Sully

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: Clint Eastwood/Starring: Tom Hanks, Aaron Eckhart, Jamey Sheridan, Anna Gunn, Laura Linney and Mike O'Malley

Chesley Sullenberger, or Sully, as he is known to his colleagues, performed a daring but necessary landing of a United Airways passenger jet on the Hudson River on January 15, 2009 after a flock of Canadian geese disabled the engines. The fact that all 155 passengers, including flight crew, survived the ordeal is a testament to his awe-inspiring skills as an aviator. Though he is rightly considered a hero for his act, he nevertheless faced some scrutiny from the press and subsequently faced a National Transportation Safety Board inquiry for what was deemed a needless endangerment of passenger safety. The main focus of the hearing was his refusal to land at La Guardia Airport--where flight 1549 began--as an initial investigation claimed one engine was functional enough for an emergency return.

The historic flight and the investigation that followed is the subject of Clint Eastwood's Sully; which stars Tom Hanks in the titular role while Aaron Eckhart plays the co-pilot on the flight; Jeff Skiles. Eastwood's film isn't a drawn-out epic but a lean 90 minute drama. Though the harrowing flight is faithfully recreated and though the hearing yields some dramatic tension, the film seems pretty thin. Eastwood's film shows us the Hudson River landing was only the beginning of Sully's problems, but try as he might to make the hearings as compelling as the flight, his efforts unfortunately fail. The movie is entertaining enough but it rests on its adequacy rather than reaching for resonance.

The film doesn't begin with the actual flight but shows how the plane became crippled by a flock of geese, only a short time after take off. As the narrative moves in retrograde, the aftermath of Flight 1549 precedes the actual depiction of said flight.

As the story moves along, we see Sully's wife; Lorraine (Laura Linney, in a role that is notable for merely being that of an anxious wife at home, nothing more) is beside herself with worry as she learns about the ordeal after he instructs her to turn on the T.V. As we might expect, the media coverage becomes overwhelming, as does its presence on the Sullenberger front lawn.

We learn a little about Sully's piloting past as an Air Force pilot in a few flashbacks. A scene where Sully lands a technically compromised jet during a routine flight not only demonstrates his exceptional skill in handling aircraft but also shows he was hardly a novice when Flight 1549 went awry.

The film's most riveting sequence is the recreation of the flight itself, in which Sully ignores the air traffic controller's call for a return to La Guardia and the alternate suggestion of a landing at a New Jersey airport. The details are particularly fascinating, as we see the controller become nearly incapacitated with anxiety while on-board the plane, the passengers react with horror and bewilderment to Sully's "prepare for impact" warning. The actual landing, which is safely negotiated by Sully, is followed by another problem; the frigid waters of the Hudson River. We see the immediate and highly impressive response by the various New York disaster preparedness departments as they descend and converge on the floating plane to rescue passengers from the dangerously cold water.

The narrative, always maintaining its rapid pace, moves quickly from the near-disastrous landing to a courtroom, where Sully and Skiles face a NTSB inquiry. Needless to say, a guilty verdict threatens Sully's career. But we also see the positive response in the media and in the street, as Sully is received warmly by everyone who recognizes him. Among the well-wishers is a bartender; played by Michael Rapaport, who proudly serves Sully a drink named in his honor.

The outcome of the inquiry is hardly a mystery but the particulars of the "trial" are very interesting, specifically the numerous simulations that threaten to incriminate Sully and Skiles. Sully's request for key adjustments in the simulations, which allow for a more accurate picture of real flight conditions, dramatically alter the outcome of the proceedings.

Terrific performances by Hanks and Eckhart and an exciting recreation of Flight 1549 are two of the film's more salient attributes but the movie as a whole registers more as a stimulating history lesson than a gripping drama. It's hard to find fault with Eastwood's film but it's even harder to rhapsodize about it. I'll gladly see any Eastwood film release but unlike many of his recent efforts, this one rings hollow. No one can deny Sully's heroism but that may be one of the film's problems. His unassailable hero credentials leave little room for nuanced character exploration.

The film earns high marks for its technical accomplishments--the landing and the subsequent shots of the floating jet look quite authentic, as do the rescue efforts.

I can commend Eastwood for his high-mindedness in making Sully but nothing about it stuck in my mind Monday morning after a weekend screening. This is a story that needed to be told but it might be better served on a T.V. screen; where its modest ambitions will appear outsize.

