Mortdecai

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: David Koepp/Starring: Johnny Depp, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ewan McGregor, Paul Bettany, Olivia Munn and Jeff Goldblum

Based on the novel series by author Kyril Bonfiglioli, Mortdecai is a comedy about a relatively famous British art dealer who has fallen on hard times and is given an opportunity to rehabilitate his reputation by undertaking an assignment to recover a stolen Goya painting for MI6 and hence, the British government. Johnny Depp plays the title character, which gives him the opportunity to affect a British accent (Hasn't he done this an awful lot in his career?).

Lord Mortdecai's reputation in the art world is shaky at best and he isn't beyond selling patent fakes, which naturally invites collector's wrath and scorn.

When the story begins, Lord Mortdecai, or "Charlie" as he is known, and his wife Johanna (the ever-underwhelming Gwyneth Paltrow) have fallen on hard times, which means selling off prized paintings in his collection and his beloved Rolls Royce. To cause his wife further dismay, he has taken to wearing a pretentious, Victorian-esque mustache that curls upward at the ends. A running gag is the revulsion that overcomes Johanna whenever she kisses her husband. The retching that follows the kiss is supposed to be funny but it isn't amusing and even less so when the gag is trotted out several more times throughout the film.

Mortdecai is visited one day by the head of MI6, who also happens to be an old schoolmate from Oxford named Martland (Ewan McGregor). Martland hopes to enlist Mortdecai's help in finding a Goya that went missing during a restorative cleaning. It becomes known to the audience that Martland has always been in love with Johanna, which hardly endears him to Mortdecai. The thief is known to be a terrorist, though Martland is puzzled as to why said terrorist would want the painting. Mortdecai agrees to help his old classmate but only after some coaxing by Martland, who tries to appeal to his sense of patriotism.

Mortdecai's houseman and bodyguard, Jock (Paul Bettany; probably the only mildly amusing character in the movie) accompanies him in his search, which brings them into contact with unsavory figures in the art world.

As their search leads them abroad, it comes to light that a number was written on the back of the painting; placed there by Herman Goering, who once had the Goya in his possession. The number is a numerical key to a treasure cache resting in a Swiss bank that the terrorist intends to use to finance his organization's operations.

Most bad comedies manage to elicit one chuckle, if not a guffaw from the viewer but not here. I think one might find more reasons to chuckle watching Foxcatcher than Mortdecai. I also think the producers (Depp among them) probably felt the accent and the mustache alone would do all the comedic work, with Depp's British affectations buttressing his performance. Unfortunately they don't. And they aren't funny in and of themselves. With most of the other characters playing the straight-men (with the exception of Jock), we have to turn to Mortdecai for the comedic cues.

Also not funny or interesting is Martland's repeated attempts to steal Johanna away from Mortdecai. A cameo by Olivia Munn as the nymphomaniac daughter of a rival art dealer named Kramf (Jeff Goldblum) goes nowhere, though she turns out to be in cahoots with the terrorist.

As the story leads to a climactic auction house sequence where all parties are involved in the sale of the Goya painting, I found myself impatient for the film to end. I had truly grown tired of not-laughing.

Maybe a more capable director or screenwriter could have wrung some laughs out of the silliness, or maybe the character just isn't that funny. Depp certainly doesn't mind playing ridiculous people but there is something vaguely over-familiar about Lord Mortdecai. Why does if feel as if we've seen this character somewhere before?

I would have liked to see someone like David Niven in this role. I think he would have brought more warmth and color--and more of his signature wit and charm, to the story. And if all Paltrow can lend to the movie are her tallness and blondness, then why not cast a female with strong, comedic ability instead; someone who can be an affective foil to Depp?

Where and how it all ends doesn't really matter. Anyone who has seen the unprepossessing trailer can guess what happens. I truly hope I don't see a trailer in 2016 for Mortdecai 2. That would be tragic. Let's hope we've seen the last of that mustache.

My Favorite Films of 2014

Although there are some critically acclaimed films from 2014 that are awaiting release, including several Oscar-nominated foreign films, I've decided to forge ahead and submit my year-end Favorite Film List.

If I see some late-stragglers from 2014 that happen to be notable, I'll just have to consider them for next year's list.

As always, the following are not necessarily the best of the past year but merely my favorites. I did not employ any special criteria for selecting the following; the films just happened to be ones I liked the most; plain and simple. I noticed documentaries were represented robustly, which is always a good thing, as were Hollywood and independent films.

I wish I could have included more foreign films but it seems fewer and fewer offerings from overseas make their way to our shores. With most of Europe staggering with anemic economies, ear-marking money for film budgets and distribution might not be considered a priority. It's understandable. Or maybe the American film industry is becoming increasingly xenophobic. Who knows? But some terrific stuff from our international brethren did find their way here and some found their way to my list.

So, without further delay, here are my 2014 faves; in no special order:

Tim's Vermeer
--Director: Penn Jillette
Inventor Tim Jenison set out to "paint" a Vermeer using materials, lighting and optics the master may have used himself and made some startling discoveries along the way. Penn Jillette's documentary on the process is fascinating, illuminating and as absorbing as Vermeer's paintings.

