All the Right Moves
January 19, 2016
Creed (2016).
D: Ryan Coogler. DP: Maryse Alberti. W: Ryan Coogler & Aaron Covington. Starring: Sylvester Stallone/Michael B. Jordan/Tessa Thompson/Phylicia Rashad/Tony Bellow.
Although over in America Creed has been out since Thanksgiving, here in the UK we have just gotten the film and in the nick of time for award season. The seventh film to center on Sylvester Stallone’s iconic Philadelphia boxer, Rocky Balboa, Creed breathes new life into series so ostensibly linked to its star. Having written and directed the thought-to-be final film in 2006, Rocky Balboa, sixty-nine year old Stallone was convinced to step into the ring once again. And no one should be disappointed.
Director Ryan Coogler and young star Michael B. Jordan first teamed up for the 2013 Sundance success Fruitvale Station. The film centers on the fatal story of Oscar Grant who was shot by police in the San Francisco metro station on New Years Eve 2008. By that point Jordan had already been in Josh Tank’s Chronicle and would go on to join Fantastic Four when Tank took on the franchise. His pairing with Coogler is evidently a creatively fruitful one as it’s clear throughout Creed that everyone was making the same Rocky movie. Coogler, who has yet to hit thirty, has already made a name for himself and will be taking the reigns of the new Black Panther film for Marvel.
Creed follows a similar trajectory of the 1976 original that Stallone wrote, cultivating its underdog to take on a fight where he is the sure fire loser. The film is therefore able to center its emotional worth on Stallone as the reluctant coach and Jordan as his famous opponent’s, Apollo Creed, bastard son. Living in the shadow of the name alone Jordan’s Adonis aka Donny searches for identity within a sport that killed his father. Jordan is a rare combination of focus, charm, and a dash of ego as Donny, but never lays it on thick. In the rare emotionally vulnerable scenes between the mentor and his charge their connection is truly touching and a brilliant exploration of masculine emotion and care. Stallone doesn’t preach too much and the gentleness he has always brought to Rocky is still there.
Creed recognizes its canon and Rocky’s world, but brings the focus of the boxing into the personal. Unlike lesser boxing turns like last year’s Southpaw, this film also shoots its boxing scenes not like their matches to be aired on television, but rather through the dynamic of trainer and boxer. French cinematographer, Maryse Alberti, who also shot 2008’s The Wrestler brings an intelligent touch to this athletic hyper masculine space. A running shot of Jordan down the street is quite memorable. Jordan’s romance with Bianca (Tessa Thompson) is allowed to breathe and build without the routine racial struggle apparent. Thompson has long been working since her days on UPN’s Veronica Mars and it’s great to see her shine and create a character that is not the usual generic sports girlfriend.
Creed is a hit on all accounts right down to its music. It is hard not to feel your heart lift and your hand itch to punch the air when Rocky’s music comes on. Hopefully you feel as I did that this movie was made with tremendous love for its star Stallone and not for the money. Funny what we can find when we listen to our hearts and not our pockets.
Look Through The Window
November 25, 2015
Room (2015).
D: Lenny Abrahamson. DP: Danny Cohen. W: Emma Donoghue. Starring: Brie Larson/Jacob Tremblay/Joan Allen/William H. Macy/Tom McCamus/Sean Bridgers. (NOTE: based on Donoghue’s book of the same name)
This year’s Oscar race will be a dense one in the best actress category. Between Saoirse Ronan’s performance in Brooklyn, Cate Blanchett’s performance in Carol, and this performance from Brie Larson it will be a competitive year. This is frankly, exciting! With television becoming the hot place for pithy and complex female roles it is great to see cinema stepping up again. Of course, all the leads are white actresses, but the racial imbalances of Hollywood deserves its own post (or you can simply look at The Hollywood Reporter‘s recent ridiculous justifications for this).
Room is based on Emma Donoghue’s novel with her also penning the screenplay. The novel is told from the perspective of five year old Jack, played in the film by Jacob Tremblay, as he lives in a singular room with his Ma (Larson). Naming all the things around him, he’s nurtured to believe this trap is all that exists. After his birthday Ma decides Jack is old enough to be told about the outside that lies beyond Room and the basic details of her kidnapping by Old Nick (Sean Bridgers). This leads to Ma and Jack’s escape plan for getting out of Room.
