Giamatti

2023 Oscars Best Picture Review: The Holdovers

Jon The Blogcentric1 Comment
From left to right: Dominic Sessa, Paul Giamatti and Da’Vine Joy Randolph make for unlikely Christmas guests in The Holdovers.

DISCLAIMER: This is from a blog of four reviews I originally posted on March 2, 2024. The original blog has been removed.

At first, you’ll wonder if The Holdovers is the right movie for the Christmas Season or a bad movie for the Season. Not every Christmas movie is a guaranteed hit and there have been some bad ones in the past. Can The Holdovers do all the right moves?

There have been Christmas movies in the past that start as downers but then develop into a film that doesn’t just celebrate Christmas, but celebrates humanity too. It’s A Wonderful Life is possibly the biggest such film that comes to mind. Here we have another story. Set in 1970, we have a teacher at a boarding school whom all the students hate and has no real family or friends. A student of his who gets left behind at the school during Christmas because of his mother leaving him behind for Christmas with her new boyfriend. The school cook who has lost her son in the Vietnam War and feels the hurt at Christmas time. Can the Christmas spirit be present with these three together?

In a film like this, it’s hard to sense if this film has a social theme. We see see how so many of the Best Picture nominees have a social theme in the film which has something to say. I can’t really sense a theme or topic in this film that stands out in a grand way. If a theme made in a soft way, I think it’s about classism and elitism. We should remember Paul Hunhan is a teacher at the Barton Academy boarding school full of boys of some of the most privileged backgrounds. He teaches the classics and is not afraid to fail them if they’re bad, even if the student’s father is wealthy and powerful. That annoys his boss Dr. Woodrup as one of the students Hunham failed, the father stopped donating and that stopped Woodrup from being promoted to Princeton. Adding to the theme of elitism, Hunham himself was a student at the school and attended on a scholarship. Hunham almost sank his future after he deliberately hit one of his Harvard classmates with a car, but Barton was sympathetic enough to hire him as their classics teacher. Adding to elitism is the cook Mary Lamb: an African-American woman who was able to get her son Curtis to attend the Academy because of her employment. After he graduated, he had to pay his way through college and enlisted in the army to do so, only to die in the Vietnam War.

There’s no doubt the themes of privilege and classism abound in this film. There are also parts in the film that remind us all that privilege and classism is not a shelter for everything. The one who best reminds us of that is Angus Tully. Angus is a student who actually does very well in Hunham’s class, but still shows the common troubling behavior of teens, which gets on Hunham’s nerves a lot. Over time, Hunham learns Tully is not the typical privileged brat he sees him as. He learns that Tully is a lonely boy from a broken home. Tully first tells Hunham his father’s dead, but soon learns his father is in a mental hospital. A privileged background doesn’t prevent you from having parents with mental illness. On top of that, Tully has a mother who seems to care more about her new boyfriend than him. That’s another thing with privileged children; having hyper-ambition parents who care more about themselves and often neglect their kids. While Hunham and Mary appear to be victims of a system of classism and privilege, Tully appears to be one living in this privilege but experiencing the harsh side-effects of it. Seeing Tully’s background could give you empathy for Barron Trump! Even that scene where they show a memorial on Veteran’s Day and they memorialize the alumni killed in wars, it’s a reminder that privilege won’t stop you from dying young in a war.

I know I talked a lot about privilege and classism in this film, but it’s an underlying theme in the story. The story is about three different people who don’t want to be together trying to have a Christmas together. When have the classics teacher who has made the boarding school his home since his job and has no problem making a loner of himself or being hated by the students. We have one of his students who can’t stand Hunham and is frustrated with having no one for Christmas. We also have the cook who is not only struggling to be happy after the death of her son but trying to find reason to live. Can they have a good Christmas? Can they get along together? In the end, the Christmas becomes a time when they warm up to each other and get to understand each other better. Angus doesn’t see Hunham as a jerk teacher and starts to understand his love for the classics. Hunham doesn’t see Angus as a jerk student, but rather a boy who needs the closeness of his family. Most importantly, to be reunited with his mentally ill father. Mary Lamb falls in love with the janitor Danny and is reunited with her sister and her family. That scene with the four celebrating New Year’s together shows they did have a Merry Christmas after all. Even if Hunham would get fired for his actions being out of Barton protocol.

This is another great achievement from Alexander Payne. In the past, most of his films have been stories about a man’s feelings of failures. The films he’s done in the past have won him acclaim and even three Best Director nominations. Here he takes a change of direction with a Christmas story with a man as the protagonist, but also as much a story of a student who’s lonely and a cook who feels empty on the inside. It’s a story that makes for the most unlikely of Merry Christmases and somehow makes the merriness happen. We should also thank scriptwriter David Hemingson for that. Hemingson has established himself as a renowned sitcom writer. This is his first film screenplay and it comes out shining. It gets into a deep story but it also remains humorous and keeps the Christmas merry.

