Director:  Kathryn Bigelow
Writer: Mark Boal
Stars: Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty

Synopsis: During the Iraq War, a Sergeant recently assigned to an army bomb squad is put at odds with his squad mates due to his maverick way of handling his work.

The term hurt locker first came about during the Vietnam War. It means a place of deep pain and discomfort. Whose pain and discomfort is determined by the context in which it’s used. In the case of the film The Hurt Locker that can be a complicated answer. Yes, it’s obvious that our protagonists feel the intensity of their explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) prerogative. Yet, it’s also obvious that the people they came to fight for, with, and against, are in it as well. The Iraq War and the War on Terror as a whole was/is an endeavor that costs so much more than it gains. The authenticity of that endlessness, exhaustion, and pain is palpable in every frame of The Hurt Locker.

Screenwriter Mark Boal began his career as a journalist and spent some time embedded with EOD units fighting the War on Terror. His script, while dramatic and affecting, never falls into the patterns that many fictionalized accounts of real conflicts do. He never builds an overarching mastermind, but keeps the terror as anonymous as it is for his characters. He also doesn’t give us one large standoff with an improvised explosive device (IED), but keeps the relentless pace that his characters would have experienced had they actually been there, finding devices day after day after day after day.

There is an utterly brilliant sequence that encapsulates how even as this EOD crew have a job that is constant, there’s an extreme tension in every IED they come across. It starts as the crew gets to their scene without a clue as to where they’re supposed to be working. A squad in an alcove directs their attention down the street. James (Jeremy Renner) immediately gears up in spite of the protestations of Sanborn (Anthony Mackie). As he walks toward the danger, James tosses out a smoke bomb, frustrating Sanborn even more. Then James gets to a point in the road where a taxi breaks through the barrier. James points a pistol at the driver, there’s a stand off with warning shots fired until the driver backs off. Then James finds the IED and disarms it, but as he does he sees another wire. He follows the wire to its middle, which is a web of other wires that he lifts to reveal five more explosives buried there. He quickly dispatches them all while we see the supposed bomber as he runs down the stairs toward where he can make his connection to the detonators via a battery. James shows him the futility of trying and the man drops the battery and runs away.

This sequence is so intense that you might think it would be spread out, but it is one after another after another. It’s so successful in the tension it brings to the film because of the people who put it all together. Editors Bob Murawski and Chris Innis are masters of timing. Especially as the bomber makes his descent. The cuts between him and James are quick and feel like they’re happening as they would be simultaneously and side by side. Those shots are also thanks to cinematographer Barry Ackroyd who is one of the main forces of the cinema vérité style of camera work that was very popular at that time in cinema. Though here, Ackroyd’s camera never feels like a camera, but another set of eyes of the dozens of eyes in every scene, constantly watching. The scene is perfectly concocted and in addition to these creators, has much to do with director Kathryn Bigelow’s sensibilities as well.

Kathryn Bigelow sees masculinity in a way that many male directors can’t. To her it’s from an outsider’s perspective or a behavioral study. Her men are manly and tough, yes, but they also feel far more real than if they had been directed by a man. The Hurt Locker would have been a far different film if not in her hands. James, for all his hot shot bravado, has deep pain inside. Sanborn, for all his desire to be recognized for his capabilities, hates how much he fears this task he has. Eldridge (Brian Geraghty), for all his insecurities, is a more than capable soldier when he’s given a leader who respects him. Bigelow found the depth in Mark Boal’s script and enhanced it as she lingered on a certain shot, or pushed for an emotional bent to a scene. She’s more than adept at showing us a depth to men that many others aren’t attuned to finding.
The Hurt Locker is a tense thriller for its subject matter, but also for its emotional heft. The toll this job puts on soldiers and their personal lives is immense. There is never a moment when the human element is missing from these men and the people they save/thwart. That’s why the film has endured and garnered so much acclaim. Other films like it have never cracked the emotional core of these stories in this way; they’re much shallower dives into stories we feel we know already. The Hurt Locker will stand up as a war film that will define a period for movie watching generations to come.

Grade: A

Director: Rob Reiner
Writer:  Nora Ephron
Stars: Meg Ryan, Billy Crystal, Bruno Kirby, Carrie Fisher

Synopsis: Harry and Sally have known each other for years, and are very good friends, but they fear sex would ruin the friendship.

