CAROL: Les Be Honest

Director: Todd Haynes
Writer: Phyllis Nagy
Cast: Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Kyle Chandler, Sarah Paulson, Jake Lacy, John Magaro
Runtime: 118 mins.
2015

As far as I can tell there are two ways for people to develop empathy: through experience and through stories. For those who lead sheltered existences, sometimes life experience is not a viable option. That's why we need narrative. Stories allow for cultural growth across demographics and situations. Stories shape our worldview, especially if they're artfully constructed and have real heart behind them. As such, I can't imagine how anyone could walk away from Carol without a great deal of empathy for the LGBTQ movement unless they are trapped in a dogma that does not allow them to break free.

Carol follows the romance of two closeted women in the 1950's. Therese Belivet (Rooney Mara) is our initial POV character, a reserved young woman who floats through life acquiescing to things she doesn't have any feelings about. Over the course of the movie our perspective transfers to that of Carol Aird (Cate Blachett), an older woman going through a divorce and entering a custody battle for her daughter. Both of our main characters are stuck in relationships with basically good men who nonetheless find themselves in the role of the oppressor because of the regressive gender norms of the time. One of the many incredible traits of Carol is that it doesn't demonize anybody, not even its villain; the pressure and prominence of social forces is always kept at the forefront.

SKYFALL: Old Dog Old Tricks

Spectre, the 24th entry in this 53-year-old franchise, is soon upon us. As such I will be spending this week rehashing the Daniel Craig Bond movies in preparation. Skyfall is the most polarizing of Craig's Bonds, a movie that I like very much and also find myself wagging a stern finger at.

Other Reviews in this Series.

Director: Sam Mendes
Writers: Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, John Logan
Cast: Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Berenice Marlohe, Ben Whishaw, Albert Finney
Runtime: 143 mins.
2012

When I claimed a few days ago that Casino Royale is and will probably remain the best Bond movie, I received in response an outpouring of love for Skyfall (for me an outpour is two people). I'm going to quote pieces of their responses without permission.

"Maybe in terms of scale, Casino Royale wins just because of the sheer amount of character creation. But there's a lot of humanity injected into the Bond character during Skyfall as well. In terms of his struggle with his past, family issues, and aging... Not believing he can be the same caliber of agent he once was. No other Bond movie approaches that level of analysis of his internal psychoses. You know, since when does James Bond have anxiety?"

"The real payoff of [Casino Royale] is in Skyfall, not in Royale itself. Skyfall is, at its core, about the trauma of loss & memory: the trauma of the Reformation (and you could argue this is really when the Empire started) and then the loss of Empire. What happens when England finally loses enough that they have to deal with the trauma they've been ignoring for centuries? . . . This is a new type of Bond. Still the markers of the one we knew before, but it doesn't shy away from the pain and violence that is inherently a part of being Bond. . . . Mostly I think the Craig Bond films can't be separated quite as easily, as they completely depend on one another."

These are two very similar and eloquent responses in defense of Skyfall's merits. Clearly there's a lot of Skyfall love out there, a love which I share. Skyfall was the movie that hooked me into the Bond franchise (when I first saw Casino Royale I was too young to care about much beyond the action). Moreover, they're absolutely right in pointing out that Casino and Skyfall are of a piece. One is an origin story about the man who became the agent, the other is a retirement story about the agent in danger of becoming the man. One recreates Bond for modern audiences, one investigates Bond's relevance for that audience. One reboots the series, one reestablishes the series regulars.