Movie Music for Motivation

Movie music is one of the easiest things to miss. Often when it's good, you don't even realise it and that's how the composer knows they did a good job. They kept you on task (watching the movie, that is). But movie music deserves it's day in the sun too.

So for motivation to make it through to actual spring, listen below:

Never Give Up from Lion

This was exactly what I needed as I sat through my second viewing of Lion, sobbing after seeing actual footage of Saroo Brierley being united with his birth mother. It'll get you right in the feels and make you determined to do anything.

Wayward Sister from Nocturnal Animals

A bit of Hitchcock and timeless string orchestra set against roiling glissandos evoke something classic but with the hairs standing up on the back of your neck. A calm you can't quite trust, but you so want to.

Heptatod B from Arrival

In a film about science fiction and language, the Icelandic Johann Johannsson made an incredibly intelligent score that grabs you from the first. Plus, it's just plain soothing.

I'm Still Standing from Sing

People are consistently surprised that this isn't the original by Sir Elton John. It's an animated gorilla in a leather jacket voiced by the singing addict Taron Egerton. Bonus for this soundtrack is the golden Hallelujah performed by Tori Kelly and Jennifer Hudson

Children from Jackie

Okay, this one might not be quite motivational but it's a damn good score. The Oscar nomination we all know should have won. 

Drive It Like You Stole It from Sing Street

This much under-appreciated Irish film brought us a full soundtrack of goodies, but this one will hook you. Little bit of 50s, little bit of 80s, and streaming on Netflix. Go, now.

Evermore from Beauty and the Beast

Alan Menken created brand new Disney candy for us, sung like melted chocolate by Dan Stevens. It's one part cliche, one part classic and Disney through and through. 

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Lion

Lion, 2016

Directed by Garth Davis

Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman, Rooney Mara, Sunny Pawar, Abhishek Bharate

Based on the true story of Saroo Brierley, Dev Patel leads this gentle ode to family. Five-year-old Saroo (Pawar) was found wandering the streets of Calcutta, having ridden the train 1,500 kilometers from home and screaming for his big brother Guddu (a compassionate Bharate). With nothing more than a first name, a mom named mom and the five-year-old mispronunciation of his hometown, Saroo was sent to an orphanage.

He was adopted by Sue and John Brierley (real life adopted mother Kidman and David Wenham) of Tasmania, Australia and joined by his adopted brother Mantosh (Divian Ladwa). He learned English, forgot Hindi and became Australian.

Saroo studied hotel management in Canberra and it was with some friends there, with a bite of food that sends him back to his last day with his brother, that he tells them all the truth of his complicated history. A friend suggests trying to use Google Earth to trace back the trains he rode and the streets he walked. Girlfriend Lucy (Mara) encourages him to try but out of love for the family he has now, he can’t bring himself to try.

It takes years to sink into obsession but Saroo eventually quits his job and spends all his time with a map, laptop and push pins, working through the image of his birth mother’s smile and the sound of his brother’s screams.

What Davis has done in his portrayal of this extraordinary story is walk you through it as Saroo did, with the heart-melting Sunny Pawar leading us across the butterflied quarry his mother worked in, the fragrant markets his brother piggy-backed him through, the three-dimensional hunger of homelessness in Calcutta. Patel picks up where Pawar’s wide, accepting eyes left off, with such devotion to his adopted parents that he cannot bring himself to tell them how much the mystery of his past is breaking him.

The cinematography is marked by sweeping Indian landscapes and bright colors, a blend of the fairy-tale like memories of five-year-old Saroo and aerial shots that adult Saroo desperately followed across the computer screen.

The connection between these two actors is magnetic, despite never being on screen together, as is the angelic portrayal of their brother Guddu. Set to a powerful score, it’s a movie that will land you in a puddle of tears. Happy, heart-breaking tears.

And after seeing the actual footage of Saroo’s search you’ll call home to tell your mom you love her.

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Allied

 Allied, 2016

Directed by Robert Zemeckis, 124 minutes

Brad Pitt, Marion Cotillard, Lizzy Caplan, Matthew Goode

Half spy-action-film, half love-story, the only thing Zemeckis does well here is romanticize.

