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
Classic Review – Antoine Fuqua’s “Training Day” (2001)
Drama
David Mackenzie Dazzles with “Hell or High Water”, a Deliberate and Astonishing Western Heist Film
David Mackenzie’s Hell or High Water is a wonderful modern Western film with the added flavor of a noir-heist. It is also wildly funny in subtle and smart ways but isn’t above low-brow pot shots, either. The performances from all four leads are superb and myriad character actors flesh out the environment. Finally, the film sports a fantastic plot that unravels at a deliberate pace and has a lot of surprises up its sleeves. It is like a slice of West Texas on screen, from the cattle wranglers to the gun-toting vigilantes. Hell or High Water is a potent piece of cinema, and will likely end up as one of the strongest films of 2016.
“Sing Street” – a Great Modern Musical with Heart
Leaning heavily on his music video roots, John Carney has concocted a captivating coming-of-age story in Sing Street. Though populated by a cadre of lesser-known actors, there are solid performances all around, and absolutely wonderful musical pieces. It is tangentially reminiscent of a small-scope Almost Famous, complete with a young man exploring the world of music, but in this case it is as a creator and not as a journalist. Further, Sing Street is much more family-life focused, and there is a decided follow-your-dreams lean to the theme of the film. But the undoubted strength of the film is its employment of music. Carney uses music for everything: characterization, relationship-building, thematic statements, and much, much more. Plus, the pieces are drop-dead fantastic, and the majority of the score is diegetic, which aids the realism of the film. Taken together, it is clear that Sing Street will contend with the very best films of 2016.
“Don’t Think Twice”: Mike Birbiglia’s Masterful Exploration of Adult Relationships through Improv Comedy
Don’t Think Twice is a modern and innovative look at success, creative ruts, and the inevitability of changing aspirations, relationships, and lives. It is part celebration of the peculiar performance art that is improv comedy and part discussion of the ebb-and-flow that a group of friends experience at the sudden success of one member of the troupe – and only one member. The film was written and directed by Mike Birbiglia and sports a number of wonderful characters, meaningful relationships, and an awkward collection of real-world stakes. It is not preoccupied with promoting its own answers for how these relationships should be, but is instead comfortable simply raising the complications and basking in the ennui generated by modern relationships. The outcome is a complex exploration of friendship, jealousy, and the pursuit of passion.
“Jack Strong” – A Nearly Perfect Cold War Spy Film
Quietly and without fanfare, Polish writer/director Wladyslaw Pasikowski has crafted an historical spy film for the ages. Jack Strong rivals the very best spy films of the decade – from Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy to Skyfall. The film dramatizes the life and actions of one of the most high-impact spies during the Cold War, the polish colonel Ryszard Kuklinski, who over the course of a decade provided over 35,000 pages of sensitive Soviet information to the Americans. Impressively, Jack Strong isn’t simply a circuitous celebration of tradecraft and cloak-and-dagger, either. It delves further into the emotional and personal costs of the spy life than almost any spy film I have ever seen, detailing the damage that Kuklinski’s actions have on his family, friends, and colleagues. The end product is a three-dimensional spy film that doesn’t resort to action set pieces or large explosions to capture the attention of the audience. Thus, despite being relatively unknown, Jack Strong is an unequivocal example of the perfect Cold War spy film.
“Trumbo” Showcases the Talents of Cranston and Fanning, but Feels Beyond Its Length
Trumbo, from veteran comedy director Jay Roach (Meet the Parents and Austin Powers series), is based on the true story of the blacklisted screenwriter during an era of anti-Communism. In an academy-award nominated performance, Bryan Cranston portrays the eponymous writer throughout the late 1940s and 1950s during a time when the “Red Scare” permeated Hollywood. Though the film feels overlong due to some meandering subplots, and a few of the characters distract from the overall story, this is a solid historical drama. Cranston is undoubtedly the major attraction, but the overall themes of the story remain poignant to this day.
The Foreclosure-Focused “99 Homes” Succeeds by Leveraging Powerful Performances Both Large and Small
Ramin Bahrani’s 2014 film 99 homes is yet another spectacular film to come out involving a plot inspired by the financial crisis of the late 2000s. Instead of focusing on the macro-level of the crisis like Margin Call or The Big Short, 99 Homes is a more personal story favoring Main Street over Wall Street. Hence, the narrative follows the families that lost their homes to bank foreclosures following the collapse of the housing market. A key player in this story is a real estate agent named Rick Carver (Michael Shannon), who knows every angle and never saw a shady deal he didn’t like. Set against him is the protagonist of the story, Dennis Nash (Andrew Garfield), who is one of the “victims” of the foreclosures. But, ultimately this is a film about financial hardship and the lengths that an honest man will go to in order to provide for his family. It is about integrity in the face of hunger and failure, and the opportunism that emerges in the environment surrounding a profoundly rigged game.
Justin Kurzel Adapts “Macbeth” by Adding Grim Details to The Bard’s Classic Tragedy
Shakespeare’s story of the Scottish king Macbeth is over 400 years old, and the story it is based upon dates back a further six centuries. Thus, it is important for storytellers to bring something new to the familiar tale of corruption, power, and guilt. Fortunately, Justin Kurzel’s version starring Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard as the titular characters is up to the task of providing a fresh take. Three major departures from the bard’s text are crucial for informing this discussion: the presence of the Baby Macbeth, the characterization of the Witches and the mystical forces in general, and a re-interpretation of the famous conclusion. With these tweaks in mind, we will see how Kurzel offers a much darker and more cynical view of Macbeth than most film-makers.
Jon Favreau’s “The Jungle Book” Enhances the Animation, Plot, and Theme of the 1967 Original
Though Disney’s live-action adaptations of their traditional animated stories have been a mixed bag so far, Jon Favreau and company have delivered a surprising gem in The Jungle Book. Like other adaptations, this film is certainly a re-make of the original and contains many of the same thematic elements, but some unique nuances add a great deal to the overall quality of the film. Though the movie is not without its faults, it is vastly superior to the animated version from 1967 in almost every way: it has a stronger sense of character development, a more coherent plot-theme, and even sports higher-quality animation. This is hands-down the best of Disney’s recent live-action adaptations.
“The Lobster”: A Sardonic Defense of Romantic Choice
The very best satire establishes absurdity as commonplace, and Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos’ first English-language feature film The Lobster is a fascinating example. Winner of the Jury Prize at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, this dark romantic comedy imagines a dystopia where single people are sent to a hotel and given 45 days to find a new partner. Should they fail, they are transformed into an animal of their choosing and released into the wild. Some attendees don’t wait that long, and escape into the bordering forest to live in a kind of fugitive singleness. The Lobster viciously jests through this dichotomy, exploring the nature of relationships and how societal pressures can paradoxically be the cause of both settling and celibacy.