The Best Movies of 2014 Pt. II

Thank you to all the readers who made it through Part I.  Welcome to Part II where we count down the best acting performances of the year.  I think it is fair to say that 2014 was the year of the actor, but unfortunately not the year of the actress.  Although there are amazing female actresses in Hollywood, screenwriters just don't write as many interesting female leads as they write male leads.  Hopefully this trend can change, because actresses like Shailene Woodley, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Marion Cotillard, Carie Coon, and Rosamund Pike prove that all good female parts don't go to Meryl Streep.  We have a lot of great actresses some which made this list and others such as Elizabeth Moss, Jenny Slate, Laura Dern, and Reese Witherspoon who did not.  

As for the men, this was one of the hottest contested best actor debates in recent memory.  Beyond the controversy of who actually won the award there were about 10 actors who deserved to be nominated.  In my list I bring up performances such as Miles Teller and Jack O'Connell and leave off names like Benedict Cumberbatch.  

Extra note:  I have not seen Wild, Still Alice, Two Days One Night, and Mr. Turner.  So to the talented actors like Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern, Julianne Moore, and Timothy Spahl, I apologize.  Here is the list starting with Number 30.

Bill Nighy in Pride

30.  Bill Nighy in Pride

One reviewer called Bill Nighy's performance "taciturn shyness," which I believe is very apt.  Nighy turns in the most subtle performance on his career by playing his most human character.  He manages to be funny and naive while still maintaining the gravitas that goes along with his career. Nighy Interview

29.  Essie Davis in The Babadook

I am not a huge fan of horror films but to deny Essie Davis accolades would be a travesty.  Davis plays a mother dealing an erratic son who is preoccupied by an imaginary monster.  After reading a terrifying storybook, Mister Babadook, the monster is anything but imaginary.  Davis manages to transcend regular horror cliches to deliver an honest mother stuck in extraordinary circumstances.  

28.  Steve Carell in Foxcatcher 

In Foxcatcher, Steve Carell proves that he isn't a one trick pony by playing the psychotic schizophrenic John Du Pont.  Beyond his nose, which goes along to distinguish the once boss of The Office, Carell excels in the moments of genuine terror by emphasizing the minute.  He is one scary, crazy SOB in this film.  

27.  Agata Trzebuchowska in Ida

Although I did not fall head over heals for this movie, I was struck by a performance similar to that of Macon Blair in Blue Ruin and the lead of Copenhagen.  Trzebuchowska plays the timid lead and she succeeds in her attempts to be small and yet likable.  She holds the screen audience captive as she creates a story of love, despair, and grief all in the face of belief.  This is enough to give her a space on the list, but more that this talent is the fact that she isn't an actress.  She was spotted in a cafe by the producer and hired on look alone.  Ida Trailer

26.  Tom Hardy in The Drop

R.I.P. James Gandolfini

Most people would put Hardy on this list for his performance in Locke this year, but I wasn't impacted the same way the critics were.  I, instead, found him delightful in the final James Gandolfini film, The Drop.  Hardy plays a barkeep, a quiet loner searching for companionship and for trust.  Hardy shows that he is more than a bulky villain by playing a weakling with a hidden dark side.  

25.  Brendan Gleeson in Calvary

My friend Alex Doser told me to watch both Calvary & The Babadook this year and while I wasn't blown away by the films, I was enthralled by both films lead character.  Gleeson plays an Irish priest who watches his livelihood and his morality slip away after receiving a death threat.  Gleeson's measured performance allows a slow moving movie to have depth and turns an ordinary script into a morality play dealing with one man's life.  

24.  Jack O'Connell in Starred Up

O'Connell made waves this year by starring in the blockbuster Unbroken, but he shows his considerable acting talent in two other british films '71 and here in Starred Up.  The entire movie takes place within a UK prison and deals with O'Connell who has recently been moved to the prison.  The film is difficult to watch and realistically violent, but O'Connell shows that he isn't just another pretty face.  I would hate to meet this character on the street.  Starred Up Trailer

23.  Shailene Woodley in The Fault in Our Stars

Woodley is perhaps the best young actress in Hollywood today.  In Stars, she captures screen magic by holding an implausible, by engrossing script together.  Both Woodley and her screen counterpart Elgort shine in a sentimental piece with real heart.  As one reviewer wrote, "She is a fully realized young woman who's more than just the sum of her symptoms."  

22.  Frederikke Dahl Hansen in Copenhagen 

I love this performance and it took me hours to figure out why.  I believe that it comes from her wise yet tremendously vulnerable portrayal of a 14-year-old searching for life and love.  There are shades of Scarlett Johansson in Lost in Translation and in one very affective and provocative karaoke scene, Hansen masks her inhibitions by being extremely open and awkward (in the best of ways).   Karaoke Scene

21.  Ethan Hawke in Boyhood

Much like the rest of the cast, although Boyhood only took a few weeks a year, it still shows great strength to play the same character for over a decade, but Hawke excels much in the same way he does in the Before Sunset trilogy.  At one point in the film, Hawke says to his son "life doesn't have bumpers," and neither do the characters in this film, they have rough edges and awkward character traits which make them uneasy protagonists, but Hawke takes these edges and uses sandpaper of the soul to produce am entirely honest and human performance.  

20.  Mark Ruffalo in Foxcatcher

Who would have ever thought that the love interest in 13 Going On 30 would be a hollywood heartthrob and more importantly an incredibly talented actor ten years later?  We saw a brief glimpse of talent in the film The Last Castle and then again in Zodiac, but it wasn't until recently that Mark Ruffalo took his spot in the sunshine.  In Foxcatcher both he and Channing Tatum play brothers convincingly, but it isn't their love for each other that makes them a force on the screen.  it is Ruffalo's collected and reserved order that makes the pairing work.  Alongside the cute indie music film Begin Again, this was a good year to be Mark Ruffalo.  

19.  Miles Teller in Whiplash

As part of the second leg of my favorite young actors trio (Shailene Woodley and Brie Larson) Teller shines once again when he is given actual material to work with.  This year also gave us The Awkward Moment and Two Night Stand, but more importantly it gave us Teller as the lead in Whiplash.  He is superb as the young wannabe jazz drummer.  Teller supplies the other half of a whirlwind performance duo with JK Simmons as he pounds the drums as if his life depended on it.  

18.  Gugu Mbatha-Raw in Beyond the Lights/Belle

After ten years of bouncing around british drama, Mbatha-Raw had a very nice coming out party here in america.  Not only was she captivating in the Victorian race drama Belle, but even more so in the music love story Beyond the Lights.  Although both films were small on the national scale that doesn't diminish the acting potential that Raw shows.  In her best moments on screen Raw excels ironically as her last name suggests with raw emotion.  Although stuck in two strict worlds, victorian England and a rigid "artistic" music scene, she gives the screen graceful eloquence without falling into the cliche. The Power of Belle

17.  Macon Blair in Blue Ruin  

If I said Macon Blair and you said, "who," I would completely understand.  His ten year career boasts not a single film you've ever heard of, unless you saw 2007's Murder Party (also directed by Jeremy Saulnier director of Blue Ruin aka his best friend).  Blair is perfect in the lead role of Dwight.  He is emblematic of the "everyman" assassin, the character trait of a regular guy going to extreme lengths, but where Blair differs is in his skiddish, scared, timid reaction to his own atrocities.  Blair doesn't blend in with the stereotype, he stands out in such a way that we can never really cheer for his acts of vengeance all the way completely understanding his thought process.  "I Killed Him" Scene

16.  Edward Norton in Birdman

Norton shines in Birdman as he plays, well, Edward Norton.  The part, similar to the role given to his counterpart Michael Keaton, posits all the worst forms of the stereotypes generally associated with Edward Norton.  But he truly shines in his moments on a broadway balcony with Emma Stone.  It is here that we see the guttural truths hidden behind both the character he plays and perhaps the man he is in actuality.  Even though Keaton walks through times square in his underpants, he isn't the only actor in the film who is naked.  

15.  Marion Cotillard in The Immigrant

Nominated by the Academy for Two Days, One Night, I am sure she shines, but the movie I saw her in was the tossed away gem of the year, The Immigrant.  Supported on both sides by a really genuine version of Joaquin Phoenix and a passable Jeremy Renner, Cotillard plays Ewa, a Polish immigrant thrust into prostitution in 20's Manhattan while trying to get back to her sister stuck in detention on Ellis Island.  As usual, Cotillard steals scenes with a tenacity only marred by a sharp fragility.  She takes what is a simple pretty film and turns it into something beautiful.    

14.  Andy Serkis in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes isn't an action film.  Actually it's a film about sign language until it later turns into an action movie.  One of these days the Academy will wise up and create a motion capture Oscar so Andy Serkis can sweep up.  No one does this better and what Serkis brings to Dawn is humanity so eagerly missing in many of his human counterparts.  I don't like Planet of the Apes movies, but I really liked this one and it is entirely due to Serkis.  The Making of...

