SPENCER

Kristen Stewart     Timothy Spall     Sally Hawkins     Jack Nielen     Freddy Spry

Jack Farthing     Sean Harris     Stella Gomet     Richard Sommel

 

            The film begins by noting that it is “a fable”, and that does describe it as what I take to be a diatribe against the tradition of royalty.  It is not a bio-pic about Diana;  many/most scenes are made up by writer Steven Knight and presumably Director Larrain.  Not only does Spencer portray Diana as a spoiled, pouty diva-like person, it doesn’t show royal family members in a much better light.  (They’re shown as unempathetic.)  Diana’s costumes are beautiful (one of her marks in real life), but go over the top, seemingly to show the ridiculousness of royal dress in general.  The same goes for highlighting the elegant dining—I think it’s meant to be a criticism of a lavish lifestyle.

            Setting the film in the Christmas weekend Diana is deciding to part with Prince Charles is known as a stressful time, and one can imagine a very difficult one for Diana.  It’s hard for me to believe, though, that Diana’s behavior was so off-kilter that she was hallucinating.  It’s plausible that she was suspicious of the family’s motives toward her, but I find it hard to believe that she was as paranoid as shown.  One chilly scene that is supposed to capture the mood of the family and that weekend is Christmas dinner with almost no conversation and family members eyeing one another.  I find that hard to believe as well.

            Spencer implies that Diana was obsessed with her childhood home which, incidentally, is where she was born, but she only lived there a short time.  Much is made of her attachment to a scarecrow on the property and her taking its jacket and instructing her maid to clean it.  In the end, the scarecrow is dressed in a brilliant yellow outfit that Diana is shown to have worn at one time, a caricature of a royal family’s indulgences, I assume.

            The only part of Spencer I really enjoyed is the acting, particularly that of Kristen Stewart and Sally Hawkins, Diana’s waiting maid and confidante.  Stewart, who apparently has a positive attitude toward Diana researched the woman’s life and stated that her intention was to portray her as realistically and sympathetically as she could.  She achieves that, and the viewer can easily see her as Diana.  I haven’t been able to discern exactly what she thought of the script, but I wonder what she really thought about it, given its portrayal of a narcissistic, oppositional wounded woman.  Hawkins comes across as a servant devoted to her charge, always with kind and sensible responses to Diana’s upsets.  And their conversations are the only ones that seem to have a ring of truth to them.

            I adored Pablo Larrain’s portrait of Jackie (Kennedy), but this portrait of Diana simply doesn’t ring true—not that I knew her personally, as I’m going by my reading of news reports.  It must be that Larrain’s liberal political beliefs as in No, along with perhaps those of his writer Steven Wright (Dirty Pretty Things, Eastern Promises) brought out sentiments against a privileged class, which I appreciate, and can say spoke truth to me.  But I’m at a loss to understand the presentation of Diana Spencer as such a losing kind of woman.

            In sum, it seems unfair to concoct such a picture as this one of one weekend in a well-known, complex, multi-layered person’s life.

 

A princess new to royalty and deceived by her prince is portrayed as an oppositional, resentful woman, despite her being generally known as a real, caring person.

 

Grade:  C                              By Donna R. Copeland

UNDERWATER

Kristen Stewart     Vincent Cassel     T. J. Miller     Jessica Henwick

     I could empathize with characters in this film being trapped underwater, with the creaking of the ship, periodic explosions, and rushing water blasting through the halls.  I felt the same way in the theater, being trapped in a movie where I couldn’t see much of what was happening, couldn’t hear what little dialog there was other than, “Can you see me?”  “Can you hear me?” “Are you OK?” and got sick of hearing underwater sounds and the creaking of the ship.  Major things, like death, occurs, but you might miss them altogether.  I can’t remember when I wanted to walk out of a movie more than I did at this screening.

     The setting is a deep-sea drilling ship, with researchers on board.  We get a little glimpse of Kristen Stewart’s character, Norah, in the beginning, brushing her teeth (which has come to be a motif for filmmakers these days), and pondering about her life, including the thought that, “there’s a comfort to cynicism; there’s a lot less to lose.” These musings are interrupted by an earthquake, which sends ocean water flooding down the halls.  Hundreds of people are killed, but Norah barely escapes with one other member of the crew.  They manage to get to another part of the ship where the captain (Cassel) and two others have survived, but it’s clear the ship is sinking, and the captain decides they will don sea-diving gear and walk to the main station, hoping they have enough oxygen to last.

