Underseen Movie: ‘Danny Collins’ in Which Al Pacino Plays a Rock Star

Posted on by The Ultimate Rabbit

When “Danny Collins” was released back in 2015, it felt like Al Pacino had played every kind of character there is on the stage and silver screen. But with this film, he plays a character unlike any he has taken on before; a rock star. Granted, a lot of people treat Pacino like he is a rock star already, especially when it comes to his role as Tony Montana in “Scarface,” but this did feel like a new thing for him. For a moment, the thought of Pacino as a popular singer was a bit terrifying. Can he even sing? Will he come off like the male version of Kim Carnes? By the way, I love Kim Carnes, so let’s not get the wrong impression here.

Well, Pacino can sing, and he is one of the reasons why “Danny Collins” proves to be far more enjoyable than I expected it to be. The story of an aging musician looking for redemption has been told time and time again, and there is very little in the way of originality to be found here. Still, I found this film to be a sweet and heartfelt look at a man looking to reclaim parts of his life which he has long since lost.

Pacino modeled Danny on both Barry Manilow and Rod Stewart, and we first see Danny singing songs to adoring crowds who cannot seem to get enough of him. He used to write his own songs, but after his second album got such a negative response, he went on to sing everybody else’s hits instead. These days he has all the fame and fortune he could ever want, all the drugs and alcohol to keep his deepest fears at bay and, of course, a fiancé half his age.

But then one day, Danny’s manager, Frank Grubman (Christopher Plummer), shows up with a letter written to him by John Lennon from forty years ago. For some reason, this letter was never delivered to Danny, but in it, John tells him not to worry about fame and fortune being detrimental to his talent. Upon reading this long-lost letter, Danny begins to wonder what his life would have been like had he gotten it much, much sooner. As a result, he drops out of his current tour and travels out to New Jersey to reconnect with his family and, hopefully, rediscover his musical muse.

For a moment, I thought I was going to be cringing non-stop as Danny goes to meet the son he never got to know. We know that those kinds of father-son meetings are fraught with tension and a lot of understandably hurt feelings, and the one shown in Danny Collins is no different. The chemistry, however between Pacino and Bobby Cannavale who plays Danny’s son, Tom, is very strong, and their acting really lifts this material up and away from the generic kind it could have easily fallen victim to. Cannavale previously acted opposite Pacino in a Broadway production of “Glengarry Glen Ross,” so these two have a rhythm of working together which they have clearly gotten comfortable with.

Jennifer Garner plays Tom’s wife, Samantha Leigh Donnelly, and she is a lovely presence to watch here. What I loved about her performance is how down to earth she is to where you never catch her acting. Samantha is a doting mother to hers and Tom’s daughter, Hope, and she is already pregnant with their second child, so you know she is capable of handling more things than either Danny or Tom can on their own. She proves to be the calm in the stormy relationship between estranged father and son, and she makes it clear to the men in this family that they had best listen to what she has to stay.

While we’re at it, I have to applaud young Giselle Eisenberg for her exceptional performance as Hope. It says a lot about the 7-year-old actress that she can hold her own with Pacino and company from scene to scene.

Right from the start, Christopher Plummer makes his manager character of Frank Grubman anything but a cliché. I liked how effortlessly Plummer made Frank the much-needed conscience Danny has desperately needed throughout his career, and he remains compulsively watchable throughout as he takes what could have been your typical backstabbing show business manager and turns him into a reasonable human being.

Another real delight to be found in “Danny Collins” is the great Annette Bening who gives her character of hotel manager, Mary Sinclair, a wonderfully biting sense of humor. Of all the characters here, Mary is the one who is not easily enamored by Danny and is not about to be seduced by his endless charisma. Throughout, I enjoyed the back-and-forth Bening and Pacino have, and her performance serves as a reminder of what a brilliant actress she can be. May we never forget this important fact.

As for Pacino, I very much appreciated his work here. There is none of the bombast which he became inescapably identified with after his Oscar winning performance in “Scent of a Woman.” He is also great at hinting at the fears tearing away at Danny as he tries to write his first song in lord only knows how long, and he makes you root for him to do more than just sing “Baby Doll.”

“Danny Collins” marks the directorial debut of Dan Fogelman, the screenwriter of such films as “Crazy Stupid Love,” “The Guilt Trip” and “Last Vegas.” He based it on the true story of when musician Steve Tilston received a long-lost letter from John Lennon, but he basically took the idea of that story and went from there. My hat is off to him for introducing this movie to us as something other than “based on a true story.” There’s an opening epigraph which says this film is kind of based on a true story, but not really. Kudos to Fogelman for introducing his film with something other than one of the most overused cinematic terms which has long since lost its meaning.

This could have easily been schmaltzy affair that ran on too much emotional manipulation, but Fogelman manages to keep the proceedings from ever feeling completely cringe-inducing. The plot is very formulaic, and there is a certain disease thrown in for one of the characters which may not have been entirely necessary, but he keeps things running smoothly to where you realize a lot of heart went into this.

But what really elevates “Danny Collins” above the usual formulaic norm are the performances and a director eager to not give us the same old stuff (not entirely anyway). This film was made for a fraction of what most motion pictures cost to make these days (and this does not include advertising), so it should be clear that this is a labor of love more than anything else. I left this film with the hope Danny will find the courage to be a songwriter once again, and that means a lot as I often lose my mojo as a writer to where I get nothing written. Here is hoping we all find our way back when we lose our way in life.

* * * out of * * * *

Underseen Movie: John McNaughton’s ‘The Harvest’

Posted on by The Ultimate Rabbit

“The Harvest” is one of those movies which completely took me off guard to where I had no real idea of where it was going. This is a very rare experience for me when watching movies these days as I typically have a pretty good idea of where the story is going to end up, so that makes this particular film from John McNaughton, which represents his first directorial effort in a decade by the way, all the more effective.

