Nebraska

First Hit:  Great acting in a very good story.

This is a story about an aging alcoholic man living in Billings Montana hoping to make a final splash for his family.

Woody Grant (Bruce Dern) is a retired auto mechanic, who sits around drinking his life away. His wife Kate (June Squibb) complains about Woody all the time. Clearly there is a long history and they must have loved each other, once.

Their sons David (Will Forte) and Ross (Bob Odenkirk) do their best to assist their parents with David doing the most because he lives close by. Woody is convinced that he is the winner of a million dollars from a magazine publishing group. He cannot drive any longer so he decides to walk to Lincoln Nebraska to collect his winnings.

After getting jailed for walking on the freeway, David decides to help his dad by taking him to Lincoln to learn that there is no such prize. The film is about Woody revisiting his childhood, his drinking, his family, and his life. In doing so he opens a window to his sons to see him more fully and despite her complaining, how their mother loves him.

Dern fully becomes Woody – there was no Bruce Dern – amazing and probably Oscar worthy. Forte was really wonderful as the son who helped his dad and in-turn helped himself. Odenkirk was strong as the older, more successful brother. Squibb was an absolutely amazing. Her turn as Woody’s wife was bold, pointed, and wonderfully funny. Stacy Keach as old friend Ed Pegram was very good. Tim Driscoll and Devin Ratray as Bart and Cole respectively were really great as two doofus relative brothers of his. Bob Nelson wrote an excellent script and Alexander Payne’s direction of this beautifully shot film was wonderful.

Overall:  This is a very strong film with top flight performances.

Philomena

First Hit:  Outstanding in every sense of the word.

Martin Sixsmith (Steve Coogan) has lost his job with the government because of an incorrect story attributed to him.

Being a former BBC journalist, he’s going to go back to writing. He’s got an air of arrogance of self-importance because of his previous positions with the government and the BBC. While at a party an editor asks if he’s interested in writing a human interest story and if so please contact her. He scoffs at this. A server from the same party speaks with him about writing about her mom Philomena (Judi Dench) as a way to find out the truth about the child that was taken from her at an early age by Catholic nuns.

He decides to meet Philomena. She tells Martin the story of how she lost her child, Antony, while at a convent in England. As he listens to the story you can see him slowly become engaged. I won’t give the story away here because the film does a superb job of sharing this information, but it is enough to say the nuns aren’t necessarily Jesus like in their actions.

The film has multiple levels: There are the differences between Philomena and Martin in their beliefs in God and religion. There is the difference between the importance of a human interest story and its impact on things. Martin was use to big and important stories.

There is the difference around what is private and public. In all cases Martin and Philomena both learned a lot about each other, life and the truth. Lastly, there is the bigger picture of will this human interest film be as interesting as a bigger, action based, blockbuster film? 

The writing in this film is phenomenal while the acting razor sharp, on target and terrific. Pulling this all together was director Stephen Frears who knew how to tell this story.

Dench is spot on perfect and amazing. Coogan, likewise was incredible as the world-weary writer finding new life in human interest narratives. Coogan and Jeff Pope wrote an elegant story with great characters. And as previously mentioned Frears directed this story and cast with elegance.

Overall: Oscar worthy on all accounts.

The Book Thief

  First Hit:  Extremely well-acted film about the effects of Nazi Germany in small neighborhood.

I cannot remember when a film about WWII Nazi Germany shows Germans being unhappy about and not fully behind their Fuhrer. This dislike isn’t pronounced at first but it builds as neighbors are being removed from their home and businesses.

In this story Liesel (Sophie Nelisse) is abandoned by her mom shortly after her brother dies. The grave digger drops a book and she picks it up and holds it as a treasure. Her adoptive parents Hans (Geoffery Rush) and Rosa (Emily Watson) are somewhat hardened by their life. His sign painting business is non-existent she brings in laundry to make ends meet. Rosa is gruff but there are moments when her heart just soars and Hans, on the other hand, is a warm hearted man whose strength is compassion.

Liesel is picked on by other kids in the school because she cannot read. However she finds ways to obtain books, read them and write words on the wall that she is learning. Rudy (Nico Liersch), the neighbor boy, likes and befriends her. Rosa, Hans and Liesel hide Max (Ben Schnetzer) a Jewish man trying to keep from being killed by the Germans.

The story revolves around how this neighborhood is effected by the war the Nazi’s are aimed at waging against the world. In the end, her reading and the diary Max insisted she keep turned her into an author. However, it is death, the narrator of this film, that pulls it all together with his voice over.

Nelisse is phenomenal as the young abandoned girl who learned to love and trust. Rush is sublime as the kind man who can see the beauty in most things and openly shares his love towards Liesel. Watson is amazing and clearly perfect for the role as hardened, yet heartfelt wife. Liersch was great as Rudy, the neighbor boy who loved Liesel from the moment he saw her. Schnetzer was really good as Max. Roger Allam was perfect as death’s voice and film narrator. Michael Petroni wrote a very strong script. Brian Percival directed these actors with amazing aplomb.

Overall:  This film is a wonderful view of German life during WWII.

Blue Is the Warmest Color

First Hit:  A deep dive into a woman discovering herself through her sexuality.

The opening classroom scene has the instructor talking about a book and its author who’s written about the moment people see each other, having no verbal communication, and the sense or feeling between the two people.

Adele (Adele Exarchopoulos) doesn’t like over explanation of books she’s reading. While walking to meet a boy she's been pressured into meeting, she sees Emma (Lea Seydoux) for the first time and the previous classroom discussion is not lost on her or the audience. The interchange with him, after a couple of meetings, leaves her very dissatisfied physically and emotionally.

One day she is kissed by one of her girl school friends and she experiences feelings she’s not had before. The questions are in constant battle within her and Adele shows all these feelings subtly and obviously with her facial expressions, body movements and tears. She finally meets up with Emma and begins to explore her emotions, feelings and sexuality.

The sexuality is both graphically and beautifully shared on the screen and it must have been difficult to share that much intimacy with a stranger on film. Outside of the sexuality, the film is a study on the evolution of a young woman towards her self-discovery. The parts that didn’t work for me was the passage of time, I don’t think it was done well because I had to figure out how much time had gone by with each major scene change. Sometimes it was weeks, other times it was months and then years. 

There were a couple of scenes where I wondered what happened to Adele’s parents, did they now know she was a lesbian?

Exarchopoulos was amazingly transparent and open in this role. Having a camera so close to her throughout this film must have been difficult. She was extraordinary. Seydoux was a great in her role as foil and lover. She was sure and strong in expressing what she wanted while providing glimpse of soft vulnerability. Abdellatif Kechiche and Ghalia Lacroix wrote a great screenplay and Kechiche directed the actors, scenes and situations with sublime exquisiteness.

Overall:  Although long, this film was an amazing study of discovery.

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.