'Love, Gilda' Review: Live from New York, An Icon Remembered
Gilda Radner had the uncanny quality to create a strong, personal connection with an audience the moment she stepped onto the stage, and Lisa D’Apolito’s premiere documentary Love, Gilda allows a whole new audience to fall in love with her.
We are given the chance to laugh along with Radner as we witness the effortless fun in her most famous recurring characters during her run on Saturday Night (later called Saturday Night Live), and introduced to her darker offstage struggles to find love and acceptance at every milestone. Gilda Radner may not be a name the average person will recognize, but Love, Gilda introduces a new audience to the genius that was Radner, and the extraordinary legacy she left after her untimely death.
The film is a comprised montage of footage and photos from Radner’s childhood, schooling, Second City Toronto, SNL, Broadway show, and personal life with narration by Radner herself from found audio. Adoring celebrity fans, including Amy Poehler, Melissa McCarthy, Bill Hader, and Maya Rudolph, read pages from her notebook to create the storyline of her life (having read her memoir when I was in high school and dreaming of being the next Gilda Radner, it seems that the audiotapes and notebook pages may have been a draft or collection of ideas that Radner had for her memoir, which was released the same year she died). The seamless weaving of Radner’s experience with the fresh perspective of fellow castmates, including Laraine Newman and Chevy Chase, creates the beautiful tapestry that shows how powerful of a force Radner was on and off screen.
We start at the beginning, in 1950’s Detroit with a little girl who idolized any comedian willing to risk it for a laugh. Young Gilda would recreate their set in her backyard to perfection and hone her comedy sense. We are introduced to her father, Mr. Radner, and witness their strong connection, he encouraged laughter and fun in the household. For Mrs. Radner, her mother, it is quite the opposite. Gilda and her mother’s frayed relationship isn’t explained, but the tension may have begun when her mother had the doctor prescribe diet pills for the overweight 10-year-old. This may be where the seedling of doubt was planted about Gilda and her self-esteem. We then find out that her father died abruptly before she graduated from high school. Radner writes in her notebook that the sudden death of her father at such a formative time in her life may be why she has trouble maintaining lasting relationships with men.
Gilda used humor as a shield from and a mask for her pain. When reflecting about how comedy influenced her life, she wrote that she, “[used] comedy to be in control of my situation,” which could be alluding to how she looked for love and acceptance through her performance. She had become such a master at hiding the pain that even those close to her read her lively exuberance at face value. During her time in the Toronto’s cast of Godspell, Radner met and dated Martin Short for many years. Short remarked that when Gilda entered a room the energy would go to her instantly. He later admits that at 26, Radner was 22, he wasn’t capable of understanding how a woman who was so gifted in comedy could be anything but happy all the time. She struggled with an undiagnosed eating disorder that hits its peak when John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd leave SNL to begin Blues Brothers, and the weight of carrying the show only ensnares her. In 1978, she is hospitalized weighing in at 104 lbs due to the pressure to be thin on tv. Radner remembers that, “life was abnormal for too long,” and that by building normal eating habits she will show that she loves herself and that she then could have a normal love life.
While reading pages in Gilda’s notebook, Amy Poehler reminisces about Radner’s influence on her own work during her SNL days and admits that every character she did was, “a weak, 2.0 version” of Radner’s best.
As a lifelong lover of Gilda, it is essential to discuss her influence on female comedians. Radner herself realized that “to be a girl and be funny means you have to sacrifice a lot of things because of your loud mouth.” Her fearlessness in her performances on SNL paved the way for future women to fight for their airtime and showed that women are meant to be more than just background or setting. During her time at Toronto’s Second City, she grew into the improviser we would come to know and love. Her scenes and characters weren’t as strong as her male counterparts, but she knew how to endear herself to audiences when her work was tanking. Her natural gift would only continue to serve her when an SNL sketch about Howdy Doody’s death was bombing, she instinctively flopped around and let her arms wrap around castmate Laraine Newman until the crowd was in stitches. Suddenly, Radner was the "cannot miss" castmate of the show. D’Apolito includes clips of Radner as Roseanna Roseannadanna, Emily Litella, and Baba Wawa and it is truly remarkable how quickly Gilda developed these characters and made them iconic. Gilda won an Emmy in 1978 for Outstanding Continuing or Single Performance by a Supporting Actress in Variety of Music, highlighting how her genius was truly one in a million. While reading pages in Gilda’s notebook, Amy Poehler reminisces about Radner’s influence on her own work during her SNL days and admits that every character she did was, “a weak, 2.0 version” of Radner’s best.
