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Bryan Cranston

Jerry and Marge Go Large: Breaking Bank

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Sometimes, picking a film on streaming feels like a gamble. In the case of Jerry and Marge Go Large, it’s a surprisingly big win.

Directed by David Frankel, Jerry and Marge Go Large tells the amazing true story of Jerry and Marge Selbee (Bryan Cranston and Annette Bening), a retired couple that live in Evart, Michigan. After working 42 years as a production line manage, Jerry retires with little fanfare—and little savings. However, when Jerry discovers a legal loophole in the WinFall lottery, he and his wife go all in to win big and invite his community to join them as they attempt to exploit the error.

Fueled by fun, Jerry and Marge Go Large is an absolute delight from start to finish. While the film may be moving straight to Paramount+, it certainly has the star power and energy of a mid-range budgeted comedy. Cranston and Bening are an absolute joy to watch together as a retired couple looking for adventure. As he often does, Cranston disappears into the role. (Seriously, is there any role that he cannot play?) However, Bening may be at her best here. Although she plays a woman in her 60s, there is a youthful joy about her character that helps the adventure move forward. While Cranston maybe the ‘numbers guy’, Bening remains the soul of the film. (Credit should also be given to Rainn Wilson who, although he has a smaller role, clearly seems to be enjoying himself in the film.) 

At its heart, Jerry and Marge is a film about finding your spark. Having lived his entire life in one job, Jerry is a man looking for purpose. When he believes he has stumbled on to something in the form of beating the lottery, something stirs within him. All of a sudden, his gifts make sense. 

Strangely, he feels as though he has found his calling. 

However, having said this, the film isn’t just about breaking the bank. Jerry’s desire to win as much as possible here almost stems from a sense of altruism. Yes, he and his wife may have the chance to earn the money that they desperately need. Nevertheless, he is committed to investing that money back into the community and giving it life once again as well. To Jerry, the best part of this deal isn’t merely outsmarting the lottery. It’s helping his friends and community members. 

For Jerry, he’d much rather play Robin Hood than Robin Leach.

In many ways, it’s interesting that the true villain of the piece is a young Harvard student. Compared to Jerry, this young upstart is the exact opposite of his elderly opponent. To him, wealth comes with power and respect for himself. That is his sole motivation and he is willing to accomplish his goal at all costs. (In fact, while Jerry wants to restore his community, it’s worth noting that this young man uses his team members in order to make himself rich.) At the same time, Jerry goes all in on his commitment to helping others as opposed to only himself.

In essence, there is quite simply a joy about the film that’s infectious. Featuring solid performances by its cast, Large charges itself with a youthful enthusiasm that charms viewers of all ages. While this is not a film that you will find in the mix come Oscar time, that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth investing into. 

After all, what’ve you got to lose?

Jerry and Marge Go Large is available on Paramount+ now.

Jerry and Marge Go Large – What is the value of money?

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“I’ve waited forty years for it to be just us, and so far, we suck at it.”

Retirement can be a challenge for people who have been busy their whole lives. It helps if you find a hobby to fill your time. Maybe that hobby turns out to be lucrative—lucrative enough to change lives. Jerry and Marge Go Large, directed by David Frankel, is a wonderfully entertaining story of such a remarkable hobby and the way it touched lives and built a community. It’s based on a true story.

Jerry Selbee (Bryan Cranston) has just retired (not happily) from a career at Kellogg’s. He lives in a small town in Michigan that is well past its prime. He’s floundering for something to do. Jerry is a wizard with numbers. One day he discovers a loophole in the state lottery that adjust the odds so that winning is more likely. After a couple of failures to score, he determines that he needs to bet really big to get a payoff. So he recruits others in the town to trust him with their money (we’re talking thousands each) and forms a corporation. It starts working, but Michigan shuts that game down. It is still being played in Massachusetts, however.

