Tag: cinema

‘A Real Pain’ – Film Review and Analysis

“Traveling with a family member can be an invigorating yet challenging experience, especially when the family member in question has recently faced a potential tragedy, and you’ve become estranged from them.”

Traveling with a family member can be an invigorating yet challenging experience, especially when the family member in question has recently faced a potential tragedy, and you’ve become estranged from them. This is the dilemma faced by the co-protagonist of A Real Pain, David Kaplan (Jesse Eisenberg). On a trip to Poland, David must confront his family’s heritage while dealing with the eccentricities and hyperactive behavior of his cousin, Benji Kaplan (Kieran Culkin).

On the surface, David and Benji share a mutual love for their recently deceased grandmother and the memories they have of her, along with their childhood experiences. They are both nominally Jewish, although the film makes it clear that neither is particularly devout or observant. Benji is outspoken and upfront about his views on almost anything, while David is quiet, observant, and reserved in social settings. Benji seems to have retained the same rambunctious personality he had as a youth, whereas David now has a wife, a child, and a steady career in New York City as a digital marketer.

Following their grandmother’s death, Benji struggles to find his footing in adulthood. He works odd jobs in Binghamton, New York, and lives in his mother’s basement. Though less mature and socially aware than David, Benji is full of life and feels emotions more intensely. He has no filter, makes no apologies for it, and leaves a lasting impression on everyone he meets much to David’s frustration of not being able to do the same.

Despite not seeing each other for months after a distressing event in Benji’s life, the cousins decide to embark on a heritage trip to Poland. They join a group of American Jews to learn more about their ancestry and the circumstances surrounding their family’s departure from Nazi-occupied Poland. The group also includes other descendants of survivors with roots in Poland. The tour is efficiently led by a non-Jewish guide, who does an excellent job recounting the history of Polish Jews before World War II, the lead-up to the Holocaust, and the exodus of those who managed to survive. However, Benji finds the guide’s focus on statistics and dates robotic and disconnected from the lives of the people who were lost.

Benji’s outbursts during the tour seem socially inappropriate to David, displaying a lack of respect for the guide and the other participants. However, Benji’s emotional authenticity eventually wins over the group by the end of the tour. Unlike others on the trip, he refuses to numb himself to the pain of what they are witnessing and expresses his feelings freely without concern for others’ judgment. While his emotional instability troubles some on the tour, it also makes him memorable. Benji turns what could have been a somber and overwhelming experience into something more meaningful reminding everyone what it feels like to be truly alive.

In contrast, David hesitates to smoke a joint on the hotel roof, voice a critique during the tour, or even have a drink to relax after a long day. Meanwhile, Benji has no reservations about doing any of those things. Benji embraces life’s highs and lows, even when it leaves him emotionally unsteady, while David seeks stability and strives to remain even keeled through life’s challenges and opportunities. Despite his efforts, David feels let down by his job and struggles with doubts about how much his family truly loves him. Benji, on the other hand, is too immersed in the moment, sometimes for better, and sometimes for worse. The cousins admire yet resent each other throughout the film. Growing up in similar circumstances, they’ve ended up leading vastly different lives due to their contrasting personalities. While they can enjoy each other’s company, they also tire of one another quickly. Each character envies what the other has but is fiercely protective of their own lifestyle.

A Real Pain explores the concept of pain in a nuanced way: the pain of losing a loved one, the pain of dealing with a challenging family member, and the generational pain of having a family’s future stolen. The film captures how different people cope with these pains: David, Benji, the other tour participants, and even the tour guide, as they confront the events of the Holocaust, visit a Polish Jewish cemetery, and tour the Majdanek concentration camp. The message is clear: to cope with pain healthily, we must face it head-on in our own way. This journey of confronting pain is essential for building our resilience and strength.

Pain is what connects us to our humanity, reminding us that we are truly alive. During the trip, Benji recounts a painful memory: their grandmother once slapped him in a New York City restaurant because he arrived late for dinner. She had dressed up for the occasion, and the public slap left Benji feeling real pain. However, he acknowledges that this act of accountability, though hurtful, came from a place of love. Benji yearns for this kind of tough love from others, particularly from David. He craves someone who can hold him back from his impulsive tendencies, showing him care and affection in the process.

