Mystic River

Clint Eastwood Idles With Caricature Over Character in ‘Gran Torino’

BrianTT — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 08:33:33 -0700

Rating: 2.0/5.0

CHICAGO – With his second film in just a few months, Clint Eastwood makes one of his biggest missteps of his illustrious career as one of the more esteemed American directors in the history of the medium. Eastwood has made some undeniable masterpieces - “Mystic River”, “Million Dollar Baby”, “Unforgiven” - but he has been far from perfect, misfiring wildly with films like “Space Cowboys”, “The Rookie”, and “Pink Cadillac”. “Gran Torino” falls much closer to the latter category on Clint’s spectrum than the former.

Eastwood stars in “Gran Torino” as Walt Kowalski, a bitter, cranky, snarling old man, who is mean to his priest, vicious to his family, and racist to everyone in his increasingly ethnic neighborhood. Walt could be Clint’s iconic ‘Dirty Harry’ character a few years down the road from when we last saw him and a bit more racist. (In fact, there were rumors at one point that “Gran Torino” would be “Dirty Harry 6”. If only.)

Walt is a Korean War vet who seems to have entered a contest for the most ignorant, racist comments in the span of the running time of a movie. Can the Hmong family next door melt the ice around this grumpy old man’s heart? Can the vet with backbone to spare give some to the weak kid who lives next door? Why should we care again?

In the opening scenes, Walt’s wife has passed away and he’s growing increasingly distant from the rest of his family. The predictable and skin-deep plot doesn’t really get underway until the kindly Hmong teenager next door named Thao (Bee Vang) tries and fails to steal the only thing he loves - his 1972 Gran Torino. Walt just wants to be left alone by a world he hates more every day, but he’s sucked into a horrible written gang war when he saves Thao from an altercation on his neighbor’s front lawn because the poor kid couldn’t steal the car he was ordered to snag. Let’s hope “Get off my lawn” doesn’t take off like “Make my day.”

What first feels like it could be a “Deathwish” rip-off becomes something far scarier when Thao is forced by his family to become an indentured servant to Walt. The old man finds himself getting closer and closer to the immigrants that he used to hate and realizes that he has one last sacrifice to make.

The script for “Gran Torino” by Nicholas Schenk is paper-thin. Eastwood adds some likability to a few scenes with his only friend, a barber played by a great actor named John Carroll Lynch, and there are a few moments between the angry vet and the awkward teen that work, but Schenk is constantly pounding his audience over the head with his obvious themes. In case you don’t get that Walt is growing closer to the people he continuously derides, Schenk is there to point it out to you.

Perhaps the TV-movie nature of the screenplay wore off on the production because “Gran Torino” is Eastwood’s least interesting film visually in years. There’s a grace and a style to the cinematography of Eastwood regular Tom Stern in films like “Million Dollar Baby” and “Mystic River” that’s simply missing here. “Gran Torino” looks like it was made in two weeks for a TV broadcast. There’s nothing wrong with simple production value for a simple story but “Gran Torino” crosses from simple to visually dull.

Everything about “Gran Torino” is a cliche. Walt’s racism, the immigrants next door, the hilariously stereotypical gang members, even the stupid jokes that Walt tells - none of it feels real. And at the center of it all is the cliche of Clint Eastwood’s angry, snarling persona. There’s a difference between using a popular reputation as a commentary, which some critics have mistakenly seen in “Gran Torino”, and the caricature that’s really at the center of this misguided film.

‘Gran Torino’ stars Clint Eastwood, Christopher Carley, Bee Vang, Ahney Her, Geraldine Hughes, Brian Haley, and John Carroll Lynch. ‘Gran Torino,’ which was written by Nick Schenk and directed by Clint Eastwood, opened in Chicago on December 19, 2008.

By BRIAN TALLERICO
Content Director
HollywoodChicago.com
brian@hollywoodchicago.com

Sean Penn’s Oscar-Possible Harvey Milk Puts Face to Gay Rights in ‘Milk’

HollywoodChicago.com — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 09:03:22 -0700

Rating: 4.0/5.0

CHICAGO – Just as Tom Hanks put a face to AIDS in 1993’s “Philadelphia,” Sean Penn has now put a face to gay rights as Harvey Milk in the new Gus Van Sant true-story film “Milk”.

While Penn’s Harvey Milk had the physical demeanor of a petite and gentle man, the fire inside the real-life activist for gay rights – and more broadly civil rights – was both his blessing and sometimes his poison. Milk found balancing personal relationships challenging amid his relentless quest to be the first gay politician in California.

Sean Penn stars as real-life gay rights icon Harvey Milk in director Gus Van Sant’s “Milk”.
Photo credit: Phil Bray

The film’s story takes place in the 1970s when those who were out of the closet were much less accepted than they are today. Milk found himself fighting not only the adversity to his political dream because it hadn’t been done before but also a powerful politician in his state as well as an omnipresent national force against gay rights.

But even more than gay rights, Milk’s life was devoted to the same tenants of newly elected U.S. president Barack Obama: change and hope.

Because of the political corollaries to Obama’s message for change today as well as the brouhaha in California now over gay marriage (and the potential to repeal the thousands who snuck in during the short period of time when the law allowed them), the timing for the release of the film today couldn’t be more prescient.

