Tag: Lucas Hedges

Ben Is Back

Rated: MBen Is Back

Directed and Written by: Peter Hedges

Produced by: Peter Hedges, Nina Jacobson, Teddy Schwarzman, Brad Simpson

Starring: Julia Roberts, Lucas Hedges, Courtney B. Vance, Kathryn Newton, Rachel Bay Jones, David Zaldivar, Alexandra Park, Mia Fowler, Jakari Fraser.

It’s Christmas time.  Ivy (Kathryn Newton) is singing in the church choir while her mother, Holly (Julia Roberts) looks on with her two youngest from her second marriage, Lacey (Mia Fowler) and Liam (Jakari Fraser).

The snow is falling as Ben (Lucas Hedges) crunches across the yard towards the house.

He knows no one is home.

Ben is back

This is a film about addiction.  About the hold it takes and the effect on family and a mother who refuses to give up on her son.

Sounds dramatic, right?

I went into the cinema expecting a traumatic, family drama to unfold with Julia Roberts as the mother weeping and screaming the whole way through…

But there’s restraint from director (and writer) Peter Hedges, allowing the writing to tell the story without the need for over-acting – the story made more emotive because of the quiet telling.

It feels like the film is about someone Hedges knows; a brave move casting his son, Lucas Hedges as the son in the film, learning to live with all his actions as an addict, returning home to try again as he struggles to share his need.

Lucas is perfect for this role.

There’s something so genuine in his manner.  I first saw him in his role as Jared (a young man trapped in a re-education program, Love In Action (LIA) to be cured of his homosexuality) in Boy Erased.

He’s brought the same believability here: the charisma, the cunning, the pain.

And Julia Roberts nailed her role as his mother, knowing she’ll never stop trying, never let go.

It’s a sad and heavy tale as Ben takes his mother to re-visit his past as a junkie; the danger and humiliation endured to feed his addiction.   There’s insight into the pain and grip the drug takes on a person and cost of all those who love them.

I’m not saying I overly enjoyed watching this film, but I’m impressed by the way this film was shown.  Without getting slapped in the face, we get to see the sadistic nature of addiction and the consequences on a family that feels very like any other normal family.

We’re also shown the view from the addict – the initial want to share the experience because they think they’ve found a truth worth sharing.  People become addicts for a reason.

The film doesn’t demonise the user, it’s more about understanding.

‘When you get shaky, go to a meeting,’

There’s a lot of debate currently about harm-minimisation, with the recent deaths over New Year at music festivals because of drug over-dose.  It’s easy to say yes, I think that legal drug-testing onsite to see the ingredients is a good idea.  I personally think it would make the dealers sell a far more pure product.  But the reminder of the addictive nature of drugs shown in this films demonstrates the ripple of catastrophic consequences addiction has on the user, families and communities.

Holding a pack with the brown heroin showing through, Ben’s mother, Holly personalises the substance by saying, ‘You monster’.

And that’s what the film manages to achieve, a personalisation of addiction.

https://youtu.be/eV384La_Q9Q

Boy Erased

Rated: MA15+Boy Erased

Directed and Written by: Joel Edgerton

Based on the Novel by: Garrard Conley

Produced by: Steve Golin, Kerry Kohansky-Roberts, Joel Edgerton

Starring: Lucas Hedges, Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe, Joel Edgerton, Cherry Jones, Michael “Flea” Balzary, Xavier Dolan, Troye Sivan, Joe Alwyn, Emily Hinkler, Jesse LaTourette, David Joseph Craig, Théodore Pellerin, Madelyn Cline and Britton Sear.

‘Say it, I am using sex and homosexuality to fill a God-shaped hole in my life.  Say it!’ demands Victor Sykes (Joel Edgerton) head therapist of a conversion program.

It’s a mantra he uses to cure the ‘afflicted’ and confused brought to Love In Action (LIA) to be cured of their homosexuality; a program Jared (Lucas Hedges) finds himself trapped in after admitting his homosexuality in a world built on Christian values: his Christian mother Nancy (Nicole Kidman) and his father, Marsahll Eamons (Russell Crowe) a Baptist pastor.

There are a lot of LBGTQAI films around (recently, ‘The Miseducation of Cameron Post’ and ‘Disobedience’), and I admit, I groaned at reviewing another drama that didn’t hold my interest – Australia has just been through a referendum to make gay marriage legal; the topic, shall I say, has been well discussed.

