All is Lost

“All is Lost” is a purely cinematic story of a man versus nature in a journey for survival. Robert Redford is masterful.

There’s an especially tumultuous scene in “All is Lost” where Robert Redford is braving a storm on his yacht. The waves toss the boat upside down and Redford is carried along with it, shoved down beneath the ocean surface and drifting aimlessly, free of coherent direction or space. He lunges for the banister as it’s about to rock right-side up, and when he comes out the other side, he shows a momentary sense of uncertainty as he orients himself. “Did that really happen,” Redford seems to say. “Is all of this really happening?”

It’s one surreal moment in this otherwise quietly powerful and grounded film by J.C. Chandor (“Margin Call”). With “All is Lost,” Chandor and Redford together have made an intelligently provocative and tense movie about survival, free of the pretension, the spirituality, the philosophy and most notably the dialogue that detracts from such a story’s purity.

Redford plays a nameless sailor on a one-man yacht 1500 miles off the Sumatran coast. We meet him as he’s jolted awake by water pouring into his cabin. A shipping container has punctured the hull, and now fixing it is the only thing on his mind.

Redford silently responds to this crisis with practical, measured alertness. He dons an athletic, movie star presence but is worn beyond his years. Redford the character seems to inhabit all of Redford the actor and director’s iconography and battle scars through the decades, his face lined with wrinkles and his eyes showing concern but not panic.

At first the accident is little more than a hiccup. Radio, gear and backup equipment is all damaged, and although he can get the hole mended, his faith in his patch is shaken. The man of the elements that he is, everything changes in Redford’s eyes as a storm approaches. Chandor follows Redford up the sail in a massive crane shot and swivels back to reveal the looming terror of the storm. Continue reading “All is Lost”

Oscar Predictions 2014 – Round 1

“12 Years a Slave” and “Gravity” weigh heavily in an Oscar season loaded with buzz and hyperbole.

Last year I got absolutely embroiled in the Oscar race. Such is the case when you have inordinate amounts of time on your hands. I wrote weekly round up columns of all the news and shake-ups in the race, and it was a blast.

This year, contenders have come and gone, with some setting the world on fire (“Gravity”, “12 Years a Slave”), some fizzling out fast (“The Fifth Estate”, “The Counselor”) and others getting pushed to 2014 and out of the race all together (“The Monuments Men”, “Foxcatcher”).

But whereas last year was remarkably unpredictable, this year’s race started early and shows little sign of relenting. The media quickly took over and has aimed to influence the outcome in anyway they can.

Why am I even bothering then to enter my voice into the fray? I chimed in with a controversial piece on why “Gravity” won’t win Best Picture just the other day, and I may yet change my mind, but I was originally going to resume my column and do so as a video.

Now to do so seems futile, and if I’m going to make picks at all, I’d like for them to add something to the conversation. I’d like for them to be pieces that involve me actually having seen the movies in question and not just responding to the media buzz. Hopefully I can call bullshit when need be too.

The smarter pundits out there do no different, and they’ve already been more than critical of the hyperbole that in late October has already made this race exhausting.

I’ll at least make clear now these articles will be less frequent. I can’t promise that they’ll be vastly different than what you might read anywhere else, but they’ll serve as sanity checks in an awards circuit run wild.

 

* Designates a movie I’ve seen

Bulleted entries are Dark Horse candidates ranked in likelihood of getting in

Best Supporting Actor

  1. Tom Hanks – Saving Mr. Banks
  2. Michael Fassbender – 12 Years a Slave*
  3. Jared Leto – Dallas Buyers Club
  4. Josh Brolin – Labor Day
  5. Bradley Cooper – American Hustle
  • Daniel Bruhl – Rush*
  • Barkhad Abdi – Captain Phillips*
  • Jake Gyllenhaal – Prisoners*
  • John Goodman – Inside Llewyn Davis*
  • Jonah Hill – The Wolf of Wall Street
  • David Oyelowo – Lee Daniels’ The Butler*
  • Andrew Dice Clay – Blue Jasmine*
  • Matthew McConaughey – Mud*
  • Geoffrey Rush – The Book Thief
  • James Franco – Spring Breakers*
  • James Gandolfini – Enough Said

So the first thing you’re wondering is, why is James Franco so low? After having just revisited “Spring Breakers,” Franco’s reptilian, corn-rowed, drug addled performance is something special. It’s dark and twisted but as much vulnerable and affecting as it is iconic and outrageous. Distributor A24 is taking his campaign somewhat seriously, as they’ve put out two “Consider This Shit” ads. Sadly, honoring a performance like that is simply not how the Academy works.

