A Hologram for the King

I hadn't even heard about A Hologram for the King until about a week before it opened. But there was Tom Hanks in the trailer and the NY Times liked it. So did I. This is a very interesting movie. A Hologram for the King, based on the novel of the same name, is a great title because it says a lot but you can't figure out what it means. Tom Hanks plays Alan, a businessman who can sell anything, but is down on his luck, just got a divorce, and lost his job. He is offered a new job to sell a holographic conferencing system to the King of Saudi Arabia. He and his IT team are supposed to demo the system for the King, but when they arrive in Saudi Arabia, they find that they are situated in a mostly non-existent city out in the desert, in a tent with no Wi-Fi. And no one knows when the King will be showing up for the demo.

A Hologram for the King is a bit reminiscent of Groundhog Day. Each day, Hanks sleeps through his alarm, misses the shuttle to the city, has to call his Saudi driver (Alexander Black), and then try to find someone who can explain what's happening or at least get them some Wi-Fi. Lots of things happen along the way including wild embassy parties and visits to the hospital. Hanks has a lump on his back and is suffering anxiety attacks. Along the way he befriends his female Saudi doctor (Sarita Choudhury), and spoiler alert, some sparks eventually fly between them.

This film is by the German director, Tom Tykwer, most famous for Run Lola Run. He keeps it moving even though, most of the time, "nothing" is happening. The supporting cast is mostly non-arabic, even the arabic parts. Choudhury, who broke out with Mississippi Masala 25 years ago, is half-Indian, and Black is American. They are both very good. It's also nice to see Tom Skerritt who plays Hanks father. I wished he had more scenes. Tom Hanks is great as always. I know not everyone loves him as much as I do, but it is a joy to watch him work. This is another good everyman role for him, but he makes it better than the script. A Hologram for the King plays out mostly inside the jet-lagged, culture-shocked head of Hanks character, and Tom is very good at making that work. This film is only playing on a few screens around the country. If it appears at a theatre near you, you should go see it.

Born To Be Blue

Ethan Hawke has been around for a long time. he was one of the students in Dead Poets Society, and I loved Gattaca. But I hadn't seen him in anything for a long time when he burst back into view as the father in Boyhood for which he was nominated for an Oscar. He is back this year with a new movie with buzz, Born To Be Blue. In this film, Hawke plays Chet Baker, the famous jazz trumpeter from the 50's and 60's. Born To Be Blue is very meta. It opens in black and white sometime in the 1950's with Baker (Hawke) and his then wife. But then the director calls cut and it is really Baker playing himself in a movie and the time is the 1960's. The woman playing his wife (Carmen Ejogo) in the movie becomes his girlfriend. When they visit Baker's parents back on the farm in Oklahoma, his mother's first comment is, "You look just like Chet's ex-wife." His father's first comment is, "Are you here to dry out again?"

Chet Baker is in a loop that he can't get out of. He became a heroin addict in the 1950's and was still using when he died in 1988. This film is set around the time in 1966 when he was severely beaten and his teeth were all knocked out. He could no longer play the trumpet and begins a long comeback once he has some dentures. Born To Be Blue is bookended by concerts he gives in New York City with Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie in the audience before and after his beating.

Born To Be Blue is not a happy movie. Baker's life doesn't have a happy ending, even though he was able to continue his jazz career. Hawke seems to be perfect for the role of Baker, a basically nice guy with a great musical gift but no impulse control. The film centers on both his struggle to regain the ability to play but also his struggle to stay clean with the help of his girlfreind. Ejojo, who played Coretta Scott King in Selma, is very good as the girlfriend who truly loves Baker but isn't willing to go down the drain with him. She is yet another English actor playing an American. They are everywhere and you don't even notice! Selma was hilarious since MLK, Coretta Scott King, LBJ and Wallace were all played by English actors. But I digress. Born To Be Blue is nice little movie and Ethan Hawke may get another Oscar nomination.

Divergent, Insurgent, Allegiant...

Allegiant is the third movie in the Divergent Series. it is part of the wave of Dystopian young adult books, which started with The Hunger Games trilogy. Like that series, the third Divergent book has been split into two movies. The last film in the series will be out next year. I quite liked Divergent, the first film. The set up is that civilization has been destroyed (duh) and the survivors in a semi-ruined Chicago have been split into 5 factions, Amity, Erudite, Candor, Abnegation, and Dauntless. Each faction plays a prescribed role in society. Each child grows up in a faction but gets to pick what faction to belong to when they grow up. A young woman from Abnegation (Shailene Woodley) shocks her parents (Ashley Judd and Tony Goldwyn) by choosing Dauntless while her brother (Ansel Elgort) chooses Erudite. It's like choosing a college where everyone has the same major. Woodley even starts to fall for her TA (Theo James). He's pretty cute. But all is not well. As with all of these dystopian stories, dark forces are at work, in this case, Erudite's leader played by Kate Winslet is planning a coup with Dauntless providing the muscle. Divergent, as with the first parts of all these trilogies, is by far the best. I like this story because it isn't some stupid dystopian high-school love triangle like The Hunger Games. As most of you know, I threw the last book of the Hunger Games trilogy against the wall because I am a Gale lover and a Peeta hater. But I digress.

By the end of Divergent, Woodley and James, now in love, and their merry band including Elgort, Zoe Kravitz, and Miles Teller, are outlaws. In the second movie, Insurgent, they hook up with a larger band of rebels led by James' mother (Naomi Watts). I love that this series features a female lead (Woodley) trying to maintain the peace between the two warring factions led by two very strong, slightly crazed women (Winslet and Watts). The casting is great. My favorite character is Peter played by Miles Teller, who exploded on the screen last year in Whiplash. His character has changed sides about 5 times in the three movies so far ,always betraying his former side but somehow he is still alive. He is very entertaining. Woodley and James are also very good, but as with all these series, as we approach the end, the plots get more and more far-fetched.

