American Ultra

First Hit:  The abilities of Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart made this film work.

When we are introduced to Mike (Eisenberg) he sits bloodied and being questioned by a law enforcement officer.

Then we quickly reel back to where his voice over tells the audience that he is a major screw-up. He gets high all the time, he’s afraid to leave his town. He works at a “Cash and Carry” convenience store in a small, sleepy, and uneventful town. He lives with his girlfriend Phoebe (Stewart) who seems to really care about him and doesn’t seem to mind Mike’s inabilities to function at a very high level.

What we end up learning that Mike and Phoebe are both CIA agents, with Mike being a secret weapon. He’s in hibernation, but when he becomes activated he’s a killing machine. Supervising CIA Agent Adrian Yates (Topher Grace) decides he want to eliminate Mike and begins a plan kill him with his own brand of psychologically modified agents. Protecting Mike and Phoebe is Agent Victoria Lasseter (Connie Britton) who activates Mike so that he can protect himself. Some of the funniest scenes are short scenes with Mike’s friend Rose (John Leguizamo).

Eisenberg is perfect for this role, introverted, intense, physically adept and fully in-charge of his character. Stewart is wonderful as the agent who falls in love with the person she was assigned to protect. Their chemistry and interaction is wonderful. Grace is very good as the guy trying to make a name for himself. Britton is good as the protecting agent. Leguizamo is fantastic as Mike odd-ball, drug dealing friend. Max Landis wrote a strong, interesting and funny script. Nima Nourizadeh did a wonderful job of making the script come alive with action and dark comedy.

Overall:  I enjoyed the ways kitchen items can be used to create harm.

Listen to me Marlon

First Hit:  It was very interesting to hear Marlon Brando speak about his acting and his life.

Two performances of Brando’s still stand out to me; “On the Waterfront” and “Godfather”. My reason for these two among many powerful roles, was that the first captures him young and new to the profession, while the latter was after years of experience and the subtly and strength of his ability to be at the top of his game showed through.

This film has many still pictures of Brando, a few film clips of him in a particular film and clips of him outside of film-making. For the most part the voice overs are minimal and it is Brando’s voice taken from recordings he made for himself. There are also voice mail recordings from his answering machine and a couple interview segments.

What struck me about this was how strongly he felt about bringing a character to life through the use of facial expressions, looks, and an embodiment of the person in his own body. He commented on how many actors before him just gave their personality to each role they played. He didn't feel that they brought a character to the role and he found that disdainful.

The film also documented his personal life and the difficult things that happened to his son and daughter.

Steven Riley and Peter Ettedgui wrote this with a strong focus towards telling Marlon’s story. Riley did a great job of piecing together snippets of film and audio material into a great story.

Overall:  It was a fascinating look at a great actor.

The End of the Tour

First Hit:  Intelligent dialogue in a very well-acted film.

This is a simple intelligent film about David Lipsky (Jesse Eisenberg) a Rolling Stone reporter who works his boss to get an assignment to interview the current hottest writer David Foster Wallace (Jason Segel). Wallace has a past and history that Lipsky wants to better understand but mostly, because Lipsky, a writer himself, wants to find out why Wallace’s book is so much better than his  recently published book.

A number of their conversations take place in the car driving to various book readings, café’s, and Wallace’s home. Because of the physical closeness, their relationship grows to reveal a lot about each of the men. Wallace talks about learning about himself the hard way. He’s deeply explored his depression, has and continues to learn what is important to him, and how to deal with how the public views him, which often is far from the truth. He’s learned what his reality is and how to reconcile all of his life’s difficulties.

Lipsky gets challenged by someone who is as smart (maybe even smarter) as him. His respect and admiration occasionally gets in the way of interviewing Wallace, but those items also create a way to deeply learn more about Wallace and himself.

Eisenberg was his usual high intensity, high speed intellectual self. He’s is smart that he picks roles that display his natural strength. Segel gives a performance of a lifetime. He is stupendous, superb, and sublime. He embodies the character and dialogue. Donald Margulies wrote an incredibly strong script. James Ponsoldt created a great watchable film through his direction.

Overall:  This was a very watchable film by having intelligent dialogue.

Straight Outta Compton

First Hit:  Loved watching these young men fight through police repression to make a name for themselves.

