True Detective

At first, I wanted to write that this was like someone took "Seven," "Law and Order:SVU," and  "The Silence of the Lambs," mashed them together and threw them in the Louisiana swamps and what wondered out was an eight episode act of haunting television beauty.  Now, I do realize I put this show in a very positive light by that glowing review but the only negative I see is comparing this act of haunting television beauty to anything else, and I mean anything.

Matthew McConaughey continues his McConnaissance with his unfathomable portrayal of the tortured  Detective Rust Cohle.  It's not that he is a very complex man, he is just so exhaustively fed up with the world around him, and who wouldn't be. I would be too if I had the x-ray vision to look into a person's soul that this guy has, and be right all the time about what I saw.

Lets face it, Woody Harrelson is a chameleon and can literally absorb himself in every role he takes on.  Detective Marty Hart is the family man part of this serial killer tracking duo and he too is also very tortured, by his life and his job.  I don't think he even realized it though, until he met and partnered up with Rust.

The story is dark and chilling but rolls perfectly along with an apocalyptic Southern Louisiana sitting exquisitely in the background like a character in itself in the storyline.  The going back and forth between time periods can be a little overwhelming at first but if you keep your eyes on the prize, you will be able to follow along but you have to keep your eyes on it.  The writing is tight and perfectly executed, weaving a tale of human darkness and suspense that hasn't been seen in years.  There's no CGI special effects (well, 1 or 2 instances but they are small and necessary), explosions, or flashy costumes.  Its just good old fashioned story telling, character development, and actors making these characters burst all over the screen. The final episode itself was awesome, with scenes that could rival some horror these days.   This is a prime example of the road to creative tour-de-force television has paved in recent years and I say keep it coming. Watching this nearly 8 hour, what I like to call television motion picture since each season is a stand-alone story (see American Horror Story), was better than most things you will see at the movies these days and it doesn't take a true detective to tell you that.

Thank you and see you at the next blog.

Dallas Buyers Club

*This film is nominated for 6 Academy Awards including Best Picture.*

On the road to the 86th Academy Awards (which, at the time of this writing, is tomorrow night), I, just in the nick of time, got to watch one of the front runners this year for pretty much all the awards it is nominated for.

At first, Dallas Buyers Club  is hard to watch.  This is mostly because we are used to seeing Matthew McConaughey as  a strapping, muscular, very healthy man.  However, for this role, he literally put his life on the line to play AIDS patient Ron Woodruff, an electrician who is diagnosed with HIV in 1985 and given thirty days to live.  I think by now, we have all seen the infamous pictures of him during the film shoot, or by now you have seen the actual movie.  He is difficult to watch when starting the 1 hour and 58 minute long movie because  you are looking at a McConaughey who has lost 35 to 40 pounds.  Last year, I did an Entertainer Profile on Matthew McConaughey mostly because of his stellar 2012 performances, then came Dallas Buyers Club, which he has already won a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor and is frontrunner for the Best Actor Academy Award tomorrow night.  I ended that profile with this line, "From what I have read though, we can expect the same level of tour-de-force versatility in the near future and I say bring it on Matthew."  Little did I know that this was coming to our screens, this life changing, mind-altering, up lifting portrayal that can only be described as cinematic ecstasy.

Then there was Jared Leto, who, in my personal opinion, took six years off from acting because he wanted to come back with a splash. His portrayal of Rayon, the transgender HIV postitive woman Woodruff meets in the hospital, Leto landed with a continent covering tsunami.  I wish I could be in Los Angeles tomorrow to hand him the Best Supporting Actor award.

These were not only the performances of their careers, Leto and McConaughey give the performances that could span several careers.

The movie is good, no it's great.  Once you get past the shock of watching these two men in a whole other, and much thinner, light, you see this beautiful story emerge.  This film is a powerful look at living, dying, and all the shit we have to put up with trying to accomplish one and not the other.

Thank you and see you at the next blog.

Entertainer Profile - Leonardo DiCaprio

It has been a while since I have done an Entertainer Profile, but judging from the amount of views they get, I need to start doing them more often. They are quite popular.  There is no one more deserving right now of one than a man who is pretty much at the top of my list when it comes to quality of movies and the pure awesomeness of his performances.  I would absolutely love to meet him one day and just pick his brain, not literally of course because that would be wrong.

