Movie Review: "Indignation"

She was brown and I was pretty green

And I learned quite a lot when I was young.

- "When I Was Young," Eric Burdon & The Animals (1967)

"Indignation": B-.  The latest Philip Roth novel to be brought to the screen is Indignation, the story of a smart but inexperienced Jewish boy from New Jersey who enrolls in Winesburg, a small Ohio college where he meets a complex beauty.  What follows is usually the unexpected.  For a serious, almost humorless, young man like Marcus Messner (Logan Lerman), the only child of a Newark butcher and his wife, a well-planned college career becomes vulnerable to derailment.

That possibility is not to be taken lightly. The time is 1951 and deferments from the military draft are made available to college students.  Those not fortunate enough to continue their education beyond high school are likely to end up on the front lines of the Korean War, a sad reality brought home to roost in the opening scenes.  Marcus and his high school buddies knew the young man killed in action overseas whose funeral they are attending.

Substitute the word "blonde" for "brown" in the above-cited Animals song, and you have the theme of this film.  The blonde is Olivia Hutton (Sarah Gadon) who, by draping her bare leg over the arm of a chair, wrecks Marcus' concentration while he's attempting to study in the library.  The cultured daughter of a Cleveland physician, she is amused by his awkwardness and naivete on their first date when he takes her to a fancy restaurant called L' Escargot without actually knowing what escargot is.  Sensing his nervousness at the table, she tells him to relax.  He responds, "Believe me, I'm trying."  Later the quietly assertive Olivia directs Marcus to pull into a dark cemetery where she proceeds to perform a bold move in the front seat of the parked car. Clearly she has been down a path where Marcus has never gone.

At first blush Marcus has everything going for him.  He is a straight A student, and his high school resume includes varsity baseball and being captain of the debate team.  Yet he is a misfit in many ways: his well-meaning but overbearing family; his choice of college, which requires each student to attend ten chapel services a year, regardless of the student's religious preference (which for atheist Marcus is none); his dormitory roommates, at least one of whom is freakishly odd, maybe even certifiably disturbed; and now his love interest.  Not a typical freshman, Olivia is a transfer student from Mount Holyoke with a troubled past -- evidenced by a healing scar on her wrist she does not bother covering -- which is revealed a layer at a time.

The storytelling here is hit and miss.  My main objection is that I simply did not find the main characters interesting. The best thing going for Gadon is her almost platinum blonde hair.  For a movie romance, she does not appear on the screen nearly as much as her male counterpart.  Most of what we learn about her character, Olivia, happened in the past, and there is a key conversation which she has with another character (not Marcus) which is not shown.

Lerman, who strongly resembles comedy actor Paul Rudd, only younger, ironically plays Marcus as phlegmatic.  While the character is serious and introspective, traits more easily fleshed out in a novel than a movie, neither Lerman nor director James Schamus succeed in developing Marcus beyond a typical college freshman.  This is Schamus' first shot at directing after years of producing and writing.  I will be curious to see if he pursues his new line of work going forward.

It is too bad there could not have been more scenes like the interrogation through which Marcus suffers when he's called on the carpet by Dean H.D. Caudwell (Tracy Letts) to explain why he requested a room transfer.  In all fairness to Schamus, who wrote the screenplay, the dialogue between the student and the dean is perfect, evolving from a "make yourself comfortable" opening to an all-out debate several minutes later.        

The film starts and ends with the observation that sometimes one encounters a series of seemingly random minor events which brings that person to a turning point in his life.  There is a clever tie-in between the movie's opening shots and the fade-out.  It's those pesky intervening random minor events which could have used an infusion of energy.

Movie Review: "Cafe Society"

"Cafe Society": A.  Woody Allen, writer and director, has done it again, coming up with a 1930's "period piece" combining romance, humor, interesting realistic characters, exquisite costumes, groovy jazz, and a perfect ending.  Having a superb cast, led by Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart and Steve Carell, doesn't hurt either.

At the core of Cafe Society is the budding romance of Bobby (Eisenberg) and Veronica (Stewart), who goes by "Vronnie."  They are introduced by Bobby's Uncle Phil (Carell), a big shot agent whose Rolodex contains an A-List of Hollywood stars.  Of course he lives in a Beverly Hills mansion where he and his wife host pool parties frequented by the glitterati. He is incapable of uttering three sentences in a row without name-dropping a handful of celebrities with whom he does business.  When Bobby decides to leave his Bronx home for the west coast, hoping that Uncle Phil will employ him or at least use his connections for landing Bobby a job, Phil keeps him waiting for a week before clearing five minutes of time for the nephew.  Phil's original intent was to give Bobby the brush-off, but he finally relents and offers him menial work as a gopher.  Phil calls in one of his agency's many secretaries, Vronnie, and asks her to show the "kid" around town to familiarize him with LA.

