Established 1961 29 Wednesday, November 15, 2017 Lifestyle Music & Movies Film Review Increasingly predictable ‘Roman’ wastes Washington t’s getting close to Oscar season and that criminal defense firm until he’s called upon to means it’s time for an early prediction. Ready? step forward. He’s somewhat ill-equipped to do IHere goes: The Academy Award for Worst so - his ratty suits are ill-fitting, his glasses are Title of a Motion Picture will surely go to “Roman unfashionable and he listens to an iPod with J. Israel, Esq.” This complex, untidy but ambitious those old orange-foam headphones. film starring a brilliant Denzel Washington Yet Israel is an old-school civil rights warrior deserves better. At one point it was called “Inner who is a lonely genius - someone calls him a City,” which might actually be worse. But just “savant” and another says he’s a “freak” (both labeling it after its quirky and fictional lead char- sound about right.) He prefers to pore over legal acter is a cop out, like calling a film “Andy briefs in his humble apartment while eating peanut Kaufman” instead of “Man on the Moon” or butter sandwiches than drive around in a flashy car. “Vincent Van Gogh” instead of “Lust For Life.” (He walks everywhere, which in Los Angeles signi- The difficulty may be because this is an fies borderline insanity). Thrust into the real world, unusual character Israel struggles. journey that He may have chews on huge the entire issues not fre- How a broken California legal quently tackled code memo- on film. Directed person rises rized, but he’s and written by blunt and unso- Dan Gilroy, in wealth cial and doesn’t “Roman J. Israel, know how to Esq. “ traces the and esteem find his email. fall from grace of “Public speak- a man not in the ing is usually predictable way something I’m when he hits rock bottom but how a broken encouraged to avoid,” he confesses. When his person actually rises in wealth and esteem. But cocoon is finally broken, Israel must fend for him- Gilroy, who has written dark indies like self and try to keep his principles, which becomes changes, Washington does, too - flashing a are frustrations, too. Israel is stubbornly lost in the film around him often isn’t as skillful, meandering “Nightcrawler” and big budgets like “Kong: harder when he falls into the orbit of a slick forced smile, losing his tics. Set against a Los ‘70s, but has an iPod and a flip phone, a transpar- in places and gradually becoming more like a lot Skull Island,” seems to struggle with what film defense attorney (Colin Farrell, wonderfully Angeles that seems in constant flux thanks to ent attempt by the filmmakers to have their cake of other films. Soon, an unconventional character to make. It often feels like a small, intellectual understated), who offers a new, snazzy lifestyle. never-ending construction, the film mirrors the and eat it, too. And if he’s such a savant, why can’t is starring in a conventional film. And then there’s film is rattling around inside the bones of a more Carmen Ejogo plays a community organizer - the remaking of its lead character. he figure out better choices? (You’ll be able to that title. Don’t get us started. predictable Hollywood legal thriller, mirroring angel to Farrell’s devil. Which will Israel choose? Gilroy has peppered the script with some see how this film ends 10 minutes before it hap- “Roman J. Israel, Esq,” a Sony Pictures the film’s conflicted lead. He admits he’s “tired of doing the impossible for great lines - “Purity can’t survive in this world” pens.) His love interest seems tacked on and the release, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture the ungrateful.” Can idealism be bought? and “My lack of success is self-imposed” - that film also raises questions it never really answers - Association of America for “language and some Can idealism be bought? Washington has done everything he can to Washington almost whispers. The film is also like, can the old civil rights strategies really work violence.” Running time: 122 minutes. Two and a Washington plays Israel, an attorney in mod- inhabit this odd man. He shambles along with a wonderfully scored, with 1960s and ‘70s soul in today’s fragmented identity politics? half stars out of four. MPAA definition of PG-13: ern-day Los Angeles who for decades has been heavy gait, lugging a heavy case and constantly songs as rich as the dialogue - Al Green, Marvin Washington gives us another astounding per- Parents strongly cautioned. Some material may the quiet, backroom brains of a two-person pushes his glasses up with a finger. As he Gaye, The Spinners and George Clinton. But there formance of a deeply idiosyncratic man, but the be inappropriate