MatM '15-'16: #1

Well, we made it.

A couple of things to discuss:

First, I wanted to take a minute to say that last year was better.

This year was really, really good. When I think about it, though, my #1 from this year would have probably been #5 last year when considering Birdman, Nightcrawler, Whiplash and Boyhood. Am I over-romanticizing the compound-word era? Probably.

My mom, who sees almost as many movies as I do each year, and who has seen, I believe, each of the best picture nominees this year, kept saying about each of them:

"Yeah, I liked it, but it wasn't a best picture."

Whereas last year, there were 4.

Secondly, here are the movies I wanted to see but didn't get to:

Straight Outta Compton
Steve Jobs
Legend
45 Years
Tangerine
The Look of Silence
Chi-Raq (actually, I'm about halfway through and enjoying it, just haven't had time to finish)
Carol
The Hateful Eight
Sisters
Joy
Concussion
Grandma
The Danish Girl
The Hunting Ground

Time is of the essence, and I want to get to #1 before I start rambling. I'm not sure if people are going to be on board with this pick, so I better defend it well.

Here goes:

#1 Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

How can you find and display your voice when you are trying as hard as you can to be invisible?

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, present day. Greg Gaines (Thomas Mann) is gliding through his senior year, trying to blend in, finding "membership" in a number of groups rather than sticking with one; in other words, blending in and being non consequential. The only person that could he would even consider a friend is Earl Jackson (RJ Cyler), but instead he refers to him as a "co-worker".

Over the years of their friendship, they have made 42 short films based on real ones. They are shorter, lousier and far more low-budget, and they spoof the titles from the ones they are spoofing: Eyes Wide Butt, Grumpy Cul-de-Sacs (Mean Streets), Pooping Tom, A Sockwork Orange,  2:48 Cowboy, just to name a few.

One day, his mom (Connie Britton) and dad (Nick Offerman) come into his room to tell him Rachel (Olivia Cooke) has just been diagnosed with Leukemia. Mom forces him to call Rachel and go over to hang out with her and her mom (Molly Shannon). She wants nothing to do with him at first before coming around on his wit and self-deprecating humor. Soon, they are hanging out on a daily basis. Earl lets the cat out of the bag at one point and tells her about their films. She begins watching them and loves them, much to Greg's chagrin. So much so that her hot friend Madison (Katherine Hughes) convinces the two of them to make a movie for Rachel before...you know.

There are a couple issues with this movie. Greg's family, like the one in Easy A, is almost too quirky, and Greg himself is obnoxious to the point of wanting the viewer to face-palm a couple of times. But he is a teenager, and he is supposed to be obnoxious, and self-deprecating, and trying way too hard. If you can get past that and realize that it is the point of his character, it's smooth sailing.

Because then you get to the good stuff. The way the film is shot, beyond all of the fun homages to films of the past, is phenomenal. It's a film/communication student's dream--fish angle lenses, 5 minute static shots, wild angles, camera tilts. In that regard, it's different than anything I've seen in a long time. The world that director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon and screenwriter/novelist Jesse Andrews have created is unique but somehow realistic. The original score, including some of his stuff from the past, is more or less entirely done by Brian Eno.

Let me say that again. The score for the movie is by Brian. F***ing. Eno.

Offerman, Britton, Shannon and co. are actually outperformed by their younger counterparts. Olivia Cooke hits the highs and lows of her situation and Mann, while yes, annoying, nails what he is supposed to nail, convincingly. But the diamond in the rough is first-timer Cyler, stoic until his principles are messed with, then coming to life in a major way.

Me and Earl cleaned up at Sundance, winning both the Grand Jury and the Audience awards and breaking the record for a major studio purchase (Fox Searchlight) at 12 million dollars. As a result, I expected it to get a little more love than it did. That's okay, though--maybe it was too teenage, too excessive. And maybe that's being a teenager. Real, extreme emotion. Love and anger and laughter all in the span of an afternoon.

Give this movie a shot. I don't think you'll be disappointed. If you are, I will refund your rental and argue on its behalf. Because it--and the book--are outstanding.

Okay, dudes. I'll try to recap the whole schabang in the next few days.

Thanks for reading!

MatM '15-'16: #4-2

To re-boot or not re-boot? In the case of these three, in extremely capable hands...

Yes.

#4 Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens

The most beloved franchise in the galaxy spent the last decade or more getting raked across the coals for its three prequels, considered by many to be crimes against humanity. I don't know if I personally would go that far, but mee-sa Jar Jar Binks and the Hayden Christensen/Natalie Portman rolling in grassy meadows construct were both giant missteps, the former being an actually offensive one. Revenge of the Sith was a step in the right direction, (read: too heavy on the CGI, too much "...NOOOOOOOOOO!" from Anakin/Darth) but not enough to make up for the first two.

Enter J.J.Abrams, an absolute fanboy about the Star Wars universe and a proven commodity in Action/Sci-Fi (Alias, LOST, Fringe) who had already successfully rebooted the Star Trek franchise. When it was made known early on that his Bad Robot Production company would be partnering up with LucasFilms, it seemed like a match made in Tattooine.

And it was.

To those who saw Rey (newcomwer Daisy Ridley, fantastic) walking with BB-8 into the twin suns of Tatooine and didn't immediately lose their sh*t, there's something wrong with you. Anyone who watched Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) speaking to the charred mask of Darth Vader and didn't feel chills run down their spine, you've got problems too. And if you didn't well up when Han and Chewie walked into the Millenium Falcon, well, you're probably not a human being.

Notice how I carefully mentioned moments from the previews to protect the 0.5% of you reading this who haven't seen it yet. That's because unlike the previous batch, this one is sacred. In fact, the sixth grader at my school was on the bus around telling people one of the major spoilers received a cold shoulder for nearly a week.

