Peppermint

First Hit: I enjoy a well-acted and thoughtful revenge film and this one fits the bill.

Riley North (Jennifer Garner), her husband Chris (Jeff Hephner) and their daughter Carly (Calley Fleming) are a happy family except money is always an issue. Chris and  his co-worker Mickey (Chris Johnson) hatch a plan to steal a drug dealers loot. But Chris thinks twice and calls Mickey to tell him he wants out, that he cannot risk himself and his family's well being.

However, the dealer learns of the plot, kills Mickey and sends gang-bangers to kill Chris. They find Chris with his family enjoying an amusement park for Carly's birthday. When they kill Chris they do it with automatic weapons and not only kill Chris, they kill Carly and Riley is shot and injured. After mourning her family and getting nowhere with the police investigation, she disappears for five years. Riley leaves the country and upon her return, she’s transformed herself from supportive housewife to killing machine. While away she's learned martial arts, how to stalk people, how to kill with guns and her bare hands, and new she's back and wants revenge on the whole gang who killed her family.

The police and FBI pick up on the trail of bodies she leaves behind, including the three bodies hanging upside-down on the Ferris wheel at the amusement park where she was shot and her husband and daughter died five years earlier.

Riley is being hunted by the FBI, L.A. Police Department, and the gang. Will she win in the end? What price will she be willing to pay?

Garner is fantastic as Riley, a revenge filled killing machine. Her skills in body movement, and the belief in her eyes, had me rooting for her all the way. Hephner was good in his small role. Fleming was excellent in her role as well. Juan Pablo Raba as drug lord Diego Garcia was very strong. John Gallagher Jr. as Detective Stan Carmichael was excellent. John Ortiz as a seasoned Detective Moises Beltran was perfect. Annie Ilonzeh as FBI Agent Lisa Inman was very good. Chad St. John wrote a strong revenge script. It was this script, Garner’s acting and Pierre Morel’s direction that made it all work.

Overall: This was a excellent revenge film and sometimes a woman’s revenge is best.

Men, Women & Children

First Hit:  Interesting film about how social media is navigated and used.

I’m not a big Social Media person. I have a Facebook account which I look at about once every six months and I’ve a twitter account that I used 5 times 2 years ago.

However my company uses these and other social media vehicles to help us be seen and to grow our presence. In this film we have a paranoid mother Patricia (Jennifer Garner) monitoring every interaction her daughter Brandy (Kaitlyn Dever) has in her social media accounts. All except a secret account where Brandy dresses up and posts pictures as someone else.

She begins to like and meet up with Tim (Ansel Elgort), a loner guy whose mom left him and his dad and he’s wondering if life is worthwhile. His mom posts her adventures in California with new boyfriend on Social Media - then blocks his access to her account. Then there is Hannah Clint (Olivia Crocicchia) whose mother Donna (Judy Greer) takes suggestive photos of her and posts them for payment and view by clients.

There is also Don and Patricia Truby (Adam Sandler and Rosemarie DeWitt respectively) who have lost sexual interest in each other and use websites to find sexual partners. There were a lot of stories in this film and above were only some of them.

The point, which it did well, was to highlight how over control, under awareness, and not knowing what is going on with your child or partner leads to interesting uses of social media. With social media we separate ourselves and don’t talk face to face.

Conversely, we also will use it to also connect with strangers, call them “friends” although we don’t know them, and create relationships. Scenes where people were walking in shopping malls and school halls with their phone’s text message bubbles over them while they walk, heads down, looking at their screens was very telling.

Sandler was good as the man and husband who has lost his way and finds that treading old water won’t be helpful. The last scene in the kitchen with this wife as very good. DeWitt was very strong as the wife who was looking for some excitement in her life. Garner was so over the top (in a good way) and great as the paranoid mother. Dever was wonderful as the young girl hamstringed by her mom (Garner) and finding strength to live her life. Crocicchia was perfect as the girl who would do anything to be on reality TV and who thinks that what she looks like is the most important thing. Greer is very good as the mom who wanted to be a Hollywood star, didn’t make it, so she pushed and sold her daughter’s beauty. Elgort was excellent as the boy, who lost his mom, and was trying to make sense of his life and what was important. Additionally Elania Kampouris was very effective as the girl who made a guy’s opinion of her more important than her own opinion of herself. Chad Kultgen and Jason Reitman wrote the interesting but a bit too scattered script and Reitman got good performances out of his actors and the script.

Overall:  I think the story tried to tell too many stories and therefore there wasn’t enough depth in any one of them.

Draft Day

First Hit:  Overall, it was enjoyable, partially predictable and at times surprisingly unpredictable.

The world of drafting sports players onto professional teams has become big business. Television rights, high-level news reporting and “fantasy leagues” all contribute to the business side of televising this event. Although I’m aware of the draft days (mostly for football and basketball), I do not care enough to watch these events because it just isn’t that important or interesting to me.

What interested me about this film was hoping to see how deals were made before the choices are announced on television. I also thought that Kevin Costner, playing Cleveland Brown’s General Manager Sonny Weaver Jr., would be good at playing this sort of character. He did and so did Dennis Leary as Coach Penn. They both played great antagonist, power control issue roles. 

