Tuesday, April 30, 2019

Bolden

 
Film Review by Kam Williams


Overdue Biopic Belatedly Pays Tribute to Jazz Pioneer

Buddy Bolden (1877-1931) was born in New Orleans, where he took up the cornet at an early age. His unique approach to the instrument involved a novel form of improvisation while playing a combination of gospel, blues and ragtime. 
 
Well before the emergence of Louis Armstrong, Buddy was a popular bandleader credited with creating a new genre of music: jazz! Sadly, this genius has mostly been forgotten by history because no recordings or arrangements of his songs survived.

However, thanks to legendary trumpeter Wynton Marsalis in collaboration with writer/director Dan Pritzker, we now have Bolden, a brilliant biopic painting a poignant portrait of what Buddy's life might have been like. Marsalis composed, arranged and played on the soundtrack, relying on what scraps of his subject's work he could unearth.

Similarly, Pritzker cobbled together a speculative storyline based on the few facts available about Bolden. What we do know is that his career ended in 1907 when he was committed to the mental institution where he would spend the last of his days in obscurity.

Bolden is basically a flashback flick unfolding from the surreal perspective of a patient struggling to make sense of his life. The film stars Garry Carr who delivers a riveting performance as black man whose spirit has been broken by racism and a host of other maladies flowing from that oppression.

Don't miss this overdue tribute to a forgotten jazz pioneer!




Excellent (4 stars)
Rated R for sexuality, graphic nudity, profanity, ethnic slurs, brutal violence and drug use
Running time: 108 minutes
Production Companies: King Bolden LLC
Distributor: Abramorama

To see a trailer for Bolden, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80D1UrXqUsE

Thursday, April 18, 2019

The Mustang

Film Review by Kam Williams



Hardened Con Offered Shot at Redemption by Rough-Edged Horse Whisperer

Roman Coleman (Matthias Schoenaerts) has too quick a fuse to think before he acts. That's why he's done a dozen years and counting in a maximum-security prison for impulsively delivering a brutal beating that left his victim permanently brain-damaged. 
 
Even while incarcerated, Roman's never learned to control his temper. Consequently, he's voluntarily spent the bulk of his time in solitary confinement. 
 
A shot at rehabilitation finally arrives when Myles (Bruce Dern), a salty, old horse whisperer, offers Roman a spot in his program pairing inmates with wild mustangs. The hope is that each participant will learn to tame his own raging inner soul while bonding with his stallion.

Roman grudgingly accepts the invitation, before being assigned to work with a bucking bronco he names Marcus. Under the watchful eye of the sage trainer, con and colt do gradually take to each other, although not without its share of fits and starts. 
 
Marking Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre's nonpareil directorial debut, The Mustang is a character-driven masterpiece co-starring Matthias Schoenaerts and Bruce Dern. The two generate considerable chemistry in the course of delivering powerful performances against a variety of visually-captivating backdrops, ranging from the vast expanse of a barren, Nevada desert to the claustrophobic confines of one of the State's penal institutions.

An emotionally-engaging meditation on redemption inspired by a real-life program helping inmates turn their lives around.

Excellent (4 stars)
Rated R for profanity, violence and drug use
Running time: 96 minutes
Production Companies: Legende Films / Cine+ / Canal+
Distributor: Focus Features

To see a trailer for The Mustang, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2a-KSOCIeY



Thursday, April 11, 2019

Breakthrough


Film Review by Kam Williams


Inspirational Memoir Recounts Teen's True Tale of Survival

Despite being saddled with a couple of generic American names, John Smith's (Marcel Ruiz) life story has been anything but boring. It's just too bad that the shy, 14 year-old has been too embarrassed to share it. 
 
You see, he was born in Guatemala, but raised in Missouri by Brian (Josh Lucas) and Joyce Smith (Chrissy Metz), the missionary couple that adopted him as an infant. But even the terrific childhood they provided couldn't supply answers to nagging questions that still burdened the boy in junior high, like, “Why didn't his birth mom love him enough to keep him?” John was so traumatized that he gave his teacher a lame excuse the day he was supposed to make a class presentation about his family tree.

Luckily, he did have a couple of BFFs to hang out with in Josh (Isaac Kragten) and Reiger (Nikolas Dukic). However, the three could be a little rebellious, like on the afternoon of January 15, 2015 when they were warned by a stranger not to tempt fate by wandering out onto seemingly-frozen Lake St. Louis.

But they did, and fell through the ice, one after another. Rescue teams arrived soon enough to save two of the kids within minutes, but John had slipped so far beneath the surface that it took the extraordinary effort of one very determined fireman (Mike Colter) to belatedly find his body by poking around in the 12-foot deep waters with a stick.

John had no pulse, since he'd been submerged over 15 minutes. Yet, that didn't discourage first responders and then the ER physician on duty (Sam Trammell) at nearby St. Joseph's Hospital from trying repeatedly to revitalize him. Miraculously, John did come around after about an hour, which prompted an airlift to the top doctor in the field (Dennis Haysbert) in the St. Louis area.

Thus unfolds Breakthrough, a true tale of survival based on a moving memoir by Joyce Smith. Since each step of the unprecedented feat recounted here had been accompanied by prayer, the question triggered again and again was whether the operation had succeeded because of state-of-the-art medical care, divine intervention, or a combination of both. 
 
An edge-of-your-seat, faith-oriented/medical drama, equally riveting in terms of spiritual and worldly concerns.

Excellent (3.5 stars)
Rated PG for peril and mature themes
Running time: 116 minutes
Production Companies: Fox 2000 Pictures / 20th Century Fox
Distributor: 20th Century Fox

To see a trailer for Breakthrough, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52bORzIODec