Movie Review The Bricklayer

The Bricklayer (2024) 

Directed by Renny Harlin 

Written by Hanna Weg, Matt Johnson 

Starring Aaron Eckhardt, Nina Dobrev, Tim Blake Nelson, Clifton Collins Jr. 

Release Date January 5th, 2023 

Published January 4th, 2023 

The Bricklayer is a remarkably banal and completely terrible movie. The film stars Aaron Eckhardt as the titular bricklayer. Naturally, he's not bricklayer, not really anyway. He does lay bricks and even builds a small wall early in the movie, but his tragic backstory is soon revealed. The Bricklayer, aka Vail, lost his family when they were slaughtered by his former friend, played by Clifton Collins Jr. This caused Vail to abandon the life of a CIA spy in favor of bricks. He believes that he had killed his former friend but now he's found out that he's wrong. 

Collins' terrorist character is back and is now murdering international journalists and framing the CIA for the kills. The CIA needs Vail to come out of retirement and finish the job of killing the terrorist. Naturally, the only person the CIA could possibly team him with is an inexperienced tech wiz who can find information that the rest of the CIA can't because their lazy and jaded and she's young and beautiful. Nina Dobrev is the whippersnapper CIA agent who will pose as Vail's wife as they snoop their way inside the high society of Greece where the most recent murdered journalist was staying. 

The cliches of The Bricklayer move fast and furious. Literally, some of these were made cliche by the Fast and Furious movies. Aside from a hero who enjoys the trade of bricklaying, there is nothing remotely original about The Bricklayer. I mean everything, right down to star Aaron Eckhardt's raspy tough guy speaking voice. In one of the first scenes in the movie, Eckhardt is shot by one of those bad guys who rarely hits anything while firing a needless number of bullets. So, Eckhardt duct tapes his gunshot would shut, and engages in a hand-to-hand fight that would put most MMA fights to shame. 

Read my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018) 

Directed by The Coen Brothers

Written by The Coen Brothers

Starring James Franco, Zoe Kazan, Liam Neeson, Tim Blake Nelson, Tom Waits, Harry Melling 

Release Date November 9th, 2018

Published November 6th, 2018 

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs was intended to be western anthology series and not an anthology movie. But when the Coen Brothers and Netflix came to the decision not to move forward with it as a series, the idea came to make the vignettes that were already completed into one anthology movie ala The Twilight Zone or Creepshow from the 80’s movies that weren’t one story but multiple stories with different casts but similar themes. 

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs contains six stories with the theme of death and boredom in the old west running through each but with that twist of the Coen Brothers dark wit to set it apart from anything you might otherwise recognize. These incredible mini-movies within The Ballad of Buster Scruggs are better than most of the movies that have been released theatrically this year. I know I would rather pay to watch the Coen Brothers make a 24 minute movie than watch almost any teen-centric horror movie or YA romance released this year in theaters. 

The first of the six mini-movies is the title story, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. Actor Tim Blake Nelson portrays Buster Scruggs, a songsmith and gunslinger on his way to a new town. Buster has a habit of singing his thoughts even if only his horse is listening. He’s also a wanted man as he is the fastest gun in the west and an accomplished killer. We get to see Buster’s handiwork when he stops for a drink and winds up killing an entire bar full of thugs while barely breaking a sweat. 

Next, Buster rolls into a new town and immediately announces himself in search of a card game. When Buster refuses to ante up on a hand that isn’t his, he winds up in a dangerous situation with a man named Surly Joe (Clancy Brown). I will leave you to find out how this confrontation goes down. It’s both easy and difficult to guess what is going to happen in this vignette. Buster is the title character but the build appears to be toward his demise. You’ll have to see it for yourself but I loved the clever way the story ended. 

The next vignette stars James Franco as an outlaw attempting to rob a bank settled somewhere in the midst of a desert. The bank teller is a wild-eyed nut, played by Coen Brothers regular, Stephen Root. When Franco’s outlaw attempts his robbery he is thwarted by this crazy codger and his DIY bulletproof outfit that must be seen to be believed. Franco has the funniest line in the movie, a dry, rye observation that is dark at its heart and brilliantly timed. Let’s just say that gallows humor is quite literal in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. 

The third vignette is a brilliantly told story about an old prospector played by the perfectly grizzled Tom Waits. The eclectic singer-songwriter channels his inner Gabby Hayes for an ingeniously crazy performance as a man who has perhaps spent a little too much time alone pursuing gold like Gollum searches for the ring of power. This is another poetic and unpredictable piece of storytelling that has a tremendously unexpected twist ending. Waits is a genius who fits perfectly into the world of the Coen Brothers. 

