It's been a real cinema-rama lately. Last night I took PLC and his brother to see Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln" with Daniel Day Lewis in the title role. There is hardly a soul on the planet that doesn't realize what a fantastic actor Day-Lewis is and he lives up to all expectation by making the role of arguably the most iconic of all Americans his own. One critic implied that this is as close to anything we've seen portrayed as the "real" Lincoln that it's possible to experience short of having access to a time machine.
Daniel Day-Lewis as Lincoln
There are good performances all around with Tommy Lee Jones as the Abolitionist congressman Thaddeus Stevens, Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln and David Straithorne as Secratary of State William Seward. One critic mentioned his feeling that Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Lincoln's oldest surviving son, Robert, was given little to do in view of his own virtuosity as an actor. I can understand that notion but the film is from a script by Tony Kushner most famous, justifiably, for his play "Angels in America" and the film has used only about 10% or so of the original 500 page script. The other prominent source material for the screenplay in turn derives from historian Doris Kearns Goodwin's tome about Lincoln and his administration, "Team of Rivals". This is hours and hours of superb quality material from which to condense into a mere two-and-a-half hour film. By any standard the film is long enough to be considered worthy of an intermission in the old days- you know when I was young. Films like "Lawrence of Arabia", "Ben Hur", "My Fair Lady" and "West Side Story" were routinely two-and-a-half-plus to three-hour affairs and they all had a midpoint intermission. "Lincoln" didn't seem to have any drag to me as a film but I read that The Progressive magazine's editor said it put him and his family asleep due to it's length and subject. This makes me more concerned about The Progressive- a very good magazine- than the film. Maybe I should just skip their film reviews.
"Lincoln"'s events are orchestrated toward the end of the Civil War and around the passage of the Thirteenth amendment to the United States constitution which banned slavery. PLC and I found it fascinating, filled with wonderful detail which flowed very naturally and believably with subtle touches and hints throughout. But we never, ever found the film dull or deadening.
Raymond Massey and Henry Fonda both had played Lincoln decades ago and each of them gave a lasting vision in the popular imagination about "Honest Abe", but I can state without qualification that Daniel Day-Lewis seems to give creedence to the myth that "the third time's the charm". The prior ones were good performances- hagiographic but still very good and a reflection of that era in America- but this one is great.
In a somewhat presaging bit of fortune, we watched about half of "Capote" on Netflix the day before - and the second half hours before- we went to see "Lincoln". Of course "Capote" has been out several years but neither PLC or I had seen Phillip Seymour Hoffman's Oscar-winning performance as Truman Capote. To tell the truth just looking at the dvd jacket in years past I kept finding it hard to believe the subject would arrest my attention. Well here is another rather astonishing channelling of a personality by a brilliant actor. In this case what could have been a mimicry- indeed Truman Capote's celebrity image almost seems pre-fabricated to suit that type of facile rendering- Hoffman convincingly fills out a portrait that manages to give deep insight to Capote's effort in creating a new template for literature in documenting four horrific murders while still leaving the man a mystery in a manner that seems somehow true to the facts. Capote's resulting book was "In Cold Blood". Again I have to plead that I have only my ignorance directly and an understanding by inference about Capote's non-fiction masterwork- I have never read it. I have a feeling I will make time for that now.
Catherine Keener is very interesting as Capote's friend and fellow author Harper Lee. In the film she is helping Capote interview people around the Kansas murder as well as the two young men accused of the crime of whom a subtle homoerotic component seems to be implied.
Clifton Collins Jr. as Perry Smith is also excellent. Smith was the brighter of the two convicted of the murders. The tension of unease and compassion between Capote and Smith is a key focal point of the film and of Capote's want to understand this man who appears as a negative mirror image of the adaptations Capote evidently felt he'd suffered. As Capote put's it in the film Smith seems to have gone out the back door while he went out the front door from the same cursed house.
