REVIEW: GRAVITY

IN TWEET: DID YOU EVER HAVE ONE OF THOSE DAYS?

Let’s get this out of the way right here at the top: GRAVITY is the best movie I’ve seen this year. It’s a film that exceeds already lofty expectations and reminds you, in the hands of a truly gifted director, that there are still untapped wonders to behold on the big screen. Yes, GRAVITY is that good.

For those who leap to assumptions: no, you have not seen all of the best stuff in the trailers. The savvy marketing campaign only hints at the tip of a massive Murphy’s Law “iceberg” set in space. Things start out all ooh aah pretty and then go downhill fast…before getting even worse. GRAVITY is as terrifying as it is awe inspiring. After 90 thrilling, white-knuckle minutes, my lifelong fantasy of going into space is officially kaput.

Without giving too much away, Sandra Bullock plays Dr. Ryan Stone, a biomedical engineer on her first shuttle mission. She’s working on the Hubble Space Telescope under the watchful eye of commander Matt Kowalski (George Clooney), an experienced astronaut on his last trip to space. A screwed up attempt by the Russians to destroy one of their spy satellites results in a hellish chain reaction of deadly debris that turns a routine expedition into a harrowing fight for survival. Not only are Stone and Kowalski free floating miles above earth, communication satellites have been knocked out so, indeed, they are all alone.

Much has been made about the opening 15 minutes of the film. That’s good, because it’s only the warm up for a series of progressively more jaw dropping sequences of zero gravity terror. It’s a given that the visual effects are without peer. What really blew me away, however, is the way director Alfonso Cuarón keeps the focus on his actors with some of the most brilliant camera work I’ve seen in years. He pulls back at the moments when perspective is required but, more often than not, opts for intimate, often claustrophobic angles that make you feel as isolated and disoriented as the characters. The near perfect orchestration of digital wizardry and directorial prowess is astounding. I’ve never seen anything like it on the big screen.

Yes, Clooney turns in another strong performance but this is really Bullock’s movie. She’s our surrogate on screen and you are with her every step of the way (even in those moments when you have to avert your eyes because the tension is so unbearable). It’s a role that a less confident actor would screw up with lots of scenery chewing. Cuarón never misses a beat with the two-person cast and Bullock is equally pitch-perfect throughout. The scene where she cries zero gravity tears is one of the most profound and heartbreaking movie moments of the past five years. If she doesn’t get another Oscar nod, someone better cry foul.

It’s a testimony to the talents of all involved that you really have no idea how things will ultimately turn out. The stakes are high and at no point do you ever feel that anyone on screen is safe. GRAVITY is an epic journey that soars but also one that reminds us of the strength of the human spirit. It’s a message that has never been more timely or inspiring.

NOTE: I saw GRAVITY in IMAX 3D and cannot say enough good things about the format. I walked out of the theatre a sweaty mess. Be warned: if you are prone to motion sickness, you may want to stick to a 2D screening.

RONTHINK GRADE: A+

REVIEW: MAN OF STEEL

IN TWEET: IT’S A BIRD! IT’S A PLANE! IT’S A MESS! “MAN OF STEEL” NOW RANKS AS THE BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT OF THE YEAR.

I sat on this review for a few days just to make sure I felt as let down by MAN OF STEEL as I did when I left the theater. Yep, it’s as much of a loud, depressing and confoundingly messy train wreck today as it was when I saw it this past weekend. What the hell happened here?

Let’s dispense with the good stuff. This will be quick because there is so little of it.

Henry Cavill is not only beyond hot, he was born to play Superman. He looks the part and has the requisite masculine physicality. Cavill is also incredibly warm and appealing, despite every effort by the filmmakers to suck the fun out of any scene he is in. If there is goodwill to be had here, Cavill is the reason for most of it.

The supporting cast is filled with great actors who try their damndest to do something with the scraps they are given. God bless Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, Amy Adams, Laurence Fishburne, Richard Schiff and Christopher Meloni. They each give it the old college try but are working against daunting odds here. There is also a tiny nugget of geek joy early on in a mini-reunion of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA vets. Both Tahmoh Penikett (who played Helo on BSG) and Alessandro Juliani (who played Lt. Gaeta) have brief cameos.

Beyond this, MAN OF STEEL is a series of bummers. The tagline for the 1978 big-screen outing was: “You will believe a man can fly.” Here it should be: “You will feel every second of the 143 minute running time.”

