'Doubt' (2008) - Movie Review

Philip Seymour Hoffman certainly knows how to pick them. So often we are left scratching our melons after watching Hoffman go to work. His characters are neither goodies nor baddies. In other words, his characters are real people. Don't hold your breath; no superman is going to swoop in and save the day in Doubt. There are just fallible men and women who appear to live by different creeds.

 

These creeds initially find their way to us through the concept of "doubt". It is Father Flynn's (Hoffman) topic of choice in the sermon he delivers at the beginning of the film. And even if you know very little about the Catholic Church in the 20th century, you get the sense that this topic is not often the central message of a sermon. This idea is then confirmed by the stern Sister Aloyisus (Meryl Streep), who stalks the church pews, correcting misbehaving children and Sunday slackers. The storm of change is brewing, the sacred and the profane are being questioned. The only question we have is, what motives are behind these desired changes? Sure, the Catholic Church in America was hearing the cries of change in 1964, much like it had in the 16th century, only an Augustinian monk wouldn't have to be raised this time.

John Patrick Shanley's Pulitzer Prize winning play has been adapted faithfully, perhaps because Shanley himself adapted and directed the film. Like any play, the script has a tendency to tell more than it shows, but this is a character driven film. The tension in the film builds and the performances are frighteningly believable. Hoffman and Streep, two of the grandest dramatic actors going around, do battle with conviction. And we are left to put the earth shattering pieces back together. Is the Sister right about Father Flynn? Has he had an inappropriate relationship with a boy from the church-run grade school? Or is Sister Aloysius out to get Flynn because he preaches change?

Amy Adams and Meryl Streep with director John Patrick Shanley

What strikes me about Doubt is how Father Flynn resembles the kind of ministers I am used to spending time with. I have attended an evening service at a Church of England (yes, a Protestant church) for five years or so. The ministers are not of an old-school clerical mindset. They do not consider themselves to be a different breed to the laity. They preach the message that we are all family, one under God, and that we should show Christ-like compassion to one another. And this is Father Flynn's message, isn't it? We need to be open to the larger community, compassionate in how we act and loving. But when children are involved, is that safe? Let's be honest, we live in a fallen world - the kind of world where these notions are preyed upon. So, is Flynn doing the preying? Should we identify with Sister Aloysius? There are far more questions than there are answers in Doubt and we should appreciate that.

There's gloominess to this film which clouds our minds. We never venture far from the secure walls of the church and the school. And within those walls the weather appears to be sour. Wind threatens to invade, while the sun appears to have been sent to the principal's office. You almost have to ask yourself if this is a throwback to the black and white days of cinema. There isn't much comfort for the innocent (Sister James (Amy Adams), the school children and ball point pens!), as grace and mercy are not welcome under the watch of Principal Aloysius. We could say that this is all exaggerated for a period piece concentrating on the church in ‘64, but is it? Without emphasising grace and forgiveness, what are we left with?

 

Streep is a tour-of-force... in doubt. You'll find yourself quivering at the redness around her eyes, and muttering that old line: "Big Brother Sister Is Watching You". But most of all, Doubt is about just that - doubt. From the opening scene to a certain Sister's tears at the end, we are left to deal with doubt, faith and change. Shanley's brilliant writing, mixed with a dedicated cast, come together to create an important film that will leave us to chew the fat. 

8/10

'The Departed' (2006) - Movie Review

Martin Scorsese once told Roger Ebert that he'll be going to hell for divorcing past wives and remarrying. It's a well known secret that Martin Scorsese grew up in Little Italy (Queens, New York) as a devout Roman Catholic, who for years considered joining the priesthood.

As a Protestant I want to speak the message of faith and forgiveness through the grace of a sovereign and loving God, however, that isn't why I am penning this article. The truth is that this guilt Scorsese has felt has been our gift, as the characters in his films - including all the protagonists in the films on this list - possess this same intriguing guilt and depth. 

In The Departed we are exposed to the wretched and guilt-ridden double lives of two typical Bostonian blokes, both of whom grew up in a strong Roman Catholic area, Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon). One of these men is a cop masquerading as a gangster, while the other plays a similar ace card; a gangster who appears to be a cop. Of course, above both these gritty individuals are feudalistic lords who don't give a damn. And in an effort to stir the pot even further, Scorsese and screenwriter William Monahan have constructed a suspenseful film which sees these two young men stuck in constant limbo. For example, if Billy's cop superiors Queenan (Martin Sheen) and Dignam (Mark Whalberg) are killed, then what is Billy? Just another street thug open to arrest. 

“Irish literature is very important to me - the poetry in particular. I’m also intrigued by the Irish sense of Catholicism - it’s a very interesting contrast to the Italian sense of Catholicism,” Scorsese says. “So there you have it. They’re my personal reasons [for doing films about the Irish].”  - Martin Scorsese.

