Beasts of the Southern Wild

**This is part of my 2013 Academy Award Best Picture nominee series.  Also nominated for Best Actress,  Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay.**

3 STARS


"An almost apocalyptic tale set right in our back yard, and yes, in this century. Poignant, original, heartbreaking, and worst of all, it is all really happening."

Beasts of the Southern Wild seemingly came out of nowhere this awards season.  For a few months last year, I had heard about it on news shows and saw its title pop up in articles online.  It may have been some time in December of 2012 when I finally saw the trailer.  I was still under the impression this was some National Geographic documentary taking place somewhere in Africa and then when I found out this amazing story is set less than 5 hours east of where I am sitting right now in Southeast Texas, I was stunned.  I am still stunned at the utter brilliance of how this movie is laid out.

Beasts of the Southern Wild is a movie set in the southern most part of Louisiana in an area of the bayous called the Bathtub.  It focuses on a small group of people who still call the small island home.  I know now that it was the intention of the movie makers to make us, the audience, think we were going into a NatGeo documentary about a family on another continent, but it was so subtle and so sly that I have to give them a standing ovation.  The main human character would be Hushpuppy (played by, as of now, the youngest actress ever nominated for the Best Actress Academy Award, Quvenzhane Wallis) who also narrates the story of how she, her father, and a band of Bathtubians (my own choice word) are surviving extreme poverty and flooding of their low lying area.  Her father, known as Wink, is in failing health but refuses to leave the Bathtub and tries to encourage others to stay even when a major storm is about to hit their shanty town.

During all of this plight, more extreme than most of us can only imagine sitting in our warm (or cool) comfortable homes, Hushpuppy is learning, far too early, about courage and how far the human spirit, and human imagination, can take you in this life.  Quvenzhane Wallis is way ahead of her time in actual life also.    The nine-year old Houma, Louisiana native shines in this powerful role.  Much of the cast are, in fact, Louisiana residents.  Hushpuppy's father, Wink, is portrayed in a haunting performance by Dwight Henry, who owns a bakery in New Orleans's seventh ward. Now, the movie does get a little wabbly in the middle.  It seems to not know where it wants to go. However, it does quickly get back on track and ends up leaving you speechless.  The performances are powerful, the plot is uber original, yet frightening.  When you finally see Beasts of the Southern Wild, hopefully you will see Hushpuppy and her gang as less beast and more beauty.

Thank you and see you at the next blog.

Once Upon A Time (TV series)

 
Once upon a time, something brilliant came to television.
Once upon a time, something smart came to television.
Once upon a time, something energetic came to television.
Once upon a time, something........fantastical came to television.


This is so audacious for a network, but lets face it, networks have to put their balls to the wall these days to compete with all the original series on the cable networks, who can do, say, and be as naked as they want.  The actors and actresses on cable can take their characters anywhere they want, be as extreme, as daring, as....well......audacious as they want.

ABC seemed to have told themselves they needed to bring something to our living rooms that was completely different, and they did.   Now in its second season, Once Upon A Time is set in the fictional town of Storybrooke, Maine where it turns out all the residents are under the curse of an evil queen.  Actually, they are all the characters from the fairy tales we all grew up reading (and from the Disney movies we watched) who, because of the curse, were transported from their world to ours.  Half of each episode takes place in present day in the town of Storybrooke and the other half shows them all as their fairy tale character in their own world.  As far as I am concerned, it is an ingenious plot oozing with originality. 

Leading this amazing ensemble is Mary Margaret Blanchard (played beautifully and innocently by Ginnifer Goodwin, Walk the Line) who is also Snow White from the fairy tale world.  There is also Prince Charming/David Nolan, The Evil Queen/Mayor Regina Mills, Rumpelstiltskin/Mr. Gold (in a, as far as I am concerned, constant award worthy performance by Robert Carlyle), Ruby/Little Red Riding Hood,and so on and so forth.  Another great aspect of the show is the constant introduction of more and more intriguing characters.  Season 2 has seen the introduction of Sleeping Beauty, Mulan, and Captain Hook (played by the dashing Colin O'Donoghue).  The special effects are also pretty impressive especially for network television.  Even though the characters come from stories we already know, the story lines are extremely fresh and original for these times of every subject known to man being portrayed on television now.  I absolutely love the originality, and everyone who reads my blogs knows I devour originality.

So, for all of you Netflixers who have been skipping over Season 1, stop and start watching now then go onto abc.com and get on board with Season 2.  Once upon a time, you will be happy you did.

Thank you and see you at the next blog.

Django Unchained

**Now nominated for the 2012 Best Picture Academy Award.**


 4 STARS!



"One of the rawest and most unhinged movies of 2012. Tarantino nailed it and gathered up a group of the best performances ever!"




Well 2012 is over and we are only a few days into 2013.  However, we are dealing with the slough of movies that come out before the end of the physical year to make the deadline for awards season.  Yes, you know all the serious, dramatic fare that comes in the fall after all the explosions from the summer have wined down.  It's those movies that make the people on the award panels salivate profusely. In the middle of all the nominations for Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook, Zero Dark Thirty, and Argo, there's Django Unchained.

"The new film by Quentin Tarantino" is raw American movie making at it's most primal, and at it's finest.  Django Unchained is set three years before the beginning of the American Civil War and almost immediately we are introduced to Dr. King Shultz (Christopher Waltz, Inglorious Bastards), a very colorful character throughout the movie who comes upon our hero Django (Jamie Foxx), a slave chained together with some other slaves on their way to a plantation.  Dr. Shulz, who is a bounty hunter, buys Django his freedom and they become partners in the bounty hunting business.  However, Django has another agenda.  He is on a journey to find his wife, Broomhilda (Kerry Washington), who was  taken from him and sold as a house slave to evil plantation owner Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio).

So, the paragraph above is the gist of the story and if you haven not seen it yet, that is all you need to know.  I am now going to get to the performances and the movie itself.  Django Unchained is violent and in your face bloody.  I mean, it is splattering everywhere, but lets face it, after you see it, you will realize and know that it needed to be that way.  It was a very violent time in American History.  As of the writing of this review, the Academy Award nominations come out tomorrow.  No doubt, there should be nominations for Jamie Foxx, Christopher Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Samuel L. Jackson, and Kerry Washington.  However, I have come back down to Earth and know that could not happen because I also think a few people here and there in Lincoln need to be nominated and win too.   All these people were so good, so intense, so unbelievable.  Jamie Foxx as the hero and lead character has all the emotional cues down, he needed to be hardcore and angry as hell of course but I saw, in the scenes where the anger had to turn, his face would make this gradual change, but you could see the angst when he just wanted to cry. He almost looked like a sad little boy and I thought that was better than spilling the tears.

Oh, what to say about Leo's Calvin Candie?  This movie was released Christmas Day and this character has already been billed as the, I guess you could say, most villainous villain of 2012, even beating The Dark Knight Rises Bane.  This man is nasty but if you go into the theater without knowing a thing, at first you are going to think, wow this is a real fun guy.  Lets face it people, Leonardo DiCaprio is one the greats of our time, I mean, the man is an artist and Calvin Candie is  sprayed all over the canvas like muck from a barn floor.  I had only seen Christopher Waltz in Inglorious Bastards and he was of course, phenomenal in that but I am not familiar with any of his other work.  Comparing his phenomenal Bastards performance to this one, this one is a juggernaut.  You literally have to see the character of Dr. Shulz to believe it. We all know Samuel L. Jackson and his very wide range of work, but this role just expands his range to the size of the Grand Canyon.  His role as Stephen, the head of the house slaves for Calvin Candie, is part grouchy old man, part wiseass, part sociopath.  Honestly, I don't know if he would have been my first choice to play the character but he turned out to be utter perfection.

Django Unchained is awe-inspiring original story telling by one of the great screenwriters and directors of our time.  Quentin Tarantino weaves a story so compelling and raw, yet comedic, it is very reminiscent of his other great movies like Pulp Fiction.  It is also reminiscent of the westerns from the past with Tarantino's awesome modern twists of graphic violence mixed in.  I also loved the music in the movie.  I definitely plan on buying the soundtrack.  This movie is so raw and unhinged, it could also be described as, well, unchained.

Thank you and see you at the next blog.