The prologue of “The Harvest” is designed to mess with your head a bit, so I prefer to let audiences witness it for themselves. Past this, we come to meet Maryann (Natasha Calis), a young girl who has just moved into her grandparents’ house following the death of her parents. This causes her great discomfort because, aside from losing her mom and dad, she is forced to start all over again in a new town where she is forced to make new friends again. Having been uprooted myself at such a young age, I can confirm this is a real inconvenience.

Eventually however, Maryann does make a new friend in Andy (Charlie Tahan), a very sick young boy who is confined to his home twenty-four hours and seven days a week, and he cannot move around without a wheelchair. Andy is constantly looked after by his parents, Katherine (Samantha Morton) and Richard (Michael Shannon), who are both constantly in conflict over how to best take care of him. Katherine is a doctor who constantly keeps Andy in a medicated state, and Richard constantly urges her to ease up and not overdo it. Suffice to say, these two people do not have the same relationship they had when they first wed.

Now that is all I want to tell you about the plot. What I can say tell you from here is that Maryann comes to make certain discoveries which turn hers and Andy’s life completely upside down. Watching a movie like “The Harvest” is la lot ice peeling away at an onion; you keep going through various layers in order to get to the center of things, and McNaughton and screenwriter Stephen Lancellotti reveal only so much as they keep stringing us along to the very end. Before we get to the revelation at the story’s core, we dare not take our eyes off the screen for a single second.

It was really great to see Samantha Morton here as she gives “The Harvest” its best performance. As Katherine, she gives a very multi-layered performance as we watch her go from being understanding and caring to becoming very uptight and furiously angry. When Morton stares down Calis in one scene, it makes for an incredibly tense moment as Morton looks like a snake just waiting to strike. Her’s is a very impressive performance as well as the kind which is not always found in horror movies. You are never sure whether to empathize with Katherine or fear her presence, and this proves to be a reminder of how powerful an actress Morton can be.

Michael Shannon is one of the best character actors working today and, as Richard, he has to play an emotionally muted character of sorts. At first, it seems like Shannon is doing too little onscreen, but the reason for Richard’s emotional numbness does become clear as the movie goes on. This is the kind of role where most actors get self-conscious and feel like they are not acting enough. Shannon, however, does not make this mistake, and it makes for another one of the many compelling performances we have come to expect from him.

McNaughton is the same filmmaker who gave us the feel-good movie of 1990, “Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer.” Trust me when I say I am not even going to bother comparing “The Harvest” to it because the one which famously starred Michael Rooker is a one-of-a-kind horror film which is hard to top in terms of bleak realism. “The Harvest,” in comparison, is more of a dark fairy tale that gets darker as it goes on, and it shows how gifted McNaughton is at creating suspense and maintaining it throughout a feature film.

Seriously, when you look at McNaughton’s resume, his work has never been merely confined to the one genre. He gave us the comedy-drama “Mad Dog and Glory” which had Robert De Niro, Bill Murray and Uma Thurman giving some of their most underrated performances ever, the erotic thriller “Wild Things” which did not even try to hide how gleefully trashy it was any more than it hid Kevin Bacon’s penis on the silver screen , the concert film of Eric Bogosian’s “Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll,” and the crime drama “Lansky” which starred Richard Dreyfuss as the famous gangster of the same name. While it may be understandable how many are unable to get past “Henry” as that film left a gaping psychological scar on those who sat all the way through it, McNaughton has managed to go from one genre to the next in a way audiences do not easily recognize. This makes him quite an underrated filmmaker.

Now “The Harvest” does have its flaws, some of which come from it being an understandably low budget production. The pacing could have been strengthened, and we just have to get that one scene where a child tells the truth of what is going on and quickly get rebuffed for no sane reason. It is always infuriating to me when adults quickly dismiss their children’s explanations as hooey because, from one generation to the next, the young ones still see right through their parents’ hypocrisy. Also, this movie ends on a note which leaves too many questions unanswered. Granted, I am all for ambiguous endings in movies, but the one “The Harvest” gives us does not provide much in the way of benefits.

All the same, I admired what McNaughton was able to pull off with here, and “The Harvest” kept my attention from start to finish. It always seems difficult to pull off such a suspenseful thriller these days, but he does accomplish his task here. There is also no forgetting Morton’s complex and frightening performance as a mother desperate to protect her child. Whatever you think of this movie, her work will stay with you for a time once the end credits have finished.

* * * out of * * * *

‘Moonrise Kingdom’ – One of My Favorite Wes Anderson Films

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“Moonrise Kingdom” is one of many examples which shows Wes Anderson to be one of the most imaginative filmmakers working today. With his story of two 12-year-old kids falling in love and running away together, he gives us a whimsical journey into a past filled with innocence that constantly gets upended by bouts of family dysfunction. In a time where Hollywood relies too much on old ideas and endless remakes, seeing Anderson get an original movie like this made feels like a miracle.

“Moonrise Kingdom” takes place on the New England island of New Penzance in the year 1965. Sam Shakusky (Jared Gilman) has encouraged his pen pal of one year, Suzy Bishop (Kara Hayward), to run away with him into the island’s wilderness. Doing this, however, sends their parents and the town into a frenzy as they desperately search to find them before all hell breaks loose.

Sam himself is an orphan whose foster parents no longer want him around, and his running off with Suzy coincides with his resigning as a member of the Khaki Scout summer camp which is led by Scout Master Randy Ward (Edward Norton). While Sam has learned many useful skills, he is despised by all the other members he is forced to spend time with. In Suzy, he finds a much-needed soul mate who herself is ostracized from her schoolmates and is not blind to the marital difficulties her attorney parents, Walt (Bill Murray) and Laura (Frances McDormand), are going through. Suzy is even aware of her mother having an affair with the island’s police Captain, Duffy Sharp (Bruce Willis).

But it turns out that these two kids have done the island of New Penzance a huge favor as their romantic getaway wakes up its inhabitants from the sullen slumber their lives have descended into. This is especially the case with Walt and Laura who appear to be bereft of emotions for one another. It gets to where Laura can barely communicate with Walt without using a bullhorn to get his and their kids’ attention. When Walt finds out his daughter has run away, he responds to Laura by informing him of this situation as a “loaded question” more than anything else.

