The Soloist, watchable but complicated

The Soloist is a mine-field of emotional story lines and social/political issues. These elements make for a film that is thoroughly watchable with a story that is perhaps hard to tell because it is so complicated to deal with.

Like Russell Crowe’s character in State of Play, Steve Lopez (Robert Downey Jr.) is a journalist for a major newspaper faced with the overwhelming statistics of declining readership. There is no sign that Lopez appears to be overwhelmed with the prospect of the written word vanishing from the face of the earth though. He appears to have enough to worry about coming up with ideas for his column “Points West”, while managing a relationship with his estranged ex-wife.

One day when Steve is wandering around downtown LA, he comes across a man. At first glance he seems like any of the thousands of homeless wandering the Los Angeles streets, but Nathaniel Anthony Ayers (Jamie Foxx) is different. Accompanied with a shopping cart that contains his entire life, and slowly moving his bow over his two-stringed violin, we learn that this man perhaps had a fantastic fall from greatness. It is clear that Nathaniel is mentally unstable. He talks in ways in which he probably hears his music: A continuous flow of thoughts sometimes unfinished and unrelated. Steve sees potential in him, if even for merely a story subject at first, but a relationship quickly grows.

With a little research, Steve discovers that Nathaniel was once enrolled at the Juliard School of Music but dropped out after two years. When Steve runs a piece on Nathaniel in the Times, a reader sends a brand new cello to the paper in hopes that Nathaniel will be able to aquire it. Steve uses the new instrument as a way to coax Nathaniel into opening up his life and his story.

What Steve is trying to gain from this relationship is never quite certain, but with great tenacity he tries to find a way for Nathaniel to be healthy. He makes the tragic assumption that by getting Nathaniel back into society, his demons will be released. Nathaniel has the kind of mental illness that could probably be drastically reduced with proper medication, but is an empty apartment with daily meds and a normal 9 to 5 the kind of freedom that he really needs? The film dances around this and many other questions surrounding the issue of homelessness and how every-day working Americans try to respond to it. This does pose a problem by film’s end as we are not sure exactly how to think or feel, yet this seems to be a story that demands that kind of attention from us as an audience.

The performances here are just what they need to be and nothing more. Foxx plays the part of madness with a kind of reserved tone that gives Nathaniel grace and depth. He hides behind his music and the elaborate costumes he wears on the streets from day to day. Downey Jr is easy to sympathize with even if as our hero he wears the badge a little sloppily. The wonderful Catherine Keener does a fine job as Steve’s “editor” and former wife, although she is grossly under-utilized in this film.

The film’s plot may be a little unfocused but the script seems to make amends for this. When Lopez is approached with the idea of adapting Nathaniel’s story into a book he dolefully resists. There is much more to the story than is able to be expressed on the written page. Quite simply, it’s complicated.

3.5/5

When we didn't need glasses to go to the movies...

Dreamworks Studios’ newest animated film Monsters Vs. Aliens boasts an all-star cast, but the technology involved takes center stage. Call it a gimmick, a way to sell more tickets, to cut down on piracy, whatever you like. In the end, the film is actually important because of the fact that it helps usher in a new era in viewing movies. I can’t speak for myself, but I’m sure that if you see it in the old (does anyone feel as strange reading that as I do writing it?) 2D format, a fun time will still be had at the Cineplex.

Susan (Reese Witherspoon) is the unlikely heroine who on her wedding day experiences an extraordinary event. When she is struck by a falling meteorite infused with a rare and powerful element called quantonium, she grows to an enormous size. Dubbed “Ginormica” by the feds, she is absconded and imprisoned in a secret warehouse with other misfits like herself. There is the mad scientist Dr. Cockroach (Hugh Laurie) who is a half human half roach hybrid, B.O.B. (Seth Rogen) a gelatinous and very much brainless mass brought to life in a bizarre scientific experiment, The Missing Link (Will Arnett) A creature-from-the-black-lagoon-like Lizard man bent on scaring the world’s most popular beaches, and a skyscraper sized mutant larvae, insectosaurus. These oddities have been deemed as monsters by the U.S. government and have remained in captivity for nearly 50 years.

When evil alien lord Gallaxhar (Rainn Wilson) arrives on earth bent on retrieving the quantonium and destroying the world, the monsters get their chance to regain their social standing in society by helping stop the alien invasion.

As you can imagine, this is all too much for Susan to handle. But as the story progresses and her character becomes more and more confident in herself, her powers seem more like an afterthought than a necessity for beating the aliens. It’s a story about having confidence in one’s self no matter what society or in Susan’s case her hair-brained fiancé thinks of her. Quite honestly, Susan represents female empowerment, and young girls will no doubt find her character endearing and worth rooting for. For adults, there are just enough spoofs and references to classic sci-fi movies, including a hilarious jab at the Stephen Spielberg classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind to keep you entertained

At times, the plot of the film is vaguely reminiscent of Pixar’s Monsters Inc, and believe me it’s pretty simplistic. The animation of the movie clearly takes center stage here as it is the first cartoon to be filmed in “tru3D”. The 13th Ave. Warren Theater currently offers the film in 3D. Adults may find it distracting, but to your little ones, I’m sure they won’t notice or much care about the difference in the “old fashioned” 2D.