The film ends with Gilda beginning her life outside of the starlight. After her one-woman Broadway show, Radner was certain that she didn’t want to only play the character of Gilda Radner. She auditioned for movies and was cast in Hanky Panky alongside Gene Wilder. From that moment on, her life was profoundly changed for the better. Gilda thought fondly of her first time meeting Gene and remembered that she, “was hooked. It was like my life went from black and white to technicolor.
The movie does an excellent job of showing the tender and romantic nature of how the two fell in love and created a healthier and happier life away from New York. We see Gilda and Gene grow excited as they work together on Haunted Honeymoon- a box office flop- and learn that they are pregnant with their first child, only to be brokenhearted when she miscarries. Gilda battled constant fatigue and weakness as she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and believed that that was the end. Gilda found herself again while in the hospital and was on a mission to make cancer funny so people would talk about it, become aware of it, and seek treatment. Alan Zweibel, a close friend of Radner, recalled that she had said that, “[her] jokes were the only weapon against this fucker.” She spent her time recounting her life and experiences, and writing her autobiography “It’s Always Something,” which was published two weeks after her passing in 1989, and creating support groups for those suffering from cancer. Gene continued her legacy and founded Gilda’s Club, a community organization for those with cancer, family, and friends to find emotional and social support.
Love, Gilda is a perfect summation of what Gilda spent her life doing: spreading laughter and love. She wanted her life story to be neatly packaged, all loose ends tied up, and a happy ending to follow. This film achieves that dream ending for Radner. Maybe not in the way she had planned, but by the growth she experienced, chronicled, and then shared, we get to see how she lives on today, how her influence isn’t truly gone. Gilda said it perfectly when she criticized herself about ‘the perfect ending’ and had the epiphany that, ”... the beauty in life is not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it without knowing what will happen next.” This exceptional documentary gives a new audience the perfect introduction while the devoted fan can gain a deeper appreciation for Gilda’s comedy style, pure genius, and legendary legacy.
88 minutes. ‘Love, Gilda’ is not yet rated. Opens Friday, September 21st at Landmark Nuart Theater.
'Arizona' Review: Danny McBride Stars in Misguided Comedy
In Jonathan Watson’s directorial debut, Arizona is set in the fictional town of Harding, Arizona in 2009, just after the Housing Crisis of 2005-2006.
Real estate agent Cassie (Rosemary DeWitt) is failing to sell homes despite the ever-attractive large square footage of each property, and the customizable pools. In a desperate attempt to help the population grow, realtors are having the dead lawns spray painted green to make the abandoned homes with boarded windows feel like “home.” This struggling suburb is the perfect setting for the murderous spree that will take place in the span of less than 24 hours.
The desolate exterior of Harding echoes the nightmare that is Cassie’s life. She is a single mother of 14-year-old daughter Morgan (Lolli Sorenson), who couldn't care less about her mother, and constantly compares Cassie to the high pedestal she has placed her father on. Meanwhile, her ex-husband, Scott (Luke Wilson), is enjoying his new and exciting relationship with his young girlfriend Kelsey (Elizabeth Gillies). Cassie is six months behind on her mortgage and her boss, Gary (Seth Rogen), continues to criticize her low sales, even suggesting that she show more cleavage to sell more houses.
It seems that life cannot get much lower for her until Sonny (Danny McBride) busts through the door in a fit of rage and sinks Cassie into a new pit of despair. After Sonny's heated and physical argument with Gary goes awry, Sonny imprisons Cassie in his house until he can figure out what to do with this witness. Unwillingly, she becomes entrenched in the chaos as Sonny’s murder count continues to grow, and his grasp on reality begins to fade. So begins the story of "idiot man turned idiot murderer" who consistently fumbles in covering up his original murder.
