50/50 (2011). This comedy-drama centers around a cancerous presence, and that refers to Seth Rogen as much as it does to the malignant tumor found located on the spine of young Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). Carve Rogen out of the picture, and its chances of being a truly moving picture about people coping in sickness and in health increase exponentially. This is nothing personal about Rogen, who I generally enjoy watching — heck, I didn’t even mind him bringing his slobbery man-boy act to the iconic role of the Green Hornet. But 50/50, inspired by scripter Will Reiser’s own battle with cancer, doesn’t need his services, which only get in the way of a potentially heart-rending story about how a 20-something who theoretically has his whole life ahead of him must cope with a tragedy that threatens to cheat him out of his future. Gordon-Levitt delivers a sensitive portrayal as Adam, perpetually trying to get a grasp on emotions that understandably don’t know where to go. Adam shares an interesting relationship with his therapist (Anna Kendrick), a medical newbie who isn’t quite certain how to comfort her patient. He has trouble with his girlfriend (Bryce Dallas Howard), who’s mentally ill-equipped to deal with a partner who’s now bald and barfing all over the place. He bonds with two older cancer patients (Matt Frewer and national treasure Philip Baker Hall) who take him under their wing. And he has difficulties communicating with his mother (Anjelica Huston), a drama queen who’s already dealing with an Alzheimer’s-afflicted husband (Serge Houde). These are all intriguing relationships, but every time we become immersed in these particular character dynamics, along comes Rogen as Adam’s unlikely best friend Kyle. Kyle clearly has Adam’s back, and had Rogen, in his capacity as one of the film’s producers, graciously allowed another actor to play the role or, since the part is based on himself, at least played it more realistically, we might have had something special. But the film’s delicate mood is broken anytime Kyle opens his mouth to talk about shaving his balls or getting laid or basically anything that trumpets his obnoxiousness. 50/50 is a good movie about 60% of the time, but a higher percentage would have been appreciated.
DVD extras include audio commentary by Rogen, Reiser and director Jonathan Levine; deleted scenes; and a making-of featurette.
Movie: **1/2
FRIDA (2002). Even after all these years, we should still be thankful that it was the Salma Hayek version, not the proposed Jennifer Lopez one, that made it to the screen — after all, who wants to see a Frida Kahlo biopic that would doubtless find the Mexican artist putting aside the paintbrushes (and putting a part in her unibrow) for a career as a glamorous songbird? But seriously, as far as screen biographies of artistic sorts go (always a gamble, since it’s hard for film to accurately convey the creative process at work), this one ended up in the right hands, as director Julie Taymor (Broadway’s The Lion King, the underrated Across the Universe) uses various colorful conventions — an animated sequence designed by the Brothers Quay, the melding of actual people and artwork, the stunt casting of Edward Norton, Antonio Banderas and Ashley Judd in small roles — to effectively touch upon the key incidents in Kahlo’s life, from the trolley accident that kept her perpetually in pain over the years to her brief fling with Leon Trotsky (Geoffrey Rush). Still, the film’s centerpiece is her long, complex relationship with husband and fellow artist Diego Rivera, and it’s the robust performances by Hayek and Alfred Molina that ultimately give Frida its soul. Nominated for six Academy Awards (including a Best Actress bid for Hayek), this won two: Best Original Score and Best Makeup.
Blu-ray extras include audio commentary by Taymor; a conversation with Hayek; Bill Moyers’ interview with Taymor; Hayek’s recording sessions; the featurette The Vision, Design and Music of Frida; real locations from Frida’s life and art; and an interview with singer Chevela Vargas, a close friend of Frida and Diego (she allegedly was also one of Frida’s lovers) who’s still making music at the age of 92.
Movie: ***
GOOD MORNING, VIETNAM (1987) / DEAD POETS SOCIETY (1989). A staid, conformist institution gets shaken up by the arrival of a wisecracking maverick whose unorthodox behavior eventually gets him booted, but not before he makes a difference to many people. That’s the general plotline of not one but both movies that helped jump-start Robin Williams’ idling film career.
