American History X

Movie Name: American History X

Year of Release: 1998

Director: Tony Kaye

Stars: Edward Norton, Edward Furlong, Fairuza Balk, Beverly D'Angelo, Elliott Gould, Ethan Suplee, Avery Brooks, Stacy Keach, William Russ, Alex Sol, Antonio David Lyons, Joe Cortese, Jennifer Lien, Paul Le Mat, Jordan Marder

Genre: Drama

Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 7
Watch it on Amazon

Synopsis & Review:

Director Tony Kaye's debut feature was surrounded in controversy, with the director simultaneously battling actor Edward Norton and the studio New Line. The film follows the story of Derek Vineyard, a young man who is part of a group of skinheads and white supremacists. One night, when his truck is in the midst of being burgled, he shoots and kills one of the people involved and curb stomps another. He is sentenced to prison, where he goes through a rude awakening process. Upon his release, he tries to give his younger brother a different perspective on life, since he knows he's trying to follow his footsteps. His new perspective on life is one that is not limited by racism and hate, and that's something he wants to pass to his younger brother. This new attitude trickles through his entire life and family members with dramatic consequences.
Director Tony Kaye's started his career directing music commercials during the early 90s, including Soul Asylum's "Runaway Train". "American History X" ended up wrapped up in controversy with Edward Norton involved in the editing of the film and Tony Kaye suing New Line Studios. The film is successful since it showcases the evolution of the central character that learns through life and hardship, that there are plenty of sides to each story. The film is a hard look at the consequences of prejudice and violence, and of how all these things permeate someone's life in all its aspects (and how these choices are hard to shake once you want to distance yourself from them). The director successfully mixes tones and styles, yet doesn't let these overwhelm the content of the film (the director also serves as the film's cinematographer). The cast is uniformly good, with Edward Norton creating one of his strongest performances, with good support from Beverly D'Angelo and Edward Furlong. A good film worth revisiting!

Truth

Movie Name: Truth

Year of Release: 2015

Director: James Vanderbilt

Stars: Cate Blanchett, Robert Redford, Topher Grace, Elisabeth Moss, Dennis Quaid, Bruce Greenwood, Stacy Keach, John Benjamin Hickey, David Lyons, Dermot Mulroney, Rachael Blake, Andrew McFarlane, Felix Williamson, Steve Bastoni, Louis Herthum

Genre: Drama

Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 7

Synopsis & Review:

"Truth" is the debut feature of celebrated screenwriter James Vanderbilt, who wrote films such as David Fincher's "Zodiac", Marc Webb's "The Amazing Spider-Man" and Roland Emmerich's "White House Down". The film is an adaptation of the book by Mary Mapes, and follows events that occurred at CBS in 2004, prior to the elections that took place that year. Mapes is a news producer for the tv show "60 Minutes", working with Dan Rather. Following a string of successful reporting pieces, they start investigating a new story based on information that former President Bush, then seeking re-election, had in the early 1970s received preferential treatment from officials of the Texas Air National Guard. After the story is aired, the documents upon which its based are called into question by a variety of sources, aiming to target its credibility. When the noise and controversy continue to increase, CBS orders an internal investigation targeting the team that gathered the content and built the expose.
"Truth" is a film that is directly inspired by the politically charged thrillers from the 70s, where reporters and the media played a part in exposing the corruption of politics. Titles such as Alan J. Pakula's "The Parallax View" and "All the King's Men", and also James Bridges' "The China Syndrome" all presented the reporters as tireless professionals, idealistic and focused on a tireless pursuit in presenting the truth to the masses. James Vanderbilt's film follows a very similar concept, echoing the tone, but adjusting the context for the present, slowly building the momentum and giving insight into the key players and into the story itself. The film lets the characters be drawn in an engaging way, particularly Cate Blanchett's Mary Mapes, who is depicted as an intelligent, resourceful and also fallible woman, who suddenly sees herself as a target of thinly veiled conspiracy. The supporting characters, such as Robert Redford's Dan Rather, and their investigation team, though not as flushed out, make for an interesting and diversified group and create a compelling backdrop for the investigation that is the basis of the film. The film boasts a fantastic cast, with Cate Blanchett and Robert Redford creating great characters, well supported by Dennis Quaid, John Benjamin Hickey and Topher Grace.  The cinematography from Mandy Walker (who worked on Baz Luhrmann's "Australia") is fantastic, and the score from Brian Tyler is equally good. A very good film worth watching.

