Foxcatcher

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: Bennett Miller/Starring: Channing Tatum, Steve Carell, Mark Ruffalo, Sienna Miller and Vanessa Redgrave

I wish I hadn't known about the John du Pont story before seeing Bennett Miller's extraordinary new film Foxcatcher. I followed the developments in the local paper in the mid 1990s'; finding the story compelling for many reasons. But though I knew how the story on the screen would play out, it didn't detract from the experience nor did it make the film any less powerful.

I also found Miller's Moneyball to be equally absorbing but his new film has catapulted him into the dizzying heights of creative brilliance. If that sounds like fulsome praise, then I suggest you see the film for yourselves.

The du Pont family fortune was made substantial by arms manufacturing and its chemical industries, which allowed them to pursue excellence in equestrian sports, for which they were renown.

For reasons explicable only to John du Pont, he developed an obsessive interest in Olympic and world class wrestling. By providing wrestlers with a training facility in which to pursue a world championship or gold medal, he probably felt (as we see in the film) he could attain and experience a vicarious victory; one that might challenge the family's equestrian achievements--at least in his mind.

When the story begins in the mid to late 80s', we meet the two 1984 Olympic gold medalist brothers whose lives became entwined with John du Pont's; older brother David Schultz (Mark Ruffalo), and his younger brother Mark (Channing Tatum). We see the brothers training; grappling on a mat and trying to maneuver with arms and hands to execute moves. Mark's demeanor; angry and brooding, contrasts sharply with his older brother David's, which is more gregarious. Miller lets the camera rest on the two brothers as they exchange throws. The scene plays for awhile as we get some sense of the brothers passionate commitment to the sport and their competitive spirit. Mark eventually draws blood from his brother's nose when he upper-cuts him with his head. Rather than grouse, David merely wipes his nose then resumes practice.

Channing Tatum affects an under-bite, which gives him a neanderthalic appearance and lends his anger extra intensity. We don't understand the origins of his anger but we know years of wrestling have hardly served as a coolant.

One day, as Mark kills time alone in his very modest apartment, he receives a call from one of John du Pont's assistants, who suggest Mark visit the wealthy industrialist on his estate in Pennsylvania. With all travel expenses paid, Mark agrees. Arriving by helicopter, Mark discovers the du Pont estate is located near historic Valley Forge, which we soon learn plays a mythic role in John's life.

The first meeting between John and Mark is very odd. John is phlegmatic and reserved as he watches Mark with the eyes of a carnivorous bird observing its prey. John even mentions his nickname is "Golden Eagle" and suggests to the bewildered wrestler that he go bird-watching on his estate but not without presenting him a book on birding, which he happened to write.

But we learn John's interest in Mark has little to do with birds. With patriotic fervor, he tells Mark that he and his brother Dave should have been better recognized by the country for their achievements in the Olympics. Shortly thereafter, John leads Mark to a building which on the inside is an impressive gym tailored specifically for wrestlers. Stunned and pleased, Mark is further awed by John's offer to allow Olympic hopefuls to train on the Foxcatcher grounds. He also offers Mark a $25,000 salary and the use of a chalet as his residence on the estate.

Also intrigued by Mark's brother David, John deploys the young wrestler as an emissary to lure his brother to Foxcatcher. David asks Mark the very pertinent question: "What does he get out of this?" The deceptively simple question proves to be more complicated than John's "contribution to America" explanation.

Unable to convince his brother to join him at Foxcatcher, John and Mark develop a friendly relationship and become closer as training begins in earnest. In the relationship that blossoms, Mark accompanies John on an inspection of a military vehicle of DuPont industries' design, only to watch him angrily demand a .50 caliber machine gun for the armored carrier. He then sees John slap the clipboard out of the military contractor's hand. We, like Mark, get a taste of John's violent temper, which seems all the more shocking coming from someone so seemingly unflappable and kind.

And we wonder, as David does, what really motivates John to provide so much for a sport his mother (Vanessa Redgrave) believes is "low." It's in the tension between John and his mother where the psychological footprints of his actions are laid bare. The mother's gallery of Equestrian trophies is suddenly sharing space with medals earned by John's Team Foxcatcher at an international competition. Like the sibling rivalry John perceives between Mark and David, we see a similar rivalry between he and his mother; one more subtle and just as fierce. After John sponsors a wrestling tournament in Phoenix for more mature men, he shows his mother his first place trophy, which she recognizes as the sham it is. We see that John has been scarred by his failure to please his mother.

But it isn't only a rivalry John shares with his mother. During a conversation, John relates his lonely childhood to Mark and an incident where he discovered his only friend was actually someone hired by his mother to fulfill the role. In a moment of commiseration, Mark divulges that he too had no friends growing up, which completes the empathetic bond the two men share.

Before John is finally able to draw David to Foxcatcher, we see him slowly become unhinged. He inexplicably (and ominously) visits--with gun in hand--the training facility where the wrestlers are waiting to begin practice. After briefly watching the wrestlers, he raises his gun and fires off a round, much to the shock and dismay of the team. Another incident follows soon after when John visits the wrestlers, who are gathered to watch T.V. at Mark's chalet. When John confronts him about the wrestlers inactivity, Mark mentions giving the group the morning off. What follows is hardly unexpected, as John slaps Mark. The relationship deteriorates soon after and with it, Mark's performance on the mat. After David moves to Foxcatcher to become part of the training regimen, Mark qualifies for the 1988 Seoul Olympics but only with difficulty. Complications arise at Foxcatcher when John's Svengali-like control of Mark is threatened by the brothers troubled but close relationship.

In one of the film's strange ironies, Mark tries to convince David to leave Foxcatcher to coach at BYU, only to be told his brother has no wish to leave.

Mark performs badly at the Seoul Olympics, losing in a first round rout. On his return to Foxcatcher, we see John watching Mark's moving van pull away from the chalet. What follows soon after seems almost tragically inevitable.

Even though I followed the story in the New York Times, I realized how little I knew about the interpersonal dynamics and John du Pont's frail psyche. The film concludes horrifically as we come to understand how one man's brittle self-image and feeble self-esteem could be the catalyst for a grisly, violent act.

In my recollection of the movie, I try to exercise objectivity by identifying the film's flaws but Foxcatcher is nigh perfect (in my estimation) and it easily challenges the year's best for cinematic excellence.

Steve Carell's performance has been heralded by considerable buzz, and I must say he lives up to it. Unrecognizable in his facial prosthetic, he quite simply vanishes; allowing an entity to inhabit his body. To watch Carell gaze stolidly over his upturned nose at those around him is enough to give one the creeps. Behind the veneer of calm seethes something dark and disturbed, which Carell captures expertly in his tour de force performance.

No less impressive are Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo. Tatum has been careful, at least in recent years, to guard his career from excessive second-rate Hollywood filmic incursions. Here he balances his physical performance with psychological nuance. His rage-induced mayhem inside a hotel room is powerful and self-destructive, which Tatum executes with emotional cogency.
Ruffalo is excellent as David and again shows what he can do with choice material. And for her brief appearance as John's mother, Jean du Pont, the ever-excellent Vanessa Redgrave is able to convey so much about a mother's disappointment for her son while also infantilizing him.

Miller maintains a somber mood throughout, which is made possible in part by the use of muted colors. Everything indoors and out seems monochromatic and devoid of life and joy. Like the monument to Valley Forge seen earlier in the film, the Foxcatcher grounds seem very much like a memorial rather than an estate, which is echoed in the colonial facade of the du Pont home.

The theme of class difference and its attendant mutual hostilities isn't lost on screenwriters E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman, who have imagined Mark and David to be pawns of a rich man's whims. For all of John's talk about America and his patriotism, and the pride he takes in discussing the sacrifices made by men at Valley Forge, he has few qualms about buying men he deems heroes while regarding them as a hobby.
Foxcatcher will no doubt be on many cinephile's and critics' year's best lists; a distinction it richly deserves. It is a resonant, cinematic achievement and another stop on Bennett Miller's artistic, upward spiral.

