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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 12 February 2017

If you pick up an aerospace history book, you can read about John Glenn becoming the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth in 1962.  What you’re unlikely to see are the names of the hundreds, if not thousands, of people who contributed to that milestone with their work behind the scenes.

Hidden Figures focuses on three individuals in particular.  They were all African American and they were all pioneers who overcame huge barriers at NASA because of their sex and race.  Katherine Johnson (Henson) was a mathematician who could perform calculations as fast as anyone.  Mary Jackson (Monáe) was a budding engineer who helped design the space capsule.  Dorothy Vaughan (Spencer) was a supervisor who learned to master one of the first IBM electronic computers.

Based on the non-fiction book by Margot Lee Shetterly, the screenwriting team have given it a light touch.  Don’t get me wrong – the discrimination these women endured was outrageous.  I’d like to hope that you couldn’t get away with it today.  Rather than make this too depressing, the screenwriting team have crafted a film that highlights and celebrates their achievements.  There are lots of laughs and these characters offer lots of personality.

The villains in this tale are the work colleagues who refused to acknowledge the efforts of Katherine, Mary and Dorothy in the workplace.  Jim Parsons plays the lead engineer who goes to great lengths to make simple tasks all the more difficult for them.  Kirsten Dunst is an administration supervisor who plays down their efforts and squashes their hopes at promotions and pay rises.  Kevin Costner fits somewhere in the middle – the director of the Space Task Group who realises there’s a problem but is too busy to act on it.

Given increasing number of sequels, reboots, remakes and spin-offs released in cinemas each year, I often worry that we’ve run out of good stories to tell.  This film refutes that concern.  Writer-director Theodore Melfi (St. Vincent) was in serious contention to direct the new Spider-Man reboot but when he read the draft script for Hidden Figures, he withdrew his name from consideration and took this on instead.  He, like so many others, realised this was a great yarn worth telling.

Audiences and critics have agreed.  The film has been nominated for 3 Academy Awards including best picture and recently won the lucrative Screen Actors Guild Award for the best ensemble.  It has pulled in $125 million at the box-office in the United States (a figure higher than any of the other best picture nominees) and spent its first three weeks in the #1 position.  Given the $25 million budget, it’s one of this year’s big success stories.

The film isn’t perfect.  It’s a simplistic, cheesy and repetitive in places.  There’s not much depth to the supporting players.  You can put most of those criticisms aside because it’s the wonderful lead performances that will win you over.  Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monáe are very, very hard to dislike.  They’ve created three distinctive personas for their respective characters and they serve as a fun, beautiful tribute for the real life counterparts.

If Hollywood can keep producing more films like this, I’ll be a happy individual.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 31 January 2017

It hasn’t been long since the events of 15 April 2013.  I can still remember following the tragedy and subsequent manhunt through news websites.  Two bombs were detonated near the finish line of the Boston Marathon.  Three people were killed and roughly 260 other spectators in the area were injured.  The authorities faced increasing pressure to identify those responsible and after a speedy yet thorough investigation, they got the two men they were looking for.

It’s no surprise to see this story brought to the screen by writer-director Peter Berg and star Mark Wahlberg.  It marks their third collaboration after Lone Survivor, the tale of Navy SEALs trying to kill a Taliban leader in Afghanistan, and Deepwater Horizon, the story of workers on an oil rig who had to battle for survival after a huge explosion.  These two are clearly attracted to real-life action-thrillers about heroes and the American spirit.

Berg begins his film by introducing us to all the characters up front.  We don’t know what part they’ll all play but he wants to create a splash of intrigue.  Most of it revolves around Mark Wahlberg – a sergeant with the Boston Police Department who has been disciplined for past indiscretions (which we’re not told about).  He’s been stationed at the finish line and his role is simply to make things run smoothly and deal with any issues that arise.  He’s not particularly keen to be there.

John Goodman is the friendly Police Commissioner.  J.K. Simmons is a laid-back sergeant from a nearby city.  Vincent Curatola is the no-nonsense mayor.  Michelle Monaghan plays Wahlberg’s wife who watches things unfold at home.  Jimmy Yang is a uni student trying to find a girlfriend.  Rachel Brosnahan and Christopher O’Shea are a married couple watching the marathon.  Kevin Bacon is an FBI Special Agent.  Alex Wolff and Themo Melikidze play the two terrorists responsible for the bombings.  We see things unfold from all of their perspectives.