X-Men: Days of Future Past
--Director: Bryan Singer
Who thought a superhero movie could actually be so fun and inspired? Most of them suffocate under thw weight of excessive CGI.
I still think the sequence set to Jim Croce's Time in a Bottle is one of the most humorously inspired sequences in last year's films. James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender are an excellent pairing and they bring so much credibility to their respective roles. I hope this particular X-Men series goes on forever.

Violette
--Director: Martin Provost
Emmanuelle Devos is terrific as the famous French author Violette LeDuc, whose struggle to be published in a male-dominated literary world is dramatized beautifully in Martin Provost's cerebral biopic. Sandrine Kiberlain also delivers a memorable performance as Simone de Beauvoir. This film premiered at an inopportune time (late Spring) on American screens. It was lost in the welter and bluster of the blockbuster season, but it distinguished itself anyway and earned some fine critical praise.

Viktoria
--Director: Maya Vitkova
Bulgarian director Maya Vitkova's first feature film is something extraordinary. A surreal indictment of Bulgaria's Communist past, the film is powerful, strange, totally absorbing and otherworldly beautiful.

The Overnighters
--Director: Jesse Moss
A heartbreaking and wrenching documentary about a Pastor whose boundless compassion leaves him at odds with a small North Dakotan town after he allows guest workers to stay on church property. The film is a critical examination of the myths behind North Dakota's employment rush. It dispels popularly held notions about America's beliefs in brotherly love and tolerance and presents an unflattering portrait of our nation's hypocritical piety.

The Homesman
--Director: Tommy Lee Jones
Tommy Lee Jones directed this overlooked gem about a woman eking out a rough existence on the Nebraskan frontier in late 19th century America. She is also entrusted to transport three mentally disturbed women to Ohio after they are driven mad by the brutal and unforgiving way of life on the prairie. The film is unsparing in its depiction of the rough and dangerous world so often romanticized in cinema. Hilary Swank and Tommy Lee Jones are exceptional as the partners who risk rape, violence and hostile Native American tribes to pursue their goal. The story is hardly predictable and often takes surprising and terrible turns. Very impressive film.

The Babadook
--Director: Jennifer Kent
Another auspicious, feature film debut though this time its Australian. It isn't often we see a horror film from down under but The Babadook is something special. Terrifying and aesthetically realized, Kent's story doesn't shy away from psychologically dark, frightening places. Actress Essie Davis' electrifying performance as a woman at the end of her mental tether is only one of the film's astonishing attributes.

The Great Flood
--Director: Bill Morrison
Director Bill Morrison specializes in documentaries (very loosely categorized as such) that tell stories using historical footage on decaying nitrate film. Here his subject is footage of the 1927 Mississippi River Flood. Accompanied by jazz guitarist Bill Frisell's wonderful score, Morrison's film gives us a glimpse into how people once responded to natural disasters and a sense of America's cultural past; with its endless contradictions. We see proof of America's resilience and indomitable spirit but also its shortcomings, like racial segregation. The Great Flood is great found art.

Nightcrawler
--Director: Dan Gilroy
Far from being a great movie, Nightcrawler manages to get under one's skin and much of that has to do with Jake Gyllenhaal's creepy portrayal of Louis Bloom; a mentally unbalanced, opportunistic, videographer of tragedy and death, from which he derives profit. One never knows how Bloom will react in any given situation but one characteristic that is consistent is his disturbing, emotional detachment. Rene Russo is also quite fine as a T.V. news manager who is as determined as Louis to climb the ladder of success without a pesky conscience to obstruct her. An underrated film but one that could attract a cult following.

Jodorowsky's Dune
--Director: Dan Gilroy
What if avant-garde filmmaker Alejandro Jodoroswky had made his version of Frank Herbert's sci-fi classic Dune; a film that in conception made Star Wars look like The Waltons? That burning question is what makes Gilroy's film so intriguing and ultimately, so infuriating. Ferociously inspired and subsequently stolen from, Jodorowsky's Dune might have been too creative for studio executives in the 1970s'. Too bad. We only have Jodorowsky's colorful story-boarding to stimulate our imaginations. His Dune is a great film that never was.

I Origins
--Director: Mike Cahill
Cahill's cerebral, thought-provoking film was another Summer release that got smothered in the Blockbuster onslaught. Brit Marling and Michael Pitt play molecular biologists who make an extraordinary discovery that changes their (and our) perception of the world. I hope this film is given new life on DVD.

Interstellar
--Director: Christopher Nolan
Nolan's artistic scope is as wide and vast as the story he tells. Extraordinary performances by Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway simmer in a plot that demands our alertness and receptivity to some mind-bending astrophysics. This makes for a heady 170 minute experience. Interstellar is dark, beautiful and it offers contradictory outlooks on humanity's fate: pessimism and optimism.

