Allied

First Hit:  Although interesting and at times good, the acting and/or storyline didn’t really hold up well for the life of the film.

This WWII based film is about two agents Max Vatan (Brad Pitt) and Marianne Beausejour (Marion Cotillard) who are charged with assassinating the German Ambassador to Morocco. Although he’s Canadian and she’s European when they meet they must act like they're married and that he’s been in Paris working and is finally taking a little time off to visit his wife in Morocco. They meet for the first time in a restaurant in front of her friends and it goes off well, with everyone believing they were a couple.

The film spends a nice amount of time letting the audience see them learn about each other. They each learn about the other's skill sets including their marksmanship. Nearing the time for the party where they expect to assassinate the Ambassador, they head out to the desert. After gazing out across the massive sand dunes, back in the car they consummate their relationship with lovemaking.

I bring this up because this scene was one of the best scenes in this film and one of the best, in a car lovemaking scenes, I’ve ever witnessed. The use of a revolving camera and the wind and sand swirling around the car in an ever-rising intensity. It was very effective and it sealed their relationship.

After the job, they head to England together with plans to marry. However, there are complications and that is where the film feels a bit forced. The head of “V” tells him that they think that his wife Marianne is a spy for Germany and that she took the identity of the real Marianne Beausejour.

The remaining part of the film is about Max trying to find out if this story is true or not. In doing so he breaks military rules. There are times that following Max is enjoyable and interesting and other times where it was either overkill or I didn’t believe the character’s (and actor) actions.

Lots of the period items were wonderfully well done, but interestingly I felt that the main actor’s clothing was too well done. It had the feeling of being staged.

Pitt was good, but it was not great by any stretch. Cotillard was one of the best things about this film. She was consistently strong and created an interesting role. Steven Knight wrote a good screenplay and there was some interesting banter and dialogue between the main characters. Robert Zemeckis directed this film and it felt very old style in the way it was presented. Some of the scenes seemed a bit too staged for my liking. In the end, the film didn't seem to know what it wanted to be, was it  Drama, Suspense, Thriller, Romance, or Action?

Overall:  It was engaging most of the time, but quickly left my consciousness after leaving the theater.

Manchester by the Sea

First Hit:  A powerful and emotionally impactful story about learning how to care again.

This film tells a deeply moving story is about how tragedy changes the complexion of relationships and finding a way to move forward.

The backdrop is a small north east coastal town in Massachusetts called "Manchester by the Sea" or Manchester for short. As the film opens we find Lee and Joe Chandler (Casey Affleck and Kyle Chandler respectively) fishing with young Patrick Chandler (Ben O’Brian) who is Joe’s son. The tone of this scene is wonderful as Patrick is playfully being asked who is a better all-around man, his uncle Lee or his dad. Patrick of course answers “Dad”, and it is the close playfulness of this scene that sets the table for this story.

About ten years have passed and Lee is working as a maintenance man in residential buildings. He is living alone and in solitude, has a noticeable chip on his shoulder, and seems disengaged from life. He gets a call and must return to Manchester because his brother Joe is dying.

He’s met at the hospital by lifelong friend George (C.J. Wilson) and discovers that Joe has already passed. Clearly sad, he and George speak about whom to contact and what needs to be done. Speaking in matter of fact tones, his pain and sadness is being buried within.

During the reading of the will, he’s informed that he has been appointed guardian for, the now 16-year-old, Patrick (Lucas Hedges – older Patrick). The audience feels his resistance. What is obvious is that the resistance is not because of Patrick but because he must move back to Manchester. But why?

It is here that the film begins to unfold letting the audience into the story as to why Lee is so unhappy and sad and why he left Manchester for the life of a loner.

Each scene is shot with exquisite taste while parceling out just a little bit more of the deeply rooted angst carried by Lee. We get scenes of his happier days with his buddies. We get a glimpse of his previous marriage to Randi (Michelle Williams), and his children. We get a scene expressing his deep self-hatred in police station. We see the depth of his caring for Patrick and friend George. We have an amazing scene with Randi and see the difficulty he has in forgiving himself.

Not only was the dialogue in these scenes amazing, the feel of the community and each scene was extremely well shot with impeccable backdrops and sets like the downstairs where the guys were playing ping-pong - guy fun. The coziness of Patrick’s home - filled with family intimacy. The neighborhoods and town center of Manchester, the docks and bay, and the bar scenes were wonderfully real, gritty and engaging.

Affleck was sublime. His portrayal of this character was incredible, and wonderfully delivered. He will get an award nomination for this performance. Williams in her brief and powerful scenes was extraordinarily amazing. The scene with Affleck on the street haunts me days after seeing the film. She will probably receive a supporting award nomination for this role. Hedges shows a nice range from angst, to joy, to smart-alecky, to kindly thoughtful in this role. Wilson is very good and delivers a wonderful performance as a lifelong friend of Lee. The scene of him on the boat with Patrick and Lee explaining why he cannot be Patrick's guardian is spot on perfect. Kenneth Lonergan wrote and directed this amazing film and although the actors were amazingly great, his vision and the delivery of this vision will earn him an award nomination. This was a very finely crafted film.

