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

Lion

First Hit:  A very dramatic and heartfelt story about a young man finding his original home and family.

This was almost like watching two films, each with their own engagement. The first film is about a young Indian boy Saroo (Sunny Pawar) whose life of poverty is documented here by how he helps his mom Kamla (Priyanka Bose) carry rocks, or stealing coal from a train with his older brother Guddu (Abhishek Bharate), or by carrying watermelons for a town vendor. They live in a small one room place in a small-town many hundred miles west of Calcutta.

One night he gets separated from his brother, falls asleep on a train and wakes up in Calcutta. Lost without food or water and the inability to speak the main language of Calcutta, Bengali; he finds himself living on the street. A woman who speaks Hindi finds him and realizes that this boy has no idea where he is and that his family probably won’t find him. This engagement teaches him to trust his inner guide as she ends up not being as trustworthy as she appeared to be.

This part of the film has a particular flow and feeling of wonder and impoverishment, even when he’s adopted by John and Sue Brierley (David Wenham and Nicole Kidman respectively), a couple from Tasmania, Australia.

The second half of the film has Saroo (Dev Patel), now age twenty, being well ensconced in his life with his adoptive caring parents. He heads off to hotel management school where he meets Lucy (Rooney Mara). At a gathering of their mutual friends, he begins to share what he knows of his past after which he begins to have visions of his past life as a small boy in India.

This part of the film has a very different feeling. It’s a feeling of having questions, creating a quest, and finding answers. The wonder of young innocence is gone. It isn’t that this isn’t good, however it requires the audience to tie the two films together.

There are really wonderful scenes in both sections, but I found the scene with Saroo and Sue, when she tells him why she adopted him to be the most powerful. Kidman shows why she’s had such an amazing career. The impact of this scene was closely followed by the impact of a couple other scenes when the adult Saroo goes back to India to find his past.

Pawar was amazing as young Saroo. His wonder while holding his fear in check was amazing. Bose was really good as Saroo’s natural mother. Wenham was OK as Saroo’s adoptive father. I would have liked a stronger role for him as a male mentor. Kidman was amazing. The scene where she tells her story as to why she wanted to adopt Saroo was sublime. Patel as the older Saroo was very good and cements him as adult actor in a major role with the ability to carry a film. Mara was very good in this supportive role. Luke Davies wrote an effective screen play from the real Saroo Brierley book called “A Long Way Home”. Garth Davis did an excellent job of showing the communities in India in all it amazingness. Having traveled quite a bit on the trains of India, I really loved the scene in Calcutta when Saroo wanted off the train and throngs of riders were attempting to get on board.

Overall:  This was an engaging story although the two different sections of film require the audience to make the shift to stay engaged.

Bleed for This

First Hit:  Although very well acted, it didn’t stay with me nor was I inspired.

The oddity for me about this film was seeing this amazing struggle that Vinny Pazienza (Miles Teller) went through to fight again, yet also being turned off by a number of the movie's characters. The pushiness and arrogance of his father Angelo (Ciaran Hinds), promoter and son Lou Duva (Ted Levine) and Dan Duva (Jordan Gelber), and the treatment of family members, just left me cold.

It is not that I have to like the characters in a movie, however for some reason, Angelo, Lou and Dan turned me off to other parts of the film. On the converse side Vinny’s relationship with his trainer Kevin Rooney (Aaron Eckhart) was priceless. This was the best part of the film. The push/pull and of their personalities was exquisite.

The film shined when it was about how Vinny found his inner strength to really live again. Up until that one point, Miles did a great job of moving Vinny to level of complacency while healing. But then it switches and he becomes the focused Vinny the film begins with, thus moving the film into another gear. When Kevin joins him in his quest, the movie started to sing again and the bonding between these two men in the basement was outstanding.

The fight scenes were OK. Some of the the ring choreography was puzzling but overall it was exciting and gave an air of the battles Vinny went through. The training scenes and the appropriately dark and grungy gyms used to train in, were perfect given the era and type of boxer Vinney portrayed.

Vinny’s mom Louise (Katey Sagal) not being able to watch any of his fights, spent that time in front of her alter of Jesus emblemed candles and other Jesus iconic stuff. It was difficult for me to relate to that kind of praying, yet it made sense for the film and Italian family. Additionally, the scenes of Vinny and entourage in strip joints also fit the film’s genera, and were insightful to the characters in their own way.

Teller was very strong as Vinny and made his battle believable. Each time he had to get into a car or duck under something I cringed and ducked in my seat as well. Eckhart was outstanding as Vinny’s trainer. I loved his drunk scenes as well as his sober focused scenes equally. Hinds was perfectly obnoxious, egotistic and arrogant as boss of his family and what he wanted. The scene of him chomping and smoking a cigar on the porch while telling off Kevin was perfect in all ways. Levine and Gelber was wonderful as the father and son promoters always looking out for their interests while feigning the interest of the fighters they promote. Sagal was good as the suppressed mom always worried about her son’s fighting. Ben Younger both wrote and directed this film. The writing in many of the scenes was outstanding and getting the actors to deliver on those lines was skillful.

Overall:  Engaging film to watch but forgetful by the next day.

Loving

First Hit:  A sweet and expressive film about true love.

The overflowing sweetness of this true story is accentuated by difficulties our society, specifically the State of Virginia’s anti-miscegenation statute which prohibited marriage between people classified as white and colored. The film shares how this couple persevered.

