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Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the gentle title character on a sleek poster for Oliver Stone's Snowden
Snowden is the 20th fiction feature from great New-Yorker filmmaker Oliver Stone (Born on the Fourth of July (1989)). It is written by Stone and Kieran Fitzgerald (The Homesman (2014)), based on two novels: Luke Harding's (WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy (2011)) non-fiction The Snowden Files (2014) and Anatoly Kucherena's (We Cannot Do Without Bloodshed (2003)) fictionalized Time of the Octopus (2015).
Edward Snowden, a precarious but deeply dedicated young American male, finds out that he can best serve his country by using his prodigal computer skills, working for the NSA and CIA. Over the course of several years, he is increasingly distraught by the covert tactics of his government, leading up to his becoming a whistle-blower for The Guardian in 2013.
Stone, once again, succeeds with a controversial, highly relevant and political current issue, - namely that of Edward Snowden and the mass surveillance and privacy infringement and espionage perpetrated by the US government. His film is arguably more important, inflammatory and needed than any other he has done in decades. As such, it is this year's The Big Short (2015); a thrillingly substantial outlaying of outrageous recent history; eye-opening and assured in its conviction: That Snowden is no suspicious expat that deserves decades behind bars or to rot in his involuntary refuge in Russia, but is, in fact, an American hero, a brave friend of the common man and an excellent citizen.
Cinematically, Snowden isn't as innovative as Big Short. But it's solid all-around, deftly illuminating the problems of mass surveillance in the digital age while letting us ever closer to its title protagonist and his struggles as a loyal citizen with increasingly burdening knowledge and feelings of complicity.
Thanks to a stellar cast that Stone has managed to gather, the film becomes a riveting encounter: Joseph Gordon-Levitt (10 Things I Hate about You (1999)) has a smugness that peaks through his otherwise impressive performance; he really embodies Snowden credibly. Shailene Woodley (The Fault in Our Stars (2014)) is, once again, excellent, here as the very normal, loving girlfriend. Rhys Ifans (Another Me (2013)) and Nicholas Cage (Drive Angry (2011)) appear and are great in minor but pivotal parts, and the cast is full of exceptional actors; young up-and-comers like Scott Eastwood (Diablo (2015)) and Ben Schnetzer (Pride (2014)) and more seasoned actors like Timothy Olyphant (Deadwood (2004-06)), Joely Richardson (101 Dalmatians (1996)), Tom Wilkinson (RocknRolla (2008)), Zachary Quinto (Star Trek Beyond (2016)) and Melissa Leo (Flight (2012)).
Don't go into Snowden expecting a break-neck paced conventional thriller. - Its hero is a geek, and it's about technology and the real world, which is thrilling in another way. - But no less thrilling, mark you. Snowden is a must-see.
[Snowden premiered September 9 (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 134 minutes. Stone was working on a film about Martin Luther King's last years with Jamie Foxx starring when he started getting contacted about Snowden and eventually went to Russia and met him. Stone allegedly paid 0.7 mil. $ for the rights to Harding's book and 1 mil. $ for the rights to Kucherena's, scrapping the King biopic. Financing proved tough: Stone and his producer financed the film themselves until 8 days before production, when French and German financing came through: Probably due to its controversial content, it was not possible to get American financing for Snowden. The film was shot in 62 days from February - April in Munich, Germany, Moscow, Hawaii, Washington, D.C. and Hong Kong. The budget was so tight that when Stone's mother passed away, he had to miss her US funeral, because the production couldn't afford any delay. Fears of surveillance and hacking by the NSA made the cast and crew adhere to special precautions during production. Gordon-Levitt, who had also gone to Moscow to meet Snowden and his girlfriend to prepare for his part, donated his entire salary to the production. The release was pushed out from a December 2015 release until the fall of 2016. The film opened #4, behind Sully, Blair Witch and Bridget Jones' Baby, to an 8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spend its 2nd week in #5 and then left the top 5 and has to date grossed just 18.8 mil. $. The film has yet to open in several important markets like France, Germany, Spain, the UK, Italy and Japan, and hopefully it will still gather the much larger audiences it deserves, and avoid becoming a major flop. Snowden is fresh at 63 % with a 6.3 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
+Best Dramedy of the Year+ Best Period Movie of the Year
An elegant, light poster for John Lee Hancock's Saving Mr. Banks, which, through the use of shades, appeals to our imagination