Besides being a reboot of the franchise, it also runs many, many parallels to A New Hope. In some ways, it's the exact same story. Unfortunately, and this is my one and only beef with the whole thing--the move to say formulaic makes for some pretty cheesy moments (even if that is the point, to a degree).

Rey is trading in junked parts and scraps for food tokens when she stumbles upon BB-8, a droid holding a map to the current whereabouts of resistance leader Luke Skywalker. Finn (John Boyega from Attack the Block) is a stormtrooper who becomes disillusioned and flees from the First Order, essentially a spinoff from the Empire, ran by Kylo Ren and General Hux (you guessed it...Domnhall Gleeson!). Oscar Isaac is hotshot pilot Poe Dameron, captured by the First Order and interrogated for the whereabouts of his droid. Which contains the map. Which is now in the possession of Rey.

Yes, friends, it's all there. The cantina on Moss-Eisley. The Millenium Falcon. The sweet, sweet, grunts of Chewbacca. Lightsabers and Light Bo-staffs. The wipes to transition between scenes. The perfectly intact John Williams score. Laser sounds. Explosions. And plenty of intrigue and questions left unanswered.

All praise to J.J. and co. You did it. You've made Star Wars relevant again.

And now, here are some medals to show our appreciation for your service.

#3 Creed

If you talk to fans of the Rocky franchise, they'll tell you that I-IV are the ones worth seeing (Apollo Creed, Apollo Creed rematch, Clubber Lang, Ivan Drago, respectively), and V and Balboa are the ones worth skipping. So here again, we come across a major film franchise in desperate need of a reboot.

Enter Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan, last appearing on Mulhern at the Movies in 2012 at slot #3 in the gut-wrenching but brilliant Fruitvale Station. Not only does Creed re-kickstart the franchise, it might even be the best of the bunch.

The movie starts in a group home, where we meet a young Adonis Johnson beating the hell out of another juvenile. In holding, he's visited by Mary Anne Creed (Phylicia Rashad) and finds out she is the wife of his dad. "What was his name?" Adonis said.

TITLE CARD: CREED

Grown-up Adonis, living in L.A., less-than-thrilled with his corporate 9 to 5, moonlights as a Tijuana boxer. He decides to forgo his promotion and, much to the chagrin of Mama Cosby, gets a simple one-bedroom in Philadelphia to start focusing on boxing, specifically at Delphi gym, where his old man trained back in the 70s. He asks for help from Mr. Balboa himself, who is out of the game. Of course, he will eventually relent, and they start working on taking down everything in their path, culminating with a fight with "Pretty" Ricky Conlan (Tony Bellew), an undefeated Brit. He doesn't just want to be the son of Creed, he wants to be the Creed that people remember.

I loved it. Sure, it was Hollywood-as-f***, and the love story between he and his downstairs neighbor is at times contrived and clunky, but Jordan proved once again that he is one of the best in the game under 30, an Stallone was perfect. I'm kind of rooting for him to win, even though this time it's anything but underdog.

#2 Mad Max: Fury Road

Do you like scrap metal? Do you like cars? Do you like fire? Do you like action? Do you like the desert? Do you like the sensation of being super thirsty at all times?

Even if you don't like any of those things, you can get behind the gonzo ridiculousness that is Mad Max: Fury Road. If I could describe MMFR, in only one word, that word would be:

Spectacle.

For two whole hours, it is one giant spectacle of awesome. Max (Tom Hardy) is a road warrior in apocalyptic Australia, on the run from and eventually captured by the War Boys, a group of vagrants led by the nefarious Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne). He is brought back to the Citadel (HQ), where Immortan Joe dumps a bunch of water on folks for maybe, like, 30 seconds. Because he controls the water, he controls the people. Max is kept as a captor for his O negative blood. Meanwhile, Joe sends Imperator Furiousa (a badass shaved-bald Charlize Theron) in a war tank to go get fuel. Along the way, it becomes clear that she is holding onto some precious cargo that Joe wants, and he gets into the cavalry, including this guy, known only as the Doof Warrior:

To go track it down.

And what ensues is the most crazy, visually stunning, outrageous car/jeep/tank/machine chase you will ever see in your life. There are basically no rules in George Miller's epic tale of life after life, and that ends up being a good thing.

Back soon with #1!

Matm '15-'16 #6 & #5

#6 The Big Short

Prior to this film, Director Adam McKay was best known as 50% of the Gary Sanchez Production company, the other half of the creative stake belonging to Mr. Will Ferrell. Over the years, he can also take partial credit (for better or for worse) for you hearing all of the following quotes yelled out at bars by folks in their early-to-mid twenties:

-"Milk was a bad choice!"

-"I'm kind of a big deal."

-"That really escalated quickly."

-"Sixty percent of the time, it works every time."

-"I'd like to think of Jesus like with giant eagle's wings, and singin' lead vocals for Lynyrd Skynyrd with an angel band."

-"Shake-n-bake, baby!"

-"The Catlina f---ing Wine Mixer."

-"Wanna go do karate in the garage?"

-"Did we just become best friends?"

...etc.

Everybody has to grow up sometime, and Mr. McKay's rise from purveyor of screwball comedy to best director nominee came as a bit of a surprise, certainly, but a warranted one, considering the genre-bending, fourth-wall-demolishing Big Short.

Working with nonfiction guru Michael Lewis's book of the same name as the source material, BS details the lives and personalities of those who made big money on the housing crash of 2008. It's morally ambiguous territory, obviously, and as the stakes begin to ramp up, the lead characters all are well aware of the fact that they are about to making a killing at the expense of everyday Americans.

