MOVIE REVIEWS
`On the Rocks'
R 1:36 HHH H
Much like the many cocktails consumed by its appealing star duo, Oscar-winning writerdirector Sofia Coppola's “On the Rocks” serves up surprisingly relatable dramedy that's smooth, refreshing and more potent that initially anticipated.
Coppola reunites with her “Lost in Translation” leading man, ever-appealing cultural icon Bill Murray, for the engaging father-daughter story co-starring Rashida Jones (TV's “Parks and Recreation”).
Jones' Laura is a well-heeled New Yorker grappling with writer's block on her latest book and overwhelmed by her hectic family life with her husband, Dean (Marlon Wayans), who is busy starting his own company, and their adorable daughters, grade-schooler Maya (Liyanna Muscat) and preschooler Theo (twins Alexandra and Anna Reimer). When frequent flyer Dean arrives home late one night from a business trip and seemingly rebuffs Laura's romantic overtures, she initially blames his pre-flight Xanax and jet lag for his lack of interest.
But Laura's playboy father, Felix (Murray), has another theory: Dean could be having an affair, possibly with his smart and sexy new assistant Fiona (Jessica Henwick). A legendary ladies man and retired Manhattan gallery owner, Felix pulls the reluctant but concerned Laura into a series of daddydaughter dates that all manage to culminate in increasingly absurd efforts to spy on the possibly wayward Dean.
It might not be a world-changing work of cinema, but “On the Rocks” bubbles over with wit and verve. Coppola keeps the drama understated, and that makes it feel real.
Mostly, the film serves up a sparkling showcase for the effervescent chemistry between Murray and Jones. The former brings all his considerable devilish charisma to bear as Felix, an unrepentant philanderer who still can't resist the urge to charm every woman he encounters as he gads about at hot spots all over Manhattan. When he picks up Laura for a stakeout in a temperamental classic red convertible with caviar and Champagne for spy snacks, you can't help but be charmed, or to shake the sense that Felix is as interested in just spending time with his daughter as he is in helping to sort out her potential family troubles.
An experienced straight woman, Jones not only provides a foil for Felix's shenanigans, but she also brings a nuanced emotional depth to her character. Most modern women can relate to Laura's constant simmering anxiety as she struggles to balance marriage, family, work and some semblance of a social life.
With the jazzy music by Phoenix and the loving cinematography by Philippe Le Sourd,
“On the Rocks” also offers an adoring toast to the relentless cosmopolitan energy of New York, although that toast feels a little wistful in the days of pandemic lockdowns.
— Brandy McDonnell, The Oklahoman
`The Trial of the Chicago 7'
R 2:09 HHH H
Brilliantly cast, full of juicy verbal confrontations and only slightly undermined by its director, “The Trial of the Chicago 7” hits the righteous indignation spot. The writer is Aaron Sorkin. The director is also Aaron Sorkin.
It'll certainly hit home for Chicagoans who remember 1968 and 1969, as well as Chicagoans who know full well what has boiled these few months of 2020, and why.
In late August 1968, the Democratic National Convention began and soon became a secondary narrative. Lincoln Park and, across the street from the Conrad Hilton Hotel convention headquarters, Grant Park drew tens of thousands of demonstrators. The police had their orders. The whole world watched. Hundreds arrested. Hundreds clubbed and injured on all sides, although much later a federal commission declared it a police riot. That came later.
Eight men, representing the full spectrum of the dissident left, were indicted for conspiracy to cross state lines in order to incite that riot. The trial for seven of them — Black Panther Party cofounder Bobby Seale ended up being tried separately — started 13 months after the bloodshed. It took five months, a mistrial, some suspected jury tampering and egregious prejudice and mishandling from the bench to render the whole thing a farce, albeit a farce with deadly serious stakes.
Sorkin has been working on this project for 15 years. It was never not ripe for adaptation. At this particular flashpoint, though, the trial speaks directly to memories of the city's image under Richard J. Daley, and how that image speaks, in turn, to
where we are today.
“Daley is not going to let his city turn into a theater of war!” This ironically short-sighted bit of foreshadowing is spoken by the pacifist David Dellinger, Boy Scout leader and head of the Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam, played by the reliably excellent John Carroll Lynch.
“Chicago is more (expletive) up than any 10 things I've ever seen in my life!” So growls the U.S. Attorney General John Mitchell, speaking of the bloodshed in Grant Park in August 1968. John Doman plays Mitchell, and he'd be a fearsome character indeed if we didn't currently have an AG who can easily outstrip Mitchell for partisan scheming.
“For the next 50 years, when people think of progressive politics … they're not gonna think of equality or justice. They're not gonna think of education or poverty or progress. They're gonna think of a bunch of stoned, lost, disrespectful, foul-mouthed, lawless losers. And so, we'll lose elections.” This highly on-brand Sorkin flourish comes from Students for a Democratic Society activist Tom Hayden, played with sly charisma by Eddie Redmayne.
