Week of July 1 - 7 (Rhoades)

Tropic Overview

Biopics Lead Off This Week’s Tropic Lineup

Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades

Biographical films take many forms. This week Tropic Cinema presents two, one told somewhat like an unfettered stage play, the other mindful of an action-packed historical documentary. Along with those two films, are three others that offer plenty of thrills, chills, and adventure.

 The first biopic, “Genius” is based on the real-life collaboration between Thomas Wolfe of “Look Homeward, Angel” fame and Maxwell Perkins, the book editor who also worked with Hemingway and Fitzgerald. Jude Law and Colin Firth doff their British accents to play the pair. Detroit News says the film “deals with the creative ego, its trappings and the need everyone has for an editor.” And Kaplan vs. Kaplan adds, “The film is a captivating example of superb acting and writing, not to be missed by serious cinephiles.”

Next up is “Free State of Jones,” the true story of a band of Confederate deserters who found against the Union Army. Matthew McConaughey portrays Newton Knight, leader of the renegades who declared Jones County, Mississippi, to be a “free state.” Tulsa World proclaims, “There’s a good history lesson here, along with the hero turn, and thankfully it’s not totally covered up by the Hollywoodization of the subject matter.” And honeycuttshollywood.com concludes, “This may be one of the most honest American films about slavery, the Civil War, and Reconstruction ever made.”

“Our Kind of Traitor” seems like it could be a true story, as we follow the turmoil of a couple (Ewan McGregor and Naomi Harris) caught between the British Secret Service and the Russian Mafia when they try to help a charming defector (Stellan Skarsgård).  Compuserve calls it “a tense spy tale in the John Le Carre tradition.” And Time Out concludes the movie “reveals our world to be run by snakes.”

“Independence Day: Resurgence” is a sequel to the 1996 sci-fi epic about earth fighting off space invaders. Will Smith decided to sit this one out, but Jessie Usher steps in to play his character’s stepson. Bill Pullman, Judd Hirsch, Brent Spiner, Vivica A. Fox, and Jeff Goldblum return to help fight off the aliens. Movie Talk states, “The new film isn’t so much a reprise of ID4 as it is a combination of tribute act and reunion tour.” And Huffington Post observes, “Based on the popularity of the original, and the strength of the characters created there, this sequel should have been a sure thing; it isn't. Oh, it is good but it should have been so much better.”

“Nice Guys” is a fun-filled action flick about a mismatched pair of detectives (Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe) investigating the death of a porn star. New York Magazine says “Nice Guys” has a nice feel: “Just slick enough to keep from falling apart, just brutal enough to keep from seeming inconsequential.” And El Antepenúltimo Mohicano notes that it “stands out due to its great dose of cynicism and satire of the Hollywood industry.”

Biopics to bare knuckles, spies to spaceships -- plenty to see at the Tropic.

srhoades@aol.com

Free State of Jones (Rhoades)

Front Row at the Movies

In “Free State of Jones” Matthew McConaughey Takes No Prisoners

Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades

I once drove through Ellisville (population: 4,448) without realizing its historical significance. Ellisville is the county seat of Jones County, a 700-square-mile section of swamp and farmland in southeastern Mississippi. It is also the hometown of Lance Bass, a singer with the popular boy band NSYNC -- but that is merely an aside.

Jones County’s most interesting native son was Newton Knight, a farmer and Southern Unionist. That’s the term for white people living in the Confederate States of America who opposed secession from the Union. During the Civil War, Newton was the leader of the Knight Company, a band of Confederate army deserters who fought against the South.

Historians disagree as to whether Newton Knight was a noble man of principle or an unprincipled outlaw. But that does not seem to be a question in “Free State of Jones,” the new Matthew McConaughey movie that’s playing at the Tropic Cinema.

Knight’s grandfather was one of Jones County’s largest slaveholders. But Newton’s father was the only heir not to inherit any slaves, so there were none to be passed along. Thereby, Newton had nothing to lose when it came to freeing slaves -- although some claim it was his devout Baptist morality that sparked his opposition to slavery.

