The expression “jaw-dropping” is used to describe movies all the time. But it wasn’t until “Going Clear” that I saw an entire audience – mostly comprised of jaundiced critics and industry insiders – with actual dropped jaws. It’s not that this HBO documentary delivers earth-shattering revelations about scientology, science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard’s billion-dollar prank-cum-self-help religion; in fact, it lacks some of the righteous heft of Lawrence Wright’s 2013 eponymous book, a 503-page, meticulously researched compendium of the church’s history, wrongdoings, and bizarre tenets. What it offers instead is the shock of footage amassed, especially of the Hitler-Goes-to-Hollywood conferences that are Scientology’s crowning glory. To see is to believe – or at least to believe that these believers exist. Continue Reading →
Archive | Book Matters
‘Serena’ and Other Bad Seeds
Like “Accidental Love,” the David O. Russell film that was so bad he took his name off the credits, “Serena” comes with such a fine pedigree that few will believe it’s not good unless they see it for themselves. Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper – who, ironically enough, have costarred beautifully in two David O. Russell films – get top billing, and it’s directed by Susanne Bier, whose operatic Danish film, 2006’s “After the Wedding,” deserved the foreign language Oscar for which it was nominated.
The problem lies squarely with the eponymous novel by Ron Rash. Though a critically acclaimed best seller, Serena should never have been adapted to the big screen. Its depressive, schlocky ambiguity could be overlooked, even appreciated, when meted out in Rash’s carefully tuned prose. But as a film, it translates into a melodrama that makes little sense and fewer friends. Even Darren Aronofsky, that master of elegantly crafted cinematic confusion (“Noah,” “Black Swan”), passed on this project, though he’d been slotted to direct it as an Angelina Jolie vehicle. Continue Reading →
‘Insurgent’: Cute Boys and Bad-Ass Women
“Insurgent,” the second film in what’s now officially known as “The Divergent Series,” is much better than its predecessor. What was good before is still good: Swoony Shailene Woodley still stars as bad-ass heroine Tris, and she’s still flanked by a cotillion of cute boys – Ansel Elgort as her brother Caleb; Miles Teller as her frenemy Peter; Theo James as her mentor/boyfriend Four – as she struggles as a “divergent” in a post-apocalyptic Chicago that divides what’s left of humanity into five factions based on personality traits: Candor, Erudite, Dauntless, Amity, and Abnegation. (Presumably nobody survived outside the walls of the city.)
This film picks up only a few days after “Divergent” ends. Tris and her cohorts have been holed up in peace-lovin’ Amity since Erudite leader Jeanine (a sheath-clad, frozen-faced Kate Winslet) ousted Abnegation and seized control of the city, mobilizing Dauntless meatheads as her private militia. Now, Jeanine has found a box hidden by Tris’s recently deceased mom (Ashley Judd) that purportedly contains a message from their society’s founders that will justify Jeanine’s dictatorial control, er, provide instructions for restoring order to their crumbling civilization. The problem: Only divergents can unlock the box, which means Tris and her gang must go on the run. (Wise-ass Peter and once-a-stiff-always-a-stiff Caleb break rank soon enough.) Continue Reading →