13.  Rene Russo in Nightcrawler

If you were wondering if Rene Russo still has "it" look no further than a night out with Jake Gyllenhaal at a mexican restaurant in Nightcrawler.  After a self imposed exile for the past eight years (other than a small part in the Thor films) she returns in Nightcrawler with the same dry wit, the same cool as a cucumber persona, but here she is turned into a reluctant accomplice of sorts.  She succeeds so well in this role because she doesn't steer towards stereotype when that is easily on her horizon.  Instead she portrays the media with dark necessity, like a lioness who hasn't eaten in days.  

12.  Carrie Coon in Gone Girl

Other than the actors in the best actor category this was by far the biggest snub of 2014.  The newcomer to the screen (having appeared on broadway for years) is captivating as Ben Affleck's sister in Gone Girl.  She is loving, supportive, hilarious, and smart.  She reacts with spitfire precision and quick, but foundational observations.  Although she may not be the "girl" everyone talks about when they see Gone Girl she is hardly stuck in the background.  Move over Meryl Streep, you know you were bad in Into the Woods, give up your spot to someone with real talent…at least this year.  

11.  Patricia Arquette in Boyhood

I could copy and paste what I said about Ethan Hawke here because Patricia Arquette does it the same, only she out performs her male counterpart.  Arquette is a driving force in my movie of the year who not only let's us in on the tumultuous ups and downs of the characters life, but let's us watch her age on screen, a faux pas for the majority of females in film.  Thank you Patricia Arquette for your grace and for your honesty.  

10.  Tilda Swinton in Only Lovers Left Alive/Snowpiercer

It is disturbing to know that Tilda Swinton has only ever been nominated for one Academy Award (thank goodness she won) for Michael Clayton.  Swinton is the epitome of eloquent reverence for a time forgotten, almost like she's gone back in time and taken back all the good male roles that could've gone to women.  I would go so far as to say move over Cate Blanchett, Tilda Swinton is the modern version of a Hepburn.  In Snowpiercer, she was hysterical, owning every second of screen time she was given, but it was in Only Lovers Left Alive where she plays a centuries old vampire that she truly shines (forgive the double entendre).  Swinton, who plays Eve sells romance with commonplace understanding as if we all should understand the necessity for everlasting love, but she does so in a trance-like state, like a jazz song that inhabits your whole body when you listen to it.  I wait on baited breathe for the 2016 Hail, Caesar which will combine Clooney with Swinton once more.  Tilda Swinton Interview

9.  Kiera Knightley in The Imitation Game

I'm as shocked as anyone else to find Knightley as far up on my list as she happens to be.  I was also shocked to learn that she can sing (although her fake playing the guitar in Begin Again is super distracting).  However getting her out of victorian period clothing and sticking her into WWII drab suits her really well.  I did not fall in love with either Benny Cumbo or the film as a whole, but I was ensorcelled by Knightley's performance.  She play's Joan Clarke with quite confidence and honest frivolity creating a character who matches her wits with her kind personality.  I was very impressed. 

8.  David Oyelowo in Selma

David Oyelowo should have been nominated for best actor.  There I said it, strike me down if you must.  Oyelowo does the impossible in Selma, a british actor playing one of the most important men of the 21st century and he cannot fall into an impression or else be marked as uncaring and irrelevant.  The latter description does not come close to describing Oyelowo.  Instead he brings voice to a new generation in such a need for the words of Dr. King, but without an understanding of it.  Not only does Oyelowo do an impeccable job of matching Dr. King's tempo and ferocity, but dives deeper to find his compassion and his suffering.  Selma will live long after this year of films, but not because of a director or a controversy or a song or a speech, but because a new generation has heard Dr. King's essence again and longs to hear it more.  

7.  Felicity Jones in The Theory of Everything 

"I thought Felicity Jones was me," said Jane Hawking after watching the actress portray her on film.  That pretty much sums up the accomplishment that Felicity Jones has been able to produce.  I did not think I was going to like The Theory of Everything as much as I did and while Eddie Redmayne stands out for his performance, Felicity Jones is right there behind him.  Jones portrays a confident resilience to whatever obstacle thrown in her way and what makes her even more intriguing to watch is that she never stops being a crowd pleaser.  As an affair begins in the film (one which subsequently ends due to Hawking's restraint) we cheer for Jones and yet feel her subtle attempts to hold her family together.  A superb performance of the portrayal of an outstanding woman.  Felicity and Jane

6.  Eddie Redmayne in The Theory of Everything

Beyond the charisma and the kindness that Redmayne lends to Stephen Hawking, his ability to hold an audience even while he loses the ability to speak; speaks volumes to his level of commitment to the part.  In the same way that Andy Serkis molds his body to perform his characters, Redmayne takes it one step further to portray the humanity of a man who is losing his physical characteristics to act like a man.  It is simply astounding and while I would not have given him the Oscar for Best Actor, I cannot argue with the choice.  

5.  Michael Keaton in Birdman

God it must take balls to do that.  Tabitha: "He's a Hollywood clown in a lycra bird suit."  Mike: "Yes, he is, but he's going out on that stage and risking everything."  To call Birdman ambitious or to call Michael Keaton brave for playing himself would be the understatements of the year.  Keaton is brave for playing himself, but he isn't at the same time, because Riggan Thomson may follow a similar path to that of Keaton, but he is certainly a different man.  Keaton is spectacular as Thompson and exposes a side of himself that we have never seen before.  In the past he was funny or he was wise or he was mature, but here he is anything but (we do laugh, but it is at him usually rather than with him).  As the sports radio host Tony Kornheiser said, "When he walks through times square in his underwear, that's the moment, the moment when you realize that not everyone can be an actor."  My hat is off to you Mr. Keaton.  You have exposed the raw underbelly of the tortured soul of an actor.  It was painful, but it was also a joy to witness.  

4.  Bradley Cooper in American Sniper

Damn that fake baby.  Bradley Cooper is simply stellar as Chris Kyle in American Sniper, and in a way he is hardly recognizable.  A long distance has certainly passed between The Hangover goofball and the Wedding Crashers jackass.  He carries this film on his back.  It is tense, gripping, and vivid to see the war through his eyes.  I don't care if you like the film, you cannot deny the performance of Cooper.  As he goes through his battles, both professional and private, he does so with such a sense of broken human morality that we can both hate him, love him, idolize him, and weep for him all at the same time.

3.  Rosamund Pike in Gone Girl

The final three performances on this list are three of the creepiest, most disturbing characters that I've seen on film since Ralph Fiennes played Amon Goeth in Schindler's List.  We start off with Rosamund Pike who makes batshit crazy look so beautiful.  She's dazzling, deadly, depraved, and downright deranged.  This is a performance that we will talk about for years and I sincerely believe if AFI redid their best villains list, she would be on it.  She has versatility, whether she's is subtle, innocent, and sweet or psychopathic, detached, and unmoved.  Of any recent villain, she is one of the most strategic we have ever seen wielding emotion like an iron fist.  And for those who loved the work that went into Charlize Theron playing the lead in Monster, Pike did the same thing, only she put on the weight and lost it again in a matter of ten days.  Pike produces a role that will be used as a standard bearer for years for actresses trying to play pure evil.  Oscars Interview

2.  JK Simmons in Whiplash

Beyond the fact that I love JK Simmons the man, this wasn't one of those Oscars that goes to a seasoned veteran because of his service.  It goes to someone who gives a tour de force performance as a jazz instructor searching for art as any means necessary.  Every performance is usually based in a single scene that can exemplify everything that goes into putting the character together.  Look no further than "not quite my tempo" to find Simmons at his best, only for Simmons he than uses that foundational moment as the beginning of his crescendo which lasts the rest of the movie.  The reason Simmons gives such a brilliant performance comes at the end of the night when you leave the theatre and say, "wow that guy is horrible and insane…but he was right, wasn't he?"  Simmons takes over Fletcher and believes meticulously every second of his mantra. "There are no two words in the English language more harmful that good job."  Well.  Great Job then Mr. Simmons.   Not Quite My Tempo

1.  Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler

If you had told me at the beginning of the year that I was going to praise Jake Gyllenhaal for a performance I would have told you, "you're insane."  A handsome actor in his own right other than a few glimpses in Brokeback Mountain and Zodiac, I never thought of Gyllenhaal as a good actor.  I was wrong.  In Nightcrawler, Gyllenhaal takes his few moments from Zodiac and in essence becomes the killer.  I have never walked out of a theatre and been more terrified of a protagonist than I did with Nightcrawler.  As I said with Rene Russo, look at the scene where he takes her out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant and you'll get what I mean.  Gyllenhaal is three parts De Niro in this film, with Taxi Driver, The King of Comedy, and The Fan all wrapped up into one tightly wound ball ready to explode.  He plays one of the best sociopaths we have ever seen on film using regurgitations of website entrepreneurial bullshit to sell his web of lies over the course of two hours.  He is tactical, precise, and exactly the type of guy you never want to meet at any point, ever.  With his weight loss, which makes his eyes sick into his skull, and his brilliant performance it is beautiful to watch an actor so perfectly set in the driver's seat.  Nightcrawler Trailer

The Best Movies of 2014, Part I

…And the Oscar goes to Birdman {Cue applause}.  Yes the Oscars came and went last Sunday without a scandal, other than some of Neil Patrick Harris's poorly timed jokes. I mean really NPH hire a few writers, but still very little commotion.  The Grand Budapest Hotel took home its fair share of early awards and then Birdman came in to sweep up a large portion of the rest, although Michael Keaton will have to wait for another career defining opportunity to take home the prize.  All in all, it was a simple show, which makes sense considering this was a relatively simple year in cinema and while there were plenty of films that people adored, there wasn't the same kind of love that lived in films of years past.  That doesn't mean there weren't a few great films, even a few masterpieces, just that the year didn't boast as many high caliber films as in past competitions.  Nevertheless now that the Academy has announced their favorites it is time for the list that I know you all crave (and by crave I mean you all are nice enough to placate me by reading).  As in years past, this list will be in three parts:  Best Films, Best Performances, and Miscellaneous.  Today we will cover the Best Films of 2014.

