Review: Zero Dark Thirty

Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
157 minutes
Rated – R
Directed by Kathryn Bigelow
Starring: Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler

Grade: A

–

The film opens with a black screen with a collage of voices from September 11, 2001. The voices are from people on the hijacked planes and 911 calls from those who were trapped in the World Trade Center buildings. It’s a tough thing to listen to and most certainly will bring back memories to exactly where you were during the attacks. Then the films fades to a CIA black site at an undisclosed location two years later where we meet our heroine, Maya, looking on as another CIA agent, Dan (Clarke), is interrogating a detainee.

There has been much chatter about how Zero Dark Thirty portrays torture in the film. Some say it glamorizes it and others say it shows the evils to the practice. What director Kathryn Bigelow masterfully does is that she stays neutral to the water-boarding. We all know that torture is wrong, but if it helped lead to the death of Bin Laden, will we admit it was worth it? What does that say about us?

The torture scenes right from the start also plays as a tool to see what kind of person Maya is right from the beginning. Her reaction to the water-boarding and her response to the detainee who asks for her help is more you’re going to learn about her than anything she says about her past, which is that all she’s ever concentrated on in the CIA on Bin Laden and also how she’s never had any friends.

For the majority of the film, we bounce around the world to different CIA black sites and watch a number of interrogations, but none that really give Maya any hard intelligence for an upcoming attack or where Bin Laden is hiding. Her bosses remain fierce on her especially when numerous bombings occur, such as the 2008 bombing of the Marriott Islamabad in Pakistan and the 2009 suicide bombing on Camp Chapman in Afghanistan.

Maya’s efforts and determination never go without notice, but the fact is that her main theory was a shaky one at best, and one that took years to actually gain a break that put her back on track to follow Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti. But even after wire-tapping phones and actually locating Abu Ahmed in Pakistan, her supervisors still aren’t confident that everything will lead to Bin Laden. Maya states that she is 100 percent sure, but we’re able to put ourselves in the shoes of the other men in that room opposite of Maya. Even though, in the end, we know that this leads to the death of Bin Laden, at that specific moment in the meeting, I sure as hell wouldn’t have believed her.

After a year that really put woman in the front of cinema, 2012 went back to the traditional pattern and was a male-driven year. The only real exception is Zero Dark Thirty, with an incredible performance given by Jessica Chastain. She is one great, versatile actress and really produced a controlled portrayal of a strong woman in an extremely hard job. Even though The Hurt Locker was more in-depth with its main characters and how the war affected them, simply stating that a woman was in charge for tracking down Bin Laden speaks volumes.

Zero Dark Thirty contains a lot of very tense scenes, mostly understanding what is at stake during every meeting and every interrogation and that at any moment there could be another terrorist attack. And of course, the Navy SEAL raid at the end provides a very satisfying and suspenseful conclusion to a heavily serious movie. It’s hard to imagine this project being in the hands of someone else other than Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal. It wouldn’t have felt right to create a Hollywood film feel to the greatest manhunt in history and it most certainly didn’t have a crowd-pleasing ovation when the bad guy is finally killed (I’m sure Michael Bay would’ve had Maya wielding a gun and kicking down Bin Laden’s door). Instead, there was the heroine, Maya, sitting in front of a torn and bloodied American flag with tears streaming down her face. We were all happy when the news came out, but were any of us really satisfied?

Oscar Talk 2012: Look out for Zero Dark Thirty

All of the films have finally been seen and for quite a while, after Lincoln took the commanding lead from Argo, Les Miserables came in and swept away all of the bloggers. Well, it’s time for Les Miserables to be pushed aside as well now that Zero Dark Thirty has been receiving glowing reviews. Everyone is excited to see if Kathryn Bigelow can win twice in four years. And she’s a woman!

The Golden Globes announce their nominees this week, though I doubt they really will influence the Oscars in any way. What’s intriguing about this year’s Best Picture race is how there are legitimately THREE movies that have a very good chance to win. Of course all of this will likely be a lot clearer when the guild awards are announced, but as of right now this is a three-way race between three very powerful movies: Lincoln, Les Miserables, and Zero Dark Thirty.

Last year, 2011, it was a race between The Artist and The Descendants until The Artist started to win every award on its path to the Best Picture. In 2010, it was a race between The King’s Speech (the guilds’ darling) and The Social Network (the critics’ darling). While the weeks leading up to the Oscars, it was obvious that The King’s Speech would sweep, there was still that little doubt that The Social Network could pull the upset simply because it was the CLEAR front-runner before the guild awards were announced.

The year before that, 2009, it was The Hurt Locker vs. Avatar and that concludes the years with more than five nominees. In years with only five nominees, it was even less likely to have a race come down to three movies instead of two. That is why this year is very interesting and quite thrilling for those who follow the Oscar race. And with the amount of nominees falling between five or ten, who knows how many films will be nominated! Since there were nine films last year, I’m sticking with that for this year as well and I’d rather have more films nominated this year because of its quality. If small films like Beasts of the Southern Wild, The Master, and Moonrise Kingdom can be noticed, then I have no problem with there being ten nominees this year.

But right now it’s an extremely close race between our trifecta. Both Bigelow and Hooper have recently won, so that would give Spielberg’s Lincoln the slight edge right? Looks like Daniel Day-Lewis should win Best Actor, but Jessica Chastain is set to win Best Actress. Is it possible to have no sweep at all and splits all across the board? Les Mis for picture? Ang Lee for Best Director? Anna Hathaway for Supporting Actress? Philip Seymour Hoffman for Supporting Actor?

How crazy would that be?

Movie Review: The Help

The Help (2011)
146 minutes
Rated PG-13
Directed by Tate Taylor
Starring: Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Jessica Chastain

Grade:  B+

–

Based on the best-selling novel by Kathryn Stockett, The Help is a powerful story about racial discrimination in the South during the 1960′s. Specifically targeting a few maids in Jackson, Mississippi, we are thrown into the lifestyle and appalling mistreatment of African American women by the upper class women. What really brings the story to life is the talented ensemble cast: Viola Davis, Jessica Chastain, Octavia Spencer, and Emma Stone.

The film revolves around Skeeter (Stone), a young journalist who takes a job at the Jackson Journal writing a cleaning column even though she knows nothing about the subject. But she’s ambitious and will go to any lengths to bring her idea to reality, to write a book in the perspective of the help. Her decision certainly turns a lot of heads and causes friction among her selective circle, but she understands she’s doing something very significant and throughout her interviews, she learns more than she ever had expected.

The two maids who agree to help Skeeter at first are Aibileen (Davis) and Minny (Spencer). Though they have volumes to discuss, including their personal lives, raising other people’s children and their stance on using a separate bathroom, the publisher informs Skeeter than she needs more. Because of the risky proposition Skeeter doesn’t get any more voices for her book, that is until a tragedy strikes the African American community.

The Help, at times, feel too much like a preaching melodrama, but mostly the story is solid with rich characters and real world conflicts. Driven by the great performances of Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer, it’s impossible not to feel for their characters. With the entire film focused mainly on women, it’s a refreshing aspect that is rare in Hollywood.

Despite a few hiccups along the way, the 2+ hours of The Help breezes by. It definitely has its tear-jerking moments towards the end so have some tissues handy. Other than that, The Help expands on the message of the novel, giving it the air to breathe and the legs to run.