My Review: In the Name of the Father (9/10)

"I don't understand your language. "Justice." "Mercy." "Clemency." I literally don't understand what those words mean."

If I had to describe this film using only one adjective I would say it is an enraging movie. Jim Sheridan followed his successful directorial debut, My Left Foot, by teaming up once again with Daniel Day Lewis who delivers yet another superb performance. I'm ashamed to admit that I just got around to watching this film for the first time on its 20th anniversary, but it was completely worth it because I was blown away by this powerful and engaging film. I wouldn't call this a groundbreaking film because we've had plenty of movies dealing with similar themes. Films like The Hurricane or The Shawshank Redemption deal with the kind of social injustice that is presented here where an innocent man is incarcerated due to a corrupt justice system. In the Name of the Father differs a bit in that it doesn't focus so much on the hope of finding freedom, but rather on the enraging aspect of the injustice that the lead character and his family and friends go through. This is a genre that I'll always be drawn too, especially when it is based on a true story because I think these people deserve to have their voice heard after all they've gone through. I know that several artistic liberties were taken to make the film, but even so it draws attention to Gerry Conlon's autobiographical book. Sheridan's direction was solid, and I liked how he focused a lot of the attention on the father and son relationship. I don't know if this film would've worked as well as it did if it weren't for Daniel Day Lewis's brilliant performance. He is without a doubt one of the best actors of our time.

Gerry Conlon (Daniel Day Lewis) grew up in Belfast in the 70's when the IRA terrorist attacks were at its peak. He was never involved with the terrorist group, but he was no saint either. As a young lad he felt forced to become a small time thief due to the lack of employment. While robbing some lead sheets from a roof of a house he accidentally leads British soldiers to a home that was hiding IRA weapons. Fortunately they never discovered anything, and the IRA members send Gerry off with a warning. His father, Giuseppe (Pete Postlethwaite), with whom he's had an estranged relationship, sends him to London hoping he can find a better future there and escape from all the political turmoil. On his way to London, Gerry runs into his school friend Paul Hill (John Lynch) and together they decide to go visit their friend Patrick Armstrong (Mark Sheppard) who has been living in London along with a group of free spirited hippies. Unfortunately for Gerry and his friends, they end up being in the wrong place at the wrong time and are accused of bombing a soldier's pub. Bullied by the police officers they are forced into signing a confession and are sentenced to prison along with some of Gerry's family members. In prison, Gerry and his father continue to fight to prove their innocence with the help of an attorney named Gareth Pierce (Emma Thompson) and the more she digs into the story the more corruption she finds in the police procedures.

The film manages to draw you in and make your blood boil due to all the injustices suffered by these characters. It is one of those movies where the tension builds up with the passing of time, but at the same time you also feel a connection growing between Gerry and his father. The film becomes more than a simple social injustice tale and turns into a character driven story focusing on the relationship between father and son. It is a shame the film has kind of been forgotten because I thought it was really well made. It never won an Academy Award, but it did receive 7 nominations including Best Picture, losing out to Schindler's List that year. Daniel Day Lewis outshines everyone in this film, although the supporting cast was very strong, especially Pete Postlethwaite who shared great chemistry with Lewis. This was an intense film that had me at the edge of my seat thanks to the way in which Sheridan tells the story and slowly draws the viewer in. The final 20 minutes of this film are perfect and Daniel Day Lewis knocks his performance out of the ball park.

My Oscars Reactions (17/24)

¨And the Oscar for Best Picture goes to Argo¨

Last night the 85^th Academy Awards were celebrated in a big way. Hollywood´s top actors made their way through the red carpet with a lot of glamour. I´m not a fashion expert so I won´t comment on who was wearing what, but I can say that everyone looked beautiful. The ceremony began with a monologue from first time host Seth MacFarlane who got some laughs out of the audience with his song ¨We saw your boobs¨ and with a sock puppet version of Flight while he was interrupted by Captain Kirk (William Shattner) who came from the future to warn him about his terrible hosting gig. He showed us some glimpses of what went wrong and MacFarlane tried to make amends by following Captain Kirk´s advice. The jokes were funny although not that irreverent as the Family Guy and Ted director has us used to. I still enjoyed his opening and I think he did a decent job hosting the Oscars, which once again ran about three and a half hours long. I know many people complain about the length of the ceremony, but I really enjoy this once a year event and loved every minute of it.

