Movie Review - The Keeping Room

The Keeping Room (2015)

Starring Brit Marling, Hailee Steinfeld, Muna Otaru, Kyle Soller, and Sam Worthington

Directed by Daniel Barber

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

As the Civil War is nearing its end, three women -- two sisters Augusta and Louise (Brit Maling and Hailee Steinfeld) and their slave Mad (Muna Otaru) -- find themselves surviving, but struggling to keep their small family estate alive and well after they receive word that their father has been killed in the war.  Things take a turn for the worse when two Union soldiers (Sam Worthington and Kyle Soller) break away from their regiment and head out on a vigilante rampage, running rampant across the countryside killing, raping, and looting.  When the soldiers attempt to ransack Augusta and Louise's property, the three women won't back down, doing all they can to stop the two men from succeeding in their vicious aspirations.

The Keeping Room opens with a heartbreakingly, grippingly violent opening scene that sets the tone for what is to come and while director Daniel Barber and debut screenwriter Julia Hart's film can't quite live up to the power that occurs during those initial moments, there's an interesting premise here even if it isn't always executed to its fullest potential.  Ultimately, The Keeping Room is a little too filled with silences and three ladies staring off into the countryside to really maintain its momentum, but at its crux this tells a story from a unique perspective that isn't often seen.

It's a bit unfortunate, as well, that its trio of ladies is a little uneven in terms of fully embodying the grit and determination needed for their characters.  Most successful is Muna Otaru in her first starring film role, but part of her ability to shine lies in some nice monologues concerning slavery that aren't particularly afforded the other women.  Least successful is Hailee Steinfeld whom I often like, but here she never quite grasps the Southern drawl (a little surprising seeing as how she was great in True Grit) and her Louise is the least fleshed out of all the characters.  Similarly, Brit Marling seems to waver in her accent as well, but Marling always has me wavering myself as to whether I like her or find her disappointing as an actress.  There's something natural about her that I appreciate, but sometimes when she's asked to really emote, I'm left feeling empty -- that doesn't just apply for this movie, but for many I've seen her in.  Somehow, though, Marling is captivating as the lead so she continues to befuddle me a bit.

With a little more experience behind the camera (this is only director Barber's second film) and on the screenplay, The Keeping Room had the potential of being something truly special.  While it unfortunately doesn't quite excel, it still works as a film, giving us a believable story from a perspective that feels original.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - I Origins

I Origins (2014)

Starring Michael Pitt, Steven Yeun, Astrid Bergès-Frisbey, and Brit Marling

Directed by Mike Cahill

I admired director-screenwriter Mike Cahill's debut film Another Earth for being "different," taking a tale of grief and suffering and adding a sci-fi twist to it, but in the end, I found the feature lacking a bit in execution with its low budget unfortunately rearing its ugly head.  I Origins follows a very similar road of telling a story about grief and suffering with a sci-fi twist, but fares a little bit better thanks to a bit bigger budget and characters that feel more well-rounded.

Lately, I feel as if I've written about many movies that feel like two different films squished into one and I Origins is no exception.  When the film opens, molecular biologist Ian (Michael Pitt) and his grad student lab partner Karen (Brit Marling) are attempting to essentially create an eye for an animal that has no vision.  Through a series of (fortuitous?  fated?  random?) events one afternoon, Ian, who has always been fascinated with eyes since he was a young child, comes across a billboard of simply the eyes of a French woman named Sofi (Astrid Bergès-Frisbey) with whom he spent an interesting night at a party.  Ian eventually finds Sofi again and falls madly in love with her and the two decide to get married.  On their elopement day, Karen gives Ian the fantastic news that she has found an earthworm that holds all the DNA necessary to "make" an eye, but doesn't currently have vision as one of its senses.  This discovery is the major stepping stone for all of Ian's work and he finds it necessary to cut his wedding day short to head to the lab.  This decision changes his life forever.

And unfortunately, it's incredibly difficult to talk about the rest of the film -- the better part of the film -- without spoiling things too much.  Needless to say, Ian's life takes a strange turn after that day with his success in the lab leading him down a path of both scientific and self-discovery that I found moderately fascinating.

