Whiplash

First Hit:  Incredibly dynamic acting backed by an amazing soundtrack.

When you see an actor in a few character parts through the years and more recently as a spokesperson for an insurance company, it's easy to get an opinion and pigeon hole the person.

It was so eye opening to see J.K. Simmons capture scenes with such incredible compassion, anger, and power. Here he Fletcher a band leader and instructor at the most prestigious music conservatory in New York City. Fletcher uses intimidation, degradation, and manipulative cruelty with occasional kindness to try to get the most out of the band members.

The scene where he says someone is out of key was so cruel. He discovers a drummer in a practice room named Andrew (Miles Teller), who is wholly focused on being a great drummer. Fletcher invites him into the “Studio” band where he gets a chair thrown at him, gets hit in the face by Fletcher’s hand (are you late or rushing?), and yelled at.

He meets a girl Nicole (Melissa Benoist) but drops her because he thinks she’ll resent his dedication and career choice of being a drummer. He gains a small level of respect from Fletcher, but then gets pushed down to second drummer.

The music the band plays is some of the best jazz music to hit a film a in a long time. The film has a satisfying ending and the end song is absolutely divine – I couldn’t stop moving – the beat - the sound - it was sublime.

Simmons was amazing. His facial expressions and the way he expressed his stories and then pounced like a possessed animal was extraordinary. Teller was great. He embodied a loner who wanted to do and be great. Benoist was excellent in her brief role. Damien Chazelle wrote and directed this film. The script was great and direction excellent.

Overall:  I fully enjoyed the music and the story was compelling.

Men, Women & Children

First Hit:  Interesting film about how social media is navigated and used.

I’m not a big Social Media person. I have a Facebook account which I look at about once every six months and I’ve a twitter account that I used 5 times 2 years ago.

However my company uses these and other social media vehicles to help us be seen and to grow our presence. In this film we have a paranoid mother Patricia (Jennifer Garner) monitoring every interaction her daughter Brandy (Kaitlyn Dever) has in her social media accounts. All except a secret account where Brandy dresses up and posts pictures as someone else.

She begins to like and meet up with Tim (Ansel Elgort), a loner guy whose mom left him and his dad and he’s wondering if life is worthwhile. His mom posts her adventures in California with new boyfriend on Social Media - then blocks his access to her account. Then there is Hannah Clint (Olivia Crocicchia) whose mother Donna (Judy Greer) takes suggestive photos of her and posts them for payment and view by clients.

There is also Don and Patricia Truby (Adam Sandler and Rosemarie DeWitt respectively) who have lost sexual interest in each other and use websites to find sexual partners. There were a lot of stories in this film and above were only some of them.

The point, which it did well, was to highlight how over control, under awareness, and not knowing what is going on with your child or partner leads to interesting uses of social media. With social media we separate ourselves and don’t talk face to face.

Conversely, we also will use it to also connect with strangers, call them “friends” although we don’t know them, and create relationships. Scenes where people were walking in shopping malls and school halls with their phone’s text message bubbles over them while they walk, heads down, looking at their screens was very telling.

Sandler was good as the man and husband who has lost his way and finds that treading old water won’t be helpful. The last scene in the kitchen with this wife as very good. DeWitt was very strong as the wife who was looking for some excitement in her life. Garner was so over the top (in a good way) and great as the paranoid mother. Dever was wonderful as the young girl hamstringed by her mom (Garner) and finding strength to live her life. Crocicchia was perfect as the girl who would do anything to be on reality TV and who thinks that what she looks like is the most important thing. Greer is very good as the mom who wanted to be a Hollywood star, didn’t make it, so she pushed and sold her daughter’s beauty. Elgort was excellent as the boy, who lost his mom, and was trying to make sense of his life and what was important. Additionally Elania Kampouris was very effective as the girl who made a guy’s opinion of her more important than her own opinion of herself. Chad Kultgen and Jason Reitman wrote the interesting but a bit too scattered script and Reitman got good performances out of his actors and the script.

Overall:  I think the story tried to tell too many stories and therefore there wasn’t enough depth in any one of them.

Fury

First Hit:  Powerful story about how war will change people.

War is a tough place to learn about who you are in relation to the people you work with and an enemy that wants to kill you.

Norman (Logan Lerman) has been assigned to the Fury, a tank led by Don “Wardaddy” Collier (Brad Pitt). His crew of Boyd “Bible” Swan (Shia LaBeouf), Trini “Gordo” Garcia (Michael Pena), and Jon “Coon-Ass” Travis (Jon Bernthal), have been together for years and through thick and thin. With much sadness they recently lost their assistant driver/gunner.