Despite becoming a household name thanks to his work on TV’s Mork & Mindy, Williams didn’t immediately make a successful leap to the big screen, finding himself stranded in a number of critical and/or commercial underachievers (e.g. Popeye, The Survivors, Club Paradise) for the better part of a decade. It wasn’t until Good Morning, Vietnam that he landed the right role, resulting in his first box office hit and his first Academy Award nomination (probably at the expense, alas, of the more deserving Steve Martin in Roxanne). Loosely based on a true story, the film casts the comedian as Adrian Cronauer, a military DJ whose manic on-air shenanigans are a hit with the troops but infuriate some of his superiors. Over the course of many years, Williams has soured into one of our most tiresome and least amusing comics, but here he’s fresh, vibrant and very, very funny.
Two years later, Williams headlined Dead Poets Society; here, he plays John Keating, a professor whose liberal views of education bring out the romantics in many of his students (including ones played by Ethan Hawke and Robert Sean Leonard). For the first three-quarters, this is a beautiful film about the desire to (as Thoreau put it) “suck out all the marrow of life,” but it suddenly self-destructs in the last half-hour thanks to increasingly phony melodramatics that actually include a character bellowing, “I say let Keating fry!” Nevertheless, this earned an Oscar for Tom Schulman’s original screenplay, beating out — are you ready for this? — Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, Woody Allen’s Crimes and Misdemeanors, Nora Ephron’s When Harry Met Sally… and Steven Soderbergh’s sex, lies, and videotape. Beyond its win, the film earned three additional nominations: Best Picture, Director (Peter Weir) and Actor (Williams).
Blu-ray extras on Good Morning, Vietnam include a six-part making-of piece examining the film’s genesis, its casting, its music and more; raw monologues; and the theatrical trailer. Blu-ray extras on Dead Poets Society include audio commentary by Weir, Schulman and cinematographer John Seale; retrospective interviews with Weir, co-stars Ethan Hawke and Robert Sean Leonard, and others; and pieces on the cinematography and sound.
Good Morning, Vietnam: ***
Dead Poets Society: ***
REAL STEEL (2011). Not nearly as awful as its premise and previews initially led viewers to believe, Real Steel should prove to be a modest surprise to those who had been expecting nothing more than a Transformers-style blend of CGI cacophony and callow characterizations. Although loosely based on a Richard Matheson story (“Steel”) that was previously dramatized in a 1963 episode of The Twilight Zone starring Lee Marvin, Real Steel has been described in some quarters as Rock’em Sock’em Robots: The Movie and in others as an update of 1987’s Over the Top, the dreadful Sylvester Stallone vehicle about a wash-up who travels the country entering arm-wrestling competitions while trying to bond with his estranged son. Neither viewpoint is exactly a stretch, but Real Steel has a Weapon X in Hugh Jackman, who delivers a rousing performance as Charlie Kenton, a former fighter who’s now reduced to promoting robot boxers on the underground circuit (in the film’s near-future setting, all boxing matches are between robots, not humans). Charlie is surprised to learn he has a young son, Max (Dakota Goyo), but the kid proves to be an asset as Charlie tries to move up in the sports world. Whether it’s the chemistry between Jackman and Goyo or the guiding hand of noted humanist filmmakers Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis (both on hand as producers), Real Steel mines some real emotion out of its hopelessly cliched father-son tale. As for the effects, they’re excellent, effortlessly placing the computer-generated ‘bots in real-world surroundings. Sincere but silly — I could have done without the cringe-worthy dance routines between boy and robot — Real Steel is a rocky version of the Rocky template, but it exhibits a beating heart under all that heavy metal.
Blu-ray extras include audio commentary by director Shawn Levy; deleted and extended scenes; bloopers; and a look at the creation of the film’s robots.
Movie: **1/2
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (1962). Forget James Bond and Indiana Jones: When the American Film Institute offered its picks of the top movie heroes in its 100 Greatest Heroes and Villains special in 2003, it was Atticus Finch, the soft-spoken protagonist of To Kill a Mockingbird, who emerged at the top of the list. It was a fitting tribute not only to the memorable character created by Harper Lee in her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel but also to the actor who played him: Gregory Peck, who passed away nine days after the AFI’s picks were revealed. Peck’s performance is the bedrock of this classic film, one of those rare instances when a movie perfectly captured the essence of its source material without compromising it in any way. One of the best films ever made about children and the unique way in which they view the world around them, this also benefits from the perceptive work by Mary Badham as Scout, Atticus’ young daughter who learns about justice and integrity by watching her lawyer dad defend a black man (Brock Peters) against fraudulent rape charges in a small Southern town. Nominated for eight Academy Awards (including Best Picture), Mockingbird had the misfortune of being released the same year as Lawrence of Arabia; it still managed to snag three well-deserved awards, for Peck’s lead performance, Horton Foote’s adapted screenplay, and the art direction & set decoration.