The Wings of the Dove

Movie Name: The Wings of the Dove

Year of Release: 1997

Director: Ian Softley

Stars: Helena Bonham Carter, Linus Roache, Alison Elliot, Charlotte Rampling, Michael Gambon, Elizabeth McGovern, Alex Jennings, Ben Miles

Genre: Drama, Romance

Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 7
Watch it on Amazon

Synopsis & Review:

After directing "Backbeat" and "Hackers", director Ian Softley tackled an Henry James' adaptation, "The Wings of the Dove", adapted into a screenplay by Hossein Amini (who went on to write Nicolas Winding Refn "Drive"). The film takes place in London, early 20th century and follows the story of Kate Croy, a beautiful young woman who due to the fact that her parents have no money, ends up living with her wealthy and domineering aunt, who wants to see her married to an established and rich man. Kate is already involved and enamored with Merton Densher, a journalist of few means. One day Kate is introduced to a an American woman traveling across Europe, by the name of Milly. Milly is a very wealthy heiress and is also terminally ill. Kate devises a plan for Merton to get involved with Milly, so she will leave him money when she passes away, enabling them both to marry. However the plans don't go exactly as planned, once this triangle gets to Venice and affections start shifting.
"The Wings of the Dove" is a film that draws inspiration from the work of celebrated director James Ivory (who directed the Henry James' adaptations "The Bostonians" and "The Europeans"). The film manages to convey the need to marry successfully and how that impacted the life of people in society. That is perfectly conveyed as the film progresses and Kate is presented almost as a prisoner of these labored and tacit conventions, that prevent her from following the love she has found. What is finely captured in the film are the nuances of Kate's character, as she creates a fiendish plot in order to gain the money she and Merton need to wed. It's a testament to Helena Bonham Carter's talent, that she makes the character lovable even with her insecurities and devious scheme. The supporting characters, though not as well rounded as Kate, provide an interesting backdrop to a film that showcases the nature of how love can present itself in different circumstances. The cast is uniformly good, with Linus Roache, Alison Elliot, Charlotte Rampling and Michael Gambon all providing good support for a stellar central performance from Helena Bonham Carter. The cinematography from Eduardo Serra is stunning, as are the costumes from celebrated and awarded costume designer Sandy Powell. A good film worth watching and revisiting.

Steve Jobs

Movie Name: Steve Jobs

Year of Release: 2015

Director: Danny Boyle

Stars: Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Jeff Daniels, Seth Rogen, Michael Stuhlbarg, Katherine Waterston, Perla Haney-Jardine, John Ortiz, Sarah Snook

Genre: Drama

Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 8

Synopsis & Review:

Fantastic and celebrated director Danny Boyle is back, following the awesome (and little seen) "Trance". "Steve Jobs" is a biopic and an adaptation of the book from Walter Isaacson (with a screenplay by celebrated screenwriter Aaron Sorkin). The film captures the life of Steve Jobs in three different time periods, that represented important events that catapulted Jobs' life and the life of his company Apple Computers in important directions. The film anchors itself on the preparations of what has become the iconic presentations of software that Apple is well known for: in each event we are introduced to the stress and pressure Steve placed on his team and everybody he interacted with. The film slowly also peels away the man behind the implacable facade, showing us his trouble relationship with the daughter he never wanted to assume, and the people who shaped Apple to be what they were.
Danny Boyle is an extremely intelligent director and film maker, always creating indelible film experiences from material that can be challenging (for instance "127 Hours"). Capturing the life of someone as iconic and well known as Steve Jobs could have proven a difficult task, but Danny Boyle manages to create a film that is dynamic, tense and engaging, interweaving the story with flashbacks, and other visual imagery that allows for a wordy screenplay to come to life. The film is successful in showcasing the personality of a leader that is demanding and insightful, while also probing deeper into who he was as an individual, with his flaws and shortcomings, creating someone more humane and relatable. Danny Boyle was also extremely successful in his casting, with Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Jeff Daniels and Katherine Waterston creating really engaging and well rounded characters that bring the story and the film to life, with intelligence and a beating heart. As it happens with most biopics this film will probably receive criticism for not depicting Steve Jobs appropriately, but this is a work of fiction, not a documentary. It's another fantastic film for Danny Boyle's incredible filmography.