One More Time With Feeling (3D)

Director: Andrew Dominik

It seems like I just blogged on a documentary about singer Nick Cave; 20,000 Days on Earth; Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard's excellent 2014 film, which blended fact and fiction. But having seen director Andrew Dominik's film; One More Time With Feeling, it's apparent one can never have too much of Nick Cave, whose music and personality seem endlessly fascinating. You might think the 3D in the title is a typo but it isn't. Dominik chose to film in 3D--an unusual visual approach to music-documentary film-making--but it's a bold and welcome artistic choice, as the film movingly demonstrates.

Dominik, director of the excellent The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford also chose to film in black and white, which seems entirely appropriate for a film on Nick Cave, whose dark, introspective music seems well-suited for a visual palette of hues. We see Cave with his collaborator Warren Ellis and band The Bad Seeds, as they record tracks for an album in a studio.

Cave's moody music; truthfully unsentimental, shares space with voice-over readings of his lyrics, which are no less somber than his visceral, offbeat melodies. Though we see him often in the studio, with technicians, band-members and musicians scattered about, Dominik also takes the time to interview Cave outside the studio.

Though the film is mostly documentary, Dominik deliberately dissolves the wall between objective reality and fiction as we see him orchestrating Cave's actions in a few scenes. A post-credits message alerts the audience to Dominik's creative deception.

The decision to use 3D is very odd. I didn't expect to be handed 3D glasses prior to entry to the theater but like most movies in this visual format, you cease to notice it after a few minutes. One exception is a scene where a musician's violin bow seems to exit the screen; a moment where the extra dimension was very conspicuous.

More interesting was the black and white, which created striking, visual textures. An instance of such takes place while Cave is at the piano. While he sings and plays, the camera is situated in front of the piano, where it lovingly captures its highly reflective surface, The highly polished surface looks as though it were coated in many layers of lacquer, which looks great in black and white.

But beautiful cinematography aside, Cave's words and music are the real draw. We often hear his poetic renderings of his lyrics, spoken in voice-over. But we also hear his voice-over at other moments, such as a session at the piano, where his voice seems ill-prepared for the demands of a song. While he struggles to find the notes, we hear him reproach himself in voice-over for not being ready, as if we were inside his head.

As the film moves along, what slowly emerges is the sad and tragic fact of his son Arthur's death; a terrible loss he and his wife learn to cope with. Dominik is able to coax Cave into speaking candidly about his son's passing and the painful process of recovery. Not one to resort to comforting platitudes, Cave's thoughts are those of someone looking for an explanation; something to make his grief comprehensible.

Cave is also forthright about his music. Though a casual listener might find the raw emotion in Cave's songs to be alienating, he insists his aim is to connect with listeners.

By the film's end, one is left feeling sadly reflective but also something akin to a lovely, opiate-stupor. One More Time With Feeling is a perfect collaboration of beautiful images and powerful music. Dominik's camera manages to make the spatially-limited studio seem expansive and maze-like, as if its secrets were never-ending. We get terrific over-head shots and ones that circle; allowing us to sometimes see Dominik's tricks, such as the camera-track that forms a ring around Cave's piano.

This is not your standard music documentary but something more ambitious and transformative. I left the film feeling both elated but also somber, which might seem highly improbable to someone who hasn't seen Dominik's documentary. This is a film for Nick Cave fans and the uninitiated alike, who will both find the music poignant and the visuals stunning. 3D or 2D, the film's power can be easily articulated, no matter the format.

Al's Omniflick Milestone...The Sweet 400!

Folks, Al's Omniflick has just arrived at another milestone--my 400th posting! It's scary how fast I reached such an august number. A mere two and a half years. That's a lot of writing and a lot of movies.

Though my readership may be modest, I'm nevertheless grateful to those of you who have checked in from time to time. I also want to acknowledge my international traffic, which boasts regulars such as France, Ukraine, Germany, Russia and Portugal, though infrequent visits from places such as the Maldives, Uruguay and Vietnam reflect diverse but welcome clicks. Wherever you reside, I can assure you Al's Omniflick is always delighted to have you stop by.

To celebrate my 400th posting, I though I'd include a sloppy, haphazard list of some of my favorite films--400 that come to mind. Though I may have mentioned before how much I despise lists, I reserve the right to be a hypocrite by compiling yet another. Please bear with me.

