THE LAST THING HE WANTED (2020)

Rated:  R

STARS: Anne Hathaway, Ben Affleck, Willem Dafoe, Rosie Perez
DIRECTOR: Dee Rees
GENRE: Drama/Political Thriller


We open in 1982, and Elena McMahon (Anne Hathaway), a reporter for the Atlantic Post, and her colleague Alma (Rosie Perez) are in El Salvador during that country's civil war--doing what journalists often do. Poking their noses into dangerous situations for the sake of getting a story,

Later, McMahon gets reassigned to cover Ronald Reagan's 1984 reelection bid (funny...it's still 1984) and she's not happy. She cuts out on the campaign to be with her ailing and addled father, Dick (Willem Dafoe). Dick McMahon is involved in some illegal arms dealings to Central America, and he's on the hook for a half million bucks. He needs to get a load of weapons shipped down there and collect his payment. But he can't handle it himself. So he asks his daughter to fly down and facilitate the operation. By doing so, she's placing herself in a highly volatile and unpredictable situation. 

At what point would a normal person say, "No dad...that's crazy!" Apply a little tough love. But she agrees to do it, because as it eventually hit me...she's an adrenaline freak! (Despite the appearance that she's just a dedicated journalist ready to go where the action is.) Adrenalin junkies always need more, until one day...poof!--they've checked out of this world way too early.  

A little history refresher might be in order. In 1979, the left-wing Sandinistas overthrew the dictator in Nicaragua. Ronald Reagan was afraid it might trigger revolution throughout the region, and threaten U.S. security. The U.S. secretly funded the right-wing contras, who were fighting to overthrow the Sandinistas, even though such activity had been outlawed by congress. Much of the funding had come from Nicaragua's cocaine trade. Reagan continued to support the contras on the sly, and the resulting scandal threatened to take down his presidency. 

It is against this backdrop that the delusional Elena thinks she'll just go down there and complete her father's transaction, like an everyday trip to the bank.

Elena has pieced things together, and she wants to blow the lid off the whole she-bang. Ben Affleck is a high ranking government official who's trying to keep her from learning too much, which necessitates getting her into bed to gain her trust. (She's so sympatico!) She'll try to pump him for whatever information she can get. As she says, "I came for the money, I stay for the scoop."

The Last Thing He Wanted, adapted from Joan Didion's last novel, seems torn between wanting to be a personal or a political story. The political is settled history. We've been there, done that. It should provide a context to move Elena's story along, but not be constantly distracting us from it. We want to develop some empathy with Elena, but it's difficult when there are so many shadowy players to  keep track of. Whose side are each of them on? It keeps you guessing for sure, but it's like a crossword puzzle you will never finish because you've only figured out some of the answers.

The movie's strong points are its cinematography; its authentic sense of time and place; and the ratcheting up of tension with escalating dramatic music. And the heavyweights who play the heavies. Hathaway is in constant woman-running-from-bad-shit mode, but she looks good all sweaty and stuff. And a more mature Rosie Perez sans makeup is quite appealing as well. 

There's a twisty and twisted surprise ending. But how kind can you be to a film that will do any appalling thing for shock value? (When the dog appears, look away.)  

From Netflix studios.

Grade:  C

JILL'S TAKE

Thank god for Tim! Reading his review explained what this blankety-blank-blank movie was all about. I didn't have a clue. I kept muttering to my cat, "Is Ben Affleck a bad guy or a good guy? Is Willem DaFoe's character dead now or still alive? Did that actor who played the gay bon vivant also play Truman Capote?"(Toby Jones) But the question I kept on repeating to my furry friend was "When will this turkey ever end???!!

I've often wondered whether Netflix accepts films that the producers know will bomb in regular movie theaters. It would appear so if The Last Thing He Wanted is any example. Speaking of which, who is the "he" in that mysterious title? (Maybe it was a typo and they meant to call it The Last Thing She Wanted?)

If you have a secret desire to see Ann Hathaway's breast – at least one of them—then turn on this baffling and battle-weary film. My advice? Read the book instead. (Joan Didion had to have done a better job with the story-telling than African American female director Dee Rees.)

