Author: The JT LeRoy Story

First Hit:  Recalling the 2005 public outcry that JT LeRoy wasn’t real, this film thoughtfully, engagingly and summarily tells the story behind the story of Laura Albert’s creation.

I recall reading stories about how the media thought they had been duped by Laura Albert to the existence of JT LeRoy (JT standing for Jeremiah Terminator). From first glance and reading the media’s views, it was understandable. Yet something was hauntingly strange about their indignant hurt.

One day, in 2013, I learned that Laura was a client at our SF Marina Bar Method Studio. When we spoke and I was quickly reminded about the hoopla that transpired in the press in 2005.

Although I learned a different story that day and in during subsequent conversations, it wasn’t until this film did I “get” the depth, complex and interesting portrait of her story. Laura was rightfully put off by the perception that she pulled off a “hoax” by asking her son's aunt Savannah Knoop, to be the public face of JT LeRoy.

While watching this film, we take a deep dive into the events of Laura’s life and her path into writing, thus furnishing Albert with a way to express the life being lived inside. The film, through the use of an unfathomable library of saved voicemails and telephone conversation recordings on mini and standard tape cassettes, we learn how Laura’s life unfolded and how creating stories allowed her a way to express herself through a difficult upbringing.

Although I think the film might have been stronger through some judicious editing, thereby reducing its running time, I found myself engaged and wanting Laura to be seen as someone who cares about living her life and the life of the characters she creates because they are part of her.

Jeff Feuerzeig wrote and directed this film. He did an effective job of moving back and forth through time to tell Laura’s story and how JT was created.

Overall:  It was a fascinating look into an author’s life, author Laura Albert.

Sully

First Hit:  An amazing, crisp, and well-acted film about a remarkable event showing how this pilot made an extraordinary set of decisions under extreme pressure.

I was profoundly affected by how much Tom Hanks (as U.S. Airways pilot Chesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberger) embodied the deeply rooted sense of responsibility for the 155 people on the plane he had to land in the Hudson River.

Like Sully, I was fully engrossed in wondering about everyone on the plane. The concern is demonstrated in so many ways:  1) Sully going up and down the aisle ensuring everyone is out of the plane. His last look towards the back of the plane before he exited was telling.  2) When he asked one of the officers of the pilot’s union to help him find out if everyone got off the plane.  3) the release of the subtle out-breath while being given a physical when he’s told, the survivor's count was 155.

We get multiple views of the event. We get a glimpse of what the air traffic controller went through, his heart being in the job. We get to see how the airline's insurance company and investigators aimed to have the water landing be pilot error. We see the closeness and distance Sully has with his wife Lorraine (Laura Linney).

We get to embrace the pilot and co-pilot (Aaron Eckhart as Jeff Skiles) relationship and how this event brought them closer together. Lastly, we the audience, see a public hearing about the event. All of this in a crisp well executed 96 minutes.

The dream sequences were powerful and were reminders of how a commercial airline plane can create enormous damage to a city. The film editing of the differing views of this event, was perfect. The conclusion, even though it is already public knowledge, is wonderfully suspenseful and gratifying.

Hanks is superb. He embodies the weight of the role of pilot and all the decisions Sully has made over the years. I would want all my pilots to be this man. Linney is good as Sully’s wife. While we never see them together, and her relationship with Sully during this film is solely by phone, it works, she’s able to bridge the gap. Eckhart is wonderful and strong as co-pilot Skiles. He was perfect. Todd Komarnicki wrote an very strong engaging script. Clint Eastwood’s direction was sublime. He captured so many aspects of the event and did this in a clear concise manner.

Overall:  This is a wonderfully executed film depicting a set of life saving decisions made clearly and with concise conviction.

Hands of Stone

First Hit:  Having watched a few of Roberto Duran’s bouts, it was interesting to know more about the man who had “Hands of Stone”.

If you don’t like boxing, you probably won’t like this film as there are a fair number of boxing sequences in this film and it is not easy to watch people getting punched.

Duran (Edgar Ramirez) is first shown as a boy attempting to keep himself and his family fed. He runs the streets and steals from the Americans by taking guava's from the trees in the canal zone. Like most other Panamanians, he is resentful of U.S. presence in the canal zone.

Although the Panamanian and U.S. governments’ agreed to U.S. ownership of the canal zone, there is widespread resentment. This is important because when he fights in the U.S. he’s battling both the U.S. government's oppressive nature to Panamanians and his opponent.

In the case of the flamboyant USA Gold Medalist Sugar Ray Leonard (Usher Raymond) he created a massive dislike and even insulted his wife Juanita (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) as a part of his strategy to get under Leonard’s skin. Teaching him how to be a great boxer and to fully use his given talents is Ray Arcel (Robert De Niro). Because of previous entanglements with the mob who had a lot of control over boxing, he trained Duran for free.

This film explores Duran’s relationship with Felicidad Iglesias (Ana de Armas) who ended up marrying him. The film also explores his hunger to fight and what happens when he wins more than he ever thought he would. This film tells a story.

