Movie Review: Contagion

Contagion (2011) 

Directed by Steven Soderberg

Written by Steven Soderbergh

Starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Matt Damon, Jude Law, Laurence Fishburne, Marion Cotillard

Release Date September 3rd, 2011

Published September 3rd, 2011 

Director Steven Soderbergh has described "Contagion" as an Irwin Allen style disaster movie. For those not up on their B- movie history, producer-director Irwin Allen presided over some of the most celebrated disaster movies in history from "The Swarm," to "The Towering Inferno" to "The Poseidon Adventure."

Only horror movie mavens have produced as many dead bodies on the big screen. The Irwin Allen comparison is apt. Allen's formula, a major catastrophe populated with a galaxy of well known stars, is essentially what "Contagion" attempts to be. The only difference is that Soderbergh's level of skill prevents "Contagion" from drifting toward the kinds of caricature that Allen's characters often became.

"Contagion," at first, stars Gwyneth Paltrow as Beth, just another woman on a business trip in China. However, after a layover in Chicago, Beth has returned home to her husband, Mitch (Matt Damon,) and their son, and has fallen ill. It's mere days before Beth is dead. Meanwhile, a video has spread across the internet of a man falling ill on a bus in China.

That man was with Beth in China and now both are dead. Soon, a man in Chicago has fallen ill. A woman in Kiev who had brief hand to hand contact with Beth in Hong Kong has died and her family is infected. Back in Minneapolis, Beth's son has died and her husband is presumed ill while his daughter is returned from her mother's and isolated.

At the CDC Dr. Ellis Cheever (Laurence Fishburne) and his team begin retrieving data and attempting to piece together the spread of the virus. In Hong Kong WHO Dr. Leonora Orantes (Marion Cotillard) has a key piece of evidence from the security camera at the Hotel/Casino where Beth stayed. The video tracks the very start of the spread.

In Minneapolis Dr. Mears (Kate Winslet) attempts to organize the CDC response as the virus spreads like wildfire. Soon, however, because a hotel worker went to work while sick, Dr. Mears falls ill. Soderbergh's "Contagion" has no respect for Awards or star-power as the Oscar winners seem to be the first to fall.

There is a calm and precision to "Contagio"n that is both comforting and limiting. Soderbergh has taken pains not to allow the film to cause massive panic attacks ( though I would urge hypochondriacs not to see Contagion) yet in doing so he contains "Contagion" into a box that prevents it from being as affective as it could no doubt be.

I don't want "Contagion" to cause a panic ala Jaws depressing beach traffic in the summer of '77 however, it's fair to say that "Contagion" has the opportunity to be more fear inducing and thus a more viscerally satisfying than it is. As it is, "Contagio"n could almost be considered hopeful, in its way.

Many critics of "Contagion" have wondered about the character played by Jude Law. Law portrays a blogger who finds a chance to profit off of the spread of the virus by promoting a Government conspiracy and an herbal medicine that he claims is a cure. When there is a run on the herbal medicine, Law cashes in on the stock jump of the company that makes it.

The character however, is vague in purpose. At different moments he ranges from rambling street preacher to Alex Jones style maniac before eventually being taken seriously before yet another final and strangely vague twist. Jude Law's performance is not up for question, he's highly committed and engaging but the character never finds his footing.

"Contagion" is an artful pseudo-documentary in the hands of a master director. Steven Soderbergh's command of this story takes what could have been sensational and exciting--in a terrifying B-Movie way--and makes it thoughtful, cautionary and occasionally moving. It's nice to see a director who though he demonstrates the worst of humanity at times, allows the best of humanity to rise as well.

There is a surprising and unexpected hopefulness at the heart of "Contagion" that keeps it from tipping into something merely intended to terrify. The hope is needed at the end when the film flashes back to the start of its outbreak and reveals the modest and completely plausible series of events that began the outbreak. So simple and so horrifying.

Movie Review Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004) 

Directed by Kerry Conran

Written by Kerry Conran

Starring Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie, Giovanni Ribisi, Bai Ling, Michael Gambon

Release Date September 17th, 2004

Published September 17th, 2004 

Call me a Luddite if you wish, but I just don't like the way computer technology is encroaching on modern filmmaking. With the release of Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow, we have our first example of a movie made with real actors and no real locations. We are not far from a film with no real actors. Final Fantasy was technically speaking animation, I am speaking more of technology of the kind used in the little seen Pacino movie Simone where America's top actress was entirely created on a computer.

This is disturbing to me because when you pay so much attention to technology, what most often gets lost is real art. Dialogue, characters and acting are the casualties of too much technology. Look at Bruckheimer films, so much attention paid to blowing things up and not nearly enough attention to creating plots, dialogue or characters. Some could point to Pixar's animated features as an example of great plot and dialogue combined with top of the line computer technology and they have a point. Still, an animated character will never replace a great human character like Indiana Jones or The Bride from Kill Bill, at least not to me.

That brings us back to Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow, which is technologically well realized. However, when it comes to dialogue, plot and characters, the film is shallow and conventional.

Gwyneth Paltrow stars as intrepid reporter Polly Perkins. Polly has stumbled upon the story of the century, the world's top scientists are disappearing and Polly has the inside track toward finding the supervillain behind the kidnappings. Her story is interrupted when giant metal robots invade New York City and only Joe Sullivan (Jude Law) a.k.a. Sky Captain can stop them.

Joe and Polly have a personal history, they used to be an item years earlier but broke up badly. Now because Polly has information Joe needs and Joe has the story Polly needs, the two are reunited and bickering like a divorced couple. Regardless, they must work together to find the missing scientists who will lead them to the supervillain known as Totenkopf. They are aided by Joe's sidekick and gadget man Dex Dearborn (Giovonni Ribisi) and British flying ace Frankie Cook (Angelina Jolie) who, like Polly, has a personal history with Joe.

