GONNA FLY NOW: a review of "Creed"

"CREED"
Based upon characters created by Sylvester Stallone
Story by Ryan Coogler
Screenplay Written by Ryan Coogler & Aaron Covington
Directed by Ryan Coogler
**** (four stars)
RATED PG 13

There is not one reason in the world for there to be another anything related to the cinematic life of the "Italian Stallion" himself, Rocky Balboa. That being said, "Creed," Co-Writer/Director Ryan Coogler's kinetic, perceptive, enormously entertaining, moving and downright sensational entry into the on-going saga heroically rises to the challenge and becomes the finest installment since 1979.

For a character that has been so beloved by fans--the earnest, pure-hearted underdog, the battered, bruised but never broken lovable palooka Rocky Balboa--it has often boggled my mind that his longevity has remained s powerful, especially as he has been so under-served by his own movies. Of course, the original, Oscar winning 1976 film, written by series creator and star Sylvester Stallone and directed by John Avildson, is a veritable classic that deeply touched a populist nerve during the turbulent 1970's, but aside from the strong "Rocky II" (1979), the series essentially took a regular joe armed with the deepest of tenacity (and a powerful punch) and transformed him into something superhuman, and therefore unrelatable.

Yes, "Rocky III" (1982) was highly entertaining but that was indeed  the film in which Rocky began to become a bloated cartoon version of himself. The odious jingoism of "Rocky IV" (1985) only cemented the transformation from somewhat of an every-man into a Right-wing fantasy film flag waving icon. The less said about "Rocky V" (1990) the better and yet, only the understated grace of the most unlikely sixth installment "Rocky Balboa" (2006), which had our hero negotiating his elderly life without the love of his life by his side, returned the series to exploring human beings rather than the next opponent to vanquish inside the boxing ring.

With "Creed," the first installment not written or conceived by Stallone, Ryan Coogler certainly has a daunting task at hand by attempting to tackle this nearly 40 year cinematic legacy. But he too, like Balboa and now, the young boxing upstart Adonis Creed, is indeed the underdog made great as his creative ingenuity, plus his clear reverence for the character and series while merging that affection into his own uniquely crafted vision made for a film that nearly laid me flat with its superb execution.

Believe me dear readers, I have said more than I ever need to say decrying the lack of imagination in Hollywood and its over-reliance upon sequels, re-boots, re-imaginings and now superheros. But as Writer/Director George Miller proved victoriously with the brilliant "Mad Max: Fury Road" earlier this year, sequels and re-boots do not need to exist as soulless machines designed to pick our pockets. They can honor the past while injecting honest and ferocious vitality into moving familiar characters into new cinematic territories. Ryan Coogler's "Creed" sits triumphantly at the top of the heap.

"Creed" stars a visibly hungry and absolutely terrific Michael B. Jordan in the titular role of Adonis Creed, the illegitimate son of Apollo Creed who died in the boxing ring before Adonis' birth. After serving time in a youth facility where his anger and propensity for fighting is paramount, Adonis is soon taken in by Creed's widow Mary Anne (Phylicia Rashad) upon the passing of Adoinis' biological Mother. Over the following seventeen years, Adonis grows, is handsomely educated and finds himself in a fine corporate career with a promotion to boot, but he still finds himself unfulfilled and consumed with anger fueled restlessness, which leads to him becoming a somewhat seasoned lightweight boxer across the L.A. border in Mexico.

Soon quitting his job, Adonis moves from California to Philadelphia, adorns himself with a new secretive identity as "Donnie Johnson," begins a tentative romance with budding songwriter/musician Bianca (the captivating Tessa Thompson) and finally, tracks down the retired boxer/now restaurant owner Rocky Balboa (again played by Sylvester Stallone) to ask if he would train and mentor him as he pursues his path of becoming a full time fighter. Rocky, while gracious, politely refuses but of course, he finds himself warming to Adonis thus beginning a new relationship that forces both men to redefine their respective notions of family, confronting the fears and failures of life while always fighting the good fight one step at a time, one punch at a time.

Ryan Coogler, re-teaming with Michael B. Jordan after their richly humanistic work with the quietly devastating "Fruitvale Station" (2013), arrive at and approach the legacy of Rocky Balboa and now the new journey of Adonis Creed with the same serious attention to the emotional details that construct a life as they achieved with their previous effort. While all of the beats within the story will indeed ring familiar and in tremendous step with all that has been presented to us before, Coogler miraculously makes the proceedings of "Creed" feel as fresh as the very first time we all saw the original 'Rocky" by always keeping his attention to the characters and their predicaments at the forefront and never allowing any sense of spectacle overtake the film. Coogler presents a world that is appropriately gritty, lived in, and run down, a world that has truly seen better days but tries its best to continue moving forwards. Like Adonis himself, "Creed" is about paying homage to a legacy while also attempting to create a new legacy, and Coogler handles every momoent with class and empathy as well as urgency and passion.

I loved how Coogler weaved in the familiar story elements and iconography of the previous six "Rocky" films effortlessly and so organically that nothing felt to be forced.  In fact, I enjoyed how he took past plot points that for their respective films felt to be grandiose (almost to the point of parody) and burrowed them down to their most basic elements, thus making for a film that was often primal in it overall effect. We all know that Apollo Creed died at the hands of the evil, steroid addicted Ivan Drago in "Rocky IV," for instance. But in "Creed," Apollo's premature death is treated as intimate tragedy, therefore with a reality and gravitas that was absent from many of this series' installments.

In "Creed," Apollo's death is not a comic book plot point but an action that has left long term bruises for severeal of the film characters. A wife who lost the love of her life. An aging rival still dealing with regrets of actions not taken that could have maybe saved his life. And now, a son wrestling with issues of self-discovery, identity and determining precisely what is his place in the world. While Adonis Creed's journey does of course lead him into the boxing ring for a toe-to-toe trial by fire against the undefeated and possibly prison bound British bruiser, "Pretty" Ricky Conlan (Tony Bellew), the lightweight champion of the world (and in sequences that are beautifully filmed), the soul of "Creed" is not about the boxing match. The soul of "Creed" lies firmly within Adonis' existential struggle with figuring out precisely who he is within the world, within his chosen path, and within his own name.

Michael B. Jordan, a young actor I have watched since his stint on "All My Children" (where he was once a love interest for Amanda Seyfried), is a sight to behold as his imposing physical presence and smoldering intensity make him compulsively watchable in what I felt to be his star-making/breakthrough role. He owns the screen completely, fully nailing the vulnerability that is housed inside of his rage, the pain, hurt and fear that serves as his fuel to blaze his own path, despite the legend of his Father. While his physicality made for a fully convincing sight in the film's richly executed fight sequences, his coiled force is forever present in the film's many sequences of intimacy (like a very lovely moment as he is braiding Bianca's hair), to especially the heart of the film in which he and Rocky Balboa create a new version of family for themselves.