MAN OF STEEL is set up for failure thanks to a bizarre narrative structure that shoots forward momentum in the foot at every turn. It’s a clunky mishmash of flashbacks, random interactions and generally lazy storytelling  that keeps things terminally grounded even when Superman takes flight. Throw in a gratingly wordy script and a few dubious casting choices and you have a watch-watcher of a summer movie.

Russell Crowe is now two for two in the “grossly miscast” department. He can’t sing a note but somehow got a part in LES MISERABLES. Here, no singing is required but he just won’t shut up. Crowe plays Jor-El with a single facial expression and emotes incessantly. It’s as if he’s auditioning to be the male counterpart to Siri. To make matters worse, Crowe keeps showing up throughout the movie like some uninvited guest you can’t get rid of. He brings the already labored proceedings to a screeching halt every time. When General Zod (Michael Shannon) finally hits Jor-El’s off button (literally), I wanted to cheer.

That’s not to say Shannon fares much better as the head baddie. He’s also way too chatty; a villain full of gas-bag bluster about re-creating Krypton, a genetic codex and other mumbo-jumbo that I never cared a whit about. Shannon is also upstaged by Antje Traue, who has quite a bit of fun playing bad-ass evil henchwoman Faora-Ul. She’s a blast to watch. He just looks like an actor with a few missing chromosomes who is earning a paycheck.

To be fair, it’s hard to hold any one actor in the cast accountable for all that is wrong with MAN OF STEEL when the film is built on such a shaky and shady foundation. Make no mistake, this isn’t an “origin tale” or a re-imagining of the Superman mythos. Instead, it’s a horribly misguided attempt to cash in on the superhero craze by grafting a well-known comic property onto a mutant hybrid of AVATAR, cutscenes from MASS EFFECT 3 and a Michael Bay production. The film has zero confidence in the source material and even less interest in trying anything new or imaginative with it. It’s a “been there, done that” buffet of stuff you didn’t enjoy the first time around.

MAN OF STEEL strings together a series of loud, obnoxious and incomprehensible special effects sequences. Each one a depressing digital shit-storm more boring than the one before it. Things go boom, mayhem ensues and you look at your watch wondering when the whole thing will be over. The inane opening set-piece on Krypton looks like something JOHN CARTER threw up. The closing bombast in Metropolis is almost a complete lift from the leveling of Chicago in TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON. Note to Zack Snyder: taking your cues from sci-fi films everyone hates isn’t a smart career move.

The near fetishistic attention paid to mass destruction means that whole “Superman thing” gets shoved by the wayside. How else to explain the careless, bare-bones approach to Clark Kent’s youth, his romance with Lois Lane (Adams) or anything else we know and love from the comic books? It’s all here, sort of, in the most “just because” fashion (don’t even get me started on the asinine ending). Too much of the movie feels like it wants to be anything but a Superman adventure. Too bad the thing it wants to be is such a massive pile of steaming crap.

The trailers show very little of what MAN OF STEEL is really all about and I suspect that is by design. This is not a film with an ounce of magic, majesty or awe. It’s a sucker punch that feels like a hollow shadow of something you loved as a kid. In the end, it amounts to little more than a total rip-off and slap in the face.

RONTHINK RATING: D+

  

REVIEW: THE GREAT GATSBY

IN TWEET: FINALLY! A BIG-SCREEN ADAPTATION OF THE F. SCOTT FITZGERALD CLASSIC THAT GETS IT RIGHT. LUSH, VISUALLY DAZZLING AND ULTIMATELY HEARTBREAKING.

By now you may have read reviews of THE GREAT GATSBY that bitch about the use of contemporary music, claim the film is all style and no substance or make it seem as though seeing the movie is an experience akin to watching a video game version of an American classic while riding a roller coaster.

Well, Old Sport, all I have to say about those critiques? RUBBISH! Baz Luhrmann’s gorgeous extravaganza is the first adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel that gets it right. It’s a summer blockbuster for adults.

THE GREAT GATSBY is a literary masterpiece I have adored for years. It’s a story rife with the alcohol soaked excesses of the idle rich set against a riotous Jazz Age backdrop. Critics who whine about the film depicting some of the major underpinnings of the source material just don’t get it. Have they read the book? Without these sequences of extravagance, THE GREAT GATSBY would be like a GODZILLA movie with no scenes of Tokyo being stomped.