For a film as unconventional in its technological creation, its plot is actually rather mundane. It's an adventure lifted directly from a 1940's Errol Flynn movie. A nice homage but it fails to hold up for a full-length modern feature. The plot is highly predictable and relies on any number of contrivances to arrive at its predestined outcomes. The technology has evolved but the ability to create a screenplay that doesn't rely on an obviously stupid decision by a character that should know better still persists.

The acting is a little off, likely because of the technology. There is a big difference between acting on a set and acting against a blue screen. You’re reacting to things that aren't there and when you're forced to remember exactly where you're standing or where the fake tree is or the fake animal attacking you is, it's difficult to concentrate on delivering lines and reacting to real flesh and blood co-stars.

The technology has improved so that acting against a blue screen is not as awful looking as it was in the 60’s drive-in movie era. However, just because everything looks seamless onscreen doesn't make the acting any easier and the strain is evident on each of these actors.

Jude Law, who I believe is in every movie being released this fall, has the kind of glamorous good looks to play the heroic Sky Captain but there is something in his performance that is just a little off. Law has this mischievous glint in his eye, he's always had it and it's always been an asset. However, in a role that calls for earnest heroism, that glint seems out of place. There is just a hint of irony to everything he says, an irony that is out of place in a film that is so ingrained in its faked time period.

Gwyneth Paltrow, one of my favorite actresses, also is just slightly off. Her trouble comes more from the script than from her performance. Her Polly Perkins is required to do things that keep the plot going, things that if the character were as smart as she's supposed to be, she wouldn't do them. She does these stupid things because if she didn't, the movie would be over. If you can't make the plot work without compromising your characters then you need to keep working on it. Of course, when you have so much technology to worry about you just don't have time to devote to your plot.

In a recent column, I wrote of how disturbed I was about Sky Captain using the image of the late Sir Laurence Olivier as a character in the film. I am happy to report that my concerns were greatly overblown. The film does not employ Sir Laurence's image in any way that is overly disturbing or abusive. I don't want to give anything away about how he is used because it might reveal too much, but it's not as bad as I thought it would be.

The computer technology of Sky Captain is impressive. Some of the imagery is quite striking. I especially enjoyed the flying British aircraft carriers and the blimps. Very impressive stuff. I also enjoyed the film’s gauzy look that makes it feel aged to its 30’s. The film looks like one of Ted Turner's colorized black and white movies, and although colorization is blasphemy, this film just has a similar look.

Writer-Director Kerry Conran is clearly a fan of classic sci-fi of the 30's and 40's and if you share that love you are going to like Sky Captain a whole lot. There are numerous homages to old movies like King Kong or Errol Flynn's numerous adventure movies. The Wizard Of Oz is used effectively in more ways than one. This love of film classics is admirable and quite enjoyable if you know your history. Keep your eyes open for a number of visual references to classic films.

With the technology and the homages to classic films, I can't be surprised that some things would get lost in the shuffle. Unfortunately, what gets lost is characters, dialogue and plot. There is no doubt that if you’re into technology you will be blown away by what you see in Sky Captain and what could possibly be done with this technology in the future. For me though, no amount of technology can replace the thrill of charismatic characters delivering smart dialogue inside a complicated plot.

Movie Review Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes (2009) 

Directed by Guy Ritchie

Written by Anthony Peckham, Simon Kinberg

Starring Robert Downey Jr, Jude Law, Rachel McAdams, Mark Strong, Kelly Reilly

Release Date December 25th, 2009 

Published December 24th, 2009 

I am aware of Sherlock Holmes by pop culture reputation only. I have not read the novels or seen any of the films starring Basil Rathbone, the actor who I am told is the definitive Holmes on screen. My only exposure to the character is through pop cultural osmosis, references made by countless other outlets. I mention this because many others seem to find director Guy Richie's take on the legendary character offensive in some way related to their feelings for what is known of the character.

I can compare it, in a slightly odd way, to how I feel about the faux vampires of Twilight. In my opinion they aren't really Vampires. They walk around during the day, they play baseball, they are about as menacing as a bag of declawed kittens, and they are NOT vampires. I am tied to the classic version of Vampires and admittedly it creates a bias. I have no such bias for or against Sherlock Holmes.

Robert Downey Jr. stars as Sherlock Holmes who, as we join a chase in progress, is running to some sort of showdown. Along with his faithful sidekick Dr. Watson (Jude Law), Holmes has uncovered a secret society that is in the midst of a ritual sacrifice when Holmes and Watson arrive. A brawl ensues, the fair maiden is rescued and the murderous Lord Blackwood (go to bad guy Mark Strong) is apprehended.

Case closed? Hardly. The capture and eventual hanging of Lord Blackwood were all part of Blackwood's devious plot. As he tells a skeptical Holmes, he plans on resurrecting himself and leading a plot to take over the world, restoring England to the status of a world power under his leadership.

Meanwhile, Dr. Watson who has lived and worked with Holmes for years is set to move on. He has met a woman, Mary (Kelly Reilly), and is going to marry her, even if Holmes stands opposed to the idea, which is somewhat unclear but a fun source of tension for the bickering partners.

Back to the plot, on the night of Lord Blackwood's execution, after he confesses his plot to Holmes, Lord Blackwood does rise from the grave causing a massive panic in London. It's up to Holmes and a reluctant Watson to figure out how Blackwood pulled off the resurrection and stop him before he launches his takeover of the country.

Also employed in this plot is Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams), the one only woman ever to draw Holmes' attention away from sleuthing. Irene has recently returned to London with a mysterious benefactor who remains in the shadows but who will no doubt play an important role in future sequels, wink wink.