for children under 13. — AP Former Louis CK manager apologizes for ‘not listening’ ouis CK ‘s longtime manager is apolo- “If I had, I would have taken this event as such news did not reach me, or worse yet, gizing for not taking complaints of his seriously as it deserved to be, and I would that it seemed such news did not matter to Lclient’s sexual misconduct more seri- have confronted Louis, which would have me,” Becky wrote. “It does. It matters In this June 25, ously. Dave Becky says in a lengthy state- been the right thing to do,” Becky said in his tremendously.” Becky also represents such 2016 file photo, ment Monday that he misunderstood the statement. “I now comprehend that my entertainers as Amy Poehler, Kevin Hart, Issa Louis CK attends nature of the allegations brought forth by a response was perceived as a threat to cov- Rae, Maya Rudolph and Aziz Ansari. the premiere of female comedy duo in 2002 who claimed er-up sexual misconduct. This is not an Becky’s apology comes as fallout from “The Secret Life CK masturbated in front of them without excuse. What I did was wrong, and again, I the Hollywood sexual harassment scandal of Pets” in their consent. The allegations by Dana Min am extremely sorry.” Becky and 3Arts continues to spread through the entertain- New York. — AP Goodman and Julia Wolov were among sev- Entertainment dropped CK as a client after ment and media industries. A flood of allega- eral included in a New York Times report the New York Times detailed allegations of tions against various powerful men have sur- Warner Bros and DC Entertainment said last week about CK’s history of misconduct. sexual misconduct from five women against faced since the New York Times published editor Eddie Berganza was fired and that the Becky said he misinterpreted the women’s the comedian. CK has since said the allega- its expose last month about decades of organizations are “committed to eradicating complaint and sought discretion for what he tions are true. harassment and cover-ups by movie mogul harassment.” BuzzFeed reported last week considered an issue of infidelity for his then- Becky maintains in his statement that he Harvey Weinstein. that included on-the-record accounts of married client. At the time, he said, he did was unaware of his client’s behavior beyond The group editor of DC Comics was fired Berganza sticking his tongue in the mouth of not consider the women’s interaction with the 2002 incident. “I have come to realize Monday amid allegations of sexual harass- one female employee and repeatedly trying Actor Annette Bening (L) and honoree Jamie Bell, recipi- CK as “threatening or non-consensual.” my status wielded an atmosphere where ment reported last week by BuzzFeed. to kiss another female employee. — AP ent of the New Hollywood Actor Award for ‘Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool,’ pose in the press room during the 21st Annual Hollywood Film Awards. — AFP he was an Oscar-winning femme fatale and co- star of James Stewart, Robert Mitchum and Frank SSinatra. He was a stage actor 29 years her junior from a British housing project. Four-times married Gloria Grahame’s unlikely love affair with Peter Turner ought to have been the stuff of Hollywood legend and yet it is a story that has largely been ignored-until now. “Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool,” a major new hen James Franco set out to direct Franco’s film is based on. “We never wanted movie starring Annette Bening and Jamie Bell, chroni- “The Disaster Artist,” a faux to make fun of ‘The Room’ or Tommy cles their profound but heartbreaking relationship in Wbehind-the-scenes look at the Wiseau,” said Dave Franco. the years before Grahame’s death at the age of just 57. making of 2003’s “The Room,” often called “On the contrary, we wanted to celebrate Reversing the trend for graying Lotharios playing one of the worst films ever made, he said it Tommy and we wanted to celebrate this opposite actresses decades younger, 59-year-old was not to poke fun at the “Room” creator movie and celebrate people who have Bening and former child star Bell, 31, share passionate Tommy Wiseau. Franco, who also stars as the dreams and don’t take no for an answer,” he love scenes in the biopic, which has earned both actors eccentric, strangely accented Wiseau in “The added. In “The Disaster Artist,” rolling out in widespread acclaim. Disaster Artist,” said he believed the film con- US theaters from Dec. 1, Wiseau and Sestero Bening told AFP she hadn’t worried about the age veyed Wiseau’s passion for the medium, become disillusioned with Hollywood and difference between her and her young co-star, who despite “The Room” being critically panned.