But to look at the field more practically, Tom Hanks is being argued by some as capable of winning a third Oscar. He seems to also be a lock for Lead Actor, but this is the one where he puts on his classic charm and shows why he’s a real movie star, but a likable one too. Having seen Michael Fassbender’s work in “12 Years a Slave,” it’s monumental. Physical, animalistic, and yet also sickly compassionate and reserved. He won’t be ignored like he was for Steve McQueen’s last film “Shame.” Whether or not the Academy will recognize another villainous turn in this role is another question. Jared Leto has earned a lot of buzz for his cross dressing role in “Dallas Buyers Club,” so he seems likely and could steal a win if the movie is liked enough.

More pundits however are arguing for Daniel Bruhl in “Rush.” To me the performance strikes me as mostly one-dimensional, a calculated job for which Bruhl may very quickly be typecast. Barkhad Abdi seems most likely to be the most worthy snub from a not quite stacked bunch, but a good group of nominees when I think how much I’d love to see Matthew McConaughey, Andrew Dice Clay, John Goodman or Jake Gyllenhaal all break into the mix.

Lupita Nyong'O 12 Years a Slave

Best Supporting Actress

  1. Oprah Winfrey – Lee Daniels’ The Butler*
  2. Octavia Spencer – Fruitvale Station*
  3. Lupita Nyong’o – 12 Years a Slave*
  4. June Squibb – Nebraska*
  5. Jennifer Lawrence – American Hustle
  • Julia Roberts – August: Osage County*
  • Margo Martindale – August: Osage County*
  • Sarah Paulson – 12 Years a Slave*
  • Sally Hawkins – Blue Jasmine*
  • Amy Adams – Her
  • Kristen Wiig – The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
  • Naomie Harris – Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
  • Scarlett Johansson – Her

The supporting actress category is especially strong this year, and it’s amazing to me to see three African American actresses as near locks for this category. Oprah has star power on her side for this nomination, but she’s more than serviceable in “The Butler.” It’s a nuanced performance that never goes overboard. Octavia Spencer may be the only nomination “Fruitvale Station” gets this year. June Squibb is outrageous in “Nebraska,” and she has more than a few show-stopping moments that could win her an Oscar. But my money is on Lupita Nyong’o, a remarkably brave performance among many in “12 Years a Slave,” but she holds her own against titans of cinema.

The reason however I’ve included Jennifer Lawrence in my fifth spot is because I am beyond confused about “August: Osage County’s” role in this race. It was originally rumored that Meryl Streep might be campaigned for Supporting Actress, as the movie is really Julia Roberts’ story. Now where Julia will be campaigned seems uncertain. It might mean bad news for Margo Martindale splitting the vote and coming up short.

Also an interesting footnote is Scarlett Johansson’s bid for “Her.” Keep in mind that Johansson does only voice work for the role, and although it’s a long shot, a nomination would be the first time voice acting alone managed to land an Oscar nod. Also, go Sally Hawkins! Easily the most underrated part of “Blue Jasmine.”

Cate Blanchett Blue Jasmine

Best Actress

  1. Cate Blanchett – Blue Jasmine*
  2. Sandra Bullock – Gravity*
  3. Meryl Streep – August: Osage County*
  4. Emma Thompson – Saving Mr. Banks
  5. Judi Dench – Philomena*
  • Kate Winslet – Labor Day
  • Amy Adams – American Hustle
  • Adele Exarchopoulos – Blue is the Warmest Color
  • Julie Delpy – Before Midnight*
  • Berenice Bejo – The Past

Perhaps more than any race, Best Actress is especially tight. Months ago this seemed to be Blanchett’s Oscar to lose. Now all five candidates stand to be former winners, with Kate Winslet or Judi Dench acting as the fifth spot contenders, and anyone could give them a run for their money. Blanchett, with the help of Woody Allen and his reputation for championing women to Oscar wins, delivers a convincingly dignified nervous breakdown. Sandra Bullock shows depth and naturalism under the worst of acting conditions. And Streep chews as much scenery as you may have imagined. Streep’s spitfire performance is a thousand times better than her work in “The Iron Lady,” one that has as much pathos and depth as it does firecrackers, so I’m finding it hard to say she couldn’t win a FOURTH Oscar.