Watson creates an ominous tone throughout the film using aerial shots of the cookie cutter houses revealing only emptiness and plays with color by using more earth-toned yellows and reds to create an eerie, upset feeling throughout the film. The script, written by Luke Del Tredici, has strong moments for each character individually; Sonny’s constant paranoia that everyone is belittling him leads to his uncontrollable fits of rage, while Cassie struggles to keep her life afloat but still turning away help. However, these stakes for the characters become too large and transforms them into caricatures, which doesn’t bode well for this dark comedy.
It struggles to consistently balance thrilling moments with dark comedy, which may leave the audience wanting and expecting more from a film with such promise.
The premise seems strong but a lack of strong direction ultimately weakens the plot and overall storytelling. McBride’s Sonny vacillates between being a good man and wanting justice for being wronged and deceived, but it never feels completely realized. The direction relies heavily on McBride being his larger-than-life persona throughout the duration of the film, which may be difficult for the modern audience to connect with. DeWitt’s Cassie has excellent range and is given so much of a backstory to work with, but lacks an arc or growth until the very last scene. She is utilized as a passive part of the narrative, even a prop, until her call to action. For example, in the height of the climax, Cassie takes off her shirt to punch through a window so to not to get cut by the glass, but then never puts the shirt back on and finishes the film in her bra. At that moment, she becomes a beautiful prop for men to ogle at and her growth as a strong, fierce woman and mother takes a backseat. The stakes for each character feel forced and are hard to accept and buy into as an audience. Since there isn’t an established connection to help the audience relate, how can one expect to join the characters on this journey or care about the outcome of the protagonist?
Weak narrative choices leave the characters to be interpreted ambiguously by the viewer and create an inconsistent tone for the entirety of the film. In the beginning, Sonny was established as a brute moron who accidentally murdered someone and didn’t know how to get out of the mess. By the end of the film, he was outwitting Cassie and seemed to be steps ahead of her at times. An example of this is when Cassie and Morgan escape his imprisonment and take a car. As they near the exit of the cul-de-sac, Sonny is there in a guard uniform. This left me wondering how he was able to get there on foot before them, how he got a guard’s uniform, and how he was able to flawlessly pull this off when he had failed at being rational and reasonable throughout the film. As these questions were left unanswered, I was left frustrated as it seemed that I had to accept what had changed without the story showing or telling me how any of that had transpired.
Arizona shows great potential as it has interesting ideas and well-timed comedic moments, but lack of strong direction, strong narrative choice, and strong character development ultimately detract from the film and experience as the reveals and surprises are far too predictable. It struggles to consistently balance thrilling moments with dark comedy, which may leave the audience wanting and expecting more from a film with such promise.
85 minutes. ‘Arizona’ is not yet rated. Opens Friday, August 24th at Laemmle’s Monica Fourplex.
'McQueen' Review: A Look at Fashion's Creative, Misunderstood Genius
McQueen follows the classic narrative of a creative, misunderstood genius whose childhood traumas continue to plague him as an adult and ultimately fuel his runway masterpieces.
Filmmakers Ian Bonhote and Peter Ettedgui masterfully created a portrait in McQueen that captured Alexander McQueen’s goal with his runway shows- to provoke an emotion from those who watched, whether it be disgust, awe, or shock. As McQueen states himself about the effect of his shows, “...you leave with emotion. If you don’t, I haven’t done my job.” While showing the strange genius that was the late designer, we are also shown his deeply tragic personal life that led to his Icarus complex, and brought about his unparalleled success and ultimately his tragic downfall from flying too close to the sun. Our filmmakers trace the rags-to-riches story of an outcasted high school dropout from a working-class family in East London and show behind the curtain of the creepy runway theater that proved he was an artist in the full sense of the word. His relentless work ethic, natural talent for tailoring, love of collaboration, and a punk attitude towards the fashion industry rules made him stand out. Bonhote and Ettedgui captured both aspects of McQueen’s unique personality perfectly.
