Movie Review: "The Town"

The Town

Directed by: Ben Affleck
Starring: Ben Affleck, Rebecca Hall, Jeremy Renner,
John Hamm, Blake Lively, and Chris Cooper
Rated: R for strong violence, pervasive language, some sexuality and drug use

Ben Affleck is a better director than actor. In his latest film, The Town, he does both, answering the question of can his good direction turn him into a good actor. (Answer: good enough.) While his sleeper hit Gone Baby Gone was a fantastic morality tale and pretty harsh-yet-good movie overall, his new film seems to lack that quality, although not due to his acting. He's fine enough, and much better than the stale Blake Lively or comical John Hamm. His film simply can't decide what it wants to be. It begins to feel much like Gone Baby Gone, then suddenly turns into a popcorn blockbuster, then splices it between imagery straight from a Boston tourism video. Because of this, The Town comes across quite hypocritically. No matter how much Affleck's character or vision may try to cover it up, he warns and un-romanticizes a life of crime then turns and gives us high-octane action, where innocent police officers are shot and we cheer when robbers get away. It's much like the parent who says to their kid "don't smoke" with a Marlboro hanging from their mouth. Unlike Johnny Depp's Public Enemy film, The Town tries to show Affleck's character's goodness by having him feel bad and fight robbers worse than he, which simply doesn't cut it. It's an entertaining movie, but it could have been better and more emotionally connecting, especially if it would have followed the much more interesting (and superbly performed) character played by Jeremy Renner, or stuck with the whole storyline of trying to cover up their crime while dating the only known witness (now there's a morality tale.) Or, by actually giving a higher view of justice rather than a lower view of integrity. Ben Affleck understands Boston, he just doesn't understand what is good.

Zach's Favorite Film #3

The Prestige

Directed by: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Scarlett Johansson,
Michael Caine, Rebecca Hall
Rated: PG-13 for violence and disturbing images


This dark, mind-boggling story exemplifies the power of pure storytelling and human connection more than any other film I've seen. After all, this is not the best film Chris Nolan has directed: the competitor film The Illusionist has much better cinematography, art direction, soundtrack and, dare I say it, performances than The Prestige. However, The Illuisionist falters in story, while The Prestige simply steals the show with creativity, suspense, and depth that requires the audience to watch and savor it multiple times. It follows two competing magicians (played by Jackman and Bale), whom carry vendetas and obsessions to not only be the best but, more importantly, to best the other. It's a story riddled with twists and turns, loops and riddles, all mixed together in the non-linear brilliance of Chris and John Nolan's storytelling.
But, at it's core, The Prestige is a film about man. Much like Memento, it asks the question "what is life" and comes to a startling-yet-honest conclusion: life is about our existential goals. However, Nolan questions Sarte's theory, and asks at what price must we pay for them? How far will Angier and Borden go in order to hear the crowd roar and confound the other? Would it cost their wealth? Their relationships? Their lives? As always, Nolan parallels society without us ever noticing: is the American businessman who gives 60 hours a week to his job any different than Angier or Borden? Isn't he, too, going to be dissatisfied with his "success" when he compares it to the others around him? Isn't he, too, going to sacrifice his shots at true happiness to simply gain his existential goal? While The Prestige is still a typical dark Nolan film, you can't help but wonder if Borden's question of "are you paying attention" is more so referring to the themes rather than the clues of the story. Either way, it's a magical film and wonderful experience.

Movie Review: "That Evening Sun"

That Evening Sun

Directed by: Scott Teems
Starring: Hal Holbrook, Ray McKinnon, Barry Corbin
Rated: PG-13 for brief strong language, some violence, sexual content, and thematic elements

An indie hit from 2009, That Evening Sun is a perfect caricature of east Tennessee and one of legendary actor Hal Holbrook’s finest performances. Based on a short story by William Gay, That Evening Sun follows Abner Meecham, an old famer who runs away from his old folks home to find his house being rented to the family of Lonzo Choat, a trashy-drunk. When Choat refuses to move out and Meecham refuses to return to the home, a battle of wills begins over the Tennessee farm. First time director Scott Teems (a professing Christian) gives the film a beautiful, literary pace. He also saturates the film with eastern Tennessee culture. Shot in Knoxville, the dialogue, accents, landscape, sets, props, costuming, and even cinematography all capture the culture so well, you can almost feel the Tennessee heat, hear the chatter of the insects, and smell the cheap beer on Choat’s breath.

