Movie Review Maestro

Maestro (2023) 

Directed by Bradley Cooper

Written by Bradley Cooper, Josh Singer

Starring Bradley Cooper, Carey Mulligan. Maya Hawke, Matt Bomer 

Release Date November 22nd, 2023 

Published ?

There are many things to like about Bradley Cooper's Maestro. This biopic of legendary composer Leonard Bernstein is incredible to look at. Cooper and his cinematographer, Matthew Libatique, and production designer, Kevin Thompson, have put exceptional craft into the movie. Several of the films scenes simply pop off the screen in composition, detail, and the use of color. There is no denying that Bradley Cooper has a wonderful directorial eye aided by an exceptional team behind him. Where Maestro falters, sadly, is storytelling where the tenets of the movie biopic restrict and restrain. It's as if there was simply too much life in Leonard Bernstein to be constricted to the film form. 

Maestro begins its story with Leonard Bernstein being interviewed about his life and reflecting mostly on his beloved wife Felicia. Then we are thrown into a flashback, black and white, a young and eager Leonard Bernstein gets the phone call that will change his life. The main conductor of the New York Philharmonic is ill and cannot perform. His replacement is snowed in upstate. The 25 year old Bernstein with no rehearsal time, will have to fill in. He crushes it, he delivers an incredible performance that skyrockets his career. 

Meanwhile, in his private life, Bernstein is enjoying life as a gay man in New York, collaborating on various musical projects and spending time with his lover, David Oppenheim (Matt Bomer). These moments are brief but show a playful and wildly creative Bernstein constantly in creative mode, in the flower of his youth. Soon after however, he's met a woman at a party. Her name is Felicia (Carey Mulligan) and the two spark immediate chemistry. It's never stated that Bernstein is bisexual and the movie is remarkably vague on this point, perhaps because, until late in his life, Bernstein himself was vague on this point. 

The two undergo a whirlwind romance accompanied by Bernstein's remarkable successes on the stage, screen and as a composer of numerous symphonies. A lovely scene has Bernstein take Felicia to the stage where a musical he's working on with Jerome Robbins is rehearsing. The two get swept up in the dance rehearsal before being pulled apart. The symbolism rages aloud in this scene as the two sides of Bernstein's sexuality are pulled in different directions, one toward Felicia, one away from her. Dancers keep pulling both in different directions with Felicia imagining a man who might have taken her from Bernstein earlier in their life. It's an exceptional and exciting sequence that demonstrates Cooper's terrific direction. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review She Said

She Said (2022) 

Directed by Maria Schrader 

Written by Rebecca Lenkiewicz 

Starring Carey Mulligan, Zoe Kazan, Patricia Clarkson 

Release Date November 18th, 2022 

Published November 23rd, 2022 

She Said takes cues from All the Presidents Men and Spotlight and turns a spotlight on the abuses that led to the #MeToo social media movement. The film stars Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan as New York Times journalists Jodi Kanter and Megan Twohey who spent several months crossing the country, conducting interviews and uncovering information about Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, a criminal, rapist, creep who is currently in jail for the crimes he committed. 

It's important to say that Weinstein is a convicted criminal as there are people who attempt to minimize what he did and brush away criticism of powerful men by hand waving sexual harassment as being a product of the time it was committed. It's a bizarre bit of mental gymnastics but there are numerous media figures who are willing to stand up for the Harvey Weinstein's of the world and excuse their behavior because these powerful men didn't know what they were doing was a crime. I

In the years before the Women's Rights movement and the increased representation of women in the workplace and in the halls of power, it was commonplace for powerful men to abuse women, to make demands of women sexually, and to go even further than that in forcing themselves onto unwilling women. By the logic of Harvey defenders, men of a certain age should be forgiven for their behavior because that's just how they grew up. Pro tip, if you think this way, you're part of the problem, you're wrong and please stay away from women. 

