Film Review: Money Monster (2016)

Copyright: TriStar Pictures

We all got hurt in one way or another by the recession of 2008/09. While reasons for the crash are beyond most of us, many instinctively blamed the trader/broker/banker characters of the world, especially the US.

The same sentiment was founded on numerous elements, but the biggest cornerstone was the idea that those behind the reigns of this failed venture did not suffer when the excrement hit the fan.

Money Monster draws most of its energy on this premise and wants to serve one back to the financial community and at least in this fictional domain, make them sweat for what they have done and continue to do. But, no one can threaten them financially, so here a man decides to move his vengeance to the realm of bodily harm.

Directed by Jodie Foster, this thriller follows a single day in a studio where a money advisory TV show, led by Lee Gates (played by George Clooney) becomes a victim of a viewer who lost all of his money on one of Gates’ suggestions. Armed with a handgun, he places a bomb on Gates and demands that the network finds out what really happened (the official story blames the loss on a glitch in an automated trading algorithm).

Films like this one and, for example, John Q could be placed in a genre of their own which could be called Righteous Hostage Takes. But, instead of providing anything of any marginal value, Foster’s film once again shows that the US consciousness is still terrified of a potential 1917 Tsarist Russia scenario, where the downtrodden masses take to arms and end a lineage of wealth and power that began when Mayflower made landfall centuries before.

In the movie, Foster tries her best to show that the victim and the unwitting accomplice (Gates) can work together for the greater good, fighting the real evil as they finally make it out, emerging from the shadows. But, below this Kumbaya story, there a deep-rooted anxiety which inexplicably seeps out from the façade – the slaves are getting restless, they sense a disturbance in the force of wealth, so let’s serve them fantasies that are both satisfying (the bad bankers get what’s coming to them) and pacifying (we are all victims, after all).

It’s possible that I’m reading too much into all of this, but it’s difficult to enjoy this film on any level without accepting that there are bucket loads of emotional charge that cannot be properly directed, so it’s left to kind of eat its own tail and try to implode. On moments, a solid cast and unexpected snippets of events, like the appearance of the girlfriend of the hijacker, do provide a bit of freshness. However, aside from this, Money Monster remains just another piece of faulty financial flag-waving with a simple message:

“Do not rise up dear oppressed peasants. There’s still plenty cake left for you to eat.”

Read more »

Crime, drama, Thriller,

Rate it :

Film Review: Legend (2015)

Copyright: Universal Pictures

For some complex and subtle reason, gangster movies became something that is not easy to make. It could be that the ever increasing demands of the viewers have forced directors and writers to try and push the limits of the genre, but as recent films clearly show, this is not going well. Just like Black Mass, another high-end gangster film based on real people, Legend is also lacking in engagement, in spite of some great acting and plenty of style.

The story of the film is set in London in 1960’s where the Kray brothers rule as criminal princes. 

One has a strategic mind that desires to grow and expand as peacefully as possible, while the other has a violent mind clouded by a multitude of psychiatric issues. Both are played by Tom Hardy and both are played quite well. As a whole, they create the Kray gang which becomes one of the key factions in the London underground.

Sure, Legend has a lot of sway about it, featuring suits, walk and talk of the era, making it slick film. Hardy too has the ability to carry almost any project on his shoulders, as the movie’s director, Brian Helgeland knows very well. In The Revenant, he was the man who stole the show, even though the people from the American Academy did not agree with this. But, Helgeland was not able to differentiate between what Kray story was needed to be told, and which one is irrelevant.

By focusing on the private life of the sane brother and his wife played superbly by Emily Browning, he made the film a series of short events which mix in a bunch of stuff, including rival gangs, US mafia syndicates, failed nightclubs and much more, but do not follow through on any of it.

The end, when it comes, simply wraps it up, as if the police themselves were watching the film and at one point said “OK, that’s enough, let’s get this over with”. This way, Legend just fails to be anything regal even though it does tell the story of a pair of very colorful rules of the underworld. Because of this lack of impact that the film has, maybe future gangster films could try to use the factual stories as inspiration, but then, base the films on their imagination, not the bleak and pointless reality which true crime usually boils down to.

Read more »

Biography, Crime, drama,

Rate it :

Film Review: Point Break (2015)

Copyright: Warner Bros. Pictures

Having an intellectually-lighter script can, in the right hands, be a huge advantage. It could be argued that the script’s and the director’s cognitive potentials add up to make a single IQ – if the script is low on its intellect, a high-IQ director can mend it by lending her or his potential to the equation.

That is why Kathryn Bigelow made the original Point Break in 1991 into such a memorable film, in spite of a paper-thin plot and so many dumb looks on the faces of the actors that some might think they’re solving mathematical equations.

