Les Cowboys [2015]

MPAA (R)  Fr. Dennis (3 1/2 Stars)

IMDb listing
Allocine.fr listing*

LaCroix.fr (C. Renou-Nativel) review*
LeParisien.fr review*
LaVoixduNord.fr (PHL) review*

aVoir-aLire.com (J. Godinot) review*
Critikat.com (M. Pokée) review*
APUM.com (I. Navarro) review*
Cine Para Leer (F.M. Benevent) review*
Slant Magazine (S. MacFarlane) review
Way Too Indie (C.J. Prince) review


Les Cowboys [2015] [IMDb] [AC.fr]* (directed by Thomas Bidegain [IMDb] [AC.fr]*, screenplay by Thomas Bidegain [IMDb] [AC.fr]* and Noé Debré [IMDb] [AC.fr]*, original idea by Thomas Bidegain [IMDb] [AC.fr]* and Laurent Abitbol [IMDb]) is a thoughtful indie-style piece about a quite random French family "from the Provinces" (from somewhere in rural south-western France at the foothills of the Alps) whose parents, the father Alain especially (played wonderfully / poignantly  throughout by François Damiens [IMDb] [AC.fr]*) just happened to have a thing for American country western music and its lifestyle.  The film _closed_ the recent 2016 Chicago French Film Festival organized annually by the French Diplomatic Mission to the United States and held since its beginning at the Music Box Theater on Chicago's North Side. 

 Now it may seem somewhat surprising that a film about "a quite random French family from the countryside that happened to have a thing for American country music / its lifestyle" could then be characterized as _thoughtful_ / _poignant_.  My comment here is not intended to be a "knock" of American CW music (I like / love American CW music and have a Czech nephew back in Prague who's an enormous fan of the "tremp" lifestyle).  I just wish to note here that the "random French family from the countryside's" taste here is an _interesting_ and even _poignant_ FLOURISH that informs the rest of the story.  But THE STORY _very quickly_ and _radically_ GOES ELSEWHERE.

For we are introduced to Alain and his family -- wife Nicole (played by Agathe Dronne [IMDb] [AC.fr]*, 16 y.o. daughter Kelly (played by Iliana Zabeth [IMDb] [AC.fr]*) and son Kid (played as a 13 year old by Maxim Driesen [IMDb] [AC.fr]* and later by Finnegan Oldfield [IMDb] [AC.fr]*) -- beginning a random late summer / early autumn day (in apparently 1994) coming to a lakeside Country Western jamboree being held somewhere in the foothills of the Alps.  They're all dressed in cowboy hats and otherwise Western garb.  They spend the day eating barbecue, watching a few carnival style rodeo events, dancing to CW music -- Alain, even straps on a guitar at one point and plays a poignant CW song "Tennessee Waltz" on stage -- and ... at the end of the day, Alain's wife Nicole starts asking "has anyone seen Kelly?" 

What happened to Kelly?  Well, sometime during that seemingly innocuous / random "family outing" SHE _ditched the family_ and ... ran-off with her boyfriend named Ahmed (about whom neither Alain nor Nicole had even known about).  They find-out about him only in the hours / day that follow(s), as they start going through Kelly's stuff at home, in preparation to going to the police ...

And the two (Ahmed is apparently 18) simply vanish ... Not even Ahmed's parents (played by Djemel Barek [IMDb] [AC.fr]* and Leila Saadali [IMDb] [AC.fr]*) know where they disappeared to though they fear the worst ... Ahmed, his dad (who ran a random automechanics' garage at the edge of town) confesses, appeared to have had some radical Muslim tendencies (tendencies that he / the rest of the family disagreed with).  But now the two -- Ahmed and Kelly -- were gone and Ahmed's own parents tell Alain and his then 13 year old son that they honestly could have disappeared to anywhere.

THE REST OF THE FILM IS ABOUT ALAIN and his SON "KID" (who as the film progresses, grows-up) LOOKING for Kelly and Ahmed ... in Antwerp, in Berlin, in Yemen, back in Marsailles, even, by then early 20-something "Kid" as a young "volunteer doctor" for Doctors without Borders, post-9/11, in Pakistan.

And as the years go by, life / history, both big and small, goes on" -- "stuff", important "stuff" happens, of course, in Alain's own family as does other important "stuff" in the world as well (notably 9/11 as well as the subsequent Madrid and London bombings). 