Part of the strength of She Said is how the movie demonstrates what these reporters were up against. They were battling not one villain, though Weinstein is undoubtedly a villain who occupies a large space in this story. No, they were battling an entire mindset. They were up against a culture that, at the time, treated terms like Casting Couch as a punchline. Women have been degraded for years by people who thought it was funny that a woman had been 'riding the casting couch' to get where they are. 

The behavior of Harvey Weinstein, aside from when it rose to the level of actual criminal behavior, was treated as normal. Asking a woman for a massage, asking women to remove their clothes, asking women to watch him take a shower, these actions were normalized and convincing the world that these behaviors were more than just wrong, they were worthy of punishment, was a massive boulder that these reporters were pushing up a steep hill. 

Then there were those who eagerly blamed the victims of people like Harvey Weinstein. She Said benefits from the use of names we recognize such as Rose McGowan, a victim of Harvey Weinstein who was degraded for speaking out when her assault actually happened. Here is a question for you, what made you think Rose McGowan wasn't telling the truth when she spoke about Harvey Weinstein assaulting her? What about her made her any less credible than any other person alleging an abuse of power? 

If you are planning a rebuttal to my question in the comments then ask yourself this, why do you know any of what you think you know about Rose McGowan? Why are you so invested in the idea that she may not be telling the truth? Why does it matter to you? You aren't Harvey Weinstein, you aren't his defense attorney. If you're wanting to turn this around and make this about me, ask yourself why you are so eager to argue about something with someone who also has no vested interest in what happened? Before you write your rebuttal, truly examine your life and perhaps consider moving on. 

Click here for my full length review at Geeks.Media. 

Movie Review The Greatest

The Greatest (2010) 

Directed by Shana Feste 

Written by Shana Feste 

Starring Susan Sarandon, Pierce Brosnan, Johnny Simmons, Carey Mulligan, Michael Shannon, Aaron Johnson

Release Date April 2nd, 2010

Published April 2nd, 2010

“The Greatest” is notable for being the first film I've seen featuring derisive bell ringing. Pierce Brosnan gives the bell to his grieving wife played with anguish and abandon by Susan Surandon. She rings it at him as a rebuke to his attempt to reach out to her following the death of their son. What meaning the bell had was lost on me after Sarandon began so contemptuously ringing it.

”The Greatest,” the first feature from writer-director Shana Feste, is a film that wants to be about grief but plays more like an oddball indie film trying exceptionally hard to treat a familiar subject in an obscure fashion. Pierce Brosnan is Allan, a mathematics professor who was cheating on his wife Grace (Susan Sarandon) at the time their son Bennett (Aaron Johnson) was killed in a car accident.

The affair and everything else in their lives stops at this point as Allan becomes sleepless and confused while Grace becomes crazed and obsessed with what may have been 17 minutes of her son’s life before he died; minutes spent with the man whose truck hit Bennett's car, Jordan (Michael Shannon). Unfortunately, Jordan fell into a coma before anyone could account for the 17 minute conversation.

As Allan, Grace and their younger son Ryan (Johnny Simmons) fall into a routine of grief, sleeplessness, drugs and mania, Rose (Carey Mulligan) enters their life. Rose was Bennett's girlfriend and though she was in the car with Bennett when he was killed, no one in the family seems that interested in her until she shows up at their door three months pregnant.

Allan asks her to move in while Grace resents her and Ryan is a prick to her for reasons only he understands. Why Rose has no one else to live with is passed over briefly in a conversation with Allan but has no importance. She is a plot catalyst and her immediate proximity to the rest of the cast is a plot necessity.

Nothing in “The Greatest” feels remotely organic. It's all dramatic contrivance meant to give the cast a chance to rage in one direction or another. Some of the rage is quite compelling, even moving but mostly it feels like actors showing off the ability to rant and rave in a fashion that feels dramatic. 

Carey Mulligan, the deserving Oscar nominee for “An Education,” plays Rose as an oddball loner who upon moving into the home of her ex's family begins building an elaborate sheet castle in the spare bedroom. She's the kind of indie movie cutie who takes random photographs, typically not on a digital camera, has a pixie haircut and says the things that no one else is willing to say.

