Secret Agent Gal Movie Reviews

Hugo: Scorsese salutes cinema, childhood in rich adventure

 

“Come and dream with me,” invites Hugo, Martin Scorsese’s first children’s fantasy and tribute to the cinema. Now playing, it’s also the director’s first foray into 3-D.

An adventure filled with wonder and victory over adversity, Hugo stars Asa Butterfield (The Boy in the Striped Pajamas) as an orphan who lives above a Paris train station in the 1930s. The boy faithfully keeps every clock running since the death of his father (Jude Law) and the disappearance of his drunken Uncle Claude (Ray Winstone).

The Station Inspector (Sacha Baron Cohen) spies the 12-year-old who lifts croissants and toys. There’s nothing the Inspector likes less than orphans disrupting the bustling terminal. He and his Dalmatian give chase. In one scene, Hugo dangles from the hand of a huge clock to escape capture.

Like a Charles Dickens novel, Hugo is rich with detail, sound and color. Flywheels, gears and gizmos fill the boy’s world. The maze above the station allures and fascinates. From the tower, Hugo can see and hear the grown-ups below. He can go almost anywhere. Alone, he gazes out over Paris rooftops and sees the Eiffel Tower.

Hugo’s heart beats for a steel man called the Automaton. It was his father’s prized possession. If Hugo can find the heart-shaped key to wind it up, the device will spring to life. He’s sure that one last message from his father lies within the gleaming contraption.

Hugo’s adventure really begins when he tries to pinch spare parts from a stern toymaker Pappa Georges (Ben Kingsley). Pappa is so unhappy that you’ll wonder about his secret grief, and want to help. Furious, he seizes Hugo’s precious notebook filled with drawings.

Pappa’s goddaughter Isabelle (Chloe Grace Moretz of Diary of a Wimpy Kid) befriends Hugo. Warmth grows as they explore the station and visit a bookshop. One day they talk about movies. Hugo’s father took him to the cinema every week. Isabelle has never seen a movie, she says. Pappa forbids it.

Ambition is good in movies, as is story and fully realized characters. Just when I began to care about Hugo and Isabelle, the focus shifted. The tone changed from drama to slapstick.

Hugo is really two films. A tale of adversity and hope turns into an homage to the cinema. The boy’s story fades into the background. The movie is still magical, but turns too complex for young children.

Impeccable cinematography by Robert Richardson (Inglourious Basterds; Shutter Island) and fabulous sets from Dante Ferretti (Shutter Island; Gangs of New York) create an intricate world of wonder.

The script by The Aviator’s John Logan tries to cover too much. It’s adapted from Brian Selznick’s novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret.

Characters come alive just briefly. A flower girl Lisette (Emily Mortimer) captures the heart of the Inspector. An elderly café patron (Richard Griffiths) woos a woman (Frances de la Tour) with a flighty pet dog. A bookseller Monsieur Labisse (Christopher Lee) gives Hugo a gift.

Mama Jeanne (Helen McCrory) sternly forbids Hugo and Isabelle to speak of Pappa’s past, or to investigate it. This is a clue that his secret must be wonderful indeed.

A film historian (Michael Stuhlbarg of A Serious Man) meets the children. Finally, Pappa Georges and Mama Jeanne can no longer hide the truth.

You’ll see anew pioneering films like the Lumiere Brothers’ 1895 short The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station. Also featured is Georges Melies’ 1902 classic A Trip to the Moon, where a rocket pierces the eye of the Man in the Moon.

CGI is used with whimsy and restraint to enhance these classics. The making of these movies is reenacted. I felt deep appreciation for early films and filmmakers.

Kingsley is masterful as brooding, heartbroken Pappa Georges. Moretz is especially engaging as Isabelle. Butterfield seems lost at times but lives up to his resourceful character. Cohen fascinates as the driven, precise Inspector who becomes a hero.

Scorsese promotes film preservation, a cause he deeply cherishes, in the movie’s second half. As important as this effort is, I’m not sure it belongs in Hugo. I felt startled at one point by a line straight out of a public service announcement: “Time hasn’t been kind to old movies.”

While the 3-D effects are lovely, you’ll need to wear those dark glasses to see them. For some, the darker screen diminishes the joy of watching a kids’ film.

For all its spectacle, the film never shakes a mechanical chill. The story steams along and jumps the track. Like the Automaton, Hugo needed a bit more tinkering. (4 out of 5 stars)

If you like Hugo, you might enjoy:  Super 8; X-Men: First Class; Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2.

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Hugo     2011  /  PG  /  2 hours, 6 min

Cast Overview:  Ben Kingsley, Sacha Baron Cohen, Asa Butterfield, Chloe Grace Moretz, Ray Winstone, Emily Mortimer, Helen McCrory, Christopher Lee, Michael Stuhlbarg, Frances de la Tour, Richard Griffiths, Jude Law 

Director:  Martin Scorsese

Genre:  Adventure, Drama, Family, Fantasy

 

Melancholia: Kirsten Dunst dances with doom - 5 stars

Lars von Trier casts a spell over you in Melancholia, a visual masterpiece about apocalypse and humanity. Kirsten Dunst stars as a Justine, a runaway bride.

