New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

4. Bridge of Spies

There are moments in Spielberg’s oeuvre that feel overly dramatized - as if the Jaws of the shark or the eyes of the Extra Terrestrial are coming out to surprise us. Tom Hanks cannot help but act as himself without a wink at moments of supposed levity. But there is an overlaying charm to these noticeable sidesteps in Bridge of Spies (which, to be sure, will prevent it from winning Best Picture). After all, the story is about American values, about their contrast and betterment vis-à-vis not just Soviet, but otherworldly lessons. The movie predictably falls into facile dichotomies between good and evil at times, but it does so with purpose, vehemence, and a subtle sense of redemption that manages to obscure the Hollywood over-simplification of the tense subject matter.

A key element of this saving theme is most definitely the subtle yet scene-stealing performance by veteran theatre actor Mark Rylance. Deserving of a Best Supporting Actor trophy - unless the winds of 1976’s Rocky blow him away -Rylance delivers the necessary and measured response to the black and white traps the movie at times falls into. He’s not the murderous evil Soviet spy you’d expect from a spaghetti Cold War Western (if such a thing is a thing). Instead, he’s the angelic and lovable creature and captive of his time, loyal to his cause, which mostly consists of his own principles.

In that sense, of course, he is but a reflection of Hanks’ main character itself - a virtuous, righteous man who stands up for those principles and then some, in the face of the challenges he faces from his own countrymen. Trite as it is on the surface, and wooden as Hanks’ deliverance can at times be, the contrast works because Spielberg and his expert team of craftsmen are behind the scenes - you buy into their struggle as if the faith of the Republic were at hand, as if John Adams himself was defending the Boston Massacre five.

In other words, you are made to believe, impossibly, and even for just a moment, in the grandeur of America - and I don’t mean because of its socio-political values. It’s the majesty of its cinema, as expressed through the lens of one of its masters, that wins you over. Because, for all the technological niceties of Mad Max, for all the audience pleasing tips in The Martian, for all the freezing, grueling shots in The Revenant, Bridge of Spies delivers an academy of moviemaking, in its subtle use of shadows, its award-nominated cinematography, its beautiful art direction, that one takes for granted - and then some - in a Spielberg picture, but is sorely missing from much of the rest.

3. The Revenant

Lest it be said that I am kowtowing to the tastes of the Academy given my choice for the top three favorites of the Best Picture contenders, these same three were also among my top 10 favorite movies of the year back in December.

I wrote my thoughts on The Revenant then and also when I first reviewed the movie, here, so I will not belabor the point. Suffice it to say that I think The Revenant is an incredible achievement in movie-making because of its uncompromising devotion to the art of movie-making. It is, clearly, not my vote for Best Picture of the year. But, in the conversation around it, it grates me to hear people point to its “weak” story as a sign of shortcomings, or to explain away the lack of a screenplay nomination at the Oscars. Creativity comes in many forms in art, narrative prowess is but one of such elements. Structural perfection, like The Revenant exhibits, is maligned too much in the snobby world of movie criticism that likes to reward confusing and innovative plots at the expense of innovative technique.

Why must it be so? The Revenant is “divisive” because some critics cannot uncouple mastery from story, despite the fact that masters from Spielberg to James Cameron to Alejandro González Iñárritu have schooled them over and over again by showing them the richness of the craft of movies. The Revenant is one of those great movies.

Continued:       1       2       3       4