Despite opening with a surprise win for Christoph Waltz for best supporting actor, the Oscar were pretty predictable and the heavy favorites won. I loved Waltz´s performance, and he was my favorite in that category but I didn’t think the Academy would give him his second Oscar in three years. I was wrong, and I was happy about that. I was 17 for 24 in my predictions, but I knew some of the categories were going to be close races between one or two picks. So close in fact, that in one category we had a tie which hadn’t happened since the 1960´s. Zero Dark Thirty and Skyfall shared the Oscar for Sound Editing. The biggest surprise of the night was Ang Lee´s victory over Steven Spielberg in the best director category. Life of Pi was one of my favorite movies of the year so I was very pleased once again with the Academy´s decision. The other categories I didn’t predict were both writing categories which did go to the favorites: Argo (adapted screenplay) and Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino). I loved Tarantino´s acceptance speech and this was his second win after Pulp Fiction. It was a long awaited win, but he finally got his moment. Brave beat Frankenweenie in the Best Animated category (a film I really didn’t like too much), Lincoln beat Anna Karenina in the Production Design category, and Inocente beat my pick Open Heart as the best short documentary. Those were my only misses; everything else went on as predicted.

Argo finally won for Best Picture and Ben Affleck got his redemption for not being included in the best director category since he was one of the producers of the film along with George Clooney. He gave one of the best speeches of the night and reminded the audience of how young he was when he won his first Oscar for writing Good Will Hunting. He never thought he would be back, but he made it and has proved to be one of the best directors of this last decade. Daniel Day Lewis won the Oscar for his portrayal of Lincoln and also gave a gracious speech. He is the only actor to have won 3 Oscars in a leading role. He made a joke about Meryl Streep who presented the award to him and his acceptance speech felt natural and authentic. Jennifer Lawrence was also a big winner as she won for her role in Silver Linings Playbook. She tripped while climbing up the stairs and also made fun of herself while accepting the award. She was gracious enough to congratulate Emmanuelle Riva on her 86^th birthday and was very classy. Anne Hathaway won for her performance in Les Miserables in the supporting role. Amour received love in the Foreign Language film category, and Searching for Sugar Man won best documentary (one of my favorite moments of the night because I really loved that doc). Adele was also a big winner for her song Skyfall which she got to perform live on the show. There was also a tribute for the 50 years of the James Bond franchise, and a tribute to musicals as well as we saw some of the cast from Chicago, Dreamgirls, and Les Miserables perform.

The awards were pretty much scattered throughout as there wasn’t one movie to take home a lot of awards as it usually happens. This is because there were a lot of strong contenders this year. Life of Pi was the big winner of the night as it took home 4 Oscars (Director, Visual Effects, Cinematography, and Original Score), Argo 3 (Picture, Adapted Screenplay, and Editing), and Les Miserables also took home 3 Oscars (Actress in a Secondary Role, Sound Mixing, and Makeup) and Lincoln only managed to win 2 (Lead Actor and Production Design) out of the 12 nominations it had. Django Unchained won two as well (Original Script and Best Supporting Actor). Zero Dark Thirty and Silver Linings Playbook each took home one Oscar, so the only Best Picture nominee to leave empty handed was Beasts of the Southern Wild, but that small independent film was a winner simply by being nominated.

It was pretty much an even race, but Argo won the biggest prize of the night in a ceremony which I really enjoyed. I thought it was one of the best in recent memory. I don’t know why people watch the Oscars if they always complain about how bad and long it is; I watch them because I really enjoy them. My favorite moments were the big acceptance speeches from Ben Affleck, Daniel Day Lewis, Quentin Tarantino, Chris Terrio, Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Lawrence, and Ang Lee. If you missed them then perhaps you might want to look them up in YouTube. I also loved the musical performance from Les Mis cast, from Adele, and from Barbra Streisand who sang during the touching memorium tribute. We can´t leave out the most expected star of the show: Ted who entered with his co-star Mark Wahlberg and made some funny remarks. I thought the was a great show and hopefully next year I will improve my score, but for now satisfied with the overall picks. 

