EGGSHELLS AND LANDMINES: a review of "The Skeleton Twins"

"THE SKELETON TWINS"
Screenplay Written by Craig Johnson and Mark Heyman
Directed by Craig Johnson
***1/2 (three and a half stars)

It will never cease to amaze me when people so adept at making us laugh have an even greater ability for drama, showcasing the fact that these people are not simply "comedians" but actors of substance and power.

"The Skeleton Twins," from Co-Writer/Director Craig Johnson was a film festival favorite at  the beginning of this year and now that the film has made its way to our theaters, I can now understand why. This is a piercingly dark, bitter and sad family drama starring two of the most unlikely performers in the leading roles: former "Saturday Night Live" players Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig and they are absolutely sensational as estranged fraternal twins reunited after not communicating for 10 years due to a near family tragedy.

I do tend to have some trouble with films depicting the inner worlds of families as they so often tend to seem as if none of the participants had ever known anything about families in the first place. "The Skeleton Twins" does not fall into such traps in the least as it is perceptive and precise about the bonds and binds family members have with each other despite long stretches of silence and acrimony. Johnson even suggests with his story that perhaps, and even despite how one may wish for life to be in regards to our interpersonal relationships, these just may indeed be the sole people who do know us best after all, making them essential figures to help us navigate the world.

As "The Skeleton Twins" opens, we are introduced to Milo (Bill Hader), a struggling and failing actor in Los Angeles in the midst of preparing his final goodbye. He blasts the music of Blondie, writes a succinct suicide note, slashes h is wrists and retires to the bathtub to die. Meanwhile in upstate New York, Milo's twin sister Maggie (Kristen Wiig), cradling and ready to ingest a handful of pills, receives a phone call of Milo's suicide attempt and hospitalization. Racing to Milo's aid, Maggie and her brother begin the slow, arduous process of re-connection as she invites Milo to stay with her and her agreeably earnest husband Lance (Luke Wilson) back in New York where they grew up and back when their lives truly began to fall apart after the suicide of their Father when they were teenagers.

"The Skeleton Twins" is a family drama and character study that refuses to fall into the many cliches that derail films about dysfunctional families. First of all, Johnson, his actors and his team never treat Milo and Maggie as a "dysfunctional family," so to speak; a family filled with all manner of indie film quirks and self-conscious and self-congratulatory stabs as what might be deemed as "behavior" completely at the expense of creating tangible situations, characters and emotions. What Johnson has achieved is to tell the story of a family, nothing more, nothing less, and the effect, while not necessarily offering anything new to the genre, is one that is honestly presented and enormously felt.

What Craig Johnson achieves through his screenplay with Mark Heyman is to mine and keep discovering the minutiae and intense connections that exists between these sardonic, oddball siblings whom their eccentric Father once nicknamed "The Gruesome Twosome." Whatever their worldview might happen to be, for Milo and Maggie, it is decidedly skewed and seemingly understandable only to themselves; a trait which makes their own adult relationships (even with each other) so tenuous and fraught with eggshell tensions.

For Milo, he is consumed with feeling of professional failure certainly, which he ties to his own shaky sense of self worth. Additionally, his difficulties in maintaining adult sexual relationships and navigating the world as an open gay man presents its own pitfalls, especially as he tracks down and re-ignites the one major love affair of his life with Rich (played by Ty Burrell from television's "Modern Family" in a very strong performance), Milo's former teacher and very closeted homosexual.

As for Maggie, her outwardly lovely life contains much silent suffering as well as its own collection of secrets. While she openly proclaims her excitement that she and Lance are attempting to have a child, she privately continues to take birth control pills and also succumbs to frequent extra-marital affairs, this time with her scuba diving instructor Billy (played by Boyd Holbrook), and even more painfully continues to house her own suicidal tendencies.

Through all of these emotional landmines presented within "The Skeleton Twins," I deeply appreciated how Craig Johnson never descended into melodrama and just allowed his film to breathe naturally, affording us the opportunity to see how Milo and Maggie function (or don't function) together and separately, how they attract and repel each other with their own self-destructive behaviors, how they one-up each other, tear each other apart and somehow find it within themselves over and again to heal and try to face the world on their own terms and with their admittedly weak emotional skill sets.

While I realize that this is a long shot, I seriously hope that both Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig are remembered during the upcoming awards season as their work is exemplary. Bill Hader, especially is stunning, as his entire performance feels as if it is entirely being performed from the inside out. Just listen to how he has altered his voice, his mannerisms and his entire body language in order to instill truth and history within the character of Milo. This is not a showy performance in the least. Just one that feels so complete in its realization. I know nothing of Hader in his real life, but I am telling you, his work within "The Skeleton Twins" felt to me as if he were existing within a state of being rather than acting. Stefon and Hader's many other SNL characters never entered my mind for an instant. In fact, it even felt as if he had never performed on SNL at all! His is a performance that feels not only brilliantly observed but filled with fearless honesty, rage and vulnerability.

Kristen Wiig is Hader's equal on every single count and if I had to bring up SNL for any conceivable reason it is to realize that her effortless chemistry with Hader most likely stemmed from all of their years together on the program, and the comfort she shows with Hader, and often in some very tough emotional territories, is palpable and perfect. She too conveys a sense of rage against and drowning within the disappointments of her own life as she perceived that it should have been regardless of how it looks on the outside. I just think of one sequence set within an ice cream shop where Maggie is accosted by a former high school classmate and she is asked about her life and how Wiig silently plays a lifetime of inner torment, anguish and self-hatred publicly is masterful.

And somehow, for a film this quietly wrenching, it is not without humor and mostly within the sequences with Milo and Maggie are re-discovering their unbreakable connection with each other. A stroll through a cemetery on Halloween night. Cracking each other up with the non-sequesters and inside jokes exclusive to them in Maggie office where she works as a dental hygienist. And most certainly, the film's most talked about scene where they each lip-synch a performance of Starship's god-awful "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" so perfectly that they could go on Jimmy Fallon's show and beat him hands down in a contest. Even so, and as funny as that sequence is, it is also filled with such trauma as the song and their lip-synch game is essentially used as body armor against the world as well as their own demons that threaten to engulf them both.

Craig Johnson's "The Skeleton Twins" is a film that not only deals with internal family stresses and fragile relationships but what happens when depression itself possibly a hereditary disease afflicting the future of two people who just may be too sensitive to face the world on their own. It is a film that also wisely showcases what occurs when the dreams of youth fail, this afflicting one's own perceptions of themselves an d possibly what they feel that can or cannot accomplish in life. It is also a film that shows the perils within two suicidal characters struggling with how to remain in the world as they each dance towards the edges of taking themselves out of the world forever.

And that is where the beauty of "The Skeleton Twins" resides. Johnson plus Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig all deftly illustrate how we are all spiraling through existence, desperately trying to figure it all out along the way and how much of a blessing it is when there is at least one person who understands you more than anyone else, therefore making the existential journey one to spiral through together instead of alone.

I AM THE WALRUS: a review of "Tusk"

"TUSK"
Written and  Directed by Kevin Smith
**** (four stars)

Dear readers, in our age of homogenized movies that consist of bottomless recycled material from those sequels, prequels, re-boots and re-imaginings, I can honestly inform you that, without question, you have never seen anything like this!

Writer/Director Kevin Smth's "Tusk" is a deeply disturbing, repulsive, repugnant, bizarre to the point of stomach churning, grisly and gruesome experience. It is also brilliantly executed, exceedingly well written, hauntingly directed, superbly acted and carries a level of psychological suspense and torment akin to being trapped inside of a nightmare from which you cannot awake. Equal parts inside joke, mind blowing horror show as well as a cultural commentary and cautionary tale to the point of being a pointedly driven warning, "Tusk" just might be the finest film of Kevin Smith's career--or at least, the equal to Smith's fearless, emotionally exhausting love story "Chasing Amy" (1997).

