Life’s a Beach

Another movie I missed the first time around but streamed recently was Love & Mercy, the biopic of Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys. Wilson was a musical genius as well as a very troubled man who was almost destroyed by misdiagnosed mental illness. The movie details his descent and eventual recovery in an unusual but effective way, by having two actors portray Wilson.

The first period roughly covers 1964 through 1966 when the Beach Boys rivaled the Beatles in popularity. The Beach Boys had actually come on the scene a couple of years before the Beatles with the California sound that they created and refined. They were close to a family act, made up of Brian’s brothers Carl and Dennis, their cousin Mike Love, and high school friend Al Jardine. The Wilsons’ father Murry was their manager early on. However in ‘64 panic attacks and other problems led Brian Wilson (Paul Dano) to stop traveling with the group. While the others toured, Brian concentrated on writing, including creating the groups seminal album “Pet Sounds” as well as their biggest hit “Good Vibrations.”

In the mid-1980s, Brian (John Cusack) is under constant supervision by psychiatrist Dr. Eugene Landy (Paul Giamatti). When shopping for a car, Brian meets saleswoman Melinda Ledbetter (Elizabeth Banks). He’s attracted to her, and she to him. However, as she draws close to him she learns how completely Landy controls Brian’s life. He’s diagnosed Brian as a paranoid schizophrenic and keeps him in a fog with prescription drugs. Melinda sees Landy as a threat to Brian’s life and is determined to save him, even if it means they’ll be separated.

The movie flips back and forth between the two periods. Director Bill Pohlad and screenwriter Owen Moverman (who reworked an earlier script by Michael A. Lerner) had also considered adding a middle act to cover the three years in the 1970s that Brian stayed in bed and ballooned to 300 lbs. They would have cast Philip Seymour Hoffman for that section, but they ended up covering the period briefly with Dano and Cusack.

Pohlad’s reputation is as a producer, having worked on Brokeback Mountain, Into the Wild, Fair Game, 12 Years a Slave, and Wild, among other films. He’d only directed one other film 25 years earlier, his initial production credit Old Explorers. However, he does an excellent job in the director’s chair integrating the two facets of the story. He and Moverman have also done an incredible job with the accuracy of the story, even shooting scenes of the creation of Pet Sounds in the actual recording studio used for the album. (The scenes of Dano working with the musicians were improvised, though Dano listened to the tapes of the sessions and incorporated some lines that Brian Wilson actually said, including “You think we could get a horse in here?”)

Dano can be a very idiosyncratic actor, but as Brian he tones down those flourishes. It makes you feel the fragility of the character and understand when his world breaks apart. Although they didn’t collaborate at all on their performances, Cusack blends well with Dano, and having the two actors enhances the storytelling. As Landy, Giamatti is intense and scary. When he watched the film after it was completed, Wilson suffered a temporary disassociation and thought Giamatti actually was Lundy, which speaks to the veracity of his performance. The role of Melinda could have been one-dimensional, but Banks infuses it with a quiet strength and warmth.

The sound department for the film deserves special kudos, for sound becomes part of the plot. the dissonance within Brian’s brain is expressed in the film through heightened noise. A family dinner becomes excruciating for Brian as all the incidental background sounds are amplified. It’s like the music in his mind has turned on him and become a monster. It’s very effective.

During the credits, there’s footage of a recent performance by Brian Wilson of the song “Love & Mercy” that he wrote in the 80s, during the Landy years. (Landy had claimed co-writer status for all the work Wilson did at that time, though that was later corrected.) After watching the film, the song is a tender and poignant coda. So often the story of a musical genius ends as a tragedy. Love & Mercy shows how close Wilson came to that, but in the end it’s the story of resilience and survival.

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It use to be a given that a sequel would be inferior to the original movie. It was simply a way to cash in a second time on the original’s success. Then Francis Ford Coppola did The Godfather Part 2 and a few years later George Lucas released The Empire Strikes Back. Since then, sequels have at least been higher in quality and some have eclipsed the original – most recently The Dark Knight. But there is still a quiver of fear when you slip into your chair at the theater that you’ll walk out disappointed.

I’d delayed seeing Pitch Perfect 2 for that reason. The original was a surprising success that blended outrageous comedy with a classic underdog story, with top-flight a cappella music thrown in for good measure. It was worth watching the movie on demand or on DVD with the captions on just to catch all the throw-away lines that Lilly (Hana Mae Lee) whispered, such as “I ate my twin in the womb.” Not your usual movie dialogue. Finally I screwed up my courage and went to see 2, and I’m glad I did.

The movie starts three years after the original. The Barden Bellas have ruled the a cappella universe throughout that time, three-peating as national champions. Now Beca (Anna Kendrick), Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson), and the rest are seniors and plan to finish their college years in the same fashion. Chloe (Brittany Snow) has flunked Russian literature for three years just to stay a Bella. But then a wardrobe malfunction during a national event gets them banned from competition in the US and unable to recruit new Bellas. They find one possible way to redemption: win the World A Cappella championships.

