When I write a review this close to the start of a new year, I usually see most of the movies considered for one of the big six Oscar awards. If I don’t, I will usually await the arrival of those limited releases set for a wide release a couple of weeks later. Regardless, most people would have known of all the big-budget or Oscar-worthy movies by the time of a January 1st post. In 2020, all of the rules had changed, and the cinema has not been an exception. Some big-budget movies slated to come out during the year have been tabled until the pandemic ends and will likely come out in the second half of 2021. However, the Academy has made date modifications, which means that films will be eligible for the end-of-year awards as long as they are released by February 28, 2021. It’s usually around the start of the new year when I start watching the final one or two movies that might receive a Best Picture nomination. 2020 is a different kind of beast, and this review is my first of the year of a film that will receive a nomination for that award.
The last few years for movies as a whole haven’t been great. We might go through all of 2019 without a great film. In the 11th hour, 1917 changed that. Ad Astra was a great movie, and Parasite was extraordinarily creative and original. But other than those three, most of these films will not be remembered. 2020 has a very similar feel. When I was about halfway through my viewing of News of the World, I wondered if this would be my top-ranked film of the year. By the end of the viewing, I felt confident it would be number one. I liked the movie. It was aesthetically beautiful. It had a beautiful accompanying score that measured its fine storytelling bit by bit. Top it off with the greatest actor of our generation giving his best performance in over a decade, and you have the formula for success.
In News of the World, director Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Ultimatum, July 22) reunites with Tom Hanks (Sully, Philadelphia) seven years after the highly successful and critically acclaimed Captain Phillips. Five years after the end of the Civil War, Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd (Hanks) movies from town to town as a non-fiction storyteller throughout the state of Texas. A hardened veteran of three wars, Kidd has hung up his guns in favor of his bifocals. When not journeying on northern Texas’s back roads, he spends most of the day reading and clipping worthy news items from different newspapers. For an evening, at ten cents a person, he’ll entertain as many as can assemble by bringing the nation’s events and the world to life through his animated stories that don’t change the truths or the message but make the news more arousing and memorable. Basically, he’s a traveling peddler, feeding the public’s hunger for stories of danger, tragedy, reprieve, and diversion from all four corners of the map.
One day, as he’s riding his horse-drawn vehicle to his next engagement, he discovers a lynched Black man and a frightened young girl of about 11 or 12 huddled in an overturned buggy. Through a discovered letter, Kidd learns her name is Johanna (Helena Zengel). Her German immigrant parents and sister were killed by the Native American Tribe, the Kiowa, seven years prior. After the United States government wipes out her tribe, she is on her way back to an aunt and uncle in southern Texas. The girl speaks no English and howls for her lost community. Without the help of an adult, she will not survive. Kidd feels obligated to help her find someone to help her complete her journey. When that fails to transpire, he feels compelled to complete the mission of this twice-orphaned girl himself.
We know we are in for some exciting times when locals repeatedly tell him how dangerous his journey will become the further south he goes. It’s this expedition where the movie truly unfolds. The line between the civilized and the uncivilized continues to narrow as the adventure extends. After one engagement, as Kidd and Johanna prepare to leave, a menacing man named Almay (Michael Angelo Covino) offers to buy the young girl. Though scarred by and remorseful for transgressions committed during the war, Kidd still seems to be jarred his time another human wants to harm someone else. When Almay says that if he can’t buy the girl from Kidd, he’ll have to take him herself, we know we are in for our first major conflict of the movie. As Kidd draws closer to Johanna, his desire to protect her at all costs becomes more real.
Johanna certainly holds her own in this movie, opposite the legendary actor. Her bright eyes and fine blond hair contrast sharply with Kidd’s hardened glare and greying beard. Though terrified of her environment, Johanna has a zest for life. The more Kidd tries culturing her, the more she resists. While she’s a free spirit, she sees Kidd more and more of her protector, and though she doesn’t understand everything that’s going on, she figures out soon enough that he’s there to help her, and that’s good enough for her.
Hanks pulls off one of the best performances of his career as Captain Kidd. A Confederate general, Kidd is a Southerner willing to accept that his side lost the war. He’s moved on with life, whereas many others in his native Texas have refused to accept the war’s outcome. We don’t learn much of his history in the war, but we can assume that he did his fair share of killing. He’s a man who carries much burden but keeps it deep and buried inside. He’s a man who has lived decently, knowing the difference between right and wrong. You can be sure that he has seen plenty of both. He is well-versed in the atrocities of the world but hasn’t let it affect his moral compass. He’s a man who knows how vindictive the world can still get surprised by it. He doesn’t want to believe that the world is truly as cruel as it is. Yet, he keeps everything well in check and never feels like he will lose control of his emotions. It never feels like he will laugh uncontrollably, lose his temper, break down in tears, or show extreme feelings. He keeps everything well harnessed, and that has served him well.
Ironically, Captain Kidd is fanatical when sharing the news as he travels from place to place through Texas. He has studied and knows the makeup of each town he visits and can change the stories he tells and how he presents them. As his vocation is storytelling, he does talk with a sense of flair to keep his audiences on the edge of their seats until he gets to a story’s climax and denouement. His persona in front of people who pay money to see him perform starkly contrasts his real persona. Out of the spotlight, he is quiet, reserved, and keeps to his own business. He might even be considered sullen by many. In many avenues of life, relevant as much or even more now as in 1870, we are expected to put on a game face at times, especially regarding our vocation. Some of us have jobs where we spend half or more of our day speaking in front of groups, whereas, in our private lives, we are complete introverts who would be comfortable going days without talking. That’s the case with this character. Hanks’s portrayal of Captain Kidd is the most subtle and nuanced performance of his storied career. It’s another quick video capture that will undoubtedly be in his reel of movies when he wins his future lifetime achievement awards (note: he has already won the AFI Lifetime Achievement Award presented annually at the Oscars in 2002).
Plot 8/10
Character Development 8/10
Character Chemistry 9/10
Acting 10/10
Screenplay 8/10
Directing 9/10
Cinematography 10/10
Sound 10/10
Hook and Reel 8/10
Universal Relevance 8/10
88%
A
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