The Great Beauty (La grande bellezza)

First Hit:  I didn’t see the humor or drama in this self-indulgent view of mindless obsessive behavior.

Art is a naked woman with a gauze headdress running into a rock wall. Yup, in some people’s eyes this might be avant-garde art, yet in the context of the Italian high society this film is sharing with the audience – it is just one poor choice after another.

Toni Servillo as Jep Gambardella whose goal it was to be the single most important partier in Italy is lame, meaningless and unimpressive. The faux sophistication is too easily seen through and “the shock” after his 65th birthday is simply life happening to him and he sees it for the first time through the haze of indulgence. None of the other actors or actresses left any impression worth mentioning. Umberto Contarello wrote this poorly conceived script from a worse story by eventual director Paolo Sorrentino.

Overall:  I was not impressed with any aspect of this film although many critics have high regard for it.

The Last Days on Mars

First Hit: This was a painfully poor film in all ways.

The film begins with people outside on a landscape that is supposed to be Mars but it could have been California, Utah, and Arizona or somewhere in the Middle East where the landscape is void of vegetation and it is both rocky and sandy.

The set up was extremely poor and when they finally tried to frame the story with shots from above the surface of the planet, it was too late. The premise that this group was on Mars was null and void from the very beginning. Briefly the rest of the story is that the group on the planet is just about ready to leave the surface and head back to earth, when at the last minute, they think they find some sort of life. In a snap decision two of the crew goes out and get sucked up by the organisms which make them zombies. They come for the rest of the crew.

Liev Schreiber as Vincent tried to make his character thoughtful and intense but it didn’t work. Romola Garai played Rebecca who was the one thoughtful character. Elias Koteas, Olivia Williams, Johnny Harris, Goran Kostic, Tom Cullen, and Yusra Warsama were all part of the crew that suffered both the script and direction of this poorly conceived film. Sydney J. Bounds and Clive Dawson wrote this lame script. Ruairi Robinson directed this and he’s got a long way to go to figure out how to tell a story worth telling.

Overall:  Nothing about it made sense and there is no way this should have found a screen.

Homefront

First Hit:  Average Statham thriller where he takes on all comers and wins.

Phil Broker (Jason Statham) is a former DEA agent who is taken on an anonymous life with his daughter in a Louisiana small town.

Being outsiders their behavior is scrutinized and when his daughter Maddy (Izabela Vidovic) punches out a classmate, the kids parents decide to make Broker’s life hell for this indiscretion mayhem ensues. Mayhem is headed by the town Meth cooker Morgan “Gator” Bodine (James Franco). He discovers Broker’s past and gets one of Broker’s convicted prisoners to send people to kill Broker. Assisting Gator is Sheryl Mott (Winona Ryder).

Statham is always solid and here he shows up as usual. It will never win an Oscar doing action films, but he’s very solid. Vidovic is great as the 10 year old daughter. One scene when she is lamenting about her recently past mother is great. Franco is pretty good as a “not all at home” meth cooker. Ryder is either a pretty good actress showing the perfect nervousness as a tweaker, or she just showed up showing her past struggles and put them on the screen – she didn’t look very good. Sylvester Stallone and Chuck Logan wrote the screenplay which was solid. Gary Fielder directed this well-paced action thriller.

Overall: Solid action film.

Out of the Furnace

First Hit:  Although there is some very good acting, this film floundered and was unorganized.

Unorganized for me means that there seemed to be two different films or storylines, mashed together by the supposed storyline written by Brad Ingelsby and Director Scott Cooper.

This story line is revenge. However, some of the shots by Cooper were fantastic. For instance, the opening shot, where the camera starts from high and moves into the back of a car sitting in a drive in movie theater is really good. The shot shows the types of cars/trucks while the sense of segregated community (separated by their older cars) but all watching the same film.

The second scene is inside the car where the next bit of dialogue and action sets up the angry uncaring life of Harlan DeGroat (Woody Harrelson). He comes from the hills in New Jersey where law and order is defined by who is toughest and meanest, not the police. This view of Harlan and his cohorts is one film. 

The other film is about Russell Baze (Christian Bale), his brother Rodney (Casey Affleck), and Russell’s love Lena Taylor (Zoe Saldana). The mashup is Rodney’s struggle to find a life after a number of tours of Iraq. Being angry and lost he gambles, gets into debt to John Petty (Willem Dafoe) who is indebted to Harlan. This is where the stretch doesn't work.

I won’t move the storyline any more here, but despite the wonderful individual performances the story felt disjointed and forced.

Harrelson was in the vein of his roles in “Natural Born Killers” and “Zombieland”; dark, caring only about himself, and mean. He does this well and I like it. Bale is fantastic as a guy trying to do right by his family and girl while be caught by his wish to take care of his brother. Affleck is strong as a smart good looking guy carrying the struggles and demons he builds through war and family life. Saldana is wonderful as a woman who wants stability and family in her life. Dafoe is very good as the guy who owns a bar but makes book on the side. Forest Whitaker is intense and wonderful as a friend of Baze and as Police Chief Wesley Barnes in a small steel town in Pennsylvania where the Baze’s live. Sam Shepard is strong in a minor role as a Baze relative.  Ingelsby wrote an interesting script but it was either this script or the direction of Cooper that had it go off track.

Overall:  In parts, great. As a whole the film was mostly incongruent.

Nebraska

First Hit:  Great acting in a very good story.

This is a story about an aging alcoholic man living in Billings Montana hoping to make a final splash for his family.

Woody Grant (Bruce Dern) is a retired auto mechanic, who sits around drinking his life away. His wife Kate (June Squibb) complains about Woody all the time. Clearly there is a long history and they must have loved each other, once.

Their sons David (Will Forte) and Ross (Bob Odenkirk) do their best to assist their parents with David doing the most because he lives close by. Woody is convinced that he is the winner of a million dollars from a magazine publishing group. He cannot drive any longer so he decides to walk to Lincoln Nebraska to collect his winnings.

After getting jailed for walking on the freeway, David decides to help his dad by taking him to Lincoln to learn that there is no such prize. The film is about Woody revisiting his childhood, his drinking, his family, and his life. In doing so he opens a window to his sons to see him more fully and despite her complaining, how their mother loves him.

Dern fully becomes Woody – there was no Bruce Dern – amazing and probably Oscar worthy. Forte was really wonderful as the son who helped his dad and in-turn helped himself. Odenkirk was strong as the older, more successful brother. Squibb was an absolutely amazing. Her turn as Woody’s wife was bold, pointed, and wonderfully funny. Stacy Keach as old friend Ed Pegram was very good. Tim Driscoll and Devin Ratray as Bart and Cole respectively were really great as two doofus relative brothers of his. Bob Nelson wrote an excellent script and Alexander Payne’s direction of this beautifully shot film was wonderful.

Overall:  This is a very strong film with top flight performances.