Southpaw

First Hit:  Although at times hard to watch, this is an extremely well-crafted and acted film.

It is hard to see someone get hit in the face. It is even harder when they mug and beg the person to hit them.

Boxer Billy Hope (Jake Gyllenhaal) does this time and time again as a way to get angry enough to beat his opponent. As the Light Heavyweight Champion he uses this tactic to win all his fights. Outside the ring he has one focus, his family. When he looks over the ropes, face looking like beaten hamburger, his wife Maureen (Rachel McAdams) gives him the look – the look that says “I love you and let’s go home”.

When he finishes the job, she takes him home, and he goes to his daughter’s Leila’s (Oona Laurence) room and becomes a heart filled father. Maureen and Billy have a single focus around their love and interdependence; recoup from the battering Billy takes and ready himself for the next one.

Maureen and Billy were both brought up by the State of New York and share a deep bond and connection that works perfectly for this film. Maureen makes all the decisions for their family; when to fight and when to rest is the primary focus. She is his rock and life, while he is the spirit and strength. A tragic shooting sets Billy’s life spinning out of control and everything falls apart. Billy becomes lost and he’s left to find his way back home.

This is when Tick Willis (Forest Whitaker), who owns a boxing gym becomes a trusted guide for Billy’s salvation. All the fight scenes are extremely well choreographed. The settings and feel of the locker rooms, boxing arenas, charity gatherings, and the 300 square foot apartment Billy finds himself living in are spot on. 

The dialogue (of which Billy has little) between everyone; Jordan (Curtis Jackson 50 Cent) the fight promoter, Willis, Leila, Maureen, Hoppy (Skylan Brooks) the kid who’s looking for guidance, and all the characters is well timed, has the right flavor and are perfect for the roles.

Gyllenhaal is jaw-dropping amazing. By far and away, performance of the year. He does so much with his eyes, face, posture, that one doesn’t notice that he doesn’t steal the film with dialogue. McAdams is wonderfully centered and perfect for the role of a beautiful woman brought up in a tough life and who loves her man. Jackson (50 Cent) was a very good opportunistic promoter who’s only thinking of himself despite his words. Whitaker, as usual, steals every scene he’s in – you just can’t take your eyes off him (he seem always on the edge of bursting). Laurence was sublime and if this young person’s performance is any indication of her future – we’ll be seeing a lot more of her. I won’t list them all here and everyone’s performance in this film was very well done. Kurt Sutter wrote an amazing script that captured the tenderness and bravado of the people in the sport of boxing. Antoine Fuqua got everything and more from the script and actors – not sure this film could have been done any better by anyone.

Overall:  This film is filled with the highest level of craftsmanship imaginable by everyone who had a hand in creating it.

Cartel Land

First Hit:  An eye-opening timely film about the Mexico United States border drama.

This is a film about two different issues: How the drug cartels in Mexico are taking over towns and intimidating the local citizens. Then there is the story on the Arizona side of the border and how citizens are out there protecting the area from the influx of Mexicans coming across the border illegally.

In the first story citizens want to take back their town by following a group, led by an MD, that is going out and arresting drug cartel members. This story gets worse as the government gets involved and we begin to see how the more things try to change, the more they stay the same. In the other part of the story, a vet who turned his own life around believes, with this friends, that he is saving the USA from influx of drugs and illegals coming across the border. He does his best to work with the US government but in reality he’s out there doing this thing. I would have liked more integration of the two stories, or separate the stories and make two films; both are interesting.

Matthew Heineman directed this film and some of the camera work during the raids on cartel personnel was fantastic. There are no holds barred as citizens walk up and hit the captured cartel members.

Overall:  This was a very interesting film reflecting the conflicts below and above the US border.

Testament of Youth

First Hit:  This beautifully acted film, especially Alicia Vikander, is a powerful story of how WWI affected a woman, family, friends and a country.

It isn’t often that I’m transfixed by an actor in a role, however Vikander as Vera Brittain, did just this. As Vera, a young woman who wants to be a writer and go to Oxford, she is independent, willful and driven. She spurns her brother Edward’s (Taron Egerton) friend Victor (Colin Morgan) as a suitor for her hand because she doesn’t have any intention of getting married.

