Details

Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 28 January 2019

On 13 April 1987, former United States Senator Gary Hart announced his candidacy for President.  He’d spent several years making a name for himself and now the time was right to seek the nomination of the Democratic Party and take control of the White House back from the Republicans.  He was well-liked, he was ahead in the polls and he faced no serious competition.  One month later… his campaign was over.

There are two predominant narratives in The Front Runner.  The first is a character study of 50-year-old Gary Hart (Jackman) which provides insight into his history, his family and his ideals.  He had a slightly unorthodox style, at least by today’s standards, in that he was more focused on developing policies than endless photoshoots and public appearances.  He also had a strong relationship with journalists.  They would continually share lunch as Hart openly and passionate spoke about his long-term vision for the United States (and also the benefit of his perfect hair in the polls!)

The second, more interesting narrative involves the journalists themselves.  Acting on an anonymous tip, a team from The Miami Herald put Hart’s Washington D.C. townhouse under surveillance to confirm if he was having an extramarital affair with Donna Rice, a model-actress living in Miami.  After seeing Rice enter the residence, the Herald decided they had enough information to publish a front-page exposé with the damning headline “Miami woman is linked to Hart”.

What followed over the coming days was a media storm from which Hart would never recover.  He denied having a relationship with Rice but it was the manner of Hart’s denial that added more fuel to the fire.  He felt that his personal life should be “off limits” to the press and it should have no bearing on his ability to serve as President.  The media disagreed.  More questions followed and within a matter of days, he ended his campaign.

Brought to the screen by Oscar nominated director Jason Reitman (Juno, Up in the Air), The Front Runner doesn’t try to answer questions about the relationship between Hart and Rice.  Were they just friends or were they something more?  We’ll never truly know.  The purpose of the film is to get you thinking about the line between what is public and what is private when it comes to politicians.  Does the public dictate where the line is or are journalists making the decision for us?  Also, are we consistent when comparing one politician to another? 

This a polished production from Reitman.  It features a snazzy film score from Rob Simonsen and distinctive cinematography from Eric Steelberg who uses long, continuous shots to give it a documentary-like feel.  We’ve come accustomed to seeing Hugh Jackman in musicals and action films in recent years and so it’s nice to see him sink his teeth into a dramatic role about a real-life person.

In a similar vein to Steven Spielberg’s The Post, The Front Runner delves into the important role of journalism in a world filled with corruption and “fake news”.  You may not like Gary Hart and you may not like the journalists but it’s a great conversation starter.

Details

Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 20 January 2019

62-year-old director Peter Farrelly has made some wonderful comedies over the past three decades including Dumb and Dumber, Kingpin, There’s Something About Mary and Shallow Hal.  It’s hard to believe that it’s taken more than 25 years for Farrelly to make his first drama.  It wasn’t for lack of trying!

Studios showed no early interest in his script for Green Book, which he co-wrote with Nick Vallelonga and Brian Hayes Currie, but that changed when he was able to convince Viggo Mortensen (Captain Fantastic) and Mahershala Ali (Moonlight) to come on board.  The end result speaks for itself.  The film won the lucrative Audience Award at the 2018 Toronto Film Festival and is tipped to feature prominently when the Academy Award nominations are announced.

It’s easy to see why comparisons are being made with another Oscar winner, Driving Miss Daisy.  Released back in 1989, it was the tale of an old lady (Jessica Tandy) who has her eyes opened to racism in the United States thanks to her loyal African American driver (Morgan Freeman).  They were as different as chalk and cheese but the film culminated with Tandy grabbing Freeman’s hand and saying the now famous line – “you’re my best friend”.

Set in 1962, Green Book reverses the races in that scenario.  Don Shirley (Ali), referred to as “Doc”, is a renowned black pianist based at Carnegie Hall.  In doing his small part for the civil rights movement, he has agreed to perform at a number of venues across America to showcase his talents in front of white audiences.  It’s an 8-week tour that begins in Pennsylvania and culminates in more “conservative” states such as Mississippi and Alabama.

Doc realises that his presence in the Deep South is likely to attract attention from white supremacists and so he has employed Tony Vallelonga (Mortensen), an expert in night club “public relations”, to be both his driver and security guard.  They’re both from New York City but that’s where the similarities end.  Tony isn’t particularly enamoured with the job and the idea of working for a “coloured” but he’s in a tough spot financially and needs the cash to help support his wife (Cardellini) and two children.

There are a few small surprises but for the most part, Green Book plays out as you might expect.  There’s early tension between the characters but a bond quickly develops between them.  So, did this feel-good story actually take place?  You’ll get a different answer depending on who you ask.  Tony’s son co-wrote the screenplay and based it on stories and audio tapes provided by his late father.  On the flip side, Doc’s 82-year-old brother has called it “a symphony of lies” and was disappointed that he and his family were not consulted during the filmmaking process.

