Lee Daniels’ The Butler

MPAA/Content R [AC, AL, SV]

Distributor The Weinstein Co.

Technical 35mm 1.85:1

Genres DRA HIS

Runtime 132 mins.

Country USA

Budget $30M

 

CAST

Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, Mariah Carey, John Cusack, Jane Fonda, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Terrence Howard, Lenny Kravitz, James Marsden, David Oyelowo, Alex Pettyfer, Vanessa Redgrave, Alan Rickman, Liev Schreiber, Robin Williams, Minka Kelly, Elijah Kelly, Yaya Alafia, David Banner & Clarence Williams III

 

CREDITS

Director: Lee Daniels;  Screenwriter: Danny Strong;  Producers: Pamela Oas Williams, Laura Ziskin, Lee Daniels, Buddy Patrick & Cassian Elwes;  Director Of Photography: Andrew Dunn;  Production Designer: Tim Galvin;  Editor: Joe Klotz;  Costume Designer: Ruth E. Carter;  Music Composer: Rodrigo Leão

 

THE SYNOPSIS

The Deep South, 1920s.  Young sharecropper Cecil Gaines learns firsthand the atrocities of the Jim Crow norms as his mother Hattie (Carey) is sexually assaulted by cotton plantation owner Thomas Westfall (Pettyfer) and his father Earl (Banner) murdered in cold blood for protesting.  Westfall’s mother (Redgrave) takes Cecil in and trains him to become a house servant.

Years later, a teenaged Cecil leaves the plantation and is apprehended for stealing food in a pastry shop by elderly caretaker Maynard (Williams III).  The benevolent man teaches Cecil the intricacies of serving others with pride, dignity—and a less resentful facade.  Eventually, a matured Cecil (Whitaker) accepts a position (based on Maynard’s earnest recommendation) at a prestigious Washington, D.C. hotel in the early 1950s.

Cecil meets and marries Gloria (Winfrey) and produces sons Louis & Charlie.  The Gaines Family enjoys a Post-War middle-class lifestyle in Baby Boomer America when he is hired to work at the White House.  There, Cecil meets and befriends fellow butlers Carter Wilson (Gooding Jr.) and James Holloway (Kravitz).  He also serves President Dwight D. Eisenhower (Williams) and sees firsthand the difficult decisions that the Commander-In-Chief makes on a daily basis.

Oldest son Louis (Oyelowo) heads off to a Southern college and becomes involved in the budding Civil Rights Movement when spurred on by new girlfriend Carol (Alafia).  They are constantly arrested, berated & beaten.  Cecil is angered by his son’s anarchic ways and confronts him.  At home, Gloria—angered by her son’s problems and her husband’s long hours away from home—turns to alcohol and has a brief affair with their smoothie neighbor Howard (Howard)

The 1960s ushers in new hope as John F. Kennedy (Marsden) becomes President and Cecil’s cache rises in the White House.  After Kennedy’s assassination and Lyndon B. Johnson’s (Schreiber) ascent to power in 1963, Cecil hopes that his son Louis will mature.  No such luck—especially after the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy in 1968.

Cecil serves President Richard M. Nixon (Cusack) with stoic dignity while Louis joins the Black Panthers and younger son Charlie joins the Army…only to be killed in Vietnam soon after.  Louis skips the funeral and that father-son rift is cemented for many years to come.

The 1970s sees Cecil attain the Maître d’hôtel (or Head Butler) position.  Louis has gone back to school and received advanced degrees in Polital Science.  He runs for Congress and wins.  By the 1980s, and the advent of President W. Ronald Reagan (Rickman) and benevolent First Lady Nancy (Fonda)—Cecil has decided to retire from his position.  It is at this time that he and Louis reconnect and the Gaines Family is (almost) whole again.

In 2009, a widowed Cecil is again summoned to the White House—this time to meet the incumbent President Barack H. Obama.  It is a proud day for the retired butler.

