Nobody Knows Hollywood

Director: James Marsh Year: 2014 Biopics are difficult animals by nature. How can one tell an accurate story of even the most ordinary life in two hours of screen time? How much of any aspect will the Director focus on? Who was this person? What was his effect on those closest to him and the world at large? To the latter question, Stephen Hawking’s effect on the world, there is no doubt. His ideas on time and our universe, captured first and, perhaps, most famously in his book “A Brief History of Time”, is a classic that is still a hot cornerstone of debate. So, the question becomes, where do we cut in to Hawking’s life? Director James Marsh leads us in to a time both nostalgic and undefined. The opening shot is sepia-toned, out of focus and falls from the sky. We see a few adult and child figures all moving near or around a wheelchair-bound Hawking. This is the Hawking I am most familiar with. The sound of a bicycle chain leads us back to 1963 during Hawking...

Cake and Still Alice are a most uncomfortable and yet, appropriate set of movies to pair together. Both deal with tragedy. Both deal with women who have gone through and are going through tremendous pain and loss. Both edge suicide very closely. And both come out the other side, though in very different ways. I don’t deem any of these as spoilers because neither of these films, in terms of their content, is shockingly new. That’s not a criticism either – a film’s success does not hinge on its freshness, in my opinion, but rather upon its execution of the known through a new lens. Still Alice is, by far, the more successful of these two films in that regard. As I’ve written before, it’s very important in every review or discussion of a film for the reviewer to acknowledge his own biases so the comments are understood through that particular lens. Still Alice punched me in the gut from the get go because of my relationship with my parents, both of whom have diseases that, wh...

If you’ve never desired to be great – not good, but the best – you might not like Whiplash. Let the cries of outrage follow: “I can understand and appreciate from watching!” “I don’t need to do it to feel it!” Sure. Just like one can describe how riding a roller coaster feels by looking at it from the parking lot, right? Or understanding the power of a 15-foot cresting ocean wave bearing down on you while you kick for your life to punch through its collapsing face by standing on the shore. Or what mortal humiliation in the face of your dream delivered by the mentor you begged to serve, while you tear skin, bleed, alienate family and love, sweat, scream, are hit by an 18-wheeler and keep slapping the skins of a drum is like.   Too much? That’s the fascinating water cooler discussion in this film. If you’ve ever wanted greatness, to be the unequivocal best at something, I’ll put my money on the idea that you say the methodology trumps the madness. And that’s where I landed, fasc...

Director: Bennett Miller Year: 2014 Foxcatcher is a cold, class-warfare based mystery. To add gravitas, we are told in the opening that this film is based on a true story. It opens with stock footage that presents the wealth, animals and pomp and circumstance of a traditional, historical British fox hunt. Dignitaries ride horses. Dogs bark, jump and spin wildly, ready for the hunt. The fox just runs for its life. The fox is Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum). He is a gold medal winning Olympic wrestler, two years removed from glory in the 1984 games. After displaying some legitimate skill by wrestling a stuffed dummy, he speaks to an auditorium filled with bored elementary students about what it means to be a champion. Not only is his fee a mere twenty dollars, but he was the second Schultz in line for the gig, with his older brother and fellow gold medalist, Dave (Mark Ruffalo), having passed it down to him. Where there is vulnerability, there is opportunity. Jon DuPont,...

Director: Dan Gilroy Year: 2014 Nightcrawler is a dark, society-charging, character-driven film that will land Jake Gyllenhaal a well-deserved Oscar nomination. With shades of Robert DeNiro’s Rupert Pupkin in “The King of Comedy”, Gyllenhaal’s performance is a chilling reflection of the opportunist in our information-starved society, rolling business platitudes and half-baked ideas off his tongue that allow him to rationalize his sordid behavior to himself and, shockingly, others with varying degrees of success. Louis Bloom (Gyllenhaal) is a common thief in search of a job, a life an identity he can latch on to. His leach-like desire is palpable from the first moment we see him. He is calm, too calm, for what he’s doing and the authority he’s facing. His coolness continues to give him what some might write off as beginner’s luck. But there’s more than that at play with him – he’s fearless. He has nothing to lose and a handful of self-taught, internet-based knowledge that giv...

Director: Kevin Smith Year: 1999 The universe is in full meltdown mode, befitting many who worried about "Y2K" (yes, it was a thing) but Kevin Smith as the chunky hero along with his foul-mouthed, sex-crazed friend Jay are here to save the day. Okay - it's not all about Jay and Silent Bob, but, unfortunately for me, too much of it was. There's a very interesting story here. And, although I'm not enough of a Bible scholar to take him on about the "truthfulness" of his interpretations (that statement alone doesn't work...), I was impressed with how much information rang true to me, as a man raised Catholic. The greatest things are the simplest things. The bits about love, faith and how powerful these seemingly simple things are. What I didn't care for was how in love with himself and his dialogue Smith is. This is the problem of the Director/Writer auteur, particularly one as relatively young and commercially successful as Smith was at t...