The film’s most interesting element is the behind-the-scenes look at the unfolding investigation.  One of the most pivotal scenes involves different authorities arguing about whether to release photographs of the two suspects.  They could not be identified from the grainy CCTV footage and the hope was that a member of the public would recognise them and come forward.  However, the photos’ release could come at a cost if it spooks the suspects into fleeing or detonating more bombs.

There’s a nice moment at the end of Berg’s film where hear from the real-life people who are depicted in the movie.  They speak of the great city of Boston and the resilience shown in the aftermath of the attack.  One person noticeably absent is the police sergeant played by Wahlberg.  That’s because no such person actually existed.  Many police officers were involved but in the interests of condensing the narrative into two hours, their actions were melded together into a single fictional character.  It explains why he’s always in the right place at the right time.

The backstory to Wahlberg’s character and the interplay with his wife is a little dull and clichéd.  Putting that aside, Patriots Day is a watchable film that tries not to delve into politics (although it goes close some times) and pays tribute to those who risk their lives to keep us all safe from harm.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 05 February 2017

Ines Conradi (Hüller) is a German business consultant who has spent the last year working on a major project in Romania.  She’s good at what she does but you sense that life is made more difficult because she’s a woman.  Ines has to go that extra mile to convince her colleagues and customers that her advice is accurate and well-informed.

Out of the blue, Ines is visited by her father, Winfried (Simonischek).  He makes a bizarre entrance by turning up at her work wearing a wig and fake teeth.  He announces that he’s taken a month off work and wants to spend more time with daughter.  They don’t see each other very often and Winfried jokes that he’s hired a substitute daughter to fill the hole left by his daughter’s absence.

Ines isn’t exactly welcoming her dad with open arms.  She’s extremely busy at work and is trying to land a major new contract with the CEO of a German oil company.  She doesn’t have time to “play tourist” and spend it with her joke-loving father.  Given her tight schedule, she takes a chance and invites her father along to a business function (to kill two birds with one stone).  It’s at this point where the hilarity begins.

Over the next few weeks, Winfried injects himself into Ines’s life in an assortment of bizarre ways.  There’s a scene where he pretends to be the German ambassador at business function.  There’s another where he turns up at her workplace, dressed in a suit and tie, proclaiming to be a “life coach” by the name of Toni Erdmann.  His most bizarre appearance comes late in the film at a birthday party hosted by Ines at home.  It’s hard to keep a straight face.

It’s not often you’ll see a comedy span 162 minutes but Toni Erdmann is outlandishly good.  It’s the German equivalent of a Coen Brothers movie – you have no idea what’s around the corner.  Sandra Hüller is wonderful in the lead role and you see her slowly soften as she gives in to her father’s silliness.  It’s one of the most original father-daughter tales that cinema has delivered.  The film’s exploration of her romantic side is also unusual and entertaining (a scene with a cupcake springs to mind).

I’m struggling to think of a more warped, out-of-the-box comedy from the past year.  I caught the film two months ago at the Brisbane Asia Pacific Film Festival and it’s stuck with me ever since.  The fact it’s the frontrunner to win the best foreign language film Oscar has helped secure this wider release across Australia.  I can’t wait to see how audiences react.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 29 January 2017

Kenneth Lonergan is a filmmaker I admire.  His directorial debut, You Can Count On Me (2000), was a beautiful tale of love, friendship and family.  It earned him much praise and an Academy Award nomination for best original screenplay.  The path of his follow up film, Margaret (2011), was not so smooth.  It was shot in 2005 but spent a ridiculous 6 years in the editing room due to “creative differences” with the producers.  For what it’s worth, I still liked the finished product.

Having spent the last few years working on plays, a television mini-series, and a few scripts that didn’t get off the ground, Lonergan is back in the spotlight with Manchester by the Sea.  It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival over a year ago and is now one of the frontrunners for the upcoming Academy Awards.  It’s a film he’ll be remembered for and deservedly so.

Lee Chandler (Affleck) is a self-employed janitor from a small town in Massachusetts.  He’s currently working for 4 separate apartment buildings just to make enough cash to get by.  He lives alone in a tiny basement “studio” with not much in the way of furniture or possessions.  It may sound like a sad, lonely existence but you got a strong sense this is what he wants – to simply switch off from the world around him.

