http://nerdist.com/nerdist-podcast-oscar-isaac/
I'm finally getting around to writing this and this link contributed to that procrastination :P
I first came across Oscar Isaac in "SuckerPunch"
http://moviegoerconfessions.blogspot.com/2013/12/49-sucker-punch-2011.html
Oddly enough when I reread my discussion of this movie, I didn't discuss him at all. But I had a lot of other items to address that required more importance.
I don't know if it hit me right away or it slowly sunk in after I saw this movie a dozen times... but Oscar Isaac played such a good bad guy in this. I mean, there was a major ick factor with him with the way he exploits these girls for monetary gain and just being in control of his operation. When he posed a threat, he was terrifying and I mean TERRIFYING. I mean, if the role had called for his distinct look, he could have played a good Christian Grey. He certainly had that control freak thing down really well.
The next time I saw him was in "Inside Llewyn Davis," which I'll probably post a review for the next time I see it. It was an oddly fascinating performance for him. And not just because he was playing a good guy. A very flawed one, but he's not the villain.
Whether he has a very menacing presence on screen or not, I am drawn to him.
When I heard that he went to Juilliard for acting [and graduated], I wasn't surprised at all. I've heard "Ex Machina" was one of this year's better movies and because of him, I considered seeing it, but just didn't get to the theater within that small time frame.
His next big project is, of course, the new Star Wars film. And I cannot wait for that. Right now, I'm just hoping he's a rebel that stays a rebel... although, like I said, he's a really good villain.
I came across the trailer for "Show Me a Hero" somewhere on Twitter a couple weeks ago. Even though I had no background on the story and I'm not big on politics, I knew I'd be treated to another great Oscar Isaac performance.
First I'll lead in saying that this guy needs to win a Golden Globe for this performance. Never mind being nominated, he needs to WIN.
The 6-part HBO mini-series ended this week. I did a quick Wikipedia search on Nick Wasicsko to see at a glimpse how true it was and maybe get some answers about how it all ended as it did.
I can keep up with fast-paced dialogue pretty well, but when lots of political stuff gets thrown in, my brain tends to switch off so I thought a little got lost in translation. It turns out that I had a fair grasp of it, but it still didn't make complete sense to me how it all went down. Given how it was all represented.
The story takes place in Yonkers, New York in the late 80's and early 90's. The hot button issue is the building of low-income public housing. Yonkers had segregated all the minorities [mainly blacks and Hispanics] to one side of town and the housing would be built on the white side of town. Naturally, the townspeople were not happy about Judge Leonard Sands' plan because they fear the minorities would bring down property values along with drug and crime activity.
Nick Wasicsko ran for Mayor on the platform that he would oppose the housing, but ultimately changed his mind and would send the majority of his term getting the other politicians on the city council to change their minds. The housing either had to be approved or the already poor town would be fined into bankruptcy.
In more ways than one, this mini-series got the Hollywood treatment. The actors were better looking than the actual people the characters were based on. That much was expected. It was a little disappointing to read after the fact that the actual person didn't do this for the right thing, but rather he was forced into doing what became the right thing.
Sometimes it's easier just to believe the lie...
Half the time of the series was spent with Nick Wasicsko and the other was spent with a bunch of different stories within the minority community.
- An older woman who becomes legally blind and has had issue getting a caretaker to look after her
- a young woman who has a baby, loses her husband in an accident, becomes addicted to drugs and ultimately turns her life around
- a divorced mother of 2 kids who she picks up at the airport a couple of times during the series and is initially put on the housing waiting list.
- a girl who meets a guy at a party, they have a one-night stand, she gets knocked up and he promises to stick by her so she doesn't get an abortion. He goes on to prove that he's a loser and a criminal... and they have two more kids together.
I found all these stories pretty compelling. Although that last one developed into an annoyance. The boyfriend was well meaning at first, but he just keeps getting into trouble. And for whatever reason, they make kids they can't take care of. I kinda understood the second time, but I wanted to smack him the third time because he admitted to tampering with the condom.
Another thing about this set-up I didn't get: why do they insist on allowing the public into these court proceedings if they're just going to yell and complain the entire time? It was amazing the city council got anything done... of course they didn't for a while.
Catherine Keener [who I didn't recognize at first] plays a woman maybe 20-30 years older than she is. She's one of the most vocal opposers of the public housing, but in the final two parts, she comes around. In true Hollywood fashion, I kinda saw that coming, but it was just a matter of when that would be.