Crimson Peak

Movie Name: Crimson Peak

Year of Release: 2015

Director: Guillermo Del Toro

Stars: Mia Wasikowska, Jessica Chastain, Tom Hiddleston, Charlie Hunnam, Jim Beaver, Burn Gorman, Leslie Hope, Doug Jones, Jonathan Hyde, Bruce Gray, Emily Coutts

Genre: Drama, Horror, Fantasy

Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 7

Synopsis & Review:

Guillermo Del Toro has followed his big sci-fi spectacle "Pacific Rim" with a decidedly smaller and somber endeavor, one that speaks highly of his taste for gothic and dark stories. The film focuses on the story of Edith Cushing, a young american writer, who in the 18th century suffers the loss of her mother at a young age. Edith is haunted by visions of ghosts, and that has shaped a lot of her writings. Her father, a wealthy but self made man, is protective of her, as his her friend and wannabe suitor, Dr. Alan McMichael. When the British Sharpe siblings come to town, Edith is enamored by the handsome Thomas, who is looking for investors for his drilling invention, one he claims will make the process of digging for the red clay from his property a lot faster and profitable. When Edith's father learns more of the intents of the siblings, he unexpectedly is murdered and Edith agrees to marry Thomas and follow him to England, specifically his property that goes by the name of Crimson Peak.
Guillermo Del Toro has a specific universe of his own. He's a writer and director who creates universes filled with a mythology that is unique, populated with ghouls, and creatures that are simultaneously magical and dangerous. "Crimson Peak" larks back to ghost stories of the 30s, 40s and 50s, giving it however an extra dimension that is simultaneously more sensual and also violent. The film is at its core a yarn about characters that aren't really what they seem to be, with the ghosts and supernatural giving it an extra layer of interest. The film lives of the rapport between the core characters, and also of the somberness of the majestic house (and production design), that functions as an extra character on its own. The actors all excel in their performances, particularly Mia Wasikowska and Jessica Chastain, while the production design from Thomas Sanders (who also worked in the glorious "Bram Stoker's Dracula" from Francis Coppola), and art direction of Brandt Gordon are equally phenomenal. A special highlight should also go to the fantastic costumes of Kate Hawley, which give an extra dimension of ethereal versus shadow in the way these characters come to life. This is a film that indeeds lives from the junction of all these talents, to bring to life a classic story of "whodunit" in a way that is engaging and entertaining. A good film worth watching.

Bridge of Spies

Movie Name: Bridge of Spies

Year of Release: 2015

Director: Steven Spielberg

Stars: Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance, Alan Alda, Amy Ryan, Jesse Plemons, Michael Gaston, Sebastian Koch, Billy Magnussen, Eve Hewson, Noah Schnapp, Dakin Matthews, Joe Forbrich

Genre: Drama, History

Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 5

Synopsis & Review:

Director Steven Spielberg is back, after the successful "Lincoln", which in the end won yet another Oscar for Daniel Day Lewis. Spielberg is indeed back with another feature, one that falls under his mantle of the "big important films". The film is inspired by actual events, takes place at the height of the cold war, the 1950s, and follows the story of attorney James B. Donovan, a senior partner at a law firm in Brooklyn, an admired professional who specializes in insurance law. When a Russian spy is caught on American soil, Donovan is hired to defend him. He manages to deter the sentence to life imprisonment, but when one American pilot is caught in Russian territory, Donovan is sent to East Berlin to secure a swap of these two politically antagonizing prisoners. On top of this, he also has to deal with an American student who has been imprisoned in East Berlin by the Communist regime of East Germany. It's up to his diplomatic skills to overcome these divisions and secure these swaps.
Steven Spielberg is, justifiably so, a legendary filmmaker. He has in his career so many admirable films, that the quality of his work is indisputable. However, he also has in his career films that are less than stellar, films that for some reason are less accomplished, namely "1941" and to a certain extent "Hook". "Bridge of Spies" is not by any means a bad feature: there's a level of polish and artistry, which may read as "classic storytelling". However, when analyzed a bit further, this film feels and looks like the work of someone on auto-pilot. The characters are vaguely drawn, such as Donovan's family - if they're going to be stand-ins for simple cliches, then why even present them (Amy Ryan is a fantastic actress, who ends up having nothing to do). Some characters are presented, then swiftly discarded (such as Alan Alda's senior associate at the law firm). Though the core of the film is indeed the negotiation, and the heightened sense of danger that the swap is meant to convey, that fear and anguish is never passed on, because ultimately, the film is sedate and doesn't present real characters - it portrays an amalgamation of different cliches from different films (a good example of tension and the true menace of the former East Block can be seen in Florian von Donnersmarck's "The Lives of Others").  The real highlight of the film is Mark Rylance, who creates an interesting character, a man who is weary, with depth, history and his own fears. The score of Thomas Newman is elegant as usual. A less than stellar film from a gifted film maker.

U Turn

Movie Name: U Turn

Year of Release: 1997

Director: Oliver Stone

Stars: Sean Penn, Jennifer Lopez, Nick Nolte, Joaquin Phoenix, Claire Danes, Powers Boothe, Billy Bob Thornton, Jon Voight, Julie Hagerty, Bo Hopkins, Brent Briscoe, Laurie Metcalf, Abraham Benrubi, 

Genre: Drama, Crime, Suspense

Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 7

Synopsis & Review:

Oliver Stone's winning 90s decade continued with another great, yet mostly unseen, film, "U Turn". The film is an adaptation of John Ridley's book "Stray Dogs" (Ridley is the Oscar winning writer of "12 Years a Slave"), and it follows the story of a petty criminal by the name of Bobby, who wanders into a small town on the run from some serious criminals who have already taken some of his fingers. In the small town he comes across an array of strange characters and becomes involved with the beautiful (and married) Grace. Her husband hires Bobby to kill Grace, who in turn hires Bobby to kill Jake. In a town, where nothing is what it seems, Bobby suddenly finds himself trapped in a situation that is almost surreal and seemingly without solution.
Oliver Stone's career was filled with fantastic films through the 80s and 90s, but as the 90s came to an end, the same happened with the quality of his directorial efforts. "U Turn" exhibits the traits of the formal experimentation that Oliver Stone trademarked with the fantastic "JFK", "Natural Born Killers" and even "Nixon", but in this film he and his usual collaborator, cinematographer Robert Richardson, applied it to a noir context, which turned out was a perfect fit. The film uses the small town as a claustrophobic setting, one from which none of the characters have a chance of escaping. In that town, the typical archetypes from film noir appear, such as the femme fatale, the young hothead, the young beautiful ingenue, the drifter, all adding a layer of familiarity and bizarreness, much like a "Twilight Zone" scenario. The film succeeds in being both a dark crime drama and another step in an experiment that stretches the language of film. The director has also managed to assemble a fantastic cast, with the awesome Sean Penn leading the ensemble, with Joaquin Phoenix, Nick Nolte, Billy Bob Thornton and Claire Danes in supporting roles. The cinematography from Robert Richardson is fantastic, as is the score from the legendary composer Ennio Morricone. An underrated film worth revisiting.

The Walk

Movie Name: The Walk

Year of Release: 2015

Director: Robert Zemeckis

Stars: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ben Kingsley, Charlotte Le Bon, James Badge Dale, Clement Sibony, Cesar Domboy, Steve Valentine, Ben Schwartz, Benedict Samuel, Mark Camacho

Genre: Drama, Adventure

Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 6

Synopsis & Review:

