Gifted

First Hit:  Well-acted story about love and doing the best for the ones you love. This film is about how one raises a child that is not your own, a genius,  while having a conflict with the biological family. It is also about ego and family.

Frank Adler (Chris Evans) is raising his sister’s daughter Mary (McKenna Grace). His sister committed suicide and as we learn later in the film, she may have run out of a purpose for living. Her purpose was solving a specific math theorem. How Frank ends up with Mary is slightly shrouded in mystery and begs the question; where's the biological father in all this?

Their mother Evelyn (Lindsay Duncan) is wealthy, smart on her own accord, and suddenly becomes interested in Mary, when it’s discovered that the young girl is also a genius.

Frank has help raising his niece. Roberta (Octavia Spencer) is a neighbor and loves Mary as her own. Mary spends Saturday nights with Roberta allowing Frank some space and relaxation from being a sudden father figure. Roberta also gives Frank child rearing guidance as well as an undying trusted friendship.

Frank’s history with his family comes to play when his mother attempts to take Mary away from him because she wants Mary to be schooled privately and then pushed into doing theoretical mathematics at MIT. However, Frank wants to fight to keep Mary because that is what his sister wanted. She wanted Mary to have a more normal life, not the kind of life she had and he agrees.

Helping both Frank and Mary is Mary’s school teacher Bonnie (Jenny Slate). Bonnie identified Mary’s potential and also saw the kindness in her heart. She helps Frank find a way to do what he needs to do.

Evans was excellent. To see him in this type of serious role showed me (and the audience) he’s more than Captain America. Grace was sublime. I loved watching her be both a fun-loving kid, as expressed when she lipped synced with Roberta, and as a smart kid who knows how compute complex mathematical formulas. Duncan was perfect as the wealthy overbearing controlling mother. Spencer was divine as Frank's close friend and part time baby sitter. Slate was very good and I really liked how she took it upon herself to help Frank find a way to make Mary’s transition work. Tom Flynn wrote a very strong script that reflected the different sides and issues well. Marc Webb did a nice job of staging the scenes and story.

Overall:  This was an engaging picture and I ended up liking the story.

Song to Song

First Hit:  Although I’m generally a fan of Director Terrence Malik’s work, especially the visualizations, this film felt lifeless and unmoving all the way through. A Malik film like Knight of Cups, touched me deeply and at that moment, I think I’m aligned with Malik’s vision. However, other films he does I might end up liking the pictures and the theme is lost on me.

In this film, few of the pictures were good and I wondered what the point was. Could it have been that if one takes a bite of the apple (signed to a music record deal) then the world opens up. However it only seemed to opened up with increased opportunities for sexual encounters? If so, then I was left thinking; so what. If the point of the film was viewing how the music life in Austin (Malik went to school in Austin) exists and the people in it are just intimately experimenting with others, and they seem to live in a Song to Song way, then so what. I didn't get the point of the film.

Ryan Gosling plays BV who is a musician who gets signed to a record label run by Cook (Michael Fassbender) who is living the big life, filled with things, women, and connections with bands and rock stars. He's pulling the strings, at least around Austin. One of the women he’s linked with is Faye (Rooney Mara).

Faye meets BV at one of Cook’s parties and they begin to have a relationship. However, because they don’t tell each other the truth and they mostly live through their sexuality and what they can feel, the relationship gets convoluted. Faye still has sex with Cook and BV spends time with his old girlfriends Lykke (Lykke Li) and Amanda (Cate Blanchett).

Cook marries Rhonda (Natalie Portman) but has sex with Faye and Faye has sex with Zoey (Berenice Marlohe). There is a lot more of this that goes on in the film, but because it is a Malik film, it is very stylized, virtually no conversational dialogue, and it jumps from place and scene to a different place and scene frequently.

The pictures around Austin were nice and, to me, better than the actual place as I found it more Texan than shown here.

