Trash (7/10): An upbeat version of City of God, albeit not as raw.

“Anyone who touches that wallet; I want them dead.”

Ever since his feature film debut in 2000, Billy Elliot, Stephen Daldry’s movies have either been nominated for Best Picture or for Best Director. He followed up the success of Billy Elliot with The Hours, The Reader, and Extremely Loud Incredibly Close. His latest film, Trash, which takes place in Brazil and is almost entirely in Portuguese, ends his Oscar nomination streak (although it was nominated for the Bafta Awards), but it does borrow some common themes from most of his past works. The lead characters are children and the story has an upbeat message despite the subject matter. The screenplay was adapted by Richard Curtis from Andy Mulligan’s 2010 novel and some may find some plot similarities between this film and Meirelles’s City of God, although Trash is much more upbeat and less raw. The three lead characters played by children are extremely charismatic and despite not being professional actors they carry the movie. Perhaps my greatest complaint is that given the subject matter the film doesn’t seem raw enough. These characters live off the trash dump but the film looks too impeccable and clean. It’s just a minor complaint because for the most part I was entertained with the story, but it doesn’t come close to reaching the rawness of City of God. 

The film opens with a man on the run from police authorities. Jose Angelo (Wagner Moura, who international audiences may recognize from Elite Squad) has hidden something and the police seem desperate to locate it. As they close in on him Jose spots a garbage truck and tosses his wallet towards it before he is captured. Frederico (Selton Mello) apprehends Jose and begins torturing him for information on what they are looking for. In the next scene we follow the waste truck as it is dumping the trash and several people gather around it looking for food or anything useful. A twelve year old kid named Raphael (Rickson Tevez) finds the wallet which contains some money and a special key. He holds on to it and tells his best friend Gardo (Eduardo Luis) about his discovery. They have no idea what the key opens so they decide to tell another of their friends about the mystery. Rato (Gabriel Weinstein), who lives in the sewers knows exactly what the key is for and he wants to split the findings with them so he joins the adventure. Things gets complicated however when Frederico arrives at the dumping site and offers a reward for anyone who finds the wallet. From that point on the kids don’t only have to try to solve the mystery, but try to avoid being caught by the police in the process. 

The plot involving the key may seem similar to Daldry’s previous film, Extremely Loud Incredibly Close, which focuses on a kid trying to discover what the key opens across New York City, but in this case we discover it pretty early on in the film, but the discovery leads to more mystery and thrills. The three lead characters are much more charismatic and the film delivers several funny moments. It is an engaging thriller that gradually build the suspense, but unfortunately the ending is a bit far fetched and stretched out. Martin Sheen and Rooney Mara have supporting performances as he plays Father Julliard and she an English teacher named Olivia who is doing volunteer work. Both end up involved in the case when they decide to help the kids out in different ways. Despite these familiar faces, the true stars of the film are Tevez, Luis, and Weinstein who bring a lot of charisma and innocence to the story. The film’s message is heavy handed as it is a social cry against political corruption and it is juxtaposed against these innocent children who feel like they are being crushed by the unfair system. The film never feels raw enough to convey that strong emotional message, but it is presented in such a way that feels upbeat and entertaining nonetheless. Trash is worth a watch for the performances of these young actors and the gorgeous cinematography capturing the beauty of Brazil. There are also some very interesting and well filmed chase sequences that help build the overall suspense and thrills that the film delivers. 

My Review: The Way (8/10)

¨You don't choose a life, dad. You live one.¨

The Way is Emilio Estevez´s directorial follow up to Bobby, and he delivers once again with an honest and authentic film about a father`s journey to try to reconnect with his dead son in a pilgrimage through Spain. The film is beautiful and never tries to be over sentimental like most Hollywood dramas do. One may think of it as a religious film, but I found it to be more of a spiritual one. Life is kind of like a journey where we are continually making new relationships, some which may last for a lifetime and others that won´t, but despite that they do mark and define each one of us. Emilio Estevez uses the real life pilgrimage through ¨El Camino de Santiago¨ as a metaphor of life itself, where we see how several different characters interact with each other despite their differing views. The film touches universal themes that people of all ages can identify with. It´s hard not to feel nostalgic towards this film because we might be reminded along the way that we too have come across some of these characters in our journey through life. We all have different reasons for making the journey, but that doesn’t mean we cannot all get along and help each other discover what we are looking for. In that sense the film succeeds in its spirituality, but it also works thanks to the beautiful scenery and a great script adapted by Estevez himself from Jack Hitt´s book. The dialogues in this film are great and despite not having much action we are entertained by the interaction between the characters. Estevez decided to make a film about El Camino after his son and father (Martin Sheen) actually made the journey together in real life. The film does succeed in wanting the viewer to experience this journey in real life as well.

