Boy Erased: Sometimes Brutally Honest Film on an Important Topic

Movie Review: Boy Erased (2018)
Version: Library Blu-Ray borrow

Boy Erased features a fine cast (Lucas Hedges, Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe, Joel Edgerton) in a sometimes brutally honest memoir of a late-teen's experience with gay conversion therapy imposed by his willful dogmatic preacher-father. Includes a particularly savage rape scene, so this may not be a film for young viewers.

One of the positives about this film is that it doesn't resort to the typical gay stereotypes to portray the main character Jared's fellow therapy subjects. They come off as teens who happen to be gay and we can focus on their struggles instead of the often groan-able stereotypes. One of the negatives is that in not employing at least a couple of stereotypes is that the characters are one dimensional and in some ways seem unrealistic. Where the film may overplay its hand in use of stereotypes is in portraying the southern Baptist fundamentalists who run the therapy camp. In doing so, they risk making the characters look too dark, too evil, and too fit-to-form to be believable.

This is a memoir, so these characters may very well be as written, but all too often we get the feeling artist's license gives free rein to embellishment and the viewer's willful suspension of disbelief takes a hit. I got the feeling that was true here. Another nit was that most of the gay characters were male. There was one lesbian in the therapy class of a dozen or so boys. That seemed strange. Later, the lesbian was seen with a study group of other girls, presumably other lesbians at the center. None of this was addressed in the story. She seemed out place, didn't seem to have a real role.

It was a great story, well written and nicely paced. Definitely a social consciousness story that examined a lot of important sexual-orientation, parental-awareness, and religious-tolerance issues that didn't get bogged down in trying to play nice but focused on telling an important story.

Lady Bird: Coming of Age? Human Interest? Or Just a Great Family Film?

Movie Review: Lady Bird (2017)
Version: Library borrow

Lady Bird is an exceptional film with great acting and a fine script. It has the feel of an independent film in which the characters are finely crafted over a deeply woven story. There are many emotional tugs among the many important characters, although Lady Bird is the main character and her main foil is her mother, Marion. So this is bumpy ride from many perspectives. But don't be fooled, Lady Bird isn't a tragedy, it has a happy ending.

The story is about a high school senior in a lower middle class family who yearns for a better, more glamorous life. Her name is Christine but she demands to be called Lady Bird. She is forced to attend a Catholic school but she deeply resents it. Her mother wants her to apply to in-state colleges but she wants attend East Coast Ivy League schools. She all but abandons her lifelong best friend for a shallow rich girl, even pretending to live in a home she has always dreamed was her home to garner acceptance. When she falls head-over-heels in love with Danny O'Neill, she is shocked to find out he is gay, and abandons him for a heart throb who turns out to be nothing like she expects. And then there's Lady Bird's family. Her mother is constantly on her case about achieving more and making better life choices. Her father is on her side, her only real anchor, but her mother berates their relationship. All comes crashing down around Lady Bird as she is forced to make the most important decisions in her life.

This is really a coming of age story, and it's played with great earnest by Saoirse Ronan as Lady Bird McPherson. She shows uncertainty and angst, engaging in mischief with ease. Then there's Marion, the embattled mother who takes on the world and the unruly daughter like a real trooper, played by Laurie Metcalf. Few play the irritable, force-of-nature mother like Metcalf. Bayne Gibby is adorable as best friend Casey and Lucas Hedges is interesting as the misunderstood gay Danny. Tracy Letts warms you over as the protective father, Larry. It's a great ensemble cast.

You might think this is a "girl's night out" movie, but it's really a great human interest movie about people who dream of living beyond their limited circumstances and the battle between generations. It would be easy to recast Lady Bird as a guy, changing the character's name, of course, and see the drama play out similarly. As such, this is a drama that families in general can relate to, and I recommend it for anyone with growing teens.

Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri: Bold, Deep, and Dark. But See It!

Movie Review: Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)
Version: Library borrow

It's bold, it's deep, and it's dark. That's Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri, the story of about Mildred Hayes, a mother so obsessed by grief with the unsolved brutal death of her daughter, she will go to any length to resolve it. But it's not the only thing she is obsessed over.

Mildred is driven to avenge any slight, any abuse, anyone who gets in her way, including the local police. Months have passed since the murder and no one has been arrested. Mildred decides it's time to motivate the police to take action, so she buys three billboards near town to shame them to do more. But her action sets into motion a series of actions by others that sets the town afire. What ensues is a set of one-up battles between Mildred and many of the town's most notable figures. Caught in the middle are her son, still grieving the loss of his sister, the owner of the ad agency Mildred hired to put up the billboards, Mildred's boss, and the town's sheriff, who is dying of pancreatic cancer. Few are left unscathed.

