Is Greed Good?, the title of Gordon's Gekko's book, chronicling his investigation of bad business practices inhibiting the growth of the economy, forms the basis of the plot for Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. Acknowledging the downward spiral of the economy, Gekko blames both unscrupulous CEOs and an insatiable society. This proves to be quite interesting in it's connection to the current American economy and the best parts of the film act as an educator for one quite unknowledgable with the economic downturn. Otherwise, the story follows a quite formulaic revenge-seeking-wrongs-will-be-righted outline.
Jake Moore (LeBouf), an up and coming stock broker, finds himself working for a company on the verge of bankruptcy. Overnight the company seems to go from bustling to broke. His boss and mentor, Louis Zabel (Langella), finds himself turning to The Fed to negotiate a bailout only to be met with fierce opposition and a disappointing stock price from which he is to rebuild his company. It is at that meeting we are introduced to rival businessman and villian, Bretton James (Brolin) who seems to have a history with Zabel that has left the two at odds. With the news of his company's demise much too hard to bear, Zabel throws himself in front of the subway on his way to work the next morning. Convinced that someone set Zabel up for failure, Jake begins his mission to bring down the person responsible for the bankruptcy and Zabel's suicide.
In the midst of this disaster, Gordon Gekko (Douglas) finds himself recently released from prison with a cold reception from his daughter, Winnie (Mulligan). While in prison he wrote a book, now calls himself a reformed businessman and is on a college tour to promote his ideas against the greed of America.
Jake and Winnie happen to be engaged. Jake contacts Gordon in secret, takes advice to bring Zabel justice, and begins a barter system: business advice in exchange for reconciliation with Winnie. It seems that Winnie is all Gordon has left and all he wants is a relationship with her. All the while that same old glimmer in Gordon Gekko's eye shines underneath his reformed soul, leaving Winnie questioning whether he can be trusted. Jake gets caught up in the game just like a young Bud Fox did years ago and soon is unable to see how he has compromised the life he and Winnie share. The film wants audiences to ask whether Gekko is capable of changing his ways and if Jake will go down with him.
It's pretty easy to see what this film has in store for its characters, but the familiarity of a suffering American economy resonates with a current Wall Street and public. The movie is timely in it's representation of business in decline, albeit with story and not hard facts. Both Langella and Douglas' perfomances are highlights, the former for his portrayal of a depressed with no where to turn businessman and the latter for the classic hijinks of a tried and true Mr. Gekko.
**.5/****
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Friday, September 24, 2010
The Town
Ben Affleck's second attempt in the director's chair, The Town, has proven that he knows how to make a film. He got a lot out of his cast: Rebecca Hall, Jon Hamm, Jeremy Renner, Blake Lively, and even himself.
His film tells the story of a group of bank robbers in Charlestown born and bred into the life of robbery. Their fathers robbed banks before them and we get the sense that the cycle has been going on for quite some time. They are controlled and directed by Fergie, flower shop owner and coke-peddler, who the FBI has known about and tried to take down for years. Ultimately they are unable to provide any proof of his crimes. The movie opens with their first robbery of a small Charlestown bank. With insiders at various companies they are able to track the delivery of money and the type of vault a bank houses. All information is gathered prior to the robbery in order to ensure nothing goes wrong. During this particular robbery Doug (Affleck) and Jim (Renner) collect all the money on hand, however, Jim, a bit of a hot head, bloodies the face of a manager and decides to take the other manager, Claire (Hall) as his hostage. Doug calms her down, assures her she will not be hurt and they drop her off blindfolded at the beach. They have stolen her license though, and later find out that she lives blocks away from their neighborhood. Not wanting to take a chance at running into her on the streets, Jim proposes to the group that he will take care of the problem, but Doug intervenes, understanding that he will be able to assess the situation with greater control than Jim. He ends up stalking Claire and positioning himself at her laundromat to make sure she cannot recognise him. From there the two begin talking and go on to develop a relationship where Doug finds himself falling in love.
Meanwhile, Claire notifies the FBI of her kidnapping and begins working with Agent Frawley (Hamm) to identify a suspect. Unable to provide any defining characteristics, her situation looks rather bleak. Later we learn that she withholds information from the police, confiding in Doug that she saw one of the robber's tattoos of a fighting irishman.
