Author: Kristofer Jenson

Contributing writer to C-Ville Weekly. Associate Film Editor of DigBoston. Host of Spoilerpiece Theatre.

Categories
Arts

Film review: Fury defines itself as a cut above formula

Fury starring Brad Pitt (front), digs in to violence, heroism, and sacrifice on the front lines of World War II. Publicity photo.

As U.S. involvement in foreign wars becomes murkier, aimless, and self-justifying, it’s perhaps natural that some would nostalgically harken back to a time when the goals of military action were seen as absolute and our methods unimpeachable. Leading up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, comparisons between Saddam Hussein and Adolf Hitler too were frequent, and our tinted memory of how that war ended fed the belief that the regime would topple cleanly and we would be greeted as liberators.

Enter David Ayer’s World War II tank near-epic, Fury. While the film makes no political case for, or against, war, choosing the final stretch of World War II as its setting seeks to dispel the notion that any fight can be clean. Even the most heroic, necessary actions of its central characters are devastating, and the trauma of seeing and participating in so much death firsthand takes its toll differently on everyone involved.

Fury follows the battle-weary crew of a Sherman tank led by Don “Wardaddy” Collier (Brad Pitt) in the final month of the Allied push toward Berlin. The war is not yet over, and the fighting has become increasingly dirtier and haphazard. The film begins with the crew stuck in the horrific remains of a battle as they attempt to fix their tank and regroup with their division after one of the drivers has died violently. They are assigned a new driver, Norman Ellison (Logan Lerman), who was taken directly from behind a typewriter to the front lines with a crew that has been through the worst with each other.

Gripping from beginning to end, Ayer’s film has three great triumphs and one significant setback. The tone described above is its first triumph, which is held sturdy by an excellent cast, each actor giving potential career-defining performances. In addition to Pitt and Lerman, the film stars Shia LaBeouf, who reminds us of why we paid attention to him in the first place. Michael Peña follows his terrific turn in End of Watch, and Jon Bernthal gives us a glimpse of how he would have played Merle Dixon on “The Walking Dead.”

The second thing that sets Fury apart is its attention to the minutiae of tank strategy, when most war films use them as a quick visual indicator of which side has the upper hand at the moment. Ayer makes every battle involving tanks seem somehow versatile and elegant rather than clunky and metallic. The third most notable aspect comes in the form of a single, extended, one-of-a-kind sequence involving an attempt at normalcy and an exploration of power dynamics in a German town immediately after it’s seized, as both American soldiers and German civilians grasp at straws to remember what humanity feels like.

Everything the film has to say about violence, heroism, justice, and humanity unfortunately goes slightly off course in the final showdown, which discards the close attention to spatial awareness that fueled the tension of the earlier battle sequences, and the interesting examination of the ambiguity of heroism in war gets funneled into the glorious bloodbath of a lesser action movie. It’s a derailment worth noting that works against the electrifying filmmaking that precedes it, but on the whole, Fury is the most significant American war film in recent memory.

Playing this week

Annabelle
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Addicted
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Alexander and the
Terrible, Horrible, No Good,
Very Bad Day
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

The Best of Me
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

The Book of Life
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

The Boxtrolls
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Dracula Untold
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

The Equalizer
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Field of Lost Shoes
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

Gone Girl
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

The Judge
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Kill the Messenger
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

The Maze Runner
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Men, Women and Children
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

My Old Lady
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

The Notebook
(A Nagy Füzet)
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

The Skeleton Twins
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

This Is Where I Leave You
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

Movie houses

Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6
979-7669

Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
244-3213

Categories
Arts

Film review: Despite talented cast The Judge falters

Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall star in The Judge, a comedy/family drama in which father and son battle each other and the legal system. Publicity photo.

You know you’re in for something when every actor in a movie’s press release gets an individual citation for the role that got them either an Academy Award or a nomination—Robert Downey, Jr. (Chaplin, Tropic Thunder), Robert Duvall (Tender Mercies), Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air)—while the director must suffer the indignity of admitting to making Wedding Crashers for the sole purpose of getting his own parenthetical.

Yes, David Dobkin—director of such broad fare as Shanghai Knights, Mr. Woodcock, and Fred Claus—is the man behind The Judge, a 141-minute courtroom drama/prodigal son parable/romantic comedy in the most pandering award-bait so far this season.

