Movie Review: October Sky (1999)

Genre: Biographical Drama  

Director: Joe Johnston  

Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Chris Cooper, Laura Dern  

Running Time: 107 minutes  

Synopsis: In October 1957, the world is mesmerized by the surprise Soviet launch of Sputnik 1, the world's first satellite. In the small mining community of Coalwood, West Virginia, high school student Homer Hickam (Jake Gyllenhaal) is inspired to start building his own amateur rockets. He receives support from teacher Miss Riley (Laura Dern) and a small group of friends, but his father John (Chris Cooper), the mine's manager, wants Homer to stop dreaming and focus on a mining career.

What Works Well: The adaptation of Hickam's book combines inspirational ambition with a gritty small town environment to forge a heart-warming story, spiced with thorny family dynamics and moments of humour. Joe Johnston directs with an economy of purpose, and a young Jake Gyllenhaal capably portrays a young Homer Hickam stubbornly seeking to define his own destiny. In a setting where all young men are expected to follow their dads into the mine, the father-son tension crackles beneath the scientific experimentation, as Homer's defiant determination to launch rockets high into the sky translates into a college scholarship lottery ticket.

What Does Not Work As Well: In this small town, the winds of predictability are strong.

Conclusion: Shoots for the stars, and hits the target.



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Movie Review: A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood (2019)

A deft biographical drama, A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood captures the spirit of Fred Rogers through an interviewer's own father-son story.

In 1998, Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys) is a New York City-based writer for Esquire magazine with a reputation as a cynical and hard-nosed journalist. Married to Andrea (Susan Kelechi Watson), he is having trouble adjusting to being a new dad, and is not on speaking terms with his father Jerry (Chris Cooper). For an upcoming issue profiling heroes, Lloyd's editor assigns him a short puff-piece on children's television personality Fred Rogers (Tom Hanks), of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood fame.

Lloyd visits Rogers in Pittsburgh where the show is filmed, and a series of interviews ensue, with Lloyd frequently finding himself answering rather than asking questions. With Jerry desperately trying to reconnect with his son, Lloyd starts to understand that the life affirming, empathetic, and deeply caring Rogers selected him for an emotional rescue.

Deploying a clever structure based on actual events, A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood exhibits Rogers' essence with a delightful touch. The script by Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster places Rogers to the side as a secondary or even tertiary character, but then reveals his influence through interactions with an interviewer navigating a crisis. Director Marielle Heller stays out of the material's way, staging close-ups within modest sets to minimize distractions and allow humanity to shine. 

Rogers' positive impact on children is revered, and the television set charm is on full display as a well-rounded neighbourhood where all emotions are welcome. The film's intention is to appreciate Rogers' wisdom more universally, and the confines of the show are used as a framing device for a story about familial stress and angst. 

The conflicts between Lloyd, his father Jerry, and his wife Andrea stem from standard-fare daddy issues, but provide a sufficient structure to demonstrate Rogers' principles in action: respect, dignity, and acceptance; mature explanations; an even temperament; and sufficient trust to delve into difficult topics. Methods are as important as fundamentals: as portrayed by a calmly piercing Tom Hanks, Rogers focusses intently on the matter at hand and only on the person in front of him. And in that moment, nothing else matters.

Heller does enough to avoid a hagiography. Rogers' time-stands-still eccentricities are on display, often exasperating his staff. And on the infrequent occasions when Lloyd can get his questions answered, he probes Rogers' relationship with his own children, hinting at the pitfalls of living with a saintly personality. 

A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood adopts the calm attributes of its subject matter, celebrating quaintness in a good way: well-meaning, positive, and with just a hint of mischievous quirkiness.

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Movie Review: Capote (2005)

A biographical drama, Capote enjoys a dominant performance from Philip Seymour Hoffman as it traces the author's investigation of the murder case that crowned his writing career.

In 1959, jovial New Yorker writer Truman Capote (Hoffman) reads a newspaper article about the brutal murder of a family of four in rural Kansas. He decides to investigate and write about the case, and travels to Kansas with budding author Harper Lee (Catherine Keener) to visit the scene of the crime and talk to the locals. They bond with lead police investigator Alvin Dewey (Chris Cooper) and his wife Marie (Amy Ryan). 

Soon two men are arrested and charged: Perry Smith (Clifton Collins Jr.) and Richard Hickock (Mark Pellegrino). Truman finds the soft-spoken Smith fascinating, and after the two men are convicted and sentenced to death, Capote arranges a better lawyer for the murderers and spends long hours in conversations with Smith.

Capote starts to write In Cold Blood, but the case drags on with a series of appeals. Smith refuses to talk about the night of the murders, and Capote sinks into emotional doldrums and heavy drinking, unable to enjoy life with his book stalled.

Exploring the personal trauma churning behind the celebrated true crime book, Capote is the colourful story of a flamboyant personality meeting his greatest challenge. Dan Futterman wrote the script from Gerald Clarke's book, and director Bennett Miller brings to life an author deliberately diving ever deeper into the mystery of the senseless killings at an isolated Kansas farm house.

While characters like Harper Lee, life partner Jack Dunphy (Bruce Greenwood) and the Deweys orbit this period of Capote's life, the unusual bond between author and murderer Perry Smith emerges as the core of the film. Perry's calm demeanour, his expansive vocabulary and the stillness in his eyes are at odds with a cold blooded killer, and Capote patiently waits for Smith to share the unshareable before he can finish his book.

The fascination is also drawn from too-close-for-comfort similarities between the backgrounds of the two men. As Capote learns more about Smith he traces the parallels in their upbringings, and the thin lines of opportunity resulting in one man becoming a killer and the other a famous and successful author.