Ida
--Director: Pawel Pawlikowski
The only narrative film on this list shot in black and white. The images of a gray and dismal Poland in the early 1960s' are unforgettable, as is its protagonist, Anna; a nun novitiate who finds life outside the convent to be messy and cruel but sometimes intoxicating. A discovery about her family's past proves to be devastating. Agata Trzebuchowska's performance is as moving as Pawlikowksi's film.

Harlem Street Singer
--Directors: Simeon Hutner and Trevor Laurence
Blues musician Reverend Gary Davis' is the subject of an enthralling documentary that explores his early life in the south and traces his northward migration to New York; playing his own distinctive style of blues in unusual places like a tobacco house in North Carolina and New York streets. The fact that he was blind lends some poignance to his story. An unforgettable man and an unforgettable documentary.

Guardians of the Galaxy
--Director: James Gunn
Irreverent and fun as all hell, G of the G is a sci-fi adventure that can't be bothered to take itself seriously, which is delightful in itself. A rag-tag group of mercenaries and ne'er-do-wells are assigned a mission to save the galaxy from an evil overlord but spend more time getting in one another's way. A talking, tree-like creature named Groot and a smart-alecky Raccoon named Rocket are just two of the lovable oddballs that make up the Guardian outfit. For once, I'm eager to see a sequel.

Foxcatcher
--Director: Bennett Miller
One of the more powerful films of the year, Foxcatcher is so emotionally raw and psychologically sharp it has yet to leave my mind since I first saw it. Culled from 1990s' headlines, the story of a mentally imbalanced man's bizarre passion for collegiate wrestling and the deadly path to which it leads will sear itself on the viewer's memory. Steve Carell, Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo are so good and so real. Easily one of the year's best.

Force Majeure
--Director: Ruben Ostlund
Another of the year's best, Force Majeure tells the story of a marriage in crisis amid a family ski vacation. A near catastrophe resulting from a avalanche leads the wife to challenge her husband's manhood and role of family protector. Ostlund's film is highly and wonderfully eccentric. Surreal long-shots and a harrowing scene on a mountain road are but a few of its spellbinding moments.

Finding Vivian Maier
--Directors: John Maloof and Charlie Siskel
Finding Vivian Maier is essentially a documentary about serendipity. In purchasing boxes of camera rolls from an auction house, Director John Maloof finds himself in possession of negatives by an unknown photographer whose work turns out to be beautiful and very accomplished. The film isn't just about the discovery but the odd and mysterious Vivian Maier herself, whose life and personality prove to be quite complicated. Oscar-nominated and deservedly so.

Enemy
--Director: Denis Villeneuve
Based on a story by the great Portuguese author Jose Saramago, Enemy is another film on this list featuring Jake Gyllenhaal, who demonstrates exquisite taste in dark characters and dark subject matter. The story of a man who spots his doppelganger then stalks him about town is a little bit David Lynch with a splash of Hitchcock. Its non-linear narrative and spine-tingling ending prove Canadian cinema is alive and well (mostly, anyway).

Citizenfour
--Director: Laura Poitras
It isn't often one gets to see history take place onscreen. Watching the now-reviled Edward Snowden make his files of the NSA's surveillance programs known to the media and the world almost seems unreal, as if what we see couldn't possibly be happening. But Poitras' privileged perspective allowed her to capture it all on film. At once frightening and fascinating, we see the process by which Snowden becomes a fugitive from American justice and how the NSA's shenanigans aren't compatible with democratic principles. Fantastic film.

Calvary
--Director: John Michael McDonagh
Pity Calvary didn't garner any attention at year's end but maybe the uncompromisingly tough story did little to charm the Academy voters. I myself felt Brendan Gleeson turned in a singular performance as a priest who is threatened during a confession. With only 7 days in which to identify and stop the would-be killer from carrying out his deed, the idea that any one of the townspeople could be the culprit-to-be make Calvary a plausible candidate for the Mystery genre.

Boyhood
--Director: Richard Linklater
The fact that Linklater's film took 12 years to make isn't its most remarkable quality but how he managed to make a coherent film and elicit solid, consistent performances from his cast is the real marvel. Boyhood could have been nothing more than a gimmicky film in Linklater's oeuvre but he turns it into something original and engaging. Watching actors literally mature in the course of 165 minutes is nothing short of amazing.

Birdman
--Director: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
By now Birdman has garnered its whale's share of nominations and awards and what not. And guess what? It deserves all it earns. Inarritu's film is funny, frenetic, and peopled with characters both flawed and layered. Michael Keaton leads a superb cast and gives a performance for the ages.

Before Snowfall
--Director: Hisham Zaman
If I had to whittle down my favorites to just 3 for 2014, Zaman's Before Snowfall would be a member of such an august group. The story of a Iraqi-Kurdish boy who leaves his village to find his sister, who has transgressed against Kurdish mores by running off with a man rather than acquiescing to a customary marriage, is taut and riveting. What the boy discovers along the way opens his eyes to a world beyond his village and an act he commits in a moment of self-preservation blossoms in the most horrific way. To think Zaman worked with non-professionals boggles the mind. An amazing film and one that didn't even appear as a blip on most critic's radars.

