She Said

Director: Maria Schrader
Starring: Carey Mulligan, Zoe Kazan, Patricia Clarkson, Andre Braugher, Jennifer Ehle, Lola Peticrew, Samantha Morton, Molly Windsor, Ashley Judd, Zach Grenier, Peter Friedman, Tom Pelphrey, Angela Yeoh, Keilly McQuail, Mike Houston, James Austin Johnson, Gwyneth Paltrow 
Running Time: 129 min.
Rating: R

★★★ (out of ★★★★)

Maria Schrader's She Said doesn't give any false illusions as to what it is or pretend to be some kind of escape from reality. This much is clear in an early scene from 2016 when we hear Donald Trump (voiced by SNL's James Austin Johnson) screaming at a reporter about the leaked Access Hollywood tape. The fallout from that would be minimal, if nonexistent, serving as a reminder that those in power say what they want only until the public decides they've heard enough. But this isn't about him, at least not directly. Rather, it's the jumping off point that emboldens those investigating Harvey Weinstein, whose sexual abuses stand in a category of its own. 

The film depicts how Weinstein bullied and silenced victims into staying quiet for decades, with a lot of help along the way. And while it's easy to see how he got away with it in this context, what's most ironic about that Trump scene is how it might might be the film's only sensationalistic moment. In showing very little, Schrader tells a lot, with a tone similar to classic investigative journalism procedurals like All The President's Men and Spotlight. Based on the 2019 book widely credited for igniting the #MeToo movement, it's full of uncomfortable, disturbing testimonials from Weinstein victims that's direct and no-nonsense enough to be mistaken for a documentary. 

Schrader keeps things moving while Screenwriter Rebecca Lenkiewicz takes a practical, fact-based approach, both making as formidable a team as the two leads driving this story. It may not be everyone's idea of edge-of-your-seat suspense and there are only so many different ways to hear about Weinstein removing his bathrobe and demanding a massage, but it happened. So, as sickeningly repetitive as it is to hear, the survivors lived this, and listening to how it permanently altered them provides plenty of unexpected tension. For those who appreciate films that get into the nuts and bolts of print journalism, there's a lot to respect, as the most salacious of stories is presented in a sensibly straightforward style that doesn't pull punches.

It's 2017 when New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor (Zoe Kazan) receives a tip from actress Rose McGowen (voiced by Keilly McQuail) regarding an alleged sexual assault she experienced at the hands of Miramax head Harvey Weinstein when she was 23. After speaking with other prominent actresses who refuse to be named for fear of career ramifications, Kantor enlists the help of fellow Times reporter Megan Twohey (Carey Mulligan). Together, they uncover a trail of allegations, hush money payments and settlements linked to Weinstein over the years, but face an uphill battle, with many of the women having signed NDAs that prevent them from talking. 

Digging deeper with each new interview with former employees and assistants, an alarming pattern emerges, along with the possibility of a massive cover-up that extends far beyond the Miramax offices and into the legal realm itself. With the full support of Times editors Dean Baquet (Andre Braugher) and Rebecca Corbett (Patricia Clarkson), Kanto and Twohey move forward despite mounting pressure threats against their sources. Undeterred, they work to get these women heard and expose Weinstein's crimes, whatever the cost.

As strong as Mulligan and Kazan are separately in their scenes, they're even better together, entirely believable as reporters with differing personalities and tactics sharing the same goal. Twohey is the  more seasoned and aggressive of the two, reflected by her cynical, somewhat hardened nature. In contrast, Kantor is a deer in headlights, struggling to persuade sources to talk to her and go on the record. But as the investigation wears on, we see how their styles compliment each other, especially when circumstances call for one to rein the other in.

Kantor's empathy and likability proves to be an asset in dealing with the victims while Twohey's strength lies in navigating legal obstacles that derailed all previous attempts to nail Weinstein. Both actresses hit these notes perfectly, especially Mulligan whose character is all business, even while emotionally collapsing under the weight post-partum depression. She convincingly plays Twohey as if uncovering the truth is not only a mission for justice, but an escape that could make her feel full again. It's obvious how personal this is for both, with Schrader trusting the actresses to show it and leave the telling to the victims. Balancing this with the strategizing taking place within the Times' offices, she impressively showcases the processes that surround an investigative undertaking of this magnitude. 