Sylvester Stallone has not been this natural, this loose, and this honestly affecting in many, many years. Whatever awards season attention he is and will continue to receive is deeply earned with this tender, urgent performance that fully reminds us about why we all fell in love with this character in the first place. It is a wonderful piece of work, filled with earned life lessons, subtle rhythms, deep affection and a level of generosity I would not have expected from him--especially so, as he has released the reins of his own creation to Coogler.

A scene of Rocky visiting the grave-sites of his beloved Adrian and now Paulie comment upon the passage of time, loneliness and mortality with a graceful melancholy, especially as we are meant to note that he is now the only surviving member of this series' core cast of characters. Beyond the echoes to the past, a new trial Rocky is forced to confront provides "Creed" with a newfound element of pathos that not only mirrors the film's primary storyline with Adonis but again injects a sense of realism the "Rocky" series abandoned for so much of its duration. And Stallone handles the entire performance with supple strength and skillful sensitivity, never once over-playing any moment or attempting to brandish the attention for himself. It is remarkable to see how through the act of letting go of his signature creation, Sylvester Stallone has surprised once again and climbed to even greater heights with his lovely performance.

I must make special notice of Tessa Thompson, who first made a powerful impact upon me in Writer/Director Justin Simien's "Dear White People" (2014). While the amount of her scenes are scant compared with those of her co-stars, and she is indeed relegated to the sidelines as the focus shifts to the climactic boxing match, I did deeplye appreciate her grounded, serious work that suggested a very detailed life that was not presented upon the screen. Her romance with Adonis, should there be a new installment, could heat up in most interesting and compelling ways, while also presenting audiences with that cinematic rarity: a young, attractive African-American couple in love. Even deeper is the character detail and trajectory of Bianca the musician as she deals with her progressive hearing loss. This avenue already provided the film's love story with yet another sense of urgency that fueles the narrative handsomely.

Ryan Coogler's "Creed" is possibly the most unlikely film that I have seen this year to have succeeded so highly. As entertaining as the film is, it is the sense of honesty and authenticity that makes the film soar. Any and all sense of contrivance has been stripped away leaving only a story about real people dealing with real emotions, conflicts and tribulations in a very real way. And in doing so, when those echoes to the past do arrive, there is a euphoria filled sense of recognition and release that proved to be intoxicating, ultimately providing a much needed sense of hope and perseverance during a time when so many have been pushed to the wall and into the water with little to cling to. Yet, like Adonis and like the elderly Rocky, with each solitary step, we may one day prevail.

By the time "Creed" reaches its conclusion, set in a familiar location, if you find yourself with a lump in your throat as the moment is sublimely poetic and poignant, do not be surprised. What is happily surprising, however, is how beautifully earned that lump in the throat actually is.

TEARS OF RAGE: a review of "Chi-Raq"

"CHI-RAQ"
Screenplay Written by Kevin Willmott and Spike Lee
Produced and Directed by Spike Lee
**** (four stars)
RATED R

Over and again as I viewed the outrageous, explosive "Chi-Raq," the latest, surrounded in controversy "Joint" from Spike Lee, I found myself bathed in the flow of my own tears.

Not through sadness or sorrow, per se. But, through the release of long pent up frustration, intolerance and incredulity regarding the lives that we are all living in 21st century America, lives that should be rejected with the fullest vehemence by all of society, we have seemingly turned into a life of complacency and even normalcy as we face week after week hearing about one more gun massacre after another...and whatever outrage that does exist falls entirely upon the deaf ears of our leaders.

It is a shameful and inexcusable era we are living in and moreso, it is an era that is increasingly infuriating because how many more times do we need to read/hear/see the news about yet another shooting, yet another violent death of a child, to which we will all hear the empty, pointless "thoughts and prayers" of our chief politicians, so many of whom are in the back pockets of the NRA in the first place. I don't know about you, but I cannot take anymore and if even one more person who has bastardized the 2nd Amendment explains to me that we cannot have gun laws simply because someone will undoubtedly break that law, I will find myself frothing at the mouth, for with that strand of so-called logic, why have ANY laws??? I'm sorry, but we, as a society, have to try because even if the attempt is futile, doing nothing is not an option!!

Spike Lee's "Chi-Raq" speaks to that very frustration and outrage with the strength of an artistic powder keg. This is Lee's most vibrant, vital, explosive work since the blitzkrieg of his own "Bamboozled" (2000), it marks a full return to the peak of his powers of provocation and artistic excellence and he has released one of the most audacious films of his nearly 30 year career. Believe me, it could not be more timely and downright necessary, yet who knows if any of you out there will even take the chance and see it. I hope that this review will convince you to engage with this uniquely passionate and defiantly artistic experience.

Based upon "Lysistrata," the 411 BC play written by Aristophanes, Spike Lee's "Chi-Raq" updates the tale to 2015 Chicago, as murder rates in the city have already eclipsed the total deaths in our wars with Iraq and Afghanistan, and the 4th of July just this year saw 55 deaths. A surprisingly impressive and imposing Nick Cannon stars as the rapper Chi-Raq and leader of the purple clad Spartans who are caught in the throes of an endless gang war with the orange clad Trojans, led by the one-eyed Cyclops (Wesley Snipes).

After a shootout at a nightclub where Chi-Raq is performing (brutal shades of the November 13th Paris attacks at Le Bataclan), which leaves a few of Cyclops' members injured and/or killed, Cyclops retaliates by nearly burning down Chi-Raq's home, which then leads to another shootout on the Chicago streets. The following morning as Chi-Raq's girlfriend Lysistrata (a terrific Teyonah Parris) happens across yet another crime scene, this time the body of 11 year old Patti, struck dead by a stray bullet, and mourned in anguish by her Mother Irene (Jennifer Hudson) as she pleads with the surrounding bystanders to please speak up if they had seen anything at all.

As Father Mike Corridan (a towering John Cusack), the powerful neighborhood social/racial/anti-gun activist and Roman Catholic priest, offers a $5000 reward for any information leading to the shooter still produces no results, Lysistrata, after taking counsel from the neighborhood book loving Peace activist Miss Helen (an excellent Angela Bassett), persuades all of the women of the Spartans and Trojans to begin a sex strike until all of the fighting comes to a halt. Once Lysistrata and her army take over a local armory, the battle of the sexes explodes, leaving the fate of Chicago's soul in the balance.

As dynamically narrated directly to the camera/audience by the one man Greek chorus of Dolmedes (a vivacious Samuel L. Jackson)--himself a completely updated version of 1970's Blaxploitation urban hero Dolemite--and with dialogue that is spoken completely in rhymed verse from beginning to end, it is no wonder that much controversy has been sparked over "Chi-Raq" as many have feared that the film would make light of a subject as morbidly serious as our nation's gun violence epidemic. Point taken. But that said, what of  Stanley Kubrick's classic "Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb" (1964), which poked its tongue out at nothing less than nuclear evisceration? Spike Lee's "Chi-Raq" is easily cut from that same excessive cloth and frankly, I felt that Lee's film essentially served a concoction that was partially Kubrick, partially Director Baz Luhrmann's "Romeo And Juliet" (1996), a dash of Director Milos Forman's "Hair" (1979) and copious amounts of material reminiscent of the brilliantly enveloping and disturbing cosmic ghettos as presented through the 1970's albums by Funkadelic. This is filmmaking that is decidedly poetic and vulgar, often irreverent, brash and brazen and most of all, it is unquestionably and audaciously fearless.

