The Imitation Game

Plot: British Mathematician Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) volunteers to crack the German coding machine called Enigma. He is hopelessly arrogant and anti-social, and the other code-breakers hate him. He hires cute mathematician Joan Clarke (Keira Knightley), and she helps him socially as well as on the project. The team battles to complete the machine under pressure from the Navy to finish quickly. There is a parallel story line about Turing's post-war prosecution as a homosexual, which was illegal in 1950's Britain.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: This is an engaging movie with strong characters, a point-of-view, and a life-and-death conflict. They make the codebreaking game understandable, and we feel the tension of the war effort. Even if we don't understand the codebreaking mechanics, we can feel the importance of it from the dynamics of the characters.

Cumberbatch's Turing is socially handicapped as if he had Aspergers, and this makes his performance tougher. (More on whether the real-life Turing had Asperger's here.) Cumberbatch's Turing is socially engaging when he needs to be, in the service of keeping the story going. Turing is engaging even if not always likable.  Cumberbatch is the motor that drives the movie, and I understand the Oscar buzz.

Joan Clarke is an interesting character (biography here). Knightley's Clarke finds herself in almost sitcom settings with unfamiliar power dynamics, and she gets of opportunity for some excellent subtle acting. The real life Clarke was one of three female cryptographers at the site, and she really was engaged to Turing for a time.

Most of the action takes place indoors, and the photography is simple. The soundtrack is typical orchestral music. 

Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Rory Kinnear

Directed by: Moren Tyldum

Based on the book by:  Andrew Hodges

Written by:  Graham Moore

Rating: 3.5 stars: Dramatic, suspenseful. Some good performances.

More: Here is a video where Joan Clarke talks about her relationship with Alan Turing.

Even More: Here are the real life Alan Turing and Joan Clarke

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Whiplash

Here is the Spanish poster, because the photo is better.
Don't worry the move is in English.

Plot: Andrew (Miles Teller) is a freshman at an elite music school, and big time Professor Fletcher (JK Simmons) invites him to join the seniors in the Studio Band. Fletcher is exceptionally tough on the band members, swearing at them, provoking them, and insulting them. Andrew gets fed up, which leads to escalating confrontation with Fletcher.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Some coaches and teachers push for excellence, and sometimes they push too hard. Whiplash is about that balance -- Fletcher's students achieve excellence, but he treats them inhumanly along the route. 

Every scene with JK Simmons is a highlight. Every word Simmons' Fletcher says is calculated to build up his band members and then tear them down, so they work ever harder. The dialog is punchy and interesting.

The best scene is a three-way challenge to play the drums in a competition; it was intense watching each boy play for just a few seconds with Fletcher stopping them suddenly and flinging insults. 

When Simmons was off-screen the story dragged, because the plot is simple and one-note. Some of the maltreatment of students is unpleasant enough to be hard to watch. The love story subplot with Nicole (Melissa Benoist) never went anywhere. Teller has a few good moments, but he was primarily a blank-faced enigma. Teller was supposedly motivated by competition with his brothers for his father's approval, but the dinner scene that set that up seemed inauthentic.

Simmons is nominated for a supporting actor Golden Globe & SAG Award, but he should have been a lead actor. 

Cast: Miles Teller, JK Simmons

Directed by: Damien Chazelle

Rating: 2.5 stars: Recommended. A little uneven. The good parts are very good, but the plot is simple and Teller doesn't deliver.

 

More: 60 year old Simmons must be on steroids because his muscly physique makes him look like a tough guy.

Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1

Plot: Katniss's (Jennifer Lawerence) escape in the last movie has created protests around her country of Panam. Katniss has taken refuge in the barren district 13, where its President Coin (Julianne Moore) and Plutarch (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) have her making commercials. Later enemy President Snow puts Katniss's crush Peeta on TV to taunt her. Katniss wants him rescued, and this leads to the final act of this 1st installment. [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Too much politics and an improbable plot sink the third installment of Hunger Games, which is based on the weakest of the three novels. Here Katniss, who is supposed to be inspiring the revolution, is also willing to settle for a peaceful life with Prim at home. The whole notion that a mascot like Katniss is critical to success of a revolution is hard to believe. Worse the relationships between Katness, Gale, Prim and Finnick don't seem that strong or believable. The Katniss/Peeta/Gale love triangle has its lost energy too.

The best part is the war of videos that Presidents Snow and Coin wage. In this world, the videos are the new bombs and bayonets, which is interesting social commentary. In many ways Putin's assault on Ukraine is being battled on TV.  The middle of the movie where Katnis is making inspiring videos was the best part, and the videos in the film even felt inspirational and emotional. 