Robert Downey, Jr. stars as Hank Palmer, a slick, big city lawyer with small town roots who returns home to Carlinville, Indiana for his mother’s funeral. While spending time with his estranged family—his judge father Joe (Robert Duvall) and his brothers Glen and Dale (Vincent D’Onofrio and Jeremy Strong)—it becomes clear that the tensions Hank left behind are still simmering, and he plans to leave the next day. At the last minute, Hank notices something wrong with his father’s car, which leads back to a vehicular homicide of a man Joe once put away, an incident of which the elderly judge has no recollection. Hank must now decide whether or not to use his skills in the courtroom to assist his ornery, difficult father, a task that is not particularly easy for either of the stubborn legal aces.

At such a length, The Judge might have been easier to swallow had it gone either full drama or leaned more heavily on the comedy while shaving off 30 or so minutes. As it stands, the film is less of a coherent story as much as it is a series of sincere moments from Happy Madison movies strung together. The length is mostly due to an abundance of side plots that weave in and out of the main narrative, feeling as though they were shot with the expectation of having at least one cut out of the film. Few of the detours lead anywhere worth going. For example, when Hank goes out drinking with his brothers, a courageous defense of his family leads to making out with a pretty young bartender. The true identity of this character becomes a running joke with some extreme possibilities, yet the film never fully commits to the premise.

Dobkin occasionally stumbles into greatness when he pulls back from Janusz Kaminski’s same old tricks and allows his two lead actors to play off of each other organically. Downey and Duvall have amazing on-screen chemistry, as seen in a standout exchange during a tornado warning that would be at home in a Pulitzer Prize-winning play.

Written as an R-rated family movie, acted like a courtroom drama, and directed like a Frat Pack comedy with no punchlines, The Judge has no target demographic nor any point to make, and it will collapse in its ambition for award recognition. If the Oscars were a third grade social studies class, The Judge would be the kid who always raises his hand fastest but consistently gets the answer wrong.

Playing this week

Annabelle
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Addicted
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

The Boxtrolls
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Boyhood
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

Dolphin Tale 2
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

Dracula Untold
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

The Equalizer
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Field of Lost Shoes
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

Gone Girl
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Guardians of the Galaxy
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Kill the Messenger
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

Left Behind
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

The Maze Runner
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

My Old Lady
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

The Skeleton Twins
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

This Is Where I Leave You
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

Movie houses

Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6
979-7669

Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
244-3213

Categories
Arts

Film review: Imagination runs wild in Annabelle

Notable horror film producer James Wan is behind Annabelle, the latest in babydoll-possessed-by-a-demon flicks. Publicity photo.

When it comes to paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, the further a movie moves away from the “true” story as documented by these proven frauds, the better it gets. Despite its success with audiences at the time of its release, going back to watch the aggressively mediocre The Amityville Horror after the many inconsistencies in the story and outright inventions were passed off as fact, removes the only reason to see it in the first place (including its many sequels and awful remake). Then, with last year’s The Conjuring, James Wan utilized the story and setting of another of the Warrens’ tales, but altered the lore in order to focus on the existential terror of demonic possession without letting the gimmick of being “factual” get in the way.

Annabelle doubles as both a prequel and spinoff to The Conjuring, focusing on the origins of the memorable intro sequence of the possessed doll, said to be the host of a spirit named Annabelle Higgins. The documented origins of the Annabelle doll—a typical Raggedy Ann, it should be noted, and not the freaky dead-eyed ceramic monstrosity of the films—do not go earlier than when it was purchased used at a hobby store, giving director John R. Leonetti even more of a blank slate to play with, and the film is better for it.

Set in 1970, the story follows young married couple Mia and John Gordon, the first owners of the doll. The two seem to be on the fast track to a beautiful, bougie life, with him finishing med school and her pregnant with their first child. But one night, they are attacked in their home by members of a Mansonesque cult with a satanic tilt. As one of the intruders—Annabelle Higgins—dies, she draws a symbol on the wall in her own blood, which then falls into the doll. Then demonic shit hits the fan.

Annabelle is not great, and director Leonetti seems to know this, yet it is way more fun than it has a right to be. Leonetti has some experience with doll-related horror films, having worked as the cinematographer for Child’s Play 3 prior to filling that same role for many of Wan’s recent films. With this experience, it’s possible that he went into this project knowing full well that there is no way to convincingly make a doll scary on its own without being a little bit silly, which is the only motivation we can gather for the ridiculous opening crawl about dolls having been used as conduits throughout human history. As the film progresses, Leonetti leans less and less on the doll for the creep factor as it becomes a symbol for a greater evil with intentions beyond stalking and killing.

