConaughey) carrying a wounded soldier into a field hospital. Showing intelligence and compassion, he strips off the soldier’s uniform and replaces it with an officer’s and announces that he’s got a captain that needs assistance.

Because he’s an officer the wounded soldier gets help. In this simple scene we are shown the compassionate leadership qualities in Knight. When his son Daniel (Jacob Lofland), by his wife Serena (Keri Russell), gets killed, he loads him up on a mule and deserts the Confederate Army, a corporal offense, and returns the body to his home.

Serena, distraught, packs up their youngest child and leaves the area. Because he’s now a wanted deserter, Knight has to hide out in the swamp with escaped slaves. One day, while protecting a poor farmer's wife and daughters from Lt. Barbour's (Bill Tangradi) pillaging their corn, hogs, and supplies, he's discovered by the Confederate Army raiders which now want to chase him down and prosecute him.

Of course the rich landowners were not pillaged and were also protected from losing any of their property. Knight ends creating a small society of other deserters and former slaves whose goal is to live free with equality among all men. Moses (Mahershala Ali) is one of the slaves who becomes a strong leader in the movement to rid the South of their prejudicial ways.

Newton falls in love with Rachel (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), who is another slave who fled their owner and they have a child together. This story becomes very complex because this growing group of freedom fighters, fight the Confederate Army and the Klu Klux Klan to earn freedom from oppressive citizen attitudes and a government learning how to enforce the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights.

To re-enforce the difficulty of these changes, Rachel and Newt’s son is shown in court as an adult because he’s partially black and wasn’t allowed to marry a white woman.

McConaughey was well suited to this role. His down home nature and natural leadership qualities are well represented here. Russell is strong as the first wife who leaves and comes back to be very supportive of the movement. Trangradi is very good and brings the right attitude to his character. Ali is powerful as the former slave who embraces his freedom in all ways. Mbatha-Raw is sublime as the movement’s supporter and eventual wife of Newt. Gary Ross wrote and directed this ambitious effort. Although I think he bit more off than could be chewed in this film, his representation of the changes the South went through was excellent.

Overall:  This film sheds light on a man whose tombstone accurately states: “He lived for others.”

Genius

First Hit:  Strong acting and intense scenes made this film “Genius.”

I loved the intensity Jude Law put into defining Thomas Wolfe as a wildly imaginative and talkative man.

I’ve no idea how Wolfe actually was, but there was a believability in the constant flow of non-stop dialogue that really worked for me. His verbose and expressive nature supported the extremely large manuscripts he brought in to Max Perkins’ (Colin Firth) office.

Perkins who was editor for F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway was clearly the kind of person who could manage Wolfe. Imagine supporting this verbose author to edit down a five-thousand-page manuscript by cutting over 90,000 words into something both printable and readable.

Perkins, being very centered and with five daughters, found Wolfe both interesting and almost like his son. Wolfe was living with and being supported by Aline Bernstein (Nicole Kidman) who fed him and helped him in a muse type way all while she was producing plays. This film set in the late 1920s – mid 1930s, was well staged.

The sense and feel of Max’s office, the street scenes, and the view from Wolfe’s first apartment were spectacular and reflective of the times. The intense dinner with Perkins, his wife Louise (Laura Linney), Bernstein, and Wolfe was filled with forceful possessive dialogue and ended up defining all four characters.

Louise, a playwright on her own, being shunted aside while the jealous Bernstein and flamboyant self-serving Wolfe monopolizing the discussion and Max, as usual, being peacemaker. I fully bought into the script and thought the direction of the characters was superb.

Firth was fantastic. I loved that he wore a hat most of the time as it was very reflective of his style and the times. Law was intensely amazing. He had me believing the forceful and penetrating inner life Wolfe was leading. Kidman was perfect. I love how she can express so much in such a controlled way. Linney was sublime as Firth’s wife and keeper of their home while supportive of Max’s drama filled client’s lives. John Logan wrote an excellent screenplay. Michael Grandage did a wonderful job of keeping the film moving along and allowing the characters to breathe.

Overall:  I thoroughly enjoyed the interplay of all the characters in this film.

The Man Who Knew Infinity

First Hit:  An interesting film about a fascinating individual whom I knew nothing about.

I knew nothing about and had never heard about Srinivasa Ramanujan (Dev Patel) a young Indian man who, without any formal mathematical education, spewed out amazing mathematical theorems.

For him they were intuitive. natural and were derived directly from God. Being Hindu, vegetarian, and supremely focused on the formulas that came to him through long sessions that were combined with praying, he was an anomaly in the world of mathematics.

Being buried in the poorest sections of Madras, unable to get a job so that he could have a home with this wife Janaki (Devika Bhise), and no one believing what he was creating as valid, he thought his work would die with him. On this third letter to scholar mathematicians in England, G. H. Hardy (Jeremy Irons), a Fellow at Trinity College in Cambridge, saw potential greatness and sponsored Ramanujan to visit him in England.