What Luhrmann does particularly well is contextualize the parties, sexual indiscretions and drunken orgies. There is nothing about them that is romanticized or viewed through the rose colored glasses of nostalgia. As stylish and sumptuous as the film is throughout, it is not going to make you want to jump into a time machine and head back to Prohibition Era New York City. If you’ve ever been the only sober person in a room full of drunks, you’ll know exactly what I mean.

All of the iconic symbolism is intact and on display. The green light, the “inside vs. outside looking in” duality and, of course, the all-seeing gaze of Doctor TJ Eckelberg. It is all handled with deft skill by a director who clearly has a great deal of affection for the source material. Luhrmann knows what he is doing here and has enough faith that we do too. He resists the temptation to beat us over the head with visuals that would make him seem like the smartest guy in a room full of dummies. That’s refreshing.

Much has been made about the music featured in the film, the use of 3D and the lavish party sequences. If you’re expecting MOULIN ROUGE meets WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S ROMEO + JULIET by way of AUSTRALIA, you will be profoundly disappointed. This is Baz Luhrmann’s most restrained, earth-bound film since STRICTLY BALLROOM.

Based on what I read in advance of seeing THE GREAT GATSBY, I was expecting a circus sideshow. I’m now convinced I must have screened a different version of the film, one reserved for real people rather than the jaded, bitter, “too cool for the room” critics. An annoying bunch who seem incapable of reviewing a movie without hewing to the cinema-snob agenda or pulling the stick out of their collective asses.

The most offensively off-base screed, from Chris Nashawaty at Entertainment Weekly, references scenes that are nowhere in the film. It’s one thing to dislike a movie. It’s another thing entirely to express your distaste by making stuff up. So, here’s the quick and dirty guide to everything you’ve read about THE GREAT GATSBY that is overblown or completely untrue:

• There are no scenes featuring hip-hop dancers or DJs spinning club hits. Yes, the soundtrack recording you can buy on iTunes or Amazon does feature a ton of contemporary music. However, only a fraction of it is actually heard in the film. The most intact song is Lana Del Rey’s haunting YOUNG AND BEAUTIFUL, which is used to devastating effect. The rest of the cuts are sampled briefly and mixed with period-specific jazz and orchestral music.
• There are no scenes in the 3D print that depict anyone or anything jumping into your lap, swinging out at you on trapeze or exploding in your face. This is not a Jazz Age AVATAR. Baz Luhrmann has given numerous interviews where he discusses his application of 3D and why he went there. It’s an effective use of the technology that draws you deeper into the proceedings. Before you even realize it, you become a participant in the parties at Gatsby’s mansion and a bystander for some of the more intimate, uncomfortable sequences that dominate the latter two thirds of the film.
• This is not a manic freak show of party sequences and digital effects wizardry nor is it a 2 hour and 22 minute music video. In fact, I was surprised at how quickly Luhrmann transitioned from the excess to the intimate. It’s an elegant, three act approach that moves from the big party set pieces and period razzle dazzle to the reunion of Daisy and Gatsby and, finally, to the emotional drama and physical violence that sweep us toward a heartbreaking finale.

If you are not familiar with THE GREAT GATSBY, you might want to stop reading here to guarantee yourself a spoiler-free experience. The movie is a faithful adaptation of the novel and follows the plot right to the end.

The characters in THE GREAT GATSBY are often as vapid, empty and vile as they are fabulously wealthy. In fact, Luhrmann pulls no punches when it comes to the lack of morality of key characters or the way men treat women and minorities. This is a running theme in the movie that is not nearly as palpable in the novel. Tom Buchanan (played with loutish swagger by Joel Edgerton) is a racist, violent, old money bastard. Women are his to possess, toy with and screw. If they piss him off, he is not above a merciless backhanding. Tom’s frequent references to racial and economic superiority are tossed off as casually as the ice cubes he drops into his next cocktail.

There does, however, have to be some basic humanity to the characters or the film would quickly become an unpleasant bore. Luhrmann understands this and resists the temptation to turn Tom into a cartoon villain. There is no mustache twirling on display here (something that served the plot of MOULIN ROUGE quite well).

