Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer Movie Review

April 24, 2017

Norman is the new film by Academy Award® nominated director Joseph Cedar. In my opinion, having been only nominated could change with this absorbing and compelling narrative. The film is remarkable. Immediately, the title may lead you astray. You’ll think this is just a story about a simple, meek and non-threatening older man named Norman Oppenheimer (Gere), which is a brilliant maneuver on the part of Cedar, who also wrote and produced the movie, to set you at ease right off the bat.
It doesn’t allow for the watcher to be suspicious of any of Norman’s activities. He seems to be as unassuming as they come. At the start of the film, Norman is asking his nephew Philip (Sheen) who’s a lawyer, for information on a client. Philip’s client is necessary for him to set up a deal where he can benefit financially and move up in the political and financial world of New York. He promises the deal is so good, everyone will prosper, including Philip. Less than excited about it, the dutiful Philip gives him the name of Bill Kavish (Stevens). When he tries to speak with him we see the real Norman and his vulnerabilities exposed; he’s a nobody with no experience. He’s a New York dealer trying to get the right connections hoping to join with the right people so that maybe something will pay off.

The film goes into four Acts. Each is titled. The first is, A Foot in the Door, because, a meeting finally does pay off. He meets Micha Eshel, played by Lior Ashkenazi, who is brilliant in the movie. Eshel is an up and comer in Israeli politics. Norman sees Eshel admiring a pair of very pricey shoes and purchases them for him as a favor. Several years later, we’re into Act Two which is Backing the Right Horse… and we learn that Norman did. The shoes make it into several inventive and important shots. When Act Two starts, we see them being worn by the new Prime Minister of Israel.
We move up from the shoes to the face of the person wearing them and it’s Eshel. Norman sees him backstage after an event and Eshel instantly recognizes him. Norman finally has an in with someone in power. Soon, we see some truly imaginative visuals and editing on the part of cinematographer Yaron Scharf (Footnote) and editor Brian A. Kates (Lee Daniels’ The Butler, Kill Your Darlings) to not only fill in an awful lot of the story in ingenious and stimulating ways but to keep us entertained. You’ll be absolutely engrossed at what Cedar came up with to cover a few phone calls Norman has to make.

Eventually, a relevant character emerges; Alex Green (Gainsbourg). She’s cold when Norman tries to get her to open up to him but then reverses it on him and begins to ask him questions… questions he should realize he shouldn’t be answering. Cedar characters are so well developed, Norman in particular, that you being to worry about him; especially as flaws surface, such as talking about Eshel to strangers and his inability to tell the truth to anyone. It’s critical to him that he is a friend of an important leader to get favors for one friend or another. Those lies and promises start to stack one on top of the other. How he hasn’t had a heart attack by now is beyond comprehension.

Without revealing too much about this provocative film or of who the real Norman is, Cedar does an extraordinary job of getting us to feel for the man he is or who we think he is. He is compassionate… or is he? He’s reliable and virtuous… or is he? He’s a small man trying to get something to finally hit for his friends and finally for himself. Maybe it has or it hasn’t… all due to a pair of shoes. This is an amazing film with some outstanding acting. Josh Charles has a small role but is noteworthy, as well as Gainsbourg but then everyone in this cast does an exceptional job bringing this impressive script to life and you don’t want to miss it. This is a must see as soon as possible.

The Promise Movie Review

April 24, 2017 (updated April 24, 2017)

“The Promise” is a big-budget, professional production that looks at World War I and how the Ottoman Empire mistreated the native Armenian population in Turkey. It is not a common topic in the movies to delve into the roots of genocide and ethnic cleansing. But Terry George has written and directed this subject before (in “Hotel Rwanda”) about the ethnic killings in Rwanda in 1994. With this movie, he makes a strident point of the cruelty of the Turks regarding the minority Armenians.