So every few weeks, when the jackpot gets large enough to trigger the loophole, he and his wife Marge (Annette Benning) do a road trip to Massachusetts to spend the day printing the thousands of lottery tickets involved, aided by a friendly and eccentric convenience store clerk (a very entertaining Rainn Wilson). The payoff is astounding. The small town is enjoying the life of new money in town. More importantly Jerry and Marge are having a great time rebuilding their relationship in a new way.

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However, soon, Tyler Evens (Uly Schlesinger), a student at Harvard, discovers the same loophole and gets money from other well-healed students in his dorm. When Tyler figures out there are two group doing this, he threatens Jerry with the idea that he would hack all his neighbors and ruin their lives. Tyler is the epitome of privilege, who wants nothing more to win at anything he’s involved in.

In some ways, this part of the story provides some dramatic tension to make it interesting, but it also opens the door for us to consider what it means to be stewards of the gifts we have.  

For Tyler this is a matter of ego. The money really doesn’t mean anything to him; his family has plenty. It’s about showing off how clever he is. And he won’t tolerate anyone who threatens his plans. The money, per se, doesn’t matter to Jerry either. He’s more interested in what he and his neighbors can do with their winnings. For them, this is a chance to rebuild their dying little town. Parks are spruced up. Downtown shops, which have been boarded up for years, are bought and rented out for €1 a year. (There is a humorous reason they do it for a euro rather than a dollar.) For the Michigan people, this windfall is all about the community. To be sure, they all get to make some personal upgrades, but more than anything else they see this as making everyone’s lives better.

Stewardship of what we have is a frequent topic in scripture. For example, Peter tells us “Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received.” (1 Peter 4:10, NRSV). Tyler has no concept of serving others; he expects others to serve him and feed his ego. But for Jerry, Marge, and their neighbors, the gift that Jerry nurtured for them has changed their lives, not just by making them more money. It has enriched their lives as families and community. There we see “the manifold grace of God” at work.

Jerry and Marge Go Large streams on Paramount+.

Photo credit: Jake Giles Netter/Paramount++.

Isle of Dogs – It’s Cute, but It Has a Bite

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If you’re looking for a movie to go to for the fun of it, let me share what my wife’s comment was when we came out of Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs: “It made me smile all the way through.” If you want a movie that allows us to consider some important issues in our world, Isle of Dogs fulfills that desire as well. This is one of the great examples of having a film that entertains well and at the same time goads our minds into active thought. It is very much like a cross-cultural extended parable.

(From L-R): Bryan Cranston as “Chief,” Bob Balaban as “King,” Koyu Rankin as “Atari Kobayashi,” Bill Murray as “Boss,” Edward Norton as “Rex” and Jeff Goldblum as “Duke” in the film ISLE OF DOGS.

Set in the near future in the Japanese city of Megasaki, there is disease spreading among the dog population. Fearing that the disease could spread to humans, Mayor Kobayashi decrees that all dogs will be deported to Trash Island, starting with his own family dog, Spots. Six months later, a small plane crashes on the island. As a small pack of dogs check this out, they discover a 12 year old boy as the pilot. Atari Kobayashi, the mayor’s nephew and ward, has come to look find his dog. The group sets off across the island to seek Spots.

It turns out the Mayor’s family has a history of animosity towards dogs and may have engineered the entire “crisis” as an excuse to finally eliminate all the dogs from Megasaki. As Atari and the dogs begin to discover the truth, it becomes a mission to bring down the government and restore the rights and lives of the doomed dogs.

The enjoyment of the film is very much like most of Anderson’s film. It is an inventive story that was developed by Anderson, Roman Coppola, Jason Schwartzman, and Kunichi Nomura. Part of the quirkiness of the film is that the dogs speak in English, but all the human characters speak in their native language (although the Japanese is nearly always translated to English). The voices are supplied by a long list of well-known actors including Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Jeff Goldbloom, Greta Gerwig, Scarlett Johansson, Liev Schreiber, F. Murray Abraham, Tilda Swinton, and Ken Watanabi.