Brad Pitt is as engaging as a sandbag playing Max Vatan, a well-greased Canadian RAF pilot on a classified mission in WWII Casablanca. Enter the slightly more intriguing Marianne Beauséjour (Marion Cotillard). She’s his French-resistance-fighting partner, masquerading as his wife and donned in silks and smiles, with a twinkle in her eye.

They set about ‘testing’ one another as they prepare for their suicide mission to assassinate a Nazi official. So far the movie hasn’t committed too many sins outside of a bad CGI parachute landing.

Vatan and Beauséjour decide to spend their last night out in the dunes. The night ends in car sex during a sand storm so claustrophobic our grimaces look like the ones on Pitt and Cotillard’s faces.

The spy-lovers smarten up and head over to their dinner party to complete the mission. This is it, the big action sequence for the film, happening less than halfway through. It utilizes some good camera angles but Vatan and Beauséjour look so suspicious throughout we wonder how they ever managed to become spies.

Miraculously, they get away alive and having consummated their great love, move to London to get married for real and raise the daughter they conceived during their uncomfortable car sex.

Almost two years go by before British intelligence picks up chatter that points to Beauséjour being a planted German spy. Vatan kicks a chair and swears that love conquers all, his wife isn’t working for the Germans, blah blah blah. They set up a test to see if she’s the spy.

And the three days of the test last for-freaking-ever with cameos from characters whose purpose is only fleetingly explained.

One fulfilled dream and a letter later, Zemeckis is trying too hard to save his abominable plot line. The score breathes a little bit of life into this otherwise lack-luster film with a touching theme and ‘Sing Sing Sing’ to back it up.

The whole two hours are summed up in the opening sequence, fading to the word “lie” in the title. Like how Zemeckis lied to us and told us this was going to be a thrilling-action-spy intrigue. 

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Summer movies you may have missed

Between the disappointing remakes and sequels, this summer was a slew of unfulfilled promises. Admittedly, we did have some blockbuster high points with superhero sweepers Deadpool and Captain America: Civil War (credit where credit is due).

But this list is the ones that might have slipped through the cracks – a reminder that you don’t have to have a cult following in order to make a great film. Here are some worthy summer releases you may have missed.

Love and Friendship (2016)

This scandalous little movie was constructed from letters Jane Austen wrote regarding the saucy widow, Lady Susan Vernon (Kate Beckinsale). As with every good Austen novel, the plot turns on marriage – an advantageous marriage for herself and an advantageous marriage for her daughter, Frederica (Morfydd Clark).

Beckinsale charms as this quick-witted and glamorous leech of a lady, always towing the line between being venerable and despicable. The costumes are also to die for.

Bad Moms (2016)

The creators of The Hangover struck gold with this little gem. Amy (Mila Kunis) – overworked and under-appreciated – throws her cheating husband out and quits the PTA after the gluten-free, fresh-laundry, working-parent pressure cracks her. Due to her rebellion, she teams up with the wild Carla (Kathryn Hahn) and the repressed Kiki (Kristen Bell) against their PTA arch-nemesis Gwendolyn (Christina Applegate).

I’ll admit I didn’t have high expectations for this film, but after a grocery store sequence that left tears rolling down my face from laughter, I was sold. Hahn is unstoppable as Carla. The credits include the cast interviewing their own real-life moms and it’s a humbling ending to a silly couple of hours.

Captain Fantastic (2016)

Viggo Mortensen (Lord of the Rings) is Ben Cash, a father raising his six kids off the grid in the wilderness of the Pacific Northwest. They celebrate Noam Chomsky Day, train like Olympic athletes in survival, study philosophy and literature and end each day making music around their fire pit. When their mentally ill mother dies, they leave their isolated utopia and make a cross-country trek to attend her funeral.

It’s a phenomenal testament to understanding, compromise and tolerance, held together by an almost mythical camaraderie in the cast. The performances from each of the children, not to mention Mortensen, are astounding.

Florence Foster Jenkins (2016)

A laughable character, Meryl Streep brings sincere depth and context to the famously horrible turn-of-the-century singer, Florence Foster Jenkins. Thanks to the loyalty and devotion of her much younger Shakespearian co-habitant, St. Clair Bayfield (Hugh Grant) and her accompanist, Cosmé McMoon – yep, that’s his real name – she ended up living her dream by performing at Carnegie Hall.

