Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

First Hit: I was transported back in time and thoroughly enjoyed this film.

For me, what makes a good film is if I am moved intellectually or emotionally and I’m learning from, or interested in the story. What makes a great film is when I’m transported into another place and time, I’m fully engaged and curious about each character, and I’m riding the crest of anticipation about the story as it unfolds.

Great films start with a great story, followed by great acting; however, it is the director who puts this all together in scenes that capture the color, time, place, and essence to make the story great.

Quentin Tarantino as writer and director has delivered a great film. One of the best he’s ever done and, so far, easily the best film of the year.

This story is about a fading actor named Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) who is used to playing the heavy in his films. He’s played in westerns and Army characters as shown in black and white flashbacks. This technique of using dated-looking footage to create backgrounds was used for both Dalton and his stunt double Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt).

While Dalton is dealing with his fading career, we learn that Cliff is more than just his stunt double, he’s also Dalton’s closest friend and chauffeur. As they travel from set to set together, we learn more about Cliff with a flashback that he may have killed his wife. This is part of the setup to show that Booth is no pushover and maybe a ruthless hombre. One of the funniest scenes exemplifying this power is the scene with Bruce Lee (Mike Moh). Lee’s squeals as he prepares to strike Booth are hilarious — just an extra-level above the real Bruce Lee. As they begin to square off in a fight to prove who is the toughest, we see the inner power of Booth and his intelligence and physical prowess.

At one point Booth and Dalton are driving through Hollywood, and they encounter a group of “hippy” women digging through a trash bin, these are Charles (Charlie) Manson’s (Damon Herriman) girls. This scene combined with one in which Charlie is confronted by Dalton as he attempts to get up to the former home of Brian Wilson, introduces the audience to the weirdness of and story of the Manson Family. The house he’s trying to go to is next door to Dalton’s and is now occupied by Sharon Tate (Margo Robbie) and Roman Polanski (Rafal Zawierucha). This sets up the tension of what we all know is history.

But that’s what’s impressive about this film. “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” shines a new and different light on history as we know it. Although the movie does have violence, it changes the outcome of the original Manson murders in a way that left me reflective of the actual murders and the era in which they took place.

The effectiveness of the sets, as this film is set in the late 1960s, is phenomenal. I grew up in Southern California and outside of one freeway exit sign, which was too new, everything was just as it was in the Hollywood area back then. The Cinerama theater, the restaurants, the business signs, and the street scenes were all fantastic. But it was the cars that touched my heart the most when I think of the time. Dalton’s caddy, Polanski’s MG, Mustangs, Volkswagens, all of them, perfect. All the cars, whether on the freeway, parked, or driving the streets, were accurate to the time and, for me, cemented the moments.

DiCaprio was phenomenal. Showing Dalton’s insecurities and strengths all within moments of each other – perfect. I especially loved two scenes; when he returned to his trailer after flubbing a couple of lines and he berates himself with mercilessness self-flagellating dialogue. The other scene is when he’s talking to a young actor Trudi (Julia Butters). Their back and forth dialogue was sublime. Pitt was amazing as Booth. This is one of the best roles I’ve seen Pitt in, and it felt like the culmination of all the different parts he’s played, from heavy to a supportive, nice guy. Here he is all of them. Robbie, as Tate, was excellent. She captured the wonder and starry-eyed sense of a young woman finding her place in the world of acting. The theater scenes when she’s watching herself on the screen were powerful. Butters was incredible as the young actor who was serious about her job. Margaret Qualley as Manson girl “Pussycat” was terrific. She captured the free love feeling of the time so very well. Dakota Fanning as Manson girl Squeaky Fromme was powerful. She exemplified the focused control of the situation she put herself in. Moh captured the essence of Bruce Lee plus a little more. Bruce Dern was perfect as a grouchy and funny George Spahn, owner of the ranch that Manson and his followers took over. There are a ton of actors in this film in various sized roles, and I won’t name them all here but suffice to say everyone was outstanding. As I said earlier, Tarantino has peaked, for now, this was his best.

Overall: I was fascinated by this story and the way it unfolded — easily best film of the year so far.

Academy Awards - The Oscars

OK, here we are again celebrating another year of film going. Some strong films this year, films that broke box office records, and films that failed. Here are my choices for the following awards and some thoughts around some of them.