Excellent acting again comes Paul Giamatti. If you’ve seen Giamatti act before, you know he knows how to do excellent character work. Giamatti has worked with Payne before in 2004’s Sideways: the film that got Payne his first Best Director Oscar nod. Here, Giamatti is the perfect fit as the curmudgeonous sadistic teacher who actually is a disheartened man who becomes an unlikely friend to a troubled teen. Also worthy of respect is Da’Vine Joy Randolph. Her performance of the cook who lost her soon and tries to keep from hurting is great. Especially since you could sense that there would be a time she can’t hold it in any longer. Her performance stands out and even makes you think the story is as much about Mary Lamb as it is about Hunham. Also great is the performance of Dominic Sessa. He has never acted before and he had the luck as the prep school he attended happened to be the location of this film’s shooting location and he caught the eyes of the casting directors. He’s the right fit in playing a boy who’s smart and arrogant about it, but lonely and hurting on the inside. Sad Fact: Sessa’s own father died when he was 14. Also a great job of Eigil Bryld with the cinematography. Normally for a Payne film, it does a good job of capturing the region. This cinematography was different as it added to the story.

The Holdovers is an unlikely Christmas film that does what a Christmas film should, despite the story appearing to pave the way for something depressing, at first. In the end, it’s about three people unlikely to be friends whose lives improve because of each other. An unlikely treat for those lucky to see it.

Movie Review: Love & Mercy

Jon The Blogcentric1 Comment

Love & Mercy is about the music and troubles of Beach Boy Brian Wilson (played by Paul Dano set in the 60`s).
Love & Mercy is about the music and troubles of Beach Boy Brian Wilson (played by Paul Dano set in the 60`s).

Summertime may be the perfect time for Beach Boys music but the film Love & Mercy isn’t one to give you that summery feeling that comes with their music. Actually it’s a lot deeper.

The film alternates between two time periods: between the mid-60`s and 1987. In the 60`s, the Beach Boys, consisting of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, cousin Mike Love and high-school friend Al Jardine have hit the big time. Their California sound of girls, cars, beaches and surf have made them a phenomenon. However it`s not to say they face competition from the British Invasion, especially the Beatles.

However something`s not right despite their success. It becomes evident when Brian has a panic attack on an airplane. After the incident, he resigns from touring with the band and goes into seclusion into an attempt to make `the best album ever made.` During the time, he continues to make music but it becomes more his music rather than music of the Beach Boys. Often Brian hires other musicians and usually features the other Beach Boys only in vocals. This leads to a lot of disharmony among the band sensing this may be a vainglorious Brian Wilson solo project. Brian also does other unorthodox things like build a sandbox around his piano and experiment with LSD which even his own wife is comfortable with.

The end result is the album Pet Sounds which received a lot of critical praise but was a commercial failure despite two Top 10 hits. The lack of commercial success is especially rubbed in by his father Murry who acts as their manager and expects the band to succeed just like it was any other act he owned.`  He even announces to Brian that the Beach Boys are fired and he manages a new band which he feels has better chart-topping potential. Even after The Beach Boys resume their top-selling ways with songs like Good Vibrations, that changes nothing especially since some of Brian`s other creations are rejected. Brian goes into seclusion after a mental breakdown to the point he alienates everyone including his wife and newborn daughter Carnie.

Flash forward to 1987. It was a chance meeting between Wilson (played by John Cusack) and Melinda (played by Elizabeth Banks) that changes for the better happened.
Flash forward to 1987. It was a chance meeting between Wilson (played by John Cusack) and Melinda (played by Elizabeth Banks) that changed his life.

In 1987, Brian is in a Cadillac store in California where he appears to be shopping for a new car. He stumbles across attractive saleswoman Melinda Ledbetter. However his psychiatrist Dr. Eugene Landy stops him. Brian is able to give Melinda his number. He goes on dates with her in which he was surprisingly honest to the point he even revealed his father`s abusiveness to him and his brothers. It`s obvious Brian is still as troubled mentally as he was back in the 60`s. The accidental death of brother Dennis three years earlier only added to his distress.

Over time, Landy demands more supervision of Brian. Melinda is already sending Landy becoming overbearing and even controlling when he tells Brian out loud to wait for food at a barbecue. Landy`s controlling nature becomes even harsher when Landy supervises his music and even demands that no visitors be with Brian. It becomes especially evident that he has a certain contempt towards Melinda. Melinda tries to get Brian to turn away on many occasions but Brian is too mentally weak to drop Landy. It comes down to Melinda threatening a legal suit to put an end to this and she gets what she needs. The ending tells us that Melinda is the best thing to ever happen to Brian.

