misadventurer

This is where it started. This subject of this documentary, is the genesis of how we cover politics today. All because ABC didn't have the money to capture to do the same thing as CBS and NBC. A tight budget, changed the face of American Politics. Which is kind of amazing. Over the course of 10 nights, conservative wunderkind William F Buckley Jr, would 'debate' the liberal libertine, Gore Vidal, during the 1968 Republican and Democratic National Conventions. With diary excepts read by John Lithgow and Kelsey Grammer, its odd, to see how polite, even through gritted teeth these two men, who were the loudest voices of their respective political movements were. Though neither made eye-contact, and both showed the other the coldest of shoulders, its interesting to see two political pundit prototypes verbally battling each other. Their level of discourse is seldom seen today, both men being so erudite and effete, there's hardly anyone in the political arena that has their level of elitism. Both talking heads had failed political runs, years before these debates, and each had the other matched in nearly every respect. Bringing to mind the adage of "Who would win, the unstoppable force or immovable object?" and it turns out to be neither. By the time this film was complete, both Buckley and Vidal had passed, Vidal staying around just a bit longer than Buckley. Their animosity towards one another was intense. I was born in 1983, and never really knew about these debates until fairly recently. I'm a fan of Gore Vidal's work and was interested in seeing this, I knew Vidal had a nemesis, but kept thinking his rival was Norman Mailer... though they had no love for each other, either. It was enlightening to see this level of discourse, it was like a barbed tongue version of Mortal Kombat, with both men trying to keep their cool, but it wasn't until the finale that Buckley broke, he looked at Vidal and said "Now listen, you ****, stop calling me a ****, or I'll sock you in your goddamn face and you'll stay plastered." With that Buckley lost whatever good will he might have gained. The Republicans might have won that presidential election with Richard Nixon, ABC won the network war for political coverage, but Gore Vidal won those debates, by infuriating his opponent to the point of rage quitting. Whats kind of upsetting about this documentary is seeing the level that political coverage has dragged itself to, based off of these debates. There are now easily 10 networks whose sole duty is to cover every aspect of American Politics and over sensationalize every thing. Creating a great sound and fury over what amounts to be nothing. While it is nice to see the faces of these pundits changing with the times, there isn't anyone on either side that has the respectability of a Buckley or Vidal. The closest modern comparisons would be Bill O'Reilly and Bill Maher, but neither are pundits, they're hosts, and Maher is a comedian. Maher fancies himself the modern **** Cavett, giving opportunity for all comers to make their points, though he then spends the rest of the panel berating the conservative panelists, and Cavett would only resort to self defense if a panelist became hostile to **** himself. This is a great film for political junkies, history buffs and fans of either Buckley or Vidal, their both painted very complimentarily warts and all. “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.” ― Napoléon Bonaparte “I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt

Trumbo Triumphant. by jd ep He fought fire with oil. Dalton Trumbo, novelist turned screenwriter, admitted Communist during the early days of the Cold War, winner of two Academy Awards while on the Hollywood Blacklist, seemingly never saw a fight not worth getting in. Bryan Cranston's performance as the larger than life literary figure captures the subversive qualities of a man who was torn between two world one where he was a warrior for the rights of the working man, and the other, living in the Ivory Tower of being one of Hollywood's most sought after screenwriters, during a rather contentious time in Tinseltown's past. The film spans 30+ years of Trumbo's most turbulent times, from the early meetings of the Hollywood Communist Party to their trials of committing Contempt of Congress by flippantly disregarding the validity of the House UnAmerican Activities Committees's witch hunt, as well as when Trumbo went on live TV to declare he wrote the Academy Award winning 'The Brave One' under a pen name. The film acts as both time capsule, and history lesson; highlighting the grandiosity of the upper crust, hypocrisy of power and in the end does what many Oscar hopeful films do, it makes you love Hollywood at the end. Masterfully directed by Jay Roach, who started primarily as a comedy director, notably of the Austin Powers films, but he's recently been focusing on the Political arena, the 2016 Presidential Election being around the corner may show some parallels between the likable, over the top socialist Dalton Trumbo and a certain Senator from Vermont. Weaving archival newsreel footage in with what was shot for the film, may be a little iffy, depending on rules imposed by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, though it feels like Trumbo has a solid shot at taking home a few Oscars. The 124 minute runtime flies by, there are laughs abound in an otherwise very serious movie, a great blend of humor and importance. The production design sets the scene perfectly and the score is engaging, adopting an almost Tom Waitsian knock and whir of a typewriter for montage sequences. The cast of supporting characters is solid, with Elle Fanning playing Dalton's eldest daughter, a social rights crusader in her own right, scorned by her father's workaholism. Stephen Root and John Goodman play the King Brothers, schlocky producers who churn and burn productions on the cheap, that hire Trumbo and his otherwise unemployable friends during the Blacklist years, of which Alan Tudyk and Louis C.K. are members of the infamous "Hollywood 10." There are also a few larger than life Hollywood characters that add color to the film with JAG's David James Elliot as John Wayne, The Hobbit's Dean O'Gorman as Kirk Douglas and German actor Christian Berkel as Otto Preminger, the Austrian Alfred Hitchcock. The lovely Diane Lane felt underutilized here as little more than a doting wife with a past, but she keeps the family together during their most tumultuous times. Helen Mirren as Hedda Hopper, Hollywood's premier reporter might seem familiar, to younger audiences, like Harry Potter's Dolores Umbridge, a very prim and proper conservative foil with considerable power and an axe to grind. Finally, for the man himself. Bryan Cranston as Dalton Trumbo. With Cranston's oeuvre of television work, it's plain to see the man is a chameleon, disappearing into his roles, though with each you know Cranston is in control. Almost on the verge of a Burgess Meredith era Penguin at times, the larger than life Dalton Trumbo was a chain-smoking, whiskey drinking rabble rouser, who wasn't afraid of who he made enemies with, as long as they knew he stood his ground, to the point where he dares John Wayne to punch him in the face to prove a point. Not an imposing man, aside from his mustache towards the end, you simply don't see people like Dalton Trumbo anymore. He had a way with words that puts most writers to shame, and as the film depicts, he had a preternatural ability to crank out scripts. Though this is clearly an awards worthy performance, Cranston's reverence for Dalton is sincere. You never feel like Bryan is just playing this guy too big, you feel like you're actually watching the real Dalton Trumbo, seeing into his world, his idiosyncrasies, what makes him tick, and why he doesn't give up. Maddening as it may be to those around him. Trumbo is a triumph that could lighten the day of even the most cynical of the Hollywood Elite, and remind them of why they got into the business in the first place. Movie grade: A 9/10

Now for "Spectre" Mendes gets a few things right, not that "Skyfall" was all bad, it was gorgeously shot with amazing locations, "Spectre" follows suit, with vibrant locales, the first shot of the film is a 'Birdman'-esque continuous tracking shot with some very very subtle editing. The scale of the film and some of the other driving shots later are breathtaking and almost hard to believe are real, there's so much scenery in frame, the cars look like toys. There are a few humorous moments as well, Craig showing how in control he is in nearly every situation, which is part of the mystique of the character. We go from Mexico City, to London to Rome to Austria to Switzerland, to Morrocco to a hollowed out volcano in the middle of the desert to.... London again... Lots of flying around, and the whole movie is supposed to take place over 4 days or so... We get to see more of Ben Whishaw's Quartermaster, he's a master hacker, who only one film earlier accidentally forgot he plugged the baddie's computer into their network, which was exactly what the villain wanted and got the MI-6 building blown up, here he hacks the most complicated computer system ever, by himself, on his laptop over wifi, and also manages to decipher the DNA coding of all the bad guys from a ring Craig got off a dead guy, thats just how good he is, though his car modding skills were a bit blah. just using a label maker and putting some toggles and a small LED readout to the dash of the film's Aston Martin DB10, was a bit slapdash. However he is able to singlehandedly totally rebuild and re-spec a 1962 DB5, which the filmmakers seem to forget who owns the car... as it is classically, Sean Connery's car of choice in the 3rd film and in several subsequent movies and Craig wins it in a poker game during "Casino Royale" but in "Skyfall" it has the Connery armament, which if you ask the producers, you'll again get the "we already have your money, go away" answer again... Its somewhat nostalgia **** and fan service, though is also somewhat a disservice, with how Craig was supposed to be a stand alone reboot of the character, even though the filmmakers return to the well of Films Past. Christoph Waltz plays the film's heavy, though Dave Bautista's laconic henchman fills the term more accurately, he's not only physically imposing, but he's also very effective and won't give up, and earns himself a spot on the Classic Henchman Wall of Fame, but Waltz plays a figure of Craig's past and leaves the reason he doesn't like Daniel up to the birds. There's an odd civility between hero and villain, more expository dialogue than there should be, it's a two hour fourteen minute film with maybe 4 action set pieces totally 20-25? minutes of screen time... Recently Daniel Craig has stated his disdain for the character, which maybe i'm not the only one who's caught on to these cinematic sins. The movie is fun for the parts that its fun, but there's a lot of time you can go run to the rest room, or take a phone call, or write a movie review and come back in time for the another action scene and go back out to the lobby. There's not much my words can do to desway people from seeing this film when it opens in the US on November 6th, the marketing machine on it and hype alone have already all but guaranteed its success, but i just want to point out it's merely just a Spectre of what a good James Bond movie should be. "Am I supposed to be impressed?" -James Bond

