After all, there’s something especially stirring about the great leaders who overcome profound handicaps and quell their doubters as they rise to the throne. It goes back at least as far as bow-legged Spartan king Agesilaus and limping Roman emperor Claudius, the latter being played memorably by Derek Jacobi, who in a nice reversal here gets to play skeptic to Colin Firth’s monarch. And certainly there are few handicaps more prickly and relatable than stuttering. It is a battle my own father has fought all his life–in his younger years he too had a speech therapist (who, as he wistfully recalls, resembled Marisa Tomei).

Colin Firth certainly earned his Oscar (though I think he deserved it more for last year’s A Single Man)–his stammers are impressively authentic. Geoffrey Rush, as Logue, hits just the right notes of professional compassion and humble wit. I’m particularly impressed with Helena Bonham Carter’s performance as Firth’s wife (a.k.a. The Queen Mother), having learned that she was simultaneously filming Harry Potter as Bellatrix Lestrange–a role more or less the polar opposite. Equally strong is the writing and direction. David Seidler’s script is warm, clever and sharp. Director Tom Hooper, with his cinematographer Danny Cohen, shot the film in a strangely appealing palette, contrasting pale wintry light with the diffuse orange glow of electric light. The score, by Alexandre Desplat, is nicely understated in its own right, also dovetailing nicely with the extensive use of Beethoven throughout.

The prominence of good ol’ Ludwig Van in the film was actually something I found especially potent, particularly in later scenes involving the onset of World War II. Beyond the music’s intrinsic power, it subtly reflects the fact that, during the war, the Allies appropriated the German composer as their own. In fact, the 5th Symphony (which is not featured in the film) was repurposed, almost literally, as the drumbeat of Allied victory (the letter “V” in Morse code is da-da-da-daaah). You might think I’m making a connection where none exists, but I keenly feel that The King’s Speech was intended in part to remind us that while Hitler monstrously and foolishly strove to exterminate the handicapped (Seidler’s own grandparents were lost in the Holocaust), he was finally overcome by leaders who themselves were handicapped. In a particularly nice moment between Firth’s George and Churchill (Timothy Spall), Winston informs his King that though he struggled with his own speech impediment, he eventually learned to “make an asset of it.” Wise words indeed. – [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

Biography/Drama/History

Rated R

DVD Release Date: 4/19/11

Strike that, I’m not sure. He could spend his nights on a panda skin rug for all I know.

But, I was willing to set aside personal feelings, because I found the story interesting. It was a good call.

Fair Game is an account of Valerie Plame (Naomi Watts) who was outed as an agent of the CIA by administration officials, and the subsequent battle fought by her husband (Sean Penn) Ambassador Joe Wilson, to bring light to the dirty dealings of said administration. Directed by Doug Liman, the director of Swingers, Go, and a little picture called The Bourne Identity.

If you’ve seen the first Bourne, you’ll recognize the visual style Liman (who was also the director of photography) uses. It works well with this kind of “intrigue.” The performances are solid, Watts is good, and if you forget about the panda thing, Penn is also very good. It presented the story in a way that was interesting, even though I knew the outcome. Like 127 Hours, without the gore. Give it some thumbs up. – [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

Biography/Drama/Thriller

Rated PG-13

DVD Release Date: 3/29/11

A lesser film would have painted the community of Lowell with a dark brush, and it would have been easy to do so. Its rowdy, working-class denizens and depressed post-industrial streets are a ripe set up for the quintessential “escape from the slums” boxing story, but director David O. Russell (Three Kings) sees it through the eyes of a resident–as a raucous, eccentric place to be from. Even a crack house that figures prominently is not so much a threatening pit as it is a sort of overgrown treehouse where the loser kids waste their lives. Micky’s army of sisters, who go by names like “Pork” and “Red Dog,” are part Greek chorus, part West Side Story gang. They, and their mother (Leo, always a highlight in any cast) don’t get along well with their brother’s new squeeze (Amy Adams) but as nasty as they get towards her, she doesn’t buckle. And that’s the great thing about The Fighter–it doesn’t even occur to its characters to be victims.