A Most Violent Year
--Director: J.C. Chandor
A gritty film about the competitive heating oil business in 1980 New York and couple's struggle to curb violent attacks on their business. Chandor's excellent script and Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain's marvelous performances, and some beautifully choreographed chase scenes alert us to J.C. Chandor's meteoric growth as a director.

American Sniper
--Director: Clint Eastwood
Eastwood's film is tough and relentlessly intense. Based on an autobiography by the most celebrated sniper in American military history, the film doesn't succumb to sentimentality nor does it cast sniper Chris Kyle as the paragon of American virtue. It portrays him as he probably was: a duty-bound patriot who believed a higher power would eventually judge him for his actions.

That sums up my list. I apologize for its lack of brevity but I didn't want to omit anything I really liked. It goes without saying that I recommend all the aforementioned films. It also goes without saying that all the films on the list were viewed theatrically. If you feel you would like to list some of your own, please do so in the comment section. Thank you for viewing my selections.

Cake

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: Daniel Barnz/Starring: Jennifer Aniston, Adriana Barraza, Anna Kendrick, Sam Worthington, Mamie Gummer, Felicity Huffman and William H. Macy

It's easy to understand why many film-goers and critics felt Jennifer Aniston was cheated out of an Oscar nomination for her performance in director Daniel Barnz's Cake. Her role is a refreshing departure from the junk in which she is usually cast and she ensures the opportunity isn't wasted.

Whether the rest of the film holds up to Aniston's ambitious performance is for every moviegoer to decide. For me, it was a stimulating experience if not a riveting one. The film begins well and sustains its darkly comic tone before stumbling a bit in the third act.

Aniston plays Claire Bennett, a lawyer who has taken leave from her profession to recover from a horrific accident that left her son dead and her face and body with a disturbing array of surgical scars. When we first see her, she is in group therapy for pain management and judging from her peevishness, the meeting holds little therapeutic value to her. Conducting the session is Annette (Felicity Huffman, in a marginal, caricatured role), who has asked everyone to address a photograph of a former group member named Nina Collins (Anna Kendrick), who has recently committed suicide and left the group with more emotional pain to shoulder. When Annette asks that each member tell Nina how her suicide has affected them, Claire's sarcastic response eventually leads to her dismissal from the therapy group.

Though Claire makes a mockery of the therapy session, she is haunted by the death of her fellow support group member and friend.

When not in therapy, Claire spends her days in agonizing pain, which necessitates the use of copious pharmaceuticals; some which she hides from the prying eyes of her housekeeper/assistant; Silvana (Adriana Barraza). As Claire suffers from her injury and the loss of her son, she becomes mildly obsessed with Nina's death; going so far as to visit the precise location of her friend's suicide; which occurred on an L.A. overpass.

Jennifer Aniston shows a surprising aptitude for playing a darker character than she is accustomed. And to give such a character credibility, she suppresses her movie-star comeliness; her signature, silky locks are denied their glamorous luster and her face bears scant make-up.

As Claire's nightmares of Nina occur with disturbing frequency, she decides to visit her friend's former home by pretending to be a former occupant. Nina's husband Roy (Sam Worthington) sees through the deception but allows Claire to roam the house anyway. He confronts her afterward and though he seems a little perturbed by her ruse, he offers her a friendly handshake. In the coming days, a friendly, sympathetic bond forms between them.

Whether Claire will ever fully recover from the accident becomes a plot point, as her medication provides only temporary relief and her physical therapy sessions prove to be little more than exercises in hostility, which she venomously directs at her therapist.

Other obstacles to her mental and physical recovery present themselves: Claire's contentious relationship with her former husband and a visit from the man responsible for her accident (William H. Macy), who shows up at her door one day, full of contrition and guilt. Claire's violent response to his presence is one of the more poignant moments in the film.

Barnz keeps the story from wallowing in too much darkness and Claire from becoming a tedious, insufferable victim. A glimmer of hope arrives late in the film to alleviate the gloom but the story resists a neat, life-affirming resolution.

One of the film's flaws is providing the audience plausible motivation for Claire making Nina the object of so much guilt and grief, though her own existential crises might adequately serve as motivation enough. Another flaw is the film's ill-advised turn in the third act when Claire comes into contact with a runaway--an unconvincing plot grafting that does little for the narrative.

Aniston's performance is terrific. One can only hope she builds on this career opportunity rather than doing more time in dreary, witless comedies. Other than Silvana (deftly played by Adriana Barraza), other characters are more broadly drawn. Some actors' roles, like Macy's, are only cameos. I wish the screenwriter had given Sam Worthington's Roy more substance; he clearly lacks Claire's psychological layers.

Nevertheless, Aniston's performance is reason enough to see the film. If I could, I would gladly give her Felicity Jones' undeserving Oscar nomination for The Theory of Everything. But make no mistake, this is a performance film rather than a well-rounded drama.

I don't know that I'll remember the film for being something other than Aniston's breakthrough role, which is too bad. If the story runs out of gas, it still manages to engage. That's more than I can say for most Jennifer Aniston films. Let's hope this marks some kind of turning point in her career.