Having no slaves, he did not fall under the Twenty Negro Law, which would have exempted him from serving in the Confederate Army. In late 1862 he deserted, stating, “If they had a right to conscript me when I didn’t want to fight the Union, I had a right to quit when I got ready.”

Proclaiming themselves “Southern Yankees,” about 600 deserters formed the Knight Company with Newton elected as captain. The Knight Company fought some 14 skirmishes against Confederate forces. In July 1864, the Natchez Courier reported that Jones County had seceded from the Confederacy, proclaiming itself to be the Free State of Jones.

Director-writer Gary Ross (“The Hunger Games,” “Seabiscuit”) stuck as close to the historical record as he could, cramming the story into an overly long 2 ½ hours. He consulted with a number of respected historians (Eric Foner of Columbia University, Martha Hodes of NYU, among them) in his attempt to accurately portray the times.

As Newton Knight, Matthew McConaughey (Oscar-winner for “Dallas Buyers Club”) looks like he stepped out of a daguerreotype, the image of a war-weary Civil War soldier with scraggly beard, greasy hair, and fierce blue eyes. Keri Russell (TV’s “The Americans”) adds a sense of sadness to her small role as Knight’s first wife, Serena. Gugu Mbatha-Raw (“Belle”) brings luminous dignity to her key performance as Knight’s subsequent black wife, Rachel. And Mahershala Ali stands out as Moses, a composite character who exemplifies the slaves fighting alongside Newton and his deserters.

In this moralistic telling, Confederate soldiers and rich plantation owners are all bad, with Newton Knight being a Civil War-era Robin Hood. That’s pretty much the way Knight’s son portrayed him in a 1935 book titled “The Life and Activities of Captain Newton Knight.” The book omits Rachel, given the ongoing bias against interracial sexuality.

However, Knight’s grandniece painted him as “a backward, ignorant, murderous traitor” in her 1951 book “The Echo of the Black Horn.”

Saint or sinner? We’ll leave that to the historians. But as a filmmaker, Gary Ross clearly comes down on the side of selfless sainthood.

As for Matthew McConaughey, it’s another well-thought-out performance in a string of movie roles that began with “The Lincoln Lawyer” and continued with “Dallas Buyers Club.” Here he’s convincing as a rebel who rebelled against the Southern Rebellion. Ironically, one of McConaughey’s ancestors was Confederate Brigadier General Dandridge McRae, a soldier who fought to preserve slavery in the South.

You will appreciate the bloody battle scenes and the documentary-like style that adds historical verisimilitude, but it’s the underpinnings of the movie -- the portrayal of the South as an avaricious cotton-based economy -- that makes Ross’s point. When it comes to that magnolia-scented mythology about the Southern way of life threatened by Northern aggression, “Free State of Jones” takes no prisoners.

srhoades@aol.com

Genius (Rhoades)

Front Row at the Movies

“Genius” Examines Thomas Wolfe and Maxwell Perkins

Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades

Years ago, in Asheville, North Carolina, I knew Thomas Wolfe’s brother Fred. He liked to hang around the National Historic Landmark that had been the writer’s boyhood home. This Queen Anne style edifice was originally a rooming house run by his mother called “Old Kentucky Home.” In Thomas Wolfe’s celebrated novel “Look Homeward, Angel,” it was renamed “Dixieland.”

Wolfe’s shadow hangs over Asheville, where he was ostracized following his roman à clef, inspiring a subsequent novel titled “You Can’t Go Home Again.” Wolfe chose to stay away from Asheville for eight years following the uproar.

Some of that time he spent in Europe, but much was spent in Brooklyn where he worked on a lengthy novel titled “The October Fair.” He submitted it to Maxwell Perkins, the editor at Scribner’s who had been instrumental in the writing careers of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway.

Perkins cut the novel considerably and retitled it “Of Time and the River.”

This time the citizens of Asheville were upset because they hadn’t been included.