Capote: It's as if Perry and I grew up in the same house. And one day he stood up and went out the back door, while I went out the front.

And as much as Capote genuinely wants to help Smith and his crime partner Hickock get a fair shake out of the justice system, ambition clashes with humanity as his frustrations mount the longer the case drags without a final resolution and Smith still refusing to talk about the murders.  

Hoffman disappears into Capote, infusing oodles of confidence and heartfelt passion into the openly gay celebrity author, whether regaling his entourage with endless stories or staring at the bottom of an empty glass while barely enduring the delays as sentence appeals drag all the way to the Supreme Court. Unfortunately none of the other characters or performances come close to competing with Hoffman for attention. The brutal multiple murders are the only counterpoint, and the film skirts the edges of becoming a one-man show.

In Cold Blood was Capote's final completed book. The film salutes the man behind a seminal work, and the tortured process of creating a literary masterpiece out of a heinous crime.



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Movie Review: Remember Me (2010)

A romantic drama, Remember Me creates characters worth caring about, but the pervasive emotional gloom is overwhelming.

In 1991, eleven year old Ally witnesses the murder of her mother in a New York City subway mugging. Her father Neil (Chris Cooper), a police detective, is emotionally devastated.

Ten years later, Tyler (Robert Pattinson) is approaching his 22nd birthday, and struggling with memories of his older brother's suicide at that age. He has a good relationship with his mother Diane (Lena Olin) and younger sister Caroline (Ruby Jerins), but can barely tolerate his cold and aloof corporate father Charles (Pierce Brosnan).

After a street brawl Tyler is roughed up by Neil. Tyler's roommate Aidan (Tate Ellington) learns that the grown-up Ally (Emilie de Ravin) is Tyler's college classmate and Neil's daughter, and encourages Tyler to start a relationship primarily to antagonize her father. But a genuine romance blossoms between Tyler and Ally, although his continued deep grieving will create challenges.

From its opening scene Remember Me carries a high level of intensity built on rage stemming from sudden loss and injustice. Neil and Ally are victimized by muggers, Tyler is in a cloud of fury over the loss of his brother, and the film will join the trio in an unrelenting haze of serious indignation. Director Allen Coulter and writer Will Fetters are all-in on the moping, highlighted by Tyler's narration, and while the mood can be crushing, the film deserves credit for not seeking easy pathways towards happy endings.

Intermittently flickering through the malaise is a sweet and serious romance. Together Tyler and Ally create an appealing if troubled couple, and their scenes of courtship and passion are organic and engaging. Coulter also leans on Tyler's young sister Caroline, a budding artist, to provide some perspective. She also has to deal with a deceased older brother and an absentee father, but without the rebellious adulthood tools available to Tyler. Consistent with the downbeat theme, Caroline has her own personal trauma to deal with in the form of school bullying.

Robert Pattinson carries the bulk of the film's weight with a James Dean-like performance. Brooding in one scene and combustible in the next, cigarette always at the ready, Pattinson floods New York with angry grief. He is convincing, but also seemingly unconstrained by Coulter.

Chris Cooper and Pierce Brosnan fare worse in more shallow representations, and their resolutions are either omitted or implausible. Meanwhile Emilie de Ravin pulls off a decent imitation of Kirsten Dunst, but Ally is disappointingly underwritten and stays closer to a plot device serving Tyler's journey.

Remember Me introduces a contextual twist in its final 10 minutes that is both unnecessary and effective, but also borderline manipulative. It's yet another layer of sadness to a story already suffocating in sorrow, but if nothing else, the tonal consistency is admirable.

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Movie Review: The Town (2010)

A crime thriller, The Town combines high intensity action with a thoughtful exposition of characters and place.

The blue collar Boston neighbourhood of Charlestown is known as home to career criminals, with crime legacies passed on from fathers to sons. The cerebral Doug (Ben Affleck) and the more impulsive Jem (Jeremy Renner) are best friends and second generation bank and armored car robbers, leading a gang that acts on orders issued by mastermind "The Florist" (Pete Postlethwaite). Doug's father Stephen (Chris Cooper) is serving life in prison, while Jem served nine years for murder. Doug maintains a choppy sexual relationship with troubled neighbourhood girl Kris (Blake Lively).

The gang successfully robs a bank, but briefly seize manager Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall) as a hostage. They are dismayed to later discover she lives near the neighbourhood and may be able to identify them. Doug gets close to Claire to determine whether she is cooperating with the FBI. They fall in love, complicating his relationship with the rest of the gang members and triggering a burning desire for him to leave crime behind. Meanwhile, Jem begins to exhibit more violent tendencies while FBI Special Agent Adam Frawley (Jon Hamm) starts to close in.

Directed and co-written by Affleck, The Town is an adaptation of the Chuck Hogan book Prince Of Thieves. The film is an expertly constructed and executed character-driven crime thriller. Delving deep into the neighbourhood community, Affleck creates a sense of place where the roots below the surface are thick and deeply intertwined, uncompromising fortitude is embraced as a badge of honour, debts are owed across generations, fathers throw long shadows across their sons' lives, and crime is a family profession like any other.

In classic fashion Affleck places his three action set-pieces at the beginning, middle and end of the movie. The heists scenes fluently capture the thrills, mishaps, and on-the-fly improvisation demanded by high-stakes armed robbery, the rational editing and thoughtful camerawork dramatically enhancing the action.

Even more impressive is the focus on people. Affleck pulls the covers back on a social structure functioning within a set of unwritten codes. While Doug, Jem, Kris and their colleagues will never generate sympathy, Affleck does create understanding for men and women who only know what they know. Doug falling in love with outsider Claire and wanting out disrupts the natural order, and sets off a disruptive and naturally violent chain reaction.