"Tusk" brazenly features precisely what has made Kevin Smith one of the cinema's most uniquely idiosyncratic creative voices. His foul mouthed yet wonderfully literary style of writing, a fearless approach to storytelling and the overall completeness of  his vision.  Granted, "Tusk," which follows in the footsteps of the ferocious "Red State" (2011), Smith's surprisingly strong stylistic change from comedy to horror, is not designed for mass appeal, and almost defiantly so as it is more in the almost underground style of a cult film or midnight movie creature feature. And truth be told, I am not even quite certain if this film is necessarily even for me, despite the fact that I have been a fan of Smith's from the very beginning of his career with "Clerks" (1994). But it was solely due to Kevin Smith's filmography that pushed me into the darkened theater...albeit with extreme trepidation as to what terrors I might be subjected to. Now that I have emerged from the other side, and as worked over as I was, I am thrilled that I had the chance to be a witness to something so audacious.

"Tusk" follows the terrifyingly Kafka-esque transformation of Wallace Bryant (a terrific Justin Long), host of the popular podcast entitled "The Not See Party" (say the title quickly), where he, alongside friend and co-host Teddy Craft (Haley Joel Osment), mock and humiliate the subjects of viral videos. Travelling from Los Angeles to Manitoba, Canada to hopefully interview (i.e. ridicule) his latest subject known as "The Kill Bill Kid," a young man nicknamed due to his viral video in which he unwittingly severed his own leg with a sword, Wallace comes upon an advertisement tacked to a bar bathroom bulletin board that profoundly intrigues him; a elderly and wheelchair bound homeowner offering free lodging in exchange for companionship and for an ear to listen to his lifetime of stories.

Wallace, feeling that he has found an even more perfect "weirdo" as a podcast subject, takes off for the Canadian wilderness mansion of the loquacious Howard Howe (a stunning Michael Parks) and is unabashedly delighted with his discovery. The two men sit in the parlor by the fireplace, sharing tea and Wallace enraptured by Howe's literary wit and quotations and eerily drawn to Howe's long ago tales of being lost at sea and being befriended for a spell by a walrus, whom he named Mr. Tusk. Yet, unbeknownst to Wallace, Howard Howe has unspeakably sinister plans in store.

Wallace falls unconscious after being drugged by the spiked tea and awakens the following morning to discover that one of his legs has been amputated. Wallace further discovers that Howe, not only has the ability to walk but plans to physically transform Wallace into a walrus!

As Wallace endures days and nights of torture and mutilation at the psychotic hands of Howard Howe, Teddy and Wallace's girlfriend Ally (a strong Genesis Rodriguez) enlist the aid of the bizarre yet intrepid French Canadian detective Guy Lapointe (I'm not tellin' who plays him) to locate Wallace, but will they be too late before our podcaster before he goes "full walrus"?

Originated from Kevin Smith's podcast #250 entitled "The Walrus and the Carpenter," where Smith and his longtime friend and producer Scott Mosier riffed over an advertisement (eventually revealed to be a hoax) about a homeowner who was offering a free living situation to potential lodgers on the condition that they wear a walrus costume, "Tusk" certainly had the potential to be absolutely, positively nothing more than a sick, stupid joke put to film and solely for the enjoyment of Smith and his closest associates. Thankfully, Kevin Smith has realized exactly how the elements that can make a movie can be realistically weaved into a true film experience.

With "Tusk," Kevin Smith has created an experience that could easily walk a simultaneously macabre nail biting, and stomach churning path as those created by Tobe Hooper's "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" (1974), John Landis' "An American Werewolf In London" (1981), David Cronenberg's "The Fly (1986) and Rob Reiner's "Misery" (1990). If you filter all of those films through the prism of Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis, then you will have an idea of what the final results of "Tusk" are like. Yes, this is a sick film that takes its conceit to the wall, but I do not believe for a minute that what Smith has devised to be remotely stupid due to the full commitment he placed to this idea and the strong set of collaborators he enlisted to to make a film like this stick to the ribs...albeit uncomfortably.

Tremendous credit much be given to the elegantly dark visual presentation from Cinematographer James Laxton, the excellent production design from John D. Kretschmer, the dread inducing musical score from Composer Christopher Drake and unquestionably the downright insane special makeup effects supervised by Robert Kurtzman. Yet as with "Red State," Kevin Smith has again completely surprised me with his complete directorial assurance with this material as he instantly creates the proper tone, mood and relentless drug induced nightmare #9 vibe necessary for something like "Tusk" to even work at all. This presentation is so effective that even Fleetwood Mac's classic brass and tribal drums driven track "Tusk" has never sounded more menacing.

Even with all of the talent behind the scenes, "Tusk" would also succeed or fail based upon the acting performances, and Smith could not have found better leading actors than Michael Parks and Justin Long if he tried. With Parks, a veteran character actor whom I really only know from his mesmerizing and disturbing role in "Red State," plus his work in a few of Quentin Tarantino's projects, Kevin Smith found the perfect conduit to bring the psychologically destroyed and malicious serial killer of Howard Howe to vibrant, compelling life. As he performs with Wallace, we in the audience are easily drawn in to Howe's tales and the kindly yet eccentric whisper of his voice only forces us to lean in closer so as we do not miss even one of his sophisticated words.

What is ultimately impressive about Parks' performance is that he could have easily portrayed this figure solely as a monster and left it at that. Yet, Parks discovers the deep, tormented psychological layers of this man making him a tragic figure who could be viewed as a figure seeking some bizarre sense of redemption as well as one to be supremely feared. Via Kevin Smith's expressively written monologues, Michael Parks is given copious amounts of material to sink his acting teeth into making for a performance that is as hypnotic as it is panic inducing.

Justin Long, an actor who is always so affable and approachable, is given the even more difficult task of not only portraying a figure that is essentially an anti-hero due to his callousness towards others, including his closest friends, but also being reduced to only using his most expressive eyes and a guttural bellow to convey Wallace's psychological state during the film's final third or so. It is a performance that is comedic and breezy and becomes so powerfully tragic and hauntingly mesmerizing. "Tusk" gives Justin Long the opportunity to show audiences sides of his talent that he has never been able to present before and the effect will blindside you with crushing force.

Even with all of this praise, and for those of who who do wish to brave "Tusk," I must give you a warning. Yes, you will need a strong stomach for this one as it is indeed so unfathomable. That said, I did not feel that the film's violence, as severe as it is, ever descended into the disgusting maelstrom of "torture porn." On a filmmaking level and for all that Kevin Smith does indeed display to the audience visually, there is a sizable amount that he wisely chooses NOT to show, leaving the horror to the power of suggestion, verbal description and the darkest corners of our minds to fill in. For instance, during one sequence where an unconscious Wallace is undergoing a bout of..reconstructive surgery, we never see the act itself, as Smith solely places his camera upon Howard Howe and the arsenal of surgical tools at his disposal. And frankly, that is all you really needed to convey the desperation of Wallace's peril.

For a film as  harrowing as "Tusk" happens to be, it is also not without humor, and much needed as far as I am concerned. Some criticism against "Tusk" has stemmed from the abrupt tonal changes that occur within the film, especially during the film's second half when the detective Guy Lapointe is introduced and much time is spent with Ally and Teddy on the search for Wallace. For me however, I loved the film's occasional diversions. First of all, because they gave me a bit of a break from being trapped inside of Howard Howe's haunted house with the tortured Wallace. But also, because Kevin Smith is so excitedly creative and definitely smart enough to build an entire cinematic universe and to also give his actors material with which they can show their abilities to their finest.