Yes, "Chi-Raq" is a satire, as our Master Of Ceremonies Dolmedes explains at the film's outset (and just had Lee had also performed in the opening moments of "Bamboozled"). Yes, "Chi-Raq" contains some broad comedic laughs as well as rich musical sequences, a squadron of colorful characters all adorned within even more colorful names and costumes. Yes, "Chi-Raq" contains wildly bawdy sequences (including one involving an outlandish Chicago confederate soldier named Major King Kong played by Lee regular David Patrick Kelly) that seem to finally bring the sexual fantasies and conceits depicted within Lee's troublesome "Girl 6" (1996) and "She Hate Me" (2004) into a proper context, as the playfulness suggests much more about men's weaknesses than it ever does about Lysistrata's scantily clad army of women.

But do not be mistaken. From its pulsating core to every frame upon the screen, the tragedy of gun violence is front and center. "Chi-Raq" is fueled by Lee at his most creatively and politically ferocious. "Chi-Raq" represents the fire and brimstone Spike Lee that we have not seen in some time outside of his excellent documentaries and the return to his loud, passionate voice is a most welcome one as he speaks truths that many choose to disregard. "Chi-Raq" is not a film designed to just amiably give audiences what they may be wanting. Spike Lee is giving us precisely what we need. No, this film may not be for everyone and all tastes, and that is perfectly fine because why should it? The core of the film's message is the meat of the matter and even though I am certain this film will make a swift exit from movie theaters, "Chi-Raq" is thunderously essential viewing.

For those who are familiar with the controversy surrounding the film, all I can say to you is that to fully weigh in on the discussion, you have to see the film in order to do so. Not just the film's two minute trailer, which has already received more literal and digital ink than deserved. But the full two hour plus experience. Only then, will you see what Lee has devised and despite the visual razzle dazzle he has displayed across the screen, Spike Lee's "Chi-Raq" is as serious as the gun violence it is rallying against.

A wordless sequence where Irene, on her hands and knees, is washing the blood of her dead daughter from the sidewalk is appropriately mournful and wrenching. Another where a wheelchair bound former gang member imparts to Chi-Raq much needed life learned wisdom of the futility of the gang warfare, a life that also made his son a paraplegic, is equally sobering. A protest march, where Lee places real life Chicago Mothers carrying photos of their dead children, all killed from gun violence, is profound, startling and blood boiling. And one startling sequence where Miss Helen is visited by an insurance salesman (played by Lee regular Roger Guenveur Smith), offering the opportunity to place a life insurance policy upon Helen's teenaged nephew is enraging.

Best of all, is John Cusack's extended, soul shaking monologue in which his character of Father Mike Corridan (himself based upon Chicago's legendary Roman Catholic priest/social activist Father Michael Pfleger) delivers a two-fisted sermon at the funeral of 11 year old Patti, where he riffs and extols upon everything from the life of the gun that murdered Patti (purchased at an Indiana gun show with fake ID and references), to the true economic downfalls of the Black community, the fear that has enshrouded the community due to the rampant gang violence, the public school to prison pipeline, the inhumane complacency and greed that exists within our leaders who will do and say anything for the NRA and gun manufactures instead of the will of the people they were elected to represent and then back again to the endless stream of violence Corridan rightfully and righteously acknowledges as "genocide." John Cusack might not be the most likely individual to find within a Spike Lee Joint, but with his scant amount of scenes, he inserts himself beautifully and with this sequence in particular, his voice growing hoarser the more voluminous it builds, is downright sensational. To one Chicagoan from another, John Cusack has done the soul of Chicago proud.

Yet beyond the city of Chicago itself, Spike Lee has utilized his film to take the setting of my home city and serve it as a metaphor for America itself. In many ways, "Chi-Raq" feels to be very much a companion piece and extension of past Lee films, all set within his home of New York, like the 1970's period piece of neighborhoods long gone in "Crooklyn" (1994) to the increased violence and decline of those very same neighborhoods today as presented in "Clockers" (1995) and "Red Hook Summer" (2012). 

In detailing the downfalls of all of our American, predominately Black, working class/working poor neighborhoods and the violence that has now engulfed those neighborhoods, no one is spared from Lee's scornful criticism. From the gangs and "Black On Black Violence" to the murderous members of the police force, Lee's sympathies lie solely with the individuals and families caught in between, as represented by a shocking sequence where Dolmedes, flanked by a gang banger and police officer, fire rounds directly into the camera. Yes, it is an over-the-top moment contained in a film loaded with over-the-top moments but let's face it, we live in over-the-top times demanding of a critical analysis designed to reach whomever, wherever by any means necessary.

"Chi-Raq," a first-rate production in which Lee, alongside his Co-Screenwriter Kevin Willmott, is aided tremendously by his longtime core team Cinematographer Matthew Libatique, Costume Designer Ruth E. Carter, Composer Terence Blanchard and several veterans of what I tend to think of as "The Spike Lee Players," all work feverishly with purpose and vitality to create this unique cinematic vision that blends the mythical and the harshest realities with supreme urgency. I have felt that Lee works best when he has a clear agenda in mind and it is clear that aside from the bleakness and violence, what he wishes to achieve with "Chi-Raq" is to present a world where the sanctity of life is upheld, where hope, forgiveness and redemption are all able to survive and thrive. But, only if we are able to put down the guns and extinguish all means and ways we have devised to extinguish ourselves first.

As the film's central figure of Lysistrata, Teyonah Parris has a most difficult role to fill and achieve as she is essentially an archetype as opposed to a "realistic" human being. Even so, she holds a commanding presence and works wonders as she effortlessly emerges from 'round-the-way girl bystander to warrior to revolutionary Queen. Lysistrata is basically Joan Of Arc, albeit the South Side Of Chicago 2015 version--a larger than life figure in a film that is equally outsized and Parris owns the screen with confidence, strength, and most importantly, an unshakable humanity.

So, with all of the controversies and commentaries surrounding "Chi-Raq" and its intentions and presentations, let's all try to keep everything within a certain sense of perspective here. If the title of the film itself is offensive to you rather than the gun violence that continues to permeate this nation to emergency levels, then you truly need to re-check your priorities. If a creative approach that is decidedly theatrical and even mythological is offensive to you rather than hearing about the latest gun massacre on a regular basis, then you seriously need to re-check your priorities. If the film's more surreal and even downright bizarre elements are offensive to you, rather than the surreal and bizarre realities of a world where it is easier to obtain a gun than it is to register to vote or that individuals named upon the terror no-fly list are still legally able to purchase guns, then you SERIOUSLY need to re-check your priorities!!