After the film’s enigmatic prologue, Justine and her groom Michael (Alexander Skarsgard) arrive hours late for the wedding reception. Their white limo gets stuck on the trail leading to the secluded estate of her sister Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and brother-in-law John (Kiefer Sutherland).

The well-to-do murmur as the couple arrives. Servants bustle. A wedding planner (Udo Kier) frets. Petulant guests fight private little wars. Upstairs, a little boy sleeps.

Depression sinks Justine as the night drags on. All is not well and she knows it. The wedding seems little more than an exercise. She struggles with the niceties. What’s the point?

Claire and John want Justine to be happy. Her illness becomes rude, an inconvenience. “Sometimes I hate you so much,” Claire tells her.

Assembling under the night sky, the merrymakers launch hot air balloons scrawled with best wishes and messages of love.

Justine lashes out, confronting her man-hating mother (Charlotte Rampling) and pound-of-flesh boss (Stellan Skarsgard). A co-worker (Brady Corbet) assails her. Justine tries to shield her unsteady father (John Hurt) from her mother. When Michael mentions having a family someday, she balks.

Fleeing her wedding bed, Justine rides off on a golf cart, gown trailing. Alone she finds peace, watching the stars.

Melancholia joins a flurry of “end times” films. The end of civilization as we know it seems etched in our collective unconscious. Change is in the air. The Occupy Wall Street movement and increasing awareness about economic and environmental issues are dawning.

While The Tree of Life is hopeful and redemptive, Melancholia focuses on approaching devastation. Terrence Malick sees humanity as a grand experiment, a wondrous part of the universe. Von Trier examines our shortcomings and how we face death.

You might view von Trier as a cynic. We’re simply not worth redeeming, he suggests. Let’s start over.

This is a masterful interpretation of the writer-director’s own battle with depression. The illness takes on universal significance.

Dunst boldly conveys the female archetype. In one of Melancholia’s most striking moments, she skinny dips in the night, bathed in the blue light of the looming planet. In a black pastoral scene, the bride runs in slow motion. Brown goo pulls at her hem, trapping her.

Humanity is plagued not by locusts, but by mental illness. Claire suffers bouts of anxiety. She too feels death approaching. Just in case, she keeps a bottle of pills locked away in a drawer.

Claire nurtures her son Leo (Cameron Spurr). Justine dotes on her nephew too. Only with the boy does she show any real warmth.  

If Dunst portrays The Female, then Sutherland plays The Male. John is the rock of the family, the sensible breadwinner. Yet by the end of the film, his actions take a bizarre turn.

The planet Melancholia will be a “fly-by,” John declares. That’s what the scientists say. Childlike, he tracks the spectacle by telescope. Leo shares his fascination.

Horses stir in the stables. Abusing nature is one of our sins. Justine beats her horse Constantine when he stops moving. He is trying to tell her something. Finally she stops and looks skyward.

Melancholia unfolds like a dirge to the strains of Wagner. Cinematographer Manuel Alberto Claro achieves a visual hypnosis that is exhilarating. Cosmos, eros and anguish hum.

The bride is considered a symbol of life and fertility. Justine longs for the relief of death.

Dunst won the Best Actress award at Cannes for this role. Melancholia is winning numerous prizes, including Best Film at the European Film Awards.

You can fear death. You can try to escape it. You can die a hero, returning home.

If you like Melancholia, you might also enjoy: Take Shelter; Another Earth; 2012: Time for Change; The Tree of Life.

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Melancholia   2011  /  R  /  2 hours, 15 min

Cast Overview: Kirsen Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Alexander Skarsgard, Kiefer Sutherland, Stellan Skarsgard, Jesper Christensen, Charlotte Rampling, John Hurt, Udo Kier, Brady Corbet

Director:  Lars von Trier

Genre:  Drama, Sci-Fi 

 

The Descendants: Clooney braves hell in paradise - 5 stars

Crisis breaks George Clooney’s heart open in The Descendants, a family movie where deepening tragedy is touched by gentle humor and grace.

Hawaii’s no paradise for Matt King (Clooney), a real estate lawyer whose wife Liz (Patricia Hastie) lies in a coma after a waterskiing accident. “Hell, I haven’t been on a surfboard for 15 years,” he gripes.

Matt has been busy earning a living. He also serves as trustee of his family’s 25,000 pristine acres on Kauai’s South Shore.

Clooney is intelligent, vulnerable and charming as “the back-up parent, the understudy” who now must step up for his daughters. Alex (Shailene Woodley) is an angry 17-year-old who finds compassion. Scottie (Amara Miller) is a tender, volatile 10-year-old eager to grow up.