But for all the canine enjoyment the film offers, it also has a bite. In a world filled with the politics of fear, Isle of Dogs reflects the reality of life in many places. Mayor Kobayashi uses dogs as a scapegoat, and in the process promotes his own power. This is not a new strategy—it is probably nearly as old as humanity itself. (We need to keep those Neanderthals away from our good people.) Watching not only the dogs and Atari, but the developing political situation in Megasaki makes it very clear that we are seeing the kind of things that go on around the world every day. Most importantly though, we should be reflecting on the ways these dynamics are taking place within our own society.

Every time the President speaks of the rapists and drug dealers that come from Mexico, he is attempting to stoke fear. The fears do not have to be legitimate—only believed. Islamophobia, homophobia, xenophobia, and racial prejudice are all attempts to create fear so that someone else can gain a bit more power. When we allow those fears to rule the day, it means we will likely cede more power to those who claim we need protection. But, as we also see in the film, the truth and determination can eventually defeat the lies that are spread.

Photos Courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures. © 2018 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation All Rights Reserved

Wakefield – Stepping Away from Life

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“Who hasn’t had the urge to put their life on hold for a moment?”

Based on an E. L. Doctorow short story, Wakefield is not just an engaging story, but a man’s spiritual journey of growth and discovery. It serves as a critique of modern life and our assumptions about happiness, success, and love.

Successful Manhattan lawyer Howard Wakefield (Bryan Cranston) is plugging through life. When a power failure delays his train on the way home to the suburbs, he arrives home very late. Seeing a raccoon sneak into his garage, he goes in to chase it out. In the garage’s attic, he discovers he can secretly watch his family. Knowing his wife Diana (Jennifer Garner) is still angry from a fight the night before, he decides to hide out. The next morning, she begins to worry, but he just watches, playing out in his mind the phone calls she is making. The longer he stays up there, the more awkward it will be to go in. So he sets aside all his life to watch. He is soon living the life of a street person: eating out of trash cans, his hair and beard growing unchecked, no longer working. Yet he keeps watching, seeing the changes in his family’s life with him not there.

You may read that and think Howard is a jerk. That puts it mildly. He is cynical and self-centered. Even as we watch we are repelled by his actions and how little he cares about what his family is going through. As he thinks back to his courtship of Diana, we see it was more about competition and conquest than about love. Yet, we can’t help but worry about Howard as months pass and he is isolated from the world. How could he go so quickly from a successful man with all the trimmings of a good life to what we would essential think of as a bum? Which is the real Howard?

One of the themes of the film deals with the idea of freedom and enslavement. At one point Howard claims, “Unshackled I’ll become the Howard Wakefield I was meant to be.” No doubt he has felt encumbered by all the demands of work and family. It may be that he and Diana are not even aware of the ennui that has settled into their marriage. But when Howard begins to step back, he thinks he is discovering a freedom. Yet in time, the freedom he thought he found actually was a different kind of bondage.

But as the film progresses, Howard begins to move past his egoism and discover that life is not just about what he feels and thinks. He began thinking his life was empty. But as he watches the world from his hiding place, he discovers that there was much of value in his life. It is now, in his supposed freedom, that he has become truly empty. This is an existential crisis. Howard has discovered that the trappings of modern life didn’t make him happy. But at the same time, cutting himself off from the world also does not fulfill him. The emptiness that can so easily affect all of us is really a matter of spiritual longing. We lose touch with the connections of life that feed our spirit. Howard had in a sense already lost touch with his family. It was only by discovering the distance between his life and the world around him that he could begin the changes that might lead to a full life that could be possible.

Photos courtesy of IFC Films

The Infiltrator – Follow the Money

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Reagan era drug wars are the setting for The Infiltrator. Based on a true story, Federal agent Robert Mazur (Bryan Cranston) has been working undercover catching drug dealers, but thinks a more productive way to do it would be to follow the money to the top. He sets himself up as Bob Musella, a businessman that can launder the vast amounts of money involved in the drug trade and begins working his way into the confidence of higher and higher levels of the Columbian cartel. But these are violent people who would have no qualms about not only killing Mazur, but his family as well if he were discovered.

