No.300 : W. (2008)

W. at the IMDb

For our 300th’ post I thought we’d get back to basics with the most ‘W’ film you can get : ‘W.’.

This Oliver Stone bio-pic of the 43rd President of the United States was well observed and entertaining, but I doubt anyone watching it comes out knowing the protagonist any better.

The film employs a non-linear narrative with key moments in Bush’s life shown in flashback, with the year involved captioned to keep you right. We open in the White House as Bush and his cabinet of familiar faces discuss his ‘Axis of Evil’ speech. It’s 2002 and he’s plotting how to topple Saddam Hussein, and finish the job his father started in Gulf War One.

He railroads any objectors and finishes the meeting with a quick prayer. We are then transported back to 1966 with the young George applying to join a frat house. He does well in the company of the beery rabble rousers and we soon see him in jail following a football match fight whilst he’s at Yale. His dad, GB Senior, bails him out but he’s disappointed in him and it’s clear that his brother Jeb is the preferred offspring.

George stumbles through a variety of jobs, none of which he stays at for long. He has a drinking issue and is a disappointment to his Dad, James Cromwell, who is probably distracted with that troublesome pig. We jump back and forth with a present day Dick Cheney trying to get George to sign off on Guantanamo Bay torture with the bold George reminding him that ‘I’m the President’.

The path to the White House is however long with George losing his first bid for congress in 1977, but meeting his wife Laura (Elizabeth Banks) along the way. Fast forward to 1986 when George has a heart attack, gets sober and finds God. He also secures his Dad’s presidency when he runs a dirty tricks campaign for him against Dukakis. We then see George Jnr. as a baseball club owner before Desert Storm in 1991 and his Dad’s loss to Clinton in 1992.

He eventually becomes Texas Governor in 1994 and has a message from God that he should run for President in 1999. We know that he gets the big job but what will his legacy be and will he finally please his old man?

I’d seen this film near to its release but it was a lot better the second time around with the benefit of history and hindsight. Firstly the cast was great with Josh Brolin excelling as the flawed George. At the time Bush was a figure of fun but they did well to focus on the man rather than on the comedians’ take. Clearly you don’t get to lead the free world by being an idiot, but they did temper this by pushing the legacy aspect with his Dad offering no end of help.

Bush’s advisers were all familiar faces with Richard Dreyfuss as Cheney and Toby Jones as Karl Rove doing good work. Thandie Newton was less convincing as Condolezza Rice, with her performance looking more like a caricature.

Obviously a lot of what was said was behind closed doors and had to be speculated, but it seemed a balanced approach with only a couple of scenes inserted to make George look stupid, such as his hospital visit to injured troops where he handed out t-shirts to the maimed.

It was strange that the pivotal moment of his presidency, the 9/11 attacks, didn’t get more focus but it may have been too raw at the time of the 2008 production. Maybe they thought the fallout and legacy of Bush Senior was the story and to be fair it did make for an interesting narrative.

Overall I think this was a worthwhile and interesting bio-pic that did well to show the man rather than offer a commentary on his actions. Like the man the film had its flaws, but overall it was interesting and entertaining.

Best Bit : Oval Office Discussions  ‘W’ Rating 19/23

No.277 : Wine Country (2019)

Wine Country at the IMDb

Who fancies a trip to wine country to meet women with issues and more baggage than an airport carousel? Me neither, but you can’t always get what you want.

Amy Poehler writes, stars and directs and she should be thoroughly ashamed for this risible effort. The plot, as it is, involves six 50 something woman who met as waitresses in Chicago and are now embarking on a trip to the Napa Valley to celebrate one of their half centuries.

The group are your expected ragtag of pushy, dominated, frustrated, worried, disillusioned - basically everything that will attract a scintilla of empathy from the audience. Not this viewer - they all came across as a right pain in the arse to me.

They rent a large house off a disinterested Tina Fey whose character isn’t so much underdeveloped as non-existent. They have her dressed like MacGruber throughout - I have no idea if this was a deliberate Saturday Night Live homage. Poehler plays Abby who is the organised and pushy one of the group. She’s always bossing everyone about and is super confident so it’s no surprise that she is hiding some issues.

She has to wait her turn though, as another has designs on a younger lady artist, another is mousy and hates her husband, another is too focused on her job and yet another is awaiting cancer test results.