There’s added motivation when the tour they had planned to make is given to the past World champions, Das Sound Machine, a Teutonic group fronted by blond superwoman Kommissar (Birgitte Hjort Sorenson). In addition, Beca has scored an internship with a music producer (played by Keegan-Michael Key) that might be her ticket to becoming a producer herself. Stepping into the group is Emily (Hailee Steinfeld), the daughter of legendary Bella Catherine Junk (Katey Sagal). As a legacy, she can join despite the dean’s prohibition against recruiting. But can the Bellas find their mojo again and triumph on the world stage?

Almost all the characters from the original movie are back, including Jesse (Skylar Austin) and Benji (Ben Platt) from the Treblemakers. Bumper (Adam DeVine) has returned from his time with John Mayer and has fallen to the point of working for campus security and singing with the Tone Hangers, the quartet who’d caused the melee midway through the first movie. And of course there’s the national commentators played by Elizabeth Banks and John Michael Higgins saying the most inappropriate things with the biggest of smiles.

The movie has upped the ante on most fronts. It doesn’t have the balance for all the characters that the original did. Instead most of the focus is on Beca, Fat Amy, and Emily. It’s a wise choice that gives the movie more focus, though the others do have their moments. A new member of the Bellas, Flo (Chrissie Fit), gives a fresh infusion of outrageousness, and there’s plenty of surprises, such as an a capella group formed by members of a certain pro sports team. The featured song for the Bellas this time, “Flashlight,” was written by award-winning artists Sam Smith and Sia, among others.

It all works as well if not better than the original. Much credit must be given to Elizabeth Banks. She’s had a successful if not stellar career as an actress; her most notable role is Effie in The Hunger Games series, but in the past 15 years she’s garnered 70 movie and TV credits. She’d branched out with the first Pitch Perfect when she produced the movie as well as played her role. This time she also takes over as director and she does it with polish and panache.

If you haven’t seen the original, get on Netflix and watch it, then get out to a theater to see Pitch Perfect 2. Your funny bone will thank you.

Spare Tire on a Tricycle

Turning a trilogy into a tetralogy is risky. On the plus side, the film maker has a good four-plus hours to adapt a book, rather than 2-2 ½ hours, but it runs the risk of coming across as a spare tire on a tricycle – its only use is to try to keep it going when things go flat. After the stellar The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, which improved on the original Hunger Games, Mockingjay Part 1 had to keep fans hooked until Part 2’s release next year.

The book already has the weakness of being The Hunger Games without any games. A critique of the book when it came out was that, after the inventiveness of the first two volumes, the third came across as a straightforward dash to the finish line. Stretching the book to two movies seemed motivated solely by the box office. “Mockingjay” is half the length of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” another final entry in a series that was split in two, and even with the greater source material the first part of Deathly Hallows dragged. The good news is that, even though it’s a letdown from Catching Fire, director Francis Lawrence and screenwriters Peter Craig (The Town) and Danny Strong (Recount, Lee Daniels’ The Butler) have managed to make a decently exciting film. It doesn’t suck like it could have, especially when you think about Spider-Man 3 or X Men: The Last Stand (and I apologize for making you think of those two turkeys, but they do illustrate how Hollywood can suck at the level of an industrial-strength vacuum when it comes to the third entry in a series).

Mockingjay Part 1 picks up shortly after Catching Fire. After the destruction of her home district, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) is taken by Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth) and Plutarch Heavensbee (Philip Seymour Hoffman) to the rebel outpost in District 13. There she’s reunited with her mother and sister Prim (Willow Shields) who were led to safety by Gale when District 12 was attacked. She also meets with the rebel president Alma Coin (Julianne Moore), who wants to use Katniss to counter the Capitol’s propaganda and build the revolt into a full-fledge revolution. Katniss, though, is still emotionally damaged by the Quarter Quell experience and the loss of Peeta (Josh Hutcherson).

Things change when Peeta shows up on the Capitol TV broadcasts being interviewed by Caesar (Stanley Tucci). Katniss agrees to do counter-programing, but she comes across as wooden thanks to the leaden script she’s given to perform against a special effects background. Thankfully a now clean and sober Hamish (Woody Harrelson) shows up to save Katniss from the debacle. He points out that when Katniss has inspired people, it has been with her honest reactions to what’s happening around her. So Hamish and Katniss head off into the fight, accompanied by a film crew under the direction of Cressida (Natalie Dormer).

By now the main characters are well established, so seeing them on screen again is like meeting old friends. Jeffrey Wright returns as tech genius Beetee, and Sam Claflin’s Finnick is there, though several scenes are stolen by Elizabeth Banks, whose Effie Trinket looks upon her exile among the jump-suited, wig-less rebels as her being condemned to Hell. Donald Sutherland once again is awesomely villainous as President Snow, and the movie does manage to get a face-off between Katniss and Snow, even if it is a televised one.