A day before this we went to see the new James Bond film "Skyfall". Bond films ran out some time ago of the original 12 novels. I read them all as a young teenager. What most fascinated me about Bond was the depth of knowledge he had about a wide variety of subjects and his sophistication in dealing with all things worldly. My Mom was actaully a bit concerned about me when she'd noticed that I'd basically read all of the novels quickly in serial order when I was somewhere between 12 and 15. I now forget exactly when my Bond obsession transpired chronologically. I pictured Bond as vaguely olive completed though Caucasian, wiry but not thin, muscular but not showily so and handsome but in a cypher-like, quiet way that might almost be unnoticed in a public setting. Bond succeeded by outhinking a step or several ahead of all but the most gifted of his diabolical adversaries. The image Sean Connery cut as Bond was very diferent than the book Bond- of course he was great in the role even so. Of all the Bonds I always thought Pierce Brosnan and to a slightly lesser extent Timothy Dalton fit the image of Bond best. Certainly Roger Moore did not. But even less likely is the current Bond, Daniel Craig, who nonetheless may be in one of the very best Bond films in "Skyfall". Craig is a wonderful actor and while physically miscast to my, and many others', eyes he fits the bill better because of his chameleon abilities as an actor. After all an undercover operator IS an actor. All the better if one does not draw undue attention to oneself."Skyfall" has a great opening sequence along with the requisite title sequence that helps to set a tone to this one of the best-directed and acted of any Bond film. It probably is the best in those categories. Javier Bardem of "No Country For Old Men" and "Before Night Falls" among a compact but sterling group of quality films with his quality performance anchoring them is the evil adversary in this one. He's simply smashing in the role and might be the best monstrous villain since Heath Ledger's Joker in the Batman film "The Dark Knight". Craig's Bond is surreally vigilant and resourceful as any Bond must be but he also conveys the widest emotional palette in doing so. Judi Dench abley supports as Bond's boss "M".
Leaving the theater I asked PLC if he thought this was the best Bond film and he said yes. I tend to agree with him, though "Goldfinger" and "From Russia With love" with Sean Connery may be the gold standards for the early films that established this sub-genre.
Then the night before that we'd gone to watch Denzel Washington's role as an alcoholic pilot in "Flight". "Flight" is both effectively exhilarating and depressing. Robert Zemeckis is the director and I've never been a particular fan of his somewhat overbroad brand of filmmaking. But Washington's riveting performance and Zemeckis' avoidance of his more sentimental tendencies serve this film well. Along with the star performance the script manages to keep suspense and surprise in play throughout.
Lerman, Miller, Watson in "Wallflower"
And, finally a week earlier we'd gone to see "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" mostly because of the buzz the young actor, Ezra Miller, playing an eccentric gay teenager in a trio of friends in a Pittsburg area high school was generating.
"Harry Potter's" Emma Watson plays his step sister and fellow senior with a "loose" rep among the boys and Paul Rudd plays a caring teacher. But somewhat unheralded is Logan Lerman who plays the thrid spoke in this wheel of friendship as a transferring freshman with deep problems in his immediate past. This young actor is really wonderful in the film.
We were both reminded of Michael Chabon's first novel "The Mysteries of Pittsburg" with it's gay themes within a somewhat similar age group of a decade earlier than early 1990s "Wallflower" is based.
Daniel Day-Lewis as LincolnThere are good performances all around with Tommy Lee Jones as the Abolitionist congressman Thaddeus Stevens, Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln and David Straithorne as Secratary of State William Seward. One critic mentioned his feeling that Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Lincoln's oldest surviving son, Robert, was given little to do in view of his own virtuosity as an actor. I can understand that notion but the film is from a script by Tony Kushner most famous, justifiably, for his play "Angels in America" and the film has used only about 10% or so of the original 500 page script. The other prominent source material for the screenplay in turn derives from historian Doris Kearns Goodwin's tome about Lincoln and his administration, "Team of Rivals". This is hours and hours of superb quality material from which to condense into a mere two-and-a-half hour film. By any standard the film is long enough to be considered worthy of an intermission in the old days- you know when I was young. Films like "Lawrence of Arabia", "Ben Hur", "My Fair Lady" and "West Side Story" were routinely two-and-a-half-plus to three-hour affairs and they all had a midpoint intermission. "Lincoln" didn't seem to have any drag to me as a film but I read that The Progressive magazine's editor said it put him and his family asleep due to it's length and subject. This makes me more concerned about The Progressive- a very good magazine- than the film. Maybe I should just skip their film reviews."Lincoln"'s events are orchestrated toward the end of the Civil War and around the passage of the Thirteenth amendment to the United States constitution which banned slavery. PLC and I found it fascinating, filled with wonderful detail which flowed very naturally and believably with subtle touches and hints throughout. But we never, ever found the film dull or deadening.Raymond Massey and Henry Fonda both had played Lincoln decades ago and each of them gave a lasting vision in the popular imagination about "Honest Abe", but I can state without qualification that Daniel Day-Lewis seems to give creedence to the myth that "the third time's the charm". The prior ones were good performances- hagiographic but still very good and a reflection of that era in America- but this one is great.In a somewhat presaging bit of fortune, we watched about half of "Capote" on Netflix the day before - and the second half hours before- we went to see "Lincoln". Of course "Capote" has been out several years but neither PLC