Song One

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: Kate Barker-Froyland/Starring: Anne Hathaway, Johnny Flynn and Mary Steenburgen

It makes sense that Jonathan Demme, renowned for Stop Making Sense, his Neil Young trilogy and other music documentaries, would be a producer on Song One; a film that is as much about music as it is a drama about how three lives are impacted by one man's struggle to survive a traffic accident. Music flows throughout the film but rather than a score or song-track providing the soundtrack, the characters themselves create a sonic atmosphere that is more than a worthy surrogate. Music serves as an emotional thread; connecting characters to one another, their respective pasts and for some, it is a way of life.

The accident that befalls a young man named Henry (Ben Rosenfield) comes after he caps off a busking gig in a New York City subway. While distracted by music playing on his headphones, he is struck by a vehicle, which leaves him hospitalized and in critical condition. While doing research on nomadic tribes in Morocco for her doctoral dissertation, his sister Franny (Anne Hathaway) learns of his accident and hurries home to be at his side. Greeting her at the hospital is her distraught mother; played with verve and poignancy by Mary Steenburgen.

While the Damoclean sword of death hangs over Henry in his comatose state, Franny sifts through her brother's personal belongings in his room at her mother's house. She comes across demo CDs' Henry has recorded and while looking through his guitar case, she finds a concert ticket for a folksy singer named James Forester, whose posters line her brother's walls.

Franny uses the ticket and in doing so, she steps into her brother's musical world and becomes moved by the experience. Afterward, she visits James (the talented singer/songwriter/actor Johnny Flynn) backstage and after mentioning her brother's comatose state, she presents him Henry's CD demo. Sensitive to Franny's brother's serious condition, James visits the hospital and plays a song to Henry as he clings to life in his bed. Touched by James' compassionate act, the two begin to hang around together and soon after a romance blossoms.

Franny spends time reading her brother's diaries and notebooks, learning of his favorite clubs and his partiality to a certain diner which has great pancakes. Visiting all his favorite places, she becomes sympathetic to his musical pursuits, which was previously a cause of contention between the two when years earlier, Henry left school against his sister's wishes to pursue a career in music.

If the story seems gimmicky and in danger of mugging by schmaltz, the material is steered toward the melancholy and somber by Barker-Froyland's direction. The actors manage to keep their performances from sliding to a melodramatic precipice.

We learn James has slipped into a creative block, which has carried on five years. Try as he might, he has had little success extricating himself from his mental impasse, which Franny, with her charm and modest musical talent, slowly draws him out of.

Furthering her quest to free her brother from his coma, Franny buys a small, vintage organ to play at his bedside. Henry's coma and James' musical block are a sort of metaphorical parallel.

As Franny and James' romance begins to burn white hot, their divergent life paths pose an obstacle to their nascent relationship.

I couldn't help but think of the film Once as I was watching Song One, and it may be the case that other film-goers might be reminded of that film as well. Both films have a bittersweet and beautiful aura of ephemeral love and music is a landscape the characters' inhabit lovingly. Both feature charming lovers whose time on screen never degenerates into cuteness and silliness one might find in any movie where Rachel McAdams is the love interest.

Whether Henry awakes is a question dealt with late in the story, and what becomes of Franny and James is left refreshingly vague and unanswered.

Barker-Froyland's first feature is moving and sweet without being cloying and melancholy without being morose.

Anne Hathaway gives a heartfelt performance, while Johnny Flynn effortlessly embodies the musical spirit of James Forester; showcasing some strong vocal chops and musicianship. I would like to have seen more of Mary Steenburgen but she electrifies her scenes; nevertheless, with presence and charm.

Song One is a film that will stimulate your tear ducts but will do so without cheesy manipulation. As they say; it earns its tears. But this isn't maudlin cinema; it's a simple story and an emotionally satisfying one. It may not be monumental, but it more than serves its purpose.

Blackhat

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: Michael Mann/Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Viola Davis, Leehom Wang and Wei Tang

Michael Mann's new tekkie-thriller, Blackhat has the good sense not to encumber or weigh itself down with cyber-jargon and cripple narrative momentum with sustained shots of characters sitting before computer screens. Though the film has its share of both, it also features copious gun-play to liven the proceedings and a serpentine plot that ultimately veers into James Bond territory.

Though the story's anti-hero, Nick Hathaway is a muscle bound, former cyber-criminal (Chris Hemsworth, ludicrously cast as a computer-hacking genius), he also manages to be capable of handling himself in scuffles with the baddies (I guess time served behind bars makes this reasonably plausible). Chris Hemsworth isn't the most obvious choice to play a brilliant computer-hacker but given the number of violent confrontations Nick finds himself in, casting Thor seems logical. Though someone like Jesse Eisenberg might a better fit to play a computer brainiac, he would also look fairly ridiculous clobbering a room full of Korean toughs in a restaurant.