In order for his fragile universe to remain intact, Doug ends up keeping his involvement with Claire from Jim and decides against telling Claire any information about his role in the robbery. Instead, in hopes of creating a better life for himself, he decides to leave his life of theivery behind and Charlestown as well, even asking Claire to come with him. A tangled web of relationships and loyalty seems to get in the way however as he struggles to break free from the control of his employers.
I saw The Town a few days ago and have just begun to write about it. It's because I haven't quite been able to put my finger on the emotions it stirred up in me. The gun fights, battery, and substance abuse are jarring. Affleck does an excellent job with the realism of a life addicted to cocaine, fighting to survive the bleak hand life dealt. The violence Jim inflicts on those who get in his way is second nature to him. He walks away from those situations as though it's just a part of his life, completely prepared to exhibit this force again, no shred of remorse. There are no thoughts of morality in these instances, no wavering between right and wrong. Jim's sister, Krista (Lively), strung out and raising a child, bounces around from man to man. As she comes in contact with Agent Frawley she questions what he's using her for, revealing her feelings about the only role men have ever played in her life. There's a hopelessness about this film. The characters who have never been exposed to any other world never have a thought of doing anything other than what they have always done. Life begins and ends right where it started.
***/****
His film tells the story of a group of bank robbers in Charlestown born and bred into the life of robbery. Their fathers robbed banks before them and we get the sense that the cycle has been going on for quite some time. They are controlled and directed by Fergie, flower shop owner and coke-peddler, who the FBI has known about and tried to take down for years. Ultimately they are unable to provide any proof of his crimes. The movie opens with their first robbery of a small Charlestown bank. With insiders at various companies they are able to track the delivery of money and the type of vault a bank houses. All information is gathered prior to the robbery in order to ensure nothing goes wrong. During this particular robbery Doug (Affleck) and Jim (Renner) collect all the money on hand, however, Jim, a bit of a hot head, bloodies the face of a manager and decides to take the other manager, Claire (Hall) as his hostage. Doug calms her down, assures her she will not be hurt and they drop her off blindfolded at the beach. They have stolen her license though, and later find out that she lives blocks away from their neighborhood. Not wanting to take a chance at running into her on the streets, Jim proposes to the group that he will take care of the problem, but Doug intervenes, understanding that he will be able to assess the situation with greater control than Jim. He ends up stalking Claire and positioning himself at her laundromat to make sure she cannot recognise him. From there the two begin talking and go on to develop a relationship where Doug finds himself falling in love.
Meanwhile, Claire notifies the FBI of her kidnapping and begins working with Agent Frawley (Hamm) to identify a suspect. Unable to provide any defining characteristics, her situation looks rather bleak. Later we learn that she withholds information from the police, confiding in Doug that she saw one of the robber's tattoos of a fighting irishman.
In order for his fragile universe to remain intact, Doug ends up keeping his involvement with Claire from Jim and decides against telling Claire any information about his role in the robbery. Instead, in hopes of creating a better life for himself, he decides to leave his life of theivery behind and Charlestown as well, even asking Claire to come with him. A tangled web of relationships and loyalty seems to get in the way however as he struggles to break free from the control of his employers.
I saw The Town a few days ago and have just begun to write about it. It's because I haven't quite been able to put my finger on the emotions it stirred up in me. The gun fights, battery, and substance abuse are jarring. Affleck does an excellent job with the realism of a life addicted to cocaine, fighting to survive the bleak hand life dealt. The violence Jim inflicts on those who get in his way is second nature to him. He walks away from those situations as though it's just a part of his life, completely prepared to exhibit this force again, no shred of remorse. There are no thoughts of morality in these instances, no wavering between right and wrong. Jim's sister, Krista (Lively), strung out and raising a child, bounces around from man to man. As she comes in contact with Agent Frawley she questions what he's using her for, revealing her feelings about the only role men have ever played in her life. There's a hopelessness about this film. The characters who have never been exposed to any other world never have a thought of doing anything other than what they have always done. Life begins and ends right where it started.
