Oliver Stone’s latest iconoclastic biopic, Snowden, is a stunning exploration of personal liberties, journalistic integrity, and demonization of the whistleblower. Stone minces no words and makes his position clear: for revealing the extent to which the US government was spying on its own citizenry at great personal risk, Edward Snowden is a hero. Hence, Stone is primarily occupied with humanizing Snowden, and his casting of Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a step in the right direction. The film also exploits a parallel narrative structure to simultaneously tell the story of his life and the few days when he provided classified information to journalists in a Hong Kong hotel room. The result is a film which brilliantly characterizes Edward Snowden, his changing worldview, and the choices that made him infamous.
Film Reviews
“Jack Reacher: Never Go Back” to This Parched Well
Can a well be dry after a single successful trip? Because if Jack Reacher: Never Go Back is the best this franchise has to offer after its surprising debut, then we might as well be drinking sand. None of the new characters are likable, the acting is hollow, and the writers deprive Jack Reacher himself of any real interest. The plot is derivative and full of generic bad guys that make Jai Courtney look like Anton Chigurh. The screenplay is written by three people, none of whom are named “Christopher McQuarrie”, and is populated by wooden groaners and extreme plot conveniences. The plot is generic, and its associated “twist” is lazy and telegraphed worse than the death of Han Solo. This is a film that is completely bereft of technique, subtlety, and intrigue.
“The Accountant” Merges Dry Comedy and Calculated Action to Solid Effect
Gavin O’Connor’s The Accountant is an entertaining thriller that sports a peculiar mix of black ops action and wry humor. It focuses around a high-functioning autistic man named Christian Wolff who handles advanced ballistics just as well as he does advanced calculus. The story is told through multiple flashbacks, and follows multiple characters in the present day as they interact. Not everything gels together perfectly, and the underlying themes are fairly under-developed in favor of a simplistic action sequences, but The Accountant does far more right than it does wrong.
“The Greasy Strangler” Descends into Depravity with the Ease of a Cult Classic
The Greasy Strangler might be what it feels like to go mad. The film is best described as a kind of John Waters fever dream (or maybe wet dream), that combines a penchant for bizarre sexuality with a tongue-in-cheek slasher film. The acting is purposely hammy, and each kill more absurd than the last. There are sequences that physically made me ill, and others that left me utterly befuddled. You can call it weird, disgusting, senseless, or even a fucking embarrassment of a film – but you can’t call it derivative or boring.
Nate Parker’s “The Birth of a Nation” Seeks a Spiritual Deliverance from Racial Injustice
Nate Parker’s The Birth of a Nation is a remarkable piece of cinema, especially from a first-timer. Parker controls this entire endeavor as writer, director, producer, and also stars as the slave Nat Turner. This is a powerful but sad film, though there is a kernel of hope at its center that Parker tries to work from. Based on a the real-life slave revolt led by Nat Turner in the early 1830s, the film offers incredible acting, but suffers slightly from narrative issues and some muddled thematic material. Of course, Parker takes some poetic license with the actual history, and while some of these help the story, others are more egregious and unnecessary. The most definitive aspect of the film is its profound spirituality, which Parker leans heavily on for dramatic justification of Turner’s rebellion, and also as the source of his leadership. Indeed, this is a film about not only racial injustice, but spiritual deliverance. Parker is sometimes lost with exactly where to focus the rebellious spirit, but these small mistakes cannot mar the overall poignancy of his message.
The Enchanting “Spirited Away” is Miyazaki’s Greatest Animated Film
Today, words are exceedingly lightweight. You can say whatever you like because words are as substantive as foam to us. That’s no more than a reflection of how empty our reality has become. And yet even now, the truth is that words are power. It’s just that we’re meaninglessly drowning in a sea of powerless, vacuous words.
-Hayao Miyazaki, 1999 – Director’s notes for Spirited Away
Classic Review – Antoine Fuqua’s “Training Day” (2001)
To protect the sheep you gotta catch the wolf, and it takes a wolf to catch a wolf.
– Det. Alonzo Harris
No fun when the rabbit has the gun, is it?
– Jake Hoyt
“The Light Between Oceans” is a Juggernaut of Expert Lead Performances
Derek Cianfrance’s post-WWI melodrama, The Light Between Oceans, is a doctorate-level class on film acting from two of the best on-screen performers working today: Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander. Cianfrance adapted the screenplay himself from the acclaimed novel by M.L. Stedman, which ponders those cruel twists of fate that often rain down upon us and how we can respond to them. Do we shut down and isolate ourselves from humanity, or will we allow another to remind us of the wonders of love and life? And to what lengths will we go to provide happiness to those we care about? All of these questions, and far more subtle ones, are explored in The Light Between Oceans, but ultimately this film impresses mostly due to the absurd proficiency of its lead actors.
Toronto International Film Festival Reviews
Hey all! I was fortunate to get a few screeners for some films at the Toronto International Film Festival, courtesy of Courtney Small over at CinemaAxis.com. Here I collect the four reviews and offer a little blurb about the films, including just how much I recommend each one (spoiler alert: I liked all the films, but some more than others).
“De Palma” Overflows with Cool Stories but Lacks Cohesion
Filmmakers Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale, Frances Ha) and Jake Paltrow (The Good Night, Young Ones) must have had mountains of fun making their documentary De Palma. The film is something like enjoying a whiskey next to a famed director and engaging in the best conversation of your life. Baumbach and Paltrow are content to place Brian De Palma in front of the camera, shoot him flat, and let him muse away. Unfortunately, that’s all they really do. So, while some of the stories that De Palma relates are interesting, the ultimate effect is a film that feels like a haphazard collection of thoughts, shot in the most bland style possible. Cinephiles will likely drool throughout at the discussion of filmmaking craft, but unfortunately De Palma holds very little thematic power.