But that actually fits with the film and its focus on how media can be used to manipulate the masses, both by those in power and those wanting to break free of that subjugation. Mockingjay Part 1 manages a final twist that changes the dynamic of the story and will make fans wait anxiously for Part 2’s release the weekend before Thanksgiving next year. In the end that was its purpose, so mission accomplished.

Hungry for the Movie

When Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games was published in 2008, it became a sensation, shooting to the top of the New York Times Bestseller lists.  That’s something that doesn’t normally happen for Young Adult books unless the author’s last name is Rowling.  The other books in the trilogy, Catching Fire and Mockingjay, were just as successful.  The only question was whether they could be successfully transferred to film.

The film of the first book, The Hunger Games, answers that question with a resounding yes.  Collins’ vision blended a dystopian/utopian vision of the future with reality TV gone wild, and she created a memorable heroine in the tough, unsentimental Katniss Everdeen.  The movie does the book proud.

In the distant future, the rebellion of the 13 districts against the central government of Panem was ruthlessly crushed.  (One district was completely destroyed as a warning to the remaining 12.)  As a reminder of the subjugation, each year the 12 districts pay a tribute of two children between the ages of 12 and 18 who will compete in the Hunger Games, where they must fight to the death until only one is left.  The winner is then showered with riches and glory.

16-year-old Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) is the provider for her 12-year-old sister Primrose (Willow Shields), since her widowed mother has withdrawn from life.  Katniss is a deadly accurate hunter with a bow and arrow, and the game she illegally kills keeps the family going.  Her best friend is Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth, the younger brother of Thor’s Chris Hemsworth).  The reaping, where the tribute children are selected, is coming soon, and the odds are that Gale will be chosen.

The day of the District 12 reaping arrives, under the direction of Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks).  When the names are drawn, Primrose is the girl chosen.  Knowing Prim has no chance of survival, Katniss volunteers to take her place.  Rather than Gale, the male selected is Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson), who has a history with Katniss.

With mentoring from Haymitch Abernathy (Woody Harrelson), a prior winner of the Games, along with styling help from Cinna (Lenny Kravitz), Katniss and Peeta are put through a training period where they must also seek sponsorship for the tourney.  The provisions of sponsorship, be it medical aid or food, could be the difference between living and dying.

Overseeing the games is Seneca Crane (Wes Bentley), operating under the watchful eye of the leader of Panem, President Snow (Donald Sutherland).  The games are both entertainment as well as brutal yearly intimidation for the 12 districts.  For 74 years it has instilled fear in the poor district residents, but Snow fears one thing: Hope.  “It is the only thing stronger than fear,” he tells Seneca.

Collins had worked in children’s television before turning to writing, creating one of the best shows in Nickelodeon’s history, Clarissa Explains It All.  She worked closely on the adaptation of her book, co-writing the script and serving as executive producer.  Her main writing collaborator and the director of the movie was Gary Ross, whose previous work includes Big, Dave, Pleasantville, and Seabiscut (the first two as screenwriter, the last two as both screenwriter and director).  Ross is excellent at taking written words and translating the scene to film.  He stays as true to the source material as is possible in a 2 ½ hour movie.

For the opening scenes in District 12, Ross utilizes handheld cameras and washed out color which helps give a feeling of the hand-to-mouth existence of the residents.  Then he anchors the camera and increases the color pallet as the action shifts to the capitol.  While the district residents wear ragged clothes, the capitol citizens look like Lady Gaga wannabes.  It sharpens the dystopian/utopian conflict of the book.

The film is filled with sparkling scenes played by excellent actors.  Stanley Tucci serves as the interviewer/commentator for the Games, a mix between Ryan Seacrest and Elton John in his Captain Fantastic days.  Katniss’ main threats in the games are the representatives of District 1, the sword-wielding Cato (Alexander Ludwig) and the knife-throwing Clove (Isabel Fuhrman), who are outstanding.  There’s also beautiful, heartbreaking work by Amandla Stenberg as the young Rue, whom Katniss takes under her wing.  Woody Harrelson is excellent as Haymitch, a world-weary survivor who recovers his soul under the influence of Katniss.  As Cinna, rocker Kravitz is surprisingly effective.  Donald Sutherland oozes a paternalistic malice as President Snow.

But the movie belongs to Jennifer Lawrence, and she takes ownership of it.  She’d shown with the low-budget  Winter’s Bone that she could carry a movie (and carry off an Academy Award nomination).  Now she shows she can anchor a tent-pole series.

There are weaknesses with the movie – you hardly get to see the other districts and the rest of the tribute are little more than cannon fodder – but overall it works.

The movie (and the books) echoes the Roman gladiatorial combats – on purpose.  The name given to the country by Collins, Panem, means “Bread” in Latin, and is a part of the famous phrase panem et circenses:  Bread and Circuses, offerings and entertainments used to placate and distract the Roman populace, keeping them content.  In the movies we’ve had Spartacus and Maximus, fighting against corruption and dictatorial power.  Now we have Katniss Everdeen.