The film is not just about Brian`s mental condition but also about the Beach Boys music at the time and even the time in music history when it was happening. Hard to believe the whole time the Beach Boys appeared as the epitome of surfing culture in the early 60`s, only Dennis surfed. They were an act packaged by their father Murry and it paid off into hit record after hit record. However Brian had other creative juices of his own and he felt he had to put it to record.

It showed the inspiration he transpired into the record studio but it also showed the conflict he had with other band members and the commercial pressures expected with every big name act. We often think of the mid-60`s as a time when rock bands did away with the typical `bubble gum` sounds that made them chart-toppers and started getting more creative and changed rock `n roll forever in all angles. True, but it didn`t make them immune to the commercial expectations they faced. Sure, there were albums like Sgt. Pepper that paid off commercially and changed music forever. However there were albums like Pet Sounds that were just as creative but flopped. It`s a gamble no matter how you put it. Even that scene where Murry tells Brian he fired the Beach Boys in favor of a new act, you could tell by the look on Brian`s face it appeared like a case of a father disowning his sons. It sure looked like it.

Without a doubt the mental illness ordeal of Brian Wilson is the focal point of the film. His ordeal is something most of us already know but only few knew the full details. The film gives the story of how it all started especially with Brian`s upbringing and what all happened at its start and most noticeable troubles during the 1960`s. The film also showed why it took so long for it to be resolved. You could easily see why a doctor like Eugene Hardy would make the situation worse than better. It makes you wonder why was Eugene so controlling to Brian? His star status? Landy`s own psychiatrist ego? Or Landy`s own problems?

It also made you wonder why was Brian afraid to leave Landy? Was it because he trusted him? Or was it because Landy appeared to him as the father figure he didn`t get from Murry? Even though the story is about Brian`s mental condition, it`s also a love story as it was Melinda whom Brian meets by chance that becomes the best thing for him. For his life and for his mental well-being. You`re left feeling that way at the end that love really does conquer all.

Director Bill Pohlad and scriptwriters Oren Moverman and Michael Alan Lerner succeed in creating a film that`s both autobiographical and also about the music of the Beach Boys and the time when Pet Sounds and Good Vibrations were released and also about how persistent love solved a decades-long psychological issue. The story however could not shine without the phenomenal acting. Paul Dano was excellent as the younger Brian who was full of music but very troubled and couldn`t be helped. John Cusack was excellent as the older Brian who was still troubled and too afraid to break free from Landy. Also excellent was Elizabeth Banks as Melinda. She was excellent for portraying the one who knew nothing about psychology but knew how to solve Brian with love. Paul Giamatti was good as Eugene Landy but his performance was as typical as most of the other characters he`s done in past films.

Love & Mercy is  a biographical film of a musician but it`s a lot more. It`s about the music of the time and a reminder that one who loves you enough to care can see through hard situations.

Movie Review: Saving Mr. Banks

Jon The Blogcentric2 Comments

Emma Thompson portrays the author of Mary Poppins to be like someone we never expected her to be at all in Saving Mr. Banks.
Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) tries to get a stubborn P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson)  to agree to a movie version of Mary Poppins in Saving Mr. Banks.

Saving Mr. Banks is to be the story of how Walt Disney was able to bring Mary Poppins to the big screen. The question is not just will it bring the story to life but will it make people want to see it on the big screen?

It’s 1961 and Mary Poppins author P.L. Travers is struggling financially. Walt Disney has been trying to get Travers to agree to allow him to adapt Mary Poppins to the big screen for 20 years on account of a promise he made to his daughter. Travers finally agrees, albeit reluctantly but she’s extremely distrustful of Walt. She has stern expectations of Mary being adapted to the big screen such as no musical numbers, no Dick Van Dyke, none of the Disney frilliness and no animation.

Things do not start well for Mrs. Travers. She’s unhappy in Los Angeles with the carefree attitude of the city and by the happy ways Walt Disney, his co-workers and even Ralph the chauffeur do business. Not even Walt’s familiar manners warm up well to Travers.  Things get harder as Don DaGradi does the script, the Sherman brothers compose the music and Walt designs the characters. She even has a problem with Mary Poppins being the epitome of sentiment and whimsy, believing she’s the opposite of that. That surprises the Disney crew as they’ve always viewed Poppins as fantastical and known Travers to have a fantastical childhood, as seen through flashbacks.

However things take a turn for the worse when Travers sees the depiction of George Banks. She believes he is completely off-base  and leaves distraught. It’s then where the Disney studio realizes that Mary Poppins and its characters are very personal to Travers. It’s through flashbacks that we learn that Travers Goff, her father and the inspiration of George Banks, was indeed a banker but valued his imagination more than work in the real world. Things became too crushing for Travers and he would lose his job and his sanity to alcoholism. Her mother was the stern one of the family who even attempted suicide once.