Gosling was good in many sections but the lack of story direction seemed to make him more lost than usual. Mara was one the better parts of this film. Her face and looks are so filled with questions, depth, and searching energy that it fit well in this film. Fassbender was good as the guy who liked money, power, and the things it allowed him to do. Portman was interesting as her intelligence and darkness shined through her scenes. Marlohe was OK as the attractive woman who seduced Faye. Blanchett was OK as this role didn’t really take advantage of her conversational abilities. Holly Hunter as Rhonda’s mom was intense. Malik did the screenplay and it would be interesting to see what it was and how he scripted the scenes. His direction was muddied if what he wanted was the audience to feel something.

Overall:  This film just didn’t work well for me and I found myself sitting there wondering when it would be over.

The Zookeeper's Wife

First Hit:  Very well made and crafted film that tells a compelling story. This story is impactful because of its significance in WWII. As Warsaw falls to Nazi Germany the Warsaw Zoo, being managed by Antonina and Jan Zabinski (Jessica Chastain and Johan Heldenbergh respectively) comes under the control of Lutz Heck (Daniel Bruhl) who was head of Berlin’s Zoo. However, now he’s under Hitler’s spell of supremacy.

The early scenes are set up to show just how much Antonina loves her animals. Later on we learn why she’s drawn to the animals and it solidifies the early part of the film. This is great direction of a strong script. The reaffirming of the story as it moves along.

Another time I thought this film did this well was when Jan and Antonina were lying in bed, and he subtly indicates that Antonina must really work her friendship with Heck to make their lives and the lives they want to save, easier. What is interesting is that I interpreted this to mean that she was given a level of freedom to use her sexuality. Antonina hears this as well, but when Heck washes her hands and Jan sees this, he gets really angry and she doesn’t understand why, she thought she was supposed to do this. This is great and interesting filmmaking.

The story is that after the Germans took and killed all their zoo animals for meat, Jan and Antonina started hiding young Jewish children and some adults in the basement area (some cages) below their home. They would then connect these people with others who were getting them out of the country or into other safe houses.

Jan would pick them up in trucks collecting food garbage from the ghetto Jewish area of the city, tuck people under the garbage and bring them into their home, feed them, supply them with legal paper forgeries and send them on their way. One day Jan sees two German soldiers sexually attack a young girl named Urszula (Shira Haas), so he gathers her up and takes her back to his house. She is in shock and with gentle kindness is slowly brought out of her shock by a rabbit, painting and other young children who are hiding out.

The story evolves to shortly after the war and with this ending, there is some happiness and of course sadness. The amazing thing is that they saved over 300 Jews from being shipped  to a concentration camp and their probable death.

Chastain was superb. She captured vulnerability, strength, and persistence. Her ability to hold and be Antonina’ heart was wonderful. Heldenbergh was amazing. His ability to be tough, yet have the kind of compassion he shows in this role is amazing. Bruhl was very strong in an unenviable role. He clearly carried the appropriate level of following orders. Haas was sublime. She was so strong and believable in this role that I couldn’t image it being done any better. Her evolution from shock to engaged with others was perfect. Val Maloku as Jan and Antonina’s son was excellent. The scene when Heck questions him in the kitchen was amazing. Angela Workman wrote an incredible screenplay from the true story by Diane Ackerman. Niki Caro did an amazing job of directing this film and telling this story.

Overall:  Seeing the trailers, I didn’t really expect to like this film, however, I was deeply touched by the story and the way it was delivered.

Ghost in the Shell

First Hit:  Interesting to watch but not very engaging. This is one of those films that with the right use of computer generated graphics and a great story we’d have a wonderful film. However, I think the script failed to create the sense of urgency this film can create.

A couple of the questions this film brings are: Will we all become a brain inside a hi-tech mechanical robotic body? Will the brain be able to embrace all our memories and our souls while operating without the rest of the body and all the other cells that hold memories of their own?

Here we have Major Mira Killian (Scarlett Johansson) waking up from a procedure that implanted her brain into a cyborg body. She struggles with memories because the lines between humans and robot are becoming blurred and therefore, she is as well. She was built to be a weapon.

She’s not the first and one of her predecessors Hideo Kuze (Michael Pitt), has become an enemy of the company manufacturing both him, Major, and other robotic cyborgs. He foils many of the company’s plans and when Major does a “deep dive” into a robotic that had been compromised by Kuze, she learns something about Kuze and has a stronger desire to find him.