Of course this is a boxing movie (yes, based on a true story and all that), so there are the requisite scenes of training, injuries, and dramatic underdog matches. But it’s all done with such humor and verve, it never drags. Though it isn’t very showy about it, the editing is some of the best of the year, with sharp cuts that heartily propel the action and even sometimes make nice little visual puns. Wahlberg is nicely low-key as Micky, which may be why he didn’t get a lot of awards attention. It’s a great delight to see Adams and Leo spar with each other, just as it is to see Bale sporting some fantastic cheap M.C. Hammer-esque pants. This is one of those feel-good, inspirational tales that’s also funny as heck. – [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

Biography/Drama/Sport

Rated R

DVD Release Date: 3/15/11

Conviction

The movie’s setting, like The Fighter and The Town, is the Boston area. Both Swank and Rockwell do commendable acting jobs, although the entire movie has a slight “Made for Lifetime television” flavor. Despite this shortcoming, the story is interesting to watch. Kenny Waters is not the most savory character, and although I wanted justice to be served, it was a little difficult to root for him. Betty Anne, a high-school dropout, sets about the 12-year journey of getting her law degree, and finally serving as Kenny’s lawyer.

Cool supporting cast members abound. Juliette Lewis plays the snaggle-toothed redneck whose testimony helps get Kenny convicted. Melissa Leo (she’s everywhere!) plays the tough cop who arrests him. Minnie Driver plays a fellow law student who becomes Betty Anne’s loyal friend.

There is some suspense in waiting to see what will happen, and during the time it takes for Betty Anne to get her law degree, the whole DNA evidence thing comes into play in the U.S. judicial system. The movie includes Betty Anne’s involvement in the “Innocence Project” and the help that she gets from Barry Scheck, played by Peter Gallagher.

You may sense a bit of lukewarmedness from me on this film. And this is so. It got some critical acclaim, got awards from the Boston Film Critics, and many critics in general, but also got panned by a number of “experts”. I thought that Swank was spectacular in Boys Don’t Cry and very very good in Million Dollar Baby (her Oscar winners), but something about her zealous conviction (get it—“conviction”) felt a bit off here. I’ve been following Sam Rockwell since I first saw him in Box of Moonlight years ago. For me, though, Conviction was neither a compelling courtroom drama, nor an investment in seeing a wrong righted. It was a pretty good movie that you may really enjoy watching.

And while I have your attention, (or not), I just want to mention another “based on a true story” movie that is coming out this week. It’s called Skin, and it’s the saga of a black girl born to white parents in South Africa during Apartheid.  She goes through infinite crises–dealing with the color issue, abuse, and identity issues–and I was keenly interested in seeing the development of these themes. The girl, Sandra Laing, is played by Sophie Okonedo, and she is very beautiful to watch, very believable, and delivers a great performance. It’s also a really unique and interesting story.  – [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

Biography/Drama/Thriller

Rated R

DVD Release Date: 2/1/11

What I am a fan of, however, is coming of age stories. That’s what really is at the heart of the film. A young man with severe and deep family issues connects to music through his mother, and to the world through music. Like August Rush with a ‘based on a true story’ tagline.

John (Aaron Johnson, from Kick-Ass), raised by his aunt (Kristin Scott Thomas) and uncle, becomes a handful when his uncle dies and he reconnects with his mother. He finds music, and within that music a sense of belonging. Family drama ensues and Lennon is left to grow up between two women, both believing they know what’s best for him. Most of the drama comes from these two relationships. Johnson does well enough as a delinquent Lennon, getting outshined a little by Scott Thomas who plays the somewhat prickly matriarch with gusto. There was a little something missing from the film as a whole, but I can’t put my finger on it, so I will just blindly warn you that something could use some tweaking.

