MIKE NICHOLS

Mike Nichols left us in 2015. His is a storied career. Mike was one of the founders of the famous Second City comedy company, perhaps the origin of improv. Then he and his wife went out on their own as the memorable Nichols & May comedy team. His acting career isn’t much to talk about. But, oh boy, what a director he was! Many of his movies are certifiable classics.

One of those is his very first, Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? (1966). He was nominated for the Best Director Oscar but lost out to Fred Zinnemann for A Man For All Seasons. Adapting Edward Albee’s hit play for the screen entailed corralling some of the greatest talents of the age: Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Sandy Dennis and George Segal. Nichols was up to the job. This film was nominated in every possible category (13), including all four actors. It is by turns funny and heartbreaking as we helplessly watch a marriage break into little pieces. 

As good as Who’s Afraid is, Mike Nichols won his directorial Oscar in 1967 for another classic: The Graduate (1967). An impossibly young Dustin Hoffman is the sort-of willing prey for the seductive Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft). He then finds he has fallen love with her lovely daughter Elaine (Katherine Ross). The mother is outraged (and so is about everyone else) but the young couple will not be denied. This over 50-year-old film holds up really well. 

Bringing Joseph Heller’s immortal Catch-22 (1970) to the screen seems an almost impossible task, but Mike Nichols nearly pulled it off. A huge cast of characters interlock in an hilarious spoof of World War II shenanigans. Martin Balsam (Major Major), Alan Arkin (the “hero” Yossarian), Bob Balaban, Richard Benjamin, Bob Newhart and Anthony Perkins are just a few of the A-list actors. There are just too many stories to make a great movie, but he certainly made a darn good one!

Silkwood (1983) is based on the true story of whistle-blower Karen Silkwood who was exposed to contaminants and probably murdered to shut her up. She decided to go public about the radioactivity at a metallurgy plant where she worked. She did not live to tell about it. Meryl Streep (yep,  40 years ago!) is, of course, superb in the lead. Kurt Russell and Cher are quite good as sympathetic friends.  

Charlie Wilson’s War (2007) is the incredible story of how a lone US Congressman, played by Tom Hanks, almost single-handedly managed a war. Julia Roberts, Amy Adams, Emily Blunt and Ned Beatty are along for the fun. But Phillip Seymour Hoffman nearly steals the movie as a world-weary CIA agent. 

All of the movies in this column are available on DVD. All are for adults.

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                                                    Eddie Redmayne, Brilliant Chameleon

I recently saw The Good Nurse (2022) with Jessica Chastain as the good guy, Amy Loughren,  and Eddie Redmayne as the bad guy, Charile Cullen. And I realized,   “Darn, this guy can play anything!” In this film he portrays a mass murderer who kills patients in a sly, diabolical manner. No, he doesn’t know them. Yes, this is based on a true story. And yes, Redmayne is sensational as the killer and good friend to Amy, a single mom struggling with her obligations. 

Redmayne quite deservedly won the Oscar for his performance as British physicist Stephen Hawking. Hawking was a brilliant scientist who suffered from motor neuron disease, which gradually sapped his physical ability until he could communicate only by twitching a cheek muscle. Nonetheless, he made several startling discoveries, and his book, A Brief History of Time, was a great success. The Theory of Everything (2014) tells his story from the onset of his disease onward. Eddie Redmayne is simply astonishing in this role. 

Another tough role to get right: In The Danish Girl (2015) Redmayne plays a married man (Einar)  who transgenders as a woman. His heroic wife Gerda (Alicia Vikander) supports his decision to undergo surgery converting him to female. This is based on a true story, but strays somewhat from the truth. So what? Redmayne’s performance is amazing. Oh, and Vikander won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Redmayne was nominated but lost to Leonardo De Caprio for The Revenant. 

In The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020) Redmayne joins a distinguished cast as lead defendant Tom Hayden. Other cast members include Frank Langella (Judge Julius Hoffman), Sacha Baron Cohen (Abbe Hoffman), Mark Rylance (William Kunstler),  Joseph Gordon-Levitt (prosecutor Richard Schulz) and Michael Keaton (Ramsey Clark). From this star-studded list Cohen emerged as the only Oscar winner. The spectacle of a prejudiced judge having his way with a trial is worth watching. 

In the 2012 version of Les Miserables Redmayne shines as the heroic rebel Marius, doomed sweetheart of the beautiful Fantine (Anne Hathaway). This musical is a little short of the stage version, but the legendary story is great and the music is quite wonderful. Hugh Jackman is good as the unjustly imprisoned Jean Valjean and Russell Crow is fine as the hateful go-by-the-book Inspector Javier. As a singer, Redmayn is a good actor. 

Eddie Redmayne can also be seen to good advantage in The Aeronauts (2019) and My Week With Marilyn (2011).

All of these films are available on DVD. All are for grown-ups. 

