Sins of London Triptych (1) Infidel

Chicken a l'Orange with a dash of Hitler makes for a chilling dinner party.

Chilling film, indeed.  On the face of it, the message is clear: Cheating on your wife, and leading a double life, may - and do, in David's case - lead to a circle of people with horrific beliefs.  That fateful dinner party shocks David into realizing that his proper place is with Lana.

But at a deeper level, the film is brilliant for its probing look at our humanity and our psychology.  Miles and Maeve's home is like a petri dish for those horrific beliefs, and evidently David's girlfriend Stella belongs in that home.  In his shock, this is part of what he realizes as well.

Whether we see the holocaust as exclusively an anti-Semitic tragedy or perhaps a debatable anti-Nazi propaganda, as the film chillingly lays out, the fact is that humankind harbors a wider variety of horrific beliefs and our history is littered with horrific acts that we've inflicted on each other.  Those beliefs and acts cause fissures among people, which run invisible boundaries between those who belong and those who do not.

The somber, if not ominous soundtrack, through the end of the film suggests that, far from an ennobling commentary about humankind, David's and Lana's romantic reunion serves to widen those fissures and deepen those boundaries.

It's a brilliantly chilling film.

Hugh Jackman Explores Ethics in `Prisoners

`Prisoners made me a remarkable three-for-three of gripping films, while on board a United flight from Chicago to Frankfurt, last Sunday night.  I flew American on a flight to London, but it was clearly not made for such long hauls, because it had only scattered screens for films which we had to share among us passengers.  British Airways has individual screens, but the paraphernalia is old and both video and audio are shitty.  By contrast, United Airlines not only had much better technology, but also had better range of films to watch.  

Two couples, and their children, from a Pennsylvania suburb celebrate Thanksgiving together.  They live just houses apart, so when their young girls ask to go to the other house, the parents consent.  Except that as afternoon wore on, the two are nowhere to be found.  So the human drama is on.

Prisoners received positive reviews from critics. The film currently has an 82% approval rating on review-aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 219 reviews. Its consensus reads: "Prisoners has an emotional complexity and a sense of dread that makes for absorbing (and disturbing) viewing."  Christopher Orr of The Atlantic wrote: "Ethical exploration or exploitation? In the end, I come down reservedly on the former side: the work done here by Jackman, Gyllenhaal, and especially Villeneuve is simply too powerful to ignore." Ed Gibbs of The Sun Herald wrote: "Not since Erskineville Kings, in 1999, has Hugh Jackman appeared so emotionally exposed on screen. It is an exceptional, Oscar-worthy performance."

Reference: Prisoners.

My wife and I pray that God keep our daughter out of harm's way at all times.  But while I am wont to abide by police investigations, I can understand Hugh Jackman, one of the Dads whose daughter was kidnapped, going increasingly bananas in the failed effort, after failed effort, to find the two daughters.  But as Orr speaks to, film is a brilliant forum for delving into the stuff that makes us human, for better or for worse, and for engaging in difficult reflections about the ethics, and lawfulness, of the things we end up doing.

In a literal sense, the film has next to nothing on prisons or prisoners.  But, you see, it's a powerful metaphor for the things that are our very nature.  In the end, both girls are rescued, and they recover.  But true to the sub-ideal, frankly messy nature of reality, Jackman has gone missing.  We as the audience know what happened to him, but then Jake Gyllenhaal does not, as the screen fades to black.    

Melissa Leo

Melissa Leo was superb in `Frozen River, which my wife and I saw months ago.  But in short order, I see her in `Welcome to the Rileys, in `Flight, and now in `Prisoners (above).

Synchronicity, perhaps.

Tom Hanks Pulls Off a Heroic `Captain Phillips

After `Gravity, I watched `Captain Phillips on board an overnight flight on United en route from Chicago to Frankfurt.  My destination was Kuwait for a demanding three days of client work, so I knew I had to get some sleep on my journey.  But `Captain Phillips was the second of three movies, which were so gripping-good that sleep was clearly not on my radar.  