If there’s a reason I don’t like Dench in the fifth spot, it’s because Philomena Lee is an awkward character that Dench doing what she does best doesn’t fully earn. Just how big is Amy Adams’s role in “American Hustle” is a looming question mark, but on the outskirts are Exarchopoulos, coming off a big controversy with her director and film, and Delpy, who needs to strike while the iron is hot if she is to convince the Academy that her Celine is a character 18 years in the making.

Robert Redford All Is Lost

Best Actor

  1. Chiwetel Ejiofor – 12 Years a Slave*
  2. Tom Hanks – Captain Phillips*
  3. Robert Redford – All is Lost
  4. Bruce Dern – Nebraska*
  5. Matthew McConaughey – Dallas Buyer’s Club
  • Oscar Isaac – Inside Llewyn Davis*
  • Leonardo DiCaprio – The Wolf of Wall Street
  • Christian Bale – American Hustle
  • Forest Whitaker – Lee Daniels’ The Butler*
  • Joaquin Phoenix – Her
  • Idris Elba – Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
  • Michael B. Jordan – Fruitvale Station*

Best Actor always seems to be a packed race, so it smacks of hyperbole to say that this year is more or less so than in years past. But what is unique about this year is that given this deep field in which more than a few worthy candidates will be left out, there does not seem to be a notable frontrunner.

Ejiofor will earn his spot because his movie more than anything validates it. It’s a magnificently brave performance with any number of stunning displays of talent to point to as evidence. Hanks, Redford, Dern and McConaughey however have more of the buzz. While McConaughey’s time is due, Hanks, Dern and Redford have all used their performances as something of comebacks, proof to the Academy and the world that they are deserving of the titles of some of America’s great actors.

And yet who is the most vulnerable in such a category when there are so many other possibilities? Hanks could be out if he’s the front-runner for Supporting. Dern may be too modest and simple in Alexander Payne’s lightweight (but brilliant) film. And it may NOT be McConaughey’s time. Maybe it’s Leo’s time, or Joaquin Phoenix’s time, who shows a sentimental side in “Her” the Academy didn’t know he had. Oscar Isaac is as deserving as all these actors, but his deeply lived in, realistic performance is made to feel unlikeable, not in the juicy, good way, and it may hurt him.

American Hustle

Best Director

  1. Steve McQueen – 12 Years a Slave*
  2. Alfonso Cuaron – Gravity*
  3. Paul Greengrass – Captain Phillips*
  4. David O. Russell – American Hustle
  5. Joel and Ethan Coen – Inside Llewyn Davis*
  • Martin Scorsese – The Wolf of Wall Street
  • Spike Jonze – Her
  • Alexander Payne – Nebraska*
  • J.C. Chandor – All is Lost
  • John Lee Hancock – Saving Mr. Banks
  • Denis Villeneuve – Prisoners*

Best Director, as evidenced by every year except last one, is a good barometer for the Best Picture front runners and vice versa. So it seems as though McQueen and Cuaron are sure-fire locks. Not only are their films magnificent, there’s no question that their vision is integral to their success.

Greengrass helms the next big frontrunner, and this movie is directly up his alley. “Saving Mr. Banks” is the fourth biggest contender, but John Lee Hancock will not be the face or name people remember after seeing that film.

So that leaves O. Russell to clean up a “third time’s a charm” nomination, and the fifth will be a surprise. Scorsese has been snubbed here before, but Chandor and Villeneuve could be compelling dark horses if their movies don’t make the final Best Picture cut.

Gravity

Best Picture

  1. Gravity*
  2. 12 Years a Slave*
  3. Captain Phillips*
  4. Saving Mr. Banks
  5. American Hustle
  6. August: Osage County*
  7. Lee Daniels’ The Butler*
  8. The Wolf of Wall Street
  9. Inside Llewyn Davis*
  10. 10. Rush*
  • Nebraska*
  • All is Lost
  • Blue Jasmine*
  • Before Midnight*
  • Her
  • Dallas Buyers Club

Whew. That’s quite a field. I can speak with certainty to the top three at the very least. In fact, this is a two, if not one horse race as far as many are concerned.

