Monthly Archives: August 2013

Lee Daniels’ The Butler

Posted on by

butler

Director: Lee Daniels

Writer: Danny Strong

Based On: Article (A Butler Well Served by This Election) by Wil Haygood

Starring: Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, Terrence Howard, Cuba Gooding Jr., David Oyelowo, Lenny Kravitz

Tomatometer: 72/79/83 (all critics, top critics, audience)

Spoiler-free Summary: Cecil Gaines leaves the cotton farm on which he grew up to become a butler at The White House.  Through eight presidential terms (1952-1986), he witnesses history from the front row.

Two Cents: Oprah Winfrey has not acted in a live action movie (non-animated) since 1998’s Beloved, for which she also served as a producer.  Oprah’s extended hiatus from acting is just one reason she was a curious choice to play Gloria Gaines in The Butler.

Lee Daniels’s latest film is already somewhat famous for having 41 producers.  In essence, that means over 40 individuals contributed some portion of a $30 million, in order to get this movie made.  Surprisingly, Oprah was not one of those people.  Sure, it can be surmised that Oprah didn’t believe in the movie enough to sink her cash into it.  However, I don’t buy that.

I’m not one to spend other people’s money, but $30 million (or any portion of it) is rather insignificant to Oprah.  Plus, with the cast the Daniels was able to assemble, this movie was never going belly up.  My guess is Oprah wanted this opportunity to prove that she can truly act.  She didn’t want to be the kid whose parents donated a library, so he could go to Harvard.  Undoubtedly, Oprah’s commitment to appear in the movie was an important consideration for investors, as her presence all but guaranteed decent box office numbers, but we won’t hold that against her.

I respect Oprah’s attempt at proving her acting legitimacy, but, unfortunately, the queen of daytime television falls short in her role.  Many people believe that talent elevates talent.  For example, a great quarterback can make mediocre receivers look like hall-of-famers.  In many cases, though, talent can differentiate itself like water floating on oil.  In The Butler, the lead roles are inhabited by incredibly talented actors.  Of the three male leads, two have won an Oscar, and the third was nominated for one.  That’s intimidating company for anyone, let alone a woman who’s been sitting on a couch for the last 15 years.  Oprah does a decent job, but she is so outmatched by her screen partners that she overreaches, at times, and comes across as amateurish.

Let’s spend some time talking about the good actors!  Forest Whitaker was mesmerizing in The Last King of Scotland.  Without question, he is one of the most skilled actors of his generation.  In this film, he portrays such an extensive range of emotions, it’s impossible to imagine a role he couldn’t play.  His performance, though understated, is remarkable.

Cuba Gooding Jr. is a tragically underused actor.  Despite an Oscar for his performance in Jerry Maguire and stellar performances in Men of Honor, Radio, and others, he only seems to pop up every so often, and almost exclusively in roles that demand an African American male.  He’s too good to spending so much of his time on straight-to-DVD garbage.  Plus, he plays ice hockey!  On the regs!

One of the highlights of this movie is the parade of presidents that wafts through the story.  The performances are, as a whole, pretty darn good.  Liev Schreiber as Lyndon Johnson and John Cusack as Richard Nixon are the most impressive, but the cameos are all fun.

I’m hoping for an Oscar nomination for Debra Denson, the head of the makeup department.  I won’t bet on it, but she deserves one.  She did a superb job with all the characters, especially Oyelowo’s Louis, Robin Williams’s Dwight Eisenhower, and Schreiber’s LBJ.

I recently criticized the lack of realistic racism in 42.  While watching Daniles’s film, I specifically kept my eye out for his treatment of our country’s embarrassing history of prejudice.  As strange as it sounds, Daniels nailed it.  While 42 made me feel bad for Jackie Robinson, having to put up with a few morons, The Butler made me feel disgusted, exhibiting racism as the grotesque, widespread hysteria it truly was.  There’s no question, it was far worse in real life, but Daniels’s depiction of American racism and segregation seems incredibly authentic for a movie with a PG-13 rating.

Should I/Shouldn’t I: The Butler is not a top-flight biopic, and it’s not a thrilling work of historical fiction.  It is, however, a (generally) superbly acted feel-good movie that provides an unprecedented glimpse into the most famous residence in the Western Hemisphere.  The unique view of American presidents offered here is fascinating, if not surprising, and Cecil Gaines’s front row seat to history is reminiscent of Forrest Gump’s.  The script is unremarkable, but the story is quite the opposite.  If you enjoy American history, you’ll appreciate this journey through one of its more dynamic eras.

