Disconnect

First Hit:  A very good, interesting, powerful film about how our digital connections, and how we use them, can damage our lives.

This is a film about three stories: A son attempting suicide because of a picture of him nude was posted on the internet. Another about young kids who’ve runaway from home and make a living selling themselves for private sex over the internet. And, finally a couple whose personal tragedy grew to include identification theft, but this difficulty helped them grow closer together.

Each of these stories was based in today’s reality. The point of these stories was how technology creates new ways for us to communicate and do it poorly.

Rich and Lydia Boyd (Jason Bateman and Hope Davis respectively) have a daughter Abby (Haley Ramm) who is popular at school while her brother Ben (Jonah Bobo) is a loner who loves music and keeps to himself both at school and at home. Two boys, using technology, decide to harass Ben. They make up a girl that likes him and encourage him to do something stupid. A television interviewer wants to expose young kids selling sex over the internet. By getting more involved creates complications for both the person she’s trying to help and herself.

Derek and Cindy Hull (Alexander Skarsgard and Paula Patton respectively) have just lost a young son and turn to internet activities to soothe their pain, her a chat room, him online gambling. Their identity gets stolen and now they are losing everything except themselves. T

wo of the three stories are interwoven with Mike Dixon (Frank Grillo) who is a former cop who has turned to internet sleuthing and remedy.

Bateman is great as a father who loves his son but has gotten so involved with work; he lost his family connection and tries to get it back. Davis is strong as the mom who is trying to get her husband to pay attention to the family. Ramm is good as Ben’s sister, a brother she loves but is also embarrassed by his awkwardness. Bobo is fantastic as the boy who is so scared of showing up and lives within the world of his music. Skarsgard is really good as the father who has lost a child and doesn’t know how to reach out to his hurting wife. Patton is fantastic as the hurting mother who is looking for a way to find emotional relief. Grillo is very good as the single parent trying to do right by his son. Colin Ford as Grillo’s son did a superb job of showing his angst, sorrow and fear for his actions. Andrea Riseborough was really good as the reporter knowing she wanted to help but also wanting a story. Max Thieriot was fabulous as the young kid just finding his own way. Andrew Stern wrote an outstanding script. Henry Alex Rubin directed this three story film with precision and wonder.

Overall:  This was a really good film and deserves to be seen by a lot of people who don’t get how technology has changed our lives.

The Company You Keep

First Hit:  I liked it because it effectively reminded me of the subject events, how they happened, and how it affected me.

The Weather Underground made a splash in 1969 when they grew out of the SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) and announced they would fight violence with violence.

The SDS focused on trying to stop the Vietnam War through non-violent means. The Weatherman decided that maybe our government would only hear the mood of a majority of its citizens, which was “to stop the war” and to “stop the killing” if they brought violence to make their point. In other words will the government only hear the will of the people if they act as the government acts, violently.

Many younger people may not understand or “get” what it was like when government troops attacked (not just tear gas, they shot and killed) students on campuses in our country.

Being in Vietnam at that time I realized, first hand, the reason for their protest. We were in a foreign country killing people we “thought” we should kill because our government said we should kill them. The reality is that we were bullying our beliefs in another country. Sound familiar?

Our government can and will create stories to make their decisions right. That is what this film is about. It is about Jim Grant/Nick Sloan (Robert Redford) hiding and running away because the government “believes” it is right about thinking that Sloan and another Weathermen Sharon Solarz (Susan Sarandon) killed a bank security guard in a bank robbery back in 1970’s.

The beginning of this film Solarz turns herself in after 30 years. This causes a small town reporter Ben (Shia LaBeouf) to dig out the truth. Grant is quickly identified as Sloan so he goes on the run again. While on the run he connects with his fellow Weathermen. These were the most interesting parts of the film.

Sloan knows who killed the security guard, wants them to turn themselves in so he can raise his daughter. He won’t turn them in because that is the code of the weathermen. Mimi Lurie (Julie Christie) was this person and through the underground network they meet to discuss the dilemma. At their meeting they also talk about the girl they parented back then which plays on their decisions then and now.

Redford seemed a little old for the role especially when he is shown in the film with a 10 year old daughter. However, I could sense his belief in the subject and he brought that belief and intensity to the role. Sarandon also seemed to embody her role with belief, sadness, and truth. Christie was wonderful and embodied the role of a strong rebellious woman. LaBeouf was good as the reporter and vehicle to move the story along and he mixed well with the older actors. Richard Jenkins as Jed Lewis was really good as the radical who found a way to present his material to younger people. Lem Dobbs wrote a strong (at moments) screen play. There are lines sharing the philosophy of the Weathermen and those times that were great. Redford directed this with an understanding of the times and it worked.

Overall: This was a good/not great film and it touched some of the difficult thoughts I have about our country that haven’t died.

Oblivion

First Hit:  Although confusing at times, an interesting story line and Cruise is solid.

The confusion around the story expresses itself with narratives and character dialogues specifically "telling versus showing" to keep the story in the boundaries the filmmakers wanted. 

When the director and writer have to do this and not let the film tell the story with pictures and non-explanatory dialogue, then there is a problem. However, this film makes up for it in visual crispness and the idea that we have been replicated and are remnants and memories of who we were.

