Contraband (1940)

Released in the United States under the title Blackout, Contraband is an early Powell/ Pressburger World War II movie, a subject and setting which the writing and directing duo would return to numerous times with more memorable movies. Set in the early months of the war this movie has a strong "quota quickie" feeling to it, is very dry in a distinctly British kind of way, and is in no hurry to get where it is going. A nominal thriller, though it really doesn't feel all the much like one until towards the end, the film star Conrad Veidt as the hero, a Danish sea captain, and one of my favorite lesser knowen leading ladies Valerie Hobson as the love interest. The night club brawl at the end, and indeed any scene with the staff of the Danish restaurant The Three Vikings, the standout and most P & P part of the movie. Tonally a lesser cousin of Night Train to Munich **1/2

Mr. Holmes (2015)

Sherlock Holmes has proven himself particularly well suited to reimagining, and Mr. Holmes gives us a perspective on the character that I don't think I'd seen before. Based on the 2005 novel A Slight Trick of Mind by American author Mitch Cullin, Mr. Holmes has two primary narratives, one concerning Sherlock's last case as a professional detective, just after the first world war, and one concerns him late into his country retirement just post world war two. In the latter narrative Holmes is fighting a gradually failing memory to record the details of his last case, one that continues to haunt him. That case proves to have shades of Hitchcock's Vertigo, as Holmes (sans Watson, who has married and left Baker street) is hired to follow a man's trouble wife, a woman who may be having supernatural visitations, may be being manipulated to think she is having them, may just be crazy, or may be something else, but who will have a profound impact on Holmes life and prompt his retirement from private investigating.

Back in the 1947 narrative Holmes in living in his country home with his house keeper (Laura Linney) and her young son (Milo Parker) with whom he develops a strong bond, and together they attempt to solve the mystery of what is killing Mr. Holmes honey bees. There is also a side plot consisting of flash backs to Holmes post WWII visit to Japan, where he went in search of  a substance that might be able to slow down the deterioration of his mental faculties.This sequences contains a moment where Holmes happens upon a young lady severely burned by an atomic bomb blast, the juxtaposition of the aging Victorian detective coming face to face with the horrors of the atomic age is quite effective.

The writing is sharp and the construction of the piece quite intricate, as is appropriate for Holmes. Ian McKellen's casting in the title role is quite the cue, surprisingly he had never played Sherlock before, and the thought of the Holmes movies a younger McKellen could have made, well the potential would have been great. This is a reteaming of McKellen with his Gods and Monsters director Bill Condon, the two seem to really click. This movies does something with the Holmes character that makes him come alive in a new way, and adds a late in life crinkle that shows him still dynamic, still developing, at the age of 93, and that's a very satisfying proportion. ***1/2

20th Century Women (2016)

This is a movie where I think one of the things I will always remember most about it is that I first saw it on January 21st 2017, the day of the massive anti-Trump women's marches around the planet. It was indeed poignant counter programing for inauguration weekend, and it is easy for me to imagine that if Hillary had won the election, this being the first film she would have shown in the White House theater. 20th Century Women is to no surprise a very feminist movie. Though it may seem ironic that the film was written and directed by a man, it is something its creator thinks of as a "love letter" to the women who raised him. Says its auteur Mike Mills: "It felt like I was raised by my mom and sisters, so I was always appealing to women in the punk scene or women in my world. I always leaned to them to figure out my life as a straight white guy. So I wanted to make a movie about that."

Set in Santa Barbara, California, the film centers on a 15 year old boy named Jamie (a solid performance from newcomer Lucas Jade Zumann) and "the women who raised him" in the summer of 1979. This triumvirate consists of his independent single mother, a drafts woman named Dorothea (Annette Bening), Abbie, a newspaper photographer and aspiring artist who rents a room in Dorothea's turn of the century home, and Julie (Elle Fanning), Jamie's childhood friend and object of some frustrated desire. The main cast is rounded out by Billy Crudup as William, an auto mechanic and another of Dorothea's tenants, who is helping her slowly renovate the house in exchange for a reduced rent.

20th Century Women is a movie in which it could be said that not a lot happens, though in fact quite a bit actually does, though its not a strongly plot driven film, rather its about the social interactions between some very well drawn characters, portrayed in fine performances all around. While the sense of period nostalgia is present, though not overplayed, the film evokes a broader nostalgia towards the shaping women in ones life. The movie moves around via narration, a few flashback (and even forward) scenes, and period footage through the lives of its characters, filling in both the back story and future fates of its principles. In doing so the movie presents itself as memory, reminiscence of a brief period, a couple of months one summer, that continue to stand out in the lives of its characters as one of those treasured moments, a perfect time that seems a touchstone for both all the came before and all that would follow. It is a film that I found to be both surprisingly powerful, and sometimes surprisingly funny. 20th Century Women fires on all cylinders, it is far from a traditional commercial property, both passionate and reflective, and left me kind of melancholy, but in a good way. Sometimes a loosely focused, kind of ambiguous text, can say more then something precisely messaged. This film really does feel like a love letter. ****

Allied (2016)

This World War II espionage film by director Robert Zemeckis is good, but feels a little late, and a little safe. I can image myself loving this movie if it came out around 2002, but this nicely constructed film sadly feels like something I've seen before, no doubt in part because we've seen Brad Pitt in a couple of really good World War II movies already. Pitt is never really that interesting in this film, at least not until towards the end when faced with the prospect that this good solders wife, and mother of his child, may in fact be a Nazi spy. Marion Cotillard has the plumb part and gives by far the most impressive performance in the film, she's enticing, yet vague, and possibly dangerous, human gossamer.

The movie takes its lead from those really good British "question the identity of your loved ones" films from during The War, like Ministry of Fear, The Adventures of Tartu, or even Night Train to Munich. There is also some of The Small Back Room here, along with Five Graves to Cairo, and a good chunk of the film is actually set in Casablanca. Zemeckis always does well with his homage and period settings, though ironically this is one of his lest distinctly Zemeckian works, it feels like the kind of film most any competent director could make. I don't blame Zemeckis for trying, in fact I think he succeeds, and what director doesn't have espionage movie, and World War II film on their moving making bucket list. This is at heart still a good movie, and I found the ending effecting enough to bump it up a half star, but it's sadly not the masterpiece it makes motions of wanting to be. Still I'd say worth seeing. ***1/2

The World According to Garp (1982)

Early Robin Williams dramady in which he stars as T. S. Garp, the "bastard son" of feminist icon Jenny Fields (Glenn Close). The film is based on the book of the same title by novelist John Irving, whose work I'm not very familiar with, but to me this movie felt a lot like something John Updike might write. Off kilter humor combines with a few shockingly difficult moments, and a deep sense of empathy for human weakness resulting in some level of profundity. There is one plot twist here which is pretty amazing, something I don't know how you get past if it happens in your life. The film is very deftly handled by George Roy Hill, a director who was something of a specialist in adapting wide ranging novels into film (Slaughterhouse-Five, Hawaii). The cast is good all around and contains some very strong work from Close, John Lithgow (who plays a transvestite), and Mary Beth Hurt, who probably should be better known then she is. Williams ably demonstrates his promise, foreshadowing later and better known dramatic roles. This movie pretty well blew me away. ****

The Accountant (2016)

This film greatly exceeded the expectations I had for it. I had been a bit on the fence about going to see it in the theater or not, but I did and was very impressed. When the movie ended, the audience clapped, in a dollar theater. That says something. I won't say too much about the plot, it's a crime movie, a thriller, has a few good moments of wry humor. The big 'twist' isn't much of a twist, I figured it out fairly early on, but the twist wasn't the point, the movie gives you the clues, it's not really trying to trick you. There is some franchise potential here but in the end I don't really want them to make a sequel, this movie stands on its own too well and anything more isn't needed. Good cast all around, Ben Affleck, Anna Kendrick, J.K. Simmons, Jon Bernthal, John Lithgow. Bill Dubuque wrote it and now I'm interested in seeing his other work. I tried but I can't think of another film quite like it, for me probably the big movie surprise of 2016. ****

Island in the Sky (1953)

Very much a product of its time, this disappointingly dry and too often boring film by the very solid director William A. Wellman, is often overshadowed by the more emotionally accessible, and color filmed, 'airplane in trouble' film he made the following year The High and the Mighty. Island in the Sky tells the story of the civilian crew of a (supply?) plane that goes down in the north of Canada during World War II, the crews efforts to survive, and the efforts of others to rescue them. The movie features a large cast headed by John Wayne, and including Lloyd Nolan, James Arness (pre  Gunsmoke), Andy Devine, and Regis Toomey, there are almost no women in this movie, it is a story about noble, if too often boring, men. There are far more engaging movies built along similar lines, and the scenes featuring the characters involved in the rescue efforts are routinely more interesting then those involving the lost crew, who I never felt all that invested in. The film is perhaps most notable as the only movie that I can recall seeing where John Wayne convincingly conveys a sense of fear in his performance, when it starts to look like he is indeed going to die in the icy wilderness. Still probably not worth you time unless your a very committed Wayne junkie. This film has the form down pat, but its lacking in emotional core. **