Dogs Bark

Much Wrath, Few Grapes - - August: Osage County (2013, USA) - - 26 February 2014

Recommended. It’s taken me a while to make up my mind about this. I’ve not seen Tracy Letts’s Pulitzer-Prize-winning play and maybe that’s the problem but I think not. Director John Wells did fine on television (ER, The West Wing) but perhaps screening the play was beyond him. Regardless, the dramatic structure of August: Osage County is deeply flawed, resulting in two hours of continuous bickering that most of us endured last Thanksgiving. The love that’s served alongside such pain never gets to the table. Having said that . . . the acting is amazing. Meryl Streep (Doubt) chews a bit of scenery but only she can overact so brilliantly. Julia Roberts (Closer) uses the jaw-dropping talent she can summon when competing with a great cast. Chris Cooper (Matewan), Juliette Lewis (Cape Fear) and Julianne Nicholson (Boardwalk Empire) shine and Margo Martindale (Million Dollar Baby) needs an Oscar - - not this year - - but soon.

Cowboy Drugstore - - The Dallas Buyer’s Club (2013, USA) - - 15 February 2014

 

Recommended. The Dallas Buyer’s Club is Ron Woodruff’s story, a drug-abusing homophobe who contracted AIDS and then worked with the gay community to distribute experimental AIDS drugs. Matthew McConaughey (Mud), as Woodruff, and Jennifer Garner (Juno) are wonderful and both get better with every film; however, Jared Leto (Requiem for a Dream) as Rayon, his cross-dressing business partner, is outstanding. Leto has gotten unfairly trashed by a few TG commentators.  The movie never settles the ambiguity of Rayon’s gender desires so it’s inaccurate to label her/him a trans-woman or to require a trans-actor for the part. Whatever . . . I thought Rayon was, in historical context, totally believable. Her tender, non-bitchy relationship with Garner, for example, was very non-stereotyped. The Oscar-nominated make-up (Robin Mathews and Adruitha Lee) - - taking Leto from glam-healthy to AIDS-ravaged - - is brilliant. This may not be the best picture of the year but it certainly deserves all its nominations.

Based On All-To-Real Events - - Fruitvale Station (2013, USA) - - 14 February 2014

Strongly recommended. Everyone needs to see this Fruitvale Station. Why? Because it’s a well-made movie, balanced and authentic, with no punches pulled, no shots cheapened.  But do you need to know what routinely happens to young black men in America? Only you can answer that. Michael B. Jordan (The Wire) plays Oscar Grant, a young black father from Hayward, CA, senselessly shot by police at the Fruitvale Bay Area Rapid Transit station in 2009. Jordan is outstanding, allowing Grant’s shortcomings and good points to emerge from a wonderfully chaotic mix. Octavia Spencer (The Help) does a second Oscar-worthy turn as Grant’s mother, an agonizingly deeper and more sensitive role that the former. Rookie helmsman/writer Ryan Coogler starts with a roar. Despite their absurd passover by the Academy and Golden Globes, Coogler, Jordan and Spencer have numerous awards, including Sundance and Cannes. The oversight, a minor injustice compared to Grant’s death.

War of Rumors - - Jagten [The Hunt] (2012, Denmark) - - 12 February 2014

Strongly recommended.  “The world is full of evil but if we hold on to each other, it goes away,” says a character in The Hunt, another Oscar-nominated Danish film. Sadly, the man who says it is at the heart of that evil. And it doesn’t. Director Thomas Vinterberg (The Celebration) took his script (with Tobias Lindholm) to glory at Cannes and the Oscar nominations. The film stars another Cannes winner, Mads Mikkelsen (Casino Royale, A Royal Affair), whose skills continue to impress. The Hunt is a fascinating study of the way uneasy suspicion can covertly evolve into group hate without any assistance from concrete evidence. Mikkelsen plays a Kindergarten teacher who is helpless in the face of untrue allegations of child molestation.  The Hunt hinges on his ability to express simultaneous outrage and befuddlement as his life unravels. The film’s a tad manipulative, but not unrealistically; the disturbing ending lingers.

Unlaundered Money - - The Wolf Of Wall Street (2013, USA) - - 8 February 2014

Not recommended. I must admit, I have no idea what Martin Scorsese intended with The Wolf Of Wall Street but regardless, I got an very unpleasant three hours. Most current movies are lampooned by their previews but this one - - unfortunately - - is not. The film really is a montage of hyper-wealthy, adult frat parties from the 90’s. Somewhere under the stained lingerie is the career of Jordan Belfort, a penny-stock swindler whose drug and whore-addled lifestyle is supposed to be: funny(?), timely(?) or both. Scorsese’s normally reliable sense of humor, however, is nowhere to be found in this hair clog of blow job snickers and Quaalude jokes. Most of the wild abandon in the story was skimmed off of Goodfellas and Casino, Jonah Hill replacing the more talented Joe Pesci. It’s also worth noting that, by adapting his book, slimeball Belfort is making money off this movie.  I need a shower.

A Well-Seasoned Life - - Amarcord (1973, Italy) - - 4 February 2014

 

An essential.  When you look in the dictionary for the word Felliniesque - - which is probably missing - - Amarcord should be the single-word definition; this is why it’s an essential. I like 8½ better and La Dolce Vita is probably more famous; however, in Amarcord, his last major work, Federico Fellini more or less dispenses with traditional plotting structures and reduces the story down to his, largely backward, vision: the Italy of his youth and the calendar. The year wheels round the village of Borgo San Giuliano as the story begins and ends with seeds floating on the air, a beautiful cyclical reference. The villagers lurch and sway between tradition and the evil buffoonery of Italian Fascism. So too with the village beauty, Gradisca, played in fecund glory by Magali Noël (La Dolce Vita), who arcs from loveless disappointment to her joyous wedding . . . dancing to a wonderful Nina Rota (The Godfather) score.

 

That Peculiar Institution - - 12 Years A Slave (2013, USA) - - 2 February 2014

Recommended.  A movie about unspeakable evil shouldn’t compete on the pain of its subject. It should only have to defend its vocal effectiveness . The agonized cry, the howl of rage and humiliation that is 12 Years A Slave, speaks very effectively, driven by the expressive skills of lead actor Chiwetel Ejiofor (Children of Men), as the relentless horrors of slavery rain upon him. By his eventual reunion with his family, our identification and catharsis is complete. The technical aspects of this film, the sounds and pictures, are very well made.  Despite this, I wasn’t at all satisfied with the portrayal of the Epps plantation. Michael Fassbender (The Counselor) and Sarah Paulson (Mud) make the perfect psycho-couple; however, this queasy sexual component seemed inappropriate . . . conjoining one of the more dramatic moments of the film with torture porn. Isn’t the awful injustice done to Soloman Northup enough to sustain our disgust?