Genesis Rodriguez, for example, could have easily been the gorgeous and long suffering girlfriend, wringing her hands, holding the phone and calling Wallace's name over and again--something most movies would have done. But wisely, Smith gives Rodriguez a series of strongly written monologues, which help powerfully to flesh out the character and widen the canvas on which the story of "Tusk" is being told. To Rodriguez's credit, she is equal to the material, which she delivers with conviction, especially during one long unbroken shot during which she details the dark side of her relationship with Wallace to an unseen listener.

As for the mysterious actor who portrays Guy Lapointe, well...if for any reason my review of "Tusk" is the only one that you will read and you do plan upon seeing the film, I will not spoil the revelation for you. That said, this particular actor goes a long way in creating a fully develped figure who is part Inspector Clouseau, part Columbo, silly, odd, weird, yet somehow steadfast and a hunter to be reckoned with, despite his penchant for hamburger sliders.

Now even with all of the colorful characters, horror show and ultraviolence, "Tusk" surprised me in the greatest fashion by not simply existing as a sick piece of exploitation as it transcended its own genre of the cult film, grindhouse saga or midnight movie for me. But to that end, sometimes those very same cult movies, grindhouse sagas and midnight moves just may be able to reach certain peaks of truth that even more mainstream and prestige pictures are not able to attain. While Kevin Smith himself might laugh heartedly into my face with my assessment, "Tusk" is audacious not just for its freak show qualities but for how pointed its sense of cultural commentary actually is.

"Tusk"possesses the strongest of a conscience and soul, and I was struck by its heft and pathos into the human condition as the film speaks directly to our own sense of  humanity in the 21st century, or else our seemingly depleting sense of humanity in regards to our behavior through social media. If "Tusk" does anything at all to suggest that even a film this bizarre does possess some redeeming social value it is that Kevin Smith has concocted a warning about our relationship and continued dependence upon technology that does settle itself in the same cinematic neighborhood as (believe it or not) David Fincher's "The Social Network" (2010) and Spike Jonze's "Her" (2013) as our internet culture only continues to grow uglier. "Be careful," Smith just may be advising or even imploring to us with this film. "Think twice before you hit 'ENTER' or 'PUBLISH.' For what you put out into the world may return to you with a vengeance."

With regards to the two men that fuel "Tusk," Podcaster Wallace Bryant, in his own way, is actually not too far removed from the murderous and tormented Howard Howe. Wallace is a young man who utilizes his presence on the internet for something that Ally refers to as self-serving "cringe humor," a tactic designed to verbally vivisect his prey for his own entertainment, financial gain and comedic notoriety. Richly placed flashback sequences showcase Ally's continuous please for Wallace to remember his sense of  humanity when dealing with people and how much he has changed since he has reached a certain level of fame. Wallace is arrogant, unsympathetic, duplicitous and even adulterous regarding his relationship with Ally as he only seeks to essentially find his latest victim to rip apart on his show. In short, his lack of empathy towards absolutely anyone has already damaged his sense of humanity.

In "Tusk," Wallace's transformation rests within a figure who is already halfway gone at the film's opening. The aural similarities of the name "Wallace" and the word "walrus" feel as purposeful as Wallace's unfortunate mustache. Furthermore, Smith even darkly foreshadows Wallace's doomed trip to Canada in some of the dialogue during the film's very first scene when Wallace exclaims, in reference to the now one legged "Kill Bill Kid" he is set to publicly ridicule, "What do I need with two legs for anyway? It's not like I'm gonna run a marathon!" Oh Wallace, if you only knew. It is only when Wallace becomes the victim and is then literally vivisected and mutated into something wholly unrecognizable to a human being that he rediscovers his humanity...only to essentially lose it forever. This makes "Tusk" almost work as the darkest of adult fables where one man's hubris and his own predatory instincts for human frailties are turned against him.

I realize that I have written quite a large amount of material for a film that I am certain barely any of you will ever see. Bu that being said, isn't it great when any movie, regardless of genre can give you this much to actually think about? "Tusk" represents a masterful rejuvenation for Kevin Smith, a filmmaker who has actually announced his retirement from film just a few short years ago, and has now become so re-inspired that this film will serve as the first part of what he has dubbed the "True North Trilogy," a series of bizarre tales all set within Canada. And in fact, the second film, "Yoga Hosers," is currently filming.

This is precisely what makes Kevin Smith so special for the movies. Regardless of what one may think about Kevin Smith as an artist, and that even includes Smith himself, I strongly believe that he belongs somewhere in the same cinematic neighborhoods as the ones populated by the likes of Wes Anderson and Quentin Tarantino. While those filmmakers have received a much larger amount of critical acclaim and industry respect, Kevin Smith has consistently accomplished the same seismic feats as those of his fellow filmmakers as he has consistently offered a clear vision and has created full, rich and complete cinematic universes that are distinctly of his making and exist on their own terms with a complete set of rules and rituals.

There is no mistaking who is at the helm when you see a Kevin Smith film and "Tusk" is no exception. While stylistically different, "Tusk," on further examination, is actually not terribly far removed from Smith's comedic features as nearly all of his films involve his characters travelling tough some sort of unprecedented and life altering experience. In "Chasing Amy," Smith gave us the painful yet character building love story of a young man who falls in love with a lesbian. In the well intentioned but flawed "Jersey Girl" (2004), a young man is forever transformed by Fatherhood. "In "Clerks," we are given two young men dealing with the ennui of their 20's and in "Clerks II" (2006), they are dealing with the aches of aging and maturity as they fly through their 30's. Certainly in the brilliant religious satire fantasy "Dogma" (1999), a young woman and abortion clinic worker with wavering spiritual faith is transformed by the knowledge that she is indeed the last scion and must save existence itself. And in the gritty reality of "Red State," three horny teenagers are undone by their inadvertent stumbling onto the compound of a sect of violent fundamentalists.

Like the bulk of his past work, "Tusk" is richly developed and completely representative of what is sorely lacking in our movie theaters these days. A filmmaker with a unique voice who is willing to take serious creative risks just to make the films that he would pay to see himself. With this film, Kevin Smith is at full command of his powers and an artist of uncompromising vision and originality.

I have no idea if "Tusk" will somehow end up in the Top Ten of my favorite films of 2014 or not. But one thing is for certain, "Tusk" is unquestionably the most unforgettable.

THE BOMB: a review of "Godzilla"

"GODZILLA"
Based upon Godzilla created by Toho
Story by David Callaham
Screenplay Written by Max Borenstein
Directed by Garth Edwards
1/2* (one half of one star)

Perhaps I am not the right person to be reviewing a film like this one, but I am sorry, "Godzilla," Director Garth Edwards' 2014 remake/reboot/re-imagining or whatever the hell you wish to call it, is without question the very worst film I have seen so far this year. It is a lumbering, cumbersome, graceless, bombastic mess of a film that exists completely without any sense of fun, excitement or even energy as it almost feels to be a study of inertia. Dear readers, this "Godzilla" is torpid. It is sluggish. It is lifeless. And our larger than life, nuclear enhanced monster movie King deserves so much more. Frankly, and while I know this may be blasphemous to some of you out there, I just have to say it: as terrible as Director Roland Emmerich's cataclysmic 1998 film version was (and it was terrible), it was also a helluva lot more fun than this new version. Ouch!

"Godzilla" begins with an opening credit sequence set during 1954 as a secretive nuclear bomb test is enacted as a giant creature emerges from the ocean. Flash forward to 1999 as we meet two scientists, Dr. Ishiro Serizawa (Ken Watanabe) and Dr. Vivienne Graham (Sally Hawkins), who discover two mysterious chrysalises in the Philippines, one of which is dormant and the other has been broken open.

