Pawn Sacrifice

Director Edward Zwick’s Pawn Sacrifice is a worthy attempt to depict the Cold War period of the mid-‘60s, when Chess Master Bobby Fischer’s defeat of Russian players meant as much to the U.S. Government as it did to him.

The film is told in a docu-drama style from a script by Steven Knight based on a story by Stephen J. Rivele and Christopher Wilkinson.

While they succeed in giving a depiction of the times, they falter at depicting the drama of the game and its history.  For instance, the flow of pieces in the reputed best single game in history between Fischer and Boris Spassky is not even dramatized.

The biggest problem with this story, however, is that, beset with undiagnosed personal demons, Bobby Fischer was not a very likeable guy and there are times when the viewer loses sympathy with him and doesn’t care if he wins or loses.

Toby Maguire tries hard to bring humanity to Fischer’s character, but the better performances are by Live Schreiber as Spassky and Peter Sarsgaard as Father Bill Lombardy, Fischer’s friend.

The sad part of this story is that, like Alan Turing (The Imitation Game), once Fischer  gave the Government  “its” victory, he became a castaway and had to live out his life in Iceland.

I give Pawn Sacrifice a 3.7 out of 5.

Breathe

The beautiful French actress Mélanie Laurent (Now You See Me) proves she can, also, write and direct with her new film Breathe.

This is the sad story of a lovely high school student (Joséphine Japy) and her enchantment with a new girl in class (Lou de Laâge), who seems to be the most erudite in this Southern France milieu.

The film starts with a class discussion on the dangers inherent in the excesses of emotions and the evolution of the relationship of these two young women bears this out.

Laurent shows that she can deal very well with her young cast and uses her Cinematographer Arnaud Potier to get us into the feel of the characters and understand their world.

Though I wasn’t happy with the shocking resolution of this story, I assume that came from Author Anne-Sophie Brasme’s novel.

The one thing I don’t understand is the title.  With all the smoking, especially by the asthmatic main character, I think Suffocation would have been more apt.   

I give Breathe a 3.3 out of 5.

The New Girlfriend (Une Nouvelle Amie)

Writer/Director François Ozon’s The New Girlfriend (Une Nouvelle Amie) is one of those stories of bizarre relationships that only the French can tell…and get away with.

It reminds me of Jean-Claude Tacchella’s Cousin Cousine (1975) in which two cousins, who are both married, meet at a wedding and end up going off together leaving the rest of the relatives with c’est la vie shrugs.

 

Here, the more dominant (Isild Le Besco) of two best friends since childhood dies, leaving behind an infant daughter and her husband David (Romain Duris).  Her married friend Claire (Anaïs Demoustier), who has vowed to take care of the child and look after David, discovers David is a cross-dresser and, gradually, accepts his condition as a replacement for her dead friend.  Then, she finds this new friend “Virginia” has lesbian tendencies, as well. 

I won’t give any more details, but will say that the only way this film works for me is because Anaïs Demoustier is incredibly sexy in her very innocent way.  I look forward to seeing her again, as well as Raphaël Personnaz, who plays her husband and has the makings of an international star.

I give The New Girlfriend (Une Nouvelle Amie) a 3.3 out of 5.

Straight Outta Compton

The first thing you need to know about Director F. Gary Gray’s Straight Outta Compton is that it’s not an action film about Blacks in a California ghetto.  No, it’s a historical docu-drama about talented young men trying to fight their way out of poverty and, in the process, becoming pop-culture superheroes.

 

It’s the true story of Gangsta Rap artists O’Shea “Ice Cube” Jackson (O’Shea Jackson, Jr.), Andre “Dr. Dre”Young (Corey Hawkins), Eric “Easy-E” Wright (Jason Mitchell), Lorenzo “MC Ren” Patterson (Aldis Hodge) and Antoine “DJ Yella” Carraby (Neil Brown, Jr.) as they use music instead of drugs and guns to get themselves out of Compton during an era of gang violence and police brutality the mid-‘80s.

 

Cinematographer Matthew Libatique brilliantly captures the period from ’86 to ’95 and Composer Joseph Trapanese captures the sounds with equal brilliance.

Best of all, however, this film is a tutorial, enlightening people, like me, who had no real understanding of Gangsta Rap as to its meaning.  The fact is these men were journalists, using music instead of written words to give a more accurate reportage of what was going on in neighborhoods like Compton.  The overlay of the Rodney King beating in ’91 gave support to the truth of their heroic work.

I give Straight Outta Compton a 4.6 out of 5.

The Transporter Refueled

The Transporter Refueled is an apt title for the reenergized 4^th installment of this great action series and Director Camille Delamarre has hit a home run with his first big feature.

 

Fans, like me, do not have to worry about the absence of Jason Statham as Frank Martin.  Ed Skrein is the Daniel Craig to Statham’s Sean Connery and François Berléand’s Inspector Tarconi is aptly replaced by Ray Stevenson as Martin’s ex-spy Father.

 

Writers Adam Cooper and Bill Collage have done a great job with Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen’s characters, who, here, are involved with helping women, who had been forced into sex slavery as adolescents get revenge on their abductor (Radivoje Bukvic).

 Casting Director Nathalie Cheron has, also, done a fabulous job with populating the cast with such talented beauties as Loan Chabanal, Gabriella Wright, Tatiana Pajkovic, Wenxia Yu and Noémie Lemoir.

The car chases and fights are absolutely thrilling and the fact the action takes place on the French Riviera and Monaco just makes it doubly rewarding.

I give The Transporter Refueled a 4.1 out of 5.