After a hacker causes a disaster at a Chinese nuclear plant, where a silo is destroyed and the facility dangerously irradiated, a young, intelligent, M.I.T.-educated Chinese police officer, Dawai (Leehom Wang) is assigned the case. Aware of the tensions between his government and the U.S., he nevertheless enlists the help of the Justice Department and one of its top operatives, Carol Barrett (a tough, well-cast Viola Davis) to apprehend the hacker. Dawai is aware that the only way to catch the hacker might necessitate employing one. He calls upon his former associate Nick Hathaway, who is serving time in a Pennsylvanian prison for his own hacking crimes. Barrett and the government are reluctant to give a dangerous hacker access to computers and sensitive data but seeing they have little choice, they agree to his outrageous demand for commuting his sentence if the mission is successful. Joining the hunt is Dawai's beautiful, young sister Lien (Wei Tankg), whose presence provides romantic possibilities for Nick.

As the hunt progresses, the group finds itself at the sight of the nuclear disaster, where they must recover the facility's back-up files to further trace their target, which involves donning radiation suits and dealing with the plant's dangerously hot, contaminated interior.

In time, Nick and the group discover one of the perpetrator's associates is a Lebanese thug who learns the task force is on his trail, which leads to a cat and mouse duel where the hunters become the hunted.

Throughout their mission, the mysterious hacker's motives remain obscure but as the manhunt leads to Jakarta, Nick and Lien discover his agenda, which involves controlling the supply of a certain resource and manipulating its market price for financial gain. His grandiose plan wouldn't be out of place in any James Bond thriller although the villain's diabolical demeanor is hardly that of a Dr. No or Goldfinger (which, for this movie, is a good thing).

Blackhat, which refers to a computer program Nick and Dawai devised in the past, is being utilized by the hacker to gain access to supposedly secure data.

Mann's film is fairly fast-paced. He is a pro when it comes to balancing expository information with pulse-quickening action. Nick's getting-into-the-mind-of-the-killer approach reminded me of another Mann film; Manhunter, where the protagonist must think like a serial killer to apprehend one. It isn't a new plot trick but it serves its purpose here well enough.

Though the producers must have felt the film needed an unnecessary romantic angle, Hemsworth and Tang make a charming, offbeat pair. The Aryan with granite-brawn and the Asian beauty with dark eyes are at least a visual departure from the Hollywood norm.

I liked the beginning, where we see computer data pass through tiny circuits and hardware as streams of light. Almost occurring at the molecular level, the imagery gives us some sense of system interconnectedness and how such a phenomenon is capable of being exploited by those with nefarious designs. More importantly, it shows us how destruction can be achieved with a mere signal passing between computers.

Blackhat is enjoyable enough, with its serpentine plot and comely cast. It seems to be adequate entertainment for January, which is the annual launch of Hollywood's Cinema Winter/Spring collection, or as it might otherwise be known, The Season of Swill. With last year's Oscar contenders slowing to a trickle in theaters, the arrival of Mann's film seems like a kitten entering a lion's den.

His latest makes for passable afternoon multiplex fare but beyond that, one might expecting too much. I'm still waiting for Mann to manage something brilliant; something more than just fly-by-night thrillers. I guess I still have to bide my time.

2015 Oscar Nominations: Some Thoughts and Opinions

So here we are again, reflecting on another batch of Oscar Nominations and of course grumbles and gripes about who got shortchanged or what got overlooked are not only expected but almost necessary. Second guessing the Academy seems almost pointless; after all; Time is always the best judge of quality. In ten years we'll see if some or any of this year's nominees retain their glow of artistic success. And time will also tell if the glaring omissions prove to have been better than what got nominated, which happens often. This year had its share of short-shrifting, which we'll get to shortly.

I don't take umbrage with a lot of what did get nominated; many of the picks sit just fine with me, but then there are others...

Please feel free to leave your own thoughts and comments. I will soon post my Favorite Films of 2014 list so keep your eyes glued (if you care) for that forthcoming submission.

As most Oscar critics are wont to do, I thought I'd focus mainly on the major categories so as not to sorely try your patience.

So without further delay...

BEST PICTURE

Nominees: American Sniper, Boyhood, Birdman, Grand Budapest Hotel, The Imitation Game, Selma, The Theory of Everything and Whiplash.

Academy members, do you really think The Theory of Everything belongs on this list and do you think it superior to Foxcatcher, Interstellar and A Most Violent Year; three films I thought might be nominee shoo-ins? You got to be kidding me with that cowardly, uninspired choice. The film was T.V. material with big screen pretensions. Please.

What may incur reader's wrath is my disdain for The Great Budapest Hotel's nomination. Somehow Wes Anderson has deceived critics into believing his mannered, tiresome flights of whimsy are great art. It seems as if everyone is afraid to criticize his films lest they appear un-hip. Grand Budapest Hotel was beautiful to behold but as empty as the cold vacuum of space. And not very funny either.

I'm not surprised to see Whiplash on this list but as days and weeks and a couple of months passed after I first viewed the film, its quality shrunk considerably in my estimation. It has its moments and I like the performances but the film as a whole couldn't shoulder its clumsy psychology. But its presence here doesn't bother me much. It has more of a right than The Theory of Everything.

I don't have a problem with the remaining nominees; they were all exceptional in their own way.