Director Alexander Payne weaves the trouble in paradise theme into a personal journey that embraces family and community. With satisfying plot twists, the story shows Matt, Alex and Scottie begin to live more from the heart, and less from the mind.

When Alex tells her dad that Liz was cheating on him, horror and disbelief are accompanied by upbeat ukulele music. He dons his flip-flops and runs to a neighbor’s house to find out “who my wife was … seeing.”

Elizabeth is never going to wake up, Matt learns. He must transform his own pain and sorrow, and guide his daughters through their impending loss. Sometimes falling flat as a parent, he perseveres. He genuinely loves his girls.

Urging extended family and friends to say goodbye to Liz, Matt hatches a plan. He and Alex track down Elizabeth’s lover, realtor Brian Speer (Matthew Lillard). They discover the unexpected. Matt confronts Brian.

Clooney’s fully dimensional character is wounded but spunky. He reveals our own foibles and makes us laugh at them. It’s an impressive progression for the actor, who played a “termination specialist” in Up in the Air; a repentant assassin in The American, and an escaped con in O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Matt presides over motley relatives who vote to sell the family land. Hippie cousin Hugh (Beau Bridges) urges him on. Among the bidders are a ritzy condo chain and a Hawaiian developer. A local mother asks Matt not to move forward with the sale.

Hawaii is a land of natives and newcomers, of privilege and struggle. Matt’s ancestors were among the islands’ first white settlers. Surveying the family photos on his office wall, you realize that his actions reflect on all of them, including a Hawaiian princess by marriage.

Woodley (The Secret Life of the American Teenager) is memorable as rebellious Alex. Slowly she begins to accept her dad and take better care of herself. Nick Krause is engaging as Alex’s dude friend Sid. Matt must come to terms with Sid and see him as more than a loser. It’s one way he learns to grow as a father.

The excellent cast includes Judy Greer, heart-tugging as Brian’s wronged wife Julie. Robert Forster plays Elizabeth’s belligerent father.

Payne last directed the film Sideways (2004). He’s also known for Citizen Ruth, Election and About Schmidt. His next project is a father-son drama Nebraska.

Payne, along with Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, wrote the first-rate script based on Kaui Hart Hemmings’ novel. Cinematography by Phedon Papamichael and editing by Kevin Tent marry drama and comedy. Voiceovers, so easy to overdo, are well executed as Clooney delivers choice observations.

“My family seems exactly like an archipelago, always drifting apart,” Matt observes. By the end of The Descendants, Matt, Alex and Scottie achieve wholeness.

If you like The Descendants, you might enjoy:  Win Win; The American; Up in the Air.

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The Descendants    2011  /  R  /  1 hour, 55 min

Cast Overview:  George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, Beau Bridges, Robert Forster, Judy Greer, Matthew Lillard, Nick Krause, Amara Miller, Mary Birdsong, Rob Huebel, Patricia Hastie 

Director:  Alexander Payne

Genre:  Dramedy, Drama, Family

 

Margin Call: how Wall Street crashed the economy - 5 stars

Margin Call is a tense drama about how Wall Street investment bankers caused the 2008 economic collapse, prompting worldwide recession. J.C. Chandor’s suspenseful feature debut is now streaming.

Vivid dialogue and action reveal exactly how the crisis might have happened. Writer-director Chandor captures every nuance with merciless objectivity. His father was a Merrill Lynch executive.

Kevin Spacey gives one of his best performances as Sam Rogers, a world-weary trading manager who frets over his ailing Labrador. After a massive layoff, Sam congratulates the survivors. “Now they’re gone,” he says. “They’re not to be thought of again.”

Impeccably acted, Margin Call has the power of a play. Actors enter and exit. They face one another and themselves. They maneuver. They lie. Trapped in a glass tower, each holds self-preservation dear. Frank DeMarco’s cinematography is by turns stark and shadowy.

Concerned but not caring, the bankers learn about the impending crash from junior analyst Peter Sullivan (Zachary Quinto), a former M.I.T. rocket scientist. Laid off risk analyst Eric Dale (Stanley Tucci)  alerted Peter before he left.

Peter is horrified to discover that the firm is fatally over-committed to risky loans. It has 24 hours to exploit this knowledge – or lose trillions. The tale is loosely based on the now-defunct Lehman Brothers.

Owners arrive by helicopter in the night. Each minute is precious. Decisions must be made. Jeremy Irons plays ruthless CEO John Tuld. “Be first. Be smarter. Or cheat,” is his motto. Tuld orders the sell-off.

Self-interest has many faces. They’re providing for their families. They’re living the American dream. They’re hooked on big thrills and bigger risk. Nathan Larson’s score deepens dread.

Chilling and sad, Margin Call is precise and efficient. The players move like automatons. Watching them, you’ll ask yourself, “What would I have done?”

Demi Moore is exquisitely cagey as Chief Risk Manager Sarah Robertson. She reminds Tuld that she did warn the firm repeatedly. Still, heads must roll, he tells her. Hers is one of them.