or I had seen Phillip Seymour Hoffman's Oscar-winning performance as Truman Capote. To tell the truth just looking at the dvd jacket in years past I kept finding it hard to believe the subject would arrest my attention. Well here is another rather astonishing channelling of a personality by a brilliant actor. In this case what could have been a mimicry- indeed Truman Capote's celebrity image almost seems pre-fabricated to suit that type of facile rendering- Hoffman convincingly fills out a portrait that manages to give deep insight to Capote's effort in creating a new template for literature in documenting four horrific murders while still leaving the man a mystery in a manner that seems somehow true to the facts. Capote's resulting book was "In Cold Blood". Again I have to plead that I have only my ignorance directly and an understanding by inference about Capote's non-fiction masterwork- I have never read it. I have a feeling I will make time for that now.Catherine Keener is very interesting as Capote's friend and fellow author Harper Lee. In the film she is helping Capote interview people around the Kansas murder as well as the two young men accused of the crime of whom a subtle homoerotic component seems to be implied.Clifton Collins Jr. as Perry Smith is also excellent. Smith was the brighter of the two convicted of the murders. The tension of unease and compassion between Capote and Smith is a key focal point of the film and of Capote's want to understand this man who appears as a negative mirror image of the adaptations Capote evidently felt he'd suffered. As Capote put's it in the film Smith seems to have gone out the back door while he went out the front door from the same cursed house.A day before this we went to see the new James Bond film "Skyfall". Bond films ran out some time ago of the original 12 novels. I read them all as a young teenager. What most fascinated me about Bond was the depth of knowledge he had about a wide variety of subjects and his sophistication in dealing with all things worldly. My Mom was actaully a bit concerned about me when she'd noticed that I'd basically read all of the novels quickly in serial order when I was somewhere between 12 and 15. I now forget exactly when my Bond obsession transpired chronologically. I pictured Bond as vaguely olive completed though Caucasian, wiry but not thin, muscular but not showily so and handsome but in a cypher-like, quiet way that might almost be unnoticed in a public setting. Bond succeeded by outhinking a step or several ahead of all but the most gifted of his diabolical adversaries. The image Sean Connery cut as Bond was very diferent than the book Bond- of course he was great in the role even so. Of all the Bonds I always thought Pierce Brosnan and to a slightly lesser extent Timothy Dalton fit the image of Bond best. Certainly Roger Moore did not. But even less likely is the current Bond, Daniel Craig, who nonetheless may be in one of the very best Bond films in "Skyfall". Craig is a wonderful actor and while physically miscast to my, and many others', eyes he fits the bill better because of his chameleon abilities as an actor. After all an undercover operator IS an actor. All the better if one does not draw undue attention to oneself."Skyfall" has a great opening sequence along with the requisite title sequence that helps to set a tone to this one of the best-directed and acted of any Bond film. It probably is the best in those categories. Javier Bardem of "No Country For Old Men" and "Before Night Falls" among a compact but sterling group of quality films with his quality performance anchoring them is the evil adversary in this one. He's simply smashing in the role and might be the best monstrous villain since Heath Ledger's Joker in the Batman film "The Dark Knight". Craig's Bond is surreally vigilant and resourceful as any Bond must be but he also conveys the widest emotional palette in doing so. Judi Dench abley supports as Bond's boss "M".Leaving the theater I asked PLC if he thought this was the best Bond film and he said yes. I tend to agree with him, though "Goldfinger" and "From Russia With love" with Sean Connery may be the gold standards for the early films that established this sub-genre.Then the night before that we'd gone to watch Denzel Washington's role as an alcoholic pilot in "Flight". "Flight" is both effectively exhilarating and depressing. Robert Zemeckis is the director and I've never been a particular fan of his somewhat overbroad brand of filmmaking. But Washington's riveting performance and Zemeckis' avoidance of his more sentimental tendencies serve this film well. Along with the star performance the script manages to keep suspense and surprise in play throughout.
Lerman, Miller, Watson in "Wallflower"And, finally a week earlier we'd gone to see "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" mostly because of the buzz the young actor, Ezra Miller, playing an eccentric gay teenager in a trio of friends in a Pittsburg area high school was generating."Harry Potter's" Emma Watson plays his step sister and fellow senior with a "loose" rep among the boys and Paul Rudd plays a caring teacher. But somewhat unheralded is Logan Lerman who plays the thrid spoke in this wheel of friendship as a transferring freshman with deep problems in his immediate past. This young actor is really wonderful in the film.We were both reminded of Michael Chabon's first novel "The Mysteries of Pittsburg" with it's gay themes within a somewhat similar age group of a decade earlier than early 1990s "Wallflower" is based.
Comments (5)
You may have just sold "Lincoln" to me by way of your review! I'm not sure that it's going to have a massive appeal this side of the Atlantic, other than the draw of Daniel Day-Lewis being in it. He's widely regarded in the UK for his ability to "live" every role he's in, although there is much scepticism in some circles about the extreme method acting he apparently employs. Of course I can remember seeing him for the first time in the gay-themed 80s film "My Beautiful Launderette." He was rather sweet in that. That film also is a massive example of the vagaries of fame: Day-Lewis went on to quietly become a major star (without being star-ey!) whilst his co-star effectively disappeared from view before resurfacing with minor parts in a couple of comedy series and soaps, even an advert or two. I wonder if they're still in touch...
