Darkest Hour

Lily James and Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill in "Darkest Hour" 

"Darkest Hour" is another biopic of an important historical figure that doesn't fall prey to the boring machinations of so many other biopics about important white men. Maybe that's because it's about Winston Churchill, whose influence and legacy are as potent today as they ever have been. What stands out still, from history and now from this movie, is the power of his words, and the way he relayed them and relied on them to speak the truth and convey immediacy and strength. It is mainly his decisions and his actions after all that continue to have a lasting impact on Western Civilization, almost a century later, and watching "Darkest Hour", I thought about just how close the UK and Europe as a whole, and possibly even America, was to falling to the Nazis. In 2017, it's shocking to watch a historical figure from the past come up against a gruesome regime, hellbent on control and power, and not think about the current state of America, of Western influence, of Nationalism, and of the imminent threat of war. For Churchill, who became the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom out of mere circumstance and barely held on to the position because of his stubbornness in refusing to negotiate with Hitler, World War II was just beginning but Western Europe had been crumbling for a long time. In "Darkest Hour", which is a lyrically told and paced historical chamber piece, Joe Wright, the director, and Anthony McCarten, the screenwriter, focus on just over a month in the late Spring of 1940, and in this short period of time, Churchill, who I always remember in a top hat with cane in grip, comes to life. The main reason to see this movie is the performance that Gary Oldman gives as Winston Churchill, who disappears into the role the same way Helen Mirren disappeared into Queen Elizabeth II in "The Queen". The actor becomes the character, or in this instance the actual person, they become one. Of course, it must be noted, Oldman is helped tremendously by the copious amounts of makeup and prosthetics that were applied to his face, and yet even under all the outer layers, the inner life, the personality, shines through. His sense of humor, his intelligence, his way with words, these are the details that Wright focuses on and by doing this, history becomes much more engaging. "Darkest Hour", which for the majority of it's running time is full of stodgy, old men having important conversations in confined spaces, is never boring, and full of small performances that pop, like Ben Mendelsohn as King George the VI, and Stephen Dillane as Viscount Halifax. But it will be Gary Oldman as Churchill that will linger in most viewers minds, his nerve, his conviction, his belief in fighting for what it right. It's hard not to be inspired, and even encouraged to do the same today.

Lady Bird

Saoirse Ronan in Greta Gerwig's "Lady Bird" 

Last week before “Lady Bird”, the new film written and directed by Greta Gerwig, was screened, I didn’t feel good. There was a tension in my neck. I gripped my throat, feeling constantly thirsty. I was driving down Beverly Drive and turned right onto Charleville Boulevard before parking in the same place I always park on Doheny Drive right in front of this beautifully lived-in Spanish Revival Duplex. I reached over to the passenger seat of my car and grabbed my water bottle, looking at the traffic start and stop, focusing on the tail lights of Tesla’ s and BMW’s stopping ahead of me. Over and over, I would chug water, until there was no water left. I knew this feeling, and sometimes I can manage it, and sometimes I can’t. I was worried that being far from home, from family and friends, from the comforts of the familiar, that my anxiety would rear it’s fiercely deformed head.

Once I walked to the theater three blocks away and sat down in the same seat I always sit in I watched each person come inside searching for a comfortable spot. There were many seats open, but a panic usually set in. Where was the best seat? Can I see with this person in front of me? I laughed to myself. When I took my phone out of my pocket, I became upset, it wasn’t distracting me the way I relied on it to and for a second I got nervous.

I’m not going to take the time to discuss the inner workings of my brain, maybe another day, and another post, but I will say that it’s different for each person. For me, anxiety comes at times I can’t predict, like say before watching a movie that I fell completely in love with. So with “Lady Bird”, a movie so touching, and so deeply personal, I can honestly say that I felt my anxiety melt away with each passing minute.

