The Glass Castle

First Hit:  I cannot conceive of having a life like the one described in this film.

This is the story of how Jeannette Walls (Brie Larson, Ella Anderson, and Chandler Head) survived her upbringing by Rex (Woody Harrelson), an alcoholic father, and Rose Mary (Naomi Watts), an unconventional artist mother, to find her own truth and path through life.

Jeannette, her two sisters Lori (Sarah Snook, Sadie Sink, and Olivia Kate Rice), Maureen (Brigette Lundy-Paine, Shree Crooks, and Eden Grace Redfield), and brother Brian (Josh Caras, Charlie Shotwell, and Iain Armitage), never had much of a home as their father and mother spent all their time running from place to place. This dysfunctional family headed by two non-conformists had great dreams and never could put any of them into place.

“Glass Castle” refers to the all glass home Rex designed and never built. This one of thousands of ideas he had for his family. During non-drunk and lucid moments Rex could be an amazing father and mentor. I especially loved how he gave each of the kids the belief that they could pick a star as their own exclusive birthday present.

However when he was drunk or in a bipolar raging state, he was awful to everyone. Rose Mary did her best to temper his expressive raging, however she was an enabler of both the violent and homeless behavior.

After a failed attempt by Rex to get clean and hold a job, the children decided to raise themselves while staying clear of their parents' behavioral issues. This bond between the children was amazing and in the last scene of the film, a Thanksgiving dinner, it was clearly expressed.

I liked the way the scenes shifted from present day back to when the kids were growing up. The actors they chose to play the younger versions of the children were great.

Because the film rarely answered how and when did the family get food and clothing, I kept wondering about these primary subjects throughout the movie.

Harrelson is excellent as the bi-polar father who is an alcoholic, smart, and loved his "goat" Jeanette. His fits of rage as well as his lucid kind moments were well done. Watts is interesting as the mother. I struggled to buy her performance as being solid. At times she seemed disengaged from both the character and from the film. However, it could have been meant this way as well. Larson is very good as the grown daughter with a huge resistance to fully embrace her past. When she finally embraces her past, the shift in her character was perfectly done. Ella Anderson and Chandler Head were great as the younger Jeannette. Sarah Snook, Sadie Sink and Olivia Kate Rice, as Jeannette's older sister Lori, were wonderful. Brigette Lundy-Paine, Shree Crooks and Eden Grace Redfield as Maureen, Jeannettes' younger sister, were perfect. Finally, brother Brian as played by Josh Caras, Charlie Shotwell, and Iain Armitage; all were excellent and very engaging. Destin Daniel Cretton and Andrew Lanham wrote a strong script from Jeannette Wall’s own book and story. Cretton's direction did a good job of taking us through Jeanette’s story.

Overall:  This was an amazing story of persevering through a chaotic childhood.

Detroit

First Hit:  Extremely powerful film about racial injustice in the city of Detroit in 1967.

Kathryn Bigelow has a history of taking on difficult powerful subjects and bringing them to life. She is a master director. Her filmography continues to get stronger and stronger. From her Blue Steel and Point Break days to The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty and now, Detroit.

I feel fortunate that, once again, in the matter of a few short weeks I’ve been able to see films where the focus is the story and not particular characters. And what makes this film even better is that although it takes place in 1967 it reflects the targeting of blacks today by law enforcement.

To do this Bigelow seamlessly incorporates actual 1967 film footage and stills into her vision of this story. We follow several black characters who end up being innocently targeted by law enforcement for being at a particular place, at a particular time, and because of the color of their skin.

The script was developed from court transcripts and proceedings, interviews of some survivors and an honest interpretation by the writer. The focus is the murder of three black men and the beatings of seven other black men and two white women by the Detroit Police Department and tacitly condoned by US National Guard. This incident took place at the Algiers Motel, in Detroit during the 12th Street Riots. They victims had gone to the hotel to hide out and stay off the streets because there was a curfew and people couldn’t get home.

