BEN IS BACK (2018) – My rating: 8.5/10

Ben is Back is a drama written and directed by Peter Hedges, who is also the main character’s father. The plot follows a mother who tries to help her addict son after he unexpectedly returns home after just 77 days of rehab. Ben is Back is moving and intense and includes a message of  how powerful drugs are, even when you apply tough love.  I’m glad I got to see this riveting movie — what an appropriate, strong message it sends as a sign of the times, as well as a look into the world of drugs at a very personal level.

Driving home with her kids on Christmas Eve, Holly Burns-Beeby (Julia Roberts) is startled to see her son, Ben Burns  (Lucas Hedges) standing in the driveway. Ben has been in rehab for the past couple of months and was not supposed to be released yet. Ben explains that his sponsor said a trip home would be good for him. Leery of his story, Holly is happy to see him anyway and says he can stay for 24 hours on the condition he does not leave her sight.  Holly’s husband, Neal Beeby (Courtney B. Vance) who is not Ben’s father, is skeptical and helps to lay down the law if Ben is to stay. Neal and Holly have two young children,  Lacey Beeby (Mia Fower) and their 6-year-old son, Liam Beeby (Jakari Fraser), who have a beautiful and fun relationship with Ben. The couple also has a daughter from Holly’s previous marriage,  Ivy Burns (Kathryn Newton).

**** SPOILERS ****

During the 24 hours Holly and Ben have together, she decides to take him holiday shopping at the mall, which will also allow her to buy him clothes for church.  While there, Holly runs into Dr, Crane (Jack Davidson), Ben’s former doctor who is  now an old man riddled with dementia. When the doctor’s caregiver walks away, leaving Dr. Crane alone in Holly’s presence, she yells at him for getting her son hooked on painkillers after a snowboarding accident that took place when he was younger. Ben also makes eye contact with someone who clearly recognizes him, leaving Ben looking worried. Ben tells Holly to get him to a support group meeting immediately.

At the meeting Ben shares the story of how he almost overdosed but his mom and dog saved him. After the meeting he is approached by a young girl (Liliana Weaver). He doesn’t recognize her, but she tells him he was her dealer and asks if he wants to get high with her one last time.  Back shopping once again Holly finds drugs on Ben, which he claims the girl at the meeting gave him. Holly takes the drugs and they go home and get ready for church. At church they see a distraught woman, Beth (Rachel Bay Jones). Holly approaches her and gives her condolences for the loss of her daughter Maggie. It is implied that Maggie was a friend or girlfriend of Ben’s who also had an addiction. Maggie overdosed and died.

The family drives home from church that night to find someone had broken into their home and kidnapped the family dog, Ponce (Nigel). Realizing it had something to do with him, Ben runs off to find Ponce and bring him home. Holly follows him in her car and they end up driving around trying to find the dog together. They first visit one of Ben’s former high school teachers, whom Holly is shocked to learn provided her son with drugs in exchange for sexual favors. Next they go to Maggie’s father’s (Jeff Auer) apartment but seeing him asleep with no dog in sight, they retreated to their car.  Maggie’s father awakens and angrily smashes Holly’s car window while screaming for Ben to leave.  They ended up eating at a diner and Ben tells Holly he got Maggie hooked on drugs and is responsible for her death. He says that he lied by convincing Maggie that drugs were the best thing ever.

There is a lot more story to tell.  Ben is Back is a well put together movie that shows an addict’s path as he tries to lick the habit while still living in the environment where he started and continued using drugs.  Julia Roberts was brilliant as the mother of an adult drug addict who also had to shelter and care for her other children.  Small incidences built up into big problems for Lucas Hedges who played Ben and also gave a brilliant performance.  I was unable to predict this movie, which is a delightful change from the same kind of movie plots I’m use to.  The family seemed real and the problems were also real.  Given this important message,  it seems like Ben is Back would have been a lot more popular than it was.  I think it flew way under the radar.  If you are dealing with a similar situation, this is the movie to see, as it suggest ways of dealing with your addicted love one, which may or may not help.  It’s almost impossible to outwit a drug addict who is well into their journey.  I highly suggest Ben is Back, especially if you are unfortunate enough to be dealing with a drug addicted person — the film received generally favorable reviews from critics, who praised the performances of Hedges and Roberts.  Ben is Back can now be seen on DVD and Blu-Ray — Check It Out!

