"The Founder" Review
What do we make of our corporate leaders as people? Names like Steve Jobs, Henry Ford and Walt Disney are embedded in the popular conscious as much as any kid wizard or snap-together playthings. Though we have access to the legacy of CEOs and leaders, many institutional heads are not as personally familiar as their product. We live in a time where tech titans are the subjects of top-billed films and non-tech icons may seem like an ancient generation.
The Founder is a straightforward biopic of an analogue man, an archetype of mid-century, middle American salesman, Ray Kroc. Kroc is introduced hocking milkshake mixers and scraping by on meager demand for his products when an unusually large order comes in from California. There, Kroc meets Maurice “Mac” McDonald and Richard “Dick” McDonald (John Carroll Lynch and Nick Offerman, respectively) brothers and the founders of a new assembly-line style restaurant that does away with car hops and barbeque trays for disposable packaging and made-to-order hamburger meals. Kroc smells real success in the McDonald’s revolutionary kitchen and he wants in. The brothers Mac reluctantly allow Kroc in and he quickly gets to work franchising the operation. The Founder presents Ray Kroc as the foundational understanding for chasing the American dream; every man is just one good idea (his own or another’s) away from striking rich. If Ray Kroc wasn’t the little-f founder of McDonald’s first burger shop, he was the capital-f Founder of the McDonald’s brand.
The Founder follows several blockbuster films about wildly successful company heads that have built their legacies on the work of others. It doesn’t dabble in David Fincher’s upstart backstabbing (The Social Network), nor in Danny Boyle’s confrontational schadenfreude (Steve Jobs). However, the Founder does marvel at its central ego. Robert Siegel’s script hovers over Ray’s marriage to Ethel Kroc (Laura Dern) like a buzzard. Dern’s Ethel offers one of the film’s best performances as the exhausted supporter of Keaton’s workaholic Ray. However, Ray’s relationship with future second-wife Joan Smith (Linda Cardellini) feels undercooked. It matters to his “persistence will pay off” megalomania that he discards his first marriage, but the squirrely middle-aged salesman doesn’t appear charismatic enough to charm the blonde bombshell presented within, considering her marriage to an already successful restauranteur Rollie (Patrick Wilson). Director John Lee Hancock uses Smith as the manifestation of Kroc’s growing success, framed in a red dress and topped with a golden coif (a vision of French-fries incarnate?) singing “Pennies from Heaven.”
Composed in un-ironic reverence, The Founder strings the business of building a fast-food empire together with Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, clutched baseballs, stuffed drive-ins and teen greasers. It rolls Kroc’s cornflower blue Plymouth right up against the line of tasteful nostalgia and uses red, white and gold to liven the screen. But the film’s nostalgia is as innocent as Kevin Arnold or Richie Cunningham. Between repeated cuts to American flags and church steeples, Kroc lays out a plan for McDonalds as a cultural staple, “the new American church”, and a gathering place for the hungry families “and we’re open on Sundays.” Don’t expect much cynicism or moral critique to balance; Kroc is simply an inevitability of capitalist enterprise.
The Founder is not built on redemption or destruction, but is instead focused on building an entertaining story in the singular drive of one man who took a good idea to greatness and the many people who were brought up and down along the way. It pleases and informs, but leaves moral certitude at the audience’s feet.
Rating: B
"The Conjuring 2" Review: Wan is Back in the Zone!
Horror fans, indulge me for a moment. Think of all the elements that go into a masterful horror film: Nerve-jangling scares; a sense of dread permeating throughout; imagery that sticks with you and keeps you up at night; brilliant production design; a great score; believable performances; and yes, even genuine emotion.
It sounds too good to be true in today’s world, where fecal matter like Ouija, The Gallows, and The Forest clogs the toilet that is mainstream horror. Yet there is hope in the form of our savior, the almighty and all-knowing James Wan, who has come to show us the way. Wan has always been a master of his craft, as he has demonstrated in the original Saw, Insidious, and The Conjuring, but now he has perfected it. With The Conjuring 2, he has made a perfect horror film.
Yes. The Conjuring 2 is a perfect movie. As in, it has practically zero flaws.
Like its 2013 predecessor, The Conjuring 2 is set in the 1970s and delves into the so-called “true case files” of Ed and Lorraine Warren (played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, respectively), a real-life husband-and-wife team of renowned demonologists. This time, the Warrens travel to Enfield, England, where a single mother (Frances O’Connor) and her four children are being tormented, possessed, and generally inconvenienced by a demonic presence.
What transpires at the Hodgson household is pretty standard stuff: A chair moving on its own, strange voices, bumps in the night. Of course, we’ve seen it all done before in plenty of other movies, but rarely have we seen it done so well. Like a certain Mr. Spielberg, Wan has a gift for manipulation, and not in a bad way—he meticulously crafts each individual moment for maximum effect, so that the audience is completely wrapped around his finger. The tension Wan creates is palpable, and while he often makes use of those dreaded jump scares, they never feel cheap and they always feel earned. The man simply knows what he’s doing.
He’s aided by terrific production design by Julie Berghoff and a spine-tingling score by Joseph Bishara. Both add authenticity to the period setting and an uncanny unease to the film’s atmosphere. Sweeping camerawork by director of photography Don Burgess glides placidly, putting the viewer on edge for what awaits just around the corner. And the performances—with standout turns once again by Wilson (TV’s Fargo) and Farmiga (TV’s Bates Motel)—bring humanity and heart to the spooky proceedings.
I loved this movie. As a horror fan, I want to shout it from the mountaintops: “The Conjuring 2 is not only the rare sequel that’s as good if not better than its predecessor, it’s a masterpiece of the genre!” It’s a rickety, demented funhouse ride that, despite its 135-minute running time, doesn’t overstay its welcome (unlike those pesky spirits). That’s quite an accomplishment. And though there have been some phenomenal indie horror films as of late, such as It Follows, The Babadook, and The Witch, James Wan is king as far as mainstream, wide-release horror goes. With all the heavenly blessings, I thank James Wan for turning down Fast 8 to direct this film. Horror is where he belongs.
Grade: A+