Through it all, Kelly's mom, Nicole, gets _occasional_ word (a letter every couple of years, postmarked from truly random locations) from her daughter ... informing her of events in Kelly's life (now with a random Muslim name), notably that Kelly's come to have a number of children of her own (by Ahmed), but obviously these children would never know their French grandparents.  Kelly, for her part, never got word of ANYTHING that's happened to her birth family ... because, well, she never left an address in her letters, and the very occasional letters were again seemingly sent from random cities / countries across Europe / the Middle East.  (Ahmed's father notes at one point that "at least your daughter writes ... we haven't heard _anything_ from our son since he left us"). 

How does it end?  I'm not going to say ... but the film becomes a contemporary French update of the classic American "Western" The Searchers [1956] [wikip] [IMDb].  As such it makes for an excellent if often quite sad / poignant (and _perhaps_ very French ...) story ...


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Suicide Squad [2016]

MPAA (PG-13)  CNS/USCCB (L)  ChicagoTribune (1 1/2 Stars)  RogerEbert.com (1 1/2 Stars)  AVClub (C+)  Fr. Dennis (1 1/2 Stars)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (J. Mulderig) review
ChicagoTribune (M. Phillips) review
RogerEbert.com (C. Lemire) review
AVClub (I. Vishnevetsky) review  

Blame it on a number of things -- a continued attempt at "brand differentiation" with DC Comics [wikip] [DC] (owned now by Warner Bros. which is owned in turn by Time Warner, Inc) trying _really hard_ to be(come) "the bad boys" of the Comic Book universe with certainly _a darker vision_ of the world than more "boy scout-ish," "socially redeeming/redeemable" vision of rival Marvel Comics [wikip] [MC] (now owned by Disney); and then a cinematic roll-out of a vast number of DC Comics characters, some of whom will almost certainly have their own spin-off movies in the coming years -- but Suicide Squad [2016] (screenplay and directed by David Ayer) by almost all accounts (see the reviews above) comes across as "a mess."

I'd also add the warning to Parents: While rated PG-13 (and many of you _may_ appreciate this because you won't have to sit through this often dark film with your teens as a result), there are aspects of this film that really deserve an R-rating.  So definitely _don't_ take your little kids to this film and even talk to your teens about the film afterwards.  The film's cynicism warrants airing / discussion.

The story presented continues the exploration of a preoccupation articulated in the DC Comics inspired film released earlier this year, Batman v. Superman [2016]: Even if humanity proved "lucky" with Superman (who had used his superpowers to defend humanity), how could humanity defend itself against "Super beings" who proved not nearly as nice?

The "contingency plan" offered in this film by a _really tough_ Special Forces "suit" / commander named Amanda Waller [DC] [IMDb] (played by Viola Davis) to her reluctant superiors at the Pentagon was the assembly a (DC Comic book) "Dirty Dozen"-like unit of terrestrial (arguably) super-villains who, having done her homework (to identify each this unit's member's "pressure points" / potential "weaknesses") Cmdr Waller was confident could be "controlled" and hence "guided"/"formed" into a "world class" Bad-A.. [TM] special forces military unit like _truly no other_.

Her recruits:

Deadshot [DC] [IMDb] (played by Will Smith) the most accurate hit-man alive ... but one who could be controlled by both threatening / rewarding his cute as a button daughter Zoe [IMDb] (played by Shailyn Pierre-Dixon);

Harley Quinn [DC] [IMDb] (played by Margot Robbie) the now utterly psychotic (hence merciless  / remorseless) girlfriend of The Joker [DC] [IMDb] (played in this film by Jared Leto).  They had met when The Joker had been in prison and she, as Dr. Harleen Quinzel, had been his prison psychologist.  However, his insanity proved stronger than her capability and rather than changing him for the better, she fell in love with him and well, now they have the most crazy, obsessive relationship this side (or any side) of reality.  Her attachment to The Joker appears to be _her_ weakness that Cmdr Waller believed that she could use manipulate to her advantage; 

The Enchantress [DC] [IMDb], a 10,000 year old witch whose spirit archeologist June Moone [DC] [IMDb] (played by Cara Delevingne) accidentally released after coming across an idol in which it was trapped.  Now the Enchantress resides in June Moone's body and periodically posesses her.  How to control her?  The Enchantress craves her own heart which had been contained in a separate urn from the idol which had held her spirit.  Cmdr Waller now carries around The Enchantress' heart in a special "nuke-football"-style briefcase which she uses to extract demands of The Enchantress.

