U Can't Touch This: Sean Connery in The Untouchables

Film Reviewed: The Untouchables

Director: Brian De Palma

Date Watched: 27 October 2021

jamesintexas rating: ***1/2

All Hail Sean Connery!  Ever since his death last Halloween, I have wanted to revisit his films and his film persona.  I was able to see most of his James Bond films last May, and others on my list for sure are Time Bandits, The Rock (!), and Marnie, a film he made with Hitchcock.  But The Untouchables is cemented in my brain because, first, I am from Chicago, and Connery's brogue utterances of "That's THE Chicago WAY!" are a sort of cultural birthright and touchstone.  Second, I remember watching that Academy Awards ceremony with my mom and dad, and I think it was the very first one that I ever saw.  I cut out the picture from front page of the Sun-Times the next day of a bald Connery, aka James Bond, clutching the gold statue...possibly with Michael Douglas from Wall Street and Cher from Moonstruck also winning that night.  I did not watch all of the Oscars, but wow, did I love seeing clips from movies that were above my pay grade that night: A Room With A View, The Last Emperor, and The Untouchables for sure.  When you grow up in Chicagoland, you inherit the legacy of the Prohibition Era, the Capone worship, and the idea of corruption being endemic to the way of life in the Midwest.  Not all good things.  But as a great grandson of someone who supposedly ran a speakeasy on Madison Street in the city, De Palma's The Untouchables, with all of its style, grand almost operatic moments, seems like a heightened visit to this era and its complexity and gray.

This world is grounded in a brutal, vicious bombing of a pub early on; a child is killed, and in the wake of such horror, inflicted by a smarmy, ruthless Al Capone (Robert De Niro) during Prohibition, righteous crusader Elliott Ness arrives from the Feds to work with the Chicago PD on putting Capone out of business, a thankless task considering the corruption of that force (and the pervasiveness of alcohol in Chicago).  Costner is wide-eyed and idealistic and needs the countering force of Sean Connery's Irish-American beat cop Jim Malone to challenge his ethics.  "How far are you willing to go?" he asks Ness.  A good question for all of us to consider.

Rounding out the cast is the great Andy Garcia as an Italian-American cop Stone who is an expert marksman and Charles Martin Smith as the nebbish but fully capable accountant turned fed.  Their crackdown on Capone takes them to Canada for a glorious sequence involving stopping bootleggers on the international bridge with Mounties no less.  Besides a loving look at the cars and clothes of the era, De Palma frequently constructs elaborate overhead crane shots to show an entire table of gangsters sitting together, the white tablecloth gleaming and waiting for the eventual contrast of spreading deep red blood.  De Niro hams it up, I suppose, making Capone a blustery capitalist, a fearless crook capable of reaching deep into the police department and his own ranks to attack witnesses and cops at their homes.  Things turn dark, and then darker, as De Palma examines what the violence and the threats do to straight arrow Ness.  If things seem to just conveniently end up in the hands of Jim Malone (When Capone's bookkeeper will be at the train station?  Where are the best places to do a raid?), it is easily overlooked when there are such sequences as the train station shootout, an homage to Potemkin with racheting tension and dizzying movements.  Ennio Morricone's score is a standout here as well, infusing the film with heroic moments, brassy and brash but also sad and evocative of the cost of this kind of escalation.  The villains are expertly played: scary, lethal, and bold.  I am still wrestling with the final moments of the film.  Ness seems prepared to go way beyond where he was at the beginning of the film.  Does he cross a line to get Capone?  Is it worth it?  And the film seems content to paint Ness not as an ideologue at the end when he muses the end of Prohibition.  "Maybe, I'll get a drink," he smiles, suggesting that that the fight against Capone is not purely about the law or that maybe the law is malleable, so he must be too?

In a supporting turn, Connery backs up Costner fully, letting him shine, but he gets his moments.  His is the character that I wanted more time with.  Why is he a beat cop at his age?  How does he have so many relationships with the underworld?  Where is his family?  Why does he sign on to work with Ness despite knowing, probably, what it will entail?  Connery shines here, and, yes, maybe the Best Supporting Actor statue was a lifetime achievement award for James Bond.  But spitting out "that's the Chicago WAY!" to Costner, seated in a church, shot from a low-angle with the intricate ceiling behind them...that's movie magic.  All credit to playwright and director David Mamet for these moments in the script. 

Always a Time for Misery

Film Reviewed: Misery

Director: Rob Reiner

Date Watched: 29 October 2021

jamesintexas rating: **** (highest rating)

This film is a stone-cold classic. Without seeing it for at least twenty years, a random sick day and a friend's Annie Wilkes' costume brought me back to this taut thriller which was my very first Stephen King novel.  I love it. James Caan, confined to a bed and wheelchair for most of the film, shines as Paul Sheldon, a meticulous writer of Misery Chastain romances that he disdains. Unfortunately, he packs his latest non-Misery book into his '65 Mustang and drives into a blizzard in Colorado, ending up tossed aside in an upside down car, only to be rescued by his number one fan, Annie Wilkes. 

