Movie Review Detroit

Detroit (2017) 

Directed by Kathryn Bigelow

Written by Mark Boal

Starring John Boyega, Will Poulter, Algee Smith, Jacob Lattimore, Kaitlyn Dever

Release Date July 28th, 2017 

Recently I listened to Malcolm Gladwell’s incredible podcast Revisionist History and in the very first episode he discussed a fascinating sociological concept called Moral Licensing. Moral Licensing is in essence doing something that is right and then using that right action, essentially a good deed, to justify bad behavior. Gladwell’s example was a painter in 19th Century England, Elizabeth Thompson, whose painting, titled Roll Call, became the first by a female artist to take a respected placement in the Royal Academy of Art. Unfortunately, the good deed by the male dominated Royal Academy of featuring the remarkable painting gave them, in their minds, the bona fides to justify not electing Thompson to become a member of the Royal Academy. They’d done their good deed and had nothing, in their minds left to prove.

I thought a great deal about Moral Licensing as I watched Kathryn Bigelow’s remarkable new film Detroit. This story about the riots that raged in Detroit, Michigan in 1967 and more specifically about an incident of police brutality that resulted in the deaths of three innocent black men, at the Algiers Hotel, led me to wonder if just becoming a police officer—a peace officer, someone whose job in the world is to protect people—gives some lesser officers the notion that they have moral license to do as they please. They’ve proven their bona fides as a good person by offering to protect the innocent, thus how they do their jobs is justified by virtue of having accepted the position.

I am not generalizing here; I respect police officers and the remarkable difficulty of their job. Scientifically and psychologically, however, there is a kernel of truth here. It could happen to anyone in such a position: a doctor, a politician, even a film critic who uses his position as a writer to espouse a point of view and then, if his point of view is well-viewed, he or she can take license to go further and espouse further and potentially do harm because they feel they have a moral high ground that doesn’t really exist.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review: The Weight of Water

The Weight of Water (2002) 

Directed by Kathryn Bigelow

Written by Alice Arlen, Christopher Kyle 

Starring Sean Penn, Sarah Polley, Elizabeth Hurley, Catherine McCormack,

Release Date November 1st, 2002 

Published February 23rd, 2002 

On the Isles of Shoals, off the coast of New Hampshire, a murder was committed. Two women are killed and a man stands accused of a crime he did not commit. It was 1873 and though nowadays double murders barely make people blink, in New Hampshire in 1873 this was the OJ trial. The so-called Smuttynose murders became the background to a best-selling novel, "The Weight Of Water," which has now been adapted for the screen starring Sean Penn and Catherine McCormack. Like most books to film, it's a safe bet the book was better.

McCormack is the film's lead, Jean, a photographer who is using a weekend visit to the Isles of Shoals to do a work assignment, but also using the romantic surroundings to reconnect with her Pulitzer Prize-winning poet husband, Thomas. Accompanying them on the boat trip is Thomas's brother Rich (Josh Lucas) and his new girlfriend Addeline (Elizabeth Hurley). Jean is on the Isle to get photographs of the place where the area's most famous murders took place.

As the story goes, a Norwegian immigrant named Maren Hontvet (Sarah Polley) and her husband John (Ulrich Thompson) are a fishing family living on the Isle with Maren's sister Karen (Katrin Cartlidge), their brother Evan (Anders W. Berthelsen), and his wife Anethe (Vinessa Shaw). Also living with them is a boarder named Louis Wagner (Ciaran Hinds). According to the official story, Wagner, in a jealous rage, murdered Karen and Anethe while Maren escaped and hid on the shore to await the return of her brother and husband who had gone for a night of fishing. Wagner was convicted of the crime though, to the day he was hanged, he denied his guilt.

For some reason, the official story doesn't sit well with Jean who, though she is just supposed to take pictures, begins investigating the murders. The story she uncovers vaguely resembles the story unfolding on the boat between her husband, his brother and Addeline. Jealousy, suspicion, and questionable behavior all begin to mirror the story of the murder. You can see where this is leading.

