Show Me a Hero

The hero in this 2015 HBO biopic is the late Nick Wasicsko, the one-time mayor of Yonkers who fought heroically to allow public housing to be built in the eastern section of the city. The construction was mandated by a federal judge, but implementing that mandate in the Yonkers of 1987 required a bit of heroism. Local demagogues insisted that an "outsider" judge could not be allowed to integrate predominately white neighborhoods by de-concentrating public housing that had  been in he western part of the city.

Winona appears in early episodes of this six-part miniseries, as Vinni Restiano, Wasicsko's close friend and confidant, his key ally as he does the right thing but pays an increasingly high price for his convictions. She returns in the final episodes, as he becomes increasingly consumed by desperate efforts to remain politically relevant in a city he loves. One by one, his allies become his political enemies, and when he parts ways with Restiano, the audience knows that he has reached the political and personal end of the road.

This story resonated with us, as we have spent the last year getting to know a bit about Yonkers while our kid attended Sarah Lawrence College in the adjacent community of Bronxville. Thirty years on from the events of this miniseries, it remains one of the most racially segregated cities in the United States, but also one in which many people continue to be committed to improving their city. For example, earlier this year I wrote about the daylighting project on the Saw Mill River downtown.

Show Me a Hero is an important story, told in a way that allows viewers to sympathize with Wasicsko, even as we watch his decline into a less likeable politician. The fifth and sixth episodes would have benefited from tighter editing, as the political machinations become ever more trivial and tedious. Winona is effective but not outstanding in her supporting role.

Final verdict: three croquet balls

Turks & Caicos

Winona seems to have gotten back on top; she garners top billing in this 2014 film above such big names as Helena Bonham Carter and Christopher Walken. The complicated plot of the film is made slightly more complicated by the fact that Carter and Ryder are made up to look almost alike (not confusing for the Hayes-Bohs, but it could trip up most normal people), as are Christopher Walken and Bill Nighy.

We usually include a poster or DVD cover, but this work has none, as it is a movie-length episode of a new Masterpiece Theater series. Here Ryder is shown with Bill Nighy (no relation to Bill Nye).

A small detail that makes this film unusual is that -- at least for the first 15 minutes -- Christopher Walken does not play its creepiest character. That distinction is reserved for Zach Grenier as Dido (no relation to the real Dido), the sort of capitalist who thinks he is self-made and is brimming with contempt for public servants. Poetic justice for his churlish remarks makes him the shortest-lived member of the ensemble.

The film is set in -- and named for The Turks & Caicos. This is just one place -- a tropical dependency of the United Kingdom that has nothing to do with Turkey. In the film, as in real life, its main attribute is as a tax haven where unseemly corporate behavior can take place with little if any oversight of governments.

Much of the convoluted plot centers around schemes to construct prison facilities of dubious legal standing and to grossly overcharge for them in the process, but no mention is ever made of the geographic proximity of the characters to their main subject -- the camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. As much as I enjoy films with political implications, this script is in places a bit too obvious about its political goals. Most artless is a brief lecture by Walken -- directed more at the camera than at any particular character -- about the failure of "a president" to close Guantanamo.

Winona's own performance is rather good. As mentioned above, her place in the credits is really not justified by the centrality of her character's role. But through a series of complicated plots and subplots, she manages to rise above the writing and deliver a strong and interesting character with a variety of connections to those involved in the film's main conspiracies.

Final verdict: Three croquet balls, good enough for non-fans