The Sessions: Sex & Polio

The Sessions was a breakout hit at the Sundance Film Festival last year, winning the Audience Award and a Special Jury Prize for Best Ensemble Acting. Featuring two of the best acting performances of the year from John Hawkes and Helen Hunt, this is a movie that you may have missed in the theater, but should seek out immediately on DVD.

John Hawkes plays Mark O'Brien, a real-life journalist and poet from Berkeley, who was paralyzed from the neck down after contracting polio as a child. He spent most of his time in an iron lung to help him breathe, but with the support of his family was able to attend college and earn a living as a writer and poet. At the age of 38, after writing an article about sex and disability, he decided that he wanted to lose his virginity with the help of a sex surrogate. Enter Helen Hunt as Cheryl Cohen-Greene, a sex surrogate who makes it very clear from the outset that there is a clear difference between her job and that of a prostitute. The two of them can only meet for six sessions (ergo the movie's title), a finite amount of time that lends their relationship a bittersweet air of finality.

The movie's supporting cast includes the wonderful William H. Macy who plays Mark's priest. He initially struggles with the idea of condoning sex outside of marriage, but fortunately his brand of Christianity places compassion above all other virtues and he becomes one of Mark's closest confidantes and friends. Mark's "confessions" are hilarious scenes, with poor Father Brendan trying his best to be open-minded. Moon Bloodgood plays Vera, one of Mark's assistants who bolsters his confidence and gives him the encouragement he needs to continue these sessions with Cheryl.

The Sessions is funny, insightful, and moving. The fact that it is a true story makes it all the more incredible. Helen Hunt is deservedly nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar - her performance is nuanced and delicate, running a gamut of emotions as she becomes increasingly fond of Mark but is limited by the boundaries of her profession. John Hawkes is simply stunning and it is a travesty that he did not get a Best Actor nomination. According to interviews, the measures he took to physically transform his body to look like Mark O'Brien resulted in long-term spinal changes and the migration of some of his organs. If that isn't dedication to your craft, I don't know what is.

This year featured two great performances about characters with disabilities. John Hawkes is one, and the other is Marion Cotillard in Rust and Bone. Both actors were snubbed by the Academy Awards, yet on paper, their performances are considered a stereotypical shoo-in for an acting nomination. However, the truly remarkable aspect of these performances is that they are never defined by their disability. Cotillard showcased her character's initial depression over the loss of her legs, but then revealed her ability to move beyond that loss and live her life without reservations. Similarly, John Hawkes ensures that the main thing you remember about Mark is his wit and charm, how he could make everyone he met laugh. His personality is the most striking thing about him, not the fact that he's paralyzed. So might I suggest broadening your horizons beyond the scope of the Oscars and discovering all that The Sessions has to offer. 

Hitchcock: The Woman Behind the Man

Hitchcock follows the legendary director during the making of Psycho in 1959. Unlike the HBO biopic, The Girl, this movie is a somewhat lighter take on this controversial figure. More importantly, it offers an in-depth look at the role his wife, Alma Reville, played in the making of a Hitchcock movie.

It seems incredible now, but Psycho was never considered a sure thing. Based on a very graphic novel by Richard Bloch about the serial killer Ed Gein, Alfred Hitchcock was convinced that he could turn this tale into a great movie. When studios disagreed, he ended up financing the film himself and shooting it using the crew from his television program, Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Apart from depicting the movie's production, Hitchcock also focuses on a rocky patch in Alfred and Alma's marriage, with Alma becoming increasingly frustrated with Alfred's lecherous ways when working with Janet Leigh, and Alfred becoming increasingly concerned with Alma's association with Whitefield Cook, an old friend who wants Alma's help with a screenplay.

The movie makes it very clear that Alma was Hitchcock's right-hand woman. She was the only one who supported him when no one else thought Psycho could be a movie, even giving him complete license to mortgage their house to raise money for the production. She worked on script re-writes, convinced Hitch to use that infamous Bernard Herrmann score during the shower scene, and even took over production when Alfred was bedridden due to overwork. From beginning to end, she was an equal collaborator in the making of Psycho, and it is apparent that her taste and aesthetic played a large part in creating every Hitchcock movie.

