When Ben Affleck burst onto the director’s scene with a gangster lean and then swept the Oscars a few years back with Argo (2012), he was heralded as a new actor-turned-director à la Mel Gibson or someone of that ilk - and there I shall leave him. In his latest flick, Live By Night, he has cast himself as Joe Coughlin, a Boston gangster who ends up running all the rackets in Tampa, Florida for Italian crime boss Maso Pescatore (Remo Girone). Joe, as cliché would enforce, takes up with a sweet and gorgeous Dominican-Cuban woman named Graciela (Zoe Saldana), a do-gooder who invests her money in shelters for women and immigrants. More mob film banality ensues, without much of the coherence that a true maestro like Scorsese manages. Now, Live by Night isn’t a terribly awful movie, it’s just too all-consuming and all over the place so that it isn’t very good either! I’d say wait for the Netflix or cable TV broadcast. Save your €10 for the next film on the list! ##-1/2
There is a group of people often referred to as “llorones”, of which I am somewhat a part in the sense that a great cinematic experience, a tremendous ending to a literary piece or the beat or lyric of a song can trigger a tearful response, often hidden by dark Gaultier sunglasses. I suppose it’s to be expected with the subject matter at hand, but Lion really lays one on you with its fervour and grace. Dev Patel’s recent remarks to his Oscar nomination for Best Actor in this film says a lot about the person he is, and it’s that same empathy and gentility that marks his performance in the movie. After being adopted by two loving Aussie parents, we are flash-forwarded into the modern age, where a young man, Saroo, is now 25 and desperate to find out what may have become of his birth family. Patel’s performance is a tour de force, but I also want to give high praise to Nicole Kidman, as a mother torn between her love for her son and her acceptance of his truth. Gutted! A piece of stellar work and certainly en par with some of the best fare released this month. A nearly flawless drama. ####-1/2
Within the first few minutes of Split (Multiple), the whole spectrum of what ‘Split’ refers to becomes relatively clear - personalities. James McAvoy is both intense and creepy in this harrowing film and it quickly gave me flashes of 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) and The Human Centipede (2009), two terrifying instances of psychopaths preying on beautiful young females. Seeing Betty Buckley on the big screen as a shrink for McAvoy instantly made me sit up though, and the film takes a DePalma-style turn into survival for the three kidnapped girls. About forty minutes in, we get a brief escape moment, only to have it menacingly thwarted by one of the multiple personalities forever attacking the antagonist/protagonist(s) of the story. The film has received much aplomb from critics and audiences alike, claiming a “Comeback Kid” title for director M. Night Shyamalan, whose career had a small boost over a year ago with his disturbing grandparent saga The Visit (2015). It really lies in the eye of the viewer, like any film or series, whether you will take to this formulaic but engaging thriller. I dug it for what it’s worth. ###-1/2
Dog Eat Dog is a modern gangster film for people who love the genre but despise Tarantino’s megalomaniacal take on it. That is not to say it’s a soaring spectacle with quick wit and even quicker gore…alas, it isn’t. Still, it’s been awhile since I could actually digest Nicolas Cage in a movie, and with the addition of Willem Dafoe as a crazed yet affable character, I took even more interest. But then the odd jokes and gore start to feel muddled and forced. And then that damn voice from Cage starts to grate on the skin. Again, there are some action scenes that are rather unexpected and visceral, and it’s fun when director Paul Schrader hearkens back to his earlier written work (he even plays the role of an ageing gangster in this film). He also throws in tinges of Oliver Stone’s odd bits, but the tone gets thrown off by its own violent temperament. The guys mastermind a criminal kidnapping that could pay in spades, but you start to lose interest before the 90 minutes are up. Meh! ##1/2
There was a time around and after the millennium when the announcement of the new Ang Lee movie spoke volumes with critics and during awards season the world over. Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk is adapted from Ben Fountain’s 2012 award-winning satirical war novel of the same name about a young Texan who, as an army specialist, finds himself and his unit in high praise after surviving a brutal attack. As the film begins, they are being prepped to enter the Thanksgiving Day American football game. Oh 2004…even YOU were better than our current global-political situation. The film hosts a slew of major star wattage from Steve Martin and Chris Tucker, to Mackenzie Leigh to Kristen Stewart. I guess it hits the right notes by having its heart in the right place, thanks to its director and screenwriter Christophe Castelli, but what takes the steam from the film is its superficiality. Perhaps that’s what celluloid does to good movies. Still, the film has its charms and looks nice on the screen. ###