For the first 45 and closing 10 minutes, Leonetti seems to be a workman director delivering an assignment within the confines set by the studio and the intellectual property he was given, leaving him with 48 minutes in the middle to let his visual and atmospheric imagination run wild. It’s not great, and no one ever intended it to be, but the fact that even the mediocre products of the James Wan-led horror revival can be this much fun means we can never, ever write off a movie with his name anywhere in the credits, no matter how dumb it may look.

Playing this week

The Boxtrolls
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Boyhood
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

Dolphin Tale 2
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

The Equalizer
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Field of Lost Shoes
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

Gone Girl
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Guardians of the Galaxy
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Left Behind
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Love is Strange
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

M*A*S*H (Wed. only)
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

The Maze Runner
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

My Old Lady
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

No Good Deed
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

The Skeleton Twins
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

This Is Where I Leave You
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

A Walk Among the Tombstones
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Movie houses

Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6
979-7669

Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
244-3213

Categories
Arts

Film review: Denzel Washington team adds sizzle to The Equalizer

Denzel Washington stars as The Equalizer, a retired commando who takes matters into his own hands after witnessing mob violence. Publicity photo.

Let it hereby be known that director Antoine Fuqua and Denzel Washington are the only team in Hollywood capable of making middle-of-the-road action scripts into movies that are way better than they have any right to be.

Before Training Day became the legendary character study it is and the first film in decades to feel truly dangerous, it was just another police corruption slog with a white dude in the lead; Gary Sinise, Tom Sizemore, and Bruce Willis were considered for the role of Alonzo Harris. Enter Fuqua and Washington, and the ho-hum yarn about a crooked cop who owes money to the Russian mob becomes a crackling examination of power dynamics. In fact, we’re willing to bet you even forgot about the whole Russian mob thing; it’s so good that it overcomes the weakness of its own central plot.

While the Fuqua-Washington reunion in The Equalizer does not reach the same heights of Training Day, the fact that it is the best possible version of itself might be just as impressive. A super-violent update to the 1980s show of the same name starring Edward Woodward, The Equalizer casts Washington as Robert McCall, an unassuming, charming man living out his days in a barebones East Boston apartment while working at a home improvement store. A late-night regular at his local diner, McCall befriends and attempts to mentor a teen prostitute (Chloë Grace Moretz). When his kindness results in even worse treatment for her, he decides to do something about it—peacefully at first, then bloodily, then even more bloodily, then spectacularly bloody.

One would be forgiven for hearing that description and visualizing a remake of Death Wish retooled as a latter-day Liam Neeson vehicle, and in some ways you wouldn’t be far off. It’s an old guy revenge flick, with bad guys so evil that there’s no justice for them but death. Washington’s version of McCall could be seen as a variation of Neeson’s “man with a certain set of skills.” Fuqua is able to make his version rise above the rest with crisp direction, punchy dialogue, and incredibly gratifying action scenes that may be the first to truly understand Boston’s layout and potential for suspense (hint: it’s not a high speed car chase kind of town).

But the two main things that separate The Equalizer from other films that Netflix is likely to recommend based on a positive rating are McCall the character, and Washington as the man portraying him. As we see McCall in action, it becomes clearer to both the audience as well as the Russian baddies that he’s not what you might expect. He’s not a regular citizen who’s just had enough, a retired cop, or any other excuse you might go into the film expecting. (I could go into more detail here without spoiler’s remorse, but it’ll be more fun to guess as you watch.) He’s not out for Death Wish-style “street justice” that’s really just reactionary, Curtis Silwa-esque vigilantism. He’s not out to kill anyone in his way, he’s out to disassemble the criminal chain of command, and will only kill you if you mean to harm him or anyone else. He’ll even let you live if you decide to do make it up to the innocents you’ve wronged.

Given that this is a franchise, there were likely talks with at least a dozen action stars of approximately Washington’s age to play McCall. All of them would have sucked. Bruce Willis would have smirked and mugged his way through the whole thing. Liam Neeson would have watered down McCall’s optimism. Denzel brings intelligence, drive, and morality to a character that might have gone either campy or glum. Despite the surge in self-aware angry old men actioners these days—The Expendables, The November Man, too many Die Hards—The Equalizer is the only one that makes wading into familiar territory worthwhile.

