Movie Review: Babylon (2022)

Genre: Drama  

Director: Damien Chazelle  

Starring: Margot Robbie, Brad Pitt, Diego Calva, Tobey Maguire  

Running Time: 189 minutes  

Synopsis: In Hollywood of 1926, stars and wannabes attend a huge sex, drugs, and music party at a studio head's mansion. Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt) is the era's biggest star, Nellie LaRoy (Margo Robbie) is a fame-seeking nobody, and Manny Tores (Diego Calva) is a studio fixer desperate to be involved in moviemaking. Also present are band trumpeter Sidney Palmer, gossip writer Elinor St. John (Jean Smart) and exotic singer Lady Fay Zhu. The next day Manny gets his first on-set experiences and Nellie stumbles into stardom, unleashing all her addictions. All the industry norms are disrupted by the arrival of sound. Through the turmoil, Manny maintains a crush on Nellie, while Conrad frequently swaps wives but his career suffers as the public taste evolves.

What Works Well: Writer and director Damien Chazelle delivers a warts-and-all three hour epic vision of excess as a young town attracts ambition, talent, and crime. The characters are inspired by actual people, Jack Conrad and Nellie LaRoy roughly approximating John Gilbert and Clara Bow respectively. Brad Pitt is in his comfort zone as the residing superstar and Margot Robbie finds the unhinged bravura of a stardom-or-bust attitude, and they contribute to an exhilarating first hour packed with madcap energy, humour, and incidental death. The second hour is less impactful but still strong, Conrad and Nellie at their zenith suddenly encountering the hazards of new technology.

What Does Not Work As Well: The third hour unravels into aimlessness and an unworthy lovers-on-the-run subplot. Tobey Maguire makes an appearance as a crime lord, and triggers a useless detour to a dungeon of freakish debauchery. It all ends in a climax reaching for Singin' In The Rain-inspired nostalgia but falling embarrassingly short.

Conclusion: Two hours of excellence compromised by excessive bloat.



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Movie review: Labor Day (2013)

A romantic drama, Labor Day is the tender story of an unlikely love blossoming under emotional stress. Director Jason Reitman and stars Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin deliver a quiet, moving exploration of two damaged souls connecting in remarkable circumstances.

The film is set in a calm suburban New England town in 1987. Severely depressed since her husband left her, Adele Wheeler (Winslet) is raising her 13 year old son Henry (Gattlin Griffith) on her own. At the start of the Labor Day long weekend, escaped and injured convict Frank Chambers (Josh Brolin) forces his way into their house to hide for a night, intending to jump onto a train the following day.

But Frank is not a naturally violent man, and his surprisingly affectionate treatment of Adele and Henry touches a chord. She is desperate to reconnect with a man, Henry longs for a father figure, and with fewer trains running on the weekend, Frank ends up staying longer than expected. He makes himself useful around the house, and a family dynamic starts to evolve. But the police search for Frank is incessant, nosey neighbours start to notice that things are different at the Wheeler's place, and Adele may still find herself in peril for harbouring a fugitive.

Directed and written by Jason Reitman, Labor Day is a beautiful film, a journey into the mysteries of love where a connection can blossom in the unlikeliest contexts. Reitman fills the movie with delicate scenes of normalcy in an abnormal weekend, life progressing despite the confluence of one woman's depression with one man's desperation. As Frank settles in for what should be a short stay at Adele's house, he should not want to be there any longer than necessary and she should not want him to stay a moment longer than he wants to, and yet both feel the tug of the human heart drawing them together.

Simple as the main story is, Reitman also has secrets to reveal, in the form of the events that drove Adele into depression, and separately, the crime that landed Frank in prison for murder. One of these histories is primarily revealed in one heart-wrenching scene, while the other unfolds through enigmatic snippets of events that will only be assembled late in the film.

Meanwhile, Henry as an adult (portrayed by Tobey Maguire) narrates the film, and the young teenager becomes the third point in the triangle of affection, needing both a better functioning mother and a resourceful father figure. Henry's reaction to the quickly evolving adult emotions around him, including the insecurities that arise when his mother's attention suddenly reorients to Frank, add to the film's impact.

The performances from Winslet and Brolin are exceptional, allowing the drama to unfold with no dramatics. Instead they both portray less than perfect people struggling against a flawed present and weighing the risks that need to be embraced for a better future.