The sullenness of the adults is contrasted sharply with the sheer innocence of Sam and Suzy as we watch their romance bloom. Their adventurous behavior proves to be contagious as they read through storybooks Suzy stole from the local library, and dance to vinyl records of lively French rock music. The specific details Anderson gives these characters make them among the most unique kids I have ever seen at the movies. With their taste in art, literature and music, they threaten to seem more mature than their parents to an infinite degree.

It is this theme of innocence which permeates “Moonrise Kingdom” throughout as Sam and Suzy deal with what is left of their innocence while others desperately try to recapture it for themselves. Randy Ward is an example of a man trying to stay young by embracing his role as a scout leader to where he takes it a little too seriously. To him, this role gives his life more meaning than any day job ever could, but the kids under his command do not all see it in the same way he does.

Then there’s Willis’ character of Captain Sharp who, like Sam and Suzy, feels like a loner on this small island. In this role, Willis almost threatens to outdo Murray’s sullen expression as his face becomes a mask of inescapable sadness. It is through searching for these kids that his life finds new meaning as they make him feel young again and give him a reason to live a life with more purpose.

Having read all this, one might think “Moonrise Kingdom” is some sort of serious drama, but it’s really a wondrous coming of age movie with a lot of gleefully inspired comedic moments. Anderson has always populated his movies with sad characters, and yet he still finds ways for the audience to laugh with them during their endless struggles. While this film has him once again dealing with his favorite themes of family dysfunction and arrested development, he finds a wonderful slant which ends up making it one of his best efforts.

One of Anderson’s other successes here is in making a period piece that is not a prisoner to its period. While its eclectic soundtrack (a must buy by the way) gets the music of 1965 down perfectly, this movie takes place in a world which does not completely mesh with reality. As a result, “Moonrise Kingdom” almost feels like it could be taking place at any period of time. Perhaps that can be the result of us remembering the first time we ever fell in love like Sam Suzy do.

Like the best Wes Anderson movies, there is not a single weak performance to be found here, and the actors inhabit their characters to the best of their abilities. Murray, a veteran of several Anderson movies, still strikes comedic gold even as his characters he portrays seem to get sadder and sadder. McDormand is highly entertaining to watch as always, and that is regardless of whether or not her character needs a bullhorn to be heard.

Among the newbies to the Anderson cinematic universe, Bruce Willis proves to be a surprising and welcome addition as the lonely police captain. His face can speak a thousand words even when he does not speak, and he looks to be having a blast in the kind of movie one we often do not expect to see him in.

Norton was another newbie to Anderson’s movies when “Moonrise Kingdom” was made and released, and it is nice to see him let loose in a way he was not always able to back in the day. His role of the hapless scout master Randy Ward allows him to create a character who could have easily just been someone to laugh at with endless disdain. Never does he play Randy for laughs like others would have, and that makes his performance all the stronger for it.

As for the actors inhabiting Sam and Suzy, Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward do a fantastic job of capturing their characters’ individual sensibilities and unique aspects. Thanks to their performances, they make these pre-teens seem very human and not your typical kids searching for meaning in a formulaic motion picture.

In addition, you get excellent performances from Jason Schwartzman as Cousin Ben, and another from Khaki Scout who aids the two runaways in their quest to be together. Even Harvey Keitel shows up in a delightfully unexpected way as Commander Pierce, the king of all Khaki Scouts.

Beautifully shot and wonderfully written, “Moonrise Kingdom” stands alongside “Rushmore,” “The Royal Tenenbaums” and “Fantastic Mr. Fox” as one of Anderson’s best and most inventive movies, and this will continue to be the case with each successive motion picture he makes. His work represents a highly imaginative cinematic landscape that filmmakers in general do not have the opportunity and support to pull off, and the realization of this proves to be quite depressing. Movies like this one make me hope there are still those in Hollywood who will not be risk adverse on a regular basis and embrace creativity more often than not.

* * * * out of * * * *

The Cast of ‘The Lazarus Effect’ Talks about Life After Death

Posted on by The Ultimate Rabbit

WRITER’S NOTE: This article was originally written back in 2015.

The supernatural horror film “The Lazarus Effect” takes a cue from movies like “Frankenstein” and “Re-Animator” as it features a group of scientists who are intent on bringing the dead back to life. It stars Olivia Wilde and Mark Duplass as Zoe and Frank, a couple of medical professionals who have found a way to resurrect the deceased through the use of a serum they have named Lazarus. But during one experiment, Zoe suddenly gets electrocuted and dies, and Frank, in desperation, gives her the serum which successfully returns her to the land of the living. But in the process, Frank comes to discover that Zoe has developed some incredible abilities which makes him wonder if she brought something truly evil back from the dead with her.

One plot point in “The Lazarus Effect” concerns a nightmare Zoe keeps having where she is trapped in a burning house, and there is a door ahead of her which seems to have a raging fire waiting to burst out from behind it. Even more unsettling is that she also sees a pair of hands at the bottom of the door struggling to escape whatever fiery fate is coming their way. This nightmare gets a new meaning once Zoe is resurrected.

This nightmare reminding me of Joel Schumacher’s film “Flatliners” which starred Keifer Sutherland, Julia Roberts and Kevin Bacon as medical students who are very eager to discover what happens after you die. Each is made to die for a minute or two before they are resuscitated, and their afterlife proves to be a realm where they are tortured for the grievous and painful sins they committed in the past. Seeing that “The Lazarus Effect” kind of deals with the same thing, it made me wonder why these movies deal with the high psychic price to pay once we leave this mortal coil.

I got to ask the cast of “The Lazarus Effect” this during the film’s press conference held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles, California. To first to provide an answer was Donald Glover who plays the lab assistant, Niko. Best known for playing Troy Barnes on the cult television comedy “Community,” Glover said that death remains the one thing we don’t know about.

