Mary Queen of Scots

First Hit: Saoirse Ronan (Mary Stuart) and Margot Robbie (Queen Elizabeth 1) give powerful performances in this adaptation of how Mary Queen of Scots tried to claim her title to the throne of England and Scotland.

Mary, by lineage, had rights to the throne of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales but her upbringing in France, that she was Catholic, and that her cousin Elizabeth also had throne rights to England, Wales, and Ireland, caused her to fight to claim her sovereignty.

At six days old, Mary was enthroned as Scotland’s ruler. However, Mary was raised in France and as a Catholic. Because England had long since rooted out Catholicism and the control of the Vatican over their nation, this Protestant nation was at odds with Mary claiming England’s throne while being Catholic.

After Mary lost her first husband in France, Mary came to Scotland to rule her country. She longed and aspired to rule England as well under a single throne. Although popular with her subjects, often because of her religious tolerance, she was manipulated by her supporting cast and therefore struggled to rule effectively over men, the lords of her land.

Mary realized that if she got pregnant and Elizabeth didn’t, her child would be heir to the throne of both English the territories and Scotland. Mary took on her second husband who did impregnate her although he wasn’t attracted to women and preferred one of Mary’s gay servants. Elizabeth didn’t have any desire to have children although her court tried and begged her to wed and have a child. She didn’t want men to have power over her and that meant in the bedroom as well.

Both queens were reviled by the men in their court. Elizabeth dealt with this prejudice in ways that allowed her to be less affected by this sexism.

Mary’s behavior, intelligence, and open heart allowed her to be threatened by her advisory court and therefore a coup took place. She was driven to England as Elizabeth told Mary she’d be safe in there. Her son James VI, however, was left in Scotland and eventually after Elizabeth’s death became ruler of England and Scotland.

Elizabeth suffered from smallpox and the makeup effectively portrayed how badly this affected her facial features. In the film Elizabeth sometimes wore white pancake powder to cover the scars on her face.

After escaping Scotland, without child, Mary was imprisoned for some eighteen years prior to Elizabeth having her killed.

The film begins with Mary being walked to her beheading and then ends with her beheading.

Because this was the 16th Century most of the film has a darkness to it. Fires in fireplaces and candles were the only light in the dank stone castles. However, Mary’s fire red hair along with the very stylistic hair designs brought powerful color to the screen as did Elizabeth’s wig and makeup.

Ronan is amazing. As probably one of the greatest young actors of our time, this film is yet another powerful entry in her resume. Robbie is fantastic as the strong thoughtful Elizabeth. Although there are a host of other actors in this film, they are minor characters to the power brought forth by these two women. Beau Williams wrote a strong screenplay that highlighted the differences between these two powerful women. Josie Rourke did an excellent job of showing the difficulties women in the throne faced by men who believed they knew better.

Overall: The film is lifted by the superb acting from Ronan and Robbie.

Vice

First Hit: I liked this oddly created film about a powerful yet enigmatic man who really ran our country for a period of time.

Dick Cheney (Christian Bale) powerfully found his way into and as a guiding influence in our government especially during the President George W. Bush (Sam Rockwell) years.

The scene that points out his guile was when during the transition from Clinton to Bush, when he, not only had is standard office in the Senate (as a tie-breaker vote), but also had his team find an office in the House side of Congress (that’s where the money bills are created), in the Defense Department, and other places in the seat of our government. He moved in and out of these offices to wield the influence of the Executive branch where ever he could.A

He believed in the Unitary executive theory whereas the President possesses the power to control the entire executive branch of government. Sort of like Nixon’s belief when interviewed by David Frost; “If the President does it, it isn’t against the law.” Cheney believed he, as the lever puller for George Bush, he could do no wrong and nothing he did was illegal. A couple of his feats include; torture of captured combatants, invading Iraq when there was no proof that the country had anything to do with September 11 attack on world trade towers.

It was a focus group that indicated that the American public wanted a country as an enemy and not a concept (Al-Qaeda), so we invaded Iraq, because both Bush, H. W. Bush, and Cheney had wanted to this for a long time. This is just a smattering of the bold divisive actions Cheney took as VP.

We see his earlier years as a college drunken mess. His stint as a lineman in Wyoming. Drinking and fighting in bars after work. His comeuppance by his wife Lynne (Amy Adams), who said after one drunken bout, you either shape up or ship out.

He does shape up and becomes an intern in Congress working for Donald Rumsfeld (Steve Carell) – (the truth is that he worked for Congressman William A. Steiger), then into the White House, eventually rising to Chief of Staff for Gerald Ford (Bill Camp). Then he was elected to Wyoming’s only Congressional seat. This was followed by becoming Secretary of Defense for George H. W. Bush and oversaw Desert Storm, which he believed didn’t go far enough.

The film shows many of these events with sincerity while mixing in scenes with a level of irreverence, and also scenes of Cheney fly fishing in Wyoming. But watching Dick and George’s mistake in both leaving Iraq while pumping up a radical person, resulted in ISIS (Desh). These mistakes are Bush’s and Cheney’s legacy.