There wasn't as much of Nick Wasicsko in the final two parts of the series. After he loses the re-election, it seems like he's only concerned about getting back into politics. I understand part of it was to see the housing plan through. But after that... I mean, it was just one failed political run after another. He got a city council seat, but wasn't able to do much with it. Wikipedia said he practiced and taught law and hosted a local radio talk show. But we didn't see any of that. We just skipped to the 90's where he went back to politics.
I don't pretend to understand politics. I get that the lifestyle can be addicting if you don't know what else you're really good for or you're used to having power.
This was around the point where a lot of it was going over my head and I just saw that he was just becoming unlikable. He was butting heads with people he used to be friends with just to get ahead... only to fail.
What helped turn it around for me was a scene where he goes to the pubic housing to ask how everyone likes it. A lot of doors get slammed in his face. The only one who didn't was, of course, the older blind woman. Not a lot was said in this exchange, but it was a nice moment. One of the few instances where we see him interact with any of the other characters.
Throughout the series, he'd visit his father's grave in Oakland Cemetary. Wasicsko Sr. died in 1985, a few years before his son became Mayor. These were always such poignant scenes where he takes a few moments to himself to get his head straight. There didn't even have to be dialogue for it to carry impact.
By the end of it, I did enjoy my time with it. I know a lot of people will come after it by saying it's bleeding heart liberal agenda trying to tell us to give minorities a chance and so on. It's a hot topic, even now.
In a lot of ways, it did remind me of "Freedom Writers." Of course because it dealt with the issue of the races integrating into one society and getting along. At least that story had some notable success to it that wasn't all staged to tell a good Hollywood underdog story.
According to the after credits, there were some success stories that came out of the Yonkers low-income public housing matter, which finally resolved in 2007.
I can understand both sides of the issue, but ultimately believe that both sides shouldn't be so quick to judge and assume the worst in each other.
Writer/Director: James Carney (best known for "Once")
Music: Gregg Alexander
Type: indie, music, drama
Cast:
Dan Mulligan- Mark Ruffalo
Greta- Keira Knightley
Dave Kohl- Adam Levine
Miriam- Catherine Keener
Violet- Hailee Steinfeld
Steve- James Corden
Saul- Yasiin Bey
Troublegum- Cee Lo Green
Notable Nomination:
OSCAR- Best Original Song- "Lost Stars" (Written by Gregg Alexander, Danielle Brisebois, Nick Lashley and Nick Southwood)
Write-up:
Opening Remarks
IMDb says that this movie came out in 2013, most likely in the indie film circuit otherwise known as the film festivals.
Wikipedia (assuming that site is to be believed... so far it hasn't fed me any misinformation) says it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2013 and reached theaters in June 2014.
I don't remember much about what the actual reviews said, but it got lots of positive feedback and I did have a chance to see it, but decided not to.
It would have been money well spent...
Story in a Nutshell
We open the movie at an open mic night where Steve (James Corden) is performing. After his song, he invites his friend Greta (Keira Knightley) on stage to do one of her songs. She resists at first, but humors him and gives a good coffee shop type performance.
After this scene, we see how our main players arrived at this open mic night.
How Dan Mulligan (Mark Ruffalo) is a partner at a record company struggling to find an artist to support-- we hilariously see him go through a bunch of demo CD's in his car, hating absolutely every last one of them.
How Greta used to write songs with her boyfriend, Dave (Adam Levine), and after a movie turned him into a rock star, he cheated on her and she walked out on him, rooming with Steve.
Dan falls in love Greta's sound at the open mic night and approaches her with the idea of recording an album. Considering his appearance and drunkenness, she's skeptical, but decides to take him up on his offer.
He takes her to his company and they decline to sign her unless she gives them a demo.
Somewhere along the way, they get the idea to record the album themselves in various locations in New York City.
And this endeavor not only gives our characters something to do, but it allows them to grow into better versions of themselves.
Actors and Characters
Some Spoilers ahead...
I'm not sure if I made this point in a previous entry, but I'll say it again:
The great thing about indie films like this is that you really get invested in the characters. You care about what happens to them through the course of the film and you also want to know what happens after the credits stop rolling.
(And it should be noted that you do want to stick through the end credits because the epilogue is pretty sweet).
