20th Century Women (2016)

1970s Santa Barbara is an idyllic setting for a film. The subject is Annette Bening's Dorothea but it's really about the period. Mike Mills captures a time. He does this with costumes, punk music, old cars, and psychedelic colors in traveling scenes. What makes the movie particularly beautiful is the atmospheric music, the calm and poetic narration, and the heart of the story. A single mother raising her teenage son with a little help. It's not exactly a coming-of-age story. It's not about Jamie, but about Dorothea's experience raising her son. Annette Bening is phenomenal. She is allowed to shine without being too showy. You come to care about the characters. We watch them develop, getting their background and their future over the course of the film. It's a truly beautiful pleasure to experience their lives for a couple hours.

Jackie (2016)

Natalie Portman is just divine. I'm glad she made this triumphant return to serious films. Jackie Kennedy created this fairy tale of Camelot quite brilliantly ex post facto. I actually didn't know how the Camelot analogy came about, but now I do and it's a fascinating study of a grieving woman with a legacy to think about. And Portman plays the part as regal as we imagine Camelot, helped immensely by the gorgeous, glamorous costumes of the 60s. She speaks just like Jackie Kennedy. It's in fact so spot on with the cadence and rise and fall of her voice that it's kind of annoying.  Her regular speech was very breathy like a whisper. Portman is poised and always in control, even when in a vulnerable grieving state. She strictly instructs the journalist on what he is to publish. There is a great philosophical/theological scene with a priest in which we see Jackie in a different position. It is perhaps the only moment she is not in the power position. She listens to him, and genuinely takes what he has to say with authority.

The breathy voice along with the beautiful score by Mica Levi is haunting. It's the perfect word to describe the tone of the movie. The cello is a pretty haunting instrument and the dissonance, from the very first notes at the beginning of the film, give it a creepy vibe. The fantastic use of the Camelot soundtrack contributes to the eerie aura surrounding the Kennedy legacy. The camera is often uncomfortably close to the face. Grief up close is discomfiting. We literally get an intimate look at her.

The story centers around the week following JFK's assassination. There are several flashbacks weaved seamlessly into the plot. It shouldn't work, but this disconnected storytelling does work. The interview with the journalist is used as a vehicle for the flashbacks. There is a very authentic look to the White House Tour and some of the other seemingly archival footage. It is a story that makes you think about legacy. What is legacy? How is it formed? How is it manipulated? And what did JFK do? Our remembrance of JFK is very much colored by the aftermath of his assassination. Thanks, Jackie.

Spotlight (2015)

I don't know if I've ever looked at journalists as heroes, but this movie paints these investigative journalists at the Boston Globe as heroic figures.  It makes you want to pursue a career in journalism to uncover all the dirt that our most important institutions are hiding.  That's not to say that the movie glamorizes journalism, because it doesn't.  It is gritty work and these are average people that do not have much going on in their lives outside of their careers.  This movie is so good because it doesn't try to sugar coat it. This is difficult, demoralizing, alienating, soul-searching work.  And as the story (very) slowly unfolds at a controlled pace, the audience comes to the same discoveries of disbelief that the characters do.  

Michael Keaton has been getting all the buzz because he's fresh off of Birdman, but I think Mark Ruffalo gives the best performance amid a phenomenal ensemble cast.  He always does.  Rachel McAdams, too, does a standout job following some disappointing work in True Detective.  And John Slattery looks markedly different outside of a suit, but the big office still suits him well.  From inside the Boston Globe, we get the perspective of the journalists. We hear the victims' stories through the ears of the interviewers, and we hardly see any of the perpetrators.  They are unseen villains. The visible antagonist is the community itself and I think that is what makes the story so devastatingly interesting, how ingrained the Catholic Church is in Boston society.