Flick of The Day: Lincoln

There are few historical figures more clothed in the endearing embrace of the passage of time than the 16^th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. Time makes saints of the worst of men and Lincoln was a statesman and leader for the ages in his own lifetime.  In the years since his death he has become an almost mythic figure, the great emancipator and a man who symbolised all that could be borne of political will. The greatness of the United States, if such a thing can be said to exist, is tied up in men and women like Lincoln. To attempt a biographical film on his life and times is a tall order and one which Hollywood has attempted on more than one occasion. That a film-maker of the calibre of Steven Spielberg combined with a stellar cast is behind this latest effort should be a cause for excitement among cine-philes everywhere.

Eschewing, correctly in my opinion, the approach of previous directors of attempting to tell the story of Lincoln’s life’s work in favour of a focus on a brief few months toward the end of the gruelling civil war, Spielberg’s film attempts to document the passage of the 13th Amendment which abolished once and for all the abomination that was and is human slavery. We meet Lincoln on the margins of a rainy battlefield as he talks jovially with a pair of young black soldiers fighting for the Union side in that most bitter conflict. From this one scene it becomes apparent what an incredible performance Daniel Day Lewis has once again drawn forth from within himself. He inhabits the role completely down to the gait of the President. From this conversation with pair of soldiers, Lincoln resolves to pass the amendment in the democrat controlled house of representatives no matter the cost to his personal prestige or relationship with his fellow republicans.

Despite the protests of his Secretary of State, an excellent David Strathairn and his much put upon wife, a fine Sally Field, he pushes on seeking to grasp by any means necessary the votes he requires. To accomplish this, he must do two things. Firstly he has to secure the votes of his own party led by an aged Hal Holbrook who demands that a negotiated peace be sought with the confederacy. This will lead inevitably to the defeat of the bill so it must be held off. Secondly, he must procure through the use of state favours, 20 democratic votes. To this end he hires a firm of lobbyists led by Mr W.N. Bilbo, a fantastically entertaining performance from James Spader to procure the necessary votes. Yet even at this point, the passage of the bill is not assured with Lincoln having to involve the noted radical and abolitionist Thaddeus Stevens, again another superb performance from Tommy Lee Jones. Were these political troubles not enough, he also suffers with a wife who grieves for her lost son and another son, Robert, played by Joseph Gordon Levitt who yearns to play his part on the battlefield. That he manages to walk this difficult personal and political path while also fighting a war along with his most trusted General, Ulysses Grant, played by the always watch-able Jared Harris, is a tale in and of itself.

There is not a single weak performance in what is an excellently assembled cast. I realize reading the above that I have yet to even praise actors of the calibre of John Hawkes, Jackie Earle Haley or Tim Blake Nelson. 

The real achievement of both Spielberg and Day Lewis is that on one hand they shake the dust off the mythic status of Lincoln and humanise him so that he may be viewed as an ordinary man with flaws and difficulties while on the other they manage to put his achievements in a proper light and eulogise them for how ground-breaking they truly were. This is proper old school Hollywood film-making on a grand scale and deserves to rewarded as such. It will be a surprise if it fails to win most of the main acting awards as the forthcoming Academy Awards and yet this is a fine year for cinema with a number of equally excellent rivals.

Flick of The Day: Looper

A few weeks back in my review of Premium Rush, I noted that it had been a big year career wise for Joseph Gordon-Levitt and it would seem unfair not to mention perhaps his most challenging role in Rian Johnson's mind bending time travel flick Looper. A bravely original story, it didn't break any box office records but found solid reviews wherever it opened.

Looper

In the year 2044 in a post-collapse America, time travel has yet to be invented but thirty years from then it has been. While the technology is quickly outlawed, criminal organisations harness it for nefarious uses. Those people who have to be made disappear are sent back in time where designated assassins known as Loopers dispose of them. One such hired gun is Levitt's Joe, a man in it for the money with a longing to escape the life and move to Paris. He spends his days learning French and his nights using drugs in hedonistic night clubs. One of the unfortunate elements of his job is that one day his employer will send his older self back in time to be murdered, a process known as closing the loop. Of course that day soon arrives and Bruce Willis turns up as older Joe. Joe hesitates for a moment and his older self knocks him out and goes on the run. Joe is left with little choice but to track down himself and see the loop closed or face the consequences from his boss Abe, an excellent Jeff Daniels.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is not an obvious younger version of Bruce Willis and he deserves credit for undergoing the requisite make-up which makes him largely unrecognisable. The film opens very well, creating  a wonderfully realised dystopian setting. Indeed so well done is the set-up and the flash forward's to the next thirty years of Joe's life that the rest of the film can't really live up to it. The pace slows as we reach the middle of the film and the lack of any real action is a real shame because the film picks itself up again as we head for a thrilling finale. Please do not take this as a scathing criticism however for their is so much to enjoy and take in, it is just a shame that it doesn't fully realise its potential.