Major’s support comes from District 9 Chief Daisuke Aramaki (Takeshi Kitano), friend and solider Batou (Pilou Asbaek), and her direct creator Dr. Ouelet (Juliette Binoche). Additionally, she learns of her real history when she meets Motoko’s (Kaori Yamamoto) mother. She learns and figures out that she is Motoko.

Most of the film is shot at night or in very dark scenes which made this film more difficult to watch in that there was little in the way demonstrating light and hope. However, from a filmmakers point of view, they couldn’t create the interesting CG figures that are as tall as buildings that grace the skyline if it wasn't dark.

In general, there wasn’t enough digging into the issue that's behind the story, the issue of combining mankind and machines into one unit. The film just danced around the subject.

Johansson was good but she lacked a great story, poor direction or, more than likely, both. Knowing her capabilities in roles like this (think “Lucy”), in this film she felt lifelessness. Pitt’s role was supposed to be intelligent and dark. It was dark but didn’t really work in the intelligence arena as the script was limited. Kitano was one of the best pieces of this film. He was clear in his role and delivered aspects of what this film could have been. Binoche was almost out of place. She's fresh and alive, and although I bought her role, I’m not sure she couldn’t have known more about her boss’s intention. She doesn't do naive well. Yamamoto was exquisite. I loved how she related the story of losing her son and daughter. Asbaek was great as Major’s friend and fellow soldier. Jamie Moss, William Wheeler, and Ehren Kruger wrote a mediocre screenplay as the dialogue did not create much interest. However, the direction by Rupert Sanders was as much to blame for the failure of this film as well.

Overall:  This film comes from great stock, but fails to really engage the story and therefore the audience.

T2 Trainspotting

First Hit:  A wonderful 20-year follow-up film to Trainspotting.

Director Danny Boyle did what many people don’t know how to do, and that is create a follow-up film that works on many levels.

The characters are back and still attempting to find their way through life. Mark Renton (Ewan McGregor) is back in Scotland after being in Amsterdam. He’s coming on the pretense that he has a happy life in Amsterdam and he’s back to settle up with his buddies after making off with £20,000 that the crew had stolen at the end of the previous film.

Daniel “Spud” Murphy (Ewen Bremner) is still struggling with heroin, is now divorced and loses connection with his son Fergus. Simon “Sick Boy” Williamson (Johnny Lee Miller) is now regularly doing cocaine and supports himself by having his girlfriend Veronika (Anjela Nedyalkova) sexually pose with rich people so that he can compromise them and blackmails them. He also runs a rundown bar that he inherited.

Lastly there is Francis “Franco” Begbie (Robert Carlyle) who has been in prison nearly the whole time. I loved that his accent was so strong that Boyle used captions allowing the audience to understand his rants. Near the beginning of the film, he breaks out of prison, returns home to find his son is in school for “Hotel Management”. Franco is an angry mean sort of man who wants to fight everyone and he especially wants revenge on Renton for stealing the money.

The film dives back to when they were kids together along with when they were all doing heroin together. The film uses these flashbacks along with very interesting imagery to tell the story. The one scene with Mark and Simon doing heroin in Daniel’s living room was surrealistically realistic. The friendship between the men, except Franco’s anger towards Mark, was touching.

McGregor was wonderful in his reprised role, thoughtful enough for the audience to like, and twisted enough to keep audiences interested and engaged as to what might happen next. Miller was appropriately intense, violent, and high strung. Each time he was one the screen, one wondered if he would blow-up and explode. Bremner was amazing as a very lost man but slowing finding his voice by writing stories. Carlyle was amazingly intense. He was like a firecracker each time he was on the screen and I kept wondering how long he could live his life like this. Nedyalkova was really wonderful by balancing her need to make enough money to go back home to take care of her child with how to get the most from both Williamson and Renton. John Hodge wrote and excellent screenplay filled with turns and truths about the characters. Boyle is on the top of his game with this film.

Overall:  This film is not everyone’s cup of tea but it is an excellent second film about these characters and very well done.