Lawless: My Review

The Bondurant brothers of  Franklin County, Virginia. Famous for their Moonshine and infamous for their brutality. Three men who became legends among bootleggers for being willing to go further then anyone else to achieve their goals. The brothers are Jack(Shia LaBeouf) the youngest of the three, Howard(Jason Clarke) the oldest and a drunk who drinks more then his fair share of the supply, and finally Forrest(Tom Hardy) the muscle of the group, a hulking beast of a man who walks slowly and mumbles his words but when it comes to violence you see he is just a tightly wrapped spring ready to pounce at any minute.

The brothers have a very successful business in producing and selling Moonshine during the prohibition era, this all changes when Charlie Rakes(Guy Pierce) of Chicago comes to put a stop to the brothers lucrative business. He is a special deputy (a point which he makes clear several times throughout the film) and he too wants a cut of the towns illegal gains, unlike the rest of the towns bootleggers Forrest refuses to conform to Rakes demands because of the principal. 
This starts a chain reaction which results in the spilling of much blood on either side of the law.

This is director John Hillcoat's third film and his second with singer-songwriter Nick Cave on script duties after their 2005 western masterpiece 'The Proposition'. Hillcoat is a very talented director, he brings a rough, physical edge to all his features and has gotten together another great cast to film 'Lawless'.

All of these positives point to Hillcoat going three for three in terms of his filmography, but 'Lawless' never reaches the stunning heights of 'The Proposition' or 'The Road', most of the blame for this has to go to Cave who spends to much time on the cliche ridden romance between Jack and local girl Bertha(Mia Wasikowska), these portions feel like the type of film we've seen thousands of times before. Cave should instead have focused on the complicated but always interesting relationship between Jack and Forrest, with the former wanting his brothers admiration and the older worried he will fall into the same cycle of violence that he has.

Jessica Chastain is brought into the film as a mediator and a potential love interest but is severely underused, an actress of her considerable talents should not be given such light-weight materiel when we have seen her in tough but brilliant roles like 'Take Shelter', but the most shocking use of any actor of the whole year has to be Gary Oldman who shows up for a pitiful two scenes in the first half and is never seen again.

'Lawless' does have a several good performances, especially notable are Shia LaBeouf who gives his best performance in years and reminds us that he can actually act, another star here is Tom Hardy an actor who has yet to disappoint  and proves himself once again to be one of the most compelling actors of his generation with his performance as Forrest, a conflicted, tortured man who see's violence as the only way to resolve his problems. The real star of the show here is Pierce who plays Rakes to perfection by not overstepping the line and falling into pantomime. Rakes is a despicable creature, with his shaved eyebrows and parted hair he always keeps up a tangible air of creepiness, you know this a man who is willing to commit horrible deeds in order to satisfy himself.

'Lawless' is a brutally violent, well acted western. A film which is quite similar in style to HBO's 'Boardwalk Empire' but does not match up in substance. Its let down by a week ending which serves to undo all the good work which came before it. A good but flawed third feature from Hillcoat.    

END OF WATCH: My Review

'End Of Watch' is David Ayer's third feature as a director and most definitely his best. After cutting his teeth writing tough cop films like 'Training  Day' he finally made his way behind the camera with the interesting but not very memorable 'Harsh Time's' a film which is best known for its great performance from Christian Bale in the lead role.

'Watch' is a very different beast to Ayers first two films, it follows the lives of two cops working the beat in mean streets of South Central, California. The two cops are officer Taylor  and officer Zavala, the former is played by Jake Gyllenhaal and the latter is played by Michael Peña.

 The two men are best friends and feel like they have known each other for decades. Their relationship is key to the success of the movie because their fantastic chemistry helps them perform some of the funniest dialogue of the year which helps this to be funnier then any big-studio comedy out this year. This chemistry is also crucial in the films more dramatic scenes.

In most cop movies along these lines  the main driving force of the plot is the grey area which exists   were police officers are forced to act like criminals in order to fulfill their duties. In 'Watch' the line is split down the middle CopsVSCriminals is GoodVSBad. There is never any doubt about whether our antagonists actions are honorable our not, they are simply doing their job in the best of their ability, in the worst environment imaginable.

