Film Reviews by GI

William H. Macy's directorial debut is a moving and committed drama about grief that has a sudden plot twist that changes the film into one that delves into a particularly American tragedy. Billy Crudup excels here as the successful advertising executive, Sam, whose life is thrown upside down by the sudden death of his student son. Falling into alcoholism he retreats to a life of isolation. But after two years he is given a set of recordings which are his son's songs and they are surprisingly good. Through an 'Open Mic' session in a local bar he unites with a young musician, Quentin (Anton Yelchin), they bond and form a band with Sam's son's songs the centrepiece of their act. He begins to find a sense of life again until a dark truth comes back to haunt him. An emotional film that will divide audiences over the strong tonal shift as the story unfolds but ultimately a well performed and interesting drama that is worth checking out. Laurence Fishburne and singer Selena Gomez have supporting roles.

This overly long, often tedious and with some quite bad acting western is redeemed by the stunning cinematography of the late Halyna Hutchins with its stunning richness even in the dark and gloomy interiors as well as the revelations of the wide vista of the countryside. It's reminiscent of John Ford's eye and the work of Clint Eastwood. Indeed Eastwood's contribution to the western especially since the mid 70s is homaged here as well as some imagery that recalls Sergio Leone. The film is let down by a slow paced story and one that has kinda been almost overdone in the western genre. That is the curmudgeonly and violent elder that returns to save a younger member of the family. John Wayne excelled in this role and Big Jake (1971) is an example and there are references to The Searchers (1956) to be seen in this film. Alec Baldwin (in what appears to be a passion piece) plays the title character who arrives to save his grandson from the gallows. They are forced to flee towards Mexico pursued by the law and an assortment of bounty hunters and chancers after the reward. The trouble with this film is that it's unevenly paced, Baldwin doesn't exude the character needed for the role of the ex-outlaw with a reputation. Eastwood had this, Wayne had this and even Jeff Bridges in True Grit (2010) had this, but Baldwin seems too cursory and lightweight to carry it off. The only solid performance is Josh Hopkins as the grieving lawman who leads the chase. It's worth a look if you're a western aficionado but overall this is a disappointing film.

With it's graphic sex scenes this drama that thematically looks at the issue of desire is a slow, somewhat tedious experience and seems to attempt to formulate the idea that literally everyone is thinking about sex the entire time and often unable to attain sexual pleasure. The story focuses on Cécile (Déborah Révy), a young woman grieving for her recently deceased father, who seeks to have somewhat bizarre sexual encounters with just about everyone she meets. A side plot involves Alice (Hélène Rimmer), a repressed young woman obsessed with a local boy but unable or unwilling to commit to a full relationship. These two main characters eventually meet up with Cécile basically curing everyone's sexual problems. It's ultimately a boring film interspersed with sex scenes and other than an example of explicit sex filtering into mainstream cinema it's instantly forgettable.

The belated third in what is looking like a series forming. If that's the case there's going to be a need for some change in direction because here we have a rehash of the same type of stories from the first films. The convoluted plotting with a major set piece 'magical' sequence to sort out the baddie and along the way loads, and I literally mean loads, of exposition to fill in the plot. This makes the film seem dull and directed at an audience that is presumed to be not paying attention. What started as Four Horsemen is now a whole host of them, new and old. They all form up to take down Rosamund Pike's South African diamond dealer who funds terrorism etc around the world for her own profit etc etc. You know how it all ends because that's what's happened in the two previous films. There is much more of a Harry Potter meets Indiana Jones meets Mission Impossible in evidence in this film and whilst it's all presented very well it's a hackneyed story with little that's new or that seems original. I think it's time to move on.

An overly complicated plot dulls this big budget sequel. It's visually spectacular and all very Mission Impossible in its styling but it suffers from the need to be bigger and more convoluted than the first film. The cast are having great time and the magic tricks are the best part of course. Over all though it's a disappointing sequel mainly as the story is a bit hackneyed and too obvious. The Four Horsemen are on the run and in hiding after the events of the first film with one of them now replaced (new character Lula played by Lizzy Caplan as Isla Fisher was unavailable to return). Mark Ruffalo's FBI agent, but really the fifth Horseman, pretends to be looking for them but all the while there's a devilish revenge plot by Michael Caine's villain from Film No.1 aided by his son played by Daniel Radcliffe. There's some neat set pieces especially one in a very secure vault but part of these film's trademarks is that nothing is at it seems and here this is taken a little too far so that it becomes expected and ultimately a bit tedious. There's fun to be had here but it lacks the originality of story to measure up to the 2013 original.