And really, isn't that all we can expect from Sherlock Holmes, a table setter for future sequels. Honestly, if you were looking for anything other than the beginning of a franchise you were on a fool's errand. Sherlock Holmes is a machine built to create a franchise and on this lowly task it is supremely successful.

The bantering between stars Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr. has the potential for greatness, in sequels. The action direction that Director Guy Richie takes these characters in shows potential that could flower in future sequels or become supremely irritating, wait and see. As for this Sherlock, it's like a starter kit for people like me who know Sherlock only by reputation but know the work of Downey and director Guy Richie like old friends.

There is a homey sort of professionalism to the work of both Downey and Richie. They are working at such a level of comfort together that things are at once pitched perfectly to create this character for future sequels and find enough friendly charm in this movie to make you want to see that sequel. Sure, you're being fleeced but in such a fond way, you don't mind so much.

Sherlock Holmes is never anything more than the beginning of a business arrangement between friends. Guy Richie, Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law pitch you these characters, their funny banter, and the idea of Sherlock Holmes: action hero and you sit idle witnessing it and welcoming it. You are agreeing that the sequel is why we are all here and that this is just the pitch.

This will be unsatisfying for some, but for those disposed to the charms of those involved, you won't mind at all. Sherlock Holmes is a welcome introduction to a character and his future endeavors yet to be brought to the screen. If this idea doesn't offend you, you are just the audience for Sherlock Holmes.

Movie Review: All the King's Men

All the King's Men (2006) 

Directed by Steven Zaillian

Written by Steven Zaillian 

Starring Sean Penn, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Anthony Hopkins, James Gandolfini, Mark Ruffalo, Patricia Clarkson, Jackie Earl Haley

Release Date September 22nd, 2006

Published September 22nd, 2006 

In late 1930's Louisiana writer Robert Penn Warren fell under the spell of the charismatic, larger than life Governor, Huey P. Long. Long's passionate, man of the people rhetoric, his complicated almost amoral lifestyle and his tragic death, were all the inspiration Warren needed to write his masterpiece novel All The Kings Men.

The book won the Pulitzer Prize and was adapted to the big screen in 1949 where it went on to win Best Picture. More than 50 years later All The Kings Men has once again been adapted to the big screen and while it features a fiery performance from Sean Penn, the film is a catastrophic failure. Made with the intention of winning an Oscar, the film could be a parody of the corruption of its own creation with Sean Penn's Willie Stark character standing in for greedy producers eager for awards glory.

Willie Stark (Sean Penn) was a true man of the people. His first foray into politics was fighting to make sure the local school was built by the best contractors with the best materials and not by friends of the local politicians in his small corner of Louisiana. When his fight failed his career as a politician seemed to have ended with it but when the school collapsed and four kids were killed, Willie Stark went from down on his luck salesman to crusader for truth and justuce and soon a potential candidate for Governor.

Reporter Jack Burden (Jude Law) was among the first to see Willie's man of the people earnestness and be struck by the rarity of an honest politician. He first met Willie during the fight for the school but became forever entwined with Willie after the school collapse and the beginning of Willie's improbable run for Governor.

Willie's political education began on that first run for governor when he finds that he is merely a patsy candidate meant to divide the electorate and help a more prominent candidate win office. His disillusionment turns to determination and by the time of the next election Willie knows how this corrupt game is played and sweeps into office a conquering hero of incorruptibility.

Of course, Willie was quite corrupt by this time and once in office with the mandate of his people his corruption comes to full flower. Jack Burden, having given up journalism, joins Willie's staff as a top political fire fighter and while he is hurt by Willie's fall from grace, he is merely a witness. That begins to change when politics calls for Jack to use his influence on an old friend of his family, Judge Irwin (Anthony Hopkins). Willie needs Judge Irwin on his side to avoid impeachment and it falls to Jack to find dirt on the man he once considered a father figure.

Jack's conflicting loyalty to Willie and to Judge Irwin is the thrust of the final act of All The Kings Men a surprisingly lackluster drama from writer-director Steven Zaillian. With pretensions of greatness, Zaillian crafts All The Kings Men as if just making the movie were enough to warrant huzzahs all around. The film is so full of its own value that James Horner's score is like a thundering Greek chorus of 'see how important we all are' hyperbole.

The problems with All The Kings Men extend from Zaillian's lackadaisical direction to the cast of all stars who are often just not suited for the material. The most glaring example is Jude Law who, as Jack Burden the movie's narrator and dramatic center, struggles with keeping his natural good looks and charm out of the role of a burnout cynic and struggles, far more mightily, with a brutal Louisiana drawl. Law's Jack Burden is a cypher, milling about the movie searching for a purpose beyond merely providing exposition.

Jack is the audience's eyes and ears and yet he seems to miss so much. As Willie Stark is becoming more and more corrupt we want to see the smoky back rooms and the shady deals. Instead we are stuck with Jack and his dull subplot involving old friends played by Kate Winslet, also poorly cast as a Louisiana aristocrat, and Mark Ruffalo. Though the subplot becomes important late in the film, its relevance early on is poorly established and distracting.

Regardless of the films many flaws Sean Penn is electrifying in All The Kings Men. His fiery passion explodes in fits of righteous rage that are at times inspiring and lamentable. As he was on the rise Willie Stark's outrage made him seem as if he indeed could end corruption in all government. However, once elected and educated in how the gears of politics turn, Willie's inflammatory rhetoric became cover for his own corruption. This is the one effective element of an otherwise disappointing melodrama.

