FIlM

Real drama

The real-life horrors of the Parkersburg, West Virginia, water crisis get a strong cinematic treatment from director Todd Haynes with Dark Waters, an earnest legal drama that spares us lengthy courtroom sequences in favor of in-depth looks at those affected on all sides of the case.

Mark Ruffalo headlines the movie as Rob Bilott, a corporate attorney visited at his posh office one day by Wilbur (Bill Camp), a friend of his grandma’s. Wilbur, a lifelong farmer, shows up grumbling like a crazy person with a lackey by his side and a box full of beat-up videotapes, screaming about dead cows and chemicals. Rob dismisses this agricultural Quint from Jaws, gets back to his meeting, and goes about his mostly comfortable day.

The encounter with Wilbur eats at Rob, who investigates further and eventually winds up on Wilbur’s farm, where close to 200 cows have perished due to symptoms like enlarged organs and tumors. Wilbur thinks it’s from the water in the stream—and he’s right.

DuPont has been dumping toxic chemicals near Wilbur’s farm for years, ever since they brought Teflon to the American public decades earlier, and Bilott is very familiar with the company, even being friends with Phil Donnelly (Victor Garber), a company lawyer. They have cordial discussions about Wilbur and his cows at first, but those discussions escalate into a lawsuit followed by larger class-action suits as the people of Parkersburg become aware of the chemical plague that has been infecting their drinking water.

What makes this film work so well is its ability to avoid courtroom drama stereotypes. Ruffalo’s Bilott is a well-meaning, but flawed guy, who is a little slow on the uptake at first, and prone to medical emergencies because he can’t take the pressure. Tom, his boss (played by a strong Tim Robbins) is alternately supportive and demanding, not the typical top banana lawyer monster that often resides in these movies.

Ruffalo, who has been making the big money as Bruce Banner/Hulk in the Marvel movies, was a solid actor before he went green, and he remains one. He has a WTF face in this film that just says it all as he encounters one atrocity after another.

Even though much of what happened in Parkersburg is public record, Haynes manages to make his movie somewhat of a mystery, with slow reveals as Bilott digs deeper and gets closer to the truth. There are moments in this movie that seem innocuous and standard, but are revealed later on to be pivotal moments in bringing the case together.

I’ve known a few cow farmers in my time, and Camp gets all the elements right, plus the unfortunate element of raging disgust with a corporate America that is slowly killing him and his family. Wilbur’s encounter with a family cow losing its mind is a heartbreaking one. Anne Hathaway adds extra dramatic heft as Rob’s wife, Sarah, trying to keep the family normal as her husband goes off on a crusade that seems never-ending. She has some of the film’s more intense moments as she plays equal parts supportive and “get your shit together” enforcer.

The movie makes you think about a lot of things we take for granted, like non-stick surfaces in our cooking ware, or swimming holes where we go for dips without really factoring in their location or content. This case was another blight on the unstoppable DuPont, a big company with a lot of problems, another one of them captured memorably in 2014’s Foxcatcher (which also starred Ruffalo).

Some of the more shocking details by film’s end include the fact that most humans have traces of chemicals like the those that polluted Parkersburg waters in their blood. Dark Waters is a stark reminder that there are moneymaking entities out there who could give a rat’s ass about your well-being. That’s scarier than any horror movie. □

“Wait, he’s the newest Avenger?”

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5A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood Based on a real life friendship between Fred Rogers and journalist Tom Junod, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is a beautiful film. Who plays Fred “Mister Rogers” Rogers in this movie? Why, Tom Hanks, of course. You don’t get more perfect casting than the world’s most likeable actor playing one of history’s most likeable guys. The recent revelation that Hanks is an actual sixth cousin of Rogers is no surprise. Hanks plays Rogers in an honorable way. He doesn’t impersonate the man so much as adapt some of his mannerisms, his winning smile and that slow, concerned cadence in his voice. But Fred Rogers is a supporting player—albeit an important one—in director Marielle Heller’s (Can You Ever Forgive Me?) heartfelt movie. The main protagonist is Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys of TheAmericans), a troubled journalist who grumbles upon getting an Esquire Magazine assignment to do a profile on the PBS icon—the guy with a “hokey” TV show. Heller brilliantly frames her film as an episode of the TV show, starting with Hanks delivering the infamous welcoming song, and then introducing Lloyd Vogel as a friend who needs help, and s the characters travel between different cities, the cities are depicted like the train sets on the TV show.

