Zero Dark Thirty is simple in its idea, a movie about the ten-year search to find and kill Osama Bin Laden, enemy No 1. That's it, and while the synopsis is simple the story is anything but. To understand the gravity of this situation you have to go back to the beginning, when on the 11th of September 2001 a fully booked American airliner crashed into the side of the first Twin Tower. After that everything changed, America most definitely did and so did its citizens. People no longer felt safe in the country they called home, they demanded that the American Government should react and that whoever committed this act of terrorism must be found, and react they did.
It was under this intense pressure from the people demanding justice that began a ten-year long manhunt which ended on the 2nd of May 2011 in Abbottabad, Pakistan. This is where Kathryn Bigelow and her Hurt Locker screenwriter/journalist come in. Their aim with ZD30 is too document and dramatize the events leading up to and eventually the climax of this story.
This is a procedural drama disguised as a thriller, its a film that surrounds characters who sit and stare at computer screens looking for one piece of information that could give them a lead, this is their story and Bigelow tells it brilliantly. Jessica Chastain plays Maya, an idealistic young woman fresh out of highschool and willing to help, we also learn she's a killer at what she does. Throughout the course of the films 2 and a half hour running time this is all we learn about our heroine.
Maya is a blank canvas, as brittle as a child when the film begins and as hard as stone by the time it ends. She is molded by her job and shaped by the journey she is forced to go on. At the beginning the search is simply her assignment, by the end its her obsession, and Chastain plays it brilliantly, she slips into the role with such ease and plays it to perfection that it makes you wonder has there ever been an actress with the same range and versatility of this woman.
Bigelow has always been unafraid of taboo and she proves this once again in her tackling of the horrible treatment and torture of suspected Al-Qaeda members. She never tries to answer the question of if torture is ever acceptable, she only asks it, leaving the viewer to decide.These sequences are grueling and by far the toughest aspect of the film.
Zero Dark Thirty is a film which will infuriate and intrigue audiences evenly, by Bigelow refusing to make a statement about what she thinks of the situation she instead chooses to only show it for what 'it' is. She has crafted a fantastic film here with two hours of engrossing manhunt and then the final 30 minutes, the payoff we have all waited for with baited breath, the storming of the compound. Who would have thought that knowing how it ends can leave you feeling the same tension as if this was simply great fiction.
Chastain should be showered with awards and Bigelow should be commended for her courage, this is simply great film-making.
Monday 28 January 2013
Saturday 26 January 2013
Killing Them Softly: My Review
Business is everything no matter what kind of work your involved in .... Plumber, Doctor, Gangster it all boils down to hard cash or the lack thereof. I'm not sure if i believe this to be completely true but Director Andrew Dominik most certainly does. The Australian on his third feature after the originality and brutality of Chopper and then the somber brilliance of The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford the director reunites with his Jesse James leading man Brad Pitt to film Killing Them Softly.
Dominik's third feature is set in New Orleans in 2008 during Obama's election. This piece of information is very important because the whole film is basically a metaphor for America's own political system, this is where all the problems with the film lie because Dominik does not just make the point but he hammers it home until it feels so blatantly obvious that it becomes more irritating then insightful. Throughout the film TV's and Radios blast out speeches from Obama and Bush and it all starts to grate your patience.
This all sounds quite negative but don't worry the films positives outweigh its problems. This is most evident in the acting, Dominik has knack for getting terrific performance and this feature is no different. Brad Pitt is on fantastic form here as Jackie, a hitman who prefers to take his targets out from a distance to avoid all the touchy-feelings of murder. Then there's Scoot McNairy and Scott Mendelsohn who play two degenerates looking to make a quick buck by robbing Ray Liotta's underground card game. This is why Jackie gets called to sort out the who and why of the robbery.
The film is gorgeously shot which is in contrast to drab and dreary location its set. Dominik is known for his inventive and often genius use of visuals and Killing Them Softly is no exception. One scene involving McNairy and Mendelsohn having a conversation while both being out of their mins on heroin is superbly directed and written, while another scene that involves a brutal murder taking place between two cars with heavy rain pouring down is one of the most memorable of the year, Dominik's use of slow motion, editing and sound design is masterful stuff.
Killing Them Softly is a great third feature from Dominik, he compliments his fantastic cast with his own exceptional directing skills to film this slow-burning, engrossing crime drama with a political message that's too on the nose to be truly effective when all the need is Jackie's final lines to tell the viewer all that needs to be said.
Dominik's third feature is set in New Orleans in 2008 during Obama's election. This piece of information is very important because the whole film is basically a metaphor for America's own political system, this is where all the problems with the film lie because Dominik does not just make the point but he hammers it home until it feels so blatantly obvious that it becomes more irritating then insightful. Throughout the film TV's and Radios blast out speeches from Obama and Bush and it all starts to grate your patience.
This all sounds quite negative but don't worry the films positives outweigh its problems. This is most evident in the acting, Dominik has knack for getting terrific performance and this feature is no different. Brad Pitt is on fantastic form here as Jackie, a hitman who prefers to take his targets out from a distance to avoid all the touchy-feelings of murder. Then there's Scoot McNairy and Scott Mendelsohn who play two degenerates looking to make a quick buck by robbing Ray Liotta's underground card game. This is why Jackie gets called to sort out the who and why of the robbery.