A poignant moment in the film occurs when David and Benji visit their late grandmother’s former house in Poland. The home is now owned by another family, and any traces of the Kaplans’ presence have long vanished. In a touching gesture, David places a stone in front of the house to honor their grandmother’s memory. However, the moment takes a humorous yet bittersweet turn when an elderly Polish man chastises them. He misunderstands their intention, believing the stone was placed maliciously to cause harm to the current elderly resident. Despite their efforts to explain the Jewish tradition of placing stones as a memorial to remember their deceased grandmother, the older man remains unconvinced despite his son’s English to Polish translation of their reasoning for having placed the stone there. Feeling awkward about the entire encounter, David and Benji decide to take the stone with them when they leave Poland.

In a beautifully symbolic gesture upon his return to New York, David later places the stone at the entrance of his Brooklyn home, where he lives with his wife and child. This act underscores the universal idea that “home is where the heart is.” While the memory of the family’s life in Poland has faded, their grandmother’s legacy endures. Her journey as an immigrant to America, striving to build a new life for her family while preserving her Jewish identity, continues to inspire her descendants, including David and Benji.

As the film concludes, the audience is left wondering about the futures of David and Benji’s relationship and their individual paths. The heritage trip and their shared memories of their grandmother seem to strengthen their bond. The film suggests that, despite their differences, family is ultimately the one thing you can rely upon in life. While Benji and David drive each other crazy, they also admire and need each other. The hope is that they will continue to support one another, bringing balance to each other’s lives with David finding more spontaneity and emotional authenticity, and Benji discovering greater stability and purpose.

‘The Grey’ – Film Review and Analysis

The actor Liam Neeson has become one of the main action figures in Hollywood, starring in such popular films as ‘Taken’, ‘Batman Begins’, and ‘Gangs of New York.’ However, while these roles were a bit one-dimensional or short lived in terms of his supporting role, you get to see the full scope of his talents in a powerful and dramatic role in the 2012 film, ‘The Grey.’ In this fictional drama, we get to see a man pushed to his mental and physical limits and how he is able to come to grips with such weighty topics such as his own mortality and his religious beliefs.

Not only is ‘The Grey’ a great film when it comes to its views on mortality, religion, and the depths of human nature when pushed to its limits. The cinematography, direction, pacing and setting in the film help make it stand out. There’s something in this film for everybody who is a fan of serious cinema especially when it comes to character backstory, action scenes, and touching moments of vulnerability and camaraderie. ‘The Grey’ doesn’t sugarcoat anything as well and does not shy away from addressing real life struggles such as depression, a search for meaning, and the futility of having bad luck run roughshod over one’s life.

Man can only control so much in his life and that includes what happens to those who he loves, how he adapts and survives when it exposed to the worst elements of nature and of the animal kingdom. Sometimes, the only choice that you have is to fight, persevere, and struggle to the last breath even when things look bleak. Neeson and the other men in the film have to grapple with a lot of bad events that make it a hopeless situation to get out of. There is no choice though and all of them have to do their best to make it out alive especially to the ones they love.

John Ottway, the main character in the film played by Liam Neeson, is a guy you want with you in the oil fields of Alaska. We know little about his backstory in the film, but it is revealed that he struggles with depression, meaning, and his faith in a higher power. He dreams of a woman who is his wife and the audience are not sure if he is still with her or if they divorced or each other or if something fatal has befallen her.

We assume that he is in Alaska working as a marksman protecting oil workers from the wolves and that he is doing this job for lack of better options and to preserve some remaining meaning in his life. Part of the brilliance of this film is that it doesn’t reveal everything too quickly about why Ottway is in Alaska or what happened to his wife. ‘The Grey’ does not ignore the great sense of suspense that can be built up over the course of the film to make a true compelling drama that captures and holds your attention until the end.

