Vice

When Vice came up as my brother and I were talking about this year’s Oscar race, he dismissed it. “What do I care about Dick Cheney? That was years ago and it’s just gonna be about how he shot that one guy in the face.” I had to laugh, but I told him he really should check it out. I know my brother isn’t the type to care about politics and wouldn’t want to see some dry biopic about an old man who was vice president when he was in high school, but Vice is far from dry.

Directed and written by Adam McKay, Vice carries a similar entertaining yet informative tone as his previously Oscar nominated film, The Big Short. The film is a biopic, in that it details Dick Cheney’s life, leading up to and in Washington D.C. with focus on his pushed boundaries and strong hold as vice president to a green and gullible W. Bush (Sam Rockwell). From the beginning of their marriage, his wife Lynne (Amy Adams) pushes him to succeed, rather than be a lineman in Wyoming with multiple DUIs. Instead, he channels that recklessness into systemically seizing power throughout his career. By the end, after multiple betrayals and heart attacks, he feels like a Darth Vader-esk villain complete with replacement parts, destroying his own daughter’s happiness and ominous music.

Christian Bale has been known for some extreme transformations for his movie roles and Vice is near the top. It’s said that Bale gained forty-five pounds, shaved his head and bleached his eyebrows to pull this look off. In the makeup Bale is nearly invisible and his voice only carries the disguise further. It is uncanny how much he looks like they Cheney I knew on the evening news. I expect this film to win best makeup. It’s a shame we won’t be able to see the well deserved award accepted during the broadcast.

There are so many odd and hilarious moments that happen throughout this film that only Adam McKay could pull off. While the narrator reminds us that we can only speculate how the Cheneys discussed running with Bush, they speculate hilariously letting Lynn and Dick spout some long winded Shakespearean bullshit while laying down sleep. Bale breaking the 4th wall as Cheney is a work of genius. And you won’t believe the grotesque connection between the narrator and Cheney. But my favorite is the fake ending in the middle of the film, that got huge laughs from the audience.

Vice is nominated for eight Academy Awards including makeup, original screenplay film editing and Best Picture. McKay has received his second nomination as director. And Bale received his fourth acting nomination, this time as lead actor. Amy Adams and Sam Rockwell are nominated in the supporting acting categories.

One of the funniest and most brilliant moments of this film happens in the credits, so don’t rush out. McKay realizes some may complain about how this film seems to have a liberal bias and takes a moment to address the three types of people who will be in the theater. It’s a great laugh to end on after so much doom and gloom.

“I can feel your incriminations and your judgment, and I am fine with that. You want to be loved? Go be a movie star.”

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Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

In the midst of the MeToo era, Three Billboards is a resounding battle-cry for those seeking justice. In the film, Mildred (Frances McDormand) pays for three old billboards to display a message calling out the local police department to find the man who raped and murdered her daughter seven months ago. It’s a bold message with huge black letters on bright red. And even though the billboards are on an older road that hardly anyone travels down, word about them travels fast.

Chief Willoughby (Woody Harrelson) addresses Mildred head on, after the billboards call him out by name. He visits Mildred and explains that he and his officers have been working on the case and doing all they can, but they just can’t find a DNA match. Mildred won’t be satisfied until the culprit is found. Complicating things for Willoughby is the fact that he has cancer and everyone knows it, but he works hard to not let it affect his work. The two butt heads and can act like fierce adversaries, but are ultimately on the same side.

The billboards make Mildred and her family targets. Men come into Mildred’s work to intimidate her. Kids throw things at her car as she takes her kid to school. But Mildred doesn’t scare easily and doesn’t back down. In fact, when people try to destroy the billboards, she retaliates, fighting fire with fire.

To put it mildly, Mildred is a force to be reckoned with and you do not want to get on her bad side. At first glance, she may not look like much, just a middle aged woman in coveralls, no makeup and her hair in a short messy bun. This is also her look out at the fanciest restaurant in town. But then she opens her delightfully foul mouth and shows us just how she doesn’t give a f-ck and will put anyone in their place. Police officers, the local priest, kids at her son’s school, the tv reporter live, she’ll call them out and leave everyone with their mouths agape in shock. Even alone, with her guard down a bit and talking to her bunny slippers, she’s still got that rough edge that I love. McDormand has the award for best actress in the bag.

