The Ace Black Movie Blog

Showing posts with label Alessandro Nivola. Show all posts

Saturday, 28 June 2025

Movie Review: The Brutalist (2024)

Genre: Epic Drama

Director: Brady Corbet

Starring: Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Alessandro Nivola

Running Time: 201 minutes

Synopsis: After the end of World War Two, renowned Hungarian architect Laszlo Toth (Adrian Brody) immigrates to the United States, leaving behind his wife Erzsebet (Felicity Jones) and niece Zsofia. A nobody in his new country, Laszlo settles in Philadelphia, where his cousin Attila (Alessandro Nivola) owns a furniture store. A period of struggle ensues, including a falling out with Attila, addiction to opium, and homelessness. Local tycoon Harrison Van Buren (Guy Pearce) learns of Laszlo's pre-war achievements and retains him to design a monumental cultural centre in memory of Harrison's mother. But many difficulties await on the journey from vision to reality.

What Works Well: This is grandiose storytelling with magnanimous cinematography, patient scene-building, and evocative music. Through the travails of one man, director and co-writer Brady Corbet explores the scope and scale of the post-war immigrant experience, here with a focus on a fractured Jewish family. Adrien Brody exudes an exhausted combination of resignation and frustration, Laszlo Toth's prior professional record and the horrors of his wartime experiences counting for nothing in the new world. He is reduced to shoveling dirt and sleeping in a shelter while subjected to the dichotomy of discrimination and wary acceptance. The winding pathway back to self-respect and achievement passes through Van Buren as a complex counterpoint and establishment representative, a wealthy but short-fused and deeply flawed power broker with the potential to both make and break the newcomer.

What Does Not Work As Well: Despite the mammoth length, several key narrative milestones are skipped, leaving behind a sometimes frustrating fill-in-the-blanks structure. The script appears to intentionally zoom in on distractions (the sexual frustrations between the Toths, once reunited; endless admiration of an Italian marble quarry), while dangling then abandoning foundational plot threads (Harrison's grown children are prominent until they are not; Toth's architectural achievements are an exercise in talk a lot but show little).

Key Quote:

Laszlo: Is there a better description of a cube than that of its construction?

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Saturday, 21 September 2024

Movie Review: Laurel Canyon (2002)

Genre: Drama

Director: Lisa Cholodenko
Starring: Frances McDormand, Christian Bale, Kate Beckinsale, Alessandro Nivola, Natascha McElhone
Running Time: 101 minutes

Synopsis: Engaged couple Sam and Alex (Christian Bale and Kate Beckinsale) move to Los Angeles, where he is about to start a hospital residency while she completes a medical dissertation. Sam's mother Jane (Frances McDormand) is a music producer, and the couple expect to initially stay at her empty house. But they are surprised to find Jane still at the house, working with a music band featuring her newest lover Ian (Alessandro Nivola). Sam and his mother do not get along, but Alex is gradually drawn into Jane's world of pot and music, and Ian quickly makes advances on Alex. Meanwhile, Sam finds his new co-worker Sara (Natascha McElhone) tempting.

What Works Well: Director and writer Lisa Cholodenko creates a disparate set of characters, and allows the worlds of art and science to rub against each other as a social experiment. Despite the languid pace and meandering plot points, watching Sam and Alex succumb to temptations carries a train-wreck-in-slow motion appeal. Frances McDormand's performance is a complex knot of nonchalant confidence and deep-seated regrets.

What Does Not Work As Well: Sam's apple-really-does-fall-close-to-the-tree journey is always forced, while the ease with which Alex ditches both her romantic anchor and her academic work is jarring. With everyone either already in the clutches of hormone-dominated life choices or well on that path, no astute characters are left to care for. The emotional outcome is unsurprisingly hollow, not helped by resolutions that happily merge inconsistencies with vagaries.

Key Quotes:

Jane: Are we ever gonna have a relationship?

Sam: Here we are - having it.

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Saturday, 22 April 2023

Movie Review: The Wizard Of Lies (2017)

Genre: Biographical Crime Drama

Director: Barry Levinson

Starring: Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Alessandro Nivola, Hank Azaria

Running Time: 132 minutes

Synopsis: The story of infamous financial fraudster Bernie Madoff (Robert De Niro) is revealed through flashbacks from his prison interview with journalist Diana B. Henriques (as herself). During the 2008 economic crisis, Madoff's private investment fund collapses. He admits to masterminding a decades-long $65 billion Ponzi scheme and is sentenced to 150 years. Investors' lives are ruined, while his sons (Alessandro Nivola and Nathan Darrow) and wife Ruth (Michelle Pfeiffer), who all claim no knowledge of the fraud, deal with the fallout.

What Works Well: Director Barry Levinson crafts a textured depiction of fake grandeur within a greed-dominated world where one charismatic swindler fooled many people for a long time. The stylistic mosaic mixes documentary-style interviews with fly-on-the-wall family revelations and public episodes of the FBI descending and dismantling Madoff's house of cards, all propelled by a captivating Robert De Niro performance.

What Does Not Work As Well: Despite the long running time, Madoff's internal drivers remain frustratingly elusive. While Levinson does well to portray the fraud victims, the balance in the final third tilts towards Madoff's sons, who as (purportedly) clueless scions are ultimately uninteresting. In contrast, more compelling characters including Madoff's right-hand associate Frank (Hank Azaria) are unceremoniously abandoned.