  

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My Review: Lincoln (7/10)

¨I could write shorter sermons but when I get started I’m too lazy to stop.¨

Lincoln is without a doubt the most iconic figure in America’s history and for that fact alone this movie is worth checking out considering it is a well researched biopic directed by one of the best contemporary filmmakers: Steven Spielberg. Lincoln may not be as entertaining as it is informative, but none the less this is a film that will stick with you and help you understand perhaps a bit more why Lincoln remains such a beloved and respectful figure in our society today. This film will win several Academy Awards and perhaps even Best Picture thanks to a wonderful lead performance from Daniel Day Lewis, a great supporting cast, and a brilliant screenplay from Tony Kushner, who had previously worked with Steven in Munich. What stands out about this biopic is the way in which Spielberg presents it by deciding to focus on a specific period during Lincoln´s second term as President. The film doesn’t have flashbacks or tell us anything about Lincoln’s past life, but rather focuses on a specific period in time where the President is trying to abolish slavery by getting the 13^th Amendment passed in the Constitution. All this occurring while the Civil War is going on of course, as we see how Lincoln brilliantly manages to maneuver both things at once. By deciding to film the biopic this way we can focus on an important period in Lincoln’s life, without having to go through his entire life. I felt that this way we were able to learn much more about the President and his actions than we would have if we were given every specific about his entire life. By focusing on this specific period we really learn and understand the person that Abe is. I thought this was just a brilliant way to approach the film and it worked wonderfully.

The film takes place during Abraham Lincoln’s (Daniel Day Lewis) second term as president in 1865 while the Civil War is nearing its end. Lincoln knows that if he wants to abolish slavery once and for all in America he will have to do it before the Civil War is over. Concerned about the little effect his emancipation act will have on the slaves after the war he begins to push for the 13^th Amendment to be passed before peace is reached. The Senate has already passed the amendment, and now it is up to the House of Representatives to pass it. He knows he has the votes from the Republican Party, but he still will need about 20 Democratic votes in order to get the amendment passed. In this political game that Lincoln begins to play he tries to extend the Civil War as much as possible in order to get the amendment passed, although he knows that the longer he extends the War the more innocent lives will be lost, including that of his son Robert (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who has decided to join the War. This crisis of conscience that Lincoln faces begins to take a toll on him and his family, although he manages to maintain his serenity through these troubled times. Sally Field plays his wife Mary, while David Strathairn is William Seward the Secretary of State. Tommy Lee Jones is Thaddeus Stevens, one of the Republicans in the House of Representatives who highly favors the amendment.

From the moment that the film begins you get a sense that you really are seeing Abraham Lincoln, the icon himself come to life. Daniel Day Lewis immerses himself completely into his role in such a way that you forget that you are seeing a portrayal of Lincoln, and actually begin to see Lincoln himself. Daniel is a tremendous actor, he surprised us all in There Will Be Blood, and once again he outdoes himself. I wouldn’t be surprised if he wins his third Oscar for his tremendous performance here. He is the highlight of the film. The rest of the cast is also brilliant: You have Sally Field, Tommy Lee Jones, David Strathairn, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, James Spader, Hal Holbrook, John Hawkes, Jackie Earle Hayley, and Jared Harris among many other great actors. The entire cast here is magnificent as they transport us into the past in such a way that you forget you are watching a film. Everything about this film works really well, but I felt it worked more as a history lesson than as a piece of entertainment. This is not an action film, it doesn’t focus on the Civil War, but rather it takes a more personal approach as to the persona of Lincoln and the strategic politic mind he had. This is a film that will help you understand more about the man and how he managed to end the Civil War while at the same time abolish slavery. This is perhaps the greatest historical American political film ever made. Unfortunately I’m not a fan of politics and I did find this film a bit heavy handed, but it was a wonderful experience and it helped me understand and learn more about the man Lincoln.

