Show Me a Hero (2015)

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Nick Wasicsko was a councillor in the city of Yonkers, New York, when he went for the allure that power wields and became mayor. This was at a time when the council was being told that it had to build low income housing and 'affordable' homes. The problem was that these had to go in the nice part of town where all the white voters loved. And if you want to be re-elected then you do what the voters want.Now this sounds like the usual tale of haves and have nots but it is more than that. The series follows the lives of some of the 'would be' new tenants and the people objecting and all the lovely Machiavellian politicians and their scheming ways. It is a warts and all kind of approach and at times you find it hard to single out the god guys and indeed the gals.It is very well made as you would expect from HBO but it does take its time to get going and find its stride, but at 6 episodes long it does have the time to do that. All acted really well with good period detail and a kind of inevitability about it that made me keep coming back for more. A social drama with a heart but it kind of wears it on different sleeves and is all the better for it.

It was the name recognition of David Simon that brought me to this mini-series, although if I am honest little else from the plot summary really appealed to me. The story of Yonkers' objection to a court order that they must find sites for affordable housing to be built; it is a true story that unfolds over decades, has lots of council meetings, politics, and a large ensemble cast. While part of you will want to focus on the potential for big showboating scenes in those council meetings, with people fighting the good fight, the truth is that this is not a show that has heroic types, or big moments – so the 'true story' and 'decades' bits are really what you should consider. In this way the mini-series is not the most thrilling ride, and I say that as someone who enjoyed it. There are no big explosive moments and no barnstorming courtroom moments.Instead the story unfolds through fines and political pandering, and really those politicians 'pushing' the housing in Yonkers are really just those who realize they cannot push back. In and around this we have the residents of the area, and those who would become residents. This gives the show a feeling of depth, but at the same time gives it the problem that it cannot spend too long with anyone, and also has too many plates spinning to be able to move the story with a sharp pace. That is what it has to do though, and it is impressive how well the decades-long narrative, with its complexity and commentaries, does manage to hang together and make for an engaging story.I don't think it is perfect, and it does overextend its reach in how much it tries to bring to the table. However it is a quality piece of story-telling and I liked it as such. The quality is there in the writing, and the way such complexity is made accessible in an unsexy, unglamorous way – with real, flawed characters everywhere, just like real life. Performances are strong across the board – Isaac, perhaps being the one grabbing the headlines with his tragic character, but the cast is deep in good performances (and many HBO faces from Oz, The Wire, and other shows). It does have the feeling of a show you 'should' watch rather than one that you really 'want' to watch, however for its flaws, it is consistently solid in its story-telling, and it delivers a realistic, nuanced, and balanced presentation of the situation, where few are villains, even fewer are heroes, and mostly people are just flawed in whatever they are trying to do.

The forced building of public housing in a mainly white middle class in Yonkers is the background for the story which follows councilman Nick Wasicsko's journey through the despite. So many issues of race and class and politics merge together. This true story is so good that it left me reeling after it finished. The title is simplistic but the story is much more complicated.Who would guess city council politics and real estate disputes could be so tense and make such compelling viewing. So much dirty politics in such a small city with it's betrayal and loyalty. There is a lot of jumping between the different characters on the many sides of the dispute. There are the local politicians, the people from the projects who would benefit from a better place to live and some of the residents of Yonkers who feel threatened by the new housing. It's a bit difficult to keep track of the different characters at first. Paul Haggis does a good job of including the different points of view but I think he could have reduced completed more of one plot line before jumping to another.The acting is award worthy. Oscar Isaac is very watchable as the viewer follows the up and down trajectory of Nick's tragic life. His earnestness, courage, despair are so utterly convincing that the ultimate tragedy is really painful. Supporting cast are worth a mention. Winona Ryder has become very good at showing conflicted emotions and when she is on screen she steals the show. Catherine Keener is unrecognizable as one of the Yonkers residents who changes her tone.Do watch this even if you think you might not be interested in the subject matter - it's better than you could possibly imagine.

Against the tidal wave of television series released since 'the Wire' first premiered almost ten years ago, Show me a Hero quietly aims for the head and makes very few compromises to its trajectory. A show like this is way more content to jog its way steadily towards the finish line ahead of a pack of exhausted red faced sprinters who run out of steam well before the race is over. It knows that a story this fascinating but also so full of bureaucratic nitty gritty and highbrow social commentary can't start out the gate sprinting - it needs to build, and to grow, and to settle in your heart and your head in order to make its case for greatness. And it has nothing to prove. Much like the Wire and Treme, the payoff will come to those who wait it out, and unfortunately the series will probably suffer (or enjoy, depending on how you look at it) the same fate as those aforementioned shows because of it. A core group of loyal fans will stay with it from day one, and then countless other attention deficit disordered viewers will tune out until after the series has aired will come back to it later and wonder why the hell they waited so long to watch it. Oscar Isaacs is phenomenal here, I would count this as his best work on anything, television or film or otherwise. He creates a complicated, conflicted character who gradually comes to tragic grips with his role as mayor presiding over a controversial housing development in Yonkers in the 1980's with a subtleness that I'm not sure many other actors would have delivered. Even my description doesn't really pay his character justice, it is never really made clear if he ever did grasp the importance of his political stand when he was in office. I'm not sure that is really the point. The point seems to be more that institutions can tower over men who think they control them, and that they do eventually have the power to affect positive change, in the same way that Simon's previous series showed us that institutions can be cold and inhospitable to anything but failure. The show has a wonderful cast, and a lot of 'oh wow, I haven't seen that guy in AGES' moments - in roles that often play against type, and give these actors a lot of thoughtful, intelligent dialogue to work with. And finally Paul Haggis. I haven't been the biggest fan of his work in the past, but paired with David Simon's wonderful naturalistic dialogue the directing feels masterful here, less gritty, more evocative than the Wire but stripped of the over the top melodrama found in Haggis's other work. There's a restraint here that I really appreciate. I hope those people who might have tuned out after the first episode pick it up again. Show me a Hero is completely worth your full attention.