Tuesday, December 24, 2019

Hollywood During the Holidays


In preparation for this festive season of giving, receiving, and giving your mailman a work out in carrying your latest Amazon purchases, nothing beats sitting down after a long day of shopping, caroling, and baking to watch a good movie. With award season looming over us, there has been no short of cinematic treats for us to indulge in as we drink our eggnog (or you know, a beer) and turn on the Christmas Tree lights, because everyone else in the family always forgets to. Here are some of my thoughts on recent films that I've watched this past merry month.


1. Marriage Story (2019) 

While not exactly the Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) of our generation, Noah Baumbach's drama about a playwright and actress struggling to find common ground amid a tumultuous set of divorce proceedings sometimes feels tonally unaware of how it is coming off to the audience. This is a time where you don't have to look far in terms of cinema or television to find an outlandishly loud argument scene between two white, middle-aged adults. Johansson and Driver often lack unified coherency as they exchange verbal blows back and forth, and one can't help but wonder if these tense scenes would've played out just the same if the actors had shot each of their respected material separately. When it comes to grandstanding, Driver is the less guilty of the two leads in terms of working off his scene partner rather than just himself. Still, the film boasts some great monologues and sequences that have the theatrical touch one would expect from Baumbach's work and is bolstered by fantastic supporting performances by Laura Dern, Ray Liotta, and the always delightful Julie Hagerty. The film takes the time to explore what divorce looks like in the modern age, especially among the privileged upper classes of American society. Liotta and Dern alternate from hospitable to hostile in a matter of seconds during each and every scene they participate in, and this helps illustrate the complex dynamics that go into getting what's rightfully yours after the disintegration of a marriage, along with perhaps just a little extra. No matter how many accolades it accumulates during award season, Baumbach and co can find solace in the fact that this film has at the very least been solidified into meme history thanks to Twitter's relentlessly clever users.



2. The Irishman (2019)

Though a miniseries might have functionally been a more ideal route to take, the pacing is undeniably a strong suit of Martin Scorsese's latest cinematic venture. The Irishman features everything one expects from a Scorsese film, violence, witty voice-over monologues, and engrossing visuals of human depravity in its various facets. These essential components alongside a reunion of Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and the greatly missed Joe Pesci don't break new ground but do re-explore the beautiful caverns of stunning artistic prowess that made Scorsese the beacon of Hollywood reverence he is today when he's not insulting Bob Iger's work. It gives an interesting, if not a scandalous interpretation of one of American cultures' greatest historical mysteries; what became of Jimmy Hoffa? Despite upset from some viewers, I personally found Anna Paquin to be incredibly impactful in her mostly silent supporting role as De Niro's character's daughter. Her face emotes so much raw tension that adding dialogue to it would just have been a moot point. Scorsese understands that the visual will always outweigh the auditory when done correctly, and there is so much about The Irishman that is correct, so much so that we can easily forgive the parts that appear reductive or overly familiar. Whether digitally de-aged or layered in geriatric prosthetics, these artists in front and behind the camera prove that their crafts have only ripened with time passed.

3. Hustlers (2019)

A good heist film is not always easy to come by these days, and ones whi features strong and believable female characters are nearly impossible to find. Oceans 8 (2018) managed to have some fun but hardly contained even a quarter of the character development available within this film's ensemble cast. Constance Wu leads the film in a role that feels like she's flexing new acting muscles in every scene and Jennifer Lopez, who manages a striking balance between conniving and compassionate throughout the entire film. This is the first time in a long time that Lopez has been able to play such a dynamic and multilayered character. The film takes the time to develop the core friendship that ultimately leads the two desperate but cunning women into a life of crime. A disappointing fact of the plot is that other potentially interesting female characters disappear halfway through, such as those played by singer Lizzo, and rapper, Cardi B. These characters are replaced by stick-figured drug addicts who echo a shallowness one normally associates with poorly written female characters that come from the minds of misguided men. Julia Stiles feels oddly cast as a journalist who is piecing the whole narrative together via an interview with Wu's character, but her presence is welcomed nonetheless. Despite a majority of the film being set at a strip club and featuring half-dressed women, the camera never feels like it is objectifying them but rather observing their actions and misdeeds like a Nat Geo cameramen observes a lion mauling a zebra to survive. In this case, the women are the zebras, but they are the ones mauling the lions now. The film sheds light on unlikely victims of the economic crash in 2008. It looks to unveil harsh truths about the lustful and greedy society we live in rather than make easy excuses for our protagonists' questionable actions. Hustlers is a film that is freshly invigorating from start to finish. Director/writer Lorene Scafaria is likely not going to get the recognition she deserves for making a film so undeniably sexy without it being at the expense of the personal integrity of its female characters.  


4. A Beautiful Day in The Neighborhood (2019)


Those who haven't been paying close enough attention to this film's ad campaign may be surprised to find out that Mr. Rogers is not the main character. Instead, the film follows a surly journalist who is forced to do an op-ed on everyone's favorite neighbor. The film contains many visual homages to the transformative children's show that its story is set around, making the viewer feel as though they are reentering childhood even if you aren't especially familiar with the original television program. Tom Hanks, of course, shines in the prominent role. Still, actors like Matthew Rhys, Susan Kelechi Watson, and the ever endearing Chris Cooper add additional tenderness to the story. The film somehow manages not to oversaturate us with sentimentality, because it is well aware that most childhoods are far from a walk down a quaint suburban street. It isn't afraid to let us feel pain and sorrow but is instead interested in exploring how we survive and thrive despite these difficult emotions. It is in every way in line with the original manifesto Mr. Rogers had. He wanted to show children that they could be heard, and the film makes us not only want to speak out for ourselves but listen more to those around us as well.