Despite the obviously committed performance from Catherine Keener this study of PTSD is a laborious affair that seems to deliberately hold back on it's story as if to annoy the viewer. Keener plays Lee, an American war photographer, who has arrived in Sicily having been held in captivity in Libya and suffered as a result. Her trauma leads to annoying behaviour and she receives some patient responses especially from the hotel manager on whom she makes childish demands. As she wanders the streets she encounters a refugee girl who needs an abortion and the girls resemblance to a girl she photographed in Libya leads to her helping her. Ben Kingsley has a very small cameo. It's a dull film and that's sad as Keener is a very talented and riveting actor.

A career defining performance from Denzel Washington, which actually seeds more nuance and complexity every time you watch this gritty cop thriller. It's part psychological thriller, part character study and a sharp condemnation of the American law enforcement system riddled with corruption. Ethan Hawke costars as Jake, a rookie LA narcotics detective who has been selected to join an elite unit led by Detective Alonzo Harris (Washington). Jake is very honoured to be a part of his team and the film's plot follows Jake's first day as he's introduced to Alonzo's methods. They begin gently enough building to pushing Jake into more and more uncomfortable scenarios with him being unable to assess if he's just being tested. He eventually discovers that Alonzo has a malicious agenda. Brilliantly scripted and directed this remains the quintessential modern police thriller, it redefines the American cop as anti-hero. A superb film and a must see.

This is another drama that looks at the plight of young men seduced by the military dream of camaraderie, glory and action but in reality leaves them emotionally and physically damaged by the trauma of combat. This story, based on real events, follows three friends who return from a tour in Iraq in 2007 having been part of several very bloody encounters. Despite their apparent joy at the return to love does each is suffering from acute PTSD and survivor guilt. Miles Teller gives a committed performance as the main character and NCO who feels responsibility for his two comrades but also wants the family life with his wife and two children. The film does threaten to drift into crime thriller territory but thankfully recovers itself to concentrate on the subject of the American state committing it's young men to war but fails to provide the facilities for them to later deal with the pain and anguish they have undergone. It's all been done before and better but this is watchable albeit it doesn't get to grips with this subject to the depth required.

This offbeat romantic comedy from director Paul Thomas Anderson is a strange film that is difficult to nail down. It has a sweet charm to it, mostly due to the performance of Adam Sandler, but it also has an almost enigmatic narrative trajectory that makes you wander between enjoyment and frustration. Sandler plays Barry. He's a moderately successful businessman with acute social anxiety causing him to act bizarrely and worst of all results very occasionally in short bursts of very angry violence. He has six sisters and seems to find women to be unfathomable. The film has two simultaneous plots really. The first is after Barry foolishly tries a phone sex experience, an act that identifies his loneliness and sexual frustrations, but inadvertently uses a service controlled by criminals who then try to blackmail him. The second is his hesitant relationship with Lena (Emily Watson), a friend of one of his sisters. She has to do the running but Barry is clearly falling for her. These two plot lines eventually converge as Barry tries to overcome his anxieties and forge a lasting relationship with Lena. His temper plays a key role in resolving everything. An enjoyable, somewhat weird romcom that had me switching from enjoyment to annoyance but ultimately smiling broadly. Philip Seymour Hoffman has a far too small a role but is a joy when on screen.

If you like this sort of thing then it should appeal as it rattles along at a brisk pace, has gory deaths and presents a host of scantily clad teenagers ripe for the slaughter. But we've had sharks, crocodiles, snakes, bears, dogs and goodness knows what else and now we get a chimp on the rampage. This is Ben, the family pet, who was trained to use sign language and has become a media sensation because of his intelligence. But when he gets bitten by a mongoose and contracts rabies he turns into a drooling monster. Set in the luxury house of stone deaf dad (Troy Kotsur) who is away on a business trip eldest daughter Lucy, younger sister and a few friends gather to party when the mayhem kicks off and they have to take on the sly and very strong Ben. It's all rather daft and the humans make some ridiculous decisions along the way. And of course it's not the chimp's fault, he's just poorly! Or is there some message about humans trying to tame wild animals? It matters not as this is a clichéd horror film that doesn't offer much that's new but thankfully it passes by quickly.

In many ways this is a typical Paul Greengrass film delivered with that sense of documentary realism and the use of non actors recreating their roles from the real event on which this is based. So there's the typical big briefing scenes with a stressed boss shouting "Listen up people" at random times for example. Here we have a modern American heroism story of the little man excelling in the face of dire straits in this case the biggest wildfire in American history that killed 85 people and decimated many homes and large swathes of the countryside. It tells the story of Kevin (Matthew McConaughey), an everyman with his own personal issues, who is employed as a School Bus driver for the Californian town of Paradise. When a wildfire breaks out Kevin volunteers to collect 23 school kids whose parents are unable to get to there school to collect them. With the assistance of a teacher, Mary (America Ferrera), Kevin has to navigate through the fire dealing with armed rioters along the way. The fire is the central set piece here as you'd expect with Greengrass recreating the hellish experience and the terror that is experienced by the children. Kevin and Mary are reminiscent of the Katherine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart relationship in The African Queen (1951) although it doesn't drift into romance just healthy respect. The main issue with this film is that it glosses over the political problems and the corporate responsibility caused by the power company whose failings caused the fire. It simply goes for a straight forward tale of heroism which is fine but it does lead to a film that has a varied pacing, some solid tense scenes but is predictable and ends as you'd expect. McConaughey is solid and nuanced in the role of Kevin and the film is worth watching but it's typical of this sort of story.