Films I felt should have gotten a nod: Interstellar, Foxcatcher, A Most Violent Year, The Homesman, and Calvary.

Am very pleased Girl Gone, Big Eyes, Inherent Vice and Unbroken didn't make the cut, given the attention each received. All were very flawed films the Academy might have been duped into nominating.

Am very surprised Wild didn't make the list. Not that I thought it a great film but it seemed like the kind of subject that might charm the Academy.

BEST DIRECTOR

Nominees: Wes Anderson, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Richard Linklater, Bennett Miller, and Morten Tyldum.

Save for Wes Anderson, I don't have any quibbles about this group. I'm glad the Academy at least had the good sense to include Bennett Miller. I hope Inarritu, Linklater or Miller get the statue. The director's hand was quite strong in each film.

Directors I felt should have gotten a nod: I think Christopher Nolan (Interstellar), Clint Eastwood (American Sniper), John Michael McDonagh (Calvary) and J.C. Chandor (A Most Violent Year) could have made the party but oh well.

Am very pleased Anjelina Jolie (Unbroken), David Fincher (Gone Girl), Paul Haggis (Third Person) and James Marsh (The Theory of Everything) were denied nominations.

Am very surprised Jean Marc Vallee (Wild) and Damien Chazelle (Whiplash) didn't earn the Academy's attention.

BEST ACTOR

The Nominees: Steve Carell (Foxcatcher), Bradley Cooper (American Sniper), Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game), Michael Keaton (Birdman) and Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything)

Again, other than Eddie Redmayne, I have little to grouse about. Redmayne isn't a bad actor but his Stephen Hawking is the kind performance the academy goes into paroxysms of ecstasy over. So he can contort his body...anything else? No? I thought so. The only thing more insulting than Redmayne's nomination would be his Oscar win. I hope that outrage isn't visited upon us.

Actors I felt should have been given a nod: David Oyelowo (Selma), Chadwick Boseman (Get on Up), Brendan Gleeson (Calvary), Ellar Coltrane (Boyhood), Jake Gyllenhaal (Nightcrawler), Oscar Isaac (A Most Violent Year) and Matthew McConaughey (Interstellar)--all very deserving and certainly more interesting than Redmayne.

Am very pleased Domnhall Gleeson (Broken) didn't get nominated. His performance was Oscar bait incarnate.

BEST ACTRESS

The Nominees: Marion Cotillard (Two Days, One Night), Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything), Julianne Moore (Still Alice), Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl), Reese Witherspoon (Wild)

I have yet to see Julianne Moore's performance so an assessment of the nominees should be premature but I'll comment on those I have seen. My two objections in this category are Felicity Jones and Rosamund Pike. Felicity Jones' performance demanded little of her. Any actress in any acting guild in the film industry could have played this part. In fact, any man in drag might have managed this role credibly. I can't emphasize the film's fierce mediocrity enough.

Gone Girl seems like a tawdry joke now, as does Pike's performance. She is a talented actress but this role seemed beneath her. Cotillard and Witherspoon gave fine performances, so an Oscar win by either will not insult me.

Actresses I felt should have been given a nod: Jessica Chastain (A Most Violent Year), Anne Hathaway (Interstellar), Essie Davis (The Babadook), Rene Russo (Nightcrawler), and (Emmanuelle Devos (Violette)

Am very pleased Melissa McCarthy and Naomi Watts weren't considered for Oscars, given St. Vincent's substantial box office.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

The Nominees: Robert Duvall (The Judge), Ethan Hawke (Boyhood), Edward Norton (Birdman), Mark Ruffalo (Foxcatcher) and J.K. Simmons (Whiplash)

The nominations seem solid, until you see Robert Duvall's name. This nomination is of the variety that pays homage to an aging actor rather than recognizing an exceptional performance. Duvall is an outstanding actor but his performance in the hackneyed, formulaic drama The Judge is adequate and only that. It's not his fault; some excellent actors can't save a terrible movie.

Actors I felt should have been given a nod: Channing Tatum (Foxcatcher) and Miles Teller (Whiplash).

Am very pleased the Academy didn't compound their Robert Duvall error by nominating Robert Downey Jr. for the same film.

Am very surprised noone from Selma earned a best supporting Oscar.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

The Nominees: Patricia Arquette (Boyhood), Laura Dern (Wild), Keira Knightley (The Imitation Game), Emma Stone (Birdman) and Meryl Streep (Into the Woods)

I have yet to see Meryl Streep in Into the Woods. I may have to pay to see a film I worked hard to avoid. But to be fair, I can't offer an objective assessment until I see her performance, but if you've read my blog-post on the Pantheon of the Overrated, you know I have little respect for her Hammy Highness. As for the other nominees, I think it's a excellent bunch. I'll even extend that value judgement to Keira Knightley, who has made a career of being annoying. She was actually quite good in The Imitation Game and deserves her nomination. Laura Dern's performance doesn't hold up to the best performances I've seen in this category but it isn't insulting either. That dishonor may be reserved for Streep. We'll see.

