Marriage Story – Review

My final pre-Oscars cramming post this year focuses on Marriage Story, the Noah Baumbach opus on divorce that hit Netflix back in November around the same time as The Irishman.  It’s much leaner than Scorsese‘s marathon labor of love (which I talked about last week here), and overall feels a lot less joyless in spite of what’s obviously very heavy subject matter, but it has garnered a similar amount of critical acclaim, both from the reviewing public at large and the Academy – the latter coming in the form of nominations for Best Picture, Best Actor (Adam Driver), Best Actress (Scarlett Johansson), Best Supporting Actress (Laura Dern), Best Original Screenplay (Baumbach), and Best Score (Randy Newman).  As always, I’m going to talk about my experience with it from its beginning (which I think is one of the best movie openings ever, rivaling the classic and somewhat similarly-themed Married Life montage in Up) to its bittersweet end, but for the time being suffice it to say it’s one of the better Best Picture noms I’ve seen in the past year.

One of the clips from the opening montage – I tried to find a picture of the clip of Adam Driver playing Monopoly, which honestly might be the best moment in the whole movie, but I couldn’t.

Much like Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood, and much like plenty of other movies that have carved out swaths of awards-night territory in the past, Marriage Story is an actor’s movie – this of course shows up in the talent that it attracted for its production in the ultra-bankable stars of Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson, and that in turn shows up in its nominations.  It’s chock full of emotional monologue opportunity, with each member of the principle cast getting his or her chance to shine, and reportedly its production itself – namely in major character background – was influenced heavily by the cast as well.  There isn’t a whole lot of crafty camera work going on, and this is just fine, because for the most part Marriage Story would do very well – maybe even better – as a play.  This shows up in the blocking, with numerous instances of characters walking from room to room mid-dialogue in critical scenes, including but not limited to the apartment fight scene that everyone is hearing about, which was actually done over 50 times in order to get it right.  It’s a movie not just for appreciators of dramatic tour de force, but also for Hollywoodites, with its major characters being in some way associated with show business, and this is doubtless a factor in a lot of the acclaim (or potential acclaim, I guess) it has received from the Academy.

This had to be a scary moment for Scarlett on set – she would have ruined his hair for Star Wars if her hand slipped.

As for those characters themselves, we of course have Adam Driver’s Charlie, a theater director originally from Indiana who’s “more New Yorker than New Yorkers” according to his soon-to-be ex-wife (“what’s the fiancee version of divorce?” she asks at one point), Scarlett Johansson’s Nicole.  Nicole is herself a gifted actress, who in spite of achieving her own success in the Big Apple is feeling the pull back to LA and work in television.  Stuck in the middle, as is sadly often the case, is their 8-year-old son Henry, played by Azhy Robertson, and as I’m sure you can imagine a lot of the drama is centered around what will ultimately happen with him and where he’ll wind up living.  Driver and Johansson are both brilliant here, with nominations well-deserved; in particular, I’m sad for Driver, as he’ll likely lose to Joaquin Phoenix (not saying he shouldn’t) in spite of the fact that this is probably some of his best work to date.  Of course, no divorce movie worth its salt would be complete without a cast of sleazy lawyers, and in this case they’re played by Laura Dern (nominated for Best Supporting Actress, though that’s one that I’m not 100% sure I understand), Chantix frontman and sleazeball incarnate Ray Liotta, and Alan Alda.

Laura Dern’s getting all the love, but don’t sleep on my guy Alan Alda, who at one point starts telling a joke that’s so long that he doesn’t even finish it.

