The Theory of Everything

First Hit: Extremely well-acted and a very engaging story.

Stephen Hawking (played here by Eddie Redmayne) is a brilliant man. His way of viewing our world is ever changing because he continues to open his mind to concepts while having the tenacity to prove things mathematically. Sharing with us, his thoughts through a body that has basically shut down is a story of perseverance and unending support and love from his wife Jane (Felicity Jones).

The film follows the story of Hawking meeting Jane, his learning that he has a motor neuron disease which will slowly disable his physical movement, how Jane’s support allowed him to continue, flourish in the science community, and finally through the end of Jane and Stephen’s marriage and their continued support each other past their divorce.

This film is beautifully shot as the scenes in the house show both havoc and love - amazing.

Redmayne gives an Oscar nomination worthy performance – enough said. Jones is fantastic. I thought she was equally the heart and soul of this film. David Thewlis as Dennis Sciama was great and embodied the man who helped Steven grow and explore his inner universe. Anthony McCarten wrote an excellent screen play from Jane Hawking’s own book “Traveling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen”. James Marsh did a fantastic job of giving us a view into this great man’s life. He did an even better job of giving us a view of how Jane was the base that empowered Stephen.

Overall: This was a wonderful film to watch.

Rosewater

First Hit: I'm sure that the real story was more compelling than the film exhibited.

There was something lackluster about watching this film. I wasn’t expecting anything explosive or mind boggling, I was hoping to be touched by this film; I wasn’t.

The subject matter is interesting, however it isn’t new ground. There are many historical films about someone incorrectly imprisoned and how they survived. Unfortunately, this ends up being just one of many. Could it have been more? Yes because we have Maziar Bahari (Gael Garcia Bernal) who was Iranian born, his dad and sister were revolutionaries on their own, he works for Newsweek and is imprisoned in Iran for being a CIA and MI6 spy.

Given all this, I never really got a sense as to the main focus of this film: 1) Was it about how Bahari deals with the pressure? 2) Was it about how Javadi (Kim Bodnia) interrogated him? 3) Was it about how Iran wanted to show the world it is a victim of western governments? 4) Was it about how high level international pressure can bring to bear his release? 5) Was it about Bahari’s family, who have been Iranian government antagonists for generations?  

I had high hopes for the film early on when Bahari is abducted from his Iranian family home and his abductors say: “We are here for you now.” They take him directly to prison. This is the point of my review, I had trouble understanding the main focus of the film and therefore I left the theater thinking; interesting but empty.

Bernal was good but the lack of clear direction reduced the effectiveness of script and unknown point of the film. Javadi was also good and only good for the reasons stated above. Jon Stewart wrote and directed this first time effort for him. The lack of direct focus on a particular subject within the context of the story might be a first time filmmaker’s mistake, I don’t know. Yet, this is what it seemed like. Stewart did an OK job, but if he’s going to do more, he has some work to do.

Overall: A good first time effort for Stewart, but the film lacked a single driving focus.

Citizenfour

First Hit:  I think all US Citizens need to see this film and I’m wondering why congress and the President have done nothing to stop this.

Our government is spying on each and every one of us. Do they look at my online behavior or are they listening to my phone calls? Probably not, but they can if they want to.

I love the beginning when one of the speakers states, “if you have a metro card (NYC) and it is replenished by a link to your bank account, they (our government) knows your personal information and behavior patterns.” If it is something they think suspicious (using algorithms), you will be tracked and monitored.

Yes there was an upheaval when Edward Snowden leaked NSA collected data and with good reason, our government is lying to us under the guise of “protecting us from terrorists”. Our government is behaving badly and we’re letting them. Why?

Edward Snowden is compelling as to the reasons why he released the data and his commitment to sharing the truth about our government’s spying on us all. Glenn Greenwald the Guardian (UK) reporter who set the stories free in the press is a real brave patriot to his work and country. William Binney, a former NSA government employee who foresaw our spying errors is a hero. Our entire US Government is lying to us and you. Laura Poitras directed this elegant portrayal of how our government is not only breaking its own laws but have abused our trust.