The one thing that Mike Cahill's two films so far have going for them is this sense of intelligence brooding out of them.  You don't need to be a rocket scientist to understand what's going on in the slightest, but he doesn't necessarily dumb things down to a point where a general audience would find his flicks palatable...and I like that about Cahill.  Here, science is absolutely in the forefront and what's even more intriguing is how Cahill integrates the battle between science and religion into the picture.  This is always a dichotomy that is a tricky one to embrace without upsetting either side and I think the director/screenwriter succeeds quite well.

Michael Pitt carries the film, but definitely comes alive in the second half -- along with everyone else, for that matter.  As we're watching, we know that the first half is leading up to something major, but it just takes a little too long to get there.  Fortunately, once we're there, it's worth the wait as I was quite captivated by the unique nature of the piece.  Much like Another Earth, I Origins will not be for everyone's tastes, but it may be worth a try if you're in the mood for something a bit thought-provoking and not so run-of-the-mill.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - The Company You Keep

The Company You Keep (2013)

Starring Robert Redford, Shia LaBeouf, Julie Christie, Susan Sarandon, Nick Nolte, Chris Cooper, Terrence Howard, Stanley Tucci, Richard Jenkins, Anna Kendrick, Brendan Gleeson, Brit Marling, Sam Elliott, Stephen Root, and Jackie Evancho 

Directed by Robert Redford

Just take a look at that talent listed above -- that's a helluva lot of names, most of whom are known for giving good performances.  Robert Redford's film The Company You Keep (culled from a script by Lem Dobbs) plays like a novel, introducing each of these actors for a chapter and then having them disappear.  This episodic nature proves very tedious about halfway through once we realize what's going on.  It fails to allow us to connect to anyone...then again, I'm not sure we really want to connect with any of these people.

The film opens with a brief flashback in newsreel/news footage form about a series of protests in the 1960/70s by a homegrown American "terrorist" group known as the Weather Underground -- a real-life "activist" group that bombed government buildings and banks as public demonstrations to gain notoriety in an attempt to overthrow the US government for what they perceived as wrongdoings during the Vietnam era.  The last blip of the flashback tells us about a 1980 bank robbery in which a civilian was killed and how the three people responsible are still at large.

Cut to present time and Sharon Solarz (Susan Sarandon) is arrested when buying gas at a convenience store in New York.  Solarz was one a Weather Underground member and one of the three people responsible for that ill-fated bank robbery that resulted in a death.  She had lived her life -- got married, had kids -- but the guilt of that day always stayed with her and Solarz, a Vermont resident, specifically crossed the New York state border to buy gas in order to get arrested and turn herself in.  This sets the FBI on a hunt for Solarz's colleagues in the crime, while also piquing the interest of Ben Shepard (Shia LaBeouf), a young reporter at the local Albany newspaper.  Shepard ends up discovering more than the FBI (which doesn't sit too well with the FBI chief played by Terrence Howard) when he uncovers the fact that a local lawyer named Jim Grant (Robert Redford) is actually Nick Sloan, a presumed dead Weather Underground member suspected of taking part in the murder at the bank in 1980.  When Shepard confronts Grant about this, Grant immediately grows suspicious that the FBI will soon be on his tail and he sets off across the country trying to evade the FBI, while also trying to clear his name.

While the premise above is actually interesting that all takes place in the film's opening thirty minutes after which things quickly fall apart, digressing into scenes in which Redford's character meets up an old, hardened former Weather Underground member who then gets tracked down by the FBI just as Grant manages to make an escape.  This seriously happens four or five times and maybe it could've worked if any of these scenes ended up being anything other than two old people reminiscing about how shitty the government's treatment of the less fortunate is.  (Of course, the majority of these old fogies are now living in expensive houses, sailing yachts, or working at prestigious universities...so their sympathetic allegiance with the poor feels disingenuous...then again, that's the good old liberal mindset, ain't it?)

