A Sticky Floors and Salty Popcorn Movie Review: Lincoln

There's no way I can be objective about Steven Spielberg's new biopic. 

At its center is my favorite actor of all-time, a gifted character bard (Daniel Day-Lewis) who I'd be ecstatic to play the role of a jar of mustard. Surrounded by an ensemble featuring standouts from some of my favorite films in recent memory (Tommy Lee Jones-No Country for Old Men, Jackie Earle Haley-Watchmen, Joseph Gordon-Levitt-Inception, David Straitharn-Good Night, and Good Luck, Hal Holbrook-That Evening Sun, Time Blake Nelson-O Brother, Where art Thou?, Michael Stuhlbarg-A Serious Man, and the incomparable James Spader), and its promise of casting a more personal light on arguably America's most mythic true-to-life character, and there was really no way this movie could fail. I'd have been pleased, if as Aaron Sorkin suggested he'd do with his Steve Jobs biopic earlier this week, we'd had Day-Lewis' Lincoln eating short ribs in the White House kitchen for two and a half hours.

But Spielberg knocked my socks off.

Those wanting a sprawling portrait of the man will be discouraged. For the most part, Lincoln confines itself to one tumultuous month in American history. As the film opens, Lincoln has just been re-elected in 1865. The country remains very much in the throes of the Civil War. Yet Lincoln's Republican Party (with Holbrook and Jones in major positions of authority) has just roundly defeated their Democrat rivals in the chaotic House of Representatives. What unfolds during the film's lengthy run-time (perhaps my only compliant) is Lincoln's personal struggle to get the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery passed through a deeply divided, lame-duck House as the Civil War limps toward its conclusion. Aside from two chaotic scenes, one at the beginning of the film and the aftermath of the Petersburg, Virginia, battle, the war takes a backseat to a display of Lincoln's political acumen, and his meandering thoughts during the month the amendment is under discussion in the House.

And that's the best way to describe Day-Lewis' Lincoln. He is a meandering intellectual, often draped in a blanket and stooped in thought. Spielberg shows a particular enthusiasm for a shot directly over Day-Lewis shoulder, peering into the gaze of those addressing the president with the familiar stove hat and chin whiskers framing the shot. This achieves both a narrative and cinematic significance. Lincoln often appears aloof (so much so that one of his advisers storms out of the room during a particularly lengthy aside), and by framing the shot so Spielberg plays up this side of Lincoln's character. It also allows him to play up the myth of Lincoln while simultaneously displaying a complex human side in other scenes, heretofore ignored on the big screen. This seamless transition, from concerned father to backwoods Kentucky boy to shrewd politician, is deftly maneuvered by Day-Lewis, who once again puts himself into Oscar contention with this performance.

Like the man himself, much of the rest of the film orbits around Lincoln. This is a political intrigue film, and while the pay-off screams Hollywood drama to the point of almost becoming a caricature, the craftsmanship of those that surround Day-Lewis keep the story from going off the deep end. Straitharn once again plays the wizened compatriot to a tee, occupying the difficult role of Secretary of State and confidant William Seward with ease and comfort. Perhaps the brightest surprise in this cast is James Spader's turn as political consultant/oaf W.N. Bilbo, replete with grand moustache and political cynicism that keeps the proceedings light, even as the audience is aware the film is headed toward a less-than-spectacular end.

Which is where my main gripe springs forth. Lincoln attempts to do many brave things with a story that is told in second-grade classrooms nationwide. We all know what's going to happen. How we get there is intellectually stimulating (for a politics nerd) and even shocking (a heated scene between Sally Field's Mary Todd Lincoln and Day-Lewis, scolding her for a discent into madness that Lincoln, the president, can't succumb to in order to keep up appearances is perhaps the most tension-filled and bold decision Spielberg and screenwriter Tony Kushner make in Lincoln). But the final 20 minutes of the film feel tacked on. 

