Ángel reviews The Help

The Help

I must admit I have never actually read the novel this movie was based on, for the reason that I don't read novels, with the added reason that I didn't know it was a novel. That said, I probably should have read it before I watched the movie, as I will explain later, this film does seem like it is a faithful adaptation of the book, and that in itself may be its only actual flaw.

The film basically follows three stories, those of Aibileen Clark (Viola Davis), Minny Jackson (Octavia Spencer) and Eugenia Phelan (Emma Stone) in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960s. Eugenia, called Skeeter by her friends, is an aspiring journalist who gets a job at a local newspaper giving advice on domestic matters like cooking and cleaning. She gets advice from Aibileen, a black maid who has spent her life raising white children, even as her own son died. Unhappy with the treatment of Black maids, since she herself was effectively raised by one (like many characters in the story) and determined to tell their side of the story, Skeeter attempts to get interviews from Aibileen and other maids. Meanwhile, Skeeter grows more and more alienated from her old friend circle, including Hilly (Bryce Dallas Howard) who is determined to help solve the 'Negro problem' by proposing a bill which would force seperate bathrooms for Black maids, since as her friends note, "They carry different diseases than us". Hilly fires her maid, Minny, and lies and says Minny had stolen from her, ensuring she can't get a job with anyone except Celia Foote (Jessica Chastain), who has been outcast from Hilly and Skeeter's friend circle. Minny eventually agrees to tell her story to Skeeter, and after the death of Medgar Evers (this and other real life events place this film firmly in 1963), other maids agree as well.

The crowning moment of heartwarming (one of them) comes surprisingly early in the film, as the white child that Aibileen is looking after says: "Aiby, you're my real mommy". Viola Davis legitimately steals most every scene she is in, and Octavia Spencer plays her part perfectly. This in no way actually takes away from anyone, and Emma Stone does a wonderful job, as does Jessica Chastain and Bryce Dallas Howard, whose character is so absurdly unlikable she continuously one-ups herself. Set wise, it absolutely sells Jackson 1963. I have never lived in Jackson, nor was I alive in 1963, but it looks exactly like I would imagine Jackson would have looked at that period in time. Written and Directed by Tate Taylor, it is marvelously done in both departments, and despite the very serious nature of the film, the writing and characters are well done enough to provide a very steady supply of humour. The only actual flaws in the film, are that being based on a book, and seemingly being very faithful, there is only so much that can be done in a 2 hours and 20 minutes. This means there are certain subplots, which I am fairly sure would be important in the book, which might as well not exist in the movie, whose mention made me go "Oh yeah, that happened." That is the only flaw I note in what is otherwise a film whose writing, acting and cinematography make it a very good film by any standard, and it is without a doubt the best film I have seen this year.

I give it 3.5 out of 4 stars.

Welcome from Ángel/Captain America

Welcome to 2 Kinds of Movies. Gentle reader, as you know, there are two kinds of movies, those that suck, and those that don't. I am the other reviewer, aka, the one that isn't Caius. My name is Ángel, and if you don't know how to create accent marks, you can refer to me as Angel. Now that we've got done with the pleasantries, here is a review of Captain America, and despite the entire premise, the Nazis aren't actually the main bad guys (sort of).

Captain America

I will admit that I thought this movie was going to be mediocre, and it surpassed my actual expectations.

The film is about Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) who after being continually rejected for enlistment in World War II, becomes a part of a group which is being prepared for an experiment to create super soldiers. Rogers is eventually chosen to be the first candidate, because he is not only brave, but also has the humbleness which Dr. Erskine wants (since you don't want your super soldiers running amock). Erskine is a defector from Germany and the super soldier serum had been tried once before, in its earlier phase, on a Nazi officer named Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving). All the while that this is happening, Schmidt and his HYDRA organization have gathered an ancient artifact and weaponized the energy in it, and are preparing a coup against not only Germany, but have plans to use their superior weaponry to conquer the world. A HYDRA agent kills Erskine and destroys the super soldier serum, but not before Rogers is injected with it and becomes Captain America.

Despite being a super soldier, which by the name implies a type of superior soldier, the army plays up Captain America as a pop culture icon, and Rogers goes on tour selling war bonds. He abandons this while in Italy, when he finds out his best friend Bucky was captured as a POW. Rogers, his love interest, Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) and Howard Stark (Tony Stark's father) stage a rescue operation. Captain America, Bucky and others form a team to strike all of the HYDRA bases.

Without spoiling anything, it works a lot better than I can describe. Just reading my summary above, the movie sounds like it would be on par with something like Daredevil, but then again, the entire superhero thing always sounds a bit silly when you read it out (Batman, he's a guy who dresses in a Bat costume and fights crime, like a guy dressed as a clown, and a Matthew Lesko-wannabe and a cat burglar, who dresses like a cat! Get it?).

Despite the story being a rather generic one, it actually plays well in the movie. The film also ends very well, with the movie ending as a Captain America movie actually should, down to several important details. As much as I thought I would despise the romance between Rogers and Carter, I actually didn't, and in the movie, it is done well. The flaws of this film actually come from the genre itself, this is somewhere between the 37th and 40th film based on a comic book to be released in the last 10 years (depending on how specific you want to get and call a film based on a comic book). That itself means this film, while being a pretty good film within the genre, is absolutely nothing you haven't seen before. Even within the genre, most comic book, as well as movie fans, would admit the genre produces a large amount of mediocre or outright terrible movies, and a small select group of good ones, so Captain America being one of the best films of its genre does not mean that it is actually a great film. I however, judge films based on the genre as well as what it aims to accomplish.

This film aims to be a good comic book movie and to tell the story of Captain America and to some degree lay the blocks in-place for the Avengers movie. It does this, and does it well, Chris Evans is a legitimately good Captain America. The Markus/McFeely script is also very good and it is delivered well by the cast, because anytime you have Tommy Lee Jones (Playing himself, like in most movies he is in now) and Hugo Weaving in the same film, the film will at least have better-than-average acting. The sets are also quite good, and very much bring across the 1940s feel. As mentioned earlier, all of this comes together to make the ending of the film work very well, without Evans and Atwell actually have legitimate acting talent and the cinematography being so good, the ending wouldn't have worked.

I can honestly say this is easily in the upper tier of the comic book genre; with everything coming together well, I say it is on par with the first or second Spiderman movie and give this film
3 out of 4 stars.