 

ISLE OF DOGS (2018) My rating: 7.5/10

Isle of Dogs (Japanese: 犬ヶ島 Hepburn: Inugashima) is a stop-motion-animated science-fiction comedy-drama written, produced and directed by Wes Anderson. Isle of Dogs was produced by Indian Paintbrush and Anderson’s own production company, American Empirical Pictures, in association with Studio Babelsberg. Set in a dystopian near-future Japan, the story follows a young boy searching for his dog after the species is banished to an island following the outbreak of a canine flu. I thought Isle of Dogs was well done with a very entertaining plot.

Isle of Dogs opens in the Japanese archipelago, where 20 years into the future, an outbreak of canine influenza spreads throughout the city of Megasaki.  There’s a risk the canine flu could cross over to humans. The city’s 6-term authoritarian mayor, Kenji Kobayashi (Kunichi Nomura), signs a decree banishing all dogs to Trash Island, despite a scientist named Professor Watanabe (Akira Ito) insisting he is close to finding a cure for the dog flu. The first dog exiled is Spots (Live Schreiber), a white and black-marked pink-nosed dog who served as the bodyguard of 12-year-old Atari Kobayashi (Koyui Rankin), the orphaned nephew and ward of the mayor. This action would later be revealed as part of a conspiracy by Mayor Kobayashi and his political party, who are seeking to finish what their ancestors attempted long ago, removing all dogs from Japan.

**** SPOILERS BELOW ****

Fast forward six months later, Atari hijacks a plane and flies it to Trash Island to search for Spots. After crash-landing, Atari is rescued by a pack of dogs led by a seemingly all-black dog named Chief (Brian Cranston), a former stray. The pack decides to help Atari locate Spots, although Chief refuses to join because of his inability to fraternize with humans. Together, they fend off a rescue team accompanied by a band of robot dogs, compliments of Mayor Kobayashi, who sent the dogs to retrieve Atari. The mayor claims Atari was kidnapped by the dogs and vows to kill them as punishment. At the insistence of a female purebred dog named Nutmeg (Scarlett Johansson), Chief reluctantly decides to accompany the group on their search.

During their journey, while the dogs reminisce on the foods their owners once fed them, Chief admits that he was once owned by a family, until he bit the youngest child out of fear. They seek advice from two sage dogs, Jupiter (F. Murray Abraham) and Oracle (Tilda Swinton), who warn them of the existence of an isolated tribe of dogs rumored to be cannibals. Meanwhile, Professor Watanabe finds a cure and shows the results to Kobayashi, who still refuses to lift the dog ban. The professor is put on house arrest for criticizing Kobayashi and is then killed by poisoned wasabi served in a psushi. An American exchange student, Tracy Walker (Greta Gerwig), suspects a conspiracy and begins to investigate.

In the meanwhile, Chief and Atari are inadvertently separated from the others. Atari gives Chief a bath, which reveals that his coat is actually white with black markings. Noticing the similarity between Chief and Spots (other than Chief having a black nose), Atari realizes they must be of the same extremely rare breed. Chief remembers being part of a nine-pup litter of which all but one died. He bonds with Atari as they continue their journey.  Chief and Atari rejoin the group, but are ambushed by Mayor Kobayashi’s men.

