Tom Hanks – People Talking

Twofer Review – ‘A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood’ and ‘21 Bridges’ – Imperfectly Average

Directed by Marielle Heller
Written by Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster, based on the 1998 Esquire article “Can You Say… Hero?” by Tom Junod
Cast: Tom Hanks, Matthew Rhys, Chris Cooper, Susan Kelechi Watson, Maryann Plunkett, Enrico Colantoni, Wendy Makkena, Tammy Blanchard, Noah Harpster, Carmen Cusack, Kelley Davis, Christine Lahti, Maddie Corman, Daniel Krell, Jessica Hecht
Soundtrack: Nate Heller

The question on many people’s minds since they first found out about this film is, “How can you make this movie after last year’s documentary, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”

The short answer is: you really can’t.

If you haven’t seen the documentary yet, maybe go see this new movie first, and then the documentary will answer almost any other questions you might have.

This isn’t to say A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood doesn’t have any value. Tom Hanks does manage to somewhat capture Fred Rogers’ spirit, even if he doesn’t really look or sound like him, and there are some other solid performances (big ups to Welsh actor Matthew Rhys for continuing to pull off legitimate American accents), but there’s one element of the film that I simultaneously appreciated and was baffled by.

There’s no hint to it in any of the marketing, but the framing device of A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is that the movie itself is like an episode of Mister Rogers, so you have travel interludes where Pittsburgh and New York are done up like the miniature neighborhood from the show. While I enjoyed the artistry of this, the problem is that the device is applied inconsistently, and there’s one particular scene in the movie that gave me flashbacks to Welcome to Marwen (which is not a good thing).

The long and short of it is that if you’re looking for a feel-good movie, and you’re open to that experience, then A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood might work for you, I certainly wouldn’t talk you out of seeing it, but if you find it [more than] a little jarring, I’m right there with you.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Directed by Brian Kirk
Written by Adam Mervis (story and screenplay) and Matthew Michael Carnahan (screenplay)
Cast: Chadwick Boseman, Sienna Miller, J.K. Simmons, Stephan James, Taylor Kitsch, Keith David, Alexander Siddig, Louis Cancelmi, Victoria Cartagena, Gary Carr, Morocco Omari, Chris Ghaffari, Dale Pavinski, Christian Isaiah, Sarah Ellen Stephens, Jamie Neumann, Peter Patrikios, John Douglas Thompson, Obi Abili, Andy Truschinski, Darren Lipari, Adriane Lenox
Soundtrack: Henry Jackman & Alex Belcher

The first several [dozen] times I saw the trailer for 21 Bridges, I thought, “That sounds like a great premise for some sort of post-apocalyptic mood piece, but not necessarily a serious cop drama.”

To my surprise, the filmmakers actually made it work.

For much of its runtime, 21 Bridges is a solid, surprisingly grounded piece of entertainment (like a more realistic poliziotteschi).

The trouble comes in the third act, when the story becomes a little too pulpy for its own good (I’d level a similar criticism at The Good Liar, though that one has the excuse of being based on a novel).

Still, I think this might be the best performance I’ve seen from Chadwick Boseman (though I’m largely uninitiated, to be honest), which isn’t totally surprising as 21 Bridges seems to have been something of a passion project for him.

Unfortunately, Sienna Miller’s “New Yawk” accent is a bit of an albatross, and a great-on-paper supporting cast is largely wasted.

Even so, as with A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, I wouldn’t talk you out of seeing it, just don’t go in expecting Heat (or even Heat Jr).

Rating: ★★★☆☆

P.S.
I’m not criticizing anyone, I know movies are tough to make, but I do find it a little funny that the Mister Rogers movie got to shoot on the real NYC Subway whereas the New York crime thriller had to use Philadelphia’s.

Movie Review – ‘The Post’ – Truth and Consequences

Directed by Steven Spielberg

Written by Liz Hannah and Josh Singer

Cast: Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Sarah Paulson, Bob Odenkirk, Tracy Letts, Bradley Whitford, Bruce Greenwood, Matthew Rhys, Alison Brie, Carrie Coon, Jesse Plemons, David Cross, Zach Woods, Pat Healy, John Rue, Rick Holmes, Philip Casnoff, Jessie Mueller, Stark Sands, Michael Cyril Creighton, Will Denton, Deirdre Lovejoy, Jennifer Dundas, Austyn Johnson, Brent Langdon, Michael Stuhlbarg, Deborah Green, Gary Wilmes, Christopher Innvar, Justin Swain, Kenneth Tigar, David Aaron Baker, Gannon McHale, Dan Bucatinsky, David Costabile, Johanna Day, Annika Boras, Carolyn McCormick, Peter Van Wagner, Angus Hepburn, James Riordan, Kelly AuCoin, Cotter Smith, Ben Livingston, JaQwan J. Kelly, Shaun O’Hagan, Celeste Arias, Sonny Valicenti, Aaron Roman Weiner, Tom Bair, Mark Jacoby, Curzon Dobell, Neal Huff

Soundtrack: John Williams

Before Watergate.
Before Woodward and Bernstein.
There were The Pentagon Papers.
And thus began the rise of The Washington Post to national prominence, and the downfall of the presidency of one Richard Milhous Nixon.