Richard Loving (Joel Edgerton), a bricklayer and race car enthusiast, never saw color. His quiet way of being was congruent with his life as expressed in the active conscious quality he put into his work, his abilities for making cars faster and his love for his girlfriend Mildred (Ruth Negga). Mildred’s family owned the race car he worked on part time and was part of their family. When Mildred gets pregnant with their child, he buys an acre of land to build their home and asks her to marry him.

Because of the Virginia laws, they run off to Washington DC to get married as Virginia won’t let an interracial couple marry. However, one night the home they are staying in is raided and they get thrown into jail.

This naïve couple hire a lawyer who cuts a deal with the judge, if they plead guilty, to leave the state and not return for 25 years. They end up in DC and it isn’t the life they want together. Mildred especially dislikes the city as her, now three, children have few places to play outside.

Mildred writes a letter to U.S. Attorney General Bobby Kennedy gets a response by the ACLU. Attorney Bernie Cohen (Nick Kroll) takes the case and because the statute of limitations have passed, he has to find a way to get it back into court. One day he meets civil litigator Philip Herschkop (Jon Bass) and together they find a way to get the case re-heard, appeal it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The feel of the late 1950’s through 1968 was amazingly shared on the screen. The way people talked, the cars, and the settings were wonderfully created and filmed. The director, Jeff Nichols, made this interesting even though Richard was mainly soft spoken, quiet, and man of few words. Pacing was important to keep the audience engaged and Nichols made this really work.

Edgerton was sublimely strong and clear in his silent way. You felt his pain and clarity of his love of Mildred. Negga was fantastic as Mildred. Her strength building through the film resulted in their decision to take their case forward. Kroll and Bass did a wonderful job of being the Loving's lawyers. Nichols wrote a superb screenplay and his direction was clear and true.

Overall:  Loving was lovely.

Hacksaw Ridge

First Hit:  A very powerful and graphic film about a conscientious objector’s selflessness to save lives in a horrible battle.

This film is not easy to watch as many of the graphically violent scenes may make you cringe, close your eyes, or turn away from the screen as I did. Although the number of war torn bodies in this film was far greater than what I saw in Vietnam, the point wasn’t lost on me: “war is hell” as William T. Sherman in 1870 said and Director Mel Gibson wanted us to see. As he did in “Passion of the Christ” and “Apocalypto”, Gibson shows us man’s inhumanity to man.

Here he shows us Desmond Doss (Darcy Bryce and Andrew Garfield), whose belief in God, as a Seventh Day Adventist, won’t allow him to take another man’s life. We also see the lessons he learns from a difficult childhood. His father, Tom (Hugo Weaving), is an alcoholic which began with his own suffering from the loss of his childhood friends in WW I. The beatings his mother Bertha (Rachel Griffiths), brother Hal (Roman Guerriero and Nathaniel Buzolic) and he take, affected him deeply and as an audience member, were difficult to witness.

Because he has a sense of duty, despite the objections of his mother and father, he signs up to join the WWII effort as a medic Conscientious Objector in the US Army. Prior to his induction he meets Dorothy Schutte (Teresa Palmer) whom he charms with his wholesome, caring and kind nature. She sees the depth of his integrity and they agree to marry on his first leave.

When his platoon Sergeant Howell (Vince Vaughn) announces to the rest of his platoon that Desmond won’t be carrying a gun to protect his peers, they make him a pariah. He's beaten and disowned by his fellow soldiers and they even try to Court Martial him out of the Army.

Gibson painstakingly develops the backstory so that when Desmond enters the battle for Hacksaw Ridge the audience is ready for him to become the hero he became. As the first of only three Conscientious Objectors to receive the Medal of Honor, Desmond amazes his fellow soldiers. Alone he saves 75 wounded men by saying to himself and to his God, “give me the strength to save just one more”.

The battle itself is one of the most graphic you’ll ever witness and it is important to know this going in. For me it triggered huge sadness because of the memory of piling up dead Viet Cong soldiers after an all-night firefight.

Although this film is long at 2 hours and 11 minutes, the elongated battle scenes are extremely well orchestrated giving the audience a sequence of stories all tying together.

Garfield was spectacular and amazing in this performance. His embodiment of Doss was deeply heartfelt. I would predict that he may receive an Oscar nomination, along with a real chance to win. I’d definitely give him a vote. Weaving was powerful as the father who was gutted by his involvement in WWI along with how this, and his alcoholism, affected his life. The last scene where he reaches out to help his son was deeply heartfelt. Vaughn was in the best non-comedic role I’ve ever seen him in. In my view, this role brought a new dimension to his acting abilities. Bryce and Guerrieo were wonderful as the young Doss brothers. Palmer was fantastic as Desmond’s one true love. Griffiths was very good as Desmond’s suffering and faithful mother. Andrew Knight and Robert Schenkkan wrote a fantastic screenplay. This screenplay is Oscar worthy and the dialogue is amazing in its range. It contained humor, military order and strictness, romanticism, and spiritual beliefs all wrapped into one film effectively. Gibson, regardless of how you may think of him as a celebrity and person, his direction of this film is truly amazing. Like Spielberg, he knows how to craft scenes of war in a way that can make an audience feel the experience. He deserves to be given consideration for an Oscar as well. If you see this film, make sure you watch the short clips during the credits of the real Desmond and others who knew him.

Overall: Although this film can be hard to watch at times, it clearly makes a strong point about the power of one man living his truth.