Labor Day finds an emblematic highlight in the unlikeliest of scenes, Frank making good use of over-ripe peaches and guiding Adele and Henry through the process of preparing a pie. What comes out of the oven is not just a perfect pie, but a perfect film.

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Movie Review: The Cider House Rules (1999)

A feel-good drama about an orphan who strikes out on his own to discover the world, The Cider House Rules is sweet enough but also conspicuously contrived.

Near an isolated New England rail station, the kind Dr. Wilbur Larch (Michael Caine) runs the St. Cloud's orphanage, nestled in the snowy mountains. Parents arrive to deliver and drop-off their unwanted babies, while other young couples also know that Dr. Larch performs illegal but safe abortions. Only rarely do some well-off parents arrive to adopt one of the orphans. Homer Wells (Tobey Maguire) is an orphan who was twice adopted but twice returned to St. Cloud's, once for being too quiet and the second time after suffering abuse. Dr. Larch raises Homer like a son, and despite lacking any formal education the young man becomes Dr. Larch's second in command, delivering babies and helping to run the orphanage. But Homer always refuses to perform abortions.

With World War Two raging, air force pilot Lt. Wally Worthington (Paul Rudd) and his girlfriend Candy Kendall (Charlize Theron) arrive at St. Cloud's for an abortion. Finally restless and determined to see the world, Homer hitches a ride with the couple out of St. Cloud's, breaking Dr. Larch's heart. At the orchard operated by Wally's parents, Homer joins the apple-picking crew led by the domineering Arthur Rose (Delroy Lindo) and his daughter Rose Rose (Erykah Badu). When Wally rejoins the war, Homer starts an affair with Candy and maintains an uneasy correspondence with Dr. Larch. Despite being new to the outside world, Homer will soon face an unexpected crisis that will force him to define his destiny.

An adaptation of a John Irving novel directed by Lasse Hallström, The Cider House Rules is a contemplative, amiable and pretty film. It also almost mechanically lines up and ticks off elements required to create a wistful coming-of-age tale. A picturesque mountainside orphanage, a kind-hearted curator, sympathetic nurses, amiable and ridiculously cutesy orphans, a surrogate father-son relationship, a stunningly beautiful girl-next-door as the love interest, and finally a perfectly placed moral dilemma for Homer to grapple with, bringing into sharp relief life's messy choices. There is nothing at all wrong with anything that the film does; it's all just too tidy, an adult fairy tale manufactured, designed and executed to tug at the hearts of Academy Award voters.

Homer's journey of discovery is gentle and features a familiar tension between the comforts of home, in this case the orphanage where he is adored, and the mysteries of the greater world. Adventurous pilots like Wally and beautiful lovers like Candy await on the outside, but Wally will learn that there is no escaping difficult decisions. All that Dr. Larch taught him will come in handy when Wally stumbles into a crisis involving Mr. Rose and his daughter. Wally needs to define himself as a man responsible for justifying his own actions, and once he does, the world will look different.

The titular cider house rules are instructions of conduct posted in small print within the cabin housing the apple picking crew, a place occupied by people who cannot read until Homer joins the pickers. The rules are another rather heavy handed example of the film screaming out its intentions to question societal standards, and examine the value of normative expectations when transported to unique contexts.

Michael Caine almost single handedly raises the film towards the top of St. Cloud's mountain. Dr. Larch is a remarkable character, having created his own rules of morality suitable for an orphanage filled with unwanted children, and Caine does the most with it. He turns the good doctor into a man who would enliven any dinner party with his straightforward thoughts about life, death and all the choices in between, although it seems clear that Larch would never leave St. Cloud's, and indeed may have lived his entire life there.

In contrast Tobey Maguire sleepwalks through the film with his singular goofy expression, somewhat suitable for an orphan discovering the world but ultimately most tiresome in his inability to emote. He is overshadowed in the film's second half by the daunting Delroy Lindo as Mr. Rose, delivering a performance that speaks to all that life offers in the way of wisdom gained and dark secrets gathered.

Charlize Theron and Paul Rudd are good but quite obvious, with Rudd's character summarily shipped off to war in another convenient plot device to clear the road for the sexual awakening portion of Homer's journey. Small roles are afforded to Jane Alexander and Kathy Baker as nurses, Kate Nelligan as Wally's mom, and J.K. Simmons as Candy's lobster fisherman dad.

