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Cruise so cool in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol

January 12, 2012 By

Tom Cruise swings from the world’s tallest building in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, a stylish, daring sequel to Mission: Impossible (1996). Brad Bird directs.

One of 2011’s best thrillers

Cruise personifies cool as agent Ethan Hunt of the Impossible Mission Force (IMF). Larger than life, he faces impossible odds as an outcast tasked with preventing nuclear holocaust.

The exciting opener shows Ethan being broken out of a Moscow prison. Immediately, he prepares for a mission to infiltrate the Kremlin.

Mission inside the Kremlin

Ethan and techno-nerd Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg, offbeat bringer of comic relief) set out after dangerous renegade Kurt Hendricks [Michael Nyqvist of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009)].

Using fascinating cloak technology, they approach the target. They fail, accidentally helping Hendricks to escape.

A massive explosion erupts. Blamed for the terrorist attack, Ethan regroups with Benji and Agent Jane Carter (Paula Patton, coolly effective).

Advised by the Secretary

The IMF Secretary (Tom Wilkinson) secretly tells Ethan that the IMF has been disavowed. He and his team are cut off from the U.S. and its resources.

He has one chance to redeem the agency and himself. Operating under Ghost Protocol, Ethan must prevent Hendricks from acquiring nuclear launch codes.

A brilliant but reluctant analyst William Brandt [Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker), astounding as always] joins the effort. Careful William creates an exciting counterpoint to Ethan’s bold aggressiveness.

Director nails action thriller

Bird (Ratatouille; The Incredibles) may have surpassed the action, thrills and suspense that Brian De Palma conjured in the 1996 original. Cruise also produced this sequel and helped select Bird to revitalize the franchise.

Bird skillfully composes every scene. Lulls and quiet moments are ripe with delicious suspense. Dazzling filmmaking enhances terse schemes and battles.

Identifying with the hero/heroine

The best thing about watching a thriller is that you get to identify with the hero and vicariously save humanity. Everyone is a hero in his or her own myth, according to writer and mythology scholar Joseph Campbell.

With solid acting and great filmmaking, that’s exactly what you get to do in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. Cruise is a brave, intense and very smooth hero. He thinks on his feet and plunges into action.

Aside from the Kremlin bombing (gorgeous pyrotechnics in IMAX), the film has just a few explosions and crashes. Each is impeccably executed.

Cruise performs his own stunts

Cruise, 49 and in great shape, performs his own stunts here. It’s nerve wracking as he swings precariously from Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building. Robert Elswit’s cinematography will awe you.

Patton told Trailer Addict that she did 1.5 hours of weapons training and 2.5 hours of physical training each day.

Jane displays her prowess in hand to hand combat with a French assassin (Lea Seydoux) who’s about to sell the launch codes. She entices playboy Brij Nath (Anil Kapoor of Slumdog Millionaire) only to assault him and extract vital intel.

Cast, crew achieve mastery

Tension soars when Ethan and his operatives meet with two pairs of crooks at the same time on different floors of the towering building. With impeccable timing and verve, it’s pure mastery.

An outstanding crew makes it all possible. Special kudos go to second unit director Dan Bradley, stunt coordinator Gregg Smrz and fight choreographer Robert Alonzo. Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec wrote the suspenseful, darkly funny script.

Breathtaking IMAX creates visual thrills without making you wear dark glasses.

Brave, cool and effective

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol is one of the best thrillers of 2011. You’ll leave this movie feeling that you can conquer the world. (5 out of 5 stars)

If you like Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, you might enjoy:  The Debt; The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

 

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol    2011  /  PG-13  /  2 hours, 13 min

Cast Overview: Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Paula Patton, Michael Nyqvist, Vladimir Mashkov, Josh Holloway, Anil Kapoor, Lea Seydoux, Tom Wilkinson

Director:  Brad Bird

Genre:  Thriller, Action, Spy

Filed Under: Character, Heal, Learn & Grow, Millenials Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Descendants: George Clooney braves hell in paradise

January 9, 2012 By

Crisis breaks George Clooney’s heart open in The Descendants, a family movie where tragedy is touched by humor and grace. Alexander Payne directs.

Matt King, back-up parent

Hawaii’s no paradise for Matt King (Clooney), a real estate lawyer whose wife Liz (Patricia Hastie) lies in a coma after a waterskiing accident. “Hell, I haven’t been on a surfboard for 15 years,” he gripes.

Matt has been busy earning a living. He also serves as trustee of his family’s 25,000 pristine acres on Kauai’s South Shore.

Clooney is intelligent, vulnerable and charming as “the back-up parent, the understudy” who now must step up for his daughters.

Family, community and nature

Director Alexander Payne weaves the trouble in paradise theme into a personal journey that embraces family, community and the Earth. With satisfying plot twists, the story shows Matt, Alex and Scottie begin to live more from the heart, and less from the mind.

Alex (Shailene Woodley) is an angry 17-year-old who finds compassion. Scottie (Amara Miller) is a tender, volatile 10-year-old eager to grow up.

Transforming pain, loss

When Alex tells her dad that Liz was cheating on him, horror and disbelief are accompanied by upbeat ukulele music. He dons his flip-flops and runs to a neighbor’s house to find out “who my wife was … seeing.”

