Movie Review

Ford v Ferrari (Matt Damon, Christian Bale, Josh Lucas, Jon Bernthal, Caitriona Balfe, Tracy Letts) – In the early 1960s, auto racing wasn’t a very popular spectator sport in the U.S. except for the Indianapolis 500 and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.  Richard Petty was emerging as the dominant driver in NASCAR.  Mario Andretti and Jackie Stewart roared out of Formula One and Indy cars in the mid-60s.

Ferrari, the Italian car maker named for its founder, dominated the luxury sports car market and Formula One racing.  No other automaker came close.  Henry Ford II couldn’t stand the idea that his family’s company, which produced millions of passenger cars and had been instrumental in helping win WWII against the Axis, including Italy, was playing second fiddle to a company it unsuccessfully tried to buy. Plus, Ford was about to launch the Mustang, the revolutionary sports car that would take the American market by storm and make Lee Iacocca, Ford’s marketing genius, a corporate superstar.

Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) was a race car driver who was named Sports Illustrated’s driver of the year in 1956 and 1957 before switching to Formula One, winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1959.  After his riding career was cut short by heart issues, he turned to designing race cars, to selling sports cars to rich people, and to modifying existing cars for racing.

As told in Ford v Ferrari, Iacocca approached Shelby to propel Ford into a viable competitor to Ferrari.  With an almost unlimited budget and a guarantee of independence, Shelby said yes, bringing his team, including his friend and driver/engineer Ken Miles (Christian Bale) with him.

Ford v Ferrari is more about the Shelby-Miles partnership and bromance than it is about two car companies going at it for prominence in racing.  It paints Ford II (Tracy Letts) as a despot and his executives, led by Executive Vice President Leo Beebe (Josh Lucas), as meddling villains.  Iacocca (Jon Bernthal), a corporate survivor with a vision, is a notable exception although he, too, is as much a suck-up as everyone else in the executive suite.

The movie is excellent, especially if you like car racing.  It soars as it places the audience on the track and in the cockpit.  It also bogs down a bit there.  There have been plenty of movies about car racing, all of which attempt to give the audience a taste of racing at 200+ miles an hour.  Ford v Ferrari does this better than any other; it just does it for too long.  I can’t imagine the hours that Bale had to shoot tight close-ups leaning left and right, turning the steering wheel and changing gears, all while talking to himself.

Although secondary to the racing, director James Mangold makes a valiant attempt to humanize the story by exploring Miles’ relationship with his wife, Mollie (Irish actress Caitriona Balfe), and his son, Peter (Noah Jupe).  Miles’ passion for his family is only rivaled by his love of cars and racing.

As Miles, Bale predictably steals every scene.  Damon, to his credit, lets him.  As much as this is a buddy film, it is not the acting that makes FvF work; it’s the technical wizardry.  In addition to Best Picture, the film is nominated in Film Editing, Sound Editing, and Sound Mixing, not in any acting category or for direction.  This is an action-packed, fast-moving pic that grabs you while illuminating some sports history that only car race fanatics know.

The Aftermath (Keira Knightly, Alexander Skarsgard, Jason Clarke) – Set six months after the end of World War II in Hamburg, The Aftermath follows a British colonel, Lewis Morgan (Jason Clarke), who is leading the post-War occupation.  His wife, Rachael (Keira Knightly), is arriving by train to join him after not having seen him for a long time.  As the commanding officer of the occupying forces, Morgan expropriates the stately home of a local architect to live in.  The architect, Stephen Lubert (Alexander Skarsgard), is very polite and non-political but is now working in a non-professional job while caring for his rebellious, teenage daughter, Freda.

As the movie meanders along … very slowly … we learn that Rachael and Lewis’ son died in an air raid in England.  Likewise, Stephen’s wife, died in an Allied bombing.  All of these characters are scarred.  Rachael is bitter about her husband’s lack of attention on her and their grief.  Stephen is trying to cope with his own grief, his daughter’s frequent disappearance, and the loss of his house to the Allies.  Lewis is job-obsessed even though he has empathy for the people who have been displaced and whose city has been reduced to ruins.

When Colonel Morgan allows Stephen and Freda to remain on the top floor of the house, an incendiary dynamic is created.  Rachael wants no part of these Germans in her new home.  Stephen is livid when friends of the Morgans disrespect his ex-wife’s Steinway piano by pounding on the keys and singing raucous songs.  Freda is hanging with Hitler youth, most specifically an older teen who is living in the shadows, helping to lead protests, and trying to undermine the occupying forces.

