The Unknown Known

Rating: **** 

Donald Rumsfeld is a master or rhetorical flourish, as the title of this new Errol Morris documentary, The Unknown Known alludes to. Talking point sleight of hand like “Unknown Unknown,” and “The absence of evidence isn’t the evidence of absence,” was one of the reasons that Rumsfeld was, at once, both one of the most beloved and most hated senior advisers during the perilous first years of the War on Terror. Naturally, the man himself is staggeringly more complex than this simple caricature implies, and Morris has decided to put the spotlight him, albeit rather uncomfortably, in his latest film. 

Firstly, if one tunes in to The Unknown Known expecting a weepy apology for Rumsfeld’s role in marching U.S. soldiers into dual quagmires in the Afghanistan and Iraq, you’ll be profoundly disappointed. The closest Rumsfeld comes to emotional regret is near the end when he talks about visiting a soldier in Walter Reed and how the doctors told him he wouldn’t make it, only to re-visit the hospital weeks later to learn that the same soldier had, in fact, lived. Some will argue that Rumsfeld was shedding crocodile tears, but I’m not so sure. It’s probably the only moment in the film where the former Sec Def’s arrogant, almost smarmy, veneer is punctured thoroughly. 

Cesar Chavez

Rating: ***

For a bio-pic to be effective it has to be more than Wikipedia entry with some stage directions and dialogue; for a bio-pic to be good it was to make a case why the life of the person it’s about is important, and how that connects to us in the here and now. It’s hard to imagine a more appropriate bio-pic for the times than a film about the life of Cesar Chavez, a pioneering labour leader who went out into the farmers fields of California’s central valley and organized the workers there into the National Farm Workers Association. Issues around migrant labour still exist, and are still deeply felt on all sides. There's also the dwindling returns of the entirety of the labour movement as a whole, so the time seems ripe to remind people just how much blood, sweat and struggle went into workers rights.

The movie Cesar Chavez meets, at least, those goals in a perfectly satisfying way. Director Diego Luna highlights the struggles and successes of Chavez’s five year odyssey to get justice for the California farm workers in the midst of one of the most socially tumultuous times in American history. More than that though, Luna demonstrates that most parties in that struggle, from the poor farm hand to the rich growers, were human people with complex emotions and thoughts and less like the heroes and the villains of the story respectively. The film around those performances is a history lesson and morality play, but when you focus on the people, the message of Chavez and Chavez just might reach you.

Veronica Mars

Rating: ***1/2

The story is rather timeless: a cult series beloved by a rabid fanbase is cancelled before its time. What happened next though is not. The every-record-breaking achievement of the Veronica Mars Kickstarter was a wonder to behold, the ultimate fan expression of love and appreciation mixed in with those sticky issues of closure and inability to let go. The idea of a Veronica Mars movie kicked around the backlot of Warner Bros. for a while, but it’s only when the fans took over that it actually happened. Now two questions remain: will it satisfying the eager beavers who forked over $5.7 million for it, and will non-fans see the appeal?

The answer to the first question is a resounding and enthusiastic yes. The Veronica Mars movie is a colourful cavalcade of beloved characters, tenderly picking up the threads left behind from the series’ three seasons and weaving a new mystery that somehow, inexplicably, brings it all together. Love a good P.I. story with shifty characters, corrupt cops, and a million who-coulda-done-its? I’m sure you’ll be able to like Veronica Mars, but the love belongs to the fans.

RoboCop [2014]

Rating: ***

Don’t hate RoboCop because it’s a remake of a beloved sci-fi classic, hate it because it’s a tepid and blandish spin on the original film that thinks the best way to re-energize the concept it to go all the places that first one didn’t. Sometimes you do get it right the first time, and sometimes doing things because you can isn’t really a good enough reason for you to go through with it. Having said that, there are some interesting ideas in the new 2014 RoboCop, and some very interesting actors who try to realize them, but essentially this new Cop is a B-effort for a C-movie.

Let’s try and keep the comparisons to a minimum, but I will begin by saying that Joel Kinnaman brings something different to the role of Alex Murphy. Peter Weller as Murphy was just far too good a guy with his easy smile, laid back manner, and the little trick with his side arm that he learned in order do to impress his kid. Kinnaman is more intense, and more driven. That might be because his cause is more personal as Murphy is blown up in a car bomb placed by a flunky of an arms dealer Murphy and his partner Lewis (Michael K. Williams) are investigating, thus forcing his transformation into RoboCop. It’s not like getting your hand blown off and then taking about 20,000 rounds of ammo in every possible body part, but then again, this is a PG-13 effort.

Star Trek Into Darkness

Star Trek Into Darkness endeavours to boldly go in strange new directions with what's expected of the franchise, and in doing so they re-visit the most obvious portion of Trek lore that the filmmakers could have possibly chosen from. What happens isn't uninteresting, but I think that this time the fans who were especially mad at the liberties J.J. Abrams took with Star Trek in the 2009 reboot, will find new reason to loathe what the director has done with Into Darkness.

The reality though is that Into Darkness is another above par, rollicking space adventure firmly and ably executed by Abrams and Co. It may not be what fans are expecting, and it really doesn't need to be, but on its own I think it accomplishes the goals that were set out when the first film was released in 2009, which was reinventing Star Trek to be a franchise meant for mass consumption again. If the intention and tone of the film ended there, then fine, but then the third act of this film is borrowed wholesale from a previous Trek outing, and it's done so blatantly, even those only casually familiar with previous Star Trek works couldn't blame fans for their anger. 

Iron Man 3

Rating: ***1/2

In a very real sense, Iron Man 3 faces as many challenges in following-up The Avengers as the first Iron Man did in getting the ball rolling by being the first film to begin the process leading to The Avengers to begin with. On the other hand though, freed from the pre-occupation of setting up a shared universe, and the gamble the Marvel production team was taking to make it happen, Iron Man 3 is probably Marvel Studios' best film effort since that first Iron Man.

You've Been Trumped

Rating: ***1/2

If the impact of You've Been Trumped is diminished at all it's because after last November's post-Barack Obama re-election meltdown, Donald Trump looks even more the buffoon now. In Trumped, a David-Versus-Goliath story if ever there was one, the celebrity mogul tries to push, bully and bribe a small Scottish town and its residents into accepting the construction of his latest, gaudy resort. The film is either a victory for grassroots traditionalism or an example of progress stymied depending on the direction you're coming from.