Elizabeth is never going to wake up, Matt learns. He must transform his own pain and sorrow, and guide his daughters through their impending loss. Sometimes falling flat as a parent, he perseveres. He genuinely loves his girls.

Matt confronts Brian

Urging extended family and friends to say goodbye to Liz, Matt hatches a plan. He and Alex track down Elizabeth’s lover, realtor Brian Speer (Matthew Lillard). They discover the unexpected. Matt confronts Brian.

Impressive growth for Clooney

Clooney’s fully dimensional character is wounded but spunky. He reveals your own foibles and makes you laugh at them.

The actor played a “termination specialist” in Up in the Air; a repentant assassin in The American, and an escaped con in O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Hawaiian treasure

Matt presides over motley relatives who vote to sell the family land. Hippie cousin Hugh (Beau Bridges) urges him on. Among the bidders are a ritzy condo chain and a Hawaiian developer. A local mother asks Matt not to move forward with the sale.

Hawaii is a land of natives and newcomers, of privilege and struggle. Matt’s ancestors were among the islands’ first white settlers. Surveying the family photos on his office wall, you realize that his actions reflect on all of them, including a Hawaiian princess by marriage.

NextGen spunk

Woodley (The Secret Life of the American Teenager) is memorable as rebellious Alex. Slowly she begins to accept her dad and take better care of herself. Nick Krause is engaging as Alex’s dude friend Sid. Matt must come to terms with Sid and see him as more than a loser. It’s one way he learns to grow as a father.

The excellent cast includes Judy Greer, heart-tugging as Brian’s wronged wife Julie. Robert Forster plays Elizabeth’s belligerent father.

Payne assembles great team

Payne last directed the film Sideways (2004). He’s also known for Citizen Ruth, Election and About Schmidt. His next project is a father-son drama Nebraska.

Payne, along with Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, wrote the first-rate script based on Kaui Hart Hemmings’ novel. Cinematography by Phedon Papamichael and editing by Kevin Tent marry drama and comedy. Voiceovers, so easy to overdo, are well executed by Clooney.

Family comes together

“My family seems exactly like an archipelago, always drifting apart,” Matt observes. By the end of The Descendants, Matt, Alex and Scottie achieve wholeness. (5 out of 5 stars)

If you like The Descendants, you might enjoy:  Win Win; Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

 

The Descendants    2011  /  R  /  1 hour, 55 min

Cast Overview:  George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, Beau Bridges, Robert Forster, Judy Greer, Matthew Lillard, Nick Krause, Amara Miller, Mary Birdsong, Rob Huebel, Patricia Hastie 

Director:  Alexander Payne

Genre:  Dramedy, Drama, Family

Filed Under: Awaken, Character, Community, Compassion, Forgiveness, Heal, Healing - Traditional, Inspiration, Learn & Grow, Nature, Transformation, Wisdom, Youth Tagged With: , , , , ,

Hugo: Scorsese salutes cinema, childhood in rich adventure

January 9, 2012 By

Hugo invites you to “Come and dream with me.” Martin Scorsese’s first children’s fantasy is a tribute to the cinema. It’s also the director’s first 3-D film.

Adventure tale filled with wonder

Hugo stars Asa Butterfield (The Boy in the Striped Pajamas) as an orphan who lives above a Paris train station in the 1930s. Hugo faithfully keeps every clock running since the death of his father (Jude Law) and the disappearance of his drunken Uncle Claude (Ray Winstone).

The Station Inspector (Sacha Baron Cohen) spies the 12-year-old who lifts croissants and toys. There’s nothing the Inspector likes less than orphans disrupting the bustling terminal.

The Inspector and his Dalmatian give chase. In one scene, Hugo dangles from the hand of a huge clock to escape capture.

Like a Charles Dickens novel

Hugo is rich with detail, sound and color. Flywheels, gears and gizmos fill the boy’s world. The maze above the station allures and fascinates.

From the tower, Hugo can see and hear the grown-ups below. He can go almost anywhere. Alone, he gazes out over Paris rooftops and sees the Eiffel Tower.

Automaton needs fixing

Hugo’s heart beats for a steel man called the Automaton. It was his father’s prized possession. If Hugo can find the heart-shaped key to wind it up, the device will spring to life. He’s sure that one last message from his father lies within the gleaming contraption.

Hugo’s adventure really begins when he tries to pinch spare parts from a stern toymaker Pappa Georges (Ben Kingsley). Pappa is so unhappy that you’ll wonder about his secret grief, and want to help. Furious, he seizes Hugo’s precious notebook filled with drawings.

Hugo meets Isabelle

Pappa’s goddaughter Isabelle (Chloe Grace Moretz of Diary of a Wimpy Kid) befriends Hugo. Warmth grows as they explore the station and visit a bookshop.

One day they talk about movies. Hugo’s father took him to the cinema every week. Isabelle has never seen a movie, she says. Pappa forbids it.

Ambition is good in movies, as is story and fully realized characters. Just when I began to care about Hugo and Isabelle, the focus shifted. The tone changed from drama to slapstick.

Two films in one

Hugo is really two films. A tale of adversity and hope turns into an homage to the cinema. The boy’s story fades into the background. The movie is still magical, but turns too complex for young children.

Impeccable cinematography by Robert Richardson (Inglourious Basterds; Shutter Island) and fabulous sets from Dante Ferretti (Shutter Island; Gangs of New York) create an intricate world of wonder.