Bobby and Vronnie hit it off immediately, but she doesn't waste much time admitting to Bobby that she already has a beau.  Bobby, no doubt fully cognizant of Vronnie's bare midriff/short skirt attire, is disappointed that this cute girl isn't romantically available, but he's still happy spending time with her platonically.  Bobby is a flirt, not above throwing out a line here and there with unmistakable connotations that if she changes her mind he'll be ready for her.  For example, when Vronnie tells Bobby that her boyfriend travels on business, Bobby responds that if she were his girl he would never leave town without her.

There is a generous helping of the Jewish family Bobby left behind in New York.  It doesn't take long for us to conclude he made the right decision to head west.  His father is an opinionated slug, his mother is a worrywart, his older brother is a gangster, and his sister is an alpha dog who bosses her submissive husband around.  This colorful crew supplies ample opportunity for Allen to intersperse numerous quips, a majority of them with a Jewish bent.  Allen is a master at this technique, which was immensely appreciated by our fellow movie patrons.

There are several surprises throughout, including a major one a third of the way into the story.  About two-thirds of the way in there is a shift in setting and plot, including the introduction of a recently divorced woman (Blake Lively) who is a head-turner also named Veronica.  Her entrance into a night club where Bobby works can only be described as "grand."  It is easy to be distracted by Lively's beauty, so take care not to lose focus on plot development and dialogue when she graces the screen.

Why does Cafe Society deserve a rating of A?  One explanation is that it has no defects.  I'm not sure how one could improve upon the finished product.  The casting is perfect.  A particular strength of Eisenberg is that he has the ability to play a Woody Allen-type character as if he were stepping into his director's body.  He has the body language, the quick wit, the inner suffering, the nervousness and the emotional queasiness that we used to see from Woody in his younger days.  As for Stewart, I was so impressed by her it almost makes me want to check out the Twilight series.  I would, except I don't believe in vampires.  While watching Carell take on the movie mogul character, I did not think of Michael Scott from The Office even once, so a tip of the cap to the multi-dimensional actor. 

I loved hearing the big band music which was popular at the time, particularly the vocals by Kat Edmonson. The settings, the cars, the hair styles, the clothes, even Allen's spoken narrative, all fit perfectly with the '30's era of glamorous film stars.  It was the Golden Age of Hollywood.  As mentioned above, the ending is a definite highlight, ingeniously filmed by Allen with two shots in quick succession which parallel and practically synchronize with each other, almost as if on a split screen.  Such filmmaking design is unique, and could only have been executed by an eminently skilled director.  

In my August 31, 2013 review of Blue Jasmine, to which I also granted a grade of A, I wrote that it was my favorite Woody Allen film of all time. Now I'm not so sure it hasn't been displaced.

Who Is The Winning Pitcher?

A starting pitcher will not be eligible to be credited with a win if he fails to pitch at least five complete innings.

- MLB Rule 9.17(b) [paraphrased]

Last night's Twins-Indians game in Cleveland presented an ideal illustration of the leeway an official scorer sometimes has when determining which lucky pitcher should be credited with a win (aka, a "dub" or a "W") for his team's victory.

The Twins, whose bats have collectively come alive of late, enjoyed an 8-0 lead going into the bottom of the fifth inning.  Kyle Gibson, the Twins' # 2 starter in their five-man rotation, seemingly had an easy path toward gaining his fourth win of the year.  All he needed to do was get three more outs without giving up eight runs, and he would have the requisite five complete innings under his belt.  Then, provided the Twins did not surrender the lead later, he would get the dub even if he didn't throw another pitch after the fifth.

