Tucker: The Man and His Dream

 Year:  1988

Director:  Francis Ford Coppola

Screenplay:  Arnold Schulman and David Seidler

Starring:  Jeff Bridges, Joan Allen, Martin Landau, Frederic Forrest, Mako, Elias Koteas, Christian Slater, Dean Stockwell

Running Time:  110 minutes

Genre:  Comedy, drama, biography

The Man:  Preston Tucker (Bridges), ambitious engineer who made his fortune designing and building gun turrets for aircraft during World War II.

His Dream:  To manufacture the 'car of the future'.  His "Tucker Torpedo" features an engine mounted in the rear of the car, and revolutionary safety features, such as seatbelts.  

However, the manufacture of the car is plagued with issues, and as enthusiasm for the car mounts, Tucker runs afoul of the "Big Three" car manufacturers (Ford, General Motors and Chrysler) as well as accusations of fraud from the U. S Securities and Exchange Commission.

You might not think of Francis Ford Coppola, director of such films as The Godfather (1973) and Apocalypse Now (1979), as the person to direct a gentle, charming comedy-drama based on real-life failed automobile entrepreneur Preston Tucker.  Coppola had first conceived of the project in the 1970s, and originally envisioned Marlon Brando or Jack Nicholson in the title role, and later planned to make the film as a musical, although the plan collapsed.  With Coppola's friend, George Lucas, serving as executive producer the project eventually came to fruition in 1988, to good reviews but poor box office receipts.  Jeff Bridges brings all of his considerable charisma to bear as the charming, confident Preston Tucker, and Joan Allen is very good, in the slightly underwritten role as Tucker's loyal wife Joan, although she has a great scene where she confronts a boardroom full of patronising men.  Martin Landau was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as financier Abe Karatz, who helps Tucker raise funds for his dream, and Christian Slater has a small role as Tucker's teenage son.  Dean Stockwell has a memorable cameo as a creepy Howard Hughes.  The film looks great with a real feel for the 1940s style, and the action is punctuated by amusing 1940s style adverts for Tucker's car.  While this is not a great film by any means, and far from Coppola's best, it actually deserves to be a lot better remembered than it is, because it is a good film.  In the end, Tucker made 51 of his Tucker Torpedoes.  Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas each own two.

Jeff Bridges in Tucker: The Man and His Dream

Professor Marston and the Wonder Women

Year of Release:  2017
Director:  Angela Robinson
Screenplay:  Angela Robinson
Starring:  Luke Evans, Rebecca Hall, Bella Heathcote, JJ Feild, Oliver Platt, Connie Britton
Running Time:  108 mintes
Genre:  Biography, drama

The film tells the story of Professor William Moulton Marston (Evans), an American psychologist, inventor and writer, who is best known for inventing an early version of the lie detector and creating the comic book character Wonder Woman.
The story begins in 1928 where Martson and his wife, Elizabeth (Hall), teach and research together at Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges.  The two fall in love with their teaching assistant, Olive Byrne (Heathcote), one of William Marston's students.  Olive reciprocates their feelings, and the three enter into a polyamorous relationship.  Their unconventional relationship leads to severe problems for their personal and professional lives.  Meanwhile William Marston continues his work on his DISC (Dominance, Inducement, Submission, Compliance) theory of human interaction and becomes increasingly interested in  fetish art and bondage, which he channels, along with his belief in the inherent superiority of women over men, into the comic book Wonder Woman.

This is a biographical drama, it's not really a film about Wonder Woman.  The main story of the film is told in flashbacks as Marston gives evidence in 1945 to a committee who are seeking to ban Wonder Woman over it's sexual, sadomasochistic and queer imagery and subtext.  It's very well made, beautifully filmed, very well cast, with an intelligent, witty script that shines a light on a fairly obscure but fascinating piece of pop-culture history.  Personally I would have liked to have seen more about the comic book industry of the time, but that is not the story that they are telling.  In fact, Wonder Woman itself is more of a subtext in the film, the framing device notwithstanding, it's not until pretty late in the film that comics come into it in a big way.  The focus is mostly on the relationship between the central trio:  Luke Evans certainly looks the part of the 1920s academic, and plays Marston as an earnest idealist; Bella Heathcote is radiant as Olive Byrne who captivates both Marstons, and she is very good, particularly in the early part of the film where she has the greatest emotional heft playing a naive young woman whose entire world is capsized as she explores her new feelings, although she has less to do later in the film, but Rebecca Hall takes the acting honours as the fierce, funny and caustic Elizabeth, the realist of the three.  She is brilliant.
It may not have enough about Wonder Woman to appeal to some of the fans, and the comic book element may put off some viewers, but it is definitely worth giving it a go.