Hitchcock features a fantastic performance by Anthony Hopkins, who completely inhabits the role. He has perfected Hitchcock's speech pattern, and his silhouette is eerily reminiscent of Hitchcock's peculiar posture and portly frame. Helen Mirren is marvelous as Alma Reville, serving as a strong and sensible voice of reason when faced with Hitchcock's self-aggrandizement. The movie itself is a fun ride, filled with suspenseful moments, winking nods to the camera as Alfred Hitchcock presents the movie to the audience like an episode of his television show, and a wonderful score by Danny Elfman. The supporting cast do a great job, particularly Scarlett Johansson who nails Janet Leigh's bloodcurdling screams during the shower scene and James D'Arcy who seems to be a clone of Anthony Perkins.

The movie also reveals Alfred's genius for marketing - he enhanced the suspense and public anticipation for Psycho by buying up every copy of the novel nationwide, and hyped up the movie premiere in a manner that current studios and promoters would do well to emulate. Overall, Hitchcock is an engaging biopic, offering a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the making of one of the most celebrated movies in American cinema, and providing more insight into the always mysterious and fascinating world of Alfred Hitchcock. 

Flight: A Turbulent Journey

Can an alcoholic also be a hero? That is the question posed by Flight. The movie portrays a man who performs a miraculous feat and saves many lives, but discovers that his dependence on alcohol and drugs can no longer be ignored.

Denzel Washington plays Captain William "Whip" Whitaker, an airline pilot who we first meet in a hotel room where he is waking up from a boozy night with a flight attendant. He has to fly a plane to Atlanta that morning so he takes some cocaine to battle his hangover. A few hours later he's in the cockpit, with nary an objection from the cabin crew or his co-pilot who clearly know the captain has been drinking. There's a scary sequence involving some turbulence, but the seasoned Whitaker guides the plane through the clouds and proves his piloting mettle. He mixes himself a screwdriver with some vodka in the galley and proceeds to take a nap. But the flight is poised to endure much more than a short bout of turbulence. 

Prior to the final descent, something goes terribly wrong and the plane launches into a steep dive. As everyone panics around him, Whip is eerily calm, runs through various options, and comes up with an astonishing solution. The only way to take the plane out of its dive is to turn it upside down, which he does until he finds an open field where he can land the plane. This is an absolutely harrowing and brilliantly shot cinematic sequence that is not recommended for anyone with a fear of flying. But instead of a plane crash where everyone dies, we get a plane crash with a mere six casualties. In the post-crash investigation, the airline puts other pilots in a flight simulator, and not a single person can replicate Whip's actions to land the plane safely. Captain Whitaker is heralded as a man who achieved the impossible.

Unfortunately, the post-crash investigation also involves routine medical tests, and they detect the cocaine and alcohol in Whip's system. While the press is busy fawning over the heroic Captain Whitaker, Whip is vigorously denying the medical evidence and trying to avoid manslaughter charges with the help of the attorney appointed by the pilots union, Hugh Lang (Don Cheadle). Despite the grave situation, Whip is incapable of admitting he has a problem, and after a short stint of quitting cold turkey, he is hitting the booze as hard as ever and calling up his friend Harling Mays (John Goodman) to supply him with various uppers and downers to cope with the unfolding events.

Flight is a compelling drama, telling the age-old tale of someone in the downward spiral of addiction. Denzel Washington delivers a compelling performance as a man who is struggling to acknowledge what he has become, and who refuses to see what is evident to everyone around him. His main defense seems to be: I'm a hero, doesn't that excuse everything? And the movie leaves you guessing until the very end as to whether or not he will get away with it.

Rust and Bone: Repairing the Damage

Like Amour, Rust and Bone is yet another French-language film about a love story. But this story is far from conventional. It can be summarized as follows: after losing her legs in a freak accident, a killer whale trainer begins a relationship with an amateur kick boxer. Doesn't that sound like something you have to see?