I said this before when I reviewed Bridge of Spies, and I think it bears repeating. It’s become somewhat popular to hate on Steven Spielberg, and I get it (I mean, I’m about as excited to see Ready Player One as I am to get food poisoning, or cancer), but the fact remains, he’s still Steven Spielberg.

I’m not going to tell you that The Post is “Classic Spielberg”, reminiscent of his heyday in the Seventies and Eighties, but it does at least hearken back to his run in the early Aughts, which isn’t so bad (Catch Me If You Can, anyone?).

On its face, The Post isn’t anything particularly special. It’s nothing that hasn’t been done before, and none of the performances, even from the Oscar winners in the room, are really anything to write home about (though it is fun to see Bob and David in a Spielberg movie together). Yet, somehow, I’m left feeling satisfied, which leads me to conclude that film is greater than the sum of its parts, and I believe that is largely due to that wily old veteran director, Steven Spielberg (and his near-constant collaborator, John Williams; who’s getting up there, kids, so maybe savor this one while we still have them to savor).

For all of his softening and head-scratching decisions over the past fifteen years, the man still knows how to bring a script to life and make it pop, and he still knows where to throw in his signature touches (like those little one-ers you don’t really notice, but your brain does). Was he the absolute best choice to handle this particular material? Maybe not, but they certainly could have done a lot worse.

Speaking of the material, kudos to first-time screenwriter Liz Hannah, who was the initial rolling snowball of this avalanche, and executive producer and writer Josh Singer (who, unsurprisingly, held the same positions on Spotlight), for putting together yet another intricate and no doubt incredibly well-researched period journalism piece (to have a script with roughly fifty real-life people portrayed by credited actors in a two-hour movie just goes to show how deep the dive was). Much like Spotlight (and in contrast to All the President’s Men), The Post works whether you lived though the events or not.

However, I wouldn’t say The Post is all-in-all on the same level as Spotlight, which is to say I don’t think it’s Best Picture material, and the subtext of the film given the current climate is fairly obvious, but still, perhaps for reasons I can’t fully articulate, I have zero issue recommending it.

It’ll make you real depressed about the Vietnam War (but then what doesn’t?), but if you’re a fan of Spielberg, journalism, and/or the First Amendment, The Post‘ll be right up your alley.

Rating: ★★★★☆

Movie Review – ‘Sully’ – One Fifty-Five

Directed by Clint Eastwood
Written by Todd Komarnicki, based on the book “Highest Duty” by Chesley Sullenberger and Jeffrey Zaslow
Cast: Tom Hanks, Aaron Eckhart, Laura Linney, Valerie Mahaffey, Mike O’Malley, Jamey Sheridan, Anna Gunn, Holt McCallany, Chris Bauer, Ann Cusack, Sam Huntington, Jeffrey Nordling, Michael Rapaport, E. Roger Mitchell, Pascal Yen-Pfister
Soundtrack: Christian Jacob and the Tierney Sutton Band

Almost immediately, this film raises the question, “Is it appropriate to release a movie featuring sequences of a plane crashing into New York City on the weekend of the 15th anniversary of 9/11?”

The answer is most definitely, “No.” (Although, much like 9/11, I remember exactly where I was on January 15, 2009)

Of course, in reality, Flight 1549 was successfully landed on the Hudson River with zero loss of life, but the movie features some nightmare sequences in which our heroes are unsuccessful, leading to some questionable imagery.

Despite this, I’m going to say that ‘Sully’ is worth seeing overall, but it’s pretty far from a must-see, because I have some problems (and, let me tell you, seeing it in IMAX doesn’t really add anything either).

Perhaps the most frustrating element of the film is the story structure and, in turn, how it’s edited. I’m not saying every movie (especially based-on-a-true-story types) needs to be a slave to chronology, but much of the time-shifting in ‘Sully’ is ridiculous. On multiple occasions, the movie would come back from a flashback that went on so long I forgot it was a flashback. Also, I wish the movie would have just picked its spot to show the incident as a whole, rather than showing some here, some there, and then going over it a couple more times; maybe show it at the beginning in “Hollywood time” and at the end in real time, but what do I know?

In addition, as much as there are good performances from the leads (Aaron Eckhart’s mustache is perfect) and most of the supporting roles (Mike O’Malley’s best work?), many of the ancillary performances took me out of the movie; whether this is a result of bad acting, bad direction, or simply bad dialogue, I don’t know, but it’s definitely a detriment. I would’ve thought a movie like this would have put a priority on making everyone feel as real as possible, but that doesn’t appear to be the case.

All in all though, ‘Sully’ is a story worth telling, even if the movie doesn’t quite match the magnitude of the real life event. It sheds light on many unsung heroes, but also deals with the issue of instant celebrity for those not even seeking it.

