Review: Good Kill

by. Joe Moss
★★

With the release of "American Sniper" this past December, it now seems that many filmmakers are going to be jumping onto the 'America at War' bandwagon. "Good Kill," written and directed by Andrew Niccol, feels just like this--a film whose sole purpose is to continue to tap into the heartstrings of the World by showing what the War on Terror around the world does to the people who are in the action...albeit, not on the field of battle rather form the new platform, Drone Warfare.

Major Egan in the kill zone.

Major Thomas Egan (Ethan Hawke) is a disgruntled jet-jockey who has been transitioned into piloting the for the new drone warfare program. He is not happy about what was supposed to be a single tour of duty that has ballooned into three tours in Las Vegas. He longs for the feel of the jet-stream below him and the tactical satisfaction that would bring. He's not truly connecting to the fact that what he is doing with a joy-stick and a video monitor is 'real,' he misses the physicality of the turbulence and the presence of 'being in the moment.'  Then, when the intel community (CIA) decides to step in and direct mission removing all the normal safe-guards, all hell breaks loose--emotionally and temperamentally.

Molly Egan (January Jones) is the traditional stay-at-home military housewife who is juggling the troubles that come with a father who is ne'er present and a son who resents this from his father. She is there to help deal with the emotional fall-out from Major Egan's job, but we really do not get much else from this character. In fact, she is almost a non-entity for most of the film and comes of as basic plot filler, rather than a supporting cast member.

Molly and the Major, emotional disconnect?

Ethan Hawke portrays Egan with a lot of brooding, pouting, drunken malice. Which does provide a basis for the what the character is going through internally as retaliation for the events that he is forced to participate. Nevertheless, this was not Hawke's best performance considering the last few years we have had multiple Oscar-worthy occasions on which to better judge his abilities ["Boyhood", and "Before Midnight"].

I blame this lack of connection on both an anemic script and tragic lack of direction. Andrew Niccol probably needs to have a little more background information on the inner workings of the drone tactics before undertaking writing and directing a film centered around such. This movie is truly a one-man show centered around Egan and his inner turmoil, and I feel that that lack of supporting cast development, coupled with the direction took away from ever truly feeling emotionally connected to Major Egan. This could be due to the fact that I have already seen this movie done fantastically in Clint Eastwood's "American Sniper." Bradley Cooper's performance drew the audience into the film with his depth of emotion--not the stoic, near emotionless portrayal provided here by Ethan Hawke--and my personal belief is that Clint Eastwood's own military experience during the Korean War affords him a much better take on a realistic view on military film portrayals.

Review: Boyhood

by Trevor Kirkendall

★★★★

It’s been well established that Richard Linklater had planned on telling the story of a young boy growing up through his childhood, through adolescence, and into adulthood. He had spoke before of doing a project filming over the course of 12 years. I never realized he was actually doing it, at least not until the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year where “Boyhood” made its highly anticipated premier. Yes, after 12 years of on-again/off-again filming, Richard Linklater has finally delivered his magnum opus and there’s never been anything quite like it.

Watching “Boyhood” is like watching a time capsule being opened before your very eyes. It’s rich with soul and emotion from beginning to end. It’s indescribable watching this film unfold in front of you, knowing that all the principle players involved dedicated so much time of their lives to making this film happen and watching each of them age naturally on screen.

The story revolves around Mason, Jr. (Ellar Coltrane) who we first meet when he’s only about six years old. He lives in rural Texas with his single mother (Patricia Arquette) and his older sister Sam (Lorelei Linklater). They’re just barely making it in their current living situation. Mom decides to move to Houston where she can go to school and her mother (Libby Vallari) can help out with watching the kids.

In Houston, Mason and Sam’s dad (Ethan Hawke) reenters their lives. He wants to be the fun dad, but is still just irresponsible enough to drive mom crazy. Mom also falls in love with her professor, Dr. Welbrock (Marco Perella), and the two ultimately marry, joining their two families. But all isn’t so Brady Bunch for Mason and his mom and sister.

The film continues on following a total of 12 years in the life of Mason. We see plenty of his mother, his father, and his sister, but Mason is always the focal point of film. Think of it as 12 short films – one for each year – all strung together. That’s essentially what this is. Richard Linklater has picked out one episode from each year in the life of Mason to show us.

There are so many different elements of Mason’s life that we – as an audience – can either relate to from personal experience or from knowing someone in a similar situation. We see his mother’s marriages and divorces, relocation from one city to another, the abusive alcoholic stepfather, the fun loving but never around biological father, troubles in school, newfound hobbies, and first loves. It’s nearly impossible to watch this film and not find a familiar event from your own childhood.