Up next is a strange and sad story about a pair of hucksters with a unique gimmick. Liam Neeson stars as a man who travels from town to town putting on a remarkably unique show. He’s happened upon a man with no arms and no legs, played by Harry Potter veteran, Harry Melling, whose orations of legendary political speeches, Shakespearean sonnets and poems and bible verses have earned him a minor amount of fame. Neeson carries the armless and legless man with him everywhere, cares for his every need and appears to have been doing so for some time as we join the story. This is slowest and perhaps the darkest of the vignettes but even as the least of the movie, it’s better than most theatrical features in 2018. 

My favorite vignette in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is The Gal Who Got Rattled. In this story, a brother and sister, played by Jefferson Mays and Zoe Kazan, are joining a wagon train to Oregon where the brother has promised that he has a job waiting and a friend he can marry his sister off to. Unfortunately, the brother dies of Cholera on the trip and the sister is left at the mercy of the wagon train. 

Bill Heck and Grainger Hines are driving the wagon train and as the sister looks for a way to survive, Heck takes a liking to her and the two begin a very chaste and very sweet courtship. Tragedy hangs in the air and yet, Kazan and Heck are so lovely together that we allow ourselves to be lulled into caring about them and forgetting for a moment that each of these vignettes have been about tragic death. 

I won’t spoil the ending, it’s too perfect for me to take the moment from you dear reader. Watch The Ballad of Buster Scruggs and let Kazan and Heck draw you in and win you over. You will be blown away by the incredible way in which this small story plays out and combines classic western elements with grand dramatic tragedy. There’s also a little dog named President Pierce who plays a surprising role in how this story plays out, even getting a dramatic and breathtaking moment. 

The final vignette may or may not be a trip into the afterlife. Tyne Daly, Brendan Gleeson, Saul Rubinek, Jonjo O’Neill and Chelcie Ross star in the closing story and they have an exceptional banter about life and people and the afterlife sort of sneaks up on you. Gleeson and O’Neill each sing in this segment and do so beautifully, delivering sad, Irish tunes that brilliantly fit the mournfulness that hovers throughout this segment. 

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is the best thing Netflix has ever produced. The film is remarkable with the Coen Brothers at the absolute peak of their game combining their love of western tropes with remarkably authentic characters that not only reflect classic Hollywood westerns of the 30’s and 40’s but with the blood, guts and gloom of the 60’s Italian westerns. The film is darkly funny but also incredibly easy to watch and enjoy. Stream The Ballad of Buster Scruggs immediately and if you don’t have Netflix, get it so you can see this movie. 

Movie Review: Colossal

Colossal (2017) 

Directed by Nacho Vigalondo 

Written by Nacho Vigalondo 

Starring Anne Hathaway, Jason Sudeikis, Dan Stevens, Tim Blake Nelson, Austin Stowell 

Release Date April 7th, 2017 

Published April 7th, 2017

As metaphors go, Godzilla has seen his fair share of interpretations. While most often Godzilla is a stand in for nuclear age mismanagement, the big guy has also been used to further environmental messages, anti-war messages and in his latest and most unique incarnation, in the comic-drama “Colossal,” Godzilla stands in for the emotional trauma people can inflict on others. As unique as “Colossal” is in the interpretation of the legendary movie monster it does adhere with the idea that the humans are nearly as monstrous as the monster we created.

Gloria (Anne Hathaway) is a mess. She has no direction, no job and few prospects. Oh, and Gloria has a serious problem with alcohol. Gloria’s issues finally come to head when her live-in boyfriend Tim (Dan Stevens) kicks her to the curb. With nowhere to go, Gloria returns to her childhood home, recently abandoned by her parents, and squats on mom and dad’s dime, eventually finding a job at a bar owned by her childhood friend Oscar (Jason Sudeikis).

I say that Oscar is Gloria’s friend but as the story of “Colossal” plays out the dynamic between Oscar and Gloria will evolve in some very unexpected ways. Unexpected is a hallmark of “Colossal” which comes to find that Gloria’s many, many issues have manifested through some sort of portal that links her thoughts and actions to a Godzilla like creature that wreaks havoc in South Korea each time Gloria goes a little too far in her self-centered partying.

This is no dream sequence in “Colossal.” The story here, crafted by veteran Spanish filmmaker Nacho Vigalondo, manifests Godzilla as a real monster that does attack South Korea and mimics the actions of Gloria who decides to turn her life around so that she can avoid killing thousands of people each time she gets drunk and rowdy. Oscar has his own connection to this unique manifestation but that would be far too spoiler heavy to reveal here.