One of the guests at the motel shoots a toy pistol, which is mistaken by the police and National Guard as sniper fire. In rushing the motel’s building the police drag these motel guests down to the bottom floor and begin interrogating them to discover where the gun was and who shot the gun. Despite killing the person who shot the never found toy gun, the police used extreme tactics to scare the other guests. They systematically pulled people into rooms threatening to shoot them if they didn't have answers to their questions. They also mercilessly beat each person.

In doing so, they killed another two. For hours they continued to beat each of the suspects to get them to talk. Finally, the police decided they need to leave. To cover their tracks, they threaten each of the remaining suspects, that if they were ever to speak of this event again, they will die.

Eventually, this event and the officers are brought to trial and the all-white jury exonerates the three guilty police officers. Sound familiar?

John Boyega (as Dismukes) is amazing as the black private security officer that attempts to be the peacemaker and mediator between the cops and guests. Boyega is great at hinting, what appears to be, regret that he didn’t do more to help his fellow brothers. Will Poulter (as Officer Krauss) did a wonderful job being everyone’s nightmare. It was not an enviable role but as the racist officer he made the hate real. Algee Smith and Jacob Latimore (as friends and bandmates Larry and Fred respectively) were fantastic as their dreams were taken from them that night. Hannah Murray and Kaitlyn Dever (as Julie and Karen respectively were the beaten white women) were wonderful. They really made their roles standout with honesty. Anthony Mackie as Greene the Vietnam vet who got caught up in the motel was perfect. Mark Boal wrote a fantastic Oscar worthy script. Bigelow, as I previously said, is clearly one of the strongest directors of our time. Her clarity of vision and storytelling is amazing.

Overall:  I recall reading and seeing television news stories about these events when they happened, but only until I saw this film, did I understand the horror.

A Ghost Story

First Hit:  Long languished scenes and little dialogue lead to waiting, just like the ghost.

Do not expect to be led into and through this film. The audience must work and carefully watch this film to be able to understand it and I use "understand" very loosely. The basis of this film is to explore love, loss and existence beyond the physical realm.

C (Casey Affleck) and M (Rooney Mara) are talking about moving from this simple home in suburban America. Then, as they sleep, they hear a bang on the piano in the living room. They explore and find nothing.

C is killed near the home in an automobile accident. M goes to the hospital looks at C lying on the table and pull the sheet up over his head. In what seems like an eternity, after she has left the morgue, the camera focuses on the body lying on the gurney. Then C sits up and gets off the gurney with the sheet over his entire body. When faced with a opening in a wall to walk into the light, the ghost C, turns left and walks down the hall.

Walking in his home, C stands there and watches M live her life, alone, and sad. There is a scene where a neighbor brings a pie over to M’s house and leaves it on the table. M comes home and ends up sitting on the floor of the kitchen, back against the sink cabinet and practically eats the entire pie, runs to the bathroom and throws up. This is a very telling and powerful scene.

The minimal dialogue adds to both the intrigue and patience forcing. At one point M moves away from the home and C is left there alone. He tries to get a small note M has stuffed into the door jamb but because he’s a ghost, he can barely make a more on the door jamb’s paint. Wandering into the bedroom, C looks across at another house and sees another ghost wearing a patterned sheet. They wave and communicate by telepathy, the words appearing as sub-titles on the bottom of the screen. Other people come and go living in the house while he’s still present.

They the film shifts time and takes us both into the future of the land where his home stands and the goes into past of the same land. The ghost simply stands on the property in these time shifts.

Eventually hes witnesses and watches when he and M come to live in the house for the first time. Here is where we see the first smiles from both C and M. It was a reflection of their happier times together. The rest of the film is about re-seeing the beginning of the story again but from a different view.

Affleck is difficult to review because he spends 97% of the film under the sheet. I can imagine that it wasn’t an easy part to fulfill, but it does work. Mara is, as always, an enigma. She is fantastic at being haunting and creating the sense that you want to know what is going on inside of her. She gives few signals but they are the right signals. David Lowery both wrote and directed this effort. I sense he has a lot to share about the flow of life, life after death, and evolution of life and this was a reasonable effort at sharing these ideas.

Overall:  If you go see this film, be patient and you may end up learning something about yourself and how you think about life.