Also excellent are Paul Bettany as charismatic playboy and manager Will Emerson; and The Mentalist’s Simon Baker as terse, unsmiling leader Jared Cohen.

Tucci is marvelous in a scene on a Brooklyn Heights stoop. Eric tells Will about his engineering career. He once built a bridge that saved drivers commuting time. He yearns to do something real again, to find rewarding, meaningful work.

Margin Call complements Wall Street, where Michael Douglas fills the screen with charismatic greed, and Inside Job, the Oscar winning documentary explaining the meltdown.

Pain and angst eats away at Sam. He hates who he has become. He delivers one final speech to his team, urging them to sell worthless, mortgage-backed securities for million dollar bonuses. True empathy is never shown in Margin Call, except by Sam for his dog.

Fuld coaxes Sam to stay on for awhile. There’s still plenty of dough to be made. Sam confesses: “I need the money.”

In a David Mamet-inspired moment, Peter asks Sam if he’s told his own son about the impending crash. “No, I … didn’t even think …” Sam sputters.

If you like Margin Call, you might enjoy: Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps; The Company Men; Casino Jack.

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Margin Call    2011  /  R  /  1 hour, 45 min

Cast Overview: Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Zachary Quinto, Penn Badgley, Simon Baker, Demi Moore, Stanley Tucci

Director:  J.C. Chandor

Genre:  Drama, History

 

Janie Jones: Abigail Breslin sings, uplifts band drama - 3 stars

Abigail Breslin can sing. In Janie Jones, Breslin’s voice and fresh, unaffected performance add soul to the road indie. David M. Rosenthal writes and directs the semiautobiographical drama.

Breslin (Oscar nominated for her supporting role in Little Miss Sunshine) is remarkable as Janie, the 13-year-old no one wants. She gets dropped off with her rock singer dad Ethan Brand (Alessandro Nivola) while her mom Mary Ann Jones (Elisabeth Shue), a former groupie, begins meth rehab.

Ethan didn’t even know he had a daughter. The sensitive chemistry between Breslin and Nivola (an accomplished musician who starred in Junebug) grows as Ethan’s career declines. He drinks heavily. The group begins to break up.

Ethan hears Janie playing and singing a folk-y ballad one day. Cautious at first, he warms to fatherhood.

The duo sings well. Irish singer-songwriter Gemma Hayes wrote the songs performed by Breslin. One of the ballads, Fight For Me, has been released. Eef Barzelay of the band Clem Snide wrote Nivola’s tunes.

The two develop camaraderie. “You look like sh-t,” she tells him. “You tell the truth, I like that,” he replies. Ethan decides to go solo. He invites Janie to join him on stage.

As Ethan takes more responsibility for his life, he slowly heals. When he acknowledges Janie as his daughter on stage, it’s a great film moment.

The band drama is a long cliché of swearing, drinking, drugs and one night stands. The first half is especially trite as the action lags. Finesse and originality were needed.

Ethan is arrested one night when he beats up an audience member flirting with Janie. His daughter hocks his guitar to bail him out. Ethan’s manager Sloan (Peter Stormare) remains a trusted friend even after he leaves the singer.

Finally Ethan must visit his mother Lily to ask for a loan. Frances Fisher is great as the Chicago socialite meeting her granddaughter for the first time.

Breslin, now 15, performs with a friend in the pop-rock/retro band CABB. In her next movie, New Year’s Eve, she plays Sarah Jessica Parker’s troubled daughter.

If you like Janie Jones, you might enjoy:  Crazy Heart; Somewhere.

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Janie Jones    2010  /  NR  /  1 hour, 46 min

 

Cast Overview: Abigail Breslin, Elisabeth Shue, Alessandro Nivola, Brittany Snow, Peter Stormare, Frank Whaley, Frances Fisher

Director:  David M. Rosenthal

Genre:  Indie, Drama, Music

 

 

The Greatest Movie Ever Sold: cha-ching - 4 stars

Morgan Spurlock just keeps getting better as a filmmaker. In The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, he raises awareness about branding, advertising and product placement.

Known for his personal odyssey through America’s junk food craze in Supersize Me (2004), Spurlock takes us along as he solicits sponsors for this thoughtful expose. Exploring the line between art and commercialism, he reveals movie marketing behind-the-scenes.

As inquiring reporter, Spurlock is a bit like Michael Moore, but without a political agenda. Funny, ironic and self-effacing, he delves into current affairs. He engages others with tart curiosity and genuine charm.

Finally he snags a big investor. Pom Wonderful, the pomegranate juice company, pledges $1 million to become the flagship sponsor. The official title of the film becomes Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold.

Other investors sign on, including Hyatt Hotels, JetBlue Airways, Mini Cooper automobiles and Amy’s Kitchen foods.