The film is also nominated for a total of seven other Academy Awards, including best actress and Best Picture. Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell are both nominated in the best supporting actor category for their very different roles in Ebbing’s police force. Three Billboards is also nominated for original score, film editing and original screenplay.

Three Billboards is easily one of the best film I’ve seen all year. The story is captivating and keeps the audience interested until the very end. While none of the characters are purely good or evil, they are all so fleshed out, full of truth and entertaining. By the end of the film, I was truly invested in Mildred, her family, Willoughby, his family and even that screw-up officer accused of torturing black people. Three Billboards is a captivating, smart movie everyone, who can stand a lot of cursing, should see.

“Yup, still no arrests. How come I wonder? ‘Cause there ain’t no God and the whole world’s empty, and it doesn’t matter what we do to each other? I hope not.”

Summer Movies: Part III

Pacific Rim

This may have been the most fun I’ll have at the movies this summer.  In the moment, Pacific Rim is awesome.  Giant robots fighting giant alien dinosaur looking things is as epic as it sounds.  This feels like someone took a kid’s daydream from Power Rangers and Godzilla, amped it all up into one visually fantastic ride.

From what I gathered, a portal to another world or universe opened at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean and Kaijus (the giant dino-monster things) came out and started attacking humanity.  In order to fight the Kaiju, the human race has come together to build giant robots manned by at least two compatible individuals.  Sure, making giant fighting robots may not seem like the most practical idea, but it is the most entertaining.  As more and more fearsome kaiju are passing through the portal, a drift pilot with a tragic past may need to get back into a robot and save the world.  It sound ridiculous, but in the moment, you eat that shit up.

Oh, and along with all that is a very fun side-plot: Dr Newton Geiszler, a scientist obsessed with the Kaiju (wonderfully played by Charlie Day), has figured out how to drift with one.  Sorry, drifting basically means two beings connecting and sharing a brain.  It’s how pilots make the giant robots move and it’s how Geiszler learns vital information about the Kaiju.  Day’s character and his antics are a very fun slice of comic relief and he makes a scientist seem like a rockstar.

Pacific Rim is one of those films you really have to relax and let all your inner inhibitions go.  It is so far fetched, with some major glaring plot holes, but just let it go and you will have so much fun.  I mean, you’re watching giant robots fight giant alien-dinosaurs and it’s all so artistically beautiful.  I loved how the Kaiju seem to have glowing properties, it all flows well with the setting.  I sense Pacific Rim could be up for the visual effects and art direction awards come Oscar season.

The Wolverine

If you ask an average kid to name their favorite X-Men character, odds are it’s Wolverine.  Not that he is the best, lets not open up that huge nerd-fueled debate, but as far as the movies are concerned, he gets the most screentime and one of the best actors.  Here, Hugh Jackman is back in his title role, but not with any other familiar faces, yet, it works.

The film starts with Logan (aka The Wolverine) held captive by the Japanese during the end of WWII, near Navasaki.  As sirens wail, Logan protects a young soldier, Yashida from the nuclear blast.  Seeing Logan’s healing power, Yashida spends his life obsessed with the idea of immortality.  In the present, Yashida is a wealthy head of Japan’s biggest tech company and on his deathbed. Yukio (Rila Fukushima) brings Logan to Japan, claiming to want a last goodbye, but Yashida is really seeking a way to take Logan’s immortality and use it himself.  However, when Yashida dies, an internal power struggle send thugs after his granddaughter, Mariko (Tao Okamoto).  Logan must protect her, even as his healing powers fade.

Last June, I said that I enjoyed Iron Man 3 because it was so character driven, the same goes for The Wolverine.  Superhero movies that are more than CRASH, BOOM, PUNCH are the best.  While we still get a lot of action and fighting, there is enough look at Logan as a tortured, lonely person that keeps me on board, wondering what will motivate him next.

What I didn’t expect, was a strong martial arts film.  With the majority of the film set in Japan, we get lots of samurai swords and ninjas running along the rooftops, they seem to blend well with Logan’s brash claws.  Logan is always an outsider, this just seems to attenuate?? it.  And thankfully, the girls can kick ass just as well as the guys.

And a last word of warning, if you’re one of those who bolts out of the theater once the credits start, oh, you’re missing one of the biggest X-Men treats yet!

The Way, Way Back

I walked into this film blind, and by choice.  All I knew was that this was by the same people and studio who made Little Miss Sunshine, one of my all-time favorite movies.  Once again, they led me down a wonderful path.

