How to resolve AdBlock issue? Arts & Life
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- Written by: Tim Riley
‘OPPENHEIMER’ RATED R
In his inimitable style, director Christopher Nolan favors complex storytelling of theoretical themes with eccentric narratives that are strangely audacious in a blockbuster manner with an oddly art-house sensibility.
His brain-bending heist film “Inception” took audiences deep into the inner space of the dreaming mind. The space odyssey “Interstellar” was a trippy journey into the outer limits and twisting whirlpool of the universe.
Nolan put his stamp of originality, what Joseph Bevan of the British Film Institute called “a new brand of intelligent escapism,” on a trilogy of “Batman” films starting with “Batman Begins” and ending with “The Dark Knight Rises.”
In the bold wartime epic “Dunkirk,” Nolan captured the harrowing experiences of soldiers trying to survive the deadly horror of World War II on the beaches of Normandy. Not so terrific was “Tenet,” a metaphysical sci-fi thriller about the present under attack from the future.
With his body of work well-known to many moviegoers, Nolan brings to the screen “Oppenheimer” a most ambitious and sweeping epic thriller that delves deep into the psyche of the singular American mind of a brilliant scientist.
A Time magazine cover story proclaimed J. Robert Oppenheimer “the father of the atomic bomb.” As much he may have wished later in life to escape that encomium, Oppenheimer would forever be remembered for his role in bringing an end to the war with Japan.
One may wonder what the theoretical physicist would think about “American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer,” the more than 700 pages Pulitzer Prize-book by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin and the film’s source material. I didn’t have time to read it beforehand.
At a running time of three hours, “Oppenheimer” can only paint the broader picture but with enough details to be riveting. We glimpse Oppenheimer’s (Cillian Murphy) early years in the 1920s studying in Europe and showing promise of his brilliance.
While the focus is on Oppenheimer, who seems to be in almost every frame of this picture, heading up the top-secret Manhattan Project at the hastily-constructed outpost of Los Alamos, New Mexico, the story does not unfold in linear fashion.
There are numerous flashbacks and flashforwards to the life of the physicist, from professor at UC Berkeley before the war, and then post-war, his position as director of an institute at Princeton to losing his security clearance before a hearing of the Atomic Energy Commission.
A bundle of contradictions, Oppenheimer does not fit neatly into a hero role. While hardly orthodox in his religion, the scientist’s Jewish heritage certainly motivated his desire to develop the weapon that would topple the Nazi regime.
At the time, Germany was believed to be ahead of the allies in terms of developing a nuclear weapon. Oppenheimer was joined in the New Mexico desert by scientists of similar heritage to his own. Stopping Hitler was the logical imperative.
Oppenheimer was recruited by General Leslie Graves (Matt Damon), who understood the stakes but nevertheless wondered if pushing the button would destroy the world. When Oppenheimer says the chance is near zero, Graves replied that “zero would be nice.”
Facets of Oppenheimer’s life and political views proved to be problematic for many. Intellectually arrogant and aloof, Oppenheimer was described as someone who “couldn’t run a hamburger stand.”
What was troublesome but overlooked because of the necessity of developing a weapon to drop on Japan was Oppenheimer’s Communist sympathies in his early years, though he associated with a lot of party members including his wife Kitty (Emily Blunt) and lover (Florence Pugh).
Being a notorious womanizer was underscored by his intense, torrid affair with psychiatrist Jean Tatlock (Pugh). The nude scenes of their tryst seem gratuitous but suggestive that maybe Oppenheimer strayed far and wide from his marriage.
After the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the post-war era is just as spellbinding with Oppenheimer ending up in the crosshairs of his nemesis Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey, Jr.), chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission.
Weirdly enough as the progenitor of the nuclear bomb, Oppenheimer fell out of favor for his opposition to developing the hydrogen bomb, putting him in conflict with Dr. Edward Teller (Benny Safdie).
After the fact, Oppenheimer wanted to reign in his invention, not understanding the nuclear age had taken on a life of its own and the Soviet rush to nuclear armament led to the Cold War era of doomsday angst.
“Oppenheimer” may be viewed as a cautionary tale of the existential fear in the lives of people everywhere given what’s happening now on the world stage with a rogue nation that remains a nuclear power.
The scientists at the Manhattan Project may have been troubled as they sought the secrets of fission to make a fusion bomb, a fear that Oppenheimer dubbed “the terrible possibility.” After watching “Oppenheimer,” a little escapism may be necessary. “Barbie,” anyone?
“Oppenheimer” is an epic thriller well-worth the experience and best seen in IMAX if possible, though an intermission would have been nice.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
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‘MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – DEAD RECKONING PART ONE’ RATED PG-13
Tom Cruise has spent nearly half his life cranking out the “Mission: Impossible” franchise to great, everlasting success that continues, considering the title of the new entry is “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One.” Sadly, we must wait another year for resolution.