There has been much debate over the past few decades regarding Meg Ryan’s greatest work in the romantic comedy sector of cinema. The answer is definitive. It is, and always has been, When Harry Met Sally. Not only is it Meg Ryan’s best romantic comedy, but it’s the greatest work in the genre of all time. It’s the perfect storm of cast and crew finding each other at the right time and establishing chemistry and rhythm that has since been unmatched. 

There’s no better place to start with this film than the script, the backbone of the movie that keeps things moving. This is only the third script of Nora Ephron’s that crossed the finish line of being released, with the prior two being directed by Mike Nichols. This script is funny and witty, and every scene has a purpose. Nothing should be cut out and it makes the most of every second. When Harry Met Sally doesn’t fall into the trap of other similar films, particularly modern romantic comedies, that overload their story with extraneous scenes that increase the runtime way past what is necessary. Something especially notable about Ephron’s work here is that even though there are a plethora of amazingly quotable one-liners, they are all part of the dialogue between the characters and not just used to get a laugh at the end of a scene. Both Harry and Sally are written well and fleshed out to where just a couple of interactions with them tell us exactly who they are. It takes massive writing chops to pull that off so quickly. 

While Nora Ephron went on to direct her work for most of the rest of her career, it took six scripts to get there. After consecutive collaborations with Mike Nichols, Ephron hands the reins of When Harry Met Sally over to Rob Reiner amid a historic stretch. Between 1986 and 1992, Reiner directed Stand By Me, The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally, Misery, and A Few Good Men. Talk about an all-time run. Reiner is at the top of his game here, allowing his straightforward style to let the script work its magic and the actors run with it. In addition to Reiner’s direction, future director Barry Sonnenfeld is behind the camera here offering his cinematic eye. The two of them capture the beauty of New York City in fall and winter in their unique way, letting the colors and sights speak for themselves without extra flare and flash. Every time Harry and Sally are walking through parts of the city I can’t help but think this era was the best time to ever live in the Big Apple and anyone there now is just chasing a life that will never exist again. 

The behind-the-camera work sets the stage for the real stars of the show, Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan. Both Harry Burns and Sally Albright are played and written so perfectly that films have been chasing variations of their characters for decades since the film’s release. Each of them has their ways of living that they stick to, Harry with his rules of relationships and Sally with knowing specifically what she wants and how things should be done. Their chemistry together is truly singular in the genre, as it’s more than just pure physical attraction. There’s a deep connection between them, once they each let the other one in a little bit. For a while in the film, they exhibit what true friendship can be like, regardless of gender. Of course, the story must take them to the romantic pit, but their relationship still exhibits a level of closeness that is hard to achieve in any relationship. With no disrespect to one Tom Hanks, Billy Crystal has unquestionably the best chemistry and is the greatest scene partner that Meg Ryan has ever had. Their dialogue flows and bounces off one another so naturally. Carrie Fisher and Bruno Kirby also turn in great performances as Harry and Sally’s best friends, and the four of them engage in the most electric landline telephone conversation ever committed to film. It’s well known now that they had to actually all be on the phone together to pull this off, and the scene is so much better for it.

The impact of When Harry Met Sally is impossible to understate. The writing, direction, and acting are unimpeachable and the combined efforts of all involved helped bring the world into the modern era of the romantic comedy. Individually, great things come for almost everyone after this film but the greatness found here will never be replicated. Try as you might, it can’t be done. It’s a perfect movie, the pinnacle of Meg Ryan’s career, and the only thing I think about when thinking about Billy Crystal.

Grade: A+

Director:  Joel Schumacher
Writers: John Grisham, Akiva Goldsman, Robert Getchell
Stars: Susan Sarandon, Tommy Lee Jones, Brand Renfro

Synopsis: A young boy who witnessed the suicide of a mafia lawyer hires an attorney to protect him when the District Attorney tries to use him to take down a mob family.

I still remember the first time I saw The Client. It was a Friday, one of my two days off from school. My dad had rented the VHS as usual. It was in 1995, I was 7. As a wide-eyed and very imaginative neurodivergent kid, films to me were portals to a faraway world, where kids got in danger and adults treated them with wisdom and kindness…sometimes.