The romance between Doug and Claire has to exist as the catalyst for change, but is perhaps the least convincing aspect of the film. Although it is conceivable for Doug to fall for the girl from the right side of the tracks and imagine her as an escape route to a better life, it is more of a stretch to believe what she sees in him, despite his engineered meet-sad-cute laundromat moment.

The cast is deep in talent and enriches every role. Small turns by Pete Postlethwaite, Chris Cooper and Blake Lively are delivered with chilling conviction, while the more prominent performances by Affleck and Renner exude the requisite grit.

Forceful and absorbing, The Town crackles with coiled and sometimes explosive energy.

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Movie Review: The Kingdom (2007)

An anti-terrorism investigative thriller, The Kingdom is inspired by real events and features solid action scenes, but treats its subject matter with condescending simplicity.

In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, a coordinated terrorist attack featuring shooters, a suicide bomber and a large car bomb hits an American compound and causes massive casualties. Suspicions immediately fall on the cell commanded by Abu Hamza, an Al-Qaeda follower. The Saudi government initially refuses to grant entry to foreign investigators, but in Washington DC, FBI Special Agent Ronald Fleury (Jamie Foxx) pulls the necessary levers to permit his team a brief visit.

Fleury arrives in Riyadh along with agents Mayes (Jennifer Garner), Leavitt (Jason Bateman) and Sykes (Chris Cooper). They are greeted by Saudi State Police Colonel Al-Ghazi (Ashraf Bahrom) and Sergeant Haytham (Ali Suliman), who had attempted to thwart the attack. Al-Ghazi is initially unhelpful and keeps the FBI team on a short leash. But gradually Fleury builds up a level of trust, and the investigators start to make progress collecting evidence and identifying the terrorists.

Inspired by the 1996 and 2003 Khobar and Riyadh bombings, The Kingdom tackles the scourge of extremist Islamic terrorism targeting American interests. Directed by Peter Berg and written by Matthew Michael Carnahan, the film is slick, fast-paced and vivid. But for a story that purports to peel away the complexities of Saudi Arabia's social history and its unintended role in incubating and exporting extremism, the narrative quickly defaults to jingoistic American cheerleading.

Compared to much more thoughtful post-September 11, 2001 films like Rendition and Syriana, The Kingdom is lightweight. The FBI team can do no wrong, except for Al-Ghazi the local Saudis are incompetent obstructionists, and all it takes to track down a terrorist mastermind is a bit of on-site investigative work and a handful of agents storming a heavily-fortified neighbourhood.

But when it comes to delivering action scenes, Berg is in his element. The opening terrorist attack, a carnage-on-the-highway showdown and the final climactic battle are well-handled, and despite some jerky camera movement and obsessive editing, the chaotic grit of close quarters urban warfare jumps off the screen.

The investigative elements are orderly but settle in below television CSI-levels of linear simplicity. Sykes is the only one to think of diving into the blast hole to retrieve the identifying marks of the terrorists' car. Mayes extracts marble shrapnel fragments from victims' bodies, and these end-up being key clues to identifying the bombers. And Fleury looks up and immediately spots the building where the bad guys congregated to film the attack.

The cast is strong, but features some odd choices. Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman are not the first names to jump out as candidates for the roles of hardened FBI agents. Foxx and Cooper are more in their element, but overall Carnahan's script seems to go out of its way to highlight the boorish and insensitive behaviours that tend to give Americans abroad a bad name. Jeremy Piven is the harried on-the-ground State Department official, and back in Washington DC Richard Jenkins and Danny Huston are the suits embroiled in battles of careerism.

The Kingdom is a modestly useful addition to the influx of post-9/11 films exploring the complexities of the Middle East, but is more interested in brawn than brains.

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Movie Review: Money Train (1995)

A buddy cops action thriller, Money Train is overcooked and underwhelming.

John (Wesley Snipes) and Charlie (Woody Harrelson) are bickering foster brothers who both work as undercover cops for the New York City transit authority. John is confident and has his life in order. Charlie is a free spirit, always in trouble and depends on John to bail him out. They both manage to infuriate railway operations chief Donald Patterson (Robert Blake). And when fellow officer Grace (Jennifer Lopez) joins their enforcement unit, both brothers decide to romantically pursue her.

Charlie runs afoul of poker game loan sharks and finds himself $15,000 in debt. Grace becomes a wedge between the brothers, and John grows tired of saving Charlie from himself. Meanwhile a psychotic arsonist known only as Torch (Chris Cooper) is on the loose in the subway. With the world closing in on him Charlie begins to dream of hijacking the nightly money train that collects the system's fare revenue.

Directed by Joseph Ruben, Money Train is bloated yet empty. Despite decent production values, everything here is heightened to childhood levels of exaggeration. The action scenes involving Torch and the climactic train heist are wildly over-the-top, defying all laws of logic and physics. The villainy of Patterson reaches caricature levels, the bickering between the brothers is contrived, and the three-way lust triggered by Grace splatters all over the screen, based on nothing more than one woman arriving to work alongside two men.

After the success of 1992's White Men Can't Jump, this was an attempt to nurture the on-screen buddy chemistry between Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson. The screenplay by Doug Richardson and David Loughery overplays its hands and asks too much of the actors. John and Charlie engage in scene after scene of predictable verbal sparring lacking in wit and originality, and it all grows tired and old very quickly.

And when it comes to the action set-pieces, Ruben appears oblivious that more can be less, and much more disintegrates into nothingness. Bodies are summarily dangled off high rises, bullets fly on passenger-filled subway platforms, and in the name of seeking the next cheap on-screen thrill, every safety protocol is broken by cops who should know better. And when the climax arrives, Charlie's hairbrained idea to hijack a highly secured train is a most unconvincing screen heist in both planning (none to speak of) and rational cinematic execution (botched).

