scottmontreal

2015 has been a very good year for movies, and Macbeth was one of the top two, along with Chi-Raq. Both are visual and aural stunning master works.

If you can, see Macbeth on the big screen with a good sound system. Your DVD/Netflix/TV won't capture the phenomenal film-making. But if you have to watch it at home, pipe the sound through your best speakers.

What so impressed me about Macbeth, was they took it out from the stage and threw it like a witches's brew into the dank winds, slush and fogs of the surreal Scottish highlands.

That location - a mixture of red shadows and heavy clouds was integral to the cinematic experience. In a cinema age where special effects are so dominant, this felt natural while at the same time - consuming.

Remember, this movie is done by Australians, and they seem to exalt the environment and find the mysterious forces within it to advance the story.

Also fantastic for the live cinema experience was the sound-scape of the highland winds, feet tromping through dirt and sod, the supernatural spirits, the hollow states room.

The acting and the pacing were terse and unrelenting. The aspirations, plots, folly, madness and murder! made sense. (Although I confess to reading the French subtitles when I got lost in the Scottish bough).

This is one of Shakespeare's most read or staged plays, and perhaps one of the best modern cinema renditions.

Surprisingly exciting film of a... writer! Brian Cranston who I am not very familiar with, was excellent. The directing sparkled, but what would you expect from the Jay Roach who also made "Austin Powers".

I learnt a lot about Dalton Trumbo, that he was probably a freak of nature with his incredible writing and typing speed, despite the "speed" he took, and he deserved this movie.

Best of all, it unashamedly glorified the writers and some Hollywood types (although too few), who championed social justice in the US, and defied the anti-communist government witch-hunts.

John Goodman had a minor part, but the scene where he goes off, is pure John Goodman at his mad genius best!

Pros: Great cinematography. Taratino is an auteur. Technically, the filming, direction, acting and editing were perfect.

Cons: Ironically, Taratino's politics are reactionary, despite his hip style.

He is a misanthropist.

White writers and directors should not use the "N" word liberally, if at all. It is not our place in the racist USA. (I applaud Tarantino for standing up publicly for Black Lives Matter, although Tarantino has no trouble killing his black characters in his films in the most entertaining ways possible).

Murder, cruelty and shooting should not be sexy and entertaining - Tarantino's specialty. We have too much of it in real life as our cynical leaders crash the planet, and we need to stop accepting or even lovin' it. I know, take that out, and American cinema might collapse.

Splatter fest. To those reviewers who want to shame people like me who are upset by the "blood and guts", that we should watch Disney!, your analogy is self-serving. (FYI, I am a health care worker in trauma units so I experience a lot of the REAL thing, and it doesn't gross me out at all). What upsets me, is as I wrote above, the high entertainment quotient of the blood & guts and cruelty.

That is why Tarantino is reactionary.

I wont bother with a plot review, just to say the acting, directing and photography was excellent. Unlike most American films, it unfolds slowly, but we were rewarded with rich subplots and building tension as the Balkan war advances rapidly, and our characters' lives are forced to confront their past and make choices about the new reality. I especially found Mira Furlan's acting very compelling.

The plot was able to handle several subjects well: politics, greed, corruption, and class; plus the tensions of split families, troubled couples, and new love. Above all, while the story takes place in one town with divergent and quirky characters, they were believable.

The plot is simple, an underground former radical, now father, (Robert Redford), is smoked out and on the run, meeting with former comrades. Does he want to escape, or does he want to clear his name? Both an investigative reporter and the FBI are chasing him.

However, weaved into this clever plot is the intellectual substance of the movie - how do we understand, (and judge) today, former armed Weather Underground members who fought against the U.S. war on Vietnam?

They took armed action after non-violent protests failed to stop the war. They are fugitives after robbing a bank and consequently killing a bank guard. They too, also failed to end the war.

"We made mistakes, but we were right." says one arrested radical (Susan Sarandon).

The elderly revolutionaries now with kids, honestly debate their choices and the times. The "establishment" won, and gets to write the history of those years.

These white revolutionaries were terrorists, or were they freedom fighters? "The Company You Keep" encourages us to judge these revolutionaries with an open mind - something that seems downright subversive in today's America.

I picked up the DVD yesterday in the bargain bin of Big Lots for $1.50. It was the cheapest movie in the bin, but I knew I would never get a chance to see it otherwise. I lived in DC after Green died, and knew little about him. This movie is also an important history for those of us who love/hate the city.

As you can see from previous reviews, many of us are convinced this is an excellent movie. I expected great acting from Don Cheadle, but I was most impressed with how tight the whole movie was - great writing by Michael Genet and Rick Famuyiwa, terrific directing by the very talented Kasi Lemmons, excellent ensemble acting especially between Cheadle, Eliofor and Tanaji P. Henson (who steals a few scenes herself). And the music, if you love old school, this is it!

Of course, the movie is about race and class, but I think we need to go beyond the film's subject and ask, Why is this excellent movie by African Americans so marginalized in our cinema industry?

I didn't like what Steve McQueen had to say about sex addiction in Shame, but I loved how he said it. I loved his previous film Hunger, on both accounts. British director McQueen is like a great musician - he gets in the groove and just stays there until the end. His groove is intensity and commitment to his mood and characters.

Shame and Hunger are very brave, unflinching, and yes, extremely compelling - even as they are upsetting. What impressed me are the political themes of his two films are almost opposites.

Hunger about the famous Irish Republican Army prisoner hunger strikes chilled me because it brought back intense memories from that time when we were campaigning and marching for the prisoners. Before our eyes, they sacrificed their lives. The IRA struggle was all about deep personal connection and solidarity to their community, their IRA, and their nation. The individual prisoners, including famous leader Bobby Sands, never wavered in their goal to have themselves recognized as political prisoners struggling for a Northern Ireland free of British colonialism. The most powerful moment of the film was when Bobby Sands argues with a visiting movement priest why they can't and wont call off the deadly hunger strikes.

Shame is deliciously styled like an Italian opera that contrasts with a gritty story about Brandon, an unhappy Irish-American sex-addict, isolated inside New York City in every way, even from his sister. Brandon's multiple sex partners only reinforce his loneliness. Sex with a co-worker becomes traumatic when she succeeds in breaking through his emotional shield.

McQueen impressively used classical music during the sex, and long takes during the dialogues, to knock down the cheesy stereotypes of most adult films. The acting and the editing are superb. Yet, for me, the script's lack of ideas failed the subject matter. It doesn't offer us much in the way of political or personal background as to why Brandon is sex-addicted and unable to have a deep interpersonal relationship, or why his intrusive sister is a love addict.

The script even keeps Brandon isolated from the prevalence of sex addiction self-help groups and counselling in our society. So the psycho-addiction theme never transitioned - and in the end, we are only teased with the idea that Brandon maybe able to help himself.