 

THE CRITIQUE

LEE DANIELS’ THE BUTLER may be the first movie in cinema history where the butler actually didn’t do it!  Seriously, it is an earnest character-driven piece replete with top-notch acting, plenty of name-face cameos and almost succeeds as a noble attempt at personifying the American Civil Rights Movement through the eyes of a humble and honorable black man situated in a very unique perch: The White House.

Inspired by true events (but running on a smudgy tangent all its own), the earnest screenplay by Danny Strong (a prolific actor-turned-screenwriter) is based on a Washington Post article by writer (and Associate Producer) Will Haygood titled “A Butler Well Served by This Election”—profiling the amazing career of real White House butler Eugene Allen (1919-2010)—who worked at the White House from 1952-1986 and serviced (in various capacities leading up to Head Butler, or Maître d’hôtel) an astonishing eight Presidents and their families.  Simply amazing!

Directed with conviction by budding auteur Lee Daniels (Shadowboxer, Precious, The Paperboy), THE BUTLER is more than just a story of America’s Shame; more than a historical look at life in the White House; more than class distinction and skin color.  It is a story of character; a story of morality; and, in essence: a story of fathers and sons—the Generation Gap.  Daniels understands this and devotes much time to this dichotomy.

By combining the pageantry of the White House with the intimate drama of the domestic front, we see that his Butler can/must be two different entities when the manner calls for it—again, that dichotomy.  Kudos to Daniels and Strong for presenting the blight of America’s Racism in honest fashion—but also doing it in a manner that showcases the heroism and hope as well the pain and heartache.

[Color, creed, religion, yada yada yada…the way I see it: black or white or brown or yellow—we’re all pink on the inside!  So let’s all get along, people!  I’m getting off the soapbox now.]

The cast of famous faces is top-notch, with Oscar^®-winning (for 2006’s The Last King Of Scotland) actor Forest Whitaker anchoring the acting forum together.  Watching the struggles that Whitaker’s Cecil endures both internally as well as externally is a fascinating look at an actor whose character is basically putting on an act of stoic servitude.

Supporting cast members Cuba Gooding Jr. (an Oscar^®-winner himself for 1996’s Jerry Maguire) and rockster Lenny Kravitz are stellar in their roles as Cecil’s co-workers/close friends while the standout performer laurel must go to classically-trained stage/film British actor David Oyelowo—who, as the Gaines’ politically-charged older son, steals the movie in my opinion.  This young man brings tension, pride and veritas to a role that could have been played histrionically to worse effect.  I hope that he is recognized with some nominations come awards season.

The casting of famous faces for the roles of our Presidents, on the other hand, is a bit of a head-scratcher to me.  With the exception of the great Alan Rickman almost physically resembling the Gipper (Ronald Reagan) and Liev Schreiber (Lyndon B. Johnson) capturing the fiery Texan’s essence (and his odd bathroom habits), I didn’t buy totally Robin Williams (an Oscar^®-winner for 1997’s Good Will Hunting) as Dwight D. Eisenhower nor the Dorian Gray-handsome James Marsden as the dashing John F. Kennedy—though at least the Haahvaad accent is firmly in place.

The worst of the lot is the miscasting of the always reliable John Cusack as Tricky Dicky himself, Richard Milhouse Nixon—replete with bad impression to boot.  Wah?  Hey, no offense to these fine actors—one and all.  I get why they were cast (name recognition for the marketing and acting cache for the rest), but filmmakers…how about a more believable set of thespians to bring me back to those time periods?  Was Greg Kinnear too busy to become JFK again?

Lastly, though I was never a fan of her preening daytime talk show, Oprah Winfrey once again proves that she is a terrific actress in the right setting.  Much like she did in The Color Purple (1985), Oprah runs through a gamut of emotions with skill—culminating in her poignant final scene…sure to get some award nominations.  Damned good acting, O!

Production values for the $30 million (boxofficemojo.com) film are top-shelf across the board.  It was filmed in and around New Orleans, LA (subbing for the Jim Crow South and Washington, D.C.) by veteran British cinematographer Andrew Dunn (The Bodyguard, The Madness of King George, Precious)—who successfully utilizes warm & cool tones to convey both the nostalgia of the eras as well as their turbulent antitheses.

