Saving Mr. Banks

*** out of ****

American Hustle, a film loosely based on true events actually put one of the most honest prefaces I have seen in a movie:

"Some of this actually happened."

Disney could have stated the same thing at the beginning of their making-of-Mary Poppins film, Saving Mr. Banks, and it would still feel like an exaggeration. It is a good film on its own terms, but winds up being exactly what I suspected: Shameful revisionist history and studio propaganda. Still, it is well made and acted, but damn!

Even while the movie's implication that Author P.L. Travers came to some sort of appreciation for how the artists at Walt Disney Studios had altered her creation is shameful enough, it's worse to consider that her business with good ol' Walt helped her come to terms with a tragic childhood. 

The story of Travers' childhood is spliced into the film in fragments and is absolutely heart-wrenching. Such beautiful filmmaking in the service of "total bullshit" -as Harlan Ellison stated in a video blog. 

American Hustle

*** out of ****

American Hustle is a decently playful little "Goodfellas-lite" period film about con artists and an FBI sting. While based on true events, it has one of the most honest prefaces I’ve seen at the beginning of a film: “Some of this actually happened.”

I feel like there's not a lot to talk about. David O. Russell's direction is competent and stylish inspiring loose, unrestrained, entertaining -though not always believable- performances. 

I feel as thought the accolades are a little overblown. I never got the impression that this movie was aiming for the the sky. It's just kind of a fun, well-directed seventies-set movie with a few true-to-life bits of buried twentieth century American history.

I didn't really care about its characters. I just got entertainment out of the mess they were in and their funny ways of coping. 

Christian Bale is great as a man under a huge pile of shit he's created. Bradley Cooper's comic timing is genius. Amy Adams creates a person who is always reinventing herself and probably deserves the most credit for that kind of complexity. Jennifer Lawrence is hilarious as a woman with a talent for rationalizing her destructive and self-destructive actions. Jeremy Renner... Well, we know he's good. Also, Louis C.K. achieves laughs and pity like no other human being.

Russell's films have a similarity to Soderbergh's body of work. You don't always have to expect something grand. Just good, unpretentious and efficient filmmaking with dependable ensembles. 

American Hustle is good work but what's with all the awards and nominations? Russell's The Fighter and Silver Linings Playbook were both much better movies. It's my opinion that he and his cast are getting what I would call, "followup hype."
   

The Hunt

***1/2 out of ****

Currently available for download and rental, is an Oscar contender for the Best Foreign Language Feature this year. It is Denmark’s The Hunt, a film directed by Thomas Vinterberg, starring the country’s most world-renowned actor, Mads Mikkelsen, who is best known in America for playing the famous cannibalistic psychiatrist on NBC’s Hannibal.

It is a very upsetting story with the kind of deeply intimate performances I have come to expect from a Danish drama. As in the great Susanne Bier film, After the Wedding, Milkkelsen, is a gentler looking person than in the awkwardly intimidating roles he plays internationally. I think that there is oftentimes something unique to be observed when you see an actor in the comfort of their native environment. Yes, I talk about actors like they’re Zoo animals.   

Vinterberg once made a film called The Celebration, about a man who attends a family event to publicly reveal childhood secrets of sexual abuse by his father, only to be met with outrage by family members who refuse to believe him. The Hunt is a near inversion, as its story follows a kind male Kindergarten teacher (Milkkelsen) who suffers greatly after false accusations of the same thing.

While the single divorced man is going through significant life improvements, an unfortunate misunderstanding takes place at the school. Before long, he loses his job and is regularly ridiculed and threatened by members of the community. Under such strain, he begins to shut out those who still love and trust him.

The film wisely gives a close-up look at the lives of its characters in order to empathize with their choices. This is especially true when following the small girl (Annika Wedderkopp) and the seemingly insignificant events, which lead to her telling a lie with ramifications that a little kid couldn’t imagine.

The father of the child (Thomas Bo Larsen) is the teacher’s oldest friend and is conflicted until his parental instinct, in reaction to his protective wife (Anne Louise Hassing), cause him to violently act against someone he’s trusted his whole life.  

The most frustrating elements of the film are sadly true to life. I would like to think that when dealing with a serious matter like sexual molestation, that children are not asked leading yes-or-no questions. I would also like to believe that people are descent enough to refrain from hurting the innocent loved-ones of a shunned man. However, we read about such societal failures in today's news.

Using poor methods in order to validate an appalling offence is rather inexcusable. I can understand that when a child’s safety is at stake, people don’t tend to think twice. Vinterberg was inspired to make the film after reading news stories of ruined lives from sexual assault cases that turned out to be refuted way too long after the accusation. The damage was done.

What Vinterberg, Mikkelsen and this beautiful cast accomplish is something that feels honest through what could have easily been cheap melodrama. It is a very thoughtful film.

The Broken Circle Breakdown

*** out of ****

The Broken Circle Breakdown is nominated for Best Foreign Language Film and is about the tragic journey of a beautiful loving family, which is bound for horrible grief.

It is a strange multicultural experience of a film. Made in Belgium, and unlike movies I’ve seen from that particular country, it is spoken in Flemish (one of the three major languages of the nation). It is also about a subculture of Bluegrass musicians, with affection for the old-timey American mountain culture.

A husband and wife in the band have a daughter who becomes terminally ill with cancer. The story of the injured family is told out of sequence, like many great movies about tough subjects that need to find a balancing act between beauty and despair. This film is based on a play and I imagine a setup similar to Hedwig and the Angry Inch, where its characters convey their struggles in a music venue with songs in between. The songs are gorgeous and the film is worth seeing, if just to hear them.

I found myself on a search for subtext when seeing a movie about people from a far away land associating so strongly with American culture. I think that the country music theme seems to set the most joyful tone possible for people struggling with loss.

The movie’s aesthetic style is beautifully polished -if not always realistic. The lighting and choice of weather, during certain scenes, is similar to Hollywood melodramas. This may collide with some viewers but I think it is what the film is going for. The production is gorgeous and the two talented leads are bravely naked (sometimes literally) before the camera lens. It’s a classic tragedy and its element of glamor is really up for debate.

August: Osage County

*** out of ****

August: Osage County features an all-star cast, including Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts (both up for Oscars), as a crumbling family, bitterly reunited after the disappearance of the patriarch.

This is a darkly comic drama featuring themes of suicide, infidelity, incest and drug abuse. It is based on a play by Tracy Letts. From my experience with two other films also based on his work, Bug and Killer Joe, this one seems comparatively light.

The pill-popping cancer-suffering mother (Streep) gathers her family members after her husband (Sam Shepard) hires a housekeeper (Misty Upham) and leaves. With her sister (Margo Martindale), brother-in-law (Chris Cooper), three daughters (Roberts, Juliette Lewis, and Julianne Nicholson), and granddaughter (Abigail Breslin) under one roof, she takes plenty of opportunities to degrade every one of them.

While this is a very cynical story about family and the filthy secrets that rise to the surface with age, I felt a kind of painful empathy for its flawed characters. The movie only lost me for a minute or two, when it added one scandal too many to this house of misfit Oklahomans.

This is another good big-cast film of 2013, which means that Benedict Cumberbatch had to put in an appearance and he was good enough to do that. Ewan McGregor plays Roberts’ separated husband and it should be said that he should stay away from American accents. They seem harmful to him.

It is really the women of this film who are its foundation and there is a lot of honor you must give them for the humiliation involved in becoming their characters. This movie is funny but not fun… if that makes any sense.