Academy award winning director Robert Zemeckis is back, following the successful "Flight". The film is an adaptation of the book by Philippe Petit, which details the incredible feat that Petit executed in 1974, when he walked on a wire between the twin towers in New York (and this feat was also the target of the James Marsh documentary "Man on a Wire" which won the Oscar in 2008). The film uses Petit as a direct narrator for the story, introducing us to the character in Paris, when he's a struggling acrobat, living from live performances on the street. That's how he meets his companion Annie, to whom he confides the dream of walking across the twin towers in New York. Before that however, he attempts and succeeds a high wire act at Notre Dame Cathedral, which lands him in trouble with the authorities. Finding a team of accomplices in Paris, Petit soon devises a scheme to make "Le Coup" work.
Robert Zemeckis is one of the most successful directors in Hollywood of the past 4 decades. He has created films that blend a sense of wonder with an acute perception of how technology empowers directors to realize their vision - that has happened with some of his most accomplished films such as "Who's Framing Roger Rabbit", "Back to the Future", "Forrest Gump" and "Contact". "The Walk" has a fantastic story as a premise - a man overcoming a challenge that is towering and almost impossible. Sadly though, Zemeckis presents the story in a way that feels too glossy, overproduced and frankly borderline tasteless (the vignettes with Petit addressing the camera directly on the Statue of the Liberty are at best poorly conceived and at worst tacky). Where the film does redeem itself is in the depiction of the stunt that Petit and his accomplices put together: the process and the recreation of the feat is engaging, revealing a dynamic that sorely lacks in the remainder of the film. The cast does what it can with underwritten parts, with the talented Joseph Gordon-Levitt playing Petit as an obsessed man with a dream (and a bad wig it seems), while Ben Kingsley once again plays the older voice of reason. The score from Alan Silvestri is wonderful, as is the cinematography from Darius Wolski (who also worked on Ridley Scott's "The Martian"). A somewhat failed effort from a talented film maker.

Titanic

Movie Name: Titanic

Year of Release: 1997

Director: James Cameron

Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane, Kathy Bates, Frances Fisher, Gloria Stuart, Bill Paxton, Bernard Hill, Victor Garber, David Warner, Jonathan Hyde, Suzy Amis, Danny Nucci, Jason Barry, Ioan Gruffudd, Jonny Phillips, Mark Lindsay Chapman, Jenette Goldstein

Genre: Drama, Romance

Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 7
Watch it on Amazon.

Synopsis & Review:

"Titanic" was the big Oscar winner of 1997, and is to this day the second biggest money maker of all times at the box office. The film followed James Cameron's "True Lies" and was surrounded by months of expectations that the film would flounder and bankrupt Twentieth Century Fox. The film ended up being a massive success worldwide, making Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet instantly recognizable by everyone. The story focuses on Jack Dawson and Rose Bukater, two young people coming from different classes who meet on the biggest ocean liner ever built in 1912. They both are sailing towards the US, with different goals: Jack going back home, Rose with an intent to marry a rich tycoon by the name of Cal Hockley. They both meet, fall in love, and struggle to overcome both Cal and the tragic demise and sinking of the Titanic.
James Cameron is a tremendously gifted film maker, one that has his own universe, usually putting his characters in environments that are alien to them, forcing them to overcome their fears and becoming owners of their own fate. "Titanic" was a passion project for him, since it married his love of deep sea diving, with a legendary historical moment, one marred by drama and fatalities. He decided to build a love story around this massive disaster, and staged the sinking with an accurate and harrowing detail, giving his viewers an almost direct representation of what those last moments represented for the people on the doomed ship. The film is a testament to his capacity to hold the attention of viewers with a story that though contrived (and his screenplay is a bit overly simplistic and maudlin at times), overcomes those shortcomings to become something truly epic and impressively assembled. It's a film that has top production values in all fields, from production design, cinematography, visual effects, and though not as impressive as his classics "Terminator" and "Aliens", still stands as a towering achievement. The cast is also impressive, with highlights going to Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Kathy Bates, Gloria Stuart and Frances Fisher, all of whom create interesting characters. The definition of good entertainment can be found here.