Donoghue’s script partially replicates this point of view as Jack provides voice-over, lending the audience to understand his wonder at the world and ignorance of it. As he climbs into the wardrobe to sleep and hide from Old Nick during his visits you feel the breath of the novel in the film. The snips and changes to the story work and the second chapter of the pair’s new life allows for great exploration of Ma’s mental state and family chemistry. Larson is given more to work with than the novel, which helps balance her adult trauma with her son’s.
Larson has been steadily working since she played Toni Collette’s daughter on the Showtime series United States of Tara created by Diablo Cody. Her starring role in the indie hit Short Term 12 was memorable and she’s been popping up in supporting roles in films like Trainwreck, Don Jon, and The Spectacular Now. Here she can truly shine handling Ma’s frustrations with her seclusion and repeated violations while also creating a safe space for Jack. Her generic looks allow Ma to remind you of any girl at university you might have known. Larson is all things at once, but with the pure subtly that allows the devastating circumstances of the story to ring true. She is well supported by Joan Allen who does a heart wrenching turn as Ma’s own mother.
I cannot rave enough about Tremblay as Jack who captures your attention from start to finish. He performs little and lives it all. A tracking shot over a truck as he attempts his escape will have you barely breathing for minutes. The camera aligns itself with Jack, not showing things his Ma shields him from. This works to build palpable tension and menace that director Lenny Abrahamson skilfully paces. Known for Frank and What Richard Did, he and cinematographer Danny Cohen build a sense of space and intimacy without merely using intense close-ups on their actors. Their atmosphere allows pain to live no matter the space it is confined to. The film is not trauma as spectacle, but rather as experience of character. Credit must also be give to Stephen Rennicks for the score, its placement lacks sentimentality only amplifying not indulging the emotional register of scenes.
Room has been on the festival circuit and will only reach UK cinemas at the end of January, but releases today in the US. A sure contender this award season it is simply a beautifully made film that joins the ranks of recent superb film adaptations. Hopefully the success of these lower budget films continues and we will see more films like this and less of the typical three act studio trauma sprawls of late.
A Stand Up Film
December 2, 2012
Silver Linings Playbook (2012).
D/W: David O. Russell. DP: Masanobu Takayanagi. Starring: Bradley Cooper/Jennifer Lawrence/Robert De Niro/Jacki Weaver/Chris Tucker/Julia Stiles/John Ortiz/Anupam Kher/Shea Whigham/Dash Mihok. (NOTE: Based on Matthew Quick’s 2008 novel of the same name.)
I won’t bore you with another trailer lamentation. With all the Oscar propaganda and holiday movie hub-bub I just can’t stomach it. Yet Silver Linings Playbook might just be the best of the year, and I almost opted out.
David O. Russell took 2010’s The Fighter and made it into the best film it probably could have been. Yet here, with his own project, a better sense of wholeness is felt. A liberation. Or maybe that’s just the byproduct of a very smart story.
Silver Linings Playbook gives Bradley Cooper (Limitless, Hangover) a decent opportunity to wipe that obnoxious grin off his face and get to acting. Cooper’s American bred handsomeness and borderline bonkers grin gives his Pat a disarming amount of charm. You can almost see the gears and hinges working in Cooper’s brain as his Pat must re-acclimate to life after his release from a psychiatric institution. Just as abruptly as his mother (Australian actress Jacki Weaver) picks up from the institution, the audience must immediately start to unpack his situation and his emotional suitcase.
Cooper and his obsessive compulsive father, played by Robert De Niro, attempt to navigate his situation and mental illness like ships that pass in the night. Eventually Cooper’s friendship with Jennifer Lawrence’s Tiffany (be still my 90s heart) gets the film going to where it should. What was muddled in The Hunger Games, is fully realized here. Lawrence’s Tiffany is scarred and self-destructive, but so deliciously so you’ll want to join in on her one person party. Lawrence gives Tiffany a nuanced amount of vulnerability and tough tail spunk. She not only spits to Cooper’s Pat that she’s a bit messy and is okay with it. But I feel it with her, right down to the final eyeliner stroke. And I like it.
The couple’s chemistry is the driving force of the film, allowing the family conflict to breathe and refrain from melodrama. Towards the end you might have the urge to ask, was this a romantic comedy I’ve been watching? Well, maybe, but you certainty didn’t feel it coming. And that is exactly what is so refreshing about Silver Linings Playbook. It does not candy coat stale tropes or confine drama to common conflict. Rather it marches you into a story that captures the heart of modern American life and puts it onscreen. These characters have problems, but that’s alright. Down crumbles the facade of Hollywood movie stardust. Just try not to sneeze.