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.

22 July (2018)

Throughout the movie, I was reminded constantly of two different things. First, I think the style of the movie was very evocative of the Dick Wolf series of TV shows on NBC. The style was very similar to the Chicago suite of shows with the shaky handheld cameras with the uncomfortable zooms. It even cycles through the police and the doctors and the courtroom. It was like watching a 2.5 hour crossover event. It's a little too long. In a procedural TV show, we get character development over time, but the characters can only be so far developed in a movie trying to follow so many different characters little by little while keeping to procedure. Except the movie lacks any of the interest or excitement of an investigation, because the terrorist gives himself up.

The other movie I was reminded of was the German movie In the Fade, another movie about far-right European nationalist terrorism. In the Fade was grittier and Diane Kruger plays an engrossing, fully developed, vengeful character. Paul Greengrass takes a different approach on the same theme. His message, told primarily through Viljar, is one of resilience in the face of the kind of nationalism that has sprouted all over the world. Though taking place in 2011, this is an unmistakable primary source film on our own times. Maybe he's trying to say that the US is not alone, nor the first place nationalism has reared its ugly head. Maybe he's saying we should have seen it coming.

Eighth Grade (2018)

Eighth Grade is an excellent coming-of-age dramedy by first-time director Bo Burnham, best known for stand-up comedy. Burnham's astute and sensitive take on modern adolescence is refreshing and dare-I-say spot on. Elsie Fisher, just fifteen years old, brilliantly plays Kayla. The cadence of her speech, simultaneously unsure and forcibly confident, full of 'likes' and 'ums', is so realistic.  She sounds so natural. The audience gets to see both sides of Kayla. We see her private persona, introspective, incisive, thoughtful and confident. We see her try to better herself in public, forcing herself to emerge from her shell. We see her nerves and excitement.  It's a must-see, especially for high schoolers not-far-removed from their own eighth grade experiences. I was also very impressed by the use of music, with accented beats pushing the movie forward. Enya's Orinoco Flow is used to great effect, an unusual choice that pleasantly surprises.

The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) (2017)

There was something really unexpectedly sweet about this family dramedy. I admit that I'm not all that familiar with Noah Baumbach's work but I'm going to describe this as Woody Allen meets Hirokazu Kore-eda. It has the liberal upper-class Manhattan sensibilities of Allen, and the bittersweet family saga of Kore-eda. I used to watch Woody Allen films wondering if that's really how rich, privileged, cultured white people live. I think it's something I aspired to, but I now think that version of affluence is not necessarily attainable or maybe not even desirable--the Meyerowitz's are pretty messed up. Their family dynamic is all over the place. They talk fast over each other (a very cleverly written, difficult-to-execute script) and there is lots of yelling. But they are compelling. These were perhaps the best performances ever delivered by Adam Sandler and Ben Stiller. Comedic actors, they manage a balance between their usual shtick and family drama. It's funny, it's sweet, and emotional at the same time. 

Five Came Back (2017)

This is a movie for cinephiles and for history buffs and especially for those who love film history like me Films have an important role in history. I took a course on history and film. In war, they played a big role as propaganda, but not everything was propaganda. This three-part documentary tells the stories of five famed Hollywood directors during their service in WWII and their work before and after the war. Legendary directors Frank Capra, George Stevens, John Ford, John Huston and William Wyler all answered the call to service during WWII and they made enormous contributions by documenting the war, not always honestly but always powerfully to effect for the war effort. Modern directors heap praise on their idols, demonstrating their love for the art and their admiration for their cinematic accomplishments. Meryl Streep narrates the documentary.There are some really powerful, emotional moments when the reality of war sets in. They discuss how the war influenced their postwar work, and how their war experiences will always live with them. 

Fences (2016)

I've never seen the play, but this is supposedly verbatim from August Wilson's words. This is the first film adaptation of any work of Wilson's. He is an American treasure, and Denzel Washington does an honorable job doing him justice. You don't mess with something that ain't broke. Denzel is an actor's director. He lets the stars (most of all himself) shine. Most of the cast is straight from the 2010 Broadway production, for which Denzel and Viola Davis both won Tonys. The whole cast is excellent. They've gotten some flack for basically just putting on the play in front of a camera. But I don't have a problem with that. Plays tend to have deeper scripts. And they retain all the elements of this essential portrait of American life. 

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!

Rosewater (2014)

In Jon Stewart's debut film, he does a respectable job honoring journalist Maziar Bahari, who was detained in Iran for 118 days at Evin Prison following an appearance on the satirical "The Daily Show" hosted by Stewart.  The satire was lost on the Iranian regime, who accused Bahari of espionage amid the 2009 presidential elections.  The movie draws attention to the plight of journalists, who risk their lives to expose the truth in dangerous situations.  Stewart uses actual news footage to bring the audience back to 2009. Gael Garcia Bernal plays Bahari, a man subjected to psychological torture, but whose hope is not crushed.  He is very good, bringing a range of emotions, keeping all 118 days engaging. Perhaps this is a glimpse into Stewart's post-"The Daily Show" life--will he become a filmmaker?  If so, I think we have a lot of good things to look forward to.

Top Five (2014)

In Chris Rock's best and boldest movie to date, he channels comedy master Woody Allen, even naming his protagonist after him.  Like Allen, Rock stars in, writes, and directs Top Five.  It is an indie-type film that stars a big name at the helm and Rock's film is packed with small cameos from a multitude of stars, some who play themselves.  Rock plays a comedian who has found great success in his cheap comedies (as a voice in a bear suit--analogous to his voice-over work as the zebra from the blockbuster series Madagascar?), but has tired of them and wishes to be taken more seriously.  This is very much the same dilemma that Tracy Jordan faces in 30 Rock; Tracy Morgan has a hilarious cameo as well. And much like Birdman, this is a case of art imitating life imitating art, in which Rock plays a version of himself searching for new success.  However, while his in-the-movie film Uprize is panned, Top Five deserves praise.

Chris Rock and Rosario Dawson are excellent.  They walk around New York chatting (as one does in a Woody Allen film) about just about everything. All of the cameos are brilliantly funny.  Rock muses about comedy, his art (as Allen likes to do).  There are a lot of funny moments, but perhaps he is at his best in his natural habitat on stage, doing stand up, as his character fittingly does.  But this is not just a comedy, there is a nice balance of drama and a twist that I didn't see coming.

The opening scene is a fast-paced, hilarious, back-and-forth between them about race.  This is unmistakably a "black movie" (the same way that Allen's films are "white movies"), but it is not explicitly about race.  They talk about race, and Rock penned a guest column in the Hollywood Reporter about blacks in Hollywood when the film was released.   Now for the big question, why is it called Top Five?  In the movie, the characters ask each other to name their top five hip-hop artists, like a party game.  It recurs, but is not central to the movie.  But hip hop is at the core of Rock's generation of black culture.  In an interview in the New York Times, Questlove said the co-star of the is the "hip-hop midlife crisis."  Hip hop is important, and it is an underlying theme that is not primary but constantly in the background.