Dolemite Is My Name

First Hit: At times, hilarious, but also a surprising true and touching story about the birth of rap by a man who just kept trying to be famous.

More than anything, Rudy Ray Moore (Eddie Murphy) wanted to be famous. He would like to stand on a stage, be admired, be seen, and create laughter.

An opening scene shows him being allowed a few minutes on a small local club stage, introducing other acts. He tries to be engaging and funny, but the audience ignores him.

We learn that he’s already tried his luck at singing and even got his aunt to finance the production of a record that didn’t sell.

There’s a delightful scene with Rudy trying to convince a DJ Roj (Snoop Dogg) into playing cuts from his record, and all Snoop keeps saying is that “this old shit ain’t any good and I ain’t playin it because it ain’t hip, man.”

Then he gets an idea after listening to a homeless man speak about a comedic character called Dolemite, who tells rude rhyming jokes. He works on developing this character named Dolemite, and watching him grow the role, we begin to see the comedic genius of Murphy and this character, Dolemite. I really enjoyed these scenes.

Thinking he’s got it down, he convinces the small night club owner he MC’s for to let him do five minutes of his new Dolemite act, and to everyone’s amazement, he’s funny as hell. Dolemite is a hit.

Scraping together some cash, he makes a comedy record in his home with friends as his audience. Selling the record from the trunk of his car, he makes a good number of sales, and soon the album is selling everywhere.

A record company picks it up, and now Rudy begins promoting the record in the Deep South, where Dolemite and this record is a hit. In one club, he comes across Lady Reed (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) whom Rudy Ray thinks is funny. Inviting her to join him on stage and on his tour, together, they are amazing and also develop a great friendship and trust for each other.

At one of the stops, they watch a film called “The Front Page” and his mind starts working again. If he could be filmed, he could really spread the Dolemite character to lots of people everywhere. Taking this idea to a film company, they decline, thinking that creating a Dolemite film will be a bad investment. Not to be deterred, he mortgages his future record earnings, and he gets a crew together to write and make a Dolemite film.

The film he makes is one of the first kung-fu-themed Blaxploitation movies ever made. Watching them make the flick is hilarious as they really do some silly things. The director is disgusted by the way the film is being made. The lack of good acting and the scenes are absurd. At the end of filming, the director walks out and states that this film will never show anywhere.

But the irrepressible Rudy Ray (AKA Dolemite) finds a way to get the film shown at a high risk to his financial wherewithal.

Murphy was solid as Dolemite. It’s been a while since I’ve seen an Eddie Murphy film, and this story fits his engaging enthusiastic personality. Dogg was slick as Roj, the DJ. Randolph was outstanding as Lady Reed, a woman who just needed to be seen and supported. Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski wrote a hilarious script and also had depth. Craig Brewer did an excellent job of directing this story into a cohesive story about a true legend of today’s rap scene and Blaxploitation films.

Overall: I relaxed and had fun watching this film.

The Report

First Hit: A strong film shining a light on the United States of America’s illegal torture campaign.

Daniel J. Jones (Adam Driver) wants to be a part of our government, so he meets with Denis McDonough (John Hamm), who is Chief of Staff in the White House. McDonough’s advice is to get involved with a project of importance and make a name for yourself.

Working as a Senate staffer for Senator Diane Feinstein (Annette Bening), he is selected and enthusiastically agrees to investigate the 2005 destruction of CIA interrogation videotapes for her. His life is his work, and he’s dedicated to finding out the truth.

Reviewing online documents, Jones discovers damning evidence that the CIA used “enhanced interrogation techniques” (torture) as promoted by Bruce Jessen (T. Ryder Smith) and James Elmer Mitchell (Douglas Hodge) at secret, “black” (hidden offshore), locations. It appears that the videotapes were destroyed to conceal evidence that the US violated the Geneva Convention rules against torture.

The reason the CIA contracted with Jessen and Mitchell is that they believed they could get information out of captured personnel that would stop future terrorist bombings like 9/11 and maybe apprehend the individuals that instigated 9/11.

In a windowless high-security office in an offsite facility, Jones and 5 others reviewed 6 million pages of CIA materials only to discover that these contractors imprisoned and tortured some 119 detainees and got no valuable information. Their techniques were a total failure.

The move to legalize this program was shown in scenes with White House staff working with John Yoo (Pun Bandhu), who made legal arguments that later were discovered to be unfounded and unsupported.