Grade: F

THE WAY BACK (2020)

Rated: R

STARS: Ben Affleck, Al Madrigal, Janina Gavankar, John Aylward
DIRECTOR:  Gavin O'Connor
GENRE: Drama

First off, I should tell you that the trailers for The Way Back are misleading. They make you think it's a story about personal redemption and triumph over adversity and addiction, against the backdrop of a young sports team on the rise. Former star basketball player, Jack Cunningham (Ben Affleck), takes over the coaching duties for the current sad sack team at his Catholic high school alma mater, and turns the team into a winner. In the process, he supposedly beats his own demons. There's no suspense about where the team aspect of the movie is headed, because this is an obvious "feelgood" flick. Or so you would think.

But the personal redemption aspect of it is long in coming and short on realization. In between there is basketball. And more basketball. This is basketball movie. So if you're not a fan, there really isn't going to be much here for you.

Jack has been separated from his wife (Janina Gavankar ) for about a year. We learn that the couple has suffered a tremendous personal loss, and their mutual grief has driven them apart. So Jack drinks. And drinks. If you don't like ubiquitous scenes of a guy chugging down the beers and swilling vodka straight from the bottle, there isn't going to be much here for you.

When the headmaster of his high school alma mater (John Aylward) asks Jack to take over the coaching duties for their currently crappy basketball team, he is reluctant at first. But he takes the job. His coaching style is to pull no punches with his kids-a collection of mostly goof-off stereotypes of young jocks--and to show them exactly where their weaknesses are. This is done through a lot of cussing.The F-bombs fly fast and furious, like balls bombarding the basket during practice. If you're not a fan of the F-word and similar colorful language...uh...there isn't going to be much here for you.

Jack meets with his estranged wife a couple times, and she tells him she has a boyfriend. This stings, because he clearly regrets their breakup. I could see a  a lot of potential to develop the story of their relationship beyond surface level, but it doesn't happen. It feels like maybe this was going to be a longer movie originally, but most of the substance got cut to make way for...more dramatic scenes of basketball!--and Jack's boys turning their fortunes around. Because the team loves being coached by a raging alcoholic who cusses like an entire ship of sailors! And the film accepts as benign the main thing that is wrong with sports on any level today: the obsession with winning at all costs. 

Damn, there must be something that this reviewer liked about the film, right? I liked the foul language. (No harm, no foul!) There's something perversely ironic--and funny--about a coach at a Catholic high school letting the F-bombs fly, causing the administrative figures at the school to cringe. In fact, it's played for laughs. But if that's not your sense of humor, there isn't going to be... 

Grade:  C-

JILL'S TAKE

Fuck it! That's what I have to say about this movie. My main reason for pushing Tim to see The Way Back was to find out if (often wooden) Ben Affleck would do a more convincing acting job portraying an alcoholic—since he is one. He did lie convincingly. And he was convincingly self-centered like alkies tend to be. But his acting was basically wooden.

This was one helluva schizophrenic film. If I had to pitch the idea to a production company, I'd say it's "Lost Weekend meets Hoosiers." Or "Leaving Las Vegas meets White Men Can't Jump." (I would sincerely hope they'd turn me down.

There were so many things that bugged me about this movie but I'll only focus on two. First, we see a seriously addicted alcoholic going to the same bar every night and passing out. Drinking while driving. Drinking at work. Even drinking in the shower. But once he gets involved with coaching, he suddenly decides not to frequent this same bar anymore. Like sobriety is a snap decision? (Tell that to anybody who attends AA meetings.)

The second thing that pissed me off was all the people who didn't need to be in this story. I didn't know who half of them were. Nor did I care. But if you want to see a chunky Ben Affleck--let's hope some of that was padding--go see The Way Back. Otherwise, stay home.

Grade: D

ARGO (2012)

Rated: R

Stars: Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, John Goodman, Alan Arkin
Director: Ben Affleck
Genre: Suspense/Thriller

Argo is a real film and a fake film. The fake film is what the real film is about. Ben Affleck does a masterful job of directing the real film, including himself in the pivotal role. (It must have been weird to see him do his split-second switch from actor to director, yelling "CUT" right after delivering his own lines.)  

The fake film Argo is a cover story to spirit six American diplomats out of Iran during the infamous hostage crisis that began in late 1979 and continued on into 1981. Having overthrown the corrupt Shah,  Islamic militants are hungry to have his head on a platter, but he has been given asylum in the U.S. The American embassy has been stormed and fifty-two Americans have been taken  hostage.  But six others have managed to evade capture and are given shelter in the home of the Canadian ambassador. However,  it's only a matter of time before they are sniffed out and meet a truly unpleasant fate.

Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) is a CIA guy who heads to Iran with the hair-brained scheme (but the best one they have) of turning the six fugitives into Canadian crew members of  the nonexistent  movie--supposedly to be filmed in Iran--to get them out of where they are holed up and on a plane to freedom.   

Affleck and company--with special kudos to the editing and music score--deftly ratchet up the tension and suspense throughout Argo, keeping us on the edge of our gooey gummy seats (don't reach underneath there) from start to finish.  

With any film that is "based upon a true story," as is this one, you can expect a certain amount of embellishment of the truth and dramatic license to be taken, and there is a goodly amount of that in Argo.  But when you look into how the real events of this joint Canadian-CIA operation unfolded, (which weren't revealed publicly until years after the fact) you will see where a little tinkering with the truth was necessary to end up with a film as compelling as Argo. 

Now, let me pander a little to the conspiracy theorist lurking somewhere in all of us. Is it just coincidence, or just COULD it be the timing of this movie's release is designed to coincide with the stirring up of anti-Iranian paranoia over that country's impending nuclear capabilities,  and with Israel ostensibly on the brink of making a preemptive strike? Ya gotta sell it to the public, ya know,  just like some people think the "unthinkable"--that 9/11 was staged to provide our government a rationale for the invasion of  Iraq. 

Well,  I'll leave that kind of speculation up to you. But as they say in the world of comedy: Timing is everything.

Grade:  A -

   

THE TOWN--2010

Rated R--primarily for language and violence

Stars: Ben Affleck, Rebecca Hall, Jeremy Renner, Jon Hamm, Blake Lively

Director: Written and directed by Ben Affleck

Genre: Action/Adventure/Thriller

Four friends who grew up in Charlestown--a Boston area neighborhood known for having the highest rate of bank and armored car stick-ups in the U.S.--resort to (what else?) robbing banks and armored cars! You can tell these guys are thugs because they speak THUG-ESE, which is basically cussing and F-bombs as every other word, spoken in that New England accent that is not your higher class accent--like the Kennedys spoke--but your lower class accent that is most notable with Ben Affleck's character, Doug MacRay, who looks and sounds a lot like Adam Sandler on Valium.

These are not sympathetic Robin Hood type characters--they have no qualms about terrorizing and beating the crap out of bank employees--but give them credit for being creative, as they make their hits wearing these Halloween masks and costumes, my favorite being the nuns with grotesque faces that you've no doubt seen in the trailer (the movie trailer--not your trailer--though you may have seen the movie trailer in your trailer) . They will keep upping the ante, successively pulling off bigger and more complicated--and dangerous-- jobs, as if they think they will never get caught. They may be creative, but they're not too bright.

Anyhoo, on this one bank heist they take attractive bank manager, Claire Keesey (the attractive Rebecca Hall) hostage, but later release her. Later on, Doug wants to follow up and see how much of a threat she might be to them, so he "accidentally" runs into her at a laundromat (an opportunity for him to launder some of his ill-gotten cash there, I mused). Claire, of course, doesn't recognize him. Doug is held captive (pardon the pun) by her charms, and even though she's been suffering traumatic stress from her ordeal, she immediately starts up a relationship with him. You'd think she'd be a little more wary of strangers at this point, so this part didn't ring true for me.

Many a man has been undone by getting distracted from his objective by a woman, and the remainder of The Town centers on the familiar plot of bad guy trying to go straight and turn his life around and build a future with the apple of his eye. But there are enormous pressures on MacRay to participate in one last job--trying to pull of a huge heist of Fenway Park during a ball game, of all the ridiculous things! (There is also enormous pressure on you--the viewer--to begin to sympathize with the character of Doug MacRay...hmmm...which way will you lean?)

Will any of these guys make a clean getaway with the entire Boston police force and the FBI closing in on them?

The shoot-'em-up, crash-'em-up escape scenes in The Town are edge-of-your-seat thrilling-- some of the best you'll ever see--and they make up, in large part, for the implausibility of the plot, as you forget about all that and just hang on for the ride!

As mastermind of The Town--and with a talented ensemble cast--writer/director/star Ben Affleck has pulled off a pretty big job here.

Grade: B