It’s also utterly impossible to watch “Boyhood” and not be moved by seeing everyone naturally age throughout the film. The kids are the most noteworthy, but then there’s Hawke and Arquette. Since they’re the most recognizable names and faces, it’s easy to see how the years wear on them. It puts things into perspective just how quickly time moves when you can see a familiar actor like Hawke at the beginning of this movie realizing that he was only one year removed from filming “Training Day” when this began or that Arquette completed her entire run on “Medium” during the filming of this movie.

“Boyhood” also acts as a time portal to you own life as well, not because of the plotline, but based on the time period where action occurs. Richard Linklater never tells you what year we’re in. You can only judge the time based on the music in the soundtrack, the technology on the screen, the current events in the background, and most importantly the age of the actors. When each scene begins, you immediately try to discern where you were when this event was taking place. Some events are easy to pick out. Hawke sitting there talking about the war in Iraq or Mason and Sam placing Obama/Biden campaign signs in people’s yards. Others are trickier. Hawke at an Astros game with his kids with Roger Clemmens on the mound (a quick Google search lets you know that – based on the events mentioned in the game – it took place on April 18, 2006) or Mason listing off the biggest movies of one particular summer (2008). Or even funnier, Hawke and Coletrain discussing the feasibility of what a new “Star Wars” trilogy might look like if they ever make it (the conversation takes place in 2008, about 4 years before the new trilogy was announced).

The acting is tremendous across the board. We expect that from Arquette and Hawke (well, at least when he’s working with Richard Linklater, I mean). We are also treated to great supporting performances as well, such as Marco Perellea as an alcoholic college professor. Lorelei Linklater (Richard’s daughter) also puts on a stellar performance. The movie revolves around Mason, but as his sister she’s very much apart of his entire childhood, from tormenting him to becoming one of his best friends. But the movie belongs to Ellar Coletrain who never seems overwhelmed by the massive task at hand, especially when asked to play into some deeper emotions. And you can see him mature as an actor as the film progresses. It’s easy to tell he’s been spoon fed direction as a child, but later draws upon his own life experiences as both he and Mason grow up.

This is a film that makes you think in a much more profound way than anything I’ve ever seen before. I’m not saying it’s hard to follow, and I’m not saying it’s difficult to process. Quite the opposite. “Boyhood” is unique and certainly one-of-a-kind. I’ve never seen any movie like this before. It’s a masterpiece. I’ve referred to other films with that word before, but none of them were this exceptional and rare. I doubt very much that another film like this will ever come along again. Enjoy the uniqueness of this film. There are so many different elements to latch onto. But unlike your childhood, which is  - I’m sorry to say – gone forever, Richard Linklater leaves us Mason’s in the form of “Boyhood” to be relived forever.

Review: The Purge

By Joe Moss

★½

In the not so distant future (2022), the American government allows its population to have a night of free for all killing to usher in the NEW American ideal of peace and prosperity. Employment rates are up, crime is down. Here lies the premise for James DeMonaco’s sophomore directorial “The Purge.” The movie runs like an Americanized retrograde version of “Battle Royale” (2000) directed by Kinji Fukasaku who helped direct the Janpanese sequences in the classic “Tora, Tora, Tora” (1970). This movie places 9^th grade students onto an island and the battle ensues until only 1 survives—similar to another hit film/book series of late, “The Hunger Games” (2012).

“The Purge” stars Ethan Hawke (as James Sandin) a security system salesman who is at the top of his game—when it comes to selling high tech security for the wealthy… And so stops the plot development for the remainder of the film. Sure, the story (also written by DeMonaco) attempts to add in small tidbits of information such as “only a few short years ago we couldn’t pay bills, and now we are looking to buy a boat [said by Sandon to his wife, Mary (Lena Headey)]” but these comments come off trite considering the opulence in which they reside. Headey’s character seems to float through life on this effervescent cloud of ignorance. While her son is obviously a social outcast and her daughter is on the verge of teenage hormone overindulgence. Still, these are all cliché plot nuances that are as evident as grass being green and the sky being blue. DeMonaco is much more talented a writer as was evident in “The Negotiator” (1998) and even “Assault on Precinct 13” (2005).

             I had the distinct impression throughout the entire movie this was another Hollywood attempt to squeeze the remaining dollars out of the American public on the heels of success of “Hunger Games…” as well as a poor attempt to prime the waters for the November release of “Catching Fire.” There was not a single item in the movie that was surprising. Sure, there were great suspenseful moments that made the film easy to watch, but there was no new substance/plot/intrigue as in the aforementioned films from which this film obviously takes root. As a scientist and teacher, I can even appreciate the attempt of Demonaco to offer some modern day substance to Alfred Adler's ideas on psychology and the inferiority complex, as well as play on A.R. Wallace's and Darwin's evolutionary ideals of "survival of the fittest."  Thus, I did not have a problem sitting through the film, as it was only an 85 minute run time—thankful editing by Peter Gvosdas (of "The Avengers" (2012) and "Captain America" (2011) editing teams)—but much longer and the rating would have been lower.