That plan is disrupted when he receives an unexpected phone call.  His older brother, Joe, has passed away due to congestive heart failure.  Lee must return to his childhood home in Manchester-by-the-Sea, a tiny community where everyone knows everyone, and organise the funeral.  He must also help care for Joe’s 16-year-old son, Patrick (Hedges), who is in need of a legal guardian.

This is an exquisitely well-told tale about the way we deal with trauma and loss.  While Lonergan deserves full credit as the writer-director, the original idea for the film came from actors Matt Damon (who serves as one of the producers) and John Krasinski.  He wanted to explore the idea of tragedy and that no matter how hard we try we cannot shut ourselves away and avoid it. 

Casey Affleck could win an Academy Award later this month and it’s easy to see why with his strong performance.  He portrays Lee as an “emotional vacuum”.  Even when he learns of his brother’s passing and has to visit the hospital to take care of a few things, his voice never changes pitch.  His tough exterior is visible but it’s hard to gauge how soft he is on the inside.

That leads into another of the film’s positive attributes – intrigue.  On arriving back in Manchester, there’s a moment when an onlooker whispers “is that THE Lee Chandler?”  It’s clear that Lee has been affected by events from his past but Lonergan’s screenplay is careful in how this is revealed.  Answers are provided via short, powerful, well-timed flashbacks that involve his brother (Chandler) and wife (Williams).

Given the heavy material, the biggest surprise offered by the movie is its comedy.  The 16-year-old Patrick, played brilliantly by newcomer Lucas Hedges (Labor Day), has his own way of dealing with grief that involves several “girlfriends” and getting laid.  He shares some entertaining conversations with Lee as they each try to get a feel for the other.  A highlight is a hilariously awkward exchange where Patrick introduces Lee to a friend’s mother.

I’m not an Academy member (despite my yearnings) but if I had the chance to vote this year for best picture, Manchester by the Sea would be my pick.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 05 February 2017

When Viola Davis won the Screen Actors Guild Award last week for best supporting actress, she made a passionate speech about playwright August Wilson and this film’s narrative.  To use her words – “What August did so beautifully is he honoured the average man… who happened to be a man of colour. Sometimes we don’t have to shake the world and move the world and create anything that is going to be in the history book.”

Those two sentences are an apt description for Fences.  It is based on the iconic play that was first performed on Broadway in 1987 with James Earl Jones and Mary Alice in the leading roles.  That same year, it won the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.  It was revived on Broadway in 2010 with stars Denzel Washington and Viola Davis.  Once again, it was very warmly received.  It was around that time when Washington starting giving serious consideration to directing a film adaptation.

Fences is set in the late 1950s and is centred on a family living in Pittsburgh.  Aside from a handful of short scenes, the entire film is set in and around an old brick house.  Troy Maxson (Washington) is a 50-something-year-old living with his wife, Rose (Davis), and youngest son, Cory (Adepo).  He was a talented baseball player in his youth but his dreams of becoming a professional athlete amounted to nothing.  He now works as a garbage man for the local government – a job he’s held for more than a decade.

A curious element to the film is that it’s heavy on conversation and light on visual stimulus.  There’s an early moment where Troy protests that it’s only white men who get the easy task of driving the garbage trucks.  He points out this difference to his employer and put his career in jeopardy by seeing a promotion.  Instead of seeing this all unfold, the camera cuts away.  We learn about the outcome later when Troy talks to his wife at home.

This is a terrific drama that highlights what has changed over the past 60 years and what has remained the same.  All of these characters are put to the test as tensions develop.  Those adding to the complexity include Gabriel (Williamson), Troy’s brother who suffered a head injury during World War II and may need to be institutionalised, and Lyons (Hornsby), Troy’s middled aged son who is in need of money until his sagging music career takes off.

The performances are exceptional with Denzel Washington at his very best.  He plays a dominating patriarch who must always have the upper hand.  When Lyons tries to return the $10 he borrowed the previous week, Troy refuses and spins the actions into something negative.  Viola Davis is also wonderful as a woman who has stood steadfast by her husband but in the process, has given up her own dreams for a better life.  Audiences will have different opinions of each character depending on their own experiences.

They say “dead men tell no tales” but that phrase doesn’t apply in this case.  August Wilson just received his first Academy Award nomination for the best adapted screenplay.  The twist is that Wilson has been dead for more than 11 years.  He wrote the film script prior to his passing in 2005 and it had been waiting for a man of Denzel’s sensitivity and expertise to come along and direct it.

Nominated for 4 Oscars including best picture, is a heartfelt tale about an “average man”.