CRUELLA

 Emma Stone     Mark Strong     Emma Thompson     Joel Fry     Paul Walter     Emily Beecham

            It’s hard to see this as anything but horrible.  We have the tired old theme of two women fighting with one another using underhanded means.  OK, but not only that, the whole exercise is set up to make room for the next installment, which is, probably, further manifestations of the same cat fight.

            Little semblance of creativity in the script can be found in this production; the underlying theme is that women are devious and cold-hearted.  Traits in the first evil woman, the baroness (Thompson), are sure to be found in her abused (aren’t all her attendants abused?) assistant, Estella (Stone).  

            I realize there have been reincarnations of the Cruella character for years, from the time she first appeared in Dodie Smith’s novel in 1956 (The One Hundred and One Dalmations) through numerous appearances in Disney productions ever since, the latest one in 2000 (102 Dalmations), when Cruella was portrayed by Glenn Close.  I’m puzzled about the public’s fascination with these movies—which are always popular—until I realize that they are tapping into a fundamental belief in the concept of women.

            Setting that aside, I have to say that the director Craig Gillespie’s previous films (I, Tonya, Lars and the Real Girl) are ones I’ve loved for their demonstration of psychological acuity and empathy.  Maybe there is something I’m missing, but I don’t see any of that here. 

            All of that said, Emma Thompson and Emma Stone give outstanding performances that display bravado and formidable talent.  Mark Strong, Joel Fry, and Paul Walter Hauser add many of the soulful and comedic twists that move the story along.  The costumes (Jenny Beavan) are extraordinary and form the essence of what part of the story is about and whatever creativity is found in the film.  The music of Nicholas Britell is so much a part of the story, it is essential to its production.

 

A movie that is bound to please, but begs the question about how women function in society today.

 

Grade:  C                              By Donna R. Copeland

1917

George MacKay    Dean-Charles Chapman     Andrew Scott

Mark Strong     Richard Madden     Colin Firth     Benedict Cumberbatch

     Be prepared to run for all you’re worth with the characters over all kinds of terrain strewn with friendly and enemy soldiers and feel continuing tension for almost the entire film of 1917.  Director and writer (with Krysty Wison-Cairns) Sam Mendes and his cinematographer Roger Deakins made an excellent call in filming the entire adventure in essentially one continuous take.  With the immediacy of the story, it pulls the viewer right into the screen, and you are there.  

     In France in the first World War, two young Lance Corporals, Tom (Chapman) and Will (MacKay) are sent on a mission to Colonel MacKenzie (Cumberbatch) with the urgent message to cancel a military charge where, unbeknownst to MacKenzie, a trap has been set by the Nazis.  Will and Tom will have to cross a no-man’s land of dead bodies and through enemy lines to get by all kinds of dangers along the way, and they have only a few hours to make it.  The charge is given with a special incentive:  Tom’s brother is one of the 1600 men in MacKenzie’s company who will be killed if MacKenzie proceeds with the attack.

     Along with the script and direction, cinematography and music (Thomas Newman) are paired so seamlessly with the story they serve as sensory enhancements, intensifying the whole experience.  There are breathtaking scenes such as one at sunset when a soldier is sneaking through the sculpted forms of the remains of a bombed-out building, which Deakins has constructed to look like a morbidly colorful abstract painting.  The whole scene is heightened by the fear of being shot.  In this case, the music has unworldly sounds that give expression to the tension and fear.  Other times, there are sharp contrasts between the horrors encountered along the way and snow-white cherry blossoms wafting in the breeze or come upon in a host of trees felled by the Germans.  

     Another feat in this film is the production design (Dennis Gassner) and the creation of miles of military encampments, abandoned encampments complete with rats, and a bombed out building where a young woman and an abandoned child are sheltered with one candle burning brightly.  And much later on, we witness a contrast with a camp of British soldiers listening to one of their own singing the popular American folk song, “Wayfaring Stranger.”  

     The paradox of 1917 is in its graphic description of the horrors of war coupled with the visual and lyrical beauty in which the story is presented.  A late bloomer this year, 1917 may be at the top of more than one list in the upcoming award season.

Heroics are paramount in 1917, but the visual and musical enhancements and the brief, tender moments, altogether, earn it a place on the “must see” list.

