Dark Waters (2019)

There seem to be some hyperspecific genres out there.  Within science fiction, you have movies about people on space stations where the rest of humanity perishes.  This isn’t to say that it’s formulaic.  We’re not talking about The Hallmark Channel, which has no end to movies about some woman who goes to a different town, finds her soul mate and leads a new life she never knew she wanted.  There is some variation beyond which holiday it is.

Take movies based on real life.  Even legal thrillers.  There are a few movies where the little guy takes on big corporations.  There’s usually a little guy.  It might whistleblower or someone who was screwed over by a big corporation.  They find a lawyer who is hesitant to take on the case, usually because it’s almost impossible to win.  In the end, there is victory, although it may or may not mean anything.

This isn’t to say the movie isn’t enjoyable.  Dark Waters is definitely watchable.  But, it does follow that same basic premise.

Wilbur Tennant has lost all but two of his cows.  He knows that it has something to do with DuPont.  The installation of a new dump site is too coincidental.  So, he comes to Rob Bilott, a lawyer who usually defends corporations like DuPont.  No lawyer in West Virginia will take the case.  That’s how embedded DuPont is in his area.

Bilott is hesitant at first.  His firm would like to have DuPont as a client.  Taking on the case would not make a good impression.  When Tennant drops off a box of VHS tapes, Bilott begins to see the light.  What follows is a decade-long legal battle to get DuPont to admit guilt.

And so he does, to an extent.  Tennant’s health deteriorates, but he does get to see some progress.  DuPont is forced to make payments to people.  When push comes to shove, though, they try backing out of an agreement.

You come to realize that life isn’t fair.  Lawyers are there to make things fair.  It’s supposed to be a way of leveling the playing field.  As they say, some people are more equal than others.  In this case, some people can afford more lawyers than others.

The movie does hit all the marks.  We even have a scene where Bilott is afraid to turn the ignition in his car.  (Maybe he’s been watching too many movies, himself.)  Granted, you’ll never look at Teflon the same way.  It’s a story that affects everyone.  I just don’t know that it stands out.

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The Kitchen (2019)

It’s not easy being a single-income family.  If anything should happen to that source of income, things can be difficult for the entire family.  This is no different for criminals.  Jimmy Brennan, Rob Walsh and Kevin O’Carroll are members of the Irish Mob.  They get arrested by the FBI while robbing a convenience store, leaving their respective wives in the lurch.   The Mob helps with finances, but it’s not enough.  Kathy Brennan, Claire Walsh and Ruby O’Carroll decide to take things into their own hands.

This might sound like the basis of an exciting movie.  And it is, to an extent.  Or, at least, it could be.  Some of the plot twists, you can see coming.  They work with various other members of the organization until the organization puts pressure on them to stop.  Others seem contrived or forced.  Ruby, a black woman, has a racist mother-in-law to contend with.  The entire dynamic seems a bit much.

It would also seem that the movie would end one of two ways.  Either the women end up dead or everyone else does.  At times, it seemed like it was difficult to tell which way it was going.  They would do very well.  Then, they’d face a big setback, which they would deal with.

Most of the movie is the three women working their way up.  They collect protection money from places where the Mob hasn’t been protecting so well.  They earn respect, expand their territory and take on another mob.  It eventually comes to a head when the husbands are released early, but the women are good at what they do.

Comparisons to Widows aren’t undeserved.  Both movies involve a group of women who have to step up in the absence of their criminal husbands.  With The Kitchen, they’re not as reluctant, but the basic storyline would seem to be the same.

The movie seemed haphazard, though.  It was as if someone took episodes of a TV show and put them in a blender.  It was coherent, but it was all over the place.  The women start off struggling, but not a lot was shown to establish this.  (We see Kathy go on one job interview.)  Then, they extort money.  (So, Claire needs a little encouragement, but goes all in after that.)  They do what they have to until the husbands get out.  Again, they do what’s necessary to survive.

I think the movie could have been done better.  It almost looks like there’s enough material for two or three movies here.  It seemed to me like half the movie was missing.  I might have had the first movie be the women hitting rock bottom before making their way alone and the second movie dealing with the husbands getting out and the women going all in.  I would say that this is a good movie to maybe check out of the library one night.

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Vice (2018)

My mother asked why someone would make a movie about a vice president.  That’s how seriously the job is taken.  I was trying to find a joke to lead off this review, but I think that’s the best lead I can find.

Then again, this is Richard Bruce Cheney we’re talking about.

He’s been called a lot of things.  I don’t imagine most of them were nice.

The movie’s timeline starts with him being pulled over for driving under the influence of alcohol.  That and a fight land him in jail, meaning that his wife, Lynne, has to bail him out.  She puts it to him to clean up his act.  He promises to do so, and does he.  This doesn’t get him back into Yale, but he does go into politics.

This leads to another turning point.  As an intern, he’s given the choice to work for a Democrat or a Republican.  After seeing Donald Rumsfeld speak, Cheney knows who he wants to intern with.   The two work well together, leading to more turning points and decisions.

The movie is said to be based on the true story, but I think the actual narrative falls somewhere between satire and sarcasm.  I got the impression that certain parts weren’t literally true.  (Take, for example, a claim that Cheney won the Iron Man competition.)  When his name is floated as a possible contender for president, he turns it down.  Part of it is that he doesn‘t want to expose his daughter to media attention because she‘s a lesbian.  It also doesn’t help that his odds of being elected put him two spots below Dan Quayle.

You do get the sense that Cheney is not a nice person.  The line goes that power corrupts, but Cheney may have been corrupt already.  He was just looking for the next opportunity.  When presented with the possibility of being vice president, Lynne won’t hear of it.  It’s a nothing job.

Sure, it might serve as a springboard to the presidency.  (From the 1980 election until 2008, either the sitting President or Vice President sought the office of President.)  Still, Vice President?  Instead of turning it down, Cheney looks into how he can make the job to his own liking.  It’s like Anakin Skywalker being trained in The Force.  It’s just a matter of time before he becomes Darth Vader.

I will say that the casting is spot on.  To see Cheney, you don’t even realize that it’s Christian Bale.  When you see George W. Bush, you’re not thinking of Sam Rockwell.  Sure, Steve Carell is a little obvious as Rumsfeld, but that’s actually forgivable.  (Having seen pictures of Runsfeld, I would say that Carell is a pretty awesome choice.)  Even having Jesse Plemons narrate the story was the way to go.

So many things come down to random events.  Imagine if Cheney hadn’t flunked out of Yale.  Suppose he hadn’t married Lynne.  What if Rumsfeld hadn’t spoken to the interns that day?  It would make for an interesting alternate-history story.

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