There are graphic scenes of the torture which aren’t easy to watch, but what really stood out to me was the lack of guts on the part of Senators (including Feinstein) and Congressmen to expose and publicly bring to light our failings and illegal actions. The politicians, who represent us, were mainly worried about being re-elected. Finally, because of political pressure and worries that the information would be leaked to the press, the information is shared with the public.

The film does a great job of intermixing real footage, like John McCain talking about how torture is an anti-American value on the Senate floor, with the story.

Driver is sublime as Jones. His focus and willingness to push all bounds to get the information and get it correct was phenomenal. The film did state that Jones’ full report was some seven-thousand pages long. Bening was excellent as Feinstein as she got her voice and mannerisms down perfectly. However, what disappointed me was how Feinstein seems to play politics for sake of her job instead of getting the truth out. Scott Z. Burns wrote and directed this film with a clear focus of showing how the CIA was exposed and how politics almost keep the facts from US Citizens.

Overall: Although I wasn’t surprised by the actions of the CIA, Senators, and The White House, it’s disappointing to see how we try to hide our horrible and illegal behavior.

Dark Waters

First Hit: An excellent portrayal of corporate malfeasance and arrogance, finally getting its comeuppance.

Robert Bilott (Mark Ruffalo), a corporate attorney, is a thorough pragmatic defender of corporations. He’s just made partner in his firm and is a powerful asset to the company because he’s so good at his work.

During an important meeting, he’s interrupted by Wilber Tennent (Bill Camp) and friend who come from a farm in Parkersburg, West Virginia. They come to see Bilott because Roberts’s grandmother, “Grammy,” is a friend of Tennent. They hand Bilott a box full of videotapes explaining that no local Parkersburg lawyer will help them with the problem of their cattle dying. They believe the animals are dying because the town’s largest employer, Dupont, is polluting the water with chemicals from their facility.

Bilott tries to deter Tennent and not get involved, but Tennent’s plea knags at him, so he visits his Grammy, verifies she knows Tennent and then drives to Tennent’s farm. When Wilbur shows him his field full of buried cows, “190 of them,” he realizes there is a problem.

Although Bilott’s firm doesn’t have Dupont as a corporate client, they are reluctant to take on a nonpaying client that is going to end up suing Dupont as it will hurt their reputation with their own corporate clients.

However, Tom Terp (Tim Robbins), Bilott’s boss, supports Robert continuing his investigation even though his client cannot pay. There is a great scene when all the partners convene to hear and discuss Bilott’s work.

Finally, Dupont sends over all the discovery information that Bilott had requested, and it is massive. Hundreds of boxes of memos, reports, and other documentation. Being a team of one, dutifully Robert sits down on the floor and begins categorizing each document by year and subject. This is a great scene because it cements Robert’s commitment to do the right thing no matter what it takes.

His years of research comes up with proof that Dupont knew that they were poisoning people and animals through the creation, use of, and byproducts from POFA (C8), a chemical creation used in Teflon© the non-stick coating that everyone was using. C8 is one of those chemicals that cannot be broken down by nature, let alone the human body and therefore it stays in the body and slowly causes various types of cancer.

The film takes us through this story as it develops over the years of difficult lonely hard work on Bilott’s part. The filmmakers did a great job of showing the passage of time by giving the audience quick glimpse of his three boys growing up in front of him. He barely interacts with them because he’s so clearly focused on this one case, this man is all in.

In the meantime, because of the court's slow processes, Dupont’s putting roadblocks at every turn, and the slowness of a medical testing company that was reviewing over sixty thousand blood tests, people were continuing to be poisoned and die from being exposed to C8.

We watch as the stress of doing the right thing for his client requires him to take reductions in pay because he’s spending all his time on this case that has no paying client. We watch him feel the pain while he watches his clients deteriorate because of the poison.

His wife Sarah (Anne Hathaway) tries to keep their family together, showing undying support, even as she sees the deterioration of her husband because of the deeply committed compassion to see this lawsuit through for the people who are being harmed.

One thing the film made sure of was the darkness of this subject. Every scene is dark in color or filled with gray skies.

Ruffalo was excellent as the committed attorney who gave up almost everything, including his life, to find and fight for the truth. Hathaway was superb as his supportive wife attempting to keep their family together while Robert fights for the truth. Robbins was influential as Bilott’s boss and senior managing partner of their law firm, showing support for Robert on this long trail to truth. Camp was terrific as the driven farmer and rancher who committed his life to making sure Dupont was charged for their crimes against his community. Victor Garber, as Phil Donnelly, a senior executive in Dupont, was supreme in his portrayal of being the mouthpiece of corporate malfeasance. Mare Winningham, as Darlene Kiger, a Parkersburg resident, was fantastic. It was lovely to see her on the screen again. Mario Correa and Matthew Michael Carnahan wrote a powerfully detailed script. Todd Haynes did a great job of creating the feel corporate malfeasance and the difficulty of making wealthy companies pay for their crimes against humanity.

