THE POST (2018)

Rated: PG-13

STARS: Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep, Bob Odenkirk
DIRECTOR: Steven Spielberg
GENRE: Docudrama

In 1971, the Nixon White House tried to quash the publication of what came to be known as the Pentagon Papers--a classified report on the Vietnam War that was leaked to the press--revealing that the public had been lied to about the war and America's prospects of winning it going back, essentially, to day one. It's no coincidence that in 2018, as history repeats and the free press has once again come under  attack from the oval office, that a blockbuster film, The Post-- drawing parallels between then and now--should come along to strike a blow for truth, justice, and the American way.

Taking up the mantle of Clark Kent back in '71 was Ben Bradlee, executive editor at the Washington Post--played here by Tom Hanks in what surely will be regarded as the role of his career. Co-starring with Hanks is Meryl Streep as Katherine Graham, the widowed inheritor of the Post, whose decision it will ultimately be to put her livelihood and even her freedom on the line if she defies a court order that halted the New York Times, which originally broke the story, from further publication of the report.

 I won't be surprised if  Hanks and Streep  both get Oscar nods. Her name is always there come Golden Globes and Oscar time, but she hasn't collected the hardware in a while, and this may be her best shot to get back in the win column. 

The Post has all the earmarks of a Steven Spielberg film--it's high drama drenched in the authenticity of the era, and it's playing to sold out performances. Not so good for claustrophobics like me, but I managed to keep some space between myself and the guy a couple of seats down who had his feet propped up, shoes kicked off (it's these new comfy adjustable seats the theaters are installing now) and halfway through the movie I heard snoring. I expect to see filmgoers showing up in their pajamas soon. 

The Post, however, should keep most viewers wide awake and glued to their seats--it's riveting stuff that also serves as a much needed reminder, in these precarious times, of why freedom of speech and a free press appear at the very top of the Bill Of Rights. 

Grade:  A    

JILL'S TAKE

While we're on the subject of lean-back movie seats, I want to kvetch about the overwhelming smell of french fries and the loud chewers sitting next to me.... I realize that movie theaters are bending over backwards to woo customers—although the first time I tried to see The Post it was sold out—but how I long for the good old days when movie theaters were for watching movies!

I pretty much agree with everything Tim says about this film. The attention to detail that Spielberg is so famous for was outstanding. It made me miss phones you could dial, typeset, the whir of printing presses, etc. And I especially loved the authentic outfits, i.e. Hank's striped shirts, Streep's conservative dresses.  High marks go to costume designer Ann Roth, a veteran of Broadway, whose movie credits include other Tom Hanks/Meryl Streep films such as The Bonfire of the Vanities and Postcards From The Edge.

Not only will the leads in this film garner nods from The Academy on Sunday, March 4^th. I'll go out on a limb here and say Hanks will win his third Best Actor Oscar. I might also predict a Best Supporting Actor nomination for Bob Odenkirk, who plays Ben Bagdikian, Bradley's right-hand man at The Post. Odenkirk ("Better Call Saul") is one of my favorites.

I might have cut a bit more of The Post(especially the bedroom scene with Streep and her daughter), as I felt it dragged in spots. And I definitely felt Sarah Paulson's acting talent was wasted as Ben Bradley's dutiful wife. But the audience clapped at the end and people are packing the theaters in southern California. So it's definitely worth seeing. And if you want to be sure of getting a seat? Order one online!

Grade: B +

CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (2013)

Rated: PG-13

Stars: Tom Hanks,  Barkhad Abdi
Director:  Paul Greengrass
Genre:  Action / Thriller

Tom Hanks gets upstaged by a young Somalian immigrant with no prior acting experience. Fancy that. Which is not to say that Hanks doesn't do a hell of a job as the skipper of the  Maersk Alabama in Captain Phillips, based on the true story of the U.S. cargo ship hijacked by Somalian pirates in an international incident that made headlines in 2009. It's just that Muse (Barkhad  Abdi)  is so authentically lean, hungry, and monomaniacal as the leader of the four young psychopaths who commandeer the ship, hoping to garner a big ransom payout.  While it's hard to fathom that this is Abdi's  acting debut, I find it less difficult to speculate that he may have some actual pirating experience on his resume! (A prerequisite for getting the part?) 