The script by The Aviator’s John Logan is too broad ranging. It’s adapted from Brian Selznick’s novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret.

Focus and character development suffer

Characters come alive just briefly. A flower girl Lisette (Emily Mortimer) captures the heart of the Inspector. An elderly café patron (Richard Griffiths) woos a woman (Frances de la Tour) with a flighty pet dog. A bookseller Monsieur Labisse (Christopher Lee) gives Hugo a gift.

Mama Jeanne (Helen McCrory) sternly forbids Hugo and Isabelle to speak of Pappa’s past, or to investigate it. This is a clue that his secret must be wonderful indeed.

A film historian (Michael Stuhlbarg of A Serious Man) meets the children. Finally, Pappa Georges and Mama Jeanne can no longer hide the truth.

Vintage silent film scenes

You’ll see anew pioneering films like the Lumiere Brothers’ 1895 short The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station. Also featured is Georges Melies’ 1902 classic A Trip to the Moon, where a rocket pierces the eye of the Man in the Moon.

CGI is used with whimsy and restraint to enhance these classics. The making of these movies is reenacted. I felt deep appreciation for early films and filmmakers.

Kingsley excellent as toymaker

Kingsley is masterful as brooding, heartbroken Pappa Georges. Moretz is especially engaging as Isabelle. Butterfield seems lost at times but lives up to his resourceful character. Cohen fascinates as the driven, precise and heroic Inspector.

Scorsese promotes film preservation, a cause he deeply cherishes, in the movie’s second half. As important as this effort is, I’m not sure it belongs in Hugo.

I felt startled at one point by a line straight out of a public service announcement: “Time hasn’t been kind to old movies.”

3-D effects have mixed results

While the 3-D effects are lovely, you’ll need to wear those dark glasses to see them. For some, the darker screen diminishes the joy of watching a kids’ film.

For all its spectacle, the film never shakes a mechanical chill. The story steams along and jumps the track. Like the Automaton, Hugo needed a bit more tinkering. (4 out of 5 stars)

If you like Hugo, you might enjoy:  Super 8; Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2.

 

Hugo     2011  /  PG  /  2 hours, 6 min

Cast Overview:  Ben Kingsley, Sacha Baron Cohen, Asa Butterfield, Chloe Grace Moretz, Ray Winstone, Emily Mortimer, Helen McCrory, Christopher Lee, Michael Stuhlbarg, Frances de la Tour, Richard Griffiths, Jude Law 

Director:  Martin Scorsese

Genre:  Adventure, Drama, Family, Fantasy

Filed Under: Awaken, Character, Compassion, Forgiveness, Heal, Healing - Traditional, Inspiration, Learn & Grow Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Melancholia: Kirsten Dunst dances with doom

January 9, 2012 By

Lars von Trier casts a spell over you in Melancholia, a visual masterpiece about apocalypse and humanity. Kirsten Dunst stars as a Justine, a runaway bride.

Visual masterpiece

After an enigmatic prologue, Justine and her groom Michael (Alexander Skarsgard) arrive hours late for the wedding reception. Their white limo gets stuck on the trail leading to the secluded estate of her sister Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and brother-in-law John (Kiefer Sutherland).

The well-to-do murmur as the couple arrives. Servants bustle. A wedding planner (Udo Kier) frets. Petulant guests fight private little wars. Upstairs, a little boy sleeps.

Wedding day blues

Depression sinks Justine as the night drags on. All is not well and she knows it. The wedding seems little more than an exercise. She struggles with the niceties. What’s the point?

Claire and John want Justine to be happy. Her illness becomes rude, an inconvenience. “Sometimes I hate you so much,” Claire tells her.

Uncertain new beginning

Assembling under the night sky, the merrymakers launch hot air balloons scrawled with best wishes and messages of love.

Justine lashes out, confronting her man-hating mother (Charlotte Rampling) and pound-of-flesh boss (Stellan Skarsgard). A co-worker (Brady Corbet) assails her.

Justine tries to shield her unsteady father (John Hurt) from her mother. When Michael mentions having a family someday, she balks.

Endings, beginnings haunt us

Fleeing her wedding bed, Justine rides off on a golf cart, gown trailing. Alone she finds peace, watching the stars.

Melancholia joins a flurry of “end times” films. The end of civilization as we know it seems etched in our collective unconscious.

Change is in the air. The Occupy Wall Street movement and increasing awareness about economic and environmental issues are dawning.

von Trier not hopeful

While The Tree of Life is hopeful and redemptive, Melancholia focuses on approaching devastation. Terrence Malick sees humanity as a grand experiment, a wondrous part of the universe. Von Trier examines our shortcomings and how we face death.

You might view von Trier as a cynic. We’re simply not worth redeeming, he suggests. Let’s start over.

This is a masterful interpretation of the writer-director’s own battle with depression. The illness takes on universal significance.

Dunst and Rampling bold, unapologetic

Dunst boldly conveys the female archetype. In one of Melancholia’s most striking moments, she skinny dips in the night, bathed in the blue light of the looming planet. In a black pastoral scene, the bride runs in slow motion. Brown goo pulls at her hem, trapping her.