Donald Glover: I feel like we kind of live right now in a time where humans feel like we know everything now especially when we just pick up the phones and happily answer and people feel like everything is done. It’s like, “We did it guys! We have internet.” It was cool talking to Olivia (Wilde) and Mark (Duplass) about how people are actually doing research, and I was reading articles about doctors actually bringing people back to life. There was a New York cab driver who was like dead for, I think like, a while (laughs). They just brought him back, and now they are doing studies on post-death and stuff like that. This is why I really like this film. It felt special because there’s realness and people really don’t even understand what we are after that (death). I think it’s scary because we just don’t know it especially when we’re being told all the time we know everything.

Duplass followed up on Glover’s response by saying it reminded him of something he read about movies like “The Lazarus Effect.” In the process, he also elaborated on how the approach to this resurrection movie differed from others like it.

Mark Duplass: When a movie examines this type of subject matter, usually it’s either in the future or everyone is wearing some sort of like leathery, shiny black suits, and it’s kind of like not human (laughs). So, we all loved this idea, and that’s part of the reason David (Gelb, the director) cast a lot of us because maybe we’re more on the naturalistic side of performances, that we’re just so normal looking and normal acting research students going through this very un-normal thing. It was just exciting.

Indeed, death is something many of us do not want to think about, but the question of what happens to us when we pass away continues to linger in our minds. “The Lazarus Effect” is not meant to give a definitive answer to that, but along with “Flatliners,” it makes you want to make peace with all the bad things you did in your life before it is too late.

“The Lazarus Effect” is available on physical media and streaming platforms.

Attending the ‘Ouija’ Blu-ray Release Scavenger Hunt in Hollywood

Posted on by The Ultimate Rabbit

WRITER’S NOTE: The following article is about a movie event I very much enjoyed attending back in 2015.

Members of the press and a few select horror fans were in for quite a treat when Universal Pictures, along with Think Jam, put together a special party in honor of the Blu-ray and DVD release for “Ouija,” one of 2014’s most popular horror movie releases. Guests were treated to a haunted scavenger hunt which had them walking up and down Hollywood Boulevard, and it was followed by a séance open-bar event held at Boardner’s by La Belle.

The séances were conducted by Robert Murch, a renowned Ouija expert and film consultant, and guests got to drink special cocktails with names like “Evil Elixir,” a combination of champagne and Absinthe (a favorite spirit liquor of mine). Also in attendance were “Ouija’s” director Stiles White, actress Bianca Santos who played Isabelle, and the CEO of Blumhouse Productions, Jason Blum.

I was lucky enough to be on the team which won the scavenger hunt, and my fellow teammates and I were given the sole opportunity to speak with Blum for a few minutes about “Ouija” and other films he is responsible for bringing to the screen. His company, Blumhouse Productions, has been behind some of the biggest horror franchises of the past few years which include “Paranormal Activity” and “The Purge,” and he was also a producer of Best Picture nominee “Whiplash.”

The Ouija board is often referred to as a talking board used in séances to communicate with spirits, and participants place their fingers on a planchette to spell out whatever the spirit is trying to say. Some see it as a harmless game of sorts, but others strongly fear that using Ouija boards can lead to demonic possession. I remember Ouija boards being used in a number of films like “The Exorcist” where Linda Blair tries to communicate with Captain Howdy, “Awakenings” in which the late Robin Williams utilizes one in an effort to make a connection with a seemingly comatose Robert De Niro, and one was used to frightening effect in “Paranormal Activity” when an invisible force sets it ablaze while nobody is home.

Since many of us were familiar with these boards in one way or another, I asked Blum if he wanted to show us something different about them that we have not seen previously in any other film. His response highlighted what he really tries to do with the movies he makes.

Jason Blum: Well, I’ve never seen anyone look through the planchette before. I think that’s a new thing, and I love that idea of looking through a glass into the world of ghosts. It’s hard to make an Ouija board dramatic, so we tried to figure out how to do that, and I think they did a pretty good job trying to make it feel original. But that’s what I always tell people when we are working on a movie; try and make it different. That’s very un-Hollywood.

It was very refreshing to hear Blum say this as many movie producers do not like to stray far from formulas, and horror films are typically governed by them to where it is very difficult to make one which stands out from the pack. Blum agrees there are a lot of repeats to be found in the realm of motion pictures, but he remains intent on doing things differently on the horror films he produces. He openly admits that he does not always succeed, but there is no doubt that he definitely tries.

“Ouija” is available to own and rent on physical media and streaming services.

Underseen Movie: ‘The Congress’ in which Robin Wright Plays Herself

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“The Congress” is one of the most bizarre motion pictures I have ever seen, and I mean that as a compliment. It combines live-action scenes with animated sequences to tell a story about an actress who willingly gives up her identity so she can be digitized by a movie studio so they can make many films starring her. In the process, it offers a look at the value of one’s identity, how we are unique in our own way, and it questions whether or not it is worth it to give up who we are as individuals so that other people can take on our own identity. With the constant advent of AI in every facet of our lives, those questions are now more important than ever.

Robin Wright stars as a fictional version of herself in this movie. After so many years in which she appeared in such classic motion pictures like “The Princess Bride,” “Forrest Gump” and “Unbreakable,” she is presented here as a washed-up actress who has been in one box office bomb too many. Even worse, she has long since been seen as someone who is very difficult to work with. We see her living with her two children in an airplane hangar located right next to an airport, and this is due to her son, Aaron Wright (Kodi Smit-McPhee), being convinced he is the heir to the Wright Brothers. Aaron’s belief in this leads him to build huge kites on a regular basis.

It also turns out that Aaron is suffering from a rare condition known as Usher’s syndrome, a disease which causes partial hearing loss which gradually deteriorates into total deafness and blindness. Aaron believes he can be cured of it if he smashes one of his kites into a real passenger plane. Looking at this, it is no wonder Wright gave up on her acting career so she could be there for him.

