REPARATION

Marc Menchaca     Jon Huertas     Virginia Newcomb     Dale Dye Thomas

          When people feel they’ve been wronged by another/others, they inevitably wish for someone to make amends; that is reparation.  When Bob (Menchaca) is discharged from the Air Force, he seems to have PTSD and a three-year memory gap.  One day, when Lucy (Newcomb) comes across him wandering down a road she stops to give him a ride.  After teasing flirtations and Lucy’s realization that he is a good—albeit damaged—man, they marry and have a child, Charlotte (Thomas).  Everything seems to be working out well until a stranger (Huertas) suddenly appears on a motorcycle.  Jerome has an investment in uncovering Bob’s memory, but we’re not told why until the end of the film.

          A kind of occult theme running through the story is Charlotte’s uncanny ability to draw pictures that trigger her father’s memories.  These drawings are precipitated by nightmares that seem to give her information about Bob.  For instance, without being introduced to him, she knows the stranger’s name is Jerome, and she is left with the sense that he is dangerous.  Lucy is repelled by him altogether, and is always trying to get rid of him.  But something in Bob gives him pause in sending the man away.

          A mysterious figure, a young boy, appears to Bob throughout the story, giving him pep talks and reassuring him.  This also seems to tie in with the occult.  The child is incorporated into another character toward the end, and even merged by Bob with Charlotte when he is in a panic state, all of which makes the boy’s identity rather confusing.

         Through flashbacks, we piece together the relationship between Bob and Jerome, the importance of a third figure, a Colonel Atreus, the source of the conflict between Bob and Jerome, and the nature of the information Jerome so desperately pursues. 

         The film is good in leading us up to this point and keeping us engaged in the mystery.  Menchaca is very fine at portraying the slightly mystified veteran who is not the kind to ruminate about his past and seek insight and information.  He appears to have accepted the memory gap so that it is troubling only at times.  Nor does it bother his wife Lucy very much—she thinks he is fine the way he is and she only has emotional outbursts toward Jerome, aptly played as a threatening figure by Kellar.

       The story in Reparation does not always mesh together logically and sometimes seems internally contradictory, but it is interesting and mysterious enough to hold the viewer’s attention.  It’s a small independent film by first-time director Kyle Ham and co-written by him and Steve Timm.  It is being screened at film festivals, including the Houston Cinema Arts Festival where I saw it.

A mystery about an Air Force veteran with a three-year memory gap.

Grade:  C                                                            By Donna R. Copeland

JANIS: LITTLE GIRL BLUE

Cat Power, narration

          The seventh annual Houston Cinema Arts Festival opened with a winner, the premiere of the documentary, Janis:  Little Girl Blue, directed by Amy Berg and produced by Alex Gibney.  Janis Joplin from Port Arthur, Texas, was a rock star in the ‘60s, who could shock others with her talent as well as her sassy personality.  The documentary lends a full picture of the artist and the person; the artist as incredibly talented and driven and the person as someone who was misunderstood her whole life by many (although not by those who really knew her).  I kept thinking of Bob Dylan’s song, “Just like a Woman” (“She aches just like a woman, but she breaks like a little girl”).  Janis was complex—very intelligent in her charisma, creative in her lifestyle and in her work, suffering from rejection from the time she was young and took unpopular stands (such as for integration in the Civil Rights era), and still warm, caring, and sincere.  She retained a child-like naïveté throughout her short life.  Yet, I’m sure she exhausted anyone who got close to her with the force of her energy and will.

             It was fortuitous that Janis’ father suggested to his wife before she got pregnant with Janis, “Let’s do something for prosperity.”  This happened, but not in a way that he ever imagined.  And Janis’ early life would not suggest that she could ever achieve what she did.  She was teased unmercifully in school because she didn’t fit the mold of girls in the ‘50s; and when she came out for integration, she was literally targeted by the Ku Klux Klan.  Even later, when she moved to California, a fraternity ran her for “ugliest man” and she won.  Her childhood friend, Dave Moriarty, says this time  it pained her so much she wept.

         But by virtue of her talent—and perhaps as well the force of her personality—Janis found success.  Her first band, the Big Brother Holding Company (BBHC), brought her to fame, most notably at the Monterey Pop Festival where she received a long standing ovation, but they were also what she needed in terms of fatherly figures who provided guidance.  Her career exploded when the group signed with Columbia Records and had a gold album.  But then, her fame created friction within BBHC, and she went with a series of groups after that.  By this time, she was injecting heroin, which affected her performance at Woodstock, although she still won acclaim there.