The catch: as Spurlock gains sponsors, he must meet the contractual obligations of each one. Spurlock drinks only Pom Wonderful during filming. He eats only Amy’s frozen pizza. He wears Carrera sunglasses and Merrell shoes.

A branding bonanza begins. Greatest Movie Ever Sold collectors’ cups appear at Sheetz convenience stores. Spurlock shoots a video promoting JetBlue. In-store promotions for the movie begin. Spurlock’s grin and signature moustache appear on product tags and stickers. It’s sell, baby, sell.

 

Spurlock interviews experts on both sides of the branding issue, even while he promotes sponsors’ goods and services.  He speaks with product-placement specialists, marketing consultants and film directors including J.J. Abrams and Quentin Tarantino. Even Donald Trump weighs in.

Spurlock visits M.I.T. professor Noam Chomsky and consumer advocate Ralph Nader to gain intellectual perspectives. Nader agrees that marketing is all pervasive, but can’t help admiring the filmmaker’s Merrell shoes.

Most disturbing is a segment where Spurlock receives an MRI brain scan to demonstrate the trendy neuromarketing technique. Subjects are shown commercials to determine which ads evoke more brain activity and release of the feel-good chemical dopamine.

The film loses focus when it considers advertising in public schools. The filmmaker questions high school students about Channel One, a company that gives televisions to classrooms. Morning broadcasts are filled with ads. Students say they are concerned about advertising in schools, but solutions are not identified.

Perhaps Sao Paolo, Brazil has the answer. Spurlock travels to the city where all outdoor advertising was banned under the Clean City Act in 2006 to combat “visual pollution.” Citizens tell him they love the city’s new look. Retailers say they must offer better value and lower prices to attract customers.

Signing non-disparagement clauses with sponsors, Spurlock maintains creative control over the movie’s final cut. Sponsors had sought to view the film prior to release.

Bemis Balkind, the entertainment identity and branding firm, creates a movie poster. A semi-nude likeness of Spurlock is tattooed with brand logos. “He’s not selling out,” the poster declares. “He’s buying in.”

Spurlock’s latest endeavor is an on-line documentary series called Failure Club, where group members with a dream encourage one another to persevere despite failure.

If you like The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, you might enjoy: How to Start Your Own Country; I Am; Happy; Thrive.

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The Greatest Movie Ever Sold    2011  /  PG-13  /  1 hour, 38 min

Cast Overview: Morgan Spurlock, J.J. Abrams, Peter Bemis, Peter Berg, Big Boi – Outkast, Noam Chomsky, Sut Jhally, Britt Johnson, Beth Jones, Bob Garfield, Richard Kirshenbaum, Michael Levine, Martin Lindstrom, Susan Linn, Regina Monteiro, Ralph Nader

Director:  Morgan Spurlock

Genre:  Documentary, Comedy, Business

 

J. Edgar: closet hater tramples democracy - 3 stars

In the dispassionate biopic J. Edgar, director Clint Eastwood dissects a coward and a bully, a tyrant who threatens and lashes out against those he fears.

Leonardo DiCaprio stars as the longtime director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. DiCaprio appears in almost every scene, committed to a flat, empty man who never changes or grows. In contrast, the actor seems to empathize much more with his Howard Hughes character in The Aviator.

This Hoover is as vain and soulless as he is cold and driven. It’s difficult to like, dislike, or feel anything for him. J. Edgar delves into Hoover’s possible sexual orientation. Here he prefers men, but hides his appetites even from himself in a time of intolerance.

As Hoover amasses power and extends the Bureau’s reach, he lashes out. He deports anarchist Emma Goldman. He illegally wiretaps civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. Hoover is floored when he realizes he cannot intimidate King into refusing the Nobel Peace Prize. He justifies his activities as “patriotic.”

Hoover also tangles with then-attorney general Robert F. Kennedy (Jeffrey Donovan), who sees through and openly despises the FBI director.

Edgar is devoted to his domineering mother (Judi Dench, outstanding), who tells him, “I’d rather have a dead son than a daffodil for a son.”

The other woman in Hoover’s life is his devoted personal secretary Helen Gandy (Naomi Watts in a beautiful, deeply hued performance). In another age, Gandy would have been an FBI agent herself. Unfortunately her part is so underwritten that we never learn who she really is.

In Watts’ best scene, Helen turns down a half-hearted marriage proposal from Edgar. She’s all about work, she tells him. It is Gandy who shredded Hoover’s personal files right after he died, shrouding the details of his activities from then-President Richard Nixon and posterity.

The film feels historically true and accurate. It’s a jarring look at the Bureau’s origins. Hoover represents the worst of America here, contrasting with the FBI heroes that fill movies and television.

J. Edgar underwhelms with its cold, barren treatment of Hoover. Eastwood ranges from present to past, exploring the character’s motives. Yet the film tries to cover too much ground over Hoover’s 50-year government career.