I’ll deal with the downsides of this film first:  It needed about 30 minutes trimmed from its running time. And two, I would have liked a little more about what connected Ice Cube (O’Shea Jackson Jr.), Dr. Dre (Cory Hawkins) and Easy-E (Jason Mitchell) to each other.

The film had the relationships at a slight arms distance, and it may have been how they were, but it just seemed to me that there may have been more to the depth of their connection (especially Dre and Cube). The most powerful parts of the film were how situations with Police drove Ice Cube to write amazing powerful lyrics and then, of course, the concert scenes.

The climatic concert scene was the Detroit concert where the cops told them to not sing “Fuck Tha Police”. Of course they did, using their amendment driven rights of free speech to tell their story. This was was followed by a riot and arrest. The sadness of Easy-E and Jerry Heller's (Paul Giamatti)  greed was hard to watch, especially when the others trusted them. They were getting theirs while the rest of the group wasn’t.

Then in comes Suge Knight (R. Marcus Taylor) bullying himself into saving the day, but really only for his benefit. The film also gives glimpses of Snoop Dogg and Tupac. We get to see Ice figure out he needs to leave NWA and go out successfully on his own. Then we see Dre figure out he needs to control his own destiny as well. He leaves Death Row Records and starts Aftermath through Interscope Records and Jimmy Iovine. Anyone who knows anything about music knows that Aftermath has a stable of amazing rappers, including 50 Cent, Kendrick Lamar and Eminem.

This films gives a great lesson and view of the West Coast rap scene.

Jackson Jr. was incredibly strong as Ice and playing his dad must have been interesting and amazing. Hawkins was wonderful as Dre. My favorite scene was when his blew up at Death Row Records office which was followed by his telling Suge, “I’m out”. Mitchell was sublime as the wheeler-dealer E. His first scene of him learning to rap was fantastic, along his finding out that he had AIDs were spot on. Giamatti was very good as NWA’s first manager. My favorite scene was when he was pleading with E to not leave – but always stating that he took care of his end. Taylor was incredibly sublime as Suge. He had the cigar smoking attitude down pat. Jonathan Herman and Andrea Berloff wrote a very strong, intelligent, and pointed script. Outside that I think the film was too long, F. Gary Gray’s direction was very good.

Overall:  This was a very strong film about West Coast rap scene and I liked it.

Ricki and the Flash

First Hit:  Nothing lasting about this film and moments were really enjoyable.

It must have been interesting for a real life mother (Ricki/Linda played by Meryl Streep) and daughter (Julie played by Mamie Gummer) to play film life mother and daughter.

The resemblance was there and I couldn’t help but wonder if Meryl’s movie making career created some angst in Mamie’s relationship with her? My guess is that there might have been some but not as much as in this film. Here Ricki/Linda leaves her marriage to Pete (Kevin Kline) to follow her dream of being in a Rock-n-Roll band. Pete was left to care for the three kids, Julie, Josh and Adam, alone. Pete marries Maureen (Audra McDonald) who steps in and becomes the mother Ricki/Linda isn’t.

However, this film is also about following your dreams regardless if you become rich and famous for it. Her band is her family now and we get to watch her relationship grow with Greg (Rick Springfield) the lead guitarist.

The band’s covers of songs by various artists are strong and authentic enough to make it work. Their versions of these songs take into account the age of the band members as well as their abilities. Although I didn’t particularly like the songs chosen – they work well enough.

The film is about acceptance and seeing things from another’s point of view.

Meryl Streep was almost convincing as someone who lives in a dream land kind of way. Her dialogue was good for the part but Streep's inane intelligence belied her part. It seemed hard for me to see Streep be a character that didn't understand the impact of her choices. It is difficult to play ignorantly spacey. As the film progresses her character begins to get it, so the acting isn’t as difficult. Gummer is pretty good at being the spoiled child who cannot believe her marriage turned out the way it did. Kline was very good as the father, still loving his first wife, loving his second wife, and knowing where to be strong and flexible. McDonald did a strong job of being the woman who raised someone else’s kids. Springfield was very good as Ricki’s band mate and lover. It also gave credibility to the music playing in the film. Diablo Cody wrote the, at times, adequate and compelling script. Jonathan Demme directed the cast well, it was just that the subject matter wasn’t presented in the strongest way.

Overall:  This was a feel good film and for the most part it worked.