Slowly over the weekend the girls have madcap adventures such as getting pissed at a winery and annoying people, and shagging the help in the shape of an ‘I’m doing it for the money’ Jason Schwartzman.

After a few emotional moments the girls’ issues all come to the fore - will they fall out or be stronger for the experience? Seriously, have a guess!

This was a gawd awful waste of time, apart for the cast who all seemed to have a right old laugh getting drunk in the lovely Californian wine region.

My main issue is that all the women were a nightmare. Not quirky or sassy just the sort of people you’d leave a pub for if they showed up. The bonding was so on the nose its bouquet would make you retch as they all learn and grow and elicit cries of ‘You go girls’ from the target demographic of lonely people on their third bottle.

There were no laughs to speak of, unless you enjoy stuntmen in unconvincing wigs rolling down a hill for five minutes. Every revelation was flagged from a mile away with the false fronts being cast aside for a bit of truth and then redemption. I’ve not felt this nauseous since that bottle of £1.99 Kwik Save Chardonnay.

One to miss unless you want some quality female bonding with a bunch of women you’d cross the street to avoid.

Best Bit : Get back to you on that. 'W' Rating 5/23

No.229 : Wake in Fright (1971)

Wake in Fright at the IMDb

Also known by the less ‘W’ friendly name ‘Outback’ this Australian film from 1971 (same as me!) is an unsettling experience which is hard to recommend but equally an affecting and memorable experience.

The film opens with a young teacher dismissing his class for the Christmas holidays. He’s clearly keen to get away but manages to grab one beer before catching the train to the nearest city, ‘The Yabba’. Our hero, John, has one night to spend in The Yabba before catching a flight to Sydney to meet up with his girlfriend, whom we only ever see in an idealised beach flashback.

John checks into cheap lodgings and pays his $4 rent in advance as well as a $1 deposit on the key - he’ll be grateful for that later! As the internet has yet to be invented John ventures out to a local bar where he meets several of the colourful locals, all of whom are suspicious of anyone who doesn’t like a drink. A tentative connection to the local police chief earns him several beers and soon he is as roaring drunk as the rest of the patrons.

He gets shown the local gambling den which involves hoards of men betting on how two spun coins will fall. Reluctant at first John enjoys some early luck and has soon made a fat pile of cash which he takes back to his room in triumph. As all gamblers know however, it’s never enough and he ponders over how one more successful bet could buy him out his hated teaching job in the outback.

As you will probably guess things don’t go well and after chasing his losses John is left flat broke, without money or his airline ticket. Given his penurious state John has to rely on the charity of the local barflies and is soon drinking heavily in their remote shacks. Donald Pleasance does a great turn as a dipsomaniac doctor and the posh mum from ‘Just Good friends’ is free with her charms as one of the men’s bored and slutty daughter.

As the party progresses John gets more and more ‘native’ and is soon knee deep in blood as the drunken men go on a late night kangaroo hunt. Can John pull back from the brink or is he lost forever in a downward spiral of beer and kangaroo meat? Will his last dollar and gifted gun be his redemption or a fast track to the afterlife?

I really liked this film despite my copy being somewhat ropey. Seemingly the film was lost and only recently restored - looks like I saw a ‘before’ version! This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing as the bleached out colours perfectly depicted the heat and grime in every scene.

The film is probably uncomfortable viewing for Australians as, to a man, they are seen as drunken bullies and thugs. After shooting up the local kangaroo population they then set about destroying the only pub in miles - sacrilege! I’m sure a lot of commentary is intended towards the Australian male psyche and drinking culture, but in truth they are a horrible lot and I was only sorry the kangaroos didn’t take a couple of them with them.

You will probably have heard that the kangaroo killings were brutal and indeed they were. To be fair though, the scene was only about five minutes long and in mitigation they did eat what they killed. That said the man wrestling a kangaroo to death is uncomfortable viewing in anyone’s book, despite the disclaimer at the end that all kills were carried out by professional hunters during a sanctioned cull.

The twist towards the end was well done with the finale maybe a wee bit predictable but none the worse for that. Hopefully the teacher doesn’t have to complete a ‘What I did on my holidays’ essay too!

All in all this has to be essential viewing for anyone with an interest in cinema and although not enjoyable as such, it is definitely one that will live with you long after the last kangaroo burger has been digested.

Best Bit : Donald gets a bit fresh
‘W’ Score 21/23