The first to spot the trend is Dr. Michael Burry (Christian Bale), an oddball hedge fund manager with a glass eye (childhood accident) who spends his days in the office studying algorithms, walking around barefoot and banging out Metallica beats on his drumsticks. He comes to realize that the top 20 mortgage bond sellers are all backed by subprime mortgages, i.e., home loans granted to people with lousy credit histories. He hits all the major lenders (Goldman Sachs, et al.) and says he would like to put up all of his client's money against the housing market, known as "shorting" the market (hence the title). He is laughed out of each respective building as countless people sign off and take his money, and his hedge fund clients demand their money back.

Meanwhile, Jared Vennett (raven-haired Ryan Gosling), who narrates the action throughout, finds out about these Burry reports and meets with a group of investors, managed by the always-stressed Mark Baum (Steven Carrell) and advises them to buy up groups of subprime mortgages and put them together as Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs). He says they should pool their money into this and their money will eventually balloon. Eventually, they take his advice, as do young Charlie and Jamie (John Magaro and Finn Wittrock), who bring in their buddy, retired trader Ben Wickert (Brad Pitt) to help them pitch to all his connections. Fortunately for those select few involved and unfortunately for millions of others, Burry is right.

The best fourth-wall breaking convention (Gosling leaving a scene to turn to the audience and explain is by far the most common)that McKay implements by far is his use of celebrity cameos to talk us laymen through the big words and trading phrases: Margot Robbie in a bubble bath drinking champagne to explain subprime mortgages; Anthony Bourdain comparing CDOs to seafood stew composed of fish that didn't sell on it's own; Richard Thaler and Selena Gomez at a craps table to discuss how synthetic CDOs screw the people betting on them.

The Big Short does indeed lose a little steam in the final act, but throughout it is a highly entertaining look at the men who made millions while America plummeted. I mean, if the government had screwed us all by deregulating Wall Street anyhow, why not get rich?

#5 Sicario

In 2012, Denis Villenueve's Prisoners made my top 5. It was incredible, but it was certainly not anything I was rushing out to see again. Everything he has made so far relies on building almost unbearable tension and getting the viewer to tent his or her eyes as they wait it out. I have not seen Enemy yet, but it apparently, according to one critic, "Might have the scariest ending of any film ever made."

Sicario, too, is relentless throughout in ramping up the tension. It more or less never lets up.

Emily Blunt is Kate Macer, an American FBI agent who is looking to climb the ladder. When they perform a raid on a complex associated with cartel leader Manuel Diaz in the near-border town of Chandler, Arizona, they capture a few low-level drug runners and discover dozens of bodies standing up in the drywall, bags over their heads. While everyone is vomiting in the yard, two officers are blown to smithereens by a bomb in the garden shed.

Are we convinced yet that this movie is intense?

Back at HQ, she is introduced to Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) and Alejandro (Benicio del Toro). The boss (Victor Garber) tells her these are her new partners, and they are off to Juarez to bring down Diaz. Graver is the shoot-first-ask-later type, but Alejandro is a little harder to read. It seems at first he is there because of his skill set, saving their collective asses on multiple occasions. However, there's more to it than that.

The two or so sections of downtime don't last long. This one is all go, all the time. When they invade the drug tunnels in yet another pulse-hammering sequence, it gets a little Zero-Dark-Thirty-ish and feels just a touch derivative. It all pays off by the end. Blunt continues to show more and more range and felt highly believable. The Josh Brolin character felt like amped-up Josh Brolin, and del Toro was excellent as per usual, withholding both emotion and intel in his droopy eyes.

4 to go! Back in a flash.

MatM '15-'16: #10-7

#10 Spotlight

The Uptown Theatre in Minneapolis often gets the very first run of buzzed -about movies all to itself, and it is always spot on with its marquee displays. When we went to see Spotlight this November, the marquee read "Hulk Breaks Story in: Spotlight. Get it? Because, like, Mark Ruffalo plays Hulk, and he breaks stuff?

Moving on.

When the 1974 case against the Catholic Church was brought up and then subsequently buried, my own father would have been 18 years old. I mention this simply because my father was an altar boy in an Irish Catholic community of Portage Wisconsin. He himself never had any contact that I know of with abuse, but I do feel like the experience itself left him a disillusioned enough to not practice as an adult.

Well, that and being a teenage hippie in the early 1970s. 

Again, moving on.

We are in an era where sexual misconduct being reported among the Catholic Church is, sadly, not terribly surprising. In fact, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis were under fire for the very same allegations as recently as a couple years ago. It wasn't always this way. There had to be a trailblazer, and that trailblazer was the early 2000s staff of The Boston Globe.

The relatively small investigative journalism department, led by Walter "Robby" Robbinson (Michael Keaton), had just wrapped a story on misconduct going on in the construction community and were looking for something new, when new editor Marty Baron (Liev Schrieber) brings up the idea of doing a piece on the Geoghan case.

"What the hell is the Geoghan case?" They ask.

"I'll tell you," he says.

According to his previous work, Baron has come to find out that in the 1970s, at least 6 sexual molestation charges were brought against a priest in Massachusetts who was never convicted. Robbie brings up the fact that these are sealed documents. This would essentially mean they would have to sue the Catholic Church. And that's exactly what they do.

The rest of the team - Sacha Pfeiffer (Rachel McAdams), Matt Carroll (Brian D'Arcy James), and the quirky Mike Rezendez (lone ensemble nominee Mark Ruffalo) - start digging in deep. With doors consistently getting slammed in their faces, they nevertheless move forward. What they unearth, literally decades of buried accusations, brings a voice to a once voiceless pantheon. Since the Spotlight team's work, things have never been the same for the Catholic Church.

In the early goings, it seemed like Spotlight was going to blow through everything in its path on its way to the gold statue, reminiscent of the movie it has most often drawn comparisons to, 1976's All the President's Men (Redford and Hoffman as Woodard and Bernstein, the two journalists that blew open the Watergate scandal). Since then, Leo and Iñárritu have come on like a steam engine. You never know--maybe this'll play Rocky to The Revenant almost 4 decades later.