P. L. Travers, the English female writier behind Mary Poppins, is pressed for money and therefore gets lured reluctantly from her London residence to Hollywood in 1961, where Walt Disney, after 20 years of courting the woman, is anxious to adapt her classic work. The dynamic between the contrary, English curmudgeon and jovial, stubborn American Walt is loaded with comic opportunities, which are exploited skillfully in this sweepingly sentimental treat of a film. Tom Hanks (Sully (2016)) and especially Emma Thompson (In the Name of the Father (1993)) deliver outstanding veterans' performances, - among the best of the year, - and they are exceptionally backed up: Wonderful Bradley Whitford (The Mentalist (2011, TV-series), B. J. Novak (The Office (2005-13)) and Jason Schwartzman (Moonrise Kingdom (2012)) are Disney writers who try to work with the exceedingly difficult Englishwoman; and Paul Giamatti (Love & Mercy (2014)) is terrific in a warm role as Travers' LA driver. In the Australian-set flashback-section, which doesn't completely match the sky-high quality of the present plane (of 1961), Rachel Griffiths (Burning Man (2011)) and Ruth Wilson (The Lone Ranger (2013)) are good as the heroic nanny and the troubled mother, respectively. Colin Farrell (The Lobster (2015)) is also good as Travers' father, who is disintegrating in alcoholism. Saving Mr. Banks is written by Kelly Marcel (Fifty Shades of Grey (2015)) and Sue Smith (Peaches (2004)) and directed by great Texan filmmaker John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side (2009)). It has an excellent, Oscar-nominated score by Thomas Newman (The Help (2011)). It is an extremely lovable, handsomely produced period dramedy with more to it than some may think. Although its structure is far from innovative, it hits all the right chords of the heart as sure as amen in church before the credits start rolling. It is a huge joy.
[Saving Mr. Banks premiered October 20 (BFI London Film Festival) and runs 125 minutes. The script was developed mostly outside Disney, who took an interest in it and decided to produce it. Filming lasted 9 weeks from September - November 2012, entirely in Southern California, including Disneyland, the Chinese Theatre and Hollywood Boulevard. Several aspects of Travers' and Disney's relationship, her response to the finished film and the character of the driver are changed for the film or entirely made up. The film opened #18 in 15 theaters to a 413k $ first weekend, widening to 9.3 mil. $ and #5 (behind The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues, Frozen and American Hustle) in 2,110 theaters in North America, where it grossed 83.3 mil. $ (70.7 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Australia with 8.9 mil. $ (7.6 %) and the UK with 7.1 mil. $ (6 %). The film was, surprisingly, only nominated for one Oscar, for Newman's score, which it lost to Steven Price for Gravity. Thompson was nominated for a Golden Globe, and the film was also nominated for 5 BAFTAs and several other awards. It was included in the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute's top 10 lists of the year. Saving Mr. Banks is certified fresh at 78 % with a 7 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
Best Production Design(won) Best TV-series (lost to Treme S1)
+ Best Gangster Movie/TV-series of the Year + Best Shooting Star Actor of the Year: Michael Pitt
Protagonist Enoch 'Nucky' Thompson played by Steve Buscemi heads inland in Terence Winter's Boardwalk Empire
The 12 episode 1st season of the HBO series starts at the beginning of Prohibition, which seems to mostly evade Atlantic City, where the show takes place, in a sense, (namely that they keep on drinking, now just illegally distilled and distributed liquor.) The city's gangster treasurer, Enoch 'Nucky' Thompson arranges the booze smuggling and profits from it, as well as from other illegal and legal enterprises in the tourist-heavy, coastal spa city. The following will contain SPOILERS.
Wonderful, heightened reality HD character poster for Terence Winter's Boardwalk Empire
The series starts with strength in the 73 minute long first episode directed by Martin Scorsese (The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)), which became the costliest pilot ever produced at 18 mil. $: Thompson underling Jimmy Darmody (the brilliant Michael Pitt (Rob the Mob (2014))) is tempted by the FBI, while the violent husband of Irish immigrant Margaret Schroeder is killed as a scapegoat for a smuggling operation gone haywire. The pilot is almost over-filled with introductory stuff, stuff happening, - just LOTS of stuff to keep track of. It had to establish the whole series for other directors to follow, so they could emulate Scorsese's style. It succeeds in catching you, and just might confuse you a bit, too. In the following episodes, the pace luckily slows down a bit, as we get to know the characters better and better.