Just one day after seeing "Chi-Raq," I happened upon a fact checked tweet from noted Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson posted November 9th, which stated that this year, 3400 Americans were killed by household firearms over the previous five weeks from that date, the exact same number of Americans killed by terrorism since 2001. Two days before I saw the film, the New York Times ran their first front-page editorial in 95 years (!) specifically addressing the "moral outrage" against the "national disgrace" our American gun culture and violence has become. Spike Lee's "Chi-Raq" looks directly into that horrific mouth of madness with brutal force, an ocean of empathy and staggering creativity. Some may decry the film's lack of subtlety. Yet, and I am not able to say this with enough emphasis...we do not live in subtle times and sometimes, an in your-face message is precisely what is demanded instead of shadings and nuances.

Spike Lee's "Chi-Raq" is a wholly entertaining and emotionally exhausting return to his specialized brand of "WAKE UP!" cinema. It is an unrepentant howl of tear stained rage demanding that our society do whatever it takes, and again, by any means necessary, to meet the societal crisis that has not just overtaken my home city of Chicago but our entire nation.

"Chi-Raq" is also one of the finest films I have seen in 2015.

SAVAGE CINEMA'S COMING ATTRACTIONS FOR DECEMBER 2015

Like I even have to tell you what the movie of the month is...

"Star Wars: The Force Awakens," officially Episode VII in the on-going space opera set a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, arrives on December 18th and as with the rest of the world, I am gathering, I am anxiously awaiting to make the jump to light speed and return to the cinematic universe that first made me love the language and artistry of the movies back in 1977.

Of course, I am trying to take everything in stride, just as I did with the arrival of the prequel trilogy back in 1999. I am trying to keep my expectations at a simmer, realizing that it is just a movie and not a religious experience akin to the second coming...or in this case, the third. While I have been skeptical of this new venture simply because Disney now owns the franchise and are certainly not concerned with the art and magic of "Star Wars," I am feeling that Writer/Director J.J. Abrams is the right fit to carry the torch of "Star Wars" creator George Lucas' artistic vision and intent as best as possible, as Abrams has long professed his passion for the series and has referenced aspects of the original trilogy over and again within his own projects. Even so, all will be revealed soon...

As for any other films to see during this month...well, I have to play some catch up with "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay-Part 2," "Creed," and "The Good Dinosaur." Aside from those..

1. Spike Lee's already controversial "Chi-Raq," his updated version of the iconic Greek play "Lysistrata" as fashioned as a satire/cultural commentary about our current crisis status of gun violence my home city of Chicago (and the nation at large) is at the top of the list without question!

2. "The Hateful Eight," the 8th film from Quentin Tarantino is also riding highly upon my personal must-see list. But, I am wondering that despite its Christmas Day release date, if the film may not reach my city until January 2016, especially the three hour with intermission version presented in luscious 70MM.

3. Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu's "The Revenant" also extremely high upon the must-see list and possessing a Christmas Day release date, also will not arrive in my city until early January 2016,

And that is more than enough to keep me busy as 2015 begins to wind down. So, as always, wish me luck and good health and I'll see you when the house lights go down!

A DYING BREED: a review of "Spotlight"

"SPOTLIGHT"
Screenplay Written by Josh Singer & Tom McCarthy
Directed by Tom McCarthy
***1/2 (three and half stars)
RATED R

The news has been cancelled.

That damning phrase has been uttered more times than I am able to count over the years and yet, with each passing year, the truth behind that statement could not be any truer, as far as I am concerned. The rise of the internet, the 24 hour cable news cycle, severe budget cuts, and the decimation of the nation's newspapers would be more than enough to place powerful nails in journalism's coffin. But I also feel that the status of what could be referenced as "opinion journalism" has done more to erase impartial objectivity as well as contributed more than its share to the building of larger and more impenetrable echo chambers that are nothing but self-serving to every individual reader/viewer, thus forcing our overall political/societal discourse to break down.

None of us are really immune and we are all complicit to varying degrees. While I do love Rachel Maddow for instance, as well as John Nichols' especially strong work for The Nation, I also know that their personal politics are a part of the package, inherently existing as part of the stories that they are reporting, an element that is wholly unnecessary. At its worst, we are armed with newspapers as well as a television network, which shall remain nameless upon my site, that clearly, obviously and unrepentantly function as arms of propaganda masquerading as news, and since those outlets have the largest microphones, and most of the print and electronic media plus the radio and television airwaves, alternatives are scant to be found unless one scours for them. But, with the speed of life and survival in the 21st century, how does the average citizen have time and energy to perform their own sense of investigative journalism, the type of which that should be occurring in all of our news sources in the first place.

Director Tom McCarthy speaks to this very issue that befalls the state of our journalism with his latest effort "Spotlight," a taut, perceptive, sobering drama which works as a simultaneous tribute and lament for the very investigative journalism that we deserve and are continuing to rapidly lose. While some critics have already anointed this film with superlatives as "extraordinary," "pulse-pounding" and one source even proclaimed that the film is the finest motion picture about journalism since Director Alan J. Pakula's "All The President's Men" (1976), my reaction was considerably more muted as I did find the film to be a tad more sedate and drier than it needed to be. That being said, "Spotlight" is yet another strong, smart, provocative adult drama currently playing in the multiplexes and art houses that demands your attention.

Set in 2001, "Spotlight" focuses upon the small, insular and titular investigative news team for The Boston Globe as they meticulously and methodically uncover a systemic pattern of sexual abuse of children by the Roman Catholic priests in Massachusetts as well as the historical cover up by the Boston Archdioceses.

Based upon the actual series of stories run by the paper, McCarthy presents his cinematic version of the news team which consists of Walter "Robby" Robinson (Michael Keaton), Sacha Pfeiffer (Rachel McAdams), Michael Rezendes (Mark Ruffalo), Matt Carroll (Brian d'Arcy James), Ben Bradlee Jr. (John Slatterly), and Marty Baron (Liev Schreiber), who, during the course of this film, becomes the new Editor of The Boston Globe, the one who shifted the newspaper's international coverage to more locally based investigative journalism, and was the key figure who quietly suggested the Spotlight team explore the sexual abuse scandal. The combined efforts of these individuals earned The Boston Globe the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.

While I am a little bit softer on this film than what the bulk of the reviews have been expressing, I will say that "Spotlight" is a true return to form for Tom McCarthy who has indeed delivered his finest film since the outstanding drama "The Visitor" (2007), which presented a star making performance from legendary character actor Richard Jenkins. With "Spotlight," I was pleased to see how McCarthy never once injected unnecessary drama into his film, one that already possesses an enormous amount of inherent drama considering the subject matter. The entire cast is appropriately understated and firmly on point, working beautifully as an ensemble, although I have to make special mention for the especially sharp work from Stanley Tucci, Jamey Sheridan and Billy Crudup, who all portray attorneys, representing either the Catholic church or the victims of abuse. And I have to say that Rachel McAdams and Liev Schreiber in particular continued to impress with their richly grounded work.