The film possesses an excellent and well thought out cast beyond the leads. Paul Dano and Emily Blunt give fine turns and special mention must go to newcomer Pierce Gagnon who is excellent for such a young child in a role that very much carries the second half of the movie. Ultimately this is a satisfying if imperfect slice of mind bending sci-fi in the manner of Christopher Nolan's Inception. There are so many great ideas throughout the script, much like Rian Johnson's earlier neo-noir in a highschool film Brick.

Johnson deserves particular credit for bringing a new idea to the table in terms of time travel, something which is littered throughout the genre. The film is also particularly stylish and self assured and this combined with a fine concept and a stellar cast carry the whole thing off.

Flick of The Day: Premium Rush

2012 has been a big year for American actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt, there was his crucial and justly lauded turn in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises, followed by the mind bending science fiction action of Looper alongside Bruce Willis and he is currently filling the screen space opposite Daniel Day Lewis in Steven Spielberg's Lincoln however perhaps his best performance of the year is in the little seen recent release Premium Rush about bike couriers on the streets of New York.

Premium Rush

Levitt is a recent law school graduate named Wilee who spends his days in the (supposedly) high octane world of bike couriers criss crossing the streets of Manhattan as he delivers and collects his packages. It turns out to be an interesting sub culture and David Koepp's fast paced storytelling is well suited to pulling the audience into the this otherwise unseen brotherhood of wheelies. One afternoon Wilee arrives to collect a package with a difference.  This letter contains something which corrupt cop Bobby Monday played by the excellent Michael Shannon is desperate to get his hands on. There is a whole sub plot involving money laundering and people trafficking which explains the letter but I'm not going to bore you with it. It's merely a MacGuffin to drive the film on. All you need to know is that Wilee has it and Monday wants its, so begins a chase across the streets of Manhattan.

Levitt excels in the role of the underachiever with a clear moral code. Wilee may not be making the right decisions in his own life but he knows what the right thing to do is and puts himself on the line accordingly. The other impressive aspect of his performance is the sheer amount of fitness required for it. The cycling chase scenes are spectacular at times and they rely largely on Levitt's skill at the wheel. Michael Shannon's role is perhaps underwritten and we know nothing other than he faces a gambling debt and needs to score a large some of money in short order. Shannon is perhaps the best character actor in American cinema today though and he brings a gruff realism to the role.

The film is slight at barely 90 minutes and there isn't really and fat on the script that I can see but its fast paced nature never really lets up even in the flashback scenes and the film is all the better for it. It's enjoyable and it doesn't hang around long enough to overstay its welcome. Director David Koepp made his name as a screenwriter with a credit list of blockbusters that has to be seen to be believed but after 1999's Stir of Echoes and 2008's Ghost Town, this confirms his talent as a director of intelligent mainstream cinema.

All in all, this is an enjoyable break neck chase movie that makes the most of a talented cast and some excellent cinematography. The backdrop of the Manhattan streets is the perfect setting for such a high octane thriller as we have seen countless times for. A fine film.

Flick of the Day: The Dark Knight Rises

For better or worse, comic book adaptations have largely come to dominate the list of Summer box office titans over the last decade since the release of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man in 2002. This film, an adaptation of perhaps the most commercial of the comic book superheroes spawned two sequels and even a reboot this Summer. Perhaps an unexpected consequence of its success was to set off somewhat of an arms race between the two publishing empires Marvel and DC who have come to dominate the genre. Each Summer since the year of Spidey, there has been at least one major release from the pair. From the awful (Daredevil, Hulk) to the interesting (Iron Man, X-Men), Marvel has been the more dominant of the two with a four year cycle of films culminating in this Summer's tent pole release Avengers Assemble. Perhaps the last laugh may go to DC Comics who have garnered critical acclaim for Christopher Nolan's series of Batman films culminating in today's flick of the day and last in the trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises.

The Dark Knight Rises

Perhaps the most pleasing element of Nolan's approach to the Batman character has been the intellectual legitimacy which he has garnered for the genre and for his own work. Nolan's Batman is an adult creation who endures in a relentlessly downbeat Gotham, and a world away from the witty quips of an Iron Man or other more child friendly creations. After the success of the previous instalments in the series 2005's Batman Begins and the Heath Ledger dominated The Dark Knight in 2008, hopes were unnaturally high amongst the near-rabid fan base. 