***/****
Friday, September 10, 2010
Oscar Watch
With the Toronto Film Festival well under way, signaling the beginning of Oscar season, a list of what I am most looking forward to:
Black Swan - Darren Aronofsky's ballerina thriller, starring Natalie Portman
Blue Valentine - Director David Cianfrance, relationship drama starring Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams
The Kings's Speech - drama of the relationship between King George VI and his speech therapist, starring Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush
The Social Network - Director David Fincher, story of the creators of Facebook, starring Jesse Eisenberg
True Grit - Coen Brother's take on the classic western, starring Jeff Bridges, Josh Brolin, Matt Damon
127 Hours - Director Danny Boyle, story of climber in Moab, UT forced to cut of his arm to survive
Conviction - story of man imprisoned for crime he did not commit and his sister who becomes a lawyer to bring him justice (excited to see Sam Rockwell)
Hereafter - Eastwood's latest, who knows what it's about, supposedly a supernatural thriller, starring Matt Damon
The Town - Ben Affleck directing and starring in Boston robbery drama, also starring Rebecca Hall, John Hamm, Blake Lively, Jeremy Renner
Never Let Me Go - story of students made for the harvesting of organs, starring Kiera Knightly, Carey Mulligan, and Andrew Garfield (just read the book - pretty depressing)
The Fighter - Director David O. Russell's film of boxer Mike Ward, starring Christian Bale and Mark Wahlberg
Black Swan - Darren Aronofsky's ballerina thriller, starring Natalie Portman
Blue Valentine - Director David Cianfrance, relationship drama starring Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams
The Kings's Speech - drama of the relationship between King George VI and his speech therapist, starring Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush
The Social Network - Director David Fincher, story of the creators of Facebook, starring Jesse Eisenberg
True Grit - Coen Brother's take on the classic western, starring Jeff Bridges, Josh Brolin, Matt Damon
127 Hours - Director Danny Boyle, story of climber in Moab, UT forced to cut of his arm to survive
Conviction - story of man imprisoned for crime he did not commit and his sister who becomes a lawyer to bring him justice (excited to see Sam Rockwell)
Hereafter - Eastwood's latest, who knows what it's about, supposedly a supernatural thriller, starring Matt Damon
The Town - Ben Affleck directing and starring in Boston robbery drama, also starring Rebecca Hall, John Hamm, Blake Lively, Jeremy Renner
Never Let Me Go - story of students made for the harvesting of organs, starring Kiera Knightly, Carey Mulligan, and Andrew Garfield (just read the book - pretty depressing)
The Fighter - Director David O. Russell's film of boxer Mike Ward, starring Christian Bale and Mark Wahlberg
A Dream Within a Dream Within a Dream Within a...
Dom, Arthur, Ariadne, Eams, Yusuf: each with their own talent, the team to call if one is in need of extracting highly confidentional information from the dream world. They live at a time when the world has developed technology to monitor the information contained within one's dreams and take what is useful for personal, corporate, and political benefit.
Inception is a masterpiece. Christopher Nolan's victory project. A breath of fresh air in the era of the made-for-money-sequels.
Cobb (DiCaprio), an expert in the field of dream extraction, meets Ariadne (Page), a prodigy architecture student, recruiting her to work as the builder of dreams. He does this after being approached for a high risk, elaborate job to implant an idea into the mind of the competition of a certain company powerhouse. The process of implanting such an idea, inception, is much harder than extraction, as it is necessary to make sure the mind of the dreamer believes he has come up with the added information all on his own. Cobb walks Ariadne through the world of dream creation (literally) where the viewer is treated to a picture of Paris streets positioned on all sides of the dreamer, explosions of fruit from local vendors, and mirror images of bridges and waterways. It is creation in raw form and my heart not only swoons for the images Ariadne moves across the screen, but applauds Nolan for the thankful glimpse into the mind of a visionary.
Along for the ride are Arthur, Cobb's right hand man, Yusuf, a chemist, and Eames, a forger. The team creates a dream within a dream within a dream in order to ensure that the information for inception is implanted deep within the mind. We find out that Cobb accepts such a risky job offer because he is forbidden to enter the United States due to an apparent misunderstading in the death of his wife. Meanwhile he longs to return home to the children he has not seen in years. The dream they create is elaborate and as they hit some snags on the way it becomes even more intricate. The details that Mr. Nolan thought up to make such a dream world believable are fabulous: the time difference in the real world from each level of dream, the experiences affecting the real world that work their way into a dream, an experience of searing pain needed in order to stir one from sleep. I could watch this movie again and again for the excitement of these details. He takes us on a thrillride and where he leaves us we may not even know.
