The Chaperone

First Hit: In its own way, I really enjoyed the way societal subjects are addressed in this story.

The story takes place in and around the 1930s (and later) and begins in Wichita, Kansas goes to New York City and then back to Kansas.

Norma Carlisle (Elizabeth McGovern) is reluctantly attending a party set up to present Myra Brooks’ (Victoria Hill) daughter Louise (Haley Lu Richardson), in a modern dance recital.

There is tension in Norma between her and her husband Alan (Campbell Scott) along with a social awkwardness that Norma carries in the gathered groups.

During the recital, Norma overhears Myra tell someone that she is looking for a chaperone for her daughter’s upcoming trip to New York to take classes at the Denishawn School of Dance.

Although the audience finds out later, we’re not clear at that moment why Norma is drawn to and wants to take on this responsibility of becoming Louise’s Chaperone. At the first meeting of Norma and Louise, we are treated to the blossoming curiosity and know-it-all attitude of this young seventeen-year-old girl.

The trip to New York by train shows where this film will go; respect, disagreements, and friendship.

The story flows quite nicely and has fun moments, but what struck me was how it addressed, infidelity, gay relationships, adoption, parenting, family dynamics, sexual assault, fame, racism, and other societal issues that we are still addressing today. This is the treasure of this film.

McGovern was superlative in this role, and her face, when she meets her mother for the first time, is priceless. Watching the inward feelings change as the conversation progresses was subtle and powerful. Richardson was fantastic in the role of a dancer who was wise beyond her years. She carried the wisdom of her past and the challenge of youth, wonderfully. Hill, as Louise’s mother, was impressive. I liked that it made sense for her daughter to be the way she was because of how she was raised by Myra. Blythe Danner as Mary O’Dell was excellent. You could just feel how she wanted to both acknowledge her past but to keep it separate from her present. Scott was excellent as Norma’s troubled husband doing his best to live with his truth. Geza Rohrig as Joseph, the man who was the nun’s handyman was outstanding. His understanding and compassion were bright spots in the story. Andrew Burnap as Floyd, the fountain bar worker, was good. Julian Fellowes wrote a progressive screenplay that covered so many exciting topics. Michael Engler got fantastic performances from the cast and created an interesting and thoroughly enjoyable movie.

Overall: This film may not seem like much, but if you dig deeper, the audience is in for a real treat.

Trial by Fire

First Hit: A very well acted and somewhat manipulative film about a premeditated rush to judgement.

There is no faulting the acting in this film. In fact, Jack O’Connell as Cameron Todd Willingham was outstanding, and thus far maybe the best performance of the year by a male. Here he plays a father wrongly accused of intentionally lighting a fire in his home that burned up his three daughters.

Having done prison outreach work with prisoners in both Folsom and San Quentin prisons, along with letter writing to prisoners in other states, I’ve learned a little about the prison system. One such prisoner I spent time with during visits to San Quentin, was in for two life terms. He gave me a perspective of his life and the life of people who are sentenced to die in prison. This film does a great job of sharing some of the intensity of being faced with how one dies in prison.

The film begins with dark black smoke billowing out of a home. Flames following Cameron as he stumbles and falls out the front door. He’s shirtless, afraid, and panicked as he tries to break a window to get back in the home.

We learn that his three daughters are inside and are lost. The firemen come, extinguish the blaze and then fire investigators show up and as we follow them through the burnt wreckage of a home, they lay out what they believe happened. This fire, they indicate, was set by using an accelerator, probably gasoline, in the children’s room.

Cameron and his wife Stacy (Emily Meade) are questioned by the police and immediately after they bury their daughters, Cameron is arrested for murder.

Part of the set-up is that Cameron is known around the small town as a bullying punk, doesn’t work, and is supported by Stacy. He’s also been previously arrested and has spent time in jail. The police know him, as do some town residents who have had run-ins with him, and he’s made no friends. However, despite his meanness towards Stacy in the early scenes, there is a hint he loves her and he appears to really care about his girls as the film shows past scenes of him attending to his daughters.