On some level, Tom does love both his wife Daisy (the luminous Carey Mulligan) and  his “wrong side of the tracks” mistress Myrtle Wilson (a nice turn by an almost unrecognizable Isla Fisher). Unfortunately, how and when he shows his affection is often too little, too late or destroyed by anger. For all his cocksure bravado, Tom Buchanan is an empty, insecure man. The guy who bristles when he is introduced as “a polo player” and never shows his true feelings for the women in his life until an outside force threatens to pull them from his clutches.

The emotional core of the film is fused by the twin flames of the friendship between Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) and Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio) and the romance between Daisy and Gatsby.

This is Maguire’s most accomplished big-screen work in ages and puts to rest all of my bitter memories of his whiney version of Spider Man. The framing device has Nick writing about his memories of Gatsby while going through therapy in a medical facility where he’s being treated for, among other things, his alcoholism. I’m not usually a fan of voice over narration but here it is used quite well. It’s an effective means of moving the story forward while also working in major passages from the novel. Maguire looks gaunt and wasted as he recalls his experiences on Long Island and does a nice job of making the transition from wide-eyed naiveté to broken man.

One of the biggest of many problems with the 1974 adaptation of THE GREAT GATSBY was the casting of Gatsby and Daisy. Robert Redford certainly looked the part but his aloof, detached take on the role obliterated any of the vulnerabilities and insecurities that make Gatsby’s ultimate demise such an epic tragedy. Then there was the criminal miscasting of Mia Farrow. Let’s just say a cardboard cut-out would have had more chemistry with Redford. Her Daisy was big screen Ambien.

Here, Carey Mulligan is exactly how I envisioned Daisy every time I read the book. A beautiful creature who craves the love of a lifetime but not as much as she does the trappings of wealth. She is that elusive bird, the one that will perch on your windowsill until you stop putting out the seed. Given the choice, Daisy opts for the easy path, that of the “beautiful little fool” who is as much the creator of her tender trap as she is the victim of it. Mulligan brings Daisy to life in wonderful and subtle ways that make her story arc even more achingly sad.

The key to any adaption of THE GREAT GATSBY is going to be the actor cast in the title role. Leonardo DiCaprio nails it in ways both expected and delightful. The camera loves him here more than any film he has starred in as an adult yet, this is not an adoring picture of the man that is Jay Gatsby or the man that was James Gatz. Luhrmann lures the audience into a seductive world of glamorous excess,  just as Nick Carraway is drawn in. Then the director lets DiCaprio gradually chip away at the self-created artifice.

The two most powerful scenes in the film owe a great deal of their success to DiCaprio’s astute, nuanced and wonderfully quirky take on the role. He is an awkward, jittery mess during his manufactured meet-cute with Daisy at Nick’s cottage. Gatsby goes out of his way to convince Nick to set up the meeting without telling Daisy its true purpose but then cannot resist his control freak impulses. He turns the cottage into a Mini-Me version of his own stately castle, an edifice that itself exists solely to impress Daisy. The scene is as funny as it is tragic. You can’t help but know all of the beauty and perfection on display is about to collapse out from under these characters.

The climatic scene at The Plaza Hotel has gotten a fair amount of press because Luhrmann has pointed to it as a prime example of the reason he wanted to film a 3D version. I’m inclined to agree with him. Indeed, the sequence is a stunner. It’s that rare combination of acting technique and technical prowess that work in concert to create a raw, visceral and shocking explosion of emotion. In an otherwise deliberately measured performance, DiCaprio’s volcanic eruption after being taunted by Tom is a sight to behold. In 3D, you feel like you are witnessing something very bad and very personal that you probably should not be seeing. The audience I saw the film with gasped and then fell deadly silent for the rest of the scene.

THE GREAT GATSBY was the first novel that made me cry. Even though I knew the ending and could gird myself for the death of Gatsby, the tragedy of his life and the magnitude of his unrequited love for Daisy Buchanan, I was moved to tears more than once during this movie. It’s as over the top as it is grounded. As vulgar as it is profound. As hollow as it is full of resounding emotion. It is THE GREAT GATSBY and this is all just as it should be.

RONTHINK RATING: A

This is one of the extended TV trailers for THE GREAT GATSBY and also one that I think captures the essence of the movie better than any of the promo videos I’ve seen. Enjoy!

