Through the Reels: Project 365: Movies 280

280 / 365: Black Mass (2015)

Johnny Depp takes on one of his more human roles in recent years, even though that role is a murderous mobster. Earning himself another Academy Award nomination (and another that he won't win), Black Mass is the under-appreciated crime thriller of 2015.

John Connolly (Joel Edgerton), is a born-and-bred South Boston native, now an agent in the FBI's Boston office. Desperate to make good and rise in the ranks of the Bureau, he tells his superiors that he has intelligence on prominent Irish Mob leader, James "Whitey" Bulger (Depp), who just so happens to be Connolly's childhood friend. While Whitey has visions to take down the Italian Mob that's infiltrating his territory, Connolly turns his—and the Bureau's—attention to the Italians, making a deadly deal with Whitey to inform on the business, giving the mobster veiled immunity to continue murdering, drug dealing, and racketeering. As Connolly gets in over his head, compromising his life and position in the process, Whitey begins a cat-and-mouse game with the FBI that eventually lands him on the Ten Most Wanted List.

I was most surprised by how unexpectedly funny and irreverent this story is, delivering a slew of captivating characters with plenty of depth. Now, it's not The Departed, but it sure tries to be. Connolly morphs into the strongest character of the bunch, because he's the one that you watch go through a total transformation. It's slow, and at first, understandable, the two-faced behavior as he's trying to get the intel that he needs. Edgerton is an unbelievable talent. Depp's performance is not subtle, but Edgerton's creeps up on you, revealing his as an equally dangerous player in this charade. And as ferocious and biting as Depp plays Bulger, he's still the most "normal" on screen character that Depp's played in a decade.

This is an exciting and interesting biographical crime film, one that takes a few liberties, but still manages to tell a hypnotic story with A+ talent.

Rating: ★★★★ / 5 stars
Watched: Theater
Seen Before: No

281 / 365: The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

This movie was the #36 film on my AFI Top 100 countdown challenge. Read my full review here.

Rating: ★★★½ / 5 stars
Watched: DVD
Seen Before: Yes

282 / 365: Cinderella (2015)

This new live action reboot trend is one that could be construed as nothing other than a blatant Disney cash grab. The notion that any of these classic tales need to be revisited suggests something about the original not being enough, even in dire need of a gloss and a spit-shine, and we should all be a bit irked by that notion. What's better than the animated Sleeping Beauty? Or The Jungle Book? Don't mess with perfection, people.

Thaaaaat being said, I'm unabashedly a sucker for pretty things. And quality execution in a movie like this depends on the ingredients, and for this live action Cinderella, the ingredients came together into an unexpectedly impressive brew. No need to recount the plot here. Nothing has changed, it is quite literally exactly the same, all the way down to pudgy mouse Gus-Gus. But the standouts lie in two places: Lily James as Cinderella, and the incomparable Cate Blanchett as her evil Stepmother. Blanchett's introduction is complete with her fluff cat bouncing out of their coach on a leash, for god's sake! A far more interesting performance than her turn as the titular Carol this year, which I'm sure will incite hisses from most people.

But it was. It was playful and fierce and it never feigned importance. The film is like that too. While it suffers the same fate as many fairy tale adaptations in that it's thematically hollow—and Disney can't help itself but cast Helena Bonham Carter as blithering twits (Helena... you're better than that)—Lily James is a commanding star. I can't remember the last time I saw a face so fresh and so bright, and she carries herself with a grace that is reminiscent of the most classic cinematic princesses. Oh, and need I even mention her ball gown? A delightful version of this famous story, one that I hope hints at the quality and care of the upcoming live-action reboots.

Rating: ★★★ / 5 stars
Watched: Blu Ray
Seen Before: No

283 / 365: Spotlight (2015)

With the true crime fever that's hitting the entertainment-scape (thanks to podcast Serial and everyone's recent obsession, Making a Murderer), it should surprise no one that Spotlight had the all the ingredients of an audience pleaser. Consolidating an overwhelming amount of information related to the true sexual abuse scandal of the Boston Catholic archdiocese and the investigation surrounding it, the film manages to succinctly inform us about a series of events that had more than a few moving parts. An impressive task, to say the least.