The story begins with 24 hours on the clock before teams, in their draft order, have 10 minutes name the player they want to sign to their teams. There is always heavy competition by the players to be picked high up in the draft because that guarantees’ them more money. Weaver begins the final day receiving phone calls from players who want him to draft them and also from the team’s owner Anthony Molina (Frank Langella) who wants his GM to “make a splash”.

The pressure is building because Coach Penn wants specific people drafted. Then the calls from other GM’s wanting to trade people and draft choices begin to come in. To add a more human aspect of Weaver’s life, he has a relationship with Ali (Jennifer Garner) the team’s financial guru. She had told Weaver the night before that she is pregnant with his baby and supposedly their relationship is hidden from the staff. But it is the final moments of when the league commissioner begins to announce the choices and how the dealing of people quickens.

Costner is smooth, intelligent and believable in this role. He was very strong as the general manager. Leary was perfect as the strong ego centric coach that wants to prove himself with the right players. Langella was sublime as the team’s owner – he carried this role perfectly. Garner is plenty smart and good in this role and I guess there was more of her character in the film. Griffin Newman as Rick the intern was specifically fun to watch and he did the intern role very well. Scott Rothman and Rajiv Joseph wrote a credible screen play. Ivan Reitman directed this with a good view of the way a draft day could play out.

Overall:  I people knowledgeable of the draft process would appreciate the way it is done here because it is educational. 

Dallas Buyers Club

First Hit:  A very strong, poignant and wonderful story about wanting to live.

This story highlights the fear of and struggles with HIV/AIDS in the mid-1980s. Ron Woodruff (Matthew McConaughey) lives a really hard life.

He’s an electrician, bull rider, while trying to un-protectively screw every woman he sees. He’s drunk or high much of the time and in today's terms he lives, what we would call, an extremely risky life. Ron and his friends are homophobic and take pride in being “real men”.

The opening scenes of him screwing a woman in a bull stall while peeking through the fence at a bull rider being thrown from his mount which segues into him taking bets and drinking and hitting a cop tells a specific story. Due to an accident while trying to fix an electrical connection, he ends up in the hospital.

The doctors, after doing numerous blood tests on him, tell him he’s got HIV/AIDS and has about 30 days to live. He’s denies he’s got a homo disease, but his predicament catches up and catches hold in his mind and he begins to learn about his disease. He cannot get dosages of AZT which has been shown to both help fight the virus but in doing so breaks down the immune system completely. As an alternative for himself and others, he goes to Mexico and gets drugs (protein and other antiviral concoctions) and sells them to others who are suffering. He then learns that selling unapproved drugs is illegal so he starts a Club where people pay monthly memberships and get their drugs for free (patients self-administer).

Keeping the club alive for himself and others who are suffering is rough going because the government wants him and other clubs like his, shut down. Helping him develop his club is gay crossdresser Rayon (Jared Leto) and Dr. Eve Saks (Jennifer Garner) who walks a fine line until she sees that her hospital’s philosophy is not assisting HIV/AIDS patients is not helping.

McConaughey will be nominated for his portrayal of Woodruff. He physically and mentally did what it took to climb into this role and share the story of a man who lived more than 2,200 days past the expiration date he was given of 30 days. He powerfully showed how humans will do what it takes to survive. Leto was absolutely amazing as Rayon and will probably be nominated for a supporting role. Garner was very good as a doctor attempting to toe the line of her job and also act with empathy towards her HIV/AIDS patients. Denis O’Hare was excellent as the head doctor and administrator holding the line of policy. Craig Borten and Melisa Wallack wrote an amazing script and Jean-Marc Vallee delivered Oscar worthy direction.

Overall:  A very powerful film about human perseverance.

Arthur

First Hit: Different from the original film with Dudley Moore, but this was very entertaining and had out-loud laughs.

The Moore Minnelli film was good but this one was actually better in comedic charm.

Russell Brand plays Arthur in this film as a heavy drinking funny guy who would marry someone he doesn’t love, just to keep his inheritance. Hobson, his nanny (played by Helen Mirren) raised Arthur after his father dies.

His mother Vivienne (played by Geraldine James) has no real hand in Arthur’s upbringing and is ineffective in communicating and loving Arthur. To keep the family business in the hands of someone capable, Vivienne decides Arthur must marry Susan (played by Jennifer Garner) who is very driven, smart, but only looking for power and validity because her father Burt Johnson (played by Nick Nolte) is a self-made builder.

I loved the relationship between Hobson and Arthur because the greatness of Mirren’s acting kept the film on even keel while letting Brand have some fun with the role. Arthur meets up Naomi (played by Greta Gerwig) whom he falls in love with. Naomi gives illegal tours of New York and writes children stories. She and Arthur have a great connection and it shows on the film.

As Arthur found his strength to grow-up, he takes charge of his life.

Brand is funny and although his drunken behavior wasn’t very good, his witticisms, great comic timing, and facial expressions really made this film work in juxtaposition to Mirren’s smart refined behavior. Mirren was great in this role and she really grounded this picture in a wonderful way. James was strong as the mother who was unwilling to be a mother. Garner was good as the power hungry girl who would live in a loveless marriage just for power. Nolte was gravelly as always. Gerwig is great as the love interest and person by whom Arthur discovers himself. Peter Baynham wrote a funny screenplay from a Steve Gordon story. Jason Winer directed this film with a lightheartedness that was perfect.

Overall: This film was funny enough to be worthwhile of an audience.