Humanity is plagued not by locusts, but by mental illness. Claire suffers bouts of anxiety. She too feels death approaching. Just in case, she keeps a bottle of pills locked away in a drawer.

Claire nurtures her son Leo (Cameron Spurr). Justine dotes on her nephew too. Only with the boy does she show any real warmth.

John and Leo play astronomer

If Dunst portrays the Female, then Sutherland plays the Male. John is the rock of the family, the sensible breadwinner. Yet by the end of the film, his actions take a bizarre turn.

The planet Melancholia will be a “fly-by,” John declares. That’s what the scientists say. Childlike, he tracks the spectacle by telescope. Leo shares his fascination.

Nature takes control

Horses stir in the stables. Justine beats her horse Constantine when he stops moving. He is trying to tell her something. Finally she stops and looks skyward.

Melancholia unfolds like a dirge to the strains of Wagner. Cinematographer Manuel Alberto Claro achieves a visual hypnosis that is exhilarating. Cosmos, eros and anguish hum.

The bride is considered a symbol of life and fertility. Justine longs for the relief of death.

Dunst lauded at Cannes

Dunst won the Best Actress award at Cannes for this role. Melancholia is winning numerous prizes, including Best Film at the European Film Awards.

You can fear death. You can try to escape it. You can die a hero, returning home. (5 out of 5 stars)

If you like Melancholia, you might also enjoy: Take Shelter; Another Earth; The Tree of Life.

 

Melancholia   2011  /  R  /  2 hours, 15 min

Cast Overview: Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Alexander Skarsgard, Kiefer Sutherland, Stellan Skarsgard, Jesper Christensen, Charlotte Rampling, John Hurt, Udo Kier, Brady Corbet

Director:  Lars von Trier

Genre:  Drama, Sci-Fi

Filed Under: Awaken, Character, Heal, Healing - Traditional, Learn & Grow, Nature, Sci-Fi Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Margin Call: how Wall Street crashed the economy

January 9, 2012 By

Margin Call is a tense drama about how Wall Street investment bankers caused the 2008 economic collapse. J.C. Chandor’s suspenseful feature debut boasts an all-star cast.

Chandor dispassionate and direct

Vivid dialogue and action reveal exactly how the crisis might have happened. Writer-director Chandor captures every nuance objectively. His father was a Merrill Lynch executive.

Margin Call complements Wall Street, where Michael Douglas fills the screen with charismatic greed, and Inside Job, the Oscar winning documentary explaining the meltdown.

Spacey and cast incredible

Kevin Spacey gives one of his best performances as Sam Rogers, a world-weary trading manager who frets over his ailing Labrador. After a massive layoff, Sam congratulates the survivors. “Now they’re gone,” he says. “They’re not to be thought of again.”

Impeccably acted, Margin Call has the power of a play. Actors enter and exit. They face one another and themselves. They maneuver. They lie.

Trapped in a glass tower of offices, each holds self-preservation dear. Frank DeMarco’s cinematography ranges from stark to shadowy.

Delusions of capitalism

Concerned but not caring, the bankers learn about the impending crash from junior analyst Peter Sullivan (Zachary Quinto), a former M.I.T. rocket scientist. Laid off risk analyst Eric Dale (Stanley Tucci)  alerted Peter before he left.

Peter is horrified to discover that the firm is fatally over-committed to risky loans. It has 24 hours to exploit this knowledge – or lose trillions. The tale is loosely based on the now-defunct Lehman Brothers.

Worldwide recession unleashed

Owners arrive by helicopter in the night. Each minute is precious. Decisions must be made. Jeremy Irons plays ruthless CEO John Tuld. “Be first. Be smarter. Or cheat,” is his motto. Tuld orders the sell-off.

Self-interest has many faces. They’re providing for their families. They’re living the American dream. They’re hooked on big thrills and bigger risk. Nathan Larson’s score deepens dread.

Chilling and sad, Margin Call is precise and efficient. The players move like automatons. Watching them, you’ll ask yourself, “What would I have done?”

Time for self-reflection

Demi Moore is exquisitely cagey as Chief Risk Manager Sarah Robertson. She reminds Tuld that she did warn the firm repeatedly. Still, heads must roll, he tells her.

Also excellent are Paul Bettany as charismatic playboy and manager Will Emerson; and The Mentalist’s Simon Baker as terse, unsmiling leader Jared Cohen.

Tucci is marvelous in a scene on a Brooklyn Heights stoop. Eric tells Will about his engineering career. He once built a bridge that saved drivers commuting time. He yearns to do something real again, to find rewarding, meaningful work.

Regrets catch up with Sam

Pain and angst eats away at Sam. He hates who he has become. He delivers one final speech to his team, urging them to sell worthless, mortgage-backed securities for million dollar bonuses.

True empathy is never shown in Margin Call, except by Sam for his dog.

Friends with benefits

Fuld coaxes Sam to stay on for awhile. There’s still plenty of dough to be made. Sam confesses: “I need the money.”

In a David Mamet-inspired moment, Peter asks Sam if he’s told his own son about the impending crash. “No, I … didn’t even think …” Sam sputters. (5 out of 5 stars)

If you like Margin Call, you might enjoy: Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps; Casino Jack.