Perkins’s severe editing of Wolfe’s work prompted him to leave Scribner’s for Harper’s & Brothers.

This turbulent relationship between author and editor is the essence of a new film called “Genius.” It takes this title from a book, “Max Perkins: Editor of Genius” by A. Scott Berg.

“Genius” is currently showing at Tropic Cinema.

Directed by film novice Michael Grandage, its stagey dialogue is mindful of his background as a theatrical producer. Set in New York City in the ‘30s, the film is awash with the monochromatic colors of a faded photograph.

Jude Law (“Road to Perdition,” “Spy”) develops a hillbilly accent to portray the Southern writer that The New York Times called “one of the most confident young voices in contemporary American literature.” Colin Firth (“The King’s Speech,” “A Single Man”) looks all buttoned-up as Max Perkins. Despite their squabbles over Perkins’s red pencil and Wolfe’s verbosity, at his death Wolfe acknowledged Perkins as his closest friend. This biopic is sort of a literary romance.

As for lustful romance, Wolfe was enamored with a married woman named Aline Bernstein, 18 years his senior. In the film, Nicole Kidman takes on that role.

Also, Dominic West pops up as Ernest Hemingway; Guy Pierce as F. Scott Fitzgerald; and Vanessa Kirby as Fitzgerald’s wife Zelda.

Zelda died in a sanatorium fire in Asheville, Wolfe’s hometown. On visiting the Asheville library, Fitzgerald discovered that it didn’t contain any of Thomas Wolfe’s works, a holdover from the flap about “Look Homeward, Angel,” so he donated a volume. At least that’s the way Fred told me the story.

Now the Thomas Wolfe Collection at Pack Memorial Library honors (as they like to say today) “Asheville’s favorite son.”

When the library was remodeling in the early ‘70s, they sold off some of the fixtures. I bought a sturdy oak reading desk. It sits in my home as a reminder of Thomas Wolfe.

The title of the movie -- “Genius” -- refers to Max Perkins. But for my two cents, it was that 6-foot-6 wild man from Asheville who was the real genius.

srhoades@aol.com

Independence Day: Resurgence (Brockway)

Tropic Sprockets by Ian Brockway

Independence Day: Resurgence

Run!!! It's been twenty years and something scaly is afoot in 3D. "Independence Day"  the sequel has arrived and we are at DEFCON 4 once more with enough crunching crashing and bashing for a thousand disaster films. Roland Emmerich again directs and most of the gang is all here, sans Will Smith as our hero, Stephen Hiller. Now we have Hiller's stepson Dylan (Jessie Usher) who is not as cocky and self assured as his stepdad, but he handles all drama with a smile. The reckless character belongs to actor Liam Hemsworth as Jake. He is a hybrid of Captain Kirk and Han Solo. Usually he does the right thing, but he is known to push the envelope.

Jeff Goldblum reprises his scientist role as Levinson, and he is apropriately spaced out and full of dry observations. The one casting surprise is Charlotte Gainsbourg as a scientist and linguistic scholar. Her nervous face and piercing eyes hits you like a wedge across the chest and gives gravity to the pop melodrama.  One can watch her all day, but it is a cinematic sin that she has little to do except take pictures and collect sketches, her haunted charisma squandered.

Bill Pullman reprises his role as the US president who once saved the day while Brent Spiner (from Star Trek: The Next Generation) appears too, once more as the eccentric Dr. Okun, running around naked, scrawling designs and squiggles.

To suffice, this is war and more of the same. Straightaway, the president and first female (Sela Ward) is rendered powerless in seconds. Really? Shouldn't they have some experience from decades ago? During the initial confrontation, there is some popcorn paranoia and suspense. We don't quite know how the aliens will look and maybe, just maybe, events will be different.

But, to reveal too much on screen is to spoil and sure enough, the fighters come out and the explosions commence with "Star Wars" era dialogue. (Yeehaa, we got em!") Midway through it becomes more like a video game than a film as the pyrotechnics blossom in multiples like violent flowers, oddly lacking in emotion  yet crystal clear.

