Jackie

First Hit:  It was a confusingly powerful portrayal of Jackie Kennedy during a most difficult time.

Confusing because my media biased view of Jackie consisted of a refined elegance and intelligence gained through a wealthy upbringing. This was challenged by the oddly phrased and pronounced speech along with the way she approached the challenges during this time. Although the assassination was an extremely traumatic event and the brief window this film uses to introduce us to Jackie is small, there was an oddity to the character that left me both confused and interestingly engaged.

Jackie (Natalie Portman) didn’t invent anything, didn't lead any social movements (non-profit or otherwise) and therefore her famousness comes from being a First Lady that revitalized the interior of The White House and that her popular husband was publicly assassinated in a short lived Presidency. The only visibility the public had of her was through the media. Glimpses of her as first lady, giving a tour of The White House, mother of Caroline and John, as a grieving widow, and dating and marrying Aristotle Onassis a Greek shipping tycoon. Regardless, the public had fascination about her and it is this attraction that probably led to this film.

This film’s timeframe is short. It begins with a post assassination interview by a journalist (Billy Crudup) as the vehicle for Jackie to share the truth as she saw it. To speak about the events of assassination, the funeral, and her time in The White House while hinting at Jack’s (John Fitzgerald Kennedy as played by Casper Phillipson) sexual indiscretions during their marriage. The film also interlays filmed sequences of her famous White House television tour, which gave many people their first look at the President’s famous home.

I enjoyed the way it was filmed in that the scenes were rich with the look of the early 1960s. Additionally, I liked the scenes of the tour. These scenes moved from the film’s richly colored set to the grainy and hazy black and white images that appeared on most television screens.

At times, I found Jackie to be very superficial by worrying so much about what something looked like and not caring so much about substance, to be followed by times where the complexities of her thinking came across as deep and intellectual, like the clarity of finding the right space to bury her husband. I never met her and because I only knew of her from the media, I’ve no way of knowing how closely Portman mimicked or embodied the role.

Her focus on making sure that Jack didn’t become just another “oil portrait on the wall” but that he stood for something was brought forth many times by her and Jack’s brother Bobby (Peter Sarsgaard). Supporting Jackie throughout the film was her assistant Nancy Tuckerman (Greta Gerwig), her closest confidant.

Although I wondered about the lack of tension and reasons why I was watching the film, I couldn’t wait to see what was going to happen next because there was an air of unpredictability in her voice and intention. As she states to a priest after the assassination, that her life was over and that she would spend the rest of her life waiting for it to be really over. This came across in the film and it was believable.

Portman was either amazing or created an odd characterization of this famous name. Again, I don’t know and given what I’ve seen and how Portman delivers performances, I’m going to say it was an amazing performance at an award-winning level. Crudup was interesting because his reactions to Jackie during the interview were, at times, priceless. An example was her telling the journalist that she doesn’t smoke as she lights up her 10th cigarette in a row was great. Sarsgaard was very good as Bobby. He was feisty and protective of his brother and what they were doing together, which matched my media understanding of him through the 1960s. Gerwig was very good. I loved her supportive actions including the visual reminders for Jackie to smile. Noah Oppenheim wrote a very strong script. Pablo Larrain’s direction was straightforward and no punches were pulled. The interspersed views of the assassination were excellent – especially the last one.

Overall:  This film isn’t for everyone and for people who have no connection to Jackie or didn’t live during her lifetime, it may not work

The Magnificent Seven

First Hit:  The original 1960’s film had heart, this one doesn’t.

As much as I like Denzel Washington (playing Chisolm) and Chris Pratt (playing Josh Faraday) in films, this one felt dead. No character was really given a story to care about until the end when Chisolm shares why he really took the job to kill and defeat Bartholomew Bogue’s (Peter Sarsgaard) group of men who controlled the small western town. But until this moment, there was only some “telling” as to why this small band of men decided to protect this small town versus engaging the audience in a story having heart.