As the story unfolds, Rachael and Stephen grow close.  Freda and Rachael bond since both play the piano.  As Lewis deals with the protests from the German people, he recedes further from his wife.  And then he realizes something is going on between his wife and his boarder.

Director James Kent, most of whose credits are TV related, builds an interesting but brooding story about a time period that, frankly, no one cares about: the aftermath of the War in Germany.  But the movie (and the book by Rhidian Brook on which it is based) is not only about the aftermath of the war.  It is about the aftermath of the death of the Morgans’ son and Lubert’s wife.  In the end, we wonder about the aftermath of the affair, too.

This art-house film has exceptional acting.  Keira Knightly has progressed from the gorgeous angel in Love Actually to one of the world’s best period actresses in Atonement, Pride & Prejudice, Anna Karenina and The Imitation Game.  Jason Clarke is one of the best actors no one knows, having star turns in Oscar-nominated films like Zero Dark Thirty and Mudbound as well as playing Ted Kennedy in the unseen film, Chappaquiddick.  Alexander Skarsgard comes by his acting chops naturally as the son of the always phenomenal Stellan Skarsgard.  Best known perhaps for his role in Big Little Lies or perhaps The Legend of Tarzan, TV’s True Blood or Straw Dogs, the younger Skarsgard is likeable with a hint of danger.

The Aftermath is not a feel-good film.  It is a character study about death, despair, and hope in the wake of the worst conflict in world history.

Can You Ever Forgive Me? (Melissa McCarthy, Richard E. Grant) – Melissa McCarthy is one of America’s most liked actresses.  Known mostly for her zany roles in TV’s Gilmore Girls and later in movies like The Heat, Spy, Tammy and Bridesmaids (for which she was nominated for an Academy Award), McCarthy often returns to TV, most notably portraying Sean Spicer on Saturday Night Live.  She stretched out to a more serious role in St. Vincent with Bill Murray, the actor whose early career looked most like hers. Both are the absolute best at playing serious parts with comedic overtones and that glint in their eyes that signals the audience that the comedian is still underneath the surface.

Can You Forgive Me? Is an exceptional small film based on the true story of Lee Israel, a semi-successful author whose career tanked after writing a couple of biographies.  McCarthy plays Lee as a pathetic, desperate, blocked writer who just needs a good idea and a break to jump back onto the best seller’s list.  She possesses virtually no social skills.  No friends.  A rotting apartment.  An agent (Jane Curtin – great to see her) who won’t return her calls.  Sounds like the author version of Tootsie but this isn’t a comedy.

McCarthy finds refuge in forgery when she accidentally finds a copy of a letter from Fanny Brice.  She sells it for some money to treat her ailing cat but then realizes that she can combine her writing skills with her desperation to create fake documents for money.  Surprisingly, there is a vibrant market for such letters.  Lee prospers … until she doesn’t.  When she finds out that she is being investigated, she turns to a new drinking buddy, Jack Hock (Richard E. Grant), a gay Brit who seemingly has no job but who is terminally entertaining.  Jack becomes her courier and proves to be amazingly adept at getting even more money for the forgeries.  That works right up to the time that it doesn’t.

Lee and Jack are losers and loners in a world full of them.  They have nothing but they have each other.  Even that isn’t enduring for reasons you’ll find out.

Can You Forgive Me? is a really good independent film with first-rate performances.  Both McCarthy and Grant grabbed Oscar nominations even though the movie did not.  It is the sleeper movie of the year if you don’t count the foreign film, Roma.  By all means, find this gem.  (It is not playing in many theaters, but you can find it on Amazon Prime for $14.99.)

The Favourite (Olivia Colman, Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz) – Because I am not a fan of British period pieces, I didn’t want to see The Favourite despite good reviews and even though it starred two of my favorites in Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz.  But when it was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, I felt an obligation to go.

Well, Rachel and Emma are wonderful, both playing cool, complicated and conniving characters. Both actresses are Oscar winners, and both are nominated for Supporting Actress for this film.  Incidentally, this is the third movie in five years starring Emma Stone to be nominated for Best Picture (Birdman, La La Land).

Olivia Colman is forever memorable as the sickly, mad, and enigmatic Queen Anne.  The monarch is complicated, repressed, demanding, infantile, uncertain, and sexually involved with Lady Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough (Weisz).  Through her influence over Anne, Sarah basically runs the country and exerts her considerable influence over the British government during its current war with France.  While her husband is serving in the war, Sarah placates and cares for Anne either out of duty or love; we aren’t sure.

