Capone's Art-House Round-Up with THE IMITATION GAME, THE TWO FACES OF JANUARY, and POINT AND SHOOT!!!

Hey, folks. Capone in Chicago here, with a few films that are making their way into art houses or coming out in limited release around America this week (maybe even taking up one whole screen at a multiplex near you). Do your part to support these films, or at least the good ones…


THE IMITATION GAME
Over the last couple of years, the name Alan Turing has finally begun the process of taking its place among the world's great thinkers and problem solvers. The work he did in breaking the German Enigma code was key to ending the World War II years before it would have otherwise (and likely with very different results), but the project and his role in it was kept top secret for 50 years after the war for national security purposes. But not long after WWII, Turing was arrested for being a homosexual and was punished by agreeing to be chemically castrated to kill his sex drive. His conviction made headlines, while his role as a national hero was kept quiet for decades.

But lately, thanks to books like that by Andrew Hodges, and a made-for-British-TV film starring Derek Jacobi several years ago, and now the new film THE IMITATION GAME (adapted partly from Hodges' book by Graham Moore, and directed by Morten Tyldum, who helmed HEADHUNTERS), Turing's name can be more properly shouted from the collective rooftops, both for his role in Enigma and his building of what would eventually turn into the modern computer.

Benedict Cumberbatch ("Sherlock," THE FIFTH ESTATE, STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS) plays Turing not just as a collection of twitches, stutters and quirky behaviors. In fact, he plays him as a man whose entire life is a collection of secrets, both personal and professional. Imagine trying to become friends with someone new if so much of your life was off limits for discussion, even among your co-workers who are also working on this top secret project. Turing did find a close confidante in Joan Clarke (Keira Knightley), the team's sole female member, who was so drawn to Turing and grateful for him bringing her onto the project that she agreed to become engaged to him, knowing he was gay. Knightley has never been better as a fairly progressive woman fighting both against the Nazis on one front and military sexism on the other.

THE IMITATION GAME is actually three interwoven stories, which combine to form a fairly comprehensive portrait of Turing at the best and worst moments of his life. We see him as an outcast school boy who meets and then loses his first love. We also see him during a police interview shortly after being arrested for "lewd acts" and telling his story to a detective played by the great British actor Rory Kinnear. The more we learn about Turing, the more complex and complicated he becomes to us, but Cumberbatch injects the precise amount of humanity into this man of technology to make us feel the utmost compassion for his situation as both a misunderstood thinker and a gay man in a time when such a thing was not just looked down upon, but illegal.

The impressive and lively supporting cast includes Charles Dance, Mark Strong, Matthew Goode, Allen Leech and Matthew Beard, all of whom are magnificent as various members of the group responsible for both breaking Enigma and making sure it gets used in a way that doesn't alert the Germans that it has been broken. Director Tyldum keeps the pace moving but allows us time to absorb the complexities of the work being done and Turing's theories on artificial intelligence—many of which are still in play today. THE IMITATION GAME is an eye-opening history lesson, a wonderfully constructed spy story, and a beautifully realized dramatic experience, making it one of the year's best offerings.


THE TWO FACES OF JANUARY
I'm genuinely confused as to why this strange, hypnotic little love triangle/mystery tale is barely getting released in this country, but it would be a real shame if you weren't given a shot at checking it out before the year is over, if only as a reminder of how strong and versatile and actor Viggo Mortensen can be. THE TWO FACES OF JANUARY concerns Rydal (Oscar Isaac), an American hustler/tour guide who is giving tours of the Acropolis, where he runs into a middle-aged businessman, Chester (Mortensen), and his younger wife, Colette (Kirsten Dunst). Both parties seem to have more than a few secrets, but during the course of their tour, they strike up a friendship, share a few meals, and eventually get pulled into a homicide that requires all of them to work together to get out of by traveling together and risking shifting the balance of power among them.

The film marks the directing debut of screenwriter Hossein Amini (DRIVE, THE WINGS OF THE DOVE, 47 RONIN) who adapted the novel by Patricia Highsmith (who wrote the series of books about Tom Ripley, including “The Talented Mr. Ripley”), and his job is made slightly easier by having such stunning locations (Athens, Crete, Istanbul). But he finds interesting visual ways to show us the world behind and beneath the tourist traps, where criminal elements lurk for those seeking to remain unseen and anonymous.