McCarthy treats "Spotlight" as a procedural, keeping his film running smoothly at a simmer, allowing any sense of outrage to arrive naturally and without hyperbole. But it is a film that is perhaps a tad emotionally sparser than it needs to be, possibly undercutting its sense of urgency. For my money, the likes of Writer/Director James L. Brooks' classic "Broadcast News" (1987) and Writer/Director Billy Ray's "Shattered Glass" (2003) for instance, spoke louder to me. Additionally, if I were able to change one element, it would have to be Composer Howard Shore's television movie of the week score, which I found to be intrusive to the point of interference. Frankly, and in keeping with no-nonsense spirit McCarthy is obviously attempting to conjure, perhaps having no film score at all would have been preferable.

Regardless, "Spotlight" is a film that speaks powerfully to the painstaking process of investigative journalism, the demanding slowness of its pace, the feverish drive to continuously dig deeper to unearth the grandest truths. Not for sales, or for journalistic glory but for the result of providing an essential public service. And despite any competitive nature between The Boston Globe and The Boston Herald for obtaining information and getting a story to print the fastest, "Spotlight" is an impassioned testament for a period when investigative journalism existed in order to get the story absolutely right, instead of first--a quality that feels exceedingly lost within the speed of our current ratings driven news cycles.

The action of "Spotlight," such as it is, is to regard these journalists in pursuit of a story that is of course, dogged, but one that even transforms them within the process of building and creating the piece over an extended period of time. Certainly writing and editing is paramount, but McCarthy gives those aspects a back seat to the extended, exhausting research process, which continuously informs the team of what precisely is the story they are attempting to tell. Is this a story about one pedophile priest or is this truly the story of a historical cycle of abuse?  Watching the team build trust with their interview subjects, while also sparring with members of the larger community, plus attorneys and representatives of the church is fascinating enough but in the spirit of these journalists, I believe that McCarthy also wishes to delve deeper to determine precisely what is the story of his film.

In a way, "Spotlight" does not necessarily have to be about this specific news team or even this specific story about church sanctioned child sexual abuse. As I previously stated, McCarthy allows us a window into the world of these journalists as we see how they are personally affected by the story they are collectively reporting. As all natives to Boston, the scandal carries a personal weight as McCarthy suggests a larger implication when dealing with social injustice. The more the news team discovers, the angrier Mark Rezendes grows while both Sacha Pfeiffer and Walter Robinson succumb to a grander sorrow. It is as if McCarthy is suggesting to us that if we are able to see it, then we are involved, for with our silence, we are therefore complicit, in even the worst aspects of human behavior. With that conceit, McCarthy ensures that "Spotlight" exists as more than a newspaper drama. It is a plea for our collective sense of humanity, especially when it comes to the safety and protection of our children combined with our collective sense of moral obligation.

I have expressed upon this site more times than I can count that we are living in very dark times. Angry, divisive times during which our sense of discourse has grown increasingly volatile and vicious. I really believe that the nature of our news has quite a part to play within this breakdown, something else "Spotlight" speaks to. Yes, politics are personal but isn't it necessary for our society to have our news delivered to us impartially instead of existing as an extended op-ed piece (at best) designed to speak to specific groups of people, while excluding all others who do not exist within a certain bubble?

The beleaguered HBO drama "The Newsroom" from Aaron Sorkin, while flawed, tried its very best to provide a lament for how our news information was gathered, presented and consumed in the past as we are bombarded by news that is not news in the present. But Tom McCarthy's "Spotlight" achieves the same goal at a higher level and completely without any proselytizing. McCarthy, like his characters and the real world journalists they represent, has mined deeply, unearthing the larger truth that we are all complicit in the news that we receive. And if we continue to remain silent, we will only receive the news that we deserve.

ENTER THE VOID: a review of "Da Sweet Blood Of Jesus"

"DA SWEET BLOOD OF JESUS"
Based upon the film "Ganga And Hess" Written and Directed by Bill Gunn
Screenplay Written by Bill Gunn and Spike Lee
Directed by Spike Lee
*** (three stars)
RATED R

In a bizarre way, I am wondering if everything that Spike Lee has been up to during the last several years is actually coming together.

During the entire filmography of Writer/Producer/Director Spike Lee, at least as far as his narrative features are concerned, he has consistently delivered a ferocious and unrepentant vision of social justice and injustice yet filtered through an artistic vision that presents a worldview through a heightened sense of reality. Through his innovative visual aesthetics, musical backdrops, all the way down to the names of his characters ("Buggin' Out," "Radio Raheem," "Flipper Purify," " Bleek Gillam" etc...), Lee has cultivated a cinematic universe unlike any of his contemporaries for nearly 30 years and counting, and I still contend that he remains one of the finest, and sadly, most misunderstood American filmmakers working today.

That being said, and as I have mentioned often upon this site, this past decade and a taste more has not been terribly kind to Spike Lee and his self-professed cinematic Joints. While he has remained uniformly in peak performance as a documentarian, most notably with his searing, compulsively watchable New Orleans pre and post Hurricane Katrina lament "When The Levees Broke: A Requiem In Four Acts" (2006) and his up close and completely immersive document of the final performances of the Broadway smash "Passing Strange" (2008), his narrative features, save for the slick heist thriller "Inside Man" (2006), have found his intent and execution not coalescing as tightly as with the bulk of his uncompromising output.

His well intentioned World War II drama "Miracle At St. Anna" (2008) was undone by a surprising sluggishness. But it was within the satires, cultural commentaries and tone poems of the widely underseen "She Hate Me" (2004) and "Red Hook Summer" (2012) as well as the morally repugnant, career worst "Oldboy" (2013), which Lee himself has seemed to disown due to the never before seen on-screen credit of "A Spike Lee Film" instead of his trademark "A Spike Lee Joint," where I wondered if Lee had perhaps creatively gone off of the rails. I have always contended, and vehemently against the standard criticism of Lee's oeuvre, that his films are definitely not muddled. Spike Lee's films are defiantly multi-layered and demand more than one viewing to possibly unearth everything that has been weaved into his singular and idiosyncratic cinematic fabrics. Even so, I have been so unsure as to how to enthusiastically defend these more recent films, for they have just confounded me so tremendously as I just do not know what the creative impetus happens to be.

Now, we arrive with "Da Sweet Blood Of Jesus," the latest effort and credited as "An OFFICIAL Spike Lee Joint." While this Kickstarter funded feature (I contributed) may not convince his detractors or even fully convince his supporters that he has returned to top narrative form, I do think that the film does indeed find Lee on more solid cinematic ground even as he extends his palate even further. Granted, "Da Sweet Blood Of Jesus" is a strange, weird film. But it is also undeniably elegant, often hypnotic, and its deliberate pacing does indeed weave a dark spell that has haunted me since watching it. Even further, it quite possibly has shed some light over Lee's most recent narrative features, possibly encapsulating what may have been an intentional creative phase or undertaking.

Spike Lee's "Da Sweet Blood Of Jesus" is in fact a remake of the late Writer/Director Bill Gunn's experimental horror film "Ganja And Hess" (1973). As with that film, "Da Sweet Blood Of Jesus" stars a strongly malevolent Stephen Tyrone Williams as Dr. Hess Green, a highly affluent anthropologist and African art collector who obtains a large dagger which originated from the Ashanti empire, an advanced culture who supposedly became addicted to blood transfusions.