Annie (Kathy Bates, a revelation, in the first role I ever saw her play), won the Oscar for her performance, and 32 years later it holds up.  Annie Wilkes is simultaneously cheery, horrifying, malevolent, unhinged, silly, rapturous, giddy, immensely lonely, and wildly swinging among all the moods.  Hosting her favorite writer after rescuing him from said accident, Wilkes sounds finds Paul's profanity-laden new manuscript (not a Misery novel), hates it, and the writer then becomes trapped as his number one fan compels him to burn his new novel and return to Misery work.

There are so many layers and levels here, the first of which is all the fun Reiner has with the title of the film and the character.  Caan is doing great work here.  Annie blasts Liberace records, bonds with her pet pig, and has a "flair" for decorating.  Richard Farnsworth and Frances Sternhagen are great fun as the Sheriff and Deputy on the case in the small town.  Both are hilarious and dry; their characters seem ripped from a Shakespeare play for comic relief and a break in the tension.

Misery is taut, 90 minutes or so, moving with speed and concision.  Reiner utilizes slow zooms and intense close-ups on his two leads' faces, close-ups that make Bates appear slightly off, filling the screen as she pontificates about the serials cheating her as a kid.  The film makes me think a lot about art and how artists create art and who they create art for.  Lauren Bacall's small role as Paul Sheldon's publicist bookends the film, itself calling our attention to her great string of films, her own contribution to the art of cinema.  The claustrophobic nature of the subject matter mean that Reiner had to be endlessly inventive in his shots and sequencing.  To craft both Misery and The Princess Bride in one lifetime is truly a marvel!

A four-star classic.

An Epic for All-Time: Zhivago's Power is All In Sharif and Christie's Eyes

Film Reviewed: Dr. Zhivago 

Director: David Lean

Date Watched: 24 October 2021

jamesintexas rating: ***1/2  

Powerful epic storytelling, David Lean's work here seems quiet, complex, and reserved, though it sometimes is suprisingly emotional with its themes.  A strange framing device of a brother (Alec Guinness) searching for his niece leads us to Yuri Zhivago (Omar Sharif), a young poet-doctor in pre-Revolutionary Russia, who finds himself wrapped up in the drama of Lara (Julie Christie), a young woman who finds herself involved with Victor Komarovsky (Rod Steiger) who is grooming her and manipulating her.  A shooting, a scandal, the violent upheaval of Russian society all swirls through this patient story, which just seems content to not move at a quick pace.  Long shots of landscapes and mountains, a perilous train ride, a brutal running-down of protesters by police, and a frozen house in the countryside are all highlights for me. 

But the truth is that none of this works without the performances of Sharif and Christie, both incredibly magnetic.  Their eyes communicate so much here, and the film is content to keep them separate for long stretches, to depict the harshness of war and power, and to eschew the beats of plot-driven story.  Instead, Lean lingers on the light, the landscape, the snow, the clutching of two desperate people together set against the backdrop of such horror.  

Boris Pasternak's novel was one I read in high school and found VERY difficult because of the Russian names and nicknames and my own lack of historical context.  Revisiting this world meant that I got to talk to my Film teacher about it and my parents as well.  My dad saw it in downtown Philadelphia at the Fox Theater with friend Matthew Bradfield; he describes Julie Christie as an angel.  My mom saw it with Denise Spatafore, her long-time friend.  She loved it also.  I saw it on HBO, early in the morning, over the course of two weekends (3+ hours!), and I am so glad to have seen it.

Dune, Part 1: The Best Film of The Year

Film Reviewed: Dune  

Director: Denis Villeneuve

Date Watched: 24 October 2021

jamesintexas rating: **** (highest rating)

Simply stunning, Dune, Part 1 is a marvelous achievement of cinematography, broad storytelling, color and light, and economy of storytelling. 

I will review it again once I have seen it twice, but Timothee Chalamet is Paul Atreus, the quasi-Messiah, the son of Duke Leto (Oscar Isaac) and heir to the House of Atreus who has inherited the spice-rich planet Arakis, a troubling development that puts them in the crosshairs of the Harkonnens, who were forced out by the Emperor, and the Fremen, the mysterious nomads who live in the nature of the gorgeous planet, preserving their water in elaborate recycling suits.  

The film has great performances and even more impressive imagery.  Much of this film could be printed and put on a wall as a painting.  It feels like it is just ramping up, and then it ends.

Thank goodness we have a second film on the way, but Dune contains an examination of imperialism, religious zealotry, ecological survival, and humanity's relationship with technology.  From the dragonfly-type ships they fly in to the sand worms, which deserve their own Oscar for visual effects, Denis Villeneuve triumphs here by going all-in on the emotional beats of Paul and his mother Lady Jessica (a standout Rebecca Ferguson), by hinting at more to come in the sequel, more of the mysterious Chani (essentially a cameo so far by Zendaya), while also telling the story of this world.