As I attempt to do each year, this list comes from watching enough films that I can have a fair assessment of good and bad.  Two films that I did not see this year were Still Alice and Wild, which I doubt would have had any impact on the best film category, but might have had an impact on best performances.  Last year I managed to make it through 85 films by January 20th, this year with a thesis to write and perform, I only managed 75 with an extra month, but still a fine number of films.  There were movies that I really enjoyed such as Chef, X-Men, Captain America 2, A Walk Among the Tombstones, Top Five, Dear White People, & 22 Jump Street.  Many of these films I will watch again, especially 22 Jump Street, which I found hilarious, but none of these made the list.  There were really innovative films like The Lego Movie (Which got screwed by the Oscars), Obvious Child, Edge of Tomorrow, The Babadook, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, and Only Lovers Left Alive, but like the other category, they also narrowly missed the list.  Last year I had 13, this year I have 15, which while of lower quality from the films I saw last year, were still quite splendid.  Let us begin.

15.  Copenhagen  Stars: Gethin Anthony & Frederikke Dahl Hansen.  

Copenhagen

As with the first movie of the 2013 list, It's a Disaster, most likely none of you have seen this film.  It is a small film that had a very limited opening in October of 2014.  It follows party boy William played by Gethin Anthony (Renly Baratheon on Game of Thrones) as he sleeps his way through Europe ending up in Copenhagen, Denmark.  There he meets Effy played incredibly well by Hansen who helps him as he tries to find his long lost grandfather who turns out to be a former Nazi.  The movie is a typical love story and if it weren't for the idiotic things that William does we would cheer for it all the way through, well both the idiotic nature of William and the fact that Effy is fourteen.  William is 28.  The film is uncomfortable to say the least and makes you question who really is the oldest and the youngest on the sliding scale of maturity.  It is a small film in terms of budget and in terms of directing choices, but a thought provoking take on love without necessarily going into the boundaries of illegal love.  Currently on Netflix.

14.  The Fault in Our Stars  Stars: Shailene Woodley, Ansel Elgort, and Laura Dern.

I really didn't want to see this movie and if my favorite young actress, Shailene Woodley hadn't been in it, I wouldn't have seen it.  Also if friends hadn't introduced me to this weird invention called Redbox.  I thoroughly enjoyed this film and while it remains solidly within the structure of a filmed young adult novel the screenplay allows its actors to explore rather than be confined.  Elgort and Woodley were also in Divergent, which makes my list of worst films in 2014, but those performances are miles away from this film.  Stars proves that you can do soapy sentimentality with heart and by heart I don't mean the type you find in a Hallmark card.  This film's core is built with honesty, which makes some of its cliches ring true, if only for a moment.  If anything, this is a film to showcase once again just how powerful Shailene Woodley can be no matter how many shitty Divergent films she might eventually star in.  

13.  The Theory of Everything  Stars:  Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, and David Thewlis.  

There are three essentials dealing with The Theory of Everything that cannot be denied: Both Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones are outstanding and carry the movie, Stephen Hawking is an absolute genius, and Jane Wilde represents what is best about humanity.  Unfortunately for the film, these are the only essentials that I can classify it with.  As a whole, I found the writing to be scatterbrained and without measure.  It is a beautiful story, which is why I did thoroughly enjoy it, but a lot of the film walked in similar step with another amazing story told in 2014 in Unbroken.  What saves Everything and makes it Oscar worthy is its director James Marsh who took the skills he learned from directing the masterpiece documentary Man on Wire and excelled in working with his two brilliant actors.  

12.  Pride  Stars:  Ben Schnetzer, Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton, and Andrew Scott.

Pride is a little UK film that tells the true story of an unlikely alliance between London Gay activists in the 1980s and a small community of Welsh miners on strike.  This is a cast movie if there has ever been one that gives each of its characters individual moments to shine.  Bill Nighy is outstanding in the film because unlike almost every Bill Nighy character which is fun, frivolous, and huge in Pride he plays a mousy, timid, old man.  The movie is fun, kind, and uplifting if not a tad bit too sentimental.  For such a small film, Pride packs a big punch and doesn't fail to deliver.  This is a crowd pleaser type of film and it certainly did the job amongst myself and my friends who watched it.  

11.  American Sniper  Stars:  Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller, and a fake baby.  

The next two movies on my list fell victim to media coverage.  In American Sniper, a mixture of Seth Rogan, Michael Moore, and Bill Maher along with reviews like 'American Sniper' Is Almost Too Dumb to Criticize by Rolling Stone left the movie with a less than stellar chance at an Oscar.  This is too bad, because although I agree that the movie has a lot of issues, none more glaring that Bradley Cooper with a fake baby I entirely disagree with the many editorials written by some of the Hollywood elite.  I did not find this movie as a shrine to the life of Chris Kyle, I also did not find it to be a disgraceful telling of the Iraq War told by a Republican Jingoistic director.  Although I do not like the politics of Clint Eastwood I definitely think the man knows how to shoot war scenes.  In both Letters from Iwo Jima and Flags of Our Fathers, Eastwood executed the atrocities of war with the same reverence that he did in Sniper.  The difference?  Sniper isn't a war movie.  It is a biopic of a soldier.  A flawed, human, killing machine of a soldier.  As I said when I left the theatre, "I think Chris Kyle may have been an American Hero, but thank god I never met him, because he's terrifying."  Much in the same light as The Wolf of Wall Street what can we expect when a biopic is based on a book written by the subject.  Of course there will be lies and half truths, but that doesn't take away from the story or from a career defining performance given by Bradley Cooper.  This is a good movie that neither praises nor condemns war and does an adequate (not great), but adequate job of showing how PTSD can destroy a man.  

10.  Selma  Stars:  David Oyelowo, Carmen Ejogo, Tom Wilkinson  

In the same vein as American Sniper, Selma fell prey to media problems dealing with the movie's attempts to portray the relationship between Dr. King and President Johnson.  However, unlike in the case of American Sniper I do agree with the media.  Selma is a good movie led by an extraordinary performance given by David Oyelowo who manages to capture the sincerity, the heart, and the demeanor of Dr. King without making him into a caricature.  The movie tells a story that is incredibly important to our modern world and can be best summed up by Common (who is actually a good actor) after winning the Golden Globe for Best Song, "I am the hopeful black woman who was denied the right to vote, I am the caring white supporter killed on the front lines of freedom, I am the unarmed black kid who maybe needed a hand but instead was given a bullet, I am the two fallen police officers murdered in the line of duty, Selma has awakened my humanity."  With this being said, I do believe the movie falls prey to two major issues.  The first comes from the director and the second from the script.  The director deals with a strong historical subject with maturity but runs into the issue of directing each line like it is "the most important line ever given," this is problematic for an audience because it doesn't allow them time for a catharsis.  The other issue is the media one with the script.  Normally I don't have a problem when a script decides to change history (because they do all the time), but in this case it was so unnecessary.  Why did the writer feel it was important to turn LBJ into the opposition, the villain.  There was already a villain.  The South led by bigoted racist George Wallace.  Director Ava DuVernay responded to this hubbub by saying, "Bottom line is folks should interrogate history," which I couldn't agree more.  This is why I still really liked Selma, but the sections where LBJ is depicted as a racist, calling Dr. King the N-word, were hardly needed to tell the story.  

9.  CitizenFour  Stars:  Edward Snowden.

Despite a year packed with many interesting documentaries including The Overnighters, Virunga, Happy Valley, My Life in Dirty Pictures, and Finding Vivian Maier once I watched Citizen Four it was clear which film would win the Oscar.  CitizenFour isn't really a documentary, because it isn't really a movie.  The bulk of the film takes place in a hotel room and is an interview between Glenn Greenwald of The Guardian and Edward Snowden.  Although the film doesn't technically take sides it is very apparent whose side director Laura Poitras is on.  She would say she is on the side of the people, the government would probably say something different.  One thing is clear.  This is a film that every American needs to see.  It is fascinating, horrifying, and sobering.  As Rotten Tomatoes says, "Citizenfour transcends ideology to offer riveting, must-see cinema."  I couldn't agree more.  