Sarandon finds moments of truth in the midst of wilding emotions. She has the film's best scene opposite Michael Shannon as the comatose man. The account of the 17 minutes is deeply moving and revealing and Shannon, a once and future Oscar contender, nails the moment.

”The Greatest” is far from terrible; it's merely off-putting in its overly dramatic fashion and typically offbeat indie movie-ness that has become as cliche as the mainstream dramas that “The Greatest” attempts to circumvent with its oddity.

Movie Review: Wildlife

Wildlife (2018) 

Directed by Paul Dano

Written by Zoe Kazan, Paul Dano 

Starring Ed Oxenbould, Jake Gyllenhaal, Carey Mulligan, Joe Camp

Release Date October 19th, 2018 

Published October 16th, 2018

Wildlife stars Carey Mulligan as Jeanette, mother to Joe (Ed Oxenbould) and wife of Jerry (Jake Gyllenhaal). Jeanette is a complex woman with a strong instinct for survival. The film is set in the early 1960’s and the family at the heart of this story has just moved to Montana as Jerry searches for regular work. Most recently, he’s been working at a golf course. When he loses that job over his pride, the strain on the family becomes too much. 

Deep in the distance from their small town Montana home, over a ridge of mountains, there is a wildfire raging. Men are coming between the town and the fire with stories of many men being injured severely or killed. Firefighters can make good money but they have to live to collect it. Desperate for a job, Jerry signs on to become a firefighter and Jeanette is desperately upset. You assume her hurt is concern for Jerry’s well being but there is so much more to it. The job means Jerry could be gone for weeks or months at a time. 

Eventually, with money tight, Jeanette herself gets a job teaching swimming at the local YMCA. It’s there that she meets Warren Miller (Joe Camp). We, the audience, only view their relationship through the eyes of Joe and that view is course and unforgiving. One day Joe comes home from his own job, working for a local photographer, to find Mr Miller making himself at home on the couch. The tension is thick and the implications are even thicker. 

Mr Miller is not what many would call a handsome man. He’s middle aged and thick in the middle but he dresses well and he has a big car. Mr Miller has what Jerry doesn’t have, financial security. Mr Miller is the owner of a local car dealership and he has a large home in a nice neighborhood. Joe’s eyes tell the story better than anything as he turns his accusing glance to his mother while giving his concern to his absent father. 

Wildlife was co-written by Paul Dano with his wife Zoe Kazan, and directed by Dano in his directorial debut. My description would indicate that the story makes Jeanette the villain, alienating her husband’s affections in favor of the comforts of financial security. But, Wildlife is much stronger and more complicated than that. Jerry is not a saintly victim here, he’s crude and driven to flights of anger and alcoholism. Jeanette meanwhile is a good mother who does what she does in part for Joe and in part out of the fear and uncertainty of a world where women were only beginning to assert their independence. 

The movie is based on a 1990 bestseller of the same name by Richard Ford and Dano and Kazan’s script is a bare bones adaptation. Dano has taken the text and made much of the subtext by relying on his actors to get across the reams of inner story that you’d find on the pages of a novel, into looks, gestures and a much tighter amount of dialogue. It’s a smart play as these four actors at the center of this story are superb at saying everything while saying very little. 

Young Ed Oxenbould is the main character here and for a young actor he has some real heavy lifting here. Not many actors of Oxenbould's age would have the talent to stand toe to toe with Carey Mulligan and Jake Gyllenhaal but Oxenbould does and fares exceptionally well. He’s witnessing these major dramatic shifts in his home life while himself being at an age when he’s just coming of age and beginning to experience life. 

Take the film’s most powerful moment. Jeanette wants Joe to go with her to a dinner at Mr Miller’s home. It’s the last thing Joe wants to do as he’s been desperately trying to find ways to bring his broken family back together. The dinner is terribly awkward with Jeanette drinking heavily and beginning to act out. The scene plays as if Jeanette is trying to show Joe the lengths she feels forced to go to care for the two of them, that she must make a spectacle of herself over Mr Miller to assure his continued kindness. 