Then one day her longtime agent, Al (Harvey Keitel) comes to her with a deal he has brokered with the head of Miramount Studios, Jeff Green (Danny Huston at his most cynical and slimy), to capture her cinematic identity in a digital format so he can put her in all sorts of movies she does not have to come to a studio to act in. Basically, she is asked to sell her identity and her soul to the studio, and in return she will receive a very hefty compensation which will allow her to look after her family. The only thing is that she has to agree never to act on any other stage in the world ever again, and this leaves the viewer wondering if this is worth such a price.

When Robin Wright was cast in “The Congress,” she was at a certain peak in her career thanks to her role as Claire Underwood on the Netflix series “House of Cards.” On top of that, she had given memorable performances in “Moneyball,” “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” (the David Fincher version) and in “A Most Wanted Man” in which she co-starred opposite the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman. In real life, we had no business considering her as anything close to a washed-up actress, but she is so convincing here to where any irony in the air was beside the point.

 “The Congress” takes place in a time where the economy is laser focused on scanning actors to where signing off your identity is easier than trying to make a living in show business. Now it has never been easy to make a living as an actor, but if this can happen to Wright, then it can happen to any actor. While we still may be way off from digital actors taking over for real life actors in movies, this reality is proving to be much closer to a reality than we would like to think or believe.

When we catch up with Robin in a distant future, this is when “The Congress” takes a serious left turn I did not see coming. She ends up entering a completely animated world where everything is being transferred to a chemical method which will allow everyone can be someone famous or anyone or anything other than themselves. The animation feels distinct from any other animated movie I have watched then and now, and it makes the experience of watching “The Congress” a unique one. This is a captivating world to be immersed into, but after a while you feel Robin’s concern as she comes to see her deal with the studio has come at a bigger price than she realized. While it might be fun to be someone other than yourself, is it really worth giving up your own identity in the process?

“The Congress” was written and directed by Ari Folman who directed the critically acclaimed “Waltz with Bashir.” With this movie he sucks us into a world which is full of an array of colors and possibilities, but once we discover this is part of a new Hollywood dictatorship, we become desperate to escape it. Robin comes to regret the decisions she has made as her identity no longer feels like her own, and her family has long since become the most valuable thing in her life as well.

After watching “The Congress,” it was hard for me to think of a better actress who could have been in this movie other than her. From start to finish, we are with Robin as she traverses her way through an ever-changing technology she cannot keep up with, and she is mesmerizing throughout. We feel for her as she attempts to salvage what is left of herself in this strange new world, and any kind of victory she ends up achieving here feels like a significant one.

The rest of the cast proves to be more than up to the challenge as they either play or voice their characters with a lot genuine emotion. In addition to Wright, Keitel and Smit-McPhee, we also have Jon Hamm who plays Dylan Truliner, an animator who invented Robin on Miramount’s computers and has long since become enraptured by her. Even Paul Giamatti shows up as Dr. Barker, and you can never really go wrong with an actor like him.

Seriously, the best way to enjoy “The Congress” is to walk into it with an open mind. It is far from the typical mainstream fare we see playing at our local multiplexes, and it takes you on a journey few movies can. In the process of examining the effects of a Hollywood dictatorship on the rest of the world, Folman has given us a motion picture which leaves you with a lot on your mind after the end credits. In this day and age, this is even more the case than ever.

* * * ½ out of * * * *

‘Emperor’ – A World War II Movie Which Could Have Been So Much Better

Posted on by The Ultimate Rabbit

“Emperor” is one of those movies I cannot help but view as a frustratingly missed opportunity. On one hand, it is the first contemporary Hollywood movie which takes place during the U.S.-led occupation of Japan at the close of World War II, and it uncovers a part of history many people are not fully aware of. But in the process of delving into the subject of whether a world leader should be punished for crimes against humanity, “Emperor” inevitably gets bogged down with a love story which takes away from all it could have been.

“Emperor” begins with an airplane descending into a Japan which has been decimated by atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II, and the country has long since announced its surrender. Coming out of this same plane is General Douglas MacArthur (Tommy Lee Jones) who has been tasked by President Harry S. Truman to restore order in Japan and prepare the country for democratic elections (sound familiar?). But the one big problem MacArthur has to contend with before any of this can happen is of what to do with Emperor Hirohito (Takatarô Kataoka). Should Hirohito be made to stand trial for brutal war crimes, or is there another way of moving Japan forward without having to do so?

General MacArthur ends up assigning General Bonner Fellers (Matthew Fox) to find out if Hirohito was in anyway responsible for the war crimes which were carried out, and if he was the one who ordered the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor. The scenes in which Bonner does his investigation and gathers evidence from survivors and Japanese military officers are among this movie’s most fascinating moments. We all know how World War II ended, but it’s the specific details about this operation which prove to be the most illuminating because many of us never got to read them in history books when we were kids like we should have.

But it turns out, however, that Bonner has an ulterior motive for going to Japan; he wants to search for his long-lost love Aya Shimada (Eriko Hatsune), a Japanese school teacher whom he met and fell in love with years before. We get flashbacks showing how their loving relationship began, and of how it eventually brought Bonner to Japan. It all proves to be a good device to show the cultural differences between America and Japan. Still, the romance subplot really just slows everything down, and I found myself getting bored as a result. Had this movie been more focused on the investigation into the Hirohito’s activities, it would have been far more enthralling as a result.

“Emperor” also could have used a lot more of Tommy Lee Jones as it is hard to think of another actor in this day and age who could have embodied General MacArthur better than him. The man who won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his work in “The Fugitive” gives this historical figure a Whenever Jones is onscreen, he steals every single scene he is in as he gives this real American hero a wonderful sense of humor and a no apology pro-American stance. Coming off of his Oscar nominated performance in “Lincoln,” Jones seems to be getting the roles he rightfully deserves to play these days.

Matthew Fox, who did this movie after doing the bizarre but compelling transformation he did for “Alex Cross,” and who is still best known for his work on the television series “Lost,” does very good work here as Bonners. Furthermore, he shares a very palpable chemistry with Hatsune in their scenes together. Still, this role only allows him to go so far as an actor as Bonners becomes just another guy searching for his long-lost love, and this is a story I have seen far too many times.