At the age of 61, the actor retains his youthful looks and a stamina that seems incredible given that he apparently does a lot of his own stunts, much to the trepidation of studio executives and the production team.
Case in point with the seventh entry in the franchise, on the first day of filming, Cruise drove a motorbike off a mountain.
Specifically, he drove a custom-made Honda CRF 250 off a purpose-built ramp on the side of a Norwegian mountain, a high rock face 4,000 feet above sea level.
Then he plunged that distance into the ravine below before opening his parachute barely 500 feet from the ground.
When he landed, director Christopher McQuarrie and the small crew of co-stars who had assembled to watch the sequence on video, breathed a collective sigh of relief.
The even crazier part is that Tom Cruise picked himself up and did it all again another seven times, just to make sure the footage was perfect. I am wondering about the cost of insurance premiums to cover this daredevil actor.
Stunts could get more extreme for “Part Two,” as the director confirmed the bike jump was “far and away the most dangerous thing we had ever attempted. The only thing that scared me more than that stunt was what we had planned for “Part Two.””
That “Mission: Impossible” fans will be left hanging at the end of “Part One” is not really a bad thing except for having to wait for the release date of “Part Two” in June 2024. Anticipation will lead to speculation, and interest is not likely to fade.
Once again, Cruise’s Ethan Hunt and his colleagues, Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg), the tech wiz who’s now more involved in field operations, and Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames), a veteran of the entire series, risk their lives in another unsanctioned mission.
The opening of the film involves a Russian submarine under attack that houses an Artificial Intelligence threat for world domination known as The Entity. As the sub sinks to the ocean floor, The Entity becomes an object of desire for all sorts of villains.
The Impossible Missions Force is once again, with Ethan as the lead, engaged in another mission-if-you-choose-to-accept-it situation where the retrieval of two interlocking keys will shut down the dangerous The Entity that bad guys desperately seek.
With Ethan, Luther and Benji as the core of the IMF, old friends, allies, and even occasional enemies resurface. Familiar faces include the return of Henry Czerny as the CIA director and former IMF leader Eugene Kittridge, who often seems to have ulterior motives.
Returning like a guardian angel in a desert scene is Rebecca Ferguson’s rogue MI6 agent Ilsa Faust, whose sniper skills save Ethan from an ambush. Like so many other spies, Ilsa can be something of an enigma.
On the villain side of the ledger, Vanessa Kirby is back as the unscrupulous arms dealer White Widow, assisted by her henchman Zola (Frederick Schmidt), and then there’s ruthless newcomer assassin Paris (Pom Klementieff) serving as Gabriel’s deadly accomplice.
A welcome addition is Hayley Atwell’s Grace, a pickpocket that Ethan runs into at the Dubai airport. She’s after the key for its monetary worth, and then becomes something of paradox as an ally of convenience to Ethan.
Topping all the villains as a deadly adversary to Ethan and this team is a terrorist named Gabriel (Esai Morales) with a connection to The Entity. As the chief villain, Gabriel is not your commonplace bad guy; he’s slick and menacing, even if a bit eccentric.
There are so many great action scenes in this movie that are jaw-dropping that it may be hard to choose a favorite beyond the bike jump. A car chase through Rome is quite thrilling, but there are even better spectacles.
A speeding train through the Austrian alps finds Gabriel and Ethan in manual combat on the roof, where the thrills are far more convincing that what occurred in the most recent “Indiana Jones” movie.
Released at the end of May last year, “Top Gun: Maverick” was the blockbuster film of the summer. “Mission: Impossible” should be the same this year, and the trifecta may come to fruition with “Part Two” next summer.
What else is there to say than Tom Cruise is on a roll, and “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” probably has no competitor on the horizon during the balance of summer. “Barbie,” for instance, is no threat to anyone other than Ken.
Make haste to see this movie on the big screen, because the action sequences are so stunning that any misgivings about the nebulous artificial intelligence that is The Entity is not even worthy of a thought. In brief, “Mission: Impossible” is a grand action spectacle.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
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The Cobb Sculpture Jam event will take place at the Mountain Meadow golf course, Greg Clouse’s “Art by Design” and/or your own studio.
The event will showcase artists in our creative community and be another step toward community identity and economic development for the Cobb area while creating an outdoor museum without walls.
The construction workshop is planned for late July/early August. The community “ Sculpture Jam” will be the weekends of Oct. 14 and 21.
Local experienced artists will coach budding artists to build sculptures using natural or reclaimed materials. It will be similar to other sculpture jams in the Bay Area, such as Sebastopol, Napa and Cloverdale, and similar in theme to the Eco Arts at Middletown Trailside Park.
Finished sculptures will be placed along Highway 175 at key businesses, lit up with solar lights at night and available for purchase.
A map will be posted on www.ExploreCobbCA.com.
