Trailer: Mississippi Grind with Ryan Reynolds
Posted on July 27, 2015 at 8:00 am
Ryan Reynolds and Ben Mendelsohn star in “Mississippi Grind,” about two gamblers, one successful, one not, who join forces and go on the road together.
Posted on July 27, 2015 at 8:00 am
Ryan Reynolds and Ben Mendelsohn star in “Mississippi Grind,” about two gamblers, one successful, one not, who join forces and go on the road together.
Posted on July 9, 2015 at 5:08 pm
BLowest Recommended Age: | High School |
MPAA Rating: | Rated PG-13 for sequences of violence, some sexuality, and language |
Profanity: | Some strong language |
Alcohol/ Drugs: | Drinking |
Violence/ Scariness: | Perils and violence, intense themes of encouraging people to die so that wealth people can live longer |
Diversity Issues: | Diverse characters |
Date Released to Theaters: | July 10, 2015 |
The longing for eternal life has inspired many stories, maybe most of them. What is creating a story itself if not a kind of search for immortality? Anne Rice created her series of books about vampires because the death of her young child made her imagine characters who would not die. The story of Orpheus and Eurydice, with a man entering Hades to bring back woman he loves, has been told in many forms, last year in the animated film “The Book of Life.” This year alone, films like “Ex Machina,” “Terminator Genisys,” “The Age of Adaline,” “The Moon and the Sun,” and this film, “Self/Less” are just some of the films that explore the idea of a consciousness that can survive a human lifespan.
In this case, there is a very rich man, still, near death, relishing the chance to demolish a young, ambitious competitor in as public and humiliating a fashion as he can devise. His name is Damian (Sir Ben Kingsley), and he lives in a Manhattan apartment of an opulence so gaudy it would make Marie Antoinette blush. Everything is covered in gold or marble except for the bubbling indoor fountain and the window with a view of Central Park. Damian has money and power. He also has a community activist daughter (“Downton Abbey’s” Michelle Dockery), presumably trying to prevent everything he is building, who is not speaking to him. He has a furious will to live, but his body is dying.
And then he gets a card with a phone number and a message that this could help. The impeccably elegant Dr. Albright (Matthew Goode of “The Good Wife” with his authentic British accent) offers a very pricy special service. For a quarter of a billion dollars, he will transfer a dying person’s consciousness to a fresh, new body. And for that amount, you can bet it will be top quality. Damian is going to come out of this process looking like Ryan Reynolds.
That’s pretty much like getting the keys to a Lamborghini. So, of course first of all, Damian wants to take it out for a wild test drive, in the greatest city in America for living it up, New Orleans. We have almost as much fun as Damian does because director Tarsem Singh has a flair for striking, kinetic visuals and dynamic edits that make this part of the movie so vibrant we can feel the testosterone and adrenaline — and whatever other drug Dr. Albright is giving him — pounding through his system.
But Damien starts getting flashes of images and people he does not recognize. Are they hallucinations? Or are the memories of that handsome body breaking through? And if the memories can seep through into Damian’s consciousness, can the personality, the spirit, the feelings, the skills be there, too?
Singh is big on visuals but not much on storylines (“The Cell,” “The Fall,” “Mirror Mirror”). So, while this has more story than his previous films, it is still less than we are entitled to expect. You would have to be as impaired as Damian not to figure out what is happening, or to believe everything Dr. Albright says. But there are some nice twists, and some good fight scenes (Damian’s new body has mad skillz). And somewhere in there are some provocative concepts about life, death, memory, identity, and, well, karma.
Parents should know that this film has some violence, including shoot-outs, with characters injured and killed, and some disturbing themes about re-animating corpses and wiping memories. There are sexual references and situations, drinking, drugs, and some strong words.
Family discussion: Why does what Damian learns about the body make him think differently about what he has done? Who should decide how scientific discoveries like these are applied?
If you like this, try: some other films on this theme including “Seconds” with Rock Hudson, “Never Let Me Go” with Keira Knightley, and “All of Me” with Steve Martin and Lily Tomlin, and a very funny brief segment in the Woody Allen film, “Stardust Memories”
Posted on March 31, 2015 at 5:58 pm
B+Lowest Recommended Age: | Middle School |
MPAA Rating: | Rated PG-13 for some thematic elements and brief strong language |
Profanity: | Brief strong language including anti-Semitic epithets |
Alcohol/ Drugs: | None |
Violence/ Scariness: | WWII-era peril and violence |
Diversity Issues: | A theme of the movie |
Date Released to Theaters: | April 1, 2015 |
Date Released to DVD: | July 6, 2015 |
Amazon.com ASIN: | B00VU4YO7K |
The very title is a form of theft. When Gustav Klimt painted the portrait that gives this film its name, he called it “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer.” She was a warm, vibrant young woman who was a vital part of the extraordinary period of intellectual and cultural life in Vienna known as the Sacred Spring era. Adele Bloch-Bauer died in 1925, and the portrait hung in a place of honor in the apartment her husband shared with his brother, sister-in-law, and two young nieces.
And then the Nazis invaded Germany, their atrocities included stealing the valuables of the Jews they were sending to concentration camps. They took the portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer and hung it in a place of honor, after they renamed it to remove identity of the subject and the Jewish association of her name. “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer” became the anonymous “The Woman in Gold.” The beautiful choker necklace she wore in the painting was also stolen and given to the wife of Nazi officer Hermann Goering.
More than half a century later, Maria Altmann, the niece of Adele Bloch-Bauer, asked the grandson of her old friend from Vienna if he could help her get the painting back. This film is the story of the painting, the lawsuit, and Maria’s indomitable spirit.
Dame Helen Mirren is radiant as Maria, witty, spirited, an irresistible force who cannot give up. While we never doubt for a moment that she will prevail, Mirren makes us want to watch it all unfold. It is an extremely difficult case, with many arcane legal details, and the real-life story, like all real-life stories, is more complicated and controversial than any movie can convey. Director Simon Curtis (“My Week with Marilyn”) and first-time screenwriter Alexi Kaye Campbell keep the focus on the odd-couple relationship between Maria and the young lawyer (Ryan Reynolds), with flashbacks to show us Maria’s relationship with her Aunt Adele, and then her wedding to a handsome opera singer, just as the Germans are about to invade. Tatiana Maslany (“Orphan Black”) is lovely as the young Maria, and makes us believe she could grow up to become Helen Mirren.
The portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer now hangs in the Neue Galerie. And now this movie is a part of its story, putting Adele back into the picture and giving us a portrait of the niece who insisted that her story be told.
Parents should know that this film includes WWII-era peril and violence, with references to concentration camps and genocide. There is brief strong language including anti-Semitic epithets.
Family discussion: Why did Maria refuse Ronald Lauder’s offer to get her more experienced lawyers? What was the most important discovery in winning the case?
If you like this, try: the documentary about Nazi art theft, “The Rape of Europa” and learn more about the lawsuit and read up on the real story
Posted on March 8, 2015 at 8:00 am
Actors love body-switching roles. In “Self/Less,” Ryan Reynolds takes on his second (after the disappointing “The Change-Up”), one of four films he will appear in this year. In this film, as in the Steve Martin/Lily Tomlin comedy All of Me), a wealthy person who is dying arranges to transfer to a new body. The twist here is that the spirit of the receiver body starts to resurface.
Reynolds appears in another body-switching movie this year. In “Criminal,” the memories and skill of a CIA agent are transferred to a convict.