Michael Pitt and Steve Buscemi in Terence Winter's Boardwalk Empire
Nucky's brother is the sheriff of AC, and is bitterly subordinated to his triumphant brother. Darmody, after some stupidities, goes into exile in Chicago, where he joins a bloody partnership with the young Al Capone and sees his lover get her face slashed open as retribution. After getting even with the help of a new acquaintance with a war disability, Darmody returns home to AC, while FBI agent Nelson Van Alden (Michael Shannon) whips himself and tries to (metaphorically) force a boulder up a mountain with his professional and personal goal: To enforce Prohibition in the city. Thompson's top-distiller, the black Chalky White is also his entrance to the city's big, African-American population, whom he needs at election-time. The very high quality level of the series is held, as women attain the right to vote, and Darmody unwittingly scares his girlfriend's bisexual friend-couple away at his homecoming, where he also succeeds in ending the slow poisoning of his father, the city's retired 'Commodore'. Agent Nelson's insanity culminates in his drowning of his subordinate at a Baptist church mass baptism, and he then receives a sign that he has to stay and continue his impossible job in AC, opposing his wife's begging. (The 'sign' being that he has impregnated a whore there, the former lover of Enoch, Lucy Danziger (Paz de la Huerta)). Shroeder appears to want to stay with Nucky, thus compromising her own ethics and moral. In the end we get what we are hoping for: A little romance. After all the stiff whiskys; dark, hard and prone to tragedy, as the series is. Boardwalk Empire is a lavish, tragically swinging 1920's Sopranos (1999-2007) in its best moments. Incredibly well-produced, succulent and brilliantly casted. Michael Stuhlbarg (Men in Black 3 (2012)) and Kelly Macdonald (In the Electric Mist (2009)) as Schroeder are also excellent, and they all have their places well behind the show's seasoned, great lead, played by Steve Buscemi (The Sopranos (2004-06)) in the biggest role of his career. This is a grand and crazy-good series. - Get it! It is created by Terence Winter, who also produced many Sopranos episodes, and directed one, Walk Like a Man (2007), and has written a lot; Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2005), 25 (!) Sopranos episodes (2000-07) and The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) to name some of it. He has now written and will produce an untitled HBO rock 'n roll TV movie that Scorsese is set to direct. The film is cast. Best episodes: Episode 5: Nights in Ballygran The series shows its dark face again around St. Patrick's Day, wherein Schroeder and her Women's Temperance League confront the reality of the city, and an unexpected romance between her and Enoch starts. Episode 8: Hold Me in Paradise The highpoint in the series to this point: The sheriff gets shot in the fight against the incoming Italian hoodlums, and the election is determined. Related posts: Martin Scorsese: The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) - A helluva movie! (Written by Terence Winter) 2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess The Aviator (2004) - The grand American biopic The Age of Innocence (1993) or, Stayin' IN the Pants What do you think of Boardwalk Empire?
The three principals front the poster with the characteristic, unusual, turquoise title for Nikolaj Arcel's A Royal Affair
In the late 18th century, mad King Christian VII of Denmark gets a new physician, Johann Struensee, who finds a partner in the queen, who shares his enlightenment ideals, which he succeeds in implementing as laws through the easily manipulated king.
A Royal Affair is a really handsome epic costume drama-romance. The images, - photography by Rasmus Videbæk (Noi the Albino (2003)), - locations, costumes, - by Manon Rasmussen (Melancholia (2011)), - all good work. Aesthetically Affair blends Marie Antoinette (2006) and Amadeus (1984) with Danish landscapes, (and less pomposity than those two films as well, it must be admitted.) The madness is refreshing in the context of the often somewhat inhibited wig-drama, and it somehow makes the whole menagerie very tangible. Good acting all the way through in the star cast, and particularly the two leading men impress:
Mads Mikkelsen does some soul-searching as doctor Struensee in Nikolaj Arcel's A Royal Affair
Mads Mikkelsen (The Hunt (2012)) as the progressive doctor and Mikkel Boe Følsgaard (Arvingerne (2014), TV-series) as the problematic king are very good. Alicia Vikander (Anna Karenina (2012)) as the sweet, tragically smitten queen emotes well and has a steaming romance with Mikkelsen but unfortunately speaks all of her lines with thick Swedish accent (she's supposed to be British) and a throat-ish, raspy voice that's distracting.
