August: Osage County

We take it in turns to propose the films that we screen and then the rest of the committee gives its consent - sort of. The only definite rule is that someone has to have seen the film...

I'd not seen this film, although what I'd read made me add it to my "interesting film to see sometime" mental list, and so was looking forward to the screening.

The whole cast gave good performance, and I can see why the ensemble got such good reviews, but somehow the whole film was less than the sum of its parts. the film was based on a successful stage play and that came across in the adaptation: a series of set pieces set in and around the family house with no opportunity to broaden the location. I'm not sure if a better director could have handled it better, although I think the structure of the screenplay added this constraint.

It was good to see for the performances, but it's definitely not a classic and not one that I'd like to watch again.

Here are my notes

August: Osage County

USA 2013        121 minutes

Director:          John Wells

Starring:            Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Ewan McGregor, Chris Cooper, Abigail Breslin and Benedict Cumberbatch

Awards and Nominations

• Oscar nominations for Best Actress (Meryl Streep) and Best Supporting Actress (Julia Roberts)
• BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actress (Julia Roberts)
• A further 15 wins and 61 nominations

“…Wells's adaptation is notable primarily for its A-list ensemble cast, all of whom relish the chance to sink their teeth into Letts's bilious dialogue. Top of the heap is Meryl Streep, as the poisonous (and poisoned) matriarch Violet Weston, whose scattered clan descend upon her godforsaken home when her alcoholic poet husband mysteriously goes missing. It turns out he's the lucky one; after a few days of incestuous infighting and bloody backstabbing, it's easy to see why anyone trapped in this domestic hell-hole would rather drown themselves than sit down to family dinner.”

Mark Kermode

The film is an adaptation by Tracy Letts of his Pulitzer Prize winning play of the same which ran on Broadway for over a year and was also staged briefly at the National Theatre in London. The film reduces the running time of the play by about an hour, which results in the adaptation offering a series of theatrical set pieces rather than opening the story out by rethinking the play in cinematic terms. Nonetheless the A-list ensemble cast work well together, with particular praise being given to Meryl Streep as the matriarch and Julia Roberts as her daughter who while being the only person strong enough to face her is terrified of turning into her.

Letts trained as an actor but has also made his name as a writer for both stage and screen: two of his earlier plays have been successfully filmed from his own screenplays and a third has been adapted into a TV series. As a TV actor he played a supporting role in two seasons of Homeland as well as appearing in minor roles in many other programmes, while as a stage actor he has appeared in many US productions, with his most notable role being George, in a production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf on Broadway, for which he received the Tony Award for Best Actor.

John Wells made his name as executive producer and showrunner of a number of high profile US TV series including ER, The West Wing, and Shameless. He made his debut as a director of feature films with The Company of Men (2010) for which he also wrote the screenplay. He subsequently produced and co-wrote the screenplay for Love & Mercy (2014), a biographical drama about the Beach Boys, and has since directed Burnt (2016) a drama about a chef which despite its award-winning cast received mixed reviews.

 Here's a link to the trailer:

 

 

Hidden Figures

Several of the committee had seen this film an were unanimous in scheduling it.

While researching it to produce my notes I discovered how low budget it was, and that for a weekend its takings even overtook those from Rogue One.

Having watched it again I retained my original enthusiasm for a film which manages to cover so many complex issues so well. It's a shame it did not too well at the Oscars.

Here are my notes:

Hidden Figures

USA 2016        127 minutes

Director:          Theodore Melfi

Starring:            Taraji P Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monae, Kevin Costner and Kirsten Dunst

Awards and Nominations

·         Nominated for three Oscars (Best Film, Best Supporting Actress (Octavia Spencer) and Best Adapted Screenplay)

·         Nominated for two Golden Globes including Best Supporting Actress (Octavia Spencer)

·         Nominated for BAFTA for Best Adapted Screenplay

·         Won Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture

·         A further 35 wins and 74 nominations

“The genius of Theodore Melfi’s film is not in the originality of the script – as far as prestige pictures go, its dramatic and comedic beats are easy to anticipate – but in the novelty of the story and the liveliness of the performances.”

Simran Hans

The film tells the hitherto untold story of Katherine Johnson (Taraji P Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monae), three African-American women who worked at NASA and were involved with early stages of the US/USSR space race, culminating in the launch into orbit of the astronaut John Glenn.

The women’s story first came to national attention in Margot Lee Shetterly’s 2016 book Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold story of the Black Women Who Helped Win the Space Race which reached the top of the New York Times Non-Fiction Best Sellers list. The subject had clear cinematic potential but for the purposes of the film the script had to simplify the complex history.

In an interview Shetterly confirmed her understanding of this requirement:

“For better or for worse, there is history, there is the book and then there's the movie. Timelines had to be conflated and [there were] composite characters, and most people [who have seen the movie] have already taken that as the literal fact. ... You might get the indication in the movie that these were the only people doing those jobs, when in reality we know they worked in teams, and those teams had other teams. … Even though Katherine Johnson, in this role, was a hero, there were so many others that were required to do other kinds of tests and checks to make [Glenn's] mission come to fruition. But I understand you can't make a movie with 300 characters. It is simply not possible.”

The production budget of the film was USD 25 million and initially it received only a limited release in the US.  This was subsequently expanded to 2,471 screens and for its nationwide opening weekend the film’s takings exceeded those of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016). Based on its gross US takings the film was the highest grossing Best Picture Nominee at the 2017 Academy Awards as well as being in the top twenty of the most profitable releases of 2016.

Here's a link to the trailer: