Bad Samaritan

First Hit: Although the title was a turn-off, this film is suspenseful and reasonably well done.

I had a lot of reluctance going to see this because the title sounded as if it would be a poorly made film.

I’m glad I went because it was much better than the title. The title reflects how poorly Sean Falco (Robert Sheehan) reacted to finding Katie (Kerry Gordon) masochistically bound to a chair in the house he was robbing. As a samaritan helping his fellow man, he failed by not freeing her nor did he do enough to bring in others to help her obtain her freedom.

Katie was being held in a home owned by a very rich Cale Erendreich (David Tennant). Cale, it seems, had some childhood crush on an older horse trainer and when she spurned him, he killed her horse. Cale was and is into control of people and the things around him.

You can tell early on, he’s done this to a woman before and in one scene we see the tools he probably uses to dismember his victims when they don’t act the way he wants them to.

Sean isn’t a horrible young man, but he’s taken to petty theft with Derek Sandoval (Carlito Olivero) to keep his photography dreams alive. He and Derek run a car valet business in front of Nino’s restaurant. With certain rich folks, they take that person’s car to the owner’s home use the keys to open the home and steal what they can. Bringing the car back in-time for the owners to use when they leave the restaurant.

This is how Sean runs across Katie, searching a home to steal something.

Sean also has a girlfriend Helen Leyton (Lisa Brenner) who has been fooled by Sean and ultimately, he ends up owning this and his behaviors to Helen.

The film being shot in Portland was fun, as Portland is a city I like visiting. The story is not necessarily new; however I liked the way it was told because Sean’s character of really being a good guy does come through.

Sheehan was very good as Sean. I thought his facial expressions and expressions of fear and determination really worked and made the character one I could believe. Tennant was excellent as the psychotically pushed person. His behaviors were right in line with an excessive control freak. I liked the moment when Sean tricks him to look at a phone and Sean takes a picture. Brenner was sweet as Sean’s girlfriend. Olivero was strong as Sean’s sidekick and fellow petty theft buddy. Condon was excellent as the captured bounded woman of Cale’s attention. I loved the end when she says, “it’s not enough.” Brandon Boyce wrote a strong screenplay which was effectively directed by Dean Devlin.

Overall: Film is sufficiently creepy and scary to keep your attention through to the end.

RBG

First Hit: Excellent film about a woman who lives within her strength and defined and changed U.S. law.

When I learn something in a documentary that has me still thinking about it days later, gratitude to the filmmakers is in order. To Julie Cohen and Betsy West, I bow to you for bringing RBG to light.

"The Notorious RBG", as Ruth Bader Ginsberg is sometimes called in social media is a small frail looking quiet woman who has done more for women’s equal rights in this country than almost anyone else.

She ranks up there with Susan B. Anthony, yet when you type in “Women’s rights leaders” in Google search her name doesn’t come up. The reason, she’s the person behind the curtain doing her great work quietly.

The film takes you on a journey of Ginsberg’s life. The audience learns a bit about her upbringing, her mother dying when she was only 14, how she was as a mother by the interviews with he son and daughter, and her first and only love Martin who was a law student as well.

You see how different she was from Martin who was gregarious, funny and extremely supportive of Ruth’s life and love of the law.

Ruth became a Law Professor at Rutgers School of Law. Then she became part of the ACLU by co-founding the Women’s Rights Project.

In this role, Ginsberg argued six gender discrimination cases in the U.S. Supreme Court winning five of them. It was here that her voice became the law voice for the women’s equal rights movement.

The film covers most of these cases and the narration and interviews with congressmen, her family, and others (including Gloria Steinem)  share just how clear and strong her voice was for the equal rights of women. The film also covers her nomination to become a Supreme Court Justice and just how dedicated she is to the law, by her work ethic, often working through the night, to write the court’s majority or dissenting opinions.

Cohen and West did a sparkling and magnificent job of teaching me about one of the most important judges to ever sit on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Overall: This film is a must for every law student and politician.

Breaking In

First Hit: The best part of the film was that the mother won.

As a suspense film it wasn’t great, however it definitely kept my interest and despite knowing the ending, Shaun Russell (Gabrielle Union) as the main character, gave the audience great intensity.

Shaun’s father Issac (Damien Leake), is a wealthy man who was being indicted in federal court for theft. Out for a run before going to court, he is killed by a truck driven by Sam (Levi Meaden).

Shaun, with her children Jasmine and Glover (Ajiona Alexus and Seth Carr respectively) go out to Issac’s country mansion to clean it up and removed things she may want before she sells it. This house is huge, far from the city and neighbors, and very high-tech.

However, upon reaching the house she suspects that something is wrong and soon finds out that four men are in the house looking for a safe. The killing of Issac, we learn, was planned so that Eddie (Billy Burke), Duncan (Richard Cabral), Peter (Mark Furze), and Sam could rob the home.

To leverage their power over Shaun, the leader Eddie, has the other 3 capture and hold her two children as hostages. The thieves’ hope is to leverage holding her children hostage for knowledge about the location of the safe.

There are several scenes where Shaun gets the better of her children’s’ captors. What didn’t work very well was Sam. In his role, although he tried to sound in control and menacing to both his work team and Shaun, there was a lack of strength and surety of his character. In other words he wasn't quite believable.

I think the house could have been used more as a character than it was. The amount of high-tech in the house and using it to trick or thwart the robbers could have made it more interesting, especially if the kids took control. They did a couple of times, but not enough to make it really stand out.