         Amy Berg’s film is a valuable account of an unlikely heroine who overcame incredible odds to achieve fame and some fortune.  It gives us a fleshed-out picture of the artist as well as the person revealed in her letters; interviews with family, lifelong friends, and lovers; and recording sessions and concerts.  Berg achieved a wonderful balance between biography and music, and in the discussion session post screening said that she hoped people would come to know Janis better from listening to her music as much as her biography.  She won applause at the end of the discussion when she said she wanted to counteract the tendency to regard female rock stars differently from males.  That is, when people like Jimi Hendrix are talked about now, it’s about their accomplishments, whereas with Janis and Amy Winehouse, for instance, the subject is more about overdosing on drugs.

      The emphasis on letters Janis wrote to capture some of her personality was a wise choice, as well as the film being narrated by Cat Power, whose voice resembles Janis’ so much even Cat’s band members heard the voice of Janis during Cat’s readings in the film.

An enlightening account of the life and person of an artist:  Janis Joplin

Grade:  A                             By Donna R. Copeland

 

MY ALL AMERICAN

Finn Wittrock     Aaron Eckhart     Sarah Bolger

       My All American is written to be inspirational, showing that true grit, family, and religious faith is a winning combination.  Based on a true story, Freddie Steinmark (Wittrock) plays football at Wheatridge High School in Denver, and despite his small size becomes a local hero on the field.  He is from a modest background, but his father appears to be an A-plus parent, seeing that Freddie makes the most of his physical and intellectual abilities.  He puts him through rigorous daily routines, which the boy not only goes along with, he does so with a smile and a cheer, as if he is cheering himself on—except that he is always humble.

      Freddie makes such an impression on his tobacco-chewing coach his plays are shown to Darrell Royal (Eckhart), the famed coach of the University of Texas champion football team (1957-1976), who is duly impressed, and immediately gives the stunned Freddie a football scholarship.  This is a film where traditional American values, which include religious faith, are borne out to be the recipe for success. 

   We see Freddie achieving remarkable feats on the ball field and doing well in his academic subjects, all while cultivating an enduring romantic relationship with blonde beauty Linda (Bolger) at Wheatridge High, a stalwart supporter always by his side.  She manages to get into the University of Texas majoring in Spanish so they can be together in Austin.

     At UT, Freddie not only excels on the football team, he cultivates friendships and alliances with his teammates and wins the respect of the coaches.  He seems to have an innate ability to connect with people, minimizing competition as he promotes collaboration.  The film is effective in showing him in action with clips of the UT football games that document his prowess on the field.

       My All American is a film for those who like to be inspired by traditional American values and success stories.  I find it to be a bit “sugar-coated” with all-positive traits in characters that are likely to be flawed as well as admirable.  Angelo Pizzo, writer and director, has brought us a film that will be inspiring to many, but for those who are more reality based, it may be a little too sweet and perfect.

Football fans will be inspired by My All American.

Grade:  C                              By Donna R. Copeland

LOVE THE COOPERS

Alan Arkin   Diane Keaton   John Goodman   Marisa Tomei   June Squibb

                                        Olivia Wilde   Amanda Seyfried   Anthony Mackie   Ed Helms   Jake Lacy

          And you probably will end up loving the Coopers in a film that many will see as a perfect holiday movie.  Although don’t expect to be immersed in warm fuzzy feelings throughout; this is a family that can throw barbs and “gotchas” with hardly a twitch of an eyebrow.  They all seem to have some gene that eventually and invariably alienates the person they’re talking to.  The script reads a bit like Little Miss Sunshine in its mixture of bittersweet, tender, and outright comedy.  The difference is that in Love the Coopers there’s a lot more bitterness in tone, especially in the beginning when everyone seems to be writhing with unhappiness—or maybe it’s just anxiety about the upcoming get-together.

         The drama mainly centers around couples—not necessarily the expected pairings.  The paterfamilias (Arkin) is alone in his old age, but has made a solid friendship with a young waitress at the local diner (Seyfried).  His daughter Charlotte (Keaton) has been married to Sam (Goodman) for 40 years, but it looks like the parting of the ways for them.  Their current issue is whether or not to announce their separation at the family celebration.  Son Hank (Helms) is going through a divorce, and he is not in good shape at all.  His other daughter Emma (Tomei) is alone not by choice, except maybe it has something to do with her not being able to form a bond with anyone and tending to feel sorry for herself in being alone.  We’re introduced to Charlotte’s and Sam’s daughter Eleanor (Wilde) in the airport where she has bumped into Joe (Lacy) who is headed out to report to duty.  Present at the Christmas celebration are also a number of grandchildren who are as quick-witted and verbal as their elders.

          Certain interchanges between characters in the drama really entertained and sparked my interest.  One was Eleanor and Joe doing a complex, often contradictory, mating dance that epitomizes budding relationships today.  Liberal meets conservative, but somehow, after many fits and starts, they find more common ground than conflict.  Another was that between Emma and the policeman (Anthony Mackie) who arrests her for shoplifting.  Being a life coach, she starts out asking him about himself, but when it ends up, he is giving her valuable advice.  They end up helping each other, and he is to be admired for insisting on appropriate boundaries. 