Too much time is spent on the Bureau’s role in the Lindbergh kidnapping case. It would have been more illuminating to explore COINTELPRO, the FBI’s covert action programs against Americans in radical political, civil rights and antiwar groups. The film shows Hoover pioneering criminal science and fingerprinting.

Another great scene involves Hoover’s number two man and longtime friend Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer, spot on as the long-suffering, smitten companion). When Hoover remarks that he’s thinking of proposing to Dorothy Lamour, Tolson goes ballistic and threatens to leave. One furious kiss symbolizes their stilted relationship.

Hoover dictates his memoirs to a series of handsome, young FBI agents in his private office over the years, exaggerating his exploits.

Dustin Lance Black, who won an Original Screenplay Oscar for Milk, penned J. Edgar. Eastwood also composed the score. Tom Stern’s cinematography, James Murakami’s production design and Deborah Hopper’s costumes are excellent. However, makeup for the aging Hoover and Tolson is heavy handed.  

Eastwood crafts a vague, ambiguous story as he interprets history. While unsympathetic, Hoover could have been more interesting.

If you like J. Edgar, you might enjoy:  The Debt; The Whistleblower; Fair Game.

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J. Edgar    2011  /  R  /  2 hours, 17 min

Cast Overview:  Leonardo DiCaprio, Naomi Watts, Armie Hammer, Josh Lucas, Jeffrey Donovan, Geoff Pierson, Judi Dench, Ed Westwick 

Director:  Clint Eastwood

Genre:  Biopic, Drama, Period Piece, History

 

 

Thrive follows the money to reclaim our future, wealth - 5 stars

Everyone can Thrive, according to a new, leading edge documentary impressively researched and organized by business executive Foster Gamble. A wake-up call with a plan, it’s now on DVD and screening nationwide. Steve Gagne directs.

Change is imperative. Nothing less than transformation – personal, social and global – will enable humanity to thrive, according to Gamble, co-founder of CASSonline.org.

Daring to follow the money, Gamble and his wife Kimberly Carter Gamble analyze underlying causes of scarcity and suffering worldwide.

The heads of three famous families have manipulated world wealth as part of a global domination agenda for centuries, Gamble asserts. Not everyone in these families is corrupt, he adds.

The Bank for International Settlements (called “the central bank of central banks”), international central banks, and national central banks control resources. Big banks, corporations and governments lie beneath central banks in a “pyramid of power.”

Elite central bankers control finance, energy, food supplies, education, the media and other systems. By keeping countries and citizens in debt, they effectively stifle human potential with the help of corporate-owned media, governments, major foundations, the IMF and the World Bank.

Many national economies have been harmed, according to the film. The elites are actively seeking to destroy the U.S. economy, experts say.

The number of global elites is tiny, says Gamble. In the U.S., the ratio of citizens to these elite bankers is a million to one, he maintains.

Individuals can exercise power in many ways. Bank locally. Buy and invest responsibly. Seek out news from independent sources. Take part in mass, critical actions. The Thrive website lists suggested actions.

Express your uniqueness, says British author David Icke. Fear of ridicule is one way the global elite gets us to impose its norms on one another.

Free, unlimited, clean energy is the film’s central, revolutionary theme. Two elegant designs, the torus and the Vector Equilibrium (VE), can be used to produce free energy and promote international well-being, Gamble explains.

The torus (or flower of life) is an energy pattern that appears in nature and across cultures. The VE is the underlying structure of the torus, a 64-sided pattern that is “the blueprint by which nature forms energy into matter.”

What does all this mean? “Goodbye Exxon Mobil, goodbye oil, goodbye coal, goodbye linear transmission of electricity,” says Steven Greer, M.D., Director of The Disclosure Project.

Did you know that Dr. Royal Rife invented technology that cured cancer in the 1920s? Have you heard of Nikola Tesla, who invented a technology that produced free, unlimited energy in 1901? The work of both men was destroyed, and their reputations were ruined. Archival footage shows government agents seizing revolutionary technologies.

For those who doubt futuristic exposes like this one, detailed information sources are listed on the film’s website.

Prominent scientists and thinkers are interviewed, including: Nassim Haramein, cosmologist and inventor; Paul Hawken, environmentalist and entrepreneur; Catherine Austin Fitts, former Assistant Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development; Vandana Shiva, environmental activist and eco-feminist; and Elisabet Sahtouris, evolutionary biologist and futurist.

How can the world thrive? Gamble integrates progressive, conservative and libertarian ideas into a model for change:

Stage 1 – Reform. We would reform current systems to “bring integrity and healing to our current condition.”

Stage 2 – Limit Government Control to enhance the “protection of individual rights and the commons.”

Stage 3 – Voluntary Cooperation would flourish as people live by “rules, but no rulers.”

Economic reform in Stage 1, for example, includes: stop bailouts; dismantle the Federal Reserve; withdraw support from the IMF, World Bank, and Bank for International Settlements; refuse international taxes, and monetize debt.