This last bit arrives in a key scene from “The Trial of the Chicago 7.” In a disheveled Hyde Park office, buttoned-down Hayden is squaring off against his ideological frenemy, Youth International Party figurehead Abbie Hoffman, played by Sacha Baron Cohen. They may have the same goal — ending the war in Vietnam — but their methods and tactics couldn't be less in sync. Their brotherly tensions account for one-third of what's going on in the movie. Another third will surprise no one, since the word “trial” is right there in the title. The five-month judicial circus presided over by flagrantly incompetent Judge Julius Hoffman (Frank Langella, lending a smoother, classier air than the real Hoffman ever had) provides the heart of the material.
“The Trial of the Chicago 7” proceeds on a checkerboard of flashbacks and flash-forwards, and the movie — wisely — saves most of its various perspectives of the Grant Park melee of August 1968 until midway through. Indoors and outdoors, Sorkin sets one emblem of leftist protest (Hayden) against others (Abbie Hoffman and comrade Jerry Rubin, portrayed with inspired deadpan authority by Jeremy Strong).
I enjoyed it, though a few things hold it back from greatness or really-goodness. Sorkin's a more interesting writer than he is a director. At times he seems to be aping Steven Spielberg's momentous-history pictorial approach, which can work marvelously if it's Spielberg, in the case of “Lincoln,” for example.
Sorkin's camera doesn't move a lot; he's a front-and-center, time-for-a-closeup technician, and the way he stages and films the riot footage (interpolated with archival video from, among other sources, Haskell Wexler's “Medium Cool”) it's routine chaos, desperately overscored by composer Daniel Pemberton.
Alongside and opposite Joseph Gordon-Levitt (as U.S. prosecutor Richard Schultz, nicely modulated in Sorkin's hands) and all the other inspired casting choices, Mark Rylance kills it, foremost and wryly, as defense attorney William Kunstler. He's depicted as the blithe, vaguely baked referee overseeing the warring factions played by Redmayne and Cohen.
So much, of course, is not here because Sorkin made a two-hour movie, not a 15-part series, which these events and the trial alone could've supported. The movie's a little glib throughout. Sorkin's writing may be better served by a director who can bring a new set of perspectives and dynamics to the work, rather than simply presenting them head-on. Yet it works anyway.
— Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune/ TNS
`Yellow Rose'
PG-13 1:34 HHH H
Just who is country music for? Anyone for whom it strikes a chord. In last year's rousing “Wild Rose,” star Jessie Buckley and director Tom Harper made the argument that a Scottish lass with a rap sheet is as outlaw country as they come. In Diane Paragas' debut feature, “Yellow Rose,” the filmmaker asserts that the heartfelt tales of love and loss found in country music are best expressed by a young, undocumented Filipina in Texas, Rose (Eva Noblezada).
The 24-year-old Noblezada, nominated for a Tony Award at 21 for her performance as Kim in the revival of “Miss Saigon,” makes her film debut as budding country star Rose. Ironically, Noblezada isn't even the only Kim from “Miss Saigon” in the film, as Tony winner Lea Salonga has a supporting role as her aunt Gail. Suffice to say, with Noblezada's pipes, Rose can sing. Her gift is simply innate, her love of music planted by her parents, the seed of her talent cultivated in Texas soil.
Rose lives with her mother, Priscilla (Princess Punzalan), in a motel where Priscilla works as a maid. One night Rose sneaks out with her friend Elliot (Liam Booth) from the guitar shop to see country star Dale Watson at Austin's legendary Broken Spoke dance hall. When they return, ICE is dragging Priscilla out of their home to be deported. Suddenly, Rose is rootless, adrift, surprised to find herself undocumented in her own home state. She seeks shelter with her aunt Gail, before drifting to a backroom at the Broken Spoke, where ICE raids are imminent. All the while she strums her guitar, pens her lyrics, searching for a place to stop rolling.
“Yellow Rose” is an emotional blunt instrument. It's not exactly subtle, but then again, the best country songs, and the best coming-of-age tales, rarely are. Noblezada plays to a full house at times, rather than to the camera, and the script leaves no stone unturned. But Noblezada's performance is incredibly captivating and invigorating. She plays Rose as coltish, feisty and a bit rough around the edges. But there's something undeniably special about this girl, her straightforward manner, her vulnerability, in the way she shares her irrepressible, almost contagious passion for music. It's irresistible even to Watson, playing himself, who becomes her mentor and friend, offering Rose the resources to pursue her music and pushing her to perform onstage.
The film, and Noblezada, hit a stride and find a sense of flow, making for an affecting portrayal of a young woman finding her footing against all odds, and claiming her home in a nation that makes it unduly challenging.
— Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service
Other movies
• “The War With Grandpa,” PG, 1:34
• “Heaven,” PG-13, 1:40
• “Pray: The Story of Patrick Peyton,” PG, 1:11