“Collossal” is not at all the movie it appears to be in advertisements and trailers. The marketing for “Colossal” plays up the comic aspects of this story despite the comedy being almost incidental to the psycho-drama that the film becomes as it goes along. There is a darkness and complexity to “Colossal” that producers have apparently been attempting to hide from audiences on the assumption that people aren’t interested in a unique premise, they just want to think they are going to laugh.

As insulting as the marketing of “Colossal” unquestionably is, the film itself is rare and authentic, a work of a wonderfully inventive filmmaker. I am, in all honesty, not familiar with the work of Nacho Vigalondo. That said, “Colossal” is a fantastic introduction to a filmmaker with a unique vision and approach to storytelling. This is just the kind of original and exciting filmmaking that I hope we can encourage more of in the future.

Movie Review Big Miracle

Big Miracle (2012) 

Directed by Ken Kwapis 

Written by Jack Amiel, Michael Begler

Starring Drew Barrymore, John Krasinski, Dermot Mulroney, Tim Blake Nelson, Vinessa Shaw, Ted Danson

Release Date February 3rd, 2012 

Published February 4th, 2012

Movies released in the first two months of any year tend to stink. It's not a rule and this fact is certainly not based on an intention to release bad movies; it's a function of Hollywood studios seeking a time of light movie-going during which to off-load a troubled project that does not hold the potential to battle the box office behemoths of the Spring, Summer and Winter seasons.

This fact makes a movie like "Big Miracle" all the more welcome. This delightful story, based on real life events, is thoughtful, sweet, harrowing and, in the end, uplifting; a very rare combination at this oft-neglected time of the movie-going year.

Based on a true story

Drew Barrymore stars in "Big Miracle" as Rachel Kramer a Greenpeace activist who, when we meet her, is living in Alaska and battling a big oil company, headed by J.W McGraw (Ted Danson), over drilling in the Arctic Wildlife Preserve. When Rachel hears the story of a trio of whales trapped off the coast of an Alaskan whaling village she begins an extraordinary campaign to free the trapped creatures that becomes an international cause.

The reporter who uncovers the whale story happens to be Rachel's ex-boyfriend Adam (John Krasinski). Yes, this fact is a plot convenience but get over it; Barrymore and Krasinski have good banter and romantic chemistry and that brings another layer of joy to "Big Miracle." Also adding to the joy of this terrific, heartfelt little movie is young Ahmaogak Sweeney who plays Nathan, a native of the village; grandson of a local whaling captain, and our narrator.

A colorful and clever supporting cast

There are minor missteps in "Big Miracle" like the casting of Kristen Bell and John Michael Higgins as heartless reporters chasing the whale story for ratings, but for the most part the film is spot on. The majority of the supporting cast is populated by colorful characters like Rob Riggle and James Le Gros as a pair of brothers from Minnesota who's de-icing machine for ice fisherman becomes a key component in keeping the breathing holes open for the whales.

Director Ken Kwapis is a veteran storyteller from TV's "The Office" and the big screen teen adventure "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants." Kwapis has a real knack for combining heart and humor without seeming cloying or manipulative. In "Big Miracle" he takes a real life story and invests it with relatable warmth and a cast that earns our sympathy from the opening frame.

Smiling, laughing and Cheering

"Big Miracle" may be the big surprise of the early portion of 2012. This sweet family-friendly does have moments that will be hard for young children to watch but by the end the whole family will be smiling, laughing and cheering.

Movie Review Eye of God

Eye of God (1997) 

Directed by Tim Blake Nelson

Written by Tim Blake Nelson

Starring Nick Stahl, Martha Plimpton, Kevin Anderson, Hal Holbrook, Richard Jenkins, Margo Martindale 

Release Date October 17th, 1997 

Published July 13th, 2003 

In his relatively short career as a director, Tim Blake Nelson has shown a fascination with tragedy. In The Grey Zone it was the horror of the Holocaust. In ”O” it was teen violence by way of Shakespeare. And in Nelson's very first feature, Eye of God, it was a town in Oklahoma that seemed bathed in tragedy from economic depression to domestic abuse to suicide. Made with the help of Robert Redford's Sundance Institute in 1997, Eye of God was the first indication that the actor had the eye of a director.