Meanwhile, and in a performance that borders dangerously to hysterical parody, Bryan Cranston (forgoing essentially every shred of the skill and power he displayed upon television's "Breaking Bad" and adorned with an equally hysterical wig to boot) stars as Joe Brody, the lead engineer at the Janjira nuclear power plant in Japan who is convinced that the odd seismic activity in the region is in fact housing something unknown and deadly. But what?

On a fateful day, Brody sends his scientist wife Sandra (a criminally wasted Juliette Binoche) and her team into the power plant's reactor but once inside, the reactor is breached and releases an onslaught of radioactive steam. Sandra and her team perish inside of the reactor to Brody's horror, a tragedy compounded by the nuclear meltdown of the plant itself, as witnessed by their young son Ford, who attends school nearby.

Flash forward another 15 years to find the now adult Ford Brody (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) as a US Navy explosions ordnance disposal officer who lives in San Francisco with his wife Elle (Elizabeth Olsen) and son. Ford returns to Japan to reunite with his Father, still convinced of a government cover up, and who has been detained for trespassing in the supposedly contaminated Janjira quarantine zone. Initially unconvinced of his Father's rants, Ford soon realizes the truth as he discovers that not only is the quarantine zone not contaminated at all but a giant sized winged creature has now emerged and has begun to wreak havoc.

As Ford teams up with Dr. Serizawa and Dr. Graham, with his Father's data in tow, all of them realize that to save humanity from the unleashed winged monsters, Godzilla must rise again to defeat them.

Now, I have to first say that I have not ever really been a fan of monster movies of this sort as they have never truly contained much to hold my interest. That said, it felt as if there would be more than enough material to ensure that this new version of "Godzilla" would have more than enough going for it to be a monster movie worth watching. That instead of just essentially being two hours of buildings crashing, explosions blaring and creatures roaring, there just may be some good characterizations to offer as well as some sly ecological and anti-nuclear commentary to add into the mix. Unfortunately, and despite the best efforts of Edwards, whatever they may have been, essentially every moment of "Godzilla" is negligible.

At first, I was wondering if Edwards was attempting to capture the aura of a classic B movie as the dialogue is horrifically wooden and the performances are even worse. How is it possible that actors as skilled as Bryan Cranston, Ken Watanabe, Sally Hawkins, Elizabeth Olsen, Juliette Binoche and David Strathairn as a US Navy Admiral could be this laughably foul? This honestly had to be purposeful, right? An elaborate in-joke, perhaps? Yet after about 30 minutes or so, it seemed to me that this was not unintentionally or self-consciously awful like Director Frank Marshall's downright outrageous howler "Congo" (1995). This film was honestly and unforgivably awful.

First of all, there is the unforgivable cinematic crime of having actors of this caliber populate your movie and given them nothing to do, thus wasting their talents as well as our valuable time and money. But in the case of Aaron Taylor-Johnson, I think we have fund and even more invisible leading man/action movie hero since Sam Worthington blanded his way through James Cameron's "Avatar" (2009). Taylor-Johnson spends the entirety of the film with a struck dumb, open mouthed stare that signifies him awakening from a 20 year coma rather than being awed by the sights and sounds that surround him as Godzilla battles two winged monsters. Good night nurse! Even the inanimate objects elicit better performances!

Secondly, there is the titular creature himself, who does not make his official appearance in the film under essentially on hour into the thing. Certainly, the elongated period before he takes center stage is undoubtedly supposed to create a sense of anticipatory suspense but for me, the tactic backfired because Edwards and his screenwriters, by not giving any of the human characters anything worthwhile or substantive, all we are left with is just waiting for the monsters to attack and battle. And for me, that just made the film's first hour painfully interminable. To make matters worse and certainly not befitting of Godzilla's entrance into his own movie, I could not for the life of me understand how and why did Edwards decide to feature him almost exclusively during night scenes, which indeed made it more than difficult to get really good looks at him. Godzilla does not need to lurk in the shadows. He should be displayed loud and proud, not as if the special effects team didn't get their collective acts together in time for the film's release date.

And speaking purely on an audio/visual aesthetic level, "Godzilla" is yet another example of everything that is tremendously wrong with our current crop of mega budgeted, special effects driven spectacles. It is a film that for all of the pyrotechnics and sonic fury, there is nothing that lifts us out of our seats in awe or terror. And somehow, for everything Edwards throws at the screen, no matter how ponderously, every single moment is more yawn inducing from one to the next.  It is all so dry, so empty, so hollow and flat and as this movie just went on and on and on, my patience with it evaporated all the ore rapidly as I could just feel the time that I was wasting even watching it. Time that could have be spent watching something better. Or truth be told, even watching nothing at all.

Since "Godzilla" has made a box office fortune and plans are underway to create a trilogy, I know that I am in the minority concerning my opinions of this film. Even so, I just feel compelled to ask if by any chance if you are at all tired of essentially seeing the same movie over and over and with an increasing lack of imagination at the helm?  Of course, not everything can be like "Star Wars" (1977) but even so, I did happen to grow up in an age when the mega budgeted, special effects driven spectacles were truly spectacles as they all made me, and audiences around the world, see the movies in an entirely new light, inspiring our dreams almost every single time. Those types of films and even more specifically, those types of filmmakers are in drastically short supply in 2014 as the demands of the box office through anything instantly recognizable have grown exponentially in power and importance and completely at the expense of creativity, originality and artistry.

"Godzilla," as far as I am concerned, is the latest casualty, a terrible, terrible film that had the potential to be a true monster.

SAVAGE CINEMA'S COMING ATTRACTIONS FOR SEPTEMBER 2014

Quality not quantity...

At least that is what I am hoping for when I head to the moves this month and especially as September is an extremely busy time with the start of the new school year. I am still finding myself waiting, and not so patiently for Director Steve James' "Life Itself," his celebrated documentary about the life and writing of the late, great Roger Ebert, to finally arrive at the Sundance theater.

Yes, I know that I could potentially view the film on my television screen through an On Demand feature but I feel that a movie abut Ebert needs to be first screened in the darkness of the movie theater. It's strange and even saddening to me that we seem to be living in even more precarious times as far as moves are concerned as long established filmmakers are struggling to get their new films made or even seen in movie theaters only to find them being forced to go to Kickstarter services or having their wide canvased visual feasts being premiered on television screens. And regardless if you even do have one of those mega-sized HD television screens complete with blasting, booming sound systems to boot, as far as I am concerned, it is just not the same experience as sitting in the dark and having a shared experience with a room full of strangers. That is what the movies are for!

Anyhow, for this month, I am wondering just exactly which films that I will even be able to see as they are all on the smaller scale.

1. I am very anxious to see "The Skeleton Twins," a new drama starring former "Saturday Night Live" cast members Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig as estranged siblings. The film received very high marks on the festival circuit earlier this year and it has remained on my radar ever since.

2. I am so very happy that Writer/Director Kevin Smith has decided to reverse his words and not fully retire from filmmaking as he is beginning to embark upon a new Canadian themed trilogy, the second of which is currently filming. The first installment is the new horror film "Tusk," which from the trailer looks to be especially grotesque and yet another fearlessly stylistic u-turn from one of our most idiosyncratic filmmakers.

3. And then, there's the latest film from one of the most idiosyncratic filmmakers to ever stand behind the camera, Mr. Terry Gilliam with his new science fiction/philosophical/phantasmagorical epic "The Zero Theorem," which is scheduled to arrive on...Video On Demand but what abut the theaters?!

From this point, we shall see what else arrives upon this site but until then, I'll see you when the house lights go down....

"I-N-O-F-F-E-N-S-I-V-E": a review of "Bad Words"

"BAD WORDS"
Screenplay Written by Andrew Dodge
Directed by Jason Bateman
** (two stars)

As much as I love my day to day profession as a preschool teacher and value the worldview and companionship of my young charges, I do have to say that there are times in wish I have been confronted with some spirited (i.e. bratty) little things and I am internally fighting my own tongue from saying the words that I really wish that I could say. This past year has seen more than its share of those moments, truth be told.