Kudos are also in order for Production Designer Tim Galvin (TV’s Parenthood, The Spanish Prisoner) and his crew for recreating the White House in great detail.  Come to think of it, beside Antoine Fuqua’s exciting Olympus Has Fallen and Roland Emmerich’s bombastic White House Down, LEE DANIELS’ THE BUTLER is the third movie of 2013 to feature the grand domicile—though it doesn’t get blown to shreds in this one!

All told, this movie is a respectable attempt at personifying the changing mores of our nation throughout the middle decades of the 20^th Century.  While the movie is based on true historical events (on the grand scale), it is merely “inspired” by a portion of Eugene Allen’s life (the small scale).  Here is where the aforementioned smudging of the details comes into play.  People have seen this movie and stated that this was reality.  No, no no.  As with any tales based on true-life people or events, dramatic license must be taken in order to preserve the essence of the story. Case in point: Eugene Allen had one son—not two.  Shall I continue?

Still, based on wonderful performances from the cast—and the filmmakers’ earnestness with presenting the material in a more cinematic fashion, this one gets a favorable score.  My only question is: why the clumsy title?  Originally to be released simply as THE BUTLER, Warner Bros. Pictures filed a claim with the MPAA stating that they owned the name based on a 1916 film under their license.  So, the distributor of this film was allowed to use the present moniker instead.

But why not call it The President’s Butler instead?  It’s a better title in my humble opinion!

 

THE BOTTOM LINE

LEE DANIELS’ THE BUTLER is an earnest, character-driven slice of Americana (for better or worse) told through the pervasive eye of the Civil Rights Movement and validated by terrific performances throughout—yes, Forest Whitaker nails it again!  A smudging of the factual facts keeps this one out of Biographical Heaven (and possibly out of any serious screenplay award categories), but should otherwise make a nice run during awards season with very little hassle.

 

 

IMDB:                    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1327773/

Wikipedia:             http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Butler

Official Site:          http://www.weinsteinco.com/sites/leedanielsthebutler/

Paranoia

MPAA/Content PG-13 [AC, AL, V]

Distributor Relativity Media

Technical HD 2.35:1

Genre(s) DRA/THR

Runtime 106 mins.

Country USA

Budget $35M

 

CAST

Liam Hemsworth, Harrison Ford, Gary Oldman, Amber Heard, Lucas Till, Embeth Davidtz, Julian McMahon, Josh Holloway & Richard Dreyfuss

 

CREDITS

Director: Robert Luketic;  Screenwriters: Jason Hall & Barry L. Levy;  Producers: Alexandra Milchan, Scott Lambert, William D. Johnson & Deepak Nayar;  Director Of Photography: David Tattersall;  Production Designers: David Brisbin & Missy Stewart;  Editor: Dany Cooper;  Costume Designer: Luca Mosca;  Music Composer: Junkie XL

 

THE SYNOPSIS

NYC.  Adam Cassidy (Hemsworth) is low-level computer wiz who works for a tech corporation run by the pithy Nicholas Wyatt (Oldman).  Fired for insubordination, he gathers his now-unemployed crew—including best pal Kevin (Till)—and blows a small fortune on the company credit card as payback.  Wyatt’s sinister enforcer Meechum (McMahon) blackmails Adam into working as a corporate spy for Wyatt and his right-hand woman, Judith Bolton (Davidtz).

Fearful of being blackballed or arrested—and thus unable to provide for his ill father, Frank (Dreyfuss)—Adam agrees to infiltrate the tech firm of Wyatt’s former mentor-turned-enemy Jock Goddard (Ford).  He does so by meeting and seducing Goddard’s Director of Marketing Emma Jennings (Heard), whom he eventually develops real feelings for.

Turns out that the seemingly benevolent Goddard has a serpentine side as it is revealed that he stole many of Wyatt’s ideas and created hi-tech gadgets that have netted his firm billions of dollars. Adam is cornered by FBI Agent Gamble (Holloway), who notifies him of the deaths of three other former Wyatt employees who went to work for Goddard.