So, in no particular order, here's a gang I like (or at least some of them):

Citzen Kane, The General, The Passion of Joan of Arc, The Spirit of the Beehive, Aguirre: The Wrath of God, Harlan County U.S.A., 8 1/2, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, El Cid, Sense and Sensibility (Ang Lee's version), Seven Samurai, The 400 Blows, The Exorcist, Love and Death, Annie Hall, The Godfather, Good Fellas, The Last Picture Show, The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum, Napoleon Dynamite, Election, The Gold Rush, Contempt, Chinatown, The Bicycle Thief, Embrace of the Serpent, Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem, This is Spinal Tap, Salesman, Apocalypse Now, Russian Ark, Memento, Taxi Driver, The Philadelphia Story, The Oxbow Incident, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence, The Day of the Jackal, Tootsie, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Rififi, Le Cercle Rouge, Interstellar, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Blue Velvet, Scenes From a Marriage, The Empire Strikes Back, Sabrina (original), Unforgiven, The Witch, La Strada, Los Olvidados, The Manchurian Candidate, The Taking of Pelham One, Two Three (original), To Live and Die in L.A., The Purple Rose of Cairo, Gimme Shelter, Woodstock, A Hard Day's Night, Once Upon a Time in the West, The Third Man, A Touch of Evil, The Maltese Falcon, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (original), A Boy and His Dog, Reservoir Dogs, Fearless, For a Few Dollars More, Before Snowfall, Anatomy of a Murder, Le Trou, Elevator to the Gallows, Back to the Future, Pulp Fiction, Breaker Morant, Fabulous Baker Boys, The Concert for Bangladesh, Monterey Pop, A Brief History of Time, Broadcast News, Red River, Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man, Duck Soup, Born Yesterday, Manhattan, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Pickpocket, Red Shoes, Dr. Zhivago, Drugstore Cowboy, Lawrence of Arabia, Cool Hand Luke, The Innocents (1961), Rosemary's Baby, Night and Fog, Dersu Uzala, Something Wild, Stop Making Sense, The Last Waltz, The Graduate, Straight Time, The French Connection, Paris, Texas, Wild at Heart, The Edge of the World, Black Narcissus, The Magnificent Ambersons, Touchez Pas au Grisbi, Fitzcarraldo, The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On, Goodnight Mommy, The Babadook, The Omen, Alien, Aliens, Brief Encounter, Paths of Glory, The Wild Bunch, The Yellow Submarine, Lost in Translation, Groundhog Day, Witness, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Walkabout, Don't Look Now, Don't Look Back, Henry V (Branaugh), Being John Malkovich, Roman Holiday, Rio Lobo, The Outlaw Josey Wales, The Thing (1982), Repulsion, Day for Night, The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, For a Few Dollars More, Westward the Women, The Milagro Beanfield War, High Plains Drifter, Bob le Flambeur, Yojimbo, My Fair Lady, Goldfinger, Ninotchka, It Happened One Night, I Wanna Hold Your Hand, The Awful Truth, Vertigo, The Heiress, A Place in the Sun, Lifeboat, Bonnie and Clyde, The Marriage of Maria Braun, Moneyball, Woman in the Dunes, Fail Safe, Dr. Strangelove, Zulu, Red Desert, The Shining, Before the Devil Knows Your Dead, The Great Escape, The Magnificent Seven, The Dirty Dozen, Shock Corridor, Monkey Business, Silence of the Lambs, Crumb, Birth of a Nation, The Treasure of Sierra Madre, Rear Window, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Bad News Bears, A Face in the Crowd, Wild River, Casablanca, Stromboli, Umberto D, La Dolce Vita, Mafioso, The Ten Commandments, Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), The Passenger, The Border, Fright Night, A Poem is a Naked Person, Raise the Red Lantern, The Ice Storm, Animal Kingdom, Wild Tales, The Wizard of Oz, Gone With the Wind, Lost Horizons, Network, Knife in the Water, Ju Dou, The Martian, Guys and Dolls, Planet of the Apes, The Sweet Smell of Success, A Thousand Clowns, A Taste of Cherries, Badlands, The Tree of Life, Misery, Stand By Me, Bridesmaids, Ghostbusters (original), Jaws, E.T., Midnight Run, Dirty Harry, Bull Durham, Do The Right Thing, Boyz in the Hood, Mo Better Blues, Run Lola Run, Rushmore, The Celebration, The Hunt, Pi, Requiem for a Dream, The Sweet Hereafter, Hoop Dreams, Stroszek, Barcelona, The Opposite of Sex, Syrian Bride, Late Marriage, Let the Right One In, The Hurt Locker, 10 Cloverfield Lane, Repo Man, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Nashville, The Man Who Would Be King, Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, Altered States, Decasia, Persona, The Professionals (1966), The Battle of Algiers, The Dark Knight, Carnival of Souls, The Bad and the Beautiful, Nosferatu (original), Nosferatu the Vampyre, Metropolis, Un Chien Andalou, Fog of War, Burden of Dreams, M, Mad Max, The Road Warrior, Ex Machina, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Mighty Aphrodite, Living in Oblivion, Sixteen Candles, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Roxanne, Rambo: First Blood, The Falcon and the Snowman, Year of the Dragon, Angel Heart, Heaven Help Us, The Conversation, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, Deliverance, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, Thieves Like Us, Exterminating Angel, Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, Belle de Jour, The Leopard, The Wages of Fear, Hannah and Her Sisters, Jean de Florette, Manon of the Spring, Betty Blue, Beau Travai, Cries and Whispers, Black Girl, Salo or a 100 Days of Sodom, In the Realms of the Unreal, A Fistful of Dollars, Au Hasard Balthasar, Purple Noon, Lola, Diary of a Chambermaid, Chronicle, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Raging Bull, Fargo, Blood Simple, Withnail & I, The Fly (remake), The Overnighters, Inside Man, Viktoria, Blue is the Warmest Color, Foxcatcher, Kill List, Honeymoon, Search for Sugar Man, Snowtown, Marwencol, Days of Heaven, Dogtooth, Social Network, Winter's Bone, Last Train Home, Robert Blecker Wants You Dead, Hunger (Ireland), Paranormal Activity, Zodiac, Red Road, Golden Door, Manufactured Landscapes, Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, No Country for Old Men, Touch the Sound, Who in the *** is Jackson Pollack?, The First Time I Was Twenty, Alone Across Australia, L'Enfant, Mysterious Skin, High Noon, Night of the Hunter, The African Queen, A Man Escaped, Sansho the Bailiff, Machuca, Gaslight, Cat People, How Green Was My Valley, Woman of the Year, The Birds, The Guns of Navarone, Help!, They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, Kes, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, Zelig, The Desert of the Tartars, Stranger Than Paradise, Amateur, Bullets Over Broadway, Manhunter, The Commitments, The Grifters, El Mariachi, Bad Lieutenant, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Five Easy Pieces, American Graffiti, Marathon Man, Superman (1978), Breaking Away, Soylent Green, The Friends of Eddie Coyle, Play Misty For Me, Scarecrow, The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, The Decameron, Suspiria, White Hunter-Black Heart, Wild at Heart, 28 Days Later, It Follows, The Conjuring, Battleship Potemkin, Pandora's Box, The Rules of the Game, Frankenstein, I Am A Fugitive from a Chain Gang, Fury, Pepe le Moko, Django Unchained, Anomalisa, Room, A Separation, True Grit (Cohen Brothers), Straight Outta Compton, Senna, The King of Kong, The Act of Killing, When We Were Kings, Encounters at the End of the World, The Devil and Daniel Johnston, Hearts and Minds, A Woman Under the Influence and Bad Company.