• Best Actor - Nominees are:  Bryan Cranston (Trumbo), Matt Damon (The Martin), Leonardo DiCaprio (The Revenant), Michael Fassbender (Steve Jobs) and Eddie Redmayne (The Danish Girl). This is not as strong a field as it was last year. The obvious missing actors are Tom Hanks (Bridge of Spies) maybe because he made it look so easy, and Steve Carell who was so quirky and interesting you just wanted to see what he was going to do next. Both of these were strong performances, yet not in my top two of this listing. Although Cranston's  performance was good, I didn't like the character nor the interpretation. Fassbender was very good, however this role had been done too many times in the last two years. I did not see The Danish Girl therefore I don't have an opinion. However, Damon and DiCapiro's performances were fantastic - beyond amazing. I loved each of them. My guess is that DiCaprio will win the Oscar.
• Best Actress  - Nominees are:  Cate Blanchett (Carol), Brie Larson (Room), Jennifer Lawrence (Joy), Charlotte Rampling (45 Years), and Saoirse Ronan (Brooklyn). This is a strong category although I didn't see 45 Years, the others were great. I also see a missing person from this list and that would be Rooney Mara in Carol as well. Between Cate and Rooney I would have picked Mara because I felt as though her evolution through the film was a more powerful statement. However, she is in the Supporting Actress listing. Out of the nominated list, it comes down to two outstanding performances: Ronan and Blanchett. Lawrence's performance was really good and I was fully engaged with her character, however it did not have the power of Ronan or Blanchett's. Larson was also very strong, however so much of her performance is linked to Jacob Tremblay the young boy that it took away from her own performance. For me I'd like Ronan to get this Oscar in an amazing performance in a  wonderful film.
• Best Supporting Actress  - Nominees are:  Jennifer Jason Leigh (The Hateful Eight), Rooney Mara (Carol), Rachel McAdams (Spotlight), Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl), and Kate Winslet (Steve Jobs). As I mentioned earlier I think Mara's performance belongs in the Best Actress category. I didn't see The Danish Girl so I'm making my pick without full knowledge of the selections. However, without Mara I think the most interesting and performance is Leigh's. It was so hidden and yet over the top that I was mesmerized each time she opened her mouth and/or the camera focused on her. These are the top two and in my view either probably deserves the Oscar.
• Best Supporting Actor  - Nominees are:  Christian Bale (The Big Short), Tom Hardy (The Revenant), Mark Ruffalo (Spotlight), Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies), and Sylvester Stallone (Creed). The missing performance is Jacob Tremblay's in Room. He was phenomenal. But this is probably one of the strongest fields in years, so someone had to be left off the list. They were all great and my favorites out of this list are Rylance and Stallone. Rylance had such a small role yet it was so much impact on the film that it was unforgettable. However Stallone will get it for both this performance and his body of work as Rocky Balboa.
• Best Cinematography  - Nominees are:  Ed Lachman (Carol), Robert Richardson (The Hateful Eight), John Seale (Mad Max: Fury Road), Emmaual Lubezki (The Revenant), and Roger Deakins (Sicario). Although Mad Max: Fury Road was big it did not grab me because I thought the film was more on the mindless side. Carol was elegantly shot and fully deserves the nomination. However, The Hateful Eight and The Revenant are over the top amazingly beautiful and powerful. The Hateful Eight deserves a lot of credit for doing so much in one room, while The Revenant wins this award for how shots were made and the perspective by which they were made. The winner - pick.
• Best Adapted Screenplay  - Nominees are:  Charles Randolph and Adam McKay (The Big Short), Nick Hornby (Brooklyn), Phyllis Nagy (Carol), Drew Goddard (The Martian), and Emma Donoghue (Room). Wow, what a list. All great picks. Any one of these could win in any given year. However, my final two would be Randolf and McKay for The Big Short and Hornby for Brooklyn. In the end I'm picking Nick Hornby for Brooklyn because it was a great screenplay and a wonderful film to watch.   
• Best Original Screenplay  - Nominees are:  Matt Charman and Ethan & Joel Coen (Bridge of Spies), Alex Garland (Ex Machina), Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve, and Josh Cooley (Inside Out), Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy (Spotlight), and Jonathan Herman and Andrea Berloff (Straight Outta Compton). Another strong set of contenders. All very different films. In the end I think I like Ex Machina and Spotlight as powerful screen plays for very different reasons. One reflects a horrible set of acts by Catholic Priests and the other about the obsessiveness and controlling nature of technology. In the end I select Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy for Spotlight.
• Best Director  - Nominees are:  Adam McKay (The Big Short), George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road), Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (The Revenant), Lenny Abrahamson (Room), and Tom McCarthy (Spotlight). Missing are:  Ridley Scott (The Martian), J.J. Abrams (Star Wars: The Force Awakens), Todd Haynes (Carol), Quentin Tarantino (The Hateful Eight) and John Crowley (Brooklyn). To me this is the most messed up nominee listing. How is Max: Fury Road better directed than all my exceptions? It isn't and doesn't hold a candle to them. Also given my exceptions, I think Abrahamson's delivery is not quite there. Anyway, from the nominee list, I would say it is between McKay, Inarritu, and McCarthy. In the end I'd select McKay (with McCarthy a very close second) because he did the most to keep the film on track. Inarritu had too many long wistful shots. However this listing of nominees is really flawed.
• Best Picture  - Nominees are:   The Big Short, Bridge of Spies, Brooklyn, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Martian, The Revenant, Room, and Spotlight. Missing here is Carol and The Hateful Eight. Mad Max: Fury Road is nowhere in the league as these other nominees and, in my opinion, doesn't deserve to be listed. I simply was board stiff by the one long chase film filled with foolish philosophy. It is hard for me to pick as I loved "Brooklyn" as being a wonderfully executed nostalgic story. I thought "The Big Short" told a compelling story of how our economy tanked. "The Martian" was beautifully delivered and Damon made it happen. "Bridge of Spies" and "Spotlight" are both amazing stories about something that really happened. I was totally engaged and felt they delivered in all ways; education and story. The only thing I didn't like about "The Revenant" was that there were too many long scenic only shots which took away from the story.  In the end, of the listed I'd like to see "The Martian" win but can also see the others winning except Mad Max.