In devastating turns, Samantha Morton and Jennifer Ehle play ex Weinstein assistants, one of whom sacrifices her career to protect a friend while the other's traumatic sexual assault is dredged up at the worst possible moment. As powerful flashbacks show their days at Miramax, both are now forced to contemplate the potential ramifications of coming forward and reopening deep emotional wounds. But Schrader avoids tastelessly recreating the assaults, instead detailing the events that led to them and its lasting psychological impact.

Even if we only hear Weinstein (Mike Houston) yelling over the phone and briefly catch sight of this loud brute at the end, it's still more than enough for him to make the worst possible impression. Braugher is particularly good in his scenes handling him, as he and Clarkson give probably the two most overlooked performances, credible every step of the way as practical but fair editors. And while famous Weinstein victim Gwyneth Paltrow does make a vocal cameo as herself, Ashley Judd appears full-on, essentially retracing the actual steps she took to come forward and expose him. 

Schrader clears all these creative hurdles in an unfussy manner since anything less could cause a serious, real-life topic to come across as the type of tabloid smut this film's rallying against. Still, it's impressive how thorough the script is in presenting exactly what happened and how. She Said finds a comfortable middle ground, neither a condescending lesson for viewers already familiar with journalism's inner workings or a bore to those who aren't. That we know the end result of Weinstein's trail of terror hardly dampers the proceedings, only further establishing it as a morality tale better suited to the big screen than most suspected.     

Fifty Shades of Grey

Director: Sam Taylor-Johnson
Starring: Dakota Johnson, Jamie Dornan, Eloise Mumford, Jennifer Ehle, Marcia Gay Harden, Victor Rasuk, Luke Grimes, Rita Ora
Running Time: 125 min.
Rating: R

★★ ½ (out of ★★★★)

The most shocking thing about the hotly anticipated film adaptation of E.L. James' best selling cultural phenomenon Fifty Shades of Grey is how shocking it isn't. But is that even really a surprise? Going in, the big question was always going to be how they'd be able to make a mainstream 'R' rated picture out of material begging for an 'NC-17.' Well, director Sam Taylor-Johnson has, and the result is understandably compromised, as it's clear the battle for control wasn't just limited to the two lead characters on screen. This is a story of two movies: A darker, twisted one with interesting ideas struggling to break through and the one we actually get, an almost hilariously inappropriate romantic drama with certain scenes that could easily double as SNL skits. Others, meanwhile, border on being tediously repetitive and boring. And yet there are many moments when the movie actually feels somewhat subversive, possessing this clever sense of humor about itself when it turns the tables before its dud of an ending.

That this is much closer to being a success than you'd think can mostly be attributed to Dakota Johnson, who will deservedly emerge as a huge star off the back of this. But those who remember know it's been a long time coming. Say what you will about the finished product, but it's tough to claim it doesn't have a strong, independent female protagonist at its center. But the whole thing is a perplexing near-miss that leaves you wondering what the result could have been with a little more creative polishing and a less blatant attempt at translating erotic female fantasies into ticket sales. But who am I to say? Their plan apparently worked. 

Washington State University senior Anastasia Steele (Johnson), is a mousy, "girl next door" English lit major filling in for her ill roommate for a college newspaper interview with wealthy, 27-year-old entrepreneur Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan) at his Seattle offices. Upon her arrival, the clumsy Ana doesn't appear to make the strongest of first impressions, tripping before being intimidated and overwhelmed by the mysterious, enigmatic Grey. Despite struggling through an extremely uncomfortable batch of questions, he's still understandably charmed by her shyness, intelligence and beauty.

Ana leaves their meeting all hot and bothered, while he's intrigued enough to later track her down the hardware store she works. It just so happens he's looking for some duct tape, cable ties and, of course, rope. We know where this is going even if the virginal Ana doesn't, at least at first. Grey slowly indoctrinates her into his sadomasochistic world, eventually revealing his hidden "Red Room" of BDSM toys and contraptions. Confronted with very real feelings for Mr. Grey and the prospect of a written agreement making her his submissive in more ways than one, Ana attempts to get closer to someone who's idea of caring is (literally) tied up in a vicious cycle of punishment and dominance. As she's discovering, he's got some issues.

