“Gangster Squad” makes “Chinatown” look like child’s play.
“Chinatown” if you remember was a dark tale of crime and corruption in late 1930s Los Angeles.
“Gangster Squad” is an even darker tale of high-level crime and corruption in late 1940s Los Angeles. Scarier still, it is based on real-life characters.
Sean Penn plays the chief bad guy, the treacherous, despicable, murderous mob leader, Mickey Cohen, and Penn does not hold back.
Director Rueben Fleischer establishes the ruthless, sadistic character of Cohen in the first few frames of the film. As he begs pitifully for mercy, a Chicago gangster is chained to two cars facing opposite directions. With one last desperate scream from the mobster, Cohen orders the two drives to floor it. The victim is ripped in half.
“Gangster Squad” is the kind of film that makes you cringe, flinch and maybe cover your eyes. The film is so violent it was delayed in the wake of the Aurora massacre because one of the key violent scenes took place in a movie theater. It is now an equally violent scene set in Chinatown.
Square-jawed Josh Brolin stars as Sgt. John O’Mara, the ultimate tough-guy Los Angeles Police Department cop.
O’Mara is hand-picked by Police Chief Bill Parker (Nick Nolte) to put together an undercover police unit charged with fighting Mickey Cohen with his own violent, vengeful tactics.
“No names, no badges, no mercy,” the Chief says.
O’Mara is married to pretty, very smart Connie (Mirielle Enos), who is pregnant with their first child. When her pleas to not take on the challenge are disregarded, she elects to help her husband by suggesting the best candidates possible for a squad of a half-dozen Dirty Harrys. One of them is Sgt. Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling), an absolutely fearless and incorruptible cop. How fearless? Jerry makes a pass at Cohen’s favorite girlfriend Grace Faraday (Emma Stone) and she takes him up on it.
We don’t get to know the other cops as well as they are pretty stereotypical. Three who stand out are Giovanni Ribisi as the brainy family man Conway Keeper, Robert Patrick as the self-styled cowboy Max Kennard and Michael Pena as the obligatory Latino, Navidid Ramirez.
There really was a mobster named Mickey Cohen who tried to take over L.A. for evil purposes, and there really was a LAPD Chief named Bill Parker, who organized an elite squad to fight fire with fire. This is simply that true story amped up with violence and gore. You could say it is a sign of the times.
Three stars
“Rust and Bone” a Very Unusual Love Story
For something considerably more uplifting, consider the unusual, touching love story “Rust and Bone” from prolific French writer-director Jacques Audiard.
Matthias Schoenaerts stars as Alain “Ali” van Versch, who leaves Belgium and a dysfunctional wife with his 5-year-old son Sam (Armand Verdue) to try and make a go of it in Antibes, France, where his sister Anna (Corinne Masiero) lives a precarious existence as a part-time grocery cashier.
Ali is a tough guy who aspired to be a professional kick-boxer. Because of his boxing expertise he gets a job as a bouncer at a local nightclub. Late one night he rescues a drunken young woman from a brawl. He chivalrously drives her home in her car and does not take advantage of her.
Stephanie (Marion Cotillard) is a star trainer at a Marineland attraction where she coaxes killer whales to do amazing tricks. In the middle of the act one of the whales leaps out of the water and lands on Stephanie, who is knocked out. When she awakens in a hospital bed she learns to her horror both legs have been amputated below the knee.
Sinking into depression, she gives Ali a call. Ali is not fazed by Stephanie’s injuries. In fact he invites her to go swimming and carries her to the water. So begins Stephanie’s healing.
Meanwhile through another job Ali meets a shady character named Martial (Bouli Lanners) who convinces him he can make quick cash fighting in brutal underground matches without referees or rules.
“Rust and Bone” is about painful injuries to the body, but it is also about the healing power of love; both of a father for his son and of an independent-minded man and woman who ultimately realize they need each other. You could call this a “tough love” story. Audiard has cast just the right actors for the job. Cotilliard is equally convincing as a tough chick and a proud, vulnerable woman.
Schoenaerts exudes machismo, but there is an achingly tender side to this tough guy, as we see with little Armand Verdure. This movie is a dandy to share with your Valentine.
Three and a half stars
“Nicky’s Family” a Truly Moving Documentary
For something even more uplifting and downright inspirational we submit the Czech documentary “Nicky’s Family.”
Sir Nicholas Winton is living proof the good don’t always die young. Through ingenuity, bravery and persistence as a 29-year-old Winton left his banking job in England to rescue hundreds of Jewish children in imminent peril as the Nazis tightened their grip on Czechoslovakia in early 1938.
“This old man saved my life,’ marveled survivor Joe Schlesinger. “I knew nothing about him or that he even existed. He insisted it was nothing to make a fuss about.”
“Nicky’s Family” amounts to 669 Czech children spirited away under the noses of the Nazis and relocated with British foster families. Winton had to work fast. He began in March of 1938 and by Sept. 1 World War II had broken out, ending his diplomatic efforts. “Nicky’s Family” blends dramatic recreations with real vintage movies, newsreels and photographs of the inexorable march of Hitler’s armies over Europe, including the horrific blitz that pounded London and its innocent civilians.
Amazingly, Sir Nicholas is still alive at age 103. This film is a series of testimonies from the great (The Dalai Lama) to the merely grateful survivors who owe their lives to his selflessness. If there ever were a ‘righteous gentile” it is Sir Nicholas Winton.
Four stars
The Holocaust Haunts “The Interview”
“The Interview” is a memory play by Faye Sholiton about the Holocaust. The Women’s Theatre Project is presenting it through Jan. 20 at the Willow Theatre of Sugar Sand Park.
“The Interview” is as the title indicates an interview with an elderly Holocaust survivor named Bracha Weissman (Harriet Oser), being conducted by Ann Meshenberg (Patti Gardner), a daughter of survivors.
There is a third character there in spirit and memory only: Bracha’s estranged daughter Rifka (Irene Adjan). It is because of Rifka’s two children that Bracha has finally decided to speak of her painful past for the record for her grandchildren. Christopher Mitchell plays the small, brief role of the videographer.
Though we are reminded never to forget, no Holocaust remembrance is as gripping, terrifying or tragic as the real thing. “The Interview” is as much about a mother’s sundered relationship with an uncomprehending daughter as it is about the horrors of the “final solution.” This is an admirably well-acted production, directed by Genie Croft, but if you want to be moved to tears, see “Nicky’s Family.”
Tickets are $25. Call 561-347-3948 for reservations.