So, in that respect, "Bad Words," the directorial debut from actor Jason Bateman, provided some vicarious thrills as we are given a story featuring a misanthropic 40 year old man extolling some unquestionably and unapologetically vicious and vulgar bon mots to children here and there. And as funny as the film occasionally is, "Bad Words" unfortunately was just yet another one of those R rated movies that talks a good game but fails in its overall execution, seemingly for fear of really alienating potential audiences. Which is a shame because there's strong material as well as a concept here that really could have struck some truly dangerous comedic gold.

Jason Bateman stars as the aforementioned 40 year old, Guy Trilby, an embittered warranty proofreader (great touch) who embarks upon a bizarre plan for personal redemption and revenge. Discovering a loophole in the rules and regulations of the National Quill Spelling Bee (think Scripps), Guy, who is indeed an 8th grade dropout, enters the competition, much to the chagrin of the competitive children, their parents and the Quill administrators, including Dr. Bernice Deagan (Allison Janney), the director of the spelling bee.

Over the course of the film, Guy is acquainted with fellow competitor Chaitanya Chopra (the charming and sweet voiced Rohan Chand), a 10 year old who doggedly attempts to befriend Guy despite his vehement protests. Guy is also accompanied on his quest by the intrepid Jenny Widgeon (Kathryn Hahn), a fledgling reported for an on-line publication, who is desperately trying to discover the reasons behind Guy's unorthodox plan for a potential story.

For a directorial debut feature, Jason Bateman immediately shows that he definitely knows his way behind the camera. He proves himself to be a sly director who never treats the comedy with a sledgehammer. Like his own acting, especially as we have witnessed on television's "Arrested Development," Bateman is a master of the deadpan, the slow burn, the expert sense of timing, the quiet pause that leads to a stinging comedic slam dunk.

The opening sequences of "Bad Words" indeed displayed that very admirable skill in a film that does need to strike a certain balance if it is going to work at all. The completely inappropriate put downs he delivers to several children in the film, including young Chaitanya whom Guy occasionally refers to as "Slumdog," are all achieved with an inexplicable deftness that makes you laugh out loud when you would have otherwise stoned the theater screen. Jason Bateman makes even the most questionable material work with a strong sense of underplaying each moment with a certain stealthiness. It's almost as if Jason Bateman has channeled someone like Clint Eastwood, but he uses words and language as his deadly bullets.

With regards to the usage of language, one aspect of "Bad Words" that I also enjoyed very much was its usage of difficult vocabulary so that the film's spelling bee sequences not only pack a punch due to the words that the children are being asked to spell, especially as they at times relate to the plot and characters, the sequences also carry the same sense of weight and quiet thrills as if you were indeed watching the annual Scripps event. And then, Bateman, via Guy's shenanigans, very cleverly turns those events on their heads into the kind of television programming that you almost wish Scripps would sometimes devolve into just for the sheer sense of anarchy.

And yet, I don't think that "Bad Words" goes nearly as far as it needs to.

As I have expressed to you on this site in the past, it truly does take quite a bit to offend me, especially when it comes to actual language and profanity. That being said, I did appreciate how Bateman adn Screenwriter Andrew Dodge didn't litter the film with all manner of vulgarities just for the sake of doing so. To use profanity in the best way possible, Bateman and Ddge figured out ways to make the bad words in question stick out to make that comedic punch instead of just having them all flail around from one end of the film to the other, therefore having an affect that is numbing to listen to.

Even so, the film is called "Bad Words" and it is R rated and it does carry the plot that it has so...just go for it! Where I deeply appreciate and even love some lighter comedies when they posses a more serious core, I have the adverse affect when we have a more serious or at least darker toned film and then the core is as soft as a marshmallow. That is the problem which sinks "Bad Words" as we are just relegated with odes to friendship and loneliness that are easy sentiments and feel completely under-cooked so they really do not pack a dramatic punch at all. The story itself often falls to formula and I really believe that you will be able to spot Guy's mysterious reason for entering the spelling bee instantly and again, it is presented in the softest conceivable fashion.

And then, there is the character of  Guy Trilby himself, a character who could have been a comedic smart bomb but proves himself to be something that is actually quite innocent despite the foul language and ill tempered persona he elicits. For this aspect of the film, this was a quality in which I thought that the filmmakers were maybe more concerned with likability rather than having the audience understand the character's behavior regardless of whether we liked him or not.

Take a film like Director Jason Reitman's scathing "Young Adult" (2011) which featured Charlize Theron as a wholly unlikable creation and Reitman, in collaboration with his Screenwriter Diablo Cody, made absolutely no concession to having the audience begin to like her in the end. In fact, Theron's character becomes even more intolerable by that film's conclusion. But, we understand her completely and that made for an especially bitter and unquestionably bold comedy that left noticeable bruises.

By contrast, "Bad Words" doesn't even leave the traces of scratches let alone bruises as the film seems to just want the audience to see Guy's softer side and realize that he's not really such a bad fellow after all. And for that, the film lost me to a degree as the film's mid-section began to drag and just exist as kind of an R rated version of "Dennis The Menace" with Bateman as a particularly tart tongued Mr. Wilson. For me, that is just not enough to sustain my interest on a comedic level or even on a dramatic level, as I just felt the film needed to be just that much tougher and even nastier in order to provide the inner pathos with some real anguish, which in turn would make the comedy more brutally funny. Despite the language and a few questionable situations, "Bad Words" felt to actually be too safe for its own good

Granted I will concede that perhaps "Bad Words" may be more than vulgar enough for some of you. Perhaps, it may even be too vulgar and foul mouthed. But for my personal tastes, "Bad Words" just felt to be de-fanged. It's not a bad film or even an unmemorable one as Jason Bateman has proven himself to me that he just may be a filmmaker to keep an eye on. But as it stands, "Bad Words" is not nearly bad enough.

READING THE SIGNS: a review of "Magic In The Moonlight"

"MAGIC IN THE MOONLIGHT"
Written and Directed by Woody Allen
***1/2 (three and a half stars)

Woody Allen's "Magic In The Moonlight, which I am to believe is his 46th film, does not quite scale the heights of the cunning "Match Point" (2005), the sublime "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" (2008), the gorgeous "Midnight In Paris" (2011) or the visceral and bruising "Blue Jasmine" (2013) but it is also much better, richer, and deeper than the tenor of the reviews may have been leading you to believe.

For a filmmaker like Allen who does release a new film nearly every single year without fail, there is bound to be some separation of cinematic wheat and chaff due to his prolific nature. But that being said, I feel that Allen, in recent years, has been operating on a creative high, the kind of which any filmmaker would be proud to claim as their own, as he has somehow continued to create vital, provocative, entertaining works that display his singular artistic voice and vision during a time when such cinematic voices are becoming more infrequent. With "Magic In The Moonlight," Woody Allen has delivered yet another late Summer treat that will satiate and satisfy those of you who wish to take a break from the CGI explosions and cacophony and see films that feature people and emotions with wit, skill, heart and soul.

The plot of "Magic In The Moonlight" is deceptively simple. Set in the south of France in the 1928, Colin Firth, in a marvelous performance, portrays Stanley, a world famous magician and world class belligerent misanthrope who performs under the Asian identity of Wei Ling Soo. After one evening's performance on a tour stop in Berlin, Stanley is greeted backstage by his childhood friend and fellow illusionist Howard Burkan (played by Simon McBurney), who invites Stanley to the French Riviera to visit the Catledges, a wealthy family who has been taken in by a young clairvoyant named Sophie (Emma Stone, terrific as usual). Howard, knowing of Stanley's pessimistic and frankly, nihilistic worldview, desires for him to disprove Sophie's skills and reveal her to be a fraud, especially as the Catledges' son Brice (Hamish Linklater) has grown so fond of Sophie that he wishes to marry her. Stanley agrees to the trip with relish as he seemingly loves nothing more than debunking the actions of charlatans.

