American Sniper

American Sniper tells the story of Chris Kyle, "the most lethal sniper US military history". Bradley Cooper, in a riveting, incredible performance, portrays Kyle. I haven't seen the other Best Actor nominees this year, but with David Oyeloww not nominated for Selma, it would be hard for me to imagine anybody's performance being better than Cooper's. We follow Kyle's life through his enlistment, his SEAL training and then four tours of duty in Iraq. Along the way, he makes difficult decisions on people to snipe, leads assaults, and becomes emotionally hardened, nearly leading to divorce. Kyle develops a high profile among his squadmates, who nickname him "Legend" for his skills. In the end, the story of American Sniper is told very well. The movie itself is well-made and, if you're not ready for it, the ending is a gutpunch extraordinaire. My theater was absolutely dead silent after the movie was over as people filed out. You could have heard a pin drop. Easily the quietest I've ever heard. Anyway, my rating? 8/10.

Having said that, I am uncomfortable with at least some of the factual changes and inaccuracies. I don't like it when "based on a true story" movies change key events. I don't mind so much if something isn't real important but when it IS? That I have a problem with. Example: One of the key scenes early after Kyle goes to Iraq, one heavily featured in ads and trailers, has been altered. It happened but Eastwood changed it to make it far more heart string-pulling. Not cool. Some of the other things, like changing the bounty on Kyle, or having the movie center on the chase of an Iraqi sniper, are merely altered and don't hurt the movie per se. I've also seen criticism that a doll was used in two places instead of a live baby. In my group of 12 people, nobody noticed that. I doubt I would have cared if I did notice. It's a triviality that doesn't detract from the movie.

I've also seen lots of people, including many who haven't seen it but are somehow experts on it, criticizing the movie for being pro-war or jingoistic or for showing all Iraqis as bad people. I think that criticism is off-base and misses the point of the movie. The story of the movie is Chris Kyle, his view of the war and what he went through. In his mind and perspective, the war was a righteous one that he believed in. And that's the story being told here. If you're looking for a movie that presents a fair-and-balanced "should we have been there at all?" type of perspective, you're looking at the wrong movie and to criticize American Sniper for not being that movie is simply unfair. It's akin to criticizing a movie on the life of Walter Payton for not dwelling on the NFL's concussion problems.

I've also seen a lot of people wonder about the movie because of Chris Kyle's credibility issues. No question about it, this is a guy who lied about stuff. I think, however, that his general story, the one in the movie, is generally authentic and one that can be separated from some of the other nonsense stories he told. It's a powerful story and one not changed by the protagonist's credibility issues in any meaningful way.

The Believer

Ryan Gosling is Danny, a young man born into the Jewish faith who has become a Nazi and wants to kill Jews. The story of the movie, then, is the conflict in Danny as he reflects on his upbringing balanced with his hatred. He is very obviously self-loathing. He rails against Jewish people, yet wears Jewish garments, protects sacred documents, and teaches his girlfriend to read Hebrew and learn the Torah. He desires to blow up a synagogue yet protects his friends from any harm. And so there's all this conflict going on, yet we're never given any insight as to the origin of Danny's hatred or self-loathing. WHY does he hate himself? We don't know. We're given some insights into his issues with the Jewish faith but not Danny himself. And that's a major hole in the movie. In addition, the actual structure of the movie is a little rough - odd flashback scenes and low production values. Gosling is fantastic in this, portraying the internal conflict in Danny extremely well. He is charismatic, vile, violent, the whole package. That's not really enough to save this though. 3/10.

Almost Famous

This has been on my "watch eventually" list for quite some time. For years, I've heard what a fabulous movie this, how Kate Hudson is amazing in it, and how watching it is some kind of transcendental experience. Uh, yeah, not so much. Set in the 1970s, William is a 15-year old aspiring rock journalist who worms his way backstage at a Stillwater concert. His maturity and insight persuades the band to invite him to come on tour with them. Incredibly, his mom agrees and he spends a few weeks touring with them. Along the way, he meets Penny Lane (Hudson), a teenage "band aide" (groupie) in love with the guitarist of Stillwater. William soon falls in love with her, loses his virginity to other groupies, and manages to write a story deemed worth of the cover of Rolling Stone. The movie is a semi-autobiographic retelling of the life of Cameron Crowe, the movie's director, who really did go on tour and write for Rolling Stone as a teen. While entertaining, I can't say this was particularly great. Reviewers called it funny. It's really not. Reviewers described Kate Hudson like some mystical creature putting in an out-of-this-world performance. She wasn't/didn't. Outside of one scene toward the end, she's really just your generic pretty face. So we're left with a pretty average movie that doesn't match the hype at all. 5/10.

Selma

I don't like it when movies are called "important". It's such a pretentious description and feels like an attempt to add greater "weight" to a medium where it just really doesn't apply. Not to imply art can't "mean something", I just think it's a reach to call movies "important". This one? It's important. I grew up in a racially diverse neighborhood/school. At various times, my best friend was Japanese, Hispanic, black and white. My wife and nephew, who saw Selma with me, did not. They are both from lily-white backgrounds and I think that has distanced them a little bit from the importance of the civil rights movement. I don't mean that I've got some great insight or anything, just that I'm a little more familiar with it than they are. Anyway, this was a movie I felt they needed to see. Selma tells the story of the march from Selma to Mongtomery in early 1965 in protest of laws that prevented blacks from voting. And it tells that story extremely well. The cast is impeccable - David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King Jr is an absolute riveting, magnetic revelation. The pacing is generally terrific, though it could have been tightened up just a bit. While there are a couple gripes with its accuracy - LBJ is (as the producers have admitted) portrayed more negatively than the reality - the overall result is one of authenticity. We are given a full picture of the various groups at the time. MLK is portrayed as less than perfect (his extramarital affairs are mentioned) and there is conflict and infighting. But we still see the grand vision and passion of King and his incredible charisma. This is a knockout movie - really, really good. And you just might learn something from it, as my wife & nephew did. 9/10.