Money Train superficially looks good and makes decent use of elaborate sets recreating the New York subway system. But this is an otherwise bumbled movie, a child's clumsy fist rummaging through what could have been an elegant train set.

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Movie Review: Live By Night (2016)

A crime drama, Live By Night carries plenty of style but also too much plot. The story of an Irish gangster carving his way through a life of crime is scattered and fails to build effective momentum.

In Boston of the 1920s, war veteran turned independent gangster Joe Coughlin (Ben Affleck) falls in love with Emma Gould (Sienna Miller). She's the floozy of gang lord Albert White (Robert Glenister), who is embroiled in a turf war with rival mobster Maso Pescatore (Remo Girone). Coughlin is of Irish descent, and the son of respected police captain Thomas (Brendan Gleeson). Joe is eventually betrayed and almost killed by White, but survives. After a stint in prison Joe joins Maso's gang and with his loyal sidekick Dion (Chris Messina) relocates to Ybor City, an immigrant dominated, crime infested neighbourhood of Tampa, Florida.

Joe establishes an alliance with the local Cuban gang and builds an impressive crime empire capitalizing on the illegal rum trade. He also falls in love and eventually marries Graciela (Zoe Soldana), the sister of a Cuban crime lord. Joe maintains an uneasy understanding with Ybor's Sheriff Irving Figgis (Chris Cooper), but their relationship sours when Irving's dim witted brother-in-law R.D. Pruitt (Matthew Maher), a member of the Ku Klux Klan, tries to muscle in on Joe's profits. Meanwhile, Joe tries to expand into the casino business, but there are more unexpected troubles in the form of Irving's daughter Loretta (Elle Fanning).

An adaptation of the Dennis Lehane book written for the screen and directed by Affleck, Live By Night has a lot going on and nothing going on. The drama motors on from Boston to Tampa, featuring a dizzying number of gangsters hissing at each other, but the film never grabs hold of a compelling narrative arc. This is the story of Joe Coughlin and he is the one constant, but Affleck plays the central character as a laid back soft spoken type, his obvious narration droning on as he disappears into the set. It's a problem when the assorted villains who enter and exit every other scene are much more colourful than the presumed protagonist.

The film is a demonstration of more is less. A dedicated focus on fewer story lines may have improved control of the material. Instead the overflow of plot and characters eventually overtakes the film, and plenty of seemingly important conversations and incidents start to happen off-screen. Joe's father appears magically at the right time and in the right place to intervene in a murder-in-progress. Joe seems to take over Ybor City in a remarkable hurry, and wins Graciela's heart even quicker. After a long build up, the resolution of the KKK problem is rushed. Major chunks of Loretta's story are summarily dealt with in a few words. Late in the film two adversaries become allies with barely an explanation. And even critical battlefield tactics are botched, Affleck choosing to talk about rather than demonstrate Coughlin's ability to influence goons in battle.

Affleck does have an eye for creating beautiful settings, and the film is awash in vivid colours and plenty of artistry. The camerawork is fluid, capturing bustling neighbourhoods and idyllic landscapes. And some of the climactic showdowns with the head baddies are well constructed.

A large cast supports Affleck's docile take on Coughlin. By far the most memorable is Elle Fanning as the enigmatic Loretta. In just a few scenes she demonstrates what intense charisma can accomplish, and the film would have hugely benefited from investing more in her story.

Live By Night may suggest an adventurous lifestyle, but this is a fragmented, surprisingly dull and ultimately unsatisfying experience.

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Movie Review: Demolition (2015)

A psychological drama with comic moments, Demolition delves into a psyche dealing with the trauma of losing a spouse. The film finds fresh perspectives but also veers towards literal interpretations of the grief and recovery process.

In New York City, wealthy Wall Street investment banker Davis Mitchell (Jake Gyllenhaal) loses his wife Julia (Heather Lind) in a car crash. Davis admits that he did not know much about his wife, and he married her more out of easy convenience than any true passion. Now that she is dead, he feels a horrifying emptiness. Davis works at the firm owned by Julia's dad Phil (Chris Cooper), and as he grapples with the loss his performance starts to suffer. He also develops a penchant for dismantling anything around him that does not work perfectly, from his home fridge to the office computer and bathroom stall.

But his real coping mechanism proves to be longhand letters he writes to the customer complaints department of a vending machine company, after a minor mishap the night Julia died. Davis bares his soul in a series of letters, and eventually customer service representative and single mom Karen Moreno (Naomi Watts) contacts him and they develop a quirky friendship. Karen is dating the boorish vending machine company owner Carl (C.J. Wilson), while her 15 year old son Chris (Judah Lewis) is dealing with coping issues of his own.

Directed by Jean-Marc Vallée and written by Bryan Sipe, Demolition maintains a low-key stance, where emotions are more bottled up than exposed, and every tentative move towards recovery reveals more points of hurt. The film aims for an eccentric tone and generally achieves it, although Davis' catharsis eventually descends into quite the irresistible and overt urge to break things apart in a big way before he can find his way back to functionality.

With Davis reexamining what his imperfect marriage to Julia ever meant and desperately trying to feel anything, his search for reasons behind items not working perfectly progresses from dismantlement to the demolition of the film's title. It's a unique representation of the search for answers, but Sipe only takes it so far and then appears to abruptly reach the concept's limit.