All The Kings Men boasts a cast of respected actors and Oscar winners, including writer-director Zaillian himself, yet somehow all the starpower on the screen and behind the scenes never manages to turn the movie into anything more than an extravagant demonstration of how much a studio will pay to win an Oscar. All The Kings Men is like a machine crafted to win awards with little regard to whether it was deserving of any honor.

Sean Penn is passionate to the point of almost eating the scenery but his fiery oratory skills are the only reason to see All The Kings Men an otherwise lifeless excercise in failure. Remakes are often mere reflections of the original and this new version of All The Kings Men is a perfect example of reflected glory. The movie takes the shine of the respected work of writer Robert Penn Warren and the Oscar winning 1949 film and simply mirrors it.

The cache of the original glory and an all star cast cannot hide the slapdash quality of Steven Zaillian's All The Kings Men, a movie machine cynically crafted for critical applause.

Movie Review Repo Men

Repo Men (2010) 

Directed by Miguel Sapochnik

Written by Eric Garcia, Garrett Lerner

Starring Jude Law, Forest Whitaker, Liev Schreiber, Alice Braga, RZA, Yvette Nicole Brown

Release Date March 19th, 2010 

Published March 20th, 2010 

Warning: The movie Repo Men has been sitting on a studio shelf for nearly three years. The film starring Jude Law and Forest Whitaker never developed a reputation as a troubled project but for some reason the studio never saw fit to put it on the screen until now. This is, generally, a bad sign. Films that sit on studio shelves for a while have an almost literal stench of failure attached to them.

Repo Men stars Jude Law as Remy, a man with a very unique and disturbing profession. It is Remy's job to retrieve property but not just any property, Remy retrieves internal organs. A company known as The Union has developed mechanical organs to replace failing human organs of all types, lungs, heart, kidney et cetera.

The catch is that  these mechanical organs are unbelievably expensive, so expensive that the company offers an exorbitant payment plan. If you default on your payments for more than three months the Union sends Remy and or his pal Jake (Forest Whitaker) to retrieve the organ by any means necessary. Bloody gutting and death are the usual result.

As you may have learned from the trailers and commercials, Remy has an accident and ends up with a mechanical heart courtesy of The Union. Becoming a transplant patient changes Remy and he can no longer be a repo man. Also helping change Remy's perspective is another former patient (Alice Braga) who Remy falls in love with and eventually goes on the run with in order to escape the repo of both of their important parts.

Repo Men has an interesting idea, one that could be played to capitalize on the current debate over health care reform in America. What better way to parody the heartless insurance and HMO conglomerates than with the mass, bloody retrieval of organs that patients fail to pay for. The satire practically writes itself. 

That, however, is for another movie, as noted above Repo Men was made nearly three years ago before the battle over health care reform became a daily lead story on the national news. What Repo Men is really about is hardcore bloody violence reminiscent of the recent blood and guts epics coming out of Japan and South Korea. Repo Men apes a number of Asian action and horror conceits, especially the bloody violence of Chan Wook Park's Oldboy.

A scene late in Repo Men seems entirely lifted from Oldboy. In it Jude Law takes on several bad guys in a narrow hallway with a knife, a saw, and some sweet Kung Fu. It's a terrific scene but also derivative and in the end pointless. I won't spoil the ending but trained film watchers will be disappointed at how Repo Men tips its hand early on and cheats to the finish in a most irritating way.

I don't know exactly why Repo Men was left on the shelf for three years. There is little that could have been done in that time to improve it. My guess has less to do with production trouble than with marketing challenges. The studio (Universal) was likely holding the film until Jude Law regained his status as a marketable leading man.

In 2007 Jude Law was coming off of a series of box office disappointments and indie movies that barely made it beyond the art house. He was also a rising tabloid star having had a troubled marriage and well publicized affair that kept him from making many movies from 2004 to 2007.  In 2009 Jude Law came back to the top of the marquee starring opposite Robert Downey Jr in Sherlock Holmes. With Law's name recognition once again on the rise, and his tabloid troubles seemingly behind him, Universal likely felt they finally had a marketing hook and Repo Men arrived.

None of this means much to the quality of Repo Men. It's merely one of those notable Hollywood stories; a peculiarity of the Hollywood system where stars are coveted for their ability to sell a movie with their name and persona but shunned at the mere mention of potential scandal or perceived lack of appeal..

Repo Men is the result of that bizarre Hollywood system where marketing means as much or more than the quality of the movie. No one seemed to care whether Repo Men was any good, it's not great but not terrible. The more pertinent concerns for executives were whether the movie could be sold. In 2007 it wasn't an easy sell. In 2010 it became an easier sell.

Putting aside the Hollywood junk, if you are a fan of hardcore, blood and guts violence or a fan of Jude Law you will find a lot to like about Repo Men. If you prefer movies with strong story, characters and motivations skip Repo Men which pushes aside an interesting cast and story in favor of more blood and more guts and more spectacular ways of displaying them on screen

Movie Review: Captain Marvel

Captain Marvel (2019) 

Directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck 

Written by Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck, Geneva Robertson Dworet 

Starring Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, Jude Law, Lashana Lynch, Gemma Chan, Annette Bening, Scarlett Johansson

Release Date March 8th, 2019 

Published November 9th, 2023

When Captain Marvel was released in 2019 it managed to beat the hype of being just the latest entry in the smoking hot Marvel Cinematic Universe. Brie Larson came into full movie star form playing Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel. Larson’s chemistry with the cast was off the charts, the direction was kinetic and exciting and as a puzzle piece in the long term planning in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it was an incredibly satisfying fit. On top of all of that, it was just a great action movie.

Now, with The Marvels debuting and Captain Marvel back on the big screen as part of her own superhero team, it's the perfect time to reflect back on Carol's unique introduction to the MCU. With the Marvel Universe in flux, a lot bad press surrounding the most recent movies in that cinematic universe, it's nice to be reminded just how good Carol's introduction to the MCU really was.