As with the Ripley stories, THE TWO FACES OF JANUARY is about uneasy relationships and how the nature of friendship and attraction is fluid to the point of being unsteady and dangerous. There's an almost uncontrollable attraction between Rydal and Colette, and while Chester suspects, he doesn't seem to mind much when he's sober. But he goes on a couple of drunken benders while they are fleeing a possible murder charge, and his words reveal an insecurity about the strength of his marriage that is both pathetic and scary. These are some of Mortensen's finest moments in the film, and the way he transitions from collected to dangerous is impressive.

A lot of attention is going to be paid to Oscar Isaac (and rightfully so) for his performance in the upcoming A MOST VIOLENT YEAR from writer-director J.C. Chandor, but I think if you examine the two roles side by side, you get a good sense of Isaac's impressive range as an actor, following his career-altering turn in last year's INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS. I find myself truly eager to see what he's got next on his slate (which includes a turn in the new Star Wars. film and an HBO mini-series from the creator of "The Wire"). In TWO FACES, he is also required to move effortlessly from confident huckster to seductive leading man to nervous wreck. It's a complicated character requiring an actor of some skill to pull it off, and Isaac does so beautifully. The entire movie is a bizarre but captivating piece that I hope you get a chance to see, and is well worth seeking out to make that happen.


POINT AND SHOOT
This is one of those rare documentaries that had a central character that is either going to completely captivate or irritate the hell out of you. Usually such divisive characters are reserved for the fiction film arena, but director Marshall Curry (STREET FIGHT, IF A TREE FALLS) was lucky enough to discover the OCD-suffering wannabe adventurer Matt VanDyke, who decided in 2006, when he was 26 years old, to embark on what he deemed a crash course in manhood by buying a motorcycle he could barely ride, strapping a video camera to it and touring Northern Africa and the Middle East for three years.

The resulting film assemblage, POINT AND SHOOT, is a fascinating portrait of OCD, a condition that apparently counts among its symptoms fixating on the hurtful assessment of self by outside people. For example, When Matt's girlfriend comments on his manhood when it comes to some of his irrational fears, he reacts by feeling the overwhelming need to head out on this 35,000-mile journey that eventually lands him in Libya illegally. Once there, he strikes up friendships with a group of locals, including a "hippie" who becomes one of Matt's closest friends (I believe it is sometimes around this point in his story—when he's traveling through Iraq and Afghanistan—that Matt adopts the more heroic alter-ego Max Hunter; in case you needed another reason to find him obnoxious.)

Eventually Matt returns home, but when he starts to hear reports of his many Libyan friends taking up arms against dictator Gaddafi during the Arab Spring, he decides without much thought or discussion with his girlfriend that he needs to go back and fight by their side (and with his constant companion, his camera). It wasn't long before Matt was captured by Gaddafi's troops and thrown in solitary confinement for about six months, during which time he actually had audio hallucinations about his rescue.

As reckless and thoughtless as VanDyke's actions might have been, the resulting footage and his recollections of that period in his life are undeniably gripping and result in a great film. He doesn't make excuses for his actions, but he doesn't apologize for them either. He simply saw that his friends were in trouble and decided to run back to the Middle East to help them. He readily admits that time he spent in the company of U.S. servicemen made him feel the most like the kind of adventurer he'd always wanted to be. But in the end, he became a celebrated freedom fighter who was among those who marched into Gaddafi's hometown and took it over with bullets flying over his head with alarming regularity.

If you've ever been taken over by thoughts of wishing your life was something more interesting than what it is, then perhaps POINT AND SHOOT will speak to you. I think in the case of Matt VanDyke, it's more important to understand him than to necessarily like or agree with his motivations. He's a simple man who wants to appear complicated, a guy who dreamed of himself being heroic and then approximated being a hero. You admire him for reaching for his goals, and shake you head in disbelief at his insensitivity toward those he left behind. Matt's is a layered, complex story, and director Curry has done it a great deal of justice in the telling.

-- Steve Prokopy
"Capone"
capone@aintitcool.com
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