The interaction with Karen and her son Chris is similarly curious. There is plenty of story potential as Karen grapples with an angry child struggling to fit in, and Davis ponders whether his entire white collar existence was an inappropriate turn towards the wrong colour. But there again the script pauses on the edge of commitment, and leaves the characters in the middle ground where both the future and the past start to look the same.

Jake Gyllenhaal errs towards sleepwalking through the film, his take on emotional emptiness translating into excessive droopy-eyed disinterest. Chris Cooper is more engaged but more predictable as the grieving dad, angrily wondering why it was his daughter and not his son-in-law who died in the accident. Naomi Watts provides committed support, her Julia exuding the physical and emotional exhaustion of a dead-end job, a quite less-than-perfect boyfriend/boss and a troubled teenaged kid.

Demolition is a worthwhile exploration of the space where sudden tragedy reveals more subtle failures. The emotional renovations veer from the more satisfyingly intricate to the less complete but more emphatically destructive.

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Movie Review: American Beauty (1999)

A story of the middle class American dream lying in emotional tatters, American Beauty is a cynical drama that lifts the lid on all the rot lying just beneath the surface of suburbia.

The film is narrated by Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey), who announces at the start that he will be dead within a year. Lester is a 42 year old media salesperson, stuck in a middle-management job he despises and equally trapped in a loveless marriage to highly-strung real estate agent Carolyn (Annette Bening). Lester is also unable to communicate with his teen-aged daughter Jane (Thora Birch). Feeling emotionally empty, he starts to harbour sexual fantasies about Jane's uppity classmate Angela (Mena Suvari).

New neighbours move in next door in the form of former Marine Colonel Fitts (Chris Cooper), his depressed wife Barbara (Allison Janney) and unsettled but magnetic son Ricky (Wes Bentley), who sees beauty in all things through his ever present viewfinder. Ricky has a troubled background, an unusual side-business, and exhibits creepy behaviour, obsessively filming Jane, but the two nevertheless start a tentative relationship. Meanwhile Lester snaps out of his funk in a dramatic way, and decides to redesign all aspects of his life. He takes charge of his career, his marriage and his physical fitness, all with unintended consequences.

Directed by Sam Mendes and written by Alan Ball, American Beauty is a masterful examination of all that is going wrong under the veneer of suburban family normalcy. Certainly there are a few exaggerations and some pushed-to-the-edges behaviour. But overall the film resonates with all that is familiar but also so rarely talked about in polite circles. An irreverent attitude, sharp dialogue, memorably erratic characters and a subtle Thomas Newman music score build up an atmosphere of mundane surroundings teetering on the edge of a multi-dimensional human catastrophe.

American Beauty tackles a myriad of thorny themes confronting the middle class. The generational divide is represented by Jane and Ricky both being detached and unable to find any comfort communicating with their parents. In Lester's case, it's not for the lack of trying, he's just hopeless at it. In contrast, Colonel Fitts sees the world in military command, control and discipline terms, principles that mean little to youth in the quaint suburbs.

Repressed and unfulfilled sexuality among married adults is on full display as an undercurrent chipping away at stale relationships. Lester and Carolyn have grown far apart to the point that he has much more fun fantasizing about the pouty Angela, while Carolyn goes seeking intimacy with the neighbourhood real estate king, Buddy Kane (Peter Gallagher). There does not seem to be any sex of any kind happening between the Colonel and Mrs. Fitts: she is reduced to a shell of a woman, and he is still fighting the last war with the added complication of some internal demons. The only happy couple in the neighbourhood appear to be gay partners Jim and Jim (Scott Bakula and Sam Robards).

The strongest theme propelling the American Beauty characters towards unintended outcomes is obsession with self-image, self-worth and a misplaced sense of self-doubt. Angela despises the idea of being ordinary, and aspires to stand out with a display of overclocked sexual confidence. Jane is saving all her money for breast enhancement surgery she doesn't need. Lester overhears Angela talking about him in physical terms; he sets about changing his life by buffing up and changing his appearance, triggering Colonel Fitts to arrive at all the wrong conclusion. And Carolyn stimulates herself with vacuous self-help from the pop-psychology school of coaching-by-tape, and not coincidentally falls under the spell of Buddy Kane, who is all about conveying a bronzed image of success, true or not.

Mendes peels away all the layers of familial intricacy with a mixture of drama and comedy, both dancing with a delicious awkwardness propelled by Kevin Spacey's performance. Spacey starts with Lester at the lowest point of despair and climbs gradually out of the abyss towards an unlikely evolution. Finding sources of inspiration in Ricky as an entrepreneur and Angela as a fantasy sex partner, Lester embarks of a devil-may-care makeover of his personal life and his career, with an unanticipated end point. Spacey plays it all with irreverent fatalism and biting humour, allowing Lester to be simultaneously detestable and irresistible.

With red roses and petals permeating many of the scenes to represent coursing passion in the colour of blood, American Beauty progresses in all the directions that can be labelled unpredictable. The American dream is caught in the cul-de-sac of suburbia, spinning relentlessly in a spiral of unmet expectations.

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Movie Review: The Company You Keep (2012)

A drama about former revolutionaries approaching their twilight, The Company You Keep presents an interesting treatise but is ultimately undermined personalized simplifications.

Sharon Solarz (Susan Sarandon) is arrested in upstate New York. For over 30 years she was living a simple domestic life under a false identity, evading arrest for the murder of a Michigan bank security guard during a 1980 robbery-gone-wrong. Sharon was as a member of the revolutionary Weather Underground, a small group of idealistic students who turned to violence against symbols of the US government. After her arrest, young reporter Ben Shepard (Shia LaBeouf) is encouraged by his editor (Stanley Tucci) to explore Sharon's story. Ben's investigation leads him to Jim Grant (Robert Redford), a widower and well-respected Albany lawyer. Shepard exposes Jim's real identity as fugitive Nick Sloan, another former member of the Weather Underground.