8.  Blue Ruin  Stars:  Macon Blair and Devin Ratray

If I say that I loved this movie, would that mean there is something wrong with me?  Is it a perfect film?  Definitely not.  But for a movie that takes over 20 minutes for the lead character to say a word, for that to be incredibly thrilling is a feat within itself.  Make no bones about it, this is a revenge thriller and the hero definitely isn't heroic.  The movie is like a modern Hitchcock film mixed in with what we would classify as modern noir.  Macon Blair is mesmerizing and terrifying.  If you walked up to him on the street you might think he was a little cooky, but never would you think he would be capable of something like this.  By using a main character who is nebbish instead of brash, the film lends the horrific nature of his crimes to the human nature of understanding why he commits them.  This is a must see.  

7.  Snowpiercer  Stars:  Chris Evans, John Hurt, and Tilda Swinton.  

In a year defined by innovative films it only makes sense that Snowpiercer would be so high on my list.  This excerpt is taken from the review I wrote earlier this year, "Snowpiercer is one of the weirdest movies of the year, if not the decade. It is either brilliant or problematic or both. The plot is genuinely compelling and it is shot rather well considering it had a smaller budget (39 Mil). There are a lot of things happening in this movie, some of which has little to do with the actors and the story."  Of the movies on my list both this one and the next were the films that I re-watched the most times.  This film has moments of absolute brilliance highlighted by Tilda Swinton who could have only been funnier if she had been in more of the movie.  The film is audacious in creating a completely mesmerizing world to play within.  Although the contrivance of the plot could be seen by some to be unnecessary it allows for a fully developed script while still having subplots in the scifi, comedy, dramedy, and cult film genres.  Snowpiercer manages to mix thought provoking insight with thought provoking dark comedy and it creates a cult classic in the process.  

6.  Guardians of the Galaxy  Stars:  Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, and six words of Vin Diesel

Just Brilliant

Many different year end movie lists steered clear of having a Marvel Comic book movie on their reviews, but I question if this was 1980 would The Empire Strikes Back have made a few lists.  I use this reference because Guardians is more than a fun comic book movie it is a genre defining film.  Guardians proves that just because it is a comic book movie, doesn't mean it has to be classified as one.  It is equal parts Star Wars, comic book, and western.  It is funny and sentimental.  At first I kind of liked this film.  After my sixth viewing it was clear my first opinion was wrong.  This is one of the few comic books that I have read and I was pleased with how James Gunn managed to pack in the irrelevant nature of the crew without misplacing any of the characters.  Chris Pratt is a big time star and Bradley Cooper is quite a funny voice actor.  Guardians was a roller coaster ride and I enjoyed it enough to stay in my seat and go again.  Also it doesn't hurt that the clip at the end, not the dancing Groot, but all the way at the end was one of the funniest references that has ever been put in a movie.

5.  Nightcrawler  Stars:  Jake Gyllenhaal and Rene Russo

I have watched horror movies that were less disturbing than Jake Gyllenhaal was in this movie.  In terms of a lead performance, in a year with great performances, this one might be the standout.  You would think a movie about freelance night crawlers wouldn't be that disturbing, which is exactly how I felt when I walked into the theatre.  I was wrong.  The character of Lou Bloom is on par with (this may be sacrilegious to say) Annie Wilkes in Misery, only in Nightcrawler Lou is the hero.  The writer director Dan Gilroy does a great job of creating a grimy movie, while still keeping a slick fast moving thriller.  Unfortunately it's ending is its downfall and if the LA police were based on real people then the LA cops would be the dumbest law enforcement agency on the planet.  However, Gyllenhaal and to a lesser extent Russo do a fine job of keeping us interested through the far fetched ending.  

4.  Whiplash  Stars:  Miles Teller and JK Simmons

Who would have thought that one of the most intense movies of the year would be about jazz drumming, but with a drum roll so powerful that it leaves stains of blood on its head, Whiplash is most definitely that film.  However to call Whiplash a film about drumming is to say that Equus is about horsemanship or My Fair Lady is about Cockney English.  It certainly plays a part, but it is only the drum beat, not the crescendo.  The movie is as much about theatre as it is about music.  What is true art?  Can a true artist be a good person?  Does the end of the art itself justify the means it took to get it there?  Notice I said the art itself and not the artist.  Simmons, who has redefined what it takes to be a career actor has outdone all that have come before him with this role.  He is simply exhilarating to watch.  As he repeats, "not my tempo," to Miles Teller (Who gives another brilliant performance much like The Spectacular Now last year) he is doing more than speaking in drumming terms.  He is telling the audience that their pulses must meet his tempo.  And he succeeds.  Simmons, as the demonic Terence Fletcher describes his teaching in a poignant moment to Teller, "I don't think people understood what it was I was doing at Shaffer.  I wasn't there to conduct.  Any fucking moron can wave his arms and keep people in tempo.  I was there to pouch people beyond what's expected of them.  I believe that is…an absolute necessity."  He might be the worst teacher to ever set foot on screen, but can you argue with the results of his art?

3.  Birdman  Stars:  Michael Keaton, Edward Norton, Emma Stone, and Zach Galifianakis

The Oscar goes to Birdman and it was certainly well deserved.  It is by far the best looking film of the year.  The cinematography is fantastic merging the worlds of fantasy and real life without breaking the stride of a single roving shot.  Keaton leads a great cast with fantastic performances by Emma Stone, Edward Norton, and in the surprise of the year, Zach Galifianakis who plays it straight.  In Due Date, he showed The Hangover wasn't all he could do and he shines in Birdman.  Although the number two movie on this list will most likely not be remembered for any where near the length of this film, unlike the millions of adoring fans and Oscar voters, I was left a little cold.  There are many things that I enjoyed about the film and I cannot deny that it is funny and sad and misbegotten and dark, but I felt that it could have gone even further.  We get a few glimpses into Keaton's broken psyche throughout the film before his drunken stupor breakdown.  I wish that the film had done a Coffee and Cigarettes, where we lost the cigarettes in the end.  Nit picky I know, but I'm a tough critic.  

better job at ramping up to this moment.  I also loved the extra characters in the film, but wished that we could have tied up their stories.  It felt at times like

2.  Gone Girl  Stars:  Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Carrie Coon, Neil Patrick Harris, and Tyler Perry  

On first viewing, this was my favorite night out at the movies of the year.  Perhaps it is my love for David Fincher or for Trent Reznor's score or for Rosamund Pike as a psychotic genius or it could even have been for the first movie in years if not ever that Tyler Perry finally shows that he is in fact an actor.  Any one of these reasons helped take an interesting B thriller into a Fincher masterpiece.  To love a David Fincher movie is similar in loving a David Lynch movie, you sound like a sycophant when you do it.  I was this way with Christopher Nolan until the mistake of the year, Interstellar.  David Fincher has now taken over Nolan's position.  Many of his movies are similar in beat and in plot twist, but where Gone Girl stands out comes from the twist, because unlike a standard twist centered movie, Fincher interweaves the twist with the plot so when it comes out, while shocking, it doesn't wait for the viewer to catch their breath.  The film just continues like it is a standard thriller storyline.  This gives us two story lines that interweave and lead to a conclusion which is as mesmerizing as it is inevitable.  Ben Affleck holds his own, but this is a female driven movie and both Rosamund Pike and newcomer to the big screen Carrie Coon (Married to Tracey Letts) take hold of the plot and never let go.  This was a compelling movie that I fell totally enthralled with and while it may not hold up in a second and third viewing, its first attempt will live with me for a long time to come.  And isn't that what a great movie should do?

1.  Boyhood  Stars:  Ellar Coltrane, Patricia Arquette, & Ethan Hawke

I hate picking an Oscar movie as my favorite film, but this couldn't be avoided.  Boyhood is a bonafide masterpiece and with any masterpiece most audiences will either love it or hate it.  I loved it.  As an artist I was drawn to the mere attempt at doing it by Richard Linklater.  A 12 year project is a feat within itself, but what kept me watching the screen was a truly human story, one that reminded me of my own boyhood without the movie touching on almost any part of my own story.  Rotten Tomatoes says, "Epic in technical scale but breathlessly intimate in narrative scope, Boyhood is a sprawling investigation of the human condition."  A sprawling investigation of the human condition, I could not have put it better myself.  Earlier in the films I said that Pride is a cast driven movie, Boyhood is even more than that.  Many have said that this is a plotless movie, that while interesting, doesn't lead anywhere.  I couldn't disagree more.  As a cast driven film we not only watch as the story progresses on the timelines of these characters, but we watch as the timelines of these actor's real lives progress.  Boyhood is an experiment in documenting human truth and even though the story is written from Linklater's mind, we still manage to find real truth in the character's portrayal of fiction.  It is like through the telling of fiction these actors have portrayed fact.  Boyhood is a movie that every dreamer should watch, some for the filmmaking feat, some for the story, some for the lives that were lived through the filming.  In the end, this movie summed up for it's critics in the final line given by Patricia Arquette, "You know what I'm realizing?  My life is just going to go.  Like that.  This series of milestones.  Getting married, having kids, getting divorced.  The time we thought you were dyslexic.  When I taught you how to ride a bike.  Getting divorced…again.  Getting my masters degree, finally getting the job I wanted, sending Samantha off to college.  Sending you off to college.  You know what's next?  Huh?  It's my fucking funeral…I just thought there would be more."  Critics would say that pretty much says it all, "I just thought there would be more," but then again critics of this movie are missing the point.  The story isn't in where we are going, but in the journey that we took to get there and usually we wish there would be more in the big picture, but when we sit down and really think about it life is about the times we wanted more and the times we were given more.  It's about the truth realized only after time has passed.  Boyhood let's us discover this truth in the lives of its characters and if we listened close enough in the lives of ourselves.  It's ok that we lament the ending, the movie is only echoing our own restlessness for life.  Truly a masterpiece.  

