Movie Review Amelia

Amelia (2009) 

Directed by Mira Nair 

Written by Ronald Bass, Anna Hamilton Phelan

Starring Hilary Swank, Richard Gere, Ewan McGregor, Christopher Eccleston

Release Date October 23rd, 2009

For some the phrase 'old fashioned' has become a pejorative. Somehow it has evolved from a sensibility or way of thinking to be something to reject and rebel against. The biopic Amelia about the life of legendary flyer Amelia Earhart fully embraces being old fashioned and in doing so gains the grace and elegance of old Hollywood.

Hillary Swank takes the lead as Amelia Earhart the first woman to fly across the Atlantic. She didn't fly the plane; she was a passenger or in her words a sack of potatoes along for the ride. It was part of a publicity campaign in 1928 by celebrated showman and publisher George Putnam (Richard Gere).

Just after Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic solo Putnam was looking for ways to cash in after having made money publishing Lindbergh's book. He needed a new hook and found it with "Lady Lindy". All he needed was the right woman. He chose Earhart after interviews with several other women.

He wanted a woman pilot and he got one. Her first book was a hit but Amelia wanted to be more than a passenger. Soon she was planning her own Atlantic crossing minus the other pilots. In one magical night filled with stars and the occasional storm cloud, Amelia Earhart made her solo flight. While she was supposed to land in Paris and ended up in a field in Ireland, the flight was a major success.

George, and the need for publicity, pulled her away from the plane for a time but it wasn't long before Amelia was ready to fly again. And while she became the first woman to fly from Los Angeles to Hawaii and from Los Angeles to Mexico City, there was one goal she had in mind. Amelia Earhart wanted to be the first person to fly around the world.

Hillary Swank's performance in Amelia is a true delight. Her Amelia is infectious, unique, spirited and boyish. Like the characters she played in both of her Oscar winning turns in Boys Don't Cry and Million Dollar Baby, Amelia is almost asexual. Charming but not inviting in the typical ways of a woman.

It's no wonder then that of the three romances in Amelia the only one that truly resonates is with flying. Swank connects well with both Gere as George Putnam and Ewan McGregor as Gene Vidal, Amelia's flight instructor friend, future head of the FAA and father of Gore Vidal, but when she gets in a plane and looks out at the horizon there is an almost sexual atmosphere.

Director Mira Nair doesn't linger on that nearly orgasmic delight but merely introduces it and moves on. This is, after all, a classic, old fashioned biopic. Nothing too unseemly is welcome here. And that's okay. If you want salaciousness go watch a different movie. Amelia is a charming, engaging old school biopic that gets its juice from great actors delivering strong lines and building characters we come to care about.

There is no need for this film to plod through rumors about Amelia's sexuality. Her only real relationship is with the controls of her plane. The film hints at and wants you to believe that Amelia eventually loved George Putnam after his years of devotion to her. It would like us to believe there was passion in her dalliance with Gene Vidal and we can see the chemistry in each relationship, but watch Swank in the flying scenes and you see true devotion.

That is what makes Amelia Earhart's story so unique. Her love is something that you really cannot understand unless you share her passion for flying. She went for Gene Vidal because he was a flyer, they related on that level. She loved George Putnam because he indulged her flying and through money and publicity, made it all possible. 

That might seem strange or wrong to you but this movie understands it and presents it in a way that allows the audience to come around to it and eventually understand it as well. We all have passions that others may not understand. Amelia's passion was for flight. What a joyous notion that a movie could find a way to understand that so fully.

Movie Review Logan Lucky

Logan Lucky (2017) 

Directed by Steven Soderbergh 

Written by Rebecca Blunt 

Starring Channing Tatum, Adam Driver, Katie Holmes, Riley Keough, Daniel Craig, Hilary Swank, Katherine Waterston, Sebastian Stan 

Release Date August 18th, 2017 

Published August 17th, 2017 

Being a fan of the American history podcast The Dollop allows me to watch a movie like Logan Lucky and never for a moment find the story implausible. Take a listen to them tell the remarkable true story titled Jet-Pack Madness and you will find within it a story every bit as brilliant as a Coen Brothers comedy. Everything in Logan Lucky feels completely plausible when you compare it to such historic silliness as what transpired with the Jet-Pack or the L.A Freeway Shootout or The Human Taco.

The Dollop has nothing to do with Logan Lucky but I could not help thinking of how Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds would tell this story if it were true. I imagine it would be just as good as the movie Steven Soderbergh has made, a crazy story of crime, family, pride, NASCAR, and the South. That Logan Lucky is also a heist movie is nearly incidental, as if these characters existing as they do might make for a good enough story but that they happen to pulling off a multi-million dollar NASCAR-themed heist certainly makes things even more colorful.