There are four or five good ways for the film to end before the well-tread territory of Ford's Theater. And the decision of how to treat the shooting involves some sleight-of-hand that isn't apparent to the audience until after the infamous deed takes place. The decision to jump around in time, completely in service of providing the expected scene of Lincoln's death yet also ending on an up-note with the president's address following the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, is jarring, odd and unnecessary in an otherwise thoughtful and intimate portrait of our most mythic president. For much of the film, it seems as though Spielberg is trying to tear down that wall of fame that separates us from a man who, as Field's first lady tells us, is defined by the challenges he had to face in office and his dramatic assassination. Instead of leaving us with an enduring image of Lincoln the man, we are given one final image of Lincoln the god as the credits roll. It's a small nit to pick in a film that bravely charts a course into well-trod territory, tying together themes and ideas we thought understood and put to bed 150 years ago.

Verdict: 4.5/5 stars

Virtual Dork: Three great things about yesterday's GTAV Game Informer reveal

If you're a fan of the Grand Theft Auto series (and, unless you're Jack Thompson, why aren't you?) yesterday was pretty much like Christmas. Well, perhaps that night before Christmas when you wake your dad in the middle of the night, asking him if it's time to open presents yet but being told, through one blood-shot eye, to go back to your room and shut up until 6 a.m.  After a year of teasing us with one official trailer and a few screenshots released shamelessly at a rate that would make Chinese Democracy fans blush, Rockstar pulled back the curtain on the next installment in their blockbuster franchise to giddy journalists at Game Informer.

You can read the entirety of their article, if you're a subscriber, using an app for Apple or Android devices, or online at their website. Additionally, IGN (and many other outlets) simply poached the information and posted it under their own mastheads. Without going into too much detail on this subject, I can't really blame them. At last count, it was generating about hundreds of pageviews a minute. As a journalist myself, and someone who values game journalism (the good stuff, like the investigative piece on working conditions at Team Bondi by freelancer Andrew McMillen [@NiteShok] last summer), I have some issues with the practice. But that's not the point of this article.

Count me among those bowled over by GTAIV. At the time, I wrote GTAIV "was a fantastic technical achievement with regard to the usage of the RAGE engine in creating a living, breathing city." I stand by that today. While I disagreed with some of the decisions Rockstar made in their presentation and execution of GTAIV, I remember being completely overwhelmed the first time I got behind the wheel to drive Roman home at the outset of GTAIV. And this is coming from a guy who remembers the exact second he put each previous generation GTA game disc into his PS2 for the first time.


Which brings us to yesterday, when Rockstar made, once again, some lofty claims about moving forward with their series. I'll admit, I read the entirety of the 17-page Game Informer article with giddiness of that teenager who plopped down in front of a massive Magnavox 11 years ago and hit the power button for the first time on GTA3. Here's what I'm most excited about from the piece:

1. The narrative possibilities of multiple protagonists. Rockstar broached this subject a bit, but in the Game Informer piece the emphasis was on "skipping the boring parts" of the game by shifting perspectives as the title progressed. But the more interesting thing, given Rockstar's approach in the high definition GTA era to storytelling, is how this will influence the way the story unfolds. We know the protagonists will meet on certain missions. And we definitely got a sense of how this might work in the DLC chapters released by Rockstar for GTAIV. But the shifting focus will allow for storytelling we haven't really seen in a game with the level of polish Rockstar is known for yet.

Sure, we had Master Chief and the Arbiter in Halo 2/3. And Rockstar has toyed with changing perspectives in games recently with Red Dead Redemption and as far back as The Warriors and Red Dead Revolver. But this is concurrent, seamless (and unbounded by narrative) transition from one character to another. We're talking Pulp Fiction-like narrative possibilities here. I hope (and I know) Rockstar won't waste it.