This film was one of nine nominated for Best Picture, and while it won nary an Oscar, I wanted to watch it.  Tom Hanks is a favorite actor, and the trailer drew me in.  Though not to the extent as `Gravity, `Captain Phillips, too, won both critical acclaim and public sentiment via the box office, commanding $218 million so far on a $55 million budget.

Film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports a 93% approval critic response based on 235 reviews, with a "Certified Fresh" and an average score of 8.3/10. The site's consensus reads: "Smart, powerfully acted, and incredibly intense, Captain Phillips offers filmgoers a Hollywood biopic done right—and offers Tom Hanks a showcase for yet another brilliant performance."

Reference: Captain Phillips.

I'd agree completely with those three descriptors of the film.  It is human drama of a tall order.  Yes, the story, the cinematography, and the acting all enable such drama.  But when a film grips us so intensely, it is speaking to deeper emotions in us: those of fright and dread, uncertainty and powerlessness.  The director ratcheted all of that, as the Somali pirates abducted Captain Phillips and scurried off with him in an orange lifeboat that looked like a baby submarine.

I tried to draw on logic to figure out how he could escape from hostage, but I was too emotionally caught up in the drama to deploy my smarts fully.  When the USS Bainbridge and a Navy SEAL team converged on the lifeboat, I knew it would be a super-delicate rescue mission.  American forces were commanded not to let the lifeboat reach shore, while being expected to rescue Captain Phillips.  In my formulation of The Human Algorithm, I emphasize taking a holistic, realistic view of how people are: both rational and non-rational, both predictable and unpredictable.

American forces managed to lure the lead pirate - Muse - onto the Bainbridge via a brilliant, culturally-derived ruse.  They had now reduced the hostage drama to three abductors, but at that point they seemed to be not much closer to rescuing Captain Phillips.  In a high stakes risk, the commander called for simultaneous green lights on all three, before he would give his marksmen with a shoot-to-kill order.  When that simultaneity occurred, shots screamed in the night and then quiet dropped like a pall.

Barkhad Abdi was Muse, and he and Tom Hanks played off each other brilliantly and believably.  `Captain Phillips was nominated for a total 19 Oscars, Golden Globes and BAFTAs.  Abdi nabbed the film's only winner: Congratulations on the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor!

Kudos to Sandra Bullock for a Gripping `Gravity

`Gravity was clearly in Beast Mode at the recent Academy Awards ceremony, nabbing a phenomenal seven Oscars on the night.  On top of that, it nailed down six BAFTA Awards and seven Critics Choice Awards.  The film is that rare combination of critical acclaim and commercial success.  It was a big budget flick at $100 million, but since its release last year it has raked in over $700 million at the box office.

That said, `Gravity gripped me from the get-go, as I flew from Chicago to Frankfurt on a business trip.  The stunning cinematography is well-known by now.  But I credit actress Sandra Bullock for making me feeling her horror, and desperation, and grittiness, at varying points in the film.  

When she was careening out of control in space, I felt as if I, too, were tumbling head-over-feet in that mooring-less space.  When she was running out of oxygen, I felt the desperate fight for breath.  When she finally landed on earth, that is, in the water somewhere, and found herself several feet under, struggling to swim up to the surface and straining to shed her massive space suit, I felt like, shit, what else could go wrong?  Will I die, after all that survival in space, a cruel death on earth?

Did I say, Kudos to Bullock for her superb effort in this film?

Life of Quiet Desperation in `Rochelle

Rochelle has a devilish plan to get back at her ex-husband for inflicting such pain on her.  The idea isn't to hurt him, at least not physically, but to break his heart.  So she hires Panna to make him fall in love with her and then to leave him.  The elegant, beautiful prostitute misunderstands, even demures at first, but buys into it and sets out to execute the plan.  

Rochelle and Panna have an unlikely heart-to-heart talk in a side corridor at the ex-husband's office, no less.  We see that this story is much less about him and more about the two ladies.  There is a kind of commiseration between the two.  But what I see is a jockeying for control between them.  Rochelle wants to see her plan play itself out, but to do so means crowding Panna in her professional efforts to execute it.  The latter resents it, but empathizes with the former.  

