Aaron Sorkin's THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7 and Steve McQueen's MANGROVE vs Peter Morgan's safely elitist/escapist THE CROWN

Right off the bat I must admit that my attitude toward Britain's Royal Family pretty much mirrors that of moviemaker Terence Davies as described in his rich and moving documentary, Of Time and the City: the sooner our world (and especially Britain) is rid of this nutrient-sapping plague, the better off we'll all be. Goodness knows, we will have much less gossip fodder for the tabloids and soap opera for the TV -- but, hey, them's the breaks. If you're a huge fan of the Netfix series THE CROWN, as so many folk currently are, our Sunday Corner correspondent Lee Liberman has covered the series in depth already, so TrustMovies himself will simply say that when his spouse and he began watching it several years back, we stopped after a few episodes, finding it, as spousie surmised, just more "Royal Family Bullshit" (RFB). 

Coming back to The Crown in the current Season Four (due to all that media hoopla), and again lasting only a few episodes, we were quicky enmired in more RFB, the leading purveyor of which is certainly Peter Morgan, writer/creator of The Crown, as well as of The Queen, who, though he writes wittily and entertainingly, still gives us mostly RFB -- granted with a goodly amount of the Royal Family's pecadilloes in plain view (an alternate titled for the series might have Pecadilloes on Parade!). 

This offers up the chance for audiences to escape into a white, elitist fantasy, while simultaneously feeling superior to the mostly silly twats on view -- really quite an unbeatable combo for mainstream entertainment. The new season is also an opportunity to see some of Britain's and America's finest actors strutting their stuff (quietly and oh, so seriously, of course!), from Olivia Colman (the Queen) to Gillian Anderson (a very fine Margaret Thatcher) and Josh O'Connor (above, as a glum, dumb Prince Charles). 

A very different look at the Britain of the second half of the 20th Century (circa 1970) can be found in MANGROVE, one of the five new films from writer/director Steve McQueen that are part of Amazon Prime Video's new Small Axe series. Mangrove is a hard film to watch because it deals openly and honestly with British racism, especially by the police, during this time. It mirrors our own racism here in the USA, and though it is not overly violent, the entitled, racist -- both casually and nastily --  attitude of  the white, upper-class establishment will be difficult to watch for those of us who grew up in that time either in Britain or here in the USA and tacitly allowed all this to go on. And on. Particularly at this current time, as the Black Lives Matter movement grows and more and more about the racism of then and now comes to light.

Mr. McQueen is a tad heavy on repetition and on some of his messaging about the need to organize and join together to defeat the white elite, but mostly he draws such wonderful performances from his fine cast (that includes Letitia Wright, above, and Shaun Parkes, below) and, along with his co-writer Alastair Siddons, gives us a splendid court trial (of The Mangrove Nine), during which he effectively puts us in a position that comes close to being a member of the jury on this case that his film finally works on every level.

Folk who, when they hear the words Notting Hill, immediately think of Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts, may instead now find themselves remembering instead this little-but-major movie that reminds us of what has been accomplished and how much yet remains to be done.

The tale told in Aaron Sorkin's newest, THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7 (streaming on Netflix), is much more complex than that of Mangrove, and though both films use a lot of exposition, Mr. Sorkin, not simply clever but also smart, manages to entertain us royally, as well as educate us about a genuinely fascinating trial that captured the world's attention back in 1969. Sorkin's star-studded cast includes everyone from British actors such as Sacha Baron Cohen, Eddie Redmayne and Mark Rylance to Frank Langella (who makes a terrific Judge Hoffman) and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (below), who aces the role of this film's most complex character, a highly traditional and conservative prosecutor who also possesses scruples and morals.

Sorkin's movie is one of this year's best, and while everything about it resonates, for TrustMovies, the most surprising moments came as I watched the film's black defendant Bobby Seale, along with Fred Hampton, and realized how differently I view these men now than I had at the time of the trial -- when Black Panthers seemed to me a frightening bunch and what they were telling us was too overstated to be believed. Watching this really terrific movie in the context of what's going on today made me realize even more strongly how naive I was at that time. 

So go to The Crown for escape if you must, but see Mangrove and The Trial of the Chicago 7 to get reacquainted with British and American history and "justice for all." 

End-of-year catch-up: Don't let Aaron Sorkin's fast-moving frolic, MOLLY'S GAME, get by you

One would expect any movie written by that wordsmith wonder, Aaron Sorkin, to revel in and rely on dialog that's fast and fun. As first-time director, he has also come through with pretty much flying colors, giving us a movie --  MOLLY'S GAME, based on the memoir by poker queen (and so much more) Molly Bloom -- in which his directorial abilities nearly match those of his writing.

