Mudbound - Dee Rees (2017)

Sometimes, a film comes around, reaching for epic status. A great many of these are enthusiastic, but embarrassingly bad. Some actually do reach epic status.

Dee Rees' "Mudbound" is an ambitious film. It wants to be everything: a war story, a drama, but most of all, an acceleration of hatred between man against man, family against family, white against humanity.

When Ronsel Jackson (Jackson Mitchell) a black servicemen, comes home a hero from World War II, his family is ecstatic. His dad, Hap (Rob Morgan), is overjoyed when Ronsel tells him he intends to stay with his family, in Mississippi and work on the family's farm.

Of course, this is problematic to say the least. The Jackson family are tenants of the McAllen's, led by an inhuman patriarch, Pappy (Jonathan Banks). He doesn't miss an opportunity to make it clear to Ronsel that he doesn't care what respect or rights he had during the war. Ronsel is back here in Mississippi.

In fact, the whole McAllan family together represents a familiar "racism with a smile." They demand absolute servitude from the Jacksons, even as the head of their family, Hap is incapacitated by a broken leg, and expected to be working.

Meanwhile, Ronsel starts a strange kind of friendship with Jamie, (Garrett Hedlund), one the McAllan boys coming back from the war as well. They bond over their partying, fighting, close calls, womanizing, the toll killing people can take on one's soul, and their shared shell-shock.

At one point, there's a rare scenario when the McAllans are in a position to humble themselves and ask a desperate service from the mother of the Jackson family, Florence (Mary J. Blige). The McAllan children have gotten sick and they can't reach a doctor. Laura, (Carey Mulligan) understands Florence knows how to care for them. Knowing that her family won't get any kind of thanks, that the McAllan family will continue to demand servitude, Florence agrees to help. Yes, the McAllans are monsters, but you can't take that out innocent children. Of course, when the danger is passed, things continue as they were.

Ronsel and Jamie continue their friendship, getting closer as they spend more time with each other. But there's a dark shadow lurking over them: Pappy McAllan. The man's cold, deliberate malice is deadly. More-so than Jonathan had ever dreamed.

When the story reaches its boiling point, every single character is hurt. And what's truly sad is that these tragedies have no moral. They're empty and meaningless. None of it was necessary. In the end, there's just loss and grief.

But this film is bigger than the violence. With the backdrop of Belgium and other WWII stages, "Mudbound" covers decades in these families' lives. It covers a love triangle, the increasing boldness of the Ku Klux Klan, the sparks of the Civil Rights movement, a story of vengeance, of fathers and sons and  it nails each of these smaller story contained within.

The film reaches for epic status and touches it.

And Jonathan Banks deserves recognition for his work as he brings white hatred and quiet savagery to the screen personified on his very face. I'm still frightened by the thought of him.





 

Coming Soon, I Promise

I know it's late in the year for telling you what the top ten films of 2017 are, but it takes time for so much wisdom to paint itself across these pages.

I do have a tentative list. My delay in posting my top 10 films of 2017 exists because there are a number of films I've not had the chance to watch yet. As soon as I see them, I'll give you my finalized list.

If you've been paying any attention at all, you'll remember I've been calling Jordan Peele's satire "Get Out" the best film of the year and that hasn't changed.

There. Consider yourselves spoiled.

Quote of the Day - If you don't already have this one down, I can't help you.

"Just because you are a character, doesn't mean you have character." - the unsurpassed Winston Wolf played by Harvey Keitel in Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction."

The Beguiled - Sofia Coppola (2017)

Remember earlier last year, right around Cannes time, when Sophia Coppola's "The Beguiled" was all anybody could talk about? We were all so sure the film would be renowned and celebrated come award season?

Surprisingly, Coppola's newest masterpiece, based on the novel by Thomas Cullinan, and the screenplay for the picture of the same name from 1971, has been overlooked, forgotten in just a few short months. 

Who knows why, but it's clearly a mistake most in the film community are making. They have a penchant for tunnel vision and short memories.

At any rate, we'll move on, knowing we're smarter than they are.

The plot of Coppola's latest offering looks, on its face, to be a pretty typical period romance. And it is. For the first hour, "Beguiled" paints us an emotional and typical love triangle. You can almost see the cover of the cheap romance novel with Colin Ferrell flashing his muscles under a white shirt that, for some reason, is torn open. 

Coppola starts the film out as a parable about showing simple kindness to all mankind, even one's enemies. 

A girl finds a wounded soldier Corporal John McBurney, (Colin Farrell), in the woods one day and brings him to a small school for girls. The girls are reticent about allowing a Yankee to recuperate in their proper southern school.

They reluctantly agree to let him stay with them because it's "the Christian thing to do." Soon, there's a spark, a small one at first, of romance between the Corporal and the school's Headmistress, Miss Martha, (Nicole Kidman in an chilling, muting, intense performance).

Then, Edwina (Kirsten Dunst) decides she'd like the Corporal for herself. 

Next, as we are just realizing another girl, Alicia, (Elle Fanning in turns a performance from pure into a vapid temptress), squeezes herself into the love triangle, Coppola takes a dark turn at the start of the third act. It's surreal watching the story unravel the true hostility that had been boiling under their skins all this time. 

