MOTHERLESS BROOKLYN

Edward Norton     Willem Dafoe     Gugu Mbitha-Raw     Bruce Willis     Alec Baldwin

Dallas Roberts     Leslie Mann     Bobby Cannavale     Michael Kenneth Williams     Cherry Jones

     Picture New York City in the 1950’s with a gumshoe detective following clues to weed out the killer of his life-long mentor.  Or at least picture one of the detective films you’ve seen—or heard on the radio—from that time (e.g., Mr. Keen, Tracer of lost persons; Dragnet), with the smokiness of the rooms, the seediness of the neighborhoods, and the persistence of a committed private detective.  That’s the movie Edward Norton has written (based on Jonathan Lethen’s novel), produced, directed, and starred in, in Motherless Brooklyn.  Norton and his cinematographer Dick Pope capture this period’s mood and effluence of city corruption that ends up being a crime thriller, complete with car chases, goons, and the pressure of rescuing an endangered damsel.

     The extra intriguing twist to this story is that the main character Lionel Essrog (what a name!), played spot on by Norton, has Tourette’s Syndrome (a disorder involving involuntary tics and utterances).  It’s not really relevant or essential to the story, but adds a touch of color.  Lionel works in a private detective agency headed by his lifelong mentor Frank Minna (Willis).  From the time Frank took pity on and rescued Lionel from bullies in a boy’s home, he has continued to protect him.

     But Frank is also mysterious about jobs he’s working on, giving Lionel and the others only sketchy details about it, but explicit instructions about how to keep an eye out and what to do if…  The movie begins with just such a job, during which Frank is killed.  What ensues is Lionel following the slim clues he’s been given or picked up to find the killer.

     This leads him into major city politics and Frank’s role in it; Moses Randolph (Baldwin), who seems to be in charge of major city “improvements”; a homeless man (Dafoe); activist    Gabby Horowitz (Jones); and a mysterious “black woman” Laura Rose (Mbitha-Raw).

     The novel—and consequently the film—seem to be at least loosely based on true historical events in the 1950’s, documented in a 2018 film, Citizen Jane:  Battle for the City, when Robert Moses, a city planner, began to dismantle city neighborhoods to construct freeways and bridges through them without regard for the people affected.  That is what is happening in this film, but it’s put into a drama that is exciting and will pull at the heartstrings.  

     This is a fun movie for those who can get into period dramas from not too long ago and follow leads and cues the detective Lionel chases—all while explaining his “brain problem.”  The cast is superb (what a juxtaposition of Baldwin’s Moses Randolph and his “Saturday Night Live” Trump impersonations), with Norton capturing the Tourette-plagued Lionel, Mbitha-Raw as an attractive, accomplished woman with a dark history, Willem Dafoe as the mysterious homeless man with a significant background, Bobby Cannavale as a compromised man, and Leslie Mann, Michael K. Williams, and Cherry Jones all providing star-quality performances.

A cloak and dagger story harking back to the 1950s with the added twist of a detective with Tourette’s, but possessing a formidable memory.

Grade:  B                                                By Donna R. Copeland

FERDINAND

Voices of:  John Cena     Jeremy Sisto     Bobby Cannavale     Lily Day     Juanes

Jerrod Carmichael     Kate McKinnon     Anthony Anderson     Peyton Manning    

David Tennant     Carlos Saldanha     Miguel Angel Silvestre

     How do you tell a story about a pacifist bull?  Well, Twentieth Century Fox Animation and Director Carlos Saldanha do just that, based on a book by Munro Leaf and Robert Lawson.  We don’t know why Ferdinand (Cena) doesn’t want to fight; his father is a champion bull, but Ferdinand likes to smell the flowers—literally!  He is teased unmercifully by his peers, especially Valiente (Cannavale), a barnyard bully.  But Ferdinand is smart, and when it looks like he is going to be chosen to go to the arena for a fight, he bolts (no easy task, since the bull pen is highly secure). 