The Logan family is cursed or at least that is what little brother Clyde Logan (Adam Driver) believes and he would be happy to regale you with his tragic family background while he pours beer at a West Virginia bar called Duck-Tape. Older brother Jimmy (Channing Tatum) doesn’t buy into the curse, though Clyde’s point is understandable, he’s just back from losing an arm in Iraq while Jimmy lost a scholarship to play Quarterback at LSU when he blew out his knee and just as we meet him, Jimmy is fired from his job working construction underneath the famed Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Nevertheless, Jimmy doesn’t buy into Clyde’s curse talk, especially since he’s decided to pull off a multi-million-dollar vault heist and doesn't need the bad juju on his mind right now. Having been fired from his job where he operated an earth mover beneath the famed North Carolina race track, Jimmy has found out where all the money from the stadium concessions goes and how it gets there. The only thing standing in his way is the vault but Jimmy happens to know a guy who can help, if they can get him out of prison.\

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review Ordinary Angels

Ordinary Angels (2024) 

Directed by Jon Gunn 

Written by Meg Tilly, Kelly Fremon Craig

Starring Hilary Swank, Alan Ritchson, Nancy Travis, Amy Acker, Tamala Jones 

Release Date February 23rd, 2024 

Published February 20th, 2024 

Okay, fine, I admit it, I cried... hard. I cried. Watching the movie Ordinary Angels made me weep. I'm in my late 40s and I am far more in touch with my emotions than ever before. So, perhaps, that may explain a little why such a desperately conventional movie touched me so deeply that I had to cry. Ordinary Angels is exactly the kind of movie that is constructed to extract tears from the audience. It's a machine that sucks tears from your face whether you are compelled to give up the tears or not. And yet, my tears came not from the forced nature of the plot about an imperiled, adorable 5 year old girl, but from genuinely overwhelmed by the kindness that people are capable of when properly motivated. 

I'm sure that if I did further research I would find that the term 'Based on a True Story' has been abused to the usual degree but regardless, the film does show the most emotional moment of the story as it happened via some pre-credits, archival news footage, and that's going to have to be enough for me. This is a mostly true story about a family that suffered beyond anything normal. After struggling to get pregnant and struggling to give birth, Theresa Schmitt (Amy Acker), passed away just two years after her second daughter, Michelle was born. Just three years after this, Michelle herself fell ill and needed a liver transplant to survive. 

Drowning in debt and lost in grief, Ed Schmitt struggled to keep his family afloat with the help of his mother, Barbara (Nancy Travis). Then, a strange sort of miracle happened in the form of Sharon Stevens (Hilary Swank). A tornado of a personality, Sharon saw the family's story in a newspaper, how their mother had passed away and how Michelle needed a liver transplant and Sharon threw herself into action. At first, Sharon launched a fundraiser at her hair salon, co-owned with her best friend, played by Tamala Jones. This fundraiser brought in more than $3000 dollars but Sharon sensed that this would not be enough. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review The Core

The Core (2003) 

Directed by Jon Amiel

Written by Cooper Layne, John Rogers

Starring Hilary Swank, Aaron Eckhart, Delroy Lindo, Bruce Greenwood, Richard Jenkins

Release Date March 28th, 2003

Published March 29th, 2003

It's not often when screenwriters make the news. When John Rogers, the co-writer of The Core, wrote in to Ain't It Cool News to dispute a review that questioned the film’s science, more than a few of us took notice and had a little laugh at his expense.

Granted, no one wants their work made fun of, but when you make a movie as unabashedly out there as The Core, you can't expect it to be welcomed as if it were written by Carl Sagan. Sci-fi films have a horrible track record of including actual science in them and the aspiration to put real science in a movie like The Core is like asking Beverly Hills Cop to include real police procedures. No one goes to disaster movies for a science lesson, they go to watch landmarks explode. The Core blows up Rome and San Francisco, mission accomplished.

Aaron Eckhart heads up an ensemble cast as Dr. Josh Keyes, a physics professor at some anonymous college. In the midst of a lecture on the layers of the Earth, Dr. Keyes is called out of class by a pair of humorless G-men. Taken on a jet to Washington D.C, he reunites with a fellow scientist and friend Sergei Levesque (Tcheky Karyo, in a rare non-villain role). The two are asked by an army General (Six Feet Under dead guy, Richard Jenkins) to theorize what environmental factors could cause a group of people with pacemakers to simply drop dead without warning.

The answer, after much lucky guessing by Dr. Keyes, is that the Earth's core has stopped spinning causing it's electromagnetic field to go haywire. Not only has it caused pacemakers to stop, but also birds have lost navigating ability and are falling from the sky. Also falling is the space shuttle which has flown off course and nearly crashes in L.A, saved only by the wits of its plucky navigator Major Rebecca Childs.

