Steven Spielberg. Tom Hanks. The Cold War. Sounds like the proper ingredients to turn an interesting sliver of history into a compelling motion picture, right? While, not without its bright spots, the pleasures of Bridge of Spies are milder than you would expect, the thrills more low key. A disappointing entry into Spielberg's filmography. The movie opens in 1957, with the capture of Soviet spy Rudolf Abel by the FBI. Played with quiet dignity and a dash of wit by Mark Rylance, Abel is to be paraded in front of the press and given the full benefit of American due process. Or, at least, the appearance of it. That's how attorney James B. Donovan enters the picture. An ex-military man, Donovan assisted in the prosecution at the Nuremberg trials before settling into a partnership at a New York firm. Naturally, Hanks plays the attorney; and if you equate him to a modern-day James Stewart, this would be a cross between the naive idealist in Frank Capra's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and the confident intellectual in Alfred Hitchcock's Rope. During his preparation of the case, Donovan encounters resistance from everyone -- his family, his firm, the public at large -- except the person he expected it from most: Abel, himself. The developing respect between these men and the chemistry between the actors who portray them, is unquestionably the strongest aspect of the film's first half. But, there's a lot going on, and there are important ideas at play, and it feels surprisingly un-engaging. Lots of conflict and no tension. The second half of the film fares better, moving from New York to Berlin in 1961, where Donovan attempts to secure a deal to swap Abel for Gary Powers, the pilot of a downed U-2 spy plane. The change in setting from high-rises and courtrooms to checkpoints and post-war rubble certainly lends itself to greater suspense. Limited support from the agency and no official backing from the government places Donovan out on a limb, sniffling and sneezing his way through back-channel negotiations with the Soviets. Complicating matters are the East Germans, using a captured American student as a bargaining chip to get Abel for themselves, something the agency doesn't care about, but Donovan is unwilling to ignore. Spielberg and his screenwriters, Matt Charman and Joel & Ethan Coen, skip along the surface, cover lots of ground, but rarely dig into anything substantial. They also take time away from the main story to include scenes of America's U-2 spy missions, specifically, the recruitment of Powers, his crash over the Soviet Union, his trial, and subsequent interrogations. For some, the U-2 crash will inject a welcome burst of energy at the film's midpoint, but the rest of Powers' scenes lack punch and feel like filler. Cinematographer Janusz Kaminski might approach the backlighting of some scenes with too much zeal, but the technical brilliance we've come to expect from a Spielberg production is intact. Notably, long-time collaborator John Williams was unable to score the picture, with Thomas Newman filling in admirably. The film might miss Williams' panache, but I wouldn't cite it as the reason why Bridge of Spies is a slightly ho-hum affair.
It's tough to take on the fourth film in any franchise and shake up the formula. Perhaps the most successful fourth film in recent memory, 2009's Fast and Furious, is a film that worked very hard to be, first and foremost, a sequel to its originator, creating a strong sense of nostalgia in the process. What's good for one Universal Pictures series is good for another, I suppose, and the new Jurassic Park movie has taken a similar approach. From locations and props to specific shots; the inclusion of actor BD Wong, returning as Dr. Henry Wu from the first film; and incorporating the iconic John Williams score into new music by Michael Giacchino, Jurassic World is trading heavily on our fond memories of Spielberg's original. The film will be a nice calling card for Director Colin Trevorrow. It proves that he can take on a mega-budget blockbuster film and not screw it up. If that seems like a backhanded compliment, it's really not. Where many have tried to deliver a satisfying summer movie that will please most, most have failed, and a solid effort like this will place him on every short list in Hollywood.
