End of Days For Daniel Day-Lewis?

Zachary Cruz-Tan

Who knows if Daniel Day-Lewis will actually retire? He’s been teasing the idea for years, but he can’t seem to resist a promising screenplay, which is precisely what has drawn him out of a five-year hiatus since playing Abraham Lincoln in 2012. He’s a man infamous for taking substantial breaks between projects – having starred in only three films in the last eleven years – and now that his apparent swan song, Phantom Thread, is playing across the country, it might be a good time to pore over his sparse, but rather fine career.

It’s a career built upon astounding records, many of which may not be broken in our lifetime. He’s won Critic’s Choice awards, BAFTAs, Golden Globes, Screen Actor’s Guilds, Satellites, and perhaps his most impressive triumph: three Academy Awards for Best Actor (winning for Christy Brown in My Left Foot [1989], Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood [2007] and the titular president in Lincoln [2012]). He’s also the only actor in history to have won the Big Five twice (Academy Award, SAG, Golden Globe, BAFTA and Critic’s Choice for There Will Be Blood and Lincoln).

But awards are merely the gold stars on top of good grades. To earn the grades in the first place requires a devotion to the craft, and a kind of perfection of skill; qualities Day-Lewis exercises with abandon. He’s what you might call a smart man’s method actor, sinking entirely into roles without the drug addictions or drastic body changes. Instead he absorbs his characters from the inside out, assuming new identities like a master criminal.

His early work in The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988) and the unusual comedy Stars and Bars (1988) is masterful – particularly as the fractured Tomas in the former – but it doesn’t really prepare you for what’s to come. In fact, it’s not till his devilish turn as Bill Cutting in Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York (2002) that his face, his speech and his very person becomes unrecognisable. This was the first time Daniel Day-Lewis truly got lost inside the body of another.

His greatest performance, and my favourite, is as oil tycoon Daniel Plainview. Hunched, raspy and totally self-serving, Plainview is the kind of ego-centric movie villain that grips you in a way that almost makes you sympathise, even though there’s nothing to sympathise with, like Michael Corleone in The Godfather II (1974). From his ruthless upbringing of his adopted son, to the mental and spiritual abuse dished out to poor Eli Sunday, Plainview is a character of unbelievable evil, and Day-Lewis is particularly good at jutting out his chin, raising a derisive eyebrow and lashing about with his superior accent. It is, rather ironically, a delight to watch him.

And then the real Day-Lewis gets up to speak at the Oscars, with his pristine face, platinum hair and dignified English-ness, and no one anywhere can believe it’s the same man. He has worked with some of the finest directors of our time, delivered some of the most memorable lines and ended it all without so much as a wave to the crowd. For him, the job’s done, like a long day at the office – there’s nothing to talk about.

Apparently, the filming of Phantom Thread left within him a great sense of sadness, which became a compulsion to stop acting. He’s made such decisions before but has always been drawn back out into the light by screenplays that offer him one last hurrah. Maybe it was another chance to work with Paul Thomas Anderson, or that Phantom Thread, in which he plays a fashion designer in 1950s London, finally returns him to his English roots, but he seems assured now that it’s over. The man could do it all – comedy, violence, drama, even musicals. Let’s hope he carries retirement with as much grace.

Image (c) Universal Pictures 2018

6 Great Biopics About Terrible People

Rhys Graeme-Drury

A lot of biopics are about heroic, influential or lauded historical figures who irrevocably changed the course of history; think Gary Oldman’s turn as Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour, Natalie Portman as Jackie Kennedy in Jackie or Daniel Day Lewis’ Abraham Lincoln in Lincoln. While these films are all well and good, I often find the most interesting biopics centre around bad people; those who are divisive, despicable and downright nasty. Boy, I can’t wait for the inevitable Donald Trump biopic once he leaves office – you just know it’s gonna be great.

In honour of Margot Robbie’s new film I, Tonya, which follows the life of American figure skater Tonya Harding, I’ve turned my attention to great biopics about terrible people.

The Program (2015)
Director: Stephen Frears
Starring: Ben Foster, Chris O’Dowd, Jesse Plemons

It’s the ultimate Icarus tale; The Program chronicles the rise and fall of competitive cyclist Lance Armstrong, offering us an inevitable biopic that’s as fascinating as it is frustrating. With Ben Foster donning Armstrong’s lycra bike shorts, this is one biopic that was overlooked by audiences when it first opened, but it’s examination of Armstrong’s unrelenting urge to win at all costs is compelling, to say the least. The Program goes behind closed doors to reveal the details of Armstrong’s doping efforts, from bullying and intimidating those around him, to the gradual justification of his own cheating. While it does fall into many of the typical biopic pratfalls, The Program does go to great lengths to unpack the headspace of someone able to deceive as Armstrong did.

