DAMIEN RILEY | World Music | HQ Blog

Title: A River Runs Through it
Genre: Drama, Autobiographical
MPAA Rating: PG
Year: 1992
Director: Robert Redford
Top Billed Cast: Craig Sheffer, Brad Pitt, Tom Skerritt
Brief Synopsis: Two brothers grow up taught by their father, a Presbyterian minister. The setting is Montana where fly fishing is just as important as religion. The boys launch adult lives and the film follows them.
My Word to the Wise: When a loved one gets into trouble a little too often, “we can still love completely without complete understanding.” This is just one life lesson we learn from this truly remarkable film. It’s based on the autobiography of college professor/writer/poet Norman MacLean.

The rest of this review may contain spoilers.

Norman and Paul MacLean steal a boat in high school. They nearly kill themselves in the white water. If you were a young man or have known a young man, you know stunts like this often happen on the way to adulthood. Two brothers, sons of the town preacher, two directions. Craig Sheffer, Brad Pitt, and Tom Skerritt are excellent actors who are used by director Robert Redford to paint the canvas of Norman’s life. We learn that fly fishing is more poetry than an aisle a sporting goods store. We learn that writing and applying to college is a rite of passage that can open ones eyes as much as knock one to the ground.

This is not an open-ended movie, things happen and stop and consequences come both bad and good. It’s a film about the spirit of these two young men and what makes them great individuals, despite tragedy. This film is an emotional journey and you don’t just see Montana, you are transported there. For many years now I have called this my favorite movie. It is full of cinematic Americana and collected stories of a gifted author’s life growing up in Missoula, Montana.

Title: Time Out of Mind
Genre: Drama
MPAA Rating: R
Year: 2014
Director: Oren Moverman. Known for The Messenger (2009), I’m Not There. (2007) and Love & Mercy (2014).
Top Billed Cast: Richard Gere, Ben Vereen, Jena Malone
Brief Synopsis: If you wake up on a park bench not knowing where you are or how you got there, it’s time to figure that shit out.
My Word to the Wise: It’s a little like watching paint dry. Plan to sit for a long time with nothing to read into or predict, and if you can handle that, you might get the brilliance that is definitely there.

The rest of this review may contain spoilers.

What do I get for all this waiting? That was the question I asked about an hour into this film. That was when I learned this is more like a documentary/reality tv type of experience than a Hollywood plot with sub-plots etc. There might be something to read in when Ben Vereen sits down to play piano and doesn’t play a note out of fear of having lost his mind to aging. There might be something to when the asshole at the homeless shelter sleeping next to Richard Gere’s character suddenly disappears, his cot curtly folded with a satchel on top with sundries for the next dude. I don’t know and I don’t think people are talking about what they can KNOW from this film. It’s a country mile from Pretty Woman, know that going in. Unless you’re dating a granola chick, this one offers no cuddly moments. Did I mention Richard Gere is a really old looking MoFo?

I don’t want to guess the idea of this movie because it’s like breathing, once it starts, it plays before you and you watch … that’s it. The homeless issue in New York is right before you. Getting old is before you. It’s almost unfair how Gere can attain such a high level of bliss through Buddhism that he can wave this movie in our faces and say, “Look at the evil ean shit we do to each other.” It’s a brutal film without having to resort to anything brutal onscreen. I saw it alone and would recommend that’s how you should see it. It’s not an “art film” and it won’t do well as a Hollywood blockbuster. It’s the dark hallway we all try to avoid until one day we are forced inside. When we reach that lowly state in life, there is rarely any redemption. My final thought? A powerful film about homelessness and aging that requires a lot of patience on the viewer’s behalf but does have a worthy payoff.

The Odd Life of Timothy Green is a film directed by Peter Hedges, known for directing Dan in Real Life and About a Boy. It stars many new and established actors such as Jennifer Garner, Joel Edgerton, CJ Adams, Odeya Rush, Shohreh Aghdashloo, and others. It’s a Disney film so the casting directors clearly spared no expense finding talent to cast this story. This family film, while not necessarily for kids it does have a PG rating, is a refreshing detour from recent bombastic releases of the same year like Batman and Battleship. By using an unreal hero in much the same way Forrest Gump did, The Odd Life of Timothy Green manages to show us the best parts of our humanity as well as those in others.

Mrs. Green, played by Jennifer Garner, and Mr. Green, played by Joel Edgerton, really want to have a child but alas, it isn’t possible. The beginning of the film shows the futility of their desperate quest to have a child. They start out in the film being interviewed for something, we don’t quite know what right away. It turns out they are interviewing to adopt a child but their story reveals they have already had a child. Timothy Green, played by CJ Adams, portrays their child with a mysterious origin. It appears he was in their lives only for a short time to teach them that “they [are] enough” as parents. His character is a wonderful combination of fantasy and realism.

The Greens tell the story of how Timothy came to be, which is not in the usual way, and what they learned from him while he was there. Finally, there is a tear-jerker conclusion that brings their story to a climax and leaves us back in the beginning interview. The ending is spectacular. There is nothing hard-to-get with this movie. You know early on what is happening yet you enjoy watching it play out. There were a few twists here and there I didn’t see coming but I guessed about 97% of the movie. Normally that would mean it was boring, it was far from that. My interest was piqued throughout and this movie bears testimony that Disney can still tell a story better than anyone.