The home half of the fifth started out quietly enough, with the Tribe's rookie Tyler Naquin grounding out to short.  The next batter, Abraham Almonte, stroked a double to right, but that was quickly followed by Roberto Perez' ground out to second for the second out, advancing Almonte to third.  Gibson was only one out away, and the score was still 8-0!  Then the roof caved in.  The next six Cleveland batters all got base hits, including two two-run homers by Carlos Santana (no, not that Carlos Santana) and Mike Napoli.  Napoli's dinger was noteworthy for two reasons.  TV announcer Dick Bremer, who has been broadcasting Twins games since 1983, said it may have been the longest home run he's ever seen.  Also, Napoli's blast came on the third pitch immediately following Twins pitching coach Neil Allen's trip to the mound to counsel the struggling Gibson.  I guess whatever ol' Neil had to say wasn't worth the trip.

Napoli's blast brought Cleveland to within three runs, 8-5.  That was followed by a single and a run-scoring double.  The score was now 8-6, with the tying run, Naquin, coming up to bat.  Were the Twins ever going to get out of this inning?

Manager Paul Molitor usually gives his starting pitchers every opportunity to last five innings, thus qualifying them for the potential W.  However, now Mollie had little choice but to pull Gibson.  Gibson looked like dead man walking as he slowly ambled back to his dugout.  Fifteen minutes ago he was in Fat City with an eight run lead.  Now, according to team policy, he had to sit on the bench and hope that reliever Michael ("Gulf Of") Tonkin could induce the third out.

When Tonkin arrived on the mound there was a man on second.  The Twins bullpen seems to have instituted a new tradition, which is for a relief pitcher to issue a walk to the very first batter he faces.  Tonkin apparently is a proponent thereof, granting a free pass to Naquin, the tenth Indian to bat in the inning.  Finally, to the great relief of Twins Nation, Tonkin struck out Almonte to end the carnage.

After the Twins failed to score in the top of the sixth, Molitor sent The Gulf back out to start the bottom half.  Although the bullpen was well-rested due to only two relievers having been used the night before, I have no doubt Molitor's hope was that The Gulf could burn up one or two more innings.  Tonkin, along with Tommy Milone, are what's called "long relievers," as opposed to set-up men or closers.  Long relievers are called upon to throw a few innings per outing.  

Things did not go as planned.  The first man up, Perez, scorched a liner which first baseman Joe Mauer snagged.  Santana walked and Jason Kipnis singled, putting runners at first and second.  At this point, The Gulf had faced a total of five Indians and had retired only two of them.  Francisco Lindor hit a fly ball out to right field deep enough to allow Santana to tag and go to third.  It was clear that Tonkin was not fooling anybody.

Molitor stode from the dugout and signaled for pitcher Ryan ("Don't Call Me Elvis") Pressly to come in and face the Indians' mighty slugger, Napoli.  This would be the At Bat Of The Game; a fast ball pitcher with upper nineties nastiness versus the guy who, last time up, hit a five hundred foot home run.  On a 1-1 count, Napoli just missed squaring it up, sending a deep fly to right which Rookie Of The Year candidate Max Kepler caught to end the inning.

Pressly pitched an efficient, albeit imperfect, bottom of the seventh, surrendering only a single and getting a strikeout and two easy infield grounders.  The eighth and ninth innings were harmlessly handled by Taylor Rogers and Brandon Kintzler, and the Twins won 10-6, their second road win in a row against the division-leading Indians.

As cited above, a starting pitcher must go at least five complete innings to qualify for a potential W.  Since starter Gibson failed to do so, MLB Rule 9.17(b) gives the official scorer the discretion to award the W to whichever relief pitcher was most effective.  Relievers Rogers and Kintzler pitched well, but were not under consideration due to both having the luxury of not coming into the game with runners on base.  (In Kintzler's case, the Twins had padded their lead to 10-6 thanks to a ninth inning two run homer by Eduardo Escobar.)  The choice for the dub would be between Tonkin and Pressly.  Picking either would be acceptable, given the discretion afforded to the official scorer under the rules.

Tonkin faced a total of six men and retired only three.  Two of those three outs (by Perez and Lindor) were well hit, and Tonkin gave up two walks.  He was pulled by Mollie with two baserunners which were his responsibility for ERA purposes.

By comparison, Pressly retired four of the five men he faced, did not walk anybody and struck out one.  Neither of the baserunners he inherited from Tonkin scored.  He bested Napoli in that At Bat Of The Game in the sixth inning.

It had to be a fairly easy decision for the official scorer.  Kudos to Tonkin for getting the Twins out of trouble in the fifth, but it was Pressly who saved the Twins' bacon in the sixth.  Pressly's line score was clearly better, and his reward was a well-deserved win.