And there you have it folks; 400 good friends. I don't know what you'll make of it but I hope you recognize some of your faves.

Again, thank you for your attention. I never know how much gas I have left in the tank, but if one person out there bothers to show up, I suppose I have a reason to set out cookies and milk (or nachos and beer, whichever you prefer).

See you soon!

Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World

Director: Werner Herzog

It is an indisputable fact that Werner Herzog is one of cinema's great masters and is one of the few (or is he the only?) directors who have managed to make both exceptional narrative and documentary films. Though the quality of his fictional films have been wildly uneven in the 21st century, few will argue the brilliant consistency of his documentaries. In his latest; Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World, Herzog offers movie audiences yet another absorbing documentary; this time on the internet; its history, it's wondrous potential and its darker side, which is often quite dark. In true Herzogian fashion, he pursues his subject with poetic insight and philosophic reflection; always questioning what he learns from his fascinating interviewees. While the world has taken the internet for granted, Herzog shows it has moved beyond its primary function as a conveyance for information, with both positive and negative implications.

Separated by chapters, Herzog's film addresses a wide range of topics concerning the internet's existence. In an opening scene, we hear UCLA computer science professor Leonard Kleinrock discuss the internet's genesis, which essentially took place in one of the university's labs in 1969. It is fascinating to see the primitive but very sturdy hardware that broadcast the first message, which inadvertently became "Lo." Much like Alexander Graham Bell's inaugural phone conversation, the first message sent on the internet was simple and presaged the emergence of a communication system with incredible reach. It is amusing to see the thin directory the first internet users consulted; an exclusive phone-book of web addresses. One interviewee reminisces about how the first online community was a group of people; all familiar with one another, who regarded mutual trust to be an article of faith.

Shortly thereafter, Herzog's film celebrates the internet's more positive aspects. In one such scene, we learn of an online game where participants were invited to help create complex molecules to aid cancer and AIDS research. The overwhelming, immediate response to the challenge is the film's ringing endorsement for the internet's communal, problem-solving potential.