* * *

Christine wants to be called Lady Bird, so her mom calls her by that name, as do her friends, her teachers, her family, even the nuns at her Catholic School. It is 2002, and we are in Sacramento, California, that forgotten capital city. The cinematographer Sam Levy and costume designer April Napier, both of whom spoke to us after the film was screened, understand this time period and place almost as well as Greta Gerwig, who grew up there. She loves Northern California the way Joan Didion loved Southern California. The landscape informs the emotions of her characters, the weather reflects their attitudes. Sacramento has never been filmed more tenderly.

“Lady Bird” is about a 17 year old girl, played by Saoirse Ronan, and simply put, it’s about her coming of age during her senior year in high school. She desperately wants to go to College on the East Coast, her mother works too much, her father is out of work. She flip- flops friends and boyfriends and hair colors. I was reminded of Angela Chase from the short-lived television series “My So-Called Life”, whose hair was a similar shade of red, or ‘crimson glow’. That series understood teenagers and treated them with respect, allowing a platform for the emotions most adults would dismiss as juvenile, without any true meaning.

Greta Gerwig is 34 years old. The last film she wrote being 2015’s “Mistress America”, which was a female friendship analysis wrapped with a screwball comedy bow. But now, with “Lady Bird”, she has achieved something much more powerful. Through the rearview mirror of her own life and experiences, her love letter to Sacramento becomes something rare, specific and universal. The decision to cast the young Irish actress Saoirse Ronan as Lady Bird, who is able to convey more with her ice blue eyes than most actresses twice or even three times her age, was very wise, as was casting the theater veterans Tracy Letts, and most especially Laurie Metcalf as her mother, Marion. Metcalf is just as expressive an actress as Ronan, with an elastic face and a curious way of phrasing. We believe them as mother and daughter, their fights are piercing, their love, palpable. Gerwig's script is perfectly written, attuned to the rhythm of how people actually talk, and even more, how they react. 

I'm not quite sure how to describe my feelings about this movie, which is how I feel after any movie I truly fall for. I will say though, that it moved me in surprising and profound ways, and the ending, a whirlwind of moments ending in a monologue delivered by Ronan is a voicemail, spoken in fresh air. I won't say anymore. In that last scene, which as a viewer we know is so so important, we watch as Greta Gerwig becomes master at emotional and tonal clarity. Everything we have previously watched is summed up in those last moments. It is sad, funny, true, warm, something special. 

Wonderstruck

The extraordinary Millicent Simmonds in the new film directed by Todd Haynes

The best part about watching a movie you know nothing about, having never seen the trailer, vaguely knowing the actors in the cast, is the thrill of discovery, of coming into a story with fresh eyes, willing to be taken to another world. "Wonderstruck", which was directed by Todd Haynes, and written and adapted for the screen by Brian Selznick based on his own children's book from 2011, does take you away, to two very different worlds. Two stories, one, about a young deaf girl named Rose (Millicent Simmonds) in 1927 New Jersey, the other, about a young boy named Ben (Oakes Fegley) in 1977 Minnesota, are interwoven, bleeding into one another. Rose's journey is told silently, in striking black and white cinematography, Ben's, is a kaleidoscope of color, blasted with a rock and roll and disco soundtrack. Both are on a similar quest, Rose, to find her idol, a silent screen actress named Lillian Mayhew (Julianne Moore, in multiple roles), Ben, to find his father. These themes, of deafness, self-discovery, friendship, and family are complex, surprising for a supposed children's movie, but they are told with an emotional vitality that can really only be felt when telling stories about a child's experience. The director, Todd Haynes, has a delicacy and sensitivity that is needed for this type of storytelling, the emotions he creates are pure and the images can be overwhelming. He fills the screen with his young actor's faces, especially Millicent Simmonds as the young Rose, who is deaf in real life and was discovered for this movie. The portion with her acts like a short silent picture from the past, hazy in memory, and methodical, the musical score by Carter Burwell mimicking every emotion that flashes over her face.