Diablo [DC] [IMDb] (played by Jay Hernandez) a tormented former inner-city gangbanger who was born with the ability to ignite things at will when he loses control / gets angry.   He'd actually prefer to be calm, but can pushed into losing his control.

Killer Croc [DC] [IMDb] (played by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) again tormented by a genetic mutation that makes his skin scaly like that of a reptile, he's spent most of his life away from humans preferring the sewers where his inner rage as risen to match the strength of his already reptilian physical qualities.

Katana [DC] [IMDb] (played by Karen Fukuhara) a grieving / angry Japanese martial arts expert / vigilante whose slain husband's soul (along with countless others) is trapped in her samurai sword.

and Capt. Rick Flag [DC] [IMDb] (played by Joel Kinnaman) a gung-ho / patriotic second generation U.S. special forces guy tasked by Cmdr Waller to lead this very unique unit.


Now this unit was created to offer the Pentagon a means to respond to "Super-Villain threats."  It turns out, unsurprisingly, that such a unit proves "hard to control" and ... (unsurprisingly) one of this unit's members "goes rogue."  The rest of the story follows ...

Setup this way, the film is actually not altogether bad, but as is typical of DC Comics' stories, this one is quite dark, darker certainly than most Marvel Comics' stories.

There's a scene in particular that ought to disturb viewers in which Cmdr Waller has to evacuate her standing HQ and is told to "wipe the hard drives" of the computers present.  After her assistants presumably initiate the wiping sequences, SHE PROCEEDS TO QUICKLY SHOOT (in the head) ALL HER ASSISTANTS AS WELL.  It's one way to "scrub clean" / "kill knowledge" of a super secret project BUT ... AND ... remember THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A PG-13 MOVIE (!!)

As a result of scenes like this, one's left with a pretty disturbing film that _ought_ to leave a lot of viewers reeling.

So Parents don't let this film go without discussion: Teens would you really want to be involved with a project _so secret_ that your Commander could _shoot you_ for simply having been part of it?  

This has got to be the craziest portrayal of a "National Security State" gone amuck ...


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Nerve [2016]

MPAA (PG-13)  CNS/USCCB (A-III)  ChicagoTribune (2 1/2 Stars)  RogerEbert.com (3 Stars)  AVClub (B-)  Fr. Dennis (3 1/2 Stars)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (J. Mulderig) review
ChicagoTribune (K. Walsh) review
RogerEbert.com (O. Henderson) review
AVClub (A.A. Dowd) review  

Nerve [2016] (directed by  Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman screenplay by Jessica Sharzer based on the novel [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] by Jeanne Ryan [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] [IMDb]) is a VERY WELL CRAFTED truly _teen oriented_ "PG-13" film that PARENTS should at least know about BUT one whose makers knew their responsibilities quite well... and hence kept the film within PG-13 boundaries and even told the story in a way that will probably more convincingly scare teens into being much more careful about their online habits than any amount of well-meaning talks from concerned parents / teachers ever could.

The film's about an online game called "Nerve" (the name of the film as well as the book on which it is based) which could be described as the recent Pokémon Go phenomenon's very even extremely Evil Twin.  Basically, the Game's online participants are divided into two groups: "The Players" and "The Watchers."  The Watchers have to pay (nominal though presumably increasing fees) to "watch" The Players "play", while The Players are dared to do increasingly crazy tasks by some kind of online artificially intelligent "Hive Brain", while of course video-streaming themselves (with their cellphones) doing them. 

These "tasks" would be tailored for each Player by the "Hive Brain" (an open-source computer program) based on the suggestions of The Watchers as well as _everything_ that this "hive brain" could collect about the various individual Players from other Social Media / the Internet.   For tasks completed, the Players would get money direct deposited into their (already existing ... ) bank accounts linked to them, hence a level of creepiness _from the very beginning_ as the "Hive Brain" would search-out _each Player's financial information_ in order to "kindly make (said) direct deposits" for them as their participation in The Game progresses.