The trial is an overt travesty (part of the manipulativeness), with his defense attorney not asking questions and not seemingly having much desire to find out the truth - he just wants the trial to end. Of course, Cameron doesn’t help his case any by being both belligerent and argumentative in the courtroom and to the attorney.  

As the trial proceeds, evidence is presented that paints pictures that overwhelmingly show Cameron to be guilty. Scenes are presented that show contrasting stories, and the audience, as well as the jury, are supposed to believe to be the truth. His only supporter is Stacy who knows Cameron loved his girls.

After the guilty verdict, he’s sentenced to death as allowed by the State of Texas. His first few days in prison are difficult because being a convicted baby killer, he’s persona non-grata by either the other inmates or the guards and they show their disdain for him by taunting and beating him.

In another part of Texas Elizabeth Gilbert (Laura Dern) is in a hospital tending to her dying ex-husband. The dialogue here is primarily focused on showing us what an open hearted, steadfast, caring woman Elizabeth is.

Getting involved in a prison outreach program by writing prisoners, she writes a letter to Cameron who is starving for outside attention. Being locked up on death row, his wife refuses to visit him, he’s got no friends, and his family can’t visit; he’d like contact with the world.

Over time he’s mellowed, gained some perspective and has become self-educated by reading law books and other books of literature. By the time Elizabeth visits him for the first time, he’s nothing like the character he was prior to his conviction. In fact one guard who beat him at the beginning has become empathetic towards him.

Elizabeth becomes convinced Cameron is not guilty and begins work on his behalf to get a stay and appeal because as she digs deeper she finds evidence of the fraudulent case brought against Cameron.

The film painstakingly builds this case and at times, just like the earlier segments, was overdone and manipulative. However, I found it interesting that the film overtly shows how then Governor Perry neglected and discarded the evidence presented to him that showed that witnesses were bribed, and the physical evidence was flawed.

The ending is somewhat of a shock. Then we get a quick look, as the credits role, of Governor Perry, during the presidential debates, pronouncing how fair and just the Texas system of law is.

This film makes several good points, and because the injustices that were projected onto Cameron are still going on today, it identifies just how bad our system is when uncaring and unjust people are left to run it.

O’Connell was fantastic. I felt him fully engaged and embody this role. Dern was very strong as her eyes really showed empathy for Cameron. Meade was oddly interesting as Cameron’s wife. I didn’t quite get or buy her character and I’m not sure if it was her, the script, or direction. Jade Pettyjohn (playing Elizabeth’s daughter Julie) was very strong and her compassion for her mother towards the end of the film was congruent with how she was being raised. Jeff Perry, as Hurst (the premiere fire investigator), was utterly fantastic. His quirky way of explaining real and the not real of fire investigation was wonderfully engaging. Geoffrey Fletcher wrote the strong screenplay. Edward Zwick directed this film and he got some very powerful strong performances from this cast.

Overall: I deeply appreciated the story, even though it was somewhat manipulative in the way it cast some of the roles and scenes.

John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum

First Hit: Entertaining, full of unbelievable action, and an excellent setup for Chapter 4.

One can only enter the theater knowing you're going to see lots of shooting, hand to hand combat and knife fighting. This film doesn’t fail at delivering this.

When we last saw Mr. Wick (Keanu Reeves) in Chapter 2, John had broken the rules of the Continental Hotel and Winston (Ian McShane), proprietor, was ready to put out a contract on Wick’s life.

This is where Chapter 3 opens. John is running through New York City, looking for a place to hide from the assassins that are ready to kill him for the $14M that is being offered for his extermination.

There is a countdown, and when the 6:00 PM execution time happens, the world seems to be after Wick. In this world, assassins are everywhere. Yes, I only gave glancing thought to this real-world possibility because this is an unreal world story, and even your neighbor is an assassin.

The ludicrousness of many of the fights Wick gets into and wins was out loud laughable (which I and others did) but no less engaging. Yes, some of the choreography was a little stiff with people hesitating for the next lunge, thrust or throw but it was delightful.