“Saving Mr. Banks” is currently very strong after its very first premiere, so it seems next likely. “American Hustle” and “The Wolf of Wall Street” will have a lot of hype to live up to, and if they fail, then this could be a very different field. Otherwise, they seem to be confident contenders. “August: Osage County” will soon look very strong, and “The Butler” is looking increasingly weak, but each have big casts and Academy friendly ambitions, and it’d be tough to bet against them too.

What’s left are two spots, one I’ve reserved for the “indie” spot and the other for the “populist, sports movie” spot. Unfortunately there’s only one film that meets the latter criteria, and that’s the mediocre “Rush.” In the other category, just about a half dozen things could fill that single void, and currently “All is Lost” looks the strongest. My money will be on “Inside Llewyn Davis” to nab that indie spot, but it will depend on which movies critics and guilds come back for at the end of the year and how some of these movies perform with the public.

CIFF Review: The Missing Picture

Rithy Panh’s documentary is a harrowing artistic statement but is without an emotional core.

“The Missing Picture” screened as a part of the Chicago International Film Festival. This early review is merely an impression of the version screened. It does not yet have an American release.

For Rithy Panh, the memories that haunt his mind belong only to him, not to history. The images he sees exists nowhere else, and in order to be rid of them, he needs to create them, throw them to the wall and display them for the world.

In his documentary “The Missing Picture” it is noble that he’s done so. Panh’s film is harrowing and artistic, but the medium in which he has chosen to convey his message is impersonal and cold. “The Missing Picture,” the winner of the Un Certain Regard prize at this year’s Cannes film festival, has grand ambitions, but it is a dreary slog without an emotional core to grasp.

Panh lived through the Khmer Rouge era in Cambodia in which hundreds were killed in a genocide because of the Communist government’s social ideas. They operated on the ideology that a shared agricultural system complete of rice pickers would eliminate class, corruption and poverty in their utopian society. The reality was famine, drought, a lack of medicine or resources and deaths throughout the region.

But the images that exist from this period are largely propaganda films. The images do not match up with the history, and Panh’s memories are merely figments. What he’s done with his film then is acknowledge that what he remembers is unique, that there is no truth, “there is only cinema,” he says. Continue reading “CIFF Review: The Missing Picture”

CIFF Review: Le Week-End

“Le Week-End” is a brisk and alive comedy that bares some similarity to “Before Midnight.”

“Le Week-End” screened as a part of the Chicago International Film Festival. This early review is merely an impression of the version screened. The movie will be released in America in March 2014.

 Film critic Lisa Schwarzbaum wrote in a tweet that Lindsay Duncan’s character in “Le Week-end” would be the splitting image of “Before Midnight’s” Celine if only she was 15 years older and British. Not only is Roger Michell’s film on the realistic trajectory for where Jesse and Celine might end up two films from where they are now, “Le Week-end” crackles with the intelligence, realism and charm of Richard Linklater’s masterpiece of a trilogy.

And yet unlike “Before Midnight,” Michell’s film dares to make philosophical expressions of love and marriage into something other than talky and dour. It’s a brisk comedy with a spark for life and lunacy, and it hits a perfect note of authenticity between the chemistry of its two leads.

Jim Broadbent and Duncan play Richard and Meg Burroughs, a married couple of 30 years on vacation in Paris for their anniversary. Upon arriving at their dingy shoebox of a hotel, Meg immediately storms out and grabs a taxi to a luxurious Paris institution, doing so with a superficial, yet lovingly sophisticated confidence to always get her way.

Richard tags along like a sheep dog, at first appearing only concerned about money the way all cliché old men do in the movies. But after they’re well settled in and he’s stopped caring, he reveals that he’s been forced into retirement after an off-color comment about one of his students.

It’s just one of many complications in their marriage, one that leads Meg to question whether or not after 30 years she still wants to be with Richard. They bicker over their deadbeat son and why they don’t have sex anymore, but they do so with a sly, witty understanding of one another that shows at least why they belong as friends. Continue reading “CIFF Review: Le Week-End”

Gravity will NOT Win Best Picture… Probably

Some reasons why “Gravity” stands a tough shot at winning the Oscar for Best Picture.

 

“Gravity” may just be the finest movie of 2013. It’s a game-changer, as cliché as it is to say that, and there’s only one other film so far this year that may yet go down as an all-time Hollywood classic.