The always incandescent Marion Cotillard plays Stephanie, a confident, beautiful woman who trains orcas at a marine park. One day, things go wrong in the middle of an aquatic routine and Stephanie wakes up in the hospital to find that both of her legs have been amputated. She falls into a deep depression, but one day decides to call up Ali, a bouncer she met at a nightclub. Ali (Matthias Schoenaerts) has a young son, and after a period of homelessness, recently moved into town to live with his sister. He works at various odd jobs while training for underground kick boxing matches. When Stephanie calls, he comes over and is refreshingly straightforward. He convinces her to leave her apartment, takes her to the beach, and before she realizes it, Stephanie is swimming in the ocean and happy for the first time in months.

Their relationship is exceedingly strange but comforting. They are both damaged souls and they take solace in each other's company. Their friendship evolves, but Stephanie is perplexed by Ali's blunt yet inscrutable personality. She starts to attend his kick boxing matches and once she is fitted for her prosthetic limbs, she is walking around and becomes his de facto manager. Unfortunately, Ali seems to attract trouble, and as Stephanie's life improves dramatically, Ali's life starts to crumble.

Cotillard and Schoenaerts put in brilliant performances as two troubled but kindred spirits who battle through exceptional circumstances and manage to make a life for themselves. Of course, the most impressive aspect of this movie is the astonishing use of special effects to make Cotillard look like a double amputee. It is a magnificent piece of "movie magic" that never looks fake or unrealistic, thereby ensuring your focus is squarely on the story.

Rust and Bone is an unexpected and gorgeous movie. It is richly told and incredibly moving, with a cast of many-faceted characters that defy description. Its unconventionality might explain why it seems to have lost out to Amour in the Oscar shuffle. But this is still a movie you should seek out and experience. 

Amour: Love is a Many-Splendored Thing

This year, the French-language film Amour managed to break out of the Best Foreign Film category and enter the mainstream Oscar competition with nominations for Best Screenplay, Directing, Lead Actress, and of course, Best Picture. (Incidentally, it seems unfair for a picture to be up for Best Picture AND Best Foreign Film, but that's the Oscars for you.) The movie has already won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film and seems to be a shoo-in for the same category at the Oscars. But as the mainstream nominations suggest, this isn't some esoteric French film. It concerns the universal theme of love and will tug at the heartstrings of moviegoers in any country.

The movie begins ominously - firemen break into an apartment, looking for something, we don't know what. Eventually they break into the locked bedroom and find the body of an elderly woman strewn with flowers. The rest of the movie is a flashback, narrating the sequence of events that led up to this moment. We are introduced to Anne and Georges (Emmanuelle Riva and Jean-Louis Trintignant), an elderly couple who live in Paris and are very much in love. We first see them at a concert and then follow them back to their beautiful Parisian apartment, all of which suggest a wonderfully aesthetic and peaceful lifestyle. However, one day at breakfast, Anne gets a far-away look in her eyes and becomes unresponsive. Georges is alarmed. After a few minutes, Anne is back to normal and she has no memory of what just happened. Georges insists on calling their doctor. This is Anne's first stroke.

Subsequently, Anne undergoes surgery to prevent future strokes, but things go wrong and her right side is completely paralyzed. Georges brings her home and tenderly takes care of her. Anne is depressed but comforted by Georges' attentions. She exacts a promise from him that he will never take her back to the hospital. He feeds her, helps her with leg exercises, holds her as she takes shuffling steps out of her wheelchair, and tries to restore some semblance of normalcy to their daily routine. They receive some visitors, including their concerned daughter and a former pupil of Anne's who is now an established pianist. Anne seems to be feeling better, but life is cruel and another stroke follows. Now Anne is completely bedridden and is mostly incoherent. And Georges continues to take care of her.

Georges' love for Anne is the source of his strength but also his suffering. Jean-Louis Trintignant does a magnificent job of portraying a man who is watching the woman he loves fade away before his eyes. Emmanuelle Riva is heartbreaking as she transforms from an active Parisian to a helpless shell of a woman who has been betrayed by her body. Director Michael Haneke has done a masterful job of telling this story simply and poignantly, leading to a devastating but inevitable conclusion.

Amour paints a very accurate portrait of the battle between old age and eternal love. As the movie reveals the depth of Georges' love for Anne, we begin to understand that love may be beautiful, but it is also bittersweet, uplifting and agonizing in equal measure. And in some terrible but profound way, it really does conquer all. 