Keep Dreaming

Mr. Cub

The first word I ever said was probably “mom” or “dad” or some kind of typical simple word for a child, but soon after I am sure that I said “Cubs.”  I was born a Cubs fan.  Puncture my skin and I think you are bound to find the color blue.  For a little while, in my earlier attempting to walk years, I tried to stray away.  I liked the pirates, mostly because I wanted to be one, and I’m sure I had a day or two of Yankee fandom during the T-ball days when I would call my shot and attempt a home run like the great Bambino (ironically a legend that happened in the ’32 World Series…against the Cubs).  Those days were few and far between.  Maybe it was my mother’s Chicago heritage or growing up in the midwest or perhaps my love of sorrow, but whatever the case I know that I was destined to be a Cubs fan.  

A note to anyone who thinks sports are just games.  In Iowa, sports are religion.  Some would say wresting, football, basketball, or golf, but although my Sunday place of worship is Lambeau Field, my God is baseball.  As I have written in a previous blog, baseball is the truest form of entertainment (except theatre) in my life.  It’s my chicken soup for the soul, which coupled with being a Chicago Cubs fan might explain my many years of depression.  Anyway, I am a Cubs fan through and through and it is as a Cubs fan that I write this blog entry.

My favorite baseball player is Mark Grace.  Always has been, always will be.  In recent years he has made a few errors in judgment but while I was a kid he was my sport icon.  .303 career batting average with a .383 on base percentage.  He debuted for the Cubs just a few months before I was born and as I grew up there wasn’t a day when he wasn’t on first base.  The Cubs crowning achievement in his 13 year Chicago career was a one game playoff in 1998 under Jim Riggleman.  Eventually he left the Cubs for the South, joining the D-Backs and winning a World Series in his three final years.  I grew up in the great home run races of Sosa and in the ending years of Sandberg, but Grace was my guy.  Every fan has that player, the one who you watch closer than the game.  For my mother it was Billy Williams, for me it was Mark Grace, for my friends it was Sosa, but no matter who you cheered for in your own time, there is only one Mr. Cub.

There are two players in the history of the Chicago Cubs franchise who deserve the title of “Mr. Cub,” although only one of them has it and unfortunately this past week the world is now without them both.  The first Cub taken from us was Ron Santo, not a Cub his entire career, but the time he missed on the field he made up for it in the booth.  The other was Ernie Banks.  

After joining the KC Monarchs Negro League Team, serving in Germany during the Korean War, and returning to the Monarchs, Ernie Banks arrived in Chicago on September 17, 1953.  He never left.  In a 19 year career he amassed 512 home runs, over 2500 hits, 2 MVPs, 1 gold glove, and 14 all star appearances.  When his turn for the Hall of Fame came up he was elected on the first ballot with over 80% of the vote.  He is considered one of the greatest players to ever play the game of baseball.  But none of this is why he is “Mr. Cub.”

He was a player-manager towards the end of his career.  After baseball he served as a Cubs ambassador, started multiple charity organizations, became the first black man in America to own a Ford Dealership, and promoted and financially supported baseball leagues in some of the poorest parts of Chicago.  In the later years of his life he became an ordained minister and presided over Sean Marshall’s wedding.  He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and President Barack Obama presented him with a bat once owned by Jackie Robinson.  Eventually he moved to LA but still he went to Cubs training camp almost every single year and Wrigley field regularly.  It was recently said that “the Chicago Cubs do not have a mascot, but they hardly need one when the face of the franchise is still so visible.”  But none of this is why he is “Mr. Cub”.

Ernie Banks was Mr. Cub, because despite 19 years of losing he never lost.  Banks was and still is considered the greatest optimist to ever play the game.  He brought a joy to the world within the game and without it.  In 19 years he never once had a single playoff at bat.  For many of those years, the Cubs were in dead last and then towards the end they suffered heart breaking defeats to teams like the ’69 Mets.  There are many great players to never win the big game, the big series, but how many of those players played 154 game seasons.  How many played in a place where loser-dum was considered a daily ritual.  Most importantly, how many complained?  Ernie Banks didn’t.  Ever.

Baseball is just a game.  The Bartman ball, the series with the Dodgers, the cork bat, the ’98 game, all massive disappointments, but nevertheless just part of the game, but there are moments, there are people who allow baseball to transcend the bridge between a game and something much more.  Ernie Banks wasn’t just a ball player, he was a model of how to live with hope despite overwhelming despair.  

I met him once, briefly, during a spring training game in Arizona.  I have a ball signed by him.  I remember going up in line to meet him and asking him to sign my ball.  It was important to me, but in the face of icons I get very shy so I said thank you and began to walk away.  My mother didn’t.  She stayed and thanked him for what he had done for the game, but more importantly for what he had meant to Chicago.  I was annoyed and embarrassed and eventually wrestled her away.  I said, “he doesn’t care, he hears that all the time.”  

Perhaps he heard that all the time.  I’m sure my mother’s words went in one ear and out the other, but nevertheless I was wrong.  I should have thanked him.  Because even though I never saw him play, I did see him live and that was enough for me to understand “Mr. Cub.”

“We’ve got the setting - sunshine, fresh air, the team behind us.  So let’s play two.”  RIP Mr. Cub.  

Thesis with Turkey

I wanted to be eloquent, I should've proofread, but then I got tired.

It's seems obligatory for people to spend today thanking people.  I hadn't planned to write this on Thanksgiving, but it just so happened that this was the first free moment I have had in the past few months, so obligatory or not, cliche or not, I don't care.  It is always important to thank people for things and as one of my default positions is one of a sentimental person (not one of my worst traits), I guess it is fitting to use the 150th anniversary of the national day of thanks as a podium.  

Nicholas Motola as "Grant"

In the spring of 2010, after I stepped off the stage, diploma in hand, on a football field with the bright sun hanging over Mount Rainier as a backdrop, there wasn't one ounce, one inkling of the possibility that I would be where I am today.  I remember sitting in my dorm room, packing up all my belongings, and thinking, "What the hell do I do now?"  Of the many options that I pondered none of them came close to sitting in the main office of Theatre VCU, ten days away from defending my thesis and getting my Master's of Fine Arts.  Going back to school was the farthest thing from my mind, but a broken campaign, a shooting, a relationship, about two dozen shows, and a speech job later I found myself staring at the VCU graduate program website wondering what the hell I could do with an MFA in Theatre Pedagogy (I mean, who really wants to be a teacher).  Thinking about how good my next dinner will/would be might be the only similarity in thought processes.  But nevertheless here we are.  Ten days away from an MFA.  Perhaps, once again, ten days from thinking, "What the hell do I do now?" However, my Masters graduation (which I won't be walking, no matter how much certain people want me to) has very little to do with a diploma, very little to do with a few letters that will dramatically increase my chances for work in the future.  Well, I know that my literal graduation from this program is almost entirely about those things, but symbolically my Masters represents the end of a very long journey.  

Rocky Granum as "Hank"

When I came to VCU, I had planned to re-write Medea, set it in 70's Detroit, and have it produced.  I thought the concept would be hard, but if I started work on it, I could get it done in two years.  Then a clash of concussions happened and it was February of year one and I hadn't done squat.  That's when the thought of doing something about my great great grandfather came into my head and that's when everything, and I do mean everything changed.  A lifetime later, because these past two years have felt like a lifetime, and my thesis, "A Pact Sealed in Blood: The Creation of Blood Letters: An American Odyssey," is just one defense away from completion.  For me, my production had many problems, it still does have many problems, but despite its issues it is by far the greatest accomplishment I have ever completed.  It is the crowning achievement from a lifetime of moments leading to this one.  

My thesis is difficult because unlike the typical paper that you pour your heart into the writing of, this 103 page document is a living, breathing creation.  For me, it is less than a paper and more of a manifesto and I have poured my soul into its creation.  And as I said before, it is not perfect, but then again neither am I.  It is the best example of who I am.  

Denver Crawford as "Bud"

My thesis is difficult because within its pages lives an epiphany, one that I did not know was

possible.  It also houses a wound, well a multiple of wounds, that I did not know existed.  As Mr. Meeker, my 9th grade history teacher would say, "this is your watershed moment," and I believe that it is, but even though I have received immense pleasure from these pages, they come with a tremendous pain, because through writing a story I revealed part of myself that I didn't understand nor did I know existed.  And despite the parts of this thesis that have tested me, it is the greatest gift I could have ever received.  To truly know who you are is the greatest gift of all and on Thanksgiving 2014, I wanted to thank everyone who helped me receive this gift.

Katie Stoddard as "Jasmine"

To my casts:  The VCU production team consisting of Nicholas Motola, Rocky Granum, Denver Crawford, Katie Stoddard, Carmen Wiley, Joshua Buck, Micah Hughson, Emma Humpton, David Lopez with crew members Saskia Price, Max Rosenberg, Dylan Bartoe, John C Alley, Colin McLaughlin and Janelle Cottman.  The Chicago area production team consisting of a lot of people I don't know, but spear headed and created by my Stepmother Nancy.  The Iowa production team consisting of Zak Moran, Brandon Douglas, Cory Brannaman, Mariah Schuelter (I know I spelled that wrong), Nicole Klosterman, Theresa Gruber-Miller, John Gruber-Miller, Meghan Yamanishi, & Skyler Matthais.  Thank you for stepping into the souls of over 60 characters.  You honored their memories and their lives with your honest portrayals.  A special thank you to Nicholas, Rocky, Denver, Zak, Brandon, and Cory.  Each of you gave me a powerful gift, one of understanding, as I watched the history of my family, and the history of my own life through your eyes.  I am grateful and thankful for your dedicated work.  

Joshua Buck as "Patrick"

To my support staff:  Here in Richmond with the VCU graduates, Jorge Bermudez, Glynn Brannan, Erica Hughes, Susan Schuld, Bonnie McCoy, Brittany Proudfoot Ginder and Kate Salsbury (Your class meant so much), and Andrew Reid (And like a 1000 more).  In Iowa with Amy White, Braden Rood (for creating and maturing my artistic soul), Tawnua Tenley, Sarah Richardson (for making me smarter :), Hew Boardrow, Michael Noble, Stephen Gruber-Miller (especially Stephen Gruber-Miller), Noel Vandenbosch, Jennifer Gee (For helping me belong), and the entire Mount Vernon Lisbon Community Theatre family (I didn't forget about you Paul Freese and Duane Larson).  And around the world with Kainoa Correa, Dan Miller, Daniel C Smith, Bob Pore, Sara Myers, Ann Herrold, Mishka Navarre, Taylor Clouse, Jammie Lowe, and Geoff Proehl.  To all of these people, thank you for putting up with my bullshit, for making me keep going when it gets hard, for constantly challenging me to make me better.  Some of you helped me directly with this thesis, some indirectly, some know a lot about it, some don't even know it happened, but to each and every one of you this was made possible not just by your support, but by your hearts, your love, and your compassion.  A special thank you to Sara Myers.  I doubt you know this but I cannot tell you how blessed I feel that you are in my life.  Your guidance helped keep me together over the past two years.  (One of these days I might actually see you in person again).  

Micah Hughson as "Mariah"

To the faculty here at VCU:  Thank you to Aaron Anderson for teaching me that I'm really just a Sudra who thinks he's a Brahmin, Shaun McCracken, and Noreen Barnes.  Thank you so much for reading the damn thing.  Thank you to David Toney, Dr. T., and Susan Schuld.  Your encouragement and your intellect have made the past two years incredible.  Of course, how does one simply thank Noreen Barnes.  For the majority of us at VCU, she's why we're here, luckily I know she'll never read this so I don't have to get choked up trying to thank her.  

To the deceased:  Thank you to my grandmother, Harriet, and great grandmother, Louise, without your tedious care of our family’s history none of this would be possible.  And to Henry Wells Magee and Frederick Swanson, through the words of your letters I have learned the power of true passion, this is gift that I cannot repay, but hope to pass on to the future generations of our family.

Carmen Wiley as "Penny"

To my family:  Mom, Dad, Paul, Nancy, Uncle Dan, Katie, & Nate.  My family has been my most important audience.  Their love, patience and desire for me have been the single biggest source for guidance in my life.  On this day of Thanksgiving, I am blessed that despite our troubles and turmoils they still remain as fervent supporters of my life as the day when Nate drove me to a baseball game in Stanwood (and made me listen to The Hunchback of Notre Dame) on tape the whole way, when Katie came down to Richmond to spend Turkey Day 2012 at Tarrant's Cafe (by far the best holiday I have ever had), when Dad made me work on a cubed math problem for three hours even though I had another fifteen problems to work through, when Mom taught me to hold with a sign and march with a picture of Carrie Chapman Catt even though I had no idea who she was, when Paul got riled up at the Iowa Caucuses, and when Nancy made me try and pull the sword out of the stone.  Thank you all for being my stone, my rock, as I try and make it through this world.  

To my research team: My heartfelt gratitude goes out to my research team consisting of Jessica Skiles, Jasmine Hammond and Patrick Clark.  These three students committed their hearts, minds and spirits in a dedicated effort to bring this story to life. I wish to thank Jessica for her emotional connection to the material, Jasmine for her determination in procuring my own eventual catharsis and Patrick for his dedicated service and his friendship. Stealing lines from my thesis about each researcher: "I can say unequivocally that while I may be the writer, director, and dramaturg of this play, Patrick Clark is its backbone," & "Working with Jessica was a joy; she found her subject, my grandfather, intriguing and genuine and she dived into the material with immediate success," &  "Jasmine is the oldest twenty-two-year old I have ever met.  Her wisdom for understanding life’s altruisms is unparalleled in anyone I have met at her age."  Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Emma Humpton as "Gabby"

Finally to the characters of Blood Letters specifically Gabby Giffords and Mariah Smith.  Thank you for making me the man that I am today.  Although I will most likely never see you again, your words live on in the pages of this script.  I thank you.

My heart is so full with thanks for everyone who helped make Blood Letters possible.  All of you have made such a dramatic impact on my life that I am eternally grateful for receiving.  May you all know my deepest gratitude and may you all have a Happy Thanksgiving.  

Interstellar & Fury

IMAX

Today I made the trek up to DC to see Interstellar in 70mm IMAX at the Smithsonian, then came back home to Richmond and saw Fury.  I can say that it was one of the stranger double feature experiences that I have ever had.  I want to preface everything that I am about to say with a few things.  One, I plan to discuss all parts of Interstellar so if you haven't seen the movie don't read any further.  Two, I love Christopher Nolan.  I think he is a genius film writer and an innovative director who never shies away from pushing as many boundaries as possible.  I am a Dark Knight Rises apologist and despite all of its many flaws, I still love the movie.  I have been looking forward to this movie since it was announced and made sure that I didn't watch almost any of the trailers for it because I didn't want to know anything about the film going in.  Three, I am not a fan of Shia Lebeouf and I think too many of Brad Pitt's movies become "pitted" in that they adopt a tone of melodrama.  Finally, no matter what I think of both of these films I hope you go out and see them.  I think that I can be at times ultra critical of films because I search for perfection within art and have very strong opinions.  Neither of these two movies are Man of Steel, so I hope you enjoy, dislike, or don't give two shits about what I say.  Also this blog is called Grant's Rants & More, the purpose of it is usually built for a rant, although rants do not always have to be bad things.  I will deal with what I liked and didn't like about both films, not a plot synopsis, because if you're reading this I expect you've seem the films. (Although I won't be as specific with Fury).  With all of that being said.

Fury is a good war movie.

Interstellar is a problematic film.

Fury:  Fury is a good, not a great, but a good war movie.  It's best arguments come from the fact that it is unapologetic, it isn't war propaganda nor is it anti-war.  It shows the final days of the War in Europe as they were, bloody, raw, unforgiving, and terrible.  One of the film's best qualities is in its character development and its actors.  Labeouf is standout, delivering what I believe is his best performance ever.  Bernthal and Pena prove to be good supporting characters although I wish more time was given to Bernthal.  Lerman and Pitt drive the movie and while I believe in the genuine nature of their relationship, for that matter Pitt's relationship with everyone, he and Lerman make tonal mistakes.  This is an issue considering the fact that the movie as a whole works with tone and context masterfully where there is uncontrollable laughter immediately followed by horrific death.  But their relationship becomes boss-underling, big brother-little brother, father-son too quickly and despite Pitt hardening Lerman to the horrors of war he then proceeds to baby him (not to a Disney level), but it becomes too "movie-esque" rather than "realistic film" quite quickly.  The movie needs some cutting.  The dinner table seen after Norman scores could easily have been cut.  A lot of the scenes went on for too long and not too long in the sense that we don't need to see the violence, but too long in the ending dialogue which becomes repetitious from other points in the scene and movie.  One of my biggest problems was with the music.  I am not a big fan of a score telling me how to feel like in 12 Years a Slave, this score ran into some of those problems.  With the horrors these men were facing and the sound of battle, no sound was needed.  Finally I didn't like how the sound dropped out when a death occurred.  It took the realism out of the film.  The dialogue at the end becomes repetitive and cliche.  Overall, this is a good movie, with some good acting and I would encourage those with empty stomachs to see it.

Interstellar:  As we drove home from DC we, my friends and I, discussed the film and within our car of four we each equally disliked it.  But after some reflection I can say that it isn't that I disliked the film, it isn't that it is a disappointment, but it is that I found the film to be ok at best, and mediocre to bad at worst.  There are parts of the film that I like.  It is visually stunning and is worth the price of admission just to see the camera work and the visual effects.  Nolan certainly knows how to make his crazy ideas come to life.  It was also well cast.  Matthew McConaughey is quickly beaming a really good actor.  After his string of terrible rom-coms he has built up a string of films including Killer Joe, Mid, Dallas Buyers Club, & The Wolf of Wall Street, not to mention True Detective.  Once again in this film he shines as easily the best actor/character of the film.  I also love the cameo in the film that when we all saw it in the theatre no one saw coming.  I love that they have no sound in space.  And finally I love the message that the film is trying to posit.  But in the end I feel that this was a convoluted movie that Christopher Nolan out "Nolaned" himself making, had too many plot wholes, too many script problems, and too missing parts to be a good movie.