Grade:  A                                    By Donna R. Copeland

KINGSMAN: THE GOLDEN CIRCLE

Taron Egerton     Mark Strong     Julianne Moore     Colin Firth     Halle Berry

Elton John     Michael Gambon     Channing Tatum     Jeff Bridges     Bruce Greenwood     Emily Watson

     Those who really took to the first Kingsman (2014) are likely to be disappointed in the second adaptation of the Mark Millar/David Gibbons comic book (“The Secret Service”), even though the writing/directing team is the same (Matthew Vaughn, director, and co-writer Jane Goldman), as is the cinematographer (George Richmond).  Where the first film went beyond the flashy technological effects to get in social commentary about the environment, social class, compassion, cooperation, and violence, this version seems to be preoccupied with technology, staging one combat scene after another, without much else in between.  And this is two-plus hours of screen time.

     Harry Hart’s (Firth) trainee from the first film, Eggsy (Egerton), is now an agent working with Merlin (Strong) to rein in a mega drug cartel run by the ruthless Poppy (Moore), who has ambitions to addict the whole world to increase her sales, but has ready an antidote against the disastrous effects of her doctored drugs, thereby retaining a continuous client base.  She concocts a plan, essentially putting the President of the United States (Greenwood) into a bind where, no matter what he does after he signs the agreement, Poppy’s plan will go through.

     The action takes Eggsy and Merlin to Kentucky, where they meet with private intelligence operatives and discover Hart—who was thought dead—but is alive in a compromised state.  They join forces to go after Poppy, loyalties switch back and forth, and multiple battles take place.  (It’s a bit ironic that in the first film, private intelligence agencies are shown to be bad; whereas in this film, the Kingsmen have little trouble collaborating with them, although, of course, a number of suspicions are raised and tested.)

     The script seems to be the biggest problem in The Golden Circle.  It has little substance or character development so becomes, to me, like a trade show for special effects, showing unbelievable lassos, hacking capabilities, and other tools that the characters seem to have ready for any situation, and these are inserted into so many combat scenes any interesting or engaging story is submerged.  Eggsy as the fresh-faced new Kingsman agent seems ill-suited to the tasks placed before him; and although Hart is brought “back to life” to back him up, his status seems so compromised in the beginning and through most of the action, his successes veer toward the unbelievable. 

     The filmmakers can boast about the number of A-list actors in the film:  Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Julianne Moore, Halle Berry, Elton John, Channing Tatum, Jeff Bridges, Bruce Greenwood, and Emily Watson, and they all perform really well; however, many have little screen time or impactful roles.  Tatum, Bridges, Greenwood, and Watson are only in a few scenes.  Julianne Moore, an outstanding actress, is not quite as formidable as the witch Poppy should be.  She should send chills up your spine, but although Poppy does unbelievably heinous things, it’s hard to imagine these actions coming from the character portrayed by Moore, a fault of the script and/or direction rather than her performance per se.  Elton John is a highlight in all this; he is his character and plays it to the hilt.  His persona and what he does hits the mark, about the only time in the film this happens.

This film is a puzzlement.  Although the original show runners are the same and the actors are top-notch, this version of the Kingsman productions falls far short of the original.

Grade:  C-                                                             By Donna R. Copeland

MISS SLOANE

Jessica Chastain     John Lithgow     Gugu Mbitha-Raw     Mark Stuhlberg     Mark Strong    Alison Pitt     Sam Waterston     Jake Lacy

          If you like exciting courtroom dramas that have key relevance for our time, you will love Miss Sloane and another captivating performance by Jessica Chastain.  Miss Sloane is a Washington lobbyist with the reputation of being the best in the city.  She is more than intellectually sharp and in speaking her mind, lets the facts roll off her tongue like automatic gunfire.  [Pun intended, as she is lobbying for a gun control law.]  She is unpredictable and usually many steps ahead of anyone else involved in an issue.  “Never be taken by surprise”, she says, and “play your trump card after they play theirs.”  (A demonstration of which she uses brilliantly in the final moments of the film.)  She teaches her six or so protégées maxims, tossing them out in rapid fire while working together on a project. 