There is one engaging air combat scene between our heroine Patricia (Maika Monroe) and the alien which contains its tension in a 1950 monster movie kind of way. Other than Charlotte Gainsbourg's face, the close up fight is the best thing in the film.

While it may be possible to get swept up in the film for a little bit, there is one belligerent angry line reminicent of current politics that killed my suspension of disbelief. After all, shouldn't we be less interested in militarily trumping these primal creatures and looking for a fight?  A smidgen of logic and philosophy (as in life) would do wonders for a third film. How many "War of the Worlds" can our eyes absorb?

Time will tell.

Write Ian at ianfree1@yahoo.com

Dark Horse (Brockway)

Tropic Sprockets by Ian Brockway

Dark Horse

This irrepressible documentary by Louise Osmond chronicles the symbiotic relationship between woman and horse. One day at a bar, grocery clerk Jan Vokes gets an image from a dream which turns into a concept: why not breed a race horse? So begins the improbable but true story of a Welsh bar and a horse called Dream Alliance.

It is the new millenium in the gray and  damp Welsh mining town of Cefin Fforest. When Jan pitches her vision, a few patrons bark but her husband Brian, an ex-bouncer, who bears a resemblance to actor Jim Broadbent knows that Jan can do anything once she sets her mind to it.  She promptly establishes a syndicate, raising enough money to have a foal. Long legged and sleek with a creamy brown coat the color of cappuccino, the horse is intensely affectionate, very like a puppy.

Jan hires trainer Philip Hobbs, who sets to the task, possessing a quirky streak. Little by little, the unknown horse financed by a small circle of jovial men at a bar, gallops up the ranks: fourth, third and then, second place.

And, as if to underscore the point of being a contender, the horse is given a blaze on his forehead and nose by mother nature, almost similar to Harry Potter, highlighting the numinous and magical.

Indeed, there does seem something supernatural about the animal. Some say Dream is empathic, having the ability to read human emotions. Whatever the case, most agree that like any proper Welshman, this horse is unpredictable.  At the core, Jan and the motley circle live for surprise. They want to shake up the upper crust, invading the porcelain-silver class and the ladies that become as feathered as peacocks on equestrian afternoons.

In a prepatory race for the Grand National, Dream gets into an accident and gives Death a brown eyed stare.

With its amiable humor and a touch of the zany, this film is plucky and beguiling. Most heartfelt is the bond the entire group shares with Dream, especially when deciding on the approval of a life-saving surgery that borders on science-fiction. All the better to invade the moneyed class.

In defiance, Brian with teeth as green as a training field, does something unheard of in racing history. He brings his own lunch.

Unassuming, joyful and ebullient, "Dark Horse" is one film without an agenda and refreshingly so. Full of stories and good cheer, the film merely shows events as is.

Everyone likes an underdog and Dream, the horse and the film is among the best, one part "Rocky" and one "Made in Dagenham." In addition to a racer, Dream was an empath magician when it counted.

Write Ian at ianfree1@yahoo.com

Free State of Jones (Brockway)

Tropic Sprockets by Ian Brockway

Free State of Jones

For those that want a minimalist history lesson  in broad shapes, here you have it in "Free State of Jones" as directed by Gary Ross. Newton Knight (Matthew McConaughey) is a freedom fighter in the Reconstruction Era of The Civil War. After his nephew,  (actor Jacob Lofland, McConaughey's co-star in "Mud") dies in a battle, Newton who bares a resemblance to Jesus, gets a spark of an idea to desert against the desperate tyrants of the Confederacy and form his own company.

McConaughey, for his part, is solid in this role excluding the fact that he is often wild eyed and sweating. One can take a bit of comfort in the fact that he has drama in his voice and his rolling southern drawl does have power, albeit comic at times. But suffice to say, this film is generalized and bland having the feel of an illustrated history book.