The Homesman

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: Tommy Lee Jones/Starring: Hilary Swank, Tommy Lee Jones, John Lithgow, James Spader, Meryl Streep, Miranda Otto, Tim Blake Nelson, Grace Gummer, William Fichtner and Sonja Richter

One film that arrives without much fanfare is Tommy Lee Jones' The Homesman, which is too bad because a film so determined to depict the harsh and sometimes dangerous conditions awaiting those eking out a meager existence as farmers in post-Civil War America deserves closer examination. I came to Jones' film expecting costume-drama Oscar-bait but was impressed with the story's bleak, desolate, violent and powerful nature. This isn't Little House on the Prairie with girls in pigtails and farmers in suspenders and beards enjoying the fruits of their labor. Jones' film lets us know life for plains farmers was often dirty and muddy and death could be dispensed to them in many ugly and swift ways. If disease didn't claim one's life, being hanged or gunned down by one's fellow man were often effective, lethal surrogates.

Cast in this 19th century, Nebraskan milieu is Mary Bee Cuddy; a young woman tending her own farm and succeeding reasonably well. Cuddy is poignantly played by Hilary Swank, whose gaunt face and skeletal frame make her an ideal casting choice for a woman struggling to survive in an environment where deprivation is the norm. The film's opening shot is Mary guiding her mule-drawn plow through Nebraska soil. We see that she is an independent, determined, church-going woman who realizes survival and prosperity might be viable objectives if she had a man; preferably another farmer with whom to wed her fortune--as Mary might put it.

Mary invites a fellow farmer Bob Giffen (Evan Jones, in a brief but memorable role), to supper with the intention of asking for his hand in marriage. When Mary tries to entertain Bob with her singing, which she accompanies with a mock keyboard made of cloth, Bob nods off. After he awakens, Mary proposes marriage, which Bob responds to with alarm; citing her "plain as a tin pan" appearance as a reasonable pretext for refusal. Mary's marriage proposal is inspired more as a pragmatic solution than an act of passion.

While in the local church-house one day, the minuscule congregation discusses a problem confronting the community. Three farmer's wives, who have gone mad, are to be taken east to Iowa, where the Reverend's friend will receive the women before they are sent further eastward. While the men in the congregation balk at the idea, Mary's Christian compassion and duty, as well as her prowess with a gun, make her the best, if not the most desirable, candidate. She agrees to take on the mission; a formidable and time-consuming journey, not to mention dangerous.

In the film's early scenes, we meet the three women: Arabella Sours (Grace Gummer; Meryl Streep's daughter), whose madness comes on the heels of the deaths of her three children--all lost to diphtheria; Theoline Belknap (Miranda Otto), first seen in a trance-like state as an infant she holds to her breast is tossed horrifically into an outhouse hole; and Gro Svendsen (Sonja Richter), whose loss of her Swedish mother and her husband's callous disregard for her emotional well-being have robbed her of her sanity.
Tommy Lee Jones, who co-scripted the film, doesn't spare the audience the horrors and hardness people faced on the frontier. We get a very real (and often disturbing) sense of the prevalence of infant mortality and disease and how the grueling efforts to make a life as a farmer could take a punishing toll on one's sanity.

After Mary finds a carriage to transport the women, she happens upon a man named George Briggs (Tommy Lee Jones) who sits on a horse with a noose around his neck. We saw him earlier occupying the farm of Bob Giffen, who he claims abandoned the place to travel east to find a wife. The other farmers drive George from the property and execute their own brand of frontier justice by leaving him to hang. Mary frees him and after hearing George's story, offers him a job accompanying her on her trip. George refuses then accepts after Mary promises him $300. George is a ragged-looking drifter who has seen his share of death and brutality. His love for whiskey doesn't endear him to Mary nor does his rough-hewn manner.

George is forced to hide inside the carriage when he explains to Mary that some of the husbands of the women they are to transport are the same men who left him to hang. Gro's husband recognizes George and when he accosts him, he is given a violent rap on the nose while Mary levels her rifle at him as they pull away.

It seems there has been a movement in cinema the last twenty years or so to make dialogue in westerns and in frontier period pieces sound more authentic. Films like Unforgiven, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and the Cohen brother's True Grit all feature a blend of literate and colloquial speech that seems to be true to the period. The verbal exchanges between George and Mary reflect this nicely as her eloquence plays against his profanity-laced comments.

As Mary and George set out, with the women inside the carriage, he draws from his rough and tumble experiences to guide their course. Mary's suggestion on where to cross a river is met by George's ominous warning about who they might encounter if they follow her lead. George tells Mary that anyone they meet might want to rape the women and any Indians they may run into will most certainly rape the women before killing them.

George is soon proven correct. When George and Mary wake one morning to find Arabella has wandered off, he finds her seated behind a dirty, ragged man (a scary Tim Blake Nelson) on a horse who has no intention of returning her. He is also quite frank about what he intends to do with her. After George's friendly negotiations lead nowhere, the two men engage in a knife fight that ends badly for the abductor when Arabella shoots him.

En route to their destination, Mary learns George is a deserter from an army unit who visited its own kind of brutality on the enemy during the Civil War. Though George's interest in Mary's mission is strictly mercenary, he carries a kind of subtle decency and sense of duty that belies his behavior.

Not long after, another harrowing experience greets George and Mary when a group of Shawnee Indians silently shadow the carriage. Before George sets out to offer the menacing natives one of Mary's prized horses, he offers her some grim advice about what to do in the event he's killed.

Jones long shots of the seemingly endless, desolate, flat, barren prairie, with its bitterly cold winds, adds visual emphasis to the lawlessness of the plains and the unforgiving loneliness that envelops all who partake of its empty vastness.

More grisly and violent episodes accompany the group en route to their Iowan destination. One particularly shocking development occurs after a night where Mary proposes marriage to George and even goes as far as forcing her naked body upon him while the three women watch bewilderingly. What happened the morning after, I didn't expect, which is a testament to the story's wrenching, anything-can-happen unpredictability.

What happens after is no less bleak. Jones's story is never sentimental nor does it attempt to spin its history for the audience's peace-of-mind. The ending is a victory and a defeat. George finds his monetary reward has been rendered worthless currency by the failure of the bank it represents which also means a bad end for the people Mary and George left behind in the small, farming community. And to exacerbate his situation, he realizes his time as a drifter may not be at an end, for he finds himself unwelcome everywhere, which gives the title its ironic twist.

Hilary Swank and Tommy Lee Jones are exceptional. Jones also coaxes some fine performances from the supporting cast, including James Spader and John Lithgow, as well as Gummer, Otto and Richter, who have little dialogue yet convey sorrow, hurt and mental anguish with their eyes and disheveled appearances.

So many memorable scenes in a film add up to a solid, honest and moving experience. While watching Jones' film, I couldn't help but think about author Karen Russell's brilliant story Proving Up (formerly titled The Hox River Window), which tells a horrifying tale of sod-busters (as plains farmers were called then) trying to legitimize their land-claims only to encounter death and despair.

I found The Homesman to be quite absorbing. Jones' attention to detail, his honest depiction of the plight of women on the plains and the insanity that lay in wait for them made for something alive and dark and gritty as all hell. It could be called revisionist but it doesn't need an academic designation; it's too visceral and earthy for that.

I hope it finds life on DVD or streaming; the film is too engaging to miss--or dismiss.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay--Part 1

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: Francis Lawrence/Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Julianne Moore, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Donald Sutherland, Josh Hutcherson, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Jeffrey Wright, Stanley Tucci and Liam Hemsworth

The penultimate Hunger Games installment arrives and with it come some new though hardly surprising developments. Director Francis Lawrence, who is now an HG veteran; brings us a story that is well-paced, with plenty of action action scenes to mingle with a few interesting character developments.