Following these steps would transform the arts, economics, education, environment, governance, health, infrastructure, justice, media, relations, science, spirituality and word view.

Gamble acknowledges that he was born into the wealthy Procter & Gamble family, but has forged his own career path.

Integrity, freedom and compassion can become the world’s guiding principles, says Gamble. Bold and honest, this film offers hope and a blueprint for change.  

If you like Thrive, you might also enjoy: 2012: Time for Change; I Am; Happy.

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Thrive   2011  /  PG-13  /  2 hours, 12 min

Cast Overview: Foster Gamble, Duane Elgin, Nassim Haramein, Steven Greer, Jack Kasher, Daniel Sheehan, Adam Trombly, Brian O'Leary, Vandana Shiva, John Gatto, John Robbins, Deepak Chopra, David Icke, Catherine Austin Fitts, Kimberly Carter Gamble, G. Edward Griffin, Bill Still, John Perkins, Paul Hawken, Aqeela Sherrills, Evon Peter, Angel Kyodo Williams, Elisabet Sahtouris, Amy Goodman, Barbara Marx Hubbard

Director:  Steve Gagne

Genre:  Documentary, Current Affairs, Science & Nature

 

2012: Time for Change advocates "evolve to solve" strategies

Evolve to solve. Daniel Pinchbeck investigates how to survive and thrive during changing times in the wide-ranging documentary 2012: Time for Change.

Thoughtful and visionary, director Joao Amorim’s film transcends apocalypse hype by advocating action. It’s now screening nationwide and streaming via Netflix.

Pinchbeck walks his talk as he shares common sense ways to live consciously so that all can thrive on earth. The founder of the Evolver social movement and editorial director of Reality Sandwich interviews scholars and leaders around the world.

Animation is also used to investigate spiritual practices, sacred activism and new technologies to help us survive change with grace and ease.

Functional design, habitat restoration, ecological detoxification, intentional community, aquaponic agriculture, wind power, open source currency and diverse currency tools are among the ideas examined. The film is similar to the documentary Thrive and surpasses Armageddon dramas like Battle Los Angeles.

“Apocalypse” means “uncovering,” and doesn’t necessarily signal doom, according to Pinchbeck. “Focusing on what will happen in 2012 may just be the wrong question,” Pinchbeck told a meeting of the Left Forum in New York City. “We should just be really asking . . . . ‘What type of change can we bring about?’ It’s going to be up to individuals and then communities to make a profound shift.”

Archival footage of the “Leonardo da Vinci of the 20^th century,” design scientist R. Buckminster Fuller, is shown. Groundbreaking technologies for sustainable energy, health and farming have already been developed, says Pinchbeck. These advances have been suppressed by powerful special interests time and again, he maintains.

Futurist Barbara Marx Hubbard cites Fuller. “We now have the resources, technology and knowhow to make the world a 100% physical success for everyone without taking it away or destroying our environment,” she says.

Many cultural creatives have planted “seed ideas” to help humanity, Hubbard says. These are quietly growing and taking root. “The only way to get to the future [Fuller] was seeing was about completely transforming your consciousness, loving one another as yourself,” she says.

Hot button issues like water scarcity and depleted soil are reviewed. Michael Dorsey, Ph.D. of Dartmouth College notes that current economic and social systems do not deliver justice, environmental protection and human rights. “The system is broken,” he believes.

 “Water’s the next oil,” warns Maude Barlow, Senior Advisor on Water Issues to the United Nations. “Water scarcity has already reached a dire limit for two billion people in the world,” she says.

“As water becomes more corporately controlled, as water becomes more expensive because it’s controlled for profit, it’s going to be denied to people who can’t afford it. It’s already happening now in communities in the global south where water metering is going on,” according to Barlow.

The “Green Revolution” has led us to “an incredible amount of dependency on corporations to supply seed, to supply chemicals,” says Penny Livingstone-Stark, a permaculture designer. Monoculture farming, she says, serves to “disconnect people from their land, pollute water systems, deforest the earth.” Livingstone-Stark explains how using soil biology sustainably perpetuates living systems and increases crop yields.

Reclaiming our lost connection to nature is the key to healing individuals, societies and the planet, Pinchbeck concludes.

Policarpo Chaj, activist and executive director of Maya Vision, explains how past and future are cyclical in Mayan thought. The 2012 prophecy of earth changes and economic downturns is already happening, Chaj and other scholars say.

Filmmaker David Lynch, who has practiced Transcendental Meditation for almost 35 years, tells Pinchbeck that he overcame anger shortly after he began meditating. Looking within helped him “find infinite intelligence, creativity, bliss, energy, love, power,” he adds.

A weak link here is Pinchbeck’s use of a psychoactive root bark to jump start his self-discovery. Using a drug for self-empowerment seems counterintuitive and harmful.

British rock singer Sting, who co-founded the Rainforest Foundation and practiced Ashtanga yoga, notes that he also took the drug. Fasting and meditation are just as effective ways to connect with the Divine, Sting adds.