Joe’s reaction is desperate and sad and drives a wedge between mother and son that may or may not be repairable. It’s a masterfully played scene brimming with conflicting emotions. Mulligan’s desperate attempts to appear at ease and in the moment are heart rending but it’s Oxenbould’s reaction, his inability or unwillingness to understand his mother’s perspective that gives the scene a gut punching power. 

Wildlife is exceptionally acted and well directed. For a debut feature, it is no surprise that Paul Dano is an actor at heart. He gives his actors room to breathe and live within their characters. He’s terrific at letting a scene build in tension and allowing it to play out in a fashion that is dramatic and yet authentic. I’m excited to see what the actor turned director does next. If Wildlife is an indication, we can expect something incredible.

Movie Review: An Education

An Education (2010) 

Directed by Lone Scherfig

Written by Nick Hornby

Starring Carey Mulligan, Peter Sarsgard, Alfred Molina, Rosamund Pike, Dominic Cooper, Emma Thompson

Release Date February 5th, 2010

Published March 17th, 2010 

Wading through the “A Star is Born” hype surrounding Carey Mulligan in “An Education” is a bit of a chore. Coming to the movie late as I am; research is filled with endless paeans to her brilliance and innumerable comparisons of Carey Mulligan to Audrey Hepburn. If I sound a little bitter it has nothing to do with Ms. Mulligan's actual performance. It's that I find it hard to move about the muck of repeated praise and find my own feelings.

Carey Mulligan stars in “An Education” as Jenny, a 16-year-old with dreams of Oxford University and romantic sojourns to Paris with some lovely boy of her future. Jenny's parents, Jack and Marjorie (Alfred Molina and Cara Seymour), don't mind Jenny’s daydreaming as long as it doesn't interfere with good grades and extracurricular activities such as band.

Jenny's first real distraction arrives in the form of a sports car and the charming cad inside. The cad is David and while he feigns interest in keeping Jenny’s cello from getting wet in the rain, his real interest is apparent to everyone. Jenny is naïve but not unaware. She accepts the ride home and is soon accepting much more.

David offers Jenny the life she has daydreamed about; including that romantic Parisian adventure. Meanwhile he charms her parents so thoroughly that he could have his way with Jenny in their home if he chose to. If 35-year-old David's designs on 16-year-old Jenny weren't troubling enough, he has even more sinister secrets waiting to be revealed.

“An Education” was directed by Lone Scherfig, a Danish director making her English language debut. Scherfig shows that a young girl coming of age is a relatively universal story no matter your country of origin. Many a beautiful young girl will find elements of their own lives reflected in Jenny's wide eyed willingness to be seduced. The allure of the older man, with the daddy issues inherent, is yet another seemingly universal story reflected in “An Education.”

The script from Nick Hornby, only his second screenplay, the first not based on his own work, is bittersweet, intelligent and warm in its way. Jenny's life at home is not miserable or drab, just realistically dull, as seen from the perspective of a 16-year-old girl. Hornby does a terrific job of balancing the dull home life with the adventurous life with David, never making either seem overly hellish or overly romantic.

Ms. Mulligan is a radiant presence who never overplays Jenny's youth or faux worldliness. Her talent with Jenny is capturing the moment and one in particular stands out. In a nightclub with David and his friends after a night at the symphony, Jenny smokes her first cigarette. Watch the way she balances Jenny's embarrassment with a desperate attempt to look like she belongs. It's a little detail but so knowing and a great instinctual acting moment. None of the other characters had taken notice, well aware of how young she really is, but Jenny knew and that's what Ms. Mulligan knew.

Carey Mulligan adds these seemingly minor but brilliant touches throughout “An Education.” Her supporting cast is right there with her. Peter Sarsgard has not been this good since his degenerate performance in Zach Braff's, “Garden State.” Alfred Molina deserves an Oscar nomination for his controlled doddering as Jenny's dad and Cara Seymour is the quiet soul of the film, supportive, frightened but stalwart and trusting.