Jennifer Lawrence has now lived in Katniss Everdeen's skin for a few films and wears her character well. Eschewing an auto-pilot performance, she makes us care about Katniss with her compassion and her Greek-goddess-of-the-hunt heroism.

It's safe to say the HG films have eclipsed and buried the Twilight series in terms of adolescent popularity. Thank goodness; who could stand one more movie about narcissistic bloodsuckers who stood around looking like they were waiting for a Vanity Fair photo shoot.

The film wastes little time starting where the last story left off. Katniss has been rescued by the rebel government, who occupy a well concealed and well-fortified base underground in District 13. While she laments the loss of her best chum, Peeta Mellark, the rebel leader, President Coin (Julianne Moore), and her adviser/assistant Plutarch Heavensbee (Phillip Seymour Hoffman, in his last role) attempt to wheedle a reluctant Katniss into becoming the face of the rebellion. Katniss balks but when she sees a broadcast of Peeta--alive and well--being interviewed by Caesar Flickerman (Stanley Tucci), she changes her mind. She recognizes that Peeta has become a government pawn and propaganda tool. Her agreement comes with conditions, the most salient being Peeta's rescue from the government.

Katniss learns that being the face of the rebellion means being exploited and having her image manipulated by digital media to make her appear more heroic and leader-like. It is interesting that both Peeta and Katniss become pawns of opposing political bodies. One of the major themes in the series has been media and governmental manipulation.

Helping Katniss along with her image is stylist Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks), who has been exiled from the capitol. And equipping Katniss and her ad-hoc rebel unit is Beetee (Jeffrey Wright); who performs a service for the rebellion the way Q does for MI6 and James Bond.
Though Coin initially refuses to allow Katniss to fight for fear of losing the rebellion's most potent symbol, she also finds she has little choice when Katniss places herself in harm's way. As Katniss witnesses the devastation the Capitol has wreaked on the districts, she becomes more amenable to rebellion imperatives. And as both sides exchange hostilities, Peeta's rescue becomes the narrative focus.

Though it isn't hard to tell where the story will lead, Director Lawrence shows he has a nice touch at keeping the tension tightly wound and demonstrates sound story-telling instincts when he prevents Katniss' budding romance with Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth) from crowding out the story.

The film could have made President Coin and the rebel leaders appear saintly but the story is nuanced enough to show the rebellion's propaganda techniques to be much like the government's.

While watching the film, we know the last installment is yet to come, which means the audience will be left with an Empire Strikes Back-like cliffhanger. We discover something about Peeta I won't mention here; something to be addressed in the next and last installment.

Though I've enjoyed the series, I feel I'm ready to see it wrapped up and brought to a definitive conclusion. It hasn't worn out its welcome--yet--but it might have if the producers had decided to drag it out to 5 or 6 iterations. And do we really need the last installment to know how it will all end? The only surprises will come from the characters--mainly Katniss and Peeta.

And do I really need to say more about a series that has been cloned by its lesser successor, Divergent? No, nothing more need be said.

I may miss Katniss Everdeen when it's all said and done...or I may be eager to move on.

Yeah, that's more likely.

Rosewater

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: John Stewart/Starring: Gael Garcia Bernal, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Dimitri Leonidas, Ayman Sharaiha and Nasser Faris

Based on the book Then They Came for Me: A Family's Story of Love, Captivity and Survival by former Iranian/Canadian Newsweek Journalist Maziar Bahari, Rosewater is The Daily Show's Jon Stewart's directorial debut and as one might expect, he chose a politically-charged story as his subject matter.

Bahari, on assignment for Newsweek to cover the 2009 Iranian presidential debates and election, found himself a target of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's regime. Ahmadinejad's government's anti-opposition agenda consisted of arresting, imprisoning and torturing all those who challenged the legitimacy of the election. Bahari discovered later that his journalistic activities were surveilled during his stay and were given a subversive spin by the government.

Stewart's film, though high-minded, is hardly tedious but it is an insipid adaptation that often seems more of a slog than a hard-biting account of Bahari's experiences. It is surprisingly dull, given Stewart's lively, political satire on The Daily Show. If Stewart expects us to be shocked that a journalist--even one Iranian-born--would be incarcerated and denied due process in the Muslim world, or anywhere despotism reigns with impunity, I'm afraid his film has arrived about twenty to thirty years too late. I don't think a story about Bahari's arrest can shock us now, especially when ISIS executes journalists and westerners on an almost weekly basis.

But Stewart tries, as does the ever-excellent Gael Garcia Bernal, who plays the Iranian journalist.
Bahari leaves his pregnant, British wife behind in London to pursue his story on the elections and along the way he meets the voting youth of Iran; those who support the ferociously conservative Ahmedinejad and those who back the progressive, reformist campaign of Mir-Hossein Mousavi. After meeting a Mousavi supporter named Davood (Dimitri Leonidas), the two become friends and join the teeming crowds gathered in the street to celebrate what is expected to be a sure Mousavi victory.

When the televised voting results begin to report a clear Ahmedinejad victory, the same crowds take to the street to protest what they believe to be a rigged election.

Days later, Bahari is woken from his bed at his mother's house by the police and arrested on the spot, though no formal charges are leveled against him. Bahari is blindfolded and thrown into prison, where he occupies a cold cell with only a small, circular hole in the roof for sunlight.

His interrogator is Blue-eyed Seyyed (Ayman Sharaiha); who enjoys a reputation for his skill in meting out physical and psychological torture. Seyyed is given a mandate by his superior, Haj Agha (Nasser Faris), to elicit a confession from Bahari.

Denied contact with his wife, his mother and the outside world, Bahari's incarceration stretches into months. He hears others being beaten and tortured, which fuels his anxiety and fear. Because Haj wishes Bahari to confess on television for propaganda purposes, he insists that Seyyed not beat him or cause injury to his face. But Bahari endures psychological torture in the form of questioning and threats relating to his wife and unborn child.

During his months in jail, he imagines begin visited by his father and sister; two family members who also suffered imprisonment under older Iranian regimes. While his father was jailed by the Shah of Iran's government in the 1950s', his sister Maryam was arrested during Ayatollah Khomeini's rule. Strange that he is visited by his family but not his beloved wife, who he fears he will never see again. I would imagine his wife would make a more comforting companion, but I guess frequent visits by familial ghosts better serve the film's political themes.

But Bahari's main nemesis is boredom, for he is denied books, magazines or anything to distract him. And aside from one scary threat tactic Seyyed employs to intimidate Bahari, little else in the way of torture or physical cruelty is visited upon him. After Bahari makes a video confession of his alleged crimes, he is still detained and when Haj orders him to be beaten, Seyyed expresses some reluctance that may be construed as compassion.

Later, after months of detention, Bahari discovers his imprisonment has become an international media news item. Even Hillary Clinton calls for his release, which all but assures him an imminent pardon.

As expressed before, Rosewater is pretty weak stuff. I never felt Bahari's life was really threatened and Stewart does little as director to establish an edgy atmosphere of dread or suspense. Bahari's experience comes off as more a bummer than a frightening human rights violation. Stewart's camera work is competent, literal and adequate.

I wish Gael Garcia Bernal had more to work with. I've seen him perform exceptionally with even the most modest scripts but here he is asked to do little but miss his wife and worry a little about his life.

I understand Stewart needed the actors to speak in accented English to attract investors but it robbed the film of much credibility and was a distraction.