Set sometime in the 1980's Eye of God centers on the small town of Kingfish, Oklahoma. A town suffering though a major economic downturn that has people moving away at the rate of a family a week. Into this tragic situation comes a former convict, Jack Stillings (Kevin Anderson). He has come to Kingfish to meet his prison pen pal, a young waitress named Ainsley Dupree (Martha Plimpton). At first Ainsley has cold feet and thinks of leaving but Jack convinces her to stay and that night they have their first date.

Running parallel to Jack and Ainsley's story is that of Tom Spencer (Nick Stahl) who's mother committed suicide, leaving him with his overbearing Aunt and with thoughts of taking his own life. When Tom is found wandering along the side of the road covered in blood, it's obvious he has been involved in something awful. Unfortunately, a shell-shocked Tom is unable to speak and can't tell anyone what happened.

As we learn from a voiceover provided by Hal Holbrook, who also plays the sheriff of Kingfish, Jack and Ainsley's story is being recounted in flashback, while Tom's story takes place in the present. The film shifts backwards and forwards much like Brian Singer's Usual Suspects. The time shifts in Eye of God are signaled by overlapping sounds and static camera shots. The camera pans slowly away from the characters to some various image as another begins to speak or a phone rings or a door slams. It's not a new approach but for a first time director it was a challenging choice and one that Nelson carries off very well.

The script, also written by Nelson, is part mystery, part character study. Unfortunately, the mystery unravels well before the film is over. It becomes clear which character is guilty and that takes some of the punch out of the film’s ending. What the ending does have though is well-acted tragedy that Martha Plimpton and Nick Stahl really hit home. Stahl's final scene is a real heartbreaker and shows the potential that he is finally beginning to live up to some six years later. It's a wonder we don't see more of Martha Plimpton, who has always turns in an effective performance in whatever she is in, even the God awful 100 Cigarettes.

The film’s only real problem is it's leading man Kevin Anderson. A true straight to video legend, Anderson evinces an east coast attitude even as he's supposed to be playing a down home Midwesterner. His portrayal done with a hint of bad Midwest accent turn Jack into a redneck caricature, a hypocritical bible thumper who never for a moment fools the audience into sympathizing with him.

As artful as Eye of God is, it's not entertaining. It's just sad. I loved the performances by Stahl and Plimpton and Tim Blake Nelson's risky directing style. However, the film’s sadness is overwhelming. When the mystery falls apart just past the half way point, the audience is left with nothing but the tragedy. That and Anderson's performance keep Eye Of God from rising to the level of Nelson's follow up features “O” and The Grey Zone, but that is to be expected from a first feature.

Movie Review Holes

Holes (2003) 

Directed by Andrew Davis 

Written by Louis Sachar 

Starring Shia LeBeouf, Sigourney Weaver, Jon Voight, Patricia Arquette, Tim Blake Nelson 

Release Date April 18th, 2003 

Published April 17th, 2003 

Posters and wall hangings for the movie Holes began popping up in my local theater over 3 months ago. Because they touted the Disney connection of the film, I took little notice of them writing the film off as yet another formula Disney family movie. It wasn't until recently that I found out Holes is based on a book that had been a phenomenal hit with grade schoolers. This piqued my interest so I checked in with my grade school pop culture consultants, my nieces Megan, 11, and Alexa, 9. They told me that indeed Holes was a big hit in their school though Alexa was more interested than Megan was. Alexa was a little annoyed about my questions because she claims she told me about Holes a long time ago. So armed with this new knowledge, and never one to be left out of the pop culture loop, I went and checked out the movie.

Holes tells a couple of parallel stories that all play into one central story. The center of the story is Stanley Yelnats (Shia Lebeouf) who while walking home is hit in the head by a pair of baseball cleats. What Stanley doesn't know right away is that shoes were stolen from a charity auction for the homeless and were the property of a famous ballplayer. The film doesn't tip off the audience to exactly what is happening, all we know is that Stanley didn't steal the shoes but is nevertheless railroaded in court and sentenced to 18 months in a juvenile camp called Camp Greenlake.

The name Camp Greenlake is ironic because it’s far from green and there is no lake anywhere. The camp is in the middle of the desert and is run by three numbskull bad guys, Mr. Sir (Jon Voight), Dr. Pendanski (Tim Blake Nelson) and Warden Walker (Sigourney Weaver). According to the slimy Mr. Sir, Stanley's punishment at Camp Greenlake for his 18-month stay is to dig holes. Everyday for endless hours, nothing but digging. The counselors say digging builds character but it’s obvious to even the camp's most dunderheaded inhabitant that they are digging for something.