So the story centers around a somewhat nerdy (photog for the yearbook) NYC (Staten Island) high school senior named Vee (played very, very well by Emma Roberts, she's a natural for these kind of roles) whose cheer-leading BFF Sydney (played again quite well by Emily Meade) begins the film already as "a Player" in the game (and who encourages Vee to at least signup as "a Watcher" (so that she, Sydney, could get more fans).

Well, after being quite accidentally embarrassed by Sydney after school one afternoon, she decides to join said Game ... as a Player not watcher.  And soon she gets her first task -- kiss a complete stranger for 5 seconds (with 30 minutes to complete said task).  What to do?  Vee calls Sydney's similarly nerdy brother Tommy (played similarly quite wonderfully by Miles Hiezer) who naturally has an enormous if unrequited crush on Vee ... and asks him to drive and accompany her to a local teen hangout to find some random guy to kiss.  There looking around and sizing up the prospects, they decide on an innocuous looking guy (played by Dave Franco) who's sitting alone in a booth.  As Vee approaches him, she notices that he seems to be with a rather odd book for a guy to be reading Virginia Woolf's [wikip] [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] novel To The Lighthouse [wikip] [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] which actually gives her an ice-breaker: "Hey that's my favorite book! (how odd that you'd be reading it...)."  Well, anyway, she plants a kiss on him.  Poor Tommy dutifully records said kiss on her cell phone and ... she's informed "Task completed, $100 will be deposited into your bank account."  And her number of "Watchers" shoots up to over 100. 

It turns out that "the guy", who's name is Ian, was there, of course, because of The Game as well.  And he has the task of "serenading a random woman" with a really corny song, which he does of course for Vee.  And soon both are given tasks of (1) "take a random woman into the city" and (2) "go with the guy you kissed into the city."  Perhaps a little uneasy, but with adrenaline flowing Vee consents to hop on Ian's motorbike and by way of Jersey and presumably the George Washington Bridge, soon they're in Manhattan and ... the rest of the film unspools from there.  

As the evening / night progress the two are given increasingly challenging / corny and ... FRANKLY DANGEROUS tasks.  They complete them one-by-one, increasing both their cash earnings as well as their number of Watchers ... which inevitably comes to piss-off  Sydney who believed herself to be "the cool one" in her friendship with Vee. 

Now Parents reading this, if you'd be concerned that this film would encourage your teens to become recklessly infatuated with some cyber game like this ... I _don't_ think you'd really have to worry about this ;-).   Indeed, I'd actually encourage you to have your teens go see the film (with you or without you).  Why?  Because I do believe that this film really "speaks teen" ;-) ... After a while, the stunts being asked of "The Players" in this game are so _self-evidently_ dangerous that most teens would go "OMG there is _no way_ that I'd ever do this!  The people who invented this game _should all go to jail_, etc."  And Parents, you could then "just smile" ;-) ... THIS IS ONE TIME THAT HOLLYWOOD DID YOUR JOB ;-) ;-)

Honestly, it's a wonderful film and could serve as a _ very good_ means for talking to your kids about "internet safety" (including _financial safety_) in a way that perhaps would have been hard to do otherwise.  Honestly, EXCELLENT JOB!


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The Brand New Testament (orig. Le tout nouveau testament) [2015]

MPAA (UR would be R)  Fr. Dennis (3 Stars)

IMDb listing
Allocine.fr listing*

aVoir-aLire.com (A. Champilou) review*
LaCroix.fr (A. Schwartz) review*
APUM.com (E. Martín Luna) review*
CervenyKoberec.cz (V. Staňková) review*
EyeForFilm.co.uk (L. Shaw) review


The Brand New Testament (orig. Le tout nouveau testament) [2015] [IMdb] [AC.fr]*(directed and cowritten by Jaco Van Dormael [IMdb] [AC.fr]* along with Thomas Gunzig [IMdb] [AC.fr]*), while certainly _not_ "for everybody" is a quite imaginative BELGIAN, FRENCH and LUXEMBOURGER religious themed comedy that helped open the 2016 Chicago French Film Festival organized annually by the French Diplomatic Mission to the United States and held since its beginning at the Music Box Theater on Chicago's North Side.  The film also earned a 2016 U.S. Golden Globes nomination for Best Foreign Language Motion Picture.

Basically, the film takes as its starting point the verses in the first chapter of Genesis: "Then let us make human beings in our likeness ... God created man in his image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them" [Gen 1:26-27] and then continues to imagine that God _and his family_  live "up in the sky" _as a typical Belgian family_ in a random apartment in one of the upper floors of a nondescript (and not particularly attractive) 20+ story tenement building somewhere at the outskirts of Brussels.

