Waiting for "Superman" Review: A System of Failure

Academy Award-winning documentarian, Davis Guggenheim, is back with a new documentary that explores the current state of the American education system, Waiting for “Superman.”

Guggenheim follows five students on their paths of education: Anthony, Francisco, Bianca, Daisy, and Emily. These kids live all over the United States, from New York City to Washington, D.C. to California, and in all kinds of neighborhoods, from the poor inner city to wealthy white suburbia. The common links between these children are that they are all bright students and they all work hard. They all show a great deal of promise and have ambition. And they are all screwed. Because the schools they are going to end up in will take that away from them and rob them of their opportunities.

Waiting for “Superman” is an exhaustive look into the problems that plague the modern American education system. One of the biggest being that is isn’t modern. Our system of education is still working under the methodology of the academic needs of the 1950s. Well, in the 1950s, not everyone went to college, because not everyone needed to go to college. There was still a large agrarian population. Well that doesn’t exist anymore. As one interviewee grimly put it, “If you don’t go to college in America, you’re kind of screwed. And America is kind of screwed.”

But our education system doesn’t reflect this need, still favoring a tracking system in most instances, whereby students are placed on tracks that decide where they will end up: college, managerial positions, or manual workforce. But the methodology isn’t the only problem.

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83rd Academy Award Nominations Announced

So the announcements are official. I've bolded the nominations that are different than my predictions.  The ones that are crossed out were my predictions that weren't nominated. Here we go:

Best Art Direction
Alice In Wonderland
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I
Inception
The King's Speech
True Grit
Black Swan


So Alice In Wonderland instead of Black Swan, huh?  This is disappointing because the design of Black Swan is so layered and intelligent.  Very disappointed not to see it recognized.

Best Costume Design
Alice In Wonderland
I Am Love
The King's Speech
The Tempest
True Grit
Black Swan

I Am Love is definitely a worthy competitor in this category.  While I don't think that film works as a whole, the costume design was absolutely beautiful. 


Best Makeup
Barney's Version
The Way Back
The Wolfman
Alice In Wonderland
Black Swan
The Tempest



Okay.  So I really blew this one.  I'm really surprised to not see any of my picks on this list, especially Black Swan which was very deserving of this for the stage makeup alone.


Sound Editing
Inception
Toy Story 3
TRON: Legacy
True Grit
Unstoppable
127 Hours
The Town


 Admittedly, Scott Pilgrim vs the World was a long shot.  But sound is so important to what makes 127 Hours so powerful.  It's shocking to see it not present here.


Sound Mixing
Inception
The King's Speech
Salt
The Social Network
True Grit
127 Hours
Shutter Island


There was a pretty big lapse here on my part to not include The King's Speech on my list.  That film's sound mixing is impeccable and very integral to the story.  For the same reason, it is a shame to see 127 Hours not on the nominations list.


Best Visual Effects
Alice In Wonderland
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I
Hereafter
Inception
Iron Man 2
Scott Pilgrim vs the World
TRON: Legacy
 
Okay.  I am really mad about this one.  Actually, I am totally pissed off.  This was Scott Pilgrim vs the World's only real chance at getting nominated and instead we get Hereafter.  Really?  For what?  That one opening scene.  It was good.  It wasn't that good.  Honestly, Academy, the only way I can phrase my feelings is: W.T.F.?

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Rabbit Hole Review: The Road to Redemption

John Cameron Mitchell's Rabbit Hole is a heartbreaking film of loss that shows how difficult and long the road to recovery and redemption can be.

Rabbit Hole is the story of Becca (Nicole Kidman) and Howie (Aaron Eckhart). They are a couple that lost their son when he chased his dog out into the road and was hit by a car. Now they are in the aftermath of the loss, trying to find a way to continue with life and find some way to feel something more than the overwhelming weight of loss.

There is a delicate tone to this movie. It would be easy to beat the audience over the head with the misery of loss, but Mitchell doesn't do that. He doesn't show Becca and Howie crying their eyes out as they walk around the house. Instead, he shows how big their house is, how empty it is, and, most haunting, how quiet it is. He shows that their son's drawings are still hanging on the fridge. What this does is allow the audience to feel their loss rather than be told it. It's beyond show, don't tell. It is feel, don't watch.

Nicole Kidman as Becca is an impressive performance to watch. I can't recall the last time I have seen a more cold hearted bitch on screen. However, what is impressive is not Kidman's ability to be cold but to show that there is something beneath that, even when she is sitting in a support group mocking the members ways of coping. Rather than push you away, this coldness pulls you in, as you want to know why Becca is like this. And when this information is given, Becca grows, but it is not a grandiose transition. It is a subtle shift that feels very sincere and honest.

