The Intern

First Hit:  Really enjoyed this film at many levels.

Having a wife that created a business and also having owned multiple small businesses, I’m very aware of the amount of work and pressure it takes to grow a business.

This film is about the relationship between Jules (Anne Hathaway), a young married mother who’s created a booming internet apparel business and Ben (Robert De Niro) who is a 70 year old intern at her company. As Jules skepticism for having an intern, let alone a senior citizen whose looking to get back into the game, grows Ben’s calm clear persistent demeanor creates space for Jules to actually appreciate his experience. Jules’ home life isn’t doing well as her husband Matt (Anders Holm) is struggling being a house husband.

Jules is interviewing possible CEOs to run her business hoping to find a way to create a better home life and to ease the pressure around herself. But as Ben continues to listen and provide guidance, Jules becomes clearer about her path forward.

I loved the way the office atmosphere emulated new smaller companies these days with a masseuse name Fiona (Rene Russo), open warehouse type floor plan where nothing is private, and overworked staff continue to do what they can with little acknowledgement from senior management. Many of scenes were compelling to watch as the tension in Jules and the clarity and calmness of Ben evolved quite well.

De Niro was very strong. His comic timing with his expressions are perfect for the part – elegant. Hathaway is very good. I enjoyed her character and she displayed the character’s strengths and weaknesses in great ways. Holm was good as the, most of the time, honorable supportive husband. Russo was fabulous as the company masseuse. Nancy Myers wrote a wonderful script and must have had a great time directing strong actors.

Overall:  I really enjoyed this film because of the story and developing business perspective.

Black Mass

First Hit:  Very disappointing film as there is little substance about Whitey’s motivation to be the criminal he was.

I was looking forward to seeing this film, because I thought I’d learn something about James “Whitey” Bulger, the man who was on the FBI’s 10 most wanted lists for years.

I learned very little except he, as Johnny Depp played him, had a brother named Billy (Benedict Cumberbatch) that was a State Senator, his childhood friend named John Connolly (Joel Edgerton) was an FBI agent, and that he became an FBI informant to further his criminal career. But there was nothing about what drove Whitey to his life of crime and even more, nothing around the deeper motivation for his killing and crime spree.

The side story about Connolly was mediocre and, in this film, it was obvious his association with Whitey was ill-used and inappropriate. It was bad script-writing, poor direction, poor acting and/or a combination of any of these resulting in the audience being un-engaged while the payoff never arrived.

Depp had a great look for the film, and it appears he did what the script and director called for, but there wasn’t enough there to make it interesting. Cumberbatch was excellent in his small role and his meetings with Connolly were perfectly executed. Edgerton was OK, and it issue seemed to be the way the script was written and how the director wanted him to be emphatic about how Whitey was helping the FBI. It just didn’t see it working as a real story. Mark Mallouk and Jez Butterworth wrote the script that lacked backstory as to why Whitey took up a life of crime while his brother became a State Senator. Scott Cooper didn’t seem to see how the way he filmed this story lacked interest. The subject is a fascinating one, but it was all lost within intense vignettes.

Overall:  This film lacked depth and interest.

Everest (3-D)

First Hit:  Having read Krakauer’s book, the film was generally weak and disappointing.

I do not read many books that are tuned into films and I had read this book when it first came out.

Because it was some time ago, I hoped to just view the film without the prejudice of the book in the back of my mind. However, there was little or no back story as to why Scott Fisher (Jake Gyllenhaal) was the way he was. In fact the backstories were minimal and the attempt to build them during an evening when Krakauer (played by Michael Kelly) asked “Why” the climbers were climbing Everest fell far short of providing the needed information.

The audience needs to know why the characters are doing what they are doing - it is the primary set-up job of the director and scriptwriters. The gist of this story has too many people climbing Everest as part of their bucket list. With so many untrained and unskilled people trying to climb Everest we know something is going to happen.

Having been to Lukla, Namche Bazar, Tengboche and Kala Pattar, I’ve seen Everest reasonably close. I’ve seen hikers/climbers tossed onto the backs of Yaks to bring them expediently down the mountain because of altitude sickness. There just doesn’t seem to be enough respect for the mountain.

Rob Hall (Jason Clarke) had developed a company that took less experienced people up to the top of Everest. One of his rivals was Fisher. They are different in their attitude towards the mountain and they team up to try to get both their parties up and down the mountain safely. I heard this from the first time I hiked in to Lukla, “Everest makes its own weather”.

