REVIEW: The Founder

Biopics are tricky little films.  Done well, they can not only educate, but they can also put you in the mind of a historical figure.  Done poorly, they are tedious and nothing but drivel.  They are also notorious for being Oscar bait, movies that aim to secure a handful of nominations come awards time.  These films come with great highs, and, as well, great lows.

The Founder is the story of Ray Kroc (Micheal Keaton), a struggling salesman who comes across a booming restaurant in southern California called McDonald's.  He is enraptured by the system that the McDonald brothers, Mac (John Carroll Lynch) and Dick (Nick Offerman) have created.  It is something that hasn't been seen before, and instantly Kroc becomes obsessed with this restaurant.  He sees potential in it, and he pressures the McDonald brothers into allowing him to franchise it.

What is interesting about this movie is the fact that it doesn't take any stance on the moral qualities of Ray Kroc.  He is neither hero nor villain.  He just is.  It is up to the viewer to decide where he lands.  The passion for seeing the franchise progress shifts the compass of Kroc, turning him from someone who has just seized an opportunity to someone who will stop at nothing, not only for the success of the franchise, but for his own personal financial well being.

Michael Keaton is wonderful in this role.  We see him at the beginning of the movie, doing a routine sales pitch, and we feel for the guy.  He is not successful.  He is barely a provider.  He is spending all of his time on the road trying to make a living to support him and his wife, who he barely sees.  It is an incredibly sympathetic situation for a character to be in.  It is the morphing of the character over the course of the film that becomes interesting.

Keaton is able to portray minuscule changes in character that shadow the journey from family man to someone who admits he would step on his opponent if they were drowning.  Ever since starring in Birdman, Keaton has been in a resurgence.  Most well known for his portrayal of Batman, he redefined his career and has been better off for it.  His acting has matured a lot since movies like Multiplicity.  He is refined, and able to dig down deep and pull out masterful performances such as in Birdman and Spotlight.  This is just another movie to add to his ledger of outstanding achievements.

One of the refreshing aspects about The Founder is that it doesn't fall prey to the general tropes and trappings of most biopics (mainly a third act tension that is contrived and pulls away from the main narrative).  These sorts of things affected the hugely popular, and I would almost say over-rated, The Imitation Game and The Theory of Everything.  The Founder's script stays tight to the story of Kroc, and dares not deviate from it.

The only odd occurrence in the movie would be the score, done by Carter Burwell.  It feels like something that is more fit for a Hallmark movie than the seedy character study that is portrayed on screen.  I felt that it took away from the moral ambiguity of the character and insisted on an upbeat, positive bent.  It was at odds with what was happening on the screen, and did not seem to be the best choice of music.

That criticism aside, The Founder is a solid biopic that never strays from the original purpose of telling the story of someone who we could either admire or hate.  Depending on your own personal stance, you will have your own opinions of Ray Kroc as portrayed in this movie.  That is the magic of what director John Lee Hancock (Saving Mr. Banks and The Blind Side) has graced us with.  It is the opportunity to see what personal choices must be made to build an empire, and we are left to decide whether or not it was worth it.

Rating - 3.5 out of 4 stars

REVIEW: Spotlight

What could I say after watching Spotlight?  That was the question that I had for myself when I returned from the theatre yesterday at midnight, sitting down at the keyboard to write the review.  The thoughts and emotions were so prevalent that I needed to get them out, but all I could do was just stare at the blank document and wonder.  What was worse about humanity?  The people who commit evil acts, or those who know about them and cover them up?

To be sure, watching Spotlight is no easy task, as it tells the story of a team of investigative journalists who worked for the Boston Globe and exposed systemic child molestation and cover ups in the Catholic Church.  It was difficult watching scenes where the team interviewed survivors of sexual predators, and it was equally difficult seeing scenes where the journalists deal with the weight of what they were uncovering.

What is remarkable with a film like this, or Ryan Cooler's Fruitvale Station, is the ability to take a true story where the outcome is known and still be able to take the audience through the story and leave them feeling new emotions when the end credits role.  This is thanks to both Spotlight's screenplay (penned by Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy) and the directing stills of McCarthy.  We are brought into a very real world, which makes the emotional punches much more powerful and difficult to bare.

One thing that Singer and McCarthy do well is to keep the story clean, ridding it of anything that would be otherwise thrown in to make the leads more well rounded and shining.  We almost never see them outside of their working environment, and only get small visions of what their home lives are like.  The story is about their job, and the toll that it takes as well as their determination to tell the full tale of what is happening within the Catholic Church, and by keeping the script lean every shot and scene brings strength to the narrative.  This aspect felt similar to Anton Corbijn's A Most Wanted Man.  There will be times where I cry out that I want to know more about characters, who they are, and revelations about the different aspects of their lives, but there are also times when what we learn needs to be specific, and this is one of those times.

Assisting the great directing script is one of the best ensemble performances I have seen in a long time, perhaps since last year's Birdman.  The two hour and nine minute film puts on display the full abilities in subtlety and nuance of talents Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber (possibly the best performance of his career), and Stanley Tucci.  Through each of their roles we gain an understanding of the humanity involved in searching for a dark truth.  They are all vulnerable at times, and all portray flaws and faults that are believable to their characters.

It really is a technically brilliant piece of work.  The set designs are such that you feel like you are sitting in the actual locations where the story started breaking.  While it nails all the points of what a movie should be from the physical side, it is the emotions that it leaves the audience with that is the true magic of the movie.  It is not all sunshine and lollipops in this film.  It's content is dark, and the characters are believable, thus the feelings we are dragged through can be draining, painful, and haunting.  I doubt that I will ever be seeing this movie again, but be sure to know that I am glad that I sat through it as I learned more about a true story and got a different glimpse into humanity.

Rating - 4 out of 4 stars