The Point Break remake once again has a weak script, but I’m not saying that it’s director Ericson Core is unintelligent. However, Point Break 2015 is a bland endeavor that leaves the viewer in a state of nothingness, emotionally and especially intellectually. The story once again features a young, dashing daredevil (which is a horrible movie from 2003 which Core also directed) called Utah who also works as an FBI agent.

He embarks on a case he cracked himself thanks to his knowledge of extreme sports which propels him into an undercover role.As he tries to infiltrate a gang of similarly extreme-minded individuals with exotic accents (a new must for the edgier Hollywood action films), they go diving, surfing, snowboards and some other thrilling stuff.

But, the merger of all of these sequences is utterly boring as Luke Bracey, who plays Utah and constantly looks pissed off right before he begins surfing/snowboarding/underground MMA fighting. There is a lack of manpower in Point Break 2015 and it is seen in front and behind the camera. Bracey fails to provide the charm and charisma of the young Keanu Reeves, while Core is definitely not on par with Bigelow in any shape or form.

For example, a fantastic thriller like Sicario creates tension and suspense by only hinting at danger before it erupts. In Point Break, the characters might be snowboarding on the most dangerous mountain, but the emotions of the viewer’s remain indifferent to the things that the characters are going through.

There is also a lack of luck for this movies that I have to mention in this Point Break 2015 review – its timing is wrong. In 1991, extreme sports stuff was nowhere to be seen for the wider audience. It was new, fresh and exciting, interesting and stupid, all at the same time, like the name “Johnny Utah” itself. Now, Red Bull gave us a man who went skydiving from space and the planet watched it live. The new Point Break would have to be a lot more clever to make this collage of stunt reels work as an exciting movie. In its current form, it is just a pale reminder of an old and really great intellectually-light film.

Read more »

action, Crime, sports,

Rate it :

Film Review: Black Mass (2015)

Making films about gangsters, especially real-life ones, can often turn into a quite a boar and Black Mass is an ideal example. The story revolves around a steady rise to fame of James 'Whitey' Bulger, a Boston kingpin in the 1970’s and 1980’s, mainly thanks to his connections with the FBI task force in the same city.

Directed by the talented Scott Cooper, who made the impressive Out of the Furnace before this film, Black Mass falls short of being either thrilling or compelling.

As if he was star-struck by Johnny Depp, who plays Whitey, Cooper seems to struggle whenever he is not in the frame. The film just adores Depp and his evil, vampire-like persona, but does not succeed in showing the audience why should they care about this pale-eyed monster.

Of course, Whitey is a despicable but smart criminal, but most movie kingpins are something similar. He manipulates, terrifies, injures and kills his way out of any situation, but remains uninteresting as a character. What drives Whitey and what scares him? Cooper and his writing team seem to be as clueless about this as I am and it reflects in the film throughout.

The only kindling of interests this movie has to offer burns in FBI agent John Connolly, played by the spectacular Joel Edgerton. Here, a transformation can be witnessed by the audience, but it is still eclipsed by the face of Whitey, who always hovers over all other people in the film. The role is masterfully played, but the film doesn't know what to do with it inside of the bigger picture. This mistake dulled the film substantially and turned it into a TV documentary about an appalling man from Boston’s Southey.

Even thought it is a Depp-worshiping film, it cannot be called a disaster because it looks good from a visual standpoint (a new pattern of a fascination with the late 70’s can be seen here). But, A Most Violent Year develops a similar storyline in a similar environment but pulls it off it with a lot more tact and immersions. I’m sure that Black Mass does a lot of justice to the real events and people, but a rude question begs to be asked – who cares about the real James Bulger?

Read more »

Biography, Crime, drama,

Rate it :

Film Review: The Hateful Eight (2015)

Copyright: The Weinstein Company

With The Hateful Eight, the movie that Quentin Tarantino delivered is for me similar in quality to Django Unchained, which makes it a contender for the worst films he created in his career. Of course, Tarantino’s worse is a lot better than most directors’ best, but still, the fact remains. As with the previous western, there are several things which really grind my gears and where the film failed to maintain a connection to both my emotions and attention span.

First and most serious of these is the film’s chapter that rewinds from the cabin fewer atmospheres to a period that took place a few hours earlier, taking the plot into the recent past to explain the protagonists’ current predicament.

This big revelation reveals nothing of value and just sabotages the big finale that can only be expected from a neo-western where a bunch of killers ends up spending a night in isolated, blizzard-stricken house miles away from anywhere.

At this unnecessary rewind moment, the flaw of the film is exposed like poorly hidden acne under a white neon light – Hateful Eight uses the well-known fuel of the Tarantino thought processes, but this time, it burns weakly. While one of the many punches of the Inglorious Basterds was the moment when Aldo’s commandos kill Hitler, here, the only punch is the appearance of Channing Tatum’s character which is an undersell of an epic proportion.

