The Mule

First Hit: Film lagged and spent too much time on an aging Clint Eastwood.

I was looking forward to seeing this film, but as it wound down, I realized that I simply was watching an old man be an old man making choices.

I like Eastwood and here as Earl Stone who is a horticulturist that’s running his own business, he’s good. However, as we begin to explore his life, we discover he was once married, didn’t show up to his daughter’s wedding, likes to be the life of the party, and he slowly becomes afraid of the internet because he knows it going to ruin his business.

As his flower business fails, he needs money, so he turns to driving drugs for a dealer. At first, it’s small quantities, which he does easily. Then he starts moving larger and larger amounts of cocaine.

Eventually, the head of the cartel becomes impressed with this old guy who seems to be able to easily move drugs around the country. After meeting the head, he moves the largest shipment ever moved to a mid-west city.

In the meantime, he’s being looked for by the DEA who need a bust to prove their worth. Leading the team of men is an outsider DEA Agent named Colin Bates (Bradley Cooper) and a local DEA Agent (Michael Pena).

However, the story seems to be focused on Earl, when we’ve got Pena, Cooper, and Laurence Fishburne (as a DEA Special Agent) who are great actors that have stories to tell the audience as well.

Additionally, the audience gets cheated on a background of Earl’s family with former wife Mary (Dianne Wiest), daughter Iris (Alison Eastwood), and granddaughter Ginny (Taissa Farmiga). It could have been compelling to share more about this. Why hire great actors if they only have small, almost meaningless roles?

To me this was the downfall of the film. We spent a lot of time with Earl driving down the highway when backstories of all these characters could have been brought forth for our enjoyment.

Eastwood was good, but he seems to either lack the fortitude to take on strong roles or he wanted it to be this fumblingly self-focused old man trying to make a living and be seen by others as king of the hill. Farmiga was strong as the granddaughter who believed in him. Wiest was great, but there was so little of her. Alison Eastwood was OK as Earl’s daughter. Cooper was OK in a limited but pivotal role. I think he needed to become more of the story. Pena was, as always, an excellent sidekick. Fishburne was strong as the leading Special Agent. Andy Garcia was excellent as the drug lord. Nick Schenk wrote this film from an New York Times article. Eastwood directed himself in this film and it appears he’s lost his touch.

Overall: This was a disappointing film, lacking in suspense as well as developing scenes.

Book Club

First Hit: Although the age ranges they portrayed didn’t work, as a comedy it was out-loud funny.

The actual age ranges between these women (Fonda 81 & Steenburgen 65) was too wide ranging for me to believe that they were nearly lifelong friends. This part of the story needed cleaning up. However, once I got past this, I found the story funny, poignant, and enjoyable.

At the time I went to see this film, 11:00 AM, there was a small crowd of older women. I think I was the only man in the audience. And initially, they were laughing at just about everything. I was only mildly amused.

Yet something happened as the film went on, I found myself enjoying the pointed jabs at age, men, sex, and technology. What made it work was the actors themselves. They all have been around long enough for the audience to know them a little. The parts they played were perfect to how we know them.

The vehicle the story uses for these women to get together once a month is a Monthly Book club. They’ve been meeting monthly for over forty years and in doing so, they have learned to love and accept each other as they are.

Diane (Diane Keaton) was grounded in her flighty Annie Hall sort of way. Watching her slow build to telling her grown protective children that she was still capable of being happy, learning, and having fun experiences with a man was pointedly clear.

Vivian (Jane Fonda) played the rich I don’ need anyone loner was perfect. Jane has generally shown her skittishness towards being vulnerable and in this role, she has to become vulnerable with the man who shows up to her again after forty years.

Sharon (Candice Bergen) was the professional woman, who had her cat and her Federal Judgeship to keep her happy. After her divorce her husband Tom (Ed Begley Jr.) found love in someone one third his age. She said she couldn’t care less and was happy presiding over her courtroom until....

And Carol (Mary Steenburgen) was the only married woman in the group. Her husband Bruce (Craig T. Nelson) and her still liked sex. However, after his retirement party six months earlier, he was disinterested in her sexually and seemed lost.

Early in the film, the group meets and it’s Vivian’s turn to select a book. She chooses Fifty Shades of Grey. This gets all the women thinking about their sex life and eventually their love life.

Diane is afraid of flying and meets a very rich pilot Mitchell (Andy Garcia). Vivian runs into her old beau Arthur (Don Johnson) who is still in love with her. Sharon decides to try internet dating and meets up with George (Richard Dreyfus) an accountant and someone who really likes her. And Carol finds devious ways to try to get Bruce interested in sex again.

As you might imagine, older women finding that they are interested in love and intimacy is relevant to all people at any age.

Keaton was quirkily funny in both her actions (paddling a floating swan in a pool) and words. She can really shine when the role calls for it, and it does here. Fonda, I must admit, is someone I’ve adored for her intelligent skittishness towards men. Here she shows that she still has that power over me at 81. Bergen was the character I had the most reservations about. I never liked her TV role of Murphy Brown much, but here she shines. I loved her projections of herself on her contented cat. Steenburgen had the most difficult role because she was still in a relationship. However, the scene with the cop stopping her and Bruce after she spiked his beer with Viagra was funny. Nelson was very good as the reluctant husband finding his way after retirement. Garcia was excellent as the pilot who wanted to whisk Diane away. Johnson was very good as the very romantic younger man who still held a lot of love for Vivian. Dreyfus was funny and appropriately stuffy as the accountant that had found his match. Them getting out of the back seat of Sharon’s car was funny. Bill Holderman and Erin Simms wrote a script that worked for these actors. Holderman’s direction was strong enough to get me laughing out loud.