Less inspiring is the succeeding chapter called Darkness; which recounts the grisly death of a teenage girl, which became fodder for internet trolls who found the horrific tragedy an occasion to subject the family to tasteless, disgusting humor and vile messages. As the mother and father discuss their child's death, their daughters sit solemnly in the foreground. As the father relates the story, the family was unable to obtain any factual information about the young woman's death but photos of her decapitated head found their way on to the internet, where they became morbid material for mass consumption. Unconscionable hate-mail followed soon after, which left the family bewildered and shaken. As we see in Herzog's framed shot of the family, the pain and suffering are very palpable. Herzog mentions his objection to sharing the more shockingly hateful messages the family received but we can easily infer their abominable content.

Less dark but still disquieting chapters delve into the security risks connectivity poses for ordinary citizens and governments alike. Herzog coaxes candid comments from a Sandia National Laboratory employee, who is reticent about a cyber-attack waged on the United States by the Chinese. Another subject, the infamous hacker Kevin Mitnick, shares a disturbing story about how he obtained passwords from a company by posing as an employee. The ease in which he charmed an employee into divulging the information underscores his belief that people are often the biggest security risks.

In another segment, Herzog interviews people who have been literally made ill by communication towers but have since found refuge in the woods near a large radio-telescope, where the towers are banned.

The film diverts its focus into robotics and the mind-boggling developments unfolding in automation, including driver-less cars; on which Tesla CEO Elon Musk offers his perspective. In a related scene, soccer-playing robots which resemble large hockey pucks demonstrate their incredible dexterity as they play a fast-moving game.

Herzog eventually arrives at space travel, where Lucianne Walkowicz; an astronomer at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, talks about the false hopes humanity places in space colonization. She talks about how mankind's poor stewardship of the environment will be recapitulated on another planet.

Herzog eventually returns to the internet, where his profound and almost rhetorical question: does the internet dream of itself?, yields fascinating answers.

I think Herzog can make any subject riveting and he does so with the internet, which I thought was a dead topic, analytically-speaking. Though critics and commentators have addressed its meaning and its negative capacities, Herzog makes the topic fresh for exploration. He asks stimulating questions and draws equally stimulating responses from his talking heads.

Herzog has a way of simultaneously evoking wonder and anxiety in his films. He considers his topic from various angles and perspectives with intellect and an artist's temperament. He also never fails to capture profoundly absurd shots, such as a group of Buddhist monks absorbed in their iPhones while the Chicago skyline towers in the background.

Though half of Herzog's film highlights technology's positive roles, I couldn't shake the more troubling aspects of what I had seen. His film left me feeling both elated and anxious, which I'm aware are emotionally contradictory states--but I felt them nevertheless.

Herzog never answers his own question about the internet but after watching his film, I feel the answer is already a foregone conclusion. If it doesn't dream of itself now, then maybe it's only a matter of time. And what then? Some of Herzog's talking heads speculate. Leave it to him to ask such a question. His excellent film shows us it is a question worth pondering. It might also leave you feeling the question might be better off left unanswered.

The People vs. Fritz Bauer (Der Staat Gegen Fritz Bauer)

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: Lars Kraume/Starring: Burghart Klaussner, Rudiger Klink, Sebastian Blomberg, Michael Schenk, Ronald Zehrfeld, Laura Tonka, Christopher Buckholz and Jorg Schuttauf

Director Lars Kraume's The People vs. Fritz Bauer (Der Staat Gegen Fritz Bauer) tells the true story of German Attorney General Fritz Bauer's efforts to bring the notorious SS officer Adolf Eichmann to trial. Though his search for the elusive Nazi had its entanglments, we find Bauer was equally complicated; as was his assistant, Karl Angermann. Kraume's depiction of Bauer and Angermann's formidable quest is both vivid and taut; leaving the audience with something more than a drab history lesson.

Burghart Klaussner (Goodbye Lenin!, The Edukators) plays Fritz Bauer, who, as the story begins in Germany late 1950s', finds himself laden with case-loads involving the pursuit of former Nazis. In his exhaustive efforts as Attorney General to find and prosecute former members of the Third Reich, Bauer meets resistance from colleagues and subordinates who harbor sympathies for Hitler's regime and would rather not see their countrymen brought to trial. The stresses of his position nearly cost him his life when his driver finds Bauer submerged in his bath; having ingested pills and alcohol imprudently. Recovering from his near-lethal mishap, Bauer reports to work but is disappointed to find his staff have few leads, which elicits a scornful upbraiding.

