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.

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Movie Review: Women Talking (2022)

Genre: Drama  

Director: Sarah Polley  

Starring: Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, Ben Whishaw, Frances McDormand  

Running Time: 104 minutes  

Synopsis: At an isolated religious colony, women are subjugated, deprived of education, and regularly raped. Taking advantage of most of the men being away, a group of women gather to discuss whether they should stay and fight for better conditions or abandon their men and leave the colony. Those offering opinions include the pregnant (by rape) Ona (Rooney Mara), the angry Salome (Claire Foy), whose child has been assaulted, and Mariche (Jessie Buckley), who is married to an abusive husband. Kind school teacher August (Ben Whishaw) is the only man allowed to attend and record the deliberations.

What Works Well: Writer and director Sarah Polley demonstrates no shortage of artistic courage in adapting Miriam Toews' book to the screen. With just a few exterior interludes, this is a one-set drama staged within a barn, consisting exclusively of a should-we-stay-or-should-we-go debate. The option exploration is a gateway to revelations, some horrific, about an oppressive patriarchal community. A blanched blue-green-grey-brown palette reflects women robbed of their agency, the living conditions and hard choices resonating well beyond the barn.

What Does Not Work As Well: The film's intimate focus on a single passionate conversation is also a foundational cinematic weakness. Theatricality dominates, and the uneducated women exhibit remarkable discourse skills but without bothering to consider neither what "stay and fight" entails nor the practicalities of survival outside the colony. 

Conclusion: Rarely has a title so accurately reflected both the bravura and limitations of the content.



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Movie Review: Promised Land (2012)

An environmental drama, Promised Land applies a pleasingly soft and reasonably balanced touch to the fracking controversy.

Rising star Steve Butler (Matt Damon) is dispatched by his employer Global Crosspower Solutions to secure gas exploration leases in a small Pennsylvania farming community. Steve has a stellar reputation for convincing landowners to sign quickly, and now he sets about ingratiating himself with the locals, assisted by his business partner Sue Thomason (Frances McDormand). 

But their progress stalls when local high school teacher Frank Yates (Hal Holbrook) raises health and environmental concerns about the fracking process, and convinces the residents to hold a community-wide vote. Soon environmental activist Dustin Noble (John Krasinski) arrives in town to harden opposition to Global's plans. Steve and Sue have to improvise new methods to advance their cause, while Steve and Dustin compete for the attention of local farm owner Alice (Rosemarie DeWitt).

With a deft structure, Promised Land tackles the clash between economic development, resource extraction, and environmental impacts. While the plot leans - slowly but surely - towards arguing for protecting a traditional way of life, the screenplay by co-stars Krasinski and Damon at least gives all viewpoints a fair shake. Placing Damon's likable persona on the side of fracking is a wise move to stimulate debate, and Krasinski provides a solid counterweight, the two men sparring on opposite sides of a heated topic.

Both points of view carry weight. Damon's Steve Butler is provided a rural upbringing and a vantage point on the importance of industry. He speaks with personal conviction when putting forward his case for the farmers to accept and enjoy the riches coming to them from gas exploration, because otherwise their way of life is coming to an end. Krasinki's Dustin Noble is the scrappy but resourceful underdog, making life difficult for Steve and Sue by simply displaying blown-up images of dead cows on his family farm. Both performances are steady without requiring stand-out moments. Holbrook, McDormand, and DeWitt could all have been provided with more to do.

Director Gus Van Sant adopts a patient approach, matching the restrained attitude with a small and scenic community where not much changes from one generation to the next. Moments of quirky humour lighten mood: Steve and Sue organize a community fair that does not go as planned, and the puzzle of small horses is a running source of amusement.

The battle for a community's soul ramps up to a couple of juicy-good late twists. However, the subsequent denouement is a clumsy let-down, a moment-of-triumph transformation landing with an unconvincing thud on the gym floor. Promised Land is attracted to the greener option, but is better when contemplating both sides of the fence.



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Movie Review: North Country (2005)

A sexual harassment drama, North Country reveals the horrors of workplace bigotry directed at women trying to make a living.

The setting is northern Minnesota in 1989. With her two children in tow, Josey Aimes (Charlize Theron) escapes an abusive relationship and takes shelter at the home of her parents Hank and Alice (Richard Jenkins and Sissy Spacek). To support herself she accepts the advice of her friend Glory (Frances McDormand) and takes a job at the local iron mine, where Hank works.

