Tag: William H. Macy

Babylon Review

The silent days and boisterous evenings of Hollywood in the 1920s and 30s are meticulously depicted in Babylon. From the gourd of Damien Chazelle, this is his version of Boogie Nights in many respects. It focuses on one version of Tinseltown technology fading out in favor of another. In Paul Thomas Anderson’s masterpiece from a quarter century ago, it was X rated material shot on film being transitioned to video. Here it’s the silent era making way for talkies. The adult entertainment is on ample display at the swank and sweaty bashes that feature cocaine and elephants as party favors.

We meet the main principals at an L.A. happening in 1926. Manny Torres (Diego Calva) is an immigrant doing menial work for Kinoscope Studios. At the company’s debauched soirée, aspiring star Nellie LaRoy (Margot Robbie) literally crashes into his consciousness and a years long infatuation is born. Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt) is the already established screen hero whose shooting schedules seem to last longer than his marriages. Jazz trumpeter Sidney Palmer (Jovan Adepo) provides the soundtrack to the sin while cabaret songstress Lady Fay Zhu (Li Jun Li) supplies sultry vocals. Columnist Elinor St. John (Jean Smart) is around to gossip about it.

The night serves as the intro point for Manny and Nellie to mount separate meteoric rises in a shifting industry. She becomes a silent film sensation just as sound (courtesy of The Jazz Singer) is around the corner. Manny’s connection with Conrad opens doors to big jobs as the movie headliner’s career begins a downward slide. Palmer, meanwhile, becomes a popular if exploited attraction in a series of musicals.

For three hours plus, Babylon celebrates and denigrates the excesses of the era. Nellie’s substance fueled rocket ride and downfall is given bulky screen time while others get the short shrift (Jun Li’s Zhu being one example). There is impressive production design to spare where odious actions occur within the walls. Tobey Maguire’s cameo as a whacked out criminal at an underground function displays scenarios that might make Robbie’s and her costars from The Wolf of Wall Street blush.

Chazelle’s message is pretty straightforward when there isn’t vomit and defecate being spewed. As ugly as Hollywood is, the end result can be beautiful. This is evident in a couple of terrific sequences that show the joy and pain of moviemaking. In one we witness Conrad’s war-torn romance catch the light at the perfect time. In another we suffer along with Nellie as she acclimates herself to the noise being introduced to celluloid.

I wish the gifted provider of Whiplash and La La Land could’ve reigned himself in. The aforementioned segments show how special this would have been with a tighter focus. Unfortunately it’s not only septa being deviated from. While Robbie and Pitt both have shining moments, Chazelle’s screenplay never makes Manny a compelling central figure. Calva doesn’t have much to work with considering his blank slate of a character. There are many known faces that pop up in the crowded script including Olivia Wilde and Katherine Waterston as fleeting wives to Conrad. Lukas Haas is the sad sack friend to the frequent divorcee whose character is similar to William H. Macy’s in Boogie Nights. That picture and Babylon take place in different eras of Hollywood shifts. One is brilliant. The other is occasionally inspired and often maddening.

**1/2 (out of four)

Room Movie Review

**There are unavoidable spoilers in order to write a proper review of Room. You’ve been warned.

Emotionally gripping and powered by a pair of magnificent lead performances, Lenny Abrahamson’s Room is structured into two sections. Each is filled with fear and each is filled with love and in circumstances unimaginable.

“Room” is a garden shed where Joy (Brie Larson) has been held captive for seven years. Her kidnapper is called “Old Nick” (Sean Bridgers) and his repeated sexual assaults resulted in child (Jack), who turns 5 years old as we open. The first near half of the pic is set in Room and it’s all Jack has ever known. Joy has done her best to raise a smart young boy and had to be creative about explaining other people on their TV set, among many other things.

Jack’s advancing age allows Joy to begin telling him kernels of the truth and she soon enlists him to participate in a daring escape. The sequence in which this is pulled off is one of the more suspenseful I’ve seen recently as we grow attached to this mother and son. In a conventional thriller, this would be fade out. Yet once free, they must adjust to life outside that tiny shed that Jack believed was the universe. This is Room’s second act.

Joy is reunited with her parents, who bear their own scars from losing their teenage girl. Items like phones and stairs are foreign objects to their grandson. And while Jack eventually begins to conform to his seemingly alien world, it’s Ma (as he calls her) who struggles the most.

Room is told from the perspective of Jack, who’s narration pops up voicing over his views of what’s happening. Obviously he has no clue of the horrific situation he’s been raised in. Based on Emma Donoghue’s novel that she herself adapted here, the pic is often graced with subtle and moving moments. The dynamics of Joy and her family members aren’t over explained upon her return and don’t need to be.

While its screenplay and direction are impressive, it’s unquestionably the work of Larson and Tremblay that put this material on an even higher level. Larson has a challenging role and there’s a lot of subtext involved. Her journey after her escape isn’t an obvious one and the actress has us with her the whole way. Perhaps even more awe inspiring is Tremblay, who gives one of the most natural heart wrenching child actor performances I’ve ever seen.

Both inside and outside that shed, Room grabs us with its visions through the innocent eyes of a boy living in two vastly different worlds with one common bond.

***1/2 (out of four)

Oscar Watch: Room

There have been Oscar years in the recent past where it could be said that the Best Actress category was fairly weak. As the film festival circuit rolls along, it’s becoming increasingly clear this will not be the case in 2015. Already there is strong momentum going for Carey Mulligan in Suffragette, Cate Blanchett in Carol, Saoirse Ronan for Brooklyn, and Lily Tomlin in Grandma. It remains to be seen whether Alicia Vikander will be campaigned for in the Actress or Supporting Actress race, but her work in The Danish Girl looks to be recognized either way. And there’s still Jennifer Lawrence’s work in David O. Russell’s Joy to be seen, among others.

We have another contender brought forth by the Telluride and Toronto Film Festivals with Brie Larson’s performance in the indie pic Room. Based on Emma Donoghue’s bestseller, the film casts Larson as a mom who’s trapped with her 5 year old son in a garden shed for a seven year period. Sounds like heady stuff and reviews coming out of the festivals have highlighted Larson’s work as award worthy. The real question is whether the picture is seen and released widely enough to vault the actress into real contention. It certainly seems possible and some critics have noted that Room could break through to audiences.

While reviews are positive and it sits at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, they’re probably not quite strong enough to put this into the Best Picture race. Some reviewers have taken notice of Joan Allen’s role and she could find herself in the mix for Supporting Actress. There’s even a slight possibility that the young man playing the son, Jacob Tambley, could be a long shot in Supporting Actor (I wouldn’t count on it though).

The real story is Larson. Two years ago, she was the subject of awards buzz for her indie flick Short Term 12, but it never panned out. She’s been highly visible over the years in supporting parts in hits like 21 Jump Street and Trainwreck and Room is beginning to look like her first legit shot at Academy attention.