The only blunder Ayer has made is by choosing to shoot all of the film in the style of found footage, this is explained at the start by Taylor proclaiming to the camera that he is taking a film studies and that is why he is documenting everything. That is fine as an explanation but it falls apart when the same POV style is used in shots would be impossible for Taylor to film. This style can become irritating when all you is a viewer want do is watch the performances and not be distracted by the consistently changing point of view.

The movie also spends too much time on a gang of wannabe gangsters who develop an unhealthy interest in our two anti-heroes. These are the only parts of the feature that fall into the land of stereo-types and detract from the grittily-realistic tone of the rest of the film.

'End Of Watch' is the type of cop film we don't get anymore, it manages to combine sections of genuine humor with moments of scarily real humanity. Its gut punch of an ending is heartbreaking cinema that will leave you stunned and satisfied. Ayer has made fantastic film with this and has gotten two of the years best performance out of his leads and despite a few niggles has created a mini-masterpiece.      

Kendrick Lamar Good Kid M.A.A.d City: My Review

Kendrick Lamar is different, that's simply a fact.He started pretty normally, free-styling with his friends then moving on to recording his first mixtape.Then last year he dropped "Section 80", an "ITunes" only release which generated plenty of buzz for the 25 year old.In the same year he signed with "Dr Dre's" "Aftermath" records and started to gain the attention of big names in the industry.

Fast forward to 2012 and the Compton-born rapper is releasing his full length debut album, and its a keeper.Lamar has made a rap record different to any other this year, this is concept album through and through.In an age where the paying public dismiss any record that doesn't satisfy them on a completely superficial level. The southern rapper "2Chainz" also released his debut this year, and by putting the albums side-by-side you really start to notice a difference.

Where "2Chainz" is a all about the image, Kendrick is all about the storytelling.The former relies upon immature punchlines while the latter builds a three-dimensional living breathing world around the listener."2Chainz" is stuck in the dinosaur age of rap, his three most common topics are 'Money,Weed and Bitches' but enough about him.

This is Kendrick's show he deserves every five-star review he gets because G.K.M.C. is simply a masterpiece, be it sonically or lyrically, he excels at both. He can make a song featuring "Drake" not sound commercial and a 12 minute epic approachable.He writes realistic characters doing sometimes painfully realistic things.

This is a Hip-Hop album at its most interesting, fantastic production backed up by even better lyrics.Lamar is the listeners eyes and ears as he paints a disturbingly real portrait of Compton, a place where Kendrick and his friends ride around in his moms beat up Mini-Van, looking for houses to rob and girls to screw. They live there lives in the constant haze of weed and alcohol, and only worry about their next blunt.

This is where Lamar excels, describing himself as the one good kid caught up in a very "Maad" city.He constantly changes the tone of his voice and speed of his rapping to give the listener a better understanding of the emotions.

With G.K.M.C, Kendrick has done the impossible,  he created a  genuinely interesting Hip-Hop record in year saturated with crushingly shallow records by half-assed so called artists.Make no mistake, if you only pick up one rap record this year, make it this.     

Margin Call: My Review

In 2008 everything went wrong, the stock market crashed and all hell broke loose. It was the first the first time people started to hear the dreaded "R" word ... Recession but it was most certainly not the last. Jobs were lost and so were many lives as the shockwaves of the crash started to infest each country like a cancer. Prices skyrocketed as banks shut their doors on the millions of people who had entrusted them with their money.

The 24 hours leading up to this meltdown is where debut director  J.C.Chandor has decided to set his first feature. The film opens with the gutting of an office that will soon be inexorably linked with the collapse. One of the employees being let go is Eric Dale played by Stanley Tucci, hes the risk assessment manager of the firm and is deemed to be no longer necessary to the running of the company. On his way out the door he hands a USB key to his subordinate Peter Sullivan played by Star Treks Zachary Quinto. He leaves Sullivan with the short warning of "be careful".

  When Quinto plugs in the USB key he discovers something that will change his firm and America forever. He then informs his boss played by Paul Bettany of his findings and from there the news begins to travel up the pipeline until its reaches the head honcho of the company John Tuld played by the wonderful Jeremy Irons. The firm is then put to the task of selling all of its stock before anyone realizes how worthless it really is.