The Revenant reviewed by jd ep In short, The Revenant could just be called "Leo goes roughing it." Widely to be considered a front runner for many awards in early 2016, Alejandro Iñárritu's film about a mountain man savaged by a bear, who then hunts down the man who killed his son, starring Leonardo DiCaprio & Tom Hardy, also has a lot going against it when the accolades come, more a story of Production vs Nature, the Canadian wilderness where the film was shot, in order (most films are shot out of order to make the most of the locations as needed) didn't have the amount of snow needed, so the filming had to move to Patagonia in South America to finish, a rough shoot for everyone involved, going over budget and taking more time than anyone anticipated. Though it can be said Iñárritu did not compromise for his vision, and what we get as an audience is a feast for the eyes, and heartthrob DiCaprio gets dragged through the mud for most of the film and so much worse happens to him. As for story, it's fairly barebones, DiCaprio's character of Hugh Glass (which i'm almost certain Bart Simpson called Moe's and used that name for a crank call) is hired by a fur trapping company to get them through an Indian hunting ground, the company gets attacked and they must make their way back to port, Glass goes off on his own and ends up on the wrong side of a Mama Bear who beats the crap out of him, Glass who is supposed to be a little more attuned to nature than the average Anglo, who has a half Native son, and can speak Algonquin, doesn't know how to play dead and shoots at the bear after it started walking away, for a second round of savagery where he gets brutalized even more than the initial attack, and all this happens within the first twenty minutes of the film. A couple survivors of the Fur Trapping team find him and stitch him up, the leader of the company played by Domhnall Gleeson, does the honorable thing of attempting to bring him home for a proper burial for his services rendered, though they get lost, Gleeson asks for a team of men to watch over the dying Glass and to give him a proper burial when he finally passes, while the rest go home, and offers a handsome bonus for anyone who does this service. Tom Hardy & Will Poulter (the boy from "We're the Millers") 's characters stay back with Glass's son Hawk. Hardy gets impatient that Glass won't die, so he decided to just bury him and tells Poulter to put a bullet in Glass, Hawk protests, Hardy kills DiCaprio's son, Poulter doesn't have what it takes to kill Glass and the two make their way back only to be denied their bonuses, due to the accounting of their provisions and everyone came home empty handed. Hugh Glass manages to drag himself back to the camp after finding his son dead and then pursues Hardy. Nothing else really goes on. It's a thin tale of avarice and revenge, where two handsome actors made themselves look ugly and beat each other up. The Revenant gives up the ghost. I thought maybe Hugh had died and he really was just a spirit of revenge, but how the movie ends is so anticlimactic it takes away what satisfaction could be had in a revenge tale. Though it was a very pretty film, for being so ugly. Film Grade: C.

Cooties: An Instant Horror Classic by jd ep With all the zombie movies and TV shows vying for your eyeballs, its hard to bring something new to the table. Cooties is a zombie movie made by horror fans for horror fans, open ended for sequels and maybe a prequel, a good amount of gore, terrifying monsters and just enough standard horror tropes and winking at the cast's better known works. Written by SAW co-creator Leigh Whannell and co-creator of Glee, Ian Brennan, Cooties balances the mundanity of summer school with the fear of a pandemic. It all starts with a tainted chicken nugget which gets one of the students sick and the teachers are so self-interested, they don't notice the world has caught on fire around them. The movie is good, though not perfect, some of the characters are pretty thin, like Nasim Pedrad's Rebekkah introducing herself to Elijah Wood's Clint, by pointing out the **** alarm she has clipped to her coat, in lieu of being able to have a concealed carry pistol, she does little but plays a brash female teacher you almost are waiting for her to get her ankles chewed off by a horde of the infected children. We find out midway through, the virus that turns the students into kind of a 28 Days Later, Rage Zombies, only affects pre-pubescent children, from a bite or scratch. Leigh Whannell also plays a socially aloof science teacher, reading a "How to have normal conversations" handbook, when we first see him, named Doug, who is intent on dissecting one of the children, giving the go ahead to stop the tiny terrors by any means possible, as the zombie virus has destroyed the parts of the brain that make the kids human anymore. Cooties centers around Elijah Wood's character, returning home to Fort Chicken, Indiana, as he's attempting to return to his roots and work on his first novel, a shoddy version of Stephen King's Christine with a boat instead of a car. Clint has taken a job as a substitute teacher at his old elementary school where he catches up with his old paramour, Lucy, played by Alison Pill, only to find out she's dating the school's P.E. Teacher, Rainn Wilson's Wade. The love triangle has some push and pull but in the dire situation the group of survivors are faced with, as they find the infection goes well beyond the boundaries of the school. If you love horror, Catch Cooties 7/10