     I won’t say how he gets away, which is part of the fun, but he ends up on a ranch owned by Juan (Juanes), who indulges his daughter Nina (Day) in keeping as many pets as she wants.  She falls in love with Ferdinand, and they become fast friends.  He is SO happy with Nina and her father, smelling dozens of flowers on the countryside as he roams wherever he wants, and only has to contend with the testy Paco (Carmichael) the dog who is feeling like his special place has been usurped.  Ferdinand is fed and treated well at the ranch and grows to be “a beast” of a bull.

     All would have been fine ever after, but Ferdinand sees no reason why he can’t accompany his new family to the annual flower market in the city.  Juan says it is not a good place for Ferdinand, and he is left behind.  Alas, he argues with himself about complying with his owner’s wishes, but ultimately decides he should go to the festival.  Once there, he is so enthralled by all the flowers, he makes some bad decisions, and thereafter the festival becomes truly like “a bull in a china closet”, because his appearance terrifies people, and in trying to get away, he upsets more than one apple cart.

     This escape costs him greatly, and he finds himself once again in la Casa del Toro where bulls are trained and from where Ferdinand had just run away.  Now, we see the more mature Ferdinand taking a leadership role in trying to persuade his fellow bulls why they should resist going to the bullring.  These sequences are good for children to see how political positions are reasoned out based on observed facts. 

     After this, the story devolves into the contemporary popular car-bus-train chase.  (Every exciting film has to have a car chase, right?)  I didn’t get the impression the children in the audience were as fascinated by this as were/are filmmakers, but this goes on for a significant number of minutes in the film.

     When the story finally gets back to the basic idea of the film, it ends on stirring moments when the concept of/reason for pacifism is shown very clearly, both in the evidence about what actually happens at bull fights, and what can go on in the ring when a bull doesn’t want to fight.  It ends in a way that preserves everyone’s pride.

     Ferdinand has some very clever, funny scenes (e.g., a dance contest, of all things, between the Germanic sounding, haughty horses and the inhabitants of the barnyard at Casa del Toro), and some lines tossed out for adults in the audience (e.g., “Let’s try to Haagen-Das (hug) it out”, “I’ve fallen, and I can’t giddy-up”, and a reference to re-gifting.)  But most of its value is in modeling for children a) how to make decisions about whether to fight or not to fight; and b) showing that bravery can be shown by leadership just as much as by muscle.  Related to that, it shows how maturing in a loving atmosphere is strengthening.

This is about a brave bull who had good reasons for not going into the bullring.

Grade:  B+                                    By Donna R. Copeland

DANNY COLLINS

Al Pacino     Annette Bening     Bobby Cannavale     Jennifer Garner     Christopher Plummer     Giselle Eisenberg

The script for Danny Collins written by Director Dan Fogelman is so smart and true to life it’s scary at times (such as the accurate portrayal of ADHD), and the fine actors make it shine even more.  Loosely based on a true story about a British folk singer, Steve Tilston—whom the movie calls “Danny Collins”—who discovered years later that John Lennon had written a letter to him that was delivered to someone else.  The film uses the letter to tell its story about a rock star who, by this time, is aging and performing the same material he has for 30 years.  Then his agent (Plummer) surprises him with the letter, and it has an immediate impact on him in a positive sense of straightening up his boozy, drug-filled life and starting to write music again.

           Danny remembers the son (Cannavale) he never met, who is now grown and living in New Jersey with a wife (Garner) and child (Eisenberg).  The son, Tom Donnelly, has made it clear that he wants nothing to do with his father and wants him to stay away from Samantha, his wife, and their daughter Hope.  But Danny is committed to his self-styled rehabilitation, and makes offers Tom can hardly refuse.  They go back and forth, with Tom trying desperately to hold onto his anger, and Danny never giving up on his plan.  Their interchanges—which include wife and daughter—are both funny and agonizing at the same time.  In the midst of it all spunky Hope takes in everything that is being said and voices her opinions in a way that an indulgent father has to listen to.