When Tom (Martin Sheen) receives a phone call from a police officer in France informing him that his son Daniel (Emilio Estevez) died in a storm while deciding to make a pilgrimage across Spain known as ¨El Camino de Santiago, ¨ he immediately gets on a plane to bring back his dead son´s body. Once he arrives at St. Jean Pied de Port, France and identifies the body he decides to cremate it and then begins the pilgrimage while spreading the ashes across various points of the journey. El Camino is an 800 km pilgrimage across Spain that people have been making for centuries ending at the Cathedral of St. James where the apostle´s body is said to be buried. Tom realizes there is much more to life than the life he had in California working as a doctor and spending his free time playing golf. As he begins the journey he runs into several different pilgrims who are making the journey for several different reasons. Some of the friends he makes along the way are Joost from Amsterdam (Yorick van Wageningen), a friendly and talkative man who is making the pilgrimage because his wife wants him to lose weight, Sarah (Deborah Kara Unger) a Canadian in her 40`s trying to quit smoking, and an Irish man named Jack (James Nesbitt) suffering from writer´s block. Along the way these misfits find a way to get along and help each other out through their issues.

Martin Sheen is always great, he´s one of the best actor´s of our time, and in this film he really delivers a powerful and authentic performance. This is the second time he plays Emilio Estevez`s father in a film directed by his real life son, the first being the 1996 film The War at Home which I really liked. He brings a lot of authenticity to his character, but the laughs come from Yorick the Dutch. He is almost unrecognizable from his role in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and when the mood begins to get too dark in The Way he always lightens things up. The rest of the cast is also strong, but the main character here actually is El Camino. It´s just beautiful and the film makes you want to take the journey yourself. I really enjoyed this film and would definitely recommend it.  It is a simple and slow film, but Estevez manages to take us on a journey and reminds us that it is good to get outside of our bubble at times and live life.

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My Review: Apocalypse Now Redux (7/10)

¨I love the smell of napalm in the morning.¨

There is no doubt that Apocalypse Now will be considered by many as one of the best films of all time because it is a very memorable and unique film. It feels surreal at times and has some great performances. It`s also hard to define what genre the film belongs to because it doesn’t seem to have a structure or a pattern we find in other films. Apocalypse Now is a classic and powerful film, but I really wasn’t blown away by it and didn’t enjoy it very much. The problem I had with it was that I watched the Redux version which is almost one hour longer than the original, so there were several moments that seemed to drag forever. What I did enjoy about this movie was the first hour which I felt was an absolute masterpiece. Those first sixty minutes were a lot of fun and had the best moments in the movie. Then the next two hours dragged way too much with all the surrealism. I got the point, the soldiers were getting crazy over the minute and the film succeeds tremendously in pointing that out as we see how nonsensical this war really was. The minds of these men seemed to be lost completely and there was chaos reigning all over the place. For me nothing will replace those brilliant first sixty minutes with a performance from Robert Duvall for the ages. He was perfect in those few scenes he was in and I wish the film would`ve dealt with him instead. The entrance in the helicopters with the classical music and then the surfing in the middle of the war zone was so hilarious; one of the best scenes in film history. I was really feeling good about this movie, until the film went completely in another direction and lost my interest.

The movie takes place during the Vietnam War and it begins with a voice over narration of the main character, Captain Benjamin Willard (Martin Sheen), who has recently returned from the United States to continue fighting. He is beginning to lose his mind while he awaits his mission. He says all he wanted to do when he was in the jungle was return home, and once he was home all he wanted was to return to the jungle. War has taken its toll on him. Finally he receives a new mission from Colonel Lucas (Harrison Ford) that is highly classified. He has to go down the Nung River all the way to Cambodia and find a former Colonel who has seemed to have lost his mind and gone haywire. He has built an army of his own and is killing off several Viet Cong officials without taking orders from anyone. Colonel Lucas wants Captain Willard to locate Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando) and kill him. Willard is sent on his mission along with a Navy patrol boat to escort him. Chief Phillips (Albert Hall), Chef Hicks (Frederic Forrest), Lance Johnson (Sam Bottoms) a known surfer, and Clean Miller (Laurence Fishburne) are Captain Willard`s only companions on this classified mission. In order to begin their course down the river they first have to infiltrate a Viet Cong outpost so Lt. Kilgore (Robert Duvall) and his cavalry help them do so. As Captain Willard and his men begin their descent through the river they come across several bases (friendly and enemy) and the further down we go the more chaotic and wild things begin to get.

