Posts Tagged ‘Jeannie Berlin’

The Fabelmans

Director: Steven Spielberg

Cast: Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, Judd Hirsch, Gabriel LaBelle, Julia Butters, Mateo Zoryan, Julia Butters, Sam Rechner, Oakes Fegley

Running Time: 2 hours 31 minutes

Film Rating: 9 out of 10

Oscar winning director Steven Spielberg (Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan) makes his most personal film by far, with the critically acclaimed film The Fabelmans which won the People’s Choice Award at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), a sure indicator of multi Oscar nominations.

The Fabelmans is a fictional account of Spielberg’s childhood and his idyllic love of cinema and focuses on a boy Sammy Fabelman brilliantly played respectively by Mateo Zoryan as a young boy and Gabriel LaBelle as the teenager and wisecracking Jewish kid who turns his hobby of filmmaking into a career choice.

With an excellent script by Tony Kushner (Munich, Lincoln), The Fabelmans focuses on a Jewish family in America in the 1950’s and 1960’s starting in New Jersey and moving across the country first to Arizona and then finally to California. Sammy’s parents Burt and Mitzi Fabelman are played by Paul Dano (Little Miss Sunshine, 12 Years a Slave, There will be Blood) and four time Oscar nominee Michelle Williams (Brokeback Mountain, Blue Valentine, My Week with Marilyn, Manchester by the Sea).

Michelle Williams finally deserves an Oscar for her complex portrayal of Mitzi Fabelman a slightly off kilter but talented mother who will do anything for Sammy and his three sisters but is willing to risk everything for true love.

Williams’s performance is mesmerizing in The Fabelmans and she creates the emotional centre for this film, particularly in the superbly acted scenes between Mitzi and her son Sammy as he negotiates adolescence and discovers a secret about his mother which will rip his family apart.

In between all the family drama, there is Sammy’s persistent love of cinema and his dedicated desire to film everything and in the end does capture every moment even the scenes that are not meant to be filmed. Even at high school besides being terrorized for being the only Jewish boy at a predominantly Christian school in Northern California he even films the Ditch Day at the Beach and makes one of his archenemies and school jock Logan Hall played by rising star Sam Rechner uncomfortable when he sees himself on screen.

Audiences should watch out for a superb cameo by veteran actor Judd Hirsch as Uncle Boris who influences young Sammy into following his dreams of becoming a film maker.

With superb cinematography by Spielberg regular and Oscar winner Janusz Kaminski (Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan) and excellent ensemble acting, The Fabelmans is a love letter to traditional cinema, to the art of film making while effortlessly exploring serious issues including anti-Semitism, infidelity and mental health.

The Fabelmans is a top class film: elegant, nostalgic and perfectly acted. Highly recommended viewing, this excellent film gets a film rating of 9 out of 10 and signifies Spielberg’s undisputed persistence of vision as a top calibre film director.

Café Society

Director: Woody Allen

Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Steve Carell, Corey Stoll, Blake Lively, Ken Stott, Parker Posey, Sheryl Lee, Jeannie Berlin, Stephen Kunken, Sari Lennick, Anna Camp

Opening the Cannes Film Festival in 2016 in typically whimsical fashion, Woody Allen’s Café Society is set between the golden age of Hollywood and the gangster nightclubs of New York.

Auteur director and veteran screenwriter Woody Allen like many of his previous films, decelebritizes his stars and makes Cafe Society a brilliant ensemble piece. At the centre of the witty comedy are two sterling performances by naïve Bronx youngster Bobby wonderfully played by Oscar nominee Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network) and seemingly ordinary yet duplicitous Vonnie, played by Twilight star Kristen Stewart.

Vonnie is the secretary to Bobby’s powerful uncle Marty Dorfman, played by Oscar nominee Steve Carell (Foxcatcher). The smooth talking Marty introduces Bobby to the Hollywood inset as he hires his nephew to become general gopher and invites him to sumptuous brunches at his Hollywood Hills mansion. There Bobby meets chic New York couple, Rad and Steve, played by Parker Posey (Grace of Monaco) and Paul Schneider (Water for Elephants).

It’s really Vonnie that Bobby is in love with, but Vonnie is dating a powerful married man and as a surprise for her boyfriend’s birthday she buys him a framed love letter from Rudolf Valentino. That love letter becomes the main visual key for Café Society as soon a love triangle emerges which places Bobby in an awkward familial situation.