The film's biggest strength is that Ana really seems to react to this evolving situation as the mousy, intimidated 21-year-old virgin who walked into his office would. She's at first intrigued, before being turned on, then genuinely scared when she realizes this is much more than she bargained for. A lot of tiny details feel right, like the fact that she has a flip phone or that Christians parents (specifically his mom, played by Marcia Gay Harden) are nice, well adjusted people who really like their son's new girlfriend, since it's hard to believe anyone wouldn't. The cold, sterile production design  also does an effective job conveying Grey's icy, emotionless world, with each clean, empty setting looking as if it could have been ripped from the pages of Architectural Digest.

Where Kelly Marcel's script gets into trouble is when the tone of the film starts suggesting a sweeping romantic fantasy (supported by a soundtrack of snooze worthy cover songs) centered around this guy's deviant, emotionally destructive behavior. Having not read the novel, I'm only guessing this is the aspect of James' entire premise that's most widely mocked, inevitably hampering whoever eventually signed on to write or direct this material. The irony is that the "Red Room" scenes, while getting away with as much as humanly possible under an 'R' rating, pale in comparison to the uncomfortable behavior Grey exhibits with his non-disclosure agreement and binding contract. For all the talk of this being a female fantasy, the film's so loaded with full frontal female nudity that it plays much more to the guys. But given the nature of the story, that kind of makes perfect sense.   

The line between dark and mysterious and creepy and weird is crossed at many points by the borderline stalker Christian Grey. Part of that problem is the casting of a wooden, nondescript Jamie Dornan, whose only identifiable trait is that no one would be able tell him apart from Man of Steel's Henry Cavill. Robotic and emotionless, this could be a faithful interpretation of the character from the novel, but that doesn't help in making it any less boring on screen. The original choice of Sons of Anarchy's Charlie Hunnam would have worked better since he'd be better able to convey that quality necessary to convince anyone to do what he wants. With Dornan in the role I had problems believing this guy could even run a company, as Mr. Grey comes off more like Mr. Bland.

As the "relationship" progresses, the change in Ana's entire demeanor and appearance is gradual, but subtle and entirely realistic. That's all Dakota's performance. If part of this movie's goal was to take her to the next level of stardom, she delivered and then some. You could probably name a long list of actresses who on paper who have been better for the role (and some who were actually considered), but it's doubtful they would have sold the transformation Ana goes through as well, or escaped the film with the audience still on their side. There's no doubt she's the best thing in this.

Supposedly, this film is a huge improvement over the novel, doing away with some goofier elements, like Ana's interior monologue. Forgive me for just taking everyone's word on that and omitting it from my summer reading list. And considering the book was originally conceived as a piece Twilight fan fiction, we could probably guess who's to blame for much of what doesn't work in the adaptation, especially considering rumors the author exerted creative control over every aspect of the production. It's most evident in the disappointing climax (sorry), which feels like a sudden, jarring stop even by cliffhanger standards. Having read the details of one potential alternate ending, be assured it's far superior and would have made viewers heavily contemplate who's in control and what exactly that means. Maybe they just didn't think we could handle it.

Zero Dark Thirty

Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Starring: Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, Joel Edgerton, Mark Strong, Jennifer Ehle, Kyle Chandler, Chris Pratt, Edgar Ramirez, Mark Duplass, Frank Grillo, Harold Perrineau, James Gandolfini
Running Time: 157 min.
Rating: R

★★★★ (out of ★★★★)

When we first meet Jessica Chastain's Maya in Zero Dark Thirty, she's silently and nervously watching her CIA colleague Dan (Jason Clarke) interrogate a potential Al-Qaeda suspect. It's an interrogation that soon turns to torture when he tells her to fill a bucket of water. She can barely bring herself to do it and we're thinking there's no way this is the same woman the agency nicknames "killer," much less the one who eventually brings down the most dangerous man in the world. It'll be only moment of hesitancy we see because, like everyone else, we've underestimated her.

At its core this is about a woman who's beyond exceptional at her job, steadfastly refusing to take "no" for an answer. Wherever there's red tape, she walks through it. When superiors are in her way, she plows right over them. Operating with an emotionless, laser-like focus and precision, it's impossible for anyone to deter her from her main objective: Finding and killing Osama Bin Laden. In many respects she's the most patriotic, inspirational protagonist we've seen on screen in some time, but Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow (again corroborating with Hurt Locker writer Mark Boal) won't let us get all warm and fuzzy about it. In fact, she hardly even gives us a moment to come up for air.