Join the construction workshop in planning to learn how to construct various reuse items. Then create sculpture either at your own location or for simpler ideas join the two-weekend Sculpture Jam where lead artists can help you realize your ideas.
Then you will install these on various chosen sites around Cobb Mountain or on Highway 175.
For more information or to get an application contact Glenneth at 707-295-6934.
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- Written by: Tim Riley
‘NO HARD FEELINGS’ RATED R
Craigslist is a familiar website as a marketplace with classified advertisements where one can find jobs, services, housing, things to buy and sell, discussion forums, and you name it.
This online trading post is now the place to find an idea for a movie. Writer-director Gene Stupnitsky, the creative force behind “No Hard Feelings,” told Jennifer Lawrence that two producers for the film found a real-life Craigslist post that fit the bill.
The popular marketplace had an ad posted by parents that sought a young woman to seduce their timid, inexperienced son, and transform him from a high school nerd to a cool college kid with confidence.
That’s the basic premise of “No Hard Feelings,” with Jennifer Lawrence’s Maddie, a resident of tony Montauk’s summer resort town, thinking she’s found the answer to her financial troubles when she hears about an intriguing job listing.
Wealthy helicopter parents Laird (Matthew Broderick) and Allison Becker (Laura Benanti) are looking for someone to “date” their introverted 19-year-old son Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman), and bring him out of his shell before he leaves for Princeton.
A 32-year-old bartender/Uber driver, Maddie inherited a comfortable home from her mother in the seaside village of Montauk, but she owes property taxes and her car gets repossessed, thereby losing the ability to make money by driving tourists to pay off her debts.
Learning of the ad placed by the Beckers from her friend Sarah (Natalie Morales), Maddie is desperate enough to convince Percy’s parents that she’s up to the task, though having to disabuse the notion she’s a sex worker.
The inducement for Maddie to undertake an assignment of robbing a college-bound nerd of his virginity is that payment will be a used Buick with low mileage that enables her to cash in on Uber lifts during the busy summer season.
Setting the stage for an introduction, Maddie feigns interest in adopting a rescue dog since this allows her to meet Percy at his volunteer job at the animal shelter.
Having borrowed a van from Sarah’s surfer husband Jim (Scott MacArthur), Maddie insists on giving Percy a ride home, which gets the relationship off to a bad start when he becomes scared that she’s actually trying to kidnap him.
After getting a face full of Mace from a terrified Percy, the putative kidnapping misunderstanding gets cleared up and they end up on a date, and eventually they go skinny-dipping one evening at the beach, where a naked Maddie fights off kids trying to steal their clothes.
“No Hard Feelings” suffers somewhat from its erratic shifts between a serenely raunchy sex comedy and the safer confines of sentimentality where the two main characters form an eventual yet improbable friendship.
An R-rated comedy, “No Hard Feelings” milks a simple premise to allow Jennifer Lawrence’s goofy temptress to shine with comedic appeal, even if the humor is sometimes uneven. It might be best to wait until this movie is on a streaming service.
‘BILLIONS’ FINAL SEASON ON SHOWTIME
“Billions” returns for its seventh and final season on Showtime next month, and the best news is that Damian Lewis’ hedge-fund king Bobby Axelord is back and we can only guess that his longtime rival Mike Prince (Corey Stoll) is in for a fight.
In season six, the dust of season five cleared to reveal a world that had evolved. With Axe gone and Prince assuming his place as the new head of Axe Capital, US Attorney Chuck Rhoades (Paul Giamatti) had to develop a new strategy more sophisticated than before.
All the players, from Wags (David Costabile) to Wendy (Maggie Siff), from Taylor (Asia Kate Dillon) to Kate Sacker (Condola Rashad), and of course Chuck Rhoades, Sr. (Jeffrey DeMunn), had to sharpen their weapons and look for new alliances in order to survive.
Daniel Breaker, who stars as Scooter, the brilliant and locked-down Chief of Staff for Prince, was upped to a series regular. As always in the corrupt world of “Billions,” the ground was ever shifting and the stakes absolute with new conflict and new rules.
Season seven is described as one where “alliances are turned on their heads. Old wounds are weaponized. Loyalties are tested. Betrayal takes on epic proportions. Enemies become wary friends. And Bobby Axelrod returns, as the stakes grow from Wall Street to the world.”
As anyone who has followed “Billions” even casually would know, what’s old is new again. Last season, Prince was in the crosshairs of the US Attorney. With Bobby Axelrod returning, he’s probably a target not just for Chuck Rhoades.
Actions have consequences, and never more dire and momentous than just about any episode of this series. Guys like Prince, Rhoades and Axelrod, among others, are always going to be at each other’s throats. But that’s the tried-and-true formula.
“Billions” likely continues on with cat-and-mouse games between the government officials and Wall Street hustlers. Mike Prince’s political ambitions in an expected presidential run could result in an even more epic minefield of intrigue.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