Some other thoughts about films this year:

• "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" was amazingly edited.
• "Ex Machina's" visual effects were very strong and so were scenes in "The Revenant".
• "Anomalisa" and "Inside Out" were both amazing Animated Feature films.
• "Carol" had perfectly detailed costumes and overall set design.
• "Writings on the Wall" the song for "Spectre" was dreadful.

Note: I'll be England sitting in silence for 30 days starting late next week. I may be able to see one more film before I go, but otherwise I won't be seeing any films or posting any reviews until the first week of March.

Thank you for viewing my site.

The Revenant

First Hit:  Strong in many ways because of DiCaprio's performance and in the beautifully interesting way it was shot, however, it also felt a little too long.

Director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu is an expert in creating wonderful visual pictures and scenes to watch.

Many of them are awe inspiring. Here, some of the long sequences enhanced the film and, in some ways, hurt the film. There were times that I just didn’t think I needed to sit through another sequence of seeing the rugged cold terrain.

After a couple of these I found myself thinking about something else instead of being totally involved in the film. However, on the converse side watching Leonardo DiCaprio being Hugh Glass was a treasure. It is very possible that his performance wins the Oscar and the film does not. This is because I really felt there were better films (see other recently posted reviews).

This story is about a man being betrayed by his fellow man in three ways: First, his son’s mother was killed by a group of Indian village raiders. Second, his son (Hawk – played Forrest Goodluck) was killed in front of him by John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy). And finally, Fitzgerald dumped him into a shallow grave, threw some dirt on him and left him to die in the middle of nowhere.

As you might imagine, Glass is pissed and filled with revenge. The bear mauling scene is amazing in that it isn’t just a short quick event, it is elongated just as one might expect as it would have happened.

This is what Inarritu is great at filming; long scenes shot eloquently that feel real. Just like the bear scene, the scene of the Indians attacking the fur trappers just felt real. The way the arrows just come into the picture frame hitting or missing their target is absolutely amazing.

Like Spielberg did with the scenes of the Normandy Beach landing in "Saving Private Ryan", these scenes are punctuated with a realistic sounds giving the audience a feeling as if you are there.

The other thing Inarritu is unafraid to do is to be creative in the story: The scene where Glass uses a horse carcass to warm and protect himself from the cold – ingeniously thought of and executed.

The palpable feeling of being in a subzero and cold environment came across clearly through the panoramic shots and close ups of the characters.