But I also admit to my ignorance, the bubble I inhabit where I don’t have to confront my Christian parents with an admission I know they would struggle to accept.

Director, screenwriter and actor, Joel Edgerton read Gerrard Conley’s memoir, ‘Boy Erased: A Memoir of Identity, Faith and Family’ in what felt like seconds; relating more to the concept of feeling trapped than the confession of homosexuality.

And this view brings a different tone to the film – the suffocation and trauma of good people doing bad because of misunderstanding rather than politics or even religious perspective.

Boy Erased is more the unveiling of psychological trauma experienced by innocent, good kids who are genuinely confused (or not) about their sexuality; who are willing to go into a program, for the sake of their parents and family, that tells them God won’t love them if they’re gay (and think about it, bringing a group of conflicted young people together to stop them being gay?  Talk about forbidden fruit!).

So when church and family, the foundation of your upbringing tells you you’re sick and wrong, the psychological damage is soul destroying.

Instead of being hit over the head with a, for want of a better metaphor, good versus evil (the evil being the religious, anti-gay) there’s a more complicated dynamic shown here, shown from the perspective of a son who wants to do the right thing, and parents who love their God and their son.

There are very different roles for some big names in film here – Nicole Kidman as the bleached, rhinestone encrusted pastor’s wife, the pastor himself played by Russell Crowe: a powerfully conflicted man whose faith tells him to disown his son, yet a loving man who continues to try to understand.  Love is love is easy to say until it’s your own.  Jared’s father admits to his struggle to accept and his disappointment of never having biological grandchildren.

Joel Edgerton plays the surprisingly believable charismatic lead counsellor – who would have thought the Aussie larrikin had the cult leader in him?!

And the restraint shown by young Jared is endearing.  I can’t think of another term because he managed to strike a maternal chord.

Edgerton has handled this complicated suffering that exists quietly yet extensively in the world with delicate sensitivity, allowing the integrity of Jared to continue to echo beyond his novel, and perhaps even this film.

Lady Bird

Rated: MA15+Lady Bird

Directed and Written by: Greta Gerwig

Produced by: Scott Rudin, Eli Bush, Evelyn O’Neil

Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, Tracy Letts, Lucas Hedges.

We’ve all been there – growing up, becoming a teenager, trying to find your own identity whilst also trying to deal with so many pressures that seem insurmountable when you’re only 17. It’s the age when events conspire to seem like the biggest tragedy, provoke the most embarrassment or the deepest emotion, without any sign of how to get beyond them.

So it is for Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson, played with intense believability by Saoirse Ronan, who is trying to find her sense of self while living in Sacramento, California during 2002.

She constantly clashes with her mother Marion (the outstanding Laurie Metcalf), who is a prickly, bossy woman with a life full of pressures and stresses her daughter barely glimpses or understands.

These two are so alike yet they can’t see it: opinionated, emotional and yearning for something beyond their ordinary existence.

Writer Greta Gerwig in her directorial debut said that this mother-daughter relationship is the love story of the film, and this relationship is what resonates far more deeply than the daughter’s awkward dalliances with two boys.

The opening scene shows us Lady Bird and Marion both sighing with deeply shared emotion after listening to an audio book during a long car ride, an experience that draws them closer together, yet within moments a carelessly expressed comment leads to a huge misunderstanding and a reckless reaction.

This scene sets the tone for the rest of the movie, with numerous situations between the mother who loves but cannot communicate with her daughter without provoking a backlash, and the daughter who in her turn feels misunderstood and unwanted.

The director aimed to have each of these people be “painfully failing to reach each other”, an aim that is convincingly and realistically achieved.

Gerwig’s skill allows the audience to cringe in shared dismay at each new outburst, seeing it coming and wondering why Lady Bird and her mother can’t help themselves or learn from their earlier mistakes.

The director succeeds in making the film “frothy and exciting like waves breaking on a beach”, followed closely by “a sudden undertow…and before you know it, you are in much deeper waters than you expected.”

This is exactly how it felt watching “Lady Bird” – one moment you’re laughing at the silly things and situations the main character experiences, and then the whole mood changes and things get serious when moments of amity are quickly shattered by a thoughtless or misconstrued comment.

Lady Bird also struggles to be one of the cool, sophisticated kids at school, ashamed of her family’s working class roots.

She falls madly in love with boys because she hungers to be in love more so than with an actual person.

