Movies Watched The Week of 3/22 - 3/28

Well this is a bit embarrassing.  This column is hella fucking late, mainly due to a shit ton of work coming at me.  More work than I could do with writing, so the writing had to take a backseat for a bit.  It’s a short week though, mainly cause I saw a movie that will be on the other websites column in addition to more work than usual.  But it’s a real solid week and should be a good read, even if it isn’t timely.  So enjoy it and I’ll be posting the newest one on time this time. 

The Spectacular Now (March 22nd, 2015)

Director: James Ponsoldt

Starring: Miles Teller, Shailene Woodley, Brie Larson, and Kyle Chandler

Look at that, Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley are actually good performers.  You wouldn’t be too mistaken to actually wonder if they are, thanks to their work in the Divergent fucking movies.  But there was a time before those bland shit pieces were they were up and coming actors making names for themselves.  Not that they’re bad now, Whiplash for Teller being a good showcase and The Fault In Our Stars for Woodley.  Back in the day (2013), they had this coming of age, young love story.  And while that sounds a little too hackey and eye rollingly easy a movie, this isn’t a typical love story.  No, what sets this apart is that it’s kind of a tragedy.  Miles Teller plays Sutter, a free spirited drunk who is always positive but has no anchor in life.  He’s the guy you can see being the pathetic drunk at the bar in the morning, unable to hold down a job and has a kid or two he doesn’t see anymore.  Woodley plays Aimee, a wallflower of sorts who doesn’t have any real agency in her life and lets others decide her choices.  She’s sweet but essentially spineless.  So when these two meet and start a relationship, it’s like watching a slow moving train wreck start to form.  And these two totally sell the roles, making them feel like real kids. They feel like people we all know, and the sadness that runs through them.  It’s a real heartbreaker of a movie, especially for Tellers character. He has the main arc of the flick, seeing exactly what his bullshit does to people and where he may end up.  What he goes through is relatable and painful and not cleaned up at all.  By the time we get to the end, it isn’t exactly a happy ending.  It’s left ambiguous, but a sad future seems to be in store for them.  It’s a really solid movie that overcomes the indie romance tropes it could have easily fallen into.  A nice showcase for these two. 

Rating: 9/10

Run All Night (March 24th, 2015)
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra
Starring: Liam Neeson, Joel Kinnaman, Ed Harris, and Vincent D'Onofrio

With the recent news from Liam that he will be retiring from action movies soon, it’s only fair to go into his newest with some expectations in your mind.  Can this live up to the hype his name brings to a flick that Taken brought, or will it fall to the wayside like the Taken sequels? And what we got is kind of the former, because this isn’t really an action movie.  It’s more of a crime drama.  An apt comparison would be to call it the B movie Road To Perdition.  And it’s carried by Liam and Ed Harris.  Liam plays washed up hitman Jimmy Conlon, racked by the weight and guilt of all the evil he’s done in his life.  The only reason he’s still around and taken care of is because he is essentially brothers with big Irish mob boss Shawn Maguire (Harris).  The relationship between the two feel very lived in and genuine.  You believe these two as brothers and that they’ve live through some shit.  They both have sons that have fallen far from their respective trees.  Jimmys son Mike hates Jimmy for the evil he’s done, so he lives a blue collar life as a limo driver.  Shawns son Danny is a junkie loose cannon with a lot of self worth but no brains.  So when Mike witnesses Danny execute someone, Mike has to run for his life.  Danny gets the drop on him, but Jimmy shows up and kills Danny.  Right then, Jimmy knows his life is over in one way.  He did the one thing that could break his relationship with Shawn and he knows it.  So he’s either gonna die or go to jail.  But he’s gonna save his son before he does.  The movie isn’t a big bag of originality, but it has a really good feel, a nice Irish sadness running through it all.  Guilt hangs heavy over this movie and the past is almost a character in and of itself.  Sollet brings a little flash to the movie and handles the directing duties well enough.  This is no masterpiece, but it stands a lot taller than most of Neesons movies.  Only The Grey and A Walk Among The Tombstones stands taller.  But this is a solid crime flick with great work by Neeson and Harris.

Rating: 8/10

Rope (March 25th, 2015)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: James Stewart, John Dall, Farley Granger, and Joan Chandler

Oh Hitch.  He’s one of the biggest directors of all time and he’s iconic, making movies that has lived on for ages.  To be honest, not all of them are great.  He’s made so many movies that he’s gotta have some stinkers.  Off the top of my head, The Birds sucks.  Plenty of good is in there though.  And this is one of them, a nice little experimental film from the man.  Not experimental in the way of being obnoxious or pretentious.  It’s a nice little suspense flick with the experiment of making it look like all one take, basically Birdman but less obnoxious.  It’s simple enough.  Two rich assholes kill one of their friends, just to see if they can do it/get away with it.  They have it in their minds that the higher ups and elite folks in the world should be allowed to kill those lesser than them, so they kill and invite people over to their place to almost rub it in.  The body is still there, yet they wanna get as close to being caught as possible with about being caught.  So the whole movie is a tense little ride of when is the shoe gonna drop, or will it?  The camera trick works pretty well, not too obvious that there are hidden cuts.  It helps heighten the tension as we go along, and it gives the movie a nice low key visual flair.  The cast is good and sells the material well, giving everyone a high falutin sense of entitlement.  Running through the movie is a nice little piece of classism that gives it some weight outside the simple thrills of murder.  This is a solid little flick, a low key one that shows Hitchcock was one of the best technical directors in film. 

Rating: 9/10







Top Movies

1. Rope
2. The Spectacular Now
3. Run All Night

- Tom Lorenzo