So now that we know what's wrong, there are two questions remaining. Number one, how did this happen? And number two, how do we stop it? Thankfully, the film’s trailer has already told us both of those things. A weapon that causes earthquakes has gone too far thanks to the miscalculations of its inventor Dr. Zimsky (Stanley Tucci). Conversely, crazy scientist Dr. "Braz" Brazzleton has a vehicle with the ability to tunnel all the way to the core. Once there, nuclear weapons can be dropped to kickstart the core. Apparently, no one had jumper cables.

To the science issue, I have no idea and really don't care if the science is real. What matters is if the film is any good. Some geologist writing somewhere said that the film has as many accuracies as inaccuracies and that the inaccuracies are those that are necessary for dramatic purposes. WHATEVER!

Let's get to the important stuff, how cool are the explosions. Well let me tell you in the words of the late John Candy in an old SCTV sketch, stuff blow'd up, blow'd up real good. The special effects aren't spectacular but they are entertaining in a modern day Ed Wood sort of way. The Golden Gate Bridge explosion is a cheesy treat and when Rome blows up, watching the reactions of the extras running from the Coliseum is priceless.

The Core is a bad movie but in the camp sense it's genius. Whether intentional or not The Core is full of laughs from the effects to the characters. I especially liked Stanley Tucci who seemed to be channeling Dr. Smith from Lost In Space with his whiny smugness. And kudos to Delroy Lindo for assuaging his usual calm cool persona for a geekier frazzled genius demeanor that you don't expect from him.

The Core is just plain goofy and in that sense it's a lot of fun. Though it needs to be greatly pared down from its two-hour plus runtime, it nevertheless delivers a fun little distraction.

Movie Review: What They Had

What They Had (2018)

Directed by Elizabeth Chomko

Written by Elizabeth Chomko

Starring Michael Shannon, Blythe Danner, Robert Forster, Hilary Swank, Taissa Farmiga

Release Date October 19th, 2018

Published October 18th, 2018

What They Had stars Hilary Swank as Bitty, a chef living in Los Angeles and disconnected from her family back in Chicago. As the movie begins, Bitty is called by her brother Nick (Michael Shannon) to come home because their mother, Ruth (Blythe Danner), has disappeared. Ruth has Alzheimers and her memory is slowly slipping away. In a frightening scene, Ruth leaves home in the middle of the night in her nightgown and a shawl. There is a blizzard coming in and everyone fears the worst. 

Later we find out that Ruth had boarded a train that she thought would take her back home to her childhood home in Amboy, Illinois, a train route that no longer exists. Nick has called on Bitty to come home to Chicago because he wants her to help him convince their father, Bert (Robert Forster) to let them send mom to a Memory Care facility, something he is adamantly opposed to. He feels she is better off, memory-wise with the person she has spent the last 50 years with. 

Nick is adamant that Ruth needs to go into the facility that he has found that also has an apartment for Bert. Bert however, hates the idea and insists that they are going to move to Florida. Witnessing all of this is Bitty’s daughter, Emma (Taissa Farmiga). Emma has traveled with her mom to Chicago after having been kicked out of her dorm room at college. Secretly, she’s planning on dropping out of college but she’s afraid to tell her mom. 

What They Had was written and directed by Elizabeth Chomko in her feature film debut and what a debut it is. She certainly didn’t make it easy on herself taking on a very difficult and emotional topic as memory loss and the end of life. It’s a huge topic with pitfalls that even an experienced filmmaker might struggle with but Chomko absolutely nails it. A story like the one in What They had requires sensitivity and compassion and Chomko builds that into the movie brilliantly. 

The key is the performance of Blythe Danner, a veteran character actress who invests a reality into Ruth that demonstrates that she studied this disease and took care with her details. Danner is remarkable, never failing to invest Ruth with a beautiful humanity. There is a danger that a role such as this could turn into a burlesque of simplistic and childlike tics, but not here. Danner may play Ruth as spacey but you can sense the struggle that anyone who has dealt with memory loss has experienced, that desire to maintain some form of identity. 

Robert Forster is heartbreaking in What They Had. Stubborn and bitter with his children, Forster’s Bert could not possibly be more loving to Ruth. At one point in the film we are told the story of what happened when Bert returned from the Korean war. The story contains the details of the kind of love you absolutely believe has lasted 50 years. A monologue Forster delivers midway through the film that ends with him simply stating ‘she’s my girl,’ is making me well up as I type this. 