Ottway and the other men are facing grey wolves who see them as a threat and it’s not possible for the men to communicate to these wolves that they are friends and not foes. The animal kingdom suffers no man especially when he is in their territory. They can’t communicate with each other so it’s a battle for survival between man and wolf. While the grey wolves in real life are harmless and do not hunt humans, ‘The Grey’ takes some creative liberties with this fact in order to have a compelling film. Despite the criticism from animal rights groups, if you enter the area of a wolf’s pack den, you are likely asking for trouble regardless if you didn’t mean to do so, man or animal alike.

After a freak plane crash, Ottway and the other oilmen must fend for survival in harsh conditions while they are stalked by wolves including its alpha leader who see the men as threats to be reckoned with. Ottway has killed wolves before to protect the oilmen when they’re working in the fields and he knows what they are like. Against ever increasing odds of survival, he proves to be a great example of how to lead men in times of crisis and peril. His leadership, throughout the film, proves pivotal in giving the men a shot to get out of the Alaskan wilderness and back to their families. Even though it seems at the beginning of the film that Ottway has lost his will to live due to the situation with his wife, the freak plane crash and his survival from it propels him to try and save the men and outwit the wolves if possible.

Still though, ‘The Grey’ is a serious and realistic film about how far faith will carry you out of a real crisis. There is an underlying atheistic outlook of the movie that may rub some people the wrong way, but I found it to be needed. In life, when you face a tragedy, a crisis, or a perilous event, faith can only do so much, and you have to claw and fight your way out of it. I think ‘The Grey’ does a great job of showing how important it is to confront your fears, show true leadership, and fight as hard as possible against the odds to make it out alive of a bad and deteriorating situation.

Ottway’s character and his fight against the Alaskan wilderness and the wild wolves is a great metaphor of how each of us is fighting against our own personal demons and against events that are beyond our control in life. We each have a struggle to face and we have to do it on our own. If we have a wife or a crew by our side, that’s a great thing to have but that’s not always the case as it is in ‘The Grey.’ When you’re put into a bad situation and all hope is lost, you have to truly fight for survival and live like it’s your last day because it might just be it.

There’s an excellent quote from ‘The Grey’ that has a lot of resonance for how true it is regarding life’s fragility and how you have to live like it’s your last day and to do the best you can to survive against the odds. “Once more into the fray…into the last good fight I’ll ever know. Live and die on this day…live and die on this day.” This quote that Liam Neeson’s character recites throughout the film is not only a metaphor for his fight against the wolves and nature but his fight against depression and to make it through the day when all hope seems lost.

‘The Grey’ is a true survival film and it is excellently directed with a great starring performance by Liam Neeson. I believe it is an extremely underrated film and does a good job of bringing up various themes surrounding hope, faith, loss, and about life’s injustices. If you can check it out, I highly recommend giving ‘The Grey’ a view. It will be well worth your time.

Movie Recommendations – Volume I

‘Good Kill’ (2014)

220px-Good_Kill_poster

Good Kill is an excellent drama/thriller film that highlights the ethics and the cost involving drone warfare and how it can affect the servicemen and women who have to pull the trigger and live with the consequences. Starring Ethan Hawke, this film is a deep and probing look at how warfare conducted from thousands of miles away can still leave a lasting imprint on those who have a role in it even when they are not anywhere near the battlefield.

The film highlights correctly how while drone strikes may carry less collateral damage to civilian lives, there will always be the chance for the loss of innocent life and families being destroyed. Whether that’s an errant missile crashing into a wedding party or a group of children running by a targeted building within seconds of a missile being launched and getting caught in the crossfire, death from the skies will not only affect terrorists, but women and children too. Because drone strikes are less costly to governments and militaries, the rules of engagement can sometimes be abused to focus too often on low-level targets, who pose some actionable threat, but who could also be captured for intelligence purposes. A lack of international norms and standards regarding drone warfare leads to serious consequences in terms of possible abuse by governments who overuse it on secondary targets.