Mads Mikkelsen and the lovely Alicia Vikander in Nikolaj Arcel's A Royal Affair
The film is a little long (running 137 minutes), but never bores. It is a true story so good that you have to see more. The historically- and/or politically interested will especially appreciate Affair. The score is a little stiff and old-fashioned, and this adds to the fact that the really grand emotions fail to appear in most audiences to this film. Still, A Royal Affair is a very rare and welcome treat that most will greatly enjoy. It is co-written and directed by Nikolaj Arcel (King's Game (2004)), who has written the script for the coming sequel about police inspector Carl Mørck titled Fasandræberne (2014, The Pheasant Killers).
The really great, evocative poster for Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty
After 9/11, the Americans seek the responsible criminals in Afghanistan, Pakistan and surroundings. We follow their methods and the hunt, its losses and final goal: Osama Bin Laden.
Jessica Chastain fights in Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty ...
Jessica Chastain (The Help (2011)) is outstanding as modern strong-woman Maya, who leads the manhunt.
for America!
Also Jason Clarke (White House Down (2013)) has a memorable performance as a tough interrogator.
Jason Clarke in Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty
The film's general excitement is remarkable, given that we already know the outcome, (the concluding raid of Bin Laden's compound that resulted in his death had happened in May 2011 and changed everything about the movie that was already written and in pre-production at that time.) The explicit approach to highly controversial events and methods in Zero Dark Thirty, including torture, is laudable, and perhaps the film sheds some of the mystery and suspicion from many people's perception of America's activities abroad sine 9/11. The last act of the film with the mission of raiding the house is a bit long, - which was fully accepted in '12, where the news interest and sensational curiosity value was still sky-high, but may be less so in years to come. - What did the Navy Seals do to get Bin Laden? Everyone wanted to know. Detracting also from the greatness of Zero Dark Thirty, - [which is a military term for 30 minutes past midnight, both the time of the mission and the symbolic place of darkness wherein the whole ten year manhunt took place], - is its fictionally permissive account of reality while still claiming to show the true story. Regardless, Zero Dark Thirty is an impressive feat and a suspenseful, troubling movie, which will interest anyone who wants to try to understand the post-9/11 era. It was directed by Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker (2008)), who has yet to find her next movie.
See the very well-crafted trailer here, - which basically oversteps its limits, in saying that 'THIS IS HOW IT HAPPENED'. Only the mission in the end is totally fact-based, while most other scenes have fiction layers involved
Budget: 40 mil. $ Box office: 138.7 mil. $ = Big hit (#1 in America in its wide release weekend) What do you think of Zero Dark Thirty? What would you like to see Bigelow tackle next?
A powerful poster for Paul Greengrass' Bloody Sunday
QUICK REVIEW:
Bloody Sunday recounts the day when nearly 30 people were gunned down by British special troops in the Irish town of Derry, while participating in a civil rights protest against the English advance.
Actor James Nesbitt in Paul Greengrass' Bloody Sunday
The film is a well staged and multi-faceted portrayal of the events, mainly from the perspective of the protest planners, which clearly points its finger at the excessive use of force by the Brits. Excellent acting, - and very well-achieved by English writer-director Paul Greengrass (Captain Phillips (2013)): He succeeds in maintaining suspense, as we slowly move towards the already known end, the mass murder. The story is a heinous tragedy, a dirty spot in English history, which was only recently formally excused for by current British PM, David Cameron. Very good film.
One exciting, and a little strange, old poster for Edward Dmytryk's Back to Bataan
QUICK REVIEW: Back to Bataan is about the heroic resistance fight of the Philippines together with the Americans against the imperialist Japanese in the middle years of WWII. The film has propagandistic overtones, - as could be expected, - because it was a contemporary war depiction made and released during the biggest war effort the US had ever participated in, - a war effort that was enormously heavy in human and economic losses, - but there still is at least one Japanese in the film who is not entirely vicious.