Michael Shannon is the kind of actor we take for granted. Shannon’s performances are so consistently brilliant that you could be forgiven for forgetting how natural and instinctive he is as a performer. Nick has a difficult arc in What They Lost that includes having to play the bad guy who pushes for the memory care facility against his father’s wishes while also dealing with a personal life that has crumbled while he tried to start a business and be there whenever his mother goes missing which is becoming more frighteningly frequent. Shannon balances bitterness and caring in his typically authentic fashion. 

Finally, there is Hilary Swank, one of our finest actresses. Even though she has won two Academy Awards, Swank is somehow desperately underrated as a leading lady. She doesn’t have Sandy’s box office or Jennifer Lawrence’s youth and thus her marketability isn’t particularly large. Swank however, succeeds where it matters: in her characters. Swank is a brilliant actress, and in What They Had she reaffirms her brilliance with a performance that has layers and layers that get peeled away throughout. 

Swank is two for two in brilliant and little seen dramas released to theaters in 2018. In September she starred in the unfortunately overlooked, based on a true story gem, 55 Steps opposite Helena Bonham Carter. She’s even better here playing a complex, prickly and awkward character caught right in the middle of the drama playing out among her family. Then there are her daughter and husband and that’s a whole other can of worms she’s trying to contain. 

I adored What They Had but be aware, the film is incredibly sad. If you aren’t prepared for a good cry, this movie is not for you. It’s an exceptionally moving story that earns your emotional involvement and never panders to get your tears. My tears were completely genuine and induced by deep empathy for these characters and for the lovely and caring way the director told their story. I highly recommend you see What They Had for yourself. 

Movie Review P.S I Love You

P.S I Love You (2007) 

Directed by Richard LaGravenese 

Written by Steven Rogers 

Starring Hilary Swank, Gerard Butler, Lisa Kudrow, Harry Connick Jr., Gina Gershon, Jeffrey Dean Morgan

Release Date December 21st, 20007

Published December 22nd, 2007 

If the movie P.S I Love You were a person her name would be Sybil. The name synonymous for multiple personality disorder is all too fitting for a manic, tone shifting on a dime, romantic comedy about a dead guy who romances his girl from the grave.

Hilary Swank stars in P.S I love You as Holly Kennedy. Her husband Jerry has died and her mourning takes the form of her hiding out in their apartment, wearing his clothes and singing along with songs in old movies. Three weeks after Jerry's funeral, weeks where she never left the apartment, Holly's 30th birthday arrives along with a package.

It's a birthday cake with an inscription from Jerry. Also included is a tape he made from his deathbed advising Holly on how to move on without forgetting him. For the next several weeks more letters will arrive and Holly is required to follow them literally. Instructions include, buy a pretty dress, sing karaoke, travel to Ireland and finally, find another man.

Directed by Richard LaGravenese and based on a novel by Cecillia Ahern, P.S I Love attempts to weave grief and humor and the mix is awkward, uncomfortable and a little creepy. Though the central theme is dealing with loss and it's clear that the character of Jerry wants the best for his wife; by not going away the character causes more problems than he solves.

As this gimmick plays out it becomes achingly clear that P.S I Love You is not instructive, insightful or even modestly comforting in the way it deals with grief and loss. Jerry and his letters are a ploy to create a plot around which goofy romantic encounters can play out.

Throw in a character played by Harry Connick Jr. that is arguably one of the worst written characters of all time and an ending so hackneyed it makes The Wedding Planner look like The English Patient and the result is an agitating, irritating shambles of a romantic comedy.

Are we supposed to laugh at Holly or with Holly? Do we feel grief and loss or just darkly goofy? P.S I Love You is so erratic you'll likely be at a loss to feeling anything other than ripped off for the cost of the rental on DVD.

Movie Review The Core

The Core (2003) 

Directed by Jon Amiel 

Written by John Rogers 

Starring Aaron Eckhardt, Hilary Swank, Delroy Lindo, Stanley Tucci, D.J Qualls, Richard Jenkins

Release Date March 28th, 2003 

Published March 27th, 2003 

It's not often when screenwriters make the news. When John Rogers, the co-writer of The Core, wrote in to Aint It Cool News to dispute a review that questioned the film’s science, more than a few of us took notice and had a little laugh at his expense. Granted, no one wants their work made fun of, but when you make a movie as unabashedly out there as The Core, you can't expect it to be welcomed as if it were written by Carl Sagan. 

Sci-fi films have a horrible track record of including actual science in them and the aspiration to put real science in a movie like The Core is like asking Beverly Hills Cop to include real police procedures. No one goes to disaster movies for a science lesson, they go to watch landmarks explode. The Core blows up Rome and San Francisco, mission accomplished.