When Hess Green is later attacked, stabbed and seemingly killed with the dagger at his Martha's Vineyard abode by Lafayatte Hightower (Elvis Nolasco), an increasingly unstable colleague who soon commits suicide, Green is apparently "resurrected" the following morning, now unable to eat or digest foods and beverages and shockingly housed with an insatiable thirst for human blood.

As Hess Green begins his pursuit of human blood, first through the theft of blood bags from medical facilities and soon through his nocturnal vampiric hunts during which he seduces and murders his victims in order to consume their blood, he is ultimately confronted by Ganja Hightower (Zaraah Abrahams), who arrives at Martha's Vineyard searching for her missing, estranged husband. Hess Green falls immediately and completely in love with the brittle, British Ganja and the twosome quickly become lovers. Yet, Hess Green still possesses his uncontrollable urges, not only placing Ganja within mortal danger, but also risks whatever remains of Green's humanity and soul.      

Spike Lee's "Da Sweet Blood Of Jesus" is a chilly mood piece, a slow motion nightmare of unsettling erotica, and a grim thriller that merges elements of horror and dreamscapes, which all serve to illustrate an uncommonly striking ode to isolation, alienation and spiritual decay. In many ways, the film is a testament to the fact that Spike Lee is indeed a natural born filmmaker who certainly knows how to stretch a dollar to its breaking point all to ensure that, at least upon a visual level, his work stands as tall as the highest mega-budgeted feature. "Da Sweet Blood Of Jesus" is of no exception, especially as the film was shot entirely in a mere 16 days! Lee, working alongside Cinematographer Daniel Patterson, have created a luscious palate that subtly alternates between warm and cold colors, fully augmenting the film's storyline and characters.

Another most notable element of the film is undoubtedly the music. Spike Lee has historically existed as one of our finest cinematic DJ's as he is truly one of the few filmmakers who intuitively knows how to merge sound and vision to masterful effect. "Da Sweet Blood Of Jesus" possesses ax excellent musical bedrock that perfectly captures the hypnotic and tragic elements of the story and characters. In keeping with the film's more independent spirit, Lee handpicked a collection of songs from entirely unsigned artists (out of 800 entries) and all of them serve the sonic world of the film brilliantly. Even better is the work of Composer/Pianist Bruce Hornsby, who remains an audacious choice as the figure to supply the film score (instead of frequent Lee collaborator Composer Terence Blanchard), which alternates between jazz and classical textures, which enormously assists the chamber piece like nature of the film as a whole.

The film's opening credit sequence is also a first class gem. Clearly serving as an echo to the brilliant edited and performed Rosie Perez dance sequence over the opening credits to "Do The Right Thing" (1989), "Da Sweet Blood Of Jesus" features the graceful and sophisticated moves of dancer Charles "Lil Buck" Riley over the opening credits and just as brilliantly edited as Lee's earlier masterpiece. Yet, where Perez's sequence was righteous and combative, Riley's dance is one of mournfulness and somberness, again perfectly setting up the viewer for everything we are about to witness over the course of the film.

Further still, I also love the connective tissue Lee places within his films, linking one Joint to another effortlessly. Essentially, and despite the fact that the majority of the film takes place on Martha's Vineyard, "Da Sweet Blood Of Jesus" could possibly stand as another entry into Lee's self-described "Chronicles Of Brooklyn" series, which houses "Crookyln" (1994), "Clockers" (1995) and "Red Hook Summer" among others, as the Li'l Piece Of Heaven church sequences within this new film are set at the exact same church depicted within "Red Hook Summer" and the fate of that film's primary character is also addressed. It is just yet another touch that makes Lee's output stand as a full body of work while also presenting an experience that flies into considerably more sinister territory.

And yet, I still had problems with "Da Sweet Blood Of Jesus" overall. To begin, I just felt that Lee rushed the action and the primary act that sets the story in motion without firmly establishing precisely who Dr. Hess Green actually is. Within moments of meeting him, as well as Lafayatte Hightower, Green is stabbed and killed, Hightower has committed suicide and I haven't grown that accustomed to who each of those men happened to be. Another sequence set later in the film and featuring Ganja and Green's former lover Tangier (Nate Bova), begins a bit awkwardly and almost becomes the sort of prurient, male based fantasy sequence that Lee has been criticized for in the past (and rightfully so regarding "She Hate Me" for certain), yet, considering the nature of vampiric seduction, I felt he ultimately pulled it out of the fire.

What I felt most troublesome as I watched the film was that I was unsure as to what the point of this whole escapade even was. I mean, aside from Spike Lee obviously honoring Bill Gunn, what else was there to this experience to justify its existence? For much of the running time, I was reminded of Lee's phone sex fantasia "Girl 6" (1996), a film that was visually enthralling, deeply immersive and captivating but also seemingly empty. It was the first time during that stage of Spike Lee's career where I found myself disappointed because it seemed as if the material got away from him, or possibly he never really knew what he wanted to do or say about this excursion in the first place. This very feeling revisited me with "She Hate Me" for certain and to varying degrees with "Red Hood Summer" and "Oldboy" and for quite some time of "Da Sweet Blood Of Jesus" but then Spike Lee took me to church...

There is an outstanding sequence near the end of "Da Sweet Blood Of Jesus" where everything quite possibly began to click together. Not just for this film for for what Lee may have been devising and exploring for several years now. Set back within the Li'l Piece Of Heaven church, a choir band, featuring no less than Raphael Saadiq on vocals and guitar and Valerie Simpson on piano and vocals, performs a selection that consists of only four lines:

"You've got to learn
To let it go
You've got to know when it's all over
It's over"

As the congregation is swept away with emotion, Dr. Hess Green sit silently and emotionless in the back of the church, contemplating his existence after having already committed several murders in order to obtain blood. He soon begins to slowly approach the altar but is ultimately unable to reach the destination before turning and leaving the church altogether.

With that sequence, which Lee filmed beautifully and richly, I felt that perhaps Hess Green, realizing that his actions have violated the natural law and/or God's law regarding life and death, thus making him live a soulless existence. Having tainted the "sweet blood of Jesus" through his murderous actions, Hess Green is trapped within an existential crisis, where his needs of immortality have outweighed any sense of higher morality, thus making "Da Sweet Blood Of Jesus" exist not as a story of vampires necessarily but as a tale that possibly speaks to our societal moral and spiritual decay regarding our soullessness to our fellow citizens of Earth.

As I have previously stated, Spike Lee has always presented a heightened sense of reality within his films. But with "She Hate Me," "Red Hook Summer," "Oldboy" and now with "Da Sweet Blood Of Jesus," it seems as if he has traded a heightened yet recognizable outlook with one that exists on a grander surreal landscape, as if he is looking at America through a fun house mirror. "She Hate Me" dealt with whistle blowing and an addiction to money yet filtered through a squadron of lipstick lesbians, animated sperm, allusions to Watergate and the slavery auction block. "Red Hook Summer" told a simple tale of a Southern teenager's summer visit to Brooklyn but weaved in the story of the fall of a beloved, respected preacher in a dying Black church located in a re-gentrified section of New York. The less said about "Oldboy" the better but with "Da Sweet Blood Of Jesus," the addiction to blood by any means necessary did eventually strike a chord, especially when dealing with the uber wealthy African American characters who are already isolated within both White and Black cultures.