Ramirez was very good as Duran and made his journey believable. De Niro was fantastic as Roberto’s father figure as well as trainer. Raymond was strong as Ray Leonard. His movement around the ring and engaging personality were mirrors of the very public character he was playing.   Armas was wonderful as Duran’s tested wife. How she continued to show up to him was great. Smollett-Bell was good as Leonard's wife. John Turturro was good in a small role as the mob heavy putting pressure on Arcel. Ellen Barkin was very good as Stephanie Arcel, Ray’s wife. Pedro Perez did a wonderful job as Duran’s lifelong trainer. Ruben Blades is perfectly pushy as the money man behind Duran. Jonathan Jakubowicz wrote and directed this film. I thought that the script was very good and brought out an interesting story. The direction of the scenes was especially strong in the ring.

Overall:  If you like or interested in boxing in the late 1970s and early 1980s this is definitely worth seeing.

Complete Unknown

First Hit:  Although I liked the film, story and the acting, this film is not for everyone.

The opening sequence is a little confusing because it slips focus on the character’s face as it shows a montage of Alice Manning/Jennifer/? (Rachel Weisz) as a hippie botanist, a focused and in charge nurse in a trauma situation, and then as magician’s assistant in China where she drops through a trapdoor.

We get reintroduced to her as Alice Manning a woman who has just come back to the US from doing research deep in the jungles of Tasmania. She makes friends with Clyde (Michael Chernus) at a cafeteria as a way to connect with Clyde’s workmate, Tom (Michael Shannon). As it turns out, Clyde invites her to Tom’s birthday party at Tom’s house.

Alice enthralls the party’s guests with her travels and stories of her past jobs and life. When Tom walks in, there is this sense that he is questioning Alice’s stories and motive. When he goes outside, she follows, and we learn of their previous connection.

The rest of the film, for the most part, is dialogue between these two about her disappearing act. One of the most interesting statements is by Tom, when he says, he’s been working for 10 years to make a difference by writing emails in his job. He’s forever hoping that he’ll make a difference; and that is what his life is all about, hoping. He's afraid of what he'll feel and what he'll do if he actually makes a difference. During their walk they help an elderly woman who’s fallen. Helping Nina (Kathy Bates) home they meet her husband Roger (Danny Glover) and Tom discovers how easy it is to impersonate someone else.

Will Tom join Alice in making up new jobs and lives, or will he stay with the live he has, or is there another path? Regardless of the choices they make, the film suffers from scenes like them walking out to visit the frogs. It seemed extraneous. That, and other scenes, seemed to take away from the intent of the film.

I did like the thought and premise of this film where someone, in this case Alice/Jennifer, could find a way to successfully be a different person over and over again. I was reminded by the Bob Dylan song lines: "like a complete unknown, like a rollin' stone".

Weisz was strong as Alice/Jennifer and I bought her ability to change characters. Shannon was good as the intense man whose life is built on hopes. Bates and Glover were fun in their minor roles. Joshua Marston and Julian Sheppard wrote an interesting script, however it would and will only have a limited audience. Marston directed this and outside a few scenes that seemed unneeded, I liked the premise of the story.

Overall:  This film will have a limited audience but, for some, it will be worth seeing.

The Light Between Oceans

First Hit:  Strong acting by Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender had me feeling the intended pain and joy of their characters.

Doing the right thing to find inner peace in his life, Tom Sherbourne (Fassbender) has come to this small Australian town to serve as a solitary lighthouse keeper. The lighthouse is on Janus Rock, a remote island several miles from shore. He’s traumatized from his experience in WWI having seen and caused many deaths. He’s looking to repair his soul.

One of the men who helps to hire the lighthouse keeper has a daughter named Isabel Graysmark (Vikander). She is full of energy, life and is intrigued by the quiet somewhat brooding polite Sherbourne. On one of his trips onto shore, he has a picnic with her and their connection is sealed.

The chemistry on the screen is palpable and watching them together is curiously engaging. They marry and live in solitude on the island. They attempt to have children but Isabel miscarries and the pain of these scenes are a strong set up to what happens when they find a dingy washing up on the island with a small baby girl and a dead man inside. Tom wants to find the mother, but Isabel wants to keep the baby and bonds with it immediately.

Filling the hole inside her from her miscarriages drives her to convince Sherbourne to not take steps to find the birth mother. Some years later the birth mother is discovered and she lives in the same town.

Hannah Roenfeldt (Rachel Weisz) is mourning the loss of her husband and baby and Tom fights himself and Isabel to set the record straight.

There are some wonderfully staged scenes in this film including; when Isabel shaves off Tom’s moustache. The happiness of their first dance after the wedding. Tom’s speech about the Lighthouse where Hannah is present and he is lost at what to say and how to say it. The scene when Hannah and Isabel meet up in the fabric store and Lucy-Grace (Florence Clery) runs to Isabel’s arms. And finally when the adult Lucy-Grace (Caren Pistorius) visits Tom. This film was meant to pull on the audience’s heart strings and it does this really well.

Fassbender was amazing as the restrained and constrained man filled with a tough emotional past and learning how love could release him. His controlled words and actions, as provided for in the script, were powerfully shown and shared with the audience. Vikander shows why she won an Academy Award last year. She made Isabel frightfully real in so many ways, displaying the ability to move from one emotion to another in a way that was integrated. She was outstanding. Weisz was powerfully controlled in her role as the mother who lost her child, found her child and having to re-establish her role as mother when the child, rightfully, believed someone else was her mother. Wonderful performance. Derek Cianfrance wrote and directed this film. His ability to create the agonizingly beautiful and powerful scenes in this film, show his ability to get what he wanted.

Overall:  This film is heart touchingly aimed to bring a tear or two, and it does.