Aaron Eckhart is a knockout in this movie. As Howie, he is handling his grief in the more traditional ways that we are accustomed to: he wants to go to the support group, he wants to talk about what happened, he wants to find a way to move on and make things nice again. The power of Eckhart's performance comes from the little subtleties. As he watches a video on his iPhone of his son, there is sorrow in his eyes but there is also joy. Joy because he is watching his son whom he treasures the memory of. It's these kind of layers that make Eckhart something special to watch in this film. He is a man at war with himself. He doesn't want to sweep his son underneath the rug like a secret but he wants to move on with his life. He struggles to figure out how to reconcile these feelings or even if he can.

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True Grit Review: Not Your Typical Western

With True Grit, the Cohen brothers return to the western and it is a skillfully crafted journey filled with endlessly engaging characters.

Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) is a 14-year-old girl that arrives in town to settle her father's affairs after he was shot and killed by a man under his employ, Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin). However, Mattie has more in mind than bringing her father's body home and selling off his ponies: she plans to see her father's murderer brought to justice. In order to insure this she hires the most ruthless US Marshall she can find, Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges). But there is another man on the trail of Chaney, a Texas Ranger named LeBeouf (Matt Damon). Mattie insists on being brought along and the three of them form a tenuous alliance as they pursue Tom Chaney into the wilderness of Arkansas.

The first thing to note is that this is a western. It has all of the hallmarks of that genre. There are lawmen pursuing outlaws. There is a vast wilderness the characters must journey through. There is the idea of vigilante justice and an eye for an eye. But all of these ideas are played upon by the Cohens, putting interesting twists on each.

For instance, it is questionable how capable the lawmen are for the task at hand. Cogburn is a drunk that takes to firing his gun as a catch all solution. LeBeouf is a noble man but seems to lack any true experience in confronting outlaws. He seems a little too educated for the task of hunting violent men. The outlaws, too, are not what is normally expected. They are not evil, but men struggling to survive in the world they have found themselves in. Mattie is also not what one expects when they lay their eyes on the teenaged girl in braids. She is smart, stubborn, fearless, and has a razor sharp tongue. In essence, what is so surprising about these characters is that they feel very flawed, that is to say, they feel very human. And not just the main characters. The characters we meet for only a scene feel like fully realized individuals also, which is an impressive feat of writing and acting.

The wilderness that these characters must battle is a wilderness that is vast and unforgiving, but is not the desert typically associated with the genre. Instead of never ending sand, Mattie, Cogburn, and LaBeouf must journey through thick forests, wide open prairies, and rocky mountains. Instead of unforgiving sun, they must contend with the freezing cold of winter. The environment is a very interesting component to the story as the continual change of it shows what a long journey this is, as well as how important it is know where you are going, for this is a land that can swallow a person without a second thought. Also to be noted is not only how deadly this landscape is but how beautiful. Master cinematographer Rodger Deakins photographs this film so that even at its darkest, at its most foreboding, at its most deadly, it is still beautiful.

Revenge is the driving factor of the film, which is a common idea in westerns. Mattie believes that everyone pays for what they do. She is determined to see Chaney dead, but for LeBeouf and Cogburn it is a matter of business. The difference between a typical western and this film is that True Grit doesn't paint revenge as a glorious solution and triumphant end to the journey. Mattie is determined to seek her retribution but, capable as she is, she doesn't understand the true extent of that. When she does come face to face with Chaney, it is hard to see him as the villain she has imagined him to be. He is just a man. And she, too, will have to pay for her actions.

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83rd Academy Award Nominations - My Predictions

This year I decided to try to predict the Academy Award nominations in every category, excluding the shorts which have already been announced. It has not been an easy task. But come the end of January I'll see how well I did.

Best Art Direction
Black Swan
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I
Inception
The King's Speech
True Grit

Best Costume Design
Alice in Wonderland
Black Swan
The King's Speech
The Tempest
True Grit

Best Make Up
Alice in Wonderland
Black Swan
The Tempest

Best Sound Editing
127 Hours
Inception
Scott Pilgrim vs the World
The Town
True Grit

Best Sound Mixing
127 Hours
Inception
Shutter Island
The Social Network
True Grit

Best Visual Effects
Alice in Wonderland
Inception
Iron Man 2
Scott Pilgrim vs the World
TRON: Legacy

Best Foreign Language Film
Biutiful
The Chorus
The Edge
I Am Love
In A Better World

Best Documentary Film
Inside Job
Restrepo
The Tillman Story
Waiting for "Superman"
Waste Land

Best Animated Feature
How to Train Your Dragon
The Illusionist
Toy Story 3

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Adopting Haiti Review: Doing the Right Thing and Hoping for the Best

Director and Producer Timothy Wolfer’s documentary, Adopting Haiti, is the story of something inspiring coming out of something quite tragic: the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Wolfer’s film shows the mess the earthquake created in Haiti and how even the noblest people with the best intentions of doing the right thing struggled to wade through it, finding themselves running into obstacles over and over again.

