Still: A Michael J Fox Movie: Canadian Michael J Fox became a household name on television in his breakout role of Alex P. Keaton on Family Ties. We learn in this engaging documentary with the star that he was nearing the end of his commitment to pursuing his dream of being an actor before that role. He had no money. He had no jobs coming in, despite having some roles when he was younger, but none of them paying very well. But then the world turned in his favour. Despite the producer Gary David Goldberg and the studio NOT wanting Fox, he went onto the stage in an Eninem moment, and slayed the crowd, convincing them with his wit and charm. He landed the job. Like winning the lottery, his life then turns around completely.
Then while filming Family Ties, he is offered the film role in Steven Speilberg’s Back to the Future of Marty McFly. It turns out that Speilberg’s first choice Eric Stolz was not working out, and Spielberg wanted to reshoot every scene that Stolz had completed. Goldberg wasn’t prepared to let Fox take a hiatus in order to film it, so instead Fox filmed both the movie AND the TV series at the same time. He admits that he felt that both roles suffered and he didn’t think that they were very good. He was wrong. His already soaring star left the galaxy, and he was one of the most bankable and successful stars. All from this small of stature young man (then 24yo) with the killer smile and likeable personality.
Life doesn’t always follow any set rules. Unless you have been living under a rock, you know that Fox has Parkinson’s disease. He first learned about it when he was 29yo in 1991. He kept working all the while movie after movie and show after show. The movies included two sequels for Back to the Future, Casualties of War and Doc Hollywood. He met and married Tracy Pollan from Family Ties, and when first diagnosed had son Sam in 1989. Twin girls arrive in 1995, and then youngest daughter in 2001. He went public with the disease in 1998. He worked on Spin City. In total he did 172 episodes of Family Ties and a further 103 episodes of Spin City.
What struck me most in this very watchable film was his gait. He struggles with walking and balance. He must fall an awful lot, and that is reflected in the physio sessions he is taking throughout the film, and the myriad of injuries and broken bones he has suffered. He is sporting a puffy left eye which is explained. The other thing that comes across loud and clear is his love and devotion to Tracy. He has a tight family, and the children rally around him. For Tracy she, I am certain, never signed up for this when she wed a mega-star. I will imagine that they have had many challenging days. But when told she said to Fox “in sickness and in health”. She is remarkable. From early on when the diagnosis was first given, Fox was hitting the bottle pretty hard and she challenged him. He has been sober since. All of this is detailed in this movie. I thoroughly enjoyed and I learned a few things about him and his family. When you know he has the Parkinson’s you can see him not moving his left arm in Spin City. But he was very good at hiding it. He keeps plugging away, while answering directing a question early on about “why make this movie now?” A Delorean won’t fix the diagnosis and he has already far surpassed the initial guidance that he could only work a few more years. Fox fights the good fight, and I hope that he can keep it up.
The Courier: Benedict Cumberbatch is telling the true cold war story dramatized of Greville Wynne as a UK business man who is asked to become a conduit between a high ranking Soviet government worker who is concerned about Nikita Kruschchev the Soviet leader. Set during the late 1950s and early 1960s the Soviets are increasing their nuclear arsenal, but want to have first strike capability with the US, as their present Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) aren’t able yet. Cuba is the answer. Rachel Brosnahan plays the American CIA agent looking to enlist the help of Wynne.
Wynne reluctantly agrees but successfully makes contact with this Soviet worker, Oleg Penkovsky. The stakes couldn’t be higher. The information that Oleg is sharing reveals details of the missiles and the locations of them within Cuba before they are capable of a launch. Soviet KGB are not easily fooled and the web around these two begins to collapse. There is plenty of intrigue and thrills. If you read ahead and cheat with a google search or two you will spoil the ending that the movie sticks to accurately. I give away nothing to say that the US and President Kennedy were able to successful stand up to the Soviets and their plans to increase their war machine. I will mention in passing that in the third act, Cumberbatch does a very credible job of matching the skills of other actors like Christian Bale and Robert DeNiro. All this to say that I like war movies, historically accurate movies, and all the intrigue surrounding those uncertain times with not much goodwill between the two main victors from the Second World War. The new Super Powers. So many resources were spent to spy on one another and prove that their system of governement/philosophy is better than the other. I enjoyed this movie with good performances. Two very brave men chose to do the right thing in their eyes and for their own good conscience, along with their young families. We across the globe and fortunate that they did.
Vengeance: After writing about two movies that I enjoyed, it is more difficult to write about one that I didn’t enjoy nor can I recommend. I know that in the past it was often more fun to read Roger Ebert when he did not like a film, rather than those that moved him positively. He was an excellent writer, and was able to fully articulate why he was annoyed that two hours (or less) or his precious time on the planet was lost to an inane movie. Now I can say that Vengeance isn’t completely inane, in the same way that Jack Frost was for Roger. But still, it seems that there are movies so intent on delivering a message or a comment on today’s society that they lose sight of trying to put together an entertaining story. It should have been apparent early on when I saw John Mayer as himself that this wasn’t going to be a notable film.
Writen, Directed and Acting is BJ Novak. You may know him from the US version of The Office. I was not, but I did recognize Boyd Holbrook from Narcos. It also has Ashton Kutcher in it. Told simply, writer and blogger Ben is told of a woman he had hooked up with in Texas who had passed away. He is asked to come to the funeral. He barely knows her. But the family thinks he was a boyfriend. He meets them, and gets to know a little more about the departed woman, who the family maintains was murdered. The official story is that she overdosed. The family wants answers. Meanwhile, Ben is looking to move ahead in his career and trying to sell a story to a publisher/newspaper editor. He is told by the editor to keep digging and writing about his findings.
Things happen. Ben finds some things out that he was not altogether surprised about, and this colours his view of the family. Other things are uncovered with a more detailed discussion which is, I suppose, a social commentary. Do we really need to hear in detail about the short sightedness of people these days, and how the trial of public opinion sways back and forth as lies are taken as truth? Or hear about a divided America and how on any issue there will always be some group taking the contrary opinion just to be contrary. Will people actually care about a young girl and which way she met her untimely end? The commentary then trumps the story, and you realize that it wasn’t all that important anyway. People just want to deliver speeches. But they aren’t adding anything to the discourse other than to hold a mirror up to it. So in summary, I can’t recommend it and don’t find it much of a commentary. I find most of the family characters are really caricatures and cliches. For me, the ending was not very satisfying, because it turned out to be much ado about nothing. A hard pass.
Mondays With Robbie 