The cast is incredible.  I have not mentioned Jason Momoa, Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem, Dave Bautista, Charlotte Rampling, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, and Stellen Skarsgard.  All performances are pitch-perfect, charismatic, emotionally powerful, and resonant.  The Dune of our time is a reflection of diverse casting and multiple languages and customs; the director's steady hand guides all through the greater purpose of crafting the beginning of the grand story.

My criticism is the same criticism I had when Kill-Bill, Volume 1 was released six month before Volume 2.  What I really want to see is the entire story, and I think we are only 300 pages through a 1000 page novel.  This book was one I read in December and January, the favorite of my late father-in-law Keith, and I think that way these artists put people and place together in such a compelling way is truly marvelous and memorable and magnificent.  I do not think it is hyperbolic to compare my emotions watching this film to when I first experienced Star Wars: Episode 4: A New Hope or Avatar.  I cannot wait for more.  Bravo.  

Dune, Part 1 is the best film of the year.  

Talking to an Empty Chair: The Decline of Great Director Clint Eastwood in Cry Macho

Film Reviewed: Cry Macho    

Director: Clint Eastwood

Date Watched: 19 September 2021

jamesintexas rating: *

I think this film is a travesty.  No one clearly told Clint Eastwood, a masterful director and storyteller, that his script here was unfinished, cliche-ridden, and devoid of genuine emotion.  He makes his 91-year old protagonist sexually attractive to not one but two women, creates genuine suspense by getting on a horse, survives a car crash with no effects, and wastes a wonderful Dwight Yoakum by not giving him enough to do.  I was so surprised by the ending; it feels like Eastwood made all the choices, took none of the feedback, and instead of any sort of climax, it whimpers away with a non-ending.  

Clint's character Mike Milo is a former rodeo rider with a tortured past, summarily fired by ranch boss Howard Polk (Dwight Yoakum) very early on.  A title card informs us of the passage of time, and suddenly, he is roped into traveling to Mexico in 1979 to bring Yoakum's son back to the US.  Feeling a life debt, Eastwood goes, and then he ends up bonding in a picaresque journey back with the son, Rafo (Eduardo Minnet).  A supposed meditation on aging and the twilight of a life, Eastwood's camera is at its best when it focuses on sun glares, fading light, and his profile set against dark shadows.  But it is really a mess with his character hiding behind a box to elude police, engaging in a low-speed chase where he hides from the cops, the aforementioned car crash, but the sheer fact of seeing 91 year old Eastwood working, moving, walking in a way that made me think of my grandpa is a testament to his strength and intensity as an artist.  I just wish this story was worth the massive effort it obviously took for him to make it and star in it.

I am a fan of Unforgiven, A Perfect World, Million Dollar Baby, and more (latter-day Eastwood, given my need to explore his early films).  I am unsure what Eastwood is doing in Cry Macho.  It is the cinematic equivalent of talking to an empty chair.  

Finally, Machete!

Movie Reviewed: Machete

Director: Robert Rodriguez and Ethan Maniquis

Date Watched: 14 September 2021

jamesintexas rating: **1/2

Machete is not a good movie, but it is really fun and really having fun. Rodriguez's camera work revels in the marvel of Danny Trejo's quiet, formidable menace, and the first ten minutes is completely gripping in its violence and energy. The plotting and storytelling runs out of steam, and the stunt-casting of so many recognizable faces slows it all down a bit, but there are so many wonderfully silly moments. This film's creation is a triumph, coming from the Grindhouse Trailer as a 90 second fantasy, and Rodriguez stamps the film with his own unique and silly vision. Did I mention how silly it is? Or how glad I am that Machete is in the world?

After a truly brutal origin story in Mexico, Danny Trejo's Machete is an ex-Federale caught up in a web spun by Jeff Fahey to shoot State Senator Robert De Niro, a vocal proto-Trump politician. When the plan goes awry through a double cross, Machete must seek out allies like taco truck owner and resistance leader Michelle Rodriguez, evade capture from an ICE agent Jessica Alba, and even his estranged brother Padre Cheech Marin. Trejo is always winning in this role, proving fully capable of all the fighting and snarling, delivering lines like "Machete don't text" with steely aplomb. The film's imagination extends to its fight scenes and scenery chewing, especially from Don Johnson as a white supremacist vigilante leader and Cheech. It suffers, a bit, from not having Trejo on screen as much as he could be, but maybe that was by design? I mean, when you've got Jeff Fahey, Robert De Niro, Lindsay Lohan, Cheech Marin, Michelle Rodriguez, Jessica Alba, and Shea Whigham, it is hard to share the screen time. 

Machete is never not fun, and Rodriguez has crafted an ode to Danny Trejo, silly movie-making, and taking shots at our country's deep hypocrisy with immigration and labor. Completely ridiculous in a wonderful way.