(Sorry-one more quick "did you know": In real life, Ben Bradlee Sr., played by Jason Robards in All the President's Men, was the managing editor of the Washington Post when they blew the doors open on Watergate, and Ben Bradlee, Jr., played by silverfox John Slattery in Spotlight, was managing editor of the Boston Globe when they exposed the Catholic Church. Cool, huh?)

#9 Inside Out

Pixar has created an entire catalogue of films based on one simple premise: protagonist gets lost/separated from friends/separated from family, protagonist has to find their way back, protagonist experiences character arc along the way.

This may sound like I'm dissing an entire animation studio, but that's not the case at all. The formula works, and you know what they say - if it ain't broke, make another Pixar movie.

Riley is an adolescent who leaves Minnesota with her family for her dad's (Kyle MacLachlan) new business opportunity in San Francisco. It's easy to tell from the set that she is not exactly pleased with this situation. Sure, she's excited. But what about her friends? And how exactly is she supposed to play hockey in California?

( editor's note - the Los Angeles Kings have won two National Hockey League championships in the last 5 years.)

Early on in the film, we are introduced to a group in something that represents a control room in charge of managing Riley's emotions. They are a who's who of former NBC sitcom employees: joy (Amy Poehler), anger (Lewis Black), fear (Bill Hader), dis-

Wait, did someone say Bill Hader?

Sorry. Disgust (Mindy Kaling), and sadness (Phyllis Smith). Housed in their giant control room with teeth-shaped windows are shelves upon shelves of bowling-ball shaped memories, color-coded to represent each of the various emotional figureheads. Up to this point, Joy has mostly helmed the controls, but now that Riley is dealing with endless changes at once (new school, empty bedroom, sh*tty local pizza), anger is contorting his face and blowing his stack,

fear is rocking his Beaker-looking mug back and forth and fainting,

'

and sadness is slouching and slumping and crying all over the damn place.

Joy is used to being the boss to the underfeelings, so she scrambles back and forth to protect the core memories, i.e. the 5 most important memories from Riley's past, from getting tainted in any way. When sadness accidentally touches one, she and joy are then swept into the recesses of Riley's long term memories via vacuum, where they are far away from the control booth and totally lost. With the help of Riley's childhood toy, a pink elephant named Bing Bong (voiced by Richard Kind), they work to find their way back to control, trying desparately to keep everything intact and come to terms with the new emotional working arrangement.

This is Pixar's best since Wall-E. The casting is almost too perfect, the concept is interesting enough to simultaneously hold adults' interest and wow their kids, and the animation is rainbow bright. Pete Docter and co. do a fantastic job of demonstrating that kids, especially at that age, are more complex than you think on the inside, an alway-changing everlasting gobstopper of experience.

#8 The Revenant

Let's get this out of the way first and foremost: The Revenant is not Birdman. It doesn't have the same ingenuity, not the same talented ensemble, not the same wild, frenetic pace, not quite the same inner psychosis and on-screen unraveling of its protagonist.

If Iñárritu and co. go back to back, though, it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. It doesn't hold a candle to their previous time out, but it's still a pretty damn good film.

Hugh Glass (Leo DiCaprio) is a fur trapper and trader in the 1820s, who we are shown early on has lost his Native American wife in a raid and is left to take care of his son. About 10  minutes after that, we are treated to a dazzling visual sequence reminiscent of Birdman: A group of Arikara tribe warriors attack the fur trading camp in a highly choreographed, long tracking shot with hidden edits to make it appear as one shot over the course of the scuffle. It lasts about 10 minutes, and is an absolute treat to watch.

Domnhall Gleeson (making his way into my top 20 for now the 3rd time) is Captain Henry, and he's obviously a little pissed that he's lost so many men, but he has to come up with a plan to regroup. It comes to the light that the chief thinks that one of his men has taken off with his daughter, Powaqa, and they are going to keep coming at the traders relentlessly until she is found. In other words, we need to hustle back to home base like our lives depend on it, which they do. John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy) consistently taunted Hugh's son for being half Indian, and Hugh consistently talks his son out of doing anything back.

The next morning while out for a stroll in the woods, Hugh is flopped around like a DiCaprio-sized rag doll by a grizzly. He is badly hurt, and captain feels he has no choice but to pay a few to stay back and care for him while the rest forge ahead. The three who volunteer are Hugh's son, Fitzgerald, and Jim Bridger (Will Poulter of We're the Millers and The Maze Runner fame). Thanks to Fitzgerald's crazy ass, things go awry quickly and they split, leaving Hugh Glass back by himself. Miraculously, Glass manages to get to his feet eventually and he slowly, painstakingly, he makes his way in the direction of Fitzgerald and revenge.

By all accounts, this was a terribly difficult shoot, one that Iñárritu said he would never take on again. They only shot in the limited daylight they had to make it appear natural at all times, and his storied high expectations and sometimes erratic behavior as a director caused many crew members to walk. They went way over budget due to weather issues and delays and both DiCaprio and Hardy said it was the most trying performance of their respective careers.

It is supposed to win tonight, and again, it wasn't my favorite of the eight, but I wouldn't necessarily disagree if it did. Thinking about the collective group, it is probably the most complete of the bunch (direction, cinematography, performances, music). The score is by Mulhern-household-childhood mainstay Ryuchi Sakamoto, back composing for American cinema for the first time since 1987 best picture winner The Last Emperor, and it's great. The landscape (shot almost entirely in the Canadian Rockies) and cinematography (again by über-talented Emmanuel Lubezki) is absolutely-shake-your-head and blink-real-fast-in-disbelief gorgeous.