The acting enforces this: Holbrook’s Meecham is a career performance, but Ray McKinnon’s Choat is also great. Perhaps it was the depth that Teems gives to the characters that allowed them to excel. Although on opposing sides, Meecham and Choat are similar characters, both are fighting others’ expectations, their own inadequacies, and the personal bitterness of their lives. In essence, their looking for redemption. And, without giving anything away, I can tell you this: That Evening Sun is simply that; a redemptive film.

Archive Analysis: "Master and Commander"

Zach's Favorite Film #4

Master and Commander:
The Far Side of the World

Directed by: Peter Weir
Starring: Russel Crowe, Paul Bettany, James D'Arcy
Rated: PG-13 for intense battle sequences, related images, and brief language

The best films are the one’s you can watch multiple times and, each time, walk away appreciating and enjoying different aspects of the film. Peter Weir’s classic Master and Commander certainly fits that description. The story, which follows a British Man-O-War’s attempt to capture a mightier French frigate, is fine enough, but Weir gives us more than just the plot. We’re given an entire cast of deep and interesting characters, most of all Captain Jack Aubrey (Russell Crowe) and Dr. Stephen Maturin (Paul Bettany.) Weir also spends plenty of time simply building the environment and lifestyle of an 1800s Man-O-War. Whether it’s a scene or a simple shot, there is time and effort in the details that capture the culture, dialogue, work, technology, and music of it’s time period. This is enhanced by Russell Boyd’s cinematography, as well as Lee Smith’s Academy Award-winning editing. There is little wonder why the film was nominated for ten Academy Awards; it’s simply that masterful of a film.

Just look at this frame: you could hang it on your wall.

Archive Analysis: "Gladiator" and "Magnolia"

Zach's Favorite Film #5

Gladiator

Directed by: Ridley Scott
Starring: Russel Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Djimon Hounsou, Connie Nielsen
Rated: R for intense, graphic combat
When watching Gladiator for the first time, I remember my jaw hanging open practically the entire two-and-a-half hour run time. I never experienced anything like it before: the high-octane fight scenes, the visual recreation of the Roman empire, the rapid montages of Pietro Scalia, the wonderful performances of Russel Crowe, Djimon Hounsou and the late Oliver Reed, and, especially, the musical score of Hans Zimmer. Although some of these aspects don't hold the same draw as they once did, there is still the boy in me that loves Gladiator, a very simple, formulaic story, filled with glitz, excitement, and action that makes it original and enjoyable. While the messages of honor over revenge and being selfless in life are rather minor, at the least one can walk away from Gladiator with a re-ignited imagination toward the Roman Empire. For me, Gladiator reminds me of why I love the epic genre and allows me to watch a film with eyes sparkling and imagination soaring.

Magnolia

Directed by: Paul Thomas Anderson
Starring: Tom Cruise, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman,
William H. Macy, John C. Reilly,
Rated: R for strong language, drug use, sexuality and some violence

When considering the greatest theistic (almost Christian) films, one probably wouldn't expect to find P.T. Anderson's Magnolia on the list. After all, it has some of the most offensive content in ANY film I've seen, littered with profanities, gross sexual dialogue, and continual drug use. However, no film parallels the gospel more than Magnolia, including most Christian films I've seen. What separates it from other films is it's honest depiction of man's depravity: it's simply nauseating. Each character, while understandable, has specific flaws and, by the end, we've seen the full spectrum. Anderson depicts mankind as lost, confused, disgusting, and wicked, ruining not only their lives, but the lives of others, as well. All the while, Anderson has compassion and pity on them; the characters need saving, from the chauvinistic, sexually driven Frank T.J. Mackey (an fantastic Tom Cruise), to the dying absent father, to his unfaithful and ashamed wife (Julianne Moore), to the just cop (John C. Reilly) who can't live up to his own standards, all are fallen.
While many films depict humanity as such, Anderson actually deals with this; he doesn't have the individuals fix their problems, help each other out, or even find some ulterior meaning or stability in life. It takes a divine, supernatural act to redeem mankind, to turn the stone heart of Frank T.J. Mackey, to save the life of a confused man, to teach the just cop about forgiveness. And that's what Anderson gives us, something so unbelievable, it's supernatural. It's not coincidence, Anderson says; it's something more. Redemption from the heavens, that saves mankind from themselves. Magnolia is not a film for everyone, but does point people toward the right direction, to the only hope we as humanity have.

