Review of "The Road"

The Detroit News

The big question with "The Road" is, who will want to travel it?

It is not, you see, a very easy trip. It is a well-made and faithful adaptation of the Cormac McCarthy novel, which only means it's a long slog through hell, lit with little hope and few glints of humor.

Viggo Mortensen stars as the unnamed man in this post-apocalyptic horror tale, directed by John Hillcoat ("The Proposition"). In flashbacks, we see some kind of blinding event decimated life on Earth, and he and his son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) and wife (Charlize Theron) all survived the event, but little else did.

Now the man is on the road with his son, trying to make his way south, hoping there might be more habitable conditions there. But the road is hard -- food is a rarity and bands of cannibals terrorize the countryside, murdering and eating anyone they find. The man and boy trudge forward in rags, past burnt forests and abandoned homes, pushing a shopping cart with all their belongings.

The boy is in a constant state of terror, the man is always on guard. Only rarely can they relax, and never for long.

"The Road" lives and dies with its linear form, although Joe Penhall's adaptation does allow for some fleshed-out flashbacks. Still, this is a film that mostly walks straight ahead, one step at a time, encountering its plot turns in serial form.

Here, the man and boy encounter a group of cannibals. Next they meet a blind preacher (Robert Duvall) -- the boy wants to keep him, sort of as a pet. Then they discover a farm house and its ugly secret. On and on.

The surprising thing is that director Hillcoat manages to present all this in a manner that's interesting and, in its own twisted way, graceful.

"The Road" -- centered by Mortensen's typically physical but tempered performance -- is hard to watch. But it could have been much harder. Hillcoat isn't doing opera here, he's doing tragedy.

When the journey finally ends, for the first time there's some balance of despair and hope. It's a dust mite at the conclusion of a long and frightful journey, but for the first time the possibility of life shines. And it's just enough for the film's salvation.

Review of "The Messenger"

The Detroit News

Taut, fierce and sharpened to a point, "The Messenger" is about the shockwaves and pain, within and without, caused by war.

Featuring potent, Oscar-mention turns from stars Ben Foster and Woody Harrelson, this is a film that looks at what havoc the battlefield wreaks thousands of miles away from any gunfire.

Foster plays tightly wound Staff Sergeant Will Montgomery, recently returned from Iraq, dealing with the aftermath of some injuries, an acknowledged hero. To his surprise, he is assigned the duty of delivering death notices to the survivors of those killed in the war.

Guiding him is Captain Tony Stone (Harrelson). In full-dress uniform, they approach the doors of people whose hearts they are about to break. Stone has all the formalities down -- the clipped consolation, the brevity of stay, the avoidance of painful questions or any emotional involvement. It's all precise, polite and detached.

But try as he might, Montgomery can't quite turn his inner anguish off, so it connects where it shouldn't. This leads him to a relationship with a woman (Samantha Morton, realistically dowdy) after he's delivered the bad news to her.

Director-writer Oren Moverman, co-writing with Alessandro Camon, never plays big here. He's following Montgomery's relationships, and the terrible situations he encounters, and letting that be enough, because it certainly is.

The beauty in Foster's portrayal is that it never completely explodes, but anger and aching seethe behind his eyes. Harrelson, meanwhile, is a good old boy with a bad old job.

With this film, the earlier “The Hurt Locker," and the upcoming "Brothers," it's clear that films about our current wars are not going to go away. And they shouldn't. These are tragedies that can't be denied. And "The Messenger" honors them.

"Precious" review

published Nov. 20, 2009
The Detroit News

With its ungainly title -- "Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire" -- its cast of mostly non-actors and the questionable history of its director (his first and only other film, a wretched mess, never made it to theaters), "Precious" is an undeniable long shot.

But it's the long shot that comes through. As powerful a film as you will see in this or any other year, "Precious" slams you in the chest with its raw but finely balanced portrayal of a teen girl in Harlem whose life is so abusive and dysfunctional that the film can be hard to watch.

If you do watch -- and you certainly should -- you will see one of the most remarkable performances ever set to film, given by Gabourey "Gabby" Sidibe, an untrained novice who nevertheless breathes pain, passion and mountainous strength into the title character, bringing her to life in a way that leaves you aching and torn by the film's end.