The Magnificence of Kathleen Turner and William Hurt

 

Movie Reviewed: Body Heat

Director: Lawrence Kasdan

Date Watched: 5 September 2021

jamesintexas rating: ***1/2

Pretty much a classic, shot in the sweltering heat, with tons of noirish angles and performances, Body Heat features William Hurt as a lawyer drawn into a relationship with a unsatisfied housewife played by Kathleen Turner with great aplomb. Very workmanlike, meticulous, shaded with great supporting turns by Mickey Rourke and Ted Danson, Body Heat builds and builds towards its completely satisfying ending, and I think that this film means I need to return to Double Indemnity soon. ASAP.

Time Marches On: 1986 and The Big Easy

Movie Reviewed: The Big Easy

Director: Jim McBride

Date Watched: 5 September 2021

jamesintexas rating: **1/2

I think that I may have liked this more if I had seen it when it came out in 1986. Despite committed performances by Dennis Quaid and Ellen Barkin and an impossibly impeccable sense of place with New Orleans locales, The Big Easy lacks storytelling grace and style, seems deeply uncomfortable/ugly in its treatment of both women and African-Americans, and it lingers as a quirky, kinda fun mystery with lots of great touches, Quaid's Capote-esque lawyer among them. 

I think that director Jim McBride's commitment to the light corruption of the NOPD overshadows the gruesomeness of the storytelling and its implications. Ned Beatty does what he can as the beleaguered police captain dating Quaid's mom, but the real challenge here is Barkin's character, a new DA. She is not treated respectfully; instead, she is an object of uptight ridicule often, objectified, kidnapped by police officers, and generally harassed. The chemistry between her and Quaid is apparent and palpable, but the film could have taken itself to some better, more interesting places if there's was a connection of intellectual equals, of debate and ideas as well as the physical. By reducing her to a series of traits and focusing on her ineptness or nervousness, it makes this always Quaid's picture, and his energy drives everything. The mystery is kind of fun, though the police work to solve it involves...finding a car already in police custody... Chinatown, this is not. But, it was fun, breezy, and the music on the soundtrack and in the film performed live was incredible, as was Quaid's commitment to a Cajun accent. A bit artless and clumsy, The Big Easy collapses in on itself, but I enjoyed watching it once.

Squandered Squad

Movie Reviewed: The Suicide Squad

Director: James Gunn

Date Watched: 28 August 2021

jamesintexas rating: *

Just not very good. Despite Margot Robbie's game, fun performance as Harley Quinn, a walking shark person, and Idris Elba's intensity, the film seems sloppy, lazy, and lacking in fun, especially when Robbie is not onscreen. 

James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy, for me, was one of the top films of that year, a master class is silliness, fun music, quirky storytelling, and kinetic filmmaking. This film lacks that imagination and verve, I think, and it seems hung up on presenting lots and lots of characters, far more than we can care about. John Cena's Peacemaker is a silly highlight, but the giant special effects extravaganza is not as much fun as just watching characters riff and dig on each other. 

The Suicide Squad is not incredibly memorable, and so it goes in 2021. I am still searching for the best (or I'll just take simply a good) film to hang my hat on. This ain't it. Margot Robbie, to be clear, is a national treasure in her committed wackiness, though Birds of Prey was much more fun and stylized.

Judgment Day: Instant and Timeless Classic T2

 

Movie Reviewed: Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Director: James Cameron

Date Watched: 8 July 2021

jamesintexas rating: ****

A potent, mesmerizing mix of action, jaw-dropping special effects that hold up, and powerful storytelling. Schwarzenegger has never been better; less is more from his stoic, Frankenstein's monster-performance. This time, I was moved by Edward Furlong's vulnerable performance as young John Connor and the relationship with Sarah Connor (the always great but really great here Linda Hamilton). The ending closes on shots of the open road, clearly a reach towards the driving of the first film, but overall, the film wrestles with a fiercely determined villain, the T-1000 (Robert Patrick), clad in the terrifying carte blanche uniform of the LAPD. Cameron's storytelling, with broad strokes, always appeals to me. A classic.

Day of Truth

 

Movie Reviewed: Training Day

Director: Antoine Fuqua

Date Watched: 27 June 2021

jamesintexas rating: ***1/2

Compelling and eminently watchable.  Denzel Washington’s magnetic, explosive Alonzo bounces off Ethan Hawke’s more internalized performance as Officer Hoyt. An artifact of 2001, the film consists of multiple great scenes and moments, with crisp action and dialogue, powerful music, and a sense of place.

The Best of the Mohicans (And 90's Action Adventure Films)

Movie Reviewed: Last of the Mohicans

Director: Michael Mann

Date Watched: 22 June 2021

jamesintexas rating: ****

Simply put, one of the greatest action-adventure films of all-time. Emotionally resonant and beautifully shot, Mann's masterpiece features a tour-de-force, visceral performance by the brilliant Daniel Day-Lewis as Hawkeye, adopted son of Chingachgook (Russell Means) and a stirring compliment to that in Madeline Stowe's Cora Munro. The more I watch and study this film, the more I think it is about grief, loss, survival, and the inevitability of time. Mann has crafted something incredibly memorable here, something important and beautiful.

