Mud

Movies to See Right Now

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Maika Monroe and Zac Efron in AT ANY PRICE

At Any Price is a thought-provoking psychological drama and a rare glimpse into modern corporate agriculture.   The Reluctant Fundamentalist offers a compelling performance by Riz Ahmed and a thriller ending, but holes in the story and the miscasting of Kate Hudson dim the effect.  Kon-Tiki is a faithful, but underwhelming account of a true life 5,000 mile raft trip across the Pacific.  The French In the House is clever, darkly funny and slightly creepy.

The best film in theaters now is the gripping and thoughtful Mud. Two Arkansas boys embark on a secret adventure with a man hiding from the authorities, and they learn more than they expected about love and loyalty. Mud is one of the best movies of 2013.

If you see the thought-provoking drama The Place Beyond the Pines with Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper, you’ll still be mulling it over days later.  I guarantee that you will enjoy the absolutely winning The Sapphires, a charmer about Australian Aboriginal teens forming a girl group to entertain troops in the Vietnam War.  Don’t overlook the heartwarming British indie The Angel’s Share about a hard luck guy’s struggle to turn his life around with unexpected help from some ultra-rare Scotch whisky.

The compelling documentary The Central Park Five from Ken Burns, et al, is available streaming from Amazon Instant and other VOD providers. Football fans should tune into ESPN’s 30 for 30 for Elway to Marino, an inside look at several astonishing stories from the 1983 NFL draft.

The dreadful-looking The Great Gatsby is opening this weekend.  You can read descriptions and view trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

My DVD/Stream of the Week is Shotgun Stories, the first triumph by Mud writer-director Jeff Nichols and the breakthrough film for actor Michael Shannon.  Shotgun Stories is available on DVD from Netflix and streaming from Netflix and iTunes.

On May 14, Turner Classic Movies will be broadcasting the 1947 film noir Kiss of Death, which introduced Richard Widmark as one of the most unforgettable screen villains – a nutty thug named Tommy Udo who chortles maniacally as he pushes an old lady in a wheelchair down the stairs to her demise.

DVD/Stream of the Week: Shotgun Stories

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SHOTGUN STORIES

I am celebrating Mud this week by recommending writer-director Jeff Nichols’ Shotgun Stories.  Nichols followed Shotgun Stories with Take Shelter and now Mud, which together constitute his “Arkansas Trilogy”.  Shotgun Stories was also the breakout film for Nichols’ favorite leading man, Michael Shannon, who has since gone on to Boardwalk Empire, next week’s The Ice Man and the upcoming blockbuster Man of Steel.

Shotgun Stories opens with three brothers finding about the death of their no good father.  He had abandoned them and their mother in poverty – and was such an indifferent father that he named his children Son, Boy and Kid.  After walking away from his family, he found religion and started another, more prosperous, family with another set of three sons.  The three older sons crash the funeral to express their bitterness, and it becomes clear that the two sets of brothers are headed for a clash.

Shannon plays the oldest brother, who has been forged into stony strength and determination by deprivation and long-smoldering resentment.  Nichols uses that resentment to light a fuse that burns fitfully but inexorably for most of Shotgun Stories’ 92 minutes.

Shotgun Stories ranked #7 on my Best Movies of 2007.  Shotgun Stories is available on DVD from Netflix and streaming from Netflix and iTunes.

 

Movies to See Right Now

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MUD

Go see the gripping and thoughtful Mud.  Two Arkansas boys embark on a secret adventure with a man hiding from the authorities, and they learn more than they expected about love and loyalty.   Mud is one of the best movies of 2013.

Best bets in theaters this week:

      • If you see the thought-provoking drama The Place Beyond the Pines with Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper, you’ll still be mulling it over days later;
      • I guarantee that you will enjoy the absolutely winning The Sapphires, a charmer about Australian Aboriginal teens forming a girl group to entertain troops in the Vietnam War.
      • Don’t overlook the heartwarming British indie The Angel’s Share about a hard luck guy’s struggle to turn his life around with unexpected help from some ultra-rare Scotch whisky.  

The compelling documentary The Central Park Five from Ken Burns, et al, is available streaming from Amazon Instant and other VOD providers. Football fans should tune into ESPN’s 30 for 30 for Elway to Marino, an inside look at several astonishing stories from the 1983 NFL draft.

There are two big releases this weekend:  The Reluctant Fundamentalist and At Any Price.   You can read descriptions and view trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

My DVD/Stream of the Week is Flight, starring Denzel Washington as an airline pilot who becomes a hero after saving his passengers in a miraculous crash landing, but then risks legal jeopardy unless he can get his drinking under control. Flight is available on DVD from Netflix and Redbox and streaming from many VOD outlets.

On May 7, Turner Classic Movies will be broadcasting the three film noir classics: Out of the Past, The Asphalt Jungle and The Naked City.