However, when Victor and Edward’s mutual friend Roland (Kit Harrington) comes into the scene, things change, she is emotionally moved. Yet, despite her budding feelings, her primary focus is her career and she does find a way to get into Oxford. Soon after, her brother, Victor, and Roland are drawn into the war so she decides that she must do her part and becomes a nurse’s volunteer.

Through this experience she sees and experiences the travesty of war on human lives. The scenes, the pacing of the film, and the eloquence by which this story is told was deeply felt, moving, and sincerely touching.

Vikander was first rate and amazing. She was excellent in Ex Machina and again here. This actress is someone who will continue to grow and amaze on the screen. Egerton is wonderful and endearing as Vera’s brother. Harrington is strong as the shell-shocked lover. Morgan is endearing and wonderful as the heartbroken friend. Dominic West and Emily Watson were perfect as Vera’s parents. Juliette Towhidi wrote a wonderful screen play based on Vera’s own book of the same title. James Kent did an outstanding job in directing by showing the depths of WWI on a personal, family, friends, and country level.

Overall:  I was deeply moved by the film and this stemmed from Vikander’s performance.

Inside Out

First Hit:  The film was conceptually brilliant, for the most part very well executed, and very intelligent.

There probably isn’t a human being on this planet who hasn’t experienced one or all of the following; fear, anger, sadness, disgust, and joy.

Given this, Pixar did what no other filmmaker has ever done well, create an interpretation of the inner workings of the mind and made them the film’s main characters. Riley (Voice by Kaitlyn Dias) and her family moved from Minnesota to San Francisco where she feels lost, without her friends, familiar surroundings, furniture, and her dad is stressing about a company he’s creating. The comfort of what once was is now gone and changing.

This change allows other feelings, besides joy, to have a larger voice in her head. What results is what happened in this 12 year old’s mind. This film is brilliant in the sharing how the other emotions of fear, anger, joy, disgust and most importantly sadness can creep into a young person’s life. The lesson of not covering up, but embracing them and working through them is well done and on point.

The only downside of the film for me is that joy spends too much time wandering around the inner recesses of the brain. This film could have cut out 10 minutes and been more effective. Lastly, because the film is only 94 minutes, Disney/Pixar felt compelled to run a short called Lava prior to this film. Lava was an extremely poor setup to Inside Out. Lava, as a lead-in was way too schmaltzy and sappy and hurt watching the beginning of Inside Out.

Amy Poehler as Joy was perfectly upbeat and single-minded. Phyllis Smith as Sadness was dead on perfect. Her ability to apologize and yet continue to create more sadness was amazing. Bill Hader as Fear was funny, his expressions we’re well thought through. Mindy Kaling as Disgust was good in this more minor role. Lewis Black as Anger was the funniest. The way he would be immediately triggered because of an event was perfect. Dias as Riley was very good, especially when she was introducing herself to her new classmates. Pete Docter and Ronaldo Del Carmen both wrote and directed this excellent animated film. The only downside was the amount of time spent wandering around long term memory.

Overall:  This was an excellent film and provided a way to know how the brain could work.

A Little Chaos

First Hit:  As with most period pieces it was slow in its development, yet it kept my interest to the expected conclusion.

Sabine De Barra (Kate Winslet) is a woman that has focused her single and alone life towards gardening. We learn later it wasn’t always that way, she wasn't always alone. Her work is noticed by Andre Le Norte (Matthias Schoenaerts) who is the King’s head garden designer.

King Louis XIV (Alan Rickman) decides to build the Palace of Versailles and wants the grounds to be exquisite. Andre is more conventional in his garden designs and likes organization. Sabine uses organization in a different way which includes natural flows (a little chaos). In those days, men had lovers and wives which, in this film, affects the King, Sabine and Andre in different ways.

The best scene in the film was when the King and Sabine are in an enclosed garden together and have an open peer to peer type conversation.

Winslet is great as the grieving and growing woman finding her place and love. Schoenaerts was a little too reserve for me, but that might have been the direction. Rickman is good and his natural tendency is reserved arrogance. As a King, it works. Jeremy Brock and Alison Deegan wrote this script. It’s a period piece so the dialogue is long winded, but the points they make about society in the time we’re well done. Rickman directed the film.

Overall:  I enjoyed moments of the film. Those times were when the King and Sabine were in conversation.