It's a fabulous cast and a very well told story. So what is holding back my appreciation? There is a musty quality to “An Education.” The film is set in the 60's so, of course, the filmmakers want to give a feel for the time, I get that. What I am talking about is content not quality; it's an exceptional re-creation of period. My issue is the values and ideas of the film that feel old and dated. The link that baby boomers have to Paris as the embodiment of sophistication and romantic adventure is severed for my generation. We are more likely to think of New York or even London before Paris. The idea makes the film feel old, even if it is true for the character and her time.

Emma Thompson's cameo as an officious schoolmarm holds one of the film's other pitfalls. As she shoulders her way into the film as a representation of an authority the film simply doesn't need, Ms. Thompson’s cameo sticks out, calls attention to itself.

Finally, in the third act another actress is employed to force the ending back to an acceptable place for the simple audience. Olivia Williams plays a teacher with convenient sympathies and paves the way to a much easier ending than what may have been true for the situation.

These are minor quibbles really. “An Education” is in so many ways a brilliant movie, maybe one of the best of the year. Just, be forewarned if you are approaching “An Education” based on the amazing hype you may come away as slightly disappointed as I am.

Movie Review Shame

Shame (2011) 

Directed by Steve McQueen

Written by Steve McQueen, Abi Morgan 

Starring Michael Fassbender, Carey Mulligan

Release Date December 2nd, 2011

Published November 28th, 2011 

In my role as a film critic and member of the Broadcast Film Critics, I am grateful for the opportunity to receive what the industry calls "screeners" of movies that studios want me to consider for our end of the year awards show The Critic's Choice Movie Awards on VH1. It was in this capacity that I was able to see and review the much buzzed about indie movie "Shame," starring Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan.

"Shame" is the story of an extremely self-involved man and his addiction to porn. Directed by indie darling Steve McQueen and starring rising star Fassbender, "Shame" is a character portrait about a character you're not all that interested in spending time with.

A Severe Addiction to Pornography

Brandon (Fassbender) is a handsome guy who tends to hold people's gazes a little longer than he should. Yes, he's good looking but he has a creepiness in his eyes that has likely contributed to his still being single in his 30s. Well, that and his rather severe addiction to pornography.

So severe is Brandon's addiction to online pornography that one day he arrives at work and his computer is gone, taken after IT found a massive store of porn and viruses in it. Thankfully, Brandon's boss and friend David (James Badge Dale) is convinced that the porn was the work of an intern, not Brandon.

Sister Act

Brandon's less than covert addiction to porn runs into a major obstacle when his sister Sissy (Carey Mulligan) shows up in his apartment unexpectedly. Sissy is a failed singer who subsists on occasional gigs singing in bars and restaurants. For the most part she sponges off of the men in her life, especially her brother. With Sissy sleeping on his couch and seemingly living in every corner of his life, Brandon's secret addiction is precariously balanced and his "shame" stands to be exposed at any moment to the last significant person in his life.

"Shame"-Less

Fassbender's performance in "Shame" is admirably brave given how often the actor is called on to be nude onscreen. Credit Fassbender for not having so much "shame" when it came to showing all onscreen. That said, there isn't much about Brandon I wanted to see.

Brandon is a bad guy; he's a jerk to his sister, the one person who honestly cares about him. He's allowed his porn addiction to become so severe that actual intimacy with a real person is physically impossible; though emotion-free, bought and paid for hook-ups with prostitutes still get his engine revved.

A Childlike Vulnerability

I get that Brandon is supposed to be a tragic figure but it is Sissy who, for me, was the more interesting tragedy. Carey Mulligan has a face that earns your sympathy with little effort. Her soft, dewy eyes and puffy cheeks give Mulligan a childlike quality that is addictively sympathetic. It's Mulligan's childlike vulnerability that gives her brief nudity more power than Fassbender's frequent nakedness.

