THE ICEMAN

 Crime drama

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS

Michael Shannon: film lab employee Richard “Richie” Kuklinski

Winona Ryder: Deborah

Ray Liotta: Mafia associate Roy DeMeo

Chris Evans: Mafia hitman Robert “Mr. Freezy” Pronge

David Schwimmer: Roy’s most trusted henchman Josh Rosenthal

James Franco: small-time hustler Marty Freeman

Stephen Dorff: Richie’s younger brother Joseph

REVIEW

Having read the book this film based on the true story of Richie has several shortcomings:

• The absence of any background information about his earlier life provides no insight as to what made him tick
• No mention is made of the physical abuse his girlfriend (later his wife) had to endure: in fact he is portrayed as the perfect husband
• DeMeo’s relationship with the Gambino crime family is poorly defined
• Little or no attempt is made to clarify who most of the other characters are and why they have to be “eliminated”

The highlight of the film for me was the incredible performance of Shannon; I’m sure he nailed it.

CLASSIFICATION

 for strong violence, pervasive language and some sexual content.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY

When Richie gets out of the Cadillac to speak to the homeless man, the car is parked on the right hand side of the street but when he returns it has magically moved to the other side.

KON-TIKI

 Historical drama

F.Y.I.

The vessel was named after one of the most important deities in the Inca pantheon who was seen as the creator of all things and intimately associated with the sea.

Thor (the h is silent so pronounced tore) continued to lead expeditions of discovery, first to the Galapagos Islands in 1952 then on to Easter Island in 1955 where paintings of reed boats sparked his interest in them. To prove that westward travel across the Atlantic Ocean was possible, in 1969 he set sail from an old Phoenician port on the coast of Morocco. The loss of some reed bundles compromised the buoyancy so the trip aboard Ra I had to be aborted.

Less than a year later Thor launched a new papyrus boat, built by Indians from Lake Titicaca who still use the same methods as in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt. Ra II landed in Barbados 57 days after setting off. Thor retired to Tenerife in the Canary Islands and died in 2002. He was 88 years old.

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS

Pål Sverre Hagen: 23-year-old ethnographer Thor Heyerdahl

Agnes Kittelsen: Thor’s wife Liv, an anthropologist

Anders Christiansen: engineer Herman Watzinger

Tobias Santelmann: Knut Haugland

Jakob Oftebro: Torstein Raaby

Odd-Magnus Williamson: Erik Hesselberg

Gustaf Skarsgård: Bengt Danielsson

REVIEW

Heyerdahl wanted to prove his theory that people from South America 1500 years ago could have settled the Polynesian islands 7,000 kilometres to the west. This recreation of that voyage aboard a raft made of balsam wood provides an exciting insight to the harrowing experience they had to cope while putting their lives on the line.

More like a documentary than a scripted film, there is not much in the way of acting per se. More notable is the cinemaphotography and the musical score: both are top notch.

CLASSIFICATION

for disturbing violence sequence.

P.S.

Thor could not swim and had never learned how to sail before setting off on his momentous voyage. 

P.S.S.

In Oslo I got to see the original Kon-Tiki raft and came to the realization that crossing an ocean on something that small and so fragile-looking takes a very special kind of person. I'm not one of them.

THE GREAT GATSBY

 Drama

F.Y.I.

Based on the 1925 novel by the American author F. Scott Fitzgerald, the book sold poorly when first published and the author died in 1940 believing himself to be a failure. His work experienced a revival during World War II and has remained popular ever since. This novel is now considered to be a literary classic and has become a staple of school curricula. It consistently is ranked among the greatest works of American literature of all-time. If only he knew.

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS

Tobey Maguire: aspiring writer Nick Carraway

Carey Mulligan: his cousin Daisy Buchanan

Joel Edgerton: Daisy’s husband Tom

Elizabeth Debicki: Daisy’s best friend Jordan Baker

Leonardo DiCaprio: Jay Gatsby

Isla Fisher: Myrtle Wilson

Jason Clarke: her husband George

REVIEW

Any story about the world of the super rich is bound to be lavish and frequently over-the- top. This is no exception but the many party sequences do not really add very much to the main story except to show the extravagance of the rich. But they certainly add measurably to the running time of two hours and 30 minutes which makes the film a good half hour too long.

There is a simple explanation according to Ralph’s Rule of Redundancy:

“Any film where one person takes on more than two key positions has a major shortcoming: the absence of independent critical judgement that results in something less than it might have been.” In this case Baz Luhrmann is Writer, Director and Producer.

Great attention has been paid to period details in and around their homes (except for the few exceptions noted below) but a section of the city they drive through looks like something from the Wizard of Oz and totally out of character. If the producers wanted to show “the other side of the coin” it could have been done in a more realistic manner, in keeping with the rest of the film.

The acting is uniformly good as one would expect from the A-list actors chosen for the roles.

Overall it’s a bit of a disappointment. It is good, but not great like the title would have you believe. 

CLASSIFICATION

some violent images, sexual content, smoking, partying, brief language.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY

• Nick’s doctor suggests he write down his thoughts and slides a pad of paper towards him and turns the pen so it’s vertical and ready to be used. In the following scene although no one touched it, the pen is horizontal, just as it was before the good doctor moved it.
• Daisy incorrectly refers to Kaiser Wilhelm as the German King: she was half right as he was the Emperor of Germany and King of Prussia.
• Jay we are told was a Captain in the US Army but a photo of him shows his metal insignia of rank to be a single silver bar, that of a First Lieutenant.
• The lyrics of one song refer to the stock market crash which did not take place until 7 years later.