Review: The Purge

by Trevor Kirkendall
zero stars

Its 2022, only nine years from today. Unemployment is down to an astonishing 1%. Crime has nearly vanished. All this thanks to something known as The Purge. One night a year for twelve hours, all emergency services are suspended and all crime – including murder – is legal. The Purge helps to cleanse and purify Americans. No one feels the need to commit any crimes since its legal once a year for an entire night. Its never really explained how the unemployment is affected by this. I guess because the next day, hundreds if not thousands of people are probably needed to clean up the mess from the night before.

All this is made possible by a new political party called the New Founding Fathers, who in the not too distant future will be elected into all wings of our government and will concoct this asinine idea in an attempt to restore America’s greatness in the world.

Those who can afford to lock themselves in their homes at night do so every year and ride out The Purge. Those who can’t end up being Purge victims. Those opposed to The Purge say that this is nothing more than a government controlled mechanism to weed out and exterminate the poor and those who do not contribute to society. Sound like familiar banter on all of today’s cable news networks?

Ethan Hawke plays James Sandin and he sells those high priced security systems. He lives in a gated community with the rest of the smiling and happy Stepford families. He’s made a fortune off of these security systems. All his work for the year comes down to tonight, for its time for The Purge. He had his wife Mary (Lena Headey) are locking everything down for the night with their two kids Zoey (Adelaide Kane) and Charlie (Max Burkholder).

Shortly after lockdown, Charlie sees a bloody stranger (Edwin Hodge) running through the neighborhood streets crying for help. Feeling sympathetic – and downright stupid – he disarms the system and lets him inside. During the subsequent confusion after he’s entered, he disappears into the house. It is, after all, a gigantic house and he’s hard to locate. Remember, the Sandin’s are ‘haves’ and therefore can afford a massive security system on their massive house.

It doesn’t take too long for a group of people to show up at their house looking for this man. He’s their target for tonight’s Purge and they want him back. The group is lead by a really handsome young man who looks like he stepped out of an Ivy League yacht club (Rhys Wakefield). He’s even got the long blonde hair, the plaid tie and the prep school jacket complete with the school’s seal on it. It could not be anymore embarrassingly contrived than that.

Written and directed by James DeMonaco (who also wrote Francis Ford Coppola’s 1996 stinker “Jack”), “The Purge” is nothing more than a massive delusion and dream of how he thinks the world should probably work in order for America to regain its standing within the world.

The argument can be made that this is merely a satire on our current social and political state. Anyone who flips on the TV today can tell there’s a rift in our social landscape between those who have and those who don’t have. Unemployment is at a consistently high number that contributes to the escalation of crime in many areas. The role of how of guns in our society has been repeatedly called into question over the past year.

The whole presence of the New Founding Fathers political party in this movie leads us to believe that a new political stronghold will rise up amongst the voters soon. Once in Washington, they will use their power to legislate this perverse idea. Draw your own conclusions as to which party you think DeMonaco is trying to implicate with this analogy.

The fact is, DeMonaco has not provided any kind of social satire on our current state, which is what he was clearly attempting. He’s taken a very shallow look at the issues of today and has come up with this sick view of what’s to come. A satire should mock the situation and maybe provide some kind of alternative solution. Not “The Purge.” No, what we have here is DeMonaco’s disgusting fantasy of something he’d like to see play out in his lifetime.

It’s almost as bad as the so-called ‘torture porn’ films that saturated the film market in the early-to-mid-2000’s. Films like “Hostel” and “Saw” and later taking it to the extreme with “The Human Centipede.” These are films that severed absolutely no purpose whatsoever other than to showcase the depraved nature of their filmmakers’ deepest and darkest fantasies.

If you can’t torture someone for real, then why not make a movie about it so you can live out your dream? Not to worry, Hollywood is full of twisted people who are just willing to line up and make it happen. Especially if you’re trying to make some kind of commentary that continues to deepen the societal rift between the haves and the have-nots.

While “The Purge” doesn’t really come off as a horror movie in the likes of “Hostel” and “Saw” which showed the physical torture of a person, it does come across as a thriller meaning to show the emotional torture one family has to endure. Their torture is not carried out by those who are personally standing at their front door with guns and knives, but by the very government that allowed this to happen. It’s pretty damn offensive.