Josey finds the mine dominated by misogynistic and abusive men hostile to all the women workers. She is consistently subjected to demeaning insults, particularly from her manager Bobby Sharp (Jeremy Renner). Josey and Bobby knew each other from high school days, and now he persistently humiliates her with unwanted sexual advances. Both the union and management refuse to intervene. While the other women accept the abuse as part and parcel of the workplace, Josey reaches her limit and decides to take a stand, with help from lawyer Bill White (Woody Harrelson).

Inspired by the true story of Lois Jenson as chronicled in the book Class Action by Clara Bingham and Laura Leedy Gansler, North Country is a polished but also traditional workers' rights drama, highlighting a milestone case that set new standards for protecting women. Michael Seitzman's script combines courtroom face-offs, harrowing scenes of workplace cruelty, and Josey's hardscrabble life, and director Niki Caro weaves together a story about the quest for basic respect. 

The depictions of workplace harassment inject a large dose of exasperated anger at a culture that can harbour unconscionable acts and tolerate - indeed protect - atrocious male behaviour. The women's reactions and survival tactics are presented on a spectrum, from Glory insulating herself with a union role, to Big Betty (Rusty Schwimmer) shrugging it off, while others like Sherry (Michelle Monaghan) suffer in silence for fear of losing their jobs. As Josey raises concerns and starts to push back, the men retaliate with worse treatment, and the women exorcise Josey as a troublemaker threatening their livelihood.

But in some ways North Country tackles too much story. Josey's history, which of course becomes a topic of courtroom cross-examination, includes a high school encounter with a teacher, then an abusive relationship. Caro is sometimes at risk of trying to focus on too many directions at once, and in addition to the mine as employer, more than one man are presented as predators and placed in the position of pseudo-defendants. The melodramatics at the conclusion of the cinematic court case are also over-cooked to a crisp.

But an excellent cast helps overcome the weaker moments, with Charlize Theron and Frances McDormand the standouts. Theron is most effective during moments with her family, while McDormand deploys a hard shell at the workplace then navigates a life-altering disease. 

Peripheral themes add essential texture, including an inter-generational conflict within the family: Josey's father Hank instinctively agrees the mine is no place for women. Meanwhile Josey's struggles to be a good mom provide a warm flow to her tumultuous life, the troubled relationship with son Sammy an always spiky source of tension. Glory's husband Kyle (Sean Bean) plays a small but pivotal role with Sammy, and Woody Harrelson delivers an effectively low-key performance as a former high school hockey star turned lawyer with emotional scars of his own.

Expertly calibrating infuriation with triumphalism, North Country stands up for dignity.



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Movie Review: Mississippi Burning (1988)

A drama and thriller about the racial divide in the deep South, Mississippi Burning is an unblinking look at blind hatred stoking violence.

In 1964, three civil rights activists (two whites and one black) advocating for black voter registration are shot and killed in Jessup County, Mississippi. Initially only aware that the men are missing, the FBI send agent-in-charge Alan Ward (Willem Dafoe) and veteran agent Rupert Anderson (Gene Hackman) to investigate. Ward is urbane, young and idealistic; the grizzled Anderson is originally from the south, and the two men disagree about almost everything.

Ward and Anderson immediately clash with Sheriff Ray Stuckey (Gailard Sartain) and his Deputy Sheriff Clinton Pell (Brad Dourif), who are both racists and friendly with local Ku Klux Klan leader Clayton Townley (Stephen Tobolowsky) and his chief goon Frank Bailey (Michael Rooker). Ward calls for support from more FBI agents, creating a media storm, infuriating Mayor Tilman (R. Lee Ermey), and increasing arson and violence against blacks in the community. With the locals stonewalling the investigation, Anderson attempts to get close to Pell's wife (Frances McDormand), who may hold key information about the missing men.

A deep dive into a boiling cauldron, Mississippi Burning explores the naked face of racism, not only alive and well but also in control of civic institutions. Loosely based on the murders of activists James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, director Alan Parker and writer Chris Gerolmo craft a gorgeous-looking and soulful drama, an ironically beautiful portrait of nefariousness.