By all accounts, Leo DiCaprio should win tonight, in more of a "we should probably give this guy an award already" than a performance-based statue. He was really good; it wasn't his best ever. I think beyond the overdue angle, people are also impressed with the grueling "Castaway in the Snow" scenario he had to act his way through (frostbite, eating bison liver, learning 2 Native American languages). He deserves to be in the mix, certainly, and I won't be mad if he wins, but there was someone who should be taking it home tonight who wasn't even recognized.

Read on.

#7 The End of the Tour

And now, ladies and gentlemen, the biggest Academy Awards snub of the '15-'16 season:

Not only is Jason Segel not the frontrunner for the best actor hardware, he is not even nominated for it, having given, in my personal opinion, the best performance of the year by a long shot. Segel, since the Freaks and Geeks era, has always shown a knack for schlubby-guy comedy with a tinge of sadness (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, The Five-Year Engagement, some of his How I Met Your Mother arcs). Taking on a dramatic lead for the first time, he is positively stunning as reclusive author David Foster Wallace.

The End of the Tour takes place over a five day period in 1996. Burgeoning author David Lipsky (Jesse Eisenberg) pitches an idea to Rolling Stone to all him to interview D.F.W., whose landmark, sprawling Infinite Jest has turned him into the rockstar of the literary world. And after all, Rolling Stone is all about rock stars, right? Having read about half of it himself, he is shell-shocked by how good it is; as he is packing to head to Bloomington, Illinois to meet him, he catches his girlfriend Sarah (Anna Chlumsky) reading it.

He arrives to find Mr. Wallace hanging out in his one-story house in the middle of nowhere with his two dogs, and the conversation begins. And for five days, it doesn't end. They talk in diners, convenience stores, his classroom (he taught English at Illinois State University), back at his place, in the car, on walks with the dogs. They fly to Minneapolis for the last stop of his Infinite Jest meet and greet tour and hang out at the Mall of America. Because as it turns out, despite his one-of-a-kind brain, Wallace wants nothing more than to be thought of as a normal guy.

This is part of what makes their conversation so compelling: Lipsky, full of a strange combination of both talent-jealousy and hero-worship, is basically so worn down by Wallace's reluctance and humility that eventually, he does learn to see the normality, and he almost can't stand the disappointment. The movie, directed by James Ponsoldt (The Spectacular Now), was promoted by the tagline "What's the best conversation you've ever had?" And watching the push-and-pull of Lipsky and Wallace's 5-day dynamic is really something to behold. It's a quiet, simple film that in some ways is the most life-affirming one of the year, despite the fact that Wallace would go on to commit suicide in 2008.

Even though Eisenberg is his usual fast-talking, nervous, squirrely self, this might be the best version of himself to be put on screen since Zuckerberg, and as for Segel? I literally can't say enough about how shafted he was. He was good enough and convincing enough in the role that it motivated me to finally finish the damn thing after two previous unfruitful tries, in which I got to about page 200 and gave up. Book-wise, it doesn't get much better, and neither does Segel's performance as the guarded, resistant, surprisingly normal man behind the masterwork.

Stay tuned for more all day!

MatM '15-'16: #14-11

As we ready ourselves for (White) Oscar Sunday...

I am hoping to post #10-6 sometime Saturday evening, #5-2 Sunday late morning/early afternoon, and #1 (along with details on the annual "best picture-themed food dishes" meal we throw each year.

Stay tuned. For now:

#14 Love and Mercy

Let me first get out of the way that I am FASCINATED with Brian Wilson. Really, how could you not be? 

By now you may know that following the mega-successful Pet Sounds, Wilson found an intense amount of pressure trying to create a follow up to compete with Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Adding to the pressure of living up to the Fab Four: infighting among the group's members, a severely strained relationship with his manager/father, and of course, copious amounts of psychedelic drugs ingested. He would go on to start acting irrationally, and eventually suffer a full-on nervous breakdown.

An easy parallel here is Kendrick Lamar and Kanye West. I have little doubt that Mr. West pushed back So Help Me God/Swish/Waves/The Life of Pablo because he knew he could not match Kendrick's social/musical juggernaut To Pimp a Butterfly. This of course caused him to act erratically--(what else is new?) constantly delaying the release date, changing the album title 4 (why? Everyone knows Swish was by far the best) times, picking fights and falling apart publicly on Twitter, and, most recently, declaring to the world that he is $53 million in debt.

...I'm just saying.

The movie actually boasts two Brian Wilsons as it hovers over  two key points in his life and development as an artist: young, talented, extremely fragile Pet Sounds era Wilson, portrayed by Paul Dano, and slushy-brained and confused older Brian Wilson, portrayed by John Cusack. Both performances nail it, but for my money, Dano is a little bit stronger.

Some of my favorite scenes are when Paul Dano is shown conducting the orchestra for Pet Sounds, or showing song ideas to his father Murry, trying so hard to win him over that it hurts. When he plays him the beginnings of "God Only Knows", the #1 hit-minded Murry rips him apart.

Ultimately, two father figures drive the action, the second being "Dr." Eugene Landy (Paul Giamatti), Wilson's legal guardian in his later life. We pick up with older Brian Wilson at a car dealership, buying a new ride and asking out car saleswoman Melinda (Elizabeth Banks). He is heavily medicated and business/personal decision-controlled by Landy, but once he meets Melinda, it forces him to try and start thinking for himself again. 

Fellow Minnesotan Bill Pohlad's portrait brings us in for a closer look at both Wilsons: tortured, misunderstood and fighting for freedom. Most geniuses are misunderstood (just ask Kanye), but it's hard to watch one who's so restricted by those closest to him. Exaggerated or not, this is a very well-told story.

#13 Amy

Amy Winehouse, like the others of her "Club 27" brethren, fought hard against her demons and ultimately lost. Despite her absurd talent, she was always a little more Cobain/Joplin/Morrison than she ever was Adele. Within her tale is a history of self abuse, overcompensation, and the need to find a way to deal with being under the spotlight at all times.