It is a shame, because there's a slew of wonderful actors in this film but they cannot make up for a mediocre script by Richard Wenk and Nic Pizzolatto and direction without vision. Yes, director Antoine Fuqua got the action of movement and shooting to kill reasonably well. He even got the small western town set well, but the heart of the film, the townsfolk’s fear as shared by Emma Cullen (Haley Bennett), lacked depth as did most of the Seven hired men.

The strong points of the film were initial discovery of each of the characters. But after this, it fell flat. Besides Chisolm, the main characters were:  Faraday as a self-professed great lover and fast drawing gunslinger. Goodnight Robicheaux (Ethan Hawke) and Billy Rocks (Byung-hun Lee) as a team of two who bet on their skills of speed to take people's money. Goodnight, who was formerly a confederate sniper with legendary rifle abilities haunted him. The overall story about his connection with Chisolm is that Chisolm saved Goodnight from self-destruction.

As in kind, Rocks, a foreigner, was being help to interpret the West by Goodnight. Vasquez (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) was the least defined character. Still not sure how or why he joined the group. Red Harvest (Martin Sensmier) was a Comanche Indian that was ousted from his tribe and seemed like he needed something to do.

The most amusing and fun character was Jack Horne (Vincent D’Onofrio) who was a bear mountain man sort of a guy. He was fond of pontificating religious beliefs and sayings all the while being part of the team of seven. The basic story is that these seven men help a small town from a siege by Bogue and his army of killers that have taken over their gold mines.

Washington did what he could do to make this film work, but the lack of a good screenplay and an action only focused director, let him down. Pratt made the most of his character and, although he didn’t seem to care about the lack of story, he made it fun for himself and the audience. Sarsgaard’s role didn’t work for me. He didn’t seem to embody the role from the inside although his actions were rather ruthless. Bennett did what she could to create caring about the town and its hapless citizens. She was one of the stronger characters. Lee was OK and seemed to relish his role as fast with a knife. Garcia-Rulfo did what he could but I didn’t get his particular “role”. Hawke was OK but his fear of killing more people wasn’t developed very well. Sensmier had a strange role in that I never got why he would bother helping this band of white men in their quest. I did like his handling of the Indian character on Bogue’s team as it was inevitable that these two would tangle. D’Onofrio was very engaged in his role. He embraced the nuttiness of this man bear. Richard Wenk and Nic Pizzolatto’s screen play from the famous Akira Kurosawa Seven Samurai screenplay was poorly conceived. It lacked heart and a way for the audience to care. Antoine Fuqua did the action part OK, but everything else was empty – no soul.

Overall:  Don’t bother seeing this version go back to the 1960 version – much better.

Pawn Sacrifice

First Hit:  Fascinating story about a complicated fascinating man.

I learned chess because of Bobby Fischer in the late 1960's early 1970's. I had heard about this young man who was lighting up the chess world and wanted to know what this game was about. Learning more about chess I immediately saw the complexity of the game and wondered about the minds of people who played this game for a living.

In this film Fischer (played by Tobey Maguire) grows up in a household he found confusing and distracting. His solace – chess. He played all the time - day and night and early on he was out in the streets playing in the public parks in Brooklyn. He then started playing multiple people/boards at one time, winning most all the time.

This film follows the story from his youth until he plays Boris Spassky (Liev Schreiber) in Reykjavik, Iceland, then follows up with pictures and information as to what happened to the reclusive Fischer. Although the American public was supportive of the way he defeated “The Russians” in an intellectual discipline the Russians excelled in; Fischer spouted anti American and anti-semitic remarks to media through his paranoid nature which caused him to be at issue with both the government and many of the public.

As his friend and fellow chess coach Father Bill Lombardy (Peter Sarsgaard) said, Bobby went down the rabbit hole and would never come out. The mixture and use of real video/film of the time in this film was very good and added to a realistic view of this story and joy of these performances.