The Disney team are persistent and try to work things out. Walt even offers to take Ms. Travers to Disneyland to lighten her mood. Things improve. The trip to Disneyland improves her embrace of the imagination, albeit slightly. Travers also has an unlikely friendship with Ralph the chauffeur as he tells her his handicapped daughter loves the novel. Things really improve when she walks in and hears George Banks is given a happier manner and has him singing ‘Let’s Go Fly A Kite’ at the end. But just when things seem to be working out, she learns of dancing penguins in a scene. That infuriates Travers to the point she refuses to Walt the film rites and flies back to London.

Once Disney learns that P.L. Travers is actually an Australian names Helen Goff, he departs to London for one last chance. Walt arrives at Travers’ home and opens up to her during his visit. He tells her that he too had a troubling childhood with a stern father and growing up poor. It was through his animation and his happy characters that he was able to heal and he tells Travers that having a creative imagination would also help in her healing of her disappointment with the world. She eventually agrees but she’s not invited to the 1964 premiere for fear of her panning it. Once news hits her, she shows up at Disney studios demanding to be invited. Her reactions at the premiere are unexpected but those of us who’ve seen Mary Poppins would know the movie would have a happy ending.

There have been movies before about the making some of the most famous children’s stories. I even remember seeing Finding Neverland a few years ago. The film of an adaptation of a novel to movie is not something one would call a fresh idea. Nevertheless it is unique this case of adapting the Mary Poppins novel to the big screen.

We should keep in mind that to make a film like this, it would have to be entertaining and keep audiences interested. It succeeds with some surprises. First is the personality of P.L. Travers. It’s funny that we see this uppity personally and we’re left thinking: “Are you sure this prig is the author of Mary Poppins?” Second is Travers’ feelings towards Disney’s style of creativity and how on earth it would ever be adapted. Crazy thing is we all know it was adapted. Even still the film makes you forget that and wonder if it will, even as the Sherman brothers sing the movie’s songs we all know. Third is that the biggest issue wasn’t the depiction of Mary but of George Banks. Travers designed George to be kind like her own father while Walt was in favor of a stern George Banks like his own father. You could understand how this would cause the two to collide.

The movie isn’t just of the dealmaking for the adaptation. The film is also of Travers’ own inspiration of Mary Poppins from her own childhood. We see how over time Travers had a nanny she thought as magical as her father was dying. We also see her father as a banker but one who believed in fantasy and the imagination. Even after he died, the spirit of his imagination lived on in Travers, even as she tended to her younger sisters and dealt with a troubled mother. Many of us are already familiar with Walt Disney and his fun ways. However we learn more of P.L. Travers and of her upbringing and her own imagination. That’s a good thing because I don’t think most of us ever did. None of us ever expected the author of Mary Poppins to be the stern type. However she was one who would try to come to terms with her imagination as noted in a scene where she’s in bed and confides to hugging a stuffed Pluto.

People should not be fooled too easily. There are many people who think this will be a family movie since this is done by Disney and since this a depiction of Walt trying to convince Mary Poppins to agree to let him adapt the novel to screen. However the film’s depiction of Travers’ troubled childhood as Ginty is what keeps it from being family friendly. Elements like an alcoholic father and a suicidal mother are not entirely for a family audience. It may be okay to bring older children to the film but younger ones are not a good idea.

It’s very rare for a female lead to steal a movie from Tom Hanks but Emma Thompson does just that. She was excellent in embodying P.L. Travers as an uptight prig who still harbored a love for the imagination, though only Walt knew it. She also depicted Travers as a person who still struggled with the memory of the father she cherished. We should be reminded that people that produced some of the most delightful entertainment came from troubled childhood, even Walt himself. Tom Hanks delivers a performance that is more a case of character acting than say mastering a difficult part like he did in Captain Phillips. He was very good at capturing Walt’s fun imaginative way of doing business and he made Walt seem like the Wizard Of Oz at times.

Colin Farrell also did a good job as Travers Goff, the father who was troubled by his job but valued his imagination. Paul Giamatti’s role as Ralph the chauffeur was small but he was able to get notice of his own. The other actors with smaller roles, especially those in Walt’s office, added their own pieces and elements to the movie as well. John Lee Hancock did a good job in directing but nothing that really stood out for this film year. Kelly Marcel and Sue Smith do their best in making a story for family audiences with their script. Technical items like the set design and costumes were excellently done in fitting the times they were made in. And Thomas Newman did a great job with the score.

Saving Mr. Banks is a delightful movie despite being too polished and ‘safe’ to excel amongst the top Oscar contenders of the year. It’s biggest success is the acting of its actors and the telling of the story of an author we never new. Even with scenes of the author’s troubled childhood, it succeeds in entertaining young and old.