Mud: a big dose of realism about love

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MUD

In the brilliant drama Mud, two Arkansas boys venture onto a river island and discover a man named Mud (Michael McConaughey) hiding from the authorities.  Ellis (Tye Sheridan of The Tree of Life) is a hopeless romantic, consumed by an ideal view of love.  His more hard-eyed buddy Neckbone (Jacob Lofland) is on the outlook for cool stuff.  Both are ready for the excitement of a secret adventure.

Mud is another triumph for writer-director Jeff Nichols (Shotgun Stories, Take Shelter).  The story has aspects of a boyhood adventure and of an escape thriller which hook the audience.  But Mud is, at its heart, a coming of age story in which Ellis (primarily) gets a big dose of realism about love and human constancy.

Neckbone doesn’t have many illusions about human nature.  His parents aren’t in the picture, and he lives with his wacky uncle Galen (Michael Shannon) in a trailer.  Neckbone has a knack for immediately getting to the core of situation by bargaining an errand for a pistol or asking “Didja feel her titties?”.

A step down from Neckbone’s trailer lifestyle, Ellis lives on a floating shack tied to the riverbank.  His parents are together, but, it seems, not for long.  Somehow, Ellis believes in an ideal and forever love.  There are many relationships for Ellis to observe:  his parents’ troubled journey, the sacrifices Mud makes for his lover (Reese Witherspoon), the mysterious relationship between Mud and another houseboat dweller (Sam Shepherd), a rich man’s (Joe Don Baker) own obsession with his sons, his partnership with Neckbone and Ellis’ own first foray into dating.  It’s all a bigger mouthful than Ellis was expecting.

The two kid actors are great.  So are McConaughey, Shepherd,  Witherspoon, Baker and Nichol’s favorite actor, Shannon.  Mud primarily succeeds because Nichols has created compelling characters and woven a top-rate story, both gripping and thoughtful.  Mud is one of the best movies of 2013.

Movies to See Right Now

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Bradley Cooper in THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES

Best bets in theaters this week:

  • If you see the thought-provoking drama The Place Beyond the Pines with Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper, you’ll still be mulling it over days later;
  • I guarantee that you will enjoy the absolutely winning The Sapphires, a charmer about Australian Aboriginal teens forming a girl group to entertain troops in the Vietnam War.
  • Read my ambivalent comments before going to see the enigmatic Upstream Color.

I haven’t yet seen (but I’ve been eagerly awaiting) the drama Mud, with Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Sam Shepherd, Michael Shannon and the kid from The Tree of Life.  You can read descriptions and view trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

PBS is broadcasting the compelling doumentary The Central Park Five from Ken Burns, et al.  It’s also available streaming from Amazon Instant and other VOD providers.

On the Road is the faithful but ultimately unsuccessful adaptation of the seminal Jack Kerouac novel, with surprisingly little energy.  I’m not a big fan of the shaky cam noir Sun Don’t Shine from promising indie director Amy Seimetz, available from various VOD outlets.

My DVD/Stream of the Week is the authentic and evocative coming of age movie The Perks of Being a Wallflower.  It’s available on DVD from Netflix and Redbox and streaming from Amazon, iTunes and other VOD providers.

On April 30, Turner Classic Movies will be broadcasting the oft overlooked film noir The Prowler, starring usually sympathetic good guy Van Heflin as the twisted bad guy.

Whither Reese Witherspoon

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Reese Witherspoon winning an Oscar in WALK THE LINE

After the very brief February appearance of the universally panned This Means War, Brooke Barnes wrote in the New York Times:  “Hollywood keeps trying to turn Reese Witherspoon into a Sandra Bullock or Julia Roberts for a new generation. A new generation keeps refusing to take the memo.”

It’s a good point.  Starting in 1998, Witherspoon acted in a string of smart, high quality movies, most notably Pleasantville,  Election and American Psycho, culminating in an Oscar for 2005’s Walk the Line.  The operative word is “smart”, and even in the popular hit Legally Blonde, Witherspoon played a smart woman who was only acting like a ditz.

But since then she’s been plugged into popular crap like How Do You Know and This Means War, with very little artistic or commercial success.

Happily, I see that Reese Witherspoon is taking on what look to be some high quality projects.  She’ll be starring with Michael Shannon in the film Mud, by writer director Jeff Gordon (Shotgun Stories, Take Shelter).

She’ll also be acting with Colin Firth in Devil’s Knot, Atom Egoyan’s (Exotica, The Sweet Hereafter) version of the Robin Hood Hills murders and witch hunt, the subject of the three Paradise Lost documentaries.

And she’ll star in Big Eyes, writer Scott Alexander’s (The People vs Larry Flynt, Man on the Moon) screenplay for bio of the artist Margaret Keane, whose husband claimed credit for her works.

The common thread here for Witherspoon is avoiding Hollywood fluff to work with top quality filmmakers.  At last, good for her.