 

Margin Call    2011  /  R  /  1 hour, 45 min

Cast Overview: Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Zachary Quinto, Penn Badgley, Simon Baker, Demi Moore, Stanley Tucci

Director:  J.C. Chandor

Genre:  Drama, History

Filed Under: Awaken, Character, Heal, True Stories Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Janie Jones: Abigail Breslin sings, uplifts band drama

January 9, 2012 By

Abigail Breslin stars and sings in the road indie Janie Jones. Breslin’s voice and fresh, unaffected performance add soul to this drama. David M. Rosenthal writes and directs.

Breslin impresses as unwanted kid

Breslin (Oscar nominated for her supporting role in Little Miss Sunshine) is remarkable as Janie, the 13-year-old no one wants.

Janie gets dropped off with her rock singer dad Ethan Brand (Alessandro Nivola) while her mom Mary Ann Jones (Elisabeth Shue), a former groupie, begins meth rehab. Ethan didn’t even know he had a daughter.

Dad and daughter grow closer

The sensitive chemistry between Breslin and Nivola (an accomplished musician who starred in Junebug) grows as Ethan’s career declines. He drinks heavily. The group begins to break up.

Ethan hears Janie playing and singing a folk-y ballad one day. Cautious at first, he warms to fatherhood.

Folk ballads shine

The duo sings well. Irish singer-songwriter Gemma Hayes wrote the songs performed by Breslin. One of the ballads, Fight For Me, has been released. Eef Barzelay of the band Clem Snide wrote Nivola’s tunes.

Ethan gets more responsible

The two develop camaraderie. “You look like sh-t,” she tells him. “You tell the truth, I like that,” he replies. Ethan decides to go solo. He invites Janie to join him on stage.

As Ethan takes more responsibility for his life, he slowly heals. When he acknowledges Janie as his daughter on stage, it’s a great film moment.

Band drama over the top

The band drama is a long cliché of swearing, drinking, drugs and one night stands. The first half is especially trite as the action lags. Finesse and originality were needed.

Ethan is arrested one night when he beats up an audience member flirting with Janie. His daughter hocks his guitar to bail him out. Ethan’s manager Sloan (Peter Stormare) remains a trusted friend even after he leaves the singer.

Janie Jones is Rosenthal’s semi-autobiographical story.

Ethan comes full circle

Finally Ethan must visit his mother Lily to ask for a loan. Frances Fisher is great as the Chicago socialite meeting her granddaughter for the first time.

Breslin, now 15, performs with a friend in the pop-rock/retro band CABB. (3 out of 5 stars)

If you like Janie Jones, you might enjoy:  Crazy Heart; Somewhere.

 

Janie Jones    2010  /  NR  /  1 hour, 46 min

Cast Overview: Abigail Breslin, Elisabeth Shue, Alessandro Nivola, Brittany Snow, Peter Stormare, Frank Whaley, Frances Fisher

Director:  David M. Rosenthal

Genre:  Indie, Drama, Music

 

Filed Under: Awaken, Character, Compassion, Forgiveness, Heal, Healing - Traditional, Learn & Grow, Transformation, Youth Tagged With: , , , ,

J. Edgar: closet hater tramples democracy

January 9, 2012 By

The dispassionate biopic J. Edgar dissects a coward and a bully, a tyrant who threatens and lashes out against those he fears. Clint Eastwood directs.

DiCaprio’s dilemma

Leonardo DiCaprio stars as the longtime director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. DiCaprio appears in almost every scene as a flat, empty man who never changes or grows.

The actor seems to empathize little with Hoover. Compare this performance with DiCaprio’s usual stirring characters like Howard Hughes in The Aviator.

This Hoover is as vain and soulless as he is cold and driven. I found it difficult to like, dislike, or feel anything for him.

Lashing out at “enemies”

As Hoover amasses power and extends the Bureau’s reach, he lashes out. He deports anarchist Emma Goldman. He illegally wiretaps civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.

Hoover is floored when he realizes he cannot intimidate King into refusing the Nobel Peace Prize. He justifies his activities as “patriotic.”

Hoover also tangles with then-attorney general Robert F. Kennedy (Jeffrey Donovan), who sees through him and openly despises the FBI director.

Mama’s boy

Edgar is devoted to his domineering mother (Judi Dench, outstanding), who tells him, “I’d rather have a dead son than a daffodil for a son.”

The other woman in Hoover’s life is his devoted personal secretary Helen Gandy (Naomi Watts in a beautiful, deeply hued performance). In another era, Gandy would have been an FBI agent herself.

In Watts’ best scene, Helen turns down a half-hearted marriage proposal from Edgar. She’s all about work, she tells him.

Personal secretary’s devotion

Unfortunately Watts’ part is so underwritten that we never learn who Gandy really is. It is Gandy who shredded Hoover’s personal files right after he died, shrouding the details of his activities from then-President Richard Nixon and posterity.

The film feels historically true and accurate. It’s a jarring look at the Bureau’s origins. Hoover represents the worst of America here, contrasting with the FBI heroes that fill contemporary movies and television.

Film covers too much ground

J. Edgar underwhelms with its cold, barren treatment of Hoover. Eastwood ranges from present to past, exploring the character’s motives. Yet the film tries to cover too much ground over Hoover’s 50-year government career.

Too much time is spent on the Bureau’s role in the Lindbergh kidnapping case. It would have been more illuminating to explore COINTELPRO, the FBI’s covert action programs against Americans in radical political, civil rights and antiwar groups.