The movie is broken into five chapters, or as McQueen calls them in one of his home videos “tapes”, and uses the skull motif that is the iconic symbol of McQueen’s design house today. In each chapter or tape, the skull is deconstructed and reshaped to match the runway show that marks that chapter- oozing blood for “Jack the Ripper Stalks His Victims” and Scottish tartan flowing from the skull and encapsulating it for “The Highland Rape.” These skulls are the perfect glue to connect all these tapes together. They show the psychological trauma that McQueen was working through in his fashion, shows and personal life.
One of the strongest and most influential friendships McQueen had throughout his career was with fashion influencer Isabella Blow, who purchased his graduation collection from St. Martin’s School of Art. She was supportive of his vision and unique eye and convinced him to go with Alexander over Lee because it sounded more high class. They were inseparable in the beginning because of their similar styles and their constant encouragement in one another to embrace and share their differences with the world.
Bobby Hillson, founder of the MA in fashion at St. Martin’s, describes McQueen as uneducated in the basics of fashion and clothes, but was convinced by his passion for the field and invited him to take her course. She recalls that he was a nightmare student because he claimed to know more than the tutors he worked with to fill the gaps in his fashion knowledge, but his gift was present and highlighted in his first show in 1992, “Jack the Ripper Stalks His Victims.” It was a visually violent recreation of the murders from that time and was a precursor to the element of violence that would continue to be threaded through his work.
His family was another strong and extremely important aspect of his life. His mother Joyce was his primary source of encouragement as they talked frequently and she attended his shows. His sister Janet and her son, Gary, who worked for McQueen, were abused by her husband as was McQueen himself. He witnessed Janet’s husband strangling her and was sexually abused himself as a child by this man. It is evident that this profoundly damaging incident would continue to affect him into his adulthood and until the end of this life. The wealth, drugs, and physical and mental demands that McQueen put on himself and the ones that worked closely with him created an isolated life for him that continued to deepen his depression.
McQueen is a haunting story of extraordinary talent, relentless creativity and unavoidable personal scars that is crafted in the perfect way to show tribute and honor to its subject.
The documentary does an excellent job of using the stunning footage from McQueen’s shows, which were documented expertly as the shows began before the social media outburst began. We see “The Highland Rape” where McQueen drew from his Scottish heritage and had the models walk with ripped clothing to show the reality of the victims of this assault. It was his way of showing strong women in armor and could have been how he viewed Janet after the trauma he witnessed. “It’s a Jungle Out There” was his fuck you to Givenchy as he went back to the stories and fashion he wanted to create. McQueen became unhappy during his time at Givenchy as his vision and style weren’t being fully realized, as Givenchy has a very distinct visual style. His models walked in latex with animal-like hair and makeup. Each one of McQueen’s shows was a fascinating and thrilling spectacle because of their high level of theatricality and concepts that had never been tackled before.
When McQueen worked as the Creative Director of Givenchy in 1997, the film suggests that this is when he began to lose that punk rock individuality and became the McQueen name. He was torn between these two personas as he was the one who insisted on eating from the basement cafeteria with the workers, but held resentment for John Galliano at Dior as he was given a grand budget to work with and was viewed as the apple of the fashion world’s eye. Later, McQueen undergoes liposuction to transform his body and look like the fashion designer he thinks he needs to be. McQueen even distances himself from Isabella Blow as he continues to achieve more and more notoriety. She felt betrayed and abandoned by her great friend and while they still loved each other deeply, their relationship never truly toppled this obstacle. This foreshadows the deterioration of his working and personal relationships as with the continued success McQueen achieved, the more paranoid, isolated, and depressed he became.
The final chapter is “Plato’s Atlantis,” the 2009 show where McQueen birthed the now famous and incredibly recognizable armadillo show and had cameras on tracks following the models as they walked. This is reminiscent of his previous show where model Shalom Harlow stood on a turntable with a white belted dress as two robots seem to be scrutinizing her look and then spray her white dress with black spray paint. We also see “La Dame Bleue” in this chapter which was McQueen's tribute to his beloved friend Blow, as she had committed suicide the previous year. We see him struggle with the loss of someone he loved and who supported him before he was the McQueen we know today. Bonhote and Ettedgui show how her death and then the loss of McQueen’s mother in 2010, another strong female in his life who he loved unconditionally and supported him every step of the way, lead to his suicide a week after her death, by hanging. This film is expertly crafted as it mirrors McQueen’s runway shows by striking the audience with dazzling visuals.
