His name is "Mud"

I often think of Matthew McConaughey as a doofy, fun loving pretty boy. Historically, he hasn't been known for serious roles. Of course, after "Dallas Buyers Club", that all changed. Before that film, however, his serious side came out in the indie film "Mud".

Playing a seemingly not-quite-safe drifter, he befriends two local mischievous kids in a small Arkansas town. The boys Ellis and "Neckbone", after taking a joyride on one of their father's boat to a nearby island, find a boat lodged high up in a tree. After exploring the boat, they find that someone has been living in it. Enter Mud, the hopelessly lovesick drifter who is in search of Juniper, the love of his life. Of course, with any love story, there's a soap opera drama backstory.

Mud has a relentless love for Juniper, despite her ambivalent feelings toward him. He believes that if he works hard enough, he can win her heart, even though she has rejected him in the past. His passionate love blocks out the past and current reality, and creates for himself an ideal future with him and Juniper together. As the person of his love, Juniper isn't exactly ideal. Sure, she's attractive, but her poor decisions have put her in harms way before, and her flight from Mud, who vows to take care of her, has caused her much pain and anguish.

There's no grand scheme or huge message in the film. It's a fairly simple love story between two small town people, which the film does a good job of portraying. Reese Witherspoon, who plays Juniper, does an amazing job playing a woman who is broken but wants some element of excitement and danger in her man. This adds some great tension between herself and Mud. The coming of age sub-plot that Ellis goes through adds very well to the story arc of the film, as his pursuit of an older girl slightly mirrors the rejection that Mud goes through with Juniper.

Sometimes in love, our name also is Mud.

"Maleficent" is Magnificant!

Disney's new take on "Sleeping Beauty", "Maleficent", is a fresh look at a formulaic tale. Taking many of the themes from the cartoon of yesteryear, it seemed to jump out in live action straight from the source material. Angelina Jolie did well as the title character, as well as the three actors that played the three god-fairies (if a little annoying, at least true to their bumbling nature in the cartoon).

However, instead of taking a good vs. evil approach. the story was turned on it's head. The evil sorceress was not, in fact, inherently bad. She had a back story, and the real villain was King Stephan. Or so at first. Enraged by his betrayal, Maleficent curses his child, a scene straight from the original. Although a Disney film, the script does a good job of balancing her motivation for revenge with the injustice done to her. Although we the audience know she has gone too far, we understand where she's coming from and root for her to make the right choice. I won't tell you how it ends, but it's definitely a classic Disney ending. A small criticism, though, is that I could have done without the narration throughout the film, giving unhelpful commentary.

This new direction from a company that has become known for formulaic film making is a welcome change to the industry. Hopefully other films will follow suit, and we'll have good family films that delve into the human experience, rather than dichotomizing characters into their typical stereotypes. Perhaps a bit of Pixar magic has rubbed off on Disney, as their films tend to be more subtle in their depiction of good and evil (or at least providing better backstories to why the villains are so bad). Also, I was really impressed with the special effects- they were extremely well done, and added to the story rather than driving the story. Use of CG should always do this, and I'm glad that emphasis was on emotions, motivations, and unfolding of the plot rather than some "Avatar" like world where the scenery was more exciting than what the main characters were doing on screen.

It’s a Hard Knock Life for these “Freedom Writers”

Any film about the struggles of inner-city high school students belongs in a redemption-themed blog. The problems these kids face are mind blowing. Death, abuse, abandonment- it’s the world they live in. As someone who doesn’t relate to that world, “Freedom Writers” helped to close the gap for me. Based on a true story about newbie teacher Erin Gruwell, the film opens with her idealistic expectations of “helping kids succeed.” Her first few weeks on the job, however, show her that her job won’t be easy. Just as she’s about to give up, a racist drawing by one of her students gives her an idea. Teaching them about the Holocaust, the students start to understand the implications of their lifestyles. Her next step is to have them journal as an ungraded assignment. Erin starts to learn what life is like for these kids.

There are many examples of redemption in this film. Erin’s devotion to helping her students succeed is perhaps the biggest example. She gets two part time jobs to help pay for field trips. Her marriage suffers. She’s opposed at work. However, nothing stops her quest to fight for her students.

This is all very heartwarming when coming from a Hollywood film. If the film is really based on a true story, then Erin’s commitment to her job of helping her students succeed is nothing short of unbelievable. She sacrifices her personal life, loses her marriage, and risks her career for inner-city kids who hate her. The costs are high, but so are the stakes. It’s not like Erin wanted to lose her free time, husband, and acceptance by her teacher peers- she had a mission and she was true to what she knew she wanted to do. Her biggest loss, her husband, was heartbreaking to watch. Losing one’s spouse because of ambitions is a bitter pill to swallow, and the film did a good job of portraying it as the unfortunate loss that it was. Still, Erin continues on.

Not many would go so far.

There’s Only Two Kinds: “The Quick and the Dead”

The highly stylized “The Quick and the Dead”, directed by Sam Raimi, is not your typical Western. All the ingredients are there, but there’s a feeling that the film is just a little left off center. It’s this slightly quirky feeling that Raimi loves to play with in the film. The quick draws are fast, the bullets leave holes that sunlight squints through (yes, even through a poor slow gunman’s body), and the main character is mysterious. There are two main plots: one involving the mysterious appearance of the vengeful “Lady”, and the other involving the antagonistic relationship between the town’s evil leader Herod (played by the entertaining Gene Hackman) and his former gun Cort (played by a talented young Russell Crowe), who is now a reformed preacher.