3/5

Oh the waiting...

When you are young summer represents that time in which anything is possible. For a short time, you feel lighter than air, basking in the hope that the previous year is far behind you, and the future may be miles away. Adventureland is a coming-of-age film that captures that spirit of waiting. It tells the story of kids working at a summer theme park who are waiting for true love, for a way out of the house, for a college education, and for anything that will break them free from the patterns of their daily life. Even if they are in no hurry for the fall to get here.

If you think that the main character James is completely directionless that’s where you would be wrong. James knows exactly what he wants from life, but like the rest of his co-workers, he doesn’t know how he is going to get it. Thus the theme-park where his new 20-something comrades reside serves as a kind of “in limbo” waiting place for, amongst other things, their maturity. It’s the late 80’s and James Brennan (Eisenberg) is a squeaky clean graduate on his way to travel Europe for the summer. Times are a bit harder for his parents though, and when the funds seem to be running dry for his upcoming trip and future plans to attend Columbia grad school, James has no choice but to land a summer job to save up money. When he walks into a job at the local theme, park Adventureland, James unknowingly steps into a summer of romance, personal growth and introspection.

He meets Joel a student of Russian literature who, despite his brute personality is probably much too brilliant to work the job he is currently serving. There is Lisa P, the cute one, and the flirt who is the obsession of most of the male employees at adventureland. I’m pretty sure that it’s no coincidence that Lisa’s Adventureland t-shirt says “Rides*Rides*Rides”. Ryan Reynolds gives a toned down performance as the maintenance man at the park, Connel. Connell is married, but you would never know it watching him tell stories of his days “in the band” to enquiring blondes waiting in line at the tilt-a-whirl. James is most interested in Emily though. She works in the Games department with James and appears to have some depth that draws James to her. Her sexual experience far outweights James but he is not intimidated. Perhaps it is his character’s one flaw that he says too much. It lends his character to awkward conversations around females like Emily, and divulging too much about her exploits to co-workers. At the same time, she is a young girl who has a tortured past, and we believe that she finds some kind of solace in James’ character. They share something over the course of the summer, even if it is never articulated. As you can imagine all of these characters begin to intersect in a way that is often predictable but is seemingly genuine.

The film has most of the young adult comedy tropes that you’ve come to expect, including the seminal virgin who surprisingly, in this case is played suprisingly by the lead male character. He smokes pot gets into as little trouble as he knows how to, and is as genuine a kid as you will see on-screen in a comedy with an equal amount of jokes as nostalgia The goofy title will mislead you but there is something sweet and genuinely sincere plugging along through the plot of this little film.

3.5/5

State of Play/State of Flux

“State of Play” is a fairly well acted and tautly wound political thriller. Like all really good scripts, its details are nuanced. It engages us because it takes place in the halls of Congress and a city newspaper as well. It’s not about cops and bad guys with guns, its about truth. How we uncover it, and how we process it.

Russell Crowe plays an ace investigative reporter for “The Washington Globe” in Cal McAffery. He has just covered three separate murders, all of which soon seem to be inexplicably linked. Rachel McAdams plays the newbie in the office who McAffery thinks could heed the wisdom of age-old reporters like himself. Namely, don’t rush to the gossip columns and spill the “truth” before full investigation has taken place. The problem is that in the demand for more readers, the paper’s new corporate bosses have demanded to cut costs and get more gossip scoops that appeal to readers today. Helen Mirren’s role as the chief editor accentuates the company’s relentless knack of breathing down the neck of reporters like Cal.

Remember the three dead I mentioned before? One them was a researcher for Congressman Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck) who was launching a full-scale investigation of an unholy alliance known as PointCorp. Another one of the victims held a briefcase containing photographs of the woman that was doing the research for Collins. Soon we begin to see that all of these deaths are connected.

There are many more plot twists and surprises to even get into here, but this plot is interesting enough to keep you invested for most of the 2 hr. run time. It’s a movie in which political scandals and cover-ups are revealed a little too conveniently by story’s end; but an exercise in cleverly orchestrated suspense.