Brie Larson stars as Captain Marvel, aka Carol Danvers, aka Vers to her fellow Kree Warriors. When we meet Carol she has been training as a Kree Warrior with a mysterious and forgotten past for several years. Flashes of memory keep popping up in her dreams but the pieces don’t fit. With the aid of her mentor and commander, Yon-Rogg (Jude Law), Vers attempts to keep her memories at bay while focusing on her training and managing her remarkable abilities.

After meeting for the first time with the Kree ‘Great Intelligence,’ Vers gets her very first mission. Under the command of Yon-Rogg, Vers will go to an alien planet and rescue a Kree spy in the midst of a Skrull controlled planet. The Skrulls are a race of dangerous aliens, the greatest foes of the Kree, who have the disturbing ability to morph their features into those of anyone they see down to a DNA level of mimicry.

In her first mission, Vers is captured and her memories are accessed and she is forced to confront her past. When she eventually makes her escape, her only way out is a Skrull escape pod programmed to go to Earth. Here, Carol will be forced to confront her true identity as she battles the Skrull leader Thalos to keep him from retrieving technology created by a figure from Carol’s past, Dr Lawson (Annette Bening), tech that could change the course of the war between Kree and Skrull forever.

Along for the ride, and discovering aliens for the first time in his career is Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson). Captain Marvel may be the origin story for Carol Danvers but it also provides a little more of the origin story for the future leader of Shield and the man behind the Avengers’ initiative. Captain Marvel is set in 1996 and the picture we get of a young-ish Nick Fury is pretty great. Baby-faced rookie Agent Phil Coulson is another standout treat.

The chemistry between Brie Larson as Carol and Sam Jackson’s Nick Fury is off the charts fantastic. These two actors have a comfort, familiarity and ease that would be more expected of actors who had worked together for years rather than having never met before. Larson and Jackson have a comic connection that never fails to charm and when it comes time to fight that same natural chemistry increases the fun and excitement in that arena as well.

Captain Marvel was the first major big screen release for the indie darling director duo of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck and they proved themselves more than ready for the spotlight. The action is exceptionally captured and exciting, the special effects are flawless, the script is tight and focused and the character work is some of the best in the MCU. Much of this can be traced to the steady creative hands of Boden and Fleck.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review Cold Mountain

Cold Mountain (2003) 

Directed by Anthony Minghella 

Written by Anthony Minghella 

Starring Nicole Kidman, Renee Zellweger, Jude Law, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Natalie Portman 

Release Date December 25th, 2003 

Published December 24th, 2003 

In 1997, Author Charles Frazier set out to tell a story that had been passed through his family for years. It was the story of his great uncle H.P Inman and his arduous trek home to North Carolina after deserting the Southern army near the end of the Civil War. In translating the story to the page, Frazier created an epic love story combined it with a Homeric odyssey and bathed it in Southern gentility.

Now in the hands of Director Anthony Minghella, Cold Mountain is a portentous, pompous, epic scale film and a sure bet Best Picture candidate.

Jude Law stars as Inman, a day laborer helping to build a brand new chapel for the people of Cold Mountain who are welcoming the arrival of a new Minister, Reverend Monroe (Donald Sutherland). With Reverend Monroe is his daughter Ada (Nicole Kidman), a well-educated, Charlotte-bred woman who has never done a days work in her life. Ada is a trained pianist, a writer and lives to serve her father. The attraction between Ada and Inman is immediate though inexplicable. The timing couldn’t be worse as Inman is leaving to join the Southern army to fight in the Civil War. They exchange photographs and a single passionate kiss. They promise to write and Inman promises to come back.

At war, Inman is witness to one of the bloodiest battles of the war, the battle at Petersburg, Virginia. The battle is legendary for the massive mistake made by the northern army who, after setting off a huge explosion underneath the southern lines, charged ahead into the crater they created. Once trapped inside the remaining Southern soldiers are able to pick them off one by one as they attempted to climb out of the crater. Inman watches most of the carnage until forced to jump in and save a friend who fell into the crater.

Afterwards, Inman is injured in a raid meant to kill the remaining Northerners trapped in the crater. While recovering, he receives a letter from Ada detailing her struggles since he left and asking him to come home. Inman immediately deserts and begins a very long walk home.

In the meantime, Ada is in grave danger of her own. With all of the able bodied men of Cold Mountain off to war and her father having passed away, Ada is left to tend the farm which she can't do. With only the kindness of an old couple played by Kathy Baker and James Gammon is Ada able to survive. At the old couple’s urging Ada takes in a woman named Ruby (Renee Zellweger), a force of nature personality who's as spunky as Ada is helpless. Ruby moves in and teaches Ada how to survive.

Zellweger's Ruby is at once the film’s most interesting and most problematic performance. On the one hand, it brings the film some much-needed lightness to balance the dreariness of the austere landscape and doomed love story. On the other hand, Zellweger continues to draw laughs even as she is supposed to be drawing sympathy. Credit Renee Zellweger for her ability to keep Ruby from going over the top but the adapted screenplay does her little favor with it's cornpone wisdom and forced passages that play up the character’s lack of education. The role was initially intended for an African American actress, the change is a wise one because as written the role would have been clearly racist.

As Inman makes his trek back to Cold Mountain he also meets some colorful characters, including a lecherous priest played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman and a nasty little redneck played by Giovanni Ribisi. Then there is the odd cameo by Natalie Portman as a war widow trying to protect her sick infant and fend off the Union army creeping up on her doorstep. She takes in Inman during a heavy rainstorm and the two have an odd encounter that is chastely romantic but unnecessary. Portman's scenes drag out the runtime of the film and serve no purpose on Inman's journey other than showing what great chemistry Law and Portman could have together given more time.

