Venus in Fur (La Venus a la fourrue)

First Hit:  Very well acted film about an audition for a play based on masochistic fantasies.

This Roman Polanski film was very well made.

I loved the opening shot where the camera tracks down the middle of a street in an unknown French town on a rainy day. Opposite to a run-down theater the camera abruptly turns right and moves directly to the entryway, pauses long enough for the audience to read that auditions are being held for a play, the doors open and we move down to the stage where the director Thomas (Mathieu Amalric) is taking on the phone.

He’s speaking with someone he knows and complaining bitterly about the type of people who have auditioned for the female lead. In walks a woman dressed in black leather who wants to audition for the woman lead. Vanda (Emmanuelle Seigner) pleads with Thomas for the chance and he keeps rejecting her. Slowly she convinces him by putting on the perfect dress for the lead, adjusts the stage lighting, and walks onto the stage. He agrees to do the first 3 pages.

He prompts her parts but she tells him to really put something into his prompts – "act the part" she demands. The moment Vanda begins to speak, Thomas (and you as the viewer of this film) knows she’s the one. They go back and forth of being in character to not being in character. Together they make staging changes as they get deeper and deeper into the characters. He explains that Sado-Masochism came from a combination of names; Marquis de Sade who practiced sexual sadism and Leopold von Sacher-Masoch who practiced masochism and wrote novels about it. The play they are doing comes from one of those novels.

Amalric was amazing as he transforms from the director to being directed. Seigner was sublime as she rules this film from the beginning to the end as well as ruling the director. Polanski wrote the screenplay and directed this film and it shows the amazing skill he has at creating and directing dialog based films (see “Carnage” as another example).

Overall:  I really liked this film because the actors' ability to subtly move from being the play’s characters to the film’s characters was fantastic.

When the Game Stands Tall

First Hit:  Enjoyed this dramatization of a real life story about brotherhood and sport.

Having lived in the bay area for nearly 40 years I’m aware of De La Salle and their Spartan Football team. I was aware of “The Streak” and when it got broken.

However, as the film works hard at doing, the point is not about winning football games, it is about showing and living up to the promise you make to yourself and your teammates. Bob Ladouceur (Jim Caviezel) or “Coach Lad” as the team called him, focuses on using football as a vehicle for people to sign up for commitments to themselves and others.

They have to openly share their commitments with their teammates – this makes the commitment more powerful. This film shares all this in many ways; through the story of brotherhood between T.K. Kelly and Cam Colvin (Stephan James and Ser’Darius Blain - respectively).  

Then there is the story of Coach Lad’s son Danny (Matthew Daddario) attempting to find his relationship with his dad. There is Tayshon Lanear (Jessie T. Usher) learning that it is about the team and not him. Lastly, it is about a son living his dream not his father’s as represented by Chris Ryan (Alexander Ludwig) and his Dad Mickey (Clancy Brown).

There were liberties (like Chris Ryan’s going for a record) in the story and the main point is/was simple:  Show up, stand by your brother and learn to become an honorable man in our society.

Caviezel captured the quiet, focused, driven and caring coach and mentor. What Caviezel did was to make the film about the philosophy and not his performance. Michael Chiklis as Terry Edison (Assistant coach and friend of Ladouceur) was very strong. James and Blain were great as life long friends reaching for their dream. Daddario did a really good job of being the son of a father that really has many sons. Usher was strong as the ego driven talent that was willing to learn. Ludwig was really good as the son who needed to become his own man. Brown overdid the strong overbearing father role but it did make the point. Scott Marshall Smith wrote a really good screenplay bringing out the essence of Ladouceur’s lessons. Thomas Carter directed this film and I liked the use of real footage (beginning and in the credits) to bring this closer to life. I did think Mickey Ryan’s character was overdone and this was a directing issue more than an acting issue.

Overall:  I hope that many team sport coaches see this film and gain some insight that success is more than a “rah rah kill them” attitude.

The One I Love

First Hit:  Interesting concept but I’m not sure the acting raised the story to a level worth watching.

A young couple, Ethan (Mark Duplass) and Sophie (Elisabeth Moss) are having marital problems. The trouble began with a lack of communication,  physical connection and resulting in Ethan having an affair.