No Solace This Time Around

 

Movie Reviewed: Quantum of Solace

Director: Marc Forster

Date Watched: 22 June 2021

jamesintexas rating: *1/2

A bizarre low point after the marvelous Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace feels disconnected, discombobulated, and a film in disarray, lacking enough scenes with the villain Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), Spectre (or Quantum or whatever they are called). I thought Olga Kurylenko's performance as haunted Camille was strong, and Jeffrey Wright's return as Felix Lighter is always welcome. But Marc Forster seems to be somewhat at fault here: strange choices that defuse action sequences; cross-cutting with horses racing and Tosca operas; and the abrupt ending that just seems to short circuit everything into shooting. Nice moments, but what a mess, and what a let-down. And to me now, in 2021, it feels so derivative of the far superior Bourne films.

The Royale Standard: Bond is Bond

Movie Reviewed: Casino Royale

Director: Martin Campbell

Date Watched: 20 June 2021

jamesintexas rating: ****

It just doesn't get better. I think it is because of the ferocity of Craig's debut performance, the physicality and brutish brutality, as well as the searing performance by Eva Green as the complex Vesper Lynd. Martin Campbell's steady direction whisks us from the Bahamas to Montenegro to Venice with a crackling opening scene and both homages and deep seeds of the Bond character and ethos.

Shuttering, Quivering, Psychological Horror: Shutter Island Soars

Film Reviewed: Shutter Island

Director: Martin Scorsese

Date Watched: 20 June 2021

jamesintexas rating: ***1/2

Netflix

Genuinely terrifying, full of scenes that linger with incredible performances, I'm a big fan of this Scorsese tone poem of a film. DiCaprio is eminently watchable as a US Marshal in search of a missing patient on a Civil War fort off the coast of Massachusetts. Highlights include Patricia Clarkson, Ben Kingsley, Ted Levine, and Max Von Sydow in delicious supporting performances. The ending is devastating, and the nightmare sequences are truly horrifying. I'm a huge fan.

Burn After Watching, Seeing John Malkovich Scream and Curse

Movie Reviewed: Burn After Reading

Directors: Joel and Ethan Coen

Date Watched: 30 May 2021

jamesintexas rating: ***1/2

Endless fun. Watching John Malkovich scream and curse, George Clooney sweat and squirm, and Brad Pitt dance to music only he can hear is exactly what I needed today. A reminder of what a great actress Frances McDormand is (and Richard Jenkins for that matter), the loopy, silly plot covers a great deal of ground with the CIA, the Russians, a disc of memoirs, duplicitous marriages and affairs, insecurities and loyalty tests, and ferociously unsettling violence. Well-done.

Gritty Fun & Vengeance

Movie Reviewed: True Grit

Director: Joe and Ethan Coen

Date Watched: 30 May 2021

jamesintexas rating: ****

I just think this is a perfect film. Bridges is Tuben "Rooster" Cogburn, one-eyed overweight US Marshall, a curmudgeon who is willing, eventually, to do the right thing. Matt Damon is LeBouef, (La-Beef), a Texan of honor and principles. And the debut of Hailee Steinfeld as Maddie, the avenger of her father's murder, no nonsense and swift enough to out maneuver a bad deal and the turns and twists of Rooster and LeBouef, all delivered in a clipped, quick, fiercely intelligent cadence. I love The Coen Brothers, and I love this film, especially more having just read Portis's magnificent novel.

Two National Treasures: Chan and Tucker

Movie Reviewed: Rush Hour

Director: Brett Ratner

Date Watched: 18 May 2021

jamesintexas rating: **1/2

Chris Tucker is anarchic fun, and Jackie Chan is a delight, always. The film rarely rises to the level of these two performers, but it captures a moment in time when both men, eminently watchable, were on top of the world. Tucker is so much fun, and Chan is as great as Fred Astaire or Charlie Chaplin or both! The rest of the film is forgettable, but I'm thankful for this time capsule of these two marvelous performers who are impossible to ignore onscreen.

The Invisible Masterpiece: Pandemic-Struck

Movie Reviewed: The Invisible Man

Director: Leigh Whannell

Date Watched: 30 April 2021

jamesintexas rating: ****

An instant classic, The Invisible Man is the perfect movie to watch in a quiet, dark house with everyone asleep, branches casting shadows on the window curtains, creaking sounds on the wood floors. It is completely captivating in its soundscapes and establishment of fear. Elizabeth Moss should have been nominated for Best Actress for her visceral, raw performance as a survivor of an abusive relationship that swerves into the oncoming lane of a high-tech madman science fiction nightmare. I cannot say enough about the fear established in each scene because of the patient, masterful direction, the long shots and use of background space to ominous effect. There are genuine scares in this film, ones that will linger for years in my mind, and I think that this movie deserved a much-wider audience and much more acclaim. 