I'm sure Stewart probably thought he had a powerful story to tell but the mere fact that Bahari was incarcerated shouldn't be the film's selling point. The onus is still on the director to make us give a damn about a jailed journalist in a hostile, Muslim country. And therein lies the problem; I just didn't give a damn (a sentiment I apparently share with Rhett Butler). If Stewart wants to tell a compelling story about someone like Bahari, then he must compete with the emotional intensity of network news and YouTube videos, which capture the immediacy and urgency of such events better and more economically.

I certainly don't want to dismiss his film categorically but stories like Rosewater work better as documentaries, in spite of Bernal and Stewart's efforts. Maybe films like Stewart's have become redundant in a world of where raw video footage of ubiquitous acts of barbarism are more camera-ready and widely disseminated.

Really, let's be honest; if one were gazing up at a multiplex marquee menu to see Rosewater offered alongside other films like Interstellar, Birdman, Gone Girl and Nightcrawler, which film would you rather see? I myself am spared such a choice because I've seen all the aforementioned films and I make it a point to see every film release humanly possible. But for the rest of you--my movie-going brethren (and sistren), I'll make a suggestion: avoid the one beginning with the letter R.

The Overnighters

Director: Jesse Moss

Sometimes documentary subject matter can neatly assume a narrative structure, which is made possible by editing wizardry. And sometimes the subject's lives in documentaries can resemble the dramatis personae in Greek tragedy. In director Jesse Moss' The Overnighters, it seems almost inconceivable (and improbable) that a man's love and compassion could condemn him to a fate so tragically ironic.

Moss' film is powerful and sobering and it does an expert job of disabusing us of the cherished myths Americans hold sacrosanct; our beliefs about tolerance, kindness to strangers and hospitality.

In the last decade, the oil industry emerged and bloomed in North Dakota. During that time, people from all over the country--mostly men--flocked to the state in hope of securing a job that were reputed to be plentiful. In the North Dakotan town of Williston, the Haliburton Corporation (yeah, those guys) employed many but also turned many more away, particularly anyone middle-age and older, regardless of their work ethic or experience. The desperate men who counted on a job often found themselves without lodging, without much money and without much in the way of viable options. If their situation wasn't adverse enough, they also found themselves cast as pariahs by an unwelcoming and often hostile community.

In this simmering cauldron of strife, a local pastor, Jay Reinke, was eager to extend a Christian hand to those who had nowhere to live or nowhere to park their campers or cars. We see the pastor lovingly greeting those who have come to Williston to find work; offering them meals and guidance; both spiritual and practical. Nicknamed Overnighters, the lot are often ragged, hungry, and clinging to the promise of work like a drowning man groping for flotsam.

Some of the men have left behind wives and children to improve their finances, only to find their economic conditions worsened and their relationships strained. Many arrive by bus; lacking a vehicle in which to sleep or to get around.

It is astonishing to see the Pastor tirelessly working to help everyone who comes to the parish. He even opens his own door to some of the men, who he and his family welcome unconditionally. When he isn't processing visitors and leading Sunday services, he is seen battling the town council, who are loathe to deal with the problems the newcomers present.

In trying to establish a neighborly relationship, Reinke goes door to door in the Parish neighborhood to discuss the issue with residents. The response from the community is often one of suspicion and hostility.

As Pastor Reinke helps those who seek the parish's charity, we meet several of the recipients and former recipients who were lucky to find gainful employ with Halliburton. Some of who have managed to find work aren't necessarily free from struggle. One young individual sends for his family from Minnesota, only to find his wife is unhappy with Williston's meager distractions, which prompts her to leave town with their infant in tow and her husband behind.

We also meet a former convict Reinke "saved"; an assistant of 13 years who once struggled with drugs and alcohol.

As the film proceeds, we see things go very wrong for the Pastor. It comes to light that a few men living in his parish are registered sex offenders, which naturally becomes a town controversy. We learn the history behind one sex offender's arrest; a relationship with an underage girlfriend; she 16, he 18; an extenuating circumstance the law doesn't recognize or excuse. Complicating this revelation is the man's recent success finding a truck-driving job, which he then loses because of his sex-offender status. Director Moss captures the meeting between the Pastor and the man, which becomes heated when Reinke scolds the truck-driver for withholding crucial information about his arrest when he applied for the job. If the Pastor often finds himself in the exhausting role of social worker, life is often tougher for those who show up at his door. Some with past criminal convictions are stigmatized almost irrevocably.

In another scene we see Reinke evading a reporter from a local paper as he dodges questions about hosting sex offenders.

Through it all, Reinke maintains a superhuman compassion for everyone who seeks his help; even going so far as to expressing his love for some. For an atheist like myself, whose attitudes about religion are cynical at best, it is particularly powerful to see a Pastor in this age apply Jesus' teachings faithfully, compassionately and unconditionally.

If facing the town council isn't trying enough, Reinke must also endure church elders, who prove to be as intolerant as the civic government. This is acutely felt after a personal issue comes to light. The disclosure has such a devastating impact on his family and his vocation that it leaves him in a position that is both cruel and brutal in its irony.

Director Jesse Moss faces a tragedy of his own: very few people will see his amazing documentary, which I feel is among the year's best. Someone might say Moss' film lacks opposing viewpoints, which might make for a reasonable critique if we didn't hear and see the opposition ourselves. In spite of the Pastor's compassion, it isn't unreasonable for residents to be wary of some of the outsiders but their unwillingness to engage those they distrust is unreasonable.

Moss' film left me feeling pessimistic about our country's inability to fully embrace and maybe grasp Christ's message of charity. It seems that Americans froth at the mouth when their commitment to their Christian faith is questioned yet many of the same people have little patience for the needy or wayward: two marginalized peoples Christ would have most surely welcomed. And for Pastor Reinke, the man who does understand what Jesus preached, he faces the fallout from his disclosure alone; without the succor of familial support or a more progressive response from his denomination's leaders.

And does Halliburton care about the situation it helped create? Shots of upscale homes where executives and upper-management most likely reside may as well be fortresses against the poor and struggling. The media is also culpable; stories I read myself in major news periodicals cast North Dakotan towns like Williston as promised lands where one need only show up to find fortune. Moss' film is an inoculation against illusion while being a good barometric reading of our moral climate. It is unstintingly real; offering no manufactured redemption or life-affirming phoniness.

Whiplash

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: Damien Chazelle/Starring: J.K. Simmons, Miles Teller, Paul Reiser and Melissa Benoist

The drive to be great; to overcome discouragement and self-criticism, as well as the criticism of others, might also be a lonely, solitary pursuit. But in director Damien Chazelle's Whiplash, the call to greatness might also mean having to overcome a mentor's furious, almost unscalable standards.

The story seems simple: a young student named Andrew Neyman (Miles Teller), studying jazz drumming at a prestigious music school in New York City, encounters a teacher named Terence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons), whose tough reputation is enough to make any prospective musician quake with fear and anxiety. But as the story unfolds, we see that the psychological pugilism between student and instructor is anything but simple.

Andrew is determined to be one of the greats; his bedroom wall photograph of jazz great Buddy Rich reflects his lofty ambitions. His love for jazz and his knowledge of the genre is extensive. On a first date with a young woman named Nicole (Melissa Benoist), he is able to identify the obscure jazz music playing in the background in his favorite pizza place.

Andrew makes it clear to Nicole and to everyone else his intentions to be one of the greats; even if it means being in exile from meaningful relationships.

When Andrew first encounters Fletcher, the young student is playing a drum-kit inside an empty room at the school. Fletcher hears him, then watches for a few seconds before Andrew notices the teacher and stops. Fletcher encourages him to play and when Andrew stops again, he notices the teacher is gone. The exchange, though seemingly innocuous, carries a whiff of foreboding.