When the queen’s disgraced distant cousin, Abagail (Stone), arrives, everything changes.  Abagail, relegated to the kitchen, wants to redeem herself and be a Lady again.  She impresses Sarah when she concocts an herbal salve to ease Anne’s pain following a bad case of gout. Soon, she is helping the queen in more ways than one, ingratiating herself and scheming to replace Sarah.

The Favourite is carried by these three female outstanding performers.  Unlike most films of this period, the roles are reversed with dominant female characters, rendering the male characters somewhere between irrelevant and subservient.  The film is helmed by Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos, whose most notable film was 2015’s The Lobster, which featured Weisz and Colman. The Favourite couldn’t be further from The Lobster but, in its way, it is just as creative.  The costume and production design are fabulous, almost certainly award worthy.  The dialogue is witty, a touch boorish, occasionally stiff, and always snappy.

But sometimes great components don’t add up to a great movie.  This is one of those times.  The Favourite is not one of my favorites of the year.  The story is contrived and somewhat predictable.  The sets overwhelm the screen.  The film never seems to hit a consistent stride.  In some ways, this plays like a sex farce.  I half expected them to break into song like a Monty Python film.  That would have been welcome.

When the film finishes with unreadable credits due to the inexplicable type faces and treatments Lanthimos uses throughout the movie, I was just glad it was over.  Of the eight Best Picture nominees, this is near the bottom of my list.

Black Panther (Chadwick Bozeman, Lupita Nyong’o, Michael B. Jordan, Daniel Kaluuya, Martin Freeman) – There is a reason I don’t go to comic book movies.  They are all the same.  I have seen the Superman movies, the Batman movies, Dick Tracy, and even one of the Iron Man films.  That is enough.  D.C. Comics and Marvel have made way more money from these movies than they ever made from the sale of comic books.

Black Panther is apparently unique among these in part because the cast is overwhelmingly African American.  The cast is exceptional.  Chaz Bozeman is one of the great talents among actors today.  Lupita Nyong’o is far more than another pretty actress in Hollywood.  Daniel Kaluuya was fantastic in Get Out and will be a star for years to come.  It’s too bad that they are wasting their considerable talents in a super-hero, animation-driven, computer graphics-burdened film.

I know, I know: these are the movies that kids pay to see.  At $1.3 billion in box office receipts, Black Panther is more than a hit.  It is a mega-spectacular.  And who am I to denigrate this genre of film?  I am pleased that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has established an entire category of awards for such movies. They deserve their category.  After all, they are among the most expensive to make.  They employ thousands of people.  They give God knows how many actors jobs.  And most of all, they showcase the technological advances that define our world today even though they are rapidly killing independent films.

Black Panther is entertaining for most.  It put me to sleep 15 minutes in.  There is our hero (Bozeman) who is designated king.  There’s a challenger who loses; another one that wins.  Our hero is saved.  His enemies are vanquished.  There are chases and more chases; battles and more battles. Truth and justice prevail. To its credit, the movie showcases almost as many females as male warriors.  The film proves that audiences will show up regardless of race or gender.  But substitute Ant Man, Spiderman, Iron Man, Wonder Woman, or a dozen others and it is all the same.  Formula, formula, formula.

Whether Black Panther should have been nominated for Best Picture is a really fine question.  If Black Panther, why not a whole lot of its predecessors?  I think it has to do with image and ratings! The Academy Awards has been losing viewers for years.  The explosion of other awards shows has rendered the most important among them as anti-climactic.  With the actresses and other dignitaries showing up at all of the other events, the Oscars have been rendered just another fashion show.  And then there was the rampant lack of representation of minorities that threatened the Academy.  And then, there was Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey et al.  And this year, it is Kevin Hart.

What does this have to do with Black Panther?  It is the breakthrough: the first super-hero film to be nominated for Best Picture.  Avatar proved that graphic-heavy, technology-driven films could be worthy of Oscar nods, but Black Panther proves that computer-laden art is now driving Hollywood.

Bohemian Rhapsody (Rami Malek, Lucy Boynton, Gwilym Lee, Ben Hardy, Joe Mazzello, Tom Hollander) – Queen was a rock band that is perfectly emblematic of the era between the singer/songwriter and disco ‘70s and the glam and slam music of the ‘90s.  Freddie Mercury rounded Queen into an eclectic, unpredictable force that transcended hard rock and pop.  He and his bandmates produced hits and anthems that were equally hard rock and lyrical ballads.