4Ford v Ferrari It’s the 1960s, and Henry Ford II (Tracy Letts) has had it up to here with Enzo Ferrari (Remo Girone) and his fast, flashy car ways. He and cronies such as Lee Iacocca (Jon Bernthal) and Leo Beebe (Josh Lucas) are chapped, and they want to send a message to the world that Ford isn’t just about family cars. Enter Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon), a former race car driver turned designer and salesman after a heart condition benches him. Ford hires Shelby to design and race a car that can beat Ferrari in races, mainly the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It’s a tall order, and it calls for a crazy guy behind the wheel and calling the shots in Ken Miles (Christian Bale), an English-born rule-breaker who can drive a car and instantly know what can be fixed on it to make the damn thing go faster. His lack of convention causes Ford to bristle, Shelby gets in the middle, and we have ourselves a gripping tale about racing technology, volatile friendships and corporate clashes. If you go to this film looking for glorious depictions of high stakes auto racing, you will not be disappointed. Director James Mangold (Walk the Line) films Ford v Ferrari in a way where you feel every gear shift, every hairpin turn, and every moment when a car can skid off the tracks and cause grave injury. In this sense, the movie is simply at the top of the auto movie genre. Damon and Bale are otherworldly good as two pals who have no problem punching each other in the face on occasion, but always strain to have each other’s backs.

4The Irishman Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman has arrived on Netflix, and it’s a typically very good offering from the auteur. It has a few problems, but the opportunity to see the likes of De Niro, Pacino and Joe Pesci in a movie together under the Great One’s tutelage more than overrides the shortfalls. The film is based on the book about Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran (De Niro) called I Heard You Paint Houses (which is actually the title listed in the opening credits). Sheeran was a labor union official and occasional hitman who had ties to Jimmy Hoffa (Pacino). The film, like the book, claims that he was the actual triggerman in the assassination of Hoffa. We see Sheeran from his 30s up until shortly before his death in his 80s. All ages are played by De Niro, and the much ballyhooed digital de-aging of De Niro (along with Pacino and Pesci) is mostly a bust. There are moments where De Niro looks perhaps a tad younger than his 76 years (he might pass for 58), but it always looks like bad makeup, dye jobs and funky lighting rather than high-tech effects masterfully at work. Plus, these are old voices coming out of digitally enhanced, oddly smooth faces. Distracting effects aside, De Niro, Pacino and Pesci are priceless in their parts, no matter what age they depict. Scorsese has made a nice companion piece to his gangster epic Goodfellas—an ugly depiction of the loneliness and alienation that results from things like shooting your friends in the head. (Streaming on Netflix.)

4Knives Out Director Rian Johnson, maker of the divisive Star Wars: The Last Jedi, but also maker of the brilliant Looper, takes a crack at the whodunnit genre and comes up mostly aces. Daniel Craig stars as private investigator Benoit Blanc, mysteriously hired by somebody in a rich family after the strange, supposed suicide death of their patriarch, mystery author Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer still going strong). There’s something fishy about his death, and his personal nurse Marta (the awesome Ana de Armas) knows something the rest of the family doesn’t know. What transpires is a solid mystery with a fun set of characters featuring a stellar cast, including Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, LaKeith Stanfield and Chris Evans. Craig is especially good in a role that allows him to show his comic side, with Shannon and Johnson also impressive as a couple of paranoiacs. Above all, it gives the talented Armas a chance to really shine.

5Marriage Story Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson are incredible in writer/director Noah Baumbach’s best movie yet, an alternately searing, touching and hilarious look at a marriage’s end times. Nicole and Charlie Barber work in a theater company together, she the performer and he the director. The movie starts with them in counseling, going through a divorce where they promise each other things will remain amicable and lawyers won’t get involved. Nicole will go to Los Angeles and pursue film acting while Charlie stays in New York to facilitate his latest play making it to Broadway. They are determined to share custody of their young son. This will be a pleasant divorce. Then … the lawyers get involved, of course. Early in the film, it’s a wonder why these two are getting divorced. They’re both quiet about it, and, heck, you might even think there’s a chance they can pull out of the nosedive and make a happy landing. Nope. Just, nope. This director will not be trafficking in easy endings. Baumbach comes from a place that knows two people can really love each other, yet put themselves through a progressive, scorching hell to achieve separation. Nicole tries to remain civil, but Charlie has done stuff that’s going to result in things that will make the proceedings a little rougher than first thought. Nicole gets herself a lawyer in Nora (Laura Dern just being the best Laura Dern ever) and Charlie eventually caves and gets one too in Bert Spitz (a funny Alan Alda) and his eventual replacement Jay (an even funnier Ray Liotta). Driver and Johansson do things in this film you will not soon forget. (Streaming on Netflix.)

4Pain and Glory Antonio Banderas delivers what may be his greatest performance as a director dealing with physical and emotional pains in the semi-autobiographical film from Spanish director Pedro Almodovar. Salvador (Banderas) is in retirement, struggling with migraines and back pain after major surgery, and unsure on whether or not he will continue in the art of filmmaking. He’s having bouts of nostalgia, leading him to be momentarily enthusiastic about an anniversary screening of one of his more beloved films. This brings him to the doorstep of Alberto (Asier Exteandia), an actor he’s been long feuding with. They happily discuss presenting the film together while, in a very impromptu sort of way, get Salvador started on a heroin habit. Flashbacks to Salvador’s childhood feature a fantastic Penelope Cruz as his mother, raising the precocious Salvador on little money in a cave-like dwelling. Banderas takes a reserved approach to the role that is unlike his usual role attack, and it’s refreshing. It’s also profound. Almodovar returns to form with this one, and it ends on an optimistic note that it could be the start of a new branch of his creativity.