Downfall (2004)
Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel
Starring: Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara, Ulrich Matthes

The ultimate biopic about a bad person; Downfall follows the final days of Adolf Hitler, a man who needs no introduction. Even though it received acclaim upon its release, and a nomination for Best Foreign Language film, I find this film a little problematic as it establishes a shred of sympathy for its subject. Hitler, played with aplomb by Bruno Ganz, comes across as a frail human figure, rather than a terrifying supervillain, which one could argue diminishes the atrocities he ordered. On the other hand, that he can be portrayed as a human yet still invoke evil in his supporters tells us a lot about the era and the setting of Hitler’s Germany. It’s a chilling and compelling contradiction.

Oh, and the film spawned one of the best classic memes of all time. Enjoy.

Steve Jobs (2015)
Director: Danny Boyle
Starring: Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen

How insufferable, self-centred and unlikeable can your lead character be before the audience turns against you? That was the question swirling around my head throughout Danny Boyle’s biopic of Apple cofounder and technological visionary Steve Jobs. Armed with biting repartee penned by Aaron Sorkin, Michael Fassbender’s compelling performance as Jobs pushes audiences to reject him. From his cold dismissal of his own daughter, to squeezing friend Steve Wozniak (Seth Rogen) out of the business he helped found, it’s a complex portrayal that doesn’t exactly paint Jobs in the best light. Still, that doesn’t change the fact that this film is a riveting watch, and the execution is second-to-none.

The Founder (2016)
Director: John Lee Hancock
Starring: Michael Keaton, Nick Offerman, Laura Dern

Here we have another money-grabbing tycoon who goes to extreme lengths to screw over honest people and make a fortune – the real American dream. The Founder sees director John Lee Hancock tackle the life and times of Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton), a travelling salesman who uses every ounce of his business acumen to outsmart the McDonalds brothers (Nick Offerman, John Carroll Lynch) and steal their billion-dollar idea, taking a wholesome burger joint with a quirky process, and turning it into a multinational corporation. Hancock’s film works as well as it does because of this dark, underlying edge and a magnetic, often overlooked performance from Keaton.

The Social Network (2010)
Director: David Fincher
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Armie Hammer

A film in the same mould as Steve Jobs, David Fincher’s landmark  biopic of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) is as close to perfect as you can get. And yet, at its core is another detestable and single-minded upstart who goes to great lengths to alienate everyone around him, landing himself in legal hot water in the process. Eisenberg’s terrific performance is complemented by another ripping script from Sorkin, which brilliantly illustrates the irony of the founder of a social network acting in such an antisocial manner. Systematic and scathing, The Social Network is a collaboration that illustrated the compelling nature of unlikeable people in a way few other films have before or since.

The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
Director: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Margot Robbie, Jonah Hill

Sex, drugs and stock markets; Martin Scorsese’s depiction of provocative Wall Street power broker Jordan Belfort was so gleefully grotesque and raucous that it split audiences down the middle. There were those that revelled in the overblown indulgence, and there were those that despised its glorification of Belfort’s decadent lifestyle. Of course, Leonardo DiCaprio, who gives possibly his best career performance, insists the film doesn’t glamourise Belfort, but instead critiques the society that allowed a man of his ilk to flourish. Whichever side of the fence you sit on, you have to admit – Scorsese, DiCaprio and Margot Robbie crafted a raucous and insatiably good biopic about a whole bunch of truly terrible people.

Images courtesy of Roadshow Films/Roadshow Entertainment (The Wolf of Wall Street), Universal Pictures/Universal Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Australia  (Steve Jobs), Sony Pictures/Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (The Social Network) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Movie Review – The Post

Steven Spielberg’s The Post is part historical drama, part Trump critic, part female empowerment and part ode to print media.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
Zachary Cruz-Tan

The US government lied to its people for over twenty years regarding their involvement in the Vietnam War. Why were they there? Was there any hope of victory? To the American people, maybe. But a handful of politicians knew otherwise; it was a lost cause. Word eventually got out. The White House was implicated. The Post is a thoroughly gripping new film from Steven Spielberg that examines the the reporters who broke the story, and cornered the president of the United States into resignation.

Like Alan J. Pakula’s 1976 drama, All the President’s Men (a spiritual sequel that covered the ensuing Watergate Scandal), The Post is told through the eyes of The Washington Post, owned by Kay Graham (Meryl Streep) as an indirect heirloom handed down from her father to her husband and then to her.

The film starts with Kay practicing a sales pitch to the banks, as the company must be made public to avoid going under. She feels, of course, that The Post is hers to honour, not just for her sake, but for the sake of her family, and so the sale must be made. But exposing the presidency is not exactly a recipe for stability.