On the one hand the film is a meditation on the crisis that newspapers all over the country are experiencing. The demand for corporate headlines that will garner the attention of the last few straggling readers overshadows the need for cold-hard-facts journalism. Coupled with the oft-perceived two-bit gossip columnist style of blogging, our hero clearly feels true to the heart of what his medium has always been about. There is a subtle urgency to this material that makes you feel as if you are watching the last days of the newspaper business unfold right before your eyes. Although the stakes our two leads are involved in are never so much articulated, it slowly becomes evident that perhaps what they are fighting for is the nature of the business itself.
Let us not forget what has been said regarding our publication however. The medium may change, but we will still exist. Somehow or another we need the press. I think that’s what makes a movie like this important. The need to process information, and seek truth will still live on even if the old-fashioned format of printed media exists solely in the movies. Which it perhaps will someday. Like one of my favorite critics has said commenting on this film: It is way more fun to say on-screen “Stop the Press!” instead of “Stop the Upload!”


3.5/5

Like they say....life can be messy

Life is a messy business. That’s what the proprietors of Sunshine Cleaning tell their clientele as they tromp through the streets of their town selling anyone who will listen. Similarly, audiences viewing the film Sunshine Cleaning experience something similar. We are told over and over again how sweet, tragic, poignant, and clever this film is before we ever get a chance to let it wash over us. The result in Sunshine Cleaning’s case is a film with strong performances with a well-intentioned director that will fail to resonate with audiences after its over.

The wonderful Amy Adams plays a single mother named Rose Lorkowski. She is working hard to support her son Oscar and unreliable sister (Emily Blunt). Alan Arkin, in a role virtually cut and pasted from his Oscar winning performance in 2006’s Little Miss Sunshine plays the girls’ father who is bent on get-rich quick schemes. It is clear that Rose’s own past has betrayed her. Once the cheerleading beauty queen in high school envied by most of the girls in her class, Rose has become quite discontent. She still sees the quarterback (Steve Zahn) although it is little more than a despondent love affair. Despite her efforts to see the world through the kind of colored glasses her name implies, she can’t help but feel stuck in the direction that life has pushed her. She works day after day for a house cleaning service painfully bumping into old friends who revel in their own financial success, while Rose tries her hardest to convince them she is “more than a maid”, even if she does have little to show for it.

When her son gets expelled from school Rose falls into a plan to make some fast cash. She develops the business “Sunshine Cleaning” in which she is paid to clean up messy crime scenes after the investigators have left. She doesn’t have to deal with bodies as they have already been removed, just the “afterthought” of what happened, which can sometimes be very grisly. Rose soon recruits her sister to join the business and together they begin to enter into the lives of people who have had their world turned upside down by unimaginable tragedy.
There are some genuinely touching scenes in this film, including moments of near brilliance from the Oscar-nominated Adams. There are enough interesting scenes that I am still convinced there is a good film in here somewhere. Instead we are treated to pay-offs that never fully satisfy because we aren’t always emotionally invested, and breaking the golden rule of great movie making” “show don’t tell”

By the film’s end it becomes a story about one of several possible themes: The girls’ own acceptance of death and the ability to move forward, the need for hope, the journey to discover one’s self. I’m not sure it really matters to this director, as long as you pick one that pulls your emotional heart strings the most.

2.5/5

A post of things to come...

Hey to all of you dedicated fans out there reading this (i hope you know tongue is firmly in cheek as i'm saying this).  I know i've been a little slow to post new things lately but never fear, I have not died in a firey plane crash or fallen asleep at the wheel or died on my sofa in the living room.  I have a couple new posts I will try to put up today (Monsters Vs. Aliens 3D and Adventureland)  For some reason I've been having trouble with blogspot lately and an error occurs when I copy and paste files into the window.    But I will hopefully get back to the once a week post on new movies.

Also, I am getting ready to start a massive marathon to help fill in some gaps in my film knowledge.  I will be filling the spring with a huge selection of Documentary films.  I am really excited about it and hope to post some thoughts.  My hope is that the reviews will function more as conversational pieces than a mere 1-5 scale of what you the consumer should do with the film.  However, I know that so many of you need that 1-5 scale, you crave the snapshot judgment that lets you know where someone as wishy-washy as myself stands.  Therefore, I will still post the normal 1-5 scale at the end.  I envy those of you who can make such judgments as final as the great day of reckoning itself, I however require a little bit more internal struggle to come up with a rating.

Here are a list of a few of the movies I will be watching:

Spellbound - A look at 8 different kids preparing for the national spelling bee

Shoah - 9 1/2 hour documentary about the holocaust.  Hailed as the greatest documentary about the holocaust ever made.

The Thin Blue Line - Errol Morris' take on how the american justice system has often failed us, tells the story of one man accused of a crime he claims he didn't commit.

Also:

The U.S. Vs. John Lennon

For the Bible Tells Me so

Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmakers' Apocalypse

crumb

gimme shelter

no direction home

American Movie

The Fog of War

And many many more.  Stay tuned.  Check out some of these yourself and chime in with comments.  Let's make this a truly communal experience.