'Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House'

'Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House'

'Mark Felt'

Posted on Oct. 20, 2017 on CWAtlanta.cbslocal.com

Wayback Machine Archive Post

Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House (2017)

It’s 1972, and Mark Felt (Liam Neeson) is getting ready for work while listening to the news, most of which is about President Richard Nixon and his campaign reelection. We see Mark standing outside by his pool silently smoking a cigarette.

We cut to Washington D.C. as we drive by all the familiar sites, including the White House, which has protesters outside its gates demonstrating against the Vietnam War. Mark, the FBI’s Deputy Associate Director, comes in the office of the Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs. John Dean (Michael C. Hall) tells Mark that the President wants the head of the F.B.I., J. Edgar Hoover, to resign, with the implication that he would be promoted to Hoover’s slot as John Mitchell (Stephen Michael Ayers) and John Ehrlichman (Wayne Pere) look on. Mark tells them that any gossip, dirty deeds or secrets that are found by the F.B.I. are given to Hoover, and he decides to either act on it or just put it away in his personal file. Mark tells the three men that as long as Hoover is in power; their secrets are safe and he exits the room, leaving behind three defeated men.

Mark arrives at his home, where agent Ed Miller (Tony Goldwyn) and his wife (Kate Walsh) are having drinks on the couch with Mark’s wife, Audrey (Diane Lane). It’s evident that the two couples do this a lot as they joke, drink and dance away the night.

The next morning, Mark arrives back at work, greeted by his loyal secretary; Carol (Wendi McLendon-Covey) gives him the latest updates. Ed walks in giving a briefing to Mark, handing him paperwork on the terrorist group the Weather Underground. Another agent walks in and announces that “Mr. Hoover is dead.” Mark tells the men “Put everything in motion. No mistakes, not one.” We see F.B.I agents gathering boxes after boxes of paperwork and then burning them or shredding them. Ed nods to Mark that the job is done.

The Assistant Attorney General, Pat Grey (Marton Csokas) enters the building, telling Mark how the seating at the funeral will be done. Mark replies that the funeral will be handled by the F.B.I. “in the F.B.I. way.” Mr. Grey is taken aback by this statement and then tells Mark that he has been instructed by the White House to gather all of Hoover’s personal files to which Mark replies “What Files?” The Assistant Attorney General wants the secret files of Hoover, to which Ed tells him there are no files.

We cut to Mark sitting in Hoover’s darkened office, soaking in the moment. We then see the memorial service that is in the rotunda of the Capital building. After the ceremony Bill Sullivan (Tom Sizemore), comes up to Mark. It’s evident that Mark doesn’t like Bill, and they share a history, one which Mark doesn’t care for. Bill, after 30 years in the F.B.I. was let go, but now is working for the White House. Bill tells Mark that he is finished, Mark won’t get Hoover’s job.

Mark, back at his office, gets a phone call from the Attorney General. Carol listens in, thinking Mark is about to be offered the Hoover’s job, but it’s evident from her body language that Mark did not get the job that he dearly wanted. Not getting Hoover’s job will set Mark on a path that will bring down the President and shock a nation.

Writer/director Peter Landesman brings us a tale of secret policies, double tricks, payoffs and backdoor politics that ultimately cost President Nixon his job in 1973 and put people in jail. Ever since the book/movie All the President’s Men, people have been wondering and guessing just who was ‘Deep Throat,’ the person that fed damming information to the Washington Post correspondents Woodward and Bernstein. It wasn’t until 2005 that Vanity Fair figured out that the information leak was Mark Felt. The movie is based on the 2006 book A G-Man’s Life that Felt wrote.

The film wants to make Mark Felt a hero, but the problem is that he was Hoover’s right-hand man after many years working under a man who kept secret files on every politician, digging up dirt on each one of them, using those secrets to remain in power until he died. We never really know why Felt gave the Washington Post the information to bring down a presidency. Was it revenge for not giving him the top job and replacing Hoover with a pro-Nixon supporter or was it truly because he wanted to take down a corrupt administration, Felt comes across on the screen as a man who feels that the F.B.I. is the last bastion in the country to keep America together in those turbulent years of the Vietnam War? The film never creates the tension that is needed for this genre; it tries to with all the back door politics, but the tension never builds as the story plods along, lacking a sense of urgency.

Liam Neeson does his best to make Mark Felt compelling, and try as hard as he does, he is let down by the script. The best scenes of Neeson’s in this film are when Felt is confronted head-on. The scene where Felt slowly lets John Dean know that they can’t do anything about Hoover because he has dirt on all of them is compelling and well done. I just wish there were more scenes like that in the film. The supporting cast is a fantastic group of actors. Diane Lane is terrific as Mark Felt’s wife, a woman who has nobly supported her husband for thirty years but worries that his devotion to Hoover and the F.B.I. will bring him down. Tony Goldwyn does an admirable job as Felt’s friend and number two. Wendi McLendon-Covey isn’t given much to do as Felt’s secretary, though I did like her scene when Felt is informed he didn’t get Hoover’s job. Tom Sizemore is perfect in the role of Bill Sullivan, a sleazy ex-F.B.I. agent who would like nothing more than seeing Felt go down. The supporting cast also includes some excellent actors who only have one or two scenes, including Kate Walsh, Bruce Greenwood, Noah Wyle and Michael C. Hall as John Dean.

Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House never entirely lives up to the actual events of Watergate, giving us a film that just can’t find its footing. It’s hard to do a movie on this subject matter because one of the greatest films of all time already covers it, the 1976 Oscar winner All the President’s Men. I don’t think Mark Felt will be seeing any Oscar love next year.     My Rating: Bargain Matinee

My movie rating system from Best to Worst:  1). I Would Pay to See it Again  2). Full Price  3). Bargain Matinee  4). Cable  5). You Would Have to Pay Me to See it Again

Mark Felt Website

'The King's Choice'

'The King's Choice' Movie Review

'The King's Choice'

Posted on Oct 13, 2017 on CWAtlanta.cbslocal.com

Wayback Machine Archive Post

The King’s Choice  (2017)

In 1905 the people of Norway voted to establish a parliamentary form of government. They created a position for the monarchy that was mostly ceremonial and brought Crown Prince Frederick of Denmark to be their new king, His Majesty Kong Haakon VII. He brought his young son and wife to the country, to rule over a country but have no power to enact anything.

We cut to 1940, and we listen to a radio report of Nazi ships being sunk off the coast of Norway by British and French forces. We cut to King Haakon (Jesper Christensen) outside holding an umbrella as snow falls, while he covers his face with his hand. We cut to the King walking in deep snow as he searches for his grandchildren who he is playing hide and seek with. He slowly sneaks up to two cars parked in front of a mansion and opens one of the doors, finding a child inside hiding. He happily pulls the boy out of the car, both laughing. He then moves over to the other vehicle and opens the door to find his two granddaughters. The daughters argue with the boy on who should be it, and the King tells them he will be ‘it’ again. The King starts counting down from ten as the three children scamper off.

As he is counting with his hand over his face, his son, the Crown Prince Kronprins Olav (Anders Baasmo Christiansen) comes outside looking for his father. The Crown Prince is not dressed for the cold weather. As the King slowly counts, the two discuss the German ships being sunk. The Crown Prince is insistent that the Germans are about to invade Norway. The Crown Price is convinced the government will not do anything to stop the Germans, as the army has not yet been mobilized. The Crown Price wants the King to act, but the King feels that it is up to the government to do something, that other than giving advice, he is powerless to act. The Crown Prince’s wife, Martha (Tuva Novotny) comes out, telling her husband that he has a phone call. As they talk, the King asks Martha her opinion. Martha feels that Norway should continue to be neutral in the war.

We cut to the German Legation in Oslo where the diplomat Curt Brauer (Karl Markovics) is listening to the radio with his wife, Anneliese (Katharina Schuttler) and baby. As Curt puts down the baby in its crib, the radio says that British and French ships have laid mines in Norwegian waters. The radio tells its audience that there are 100 German ships in the straights heading toward Norway, including warships.

We cut to a fortress on the coast of Norway as a military officer is reading his men to fire at the German ships. As the blackout he has ordered happens, he is told that the government hasn’t decided on if they should fire on the German navy. The Colonel tells his men to man the guns and get ready to shoot. We cut back to the diplomat and his wife. They are still listening to the radio, and Curt is trying to reassure that they will be safe and there will not be a war. Just then he hears the front doorbell riding and goes to see a German officer has come inside the legation. The officer tells Curt that “it’s time.” The war is about to come to Norway, and the King will be forced to accept the German’s conditions or risk his country be burned to the ground.

Taking place over three days in 1940, The King’s Choice is a thoughtful and riveting drama that creates a tension that builds throughout the film. It brings to light a little-known fact of world history (at least in the case of the United States) about a King who had to make an impossible choice; give in to the Nazi’s or fight and cost his country thousands of lives.

The film shows the war in not only the eyes of the King and his family but also the German side and the Norwegian soldier on the other side. We get to see the emotional impact that these decisions have on the King and his son, as they are often in conflict over what to do. We see how the diplomat from Germany, works hard to try to avoid bloodshed, so much so that he damages his relationship with his loved ones. The film also gives us a look at the Norwegian men and women trying to flee from the war and the young boy who has to muster the courage to fight the Germans.

Jesper Christensen as the King gives a moving and compelling performance of a King who must run from the German army all the while trying to make a choice that could change his country’s history. His chemistry with Anders Baasmo Christiansen, the son who would rather fight than talk with the Nazi’s, is so exceptional that it feels that they are father and son. In addition, Karl Markovics gives a superb performance as the diplomat who risks everything to avoid more bloodshed.