The Corporal changes from a possible love interest to a villain on a dime. Coppola manages to make the change subtle and disruptive at the same time. Farrell gives the performance of the film as the third act makes the whole story the embodiment of what Southern Gothic really is.

Every character, each of the girls at the school, loses some innocence. The girls' virtue turns violent and that is the tragedy behind "The Beguiled." 

That is what  makes this film so dark.

That is what makes this film so lovely.

Quote Of The Day - Hope You've Seen This

Him: "It's not your fault. Nothing is ever enough. I couldn't create if it was. And I have to. That's what I do. That's what I am. Now I must try it all again."

Roman J. Israel, Esq. - Dan Gilroy (2017)

Dan Gilroy's legal drama/thriller "Roman J. Israel, Esq." is one of the most ambitious films to come out in 2017. It wants to be so many things: thriller, drama, an attempt at a biography, and squeezed between all that, just a bit of romance.

Roman, played by Denzel Washington, is an introverted lawyer who has dedicated decades of his life to fighting for civil human rights.

For decades, Roman has stood in the background, under the wing of his boss and mentor. He's not one to seek the spotlight. He prefers his quiet but important work to practice than the kind of legal work that brings one glory.

When his mentor is incapacitated by a stroke and later dies, Roman's world turns upside down. Now he has to be integrated with humans. Roman feels a great weight put on his shoulder. He feels alone in his determination to see that their clients' civil liberties are defended.

George Pierce, (Colin Farrell) represents a significant power shift in the firm. He now runs Romans' office and aims to turn the law firm on its head, threatening Roman's important civil work in the firm. Roman's smacked down every time he tries to work on one of his civil rights cases.

Roman's life, and his career, are put on the line as he has to start to decide whether or not he can learn to work as a lawyer focused on money.
This misery continues through the second act. We wonder if Roman has a breaking point. Are there circumstances under which he would be willing to sell out?

The rest of the film kind of melts into a law-thriller. There's no center, no focus. Roman's story feels incomplete as if we are just watching a merging of several sub-plots.

The trailer makes "Roman" come off as a civil rights film, but it's a disappointment when you find it's more or less just about a guy going through midlife crisis.

And the half-hearted romance they throw in could have easily been cut from the film without missing a single beat. Maybe that's why the film feels so unfocused.

But "Roman J. Israel Esq." does have virtue.

We watch Roman as he tries to take on not just one case, but the entire prison system.  It shines a spotlight on how malicious our justice system really is.

He insists that, "A person is more than the worst thing they've ever done."As we can see in the U.S. today, with mandatory minimums and unbending, merciless Prosecutors, the punishments handed down are usually excessive ,especially when it comes to young black men.

Of course, lawmakers who point this out are labeled "soft on crime," which would hurt their careers. That is why it's up to the courts to fix this problem and that's why I do hope a lot of people see this film. It's a fight most of America either doesn't know about or doesn't care about. That's why Roman's struggle is worth it.

As for Gilroy's effort itself: The entire film feels uneven and will leave you unhappy and confused. Hell, I can't even decide if it's a thriller or a drama.

So, I guess come for the politics, not the quality of storytelling.

Because in a word, meh.

I, Tonya - Craig Gillespie (2017)

Some people are deserving of a celebration of their life. Whether revolutionary (Spike Lee's "Malcolm X"), controversial (Oliver Hirschbiegel's "Downfall"), or bizarre ("Milos Forman's "The People vs. Larry Flynt"), biographical films don't always work.

There are three such films: educational, boring as hell and the odd ducks. (And when I say "odd duck," I do so with loving affection. People who think "odd" is wrong are fascists.)

Craig Gillespie's film "I, Tonya," which follows Figure Skater Tonya Harding, from her abusive childhood right through her boxing career is among the oddest of the odd ducks.

From the start of her earliest years, Harding (Margot Robbie), has never had anything or any companion save ice-skating. It's the standard life of a young figure skater. Practicing eight hours a day, having been forbade from eating anything delicious and stuck with her mother (Allison Janney).

In this film, Harding's upraising with her terrifying mother is given priority over her skating career, her troubled relationship with Jeff Gillooly (Sebastian Stan), or even "the incident."

Harding's mom is definitely one of the mothers who decided to raise an athlete instead of a daughter. Janney plays the role of a controlling mother openly, controlling to the point of abuse, I felt like picking up the phone and calling social services. You can actually feel the venom spitting from her lips anytime she's anywhere near Tonya. She is brought to vivid life by Janney who makes her performance. Allison Janney is really the revelation of this film. She has popped up in my nightmares these past few days.

Aside from the way Tonya is, and isn't, nurtured, the film takes us through her relationship with Jeff Gillooly. We can see she falls back on funicular, when Gillooly starts beating her just like her mother has always done.

She struggles, with more than her figure skating. She also has to a great deal of energy with her mother's derision and Gillooly's twisted distortion of what support looks like.

"I, Tonya" has earned all of the accolades it's getting right now. It's gritty and honest. It stands among some of the darkest comedies I've seen.