The elegant cinematography by Peter Biziou majestically captures a rustic setting of dusty roads, rural backwoods, dilapidating structures, and remote swamps stuck in time. Against this backdrop the excellent cast shines, Gene Hackman a particular joy as a seen-it-all agent deploying charismatic old-school methods to shake up the inhabitants of a gutter. Frances McDormand also stands out in a fragile role as the one local who may represent a path to enlightenment.

Beyond the rampant racism, the film finds enormous power from a tension-is-everywhere ethos. The locals resent the intrusion of the suited FBI agents. Ward and Anderson are at each other's throats, sometime literally. Secrets reside in the walls at Deputy Pell's household. Black community members are intimidated into silence. Churches and homes are firebombed, as the endless investigation causes tempers to boil over. And with Anderson's prodding, fissures eventually develop among the Klan members.

The film is not without faults. The narrative focusses only on white characters (as both heroes and bad guys), with the black community respectfully represented but confined to the background without a single prominent role. The three victims are also short-changed, and in fact barely named. And the final third, while still inspired by real events, leans towards gung-ho investigative tactics as a pressure relief valve to wrap up proceedings.

But Mississippi Burning glows brightly where it matters most, exposing the inhumane consequences of emboldened rot nurtured by poverty and ignorance.



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Movie Review: Primal Fear (1996)

A crime and courtroom drama, Primal Fear boasts a satisfyingly convoluted case brought to life by a terrific cast and one spectacular debut.

In Chicago, the respected Archbishop Rushman (Stanley Anderson) is brutally murdered. The police quickly arrest altar boy Aaron Stampler (Edward Norton) as he is escaping from the scene covered in blood. Celebrity defence lawyer Martin Vail (Richard Gere) offers his services to Aaron pro bono. Prosecutor Janet Venable (Laura Linney), one of Martin's ex-lovers, is assigned to the case, with a mandate from her boss District Attorney John Shaughnessy (John Mahoney) to secure a conviction and the death penalty.

The prosecution's case against Aaron is strong but lacks a motive. Martin interviews the stuttering, soft-spoken Aaron, and determines the simple young man from Kentucky is incapable of murder. Martin recruits psychologist Dr. Molly Arrington (Frances McDormand) to evaluate Aaron, while his team uncover several plots swirling around the Archbishop, including a politically-driven land development deal and evidence of sexual impropriety. In the courtroom of Judge Shoat (Alfre Woodard), Martin and Janet square off, but in an already complicated and high-profile case, surprises await them both. 

An adaptation of the William Diehl novel directed by Gregory Hoblit, Primal Fear is a richly textured drama. Packed with revelations, the plot finds new twists at regular intervals, and despite plenty of artistic freedoms stays just on the right side of cinematically credible. The Archbishop's murder is only the starting point, and before long sub-plots related to corrupt business deals, pedophilia, and personality disorders merge into a grand, multi-faceted mystery.

Of course some of the detours are elaborate distractions to cast doubt and open new avenues of potential guilt and innocence, prolonging the fundamental guessing game around Aaron's role. The altar boy as an innocent victim caught in the wrong place at the wrong time is Martin's thesis for the defence, but Aaron could also have been a pawn in much larger game, or holding his own difficult-to-uncover motive. 

In his big screen debut, Edward Norton's performance as the hesitant, deferential, and scared Aaron is a stunning bolt of lightning. But then Martin and Dr. Arrington delve further into the defendant's psyche and reveal much more to his character, and Norton moves to a higher level of dominance, evolving into a formidable and unpredictable presence.

The rest of the cast is packed with talent, Richard Gere infusing Martin Vail with plenty of depth and arrogant confidence in the central role. In contrast Laura Linney struggles with a choppy definition of prosecutor Janet Venable, often caught in unconvincing demonstrations of tough mannerisms.

At 130 minutes, Primal Fear goes on, and along with writers Steve Shagan and Ann Biderman, Hoblit could have tightened the pacing. A foot race involving another alter boy with something to hide is wholly unnecessary, some of the courtroom shenanigans could have been truncated, and the sexual tension between Martin and Janet is overplayed and loops in repetitive circles.

But Primal Fear is an overall gripping legal thriller. The courtroom manoeuvres maintain a pointed level of drama as intersecting battles of wits and wills play out, some plain to see, others just plain devious.



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Movie Review: Nomadland (2020)

A slice-of-life semi-documentary, Nomadland explores an off-the-grid society of individuals with a different sense of belonging.