In conclusion, The Odd Life of Timothy Green is a sweet story set in an American background that tells us about our own humanity. For me, it fulfilled the definition of a great movie. Much like the Greens, we all want something for ourselves that we can love, like a child. The Greens learn that the good in them can and should be shared with or without a child. They learn that they matter in their circle of friends and family. When Timothy arrives, everyone takes notice and when he must bid farewell, everyone is sad but not destitute. Like the Greens we the audience are left better for having known him.

“Infinitely Polar Bear” is movie from the perspective of a daughter growing up with a bipolar dad who we are expected to see as responsible. I disagree with what the poster and the marketing infer. He only perpetuates the stigma of bipolars being irresponsible, loud, and dangerous. Maya Forbes both directed it and wrote the screenplay. She is best known for being on the writing team on the animated feature “Monsters vs. Aliens” and “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days.” This is her directorial debut.

When you aim to portray a disorder in media, I think it’s a heavy burden to portray it accurately. If you don’t feel the burden, you shouldn’t make the movie.

I can’t help but wonder if her lack of experience with drama made the screenplay suffer. Despite the amazing casting and acting, it seems the characters never really grow into their skin and that’s unfortunate. Bipolar is a mood disorder that that affects roughly 4% of the population and is still largely misunderstood. When you aim to portray a disorder in media, I think it’s a heavy burden to portray it accurately. If you don’t feel the burden, you shouldn’t make the movie.

This movie about a family is unique in the way it focuses sharply on the dad, Cam Stuart played by Mark Ruffalo, and his two daughters in a microcosm. The wife, Maggie Stuart played by Zoe Saldana, weaves in and out but her role is secondary to the plot about a bipolar dad trying to prove his ability to take care of his daughters. This is hard enough for a bipolar off his meds and the girls don’t make it any easier.

I felt the screenplay failed to portray the medical and therapeutic necessities for a bipolar. I think it would have been a lot stronger if Cam and his family went to therapy and learned more about the disorder that is well known to cause erratic behavior, depression, suicide, and an inability to work. In turn, this would educate the largely ignorant audience. There are many functional professionals and famous people with bipolar taking their lithium, getting therapy, doing “the work,” and making amazing contributions despite the moods. Cam is recklessly irresponsible about his disorder. If you want to see a dysfunctional example of bipolar, you’ll get what you’re looking for.

The idea that he can control it without lithium is just selfish. Bipolar has been described as a broken mood thermostat, even at 115 degrees fahrenheit, your brain can’t cool down. The same is true for the depressive or “cold” phase when your mood plummets. He puts his daughters in grave danger several times in the movie. In real life, they would be taken by social services. I did like the acting and if you’re a Mark Ruffalo fan, you’ll enjoy seeing him in a very obnoxious, tortured role. He usually doesn’t play roles like that this well. Too bad he didn’t have a better script. For irresponsibly furthering a negative stereotype of a psychiatric disorder through a negligent script, it lost two points with me. As cute as the title is, I’ll have to keep waiting for the movie that shows a functional bipolar. Maybe I’ll have to write it.

There is a scattered and often intriguing plot here by with the incredible performance of Jack Raynor, I won’t criticize the plot much. He carries this film and makes it amazing.

Glassland (2014)
1h 33min | Drama | 18 March 2016 (USA)
Set in Dublin, ‘Glassland’ tells the story of a young taxi driver who gets tangled up in the world of human trafficking while trying to save his mother from drug addiction.
Director: Gerard Barrett
Writer: Gerard Barrett
Stars: Toni Collette, Jack Reynor, Will Poulter

My Summary: John is a taxi driver in Dublin. He has no family or girlfriend and has the self-assumed role of taking care of his alcoholic mother, Jean. Through time, John gets frustrated and takes his mother to rehab. At that point is some of the best acting Raynor does in the film. Jean shows little promise of quitting drinking. John has demands on him financially so he enters into an unspeakable side job for his boss.

My take: You may have surmised by now I loved Raynor’s acting in this film. I must warn you it is very slow and not much is revealed ever about what the director wants to say. You come to your own conclusions. Still, it is a very entertaining film despite its plot flaws. If you like Jack Raynor, go see this movie. If you don’t, I am not sure how much you’ll like the film. In my opinion, a film should have more going for it than the talent of the lead actor.

6/10

The secrets of a sushi master in his old age. This is a charming film that way but there is also a darker side of a man so driven he never takes a day off except for national holidays.

Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2011)
PG | 1h 21min | Documentary | 15 March 2012 (Denmark)
A documentary on 85-year-old sushi master Jiro Ono, his renowned Tokyo restaurant, and his relationship with his son and eventual heir, Yoshikazu.
Director: David Gelb
Stars: Jiro Ono, Yoshikazu Ono, Masuhiro Yamamoto

My summary: This is the story of Jiro, a Japanese sushi master. It chronicles the day to day activities he has made into a system of making the best sushi in the world. All that while being quite simple in its recipe. As we are treated to a trip to the fish market and behind the chef counter, we see a story that is much more complicated as what meets the eye.

My take: It’s a truly hypnotic documentary that draws you in and doesn’t let go. Toward the middle it’s impossible to not be impressed by Jiro. Still, I felt a nagging curiosity about what his life might have been like had he not sold it completely to his sushi. I found it a bit sad that way, like he never pursued the “non-work” side of life. I think people can interpret it differently but I did find that aspect sad.

10/10