Meanwhile, back in New York, audiences catch a glimpse of Bobbie Dorfman’s Jewish family, his dotting mother superbly played by Jeannie Berlin and his father played by British actor Ken Stott. It’s really Bobbie’s gangster brother Ben who has gone into the nightclub business who is the centre of the Bronx world. Ben is superbly played by an unrecognizable Corey Stoll who was so tremendous in the Netflix’s series House of Cards.

Bobby is crushed when Vonnie calls off their impending romance on a Malibu beach and soon returns to the glamourous world of nightlife, helping his nefarious brother Ben at one of his dazzling nightclubs. As the action of Café Society shifts seamlessly from Los Angeles back to New York, audiences know that they are back on familiar Woody Allen territory.

Part of the New York set is the fabulous Veronica Hays who Bobbie dutifully falls in love with, played by the gorgeous Blake Lively, even though he secretly pines for the more illusive Vonnie.

Wonderfully irreverent to anything vaguely serious, Café Society is a gorgeously shot comedy with gorgeous costumes and suitably fabulous production design, pointing to the fact it’s one of Woody Allen’s most expensive films.

With a witty script and outstanding performances by an ensemble cast especially Eisenberg and Stewart, Café Society is recommended viewing in the vein of similar Allen films like Bullets over Broadway. Allen’s faithful recreation of the Hollywood golden age in Café Society certainly signifies that his European phase is over, which did produce some brilliant social comedies including Matchpoint, Vicky Christina Barcelona and his acclaimed Midnight in Paris.

Café Society is a breezy and funny affair, tinged with delightful moments of guilt mixed with old fashioned nostalgia. A refreshingly stylish visual feast especially in this age of CGI and digitally reliant cinema.

Inherent Vice

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson (Magnolia, There will be Blood, The Master, Boogie Nights)

Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Katherine Waterston, Josh Brolin, Reese Witherspoon, Eric Roberts, Jena Malone, Michael Kenneth Williams, Benicio del Toro, Owen Wilson, Martin Short, Martin Donovan, Maya Rudolph, Serena Scott Thomas

In the spirit of Magnolia and Boogie Nights, director Paul Thomas Anderson assembles an eclectic cast of stars for his cinematic adaptation of the Thomas Pynchon novel Inherent Vice with Oscar nominee Joaquin Phoenix (The Master, Gladiator) as stoner private detective Larry Doc Sportello who goes on a labyrinthine search for his ex-girlfriend Shasta Hepworth played by Katherine Waterston (Michael Clayton, Taking Woodstock).

Set in 1971, during the Nixon administration, in California, Inherent Vice is a rambling and extended tour de force of the hippie’s drug culture of Southern California involving kinky and corrupt cops especially Lt Detective Christian “BigFoot” Bjornsen wonderfully played by the orally fixated Josh Brolin, straight laced deputy district attorneyPenny Kimball played by Reese Witherspoon and an elusive government informant Coy Harlingen played by Owen Wilson.

Oscar winner for director Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic Benicio del Toro also makes a brief appearance as Doc’s legal adviser Sauncho Smilax Esq, but this is very much Phoenix’s film and he inhabits every frame with a sort of woozy ease that is at times prolonged and other times fascinating. This is by no means Phoenix’s best performance and does not match his brilliant portrayal of the boozy drifter Freddie Quell in Paul Thomas Anderson’s superb critically acclaimed film The Master.

At a running time of just over two and a half hours, one cannot blame the viewer for getting slightly confused and bored. Inherent Vice has an intricate plot with lots of subtexts, subplots and quirky visual references but only serious fans of Paul Thomas Anderson will appreciate his laboured approach in adapting this contemporary novel to the big screen.

The best scenes are actually between Phoenix and Witherspoon who reunite after the success of the Oscar winning James Mangold film Walk the Line. Several of the other quite bizarre sequences are truly amazing to watch but the entire story could have done with some efficient editing.

Audiences should also watch out for cameos by Eric Roberts, Martin Donovan and a crazed Martin Short. While the costumes and production design for Inherent Vice is spot on capturing the origins of the drug fueled and nefarious 1970’s, Paul Thomas Anderson film could have used some serious editing as this languid narrative tends to bewilder and obfuscate the viewer, which the point of the story.

Inherent Vice refers to possible drugs being smuggled into America on a mysterious vessel known as The Golden Fang from Indo-China or modern day Vietnam. This film is recommended viewing for those that enjoyed Magnolia and Robert Altman’s far superior film Short Cuts. Not sure if Inherent Vice will quite make it to the cult status of The Master.