Opening 8 years after the events of the previous film, we find ourselves in a much changed Gotham. Thanks to the Harvey Dent Act, crime has dropped to an all time low under the auspices of Commissioner Gordon, played again by the great Gary Oldman. Meanwhile Bruce Wayne has retired into seclusion, a Howard Hughes like tragic figure who hides in the shadows of his vast mansion while his Batman alter ego has not been seen since the death of Dent at the end of the previous film and has taken the blame accordingly. However there is a storm brewing in the shadows of Gotham, a mysterious cat burglar named Selina Kyle is making herself known. Kyle is played by the surprisingly adept Anne Hathaway. Also stepping into the complacent Gotham is the terrorist Bane played by a bulked up Tom Hardy. Bane is the very antithesis of Bruce Wayne's moral code,a masked man who wishes to see Gotham brought to its very knees and is introduced to us in a spectacular opening scene. The cast is rounded out by the ever reliable Michael Caine reprising his role as Alfred and Joseph Gordon Levitt as a young police officer with an independent streak while Marion Cotillard is underused as a wealthy social campaigner.

Without delving too deeply into the plot, suffice as to say Christian Bale's mournful Bruce Wayne is forced to don the black cape once more to defend the city once more but will he still be up to it or will Bane prove too much for him? The films moves from one stand out scene to another while still managing to detail the moral turmoil at the heart of the tale.

Despite coming in at an ass numbing 2 hours and 45 minutes, the film doesn't seem to lag at least I never felt my mind wandering. There is much to enjoy here from a visual perspective and as with so much of Nolan's best work, there is a subtle subtext at work here. Bane appears to be less the kind of unthinking Lucifer that was Ledger's Joker and more of a crusading villain attempting to return Gotham to its own year zero. There are some interesting references to corrupt bankers and the evils of wealth but they are not fully followed through and merely exist to hang Bane's psyche on.

Again without giving anything away, the ending is an enjoyable piece of storytelling which ties up the looses ends nicely while delivering the kind of emotional punch and what if analysis seen in Nolan's Inception. The wide and varied cast deliver in their respective roles with a special mention for Michael Caine, who as Alfred is the moral core of the film attempting to rein in Bruce's need to satisfy and save. Caine will be 80 next March and is still delivering performances that wow. As noted, Marion Cotillard is largely underdeveloped given her pivotal role in the film though perhaps this was intentional. Nolan's direction is never heavy handed  and hits all the right notes in the set-pieces while the score from Hans Zimmer serves to enhance the action with its terrible Sturm und Drang giving the piece an epic feel. And the film is epic if nothing else, the breadth of the story and the moral complexity of the characters is unlike anything previously attempted in a comic book adaptation. 

While not hitting the heights of perfection which so many fans had unreasonably hoped for, this is a strong ending for Nolan's trilogy and nicely finishes out the tale which began uncertainly in 2005. Bale is undoubtedly the best actor to have taken on the role of Batman and his broody intensity was well matched with Nolan's attempts to take the character down the dark road to which it is best suited. Arguably Nolan's best work has been outside of Batman with Inception and The Illusionist. I look forward to his next work. So then in conclusion, not perfect but a very enjoyable film all the same.

Flick of The Day: Brick

Film Noir is that most stylistic of genres, trading as it does substance and realism for an often rollercoaster ride to the dark side of town. Populated by cynical leading men and a host of seedy underworld characters, it exhibits a bleak view of humanity and arose primarily from the dark underbelly of domestic prosperity in America during the 1940s and 50s. Strictly speaking today's film is Neo-Noir, in that it attempts to recapture the spirit of those films in a modern setting. Brick, written and directed by Rian Johnson, was a big hit at Sundance in 2005.

The film's narrative centers on a hardboiled detective story that takes place in suburbia, specifically that most well travelled of film locations, an American High School. The film draws heavily in plot, characterization, and dialogue from films such as The Big Sleep and The Maltese Falcon. Suspend your disbelief for a moment and take the story at face value and you will quickly get sucked into a gripping ride with a twist finale. Brendan, played by the then rising star Joseph Gordon-Levitt, is the high school loner who has to try and penetrate the upper echelons of the school's social scene and its drug fuelled underbelly when he finds his ex-girlfriend's body in a storm drain, shortly after she made a cryptic call for help.  As always, to find out the true story, you have to watch the film.

This film could so easily have been a train wreck mixing as it does the high school genre and the dark heart of Film Noir however the script is well crafted enough and the leads so obviously enjoying themselves that it pulls it off. As mentioned the film is carried by the performance of its leading man, Jospeh Gordon-Levitt. His character is obviously intelligent, driven by guilt to find out what really happened to the woman he loved. However it's his everyman nature that will keep you caring about what happens to him and his quest for truth.

Shot in only 20 days on a minimal budget by a first time Director, this film punches far above its weight. If you love Noir, you'll love this, filled as it is with shady guys. femme fatales and sharp, pacy dialogue.