Pinchbeck sees an empowered “global tribe” replacing poor, suffering masses. His essay collection Notes from the Edge Times has just been published.   (4.5 out of 5 stars)

If you like 2012: Time for Change, you might enjoy:  I Am; Happy; Waste Land; 2012; Thrive.

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2012: Time for Change    2010  /  NR  /  1 hour, 40 min

Cast Overview:  Mitch Horowitz, Michael Dorsey, Ph.D., Gaspar P. Gonzalez, Penny Livingston, Maude Barlow, Bernard Lietaer, Joel Kovel, Michael D. Coe, Ph.D., Policarpo Chaj, Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Terence McKena, Steven Colbert, Sting, Dennis McKenna, Barbara Marx Hubbard, R. Buckminster Fuller

Director:  Joao Amorim

Genre:  Documentary, Spirituality, Science & Nature, Current Affairs, Animation

Footloose: good date flick falls short of classic - 3 stars

 

See it for the dancing. Footloose (2011) updates the story of teen dance revolt in a small town. Craig Brewer’s faithful remake falls short of the original. Here’s how the two movies compare.

Ren MacCormack (now Kenny Wormald, who danced backup for Justin Timberlake; then Kevin Bacon in a breakout role) arrives in rural Bomont, where public dancing has been banned.

The preacher’s wild daughter Ariel (Dancing With the Stars’ Julianne Hough now; Lori Singer then) has a boyfriend. Handsome, smart and outspoken Ren catches her eye.

Exploding with energy and angst, the high school crowd rocks at the Hi-Spot. There they avoid cops and parents.

Dancing was outlawed after a car crash killed five teens, including the Rev. Shaw Moore’s son. As a result, he overprotects his daughter and sternly supervises the townsfolk. Rev. Shaw decries “this obscene rock-and-roll music, with its gospel of easy sexuality and relaxed morality.''

Pros and Cons:

The dance choreography is very similar in both movies. The remake is updated and features more dancing. Wormald performs the solo angry dance in a warehouse. Bacon did most of his own dancing, but had a double perform flips and complex moves.

Musically, updates of original songs like Kenny Loggins’ Footloose don’t always recapture burning passion.

Acting. Bacon aches as a high school senior desperate to break out and celebrate. He’s more understated and convincing than Wormald overall. Both deliver a great speech to the Town Council as Ren argues for the right to dance.

Hough and Singer are both moving. Miles Teller is great as Ren’s loyal friend Willard, an earnest dance clutz. The late Chris Penn played Willard in 1984. Ariel’s belligerent boyfriend Chuck Cranston (Patrick John Flueger now, Jim Youngs then) remains a jerk.

As preacher, Lithgow is passionate and moving, while Dennis Quaid overacts. Both capture well the reverend’s late change of heart.

Check out talented Sarah Jessica Parker as Ariel’s friend Rusty in the classic Footloose. Ziah Colon plays the new Rusty admirably. While no Flashdance, the original Footloose is better acted.

Strong female characters. Mourning the loss of her brother, Ariel’s daring road stunt shouts, “I matter too!” Ariel’s feat remains one of the great scenes in teen drama. It’s on par with Thelma and Louise’s final airborne journey, in my opinion. When Singer faces an oncoming train, she screams from the depths of her soul.

Both actors excel in a memorable scene where Ariel tells her father that she’s no longer a virgin.

Strangely, Andie MacDowell barely registers as the preacher’s wife. Dianne Wiest created much more interest as wife and mother in the original role.

The Accident vs. Ariel’s stunt. Footloose (2011) reprises the fatal crash that stuns the town. Footloose (1984) doesn’t show the past. It’s more dramatic when it shows crazy risk taking now. Ariel straddles two speeding cars in the face of an oncoming truck.

The Race. Ren and Chuck race tractors toward each other head on in the original. It’s simple, direct and scary. In Footloose (2011), a bunch of boys pilot old school buses. Multiple crashes and rollovers just don’t fit. Wasn’t this a contest between Ren and Chuck?

Sex: Powerful or Exploited? Hough is dressed like a porn star in some scenes. Singer’s outfits convey that she’s sexy and proud. Hough’s skimpy costumes distract from her excellent dancing.

For more about women and sexuality on screen, check out my review of Miss Representation.

Brewer also directed Hustle & Flow and Black Snake Moan. The late Herbert Ross (Steel Magnolias; Boys on the Side) directed the original. Which Footloose is your favorite?

If you like Footloose, you might enjoy: Black Swan; Water for Elephants.

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Footloose   2011  /  PG-13  /  1 hour, 53 min

 

Cast Overview: Kenny Wormald, Julianne Hough, Patrick John Flueger, Andie MacDowell, Dennis Quaid, Miles Teller, Ziah Colon

Director:  Craig Brewer

Genre:  Drama, Teen Drama, Dance, Music, Romance