Playing this week

The Boxtrolls
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Boyhood
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

Dolphin Tale 2
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

The Drop
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

The Giver
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Gone With the Wind (Wed.)
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

Guardians of the Galaxy
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

The Hundred-Foot Journey
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Let’s Be Cops
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

The Maze Runner
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

My Old Lady
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

No Good Deed
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

The Skeleton Twins
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

This Is Where I Leave You
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

A Walk Among the Tombstones
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Movie houses

Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6
979-7669

Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
244-3213

Categories
Arts

Film review: Liam Neeson moves away from the gruff hero bit in A Walk Among the Tombstones

In A Walk Among the Tombstones, Liam Neeson takes a new approach to the aging tough guy role. Image courtesy of Universal Pictures

Having spent most of the last decade punching wolves and shooting whomever in pursuit of something or other, Liam Neeson’s career resurgence has been a mixed bag. On the one hand, he’s remained relevant in a genre that usually condemns talented performers to straight-to-DVD purgatory. On the other hand, there is now a very strong mold for him to break, now that an entire generation of filmgoers knows him more as the man with a “particular set of skills” than as Oskar Schindler, Michael Collins, or Rob Roy.

A Walk Among the Tombstones is an attempt to steer Neeson’s career in a different direction while it still capitalizes on the gruff, no-bullshit, bizarro ’90s Harrison Ford niche he’s filled since 2008. Neeson stars as former alcoholic New York cop turned sober semi-legal private investigator Matthew Scudder, the central character of many Lawrence Block novels (whose last appearance on the big screen was in 1986’s atrocious 8 Million Ways to Die starring Jeff Bridges). We first meet Scudder in 1991, when he gets into an off-duty shoot-out in the midst of a drinking binge. Fast forward to 1999, and Scudder has given up both badge and booze to a life of not-quite-crime, performing no-questions-asked tasks and solving problems for people who would prefer to remain off the police radar. It’s at this point in his career that Scudder is approached by drug trafficker Kenny Kristo to locate the men who abducted his wife, then killed her after collecting the ransom. Along the way, he becomes a makeshift mentor to a homeless teen named TJ with a detective’s instinct of his own.

Every criticism you will hear or read about A Walk Among the Tombstones is completely true. It isn’t enough of a departure for Neeson to be seen as altogether different from the characters he played in Taken or The Grey. Writer-director Scott Frank’s grisly fascination with the killers’ perversions and sadistic cruelty toward women borders on perverse itself. Giving the killers scenes shown entirely from their point of view sucks some of the mystery out of Scudder’s pursuit. The film also has a curious way of sabotaging its own momentum with predictability and completely avoidable clichés, best exemplified by an extended voiceover that forces a sloppy 12-step metaphor over a situation that would have been much more interesting on its own. Every attempt at stylization falls flat on its face. And the abundance of limp Y2K jokes would even feel forced in an Adam Sandler movie.

But if you can get past everything that’s wrong with it, there is a life to this film that makes it stand apart. Scudder’s brand of detective work, as a private investigator to the criminal world, is a lot of fun to watch in action. Neeson’s onscreen presence may be of the same tone we’re used to, but in this context, its familiarity with a dash of unpredictability is exactly what makes this former cop who isn’t beholden to any law enforcement procedure come to life. His mentorship to TJ is formulaic and Frank chooses strange words to put in the mouth of newcomer Brian “Astro” Bradley, but the chemistry between the actors carries it through. And though it plays by genre rules, after a certain point, the opportunities for audience predictions run out as genuine suspense over what might happen next takes over.

A Walk Among the Tombstones isn’t the first of its kind. Hell, it’s not even the first attempt at a suspense franchise by an Irish actor this month (Pierce Brosnan’s The November Man). But if Neeson is in fact looking to enter the next stage of his career, this film is as good a capstone to his action hero days as he could ask for.

Playing this week

Boyhood
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

Chef
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

Dolphin Tale 2
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

The Drop
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

Guardians of the Galaxy
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

The Hundred-Foot Journey
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

If I Stay
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Let’s Be Cops
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

The Maze Runner
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

No Good Deed
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

The November Man
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

This Is Where I Leave You
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Tusk
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

When the Game Stands Tall
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Movie houses

Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6
979-7669

Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
244-3213

Categories
Arts

Film review: Dolphin Tale 2 is uncomplicated matinee entertainment

Dolphin Tale 2 continues the true story of Winter, the disabled resident of the Clearwater Marine Aquarium in Florida. Photo courtesy of Warner Brothers Pictures

Criticism of the aggressively inoffensive Dolphin Tale 2 should be taken with the same grain of salt that the critics themselves took when watching it. This film is not meant for analysis any more than Duck Duck Goose is meant to be played at a professional level, and for the same reason: because kids will enjoy it either way. Your investment in the outcome is neither considered nor required. Dolphin Tale 2 is what it is, its heart is in the right place, and if you find yourself needing to entertain children for an afternoon, this is your movie.

