Focus

Rating:
Summary: ...really? a pair of specs can make you look jewish?...
Review: ...because that's news to me...i've never heard of such a thing, but apparantly, it's a basic concept in this movie. I enjoyed the movie, though it's not the kind of movie that maybe your average movie goer might get into. It's a movie for thinkers, a movie for people who like to peel back a few layers and find a redemptive message. Indeed, the message is a strong and powerful one, and William H. Macy and Laura Dern do justice to their roles (oh yeah, there's comedy in this movie, too --- just watch the way Laura Dern walks, if that's not comedy here, what is?). For the life of me, though, I can't figure how anyone would think a pair of glasses would make you look jewish; no, would cause you to be TREATED as a Jew --- even by the people who have known you for years and know that you are NOT a Jew! Also, I'm with the one reviewer who said that you'd think the guy would ditch the glasses since he wanted so much to stop being treated like a Jew. I just couldn't understand that. But the movie was an interesting one that examines racial prejudice and one couple's response to that prejudice...makes you think --- worth checking out.

Rating:
Summary: ...really? a pair of specs can make you look jewish?...
Review: ...because that's news to me...i've never heard of such a thing, but apparantly, it's a basic concept in this movie. I enjoyed the movie, though it's not the kind of movie that maybe your average movie goer might get into. It's a movie for thinkers, a movie for people who like to peel back a few layers and find a redemptive message. Indeed, the message is a strong and powerful one, and William H. Macy and Laura Dern do justice to their roles (oh yeah, there's comedy in this movie, too --- just watch the way Laura Dern walks, if that's not comedy here, what is?). For the life of me, though, I can't figure how anyone would think a pair of glasses would make you look jewish; no, would cause you to be TREATED as a Jew --- even by the people who have known you for years and know that you are NOT a Jew! Also, I'm with the one reviewer who said that you'd think the guy would ditch the glasses since he wanted so much to stop being treated like a Jew. I just couldn't understand that. But the movie was an interesting one that examines racial prejudice and one couple's response to that prejudice...makes you think --- worth checking out.

Rating:
Summary: Just as true today as it was then...
Review: ...especially of people who purport to be intelligent and enlightened "humanitarians", yet are such vicious anti-semites who would love nothing more than to see another more complete Holocaust--or the next best thing: Israel pushed into the sea. Don't believe me? Take a few social science classes at any so-called respectable college and you will surely see them pop out of the woodwork--professors and students alike--with their Jewish conspiracy theories and anti-Israel crap.

Rating:
Summary: Just as true today as it was then...
Review: ...especially of people who purport to be intelligent and enlightened "humanitarians", yet are such vicious anti-semites who would love nothing more than to see another more complete Holocaust--or the next best thing: Israel pushed into the sea. Don't believe me? Take a few social science classes at any so-called respectable college and you will surely see them pop out of the woodwork--professors and students alike--with their Jewish conspiracy theories and anti-Israel crap.

Rating:
Summary: Morality with style
Review: Approaching Arthur Miller's heavily moral tale cinematically, one could fashion a straightforward story that would very possibly leave the audience both stony-faced and weary upon exiting the theater. What director Neal Slavin has done is to imbue this film with striking visuals including occasional, intense dream images that make this an unusual work, easily transcending the realm of the ordinary.

Set in the 40s in Brooklyn, New York, the story concerns a mild-mannered joe, Newman, played by the always-engaging William Macy who works as a human resources officer in a nameless firm. Single, he lives alone with his mother; his lifestyle and mannerisms brand him as something between convention-abiding milquetoast and lonely recluse. There's an ever-present edge to Newman--whenever he smiles, you can't tell if he's trying desperately to feel inside what should accompany the corners of his mouth turning up, or if he is truly pained making the effort.

Into his life comes Gertrude Hart, played brilliantly by Laura Dern. This is very likely one of her best roles; she's flawless here. Sassy, fun-loving, but simultaneously caught up in the ruthless rule of the mob, she both fights and gives into Newman, letting us know that love can happen, but that social convention can easily sway how it goes.

