Is it wrong to lump three heavy-hitter Oscar-courting films into the same review? Maybe so, and especially since “Big Short” and “Carol” could easily be nominated for Best Picture come Thursday, but the truth of the matter is that I just didn’t love them as much as I wanted to, and I couldn’t get excited enough to do separate reviews for all three of these. Especially when things are about to get a little more interesting around here…stay tuned in the coming week for why that is…
Carol…A movie that is getting absolutely rave reviews from other critics (Owen Gleiberman, formerly of EW and perhaps the best movie critic alive in my opinion said it was the Best Film of 2015) and yet…I’m not even sure I could sit through it a second time. “Carol” is well-made, well-acted, and the production quality and aesthetic will enthrall former “Mad Men” viewers who miss the show’s early seasons, but there’s just something missing right at the center of the film, somewhere about where the heart should be. The detractors who’ve called the film “cold” may be on to something, but to me there’s a sleepiness that it never fully shakes off, and a semi-static quality. This is a problem Todd Haynes—who made a superior movie about forbidden 1950’s love in “Far From Heaven”—sometimes runs into, but the problem is that Carol (Cate Blanchett) and Teresa (Rooney Mara) don’t really draw you into their complicated romance. And I hate to say it, but Blanchett’s worldly older woman’s interest in Mara’s painfully shy, baby-bird vulnerable shopgirl never seems like anything but sex. If Blanchett’s character had been a man, their May/December pairing probably would have been scolded by a lot of the same bloggers currently praising “Carol.” Grade: B
The Big Short…A movie I wanted to like more than I did, but it still does a noble job of explaining the housing bubble and subsequent recession. A good follow-up movie to watch after this would be the HBO TV movie “Too Big to Fail” which picks up pretty much where this movie ends. And it’s good to see the beginning of this story for once which proves that it was obvious the housing bubble was coming to any financial whiz that wanted to pay attention, “wanted” being the key word.
There’s a great financial detective aspect as some of the “good guy” investors travel to Miami and get to the bottom of empty subdivisions, NINJA loans, and morally dubious loan managers. Plus, Ryan Gosling is clearly savoring the best part he’s had in years and zeroes-in on the likably obnoxious alpha-dog persona he cultivated in “Crazy Stupid Love” except this character is even more perceptive of other people’s shortcomings. So why did it just barely miss the “Top Twenty” movies I’d seen last year?
Some of the “tricks” to grab our attention—the restless direction, the cutaways, the over-explaining—actually make the film harder to follow, particularly the part where Margo Robbie in a bath tub explains…something. [The sequence is more off-putting in its exaggerated “fuck you, I’m rich” attitude than the makers realize. Although Anthony Bourdain’s explanation of loan bundling later on is much better.] And Steve Carell’s “moralistic” character is so relentlessly disgusted at it all that it’s practically clobbering us over the head with how we should feel. If the film had dialed down the aggressiveness just a little bit, the movie might have had more a chance to breathe. Grade: B+
Concussion…It feels almost obscene to rate “Concussion” higher than “The Big Short” or “Carol” but if you enjoy one movie over another…you still might be wrong, but “Concussion” is still a good movie about the evils of the NFL. Sure, the subplot with Will Smith’s wooing of Gugu Raw (his character’s eventual wife) feels unnecessary or at least too long—and the church asking him to let her live with him, nudge, nudge, wink, wink, also feels a little…let’s say “overreaching” instead of creepy—but Smith holds the moral center of the movie as a doctor who doesn’t want to be right, but is. Then there’s an ace supporting cast that includes a wide-awake Alec Baldwin, Paul Reiser (in his first antagonist role), Luke Wilson, and the always great Albert Brooks. Still, the best individual supporting performance may come from David Morse as a heartbreaking former footballer whose life is ruined by the disease he doesn’t even know he has. As a call to action, this film may very well change the conversation from “who cares?” to “why don’t we care?” Grade: A-
The Big Short and Carol are must sees for everyone!