The Martian

Movie Name: The Martian

Year of Release: 2015

Director: Ridley Scott

Stars: Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Jeff Daniels, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Kristen Wiig, Michael Pena, Kate Mara, Sebastian Stan, Aksel Hennie, Sean Bean, Mackenzie Davis, Benedict Wong, Donald Glover, Enzo Cilenti

Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 8

Synopsis & Review:

Now well into his 70s, Ridley Scott shows no signs of stopping, and his latest feature, "The Martian" is finally the achievement he has been craving for, but has eluded him since his really last strong feature which was "Black Hawk Down" in 2001 (and following the mediocre "Exodus" from last year). The film (an adaptation of the novel by Andy Weir) follows the story of a team of astronauts exploring the planet Mars, who have to leave the planet on emergency due to a severe storm that is approaching. In the midst of the urgency, astronaut Mark Watney is hit by debris, and his teammates consider him dead, and abandon the planet. Watney wakes up to see another day, and much to his dismay and fear, finds himself alone in an inhospitable planet. It's up to him to devise a way to make rations work, find a way to create food and await a salvage team to reach him (there's a new team that will reach Mars, but that's almost 4 years away). Using nothing more than his intellect and a lot of effort, Mark overcomes hurdle by hurdle, until he finds a way to communicate back to Earth and inform everyone he's still alive.
Ridley Scott has created with "The Martian" a story that mixes and emphasizes his strong points in his long and varied career: impeccable visuals, production design, visual effects, with a more humane and heartfelt approach that sometimes has eluded some of his previous features. Much like "Alien" and "Blade Runner", the director creates a world of beauty, but also of menace, one were this single individual has to find ways to overcome a series of obstacles in order to stay alive. The film is very successful in mixing the hardship of Mark Watney's survival efforts, with the teams stationed back on Earth, that are trying at every step to create strategies to reach out to him and save him - that includes navigating impossible scenarios, diplomatic hurdles, political issues. The pacing of the film is perfectly timed, putting the viewer in the perspective of a time lapse, and the urgency to reach the stranded astronaut before he dies. It's a film that marries an impeccable script, one that ties intelligence, humor and resourcefulness, with stunning visuals, score and a fantastic cast, with highlights going to Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Jeff Daniels. A really good surprise from a somewhat uneven director.

Sicario

Movie Name: Sicario

Year of Release: 2015

Director: Denis Villeneuve

Stars: Emily Blunt, Benicio Del Toro, Josh Brolin, Victor Garber, Jon Bernthal, Daniel Kaluuya, Jeffrey Donavan, Raoul Trujillo, Julio Cedillo, Hank Rogerson, Kevin Wiggins

Genre: Action, Crime, Drama

Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 7

Synopsis & Review:

After the release of "Prisoners" and "Enemy" in 2013, celebrated director director Denis Villeneuve is back with the equally well received "Sicario". The film is the first produced original screenplay from Taylor Sheridan, mostly known as an actor. It focuses on the story of Kate Macer, an FBI agent who gets involved in an operation to bring down a huge drug cartel in Juarez, Mexico. Headlining this operation is Matt Graver, a special agent who goes to specific locations to act as a catalyst and provoke damage in criminal activities. Part of his team includes the enigmatic Alejandro, someone whom Kate doesn't understand what the agenda is. As Kate gets further involved in the operation, she comes to realize the whole purpose of her association and what the grander scheme of things is.
"Sicario" is a solid film that benefits from the incredible vision of Denis Villeneuve, who brings a new dimension, grittiness to what could be a rather lifeless plot. The script treads on plots already approached in several features: the young police officer who wants to do things correctly, the irreverent, sardonic and experienced agent who knows more than he lets on, and the enigmatic and stoic agent who turns out to be a silent menace. The film doesn't provide much depth into these core characters, and sadly the representation of the central female character is not much of an evolution of a comparable and equally strong female character created by Jodie Foster's Clarice Starling in Jonathan Demme's "Silence of the Lambs". Emily Blunt's character is the witness of all the machinations that occur in the film and through her eyes we view the horrors of the drug cartels. However her character lands more on the observational and somewhat passive side of things, which as the film evolves, makes the attention shift to Benicio Del Toro's character (which in itself almost deserves a film onto himself). Denis Villeneuve elevates the material, with the film benefiting from a stunning cinematography from Roger Deakins, score from Johan Johannsson, and great performances from all three leads. Another good film from Denis Villeneuve!