The Boston Globe - 02.08.2019

G6 The Boston Globe FRIDAY, AUGUST 2, 2019

ByMark Feeney

GLOBE STAFF

F

or somefour decadesMike
Wallace was as famousas a
television journalist could
get without being a net-
workanchorman. Contro-
versy and longevity are a potent com-
bination. Onlytwo yearsyounger than
Walter Cronkite,Wallacedid his last
CBS interview in 2008 — withRoger
Clemens, of all people. That was al-
most 27 years after Cronkite retired.
How the mediamighty have fallen:
Today Wallace (1918-2012) is probably
best knownas Chris Wallace’s dad.
Well, maybe not best known around
here.He was Brookline High, classof
’35, and famously summered on Mar-
tha’s Vineyard.
Much of Wallace’s fame derived
fromhis 40 yearsas a “60 Minutes”
correspondent. The classic network-
correspondent tonehas always been
from on high.Wallace’s was from on
stage. That slightly theatrical clipped
diction perfectly complementedthe
narrow, disbelieving eyes and that
matinee-idol mane.Wallace was brash
and abrasive,but with a bespoke style.
“They sayI’mdifficult!” we hearBar-

bra Streisand say to him in Avi Belkin’s

documentary “Mike Wallace Is Here.”

Wallace derived even morefame

fromhis slam-bang, gotchastyle.

There’s an amazing, yet representative

momentin the film froma 1973inter-

view withNixon WhiteHouse aide

John Ehrlichman. A visiblysweating

Ehrlichmanlistens as Wallace pours it

on. It’s interrogation as peroration. Fi-

nally, Ehrlichman manages to re-

spond.“Is there a question in there

somewhere?” It’s two parts capitula-

tion to one part protest.

The heavyweight championJoe

Louis famously said of an opponent,

“He can run,but he can’t hide.” It

could have beenWallace’s motto. The

lamest visual clichein TV news is the

correspondent reaction shot. Wallace

singlehandedly justified its existence.

Oh, that look of withering disdain,

thosenarroweyes narrowedthat

muchmore, as somemalefactor of-

fered some halting answerto one of

Wallace’s handing-up-an-indictment

questions.

Belkin’s smart, dynamic documen-

tary sharesits subject’s slam-bang

style. That’s good. Watchingit is exhil-

arating. It also shares Wallace’s aver-

sion to nuance. That’s less good. Belkin

has a weaknessfor splitscreensand

rapid-fire editing. In fairness,that’s

one way to cram in more material, and

Belkin has lots (and lots) of material to

cram in.

Among thosewe see Wallaceinter-

viewingare, in no particular order, El-

eanor Roosevelt, VladmirPutin, Mar-

tin LutherKingJr., RichardNixon,

Malcolm X, Oprah Winfrey, Donald

Trump, Anwar Sadat, Bette Davis,

Johnny Carson, ArthurMiller — you

get the idea. The most memorable in-

terview may be the one in 1979 with

Ayatollah Khomeini, at the beginning

of the Iranian hostage crisis. It was by

no meansinconceivable that Wallace

wouldn’t be let out of Iran. Yet sitting

cross-legged on the floor, he goes after

Khomeini with a tenacity, veiled in def-

erence(“Forgive me, imam”), that’s a

thing of journalistic beauty.

Belkin doessomething very

shrewd, which he can do only because

Wallace conducted so many interviews

over so many years. He uses the inter-

view subjects’ responses — on fame,

work, ambition — as an implicit, run-

ning commentary on Wallace. The re-

searchers,who’ve done an excellent

job, definitely had their workcut out

for them.At least they didn’t have to

worry aboutbeing bored. One specific

complaintaboutthe use of the inter-

views: Belkindoesn’t ID most of the

subjects until the end of the film. This

is annoying, when not outright confus-

ing. “Death of a Salesman” may or may

not be the great American play of the

20th century, but few filmgoers are

likely to recognize Miller.

Wallacewas phenomenallydriven.

He started out as an actor, game-show

host, and pitchman.It’s fitting to see

him hawkingcigarettes, sincethe

amount of smoking onscreen is a real

time-machineexperience.He got his

own late-night interview show in New

York in the late ’50s and eventually

made the shift to CBS.

That drivecameat a considerable

cost. Wallace was married four times.

Late in life, he suffered from clinical

depressionand attemptedsuicide.In

various clips,we see him denying any

such attempt, until finally he admits it.

Most shockingof all, he was the one

who discoveredthe bodywhenhis old-

er son died in a hiking accident. Trying

to forget that scenemadeit that much

easier to focus on professional success

at the expenseof his emotional life.

The documentary begins with Wal-

laceinterviewingFox News’s Bill

O’Reilly (speakingof how the media

mighty have fallen). “You werethe

drivingforce behind my career,”

O’Reilly tells him,knowing that’s the

last thing Wallace would want to hear.

Belkin’s giving the interview such

prominence sets up the documentary.

A man who started out in showbiz and

becamea seriousjournalist survived

into an age whereseriousjournalism

has so thoroughly embraced show biz.

DoesWallace sharein the responsi-

bility? The documentary’s title would

indicate he does. Yet Wallacewas too

singular to be an influence: more one-

off than model. Relentlessness of such

magnitudedefies imitation.Christo-

pher Plummer played him in a 1999

film, “The Insider.” Watching Belkin’s

documentary, one realizeshow much

better Wallacewas at playingMike

Wallace than any actor could be.