Prior to the start of World War I, many small villages in Turkey had many Armenians, and from one village came Mikael (Oscar Isaac). He wanted to study medicine, so he agreed to marry into a wealthy family and use the dowry money for schooling in Constantinople. While he is there, he stays with his rich uncle. He hires a young woman named Ana (Charlotte Le Bon) to tutor his children. Ana is Armenian, but she has grown up with her father in France. Makael and Ana meet, and both are attracted to each other.

Ana spends her time with Chris Myers (Christian Bale), who is an American reporter for the Associated Press. He is there to cover the tensions as the world comes to war. Once that war is declared, Turkey finds an ally in Germany. Turkish government officials find it easy to tighten down on all non-Turks, and they are especially hostile to the Armenians. Many villages are ransacked, and all non-Turks are jailed. Mikael tries to get a student exemption, but he instead gets put into a work camp.

Mikael finds a way to escape and he gets back his village. His mother Marta (Shohreh Aghdashloo) makes him marry the girl in the village he had agreed to marry. Mikael was secretly in love with Ana, but he knows he must make good on his promise. Turkish troops get deeper into the outlaying lands to scour and destroy more villages, and Mikael’s village is on the list.

Ana and Chris Myers had spent time fleeing the chaos in Constantinople. They found a missionary clinic in the hills, where the pastor in charge was secretly taking orphans to a nearby port and getting the children out of Turkey. Mikael’s wife is pregnant and she needs medical help, so they wind up at that same clinic. He again meets Ana and Chris, but he says he must stay with his family and the village. But the villagers are slaughtered, and there is nothing there for Mikael.

They travel to find the village with the port and the boats for the children. But the Turkish forces had destroyed the port and the village, and the people are wandering out into the hills. Chris is captured the Turks and it takes a visit by the U.S. Ambassador (James Cromwell) to get his free. Chris runs into a French destroyer captain (Jean Reno) and convinces him to use his artillery power to fight off the Turks. That will give the people fleeing the country a chance to stay alive.

The subject matter is difficult, because war enters Turkey and gives them all the room they need to quietly exterminate the Armenian people. There is a lot at stake; the story of the three people on the screen is shadow of what misfortune hits the country as a whole. The three main characters are mostly well-defined. Oscar Isaac, Charlotte Le Bon, and Christian Bale play the roles with a lot of empathy for the pain all around them. They are at times proud, and frightened, and shell-shocked, and worn down and then happy to meet up again. Love is found and lost in the shadows of war.

The movie is paced a little slow in some area, and the overall length might have been cut down a little bit. There a lot of characters over the course of the movie and many of those who are the main group or in the immediate surrounding group, they all tend to blur into a fuzzy stereotype. The Turks and almost all bad, and the Germans are all mean and stuck-up. The occasional American is noble and good-hearted, and the French need to be talked into doing the right thing.

There are some minor flaws in the movie. But in the long run, it is an honest and heartfelt effort to tell a story about World War I that normally gets pushed aside. But don’t expect the movie to be a box office smash (in Turkey).

After the Storm Movie Review

April 24, 2017 (updated April 28, 2017)

In Phoenix, exclusively playing at Harkins Shea 14

“After the Storm” is a film by Japanese director and writer Hirokazu Koreeda. This work is a family-centered look at the life of a middle-aged man who thinks that his life should have turned out differently. There are a lot of regrets in his life, and he wishes to have things the way he would like them to be. But that is not how it is to be…

Ryota (Hiroshi Abe) had written a prize-winning novel in his youth, and married a woman named Kyoko (Yoko Maki). They had a boy named Shingo (Taiyô Yoshizawa), and then his life took a turn for the worse. There was little interest in the writer Ryota, and he could only get offers to ghostwrite stories for manga graphic novels. Ryota gambled away most of his savings, and Kyoko divorced him and took Shingo.

Soon after his father dies, he meets with his elderly mother Yoshiko (Kirin Kiki). She has a low-class standard housing apartment with few luxuries. She lives on her small pension but she seems to be happy. Ryota thinks that his older sister Chinatsu (Satomi Kobayashi) has been coming over to visit his mother so she can borrow money. But Ryota is always broke, and he never has enough to pay his child support.