Sundae Rating: Two scoops with whipped cream

Elysium

Posted on by

elysium

Director: Neill Blomkamp

Writer: Neill Blomkamp

Starring:  Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Sharlto Copley

Tomatometer: 66/67/70 (all critics, top critics, audience)

Spoiler-free Summary: In 2154, Earth is overpopulated, poor, and in ruin. Floating somewhere between Earth and the moon is Elysium, a secure paradise inhabited by what used to be Earth’s upper class.  Once Max, a blue collar factory worker, is exposed to a lethal dose of radiation, he makes a deal with a smuggler who promises to get Max to Elysium and into one of their cure-all medical chambers.

Feel free to enjoy this aptly titled song from one of my favorite movies while you read.

Two Cents: With the NFL season fast approaching, this is an appropriate time to discuss the phenomenon known as the “sophomore slump”.  In football, it is widely believed, players who breakout as stars during their respective rookie seasons have a tendency to underwhelm the following year.  One great recent example is Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton.  During his rookie year, Newton amazed fans, and even set a plethora of rookie records.  In his sophomore campaign, though, Newton’s statistics actually declined in a variety of important categories – passing yards, completion percentage, passing touchdowns, rushing touchdowns, and more.  Loads of players have experienced similar declines.

At its core, the sophomore slump phenomenon revolves around the belief that the element of surprise is a significant factor in success.  Newton spent his whole life preparing for his first season in the NFL.  When he finally made it, all that work paid off.  (This aspect is similar to what many musicians go through with a second album.  The first album consists of all the best material the musician has written up until that point.  The second mostly consists of material form a span of a year or two.  Consider Alanis Morissette’s career after Jagged Little Pill.)  However, during his second season, once his opponents knew what to expect from him, Newton had to spend much of his time learning new ways to complete old tasks.  Performance builds both high expectations and heightened resistance.

That concludes my unnecessarily wordy tangent.

When Neill Blomkamp directed District 9, his first feature-length film, he was, for all intents and purposes, a complete nobody.  Lucky for him, he had two aces in the hole – a whopping spoonful of talent and a rich, influential PR department in the form of Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson.  While no one expected much from the South African whiz kid, Blomkamp directed (and co-wrote) one of the most critically acclaimed sci-fi films in recent memory (90/89/79 on Rotten Tomatoes, for what it’s worth).  He both raised the bar for original sci-fi entertainment and brought in over $210,000,000 in worldwide ticket sales, all without a single famous actor.  Needless to say, a lot was expected from Blomkamp’s second feature film, Elysium.

With megastars like Matt Damon and Jodie Foster along for the ride, Elysium certainly has more of a Hollywood feel than did District 9.  Unfortunately, Hollywood has a spotty record when it comes to making things better.  Damon is good, but not great.  We’ve seen so many great performances from him in the past, and this time he seems to let the special effects do most of the talking.  Jodie Foster is terrible as Elysium’s defense minister.  Her performance is nearly as uncomfortable as her rambling Golden Globes Awards speech.  Supporting roles from William Fichtner and Diego Luna are somewhat wasted and underwhelming.

Sharlto Copley shines as military contractor Kruger, even though he feels a bit scrawny for the macho role.  The surprise of the cast is Wagner Moura, who plays Spider, the smuggler.  Moura’s gravely voice and perfected limp contribute to a complex and admirable character who steals a number of scenes.

Elysium is such a blatant Occupy Wall Street homage that Blomkamp loses sight of his (presumed) goal of telling an original story.  There’s not enough development of the two worlds – Earth and Elysium.  Blomkamp seems to assume that the viewer “gets it”, as if he can simply say, “There are poor people and there are rich people; let’s move on”.  This story could have benefitted greatly from a deeper dive into how the 99% and the 1% are actually living in 2154.  In addition, that development should have included an explanation as to why the rich are keeping their medical advances from the poor.  They’ve already created their own planet; do they really need a monopoly on medicine?  There are some plot holes, as well.

The good news about most sophomore slumps is that they are just that, slumps.  There’s no reason to think Blomkamp’s third movie, Chappie, won’t be a gem.  He’s still got loads of talent, and, with Elysium under his belt, he’ll likely have a much better handle on building a movie Hollywood style, the second time around.  Heck, in two weeks, I might even pick Cam Newton for my fantasy team.