McQueen is a haunting story of extraordinary talent, relentless creativity and unavoidable personal scars that is crafted in the perfect way to show tribute and honor to its subject. This superb documentary delivers jaw-dropping, visually stunning pieces of art while taking its audience on an emotionally tragic journey that creates a fully dimensional study of the legend that was Lee Alexander McQueen.
111 minutes. ‘McQueen’ is rated R. Opens Friday, July 20th at The Landmark and Arclight Hollywood.
'Avengers: Infinity War' Review: Setting the Stage For an Epic Finale
The Marvel Cinematic Universe began in 2008 with the introduction of Iron Man, where the focus of the film was building their universe with the cornerstone quote, “I am Iron Man.”
Today, for the 10-year anniversary of the MCU, Avengers: Infinity War tackles a far more complex theme as it pits the universe’s greatest heroes against their most feared villain. The latest installment packs more superheroes in its 24 frames per second, than any other superhero movie to date, and promises to tie together 10 years of storytelling. The heartbreak begins with Loki’s (Tom Hiddleston) foreboding sentiment, “I assure you, brother, the sun will shine on us again.”
With such a star-studded cast of larger-than-life heroes with egos to match, Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man, Benedict Cumberbatch’s Dr. Strange, Chris Pratt’s Peter Quill, Chris Hemsworth’s Thor, Chris Evans’ Captain America, and many more, the question is posed, can the movie really give its hungry fans the rich storyline that can be guaranteed, when each hero has his own franchise? The answer is an absolute and resounding, ‘Yes!’ Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely crafts a screenplay that expertly delivers a compelling journey for every superhero while directors Anthony and Joe Russo marry the anticipated Marvel humor with the darkness and tragedy the trailers allude to.
Their craft shines most brilliantly when our heroes come together to stop Thanos (Josh Brolin) from collecting all six Infinity Stones. Egomanics trying to complete derring-dos is a perfect recipe for humor, and they encapsulate it best when our heroes are meeting. Tony Stark and Dr. Strange meet in the Sanctum Sanctorum and, surprising to no one, their all too similar larger-than-life personalities clash. Tony asks Dr. Strange what his job is since it seems that he just makes balloon animals and Dr. Strange quickly and dryly responds with, “protecting your reality, douchebag.” Later, Star Lord meets Thanos on Knowhere and as he comes to help Gamora he yells, “let her go, Grimace!” This is the humor we have come to love and a magnificent way to cushion the catastrophe that lies ahead.
Tragedy is the backbone of each hero’s storyline as their journey to defeat the villainous Thanos has each of them answer one essential question: What does it cost to be a hero in a world where there are no easy answers? The dreadful foreboding from Thanos at the film's open sets the tone and foreshadows the loss that each hero will have to endure as they fail to balance their personal persona with their heroic one.
The climax will catch any Marvel fan off guard and leave them with far more questions than answers in this beautifully devastating precursor to the final 'Avengers' movie, set to come out in April 2019.
We are finally introduced to Thanos (Josh Brolin), who until this movie has been a mysterious figure, who we knew meant trouble but were not aware the extent his power would have on the entire MCU. Thanos believes that his actions are intended to be merciful, and that, in order to sustain life, there must be balance which can only be achieved through sacrifice. That sacrifice is viewed as randomly having half of the population in the galaxy cease to exist so that the limited natural resources may renew, and the population can better themselves– an ideology reminiscent of Sir Francis Galton’s theory of eugenics where people with “fit” traits were encouraged to reproduce while those with “undesirable” traits faced forced sterilization. So begins Thanos’ journey with the Infinity Gauntlet to collect all six Infinity Stones and thus bring balance to the universe on a grand and cosmic scale. As he continues to collect one after the other, our superheroes are hit with a grim realization that evil not only may, but could, win.
