Movie Review - Snowden

Snowden (2016)

Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Shailene Woodley, Rhys Ifans, Melissa Leo, Zachary Quinto, Tom Wilkinson, Scott Eastwood, Timothy Olyphant, Lakeith Stanfield, Joely Richardson, and Nicolas Cage

Directed by Oliver Stone

I think it's admittedly a little difficult to come to the Oliver Stone-directed Snowden without having some outside feelings towards the title character.  Was Edward Snowden an American traitor or a hero?  This film undoubtedly takes the latter stance with Snowden being treated in an almost saint-like manner at times.  The lack of a balanced look at the polarizing figure is slightly disappointing, but looking beyond that, Snowden is a surprisingly engaging and well-made film that kept my attention throughout and provides a good glimpse (albeit a surface one) at one of America's biggest political events of the new century.

Told within a framing device of his interview with documentarian Laura Poitrus (Melissa Leo) whose film Citizenfour brought his story to even more masses, the film opens in 2013 with Edward Snowden (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) taking a huge leap and deciding to release private information he possesses that states that the United States government is spying on all Americans via their cell phones and computers.  The release of this information will undoubtedly cause him to be called a traitor, but after nearly ten years working in various government agencies including the NSA and CIA, Snowden feels that his findings should be made public.  The film then flashes back to the decade-younger Snowden as he gets his first job in Washington, D.C., and he meets his significant other Lindsay (Shailene Woodley).  Praised everywhere for his expertise in computers and coding, Snowden goes from job to job within the government, learning bits and pieces about how post-9/11 it was decided that -- for the safety and well-being of the country -- certain privacy laws would be lessened at certain times.

Frankly, no one is more surprised than me that this nearly two-and-a-half hour movie based on politics kept my attention, but kudos to Oliver Stone (who also co-wrote the film) for keeping the film moving at a solid pace and to Joseph Gordon-Levitt for his solid portrayal of the title character.  While Snowden himself is treated with kid gloves and saint-like (there's a particular moment towards the film's conclusion where a resolute and determined Snowden walks out of a dark bunker with a halo of glorious light surrounding him as soaring music swells in the background), I give props to Stone for depicting both the Bush and Obama administration with equal amounts of distrust.  Somehow, though, even though I liked the film, I can't find myself overly praising a whole lot about it and that's due in large part to the depiction of Snowden as too much of a do-gooder.  It doesn't help that during the film's conclusion, Stone has the real Edward Snowden literally "take the place" of Gordon-Levitt, putting the real figure into the spotlight in a way that detracts from the film in a distracting manner.  The politically-driven Stone had every right to create the film he wanted to create, but the lack of a critical eye towards the title character hurts the film a bit in the end and makes it difficult to praise its more-than-adequate cinematic craftwork.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - Serena

Serena (2015)

Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Rhys Ifans, David Dencik, and Toby Jones

Directed by Susanne Bier

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

A bit of a countrified film noir, Serena is the tale of timber empire head George Pemberton (Bradley Cooper) whose success in the 1929 Smoky Mountains has led to a rather prosperous community amongst his workers. Upon a visit to the more cultured big city, George meets Serena (Jennifer Lawrence), immediately falls for her, and marries her right away.  With her family having worked in timber, Serena steps up and begins to take charge which doesn't sit too well with some of the workers.  While George accepts and is actually quite pleased with his wife's demeanor and candor in his workplace, he also discovers that she has an awful jealous streak and that she may be a bit more conniving than he ever imagined.

Serena stars two big name celebrities, yet found itself sitting on the shelf for quite a while, finally getting a very limited release in early 2015.  That's oftentimes a death knell for films and while Serena isn't horrible, it's got a myriad of issues that is never quite succeeds in overcoming.  While Cooper and Lawrence are fine (and they actually have some nice moments individually), their chemistry is a little lacking, but there's part of me that wonders if that's the fault of the film's editing which is quite muddled.  There's a tendency for director Susanne Bier and her editor to linger on shots longer than is really necessary, creating an odd tone and timing throughout the piece.  In addition, the character of Serena herself is so quickly introduced and placed front and center that she fails to really resonate with the audience.  Lawrence attempts at giving a well-rounded performance, but the motivations of the character feel slight, forced, and disappointingly fleshed out.  By the time the film takes on the more noirish tone in its final act, Serena feels as if it hasn't earned that tone thanks to the way the editing and characters have played out prior.

There's no doubt that you could fare worse than Serena and I could understand the allure of wanting to watch it because of the film's two stars, but don't say I didn't warn you about the lackluster nature of the piece.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

Movie Review - The Amazing Spider-Man

The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)

Starring Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Denis Leary, Irrfan Khan, Sally Field, and Martin Sheen

Directed by Marc Webb

Despite better direction of the film's quieter moments and much more talent in the acting department across the board than the 2002 version of nearly the exact same tale, The Amazing Spider-Man is a movie that I watch and can't fathom why it was made.  The Tobey Maguire-Kirsten Dunst origin tale of this masked crusader has not aged well in my book, but we're only a decade removed from the first of that trilogy and only five years from its finale, and this film comes much too soon on those heels to tell this story again. 

