44 - Elysium (2013)

In the first few minutes of Director Neill Blomkamp’s Elysium, we are introduced to the earth of 2154. The wealthy have moved off planet to a space station where all sickness is cured and life is idyllic--Elysium. On earth, the poor and lower class live in a world which Dante would recognize as one of the rings of the Inferno. Crime, overpopulation, poverty, depleted resources are all that earth’s inhabitants can expect. 

Max (played by Matt Damon in a heart-pumping action hero role) dreams of escaping from the earth and going to Elysium. An ex-con with little hope for the future, he is injured in a job related accident and exposed to a lethal dose of radiation. His only hope of surviving is getting to Elysium. Max’s love from his childhood, Frey (Alice Braga) has a child dying also. I won’t spoil how they end up at Elysium, but the journey is action packed. We learn early on what Homeland Security Head Delacourt (played with venom by Jody Foster) does to protect those on Elysium, so we know the stakes are high and lethal.

The effects are impressive and the character of Max, who only wants to survive, is Damon at the top of his form.

I had to laugh that one person criticized that there were several dialects using a combination language. He was particularly upset with Jodie Foster’s dialect. They obviously missed one of Blomkamp’s points—that in our future our words and languages will meld into class languages, so the upper classes may use French words while the lower classes will use German or Spanish.

I found the film quite rewarding and satisfying and felt it gave me a lot to think about in terms of what price we would pay for Elysium.

Elysium (2013) ****

28 - Behind the Candelabra (HBO)

Based on Scott Thorson's "autobiographical novel," the film details the six-year relationship between Liberace and his much younger lover. Direct Steven Soderbergh relishes in the lavish lifestyle we expect to see and is not reluctant to throw in nudity--Michael Douglas and Matt Damon in bed and bath.

Debbie Reynolds appears in a fun cameo as Frances, Liberace's mother.

The Soderbergh/Douglas' version offers an interesting contrast to the more traditional approach of the Victor Garber Liberace - Behind The Music (1988), with Maureen Stapleton as his mother. Unfortunately both Douglas and Garber border on the "wax museum approach--almost there but not quite."

While the film doesn't reach the depth it tries to, it becomes an interesting couple of hours and proves the versatility once again of Matt Damon who is the real reason to watch the film.

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Behind the Candelabra (HBO) ***