        The depiction of Sam’s and Charlotte’s relationship is not terribly interesting—it’s rather hackneyed—and although these are fine actors, I found myself yawning and fidgeting during their interchanges.  The best ones (Eleanor and Joe; Emma and Officer Williams) entertain us and make us think, and therein lies the best of this movie.

A soulful family Christmas with meaningful observations on mating.

Grade:  B                                                            By Donna R. Copeland

THE PROGRAM

Ben Foster     Chris O’Dowd     Dustin Hoffman     Jesse Clemons

          The Program’s opening scene is stark, showing a lone cyclist in the distance huffing and puffing up a steep road in the snow-covered Alps.  Lance Armstrong, the seven-time winner of the Tour de France only to be stripped of his titles years later for doping, has a desire, a hunger, to be a winner.  Soon after, we see him playing a game with a British reporter named David Walsh (O’Dowd), with the stakes that if Walsh loses to Armstrong (Foster), he has to shave off his beard.  Upon winning, Armstrong insists that Walsh follow through, which says a lot about the characters of both men.  Walsh does shave it off, but becomes relentless in pursuing a case against Armstrong for doping.

       The Program, directed by Stephen Frears (High Fidelity, The Queen, Philomena), is based on David Walsh’s novel with a screenplay by John Hodge.  It chronicles the meteoric rise and fall of the champion after overcoming testicular cancer with brain metastases and setting up a charity, Live Strong, to help others with the disease.  His decline resounded more loudly partly because of Armstrong’s cockiness and partly because he defended himself so vociferously for so long, even sacrificing some personal and professional relationships in the process.  After he brought a suit against Walsh and his newspaper, which resulted in Walsh being fired, two of his fellow cyclists who had been friends/colleagues but whom he had dumped along the way, testified against him, issuing in the beginning of the end.

      After an investigation ended in 2012, a U.S. Anti-Doping Agency decided that Armstrong had indeed used “performance-enhancing drugs” throughout his cycling competitions and banned him from competing in any sport that followed its code.  They stripped him of his titles as well.

       And Lance Armstrong did after many years ultimately acknowledge the doping, saying, his was “a mythic, perfect story, but it wasn’t true.”

Although many of us followed the news about Lance Armstrong and the pervasiveness of doping in cycling (in a context where most of the cycling leaders kept overlooking it), Frears’ movie gives a concise and interesting account of all the events, highlighting the kind of man Armstrong is and all the factors that led up to the outcome.  Ben Foster has an uncanny physical resemblance to Armstrong, and his acting skills in portraying the man are impressive. 

The Program is a good dramatization of the life so far of Lance Armstrong, the legendary cyclist.

Grade:  B                                    By Donna R. Copeland

PAULO COELHO'S BEST STORY

Julio Andrade     Ravel Andrade     Enrique Diaz     Fabriula Nascimento     Paz Vega     Fabiana Gugli

            This dramatization of the celebrated Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho’s life, leaves much to be desired.  Paulo Coelho’s Best Story is related in bits and pieces, jumping around in time, which seems to be a fad nowadays.  I would like to hear the director’s (Daniel Augusto) rationale for presenting such a complicated story in this manner.  I will write this review in chronological order to make it easier for the reader. 

          Coelho is the son of a very successful businessman, Pedro Souza (Diaz), who early on took a dim view of his son’s aspirations to become a writer, along with his mother (Nascimento), and a psychiatrist.  Their response was, “Do you think anyone will want to read what you write?” Throughout his adolescence and early adulthood, Paulo is in major conflicts with his father.  His parents try restrictions as a means of controlling his behavior and depriving him of financial support so he will get a paying job.  But he is rebellious, and gets involved in drugs and heavy drinking.  He has two psychiatric hospitalizations in which he is given shock treatments, but he escapes the second time, and eventually ends up living with his grandparents.

           In the 1970’s as a young adult, Paulo is writing seriously.  He lives with Luiza (Vega), who clearly loves him, but is skeptical of his claim that he can move an ashtray just with the power of his mind.  He starts a magazine under the nom de plume of Augusto Figueiredo, writing articles such as “Telepathy”, when a musician named Raul Seixes comes looking for him and wants him to be a record label executive.  He accepts, they become friends and partners, and Paulo starts writing music for Raul to sing.  His relationship with Luiza ends when he gets into the rock scene and writes songs with the sentiment that a man has the right to say and do what he wants.  Luiza sees him with another woman and leaves him.  Subsequently, he finds that Raul is moving to New York, and claiming authorship of Paulo’s songs.