The politics are far less interesting that the commercial and social themes of the first movie. 

Cast: Jennifer Lawerence, Liam Helmsworth, Josh Hutcherson, Woody Harrelson, Donald Sutherland, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Julianne Moore, Elizabeth Banks

Directed by: Frances Lawrence

Rating: 1.5 stars: This is based on half of the weakest book. The politics is just not that interesting. 

More: The fun lifestyle satire of the first movies is gone, with just militarism in its place. 

Even More: Elizabeth Bank's Effy is still funny. 

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Birdman

Plot: Actor Riggan (Michael Keaton) played the superhero Birdman in Hollywood blockbusters, but to be taken seriously, he is writing, directing, and staring in a Broadway drama. As the movie begins, they are starting rehearsals. The play's plot mimick the real life conflicts in Riggan's life.

Complicating this, Riggan believes that he has superpowers like levitation and telekinesis. It is unclear whether these powers are real or mental illness. Riggan argues with a voice inside his head like a madman, but it's Birdman's voice.

The plot has many threads, and one is the on-going fight about how to stage each scene of the play, especially with replacement actor Mike (Edward Norton). Debris from the past with his ex-wife and daughter surface too. The pressure increases on Riggan until the climatic and surreal opening night. [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Birdman was a lot of fun because there are so many different levels. The characters are vivid and quirky.

Michael Keaton's Riggan is always is on the edge of breakdown. Unlike every other movie with Zach Galifianakis, Galifianakis is the sane one who calms the crazy people down, and helps them cope. Ed Norton and Naomi Watts should get supporting actor nominations -- strong, emotional performances of damaged people.

Emma Stone plays daughter Sam, and she floats around backstage. Her character is used to get the other characters to talk, but she is also tragic, fragile, and on the edge of self-destruction.

The soundtrack by Antonio Sanchez is distinctive with a lot of jazz drumming. During key scenes, the drummer appears in the scene -- in a magic-reality way.

Only see Birdman if you are OK with a fuzzy, abstract story that is both magic and real. At the end of the movie, there is a symbolic victory as well as sick person recovering, as well as Birdman flying around. People who want a logical resolution should go see Interstellar. 

Cast: Michael Keaton, Emma Stone, Zach Galifianakis, Naomi Watts, Andrea Riseborough, Edward Norton

Directed by: Anejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

Rating: 4 stars: There should be more movies like this. 

 

More: At one point Riggin is arguing with Birdman's voice in his head saying, "You are just a mental concept" --just like a contemporary pop-psychologist. The audience is unsure how real Birdman really is -- maybe he is more than a mental concept. This reminds me how people in the grip of their affliction believe the voices that they hear are real too. 

Even More: Birdman is filmed to look like one long take. I noticed this at the beginning, but lost track of that as the action progressed. Now I'd like to see it again.

There is one funny scene where Riggan get's locked outside in his bathrobe, and for a contrived reason, he has to run around the theater in his underwear past the waiting audience who is filing in. The single camera action makes the action more immediate here. (This has a symbolic level too, with Riggan bearing his soul and so on. )

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The Theory of Everything

Plot: This is a biopic of Prof. Stephen Hawking's wife Jane (Felicity Jones). It isn't about Stephen's (Eddie Redmayne's) struggle to be a super-successful physicist with Lou Gehrig's disease.

It shows their courtship, Stephen (Eddie Redmayne) getting sick, Jane taking care of Stephen, Stephen getting sicker, Jane having babies while taking care of Stephen, Stephen making a discovery, Jane flirting with the choir director, Jane having another baby,  Stephen flirting with his nurse, and more. [imdb]    [photos]

Review: See this movie for the physical acting as Stephen drifts from physical fitness to physical disability, and that Eddie Redmayne does so masterfully. It starts slowly as foreshadowing, then trembling, and finally he falls . . . then wonderful scenes of Redmayne hobbling on two canes. We see and feel the turning point when Stephen sits down on wheel chair, and again when he begins to use the computer to speak. 

The first love triangle starts slowly and it snuck up on me. After that however, the movie just drifts for another 45 minutes until the not very definitive end. After all Stephen is still alive, and the movie had to peter out at the end, didn't it?

Cast: Eddie Redmayne. Felicity Jones

Directed by: James Marsh, based on the book by Jane Hawking

Rating:  2.5 stars: The great physical acting by Redmayne, and the facial acting from Jones balance out the weak ending. 

More: The soundtrack was pretty and melodic. Very nice. I bought two tracks. There were a few painterly visuals from director Marsh.