But to Stanley's surprise, a variety of situations and circumstances continuously arrive in which Sophie possesses a window into a level of knowledge that she could not possibly know...unless her skills as a mystic were indeed true, thus upending Stanley's view of the universe as menacing and meaningless. And needless to say, matters are further complicated when the ice around Stanley's heart begins to thaw towards the beguiling, optimistic and possibly magical Sophie.

As you would expect with any Woody Allen feature, "Magic In The Moonlight" is a visually sumptuous production that works as a romantic comedy mystery and once again may inspire viewers to dust off their passports and make travel plans. With superior aid from Cinematographer Darius Khondji, Production Designer Anne Seibel and Costume Designer Sonia Grande, the film is a feast fr the eyes, so rich in detail that it could almost be called "Gatsby-esque." Additionally, it is as blissful to regard aurally as it is visually, as there simply is no writer on the planet who constructs dialogue as Woody Allen is so supremely able to accomplish. The film is simply a pleasure to listen to and with the cast Allen has assembled, all of whom deliver top notch performances, the words and dialogue just sing magnificently.

"Magic In The Moonlight," on the surface may seem to feel and sound like one of Allen's lighter, frothier films, the kind of which that doesn't exactly break new ground, yet is pleasing while watching but also does tend to evaporate after a spell. Yes, the film is light and frothy like his Italian romantic comedy "To Rome With Love" (2012), but unlike that film and others like "Scoop" (2002), is the seriously profound core of the film that propels the narrative and informs all of the actions and perceptions of the characters. Essentially, "Magic In The Moonlight" is a hefty and spirited philosophical debate between two characters on the nature of our existence. Where Stanley is vehemently the champion of the intellect, Science and all things which can be seen and proven without any shadow of a doubt, Sophie represents the possibility of more plus the powerfully additional fact that as human beings, we simply do not know if anything exists beyond the material world or not.  

Certainly, this is not new territory for Woody Allen at all as he has explored this existential theme time and again but what makes it so vital each and every time is the fact that he is asking existential questions that cannot be answered and the debate that ensues between the characters is the same ongoing debate that he is having with us in the audience and I would assume the very same debate that he is having with himself, especially as the man is not getting any younger and the finite nature of his life is more imminent despite the velocity of his productivity.

What is more, and especially as Allen himself is admittedly quite the nihilist, is how he does not simply claim his main protagonist of Stanley as the hero who is obviously the one who holds every correct opinion in the film. Quite conversely, Allen is highly critical of Stanley and his massive egotism, weary jadedness, tiresome malcontent, and insufferable sense of superiority in addition to his atheist worldview by placing him into a story that firmly challenges his every belief. What if everything that you held to be true was somehow proven to be wrong? Is it a life worth living if one sees no point or hopefulness at all? And on the opposite side of the philosophical coin, even if one did possess a hopefulness and optimism, what is the purposefulness of life itself if it just only leads to nothingness?

As previously stated, Colin Firth is outstanding in the leading role as he projects such a painfully unctuous dominance that is as believable as it is funny. Yet, he also discovers the various layers in which to play this character as to not make him a one-note joke. Firth makes Allen's creation fully three dimensional. Late in the film, there is an extraordinary sequence when Stanley, faced with some anguishing news about his beloved Aunt Vanessa (beautifully played by Eileen Atkins), finds himself performing a serious bit of soul searching. Firth is the sole presence on-screen as he delivers a brilliantly written monologue that approaches heights that I found to be Shakespearian as it confronted ideas of the possible validity and/or futility of prayer and the belief or non-belief in some entity higher than our own humanity.

With "Magic In The Moonlight," what Woody Allen has proven once again is that all light comedies do not need to be inane, shamelessly vulgar and insipidly stupid to be funny and therefore memorable. That comedy can be smart. That comedy can be the source of exploring how we do eventually look outward towards the universe and inwardly into ourselves. And because of Allen's unquestionable skills, it has surprised me to see how dismissive quite a number of critics have been towards his latest film.

As I said previously, I do understand that for a filmmaker as prolific as Woody Allen, not everything can be the stuff of genius. But this time, I am feeling that what we are witnessing with some critics is that they are reviewing the controversy of Woody Allen's personal life as well as his persona and not reviewing exactly what is on the screen. For the purposes of this posting, I find any sense of controversy in Allen's personal life irrelevant to what he places on screen as an artist.

Certainly some critics do not feel as I do about this matter but in the case of "Magic In The Moonlight," I am feeling that they are grasping at straws when they complain that here we have another film in which the romantic figures are an older male actor and a decidedly younger female actress, and how this element must figure into Allen's personal life. Those same critics have also complained that the film is essentially Woody Allen once again expressing the sentiment that "the heart wants what it wants," an observation that I not only disagree with but it is one that I think gives what is on-screen tremendously short shrift as it is not looking at the value that is actually present. And even then, and even more preposterous is the assertion through a couple of articles that I have seen questioning Woody Allen's racial politics as no prominent Black actors have ever been featured in his films.

Dear readers, I have no problem whatsoever if these critics and even some of you make these observations or hold these very same questions regarding Woody Allen's work. But in this case, it all just feels like a way to take a personal swipe at this figure over situations that we will never, ever be fully informed about in the first place. And frankly, if you are going to a Woody Allen film to find Black people, then you are indeed looking at the wrong movie!! All facetiousness aside, if you wish to discuss issues of sexism, with regards to love stories that feature older males and younger females, and racism, regarding the lack of visible Black actors in the movies, then there is indeed a conversation that desperately needs to be had. But that conversation has to include the entirety of the film industry, which includes the white filmmakers that you do not take issue with. The very issues that Allen is being criticized for are not "Woody Allen issues," they are all "movie industry issues" and should be treated as such.

All of that being said, in regards to what I saw with "Magic In The Moonlight," contained nothing that was overtly or subjectively controversial as the breadth of the material was handled with inclusiveness, intelligence and a literary and philosophical wit that is peerless in the movies today. It was a film that honestly surprised me with its depth as well as it entertained me with its warmth, humor and sharply written dialogue.

"Magic In The Moonlight," while not being one of the GREAT Woody Allen films, is definitely a damn good one and well worth your time, effort and finances to see for yourselves.

O CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN: REMEMBERING ROBIN WILLIAMS

ROBIN WILLIAMS
JULY 21, 1951-AUGUST 11, 2014

I never wanted to write this one.

As with many of you, I returned home from work yesterday and logged onto the internet and met myself and my family with a gasp that was heard all around my home. Reading the news that legendary, peerless actor and comedian Robin Williams had been found dead, at the age of 63, in his San Francisco home from an apparent suicide completely felt as if someone had hurled me to the ground and stomped profusely upon my heart.

While I had been long aware and knowledgeable of Williams' battles with drugs, alcohol and debilitating depression over the years, never in a million years did I ever think that I would read news of this sort, especially about a figure who, to me, seemed so Herculean due to the voluminous brilliance, scope and range of his talent, and his blitzkrieg of stream of consciousness humor and stand-up comedy that was often so hysterical to the point of exhaustion as you clearly had to hang on for dear life when he performed as you did not ever want to miss any singular moment. Robin Williams was so formidable and therefore, in my mind, he seemed to be unstoppable, no matter of the means of his respective ailings. It just seemed so impossible that something like this, so horrendously tragic, could happen to him, one who has provided a universe of joy to generations upon generations. But, as with the cruel reality of life, anything can happen. And yesterday, anything did. 