 Both DiCaprio and Damon are believable and captivating, yet, they both benefit greatly from this fantastic script, which is based on the 2002 Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs. Both characters suffer from issues of betrayal, guilt and mistrust, and it is my guess that these issues come across so realistically and viscerally because of Scorsese.

The rest of the cast in The Departed is superb. It's hard to believe Jack Nicholson and Scorsese haven't teamed up before this, as Jack plays Frank Costello, mob boss extraordinaire, with style, flair and intrigue. Perhaps it's his sly grin that gives him the edge? Or perhaps it's his philosophic/Shakespearean monologue at the beginning of the film? At the end of the day, it doesn't matter if he's holding a gun, bat, pencil, or even a dildo, anything goes when Jack is around. Let's stop there with Jack's performance and just call it outstanding, otherwise we'll find ourselves comparing performances to those in Scorsese's iconic Goodfellas. 

“The first day I worked with him [Nicholson], he had been working with Leo for about a week, and so I had the week off and I came back, and it's Sunday night and I'm looking over the script and I get a phone call. ‘Hi, Matt? Marty’. ‘Jack had some ideas for your scene tomorrow’. We were shooting a scene in a movie theatre. And he goes ‘ok, I'll just get to it - Jack's going to wear a dildo’. And so I thought, uh, ok, so I'll see you at seven? So we went in the next day and rehearsed it, you know, and Jack's idea was like, ‘Here’s the deal, I'm gonna come in, I'm gonna sit there, in the overcoat, and I'm gonna pull out the big dildo and we're gonna laugh’. And I thought, ok, you know, that's a really good way to get into the scene. Obscene sure, but Jack really brought this incredible new element, this new layer, to that character." - Matt Damon on working with Jack. 

 Next we have Costello's right-hand man Mr French (Ray Winstone). Ray came into The Departed after taking on the outback's most sinister, in one of my favourite - and most bloody - Australian movies, The Proposition (2005). Each time Ray opens his mouth, it's to bark a command, or to give Costello prophetic advice. He's the rough and tough Bostonian version of Tom Hagen. And there isn't a more memorable moment in the film than the beach scene, where Costello shoots a kneeling woman in the back of the head, and then quips, "She fell funny." To which French replies, "Francis, you really should see somebody." 

The other performance that is worth noting comes from Mark Wahlberg. Is it surprising that Wahlberg doesn't play a hoodlum with biceps popping out of a one-size-too-small white tee? Yes. The role of Dignam is all talk, well, nearly all talk, and it certainly isn't an easy one. Dignam comes across as detestable and, yet, he's one of the only honest buggers in the whole film. Wahlberg's authentic performance could be due to his own run-ins with Boston's finest. Wahlberg apparently based the character on the coppers he was confronted by in his earlier years. 

"It's a world where morality no longer exists. Costello knows this. I think he's almost above it. He knows that God doesn't exist anymore in the world that they're in. It’s the old story: in order to know you have a problem first you have to know you have a problem. You really do, and this is my own take." - Scorsese on the morality behind The Departed.

Scorsese and Thelma Schoonmaker make editing an art form. Fact. The action, the cuts, the back-and-forths, it is all terrific and helps make The Departed as suspenseful as a Hitchcock film! It flows beautifully, builds and then slaps you in the face. And when you throw in Scorsese's love for the Stones, this is the third Scorsese film to use Gimme Shelter, and his ability to use the right music in the right situation (praise also should go to composer Howard Shore) you get a movie which is as smooth as it is visceral and gruesome. Yet, it is also the artistic use of the word "fuck" - made famous by Joe Pesci in Scorsese's past films - that puts this film on edge.

Catholicism wasn’t the only thing Scorsese immersed himself in growing up. The maestro was a witness to America’s organised crime culture. The Departed shifts the crime culture to Boston, and does what very few Scorsese films have done, cement it with a clear plot. Don't fret Scorsese diehards, The Departed still mixes devastating violence with questions of morality and good and evil. 

9/10

 

Top 10 Sports Movies

10. Friday Night Lights (2004)

In a far off distance land, football is life. No - we aren't talking about "the beautiful game", nor rugby or AFL, we are talking about pads, helmets and cheerleaders. Based on H.G. Bissinger's tell-all novel - which I read after watching the film - Friday Night Lights lowers the boom on small town football culture. The film is set in Odessa, Texas, where oil, wealth and football were once plentiful. The oil and wealth may be gone by the time we reach Odessa, but football remains.

Who would've thought a film about a high school football team would be such harrowing experience?

While David Cohen and Peter Berg's screenplay may beef up some of the facts surrounding this true story, the script doesn't blow smoke over the important questions we are left with. The acting is convincing and unforgiving - with Tim McGraw particularly memorable as the ‘old man’ stuck in his glory days.