The avenger “Lady” story arc is fairly predictable and understandable. It’s the Herod vs. Cort story that is the most interesting. As gunmen duel it out and the field is weeded of the slow shooters, Cort’s story is slowly revealed. Despite the challenges that Herod forces on him, Cort survives- and not by luck. It seems that Cort really has an exceptionally quick draw, a worthy match for Herod’s ability with the gun as well. Cort is a master of his former trade. He doesn’t have a gun, as he’s given up the life of an outlaw. No matter, Herod provides him one. The rusty, cockeyed piece of junk he’s given is a sure sign that Cort is done for. He refuses to use it. However, when the time comes and the clock strikes “high noon,” instinct takes over and he uses the inferior gun to win each duel.

The entire time, Herod throws all kinds of verbal abuse at Cort, attacking his character and gunmanship. Cort looks beat down, but after all is said and done he lives to fight another day. It’s really remarkable how he knows how to handle guns so well it doesn’t matter what he’s got in his hands- they are used to perfection. I won’t give away the end of the movie, but Cort is surprised when he finds redemption, a redemption he didn’t think he deserved or would get.

Riddick Sees the Light in “Pitch Black”- Spoiler!

It’s ironic that the beginning of “Pitch Black” starts with a spaceship marooned on a planet with 3 suns. Stuck in a place with a seemingly endless day, the survivors must figure out how to escape, and deal with hardened murderer Riddick. This might have made an interesting film all in itself, but when the suns do set, creatures emerge who are more bloodthirsty than our anti-hero who can see in the dark, and the dynamic changes. Suddenly, a man who has survived the harshest of conditions is pitted against the harshest of predators.

Riddick, motivated by the promise of freedom, does what he can to help the survivors escape the planet. Of course, he’s not without his agenda of getting rid of the bounty hunter Johns that had captured him and who was transporting him to “the slam.” After Johns is taken care of, Riddick heroically brings the few remaining survivors and fuel cells to the ship that was left by previous settlers. The ending scene of the film transforms Riddick’s life forever.

The pilot Fry has just gone back out into the dark to rescue Riddick after he has been fighting for his life. Bloodied, Riddick can hardly stand. Fry supports him and starts taking him back to the ship. She tells him that, “I said I’d die for them, not you.” Moments later she’s taken by one of the creatures. She dies to save Riddick, a man seemingly unworthy of such a sacrifice to everyone who’s ever met him as well as himself. His cries of, “Not for me!” are met by the pitch black of the cold, wet night. He understands the cost that was paid for his life, and it’s a cost he never asked for or expected. She didn’t have to go back for him. She could have left him there to die.

When they are safe in space, the child Jackie asks what they plan to say about him when they are found. Riddick replies with the most truthful answer that he can.

“Tell them Riddick’s dead. He died somewhere on that planet.”

Life’s a Mess in “Broken Flowers”- Spoiler!

If you’ve seen “Broken Flowers,” you may be surprised that it’s in a blog like this. “But nothing happens in the film!” you may complain.

That’s exactly the point.

Don Johnston, played to perfection by Bill Murray, is a life-long bachelor in search of the mother of a son he may have fathered. Reluctantly scouring America, he ends up home without answers (By the way, I’ve just given the movie away in two sentences.). The ex-girlfriends he meets are each quirky in their own way; each is a piece of his past one hopes would be in a mix of women loved and left by Don “Juan” Johnston. It’s a film that says much more than I can hope to understand and dissect. It ends as it begins- with nothing resolved.

We've come to expect in our films neat, tidy plots that start at the beginning and end with some sort of cathartic resolution. We want to see the main character save someone, fix wrongs, etc. Don tries. He really does, in his own plodding way. He even runs into a boy around “his” son’s age and tries to find out if he is in fact the son looking for him. The young man is understandably creeped out and high tails it before Don can get any sort of explanation. The spinning camera shot around Don is representative of the confused turmoil going on inside his head. Life is not always explained. Life isn’t a neat little movie with a beginning, middle, and end that has a rising plot and is resolved in the last five minutes. Life is messy, and this is a film about life.

However messy the film leaves us feeling, it’s a beautiful mess worth at least a little introspection. After all, what would you do if you couldn’t resolve a major life circumstance? Don wrestles with just that. The film isn't preachy about the answer, it doesn’t moralize anything for us. It simply asks.

Sometimes that’s the only thing we can do, to ask as the world spins on, with or without answers to those questions.

Heading “Into the Wild”

Sean Penn’s “Into the Wild”, based on the life of Christopher McCandless, is a film not to be missed. It tells the story of a successful young man (by American standards); an accomplished athlete and college graduate with money in the bank. Instead of living the life that so many in his position have lived, he leaves it all in search of something better. His search is a personal journey that takes him across America, and ultimately up to the Alaskan wilderness. His goal to simplify life, to get back to the basics is something those he meets in his wanderings don’t quite understand. Undeterred by their disbelief, he forges on.

I won’t give away the ending, even though you’ve probably heard it already. As he sits in an abandoned bus, he journals his thoughts on the meaning of his life; what is important to him. In his solitude from everyone he’s ever known, he comes to a profound conclusion. His journey was inward, an attempt to separate himself from others. Alone and hurting, he realizes that what he really needed all along was to be a part of community.

I wonder how many drifters have come to this conclusion. Alone on the road, I wonder how many of them realize that the times they were happiest was when they were with family or friends. Perhaps they’re drifting because they haven’t experienced healthy community, and are searching for something they know they want but not what. I wonder how many of us are on that search, trying to find that missing piece that we’re looking for.