Bohemian Rhapsody feels more like The Doors than Jersey Boys.  It tells the story of an iconic band with exceptional performances. No attempt is made to duplicate Queen’s sound because all of the songs are expertly lip synched.  The good news is that we hear Queen unvarnished.

Rami Malek is mesmerizing as Mercury, the mercurial outsider whose sexual proclivities and onstage presence often overshadowed his musical genius.  By no means was Mercury the only talent in Queen.  Brian May (Gwilym Lee) and Roger Taylor (Ben Hardy) were both outstanding musicians (they were among the producers of the film).  More importantly, they were committed to breaking musical barriers and experiment with different musical genres.  Malek, with a little help from prosthetics, embodies Mercury.  Loving, obsessive, excessive, effeminate, theatrical and reckless, Malek’s Mercury dominates every scene.

Director Bryan Singer, who is drawing headlines for two decades of sexual misconduct rather than this excellent film, explores Mercury’s relationship with his parents, his bandmates, his soulmate (played exquisitely by Lucy Boynton), and various partners.  He gives us glimpses into the origin of such classics as We Are The Champions, Another One Bites The Dust, Somebody to Love, Love of My Life, We Will Rock You and, of course, Bohemian Rhapsody.  As with many of my favorite films, this one is a flashback.  We start and end at the famous Live Aid concert for Africa in 1985 at which Queen performed.

I wish I had seen this movie before now.  It truly belongs in the discussion of Best Picture.  It is easily one of the best films of the year.  Malek’s performance makes him the frontrunner for best lead actor.  The fact that he doesn’t sing as Mercury may hurt his chances but probably not.  As good as Bradley Cooper is (and it’s a very impressive performance); as great as Christian Bale captures Dick Cheney (it is uncanny in both mannerism and voice); Malek is incredible.  Having won an Emmy for Mr. Robot, Malek doesn’t fit any acting stereotype.  His casting here is inspired.  His performance is transformative.

If you love the music of Queen, do see this film.  If you don’t, see this film.  It deserved the Golden Globe Awards it won.

Roma (Yalitza Aparicio, Marina de Tavira) — Alfonso Cuaron is one of the most highly acclaimed international directors and writers, having won Best Director for Gravity and having been nominated for Academy Awards in the writing and adapted screenplay categories for that film and Y tu mama Tambien.  The first Mexican and Hispanic-winning director in Oscar history, he weaves a slow-moving tapestry about a maid and the upper middle-class family she serves in the Roma section of Mexico City circa 1970.

Essentially, we spend a year with Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio), a shy, efficient domestic who is beloved by the family’s children.  She, her sister and mother have served the family for years with all of the good and bad such familiarity breeds.  The husband/father, a physician, is rarely around, and we subsequently find out he is about to leave permanently.  The mother, Sofia (Marina de Tavira), one of the worst drivers in history, is loving but distraught about her husband’s departure.  She treats Cleo alternately as a daughter and a servant, often depending on her mood.

As we follow Cleo, we see the bustling, less affluent part of Mexico City.  We learn she has a boyfriend who is obsessed with martial arts as evidenced by a scene where he demonstrates his training skills with a curtain rod while standing completely nude in front of Cleo in an almost primal mating ritual (it was this scene that gave the film its R rating).

When Cleo realizes that she is pregnant, the movie’s pace moves from glacial to meandering.  Fearing she will be fired, Cleo tells Sofia in a really touching scene where Sofia becomes maternal toward her young servant.  Cleo heads out to find the father, which turns out to be a bad idea.  Sophia finally tells the kids about their father’s mysterious absence.  And at the denouement, Cleo is rushed to the hospital when her water breaks prematurely.

What makes Roma stand out among all the foreign language films produced in 2018 are the things most moviegoers ignore: photography, sound and art direction.  Shot all in black-and-white, the camera techniques strike me as very special.  The sounds are very natural, thus very un-movie-like.  From the opening sequence of a tile floor with occasional water splashing to the closing credits with natural sounds as we stare at the sky, the film strikes me less as a great cinematic achievement than a well-made, human story.  Gaining 10 Oscar nominations, including all of those technical categories as well as  acting nominations for both women, for director, writing and best picture, Roma is not particularly special.  Also nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, it ought to win that category but be an also-ran for Best Picture.  It is presented in Spanish with English subtitles.

Finally, please note that Roma is a Netflix production so you won’t find it in theaters.  Like Mudbound last year, Roma establishes a new tradition of non-traditional films making it into Oscar consideration despite only being available for home viewing.  This also raises a question I posed earlier this year about what makes a movie a movie.  Apparently, it isn’t that you have to go to a theater to see it any longer.