The film shows Hoover pioneering criminal science and fingerprinting.

Hammer plays neglected companion

J. Edgar delves into Hoover’s sexual orientation. Here he prefers men, but hides his appetites even from himself in a time of intolerance.

Armie Hammer plays Hoover’s number two man and longtime friend is Clyde Tolson. Hammer is spot on as the long-suffering, smitten companion.

When Hoover remarks that he’s thinking of proposing to Dorothy Lamour, Tolson goes ballistic and threatens to leave. One furious kiss symbolizes their stilted relationship.

Preserving his legacy

Hoover dictates his memoirs to a series of handsome, young FBI agents in his private office over the years, exaggerating his exploits.

Dustin Lance Black, who won an Original Screenplay Oscar for Milk, penned J. Edgar. Eastwood also composed the score.

Tom Stern’s cinematography, James Murakami’s production design and Deborah Hopper’s costumes are excellent. However, makeup for the aging Hoover and Tolson is heavy handed.

Shadowy Hoover lacks punch

Eastwood crafts a vague, ambiguous story as he interprets history. While unsympathetic, Hoover could have been more interesting. (3 out of 5 stars)

If you like J. Edgar, you might enjoy:  The Ides of March; Fair Game.

 

J. Edgar    2011  /  R  /  2 hours, 17 min

Cast Overview:  Leonardo DiCaprio, Naomi Watts, Armie Hammer, Josh Lucas, Jeffrey Donovan, Geoff Pierson, Judi Dench, Ed Westwick 

Director:  Clint Eastwood

Genre:  Biopic, Drama, Period Piece, History

Filed Under: Awaken, Character, Heal, Healing - Traditional Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Thrive follows the money to reclaim our future, wealth

January 9, 2012 By

Everyone can Thrive, according to a new, leading edge documentary impressively researched and organized by business executive Foster Gamble. Steve Gagne directs.

Thrive is now streaming free at the Thrive Movement website.

Wake-up call with a plan

Change is imperative. Nothing less than transformation – personal, social and global – will enable humanity to thrive, according to Gamble.

Daring to follow the money, Gamble and his wife Kimberly Carter Gamble analyze underlying causes of scarcity and suffering worldwide.

Old World order falling

The heads of three famous families have manipulated world wealth as part of a global domination agenda for centuries, Gamble asserts. Not everyone in these families is corrupt, he adds.

The Bank for International Settlements (called “the central bank of central banks”), international central banks, and national central banks control resources. Big banks, corporations and governments lie beneath central banks in a “pyramid of power.”

Elite central bankers control finance, energy, food supplies, education, the media and other systems.

Elite bankers harming economies

By keeping countries and citizens in debt, they effectively stifle human potential with the help of corporate-owned media, governments, major foundations, the IMF and the World Bank.

Many national economies have been harmed, according to the film. The elites are actively seeking to destroy the U.S. economy, experts say.

The number of global elites is tiny, says Gamble. In the U.S., the ratio of citizens to these elite bankers is a million to one, he maintains.

How to take back your power

Individuals can exercise power in many ways. Bank locally. Buy and invest responsibly. Seek out news from independent sources. Take part in mass, critical actions. The Thrive Movement website lists suggested actions.

Express your uniqueness, says British author David Icke. Fear of ridicule is one way the global elite gets us to impose its norms on one another.

Free energy based in science

Free, unlimited, clean energy is the film’s central, revolutionary theme. Two elegant designs, the torus and the Vector Equilibrium (VE), can be used to produce free energy and promote international well-being, Gamble explains.

The torus (or flower of life) is an energy pattern that appears in nature and across cultures. The VE is the underlying structure of the torus, a 64-sided pattern that is “the blueprint by which nature forms energy into matter.”

Hello, free energy!

What does all this mean? “Goodbye Exxon Mobil, goodbye oil, goodbye coal, goodbye linear transmission of electricity,” says Steven Greer, M.D., Director of The Disclosure Project.

Did you know that Dr. Royal Rife invented technology that cured cancer in the 1920s? Have you heard of Nikola Tesla, who invented a technology that produced free, unlimited energy in 1901?

The work of both men was destroyed, and their reputations were ruined. Archival footage shows government agents seizing revolutionary technologies.

Who’s Who of science, scholarship

For those who doubt futuristic exposes like this one, detailed information sources are listed on the film’s website.

Among the prominent scientists and thinkers interviewed are: Nassim Haramein, cosmologist and inventor; Paul Hawken, environmentalist and entrepreneur; Catherine Austin Fitts, former Assistant Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development; Vandana Shiva, environmental activist and eco-feminist, and Elisabet Sahtouris, evolutionary biologist and futurist.

Thriving: you, me, everyone

Gamble integrates progressive, conservative and libertarian ideas into a model for change:

Stage 1 – Reform

Reform current systems to “bring integrity and healing to our current condition.”

Stage 2 – Limit Government Control

Enhance the “protection of individual rights and the commons.”

Stage 3 – Voluntary Cooperation

Voluntary cooperation would flourish as people live by “rules, but no rulers.”

Economic reform: an example

Economic reform in Stage 1, for example, includes: stop bailouts; dismantle the Federal Reserve; withdraw support from the IMF, World Bank, and Bank for International Settlements; refuse international taxes, and monetize debt.