Overall: I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.

Kill the Messenger

First Hit:  Although not a great film, it was an amazing story and in the end, I really felt for the messenger.

This is the story about how the Reagan led administration allowed the CIA to promote selling drugs in the US to create cash to buy arms for the Nicaraguan Contra rebels.

Congress wouldn’t support arming the Contras so the CIA decided to fund the war by getting Americans addicted to drugs. The irony of course is the Nancy Reagan “Say no to drugs” campaign. Even worse are the deaths of children and adults as a direct result of the CIA action.

Was Reagan in on this - my guess is probably and I "don't know". Jeremy Renner plays Gary Webb the San Jose Mercury News reporter that wrote and broke this story. It so inflamed the government, they called in all their chips with other news agencies and made Webb’s story seem false, unsubstantiated and inaccurate. How this affects his work life and home life are what this film is about.

Shamefully, as history tells us, the CIA’s confession years later didn’t land in the news like the stories made up and published against him. The story ends sadly and is a matter of public record. What it does point out is the criminal nature of our government in the name of stopping “the spread of communism” – yeah right.

Renner is strong as a reporter of integrity. I’m glad this story was told. Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Webb’s editor was interesting and failed to trust her reporter. Rosemarie DeWitt as Gary’s wife Sue was superb. I so enjoyed her presence in the film. Lucas Hedges as oldest son Ian was sublime. Small and pivotal roles by Oliver Platt, Andy Garcia and Ray Liotta were wonderful. Peter Landesman wrote this script from Gary Webb’s own book and Nick Schou's book of the films’ name. Michael Questa adequately directed this film.

Overall:  This was a great story and it saddens me that we cannot trust our government - still can't.

At Middleton

First Hit:  This was very enjoyable to watch the dance of this relationship develop.

The essence of this story is about two adults George Hartman (Andy Garcia) and Edith Martin (Vera Farmiga) bringing their two respective kids to a college in Middleton for a campus tour but find something greater.

Edith’s daughter Audrey (Taissa Farmiga) wants to come to Middleton because she wants to work with Professor Dr. Roland Emerson (Tom Skerritt) while George’s son Conrad (Spencer Lofranco) thinks this middle American country college is totally lame.

The film gives a view of their respective parental relationships by going from car to car as they drive to the college. The personality of each of the parents becomes solidified the moment these two cars park in the parking lot and there is a disagreement. There is a spark between these parents and it is visible.

As the film unfolds the kids have their experience of the college, each other and wondering about their parents, while the film focuses on the budding relationship of the parents. The sequence when they get roped into demonstrating a married couple in front of the drama class was very powerful. The twist about what their children choose is like icing on the cake.

Garcia was very good as the uptight cardio surgeon wanting his son to experience, possibly what he hasn’t. Vera Farmiga is strong as the sarcastic, vulnerable, and engaging woman who wants to have more in life. Her younger sister (by 21 years) Taissa was very engaging and screen stealing when she was on camera. Lofranco was OK as Garcia’s son, and his performance grew as the film moved along. Skerritt was really good in his short role as the admired professor. Glenn German and Adam Rodgers wrote a snappy (parking lot exchange) and heart-warming script. Rodgers directed the film with a caring touch by setting up some wonderful scenes, including the bike theft.

Overall:  This was a pleasure to watch – heartwarming.

City Island

First Hit: Wonderfully written and acted film that’s filled with lies and truth.

I’ll believe that you are who you say you are, if you believe that I am who I say I am. This is general tacit agreement we humans have with each other.

That statement captures the first two thirds of this film. This is the film "Greenberg" wanted to be, introspective, well acted and funny. The Rizzo family is in full bloom in this picture.

Vince (played by Andy Garcia) is a want to be actor who has a long career as a corrections officer. He also has a son from a previous relationship which his family doesn’t know about. He is married to Joyce (played by Julianna Margulies) who is angry and is a telephone receptionist.

Their children Vinni (played by Ezra Miller) and Vivian (played by Dominik Garcia-Lorido) have their own secrets. He has an obesity fetish and hers is that she is a stripper and not in college as her parents think. They live in The Bronx but on a little island called City Island which has its own peculiar characterization.

The family is loud and their over dinner conversations are a riot of jabs and barbs. Everyone smokes cigarettes and everybody conceals their habit from one another. Vince says he is going out to play poker when in-fact he is taking acting lessons. He doesn’t tell Joyce about his lessons because he thinks she’ll laugh at him and thinks he’s a fool for trying.

Joyce is suspicious that Vince is really having an affair instead of playing poker and because no one talks to each other honestly, the illusion grows. Vivian is stripping because she lost her scholarship in college for smoking pot on campus. She’s trying to make enough money to go back to school.

Lastly Vince discovers his first son Tony (played by Steven Strait); the son no one knows about, happens to be in his prison. He gets him released under his supervision and takes him home to meet the family he doesn't know about. 

As the film reaches its chaotic climax, the laughs, truths, and realizations are vivid, well characterized and felt by the audience.

Garcia is absolutely great. This is the best I’ve ever seen him. Margulies is good as Garcia’s spousal foil. Strait is solid as the lost son. Miller and Garcia-Lorido fill their roles very well and keep the story alive and moving. Raymond De Felitta wrote and directed this film with perfect little touches which laid down the ground work so that each character was fully fleshed through scenes of interesting conversations and actions.

Overall:  This was a wonderful film about the truth setting people free.