The entire film posits two concepts.  One is that human beings are at their best when plunging into the unknown and the second is that family and love are the most intrinsic features to the human race and that they will always conquer all.  These concepts make for a great film.  Too bad the movie gets in the way of the concepts.

1.  The entire film is predicated on a plot line that cannot possibly be true.  The only way the movie exists is because there is a wormhole put in space by "they" a group of other beings trying to help humanity.  It is later explained that "they" are future humans that exist within a five dimensional reality rather than our three dimensional one.  This is explained hastily in exposition in the final third act of the movie as Cooper plunges into a blackhole and manages to arrive in a Tesseract (unfortunate name for Marvel fans) which allows him to use a morse code bookshelf to talk to his daughter in the past.  It is explained that the human race many eons in the future became five dimensional and created this place so that Cooper and get to his daughter because these future beings knew that they were the ones who "saved" humanity.  Get all that?  Because the dialogue is so dense and problematic that it is nearly impossible on first viewing.  But the real problem is that this entire concept exists within a paradox that cannot be explained.  The fifth dimensional creators built the wormhole and the tesseract so that Cooper and Murph can save humanity therefore making these five dimensional creatures exist.  But how did these future humans first survive to make these things given that there would have been none of these things to save them in the first place?  Cooper could not have traveled to this place and had these experiences unless he had been successful but because he has yet to do them, these future beings could not have possibly existed.  Also are you telling me that future people can control five dimensions but the best they can do in helping their creators is to put Cooper behind a wall?  Really?  They turn him into the Indian in the Cupboard. Or why didn't they just give the equation to the professor?  Cooper nearly dies a billion ways before getting to the blackhole.  Shitty plan future humans.   Also I can get behind gravity making the lines in the dirt and gravity pushing the books off the wall, but I cannot get behind gravity being able to move the hands on a watch into morse code.  Gravity doesn't control watches.   

2.  So many plot contrivances.  For a movie that is this long so many things happen to go perfectly right.  How in the world did Cooper figure out that the dirt on the floor was morse code and that it led to coordinates that just so happened to be within driving distance and when he arrived it just so happened to be led by his former boss and even without him ever saying specifically how he found the location they task him to drive the ship that is the last hope for humanity?  REALLY?  Did NASA have a pilot lined up already if Cooper hadn't shown up?  Why didn't they just drive down the road and get him a few years earlier?

3.  Why did they have to send humans in the first place since the robots (used as poor comic relief) were obviously evolved?  This was dealt with in one line from Matt Damon when he says the reason why we send humans is that they fear death.  Sorry not buying that as an adequate enough reason.  So let's say that we lose a few dozen robots.  We should have been sending all of them.  One made it through a black hole.  

4.  The idea that love conquers all is a beautiful idea.  That love "is the one thing that transcends time and space."  But it doesn't.  Or at least not for Anne Hathaway who says the line.  The basis of the concept comes from her desire to see her lost love scientist, but as the movie ends they kill him off entirely so Cooper can have a person to go and find.  So in essence love for Cooper transcends time and space but not for Brand.  

5.  Nolan's view of the future is actually really nice.  We live in a society were the military has collapsed and we are running out of food and yet there isn't really any crime and where are the starving masses trying to get food?

6.  Much in the same way of the Prometheus crew, they make massive assumptions about planets they can't understand.  On the first world where one hour equals seven years, they land in an ocean, which they can walk on (and yes I heard the argument that because of the massive tidal wave that the water is lower in that area, but waves in that shallow of water don't look like that) and see a massive tidal wave which causes them to lose 23 years and a lot of other problems. They leave the world and say it isn't livable.  WELL NO SHIT.  They landed in the ocean.  If I were exploring the earth and landed in the middle of the Pacific I might also say, well crap, guess I can't live here.  

7.  Murphy's Law actually does mean: anything that can go wrong will go wrong.  

8.  Other than Cooper, there are no three dimensional characters in the film.  Casey Affleck and his family, Topher Grace, Michael Caine, John Lithgow, Wes Bentley, and David Gyasi are all one note characters.  Even Matt Damon is one note after he plays a couple lines of bullshit.  And don't think I missed the reference "Man's greatest enemy is Mann."  The biggest disappointment is Murph.  She plays an upset kid from the time Cooper leaves all the way until she Michael Caine dies.  Then she magically switches back to being sentimental in a flash.  

9.  They killed Wes Bentley for no reason.  Anne Hathaway was the character who was far off the ship and Wes Bentley was already right next to it.  There is no effort that he makes to go and get her so he remains there yelling.  He had no business dying.

10.  Wait so did Matt Damon blow up David Gyasi (Romilly) ?  Also how did he not go insane when he lives in space alone for 23 years?  

11.  They've been on a ship for multiple years and yet they adapt to a new planet's gravity in short lines about how "gravity sucks".  

12.  For IMAX viewers they fucked up the sound mixing so Hans Zimmer's music was louder than a lot of the lines and there are gaps where the sound drops out on accident.

13.  You can receive messages from the world in a wormhole but you can't send anything out.  Ok?

14.  Why does Cooper have to go out to a glacier to figure out the planet is unlivable?  Oh, because it is a plot contrivance.  

15.  How can he talks to the robot in the tesseract because we've already established radio's don't connect in a black hole?

16.  The script isn't Nolan's best work.  He has long bits of spacey dialogue that we aren't given the opportunity to understand a word of it and then he runs into exposition dumps when he has to progress the story.

17.  Please stop Michael Caine from saying that poem again.

18.  The whole movie is about Cooper getting back to see Murphy and Murphy upset and longing for her father.  Then when we finally get to see them together they spend half a minute, barely connect, and she tells him to go get his game on with Brand, who for all anyone knows should be with Edmunds her true love.  I understand the reason they give "no parent should have to see their kids die," but he left her once, do you really think he would leave her again?

19 & 20:  What's the point of the whole movie?  What information did the team learn that he then gave to Murphy through the morse code bookshelf (holy shit a morse code bookshelf) that helped her solve the equation?  It couldn't have been much.  Made it through the wormhole.  Stop.  First two planets aren't livable.  Stop.  I'm stuck in a tesseract that is a paradox.  Stop.  I sent Brand off to a different world having no idea if she made it or if it is livable.  Stop.  

So what did she do with the code?  Create double gravity space stations on the outskirts of Saturn?  HOW?  Why did they go through the wormhole in the first place if the generations saved by Murphy never did?  

In the end Nolan out did himself.  He created a super complex plot that deals with way too many plot holes to make it a singular entity.  The script felt like a first draft and it lacked specifics for characters that weren't the leads.  I love Christopher Nolan and I want to see him succeed.  This isn't a terrible film, it just isn't a good one and as a guy who anticipated it for years, it was a real let down.  

I still love you.  My love for you transcends your plot holes and mismanaged scripts.

Baseball, Car Talk, and the Search for Heroes

It all started with the static of a radio.  It was an old classic, a JVC Radio/Cassette Player/TV.  The TV was the size of my tiny hands, black and white, and only carried three channels.  We used it occasionally when the tornado sirens would go off.  I would race down to the basement, turn on the screen until the static was too much, and then switch to the radio where Joe Winters and Bruce Aune told me that the storm would miss my small town once more.  But on this spring afternoon there were no sirens, instead the only sound was a light breeze that wrinkled the leaves on the top of our hundred year old oak trees and of course the static.  I had been searching for WGN for what felt like hours (in reality it was ten minutes), and despite running past 720 AM half a dozen times there was nothing.  Finally there was a blip and the crack of the bat and the dulcet tones of Pat Hughes emerged from the box.  "Servais has been a good catcher in the early season but not much for the bat with only a .212 batting average.  Here's the 1-2 pitch from Drabek, Servais hits a grounder up the middle to Biggio.  Over to first with Bagwell and there's one away in the fifth."  Naturally he would pass over to Ron Santo who would make some comment about Servais' catcher stance and then spend five minutes talking about cloud formation.  But that was Ron Santo and that was Pat Hughes.  It was the spring of Riggleman, Jenkins, and Williams on the bench, the spring of The Human Rain Delay Pitcher, Steve Trachsel and my idol, Mark Grace on first.  I listened from a tool box in my garage as Trachsel one hit the Astros and I was content.  I didn't know the Cubs would go 10 under .500, I didn't know that it would be Harry Caray's second to last season, I didn't even know if I could watch the next game.  All I had was Santo, the clouds, and a little spring breeze.  

This year a panda fell in foul territory and the San Francisco Giants won the World Series.  It was their third series win in five years, assuring Bruce Boche a spot in Cooperstown and Madison Bumgarner one of the greatest post season pitching performances on all time (Did you know that Bumgarner is only 25 years old?  I'm older than the MVP of the World Series).  It was a great series that pitted the Kansas City Royals, perennial losers of the American League against the October born Giants.  Despite the seven games it received average to low numbers for a World Series, having to compete most nights with the NFL.  With America's new favorite sport, football, baseball has had a ratings dip in October.  Many feel that America's Pastime should stay in the past.  Unequivocally I pronounce this sentiment to be hogwash.