The clickety-clack of the endless dialogue is here as well, but just like the many racial insults, it all falls flat and lifeless, at least when compared to the director’s previous films. Other issues are also present in the film's 150-minute runtime, including a few jokes which apparently somebody found hilarious, like the two pieces of wood, nailed to the door, but for me at least, the humor kept on eluding me.

Naturally, all of this is a disappointment coming from a man who expected greatness, but got only a fun and somewhat rambling thriller. The Hateful 8 experience is not particularly bad and the film keeps the viewer interested for 80% of its duration. The rewind segment is its weakest link; however, the rest is good, mainly thanks to the cast and the raw cinematography, to almost completely compensate this fact.

The Hateful 8 is like a film created by an exceedingly gifted ghost director (as in ghost writer) who got the task of making a movie just like Quentin Tarantino does. The result is fine, but I still expected someone to kill Hitler if you know what I mean. At the same time, others are making neo-westerns like the fantastic Bone Tomahawk, which makes The Hateful Eight look like a runner-up.

Read more »

comedy, Crime, drama, western,

Rate it :

Film Review: Sicario (2015)

Copyright: Lionsgate

There’s a lot of justice in the fact that Benicio Del Toro had the opportunity and the privilege of being a part of two seminal films about the War on Drugs, almost exactly 15 years apart. One is Traffic while the other one is Sicario and this review will perceive them both as a single chapter in a bloody and futile endeavor.

Both films are crucial in their presentation of how the US collective subconsciousness is grappling with the issue of drug trafficking in the Americas and the violence it breeds in the ever-widening cracks left by poverty.

In my Sicario review, I have to congratulate the director Denis Villeneuve for continuing his streak of fantastic movies that includes Enemy and Prisoners. As intense as always, Villeneuve in his latest film tells two stories – first covers a driven and honest FBI agent accepting a role in a task force with a semi-secret, semi-legal mission that will include both the US and Mexico territory.

The other one takes place for only a fraction of the film and follows a mysterious adviser to the task force called Alejandro (played by Del Toro) who is seeking for something a lot more personal than a law enforcement victory. With a life filled with unimaginable suffering, felt and caused by him, he is a figure determined to see his goal accomplished, no matter what.

All of this is shot under the beautiful sky of the US-Mexico border region. Villeneuve doesn’t shy away from action sequences, even though the story of the film is so dark and unnerving that Sicario is anything but an action film. As the hunt for a cartel sub-boss descends deeper into the pitch black waters of the War-on-whatever-we’re-making-war-on-currently, so does the FBI agent, played by Emily Blunt, become lost in the violence and depravity of human greed and stupidity.

Del Toro, as a brilliant, hard-working actor that marked many films for two decades, now has a complete body of work that will surely be on the right side of history. While Traffic tried to present the fact that a very ordinary and a very American hunger for narcotics is driving the will of the criminals to sell it (and kill for it), Sicario is placed in a time and place where that idea doesn’t really mean anything anymore.

Now, in 2015, the War on Drugs is exactly that – a real armed conflict fought with special forces, drones, rigged safe-houses, urban US cartel graveyards and seasoned professional killers. Norther Mexico turned into a battleground, which, unlike places in the Middle East, is not grabbing headlines nor shocking the world. Instead, it just festers suffering and mindless confrontations created by the unquenchable thirst for drugs coming from its norther neighbor.

Today, a row of mutilated bodies are strung from a highway bridge in Juarez and it’s just another day. The film ends with sounds of explosions and gunfire erupting in the background of a children’s soccer training in the same city and people only look over their shoulders in a tired fashion. No one runs, no one screams and ducks for cover. There are no police sirens and no TV crews converging on the scene.

The fate of those people is set and there is nothing they can do about it. Now, Sicario tells us, the War on Drugs simply became just a war.

Read more »

action, Crime, drama,

Rate it :

Film Review: Dope (2015)

Copyright: Open Road Films

It’s both strange and interesting to see that for the upcoming generation of teens, mainly those born in the late 90’s, the same decade is slowly becoming a part of an urban legend. Like the 80’s for those who are 10 or 15 years older, the time period that has passed since then allowed this decade to receive a shiny gloss that makes it look very appealing. Dope is not a film about the 90’s nostalgia, but the fact that it does include it as one of the main plot points shows that its creators and producers were able to recognize emerging trends. Fortunately, they didn’t ruthlessly exploit them but instead coated the bitterness of the film’s core message in an easily salable form.