The Cider House Rules may harbour intentions of a complex fizzy drink. Instead, it's an average but still refreshing glass of plain apple juice.

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The Movies Of Tobey Maguire

All movies starring Tobey Maguire and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

The Ice Storm (1997)

The Cider House Rules (1999)

Spider-Man (2002)

Tropic Thunder (2008, cameo as himself)

Brothers (2009)

The Great Gatsby (2013)

Labor Day (2013)

Babylon (2022)

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The Movie Star Index is here.

Movie Review: The Ice Storm (1997)

A family drama about dysfunctionalities hidden beneath the surface of middle class normalcy, The Ice Storm uncovers emotional wreckage but fails to properly engage with its characters.

It's the early 1970s in the quaint town of New Canaan, Connecticut. Thanksgiving is approaching, winter is setting in and an ice storm is in the forecast. The Watergate scandal is brewing, and a new wind of sexual and drug experimentation sweeps through the seemingly staid suburban subdivisions. Ben Hood (Kevin Kline) is married to Elena (Joan Allen), but their marriage spark has long since extinguished, driving Ben into having an affair with married neighbour Janey Carver (Sigourney Weaver). Elena meanwhile is depressed and resorts to shoplifting. The latest adult trend is the "key party", where couples swap partners at the end of the evening through a random draw car key lottery.

The Hoods' teenaged children are Paul (Tobey Maguire), now attending college, and the younger Wendy (Christina Ricci), and they are having issues of their own. Paul has developed a crush on classmate Libbets (Katie Holmes), but his roommate Francis (David Krumholtz) always nabs whichever girl Paul is interested in. The brooding Wendy is into full sexual experimentation mode, and her targets include Janey's two boys Mikey (Elijah Wood) and Sandy (Adam Hann-Byrd). When the ice storm arrives and outdoor conditions become treacherous, the indoor drama also reaches critical levels.

Ang Lee directed this adaptation of the Rick Moody book, and while it is always salaciously irresistible to peak behind the curtains of the neighbours' bedroom windows to spy on dirty secrets, and the wintry New England setting is attractive, this is as far as the film's appeal goes. Past the sex, drugs, infidelity and misery running rampant through two generations of suburbanites, The Ice Storm offers little in the way of engagement.

Part of the problems is that the characters are reactive (or, more accurately, inactive) and living under the shroud of non-communication. They say so little that they never become rounded people. Ben and Elena are presumably at the centre of the film, but close to two hours pass and next to nothing is revealed about them, except that their marriage is in trouble. Even less is known about the Carvers as people, other than that their relationship is also broken.

Ironically, Paul and Wendy emerge as more provocative than their parents, with Wendy in particular harbouring all kinds of strange intentions, victimizing Mikey and Sandy in pursuit of her own journey of discovery. Paul's clumsy attempts to carve out private time with Libbets backfires in humourous fashion.

Other than frequent viewings of President Nixon on television and some fashion garments on the wild side, the early 1970s era is underused. The dialogue is generic, and the James Schamus screenplay is unable to convey a genuine vibe for the turbulence of the times. Kevin Kline, Sigourney Weaver and Joan Allen are strongly associated with the 1980s or later years, and not much is done with hairstyles and mannerisms to help them relocate to an earlier time.

The Ice Storm is a polished observation of a society in flux. But it remains a superficial view, as cold to the soul as the ice unleashed by nature.

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Movie Review: The Great Gatsby (2013)

A funky adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, The Great Gatsby targets a young audience by mixing modern music into the 1920s setting. The film is artistic and vibrant, but falls short in the search for authentic soul.

With a booming stock market fuelling the New York of the Roaring Twenties, Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) is trying to make a career for himself as a bond trader. Next door to Nick's small house in the Long Island village of West Egg is the grand mansion of the mysterious and extremely wealthy Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio). Every weekend, all of New York's social elite descend onto the Gatsby mansion to attend lavish and wild parties, although few of the guests know who Gatsby is and none of them know how he accumulated his wealth.