Directing “Emperor” is Peter Webber who, before this movie, gave us “Girl with a Pearl Earring.” With that particular motion picture, Webber was able to create a strong undercurrent of sexual tension between the characters portrayed by Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson, and that he is unable to achieve this same tension between the characters here is both surprising and inescapably depressing. On the plus side, he does get good performances from his cast, and his cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh and production designer Grant Major both obtain some amazing shots of a war town Japan. I feel obligated to say this because the budget for this movie is much lower than it should have been, and the filmmakers succeed in making everything here look like it cost so much more.

Webber also directed the prequel “Hannibal Rising,” and I am still trying to finish my review of it after all these years. When it comes to my subsequent review, you can only hope for so much (if anything for that matter).

Learning more about this specific story of the American occupation in Japan brings to mind similar occasions in which America invaded other countries like Vietnam or Iraq to whip a little democracy on them. Whether or not it was the intention of the filmmakers to remind us of these conflicts, they do serve as a reminder of how we need to learn from the past to prevent the same things happening in the present. But in the end, “Emperor” feels like a history lesson which would have been better told in the a past where people should have been paying close attention.

Back in 2012, audiences were given many films based on historical or actual events like “Lincoln” and “Zero Dark Thirty.” Truly, I was really hoping “Emperor” would have been every bit as riveting, and the fact it is not is a crying shame. While it is not a terrible movie, and there a number of things about it which are very good, it is still a deeply missed opportunity as it will not leave much of an aftertaste once you finish watching it.

* * ½ out of * * * *

‘Coriolanus’ – Ralph Fiennes’ Adaptation of a Lesser-Known Shakespeare Play

Posted on by The Ultimate Rabbit

Ralph Fiennes made his directorial debut with “Coriolanus,” which is based on William Shakespeare’s tragedy of the same name. Fiennes also stars as Caius Martius, a Roman general who is both revered, feared, and at odds with his fellow citizens. Fiennes certainly picked a most challenging project for his first directorial effort, but having done many Shakespeare plays onstage, he has a mastery of the Bard’s infinitely passionate dialogue.

The action of “Coriolanus” has been moved to the present day to where parallels with Occupy Wall Street and the current wars in the Middle East can be seen. Caius has more than proven himself in combat, but the townspeople despise him for taking their food away. When he is pushed by his mother, Volumnia (Vanessa Redgrave), to seek the powerful position of Consul, fellow politicians scheme against him and get the town to expel him for good. This forces Caius to join forces with his blood enemy, Tullus Aufidius (Gerard Butler), in battling the Romans and seeking vengeance against those who betrayed his trust.

“Coriolanus” is one of the many Shakespeare plays you could do an entire thesis on as it covers many thematic elements. Whether it is the power of the people, the corruption of politics, the selfish desires of others or looking at what war does to some, you could spend so many hours discussing all which goes on here.

Fiennes gives a powerful performance as Caius, and certain scenes will enthrall the audience to where you can hear a pin drop wherever and wherever you decide to watch this film. While the townspeople’s anger at Caius may be justified, Fiennes convinces us he is a war veteran who has done his patriotic duty. This is not some mere power-hungry villain at play, but a instead man who feels he deserves more respect than he has been given. His flaw, however, is that he is incapable of respecting those he has spent his time defending.

As a director, Fiennes employs the same kind of shaky camerawork Kathryn Bigelow employed on is Oscar winning film “The Hurt Locker,” the same film which he made an appearance in. The bullets fly all over the place, and they all sound like steel swords clashing with rage. In addition, he also gets the actors to speak the Shakespearean language in a natural tone while giving those with bigger parts a chance to show off their amazing theatricality. The tone is a bit jarring at times, but everything comes together eventually.

Fiennes is also backed up immeasurably by an impeccable cast. Gerard Butler easily gives one of his best performances outside of “300” and “Olympus Has Fallen” as Tullus Aufidius, the commander of the Volscian army whose anger at Caius equals his passion for his people. Jessica Chastain is also an exceptionally strong presence as Caius’ wife, Virgilia. But the best performance to be found here comes from Redgrave who is a powerhouse as Caius’ mother, Volumnia. Chastain captures Volumnia’s controlling and manipulative nature to where she doesn’t just bring her son to his knees, but the audience as well.

“Coriolanus” does meander a bit here and there, and it threatens to bite off more than it can chew. But when all is said and done, this film is a powerful experience nonetheless. Kudos to Fiennes who picked quite the project to mark his directorial debut with as any lesser director would have easily failed in adapting such complex material. Some would have started with something easier, but not the man who portrayed Lord Voldemort.

* * * ½ out of * * * *

‘American Gangster’ – One of the Many Great Films from Ridley Scott

Posted on by The Ultimate Rabbit

What is it about gangsters which makes them so inescapably attractive? We have had so many movies about them over the years, and they just keep on coming at us like those greatest hits albums Aerosmith keeps releasing over and over again. Is it because they have such great power and generate such intense fear around everyone, even those they love the most? I think these characters tap into our darkest desires, the ones we would never openly admit to. We would love to have people look up to us and fear us. Seriously, let’s be honest. But if only we did not have to pay the consequences for such devious actions…

Gangster movies are among some of the best to watch. “The Godfather” trilogy is one of the most enthralling gangster sagas ever and, yes, I do include the third one. Michael Corleone’s descent from innocent family member to a vicious and cold-hearted crime lord is a grand tragedy. “Scarface” came out back in the early 1980’s, and now it is more popular than ever. And then there is “Goodfellas,” the penultimate Martin Scorsese film on which remains my all-time favorite, and which opened me up to the many things motion pictures can do.

And then there is “American Gangster” which comes to us from director Ridley Scott. This film proves to be a cross between “The Godfather” and “The French Connection” as it follows the rise of Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington) who becomes New York’s biggest supplier of heroin, and Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe), the cop who is doggedly on Frank’s tail. The events portrayed here takes us back to the 1960’s and the 1970’s as these men go about their business, and it looks at how they eventually collided with one another.