Only in a scene late in the film between a difficult dad (Kevin Costner) and his daughter (the titular Molly, played by Jessica Chastain) do both writing and direction leave a bit to be desired, but by then, so terrific has been so much else in this meaty and riveting film, that I don't think you'll mind much.

Mr. Sorkin, shown at right, has taken Molly's true-life tale and from it created a fast-moving frolic about everything from sports and poker to Hollywood, celebrity, and the Jewish mafia and made it both understandable and great fun to view.

He has also assembled a top-of-the-line cast so interestingly chosen and often playing against type in rather amusing, amazing ways that his movie grabs you from angles other that mere story-line and plot surprise and manages to hold you fast throughout.

Chief among these actors is Idris Elba (above), who plays Molly's initially recalcitrant lawyer who eventually comes aboard big-time, and Michael Cera (below), who gives us what may be the ultimate take-down of the Hollywood movie star celebrity who can go from funny and charming as hell to as nasty and vindictive as you could want.

Also on board and doing wonderful work is Chris O'Dowd (below) as one of the saddest of the gamblers that surround our heroine.

Ditto Brian D'Arcy James, below, as another odd fellow who joins the pack and is so much less and then more than what he initially seems.

Don't worry if you don't fully understand how poker is played. (TrustMovies' grandmother taught him the game, and he still retains a good deal of that knowledge.) Sorkin sees to it that his viewers can understand and keep up with the shenanigans enough to follow and enjoy. His great gift for burying exposition into his dialog, disguising it enough so that we learn while we enjoy, is on full display here.

In the lead role of Molly, Ms Chastain (above, with Mr. Costner, and at bottom) once again proves why she is among -- maybe the reigning queen of -- those very few actresses who combine glamour and talent in such huge quantity that, while watching her, you can't imagine anyone else being any better in the role. (This actress proved just as adept in last year's Miss Sloane, as well.)

Even if you already know many of the details of this fascinating tale, I still suspect Sorkin's film will entertain you royally. There's a lovely scene near the finale involving Graham Greene (below) as a judge who, thank god, is smarter than most of the prosecutors who surround him and makes a point that audiences these days will probably second with a standing ovation.

So why hasn't a movie this good -- smart, mainstream and hugely entertaining -- received more critical acclaim and awards? My take is that Sorkin is considered by some as just too damn smart for his own good. Which, so far as most of Hollywood's talent level is concerned, seems like looking that proverbial gift horse in the mouth. Once again, intelligent audiences -- which are keeping this movie playing at theaters across the country well past its supposed expiration date -- often know better than critics (and certainly know better than those movie-land arbiters) what is actually good for them.

From STX Entertainment and running a long but consistently engrossing 140 minutes, Molly's Game is very probably still playing in a theater near you. Click here to find one.

Why is the Sorkin/Boyle STEVE JOBS flopping? See the movie and you'll readily understand.

Forget all the current "We're shocked, shocked! What-went-wrong?" nonsense that the industry is now offering up about STEVE JOBS. All you have to do is sit through this repetitive, standard-issue biopic (until it crescendos into a finale of schlock sentimentality) to understand why audiences are staying away. Neither the writing nor the direction are good enough to enlighten us on anything important, and though the half-dozen major actors do a bang-up job, they're merely disguising how weak this movie is. (It's no Social Network, for sure.)

The more interesting question here is. What in the world were most critics thinking when they typed out those ridiculous hosannas?

Michael Fassbender (above, right, with a terrific-as-usual Michael Stuhlbarg) never gives less than a sterling performance, and he does so again, playing the title role. But screenwriter Aaron Sorkin and director Danny Boyle try to take the middle road (for every good point, our guy is given a bad point) all the way along and so leave him (and us) mostly high and dry. Seth Rogen does little more than whine and complain about his Apple 2-sters being left out ("Wah!!!!), while Kate Winslet does her best Mittel-European accent, come-and-go as it is, in her role as Miss Make-It-All-Better. Poor Katherine Waterston is allowed a batch of one-note anger, so that only Jeff Daniels (below) makes his near-perfect mark as the ill-used and ill-using John Sculley.

Moment-to-moment the acting is good enough to carry us along, but by the close and we learn that all this is just about a father-daughter feel-good thing, you're likely to leave the theater in a confused-and-heading-toward-foul mood. Surely there is more to Mr. Jobs, his life and career, than this?

So don't feel guilty at all about missing the theatrical run. Wait for the DVD and see something else instead. (Bridge of Spies, maybe: it's old-fashioned yet quite timely and very well-made). 