The year is 2001 when a new managing editor, Marty Baron (Liev Schreiber), is hired to oversee business at the offices of the Boston Globe newspaper. Neither a Catholic or a Boston native, Baron proactively tasks editor Walter "Robby" Robinson (Michael Keaton) and his three reporters—Mike Rezendes (Mark Ruffalo), Matt Carroll (Brian d'Arcy James), and Sacha Pfieffer (Rachel McAdams)—with investigating the fervent accusations of misconduct and sexual assault of children among clergy members of the Boston archdiocese. The journalist team, known as "Spotlight," works in secret to aggressively investigate each story, sometimes taking years to compile. When Robinson and the team, all reformed Catholics to one degree or another, stumble across evidence of a massive cover-up, they fight against the full strength of the Catholic church, and a community willing to turn a blind eye in order to keep their faith alive.

Aside from loving this movie and everything it stood for, some problems stand out. There were a handful of leads, moments that piqued my interest and kept me glued to me chair, that were then dropped, never to come back into play again in this whirlwind investigation. I'm thinking specifically about a scene in which Sacha goes knocking on doors and comes across a man who... well, let's just say that he says some very interesting things. Things that made even Sacha scramble in disbelief. The conversation ends and she's resolute with Robby that no matter what, she's going to follow-up on this lead. But she doesn't. One of the most interesting revelations in the film, the one I couldn't stop thinking about, was dropped like a bad habit (pun intended).

The lack of resolution, in fact, distracted me from the development of the rest of the story. While it may not have been the most important detail of Spotlight's story, it was one of the only pieces that provided any psychological or emotional explanation for what was really going on. I'm still sad we didn't get more of it, and the inclusion of this scene without any revisiting of it is a major oversight on the part of director Tom McCarthy and writer Josh Singer. It may seem small, but every person I mentioned it to since seeing this movie responded with "Oh yeah... what the hell happened there?" I can't be the only one that thought that should have been incorporated differently into the film.

The performances are spectacular, though no one really stole the show. McAdams is nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar, but it's hardly her best role. The truth is that the entire film is impressive, thereby, everyone in it stands out. Thematically, it's likely the most mature film of the year, taking cinematic plays directly out of All the President's Men, and even seeing it through to the end of the investigation where we feel the full catharsis of the truth being revealed. The poetry of the written word, the power of print and newspaper journalism isn't lost on a single viewer. The days in which a team could, almost unregulated, go in search of answers to society's most impossible questions... Those days really might be gone, and that's why Spotlight feels so special, and so precious.

Rating: ★★★★ / 5 stars
Watched: Theater
Seen Before: No

284 / 365: Star Wars Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)

[I watched this movie as part of my Project 365, but will review it in full when it comes up at #13 on the AFI Top 100]

285 / 365: Star Wars Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Without question, the greatest Star Wars film in the franchise. It isn't because the script is better (it is) or because the acting is better (it really is). It's because The Empire Strikes Back is the first (and maybe even only) film in the series that knows exactly, at every beat, what kind of movie it is. It takes the right things seriously and doesn't get caught up in the little things, diving immediately into an action-packed story and wasting no time revisiting the past. With the controlling reigns taken away from over-zealous creator George Lucas, director Irvin Kershner and writer Lawrence Kasdan create one of cinema's greatest sequels—a balanced, emotional, and triumphant space odyssey.

The Death Star has been destroyed, and the Rebel base has been relocated to the ice planet, Hoth. Han Solo (Harrison Ford) has joined the Rebellion as a commanding officer, with Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) and Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) driving the fight against the Empire right alongside him. When the Empire forces discover the base and take over the planet, Han and Leia, along with trusty companions Chewbacca and C-3PO, escape across the galaxy to get intelligence and test alliances—or rather, discover new enemies. Luke, unable to ignore his destiny to become a Jedi warrior, travels with R2-D2 to the swamp planet of Dagobah to train under Jedi master, Yoda (Frank Oz), with the hope of one day coming face-to-face with the villainous Darth Vader (James Earl Jones), and avenge the death of Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness). Little does he know that it's Vader who will stop at nothing to find him.