Robin Williams has truly been a part of my life for nearly my entire life. Never will I forget my childhood years growing u in the 1970's and seeing this absolute force of nature completely blow away everyone off of the screen as Mork from Ork on television's "Happy Days" and the subsequent spin-off series "Mork And Mindy." Williams' abilities were nothing less than astonishing as, much like Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor and the performers on "Saturday Night Live," "SCTV" and "Monty Python's Flying Circus"  he essentially represented a certain "BIG BANG" as far as what a comedic performance could actually be. He had a voice that sounded affected by helium merged with a cognitive ability and elastic physicality that suggested the movement seen in an accelerated movie. As Mork, Robin Williams was the personification of childhood but in an adult form and what we were given was something beyond a performance of a scripted character. What we were given, and what I was responding to, was a sense of perpetually existing within the childlike act of discovery (combined with an adult sense of anarchy) and we were invited to discover and laugh right alongside him. On this television show, plus his ferocious talk show appearances, Robin Williams was exhilarating to behold and seemingly immediately, he was beloved by me.

Beginning with the starring role in the late Director Robert Altman's bizarre live-action cartoon musical fantasy of "Popeye" (1980), which I saw on opening night at the age of eleven, Robin Williams' embarked upon a film career that was as problematic as it was extraordinary. Certainly not every movie anyone can make can be good or even great and Robin Williams did have more than his share of misfires. Some, like "Cadillac Man" (1990) or Director Barry Levinson's ambitious "Toys" (1992) were fair or noble failures while the truly awful ones need not be mentioned other than the terribly mawkish and painfully odious "Patch Adams" (1998),  which I desperately urge you to stay away from as you reminisce about Williams' mammoth capabilities. My issues with the nature of Robin Williams' film career was that simply it took a powerful creative force to be able to accept the challenge to not only harness his supreme energy but to supply him with a role and a character worthy of that energy. Too many films obviously seemed as if the filmmakers decided to not have a script, turned on the cameras and just allowed Robin to do "his thing," and as brilliant as he was, a little of that goes a long way when it is supposedly at the service of a story and characters. And truth be told, I did tend to prefer his more dramatic work in film (and occasionally on television, most notably an excellent episode of "Homicide: Life On The Street") to his comedies. But in totality, when Robin Williams found the right material and the right collaborators, there was often nobody better, and at times, there was nobody more fearless.

In tribute to Robin Williams, I would love to take this time to share with my some of the performances that spoke deepest to me and showcased why he was an actor who operated on a level that was uniquely his own.

"THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP" (1982) Directed by George Roy Hill

-This film represented the very first time that I saw Robin Williams not as a comedian but as an actor of deep skill and vulnerability. Starring in the title role in the adaptation of John Irving's legendary novel Williams portrayed the equally legendary T.S. Garp, the bastard son of nurse/feminist Jenny Fields (Glenn Close) as well as house husband to working professional Helen Holm (Mary Beth Hurt), Father to two sons, best friend to transsexual Roberta Muldoon (John Lithgow), passionate wrestler, as well as a famous and controversial author in his own right. In this film, Williams richly captured the persona of Irving's creation by not attempting to steal the show from all of the madness that surrounded him through the film from all manner of violent cults, assassination attempts, extra-marital affairs, the tragic death of one of his children, the slow existential drain of suburban ennui and his desire to become "a real writer." Williams flows through the film with a sense of bemusement, passion, wonderment and the beginnings of eliciting a certain pathos on screen that would soon surprise and astound us with its unbridled power. Robin Williams' performance was so indelible that when I finally read the novel many years after having seen the film, and each subsequent time that I have re-read the book, I always see Williams' face in my mind.

"MOSCOW ON THE HUDSON" (1984) Directed by Paul Mazursky
-What impressed me the most about this drama about a Russian circus musician (with a penchant for the music of Duke Ellington) played by Williams who defects to America while on a trip to New York city. Williams completely committed to the role, in a most adult film, by not only making a three dimensional character but by being a guide and providing me with a window into a larger world and the people that populate it.

"SEIZE THE DAY" (1986) Directed by Fiedler Cook

 -I stumbled across this film sometime during my late high school or possibly early college years on PBS and I was floored by its dramatic depth and force. In this adaptation of Saul Bellow's novel of the same name, Robin Williams stars as Tommy Wilhelm, a salesman who has lost his job and his girlfriend, is attempting to forge a relationship with his Father and slowly begins to psychologically unravel. By this point, I had absolutely never seen Robin Williams in this state of being as his sensational performance felt to be an act of being rather than acting. His pain was palpable and left bruises upon me as a viewer. "Seize The Day" was undoubtedly Williams' "Death Of A Salesman" and it was a complete knockout.

"GOOD MORNING, VIETNAM" (1987) Directed by Barry Levinson
-This was the right film at the right time with the right director, screenplay, and actors all working and playing in full collaboration with Robin Williams, who rightfully earned his first Oscar nominated performance. This was the first film that successfully merged Williams' comic persona with an actual character and story, in this case the real word figure of 1960's military disc jockey Adrian Cronauer. I distinctly remember seeing this film for the very first time as a Freshman in college and also as I was going through a particularly rough emotional patch. It was a film and a performance that made me laugh so painfully hard and yet possessed the substantive weight I enjoyed and looked forward to in Williams' more dramatic roles. And to this day, the film holds up beautifully well while also possessing the amazing put down, "You are in more desperate need of a blow job than any other White man in history!" 

"THE ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN" (1989) Directed by Terry Gilliam
-Robin Williams' first collaboration with Monty Python writer/animator and visionary film director was quite an auspicious one as his extended cameo performance was actually uncredited...or more honestly, credited to the fictional "Ray D. Tutto," as to not mislead the public into thinking they would be seeing a new Robin Williams film. This elaborate fantasy, which I feel is one of the very best--and most underseen--films of the 1980's, features Williams as "The King Of The Moon," and here was a situation where the madman genius of both Williams and Gilliam were magically suited for each other. It is a character and performance of unbridled lunacy tinged with malevolence as the King, a giant with a detachable, flying head and inner conflict concerning the desires of the mind and the flesh, attempts to enact revenge upon the film's hero for an old fling he once shared with the Queen Of The Moon. And if any actor could somehow make the sight of a flying detachable head out for romantic retribution enormously entertaining and breathlessly funny, it was a role tailor made for Williams.

"THE FISHER KING" (1991) Directed by Terry Gilliam
-Williams' second collaboration with Gilliam produced a performance that was just as breathlessly funny as the previous entry but also one that descended into a cauldron of psychological despair that was almost unbearable to watch but so brilliantly delivered that it was impossible to look away. Portraying a delusional homeless man named Parry who believes to be on the search for the Holy Grail would be more than enough for Robin Williams to sink his teeth into. But, when we add in the fact that this man's current state is entirely, yet inadvertently, due to the careless words of a radio shock jock DJ (Jeff Bridges) which prompted a mass murder in a Manhattan bar in which Parry's wife was a victim in front of his eyes, we are given a first class seat into a multi-layered performance that I think is one of the very best he ever delivered. In fact, the sequence where Parry, who is subjected to nightmarish hallucinations featuring the horse riding Red Knight who torments him, succumbs to a psychological breakdown starring the aforementioned Knight on the New York streets, I believe that what we witness is again not a form of acting but more of a state of being. Robin Williams is towering as he scales heights that I feel most actors are not capable of reaching in quite the same way. The anguish we see is crippling to the point of paralysis as Robin Williams dangled us and himself over the edge of madness.

