End of Watch

First Hit:  Very well acted film about the bond between two police officers in South Central LA.

One of the very best things about this film was that it wasn’t about a huge crime event, or the solving of a particular crime.

This film is about the relationship of two very different people, Officer Brian Taylor (played by Jake Gyllenhaal) and Officer Mike Zavala (played by Michael Pena) and the trust they have with each other.

The film walks us through the antics of the officer’s headquarters meetings, the different personalities on the force, and their dialog in the car as they cruse South Central. Officer Taylor is a bachelor, has identified his dating process from beginning to end and that it seems endless.

Officer Zavala has married his high school sweetheart and he is completely happy in his home life. Zavala has a child on the way, while Taylor only wishes about having a meaningful conversation with a woman after the third date.

Together they complement each other in how they do their job, their special skills, and how they can accept and embrace each other. When Officer Taylor meets the woman of his dreams Janet (played by Anna Kendrick), it is great to see and watch his subtle shifts as he realizes much of what Officer Zavala has told him about what love and marriage is really about.

As Police Officers, they are heroic (house on fire scene), ballsy (walking into the large party scene), and brave (as they work themselves out of a fire fight scene).

The best thing about this movie is that they show these things as to demonstrate their characters as people and police officers, not as crime solvers and preventers.

Gyllenhaal was very very good as the officer who learns what is really important in his life. Pena was excellent as the officer who knew his place and what was important in his life. Natalie Martinez (as Gabby) was wonderful as Pena’s wife and support system. Kendrick was really very good as Taylor’s girlfriend and wife. Her scene in the bedroom with the video camera was excellent. Dominique (as Wicked) was strongly wicked and took over her scenes. David Ayer wrote a very strong script which highlighted the characters differences in a very natural way. His direction was spot on and using Officer Taylors hand-held camera for some of his shots was a good choice.

Overall:  What I liked about this film is that it put the crime in perspective to their lives and not the other way around.

The Master

First Hit:  Really great acting doesn’t lead to an interesting story or film.

Two extremely powerful performances by Philip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix and one very strong performance by Amy Adams were presented but it didn’t tell much of a story.

This film seems to be conflicted between telling a story about Freddie Quell (Phoenix) and Lancaster Dodd (Hoffman). The film starts interestingly enough following Freddie as he leaves the Navy a confused and probably psychotic man. He drinks all the time and creates alcohol based liquid concoctions which Dodd tells him are amazing.

The first hour or so we travel with Freddie as he gets and loses jobs and women. His one respite from a damaged lifestyle is that he is smitten by Doris a very young girl from which he restrains himself. When he stows away on a boat Dodd is using to go to New York, through the canal, he is discovered and taken on as a pupil by Dodd.

“Processing” is the go word to the cultish religion Dodd is leading with his wife Peggy (Adams). When Dodd enters the film, the film fights with itself about what story to tell, the one about Quell finding his way through life or Dodd the founder of a Scientology like faith.

This battle, the great acting, or a cohesive story, has this film falling far short of what it could have been.

Phoenix is absolutely amazing beyond belief. His Quell is someone very difficult to understand or have empathy for, yet compelling to watch. One needs to have a seat belt on when watching the roller coaster Phoenix takes us on. Hoffman, on the other hand is stoic, grandstanding, and regal in a commanding performance as the head of this new found faith. He demands and gets the attention of everyone in the film and sitting in the audience. The moments where he breaks his regal stance, like when he barks at a follower (Laura Dern) who questions his change in path in the second book, is powerful at seeing his vulnerability. Adams is excellent as Dodd’s wife and fellow creator of this new faith. Dern is fantastic as a devoted follower. Paul Thomas Anderson wrote a script for great acting but not a very good story. But, as director, got amazing performances from his cast and the feel of the fifties, was extraordinary.

Overall:  This could have been a great film, but we are left with great performances.

Trouble with the Curve

First Hit:  Although very predictable, it was enjoyable as a "feel good" film.

Gus (played by Clint Eastwood) is as gruff and unlikable as can be. This is the kind of role that he’s been taking lately which has me wondering about his ability to actually act differently.

He plays a baseball scout who is going blind, has a daughter who is as driven and as stubborn as he is in her job as a lawyer, and has some awareness that he is starting to lose his physical abilities. His daughter Mickey (played by Amy Adams) is named after Gus’ favorite baseball player Mickey Mantle.

She is angry at her father for abandoning her and not really talking with her when they meet, about once a week, for dinner. She’s quick to leave their encounters and most of the time I didn’t think she worked hard enough to create a constructive conversation.

She goes with him on a scouting trip because she notices her father is failing and Gus’ boss Pete (played by John Goodman) asks her to. They meet up with a Boston Red Sox scout named Johnny (played by Justin Timberlake) who was once recruited by Gus but his arm burnt out early in his career.

