
The End of the Tour (2015)

I was excited when I saw a blurb earlier this year about In The Heart of the Sea coming to the big screen in 2015. I have stated numerous times that Nathaniel Philbrick’s novel of the same name is the single most descriptive book I’ve ever read. But Philbrick’s In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex had a way to make me feel I was actually in the book. I read this book on a whim probably seven or eight years ago and was utterly engrossed. I didn’t understand the place of this movie in historical literature. I learned that it was set to be released in 2015, that it would be directed by Ron Howard (Apollo 13) and star Chris Hemsworth (Thor, Rush), which got me even more stoked. Finally, I learned that this would have a December release. Unfortunately, it has failed to meet its critics’ expectations and has been squashed. Still, In The Heart of the Sea was probably my anticipated movie of the year. I felt that this movie met all of my expectations and then some. It was exactly like the novel, and I gave it a solid A. However, I could easily see a scenario where this movie might not have been as enjoyable as it was for me.
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Hands down, the best romance of 2015 is John Crowley’s (Intermission, Boy A) terrific Brooklyn. Note that I did not say that this is the most romantic movie of the year, but rather the best romance. This movie features no wining and dining. There are not the passionate, hot and heavy, sometimes stir a little in your seat scenes that you might be used to in movies like Titanic, The Notebook, Pretty Woman, Before Sunrise, (500) Days of Summer, Dirty Dancing, or Ghost. This isn’t R-rated. It isn’t PG-rated. It is very appropriately rated as a PG-13 movie. It’s the closest thing that well resembles the process of two people meeting each other by chance, getting to know each other first casually and then on a much deeper level before falling into an intense and meaningful love that is both believable and beautiful. I did not know this was a love story going into the film. My mantra this year is to know as little about a movie as possible going into it. That doesn’t mean I’ll see just anything. I do have to see first that the film is getting positive reviews. But if it does have decent reviews and it does have Oscar buzz, I’ll make every effort to see it. Brooklyn was a movie that was the most straightforward film in the world to understand, but at the same time, almost impossible to truly comprehend. And in a word, that is love.
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There are a couple of different ways to start the review for Spotlight. I could talk about the cast (quite possibly the ensemble cast of the year). I could talk about the hypocrisy that is organized religion. I will mention both of these in this post. But I will start with the old-fashioned newspaper reporting that used to be our number source of reliable news. In many ways, it is unfortunate that newspapers aren’t what they used to be, nor will they ever be again. With the invention of the Internet, it was only a matter of time before most newspapers folded while others had to majorly trim their staff, editions, and the number of pages produced with each issue. Where will The Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, and The New York Times be in 20 years? Well, if the changes in the previous 20 years are any indication, I’m not sure these newspapers will even be around in 20 years. If they are, they might be entirely electronically based. There will still be a place for prominent metropolitan newspapers, but it will not be in the print variety. There are still things that I am interested in in the Washington DC area that I feel can only be fully addressed in something like The Washington Post. Still, I haven’t purchased a physical newspaper in over a decade and only read one if I saw it sitting at a bar when I’m eating dinner, in the school library, etc. Likewise, I go online to The Washington Post to get the same information that I cannot find elsewhere, but their website isn’t nearly as user-friendly as some other sites I go to. And finally, after I read several articles, I’m told that I reached my limit for the month and that I need to pay for a subscription to read anymore. Well…how hard is it to use a different device that hasn’t yet recognized me to access the same material? And am I going to need to read more than five articles a month? Nope. I have other resources that I still have at my disposal. Long story short…I still want and need these major newspaper articles to survive. Yet, I haven’t given a cent towards any of these papers in over a decade, and I don’t plan to. If these newspapers are going to survive, they need to do something to tap into my monetary resources.
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