The descent through the Nung River was probably my least favorite part of the film. I enjoyed much more the scenes with Lt. Kilgore and his men that helped them begin their mission. Duvall as Lt. Kilgore steals the movie and he is brilliant in every scene. He is more concerned with surfing than he is with the actual War. It`s as if he is living in an alternate reality. This is just a small glimpse of what we are going to see further on in the movie as we encounter different outposts that seem to get weirder every time. Everything is escalating up to the very end and seems to get more and more chaotic thus making the title, Apocalypse Now, very appropriate. This isn’t your typical war movie, people are losing their minds and the film becomes more and more surreal and harder to fit into one specific genre. Francis Ford Coppola was at the top of his game during the 70`s with The Godfather films and you can see how brilliantly directed the scenes were. The cinematography and lighting was excellent. The reason I don’t give this film a higher grade despite admitting it is a memorable and unique movie is because I really wasn’t entertained that much with it. It would be hard to watch it again, unless I could just see that first hour with Robert Duvall. The all star cast makes it a little easier to watch: Robert Duvall, Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Harrison Ford, Dennis Hopper, and Laurence Fishburne.

  

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My Review: The Amazing Spider-Man (8/10)

¨We all have secrets: the ones we keep... and the ones that are kept from us.¨

Spider-Man is back with a reboot and although it seemed sort of early for it, Marc Webb did a great job with this film by refreshing the story and the characters. I enjoyed the first three Spider-Man films, although I wasn’t a huge fan of them. Webb not only refreshed the series, but he also improved it in my opinion by doing one thing: getting Andrew Garfield to play Peter Parker. Garfield, who I really appreciated in The Social Network despite having flown under the radar in that movie, is excellent as Peter Parker. He has the right amount of charisma and wit that his character needs. I loved his performance much more than Tobey Maguire`s. The other great addition to this reboot was the inclusion of Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy, Peter`s original love interest in the comics and who was played by Bryce Dallas Howard in the third film. Emma Stone is one of the greatest young talents on the screen and she is just lovely in this film and had great chemistry with Garfield. Webb had proved in the past that he could make a strong romantic film with his feature film debut, 500 Days of Summer, but I wasn’t sure how the action was going to work out in The Amazing Spider-Man. The truth of the matter is that the action scenes were excellently choreographed and the film was visually stunning; I had a great time at the theater. I don`t know if a reboot was absolutely necessary at this stage, but I had a fun time nonetheless.

There are a few similarities between the original Spider-Man and this film, but for the most part screenwriters James Vanderbilt, Alvin Sargent, and Steve Kloves chose a different approach in this version of the superhero story. They focused more on Peter Parker`s (Andrew Garfield) troubles in school as a teenager and how he dealt with his parents death. After leaving him with his Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen) and Aunt May (Sally Field), his parents never returned so Peter was raised by them with strong moral values. Despite having a great relationship with them, Peter is still hurt about the loss of his biological parents and is trying to deal with it as well as his growing feelings for his classmate Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone). While trying to deal with all these normal teenage feelings, Peter discovers a forgotten briefcase of his father which contains some secrets about his past. Peter finds a picture of his father with Dr. Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans), who used to be his good friend and science partner in Oscorp. That is when Peter decides to visit Oscorp and is bitten by a genetic spider. We all know the result of that spider bite: Peter becomes Spider-Man. As he tries to manage these new special abilities, Peter also befriends Dr. Connors in search for answers about his parents past. Peter deciphers an equation he found from his father`s briefcase which allows Dr. Connors to make a huge advance in his genetic experiments, which ultimately leads to him becoming the Lizard, Spider-Man`s nemesis.

