Nobody Knows Hollywood

Paranoid, government secret love may be the best kind of love - that is the shape of Guillermo del Toro’s latest, beautiful myth. Elisa (Sally Hawkins) is a woman without a voice, mopping the floors and bathrooms in a secret government lab in 1962. The cold war is icy - with the Russians man in outer space and missiles on Cuba putting the Americans G-men on the highest, high alert. Strickland (Michael Shannon) is the G-man in charge, and he kicks things into high gear by introducing the mysterious South American Amphibian Man (Doug Jones) to the lab. The Amphibian Man is a cross between the Creature from the Black Lagoon, E.T. and Star Man in film parlance. He looks creepy, but still, human enough for Elisa to fall for him. How she reaches out to him is simple and show us how ridiculously limited and unfortunately awkward our verbal language is in comparison. The rest of the supporting cast is fantastic, too. Richard Jenkins as Elisa’s sweet neighbor, Giles, is fun, sw...

Director: David Lean Year: 1962 Lawrence of Arabia matters, not just for and by itself as a film widely regarded as one of the best, but also for what went in to making it and what it represents in terms of the nature of creativity. Young filmmakers often talk about the need or desire to change the scope of the art form by doing something groundbreaking but few have the gall, ability or, perhaps madness, necessary to pull it off. Director David Lean is said to have gotten his inspiration in imagining what it would be like to see a speck appear on the horizon of the desert and slowly grow into a human being. That’s the central image and argument to hold for the nearly four hour running time. How can this seemingly insignificant man appear against the depths of the brutal and impervious desert and expect to become anything? Faith, courage and a burning desire to prove the naysayers wrong. “Nothing is written,” Lawrence reminds us. Those things being said, if you can’t ...

What is the Resonance Rating (RR)? Traditional movie ratings include stars, thumbs up or, in the case of the San Francisco Examiner, the funny little man in the theater, who ranges from jumping out of the seat with applause to leaving it empty all together. The general idea of the rating is to give a quick look at the reviewer’s overall judgment of the film; In other words, how good or bad was it. That’s a metric I will consider with an added measure, with a nod toward what I see as a film’s greatness. Greatness is an obsession of mine. What makes things great? Who makes things great? How long do they remain great? I will rate movies based on how they make me feel and how long I believe they’ll stick with me. This is the Resonance Rating. I think the measure of a great movie is often not known for ten years. “Does it hold up?” is the common phrase. This is still highly subjective of course, because what resonates for me may not for another, but it takes away the s...

Director: Director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu Year: 2014 The battle begins within Riggan (Michael Keaton) who is a Hollywood has-been, once an A-lister known for his turn as superhero Birdman, a caped crusader on the silver screen, who is now looking for admiration, respect and flight anew as an actor on Broadway in a Raymond Carver remake he has penned, is directing and will play the lead role in. “Ambitious,” Mike (Edward Norton) mutters in reply to the news of Riggan’s triple-threat intent. Riggan’s lawyer/manager, Jake (Zach Galifianakis), paces around like a mad man, wildly spewing that everything from the critic that hates him to the actor that will sue them will be both the death of them and somehow be alright. Meanwhile, backstage in the ladies dressing room: “Why don’t I have any self respect?” Lesley cries. “You’re an actress, honey,” Laura says. Indeed they are and it only gets better from there. The style rules in this slick, darkly funny, ex...

Director: David Fincher Year: 2014 “ All we did was resent each other, try to control each other – cause each other pain ,” Nick complains to his wife. “ That’s marriage ,” Amy replies. Gone Girl is a film that at the very least leaves you wondering what the hell you just watched and at best flattens you with the possible depths of depravity in humanity against the backdrop of the sanctity of marriage. Make no mistake: this is a great film with a dark soul. If people at the office go to see the film make sure you have a few extra jugs the next day because this is the water cooler film of the year. “ When I think of my wife ,” Nick (Ben Affleck) begins.   “ I always think of her head. I picture cracking her lovely skull, unspooling her brains trying to get answers. What are you thinking? How are you feeling? What have we done to each other ?” Quick, empty shots of the Missouri town at dawn are followed by our opening to the action, “The morning of the ...

In Wild, Reese Witherspoon gets much darker than some viewers may be used to seeing her. It’s not that she’s never led (or followed, depending on your perspective) a character down a dark path before, but many, including this reviewer, tend to think of her as one of America’s Sweethearts, a label that gets applied to favorite female leads that are simply likeable. The pitfalls of such labels include not being taken seriously, though one would think in Witherspoon’s case she would have shed that with her Oscar win in 2006 for her portrayal of June Carter in Walk the Line. There’s also at least a little bit of a sexist overtone to that label and, in now admitting understanding that, I’ll refrain from its use any further. The devil in Witherspoon’s character, again a portrayal of a real-life woman, though far less famous, is in the complexity and duality. Cheryl (Witherspoon) is a woman wracked with pain, anger, guilt and a dark history of her own creation based on how she r...

ADD:*THE POLITICKING AND MARKETING EFFORT PUT INTO GETTING THE AWARD *IF I WAS TO PICK ONE MASSIVE SNUB IT WOULD BE DAVID OYELOWO B/C OF THE DEPTH OF THE ROLE, IMPORTANCE OF THE CHARACTER AND SKILL DISPLAYED IN THE PORTRAYAL Every year, the greatest drama about the greatest film dramas of that year (because comedies aren't allowed to win Oscar) occurs right after the nominations are announced: the Snubbies. These are the famous howlings of those who didn’t get nominated or those on behalf of those who didn’t get nominated. This year is no different. The outcry of Jennifer Aniston’s lack of nomination for her role in Cake seems to miss the point that most people just didn’t like the movie that much. SCREAM: But it's about her performance! Not the film! Retort: How many Oscar Winning performances come from films that were received with a largely lukewarm response? The howling about Selma’s Director Ava DuVernay not getting a nod (thank you Rev. Al Sharpton) seems to b...

We begin with a young boy, Mason Jr. (Ellar Coltrane), staring at the clouds – what is this life all about? He seems to wonder. We finish with him, 13 years later, grown into a young man, just moved into his college dorm and immediately eschewing the conventional orientation for a walk in nature with his clearly liberated roommate and a few young coeds. The film ends with Mason Jr. looking out at nature from above with a beautiful girl by his side. He’s happy. He’s high. He’s allowing the moment to seize him rather than the other way around – if that sounds confusing, you’ll have to see the film. Boyhood is a bold film that audiences should probably have a bit of preparation for before they go in. Then again, even as I write that I think, no, they should know nothing. The duality exists in my fear that people won’t appreciate this beautiful film for what it is: an experience. It is devoid of the usual plot points and structure. It’s just life. It happens right in front of ...

The first great decision the filmmakers of Selma made was not to make a Martin Luther King Jr. biopic. It’s not that biopics can’t be done well, it’s that there just so often unsatisfying at best (see: this year’s charming but ultimately unsatisfying “Theory of Everything” as reference). Selma is a very contained story – one that takes place in just a few months of screen time. That’s a drop in the bucket, even considering Dr. King’s sadly abbreviated life, but by focusing with greater detail on this particular action he was involved in, more understanding, resonance and meaning are reached. In simpler terms, this is a very, very good film. David Oyelowo plays Dr. King alarmingly well. He opens the pic by staring the audience straight in the eye as he practices his Nobel Peace Prize speech. He is exhausted, dressed in uncomfortably formal clothes and expresses his desire to go home with his wife, Coretta (Carmen Ejogo) and live a simple preacher’s life. As an audience in t...

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,...