The industrial town of Empire, Nevada, is abandoned after the last manufacturing plant shuts down. Fern (Frances McDormand) also loses her husband to disease. She packs up her belongings in a van and sets off to live a nomadic, house-less life, picking up odd jobs where she can find them and falling in with a community of like-minded individuals living on the margins. She meets fellow nomad Dave (David Strathairn), and they start a friendship of sorts, but Fern is most comfortable on her own, in her van.

Less driven by plot and more an exercise in patient observation, Nomadland settles for capturing rugged natural beauty and unfiltered stories. McDormand and Strathairn are joined by a cast of non-actors sharing their experiences, and director Chloé Zhao adopts a slow pace and non-judgemental stance, finding the humanity and pride within a group functioning outside the norms. 

Despite embracing solitude and a sense of individualism, moments of happiness and sadness emerge to underline common benevolence. Each in their own way the nomads are victims of circumstances and unforgiving economic or health crises, but they are united in nevertheless defining an independent road towards self-improvement and progress.

Fern is crusty and has difficulty conveying friendliness, but stresses the difference between homeless and house-less. Through her sister and later with Dave, she has options to live much more comfortably, at least in a strictly physical sense. But after the trauma of losing her town and her husband, the van comes to represent a deeply ingrained attachment to a form of stubborn personal freedom and self-reliance, and Nomadland succeeds in defining the lifestyle as a form of choice.

The hardships inherent in living in a cramped space on wheels are not glossed over. In between vistas of open landscapes and close-ups of a welcoming nature, Zhao takes the time to convey the constant battle against the bitter cold, finding the next casual job, dealing with sickness, the strain of equipment failure, and mundane but essential biological functions.

Fern, David and the community of people they meet all possess private motives to embrace a different style of life. Unburdened by traditional cinematic structure, Nomadland is similarly comfortable with a lack of convention.



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Movie Review: Blood Simple (1984)

A neo-noir masterpiece, Blood Simple is the debut of the Coen brothers and an exquisitely crafted crime thriller.

In rural Texas, Abby (Frances McDormand) is cheating on her husband Marty (Dan Hedaya), a bar owner, with his employee Ray (John Getz). But Marty is on to her, and has hired private detective Lorren Visser (M. Emmet Walsh) to catch Abby in the act, which he promptly does. Marty tries and fails to reel Abby in, and in desperation hires Visser to help him exact revenge. But events will spiral in unexpected and dangerous directions for the lovers, the jilted husband and the detective.

The plot summary is just the start. Blood Simple stands atop that foundation of infidelity and humiliation and builds a delightfully askew structure, where every next level is twisted. Double crosses and on-the-fly criminal improvisations engulf the characters in a nightmare of their own making, driven by overlapping combinations of lust, love, greed and retribution.

Produced on a budget of $1.5 million, Blood Simple credits Joel Coen as director and his brother Ethan as producer, and both as co-writers. But this is the start of their shared vision to create quality quirky films, and their first big screen foray delivers a visual and cerebral treat.

Classic film noir fundamentals abound, with all the characters deeply flawed and susceptible to self-serving sin. In the first scene Abby hints to her lover Ray that maybe something bad should happen to her husband Marty; the detective Visser is primarily interested in lining his pockets; and all three men are not beyond plotting and executing acts of violence most foul.

And the classic noir style is also evident in almost every scene. The film opens with an in-car conversation between two silhouettes on a rainy night, interrupted at regular intervals by the headlights of oncoming traffic. Later, light streams through bullet holes in a perforated wall. Lazy ceiling fans shuffle the stale air and help transition scenes and settings. And from third-rate motel rooms to the cluttered back room of Marty's bar, the Coens find ideal locales for everything to go wrong.

The highlight set-piece is an unforgettable Hitchcock-meets-noir sequence involving a victim, blood-soaked clothes, an attempted cover-up, an abandoned country road, a shovel and a grave site. It's an excruciatingly beautiful piece of tense film making, devoid of dialogue but filled with dread and mounting horror.

The four principal cast members fully immerse into their characters. Dan Hedaya and M. Emmet Walsh have rarely had similar opportunities for prominence, and both demonstrate their often underutilized dedication to scheming personas. Walsh, in particular, finds a career highlight as the sleazy private detective happy to freelance in search of maximum profit for least amount of work.