This cast effectively brings to life a script that’s teeming with realism.  It’s a screenplay of course highlighting the painful and drawn-out nature of a real-life divorce, constantly being punctuated by conversations in courtrooms or conference rooms with people you don’t know that act like they do.  Each character, no matter how minor, is multi-layered, seemingly good-natured in one scene and irredeemable in the next, and this writing, in combination with the incredible acting, will find you swapping your own allegiances as a viewer as the film goes on, and in my case (assumedly a common one) leaving room for ambiguity by the fade out.  The dialogue is Sorkinian at times but mostly just feels overwhelmingly authentic, and that – in conjunction with the undercurrent of insistence that there has to be a better (less selfish? more representative?) way to work out the separation between two people who in many cases still love each other – is what makes the basis of the movie (Baumbach’s own separation from Jennifer Jason Leigh in 2010) so apparently visible.  Tying a bow on all of it, too, is a score from Randy Newman that sounds a lot like his most famous work (is this the beginning of the Randy Newman “Story” Cinematic Universe?”) – between he and his cousin Thomas, who is nominated for his work on 1917, there’s a high likelihood that this year’s statuette in that category will have the Newman name affixed to it.

No joky caption here, just intense stuff.

As I said at the top, the main thing Marriage Story has going for it relative to all of the Best Picture nominees that I’ve seen not named Parasite (and what I expect to be true of the ones I haven’t seen as well) is that it isn’t joyless. One commonality that Baumbach’s story shares with the other nominees is that it contains no single character that you’re able to completely like and/or pull for, and of course its plot is basically a heartbreaking Shiatsu massage without the benefit of feeling any better afterwards, but somehow along the way the writing and the final product finds a way to exude some very not-too-depressing charm, and I’m not just talking about that Adam Driver Company scene.  This hindsight perspective may in some part be a result of the fact that the movie is bookended excellently with the only narrative positivity that really exists in the script, but maybe that’s by design, or even in keeping with the movie’s message.  Either way, it probably deserves better than its box office take, and it’s worth watching on Netflix if you have the time, before or after its name is read on the 9th.

BlacKkKlansman – Review

As the summer movie season begins drawing to a close, let’s take a closer look at one of August’s buzzier but perhaps not as commercialized films – Spike Lee‘s BlacKkKlansman.

Power to all the people.

On paper, BlacKkKlansman is a period piece, and a great one at that, especially considering the fact that – like any great entry in the genre – it’s hard to believe that the events that it depicts really happened.  With that said, director Spike Lee tells us right at the top of the film that its plot is based in full on “some fo’ real, fo’ real shit,” so we’re immediately inclined to trust what we’re seeing.  Past that, BlacKkKlansman is also like a number of other recent period pieces in that it thrives on rigorous attention to detail, as evidenced by the stellar soundtrack, costume design, and overall sky-high production value.  In that same vein, it’s hard to watch the finished product and not suspect that it’s due a lot of consideration come awards season, and its currently sterling critical response does well in affirming that suspicion, with a number of cinema pundits heralding it as a long-awaited return to form for Spike Lee.

Towards the end, but definitely one of the cooler scenes camerawork-wise.

I had only ever seen one other Spike Lee joint before watching BlacKkKlansman – Malcolm X, which is perhaps his most famous and most lauded film – so in a sense I knew what I was in for in that Lee, even disregarding his willingness to challenge difficult themes surrounding racial and social inequality, is a visionary director in the visual sense.  Combining the preponderance of shots that have his stylistically distinct fingerprints all over them with the immense power of the subject matter at hand makes for viewing that is rarely pleasant but never unimportant.  In a lot of ways, BlacKkKlansman frames itself as a movie that should be required viewing for all who live in modern America, and after watching it I’m inclined to subscribe to that opinion myself.  It’s consistently jarring, especially in its effective and deeply unsettling use of archive footage (Birth of a Nation is featured, as is Gone with the Wind, and – fair warning – a lot of more recent and therefore even more upsetting footage from last year’s Charlottesville rally), and the ending places the collective finger of the audience on the pulse of today’s country, profoundly noting that the beat that’s felt is strikingly similar to that of the 1979 civil rights era pulse that BlacKkKlansman‘s events are driven by.

“America first.”