Action sequences are spaced evenly throughout the film, and delicate care is taken with the dialogue and character development to tell a significantly more mature and human story than anything else to come out of the Star Wars universe. Betrayals are piercing and personal, and motivations are explored for each of our primary heroes. The surface-level, reactionary plot points are left to the original film; in Empire, the interplay between characters—be it romantic, sinister, vengeful, or hopeful—is complicated, layered, and bone-deep. Everyone feels so much more strongly this time around, and Kasdan makes sure that each actor has their apex. Lando's betrayel of Han in Cloud City remains my favorite scene of the series, because it's gut-wrenching and, due to Ford and Fisher's rock-solid chemistry, tragically romantic.

The older I get, the more nuance I see in this movie. The costume design is simplified (and more functional), the makeup is softer, and the galactic sets are epically scaled to be all-encompassing on the screen. The special effects stand the test of time, mainly because Lucas and the ILM team took advantage of puppetry whenever they could. The miniatures never feel that way—we're always treated to enormous pay-off with minimal distractions to tear us away from the story. The construction of the film is patient, less bombastic than its predecessor (and successor), which may be why it speaks to the cinema-phile rather than the sci-fi geek in me. While the newest revival by J.J. Abrams took similar care in its story-telling, nothing can compete with Empire, and I don't know that any Star Wars film ever will.

Rating: ★★★★½ / 5 stars
Watched: VUDU
Seen Before: Yes

286 / 365: Star Wars Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983)

When I was a child, there was no more incredibly awesome movie than Return of the Jedi (except maybe Grease 2). The colors, the variety of characters and puppets, the costumes, the EWOKS... what more could an 8-year-old want? This time around, director Richard Marquand takes the helm and delivers a far more flashy feature in this third (final of the original trilogy) venture into the Star Wars universe, and it's taken many years to recognize the faults in this otherwise nonstop action adventure. Taking a step away from the maturity of Empire Strikes Back and veering head-first into the realm of Jim Henson-esque storytelling, Jedi cranks the hijinks up to eleven and shoehorns the playful into the action at every turn. An approach that, while still enjoyable to this day, is better served to a young audience than its adult fans.

Not long after the events of Empire, the Empire has begun construction in secret of a new Death Star, and the Emperor has enlisted Darth Vader (James Earl Jones) as the commander of the project. With Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) in hiding and Han Solo (Harrison Ford) imprisoned for his gambling debts by Jabba the Hutt, Darth Vader is confident that they'll once again regain power over the galaxy. But when Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), Chewbacca, R2-D2, and C-3PO fail to rescue Han from his carbonite prison and are captured themselves, Skywalker, now swathed in black with his Jedi skills refined, returns to his home planet of Tatooine to rescue them all. Tasked with a new mission to destroy the Death Star before it becomes fully functional, the group travels to the forest moon of Endor and, with the help of the native Ewoks, attempt to take down the Empire's last chance to rule the galaxy. Luke, however, cannot shake his selfish need to confront Darth Vader one last time, even if that means facing pressure to join the Dark Side of the Force.

The slapstick, cutesy comedy that permeates the action, particularly during the final climactic sequences on Endor and the rib-jabbing moments during the long opening scene on Tatooine are a major distraction from the otherwise brilliant conclusion to the trilogy. What made me love it as a kid made me deride it (a bit) as an adult. It doesn't change that the story itself is remarkably well constructed, tying up plenty of loose ends and keeping the momentum of the previous films moving right until the very end. But it does make me take it all a little less seriously. You don't notice it more than when you watch the two films back to back, and that's an unfortunate truth about the series. Consistency of character and theme get lost in the lack of consistency of tone.

With that said, it still manages to generate the same triumphant energy as the first film, especially at the end—and the weight of all that these characters have endured give it that much more significance. The joyous nature of the closing images left me completely satisfied—it's no wonder that it took Lucas another 30 years to tackle the next chapters... there really wasn't a need.

Rating: ★★★½ / 5 stars
Watched: VUDU
Seen Before: Yes

287 / 365: Star Wars Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015)

New movie release, reviewed previously on Through the Reels. Read the full review here.

Rating: ★★★★½ / 5 stars
Watched: Theater
Seen Before: No

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Project 365: Movies 280 - 287

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