Yet if you do see it, consider the following an extended asterisk to everything above. Dolphin Tale 2 is so pleasant that you may find yourself humoring it rather than experiencing it. Watching it through to the end feels like spending time with someone who listens to Christmas music all year—any questions or objections you have, however legitimate, automatically put you in the position of spoiling someone else’s fun.

Thankfully, you can ground yourself in the success of the first film should you become worried that your inability to appreciate Dolphin Tale 2 means you’ve become too cynical. The original Dolphin Tale told the true story of Winter—a rescued dolphin whose tail needed to be amputated—and the team who rallied around her right to live a happy life despite her disability. It was an emotional, tonal, and financial success that managed to reach even the most jaded of critics. The characters are sympathetic, the families care about one another, the theme of not letting your disabilities own you is so resonant that it’s allowed to be as overt as it is, and there’s even a genuine struggle as difficult as the grimmest of grown-up movies.

Dolphin Tale 2, meanwhile, comes across less like a continuation of the same magic and more like a contractual obligation. Because the original is such an effectively self-contained story, writer-director Charles Martin Smith is stuck sapping whatever drama he can from other chapters in the history of the Clearwater Marine Aquarium in Florida; the trouble is that most of these chapters are little more than rescuing a sea turtle or being legally obligated to partner Winter with another dolphin. The real footage of these moments as recorded by aquarium personnel plays as the film ends, proving just how routine they were when they happened, and how unnecessary and overwrought the dramatic reenactments are, like Drunk History without comedians or alcohol. A documentary based on this same footage may have been more engaging and taken less time getting to the tearjerking moments.

There is a calmness to Dolphin Tale 2 that deserves to be applauded for going against the grain of spastic kid flicks. It has a few good life lessons that kids can use, but there just isn’t a story here that can match the original, no matter how many sassy pelicans or overlong dolphin-cam sequences they throw into the mix.

 

Playing this week

A Most Wanted Man
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

As Above/So Below
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Atlas Shrugged: Who is John Galt?
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

Boyhood
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

Calvary
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

Che
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

Guardians of the Galaxy
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

The Hundred-Foot Journey
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

If I Stay
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Let’s Be Cops
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Magic in the Moonlight
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

No Good Deed
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

The November Man
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

The Nutty Professor (Wed.)
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Transformers:
Age of Extinction
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

When the Game Stands Tall
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Movie houses

Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6
979-7669

Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
244-3213

Categories
Arts

Film review: The Last of Robin Hood steals no glory

Kevin Kline portrays an unscrupulous, scandalized Errol Flynn in The Last of Robin Hood. Photo credit: Killer Films

Not since Raul Julia’s puzzling appearance in the New Jersey Public Television video chroma key disaster “Overdrawn at the Memory Bank” has A-level talent looked as out of place as it does in the attempted scandal flick The Last of Robin Hood. But where “Overdrawn” can blame its production value on the fact that it was actually made for television and has a trainwreck charm that landed it on MST3K, Robin Hood has no excuses to fall back on. It’s too cheap to be a lush period piece, too on-the-nose to be a trashy tabloid romp, and more concerned with overbearing voiceover exposition than the character development that would have at least made the previous two shortcomings tolerable.

The Last of Robin Hood stars Kevin Kline as Errol Flynn, though the film’s focus is teenage actress Beverly Aadland (Dakota Fanning) and her mother, Florence (Susan Sarandon). At 15 years old but passing herself off as older to get work in Hollywood, Beverly grew up under the supervision and guidance of her showbiz mom. Flynn notices Beverly while peering through his blinds, setting up the seduction/coercion we expect from a man with his reputation. The two begin a relationship, and Flynn brings Florence on board with promises to take Beverly “under his wing.” The two bend over backward to convince themselves, each other, and the world that the (illegal) relationship is the right thing for Beverly personally and professionally, but end up in the center of a moral, professional, and financial shitstorm in the wake of Flynn’s death.

There is potential for a good story here, from both historical and psychological angles. The best thing The Last of Robin Hood does is focus on the Aadlands and how they were affected by this man’s (waning) power and influence. Most films about May-December relationships are more interested in the man who is past his prime than the woman who is just entering hers, when in most cases, the latter story would be the most interesting; adolescent women must confront a whole host of societal issues that would be more worthwhile to investigate than yet another midlife crisis tale. The starkly different attitude that Beverly and Florence develop in sharing their lives with the public following Flynn’s death is rich for dramatic exploration.