That something may be the treasure of a legendary bank robber known as Kissin Kate Barlow (Patricia Arquette). Kate Barlow was once a loving, docile school teacher who taught both the children and adults of Greenlake how to read and write. Her life was changed forever by a short sweet romance with Sam the onion man (West Wing’s Dule Hill). It began simply enough with Sam trading Kate his delicious onions in exchange for her delicious peaches. Then Sam offered to fix holes in the schoolhouse roof and from there, a tentative romance that is sweet and tender and yet barely takes up 10 to 15 minutes of screentime. The Sam and Kate subplot is the best thing about the film. Director Andrew Davis paints the romance quickly but without sacrificing the tenderness and Arquette and Hill have terrific chemistry. As the subplot develops in flashback, the fact that Sam is black tips the audience to the likely tragic ending of the romance to come.

There is yet another flashback story that plays into the main story, which is the story of the Yelnats family curse that Stanley believes has landed him in trouble. It seems years ago before coming to America Stanley's great grandfather made a deal with a sorceress Madam Zeroni, but before completing the deal he ran off to America and Madame Zeroni curse the family forever.

I won't reveal how the subplots play into the film’s main story, but I will say that it all makes sense in the end and the multiple flashbacks never become overbearing or distracting. They each reveal little clues that play in the ending of the film. Again I cannot praise enough the romance between Arquette and Hill which is of course meant to teach a lesson of history and tolerance. Because of Davis' skillful direction and writer Louis Sachar's smart script (Sachar also wrote the book), the subplot never seems preachy or heavy-handed.

The surprising thing about Holes is the amount of negativity sprinkled throughout that the film’s cute kids movie trailer doesn't prepare you for. The trailer is quite a swerve, leading those who didn't read the book to think you were seeing a Goonies-like gang of friends who stand up to the bad guys and work together as friends to find treasure. In reality, the supporting characters played up as Stanley's friends are for most of the film rather mean and unlikable. That is destined to change by the end of the film but it's certainly surprising at the beginning. Credit Sachar for such a risky choice to allow the kids of Camp Greenlake to actually be the obnoxious troublemakers that would end up being sent to a camp like the one in the film.

The problem areas of the film come from its one-note villains, Weaver, Nelson and especially Jon Voight. Playing a verified version of his amazon guide from Anaconda, Voight gets on your nerves with his many character quirks and quick tempered over acting. As for Weaver and Nelson, they don't rely on quirks and over acting likely because their character development was left on the cutting room floor, leaving them to simply be jerks. The film’s pacing is also at times a little slow and will leave many checking their watch and feeling they have been in the theater far longer than it seems

Nevertheless, there is more good than bad in Holes which is a parable about race, love, family and friendship masked in a mystery about buried treasure and western legend. With such unwieldy elements to tie into one story, credit Louis Sachar and Andrew Davis for making the film coherent. That it's also mildly entertaining is a nice bonus.

Movie Review The Grey Zone

The Grey Zone (2002) 

Directed by Tim Blake Nelson

Written by Tim Blake Nelson

Starring David Arquette, Steve Buscemi, Harvey Keitel, Mira Sorvino, Natasha Lyonne 

Release Date October 18th, 2002 

Published October 15th, 2002 

It's amazing, the amount of stories there are left to tell about World War 2. So many perspectives: Survivors, saviors, agressors and evildoers, each with their own story to tell.

No stories are as poignant as those of the survivors of the Holocaust. Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List went inside the worst of the German concentration camps and now Tim Blake Nelson's The Grey Zone takes the point of view of a German camp in Poland. Although The Grey Zone isn't the masterpiece that Schindler's List was, it is a moving and shockingly visceral film experience.

Of the many untold stories of the Holocaust one of the most heartbreaking is that of Jewish people who, to prolong their own lives, worked for the German soldiers preparing other Jews to die in the gas chamber. The Grey Zone takes us inside one of these groups called Sonderkommandos, considered by the German army to be among the most coldly efficient. However no matter how well they do their job fooling other jews into thinking they are just taking a mass shower and not being gassed to death, the members of this group are aware that no one in their position has ever lasted longer than four months and time is nearly up.

Amongst this group of self preservationists are a group of familiar faces including David Arrquette and Daniel Benzali. Working with them from another camp is an industrious Polish Jew played by Steve Buscemi who trades strategic information with this group as they plan an uprising. Another subplot involves a group of women including Mira Sorvino and Natasha Lyonne, working in a German munitions plant and stealing gun powder to use as part of the uprising.