Airmen and women such as Ethan Hawke’s character and his colleagues, who conduct drone strikes, are shown to suffer from symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder because they get to know their targets, see how they live, and struggle with having the power of death over them. High-resolution surveillance makes the act of killing personal despite the fact that these servicemen are thousands of miles away. When a drone strike goes wrong and innocent civilians are killed, it leaves a long-lasting psychological effect on the military personnel involved.

They may not see their victims when they are flying an F-16, but they are aware of what collateral damage is when they see the dead bodies of women, children being shown on the high definition screen. Military service members do not last long as drone pilots due to the immense mental strain placed on them especially when they did not sign-up for conducting warfare with a joystick. Alcoholism, depression, and family problems have occurred due to pilots being asked to conduct drone strikes in the name of national security. All of these issues are highlighted in Good Kill making it more than just your average film about war, but also about an excellent look on how the human condition is affected from holding life or death decisions over those who never see it coming.

‘Roma’ (2018)

220px-Roma_theatrical_poster

Roma is more than just your average film about a family. It is excellent in its scope and ambition in covering a tumultuous period in Mexican history and for highlighting the issues of family, race, and class within the larger society. What I enjoyed most about this film was that it felt personal and it is based off of the childhood of the director Alfonso Cuaron. The way the story unfolds feels as if it has been lived out before.

Cuaron’s work and that of his film crew that was done with the cinematography, film editing, and screenplay is extremely impressive and goes to show the audience just how film is another form of human artwork that can display beauty, meaning, and pure emotion.

Amidst the story of this family are real-life events in Mexican history that overlap with the film without overwhelming the intimacy of the story being told. For example, The Corpus Christi Massacre or “El Halconazo” in 1971 are intertwined with Cleo’s search for a crib for his newborn baby to be.

Nobody in this film is perfect and true human error of both behavior and character are laid bare. Amongst the flawed characters in this film are redemptive qualities about them and how they fight and struggle to overcome betrayal, disappointments, and tragedy. The film is gripping in that it is about real life and there is no sugarcoating. In Roma, no one is immune from setbacks and struggles, and that is what makes the audience invests in the story being told even more.

Compared to many other films that I have seen, few have touched me more on an emotional level than Roma. The realistic dialogue, the set pieces, the chain of events, and the character development all lend to its longevity as one of the best films of the decade. If you have a Netflix subscription, do yourself a favor and watch Roma. You won’t regret the chance to view this pure work of art and I would not be surprised if it sweeps the awards at the Oscars. It is that good of a film and a noteworthy achievement by director Alfonso Cuaron.

‘A Private War’ (2018)

Unknown

This is a biographical film without feeling overwhelming or too much tied up in the protagonist. This film does a good job in covering the life of the deceased war correspondent, Marie Colvin, who reported from multiple war zones over two decades including Sri Lanka, Iraq, Libya, Syria. Marie was a fearless and bold reporter who did the under-appreciated work of reporting the facts on the ground when it came to what was going on in these war zones.

The film portrays her as someone who battled the terrible things that she witnessed and the horrors that she could not avoid. She struggled with her dependency on alcohol, cigarettes, was divorced twice and also had her bouts with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as many war correspondents deal with when they return home from a war zone. Rosamund Pike, the lead actress in A Private War does an incredible job in accurately portraying who Marie Colvin was in how she mimics both her mannerisms and her speaking style throughout the film’s entirety.

Despite losing an eye, suffering from PTSD, and struggling with maintaining her friendships and relationships away from the battlefield, Mrs. Colvin dedicated her life to reporting the truth and the facts from war zones around the world so that everyone would else would know the costs of war.

While she was afraid and while she was fearful, she had the courage to press on and do her duty in informing the public on what was going on. While she was killed during the siege of Homs, Syria, her memory lives on with this film and the work that she did for two decades in holding the powerful accountable for the wars that they started. In an era where journalists are being denigrated and dismissed with increasing impunity, it’s refreshing to see a film that pays tribute to a war correspondent who gave her life to the cause of reporting the facts so that people would be more informed on what was going on and to also care about why it was happening.