But it will not win the Oscar for Best Picture.

This may just be a controversial, trolling argument fanning the flame that is the media hype surrounding this year’s barely begun Oscar race (and even as I write this I’m a bit hesitant to say its chances are already over, especially when people already disagree with me), but ask any pundit, and they’ll tell you that the front runner status is not a desirable one to have this early in the game.

What happens is this: there’s a “spin” machine that goes into action, hurling negative press at the wall until something sticks. Before long a “narrative” forms that can overcome quality, dollars or buzz.

“The Hurt Locker” and “The Artist” each survived attacks of plagiarism, but when time passed and reactions settled, movies that were first hailed as generation defining masterpieces like “The Social Network” and “Up in the Air” lost steam fast when people decided they were just “pretty good.”

“12 Years a Slave” may be the “official” front-runner, it also being debuted at the Toronto Film Festival and being the only film to get an article as hyperbolic as this, but the public has drawn first blood on “Gravity” with three straight weeks as the number one box office draw, and the arguments hurled against “Gravity” may outweigh those for Steve McQueen’s film. Here’s what it’s up against over the next few months: Continue reading “Gravity will NOT Win Best Picture… Probably”

CIFF Review: The Motel Life

“The Motel Life” is a bleak melodrama with touching animation sequences that serve as a fantasy.

“The Motel Life” screened as a part of the Chicago International Film Festival. This early review is merely an impression of the version screened.

A young man named Frank is telling a story to his older brother Jerry Lee as he lies in a hospital bed. Graphic novel style animation and pencil sketches illustrate his fantasy. They’re pulpy, even gratuitous fantasies about fighter pilots, Nazis, ravenous polar bears and supermodels, but it’s tender and gives both brothers a moment of escapism. This story represents not the men they were, the men they are or the men they aspire to be, but it gives them a reason to keep telling more stories like it.

“The Motel Life” is their story. It’s an indie melodrama, and a sadly bleak one at that, but it’s a movie that against all odds tries to find a reason for these poor souls with no luck, ambitions or prospects to keep living.

Both Frank and Jerry Lee (Emile Hirsch and Stephen Dorff) lost their mother when they were just teenagers, and the loss forced them to live on the road with no money. Now as adults, their misfortune hasn’t relented. Jerry Lee has one leg after a train accident, and after a drunken evening he stumbles into his Reno motel room to tell Frank that he’s just run over and killed a kid riding a bike. He’s about to kill himself, but instead shoots himself in his bad leg and sits in a hospital bed just waiting for the cops to find out his dirty secret.

Frank lives vicariously through his brother, telling him stories and finding money to keep them going, but he’s a hopeless alcoholic vomiting blood each morning, and he turned away from the only girl (Dakota Fanning) who ever loved him. Now he spends his days trying to earn money to get Jerry Lee out of the hospital and reunite with his lost girlfriend. Continue reading “CIFF Review: The Motel Life”

CIFF Review: Philomena

“Philomena” is based on a great true story, but it makes a mess of its main characters and its storytelling method.

Philomena

“Philomena” screened as a part of the Chicago International Film Festival. This early review is merely an impression of the version screened.

What makes a great story? Most people think it’s just a good plot; juicy twists and surprises are all it takes. “Philomena” and the real life story behind Martin Sixsmith’s book is filled with teen pregnancies, evil nuns, gay Republicans, death, reunion, comedy and religion; it’s got it all.

But Stephen Frears’s film muddles the characters, the ideas and the storytelling style that would help make it great. It’s a mess of tones and loosely fleshed out philosophies on faith and forgiveness that keeps “Philomena” from working as either a detective thriller or as a journalistic investigation.

Sixsmith (Steve Coogan) was a BBC News broadcaster forced out of a job after a scandalous quote about burying the news was wrongly attributed to him. Looking for work, he decides to take a human interest piece centered on the elderly Philomena Lee (Judi Dench).

Lee spent her teenage years living in a convent, and after accidentally becoming impregnated, the nuns made her atone for her sins by giving away her son to an American family when he was just a toddler, forbidding her to search for her son or reveal she even had one.