Everyone’s reason for watching this film was different back then. My dad was, and always will be, a big Tommy Lee Jones fan. My mom was bored and preferred a Jean Claude Van Damme or a Tom Cruise film. I would devour whatever film my dad rented, and my little sister tagged along, clinging to her big sister for guidance. “Is that a good movie?” “I believe so,” I’d shrug, hiding my overt enthusiasm over something as silly as movie night, since every night in my family was movie night.

As a former bookworm, I read all of John Grisham novels as a teen. I loved his style of legal thrillers, but also his characters. I loved how there was always a Don Quixote trope to flirt with, a David and Goliath theme. This feature is one of those opportunities to see Grisham’s themes and style fully fleshed out.

The first thing I remember about The Client is Susan Sarandon. As a kid, I loved Sarandon. To me, she was a strange-looking lady, all red hair and so many F-bombs. She always smoked or drank -hadn’t seen Dead Man Walking thankfully till later in life when she played a nun- and took no BS from anyone. The fact that the whole film universe revolved around her and a little kid was exhilarating to me.

I love serious films where kids get to interact with adults. Those were the happy days before we grimly realized what most of these child actors went through behind the scenes and in the dark recesses of big Hollywood studios. But as a young girl, a child among the adults always made the movie feel better for me. Especially if the child actor was exceptionally gifted. The late Brad Renfro. who played Mark, was brilliant. 

Mark was everything I wanted to be as a kid; street-smart, snarky, cute, and unafraid of adults. He was a protective older brother and a good son. Now that I watch the film with adult eyes, I can see how terrified he was of them, but how he tried to play it cool to survive. Another thing that I noticed as I grew up was how the system harshly treats poor kids. Being poor is always an anomaly, but being a poor child is a bigger disability than most people think. It exposes kids to unimaginable injustice, cruelty, and predatory behavior. Children are vulnerable and voiceless, and if their parents cannot be the voice they rightfully deserve, they will get lost between the crushing feet of adults, organized systems, and governmental inadequacies in meeting their needs and protecting them. The film makes an excellent point of showing the effect of poverty, physical abuse, and an unstable family structure on children, along with the consequences they face because of that.

But a film like that means nothing without its main protagonist and no, that’s not Jones as a sleaze-ball, slick-style, pompous, Bible-quoting US attorney named Reverend Roy Foltrigg. It’s Sarandon as the down-on-her-luck hero of this journey. The first moment we see Reggie Love, the red-haired lawyer with a mouth on her, and compassion she hides behind her calm exterior, she’s trying to open a window, and she’s on her desk, wearing a cute skirt and a sleeveless blouse. She turns and it’s Sarandon in her ‘90s rizz and glory. She’s spectacular and I instantly remember falling in love with her all over again.

The misogyny and sexism that a female lawyer is treated with in this film, strikes me as scary because it is handled as the norm, as if it is truly expected of people to dismiss her and call her honey and darling. Even her client, a poor eleven-year-old boy, doesn’t respect her initially. Not to mention her state as a former mental health patient, and how she is shamed for having gone down a rocky road of inebriety and drug addiction. As a woman, all of these scenes are tough to watch, back then nothing hit a nerve. I didn’t experience the pain I felt right now -as someone constantly struggling with mental health issues- as I watched people humiliating and belittling a woman who finally got her wits together and decided to rise from the ashes. 

What I find amusing are all the Elvis Presley references in this film. Those were the least of my concerns when I watched it in 1995, something I never would have noticed or paid attention to. Joel Schumacher brilliantly captures the Memphis spirit and heightens the tension in the climactic confession scene, when Mark sits down with his lawyer and bares his soul, admitting for the first time in front of an adult that he is afraid.It’s difficult now to watch the film without remembering Renfro’s tragic death at the young age of 25. As millennials, we are doomed with our teenage crushes from him to River Phoenix, Jonathan Brandis, and even Heath Ledger. It’s strange how you can rarely take the context out of the film, how it can both hurt and elevate the performance or the memory of watching it. Regardless of all the narrative surrounding it, The Client is a compelling legal thriller that cannot be made today, not even straight to streaming because what kind of audience reception would they analyze for content starring a fresh-faced child actor and a not-your-typical leading lady?

Grade: A-