Beyond that you will witness one of the most monstrous characters imaginable, Mary, mother of Precious (with the religious irony probably intended), played with mean abandon by the comedian Mo‘Nique. The layers of awfulness Mo'Nique brings to this role go beyond what's scripted (which is plenty); it's the sniveling power with which she believes her own victimization that stuns and shocks, from ugly beginning to end.

Claireece Precious Jones is a 300-pound, 16-year-old girl in '80s Harlem, still in middle school, already the mother of an absent child with Down syndrome, when she finds out she's pregnant again and is consequently kicked out of school.

The father of both children is Precious' own father, a drop-by rapist who leaves her to wait on her obnoxious, abusive, welfare-hooked mother.

While pregnant, Precious begins attending an alternative school where her teacher (Paula Patton) encourages her to emerge from the thick emotional shell Precious has built for protection. As a result, Precious moves forward in life ... but how far forward can she really go?

Director Lee Daniels walks right up to the edge with this film, time and time again, but never goes over. The temptation to give in to sentiment, to easy resolution, to spiritual awakening and all the other standard fare that normally brings down a film like this is resisted.

He gives Precious a dream life, but just enough to make us realize she knows how bad things are. He skirts religion, romance and the classic classroom "Dangerous Minds" moments and simply lets Precious be Precious.

And the film's great wonder is how Sidibe slowly reveals the playful, funny and intelligent girl behind her rock-hard mask. In the beginning, you're appalled by her life; in the end you're still appalled, but you are fully aware of the human being in that big body and the intelligence behind those wary eyes.

By the time Precious and Mary have their final meeting with a social worker (Mariah Carey, unrecognizable and powerfully restrained), the broken child has become determined to overcome. Even if she doesn't stand a chance.

Daniels is a veteran industry maverick who has produced two fine films ("Monster's Ball" and "The Woodsman") and directed one awful one ("Shadowboxer"), and he certainly has a flare for dealing with difficult subject matter.

Again, his sense of balance in this film is near perfect (OK, there may be a few too many classroomy moments). And screenwriter Geoffrey Fletcher, working off Sapphire's popular novel (which he apparently toned down) gave Daniels a fine road map.

Sidibe and Mo'Nique should both be on their way to Oscar nominations. But this is the sort of film that makes awards seem irrelevant.

It reminds you of the power of film, as well as the power -- and the horror -- that resides within the human soul. You don't just see this movie. You carry it with you ever after.

Popular Criticism

Gabby Sidibe Interview

Nov. 17, 2009

The Detroit News

Toronto -- Gabby Sidibe is a most unlikely movie star.

For one thing, she still works a 9-to-5 job as a clerk in New York City.

For another she is a big-boned black woman from Harlem who had never seriously acted in her life -- until she was suddenly the star of perhaps the year's most talked-about film.

That movie would be "Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire." And here Gabby -- her proper name is Gabourey -- sits in a swank hotel in the midst of the Toronto International Film Festival in September promoting the film, which opens Friday.

Last night, she attended an opulent, star-studded party (co-star Mariah Carey, Robert De Niro, singer Mary J. Blige) before going to the film's premiere. The film has gained the backing of both Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry and is considered an awards season frontrunner.

Now it's early the next morning, Gabby's in a chair, a breakfast muffin waiting within reach. With all this exposure, all this hoopla, what are her plans?

"I plan to eat that muffin," she says with a laugh.

No, about acting, about landing more roles in movies.

"I'm trying, but not super-trying," she says.

"I would love to act and I think it's a lot of fun, but I'm not studying it," she says, and laughs again.

In "Precious," Sidibe, 26, plays the title character, a teen girl who is pregnant with her second child by her own father, constantly berated by her monstrous mother (played by Mo'Nique), grossly overweight and socially ostracized.

It's a harrowing role, the sort that might consume some actors. But not the novice Sidibe, who was pushed to audition for it by one of her college instructors.

"It's not like it was me," she says. "Everyone asks what it was like to play this role and if it took such an emotional toll on me, but it didn't. Not that it was a job, but Precious is Precious and I am me, and so I never got those lines crossed."