After Fletcher steps into class to relieve a fellow instructor, he notices Andrew. Fletcher offers him fulsome praise by announcing to the gathering, "we have another Buddy Rich here," then invites him to join his advanced class the next day. Andrew is further encouraged by an exchange he has with Fletcher outside class when the instructor tells him in an amicable, benign way to have fun and relax. Feeling the flush of Fletcher's avuncular urgings, he joins the class in playing a jazz piece called Whiplash. But after a few stops, where Fletcher warmly chides Andrew for "rushing" his part, he stops, lifts a drum cymbal and hurls it at the young man's head, the young drummer manages to dodge it just in time. The stunned Andrew gapes at Fletcher as the enraged instructor shouts "Were you rushing or were you dragging?" Which is followed by a verbally abusive stream of threats and insults Andrew is ill-prepared to hear. The attack elicits a tear, which Fletcher seizes upon to offer more humiliating words. The abuse extends to the rest of the class in the form of homophobic slurs and homoerotic comments. Fletcher's vocal assault immediately called to mind R. Lee Ermey's rants in Full Metal Jacket for obscene intensity and psychological brutality.

As Fletcher's class prepares for a competition, his abuse withers the class into silence and anxiety and though Andrew receives his lion's share of the physical and mental venom, his tenacity to be great remains. His vigorous practice sessions leave his fingers, hands and drum snare bloody and puddled with sweat.

Andrew's drive to be exceptional takes its toll on his relationships. He tells Nicole his time with her is interfering with his musical pursuit while he vexes his cousins with his dismissive, pointed comments about what he feels are their mediocre, academic accomplishments.

When the jazz class is set to perform at another competition, Andrew is left to his own devices to secure transportation to the gig, which he resolves by renting a car. While recklessly speeding to the performance, his car is violently blindsided by a truck and rather than await medical care, he races to the hall, bloodied and ragged. He manages to arrive on time, but barely, much to Fletcher's exasperation and to the shock and dismay of his fellow musicians. The scene effectively conveys his manic drive and stoic intensity.

Fletcher's abuse continues, which leads to Andrew's self-dismissal from school and abandonment of his dream. Fletcher's classroom methods come to the attention of investigators, who prod a reluctant Andrew into making a damning statement against his former instructor. The investigation comes on the heels of the suicide of one of Fletcher's former students, who was apparently victimized and driven to the act while under his tutelage.

The final encounter between Fletcher and Andrew comes after a chance meeting on the street, where the resentful teacher and his former student share a drink. Fletcher invites Andrew to join his jazz band for a performance at a jazz festival; an event that brings their relationship to a head and tests the young musician's creative resolve.

J.K. Simmons, who is widely known as a character actor, is given his first chance to co-shoulder a film and he doesn't fritter the opportunity. Fletcher is a volatile nightmare, with his furious temper and unconscionable aggression. Simmons doesn't depict him as something otherworldly and malign, but someone human. His motivations seem very reasonable and sensible when he isn't hissing and baring fangs inside the classroom. Simmons always had range and depth, which he is finally able to demonstrate here.

Simmons's performance would be a soliloquy in an echo chamber if he didn't have Miles Teller to play off. Andrew could have been a self-pitying, doughy victim but Teller finds the fascinating nuance in the character; his prickly regard for his peers, his monomaniacal pursuit of his goal and his abrupt dismissal of everything that isn't drumming, evinced in his callous break-up with Nicole; a mistake he is later unable to correct.

Simmons' muscly biceps, bald head and intense brow make him an interesting physical adversary to Miles Teller; whose baby fat face and innocent, school boy eyes make for a visually arresting contrast.

But though Simmons and Teller mesmerize, the film has its glaring flaws. That Chazelle expects us to believe a professor's abusive classroom behavior would go unreported and unnoticed for so long is a bit much to ignore. But even if we overlook such literalism, that which is the film's strength is also the source of its greatest handicap. Though Simmons and Teller perform the hell out of Chazelle's script, so much of the drama is over-the-top and overly stylized. The R. Lee Ermey evocation bothered me too. What makes sense on Marine base seems comically hyperbolic in a classroom. I guess Chazelle wants Fletcher's story about a cymbal thrown at Charley Parker to make his behavior seem plausible and justified. Maybe it does but the film lacks subtlety. The violent, in-your-face-screaming robs the film of its psychological tension. In The Paper Chase, John Houseman's Charles W. Kingsfield manages to frighten and intimidate a classroom (and the audience) with his unnerving wit and intellect and his ability to wreck his Harvard student's self-esteem with the merest barb or insult. Fletcher's verbal bludgeoning is hard to take seriously after awhile and even in its most frightening moments, it's distractingly absurd.

I also found the blood and sweat more stylistic excess. I realize Chazelle wants to convey the violence and passion of creative expression, but the sight of so much blood and the deluge of sweat overstates and overpowers his message.

I think Whiplash is a terrific performance film, but as a whole, it doesn't work for me. It trips over its own ferocity. Even so, I would still encourage others to see it. It has some fascinating attributes. Teller's technical mastery of the drums is one such strength. Chazelle's film is hardly dull or silly; it has an energy surplus.

The cure for what ails Whiplash can be expressed concisely: more psychology, less psycho.

Interstellar

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: Christopher Nolan/Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Casey Affleck, Mackenzie Foy, Ellen Burstyn, John Lithgow, Wes Bentley, Michael Caine, Matt Damon, Topher Grace, David Gyasi and William Devane

I've wondered for some time if Christopher Nolan might someday join the ranks of cinema's directorial best. I've always thought he was ferociously talented and his style distinctive and singular. After seeing his new film Interstellar, which he penned with his brother Jonathan, I can finally say, with forceful emphasis--yes; he is on his way to entering the Pantheon. I found his new film to be monumental, highly intelligent, moving, visionary and riveting.

When one considers the film in retrospect, it seems incredible that a movie that begins on a country farm surrounded by cornfields could carry us to another galaxy, through a black hole and conclude in a space station in orbit around Saturn. But as the staggering stretches of time and space leave us breathless and our minds expanded, it's the mysteries of humanity that ultimately make Nolan's film an emotionally-rich experience.

The film's pervasive, melancholy tone begins in the opening scenes, where we see a less-habitable Earth of the near future. Though what specifically ails the planet is never overtly stated, we can see from the dust storms that smother and lash a small farming community that things aren't good. We learn that most crops have suffered some sort of mysterious blight, while only corn withstands the blankets of dust that besiege the small town residents.

In this community lives Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), his daughter Murphy (Mackenzie Foy), his son Tom (Timothee Chalamet) and his father-in-law Donald (John Lithgow). Cooper, a former pilot and engineer who now farms to survive, never had the opportunity to parlay his piloting skills into a space mission.

As he and his family endure the ominous environmental plagues, Cooper must also contend with his kid's school teachers, who believe Tom will never be qualified to be anything but a farmer, and look askance at Murph's fascination with NASA's Apollo programs. Her teacher bears a bewildering skepticism and contempt for space travel; going so far as to call the moon landing a fraud perpetrated by the U.S. government.

Strange, ghost-like occurrences begin to take place in Murph's bedroom; phenomena she attributes to the supernatural, which Cooper's rational mind interprets scientifically. Because Murph shares her father's analytical prowess, she believes the manifestation is a coded message in Morse, which offer longitude and latitudinal coordinates to a place not far from their home. When Cooper and his daughter investigate the location, they find a secret government NORAD site and when shown inside, they discover the place is actually a NASA base where a secret project involving space travel is being undertaken.