If you would`ve told me that the silly guy from Notting Hill would be playing The Lizard I would`ve thought it was a joke. Rhys Ifans is great in comedies, but I never imagined he could play an important villain with such success. The people behind the casting of this film did a tremendous job because every character seemed to be played by the perfect actor. I mean who better to play Captain Stacy than Denis Leary? Every role just fit perfectly and that was what ultimately made The Amazing Spider-Man such a fun film. Andrew Garfield with his unique wit and charm works almost in the same way that Robert Downey Jr. did as Tony Stark. It was as if these actors were born to play these roles. The entire cast was great in this film, so was the crew behind the special effects department. The film looks really good and is exactly what a summer blockbuster movie is supposed to be. The Amazing Spider-Man might not be as great as The Avengers, but it still was a really entertaining film worth the ticket price. Spider-Man fans will be pleased and I doubt anyone will be missing Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker after this performance, although I still have my reservations over whether or not a reboot of the series was necessary at this early stage.

     

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My Review: Wall Street (8/10)

¨The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.¨

Oliver Stone`s Wall Street is a memorable film with some great performances from Michael Douglas and Charlie Sheen. Michael won the Oscar for his portrayal of Gordon Gekko, a very greedy corporate businessman who will be remembered among the best villains Hollywood has created. He is not your typical villain, Gekko has the respect of many people and under his expensive business suits and his sly fox-like smile lies a man who`s greed and lust for money has left thousands of people out of jobs. He personifies the evil that can be hidden in Wall Street, as Hal Holbrook`s character warns Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) ¨ the main thing about money is that it makes you do things you don't want to do.¨ This is exactly what has happened to Gordon who only cares about money and he really doesn`t care at what expense it comes to his other fellow human beings. The only goal for him is to continue making more money because as he puts it greed is good and it’s the only way America will improve its economy. Stone has created a memorable character in Gekko because he actually believes he`s doing the right thing and that economy is just a game where some win and others lose, but it’s actually more than that and his greed has blinded him. His character serves as a warning for all the people in Wall Street because that is where money can lead you, but not everyone is bad and in a way Holbrook`s character represents the good in Wall Street. You have to give credit to Stone who in a way pictured what was going to happen in the future if more people like Gekko ran Wall Street. I`m no expert in economy, but I still found this movie very interesting thanks to a good screenplay written by Stone and Stanley Weiser, and some great performances from the cast (excepting Daryl Hannah who was miscast in this film).

Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) is a young stockbroker who is having a difficult time making it to the top of the firm he is working for. He dreams of one day meeting Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) an extremely successful broker in New York who has become one of the most powerful men in Wall Street, and who Bud totally idolizes. He insists on meeting him and calls his secretary every day trying to arrange a meeting. He finally meets Gekko with the excuse that he is bringing him a present for his birthday and gives him a heads up on buying stock from an airline company. Bud has some inside information about Bluestar Airlines because his father, Carl (Martin Sheen), works there so Gordon takes an interest in Bud for his persistence. Gekko takes him under his wing and teaches him a thing or two about being a broker. The first rule is never to take risks; he tells Bud ¨ I don't throw darts at a board. I bet on sure things. Read Sun-Tzu, The Art of War. Every battle is won before it is ever fought.¨ This means that Gordon doesn`t actually play it fair in the market and only buys stocks depending on the information he gathers about a certain company. Bud soon begins to play the same game and finds ways to illegally gather information for Gordon and quickly begins to rise in the firm he works at. Hal Holbrook plays one of his bosses from the firm who actually tries to give him some good advice. His rise to the top may come at a great price however because money easily made can easily go as well.

Wall Street is a very smart drama/thriller that stands out because it has some great characters that we can identify with. Michael Douglas is at his best playing Gordon and the scene where he gives the speech about money and greed is just memorable, Charlie Sheen is also great in his role as an aspiring stockbroker who wants to succeed in what he does. He is so blinded by his worshipping of Gekko that he does things he probably never would`ve thought of doing before. He wants to become Gordon so bad that he doesn`t realize that what he is doing is wrong. He actually thinks he isn`t hurting anyone in the process. At one point he has a serious conversation with his father about his job and Carl tells him to ¨ stop going for the easy buck and start producing something with your life. Create, instead of living off the buying and selling of others. ¨ In a way it might be the advice Oliver Stone was trying to give us about Wall Street, too much greed could end up bringing the downfall of the entire system. This is a great movie whether you are into economics or not and can be enjoyed for the performances alone. I don`t know much about economics and stocks, but I still found this movie highly entertaining with some great characters so I recommend this.

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