Nowhere Boy is packed with what any die hard Beatles fan will tell you are many inaccuracies. However, if you put aside the true story, forget the legend, and think of it as just a story of a young man coming into his own, you might find it charming. – [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

Biography/Drama/Music

Rated R

DVD Release Date: 1/25/11

The Social Network

Fincher certainly seems to see the rock star story inherent in the material, infusing it with all the sex, drugs and rock-n-roll an Internet start-up could plausibly have been fueled by. But Social Network is really an Aaron Sorkin movie, and all that that implies. Sure, it’s smart, witty and insightful, but it’s also smug, misleading and pretentious. My second warning: this is one of the most misogynistic films I’ve seen in a good while. Its female characters are either groupies (they are labeled as such) or the “voices of sanity,” who nevertheless spend much of their time breathless with awed incredulity at the nonsense Sorkin Factoids ™ spilling from the mouths of the neurotic male leads (i.e. “There are more people with genius-level IQs in China than there are people of any kind in the US”). I’m reluctant to place the blame for this on Sorkin, as in this respect (among others) it bears a striking resemblance to Fincher’s last over-lauded film, Fight Club.

My third warning: I realize this review is probably sounding like a fairly hostile rant, but, even though I’m puzzled by some prominent critics who have hailed this as the Movie of the Decade, I really do think it is among the better Hollywood films of 2010. It was beautifully (and appropriately) shot digitally with the Red One Camera, with Fincher’s trademark palette of dark golds and greens. The score, by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails fame, nicely accentuates the technological underpinnings of the drama. But the most admirable thing about The Social Network is the critical eye it turns to the Internet and the new brand of mass culture it has engendered. While the interpersonal drama unfolds in the foreground, the rapid spread in the background of Facebook itself almost plays out like a disease epidemic. It’s fair to ask whether Fincher and Sorkin are demonizing the geeks who created it, but it’s also fair to ask whether Zuckerberg is really Geek Triumphant or merely Patient Zero. – [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

Biography/Drama

Rated PG-13

DVD Release Date: 1/11/2011

Kevorkian was famous for his belief that assisted suicide was a person’s right, and he believed himself to be that right’s righteous and indignant facilitator. As Kevorkian, Al Pacino has given us another fine performance, nicely toned-down from what might otherwise have been a scenery-chewing role. He shows the single-mindedness of the character, including the gruff and dismissive response to anything and anyone, even his sister and his friends, that stand in the way of what he believes is true and irreproachable mercy, on-demand.

In this shining examplar, HBO has really revealed, at least to me, what is best about its method: all the actors (here, Pacino, John Goodman, Susan Sarandon, Brenda Vaccaro, and Danny Huston) seem to relish the opportunity to simply act, dramatically and sometimes comically, in a small yet serious film. This phenomenon can be compared favorably with the great films about human beings made by the major studios in the 1970’s (Chinatown, Five Easy Pieces, The Last Picture Show, The Last Detail, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, et. al.). – [DVD]

Biography/Drama

Unrated

DVD Release Date: 10/26/10

Temple Grandin

HBO’s Temple Grandin, starring Claire Danes in the title role, offers us a glimpse of this life. It introduces its protagonist standing in the midst of a room that she reveals to be an optical illusion, giving us a taste of the visual trickery and humor the film uses, to great effect, in explaining how she perceives the world. It begins its story in the 1960’s, when Grandin first moved to Arizona to go to college and stay with her aunt and uncle at their cattle ranch. While at the ranch, she began to contemplate the world of livestock herds and how they were a reflection of cows’ evolution and perception of the world, which she carried into her later education and career. Her horror at the clumsy, inhumane design of cattle handling facilities inspired her to design her own devices and pens, taking advantage of her insight into animal psychology.

The film tells this story in a remarkably compelling and intelligent way. HBO has earned a reputation as a producer of some of the best biopics in years, including the two recent Winston Churchill films, The Gathering Storm and Into the Storm, and the epic John Adams miniseries. The director, Mick Jackson (L.A. Story), has a light but expressive touch here, finding a perfect balance between the intellectual fascination inherent in the story and the emotion and humor that grounds it in everyday reality. Danes is fantastic–she stands a fine chance of winning an Emmy and/or Golden Globe for her prickly, eccentric performance–and she is joined by a superb supporting cast. Catherine O’Hara is perfect as her smirking but indulgent aunt. Julia Ormond, always a welcome sight, expresses the hardships and fears faced by parents of autistic children without becoming a caricature herself. Best of all, perhaps, are the scenes with David Straithairn, who plays Grandin’s high school science teacher and mentor.