Along with Thano's determination and brute force, he brings a philosophical intelligence that we haven’t seen in a Marvel villain to date. It brings into question if Thanos is truly a villain or an anti-hero, as we see him struggle to choose between the one thing he loves and ultimate power. Brolin's masterful depiction of the character shows this conquering beast with an unexpectedly tangible emotional dimension, making him much more than just a villain.
Gamora (Zoe Saldana) is the adopted daughter of Thanos. Since he murdered her family and species when she was little, Gamora has cultivated a deep loathing and hatred for her adoptive father, and his constant, almost incessant, desire to “bring balance to the universe by wiping out half of all life.” Their relationship plays a pivotal part in Infinity War’s plot and actualization of the tragic theme set by Thanos at the beginning. We see that theirs is a relationship of constant disappointment, heartbreak, and inevitable suffering. Without giving too much away, their bond and relationship are put to the test as Thanos contemplates what he is willing to sacrifice, and in the blink of an eye we are no longer in the campy, familiar nature of a Marvel movie but fully enveloped in a classic tragedy tale. Saldana’s expert characterization of a daughter who’s torn between what is right and familial love gives us a hero who is as broken as the world she is trying to save.
Tony Stark struggles with his dual desire to defeat the menace that is Thanos and truly begin his life and family with Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow). Tony has been plagued by Thanos since the first Avengers film, as he tried to rebuild himself into the hero that would stop Thanos and keep Earth safe from all alien threats. After failed attempts to protect Earth in Avengers: Age of Ultron, Iron Man 3, and Captain America: Civil War, we now see Tony promise Pepper that there will be no more surprises in their life. Just then Dr. Strange and Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) appear to recruit him against his ultimate plaguer, Thanos. Tony joins them without hesitation and it isn’t until he’s on Ebony Maw’s (Tom Vaughan-Lawlor) ship that he has contact with Pepper one last time, where she tells him to come back, come home, and he tells her that he can’t. This is his chance to end the reign of terror that Thanos has had on them, mainly him, for years and he can’t let that chance slip through his hands. Later, when he is on Titan and facing Thanos with the Guardians and Spider-Man (Tom Holland), he is willing to do whatever it takes to stop Thanos, even if it means his life. In those moments, Downey embodies a man torn and broken as well as a hero who wants to protect and serve. He gives us a hero who knows that defeating evil comes at a cost and that even a genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist may be asked to give the ultimate sacrifice in order for good to stand a chance against evil.
The climax will catch any Marvel fan off guard and leave them with far more questions than answers in this beautifully devastating precursor to the final Avengers movie, set to come out in April 2019. You can bet that every viewer will watch this film over and over to find clues and hidden Easter Eggs, in order to see what could be in store for our champions. Be sure to stay through the credits as there is a scene that doesn’t give too many answers but offers some insight into possibilities for the MCU that will have fans debating what it all means…until the next installment.
149 minutes. ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ is rated PG-13. Opened Friday, April 27th and is playing everywhere.
'Chappaquiddick' Review: History Chooses Who is Remembered, Whose Story Will Be Told
Friday, July 18, 1969. Not a date that many young movie viewers may find significant, but director John Curran’s Chappaquiddick teaches us about that deadly night, which includes a tragic cover-up and criminal negligence.
Chappaquiddick is the story of how high political power makes a man indestructible. Massachusetts’ Senator Ted Kennedy (Jason Clarke) and aspiring political strategist Mary Jo Kopechne (Kate Mara) get into a vehicular accident when Kennedy steers off Dike Bridge in Chappaquiddick, Massachusetts around 12:30 am. While Ted survives the crash, Mary Jo does not. She is found 10 hours later inside the flipped car at the bottom of Poucha Pond. 10 hours – you may say – what was Kennedy doing all that time? Why didn’t he call the police right away? What kind of legal troubles did he get into? Most importantly: Why haven’t I heard of this? All these questions swirled in my head as I watched this heartbreaking docudrama, and was reminded that the trend of protecting our political heads of state over serving justice is far too ingrained in our nation.
Taylor Allen and Andrew Logan wrote a screenplay showing the ugly underbelly of politics and power in America. Due to a majority of the nation’s unrest with our current administration, I was deeply distressed to see that almost everyone in Ted’s life was spinning the tragedy so that he could still run for president in the future.