Sophie is having difficulty in forgiving her husband and they decide to see a therapist (Ted Danson). After a number of sessions he suggests a weekend trip to a home he uses to assist couples in healing. They arrive and soon discover there are a couple of abnormalities in this retreat home. The story then revolves on how the couple deals with the abnormality and their real dreams of a relationship.

The unfortunate part of this film was in the acting. The actors just didn’t seem strong enough to hold this, possibly interesting, story together.

Duplass is weak as the husband that realizes he’s made a mistake and wants his wife back. His reaction to the abnormity just seemed weak and lifeless – it lacked passion. Moss was better in her role and made the story more interesting. Danson was fine in this limited role. Justin Lader wrote an interesting story and script but it was either Charlie McDowell’s weak direction or the weak acting by the cast that dragged this film down.

Overall:  I loved the idea in the storyline, it just wasn’t executed well.

The Giver

First Hit: A lot of hoopla for a film that had a few brief shining moments.

Like too many films today (one of which is the Hunger Games series) we’re into the future and society is being controlled to make it all work.

Not that I don’t like films like this, I do, however here we have the general population existing without any memories. No memories of where they come from and how their society came to exist. At a celebration of passing (moving from one place in society to another), Jonas (Brenton Thwaites) is afraid he doesn’t have a path, however he is chosen to become the next person who is the holder of memories. He becomes the receiver of memories while The Giver (Jeff Bridges) transmits the memories of our collective past to him.

This position gives him the right to lie and to advise the elders on decisions. His Father (Alexander Skarsgard) and Mother (Katie Holmes) have higher positions in the society whereas his mother is head of security, his father exterminates (kills kids because they don’t weigh enough or others for various reasons like breaking the laws).

Leading this community is the Chief Elder (Meryl Streep) who generally drops in on people via hologram. Jonas has an interest in Fiona (Odeya Rush) but only learns of the power of his interest as his memories are enhanced and he quits taking the feeling suppressive medicine everyone must take each day.

Thwaites is good as the boy who is curious and becomes the person to hold the memories. There was a lack of depth to him which came across as not being confident in his role. Bridges was OK as the holder of memories. However, his anguish look came across as forced and not natural. Skarsgard was really good as the man who does what he is told gladly. He made it seem like he was unattached to killing people which was the role. Holmes was less interesting. Her strict approach to the role may have been what the director ordered but it came off as alienated from the film. Rush was great. Soft innocent and sweet and she met the role well. Streep was OK as the Chief Elder but it was uninspired (her and the role). Taylor Swift was a surprise as the daughter of Bridges who was killed because she couldn’t take on the role as memory holder. Robert B. Weide and Michael Mitnick wrote the screenplay which just didn’t hold my interest. Philip Noyce aptly directed this venture in accordance to the screenplay. What was an interesting effect was the black and white slowly fading to color as memories became available to Jonas.

Overall: This film left me empty and the next day basically forgotten.

Calvary

First Hit: Acting is extremely strong in this film about a priest paying a price for other abusive priests’ behaviors.

The Catholic Church has been in the press for the last 10+ years for all the sexual abuse priests subjected to children in their parishes.

This film is about one innocent priest receiving punishment for his peers by one a man who was abuse every other day for years. The priest Father James (Brendan Gleeson), put on the robes after his wife died to live his life as a better person by giving to his community.

His daughter Fiona (Kelly Reilly) is looking for connection with her father because she felt abandoned both when her mom died and he went into the priesthood. The abused man tells the priest in confessional that he’s got a week to get his affairs in order because he’s going to be killed. He tells Father James to be on the beach in a week to be killed.

Father James is good friends with many of the towns’ folk and he is respected and admired, one of which is a writer (M. Emmet Walsh). In the last week of his life we watch Father James put his affairs in order and explore other options to saving his life.

Gleeson is sublime in his role as a man who has found the priesthood to be a path by which he can give guidance and his learned lessons back to the community. Reilly is wonderful as his lost daughter trying to better understand her life and how to be happy. Jack Brennan was outstanding as one of the abused people. Walsh was great to see. His character emanates into film with gentle job. John Michael McDonagh wrote and directed these outstanding actors with clarity and purpose.

Overall: This was a very good film that touches directly on the latter effect of priestly abuse.