Fincher/Sorkin's THE SOCIAL NETWORK: everything you expected -- and more

How "current" is THE SOCIAL NETWORK? You won't under-stand until you sit there in the theater, hanging on for dear life, struggling to keep up with dialog that's both cracker-jack and fire-cracker, coming as it does from some mostly very smart people who know a lot more than you and are happy to make you aware of this fact. I can't remember any movie as dialog-prone as this one -- written by Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing) and directed by David Fincher (Zodiac) -- that barrels along at 90 miles-a-minute for two full hours, after which you'd be exhausted,
if your weren't so exhilarated.

 
As director, Mr. Fincher (above left) has wisely given over to that dialog of Mr. Sorkin (above right), letting his movie run, race, rise, crest then smash down on your ears with shock and delight, sometimes easing smoothly into those orifices, the better to allow that tiny, nasty jolt to come later. "You would do that for me?" asks Rooney Mara (below, as the about-to-be-ex girlfriend of our anti-hero, the as-usual-fabulous Jesse Eisenberg), with such delicate, stiletto-sharp shadings, that we cringe in delight. Humor consistently bubbles up through the nastiness and strivings of  the youth on display, and this helps keep our enjoyment level extremely high.

When in fact (and I believe, for the first time in the film), the dialog suddenly stops (this is at the introduction of the Sean Parker character, played very well indeed by Justin Timberlake, below), it's a shock -- and a reprieve.  We can take a short visual break, as we watch the morning-after routine of Parker and his one-night-stand, played with just the right combination of naïveté and smarts by Dakota Johnson. Once both parties are sufficiently awake, we're off and running with some more great dialog. Sorkin's writing gift is not so much to create the differing manner and speech patterns through which many different types of people talk (there's really little variation from character to character), but rather to take a subject, just about any subject, and let his characters run with it believably and generously so that not just conversations, but whole worlds open in front of us, which we can be a part of -- if only we can keep up.

The story here, if case you have been in a media-free cave for the past six months, details the creation of the internet social phenomenon, Facebook, by Mark Zuckerberg and his best friend Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield, shown at bottom) plus a few hangers-on (played by Arnie Hammer, below, right, and in the penultimate photo, and Max Minghella, below, left) who, from what we see, probably provided a good portion of the idea behind the idea for the site. Women are definitely secondary, mostly sexual, objects in the movie, which is no doubt how it was and is in the technological realm, big business-style -- unless, of course, it's the woman who has the idea and/or the business. The major females of The Social Network include Ms Mara, as the early and never-quite-forgotten "love" object (or whatever passes for love in the Zucker-berg brain) and Brenda Song (two photos below) as a blow-job-in-a-bathroom sex object who lingers a lot longer. Working with a truly enormous cast of speaking roles, Fincher makes sure that every one of them registers strongly in his or her moment(s), and this ability adds immeasurably to the movie's "reality" credentials.

One of the special glories of the film is how Sorkin and Fincher dole out things like responsibility and truth. Nobody is blameless or heroic here, though Garfield's Saverin becomes pretty much the movie's beating heart, just as Zuckerberg is definitely its narcissistic, ego-bloated brain. Our Facebook fellow begins the movie as an asshole, and ends up as one, too. And yet, if he is never likable (Eisenberg does a wonderful job of keeping him just this side of impossible), his abilities and motives are always comprehensible. We might wish him otherwise, but we must finally accept him, warts and warts and all.

As for Facebook itself -- though the movie ends much prior to the internet behemoth's invasions of privacy or courting/caving into corporate wishes regarding which sites can be seen and which not -- it is no great leap from the characters we see on display here to the realization that we may think we're using Facebook, while Facebook is using us.  (For a possible alternative to the site, check out the article in this weeks New York magazine about a new "fab four" and their Diaspora*.)

There has been talk -- more than that, admissions -- of fully made-up scenes in this film. Well, it isn't a documentary, after all. And since Mr. Zuckerberg is now a multi-millionaire, or billionaire, or who-gives-a-sh-aire, we can't feel too sorry for the little guy.  He'll get by. And so will we. TrustMovies, with his advanced years and ever more cynical view of our world, prefers Never Let Me Go, as this year's more important and profound look at life in our world. But for intelligent mainstream audiences (do these still exist? The Social Contract's box-office grosses will tell the tale) willing to be challenged, this film will likely win the awards, as well as the coin of the realm.  It is certainly a don't-miss movie and an enormous achievement in terms of American movie-making.

Someday, I suspect -- long after we're gone and if repertory cinema still exists -- Film Forum will offer a double bill of The Social Network and Catfish, at which viewers will marvel that such old-fashioned technology ever existed -- and wonder how human beings could have actually believed in, and given such power to, a concept as paltry as this one.  "Friends" indeed.

The Social Network, from Columbia Pictures/Sony, which made its debut at the opening night of the NY Film Festival last week, opens theatrically Friday, October 1, nationwide (in the bigger cities, at least). Go to this link, scroll down a bit, type in your zip code to find a theater near you -- then hope for the best.