Maguire was really good at flipping from appearing sane and then being unstable. Schreiber was great as Spassky, his command of arrogance and humility at his loss to Fischer was perfect. Sarsgaard was really good as his friend, coach and understanding priest. Steven Knight wrote a very strong script while Edward Zwick’s directional use of old footage as well was excellent.

Overall:  I loved seeing this film because of the memories of the time, the memories it sparked within me and getting to learn something about a very driven person.

Lovelace

First Hit:  Surprisingly engaging film although it lacked a certain depth.

Deep Throat grossed some $600+ million dollars. Linda Lovelace (Amanda Seyfried) made less than $2,000 for her part and she was a porn star actress for less than 3 weeks of her life. 

Being used by her husband Chuck (Peter Sarsgaard) and other men was the basis for her book “Ordeal”.

The film develops Linda from a young teen, who didn’t like being controlled by her strict parents. As we learn, their restrictiveness came from Linda and family having to move because she became pregnant and gave the baby up for adoption which was a family embarrassment (back in those days that wasn’t uncommon).

Linda gets mesmerized by Chuck at a roller rink where she was dancing as a go-go dancer for a local band. As she experiences the freedom of being away from her parents she also discovers the controlling restrictiveness of being married to a controlling man. Chuck needs money so he convinces Linda, with her ability to not have a gag reflex, to do a porno film – and Deep Throat was born.

As her fame increased her husband got more restrictive and abusive. Except Linda, this film doesn’t dig into any of the characters too deep and even then Linda’s own personality isn’t explored too much.

Seyfried is engaging and pulls off, the innocence, lack of self-worth, and slow at finding her own voice character she needed to be. Sarsgaard is good as the menacing Chuck, although it would have helped having some background on his character. Sharon Stone as Linda’s mother was excellent and one of the better aspects of this film. Robert Patrick as Linda’s father was also very strong by coming across as smoldering, shamed, and withdrawn. I didn’t think James Franco as Hugh Hefner worked as there wasn’t the air that Hef created around him with this character. Andy Bellin wrote this script which felt like it needed to dig into the characters more. Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman co-directed this film and for the most part it was OK but lacked a solid idea.

Overall:  Not really worth seeing in the theater but maybe at home.

Robot & Frank

First Hit:  An amazing well done film covering our near future with robots, family dynamics, and dementia.

Frank (played by Frank Langella) has early stage dementia. His son Hunter (James Marsden) lives 5 hours away and drives up to visit his father every weekend. It is wearing on him.

But the real message is that they weren’t ever really close and there is a obligatory feeling to Hunter’s visits. Frank’s daughter Madison (played by Liv Tyler) is traveling the world with a natural “do-gooder” sort of spirit.

Frank visits the library to get his pile of books and to also visit the librarian named Jennifer (played by Susan Sarandon). He fancies Jennifer and there is a hint of this feeling being returned. Hunter buys his father a robot that is programmed to take care of his needs, clean his house, cook his food and try to get Frank to actively use his mind to lessen the dementia symptoms.

Frank hates the robot at first but soon discovers that the robot has possibilities for him and uses the robot to assist him in taking revenge on Jake (played by Jeremy Strong), a “consultant” who is destroying the library by removing its books and making it all electronic.

The film’s setup is a wonderful way to explore our near future, the relationships between family members, how technology may provide assistance, and if technology cares (Can robots feel or sacrifice?).

Langella is sublime. I couldn’t think of a better person to be this character; part time cat-burglar, lost in the past at times, fully present at others and all the while keeping a sense of dignity and fragility. Marsden is very good as the son who cares about his father but still resents him and his childhood. Tyler is great as the daughter that just loves her dad and still remembers how to fence jewelry. Sarandon is wonderful as the librarian. Her tone of voice is perfect when she says; “you’re not allowed to be in here”. Strong is good as the guy with the role of an arrogant jerk. Peter Sarsgaard is the voice of the robot and it is mesmerizing. Christopher D. Ford wrote a superior script. Jake Schreier directed this team with the perfect tone. The leap of faith to robots of this type was perfectly believable.

Overall: Outstanding film and superbly acted by all.