The Impossible: Against All Odds

The Impossible is probably the most difficult movie I've watched this year. Not difficult because it's bad. But difficult because it is harrowing and gut-wrenching. Based on the true story of a Spanish family vacationing in Thailand during the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004, it starkly depicts one of the worst disasters of the 21st century.

The movie opens with Harry and Maria Belon (Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts) and their three sons on the flight to Thailand. They undergo a spot of turbulence and Maria is clearly unnerved, but they land safely. The real disaster is yet to come. The family have a happy Christmas and indulge in all the comforts their beach resort has to offer. On the 26th, they are all sprawled around the pool, when there's a sudden strong wind, birds are frantically flying across the sky, and out of nowhere, a giant wave appears.

The visual effects are stunning, probably because director J.A. Bayona made great use of miniatures and a huge water tank instead of relying on computer-generated imagery. The wave is ominous, unrelenting, and heralds all the death and destruction that is to follow. As palm trees start to fall under the tsunami, Maria screams for her eldest son Lucas, while Henry grabs his two youngest sons under his arms. In a few seconds, the tsunami is upon them; Henry helplessly ducks into the depths of the pool, while Maria hugs herself and braces for impact. The screen goes dark.

What follows is a swirl of confusion and terror. Maria is buffeted in muddy water that is sweeping her along a completely unrecognizable landscape. She is being battered on all sides by debris, and in one sickening moment, a branch tears into her leg. Miraculously, she manages to stick her head above water and she sees Lucas hanging on to a tree. Mother and son frantically call out to each other as they are being swept away in the flood, but after a nail-biting series of maneuvers, they manage to cling on to each other. As the waters recede, they find themselves alone in an alien world.

Tom Holland, who plays Lucas, is a revelation, turning in a performance that ought to have earned him multiple Best Supporting Actor awards. Naomi Watts fully deserves a Best Actress nomination; she goes through hell and back in this movie. Maria and Lucas try to walk to safety, a prospect that proves increasingly difficult due to Maria's injured leg. Finally, some locals find them and drive her and Lucas to the hospital, where she receives some treatment amid scenes of chaos and confusion. Even in this uproar, Maria insists that Lucas try to help others, so he runs off and aids strangers who are looking for their loved ones in this sprawling hospital. When he returns to his mother's bed, she has disappeared.

In the meantime, Henry and his two younger sons have also miraculously survived the tsunami. When a truck arrives to take them to higher ground, Henry makes the difficult decision to send his sons to safety while he remains behind to search for Maria and Lucas. Ewan McGregor offers an incredible performance of a man who is trying his best to keep it together for his children while he is increasingly convinced that his wife and son are dead. His desperate search seems futile and heartbreaking, but other survivors help him out and he eventually arrives at the same hospital as Maria.

Bayona and writer Sergio G. Sanchez have crafted a story that lets us celebrate one family's survival over incredible odds while still mourning the numerous losses of other families and the unimaginable havoc wreaked by this natural disaster. Ultimately, The Impossible is a powerful and devastating movie that serves as a reminder of both human frailty and human strength.

Zero Dark Thirty: The Price of Justice

Kathryn Bigelow is one of the best directors in Hollywood. Not best "female director," just best director, period. The Hurt Locker proved this by earning her an Academy Award for Best Director, as well as snagging Best Picture. That movie was an in-depth portrait of soldiers in the midst of the Iraq war. Now with Zero Dark Thirty, Bigelow returns to the Middle East to chronicle the decade-long manhunt for Osama bin Laden.

Everyone knows how this story ends. But journalist and screenwriter Mark Boal (who also won an Oscar for The Hurt Locker) has used firsthand accounts with various intelligence and military officials to put together a narrative of the years leading up to that infamous SEAL Team Six raid in Abbotobad, Pakistan. What follows is an unflinching look at the ways and means of procuring both good and bad intelligence, chasing down leads, and dealing with political, moral, and ethical grey lines. The movie's heroine, Maya (Jessica Chastain), is a young CIA officer assigned to work with fellow officer, Dan (Jason Clarke), at the US Embassy in Pakistan in 2003. She accompanies Dan on numerous black site visits where they torture Ammar, a detainee who has links to Saudi terrorists. The movie begins with prolonged scenes of torture, including physical and verbal abuse, waterboarding, sensory deprivation, and worse. Despite this, Ammar won't provide any worthwhile leads. Only when Maya and Dan trick him and treat him with some kindness does he offer up the name, Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti. That one name becomes Maya's obsession for the next eight years.