Captain Phillips is a full-speed-ahead action tour-de-force.  It never pauses to wax philosophical, or poke around much inside the characters' heads--except for a brief moment  near the tension-filled climax when Phillips looks at Muse and tells him there must be something else he could do with his life. 

Teenagers.

It's a gritty and grueling turn for Hanks who, as Captain Richard Phillips,  must try to outwit capricious desperadoes with automatic weapons trained on him as best he can. For the most part, he is up to the challenge. The only stumble is that the Irish accent he is affecting gets totally submerged when he has to shout. The louder he shouts, the more the old familiar Tom Hanks voice that we know and love returns. Not a biggie. You may not even notice it.  But I notice stuff. That's why they pay me the big bucks.  

Going in, I vaguely remembered this incident from four years ago, (a long time for me to try to remember anything) and I didn't recall how it all played out in the end, which I'm certain made this viewing experience more thrilling for me because, as I have stated before, I AM BORED BY HISTORICAL DOCUDRAMAS WHERE I ALREADY KNOW WHAT HAPPENED!!! So I would say that if the Maersk Alabama incident is fuzzy in your head as well, you should enjoy Captain Phillips tremendously!

Grade:  A

JILL'S TAKE

If I had to devise an acronymic blurb for CAPTAIN PHILLIPS, it would read: Terrifyingly Exciting Nautical Saga Enthralls! Yes, this film is definitely T-E-N-S-E. I went to see it with two gents who are known to fall asleep during movies, a crime punishable by death in my view. But they didn't snooze in this one. They were both glued to the edge of their seats, eyes wide open, for the entire two hours and thirteen minutes. Tim has already filled you in on the nonfiction plot and the incredible acting job of the lead pirate Barkhad Abdi. As far as memorable villains go, Abdi is right up there with Anthony Hopkins in "Silence Of The Lambs" and Javier Bardem in "No Country For Old Men." His incredible skinniness makes you believe he's the real deal. (I agree with Tim—it's hard to believe this guy hasn't has some actual ship-robbing experience.)

Other reasons that make this film relentlessly tense are Henry Jackman's pounding score and Paul Greengrass' direction, demanding that these richly dark pirates never let up on their hysteria. Of course movies that use any type of closed-in location (ocean liners, submarines, airplanes) have a definite scare-factor advantage. I like to call them "no way out" flicks. And CAPTAIN PHILLIPS in no exception. 

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Tom Hanks. His controlled strength under duress eventually crumbles and that's when we really get to witness the range of his acting chops. If you're a nail-biter, I'd wear gloves to this one!

GRADE: A

CLOUD ATLAS (2012)

Rated: R

Stars: Tom Hanks,  Halle Berry,  Jim Broadbent,  Doona Bae,  Ben Whishaw, Keith David,  Susan Sarandon, Hugh Grant
Directors: Tom Tykwer, Lana Wachowski, Andy Wachowski
Genre: Drama / Sci-fi / Action-Adventure

The premise of Cloud Atlas--a sweeping, sprawling, romantic, ambitious, tour-de-force of a saga--is that souls are connected throughout their various physical incarnations by their deeds and misdeeds of the past, present and future.

That's what they call KARMA around these here parts, mister...poke a mule in the butt and you're likely to git a big kick out of it. (And that's called INSTANT karma!)

The film takes the scenic route (a bit under three hours) in illustrating the point, which is no big "aha" moment for anyone with a spiritual bent toward the east, but it might give Joe and Jane Sixpack some food for thought--if you could somehow kidnap them and pull them kicking and screaming out of the latest vampire movie,  and promise that you will remove the duct tape from their mouths if they will only give a thoughtful film a chance.

There are six story lines featuring the same actors in multiple roles as different versions of themselves during various eras of history. The makeup artists had a field day, as some of the actors are unrecognizable as themselves unless you squint and look real close. I kept saying THIS guy looks so familiar...in a way...OMG--IT'S HUGH GRANT! 