2. Finally, a fully dynamic mission structure (?). Yesterday's announcement had me combing through preview articles for GTA3, to see just what folks were saying before that groundbreaking game came out. Here's a doozie from IGN's preview on Oct. 18, 2001:

"For example, if you steal a taxi and you pick up a guy, he'll talk to you, or perhaps even offer you a task. "

When the game came out, like many of the other mentions of the game's features before it was altered following the Sept. 11 attacks, these dynamic occurrences were nowhere to be found. Again, Game Informer promised us yesterday that we would have dynamic experiences that occur in-game as your character is driving from point-to-point, like the stick-up situations in Red Dead Redemption. One of the more interesting scenarios was stumbling upon dead bodies strewn about int the desert, No Country for Old Men style. Imagine the possibilities! No one plays the same game twice! Actual choice, instead of those branching mission paths that were clunkily implemented toward the end of GTAIV. 

3. Better driving mechanics. Let's face it - the cars in GTAIV handled awfully. Thank God everyone drove so horribly, or otherwise I'd be getting shut down by the cops in chases and losing all of Brucie's road races. Dan Houser says the cars will grip the road a lot better this time round, and the time is looking toward producing an experience that rivals top-tier racing games. To me, the driving in GTA has always sort of played second fiddle. But in GTAIV's Liberty City, driving actually meant something, getting from one point to another. Sure, we had the taxi service (which I used to pick up weapons and get to places during a mission easily), but if you're going to produce a city of that scale (and Los Santos is going to be bigger), you have to make it fun to navigate. I'm very excited about the new feel of the cars in GTAIV (and not having to turn on that handy "better handling" cheat, which I used so frequently in GTA3 and other games in the series). 

That's it for now. I'll have some impressions when the second official trailer drops next Thursday. Back to Halo 4...

The Shallow End Presents: An Inexplicably Close Look at an Obscure Song Lit "The Last Time Again"

You may remember Lit as the band that, in four minutes, completely encapsulated your sophomore year of college.



Or, you may remember Lit as that band that gratuitously made Pamela Anderson the subject of your nightmares.




Yes, the California quartet had a brief run at the top of the airwaves and Total Request Live playlists in the late '90s, which earned them consideration from the soundtrack for that wonderful film series of our youth, American Pie. "Last Time Again" was one of two tracks from the band that appeared in the second iteration of the series, joining the likes of Third Eye Blind's "Semi-Charmed Kind of Life," Harvey Danger's "Flagpole Sitta" and American Hi-Fi's "Flavor of the Weak."

Seriously. Looking back at it now, I can't remember one moment of an American Pie film where there wasn't some sort of ambient music playing behind the characters. I wonder if it was because Eddie Kaye Thomas had a flatulence problem. That might actually have improved the quality of the second film. I remember picking it up at a used DVD store a few years ago, marked down to $2. I bought a couple Ring Pops instead.

Which leads us to the sugary dulcet tones of the melodramatic "Last Time Again," the opening of which aims for a Donne-like ("Mark but this flea," you listener, you have no choice but to do as I say) dramatic opening in the parlance of a teenage comedy.

"I don't want to be an asshole anymore."

A laudable goal. And, given the fact that we know you've been sleeping with your clothes on, climbing through windows at all hours and leaving your car parked on the front lawn, perhaps the decision to no longer piss people off is a good first step in the right direction.

Of course, the rest of the song is an exposition detailing all the ways that this speech, presumably said to what Donne would call a lover or mistress and what the band members of Lit would call that girl with the tight shirt near the bass amp during last night's show, has been told in the past.

"Well, I don't want to be redundant anymore."

Was that before or after you crafted the title to this song?

"The Last Time Again" is a throwaway track with a nice guitar noise that sounds like some kind of an alarm. It was probably used in a scene where our hero Jim is walking into another socially awkward situation with some item attached in a painfully bizarre way to his penis. I've just saved you thirty minutes of whatever American Pie movie you were planning on watching next. Except American Wedding. That film actually takes the characters somewhere and has a decent, heartfelt plot.

Watch that film, use American Pie 2 as a coaster for your warm beverage on this cold November day and remember — if you keep waking up on the bathroom floor, platitudes to those who care probably aren't going to change their mind about your alcoholism and penchant for destroying their electronics.