Aaron Eckhart heads up an ensemble cast as Dr. Josh Keyes, a physics professor at some anonymous college. In the midst of a lecture on the layers of the Earth, Dr. Keyes is called out of class by a pair of humorless G-men. Taken on a jet to Washington D.C, he reunites with a fellow scientist and friend Sergei Levesque (Tcheky Karyo, in a rare non-villain role). The two are asked by an army General (Six Feet Under dead guy, Richard Jenkins) to theorize what environmental factors could cause a group of people with pacemakers to simply drop dead without warning.

The answer, after much lucky guessing by Dr. Keyes, is that the Earth's core has stopped spinning causing it's electromagnetic field to go haywire. Not only has it caused pacemakers to stop, but also birds have lost navigating ability and are falling from the sky. Also falling is the space shuttle which has flown off course and nearly crashes in L.A, saved only by the wits of it's plucky navigator Major Rebecca Childs.

So now that we know what's wrong, there are two questions remaining. Number one, how did this happen? And number two, how do we stop it? Thankfully, the film’s trailer has already told us both of those things. A weapon that causes earthquakes has gone too far thanks to the miscalculations of it's inventor Dr. Zimsky (Stanley Tucci). Conversely, crazy scientist Dr. "Braz" Brazzleton has a vehicle with the ability to tunnel all the way to the core. Once there, nuclear weapons can be dropped to kickstart the core. Apparently, no one had jumper cables.

To the science issue, I have no idea and really don't care if the science is real. What matters is if the film is any good. Some geologist writing somewhere said that the film has as many accurate notions as inaccuracies and that the inaccuracies are those that are necessary for dramatic purposes. WHATEVER!

Let's get to the important stuff, how cool are the explosions. Well let me tell you in the words of the late John Candy in an old SCTV sketch, stuff blow'd up, blow'd up real good. The special effects aren't spectacular but they are entertaining in a modern day Ed Wood sort of way. The Golden Gate Bridge explosion is a cheesy treat and when Rome blows up, watching the reactions of the extras running from the Coliseum is priceless.

The Core is a bad movie but in the camp sense it's genius. Whether intentional or not The Core is full of laughs from the effects to the characters. I especially liked Stanley Tucci who seemed to be channeling Dr. Smith from Lost In Space with his whiny smugness. And kudos to Delroy Lindo for assuaging his usual calm cool persona for a geekier frazzled genius demeanor that you don't expect from him.

The Core is just plain goofy and in that sense it's a lot of fun. Though it needs to be greatly pared down from it's two-hour plus runtime, it nevertheless delivers a fun little distraction.

Movie Review Insomnia

Insomnia (2002) 

Directed by Christopher Nolan

Written by Hillary Seitz 

Starring Al Pacino, Robin Williams, Hilary Swank, Maura Tierney, Martin Donovan, Nicky Katt

Release Date May 24th, 2002 

Published May 23rd, 2002 

How many times has Al Pacino played a cop? About half as many times as his cohort Robert Deniro, but that is still a lot. However, Pacino has never played cop in a film directed by Christopher Nolan. That is an important distinction. As Nolan has shown, in his previous efforts Memento and Following, that genre is a dirty word. With Nolan at the helm, you know you’re not in for your typical police procedural.

Insomnia has Pacino playing Detective Will Dormer, on loan from the LAPD to an old friend who is the sheriff of Nightmute, Alaska. Dormer and his partner Hap are momentarily escaping an internal affairs investigation that threatens to destroy Dormer's high profile reputation. On arriving in Nightmute, Dormer is met by a young local cop named Ellie Burr (Hillary Swank) who fills us in on how well known Dormer is by discussing his many big cases which she studied while in the police academy.

As for the case itself, a teenage girl was found in a garbage dump having been beaten to death. The case breaks quickly as Dormer and the local cops lock onto a suspect after the discovery of the dead girl’s personal items. The discovery leads to a stakeout that goes horribly wrong, leading to the death of Will's partner and a cover-up that calls Will's integrity into question.

While investigating under the noses of the local cops, Dormer uses some questionable tactics to discover a suspect, a mystery writer named Walter Finch (Robin Williams). Somehow, Finch knows Dormer's secret and tries to use it against him. This begins a cat and mouse game where the mouse proves to be smarter and more adaptive than the cat. 

Insomnia isn't about police procedure and chase scenes, it's about atmosphere and intellect. Williams and Pacino play fantastic cat and mouse with Williams tormenting Pacino with his inability to sleep due to Alaska's never-setting summer sun. Both Williams and Pacino are spectacular as they leave their previous screen chewing person's behind.