The film seems to be a shocking story of the planning of an uprise while doing anything to survive, but it takes a far more human turn when a young girl survives the gas chamber and the Sonderkommandos risk the uprising to save her.

The film is based on a book by Dr. Miklos Nyiszli called Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eye Witness Account. Dr. Nyiszli, a Jewish doctor who stayed alive by agreeing to work with the evil Dr. Josef Mengele performing horrific experiments on jewish children. Dr. Nyiszli was at Auschwitz and was under the direct supervision of a commander named Muhsfeldt (Harvey Keitel). Muhsfeldt attempted to use the doctor to spy on the Sonderkommandos, whom he suspects of plotting something, though he isn't certain what. The doctor doesn't agree to spy, but offers by Muhsfeldt to save his wife and daughter may have led him to give more information than he may have wanted.

The Grey Zone offers no judgement of the Sonderkommandos and indeed it is difficult to take them to task for what they did. I would venture to say that the results of their treachery were punishment enough. They did what they could to survive and the uprising they planned and executed, blowing up a pair of German crematoriums, saved lives. These men and woman weren't saints but they were human, far more human than their captors, no matter what they were responsible for.

Director Tim Blake Nelson makes it two excellent films in a row. His sophomore turn behind the camera, the slickly-produced modern take on Shakespeare's Othello called "O", was a poetic and strikingly sad movie. It is however not nearly as sad or hard hitting as The Grey Zone, which is as gritty and frightening as it is sad. Even an actor of David Arquette's calibur can't ruin this powerful and emotional film.

Movie Review The Good Girl

The Good Girl (2002) 

Directed by Miguel Arteta

Written by Mike White 

Starring Jennifer Aniston, Jake Gyllenhaal, John C. Reilly, Tim Blake Nelson

Release Date August 7th, 2002 

Published August 7th, 2002 

I sometimes wonder why I watch Friends. Was it the marketing hype? Was it the fact that seemingly everyone else watches it? Or. is the show actually pretty good. Honestly I'm not sure but I think that I like it because of the potential in the cast. Each member of the Friends cast has the talent to do something great. None has so far achieved that greatness.

Until now.

In The Good Girl, Jennifer Aniston is Justine Last, a bored to death cosmetics clerk at the Retail Rodeo. Justine hates her job and her coworkers, only tolerating their existence to make the job bearable. On top of that Justine is trapped in a loveless marriage to a lazy, shiftless pothead named Phil, expertly played by John C. Reilly. Phil and his pal Bubba (Tim Blake Nelson) paint houses together and spend most of their off hours on Justine's couch smoking weed.

Into all this comes Holden (Jake Gyllenhaal) a new hire at the Retail Rodeo. Holden is quiet and sad, always keeps to himself and Justine admires and envies his solitude. The two strike up a friendship that quickly moves to the bedroom. Of course things are never that easy. While Holden falls madly for Justine, she is unable to overcome her fears and leave her husband. After the excitement of leading the double life of wife and adulterer wears off, Justine begins to see Holden for who he truly is, an emotionally disturbed 22 year old child. The solitude and freedom she loved and coveted were products of cold indifferent parents and not her romantic notion of the tortured artist.

Aniston is superb. Her performance is raw and real. The decisions her character makes are at times shocking and dumb but the mistakes are made poignant by the desire for freedom that caused them and by Aniston's sympathetic eyes that seem constantly on the verge of tears. Aniston's supporting cast is equally strong, especially John C. Reilly who makes the husband's cluelessness endearing and sympathetic. In a great scene near the end, we find out why Phil smokes pot so much, a scene that is funny, touching and cathartic.

Gyllenhaal continues his odd streak of films from Bubble Boy to Donnie Darko and now this. In this film we see almost a repeat of his Darko role but with more sadness and rage. Writer Mike White and director Miguel Arteta teamed previously on the much buzzed about pic Chuck & Buck. After seeing The Good Girl, I desperately want to see Chuck & Buck. If it's as good as The Good Girl, we could have the next hot indie team on our hands.

The Good Girl is an art film with a pop sensibility provided by the casting of Aniston shedding her Friends role and becoming a great actress. This film could actually go down in history as the movie that killed Friends. With Aniston getting such terrific reviews and Oscar buzz it won't be long before she leaves the small screen for good.