There are a couple of decent performances here -- LaBeouf is strong as the go-getting reporter, Sarandon makes the most of her small role with a particularly good scene in which she explains her actions -- but the typically strong cast isn't given much to work with and Redford doesn't really pull great performances from their small parts.  For someone who was a supposed sex symbol and movie star back in the day, Redford himself is uncharismatic and particularly bland here which is a disappointment considering he and LaBeouf are the only two actors who we see throughout the entire film.  The Company You Keep may very well have the most prestigious cast assembled for a 2013 film, but despite the high quality of actors, Robert Redford's film just meanders along for two hours failing to be anything more exciting than a game of "Which Celebrity Will Appear Next?"

The RyMickey Rating:  C- 

Movie Review - The East

The East (2013)

Starring Brit Marling, Alexander Scarsgård, Ellen Page, Patricia Clarkson, Jason Ritter, and Julia Ormand

Directed by Zal Batmanglij

My conservative mindset certainly doesn't necessarily sympathize with the ecological terror group known as The East who take it upon themselves to secretly invade the homes and offices of big businesses and cause great harm to those whom they believe are corrupting the American people and the US soil on which they live.  However, director Zal Batmanglij and his co-writer Brit Marling give us a lead character in Sarah (also played by Marling) who, upon infiltrating the group as part of her job, questions The East's integrity particularly as the anarchist collective revs up their attacks, elevating them to more serious and possibly deadly retribution events.  Through the character of Sarah, a former FBI agent now working for an elite private intelligence firm, the audience at least gets a modicum of moral questioning of the group who aren't quite given a free pass.

Admittedly (and anyone who disagrees with this just doesn't want to face the facts), The East certainly portrays its titular group as the more morally correct figures here.  The group's leader Benji (Alexander Scarsgård) is romanticized by both the lens and the character of Sarah herself.  However, the film doesn't necessarily let the members of The East get off scott free -- and they absolutely shouldn't considering some of the truly terroristic acts they inflict on others.

Brit Marling has been on my list of impressive up-and-coming actresses ever since her turn in 2011's Another Earth and she continued to showcase her talents in the fantastic and underseen Arbitrage (which is streaming on Netflix...so watch it).  It's obvious Marling is a smart cookie -- she co-wrote both Another Earth and this film, both movies that don't dumb down anything for their viewers -- and I love that she imbues her characters with the same intelligence she must carry with herself in real life.

However, once you move behind Marling's Sarah, the film doesn't give its other characters as much depth as they probably should have.  It also doesn't help that the film flounders a bit in its epilogue-like final fifteen minutes.  There's part of me that feels the film cops out a little bit and then there's another part of me that realizes it was really the only way the writers could've ended it without alienating one side or another of the political spectrum.  But then I ask myself, when has alienating one side of the political spectrum stopped Hollywood before?

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

Movie Review - Arbitrage

Arbitrage (2012)

Starring Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, Tim Roth, Brit Marling, Laetitia Costa, and Nate Parker 

Directed by Nicholas Jarecki

Arbitrage is a taut, smart character study about how a single poor decision can balloon into something that can potentially ruin a man, his family, and his business.  Richard Gere is Robert Miller, a New York businessman who manages a seemingly successful hedge fund.  At age sixty, he's looking to step away from the daily rigors of the job and has found a wealthy man willing to buy his business.  However, despite outwardly appearing to be a great business and family man, Robert has secrets in both facets of his life that may very well lead to his downfall.

Rather than go into greater detail with the story, I'd much rather you experience Arbitrage without much knowledge about its plot.  I knew very little about the film except that Richard Gere played a businessman in trouble and I think that my naivete enhanced the viewing experience.  Nicholas Jarecki who both helmed and wrote the film does a really nice job in crafting a well-balanced story and a rich-looking film.  Considering that Jarecki's only other feature film credit was the heinously awful The Informers, I'm shocked that this tale came from his pen as it's a near 180-degree turnaround in terms of quality and overall story.