John Getz creates in Ray the perfect handsome but maybe not-so-smart guy ensnared by the wrong woman. In her debut, Frances McDormand projects just the right amount of sly seductiveness under an innocent veneer.

The final showdown features an attempt to tidy up criminal loose ends, and by this stage every ill-advised plan to cause harm has taken an astonishing turn. It's generally inadvisable to take a knife to a gunfight, but in Blood Simple, nothing is that simple.

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Movie Review: Friends With Money (2006)

A drama and comedy about friendship, Friends With Money introduces four interesting women grappling with life's various challenges, but doesn't quite engage them at the required depth.

Olivia (Jennifer Aniston) is poor, single, and works as a maid. She is also timid, does not stand up for herself and starts dating good-for-nothing fitness instructor Mike (Scott Caan) despite all his obvious faults. Meanwhile her three best friends are all married and wealthy.

Christine (Catherine Keeler) is a script writer but unhappy in her marriage and clashing constantly with aloof husband Dave (Jason Isaacs). The perpetually irritable Jane (Frances McDormand) is a successful fashion designer but having trouble dealing with aging. She lashes out at all around her and refuses to wash her hair, while her fashion-conscious husband Aaron (Simon McBurney) is always mistaken for being gay. Franny (Joan Cusack) is independently wealthy and a happy stay at home mom married to Matt (Greg Germann), who tends to overspend on everything.

Christine's marriage disintegrates, and Jane's rage at the world reaches a literal breaking point. But the four women nevertheless do their best to support each other through their emotional ups and downs.

An understated tour of empathy among women, Friends With Money explores the differences that unite and the superficial veneers of happiness hiding misery underneath. Written and directed by Nicole Holofcener, the film does focus on first world problems of the white class, and three of the four women enjoy wealth and supportive partners, so their despondency stems at least partially from a fundamental lack of perspective.

Within that context, Olivia is the outsider with her nose glued to the window observing the seemingly perfect life of her rich friends. While it is difficult to swallow Jennifer Aniston as a maid, making every bad decision, unable to launch a career and still stalking an ex-boyfriend, Holofcener's script at least allows Olivia to acknowledge her faults and wear her failures with dignity.

Christine, Jane and Franny are not as well served, and generally remain flat mirrors for Olivia to measure herself. Christine's marriage crumbles into predictable chunks and Jane's inability to deal with being in her forties barely evolves. Franny is most content and endeavors to support her friends, but is also the least defined character. Too much screen time is invested in the ultimately pointless subplot of Aaron fending off perceptions of being gay.

Friends With Money adroitly avoids histrionics as Holofcener stays close to the realms of reality, seeking both humour and pathos within familiar behavior. The Friends With Money ring true, but would have benefitted from a bit more to do.

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Movie Review: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)

A social drama and comedy, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is a sharp story about grief, lashing out, and unintended consequences.

Seven months after the unsolved rape and murder of her teenaged daughter, the deeply bitter Mildred (Frances McDormand) buys advertising space on three billboards on a quiet rural road, calling out Chief Willoughby (Woody Harrelson) for the lack of any arrests. Married to Anne (Abbie Cornish) and a father of two young daughters Willoughby is well-respected by the small community. He is also suffering from terminal cancer.

The billboards cause a backlash, and Mildred's son Robbie (Lucas Hedges) and ex-husband Charlie (John Hawkes) are among many upset by her actions. Only a few friends, including the dwarf James (Peter Dinklage), stand by her. Dixon (Sam Rockwell) is one of Willoughby's officers. Still living with his mom, he is quick to lose his temper and harbours barely concealed racist tendencies. The billboards drive him to the edge, and tensions escalate. But with Mildred refusing to back down, events spiral in unexpected directions.

Written and directed by Martin McDonagh, Three Billboards provides biting commentary on life's volatility, and delights in feinting to one side before jumping to a previously unforeseen path. Just as soon as the narrative appears to settle down to a routine story of awakening and redemption, the stunningly sharp curves emerge, and the story shoots off into a succession of often jaw-dropping twists.

A dark rollercoaster tone forces humour and tragedy to brilliantly and uncomfortably rub shoulders, McDonagh tightly coupling life's absurdities with the inevitabilities of appalling human failings. Everything that can be expected to unfold does not, and everything that does happen is unexpected. And yet entrenched societal forces dig in, unmoved and not interested in yielding to any amount of grief, anger or levity.