The film is gorgeously shot which is in contrast to drab and dreary location its set. Dominik is known for his inventive and often genius use of visuals and Killing Them Softly is no exception. One scene involving McNairy and Mendelsohn having a conversation while both being out of their mins on heroin is superbly directed and written, while another scene that involves a brutal murder taking place between two cars with heavy rain pouring down is one of the most memorable of the year, Dominik's use of slow motion, editing and sound design is masterful stuff.
Killing Them Softly is a great third feature from Dominik, he compliments his fantastic cast with his own exceptional directing skills to film this slow-burning, engrossing crime drama with a political message that's too on the nose to be truly effective when all the need is Jackie's final lines to tell the viewer all that needs to be said.
Saturday 12 January 2013
Seven Psychopaths: My Review
Seven Psychopaths starts very simply, two hitmen, Michael Pitt and Michael Stuhlbarg to be exact are having a conversation about how the infamous bank-robber John Dillinger died. As this conservation continues we begin to make out a figure approaching the two men. What happens next perfectly establishes the brutally bloody and always funny tone of Seven Psychopaths.
Psychopaths is Martin McDonagh's second feature as a writer-director. His first stab into the medium was 2008's instant cult classic 'In Bruges' a film which reignited star Colin Farrell's career and introduced to the world a completely original and exciting new directorial voice. Bruges had everything, memorable characters, bloody violence, laugh out loud comedy and some of the best writing to be seen since Tarantino first introduced us to Mr Pink.
Bruges is a tough act to follow but McDonagh gives it a damn good shot. Colin Farrell is once again the central character in this piece, he plays Marty, an alcoholic-writer who has the title Seven Psychopaths but not one word on a page. His intention is to write a film with psychopaths but make it about peace and love. This is a problem for his best friend Billy played by Sam Rockwell, Billy's in the dog kidnapping business and wants to co-write the screenplay with Marty.Billy wants to see a movie about psychopaths killing each other that ends with a shoot-out in his own way.
The story seems quite simple so far but trust me its not, Billy steals dogs with his partner in crime Han's played by the brilliant Christopher Walken, they have made quite a lucrative business out of their partnership but when Billy steals local gangster Charlie's(Woody Harrellson) beloved Shih Tzu things go from bad to worse.
Its after these events that Psychopaths really takes off. McDonagh does not restrict himself to telling you're ordinary crime-comedy, no he has too much imagination for that. He makes every character memorable, they all come with their own niches. He constructs and deconstructs the tropes of a run of the mill crime movie by making sure his own is anything but.
This is very much a 21's century, post-modernist film with one scene involving Hans telling Marty he writes awful female characters, Marty's response is that its a tough world for women, but this no excuse. We know as watchers that McDonagh inserted this conversation to cover his tracks as his screenplay mirroring Marty's own also has completely redundant females. But its hard to excuse McDonagh when you know he can do better then that.
Psychopath's seems to have it all but is missing the key ingredient which made Bruges such a masterpiece..... heart. Psychopaths is more shallow then its predecessor, its comedy is more broad and its violence less affecting, played for laughs rather then drama. Seven Psychopaths is a surreal, violent, entertaining ride, its just a shame its not a personal one.
Psychopaths is Martin McDonagh's second feature as a writer-director. His first stab into the medium was 2008's instant cult classic 'In Bruges' a film which reignited star Colin Farrell's career and introduced to the world a completely original and exciting new directorial voice. Bruges had everything, memorable characters, bloody violence, laugh out loud comedy and some of the best writing to be seen since Tarantino first introduced us to Mr Pink.
Bruges is a tough act to follow but McDonagh gives it a damn good shot. Colin Farrell is once again the central character in this piece, he plays Marty, an alcoholic-writer who has the title Seven Psychopaths but not one word on a page. His intention is to write a film with psychopaths but make it about peace and love. This is a problem for his best friend Billy played by Sam Rockwell, Billy's in the dog kidnapping business and wants to co-write the screenplay with Marty.Billy wants to see a movie about psychopaths killing each other that ends with a shoot-out in his own way.
The story seems quite simple so far but trust me its not, Billy steals dogs with his partner in crime Han's played by the brilliant Christopher Walken, they have made quite a lucrative business out of their partnership but when Billy steals local gangster Charlie's(Woody Harrellson) beloved Shih Tzu things go from bad to worse.
Its after these events that Psychopaths really takes off. McDonagh does not restrict himself to telling you're ordinary crime-comedy, no he has too much imagination for that. He makes every character memorable, they all come with their own niches. He constructs and deconstructs the tropes of a run of the mill crime movie by making sure his own is anything but.
This is very much a 21's century, post-modernist film with one scene involving Hans telling Marty he writes awful female characters, Marty's response is that its a tough world for women, but this no excuse. We know as watchers that McDonagh inserted this conversation to cover his tracks as his screenplay mirroring Marty's own also has completely redundant females. But its hard to excuse McDonagh when you know he can do better then that.
Psychopath's seems to have it all but is missing the key ingredient which made Bruges such a masterpiece..... heart. Psychopaths is more shallow then its predecessor, its comedy is more broad and its violence less affecting, played for laughs rather then drama. Seven Psychopaths is a surreal, violent, entertaining ride, its just a shame its not a personal one.
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