Director Christopher Nolan brilliantly uses the never-ending sunlight of this unusual and unlikely location as the perfect backdrop for this intensely dark suspense flick. As Pacino drives around at 3 in the morning and the sun shines, it is as if the light turned his mind into a prison shining a harsh light on his guilty conscience and many regretful decisions.

Nolan is becoming one of the best directors in the world, an auteur whose genius lies in keeping both the audience and his characters off balance. In Memento it was Leonard's short term memory, in Following it was the young man’s writer's block and guilty conscience, and in Insomnia it's Dormer's inability to sleep that keeps the audience and the characters from ever getting comfortable or complacent.

Insomnia is a strong move into the mainstream for Christopher Nolan who manages to make a Hollywood film without compromising his artistic vision and Auteurist style.

Movie Review The Black Dahlia

The Black Dahlia (2006) 

Directed by Brian De Palma 

Written by Josh Friedman 

Starring Josh Hartnett, Aaron Eckhart, Scarlett Johansson, Hilary Swank, Mia Kirschner, Fiona Shaw 

Release Date September 15, 2006 

Published September 14th, 2006 

Director Brian De Palma is one of the bravest filmmakers in the business. Each of his films are perilous high wire acts deftly treading the line between masterpiece and utter disaster. His last film, 2002's Femme Fatale, was a disaster of lurid exploitation in which the director became more enamored of his scenery than even his often nude starlet. On the flipside, his Untouchables, Dressed To Kill and Raising Cain are masterpieces, by De Palma standards, of trashy, entertaining, style.

De Palma's latest picture The Black Dahlia, based on the Elmore Leonard novel, again walks that razor's edge between masterpiece and disaster and finds De Palma once again on the side of the masterpiece. The Black Dahlia is a lurid, shocking, exciting noir mystery that uses real life brutality to tell a stunner of a fictional detective story, one worthy of the 30's and 40's noir that inspired it.

For anyone going into The Black Dahlia with ideas about learning more about the famed death of Elizabeth Short; be prepared, this is not her story. This story, based on Elmore Leonard's fictional take on Hollywood's most notorious unsolved murder, is more about the fictional L.A cops created by Leonard and the various shocking and devastating twists that Leonard smartly crafted and now De Palma and screenwriter Josh Friedman adapt.

Josh Hartnett leads an exceptional cast in The Black Dahlia as detective Dwight 'Bucky' Bleichert, a former boxing star turned L.A flatfoot. Bucky's partner is a fellow former boxer Leland 'Lee' Blanchard. Rising through the ranks together, using their boxing star status to impress superiors, the two end up partners in the robbery homicide division.

When the nude, bisected body of young Elizabeth Short is found, it is Bucky and Lee's celebrity that gets them on the Dahlia case, over Bucky's objections; he's concerned about a murder case they were already working and were nearly killed while investigating. The Black Dahlia case however is the department's top priority and they want their most high profile cops out front cracking the case.

On January 15th 1947 the body of Elizabeth Short (Mia Kirschner) was discovered on a side street by a woman with a stroller. Short was nude and her body bisected, cut at the waist. Her blood was drained and internal organs removed. There are other more gruesome details that even Elmore Leornard left out of his account of this real life murder that the papers called The Black Dahlia for the victims penchant for black clothes and flowers in her hair.

Who was Elizabeth Short? In the movie she is a wannabe starlet from a small town in Massachusetts who came to L.A, like so many young girls, with stars in her eyes. She was said, by friends, to have a number of gentlemen callers and was welcome in local lesbian bars as well. It is at one of these bars where Bucky follows a lead to a woman named Madeleine Linscott (Hillary Swank). A dead ringer for Dahlia, Madeleine was seen talking to Elizabeth and another woman not long before she disappeared.

Rather than arrest and interrogate Ms. Linscott, Bucky begins a dangerous affair with her and promises to keep her name out of the papers. The Linscott name is quite well known; Madeleine's father built much of the town. Finding daddy's little girl in a lesbian hangout and linking her to the Dahlia murder would be a media frenzy.

In parallel plot, Bucky and Lee share the attention of a beautiful former prostitute, Kay Lake (Scarlett Johansson). Kay is Lee's girl, he rescued her from a violent pimp, but it's clear she and Bucky have an attraction. When Lee becomes engrossed in the Dahlia case, Kay and Bucky come dangerously close to crossing a line.

Josh Hartnett continues to grow into one of the most interesting actors working today. His style is shy and understated but it's the inner strength that he reveals just when the character needs it that makes him so interesting. His reticence as Bucky belies the toughness of a character that is shown to be quite a good boxer. He is gentle even as he is an invasive interrogator and by the end of the film his horror at all he's seen brings his character around to being a classic noir character. Hartnett has alot to play in The Black Dahlia and he pulls it all off extremely well.