You all know the tale -- Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) gets bit by a spider while touring the labs of Curt Conners (Rhys Ifans) and turns into this spider/human melding who decides to fight crime after his uncle (Martin Sheen) is murdered in a horrible random crime.  Sure, in this version, Peter falls for the smart Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) instead of Mary Jane, but that makes little difference in the grand scheme of things.  Granted, that's not the only minor difference -- Curt Connors turns into a giant lizard as opposed to Norman Osborn turning into the Green Goblin, there's no J. Jonah Jameson as the kooky editor of The Daily Bugle -- but we're looking at essentially the same plot.

With the exception of the special effects (which are admittedly important in a film like this and prove to be a bit to fake-looking for my liking), everything about this 2012 version of the Spider-Man origin tale is better than the former...which is why it's even more of a shame that the former exists.  Overall, I think the Spider-Man origin story is too silly to craft a film as dark and intense as the recent Batman trilogy, but at least this movie abandons the almost cartoonish look of the original Sam Raimi-directed films.  However, during the film's special effects-heavy scenes, there are moments that prove to be almost laughable in terms of how poorly they are conceived.  However, I felt very much the same about the effects in the original trilogy so I think it's just impossible to make a man look real as he flies through the New York skyline with the help of spiderwebs.

Still, credit must be given to Andrew Garfield whose Peter Parker is less wide-eyed and dumbfounded than Mr. Maguire upon his discovery of his newfound powers.  Garfield delves a bit emotionally darker which is a welcome addition.  Similarly, Emma Stone isn't given much to do, but provides a more believable love interest than Ms. Dunst despite the infamous upside-down kissing scene in the older trilogy.  Stone is a stronger chick (I don't know if that's due to her different character or if that's just Stone's overall persona) and she also screeches and screams nary a once and, if I remember correctly, there was a lot of whiny eeking by Dunst in her film's finale.  There are also some very nice smaller turns from Martin Sheen, Sally Field, and Denis Leary.

The Amazing Spider-Man would not have been a perfect movie even if the earlier version of Spider-Man hadn't existed.  However, because the story is so darn familiar, the whole thing feels like it's always lagging as the audience longs for something they haven't seen before.  And unfortunately, there's nothing new here.  That being said, if you've never seen the Sam Raimi-directed original films, don't start there.  Go with this new version and you'll likely give it a much higher rating than I did below.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - The Five-Year Engagement

The Five-Year Engagement (2012)

Starring Jason Segel, Emily Blunt, Chris Pratt, Alison Brie, Rhys Ifans, Mindy Kaling, Mimi Kennedy, David Paymer, Jacki Weaver, and Kevin Hart

Directed by Nicholas Stoller

I don't understand why comedies in this new century can't seem to find the money to pay for an editor.  I think Judd Apatow single-handedly harmed the genre in the last eight years or so with his inability to make the necessary trims to create a properly paced laugher.  It should come as no surprise that Mr. Apatow produced The Five-Year Engagement, yet another one of his films to clock in unnecessarily at over two hours.  It's a bummer, too, because the film is pretty goshdarn charming.  Yes, it's an R-rated flick and has its moments of raunch, but there's some serious heart here and the comedy stems naturally from those realistic and sometimes touching moments (which, I'll admit, is the one thing Apatow does really well).  And yet the producers and co-writer/director Nicholas Stoller make me have to knock this down a few notches because it just doesn't know how to move things along.

Co-writer and Muppet lover Jason Segel is Tom who meets the lovely Violet (Emily Blunt) at a New Years' Eve costume party.  After dating a year, Tom pops the question to Violet who immediately accepts and the two begin the process of planning their wedding.  A few unforeseen circumstances present a few roadblocks, the biggest of which is Violet's acceptance into the University of Michigan's graduate program for psychology.  Tom, who has a great job as a chef in their current home city San Francisco, agrees to move with Violet for the two years it will take for her to complete the program.  Two years, however, turns into a bit more and Tom finds himself wallowing in disappointment unable to find ways to better himself and his career in the small 'burbs of Michigan.  While they don't call off the wedding, their planning for the event shifts to the wayside as Violet's schooling takes precedence.

Part of the film's problem, however, is that the time spent in Michigan could have been condensed by at least thirty minutes, if not a little more.  While I enjoyed the many (many) side characters that the writers introduced, they were completely unnecessary and literally did nothing to advance the plot.  At a certain point, the scissors need to come out and the trimming needs to be made, but this is the whole Apatow attitude and mindset and it's why I've really never found myself loving many of the films he's had his hands in (Step Brothers and Bridesmaids being two notable exceptions).