Overall:  The screenplay, direction, and acting in this deeply moving film was exquisite.

Nocturnal Animals

First Hit:  Outstanding acting in a film that lives to the feeling of its name.

The opening credits are viewed on the backdrop of one of the oddest art displays I’ve ever seen. The display is of very large and overweight naked women dancing live. The rest of the exhibit is of live heavy women in various positions on platforms in the gallery.

The art gallery owner is Susan Morrow (Amy Adams) who lives with her husband in an amazingly large modern house in the LA/Hollywood hills. Her husband Hutton (Armie Hammer) is distant from her, appears to be wealthy, but also indicates there’s money trouble. His illusive and distant behavior points to something else going on in his life and then he abruptly tells Susan he has to go back to New York for business.

Susan receives a package from her ex-husband Edward Sheffield (Jake Gyllenhaal) and it is a book he’s written. She opens the book and sees that it is dedicated to her and the title, “Nocturnal Animal”, was Edward’s nickname for her. As she lies awake in bed, she begins reading the book hoping to help her sleep. However, the story is very intense and it peaks her interest immediately.

From here the film slips in and out of the book’s story, the present time of her reading the book, and past reflections of her former husband and their life together. The past story is about how much she loved Edward and finding that her mom, Anne Sutton (Laura Linney), may have been right that eventually Susan would seek out someone more financially successful and strong than Edward.

The book’s story is very intense as it describes Tony Hastings (Jake Gyllenhaal in a different role), his wife Laura (Isla Fisher) and daughter India (Ellie Bamber) being driven off the road during a road trip through Texas. The men shoving them off the road Ray, Lou and Turk (Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Karl Glusman and Robert Aramayo respectively) are local miscreants known for having a slightly troubled past.

The story continues where they give the Hasting family a hard time and end up separating Tony from his wife and daughter. Eventually finding assistance, Sherriff Bobby Andes (Michael Shannon) takes the case to help Tony find his family. Finding them raped and killed, Tony is crushed while Andes makes it his focused mission to find the killers.

As the film slips from the present of Susan reading the book, to her memories of her relationship with Edward and then to the intense book she’s reading, you can tell that she’s unhappy with her current lot in life, and wants to accept an invitation offered to her by Edward to meet for dinner.

She says yes to the dinner invitation and doesn’t seemed surprised by the outcome.

I really liked the way this film moved between the three different sets and scenes. The coolness and sadness of the current time, the intensity and fury of the book’s story of Tony, and the ideal and joy in Susan and Edward’s budding relationship of the past. These stories and their settings were wonderfully choreographed and  delivered. Additionally, the  transitions between them were wonderfully done.

Gyllenhaal continues to deliver top notch performances. The way he delivers his two characters which have a common theme was excellent. This is an Award worthy performance. Adams, is divine. She’s perfect as the hauntingly beautiful “Nocturnal Animal”. Sitting in the theater, I could feel her struggle. Just as with her role in “Arrival”, Adams is showing everyone why she is so good. Shannon is really on his game here. I’ve really come to appreciate his work and here as an intense, "I don’t give a fuck" sheriff, he’s wonderful. He is this role. Fisher and Bamber were wonderful as Tony’s wife and daughter. I also loved how director Tom Ford used their red hair to tie in Adams’ character as well. It created connections and a tie between the book and Susan’s current life. Hammer was perfect in this small role. Taylor-Johnson, Glusman and Aramayo were great as the books antagonists and the way for Tom to express his rage and gain strength in the end. Linney is perfect as Susan’s well-healed mother. Her look and use of language was great. Ford wrote and directed this film with a clear vision for what he wanted. His effort is worthy for Award consideration to say the least.

Overall:  This is a dark moody, thriller that really worked.

Rules Don't Apply

First Hit:  I was left wanting because I wanted this film to be insightful about the secret world of Howard Hughes, a powerful, interesting, and enigmatic figure of my youth.

The name “Howard Hughes” billionaire, held its own fascination to me during the late 1950’s – 1960’s. In Southern California, where I grew up, the name Hughes Aircraft labeled a number of buildings in and around the Glendale and El Segundo areas. The Hughes Aircraft Company was a subsidiary of Hughes Tool Company, which his father started, was headquartered in Texas and because of his father’s early death, he inherited the business when he was just eighteen years old.

With drive and vision, this wealth allowed him to create the airline company TWA (Trans World Airlines) out of Transcontinental and Western Air. He also bought hotels in Las Vegas (The Sands, Castaways, Landmark, Frontier, Silver Slipper and Desert Inn). He also got involved in Media and specifically for this film RKO Pictures.

The film opens with Levar Mathis (Matthew Broderick) and Nadine Henley (Candice Bergen) anxiously trying to get Howard Hughes (Warren Beatty) to, via telephone, address a group of reporters. The reason is that in this public press conference, Hughes is expected to answer reporter’s questions to disprove and debunk a book stating that Hughes is now insane and needs to be institutionalized.