Rebecca Hall, Luke Evans and Bella Heathcote in Professor Marston and the Wonder Women



     

Nowhere Boy

Year of Release:  2009
Director:  Sam Taylor-Wood
Screenplay:  Matt Greenhalgh, based on the book Imagine This:  Growing Up with My Brother John Lennon by Julia Baird
Starring:  Aaron Johnson, Anne-Marie Duff, Kristen Scott Thomas, David Threlfall, Thomas Sangster, David Morrissey
Running Time:  97 minutes
Genre:  Biography, drama 

Liverpool, the late 1950s:  Rebellious, charismatic teenager John Lennon (Johnson) lives with his strict aunt Mimi (Thomas), who has raised him since the age of five.  At the funeral of his beloved Uncle George (Threlfall), John gets back in contact with his mother, Julia (Duff).  Around the same time, John becomes obsessed with rock 'n' roll music, and decides to start a band with some of his friends from school, including Paul McCartney (Sangster) and George Harrison (Sam Bell).  As John becomes increasingly preoccupied with music, his behaviour worsens and a bitter conflict brews between himself, Julia and Mimi.

This isn't a film about the Beatles, although Paul McCartney and George Harrison do feature, the focus is entirely on Lennon and it ends just as the newly formed Beatles are about to set off for Hamburg.  Also, although Lennon's love of music plays a huge part in the film, it's not really about the music or about Lennon as a musician.  It's an entertaining and  intriguing 1950s family drama, anchored by some great performances from Aaron Johnson, Anne-Marie Duff and Kristen Scott Thomas.  This was the feature debut from fine art photographer Sam Taylor-Wood and she does a good job.  If you are expecting a comprehensive biopic of John Lennon or a film about the Beatles and their music, than you might be disappointed, but if you are looking for an affecting drama, then this is well worth checking out.

Aaron Johnson as John Lennon in Nowhere Boy     

Goodbye Christopher Robin

Year of Release:  2017
Director:  Simon Curtis
Screenplay:  Frank Cottrell-Boyce and Simon Vaughan
Starring:  Domhnall Gleeson, Margot Robbie, Kelly Macdonald, Will Tilston, Alex Lawther, Phoebe Waller-Bridge
Running Time:  107 minutes
Genre:  Period drama, biopic

Playwright AA Milne (Gleeson), traumatised by his experiences in the First World War, has difficulty relating to his socialite wife Daphne (Robbie) and his young son Christopher Robin (Tilston as a child, Lawther as an adult).  He also has trouble restarting his writing career.  Moving to a rural area in southern England with his family and Christopher Robin's nanny (Macdonald).  Milne becomes inspired by his son playing with his stuffed toys and starts writing the "Winnie-the Pooh" stories.  However the success of the books comes at terrible personal costs for Milne and Christopher Robin.

This film about the creation of the beloved "Winnie-the-Pooh" stories is not such a sickly-sweet confection as it might have been, and as it might look from some of the advertising.  This is actually quite dark, AA Milne suffers from severe post traumatic stress disorder, he and his wife cannot really relate to Christopher Robin (it's hinted that Daphne didn't really want a child, but thought that a baby might cheer up her husband) and it is really his nanny that raises the child (although I think, at the time, that was fairly standard for families of the Milne's wealth and social status).  Most of all, Christopher Robin really suffers from the immense fame that the huge success of the "Winnie-the Pooh" stories conferred upon him.  However, this is a very beautiful film, full of summer meadows and dappled sunlight shining through trees, and does manage to capture some of the magic of Milne's work.  The performances are good from all concerned, with Will Tilston in particular affecting as the young Christopher Robin.  In the end, the film becomes incredibly moving.

Domhnall Gleeson and Will Tilston in Goodbye Christopher Robin