The vicious anti-Semitism on display here is typified well by none other than Meat Loaf--perfectly cast in Fight Club, and here just as effective. As Newman's next door neighbor, he effortlessly vacillates between sham innocence and the crude, fearful hostility of "them"--Jews, blacks, whoever--that those of his ilk live to destroy. Kenneth Welsh does a superb job as Father Crichton, modeled after the real-life Father Coughlin, who preached undying hatred of non-white, non-Christian people, American or not. And David Paymer turns in an equally impressive performance as Finkelstein, the Jewish owner of a newstand on the corner of Newman's block who bears the brunt of the bigotry on display.

The strongly noir atmosphere that pervades the film underlines the dark nature of the story quite well. Similarly, Newman's strange and sometimes horrific dream images let us know that there's more to him than a pained expression. Inside, his doubts scream at him constantly.

This is not a film to run to for an evening of escape, but one instead to see when you're interested in something quite different. And quite telling, given the circumstances of the day.

Rating:
Summary: Prejudice in our midst
Review: Arthur Miller wrote this novel, so powerful and so incisive in the subject matter that more than 50 years later we can still relate to it.
It took a vision such as Neil Slavin to get this into a film and he chose well his actor for the role of Newman: William H Macy, who is perhaps, one of the most underrated actors around, but one actor that always delivers with an integrity and honesty that makes him shine and make this film as enjoyable as it was reading the Miller text years ago.
Laura Dern and David Paymer excel in their roles, as well as the rest of the cast, but the biggest surprise was Meat Loaf in a very demanding role as the bigotted neighbor. This actor is just unbelievable and we can only hope he is given new opportunities to excel and shine on his own.
The cinematography evokes the New York and Brooklyn of the 40s and brings to mind some paintings by Edward Hopper, especially in two sequences: The first when Newman is looking for a job and leaves a building and he's seen walking down a desolated Manhattan street. The other one is the night sequence where the bullies are going to attack Newman, who is seen walking with his wife and long dark shadows behind them keep following until the confrontation.
This is a film worth seeing and recommending to people that enjoy Arthur Miller's work and the work of a good film director with the intelligence of Neil Slavin.

Rating:
Summary: Great Movie - Applicable to Other Groups As Well
Review: As an effeminite heterosexual man, I can totally relate to this movie. Just as the main character learns all there is to know about anti-Semitism because he "looks Jewish", many of us are learning a lot about homophobia today. Excellent film, with many helpful parrallels for understanding current day discrimination of all kinds.

Rating:
Summary: Great Movie - Applicable to Other Groups As Well
Review: As an effeminite heterosexual man, I can totally relate to this movie. Just as the main character learns all there is to know about anti-Semitism because he "looks Jewish", many of us are learning a lot about homophobia today. Excellent film, with many helpful parrallels for understanding current day discrimination of all kinds.

Rating:
Summary: FoKus
Review: Based on an Arthur Miller book of the same name, this brilliant period place set in New York while much of the country is at war centers around a Presbyterian who, when he puts on glasses, both looks Jewish and sees the startling horror of a racist America beset with job discrimination, virulent anti-black and anti-Semitic sentiment, and all around negative energy. Wonderful performance from William Macy and an ever-enchanting Laura Dern as the leads. Both think each other are Jewish. Miller, ex-husband of Marilyn Monroe, who is still alive as of 2004, was considered the dean of American naturalism before drama went off in another direction. Here he exploits his beautiful story sense to focus our horror on the historical tragedy of political factions who think they can fix the world by broadly identifying the particular group of others who are threatening it, thus giving themselves a sense of identity organized by murderous hatred no less than would-be righteous indignation. The leads mistake each other for Jewish even as they know they are not but the world, throwing a noose of love around their attempts to escape this case of mistaken identity, tightening it as they try to wriggle free. The depiction of the Union Crusaders, a Rear Window-like opening scene of the protagonist watching a rape of Puerto Rican woman, and the distasteful factions of American nationalists and globally gathering totalitarianism as it existed over sixty years ago are convincingly portrayed in this touching and revelatory love story.

Rating:
Summary: tight little movie
Review: dead on, story takes place on the street corner, right at home....right where evil is under your eyes. Real period piece, extremely clever, understated. A sleeper! Not the usual fare.