He was born in Los Angeles, California in 1974 to George and Irmelin.  His father was an artist who worked on comic books and mom was a legal secretary.  He was put into the industry as a child and scored some small television roles, such as a cameo on Roseanne as a classmate of middle child Darlene Conner, which I saw recently and nearly yelled at the t.v. when I saw him.  He did a low-budget, direct-to-video film, Critters 3 and a now infamous stint on the final season of Growing Pains.  Then came This Boy's Life, being picked by Robert DeNiro himself for the role and as you can see below, the rest is history.

CST'S FAVORITE LEONARDO DiCAPRIO ROLES
This Boy's Life (1993)
Whats Eating Gilbert Grape (1993) - Twenty years later and this film is still a perennial cult classic and the first of his four extremely well-deserved Academy Award nominations.  His breakout role as a mentally challenged teenager and brother to Johnny Depp's Gilbert Grape launched his film career.
The Basketball Diaries (1995)
Romeo + Juliet (1996)
Titanic (1997) -  This movie is and will always be in my Top 5 favorites of all time, even in the top 3.  I still to this day find it to be one of the best written, acted, most enjoyable cinematic experiences ever to grace any screen, any where. The movie was the number 1 box office champion in the world until Avatar in 2009 and was nominated for 14 Academy Awards and won 11.  Titanic catapulted DiCaprio into a worldwide mega-star.
The Man in the Iron Mask (1998) - This was a solid movie with an excellent cast including Jeremy Irons, Gabriel Byrne, Gerard Depardieu, and John Malkovich.
The Beach (2000)
Gangs of New York - (2002)
Catch Me If You Can (2002) - DiCaprio + Tom Hanks + Steven Spielberg = good enough for me!
The Aviator (2004) - One of his best performances.  He was mesmerizing. His second Academy Award nomination.
The Departed (2006) - Lets face it, there is not a damn thing wrong with this movie. It's Scorsese and some of the best actors in the business in a dark, engaging thriller.
Blood Diamond (2006)  - His third Academy Award nomination.
Revolutionary Road (2008) - DiCaprio reunited with his Titanic co-star Kate Winslet was what won me over.  They portrayed Frank and April Wheeler, a married couple plagued with problems while living in 1950's Connecticut.
Shutter Island (2010) - DiCaprio + Scorsese + horror movie set in the 1950's = a damn good time!!!
J. Edgar (2011)
Django Unchained (2012) - see review 1-9-13
The Great Gatsby (2013) - see review 5-9-13
The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) - see review 1-20-14

This profile is being written ten days before the 86th Annual Academy Awards where he is nominated for a very explosive performance in The Wolf of Wall Street.  I am honestly saying that he is who I am rooting for and if you do not know why, then watch the movie.  If you watched it and still do not know why, then watch it again.  As a writer who is working on another book and a movie script, I can safely say that I hope one day, one of my books or scripts for a book lands in his hands.  So Mr. DiCaprio, I don't know if you are even planning your retirement at the moment but all I ask is please wait to at least know my name before you do.

Thank you and see you at the next blog.

12 Years A Slave

*Nominated for 9 Academy Awards including Best Picture.*

When you sit down to watch certain movies, you know in your heart of hearts that film is going to be extremely emotional and powerful, especially if you watched the trailer a few times beforehand. Then you read the shocking account in a memoir of the same name and it's then and only then, that the power and emotion is as vast and incredible as it is in 12 Years A Slave.

12 Years A Slave tells the incredible story of Solomon Northrop, a born-free black man living in Saratoga, New York.  Northrop is a respected businessman, musician, and father of two.   When Solomon travels to Washington, D.C. with two other men who have offered him a job as a fiddle player, he is kidnapped and sold into slavery.  The film does not hold back on the severity of slavery and the torture he endured. There are even moments when the camera is fixated on some of the acts of violence and some of those moments last minutes.  I thought this made the scenes even more realistic for the viewers, which can almost be difficult to watch.

