Stronger

First Hit:  I was very surprised at how much I like this film, it had heart.

Jake Gyllenhaal is one of my favorite actors. I can tell he puts in a lot of work to each role to make it real for him and the audience. Here as Jeff Bauman, the young man who lost both legs in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, Jake does Jeff proud. He shows Jeff’s humanity and the cycle of up and downs that he had to go through after the event.

Jeff and his family are true blue collar Boston loving people. Jeff works at Costco (a shout out to them for their unending support of Jeff) and, as most Boston people do, loves his Red Sox. He spends a fair amount of his off time in bars with his buddies and family.

The one early scene when he tells his drunk mother, Patty (Miranda Richardson), to F#%& off in the bar is indicative of the family’s love and bickering with each other. His father Big Jeff (Clancy Brown) is a self-proclaimed know it all but doesn’t always know very much. His attempts to control situations was evident in the hospital waiting room.

The family dynamics are perfectly matched with Jeff’s inability to grow up. It is exemplified in his off and on relationship with his girlfriend, Erin Hurley (Tatianna Maslany), whom has just broken up with him again. He loves her and you can tell she loves him but she tires of his childish behavior and for not showing up to events with and for her. To convince her he needs another chance, he tells her he’s going to be at the finish line of the Boston Marathon with a sign he’s going to paint for her. And as we all know, that isn’t where you wanted to be that day.

This film then moves through Jeff’s struggle to deal with the event, losing his legs, and how is he going to be someone in the world. Erin commits to him, but Jeff does his usual flaking out and finally, after she tells him she’s pregnant with his child and he says he cannot be a part of this, she leaves for good.

Avoiding his internal bombing traumatic issues, he finally meets up with and talks with the man who saved him from death by putting tourniquets on above his knees to keep him from bleeding to death. After Carlos (Carlos Sanz) tells him his story, Jeff gets real and starts to take charge of his life.

It is a sweet, heartfelt story. The in-hospital scenes and staff were real. By using these hospital staff and a hospital, it felt solid and true to the story. The visuals of showing Gyllenhaal without legs was extremely well done. The film felt real through many of the scenes.

Gyllenhaal was amazing. When the doctor is taking off the bandages and dressings for the first time in the hospital, I felt his pain all the way to my seat in the theater. Excellent work. Maslany was amazing. Her ability to share so many feelings of love and doubts with her eyes and mouth were spot on. Great work. Richardson had me totally believing she was an alcoholic self-serving mess. She gave a very strong performance. Sanz was sublime. The way he told the story of his two sons to Jeff was ethereal. Brown was perfect as Jeff’s father. Proud, boisterous and overly confident of his ability to process and manage situations. John Pollono wrote a wonderfully expressive screenplay. David Gordon Green caught the magic of the story and brought it to life by guiding his great actors through the feeling vision.

Overall:  Far better film that I’d thought it would be. I love being surprised.

mother!

First Hit:  It was not very interesting, was poorly scripted and had little to offer.

Director Darren Aronofsky probably had something to say by making this film, but I can only come up with snide thoughts like:  The battle between control and chaos is difficult. One needs to ask their partner before inviting people into the house. People like Him (Javier Bardem), need to have their ego stroked. Well-known artists, Him, would sacrifice his family for outside admiration. People will give the artists they admire leeway to act poorly. Life is a never-ending sequence of the same stuff over and over again. I could go on.

One troubling aspect about this film was that Darren had some great actors, but Mother (Jennifer Lawrence) seemed like she was saying lines and occasionally her actions were more engaging. Him seemed to take on the poor struggling artist role rather mediocrely. Together they were a shipwreck ready to happen throughout the entire film.

The story is that Mother has rebuilt a very large house because it burned down in a fire. It was Him’s family home. She’s doing this because she loves Him and the poems that he’s written in the past. However, he’s had writer's block since the fire burned down his family’s home.

One day, Man (Ed Harris), a chain smoking doctor, shows up at their home thinking it is a place where he can rent a room while doing research. Without asking Mother, Him tells Man that he can stay there as long as he wants. Feeling pushed aside, Mother reluctantly goes along with this.

Then the rest of Man’s family shows up. Woman (Michelle Pfeiffer) is pushy and is very passive aggressive while Mother waits on her. All the while Him likes their company. Woman tells Mother that she needs to have a baby to really know what life is about.

During an argument, Him and Mother have make-up sex and she gets pregnant. Also, Woman and Man’s boys come to the house and start a big fight and one of the boys gets killed.

With Mother being pregnant and the killing of the boy, Him writes another poem that causes a national stir and now thousands of people come to the house to both grieve the dead boy and the celebration of this new poem. This makes Mother angry as she tries to kick everyone out because they are wrecking the house she built.

Then the film heads into over weird with rituals and demons and other stuff. Why? I cannot tell you why even if I knew. It is beyond my understanding of the point and purpose of this story and film.