Archive Analysis: "Memento" and "Mission: Impossible 3"

Zach's Favorite Film #6

Memento

Directed by: Chris Nolan
Starring: Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano
Rated: R for violence, language, and some drug content

How would one live if he couldn’t remember what happened five minutes before? This is what the Chris Nolan (Dark Knight, Prestige, Inception) film Memento deals with; how does your memory shape the meaning and perception of your life. The film (which has some incredibly foul language - beware) follows Leonard (a fabulous Guy Pearce), a man who suffers from extreme short-term memory loss. In order to remember daily details (people, places, things), Leonard take photos, write notes, and tattoo facts of anything he should remember. However, Leonard isn’t only interested in just living life, he is tracking down the person who not only caused his injury, but who also murdered his wife. It’s like a Sherlock Holmes mystery, only the protagonist can’t remember the clues he’s already discovered. In order to simulate this and make us feel what Leonard is going through, Nolan cuts the chronology of the events, moving the story backwards and forwards simultaneously until the climax of the movie connects the two stories together in the end (or middle chronologically) of the movie. Confusing? Absolutely, but more so genius. Nolan defines creativity, giving us an interesting story, interesting storytelling, and interesting themes, as well. Without spoiling the ending, Leonard is a man motivated, not by revenge, justice, or any other virtue, but by meaning. At the end, he says that he has to believe that his actions “still have meaning, even if I can’t remember them.” What keeps Leonard (and most of existential America) going is the notion that we must have meaning for our actions, even if it’s self-determined meaning. Nolan wisely, however, depicts that meaning as falling short for all it’s characters, including Leonard. While not necessarily giving us the biblical alternative, at least the discussion is raised; memory, as important as it is, is something we can do without. Meaning isn’t, and Leonard doesn’t need photos or tattoos to understand that. It’s what makes him human.

And, for fun, here's one of my favorite lines from Memento:

Mission: Impossible 3

Directed by: J.J. Abrams
Starring: Tom Cruise, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Michelle Monaghan
Rated: PG-13 for intense sequences of frenetic violence and menace, disturbing images, and some sensuality.

J.J. Abrams (creator of Lost and the new Star Trek film) has a way of pointing old franchises in the right direction. The third Mission: Impossible film is a great example. While the first film was hardly anything close to being great, the second one (directed by action-junkie John Woo) was just plain ridiculous, giving us more explosions than a Michael Bay film and more impossibilities than we have time to note. Abrams returns the action to some form of reality, without losing the action and excitement that Woo tried to add. He gives us emotional ties to the story (such as the heart-stopping opening scene), a vivid range of colors, some great heist-like scenes, and even one of the best villains I’ve seen in an action movie in a long time, played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman. While certainly far from being a perfect film (or even completely believable) M:I3 is a fun movie, relatively clean, and you don’t have to lose your sense of reality or your film reputation to say it.

Movie Review: "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" (Swedish Film)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
(Swedish Film)

Directed by: Niels Arden Oplev
Starring: Michael Nyqvist, Noomi Rapace
Rated: R for disturbing violent content including rape, grisly images, sexual material, nudity and language

An old proverb says “two wrongs never make a right.” Obviously Stieg Larsson never read that proverb, or else his novel (and the subsequent movie adaptation) The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo would have been drastically different. This book, the first in his posthumous series, has taken the world by storm, already been converted into a Swedish film, and has led to an American adaptation, which is to be directed by David Fincher. The Swedish film (which was recently released on DVD here) is a brutally harsh and grim look at the world and how depraved mankind can fall. It follows Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) a reporter who has fallen from grace, who is hired to investigate a murder, even though it took place more than forty years earlier. To do this, Mikael teams up with the pierced and tattooed punk Lisbeth Salander (an excellent performance by Noomi Rapace) a fascinating female character, who is one of the best researchers and hackers in the world, and harbors no love for rapists and murderers. The movie is an exciting, heart-pounding mystery film, filled with plenty of twists and turns. However, it’s so blatantly heavy and harsh, one becomes familiar with their fast-forward button. It’s a heavy rated R film (like Gone Baby Gone or Last King of Scotland) and you can’t push that aside. This isn’t always bad, since (without spoiling anything) the film deals with people who have become enslaved to grotesque and monstrous sins, some of which are problems in today’s world that, I believe, need to be addressed in films and art. However, that doesn’t mean we have to see everything, either.

The film also fails in its response to this evil. Lisbeth has a key moment where, in a discussion with Mikael, says that not everyone is a victim; some people are just evil. A wise sentiment, especially in today’s society where no one is responsible for their actions. However, Lisbeth’s response to that is to make these evil men suffer, outside the law, channeling her own wickedness to hurt, mutilate, and kill them. While one can understand her actions, it’s incredibly hypocritical; she is not a victim, either; she’s a rapist and murderer, too. And, although her victims are individuals who are far more evil than her, it can’t be separated from the fact that what she is doing is wrong. In a movie that depicts such profound, disgusting wickedness, one is left dissatisfied at calling those who are less-evil as heroes; I would rather have someone good.