Wolfer put a post on Facebook: Anyone want to sponsor a poor film student filmmaker to Haiti? Within eight hours, he had two plane tickets and was on his way.

The earthquake of January 2010 devastated Haiti. In the midst of that chaos is the Maison Des Enfant De Dieu orphanage and Pierre Alexis, the orphanage director. Under his care are 135 orphans that Alexis is trying to find homes for in the United States. Decimated by the earthquake, the living conditions of the children are frightening to see and Wolfer’s camera does not shy away.

Babies sleep on blankets on the ground or on the floor of a cargo truck. Flies crawl all over the children, walking on their faces and eyes, and the children make no move to swat at them because they‘ve become used to their presence. At night, children sleep in a big pile on mattresses underneath a tarp because everyone – adults and children alike – are afraid to be inside buildings, fearing an aftershock from the earthquake.

The adoption process is a hard and long one, taking anywhere from twenty-four to thirty-eight months. It is for this reason that Tawnya Constantino of Salt Lake City decided to get involved.

Tawnya and her husband, Greg, are participants in an adoptive outreach program named For His Glory. Tawnya decided that she would go to Haiti and bring the kids back to the United States with her, thinking that that would be an easy process. Wolfer follows her as she deals with levels upon levels of bureaucracy that bring her to her wit’s end. The wear on her spirit is evident as her eyes begin to look weary and her smile begins to seem forced.

Wolfer and his small crew were not the only ones covering the story of the Maison Des Enfant De Dieu orphanage. CNN anchor and special correspondent Soledad O’Brien was also present with a CNN news crew. It is very impressive to see the access Wolfer was able to get. He interviews O’Brien in between news broadcasts and gets very honest responses from her. But he doesn’t stop there. Wolfer talks to everyone from the producer, Rose Acre, to the cameraman, Orlando Ruiz. He takes care to talk to everyone – volunteers, CNN staff, orphanage staff, and a few of the orphans as well. Wolfer works hard to create a whole picture from every perspective, but his resources are limited.

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The Fighter Review: Pulling the Punches that Count

David O. Russell's The Fighter is a solid film but it treads over ever-so-familiar territory.

"Irish" Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg) is a boxer from Lowell, Massachusetts that is struggling to make a name for himself. His management team consists of his brother, Dicky Ecklund (Christian Bale), and his mother, Alice Ward (Melissa Leo). Dicky used to be a fighter himself: his claim to fame is that he knocked Sugar Ray Leonard down in a fight many years ago. However, Dicky has fallen from grace due to a crack cocaine addiction.

Micky meets Charlene (Amy Adams) while she is tending bar one night and begins to date her. When Dicky's drug problems land him in jail, Charlene urges Micky to find a different management team. After much coaxing, he does and things begin to go his way. But Micky can't escape his family ties.

There are quite a few problems with this film. Beginning with the title. Who exactly is the fighter? Is it Mark Wahlberg's Micky Ward or Christian Bale's Dicky Ecklund? Because Micky doesn't fight anything in this movie, with the exception of his opponents in the ring. Everywhere else he gets railroaded. He lets his mother and Dicky rule his life. They pick his opponents and decide when he fights, even if he ends up taking a beating for fighting out of his weight class. He has no backbone. That is until Amy Adams enters the film as Charlene and serves her solitary function: to fight Micky's familial battles for him and be his backbone. At the moment of confrontation when Micky is supposed to inform his mother that he is switching management, he doesn't. It is Charlene that speaks up and says what needs to be said.

Dicky Ecklund on the other hand is fighting everything. He's fighting his crack addiction. He's fighting against the law. He's even fighting against the reality of the present, thinking he is going to make a comeback as a boxer in his forties. Christian Bale is electric in this role. Many times has Christian Bale played the very serious, gloomy character, yet in this role, the role of man struggling with addiction and the loss of grace, he is the complete opposite. Dicky is not a good man, yet it is impossible not to like him. He is engaging and charming in every scene, even at his worst he is completely sympathetic. It really is a shame that he is an ancillary character to this story because his journey is far more interesting than anyone else's in the film.

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