By Susan Granger
Special to WestportNow
What’s extraordinary about Sam Mendes’ epic World War I film “1917” is that it follows the harrowing journey of two, young British infantryman in one seemingly continuous shot.
On April 6, 1917, when all phone lines have been cut on the Hindenberg Line in northern France, Lance Corporal Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) is summoned by General Erinmore (Colin Firth) to deliver an important message to Col. Mackenzie (Benedict Cumberbatch), directing him not to proceed with a planned advance to the front because the Germans have set an ambush.
Blake has been chosen for this urgent, race-against-time battlefield mission because his older brother (Richard Madden) is part of Mackenzie’s 2nd battalion and the lives of the 1,600 British soldiers at Croisilles Wood depend on their alacrity.
Terrified Blake and his buddy Schofield (George MacKay) embark on a perilous overnight trek across a German-occupied wasteland, dodging barbed wire and booby traps. They’re given a brief lift in a convoy as far as the bombed-out French village of Ecoust, where they encounter a German sniper in the rubble, but, after that, they’re their own.
Scripted by Krysty Wilson-Cairns and director Sam Mendes (“Skyfall,” “Spectre,” “American Beauty”), whose grandfather had been a runner in the war, its storytelling is simple and straightforward, evoking memories of other World War I films like “All Quiet on the Western Front” and “War Horse.”
Working closely with Mendes, cinematographer Roger Deakins conceived the minimalist concept as one, nearly uninterrupted shot. That bold artistic decision required six months of extensive preparation, involving timing, rehearsing and blocking each scene, so the camera stayed connected to the characters.
Its ominous effect is augmented by editor Lee Smith, production designers Dennis Gassner & Lee Sandales, costumers Jacqueline Durran & David Crossman, and composer Thomas Newman. Kudos also to sound mixers Stuart Wilson, Scott Millan & Mark Taylor and sound editor Oliver Tarney.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “1917” is a compelling, immersive 9, an audacious cinematic adventure.
In “Just Mercy,” a true story about the racial prejudice that permeates the legal system in the South, Harvard Law School graduate Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan) is determined to free wrongly convicted inmates on Alabama’s death row in the late 1980s/1990s.
Using grant money, he opens an Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) office in Montgomery with the help of idealistic Eva Ansley (Brie Larson).
For his first client, Stevenson chooses 47-year-old Walter “Johnny D” McMillian (Jamie Foxx), who was accused of murdering an 18-year-old white woman, despite having a solid alibi and the prosecutor’s infuriating lack of physical evidence.
“A black man down here doesn’t stand a chance,” McMillian tells Stevenson. “They can do whatever they want.”
Nevertheless, Stevenson diligently gathers enough information, including an admission of perjury from McMillian’s twitchy former cellmate, Ralph Myers (Tim Blake Nelson).
Working from a script he co-wrote with Andrew Lanham, director Destin Daniel Cretton concentrates on dismantling Alabama’s endemic judicial racism, based on slavery’s legacies and Jim Crow, now epitomized by the sheriff (Michael Harding), who rigs the case, and young district attorney (Rafe Spall).
Although the biopic draws on Stevenson’s 2014 memoir “Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption,” Cretton focuses on the legal labyrinth, rather than Stevenson’s character, whom I found fascinating.
Entering law school with an undergraduate degree in philosophy, Stevenson took an intensive one-month course about race and poverty, working for the Southern Prisoners Defense Committee in Atlanta, concentrating on condemned convicts on Georgia’s death row. There, he found his purpose.
Since 1989, Stevenson has successfully challenged more than 125 death row convictions, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu dubbed him “America’s Mandela.”
“Just Mercy” is the first major studio movie produced with an inclusion rider, a contractual provision mandating consideration of minorities for cast and crew positions.
FYI: Destin Daniel Cretton is prepping Marvel’s first Asian superhero movie, “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” set for 2021
On the Granger Gauge, “Just Mercy” is a stirring 7, a poignant legal drama.
After an injured miner is carried down the mountainside in Ethiopia, two workers quietly disappear into a mineshaft from which they steal a huge, glistening rock. That’s the beginning of “Uncut Gems.”
That scene dissolves into Howard Ratner’s colonoscopy. While Ratner (Adam Sandler) anxiously awaits the results of the gastrointestinal procedure, a mysterious package from Africa is delivered to his jewelry shop in Manhattan’s midtown Diamond District. It’s the uncut black opal — from the opening scene.
Since Ratner estimates it’s worth millions at auction, he uses it as collateral to fund his compulsive, high-stakes sports gambling, even though he’s already deeply in debt to menacing loan sharks.
But the sparkling gem also catches the eye of NBA Boston Celtics superstar Kevin Garnett, whom his buddy (Lakeith Stanfield) brought into Ratner’s store as a prospective customer. Insisting it has mystical power, Garnett wants to keep the opal temporarily, leaving behind his championship ring, which Ratner immediately pawns.
Plus, Ratner’s having a torrid affair with a hot-to-trot employee (Julia Fox), arousing the suspicions of his resentful wife (Idina Menzel), who lives with their children on Long Island. Seemingly intent on destroying not only his business but also his family, fast-talking Howard is incorrigible.
Filmmaking brothers Josh and Benny Safdie (“Good Time,” “Heaven Knows What”) recall stories they heard from their father, Alberto, a Sephardic Jew who emigrated from Italy via France and worked as a jewel runner in the Diamond District. That’s how they explain the character study of Howard Ratner.
Problem is: the vivid vulgarity is so repetitive that it ceases to be shocking, the chaotic plot is predictable and Daniel Lopatin’s aggressive, pulse-pounding synthetic score is too damn loud.
Since Adam Sandler has previously focused his psychotic energy on goofy, childish comedy, it’s perhaps remarkable how he’s morphed into this totally self-indulgent, utterly contemptible scumbag. But spending two hours in his irritating company is sheer agony.
On the Granger Gauge “Uncut Gems” is a furious, frenetic 5. Except as a change-of-pace for Adam Sandler, why bother?
(Editor’s Note: Westport resident Susan Granger grew up in Hollywood, studied journalism with Pierre Salinger at Mills College, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with highest honors in journalism. In addition to writing for newspapers and magazines, she has been on radio/television as an anchorwoman and movie/drama critic for many years. See her reviews at www.susangranger.com.)