How strange, then, that the result is so flat in tone and presentation. While “The Unauthorized Saved by the Bell Story” makes waves for inventing scandal out of nothing, here we have a genuine scandal with many sides told in completely straightfaced recitation.

It’s also astonishing how bad this movie looks, with sets and hastily composited shots of 1950s cities that wouldn’t be out of place on “Saturday Night Live.” But the tone is especially problematic when the filmmakers seem content to give equal dramatic weight to the horrific and the mundane, be it Flynn’s jealousy over Beverly’s flirting or the fact that he raped her on their first date. There’s no doubt that sexuality and consent were viewed differently in the 1950s, but the film’s flatness blurs the line between depicting the logic of a different era and accepting it. For a film supposedly dedicated to Beverly, it seems disrespectful not to grant her a more modern view of the events that shaped her.

The fact that The Last of Robin Hood is being distributed by Lifetime invites the question of whether it was actually intended for television, but had a few F-bombs and a slightly risqué nude scene from Kline thrown in for a theatrical release. It also invites the question of who this movie is for. Fans of Errol Flynn will get nothing more than a spirited imitation from Kline (the fault of bad material, as he certainly commits to the part). 

Those not familiar with Flynn or Hollywood history will have a difficult time understanding why any of these people are worth paying attention to. So in the end, The Last of Robin Hood is a movie for no one in particular with no specific point to make about a scandalous celebrity who makes more outrageous claims in his own autobiography.

Playing this week

A Most Wanted Man
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

As Above/So Below
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Boyhood
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

Calvary
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

Chef
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

The Expendables 3
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Forrest Gump: The Imax Experience
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Ghostbusters
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

The Giver
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Guardians of the Galaxy
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

The Hundred-Foot Journey
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

The Identical
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

If I Stay
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Island of Lemurs: Madagascar
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Let’s Be Cops
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Magic in the Moonlight
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

The November Man
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Scarface
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

When the Game Stands Tall
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Movie houses

Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6
979-7669

Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
244-3213

Categories
Arts

Film review: Pierce Brosnan churns out second-rate action in The November Man

The November Man fills screens nationwide with haphazard plot turns and indulgent misogyny. Photo credit: Relativity Media

Watching The November Man try its best to be an exciting Bourne-inspired actioner is like listening to someone trip over themselves, so eager to get to the punchline of a joke that they skip key parts of the setup. And just as a botched joke can be unintentionally funny, so too is The November Man mind-bending for reasons completely unrelated to its attempts at intrigue.

The movie begins following veteran spy Peter Devereaux (Pierce Brosnan) on a botched mission as upstart David Mason (Luke Bracey) disobeys an order to save Devereaux’s life. Years later, Devereaux is pulled out of retirement to take part in a final mission with both personal and geopolitical ramifications, pitting him against Mason and the darkest depths of the CIA.

Despite its fondness for intrigue and plot twists, the only surprising thing about this Brosnan-produced vanity project—which speaks surprisingly low of Brosnan’s vanity—is that it got a theatrical release at all. Out of focus both conceptually and visually (really, the camerawork is noticeably bad), it screams of straight-to-DVD quality, and would be right at home on a shelf next to the five movies Sean Bean was in this month.

If there’s one thing The November Man should be remembered for, it’s for budding filmmakers to learn how not to handle plot twists. Potential spoilers follow: Devereaux has a weak spot that he’s been hiding for years…that is very easily discovered by a cursory photo search in the CIA database. Three-quarters of the way into the plot, we find out that someone isn’t who they said they were, but the character was introduced so haphazardly and awkwardly that I already thought the newly revealed fact was just the regular plot the whole time.

Sure, it’s dumb. You already knew that. But it’s worse than that. As it plods along, The November Man is kind of about war crimes in Chechnya, the future Russian president, student versus teacher, and the ethics of committing geographically contained atrocities to prevent global ones. Mostly, though, it’s about verbally abusing women, kidnapping women, putting innocent women in the line of fire, and just generally not being very fond of women.