The scenes between Mickey and Johnny are some of the best in the film because the better acting in the film is done by these two. Although the film is very predictable, especially when peanut boy throws a bag of peanuts at the next great hope Bo Gentry (played by Joe Massingill), it works well enough to sit through.

Eastwood seems and feels very constrained in this grumpy role. I think he’s comfortable in the role, but it is so confined at times that it is almost painful to watch. Adams, is good as the abandoned daughter who wants to let go of her anger and let love enter her life. Timberlake is the best thing in this film. He’s so relaxed and just a joy to watch. Goodman is OK as Gus’s boss. Randy Brown wrote an expected script in that each next scene and the final outcome was always known. Robert Lorenz didn’t put anything new, interesting or powerful in this film.

Overall:  Enjoyable fluff, perfect for a lazy Sunday afternoon family DVD watch.

Arbitrage

First Hit:  Although not much about how the finance business works, the character study, at times, was pretty good.

While we are still coming out of a huge financial meltdown and with Europe continuing to have financial troubles, I would have liked to see more about how the financial system works, doesn't work or gets manipulated.

There have been some films, like Margin Call, which have done this recently. What this film does, is give you a look at how a man named Robert Miller (Richard Gere) deals with a mistake he makes with an investment judgment.

At first there is a sense that the film’s main character Miller is like Gordon Gekko, arrogant and the only important thing is MONEY. But then Miller's character shifts a bit and seems more like Bernard Madoff with his family tied into the family business but not knowing how he kept a separate set of books.

The film takes place over a week and if he can’t find anyone to buy his company by Friday it all blows up. Miller’s wife Ellen (played by Susan Sarandon) seems to know all of what is going on, but stoically carries on with her charities.

Brooke (played by Brit Marling), Miller’s daughter figures out the problem, that her father is cooking the books, and is shocked and dismayed. Their dialogue was some of the best in the film. I also enjoyed the dialogue between Miller and the potential company buyer James Mayfield (played by Graydon Carter). Although their conversation was, at most, 5 minutes, it was riveting.

The side story about Jimmy Grant (played by Nate Parker) helping Miller out of a jam when he gets into a car accident, which kills his lover, and leaves the scene (think Kennedy and Chappaquiddick) carries much of the film. This is unfortunate because what could have been a great financial thriller ends up being a poor film about bad character.

Gere’s beady small eyes are great for his sneaky ways as a financier. Outside of this he does a pretty good job of emoting his calm, in charge, exterior while his total world falls apart. Tim Roth as Detective Michael Bryer is too laid back, lazy, and filled with spite to be good. Sarandon was next to horrible and un-emotive as Miller’s wife. She didn’t portray her character in a way that would make her remotely desirable by Gere. Laetitia Casta, as Gere’s girlfriend Julie was neither interesting, attractive or worth watching. Marling was a joy to watch in her role as a daughter whose trust of her father falls away with her own discovery. Carter in his brief part was very effective. Parker as the young man who assists Miller was very good. Nicholas Jarecki wrote and directed this poorly constructed film. Instead of it being called Arbitrage it needed to be call “dilemmas”.

Overall: I think the full-theater audience I was sitting with was interested in a financial thriller but ended up seeing a standard film about a man in a dilemma.

The Words

First Hit:  It started well, fell flat in the middle and fell off the cliff in the end.

Clay Hammond (played by Dennis Quaid) plays a writer of acclaim who’s written a book people are very taken by.

We slip reality/time/space venues (but were not supposed to know it) and watch Rory Jansen (played by Bradley Cooper) struggle to be a writer. His adoring wife Dora (played by Zoe Saldana) supports his struggle and believes in him. His first self-reflective and deep novel is rejected by all publishers. He gets a regular job deliver mail in a publishing house.

On his honeymoon he finds a briefcase which has a typed manuscript inside. It reflects a story around WWII in Paris. He decides to type it up word for word and publish it. The real author as an old man (played by Jeremy Irons) reads it and makes himself known to Rory.

Rory is panicked, Dora is upset, and his life is turned upside down. So now we have viewed the story and life the old man wrote about, the story of Rory and Dora which is laid on the first story, with Hammond relating this all as a story.

Even worse we have to get to know Hammond a little towards the last 1/3 of the film and it is mediocre.

Quaid was a poor fit as Hammond the author and worse as he bared his truth to a younger admirer. Cooper was good but thought he was hemmed in by the part. Saldana was very good and more interesting than her husband the author. Irons was oddly crusty and philosophical about his plight. Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal both shared writing and direction roles. This is probably why the vision and execution of this story was mixed up and unclear.

Overall: This film wastes the words used to tell these stories and, in the end, it felt gimmicky and doomed to any good acting that could have been delivered.