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REVIEW: IRON MAN 3

IN TWEET: SMART, FUNNY AND REMARKABLY RESTRAINED, ROBERT DOWNEY JR. SHINES IN THE BEST FILM OF THE “IRON MAN” TRILOGY.

Iron Man, how nicely you’ve grown up!

I thought the original IRON MAN was an insufferable bore. It was two hours of too much “see how clever and funny we are” yuk yuks and Gwyneth Paltrow figuring out which of three ways she was going to play Pepper Potts. Flash forward to IRON MAN 3 (by way of a damn good sequel) and it’s a whole different world, literally and figuratively.

What makes IRON MAN 3 work so well is a more mature , character-driven approach to the humor and action sequences. In fact, I was surprised at how restrained the film was overall. There are large gaps of dialogue and character development between some impressive boom boom. Ironically, one of the best sequences in the film is a low tech infiltration of the villain’s lair in which Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark has to rely on his wits, the element of surprise and a trip to the local Ace Hardware.Make no mistake, this film is all about Robert Downey Jr. He is rarely off screen. While that was a major drag in the dreadful big screen SHERLOCK HOLMES movies, here he is firing on all cylinders and gives one of the best performances of his career. 

Downey Jr. pretty much carries the entire storyline, aided by a relay-race of rotating side kicks. Once one is knocked out of commission, he or she is replaced by someone else. The baton is passed from Head of Security Happy Hogan (a fine comedic turn by John Favreau, who should stay in front of the camera from now on), to Pepper Potts (Paltrow), to Harley Keener (played by Ty Simpkins, a real find and one of the highlights of the film) and finally to Colonel James Rhodes (Don Cheadle, always great but oddly underused here).

Writer/Director Shane Black (KISS KISS BANG BANG) deftly weaves references to THE AVENGERS into the plot and, in the case of Tony Stark, the events of that movie are a key factor in the growth of the character. Stark, freaked out by the events in New York City, has been unable to sleep or fully concentrate on his work. His frequent anxiety attacks become a running joke in the film, especially in a terrific sequence with the Harley Keener character. It’s one of those scenes between a child actor and an adult that few films do this well. Ty Simkins is definitely a young actor to watch and here proves to be much more than a source of cute interplay (a film convention that is nicely tweaked in the scene where Stark says goodbye to little Harley).Sending up big screen and comic book contrivances with gleeful and affectionate abandon allows IRON MAN 3 to wiggle through a rather tepid “world domination” plot. 

There are, essentially, two villains here. One, The Mandarin, is played by Ben Kingsley who never disappoints. Here he is on fire, especially after a major surprise plot twists is revealed. The other baddie is Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce), probably one of the least interesting fire breathing villains I’ve ever seen. I’m not sure what, exactly, is missing from Pearce’s performance but he never becomes the scary threat we expect in a film like this.

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On the flip side, there are some nasty, flamey henchmen running around who do kick major ass. A highlight is a gloriously over the top fight sequence between Stark and faux Homeland Security official Brandt (Stephanie Szostack) that anchors a major action set piece in the middle of the film.

The true standout on the black hat side of the fence is Savin, played with cool, gum chomping swagger by James Badge Dale. He’s just attractive enough to be alluring but he is clearly not someone you want to piss off. In fact, Badge Dale outshines Pearce in every scene. He would have made a much better (and more frightening) Aldrich Killian.

Global terrorism is a major plot point in IRON MAN 3 and that means bombings and destruction. Truth be told, the attack sequence that takes place at the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood is a difficult segment to sit through, especially with the Boston Marathon bombing still so fresh in our collective psyche. It was the one time the audience in the theater got very quiet.

While there is nothing remotely gratuitous or gory about the scene as presented in IRON MAN 3, it will be a long time before I can look at images of the aftermath of a bomb attack (even a fictional one) without pictures of blood soaked debris from April 15, 2013 flashing through my mind.

Fanboys will be happy that there is the usual post credit sequence, but here it is less about a major reveal than it is about closing the loop on Stark’s anxiety (with a wink and a chuckle). I was less interested in that bit of fluff than I was in the hilariously assembled closing montage. It’s a riotous tribute to title sequences in classics like the James Bond films and the Thunderbirds TV series.

The final frame of the movie promises that Tony Stark will return. If it’s in a vehicle like IRON MAN 3, he’ll be welcome anytime.

RONTHINK RATING: B+

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