Like with the Big Short, director Adam McKay mixes his film’s stories up in ways that various impacts on people. For me this approach was effective, but it was Bale’s Cheney that was amazing.

Bale was Cheney. I believed I was seeing the real guy on the screen. Nothing he did seemed out of character with whom the public knew something about but not how the man thought. And even with this film, most of Cheney’s screen time is watching him think. He wasn’t an impulsive man, that’s clear. Adams was fantastic as Lynne Cheney. Her drive and power over Dick were clear and direct. Carell as Rumsfeld was strong. I never got much of an impression from the real Rumsfeld through his brief public appearances so I’ve nothing to compare this performance to. Rockwell was wonderfully cast as George W. Bush. His breezy, thoughtless manner comes through just as one saw the real Bush in public. Justin Kirk as Scooter Libby was good. LisaGay Hamilton played Condoleezza Rice one of the people Cheney didn’t see eye to eye with. Tyler Perry played Colin Powell who reluctantly spoke at the UN for the bombing of Iraq, although he never believed it was the right thing to do. Alison Pill played Cheney’s older gay daughter Mary whom is stood behind by her family early on in the film and then when the younger daughter Liz (Lily Rabe) runs for office, Dick turns against Mary’s lesbian ways so that Liz can get elected as the Representative of Wyoming. Power was what drove Dick in life and not even family got in the way. Adam McKay wrote an interesting script that reflects the way he likes to create a movie. Dancing across the information while willing to mix it up in ways that are different. I happen to like it.

Overall: The acting is superb and the way this story is told is probably not everyone’s cup of tea.

The Mule

First Hit: Film lagged and spent too much time on an aging Clint Eastwood.

I was looking forward to seeing this film, but as it wound down, I realized that I simply was watching an old man be an old man making choices.

I like Eastwood and here as Earl Stone who is a horticulturist that’s running his own business, he’s good. However, as we begin to explore his life, we discover he was once married, didn’t show up to his daughter’s wedding, likes to be the life of the party, and he slowly becomes afraid of the internet because he knows it going to ruin his business.

As his flower business fails, he needs money, so he turns to driving drugs for a dealer. At first, it’s small quantities, which he does easily. Then he starts moving larger and larger amounts of cocaine.

Eventually, the head of the cartel becomes impressed with this old guy who seems to be able to easily move drugs around the country. After meeting the head, he moves the largest shipment ever moved to a mid-west city.

In the meantime, he’s being looked for by the DEA who need a bust to prove their worth. Leading the team of men is an outsider DEA Agent named Colin Bates (Bradley Cooper) and a local DEA Agent (Michael Pena).

However, the story seems to be focused on Earl, when we’ve got Pena, Cooper, and Laurence Fishburne (as a DEA Special Agent) who are great actors that have stories to tell the audience as well.

Additionally, the audience gets cheated on a background of Earl’s family with former wife Mary (Dianne Wiest), daughter Iris (Alison Eastwood), and granddaughter Ginny (Taissa Farmiga). It could have been compelling to share more about this. Why hire great actors if they only have small, almost meaningless roles?

To me this was the downfall of the film. We spent a lot of time with Earl driving down the highway when backstories of all these characters could have been brought forth for our enjoyment.

Eastwood was good, but he seems to either lack the fortitude to take on strong roles or he wanted it to be this fumblingly self-focused old man trying to make a living and be seen by others as king of the hill. Farmiga was strong as the granddaughter who believed in him. Wiest was great, but there was so little of her. Alison Eastwood was OK as Earl’s daughter. Cooper was OK in a limited but pivotal role. I think he needed to become more of the story. Pena was, as always, an excellent sidekick. Fishburne was strong as the leading Special Agent. Andy Garcia was excellent as the drug lord. Nick Schenk wrote this film from an New York Times article. Eastwood directed himself in this film and it appears he’s lost his touch.

Overall: This was a disappointing film, lacking in suspense as well as developing scenes.

Second Act

First Hit: Although very out-loud funny at times, the film seemed pressed to make a point.

Girl who’s had a hard life, is smart, but doesn’t get promoted because of her lack of education is the basis for this film.

Maya (Jennifer Lopez) has worked at a department store for years. She believes she’s up for promotion to be store manager. When the head of the company Weiskopf (Larry Miller) selects another candidate, a male who has an Ivy League degree, she’s pissed. Complaining to her closest friend Joan (Leah Remini), she talks about how unfair it is that her 18 years of experience don’t count.

As we learn from this conversation and others with her boyfriend Trey (Milo Ventimiglia) that Maya’s had a hard life. She bore a child at age 16, was homeless, never graduated from high school, and had to give up her child for adoption.

She’s sad about her hard life but doesn’t stop trying to make her life better. Joan’s older son decides to assist Maya by creating a new online profile filled with lies. She went to business school at Warton, speaks Mandarin, was coxswain on a Harvard rowing team. She also graduated summa cum laude. This impressive resume gets her an interview with Anderson Clarke (Treat Williams) for a consulting position at his large corporation.

