MY MOVIE SHELF: Three Kings

The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order (Blu-rays are sorted after DVDs), by June 10, 2015.  Remaining movies: 155  Days to go: 111

Movie #283:  Three Kings

I distinctly remember liking Three Kings when it came out. (I bought the DVD; I must’ve liked it a lot.) I liked the cinematography. I liked the innovative, if grotesque, ways they portray things happening in the body. I liked the crafty use of camera speed and sound to highlight or single out a scene or a particular event. I liked the disillusioned outlook it had on the (first) war in Iraq. I think about Troy (Mark Wahlberg) releasing the valve in his lung to breathe far more often than anyone should have any reason to — it just pops into my head sometimes. The movie definitely made an impression on me.

Watching Three Kings tonight, however, I wasn’t moved by the film at all. I still appreciated the story, and I still found the creative camera work and special effects interesting to look at. I’m still fascinated by that little valve in Troy’s chest and I was perhaps doubly intrigued with the fact that his call to his wife, made in an attempt to save them, is what ultimately got them arrested. And I found myself repeatedly amused by the unexpected casting choices (that I’ll explore in-depth shortly). But I wasn’t emotionally invested or attached to the film like I know I was in the past. I’m not sure if it’s the distance from that war, or the fact that there have been two more wars — longer and more controversial — much more recently. It just didn’t seem to be making as strong of a statement anymore.

Still, the cast is a delight. This has become a David O. Russell trademark of late, but when Three Kings came out he was still a relatively inexperienced director and I, for one, was unaware of his deftness with a versatile cast. Even the top-billed stars of Three Kings were unexpected movie leads in 1999. George Clooney (as Major Archie Gates) was a movie star, sure, but despite their numerous previous credits and successes, Wahlberg and Ice Cube (as Chief) were still kind of wild card picks. And in the smaller parts, things only get more offbeat. There’s hipster incarnate Spike Jonze as irrepressible redneck Conrad Vig, SNL alum Nora Dunn as a tough-as-nails reporter, perpetual best friend Judy Greer as a less-tough reporter who, as Dunn’s character puts it, maybe “dropped to [her] knees for a story, Kiwi Cliff Curtis as Amir, professional goofball Jamie Kennedy as a goofball soldier, and Hot Pockets comedian Jim Gaffigan out of nowhere showing up as one of the soldiers who arrests our heroes. There’s even a little girl (Amir’s daughter) played by a very young Alia Shawkat, who would grow up to be my beloved Maeby Fünke. It’s a diverse and interesting cast.

I still like the end of the film, where the protection of the Iraqi refugees in their care becomes more important than their illegally obtained gold — I like the message it sends that humanity can still succeed over greed and disillusionment and betrayal — but if I’m being honest I can’t remember what convinced me to buy this one. Indeed, if I were given the choice today I would pass it over without a second thought. I suppose sometimes a movie comes into your life at a time when it make an impact, but after a while that impression fades. Others stay forever. Just like friends and songs and everything else. I guess Three Kings and I just drifted apart over the years. It happens.

MY MOVIE SHELF: The Departed

The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order (Blu-rays are sorted after DVDs), by June 10, 2015.  Remaining movies: 294  Days to go: 281

Movie #83: The Departed

Of all the 21st-century-era Scorsese movies people were clamoring to give him the Best Director Oscar for (Gangs of New York, The Aviator and The Departed) after not having won any of the previous  times he was nominated (for Raging Bull, The Last Temptation of Christ and Goodfellas), I’m really glad the one that finally did it for him was The Departed, because it was the most deserving of the three. Gangs of New York is uneven, and the only truly great performance is Bill the Butcher (Daniel Day-Lewis). The Aviator is a show-stopper, no doubt, and I thought much more of a grand entertaining picture than eventual Best Picture/Director winner Million Dollar Baby, but, while it won a handful of statuettes, parts again felt uneven, and though I disagreed, I understood the Academy’s preference for the Eastwood flick. The Departed, however, is fantastic. With that, I will brook no argument.

Dealing with the corrupt world of south Boston organized crime and the police force tasked with taking down crime boss Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson), The Departed is a twisted, layered film of intrigue and betrayal. Costello has rats inside the police force. The state troopers have undercover guys inside Costello’s crew. Good guys are bad guys and bad guys are good guys. Nobody can be trusted.

Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) is an up-and-coming state police detective with a lot of ambition and a lot of upward mobility. He’s also informing to Costello about police movements in the Special Investigation Unit. William Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a Southie kid with a bad reputation who makes good by becoming a trooper, but is placed in deep undercover with Costello by the State Undercover Unit, run by Queenan (Martin Sheen) and Dignam (Mark Wahlberg). Both men are consumed and torn apart by their double lives, always afraid someone knows who they are, always looking over their shoulders as both Costello and the SIU come to realize their have a traitor in their midst. What follows is a tense and terrifying game of cat and mouse, with no way of knowing who, if anyone, is going to get out alive.

I admit to having a soft spot for these thick Boston accents, and the constant profanity-laden insults warm the New York cockles of my heart, but I honestly love the performances in this one. Everyone is hard, everyone is angry, everyone is throwing their dicks around trying to prove whose is biggest, and it’s great. Male competitive machismo is something Martin Scorsese is great at, and that’s quite a niche. However, out of all the excellent work here I think DiCaprio really does some of the best of his career. For the first time in a long time, he manages to shed every ounce of his own persona to take on the two competing ones of Billy Costigan. He’s tortured and scared and tough and vulnerable and badass and smart and sexy as hell. (Like most Scorsese movies, there’s not much room for women to do anything, but Vera Farmiga does amazing work as police psychologist Madolyn, who is torn between Sullivan and Costigan herself, for different reasons — girl has got a type.)

Sadly, this is one of the roles DiCaprio didn’t get nominated for — not that he would’ve won; the Academy has some sort of grudge against Leo — but it won Best Picture and Best Director (as well as Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Film Editing), so I can’t really complain I guess.

Scratch that. I want somebody to come at me asking who I am to question the Academy’s decisions just so I can counter with “Who am I? I’m the guy who does his job. You must be the other guy.”