"MRS. DOUBTFIRE" (1993) Directed by Chris Columbus

-Yes, I do thoroughly enjoy this big budget, high concept mainstream feature as Chris Columbus was another director who able to be the right director with the right material that allowed for Robin Williams to work his specialized magic at the full service of a character and story. While he looked as convincing as a female as Dustin Hoffman did in "Tootsie" (1982), Williams, like Hoffman, was able to locate a distinctive pathos underneath the latex and mistaken identity hijinks. For all of the slapstick, Williams' huge heart made me believe that here was a loving yet irresponsible Father, wounded by divorce, who found himself in a position where he would literally do anything just to have the chance to still see his children. I was particularly touched by the moment when he explains to a judge late in the film the following passage: "I'm addicted to my children, sir. I love them with all of my heart, and the thought of someone telling me I can't be with them, I can't see them every day...it's like someone saying I can't have air. I can't live without air and I can't live without them." In another actor's mouth, those lines would have sounded precisely like the type of material that would make me gag. But, in Robin William's mouth, those words sounded like the truth.

"GOOD WILL HUNTING" (1997) Directed by Gus Van Sant
 -Robin Williams' Oscar winning performance as a therapist to Matt Damon's troubled title character was a study in sheer, unforced, honest, soulful empathy--the type that again doesn't feel "acted" but "believed." For as wonderful as Williams' sequences with Damon are throughout the film, I found myself really loving the sections featuring Williams and Stellan Skarsgard, who portrays a professional rival and former college roommate. In those sections, Williams again plumbs the depths of envy, resentment, regret at chances and opportunities not taken as well as attempting to maintain one's true sense of self even when disappointment is staring him in the face.

"WHAT DREAMS MAY COME" (1998) Directed by Vincent Ward
-A gloriously ambitious, visually resplendent drama in which Williams starred as Chris Nielsen, a man killed in an automobile accident whose spirit embarks upon a journey through the afterlife, Heaven and ultimately Hell itself, all in order to be reunited with his true love. It is a film that would seem to be impossible to realize if not for the soulfulness of Robin Williams' performance which anchors all of the special effects into a most human and stunningly romantic reality.

"ONE HOUR PHOTO" (2002) Directed by Mark Romanek
-Released around the same period when Robin Williams delivered unsettling sinister work in Director Christopher Nolan's "Insomnia" (2002), he gave his most accomplished, and again, multi-layered work in this queasily disturbing psychological thriller as a convenience store photo technician who grows obsessed with the lives of a young family. But instead of making  this character a horror film monster, Williams again found the humanity inside the character to make this performance a deeply troubling portrait of depression, loneliness and isolation.

and now...

"DEAD POETS SOCIETY" (1989) Directed by Peter Weir
-I am not certain if Robin Williams' role as John Keating, an inspiring late 1950's all male prep school English teacher is necessarily his very best performance, as the film is indeed not about this character but about the students that populate the school. Even so, it is the Robin Williams performance and accompanying film that has always, and will forever, mean the most to me.

The speech, sequence and passage is now so familiar that it was even utilized in an I-Pad advertisement (something I felt was precisely the opposite of what the speech was about, but I digress). On the very first day of the English class and after John Keating has instructed his students to completely rip out the opening section of a manual that scribes a mathematical formula to determine a poem's quality, he addresses them with the following:

"In my class you will learn to think for yourselves again. You will learn to savor words and language. No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world. You see that look in Mr. Pitts' eye. That 19th century literature has nothing to do with going to Business school and Medical school, right? Maybe. Mr. Hopkins, you may agree with him thinking, 'Yes, we should simply study our Mr. Pritchard and and learn our rhyme and meter and go quietly about the business of achieving other ambitions. 

"Well, I have a secret for you. Huddle up. Huddle up! We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, are all noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But, poetry, beauty, romance, love...these are what we say alive for. To quote from Whitman, 'O me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless...of cities filled with the foolish, what good amid these, O me, O life?' Answer: that you are here, that life exists and identity, that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?"  

Amen.

I first saw this film during my college years and at that time, the film and especially Robin Williams' wise and genuinely humane performance lifted my spirits so tremendously as it served to vindicate my chosen major of English as well as Communication Arts. The film made me feel that my chosen field of study plus my passionate love of art, words, literature, music and film were indeed not as frivolous as my parents and even other students and acquaintances I knew had led me to believe. That the fruit of life itself is indeed found in all of those art forms and how their levels and forms of inspiration could in fact fuel me to go forwards and establish the kind of human being that I wished to be.

It is a film that while I have not actually seen it that many times, it is the one that my soul draws from over and over and over again as I explore my own life, relationships, writing, and even in my own teaching as yes, I have habitually had my little charges refer to me as "O Captain, My Captain." But most importantly, I wish for my students, even as young as they are, to find the process of going to school to be a richly rewarding one. And as I love sharing stories and books with them more than anything, I try to make all of the words spring to life with the hopes that they will grow to love reading, language and perhaps even writing as they grow older themselves. "Dead Poets Society" and Robin Williams role in it are a film and performance that continuously reveals itself to me and as I think about Williams right now and even re-watch elements of this performance on You Tube, I am amazed with not only his fluidity and free flowing ease between the more dramatic and comedic portions of the film. His ability to make scripted words sound as if these are the words naturally forming from his own lips and originating from his own soul, makes him one of the greatest performing treasures that we have ever had the good fortune to have had for as long as we did.

And perhaps that is a major reason, if not the primary reason, why his passing has been so painful to read and now process. Because Robin Williams truly was our Captain, using his unstoppable comedy, his intense pain, his sublime craft and his deepest, innermost pathos in such a completely unfiltered fashion to guide us through the process of living life with all of its peaks and valleys, triumphs and tragedies. And now, here we are without him to help us through this specific tragedy.

Now of course, it is beyond difficult to make sense of the senseless, and there have already been some people on television and the internet to openly express that Robin Williams was a "coward" for committing suicide or that he took an "easy way out." To that, I only offer as sternly as I am able that not one person on this Earth ever walked in the exact shoes in which he walked, and therefore, there is absolutely no one on this Earth who could have ever had inside knowledge to the quality of his depression and pain. To any criticism of his actions, I say that we are not in any position to judge and any perceived scorn will never help those who loved his the most and will definitely not bring him back to life.

I actually just read a tribute to Williams written by Barry Levinson and perhaps his words will be able to provide some illumination as to Williams' inner state.

"What makes his death so difficult to understand is the question, 'How can someone so funny be so sad?' We can reflect on it, try to understand it, analyze it, but nothing will truly answer the question. The fragility of the man, his sensitivity, his deep feelings for life...all that allowed for him to carve his comedic sensibilities, were the same feelings that took his life. He felt too much perhaps?

There was always a kindness to Robin. An inquisitive man trying to understand the madness of mankind. But when the comedy motors were off, you could sense the vulnerability of the man. There was always a sense that he could easily be hurt. Ad if he were hurt, how quickly could he heal? A bleeder in a world of sharp edges. There was an innocence to his thoughtful intelligence. It there were an endangered species list for mankind, he would have been first on that list. He was perhaps too delicate for this difficult world."

Just think of what Robin Williams has meant to you and apply that to not only those whom you hold dearest but also to those around you in your daily lives. Think about it. Robin Williams' brand of comedy was never mean spirited or at any persons' expense (unless they were really asking for it). Think of the roles he chose to play throughout his career. Think of his humanitarian causes or his political stances of which were also the most humane. All I have been hearing about over the past 24 hours has been Williams' selflessness and compassion. If we can take anything from his death is to just try and take those moments when we otherwise would have walked away or lashed out to try and just show some patience, forgiveness, understanding, empathy and of course, some much needed laughter.

The world already just feels so much darker without Robin Williams' presence in the world. So, it is up to us to fill it. And may his soul be free and at peace.

Thank you, Robin Williams. For absolutely everything.