Ryota works part-time at a detective agency, and he says it is for doing ‘research’ for his next novel. But it pays him just enough to pay the rent and gamble away the rest. He uses the job to go undercover and spy on his ex-wife Kyoko, to see whom she is dating. She is involved with a man who runs a very successful real estate firm.

Ryota and his sister Chinatsu visit their mother just before a violent typhoon hits the city. Kyoko and their son Shingo are also there that night. Chinatsu and her family leave to get home before the storm. Ryota, Kyoko, and Shingo have to spend the night at Yoshiko’s apartment. Yoshiko thinks that Kyoto and Ryota might have another chance together, but that will not happen. Shingo and Ryota have a time to bond as father and son.

Yoshiko gets to say things that sound profound and wise, such as “You can’t find happiness until you’ve let go… of something.” What you decide to let go of, I guess that is up to you…

This is a leisurely-paced movie. The most exciting sequence is during the storm, when they are running around a playground searching for missing lottery tickets. There is no flashy camera work or take-your-breath-away special effects. Things like would take away the quiet honesty of this film. The dialogue is in Japanese, and there are subtitles, so it takes some concentration to watch and adsorb the nuances of the characters.

So this might not be everybody’s cup of hot green tea and rice cakes. But if you can appreciate a small family drama that treats you like an adult, then you could enjoy seeing “After the Storm”.

Shooting Starts on “A STAR IS BORN,”

April 18, 2017

SHOOTING STARTS ON “A STAR IS BORN,” STARRING

BRADLEY COOPER AND STEFANI GERMANOTTA (LADY GAGA)

Film Marks Cooper’s Directorial Debut

BURBANK, CA – Filming begins today on Warner Bros. Pictures’ reimagining of the musical “A Star is Born,” starring Bradley Cooper and introducing Stefani Germanotta, known across the globe as Oscar-nominated music superstar Lady Gaga, in her first leading role in a major motion picture. Four-time Oscar nominee Bradley Cooper (“American Sniper,” “American Hustle,” “Silver Linings Playbook”) is helming the film, marking his directorial debut.

Cooper plays Jackson Maine, a country music star who is on the brink of decline when he discovers a talented unknown named Ally (Germanotta). As the two begin a passionate love affair, Jack coaxes Ally into the spotlight, catapulting her to stardom. But as Ally’s career quickly eclipses his own, Jack finds it increasingly hard to handle his fading glory.

In addition to playing Ally, Germanotta, who earned her Oscar nod for the song “Til It Happens to You” from “The Hunting Ground,” has composed and will perform original songs in the film. The main cast also includes Andrew Dice Clay and Sam Elliott.

“A Star is Born” is being produced by Bill Gerber, Jon Peters, Bradley Cooper, Todd Phillips and Lynette Howell Taylor; with Basil Iwanyk and Ravi Mehta serving as executive producers. The screenplay is by Will Fetters & Bradley Cooper and Eric Roth, based on a story by William A. Wellman and Robert Carson.

Collaborating with Cooper behind the scenes are Oscar-nominated director of photography Matty Libatique (“Black Swan”), production designer Karen Murphy, three-time Oscar-nominated editor Jay Cassidy (“American Hustle,” “Silver Linings Playbook,” “Into the Wild”), and costume designer Erin Benach.

“A Star is Born” is being filmed entirely in Southern California.

Warner Bros. Pictures presents A Jon Peters Production, A Bill Gerber Production, A Joint Effort Production, “A Star is Born.” Slated for release on September 28, 2018, the film will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

American Assassin w/ Taylor Kitsch – Trailer

April 18, 2017

Directed by Michael Cuesta

Screenplay by Stephen Schiff and Michael Finch and Edward Zwick & Marshall Herskovitz

Based on the American Assassin novel in the Mitch Rapp series by Vince Flynn

Produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Nick Wechsler

Starring Dylan O’Brien, Michael Keaton, Sanaa Lathan, Shiva Negar, Scott Adkins and Taylor Kitsch

AMERICAN ASSASSIN follows the rise of Mitch Rapp (Dylan O’Brien) a CIA black ops recruit under the instruction of Cold War veteran Stan Hurley (Michael Keaton). The pair is then enlisted by CIA Deputy Director Irene Kennedy (Sanaa Lathan) to investigate a wave of apparently random attacks on both military and civilian targets. Together the three discover a pattern in the violence leading them to a joint mission with a lethal Turkish agent (Shiva Negar) to stop a mysterious operative (Taylor Kitsch) intent on starting a World War in the Middle East.