FBI agent Cornelius (Terrence Howard) closes in, forcing Nick to flee. He deposits his young daughter with his brother Daniel (Chris Cooper) and embarks on a cross-country escape to re-connect with his old associates including lumberyard owner Donal Fitzgerald (Nick Nolte) and college professor Jed Lewis (Richard Jenkins). Nick's real objective is to flush out Mimi Lurie (Julie Christie), the only former member of the revolutionaries who can clear his name. Ben also continues his chase of the story, and starts to uncover some well-kept secrets related to the botched Michigan heist from many years ago.

The Company You Keep walks a tightrope between a serious examination of idealism in old age, and a rather opportunistic gathering of veteran actors enjoying a reunion. Director Robert Redford manages to land the film just on the right side of relevant, thanks to an earnest tone, committed performances, and a story that touches on broad societal dynamics but always retains a personal focus.

The script by Lem Dobbs presents the many different pathways to adulthood available to young revolutionaries. Sharon and Nick attempted to meld into obscurity. Mimi and her friend Mac Mcleod (Sam Elliott) kept up the subversive protests in any available form, with Mimi evolving into a marijuana trafficker. College teacher Jed never approved of violent methods, and so never forgave the likes of Nick for contaminating the movement of peaceful protesters. Lumberyard owner Donal and organic farmer Billy Cusimano (Stephen Root) moved into seemingly respectable businesses, with just a whiff of illicit dealings.

With the best years well behind them they all ask themselves questions about the value of their youthful struggle, whether the fight was won or lost, and what they could or should have done differently. In adulthood they find varying degrees of contentment, either hiding from their past or celebrating it. As parents Sharon and Nick view life through the lens of their families, a perspective that brings a desire to accept responsibility and right the wrongs of history. The Company You Keep retains its power as long as it rides the wave of social movement commentary through the retrospective and tired eyes of the individuals who influenced it.

The film falters when it starts to resemble a routine chase movie, with Nick always one step ahead of agent Cornelius. And while the focus on individuals is commendable, the ending is fumbled once it gets too personal. As the background to the ill-fated Michigan bank robbery is revealed, threads emerge to entangle Henry Osborne (Brendan Gleeson), the investigating officer of the time, into the web once inhabited by Nick and Mimi. The film gets distracted by the minutiae of shady family friendships, lost children and selfish behaviour, and the momentum built by the broader social context is all but lost.

A cast this deep in talent was only ever going to be excellent. Redford and LaBeouf get the biggest roles, with Redford showing every one of his 77 years, and LaBeouf perhaps pushing the aggressive young reporter role too hard. While it is a pleasure to see Julie Christie in a short but still meaningful role, frustratingly, stars like Sarandon, Nolte, Elliott and Anna Kendrick (as an FBI agent) get minimal screen time.

The Company You Keep does not fully engage, but does delve into essential issues in the company of outstanding talent.

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Movie Review: A Time To Kill (1996)

An overstuffed legal drama, A Time To Kill offers an all-star cast and plenty of incident, but quickly sprawls into too many crimes and loses touch with reality.

In rural Mississippi, two redneck white trash supremacists brutally rape Tonya, a ten year old black girl. She survives and identifies the attackers, who are summarily arrested. Before their trial can start, Tonya's dad Carl Lee (Samuel L. Jackson) approaches his friend and lawyer Jake Brigance (Matthew McConaughey) and strongly hints that he will be seeking vigilante justice and would want Jake to subsequently defend him. Sure enough, Carl Lee goes ahead and guns down the two perpetrators and seriously wounds police officer Dwayne Looney (Chris Cooper) in the process.

The case generates a media circus, with District Attorney Rufus Buckley (Kevin Spacey) seeking the death penalty. Brigance reconnects with his retired mentor Lucien Wilbanks (Donald Sutherland) and prepares a defence based on temporary insanity. Young and idealistic law student Ellen Roark (Sandra Bullock) offers her help to the defence team. Meanwhile, the black community rallies behind Carl Lee, while Freddie Lee Cobb (Kiefer Sutherland), a brother of one of the victims, reaches out to the Ku Klux Klan. They start a campaign of intimidation against Brigance, placing his wife Carla (Ashley Judd) and young daughter in harm's way. With the small town rocking with violence and protests, Jake has to find a way to defend a distraught black father in front of an all-white jury.

Another John Grisham adaptation and again directed by Joel Schumacher, A Time To Kill is a glossy production, filled with familiar faces in every role, and with enough going on to maintain interest over 150 minutes. The performances are solid within the courtroom and on the streets, and Schumacher creates a sweat-drenched Southern aesthetic where different rules apply, and deep racial divides are hidden just below the surface. The search for justice in a straightforward vigilante violence case made much more complicated by racial overtones presents a juicy social dilemma.

But the film suffers from several issues, not the least of which is the multiplicity of crimes that cascade from the original murders but seem to come and go with no consequence. In the course of the film a cross is burned on the front lawn of the Brigance house, an old man is badly beaten, a house is burned down, a woman is kidnapped and left to die tied to a tree, and a national guardsman is shot in the neck, in broad daylight, with a high powered sniper rifle. Not one of these crimes receives any follow-up attention or investigation, and the perpetrators remain free to roam the streets.