Indeed, quite a few of the expected moments in BlacKkKlansman documenting racism – especially in the context of law enforcement – are very purposefully on the nose.  There’s a confrontation between a group of Black Power activists and Colorado Springs law enforcement that reverberates quite clearly given today’s Black Lives Matter movement.  A number of the scenes featuring the KKK – the induction ceremony in particular – feature lines like “America first” that sound awfully familiar, and for good reason.  There’s even a conversation between the film’s protagonist and one of his law-enforcement co-workers about the possibility of a Ku Klux Klan higher-up – a flagrant and well-documented racist by all accounts – eventually becoming president.  These bread crumbs, dropped at a fairly constant rate throughout BlacKkKlansman‘s 135 minutes, serve to build to the film’s gut-wrenching current-day finale.  It becomes clear at this point that the choice to release the film theatrically on the one-year anniversary of the Unite the Right rally was made quite purposefully.

Check out Steve Buscemi’s brother Michael in the background.

The cast, with one exception, ranges from good to phenomenal.  Of particular note are John David Washington (Ballers) in the lead role of (the real) Ron Stallworth, Topher Grace (That 70’s Show, Spider-Man 3) as former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke, and Finnish actor Jasper Pääkkönen as Felix, one of the Colorado Springs chapter of the KKK’s most radical extremists and in essence the film’s primary antagonist.  While those are the performances that stand out, they’re also supported by a solid, if slightly forgettable, performance from the likes of Adam Driver (Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Paterson), playing Stallworth’s undercover partner Flip Zimmerman (who poses as the white version of Stallworth himself).  The only negative opinions I have regarding the cast all fall on Laura Harrier (Spider-Man: Homecoming) in the pivotal role of Patrice Dumas, a student activist and Stallworth’s love interest – frankly, while her performance had its moments, it also came across as extremely wooden in certain pivotal moments that would be somewhat spoilerific to describe any further.

Lots of cavalier gun-pointing – specifically at Adam Driver’s potentially circumcised crotch – in this scene.

While it’s all based on true events, there are scenes from BlacKkKlansman that naturally must be fictionalized, and a fair number of those scenes still manage to excellently and expertly evoke emotion where it’s due.  In particular, the basement interrogation scene between a pistol-wielding and seemingly always fuming Felix and Flip – at that point undercover as Ron Stallworth – is a textbook exercise in suspense-building by Lee and company, with the tension finally being broken by an incident that deftly allows Zimmerman to further embrace his cover more purposefully.  Completely different tonally but equally evocative is the bar/dancing scene featuring Stallworth (at the time undercover) and Patrice, which does well in putting the cultural milieu of the era depicted front and center and letting it do the talking, all the while maintaining strong visuals.  There are even a fair number of laughs sprinkled in – no doubt a challenging feat to accomplish considering what BlacKkKlansman spends most of its time dealing with.

Fun fact – John David Washington is Denzel Washington’s son.

All in all, while you’re likely to squirm and/or grimace a few times while watching it, BlacKkKlansman is well-worth the price of admission, and the parallels that Spike Lee draws between the film and present society – while inherently hard to stomach – are well-worth observing.

Review: Logan Lucky

Steven Soderbergh is back in the director’s chair.

After a years-long hiatus, Soderbergh is back with a new cast and a new self-funded distribution company to add another heist-driven entry to his list of works.  Logan Lucky, which premiered on August 18th, is an action-comedy billed as a way to “see how the other half steals,” as the tagline suggests, starring Channing Tatum and Adam Driver in lead roles as down-on-their-luck brothers from West Virginia who plot to steal millions from Charlotte Motor Speedway during a NASCAR event.

Unsurprisingly, and given the film’s premise, a number of parallels can be drawn to the Ocean’s trilogy within Logan Lucky – some of these parallels are as overt as the so-called “Hillbilly Heist” also at times being referred to as “Ocean’s 7-11,” whereas others (elements of the heist itself, which I’ll refrain from divulging here) aren’t as easily seen by the average moviegoer.  David Holmes, who crafted the distinctive drum-driven soundtracks for Ocean’s 11, 12, and 13, returns to collaborate with Soderbergh once again, developing musical themes for a similar subject matter but adapting well to the stark change in setting and overall ambiance.  In a sense, Soderbergh and Co. are following an already proven formula, but are doing so in a new skin, with fresh faces and a lower budget.  Simply put, while it could be seen as unoriginal, it’s undeniable that it still works.