Mark Feeneycanbe reachedat

[email protected].

ard Shaw (JasonStatham) was intro-
ducedin “Furious7” (2015)as an
uber-villain,only to undergo a whole-
sale personality transplant and be-
comepart of the teamin “Fate of the
Furious” (2017).
Similarly, government agent Lucas
Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) arrived in
“Fast 5” (2011) as a law-and-order
nemesis and quickly got absorbed as a
good guy. Now the two bickeringma-
cho menare featured in theirown
spinoff — which gets stolen out from
under themby Vanessa Kirby as a bad-
ass British agent who happensto be
Shaw’s sister.
You might have seenKirbypocket
the last “Mission: Impossible”movie,
or her hotsy-totsyPrincessMargaret,
in Netflix’s “The Crown.” Here her
character, Hattie Shaw, an MI6 opera-
tive gone rogue, allows herself to be in-
jected with a bio-engineered virusin
order to keep the villains from getting
at it. Basicallyjust anotherday at the
office,and Kirby’s mussy, sardonic
glamouris an effective antidote to all
the manly preening around her.
“Hobbs & Shaw” assembles its plot
off the shelffrom decadesof post-
James Bondaction extravaganzas. The
arch-villain is Brixton (Idris Elba, radi-
ating menaceand charisma),a former
colleague of Shaw’s who has beenaug-
mentedwithcyber-technology that
renders him a modern-day Termina-
tor. He wantsthe virus to weed out the
weakso humanity can evolve to the
next level of supermenyada-yada-ya-
da. The movie mostly exists to let its ti-
tle characters throwinsults, punches,
and heavy masonry at each other while

u‘‘FAST & FURIOUS’’
ContinuedfromPageG1

Kirby stands aroundas if she’s seen it

done better.

Johnsonis absurdly broad in the

chest and Statham is a lanky stick —

they’re a Mutt and Jeff act, but side-

ways. The script (by series regular

Chris Morgan withDrew Pearce)lets

the duo’s loathing play out throughin-

vective that popslike stringsof fire-

crackers. Shaw callsHobbs a “giant

tattooed baby.” Hobbs can’t stand

Shaw’s “nasally, prepubescentHarry

Potter voice.” In a movielike this, it

must be love. (That’s partly why Hat-

tie’s there, to strike sparkswith Hobbs

and keep everythingnice and hetero-

sexual.)

The director is David Leitch, who

proved his genre mettle withthe first

“John Wick” (2014), the second “Dead-

pool” (2018), and “Atomic Blonde”

(2017), whichcouldn’t stop moving

long enough to make sense. Here he

keeps the tone light and the action re-

lentless — the movie’s fast but, surpris-

ingly, not furious. Given two main

characters to work with, Leitch uses

foregroundand background to often

funny ends,and there’s a multi-tiered

chase through central London that’s

an effective summer-moviedefibrilla-

tor.

Against that, “Hobbsand Shaw”

makes room for a few Special Guest

Appearances by well-known comic

stars; they get a rise fromthe audience

but quicklywearout theirwelcome

and slowthe moviedown.A side-trip

to Moscowfeatures a genuinely terri-

ble performance by Eiza Gonzalez

(“BabyDriver”) as the lingerie-clad

leaderof an all-femaleheist team. “Do

you thinkI’m stupid?” an exasperat-

ed Shaw asks in one scene.“Of course

I think you’re stupid,” says Hobbs.

So’s the movie,and never moreso

thanwhen it wears that stupidity

proudly.

But it’s also smart enough to bring

back Helen Mirren as Shaw’s right spiv

of a muvver, to give the requisite ec-

centric-professor role overto the in-

valuable EddieMarsan (“Ray Dono-

van”), and to sendeveryoneoff to Sa-

moafor a Hobbs clan reunion and a

climactic donnybrook withBrixton’s

army that manages to take gunsout of

the equation and lets all the characters

hug it out with fists, farmingimple-

ments, and a few incendiary devices.

By then, the movie has throwncon-

tinuity and plot logicto the wind,but

the stars make it click, by whichI

meanall fourof them:Johnson,

Statham,Kirby,and Elba. Mostly

Johnson and Kirby. The “Fast and Furi-

ous”movies tend to take theirtonal

cue fromthe glum-facedVin Diesel

and Michelle Rodriguez,whereasthis

side trip is perked up by the chemistry

between the most likable action behe-

mothin the business and a spry, play-

ful actress. All the filmsin this fran-

chise are familyaffairs, but you may

find yourselfwantingto spend more

time on this branch of the tree.

Ty Burr canbe reachedat

[email protected]. Followhim

on Twitter @tyburr.

‘Is there a question in

there somewhere?’

MOVIEREVIEW

YYY

MIKEWALLACEIS HERE

Directedby Avi Belkin.At Kendall

Square, CoolidgeCorner. 91

minutes.PG-13(thematicmaterial,

someviolentimages,language,and

so muchsmokingeachticket should

comewitha nicotinepatch).

Johnson, Statham

— and Kirby —

extend a franchise

VanessaKirbyin “Fast & Furious

Presents:Hobbs& Shaw.”

MOVIEREVIEW

YYY

FAST& FURIOUSPRESENTS:

HOBBS& SHAW

Directedby David Leitch.Writtenby

ChrisMorgan and Drew Pearce.

StarringDwayne Johnson,Jason

Statham,VanessaKirby, IdrisElba.

At Bostontheaters,suburbs.

135 minutes.PG-13(prolonged

sequencesof actionand violence,

suggestive material,and some

strong language).

MAGNOLIA PICTURES VIA AP

Mike Wallacein a scenefrom

Avi Belkin’s documentary

“Mike WallaceIs Here.”

DANIEL SMITH/UNIVERSALPICTURESVIA AP