The is the performance of a lifetime for Chiwetel Ejiofor (2012, Salt, American Gangster).  He is so good and I can only hope to see more of this caliber in the future, even though I am sure the movie shoot was an exhausting and even painful experience for him.  Actually, I know it was hard for him because he made you feel his pain through the screen.  I really want to say that this is one of those as you've never seen him before instances for Paul Giamatti, but looking through his list of movies (and I should have known this already), the man is most definitely a chameleon.  His role as Freeman, the man who first buys Northrup in New Orleans to sell him to wealthy plantation owners, is a short role but a very effective portrayal of a man in the slave trade business in 1841.  The expressions on his face are hardcore and almost haunting.  Michael Fassbender has made my choice for the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award a more difficult decision.  Anyone who knows me and has read my review on Prometheus knows he is definitely one of my favorites in the business right now.  At first I thought his portrayal of Edwin Epps, the second plantation owner Northrup is sold to, could rival DiCaprio's Calvin Candie, but alas, this was a different kind of badass evil.  It is almost like he is troubled by it where Candie enjoyed the hell out of it.  Either way, Fassbender's brooding intensity was splashed all over the 35mm film.

Playing Epps' wife Mary in an awesome stoically chilling performance is Sarah Paulson, who is equally amazing in one of my favorite shows on right now, American Horror Story.  Mistress Epps is a stone cold woman and Paulson's portrayal is damn near freezing. Making her big screen debut is Lupita Nyong'o, portraying Patsey, Epps' "favorite" worker on the plantation.  He showered her often with the only kind of attention his demented mind is able to give, but of course this does not sit well with the mistress of the house.  I can shower her with all kinds of adjectives praising her Academy Award nominated performance but all I am going to say is this actress now has a long, amazing career ahead of her.

The film itself is a fine, very fine American historical drama chronicling a very dark time in our country's history.  But for some people to say the movie is "too much" or "goes too far," you cannot sugar coat anything that happened then.  Also, those people apparently did not read Northrop's 1853 memoir because it does not hold any punches and neither does director Steve McQueen.  Yes, you will be in awe of the performances and the movie itself, shocked and saddened by what you are watching on screen but just remember, at least you are not in the position to write the same kind of memoir.

Thank you and see you at the next blog.

American Hustle

Nominated for 10 Academy Awards including Best Picture.


Basically, just from the cast alone, I wanted to see this movie ever since the first trailer premiered.  Anyone who reads my blogs knows I love a good ensemble cast, of course a great one is even better.  I love it when the great ensemble has a dynamic that radiates from the screen and play off each other like a perfectly tuned piano.  Individually, these are a supremely talented group of actors.  As an ensemble, they are good, but not great.  The movie is also good, but not great.

The plot behind American Hustle can be a little complicated to explain but I will give it the old college try.  A businessman (Christian Bale) and his beautiful British partner (Amy Adams) are forced to team up with an FBI agent (Bradley Cooper) to pull off an elaborate con in order to capture some of New Jersey's most powerful politicians in a twisted, yet comical plot filled with greed, corruption, and a double-cross around every corner. If you haven't seen this yet, make sure when you do to pay close attention to the details.  Yes, it is one of those movies but as long as you pay close attention, the very loaded plot will definitely make sense to you.  The story line is actually very cool and well written and the late 1970's setting was also a very big selling point with me.  Of course too, there was the music, love the music from that era. 

The beginning was a bit slow for me and took a little time getting off the ground.  Towards the middle of the 2 hour 18 minute long film, it started to get interesting and the various plot lines began to come together.  Even though it is considered comedy (it did win Best Picture Comedy or Musical at the Golden Globes), I call it a dramedy.  There were plenty of times me and my movie buddy laughed but there were also an equal amount of oh sh*# or oh no she/he didn't moments, including the ending.