Meechum threatens to kills Frank if Adam does not steal Goddard’s top-secret prototype cell phone and proves it by running Kevin over with his car.  He survives—but the message is clear.  Also, Emma breaks up with Adam when she discovers that he has played her.

With things at their worst, Adam breaks into his firm’s hi-tech vault and is cornered by Goddard himself—who knew that Adam was a spy all along.  Goddard forces Wyatt & Bolton to meet with him and Adam to settle affairs—and that’s when the claws come out.  However, Adam has a few surprises up his own sleeve.

 

THE CRITIQUE

Despite an eye-catching trailer and hip marketing campaign, PARANOIA comes up short a few gigabytes short as a full-on movie-going experience.  Even the timely theme of technology run amok—or more precisely, tech moguls gone amok —is zapped of any potency no thanks to a pedestrian screenplay by scribes Jason Hall and Barry L. Levy (Vantage Point)…which was based on the 2004 novel by Joseph Finder.

According to the production notes, the filmmakers sought to examine the novel’s heady themes of corporate excess, ethical boundaries of data surveillance and greedy CEOs who always get their way.  Something must’ve got lost in the translation—because what appears on-screen is nothing more than a pissing contest between the tech CEOs played by Ford & Oldman…with lead actor Hemsworth caught in the middle for the proverbial splashdown.

Speaking of the cast, up-and-comer Aussie Liam Hemsworth has the looks, charisma and developing talent to go on to much better roles in his career.  As it stands here, it is lucky for him that PARANOIA is more of an ensemble picture.  He shares the screen with icons Gary Oldman (a terrific actor stuck in an underdeveloped role) and Harrison Ford (a terrific star who’s not doing what he does best when playing a villain)—both of whom played opposite each other in Wolfgang Petersen’s stellar Air Force One (1997).

Of the supporting cast, actress Amber Heard does her part in a reactionary role—as does Josh Holloway, who is barely utilized in the finished movie.  Julian McMahon’s enforcer definitely had the sinister part down—but again, not a fully-fleshed out character by any means.  This leaves us with the Oscarâ-winning actor Richard Dreyfuss, who plays papa Frank with quiet, blue-collar dignity—in essence, the soul of the movie…and, the righteous antithesis of Hemsworth’s paternas dichotomia in Oldman & Ford.  It’s too bad that this once great actor has been reduced to such small roles…

The $35 million PARANOIA (boxofficemojo.com) is helmed with workman-like craft by veteran Aussie director Robert Luketic (Legally Blonde, 21, Killers), who earns some kudos for trying to visualize the weak script into a more kinetic movie—accentuated by some nice cutting by veteran editor Dany Cooper (Queen Of The Damned).

Production values are easily the movie’s selling-points—with top marks going towards veteran British cinematographer David Tattersall (Star Wars: Episodes I-III, The Green Mile) for his crisp, technocratic HD-widescreen lensing and attractive production design by Production Designers David Brisbin (Drugstore Cowboy, The Exorcism Of Emily Rose, Sinister) & Missy Stewart (Legally Blonde, 21, Killers).

Everyone in the movie (with the exception of Dreyfuss, it seems) gets to dwell in snazzy cribs—very much ultra-modern chic design by Armani Casa.  This extends to the stylish threads worn by lead Hemsworth—courtesy of veteran Italian costumer Luca Mosca (Vantage Point, 21, Premium Rush).  Yo Luca, how’s about decking me out in some fashionable threads?  I’ll easily look a foot taller!

Finally, though set in New York City, most PARANOIA was obviously shot in and out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  So my question is, why not just set it in Philly?  Moot point for a lousy flick, I know…

 

THE BOTTOM LINE

The moral of PARANOIA is that greed is not good—and that technology will be the downfall of humanity.  Well, not really—but I’m sure that’s what the filmmakers intended!  Solid production values, glossy lensing and a good-looking cast cannot save this tepid retread of other (and better) techno-thrillers.  At least the cribs and threads look nice!