Tom Hanks and Halle Berry's characters, for example,  interweave and get to hang out with each other wearing the "masks" of each incarnation as another personality.  He plays a gangster, a primitive tribesman, and a doctor--among others; she is a 20th-century journalist, a Jewish-German woman, and a plantation slave.   

I'm only going to touch the surface here...ain't going to describe each story line...it's better if you just wade into it,  like I did,  and be swept away on the tide of some brilliant film making from the team that brought you The Matrix. It's great excitement and fun, if you don't try to over think it and keep track of everything that is going on without getting overwhelmed--which you will be at times--and that's why a second and maybe even a third viewing of Cloud Atlas would undoubtedly reveal more nuance and meaning, if you want to take it that far. 

Another theme of the movie pops up in the Darwinian mantra: The weak are meat and the strong shall eat. I guess this was a way of preparing us for some of the graphic violence that appears at certain junctures in Cloud Atlas--which was the only thing in the film that I began to question after a while. Just be forewarned that there is more blood spilled here than in your average slasher movie, though it never feels like it is there simply for its own sake. 

What impressed me the most about Cloud Atlas was the feeling I got that everyone involved in this monumental  endeavor--which, surprisingly, only took about a year to complete from the beginning of filming--was dedicated to the vision of making something truly noteworthy out of  David Mitchell's ponderous 2004 novel. 

On that level, they succeeded.

Grade: A -

EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE (2011)

Rated:  PG-13


Stars: Thomas Horn,  Tom Hanks,  Sandra Bullock,  Max von Sydow
Director: Stephen Daldry
Genre: Melodrama




Maybe I've been watching too many art house and independent films lately, because as Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close began to unfold, I felt there was real potential there.... BUT... then that aura of SLICK HOLLYWOOD PRODUCTION just started dripping from every pore of it, and I knew  what I was in for. How to describe...well...blatant manipulation of your emotions at every turn, where the poignancy of it seems manufactured, rather than stemming naturally from the story.  Let's see, what would a character naturally say and do here?  Hmm...forget that...gotta be something really gooey to get those tears gushing. 


Oskar (Thomas Horn) is a precocious, but socially inept 11 year-old whose dad, Thomas Schell, (Tom Hanks) perished in the World Trade Center on 9/11. By all accounts, he was a good dad. He invented scavenger hunt games and made up stories to stimulate his son's imagination and get him to interact with other people. There's the fanciful story of New York's "lost sixth borough," for example. (Which kinda took me in, even.)  


On the day of the tragedy, Oskar stands frozen and listens to the increasingly frantic phone calls on the answering machine from his father. He decides to conceal the recordings from his mother (Sandra Bullock). A year later, the boy is still consumed by his loss. In his dad's closet, he finds a key in a vase with the word "Black" written on the envelope. Oskar surmises that the key must have been left for him to find, and that it must fit the lock of some box that contains undiscovered messages from his father, in the event of his early demise. And that Black must be the surname of the person who holds the key (no pun intended) to this mystery.  So he compiles a list of everyone in the five boroughs named Black (and there's a crapload of them) and sets off on an odyssey to visit each one of them until the mystery is solved.


Again, there were some things here that drew me in...the disparate people that he meets...their own stories of personal loss, or just the touching ways in which they send him off with love and godspeed. Unfortunately, and I don't know if this was intended, or it's just the way the inexperienced young actor comes off, (they found him from an appearance on Jeopardy) Oskar is extremely obnoxious and incredibly annoying--an insufferable little brat who feels entitled to make all the world feel guilty about HIS  pain, and HIS loss, because no one else has ever experienced such things, you see. He continually spouts off from recall a bunch of amazing facts and figures in a monotone staccato voice, like some kind of idiot-savant, to illustrate his points and show us how bright he is for his age.That's fine as far as it goes--but in scenes that would seem to require it,  the young Mr. Horn appears unable to convey any real nuance of emotion. 