Early in the film Mazur tells his partner Emir Abreu (John Leguizamo) that the informants they deal with walk on the dirty side of the street. When they decide to come to the clean side, they still have mud on their feet. It makes us wonder about what happens when Mazur spends time on that dirty side of the street. Will he be able to not be tainted by the filth?

Mazur in the film is a noble man with a noble goal. He is eligible to retire with full benefits, but opts to do one more big operation. He honors his vows to his wife (Juliet Aubrey), but there are other times when he pushes his relationship with her beyond the breaking point. One of the key differences between Mazur and Abreu is that Mazur sees what he is doing as something for the good of the world. Perhaps Abreu does as well, but admits that the undercover work they do is his “drug of choice”.

THE INFILTRATOR

Along with another agent posing as his fiancée (Diane Kruger), he becomes close with one of Pablo Escobar’s top lieutenants, Roberto Alcaino (Benjamin Bratt), who treats him like family. Mazur manages to become a prime customer at the Bank of Commerce and Credit International, becoming connected with high ranking officials within the bank. BCCI claimed to be a “full service bank” for its special customers. The bankers talk openly about the ways they can make the money untraceable. These are not the lowlife drug pushers he has dealt with in the past. These are people with prestige, position, and power.

That world of power that Mazur moves into in his work laundering the cartel’s money is one filled with hubris. At one point we see an official at BCCI addressing a meeting, speaking of the divine blessing they receive in the form of great wealth as though it is their due. He goes so far to claim they get rich because they “have the humility to receive it”. What makes this a bit more than your typical cops and robbers movie is the sense of bringing down the proud and powerful. While the evil in this film includes those who act violently and supply drugs that ruin lives, the real villains we meet are those who just want a very lucrative piece of that pie and don’t care what dirt or blood may be on the money they handle. Again we go back to Mazur’s early comment about muddy shoes. For all the Italian suits and fancy jewelry people may wear in the film, that sense of a dirt that will not wash off reminds us that the things we do may leave stains that others may not see, but will never really wash away.

Photos courtesy of Broad Green Pictures

Get a Job: Millenials, Meet the Job Market

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Get a Job

“My childhood room is filled with trophies like these but I haven’t won a thing in my life!”–Charlie (Nicholas Braun)

Boasting a lineup that includes Bryan Cranston, Miles Teller, Anna Kendrick, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, John Cho, and John C. McGinley, Get a Job must be a rocking good time, right? Director Dylan Kidd’s film can be summed up in Cranston’s father figure tirade halfway through the film: “You are spoiled brat!” from one perspective. I think I may have seen another though: the genius in the script is how dead-on it is in describing the current job market – and the generation applying for available jobs with irony and wit.

Will (Teller) and his roommates (including Brandon T. Jackson), his girlfriend (Kendrick), and his father (Cranston) are all searching for jobs. One of the roommates ends up in sales and one of them ends up teaching (and coaching). But Will’s path… is ironic and ridiculous, as he fails to fit into the mold that the job market desires and yet, his skills are desired.

getajobSome of the moments are funny – and insightful. Ethan’s (Mintz-Plasse) app that lets the unwanted dating partners find out where their desired partners are … yes, it’s a stalk app. As Will tries to get a job, he realizes he needs clean urine to pass a drug test, so he goes to his dad, who can’t get service from the same company; Will then can’t lay off of his cell phone to focus on the actual interview. When Will needs some extra juice to get his work done, he’s hooked up with some meds by Fernando (Jorge Garcia), not the other Fernando, who is a VP where Will is trying to get a job. Who dreams this stuff up?

In the end, it’s an ironic/non-ironic look at the highs and lows of the job market with critical insights into the ridiculous way that generational issues separate people from the jobs they want to get. There’s a desperation there that anyone who has searched for the job of the dreams can understand, a quiet desperation born of panic, loss, and desire all blended together. It’s brutally uncomfortable to see play out on screen at times, and actually funny, too. But it serves as a grim reminder that unconventional thinking is one thing, and sheer laziness is completely another.