Much has been said of the chemistry between Law and Kidman, including rumors of onset romance. However, in the film they share so few scenes that the chemistry is never really an issue. Ada and Inman don't fall in love with one another but rather the idea of each other. Inman headed off to war and the strong possibility of death and appears to grab on to the image of Ada, the most beautiful woman he has ever seen, as a reason to fight and a reason to keep living in the face of great tragedy. 

As for Ada, Inman is at first simply an intriguing romance but in the course of losing her father and suffering on the farm, before Ruby arrives to help her, Inman is a savior. Inman is a knight in shining armor coming to her rescue. It is the idea of one another that matters, not the person themselves. It’s that idea which makes the film’s ending all the more poetic and fascinating.

I'm not going to give away anything, Director Anthony Minghella certainly never gives anything away. For most of the entire nearly three hour runtime of Cold Mountain, the audience has a preconceived notion of what will happen and Minghella alternately delivers it and subverts it. Switching perspectives from Ada to Inman, shifting the timeline from when Inman and Ada met to the current moment of their journey. The film is at once conventional and out of sorts and I dig that about it.

That said there is another element of Cold Mountain that I didn't like. Call it the Miramax effect or maybe just something about Minghella's affected filmmaking, but everything about Cold Mountain screams out at you to appreciate it whether you want to or not. There is an arrogance to it that says the film doesn't have to be entertaining because it's above that. It's like an obnoxious person who simply assumes that you like them regardless of how you really feel. Cold Mountain seems full of itself and arrives with an air that says “Award me.”

Is Cold Mountain a well-crafted film? Absolutely. Is it among the best films of 2003? No. Does it demand that you think it is? Definitely.

Movie Review: Vox Lux

Vox Lux December 2018

Directed by Brady Corbet 

Written by Brady Corbet 

Starring Natalie Portman, Jude Law, Stacy Martin, Jennifer Ehle, Raffey Cassidy 

Release Date December 18th, 2018

Published December 17th, 2018

Vox Lux is rarely the movie you think it is going to be. The plot indicates something arty and pretentious about the nature of pop stardom but the reality is something far more thoughtful and indelible. Writer-director Brady Corbet frames his pop music diva, played by both Raffey Cassidy and then by Natalie Portman, as the living embodiment of modern American culture. 

I get that that is a big notion but I feel the film pulled off really well. The single named character Celeste is a pretty strong metaphor for our times. Her recent, relatively young history is dotted with a tragic school shooting followed by a rocket ship to fame. She’s drug addled, possibly alcoholic, unstable, a single mother, and perhaps the best endorsement imaginable for mood elevating drugs. If that doesn’t craft a picture of America in the 2000’s, I don’t know what does. 

Celeste is basically a walking reality show with all of the cameras on her all the time and her fame obscuring her sense of any reality. Then there is the violence. In a prologue set in 1999, not so subtly the same year as the Columbine shooting, Celeste was the victim of a school shooter. While most of her classmates were killed, Celeste survived, though with a bullet permanently lodged near her spine. 

Her first act after leaving the hospital is to play a song on national television next to her talented sister, Ellie (Stacy Martin), the living embodiment of survivor’s guilt whose permanently attached herself to her sister’s side. Ellie was supposed to have been at school that day but she was home sick. For the next 20 years Ellie will be constantly at her sister’s side, even as much of that time she becomes her sister’s victim. 

Celeste has quite a temper and an attitude that you are not expecting. Portman lays on a thick Long Island accent and it really works to give the character a unique dimension. As a teenager, the character barely spoke above a whisper and with a halting and singular tone. Portman mirrors the halting tone but the voice is louder, harsher and weathered from years of smoking and a brutal touring schedule. 

No joke, you could discern a life’s journey from the way Natalie Portman modulates her voice and accent in Vox Lux. It’s an uncanny performance and one most actors could not pull off on their best day. Portman is electric in this role and backed up by the music of Sia, she pulls off pop super diva in a big way. I bought into Celeste the moment Portman stepped into the role, in the second act and by the time we reached the film’s concert climax I lost track of the star and was watching pop goddess on stage. 

Is the music good? That depends on your taste but that is entirely beyond the point. The point here is the presentation in all of its gaudy excess. I’ve never understood what exactly pop stars in concert are going for with these bizarre, other-worldly, stage antics but Vox Lux makes a unique case for how they come to be. At a certain point, performing the same songs, the same way, for months and years becomes stale and slapping on a new coat of paint with bizarre costumes and choreography is the only way to beat the tedium. 

The film doesn’t make the statement quite as bluntly as I just did but the message is clear. Even with the updated on stage presentation the stiffness of the performance comes through as if Celeste were performing by rote, mimicking in a way our own performance, our daily routines that we’ve got down to a predictable science. There is a deathlessness to the performance that comes through in Portman’s eyes, this has become so second nature for her that she could do it in her sleep and yet they still cheer. 

That’s not to indicate that the film has any opinions of Celeste or the kinds of people who flock to her brand of brainless entertainment. The film makes a strong case for why anyone would want to turn their brain off and just be entertained by the shiny lights and propulsive beats. The faux empowerment lyrics and empty love songs are a panacea for the audience and the performer who’d also like to just forget the world for a while. 

Vox Lux is a giant bullseye of a metaphor for our modern culture. Unstable, violent, unpredictable, obsessed with fame and money, gaudy and eccentric. The movie is a rather ingenious microcosm of our current state of affairs. That Vox Lux is not some kind of bloated, monstrous, obsessed with itself, mess of a movie is quite a testament to the talent of star Natalie Portman and  writer-director Brady Corbet who’s made one heck of a great feature directorial debut. 