John Wayne in the Pacific in Back to Bataan
Anthony Quinn (La Strada (1954)) seems miscast in this film, but John Wayne (The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)) is rock-solid as the heroic American colonel. Bataan is a little quaint as a war film, but has some fascinating scenes. Wayne, who went on to be one of Hollywood's most prominent Republicans, was surprised and dismayed to learn during the production of this film that both its Canadian-born director Edward Dmytryk (The Caine Mutiny (1954)) and screenwriter Ben Barzman (The Heroes of Telemark (1965)) (who was later blacklisted in the years of McCarthyism's Red Scare) were more or less communists.
Watch the hyperbolic original trailer right here
Budget: Unknown Box office: 2.4 mil. $ = Unknown You are welcome to add points or opinions on Back to Bataan Do you know any American WWII-films made during the war that are recommendable?
Neal McDonough on this poster for Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg's Band of Brothers
QUICK REVIEW: Most episodes in this HBO-miniseries begin with clips from interviews of real soldiers from the 101st Airborne Easy company that is the subject of the series. They tell their memories to the eternal vacuum of posterity, enveloped in black space, to an unmoving, observing camera and are often quite moving. It gives Brothers the right spirit and sets the appropriate mood for this great WWII-show. A mood of importance, of the vast wingspans of history and of great sacrifice. Band of Brothers is a series about sacrifice and unity during terrible trials. In spite of the men's differences and strives, they always have each others backs, and that is what is so fantastically uplifting about Band of Brothers. We have to praise ourselves very lucky that two of the very few people on earth who could make such an incredibly ambitious and expensive project with the required skill and integrity here actually have: Tom Hanks (Captain Phillips (2013)) and Steven Spielberg (Shindler's List (1993)), who had previously collaborated on Saving Private Ryan (1998), along with a vast team of very talented writers and directors. Brothers was the most expensive mini-series ever made at the time. Episode 1 is about the training in Currahee, Georgia, where the newly formed regiment are trained under the incompetent lieutenant Sobel (David Schwimmer (Friends (1994-2004)) does well), and after this, the group are thrown off to Normandy and D-day. The episodes of Brothers distinguish themselves by being different from one another; they tell different stories and therefore do not drown in the same dreary pot of awful war. Episode 3 concerns itself with private Blithe (perfectly played by Marc Warren (Shine (1996))), who suffers a frightening hysterical blindness. The soldiers' experiences and traumas are taken seriously, and the horrors of war are portrayed with impressive precision. We follow regiment-leader Winters and his colleague-friend Nixon throughout the series, played by Damian Lewis (Homeland (2011-13)) and Ron Livingston (The Conjuring (2013)), and they form a good core for Brothers. Midway through, the series loses a bit of pace, but it is soon picked up again in episode 6, Bastogne, where we see the atrocities of the icy-cold forest in the Ardennes. We are taken through the unbearable waiting days of war, experience Winters' brave decisions before episode 9, Why We Fight, an exceptionally moving, lump-in-your-throat look at the brothers' discovery of a concentration camp. The horrors are indescribable; the recreation admirable and one of the finest hours in the series. In the last episode, Points, Easy company takes the Nazi headquarter known as the Eagle's Nest, and we glimpse into the futures of the men. Their reverence towards each other is both striking, gripping and beautiful. All of this happens to the stunning music of Michael Kamen (Open Range (2003)) and powerful images and effects, making Band of Brothers a strong experience and a prized accompany to the catalog of shared human history recreated in the cinema annals. Bravo. The series was followed in 2010 by The Pacific, which focuses on the Marine Corp's operations in the Pacific in WWII. Related reviews: Tom Hanks: Philadelphia (1993) - AIDS and homosexuality acknowledged in great drama Ron Livingston: The Conjuring (2013) - Best horror film in 7 years Steven Spielberg:A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) - A robot fairy tale with both heart and mind Twilight Zone The Movie (1983) - Fear takes many forms in tragedy-struck anthology 1941 (1979) - Spielberg's bizarre 'comedy spectacular' sinks like a rock
Watch the series' trailer here
Budget: 125 mil. $
How do you find Band of Brothers? Is there any better war series in existence?