Following these steps would transform the arts, economics, education, environment, governance, health, infrastructure, justice, media, relations, science, spirituality and word view.

Gamble’s background

Gamble acknowledges that he was born into the wealthy Procter & Gamble family, but has forged his own career path.

Integrity, freedom and compassion can become the world’s guiding principles, says Gamble. Bold and honest, this film offers hope and a blueprint for change. (5 out of 5 stars)

If you like Thrive, you might also enjoy: 2012: Time for Change; 2012: The Odyssey; Dalai Lama Renaissance.

 

Thrive   2011  /  PG-13  /  2 hours, 12 min

Cast Overview: Foster Gamble, Duane Elgin, Nassim Haramein, Steven Greer, Jack Kasher, Daniel Sheehan, Adam Trombly, Brian O’Leary, Vandana Shiva, John Gatto, John Robbins, Deepak Chopra, David Icke, Catherine Austin Fitts, Kimberly Carter Gamble, G. Edward Griffin, Bill Still, John Perkins, Paul Hawken, Aqeela Sherrills, Evon Peter, Angel Kyodo Williams, Elisabet Sahtouris, Amy Goodman, Barbara Marx Hubbard

Director:  Steve Gagne

Genre:  Documentary, Current Affairs, Science & Nature

 

Filed Under: Activism, Awaken, Character, Community, Compassion, Current Affairs, Documentary, Environment, Heal, Learn & Grow, New Economy, Spirituality, Transformation Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

2012: Time for Change advocates “evolve to solve” strategies

January 9, 2012 By

In  2012: Time for Change, Daniel Pinchbeck investigates how to survive and thrive during changing times. Joao Amorim directs.

Thoughtful, visionary documentary

Pinchbeck walks his talk as he shares ways to live consciously so that all can thrive on earth. The founder of the Evolver social movement and editorial director of Reality Sandwich interviews scholars and leaders around the world.

Animation is also used to investigate spiritual practices, sacred activism and new technologies for surviving change with grace and ease.

Functional design, habitat restoration, ecological detoxification, intentional community, aquaponic agriculture, wind power, open source currency and diverse currency tools are among the ideas examined.

Time to take action

This film is similar to the post-modernist documentary Thrive and surpasses Armageddon dramas like Battle Los Angeles.

Amorim’s film transcends apocalypse hype by advocating action.  “Apocalypse” means “uncovering,” and doesn’t necessarily signal doom, according to Pinchbeck.

Asking forward-looking questions

“Focusing on what will happen in 2012 may just be the wrong question,” Pinchbeck told a meeting of the Left Forum in New York City.

Instead we should ask “‘What type of change can we bring about?’ It’s going to be up to individuals and then communities to make a profound shift,” he says.

Archival footage of the “Leonardo da Vinci of the 20th century,” design scientist R. Buckminster Fuller, is shown.

New technologies emerge despite resistance

Groundbreaking technologies for sustainable energy, health and farming have already been developed, says Pinchbeck. These advances have been suppressed by powerful special interests time and again, he maintains.

Futurist Barbara Marx Hubbard cites Fuller. “We now have the resources, technology and knowhow to make the world a 100% physical success for everyone without taking it away or destroying our environment,” she says.

Many cultural creatives have planted “seed ideas” to help humanity, Hubbard says. These are quietly growing and taking root.

Love one another

“The only way to get to the future [Fuller] was seeing was about completely transforming your consciousness, loving one another as yourself,” she says.

Hot button issues like water scarcity and depleted soil are reviewed. Michael Dorsey, Ph.D. of Dartmouth College notes that current economic and social systems do not deliver justice, environmental protection and human rights. “The system is broken,” he believes.

Water: the next oil

“Water’s the next oil,” warns Maude Barlow, Senior Advisor on Water Issues to the United Nations. “Water scarcity has already reached a dire limit for two billion people in the world,” she says.

“As water becomes more corporately controlled, as water becomes more expensive because it’s controlled for profit, it’s going to be denied to people who can’t afford it. It’s already happening now in communities in the global south where water metering is going on,” according to Barlow.

“Green Revolution” a scam

The “Green Revolution” has led to “dependency on corporations to supply seed, to supply chemicals,” says Penny Livingstone-Stark, a permaculture designer. Monoculture farming, she says, serves to “disconnect people from their land, pollute water systems, deforest the earth.”

Livingstone-Stark explains how using soil biology sustainably perpetuates living systems and increases crop yields.

Reclaiming our nature connection

Reclaiming our lost connection to nature is the key to healing individuals, societies and the planet, Pinchbeck concludes.

Policarpo Chaj, activist and executive director of Maya Vision, explains how past and future are cyclical in Mayan thought. The 2012 prophecy of earth changes and economic downturns is already happening, Chaj and other scholars say.

Spiritual practices endorsed

Filmmaker David Lynch, who has practiced Transcendental Meditation for almost 35 years, tells Pinchbeck that he overcame anger shortly after he began meditating. Looking within helped him “find infinite intelligence, creativity, bliss, energy, love, power,” he adds.

Pinchbeck uses the psychoactive root bark ayahuasca to more deeply perceive reality.