As good as Hartnett is, the true showstopper performance in The Black Dahlia is that of Fiona Shaw. To give any details of who her character is or reveal anything about her is to give away a little more than I want to of this clever plot. Nevertheless, I can tell you that Ms. Shaw delivers an Oscar worthy turn with a speech near the end of the film that would make Norma Desmond blush.

Brian De Palma's style could be called classy trash. Look closely at his resume and you can find a number of movies that fit that description or atleast have moments that fit that description. In Femme Fatale, De Palma crafts a number of gorgeous visuals, classy architecture and the like. It's a great looking film even when it dips into trashy lesbian trysts and gratuitous displays of flesh. And Femme Fatale is one De Palma's lesser works.

Applying his style to material he actually seems invested in, De Palma is invigorated and his excitement translates to the screen with great enthusiasm. The macabre fascination that the public had with the Black Dahlia murder is a subject that suits Brian De Palma's dark, lurid, some would say trashy personality. Indeed he is quite fond of the darker side and expresses that dark side with glee in The Black Dahlia.

And yet for all of its ghastly fascination with the lurid details of not only the life of Elizabeth Short but for those of the cop characters, the rich family and the prostitute, The Black Dahlia manages to be both engrossing and highly entertaining. De Palma invites you down the path of the lurid back streets and somehow; you willingly and wantonly follow him to the movie equivalent of the red light district known as The Black Dahlia.

When he's on his game Brian De Palma is one of the most skillful and talented directors in the business and The Black Dahlia is his best work in nearly a decade. Stylish, mysterious, trashy yet kinda classy, The Black Dahlia is a cinematic smorgasbord that offers something for all audiences, true crime, mystery, sex, graphic violence and great performances. The Black Dahlia will, no doubt, divide many and unite many others. For my money, it's one of the best films of the year.

Movie Review Freedom Writers

Freedom Writers (2007) 

Directed by Richard LaGravenese 

Written by Richard LaGravenese 

Starring Hilary Swank, Scott Glenn, Imelda Staunton, Patrick Dempsey, Mario 

Release Date January 5th, 2007

Published January 4th, 2007 

Every year we get another inner-city teacher drama. The stories are meant to be inspiring, uplifting and heartwarming. They are mean to 'really make you think.' The thing about this particular plot however, is not how often it is repeated; but how often it works. Looking back, over what by now can be considered a sub-genre, the inner-city teacher drama has turned out a number of very good movies. From Stand and Deliver to Lean On Me to Dangerous Minds, the story is similar and so are the positive results.

The latest movie to lift this story line is Freedom Writers the true story of a teacher who listened to her students and allowed them to tell their story. Aside from the true story aspect, there is nothing original about Freedom Writers. What sets it apart is the savvy performance of star Hillary Swank who shows why she is a two time Oscar winner. In Freedom Writers Hillary Swank stars as Erin Gruwell a good-hearted but naive, heart on her sleeve liberal activist who has just accepted her first teaching job. 

It's 1996, the Rodney King riots are fresh in the minds of all, and Erin's new school in Long Beach California is an epicenter of racial tension after a forced integration policy began busing inner-city kids to this suburban high school. The integration has caused a racial stratification, a sort of tribalism in which people of the same ethnicity hang out together and with no one else. Racial lines are crossed at your own peril and gang violence is the price you pay. Into this situation walks wide eyed idealist Erin who feels that she can make a difference with these kids despite the cold-hearted realism injected by her supervisor Ms. Campbell (Imelda Staunton) who tries hard to temper Erin's enthusiasm.

Erin's first day is a disaster. When she brings up the story of Homer students shout back insults about Homer Simpson. When Erin makes attempts at racial humor, the silence is deathly. At home things are just as mixed up Erin's husband Scott (Patrick Dempsey) is supportive at first but soon becomes upset with the amount of time dedicated to Erin's students, while her activist father Steve (Scott Glenn) is skeptical and concerned for her safety.

You know from the formula and the true story tag that eventually Erin will get through to her kids and that they will bond like a family. What Freedom Writers director Richard LaGravenese does to set this story apart is allow his star Hillary Swank to carry the whole movie. Swank plays Erin Gruwell with an optimistic streak that never dims. Erin Gruwell manages to be fearless and clueless but never foolish. She has an innate understanding of her surroundings and though she is naive, her naivete is part of her charm and why these life hardened kids allow her in their world.

This is a tremendous performance with no wrong notes. Swank proves once again why she is an Oscar darling. She finds a rhythm to each of her performances and plays it for all it's worth. Now working in a most familiar of stories, within the constrictions of a genre formula, Swank sets the whole film apart from its familiar or even cliched elements by how she plays the role of Erin Gruwell.