He interviews Maya and hires her despite the objection of his daughter Zoe (Vanessa Hudgens). To earn her place in the company, Zoe challenges Maya to create a better product line than a line she can create.

Maya’s team consists of Hildy (Annaleigh Ashford), Ariana (Charlyne Yi) and Ron Ebsen (Freddie Stroma). Although Hildy drops out of the team, Ariana and Ron help to create success.

Many of the scenes are telegraphed as is the storyline. There are some very funny scenes, think kitchen dance with Otto (John James Cronin) leading the way. That’s on top of some snappy dialogue between Joan and Maya.

Lopez is good as Maya. She brings enough street smarts to the role to make it believable. Hudgens was good as Zoe. Her intimate discussions with Maya about their past were well done. Remini was excellent as the girlfriend. Her quips and spicy language made the story and film better. Williams was very good as the company owner. Ventimiglia was strong as the boyfriend coach who wants to get and stay close to Maya. Yi was excellent as the shy but kinky assistant. Stroma was very good as the creative leading scientist on Maya’s team. Justin Zackham and Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas wrote a predictable story. Peter Segal directed this film and he created an obviousness with this story that took all the suspense out of it, however, some of the funny scenes were out-loud funny.

Overall: The film was telegraphed all the way through and over acted.

Ben is Back

First Hit: Extremely well-acted story based on 24 hours of a mother and her addicted son’s return for the holidays.

I saw this film in two ways. The first and probably as intended; Ben Burns (Lucas Hedges) believes he’s doing well enough in his sobriety that he decides to come home and see his family. He believes this because he’s living in a sober halfway house, and has a sponsor.

The second came to me after Ben gives his mom Holly (Julia Roberts) and impassioned speech about how she doesn’t know him, he’s already lied to her about how his got ahold of some drugs. This view spawned a thought that his visit home was to find the hidden stash in the attic and he just really wanted to get high. The support for this is that he’s the one that suggested he go into the attic to get their old childhood decorations. An addict knows where their drugs are hidden.

At the end of the film I thought of this film in both views and even discussed these with my wife prior to writing this review – something I usually don’t do. One view of the film allows, at some level, Ben and even Holly to be victims of the addiction. The other view is reflective of how manipulative and devious the addict can be when they decide they are following a path to reuse.

Now, I suspect the film’s intention is not my second view, but that I can plausibly come up with this second view also tells me just how deep and reflective this film is about the story of a mom willing to do anything to save her son from his addiction, let alone the power of addiction.

Her anger towards the doctor who originally prescribed pain killers to her son because of an injury shows up at a food court in a shopping mall. That the doctor, now debilitated himself because of Dementia or Alzheimer’s, made no difference to Holly, she laid into him.

Briefly the story is that Ben decides on his own (think maybe story version 2), against his sponsor’s support, to come home for Christmas. His young step siblings, his step-father Neal Beeby (Courtney B. Vance), and his sister Ivy (Kathryn Newton) are very wary of his just showing up at their front door. They’re afraid of the stealing, lying, and disruption of Christmas because of their past experience.

Holly is overjoyed. She says she’s being cautious, but her heart is all in – Ben is Back.

There are tense moments throughout, but it is highlighted by the family’s return from the church play where Ivy sang lead and the step kids were an angel and lamb. Their home has been broken into and what is stolen is their dog Ponce. The dog is a family favorite and in-fact Ponce saved Ben from overdosing a couple of years earlier.

The people who took Ponce are trying to get Ben to visit them. This drug distributor was someone Ben use to work for as a dealer, but Ben also owes them a lot of money. With Ponce gone, the rest of the film is about Holly and Ben trying to find Ponce and bring him home.

As Ben takes charge of their search, he ends up doing one last act to get his family’s dog back. The price though is that he knows he’s wasn’t ready to visit the family and has now put everyone in jeopardy.

Many of the scenes were extremely well done. The bold family discussion about why Ben came back and Ivy feeling strong enough to voice her objection to Ben’s presence although she loves him dearly. The phone calls between Neal and Holly were both fraught and supportive of the dynamics they found themselves in with Ben’s return. The conversations in the car between Ben and Holly were powerful. The AA meeting Ben attends with Holly, spot on.

Roberts is outstanding as Holly. I love how well Julia Roberts can throw herself into a role and have the audience believe. I fully believed she was Holly. Hedges was sublime in this role. He’s had a great year with roles and to end with this one was perfect. I believed his addiction through his looks, his words, and his actions. His willingness to leave his mom alone at a gas station stop, told the story. Newton was powerfully excellent. Her fear of her brother’s actions and addiction were palpable. Vance was excellent as the caring, strong, and supportive stepfather. Peter Hedges, father of Lucas, both wrote and directed this story. His singular vision and use of powerfully strong actors to make the story come alive indicated his commitment to shine a light on both our opioid epidemic and our addictive culture.

Overall: This film is a powerful representative of what can happen to a family when addiction is present by one of its members. It is also a story of devotion of a mother’s love for her first-born son.