British rock singer Sting, who co-founded the Rainforest Foundation and practiced Ashtanga yoga, notes that he also took ayahuasca. Fasting and meditation are also effective ways to connect with the Divine, he adds.

Welcome to the global tribe

Pinchbeck sees an empowered “global tribe” replacing poor, suffering masses. This film is based on his book 2012: The Return to Quetzalcoatl. His essay collection Notes from the Edge Times has just been published.   (4.5 out of 5 stars)

If you like 2012: Time for Change, you might enjoy:  Thrive; 2012: The Odyssey; Dalai Lama Renaissance.

 

2012: Time for Change    2010  /  NR  /  1 hour, 40 min

Cast Overview:  Daniel Pinchbeck, Mitch Horowitz, Michael Dorsey, Ph.D., Gaspar P. Gonzalez, Penny Livingston, Maude Barlow, Bernard Lietaer, Joel Kovel, Michael D. Coe, Ph.D., Policarpo Chaj, Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Terence McKena, Steven Colbert, Sting, Dennis McKenna, Barbara Marx Hubbard, R. Buckminster Fuller

Director:  Joao Amorim

Genre:  Documentary, Spirituality, Science & Nature, Current Affairs, Animation

Filed Under: Awaken, Character, Community, Compassion, Ecoactivism, Environment, Heal, Learn & Grow, Native & Life Wisdom, Nature, Nature and Science, New Economy, Transformation, Wisdom Tagged With: , , , , ,

Martha Marcy May Marlene: Elizabeth Olsen flees cult trauma

January 9, 2012 By

Elizabeth Olsen bursts into stardom in Martha Marcy May Marlene, writer-director Sean Durkin’s astounding feature debut.

Dynamic, restrained performance

Martha (Olsen) is rescued by her sister after her daring escape from a creepy cult in upstate New York. She struggles to recover herself and become whole.

Zombie-like Martha looks serene. Inwardly, she’s falling off a cliff. Her progress is tortuous.

She hides what happened to her, not asking for help. When confronted she screams, “I’m a teacher and a leader,” parroting the words of a cult leader Patrick (John Hawkes) she can’t forget.

Bizarre behavior

Martha’s confusion deepens as she stays at the Connecticut lake house of her sister Lucy (Sarah Paulson) and brother-in-law Ted (Hugh Dancy). The sisters grew apart after their mother died. Lucy now feels responsible for Martha.

Marcy has lost herself. Her mind is a mess. She clings to hazy notions of community and empowerment during violent outbursts.

How could someone disappear for two years without a word? Lucy and Ted are stunned when Martha strips at the public lake. She even creeps into their bed one night while they make love.

Cult memories

Through flashbacks that blur place and time, we glimpse Martha’s life at a ramshackle farmstead. She confuses memory with the present, and so do we. In the cult she befriends Zoe (Louisa Krause) and Watts (Brady Corbet).

Revering their leader, the residents follow bizarre rules. They do chores but eat only once a day, at supper. Men finish eating before the women can begin. Wearing tattered hand-me-downs, they declare they will prosper someday.

Hawkes (Uncle Teardrop in Winter’s Bone) plays Patrick with skeevy menace. Slowly, his deranged beliefs emerge. He rapes the women by turns in the night. New women are dressed, drugged and coached before their first rape.

Manipulating minds, bodies

“You’re my favorite,” Patrick tells her. Martha struggles, then submits. Later, she coaches newcomer Sarah (Julia Garner) before her “first night.”

Patrick plays Marcy’s Song on the guitar for the group. “Well she, she’s just a picture / that lives on my wall / Just a picture, that’s all” he croons.

The isolated community must surrender body, mind and spirit. Fatherly and quiet Patrick can threaten any follower’s life abruptly. They must be willing to kill for him.

Breathtaking cinema

Jody Lee Lipes’ cinematography and Zac Stuart-Pontier’s editing enhance the introspective drama.

Durkin told Filmmaker Magazine that his early years in a religious school inspired an interest in cults. He won a Directing Award for this film at Sundance 2011.

Olsen’s upcoming films

Olsen will appear in several films in 2012, including Peace, Love and Misunderstanding with Jane Fonda and Catherine Keener; Silent House with Adam Trese; Red Lights with Robert De Niro, Cillian Murphy and Sigourney Weaver; and Liberal Arts with Josh Radnor.

Olsen studies theater full time at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

Exorcist-like thrills

This indie psychological thriller disturbed and fascinated me as much as The Exorcist, where evil ensnares a privileged and morally vulnerable victim.

Martha’s struggle is a bit like our own, when you look at the influence that mainstream media news and advertising have on us every day.

A Silkwood-like ending is deeply unsettling. Oscar nominations are likely for Olsen and this film. (4 out of 5 stars)

If you like Martha Marcy May Marlene, you might enjoy:  Take Shelter; Somewhere.

 

Martha Marcy May Marlene    2011  /  R  /  1 hour, 41 min

Cast Overview: Elizabeth Olsen, Christopher Abbott, Brady Corbet, Hugh Dancy, Maria Dizzia, Julia Garner, John Hawkes, Louisa Krause, Sarah Paulson

Director:  Sean Durkin

Genre:  Indie, Drama, Psychological Thriller

 

Filed Under: Awaken, Character, Community, Compassion, Heal, Healing - Traditional, Learn & Grow, Youth Tagged With: , , , , ,
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