Freedom Writers is a true story. The screenplay credit went to director Richard LaGravenese but it's based on the writing of the real life students of the real Erin Gruwell. Freedom Writers is the rare true story that doesn't get bogged down in making its story more cinematic than it is. Freedom Writers is focused and well paced, it reveals itself and its characters slowly and with great care. Working from the real life diaries of these students the stories are heartbreaking and LaGravenese and his cast never shy away from that sadness. To their credit they are also not consumed by that sadness.

Freedom Writers is a little too familiar but it's a story that is so well told that familiarity doesn't breed contempt or even boredom. It is yet another teacher inspires inner city students to become better citizen movies. And yet, it works. Hillary Swank is so talented that I forgot to look for the cliches, I forgot to predict what was going to happen next. I found myself investing in this story and enjoying it more than I ever imagined.

Movie Review: The Reaping

The Reaping (2007)

Directed by Stephen Hopkins

Written by Carey Hayes, Chad Hayes 

Starring Hilary Swank, David Morrissey, Idris Elba, AnnaSophia Robb, Stephen Rea 

Release Date April 5th, 2007

Published April 4th, 2007

Is Hilary Swank finally feeling her Oscar curse? After winning two Oscars, a feat only two other actresses in history can claim, Swank continued her strong run with the terrific drama Freedom Writers. That film however, despite solid reviews was not a box office winner. Now comes the low-point of Ms. Swank's post Oscar career. The Reaping is a dull witted, thrill-less thriller. A horror film with little or no horror. A religious based scare-fest that fails to be either really religious or scary.

In The Reaping Hilary Swank plays Katherine Winter a former missionary turned college professor whose hobby is debunking religious miracles. She touts having visited 47 miracles and found 47 scientific explanations for the so called miracle. Her loss of faith is related to her time in Africa with father Castigan (Stephen Rea) where her husband and pre-teen daughter were slaughtered by fearful tribesmen who believed the sacrifices would save the lives of others.

Catherine's latest debunking assignment takes her to a small town in Louisiana called Haven. There a science teacher, Doug (David Morrissey), is trying to convince the townsfolk that they are not under attack from the ten biblical plagues. The plagues that the people believe are being visited upon them are believed by many to be coming from a teenage girl (Anna Sophia Robb) whose brother died under mysterious circumstances.

Since the death of the girl's brother, the river surrounding the town has seemingly turned to blood, frogs are falling from the trees, and soon each of the biblical plagues will have made an appearance, killing dozens of people. Is it god, the devil, or does this teenage girl represent one or the other? These are the questions that Catherine must answer before the next plague becomes the last.

I'll say this for Hillary Swank in The Reaping, she has never looked this good before. Swank has always been unconventionally attractive but in The Reaping she is tanned and toned and her sometimes severe features have been toned down through some sort of cosmetics work and all of this really works for her. If I was recommending movies solely on the attractiveness of the star, I would totally recommend The Reaping.

That however, is not something I would ever actually do. As great looking as Hillary Swank is in The Reaping, the movie is a dopey series of clichés leading to an ending more predictable than your average romantic comedy. Director Stephen Hopkins (The Life and Death of Peter Sellers) is not untalented. The problem is the story he's telling isn't all that compelling.

The Reaping plays like an above average production of one of those lame ass Left Behind movies where highly religious characters spout this and that about God's love until the wicked are smited and the righteous live on. Bad actors, overly earnest dialogue, and low budget aesthetics give those films a camp appeal that might have made The Reaping a ripe parody. Unfortunately, this high budget flick is deathly serious about its dopey, superstitious plot.

Is this the Oscar curse finally catching up with Hillary Swank? Maybe? Maybe not? The failure of The Reaping seems to be more a function of genre than of superstition. Aside from last years The Omen remake, religious themed horror flicks haven't delivered big scares since the 70's. Movie's like Bless The Child, Lost Souls and Skeleton Key have all starred beautiful starlets battling satanic forces and each has stunk out loud.

Is that because we are simply tired of rote plots and tired situations? Probably. It may also be that the old fire and brimstone doesn't really do much to put fear into people anymore. In a post 9/11 world, can the perceived horrors of potential damnation compete with the real life horrors in front of our eyes? The Reaping is also rather outdated in its reliance on the supernatural in an era where a more realistic, visceral and bloody style of horror dominates the market.

Whatever the reason, supernatural or otherwise, The Reaping is a failure. Not scary enough for horror. Not bad enough for camp, the film flickers on to the screen and simply lays there. Hilary Swank looks gorgeous and is impeccably talented but even two Oscars can't roust these characters and this situation into anything lively enough to be called entertaining.