Sixsmith isn’t so much moved by her story or by Lee as he is intrigued that it’ll make for juicy copy. He takes Lee to Washington D.C. to search for her son, only to dig up a conspiracy surrounding how little they can discover. Continue reading “CIFF Review: Philomena”

CIFF Review: My Sweet Pepper Land

“My Sweet Pepper Land” is a Middle Easter film that borrows from Western influence.

“My Sweet Pepper Land” screened as a part of the Chicago International Film Festival where it won the Golden Hugo for Best Film. This early review is merely an impression of the version screened.

Most of the Middle Eastern films to make their way overseas are inherently tied to their heritage and their cultural landscape. But that doesn’t mean some of their films ignore American influence. “My Sweet Pepper Land” may be about a border dispute town in a country trying to rebuild, but it’s a Western at heart, complete with a sheriff, bad guys, a standoff and shootout. It’s a surprising combination and an unexpectedly good film.

Hiner Saleem’s film is set in Kurdistan shortly after the fall of Saddam Hussein. It opens in an awkwardly grim and darkly comedic opening in which this newly democratic country is conducting their first hanging. It’s an embarrassing display in which the man is left standing on a leftover ballot box from their election, the rope stretches to where he can tiptoe before breaking altogether, and an employee is brought in to tug in an attempt strangle him faster.

The scene has little to do with the main plot, but it sets the stage for how “My Sweet Pepper Land” plays; it’s a lightly politically charged film with rough edges and a bit of deadpan comedy. It’s a combination that doesn’t always work, at the expense of deeper nuance for both the characters and the turbulent conflict. Continue reading “CIFF Review: My Sweet Pepper Land”

CIFF Review: Walesa: Man of Hope

This Polish biopic about Lech Walesa, the leader of the Solidarity movement in Poland, is modest and workmanlike.

“Walesa: Man of Hope” screened as a part of the Chicago International Film Festival. This early review is merely an impression of the version screened. 

Despite being a moving, inspirational portrait of an influential Polish activist and political figure, you will not find any orchestral score in “Walesa: Man of Hope.” No strings, no swells, no cymbal crashes and timpani designed to jerk a tear; not in this biopic. The songs that punctuate Andrezj Wajda’s film are Polish pop and punk songs, music plucked straight from the garage.

This is the music of the working man, and although hitting the beats of a standard biopic, “Walesa” keeps its head down and does a workman-like job just as its protagonist would. It’s a modest film of a simple man, but also a great one.

Lech Walesa (Robert Wieckiewicz) joined the solidarity movement in the 1970s. The Soviet Union had control over Poland, and the nation was stuck in poverty with the Communist mentality to view working class, human labor as little more than a resource. Over just a few years, Walesa became the relatable figurehead of the movement. With a big sniffer over a sly, gruff smirk, he reached the working class in ways the young, rebellious liberals could not, eventually leading city wide strikes, negotiating for the poor and winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

The film joins Walesa in the early 1970s as his first child of six is about to be born. When a riot starts outside his apartment, he takes off his wedding ring and his watch and tells his wife Danuta (Agnieszka Grochowska) to sell them if he doesn’t return. He’s arrested, interrogated and forced to sign a document that’s bound to come back to bite him. Continue reading “CIFF Review: Walesa: Man of Hope”

Captain Phillips

“Captain Phillips” is a shrewd thriller about leadership and respect more so than action and bullets.

Armed Somali pirates have just boarded the Maersk Alabama. The leader of the group, a skinny pirate named Muse (Barkhad Abdi), announces to Captain Richard Phillips (Tom Hanks) that this is just business and “Every-ting will be OK.” But when Muse demands to see Phillips’s hidden crew by threatening to shoot someone, something really interesting happens.

“I thought you were a businessman! Is this how you do business?” In another movie, that trigger gets pulled. But in Paul Greengrass’s “Captain Phillips”, the clever routine of shrewd negotiation, strategy and respect continues. “Captain Phillips” is a pulse-pounding thriller, but it’s a film about leadership more so than action and bullets.

Phillips was a real shipping captain whose boat was hijacked by pirates in 2009. The film opens with Phillips saying a tough goodbye to his wife (Catherine Keener) as he leaves for his voyage around the coast of Africa. They talk of the tough job market for their son and how tough the American way has become.

It’s a feeling Muse knows all too well. His commute involves him trudging to the ocean at the behest of gun-toting warlords. He’s allowed to pick his crew from a crop of dozens, but his real options are awfully limited. Continue reading “Captain Phillips”