It’s only when Dope is inside of our bellies that we recognize the grim topics it explores – mostly the rampart 2.0 racism that still dominates over the African-American and Latino communities in the biggest US cities. Its director Rick Famuyiwa is by no means a household name, but after this film, it is undoubted that he will receive plenty of exposures.

When it comes to his style and approach to troublesome social topics, he reminds me of a combination of a young Spike Lee and a more cheerful version of the young Darren Aronofsky. Throughout the Dope movie, the plot keeps unraveling and falling like a piano on top of a group of Inglewood nerdy kids who get into their possession a bag of MDMA and end up being chased or pressured by different criminal elements.

The main character of the group is Malcolm played really well by Shameik Moore, the de facto leader of the three-part gang. The three of them share good grades, no gang affiliation, love for the 90’s hip-hop and really bad but intentional fashion style. Moore translates both the comical confusion of his horny, but good-natured character, and also his seriousness about his place in the world, which is sadly shaped by his skin color and family background. Here, like in many of Spike Lee’s films, the theme of the film is a personal struggle within a man who must choose how to perceive a racist society – will he oppose it directly or try to work from the inside of the system.

Aside from these ideas, Dope 2015 has plenty of humor. In many ways, it is a sequel to Superbad, where kids from upper-middle class families have been replaced with ones from a poor, crime-ridden neighborhood. But still, the key points for the character remain the same – stay out of jail and have sex for the first time. All this takes place in a mayhem-infused environment, now a lot more impacted by things like Bitcoin and social media. And like the recent Inherent Vice, the film abundantly utilizes the location of Los Angeles, providing its story with plenty of gorgeous urban shots.

Dope is by no means a perfect film from a cinematic standpoint. Its use of narrating characters is unstable and a middle segment of the film begins to meander and disperse its energy. But it has a strong basic engine and it provides more than enough power for this coming of age comedy, set in a very real drama of a racially divided society.

Read more »

comedy, Crime, drama,

Rate it :

So Bad it’s Good: The Counselor (2013)

Copyright: 20th Century Fox

Many films demand a certain state of mind if they are to be experienced to the fullest. For the Counselor, that state of mind should be something between feeling very sleepy and being exceedingly agitated. In this golden zone of inactivity (sleep) and frantic activity fueled by anxiety and frustration (agitation), it produces a unique experience. Here, the film shines like a true diamond of total overconfidence, in spite of the fact that it was built on devastate foundations of a script that is not simply overly ambitious, but aims for the spot of a modern masterpiece. The result is a funny and pointless film, but not because of its plot holes and illogical series of events, but because it seems to believe that not many thrillers of modern time can be compared with it.

This is seen from the first moment when the basic relations are set. In it, Michael Fassbender plays a successful attorney and a man who desires to get into drug trafficking, but knows nothing of it. Javier Bardem plays Reiner, his guide on this perilous journey, who has more experience and a lot better fashion style. Together, they initiate a financial series of events that gradually summon a Mexican cartel to their lives when all begins to fall apart.

Aside from these two incredible actors, there are many other who know their craft, but nothing of this is relevant next to the script. Here, the writer, who is a brilliant man by the name of Cormac McCarthy, a man who created the masterpiece called The Blood Meridian, managed to cook up a mixture of speeches which are all twice as large as life. Everything in the film is followed by a witty narrative segment and every line is not only a punch line, but a wrecking ball when it comes to its desired impact. In every minute, some character says something worthy of Cesar or Napoleon during their most important battles, and the sheer amount of serious situations clutters everything. 

The film’s director Ridley Scott, just like in the case of Prometheus, once again fails to successfully wrestle with inadequate scripts and instead tries to glide through them, resulting in complete calamity. When the talking stops, the film switched gears into a gritty action film with bursts of Uzi automatic fire and machine-induced beheadings, which makes even less sense then the overspent cerebral approach and mastery of introspection, which is a trait of every character that appears on screen for more than one minute.

In some variations, the McCarthy’s script would work, if the setting was rural Arizona where everyone was dirt poor, but still behaved like a Harvard philosophy professor without any explanation who this came to be. Rian Johnson and his movie Brick managed to pull this off a decade ago. But when McCarthy’s work was brought to life using Scott’s blockbuster approach and set in a super-glamorous setting, it lost all meaning and become infused with presumptuousness that is rarely seen in this magnitude. Unlike other badly devised but presumptuous films like Before I Go to Sleep, this one is not flawed when it comes to its story. This is definitely a plus, but at the end, as Linking Park says, it doesn’t really matter. 

The Counselor is a hilarious concoction that can only be enjoyed as a disfigured reminder that some things don’t work well together, even if they are great separately. Also, it is a reminder that Ridley Scott really didn’t make a good film since the American Gangster.