The film plays with themes of justice deserved and demanded, hypocrisy in the face of responsibility, and the fragile layer of community civility cracking under a tenacious scratch. Ebbing is an economically depressed community aware of its faults but more than willing to overlook them for the pretense of harmony. Mildred's three billboards upset the apple cart, for a while not much will be the same, but in Ebbing nothing will fundamentally change.

The rural backwater setting ensures that there are no distinguished bright lights amongst the characters. While Mildred is the protagonist supposedly deserving of sympathy, McDonagh drops early hints that she is very much part of her blue collar community, her anger concealing but not eliminating her penchant for trouble. Mildred's billboard stunt is not an out-of-character action, but rather in keeping with a woman quite happy to punch back hard against whatever displeases her, including a mouthy daughter. The revelations about Mildred's true self arrive as painful and unsettling shocks, and provide the film with enormous power.

Mildred along with Chief Willoughby and officer Dixon create a trio of memorable and richly drawn characters as the interplay between the angry mother, the sick police chief and the racist cop creates the film's labyrinthine foundation. McDonagh succeeds in demonstrating the fallacies of first impressions and teases out the capacity for transformative change.

Frances McDormand evokes the ghost of her greatest role in Fargo and delivers an immense performance fuelled by acidic acrimony. Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell have rarely been better, and share screen time with help from an elegantly shocking inter-character baton handoff.

The supporting characters add plenty of colour and context. Mildred's son Robbie offers an alternative window onto his mother's life, while ex-husband Charlie and his 19 year old girlfriend Penelope (Samara Weaving) offer both menace and some of the best comic moments. The ad agency salesperson Red Welby (Caleb Landry Jones), the dwarf James, a local priest, and a potpourri of police officers with various personalities bring the community to vibrant life.

Thorny, disquieting, challenging and unforgettable, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is a dazzling achievement.

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Movie Review: Paradise Road (1997)

A World War Two prison camp drama, Paradise Road places western women under the custody of brutal Japanese captors and then cues up every well-worn prison camp cliché.

It's early in 1942 and British-controlled Singapore unexpectedly falls to the advancing Japanese army. Western women and children are hurriedly evacuated by sea out of the city, but Japanese air force bombers catch up with their vessel and sink it. Survivors swim to shore and find themselves on the island of Sumatra. They are soon captured and imprisoned by the occupying Japanese troops.

The women at the camp include stubborn British diplomat's wife Adrienne (Glenn Close); kindly missionary Margaret (Pauline Collins); American socialite Topsy (Julianna Marguiles); German Jew Dr. Verstak (Frances McDormand); young Australian nurse Susan (Cate Blanchett); and the beautiful Rosemary (Jennifer Ehle), whose husband is also interned in a nearby prison for men.

Life in the women's prison camp is tough, with the sadistic Japanese guards often deploying torture and intimidation to control the women. They are forced to work as slaves in the fields, while medical supplies and food are scarce. To lift the women's spirits, Adrienne and Margaret decide to organize the women into a choir. The singing gradually brings the women together, but the war appears endless and there are more agonies to come.

Directed by Bruce Beresford and inspired by real events, Paradise Road is a story of survival under enormous physical and emotional stress. While the women's ordeal is undoubtedly harrowing, this life-as-a-prisoner-of-the-Japanese-is-hell territory has been very well explored in previous movies, and Beresford struggles to add anything new. The prisoners' greatest act of defiance is creating a choir; brave and moving as their actions were, women sitting and singing is not terrific material for a movie experience.

To fill the seemingly endless two hours of running time, Beresford defaults to a tired formula of alternating scenes of mistreatment with long sequences of the women...talking. The Japanese guards all demonstrate vicious behaviour and do the usual amount of screaming and foaming at the mouth. The talking scenes contain the expected mixture of bonding, mistrust and encouragement. As is typical of the subgenre, when prisoners are given little to do except play victims, the drama never gains traction. Big fights break out over a bar of soap. There are apparently children in the camp but they are rarely mentioned. A dog is also among the survivors, and gets a few tangential mentions as a drain on scarce resources.

The performances are solid but unspectacular. Frances McDormand comes closest to etching a memorable character, but only because the heavily accented Dr. Verstak is portrayed with almost cartoonish stand-offishness. At the end of the film little that is original is learned about any of the women; their personalities are sketched in during the opening lavish banquet scene at the luxurious Raffles hotel, and then barely evolve.