Maya is convinced that Abu Ahmed is one of bin Laden's right-hand men and that finding him will lead to Osama. The movie follows her long search through numerous false leads, and her frustrations as other major terrorist attacks take place and she is still no closer to finding bin Laden. She narrowly escapes death in the 2008 Islamabad Marriott hotel bombing. The death of a close friend only serves to strengthen her resolve. Along the way she has to convince bosses and colleagues that she is on the right track, but everyone assumes she is chasing a dream. However, she finally tracks Abu Ahmed down to the walled compound in Abbotobad. The movie's final half hour is a tense, nerve-wracking, documentary-style look at the SEAL Team Six raid that finally validates Maya's relentless pursuit and ends the hunt for bin Laden.

People have been up in arms about the torture scenes in Zero Dark Thirty and whether the film assumes a pro-torture stance by suggesting that the use of torture and illegal detentions was vital in obtaining information to capture bin Laden. I don't think the movie assumes any stance - it is merely attempting to provide a narrative that is as close to the truth as possible, and like it or not, that narrative includes the use of torture. You could just as easily argue that the movie is anti-torture because the CIA officers in the movie don't get actionable intelligence until they treat Ammar well. The movie does chronicle the changing political climate, and the outrage once people discover what the CIA has been doing behind the scenes. The controversy around Zero Dark Thirty suggests that outrage will continue for a long while.

Setting aside the controversy, Zero Dark Thirty is simply a stunning movie. Jessica Chastain is a marvel; her face is a blank canvas and she turns Maya into an enigmatic character, fully in keeping with her CIA background. What is apparent is that Maya is a tough-as-nails woman who isn't afraid to create a stir in the male-dominated world of the CIA. She is single-minded and driven, and although her colleagues keep doubting her, she gets the job done. The supporting cast is equally fantastic and Bigelow's direction is impeccable throughout. The movie thrusts you into the narrative and forces you to experience multiple viewpoints. Every character turns the movie into a minefield of moral ambiguity because you get the sense that everyone is doing their job, but you don't know how they feel about it. In the end, they've killed Osama bin Laden, but at what cost? It is a disturbing, thrilling, and thought-provoking exercise in filmmaking. 

Silver Linings Playbook: Crazy in Love

It's hard to describe Silver Linings Playbook. Most people have been classifying it as a romantic comedy and I suppose that's accurate even though it conjures up images of vapid romcoms that are mostly unwatchable. But Silver Linings Playbook deftly straddles the line between comedy and drama, with a funny, warm romance between Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, who have the difficult task of portraying two people who are dealing with mental illness but find a way to fall in love.

Cooper plays Pat Solitano, a man with bipolar disorder who has just been released from a mental institution after serving eight months of court-mandated treatment. He was forced to undergo treatment after he violently attacked a man that he discovered was sleeping with his wife. Now Pat is back home with his parents (Robert De Niro and Jacki Weaver) and despite the restraining order, he wants to get back in touch with his wife and convince her that he's a changed man. His newfound philosophy is one of relentless optimism and finding the silver lining in every situation. Unfortunately, he refuses to take his meds, so he is still prone to episodes of mania and causes no end of trouble. But one night, his friend Ronnie invites him to dinner, where he meets Ronnie's sister-in-law, Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence).

Tiffany was recently widowed and lost her job after sleeping with a bunch of people in her office to cope with her depression. She and Pat get along famously when discussing the various psychiatric medications they've tried, but their social awkwardness and bluntness mean that they antagonize each other a fair amount as well. After a series of bizarre conversations and chance encounters, Pat and Tiffany strike a deal - Tiffany will deliver a letter to Pat's wife, if Pat will be her partner for a dance competition she has always wanted to enter. Pat agrees to this somewhat unconventional arrangement in the hopes of winning his wife back. Naturally, things don't exactly work out as planned.