Finally, the part I love to write on, the performances.  There is no doubt this is a great cast of actors, even a couple of surprise cameos I wasn't expecting.  Amy Adams and Christian Bale stole the show and were definitely the stand-outs in this film.  Their performances were flawless portraying characters that fit perfectly together and I was very convinced by them.  They most definitely deserve their Best Actor/Actress nominations.  The other major players, not so much.  Bradley Cooper's Richie DiMaso is much of the comic relief on the movie and he does a very good job but it's an uneven performance.  In the beginning of the movie, I was already thinking there really could have been some one better cast in the role.  However, he does get better as the movie goes on.  Maybe that is because of the writing or the storyline getting better and deeper.  This also is the case with Jeremy Renner's Mayor Carmine Polito.  Renner is a great actor (he was AMAZING in The Hurt Locker and The Town), but I was picturing someone else in the role.  I cannot put my finger on exactly who it could be but it's just not him.  Finally, there is the unstoppable Jennifer Lawrence, who at the age of 23 is already on her third Academy Award nomination, with a win last year for Silver Linings Playbook.  Her tour-de-force performance in the exceptional dark family drama, Winter's Bone put her on the map and now she is Hollywood's sweetheart.  Now, her portrayal as Rosalyn Rosenfeld, the woman who nearly brought the whole operation to it's knees, was awesome. She was naive, heartfelt, emotional, and even funny throughout the movie but it was very similar to Cooper's.  At first, she was okay but during the movie, it was like she was growing into her character as we watched and it was very interesting.  I didn't find her convincing during the beginning but was definitely drawn in in the last hour and a half.  It's no secret the girl has a bright future ahead of her.

This film is far, far from being a stinker but I really would have not paid the $8.50 if I weren't trying to watch all of the Oscar nominated movies.  I am glad I saw it, the writing is solid, love the costumes and of course the 1970's backdrop is very groovy.  There are some very noteworthy scenes.  But alas, unless you are watching the award contenders like myself, don't get hustled or conned into the theater prices, wait for the very cheap rental.

Thank you and see you at the next blog.

The Wolf of Wall Street

*Just FYI, this review is just about the movie and not about the actual person or persons involved in the real story. I was not there and I did not live any of it.*

Nominated for 5 Academy Awards including Best Picture.

Debauchery. Obscenities. Sex. Drugs. Lewd and lascivious behavior. Corruption.  Lets face it, these are the basic characteristics of any great Martin Scorsese picture.  However, in The Wolf of Wall Street, all of these and every other facet of awful and indecent human behavior is heightened to exponential heights, and I loved it, for entertainment purposes only of course.

The flow of the movie is very Casino-esque, another Scorsese masterpiece.  It starts out with the main character, not really in any big event like a car explosion as was the case with DeNiro's Sam Rothstein, but he was doing what he did best, extreme adult debauchery.  There are flashbacks jumping all about to set up the story and the characters.  But the flashbacks are not annoying in the least, they are very necessary in a 180-minute Scorsese picture.

It turns out that the wolf  is an actual person who exists named Jordan Belfort, who became a stockbroker in the late 1980's and shot to fame on Wall Street earning insane amounts of money, all the while living an even more insane lifestyle.  Belfort took the rock and roll way of living and lived it 100-fold over a very short period of time.  If it could be snorted, ingested, or smoked, he was doing it.  If there was a hooker within a mile radius, he was doing her, or snorting off of her.  However, the man had the money to do these things and even an absolutely gorgeous wife at home in their Long Island mansion.  But, Belfort and his business partner Donnie, soon find out, when you are making so much money that you can throw it in the garbage and not bat an eyelash, it will turn the heads of the wrong people.  The wrong people for them was the FBI.  Ok, I've already said too much (or have I?).  If you haven't seen it yet and you are reading this, you are going to think I have told too much of the plot. But just go and see it because trust me, you will experience sensory overload.

When it comes to the performances, all I've got to say is #@!%&()+!!!!!! (I am trying to improve my language on here which is ironic since I am writing about a film that drops the f-bomb 569 times).  When I wrote earlier about the indecent human behavior taken to exponential heights, this rings true about the performances, which the actors took way beyond that. The first actual great performer in the movie, believe it or not, is the small but pivotal (and from what I understand, heavily ad-libbed) role of Mark Hanna played brilliantly by the recently new and improved Matthew McConaughey.  You can see much of it in the trailer.  Jonah Hill (Belfort's business partner Donnie Azoff)  has certainly come a long way since Superbad and Knocked Up.  He has had a string of box office hits and is now riding high on his second very well-deserved Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor (see Moneyball).  There is a particular scene in the movie (I call it the Quaaludes on steroids scene) between him and DiCaprio's character that is so well played out, so intense yet a little funny at times, but so awesomely done by the actors that it still gives me chills to this day.  I mean, for all you who have seen it, you would agree with me, that whole scene had to hurt them physically and emotionally. After it was over, I just wanted to stand and yell Bravo!!  Australian actress Margot Robbie is an absolute revelation as Belfort's knock-out of a wife, Naomi, but whose performance is equally knocked right out of the park.  She keeps doing what she is doing in this film, there is a long, substantial career for her.  I have to say, THANK YOU! to the casting gods for putting Rob Reiner in this movie as Belfort's grouchy father.  We see a side of him on film that hasn't been seen in a long time, and all I have to say is, the man has not lost it at all!!  I would have liked to have seen a nomination for him also.