P.S.

I chose not to see it in 3-D and from the comments I hear that was a good decision.

RENOIR

 Biography

In French with English subtitles

F.Y.I.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841 – 1919) was one of the most prolific of all the French Impressionist painters. During his sixty year career as an artist it is said he painted more than 6,000 canvasses. He suffered his first severe rheumatoid arthritis attack in his late ‘50’s. Within a few years his hands and feet were so damaged by the disease he had to use a wheelchair to sit or move about.

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS

Michel Bouquet: Pierre-Auguste Renoir, painter

Christa Theret: 15-year-old actress and model Andreé Heuschling

Thomas Doret: Renoir’s third son 14-year-old Claude “Coco”

Vincent Rottiers: Renoir’s second son 21-year-old Jean

REVIEW

Covering the last five years of his life and how one woman had an impact on both Renoir pére and fils, the film unfortunately has several shortcomings:

• there is no background information regarding the painter’s affliction; something as important as that should not be ignored
• the rather stilted acting by both sons is something you might expect from students taking Acting 101 but not in a movie of this calibre
• unexpected events pop up without any sort of explanation such as when one of Renoir’s former models (who has not been heard from for years) all of a sudden shows up at a picnic

On the other hand the cinematography and use of natural light beautifully recreate the sense of the place where Renoir lived and incorporated in his paintings and Bouquet’s performance is top notch.

CLASSIFICATION

for full frontal nudity and brief strong language.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY

• Renoir pére asks his son to put a necklace around the model’s neck insisting it is the emerald one but the only necklace is one of pearls
• When Jean asks the price of some material he is told it is 5 francs a meter but the subtitles read 5 francs a foot.

TRANCE

 Crime thriller

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS

James McAvoy: Simon, an auction house employee

Vincent Cassel: Franck, an associate

Rosario Dawson: hypnotherapist Elizabeth Lamb

REVIEW

It’s never much fun when you realize you’re being jerked around when you make an honest effort to sort things out for yourself. When filmmakers resort to that kind of manipulation, it’s time to walk out which I did.

This is an example of the twists and turns, the flashbacks and reversals one has to cope with: in one scene Simon takes the time to shoot and kill three bad guys but then it turns out he just imaged that and they are still alive wanting to kill him. But we the audience have no way of knowing it was all in his head so you take it at face value only to be yanked back with the reveal. You soon begin to feel like a puppet on a string.

Not surprising Ralph’s Rule of Redundancy applies:

“Any film where one person takes on more than 2 key positions (Danny Boyle is Writer, Director and Producer) has a major shortcoming: the absence of independent critical judgement that results in something less than it might have been.”

CLASSIFICATION

 for sexual content, graphic nudity, violence, some grisly images and language.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY

• The revolver Simon uses has just 6 cartridges yet fires off a dozen rounds in the garage.
• Gasoline ignites between 500°F and 540°F so firing a bullet at a trail of gasoline will not set it ablaze.

THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES

Drama

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS

Ryan Gosling: motorcycle stunt driver Luke Glanton

Eva Mendes: his former girlfriend Romina

Ben Mendelsohn: auto repair shop owner Robin

Mahershala Ali: Romina’s live-in boyfriend Kofi

Bradley Cooper: rookie Police Officer Avery Cross

Rose Byrne: his wife Jennifer

Ray Liotta: Detective Deluca

Emory Cohen: 17-year-old AJ Cross

Dane DeHaan: 17-year-old Jason Glanton

REVIEW

This ambitious undertaking begins well enough with entwined stories of a street-wise carnival star and an upcoming rookie police officer. Characterized by excellent performances although not a very original story it was satisfying enough until the on-screen title “15 years later” appeared.

From this point on the story is a muddled confusing affair with only the most tenuous link to what had proceeded before it. This “third act” serves only to extend the running time to well past two hours and twenty minutes for no discernable reason.

CLASSIFICATION

for language throughout, some violence, teen drug and alcohol use, a sexual reference.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY

Jason purchases a used Hondo motorcycle for cash and gets no papers in return, no registration, no sale receipt, nothing. It simply does not happen that way.

P.S.

The title comes from the English translation of the Mohawk word for Schenectady (where these events took place) as “the place beyond the pine plains”.

42

Sports drama

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS

Harrison Ford: Brooklyn Dodgers General Manager Branch Rickey

Chadwick Boseman: baseball player Jackie Robinson

Nicole Beharie: his girlfriend Rachel

Andre Holland: sports writer Wendell Smith

Christopher Meloni: Booklyn Dodgers Manager Leo Durocher

Lucas Black: short stop Pee Wee Reese

Jonh McGinley: play-by-play announcer Red Barber

Alan Tudyk: raciest Phillies Coachr Ben Chapman

                

REVIEW

With unwavering commitment one man set out to make a change: Branch Rickey could see the future of baseball and did something about it. Fortunately one man was up to the challenge: Jackie Robinson. Rickey had the courage of his convictions and Robinson, well he had the courage.

This mostly true story of their struggle makes for an entertaining  insight into the ways of sport. Characterized by excellent acting throughout and close attention to period detail (except for one instance noted below) it runs a tad long at two hours and twenty minutes. The racist language might be disturbing to some.

CLASSIFICATION

for thematic elements including language.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY

This is one of my classic all-time favourite nitpicks: at the end of the telephone conversation Branch Rickey hangs up and Leo Durocher is left listening to the dial tone. In reality the dial tone is only heard after picking up the phone before dialling. That’s why it’s called a dial tone.