Dogs Bark

Finding The Dice - - The Theory Of Everything (2014, UK) - - 24 January 2015

Strongly recommended. Two errors one could make about The Theory Of Everything is to expect either a biopic about cosmologist Stephen Hawking or a clear depiction of his gift to science. James Marsh’s (Man on Wire) movie is more about a theory of happiness.  The extraordinary thing revealed in this movie is how joyful Hawking is, despite his affliction.  At the end of the movie - - as he flashes back to the beginning - - it’s his children that fill him with creative wonder. We also see his joy in science but it’s more for the doing of physics than for his accomplishments.  Eddie Redmayne (Les Miserable) uses only his eyes and mouth to sign this delight . . . although in the pre-ALS sections we see much of Hawking’s mischievous side. Felicity Jones (Like Crazy) matches him, scene for scene, in nuance and power. The nice score by Jóhann Jóhannsson (Foxcatcher) already has a Globe.

A Fog of Morality - - American Sniper (2014, USA) - - 21 January 2015

Not recommended.  Clint Eastwood’s (J Edgar) latest offering is a well-made film, with good, but not great, acting from its lead, Bradley Cooper (American Hustle), as Navy SEAL Chris Kyle. The action sequences (most of the movie) are tense and well-told, demonstrating the huge debt Eastwood owes to Leone and Don Siegal. The cinematography and editing, by Eastwood regulars Tom Stern and Joel Cox, respectively, is exemplary.  But American Sniper is a very evil film. This evil is not just the video-game depiction of almost every Iraqi in the film (the ‘savages’) or the historical revisionist Cheneyism implied for the origins of the Iraqi war (“wolves, sheep and sheep dogs”). These are bad . . . but it is the trivialization of Chris Kyle’s emotional problem after deployment - - everything neatly cured by the end of the reel - - that is American Sniper’s worst crime. Eastwood belittles every veteran’s struggle. Avoid this diseased thing.

A Puzzle Wrapped In An Algorithm - - The Imitation Game (2014, UK) - - 17 January 2014

Strongly recommended.  Director Morten Tyldum’s (Headhunters) The Imitation Game may be the best among some excellent 2014 Oscar candidates if the voters judge correctly. That may be tricky. Disapproval of the movie’s portrayal of British code breaker, Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch, August: Osage County), has been cast by a few history pedants.  But the more interesting question - - as Turing might say - - is: does the movie ‘imitate’ the real Alan Turing in way that’s useful for performing its dramatic job? I think the firm of Cumberbatch & Tyldum has built a winner. The film presents a totally believable Turing.2 and the plot is both thoughtful and anxiously dramatic . . . not always a complimentary pair of functions. I also liked Kiera Knightly (Pride and Prejudice) and, particularly, Mark Strong (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) as the very evil and very real British spy, Sir Stewart Menzies. Another lovely Alexandre Desplat score graces the film.

Do Not Do the Kenosha, Kid - - Inherent Vice (2014, USA) - - 13 January 2015

Not recommended. There’s a big part of me that would like to have liked Paul Thomas Anderson’s (Boogie Nights) Promethean attempt to film Inherent Vice. Although I’ve twice in these pages described the novels of Thomas Pynchon as unfilmable . . . I really don’t believe that. I believe in cinematic similitude, a adaptive film only needs to resemble its predecessor text but must be faithful to its message. In that sense, a Pynchon adaptation needed to translate the essence of the work, using the semiotics of film to make the switcheroo.  The Gospel of Pynchon is whispered, emergent from the chimerical plots, Rorschach characters, disjoint dialogue and obscure cultural in-jokes. But despite great acting by Josh Brolan (No Country For Old Men), Joaquin Phoenix (Walk The Line) and a fine supporting cast, I never heard a murmur of something transcending the chaos. Inherent Vice, the movie, is another LA leaf-blower.

The Dream Shall Never Die - - Selma (2014, USA) - - 9 January 2015

Recommended. Sadly, I found Selma to be disappointing.  Three things bothered me. First, the movie opens with mostly talk. It cuts eventually to a disturbing rendition of the 1963 Sixteenth-Street Baptist Church bombing and murder. And so it went, alternating between horrible brutal scenes and sleepy conversations. I felt manipulated by director Ava DuVernay’s (Middle of Nowhere) jarring oscillation, as though she felt a wake-up call was required. I found David Oyelowo’s (Interstellar ) Martin Luther King to be lifelessly formal.  No secrets are revealed about King in Selma, although I thought Carmen Ejogo (Boycott), reprising Mrs. King, was good. Finally, the scenes between King and Lyndon Johnson seemed to ring completely false. These were two master politicians at the height of their power yet they seem totally un-nuanced. But in spite of all this, I still recommend the movie. Why? Because King’s battle for the vote - -unbelievably - - still rages . . .

This Changes Everything - - Boyhood (2013, USA) - - 8 January 2014

Strongly recommended. The closest thing to which I can compare Richard Linklater’s astonishing film is a multi-season TV show.  If, for example, Mad Men is the Sally Draper Story (Girlhood?), Matthew Weiner has continuously re-written actress Kiernan Shipka from a child to a young woman, projected onto the pubescent 1960’s. Similarly, Linklater could not have known how Boyhood’s young star, Ellar Coltrane, would emerge in 2013 when he cast him at six. So the writer/director took what life gave him, or gave Coltraine, and stole from the middle-aging adult cast. Coltraine is splendid and both Patricia Arquette (True Romance) and Ethan Hawke (Training Day) give wonderfully subtle performances that deserve Oscar nominations.  At the end of the reel, this is a movie with the most common of stories - - where nothing much happens - - giving us the most profound life lesson seen all year.  Boyhood is NOT a picture to miss.

A Beautiful Pipe Dream Of A Career - - Altman (2014, Canada) - - 6 January 2014

Recommended. Most of the brilliance that made me love movies is dead. Hitchcock, Hawks, Ford . . . Billy Wilder and David Lean. The still living were reduced considerably, as I entered college. But a whole host of new auteurs were emergent who would keep the grift going. My favorite was Robert Altman, crashing the box office with M*A*S*H and reaching genius with McCabe And Mrs. Miller and Nashville.  As the 70’s ended and Hollywood left for a cartoon galaxy far, far away, Altman’s luster waned but not his love of risk. I thought Popeye was brilliant, but was not critically joined in applause until The Player.  His final masterpiece was Gosford Park, his contempt for the movie business tempered with nostalgia and his last, un-awarded best director Oscar. Do you remember who won? Of course not. Ron Mann’s solid documentary covers the movies - - and is nice - - but it didn’t capture Altman’s brilliance.

The Girl Can’t Help It - - Under The Skin (2013, UK) - - 2 January 2014

Not recommended. You gotta love Scarlett Johansson. She seems to have no occupational fear. Last year she filmed a movie (Her) featuring only her voice. This year she's picking up her lovely butt-load of best actress festival noms for a role in which she barely speaks. And in a movie that is also . . . incomprehensible. Now, there’s certainly something here, from the clever acting of Ms. Johansson to the fascinating use of non-actors as her abducted victims and Soylent Green ingredients (wait, one of them survives?). We do, indeed, see Scarlett buck naked repeatedly, albeit in a most un-erotic context.  But - - despite the pretentious surrealism - - director/writer Jonathan Glazer (Sexy Beast) still trots out the bone-tired trope of horny males consumed by a skin-deep, intergalactic hottie. Did they not see Species? At least those dorks got laid. In Under The Skin, they just sunk to the bottom of the tub. Me, too.