The Post has a lot going on. We are invited to Kay’s tumultuous dinner table. We are dropped into the newsroom of The Washington Post, where executive editor Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks) is desperate to break the story despite the injunction filed on the press by the supreme court. We have to deal with financial legalities and a lot of investment talk, and all this mayhem is choreographed by Spielberg with the precision and experience of a maestro.

But it doesn’t stop here. There arer collusions and secrets. Underhanded exchanges and private phone calls. There’s even time for Ben’s daughter to make a small fortune selling lemonade. And yet the through line is abundantly clear. The Post aims at once to both tell us what the American presidency is capable of to protect its reputation, and how history is doomed to repeat itself.

Anyone watching The Post will surely see the parallels between Nixon’s and Trump’s administrations. Both rule with an iron fist. Both refuse to lose. Both are willing to quash opposition at the expense of their country’s constitution, and more to the point, both think of the press as the enemy.

Such conflict usually gives rise to outstanding characters, and The Post is graced with Streep and Hanks as Kay and Ben. Together they attempt to salvage The Washington Post, uphold the first amendment and freedom of the press, and bring a corrupt government to its knees. And might they also want to one-up The New York Times, their most bitter competitor?

Spielberg makes three kinds of pictures: the box office-smashing blockbuster (Jaws, Jurassic Park), the goofy kids movie (Hook, The BFG) and the thoughtful historical drama (The Color Purple, Lincoln). The Post is a fine addition to the third group. It’s fascinating and bold, and if it dips into a kind of melodramatic tribute towards the end, it’s most likely because Spielberg laments the bygone days when newsrooms were frenetic, reporters were dogged and newspapers were downright fashionable.

The Post is available in Australian cinemas from January 11

Image courtesy of EntertainmentOne Films

Films About Race That Don’t Involve Slavery

Corey Hogan

It’s been over a year now since the Academy Awards copped flak for apparently ignoring black films and filmmakers. But truth be told, most films tackling race that earn the Academy’s attention all involve slavery (12 Years a Slave, Django Unchained, Lincoln etc.) – which almost feels like a self-congratulating, forced apology for the same issue over and over. When thinking of films involving racism and racial issues, the slavery-based are often the first to come to mind, but there are many excellent pieces of cinema that cover a massive range of other race concerns, both current and historical. We’ve been treated to several this year alone with great range to them – uplifting (Hidden Figures), modest (Loving) and creative (Get Out). There’s so many great films out there that tackle race in different ways –  here’s just a few of them!

Do the Right Thing (1989)

Just about all of Spike Lee’s films centre around racial issues in some shape or form, but none made as big of a splash as his breakthrough Do the Right Thing, a film that pulls absolutely zero stops in picking apart racial profiling. Set in a massively diverse Brooklyn neighbourhood, racial tension is slowly building between the African-American and Italian-American members, with Chinese families, white cops and a mentally disabled man dragged into the brewing storm. Young black man Mookie (Spike Lee) works at the Italian Sal’s (Danny Aiello) pizza shop. Things are civil until one of Mookie’s friends demands a black celebrity be included on Sal’s all-white Wall of Fame. Sal refuses, causing an outrage in the community that explodes in violence on the hottest day of the summer.

Lee opens a dialogue about whether or not violence is truly the right response to injustices – particularly those started by violence themselves – and invites the audience to decide what exactly “doing the right thing” is. He’s unafraid to show just how racist anyone can be either, no matter their own skin colour. The montage in which each race brutally impersonates the other is gold.

Racist stereotypes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLYTObRhcSY

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American History X (1998)

Edward Norton has probably never been better than his ferocious portrayal of a skinhead coming to his senses in Tony Kaye’s shockingly unflinching American History X. Teenager Danny Vinyard (Edward Furlong) writes a paper for his history class on his older brother Derek (Norton), a former Neo-Nazi and white supremacist gang leader who, after a three-year prison sentence for brutally murdering two black men, realises the error of his ways. Once released, he becomes determined to prevent Danny from following in his footsteps.

Kaye’s success is in his refusal to be preachy. He lays out the raw hatred of the skinhead in all its gory glory, while also boldly humanising them. Effectively switching from black and white in Derek’s homicidal days to colour in his reformed state, Kaye suggests the importance of learning from the actions and consequences of leading a hate-filled life, and that redemption is always an option within grasping range.

Derek gets violent: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOzR5Jnd6bU

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Mississippi Burning (1988)

The most significant cultural leap in racial equality since the abolition of slavery was the Civil Rights Movement of the 50’s and 60’s; a massive operation to end segregation and create legal security for black people across America. Mississippi Burning explores the backlash and protest this movement faced, and how the mindset of many can remain unchanged as society progresses around them. When three civil rights activists go missing in Jessup County, Mississippi, two FBI agents (Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe) are sent in to investigate, but find themselves very unwelcome as the town residents, police and the Ku Klux Klan retaliate.