Leading this project is a brilliant scientist named Professor Brand (Michael Caine), who learns Cooper's piloting skills would be ideal for the mission he is overseeing. The professor explains to Cooper that the Earth's atmosphere is changing molecularly; becoming more nitrogen rich, which will soon make it difficult for humans to breathe and survive. The professor's project, already in advanced stages, involves finding planets suitable for human colonization. When Cooper mentions, quite reasonably, that the planets in our solar system can't support life, the doctor tells him of a worm-hole discovered near Saturn; one most likely placed by an alien race that anticipated mankind's need to abandon the Earth. The worm-hole allows travelers passage between our galaxy and another and on the other side are several planets which are candidates for colonization. These planets happen to be circling a massive black hole--at a safe distance--called Gargantua. It is also explained that several scientists have already traveled to said planets and are exploring them, though their fates remain unknown. Professor Brand offers Cooper the opportunity to travel to the planets, via the worm hole, to follow-up on the erstwhile expedition's progress.

Though eager to pilot a spaceship and satisfy his hunger to travel in space, the trip leaves Murph afraid and angry; knowing she may never see her father again. And when Cooper comes to say goodbye to his daughter, she refuses to see him. While she bars the door, books fall from her bookshelf, further confirming the existence of some sort of poltergeist, though what it actually is becomes clear later in the film.

As the mission to Saturn begins, Cooper is joined by Professor Brand's daughter Brand (Anne Hathaway), Doyle (Wes Bentley), and Romilly (David Gyasi). After their ship breaks Earth's gravitational pull, the crew enters cryogenic freeze for the long voyage. On awakening near Saturn, the crew prepares to enter the worm-hole and when they successfully navigate their way through, they find the black hole and the planets the professor described.

The shot of the Earth from space and the rings of Saturn are lovely and breathtaking. It is particularly humbling to see a massive spaceship reduced to the size of a penny next to Saturn's massive majesty. It is also fascinating that the worm-hole is presented more as a sphere rather than the traditional hole-like, sci-fi conceptions we're accustomed to seeing. Hovering like a ticking clock over these wondrous visuals is the mission's pressing objectives and the imperiled human race back on Earth. Nolan keeps the scientific intricacies of space travel and Einsteinian time-dilation reasonably accessible without drowning the audience in technical jargon.

As Cooper, Brand and the crew visit the prospective planets, they encounter some surprises, some life-threatening setbacks and one of time-dilation's mind-boggling peculiarities (time-dilation dictates that time will slow significantly for those who travel at or near the speed of light while it proceeds normally for observers. If one were to visit a distant star at light speed and return to Earth, the traveler will have hardly aged at all while hundreds or thousands of years may have passed for those on Earth). Because the planets circle a black hole, the more bizarre effects of time-dilation wreak havoc with the crew.

And because of time-dilation, Murph has aged into normally into adulthood (now represented by Jessica Chastain) while her father has more or less remained the age he was when he left Earth. Her transmissions to the Cooper's ship leave him floored when he sees the sobering sight of his aged daughter; who, in relativistic terms, is hardly younger than he.

Back on Earth, Murph has matured into an accomplished scientist who has joined Professor Brand's project and in doing so, she learns (as Cooper and crew discover separately) the mission through the wormhole was a one-way trip, which dashes her hope of ever seeing her father again. The realization has a devastating impact on her and on Cooper alike.

A tragic turn of events on one of the planets threatens the mission, which leads to some life-altering decisions for Cooper and Brand, one of which forces him into the black hole; a phenomenal sequence where travel inside a black hole is beautifully imagined; a trip that ends where one might least expect.

A film like Nolan's only works if the sterile, coldness of space can be countered by a powerful human drama, and it is. The relationship between Cooper and Murph is the dynamic that really drives the film. The desire to see Cooper keep his promise to return to his daughter is powerful, though the unimaginable distance and time between them makes that prospect seem unlikely.

Matthew McConaughey may have given the performance of his career in Interstellar. It's hard to imagine how improbable this role seems when just a decade ago his career was mired in witless, romantic comedies with Kate Hudson. That phase in his career seems as far removed from the present as the black hole is from Earth.

Hoyte Van Hoytema, the cinematographer behind Her and Let the Right One In, has a rich palette from which to work as he captures the dusty brown of a farming town, the cold grays of a icy planet and the lovely, ringed face of Saturn; real and imagined environments he records with an artist's eye.

If the film has a flaw, it might be the later scenes on Earth, which seem to pull us reluctantly away from the unbelievable drama taking place a galaxy away. The scenes of an adult Murph combating her brother to make contact with her father is necessary to the story but it can't match the scenes in space for power or wonder. And of course one could be nit-picky about the science in the film. I doubt anyone in a spacesuit would survive entry into a black hole but why should we be forced to think literally to appreciate the Nolan's imaginative story?

I think Interstellar is a masterpiece; a term I very rarely apply to any film, even great ones. It challenges our intellect and our conceptions of reality while showing us how precious a sight a human face might be when it lies beyond interstellar and intergalactic reaches, and what happens when time dilation allows a young father to visit his elderly daughter on her deathbed. And it asks us to consider the notion that our species may not me meant to occupy this celestial ball forever. Nolan asks us to consider a lot, which is what makes his film a stunning achievement.

The Imitation Game

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: Morten Tyldum/Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Mark Strong, Matthew Goode, and Charles Dance

The Enigma Machine has been the subject of various films; either as an object to be stolen or as a peripheral item in World War II dramas. Now, the machine and its creator; Alan Turing, are the focus of an engaging new film by the Norwegian director Morten Tyldum.

Turing is one of the more controversial historical figures of the 20th century. A brilliant mathematician and logician, his fascinating life was cut short by what was reported as a suicide though the circumstances surrounding his death remain inconclusive. In Tyldum's film he emerges as a messy mosaic of genius, psychological quirks and off-putting foibles.

The Imitation Game isn't a hagiographic bio-pic or a garden variety thriller one might find on cable T.V.; it is an exciting dramatization of events leading up to the decryption of German military codes in WWII that were thought to be unbreakable. Secrets are a theme in the film; those unveiled on the personal and governmental levels almost always have a devastating impact.

The story begins years after the war, in early 1950s' England when a burglary at Alan Turing's home led to an investigation which uncovered some damning information that would lead to his arrest. What he was guilty for becomes clearer as the drama unfolds.

The story continues with British intelligence officer Commander Denniston conducting interviews for a team assigned to crack the German code machine Enigma. One candidate, Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch), is confident to the point of arrogance but manages to be assigned to the team. Turing defends his suitability for the position by mentioning his passion for puzzles and games involving secret codes. The interview is an entertaining exchange of sparkling wit between Denniston and Turing.

After Turing joins the team, he proves to be a tireless and determined worker; so much so that he demands to be assigned the role of group leader. Of course he is rebuffed by the chief of MI6; Stewart Menzies (Mark Strong), but the officer half-jokingly suggests Turing contact his boss Winston Churchill when the mathematician boldly threatens to go over his head. The team and Menzies himself are shocked when Turing does just that and are miffed when he succeeds in securing the lead.

Turing; awkward, strange and hardly a people person, wastes little time in firing two team members then sets about building an elaborate machine he claims will break Enigma. The rest of the team is naturally resentful, which casts Turing in an adversarial role the project can ill-afford.

To replace the personnel he fired, Turing organizes a test whereby the applicants must complete a crossword of his own devising under 6 minutes. Into the male-dominant test room comes a young woman named Joan Clarke (Keira Knightely), who is regarded mostly as a curiosity by Turing and participants alike. Clarke completes the test in less than 6 minutes, earning her a place on the team; much to the annoyance of her parents, who can't countenance their daughter working and living among men.

As work begins, Menzies is keen to explain the dire need to decipher the Enigma codes by mentioning how many soldiers have died while the group chats. Scenes of British ships burning and half-sunk are intercut with the dialogue, giving the audience a clear and frightening picture of the Enigma machine's devastating impact on the war.