But Bauer finds other impediments to his investigations lurking in the German justice system. Unbeknownst to Bauer, two colleagues in his building monitor his work while his superior's seemingly casual attitude renders his leadership appallingly ineffectual. Aware anti-justice forces are marshaled against him, Bauer finds files on former Nazis missing in his office.

Bauer receives a letter from a German living in Argentina named Lothar Hermann (Christopher Buckholz), who informs him his daughter is dating Eichmann's oldest son. With reasonable information provided, Bauer initiates his plan to extradite Eichmann for a trial in Germany.

Meanwhile, we see former the Nazi and logistical architect of the Holocaust; Adolf Eichmann (Michael Schenk) in his Argentinian home, living under an alias. In another scene, Eichmann is being investigated by two men whose identities are never revealed. We hear Eichmann discuss his role in the Final Solution. What is particularly disturbing about his testimony is his unapologetic position. He expresses regret about not eliminating all 10 million Jews he regards as the enemy. Eichmann's flight from prosecution and his stomach-churning candor about not exterminating the Reich's most hated race give Bauer's search added urgency.

Realizing Eichmann's capture will be a difficult operation, Bauer enlists the help of Mossad, who unfortunately rebuff his request.

Alerted to Bauer's plans to apprehend Eichmann, a shadowy group of men who oppose any and all his efforts to bring the former SS Officer to trial plot against him. Bauer's homosexual past provides ammunition, as does his visit to Israel to consult with Mossad, which carries a charge of treason. But as Bauer's assistant; Karl Angermann, becomes more involved in Bauer's extradition plans, he too becomes a target. It doesn't help that Angermann's sexual dalliance with a German transvestite leaves him vulnerable to Bauer's enemies, who waste little time attempting blackmail.

How Bauer and Angermann handle their enemies; at home and abroad, helps ratchet up the tension. As we now know, Eichmann's capture by Israeli intelligence denied Bauer his chance to have the Nazi face prosecution in his homeland, but the subsequent outcome of the trial in Jerusalem offered Bauer some consolation.

End subtitles inform us Bauer was instrumental in bringing Eichmann to justice. It's very disappointing to see how his contribution has been minimized by history.

Bauer's many shades are brilliantly drawn by Burghart Klaussner's fine performance. Bauer hardly seemed like a avenging angel but Klaussner shows his fierce determination; his wily mind and his dauntlessness.

Hannah Arendt's banality of evil; a phrase now shopworn but inspired by Eichmann's actions during wartime, is effectively communicated here. The phrase also applies to those who collaborated to hinder criminal investigations. To see threatening, anti-Semitic notes passed under Bauer's door as government officials plot against him paints a disturbing portrait of post-war Germany.

I don't think Kraume's film is powerful or riveting but it is nevertheless engaging. As historical drama, it acquits itself well but it needed a higher gear. This will play well on cable, where its modest visual ambitions will rest nicely.

The People vs. Fritz Bauer is a story about a man who helped bring a fugitive war criminal to justice but was never given due credit for his efforts. Though we can say justice was eventually done, there's no denying the dangers and sacrifices one man made to ensure the world didn't forget one of history's vile malefactors. No matter how one assesses Kraume's film, the importance of Bauer's investigation is indisputably paramount.

Eat That Question: Frank Zappa in His Own Words

Director: Thorsten Schütte

There never was anyone in rock music history quite like Frank Zappa. In fact, it seems rather limiting to consign his career and music to the rock label; for his work embraced many musical genres. Never eager to please anyone, he nevertheless amassed a loyal, global following who found his highly offbeat music brilliant and uncompromising. After watching director Thorsten Schutte's bracing documentary on the legendary musician, one will find the same adjectives apply to Zappa himself.
Circumventing the conventional narrative methods of rock biopics, Schutte chooses to chronicle Zappa's career--as the title suggests--by letting the musician tell his own story via interviews and television appearances. No talking heads or bland testimonials here; only the man's thoughts and music.

We don't see home movies or any footage from Zappa's early life; only his first television appearance on the Steve Allen Show in the early 1960s'. A very young Frank Zappa; clean-cut and suit-clad, gives the world an idea of the unusual direction his music will take when he attempts to "play" two bicycles with drumsticks while a small orchestra behind him makes odd, discordant sounds. While playing the bicycle spokes and every part of the frames that might yield music, the sound-man in the booth is instructed to contribute his own noises; with the understanding that they not-necessarily be musical. To watch and hear Zappa explain his piece is quite amusing, as is Allen's open-minded, yet playfully dismissive reaction to the music.