As regards "Skyfall," it is one of the best films I've ever seen, regardless of its being part of the Bond phenomena. I've never been a massive Bond fan and I have to admit I've never read any of the novels so I can't comment on the character as written in comparison to the character on film. From the moment the opening titles began with Adele's wonderful voice soaring over the clever visuals I knew I was in for a treat. It was the modern Bond I was hoping for after being left cold by the Bourne-like "Casino Royale." I thought "Quantum of Solace" was pretty good, but still lacking that warm heart of the older movies. This time that warmth, despite the death and destruction, was re-instated and it made all the difference. I hate to sound jingoistic but having a British director in charge of a British institution seemed to work completely - Mendes just got it right. Daniel Craig has, despite my misgivings about the actual first two films, become my definitive Bond. (But then I seem to be the only person who actually thinks George Lazenby was pretty damn good.) Connery was brilliant,Brosnan almost as good but much as I think he's a good old stick Moore was too smooth and physically slight to be anything close to convincing. More like a spoof Bond, in fact. As for Dalton... I don't know why, he just doesn't do it for me in anything.
How was Emma Watson's American accent? I have a thing about accents being done properly. (Gwyneth Paltrow in Sliding Doors was on the nail! Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins (Meeeweee Paaarpinz)well that doesn't need commenting on.) I've only seen a couple of episodes of "House" but Hugh Laurie's American accent didn't ring true to these British ears.
Anyway, thanks again for the review of "Lincoln" - may well give that a go!
Hey, thanks for a response to my nonsense. I often feel like a tree falling soundlessly in the woods- not as much here as at another site I post mostly sports-styled nonsense at.
Your misgivings about "Lincoln" may be well-founded for those not at least interested, if not enthralled, by 19th century American politics. But the film really revolves around characterizations that may have some universality. Day-Lewis's "method" is, of course, just that. He's a de facto method actor as is DiNiro, De Caprio and yet another Brit-who-does-Yankee, Christian Bale, and many others who immerse themselves into an environmental cocoon of the character being created. Another British actor, Charlie Hunnam, plays a California biker in the FX series "Sons of Anarchy" and apparently stopped speaking to the actor playing his evil step-father outside of their scenes together. Not sure why this discipline to their art is even particularly noticed anymore but then the actors I've personally met have impressed me as being difficult probably because they are in the "business" or craft of exteriorizing that which many of us mean to keep strictly an interior reality. It's a wierd business.
Two British men who also bear some kudos for their bravery in allowing themselves to appear American- even after the world watches our flat-Earth types and white-people-for-white-people voters in exit polls- are the aforementioned Hugh Laurie in "House" and Damian Lewis In "Homeland". I have to say that even as I knew Laurie was British the first time I saw him interviewed on a talk show after having watched a season or two of "House" his accent still was a visceral surprise to me. I was just as stunned to hear Damian Lewis who seems to be working through a slight speech impediment- a whisper of a lisp, perhaps?. I mean no derision in this because I find Lewis utterly convincing in this as well as his other American role before "Homeland". The other show was a short-lived NBC series about a cop seeking some form of revenge after being wrongfully imprisoned for years called "Life". My partner and I were both fans of "Life" as well as we are of "Homeland".
Many of us are convinced Gwyneth Paltrow has a special dispensation from the Queen that allows her access to an accent no-one else among our hidebound nationhood is privy to.
Diamonds Are Forever. Oh yeah.
I was never much of a big box-office moviegoer. It's probably going to be a couple years, as usual, before I see any of these, but I definitely want to see "Lincoln," and what I've heard about "Wallflower" sounds kind of intriguing. The moviegoing experience these days is just different from before, now that they're all ADHD-sized and shown in sardine-tin auditoriums. For the longest time I was mystified about what the first selection on the OST for Kubrick's "2001" was, since it's not heard anywhere in the film. It wasn't until one of the annual Ebertfests featured a showing of a remastered print of the widescreen Cinerama version, in a proper old theatre, that I realized---it was the music that was played before showtime and during intermission! It's funny that these days a movie creeps towards the two-hour mark and the first thing people say afterwards is how long it was, yet they'll sit all the way through a Super Bowl game without a thought.
It seems the Oscars agreed with you about Daniel Day-Lewis. Not a surprise to me, I must say. Has he ever been less than very good?? They did however prefer Argo as best film. All I can say is that many film critics here agreed with you. What I mean by this is that if some 'thought' Argo would win, they also in turn didn't 'want' it to. Amour was a favorite here, but Lincoln also.
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