If you haven't seen any of George Miller's post-apocalyptic Mad Max films, or just haven't seen them in a long time, don't worry. His latest entry into the series, Mad Max: Fury Road, is a story that stands on its own. Stepping into the role originated by Mel Gibson, Tom Hardy is Max, a former cop in a lawless wasteland, haunted by the lives he couldn't save along the way. "My world is fire and blood," he states in the opening voice over, right before we see him take a bite out of a two-headed gecko. He's a loner, only interested in survival, and what it takes to survive is not often pleasant. After a quick scene of zooming cars in the desert, just a taste of what's to come later in the film, Max is captured by Warboys and taken to The Citadel, where the key players are a tyrannical warlord known as Immortan Joe (played by original Mad Max baddie, Hugh Keays-Byrne), ruling his people as a god and promising paradise in the afterlife, and Imperator Furiosa, a battle-forged champion driver played by Charlize Theron. Furiosa leaves on a routine mission driving a huge rig full of "guzzoline" and a secret cargo: five of Immortan Joe's fiercely protected, disease-free breeding beauties, whom he keeps locked safely away from other men. Played by Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Zoe Kravitz, Abbey Lee, Courtney Eaton, and Riley Keough, they are all committing treason by leaving for a chance at freedom. Their destination is The Green Place -- a beautiful, lush land from Furiosa's childhood memories.
When the truck goes off course, it sets into motion what is essentially a giant chase for two hours. Immortan Joe sends all his Warboys and every available car, truck, dirt bike and dune buggy after them, with Max dragged along for the ride. Nicholas Hoult is Nux, one of the brainwashed devotees of Immortan Joe. He gives religious extremism a human face, a kamikaze Warboy searching for glory in this life or the next. This is a very macho action film that happens to contain a number of strong female characters and no romance. If that's feminist, it's okay by me. I was supremely entertained, and my hat goes off to Charlize Theron, in particular, for not only portraying Furiosa with grit and emotion, but also being 100% believable in every action shot. Part of the credit for that goes to Miller, cinematographer John Seale, and the stunt team, but Theron simply nails it. Furiosa is a fully-formed character, a bona fide action icon, and Theron becomes the most convincing female badass in a Hollywood movie since Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2. So, rock on, Ladies.
Fury Road is a sequel that reaches the rarified air of surpassing the previous films in the series. The Road Warrior will always be held up as an example of great action cinema, but Fury Road is bigger and badder and more extreme. It reaches moments that are so completely bananas that I was filled with a giddy sense of awe, especially knowing that Miller went to great lengths to achieve everything he could through practical means. (Yes, those are real cars and real stuntmen flying through the hot desert air!) The score by Tom Holkenborg aka Junkie XL is percussive and sweeping and the pacing is relentless. While other blockbusters stop and start like city traffic, Fury Road takes the autobahn and dares us to keep up with it. Admittedly, this cuts down on scenes that exist solely for other purposes -- character development, exposition, etc. -- but, Miller finds a way to incorporate those things into the action itself, crafting concise moments of visual storytelling that provide all the context we need. It's a remarkable example of large-scale action filmmaking that will be referenced for years to come.
About Elly is the first time I've dipped into Iranian cinema. It's a 2009 film from Asghar Farhadi, the director of A Separation (2012 Oscar Winner - Best Foreign Language Film). Due to murky legalities and strained political relationships, however, this amazing work couldn't get a U.S. release until now. The story follows a group of old classmates--three couples, children in toe, and a recently-divorced friend--who leave Tehran for a few days of fun on the beaches of the Caspian Sea. In an attempt to play matchmaker, Sepideh (Golshifteh Farahani) brings along her child's teacher, Elly (Taraneh Alidoosti), an attractive but quiet woman she barely knows, to round out the octet. Elly seems uncomfortable from the beginning, the reasons for which are kept ambiguous. When a terrible crisis shakes the group, Elly mysteriously vanishes; kicking off an exhaustive search and plenty of finger pointing that will test them all, especially Sepideh. Some culturally-specific complications arise also, but this is a suspense film above all.Director Farhadi, who also wrote the screenplay and co-authored the story with Azad Jafarian, creates almost Hitchcockian-level intrigue with each new revelation. Check out the trailer below. About Elly is in theaters now.