Segel and Blunt (whom I admittedly find incredibly charming and attractive) work very well together which for some reason surprised me.  Perhaps it was wrong of me to think the two actors wouldn't connect at all, but they proved to have nice chemistry.  Alison Brie and Chris Pratt are also given sizable supporting roles as Violet's sister and Tom's friend, respectively, who meet at Tom and Violet's engagement party and end up marrying each other soon after.  Both known best for their work on NBC sitcoms, Brie and Pratt were certainly nice additions to the cast.  And the rest of the supporting cast is also fairly top notch, but unfortunately most of them, as mentioned above, just didn't need to be in the movie.

I really wanted to give this movie a better rating.  There were moments while watching it where I thought this was quite possibly the best movie I had seen so far in 2012 (it's been a really weak year thus far).  And then the second hour hits and the film bogs itself down with extra characters and a more dramatic tone and it loses me.  Granted, it didn't lose me completely -- there's still much about this film to enjoy -- but it makes me wonder whether I should head out to Hollywood for an editing job.  There must be positions open since films like this don't seem to utilize that role to its fullest potential.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - Anonymous

Anonymous (2011)

Starring Rhys Ifans, Vanessa Redgrave, Joely Richardson, Sebastian Arnesto, Rafe Spall, David Thewlis, Edward Hogg, Jamie Campbell Bower, and Derek Jacobi

Directed by Roland Emmerich

I am by no means a Shakespeare connoisseur, but I do have a certain fondness for the Bard.  My final English class in college was a seminar on Shakespeare, his history plays, and how history has regarded him the centuries have passed.  We also briefly touched upon the notion that there is an underlying movement in England (and around the world) to prove that William Shakespeare did not, in fact, pen the plays that he is so well known for writing.  This subculture is explored in Roland Emmerich's Anonymous which twists history around and attempts to show how it could very well have been possible for Shakespeare to have just been a front for another man's work.

That other man in Anonymous is Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford (played rather well and almost unrecognizably against type by Rhys Ifans whom I particularly know for his comedic work).  Although it seems rather laughable, de Vere is forced to write in secret, having grown up in a puritanical home and forced to marry the daughter of one of Queen Elizabeth's most trusted advisors.  Desiring to see his plays presented on the stage, de Vere first presents them anonymously, but then discovers that the public needs a face to put behind the page.  He initially attempts to woo aspiring writer Ben Johnson (Sebastian Arnesto), but through the stroke of fate, an actor named William Shakespeare (Rafe Spall) takes credit and begins to pretend to be the writer of the fantastic canon of literature.

Had the movie solely focused on this aspect, I can't help but think I would have enjoyed the proceedings much more.  However, the crux of the movie lies not in this trickery being put upon the British public by de Vere and Shakespeare, but instead fixates on the political intrigue behind the succession of Queen Elizabeth I (Vanessa Redgrave as the elder Queen and Joely Richardson in flashbacks).  Admittedly, I zoned out multiple times so I can't even give a good description of what was happening except to say that de Vere's "adopted" father is involved in much of the "intrigue"...but I couldn't have cared less.

Clocking in at 130 minutes, Anonymous overstays its welcome by a good 45 minutes and had it dropped the mind-numbingly boring succession plot, it may have been a solid picture.  Performances are okay, but everyone lacks emotion and punch making the whole affair so solemn and austere that a coldness exudes throughout.  Roland Emmerich crafted a solid-looking film (apparently much of the sets were completed utilizing CGI technology which certainly fooled me), but a movie that lacks any type of emotional connection to anything it tries to present.

The RyMickey Rating:  D

Movie Review - Greenberg

Greenberg (2010)

Starring Ben Stiller, Greta Gerwig, and Rhys Ifans

Directed by Noah Baumbach

I'm not really a fan of movies where some narcissistic person tries to find themselves, hurting all their friends in the process, but becoming a better person by the end, and, thusly, is forgiven by said friends who turned him away.  

That's the story in a nutshell of Greenberg.  

Ben Stiller is the title character, Roger Greenberg.  Just released from a mental hospital, Roger is staying at his vacationing brother's house in California.  While there, Roger falls for his brother's assistant, Florence (Greta Gerwig), and they begin a tumultuous relationship in which Roger continually berates her but she keeps coming back to him because "he's got issues...he was in a mental hospital...it's not his fault."  Had the character of Florence been some floozy or down-on-her-luck gal, I could understand why she'd go back to him.  However, as played by the plain jane but very attractive Greta Gerwig, Florence is a woman who seems fairly sure of herself.  Granted, she recognizes that she has faults, but there's no reason why this girl would keep going back to the jerk that is Roger Greenberg.

Since this is a hip, indie movie, drugs come into play (because all those hipsters like to snort their coke and smoke their weed while downing a variety of pills) and instead of causing Roger to lose it even more, they help him realize what he's been missing in Florence.  Ugh.  The third act of this film tries to set up a magical awakening for Roger, but one never gets an idea that he has changed one bit.

The one positive thing to take away from Greenberg is that Greta Gerwig is actually quite good.  There was a genuineness about her that didn't seem forced or fake.  I wish the same could be said for Stiller who, in certain scenes, you could tell he was trying his hardest not to portray the spastic angry characters he's played before.

The RyMickey Rating: C-