Kevin Spacey is then introduced as the moral compass of the film knowing what him and his firm are doing and trying to explain that it will save them now but it will destroy the company in the long run.

 The film is a great ensemble piece with everyone putting in some of there finest work of the decade. The script is superb with killer lines of dialogue being traded throughout, especially great are Paul Bettanys and Jeremy Irons performances with the former making us wonder why he wasted his time on big-budget, CGI- filled nonsense when he is obviously more suited and interested in this type of work, and the former reminding us why he is one of England's finest exports and one the most intelligent actors working today.

The film manages to humanize the type of people who are demonized in the press day in and day out, it exists   in a grey area giving enough character moments to make us at least understand why they did what they did. The film is boosted by some excellent cinematography which helps to further the ominous tone that urrounds the film. This culminates in the third act which shows the level of deception that was going on behind the scenes. Once Paul Bettany utters the line "My loss is your gain" you know immediately what devastation is about to follow.

It is a timely feature which would work as a great companion piece 'Wall Street' as they both show the opposite ends of the spectrum in the business world. These are the people who's job it is to predict outcomes and the film shows what can happen when they get it wrong.

Margin Call is a near-perfect film with superb performances all round, great direction and a brilliant screenplay. This is intelligent film-making at its very finest.

ARGO: MY REVIEW

Argo is Ben Afflecks third feature as a director, and with it he establishes himself as one of the most consistent mainstream drama directors working in America today. His other two features 'Gone Baby Gone' and 'The Town' were both set in his hometown of Boston, a place he knows like the back of his hand and had a much simpler time shooting there compared to his latest film.

With Argo Affleck gives himself his biggest challenge yet with story that has so much more scope and ambition then his last films. Argo is based on a true story, and that information is vital to know before going in . If you viewed it without prior knowledge you could simply pass it off as biased pro-American nonsense, but every important scene in this film did happen. You only have to type it into your search box to read it yourself.

Argo starts off with an unnamed narrator filling in the backstory  on all the events that you are going to witness in its two hour running time. Its very simple, 6 american fugitives have taken refuge in a Canadian embassy while Iran is under siege from its citizens who are baying for the blood of their ex-president who has fled the country, and its up to the CIA to get them out.

Ben Affleck is Tony Mendez, a CIA operative who's job it is is to get the fugitives out of the country. His 'Best Bad Idea' is to pretend that him and the fugitives are a Canadian film crew scouting locations for a science-fiction epic called Argo. Along the way he recruits the great double act of John Goodman and Alan Arkin as two Hollywood insiders to help him make his fake movie seem believable.

There's also excellent support from Bryan Cranston and Chris Messina who lead up the CIA strand of the plot. Affleck has rounded up a great cast and there all on top form with no one letting themselves down. The movie shifts tonally several times wit starting out as hostage drama-then comic relief in Hollywood-and finally a tense thriller in the final stretch.

However the film is not perfect, it doesn't always grip you in the way a movie like this should and it never feels like the stakes are that high. If you find yourself not caring about certain characters you will start to lose interest.

Overall Affleck has managed to make a highly enjoyable, always entertaining but not always perfect thriller.   

YOUNG ADULT: MY REVIEW

Mavis Gary is an alcoholic that much is clear, she’s also a neurotic, self-obsessed bitch and we’re meant to sympathize with her. Mavis is played by Charlize Theron who establishes herself with this role as one of the most talented actresses working today.

Mavis writes teenage romance novels but they are not about vampires. The series is on its last legs and Mavis is being hounded by her publisher to give them a first draft. Mavis has gone back to her hometown of Mercury in search of the boy she lost, his name is Buddy Slade and he’s played by the endearingly earnest Patrick Wilson. When Buddy and Mavis were in high-school together they were inseparable. Fast forward twenty years later and Buddy is married with a newborn baby.

When Mavis finally sees Buddy she thinks his wife has taken away the life that was always rightfully hers. When Mavis finally gets into town she meets Matt Freehauf played by Patton Oswalt in his best role yet as a disabled local man who lives with his sister, paints figurines and distills his own toxic alcohol. Matt is quick to tell Mavis that she had a locker beside him for the entirety of high-school and never noticed him.

In Matt, Mavis meets her match with a person who hates as many things as she does and at the start of the picture they seem like polar opposites but as the story progresses you begin to see how similar they really are.