We have usual stock characters here: a hateful, nonchalant colonel (Lawrence Turner) who talks like Colonel Sanders and his pompous lieutenant (Bill Tangredi). Most of the film highlights the grimy Knight fretting and yes, sweating. He quotes the Bible in grave tones. There is one good combat scene that thrills, but then the narrative snaps back to a gnarled McConaughey proclaming what is good and correct with dialogue out of a John Ford western.

The stunning Gugu Mbatha-Raw is McConaughey's spouse in the film but weirdly, her role is too lightly drawn. Rachel Knight is pushed to the background and all but shoved aside with the exception of a gun and a baby. Her character begs for rounder treatment.

There is a side story about Davis Knight (Brian Lee Franklin) a relative being denied marriage as a mixed race child in the year 1950, but this sideline is hodgepodge and loosely thrown, involving lawyers, bibles and census forms, all of it given soapily.

Granted, it is fun to hate the Confederacy during a battle and there is a haunting montage that recognizes the cinematic offensiveness of 1915's "Birth of a Nation" but for the most part the epic of Newton Knight is watered down to a stick figure who is always right and over-confident, a grimy golden He-man, a Mississippi Messiah.

I declare, a little goes a long way.

Write Ian at ianfree1@yahoo.com

Week of June 24 - 30 (Rhoades)

Tropic Overview

Tropic Cinema Offers Seven Films, Big and Small

Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades

Now that Tropic Cinema is allowed to show big first-run films as well as smaller indies, you'll find even more variety on its screens.

“Independence Day: Resurgence” is a CGI-laden sequel to the 1996 sci-fi blockbuster about an alien invasion. Those buggers that Will Smith defeated in the first flick are back again, swarming the skies like locusts. However, Will is not around to save the world in this one. IGN Movies describes it as “a silly, cheesy, spectacle-driven blockbuster with heart.” And Empire Magazine declares, “You’ll enjoy yourself enough that you won’t even miss Will Smith.”

“Love & Friendship” is based on a little-read Jane Austen novel about a manipulating woman looking for a husband for herself and her daughter. Kate Beckinsale is perfectly cast as conniving Lady Susan. Toronto Sun calls this period piece “quick, clever and delightful.” And St. Louis Post Dispatch finds it to be a “comic romp that fans of the classic English author will love.”

Although directed by Rebecca Miller, “Maggie’s Plan” might easily be mistaken for a Woody Allen film. SSG Syndicate notes, “Acerbic and idiosyncratic, it’s tartly erudite to the extreme.” And It’s Just Movies observes, “Greta Gerwig co-stars with New York City in this tame location driven rom-com.”

“Weiner” is a documentary about former Congressman Anthony Weiner, whose political career crashed when he got caught sexting naughty photos of himself. Mountain Xpress says, “Yeah, you almost certainly know how this is going to play out, but that doesn’t keep the film from being compelling and even fascinating.” And Minneapolis Star Tribune calls it “the must-see nonfiction film of the year.”

“Dark Horse” is the true story about a group of working class Brits who take on the uppercrust task of breeding a racehorse. Salt Lake Tribune describes it as “an inspirational sports story, loaded with eccentric characters, dramatic twists, and a rousing, emotional trajectory.” Detroit News calls it “a galloping victory.” And Seattle Times challenges, “Oh, just try to resist this one.”

“Nice Guys” stars Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe as mismatched detectives investigating the death of a porn star.  New York Magazine describes it as “just slick enough to keep from falling apart, just brutal enough to keep from seeming inconsequential.” And El Pais calls it “an exercise in cynicism and cool.”

“Free State of Jones” gives us Matthew McConaughey as a defiant Southern farmer who leads an armed rebellion against the Confederate Army. Hollywood Reporter sees it as “a compelling and little-known story of the Civil War period ….” And San Francisco Chronicle concludes, “It’s a good film, absorbing from beginning to end, but it’s also important.”

Big films, big stars; little films, little stars. Tropic has them all.

srhoades@aol.com