But before all that, there was a sweet young girl from London, England who could sing the hell out of some tunes. Footage of her singing at young talent contests and adolescence sleepovers prove that she has had the pipes for years and years. Despite all this, there always seem to be a little bit of darkness lingering under the surface. Amy was often drawn to sadder songs. Before long, she was getting approached by clubs, talent agencies and producers at a faster trajectory than anyone could possibly deal with. Like fellow London-ites the Specials once sang "Too much, too young."

Many blame the self-destruction on her relationship with Blake Fielder-Anything-But-Civil. It goes without saying that the majority of Back to Black is about him and it's not as if their insane dynamic helped things. But what about her controlling and money-hungry father Mitchell, who famously said she was fine and allowed her to walk out of rehab and refuse help when she desperately needed it? 

This was the beginning of the end. Director Asif Kapadia allows us to see what the evolution of what would ultimately be the lasting images we have of her: cameras catching her stumbling drunk in her trademark white tank top and high heels, cameras catching her flipping them off, cameras catching her smashing Fielder-Civil's face in, cameras catching her covering her face. Kapadia doesn't hold back on this point, and what we come to see through interviews and footage is that the public simply would not leave her alone. The British tabloids would park outside of her apartment and perch, waiting to nail her with a minimum of probably 50 camera flashes. 

How could anyone deal with this? How do you rehab (pun definitely intended) your image when the public is this relentless?

This documentary is unique because did opts to use audio from interviews and voiceovers over old footage and never once utilizes the common talking-heads construct of most documentaries. The viewer is pulled apart and antagonized right there alongside her, and it's totally heartbreaking. Another incredible talent we lost way too soon.

#12 Anomalisa

Oh, Charlie Kaufman...what would we do without your thinking man's movies? 

Last time we heard from Mr. Kaufman, he was guiding P.S.H. (R.I.P.) through an existential crisis of the worst kind as theatre director Caden Cotard in the mind-boggling Syndedoche, New York. Seven years later he's back, with the much lighter, still plenty psychologically-challenging Anamolisa. When I say "much lighter", of course, I mean "much lighter for Charlie Kaufman". Dude doesn't do light. This film, too, provides a major existential crisis--it's just much easier to digest.

Michael Stone (David Thewlis, Lupin from Harry Potter) is a marketing guru who slogs from business convention to sterile hotel as a keynote speaker. We pick up with his travels in Cincinnati, where he goes into his usual routine--kick off shoes, hang up dress clothes, surf hotel TV channels, visit minibar, call wife and son back home. It's easy to tell that he is both exhausted and bored to tears. After a meet-up with an old friend at the downstairs bar goes all please-keep-your-voice-down-no-need-to-be-so-upset, he trudges back upstairs and, on a whim, knocks on a door. This leads him to Lisa (Jennifer Jason Leigh), and something about her sticks. They set off on a 24 hour-encounter (along with Tom Noonan as multiple other characters) that starts out as tender and (quite) touching, and ends as something else altogether.

That's all I can say without giving you the whole thing. Kaufman's first foray into animation worked for me. It wasn't his best, but the same thing that happens with all his movies happened again here--you find yourself pondering it for days, weeks, even months later. I'm still trying to make sure I grasped it entirely. There is one audiovisual trick/theme that that you'll be able to pick up on probably 10 or 15 minutes in, but the other major one comes much later and it is far more subtle. When you finally pick up on it, Anamolisa becomes, though somewhat tragic, an ultimately rewarding experience at the cinema.

#11 Ex Machina

In the not too distant future, a programmer named Caleb (Domnhall Gleeson) wins a trip to spend a week shadowing reclusive tech genius Nathan (Oscar Isaac). Said hacker is played by Domnhall Gleeson, the ex-eldest Weasley sibling who is having a huge year. On this remote island, Nathan is experimenting with artificial intelligence.

It is under these circumstances is that Caleb is introduced to Ava (Alicia Vikander). Immediately, Caleb is obsessed. Beyond having clear emotions and feelings, she is sympathetic and drop dead gorgeous, (especially for a robot). Each time that Caleb and Ava meet, director Alex Garland titles it numerically, i.e. "Meeting #2" and "Meeting #4". The technology that Nathan is working on is well past groundbreaking, but Caleb can tell that something is off. Something about the whole thing doesn't feel quite right. Eerie, even. And he'll soon come to figure it out. If you have any familiarity with the Bible (my knowledge is mostly limited), Caleb, Nathan and Ava are their names for a reason. And that's all I'll say.

All three performances are fantastic, but none more so then Oscar Isaac as the isolationist, erratic, misunderstood inventor, turning to alcohol and violent outbursts when the sheer enormity of what he is doing hits him, or when it is even hinted at that he is "playing God".

(The title Ex Machina comes from the Greek concept of "Deus ex Machina" which translates to "God in the Machine". It's used a lot in ancient Greek theatre as a time when a problem is suddenly solved by an powerful intervention). 

Anyway, he deserves a best supporting nod, no question, if not for his dance moves alone.

The conclusion of Ex Machina  is equal parts compelling and scary. "Whoa. Wait. What?" you'll say. You'll want to rewind it to make sure you didn't miss something. And you should.

Will it take a Deus-ex-Machina sort of scenario to finish this thing on time? 

Only one way to find out!

'Til next time...

MatM '15-'16: #17-15

17) Infinitely Polar Bear

Living with bipolar disorder is, according to one quote, "having the motivation to change the world at one moment, and then not having the motivation to even wash yourself." In kid - friendly terms, it's   "waking up not knowing if Tigger or Eeyore will be making your decisions for you." 