Entertainer Profile - Sally Field

SALLY FIELD

Yes, we love her, we really love her.  So, with my just recently published review of Lincoln, I decided my next Entertainer Profile should be on one of the many icons in the film and of course, on one of my favorite actresses (and one of the most talented) of all time.

Icon is hardly the only word to describe Sally Field.  Sex symbol in the 1960's, 2-time Academy Award winner for Best Actress in the 1970's and 1980's, Forrest Gump's mom in the 1990's,  Nora Walker in the 2000's, and Mary Todd Lincoln and Aunt Mae (The Amazing Spider Man) in 2012.

She was born in 1946 in Pasadena, California to actress Margaret Field and a salesman father.  She landed the coveted role of Gidget right off the bat at age 19, however it was cancelled due to low ratings.  Then came little more successful Flying Nun and the roles just kept coming.

CST's FAVORITE SALLY FIELD ROLES

Gidget (tv series 1965-1966) - This series only lasted 32 episodes but still remains a classic and  launched Sally Field's career.  She will be forever loved as the bubbly, fresh faced Gidget, a young girl living in California with her widowed father, spending her days surfing and hanging with her friends.

The Flying Nun (tv series 1967-1970) - First, I have to admit, I have never seen this show, well, a clip here and there.  I had to include this because this is a big piece of her career and, even though it was short-lived, an important piece of pop culture television history.

Sybil (1976) - This television movie brought Sally Field into a much different light and showed her range was staggering.  Portraying a woman who created 16 different personalities as the result of physical and sexual abuse earned her a well-deserved Emmy.
Smokey and the Bandit (1977)
Norma Rae (1979) - She earned the first of her 2 Best Actress Oscars portraying a Southern textile worker who gets sick and tired of working in horrible conditions and works to unionize the mill, no matter the cost.
Smokey and the Bandit II (1980)
Places in the Heart (1984) - She earned her 2nd Oscar for Best Actress playing a woman in the 1930's South who is suddenly widowed and must continue to provide for her family and pay the mortgage so she plants cotton with the help of some friends.
Murphy's Romance (1985)
Steel Magnolias (1989) - Seriously, do I need to even explain why I included this?
Soapdish (1991) - In my opinion, one of the most underrated comedies ever.
Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)
Forrest Gump (1994) - She proved to us, life really is like a box of chocolates.
A Woman of Independent Means (1995) - A little known mini-series that I remember loving and shows her talent for portraying strong women.
Eye for an Eye (1996) - Everyone who knows me, knows I love a great psychological thriller and I loved seeing her in one.  Sally Field kicked Kiefer Sutherland's ass in this one.
From the Earth to the Moon (1998)
Where the Heart Is (2000) - A small, but pivotal role that she nailed.
ER (2000-2006) - Won the 2nd of her 3 Emmys for her 12-episode role as Maggie, mother to Maura Tierney's Abby Lockhart character suffering from bipolar disorder.
Brothers and Sisters (2006-2011) - Oh my, oh my, oh my, what can I say about the great television matriarch that was Nora Walker?  I absolutely loved this show, oh hell, I still love this show.  It is one of the few television shows in my DVD arsenal where not only do I own the entire season, I have watched them over and over again.  Her performances were hilarious at times and gut-wrenchingly sad at others and provided most of the kleenex-worthy scenes as, which my friend Amy says, proves Sally Field is one of the best criers on any size screen.  The funny thing was, when the show premiered, it was being billed as Calista Flockhart's return to television but then, everyone saw the cinematic icon out acting all the "brothers and sisters" of the show and that earned her a third Emmy award.
The Amazing Spider Man (2012) - One of the only good things about this stinker.
Lincoln (2012) - see my review.

It's hard to believe but it has been 47 years since she burst onto the scene with Gidget, and still even now in 2012, she starred in two of the most anticipated and bankable movies of the year.  Also, of course, I see a definite nomination for many awards for Lincoln.  I still have this secret dream that I will share with you now that when my autobiography is written and the movie is made, she will play my mom because seriously, they could be sisters.  It is scary how much they look alike.  So ready for your next role Aunt Sally.

Thank you and see you at the next blog.

Lincoln

**Now nominated for the 2012 Best Picture Academy Award.**

Of course, 4 STARS!