For me, the most remarkable aspect of "Wonderstruck" was the attention to detail, and the craft in recreating the New York City, and the Museum of Natural History specifically, of 1927 and 1977. After the film's first 25 minutes which puts the narrative into motion, our heroine and hero get to New York and once there, I stopped caring so much about the plot of the journey, and started to purely feel the journey. The producer, Christine Vachon, spoke to us after the screening, and explained that they shot on location, which was a shock. New York of 1977 does not exist anymore. The cinematographer Ed Lachmann, and the production designer Mark Friedberg, scouted locations, discovering corners and blocks in the deepest parts of Brooklyn and Queens to bring a sense of realism to the story. Without New York City the story wouldn't have the same excitement and thrill and the images that Hayne's creates of the chaos in the streets and the explosion of colors from the gritty Penn Station and Upper West Side of 1977, along with the floating hats and cavernous shadows of the downtown scene of 1927 enhance the story of Rose and Ben. "Wonderstruck" was a surprise. The best surprises creep up on you, and linger, the knowledge of the care that went into it just as important as the surprise itself. This movie, a fairytale of childhood, I imagine will linger with me as well, it's optimism and lyricism something unusual, something we only believe in as children, but yearn for so desperately as adults.

Marshall

Josh Gad and Chadwick Boseman in "Marshall" 

Besides the fact of knowing that Thurgood Marshall was the first African American Supreme Court Justice, I don’t think I could tell you much more about the man, his accomplishments, his upbringing, or his life beyond that bit of American judicial history. So it was a little disappointing to find out that “Marshall”, the new sort-of biopic starring Chadwick Boseman as the titular man released last week, doesn’t prove to be the history lesson most Americans, and myself, probably need: a birth to death portrait, in the nature of say “Ray” from 2004. But rather, it focuses on one case early in his career as a lawyer, about the black driver of an affluent family accused of raping and attempting to murder the white woman of said family in Greenwich, Connecticut in 1941. The plot never strays much beyond that, which is positive in the sense that the story moves with a pace and purpose, but negative in the sense that the context of Thurgood Marshall as a lawyer, his place and position in the NAACP, and his life as a black man in Midcentury America is never explored with much depth, let alone detail. As an activist and lawyer he argued and won more cases than he lost for the advancement of Civil Rights in this country until he ultimately became one of the nine justices on the Supreme Court. The film's knowledge of his significance in the history of not only African Americans but in American Civil Liberties is apparent throughout, almost to a fault. It is apparent most unmistakably in the performance of Chadwick Boseman, so charismatic and powerful as the Black Panther in the Marvel movies, and yet here a vessel for a formulaic chapter in Thurgood Marshall's life. For a film titled “Marshall”, it isn’t really about Marshall, but rather on the relationship Marshall had with fellow lawyer Sam Friedman (Josh Gad) and how he was stymied by a racist judge, wasn’t allowed to argue, or even speak in court to defend his client. As performed by Boseman, Marshall is a charismatic, intelligent, and well spoken cypher never intimidated, and never really known, always focused on the task at hand, hyper aware of his importance. 

While the film began and the credits were rolling, I noticed a large amount of the producers were Asian, which I thought was curious, in so much as this story doesn’t seem to scream Asian financial backing. Afterwards, in a discussion with the films editor Tom McArdle and producer Jonathan Sanger, they explained how a Chinese production company Super Hero Films was desperately looking for material to produce its first movie, and landed on this project after the script and story had remained in production limbo for many years. They saw this as an essential American story, and the narrative a crowd pleaser. While I don’t think the movie was anything memorable, and the filmmaking to be anything more than standard movie-of-the-week entertainment. But I am still glad that it was made and financed for it is the man himself , and his achievements that you think about when you leave the theater, and for that alone, it deserves any and all attention it receives. 

