Where'd You Go, Bernadette

First Hit: Not everyone will appreciate and engage with this film, and I did.

This film runs and works on many different levels, and it only works because of the fantastic performance of Cate Blanchett as Bernadette Fox.

I laughed out loud numerous times and in a theater with only thirty people, often I was the only one. However, as the film went on, others seemed to join me as the amazing Blanchett showed us the complexity and depth of this character. One such scene is when she walks into a store, comments to the sales staff that they have a wonderful Chihuly, and the salesgirl is stupidly stunned because she has no idea what Bernadette is referring to. Because I’m aware of Chihuly’s work, I saw it right away and therefore was fully prepared, got her reference, and felt that I was in on the joke as it evolved.

Bernadette is married to Elgie (Billy Crudup), and they have got a young teen daughter named Bee Branch (Emma Nelson) who is getting ready to go to boarding school for her high school education. They are living in Seattle because Elgie created a technology product company that was purchased by Microsoft. He continues to work with Microsoft developing new high tech innovations.

Early in the film, we see that Bernadette’s quirky behavior and Elgie’s work patterns have created a deep divide in their relationship. The story also points out how close Bee Branch and her mother are. Dutifully Bernadette picks up Bee Branch from school each day, and this is where we learn how disliked Bernadette is with the other mothers when Audrey (Kristen Wiig) makes fun of her and her quirkiness to anyone who is within earshot. Audrey and Bernadette, who live next door to each other, have a relationship filled with animosity.

One of the quirky things Bernadette does is use her phone to dictate all the things she wants to be done. These commands go to a personal assistant in India. An example of the types of orders she gives the assistant include “I need a fishing vest,” and one arrives at her home via Amazon.com. There are other scenes with this assistant in which Bernadette is writing an antagonist email to someone, or requesting medication that will help her not get seasick, and making a dental appointment along with other life tasks.

Although she’s afraid of being around people and doesn’t like boats, Bernadette and Elgie agree to take Bee Branch to Antarctica as a middle school graduation reward.

One day while Bernadette is visiting the Seattle Library, a young woman comes up to her and asks to take a picture of her. Bernadette is clearly annoyed because of the intrusion, and the woman insists that Bernadette is her hero because of what she brought to the world of architecture. The woman mentions an online video of Bernadette’s career.

Arriving home, Bernadette grabs her computer and begins to watch the video, and we get the opportunity to know more about Bernadette’s artistic and creative architecture skills. For the audience, it is a moment where we begin to understand this fantastic creative person.

But it is when Bernadette meets up with one of her former associate architects (Laurence Fishburne) that Bernadette’s story spills, and I mean spills, out of her in one long rant. The power of her being able to talk to a fellow architect, who will understand her, is powerful. After a long spilling of her story, I loved it when Fishburne says something like, “is that it”? “Are you finished”?

He tells her what the audience is slowly learning, she needs to get back to work, creating. However, through her quirky life and other incidents, her husband has become increasingly concerned about her behavior. But it’s when the FBI contacts him and tells him that Bernadette’s online assistant is really a Russian operative who is going to steal all their money that he sets up an intervention.

How Bernadette resolves her struggles with her neighbor Audrey, her husband, and her internal demons is the rest of the film and story.

Blanchett is absolutely sublime as Bernadette. It is by far and away the best performance of the year by an actor (or actress). I loved how she pulled me into her madness and how I fully understood what she was going through. Wiig was outstanding as the long-time neighbor who tried to put on a superior face about her family life only to realize that there was envy about Bernadette and Bee Branch’s relationship. Nelson was outstanding as Bee Branch. I loved how her faith in her best friend, her mom, was successfully tested. Crudup was excellent as the distracted focused but loving husband and father. Holly Gent and Richard Linklater wrote an engrossing screenplay and were deeply rewarding and entertaining. Linklater also directed the film.

Overall: If you go to see this film, you’ve got to be ready to accept and dive into Bernadette from the beginning, because if you do, you’ll be rewarded in the end.

Last Flag Flying

First Hit: This film may start out to mean more to "boomers" and veterans than other people, but it wonderfully explores a lot of topics and emotions.

We join two old veteran friends, Sal Nealon (Bryan Cranston) and Larry “Doc” Shepherd (Steve Carell) getting drunk in Sal’s bar. This scene sets up who they are perfectly. Doc is quiet, of heavy mind and Sal is full of quips, pointed sarcasm and likes to drink, a lot.