 

 

IMDB:             http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1413495/

Wikipedia:     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranoia_(2013_film)

Official Site:   http://paranoiamovie.com/

Jobs

MPAA/Content PG-13 [AC, AL]

Distributor Open Road Films

Technical HD 2.35:1

Genre(s) BIO DRA

Runtime 127 mins.

Country USA

Budget $12M

 

CAST

Ashton Kutcher, Dermot Mulroney, Josh Gad, Lukas Haas. J.K. Simmons, Lesley Ann Warren, Ron Eldard, Ahna O’Reilly, John Getz, James Woods, Kevin Dunn, Robert Pine & Matthew Modine

 

CREDITS

Director: Joshua Michael Stern;  Screenwriter: Matt Whiteley;  Producer: Mark Hulme;  Director Of Photography: Russell Carpenter;  Production Designer: Freddy Waff;  Editor: Robert Komatsu;  Costume Designer: Lisa Jensen;  Music Composer: John Debney

 

THE SYNOPSIS

2001: Apple Computer CEO Steven P. Jobs (Kutcher) gives his staff a presentation on a revolutionary new music player called the “iPod”.

1974: Young, hippy Steve Jobs hangs out at Oregon’s Reed College, but has dropped his curriculum.  He audit classes at the behest of his mentor, Dean Jack Dudman (Woods)—who sees something special in the young man.  Befriending fellow student Daniel Kottke (Haas), the two head over to India for some barefoot soul-searching & LSD trips.

1976: While working at Atari, Steve hooks up with childhood friend Steve “Woz” Wozniak (Gad)—a Hewlett Packard computer wiz—to develop their own computer.  A new company is born: Apple…and their first headquarters is located in the garage of his adopted parents’—Paul (Getz) & Clara (Warren)—California home.  Daniel joins them, as do a few other computer geeks/buddies and a motorcycle-riding computer engineer named Rod Holt (Eldard).  A visionary investor, Mike Markkula (Mulroney), ponies up the cash to create, market & distribute the new Apple computer.

1977-1980: Apple becomes a very successful company—making Steve, Woz, Mike and a few other chosen employees very wealthy.  Marginalized by an increasingly-erratic Steve are his pregnant girlfriend Chris-Ann (O’Reilly) and Kottke—both of whom leave Steve.  Chris-Ann eventually gives birth to their daughter Lisa—whom Steve will shun for many years—but yet names Apple’s next computer the “Lisa”.

1981-1985: Apple has gone public…which brings in more wealth and more headaches—as Steve battles his Board.  They advise Steve to bring in a new CEO to run the company, so he chooses Pepsi honcho John Sculley (Modine), a financial & marketing wizard.  Things come to a head in 1984, when Steve launches the Macintosh Computer…a new design that (early on) stalls in sales.  Steve is forced out of his own company—the same one that a weary Woz left a while back.

1996-2001: An older, wiser Steve Jobs is married with a son—and has accepted his daughter Lisa into the fold.  He created another computer firm, NeXT—which he just sold to Apple!  Current CEO Gil Amelio (Dunn) and Markkula convince Steve to return to Apple as a consultant.  Shrewdly, Jobs aligns himself with top talent (like design maven Jonathan Ive) and influential Board Members like Edgar S. Woolard, Jr. (Pine)—and reclaims the throne by removing Amelio, Markkula and anyone else on the Board responsible for his ouster.

His first decree to his organization?  Think Different.

 

THE CRITIQUE

Archimedes.  Leonardo Da Vinci.  Johannes Gutenberg.  Alexander Graham Bell.  Nikola Tesla.  Thomas Edison.  David Sarnoff.  Steve Jobs.  Titans of technology…men of vision who succeeded in their respective fields.

The biopic JOBS does not posit Steve Jobs (1955-2011) as the most-influential technology maven of the 20^th century—the rest of us (i.e. humanity) are here to vouch for that statement.  Instead, the movie—written by first-time screenwriter Matt Whiteley—paints the man’s life in the broad strokes of a digital slide presentation.  Why only cover his life up until 2001?  Jobs’ made even greater strides in the last 10 years of his life…  Hello, iMac!  Yo, iTunes Store!