It's not the most original setup, but to the credit of director Kathryn Bigelow the film doesn't go in exactly the direction you think it's heading. We saw a similar setup earlier this year in the dramatic romance Possession, where a pair of historians begin a relationship that mirrors the one they are researching. In The Weight of Water, as Jean investigates what really happened in the Smuttynose murder case, she senses a similar pattern evolving amongst her group leading to a moral situation foreshadowed by the true story of the murders. There is a seemingly supernatural element to the film, in what I believed were Jean's visions of what happened in the past. However this hint of the supernatural never truly plays out, it is merely used to connect the two stories.

Here is the problem with this film, the film switches between the past and present so randomly that we lose the connection between them. The links between the two stories are tenuous at best.

The real story of the murders, as uncovered by Jean, is far more lurid and interesting than the rather dull melodrama unfolding on the boat. Yet, the screenwriter and director seem to want to play up the parallels between the two. The only real parallel is jealousy, and by the time that becomes clear, you're left saying, is that it? Jealousy is a common thread in a lot of murders or potential murders; one would hope after sitting through two hours of this film, one would get something a little more interesting than the green eyed monster.

Sarah Polley gives yet another beautifully layered performance, using her big round eyes to communicate her character's conflicted nature. Looking at her sparse surroundings and her extremely dull husband, it's no wonder she would entertain psychotic thoughts, anything to distract from her life must have been welcome.

The Smuttynose Murders are a true story of lust, incest, and ax murders; of lies and deceit; and a cover up that may have sent an innocent man to the gallows. The story would be sensational if it weren't true and should have been an easy fit on the big screen. However, when combined with the dramatized modern story, it doesn't get the treatment it deserved.

Movie Review K 19 The Widowmaker

K19: The Widowmaker 

Directed Kathryn Bigelow 

Written by Christopher Kyle 

Starring Harrison Ford, Liam Neeson, Peter Sarsgard 

Release Date July 19th, 2002

Published July 18th, 2002 

Few genres come with an atmosphere built in. Film noirs of the 1950's, with their smoke filled back rooms, guys in trenchcoats and femme fatales, is an example of a genre with built in atmosphere. Another genre with an atmosphere built right into it is the submarine film. When you see a sub movie you’re guaranteed many guys crammed into tight quarters and claustrophobic interiors where the walls are actually coming in on you.

The new Harrison Ford film K-19 expertly takes advantage of the built in atmosphere, using it to crank up the intensity of a film based on real life events.

It's 1961 and the Russians are gearing up to show the Americans they have nuclear strike capability. Unfortunately, according to the captain of the navy's one nuclear class sub, Captain Polenin (Liam Neeson), the boat isn't ready. Despite the boat's obvious technical problems the government orders the ship commissioned in 4 weeks for a run which will lead to the firing of a test missile within range of American spy planes. 

Of course if things went as planned there wouldn't be a movie. Captain Polenin's pleas for more time to fix the boat are ignored and Polenin is demoted to executive officer. Polenin is then replaced by Captain Vostokoff (Ford), a Captain known for his party loyalty and connections that are rumored to have earned him the prestigious post. The boat sails even after the ship's nuclear expert is fired for drunkenness and replaced by a green rookie right out the military academy.

Tensions flare between Polenin and Vostikoff after Vostikoff endangers the crew in order to test the boats limits. Unfortunately, the test may have led to the failure of the sub’s nuclear core. There is only one way to fix the reactor, send someone into the reactor itself and fix the problem by hand. Keep in mind we are talking about a nuclear reactor, where radiation can eat right through you. This leads to scenes of compelling bravery all the more sobering knowing that it is based on a true story.

All of these setup scenes are well staged as well as the action sequences which are extremely familiar to us as we near "crush depth". No depth charges though, likely a first for a sub movie. Even as familiar or even clichéd as these scenes are, director Kathryn Bigelow defly handles them, using the dramatic weight of her actors and some impressive special effects that take you outside the boat as if you were hanging onto the side of it.