     But the elements are not the only threat.  It seems there are huge sea monsters that have appeared, all too ready to toss them about like rag dolls.  The audience is petrified, waiting to see whether they’ll reach their destination.  

     The actors play their parts well, albeit on mostly one note:  panic, with little variation and without much dialog. Director William Eubank has chosen to make the picture very dark, so that it’s difficult to get a good look at the monsters.  Perhaps this was intended to make it even more scary?  

Unless you’re into horror movies with little character development or dialog and a lot of creepy sounds, you’re not likely going to want to see this film.

Grade:  F                                    By Donna R. Copeland

CERTAIN WOMEN

Laura Dern   James Le Gros   Jared Harris   Kristen Stewart   Rene Auberjonois   Michelle Williams   Sally Rodier   Lily Gladstone

          Imagine an airport in which everyone is missing their connecting flights; there are some who think they have gotten on one, only to be denied, something that seems like an accidental connection that doesn’t hold.  They’ve invested in hope and are heartbroken by the outcome. This is the picture I get from Kelly Reichardt’s Certain Women.  It gives us snippets of the characters’ lives without much explanation about how they got where they are or why they do what they do.  No one is particularly happy or successful, and it looks like their lives are filled only with the routines of existence.  We don’t see much passion in their lukewarm relationships, and the breakdown of one is responded to with a “Meh…” 

          The film is similar in structure and tone to Reichardt’s previous films, Wendy and Lucy and Meek’s Cutoff.  The plot moves slowly with sensory information striking (e.g., beautiful landscapes and the crunching of horse hooves on the snow) but character development less so.  Relationships are weak and restrained.  Many like this leisurely, cool approach, but I get impatient.

          Based on Maile Meloy’s short stories, Certain Women gives vignettes from the lives of three women.  Laura (Dern) is plagued by a client who won’t take no for an answer, and keeps popping up unannounced at her office.  He eventually gets so desperate he takes a hostage and has a standoff with the police.  Even after he is in prison, he is begging her to write him, “just anything.”

       Gina (Williams) is married to Ryan (Le Gros), and they have a moody teenage daughter.  Ryan has just ended an affair, but is not about to leave his wife, because he “doesn’t do very well without her.”  Gina desperately wants a new house with her own specifications, including sandstone, but one wonders whether the marriage will survive such a project.

          The strangest tale is about Beth (Stewart), a lawyer from a lower middle class family who has made good, and has a job.  But for some reason, she agrees to teach a class two nights a week on a subject of which she knows little, and has to drive four hours each way to get to the classroom and back home to show up for work the next day.  Lily (Gladstone), a ranch hand, follows students into her classroom the first night, stays out of curiosity (and perhaps a crush on the teacher), and tries to establish a friendship between them. 

          I think in some ways, this film could be entitled “Looking for [a] Mommie” because the stories have characters who seem desperate and look to a female for attention and nurturance.  The sadness is that each is disappointed—even broken-hearted—by the lack of response from the other.  Certain Women is meant to be by women, about women, and for women, but it gives a distorted view of our lives.  Surely, most women do not have such soulless lives as these characters.  Few of the women I know or have known are as disconsolate and impassive as the three women in this film.

         The performances of Dern, Stewart, Williams and Gladstone are reason enough to see this film; they evoke our sympathy and we wonder how things will turn out for them; unfortunately, we never do find out. 

A film about lonely, lonely women who seem to get no satisfaction.

Grade:  C-                           By Donna R. Copeland

AMERICAN ULTRA

--> Jesse Eisenberg   Kristen Stewart   Topher Grace   Connie Britton   John Leguizamo   Tony Hale

           We meet Mike (Eisenberg) and Phoebe (Stewart) when they’re at the airport waiting to board their plane for a vacation in Hawaii.  That is, we meet Phoebe waiting intently; Mike is in the men’s room in the midst of a panic attack.  It’s clear he’s a bit of a wuss and a stoner, but Phoebe is incredibly patient with him until they get back home and the trip has been aborted.  Then he begins to fray on her nerves.  Without knowing much about the film beforehand, one would think this is going to be a love story in which he learns to step up to the plate.

          But soon after, mysterious (dangerous) things begin to happen.  A strange older woman comes into the cash and carry store where he works, and seems to be giving him a warning, but it’s all gobbledy gook to him, and he just thinks she’s strange and needs to go—which she does, leaving behind the soup and drink she had picked up to buy.  Then he sees two men messing with his car, and he goes out to run them off, but they have guns and his life is in danger. 

