Mr. Turner,
directed by Mike Leigh
(R, 149 minutes)
Joseph Mallord William Turner, played with gruff precision by Timothy Spall in Mr. Turner, is arguably the greatest of English painters, a bold colorist whose magical landscapes and seascapes influenced the Impressionist style.
The son of a Covent Garden barber, he rose from humble beginnings to reside in a fine house in London with his beloved father (Paul Jesson) and put-upon housekeeper Hannah Danby (Dorothy Atkinson).
Turner is portrayed as a man of lusty appetites, a feral eccentric who exhibits great confidence in his own artistry. He is somewhat shielded from the world by his protective father and housekeeper, who cope with the paying customers visiting to inspect the artist's latest works, although they are powerless to prevent an occasional invasion by Hannah's aunt Sarah (Ruth Sheen), who is mother to Turner's illegitimate daughters Eviana (Sandy Foster) and Georgiana (Amy Dawson).
Turner's callousness with his intimates contrasts with his friendly relations with the art world. His undeniable talent makes him a favorite of other artists in the Royal Academy; most of his peers regard him as a kind of savant, one of those gifted "naturals" who can spit and swipe at a canvas and still turn out visionary works.
Leigh, working in his typical unscripted way, manages to present a sketch of a lonely, emotionally irresponsible man who has a complicated relationship with money. It's an interesting portrayal of the artist as an aging grump.
Leigh strings together episodes that reveal Turner's fascination with the mystical and scientific properties of light, his passion for observing nature, and his awkward relationship with humanity. If that's all there were to it, it would make for a good enough period character study to file away with Leigh's 1999 comedy Topsy-Turvy, which focused on 15 months in the lives of Gilbert and Sullivan.
But Mr. Turner shifts into a more resonant gear when grumbling, bearlike Turner visits the seaside village of Margate and encounters Mrs. Booth (Marion Bailey), whom he knows first as a landlady and later, after the death of her aged husband, as the redemptive love of his life.
In the end, Mr. Turner is a tremendous and sometimes problematic movie that ultimately rings with intelligence, sadness and a validating generosity toward human foibles. Even for the prickly and misunderstood, life can indeed be sweet.
Blu-ray/DVD special features include commentary with the director, deleted scenes, and a featurette on the painter's use of color.
Selma (PG-13, 128 minutes) Ava DuVernay's understated and detailed film about the planning and implementation of Martin Luther King Jr.'s protest march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala., in March 1965 is brightly lighted: There was no need for subterfuge, because those who stood in the marchers' way didn't consider their actions or opinions shameful.
King's challenge in Selma concerned the South's unwillingness to allow blacks to register to vote. As King (David Oyelowo) and his top aides descend on the city, it fires up the black population of the town and white law enforcement officers led by county Sheriff Jim Clark (Stan Houston), who are instructed by Gov. George Wallace (Tim Roth) to squash the uprising.
The two sides first meet in front of the county courthouse, which leads to mass beatings and violent incarcerations. Undeterred, King then plans a massive march from Selma to the state Capitol to protest voter suppression, putting increasing pressure on President Lyndon B. Johnson (Tom Wilkinson) to make a federal law prohibiting such restrictions.
The first attempt to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge is met with state-sanctioned brutal force, setting off nationwide protests and sending a stream of sympathizers to Selma, almost a third of them white, to join King's protest.
It would have been easy for DuVernay to make a flashy melodrama, exploiting the film's human-rights politics in a brazen attempt for Oscar glory. Instead, it makes its case that the greatness of King was entwined with his regular human foibles. For all its restraint, Selma offers genuinely moving moments of triumph.
The DVD includes commentary by DuVernay, Oyelowo, director of photography Bradford Young and editor Spencer Averick, testimonials, historical newsreels and images, deleted and extended scenes, and making-of featurettes.
Black or White (PG-13, 121 minutes) A flaccid, too obvious and cliche-ridden drama in which lawyer Elliott Anderson (Kevin Costner), left to care for his mixed-race granddaughter when his wife dies, faces opposition from the girl's paternal grandmother, Rowena Jeffers (Octavia Spencer), who wants the child to live with her black family in south central Los Angeles instead of with alcoholic Elliott in an upscale white neighborhood. With Jillian Estell, Jennifer Ehle, Anthony Mackie, Bill Burr; directed by Mike Binder.
Love, Rosie (R, 102 minutes) Silly and emotionally unconvincing, this supposedly romantic comedy follows teenagers Alex (Sam Claflin) and Rosie (Lily Collins), who grew up together and are devastated when they learn that his family has decided to move from Dublin to the United States. With Christian Cooke, Tamsin Egerton; directed by Christian Ditter.
Black Sea (R, 115 minutes) A gripping action-filled drama with first-rate performances, Black Sea concerns a debt-ridden submarine captain (Jude Law) who enters what he expects to be a lucrative deal with a financier that brings him and his crew to the Black Sea to search for treasure in a sunken Nazi submarine. Then, thanks to human nature, things don't turn out as he planned. With Scoot McNairy, Jodie Whittaker; directed by Kevin Macdonald.
MovieStyle on 05/08/2015