Movie Review Syriana

Syriana (2005) 

Directed by Stephen Gaghan 

Written by Stephen Gaghan 

Starring George Clooney, Matt Damon, Jeffrey Wright, Chris Cooper, Amanda Peet, Tim Blake Nelson

Release Date November 23rd, 2005 

Published November 22nd, 2005 

2005 has been an extraordinary year for George Clooney. His second directorial effort Good Night and Good Luck, a film about the pitched battle between newsman Edward R. Murrow and Senator Joseph McCarthy, has been lauded by critics for its intellect and social relevance. Both Good Night and Good Luck and Clooney's latest acting effort Syriana are awards contenders with Clooney likely competing against himself as a supporting player in both films. In Syriana, Clooney is part of one of maybe a dozen subplots in a byzantine tale of corruption and futility. An exceptionally thought provoking narrative that is as fascinating as it is depressing.

Describing the plot of Syriana is a somewhat futile task. The complex, non-linear form of the script defies any simplistic description. The film is essentially about how business is done in the oil industry. But the real essence of Syriana is futility. The futility in attempting to stop the madness in the middle east. Futility in attempting to discern the culpability of oil companies in creating the instability of the middle east. And finally the futility of following the myriad of motivations of each of the characters in Syriana.

There is George Clooney's Bob Barnes, a CIA operative in the middle east, who we first meet as he is setting up some potential terrorists in Iran to be killed. Bob is getting older and his colleagues back in Washington are talking about the end of his career. Bob's career, the chance at a cushy desk job, rides on one last task. He must kill a potential new middle eastern king. When that job goes bad, Bob's career is beyond merely being over.

Matt Damon plays Brian Woodman, an oil industry analyst who lands a major new middle eastern client after his own son is killed at a party held by this new client. Naturally, this arrangement does not sit well with Brian's wife (Amanda Peet) who cannot abide profiting from her son's death. This does not deter however as becomes the top economic advisor to his new client. With this client about to become the biggest player in the Middle East, Brian stands to get very rich. This, however, puts Brian's interests at odds with a number of other competing interests.

Jeffrey Wright, Chris Cooper and Christopher Plummer inhabit another of Syria's many plots. Wright is an ambitious Washington lawyer who lands a gig trying to smooth the way for two major oil companies to merge into the fifth largest company in the world. Cooper is the CEO of one of the two companies, Killen Oil of Houston, Texas, and Christopher Plummer plays Wright's boss whose CIA connections are key in helping the merger succeed.

How these plots intrude on one another only becomes clear well into your post-film analysis. While watching Syriana you are dazzled individually by each plot, even as you have little idea what they mean or where they are headed. It's a rather astonishing film that can leave an audience so bedeviled and at once so fascinated. Syriana is as compelling a film as they come.

Director Steven Gaghan knows a little something about sprawling multi-layered, massively cast epics. It was Gaghan who scripted the Oscar nominated Traffic. Syriana and Traffic are each muckraking cousins in terms of stirring debates on important issues. Traffic is slightly superior in that it somehow feels more complete and its characters' motivations so much clearer. But both films are a testament to Gaghan's talent for complex and meaningful stories. 

When late in Syriana Clooney's CIA agent is chasing through the desert in attempt to save someone's life you cannot figure if it's just dumb luck that landed him in exactly the right spot or just an editing decision that excised the scene that might explain his luck. At one moment he looks lost, the next he is tearing off after exactly the people he's searching for. I say that Clooney's character was trying to save a life, but his motivation may be more ambiguous than that. There are a few more scenes missing from Syriana that might make the narrative clearer but, in the end, they aren't needed. Part of what makes Syriana fascinating is a level of ambiguity left to the audience to consider well after they have watched the film.

Working from a book by former CIA agent Robert Baer called See No Evil, director Steven Gaghan posits that much of the fictional tale of Syriana is based on reality. If this is true, Syriana could rank as one of the more depressing films of the year. Essentially it depicts oil companies, the CIA, and our government as morally bankrupt and completely corrupt. They do business with people in the middle east who are equally as corrupt and often more murderous than us, though we do more than our share of killing. 

Corruption, as illuminated in a quick but resonant speech by Tim Blake Nelson, in a pivotal cameo, is not only necessary, it is simply what we do. Corruption is American foreign policy. It is the cost of doing business, an everyday part of how things move through the Middle East. Both here and abroad corruption is everywhere and you can do nothing about because all of us, no matter how much you may deplore it, benefit from this corruption every day.

The gas you buy so cheaply as compared to other countries is the result of this corrupt system. Most of the products you buy are produced in some way, shape, or form using the oil that is siphoned from middle eastern oil fields. The corruption is inescapable unless you're willing to accept some major new inconveniences and even then you have to find a way to elect people who will put those new inconvenient policies in place, which means working around the corruption in place to hold up the corruption already in place. Good luck with that.