"I have yet to see a performance in 2012 that could come close to rivaling Daniel Day-Lewis'  triumphant portrayal of our 16th President."


History buffs rejoice!  It's as if the first news footage of Abraham Lincoln was found and put onto the big screen, it is that real.  We are now able to see him as a real person and not just the stellar man we've only read in history books.  From the first scene and we the audience see Day-Lewis' face, portraying a man who has been commander-in-chief of the United States during 4 years of war, you would have to be blind to not see the almost haunting exhaustion of having the weight of the entire country on the shoulders of his tall, slender frame.

Lincoln is directed by the great Steven Spielberg and from the first moment I heard this movie was even being considered, I wanted to see it.  The film begins in 1865 in the final months of the American Civil War and focuses on the already stressed President trying to get the 13th amendment past, which was the amendment that would end slavery in America.  It is literally a race against time to get the amendment passed because it has to happen before the war ends, all the while Lincoln is battling his own fight with many members of his Cabinet over freeing the slaves.  The tension builds and builds on this man throughout the whole film with his troubled wife by his side (played beautifully by Sally Field) and his whiny eldest son Robert (Joseph Gordon-Levitt).  Truly, the only happiness comes from his youngest son, the rambunctious Tad (portrayed in a stellar breakout performance by Gulliver McGrath).

There really isn't much more I can say about Daniel Day-Lewis' performance.  It is simply a tour-de-force in acting, emotion, and proof of what one actor can achieve in his craft.  Sally Field had to fight tooth and nail with Spielberg to play the immensely unstable Mary Todd Lincoln, mostly because he didn't think she could pull it off because of her age; Field is 10 years older than Daniel Day-Lewis and 20 years older than Mary Todd Lincoln was at the time the film is set.  Well, this critic is thankful her persistence payed off.  She put forth all the emotion (and then some) needed to play the famously over emotional first lady, who would later be committed by her eldest son Robert.  Speaking of that son, Joseph Gordon-Levitt was definitely an interesting choice in casting, however he executed his performance flawlessly.  Also, speaking of casting, I loved the great Hal Holbrook being in this movie.  He won an Emmy playing Lincoln in a 1974 television mini-series and also in the sweeping and epic television mini-series North and South (1985), still one of my favorite movies of all time even though it was on television.

The screenplay was the other flawless feature of this movie. The dialog was so engaging, dramatic, emotional, and yes, even at times funny.  Everyone in the theater laughed many times, including my friend and I.  Lincoln was written by Tony Kushner, who also penned the incredible Munich.  The attention to detail was nothing short of amazing.  When he was writing this meaty drama, Kushner was obviously trying to humanize this man of history and the other characters and not make it all so serious all the time.  Lincoln is going to play on all of the viewers' emotions.  It is 150 minutes of darkness, dread, blood, sweat, tears, tension, and yes, even a few laughs.  This film is proof that this icon of history we've been reading about our whole lives, did in fact exist, and was great without hunting all the vampires.

Thank you and see you at the next blog.

Sinister

3 STARS



So, there are some creepy horror movies made these days after all. I know we have all been disappointed with the state of the horror movie lately.  Even the awesome stereotypes of the past are being taken past their prime, way way back.  Then, of course, there are the remakes.  In the near future, there are remakes planned for The Evil Dead, Poltergeist, Carrie (which just released its trailer), Childs Play, Texas Chainsaw (yes, another one and this time in 3D), and so on and so forth.  In my opinion, there have been some good ones: The Amityville Horror (a remake I did enjoy), Paranormal Activity (1-3), Insidious, The Strangers.  I have to say I am looking forward to Carrie with -two great actresses starring in it:  Chloe Grace-Moretz and the always enchanting Julianne Moore.

Sinister stars Ethan Hawke as true crime writer Ellison Oswalt who had a bit of fame 10 years prior with a best selling book and is looking for his next great work.  Ellison likes to completely immerse himself into the stories he writes, often moving his family to the town where the particular crime occurred.   To investigate the disappearance of a young girl after the rest of her family is brutally murdered, Ellison moves his family to the town where the crime took place.  The girl's disappearance is one of the biggest unsolved crimes where and when Sinister takes place so he believes this will put his writing career back on top. After finding a box in the attic of his new house filled with old super 8 movies and an old projector, his life is turned upside down from a series of creepy supernatural events.