The process of breaking the code is maddening and frustrating. One of Enigma's diabolical features is its ability to be reset everyday, which renders the code-breaking team's work utterly useless if the daily codes remain unbroken. The sound of an alarm signalling the end of the code-breaking day arouses anger and near-violent agitation. The sound also reminds the audience of the plot's ticking clock. As the days wear on, the team endures many failures and setbacks. Meanwhile, Turing's ingenious, anti-Enigma machine, though brilliant, lacks the elusive information that will unlock the German machine's secrets.

In the midst of the team's efforts are the unfolding dramas that transpire outside work. Because Joan's parents refuse to allow their daughter to be part of the team, Turing solves the problem by proposing to her, which she accepts.

The film also frequently breaks from the present to examine Turing's past. We see Turing's school days, where he was often the target of pranks, ridicule and sometimes scorn. In a cafeteria scene, the young Turing obsessively prevents the different foods on his plate from touching one another, which reveals what is now called Asperger's Syndrome. His schoolmates choose to mock his obsessive/compulsive disorder by dumping a huge bowl of vegetables over his head and food.

In the hostile atmosphere of the school, Turing forms a special friendship with a classmate, one that often involves passing notes with encrypted messages only the two boys can decipher. We see Turing's fascination with secret codes was established early on.

How the group eventually breaks the code comes by way of something seemingly mundane a woman mentions casually in a bar. But the triumph of deciphering the code is short lived, for Turing realizes that the information stolen from the Enigma must be used sparingly, lest the Germans discover their transmissions have been compromised, which might prompt them to change the codes. What this amounts to is the tragic understanding that they must decide when and where and for whom the information must be deployed, which means many will die though many will also be saved. It leaves them with a god-like responsibility none in the group relish.

During the code-breaking effort, it comes to MI6's attention that someone on the team is feeding information to the Russians. Turing is suspected at first but later the culprit becomes known to the mathematician. Little can be done, for the culprit threatens to divulge Turing's secret if the person is exposed.

The secret Turing guards is his homosexuality, which blossomed during his school days when he fell in love with the boy who befriended him. Secrets, as mentioned earlier, play a significant role in the film. The exposure of some major secrets lead a nation to victory, while other secrets condemn (in Turing's case) or conceal illicit behavior (the group member passing secrets to the Russians).

But it is Turing who proves to be the most fascinating character. It is astonishing to consider that a brilliant, gay mathematician with Asperger's Syndrome was mostly responsible for securing the allied victory. His efforts have been given short shrift in WWII annals.

I'm beginning to think Benedict Cumberbatch could play an ice cube and give it depth and dimension. His performance alone is worth the price of admission. And though Keira Knightley is an actress who usually annoys me to the quick, she is quite terrific in Tyldum's film, as is the strong supporting cast, led by Mark Strong and Matthew Goode.

What befell Turing later was tragic, as British authorities punished him for his orientation, which was considered a criminal offense in Great Britain at the time. Part of his probation involved receiving hormone treatments to suppress his libido (!) The end titles inform us that Turing received a pardon by the British government and the Crown in 2013.

One of The Imitation Game's great qualities is its refusal to sentimentalize Turing or his life. His story echoes that of T.E. Lawrence; another brilliant hero who happened to be a homosexual and an eccentric. Turing's accomplishments beggar belief yet his own government found it fit to criminalize him. Sometimes the world exacts a heavy price from geniuses for being complicated.

Citizenfour

Director: Laura Poitras/With Edward Snowden and Glenn Greenwald

Citizenfour may be one of the most important documentaries to be released in recent years and definitely one of the most fascinating.
Director Laura Poitras was granted access to former National Security Agency-contracted employee Edward Snowden in the days leading up to his release of secret NSA files to the press and public. His actions were a provocative, dangerous and calculated attempt to bring the agency's flagrant and immoral practice of gathering information on governments, world leaders and more shockingly--American citizens--to light. Of course the NSA defends their actions as being for the good of national security--a highly preposterous claim at best. Poitras, along with Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, met with Snowden in a Hong Kong hotel to interview him and receive sensitive data files, which were to be revealed by the Guardian journalist and to the press and the public days after the initial meeting.

It is astonishing to consider the singular privilege granted both Poitras and Greenwald in breaking a story that made a tremendous worldwide impact.

As Poitras captures the very intelligent and highly articulate Snowden on camera, he relates his story to Greenwald. The situation seems almost unreal and surreal. How often can one watch a historical event unfold before one's eyes; something the participants and the audience know will create a political shock wave and bring the wrath of the U.S. government down upon Snowden.

In spite of being a little nervous (naturally), Snowden divulges information in a composed, rational manner. What he made known is now public record (thanks to his efforts).

Though the word heroic has been mostly bled of its power, it is a term that applies to Poitras and Greenwald though mostly to Snowden, who essentially ruined his life to bring to light what he believes is a crime. As one would expect, Snowden is immediately vilified by the U.S. government and in the aftermath of the disclosure, Poitras and Greenwald endure harassment and government surveillance.

We can feel Snowden's acute anxiety as he watches the initial impact of Greenwald's story on T.V. in his Hong Kong hotel room.

Though what we learn has already been covered extensively by every major news outlet in the world, its power remains undiminished. I couldn't help but feel a very visceral fear, knowing government agencies, more specifically the NSA, have flouted the American public's disdain for having phone conversations recorded and internet activity monitored.

How would Orwell have reacted to the NSA's operations? I think we know the answer to that rhetorical question.

It is infuriating to listen to top National Security personnel lie before congressional committees about eavesdropping on the American public. It is equally infuriating to learn corporate telecommunication giants like Verizon colluded with the NSA to facilitate their agenda. Poitras' film leaves us feeling two very strong emotions: anger and fear. That a country so proud of its alleged liberties and democratic ideals would sanction KGB-like tactics to collect data on citizens and foreign countries alike betrays a hypocrisy that is both revolting and immoral.

It is stated in the film that comparatively speaking, U.S. citizens enjoy more freedom from NSA spying than that of the rest of the world. Why our allies aren't more outraged by this fact leaves me baffled.

I try to resist hyperbolic praise when writing about film but it seems to me Poitras' documentary could and should earn some sort of Nobel Prize for capturing footage of one of the most important stories of the 21st century.

Poitras' medium shot of Snowden and his girlfriend through their kitchen window in Moscow as they prepare dinner makes a powerful statement about how easy it is for someone to be watched and how vulnerable we really are to governmental powers and forces we can scarcely defy. In one scene in the film, Greenwald and his partner endure security entanglements at airports, which is one of many ways the U.S. government intimidates citizens they believe to be seditious.

We know from the film-and the news media, that Snowden has been granted temporary asylum in Russia. He will most likely join Julian Assange in becoming an embassy refugee unless he risks returning to the U.S. to face severe federal prosecution.

Poitras' film is a phenomenal document; one that leaves one feeling cynical and afraid of the NSA's reach. When the cinematic dust of 2014 clears in January, Poitras' film will stand tall among the year's best. Citizenfour is history.

The Babadook

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: Jennifer Kent/Starring: Essie Davis, Noah Wiseman, Hayley McElhinney and Daniel Henshall

Australian Director Jennifer Kent makes her feature-film debut with The Babadook; a frightening and often disturbing story of a mother and son who are menaced by an evil, supernatural entity clad in a black top-hat and suit. It isn't often we find horror from down under arrive on our shores but it is fortunate we have Kent's film to give the genre a jolt with a dark, offbeat story that dispenses scares liberally.

The odd title refers to a character in a children's book, which Amelia (Essie Davis) reads to her young son Samuel (Noah Wiseman) as a bedtime story.

Years earlier, Amelia lost her husband in a car accident on the way to hospital to give birth to her son. In the present, the tragedy continues to haunt Amelia and Samuel.

Amelia has difficulties rearing her son, whose elementary school life is troubled by strange and sometimes violent behavior, which taxes the patience of the school administration. Unable to cope with her son's erratic behavior, which includes making weapons to fight the Babadook, Amelia removes him from school.