The only thing that didn’t work for me was that the film seemed long and I’d be hard pressed to say what could have been cut, except some long landscape shots .

Leonardo DiCaprio was amazing in this role and I also have to give kudos to the makeup artist because I believed every wound on his body seemed real. Tom Hardy was appropriately self-serving, mean and thoughtless as his role needed him to be. He was really strong. However I struggled to place or understand the accept he used. Goodluck was really good as the half white and Indian boy who loved his father. Domhnall Gleeson as Captain Andrew Henry, the leader of the tappers group, was effective and strong as the responsible person. Mark L. Smith and Inarritu wrote a very strong compelling script. Inarritu was masterful in his direction and used the camera effectively to portray this amazing story.

Overall:  This film was an amazingly visual adventure of a man's quest for revenge.

The Wolf of Wall Street

First Hit:  Although 3 hours long, it was entertaining and intense.

I happened to watch “Goodfellas” the morning before I saw Wolf. The similarities are that Martin Scorsese used a group of wild characters and shows them acting the same way when confronted with diverse situations. Drugs and illegal actions are also key elements in both films.

From a visual perspective, both films use family situations, groups, couples and single moments to build the story visually. What I didn’t like about Wolf was the illegal actions of the characters actions. Yes in "Goodfellas" they did illegal things, and they were expected to. The focus on selling unsuspecting people on making a quick buck (their own greed) because you are good at selling people, just didn’t sit well with me.

The film uses a number of voice overs which I don't normally like but it did add to the story as time got a bit mixed up. Because it is based on a true story, the pervasive use of drugs and alcohol as fuel to their lifestyle and trading was disconcerting.

Leonardo DiCaprio plays Jordan Belfort who just wanted to be rich, real rich. He discovers that drugs, womanizing, and money mix well delivering what he wanted. I’m not sure whether the film reflected the shallowness of the person and people in his firm or if the film was just shallow. Regardless, the scene of him on his boat speaking with the FBI was excellent while the scene of him discussing how to throw midgets at targets in the office, wasn’t.

DiCaprio was strong and made the script work and believable. Jonah Hill as Belfort’s sidekick was, at times over the top and not interesting, while at other times good. Matthew McConaughey in a small role as Mark Hanna was very good. Rob Reiner as Jordan’s dad Max was very good and I enjoyed his presence in the film. Margot Robbie (playing Naomi Lapaglia) as Belfort’s second wife was very good. Not only very attractive to look at, she created a sense of reality in the film. Terence Winter wrote an extensive script from Belfort’s book. Scorsese was able to reign in Belfort’s lifestyle and present it on film.

Overall:  This is a very good film, maybe in the same category as Goodfellas, but is it great and inventive  like Goodfellas was of its time? I don't think so.

The Great Gatsby

First Hit:  Visually arresting at times, but the story lagged and acting was spotty.

A good actor can create believability in a character. Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby had me believing. I like how he’s matured and the lines in his face are giving him an air of reliability.

Carey Mulligan (as Daisy Buchanan) didn’t quite make it for me. She appears too intelligent and strong to make me believe she would choose to stay with her husband given the love she had for Gatsby.

Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway, the storyteller, is good at showing vulnerability, intelligence and obsessiveness. One thing that perplexed me from the beginning was how I was expected to believe that Nick and Tom Buchanan (Joel Edgerton) went to school together – the perceived age difference between the two characters didn’t work for me.

I sat there and said to myself multiple times, these two guys didn’t go to college together. Baz Luhrmann directed this film with visual flash at the expense of substance and the real Fitzgerald story is about substance in the world of flash. The choice of using modern attempts at music from the 20’s was extremely poor and seemed way out of place. DiCaprio wanted me to know more about his character and there is where the film could have spent more time.

I did like how the filmed opened with black and white Warner Bros logo and moved into the beautiful 3D world of the film. Another strong aspect of the film was the way we (the audience) were introduced to the story – by having Nick writing his experience while in a mental hospital.

DiCaprio was the strongest character in the film and I wanted to know more about him and the script and director didn’t quite deliver. Mulligan didn’t quite make me believe she was as weak as her character was made to be. Edgerton was a strong Buchanan and was solid. Maguire was good and I believed his character and way of telling his story. Craig Pearce and Luhrmann wrote a good, not great, script but Baz overdressed this film and relied on the glitz and left the story behind.

Overall:  The film was a letdown although some of the performances were very good.