It came out right at the start of the pandemic but has always been on my radar. It features great performances, genuine fear, and a confidence and assuredness in its storytelling that lets the audience always feel that they are in good, capable hands. Terrifying. A masterpiece of suspense.

Minari Soars!

Movie Reviewed: Minari

Director: Lee Isaac Chung

Date Reviewed: 30 May 2021

jamesintexas rating = ****

Streaming on Amazon

Director Lee Isaac Chung's new film Minari's delicate rhythms and quiet moments explore the nature of family, the nature of devotion, the setting of roots in a new place far away from the familiar, and the essence of the American Dream.  In a story set in the 1980's about Korean immigrants, Steven Yuen (so good on The Walking Dead) gives a shining, powerful performance as Jacob, a father trying to do right by his family, transplanting them from California to rural Arkansas to farm the land and live in a trailer there, throwing everything they have into this risky endeavor.  Monica (Yeri Han) plays his wife, fiercely protective of their daughter Anne (Noel Kate Cho) and son David (Alan S. Kim) while also great nervous at the precariousness of their new life.  Chung's camera tracks a walking Jacob as he paces the lengths of his land, searching for water and the proper elements to make his dream come true.  Similarly, he also tracks a walking David as he explores the hidden spaces in their new home and navigates both school and friendship, always with unexpected results.  

Mother-in-law (Yuh-jung You) arrives to help the struggling family, and her Oscar-winning performances electrifies the movie, giving it a rich humor and pathos.  To say more would be a sin, but Minari explores the idea of making it in America and all the struggles therein; its evocation of family and beauty evokes Terence Malick's great film Tree of Life.  Chung has crafted a masterpiece here, examining precisely what it means to be American, a thing that could not be more powerful in 2021.  

Simply put, Minari is one of the best films of the year. 

One Night in History: Watching the Earth Move in One Night in Miami...

Movie Reviewed: One Night in Miami...

Director: Regina King

Date Reviewed: 13 March 2021

jamesintexas rating = ***

Streaming on Amazon

Regina King's directorial debut is the drama One Night in Miami... that features four African-American icons of the early 1960's all inside one hotel room for an ostensibly celebratory party after the victory of Cassius Clay over Sonny Liston.  However, instead it captures the quietness of the moment, the compromising of values, and the ebb and flow of economic power amidst great social inequality.   Clay (Eli Goree) is the Heavyweight Champion of the World, about to become Muhammed Ali with spiritual advisor and friend Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir) by his side and escort into the Nation of Islam.  Soulful crooner Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom, Jr.) is staying at the still segregated Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami but comes to these more modest environs to be with his friends, and NFL Star Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge) arrives with the emotional weight of a powerful opening scene where the top football player in the world returns to his home county to be confronted by powerful racists.

Based on a stage play by Kemp Powers, of which I am unfamiliar, the film hinges upon different pairings of men throughout and the intellectual discourse therein.  Cassius and Malcolm must unpack Malcolm's desire to have Cassius's conversion to serve as an example to the world while also considering his own crumbling relationship to the Nation of Islam and whatever his next steps will be.  Sam and Malcolm go round and round in examinations of artistic integrity, the types of songs that resonate with the movement, and the efficacy of different approaches to social change.  Brown internalizes his rage from the opening scene but serves as a sounding board for Cooke and others, as he weighs his own options and desires.  

Besides the obvious appeal of the early 1960's aesthetic with its neon-lit businesses and its impeccable suits and dresses, One Night in Miami... offers much more substance: a deep examination of the roles these men played within their own communities and the larger American community during a time of great upheaval.  King's camera is incisive and slowly zooming in often, while also filling the frame with all four men in different positions and relationships to each other, mirroring the political and social movements of the time.  Hers is a confident hand telling this story, and it may result in a Best Director nomination.  The film offers smart, groundbreaking people having conversations that speak to the heart of their passions: preach, sing, entertain, and represent.  One Night in Miami... offers a prism through which to see the myriad of richness these men encompass, and the coda offered by King in the film presents the divergent, devastating roads ahead as these men follow their hearts and consciences.  A stand-out to me in a cast of terrific performers is certainly Ben-Adir in the showiest role as Malcolm X; however, I cannot shake Leslie Odom, Jr's performance of a song late in the film out of my head.  It is searing.  And Hodge's work is quiet yet completely captivating.  I could not take my eyes off of how he was internalizing Jim Brown's emotions.  And Eli Goree, new to me, was straight up fun to watch; clearly, he is a student of the verbal and facial rhythms of Cassius Clay, and of all four, he seems to be having the most fun.

And, the night in question is February 25th, 1964.  My dad was 14, and my mom was 12.  The world was and is certainly turning.  I recommend this film.

