Author: Cliff Gold

Irresistible (Steve Carell, Rose Byrne, Chris Cooper, Mackenzie Davis) – The first big theatrical release since the pandemic began, Irresistible is supposedly a comedy from The Daily Shoiw’s Jon Stewart. I can confirm that it is definitely Jon Stewart’s film, but it is, marginally, a comedy. It is certainly a skewering of politics in the Trump age (and before) where money “trumps” everything, political consultants play a manipulation game, the media milks the ugly cow, and the American electorate is reduced to a series of demographics.

Stewart can’t help but make this movie a commentary rather than a comedy. He disguises his cynicism in a marginally amusing story about a local farmer, Jack Hastings (Chris Cooper in a role way below his talent), in a fictitious Wisconsin town who challenges the local mayor. Aided by the high-powered political consultant, Gary Zimmer (Steve Carell), that engineered the Hillary Clinton loss to Donald Trump, Hastings appears to be the real deal. But when the existing mayor hires Zimmer’s archenemy, Republican strategist Faith Brewster (Rose Byrne), supposedly the fun begins.

There are some funny scenes, but mostly the kind that make you smile but not laugh. The other characters are essentially your basic one-dimensional, small-town hicks.  Or so it seems. In Stewart’s world, consumers are not quite as dumb and helpless as they seem; political operatives are slimy scumbags; and everything is about money. He is screaming THE SYSTEM IS BROKEN as if we didn’t already know that already.

The main problem here is that Stewart tried to do too much.  He lures us in with trailers promising a relevant, roaring comedy while delivering a social commentary that is just not convincing enough. He should have made a documentary worthy of wide distribution. Even the actors seem restrained, knowing that the film is meant to be more commentary than entertainment.  Finally, make sure you stick around for the credits since there are several “cookies,” both about the story and about our political system.

The Way Back (Ben Affleck) – The director of Miracle, Gavin O’Connor, reconnects with Ben Affleck, who he directed in The Accountant, in this stunningly predictable tale of an alcoholic whose life is spiraling into the depths of hell.  Affleck, a two-time Academy Award winner (for Good Will Hunting and Argo) but never, ever for acting, plays Jack Cunningham, a former high school basketball star who is asked to come back and coach his alma mater.

But Jack is in no condition to coach a bunch of Hoosiers/Mighty Ducks/Bad News Bears/Pride-like kids.  He is barely functional for reasons we find out too late in the film.  Nonetheless, he tries.  He is often late for practice.  He swears up a storm, which doesn’t go over so well with the team chaplain of this Catholic school.  But somehow, the team starts to win.  We even begin to see the decent human being underneath Jack’s sad, mad demeanor.

But stories like this never end that easily. Just as Jack’s team reaches the cusp of success, the man regresses.  He gets fired; he gets drunk; he makes bad mistakes and lands in the hospital.  The rest is … well, who cares?

While They Way Back is being promoted as the basketball movie equivalent of The Karate Kid, Rocky, and the rest of the movies mentioned earlier, it is actually a film about loss, depression, alcoholism, and abandonment.  And it carries an awful piano-laden soundtrack and depressingly dark tones.   Happy times!  Not.

Maybe because Affleck’s private life mirrors some of this story, you might be inclined to see it.  Don’t.  It really isn’t very good.  Even Affleck fans may want to wait until it reaches Netflix or the other streaming services … which shouldn’t take very long.

Emma. (Anya Taylor-Joy, Johnny Flynn, Bill Nighy, Mia Goth) – I admit to not being a big fan of Jane Austen.  The prolific author wrote Emma in 1815, and they have been making movies of her book since movies could talk.  The latest iteration is a fun romp with an unknown cast, beautiful costumes, a whimsical score, exceptional sets and production design.

Okay, it is not as fun as Clueless, which was a modern take on Austen’s story.  But, for a British comedy, it is practically uproarious.  Emma Woodhouse (Anna Taylor-Joy) is a pampered princess who fashions herself a matchmaker and prom queen.  She is an easy character to dislike except that she is so darned cute and expressive.  Her eccentric father (Bill Nighy) adores her, needs her and coddles her, which is not true of George Knightley, trusted family friend who manages Donwell Abbey.  He keeps her somewhat grounded and doesn’t let her get away with much.  From the moment we meet him, we know that he and Emma are destined to be together.  How we get there is the story of Emma.

Who knew that Jane Austen invented the “chick flick” more than 200 years ago?