"God and his Family...", what pray-tell do you mean?   Oh yes, there's a family. There's the Father (played by Benoît Poelvoorde [IMDb] [AC.fr]*) a typical, and starting to bald, Belgian male in his perhaps early 50s.  He has a Wife (played by Yolande Moreau [IMDb] [AC.fr]*) who we "down on earth" _don't really know_ as she's "up there" in the Family of God's random tenement apartment mostly "tending/cleaning house" ;-).   Of course, there's The Son, J.C., (we _know Jesus_, played here quite sympathetically by David Murgia [IMDb]).  And finally there's God's 12-year old Daughter named Ea (played by Pili Groyne [IMDb] [AC.fr]*) who we, again, _don't really know_ 'cause as a typical Belgian family "all the attention's been given to the Son" ;-).   Ea's the one telling this story ... ;-)

We're told that God the Father created the world that we know over the course of seven evenings, when, "each night, after dinner" (cooked of course by Ma') "would tinker with such things" (as "Creating the World") on his computer, with a few (Belgian) beers at his side.  The "beers at his side" actually kinda help explain the creation of animals like Ostriches, Giraffes and Hippopotamuses which aesthetically do seem to make more sense "after a beer or two" ;-). 

But God the Father's drinking and general "Belgian style crankiness" helps explain a lot of the problems in the world, and so, "eyes rolling" almost-teenage Ea decides finally to "go down to earth" and fix some of the messes that Dad "drinking beers at his computer" seems to be causing. 

Here nice, smiling if somewhat clueless brother J.C. has some advice for Ea: "You know, when you go down to Earth, don't go as I did to recruit twelve Apostles.  I thought twelve would be a good number.  But most of them didn't really do much anyway.  You could probably get by with six. ;-) ... Then, when you ask them to write your Gospels, don't have them focus much on you or us.  Focusing on us is kinda pointless, they won't listen / learn from our example anyway.  Have them focus on their own stories and find what they need to do to get by."  

So Ea finds her way down to earth, finds her six, quite random (and often quite problematic) Apostles certainly with their own "demons" / "stories" and the rest of the story ensues ...

Again Dear Readers from the description above, it should be pretty clear that this film would _not_ be "for everybody."  But it _does_ have its moments.  I did find it amusing that God would have created "Giraffes" over a couple of beers ;-) or that Jesus would be telling "his sister" to not bother with looking for 12 Apostles as "most of them didn't do much anyway" ;-) that she could "get by with six" ;-)  

So ... while not necessarily a "must see," the film would certainly "amuse a few" ;-).  I got a kick out of it, but then, of course, I'm _not_ taking it "as Gospel."  I just liked some of the little jokes / "insights" ;-).   


 * Foreign language webpages are most easily translated using Google's Chrome Browser. 

** To load Websites from South, East and Eurasia in a timely fashion, installation of ad-blocking software is often required.

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Bad Moms [2016]

MPAA (R)  CNS/USCCB (O)  ChicagoTribune (2 Stars)  RogerEbert.com (3 Stars)  AVClub (C+)  Fr. Dennis (2 Stars)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (J. Mulderig) review
ChicagoTribune (M. Phillips) review
RogerEbert.com (C. Lemire) review
AVClub (J. Hassenger) review  

Bad Moms [2016] (cowritten and codirected by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore) is an often crude film though not nearly as crude as say the Hangover [2009-] movies.  Still the film certainly deserves its R-rating and the target audience really are ... moms ... often overworked and often underappreciated.

The opening voice-over by Mila Kunis, who plays Amy the eventual ring-leader of the "Bad Moms club" at a random suburban school nominally located somewhere in the Chicago area, could make you cry:  A harried working mother of two, Dylan (played by Emjay Anthony) and Jane (played by Oona Laurence) both somewhere between 10 and 12, married to a quite clueless, entitled-feeling dolt of a  husband, Mike (played by David Walton) who's definitely _not_ pulling his weight, certainly not with domestic chores at home (and again, "doesn't have a clue"...), Amy confesses that "the only thing that I've become good at is ... being late" and "at least once a day, I become convinced that I've somehow become the worst mother in the world."  