Kenosha, Wisconsin's golden boy Mark Ruffalo, already in the mix for his supporting turn in Spotlight, plays Cam Stuart, a father dealing with raising a family and simultaneously fighting manic depression. His wife Maggie (Zoe Saldana), is sympathetic to the tumult of his situation until it starts to be too much to handle; during an episode of hysteria, she feels threatened and locks herself and the kids in the car. Feeling like she has no choice, she has him committed and takes their two daughters Amelia (Imogen Wolodarsky, real life daughter of writer-director Maya Forbes) and Faith (Ashley Aufderheide) to live in a small apartment. When he returns home, she lets him know about her game plan: I got into business school in New York City, and you are going to watch the kids. Overwhelmed at first, he takes on the role with vim & vigor. But it's taxing enough being a single dad--especially one with mental health issues --and the pressure starts to rear its ugly head.

The story is über autobiographical for Maya Forbes, whose daughter is the stand in for twelve-year-old-her. At times as the viewer you wonder if some of the oddities are a little embellished, but it helps that the performance is in such capable hands. Mark Ruffalo was nominated for a Golden Globe, and he should be one of the five best actor nods in Oscarland. He is, simply put, outstanding. Every nuance of the disease feels well-portrayed, from bizarre highs to soul-sucking lows and violent swings of anger, to wanton disorganization and hyper - motivated cleanliness. Zoe Saldana is certainly no slouch either, bringing real and authentic emotion to a character that manages to be just as conflicted. And the daughters are the unsung heroes of the film. Both actresses fight embarrassment and rage at their father all while struggling with racial identity and abject poverty. They find ways to see the good in him, and it's a beautiful thing to see.

16) Brooklyn

1952 Ireland, where the world is small and life is simple. Ellis (read: AY-Lish) is getting by, but her boss is the absolute worst and she wants more. When her sister hooks her up with an opportunity in America, she literally leaps at the chance to ride the Ellis Island Express. The ride over is anything but smooth; she is sick and locked out of her bathroom. But a sexy, savvy, independent woman takes her under her wing and talks her through "all you need to know about America." 

After securing work as a shop girl in an upscale jewelry store, she is at a dance with friends when she bumps into Tony (Emory Cohen, last seen as both fatter and younger as Bradley Cooper's son in The Place Beyond the Pines), an Italian American living in the same neighborhood. She does her best to reject his wiles, but before long they go from chums to lovers. Out of the blue, she gets a call from back home detailing a tragedy. She needs to get her back on the next boat. Her home sickness is given a visceral counterpart, and now she is torn between two worlds: a comfortable life at home (now featuring Domnhall Gleeson as eligible bachelor Jim) or adventure and excitement abroad with Tony.

Since the jump, Brooklyn has felt like Oscar bait. Period piece? Check. Coming of age story? Check. Old world vs new? You bet. Still and all, it is a good movie anchored by an impressive performance from young Saoirse Ronan, who we sure as s*** haven't seen the last of. Michael Brook's score is well done, swelling and hitting the right spots when it is supposed to. Nick Hornby brings his gift for the word to the big screen (usually it's his novels getting the Hollywood treatment, not the other way around.) Finally, it looks outstanding, a trip back to when it was cool to wear white tees and twist the night away.

Don't get me wrong, Brooklyn is an extremely well-made movie. It just didn't feel like any new ground was broken, here. It didn't feel all that compelling.

15) Room

Speaking of impressive performances...

Speaking of novels getting the Hollywood treatment...

When it became clear that the book for Room was going to be turned into a film adaptation, I talked to quite a few people who read the book and were like "Yeah, the book was really good. And it's in first person from the perspective of a five-year old." Me and those quite a few people were like "So how the hell are they supposed to pull that off, exactly?

Using voiceover from said 5-year old, Jack (Jacob Tremblay), filmmaker Lenny Abrahamson gets as close as he can to getting the feel right. Jack and Joy(Brie Larson) have been living in "Room" for about 7 years. Room is the basement of Old Nick (Sean Bridgers), where they are captives. It is the only life he knows and he treats lamps and eggsnakes (empty eggshells laced with string) and other inanimate objects as his friends and family right alongside Joy. Oftentimes Jack hides out in the closet while Old Nick is physically/sexually abusing Joy. Despite all this, Joy manages to show enthusiasm whenever possible for his sake, which is remarkable considering.

One day, Old Nick comes down and tells her that he lost his gig, and will have a tough time providing them supplies from here on out. With the clock ticking, Joy hatches an escape plan, getting Jack to play dead in a rolled up rug (after faking a high fever a couple days before, of course). From the back of the Nick's truck, Jack, repeating her instructions to himself, unrolls himself and runs for help. His views from the end of the tubes represent his first views of anything outside, ever, and it's a pretty magical moment. Getting out, though, would be the easy part; adjusting to life outside of Room is the biggest struggle of all.

Brie Larson has taken early favorite Cate Blanchett (Carol) and basically mopped the floor with her throughout the awards season. The Oscar for best actress will be no different, nor should it be. Every single one of those "powerhouse" and "tour de force" clichés apply. She has been on radars for years now, most recently for Short Term 12, and it's about time she got not only her due but her opportunity. Joan Allen and William H. Macy bring their dependable chops to the table as her parents, dealing with both massive guilt and relief. Mom Nancy is more curious and confrontational with Joy, while Dad Robert prefers to tiptoe on eggsnakes. Maybe the best thing about Room is Stephen Rennick's astonishing score and the pitch-perfect use of This Will Destroy You's (clearly disciples of fellow Texans Explosions in the Sky) "The Mighty Rio Grande" to soundtrack Jack's introduction to an earth beyond Room.

MatM '15-16: #20-18

To the top 20!