Upon his arrival Hardy and Fellow mathematician Littlewood (Toby Jones) began to work with Ramanujan to learn how to prove and publish his theorems. As this was during the time of WWI, Cambridge was bombed and Ramanujan became ill with tuberculosis.

The film takes the audience through, his battle to prove his work, his loneliness of missing his wife, and finding a way to be seen as an equal to his mathematical peers.

Patel is excellent as Ramanujan. I believed his character and got an idea of the struggle Ramanujan must have had. Additionally, he looks a lot like the real person. Irons was strong as the socially awkward, atheist mathematician who believed in Ramanujan but also wanted this new mathematician to have the same scientific rigor that all mathematicians are held to. Bhise had a small role but her love, angst and loyalty to her husband was sincerely palpable. Jones was great as Hardy’s friend and mathematician side-kick. Matt Brown both wrote and directed this film and it was obvious that he cared about sharing this story.

Overall:  It was more of a learning lesson to me about this amazing mathematician whose work is still being used and explored.

Papa Hemingway in Cuba

First Hit:  A mediocre attempt to share the final days of Hemingway in Cuba while watching his creative demise through alcohol.

I liked the idea and concept of this film but segments, especially with Joely Richardson (as Mary Hemingway), felt as though either the screenplay or the acting was forced and poorly executed.

The idea that Ernest Hemingway (Adrian Sparks) responded to a letter that reporter Ed Myers (Giovanni Ribisi) wrote him resulting in an invitation to Cuba to meet Hemingway was creative. However, there didn’t seem to be enough energy between the two despite the screenplay that wanted Myers feel as though Papa was going to take the role of his own family.

There were scenes that were very engaging between the two, like when Hemingway accused Myers was ratting on him to a mafia guy. Conversely there were numerous scenes where I wondered why Myers was in Cuba.

Scenes of Hemingway taking over conversations to up his ego by telling stories about himself may have been representative to the real Hemingway, however, when Mary started calling him on his self-centered behavior in public the film and acting didn’t engage me as being right or truthful. The general scenes of Cuba were OK, but I think there could have been more to share and Hemingway’s compound, although it may have been representative, was atypical of how Cuban’s live.

Richardson’s Mary Hemingway was uneven because the two different personalities she displayed didn’t seem to fit well. Ribisi’s character was strong and I didn’t buy that he was a writer because we didn’t get snippets of his craft, only praise by other characters. Minka Kelly as Myers’ girlfriend was very good and I enjoyed when she was on the screen. Sparks’ Hemingway was strong and I bought his character flaws and all. Shaun Toub as Hemingway’s long term friend Evan Shipman was very good. I loved his character as the supportive friend. Denne Bart Petitclerc wrote a screenplay that was erratically strong and challenged. Bob Yari’s direction felt uneven.

Overall:  This film was interesting in some ways and mostly to learn more about Hemingway’s later years.

Miles Ahead

First Hit:  Oddly entertaining and playfully interesting, this atypical biography kept me watching.

Because Don Cheadle signed on as both director and main character, he must have wanted to connect with Miles Davis the man and his music.

As the film opens it's the 1970's and we immediately delve into the quirky, singularly self-focused, and angry life of Miles Davis as he sits in his messy apartment, headphones on, listening to a reel to reel tape. He’s focused on the sounds which the audience cannot hear.

A knock on the door gets reluctantly answered and there stands Dave Brill (Ewan McGregor) who says he’s a reporter for Rolling Stone Magazine. Punching Brill in the face is the greeting Miles gives.

Together they go to Columbia Records and try to get money for what might be on the tape. However, Columbia states they already own the tape by contract. The obvious unspoken drive is that Miles needs money for drugs.

The film awkwardly goes between present day (1970’s) of the film and his past life (1945) including the love of his life, a dancer, named Francis (Emayatzy Corinealdi).

The awkward transitions do not belie the important information gained, but it makes the film difficult to enjoy. Although I understand the importance of the tape (his future), the focus on its theft and capture didn’t help the film’s story. However, in the end as we learn what is on the tape and what has happened, we see the importance of the next person who understands Davis’ approach to music.

One scene that stayed with me was when Miles discussed how he broke music down to core components to see and learn how to “free it up”. As you might expect, the music in this film was superb.

Cheadle was really strong as Davis. He brought the kind of independent intensity that made Miles’ the innovator he was. McGregor was good as the reporter and supporter of Davis’ quest to own and control his music. Corinealdi was very good as Davis’ wife who struggled under Miles’ increasingly drug fueled paranoid nature took hold over their marriage. Steven Baigelman and Cheadle co-wrote this screenplay that seemed to suffer by the storyline used to document/film part of Davis’ life. Cheadle did direct some wonderful scenes as well as scenes that weren’t as strong. The segues were not well done.

Overall:  It was interesting to get a glimpse of the genius residing in this musician.