Silver Linings Playbook is a charming movie and apart from the engaging romance between Pat and Tiffany, there are hilarious side plots, including Pat's father's new bookmaking business, which culminates in a bet that depends on Pat doing well in the dance competition. De Niro puts in a moving performance as a taciturn Italian man who doesn't quite know how to communicate with his troubled son but eventually makes his genuine love and affection apparent. The wonderful Bollywood actor Anupam Kher (you may recognize him from Bend It Like Beckham) plays Dr. Patel, Pat's therapist who is serious and wise and later reveals a much more amusing side of his personality. And Cooper and Lawrence are fantastic as they dance their way into a strange romance and make you laugh despite their obviously difficult situations.

Director David O. Russell also wrote the screenplay (based on a novel by Matthew Quick) and he has managed to turn an unlikely subject into a warm, funny movie. Silver Linings Playbook doesn't shy away from the topic of mental illness but it refuses to let its characters despair in their situations either. Life goes on, and if you keep looking for the silver linings, you might just end up in an exuberant dance number with your bemused family cheering you on. 

Lincoln: The Politics of Doing the Right Thing

After Tarantino's raucous take on slavery in Django Unchained, it's time to turn to Lincoln, Steven Spielberg's biopic of the sixteenth president in the months leading up to the January 1865 vote on the Thirteenth Amendment that would abolish slavery. The movie focuses on just a few months in Lincoln's life, but it offers a more complete portrait of who Abraham Lincoln was than a traditional birth-to-death biopic ever could.

The movie begins with the Gettysburg Address. But not Lincoln's delivery of it. Instead, he is visiting Union soldiers and two white soldiers recite the speech back to him, followed by a black soldier. In that short scene, we see what Lincoln means to the country as a whole, and why this constitutional amendment means so much to him. In the middle of the Civil War, he passed the Emancipation Proclamation to free slaves held in the rebelling Confederate states. But the Proclamation cannot stand without constitutional backing and Lincoln wants to get the Thirteenth Amendment passed before the War ends and the Southern states can return to block the amendment.

The movie is largely about political maneuvering and depicts Lincoln as a master tactician who astutely divined everyone's motives and used that knowledge to his political advantage. There were few people who were going to agree to the amendment from the purely moral viewpoint that slavery was wrong. Instead, some people hoped abolishing slavery would end the Civil War; if the war ended before the amendment passed, Lincoln knew they would no longer vote for it. Some were just racists who couldn't be won over. But still others were "lame-duck Democrats," who had lost their seats in the latest general election and could be enticed with political bribes to get plum positions in Lincoln's new Cabinet if they voted the right way. The movie follows Lincoln's contemporaries, including Secretary of State William H. Seward (David Strathairn), who engages Republican operatives like William Bilbo (James Spader) to quietly go about a program of monetary bribes for votes, and Thaddeus Stevens (Tommy Lee Jones), a Radical Republican Congressman who is a fervent abolitionist but is begged to tone down his rhetoric for fear of scaring off the less morally certain voters.

The most impressive thing about Lincoln is Daniel Day-Lewis' performance. The other actors are wonderful but when they come on screen, you first recognize them, then their characters. When Day-Lewis comes on, you just think, "oh, there's President Lincoln." With that incredible profile, stovepipe hat, and soft voice that loves to tell stories, the sixteenth President is brought to life on screen. Lincoln's family life comes in for its fair share of scrutiny and it's clear that the demands of the presidency made Lincoln a less than ideal husband and father. Sally Field is interesting as the possibly bipolar Mary Todd Lincoln, who worries about making the White House presentable at the same time as she worries about the war and whether her son Robert (played by a very restrained Joseph Gordon-Levitt) will head into battle. However, speculation on Lincoln's private life is less compelling than the depiction of actual historical events, which is where this movie's strengths lie.