Overall: This is an excellent story about the power of perseverance.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

First Hit: I was deeply touched by this film about how kindness and forgiveness can move internal mountains.

Unlike the recent documentary about Fred Rogers, which gives an insight to the man, this film opens the door on this enigmatic kind soul named Fred Rogers by watching him work with an adult.

The opening scenes with Rogers (Tom Hanks) talking to the camera as he enters the famed neighborhood set, sitting down, taking off his shoes and putting on tennis shoes and a sweater was precious. While watching this scene, I was transported back in time, sitting in the living room with my young daughter watching Mr. Rogers open the door to children’s hearts and minds.

In this story, Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys), is an investigative reporter who has a reputation of taking cheap shots at people or discovers the darker sides of individuals and writes stories that do not reflect positively on his subjects. He’s not the reporter you want to have to write your story.

Getting an assignment to write a short four-hundred-word piece about Rogers for Esquires Magazine’s hero edition, Lloyd chastises his boss for assigning him to write a fluff piece. When Vogel gets home and tells his wife Andrea (Susan Kelechi Watson) about this horrible assignment, she bemoans, “don’t ruin my childhood.” This is the perfect setup.

As Lloyd and Fred meet for an interview, Vogel is perplexed by the way Rogers approaches the question, sometimes answering it directly, and other times deflects or answers a different question – the one not asked. Slowly, Roger’s magic of compassion and kindness begins to work on Vogel in underlying ways. He begins to question his anger and the way he’s participating in his relationship with his wife and new baby.

During the interviews, Vogel, at times, gets upset at not getting the answers he is looking for and walks away from Rogers. However, once he steps away, he knows there is something there and goes back. Each time he learns more about himself as well as Fred.

It’s through these sporadic interviews, Vogel begins to learn how he needs to change his life by processing his inner anger towards his father, Jerry (Chris Cooper). As the story unfolds, we learn that Lloyd hasn’t seen his father since he was a little kid. His mother also died while he was young, and his father couldn’t deal with it, so he bailed.

The film is a beautiful orchestration of how Fred Rogers operates in the world, how people see him, his version of kindness, and how he reaches out and touches people, young and old with honest and real sincerity.

I loved how the filmmakers interspersed Mr. Rogers's sets, set pieces, and traveling between Pittsburgh and NYC. It was ingenious, to say the least.

Hanks was sublime as Rogers. The ability to make the audience sense and feel the embodiment of Fred Rogers was terrific. Rhys was clearly perfect as the reporter who had the willingness to travel through his anger, sadness, and sorrow to come to grips with how he was going to be in the future. Watson was terrific as Lloyd’s wife. Her compassion for Lloyd’s struggles was wonderfully portrayed. Cooper was powerful as Lloyd’s father, a man who did wrong and was trying the only way he knew to find forgiveness and peace within himself. Maryann Plunkett, as Fred’s wife Joanne was excellent. Her understanding of Fred and how he worked was divine. Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster wrote a fantastic script. Marielle Heller was deft in creating a film that captured this iconic man.

Overall: This story took me on a trip and brought up genuine, deeply felt feelings and emotions.

Ford v Ferrari

First Hit: I love good car movies, and this one qualifies as one of the best.

It’s been a while since I’ve been to a night showing of a film. In picking this evening time and this film, it was both pleasing and irritating to be in a nearly full theater. The fun part is that I often see films where there are less than 15 people in the theater, and seeing an almost full theater gave me hope that others will continue to support going to movie theaters.

The irritation part is the noise that people make during the film presentation. Why someone thinks their remembrances of the period, or what they think about what they’re seeing on the screen is essential to spout out while the film is playing, is beyond me. The gentleman sitting next to me turned around just as I did the same thing and together we asked them to be quiet. It took us doing this twice for them to get that they weren’t at home watching cable TV.

Despite the noise interruptions, this film unfolded in a fun way. Remembrances of the 1960s abounded with cars from the era on the streets. Yes, they were perfectly restored vehicles, but it was easy to gloss over the prettiness to enjoy the beauty of those old cars reflecting their time and place in my life. There were Shelby Cobras, Porsches, Ford Falcons, a Mini, a woody (fake wood) wagon, Ferraris, and Ford GT 40s.