And there might be a thing or two about gaining the whole world… but forgetting your soul.

Get a Job: Does Everyone Win?

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“I’m 22 yearsold and I have no idea what to do with my life. And I’m okay with that.”

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Fresh out of college and full of dreams, a group of young adults face the daunting task of finding work in Get a Job. Will (Miles Teller) and Jillian (Anna Kendrick) are ready to get on with life, except Will doesn’t have a job yet—in fact, he’s not really sure what he should be doing. He’s got a roommate who is trying to develop a cell phone app to get rich, another who is trying to parlay his business degree into a place at a stock trading firm, and one who is going to teach chemistry to middle schoolers. They spend most of their time, however, sitting around doing video games and getting high. When Will’s father (Bryan Cranston) loses his job of thirty years, he too is looking for work. When Will does find a job, it is less than satisfying—it may even be the kind of job that might ask him to sell his soul, especially under the influence of his wicked boss (Marcia Gay Harden).

It’s not so much a story of looking for work as it is a story that seeks to consider what makes work valuable in our lives. That ties it into the way our culture has adopted the Protestant work ethic. I find it interesting the way this slacker comedy is really an affirmation of that work ethic, although from a very modern perspective. Will and his father have a different understanding of work and different approaches to their job search, but at a basic level, they both are looking for something that will give their lives meaning. The very act of working and being productive is enough for Will’s father. Will (and his cohort) are still searching for meaning and each, in his or her own way, stumbles into finding value in the work they find.

A key foil in the film is the idea that many of the generation portrayed in the film experienced: the idea that feeling special comes from even the most modest achievement. Should everyone get a trophy for being in sports, or does it lose its value if it is not earned? That is the kind of question that the Protestant work ethic deals with by placing work into the fabric of life’s meaning. (It should be noted that while, as the name suggests, the Protestant work ethic has a religious component and background, it is so incorporated into our culture that it can be considered a secular phenomenon as well.) As the characters in this film discover as they search formeaning for their lives, a key element of happiness is finding your mission and living it out. In a comedy such as this, however, that mission may be a bit vulgar and crude—but a mission all the same.

Photos courtesy of Lionsgate Premiere

And The Winner Is…or Should Be (Oscar Spotlight)

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revenant2The Oscar races this year are absolutely clear cut… in my mind. Having seen fourteen of the nominated films (out of approximately sixteen films in the major categories), these are my favorites to win.

At Best Actor, the portrayal of screenwriter and Communist Dalton Trumbo by Bryan Cranston put him in rare air, not that of the illicit drugs he manufactured as Breaking Bad’s Walter White. I was immensely moved by Cranston’s depiction of this flawed-yet-heroic man, and the way Jay Roach framed all of the movable parts around Cranston. Sadly, he’ll be runner up to Michael Fassbender, whose turn as Steve Jobs delivers something that Noah Wyle and Ashton Kutcher couldn’t: a performance that gets to the soul of the man. (Film I missed: The Danish Girl -my apologies to Eddie Redmayne.) Here’s a mad genius who lacks the emotional power to connect with others – until those who care about him the most challenge him spiritually.

stevejobs2I’ll openly admit that I’ve only seen a few of the five films in the Best Actress category but I have a hard time believing anyone could surpass Brie Larson’s portrayal of the kidnapped and raped young woman who raises her son in a garden shed in Room. While another year might produce more wins, this will be Room’s lone trophy. It’s harrowing and powerful, both in captivity and in the world outside, but all of it is made human by the quiet power of Larson’s delivery.

room1While this is a “makeup call” (a term ripped from other contact sports), I’ll predict that the Academy awards a lifetime achievement award to Sylvester Stallone for his Best Supporting Actor turn in Creed. Simply put, there are too few scenes in The Big Short, The Revenant, Spotlight, or Bridge of Spies for the other nominees to salt away a win. It’s Stallone by default, even if Michael B. Jordan deserves much of the credit for making Stallone look good (and recovering from the insufferable Fantastic Four).

