Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005)

Good Night and Good Luck is a sleek movie about Edward R. Murrow's public battle with the notorious Senator McCarthy. It uses quite a bit of authentic archival footage in original black and white. As a consequence, the whole movie is filmed in black and white to match, and it's an excellent choice. The movie looks really good. It's more relevant today than it even could have predicted. In 2019, journalists, on TV and otherwise, play an extremely important role in holding government officials accountable. Maybe it serves as a lesson on how to take put a stop to Donald Trump.

To Kill A Mockingbird (Broadway) (2019)

Aaron Sorkin's adaptation of To Kill A Mockingbird is finally on Broadway. It's a very engaging play though allegedly different from the original. Atticus isn't quite as I remember him in the movie. He is a flawed character, perhaps more close to the original character in the book. His moral compass is perhaps too strong, choosing to see the good in everyone to the fault of ignoring faults. He is a passive character whose moral convictions prevent him from striking out against those who would take advantage of him. In some ways, he is the moderate liberal who understands the detrimental effects of racism but refuses to fault the racists. He cannot believe that his neighbors in small town Alabama are evil. What seems obvious to the audience and the kids is hard for him to accept. That makes him a much more complex character than I remember. I'll have to pay a visit to the book.

The play is very Aaron Sorkin. The dialogue is fast and crowded. Jeff Daniels walks (paces) and talks (cross-examines). It is much funnier than the book/movie, which works on stage, but perhaps detracts a little from the seriousness of the subject matter. The set is simple but effective. Celia Keenan-Bolger is a fine Scout, but it is a little hard to get past the full-grown woman playing a 5-year old. That goes for all the kids played by adults. There are two musicians on stage, an organ and guitar. The music is atmospheric, probably unnecessary, but adds a nice light touch for a riveting night at the theater.

The Martian (2015)

This movie is perhaps the best advertisement for NASA and STEM. If this doesn't inspire you to pursue a STEM field, nothing will. It makes science cool. The characters are true experts in their fields, quickly solving complex problems with innovative out-of-the-box solutions. I think this movie will inspire a generation to pursue careers in astronomy, physics, and....botany. The script is well-written, fast paced, and sounds mostly scientifically accurate to someone like me who doesn't know (But to my credit I did follow some of it!).

The ensemble cast is excellent. Matt Damon carries the film with his likable personality, quick thinking, and one-liners. In the face of certain death, he finds a way. There is a moment at the end that reminded me of the end of Captain Phillips, when Tom Hanks gives a masterclass in acting--in a state of shock having just been rescued. In The Martian, this moment comes before the rescue attempt, when Matt Damon breaks into tears of hope. The scene could have been elongated to let Damon play it up a bit more, but it evoked a similar feeling. The casting of Kristen Wiig in a largely non-comedic role was a little strange. And as much as I like Chiwetel Ejiofor, he is decidedly not Indian, nor is Mackenzie Davis Korean. The characters were written as Asian, and so those roles should be played by Asian actors. There are not that many roles for Asian actors, so we should give the few that do exist to Asian actors.

Ridley Scott creates a convincingly barren picture of Mars on location in Jordan. He made a crowd pleasing, visually thrilling, and thought provoking story.

Steve Jobs (2015)

This biopic is excellent, thanks to an incredible vision by Danny Boyle, a great script by Aaron Sorkin, and some phenomenal acting from Kate Winslet, as well as Michael Fassbender and Seth Rogen.  This movie shines where the other Jobs biopic from a couple years ago failed.  Danny Boyle made a movie that is the Apple of biopics--it is sleek and gorgeous.

The structure of the film is brilliant.  The biopic is not over ambitious, it does not seek to cover an entire life.  Rather it focuses on just three major product launches in 1984 (Macintosh), 1988 (NeXT) and 1998 (iMac), the ones that Steve Jobs was so famous for.  But what is so brilliant is the pacing of the movie.  It is not about the launch itself, but actually the half hour before each launch when Jobs was preparing for his presentations.  Anticipation and excitement builds until the point we've all been waiting for as if we were at these product launches, and then Danny Boyle skips the presentation itself. This allows for a huge release, letting the audience take a deep breath to prepare for two more product launches.

Each product launch is split into four parts.  At each launch, Jobs has encounters with his daughter Lisa, co-founder Steve Wozniak, CEO of Apple John Sculley and Andy Hertzfeld from the original Mac team.  Lisa gives us a window into Jobs's personal life outside of work at three points in his life.  And the film actually ends with Lisa, humanizing Steve Jobs as a person with a family, not just the visionary businessman.  Jobs's confrontations with Wozniak highlight the interesting dynamics of one of the most important partnerships of the twentieth century.  Through Jobs's conversations with Sculley, we learn about Jobs's background as an adopted child and Jobs at Apple.  The film opens with Hertzfeld being berated by Jobs in an excellent scene dictated by an exhilarating rhythmic beat moving in the background.  And throughout the film, Kate Winslet's Joanna Hoffman is always there at his side with a leading-amount of screen time and she is phenomenal. 

Boyle does not shy away from painting a portrait of a controversial albeit legendary figure, who was allegedly very difficult to work with.  Boyle mentions (with some snark) all of the criticisms of Apple computers as Jobs's doing.  While it was clear that Jobs did not have the spirit of an engineer, he was a businessman and an artist.  Perhaps the most direct criticism came from Wozniak who says "What do you do?"  Wozniak was the tech genius but Jobs had the vision, he was the "conductor."

I got to see an advanced screening of this movie at the AMC Lincoln Square!