Jimmy Logan buys all of his heist hardware from Lowe’s.  Stellar product placement.

Channing Tatum, Soderbergh’s proven leading man of Magic Mike fame, plays the central role of Jimmy Logan, a former college football star turned construction worker with a nagging knee injury that gets him laid off in the film’s early action.  Where Tatum finds the role’s meat is in his relationship with his daughter, a pageant-bound blonde with a rich new family but a strongly maintained bond with her father.  Jimmy Logan’s connection with his daughter seemingly accounts for his motivation to plan the heist that forms most of the film’s action, and it manages to create a suitable amount of drama for the movie it’s in.  Another source of drama and story depth: Jimmy’s relationship with his brother Clyde, which seems rich with a history of past brushes with the law, among other (here untold) conflicts.

In terms of comedy, Adam Driver’s character and performance without a doubt carry the most weight, which may seem surprising given the character’s background – Clyde Logan is an Iraq war veteran and bartender who wears a prosthetic arm and (surprisingly) bears the brunt of very few amputee-related jokes throughout the course of the film.  Another bright spot in the cast is the performance of Daniel Craig, who portrays the incarcerated demolitions expert, aptly named Joe Bang, who is in fact sprung from a correctional facility with a serious riot problem to perform the primary heist.  A spot-on Southern accent, a thick layer of superficial hillbilly charm placed atop a tattoo-addled convict’s frame, and an excellent demonstration of situational comedy and, believe it or not, chemistry (not acting chemistry, mind you – I’m talking about the chemistry that involves atoms) at the mid-heist point form the highlights of his turn in the movie.  Similarly enjoyable are Joe Bang’s two brothers, Sam and Fish (yes, Fish) Bang, played by Brian Gleeson and Jack Quaid respectively, who sign on for minor roles in the heist due to what they perceive as “moral wrongdoing” on the part of the Speedway.

Daniel Craig is excellent in his supporting role as Joe Bang, here doing a very Bond-esque pose.

The low point in terms of both cast and plot has to be Seth MacFarlane, who has something like ten minutes of screen time out of the two-hour runtime but still manages to stick out like a sore thumb, mostly by delivering a truly subpar English accent as a part of his energy-drink mogul character.  While I’m sure MacFarlane’s character was written to be annoying to the average audience, he (or Soderbergh) may have missed the mark by going too far.  Poor accent and acting aside, his character typically serves as a distraction with no real bearing on the plot, other than to arguably drive the Logans to initially plan the heist by instigating an ill-advised barfight.  He later reappears to offer a brief but uninspired apprehension scare to the audience in the film’s denouement, which is largely written off almost immediately.

I’d argue that his talents, along with those of Sebastian Stan (who has maybe 5 lines throughout the movie, with even less screen time than MacFarlane) and Katie Holmes, are misused in Logan Lucky, but this could simply be a byproduct of all of the more heavily featured acting talent that surrounds them.  The misuse of talent narrative is also somewhat put to bed by the work of Hilary Swank, who has an equally small role as a lead FBI investigator, not appearing until very late in the movie but still managing to drive the narrative effectively and with solid acting to boot.  While once again not going into specifics, the final scene suggests that she’ll play a larger part should a franchise and/or sequel develop.

That pile of money they’re laying in is the amount this movie should be making.

All members of the cast come together to bring to life a script that’s filled with a surprising amount of solid laughs, along with the caper-driven horseplay that all Ocean’s lovers paid to see.  Logan Lucky doesn’t really attempt to do anything impressive visually, but for the most part this is because it doesn’t need to.  With a smart plot, solid acting from its central characters, a number of good jokes, and the requisite amount of Southern country authenticity, this movie provides everything that it has to.  All told, Logan Lucky is an excellent late-summer pick that lacks a blockbuster budget but has the star-studded cast and overall production value to be considered a hit worthy of a sequel.  It’s definitely a shame that this movie hasn’t been marketed more aggressively, as it’s truly a gem that’s far more worthy of your attention than its box-office earnings would suggest.