Lawrence gives a uneven performance. It was both difficult and easy to understand her love and devotion based on whatever scene she was in. Bardem had an easier role of being egocentric and caring about himself more than the people for which he professed his love. Harris was OK as the initial interloper. Pfeiffer was interesting because her sarcasm and disdain towards Mother was well done. Aronofsky wrote a confusing and unclear script that came off as being overindulgent towards bizarre behavior. If the audience doesn’t get the point, why do a film like this? As director, the point was lost in the script, and therefore the acting wasn’t reflective of a cohesive story leaving the audience lost.

Overall:  This was self-indulgence at its finest and a waste of my time.

The Kingsman: The Golden Circle

First Hit:  Terrible story with few bright spots.

What a waste of talent. How do Julianne Moore (Poppy), Taron Egerton (Eggsy), Colin Firth (Harry Hart – whose character died in previous film), Channing Tatum (Tequila), Halle Berry (Ginger), Jeff Bridges (Champ) and Elton John (as himself) all sign up for a story that has disaster written all over it? I don’t know. Maybe the Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn script read better than it worked out to be. Maybe it was Vaughn’s issue because he couldn't deliver what he envisioned in his mind.

I just don’t know, how this happened. Besides a couple reasonable fight scenes and a couple slightly amusing tongue-in-cheek scenes, the premise that Poppy was going to blackmail the President of the United States so that she could freely sell her drugs all over the world, was preposterous.

Maybe the film needed to be WAY over the top in the tongue-in-cheek category to work.

Hart died in the previous film, and to make-up a story that he miraculously survived the shooting by some someone using a FEDEX  or UPS looking plastic bubble wrap around his head and followed by an emotional shock to make him be the same person as before is ludicrous.

Anyway, the Kingsman, who have a limited crew, with Merlin (Mark Strong), Eggsy and the partially defective Hart, are trying to find and destroy Charlie (Edward Holcroft) who makes an attempt to kill Eggsy. Charlie blows-up the country mansion and the tailor shop in London and now want Eggsy. Charlie being a shunned former Kingsman, unbeknownst to Eggsy, is really working for Poppy. Poppy is running her drug trade in a lost city in a jungle. She’s turned it into a 1950’s style base of operations. Really? This is the setup. Really, I kid you not.

Then the writers add this: For help, The Kingsman team up with the Statesman, which is run by Champ. The Statesman is the US version of the Kingsman; an independent spy security agency. It is run out of a distillery, hence the names of their agents, Tequila and Whiskey (Pedro Pascal). Now this is exciting! But wait, there's more...

Not only does Poppy build robotic dogs to protect herself, she likes being entertained, so she has hired Elton John to play songs for her in an empty theater anytime she likes. Elton does have a couple other key momentary appearances, but he’s not an actor and it shows.

Egerton is, at times, fun to watch but the script is so disjointed and unfounded that it lets him and the role down. Moore’s role is hopeless. She attempts to be part tongue-in-cheek and part serious, but because the role is ill defined in an ill-defined movie, it falls flat. Firth seems so out of place in this role it just made me cringe. He needed to stay dead. Strong was one bright spot in the film and his centered acting made his role work. Berry was driven to be so much less than what she is by the role. She's made to be a girl Friday and I disliked her scenes completely. Bridges' role was insipid. That he chose to act in this film is disheartening. Holcroft was good as the maniac bionic armed villain. He made it work. Pascal didn’t fit in this film at all. He seemed out of place and it was clear from the beginning, he wasn’t on the side he said he was on. Tatum was fun at times and it seemed as though he was used in this film as eye candy for a female audience. He added little to the story. John can stay away from acting, even as himself. Goldman and Vaughn script was a mess from the beginning to the end. Vaughn had no vision as a director to deliver a story that would engage the audience. The film was thrown at the audience.

Overall:  Don’t waste your time for this insipid film.

Brad's Status

First Hit:  What I loved about this film was Brad’s (Ben Stiller) authentic realistic internal dialogue about comparing.

Although there were comedic moments, they are mostly situationally driven, this film is a strong film about learning to not compare yourself with others.

Brad is living with his wife Melanie (Jenna Fischer) and their son Troy (Austin Abrams) in Sacramento. Brad created a non-profit and has made a decent living from this and Melanie works for the government. Troy is a musician and has done well in school and is now ready to tour and interview colleges. Brad and Troy head back to Boston to visit Harvard and Tuffs Universities. Tuffs happens to be Brad’s alma mater.

However, this trip brings up Brad’s college friendships and how all of them have become wealthy. He lays awake at night thinking about his friend’s success and how he and Melanie will be able to afford Troy’s education. Brad becomes obsessed with his financial lot in life. Melanie tells him everything will be alright as they will figure it out as they’ve always have done. However, Brad’s obsession won’t stop.