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In Theaters Sept 15th

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Is That A Gun in Your Pocket?

April 18, 2017 (updated April 18, 2017)

The plot of Is That A Gun in Your Pocket? is loosely based on the ancient Greek play “Lysistrata.” It was written and first performed in 411 BC. It’s interesting to see how little has changed in that men and women still lock horns over what the other considers to be best for their family and also in the way we entertain one another.

In the play, Lysistrata persuades the women of Greece to withhold sex from their husbands until they negotiate peace and end the Peloponnesian War. Using the theme of a 2,000-year-old sex comedy works for what the women of this small Texas town want from their men. These are strong values to stand on and the film does a good job of giving the audience both point of views. The comedy chafe’s the brain a few times as some scenes are not only too contrived but sophomoric, however, in the long run, it’s worth a watch for the number of times you’ll chuckle at this battle the sexes.

In Rockford, Texas, guns are the order of the day. This is set up in several ways. Pay special attention to the titles playing at the theatre for the wittiest of them. This little borough of 6,969 people is calm and quiet almost idyllic, in fact, and everyone seems happy on the surface yet deep down brews a silent soldier in the form of resentment. The women speak of it and make fun of men in group chats; the men do the same behind the backs of their wives or girlfriends, mostly while hunting. What is this resentment based on? Their sex lives. Their sex lives couldn’t be staler if it were a cracker from 1991 found this morning behind the refrigerator. As if it were a sketch comedy show, writer/ director, Matt Cooper (Perfect Opposites, The Last Supper) gives us set up after set up and joke after joke of men and women pinned against one another, all charged up and in full battle mode. Some japes in this comedy do land better than others but if you don’t take the subject too seriously, the touchdown is a lot less bumpy.

Married couple, Glenn (Passmore) and Jenna (Anders), and seemingly the rest of the town, are having problems in the marital bed. After their son takes a loaded gun to school and accidentally discharges some bullets, Jenna decides to take some of her unspent energy out on a cause. That cause is to rid the town of guns altogether. Glenn is against this and before you know it, the frustrated couple decides on one thing… neither will give in. She talks her girlfriends into helping her take a stand for something she feels is important to her after she learns that guns contribute the most to the death of children… above everything else. She explains that gun violence can end by removing the reason it exists… guns. The women agree and the men aren’t going to have it. So, the fairer sex comes up with the one thing that’s sure to break the men… they’ll close their legs until the guns are gone.

When the men hold up surprisingly well and are still not giving in, the women decide to turn up the heat. This is also when Cooper turns up the funny. These gals play some dirty tricks on these unsuspecting lads. I’ll let you discover those when you watch the film. As the title alone might suggest, there are some really fun moments that will hook you into the lampoonery you’ll find in Is That a Gun in Your Pocket?; like the revelation of a vibrator thought to have been a candlestick, a man crying because his ak47 is painted pink and the men wishing the women would have had a talking strike instead of a sex strike.

It’s slow to get going at first but hang in there. Laughing at jokes aimed at your sex, whether you think they’re completely accurate or not, is healthy. If you can do that you’re going to be entertained. There’s some really funny dialogue delivered by Cloris Leachman’s character, as well, such as suggesting that, ‘There is nothing more powerful than p*ssy.’ But her dirty old lady was a bit overused. Had she said only a few filthy things, I believe the declaration of that particular line would have had a much bigger impact. That said, when Horatio Sanz says, ‘Hell hath no fury like a Latina scorned,’ I hope you don’t have a drink in your mouth. My suggestion is to see this crazy little movie and don’t worry so much about the politics mentioned within. Whether you agree with the stance within or not you’ll laugh if you let yourself. You’ll like the characters once you get to know them and you’ll want to see where the story is leading. You truly care for them and what they’re standing up for and it’s also hard not to like this wonderful cast; there’s hardly a name you won’t recognize.