Get Away, Creep!

"Shame" is supposed to pack an emotional wallop but I found most of it emotionally inert. Brandon never becomes sympathetic, merely sad and pathetic. I did pity Brandon but, more than anything, I just wanted to get away from him before his next bit of active creepiness. 

"Shame" opens in limited release on Friday, December 2, and will expand as far as its NC-17 rating will allow as the awards season continues.

Movie Review Never Let Me Go

Never Let Me Go (2010)

Directed by Mark Romanek

Written by Alex Garland 

Starring Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield, Keira Knightley, Sally Hawkins, Charlotte Rampling 

Release Date September 15th, 2010

Published November 4th, 2010 

The wonderful thing about “Never Let Me” Go is how its languorousness invites the viewer to project a meaning onto it. Yes, that projection requires ignoring a few things about the characters and what is happening on screen but there is something valuable and even entertaining about a movie that gives the viewer so much room to move around. Some have found parallels to the holocaust. The great Roger Ebert finds a modern equivalent in the sad fate of workers at big box stores like Wal-Mart. Other critics acknowledge a philosophical truth in the film that is just out of their grasp but somehow knowing it is there is enough for them.

Strangely, I find myself somewhere within that last group. I too want to believe and have searched for various philosophic or metaphoric meanings in Mark Romanek's gorgeous direction and Alex Garland's teasing screen adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's moving if also vaguely interpreted novel.

Kathy (Carey Mulligan) fell in love with Tommy when both were young students at an out of the way private school somewhere in the English countryside. Kathy was a self conscious introvert with the soul of an artist. Tommy was an outcast prone to violent rages that only served to make him even more of an outcast.

The center of their world is their relationship with Ruth (Keira Knightley) a popular girl who befriended Kathy in search of a worshiper and fell in with Tommy as a way of preventing that worship from being cast elsewhere. It's clear to us and especially clear to Ruth that Tommy and Kathy should be together but her insecure need for their attention supersedes her ability to let her friends be happy.

This is especially tragic because Hailsham is not merely a country boarding school and the students are not really students at all. As explained in excruciating detail by one of the teachers, Miss Lucy (Sally Hawkins), Hailsham students will have painfully short lives in which they will donate their organs until they complete, a nicer way of saying they are spare parts until they die.

The brilliance of “Never Let Me Go” is not in setting up a life or death situation but in the real human ways that these characters take in this extraordinary information and assimilate this knowledge as part of who they are rather than the going concern of some sci fi story of survival.

The arc of the average life is played out with a timeline in mind that lasts a lot longer in our minds than in reality. For Kathy, Tommy and Ruth the arc of birth, life and death is compacted into a mere 30 years at most yet they grow and age and live as if a full life were lived.

They cram their short lives with experiences of love and compassion that a longer life no doubt takes for granted. When Kathy finally gets the opportunity to be with Tommy she doesn't spend much time lamenting, they get right to loving and while there is temporary hope for more life, Kathy is not so concerned about prolonging love as she is about enjoying what she has.

Ruth's is the saddest of all of the stories. Her life is marked by pettiness and a greed for attention. She found weaker kids and forced herself on their attention and in her fight to remain at the center of their world she destroyed them and herself, robbing all of them of the little life they could have had.

Carey Mulligan deserved an Oscar for her work in “Never Let Me Go.” The heart, the love and the compassion she portrays is the heartbreaking force of the film. A soul as wide and as deep as Kathy's deserved more than to be an organ bank and yet that is not what the film is about, it's about what life she brings to what little life she has and much of that is played on Mulligan's wonderfully expressive face.

Mark Romanek captures the essence of Ishiguro's novel in ways that most directors likely would not. Like Ishiguro, Romanek is not really interested in the grander political points about breeding humans for their organs. Rather, that is the setting for telling human stories about what real people would do in these circumstances. The fate of these characters lends a certain tragedy to them but that tragedy is compounded by what unique, fascinating and thoughtful beings these characters are.