Streep’s balance of singing just barely badly enough is most impressive. But the real props here go to McMoon, played by The Big Bang Theory’s Simon Helburg, in a performance that stands shoulder to shoulder with Streep.  

Hell or High Water (2016)

Chris Pine (Star Trek Beyond) and Ben Foster (Lone Survivor) are Toby and Tanner Howard, two west Texas brothers robbing banks to save their family ranch. Their well-thought out plan is to rob Texas Midlands Banks – the same bank using a reverse mortgage to seize the family home – and pay them back with that money. Their endgame is to set Toby’s sons up well using oil has just been discovered under their land, all the while being hunted by Texas rangers played by Jeff Bridges (The Big Lebowski) and Gil Birmingham (Twilight). 

Pine and Foster are well-matched and however gruff externally, have an undeniable tenderness as on-screen brothers. Cinematographer Giles Nuttgens has made oil-country West Texas looks like an American gem. 

Star Trek Beyond

Star Trek Beyond, 2016

Directed by Justin Lin, 122 minutes

Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Idris Elba, Sofia Boutella

Review by Katherine Scheetz

The familiar ‘dings’ of the Star Trek Beyond theme begin and the nerd neurons anticipate “Space: the final frontier.”

We pick up with the crew of The Enterprise part-way through their five-year mission: exploring new lands, seeking out new civilizations and generally getting into trouble in the way only Captain James T. Kirk (Pine) can.

After a breezy, slapdash escape from hostile natives, we are captain-log narrated through an update on how the vast and diverse crew of The Enterprise have been dealing with the grueling five-year assignment. Spock (Quinto) and Uhura (Saldana) have broken up due to Vulcan procreation logic. Sulu (Cho) is married with a husband and daughter off-ship. And love or hate the newly written sexuality to the character, you can’t deny how cute the Sulu family is. Chekov (Yelchin) remains the fumbling young bachelor, still getting thrown out of rooms by girls and Bones (Urban) deflects with sarcasm, as per usual.

During a brief touch down at Starbase Yorktown where we learn Kirk has applied for a transfer off-ship and Spock Prime (Leonard Nimoy) has passed away, a call for aid leads the group on one last mission together through an uncharted nebula and into – wait for it – the beyond. Evil baddie Krall (Elba) is squatting and plotting on a planet nearby as is one of Krall’s escaped would-be victims Jaylah, played by Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015) Sofia Boutella, who once again turns her fight scenes into a dance. Star Trek Beyond is the third time this year that Idris Elba’s voice has seduced us (Zootopia, The Jungle Book) and frankly, it’s one hell of a voice.

With Fast and Furious director/producer Justin Lin at the helm the franchise has acquired new fans and momentum that was lost in the last installment, Star Trek Into Darkness(2013).

Beyond works, even with its breakneck pace and antigravity fight scenes that have you going cross-eyed. It works because it plays like a giant episode of the 1960s Star Trek show. There’s crew banter, a little introspection and then BAM they are in a pickle on a new planet with new people and they have to figure out how to get Scotty (Pegg) to beam them up.

The quippy, upbeat script is the product of Simon Pegg, who plays the ship’s engineer Scotty, and Doug Jung, who plays Sulu’s husband. Pegg has a resume of comedy writing including Shaun of the Dead (2004) and Hot Fuzz (2007), apparent in the excessive amount of one-liners that honestly just make the cast even more lovable.

It’s a fitting final performance for Yelchin, who will always be remembered for his endearing portrayal of Chekov. We just wish it wasn’t his final performance.

Out-of-this-world end credits followed by memorials to both Yelchin and Nimoy seal the deal. Embrace your inner Trekkie and go.

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Me Before You

Me Before You, 2016

Directed by Thea Sherrock, 116 minutes

Emilia Clarke, Sam Claflin, Janet McTeer, Matthew Lewis, Brendan Coyle, Jenna Coleman, Charles Dance

Review by Katherine Scheetz

              This is going to be a little different than my usual review. I have been ruminating how best to address the controversial Me Before You film that opened two weeks ago in the U.S. Should I approach it from an analytically technical standpoint and simply ignore the elephant in the room? No. That does oceans of injustice to the deeper message in this film and the lives that are affected by it. So, here we go.