           Obviously, there is more to this than a simple love story; it involves the CIA’s secret operations and revelations about Mike’s own past, as well as others’.  It’s a bit disorienting to notice that he often seems clueless, but somehow he knows how to handle himself in a fight, and has background knowledge about things he has no recollection learning.  Through it all he is resistant to take action except when he is threatened, and uppermost in his mind is getting to go back home with Phoebe.

           As the revelations keep coming, and his life is threatened more and more, he learns something about Phoebe that makes him question even her and her motives.  And you really wonder whether this man is going to survive at all.

           But Eisenberg, who has received high marks in a number of hits (The End of the Tour, The Social Network, Zombieland, The Squid and the Whale) is a wonder in pulling off his character in American Ultra.  At times, addled, neurotic, and clumsy, he still is able to make Phoebe laugh at his humor (he even draws cartoons) and see him as the kindest person alive.  And then you the viewer watch him in combat, and go “Whoa!”

           Stewart is impressing most viewers with her talent recently (namely in Clouds of Sils Maria and Still Alice), and she is just as good here, merging into a more and more complex role as the story proceeds.  She is essential in helping us see Mike’s character.

           Smaller, but critical roles are played by Connie Britton, Topher Grace (ah, how you’ll love to hate him!), John Leguizamo (as a colorful paranoid drug dealer with good intentions), Walter Goggins (who ever heard of a bad guy who breaks out in peals of laughter?), and Bill Pullman (who gives an ugly twist to government insurgence.

          Although this film directed by Nima Nourizadeh is clearly meant to be a fun caper—which it is!—it does make serious statements about the U.S. government and its recent history of overstepping boundaries and keeping tabs on American citizens.  So with the spoof, maybe we need to keep a vigilant eye on its workings.

Surprises keep unraveling in this “love story” within an action film.

Grade:  B                        By Donna R. Copeland

CAMP X-RAY

Kristen Stewart    Peyman Moaadi     Lane Garrison     Joseph Julian Soria

     The purpose in making this film is not really clear to me.  It’s about a young female soldier Cole (Kristen Stewart) from a small town in the south suddenly thrown into guarding detainees in Guantanamo.  Hopefully, the real guards get more orientation and training than this recruit gets, because even though she is instructed not to engage with the detainees at all, one (Peyman Moaadi) named Ali hooks her in.  He has a record for being difficult and gives her an initiation (hazing) right away.  Clearly, he is an educated man and is desperate to have some human interaction.  (Is this film intended to show support for the detainees and point out what is bad at Guantanamo?)  Initially, they engage around Harry Potter books, although it’s obvious she has never read any of them, but Ali is an avid fan and eager to read the last of the series.

     Naturally, Cole being a woman in the military, it is necessary to show some sexual tension in the film, which takes place in the form of a superior, Ransdell (Lane Garrison), being attracted to her, and when she pushes him away, gets back at her.  She is then reprimanded and transferred to night duty, which, of course, gives much more opportunity for her and Ali to converse and bond.  (Is this film intended to show that women are too weak to be in the military?  The way Cole is portrayed, she does not follow orders for avoiding any engagement with a detainee; whereas her successor, a male, clearly follows the rules.) 

     What Camp X-Ray ends up showing is that the bond that develops between Cole and Ali ultimately has positive effects on both of them—more so on him than her.  At least, there is an indication that he becomes less rebellious.  (Is this film intended to show support for the FBI’s traditional method of getting information and cooperation from spies, which is superior to torture, which is what the CIA has been known to do?)

     This is Director Peter Sattler’s second film to direct; his background in film has usually been in the art department.  I perceive two weaknesses in Camp X-Ray; the first being that the purpose of the film is not made clear.  The second is that Kristen Stewart is miscast.  She does not comport herself as a woman in the military—particularly at a place like Guantanamo—she appears too fragile and ignores her superiors’ instructions.  She usually has a look of mystification on her face.  On the other hand, Peyman Moaadi (Ali), the actor in the Iranian film, The Separation, is perfect for his role as a detainee and he gives a plausible portrayal of someone in that facility. 

     It also appears to me that the film does a pretty good job in giving us a sense of what Guantanamo looks like on a day-to-day basis.  I was particularly struck by the guards’ duty of having to pace back and forth for a whole shift, peeking into the detainees’ cells mostly, although they do sometimes deliver food and books, and monitor exercise and hygiene.

A look inside the Guantanamo detention facility

Grade:  D+                                    By Donna R. Copeland