This is an amazing film. Amazing for its brutality, for one thing -- this isn't a film for youngsters! Amazing for its language -- this isn't a film for the language sensitive. Amazing for the depth of characters. Amazing for its depth of plot and conflict. With the cast, I doubt I need to tell you, it's also amazing for its acting.

Mildred is played by Oscar winner Frances McDormand, who won the award again in 2018 for this very role. She displays such resilience as an abuse survivor and the grieving mother of a raped-while-dying daughter with whom the night before her death she'd had an ugly fight, yet someone who is steel-strong in a battle to the end to avenge all wrongs. Sheriff Willoughby is played by Oscar nominee Woody Harrelson. He often plays villains or troubled characters, but in Three Billboards he puts in a fine performance as a sympathetic sheriff sorry that he's unable to catch the bad guy yet the target of the billboards. Character actor Sam Rockwell won the 2018 Oscar for his portrayal of deputy Dixon, who is an uneducated bigot and after-work drunk that terrorizes the town but in the end learns to soften his heart. Lucas Hedges plays Mildred's son Robbie, who pays for Mildred's acts of anger by the actions of others in the community and by having to face the billboards, which stand along the road outside their home. Peter Dinklage has a minor part as James, who witnesses a lot of the destructive things Mildred does in retaliation but has a soft spot in his heart for her, protecting her from the consequences. In all, this is an exceptional cast playing out an exceptional script with a well laid out plot with so much conflict and action, there's barely room for resolution. In fact, by the end of the film, you're going to want a sequel to see how the story actually ends. Don't say I didn't warn you!

If it weren't for all the conflict and action, I would tell you this is a deeply character-driven film. But in the end, the conflict and plot win out over characterization, as strong as character development is. And the strongest character by far is Mildred, who won't take no for an answer and won't let any attack go unanswered. There's a restaurant scene in which Mildred's abusive ex-husband walks up to taunt her for dating James, who is a dwarf. He really lays it on heavy. Then Mildred and James have a fight and James tells her off and leaves. Mildred has had it with her husband, who is sitting at a table with his 19 year old girl friend, and she grabs the left over bottle of wine from her own table holding the bottle like a club and you swear she's going to swipe that across her husband's ugly smirking face -- and he looks like he thinks so, too, as she walks up. But Mildred tells her husband to take care of the girl (you can see in her eyes she is thinking, "like you didn't take care of me or our daughter") and sets the bottle on the table as a gift. It's a wonderfully dramatic yet sensitive scene, considering all that we have seen earlier in the film.

For all the violence and conflict in the film, the characters soften and begin to regret their actions. And you are left wondering how this will all resolve itself. In a sense, this is a story about redemption and the two characters most in need of redemption -- Mildred and Dixon -- ride off seeking revenge yet ponder if that will really come in the end. 

In addition to the two acting Oscar awards, Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri was nominated for a host or other Oscars: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Harrelson), Best Original Score, Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing. It deserved every one of those nominations. I'm not a fan of gratuitous foul language (there's plenty of that here) or gratuitous violence (there was a ton of violence), but I am a fan of films of depth and Three Billboards had plenty of that. If you can take the violence and language, by all means see this film!

Manchester by the Sea: Mostly Deep Valleys of Emotion

Movie Review: Manchester by the Sea (2016)
Version: Library Borrow

Manchester by the Sea won Academy Award(R) Oscars for Casey Affleck as Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay for Kenneth Lonergran. That's the best I can say for it. Sorry.

Affleck plays Lee Chandler, a down and out maintenance man at an apartment building in the rougher side of Boston. He mostly plays opposite Lucas Hedges as teenager Patrick, Lee's orphaned nephew who is left without family when his father suddenly dies. Patrick is left with his father's home and professional fishing launch in Manchester By The Sea, an hour or so up the coast from Boston, and Patrick's father has left young Patrick's care to Lee in his will. Lee isn't prepared to take on that responsibility.

Lee is full on adult angst, Patrick is full of teen angst. You find out during the long slough that is this 2 hours and 17 minutes of film that there are deep holes in Lee's life and why he isn't prepared to take on the stewardship of Patrick's life. Patrick is ready to take on life on his own terms, but what he really wants is family love and to not be left behind.

I watched the entire film looking for a reason for Casey Affleck to win Oscar for this role, but to me his performance was wooden, his emotional journey was understated. Dozens of other actors could have played Lee Chandler better. Kenneth Lonergran also directed the film. It was long, dragging for most of the film time. I don't see how it was Oscar worthy. There really was no sentimentality to the story, at least as demonstrated in the movie. It was as bleak as the Boston neighborhood in which part of it was shot. There were few rises in the drama, few peaks in the action. It was mostly deep valleys of emotion, a dark and depressing film in my eyes.

I don't like writing reviews of poor performances. But to be true to my readers, I have to tell it like it is. Maybe seeing Manchester by the Sea you will disagree with me. Let me know. Maybe I missed something. As I see it, I can't recommend this movie.