Movies: One New, One Old

While on vacation in Disney World last week, we did take an afternoon (the weather was dicey at the time) to see a movie at Disney Springs.  It was the new Michael Keaton movie, "The Founder."

This is the story of the founder of the McDonald's fast food empire, Ray Kroc.   This movie was heavily promoted in trailers at theaters all last summer, and it seemed that there would be Oscar buzz for both the movie and for the star, Keaton, but somewhere along the way, the studio seemed to back off from the hype and delayed release until after the first of the year.

The movie tells the story if itinerant salesman Ray Kroc, who in the mid-1950's stumbles across a small hamburger restaurant in southern California run by two brothers, the McDonald brothers, that had developed a system for preparing food quickly and inexpensively.  Kroc strikes a deal to go into a partnership with the brothers, franchises the restaurants, develops a fast food empire, and becomes a multi-multi-millionaire in the process.  Oh, yeah, he squeezes out the McDonald brothers and fleeces them in the process.  And dumps his loyal wife for a younger woman.  Turns out that Kroc, while he may have been a slick salesman and a smart business man, he wasn't a very nice guy.

From what I can tell from cursory research, "The Founder" is fairly accurate in its depiction of both Kroc and the story of McDonald's, but it is a movie, not a documentary, so who really knows what license may have been taken by the film makers here.   I would give this movie two and one-half stars, and say that it is worth seeing, if for no other reason than to see Michael Keaton give yet another terrific performance.

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Right before we left on our vacation, we saw the 1952 classic, "Singin' In The Rain" on a big screen as part of the TCM/Fathom Events series.  Video streaming, giant HDTV's, and Blue-ray discs are great, but nothing beats the experience of seeing a movie  in a theater on a Big Screen.  Thanks to TCM and Fathom Events for providing this service.

I have written often about "Singin' In The Rain" in this space over the years, and I won't do it again right now, except to say that this is just a remarkable and fun movie that everyone needs to see.  It seems like many agree because when we went to a Wednesday night performance, the theater was probably 80% filled for the showing, easily the biggest crowd we have been in for any of the TCM/Fathom series.   I suspect that the recent death of Debbie Reynolds and the spotlight that it put on her career had a lot to do with that.  As I was leaving the movie, I saw a young girl, probably only 9 or 10 years old there with her parents.  I asked her if she had enjoyed the movie, and she said "Of course!", and she was most definite about it. 

Great movies never get old, and "Singin' In The Rain", now sixty-five years young is as fresh and funny and entertaining as ever.   

Movie Review: "Spotlight"

Few movies have had more buzz prior to its release as has "Spotlight".  Critics have been fairly unanimous in their praise, and it is a dead certain cinch to be nominated for a passel of Academy Awards, and may well be the odds on favorite for the Best Picture of the Year.  It has also been called the best movie EVER about the newspaper business, something that might be hard for fans of "All the President's Men" to accept.  In fact, so much has been made about that opinion, that I had cause to wonder, "Do newspaper critics love this movie because it is a great movie, or do they love it because it is a great movie about newspapers?"

The movie takes place in 2001-02 when the special investigative reporting team of the Boston Globe undertakes an investigation into the sexual abuse scandals that were occurring over a period of decades in the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston.  Specifically, the investigation's focus centered on the institutional cover up by the Archdiocese and the legal community in Boston.

The subject matter is such that I suspect that many people will choose not to see this movie.  Fine.  However, it needs to be noted that this, tragically, is a true story.  These events really did take place.  

That aside, is this a good movie?  It absolutely is.  It depicts the work that goes into reporters cultivating sources, digging for the facts, hitting dead ends, wearing out shoe leather, and making sure that the story gets told and told correctly.  It is a thriller, and the very nature of the story is such that you are moved and deeply affected by the story.  As a piece of motion picture art, this is a terrific movie.  Any awards that this movie garners in the awards season ahead will be well deserved.

Directed by Tom McCarthy, who co-wrote the script with Josh Singer, "Spotlight" includes a terrific ensemble cast....Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery, and Stanley Tucci.  Not sure if any one actor will dominate the Oscars.  Surely Ruffalo and Keaton will receive acting nominations, and I wouldn't be upset if Tucci received one either.  The Oscars do not have an award for Best Ensemble Cast (as the Screen Actors Guild does), but if it did, the "Spotlight" would be a cinch for it.

Lots of good lines in this movie, but the one that was a real grabber to me was "If it takes a village to raise a child, then it also takes a village to abuse one."

Four stars all the way for this one.