Directed by Clint Eastwood, Sully is a well-crafted movie that tells the amazing true story of the Miracle on the Hudson when Captain Chesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberger safely landed US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River in New York City on January 15, 2009. With its relatively short runtime and attention to detail on what happened during and after the flight, the film feels more like a documentary. Much of the story takes place after the incident during the investigation when Captain Sullenberger, played by the always terrific Tom Hanks, is being questioned by the National Transportation Safety Board. The movie is particularly fascinating because it delves into largely unreported details of the bureaucratic aftermath of the miraculous water landing. It shows the various attempts of trying to recreate his actions on a flight simulator and the criticisms of what he did as a pilot despite the survival of all 155 passengers and crew members. The overly officious aviation officials take up the role of the archetypal bad guys while the audience cheers for Sully to be rightly recognized for his heroism. The film is particularly effective in dramatizing the actual incident and the realtime reactions of Sully and First Officer Jeffrey Skiles portrayed by Aaron Eckhart. Interspersed with the technical aspects of what happened, there are personal scenes of Sully having flashbacks and nightmares and emotional encounters with his family and total strangers praising him as a hero. The audience comes away with the feeling that Captain Sullenberger is a very humble man who feels the attention is not merited because he was simply doing his job. Overall, I found the film to be a particularly powerful case study of heroism and that the world, despite all of its problems, is full of amazing people and inspirational stories. It reminded me of the 2012 movie Flight because it also focused on the actions of a pilot saving many lives but also under the microscope of an investigation. However, in this case, Sully is unquestionably a moral man while Denzel Washington’s character is deeply flawed with substance abuse issues.

Based on a true story, Genius follows the complicated relationship between the famed literary editor Maxwell Perkins played by Colin Firth and acclaimed novelist Thomas Wolfe played by Jude Law. Already a well-regarded editor at Scribner’s of such authors as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, Perkins faces his biggest challenge of working with the often irksome Wolfe. First meeting in 1929, he agrees to edit Wolfe’s extremely long first manuscript of the novel Look Homeward, Angel, which had been rejected by all other publishing houses. The film provides a unique glimpse into the often unseen process of book editing and how it can be painstakingly difficult for both editor and author. Workaholics by nature, both men’s personal lives are adversely affected by their work. Perkins struggles to juggle his career with his family life, especially his wife played by Laura Linney, an aspiring playwright who feels underappreciated. Wolfe’s prodigious writing habits also alienates his love life with a married costume designer played by Nicole Kidman: his wild temperament provokes jealousy and neglect. After the first novel is published, Perkins faces an even greater challenge when Wolfe, who has become his friend in a albeit tumultuous relationship, presents him with literally crates full of his latest manuscript. Numbering about 6,000 pages and constantly added to by Wolfe, it takes more than two years to publish what would become the 1935 novel Of Time and the River. Filmed in grayer tones and with outbursts of ragtime-sounding jazz, the film accentuates the early 20th century setting and the characters’ emotional rollercoaster rides. Colin Firth’s performance evokes a rather straitlaced yet very talented office dweller who only takes off his bowler-style hat during particularly intense scenes. Jude Law is the polar opposite: he gives a manic performance of a uncouth, often drunk writer who happens to be one of the greatest novelists. Overall, the movie is fairly well done and tells a quite interesting story of the inner workings of the literary world and how genius often comes at a price. Complete with actual readings from Thomas Wolfe’s writings and cameos of Fitzgerald and Hemingway as characters in the storyline, the film should surely delight fans of great American literature.

Following the conventions of a more traditional biopic film, The Man Who Knew Infinity is based on the true story of the brilliant mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan, played by Dev Patel famous for his breakout role in Slumdog Millionaire, who travels from his native India to study with a famous British mathematician, played by the always terrific Jeremy Irons, at Trinity College within Cambridge University. Completely self-taught with neither formal education or financial means from a foreign culture and religion, Patel’s character must confront the prejudices of the British academic elite, including Irons’ character who acts as his eventual mentor. The film is very much a fish out of water story, a tale in which the main character overcomes adversity to be accepted by others. Patel’s character must leave the only world that he has known, including his new bride and very resistant mother, in order to fulfill his dream of revealing his mathematical formulas to the world. The movie effectively discusses the ideas of conflict, including conflict between belief in God and nature, between colonialism and culture, and between academic elitism and natural genius, all while in the face of military conflict with the events occurring at the onset of World War I. I found the film to be a deeply fascinating look at a man that many have never heard of in a field that many would find difficult to understand. The fairly standard structure of the film as a biopic is overcome by the strength of the performances by Dev Patel and Jeremy Irons.