Ahhhh, then there was Leonardo.  As far as I am concerned, he will always get his own paragraph.  I had to look back just now to remind myself but earlier in 2013 (see The Great Gatsby), I referred to him as the "magnetic, titanic force that is Leo" for his portrayal of Jay Gatsby, which I also called "the performance of the year."  Seeing as this is a 2013 movie, make that two performances of the year and still, hand that man a trophy dammit! (Oops, sorry had to drop one in there)  I also think that magnetic, titanic force still rings true.  Actually, I think if I write anything else about him, it could come off as a man crush or maybe even obsessive. Okay, I can deal with man crush.

If you are easily offended and your face turns into a strawberry at the sight of a naked lady, then do not go and see this movie.  It was nearly rated NC-17, which is safe to say also, it is only for adults.  However, for the rest of us, get your butt to the theater.  But don't worry, this wolf is not the scary, four legged kind, although he does foam at the mouth sometimes.

Thank you and see you at the next blog.

Captain Phillips

*Just an FYI, this is a critique of the movie Captain Phillips.  I was not there, so of course I have no comment on the actual events.*

Nominated for 6 Academy Awards including Best Picture.

Let's face it, Tom Hanks still has it!  But seriously, did he ever loose it?  I mean, yes there may have been some misfires here and there over the years, but he doesn't have near as many as some cinematic icons do.  He is only the second actor to win the Best Actor Academy Award 2 years (1993 and 1994) in a row (behind Spencer Tracy who did it in 1937 and 1938).  He starred in Castaway almost completely by himself and that went to earn $430 million worldwide. 

Captain Phillips was never really high on my movie radar this season.  We are getting deeper into the heavy hitter award contenders now and I read the buzz for this movie then saw the trailer at the theater.  The trailer itself looked pretty intense AND I had just watched Cloud Atlas the night before and was blown away by that entire movie, the incredible plot, and one of the best acting ensembles ever put together.  It was like my man crush for Tom Hanks was suddenly awakened again.  Then tonight, I just watched Forrest Gump and of course that goes without saying.  The movie is of course based on the book, A Captain's Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALs, and Dangerous Days at Sea and it was written by Captain Richard Phillips, who is portrayed by Tom Hanks.

The movie flowed as easily and flawlessly as an unobstructed river on a beautiful summer day.  Even the scenes at the beginning, introducing all the characters, which as we know already are on both sides of the world, kept me intrigued and were not at all boring.  Normally in movies like this, the introductory parts at the beginning can be dull and my mind will start to drift if it doesn't hurry up and get going.  I am usually up and ready to give every movie a chance but nowadays, as I get older and busier, I find out I do not have time for all that nonsense and also do not have the patience I once had. There was no nonsense at all to worry about in Captain Phillips.

The movie follows Richard Phillips, captain of an American container ship, the Maersk Alabama, while on a trip to Mombasa.  The ship is hijacked by four Somali pirates led by a young man named Muse, who is eager for a big payday.  It is a race for survival for all who are on board.  The rest of the movie is intense, but not in a dark thriller kind of way, but in an emotional and compelling kind of way.  Barkhad Abdi is the actor who portrays Muse.  According to his IMDb page, he is from Somalia and his family settled in Minneapolis, Minnesota when he was 14.  Captain Phillips is his only acting credit.  I have a feeling his life is about to change though.  Abdi's performance showed years of film experience and is generating much award buzz.  This is one of Tom Hanks' most emotional roles, keeping me captivated up to that final tear-soaked scene (and yes, I had to wipe them away too).  If the entire movie does nothing for you, stay for that final scene at least.  You will definitely need to hijack some tissues, or your shirt sleeve.

Thank you and see you at the next blog.