David Lynch: The Art Life Movie Review

April 15, 2017 (updated April 18, 2017)

David Lynch, in case you didn’t know, (and it would be a shame if you didn’t because he’s one of the most important artists of our time), is an American director, screenwriter and producer. He’s a musician, sculptor and a painter; the former is broadly noted in this film. Looking him up, one will find that he’s labeled a Surrealist. Surrealists perceive their work as expressions of the philosophical, abstract and even metaphysical points of view. If you’d like to know more about him, this Documentary will enlighten you and then stimulate you into wanting to see everything he has ever had a hand in creating.

We open on a long shot of Lynch sitting in a chair smoking… contemplating life. He then talks about his childhood, moving from Montana to Idaho to Washington. His mother, seeing his drawings as a boy, supported his young imagination by not allowing him to use coloring books as they might stifle his creativity. There’s joy in his voice as he examines the early memories of his family and friends until he reaches his move to West Virginia when he was in high school. It’s here where he is ridiculed and his life changes. He sees everything around him as cloudy and muted, often stormy whereas before there was always sun and happiness. The good boy turns bad when he starts to hang out with the wrong crowd and this time in his life, as well as a bit later when he visits a morgue, that you can see his style of provocative art and filmmaking start to take shape. The drawings that Director Jon Nguyen and his co-directors Rick Barnes and Olivia Neergaard-Holm choose for the words that Lynch now speaks set the tone beautifully. The art displayed at this time is intense; one is of a giant face screaming, ‘Help me!’ as he spoke of pure hatred for where he moved to, was shocking.

Soon after, the atmosphere changes and the camera catches him talking about Bushnell Keeler, the artist and person who is most responsible for encouraging his painting (and who got him to attend art school), more than anyone else. It’s seeing Keeler’s studio that cemented his love of the craft… this is when he knew what his future held. He gave him the book The Art Spirit by Robert Henri and Lynch loved it so much that he carried it everywhere with him. What made his spirit live by this time in his life was drinking coffee, smoking and painting. A few minutes later, into the microphone, he recants how his parents allow him to blossom and before you know it he’s going to school, has his first child and begins to try film on for size. Why not? He has done everything else? Pieces of his first films The Alphabet and The Grandmother are shown and we are taken down memory lane into how Eraserhead came to be.

You learn so much about him in this short amount of time that you may feel as if you know him intimately. This documentary is so well done that you’re grateful for the filmmakers having decided to capture him at this stage in life. Lynch is so open to the filmmakers that we even get to watch him interact with his baby daughter Lula as she plays inside of his studio. You can’t help but wonder what she has in store for us. All throughout the film his art dances across the screen such as, ‘Angel of Totality,’ a disturbing piece that gets you thinking about man’s ability to create life and destroy all other living things simultaneously… or at least that’s what I saw in it. Every bit of this art got me looking for more, which luckily isn’t hard to find. I suggest you do the same. He’s made comics, during angry stages of his life, and is proficient in still photography which is used all over the film to set a certain mood. It seems Nguyen and co. learned a lot from their subject and joined the dark side so to speak. The Late David Foster Wallace best described Lynch’s work as ‘Lynchian’ explaining that meant ‘a particular kind of irony where the very macabre and the very mundane combine in such a way as to reveal the former’s perpetual containment within the latter.’ This is something that Nguyen clearly understood and wanted his audience to explore.

Each pencil drawing or morbid morsel that you set your eyes on seems to outdo the other which is unfortunate if you’re watching in the theatre because you want and need to pause to take it all in. You must see it at the theatre but then it’s one to buy, as well, so you can PAUSE to absorb the film in its totality. It doesn’t matter what kind of art you like best or what kind of films you most enjoy, this movie is one to see. It’s deeply contemplative while being absorbing, haunting and insightful at the same time.