Chappaquiddick is another reminder of how manipulative politics are. When Ted calls Joe Kennedy (Bruce Dern) to tell him “he’s made a mistake,” Joe, exclaims “Alibi!” (his only spoken line) to his gathering a team at the Kennedy compound. It's now their job to cover up and create a narrative that would keep the 'Kennedy' name synonymous with a wholesome, classic American family. The team of 10 men works hard to control what the nation knows, with little regard to the deceased's family. Lawyer Ted Sorensen (Taylor Nichols) creates the narrative that Mary Jo was driving so that this incident can be quickly swept under the rug. In an extremely brief moment of good conscience, Kennedy does not use this lie, however, he is not the hero that I hoped he would become as he still falls into the alluring but false sense of “safety” his team creates.
Nothing will stop the Kennedy machine from destroying everything in its path in the name of power.
The singular voice of reason during the days after the accident is Ted’s cousin, Joe Gargan (Ed Helms), who continues to urge Ted to follow his compass and stay with the truth rather than continue to fabricate a story. He tries to be the Jiminy Cricket to Ted’s lost and broken Pinocchio, but continues to fail as the manipulative and tightly gripped hand of Joe Kennedy continues to pull the strings. Back at the Kennedy compound, while the team is working to change the negative headlines, Gargan bitingly says, “A girl dies and Ted is a martyr?” His frustration and disgust at the easily crafted deception of Ted Kennedy as the victim highlight the theme of justice coming second to maintaining political power.
Towards the end of the movie, Kennedy asks Gargan to write a resignation letter after stating that he can no longer support Kennedy. On the night of his televised appeal to the American public, Gargan enters the room believing that his cousin is going to, finally, do the right thing. Kennedy tells Gargan that he cannot give up this opportunity and doesn’t know what is right anymore. Dumbfounded, Gargan replies with, “This isn’t about opportunity, it’s about integrity.” This is when the final, fragile connection between these two men become extinct. Nothing will stop the Kennedy machine from destroying everything in its path in the name of power.
The cast is exceptional in their portrayals of these real and flawed people. Clarke’s Ted Kennedy shows us a man who is struggling with the constant pressure of living in his brother’s shadow while wanting to create a name and legacy for himself. Helms masters the complicated and conflicted relationship that Gargan had with Kennedy during this time. Kate Mara’s Mary Jo perfectly paints the struggle between moving forward after the devastation of Robert Kennedy's assassination and remaining part of the Kennedy family because of the connection she had during Bobby’s election campaign. Although not given much screen time, she illustrates how history chooses who is remembered, whose story will be told, and who becomes an afterthought.
In today’s world, we continue to see this struggle between political power and justice. Like the men portrayed in Chappaquiddick, we see so many lie, deny, and create the narrative given to the public to survive and gain, or maintain, the ultimate power that politics gives. This movie serves as a reminder that we cannot let those who were given power run wildly with it. It asks us to take a hard look at those who we have elected and evaluate if they are working for opportunity or with integrity, just as Gargan says to Kennedy. Lawyer Ted Sorensen perfectly sums it up when he says, “History usually has the final word on those things.” Chappaquiddick gives us the opportunity to look at this event again and decide how we want to remember it, giving us permission to use this refined critical lens as we write the history that future generations will learn.
101 minutes. ‘Chappaquiddick’ is rated PG-13. Opens Friday, April 6th at Arclight Hollywood with early screenings on Thursday, April 5th at The Landmark, AMC Marina, and AMC Century City.
'I Kill Giants' Review: Fantasy and Reality Perfectly Combine in This Graphic Novel Adaptation
In Anders Walter’s first feature film, I Kill Giants, he and Joe Kelly, the writer of the graphic novel of the same name, create a beautiful pairing of fantasy and drama.