Read more »

Crime, drama, so bad it's good, Thriller,

Rate it :

Film Review: A Most Violent Year (2014)

Copyright: A24 Films

Both interior and exterior of this film are about control. Inside of its plot, the main character Abel Morales, superbly played by Oscar Isaac, is a young New York businessman who desires to expand his heating oil enterprise. But, he chose to do this in 1981, one of the most violent, crime-stricken years in the history of New York. At the same time, his delivery trucks start to get hijacked, often involving violent attacks on the drivers while the same danger begins to gradually cross over into his private life.

In spite of this, Morales is determined to stay in control and do not stray from the path of doing business legally, even though his wife Anna, played by Jessica Chastain, continually pushes for other alternatives, some of which involve crime figures.

On the outside, J. C. Chandor directed this film by also providing it with a large level of precision and control. Like his miniature masterpiece All is Lost, Chandor has a talent for making compact cinematic pieces that are tightly wrapped, but still manage to feel very natural and organic.

In All is Lost, the sea and the weather made the film seem that way while, in this case, something similar is achieved by a masterful soundtrack. At some points, the film’s music number seem larger than life in their melancholy and without a doubt strike the same tone as soundtracks from films like Once Upon a Time in America.

Alex Ebert, who created the film’s soundtrack, utilized the groove of things like Miami Vice or Scarface, making it laden with the 80’s atmosphere. But, for me, the track work much more as a soundtrack of the city itself, which is an empire built on ambitions, desires, money and schemes, where the streets are dangerous and dreams bigger than the skyscrapers. American Hustle had some of that on its surface, but this film drills deeper and thus finds something more than costumes and haircuts.

While the music colored the atmosphere, the great acting cast provided the main construction of A Most Violent Year narrative. Primarily a crime drama that intentionally struggles to keep its crime element on the margins, where it constantly threatens to erupt into the main fold, the film produces a whole and stable story about the struggle between ambition and principle.

This all makes it a unique movie that shrouds itself in the real history of one of the most fascinating places on the planet, but still remains a clear and hard-boiled thriller. In other words, J. C. Chandor continues to impress me in ways I don’t see coming.

Read more »

action, Crime, drama,

Rate it :

Film Review: Wild Card (2015)

Copyright: Lionsgate

Wild Card is one of the films that can be listed under the Neo-Statham movies. In these films, it seems like Jason Statham is trying to slightly get away from his previous batch of action films while he still remains grounded in the action and thriller genres. He tries to make this work by playing action guys who are not into being actions guys, but are into drinking and wasting their life. Redemption is a great example of this trend and it definitely continues with the Wild Card.

In this movie, Statham plays Nick Wild, a washed-out Last Vegas tough guy who works as something between a low-level bodyguard and a private investigator (which he claims he is not). The purpose of these jobs is to allow him to drink and gamble, both of which are going into the red for Nick (although not in a extent of the character Bruce Robertson from the movie Filth).

One day, Holly, one of his friends from the Las Vegas strip nightlife, tells him that she was assaulted and molested by a mobster and his goons and begs him to help her get back at them. Nick is dismissive at first, knowing the connection of the mobster in question, but then reluctantly agrees.

The director of Wild Card, Simon West knew where to take the film’s segments. But then as a whole piece, the film still works as a series of episodes, starring Statham, which are connected by an almost transparent thread. Because of this, the entire film could be called Nick Wild Doing Things in Vegas. But, thanks to West’s large experience with action films in general, he wings through this disjointed story with a lot of style, making it hard for anyone to truly focus on the lacking element of a bigger picture.

Statham’s rocky charm offer assistance in this endeavor by making his character someone who the audience slightly feels pity for, in spite of the fact that he can still single-handedly put down a room full of mob enforcers. The biggest aid to the film’s smooth dynamic is Dominik García-Lorido who plays Holly. In this role, the actress managed to pull off a very substantial character living on the border of the Las Vegas criminal underground. Holly is hurt, afraid and confused, but still willing to risk it all for a taste of revenge.

While this was no easy task, García-Lorido successfully made Holly a real human being on which the cold determination of Nick Wild to mind his business slowly erodes. I hope we will see more of this talented actress in the future because she obviously has plenty to offer. Wild Card movie is fun to watch and its problems never arise so much over this layer of entertainment to have the ability to spoil its thriller action vibe.

Read more »

action, Crime, drama,

Rate it :

Film Review: Inherent Vice (2014)

Copyright: Warner Bros. Pictures

When it comes to reclusive literary geniuses from the US with inkling for deconstruction of worlds where their characters reside, Thomas Pynchon and Cormac McCarthy could be the ideal contenders (I’m not counting J. D. Salinger in here mainly because he doesn’t fit in my main idea, so I will ignore him). In recent years, McCarthy got two phenomenal adaptations that made a huge blessed dent in the hull of the modern cinematography, even its mainstream aspect.