Jack has dreams of another life with a woman and when the plot (confusingly) sends a space craft which introduces this woman of his dreams (his earthly wife) Julia (Olga Kurylenko) I had a difficult time wondering how this worked. Where did the space vehicles come from that brought real humans of our past? 

Although the answer to this is question is given towards the end of the film, Julia's arrival created confusion and took me away  from the story. Jack (Tom Cruise) and Victoria (Andrea Riseborough) are “an effective team” whose job is for Jack to fix drones which protect machines sucking all the life out of the oceans while Team Leader Victoria guides and provides support for Jack from their home in the sky. Victoria talks/works with “Sally” (Melissa Leo) a woman who invites kindness with her southern accent.

Sally appears to be the boss of all the machines. The reason for Jack and Victoria's work is that there are "Scavs" (scavengers?) who are damaging the drones and want to damage the machines that are sucking the life out of the ocean (earth). Leading the Scavs, who are remaining humans on earth, is Beech (Morgan Freeman). His band of rebels reaches out to Jack because they think he has enough of his human memory left that he can be "turned" to help them defeat the alien force.

Cruise is as he always is, brave, charming, and the hero of his films. However, he is reliable and always delivers his role with conviction. Risenborough is good but her limited character’s role made it difficult to care much. Kurylenko is very good and is as strong as Cruise and Freeman. Freeman is perfect as the guy with a vision that humans will persevere. Leo is good in a mostly voice and video picture representation and version of the aliens. Joseph Kosinski and Karl Gajdusek wrote the script which didn’t always work. Kosinski directed the film and didn’t really get how the audience might see/interpret his vision.

Overall:  This was interesting enough to keep me engaged and wanting to see the end.

The Place Beyond the Pines

First Hit:  A good job of attempting to create a film about a very difficult idea and concept.

How much of our behavior comes from watching and being around our parents and what role does genetics play?

This has always been a difficult question to solve/resolve in science and how would a film address this? This is a film about what fate might be, about loss and about what drives a man to do certain things.

Ryan Gosling (as Luke) is a daredevil motorcycle rider. He unknowing father's a son with Eva Mendez (as Romina) and upon the discovery of this, turns to a life of crime to give his son the things he never got from a father he never knew.

This part of the film is exquisitely done. Enter Bradley Cooper (Avery) a cop which his father, a judge, thinks is a poor life/job choice. In a shootout he kills Luke. He learns that Luke has a 1 year old son just like him. 15 years later A.J. (Avery’s son) meets up with Jason (Luke’s son) and unknowingly of their father’s history, become friends.

However, they get into trouble and Avery realizes that the boy his son is hanging out with is the son of the man he killed. The story continues to develop from here as the sons begin to learn about their father’s earlier interaction.

There are aspects of this story that bring out the character of Avery, A.J. and Jason which are well done.

Gosling is amazing. The scene where he sits in church during his son’s baptizing, I realized, again, how good he can be. Mendez is great and perfect for the role. Cooper is very strong and can be believed as both the cop and Attorney General. Ben Mendelsohn as Robin a friend of Gosling's was fantastic. His character added depth to Gosling's role as well. Dane DeHann as Jason was very strong and carried through a believable Luke’s son. Emory Cohen as AJ was very good as well and brought enough darkness to make his angst believable. Ray Liotta was amazing at being able to make me dislike his crooked cop character in just 2 minutes. Ben Coccio co-wrote with Derek Cianfrance who also directed this very challenging and interesting film.

Overall:  This film can stay with you long after you leave the theater.

42

First Hit:  A very good and enjoyable film that covered most all the necessary bases, sort-of-speak.

Jackie Robinson made history by being the first black man (“negro” in the film) to sign and play on a major league baseball team.

Branch Rickey (Harrison Ford) was the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers and he foresaw the day, ahead of everyone else, that putting the best players on the field is what is important. Later on in the film Jackie (Chadwick Boseman) sits down with Branch and asks him to give him the real reason why he took this chance; the answer is heartfelt.

Overall this film is set up to please everyone. It isn’t a dark film, which it could have been, nor does it gloss over the pain Jackie went through; it is placed in the middle. I think this was done to bring in a wider audience.

There are scenes in this film that are beautifully done: Pee Wee Reese (Lucas Black) returning to his home town and realizing he has to make his truth known on the field; and Leo Durocher (Christopher Meloni) dressing down the team for the petition they were signing. The film is filled with them. Yes, some of it is sugar coated, but the diatribe by the Phillies manager was clearly enough to give the film audience a taste of what Robinson went through.

The baseball scenes were well shot and brought the beauty and intensity of baseball to the screen.

Ford was amazingly gruff, focused, driven and a joy to watch as he truly made this role his own. Boseman was really great as Jackie. He gave us an amazing view of the emotional ups and downs that Jackie might have gone through. Nicole Beharie gave us a solid performance as Jackie’s wife Rachel. Being of strong nature herself, the shock of the south required her to find other ways to fight back. Meloni was fantastic as Durocher. John C. McGinley as radio announcer Red Barber was really good. Andre Holland playing black sports writer Wendell Smith was really good and at times inspiring. Brian Helgeland wrote and directed this with an eye and ear for baseball and the social commentary required to pull this off.

Overall:  This was a very good full family film.