Director Erik Poppe and co-writers Harald Rosenløw-Eeg and Jan Trygve Røyneland gives us an engaging and at times moving film about a King and his country in a dangerous time of crisis.    My Rating: Full Price

My movie rating system from Best to Worst:  1). I Would Pay to See it Again  2). Full Price  3). Bargain Matinee  4). Cable  5). You Would Have to Pay Me to See it Again

The King’s Choice Website

'Loving Vincent'

'Loving Vincent' Movie Review

'Loving Vincent'

Posted on October 6,2017 on CWAtlanta.cbslocal.com

Wayback Machine Archive Post

Loving Vincent (2016)

We first see a newspaper report telling us that “one van Gogh, aged 37, Dutch painter, staying at Auvers, shot himself with a revolver in the fields, but being only wounded, returned to his room, where he died two days later.” We are told that the events in this film take place one year after the death of Vincent van Gogh. We follow the camera as it pans down a street in Arles in 1891, stopping in front of a bar as two men head outside arguing. A man in a yellow coat, Armand Roulin (Douglas Booth), argues loudly with a soldier in a Fez hat and then hits him, cause the man to collapse on the ground. Armand heads back inside the bar. A Lieutenant (Robin Hodges) comes up and questions the obviously drunk soldier. The Lieutenant finds out that Armand is the reason the solider is on the ground. The Lieutenant, having been told that the letter on the ground is Armand’s, picks the letter up and goes inside, finding Armand looking at himself in the mirror.

The Lieutenant tries to give Armand the letter, but he tells him that it’s not his letter, it’s to be delivered to Vincent van Gogh’s brother, Theo. Armand has been given the task of taking the letter to Theo by his father. The letter was just found in Vincent’s old apartment when the landlord cleaned out the apartment, and Armand disagrees with his father. As Armand takes a bottle from a sleeping patron, he explains that Vincent isn’t worth the effort because he was crazy. Armand is still bitter that the town turned on his father after he refused to sign a petition to evict van Gogh. The Lieutenant explains that Vincent was OK until he took in fellow artist Paul Gaugin (Piotr Pamula) as a boarder. We see the two men argue, with Gaugin packing up and leaving a very distraught Vincent. Later, Vincent is seen wandering the streets muttering to himself. He heads into a brothel and hands a folded handkerchief to a working girl who screams as she opens the handkerchief and sees a bloody ear. We know through a flashback that Armand was the first to find Vincent laying on his bed bleed all over his bed, followed into the room by his father, the postman of the town, Joseph Roulin (Chris O’Dowd). Armand leaves the room shocked by what he sees while Joseph tries to comfort Vincent.

We cut to a passed out Armand in the bar, his head on the table asleep. Outside the bar, Joseph asks a couple of patrons sitting outside the bar about the whereabouts of his son as he is about to go on a train to Paris. They tell Joseph that his son is inside the bar and is in no shape to go anywhere. Joseph will make sure that his son sobers up and gets on that train. That train will take a journey of exploration into the life and death of Vincent Van Gogh and will change Joseph’s life forever.

Writer/directors Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman (along with writer Jacek Dehnel) bring us a gorgeous animated film that took over six years to complete. Van Gogh completed over 800 paintings and this film, animating with oil painting, took 125 artists to create over 65,000 panels to animate the film. The film uses over 120 of van Gogh’s better-known works to fill the landscape and its characters with color and vibrant visual scenes. The film is breathtaking to watch as it uses that same style of painting that van Gogh worked in, making his paintings come to life on the screen.

While the look of the film is unique and at times familiar (because of using so many famous paintings), the story-line is equally compelling. Instead of making an ordinary biographical picture, we get a mystery where Armand travels around the country investigating what made-up van Gogh and why did he commit suicide? We get to know van Gogh as Armand talks to everyone that was important in Vincent’s life. When characters think back to incidents in the past, the screen goes from the vivid colors of van Gogh paintings to a shockingly black-and-white world because this was before Vincent had learned to paint (he didn’t take up art until late in his life). Each person that Armand interviews, gives him different perspectives on Vincent, slowly peeling back the layers of a very complicated man. Some see him as evil and crazy, others see him as kind and creative, others see a troubled soul that was doomed from the start of his early childhood with a mother who didn’t pay attention to him and a father he could never please.

I learned a lot about Vincent watching Loving Vincent, and the plot kept me interested as the mystery of Vincent van Gogh gets more complicated as Armand furthers his investigation. The animation makes this such a joy to watch as we see the world through Vincent van Gogh’s eyes. Fans of his work are going to love how his paintings come to life, and people that don’t know much about his life or work will be stunned by how beautifully depicted his work is in this film. The only way to fully appreciate the wonder of this film, it has to be seen on the big screen as this movie creates a love letter to van Gogh’s magnificent, stunning paintings. Van Gogh produced works that continue to bring joy to a world, even if that world didn’t understand him at that time. As Vincent used to sign his letters to his beloved Theo with the saying “Loving Vincent,” you too will be loving Vincent if you go see this film. My Rating: Full Price

My movie rating system from Best to Worst:  1). I Would Pay to See it Again  2). Full Price  3). Bargain Matinee  4). Cable  5). You Would Have to Pay Me to See it Again

The film is currently playing in Atlanta at Regal Tara Cinema 4

Loving Vincent Website