#20 Bridge of Spies

"Don't forget about us, academy!" -Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks

Not like you can go wrong with one of the more storied collaborations in Hollywood, I suppose, along with longtime cinematographer Janusz Kaminski (Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, Lincoln, etc.). However, many viewers of B.O.S. were lured in under false pretense; the preview had basically every exciting moment packed into a minute and half, making it look a lot more action/thriller than political chess match.

It's 1957. Hanks is James Donovan, an insurance lawyer tasked with defending Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance), a Russian spy. With the cold war at its most frigid, he is of course convicted, but Donovan, arguing that he's worth more alive than dead, convinces the judge to give him 30 years and not the death penalty. This of course results in a sh*tstorm for his personal life (death threats, hate mail, gunshots at house), but he persists on, despite being labeled a sympathizer.

When US air pilot Gary Powers gets shot down over Russia and subsequently captured, the government realizes they can use Rudolf Abel as a bargaining chip to get him back. Also in the mix is a captured grad student in East Germany. Donovan is flown to Germany to handle the negotiations--he wants to get them both in exchange for Abel.

Some things about Bridge of Spies worked really well for me. The Coen brothers injected a lot of their Coen brothers wit into their script. Mark Rylance as the unconcerned Abel is every bit as good as advertised, and Hanks is ol' reliable as per usual. The tense, thriller-y parts are great, as is the climactic scene on the Gleinecke Bridge. Too often, though, time was spent on the back and forth of shadowy negotiations and both sides trying to outwit each other, and it slowed an otherwise well-paced train to a crawl. The good outweighs the bad, certainly--just don't expect return to form.

#19 The Martian

Matt Damon is beginning to be typecast as man stranded on distant planets. If you have not yet seen the other movie that I am referring to, I won't spoil the surprise. But come on man, this is twice in three years now!

Damon is astronaut Mark Watney, part of the crew of Hermes, a spaceship parked on the red planet to grab samples before heading home. Led by the stoic Commander Lewis (Jessica Chastain, the current go-to in terms of female stoicism) they are hit by a storm while exploring the surface; they see Watney get slammed by a satellite and go hurtling out of frame, leading them to think he's toast. They get in the ship and haul ass outta there.

Back on Earth, Jeff Daniels (NASA director) huffs and puffs, while Chiwetel Ejiafor (Mars Mission Director) requests a satellite image of his body to make sure Watney has actually bit the space dust (Daniels refuses), and Kristen Wiig (NASA P.R. & Media Director) looks pained and totally out of place. Right around the time young NASA engineer (MacKenzie Davis) sees movement in the satellite imagery, Watney sends out video transmissions into the ether, detailing his plan to try and make one year of food rations last for four.

"Oh, hell naw...he's alive?"  Says NASA and the earthbound team of the Ares III.

As Watney uses his skill set to survive ("I'm gonna have to science the sh*t out of this," he says at one point), a weirdo hacker astrophysicist  (not exactly a stretch for Donald Glover) presents a solution for the crew to go back and get him, and China steps into lend a hand. But will Commander Lewis's team (Michael Peña, Kate Mara, Sebastian Stan) risk it all to BRING HIM HOME?

Up to a point, the sci-fi details seem to check out. You can tell that copious research has gone into both the book and film and the fashion in which Watney troubleshoots and nonchalantly reacts to adversity (and eventually falls apart) feels especially authentic. Damon is really good, certainly, but I have seen him be better. The way that Mars is recreated, though, definitely helps make the case for Ridley Scott as a candidate for director of the year. The problems all more or less lie within the film's final act, which easily slips into cliché-ville, even somehow finding a way to emotionally involve the ENTIRE PLANET (Times Square, downtown Tokyo, Paris, etc.) in the rescue. Ugh.

#18 Youth 

What is it like to be old and rich and bored? Oscar-winning (The Great Beauty, 2013) Italian director Paolo Sorrentino (no relation to Michael "The Situation" Sorrentino, unfortunately) does a perfect job of capturing the ennui of watching those around you kick the bucket, or get sick, or lose touch altogether. Set in a Swiss retreat, it's also undeniably gorgeous.

Youth follows Fred Ballinger (Michael Caine) and Mick Boyle (Harvey Keitel), composer and Hollywood producer, respectively, as they sit around a Swiss spa chatting, reminiscing (often about women that got away over the years), and watching the social dynamics unfold at the resort. Example: Every single day, they watch as a married couple sits down to dinner and does not exchange a single word. They entertain themselves by making bets, watching the much younger women, and finding mischief (spying on older couples getting it on in the woods, etc.). It's clear that they've been hanging out here for a while.

It's only so long before their lives creep in, however. Queen Elizabeth II sends word to the resort that she wants Ballinger to come back to England to conduct "Simple Song #3" for Prince Philip's birthday. Thanks but no thanks, he says--I'm retired. The invitation is tempting, though, and he knows it. One last blaze of glory before he hangs it up for good. Mick is trying to produce his swan song as well--meeting with his much younger writers and trying to get people interested in his "testament" of a screenplay. They are both trying their best to traverse the roadblocks in their way. Fred has a certain emotional attachment to the piece that makes it feel impossible to perform, and Mick is having trouble finagling finances from the studio and dealing with embittered star Brenda Morel (Jane Fonda), who flies all the way to Switzerland to confront him.

The duo is fantastic. There was talk of Michael Caine earning a bid, and if anyone on earth had actually seen this movie, maybe he would have. I like him better than both Damon and Cranston. And just as good as his crotchety counterpart is Keitel, stepping out of tough-guy purgatory to deliver true emotion. Others hanging out at the retreat include Rachel Weisz as Fred's spurned daughter Lena (who was married to Mick's son before he left her for a pop star), Paul Dano as wanderlust actor Jimmy Tree, Roly Serrano as a fat Diego Maradona, and Mādālina Diana Ghenea as Miss Universe. Beautiful, oftentimes surreal and equally packed with humor and sentimentality, Youth delivers.

See you tomorrow!