The film is about how Enzo Ferrari (Remo Girone) turned down Henry Ford II’s (Tracy Letts) offer to buy 90% of Ferrari’s car production company. While turning down Ford’s offer and partnering with Fiat, Enzo made unflattering remarks about Ford and his cars to the Ford negotiation team. Angered by the personal comments, Ford vowed to beat perennial 24 Hours Le Mans race winner, Ferrari.

Chief Ford negotiator, Lee Iacocca (Jon Bernthal), was then tasked with finding a car builder who will build a Ford-based car to beat Ferrari. Finding Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon), the one-time winning driver of the 24 Le Mans, to make the car, Ford believes they found their man. Henry Ford gives Shelby carte blanche to build this car.

Shelby, in turn, hires his friend and race car driver Ken Miles (Christian Bale), to be his test driver and co-builder. The main reason is that he can trust Miles as he knows cars and feels their abilities and problems as he drives them. Miles is also creative when figuring out how to make cars work better. The downside of Miles is that he’s a maverick in his thinking and hates to conform to rules and being told what to do.

Miles is married Mollie (Caitriona Balfe), who’s amused by her husband’s friendship with Shelby and there are couple scenes that this loving amusement shows up. One such scene is when Shelby and Ken fight near the miles home. Mollie bringing out a folding chair to watch the frecus was hilarious. One thing the film makes clear is that Ken is a loving devoted father who loved showing his son Peter (Noah Jupe) the ins and outs of racing.

The film spends time showing Miles and Shelby developing the GT40 to race in Le Mans, but when it comes time to ship the car off to the race, Leo Beebe (Josh Lucas) Senior VP at Ford, chooses another driver to drive the vehicle at the Le Mans race.

Shelby is pissed, Miles is severely disappointed, and of course, the new driver doesn’t feel the car like Miles would have and ends up blowing it apart during the race.

Ford wants to fire Shelby for the failure, but the meeting between Ford and Shelby is fantastic because Shelby convinces Ford that he, Ford, has Ferrari where he wants him, scared. Scared because Shelby’s car, with another driver, was faster than the Ferrari, especially on the straightaway at Le Mans. This was a great scene. It’s reflecting Shelby’s legendary ability to sell anyone on anything.

Ford tells Shelby to fix the car and get it ready for the next Le Mans and that Shelby has control over the driver.

The rest of the movie shows how they develop a stronger, lighter, faster GT40 car. But when Beebe intercedes again about Miles being the driver at Le Mans, Shelby takes Ford out in the GT40 and scares the crap out of him, literally, and at that moment negotiates with Ford to let Miles drive. As part of the deal he offers Ford his Shelby American company if Miles races and loses.

It’s scenes like this that are fun to watch and reminded me of the time that a friend of a friend, gave me a ride in a Lamborghini Miura, and scared the crap out of me while racing around a sizeable empty factory parking lot at a very high speed.

There were sections of this 152-minute film that could have been trimmed, but I was engaged enough to not care about the lulls of uninteresting or engaging material. Other characters added to this story and made better. One such person was Chief Mechanic Phil Remington (Ray McKinnon). His ideas about creating a way to change the brake assembly were brilliant.

Bale was intensely and independently outstanding in this role as race car driver Ken Miles. HIs ability to show tenderness and love towards his family while being aggressively focused on making the car faster was terrific. Damon was wonderful as Carroll Shelby. The scene with Ford after the first loss and his fight with Miles in front of Mile’s home reflected the off-told stories about the legend of Carroll Shelby. Bernthal was good as the famed Iacocca. Balfe was convincing as Ken’s wife. Her support and understanding of her husband were excellently portrayed. My favorite scene shows Balfe driving Ken home while pressing him on his whereabouts. Her focused intensity was sublime. Letts was priceless as Ford II. The bullying way he used around his staff and factory followed by his being humbled by the spin in the GT40 was fun to watch. McKinnon was excellent as devoted Chief Mechanic for Shelby. Beebe was appropriately arrogant, self-serving, and sharp as a foil to Shelby’s vision. Girone was satisfyingly perfect as Enzo Ferrari. Jez and John-Henry Butterworth wrote an expansive script that could have been shortened and made crisper. However, there are some outstanding scenes in the film. James Mangold directed this film. Racing scenes can get old quick, and Mangolds transcends the genre with excellent editing and cinematography, which make the racing scenes in this film come alive.

Overall: I liked seeing this film for multiple reasons, including that the subsequent Ford built Shelby Mustang GT-350 and GT-500 had parts made by my father’s company in the late 1960s.