Consider this your commercial break before we reach my big two awards for the year – consider it burying the lede.

creed-movieBest Original Screenplay: Straight Outta Compton delivers the time, the music, and the mythos of NWA. Were these guys prophets? Exploiters? Exploited? This complex story spins a tale that entertains, reminisces, and challenges us to think about how we define our worldview.

Adapted Screenplay: Michael Lewis’ The Big Short over Emma Donaghue’s Room robs the latter of a double win. Three times nominated, this one has to finally pull off the win. Greed sucks the life out of you in the long run – and proves there are no victimless crimes. It’s not the best film I saw this year, but it serves as a morality tale for all of us to consider in our day-to-day spending and relationships.

Cinematography: Director Alexandro Inarritu can do amazing things with film (think last year’s Birdman). This year, The Revenant dukes it out with The Hateful Eight (only win: Best Original Score). Both films are beautiful in their brutality, with the elements and humanity playing against each other for spellbinding cinematic moments.

straightouttaAnd now… Best Director goes to … Mad Max: Fury Road’s George Miller. Having established a dystopian world decades ago, he returns to the world that Hardy said was in Miller’s head and delivered it in a sprawling, dialogue-short film that visually does everything. No stone was left out of place, and every moment mattered to the overall picture. [Unfortunately, Inarritu will probably win… There, I said it.]

So, does that make Mad Max: Fury Road my Best Picture? Not exactly. While it (and Creed) was my favorite film of the year, it doesn’t qualify as the most important film of 2015. [It also came too early in the year, and surprised everyone with its depth.] A story about working within society to change it (versus running from the world we live in and hitting a restart) makes for a powerful testament of humanity in the midst of an apocalypse. It should be a challenge to us all – global warming, AIDs, violence, racism, whatever – be the change you want to be.

Mad Max Fury Road MainIs it The Revenant? No. Leonardo DiCaprio’s ability to grunt, Inarritu’s ability to shoot enigmatic scenes, and the makeup crew’s ability to generate the ferocious aftermath of a bear mauling do not make a complete picture. If you push me, I’ll admit this film looked cool but I thought the storytelling was shallow. (It’s why I preferred Mad Max: Fury Road.)

bridge3How about Bridge of Spies? Nope. While Tom Hanks delivers a tour de force performance, the film is almost entirely on his shoulders. Yes, it speaks to the way we are divided and guarded in society today, but it’s not enough to just have a strong lead. The film itself was good but not great; without Hanks, it’s a dud.

Left to right: Steve Carell plays Mark Baum and Ryan Gosling plays Jared Vennett in The Big Short from Paramount Pictures and Regency Enterprises

Does The Big Short…? An ensemble cast with solid performances couldn’t save a primarily financial film (here’s looking at you, Margin Call and Moneyball). Brooklyn? Didn’t see it. (Gulp). Room? Too claustrophobic.

And suddenly, we’re down to two.

martian-gallery3-gallery-imageWith the look on Matt Damon’s face as he accepted his award at the Golden Globes, I can tell there were fewer people laughing at the “comedy” that was The Martian. With the ridiculous categorization of the film, The Martian was condemned to be remembered not for Andy Weir’s story but the ridiculous politicization of the awards. And this isn’t even the best film where a dedicated group of brave people willingly sacrifice their lives to bring Matt Damon home or the best film where someone is castaway without human companionship…

spotlight3So, Spotlight it is. While Birdman and The Artist (2015 and 2012, respectively) proved that the Academy sometimes falls in love with the visuals, the track record of 12 Years a Slave, Argo, The King’s Speech, and The Hurt Locker show a trend toward based-on-a-true-story moments that highlight something about our society. With Spotlight, there’s an effort to show the power of the press (ding!), expose a hidden darkness (ding! ding!), and confront a powerful force in the world, the Catholic church (ding! ding! ding!)

Let’s hear the counter arguments. I know Chris Utley will be sharpening his knives… This should be fun.