          To the screenwriter Jonathan Parera’s credit, we get a bird’s eye view of the lobbying industry in Washington, D.C. and its corruptive influence on Congress members.  Along with Chastain’s portrayal of Sloane, this is the most valuable aspect of the film.  Viewing television coverage of the Lobbyist Jack Abramoff scandal in 2005 inspired Parera to write the script about lobbying. Independently, Chastain read Abramoff’s book in preparing for the role.  She also interviewed female lobbyists to guide her in portraying one of them.  The true-to-life quality of the film is likely a reflection of the Abramoff case and the additional research by Parera and Chastain. 

          Unfortunately, Director John Madden has chosen to use the ploy that seems to be a fad now in movie making, that of presenting events out of order in time.  Not only does this distract us from following a complex set of events and the import of Sloane’s rapid verbal output, it’s confusing for the viewer.  I was frustrated in not being able to process everything that is said by Sloane and her team.  Jumping around in time one has to spend a lot of attention on re-orienting.

         Supporting cast deserve recognition for the excellent roles they play in the drama.  Gugu Mbitha-Raw in particular, eloquently shows the sensitivity of her character on one hand and a sharp investigator on the other.  Mark Strong and Sam Waterston live up to their fine reputations by playing CEOs of lobbying groups, along with their staff members Mark Stuhlberg and Alison Pitt.  Jake Lacy is perfect as a studly character available to single women.

          Winning is the mantra in Miss Sloane, which we see as an all-important motivator for all the lobbyists, Sloane included.  Winning elections is key to survival for Congress members, hence their vulnerability to pressures coming from all sides.  But implicit in the story are questions about the costs sometimes involved in winning, whether that should always be a primary goal, and what happens to a person for whom that is a fundamental aim.

An exciting courtroom drama that has timely relevance.

Grade:  B                                    By Donna R. Copeland

THE IMITATION GAME

Benedict Cumberbatch     Keira Knightley     Matthew Goode     Rory Kinnear

Allen Leech     Matthew Beard     Charles Dance     Mark Strong

       The highly anticipated Imitation Game delivers in both entertainment and educational value.  It tells the story of the breaking of the German Enigma Code during WWII.  Not only does this involve the intrigue of a spy story, it gives an account of all the frustration and roadblocks Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) had to endure to pull it off.  Norwegian director Morten Tyldum (The Headhunters) is gifted in assimilating related sub-plots into a beautifully crafted, reasoned whole.  Of course, in this respect the novelist Andrew Hodges and screenplay writer Graham Moore, deserve part of the credit. 

     They tell the story about shy, socially awkward Turing in Great Britain who was fascinated by puzzles, particularly crossword puzzles, from a young age, and became expert at making and deciphering codes.  He was an odd child (perhaps had Asperger Syndrome in the autism spectrum disorders, characterized by difficulties in social interactions and communication, along with compulsive interests and behaviors, but sometimes with brilliance of mind), and suffered from teasing and discrimination all his life.  To make matters worse for him, he was attracted to men.  Despite these drawbacks, he was supremely self-confident in his abilities, and never doubted his success in creating a machine (a prototype of the computer) that would translate Enigma into English.  Also despite his social difficulties, he managed to head up a team of scientists who ended up being loyal to him during critical times when the English government threatened to shut down his operation.

      The group included one woman, Joan Clarke (Keira Knightley), who got the job by working a crossword puzzle in record time.  (This was the task Turing used to select his team.)  It also included Hugh Alexander (Matthew Goode), who was in charge of the team before Turing managed to wrest it from him by enlisting Churchill’s support, much to the frustration of not only Alexander, but two superiors, Commander Denniston (Charles Dance) and Stewart Menzies (Mark Strong) as well. 

       The threats to the operation were unbelievable, and included Joan’s parents thinking her job was inappropriate for a woman and calling her back home, Denniston’s lack of confidence in Turing and his accusations of Turing being a Soviet spy, the insertion of an actual double agent into the team, financial support, and homophobia, just to name some.  While the team was ultimately successful in breaking the Enigma code, it was at a dear cost to Turing personally. 

     All in all, The Imitation Game is an interesting, exciting, thriller with outstanding performances from Cumberbatch, Knightley, Goode, Dance, and Strong.  The music by Alexander Desplat and cinematography by Oscar Faura give it the boost necessary for a top-notch movie, along with Tyldum’s direction.

An interesting, exciting, thriller with outstanding performances, music, cinematography, and direction.

Grade:  A                        By Donna R. Copeland