Should I/Shouldn’t I: Don’t get me wrong.  Elysium is a good movie.  It’s got a decent plot, great visual effects, and, generally, solid performances.  It just won’t blow you away like District 9 did (I hope you’ve seen it).  It’s still exciting to see some original sci-fi material making it onto the silver screen.  Some of the sci-fi reboots in recent years have been pretty impressive, but the genre is in desperate need of an influx of new blood.  Blomkamp is certainly talented enough to provide that infusion, but Elysium probably won’t get much mention in his lifetime achievement award speech.  

Sundae Rating: Two scoops

The Spectacular Now

Posted on by

spectacular

Director: James Ponsoldt

Writer: Scott Neustadter, Michael H. Weber

Based On: Novel (The Spectacular Now) by Tim Tharp

Starring: Miles Teller, Shailene Woodley,

Tomatometer: 90/95/82 (all critics, top critics, audience)

Spoiler-free Summary: Sutter is a high school senior floating through life in a drunken stupor. After he passes out on a random front lawn, Sutter is rescued by a shy classmate, Aimee, whom he’s never noticed.  Sutter spends the remainder of the school year trying to help Aimee break out of her shell.

Two Cents: Have you ever seen Reign Over Me?  Don’t worry, barely anyone has.  It’s a movie with Adam Sandler.  You’ll notice, I didn’t call it an Adam Sandler movie. ROM is nothing like Jack & Jill.  It’s about a guy who loses his wife and children in a plane crash and, subsequently, goes a tad nuts, understandably.  Starring opposite Don Cheadle, Sandler gave an incredible performance that was unlike anything he’d done previously. The most impressive part of Sandler’s performance was the fact that no one saw it coming (except for director Mike Binder, I guess).  Sure, Sandler has wasted his time with some awful comedies, but his remarkable performance in ROM forever altered my opinion of his acting abilities.

Miles Teller doesn’t possess the data sample that Sandler did before 2007, but, based on his previous work (Project X, 21 & Over, Footloose), his performance in The Spectacular Now is almost as surprising as Sandler’s was.  Teller’s Sutter starts out as a fun-loving, drunk high schooler you might encounter in any other teenage romance.  As the movie plays out, though, Teller reveals more and more about Sutter’s troubled past and the tension that’s constantly bubbling below his calm and freewheeling surface.  Teller is the kind of actor who seems so natural that you don’t quite believe he’s really acting at all.  If he didn’t seem so nice, I’d hate his guts.

I’m embarrassed to say it, but I must admit that someone from ABC Family has some serious acting chops.  No, it’s not Joey Lawrence.  Shailene Woodley escaped obscurity (unless you’re a female tween) with her breakout performance in The Descendants.  In that Oscar-winning film, Woodley played a teenage girl fighting to prove her adulthood.  In Spectacular, she plays a teenage girl timidly assessing hers.  Although the characters sound similar, they are markedly different.  She was really good in the former, but she truly nails it in the latter.

The chemistry between the two leads is not of legendary status, but it’s natural enough that you’ll want to see more movies with these two stars together.  (Sweet!  I just found out they’ll be starring in Neil Burger’s Divergent, in 2014.)  I’d argue it’s just a few hairs short of Noah and Allie’s in The Notebook.  I’d probably lose pretty quickly, but I’d still make the argument. Okay, now, I’m debating it in my head.  This has taken a sad turn.  Back to business!

The beaten-down-by-life performances from Jennifer Jason Leigh and Kyle Chandler, though small, are the perfect complements to the youthfulness exhibited by Teller and Woodley.  Ponsoldt does a marvelous job of capturing the very moments when teens begin to realize that teens are depressingly close to becoming adults, who are lightyears away from being teens.

There are a few problems with this film, but they mostly revolve around the unsettling ubiquity of armpit sweat stains.  I have to assume those were included on purpose.  Either that, or they were filming during an unprecedented, Georgian heatwave.  I didn’t love the film’s attitude toward drunk driving, but I grew more comfortable with it as the movie played.

Should I/Shouldn’t I: Teenage romance is one of the most important experiences in any person’s life.  Unfortunately, these days, it’s refreshing just to see a movie about one that doesn’t involve an immortal or a superhuman.  This movie’s got a whole lot more than that going for it.  The plot is realistic, the characters are deep, and Teller and Woodley (who shared a Special Jury award at Sundance) are worth the price of admission.  Sadly, I’m not sure either Teller or Woodley possesses the necessary “look” to become a bona fide Hollywood star, but they’ve each certainly got the talent (by far, the less important ingredient, unfortunately).  God, I hope I’m wrong!  I’ll put ten bucks on Teller becoming the next John Cusack.

Sundae Rating: Two scoops with whipped cream