Nick's cousin Daisy (Carey Mulligan) lives across the bay with her husband Tom Buchanan (Joel Edgerton), and at Daisy's house Nick meets golf pro Jordan Baker (Elizabeth Debicki). Nick also learns that Tom is carrying on an affair with Myrtle Wilson (Isla Fisher), the wife of car mechanic George (Jason Clarke). As Nick and Gatsby become friends, Nick learns that Daisy was the love of Gatsby's life, and their idyllic romance was rudely interrupted by the Great War. Now Gatsby has scrapped his way from abject poverty to ridiculous wealth, and wants to win Daisy back. But despite his infidelities Tom will not give up on his wife so easily, triggering a cascading series of tragic events.

The Great Gatsby is full of colour, music, energy and style. Director Baz Luhrmann stages the grand love story of Jay Gatsby with plenty of larger than life panache, the set designs creating vivid landscapes into which the characters are carefully placed. The backdrops, lighting, colours, silhouettes and costumes are close to perfect, but this is where The Great Gatsby starts to falter: The film resembles a series of impeccable set pieces storyboarding the Fitzgerald novel.

With every frame a meticulous composition, the outcome is a glossy poster rather than a thoughtful interpretation, a face value recreation that is unable to get past events and into character depth. The screenplay by Luhrmann and Craig Pearce finds no penetration, Gatsby's profound sense of loss and longing distinctly missing within all the glitz.

But the film's sheer aesthetic brilliance and instinctive rush to beauty are undeniable. The inclusion of modern party music by Jay Z, Beyonce, Lana Del Ray, will.i.am and Jack White, among others, is a typically audacious Luhrmann move intended to make the film more relevant to a young and modern audience. The injection of energy is potent and the lyrical content of the selections is well matched to the narrative. But mixing new music into a 90 year old setting only serves to more fully block the film's ability to delve into the essence of its central romance.

And rather than bringing characters to life, the actors veer into the earnest theatricality of being consumed by the story's reputation. Leonardo DiCaprio oozes charisma fuelled by inexplicable millions, and does bring to Gatsby vulnerability if not poignancy. Maguire adds little as a too passive Carraway, and Mulligan fully looks the part as Daisy but remains an inaccessible scintillation rather than a real person. In a bullish performance Joel Edgerton as Tom Buchanan emerges as the only other presence strong enough to compete with the exuberant surroundings.

A feast for the eyes and ears but not so much for the heart, The Great Gatsby is fun and provocative but not so evocative.

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Movie Review: Spider-Man (2002)

A comic book adaptation with heart, Spider-Man combines eye-popping special effects with a human-centred focus on love and loss. Some of the acting is cringe-inducing and the dialogue echoes the juvenile source material, but there is plenty of thrilling action and honest emotion to cover the film's shortfalls.

Nerdy New York high school student Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) has a crush on Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst), literally the girl-next-door, but she barely acknowledges his existence. Peter lives with his aunt May (Rosemary Harris) and uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson), and his only friend at school is Harry (James Franco), the son of wealthy military industrialist Norman Osborn (Willem Dafoe).

On a school field-trip to a genetics laboratory, Peter is bitten by a genetically modified spider, providing him with dramatically enhanced senses, incredible reactions, overpowering strength and the ability to create and swing from spider web-like threads. After the tragic demise of Ben in a car-jacking incident, Peter gradually learns to control his new powers and adopts the persona of Spider-Man, a crime-fighting super-hero.

Meanwhile, Norman's company Oscorp is about to lose a key military contract. Under pressure, Norman subjects himself to an experiment that goes horribly wrong, and he develops the evil powers of the Green Goblin, a monstrous alter-ego bent on destruction. As Peter struggles to balance his new life as Spider-Man with trying to win the love of Mary Jane, she starts a relationship with Harry, as a showdown looms between the Green Goblin and Spider-Man.

With director Sam Raimi consciously crafting a superhero film with emphasis on the people behind the costumes, Tobey Maguire's performance as Peter Parker is the hinge on which the movie rests, and for the most part it's a precarious balancing act. Maguire is either appropriately naive and thoughtfully working through his issues as the bookish Peter is unexpectedly thrust into the role of superhero, or as an actor he is overwhelmed by the role and caught like a black spider against a white background. The suspicion is never confirmed either way, and Spider-Man eventually thrives on the strength of the other cast members and Raimi's visual flair.

Willem Dafoe leads the way, his smarmy business executive the perfect gateway to the Green Goblin monstrosity created by his subconscious. Kirsten Dunst is engaging as Mary Jane, her off-beat beauty perfect as a girl seeking any escape from a horrible home environment but for the longest time overlooking the one relationship that will save her soul.