Movie Review My Blueberry Nights

My Blueberry Nights (2008) 

Directed by Wong Kar Wai 

Written by Wong Kar Wai, Lawrence Block 

Starring Norah Jones, Jude Law, David Strathairn, Rachel Weisz, Natalie Portman 

Release Date April 4th, 2008 

Published April 4th, 2008 

Wong Kar Wai is a wonderful artist whose 2046 is a masterwork of sex and cinema. Few people saw that subtitled, Cannes festival honoree mostly because it was subtitled and a hit at Cannes. The fact is, most Americans are turned off by foreign films. Can you name the last foreign film to hit at the American box office? Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon? Sure. Can you name another?

Didn't think so.

With popularity in America as his goal, Wong Kar Wai has now brought his ethereal style to our shores and despite the change in geography, once again no one noticed. My Blueberry Nights has a cast featuring Jude Law, Natalie Portman and pop star Norah Jones and even that can't bring in audiences.

Pop sensation Norah Jones is the central character in the odd, slightly charming, My Blueberry Nights. As Lizzie, Jones plays a disillusioned romantic who drops her boyfriend's keys off at his favorite pie shop. This is a popular idea as the owner, Jeremy (Jude Law) has a bucket full of keys, each with their own story of love gone wrong.

Lizzie returns to the pie shop night after night to see if the ex has picked up his keys and to hear stories of lost love from Jeremy who remembers the story of each set of keys. However, before you get the idea that this is about the keys, Lizzie is off on her own adventures leaving Jeremy to his sad little blueberry pies that only she ever ate.

First Lizzie goes down south where she works at a bar. One of her regulars is Arnie (David Straithairn), a cop whose wife has left him. He drinks almost non-stop and the bar owner (Frankie Faison) lets him run a tab that seems to have stretched for years. The ex-wife, Sue (Rachel Wiesz), isn't entirely out of the picture. Parading her new, younger man around the bar and showing up at random moments, she is undoubtedly the source of his drinking. I'll leave you to discover what happens here.

Soon Lizzie is back on the road and arriving in Reno. There she hooks up with a troubled young gambler named Leslie (Natalie Portman). Lizzie loans Leslie all of her money and when she loses everything, she gives Lizzie her car in exchange for a ride to Vegas. There Lizzie is drawn into Leslie's drama with her gambler father. Meanwhile back in New York, Jeremy has been calling all over the south trying to find Lizzie. In their short time together he has fallen in love with her and he desperately hopes to reconnect.

My Blueberry Nights is filmed by Wong Kar Wai through this filter of ethereal dust. Every scene glows with a dreamlike sheen. This would be interesting if it affected the way you perceived Lizzie's journey. However, since Lizzie's journey is so inconsequential the film style doesn't really matter. Indeed Lizzie's journey's have little more to them that what I described.

It all looks really unique but who cares.

It's difficult for me to be so harsh about a movie from Wong Kar Wai but really, WTF? Lizzie travels from place to place, little happens and she is off to the next journey. The stories are ostensibly about love and loss but watching Lizzie react to these happenings is like staring at a brick wall. In her acting debut, Norah Jones shows a talent for being beautiful and little else.

Her Lizzie is our conduit for these stories of love and loss and yet she never really seems to learn any lessons along the way. Here you have a movie with Rachel Weisz and Natalie Portman, two actresses who could have knocked out this role in their sleep and left you weeping, and Wong Kar Wai chooses Jones who's inscrutable expression seems to never change even as the world around her is shouting out its message.

Despite the troubles of lead Norah Jones, My Blueberry Nights has a charm and sweetness to it that is undeniable. Wong Kar Wai is far too talented for this film to become an outright trainwreck. It's just a shame that with a pair of actresses like Ms. Portman and Ms. Weisz at his disposal, Wong Kar Wai chose an overwhelmed first time actress. The role of Lizzie needed the skill and finesse of a veteran to teach it's valuable, if quite familiar lesson, about living for the romantic moment.

Movie Review The Holiday

The Holiday (2006) 

Directed by Nancy Meyers 

Written by Nancy Meyers 

Starring Jack Black, Cameron Diaz, Jude Law, Kate Winslet

Release Date December 8th, 2006 

Published December 7th, 2006 

Director Nancy Meyers is the master of fluffy, Hollywood love stories. Her Something's Gotta Give and What Women Want are big star vehicles that indulge heavily in Hollywood glamor and fantasy romance. Her latest film, The Holiday, is her best effort yet at bringing romantic fantasy to the screen. Teaming Cameron Diaz and Jude Law, Meyers crafts a couple more photogenic than an entire J.C Penney catalog and a dream romance that audiences cannot help but eat up like movie popcorn.

Warm, buttery and oh so simple, The Holiday is the kind of light hearted and light headed fluff that is the perfect holiday escape.

In a small town just outside of London, Iris (Kate Winslet) is working through her company Christmas party when her boss makes a big announcement. The man that Iris has been seeing for nearly three years is getting engaged, but not to her. Devastated, Iris needs to get out of town before she does something awful.

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, Amanda (Diaz) is at the end of her relationship with Ethan (Ed Burns). In the most clichéd fashion, Ethan has been sleeping with his much younger secretary. After throwing him out, and leveling him with an impressive right cross, Amanda wants out of L.A for the holidays. Luck and chance leads Amanda to a website advertising home exchange. This is where Amanda meets Iris and the two offer each other the chance to escape their sad states by switching homes.

In London, Amanda moves into Iris's cozy rural cabin and finds herself visited in the middle of the night by Graham (Jude Law), Iris' brother. Slightly drunk, Graham charms his way right into Amanda's bed as she takes a chance on some guilt free vacation sex with a good looking guy she is unlikely to ever see again. Of course, we already know that nothing could be that simple and the two are soon romancing.