The post-slavery geographical divide remaining through America is evident, though director Alan Parker finds a moral conscience in the few honest and unprejudiced townspeople, black and white, who suffer horrific fates for speaking out. The complications, grief and torment faced by everyone involved in the movement on either side of the coin are streamlined to give an idea of what was faced by people of all perspectives throughout the era.

The burning cross: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbXTl0WX4RE

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District 9 (2009)

No, seriously. While it might feature illegal aliens in the most literal sense, Neill Blomkamp’s ingenious metaphor for the apartheid – South Africa’s institutionalised racial segregation system throughout the latter half of the 20^th century – couldn’t be more authentic. An extra-terrestrial race that appeared over Johannesburg a few decades ago is now confined to a refugee camp, and forcibly evicted and relocated by a military company hired by the government. Wikus (Sharlto Copley), a bureaucrat, is exposed to technology designed to return the species to their home planet, causing war between the emigrants and government.

Though the latter half evolves into traditional science-fiction, much of the set up cleverly analyses real racial concerns through this alien species. They’re treated inhumanely, forced to live in barely-sustainable conditions, given a derogatory eponym (“prawns”), and meet remorselessly violent ends if not cooperating with their regime. It’s a thrilling take on what human refugees undertook in South Africa’s toughest times.

Prawns get evicted: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXHzOkAY9qo

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Get Out image (c) 2017 Universal Pictures
Additional images courtesy of United International Pictures, Roadshow Films, Village Roadshow Corporation & Sony Pictures 

Movie Review – Selma

Powerful performances illuminate this triumphant true story of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s extraordinary battle to grant black Americans their constitutional right to vote.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
Review by Corey Hogan

Martin Luther King, Jr. is one of only three people in American history to have a federal holiday established in his honour. A remarkably intelligent and compassionate man, his years of activism, and tireless efforts in obtaining civil rights for all people, regardless of race, have become legend. As another MLK Day passes, we are reminded on the 50^th anniversary of one of his greatest achievements with the release of Ava DuVernay’s dynamic historical drama Selma.

With a Nobel Peace Prize under his belt for advancing civil rights through nonviolent means, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (David Oyelowo) believes his work against racial prejudice has just begun. Denied by President Lyndon Johnson (Tom Wilkinson) legislation for black citizens to vote, King travels to Selma, Alabama with his group of Christian activists, and hatches a plan to form a protest march to the state capital Montgomery as a means for black American citizens to express their desire for the right to vote. Threatening this is Governor George Wallace (Tim Roth), who vows to stop the marches by utilising violent state troopers, and racist white citizens. Meanwhile, his home life with wife Coretta (Carmen Ejogo) begins to crumble in the wake of his activism.

Smartly, Selma is not a biopic chronicling everything from King’s early life to his assassination. Such an approach would undermine the milestones of a man with so many achievements, à la 2013’s Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom. Instead the film is structured much like Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, focusing purely on the three invigorating months that led to King securing the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Interestingly, the films are set almost exactly one hundred years part, and deal with very similar subject matter.

David Oyelowo, a devout Christian, stated in an interview that he believes God called upon him to play Martin Luther King, Jr. Even non-believers will have a difficult time debating this after witnessing the actor ignite the screen. Oyelowo inhabits the part like a second skin. From his powerful, commanding voice to his subtle body movements; he delivers each mighty speech in a manner perfectly matched with King’s. It genuinely feels as though we are spectating the great leader himself as every thundering monologue resonates as exhilaratingly as when first orated fifty years ago. It is difficult to believe that Oyelowo has been overlooked by major awards ceremonies given his astonishing commitment to the role, though while he may not bring home a golden statue, he undoubtedly emerges a star with a very bright future.

While Oyelowo commands the screen, the rest of the cast are also very impressive. Tom Wilkinson shines in his controversial performance as President Johnson; a man torn between granting the coloured folk the right to vote, and racial pressure from political peers. His motives may have been slightly fabricated to better serve the story, but Wilkinson remains collected and as reliable as ever. Carmen Ejogo too is granted a chance to step into the spotlight as King’s wife, particularly in a scene where Martin Luther’s loyalty to her is tested by assailants framing an affair.

Selma has been overshadowed at this year’s awards by more favourable contenders, earning just a single Golden Globe and two Academy Award nominations (Best Picture and Best Original Song). Perhaps arriving too soon after last year’s guilt inducing 12 Years a Slave, Selma could easily have nabbed nominations for cinematography, costume and set design on top of the powerhouse actors well deserving of awards recognition. Nonetheless, Selma remains an important film to be embraced – history lessons are rarely this impeccably acted and beautifully made. Four stars.