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Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated Live By Night (2017) in Movies

Jul 12, 2019

I’m a sucker for a Prohibition-set yarn. It’s a fascinating period in history and typically yields excellent filmmaking with gritty, no-nonsense performances, gorgeous production design and hard-boiled action. It was De Palma’s The Untouchables that hooked me. Some would call it a guilty pleasure; and sure, Morricone’s score is a little over-the-top, De Niro is more caricature than character actor as Al Capone and I’m not going to argue that Connery’s Oscar was a “sympathy vote”, but it’s got everything I mentioned above in spades and for me it’ll always be the high benchmark of the Prohibition era gangster epic. Ben Affleck’s fourth turn as director has done nothing to change my position on that.

Live by Night is an uninspired mess, from voice-over laden start to disastrously predictable end, bringing nothing new or exciting to the table. Beat for beat, its weak script moves from one sigh-inducing cliché to another, reaching clumsily for moments of high emotion that ring hollow and false. If anyone needs any further proof that Matt Damon did all the heavy lifting on the script for Good Will Hunting, they need look no further. It feels wrong to come down so hard on Affleck after his back-to-back successes as a director, but this is more akin to the first work of a blundering novice, and also certainly not what we’ve come to expect of a Dennis Lehane adaptation (see Mystic River, Shutter Island and Affleck’s own incredible directorial debut, Gone Baby Gone). His decision to wear so many hats on this project, producing, directing, sole screenwriter and lead actor, has to be the reason for this stumble. The script desperately needed another set of eyes and the part of Joe Coughlin was clearly written for someone younger and more capable of performing with the subtlety needed to play someone who has to traverse the number of moral dilemmas he’s faced with. Hopefully, this inevitable failure will be what convinces Affleck that his place should be behind the camera directing other people’s scripts and guiding other people’s performances.

Speaking of the performances, there is a massive curve in this collection of acting that swings wildly from the cartoonish to the nuanced. To start with, we have Matthew Maher as a KKK member out for his cut and Robert Glenister as an Irish mob boss, both of whom are supposed to be playing dangerous and threatening but can’t do any better than laughable and two-dimensional. Then there’s Chris Messina and Affleck himself as the hoods on the rise, their chemistry is ill-advised at best as they both seem to think they’re in a buddy comedy as opposed to a serious piece of gangster melodrama A favorite of mine, Brendan Gleeson, sadly leaves the screen within the first twenty minutes and that left me with only the inimitable Chris Cooper to look forward to. The subplot involving him and Elle Fanning, as his born-again daughter speaking out against Coughlin’s sinful ways is not without problems of its own, but at least they sell it. That should be no surprise on Cooper’s part, but now between this and The Neon Demon last summer; Fanning is firmly on my radar as one to watch. My hope was that we were going to get some tremendous battle of wills between her and Affleck’s character akin to Paul Dano and Daniel Day-Lewis’ conflict in There Will Be Blood, but that was definitely asking too much. Fanning’s role, like Gleeson’s, is unfortunately cut short just as it gets good.

I guess The Untouchables is starting to sound less like a guilty pleasure and more like a masterpiece when compared to this regrettable misfire.

Kudos

Darren (1599 KP) rated The Book of Henry (2017) in Movies

Oct 2, 2019

Characters – Susan is the mother of the house, though she doesn’t have the full responsibility in the house as she lets her genius son Henry handle the finances in the home. She is a single working mother that does everything she can to help her kids, enjoys a drink with her best friend Sheila and videos to release the stress, she must go through a difficult process when Henry becomes sick and wants to follow his book to do the right thing. Henry is a genius 12-year-old boy, he keeps his family together while trying to leave his own legacy, he knows how to work the stock market which keeps the family a float and when he sees wrong in the world he wants to help change it, this brings him to write a book to stop the abuse of his neighbour by her stepfather. Peter is the younger brother to Henry, he always looks up to him and wants to help him with his innocent being the only thing that lets Henry have fun. Sheila is the best friend and work colleague of Susan, she enjoys herself a drink and has great banter with Henry. Glenn is the neighbour and police chief living next door to the Carpenter family, he has a stepdaughter that he is abusing though he position of power makes it nearly impossible for him to get investigated. Dr Daniels is the man that must treat Henry, he must help the family through the difficult decision.

Performances – Naomi Watts in the leading role is great through this film, we see how her character needs to develop after what happens to Henry. Jaeden continues to show us he is a fast-rising child star along with Jacob Tremblay who are both going to be talked about as a couple of the best of the current generations. Silverman, Morris and Pace give us good supporting performances throughout the film too.