Mission Impossible : Rogue Nation reviewed by jd ep It's been almost 20 years since Tom Cruise took on the mantle of Ethan Hunt, seemingly the only member of the Impossible Missions Force, and "Rogue Nation" is his 5th cinematic outing. This time around, his organization is under fire by CIA boss, Alec Baldwin, and a Senate Sub-committee voting to disband the IMF, stating most of their successes are based off of Luck than actual tactics. Hunt and his team have faced overwhelming odds in past film; from their own leader going rogue, to stopping a super virus, to a really mad Philip Seymour Hoffman, to stopping a nuke mid-air after accidentally blowing up the Kremlin. Now with no more IMF or governmental support, Ethan Hunt is searching for the secret organization that possibly has ties to everything thats happened in the past, known only as "The Syndicate" which also has infiltrated the IMF at its heart, and Ethan can only trust his team; Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg and Jeremy Renner. The rest of the films usually introduces a larger cast of team members who inadvertently die on missions or from treachery, but this time its just returners. But this film isn't just about the boys, the female lead.. and really, only woman in the movie, Ilsa Faust played by Rebecca Ferguson (who i thought was Michelle Monaghan at first) does her fair share of asskicking, double / triple crossing... its really kind of hard to tell whose team she's on. There's almost a love story between Hunt and Faust, but Ethan is still married or has a fiancé but she's never addressed, he just let her go at the end of Ghost Protocol. Mission Impossible: Rouge Nation is the most fun Mission Impossible ever. It offers epic action sequences, gorgeous locations and big laughs. There's no real character growth or anything, just procedural action sequences, Rogue Nation knows exactly what it is, it's more, more adventure, more humor, more excitement. You know who everyone is, and you know you'll probably never see the female lead again as seems to be the case with M:I female leads, which is sad, because Ferguson carries most of the film. Her character, Faust is the central source of pathos, as her life hangs in the balance, being played with by her government and the baddies and the only person she can trust is Ethan Hunt. Jeremy Renner reprises his role as Brandt, taking the backseat in most of the excitement, Ving Rhames's Luther gets more field time and shows why he's best the guy offsite, while Simon Pegg's Benji is more confident in his role as a hacker turned field agent. Though the centerpointe for all the action is Tom Cruise, whether he's flushing himself down a giant toilet, escaping an opera house, in a motorcycle chase through Morocco or hanging off the side of a cargo plane, there's little Ethan Hunt can't accomplish. While Rogue Nation has a stand-alone feel, its also a direct sequel to Ghost Protocol. Never before in a Mission Impossible movie have they ever addressed what happened in any movie before, this one recaps what new audience members may have missed in films past, while also never mentioning what happened with any other members of the IMF. But I can live with that, if I want to see gorgeous set pieces, insane action sequences, Tom Cruise risking his life and Simon Pegg making fun of everything, I'll gladly come back to the theatre for more Mission Impossible films if they just focus on. Where the film felt a bit lacking to me, was in the gadget department. Mission Impossible movies are known for their amazing tech. In Ghost Protocol, the BMW i8 that Ethan drives to the Indian Billionaire's party in, I thought we would never see, it looked too futuristic; In Los Angeles the i8 is everywhere now. While all the heroes drive Bimmers (and one Range Rover) the only cool car thing is a biometric reader on the drivers side window to lock and unlock the car. That seemed cool, and a way to get smudgy windows. The only other cool toy was an automatic lockpick credit card, there were a few unorthodox firearms in the film as well, but no exploding gum, no laser watches or dynamite pens (granted a few of those are Bond staples, but still). Go see Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation Film Grade : B

Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine reviewed by jd ep Since the death of the Apple Co-Founder, no less than 4 films have been made about Steve Jobs, most attempt to canonize him as the Patron Saint of Personal Technology. The Man in the Machine asks the question of "Why did so many people weep for the passing of Steve Jobs?" In reality, Jobs was a bitter perfectionist, who sought inner peace, though never seemed to allow himself to sacrifice for the zen for which he desired. Documentarian Alex Gibney's Man in the Machine, dares to show Jobs for the man who he was, warts and all. Despite what the Cult of Apple would have you believe, Jobs was a harsh taskmaster, and not necessarily the sole architect of the success of Apple. Gibney, no shrinking violet when it comes to controversy, as the first result **** search for his name will show an ad decrying him for his Triple Emmy winning "Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief," narrates and makes himself the cypher for the audience, we are seeing Alex's journey on piecing together who Steve Jobs really was. From Steve's birth as an unwanted orphan, to his early days as a Phone Phreak, to launching the first Apple, to Steve's attempt to deny his responsibility for his first daughter, Lisa by claiming he was infertile and therefore couldn't be the father. Gibney, over the course of 2 hours and 8 minutes, un-ashamedly presents the darker side of the Crown Prince of Cupertino. Steve's hypocrisy, believing he was above the law, dismantling philanthropic outreach from Apple. Gibney asks "What were his values as a citizen? Was he interested in power to change the world, or the right to have power without responsibility?" The film illuminates Steve's involvement on several damning events, from a Stock Backdating scandal which threw a few high level Apple Execs under the bus, the anti-trust class action lawsuit that affected 64,000 silicon valley programmers, to Apple's tax avoidance involving an Irish Shell Company. Gibney also talks about the iPhone 4 Leak that Gizmodo broke. It's a David Vs Goliath story that ends with David becoming a larger Goliath. As for the answer of "why did so many people weep for Steve Jobs," Gibney offers a Japanese term "Mono no aware" which translates to "an empathy toward things." Steve Jobs gave us all our own black mirrors. A thing that contains our entire lives, which in the end, are nothing but things. No doubt Steve Jobs was a difficult man, but as the documentary concludes he was, just a man. A man with vision, and hunger, and a master marketer, but as Gibney states late in the film, "[Jobs] had the focus of a monk, but none of the Empathy." Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine is well worth the watch, whether you're an Apple Fanboy/girl, an Android User or a troglodyte, Steve Jobs was a major architect of our modern world and we should know who the man was, rather than just idolize him through rose colored glasses. Movie Grade: A+

The most Quentin Tarantino film ever with all the salty language, florid prose, and buckets of blood as you'd come to expect from such a die hard cinéaste. While not his masterpiece, it is a masterwork of a cast, both returning favorites (Samuel L Jackson & Tim Roth) and some welcome newcomers like Kurt Russell and Walton Goggins, Tarantino spins a post-civil war tale of deception and justice. Kurt Russell plays John 'The Hangman' Ruth, a bounty hunter who specializes in bringing his quarry to the authorities alive, when most others prefer the Dead option when a warrant specifies Dead or Alive. John Ruth is escorting a bountyhead worth $10,000 in the form of Jennifer Jason Leigh's Daisy Domergue, a member of the **** Domergue gang, racing towards Red Rock, Wyoming before a blizzard, they manage picking up Samuel L Jackson's Major Marquis Warren, another bounty hunter, and Walton Goggins's Chris Mannix, the new sheriff of Red Rock. The carriage has to stop at trading post to bed down during the blizzard, where they find more company. Tensions run high, in the suddenly full house, when the proprietress is absent, who can John Ruth trust? He's met Major Warren before though he begins acting mighty suspicious, and he knows of Chris Mannix's father's reputation as a Rebel Renegade during the Civil War, though he has no proof to his claim of being the new sheriff, can anyone in Minnie's Haberdashery be who they claim? Tarantino captures the tone of John Carpenter's "The Thing" of isolation and paranoia while earning a place in spaghetti western heaven, having Ennio Morricone score, though goes overboard filming on 70mm (super-duper wide screen) when 90% of the film takes place in one room, though it will never be said Tarantino isn't ambitious. Hateful Eight is a bygone dirty auteur film in the age of politically correct digital cinema, and no one else could have made this movie. Film Grade: B

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]