             

Mother-of-Dragons Emilia Clarke – and her exceptionally strong eyebrow game – portray Louisa Clarke, our perky, quirky, manic pixie dream girl protagonist, who finds a job as companion/caregiver to the fabulously wealthy, clinically depressed and relatively new quadriplegic Will Trainor (Claflin).   

The movie sets up what promises to be a heartwarming rom-com. Louisa isn’t present for any of the “messy bits” so neither are we. Gradually, Lou breaks through Will’s icy exterior. They take wildly expensive trips together, a fabulous red dress gets its feature moment at an oboe concert and Will seems to have found new purpose in widening Louisa’s horizons. But for one catch: it is, and always has been, Will’s decision to be euthanized in Switzerland through an organization called Dignitas. On that, let’s just say this: there’s a reason everyone is telling you to bring a box of tissues.

Because the audience is cut off from those “messy bits,” we don’t actually get a chance to see the moments when Will struggles with feeling like a burden. We don’t see getting out of bed, going to the bathroom, getting dressed – the struggles that ultimately lead to his decision in Switzerland. So we are left with assuming he’s committing suicide because his life has lost its value in becoming a quadriplegic.

Which simply isn’t true. Every life has value. A disability is not a pathology that needs to be “cured” in order to have meaning and find happiness. In fact, quite the opposite, those with disabilities bring a multitude of compassionate and convicted colors to the world as only they can. Not unlike Louisa’s own technicolor wardrobe (what a joy that must have been for the costuming department).

The avoidance of anything seemingly un-pretty makes it obvious that writer Jojo Moyes didn’t actually spend time getting to know the life of a quadriplegic beyond the physical complications.

Unsurprisingly, activist Michele Kaplan (Rebel Wheels NYC) stresses that becoming wheelchair bound later in life can have tremendous effects on mental health. In a situation like Will’s, a therapist or support group to work through the emotional well-being of the individual would be just as critical – if not more – than a physical therapist, which Will does have. It’s not as if money was an object in the film, as it so often is in reality.

Without giving away the specifics I’ll end with this: the final scene ultimately paints the thoroughly unromantic picture that Will’s life was worth more to Louisa dead. And that is an atrocious message to be sending out into the universe.

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The Nice Guys

The Nice Guys, 2016

Directed by Shane Black, 116 minutes

Ryan Gosling, Russell Crowe, Angourie Rice, Matt Bomer, Margaret Qualley

Review by Katherine Scheetz

             

From the pen behind the Lethal Weapon franchise comes a detective comedy with all the glam and funk of 1978.

              Gosling is Holland March, a scotch-soaked PI who, despite his chain smoking, ambiguous moral code and the gun in his cookie jar, makes an endearing contestant for father-of-the-year to his 13-year-old daughter Holly (Rice). They are a pair still dealing from the death of Holly’s mother – in very different ways.

Enter Jackson Healy (Crowe), a voluminous enforcer who is “not in the yellow pages.” He’s after March for following the daughter of a prominent figure in the Department of Justice, Amelia Kuttner (Qualley). March has been hired by the aunt of a dead porn star – one Misty Mountains – who Amelia has a mysterious connection to.

              The mob is trying to spread their porn operation to L.A. and Misty, Amelia and Amelia’s experimental-film-making boyfriend are involved somehow. The scruffy Healy, the squeamish March and a very Nancy-Drew like Holly team up to find out just how much, especially when hit-man John Boy (Bomer) is called in for clean-up.

              The storytelling is complex – paying homage to the cinematic grandfather noir films – which risks isolating the audience that is there for pure entertainment value.

Never fear, though, Gosling is here. The physical comedy this guy pulls with his breathing, his arms, his gag reflex, his groaning, his shaking – it’s downright hilarious. As if we need more to laugh at, Shane Black and Anthony Bagarozzi have penned a script that barely leaves enough space for us to breathe in between dry, profanity-ridden jokes.

              Production designer Richard Bridgland (American Ultra) and set decorator Danielle Berman (The Hangover) romance us with groovy mirror walls, mermaid aquariums, Yoohoo chocolate milk, rotating car shows and psychedelic lights. It’s a supersaturated delight.

              There’s no denying that Black has made us work to follow the story. But with a script for the ages and a team that’s up for anything, it’s not all work and no play, I mean, it is the 70s after all.

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