Having flown over the Everest from Gonggar airport in Lhasa, Tibet, seeing the way the wind whips across the top and the ridges the statement seemed so true. In this story a weather front comes in and seals the fate of many climbers who didn’t put their safety over the goal. There are great shots of Khumbu Icefall and the treacherous ladder bridges.

One of the best stories out of the book and one of the main stories in the film is of the rich arrogant Texan Beck Weathers (Josh Brolin) who ends up surviving the trek but ends up with a severe case of frostbite. The other sub-story is of the wives and supporting women of the men (and one woman) climbing the mountain.

The worst part of the film for me is seeing (and it is true) how much garbage and oxygen bottles are left on the mountain (from Base Camp on up) - lack of respect for nature.

Clarke was OK as Rob Hall. I didn’t believed his character but that could have been the direction. Gyllenhaal was OK, but with a lack of a backstory I just kept wondering why he acted the way he did. Kelly as Krakauer seemed like a very minor character, however his book raised the awareness of Everest and these climbers. Brolin was very good as the abrasive ego centric Texan. Emily Watson as Helen Wilton was strong as base camp manager. Keira Knightly was very strong as Hall's pregnant wife waiting for him to return for the birth of his daughter. William Nicholson and Simon Beaufoy wrote a weak script that really developed only 2 characters (Hall and Weathers). Baltasar Kormakur directed the film and given the intensity of the event and the decisions that were made, I was very disappointed in the result.

Overall:  This film did not deliver a very intense story.

Time Out of Mind

First Hit:  An insightful slow paced film that provides an interesting window into homelessness.

The film opens with cornucopia of noise and a view out of a trashed apartment in NYC. The noise continues through the entire film.

The background conversations and noise had me probing the screen looking to see who was talking or where the noise was coming from respectively. It was relentless and for George (Richard Gere) his 10 years of homeless or, being “temporarily without a home”, the noise adds to his inability to be clear and function. At times he’s clear and functional while at other times he succumbs to the fogginess of his despair and confusion.

As the film moved along, I felt as though this film was made by shooting Gere unrecognized wandering the streets and through homeless shelters of NYC. It was as if the cameras were shooting him from a distance and the people in the streets had no idea it was Gere. We learn during the film that his daughter Maggie (Jena Malone) doesn’t want to have anything to do with him and his attempts to see her are rebuffed.

The back story is shared with fellow homeless man Dixon (Ben Vereen). Dixon can’t stop talking which adds to the noise in George’s life. During one of their walks George tells Dixon what he remembers, his wife dying from cancer, his losing his job, drinking, losing his home, his daughter being raised elsewhere and going down a rabbit hole.

The scenes in the shelters and many of them on the street were really strong. When watching this film, one has to be patient as it moves at its own slow pace and everything unfolds slowly and realistically, just as in life.

Gere is really great. I loved his looking intelligent and at home within himself, yet barely holding on to what is next – wonderful juxtapositions. Malone is very good as Gere’s daughter. She has an edge of anger, sadness, and determination to not being dragged into George’s life again. Vereen is fantastic. His constant conscious stream of dialogue is perfectly like some of the homeless people I’ve befriended. Steve Buscemi as a building manager was perfect. Oren Moverman wrote the screen play and also directed the film. At first I was annoyed at the noise in the film, but quickly realized how it really made this film work.

Overall:  At the end of the film, I felt I’d been through a really good experience and got a view into homelessness.

Rosenwald

First Hit:  I love when I get to learn something new, and to have it be about a humble yet an amazing person, sublime perfection.

Julius Rosenwald did something that had me absolutely amazed. As the CEO of Sears Roebuck company, he founded a way to build over 5,300 all black schools throughout the South.

In the early part of the 20th Century Afro-Americans were not allowed to attend the white only schools in the South. The schools they were attending were in poor run down, left to die, buildings and the people who taught the kids were either barely or not educated themselves.

Working with Booker T. Washington of Tuskegee University, Rosenwald devised a plan to create a way that prompted communities to build new schools using financing from Rosenwald.

This film also talked about Rosenwald’s other philanthropy efforts through grants and other organizations. The filmmakers used archival footage, scenes from films that represented the time, and recent interviews to create an amazing tale of giving. However for me the coup de grace was short footage of him giving a talk about his success – beautifully humble.

Aviva Kempner wrote and directed this amazing biographical documentary of an amazing man.

Overall:  This was a great, humbling, and honorable story of a very benevolent man.