I wonder if Lee was making a commentary about the uber wealthy Black people who do not attempt to do more to uplift the race but ultimately, cultivate a singular existence for themselves. With Dr. Hess Green, his wealth was amassed through his parents and then singularly for himself. He has surrounded himself with priceless works of African art and historical antiques, not to share and use to educate other, but for his own possession. And once, he does become a vampire, he preys upon the ones who have attained less than himself, in one instance a hooker (played by Felicia Pearson from "The Wire") and in another, a resident of the housing projects, two figure who are meaningless in Green's world. Only Ganja is seen to be an equal in Hess Green's eyes and even then, the twosome share a dance that proves deadly for both of them--like a snake eating its own tail. And I guess it is that very mournfulness that is sitting at the center of Spike Lee's recent output and I cannot help but to wonder if that was indeed the primary focus at hand.

Is that what "Da Sweet Blood Of Jesus" is necessarily about? Who knows. Was this surrealistic approach in this film and others the full intention of Spike Lee? Again, who knows. With Lee's upcoming "Chi-Raq" appearing as if we are returning to the Spike Lee cinematic blitzkrieg of old, only then may we discover any creative similarities and differences within his next chapter of motion picture cultural critiques. But for now, with "Da Sweet Blood Of Jesus," we are given a flawed yet wholly intriguing film that certainly kept me involved, guessing and scratching my head.

And I still cannot shake its grasp.

SAVAGE POSTSCRIPT
If your curiosity has been piqued, how can you see this film? It is now available on both DVD and Blu-Ray formats and it is also running on premium cable channels as well. Since this is a 2015 release, it should not be that difficult to seek out at this time.

THE WORLD: a review of "Room"

"ROOM"
Screenplay Written by Emma Donoghue, based upon her original novel
Directed by Lenny Abrahamson
**** (four stars)
RATED R

This film left me sitting silently in my theater seat for several minutes after the end credit scroll, final fade out and the theater house lights going back up, for its quiet power packed that tremendous of a punch.

Director Lenny Abrahamson's "Room," his adaptation of the best selling novel by Emma Donoghue (who also wrote the film's screenplay), is a compulsively watchable and superbly wrenching film that I feel will disturb and haunt unlike most films released in 2015, especially if you have not read the novel (like myself). In fact, what is even more surprising about the experience of this film, is how empathetic and life affirming it actually is considering the excessive horror that fuels the story. In some ways, I am finding it difficult to figure out how to review this film without revealing too terribly much about the plot but I will try as I do think that "Room," while not only being compelling, poetic, as well as being an intelligently emotional and cerebral steam roller, it is also one of the very best films of 2015.

I'll try to keep it brief...

"Room" stars the sensationally naturalistic Jacob Tremblay as 5 year old Jack, who lives within a tiny room with his young Mother played beautifully by Brie Larson. The crowded room in question contains a bathtub, equally small yet functioning kitchen, a closet, television, and bed, which Jack shares with his Ma. Yet, there are no windows other than a skylight...and no means of leaving.

For Jack, the entirety of the world is this very room, as if it existed as its own planet, where Jack and Ma are the only people, animals and plant life don't exist and even the images on television are invented approximations of human beings. Only through a seismic event does Jack begin to view and experience the world as it truly exists through his own eyes and growing perceptions of what constitutes reality, with its complete horrors and wonders.

Lenny Abrahamson's "Room" is a remarkable, multi-layered film that richly merges aspects of a thriller, psychological drama, survival story and a family drama, with the bonds of a Mother and child at its core. I will strongly warn those of you reading who happen to be parents that this film just may be too agonizing to sit through. Frankly, for myself, I found the film's first half to be intense to the point of excruciating. But that being said, there is nothing presented within the film that is gratuitous in any fashion. All violence is suggested and for a film that does indeed contains vibrant themes of abuse, imprisonment, and rape, and unflinchingly so, Abrahamson handles every moment with as much restraint and unquestionable truth to the story he is attempting to tell.

For "Room," with all of its nightmarish qualities, is a story of survival, healing, the protection and cultivation of innocence and the resiliency of the human spirit, especially the spirit contained within a child. Often as I watched the film, memories of Director Peter Jackson's unfairly maligned, undeniably weird yet deeply effective "The Lovely Bones" (2009) as well as those from Director Terry Gilliam's repugnant, career worst "Tideland" (2005) entered my brain, as each of those films covered similar thematic territories that deal with searing trauma told from a child's perspective.

Perhaps, it is that very perception, as Abrahamson elegantly visualizes, that keeps the terror and pain of the film's story simultaneously upfront but is never presented tastelessly. As I have previously stated, there is no on-screen violence whatsoever as Abrahamson stages the film as viewing the world through Jack's eyes. Even during one climactic moment, we are given the untainted purity of Jack's perception of the world while also sitting on the edges of our seats, with nerves completely frayed and fried.

Jacob Tremblay, with his piercing eyes and androgynous appearance due to his lengthy, uncut hair, is enormously riveting as Jack. While never cloying or treacly for even a second, Tremblay possesses the talent to carry the superior load that "Room" has placed upon his tiny shoulders, much like when I viewed Quvenzhane Wallis' powerhouse and unforced performance in Director Benh Zeitlin's "Beasts Of The Southern Wild" (2012). Just as unforced, Tremblay conveys an enormous depth of simultaneous wonder and pathos as he not only is forced to navigate a world that is ever changing and growing but also one who is able to carry an inner strength and resolve weighty enough to sustain himself and his family, especially his Mother. I am hoping this young actor receives some attention during awards season for he deserves it greatly.

Speaking of awards season attention, get ready for heaps of accolades to be bestowed upon Brie Larson, who takes what could have existed as nothing more than Lifetime television histrionics and transformed it into a subtly devastating psychological portrait of a woman undergoing an unfathomable experience while also attempting to provide strength and inconceivable normalcy for her son.

To that end, both Tremblay and Larson are aided heroically by the great Joan Allen, Tom McCamus, Sean Bridgers and even William H. Macy, who makes mountains out of his two or three scant scenes. All of these participants congeal masterfully to create a feverishly dark and demonstrably hopeful ode to the prevalence of the human spirit even when life presents itself at its bleakest and hopeless. Never for one moment did I feel the wheels of manipulation creaking along as Abrahamson clearly mined the material for every kernel of truth, most distinctly from this child's eye of the world and his specific place within it, be it a room, life outside of it and the world that encases himself and his family.

Lenny Abrahamson's "Room" is a deeply effective drama that will indeed come just this close to shattering you. But, even greater, it also engages us in a distinctly philosophical fashion, forcing us to take note of the even the most seemingly mundane aspects of the world(s) that surround us.

For how much would we miss even the slightest elements if they were to be taken away.