Set in a small Eastern coastal town, the film opens with Barbara (Madison Wolfe), a young girl in her early teenage years, staring at the woods with a sense of determination. Barbara begins her work, which seems to be a recurring task, as she effortlessly grabs a bottle of what looks like a homemade red concoction from her wagon, scrapes green mold/moss off a mushroom, adds it to the jar along with gold glitter, before adding the final missing piece: a yellow gummy bear. While shaking the mixture together, she hears what sounds like wood creaking and freezes to get a better sense what danger could be lurking nearer. As she peers from behind a tree to observe the unknown intruder, we feel Barbara’s urgency as she grabs her wagon and begins to pour her mixture on the low branch of one of the trees. We see something moving in the forest and suddenly, a large, wooden hand comes down to grab some of Barbara's red slime. Barbara looks onward at this giant-like creature in a mixture of satisfaction and anger. Briefly, we are introduced to her world where killing giants is a must and Barbara is just the girl to do it.
She is the classic town outsider who doesn’t connect with kids her own age and is more than comfortable being alone. She has a world of work to do every day to keep her town safe from the looming threats of giants, which includes checking traps and setting giant bait, and has no time to be bothered with the “problems” of her peers. This aloofness extends to her sister Karen (Imogen Poots) who is struggling to take care of Barbara and their younger brother on her own. Barbara’s world changes when she is befriended by Sophia (Sydney Wades) and tells her about the world of giants that is hidden in plain sight. While Sophia is diving deeper into the world of giant-killing, the school psychologist Mrs. Mollé (Zoe Saldana) tries to understand and help Barbara navigate through her problems at home that appear to be bleeding into her school life and back to a world that isn’t plagued by “giants.” Signs around town begin to point towards a devastating giant coming to town soon to wreck Barbara’s life. Her trusted weapon, named Kovaleski, was recently broken by the school bully Taylor (Rory Jackson) after a particularly rough and one-sided fight. Will Barbara be able to save the town she has sworn to protect from the giants that no one believes in or can see?
Much like 'Stand By Me,' this is a coming-of-age story about death that will leave the viewer with a stronger desire to seize the day and a sense of urgency to reflect on the giants we may be fighting and how we can best kill them.
This film tackles the difficult topic of death through the characterization of Barbara. Barbara is both depicted as a girl who is intrigued by death through her mission to kill giants and someone who avoids it, and even becomes violent when it hits too close to home. Wolfe truly captures both sides of this complicated character by giving the audience moments of vulnerability mixed with dry humor and sharp wit. Wolfe gives us a character who is wise beyond her years, bold against her enemies, defiant to authority, and yet broken at heart when it comes to the ones she loves most. Magic and fantastical giants may be what ease viewers into this heavy topic but Wolfe is the one who uses Barbara as a counterpoint showing us how she handles and, more times than not, doesn’t handle, the idea and concept of death in her real life.
The theme of strength against the unknown is an added layer to the heavy reality that is death, as Barbara states throughout the film, “You are stronger than you think.” While many have been given this advice while going through a hard time, it can be a difficult concept to grasp, and watching Barbara struggle to accept this is touching. It led me to the notion that we are all fighting giants both seen and unseen and every journey to acceptance is different. Barbara is fighting giants through her carefully laid traps, but she is also fighting the giant that is Death and the unknown and loneliness that is left once death takes its toll. When we try to fight things out of our control rather than accept what lays before us and enjoy the time we have left, we are hurting ourselves more than we know. While the film never answers the question 'if giants exist,' I found it wildly refreshing. The focus of the film is not on whether magic really, truly exists but rather that metaphorical giants plague everyone, and we must find the strength to conquer them rather than run from them.
I Kill Giants is a beautifully woven, intricate tale of a young girl being asked to accept the concept of death while using fantasy and magic as the guide into this dramatic story. The script stays close to the graphic novel but offers a new experience for lovers of the original source material and a compelling first introduction for fresh eyes. Do not fear, you do not need to have read the graphic novel in order to appreciate the master storytelling that is found in I Kill Giants. Much like Stand By Me, this is a coming-of-age story about death that will leave the viewer with a stronger desire to seize the day and a sense of urgency to reflect on the giants we may be fighting and how we can best kill them.
106 minutes. ‘I Kill Giants’ is not rated. Opens this Friday at Laemmle's Music Hall 3 and available On Demand & Digital HD.