Indeed Ford and Neeson have some familiar dialogue exchanges, questions of loyalty, competence and motives. Each actor however transcends these problems with their restrained and dignified presence. Ford and Neeson are imposing actors whose authority can be expressed with looks and manner. Peter Sarsgaard plays the green nuclear officer Vadim who, while struggling to hold onto his accent, still delivers a heroic performance.

Give credit to director Bigelow and her crew for casting actors able to garner our sympathy, considering they are portraying our enemies. The history lesson is sobering and the Cold War backdrop is well used to increase the tension. The ending leaves something to be desired as it overstays its welcome, but overall K-19 is a solid, dramatic, history lesson with fantastic performances.

Movie Review The Hurt Locker

The Hurt Locker (2009) 

Directed by Kathryn Bigelow 

Written by Mark Boal 

Starring Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Evangeline Lilly, Ralph Fiennes, Guy Pearce 

Release Date June 26th, 2009 

Published June 25th, 2009 

The Hurt Locker is the most intense, breathtaking moviegoing experience of my critical career. I have had some movies really grind me into my seat but few do so as compellingly as The Hurt Locker, an Iraq war drama that avoids nearly all of the pitfalls of the myriad Iraq war movies of the past five years.

Lost in a sea of muddled agendas and fearful pandering, movies about the Iraq war have never taken hold within the culture the way movies like All Quiet On the Western Front or Patton did for World War 2 or Platoon and Full Metal Jacket did for Vietnam. Hell, even Rambo managed to be both an audience grabber and a commentary on Vietnam.

No such luck for movies like Jarhead or Stop-Loss. Each a well made, well intentioned movie, but movies at a loss to capture this elusive and ill-defined conflict in the middle east. Each attempts to be about soldiers and their real life struggles and each fails for lack of conviction and an inability to draw a line between anti-war agendizing and dramatizing the real struggles of their characters.

Now comes The Hurt Locker a film that sidesteps agendizing through the luck of timing and a smart specificity. The luck of timing comes in being released at a time when the conflict has receded from the headlines and is no longer the burning hot lightning rod it once was. The specificity comes from the focus on a set of very specific, very unique soldiers, the men in the business of bomb disposal.

Jeremy Renner stars in The Hurt Locker as Lt. Willam James. On his third tour, James claims to have disposed of more than 800 bombs and he keeps coming back for more. Whether he is addicted to adrenaline or has a serious death wish, William is the best at what he does and his seeming recklessness is arguably what has kept him alive. He makes decisions that others don't have the guts to make.

Joining William on this tour is Sgt. JT Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) a bomb tech in duty only, he has yet to raise the nerve to don the protective suit and walk up to the bomb. And Specialist Owen Eldridge, a skittish youngster who remains tortured by all he's seen.

Together they are fighting through the last 100 days of what will hopefully, for Sanborn and Eldridge anyway, be a last tour. Each day brings a seemingly more dangerous and even larger bomb and the tension released at the end of the day is something akin to a constant stream of adrenalin that never shuts off.

Director Katherine Bigelow chooses a pseudo-documentary style of shooting that amps the tension even more. The digital cameras and limited angles draw the audience right into the danger. You will be surprised to learn that The Hurt Locker recorded more footage than even Coppola's epic Apocalypse Now and yet, what is onscreen is so tense and tight it seems of a moment, in the moment.

You have seen bombs and even bomb disposal in movies before and you have certainly seen the horrors of war before. But, there is something in the style of Director Bigelow and the intensity of Jeremy Renner's performance that sets it apart, and above so many other war movies.

Much of that comes from the scripting of Mark Boal who researched The Hurt Locker as an embedded journalist for Playboy Magazine. Traveling with and witnessing what bomb techs do in Iraq gave Boal a unique and thorough perspective on these very particular men and their job.

The Hurt Locker is a visceral, physical, filmgoing experience that will have you twisting in your seat, holding your breath and begging for the air to come back into the room. It is a fierce and ferocious film that will leave you spent by the end. The walk from the theater is likely to be a somber one, but with the reward being a movie experience like few others.

Moving, exciting, exhilarating and enthralling, The Hurt Locker is among the best movies of the year.