The word sinister is an adjective and is defined as "threatening or portending harm or evil."  I can say that there is plenty of that in this movie. I actually found myself jumping at a few scenes which is definitely a rare occurrence these days especially with the "horror" movies coming out now.  Another aspect of this film I liked was that it didn't take an hour for the story to get going (for example The Possession), it pretty much started within the first frame.  It has a steady eerie flow which I believe will and does keep the audience interested.  Ethan Hawke, who I consider a fine actor, portrayed his tortured novelist character in awesome form with just the right amount of intensity, which in regard to Sinister, a great amount was needed.  This is a solid horror movie in my opinion.  I mean, don't get me wrong, this film should not scare the complete bejeeses out of you, but it is enjoyable nonetheless.  Just keep the sinister feelings you may be experiencing after watching the movie to yourself.

Thank you and see you at the next blog.

Looper

 3 1/2 STARS
 

This evening I saw a movie that surprised me and I was proved wrong.  I will be the first to admit, I have never been a fan of the science-fiction, futuristic time-traveling genre.  I don't know why really, it is just a storyline that never really blew my skirt up.  It is the same with those, what me and some of my friends call, mindf#$&@ movies like Inception, which was a fine movie, it filled the void for a couple of hours one night in a movie theater, but I have no desire to make it a part of my DVD collection and watch it over and over again.  I did love the special effects though.

Today I saw Looper, which of course stars Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt (see previous blog for entertainer profile), and Emily Blunt (The Devil Wears Prada).  I went into this movie with low expectations because of the futuristic storyline shown in the trailer, even with such a stellar cast.  However, a few friends said it was really good so I decided to give it a chance.  I am so glad I did.  Even with the time traveling, there really was very little science fiction.  The plot and the characters were real (well, as much as they can be in these movies), raw, and actually had depth and soul.  The movie does take a little time getting off the ground but once it does, it is interesting and intriguing.

Looper takes place in the year 2044 where there are assassins called loopers who kill people sent to them from 30 years in the future, when time travel is illegal, by the mob.  These loopers are of course, paid handsomely for their job.  However, every once in a while, loopers are involved in a situation called "closing the loop" when the person sent back in time to be killed is the older version of themselves and then they collect a final, larger sum of money and forced to retire.  This happens to a young looper named Joe (Gordon-Levitt) when Old Joe (Willis) arrives unexpectedly.  The rest of the movie is a cat and mouse chase to close the loop but also kill someone who will put the future in danger.

This movie was written and directed by Rian Johnson (The Brothers Bloom, Brick).  The dialogue wasn't cheesy at all.  It didn't dwell on all the futuristic crap with conversations that utterly confuse the audience.  I not only could follow this futuristic thriller, I wanted to keep following it all the way through.  Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt were awesome and the scene where they are talking face to face is an awe-inspiring act of writing.  The makeup used to make Gordon-Levitt look more like a young Bruce Willis was a primo example of how much detail the makers of this film focused on to make this as believable as possible.  However, his face was a little odd looking and the staring I was doing forced me to look away from the movie more than I should have.  I did read that he studied Bruce Willis mannerisms by watching his films to help him act more like and if you watch closely, you can totally see them in his face.  It also shows the lengths this great actor will go through to master his roles as much as possible.  The stand out in this movie was the lovely Emily Blunt, who was not prim and proper in the least.  She portrays Sara, a single mom running the farm young Joe comes upon because of a map stolen from Old Joe.  She is tough as nails, wielding a Remington like a pro, yet just the right amount of vulnerability when exactly as needed.  This character would probably drown other characters Blunt has portrayed in the past, like her breakout in The Devil Wears Prada, without any remorse.  I was so pleasantly surprised she could play someone so real who could wield a shot gun and an ax.  This movie also brings out a dark and wicked side of Jeff Daniels rarely seen.

I can definitely say go over to the movies and take a chance on this futuristic thrill ride.  It's a strong, original plot like, which all of you know I am really into these days.  You will not be disappointed and if you are, then try not to go back in time to fix the problem, you might get whacked for it.

Thank you and see you at the next blog.