They became friends when they met fighting together in the Vietnam war. But as many vets know, sometimes when thrust together in crisis, the bond that is created crosses time. In the early bar scene, who they are, what they were, and the commitment to the bond is brought to light by how easily Sal leaves his bar by turning over the keys to someone else and goes out on an unannounced road trip with his friend Doc.

The trip is to a church where Reverend Richard Muller (Laurence Fishburne) is preaching. The moment Sal and Doc walk in, Sal bursts into a broad grin. Their third friend from Vietnam is now a preacher. Sal is beside himself at the change in “Muller the Mauler.” According to Sal, Muller was one of the most raucous men he knew and hung out with. Now a preacher? Sal cannot believe it.

Muller is reticent about meeting his old buddies because he’s now a man of God and to meet again the guys because of their history. They knew him as a man who did a lot of non-Christian things. And them knowing this is tough. The reason for Doc bringing these guys together is because he wants these men help him honor his son whom was a Marine and was just killed in Iraq.

After some funny dinner and desert scenes, Muller agrees to join Sal on Docs mission to honor his son. The body is coming to Dover AFB and will be buried, with honors, at Arlington. Sal is told his son was a hero and died protecting his men. However, as the story unfolds the men discover that the boy was shot in the back of the head when he was buying a soft drink for his buddies.

They learn this from Larry’s sons best Marine friend, Washington (J. Quinton Johnson) who accompanied the body back home. When Doc learns about how the government lied about his boy’s death, he doesn’t want him buried at Arlington but wants to take him home to New Hampshire.

This decision brings on a whole host of arguments, agreements, and an uncovering of the depth of the men's friendship, Washington’s friendship with Doc’s son, how the government lies, and the importance of truth.

The film shows these discoveries while they eat together, drive together, sit on the train together and buy cell phones together. One of the most fun scenes, showing the depth of each character, is when the four of them are sitting in the luggage car of the train next to the coffin. The dialogue was sublime, real and on target for each of the characters.

This film is about friendship and how it surpasses time. It is about how men become brothers. It is about how the government will lie to parents of dead soldiers. It is about honor. It is about truth. The sets and scenes were exquisitely created and it kept the audience’s attention through each segment.

Cranston was killer. His quips, jabs, self-effacing comments, and drive created a character worth watching. I kept wondering what would come out of his mouth next. Carell was perfect as the quiet one who spoke loudly with his trust in his fellow vets. The breadth of emotions, partially bottled up by the role, was perfectly expressed. Fishburne was outstanding. His voice perfect for being a holier than thou voice as a preacher, then switching to his foul mouth Marine voice was perfect. Johnson was amazing as the Doc’s sons best friend. While lying on Doc’s couch looking up at pictures of his lost friend and the family was so touching. Yul Vazquez as Colonel Wilits was great. He exemplified the role of holding on to the governments pride of service. Richard Linklater and Darryl Ponicsan wrote a fabulous screenplay. Under Linklater’s direction this film was amazingly full-bodied and pointed. Its focus on the characters and how they unfolded through the film was spot-on perfect.

Overall:  This is a very full-bodied film and embraces both life and death equally.

Everybody Wants Some!!

First Hit:  The music was to die for and the story grew on me as it evolved.

This film takes place over 3 – 4 days by following Jake (Blake Jenner) arriving on a Friday afternoon at an unnamed Texas University to take up residency in the baseball team’s campus home provided by a school sponsor and ending on the following Monday.

As with most Richard Linklater films, dialog and time period is clearly identified. When Jake gets in his car and drives off to the university he turns up the stereo in the vintage Oldsmobile 442 to blast out The Knack’s “My Sharona”. This perfectly sets the tone for the film.

Other music includes Blondie, Van Halen, The Cars, and Cheap Trick. As a jock hanging out with other jocks there is a perception about his intellectual capabilities. However, as the film points out a couple of times, each sub-group of people have their own ranges of intelligence and abilities. It reflects what is true in society. In other words, jocks are not all stupid.

That said, without any structure to their lives over the weekend they attend multiple parties, go to multiple nightclubs, and because they’re in college multiple types of pranks are pulled on each other. But in the end, you see these disparate personalities coming together in cohesive groups on their way to learning more about who they are.