That, for me, is the point of this series of films. It is full of entertainment, has little basis in reality and is not presented to make a point. These films make Wick a voice of a man who was drawn back into the violent life, he left for a woman and subsequently a dog (“it’s not just a puppy.”) and now is fighting for his survival.

All the scenes are shot in dark tones, there are few daylight scenes. This aside, I liked many of the sets, from Bowery King’s (Laurence Fishburne) building basement and pigeon coops to the elegance of the Continental Hotel, and all are sets in darkened tones.

Reeves was fun to watch, but as I watched him run, especially at the beginning of the film, I found his running labored and slightly awkward. However, his quips along the way were great, and he only continues to develop and mine this character for pure entertainment. Halle Berry, as Sofia, was fun as the person who owed Wick a favor. Her dogs were a fun part of her scenes. McShane was perfect as the Continental’s proprietor. His role was expanded for this film and will be an integral part of the next. Fishbourne as the elegant Bowery King was memorable. His presence is critical here and will be in the next chapter. Mark Dacascos as Zero, the assassin the High Table uses as the principle assassin to take down Wick, was excellent. Asia Kate Dillon as the High Table’s Adjudicator was good. There wasn’t enough background of her to give me the impression she held all the cards she projected she held. This meant she had to build credibility in this role with her actions, dialogue, and screen presence, and she pulled it off. There’s an authority in her look that makes this role work. Lance Reddick (as Charon, the hotel’s desk man) expanded his previous role to become an excellent protector of the hotel, Winston, and Wick. Derek Kolstad and Shay Hatten wrote an action-oriented script that brought out more of the principal characters. Chad Stahelski directed this film in a way that kept the story and feel of the past films while propelling it into the future.

Overall: This film is a world of its own, and it works as entertainment.

The White Crow

First Hit: I enjoyed the journey of learning more about this focused and driven dancer.

Rudolf Nureyev is a legend in men’s ballet. I saw him once eating at Star’s restaurant after I’d seen Mikhail Baryshnikov dance with the American Ballet Theater (ABT) at the SF War Memorial Opera House. Nureyev was dining with Mikhail at Star’s center table, and they appeared to be in an in-depth discussion about dance, with arms moving exquisitely through the air while they talked.

I was seeing two of the best Russian dancers ever, together. It was a magical moment for me.

I love ballet. I love seeing the magical movements of men and women tell stories of adventure, love, loss, tragedy, hope, and beauty.

These were the thoughts I had walking into seeing this film. Because Rudolf (Oleg Ivenko) was before my time of learning to love the ballet, I only had heard of the legend. Supposedly he was demanding, unyielding, and focused on his craft.

This story is presented through flashbacks of him as a young boy, youngest of four, and the only boy. As a Tatar Muslim minority and poor, the opening scene of him being born on a train is something he refers to a couple of times in this film’s story. His father was a soldier in the Soviet Army and rarely home. But in one sequence where Rudolf and his father take a hike together, the impression left by the director and this story is that it was an important and decisive event in Rudolf’s life. I was horrified by his father’s actions.

I loved the dance sequences and the scenes of him relentlessly practicing because we see how he drove himself to be the best.

The faith that Rudolf’s teacher Alexander Pushkin (Ralph Fiennes) had in him was sublime. Pushkin’s passive demeanor was laced with subtle, focused clarity of intention.

Nureyev was an artist through and through. He loved architecture and art. The movie shows this by following Rudolf into museums to dissect paintings, sculptures, and statues. The way he gazed at buildings and the landscapes of cities clearly shows his inner muse drinking in the beauty of form.

Meeting Clara Saint (Adele Exarchopoulos) helped to change his life. During a trip of the Kirov (now Mariinsky) Ballet to Paris to perform in 1961, Nureyev mingled with Parisians which worried the KGB. They monitored all his actions throughout the engagement and followed him wherever he went. One of the people he met, during an outing was Saint who took him to gay bars and had him meet numerous interesting creative people.