It's disconcerting to see in the end that Panna never quite understood what Rochelle wanted, especially as the two ladies seemed to bond further in the previous episode.  But it's not surprising, because Panna isn't a psychologist after all.  So what she cannot see is how much Rochelle needs for someone to understand her pain and fulfill her vengeful desire.  We see that Panna is not so emotionally in-tuned: When she reports that the ex-husband felt miserable following sex with her, and was crying at the foot of the bed, she thought that the mission was accomplished.  No, it wasn't.  Not that she could've done anything differently.  As Rochelle had to reiterate, the plan was for him to fall in love with her - the beautiful prostitute - and then for her to leave him cold.  

There was no way for either lady, however, to control what the ex-husband's previous girlfriend did.  Which was in fact to leave him.  She was pining for her mainly.  While there was some regret, some self-recrimination regarding the failed marriage, he never really fell in love with Panna.  So he was in a position essentially to walk away from her.  Which apparently he did.  In the end, what Panna didn't see was that she was Rochelle's emotional proxy.  She could neither see this nor execute it, mainly because, in a strange irony vis-a-vis the ex-husband, she wasn't really capable of falling in love or making someone fall in love with her.  Had Rochelle been able to surmise this at the beginning, she would've selected another prostitute.  

I am impressed with Scott Turow's writing and with Rosanna Arquette's and Nazanin Boniadi's acting.  The two ladies play out the intricate emotionality of the story rather well, especially with Boniadi having to play a character with emotional tin ears.

Food and Sex Behind `Audrey

I really appreciate behind-the-scenes interviews and glimpses, as they offer us insight on the creative process.  Moreover, we get to know who the key players are behind the film, and what they think and how they feel about the characters and plot, and food and sex, too.

So what is created is just as compelling to me as how it is created and who creates it.

Pleasure at its Sensuous Best in `Audrey

Kim Shaw plays Audrey just right.  Attractive and impetuous, believable and approachable.  There are a few shenanigans that round out the dramatic story, such as the annoying turns of the cooking show hostess and Audrey's dress-down to panties, bras and apron.  But the thrust is how food, like sex, ought to be experienced with full attention, depth and sensuality.  Sight, smell, taste and touch.  Inevitably the lines between food and sex are blurred for those who believe it's simply "food porn" and see the former as a not-so-subtle metaphor for the latter.  But, for me, it's about human pleasure at its elemental, sensuous best.   

Moral and Comic Dilemma of `Jennifer

In the near future, a tough job market results in a creative solution for handling dangerous convicted felons.

My sentiments about this gem is summed up by a comment:

At the risk of being politically incorrect, this was really funny. You managed to make fun of our need for capitol punishment, Hollywood, sexism & reality shows all in the space of about 10 minutes! Better than SNL!!! Congrats.

Aside from the moral dilemma of executing dangerous convicts via a ruse, there is the very practical, yet no less awkward or questionable, matter of two actresses working to grab gigs.  The two Jennifers are friends, evidently, but a tinge of competitiveness and envy between them is part of the superb comic relief of this film.

Coup de Grâce in `Mary

An emergency room doctor is distressed when a familiar face is brought in for treatment.

Director Tracey Gallacher's coup de grâce in this short film is casting actress Melora Walters as both the titular ER doctor and her twin sister who's wheeled unconscious into the ER.  It adds a wallop of agony for Mary, who wants to treat (take care of) her sister but gets slapped into realizing that she cannot.  Gallacher's casting is all the more a brilliant stroke of artistry: It is as if to say this incoming patient, and her bloodied scalp, is a projection of Mary's own experience, perhaps repressed or denied, of domestic violence.  It must be a common tragedy in many households, but if there is salvation in film, then this one provides it when Mary calls hospital officials to the case.

Pro-Choice Dilemma for `Celia

A doctor is forced into an uncomfortable decision when her patient turns out to be the daughter of an old friend.

Allison Janney is the titular doctor, who, to start with, may be the typical, not-so-attentive doctor, and who, instead, is riveted to full attention because of the particular patient on her examination table.  She gives us a powerful glimpse into the emotional complexity of upholding a pro-choice value, when she's faced with the teenage daughter of a dear lifelong friend.  Her awkward halts and agonized expressions speak brilliantly to that complexity, and kudos to her for her deft acting.