Though very frustrating, I get it.  When making a biopic, what ultimately suffers is a magnification of the usual compression issues.  In other words, filmmakers have to choose what to showcase and what not to in the interest of creating an exhibition-friendly 2-hour movie.  Especially in today’s brutal exhibition market.

As all of the blame cannot be thrust upon the screenwriter alone, we must turn to director Joshua Michael Stern (Swing Vote)—who must have made many of these choices.  Granted—and I will say this in the filmmakers’ defense: Apple provided NO help or consultation during the course of production.  Whiteley and Stern culled their material from books, articles & interviews with a few Jobs’ friends and early Apple employees—but not Woz, Markkula (who hated the script) nor Jobs’ family.  As I understand it, Woz was offered a consulting position on this production but declined, as he is working with writer Aaron Sorkin (Oscar^®-winner for The Social Network) on another Steve Jobs biopic over at Sony.  Who knows if that project will ever come to pass…

At the very least, Stern gets some mileage out of his cast.  Foremost is Ashton Kutcher—who bears an uncanny resemblance to Jobs himself.  He hits some points (the quirks) but misses others (the charismatic Jobs had a notoriously-Machiavellian dark side that uneased even his closest allies).  What I wanted from Kutcher (and the filmmakers) was a deeper understanding of what drove Steve Jobs.  Was it the fact that he was an orphan?  Was it too much LSD?  Was it the lack of hygiene back in the day?  Help me out!  (And whip out the iSoap while we’re at it!)

Luckily, Joshua Gads’ sensitive performance as the other Steve (Woz) acts as ballast.  I also liked Mulroney, Modine and even J.K. Simmons’ antagonistic role as real-life Apple board member and investor Arthur Rock.  Too bad we did not get enough of Eldard’s Ron Holt—the motorcycle dude with a bad-ass attitude and genius disposition.  He was amusing.

Tech credits are actually quite solid across the board for a movie made on a $12-million budget (boxofficemojo.com).  Though I am not a fan of HD lensing, my hat comes off to veteran cinematographer Russell Carpenter (Oscar^®-winner for 1997’s Titanic; also shot movies like Hard Target & True Lies) for creating a pleasant, widescreen palette that changes with the decades.  Of note, Carpenter performed cameraman duties on JOBS’ US shoot while Indian cinematographer Aseem Bajaj performed those duties for the sequences shot (guerilla-style) in India.

Time periods flow thanks to good cutting by editor Robert Komatsu (Frost/Nixon) while production design under newbie Freddy Waff and costumes by veteran Lisa Jensen (Mannequin, Grumpy Old Men & Swing Vote) bring verisimilitude to the entire cine-schema.  The ‘70s look like the ‘70s; the ’80s feels like the ‘80s…etc.  These facets are, of course, abetted by a strong soundtrack featuring artists like Cat Stevens, Joe Walsh, Bob Dylan & REO Speedwagon.

Considering how vast the Cult Of Apple is—it boggles my mind that no one (other than my younger brother & I) actually went to see this movie.  Perhaps the movie-going public would prefer to see Ashton Kutcher on TV ads, hawking cameras than on the big screen—or tweet him on Twitter…both of which don’t require the purchase of a movie ticket, by the way.

I guess that to really understand/appreciate/loathe/admire the late Steve Jobs, one must read author Walter Isaacson’s highly-regarded biography, Steve Jobs—sanctioned by the man himself as a way to validate his legacy.  For me, Jobs’ legacy lives on in all of the Apple products I use—like the Mac I wrote this review on!

 

THE BOTTOM LINE

JOBS is a noble attempt at encapsulating one of the 20^th Century’s most dynamic innovators, but comes up short.  A truncated screenplay structure and a director who doesn’t go for the gusto is to blame.  All is not a total loss, however, as Kutcher’s uncanny resemblance to the real Steve Jobs—and a solid supporting cast—helps the viewer get a taste of what could have been had the filmmakers not gone the cliché route…but instead tried to “think differently”.

IMDB:              http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2357129/

Wikipedia:      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jobs_(film)

Official Site:    http://jobsthefilm.com/