                                                              Paul Dooley, Movie Dad

    There are lots of great movie Dads. Maybe you’d go for Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch in To Kill A Mockingbird. Good choice. Or perhaps you’d prefer Ralph Waite as John Walton, Sr. in The Waltons on TV and in the movies. But my vote goes for Paul Dooley, who is still performing in his 90's. 

He was born in 1928 and is going strong at 94.. By no means a handsome Hollywood type, his face is instantly recognizable. It’s not really that he played Dads so often. It’s just that he did it so well!

In the wonderful Breaking Away (1979) Dooley plays Ray Stohler, is the father of teen-age bicycle racer Dave (Dennis Christopher). Dave is so enamored of the Italian racing team that he goes around speaking in Italian phrases. When that team comes to his town, a lot of the shine wears off quickly. Ray and Dave have a walk through the campus of the University of Indiana, with Ray describing the work he did on the various buildings. It is a justifiably famous scene. Barbara Barrie is also quite good as Dave’s bemused mother. This movie garnered one of Mr. Movie’s rare 10 rankings. If you haven’t seen it, do. If you have, watch it again!

Sixteen Candles (1984) stars Molly Ringwald as angst-ridden Samantha Baker, typically dreading but also looking forward to her sixteenth birthday. Paul Dooley is just letter perfect as her Dad, Jim. Samantha’s older sister is getting married soon and that seems to completely overshadow Samantha’s milestone event. Where can she turn for guidance and comfort? To her Dad, of course, and Paul Dooley is there for her. Paul was so good in this role that for years teen-age girls would stop him in  the street and tell him they loved him and wish that he was their Dad! 

The HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm starred and was largely written by Larry David. Paul Dooley portrayed the father of his Larry’s wife, Cheryl. And of course did so quite well.

So how can you top these movie Dad performances? How about doing a one-man show entitled Movie Dad? Paul Dooley started doing this around California settings in 2017. It has been a hugely popular show. I cannot find any streaming possibilities for us.  Then last year he came out with his autobiography, which is now available. You’ll never guess the title- how about Movie Dad? He talks about his movie roles and his real life family in his quietly unassuming way. 

Oh, by the way, he does have three children of his own. 

                                                                     Mark Rylance

This column is about the meteoric rise of a middle-aged actor. Mark Rylance was born in the UK in 1960. His parents moved to the US when he was two years old, and he has worked between the two countries his whole adult life.  He was already regarded as the best stage actor of his generation when still in his 30's. He has won three tonys, a bunch of other stage awards, and has been knighted. 

His movie career was fine but not outstanding until 2015 when he portrayed convicted Russian spy Rudolf Abel in Bridge of Spies. Abel was exchanged for American pilot Francis Gary Powers.  Rylance was just spectacularly good in this role, underplaying the part with a hint of world-weary sarcasm. He won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for this part, besting heavyweights Christian Bale, Sylvester Stallone, Mark Ruffalo and Tom Hardy. 

Sir Mark’s versatlity is legendary. The next year he portrayed the title character in Steven Spielberg’s BFG (Big Friendly Giant). Based on Roald Dahl’s fairy tale novel, the BFG takes Sophie (unknown Ruby Barnhill) to the land of giants to help him defeat the bad guys (yep, other, bigger giants). The whimsical BFG captures Sophie’s, and our, hearts. 

Dunkirk (2017) is about the frantic, but successful, rescuing of Allied troops from the French coast at the beginning of World War II.  There’s lot of shouting, and emotion, about. But Mark Rylance is a simple fishing boat owner who quietly does his part in this historic operation.

There’s also plenty of shouting and emotion in The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020). Mark Rylance portrays attorney William Kunstler, a kind of port in the storm where one is needed. Judge Julius Hoffman’s outrageous conducting of this trial is aptly shown. Frank Langella is effective as the judge, a most unsavory part. 

The British Open is sacrosanct to golfers world wide. How can a British novice who has actually never played a round make his way into this prestigious event? Mark Rylance plays Maurice Flitcroft, an impossibly sunny dreamer who manages this heroic feat. He is arguably the worst golfer on the planet. His first round is a resounding 120 among all the pros who are in the 70's. Sir Mark plays Maurice straight up and is so charming he becomes The Phantom of the Open (2021), beloved by the press and the public. And this is, as they say, based on a true story.

Mark Rylance carries the complicated The Outfit (2020) as Leonard Burling, an unassuming British tailor in Chicago who gets mixed up with the criminal mob. All of the many heavies treat Leonard as a timid servant, only to get their comeuppance in a surprising way. I’m giving nothing away; you’ll have to watch it to find out.

Sir Mark Rylance can also be seen to good effect in Don’t Look Up (2021). All of the movies in this article are available on DVD. BFG and Phantom are fine for all ages. The rest are for adults.