“American Gangster” doesn’t really bring anything new to the gangster genre as we can see the trajectory the film is going to take as soon as the words “based on a true story” appear. But what it does offer is another brilliant piece of filmmaking from Scott who keeps his eye focused on his two main characters and the world around them with tremendous detail. As a result, he takes what could have been an average gangster movie and turns it into a character study of two men living in an utterly corrupt world.

The two main characters are interesting stories in contradictions. Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington) is, on the surface, a devoted family man. He ends up buying a huge house for his mother, Mahalee (Ruby Dee), and takes her to church every Sunday, and he gets all his brothers involved in his business. The brilliance of Washington’s performance is how he almost makes you forget what his business is: drug dealing. There are some scenes where we see the effects of his product and how it ruthlessly destroys the lives of others. It is enough of a reminder to remind us of just how dangerous Frank is. While he goes to church to worship in the name of God, this not prevent him from performing such heinous deeds.

Then you have Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe), whose name seems to spell out law-abiding police officer in capital letters. Richie’s first act we see is him turning in a million dollars of drug money to the police department. While Richie does the right thing, his co-workers end up wanting nothing to do with him as a result. He says he is a cop bound by a strong moral code, and yet he cannot resist cheating on his wife, Laurie (Carla Gugino), and jeopardizing the custody battle for his young boy by sleeping with a dozen women in the New York area. While he is married to the law, he is not married as much to his family as he thinks.

We follow these two alpha males as they go on their separate journeys through a world which has seemingly lost all sense of law and order. We see how complicit the police department is in drug dealing. Through Frank’s character, we see how drugs are a big money-making business for the Army as he travels to Saigon to get his product from the vast fields of vegetation. What Scott accomplishes here is what Steven Soderbergh accomplished with “Traffic;” he shows how the drug trade, however illegal, is such an integral business in everyone’s lives to where it can never simply disappear. Watching “American Gangster,” you have to wonder where the center between right and wrong is. Beyond that, you come to wonder if there is any center at all.

This all reminds me of a George Carlin routine from his “Class Clown” album:

“Keep it in the black! Show a profit! Keep it in the black! Keep it in the black! Never mind your soul! Never mind your bank account! Keep it in the black! BUSINESS AS USUAL GOING ON!”

Scott sucks us completely into the look and sounds of past decades as we go from the urban jungles of New York to the trenches of Southeast Asia in a way we have only read about. I love watching movies which suck you into a time and place to where you are not watching a movie as much as you are experiencing one. To quote Walter Cronkite, you are there.

The screenplay was written by Steven Zallian, and he remains one of the very best screenwriters working in movies Steven Spielberg has credited him for taking the unfilmable stories and making them possible to bring to cinematic life. “American Gangster” was based on the article “The Return of Superfly” by Marc Jacobson, and Zallian succeeds in taking elements which could have been utterly predictable and has made them feel fresh here.

Washington continues to be one of the very best actors working, and you can tell he is having a blast playing bad guys as much as he does portraying good guys (if not more). As Frank Lucas, he creates a character who is in many ways noble in how he holds family so close to where you can see how seductive he is in bringing them all into a realm of immorality. He makes you never doubt how dangerous Frank is, and there are moments where he is so unpredictable in his actions to where he becomes infinitely frightening. This is especially the case when he confronts another character played by Idris Elba, and it results in once of the most unforgettable, let alone brutal, scenes this film has to offer.

Crowe gives us a character in Richie Roberts who is not entirely brave, but also not altogether cowardly either. While Richie may not always be the bravest of cops, he is certainly the most morally strong one to be found here. And this is even though he constantly fails to be a faithful husband. I never ever see Crowe coasting through any of his roles, and he certainly doesn’t do that here.

There are other great performances to be found here as well. Ruby Dee plays Frank’s mother, Mahalee, and she is the moral force Franks needs to listen to here. Mahalee is not blind to what Frank is really doing, but she makes it abundantly clear there is a line he cannot cross. Another great performance is given by Josh Brolin who plays the corrupt and threatening Detective Nick Trupo, a man who seems to have no problem with drug trafficking as long as he can profit from it. His character threatens to become as bad as Frank and in the last half of this film, he looks to have no soul left for salvation.

The climatic scene comes when Frank and Richie are face to face in an interrogation room, and it is a great scene which reminded of when Al Pacino and Robert De Niro faced off against one another in Michael Mann’s “Heat.” They both communicate the realities of the world they are in as they see it, and neither is willing to give up on what they intend to accomplish. The fact Richie gets the upper hand almost seems amazing, considering how just about everyone around him is complicit in drug trade. So many cops and judges look to be so easily bought, and this case ended up bringing down an insanely high number of law enforcement officers. And when we watch Frank in the film’s final scene, we wonder if anything has changed at all.

“American Gangster” proves to be one of the many great movies directed by Ridley Scott. And yes, I do include “Prometheus.”

My man!

* * * * out of * * * *

Winnie-the-Pooh and the Bloody Movie That’s NOT for Kids

Posted on by The Ultimate Rabbit

It was released back in 2023, but I still have not seen “Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey.” This is a horror film which came about when A.A. Milne’s “Winnie-the-Pooh” went into public domain and led filmmaker Rhys Frake-Waterfield to concoct this tale of the “silly old bear” turning into a viciously feral animal after Christopher Robin leaves the Hundred Acre Wood for college. Piglet joins Pooh on a murderous rampage when a group of young female university students make the mistake of renting a cabin in the Hundred Acre Wood.

Like I said, I have not watched “Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey.” While the idea of turning this chubby little cubby all stuffed with fluff into a slasher this side of Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees seems to promise an entertaining and trashy time at the movies, watching the trailer made me believe the filmmakers did nothing more than simply give audiences another generic horror movie with the usual cliches which have defined this genre far too often. Plus, Eeyore is not in this film, and everybody who knows me knows I have been a die-hard Eeyore fan forever. Had this clinically depressed donkey had a bigger role, I would have given it a look.