For sure, there are sub-plots.  Emma convinces her friend, Harriet Smith (Mia Goth), to turn down a marriage proposal by telling her that the local preening preacher, Mr. Elton (a positively prissy Josh O’Connor), fancies her.  In truth, Elton has his sights set elsewhere.  Then there is Jane Fairfax (Amber Anderson), the smart and talented favorite of commoner/busy-body Miss Bates (Miranda Hart), who is both sweet and insufferable.  Jane is a rival.  Eventually, Mr. Elton finds a wife (Tanya Reynolds), whose confident and frank demeanor renders her husband socially impotent.

Emma is a vehicle for a fine ensemble of young actors.  Veteran Bill Nighy, who you’ll recognize from a slew of British films, including Love Actually, steals every scene he is in.  Of course, that is true in every movie in which he appears.  He allows the audience the comfortable grounding of recognizing someone in this film.  But even Nighy doesn’t answer the inevitable question: Why did someone think we needed yet another movie version of this story?

Wasn’t the Gwyneth Paltrow 1996 Emma good enough?  That film, written and directed by Michael McGrath, won an Oscar for music, was nominated for Best Costumes, and included a well-regarded cast that included Jeremy Northam, Alan Cumming, Toni Collette, and Greta Scacchi.

This version, by first-time feature director, Autumn de Wilde, is very entertaining if you like period chick flicks. Like Little Women, it comes from a 19^th century female author who is beloved.  If you liked the latter, you will like Emma.

Harriet (Cynthia Erivo, Leslie Odom, Jr.) – There have been several movies about abolitionist Harriet Tubman, the escaped slave who became one of the most famous “conductors” of the Underground Railroad.  The latest version features the talented Cynthia Erivo, who starred in Broadway’s revival of The Color Purple. Erivo’s performance is transformative and is worthy of the Best Actress nomination she received.

Tubman grew up as Minty, a woman of uncommon conviction and substance.  Having witnessed unconscionable violence against her family and friends, Minty ultimately left her husband and her home and escaped from Maryland to freedom in Philadelphia.  Adopting the “free” name of Harriet Tubman, she could have lived a safe life in the North.  Rather, she returned home 13 times to lead slaves to freedom.  Braving death, she considered her quest a calling, becoming an unquestioned leader prior to the Civil War in liberating slaves.  During the war, she became a spy for the Union and led the largest battle specifically designed to free slaves.

As a movie, Harriet is a compelling re-telling of the story.  It is beautifully filmed and well-acted.  It is not, however, a deep psychological profile; it is an homage.  This isn’t unusual for movies, of course.  Heroes are often presented as flawless.  The film would have been better if the dive were deeper.  What made her such a brave and relentless woman?  Was there anything in her childhood that drove her to become such as leader?  Why did she feel that she heard messages from God that kept her safe and helped her predict and evade danger?  Curious people want to know.

Nonetheless, Harriet is a very good movie and a fine history lesson.  Erivo is extraordinary.  The supporting cast is convincing and earnest.  Plus, Erivo sings the haunting, uplifting Stand Up, the song played over the closing credits that has been nominated for Best Original Song.  Harriet is difficult to find in theaters; it is available on Amazon for rent or purchase.

Pain and Glory (Antonio Banderas, Asier Etxeandia, Penelope Cruz, Nora Navas) – It is a foregone conclusion that Parasite will win the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.  The only other real competition is famed Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar’s Pain and Glory.  Starring Antonio Banderas, P&G follows the later life of movie writer and director Salvador Mallo, whose life has faded into sickness, despair and depression.

Mallo is barely existing in his well-appointed apartment, choking when he eats almost any solid food and suffering from myriad physical problems.  But it is his emotional infirmities that leave him a shadow of his former self.  Then, one day, he is asked to present one of his most famous films, which has been restored, at a special screening.  The invitation is actually to present it jointly with the film’s star, Alberto Crespo (Asier Etxeandia), with whom he has not spoken since the film was released 32 years earlier.

Mallo is reluctant to do it but is convinced by a friend, Mercedes (Nora Navas), that it would be good for him to do something other than rot in his apartment.  He visits Crespo to persuade him to join him in the presentation.  It is there that Mallo tries heroin for the first time.  Of course, he gets hooked as the drug gives him some respite from his overwhelming pain.  In his stupor, he relives his childhood, re-explores his complicated relationship with his mother (played as a young woman by Almodóvar’s frequent collaborator, Penelope Cruz), and forces him to face his now empty life.

The rest of the film is Salvador’s flashback journey through time, the diagnosis of his illness, and his reunion with an old love, which reawakens his passion for writing and film.

Banderas, who was nominated for Best Actor, sparkles in every shade of Salvador.  As with all great performances, you lose the actor in the character, a rare joy for the audience.  The film is vintage Almódovar, including the twist at the end.