Lady Macbeth

First Hit:  Very little about this film was uplifting – it was dark and brooding all the way through.

From the get go, this film presses downward on the spirit of the film's characters. Katherine (Florence Pugh) was bought and forced to marry Alexander (Paul Hilton). His father Boris (Christopher Fairbank), who lives with them, chastises Katherine for not sexually satisfying his son and demands that she stay inside the house and never “take the air.” Alexander also treats Katherine with disdain, makes her disrobe, face the wall and then masturbates while looking at her back. Given this treatment, Katherine is both physically and sexually drawn towards Sebastian (Cosmo Jarvis), one of the caretakers who works on the estate.

This attraction leads to sex whenever they have the opportunity. When both Alexander and Boris leave on separate trips, she invites Sebastian into the home, despite the disapproval of her handmaiden servant Anna (Naomi Ackie) who also has had intimate relations with Sebastian.

Alexander suddenly re-appears and this wrecks the love birds’ life together, so they fix it by eliminating him. With this issue resolved another bump in the road appears when Agnes (Golda Rosheuvel) moves into the home with a child. They have papers stating that the father is Alexander therefore it is rightfully the boy's home as well. This pushes Sebastian out of the home, again and the devious way they resolve this issue is horrible.

When the law is called, and is questioning the death of the boy, Sebastian burst into the room and spills the sordid story. But because he's a black servant, he and Anna are not believed and are taken away.

Pugh is strong as Katherine, a young woman trapped, and will do anything to get what she wants. Hilton is appropriately mean and twisted. Fairbank is strong as the mean father-in-law. Jarvis is good as the object of Katherine’s desire. Ackie is excellent as the handmaiden. Rosheuvel is very strong in her role. Nikolai Leskov and Alice Birch wrote this very dark brooding script that had little hope or light in it. William Oldroyd did a good job of directing this film. The sets in the rooms were perfect for the film’s feeling.

Overall:  Although the acting and direction was good, I really disliked the subject.

Dunkirk

First Hit: An amazing film that focuses on the event not the actors or their characters.

Easily the best overall film of this year mainly because the vision is true and clear. Not many films make the story the highlight and focus. Mostly films have a character or two that engage the audience into the story. Here the characters are a subset of the story. This doesn’t take away from the actors or acting, but it lays the responsibility of how good this film is on the writer, editor, sound team, music, cinematography, and director.

Christopher Nolen did an amazing job of creating and giving his vision life on the big screen. This is the true story of how 800 boats, most of them small personal pleasure and fishing boats from England, crossed the English Channel to save over 338,000 allied soldiers consisting of British, French, Canadian and Belgium men who were trapped by German soldiers.

Nearly 400,000 soldiers were backed-up to the English Channel, trapped into a corner at Dunkirk, France. German planes bombed the English ships, including hospital ships taking the wounded away from the shoreline. Boats were also torpedoed and sunk. The British Government determined that sending in more large ships and planes to assist these trapped troops would only result in more losses of people and hardware.

The call went out to boat owners in England to sail to Dunkirk and save as many men as possible. Their low water draft meant they could also get closer to shore.

The film follows a couple of the English pilots in their Spitfires as they sacrificed themselves to knock German plains from the sky. It follows a couple of soldiers as they try to find their way to a boat to take them to freedom, alive. It gives the viewer glimpses of British command thinking through Commander Bolton. And it follows a man and his sons in their small boat attempting to save as many as possible. The line shown in the previews and used in the film, “there’s no turning away from this…” was poignantly perfect.

Everyone who played a character in this film is to be lauded. Fionn Whitehead, Damien Bonnard, Aneurin Barnard, Lee Armstrong, James Bloor, Barry Keoghan, Mark Rylance, Tom Glynn-Carney, Tom Hardy, and Kenneth Branagh, just to name a few, were fantastic in each of their respective roles. The music by Hans Zimmer was astounding. The sound effects and its use was spot on perfect. Hoyte Van Hoytema created a sublime view as director of photography. As I previously noted Christopher Nolen’s script and direction was clearly top-notch. This film is his crowning achievement thus far.

Overall:  As of July 2017, clearly best film of the year.