The Mountain Between Us

Kate Winslet and Idris Elba in "The Mountain Between Us" 

“The Mountain Between Us” stars Idris Elba and Kate Winslet, and were it not for their presence the mere existence of this movie wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense.  Two strangers, a photo-journalist (Winslet) and a surgeon (Elba), are trying to fly across the country but the weather gets in the way. Winslet’s character has the bright idea to charter a plane and after overhearing the similar plight of a stranger nearby asks him to join. It’s too bad the pilot (Beau Bridges) has a stroke mid flight, and after crashing at 11,000 feet amidst the Rocky Mountains, a survival story ensues, in addition to a love story. Twist! After the screening, I was a little confused. The movie wasn’t good. In fact, it was bad. But the director, the well respected Dutch-Palestinian Hany Abu Assad was there, as well as the President of Fox 2000 Pictures, Elizabeth Gabler, and they were gonna talk to us after. They had a lot of explaining to do.

One of the best parts about this class is the opportunity given to actually hear from the filmmakers and studio executives about the process of making such a movie, the technical and logistical difficulties. It enhances the movie going experience. Even in a movie like this, which I personally didn't like, listening to the director about how and why this got made, and the experience of really filming in the environment depicted was worthwhile. And while “The Mountain Between Us” isn’t successful as a survival story, much less a love story, watching these two actors who were truly filming at above 10,000 feet in extreme weather was extraordinary, which makes it all the more disappointing how ineffective the story is emotionally. What should be a devastating and thrilling exploration of two strangers relying on each other for strength and survival becomes stale and repetitive. When problems arise: a mountain lion, a frozen lake, a bear trap, it gets solved too neatly, and the characters, who save for the adorable dog, are really the only people on screen, don’t seem like real people. And in a sense they aren't. They are two beautiful, perfectly structured movie stars. Elba and Winslet have a charisma and magnetism that is undeniable, we all know this, and you could do worse then to watch them for 90 minutes, but the material doesn’t match their strengths as actors, and the imagery of the mountains can't make up for the weakness in both the script and direction. 

Leaving Beverly Hills and anticipating my two hour drive home I had a thought, "What is the point of all this?" And honestly I don't have an answer. It was disappointing to start this 10 week course with a dud, but just being there, in a theater, listening to smart people, surrounded by an engaged audience proved to be enough. After glancing at the schedule of the upcoming screenings and guests helped boost my confidence in deciding to take this class because I know for a fact I will be seeing some great movies eventually. But in the end, this is about getting me back into the groove of writing, and engaging with art, closely examining, sorting out my emotions and coming to conclusions. I've missed it so much and I don't know what was holding me back. But I do know that I'm ready. 

i'm baaaaaaaack

When I think too much about it I don’t know if I have it in me. I used to get so thrilled at the idea. Writing. Like what it is. Putting thoughts into words. Words into sentences. Sentences into stories. It’s been so long though. Also, I feel like I’ve written this blog post before. No, I definitely did. But sometimes you just have to repeat yourself.

Not much has happened to me since the last time I wrote something down. Actually a lot has happened. I won't go into details. That's for another day. But it’s hard for me to articulate exactly how it’s been for me. I think I think about me too much, and not enough about the world around me. Movies and increasingly television has been an escape from reality, but recently, and I guess always, they have taught me about the world, encouraging empathy for other’s stories, and an understanding of different places and people.

I signed up for something on a whim. 10 Weeks. Once a week. 3 hours. Sneak Previews at UCLA. Writers Guild Theater. It doesn’t make a lot of sense. I don’t live nearby, I don’t have the expendable income, I haven’t even been going to the movies as much as I used to. And yet something made me sign up. And I’m really glad I did.

I’m sitting inside Blue Bottle coffee in the center of Beverly Hills and there is no Wi-Fi and I parked 15 minutes away, but I’m happy right now. I’m sitting in public, writing my own words on my slowly dying laptop, and I’m happy. The class starts at 7 and I don’t know exactly how it’s going to go, but I’m ready to watch the movies, engage with the art, and try hard again. Take that all of my much more accomplished friends.