Union was strong as the mother you didn’t want to cross. She showed athleticism as well and intuitive intelligence in this role. Meaden was very good as the semi-reluctant thief although the idea to rob this home was originally his. Alexus and Carr were excellent as the children. They both created age appropriate interests and actions and the right amount of duress. Burke was good but there was one point in the film, I wondered why the other thieves didn’t just kill him and take over the robbery. Cabral was the best of the thieves. He show immense intimidating intensity. Furze had the smallest robber role and it was OK. Ryan Engle wrote a good script but, as I said, I would have like a better group of thieves and the house could have used more. James McTeigue did a good job of directing the actors in this script. It lacked a certain creativeness, but the film worked.

Overall: I like when the main character is rightfully and clearly driven to save the day, that it was a woman, a mother, made it better.

Tully

First Hit: I was genuinely surprised by the ending of this powerful film about motherhood.

Marlo (Charlize Theron) is 9 months pregnant, mother of two other children Emmy (Maddie Dixon-Poirer) and Jonah (Asher Miles Fallica), and wife to Craig (Mark Duplass). The family home is rather chaotic and stems, in-part, because of Jonah’s “quirky” presence and because motherhood has wiped her out and taken her spirit.

Craig is a good husband, it is apparent that he loves his wife and does support the family process by doing their children’s homework with them and helping Marlo to make the children’s lunches. There is a scene towards the end of the film that shows this sweetness and togetherness.

Marlo’s brother Drew (Ron Livingston) has made it financially and as his new baby gift to his sister offers to pay for a night nanny to assist his worn-out sister.

She resists because she perceives that this will show weakness and a lack of ability. After the new baby arrives, her worn out life gets worse and there is little she can do given the pressure of Jonah’s school is asking her to remove Jonah because of his “quirky” behavior, along with trying to meet the new baby’s needs.

She resigns herself to making the call to a night nanny. Tully (Mackenzie Davis) arrives one evening with a bright open smile, lots of empathy, and skills far beyond her age of 26. Each evening Tully arrives and takes over the care of the new baby Mia. She brings Mia up to Marlo for the night feedings, sits and watches until the feeding is complete, and takes Mia back downstairs.

Tully, also cleans the house, bakes cupcakes and does lots of other things that release Marlo from the heaviness of raising a newborn at night. Because she’s now getting sleep, Marlo becomes more present and active with her children and starts to make elaborate meals for her family instead of the “frozen pizza” dinner she often throws down.

Tully and Marlo become friends and what they share together slowly reveals who Marlo is, who Tully is, and Marlo's love for Craig.

This film speaks directly and pointedly to the difficulties many women have being a mother. For this alone, many men need to see this film.

Theron is dynamic in this role. Not only did she put on about fifty pounds to make the role feel real for her and the audience, her embodiment of the frustration of raising children was spot on. Davis as Tully was amazing. I loved her joyful embrace of being an empathetic, smart, supportive nanny. Duplass was very good as the caring loving husband who needed to learn more about helping his wife. Dixon-Poirer was wonderful as the daughter. Her slow emerging as part of the family was great. Fallica was excellent as the quirky young boy. His ability to slowly evolve as Marlo evolves was perfect. Diablo Cody wrote an excellent script and the film’s direction by Jason Reitman made this story come alive through great acting.

Overall: I was truly moved by the representation of motherhood, family, and life as this film unfolded.

Disobedience

First Hit: Extremely well-acted film about how antiquated thinking can split families and a loving relationship.

Ronit Krushka (Rachel Weisz) is a photographer in New York City. As we meet her, she's photographing a tattooed man.

She suddenly has to leave New York and we see her as deeply anxious. She arrives in a small town Orthodox Jewish community in England because her father, Rabbi Rav Krushka (Anton Lesser) has died suddenly. She did not know he was ill with pneumonia. The mystery is set with this scene; as she enters Dovid and Esti Kuperman’s (Alessandro Nivola and Rachel McAdams respectively) home where they are honoring Rav’s death, there is a strong silent judgmental air as she enters the house and each room.

The way this movie is filmed, we see her both as slightly detached from the people around her and intensely engaged. There is a depth of sadness in her character.

There is an especially strong sense of a subject not discussed when Ronit and Esti are together. Dovid was Rav’s specially selected heir apparent to be head rabbi of the local temple. The audience slowly learns that Ronit’s absence and rejection by the community is partially due to a lesbian romance with Esti when they were very young.

Scene after scene the community rejects Ronit because of her past and their passive aggressive closed-minded behavior is a key subject of the film.

The stark, clean way this film is shot adds to its intense beauty. The slow building of the way we learn about their previous relationship, how the community saw this forbidden relationship, and how the love still burns for each of them is outstanding.

Although their hotel lovemaking scene is what is advertised, it’s the entire story around it that makes this scene and this film work.

This film also exposes the lack of acceptance of human love by her family and friends and the Orthodox Jewish community.

Weisz is amazing in this film. She is an incredibly strong actress and she puts herself into roles that challenge her and the role of women (think My Cousin Rachel and this film to name two) in their communities. McAdams is a revelation in this role. Her subtly in revealing her love in this film was fantastic. I loved how she fiddled with her wig as it showed a level of unsurity. Nivola was wonderful as the conflicted rabbi who loved his wife Esti, Ronit, and his Jewish faith. Sebastian Lelio and Rebecca Lenkiewicz wrote an detailed and effective screenplay that got to the spirit and heart of the matter is a wonderful way. Lelio had a clear vision in his direction of this story and cast. It was clean and was based on characters that had depth.

Overall: This is one of the best films this year.