The Way, Way Back is many things.  It’s part coming of age story, part restrained family drama, set within a suck-tastic summer story with an awkward teenage protagonist.  Duncan (Liam James) is fourteen years old, about to spend a summer with his mom (Toni Collete) and her boyfriend Trent (Steve Carell) at Trent’s beach summer home.  It’s a quiet little beach town that adults think kids can have fun at, but really, it’s just spring break for the adults.  While they drink and party with the other adults, the kids are often alone, and unless they have a bunch of friends, brooding over what a raw deal they’ve got.

Eventually, Duncan escapes to the local water park and becomes an employee.  This becomes his the only place he is happy and a double life.  Though his mom asks, he never tells her where he spends his time, and she doesn’t pry.  As Duncan gets more involved at the park, and comes out of his shell there thanks to the sarcastic park manager, Owen (Sam Rockwell), things get messy back at the beach house.

From the very first scene, we are drawn in and taking sides.  As they’re driving to the beach town, Trent asks Duncan, as the rest of the passengers are sound asleep, how he rates himself on a scale of 1-10.  Duncan timidly gives himself a six, while Trent harshly dubs Duncan a three.  Who tells that to a kid?  Trent tries to make it sound like Duncan should try to improve his number over the summer, but we see Trent just as Duncan does, an asshole who doesn’t care about anyone but himself.

I doubt this will gain much recognition during Oscar season, it doesn’t have the level of heart and charisma that Little Miss Sunshine did.  However, it is very good, heartfelt, fun and one of my favorite films of the summer.  Allison Janney put on my favorite performance of the summer as meddling, middle aged lush next door, and I look forward to Liam James’ career.  Anyone who can remember how awful it was to be fourteen can identify with Duncan, and wish they had such a great summer job.

The Green Mile

Based on a novel by Stephen King, The Green Mile focuses on the experiences Paul Edgecomb (Tom Hanks) has while working as a prison guard on a death row block in Louisiana during the depression.  He’s a more soft spoken man than you expect to find in this line of work and the way he approaches his job is not as a cliche prison guard.  He treats The Mile just as he would an intensive care ward in a hospital; firmly, but with a sense of calm serenity.

The new guy, Percy (Doug Hutchison), is a terrible addition to The Mile’s team.  He got the job through family connections and only wants to watch a prisoner “cook” up close.  Percy is a small guy who tries to make himself look tougher by instigating conflict whenever possible.  We love to hate him.

When a new inmate is brought to The Mile, Percy ushers him, annoyingly calling out, “Dead man walking.”  The inmate in tow is John Coffey (Michael Clarke Duncan), a huge black man accused of raping and murdering two little white girls.  I’d like to think that the bigger the prisoner, the louder Percy tries to be.  Though Coffey’s size and build are threatening, he is surprisingly meek.  Not many men on death row ask to keep the lights on or admit to being afraid of the dark.

Other prisoners waiting for their execution are Eduard Delacroix (Michael Jeter) and ‘Wild Bill’ Wharton (Sam Rockwell).  Eduard, usually called Del, is  grungy looking Cajun man who speaks French now and then.  He finds a mouse, names it Mr. Jingles and trains him to fetch a spool, becoming very attached to the creature.  His execution is the most horrifying scene in the film.  Wild Bill is a young man who’s antics are on the verge of psychotic, including pissing on the warden as he passes his cell.  His entrance to The Mile may be one of the best tricks he puled off in his short life.

Within the world of figuring out each prisoner, getting to know them in their last chapter in life and then executing them, comes a tale of life’s mysteries, healing and forgiveness.  Things get a little supernatural, but it does not affect the southern 1930’s feel.

While it took me weeks of spare time between summer jobs to read The Green Mile, the three hours that encompass the film feel more drawn out.  To be clear, I had watched the film once a few years before reading the novel and then again just recently for this review.  My feelings about the pacing of each medium have remained consistent.  It really doesn’t bother me that the film is long and keeps a slow, thoughtful pace, it’s needed just to get the story across well.  Simply, the novel was something I could enjoy savoring and taking slow, especially after a long day’s work in the summer heat.  The film could be just as satisfying in a gulp.  That being said, I encourage everyone to check out both the film and the book, maybe you’ll see things differently.

“I’ve done some things in my life I’m not proud of, but this is the first time I’ve ever felt in real danger of hell.”