In fact, crossing those lines, as method actors sometimes do, seems a bit silly to her.

"Those people are crazy. I don't know how they do it. I know some actors are method -- that seems really, really strenuous to me," she says.

"I think Jim Carrey, whenever he's filming a movie, he stays in that character. Really? Was he walking around being the Grinch?

"That's insane! I could never do that, I'm far too lazy," Sidibe says.

While Sidibe doesn't seem lazy at all, she does seem full of humor, upbeat and entirely comfortable in her own skin. All things that Precious isn't. But Sidibe could still relate to the character.

"We're both from Harlem and she reminds me of friends that I've had, growing up," Sidibe says. "We're pretty much from the same cloth."

The key to playing Precious, Sidibe says, was realizing that everything that looks horrible to the audience seems normal for Precious.

"The audience is taking a peek at her life, but to her it's just Tuesday, it's a normal day, it's five o'clock. And so I tried to treat it as such: This is her life," Sidibe says.

"Nothing in my life is such a big deal. I go to an office each day, it's nothing to get super intense about or worried over, because it's a normal day. And so that's the way I kind of tried to treat the things that she goes through," she says.

The result is a powerful portrayal that comes across as startlingly real. If Sidibe doesn't find more roles it will be the world's loss. But for now, she still has her 9-to-5 gig as a clerk. Which she expects to keep.

"To be fair, it's my first film, and it's an independent film -- we mustn't assume that I'm rich," Sidibe says. "I had a job before, I have to continue to have a job. It's not like I'm Mariah, I'm not Mo'Nique. I didn't come to this film with a longstanding career, so I work."

And whatever comes after she eats that muffin will come.

"I don't have any answers," she says with a smile. "I'm just going to ride it. I'm just going to coast."

"Anti-Christ" Review

Nov. 13, 2009

The Detroit News

Self-loathing, mean, ugly and perfectly made, "Antichrist" is probably the best film ever that you'd recommend to absolutely no one.

This is modern high horror, no monsters needed beyond a grieving, nameless couple played by Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg in wrenching, guts-out performances.

As the film opens, their toddler falls from an upstairs window to its death in slow-motion awfulness. The father mourns and then recovers; the mother doesn't, hanging on to her grief and riding it through all manner of psycho-physical reactions.

He, it turns out, is a therapist, and after wrestling with his wife's anguish for months, he decides to take her to a remote cabin where she can learn to face herself.

But the reasons behind her guilt, indeed the seething creature of confusion and hatred behind her mask, are revealed in such an isolated environ. And suddenly the road to mental health becomes horribly twisted.

Danish writer-director-provocateur Lars Trier ("Dogville," "Breaking the Waves") is as masterful a filmmaker as he is apparently a damaged soul. Yes, he gets a bit carried away with symbols and surreal images, and he leaves the viewer hanging in the film's final moment, but this is a European art film, after all.

Make that a European art film with some of the most revolting footage ever shown -- self-mutilation, ingenious torture, panicked intercourse at every turn that itself becomes a form of brutality.

Watching "Antichrist" is an exhausting, blood-draining, disturbing experience, but then that's precisely what it's supposed to be.

It's easier to say this film is great than it is to call it good; indeed, if ever evil saturated the big screen, it is with this movie. Be careful of its fire; it burns.

The End Is Near

Nov. 12, 2009

The Detroit News

The end is near. Literally.

It's in your local bookstore, on DVD rentals, all over television, and it's coming to movie theaters -- first on Friday with the disaster blockbuster "2012" and then on Nov. 25 with the post-apocalyptic film "The Road."

At the same time, Web sites describing end-of-day scenarios, selling survival supplies and offering predictions abound.

Geez, world, worried much? The doomsday concerns that gained momentum in the post-nuclear 1950s seem to be accelerating in the new millennium, reflecting social anxiety possibly hitherto unknown.

"It's always on people's minds, especially now with wars breaking out and the economy the way it is," says Mike Williams, 26, of Novi. "Over the last couple of months, I've been seeing (apocalyptic pop culture) going up and up."

Much of the concern has to do with the date Dec. 21, 2012. That's when the ancient Mayan calendar will conclude, heralding the end of civilization. Or so some contend.

All manner of predictions about what that calendar's ending might mean are floating around, the Mayans never having left any clear instructions. Of course, the specter of Armageddon is nothing new, especially for those who are religious.

Despite the surplus of Internet sites that argue President Barack Obama is the Antichrist, most of the fervor is 2012-driven, although New Age seers, Internet alarmists and some serious folks have differing interpretations of what the end of the Mayan calendar means, if anything.

Lawrence Joseph, author of the best-selling book "Apocalypse 2012: An Investigation into Civilization's End" (Broadway), doesn't know if the end has anything to do with the Mayan calendar, but he does believe a major apocalyptic-type event is coming thanks to a combination of solar blasts and weak spots in Earth's magnetic field that will knock out the national power grid.

"Seriously, this is going to happen in 2012 or early 2013," says Joseph, 55, who has written pieces for the New York Times. "The Mayan prophecy could be all coincidence or some supernatural insight... but it's sort of beside the point right now."

Books like Joseph's, published in 2007, along with current events, have sparked some serious interest among those who want to prepare for The Big One.

"My readership has basically tripled in the last 14 months," says Jim Rawles, host of survivalblog.com, which he says has drawn hundreds of thousands of readers.

"People are rightfully concerned. Anyone who looks at what's going on in the world today, it's a logical reaction," says Rawles, 48, a former Army captain who says he lives "somewhere west of the Rockies," declining to specify where out of fear he'll be overrun by the needy when the end comes.

Others aren't quite as concerned, although they say society's preoccupation with things apocalyptic is telling.

"This is nothing new, it's a cyclical thing that comes and goes," says Gary Baddeley, writer and producer of a video called "2012: Science or Superstition."

"We're in a period where there's a lot of angst, and whenever there's a lot of angst people who want there to be an end to the world glom onto it," says Baddeley, who is based in New York City. "Everything changed on 9/11. It's been a decade of anxiety, and maybe that's what's behind it."

The Rev. Alex Riegel, 46, pastor of Unitarian Universalist Church in Farmington, plans to offer a class on the 2012 phenomenon Nov. 19. He argues that the doomsday preoccupation reflects a need for meaning in life.

"We just have this sense that we've been thrown into the universe without any control of the matter," he says. "We have this drive to find meaning, and the meaning of our lives is very significant if you're living in the end of times."

On the other hand, Riegel says, "The things we have to latch on to now are more menacing. It just takes one push of the button and you could probably destroy the whole planet. We've had to come to terms with the very real potential of the annihilation of the species."

That potential first struck mankind after Hiroshima, and popular culture has been filled with apocalyptic visions ever since, says Gary Hoppenstand, a professor of American studies at Michigan State University.

And the fear of self-destruction has only grown over the years. India and Pakistan are neighboring nuclear powers caught up in constant bickering, while Iran and North Korea seem on the verge of building nuclear weapons.

From "On the Beach" (1959) to "Planet of the Apes" (1968) to the "Road Warrior" (1979-1985) and the "Terminator" (1984-2009) series, post-apocalyptic stories have become familiar fare.

"This is not entirely pessimistic," Hoppenstand says. "Part of the fabric of this kind of story is looking at the survivors and finding hope in a post-apocalyptic world. That's the appeal of it."

And sometimes, films such as "2012" serve a purpose.

"It's sort of the cathartic function of horror films," Hoppenstand says. "You see all this terrible stuff and yet the movie ends and you walk out of the theater. There's been sort of a cathartic purging of those feelings."

But such relief may be fleeting.

"The reality is, it could happen any minute -- that's the part where you're not totally paranoid so they can't commit you," says C.J. Harrison, 59, a psychologist from Grosse Pointe Shores.

Harrison has been counseling laid-off workers lately, and she sees the distraction that doomsday theories offer.

"Whenever you have people with a vast sense of powerlessness, you have superstition," she says. "It's a lot easier to focus on that kind of big stuff than the everyday, mundane chore of being a human being."

Indeed, it may be easier to face the end of the world that's coming tomorrow than the bad news of today.

"Life is not usual. It's very unusual for some people right now," Harrison says. "It's easier to go to the end of days."