First one is The Road, which is the less known sibling of the pair, while No Country for Old Men already became a modern masterpiece (and it totally deserved this, at least in my view). Hopefully, the Blood Meridian (one of the finest fiction books that came out in the second part of the 20th century from the US) will also become a movie, and this too has the capacity to make something extraordinary.

Pynchon, on the other hand, is not known for the same things. His novel from 2009 called Inherent Vice became a film thanks to the involvement of Paul Thomas Anderson. This film, like the novel, tells a tale of a doper private investigator by the nickname of Doc, who is hired by his ex-girlfriend to find out what, happened to her new lover, a wealthy land developer. Set in the 1970, it features Joaquin Phoenix as the Larry "Doc" Sportello and a lot of elements from the late 60’s and the West Coast, where the hippie wave just got broken on the jagged rocks, as Hunter Thompson would put it. This takes Doc on a very trippy adventure filled with paranoia and a lot of Owen Wilson.

Anderson is without a doubt a brilliant director. His visual approach is full of melancholy and simply feels as if it came from a bygone era, but his narrative is still very contemporary. Also, the man has the right kind of magic needed to produce the best results from his acting cast, and Inherent Vice movie is no different. While everyone sees Phoenix as a brilliant actor, Anderson once again showed the same is true for many other people. Here, I primarily mean Michael Kenneth Williams, Katherine Waterston and especially the completely incredible Josh Brolin. In one of his moments, Brolin performance is enough to make the whole film worthwhile.

But, is the rest of the film worthwhile in equal measure? It’s hard for me to gauge this idea. On one hand, I enjoyed it, but more as a series of weird snippets full of great actors. There is a general lack of focus in the film, which mixes in a strange way with the subversive notions provided by the unique workings of the Pynchon mind. It is also completely free of any self-serving seriousness about itself. Like the thriller Big Bad Wolves (although devoid of much of the violence this Israeli film has), it goes where it wants it to be and doesn't mind if others drop out from this journey.

Here, I’m sure that Anderson remained true to the original material, but at the same time, including the omnipresent narrator in the entire film shows that he was also a bit taken back by this juggernaut of hippie, paranoid plot. And there is nothing wrong with being at least a little intimidated by Thomas Pynchon, especially if we count the fact that Inherent Vice never becomes dull or loses pace.

While it might not have the tightest plot or the ideal composition, Inherent Vice 2014 is as an original film as they come at this level of budget and AAA production. Once again, Paul Thomas Anderson can be seen as an imaginative hero of his generation.

Read more »

comedy, Crime, drama,

Rate it :

Film Review: The Drop (2014)

Copyright: Fox Searchlight Pictures

Certain parts of the US seem as if they were made for street violence, shady criminal dealings and colorful character that partake in this environment. Brooklyn, with its working class quagmire and a thick accent that can be recognized by people outside of the States, is definitely one of those places.

The Drop (2014) is a film heavily set in Brooklyn. Michaël R. Roskam created his movie so that it is fueled by mystery and suspense. The mystery part revolves around the notion of a bar that was formerly run by a small local gang, but which then got overtaken by a more ruthless and capable Chechen criminal organization. Now, the bar is sometimes used as the Drop, or a place where all the dirty money collected by the organization gets taken and kept for transport. The only thing is that the Drop moves constantly, but many people think about robbing it.

The suspense part of the film is handled by Tom Hardy, who plays Bob, the bar worker. His older superior, called Cousin Marv is the former owner of both the bar and the local gang. Now, Marv is angry and afraid, while Bob just wants to keep his head down. One night, he finds an abandoned pit bull pup, and decides not to walk away. This sparks a series of changes in Bob’s life, while at the same time danger looms over everyone.

Roskam directed his actors to present a slightly warped atmosphere in the film, which seems strangely unusual, even autistic at times. The mastery of this film isn’t its thriller element, which can be quickly determined by a careful watcher in the first 20 minutes, but the notion of its action being set in the world of the “formers”.

Apart from the police officers and merciless Chechens, everyone else in the Drop movie is something former – former local thugs, former loan sharks, former addicts, former psychopaths and former believers. This subtext gives the film a really engaging edge, which also provides actors, primarily Hardy, Noomi Rapace and the incredible James Gandolfini a very rewarding playground.

As the plot plows towards its conclusion, it envelops the characters so tightly that it’s not the current story that is relevant, but more the question of how will it change them (even if it ends up killing them). Similar to the film Blue Ruin, the Drop is OK with its characters till the very end, no matter what they did, or how did they do it, mostly because they tried to do something.