While the character development is good, it's not the meat of the production. The characters are interesting and desireable to watch, but Nolan's inventiveness and artistic brilliance in story and overall product deserve recognition. The acting standout in my opinion is Marion Cotillard, who plays Mal, the pleading and desperate wife of Cobb.
Overall, I loved it.
****/****
Inception is a masterpiece. Christopher Nolan's victory project. A breath of fresh air in the era of the made-for-money-sequels.
Cobb (DiCaprio), an expert in the field of dream extraction, meets Ariadne (Page), a prodigy architecture student, recruiting her to work as the builder of dreams. He does this after being approached for a high risk, elaborate job to implant an idea into the mind of the competition of a certain company powerhouse. The process of implanting such an idea, inception, is much harder than extraction, as it is necessary to make sure the mind of the dreamer believes he has come up with the added information all on his own. Cobb walks Ariadne through the world of dream creation (literally) where the viewer is treated to a picture of Paris streets positioned on all sides of the dreamer, explosions of fruit from local vendors, and mirror images of bridges and waterways. It is creation in raw form and my heart not only swoons for the images Ariadne moves across the screen, but applauds Nolan for the thankful glimpse into the mind of a visionary.
Along for the ride are Arthur, Cobb's right hand man, Yusuf, a chemist, and Eames, a forger. The team creates a dream within a dream within a dream in order to ensure that the information for inception is implanted deep within the mind. We find out that Cobb accepts such a risky job offer because he is forbidden to enter the United States due to an apparent misunderstading in the death of his wife. Meanwhile he longs to return home to the children he has not seen in years. The dream they create is elaborate and as they hit some snags on the way it becomes even more intricate. The details that Mr. Nolan thought up to make such a dream world believable are fabulous: the time difference in the real world from each level of dream, the experiences affecting the real world that work their way into a dream, an experience of searing pain needed in order to stir one from sleep. I could watch this movie again and again for the excitement of these details. He takes us on a thrillride and where he leaves us we may not even know.
While the character development is good, it's not the meat of the production. The characters are interesting and desireable to watch, but Nolan's inventiveness and artistic brilliance in story and overall product deserve recognition. The acting standout in my opinion is Marion Cotillard, who plays Mal, the pleading and desperate wife of Cobb.
Overall, I loved it.
****/****
Monday, September 6, 2010
Mind of a Master
Jack walks down the steps from his apartment. He drives his car through the Italian countryside. He arrives at the local coffee shop. He makes a phone call to his employer. He begins the fashioning of a gun for a beautiful woman, an assignment from his boss. He goes to sleep. The sun sets and the next day follows much the same agenda. Over the course of his stay in this humble Italian town he befriends a priest and seeks out a prostitute who bring some color to his daily routine.
The American was plugged as the last summer blockbuster of 2010. If you're wanting car chases and big blow 'em up scenes you won't find it here. But you will find a methodical and pragmatic man who understands gun-making as an art form. The audience is made aware that Jack is the best at what he does, but he's slipping in his game as he struggles to maintain a island-like lifestyle while craving companionship.
This film largely exists in Jack's mind. We see him question who can be trusted as Swedish hitmen have managed to track him down. The slow unraveling of a master and his attempts to decipher who is on his side are intriguing to watch. While the pace of the film moves slowly at times, it is purposeful in capturing both the loneliness and perfectionism of a man set apart by his work. I was impressed by director Anton Corbjin's artistry captured in the intentionality of every scene.
***/****
The American was plugged as the last summer blockbuster of 2010. If you're wanting car chases and big blow 'em up scenes you won't find it here. But you will find a methodical and pragmatic man who understands gun-making as an art form. The audience is made aware that Jack is the best at what he does, but he's slipping in his game as he struggles to maintain a island-like lifestyle while craving companionship.
This film largely exists in Jack's mind. We see him question who can be trusted as Swedish hitmen have managed to track him down. The slow unraveling of a master and his attempts to decipher who is on his side are intriguing to watch. While the pace of the film moves slowly at times, it is purposeful in capturing both the loneliness and perfectionism of a man set apart by his work. I was impressed by director Anton Corbjin's artistry captured in the intentionality of every scene.
***/****
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