In Phoenix, see it at the FILM BAR tonight.

Tommy’s Honour Movie Review

April 15, 2017 (updated April 15, 2017)

Director Jason Connery, son of actor Sean Connery, is usually in front of the camera. Appearing in over seventy films, he now has five directing credits to his name. Tommy’s Honour, a piece about the birth of the golf pro of today, is his latest achievement. Appearing in Film Festivals across the globe, the Phoenix Film Festival being one of them where it had the honour of closing the fest, it’s getting great buzz and as it’s now at a theatre near you, I must recommend you see it. It’s an engaging movie with history about the evolution of the professional golfer and in my opinion; you don’t have to be a fan of the game to enjoy the spirit within the movie. Interestingly enough, the players went from being paid employees, hired to play the game for rich men who bet on the winners, to then playing on their own terms… and it would not have been possible if not for Young Tommy Morris (Jack Lowden) who made it happen.

At the time Tommy was the best player, one that the members of the club St. Andrews for whom he played, could always count on. He, well aware of his skills and knowledge of the game, refused to continue to play and only take home a small percentage of his own winnings. Not appreciating how the men of St. Andrews have always treated his father Old Tom, (Peter Mullan), he rejects the idea of ending up like his dad, crawling around on the ground setting up Tees for men who only looked down at him. Tommy decides it’s time to redesign how players are seen and how the game is played and with one game he does just that. Shocking every man in the club, especially Alexander Boothby (Sam Neil), he makes some requests that the members deny, fearing that next Tommy will expect to be called a Gentleman and demand entrance through the sacred door.

Tom, greenskeeper at St. Andrews, who’s responsible for establishing many of the game’s rules as well as making their balls and clubs, is fine with his station in life. When Tommy suggests rising above it, he gets a little nervous. Being a much better course designer these days than player, Tom is no longer asked to play; therefore he can no longer bring home the extra money his family needs. Having his son around to help run things and support the family has always been the plan. What starts concerning Tom, even more, is that at the time Tommy decides to carve his own path in golf, he also meets a woman, Meg (Ophelia Lovibond), who he falls instantly in love. Now his parents worry that he, along with this woman they do not trust, will destroy his future… and theirs.

What accent heavy dialogue you can make out in Tommy’s Honour, (you’re likely to miss a few words here and there so it’s worth mentioning), will affect you. It’s a thought-provoking and compelling story. With the characters being set up so well, you root for Young Tommy right away and want him to achieve his goals and prosper. You also feel for his family but when Meg enters the scene that may start to turn. As previously mentioned, Tommy has never been encouraged to dream or to love but he does now. With what he has achieved and where he sees his future heading, he insists on being his own man, no matter who likes it or who doesn’t. Suddenly, a sports movie about Tommy planning to tour different courses collecting his winnings and forever changing the face of the game turns into a heavy drama. Be prepared when it does… that’s all I’ll say about that.
Ophelia Lovibond is fabulous as she faces Tommy’s unforgiving mother and Peter Mullan expresses Old Tom impressively through not only dialogue but his face, especially when he sees his actions has cost him so much. This is an incredible cast in a wonderful story. See it playing in Phoenix at the theatres listed below or at a theatre near you, today.

Harkins Fashion Center 20

Superstition Springs 25

Harkins Arrowhead Fountains 18

AMC Desert Ridge 18

Shea 14 Theater

The Fate of the Furious Movie Review

April 15, 2017

It always gets Faster, and it always gets more Furious, and there is no limit to the movies Over-The-Topness. But, danged, it sure does work! It becomes like a movie version of a roller coaster ride that spins and twirls and goes in any direction that it wants to go.

Detroit Under S.T.R.E.S.S Premiere Screening VIP Seats Sweepstakes

April 15, 2017 (updated June 29, 2019)

Enter to win VIP Seats To The Premiere!