When I consider the emerging revolution in our understanding of neuroscience and human cognition, looking back to the 19th and 20th Centuries–when supposedly scientific crazes like phrenology and eugenics held sway–I can’t help but be relieved that such ideas have been debunked. As we are learning today, human genius can take many forms, even in ways that might once have been considered insurmountable disabilities. It’s valuable to have people like Temple Grandin to build a bridge from the minds of those with autism or Aspberger’s syndrome into the larger world. This film, apart from being entertaining as heck, does a remarkable job of building a bridge into her mind. After you watch it, you may catch yourself stopping to look at the local feedlots and their inhabitants with a renewed interest. Not many movies can manage that. – [DVD]

Biography/Drama

Rated PG

DVD Release Date: 8/17/10

Vincere tells the story of Ida Dalser (Giovanna Mezzogiorno), lover and alleged first wife to Benito Mussolini (Filippo Timi). This couple, as presented in the film in the years before World War I, is a cockeyed pair, to say the least. He is a man in need of victory and conquest. She is extremely eager to have him conquer her. She bears him a son, Benito Albino Mussolini (played in his later years, again by Timi, as a bit of a nut himself). She even sells all of her possessions to raise money for his Socialist newspaper.

This relationship eventually comes to be swept under the rug by Mussolini and his Fascist regime, and Dalser and her son are separated and sent to a mental institution and Catholic orphanage, respectively. Il Duce only acknowledges his second marriage, with Rachele Guidi. No one, including Dalser herself, seem able to produce any proof of her marriage. Throughout all of this, Mezzogiorno sustains a glint of serene madness in her eyes, her worship for the eventual dictator apparently unflagging.

Stylistically, Vincere has a madness all its own, making ingenious use of stock and newsreel footage in an almost German Expressionist style, accompanied by an aggressive, martial score by Carlo Crivelli, with its percussive string motifs and plummeting glissandos. The overall effect is unsettling but entertaining in an over-the-top, pulpy way. In the end, Vincere doesn’t really try very hard to champion Dalser’s case, but rather examines the highest and lowest paths insanity can follow in a larger society, and how those paths are too often determined by violence and gender. – [DVD]

Biography/Drama/History

Rated R

As much as Darwin is demonized by the religious right, it is important to note that he was extremely conflicted about publishing his controversial work, and very troubled, in fact, by the cruelty of the universe he was trying to make sense of. Creation’s focus is on this internal conflict, and its first half is surprisingly melancholy and psychological. Bettany’s Darwin is haunted by hallucinations of his recently deceased daughter and can’t stop dwelling on the violence and chaos he perceives in nature. The film, eager to slip inside his tormented mind, brings the audience along as he imagines, for instance, a baby bird dying and being consumed by the insects and maggots that its mother was feeding it with just minutes earlier. These sequences are the sort of thing one might expect from David Cronenberg or Werner Herzog, and are not often seen in a stately period biopic. Not only are they bold for this reason, but also because such scenes express what some find so frightening about so-called Darwinism. Kudos to the filmmakers for acknowledging this in so potent a fashion.

Later on, as Darwin engages more deeply with his wife and confronts his grief over his daughter’s death, a more contemplative and redemptive tone prevails. I found the film’s depiction of a non-believer’s grief particularly resonant. Creation is certainly not the first film I’ve seen that makes the argument that faith can be distinguished from religious belief, but it makes it particularly well. Darwin’s religious wife Emma is played by Bettany’s real-life wife Jennifer Connelly, and their relationship has an honesty and comfort to it that benefits tremendously from the leads’ natural chemistry. The external pressures on Darwin to publish or repent are offered by excellent supporting players Toby Jones and Jeremy Northam, as Thomas Huxley and Reverend John Innes, respectively. Their prickliness and pushiness reflect the tragic animosities that sometimes occur between friends separated by dogma. Ultimately, though, the film lives and dies on Bettany’s performance, and he carries it all the way. – [DVD]

Biography/Drama

Rated PG-13

DVD Release Date: 6/29/10