All of this is shared with the audience with voice over as we watch Brad on a trip with Troy to visit these schools.

At Harvard, Troy mistakenly misses his interview day and Brad, after trying to brag to other waiting parents, is now upset at Troy. Being a protective and caring father, he loudly argues with the admissions staff, trying to find a way to make the interview happen and embarrasses Troy and himself.

He and Melanie remember that one of Brad’s famous rich college friends Craig Fisher (Michael Sheen) [as a visiting professor] teaches a government communications course at Harvard, and has some pull, being a well known author and former White House insider. Reluctantly, Brad calls him and discovers that their other two college friends all have been in communication with each other but have left him out. He thinks it is because he lives in Sacramento, has a non-profit, and makes very little money.

This is the theme of the film, looking at the past and comparing oneself with others. Meeting some of Troy’s musician friends, he gets re-reminded of his past idealistic view of the world and starts pushing his position on Troy’s friends. They show him how his comparing mind is his struggle, not the money he makes. The point is driven home when Ananya (Shazi Raja) tells him where she grew up, just having some food and water was a very rewarding thing and that his current lifestyle is the envy of millions in the world. She tries to put it into perspective for him.

The other aspect of the film I really liked is how parents can feel when their child does well in life by making good choices. The sweet and difficult conversations between Troy and Brad are very well done.

Stiller is strong as the self-critical, obsessive, and comparing father who wants to be seen as some of his friends are seen, rich and famous. Abrams was good as the son. He was appropriately embarrassed and concerned by his father’s behavior. I loved the scene of he and his father wrestling on the bed. Sheen was very good as the arrogant old college mate of Brad. Raja was great as the idealist and realistic Harvard College friend of Troy. Fischer was very good as Brad’s wife. Mike White both wrote and directed this film and I thought many of the insights about how the comparing mind can take one away from actually living life as it shows up to you based on your decisions.

Overall:  I think this film presented a fairly realistic view how comparing success in the business world with my one’s longtime friends can hamper accepting life as it is.

Polina

First Hit:  Wonderful dynamic film of a Russian girl coming into her own through dance.

I love the ballet and I like expressive modern dance, so I was looking forward to seeing this film.

That this film begins in Russia with a young girl, supported by her parents, learning to become classical ballerina and segues to her finding her muse as a modern choreographer and dancer in Antwerp was icing on the cake.

One of the early scenes that stayed with me until the end was, after going to a dance class and struggling to do everything perfect, she freeform dances in the snow in a way that only a child can do. And because she has had formal training, there is an exquisite beauty in her movements.

We follow Polina (Veronika Zhovnyska at 8 years old and Anastasia Shevtsova as an adult) from childhood into her early twenties. Through this path, we see her parents Anton (Miglen Mirtchev) and Natalia (Kseniya Kutepova) struggle to keep up the payments for the dance lessons. Her father’s dream is to have Polina dance with the Bolshoi Ballet. It is so much his dream, that he does illegal things to find money to pay for these lessons.

Polina struggles in her dance lessons to be a perfect dancer but we can see that when she dances there is something missing, her soul and spirit. And although she gets into the Bolshoi dance school, she sees a modern dance by a visiting French troupe and it touches her deeply and choses to leave Russia going to France to learn more about this modern dance.

Her teacher at this French school Liria Elsaj (Juliette Binoche) sees the abilities in Polina along with a lack of soul, spirit, and fire from within. She gets hurt, and ends of leaving the company because her boyfriend is being lured away by the person replacing her in a dance.

Going off alone she wanders western Europe trying to find dance work. She continues to discover that the dance company directors want to see what is inside Polina. Only after being hungry and having to live on the street, that she finds a street dancing group that dances through personal expression. Finding a job as a waitress in a bar, she spends more time with the leader of this street group and begins to learn what is inside her, by watching the actions and movement of others.

Eventually, she and leader of this group create their own choreography where her spirit and soul are revealed through the dance they create.

Zhovnyska was fantastic as the young Polina. I loved how her strict dance lessons also allowed her to dance through the snow joyously, one of my favorite scenes in the film. Shevtsova as the older Polina carried on the young Polina perfectly. I loved how she kept the stern outside look of her life on her mostly expressionless face, while her eyes were searching, always signaling that there was more inside. Her last dance brought the whole story together. Mirtchev was wonderful as her loving father who would do anything for his daughter and his dream for her. Kutepova was excellent as Polina’s mother. The scene when she empties Polina’s suit case was perfectly poignant. Binoche was sublime as the French dance instructor that pushed Polina to search within herself. When Polina spies Liria dancing alone in the studio, she begins to see what was meant by dancing from within. Valerie Muller wrote a great screenplay and her direction with Angelin Preljocaj was spot on. The music they used throughout the film enhanced the story while I think the choreography by Preljocaj was spot on exciting.

Overall:  I loved how this film comes together through dance.