If you can’t see it in the theater, it is available to rent on a couple of the streaming services for less than it costs at your local movie house.  It is subtitled, of course, so settle in for one man’s journey into the truth of his life.

Jojo Rabbit (Roman Griffin Davis, Thomasin McKenzie, Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, Taika Waititi, Rebel Wilson) – Jojo Rabbit is another rip-roaring film about Adolf Hitler or, more descriptively, a member of the Hitler Youth whose enthusiasm for the Fuhrer wanes as he gets to know the Jewish girl his mother is hiding in their house.  I am being facetious, of course. There haven’t been a lot of movies depicting Hitler as a funny guy, in this case influencing the imagination of a young 10-year-old, Jojo (Golden Globe nominee Roman Griffin Davis), whose goal is become Adolf’s friend.

The movie is a spoof, a comedy of sorts.  It attempts to be Springtime for Hitler (from The Producers) with a cavalcade of silly Nazis – Hitler (writer/director/star New Zealander Taika Waititi), polite SS officers, and the disgraced head of the Hitler Youth (Sam Rockwell as Captain Klenzendorf).  The latter is running an office full of idiots and misfits, including Fraulein Rahm (Rebel Wilson) and some male assistant with whom Klenzendorf is apparently attracted.

I would describe the plot, but I kept falling asleep.  I was awake to see Scarlett Johansson play Jojo’s mother, Rosie, a surprisingly normal, fun-loving, free-spirited German who is providing shelter for a young Jewish girl, Elsa (Thomasin McKenzie).  Johansson’s performance garnered an Oscar nomination for Supporting Actress despite very little screen time.

The underlying story is more serious, of course. Jojo gets close to Elsa and finds out that Jews are real people.  As he gets to know Elsa, he falls out of love with Hitler.  By the end of the film, Elsa is freed, Jojo has matured, and Rosie is dead (sorry for the spoiler!).

Jojo Rabbit (you’ll find out why Jojo got this nickname) is another movie that audiences liked and critics (by and large) didn’t.  The film feels a bit like a West Anderson pic in the spirit of The Grand Budapest Hotel or a Mel Brooks spoof, but it just doesn’t cut it.

I am going out on a limb here: Jojo Rabbit will not win any of the six Academy Awards for which it has been nominated.  At least, I hope not.

Joker (Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz) – Delve deeply below the surface of a psychopathic killer and you will find a highly disturbed individual with delusions of grandeur and unfulfilled ambition.  Such is this dark, frank portrait of Arthur Fleck, the man who would become the Joker, archenemy of Batman and nemesis to Gotham City.

In this prequel to the Batman saga, Joaquin Phoenix brings all of his personal baggage and enigmatic personality to the complicated character of Arthur, who is anything but the one-dimensional villain we have met in multiple Batman films and TV shows.

Arthur lives with his mother and is her primary caregiver.  Through the film, we find out about her, including her history working for Thomas Wayne, the soon-to-be mayor of Gotham. It is Wayne’s son, Bruce (we meet him only briefly as a young boy), who would later become Batman.  Arthur has trouble holding a job.  Currently, he is working as a clown, entertaining kids in hospitals or twirling one of those signs advertising on a street corner.  He is pretty good at it.  But Arthur has a temper and a mental illness that causes him to laugh uncontrollably, often when he is under stress.  He is under the care of a mental health counselor from whom he gets his drugs and for whom he keeps a diary of his demented thoughts.

We watch Arthur turn from misfit to victim to killer to instigator.  It is very disturbing.  Should we have empathy for this bullied, battered, and abused man-boy?  Does his background story warrant a second look at the comic book character depicted as a one-dimensional menace to society?

These questions rest at the heart of Joker, director Todd Phillip’s dive into a fantasy world that seems all too real to the plight of people with deep-seeded mental illness.  Indeed, Joker is a comic book movie but it feels more relevant than that.  Phoenix’s performance is magnificent … regardless of what you think of him.  His talent is undeniable.  Four Oscar nominations prove that.  His two Golden Globe wins, for this and his portrayal of Johnny Cash in Walk the Line, prove that he belongs in the pantheon of current American actors.

Joker has been an audience darling and a critical catastrophe.  The movie is no fun whatsoever.  It is a psychological thriller with graphic violence and disturbing images.  It is quite a ride into hell.  Missing is the sly wink of the Batman films or the campiness of the Batman TV show.  Clearly, Phillips had no desire to recreate anything but the look and feel of Gotham.  That he accomplishes spectacularly.  Joker is a very big movie about one man’s plummet to the dark side.

With 11 Oscar nominations, the most of any 2019 film, and more than $1 billion in box office, it deserves more than casual attention.  It is a spectacle worth viewing and worth pondering.