            Danny has rented a room at the local Hilton, where he’s had a grand piano shipped in, clearly intending to work; but he’s not above trying to have a little fun with the all-business hotel manager, Mary (Bening).  They get into verbal jousting, and when she finally relents and has some tequila, they actually get close and start sharing their troubles.

The story has many developments on all fronts as Danny progresses and slips backward, and money starts to become an issue.  All of this has to be worked out, and Fogelman’s script never lets the viewer down. 

           Pacino is a master at portraying complex characters with precision and fullness, and Bening is well placed in being his counter force.   The performance of Cannavale is at its usual level of excellence, and Garner, who has a less well fleshed out role, still has to convincingly be the go-between in father-son struggles—which she does.  Plummer, like Pacino, has a long history of fine performances, and his presence in this film is true to form.  The child Giselle Eisenberg steals the scene every time she is on, and I SO appreciated her lines being authentically child-like and not obviously written by an adult.  They are so true to life, I wondered if Fogelman was getting that part of the script from his experience with a real child.  Giselle clearly has a future in acting if she maintains an interest in it.

         I hadn’t expected much from Danny Collins the movie, and was thrilled when it became clear that it was going to be so good.  It is fresh, believable in terms of character development, and it maintains suspense throughout.  Of course, much of what happens could only occur if at least one character had access to big bucks, but still, it is a fine work of art nevertheless.

An insightful, entertaining look at a modern family’s dilemmas.

Grade:  A                                    By Donna R. Copeland

ADULT BEGINNERS

Nick Kroll     Rose Byrne     Bobby Cannavale

Adult Beginners is a comedy with some heart and substance supporting it.  We’re introduced right off to Jake (Kroll) as a billionaire creator/investor in high tech when his company goes bottoms up.  He never saw it coming, and now has incensed investors all over him.  A funny part of this comedy to me is that in his desperation he turns up at his sister’s house.  (His mother is dead, and his father lives with a new wife in Arizona).  Sister Justine (Byrne) couldn’t be more surprised when she answers the doorbell to her brother standing on the porch.  It’s clear that years have gone by since he had made contact, and Justine is obviously ambivalent about allowing him to stay for three months.  She is pregnant, has a three year-old, and a job on the line.

 

Justine is counting on her husband Danny (Cannavale) to oppose the idea, but he is a family man and says of course Jake must stay, and by the way, how about having him be their son’s nanny rather than sending Teddy to his preschool where he can get sick from the other kids licking the toys. 

 

What follows is a picture of what many families experience nowadays—upheaval of all kinds, challenges that crop up by the day, misgivings, angst, and true caring.  The reward for the audience, along with genuinely funny episodes, is seeing the characters adapt to changing circumstances.  Fatherhood plays a big role here, with the fancy tech guy learning about and coming to appreciate family ties, and the father so caught up in his thriving business he delegates his responsibilities until a crisis brings him up short.  But motherhood is a part of the mix as well, and Justine must let go of some of her childhood fears and rebellion and become a more protective adult with her children and her students at school.

 

Nick Kroll as the author of the story and the director of Adult Beginners clearly shows promise.  In this film, his characters are well developed, the storyline is captivating, and there are threads of wisdom about relationships, marriage, families, and children that he has clearly thought about.  I’m sure the screenwriters, Jeff Cox and Liz Flahive, deserve credit along with Kroll.  There are plenty of one-liners that have soul as well as substance, e.g., “Ow!  Don’t kiss me so it hurts!”  But the whole story line is more than simply one joke after another.  In addition to illustrating how adults can grow still further, it has a number of male bonding scenes that I think women could profit from seeing.

 

Byrne, Kroll, and Cannavale make a fine acting team; they play off one another like good musicians in an orchestra.  They demonstrate here that, taking into account their previous work, they can ace a range of characters.

This is intelligent, thoughtful comedy.

Grade:  B+                      By Donna R. Copeland