Anyway, I bring this up because I was recently reminded of a news story from October 2023 when a fourth-grade teacher at a charter school in Florida, in this case The Academy of Innovative Education, ended up showing his students this poorly reviewed horror flick. From what I have been told, the teacher showed his students this film because they selected it from the various options given to them, but they eventually asked the teacher to turn it off as they in no way expected this “silly old bear” to commit heinous acts of violence.

Understandably, the children were traumatized, and the parents were very pissed off (can you blame them?). One parent, Michelle Diaz, said she felt “completely abandoned” by the school, and that it was not up to the children to decide what movie to watch in the slightest. She also added that the teacher should have researched its content before anything else, and I could not agree with her more.

Seriously, what was this teacher thinking? There are so many ways you can research a movie and its content. You can check its rating, and whether it is rated G, PG, PG-13, R or NC-17, there is a description underneath as to why the movie is rated as such. And when it comes to R-rated motion pictures, the descriptions are always tremendously entertaining. Take Rob Zombie’s magnum opus, “The Devil’s Rejects,” for example. The theatrical cut was rated R for “sadistic violence, strong sexual content, language, and drug use.” Now this should be enough of a reason to avoid taking your five-year-old to see it, and not just because you cannot afford a babysitter. For others, it may prove to be a major selling point. Horror buffs in particular will look at this description and say to one another, “Gnarly! Let’s check it out!”

Now in the case of “Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey,” it was released unrated, so it may not have come with such a description. I am not even sure if this cinematic work of speculative fiction was even screened for the MPA (formerly the MPAA). Had it been, I imagine they would have neutered the hell out of it as if it were the average “Friday the 13th” sequel.

In addition, you can find out so much about any film if you visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDB), you can have the plotline and events completely spoiled for you on Wikipedia, you can check on Rotten Tomatoes if it has a fresh or rotten score, and the reviews on the site should give you a solid idea if it is appropriate or not for a preschooler. There are other websites out there designed for parents to inform of them of inappropriate material for children in a movie. Please reply in the comments if you know of any specific websites like those. I know they are lurking out there somewhere on the world wide web.

Now at this point, many will say that Winnie the Pooh is in this movie’s title, and that the name brings about feelings and images of innocence, friendships and cuddly animals we all want plush toys out of. This A.A. Milne creation does not bring up any quick comparisons to “Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer,” and seeing him wear a hockey mask like Jason Voorhees was unthinkable for decades.

But here’s the thing: the word “blood” is in this movie’s title. Doesn’t that word trigger anybody anymore? Did that Miami teacher even take this into account? I mean, how many other “Winnie the Pooh” stories, specials and movies have featured the word “blood” in the title? There was the “Blustery Day,” there was “Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too,” there was another about the honey tree Pooh was jonesing to get into, and there is no forgetting the day with Eeyore (my personal favorite).

What else could have been implied by having the word “blood” in the title of this deeply twisted motion picture? I shudder to think as it would surely make both Walt Disney and A.A. Milne roll over in their graves, cryogenic or otherwise. Imagine the following cinematic scenario:

“Pooh, what are doing?”

“I found something sweeter than honey, Christopher Robin. It’s the blood of Christ!”

“Silly old bear!”

“No, seriously. I am here to save your soul!”

But hey, the implications of this movie title could get even worse and more unimaginable. Just think:

“Christopher Robin! What is that?”

“Kanga is menstruating Pooh. Want to take a closer look?”

“Oh bother, I have now lost my appetite for honey!”

Imagine Piglet observing this taking place. He would have ended up having the mother of all panic attacks.If he could get a word out in the process, that would have been extraordinary.

So basically, you cannot convince me that you are not being well-informed on movies being released today. All sorts of warning signs are there for you to research, and that’s regardless of whether or not you are a Miami schoolteacher. Please do not tell me you were not warned. As for the children, I hope they got the mental health talk they needed. What may seem silly and cheap to us adults is a child’s horrific horror show. Granted, “Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey” was made for only $50,000 dollars, and the trailer does not betray its low budget and reeks of severe cheapness, but even the cheapest character mask can be every bit as traumatizing as watching the horse Artax drown in “The Neverending Story.”

Meanwhile, “Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey” has come to inspire the Twisted Childhood Universe which has filmmakers taking such lovable characters from our childhood and turning them into bloodthirsty slashers. So far, we have gotten “Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare,” “Bambi: The Reckoning,” and “Pinocchio: Unstrung” was just released overseas. Other twisted childhood movies in development include “Awakening Sleepy Beauty,” “Snow White Returns” “Tigger’s Return,” and there is another coming featuring Mary Poppins. As for America, we have gotten “Popeye the Slayer Man,” and “Screamboat” which is a shameless reimagining of “Steamboat Willie” where a group of New Yorkers get terrified by a monstrous mouse. Canada has gifted everyone “Mickey’s Mouse Trap” which has a hypnotized manager wearing a Mickey face who terrorizes innocent people in an amusement arcade, and a sequel is currently in development.

As for myself, I am waiting for “Eeyore Resurrection” which could be something along the lines of “In a Violent Nature.” Whereas the corpse of serial killer Johnny rose from the dead to reclaim the locket stolen from him, Eeyore could rise from the dead to retrieve his tail which, apparently, was used as a weapon in “Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey.” Eeyore could be threatening innocents with a machete, and one could be pleading for their life to where the depressed donkey could raise his machete in the air and say, “So long little butterfly!”

Or maybe Eeyore could be chasing other teenagers down in a car equipped with some kind of buzzsaw on the hood. While they try to run away from Eeyore’s death machine, he could be saying to himself, “Can’t avoid the inevitable!”

Seriously, we could have Busta Rhymes co-star in this, and it could one of the most penultimate moments a horror movie could ever have:

“Who are you?”

“I’M A HEFFALUMP, MUTHA FUCKA!!!”

But not to worry, I will make sure parents know it is not appropriate for most children. As artists, we do have the responsibility to warn others.

Seriously, have to have a strong idea of what you are about to watch.