We see footage of Zappa's band The Mothers of Invention in the 60's as their unusual sounds firmly establish them somewhere on rock's bizarre fringes. In one interview, Zappa discusses his classical training; whose influence seeps subtly into his music. Though Zappa's music attracts a following, we hear him in early interviews--and later ones too--lament the fact that though many know him as a rock-star, they also have no idea what he does.

Though Zappa's music is the main draw, the interviews are every bit as entertaining. His responses to vacuous interview questions betray a subtle impatience, which we expect from someone highly articulate and mentally sharp. One gets the sense Zappa's mind worked a little too fast for those who interviewed him.

As narrative moves into the late 1960s', we hear Zappa discuss the making of the strange film 200 Motels, which involved much musical preparation.

As counter-culture protests took hold in the 60s' and early 70s', Zappa found his music embraced by revolutionary factions at home and abroad. We see German youths nearly riot at a Mothers of Invention gig. Sensing chaos, Zappa talks about turning the music up to a deafening volume to keep the crowd from overrunning the stage; a ploy he says actually worked. What is particularly interesting is to hear Zappa talk about his opposition to the violent extremes protesters often employed to make a political statement. In his words, he found the left in America to be every bit as fascistic as the militant-left in Europe. German protesters were disappointed to find the musician unsympathetic to their causes. In an interview, we hear Zappa discusses his hatred for communism; a position that probably didn't make him many friends on the left.

Later, interviewers pose questions about Zappa's penchant for obscenities in his songs; a tendency he fiercely defends by saying nothing that ever came out of someone's mouth led to eternal flames. As we see later in the film, reactionary political forces took exception to some of his lyrics as well.

Schutte doesn't forget the music and performances. The music, like the musician, is hard to pin down. One moment it sounds like rock, in another; classical or jazz with Zappa leading his band like a conductor.

As his career made the transition to the 80s', Zappa and a host of fellow rock musicians were beseiged by Al Gore's wife Tipper; who launched a Big Brother-like, censorial campaign to apply warning labels to albums deemed to have offensive lyrics. Zappa's now famous, eloquent and funny testimonial before a congressional committee still stands as a powerful defense of artistic expression. Watching and listening to Zappa volley words with a female senator is very amusing. We also see his appearance on the television program Crossfire, where he parries a priggish columnist's comments in a heated debate about whether the government should ban objectionable videos and songs. Zappa, ever the advocate for free speech and expression, defends his position vigorously (watch the full debate on YouTube; it's deliriously entertaining); with well-thought, intelligently-expressed arguments.

We see more of Zappa in T.V. interviews and later; his visit to Eastern Europe after the Berlin Wall came down.

More performance footage follows, which includes a T.V. appearance inside Zappa's home studio, where his music-gadgetry is discussed in detail. He defends the use of the various electronica and even gives a demonstration of a Synclavier; a popular sampling device in the 1980s'.

As the narrative moves into the 21st Century, the grim diagnosis of prostate cancer becomes news. A T.V. interview shows Zappa bearing his illness with equanimity.

Schutte's film gives us a fairly comprehensive view of Zappa's career. One can always wish for more music but I think its well-represented and characterized. What makes Schutte's job easy is Zappa himself, who was always an intriguing interviewee. One can never anticipate what he'll say in any given moment but we know that behind his Mephistophelian brows was a mind burning white-hot.

The best music bio-docs I've seen the past few years have been films without talking heads and without a conventional beginning, middle and end. It is fascinating that an artist's whole career can almost be documented solely on film. Schutte's film has everything we need and much of what we want to know about one of rock's greatest composers, but more importantly; it leaves us wanting more.

Southside With You

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: Richard Tanne/Starring: Tika Sumpter and Parker Sawyers

While watching director Richard Tanne's feature film debut; Southside With You; I wasn't sure if what was playing onscreen was a Democratic Party infomercial or an actual movie. In case you missed the highly elusive trailer for the film (I only saw it a few days before), the movie's plot can be summarized in a few words: Barack Obama's historic first "date" with his future wife Michelle. That's it; you can go home now.
My initial reaction was: is this a joke, because it doesn't look like a movie. How does one really categorize it? A biopic? No, it isn't that. A historical drama? I guess. But what it really looks and feels like is a T.V. pharmaceutical ad, stretched to an overly long 84 minutes. And thank goodness for the relatively short running time; three hours of this would have been excruciating and maybe grounds for a congressional inquiry.
I'm not sure why I bothered to include a spoiler alert for this post--what exactly am I spoiling? I think the public's knowledge of Obama's life dispels any mystery or surprises the story purports to offer.