Samuel's behavior also troubles Amelia's sister Claire (Hayley McElhinney), whose own young daughter refuses to play with him. Despite repeated scoldings, Samuel persists in his belief about the Babadook, which exasperates his mother.

As her life continues to spiral out of control, Amelia begins to realize Samuel's warnings about the entity may be real. She begins to hear loud, strange sounds in her home while their dog Bugsy barks at something unseen. Not long after, she begins to see the black-clad apparition from Samuel's book.

After ripping up the book, she finds it; days later, on her doorstep with the pages reattached. In re-reading the book, she finds that what were seemingly harmless passages are now ominous warnings about the entity's intentions, including possessing her body and visiting violence on Samuel, the dog and herself.

Amelia also sees her husband's apparition intermingle with the Babadook, which brings her psychological state to bear. After the entity possesses Amelia, Samuel and the family dog become her target, which leads to some disturbing developments.

The dread factor is maintained with an edgy score by Jed Kurzel and a terrific set design; interiors are solid grays and steel blue, which darken rooms and make for a somber mood.
Essie Davis gives a sound performance as a mother who pines for her husband and for someone to assuage her loneliness. Child actor Noah Wiseman's quirky appearance and dark eyes make his lonely, social awkwardness all the more poignant.

As Amelia and Samuel's confrontation with the Babadook comes to a decisive conclusion, we see the family become less victimized in their battle with the malign spirit.

It is easy to see The Babadook as an allegory about overcoming grief and loss and the evil tormenting the family a projection of their own anxieties. Kent doesn't give our own fears and anxieties rest, as every moment Amelia and Samuel are in the house makes one squirm and wish for an escape. Her first film shows directorial promise.

If most American horror films had the ambition of Jennifer Kent's film, we'd see fewer messes like Ouija. The Babadook doesn't just scare, it denies one refuge from something determined and implacable. A terrific film; a terrible evil.

Nightcrawler

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: Dan Gilroy/Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Bill Paxton and Riz Ahmed

We've grown accustomed to seeing Jake Gyllenhaal in films where he is confronted by creepy characters or situations. Donnie Darko, Zodiac and this year's Enemy are but a few that come to mind. In Nightcrawler, Gyllenhaal has the rare opportunity to actually play a creep. And as he takes on this new career challenge, he proves he is quite adept at playing a character who gets under one's skin.

His character, Louis Bloom, reminds me somewhat of Robert DeNiro's Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver; he is humorless and earnest and when he tries to sustain an ordinary conversation, he is awkward and more than just a little unnerving. And like Travis Bickle, you know something dark, angry and maybe violent is seething beneath a deceptively self-possessed demeanor.

When we first see Louis, he is using a bolt cutter to remove a chain link fence near some train tracks. When he is confronted by a security guard, Louis offers a feeble excuse about being lost. His gaze rests on a watch the security guard wears, which he covets. After the guard scoffs at Louis' reason for being on the premises, he is attacked brutally. We see the outcome of the melee in the next scene, as Louis sports the security guard's watch.

After selling his scrap metal to an unscrupulous buyer, Louis comes upon a crash scene on an L.A. freeway. He stops to find two police officers trying to extricate an injured driver from a car. He also sees a cameraman, Joe Loder (Bill Paxton) filming the scene. Louis learns Joe is capturing footage of the crash to sell to local T.V. news stations. While Joe is in his van gathering his camera equipment for his next opportunity, Louis approaches him and asks if he might need help. Joe gives him the brush-off but it is obvious from Louis' eyes as he watches the van pull away that the incident has made an impact on him.

After seeing Joe's footage on the local news, he sets out to buy his own camera and to fund his new found enterprise, he steals a bicycle to sell to a pawn broker. Unable to get his preferred price for the bike, he instead trades for a home video camera and a police scanner.

Louis then tries his hand at capturing his own footage when his police scanner leads him to a crime scene involving domestic violence. He boldly approaches the epicenter of the scene as police officers tend to a bleeding victim. Louis aggressively thrusts his camera over the victim to capture grisly footage. After the police force him back, Louis returns to his car but not before a rival cameraman vents his frustration at him for thwarting his own attempts to film.

Later that evening, Louis visits a local T.V. station, intending to sell his modest footage. He meets a producer named Nina Romina (an excellent Rene Russo) who buys his footage for a modest fee. Though Nina's colleague has reservations about the footage being appropriate for television, she is hardly troubled or disturbed by the video. Her focus on ratings leaves her blind to ethical considerations.

Nina encourages Louis to find more footage and to consider her first when marketing it, to which he agrees. An unholy partnership forms; both parties hungry for success and willfully oblivious to scruples.

At this point in the film, we've grown accustomed to Louis' bizarre chatter about success, which he drones about in a robotic fashion. He is happy to offer his views to anyone who will listen, including Nina.

As Louis submits more footage, he hires a young apprentice named Rick (Riz Ahmed); a down and out homeless person with a shaky work history. Excited by Louis' offer of employment, he too listens to his employer's clinically expressed ideas about business.

As the footage sales climb, Louis upgrades his vehicle to a brand new muscle car and acquires new camera equipment and a computer to edit his videos. And as the two men become experienced in the ways of filming, Louis becomes more ambitious and even less concerned about how he gathers his footage.

Flush with success, he invites Nina out to dinner one night. While she considers the dinner something strictly professional, Louis interprets it as something romantic. When Nina rebuffs his amorous intentions, Louis reminds her how his footage has been instrumental in reviving her career while also making subtle, unkind comments about her age and the fact that her professional life has been sporadic. He also makes demands for higher footage fees and more brazenly, insists she introduce him to the news production staff. Nina is repelled by his aggressive, roughshod tactics but is subtly taken by his initiative. Louis is the reflection she sees looking back at her in the mirror.

Louis' ambition and his shockingly unethical approach to his work lead him to an incident he cunningly manipulates for his own gain, which involves filming a murder in progress. Rather than turn over evidence which might incriminate the assailants, he withholds it to prolong potential money-making opportunities. In a unconscionable attempt to collect the reward on the suspects and film the footage of their arrest, he follows them after learning their whereabouts from the license plate number in his footage. His plan leads to a deadly shoot-out and a car-chase that ends fatally for several parties. But it is what he films that heralds his descent into total ethical and moral bankruptcy.

The film ends cynically; not only will Louis will remain impervious to arrest and prosecution, he will also prosper.

Gilroy's story is taut and bleak and wonderfully plotted. It is easy to see how a sociopathic opportunist like Louis might easily find success via the news media, with its declining standards of taste and integrity.

Gyllenhaal keeps the audience on edge with his portrayal of Louis' unpredictable, menacing personality. Gyllenhaal's wide, alert eyes are a perfect vehicle for conveying an eagerness to learn (which he accomplishes with disturbing ease and speed) and a dangerous volatility. Rene Russo is the biggest surprise in the film. Her world-weariness and insecurities are worn on her face like lacerations. She is smart but we see that years of working in the news media has left her with a mercenary attitude toward her job, which is finely attuned to ratings imperatives. She and Louis are simpatico in their approach to their work. I don't think I've seen a better performance from Russo. Her career has mostly been relegated to Hollywood-movie-babe roles where all that was asked of her was to smirk and look sexy. Here she shows a range and a darkness I didn't think she had.
Riz Ahmed was also quite good as the conscience Louis so sorely needs but appallingly lacks.

The film makes a powerful and pessimistic point about American opportunism; its intolerance for competition and its debilitating effect on character. It also says something about how the capitalist system abets the unethical agendas of those who see illicit conquest as a means to success.

Nightcrawler might leave you feeling like you need a good scrubbing with hot water and soap. But it is also an intriguing film; one that left me hoping life doesn't always resemble the grim make believe on movie screens.