I can’t attest to its factual accuracy but Green Book is still a warm-hearted crowd pleaser that achieves its mission thanks to the two stellar performances from Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen.  The interaction between the pair is the clear highlight.  Power games are afoot in the first half of the movie as each asserts their authority.  The calm, articulate Doc lays down clear ground rules (no smoking the car, hands on the wheel at all times) but the chatty, food-loving, chain-smoking Tony is quick to test those boundaries to see how far they can be pushed.

The film becomes more dramatic and poignant in the second half as they come face-to-face with the inherent “it’s just the way we do things down here” racism that existed, and still exists, in parts of America.  The situations become increasingly troublesome and as details emerge about Doc’s past, he becomes a more interesting, empathetic character.  The narrative is a little too skewed towards Tony’s good deeds (and I know some have been critical of this) but I’d argue that we still get to see Doc make his mark on the world and break down barriers (which was always his intention).

Nothing in Green Book is particularly new or revealing but it’s still a well told story.

Details

Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 27 January 2019

Timothée Chalamet and Lucas Hedges are two young actors who have found themselves on strikingly similar career paths.  Chalamet is 23, Hedges is 22 and both were born and raised in New York City.  They each have an Oscar nomination under their belt – Chalamet for Call Me by Your Name and Hedges for Manchester by the Sea (a role that Chalamet also auditioned for).  They’ve even appeared in a movie together – competing for the affections of Saorise Ronan in Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird.

The similarities don’t end there.  Several months ago, Chalamet played a drug addicted teenager struggling to connect with his father (Steve Carell) in the Amazon Studio produced Beautiful Boy.  Now, Lucas Hedges plays a similar character in Ben is Back, the story of a young man who has spent months in a rehabilitation centre and is now being helped by his mother (Julia Roberts).

There’s a family connection here given the film is written and directed by Lucas’s father, Peter Hedges, who has some worthy screenwriting credits to his name including What’s Eating Gilbert Grape and About a Boy.  You might think that Peter always had his son in mind for the lead role but that wasn’t the case.  He had other actors in mind because he was worried about failing his son and “making a dud”.  It took the strong encouragement of Julia Roberts, who was really keen to work with Lucas, for Peter to make a final decision.

The timeframe here is narrow with Ben is Back spread across a 24-hour period covering Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  Holly (Roberts) arrives home from church to find Ben waiting in the freezing cold outside the front door.  She didn’t think he’d be home for Christmas but after managing to stay “clean” for 77 days, his longest stint in more than two years, Ben checked out of the rehabilitation centre to make it home in time for this special day.

In a similar vein to Beautiful Boy, the focus here is more on the parent as opposed to the child.  Julia Roberts calls upon a wide range of emotions in illustrating the complexity of the situation.  There’s the initial excitement upon seeing her son but that quickly changes as she worries about his vulnerable nature and the chance of a relapse.  We see her rushing to clean out the medicine cabinet in the bathroom and having tough conversations with her husband (Vance) and daughter (Newton).

Holly agrees not to let Ben out of her sight (not exactly ideal when trying to plan Christmas Day festivities) and that serves as the catalyst for drama.  Ben is approached by people from his darker past and in the process, Holly is startled by secrets that Ben has long kept hidden.  You get the sense that she should have confronted her son many years ago about certain things but her kind, trustworthy nature was a barrier rather than a help.

The performances are great but Ben is Back does feel unnecessarily formulaic in places.  Early groundwork is laid for future subplots but it’s far too obvious.  The best example is a sequence involving another mother (Bay Jones) and the attendant at a drive-through pharmacy.  There are also a handful of head-scratching scenes, such as one where Holly confronts her son’s former doctor in a fast food court, that disrupt the film’s flow.

Ben is Back has some important things to say but the emotion of the situation doesn’t resonate as strongly as it should.

Details

Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 10 January 2019

The idea of female leadership and empowerment will be seen, by some at least, as a movement that has taken shape over the past few decades.  Margaret Thatcher became the first British Prime Minister in 1979.  Julia Gillard achieved the same honour here in Australia in 2010.  In the United States, Sandra Day O’Connor became the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court in 1981 and Madeleine Albright became the first female Secretary of State in 1997.  There are many more examples I could list.

Mary Queen of Scots takes us back to an oft forgotten time in the 16^th Century when two women were arguably the most powerful people in the United Kingdom (as it is known today).  At the age of just 25, Queen Elizabeth I (Robbie) ascended to the thrones of England and Ireland in 1558 following the death of her half-sister.  Three years later, 18-year-old Mary I (Ronan) returned from France to take up her rightful pace as Queen of Scotland.  The pair were actually first cousins once removed.