Paradise Road leads to hell, but it's a disappointingly familiar place.

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Movie Review: Moonrise Kingdom (2012)

An artistic coming-of-age story, Moonrise Kingdom takes a quirky look at young love between two troubled adolescents. The film is a visual delight, and the story includes layers of sharp social commentary.

It's 1965, on a fictional island in New England. Scout Master Randy Ward (Edward Norton) leads a troop of 12 year olds at a summer camp. One morning, Sam Shakusky (Jared Gilman), an orphan and the least popular member of the scout team, goes missing, leaving a polite note behind. Police Captain Duffy Sharp (Bruce Willis) starts a search, and soon discovers that Suzy Bishop, the troubled daughter of Walt (Bill Murray) and Laura (Frances McDormand), is also missing. A year earlier Sam and Suzy met and bonded during a school play performance, and eventually they planned an escape adventure.

Once they learn of the escape, Sam's foster parents immediately disavow him and announce that he is not welcome back at their house. Meanwhile, out in the wilderness Sam uses his scouting skills as he and Suzy hike to a secluded cove, where they set up camp and tentatively start to get intimate. The search intensifies with Ward, his scouts, Sharp and the Bishops frantically trying to find the children, with matters complicated by a relationship between Laura Bishop and the police captain. A representative of Social Services (Tilda Swinton) flies in to help. Sam and Suzy enjoy a few moments of idyllic isolation, but there are surprises and complications ahead, including a mammoth storm.

Directed and co-written by Wes Anderson, Moonrise Kingdom is a fresh take on young and emerging love. With exquisite use of staging, colour and symmetry, Anderson creates a fictional yet potentially real world where the setting is as important as the characters, and the almost magical surroundings contribute to the sense that all is indeed possible. The film thrives on a sense of whimsy as seen through a storytelling lens, and builds to a frantic, blustery finale.

The central characters of Sam and Suzy share the experience of troubled households and loneliness bordering on depression. While keeping the film light, Anderson does not shy away from hinting at the violent tendencies that troubled children are capable of: both Sam and Suzy can and do take care of themselves when needed.

But more sharply, Moonrise Kingdom is about adults contributing to the trauma of children needing something different. Suzy's parents come off worst, seemingly wholly incapable of connecting with their daughter. Meanwhile Sam is suffering through the bullying and ostracizing that comes with being an orphan, and exhibits both the anger and resourcefulness needed to survive in a hostile world. Suzy is so miserable she confides in Sam that she wishes she was an orphan. Pointedly, he responds that he loves her but she doesn't know what she is talking about.

Placing sensual affection at the emotional centre of an idyllically framed, fairytale-like story is mildly startling and adds to the film's uniqueness. The scenes of budding intimacy between the two 12 years old are handled with sensitivity but also honesty, Anderson confronting the reality that two troubled kids are likely to start a journey of sexual exploration sooner than most.

The performances from Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward are touching, and they confront the material with admirable sincerity. They also benefit from a script that allows their characters to be children while yearning to break free of their childhood traumas. For her great escape adventure, Suzy takes along her cat, mounds of cat food, a battery-operated record player, vinyl records and three heavy hardcover books: not exactly items to facilitate a fleet-footed getaway, but fully consistent with what a child would think of.

The adults stick to their assigned supporting roles, with each of Willis, Murray, McDormand and Norton getting limited screen time but also key moments to advance the plot and sketch in Suzy and Sam's background stories.

Poignant and charming, Moonrise Kingdom beams an elegant light over the universal yet intensely personal adventure of childhood graduation.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

The Movies Of Frances McDormand

All movies starring Frances McDormand and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

Blood Simple (1984)

Raising Arizona (1987)

Mississippi Burning (1988)

Miller's Crossing (1990, uncredited)

Barton Fink (1991, voice only, uncredited)

Fargo (1996)

Primal Fear (1996)

Paradise Road (1997)

Almost Famous (2000)

Laurel Canyon (2002)

Something's Gotta Give (2003)

North Country (2005)

Friends With Money (2006)

Burn After Reading (2008)

Moonrise Kingdom (2012)

Promised Land (2012)

Hail, Caesar! (2016)

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)

Nomadland (2020)

Women Talking (2022)

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.
The Movie Star Index is here.