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My Review: Nine (5/10)

¨Directing a movie is a very overrated job, we all know it. You just have to say yes or no. What else do you do? Nothing. "Maestro, should this be red?" Yes. "Green?" No. "More extras?" Yes. "More lipstick?" No. Yes. No. Yes. No. That's directing. ¨

Those are the words that Lilli, a costume designer, tells Guido, the director, in the musical Nine. I don`t think Rob Marshall has the same opinion about that after directing this difficult film which was based on Federico Fellini`s famous movie 8 ½. It is very difficult for someone to try to make a movie based on one of the greatest films from director Fellini who is considered to be by many the best director of all time. Rob Marshall had big shoes to fill, and it had been seven years since he directed his latest musical, Chicago, which gave him an Oscar for best director and best picture. But that was way back in 2002 and this time the film falls short. It counted with an all star cast (5 of the actors won at least one Oscar), an Oscar winning director, a pair of Oscar winning screenplay writers, and Oscar winning designers, but this film went home empty handed in the 2010 Academy Awards because it just failed to live up to expectations. The story just felt flat and it didn`t accompany some of the great musical numbers very well. Compared to Chicago and Moulin Rouge, this film is miles away from those excellent musicals and can`t even be named alongside them. I never saw the Broadway Musical for this movie which won several Tony Awards, but something went wrong between that theatrical version and trying to bring it to the big screen. The Musical Nine was first produced in Broadway back in the 80`s and the main character Guido was played by the late Raul Julia. A more recent version was produced in 2003 starring Antonio Banderas, who was considered for the role in the movie, but it finally went to Daniel Day Lewis. The screenplay for this movie was written by Michael Tolkin (The Player and Deep Impact) and Anthony Minghella (The English Patient and Cold Mountain), but I have to admit they didn`t do a very good job with the transitions from dialogue to musical numbers, which at some points felt too forced.

Daniel Day Lewis (There Will Be Blood) plays Guido, a famous Italian director who is having trouble coming up with a story for his ninth film which will be entitled Italia. His latest films have all been flops after enjoying a very promising career during his early years. Guido tries to get away from all the pressure and the media in order to find inspiration. He is having an affair with an actress named Carla (Penelope Cruz from Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Vanilla Sky) while his wife Luisa (Marion Cotillard from La Vie en Rose and Public Enemies) stays at home very suspicious of her husband. Guido can`t find his inspiration in his wife because their relationship seems to have cooled down, and he can`t find it with Carla either. Claudia (Nicole Kidman from The Hours) is his Muse and she always works in his film, but this time he can`t even find the inspiration in her. He searches all over for inspiration or ideas for his next film spending time with: his mother (Sophia Lauren), his costume designer Lilli (Judi Dench from Notes on a Scandal), a beautiful Vogue reporter named Stephanie (Kate Hudson from Almost Famous), and even remembering a prostitute from his childhood named Saraghina (played by Fergie from The Black Eyed Peas). Guido`s life begins to unravel in front of his eyes as he sees his directing career going down the drain along with his love life.

Nine is not a terrible movie, but it doesn`t live up to other musicals like Moulin Rouge or Chicago, because it seems to rely solely on sexuality. There are some very good musical numbers which I enjoyed a lot, but the story didn`t seem to work in Nine. The musical numbers were all pretty decent; Fergie`s Be Italian, Hudson´s Cinema Italiano, Cruz`s A Call from the Vatican, and Cotillard`s Take it All, stand out from the rest of the film. But these musical pieces are far too spread out in a movie that lacks a more involving story and better transition from one scene to the next. I think that any director would have died to be able to count with such a talented cast, but this time things didn`t go as planned. Nicole Kidman who was so good in Moulin Rouge, seems to have been the weakest actress in Nine and they could have used her a little better. This could have been so much better, but Rob Marshall didn`t seem to be able to fit all the pieces together this time around and hopefully he will do a better job with his next film which just happens to be the fourth part of the Pirates of the Caribbean saga. Nine is a film you will remember only for a couple of musical pieces, but the rest is very forgettable. I don`t really recommend this film unless you are a fan of one of these actors. Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz, Kate Hudson all stand out from the rest along with Daniel Day Lewis who is always solid in his performances.