9. Seabiscuit (2003)

Overly sentimental films don't work on this cynical bastard – sorry, Blind Side. However, for a few on this list I can make an exception. Enter: Seabiscuit. 

It's a powerful film, directed by The Hunger Games' guru Gary Ross, which tells the age old story of how one down-and-out horse lifted a weary nation. No points for spotting the metaphor in this one.

The cast, which includes the likes of Jeff Bridges, Tobey Maguire, Elizabeth Banks and Chris Cooper, lifts its game for the sake of telling a story about hope and endurance. 

The production team weren’t overly stylistic in how they recreated Depression America and its horse racing culture, but they didn’t need to be. And it's by far Tobey Maguire’s best role to date; he even rattles off Shakespeare with flair!  

8. Remember The Titans (2000)

I remember seeing Libby Trickett - yes, the Aussie Olympian - earlier this year on The Footy Show. She went on, as a guest, to be quizzed about her husband. During the segment she mentioned that her favourite movie is Remember The Titans. What would our Aussie swimming champion know about American football, or the oppressive times of school integration in 1970s Virginia? 

The truth is that it doesn't matter what your interest in the sport is because Remember The Titans is about the timeless themes of brotherhood, overcoming obstacles and change. It also comes with a first place soundtrack! 

7. Moneyball (2011)

You wouldn’t think a film about baseball AND statistical analysis would get many bums in seats. But when you throw in director Bennett Miller, screenwriter Aaron Sorkin and actor Brad Pitt, what you get is a sports flick that dares to go where no sports film has gone before. 

Give this one a try, because while it may not sound like a home run (I couldn't resist!), it truly is. I've had people who have never watched an inning of baseball tell me that this is a very interesting movie. So, as Billy Beane would say: "Adapt or die." 

6. Rocky (1976)

Sure, we can't understand half of what Stallone says - so what? It's not like we don't see where this love story is going. And it is a love story at heart, right? 

Can you believe it took this long for a sports film to win Best Picture at the Oscars? And we couldn't even understand what the protagonist was saying! Rocky was also the beginning of a franchise, due to it becoming the highest grossing film of 1976. … And to think that filming finished in just 28 days! 

You need to be in the right frame of mind to enjoy this slobber-knocker. What frame of mind are we talking about? Well, you need to be feeling up against it. You also need to feel the desire to break out an old-school track suit. And finally, you need to feel like you are about ready to punch a dangling carcass! 

5. Hoosiers (1986)

This is a story about comebacks. In fact, Hoosiers has more comebacks than Seabiscuit... 

There's the comeback of America's basketball heartland (Indiana), the comeback of a mysterious coach (Gene Hackman), the comeback of a town drunk (Dennis Hopper), and the comeback of decent sports movies. 

Hackman will hook you in, as he always does, through his charisma and complexity, while the run of this one-horse town basketball team will have you hoping and praying. 

4. Cool Runnings (1993)

Cool Runnings is one of those films I watched over and over and over and over and over and over again as a young lad. And why not? It’s got the comedic factor (John Candy was a comedic king), charm, suspense/intrigue (how many Jamaican sprinters do you know that have tried their hand at Olympic bobsledding?) and an important message about courage and accepting change. 

Cool Runnings also possesses one of my all-time favourite lines: I'm freezing my royal Rastafarian nay-nays off!

3. Chariots of Fire (1981)

The greatest sporting films tend to speak about more than just what happens on a field, in an arena, or even on a track. The greatest speak about larger social issues and human nature. Chariots of Fire can consume your heart, if you allow it to, whether you are British or not. 

These days it seems a race between two devout men, one Christian and the other Jewish, wouldn't be marketable. They'd either be 'too boring' or 'too 'preachy'. And yet what Hugh Hudson and co made in 1981 was a thoughtful film... and an instant classic.

2. Raging Bull (1980)

Scorsese doesn't look like a sports buff. Then again, this is more a biopic of a broken soul than a cliché sports story. Apparently, Robert De Niro approached Scorsese and Schrader (Scorsese and Schrader had directed/written Taxi Driver) with this project, and it looks like De Niro really led the way throughout. 

It's raw and bloody. The camera work in the ring is incredible, tracking the ferocious style of La Motta with flair. You won't forget the Raging Bull.

1. Rudy (1993)

I said I wasn't one for sentimentality... I lied. It had to be a particularly special movie to knock Raging Bull from the top spot. Rudy is that special. And when it's all said and done - when you see that scrawny kid run on the field, after years of following his dream, you know it was worth the wait.

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*Honourable Mentions: Talledega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Million Dollar Baby, Caddyshack, Any Given Sunday, He Got Game, Space Jam, The Mighty Ducks, The Wrestler, Miracle, The World's Fastest Indian, Jerry Maguire, Bill Durham.