Lincoln: written by Tony Kushner, based partially on Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin; directed by Steven Spielberg; starring Daniel Day Lewis (Abraham Lincoln), Sally Field (Mary Todd Lincoln), David Straitharn (William Seward), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Robert Lincoln), James Spader (W.N. Bilbo), Tommy Lee Jones (Thaddeus Stevens) and Hal Holbrook (Preston Blair) (2012): Spielberg and Kushner put together a movie that would have made Stanley Kramer (Judgement at Nuremberg, Inherit the Wind) proud, as it engages history in a most Kramerian way: it deploys an all-star cast playing real, or at least based-on-real, people; and the movie positively bristles with lengthy, literate speeches in the service of explaining historical events, political gamesmanship, and ideological viewpoints.
Lincoln focuses on a couple of months towards the end of the American Civil War, as Lincoln jockeys to get the anti-slavery 13th Amendment passed by Congress before the war ends, and brings dozens of pro-slavery Southern congressmen back into the U.S. government. To do so requires pretty much every political trick available to Lincoln, most notably the appointment of out-going Democratic congressmen to governmental patronage jobs in exchange for their 'Yes' votes. With the November elections over, but the new congressmen not slated to take over their seats until March, much of Lincoln's strategy relies on these lame-duck political opponents.
Lincoln also knows that the war is all but over: the industrial North has begun to overwhelm the South. And a diplomatic party of Rebel politicians is on its way to negotiate a peace settlement. And so the need for speed and expediency increases, as does the need for political shenanigans in the service of a greater good.
Lincoln does a fine job of laying out the various factions in this fight. The radical abolitionists of the North want more than just the 13th Amendment, and they want it now. But trying for more will almost undoubted cause the anti-slavery movement to lose everything. And so Lincoln has to create a temporary voting coalition from disparate parts.
I think this is a very good movie about the pragmatic idealism of Lincoln and, by extension, other great politicians. Daniel Day-Lewis disappears into the role, his Lincoln a somewhat high-voiced man who slouches a lot because he's taller than everyone around him. The other actors, especially Tommy Lee Jones as a radical abolitionist whose influence is needed and Sally Field as the distressed and vitriolic Mary Todd Lincoln, deliver fine performances.
Spielberg keeps his showiness to a minimum in service to the story: the chief stylistic device here is the abundance of low-lighting scenes that show just how physically dark the mid-19th century was after the sun went down. Metaphorically speaking, the characters are all submerged not only in the fog of war, but in the crepuscular world of political manuevering, a world where the sun never rises or sets completely.
One of the interesting things that comes out, in terms of parallels to today's politics, is that small land-owning farmers were often against slavery because the slave plantations were the original Factory Farms. Their cheap labour allowed them to steamroll small farmers. It's funny how circumstances change and remain the same in certain areas. Well, not funny 'Ha ha.' Recommended.
American Grindhouse: written by Elijah Drenner and Calum Waddell; directed by Elijah Drenner; narrated by Robert Forster (2010): Breezy, informative documentary about American exploitation films from the beginnings of film as a medium to the early 1980's. Grindhouses were cheap, theatres that often showed movies 24 hours a day. In the decades when American movie companies were allowed to own theatre chains, grindhouses were unaffiliated and willing to show the risque material that wouldn't appear in mainstream movies.
At 80 minutes, American Grindhouse is too short to effectively cover 80 years of movies. What is covered, though, from the graphic childbirth movie The Story of Life to the beginnings of modern pornography, is fascinating. Boy, though, does this movie have a bit too much commentary from director John Landis and not enough from film historians. Still, a good introduction to The Repressed of American movies. Also, I love the movie in which Jesus fights American Neo-Nazis. Recommended.
Men in Black 3: based on the Malibu Comic by Lowell Cunningham, written by Etan Coen; directed by Barry Sonnenfeld; starring Will Smith (Agent J), Tommy Lee Jones/Josh Brolin (Agent K), Jemaine Clement (Boris the Animal), Emma Thompson/Alice Eve (Agent Q) and Michael Stuhlbarg (Griffin) (2012): The third MIB movie is much, much better than the meandering second one. It borrows a chunk of its plot from an original series Star Trek episode ("Assignment: Earth", if you're wondering) and the rest of its plot from every time-travel concept ever.
Will Smith's Agent J has to travel back to 1969 after an alien thug (Boris the Animal) alters time so as to both kill Tommy Lee Jones's Agent K in the past and enable an apocalyptic alien invasion in the present day. Various shenanigans ensue. Boris bears some resemblance to DC Comics alien thug Lobo, while a benevolent alien called Griffin recalls Superman pest Mr. Mxyzptlk. So it goes.
Josh Brolin does a nice Tommy Lee Jones impersonation as the Agent K of 1969, while Alice Eve looks nothing like Emma Thompson, her supposed future self. Michael Stuhlbarg's alien Griffin really seems like a part meant for a young Robin Williams. Or youngish. Lightly recommended.