I guess it goes without saying that this "film" is a bore, which pains me to write, considering I voted for the guy. Did we really need a movie about Obama's first date with the future first lady? What's next; a trilogy about Lyndon B. Johnson's first ice-cream social with Lady Bird (if there was one)? An epic about Calvin Coolidge's first moonlight walk with Grace Goodhue? I've seen some fairly ridiculous, flimsy films get green-lighted over the years but this one is a doozy.

The story is direct; getting to the point in a hurry. Set in 1989 Chicago; Southside With You tells the story of how a young Harvard Law School graduate named Barack Obama; an intern for a corporate law firm and our country's future president, arranged to meet his work advisor; Michelle Robinson (Tika Sumpter) for what she believed was a friendly ride to a community meeting.

When we first see Michelle, she is preparing to meet with Barack while her parents needle her about her "date," a designation that she is quick to correct. She insists the meeting is only professional, with no romantic agenda attached. We see from her surroundings the family is hardly wealthy but are nevertheless removed from the more economically-challenged Chicago neighborhoods.

We cut to a young, black man; Barack Obama (Parker Sawyers, who captures the president's vocal particulars quite nicely) as he arrives at the Robinson residence in his shabby compact. We immediately notice a cigarette in his hand, which remains constant throughout the story. Michelle gently chides him for being late and is quick to mention his tardiness his first day on the job. She also notices the hole in the floor of his car but refrains from asking about it.

Michelle is irked when she learns the meeting they are to attend is several hours in the future. Barack's idea about spending the day together at an African-American art show with lunch afterward is met with Michelle's firm disapproval. Barack finds her resistance to be part of her unimpeachable (forgive the expression) integrity, which forbids romantic contact with co-workers, especially a subordinate outside of work. Barack pushes until he accedes to her wishes, stating "it isn't a date until you say so." In spite of her objection, Michelle agrees to go along.

Their pre-meeting conversations are supposed to reveal everything about their character, while also providing biographical information. We learn about Michelle's education; her undergraduate life at Columbia and law studies at Harvard. She shares anecdotal information about school; including the bigotry she encountered on campus. She also talks about her father, who insisted she and her brother receive a rigorous education. The hardships of being the only woman in an all-male firm is another salient point she gets across.

Much of what Barack shares with Michelle will be familiar to the audience; his itinerant youth in Hawaii, Indonesia and Kenya; his white mother; who he adores and his black father, who he is reluctant to discuss, even when prodded.

One of the film's most interesting scenes is a testy conversation where Barack haughtily judges Michelle's choice to work in corporate law, which she volleys back at him; calling attention to his own hypocritical presence at the firm. Fully chastised, Barack apologizes; having learned a cogent lesson about passing judgement on others.

The climactic moment--if the film can be said to have one--is at a community meeting, where residents express their frustration with the city's reluctance to fund a badly-needed community center. As the speaker is unable to to disarm their anger, he invites Barack to address the gathering. The results are predictably inspiring, as he uses his persuasive oratory to quell the attendees' pessimism with a rousing speech about proactive, community action. Shots of Michelle being moved by Barack's speech and his compassionate commitment to the community are predictably touching. For the viewer, the disappointing thought that his speech is the film's centerpiece, which occupies a significant portion of screen-time, is disheartening.
Is this really it? This is a movie? I'm all for films reaching beyond the conventional plot imperatives of conflict and resolution but I think every movie-goer will agree with me when I say a movie must have a point; even if its only aesthetic. The closest approach to conflict comes after the speech when Michelle and Barack run into a white, senior colleague at the movies. Michelle is naturally mortified to have a co-worker see her out with an intern and wastes little time scolding Barack afterward for allowing the incident to take place. But being Barack; he is able to calm Michelle and before long--boom!; their day together finally becomes a date. Pretty riveting cinema, eh? But we do discover their first movie together was Do the Right Thing; if that's any consolation.

I give credit to Parker Sawyers and Tika Sumpter for their performances. I don't know if they were actually ever presented a script but they did very well. I wish I could laud Tanne for his directorial brilliance but he probably had little to do but point the camera. Maybe his next directing gig will be more challenging.

Why this movie would be made at the end of Obama's time in office rather than at the beginning of his second term is beyond me. But timing is immaterial; this is a pointless snoozer. The country is too distracted with the Trump and Clinton campaigns to really care anymore about the Obamas. I think I'd rather watch a congressional filibuster than anything like this again. Or maybe I would, with a touch of recasting. How about Keegan Michael-Key as Barack and Leslie Jones as Michelle?
It has my vote.