The romantic sub-plot between Mary Jane and Peter keeps the characters ahead of the chases, but does not avoid a fair number of sappy moments as the David Koepp screenplay struggles to force its way into the world that adults inhabit. However, the justifiably famous upside kiss in the rain that Peter and Mary Jane share more than makes up for most of the rest of the clunkiness in their relationship.

Cliff Robertson as Uncle Ben Parker adds the welcome acumen of grizzled veterans, injecting just enough wisdom at the start of Peter's adventure to guide his heroics. J. K. Simmons is given free reign to add over-the-top humour as the old-fashioned, highly-strung editor of The Daily Bugle, a tabloid that latches on to Spider-Man's antics.

Raimi effectively integrates the computer-generated visual special effects into the narrative, Spider-Man's impressive speed of travelling from building to building in Manhattan a genuine joy to watch, and the climactic battles between Spider-Man and the Green Goblin causing satisfying carnage amongst the high-rises and bridges of the city. The Goblin is a worthy adversary, but Spider-Man has an effective bite back.

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Movie Review: Brothers (2009)

Yes, war is hell, but soldiers who survive the battlefield just trade in one agony for another when they return home. Brothers is an intense story of post-traumatic stress disorder, and the destruction unleashed on the home front when veterans fail to cope with the aftermath of combat shock.

Sam (Tobey Maguire) and Tommy (Jake Gyllenhaal) are brothers. Sam is a Marine on active duty, a perfect husband for his wife Grace (Natalie Portman), a fun father for his young daughters Isabelle and Maggie, and a model son for his father Hank (Sam Shepard). Tommy has just been released from jail, a loser whose life has so far amounted to exactly nothing.

Sam is deployed to Afghanistan, where his helicopter crashes into a lake. Reported to be dead, Sam is actually captured by the Taliban, tortured, and eventually forced by his captors to beat to death a fellow captive American soldier. Meanwhile, Grace believes that she is a widow, and needs to piece together her life and help Isabelle and Maggie deal with their dad's death. Tommy starts to help Grace in her recovery, and gradually becomes a surrogate father figure for the children. Tommy and Grace are slowly but surely drawn together.

When Sam is rescued and returns home, the new normal in Grace's life is again destroyed. Sam is not the same person who went off to war, and his traumatized mind finds it almost impossible to deal with the reconstituted reality of his domestic home, building to a treacherous crisis with his wife and brother.

To make its point, the Brothers screenplay by David Benioff does push the horror of war. Sam is tipped into the mental darkness after being forced at gun-point to kill a fellow Marine; while dramatic, this is much more than most soldiers who develop PTSD have to endure, but Hollywood is rarely known for choosing pastels when vivids can be manufactured.

Compensating for the excesses in the script, the acting performances and particularly the three main leads elevate Brothers to a delectable, slow-melt drama. Jake Gyllenhaal delivers the most intriguing transformation, as the brother who blooms when life unexpectedly hands him a purpose and a responsibility. Gyllenhaal allows Tommy to even surprise himself, and is most poignant when pushed back out of Grace's life upon Sam's return.

Natalie Portman enhances her reputation as a dramatic actress, in a performance less showy but no less intense than 2010's Black Swan. For the sake of her daughters Grace has to maintain a semblance of normalcy when Sam is reported dead, and then unexpectedly finds it even more difficult to welcome an unhinged husband back into her life. Portman keeps her performance controlled while conveying simmering anguish, and an undercurrent of unease for allowing herself to be happy with Tommy.

Less interesting but still solid is Tobey Maguire, who goes from effective Marine to traumatized veteran without much of a change in expression, although his best acting is physical: Maguire's awkward stance and glassy eyes upon his return home speak volumes without saying a word.

Sam Shepard and Mare Winningham (as Hank's wife) add plenty of earnest supporting talent, and the scenes between Shepard's old-school traditional retired soldier Hank and Gyllenhaal's good-for-nothing Tommy are deliciously uncomfortable.

With an efficient running time of 105 minutes, director Jim Sheridan maintains momentum with scenes of what should be tranquil domesticity regularly disrupted by the nibbling forces of crushed expectations, mis-trust, doubt and jealously. When the shooting stops, the brain damage kicks-in, and the casualties just continue to mount.

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