In 1989, a movie theatre in Iowa heard the lines, "Is this Heaven?"  "No, this is Iowa."  It also heard the word's of James Earl Jones as he sent shivers of nostalgia down audience's spines.  "People will come Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again."  Jones in Field of Dreams sums up everything I love about baseball.  It's the reason that no matter how many fantasy football drafts I have, no matter how many touchdowns I celebrate, no matter how many times the Dallas Cowboys go 8-8, that I will first and foremost be a baseball fan and a Chicago Cubs baseball fan for life.  

People have trouble watching baseball these days, myself included.  In the course of one touchdown drive, only one batter with a few fouled off pitches will have batted.  In a society that is built on the pace of the next fastest mode it can be hard to focus on such a sport as baseball.  In the past few years I have only watched one game through to it's entirety, a Cubs game last year, but as I watched the final five innings of Game 7 in this years' World Series I was reminded of all the times I spent Saturday afternoons with Ron Santo and the radio.  I was reminded of the five game Braves series of 2003 and the subsequent Bartman Ball in the following series with the Marlins (to this day I contend that it wasn't Bartman, but Alex Gonzalez letting the ball get past him at short in the next play that doomed the game).  I was reminded of the good and the bad, the beautiful and the disastrous.  What was and what can be again, baseball America's game.

However the biggest problem with the game isn't how long it takes but in what ways we consume the length.  I was blessed to have Harry and Chip Caray on TV and Santo and Hughes on the radio, but for most, baseball cannot be consumed betwixt the plastic box and the audience.  It must be smelled, tasted, and felt.  For true baseball you have to go to the ball park.

You buy a hot dog, on the way in, that has sat in oil and grease for far too long.  You go to the ball park and sit in seats long past due for maintenance and far enough away from the field that the nosebleeds have nosebleeds.  You wear the hat of your favorite team, even if they aren't playing, because you still have to represent your colors.  You sit next to Republicans, Democrats, gays, straights, Blacks, Whites, and Hispanics.  You learn the lessons of the game from the old man who as he says " Hasn't missed a game since the fifties."  You have crazy, half baked conversations about Congress, the debt ceiling and intermix them with how Wade Davis throws a fast ball and why can't the Padres get a new logo.  You make up silly games like the dollar game where everyone pays you if your player gets a hit.  You yell and scream without a care for who hears you.  You do the wave even though it wasn't your idea.  You brought your mitt, even though it won't happen, but just in case you want to get a ball for the cute girl in row q.  You talk to people you never would ordinarily talk to.  You hug people randomly when Cruz hits a triple and curse Girardi for taking out Sabathia in the sixth.  You feel the cold chill as the game goes into extra innings.  You celebrate with the new stupid song the team picked when they win.  The fireworks soar into the sky guiding you to the metro, the L, or the subway.  You go home with a smile, the smell of the hot dog, and the feel of the bleachers still imprinted in your head (or in the case of the bleachers your butt).  And finally you dream of the day when you can take your son to the ballpark and watch the magic course through his veins.  That's real baseball.   

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On that same JVC radio I would spend between noon and 1 pm central listening to two men laugh about a subject, which to this day I still no little about.  I don't understand how a carburetor works or why we need spark plugs, but I know that these two guys loved to laugh about it.  Much in the same fashion as Ron Santo they could never sit still with just the car talk they would always have to bring in stories.  The Onion article about the US airdropping vowels to Ethiopia or the time Tom said his wife looks like a truck.  The walls in Ray's first apartment painted hippie purple and Tom's desire to take to discuss The Guy Test by Dave Berry:  Alien beings from a highly advanced society visit the Earth, and you are the first human they encounter. As a token of intergalactic friendship, they present you with a small but incredibly sophisticated device that is capable of curing all disease, providing an infinite supply of clean energy, wiping out hunger and poverty, and permanently eliminating oppression and violence all over the entire Earth. You decide to:

a. Present it to the president of the United States.
b. Present it to the secretary general of the United Nations.
c. Take it apart.

Tom chose option C.  

This was Car Talk every Saturday morning for the entirety of my childhood.  NPR was a godsend and their CD complications of best calls were all worn down to the scratches from use.  "Click and Clack the Tappet Brothers," became a weekend fixture in the Freeman/Swanson household.  Sometimes we would drive to the grocery store and would sit in the car until the Puzzler was done.  When I started bowling league tournament play I would try and be done by 12:30 so I could catch the last half of the show on the drive home.  But why in the world did I listen?  If you saw my car today you would see that very little was learned.  It was because of Ray and Tom, it was because through the magic of radio, laughter disseminated once a week.  It was because no TV show, movie, or even play could match the warmth felt every Saturday afternoon.  

One of my favorite moments came in 1997 when a letter to the show, from Patti McGuire read the following:  (The Exercise Diary)

For my birthday this year my wife purchased me a week of private lessons at the local health club. Though still in great shape from when I was on the varsity chess team in high school, I decided it was a good idea to go ahead and try it. I called and made reservations with someone named Tanya, who said she is a 26-year-old aerobics instructor and athletic-clothing model.

My wife seemed very pleased with how enthusiastic I was to get started. They suggested I keep an "exercise diary" to chart my progress.

Day 1: Started the morning at 6:30 a.m. Tough to get up, but worth it when I arrived at the health club and Tanya was waiting for me. She's something of a goddess, with blond hair and a dazzling white smile. She showed me the machines and took my pulse after five minutes on the treadmill. She seemed a little alarmed that it was so high, but I think just standing next to her in that outfit of hers added about 10 points. Enjoyed watching the aerobics class. Tanya was very encouraging as I did my sit-ups, though my gut was already aching a little from holding it in the whole time I was talking to her. This is going to be GREAT!

Day 2: Took a whole pot of coffee to get me out the door, but I made it. Tanya had me lie on my back and push this heavy iron bar up into the air. Then she put weights on it, for heaven's sake! Legs were a little wobbly on the treadmill, but I made it the full mile. Her smile made it all worthwhile. Muscles ALL feel GREAT.

Day 3: The only way I can brush my teeth is by laying the tooth brush on the counter and moving my mouth back and forth over it. I am certain that I have developed a hernia in both pectorals. Driving was OK as long as I didn't try to steer. I parked on top of a Volkswagen. Tanya was a little impatient with me and said my screaming was bothering the other club members. The treadmill hurt my chest, so I did the stair monster. Why would anyone invent a machine to simulate an activity rendered obsolete by the invention of elevators? Tanya told me regular exercise would make me live longer. I can't imagine anything worse.

Day 4: Tanya was waiting for me with her vampire teeth in full snarl. I can't help it if I was half an hour late; it took me that long just to tie my shoes. She wanted me to lift dumbbells. Not a chance, Tanya. The word "dumb" must be in there for a reason. I hid in the men's room until she sent Lars looking for me. As punishment she made me try the rowing machine. It sank!

Day 5: I hate Tanya more than any human being has ever hated any other human being in the history of the world. If there were any part of my body not in extreme pain, I would hit her with it. She thought it would be a good idea to work on my triceps. Well, I have news for you, Tanya: I don't have triceps. And if you don't want dents in the floor, don't hand me any barbells. I refuse to accept responsibility for the damage. YOU went to sadist school, YOU are to blame. The treadmill flung me back into a science teacher, which hurt like crazy. Why couldn't it have been someone softer, like a music teacher, or a social studies teacher?

Day 6: Got Tanya's message on my answering machine, wondering where I am. I lacked the strength to use the TV remote, so I watched 11 straight hours of the Weather Channel.

Day 7: Well, that's the week. Thank goodness that's over. Maybe next time my wife will give me something a little more fun, like a gift certificate for a root canal.

As a child I remember laughing so hard I fell over.  As someone who has dealt with weight issues for a long time, the line "As punishment she made me try the rowing machine. It sank!" was and still is one of the funniest lines I have ever heard.  Unfortunately this article isn't a sound byte but I encourage anyone who hasn't heard the show to listen to the Car Talk Podcast, which NPR posts an archived show once a week.  You have to hear Tom and Ray, because words don't do them justice.  

The world lost Tom Magliozzi yesterday.  He was 77 and dealing with complications from his Alzheimer's disease.  The world lost one of the greatest laughs it ever had.  

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I wanted to write something quick about baseball and something quick about Tom Magliozzi because both are incredibly similar to me.  Both brought me through hard times in the past, both bring such warm feelings to my heart, because I loved and still love both so dearly.  Too often people call other people their Heroes.  It happens so much that the word no longer has the powerful connotation that it once did, but for me I've always known who my heroes are.  They are my brother, Nate and sister, Katie.  The list includes Louis Zamperini, Martin Luther King Jr., and Maggie Ellison.  There are many more, people who inspire me, who lift my spirits, and teach/have taught me to be a better man.  Two men on that list are Ron Santo and Tom Magliozzi.  I will forever remember their wacky sense of tangential material, their laughs, and their warmth.  R.I.P. Tom.  Thank you for the memories.