Overall:  Although I’m not shocked, I supremely saddened by our untrustworthy government and especially the people who continue to perpetuate this illegal spying. I’ve met the enemy and it is us because we let our leaders get away with this.

Beyond the Lights

First Hit:  I was surprised at how much I liked it.

I didn’t think I was going to enjoy this film after reading a brief story about the movie.

However Mini Driver, as Macy Jean, the mother of the biracial Noni (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), was effective as a goal obsessed mother who had to fend for their livelihood. She did this through her daughter's singing talent.

Noni is the dedicated daughter who, under the managing guidance of Macy Jean, has become a worldwide singing sensation. However, she is struggling because she isn’t singing her songs, she’s not in control of her life, and her life doesn’t feel like her own. In desperation she gets drunk, hangs from a balcony and gets saved from a suicide attempt by police officer Kaz Nicol (Nate Parker).

Kaz is also having his career guided by his single parent, Police Captain Nicol (Danny Glover). Captain Nicol wants his son to become a successful politician and therefore has been guiding Kaz's career moves. What was enjoyable was the way the story came together.

Driver was really good as the headstrong mom who both success for her daughter but also success for herself. Along the way, she lost sight of her daughters inner life. Mbatha-Raw was strong as the singer who wants to find her own way. She made a compelling story on the screen. Parker is very good as the officer that wants love but will not live in a way that lacks integrity. Glover is perfect as the dad who wants his son to be great. Gina Prince-Bythewood wrote and directed this film. The story-line was well thought out with some great scenes in the boardroom with Marcy Jean speaking her mind. The direction was good with the scenes in Mexico deftly giving the audience a sense of peace coming over the characters.

Overall:  An enjoyable film that kept its perspective all the way through.

Interstellar

First Hit:  Beautiful pictures, very long and, at times, a confusing film.

I walked out of the theater unsatisfied by the film. It meanders between philosophical, spiritual, pragmatic, and scientific. Example:  The earth is dying and is being encumbered by dust storms but we only see Midwest of the United States. Where is the rest of the world?

The focus of society is on growing food, but corn is the only surviving food. Is that what they are growing in Asia? Another hole  was that NASA is a secret unit of the government because no one would authorize spending money on rockets to find a place for earthlings to re-populate. Why would we want to repopulate a new planet when we screwed up our own?

The holes in the initial setup of this story are huge and gaping. Because there were so many questions from the beginning the story was confusing. Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) is a former NASA pilot, turned farmer who has two kids Murph (10 Yrs – Mackenzie Foy, Jessica Chastain as mid-aged, and Ellen Burstyn as the older Murph) and Tom (15 Yrs - Timothee Chalamet and older Casey Affleck).

Because his wife is deceased, also living with him is his father-in-law Donald (Jon Lithgow). He improbably (gravity helps him discover where it is) finds NASA’s working headquarters and because he’s there, Professor Brand (Michael Caine) decides to ask him to fly a space vehicle into a wormhole near Saturn.

The film wants us to believe that some super being placed the wormhole there for our use to figure out how to save the planet. Professor Brand’s daughter Brand (Anne Hathaway) is part of the scientific crew as well. The story spins off into different planets (worlds) for the crew to explore as a way to “save earth”.

McConaughey was good (and no better than that) as the cowboy-ish pilot of the space vehicle and father of two children he misses. Although he is fun to watch, I don’t think his character was believable and really a tad too self-righteous. Hathaway was good, but again believability in her character was questionable. Foy was one to the highlights of the film as was Chastain in the role of Murph. Lithgow is effective in the brief role as father-in-law. Caine was mediocre as the professor who is neither brilliant nor conniving. Matt Damon as Dr. Mann a pilot who had previously gone through the wormhole stuck on a planet was very good in his role. Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan wrote a script that was too large to film well without it being a 4 hour film. There were too many holes (black or worm) in the story to be believable. Overall, the story was disappointing. Christopher did a very credible job of filming space and creating various worlds, but the ambitiousness of the story left me lost in space.

Overall:  Although there were great pictures this film was too ambitious for its own good.