Misogyny is sadly nothing new to this genre, with casually demeaning language, superfluous girlfriends, and entire conversations unnecessarily set in strip clubs, but there is nothing casual about the sexism of The November Man. It goes out of its way to be hateful to its female characters, as when a top level interrogator—who, given her high rank, we would presume is a trained and capable professional—lilts under the pressure of being casually and enthusiastically told to “show me your tits” and being called an “ignorant twat.” A lead character makes the transition from innocent bystander to secret badass, until she takes off her dress, starts crying, and has to be saved. Every female character is either sexually harassed, raped, shot, stabbed, or kidnapped. A female assassin promises to be exciting at first, but is constantly upstaged by the bros and meets a cartoonish end. Sexism is real and deserves to be portrayed, but the feeling here is that the writers jumped at the opportunity to be sexist as though it’s a guilty pleasure.

Given the glee with which The November Man discards its plot in favor of a toxic combination of clichés and a level of hatred toward women that is far and above the unfortunate norm, why its cast and crew desired to make a second-rate Bourne movie in a world where The Bourne Legacy already existed is a bigger mystery than anything in the movie itself.

Playing this week

A Most Wanted Man
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

As Above/So Below
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Begin Again
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

Boyhood
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

Calvary
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

Chef
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

The Expendables 3
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Ghostbusters
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

The Giver
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Guardians of the Galaxy
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

The Hundred-Foot Journey
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

If I Stay
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Island of Lemurs: Madagascar
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Let’s Be Cops
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Magic in the Moonlight
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

The November Man
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

What If
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

When the Game Stands Tall
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Movie houses

Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6
979-7669

Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
244-3213

Categories
Arts

Film review: Love story gets muddled in If I Stay

Tension builds in If I Stay, as Mia, played by Chloë Grace Moretz, determines her own fate through flashbacks on family and romance. Photo credit: Warner Brothers

Saying that If I Stay, adapted from Gayle Forman’s blockbuster young adult novel, is bad because it’s overwrought and pretentious is to dismiss a crucial stage of growing up when you yourself are overwrought and pretentious by no real fault of your own. The entire young adult experience is completely unfair. You’re long on feelings but short on life experience. Your entire status in life is defined entirely by trends and peer pressure, so advertisers target you the most viciously. And worse yet, all you get from adults are mixed messages about enjoying your youth versus not screwing up your future.

So it makes sense that of all literary genres, young adult fiction would be the most self-limiting in order to be understood by its target demographic. Whether the plot revolves around vampires or post-apocalyptic fights to the death, every conflict can be distilled down to which crush you choose, how you treat your siblings, wanting to be seen for who you think you really are, and where you go to college/who you marry/whether you kill the president or not.

If I Stay hits all of these notes, and isn’t without its qualities when it steps out from behind its central conceit. Mia Hall (Chloë Grace Moretz) is a shy cello prodigy, the black sheep in a family of punk rockers, who has an extended out-of-body experience as she lays in a coma following a devastating car accident. Not knowing whether to fight or let herself die, most of the story is told in flashbacks, most notably her romance with Adam, the cute older guy of unclear age with rebellious yet non-threatening hair who brings his guitar everywhere. He sees her for who she really is, even if they’re from opposite sides of the track. As time goes on, his middle-of-the-road indie punk band starts to take off while she plans to leave for New York to attend Julliard, resulting in the kind of fights everyone should have only once in their life.

Strangely, the paint-by-numbers teen romance storyline is more engaging than the supernatural limbo Mia can’t get out of, because the two are unevenly developed and don’t work in parallel. Mia’s family of grown-up rockers are more believable than parents in young adult stories thanks in large part to intelligent, sensitive performances by Mireille Enos (“The Killing”) and Joshua Leonard (yes, the guy from The Blair Witch Project). The romance between Mia and Adam (yes, his safely rocking last name is Wilde) accurately captures what teen love feels like at that age (and only that age). And, in a possibly revolutionary move for a movie of this type, teen sex is treated fairly and without judgment. The decision to have sex isn’t the heavy, important crossroads that you generally see in other teen movies, it’s a natural evolution of Mia and Adam’s feelings for each other. Bonus points for giving teens sex-positive role models.

Meanwhile, every time the film cuts back to Mia in the hospital, it loses all of the drama it built up. The mythology of out-of-body experiences is confusing, and focuses the story onto a single decision to live or die that is frustratingly difficult to empathize with. The beginnings of genuine adolescent emotions turn to platitudes.

If I Stay has the beginnings of a good, well-rounded teen drama that has its target demographic’s sensibilities in mind with a few social victories for the portrayal of teens along the way. Granted, the only way you’re likely to see it is if you are either a teen yourself or the parent of one, but if you are struggling to find ways to spend time with your confusing ball of hormones, there are worse choices than If I Stay.