         In the 1980’s, Paulo has married a woman named Chris, and this marriage will last more than 30 years.  She encourages him, and voices her frustration about his drinking, about being a music executive rather than a composer.  She urges him to start writing again and not give up on himself.  To help with that she talks him into going to Amsterdam and become part of a mystical order that will help him understand the symbolic language of the world and keep him on the path toward his destiny.  It is after this that Paulo writes his most well known book, The Alchemist, with the message, “When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you achieve it.”

          Despite the many obstacles he has encountered, Coelho, who is still alive, has been amazingly prolific, with over 30 novels published (165 million copies sold and translated into 80 languages), the most famous being The Alchemist, which has been on the New York Times best seller list ever since it was published in 1988.

          As noted, a major drawback of the film is its disjointedness.  Coelho’s life is presented in decades, but the story jumps around and you might see him as a white-haired man hiking in the mountains, and then suddenly he’s a rebellious teenager.  Characters new to the story are shown without explanation, and you have to figure out later who they are.  For example after showing something of his teenage years in the beginning of the film, we then see an older man recovering from a heart attack and wanting to leave the hospital, with a woman saying, “no”, he is not strong enough.  It turns out that the man is Coelho and she is his wife of many years.  Similarly, many of Coelho’s pithy observations and thoughts are sprinkled throughout the story without necessarily giving us much of a context.  All of this works to actually hide the real essence of this man who is obviously spiritual, creative, and committed to his calling.

A film that jerks back and forth through time with little exploration into the make-up of the great author Paulo Coelho came to be.

Grade:  D                                    By Donna R. Copeland

SUFFRAGETTE

Carey Mulligan   Anne-Marie Duff   Helena B. Carter   Ben Whishaw   Grace Stottor   Brenman Gleeson   Meryl Streep

          Suffragette refreshes our memory of what it took for women simply to get the vote and have rights as mothers.  They were disregarded for so long, they felt they had to be destructive to get men’s attention.  Now, almost a hundred years later, the attitudes of that time are quaint at best and shocking at worst.  And yet we still must struggle, “we go on” (movie quote); there are still unfair discrepancies in compensation between males and females in many professions.  Although admittedly these are not as woeful as the Watts’ situation where she gets paid less than her husband for working more hours doing more dangerous tasks in the laundry where they work. 

         Events in the film are sobering, painful, and even disgusting, such as the headline about a demonstration reading “Wanton Damage by Suffragettes.”  (The dictionary defines ‘wanton’ as “lascivious or promiscuous.  Used especially of women…Marked by unprovoked, gratuitous maliciousness; capricious and unjust.”  This for throwing bricks through store windows as protest against the unfair treatment of women.  This is an example of the curious negative sexual connotation when it’s women doing the protesting.

      The drama focuses on Maud Watts (Mulligan), who is a humble, hard-working, respected young woman who has worked at the laundry from age seven, and has been steadily promoted although working conditions are still poor.  It’s not in her nature to be rebellious, but she is curious when approached by a co-worker to join the movement, and she goes to meetings primarily as a friend.  By happenstance, it falls to her to speak for women in her district to Prime Minister Lloyd George.  She makes a good impression on him and others listening, and you see the first awakening of her spirit. 

         Maud makes reasoned judgments about the movement’s activities, and still proceeds rather reluctantly, especially since her husband (Winshaw) discourages her from it.  He wants her to toe the line like he does, and cannot comprehend why she and her friends are so persistent—which is the general feeling of the time.  Activist women are derided as much by women as they are men.  But the real pushback comes from the police who are charged with manhandling the women, knocking them down and injuring them and eventually jailing them.  Maud struggles with the movement’s edging toward more violent demonstrations urged by the leaders of the movement, Emmeline Pankhurst (Streep) and Edyth Ellen (Carter). 

        Interestingly, she is pushed as much in that direction by the over-reactions of her husband and the police, as she is by the movement’s leaders.

Carey Mulligan is a top-notch actress who brings all her talents and skills to this role.  She has her character maintain a loving presence and refreshing curiosity throughout the brutalities Maud experiences, showing that she never loses sight of basic principles of freedom and justice.  Even the most violent act Maud commits toward an abusive individual seems justified, because you know she would only do it with cause.

        Supporting actors with Mulligan, like Carter, Duff, Whishaw, Gleeson, and Streep, make this a terrific ensemble, aided by Alexandre Desplat’s musical score and Eduard Grau’s cinematography.  The director Sarah Gavron and writer Abi Morgan should be applauded for bringing the whole group together to recount a vital story important for women even today.  In this film, I gratefully renewed by appreciation for these women’s struggles and sacrifice for us who came after.  We would never be where we are today without their bravery.

          Interesting observation as an afterthought:  All the “Rotten” Tomatoes reviews are by critics with male-sounding names.  It’s understandable that Suffragette wouldn’t have the same impact on men as on women.

Women of today should see this film about those who sacrificed for us.

Grade:  A                        By Donna R. Copeland