Tag: Jake Gyllenhaal

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Arts

Movie review: Stronger explores the realities of healing

In Stronger, Jake Gyllenhaal portrays the real-life reluctant hero Jeff Bauman, who lost his legs in the Boston marathon bombing. Photo courtesy New Line Cinema

It’s unfortunate that Stronger is being seen by some as “the other Boston Marathon bombing movie” after the release of Patriots Day earlier this year. The comparison shouldn’t even be made, but just in case there are people who might not see Stronger due to the association, let’s debunk and move on.

The two could not be more dissimilar; Patriots Day is an intentionally dishonest exercise in authority worship that throws the stories of actual people and victims by the wayside (its lead character, Tommy Saunders, is a composite who happens to be instrumental in capturing the Tsarnaev brothers). Stronger is a thoughtful, fact-based exploration of trauma and recovery, and the difficulty of moving on when everyone around you defines you by a single event that you only want to forget.

Stronger
R, 119 minutes
Regal Stonefield 14 & IMAX, Violet Crown Cinema

Stronger follows the story of Chelmsford, Massachusetts, resident Jeff Bauman (Jake Gyllenhaal), who was at the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon to cheer on his on-again-off-again girlfriend Erin (Tatiana Maslany). If you don’t know his name, you certainly remember his face from the iconic photo of him being rescued from the explosion, having just lost both of his legs, with the help of Carlos Arredondo, the so-called “man in the cowboy hat.” He instantly became a symbol of resilience for a city desperate for good news, and the fact that his eyewitness testimony also led to the identification of the perpetrators made him a hero in the eyes of many—including his mother (Miranda Richardson in an award-worthy turn), whose desire for the world to see how strong and brave her son is often hurts Jeff more than it helps.

However, a hero is exactly what Jeff feels he is not. Several times, he asks why standing there getting his “legs blown off” is something to be proud of. His first reaction to “Boston Strong,” the still-ubiquitous (and often monetized) slogan that arose in the wake of the attack, is to wonder what it even means. And as he’s taken to public appearances—Bruins games, his first rehabilitation session and many others—he comes closer and closer to reliving the worst day of his life. On a personal level, his immaturity and inability to show up when needed was a primary reason Erin broke up with him in the first place. And the one time he does manage to show up is when this happens. The pressure of needing to grow and recover at the same time, to be an unwilling figurehead when all he wants to do is hide, leads to the worsening of some pre-injury habits, especially his drinking.

Director David Gordon Green (George Washington, Prince Avalanche, Manglehorn) brings depth and insight into a straightforward narrative, and one that could have easily turned into the same cheap, meaningless inspiration that Jeff fought so hard not to be. The standard Boston beats are there—Red Sox fandom, intertown rivalry, swearing and nosy families—but Green understands the emotional space they occupy in the minds of Massachusetts residents. (In case you can’t tell, I myself am a Boston resident.) Stronger is an affecting film, impressive not only for what it is, but for what it skillfully avoids being.

Playing this week  

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema
377 Merchant Walk Sq., 326-5056

American Assassin, Brazil, IT, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, The Lego Ninjago Movie, Mother!

Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
The Shops at Stonefield, 244-3213

American Assassin, Dunkirk, Friend Request, Home Again, IT, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Leap!, The Lego Ninjago Movie, Logan Lucky, Mother!, Spider-man: Homecoming, Wind River

Violet Crown Cinema
200 W. Main St., Downtown Mall, 529-3000

American Assassin, Brad’s Status, Brigsby Bear, Home Again, IT, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, The Lego Ninjago Movie, Mother!, Wind River

Categories
Arts

Movie review: Life lacks in human connection and atmosphere

Sci-fi thriller Life stars Ryan Reynolds and Jake Gyllenhaal in a lackluster alien-turns-angry trope. Courtesy Sony Pictures

Space. A previously unknown life form that is both beautiful and completely unknowable. Man’s double-edged quest to understand and dominate over all existence. Life really, really should have worked, and the extent to which it fails makes it the biggest waste of potential so far of 2017, if not the single worst film overall.

Life tells the story of an international team orbiting the Earth’s atmosphere, on a mission to analyze soil samples collected from Mars. The team includes representatives from Russia, Japan, Great Britain and the United States. Hugh Derry (Ariyon Bakare) successfully revives a microscopic organism found in the samples, the first confirmed observation of extraterrestrial life. The team is ecstatic, but Derry has become obsessed to the point of disregarding routine safety procedures in order to observe the specimen more closely. The alien is named Calvin after students of Calvin Coolidge High (really), but a puzzling period of hibernation following a security lapse leads them to believe Calvin is dead. They try to wake him up through a mild electric shock, and he starts acting violently toward the crew, though it is unclear if he is acting out of instinct or emotion.

Life
R, 103 minutes
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX, Violet Crown Cinema

Notice that the above description did not include the three biggest stars of Life: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson and Ryan Reynolds. This is because every single person in this movie is disposable. The question is never who is going to die next. It’s why we’re supposed to care. The plot is not entirely dissimilar from great films like Ridley Scott’s Alien that have tackled the same questions of isolation and hubris, but Scott showed us the human side of that crew so we understood their fear, even if we momentarily forgot their name or role on the ship. In Life, director Daniel Espinosa barely shows us a single moment of human connection before someone dies—and then he makes us watch the survivors cry over someone we never cared about.

That said, humans can be completely cookie-cutter in otherwise solid genre films. What matters most is atmosphere and creature design—which are two more areas Life blows it. The station is geometrically baffling, leading to more than a few puzzling moments. Rooms have no personality—fitting, perhaps, for a scientific vessel, but totally uninteresting artistically or dramatically. Prepare to have no idea what is happening when key characters meet their fate.

In Life, director Daniel Espinosa barely shows us a single moment of human connection before someone dies, then makes us watch the survivors cry over someone we never cared about.

This brings us to Calvin himself. To stretch the Alien comparison a bit further, that xenomorph was based on real fears and anxieties, namely violation of space and penetration. Everything the creature did grew out of these: The facehuggers planted eggs through a person’s mouth, the eggs hatched and burst through the ribcage, and the final form was an overgrown phallus, creeping unseen until it’s too late. Perhaps there are narrative shortcomings in Alien, but that alone is what made it a classic.

Calvin, meanwhile, looks like an octopus with a flower for a head, more reminiscent of Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors than any nightmare. There are a few references to the nature of life being to destroy and consume, which perhaps informed the hybrid creature design, but they come far too late to save this Life.

Playing this week

Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
The Shops at Stonefield, 244-3213

The Belko Experiment, Beauty and the Beast, Chips, Get Out, Hidden Figures, Kong: Skull Island, The Lego Batman Movie, Logan, Power Rangers, The Shack

Violet Crown Cinema
200 W. Main St., Downtown Mall, 529-3000

Beauty and the Beast, Get Out, Kong: Skull Island, The Last Word, Logan, Power Rangers