Isle of Dogs is a solid story with on an exciting, adventurous journey.  I loved the entire movie and I especially liked the way it ended.  The adventure gets even more exciting as the plot thickens.  There is much to learn from this movie as the many messages are loud and clear.  An outstanding cast was assembled and it shows. The film’s voice cast also includes Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, Bob Balaban, Frances McDormand, Courtney B. Vance, Fisher Stevens, Harvey Keitel, Liev Schreiber, Scarlett Johansson, Frank Wood, Kunichi Nomura, and Yoko Ono.  It also received nominations for Best Animated Feature Film and Best Original Score at the 76th Golden Globe Awards. See how Isle of Dogs turns out, I’m almost certain you won’t be able to predict what’s next!  Isle of Dogs is available on Amazon, iTunes, HBO and Xfinity — Check It Out!

[Isle of Dogs is Oscar nominated for Best Original Score and Best Animated Feature Film]

 

STATE OF AFFAIRS – My rating: 7.5/10

An unlikely plot when 2 high ranking women decide to plot murder on the terrorist responsible for the death of their son/fiance.  In other words, revenge.  Alfre Woodard and Katherine Heigl are CIA and President of the United States, respectively.  Katherine Heigl plays Charleston Tucker, the CIA Official who was engaged to Aaron Payton, the President’s son, played by Mark Tallman.  Alfre Woodard plays President Constance Payton, a former war veteran and Courtney B. Vance plays the President’s husband, Marshall Payton.  For some reason, they were all together in Kabul, Afghanistan where they were attacked by a terrorist group lead by Omar Abdul Fatah.  Aaron was killed but the women were not.  It appears that their mission, going forward, is to kill any and everyone responsible for Aaron’s death.  There are many secrets yet to unfold.  While I love a good drama, I’m not sure this one is going to make it.  There’s  nothing wrong with the acting or the characters, except I’d hate to think that the President’s main agenda is revenge, yet I was happy when we took down Osama Bin Laden.

The pilot features  Dr. Benjamin Butler who is working in Africa and who resembles the President’s dead son, Aaron.  While in Kenya, the doctor and his colleagues were kidnapped and threatened with decapatation by a newly formed terrorist group.  In the meanwhile, the mission to take down the  much sorted after Omar Abdul Fatah, already targeted and  in clear site of a US ground military strike team (MI6) was called off by CIA Official, Charleston, in favor of rescuing Dr. Butler instead.  It wasn’t quite clear if the mission was redirected in favor of saving the doctor over killing Fatah because of the doctor’s resemblence to Aaron or Charlie’s  explanation “waiting 6 months would allow us to get Fatah and his entire network instead of just Fatah”.  A lot of risky business here.  It’s worth waiting to see what happens in the next few weeks.  One thing is clear, there is more going on than meets the eye.  A relationship was introduced between Charlie and Nick Vera (Chris McKenna) a CIA asset who worked for Charlie and is keeping a secret regarding Fatah.  There seems to be an obvious resentment between the two despite their romantic involvement.  Nick has been “dark” for over a year.  Secret photos that suggest Charlie and Nick are semi quasi partners in crime are repeatedly sent to Charlie’s cell phone.  Charlie does not remember all that happened the day Aaron was killed.  Her therapist is suggesting that Charlie is blocking out something she doesn’t want to remember.

I find this series a little ambiguous and I don’t think it’s very authentic.  The busyness of the Presidential Staff and the ambiance of the White House is missing.  Scenes like the President walking away from her son’s grave site, after speaking at a memorial, without visual body guards or Charlie being the President’s Daily Briefer which in real life is done by the Director of Intelligence, which is totally separate from the CIA and the fact that we don’t really ever see any of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,  gives support to the unofficial look and feel of this White House.   Also, there are a lot of black women e.g., Angela Bassett, Viola Davis, Kimberly Elise, Thandie Newton or Jenifer Lewis,  I feel would have made a more believable US President — it’s not an acting thing, it’s the unnaturalness and the energy I find lacking.    State of Affairs airs on NBC.  I still think it has potential.