Playing this week

A Most Wanted Man
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

Begin Again
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

Boyhood
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

Cavalry
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

Chef
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

The Expendables 3
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Get On Up
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

The Giver
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Guardians of the Galaxy
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

The Hundred-Foot Journey
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Into the Storm
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Island of Lemurs
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Let’s Be Cops
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Lucy
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Magic in the Moonlight
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

Sin City
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Step Up All In
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

What If
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

When the Game Stands Tall
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Movie houses

Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6
979-7669

Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
244-3213

Categories
Arts

Film review: The latest chapter in The Expendables comes up short

Sylvester Stallone and Antonio Banderas run the show in the third action-packed installment of The Expendables. Photo courtesy of Lionsgate.

Four years and three installments into the Expendables series and we’ve reached what is typically the nail in the coffin for action franchises: the PG-13 sequel. While the rating is essentially meaningless in this age of bloodless gun battles and cramming in as many “shits” as you can but using only one intentionally placed “fuck,” the shift from R to PG-13 typically reflects the series’ low point, signaling when the people making creative decisions are more interested in reaching a wider audience than in continuing the spirit of its predecessors. Just look at the RoboCop remake, Alien vs. Predator, Terminator: Salvation, and Live Free or Die Hard-—OK, that one was kinda fun.

But pandering to audience expectations is really what The Expendables is all about, so who can say whether the lower MPAA rating is a tongue-in-cheek parody of an inherently goofy series or just the result of its own self-referential nature? Some things are markedly worse than the previous entries, from the iPhone app quality of the special effects to the messy fight choreography and spatially baffling set pieces. But it’s certainly not short on what it came here to do: kick ass, chew bubblegum, and beg the question whether it’s in on its own jokes.

There is absolutely zero point in talking about the plot of a movie where Arnold Schwarzenegger makes two separate “chopper” references. The whole point of the series is to find new additions to the crew. Antonio Banderas steals the show and may be worth the price of admission. Wesley Snipes’ apparent happiness to be free and working is infectious, providing a nice counterbalance to a hilariously bored-looking Harrison Ford. Mel Gibson is a fitting villain (as in real life), starring as a former Expendable turned weapons dealer who never misses an opportunity to flip out (as in real life). But the crop of youngsters takes over the screen for way too long, essentially erasing the movie’s sole reason for existing: muscles, guns, and grizzled stars of yesteryear kicking ass.

By its own standards, it’s not awful, but it is more of the same with diminishing returns. If and when the fourth entry to the Expendables makes its way to theaters, the best thing it can do for itself is get out from under Stallone’s wing and move into one of the other fantastically silly subgenres of ’80s action flicks. Bruce Willis was the master of smirky sarcasm, and we rooted for him because he was the only one who could see how much of an idiot everyone else was being. Most of Schwarzenegger’s best films are razor sharp parodies that work because his very presence is intended as a grotesque, exaggerated parody of an everyman. He’s so clearly not a New York construction worker or small-town sheriff that the movie is inherently self-parodying while not skimping on the excitement.

Stallone movies, meanwhile, are a much tougher nut to crack. Where the rest of the decade was dedicated to knowingly preposterous, funhouse mirror versions of action entertainment, Stallone always seemed to take on even the most idiotic movies with complete sincerity. Watch an interview with him and you’ll know he’s an intelligent guy —hell, he wrote Rocky—but even when there is a jokey tone to the movie he’s in, the joke he’s making and the one the audience is laughing at are always two different things. The robot in Rocky IV isn’t funny, but the expectation that anyone in the world would find it cute is hilarious. And he sure seems convinced of his integrity in Rambo III, the most accidentally anti-war film of all time.

In the end, you probably already know if you’re going to see The Expendables 3 without reading a single review, and there’s really nothing wrong with enjoying the movie. But for the next installment to work, it needs to answer two huge questions: why cast legendary martial artists only to give them guns, and why bother making a movie PG-13 when all of the references are 30 years old?

Playing this week

A Most Wanted Man
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

Boyhood
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

Chef
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

Dawn of the Planet of
the Apes
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Elvis: That’s the Way It Is
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

The Expendables 3
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Get On Up
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

The Giver
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Guardians of the Galaxy
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Hercules
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

The Hundred-Foot Journey
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Into the Storm
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Let’s Be Cops
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Lucy
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Magic in the Moonlight
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

Planes: Fire & Rescue
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Step Up All In
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

What If
Regal Downtown Mall Cinema 6

Movie houses

Regal Downtown Mall
Cinema 6
979-7669

Regal Stonefield 14
and IMAX
244-3213