Coming in, I only knew the first three names of the cast list I posted. All the ads were over within the blink of an eye, so they only focused on those names. I love a lot of Mark Ruffalo's work and I like Keira Knightley a lot... then the fact that this was Adam Levine's first acting gig...
Given all that, I'd been interested in seeing this movie for a while.
For whatever reason, it seems like Mark Ruffalo plays a lot of unlikable characters. At least it seems that way in the first couple scenes he's in.
Here, you think he's a workaholic who got himself divorced because he has a drinking problem. But after getting to know him (during his progress in the movie itself and one conversation he has with Greta), you learn that there's more to it.
Greta and Dave started as a singer-songwriting duo, but his career started moving too fast for her to keep up with- to the point where writing songs for him wasn't enough anymore.
So yeah, Adam's first acting gig and he winds up playing a jerk... maybe not as big a jerk as he could have been... you see it happen in movies all the time where fame goes to a guy's head and he morphs into an ugly version of themselves. In this case, he just cheated on her, she left and he becomes more concerned about making hits than the actual music.
The relationship between Dan and Greta is really nice, how he helps her career in obvious ways and she improves his life in ways that aren't quite as clear-cut-- at least not at first.
And it never goes further than friendship, which helps us avoid a lot of the pitfalls and clichés that mark a lot of rom-coms that get more mainstream theatrical release.
Granted, much of the movie is predictable and maybe things happen much easier than they would if the situation played out in reality... but really, who cares?
It's just a pleasant venture.
A Word on the Music
All I can say... is too bad Greta's album isn't available in the real world on iTunes or Amazon because that's the album I'd want to be. There is a soundtrack available, but it only includes some of her songs, plus a couple sung by Adam Levine and one by Cee-Lo Green (who plays an artist that Dan made huge and therefore owes him for his pimped up successful lifestyle).
All the scenes were music plays are so nice... about as nice as laying in a hammock on a warm spring day. We don't just have the coffee shop vibe with Keira's pleasant voice, but we have a good backing band with piano, bass, drums, violin and cello.
One highlight is where Dan's daughter, Violet (Hailee Steinfeld- first time I'd seen her since the "True Grit" remake) plays some good electric guitar on a track where he also happens to be playing bass (Greta's idea).
Then there's the song "Lost Stars"... I'm not even going to acknowledge the overproduced version that Dave plays for Greta...
It plays throughout the movie in instrumental, you hear her sing in, and at the end, he performs the song at a theatre as she originally wrote it.
...I'd only recently got Maroon 5's new album (a decision I mulled over for almost a year while I was feeling out their new direction) and fell very hard for "Lost Stars"... I heard Adam perform it a couple of times, but this was the first time I'd really listened to it. It reminds me of a bunch of his older songs- like a couple of piano bar type songs from the It Won't Sooner Before Long album- but better.
Major kudos to Gregg Alexander for co-writing all the cool songs in this movie, including "Lost Stars."
Also loved the scene where Dan and Greta go around New York at night, listening to the same iPod with their headphones/earbuds connected.
It's true: you can tell a lot about a person by their playlist.
Peronally, I have several.
I am a HUGE fan of music. I own almost 200 albums by various artists and try to listen through them regularly. And recently, I started investing in some artists from "American Idol" and "The Voice" who released their music via crowdfunding campaigns. It took a while for Alexis Grace and Juliet Simms to get EP's together and the end results were well worth the wait.
"Begin Again" kinda speaks to that persuasion. Maybe times are changing and artists of the future might not need record companies to become successful in their own rights. And considering what has happened to many winners from "The Voice" (Juliet got 2nd place, to someone whose album NEVER came out), the alternate channels may be the better way to go.
So anyway, where I'm going with this, is that if you don't check into this movie for the actors, I'd recommend it for anyone who simply loves music.
Just sit back and let the magic happen while you fall in love with the music and these characters.
Final Comments
I loved the comments Greta and Steve made on Dave's beard when they were watching him give an acceptance speech at an award show. [Thankfully, he got rid of it in the final performance scene]
I feel the same way about Adam when he's coaching on The Voice and doesn't shave. A little stubble is fine, but I fucking hate it when he spends weeks with a full-on beard. (You'd think after he married a Victoria's Secret angel, he'd do that less often)
Actually, in general, I prefer my men [in Hollywood and otherwise] clean-shaven and it's a pet peeve when they all let themselves go when they're not shooting for a film.