In a way Syriana reminds me of the first amendment documentary Orwell Rolls In His Grave, which details the corruption that has led all of America's communications industries to fall into the hands of a few wealthy elites. The thesis of 'Orwell' was that fighting the battle against the major media is a waste of time because they have all the power. Leaving Orwell I felt pretty hopeless and I had a similar, if slightly less desperate feeling leaving Syriana.

There is something hopeful in just the fact that a movie like Syriana got made. The film shines a light on some things I'm sure those in power would rather not become part of public discourse. That is not to say that Syriana has the power to change the nature of the way we do business in America but it's like the old saying about how people love bacon but no one wants to see how it's made. Syriana shows you just how our American economy is made in all of its gory, blood-soaked, greed-obsessed ways and leaves it to the individual viewers to decide how to live with that information.

Syriana is exceptional in executing its maze of plotting and leaving the audience with questions and feelings that could have a lasting impact. However, if you are looking for a simple movie to pass the time, you might want to look elsewhere. Syriana is not interested in being a simple entertainment. The makers of Syriana are intent on making you think about American foreign policy, about the feelings and interests of our allies, and enemies, and about the dirty business of making money in America. Often disheartening but never boring, Syriana is a powerful film going experience.

Movie Review The Incredible Hulk

The Incredible Hulk (2008) 

Directed by Louis Letterier

Written by Zak Penn

Starring Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth, Tim Blake Nelson, Ty Burrell, William Hurt 

Release Date June 13th, 2008

Published June 12th, 2008 

In 2003 director Ang Lee took a stab at the comic book genre and divided audiences in ways no one could have imagined. Non-comic book fans were enamored with Lee's take on the origin of the Hulk. Fans were left wondering what happened to Hulk Smash! Hulk was a box office misfire costing over 200 million dollars while taking in a paltry 124 million domestic, breaking even thanks to worldwide numbers never changing the perception of failure.

Now the Hulk is back and with Incredible back in the title he is everything that fans have been waiting for. Hulk Smash is back as well.

Edward Norton takes over the role of scientist Bruce Banner and rather than making us endure 20 or 30 minutes of back story Norton and director Louis Letterier cram what we need to know into the credits and then thrust us right into the story. David Banner is living in Brazil, hiding from a US Military, lead by General Ross (William Hurt), that wants what he has inside him.

Fans know that inside Bruce Banner is the result of an experiment gone wrong. Exposed to high levels of gamma radiation, Banner has a hulk inside him that comes out when his heart rate goes over 200 beats per minute. The General needs a sample of Banner's blood in order to synthesize it into a weapon to create super soldiers. Banner knows that is far too dangerous an idea.

Banner is seeking a cure and corresponds with a doctor in New York who may have some sort of breakthrough. Returning to the US, after a spectacular chase scene involving Banner and some US soldiers through the streets of Brazil that gives us our first glimpse of the Hulk, Banner first seeks Betty Ross, his ex love and science partner who has more than just key scientific details for him.

Running parallel to Bruce's story is that of an ambitious and dangerous mercenary named Blonsky (Tim Roth) who volunteers to become Ross's guinea pig for another Banner-esque experiment. Naturally, the experiment goes very wrong and now Ross must turn to Banner and The Hulk for help. .

The Incredible Hulk is the second movie from the gang at Marvel Comics as they begin to take a more active role in taking their legendary characters into the realm of film. The first was Iron Man and that was a huge success. Now The Incredible Hulk which is not quite Iron Man good but works well enough to shine more positive light on the production crews at Marvel.

The script for The Incredible Hulk by comic book movie veteran Zak Penn, with an alleged uncredited polish by Norton, does a terrific job balancing the need for character development with the need for full bore action and effects. It's not a perfect balance, too many times big effects overwhelm and consume the film, but not so often that Norton and his talented supporting cast can't bring it back. 

Liv Tyler, William Hurt, Tim Roth and Tim Blake Nelson provide backup for Norton and though I would like to see Tyler do something more than whimper, she and Norton strike a good chemistry. It is through Tyler and Norton's scenes that The Incredible Hulk gets its heart and humor and given the heavy handed nature of the special effects, the chemistry of these two stars is an essential element.

It's no Iron Man, even with a kick butt cameo by Tony Stark himself, but The Incredible Hulk is strong enough to put the wearying Ang Lee version out of our memories and set up plenty of intriguing storylines for the future of the Hulk series. Keep in mind this quote from the very end of the movie "We're putting a team together".