Heavy Metal Drummer: Sound of Metal Soars

Movie Reviewed: Sound of Metal

Director: Darius Marder

Date Reviewed: 13 March 2021

jamesintexas rating: ***1/2

Streaming on Amazon.com

On the anniversary of the lockdown beginning here in Houston, I finished Darius Marder's Sound of Metal which features a phenomenal performance by Riz Ahmed, who will hopefully be nominated for his first Best Actor Oscar, as Ruben, the drummer of a heavy metal duo that tours the US in a vintage Gulfstream RV playing small, passionate gigs with his singer girlfriend Lou, played by Olivia Cooke.  Ruben finds himself increasingly suffering from hearing loss, depicted painfully through Marder's thoughtful sound design until one night at a gig, it all goes away.  Ruben's unpacking of his newfound hearing loss and what it means to his identity as a drummer, as bandmate, as a partner to Lou is unnerving and raw.  There are moment of grief and terror here where Ahmed uses his face and whole body to manifest his character's devastation and fear in ways that truly took my breath away.  His is a marvelous performance; the word Brando-esque comes to mind in my limited capacity as a filmgoer, but it seems completely appropriate.  

Ruben must contend with joining a deaf community, learning sign language, and renegotiating who he is.  Joe, played by Paul Raci, runs a home of sorts for the deaf in a rural environ where Ruben must surrender his car keys and cell phone.  Joe's own story as a Vietnam Veteran who stepped on a landmine resulting in hearing loss intersects with his identity as an alcoholic, and Sound of Metal threads the line in talking about multiple avenues of pain many characters encounter at once which feels real to me and encompassing of how life actually works.  Often, being an addict can also be combined with one or more additional challenges, but Sound of Metal never seems like an issues movie.  Marder keeps us firmly in the corner of Ruben, right or wrong, as he negotiates his way through his new life, forging small connections on the playground with a young boy, leading a drum circle, considering steps that may lead him back to Lou but could also isolate him further.

The third act of the film is jarring and still echoing around in my head.  The intentional sound design provides an aesthetic component to Ruben's journey.  Marder resists the urge to turn Lou into a stereotype or anything less than a fully-formed flawed character, and a late appearance by Lou's dad played by the great Mathieu Amalric is completely captivating in its capturing of his own flawed humanity.  Marder has constructed a film where two people talking to each other in a bed can be the height of both poetry and drama.  I was completely mesmerized by this film, its intricacies and its pain, and I sincerely hope you seek it out.  Its last minutes will stay with me for a long time.

Relevant and Raw: 13th's Searing Depiction of Injustice

Movie Reviewed: 13th

Director: Ava DuVernay

Date Reviewed: 30 June 2020

jamesintexas Rating: ***1/2

The Thirteenth Amendment of The Constitution states, "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."  The emphasis is on "except as a punishment for crime," and that phrase contains the crux of the matter.  

In the aftermath of the George Floyd murder, protests occurring in cities big and small all over this country, and subsequent police brutality that shocks because it is fully aware of being filmed and does not seem to care, I finally watched Ava DuVernay's 13th, a searing documentary depiction of injustice that doubles as a history lesson that I never received.  It would have fit in the curriculum of my US History Seminar teacher's class during my junior year; instead of breadth, she emphasized depth with Howard Zinn's People's History as a seminal text, John Sayles's Matewan, a week-long reenactment of the My Lai massacre trial as well as the trial of George Pullman.  The course seems to run out of steam (and time), ending in the 60's-70's, glancing at Watergate (I think) and mentioning Reagan and the Clinton era (our time, circa 1994-1995).  DuVernay's work continues my unfinished education and brings in acclaimed authors and scholars like Bryan Stevenson, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Jelani Cobb, and Angela Davis and infuses the film with archival footage from Birth of a Nation to center the audience in the injustice.  In short, the Thirteenth Amendment includes a clause about slavery being abolished "except as punishment for crime," which funneled thousands of Black Americans into the prison systems on trumped up charges.  DuVernay's systematic unpacking of the cruel, unjust, abhorrent history of our nation's practices and its insidious legacy today is simultaneously horrifying and relevant.  From unpacking the codes of what is meant when a political operative recommends talking about "voters' rights" instead of outright racism to the rise of the prison-industrial complex from Presidents Reagan, Bush, and Clinton, the film's outrage is directed at the systems that were allowed to thrive and play on the fears of white America. 

Take the "Three Strikes and You're Out" rule from the 90's which included mandatory life sentences, effectively taking the decisions out of the hands of judges, removing sentencing discretion.  The film explains how the rise of the Democrats in 1992 with Clinton-Gore came with the emphasis on getting tough on crime and the authoring of the new crime bill.  That crime bill included brutal punishments that singled out Black and Brown offenders and crushed communities as a result, transforming families, schools, and industries as a result.  Recent documentaries such as this are causing me to unpack history that has occurred in my own lifetime, a weird thing to consider, but now that I am older than nearly all MLB and NFL players, it makes sense to see critiques of policy and history that I vaguely remember.  Even though I read the paper and we got Time Magazine at my house, I am woefully and demonstrably ignorant on so many matters.  The work continues.