The chain of events start on September 11, 2001 but for the film's purposes the really begin in 2003 when Maya's career-long obsession with Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda leads her to be reassigned to the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan where she witnesses and learns Dan's interrogation tactics and gets a potential lead on the whereabouts of Bin Laden's courier and right-hand man, Abu Ahmed. For all the complaints and controversy concerning the depiction of torture to gain valuable intel one of the more under-reported stories about the film is the sheer quantity of it, as the opening thirty minutes of the film is nearly all waterboarding.

The lead Maya gets isn't concrete (as few are) but it's one that stays with her and she obsesses over as she moves up the ranks in the CIA. Her biggest obstacles and bureaucratic and political as she faces off against the agency's Islamabad Station Chief Joseph Bradley (Kyle Chandler), who's more interested in adding notches to his belt by preventing domestic attacks than locating bin Laden. He'll learn that you don't stand in Maya's way. So will his boss (Mark Strong) and so will the CIA's director (James Gandolfini). Maya's greatest strength is in how by sheer force of will and determination she can eliminate those who won't fight for her cause and sympathetically convince those on the fence who she needs (like Edgar Ramirez's Special Division officer) to cooperate.

Maya lives, breathes and sleeps catching bin Laden and has little time for others who won't. When her co-worker (exceptionally played by Jennifer Ehle) asks why she doesn't have a boyfriend her response is exactly what you'd expect. She doesn't care, or she does, she sure as hell won't show it.  This isn't an actor's showcase or typically the type of role that lets a performer show off their chops, which is what makes Chastain's work that much more miraculous. The movie may be ice but somehow she isn't, despite infusing the distant Maya with all the characteristics that should make her difficult to root for under other circumstances. Or it could be that we're just not used to having our female characters written this strongly. It's the rare case where you could change the name on the script to a man's and still be able to leave the rest of the screenplay alone. And to think anyone would claim Chastain's performance isn't paramount to the film's success or somehow takes a back seat to the terror or torture sequences. She's in every scene, carrying this whole thing on her back.

This is a cold, clinical, procedural showing its only signs of a pulse in its unforgettable final scene, which is as strong a finish as you'll see in any film this year. But much like the mission itself, it feels meticulously executed, even as plans constantly change. One lead takes Maya to another lead and then to another after that until the SEAL Team arrives at Bin Laden's compound in the final, thrilling hour. Our appreciation of the steps Boal's script takes us to get there and all suspense rests entirely on the fact that we know the ending, but not necessarily everything. Will we get to see him? Will he say anything? Will we get to know who shot him? And yet these are all trivial questions in Bigelow's world, where the cold, hard truth is a far cry from the sensationalistic dramatization everyone likely expected going in.

It's also about risk. In one key scene a character talks about how it's easy measure the dangers of doing something but the risk of not acting is always trickier to figure out. It's all about weighing the options and for Maya it's her skill, confidence and even a little bit of luck that lands bin Laden on her lap. Her problem is convincing everyone there's a shot, including the members of the Team being thrown into the lion's den. The two we meet (played by Joel Edgerton and Chris Pratt) express concerns of their own and they're pretty logical ones. The last 40 minutes of the film are unbearably suspenseful and masterfully edited, almost literally bringing us in the compound to experience details we've only partially been privy to or have just wildly speculated on. Bigelow and Boal could have easily called it a day there, but they thankfully keep going, giving us a glimpse of its aftermath.

If there's a single decision that got Bigelow and Boal into the most trouble it's the disclaimer that appears before the film starts, informing us that it's "based on first-hand accounts of actual events."  If only they knew what they stepped into with that statement, however true it may be. And to be honest, I don't particularly care. This isn't a documentary and they can fudge the truth as much or as little as they want. You don't have to like it, but it's the filmmaker's right. Despite allegations, the movie doesn't automatically take a pro-torture stance by showing. And if Boal did embellish, or even if he made the whole thing up (which by all accounts he didn't), I still wouldn't have cared, just as long as the final product on screen delivers.

All the "controversy" surrounding the film feels like a convenient excuse to have political arguments that should be taking place outside the theater. Still, it's tough to deny any film generating this kind of discussion is at all a bad thing, provided that anger isn't directed at those who made it. The focus should be on how Boal's script somehow condenses a decade's worth of intelligence information into a sustainable, compelling narrative and how Bigelow was able to make an even more muscular and unrelenting film than The Hurt Locker. But Zero Dark Thirty's most controversial stance comes in an ending that's anything but celebratory. It's strangely sad and uncertain, bravely daring to ask the important question: What now?