The political points, the metaphors and meanings are ours to bring to the film. What Carey Mulligan, director Mark Romanek and screenwriter Alex Garland are focused on are the human beings and the lives they live against this unique and tragic background. It's a wonderfully experimental ploy and it works brilliantly as a movie that makes you think for yourself and moves you deeply.

Movie Review: Wall Street Money Never Sleeps

Wall Street Money Never Sleeps (2010) 

Directed by Oliver Stone

Written by Allen Loeb, Stephen Schiff

Starring Michael Douglas, Carey Mulligan, Frank Langella, Shia LeBeouf

Release Date September 24th, 2010

Published September 23rd, 2010 

Director Oliver Stone has long been a fearsome critic of Wall Street greed. His Frankenstein character Gordon Gekko from 1987's “Wall Street” was meant as a stinging rebuke of Wall Street greed but became the progenitor of a new generation of real life Wall Street sharks who idolized Gekko's 'Greed is Good' philosophy.

More than 20 years later Stone looked set to take on Wall Street again as massive financial machines came crashing down before the government stepped in to save them. The financial meltdown seemed to provide the perfect background for the return of Gordon Gekko and an opportunity for Stone to provide the ultimate artistic polemic damning the Greed is Good generation. So what happened?

“Wall Street” Money Never Sleeps” stars Shia LeBeouf, picking up on the Wall Street wunderkind role essayed by Charlie Sheen in the original “Wall Street.” Shia is Jacob Moore, a 20 something who has risen fast at a powerful banking firm that stands on the verge of collapse. His mentor, the company CEO (Frank Langella), has leveraged the company on a lot of bad debt.

In a mirror image of Lehman Brothers, the company collapses and the rest of Wall Street rushes in to pick the bones. Soon, Jacob's mentor has taken his own life and Jacob is looking for revenge against the snake-like CEO of a rival company, Bretton James (Josh Brolin), who was responsible for his company’s downfall.

Jacob happens to have an unlikely ace in the hole; he's engaged to Winnie Gekko (Carey Mulligan), daughter of disgraced but re-emerging Wall Street titan Gordon Gekko. With a new book coming out and prison in his rearview mirror, Gekko too is in the revenge business, seeking the people who helped send him to prison. Seeing that he and Jacob may have a common enemy, Gekko offers sage advice and inside information all the while poking the kid to help repair Gekko's strained relationship with his daughter.

It is in the private lives of Jacob and Winnie where “Wall Street” Money Never Sleeps” goes awry. Carey Mulligan is a wonderful actress, always very compelling but here she is reduced to whiny caricature and plot creation. Winnie Gekko doesn't exist fully as a stand alone character and whenever she's onscreen you are left longing for what's happening in the boardrooms and backrooms where the billions of dollars are changing hand.

Director Oliver Stone, unfortunately, uses the relationship stuff as a place to hide from the Wall Street stuff. Where audiences come in expecting the controversial director to come out swinging against Wall Street greed monsters, we are shocked to find how often Stone turns tail and runs to the softer ground of father daughter and boyfriend girlfriend melodrama.

Yes, the relationship stuff does tie back to the main plot but it's more distracting than compelling. Josh Brolin and Frank Langella provide the film's best scenes as they battle for the soul of Wall Street and the politics of money within the walls of the Federal Reserve building. In Langella we see the failed dream of the honest man and in Brolin the mindless consumption that nearly drowned us all.

These scenes are achingly compelling and offer a glimpse of the Wall Street sequel many felt we would be getting. Sadly, it is only a glimpse as LeBoeuf's Jacob is never remotely compelling as Langella's sad mentor character. Once Langella is gone, Brolin and Douglas suck the air out and leave LeBeouf gasping in their wake, unable to support the edgy, critical side of Wall Street that we thought we were getting.