She lies to find acceptance with the cool gang at school.

Her experiments with fashion, alcohol, drugs and music all reflect her constant drive to discover who she is (hence her rejection of her birth name in favour of the more exotic “Lady Bird”).

Her struggles and relationships with her family, best friend and assorted acquaintances are often depicted with humour, reflected by the audience’s gentle laughter at her predictable reactions, behaviour and affectations.

Her friendship with a girl at her school (Julie, played by Beanie Feldstein) is particularly sweet, showing how teenagers often view the world naïvely.

What was particularly moving about this film was how little people learn from their mistakes, repeating them in astonishing variations even when they gain some wisdom.

There is no happy ending, no neat resolution with all forgiven, just an ever-evolving awareness, hard-won maturity and an appreciation of one’s childhood home and family, just like real life.

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Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Rated: MA+THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI

Written and Directed by: Martin McDonagh

Produced by: Graham Broadbent, Peter Czernin, Martin McDonagh

Executive Producers: Bergen Swanson, Diarmuid McKeown, Rose Garnett, David
Kosse, Daniel Battsek

Starring: Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, Abbie Cornish, Peter
Dinklage, Lucas Hedges, John Hawkes, Caleb Landry Jones, Sandy Martin.

Not since 1986 have I applauded out loud, in a packed cinema, for a movie that blew me away with the dynamic force of its female lead and its nuanced emotional and moral rollercoaster, of great cinematic story.

Eight years ago, English/Irish, playwright/filmmaker, Martin McDonagh, wrote Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri in one single draft.  A third film after the slow burning cult success of, In Bruges and the darkly twisted, Seven Psychopaths.

The narrative tightrope of Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is taut and confronting, pathos rich, in equal parts both tragic and hilariously funny.

Within ten minutes you will think you have sized up all the characters but you will be completely unprepared for what McDonagh does next.

The story opens with Mildred (Frances McDormand) her terrible grief has no tears left as she stands beneath three newly pasted billboards, billboards she has hired, billboards that witnessed the rape, murder and torching of her teenage daughter Angela, seven months earlier.

Since then there have been no arrests and the local police department have no leads.

Unable to accept the paralysis of her grief and fueled by fury, Mildred embodies the fight or die quality of a lone cowboy making a last stand against the local police and emblazons what must be the largest victim of violence impact statement and directs its lethal force at the town’s much loved, Chief of Police, Chief Willoughby (Woody Harrelson).

Raped while dying
And still no arrests?
How come Chief Willoughby?

There is no word for the place that Mildred is left in the English language as the parent of a dead child.

When a child loses a parent, they are an orphan. When a parent loses a child, there is no word.

Mildred’s relentless rage, blows apart the small town, minding-everyone’s-business, complicit charm of Ebbing, Missouri.

When shooting Three Billboards, McDormand to intensify the combative fury and isolation she would bring to the screen and her fellow cast, McDormand kept herself isolated, only seeing the cast at shooting.

And it worked.

McDormand is simply outstanding in this role. Simply dressed in one commando-like-overall with barely no facial expression, her seething and impact are latent and volatile and you just know that her lethal cocktail of fury, grief and a sense that justice has not been served, will suffer no prisoners.

In a quote worthy scene, Mildred strides into the Police Station – her town popularity at the bottom of the heap, oblivious to a herd of police mulling about, she calls out to Officer Dixon (Sam Rockwell) – a cop we’ve already sized up as the worst kind – a cop that is racist, stupid and armed.

‘Hey fuckhead!’ says Mildred.
‘What?’ says Dixon.
‘Don’t say what, Dixon, when she comes in calling you fuckhead’ says a Policeman.

McDonagh’s script is peppered, rich with racial taboos, social taboos, humanity. His characters, dark in pathos, humour and humanity. As a master storyteller, McDonagh’s skill is in serving up humour as a cathartic release after scenes heavy in tragic sadness.

Dixon tells Mildred, they don’t do “n– — r torturing” no more but “persons-of- color torturing”.

In a packed cinema we gasp together, in horror at Dixon’s racism and in a packed cinema, we laugh out loud, together at his stupidity.

The power of Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is in its straightforward truths.

There are no ambiguous wonderings. We are served a plate full of raw humanity and we love it. We recognize the truth of our shared humanity, all our shades of despair, rage, tragedy and ultimately our ability to use humour from that dark place to release tenderness, hope and redemption.

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