Actress that should have been given a nod: Carmen Ejogo (Selma)

Am very pleased none of the female cast of Pride snuck into this category.

The Academy should feel ashamed for overlooking black actors and actresses as nominees. How can you justify nominating Selma for Best Picture but not nominate any of the African-American cast? The Academy's short-sightedness with Selma reminds us that the struggle for equal rights didn't end in 1965. Hollywood's phony, liberal bent has always been a great hypocrisy. No-one in Get on Up earned a nod either though terrific performances abounded there as well. I guess it's too much to ask that Asians and Hispanics be recognized but I can't remember any film from 2014 that featured any actor from either culture. Maybe that's an issue for another post.

So there you have my opinionated burblings. I'll post another piece on the Oscar telecast at the end of February. I'm sorry I limited my thoughts to the major categories because really, who would want my perspective on the Sound Editing nominees?

Little Accidents

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: Sara Colangelo/Starring: Elizabeth Banks, Chloe Sevigny, Josh Lucas, Boyd Holbrook, Jacob Lofland and Beau Wright

Based on her short film of the same name, Little Accidents is writer/director Sara Colangelo's first feature film and her freshman effort yields gold. Set in a small West Virginian mining town, Colangelo's film tells the story of a tragic mining accident that leaves the population emotionally frayed and socially divided. The disaster, which claims ten lives, arouses class conflict, discord between the town and the mining company and leaves homes financially and emotionally devastated. But the film isn't an examination of the town in the wake of the disaster. By narrowing its focus to three characters, it tells a broader, more moving story about the culture of a mining community and how all its residents are severely affected in some profound way by the accident.

One such person is Owen (a stellar Jacob Lofland); a lonely high school kid who lost his father to the mining disaster. Owen, his brother James (Beau Wright) and his mother Kendra (Chloe Sevigny) make do as they await the mining company settlement they hope will alleviate their afflicted finances.

Owen spends his days trying to ingratiate himself into a clique of classmates whose home lives are defined by a loftier sense of privilege, unlike the majority of the poor, working class town inhabitants. The other boys barely tolerate his presence; often mocking his social status and visiting minor humiliations upon him, like deliberately breaking his MP3 player.

In another part of the small town is Amos Jenkins (the charismatic and handsome Boyd Holbrook); the only survivor of the mining accident and the recipient of widespread hero praise, which causes him not a little discomfort. When we first see Amos, he is fielding questions about the accident, which he is hesitant to discuss. Pressured by management, the union representative and his fellow miners to tell self-serving versions of the catastrophe, Amos also must cope with an injury that has incapacitated one of his hands and left him with a noticeable limp.

While sneaking out of his home one day; his mother's beers in hand, Owen makes his way to a rendezvous with the rich-kid clique. On Owen's heels is his Down-Syndrome-challenged brother James, who refuses to return home. Unable to convince his brother to leave, he grudgingly accepts his company. After making contact with the clique in the forest, who again treat Owen terribly, they leave him behind but not without a few choice words from the group bully, J.T. Doyle; who makes pointed comments about "trailer-trash." When J.T. returns, a violent exchange breaks out between the two teens. The outcome is deadly, for as J.T. trips and falls; his head strikes a rock, causing his instant death. Shocked and dismayed, Owen hides the body and coerces his brother into remaining silent about the incident.

The third person rounding out the narrative triumvirate is Diane Doyle (Elizabeth Banks), who reports her son J.T. as missing, which prompts a town-wide search. Compounding her grief is the Federal investigation into her husband Bill's (Josh Lucas) role in the disaster, for which he may or may not be culpable.

The characters each deal with concealed truths that torment them; plaguing their conscience and clouding their judgment.

Colangelo shows a deft command of the material. She never allows melodrama or sentimentality to seep into the story. She also demonstrates a skillful hand with the actors. Jacob Lofland's sensitive portrayal is one of the film's great strengths, as is Boyd Holbrook's; whose Amos Jenkins is an understated depiction of a man with complicated psychological and physical wounds. Elizabeth Banks is an actress who is seldom given the opportunity to play someone so multilayered. Her performances is no less compelling than her male counterparts.

A romance between Amos and Diane burgeons after the two meet at a prayer gathering. Their relationship offers a host of startling contradictions but it makes sense, given the diminutive size of the town.

It is also quite interesting that all three characters suffer the loss of someone close to them and how each contends with their bereavement gives the film its emotional foundation.

The coal mine is a nice metaphor for buried secrets and truth, which affect the characters in various ways. It is worth noting that most of the drama takes place indoors; in confined spaces maybe meant to mirror the claustrophobic nature of the mines.

Colangelo leaves us in a state of suspense as we wonder if the characters will divulge their respective secrets. Her solid, storyteller's instinct for maintaining that suspense kept me riveted throughout.

Little Accidents is a promising debut. Its story is unflinching in its willingness to face the grim truths that threaten a mining town's collapse. Colangelo's directorial and writing gifts are very conspicuous. I sincerely hope she finds a patron for her future projects. It would be a shame if someone with her talent had to scrape and scrimp to bring her stories to the screen. Let's hope she's spared that fate.