In Alegiant, we find out that the two centuries of factional life in Chicago has been some kind of genetic experiment. This would be a spoiler but none of it makes any sense. But we do get to see Jeff Daniels, as the leader of this other mystery group who are ensconsed at O'Hare airport, try to explain which is very fun. Anyway, there is one movie to go and I'm sure Woodley will save the day. I much prefer Woodley's Tris to Jennifer's Lawrence's Katniss. You should definitely see Divergent but the other two not so much.

Eye in the Sky

Eye in the Sky refers to the drones, used by the US military and others, that watch but also kill terrorists. The story of this film seems to be loosely based on a real terrorist, the so-called White Widow, a British woman who joined Al Shabaab in Somalia. In Eye in the Sky, a mission to capture her has been arranged, led by the British with support from the Americans and the Kenyans. A drone is being flown from a US Airforce base by two soldiers (Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad) and Phoebe Fox). The mission is run by a British Colonel (Helen Mirren) and her superior officer (Alan Rickman). Things go wrong from the start and the mission quickly changes from capture to kill. The terrorists are planning an imminent suicide attack, and so they must be killed by a missile from the drone. Even though there are some qualms, permission is quickly given for the strike until the drone operators notice that a young Kenyan girl is selling bread right next to the target house and will be killed if the missile is launched. What follows is a nice study in military vs political needs and agendas. The British colonel, played by Mirren with a very competent iciness, wants to proceed. She is supported by her General (Rickman) but the politicians are not so sure. As we watch the terrorists prepare their suicide vests through a tiny drone disguised as a large fly (I don't make this stuff up) and operated by a local officer (Barkhad Abdi), the politicians dither, and the drone operators come close to mutiny. It is quite entertaining to watch the British ministers, played by Jeremy Northam and various nice British character actors,  as they keep "referring up." Eventually, the British Foreign Secretary (Iain Glen (Jorah Mormont in Game of Thrones)) and the American Secretary of State get involved. Meanwhile, all involved watch the little girl as if she is in a reality show, hoping she will sell all her bread and go home. Eye in the Sky features some very good performances including the always reliable Helen Mirren (I do love her), and very sadly, the last performance of the incomparable Alan Rickman who died in January. Barkhad Abdi, who was the terrorist in Captain Phillips, gets to play a good guy this time. Eye in the Sky is a nicely put-together film directed by the South African, Gavin Hood, who first hit the big time with Tsotsi a very good film that won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 2005. This one is worth seeing.

Batman v Superman

This film is unusual because it got overwhelmingly bad reviews and a 29% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, but it also got an overwhelmingly good response from the people who have seen the movie. I am siding with the latter. Batman v Superman is actually pretty good. Maybe my expectations had been appropriately lowered but I enjoyed it a lot. I will go into this in detail below, but you should see this movie because:

1. Wonder Woman rocks! Superman and Batman may be sad sacks grinding out the crime fighting but Wonder Woman enjoys her work.
2. Jeremy Irons is The. Best. Alfred. Ever. Sorry Michael Caine.
3. Amy Adams has made Lois Lane into a real character.
4. Jesse Eisenberg IS Lex Luthor.
5. Kryptonite!

The plot of this film is stated in the title and I'm sure you have seen the trailer, but no big spoilers here. The plot of Batman v Superman parallels the upcoming Captain America: Civil War in that some people, Batman (Ben Affleck) included, have decided that Superman (Henry Cavill) is a potentially dangerous vigilante, and he's an Alien! The Senate holds hearings to look into the issue. There are few nice scenes with Holly Hunter as the lead senator. It's nice to see her. But behind the scenes, pulling the strings is Lex Luthor. I'm sure some people find Jesse Eisenberg annoying at times but he was born to play Lex Luthor just as he was born to play Mark Zuckerberg. There may be some similarities between those two characters. Henry Cavill is as stolid as he was in Man of Steel. But that is his character. And Amy Adams as Lois does soften him up a bit. Adams was the best thing in Man of Steel. She is great here too.

Much has been made about the casting of Ben Affleck as Batman. I had my doubts. But the portrayal of Batman as a world-weary crime fighter in his 40's is perfect casting for Affleck. As Batman says, "Criminals are like weeds. If you pull one out, another grows in its place." This is a very different Batman from Dark Knight or its predecessors. For one thing, this Batman likes guns. The juxtaposition of Batman's cynicism with Superman's idealism is nice, and both characters get to evolve a bit during the movie. Which brings me to Alfred. Who would a world-weary Batman want as his Alfred but Jeremy Irons. Irons is always great but he is wonderful here. He steals all the scenes he is in in Batman v Superman. I was wishing he was in the movie more.

Batman v Superman is also setting up the Justice League of America to be the DC version of The Avengers. We are introduced to Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) aka Wonder Woman, who helps out Batman and Superman against Luther. And believe me they need the help. We also see short scenes with The Flash and Aquaman, who will join the other three superheroes in Justice League in 2017. Gadot is good. You might remember her from the Fast and Furious movies.

This is a superhero movie with lots of fights and trashing of cities. Both Gotham City and Metropolis get trashed. And it's a bit long at 2 1/2 hours, but it's surprisingly good. Besides all the characters I mentioned, Perry White (Laurence Fishburne), Ma and Pa Kent (Diane Lane & Kevin Costner) return. The casting throughout is great. Oh, yes, and did I mention that there is Kryptonite! Spoiler alert, it is the green variety. So ignore the reviews (other than this one) and join the throngs at the movie theatre.