Tony Kushner's script does the remarkable job of making an inevitable conclusion exciting. We all know the Amendment gets passed, but for a while, witnessing all the roadblocks and difficulties that are entailed in securing the necessary votes, we still can't believe Lincoln will be able to pull it off. As a novice to Civil War history, I was engaged throughout and compelled to read up more on the subject. I'm certain history buffs would love this movie because it makes history come alive with all the urgency and immediacy that never makes it into textbooks.

Lincoln is an interesting movie to watch in this current political climate. It feels like nothing has changed since 1865 - we still have a President trying to enact widespread social reform, and most of the South is still against him. The parties are different but the politics are the same. Sadly, political maneuvering is no longer as simple as literally slipping a few dollar bills under the table or having a heart-to-heart conversation with a member of the opposite party. Perhaps we should organize a mass screening of Lincoln in Washington D.C. and see if Democrats and Republicans learn anything about how to get things done for the good of the country. 

Django Unchained: A Slave Strikes Back

A relentless drive for vengeance, plenty of blood and gore, hysterical dialogue, absurd scenarios, villainous villains, heroic heroes, and the triumph of good over evil, even at the expense of historical accuracy. Put all those elements together and you get a Quentin Tarantino movie. Make the setting the Deep South in 1858 and you get Django Unchained.

Django (Jamie Foxx) is a slave who is purchased at auction in Greenville - his wife was also put up for auction but sold to someone else. As he is being marched to his destination, he encounters Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz). Schultz is a bounty hunter who needs to find and kill the Brittle Brothers to claim his next bounty. Unfortunately, he doesn't know what they look like, but Django, their former slave, does. The men who bought Django refuse to sell him, so Schultz calmly shoots them and frees Django and his fellow slaves. Originally from Germany, Schultz finds the whole idea of slavery morally repellent, but he does need Django's help. He offers a trade - if Django will help him get the Brittle Brothers, he'll give him his freedom. After they accomplish that task, Schultz asks Django to become his bounty hunting partner over the winter, after which he will help him find his wife.

Django's wife, Broomhilda (so named because her owners were German), was bought by Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio), a wealthy plantation owner who won't give up his slaves easily. Django and Schultz come up with a plan, and after much maneuvering, find themselves at his plantation, CandieLand. There, they encounter Stephen (Samuel L. Jackson), a slave whose family has served the Candies for generations. He loathes the idea of a free black man just as much as most white Southerners. As a result, our two heroes face two villains - the white slave owner, and surprisingly, his black slave.

This is a brilliant story, told with trademark Tarantino panache. It is wildly creative and bombastic, taking the very real horrors of slavery and turning them into a fantastical farce. Tarantino excels at turning horrific moments into comic masterpieces: one such scene involves a KKK raid, which is no laughing matter but will still have you giggling hysterically. Christoph Waltz is playing the polar opposite of the sadistic Nazi he played in Tarantino's last movie, Inglourious Basterds, and he easily steals every scene he's in. The man was born to deliver Tarantino's dialogue with a poetic flourish and if he didn't have an Oscar already, I'd give him another one for sheer charm and joie de vivre. Jamie Foxx is equally impeccable as Django, a role that requires him to be quiet and repressed due to his slave origins. He has little dialogue (what little he has is still delivered magnificently), yet his eyes are smoldering and his rage is palpable until Django finally explodes and gets his vengeance in epic Tarantino fashion. Kerry Washington doesn't have much to do as Broomhilda, but she and Foxx really sell their characters' love story and make them a couple worth killing for. Leonardo DiCaprio is an insane delight as the evil Calvin Candie, full of the Southern hospitality and cruelty of most slave owners. And Samuel L. Jackson is chilling as Stephen, a character who seems to be comic relief but turns into something far more sinister.

Django Unchained is Tarantino's attempt at a spaghetti western; it features an original song composed by Ennio Morricone (of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly fame) and landscapes and cinematography that hearken back to that genre. But this movie transcends all genres and simply becomes a Tarantino flick. It is nearly three hours long but each chapter of Django's story is as inventive and entertaining as the last. This is Tarantino's first movie after the death of his longtime collaborator Sally Menke, and the editing does feel a little less crisp in places. But new editor Fred Raskin has done justice to Tarantino's vision and delivered the cinematic spectacle we've come to know and admire.