Worth a matinee, but that’s about it.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Movie Review – ‘Bridge of Spies’ – Donovan’s Double Down

Directed by Steven Spielberg
Written by Matt Charman and Ethan Coen & Joel Coen
Cast: Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance, Alan Alda, Amy Ryan, Austin Stowell, Michael Gor, John Rue, Billy Magnussen, Jesse Plemons, Michael Gaston, James Lorinz, Brian Hutchison, Martin Dew
Soundtrack: Thomas Newman

It’s become somewhat popular to hate on Steven Spielberg.

I understand why: as he’s gotten older he’s maybe lost some of his edge and has made at least one grave mistake; but on the whole I find this rather disingenuous.

First of all, nothing can ever change the fact that he has personally auteured, at minimum, a handful of the greatest movies ever made. Secondly, it’s perfectly natural for an artist’s work to have some degradation over time; I mean, did anyone really expect ‘War Horse’ to be better than ‘Saving Private Ryan’? People get older; it happens. I give the guy a lot of credit that he’s still a major director, let alone that he’s still producing work that’s actually good (it’s a lot more than you can say about many of his directorial contemporaries).

So, where does ‘Bridge of Spies’ fit into all of this?

Well, in some ways it’s more of the same: it’s over two hours long, it’s a period piece, it’s a historical drama, it’s got Germans, Tom Hanks, and sometimes it’s a little cornball.

In other ways it feels like a radical departure. Since 1974, Steven Spielberg has been a director on 29 feature films: 14 of which have been shot by Janusz Kaminski, who shot ‘Bridge of Spies’; 26 of which have been edited by Michael Kahn, who edited ‘Bridge of Spies’; and 26 of which have been scored by John Williams, who did not score ‘Bridge of Spies’.

That’s right. For the first time in 30 years (‘The Color Purple’), John Williams, the Brady to Spielberg’s Belichick (or maybe vice versa; who knows?), did not compose the music for a Steven Spielberg movie. In fact, there’s very little music in general throughout the runtime of ‘Bridge of Spies’, and most of the pivotal scenes aren’t scored at all. Now, according to Spielberg himself, this was the plan all along even before it was revealed that John Williams would not be physically able to compose the score (don’t worry, kids; he’ll be back for ‘The BFG’), but, frankly, the overall absence of music (and John Williams music in particular) is so atypical that I venture to say this is the least Spielbergian Spielberg movie ever. I admit though, not having seen his entire catalogue, I’m not the most qualified person to make such a statement.

Besides that major departure, what else is notable about ‘Bridge of Spies’?

Honestly, the element I was most impressed by was the attention to detail in the production. There’s nothing worse, even if you’re not an expert, than seeing something you know shouldn’t be there while watching a period piece, and in that regard ‘Bridge of Spies’ is top notch. Every set, location, prop, costume, and hair and makeup style looks exactly how it should. It’s not exactly a surprise to learn that production designer Adam Stockhausen won an Oscar for ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’, and set decorator Rena DeAngelo won an Emmy for “Mad Men”, and I expect to see their names come next awards season.

Other than that, Tom Hanks is a good as you’d expect him to be, I really liked Mark Rylance in a quiet but vital supporting role (I was totally unfamiliar with him before this film), and I liked the fact that this story was being told at all, and its message of what it means to be to be American. It’s a bit preachy in the first half hour or so, but after that the movie becomes very matter of fact, which I also appreciated.

On the other hand, I do have some minor criticisms. For one thing, I don’t know for sure whether ‘Bridge of Spies’ was shot on film or not, at the very least it looks way better than a Michael Mann movie, but, during the U-2 crash sequence (which is not a spoiler) everything all of a sudden looked real fakey-fake, which, given the realism of the rest of the movie, was quite the sore thumb. Also, especially with a historical film, I generally like to be aware of the time, place, and timeframe of events, and ‘Bridge of Spies’ was lacking in this area. I always knew where things were happening, but outside of an initial title card stating 1957, I could not tell that the events of this movie were taking place over a five year period. Finally, there’s some back and forth movement between James B. Donovan’s story and Francis Gary Powers’ story that I found unnecessary, and could have easily been cut out of the film for the sake of time.

In the end, I liked ‘Bridge of Spies’ quite a bit, and it deserves reasonably high praise, but I also know that not everyone will like it, and quite a few people will likely find it boring. It’s a quiet film, it’s very unreliant on action, and in many ways it feels like a product of the period it’s portraying. It may not add up to much box office success for Spielberg, and I don’t even know that I’d consider it Best Picture material (though, knowing how the Academy works, it probably will be), but if you are a fan of, or at least don’t mind historical dramas, then ‘Bridge of Spies’ is certainly worth your time.

And if you don’t think that Steven Spielberg is an artistic director, the opening scene will definitely give you a little something to chew on.

Rating: ★★★★☆

P.S. I say this not to spoil anything, but rather to properly manage expectations: the advertising for ‘Bridge of Spies’ makes it appear as if the entire film is about James B. Donovan’s negotiations to exchange a Soviet spy for Francis Gary Powers, but in actuality this plot line doesn’t occur until the second half of the movie. There’s more to the story covered in the first half.