It's fair to theorize that LeBeoef's cypher like performance may be why Stone backed off on the more biting and dangerous critiques of modern day Wall Street. Lebeouf simply couldn't carry the weight. Stuck with him, Stone reverts to the romance and family plots, kicking in Susan Sarandon as Jacob's mom for extra help, and leaving “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” shockingly soporific.

As for the return of Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko he is sadly trapped by director Oliver Stone's wimping out. Gekko could have been, should have been the ultimate rebuke, the hammer that came crashing down on modern Wall Street greed. Instead, Gordon Gekko is softened and chastened by the need for the love of his daughter. Stone does well to isolate Gekko into his own plot and evoke the things we remember from the original “Wall Street,” but I can't be the only one who was hoping for something more than mere nostalgia.

For whatever reason, Oliver Stone pulled up short in “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” either unwilling or unable to pull the trigger on the kind of crushing polemic that many had hoped the ultra-left wing director would deliver upon the criminals who robbed America and left the economy in tatters for their own gain.

Movie Review: Drive

Drive (2011) 

Directed by Nicholas Winding Refn

Written by Nicholas Winding Refn 

Starring Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Oscar Isaac, Albert Brooks, Bryan Cranston, Christina Hendricks

Release Date September 16th, 2011

Published September 15th, 2011

Ryan Gosling is arguably the best actor working today. His performances in the last year in a diverse slate from the romantic comedy "Crazy, Stupid, Love" to the thriller "All Good Things" to the romantic tragedy "Blue Valentine," have demonstrated Gosling's chameleon-like ability to melt into any role and give life to a variety of fascinating characters.

Gosling's latest performance is arguably his best. "Drive" Stars Ryan Gosling as The Driver. We never learn his name, nor do his unique clients. The Driver spends his days as a Hollywood stunt driver and his nights as a wheelman for high paying criminals. The Driver gives the criminals a five minute window to commit their crime. Within that window he will drive them anywhere and keep them from the cops.

The Driver lives a quiet and very private life making certain not to form relationships or attachments that could imperil his objectivity. Naturally, we know that will change and he does, slowly but surely when he meets Irene (Carey Mulligan). Irene is his neighbor and has a small child that The Driver strikes an immediate friendship with.

The budding romance is cut short with the revelation that Irene's husband/baby daddy Standard (Oscar Isaac) is getting out of prison and coming home. Here, director Nicholas Winding Refn twists our expectations by playing the predictable showdown between The Driver and Standard quietly and thoughtfully.

Gosling betrays The Driver's true feelings for Irene with his eyes but his actions are a different matter. In a departure from his code of non-involvement, The Driver comes to Standard's aid and attempts to get him out from under a debt to criminals who had protected him in prison. This departure by The Driver will prove costly and the rest of plot unfolds from there with an unexpectedly violent flourish. Drive is stunning in its violence, evoking the calculating yet gory viscera of David Cronenberg's "A History of Violence" and "Eastern Promises."

The influences exhibited in "Drive" don't end with Cronenberg. The look and sound of "Drive" evokes the work of writer-director Paul Schrader on "American Gigolo." The neon font of the film titles, the synth soundtrack and the over the shoulder camera position in the driving scenes all evoke Gigolo. Why "American Gigolo?" You'd have to ask director Refn about that; on the surface the two films share little more than the Refn's choice of homage.

Though the influences are obvious "Drive" is far from derivative. The ideas in the film are its own and they are executed with gripping efficiency. Ryan Gosling's acting choices carry weight and intrigue and you can't help but be fascinated by what he will do next. Gosling holds you in thrall as The Driver drifts  further and further into danger.

Gosling is equaled in very different ways by the work of Albert Brooks and Carey Mulligan. You've never thought of Albert Brooks as menacing but you will believe him menacing wielding a knife with fierce efficiency. Carey Mulligan meanwhile, matches the intensity and dangerous charisma of Gosling and Brooks with fragility, beauty and empathy.

"Drive" is a remarkable film, artful, intelligent and gripping. The cast is extraordinary and the direction by Nicholas Winding Refn is superb.