Story – The story here follows a genius son that helps run the family to help take the pressure of his single mother, he plans long term and wants to make the world a better place, though when sees abuse he wants to step in and help. He doesn’t expect the short term though, leaving his legacy to his mother to help solve the abuse he sees the neighbour going through. We do have moments that make the children feel like they are in ‘Pay it Forward’ which does have a better message about, doing something to make the world a better place, this story does get that message over and does make you want to help bring calm to the world. if I was being honest with the way the story is told, I feel it would have been nice to mix the planning Henry does with the actual plan rather than showing his plan before the incident.

Crime – The film does have a crime base to everything going on, we get to see how Henry sees a crime being committed and the only way he can solve it is to have someone commit a crime for him.

Settings – The film shows us the simple life the Carpenter family are currently living and how Henry is happy with this even though he can make them rich with a blink of an eye, he wants family over anything.

Scene of the Movie – Take the shot.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – The kids are way to talent in the talent contest.

Final Thoughts – This is a film that has taken a beating by the critics and sure there are a couple of weaknesses in this film, but the core of the story is one of the most interesting ways to show a child genius doing the right thing in life, well-acted and one people should be giving a chance too.

Overall: Nice story about leaving a legacy.

Kudos

Lee (2222 KP) rated Ad Astra (2019) in Movies

Sep 21, 2019

Ad Astra (2019)

2019 | Adventure, Drama, Mystery

6.8

(38 Ratings)

Movie Rating Watch

It’s the near future. Humans are trying to reach out to extraterrestrial life. Veteran astronaut Roy McBride (Brad Pitt) is working high up on an antenna built with the sole purpose of trying to communicate with aliens. And when I mean high up, Roy is literally in full astronaut gear, as this thing reaches from the Earths surface, all the way up into space! Suddenly, a mysterious power surge hits the antenna, triggering a series of explosions and sending other astronaut workers tumbling. Roy manages to leap between a few levels in order to shut off the power, but he eventually has no choice other than abandon the structure and tumble down to Earth. Obviously, he makes it, but it’s an impressive, intense opening – beautifully staged and shot and indicative of the kind of quality to come for the rest of the movie.

Fully recovered, and ready for debriefing, Roy learns that the power surge is one of many which are now hitting the Earth and threatening the stability of the solar system. Furthermore, it is believed that Roy’s father, Clifford McBride (Tommy Lee Jones), who embarked on a deep space mission some 30 years ago, is responsible for the surges. All contact was lost with that ship and it’s crew 16 years into their mission, known as The Lima Project, and the source of these surges is the region surrounding Neptune. Roy has been selected to send a message to his father in the hopes that he might respond and help to prevent further catastrophic surges.

Roy is a loner, committed to his work above all else. In an early scene we see his wife (Liv Tyler) walking out on him while he carries out a psych evaluation for work. He comes across as cold, distant and uncaring, and his pessimistic narration throughout the movie gives us a real insight into his character and history. He’s proved that he can keep his cool under pressure, always maintaining a low blood pressure, but suddenly losing his father 30 years ago has obviously resulted in some serious daddy issues for Roy. Issues which these latest events now bring to the forefront.

The message Roy must send to his father needs to be transmitted by laser from Mars to Neptune, so Roy must first travel to the moon and then onward to Mars. This being the near future, space travel has now been commercialised, so fairly easy to just hop on a flight, and the moon is now a hive of human activity – there’s even a Subway restaurant there for hungry travellers arriving from Earth! As Roy makes his way across the moon, to the rocket which will take him to Mars, we learn about it’s colonisation and the disputes that occur there involving the countries of Earth. Consequently, Roy’s journey is not without peril.

What is so incredible about the time we spend on the moon, and then Mars, is just how plausible and realistic it all feels. For the most part, I was totally mesmerised by it all – fully engrossed in what is an epic space adventure into the unknown, desperate to find out how it was all going to end. After emerging as one of the highlights of an otherwise disappointing movie recently in ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’, Brad Pitt once again shows us just what a real star he is. Outstanding.

Despite the beautiful cinematography, the engrossing storyline and the occasional bursts of action though, Ad Astra is a real slow burn of a movie, which won’t be for everyone. What let the movie down for me was the last 20 minutes or so, which proved to be something of an anticlimax in my opinion. However, this is still an incredible movie, held together by an amazing actor and some beautiful visual storytelling.