A Time To Kill also suffers from an Akiva Goldsman script that can only be called lazy. In an attempt to perhaps pack in too much of the book's content into the film, many sub-plots are casually introduced and barely developed, and characters flounder on the rocks of poor advancement. There are a couple of scenes showing the jury grappling with the case over a meal; they then disappear from view and don't even get the privilege of being seen to deliver the verdict. An entire sub-plot related to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People insisting on replacing Brigance with a high profile hired gun consumes valuable screen time and adds very little. An informant within the Klan plays a key role; his seemingly compelling story is dangled tantalizingly and then abandoned. And the characters of Ellen Roark, Lucien Wilbanks and Jake's friend and rival Harry (Oliver Platt) vie for screen time and barely get one meaningful scene each.

But the presence of McConaughey, Jackson and Spacey ensures that the film is never less than watchable, as they whack away at the thicket of an overgrown plot and towards a final courtroom confrontation. A Time To Kill is decent, but would have greatly benefited from an old fashioned pruning.

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Movie Review: Me, Myself And Irene (2000)

A simply atrocious comedy, Me, Myself And Irene is an ugly stain in Jim Carrey's repertoire.

Charlie (Carrey) is a mild-mannered Rhode Island state police trooper. His new wife Layla (Traylor Howard) cheats on him with a midget black limousine driver. Even when Layla gives birth to black triplets and subsequently abandons the family, Charlie refuses to show any negative emotion or display anger. Years later and with his sons now foul-mouthed grow-ups, Charlie's bottled up anger snaps out in the form of a split personality. Hank is Charlie's alter-ego and his polar opposite, and emerges at unexpected intervals. Hank is rude, crude, and stands up for himself, seeking revenge on everyone who has disrespected Charlie.

Commanding officer Colonel Partington (Robert Forster) gives Charlie an assignment to transfer prisoner Irene (Renée Zellweger) to upstate New York. Irene is wanted on trumped up hit-and-run charges, but in reality she may have information that endangers the criminal activities of sleazy businessman Dickie (Daniel Greene) and corrupt police officers Gerke (Chris Cooper) and Boshane (Richard Jenkins). Charlie is attracted to Irene, and so is Hank but much less politely. Charlie struggles to contain Hank and soon finds himself on the run with Irene, trying to protect her from the bad guys.

Directed and co-written by the Farrelly brothers Peter and Bobby, Me, Myself And Irene is a lazy, almost insulting excuse for a parade of tiresome jokes directed at the pre-puberty immature boy market. With almost every attempted laugh involving the anus, dildos and combinations thereof, the film wallows in the misery of constipated minds who seem to genuinely believe that this material is funny.

There is no effort to explain the basic mechanics of the plot involving Irene, as the entire road trip is just a sorry backdrop for set-pieces that were not good enough for other movies. The best opportunity for a good laugh, in the shape of an encounter with a cow that refuses to die, could have been funny but is botched into a stupid wrestling match. Elsewhere, midgets, blacks, albinos and Rhode Islanders are mercilessly targeted with tasteless jokes, and its all delivered with a barrage of profanity that underlines the witless writing.

Carrey tries to emerge from the dross and does as best as he can with quick switches between Charlie and Hank, but even he is no match for the ghastliness of the material. Zellweger is generally wasted, while in barely defined roles Forster, Cooper and Jenkins appear mortified to be associated with the project.

Incomprehensibly overlong at close to two hours, Me, Myself And Irene is a nauseatingly interminable bungle.

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Movie Review: Syriana (2005)

An intellectual tour-de-force delving into the morass of Middle East geo-politics, Syriana launches a thrilling multi-pronged probe of its subject, and emerges with a realistic portrait of a depressing impasse.

The film tackles several interlinked sub-stories. Weary CIA Agent Bob Barnes (George Clooney) tangles with arms dealers in Tehran, and in the process loses control of a sophisticated anti-tank missile. His next assignment is to travel to Beirut and assassinate Prince Nassir (Alexander Siddig), the progressive heir to an oil-rich Arab country. Once in Beirut, Barnes crosses paths with the militant group Hezbollah, particularly the brutal Mussawi (Mark Strong).

Big oil companies in the US want Nassir out of the way because he threatens to upset the status quo. Idealistic energy consultant Bryan Woodman (Matt Damon) overcomes the tragic loss of his young son to become Nassir's trusted advisor, and together they plan Nassir's modernization of his country.

A large merger of oil companies Connex and Killen is unfolding in the United States. The consolidated company will control vast oil and gas reserves in the Middle East and Asia, and is most interested in stability. Attorney Bennett Holiday (Jeffrey Wright) is hired to investigate the proposed merger, which appears to be a fait accompli. Bennet's boss is political power broker Dean Whiting (Christopher Plummer), working behind the scenes to ensure that the more compliant Prince Meshal (Akbar Kurtha) ascends to the throne instead of Nassir.

The merger of Connex and Killen results in mass layoffs in the oil fields of the Middle East. One of the casualties is Pakistani migrant worker Wasim (Mazhar Munir) and once unemployed he drifts under the Islamist influence of charismatic recruiter Muhammad Sheikh Agiza (Amr Waked). Wasim is radicalized and prepared for a terrorist suicide mission, using the anti-tank missile seized in Tehran.

Delving into the world of Middle East politics is a daunting task, and Syriana succeeds with aplomb. The fast paced episodic structure preferred by director Stephen Gaghan (adapting the book See No Evil by Robert Baer) is a perfect fit with the fragmented yet labyrinthine relationships that define the region. And other than ignoring the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, Gaghan expertly assembles the pieces of the puzzle and tightly packs the 128 minutes of running time with multiple stories of ever increasing tension.

While Syriana's structure works in its favour, it also allows Gaghan to get away with some short-hand. The various stories hold enormous impact thanks to the short sharp jabs style of delivery, but this also leaves plenty that is unsaid and unexplained. The need to fill in the blanks serves the film's intellectual credentials but also gives it a free pass to gloss over what could have been interesting details.