Alison Pill (left) and Emile Hirsch (right) star as real-life gay rights activists Anne Kronenberg and Cleve Jones (respectively) in director Gus Van Sant’s “Milk”.
Photo credit: Phil Bray

While we’ve seen Penn deliver Oscar-worthy roles before (he won for “Mystic River”) and he does again for Gus Van Sant (“Good Will Hunting,” “Finding Forrester,” “Paranoid Park”), what assists in the power of his transformative character performance is the complement of a sea of other notable actors playing against type. We’re treated to an entirely new way to look at Emile Hirsch – whose character range is now light years away from 2007’s “Into the Wild” – and Diego Luna.

While in “Milk” he wore no dancing shoes from 2004’s “Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights,” Luna’s gay character as Milk’s real-life lover is both something we’ve never seen before from him but also something that’s most certainly not a stretch to see from him.

Josh Brolin – who for this critic took three times of screening 2007’s “No Country for Old Men” and then a brilliantly authentic performance in 2008’s “W.” as George W. Bush to be sold on him – was the one questionable link in this stalwart cast who could most loudly make you go “hmmm…”.

Diego Luna portrays Harvey Milk’s real-life lover Jack Lira in director Gus Van Sant’s “Milk”.
Photo credit: Phil Bray

Brolin’s inner conflict and heterosexual ways (despite an unusual homosexual inference from Milk) could leave you with the same mixed feelings about his performance that he clearly had in delivering his own character. While “Milk” currently stands out among director Gus Van Sant’s best film thus far, in his direction you certainly felt his ambition for honesty and authenticity.

But you also felt his sensitivity and even sometimes his restraint. His filmmaking felt like he’d show you just enough to do the story justice but not enough to go over the line and make you uncomfortable.

While a sign of interesting filmmaking is the willingness to make you uncomfortable, legendary filmmaking will do so with a purpose and a reason while leaving a meaningful and lasting impression. This isn’t a story to take lightly or a concept to be told delicately.

It’s a holocaust on inequality that’s demanding to be heard and absolved to break down even today’s barriers that still hold the gay man and woman back.

Make sure you stay for the credits. In a film that cast countless primary, supporting and background gay characters, you’ll be treated to the one and only credit of the entirely unknown actor Brian Yates Sharber as the “Gay Man”.

“Milk” stars Sean Penn as Harvey Milk along with Emile Hirsch, Josh Brolin, Diego Luna, James Franco and Alison Pill. “Milk,” which is directed by Gus Van Sant and written by Dustin Lance Black, opened in Chicago on Nov. 26, 2008.

By ADAM FENDELMAN
Editor-in-Chief
HollywoodChicago.com
adam@hollywoodchicago.com

In ‘Gone Baby Gone’ Directorial Debut, Ben Affleck Matures Into Polished Auteur

HollywoodChicago.com — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 13:01:23 -0600

CHICAGO – It wasn’t that long ago when Ben Affleck was an unknown. Fortune eventually smiled upon him and along came quality performances in independents and an Academy Award for screenwriting.

Ben Affleck (left) and brother Casey Affleck on Oct. 10, 2007 at the
Chicago International Film Festival premiere of “Gone Baby Gone”.
Photo by Adam Fendelman of HollywoodChicago.com
Then came “Armageddon,” “Pearl Harbor” and a series of nauseating tabloid stories involving something called “Bennifer”. Affleck’s public image as either a true filmmaker or a hack is riding heavily on his directorial debut of “Gone Baby Gone”.

Without fail, he falls easily into the category of true talent. Following the path that fellow actor-turned-director Clint Eastwood did with “Mystic River,” Affleck elevated a crime thriller by author Dennis Lehane to the big screen.

Unlike directors and actors like Eastwood, Spike Lee, Woody Allen and even close friend Kevin Smith, Affleck resided solely behind the camera and instead cast brother Casey Affleck in the film’s principal role.

Casey Affleck in “Gone Baby Gone”.
Photo courtesy of IMDb
Most people will watch “Gone Baby Gone” to see if Ben Affleck is capable in the director’s chair. Moreover, he declares his rightful place as an auteur with his own artistic vision and storytelling ability.

Simplifying the complex maze of corruption that is Lehane’s fourth novel in a series on Boston detectives, “Gone Baby Gone” follows Patrick Kenzie’s (Casey Affleck) private investigation into the disappearance of an adorable, 4-year-old girl from a white-trash addict (Amy Ryan).

She won’t be winning the mother-of-the-year award any time soon. Kenzie gets cooperation from the Boston Police Department and plays an outsider who only can rely on help from his partner and girlfriend (played remarkably by Michelle Monaghan).

As Lehane’s characters are adapted beautifully for the screen by Ben Affleck and co-writer Aaron Stockard, there are bottomless depths of emotional turmoil to every person in this picture.

Ben Affleck directing “Gone Baby Gone”.
The loss of an innocent girl and Ryan’s portrayal of the crackhead mom you both love and hate make you want to throw things at the screen for such despicable human behavior. Ed Harris plays a local detective and masterfully devours all of his scenes.

Morgan Freeman plays the chief of police just like you think Morgan Freeman would play a police chief.

More than just showing promise, Affleck’s directorial debut promises great things for his future as a filmmaker. More than just your typical detective mystery flick, the film leaves many unanswered ethical questions.

More than so “Mystic River,” “Gone Baby Gone” is a heart-wrenching thriller of people you love to watch but would never want to meet in real life.

By DUSTIN LEVELL
Senior Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
dustin@hollywoodchicago.com