There is no way to watch DuVernay's film and not be charged with action.  Like her work Selma, DuVernay offers a rich, layered examination at history and the idea of being an American that could not be more relevant in 2020 and beyond.  

Face/Off, Waste/Of (Time) & Broken, Severely Broken Arrow

Movie Reviewed: Face/Off

Director: John Woo

Date Reviewed: 4 February 2021

jamesintexas rating = *

I don't know what I was doing in 1997.  That summer was after my freshman year at Kenyon College, I was working at the Elmhurst Park District Camp Adventure Seekers at Berens Park, planning my Eagle Scout ceremony, and definitely seeing movies.  But not Face/Off.  A touchstone of sorts (the poster and basic plot seem ingrained in my DNA despite not seeing it), the film captured a strange moment in time.  John Travolta's second career resurgence (though for me, his career started with Look Who's Talking) had just occurred with Pulp Fiction in 1994, and Nicolas Cage had reached the apex with Leaving Las Vegas, quickly followed by The Rock, Con-Air, and this film.  Both stars were shining brightly and united for this high-concept thriller.  I guess.  I was not thrilled.  I do not think I would have been in 1997 either. 

Starting with The Rock in 1996, I began to turn a bit on the soulless, mindless action films embodied by director Michael Bay.  There was something excessively slick, dumb, and nihilistic about that film, and I had a reaction to mass (casual) carnage that spun me away from these types of films.  Listening to Lindy West's new book about films from the 90's exposed this gap in my viewing, so I finally caught up with Face/Off.  To sum up, there is nothing in Face/Off that is enjoyable or worthwhile, except, perhaps, the joke that it spawned in Melissa McCarthy's face off with Jason Statham in the marvelous and fun Spy.

Nicolas Cage is an uber-villain full of thrill and flair named Castor Troy with a penchant for licking people's faces and preening.  The scenes of bug-eyed, over-the-top Cage are wonderful, and I'd much rather watch an entire film with that performance.  FBI Agent Sean Archer aka John Travolta's son was the victim of Troy's botched attempt on his life, and the two men are headed on a collision course.  Of course, there's a bomb with an extended countdown sequence that leads to the wonderfully silly use of the face/off technology to save the world.  But the switcheroo leads to another crisscross when the faceless Troy wakes up from a coma to wreck havoc on the world AFTER getting Travolta's face grafted onto his.  

There's more here to unpack, but one man gets placed in a kind of Super Mario Brother-style prison with heavy boots and needs to instigate a prison break while the other man gets promoted within the FBI and gets to leer at his daughter and sleep with his wife.  Poor Joan Allen.  The film takes truly sickening turns, feasting upon Cage as Travolta behaving badly while Travolta as Cage acts sullen.  It is a bit fun to see future cast members of The Wire pop up here and there, as well as Margaret Cho.

It seems so completely ridiculous, with jumping while firing two guns, the world's least secure funeral of an FBI Director ever, slow-mo doves, culminating its superfluous boat race fight sequence (just because?), and then there is the end sequence which in some ways is the most nightmarish of all, tossing adoption, family reconciliation, and intense trauma aside for slow motion walks through the doorway and easy sibling camaraderie.  I'm 42, so I'm clearly not the demographic for this film, but I honestly don't think I ever was?  Again, so weird to think that Travolta was doing Pulp Fiction three years before this film and Cage, Leaving Las Vegas only a year before.  The 90's were weird, indeed. 

Shout out to Daniel Day-Lewis for never devolving to this level and for Robert DeNiro to delaying it a bit longer.

Move Reviewed: Broken Arrow

Director: John Woo

Date Reviewed: 11 February 2021

jamesintexas rating = *

And then there's Broken Arrow.  I think chronologically this one came earlier.  Plusses include John Travolta's hair (divine!) and a commitment to catch-phrases and the f-word.  Gorgeous Utah, SW scenery.  Negatives: Christian Slater seems to be trying to do a stoic Keanu Reeves-ish Speed performance of the undercard to Travolta's big bully big-mouthed boxer.  Howie Long.  An under-used Delroy Lindo.

Broken Arrow is the definition of a completely forgettable film.  Travolta does look like he is having fun here, and his hair is a thing of beauty.  And his smoking, with his masterfully swooping away with his fingers of his cigarette to punctuate his statements.  This is the kind of film that detonates a nuclear bomb but counters with it being "completely safe" because it was "completely contained."  

I like the scenery.  I like the cursing.  I like the seamless transitioning from Stealth bombers carrying nuclear weapons to Humvees to coal mines to boats to trains.  There's far too much self-seriousness here though, and the belaboring of its symbols and bets between these two guys wears out its welcome.  It ultimately feels bland, action without style, humorless and stale.  

I could write more, but I'm not going to.  Skip this one.