Drama

Captain Phillips

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Captain Phillips
  • IMDB: link

Captain PhillipsBased on a true story, Tom Hanks stars as Captain Richard Phillips whose cargo ship was hijacked in April of 2009 while making a supply run down the Somali coast to Mombasa, Kenya. The latest from director Paul Greengrass and screenwriter Billy Ray (who adapted Phillips’ own accounts for the film) can be broken up nearly equally into two halves. The first-half of the film deals with the set-up, rising tension, and attack of the Somali pirates (Barkhad Abdi, Barkhad Abdirahman, Faysal Ahmed, Mahat M. Ali). It’s here Greengrass is at his best with the focus on the looming attack and its immediate aftermath.

The film’s second-half, although still well-made, lacks the same focus as the pirates kidnap Phillips and the cargo ship’s lifeboat in hopes of ransoming the captain to make up for the less than profitable venture. From here Captain Phillips jumps around quite a bit from Phillips’ captivity, to the Naval Destroyer called in to deal with the situation, to the crew still aboard the cargo ship, and finally to the SEAL team eventually called on to bring an end to the situation.

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Philomena

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  • Title: Philomena
  • IMDB: link

PhilomenaBased on a true story, Philomena involves the odd pairing of a former journalist turned disgraced government advisor and elderly Irish woman on a road trip to discover what happened to the child that was taken from her nearly 50 years ago. Although initially not interested in a human interest piece, Martin Sixsmith (Steve Coogan) finds himself drawn into Philomena Lee’s (Judi Dench) story of her forced labor at a convent decades earlier whose nuns sold her child, and those of several other unwed mothers, into adoption for 1000 pounds.

Beginning at the convent, whose inability to help Sixsmith is immediately suspicious of, the pair eventually travel to Washington, D.C. in a search that will give the old woman some insight into the man her son became. Centered around Dench’s performance and the saintly, but not cheesy or overly sentimental, character of Philomena, the film could have easily fallen into the worst kind of TV movie of the week melodrama. Instead Stephen Frears chooses to make a straightforward drama that works well (despite its over-reliance on the odd couple dynamic).

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12 Years a Slave

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: 12 Years a Slave
  • IMDB: link

12 Years a SlaveBased on the memoirs of Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free New England man kidnapped and forced into slavery for 12 years while visiting Washington, D.C., the historical drama from director Steve McQueen and screenwriter John Ridley is an accounting of those experiences and the long road Northup takes to make it home to his wife and children. It’s often not an easy film to watch but it is an example of exceptional filmmaking that mark it as one of the best films of 2013.

Any discussion of the film must begin with Chiwetel Ejiofor, a longtime favorite of mine. Ejiofor’s terrific performance of a man caught-up in events and circumstances far beyond his control, struggling with loosing hope or ever seeing his family again while doing what he must to survive, is a brilliant piece of acting. Against the harshness of the events which surround his character, Ejiofor’s humanity shines through as a witness to the sin of slavery. Without what he’s able to bring to the role the stark honesty of McQueen’s film would be difficult to endure.

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Blue is the Warmest Color

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  • Title: La vie d’Adèle
  • IMDB: link

Blue is the Warmest ColourAdapted from the graphic novel by Julie Maroh by writer/director Abdellatif Kechiche, Blue is the Warmest Color examines the sexual awakening of a French secondary-school student and the journey her first lesbian relationship will lead her on over the next few years.

In its best moments Keciche’s film captures the perfect mix of emotions between the young Adèle (Adèle Exarchopoulos) and the more experienced Emma (Léa Seydoux) creating a completely believable and natural love story where passions run extremely high but whose differences lead to problems down the line.

The film doesn’t immediately start with Adèle and Emma. Instead we get Adèle’s attempt at a heterosexual relationship with a cute young classmate (Salim Kechiouche). Feeling something missing, Adèle journeys into a gay bar with friends where she meets Emma for the first time.

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Nebraska

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  • Title: Nebraska
  • IMDB: link

NebraskaThere are several interesting choices that went into making Nebraska. Written by Bob Nelson, it’s the film to be directed by Alexander Payne where Payne didn’t have some input into the screenplay. And, against Paramount Vantage’s wishes, Payne chose not only to film in black and white but cast the actors he wanted rather than the big stars the studio was pushing for. Given his clout, the two-time Oscar winner got his way and the results certainly justify each of those decisions and Payne delivers a family drama, road trip, and slice-of-life take of middle America that is a joy to watch.

We first meet the Woody Grant (Bruce Dern) attempting to walk from Billings, Montana, to Lincoln, Nebraska. Confused after receiving a sweepstakes form in the mail, Woody is certain he has won $1,000,000 and will not be talked out his trip by either his overbearing and long-suffering wife (June Squibb) or either of his two sons David (Will Forte) and Ross (Bob Odenkirk). Despite being dragged back home several times, Woody consistently sets out again on his treck believing he is perfectly able to walk 800 miles to collect his reward.

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