An impassioned historical drama that recreates the Arab Uprising in Palestine in 1936 as the ruling British began to establish a Jewish immigration programme and gradually sidelined the population who had been living and thriving there for centuries. It recounts the ridiculous recommendations of the Peel Commission. So there's an interesting history lesson to be had here. There's a big cast of characters used to tell the story from various angles and the film is stolidly told with the incompetence, lack of foresight and brutality of the British colonial system front and centre as the cause of the decades of upheaval in Palestine ever since. Robert Aramayo is clearly enjoying himself as the tyrannical and nasty Captain Orde Wingate and Jeremy Irons is the blasé and complacent British Governor. There's a prestigious cast of Palestinian actors too. It's an interesting film that is epic in structure and looks good too so it's worth a watch.

A true story crime drama with a central narrative core of a dysfunctional father/son relationship. Matthew McConaughey gives a committed and nuanced performance as Rick Snr, the father with two teenage children, daughter Dawn (Bel Powley), a heroin addict and Rick Jr (Richie Merritt), an aimless 15 year old who helps his dad with his dodgy gun sale business. Rick Snr also informs for the FBI who realise that Rick Jr has some street information and despite his age get him to inform on a gang of black drug dealers. But young Rick is seduced by the money he sees in crime and becomes a very successful drug cocaine dealer aided by his dad who sees that the money maybe their ticket to a better life! Inevitably White Boy Rick, as he becomes known on the street, gets busted and effectively dumped by the FBI. There's a strange looseness around the film's trajectory that makes it feel a little superficial. It's an interesting story in many ways but the focus of the narrative drifts around and key characters are poorly written, for example Jennifer Jason Leigh's FBI agent. Leigh gives the role her all but it just isn't scripted well. McConaughey and Merritt are particularly good together and McConaughey as the ill equipped but emotionally charged father is excellent. The film boasts Bruce Dern and Piper Laurie in small roles as Rick's grandparents. In many ways this is a sad indictment of America's society and the film highlights the shabbiness of 80s Detroit and that crime is the only route through or out of the decline. A film that isn't bad by any stretch and it does have an intriguing story but it misses opportunities.

Another rather pointless addition to the Predator franchise and the one where, inevitably I suppose, the Universe's most efficient and ruthless alien is given a human side. All this does is give you a visually expensive and impressive load of alien monsters but a story that isn't really a Predator film at all. The Predator in question here is Dek (even giving him a name seems ludicrous), a young and pint sized member of his clan, who is to be killed by his father but escapes intending to prove his worth by killing the unkillable beast from another planet. He eventually needs help and it comes from a damaged android he finds abandoned. This is Thia (Elle Fanning) who is part of a failed mission by the Weyland-Yutani company trying to catch the same creature Dek wants to kill. And here we have the next issue, for me at least, and that's the pointless attempt of mixing the Alien franchise with the Predator franchise once again. Here we have a narrative link with the TV series Alien Earth and there's even a set piece scene of a battle between Dek and a load loader as in the climax of Aliens (1986). I would have thought this franchise link idea has already been proven to be flawed. Director Dan Trachtenberg did a fine job with his earlier Predator film, Prey (2022) which did make a lot of sense and kept its feet on the floor. This one goes off in a direction unnecessary and it just doesn't feel like a Predator film.

A solid, entertaining courtroom/mystery thriller that sometimes feels a little clichéd but on the whole delivers a neat twist and turn plot and some good performances. Richard Gere plays publicity loving and cocksure defence attorney Marty Vail, who decides to defend a case because of its high profile and the kudos he knows it will bring him. The defendant is Aaron (Edward Norton), a Catholic alter boy, who is accused of brutally murdering the Archbishop but who claims he's innocent. Marty with his team decide to structure their case around Aaron's claim that a mysterious third man did the crime even though all the evidence points to Aaron. The prosecutor is Marty's former lover played brilliantly by Laura Linney. The trial reveals more sinister goings on than at first was evident. It's a well written film, capably directed and you have to wait patiently for the final reveal which is a little predictable mainly due to the standard plot devices typical of film's in this genre. Some of the side plots involving corruption aren't adequately finalised but on the whole this is a watchable drama with a star on top form.