Norman was supposed to be a clerk typist and now he’s been ordered into Wardaddy’s tank that is heading to the front line. He tells Don he won’t shoot anyone and that he'd rather die than to kill.  But as the team thrives as a group, he must learn how to kill.

The tank crew is a family that depends on each other and this film exemplifies the positives and difficulties of this tank family life. The close quarters of the tank is made larger here by shooting one person at a time but you never forget that this is a close quarters tank.  Wardaddy is clearly in charge of his crew and he has a single focus to do his part against the Germans.

The pall of war is magnificently expressed in the color of each shot, whether it is inside or outside the tank. The dark haze of daylight exemplified the feelings of oppression and sadness that death brings.

Pitt is really strong in his performance of control over his crew, yet allowing and creating space for his guys to be who they are. The edges of this were defined in the scene where they had met two women in a building and building intense conversation and over the meal the women had prepared. Lerman was a revelation in his transformation to someone who would finally say; “best job I ever had”. LaBeouf was very strong as the guy who could quote scripture and drive the hell out of the tank. Pena was very good as Gordo and gunner. Bernthal was scary good as the guy always on the edge of sanity. David Ayer wrote and directed this film. The writing was as strong as his clear direction to fully take the audience deep into the world of a tank and the crew.

Overall:  Although war films are not my favorite genre, the characters elevated this film to a very high place.

Kill the Messenger

First Hit:  Although not a great film, it was an amazing story and in the end, I really felt for the messenger.

This is the story about how the Reagan led administration allowed the CIA to promote selling drugs in the US to create cash to buy arms for the Nicaraguan Contra rebels.

Congress wouldn’t support arming the Contras so the CIA decided to fund the war by getting Americans addicted to drugs. The irony of course is the Nancy Reagan “Say no to drugs” campaign. Even worse are the deaths of children and adults as a direct result of the CIA action.

Was Reagan in on this - my guess is probably and I "don't know". Jeremy Renner plays Gary Webb the San Jose Mercury News reporter that wrote and broke this story. It so inflamed the government, they called in all their chips with other news agencies and made Webb’s story seem false, unsubstantiated and inaccurate. How this affects his work life and home life are what this film is about.

Shamefully, as history tells us, the CIA’s confession years later didn’t land in the news like the stories made up and published against him. The story ends sadly and is a matter of public record. What it does point out is the criminal nature of our government in the name of stopping “the spread of communism” – yeah right.

Renner is strong as a reporter of integrity. I’m glad this story was told. Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Webb’s editor was interesting and failed to trust her reporter. Rosemarie DeWitt as Gary’s wife Sue was superb. I so enjoyed her presence in the film. Lucas Hedges as oldest son Ian was sublime. Small and pivotal roles by Oliver Platt, Andy Garcia and Ray Liotta were wonderful. Peter Landesman wrote this script from Gary Webb’s own book and Nick Schou's book of the films’ name. Michael Questa adequately directed this film.

Overall:  This was a great story and it saddens me that we cannot trust our government - still can't.

The Judge

First Hit:  A very good film and it could have been better.

Having Robert Downey Jr. (as Hank Palmer) and Robert Duvall (as his father Joseph) in the same film can only spell amazing possibilities.

Estranged son Hank is a defense attorney who seems to always get his man freed. He knows the law, how to pick a jury and how to exploit them both to keep his high-end, high ticket clients out of jail. Joseph is a 42 year sitting on the bench judge in the same small town where Hank was raised.

Hank was a difficult child and Joseph felt it important to be a tough, no-nonsense, father. What brings them together in this story is the death of Hank’s mom, Joseph’s wife. The difficulty between the two men is quickly set forth when he sees his father for the first time and Dad simply greets him with a handshake.

On the night after the funeral, Joseph is accused of killing a former criminal by hitting him with his car and leaving the scene of the accident. Of course Hank tries to be his dad’s defense lawyer and there is where the story of reconciliation takes place. Both of these actors have a depth that wasn’t fully mined in the script.

The stubbornness and rigidness that Duvall can bring and the quick witted intelligent banter that Downey is known for was only partially displayed. One the other side of the story the scene of father and son in the bathroom while Hank’s daughter Lauren (Emma Tremblay) knocked on the door to be let in was beautifully executed.

Downey was the perfect person for the part and with a stronger script, more could have been made of his history. Duvall was the perfect person for the part of father and judge. Tremblay was great as Downey’s daughter. Vera Farmiga was divine as Hanks old high school girlfriend Samantha. Billy Bob Thornton as the prosecuting attorney was wonderful. Nick Schenk and Bill Dubuque wrote this engaging but not deep enough script. David Dobkin directed this film and made good use of Duvall and Downey but there was more available to make this film great.

Overall:  I laughed, was touched, and found the story intriguing but it was not quite all it could be.