Jenner was well cast as the young freshman baseball jock who is thoughtful. His quiet and inclusive ways made him very likeable. Justin Street (as Jay), Ryan Guzman (as Roper), Tyler Hoechlin (as McReynolds), Wyatt Russell (as Willoughby), Glen Powell (as Finnegan), Temple Baker (as Plummer), J. Quinton Johnson (as Dale), and Will Brittain (as Beuter) we’re all wonderful as the primary members of the baseball team. Each brought a strong and unique personality. Zoey Deutch as Beverly, Jay’s love interest, was very strong and an interesting character. Linklater wrote a very strong script with dialogue that really worked and his direction was spot on, especially the detail of in the scenes.

Overall:  This was a wonderful slice of life film that has deeper meaning.

Boyhood

First Hit:  An amazing film that boarders on being a documentary type film and yet it isn’t.

I was swept up into the story from the very beginning. Richard Linklater has written and directed some of the best films in the past decade.

The three Before and After series with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, are outstandingly written as is this film. The writing is precise, yet loose and modern. The way this story falls together is sublime.

Linklater follows a young boy Mason (Ellar Coltrane) from ages 6 through 18, shooting him with his acting family of Mom (Patricia Arquette), Dad (Ethan Hawke), and sister Samantha (Lorelei Linklater) over this period of time. This means everyone ages correctly, what they bring to the part has real life wisdom and experience while the storyline evolves in small jumps through these 12 years. How these actors interacted with each other was amazing, but more importantly, if felt so real because in many ways it was.

Coltrane was an amazing choice for Linklater and fulfilled his gamble amazingly well. The likelihood that that Coltrane would be so amazing when selected at age 6 was small. To have these results is sublime. Arquette was absolutely wonderful in all ways. Strong, vulnerable and really embodied the woman who does her best to fend for her family. Hawke is fantastic as the dad who learns how to become a dad over this time period. Lorelei Linklater was wonderful as Coltrane’s sister. She embodied a young girl that struggles and flourishes through puberty and added so much to the dynamic of this family. Richard Linklater has created yet another masterpiece.

Overall:  This is a must see, as it is truly different and groundbreaking.

Before Midnight

First Hit: First rate dialogue, acting and film.

It isn't always that sequels to a film are as good as the original. I don't think any of the "Rocky" sequels were as gritty and inspiring as the first although a couple were OK.

The entire "Godfather" series were strong and the color and feel of the original set the tone by which Francis Ford Coppola moved forward with mindfulness – not just for the money. The newest prequel to the "Star Trek" series may also follow in good standing as I certainly enjoyed the first two film (see my previous reviews in this blog) and hope the next continues the quality previously set forth. "Star Wars" did a great job on some of the follow-up films and certainly fell down in some of the others.

What makes this group of films ("Before Sunrise", "After Sunset", and "Before Midnight") unique is that these films are based in dialogue. They aren't about special effects or right triumphing over wrong or good versus evil. These stories hold together with deep and truthful scripting and the execution of this script by outstanding actors.

One of the major differences in this film versus the other two was that there were other actors featured in this one. Although Jesse’s (Ethan Hawke) son Hank (Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick) has minor screen time, he is prominently a featured subject of the ensuing dialogue. It was very smart to have him be featured in the opening scene. Jesse and Celine’s (Julie Delpy) twins Nina and Ella (respectfully Charlotte and Jennifer Prior) and working friends and colleagues were also part of the mix in lively conversations.

However, this film is about Celine and Jesse, how their life has unfolded, who they are as people and how they love each other. I cannot say enough about how I admired the long scenes of non-stop dialogue. There was no clipping of their exchange to make the film move faster – there was no need – it moved at light-speed anyway because the characters we strong and deep enough for the audience to be pulled into their story.

Hawke was the best he’s ever been. His maturity, clarity, and belief in his character made for a performance, that to me was sublime - Oscar worthy. Delpy’s delivery of Celine’s dialogue was filled with feeling and emotion. She believed her dialogue and it showed. Delpy, Hawke and Richard Linklater (Director) wrote and extraordinary script filled with compassion, passion, and depth of character. Linklater performed magic directing this film with long beautiful sequences that captured two willful people. Direction was Oscar worthy as well.

Overall:  If there is another film in this series, I’ll go see it because this is a series of intelligent delight in film making and storytelling.