Read more »

Crime, drama, Thriller,

Rate it :

J. C. Chandor's notable A MOST VIOLENT YEAR: Saving the not-quite-best film for the last

Writer/director J.C. Chandor is making quite the name for himself -- with movies hugely acclaimed by the critics (myself included) while not setting the box-office afire. That might change just a bit (but not by much, I'm afraid) with the release of his third film, A MOST VIOLENT YEAR, which has been chosen by the National Board of Review (NBR) as the best film of 2014. Looking over the NBR's record for the past 20 years, I find the group has generally made wise choices for Best Film, with Finding Neverland and Quills the only real ringers. (Those films had certain qualities, but "best"? Please.) The NBR even managed to produce a very wise tie in 1994, honoring both Forrest Gump and Pulp Fiction -- a choice of quality both old and new.

Mr. Chandor (the filmmaker is shown at left) sets his newest endeavor in New York City back in 1981, which is said to have been the most violent year on record for NYC. Oddly enough, what distinguishes A Most Violent Year -- other than it's being very well written and directed (both by Chandor) and well acted by a talented ensemble -- is how very non-violent it turns out to be, given that the threat of same hangs over the entire movie. It also takes us into an industry into which we seldom venture: that of the fuel oil business. Evidently, back in 1981, trucks delivering fuel oil were being robbed repeatedly (below), while their drivers were often hurt in the process (further below). The particular driver we see here in both shots is played by a very good actor, Elyes Gabel, and it is his role and his performance that give the movie its beating heart.

I learned more than I would have imagined possible about the fuel oil business while watching this film, which was, back in that decade, at least -- if what we see and hear in the movie can be believed -- controlled by a few leading families, most of whom were involved in criminal activity to a greater or lesser extent.

The actual stars of the film are Oscar Issac and Jessica Chastain (shown below and further below), playing Abel and Anna Morales, the husband/wife owners of a relatively new fuel oil firm that is about to do a make-or-break deal which should insure its major growth. Both actors are, as always, very fine, with Mr. Issac (on screen most of the time) keeping his character and emotions quite close to the vest, as Abel attempts to curtail these robberies without resorting to any kind of illegal revenge.

Anna (Ms Chastain), on the other hand, comes from a high-level mob family and encourages Abel to do anything he must to right the situation, including, if necessary, using her family to help. But no, Abel is intent on succeeding on his own "honest" terms.

Is this even possible? The movie exists to answer that question, and the answer we get, as you might expect from Chandor, not to mention the situation itself, is anything but simple. As the film proceeds, we meet some of the Morales' friends, co-workers, competitors and police investigators (there are some fine supporting performances here from the likes of Albert Brooks, Alessandro Nivola and David Oyewolo), and we end up with yet another lesson -- one of the better ones -- about the costs of obtaining the American Dream.

Ms Chastain's role (unless much of it ended up on the cutting room floor) does not allow her much else than being an attractive, sexy nudge -- a smart one, but a nudge nonetheless. The movie belongs to its men, as has all three of Chandor's films, and they all come through with flying colors, each character offering up a different approach to violence and to the situation in which they're all involved.

Issac continues to grow as one of our most intelligent, tamped-down and subtle actors. Interestingly, his charisma can be seen most effectively in a twatty little pseudo-blockbuster like Sucker Punch, in which his Blue Jones character runs riot (watch this film to its conclusion and end credits, just to see him and Carla Gugino cut loose). I wish somebody would write Issac a role in which he could really fly. Clearly, he's got the wings.

Meanwhile, A Most Violent Year -- from A24 and running 125 minutes -- opens this Wednesday, December 31, in New York City at the AMC Loews Lincoln Square and the Landmark Sunshine Cinema. In Los Angeles, look for it The Landmark and the Arclight Hollywood. A wider release will hit theaters across the country in the weeks to come.

Read more »

"family" films, A MOST VIOLENT YEAR, Crime, fuel oil movies, J.C.Chandor, New York City films, the American Dream,

Rate it :

Film Review: The Equalizer (2014)

Copyright: Columbia Pictures

It’s very enticing to examine the newest Antoine Fuqua’s film as a pseudo-religious tale. In it, a character called Robert McCall is a deity right from the Old Testament. He is never uncertain about what is wrong and what is right, and is prepared to commit acts of unabated violence to help those who are in need. Watching The Equalizer, I saw only two modes of Robert’s existence – quiet nothingness in which he is practically an invisible older worker in a Home Depot kind of place, and the quiet rage setting, in which Robert becomes a demon of death who kills to solve problems.

In this setting, Denzel Washington, who plays Robert, reaches once more for a character he constructed a decade ago. This person is an ordinary guy who is in fact a real world superhero with unshakable faith in his ideals.