Sigh ... I do believe that A LOT OF MOTHERS feel that way though I do hope that the clueless, entitled-feeling dolt of a husband is above all a device invented by the scriptwriters to give their heroine Amy permission to enter into a (let's face it, morally unjustifiable but "wouldn't it be nice") inappropriate relationship with the school's "hot widower" (As he walks by with his cute-as-a-button eight year old daughter, one of the ogling moms, distracted by his studliness, says: "I'm sooo happy that he _lost his wife_ ... he's sooo hot" ;-).  Yes, it's that kind of movie with things that are _just unbelievably inappropriate_ being said in rapid fire every couple of minutes or so ;-).    Another memorable line was that of Carla (played by Kathryn Hahn) another "charter member of the Bad Moms club" fondly recalling in almost "sharknado fashion" her twenties (after Amy confesses that part of her life's difficulties was that she married early - at 20 when she got pregnant by Mike) saying: "Yup, you missed out.  It was just raining d..ks, in my twenties, just a deluge, falling from the sky, left, right, everywhere, nothing, nothing, nothing but d..ks." 

So dear Readers, you get an idea of what this movie is like.  There's also some creepy "Hollywood messaging" in the film in which the good old "Bad Girl" of the Bad Moms club Carla apparently goes on a same-sex kissing binge of a whole bunch of previously "uptight PTA moms" at a party thrown by the Bad Moms.  Imagine if a guy went around randomly kissing those previously "uptight PTA moms."  It'd be denounced by many as sexist and creepy, making light of unwanted sexual advances.  Here same sex creepiness is portrayed as "hey, okay."  Anyway, it's a small point, but it's there.

So is this a "great movie?"  No.  But I do think a lot of moms today would get a kick out of it.  It does say things that are wildly inappropriate, but precisely because they shock the ears, they're often LOL funny.

In any case, moms please don't take your little kids to this and (obviously) don't make this film "your Bible."  But ... enjoy the laughs ;-)
 

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Jason Bourne [2016]

MPAA (PG-13)  CNS/USCCB (A-III)  ChicagoTribune (3 Stars)  RogerEbert.com (2 Stars)  AVClub (C)  Fr. Dennis (3 1/2 Stars)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (K. Jensen) review
ChicagoTribune (M. Phillips) review
RogerEbert.com (B. Tallerico) review
AVClub (K. Rife) review  

Call Jason Bourne [2016] (directed and screenplay cowritten by Paul Greengrass along with Christopher Rouse based on characters from the Bourne Novels by Robert Ludlum [wikip] [GR] [IMDb]) "The Bourne Replacement(s): The Rise of the Millennials" ;-).

Heck, even one of those pesky computer savvy Millennials, CIA Cyber-Ops head Heather Lee (played quite convincingly by Alicia Vikaner) shares with Jason Bourne (played again as from the film franchise's beginning by Matt Damon), right there behind his shoulder, some of the film's promotional posters ;-).  (The other significant Millennial in the story is a very well (even _bravely_) crafted character named Aaron Kalloor (played by Riz Ahmed) the founder / CEO of a 1.5 billion user-strong Facebook-like social media platform called Deep Dream). 

Poor previously brain-washed ("for the sake of the country") late baby-boomer / genX-er Jason Bourne is still trying to figure out who he really is / was.  He gets some help early-on in the story from his similarly-aged former handler Nicky Parsons (played by Julia Stiles) who with help of an Anonymous-like hackers' collective operating out of Reykjavik, Iceland hacks the CIA's files about the super-secret super-Assassin program Operation Treadstone (which "created" poor Jason) as well as its successor programs right up to its most recent incarnation called Iron Hand.  Nicky then seeks to meet him in Athens, Greece (which proves to be in the midst of Benghazi-like chaos), while "late greatest generation" /  "early baby-boomer" aged CIA director Robert Dewey (played by Tommy Lee Jones) on advice of young sprightly (millennial aged) CIA Cyber-Ops head Heather Lee sends another "Bourne aged" Agency "Asset" super-assassin (played by Vincent Cassell) to intercept them.  And so it's "game on" from there... with the story passing through Berlin, Washington and finally ending with chase sequence in Las Vegas that would be _very hard_ to "stay" in Las Vegas ;-)

As has been the case already in the previous Bourne films, the Viewer is starkly presented with at least THE POTENTIAL of the intelligence agencies of our time, from creating super-assassins like Jason Bourne or "the Asset" hunting him, to a surveillance state which allows the feeds from  EVERY random "traffic cam" / "surveillance cam" installed across the _entire_ "free world" to be called-up and viewed by CIA HQ at Langley at will.