There are few happy emotions in Syriana. The film mimics the Middle East's pathetic entrapment into a cycle of pessimism driven by greed and the crushing imperatives of oil, which flows along with espionage, arms trading, corruption, corporotocracy, torture, extremes of wealth and poverty, militant Islam and terrorism. The polluted streams of evil feed off each other and accelerate the downward spiral of violence and subjugation, sucking entire societies into the vortex. Progressive voices are trampled because the system is dependent on maintaining the existing structure among the entrenched power brokers, and change represents an unacceptable risk to the production of oil and profits.

The ensemble cast members are all appropriately dour or conniving. Clooney won the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for his portrayal of Bob Barnes (effectively Baer's character), a disillusioned agent who has seen too many battles and too many betrayals in the back alleys of the Middle East, but knows of no other life. Christopher Plummer is at his oily best as a literal backroom kingmaker. Matt Damon and Akbar Kurtha represent the earnest but naive attitude of optimism that occasionally sprouts in the region, and their characters predictably hurtle towards the impenetrable brick wall of international rules set by others. Also in the cast are Chris Cooper as a Killen executive, Amanda Peet as Bryan Woodman's wife, and William Hurt as one of Barnes' few trusted allies at the CIA.

By the time Gaghan wraps up his stories, all his key characters have been profoundly impacted, and of course absolutely no meaningful positive change has been achieved. In the Middle East potential saviours are swallowed by the desert, drowned in oil, and quickly forgotten as the tide of oil-fuelled violence marches on abated.

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Movie Review: The Company Men (2010)

A corporate downsizing drama, The Company Men faithfully reveals the trauma caused by a contracting economy. The film works as a straightforward chronicle but without capturing any emotional resonance.

In a suburb of Boston, Global Transportation Systems (GTX) is a large corporation specializing in shipbuilding. With the great economic recession in full swing, business is down, the firm's share price is being hammered, and management responds with plant closures and brutal staffing cuts. CEO James Salinger (Craig T. Nelson) and his HR manager Sally Wilcox (Maria Bello) set their sights on the underperforming division run by Salinger's longtime friend and first employee Gene McClary (Tommy Lee Jones).

While McClary survives the cuts along with veteran salesperson Phil Woodward (Chris Cooper), the casualties include young and ambitious marketing executive Bobby Walker (Ben Affleck), who has an MBA, a large house, a larger mortgage, a Porsche, golf club membership, wife Maggie (Rosemarie DeWitt) and two kids. Bobby struggles to come to terms with the seismic impact to his personal life, and refuses to accept the economic crisis that has descended on his household. But with months passing and no prospects for another corporate job, he has to seriously consider accepting the humiliating offer from his brother in-law Jack (Kevin Costner) to help out on a construction site. Meanwhile, back at GTX, the rift between the considerate Gene and the much more ruthless James grows wider, as another round of cuts looms.

The Company Man has sincere intentions to delve into the human cost of job losses. Writer / director (and co-producer) John Wells does a fine job of looking at the carnage from all perspectives, including the people at the top pulling the trigger (Salinger and Sally); the senior manager caught in the guilt-drenched middle (Gene), the susceptible old-timer (Phil), the young, relatively cheap early victim (Bobby), and the blue collar worker all too familiar with hard times (Jack). The main focus is on Bobby, but The Company Men gives each of the main characters the opportunity to tell a distinctive story.

And through Bobby's story The Company Men does question the priorities of the young and ambitious, as wealth is translated into a mountain of debt that leaves no buffer. A smaller house, a practical car, and less golf would have allowed Bobby to ride out the recession in better shape. At the top, the rich find the ways to get richer. Salinger's reward for initiating deep cuts is an improved share price and the opportunity to sell the company and cash in on a new fortune.

But while the film functions smoothly, it never latches onto an emotional vein. Unlike Up In The Air (2009), The Company Men does not get under the skin of any of the protagonists, and remains a superficial if well-meaning study of people struggling through a crisis. Almost mechanically, Bobby goes through the academic stages of anger, denial, and dejection before being picked up by his wife Maggie once he reaches rock-bottom. Gene demonstrates why he is not the CEO of GTX by displaying too much caring for people rather than share price. And Phil represents the most exposed corporate soldier, the loyal employee who worked his way up, but has been stagnant for a long time and is now too old to be re-trainable. All good stories that unfold with integrity, but in the context of an imploding economy, all also rather predictable, and Wells doesn't find too many new angles to explore.

The cast of dependable stalwarts is consistently good, and while Affleck, Jones, Nelson and Cooper perform admirably with no surprises, Kevin Costner and Rosemarie DeWitt grab the opportunity to shine in excellent supporting roles.

With their company exposed to an economic crisis, all of The Company Men will experience tumultuous losses. For most of the men the pain is raw and visible. And those who emerge from the crisis with much greater material wealth and little empathy for the misfortune of others have actually suffered most of all. They have lost their soul, although they may not know it.

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The Movies Of Chris Cooper

All movies starring Chris Cooper and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

Money Train (1995)

A Time To Kill (1996)

October Sky (1999)

American Beauty (1999)

Me, Myself And Irene (2000)

The Patriot (2000)

The Bourne Identity (2002)

Adaptation (2002)

The Bourne Supremacy (2004, uncredited)

Capote (2005)

Jarhead (2005)

Syriana (2005)

The Kingdom (2007)

The Company Men (2010)

Remember Me (2010)

The Town (2010)

The Muppets (2011)

The Company You Keep (2012)

August: Osage County (2013)

Demolition (2015)

Live By Night (2016)

A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood (2019)

Little Women (2019)

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