THE GREAT COMMUNICATOR: a review of "Bridge Of Spies"

"BRIDGE OF SPIES"
Screenplay Written by Matt Charman and Ethan Coen & Joel Coen
Directed by Steven Spielberg
*** (three stars)
RATED PG 13

What a violent period of time the 21st century has turned out to be.

It seems fitting that I have seen Director Steven Spielberg's political drama "Bridge Of Spies," his first new film in three years, just a mere two days after the massacre in Paris and three days after the bombings in Beirut. Beyond those massive horrific events, we are indeed caught in a time where gun violence and acts of terrorism are functioning at crisis points. Additionally, we are also dealing with the constant barrage of racial, sexual and verbal violence inflicted upon each other through the landscapes of the streets, social media to the so-called debate stages for the legion of Presidential candidates all jockeying for power, making me question if there really is anyone who is truly altruistic in their quest.

What have we become? Certainly, we are all afraid to varying degrees but when that state of fear is compounded by the relentless images and stories depicted through the media and the rancorous political discourse of our leaders, I cannot help but to harbor the even greater fear that we are closely reaching a point of no return, where compassion is rejected in favor of vengeance, recrimination and self-righteous. To quote the iconic Stevie Wonder, "love's in need of love today."

I suppose these sentiments are what permeated my thoughts as I viewed Spielberg's latest film as he presented a world from our recent past that was truly the definition of "precarious" due to political and of course, nuclear tensions between the United States and Russia and yet filtered that world through this individualistic story fully depicting what could actually be accomplished is we did just listen to each other. Yes, there are times were we need to fight. But, possibly, Spielberg may be suggesting, the times for understanding are more prevalent than we just may realize.

"Bridge Of Spies," set at the height of the Cold War in 1957, stars Tom Hanks as Brooklyn insurance settlement attorney Jim Donovan, a man as devoted to the justice and fairness inherent within the rule of law and the U.S. Constitution as he is to his wife Mary McKenna Donovan (Amy Ryan) and their three children.

Inexplicably, Donovan is asked by his partners to represent suspected Soviet KGB spy Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance in a performance of sharp subtlety and shading), to ensure he receives a fair trial solely for the purpose of the Soviet Union to not be able to utilize Abel's incarceration as propaganda. While Donovan takes his assignment with the utmost seriousness and sincerity, even all the way to seeking an appeal for Abel through the United States Supreme Court, his partners, his firm and even his family grow increasingly disgruntled with Donovan's actions. Even the court of public opinion turns upon Donovan, who soon begins to receive hate mail and death threats for treating Abel with the same dignity as he would an American citizen.

Meanwhile, pilot Francis Gary Powers (Austin Stowell), embarked upon a U-2 spy plane mission over the Soviet Union, is shot down, captured, interrogated and convicted. In Germany, as the Berlin Wall is being erected, American Economics  graduate student Frederic Pryor (Will Rogers) is arrested as a spy as he attempts to bring his girlfriend back into West Berlin.

Utilizing a backchannel message, the U.S.S.R. contacts Donovan and proposes an exchange; Powers for Abel. Donovan then goes one further and suggests a 2 for 1 exchange, both Powers and Pryor for Abel. And thus, family man and insurance attorney Jim Donovan is thrust into the middle of negotiations between the CIA, the U.S.S.R. and the East German government, all the while attempting to ensure success through diplomacy over destruction.

Steven Spielberg's "Bridge Of Spies," while functioning an an espionage thriller and containing some of the hallmarks and visual aesthetics of film noir (as beautifully lensed by longtime collaborator Cinematographer Janusz Kaminski), has delivered a sobering and more deliberately paced cerebral affair, much in line with some of his past films including "Amistad" (1997), aspects of "Munich" (2005) and most definitely, "Lincoln" (2012).

Just as how Spielberg provided the historical and thematic links to both Presidents Lincoln and Obama at the dawn of their respective second terms in office, "Bridge Of Spies" certainly utilizes the concepts of diplomatic discourse and overall human dignity as they function within intense political situations, all the while holding a mirror of the past up to ourselves in the present. Tom Hanks, purposefully operating in full Frank Capra/Jimmy Stewart mode, has made for a perfect conduit of Spielberg's vision. Hanks delivers a commanding performance of deep, steadfast integrity. While for some, he may be a bit of a Boy Scout due to his unshakable idealism, I found his performance and this representation of this real world figure to be endearing and undeniably refreshing, especially as I am bombarded by the endless morass of vitriol that has encapsulated our present day political dialogue.

I found it fascinating how Donovan was able to maintain his sense of resolve with preserving the human dignity of every individual he came in contact with, regardless of the obstacles. Yet, what impressed me most was his ability to ultimately ingratiate himself in essentially any situation and emerge unscathed simply though the act of listening and displaying a non-judgmental stance, regardless of whom he was speaking and communicating with, whether dignitaries, agents, underlings or even a band of threatening East German youths who accost Donovan during one tense sequence.

In many ways, "Bridge Of Spies" fits perfectly within one of Spielberg's ever present themes: the tales of an ordinary individual placed within an extraordinary situation. Even so, I wish to stress that "Bridge Of Spies" and Hanks' role in the film, do not serve as some sort of reprisal of Robert Zemeckis' "Forrest Gump" (1994), for this film is never presented as fable or fantasy. Quite the contrary, it is a film, while celebrating a certain idealism and platitudes about our common humanity which should be upheld and defended, that serves as a pointed lament for all that we have forgotten in our trigger happy-bombs away rhetoric.

Yes, in several scenes Donovan receives much retaliation from members within his own community for committing the so-called audacity of treating Abel respectfully and fighting for his day in court as he would perform for any of them. Certainly, the film is designed for us to find the connections inside of those scenes with the same and even uglier language that is currently being hurled against the entirety of the Muslim community since September 11, 2001, the increased racist language and violence against African-Americans ever since President Obama's election as well as the horrific language launched again the Hispanic community repeatedly spoken by a certain reality television star now as a Presidential front runner. Could any of you, dear readers, just imagine if a similar situation occurred, what would happen and how it would be handled if a figure from today's world were at the helm? Terrifying isn't it? When one does not profess to have any sense of dignity towards those different then themselves, how can there possibly be any sense of understanding, especially upon the world's political stage? "Bridge Of Spies" provides a much needed alternative to the vitriolic energies on display in 2015.      

"Every person matters," proclaims Donovan at one point during "Bridge Of Spies," and I think if there was any moment that has lingered for me, during the remainder of the film and even afterwards, it is that one because I fear that we, as a human race, have forgotten that conceit. There is an inherent dignity to us all, regardless of which part of the world we may reside or what ethnicity we happen to be. "Bridge Of Spies," is a good not great but definitely thought provoking film that illustrates just how much can be attained when even one person just takes the opportunity to place himself/herself aside in favor of a higher sense of authority, the kind of which that can hopefully alleviate another's struggles and baggage and benefit society as a whole.

Yet, if we close our ears and hearts to each other, our collective downfall is imminent. The choice is ours.