Even when Fuqua presents Robert in a state that might be near to something like doubt, just a moment or two later, we see him suffocating cops or destroying pipelines while he calmly walks away from the nuclear-like explosion. Because, you know, tough guys don’t look at explosions, especially if they are a murdering psychopath. Although Washington’s acting is strong, his physical demeanor and loosening facial skin tell more about a tired man who only wants to complete another gig where he uses interiors of cars to torture people.

While he developed this middle-age man’s revenge fantasy and theological dissertation, Fuqua quickly established that Robert is a righteous angel living among the minority of oppressors and a large majority of sheepish and oppressed. He is infallible, and all-powerful, meaning he can kill professional criminals that are used to violence using only his bare hands. If needs be, he will go to the ends of the Earth and kill people there. He is a messiah who returned to his strayed flock only to push shot glasses in their eyes and shoot them with nail guns.

This is presented in stunning cinematography, which uses cameras that shoot in super slow-motion. Fuqua really focused on frame setup and photography, especially in the Russian owned nightclubs and bars which combine black and gold, and are filled with gangland tattoo bearing thugs. The Equalizer looks really nice, but also somehow managed to present a very disturbing story.

Apart from the actress Chloe Grace Moretz playing a Russian call girl in distress whose story manages to activate the murderous Robert, The Equalizer shares another thing with the horror remake Carrie from 2013, and that’s the notion of revenge. But, unlike Carrie, Robert isn’t providing personal vengeance, but is acting like a proxy, a man who kills for others. In this Equalizer review I have to conclude that I don’t have the problem with the delivery of a character like that, but the conception that this man is something good or positive, and a person who somehow represents righteous values.

Equalizer Denzel Washington as Robert is something similar to the character of the insidious spirit in his older movie Fallen. Like that spirit, he is ever-present, powerful and never completely explained. He is Louis from Nightcrawler, but holding a gun instead of a camera, believing he is helping people. This film finds him in a position where he desires to help those who are oppressed, but what is stopping him from turning to the other side and becoming a cereal eating serial killer?

Read more »

action, Crime, Thriller,

Rate it :

Film Review: Nightcrawler (2014)

Copyright: Open Road Films

Civilization, since the dawn of humanity, was about many things, but it was also very much about blood and entertainment. Ancient Rome first comes to mind when we think about stuff like this, but honestly, cultures that were completely clean of any kind of gruesome entertainment ritual, event or practice are few and far between.

The instinct behind this drive is very understandable. Thanatos, as the opposite of Eros, the instinct of life, is the instinct of death, the thing that looks for entropy as the final and complete resting place and a sanctuary from the often overbearing existence.

In his film, Dan Gilroy, who wrote and directed Nightcrawler, takes a long, hard look at this need of ours in the 21st century. Our probes might be landing on comets, but inside of us, the urge to witness death didn’t diminish with the onset of the modern age. In fact, it got some brand sparking new allies.

In his two-decade career, Gilroy mostly wrote screenplays, and produced several known movies, some of which, like Freejack, aren’t exactly superb. But, for a first time director, Gilroy chose a scalding subject and presented it with a merciless narration and an awesome cinematography of LA covered by the darkness of the night.

In it, Jake Gyllenhaal plays Louis Bloom, a young multi-layered predator, scavenger and self-educated psychopath. The film begins with him on a personal quest to find a job in LA, any kind of job. One night, he sees a random car crash, and sees a TV crew arriving there and filming the scene. In that moment, he learns about nightcrawling – a job that includes freelance “journalists” cruising around the wider LA area, filming whatever violent event they find and then selling it to the local TV stations. In a blink of an eye, Louis finds the job he was looking for.

The thing about Nightcrawler movie, which impressed me the most is Gilroy’s readiness to make the main character completely foreign and unexplainable. He doesn’t try to show how he became what he is, or doesn’t go looking for his redeeming characteristic. Louis is simply the Eye of Sauron, a menacing force that is willing to do plenty of damage to anyone, but does this not to enjoy the suffering of others, but for a clear personal gain. Devoid of empathy, Gyllenhaal, who already produced a masterpiece in 2013 with a great movie Enemy, once again shines as the dark space in a human suit. In the film, he always says the right thing, but does it in a manner that is emotionally completely alien.

Like his camera, Louis has his eyes open all the time and is unapologetic about a single thing he does. As the film slowly escalates in terms of the plot, his presence remains steady and stable – the plot might be progressing to a bloody climax, but Louis is certain that he will be there filming it all. But, the brilliance of the film is in the fact that watching Nightcrawler isn’t about Louis. It’s about us, and the thing in us which keeps all the people like Louis in business.

Read more »

Crime, drama, Thriller,

Rate it :