Blu-ray extras (almost all transported over from the 2005 DVD release) include Barbara Kopple’s excellent 97-minute documentary A Conversation With Gregory Peck; audio commentary by director Robert Mulligan and producer Alan Pakula; a 90-minute feature on the making of the movie; a 1999 interview with Mary Badham; and excerpts from Peck’s Oscar acceptance speech, his AFI Life Achievement Award speech, and daughter Cecilia’s speech at the Academy’s tribute to Peck after his death.
Incidentally, To Kill a Mockingbird will be just the first of many titles released this year on Blu-ray to commemorate Universal Pictures’ 100-year anniversary. It’s a sound selection, not only due to the popularity and prestige of the movie but also because it’s enjoying its own 50-year anniversary. The studio has already announced the 13 pictures it plans to release in restored editions throughout 2012: Along with Mockingbird, the others will be the Best Picture Oscar winner All Quiet on the Western Front (1930); Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds (1963); the Abbott and Costello hit Buck Privates (1941); the Bela Lugosi version of Dracula (1931); the Spanish version of Dracula, filmed at the same time on the same sets as the Lugosi one; the Boris Karloff version of Frankenstein (1931) and its sequel, Bride of Frankenstein (1935); Steven Spielberg’s Jaws (1975); Spielberg’s Best Picture Oscar winner Schindler’s List (1993); the Best Picture Oscar winner Out of Africa (1985); the Doris Day-Rock Hudson comedy Pillow Talk (1959); and the Best Picture Oscar winner The Sting (1973). Of course, that’s hardly the extent of the company’s plans: E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial will also be released on Blu-ray this year for its 30th anniversary, and the “Universal 100th Anniversary” banner is already being slapped onto Blu-rays (and DVDs) that have already been in circulation, including American Graffiti, Do the Right Thing and The Breakfast Club.
Movie: ****
THE WHISTLEBLOWER (2011). Here’s some pertinent information about DynCorp, culled from various sources (including The Guardian, The New York Times and Human Rights Watch): “DynCorp International is a United States-based private military company [which] has provided services for the U.S. military in Bolivia, Bosnia, Somalia, Angola, Haiti, Colombia, Kosovo and Kuwait … Throughout the world, DynCorp employees have been accused (and frequently found guilty) of murder, torture, fraud, and paying for male child prostitutes.” And the sickening punchline: “DynCorp currently receives more than 96% of its $2 billion in annual revenues from the US federal government.” Why is this relevant to a review of The Whistleblower? Here’s why: “DynCorp had a $15 million contract to hire and train police officers for duty in Bosnia at the time Kathryn Bolkovac reported such officers were paying for prostitutes and participating in sex-trafficking. She was unfairly dismissed due to a protected disclosure (whistleblowing).” Although the name DynCorp has been changed for the film, the name Kathryn Bolkovac remains, and this picture relates her harrowing experiences while working in Bosnia. Needless to say, this is a prime example of feel-bad cinema, and one scene in particular — a teenage girl who tries to escape is punished for her actions — is practically unwatchable. But film has a responsibility to educate as well as entertain, and for those up to the task, The Whistleblower is an ofttimes powerful experience, with Ukrainian-Canadian writer-director Larysa Kondracki (making her feature debut, as is co-scripter Eilis Kirwan) avoiding unnecessary embellishments and letting the story speak for itself. As Kathryn Bolkovac, Rachel Weisz brings the same no-nonsense demeanor and steely conviction that informed her Oscar-winning performance in The Constant Gardener: We share her frustrations when dealing with sexist U.S. peacekeepers and unctuous h.r. personnel as well as Bosnian police officers who chuckle and crack jokes when confronted with battered or murdered women. For all its righteous indignation, The Whistleblower never soars as high as comparable titles like The Killing Fields and the aforementioned The Constant Gardener. But those needing a break from such imbecilic fantasies as The Smurfs and Transformers: Part Trois won’t mind subjecting themselves to its uncomfortable truths.
Blu-ray extras include a piece on the real Kathryn Bolkovac.
Movie: ***
This article appears in Jan 24-30, 2012.