But what really fascinated me in this film was the "multi-generational battle" that was taking place with the "Old Guard" represented by TLJ's aging CIA director Robert Dewey willing to use / dispose of Matt Damon's Jason Bourne and even the Bourne aged "Asset" that Dewey sends out to kill him, preferring to work-with / hand-over the reins of power to the Millennials represented by Vikaner's spritely CIA Cyber Ops head Heather Lee and Riz Ahmed's private sector tech-guru Aaron Kalloor.

THIS IS NOT THE FIRST MOVIE that has suggested this dynamic with the "Greatest Generation / Early Babyboomer" generation preferring _their grandchildren_ (the Millennials) to their children (the late Babyboomers / GenXers).   The Noah Baumbach directed, Ben Stiller / Naomi Watts vs. Adam Driver / Amanda Seyfried starring dramedy While We're Still Young [2014] made a similar point.

Anyway, the "even _now_ trying to figure out who he actually is" Jason Bourne becomes an interesting symbol for that late-boomer / GenX generation (of which, I'm actually part ;-)

Good to great and certainly though-provoking job!


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Café Society [2016]

MPAA (PG-13)  ChicagoTribune (2 1/2 Stars)  RogerEbert.com (3 Stars)  AVClub (B-)  Fr. Dennis (3 Stars)

IMDb listing
ChicagoTribune (M. Phillips) review
RogerEbert.com (G. Kenny) review
AVClub (A.A. Dowd) review  


Café Society [2016] (written and directed by Woody Allen [wikip] [IMDb]) is ... "this year's Woody Allen movie."  That said, one does wonder, he being 81 years of age, how many more he'll be able to make.

Indeed, on numerous levels there was a swansong quality to this film: 

First, this was a nostalgia / period piece set in both New York / Hollywood of yesteryear (more or less of the 1930s): A young Jewish kid named "Bobby" (played by Jesse Eisenberg) from The Bronx sets out to L.A. in hopes that his "made it there" rich "Hollywood producer" uncle Phil Stern (played by Steve Carell) could find him a job / some job "in the business." 

Well, wide eyed Bobby got an education in disappointment and not just in employment but above all in human frailty.  While there, he watches his uncle leave his wife of 25 years for a 25 year old.  And Bobby hears his uncle confess to him "My wife did nothing wrong.  She's a good woman and has been a good wife."  So why did he leave her?  He simply fell, completely fell for the other (much) younger woman.  On the flip side, Bobby learned (to his disappointment) that he really wasn't yet ready for the seemingly age appropriate woman that he had fallen for, Vonnie (played by Kristen Stewart).  There some things being said there that Allen would have experience with.

Bobby returns, disappointed, to New York and gets a job working at a club for another uncle of his, Ben Dorfman (played by Corey Stoll) who, having not exactly lived an honest life and staring death in the face, despite having been born and raised Jewish, has something of a last-gasp conversion to ... CATHOLICISM ;-).  Why?  The possibility of both forgiveness and an afterlife.  "I'd want something of me to go on after I die."  And even one of his sisters admits: "If we Jews believed in an afterlife, we'd probably have more followers."  On one hand, it all seems rather flippant.  On the other hand, even with a smile, Allen makes some of the most penetratingly serious movies around (witness last year's Irrational Man [2015]) and at 81 ... Allen today is facing (approaching) death as well.  Again, there's a lot being suggested in this rather surprising subplot.

Finally, Allen himself does the voice over / narration parts in this film and it is clear that he was struggling with his own lines, especially at the beginning.

So yes, as much as I've enjoyed so many of Woody Allen's movies over the years, it's pretty clear to me that there aren't going to be many more.  And if there's been a "Confessional" quality to a number of his most recent films, I'm neither surprised and actually somewhat relieved for him.  For I do belong to the Catholic Church, and I do believe therefore that we will meet our Maker at the end.  And what certainly coming to terms with what we've done in this life (both the Good and not so Good) certainly would make that encounter easier.

In any case, Allen leaves his viewers (again) with a quite a lot to think about.


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