Drama

St. Vincent

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: St. Vincent
  • IMDb: link

St. VincentSt. Vincent is a perfectly fine (if all-too-familiar) by-the-numbers dramedy about a grumpy old man’s relationship with a nice kid who, to absolutely no one’s surprise, will show his new friend isn’t as bad as everyone believes him to be. Comparable to last year’s Bad Words, it lacks the dark wit of Bad Santa or the soundtrack and amusing race sequences of Six Pack, and is far less moving than Up, but writer/director Theodore Melfi‘s film does allow space for Murray’s talent to flourish and finds a way to use Melissa McCarthy in a way which reminds us she is capable of acting when not stuck in crappy films such as Tammy, Identity Thief, or The Heat.

The premise is relatively simple, Murray stars as a grumpy bastard with a pregnant hooker girlfriend (Naomi Watts) and general disdain for nearly every other living person. Desperately needing money, Vincent (Murray) agrees to babysit his new neighbor’s (McCarthy) son Oliver (Jaeden Lieberher) after school. From there Vincent shares with the kid useful, but mostly inappropriate, knowledge that eventually raises the ire of Oliver’s mother and threatens her custody case with her ex-husband.

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The Theory of Everything

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Theory of Everything
  • IMDb: link

The Theory of EverythingTheoretical physicist Stephen Hawking is undeniably one of the brightest minds of our time, a fact that The Theory of Everything struggles to prove while being far more interested in the man’s personal life than his professional breakthroughs. The result is a strong romantic drama between Hawking (Eddie Redmayne) and his wife Jane (Felicity Jones) that is far less insightful of the man’s work.

Dumbing down Hawking’s theories for the audience, the script by Anthony McCarten based on Jane Hawking‘s book spoon-feeds us extremely basic doses of Hawkings theories without ever examining the work that went into studying or proving them. Instead the ideas seem to come from nowhere, take little effort to prove, and are instantly lauded. Does that sound like the cut-throat world of academia to you?

More concerned with showcasing the effects and unique challenges presented to Stephen and Jane after his diagnosis of motor neuron disease, The Theory of Everything succeeds far better here getting the most of its stars (even if the film, intentionally or not, turns Jane into a martyr).

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Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Birdman
  • IMDb: link

BirdmanWriter/director Alejandro González Iñárritu‘s tale of a washed-up celebrity’s last chance to reclaim his career is a bizarre look at the life of a man who may, or may not, have super-human abilities who has bet his entire career on a Broadway production that is in continual struggle as opening night looms.

Making good use of Michael Keaton‘s role of Batman back in the early 1990s, Iñárritu casts the actor as Riggan Thomson best known for his role as a super-hero film series star who no one inside the industry takes seriously. Riggan is haunted by his former alter-ego Birdman who continues whispering to him in a gruff Batman tone voicing displeasure about the current state of the star’s life. In a script that ebbs and flows (and often gives us too many first-person walking shots down halls where nothing happens), Keaton keeps Birdman on track delivering his best performance since donning his own tights.

The rest of the cast and crew of the production fall into unremarkable (workmen, staff, etc.) or hopelessly neurotic (Naomi Watts, Emma Stone, Andrea Riseborough) and egomaniacs (Edward Norton).

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Citizenfour

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Citizenfour
  • IMDb: link

CitizenfourIn a film which will likely make you uncomfortable with the level of access the United States Government has into your private life, Laura Poitras documents Edward Snowden and his decision to reveal the NSA spying on law abiding American citizens without the warrants or even probable cause.

Citizenfour shows the meetings between Snowden, Poitras, and investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald and the Guardian intelligence reporter Ewen MacAskill who the intelligence officer handpicked to vet and leak the information to the public.

Despite the sensitive subject matter and worldwide manhunt for Snowden, Poitras is able to capture and present the story from her subject’s point-of-view crafting a shocking and detailed look at an unparalleled level of government access which caused Snowden to reveal the truth only to become a fugitive for doing so. Although presented from a specific point-of-view, Citizenfour educates and informs taking steps to explain not only the information which Snowden leaked but also the reasoning behind his actions and the cost of those decisions.

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Kill the Messenger

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Kill the Messenger
  • IMDb: link

Kill the MessengerBased on accounts written by Nick Schou and Gary Webb, Kill the Messenger offers a rather one-sided look at San Jose Mercury News reporter Gary Webb’s (Jeremy Renner) investigation and publishing of a story concerning the CIA supporting the cocaine smuggling of Nicaraguan Contra Rebels and the sale of those drugs inside the United States.

After a brief set-up introducing Webb’s family and co-workers, the movie follows his journey uncovering the biggest story of his career, the initial success garnered by its publication, and his quick fall from grace as the media at large began to poke holes in the story (which the script suggests were at the behest of the CIA and the United States Government).

When Kill the Messenger is focused on the story itself it works well. When the focus shifts to Webb’s decline, making him, rather than his work, the story (going against the overall message of the movie), it starts to falter down dark conspiracies and paranoia. Unwilling to see the gloom to its inevitable conclusion the script by Peter Landesman simply stops offering an ultimately unsatisfying ending.

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