Why was he chosen for the protagonist role in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close?  Because  Haley Joel Osment and Macaulay Culkin are grown up now...what do you want from me??? (But he's got plenty of time to learn his craft,  and no doubt will improve.)


No one feels obliged to put Oskar in his place. Not even his mother, who is still dealing with her own pain, but tries to carry it with some semblance of dignity.  In what is surely the most manipulative scene in this movie, her son, with venom in his eyes, tells his mom that he wishes SHE had been in the World Trade Center that day, instead of his dad. (If you can imagine.) There is a pregnant pause--we're supposed to wait for her reply because it will surely be good--but I knew immediately what she was going to say. The one self-deprecating thing she could have said designed to wrench the maximum amount of  boo-hoo from the audience. 


The only one who tries to rein the kid in is the mysterious man who rents a room at Oskar's grandmas place, played by the great Max von Sydow. He doesn't speak. Not because he can't, but because he's suffered a trauma of his own. The renter decides to accompany the boy on his arduous odyssey through New York City. 


Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close also suffers from some totally implausible plot elements near the end. With all of its flaws, the film is still an extremely  (see how I like to play off that word?) effective tearjerker.  There was lots of sniffling going on around me in the theatre, and I know all those people didn't have colds. Me, I had a little piece of rock in my eye...or something...and kept tearing up to try to flush it out.


Bring lots of tissue.  


Grade:  B --

ANGELS and DEMONS

The Illuminati (originally called the "Bavarian Illuminati") was a secret society that first appeared in 1776. It was an aggregation of free-thinkers, at odds with the Catholic church and its dogma. They were accused of, among other things, plotting to overthrow the pope and being bent upon world domination (you couldn't fault them for setting their sights too low!) Many believe the Illuminati--in one form or another--exists today, and is the guiding hand behind numerous conspiracies.

In Angels and Demons, the screenplay adapted from Dan Brown's bestselling novel, the Illuminati has apparently resurfaced--in the wake of the current pope's death--and plans to wreak havoc in the Vatican by executing four prominent cardinals--and, for an encore, blow the whole area to kingdom come with some stolen anti-matter. (Look up how anti-matter works...I ain't explaining all that physics razmatazz here!)

Tom Hanks reprises his role (from The Da Vinci Code) as symbologist Robert Langdon, who's summoned by the Vatican to intrepret what the evil-doers next moves are in hopes of preventing a calamity of monumental proportions. Vittoria Vetra, (Ayelet Zurer) a physicist who was experimenting with the anti-matter before it was hijacked, serves as a sidekick--of sorts--to Langdon as he furiously tries to keep pace in a battle of wits with the dastardly dude who is carrying out some decidedly dirty deeds.

Angels and Demons is totally plot driven--nonstop balls-to-the-wall with no real character development, save for that of Langdon. We get some insight into his ambivalence about faith and religion--reflecting the film's ethos as well, as it tries to be even-handed in pointing out the shortcomings of both science and organized religion. But the mystery/thriller genre IS typically plot centered, which isn't all bad as it keeps you on your toes trying to comprehend the significance and meaning of each new development and how it fits into the puzzle, which is an intricate one indeed.

Having said that, I was disappointed that there wasn't ONE scene where Langdon and the comely Vittoria take a breather, reflect on what's happening, and maybe do some subtle flirting with each other. But it ain't happening. She's just window dressing for the plot--a totally wasted and undeveloped character, (in the FILM, at least) inserted only because they had to have a female presence SOMEWHERE in this movie (other than crowd shots, she's the only woman who even APPEARS in this two hour and then some production...and steel yourselves, you lechers, cuz she ain't showing any skin ).

Oft-times the true villain is the one you least suspect. But then, when it's not the one you NOW suspect--formerly the one you DIDN'T suspect--and turns out to be ANOTHER one you didn't suspect, it gives you a giddy feeling of having been ticklishly hoodwinked--even though you realize you're not that smart because you didn't figure it out on your own.

Angels and Demons stretches taut the bounds of believability, but so what else is new? I think the only flick I've seen in recent months that didn't was Last Chance Harvey (see review under the March archive).

GRADE: B