Conclusion: A potent portrait of carnage resulting from unchecked avarice colliding with unbridled deception.

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Monday, 7 September 2020

Movie Review: Disobedience (2017)

A romantic drama about a lesbian affair disrupting a conservative religious community, Disobedience explores modern misfits and misplaced morality but also suffers from plumbiferous pacing.

Upon hearing about the death of her father Rav Krushka, a respected leader in London's Jewish community, New York-based professional photographer Ronit Krushka (Rachel Weisz) travels back to London. Years earlier black sheep Ronit had left under a cloud after her gay relationship with Esti (Rachel McAdams) scandalized the community. Now Ronit is shocked to find Esti married to their childhood best friend Dovid Kuperman (Alessandro Nivola), the Rav's most loyal student and likely successor.

Ronit finds her family and the larger community as conservative, traditional and condescending as when she left. But the sparks between Ronit and Esti, now a schoolteacher, re-ignite immediately, undermining Esti's marriage to Dovid and threatening his ability to accept the promotion to fill the Rav's position.

Both the return of the prodigal daughter and the scandalous relationship are well-worn cinematic themes. In Disobedience director Sebastián Lelio, adapting Naomi Alderman's book and co-writing the script with Rebecca Lenkiewicz, adds in the layer of a modern-day community still adhering to traditional codes of morality and gender behaviour expectations to further pile pressure onto the lovers' shoulders.

And here the lovers are not naive young things, but rather grown women with the ability to exert their independence. While Ronit moved away to define life on her terms, Esti stayed behind and acquiesced to a sham of a marriage, maybe half-convinced a union with Dovid is an acceptable suffocation of her sexuality to gain the acceptance of the community elders.

Ronit's re-emergence puts a comprehensive stop to any such misconceptions. The fire between the two women is instantaneous, and with Weisz and McAdams generating exquisite chemistry, Lelio beautifully stokes the tension between the resolute Ronit and a dazed but willing Esti. Their sensual lovemaking scene is a fine example of non-exploitive eroticism.

Although natural tension is generated by the sizzling romance upturning the harmony of an already grieving community, Disobedience is still an achingly slow experience. Drawn out to an almost excruciating 114 minutes, the film is easily 20 minutes longer than needed for what is ultimately a small and personal story. The padding is obvious in long moments of silence and interminable scenes of religious ceremony.

But with Alessandro Nivola delivering a measured and circumspect performance as the man caught in the middle, Disobedience maintains cohesion. An adept student of the Rav's essence rather than any judgmental trappings, Dovid grows increasingly aware a community can choose to live in the past, but disobeying the present is exceptionally difficult.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

Monday, 16 December 2019

Movie Review: Junebug (2005)

A quirky drama and comedy, Junebug delves into the gulf between social classes and the untold secrets casting shadows on family dynamics.

Chicago art gallery owner Madeleine Johnsten (Embeth Davidtz) hears about eccentric Civil War artist David Wark living in rural North Carolina. She travels with her husband of six months George (Alessandro Nivola) to try and sign Wark to an exclusive contract.

George is originally from the area, and after visiting Wark the couple head to George's nearby family home, where his parents Peg and Eugene (Celia Weston and Scott Wilson) live with George's brother Johnny (Ben McKenzie) and his pregnant wife Ashley (Amy Adams). The Johnstens are simple rural folks, and Madeleine's sophistication is out of place. Johnny never finished high school, and he is brooding for vague reasons. Ashley is bubbly and excited about her forthcoming baby and tries to befriend Madeleine, who starts to learn she really knows little about her husband.

Appropriately featuring no music soundtrack and strategic pregnant pauses with no dialogue and no sound of any kind, Junebug is most interested in the quietness of what is left unsaid. Director Phil Morrison and writer Angus MacLachlan focus their drama on a base level of tension arising from unresolved conflicts and lingering dissatisfaction within families, including the chasms so deep and wide no bridging efforts need be attempted.

While Ashley puts on a happy face her hubby Johnny is not shy about fully displaying his doldrums. He may blame Ashley for evolving their relationship too quickly and preventing him from finishing high school, but may never quite say it. Johnny also resents his brother's transformation into a city slicker and landing the worldly Madeleine as a wife.

Meanwhile their mother Peg instinctively knows Madeleine does not belong in this family, but is careful about confrontations and instead tries to recruit the generally passive Eugene to do her awkward work.

And finally the family visit exposes the superficial relationship that passes for a marriage between Madeleine and George. She learns more about him in a couple of days than the prior 6 months, and although the sex is great they now both have reasons to doubt their compatibility. When Ashley goes into labour and Madeleine's courtship of the artist Wark is jeopardized, the vulnerabilities of their relationship are exposed with no words exchanged.

In her breakout role Amy Adams sparkles, especially in the film's first half. With Ashley genuinely excited and eager to connect with and learn from the refined Madeleine, Adams allows her character's genuineness to radiate with pure positive energy throughout the otherwise restive household. The rest of the cast members are suitably encased within the prevailing passive aggressiveness.

Cinematic exposés of family dynamics are often quick to resort to exaggerated histrionics and displays of loud emotion. Junebug is a refreshing rejection of theatrics. Morrison stays closer to real interactions, where the gritting of teeth is the norm, tense smiles are plastered on to get through the day, and difficult conversations are best avoided. None of this necessarily leads to satisfactory resolutions, but then life rarely comes with prepackaged tidy outcomes.