The film is directed by Jason Reitman, who on his fourth feature has established himself to be a very confident director of blackly comic, independent feature films. The screenplay was written by Diablo Cody who after first collaborating with Reitman on the wonderful Juno returns with a script that bites even harder and is more emotionally engaging then Juno MaGuffs baby trouble ever could be.

The comedy is at times laugh-out-loud and others cringe inducingly painful. One scene in particular set at a baby naming ceremony goes from absolutely hilarious to difficult to watch in a matter of seconds.

All of the cast are at the top of their game and the fact that a film as good as 'Young Adult' got snubbed entirely during awards season is a real shame for such a well-made, powerfully acted film.

SKYFALL REVIEW

Skyfall is a peculiar Bond film, but not completely, it retains all the series staples, the guns,girls and gadgets but puts such a fresh spin on them they hardly feel like staples at all. Much of the credit has to go to Sam Mendes. He was always a strange choice to begin with, with his theater background and art-house tendencies but one thing he is renowned for is getting the very best out of his actors and this is very much the case for Bonds 23rd outing.

Daniel Craig returns to don the Tom Ford once again in his third go at the role of the suave super-agent. One thing Craig brings to the role which no other previous actor could do is bring an air of gritty realism to a man who having gone through everything he has would be irreversibly damaged and Craig makes you believe it with every furrowed line in his weathered face.

Mendes has gathered together a superb cast to support Craig with the likes of Ralph Fiennes, Naomi Harris, Ben Whishaw and Dame Jude Dench all bringing their considerable talents to small but integral roles in the plot. The real star of the show here is Javier Bardem, who after chilling you with his role as a psychopath in the Coen brothers 'No Country For Old Men' returns to what hes best at playing the first great Bond villain of this century. His introductory scene deserves to be re-watched as he channels a psycho-sexual violence and goes on to emasculate Bond simply using his computer and a few choice words.

Roger Deakins is Mendes frequent collaborator returns and shoots what is most likely the most gorgeous Bond film ever put on celluloid. The third act which takes places place entirely in the Scottish Highlands looks breathtaking through Deakins camera.

The film is a stunning return to form after the disappointing 'Quantum Of Solace' it manages to combine the darker more grown up feel of 'Casino Royale' with the over the top fun which has been missing from Bond of late.The script is strong and keeps your involved throughout and you never feel time is dragging through its 2 hour and 25 minute running time. The credit should go to Mendes who manages to make the most fun and entertaining  Bond yet and leaves a very difficult job for whichever director has to follow up this.              

        

DONNIE DARKO : MY REVIEW

28 days....6 hours....42 minutes....12 seconds, this is all the time Donnie Darko has left until the world as he knows it ends forever. Donnie is not you normal 16 year old, he is introverted, medicated and stalked by a 6 foot tall bunny rabbit in his dreams called Frank, who warns Donnie of the oncoming Apocalypse. Donnie lives in a white American town called Middlesex which is a definition of suburbia.

 This is the place where first time writer-director Richard Kelly decided to set his cult masterpiece claiming it was very similar to the world he grew up in. The movie is set in 1988 on the eve of Halloween. Kelly assembled an incredible cast for his debut with the wonderful Jake Gyllenhaal as the titular anti-hero of the piece giving an incredibly nuanced performance using just the tilt of his head to make him feel charming or intimidating in equal measure, the film also boasts the talents of the late Patrick Swayze as Jim Cunningham as the towns resident self help guru with a dirty secret, also in the cast is Drew Barrymore playing Donnie's rebellious English teacher and Donnie's parents played brilliantly by Mary McDonnell and Holmes Osborne.

In the course of the film Donnie meets Jena Malone's Gretchen Ross a similarly odd and confused young girl who is attracted to Donnie through his quirks. The film contains a great eighties soundtrack with everything from Echo and the Bunnymen to Joy Division. The film is most definitely Richard Kelly’s who balances Donnie's apparent descent into madness with the satirical quality of the self help videos that appear throughout the film.