Even More:

Jane Wilde Hawking and Stephen Hawking in 1990

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Big Hero 6

Plot: Hiro, a bored 14 year old genius, invents mini robots that link up with each other to do cool things--just about everything. He meets other students who make high tech robots too. One student is Hero's brother whose robot is an inflatable medical robot called Baymax. Soon the school burns down with all the mini-robots, and Hiro's brother is killed. Suddenly a villain, wielding a massive number of Hiro's mini-robots, threatens to to destroy the city. Hiro and Baymax join forces with four students to become the Big Hero 6. They battle the villain and avenge the brother.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: This is a younger kid's superhero movie. In its best moments it is like The Incredibles with likable characters working together. In its worst moments, it is like Power Rangers with robots bashing stuff with colorful weapons. 

The beginning is slow, but after a while we meet the other students who liven things up. Baymax, the inflatable, medical robot, and needs to be coxed into fighting -- a little bit of pacifism in this kid-friendly superhero movie.

Big Hero 6 has a strong soundtrack. The ending has some nice graphics that evoke Studio Ghibli. The characters come together to save the day, and Big Hero 6 ends with a nice positive message -- adult superhero movies are never this sincere (although maybe that is the Japanese influence coming in again.)

Directed by: Don Hall and Chris Williams

Rating: 2.0  stars: Big Hero 6 is good when compared with other kid's movies. As an adult movie, it is a waste of time. 

More: One of the interesting aspects is the American-Japanese cultural fusion they show. With Japanese dialog it will play well in Japan. It is unclear if this is a world vision message or a commercial reality.

Even More: There already are little modular robots that link up to do things. 

Interstellar

Plot: Life on earth is being destroyed by an airborne disease, and everyone is farming since it is so hard to grow food including Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) and his family. Daughter Murph (Mackenzie Foy, Jessica Chasten & Ellen Burstyn) thinks she sees a ghost in her room, and they decode a message from the ghost, sending them to a NASA base. Turns out the Cooper used to be an astronaut, so they send him to Saturn to look for a gateway to another galaxy (just like 2001: a Space Odyssey.) Cooper goes through the gateway to investigate worlds on the other side. They find black holes and barely habitable worlds, and after many struggles Cooper arrives beyond 3-D space where the final resolution takes place.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Interstellar is one of the best Sci-Fi movies intellectually: it has big ideas and big motivation. It hits hard on both spirituality and science, and I liked it with my brain. It does not connect emotionally.

There are good scenes too: a great tearful goodbye scene between Coop and Murph which will win Mackenzie Foy many future roles -- so remember her name. There is a suspenseful fight scene, and a gripping tidal wave scene too.

I loved the Hans Zimmer soundtrack, and I am disappointed that individual tracks aren't available to buy. I also liked the silence of space -- that is spaceships did not make jet plane noises like in Star Wars.

As mentioned, I didn't love the movie emotionally. The initial scenes with Coop's dad (John Lithgow) and son, were too slow. Michael Caine's Professor Brand had boring set-up dialog and was really dull.  The ending was a missed opportunity: sleepiness instead of joy. Where were the hugs & kisses? [More in SPOILERS below.]

The photography was a little fuzzy on the giant EPIC screen at MJR in Southgate. I think it was intensionally fuzzy --  see how fuzzy the move poster (above) is. I was not wowed by the space-ship scenes, unlike Star Wars or Star Trek. The spacecraft were work-a-day freighters and not very cool or even interesting. 

Mathew McConaughey was very strong just like he needed to be. I liked two of three Murphs, Chasten and Foy. Anne Hathaway had some good moments. 

Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Mackenzie Foy, Jessica Chastain

Written and directed by: Christopher Nolan

Rating: 3.5 stars: Cool ideas but not always fun-to-watch. It gets 1/2 star for its smartness and strong story. (Not as good as Lucy or Gone Girl. )

1/4

SPOILERS:  [SERIOUSLY DON'T READ THIS]: I loved how the ghosts and "they" were really humans from the future. I liked the concept of a place where time was a spatial dimension, but how every place Coop could see was only one room. Very cool.

I also liked the notion that love transcends space and time.

As mentioned the ending was a missed opportunity. After a lifetime of searching when Murph and Coop reunite, what happens. They didn't even shake hands. Why have her in a hospital room with strangers who did not care about seeing their long-lost hero grandfather. And then in the post ending, Coop is a-drift and is heading back out to space. Does he arrive, and give Brand a hug?  Well no. (About all this end does is set up a sequel.) 

More: Tesseract: the extra-dimensional place inside the blackhole - that is a four dimensional cube. I came across that on Wikipedia.