Josie Rourke’s film tries to balance up the respective storylines of these two famed characters but as the title suggests, it’s skewed towards the narrative of Mary.  That makes it the opposite of Elizabeth: The Golden Age, the 2007 release from director Shekhar Kapur which starred Cate Blanchett as Elizabeth and Samantha Morton as Mary.  Kapur’s film is superior if you’re looking to know more about this fascinating piece of British history.

Mary Queen of Scots feels like two hours of pointless power games.  Mary has her eyes on the English crown but Elizabeth is quick to rouse her supporters and prevent an uprising.  The film’s problem is that we don’t know what either side is about, aside from differing religious views, and so it’s hard to work out who to cheer for.  They both come across as power-hungry zealots (particularly Mary) who care very little about the people around them and the broader population.  It’s villain versus villain and therefore, I was struggled to invest in their fate.

A tricky part to the real-life story is the fact that while Elizabeth and Mary exchanged numerous letters, they never met face-to-face.  Borrowing from the technique used effectively by Michael Mann in Heat, screenwriter Beau Willimon (House of Cards) tries to builds early tension and then brings the two lead characters together for a pivotal, albeit fictional, scene.  It doesn’t work.  It’s an anti-climactic moment that becomes borderline laughable as the stumble around using the protection of see-through curtains.

It’s not all bad news.  The film does a commendable job exploring the challenges of being a female monarch in a male-dominated era.  Both Elizabeth and Mary have qualms about their not-so-loyal advisers and it’s apparent that many want to use the queens as their puppets as opposed to their leaders.  Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird, Brooklyn) also deserves praise for her performance as the strong-willed yet flawed Mary.  It’s hard to be too enamoured with Margot Robbie’s (I, Tonya) performance given her character goes missing after the opening act.

If you’re looking to see a great period piece about power games and British royalty… The Favourite is still in Australian cinemas.

Details

Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 23 January 2019

If you’re considered a “senior citizen”, the Queensland Health website has a few suggestions in staying active so to maintain your strength, mobility and independence for as long as possible.  You can try walking, Tai Chi, group exercises, aqua aerobics, gardening, dancing, lawn bowls or Masters sports.  There are also plenty of local councils who run free activities specifically for seniors.

If none of that tickles your fancy and you’re looking to be more adventurous, you can look to Hollywood for inspiration and turn to a life of crime.  Going in Style (released in 2017) was a fictional comedy about three 70-something year old guys who orchestrated a bank heist to fund their retirement.  The Old Man and the Gun (released in 2018) was based on actual events and followed a polite, elderly man (Robert Redford) who was robbing multiple banks up to the age of 78.

The Mule, directed by two-time Oscar winner Clint Eastwood (Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby) is the latest entrant in this growing, specialised genre.  The names have been changed in the film but it’s based on a true story that went viral thanks to a 2014 article from journalist Sam Dolnick in The New York Times.  An 87-year-old man from Indiana was making big money while transporting drugs across the United States for a Mexican drug cartel.  He was considered to be the oldest drug mule in the world.

These are serious crimes but it’s hard not to smile as Earl Stone (Eastwood) goes about his business.  He doesn’t even know how to use a mobile phone or send a text message!  This makes him the butt of everyone’s jokes at the start but it is fun to watch the power shift as Earl takes on bigger shipments and becomes an essential, untouchable member of the cartel.

There are several scenes where the film switches perspective and we follow a Drug Enforcement Administration agent (Cooper) who is trying to “make a big splash” and arrest a high-profile drug mule.  He gets close but the sly, smooth talking Earl is able to evade capture.  Why would anyone suspect an octogenarian, driving alone on the freeway, of carrying 200 pounds of cocaine in the back of his pickup truck?

The Mule marks the first acting gig for 88-year-old Clint Eastwood since Trouble with the Curve (2012).  He hasn’t given any formal notification of retirement but it’s likely to be one of the last times we see Eastwood on screen and in the director’s chair.  He’s had no trouble assembling a strong cast with Bradley Cooper, Laurence Fishburne, Michael Peña, Dianne Wiest and Andy Garcia all happy to take supporting roles despite some of the characters being underdeveloped and relatively insignificant (especially Fishburne and Garcia).

It’s an interesting story but the screenplay of Nick Schenk (Gran Torino, The Judge) is heavy-handed in places.  To ensure audiences like Earl’s character, the film is quick to illustrate the many “good” things he spends his ill-earned money on – his overdue mortgage payments, his granddaughter’s wedding and a social club for Vietnam veterans.  When he starts making BIG money, the film is surprisingly silent as to where it’s all going.  There’s also a strong focus on his efforts to reconcile with his ex-wife (Weist) and daughter (played by Eastwood’s real-life daughter, Alison) without delving too deeply into his chequered past.

The Mule is too simple in places but it’s still a likeable crowd pleaser that showcases a great true story.