In the midst of awards season, faced with earnest meditations on life and the other self-serious and important subjects that Academy voters love to reward, Django Unchained is a welcome reminder of what the movies are all about. Together with Inglourious Basterds, Tarantino has shown that he is a man who can turn difficult and horrific periods of human history into glorious, riotous cinematic occasions that showcase the triumph of the human spirit.

Les Miserables: A Revolutionary Musical

Happy New Year! The arrival of 2013 heralds the arrival of awards season. With the Golden Globes less than a fortnight away, I've been frantically trying to catch up on the nominated movies. The blog will be rife with reviews of all the awards bait and I'm kicking things off with Les Miserables.

I saw Les Mis with my friend Molly, and we were both fairly ignorant about the story since we've never seen it on stage. (Or read it - but really, who has?) If you are similarly ignorant, here's a primer: beginning in 1815 France, we follow the fortunes of Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman), a convict who has just been released on parole after serving a 19-year sentence for stealing a loaf of bread. He has been guarded by Inspector Javert (Russell Crowe), who loathes him and gives him papers that mark him out as a "dangerous man," making it nearly impossible for him to be employed or have a decent life. After a Bishop treats him with overwhelming kindness, Valjean vows to become a good man who will help the poor and suffering. Cut to eight years later, when Valjean has assumed a false identity, and become a benevolent factory owner and mayor of a small seaside town. Unfortunately, his factory's foreman is not so benevolent and harasses the women on the floor. One of these women is Fantine (Anne Hathaway), who is fired after rejecting the foreman's advances and is forced into prostitution in order to make enough money to send for her daughter's care. Valjean finds her when she is about to die of consumption - he feels responsible for her sorry plight and vows to find her daughter, Cosette. In the meantime, he is discovered by Javert, who chases him down for breaking the terms of his parole. Valjean flees, finds Cosette, and promises to raise her as his own child.

Nine years later, Cosette is a young woman (played by Amanda Seyfried), and she falls in love with a young student named Marius (Eddie Redmayne) after they exchange glances on the street (love is always rapid in a musical). However, Marius must also focus on other things, namely the revolution that he is planning on inciting with his fellow students. And once again, Javert has discovered Valjean, who decides to take the lovelorn Cosette and flee from Paris on the eve of the revolution. Naturally, things get messy: Valjean finds himself caught up in the revolution, Javert is on his heels, Marius, Cosette, and a girl named Eponine (Samantha Barks) are stuck in a love triangle, and everyone's singing about their tumultuous lives. As you do.

That's a LOT of story to get through in two and a half hours, but everything is beautifully and succinctly related in song, with virtually no dialogue. Most of the cast are not trained singers, but all of the songs were recorded live, which lends them an urgency and realism that makes them more accessible. The obvious showstopper is Anne Hathaway's rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream," which manages to tear your heart into pieces. No other song came close to matching the emotion in this number, but there were still great performances. People have been mocking Russell Crowe, but I thought his voice was a perfect complement to the stubborn Javert who is single-minded in his execution of the law and hatred for Valjean. Hugh Jackman is of course an established Broadway star and his Jean Valjean is strong, sympathetic, and unfortunate in equal measure. Seyfried, Redmayne, and Barks are perfectly serviceable as the young lovers, but since their tangled love lives are taking place in the backdrop of a revolution, it all seemed a bit rushed and unnecessary. Sacha Baron Cohen and Helen Bonham Carter also put in an appearance as the two innkeepers who take care of Cosette when she's younger. They give the movie some wonderful comic relief, ensuring that things aren't continually miserable.

Les Miserables manages to be both epic and intimate, sweeping through history but focusing on the tragedy of its core characters. The music is fantastic. The actors are giving their all and director Tom Hooper favors close-up shots so that you can steep yourself in their emotion. The film is a visual mixed bag - the smaller sets are wonderful and set the tone of a France in tatters and intent on revolution, but the more epic shots rely on digital effects that aren't quite believable  They serve as a reminder that this was a stage play which didn't need such grandiose imagery. The best moments of Les Mis take place in ordinary settings with one extraordinary person singing their heart out; that is the hallmark of an award-winning musical.