Back in L.A Iris makes a match of her own but not the one you might expect. Iris's new neighbor is Arthur (Eli Wallach) an old Hollywood screenwriter who Iris befriends when he gets lost trying to find his house. Iris helps him home and is invited for dinner and an education in film classics. Jack Black does eventually show up as Miles; a more age-appropriate love interest for Iris but it is Wallach's Arthur who steals the show.

The fun of The Holiday is watching great looking actors indulge lives of frivolous excess for our amusement. Escaping into their perfect pretty lives is a fun little distraction like a cookie or a chocolate bar. Too many film critics get uptight about movies like The Holiday, or really anything directed by Nancy Meyers. For my money, movies like The Holiday are just a treat. Beautiful to look at, easy to forget and fun to catch in late night reruns when nothing else is on.

Movies don't always have to reflect reality or present some grand metaphor. Sometimes movies just have to entertain and that is what The Holiday is all about. Pure entertainment.

Glamor is an oddity in this day and age. There is an overabundance of glamor off the screen. Flashbulbs pop at movie premieres, outside nightclubs and even grocery stores in Hollywood. On the other hand, glamor on the screen is not merely absent, it's often frowned upon, especially by 'serious artists'. That is why, for my money, a movie like The Holiday is such a welcome sight. The Holiday transports audiences back to a time when glamorous stars were allowed to be glamorous stars.

Is it frivolous? Absolutely. That's part of the fun. The Holiday is a candy coated, glamor production in which the people are all unbelievably good looking, locations are lifted from picture postcards, and situations are resolved in 90 minutes with laughing, dancing and hugs. Some people find their escapist fun in hobbits or the force, others in watching Jude Law romance Cameron Diaz. Why is one more worthy than the other?

There are many movies like The Holiday and I have been quite hard on many of them. What separates The Holiday is the combination of chemistry and familiarity that Nancy Meyers specializes in. Assembling an all star cast of Hollywood luminaries, Meyers indulges in romantic fantasies that, while they aren't original by any stretch, are more appealing and better looking than most similar fantasies.

Nancy Meyers skill is in, essentially, re-gifting romantic clichés. Meyers wraps a beautiful new bow on familiar romantic stories. The key is that she does it better than other directors and with better actors. This was a skill that was highly valued back in the movie factory days of the studio system and is now frowned upon in the post-auteur era.

There is nothing remotely important about The Holiday and that is part of its charm. This is pure glamorous escapism that basks in the glow of star power and fantasy romance. I don't want every movie to be as unimportant as The Holiday. However, from time to time the kind of movie that Nancy Meyers makes is a welcome respite from gritty action, bloody horror, and even from the importance of a great drama.

Movie Review: Road to Perdition

Road to Perdition (2002) 

Directed by Sam Mendes 

Written by David Self 

Starring Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, Tyler Hoechlin, Jude Law, Daniel Craig

Release Date July 12th, 2002 

Published July 11th, 2002 

Tom Hanks is the ultimate affable good guy, in many ways he's the essence of the everyman. The party animal from Bachelor Party, the doofus cross dresser from Bosom Buddies, and the ultimate noble good guy, Forrest Gump. It is this reputation that made Road To Perdition so special. In Perdition, Hanks portrays a cold hearted mob assassin seeking revenge. It is a stretch, because he's Tom Hanks but a man with two Oscars under his belt never lacks for confidence.

In Road To Perdition, Hank's is Michael Sullivan, a hitman for the Rock Island branch of Al Capone's Chicago Mob. Paul Newman is John Rooney, Sullivan's boss, a man who is like a father to Michael. That dynamic changes dramatically  when a 'business' meeting goes bad. Rooney's actual son, played by Daniel Craig, kills a mob associate unexpectedly and the hit is witnessed by Michael's son, Michael Jr, played by Tyler Hoechlin. Unwilling to let his son be caught by either the cops or the mob, John Rooney turns on Michael and decides to have Michael and Michael Jr killed. 

Also on the Sullivan's’ trail is a hitman named Harlan "the Reporter" Maguire (Jude Law). Maguire is called The Reporter because after he kills someone he photographs the body and sells the picture to the newspapers. It's a great gimmick, a well fleshed out bit of detail that Jude Law clearly relishes. Law is wildly charismatic and you can sense how much he enjoyed playing this character in Road to Perdition. It's a delicious supporting role, superbly played. 

Road To Perdition has a strong narrative, hard boiled dialogue, and, of course, the acting is first rate. Especially good is the legendary Paul Newman as the pragmatic mob boss forced to choose between his son and his adopted son. Newman gives two flawless monologues that should net him an Academy Award nomination, if not a win. Hanks made his Oscar reservations the day he signed onto the picture. Hanks never trades on his persona. For Hanks, Michael Sullivan is a challengingly different role and he makes it look easy. With any icy stare and everyman look he transforms into a surprisingly menacing version of himself.

Director Sam Mendes, who won the Academy Award for his first picture American Beauty, beats the sophomore jinx with an amazing depiction of real life violence and it's consequence. It's about the bonds of family and especially fatherhood. As Newman's character explains "Sons were put on this earth to trouble their fathers". Of course Conrad L. Hall does yet another spectacular job. His cinematography is damn near flawless, especially at the film’s moving climax.

If I had any problem with the film it was the feeling of inevitability. Every action by every character seems as if it were written in stone long before it happened. This inevitability makes the film a little predictable. Also, the films ending, while very moving, lacks the catharsis the audience desperately needs. Still, you can go ahead and pencil in Road To Perdition on your fantasy Oscar ballot.