Jarecki manages to get a fantastic performance out of Richard Gere who was probably within shooting distance of snagging an Oscar nomination this year if his Golden Globe nomination for this film was any indication.  He's really very good here as a flawed guy who's made many bad decisions -- both personal and business-oriented -- and who thought he'd never have to deal with the consequences of his actions.  When he's forced to face his fraudulent actions in all aspects of his life, this man who's had everything handed to him for years finds himself in a downward spiral.

Gere is matched by some very nice turns from Susan Sarandon (who's been slumming it lately I feel in a Liam Neeson "I'll take any role" kind of way) as Robert's wife and Nate Parker as the son of one of Robert's former business partners who helps him when things begin to get rough.  The best supporting turn in the film comes from Brit Marling as Robert's daughter Brooke who is the Chief Financial Officer of her father's business.  When Brooke discovers her father's disappointing actions, she's forced to decide whether blood is thick enough to forgive, and it sets up a very interesting, conflicting, and surprisingly complex decision for a supporting character.

Arbitrage is the kind of movie Alfred Hitchcock would be making were he still around today.  Granted, Hitch liked to craft movies around innocent guys framed for horrible actions a lot of the time and Robert Miller here is fully aware of his poor actions.  However, this is a film that exudes that Hitchcock level of intelligence and character development and it's an underseen flick that I highly recommend.

The RyMickey Rating:  B+

Movie Review - Another Earth

Another Earth (2011)

Starring Brit Marling and William Mapother

Directed by Mike Cahill

I don't really have a whole lot either good or bad to say about Another Earth which unfortunately causes it to languish in the middle-of-the-road which isn't exactly a great place to be.  A mix of a science fiction and character study, Another Earth takes place in the present (I'd assume) as a mirror image of planet Earth has taken residence in our sky.  The planet not only has landscape features similar to ours, but also contains duplicates of every single person on our Earth.  Obviously, this causes quite a stir with many folks, including young twenty-something Rhoda Williams (Brit Marling) who enters a contest in order to fly to what is not-so-cleverly monikered Earth 2.  

Rhoda longs to escape her world because she hasn't exactly had a past that fills her with pride.  When she was 17, she was involved in a horrible car crash in which she hit Yale music professor John Burrough's (William Mapother) vehicle, killing his wife and young child.  This sends John into a horrible depression which he still hasn't come out of four years later as Rhoda is released from prison.  When Rhoda realizes that John is still living in her town, she decides to visit him and apologize for all the pain she has caused him.  However, Rhoda's brave attempt doesn't work as she can't quite muster the nerve to tell him who she really is and instead pretends to be a cleaning woman.  As she visits him week after week, an odd relationship develops with Rhoda's secret always looming over her.

The premise, though far-fetched, sounds very good, but it lacks a bit in execution.  Unfortunately, I think the problem lies in part in the indie feel -- the lack of production money perhaps hurt this film a tad on the science fiction front.  It doesn't help that Brit Marling and Mike Cahill's screenplay is peppered with both a few too many scenes of Rhoda moping around her house and a ridiculous subplot involving a blind Indian custodian who "teaches" Rhoda how to be a better woman.  There's really never a point of respite from the grief and the constant heavyhanded nature isn't all that enjoyable to sit through even for only ninety minutes.

Also, while I enjoyed Brit Marling's performance as Rhoda, I never thought William Mapother brought anything to his character.  Granted, I think the script didn't help him any by sticking him with a rather one-notish demeanor -- cranky, depressed man -- for the first sixty minutes, but I shouldn't have been laughing like I was at his portrayal of a crotchety guy.

Still, despite the faults, I admire Another Earth for at least being a little bit different.  It takes a tale about grief and suffering and adds enough of a twist (and an interesting "hopefulness" thanks to Earth 2) that makes it intriguing.  Add a great final moment (somewhat similar to one of my other favorite endings this year from the little-seen-film Last Night) and there are reasons to give this one a shot.  While it'll likely end up with the very same "middle-of-the-road" feeling for you as it did for me, it's still an okay flick if you're looking for something a bit different. 

The RyMickey Rating:  C