 The film is cult classic with an endless amount of lines to quote and several images stick in your memory for the foreseeable future, the film is brilliantly layered with themes of madness, time-travel, religion and the state of modern America. The film can viewed many times and there are moments where it is up to the viewer to the decide what happens, this is most evident in the films enigma of an ending which requires several viewings before the average viewer can give a proper answer on what they think really happens in the third act. The film is a masterpiece in modern film-making and deserves its place as one of the most discussed films of the decade.

ILL MANORS:My Review

WE ARE ALL PRODUCTS OF OUR ENVIRONMENT

Forest Gate, London summer 2010, England was in flames as thousands of angry young youths raced through city streets looting shops and burning down houses. These images were broadcasted worldwide as these young people were dubbed as 'chavs and scum' by the tabloid hunting newspapers. There was public outrage nationwide as people called for these young people to be put in jail.

Fast forward to 2012 and you will see Ben Drew's A.K.A Plan B'S debut feature the aptly titled Ill Manors. Drew's aim is to pull back the curtain and show how these people came from innocent children to thieving arsonists. His aim is to get to the core of the problem where people stop reading the sensationalist headlines and to start looking at the deeper more inherent problems in British youth culture.

He achieves this by showing Forest Gate his hometown as a type of hell on earth with its inhabitants being a cast of drug dealers, prostitutes, illegal immigrants and crack addicts. Manors is as bleak as it gets with one scene involving a prostitute named Michelle being pimped out to an entire street of kebab shop owners in order to pay back a drug dealers stolen phone.

Drew never lets his film fall into unbelievable levels of grimness as he peppers the dialogue with sly dark moments of humor. Drew keeps his film stylistically interesting and prevents it from falling in with the slew of other generic British gangsters thrillers. The opening credits in particular establish the film to be of a higher quality.

The film is in some ways cinemas first Hip-hop musical with Drew rapping over the images of his characters and filling in all the necessary background details. The films influences are clear with one scene especially giving homage to Martin Scorsese's seminal 1980s masterpiece Taxi Driver.

The performances as whole are absolutely brilliant with nearly the entirety of the cast being newcomers all give refreshingly authentic performances.

Ill Manors is an eye opener to all of middle-class England who rush to demonize these kids before they know anything about their background and Drew establishes himself to be one of the most interesting new talents in British film-making.

                                              

LOOPER: MY REVIEW

Time travel, one the trickiest subjects to pull off no matter what medium your presenting it in. It should come as no surprise that Rian Johnson decided to write his third feature film by completely upping shop and trying his hand at an entirely new genre. Looper is set in the future in the year 2042. Our protagonist is Joseph Gordon (on a continuous winning streak)Levitt plays Joe. He is hitman who disposes of hooded victims sent by gangsters of the future by blowing them away with his retro-futuristic shotgun.
 Joe leads a hedonistic lifestyle with him being addicted to a drug that he pours into his tear duct,he drives a vintage car and visits a strip-club on a regular basis while he eyes up his favorite go-go girl.One day Joe's best friend played by (There Will Be Bloods) Paul Dano makes a terrible decision that leaves you with a scene that is like something from a Saw movie but leaving just your imagination to fill in the gaps.
What happens after that scene propels the movie down into a maze of bloody action and intelligent dialogue. Bruce Willis is soon introduced and all though at the start of the movie  his performance feeling a little lazy and phoned in he quickly warms to the role and is on par with everyone else.

The film is terrifically cast with great supporting roles from Bricks Noah Seagan and always great to see him Jeff Daniels who was sent from the future to keep a handle on all the loopers in his employment. Particular mention should go to Emily Blunt who plays a take-no-prisoners country girl who will stop at nothing to protect her son and her ranch. The film though is most certainly Levitts who had to go through two hours of make up and prosthetics to play a believably younger version of Willis, he has clearly studied the mans filmography and has his jaw set to the appropriate position and has his voice lowered enough to believe it could end up sounding like Willis gruff tones.    
                                                                         

JGL as Loopers Joe

The film is expertly directed by Johnson who only on his third feature has carved out a reputation from himself for being on of the most interesting writer-directors working today. The cinematography is also excellent with several shots sticking in the mid long after you leave the cinema. The walks the fine line of not losing itself to the complexity of the subject and not spending an unwelcome amount of time on its characters. Throughout you are always entertained and engaged with the film managing to appeal to your heart and brain for the duration of the two hour running time