Nureyev’s reputation towards being harsh towards people is shown several times during the film, none more powerfully than during a dinner with Saint.

The culmination of this story, of course, would be his ultimate defection from the Soviet Union to the west at the Paris airport in June of 1961. The way this unfolds in the film was done very well and was a highlight of the story.

Although the story meandered, highlights of him as a young boy, were captivating and grounded the film and provided the gist for his driven behavior.

Two sections worth pointing out were; the scene where we see him dance as a young boy – it is incredibly sweet. And in the end, artistic black and white footage presenting the real Nureyev dancing.

Ivenko was excellent as this famous dancer. His looks, movement, and driven arrogance reflected the stories about Nureyev. Fiennes was sublime as Pushkin the renowned teacher. The scene where Nureyev asks him why he’s not getting compliments, Pushkin’s response was perfect. The follow-up of offering food showed that actions speak louder than words. Exarchopoulos was fantastic as Rudolf’s friend Saint. Her toleration and forgiveness of Nureyev’s behavior were challenging, yet filled with understanding. David Hare and Julie Kavanagh wrote an exciting screenplay and covered the buildup to Rudolf’s defection in an effective way. Fiennes directed this film with love for the subject. This came across multiple times.

Overall: It is not a great film, but for anyone who wants to know more or is curious about one of the most excellent dancers of the 20th Century, go see this.

Poms

First Hit: There are several funny scenes, and although it gets to the edge of being silly, it never goes over the cliff.

My first memory of Diane Keaton (playing Martha) was at Orange Coast College where she was an acting student. Then, she was interestingly quirky — her own person and had a crowd around her (theater arts people). She still is the same kind of person, and in this film, she’s retired, alone and interestingly quirky.

The story begins with Martha selling her possessions. She’s moving to a retirement home in Georgia. The greeting is an over the top southern homespun reception that includes a tour of the grounds, and a lot of southern charm spread around like fertilizer.

This doesn’t quite sit well with Martha because, as a straight spoken northerner, we discover she’s there to be left alone and die a peaceful death from cancer which she is choosing not to fight.

She’s got a nosy neighbor Sheryl (Jacki Weaver) who intrudes on her. The interactions are, at first, exasperating. However, Martha soon warms up to her, especially when she learns that Sheryl substitute teaches to make extra money.

Martha tells Sheryl she was once a cheerleader and she had to quit before her first performance because her mother was ill and dying.

Sheryl and Martha start a cheerleading club at the retirement home. They need a total of eight people, and so they reach out, and six others show up for tryouts. They are; Alice (Rhea Perlman), Helen (Phyllis Somerville), Olive (Pam Grier), Phyllis (Patricia French), Evelyn (Ginny MacColl), and Ruby (Carol Sutton).

Each of them has a story as to why they want to be in the club, and we get to learn that some of these women have been or are being controlled by husbands for family, and by joining this club they are doing something they want, and they like it.

There are fun scenes that mostly relate what it is like to get older but having the spirit of being young still residing within.

There are ups and downs in this story, but the overall mood is, at times, poignant sprinkled with humor and fun.  

Keaton is perfect for this role. Her own quirky independent nature fit very well with the quality of this character. Weaver was excellent as the nosy neighbor who had reason to have her grandson live with her. Perlman was fun. When she showed her “guns” in the gym, I could see she enjoyed it. Somerville, Grier, French, MacColl, and Sutton were all wonderful in their roles as women looking for a bit more fun in their lives. Charlie Tahan (as Sheryl’s grandson Ben) was very good as the nerdy guy who gained confidence along the way. Alisha Boe (as Chloe a high school girl who helps the Poms) was terrific. She saw that everyone gets older and that someday she’ll be there too. Shane Atkinson and Zara Hayes wrote this screenplay. Although it was lighthearted and filled with fluff, it worked. Hayes also directed this group, and I’m sure it was fun for the entire crew — it showed.

Overall: I liked and enjoyed it more than I thought I would.