The movie rolls back in time 5 years and we meet Marla Mabry (Lily Collins) and her mother Lucy (Annette Bening) who are coming to LA from Virginia for Marla to meet Howard and have a screen test for a film Hughes was going to make with her as the star. They are met by Hughes’ driver Frank Forbes (Alden Ehrenreich) and there is an immediate spark between Marla and Frank. However, Frank is forbidden by Howard’s rules as explained to him feverishly by Levar, that he will be fired if he fraternizes, in any way, with any of Hughes actresses.

As the film makes its way to the press conference, we learn about Howard's quirks with people and things. He likes Banana Nut ice cream one moment, and Vanilla the next. We see bankers waiting for hours in a bungalow at the Beverly Hilton just to meet and see Howard before giving him $400+ million dollars. Hughes of course is in nearby bungalow but prefers to speak with them via phone.

We watch him and Frank gaze at the Spruce Goose which the Army commissioned to build but thinks it won’t fly. But Hughes flies the plane one time to prove its feasibility, then decommissions the plane. Watching a film of the flight, you hear Howard complain there was no close-up of him flying the plane.

He lives in the shadows of rooms and in the dark. He does most of his business by phone, meanwhile Marla and Frank both try to find personal one-on-one time with Howard so that she can pitch her talents and he can pitch his real estate deal. Along with way, they signal their mutual interest in each other.

I was fascinated with what Howard would say or come up with next. But what didn’t work for me was not getting more about the very odd story of Hughes. I thought the love story of Marla and Frank was rather tepid. However, the redemption of the latter arrives at the end of the film, but it wasn’t what I was interested in. I wanted more about Howard Hughes a childhood fascination of mine.

I did like the film’s time-period and the views of Hollywood, LA and Las Vegas were engagingly wonderful. The attention to details in the rooms and bungalows were great.

Beatty was oddly quirky and strong as a man on the edge of greatness and sanity. He was perfect for this role and did an excellent job of directing himself. Collins was very engaging and good as Maples. Her ability to be sober and drunk and keep the character congruent was virtuous and perfect. Bening, as Marla’s mother was wonderful. Her religious and personal beliefs were perfectly represented. Ehrenreich was wonderful. His intensity and respect for Hughes in their conversations was excellently presented. Martin Sheen as Hughes’ CEO was great. He expressed just the right amount of irritation at the bosses’ behavior and respect for Howard’s accomplishments. Broderick was fun as the sort of chief of staff role he had for Hughes. Bergen was fun and good as Hughes’ secretary and assistant. Beatty wrote a wonderful screenplay but as I said earlier I would have rather had more Hughes and less Maples and Frank, but that is just me. Hughes is what I was interested in. Beatty also did a good job of directing this bigger than life story.

Overall:  I wanted a bigger story about Hughes.

Bleed for This

First Hit:  Although very well acted, it didn’t stay with me nor was I inspired.

The oddity for me about this film was seeing this amazing struggle that Vinny Pazienza (Miles Teller) went through to fight again, yet also being turned off by a number of the movie's characters. The pushiness and arrogance of his father Angelo (Ciaran Hinds), promoter and son Lou Duva (Ted Levine) and Dan Duva (Jordan Gelber), and the treatment of family members, just left me cold.

It is not that I have to like the characters in a movie, however for some reason, Angelo, Lou and Dan turned me off to other parts of the film. On the converse side Vinny’s relationship with his trainer Kevin Rooney (Aaron Eckhart) was priceless. This was the best part of the film. The push/pull and of their personalities was exquisite.

The film shined when it was about how Vinny found his inner strength to really live again. Up until that one point, Miles did a great job of moving Vinny to level of complacency while healing. But then it switches and he becomes the focused Vinny the film begins with, thus moving the film into another gear. When Kevin joins him in his quest, the movie started to sing again and the bonding between these two men in the basement was outstanding.

The fight scenes were OK. Some of the the ring choreography was puzzling but overall it was exciting and gave an air of the battles Vinny went through. The training scenes and the appropriately dark and grungy gyms used to train in, were perfect given the era and type of boxer Vinney portrayed.

Vinny’s mom Louise (Katey Sagal) not being able to watch any of his fights, spent that time in front of her alter of Jesus emblemed candles and other Jesus iconic stuff. It was difficult for me to relate to that kind of praying, yet it made sense for the film and Italian family. Additionally, the scenes of Vinny and entourage in strip joints also fit the film’s genera, and were insightful to the characters in their own way.

Teller was very strong as Vinny and made his battle believable. Each time he had to get into a car or duck under something I cringed and ducked in my seat as well. Eckhart was outstanding as Vinny’s trainer. I loved his drunk scenes as well as his sober focused scenes equally. Hinds was perfectly obnoxious, egotistic and arrogant as boss of his family and what he wanted. The scene of him chomping and smoking a cigar on the porch while telling off Kevin was perfect in all ways. Levine and Gelber was wonderful as the father and son promoters always looking out for their interests while feigning the interest of the fighters they promote. Sagal was good as the suppressed mom always worried about her son’s fighting. Ben Younger both wrote and directed this film. The writing in many of the scenes was outstanding and getting the actors to deliver on those lines was skillful.

Overall:  Engaging film to watch but forgetful by the next day.