Review: Out of the Furnace

by William Hill

★★★½

Out of the Furnace comes to us from Scott Cooper, director of 2009's Crazy Heart. I never saw Crazy Heart, and I didn't have an inkling of hype for Out of the Furnace. With Ridley Scott and Leonardo DiCaprio producing, I am also surprised that there wasn't more fanfare for this one. Still, I went into this with light expectations, and given the middling response from many critics, I didn't know what I was going into. The synopsis seemed generic, and the premise a bit too stereotypical of modern dramas.

The official story is that Russell Baze, played by Christian Bale, pursues a dangerous crime ring to find his brother after he's gone missing. While this paints a picture of a taut thriller where Bale fights a bunch of thugs, it really isn't anything like that. In fact, the advertised missing brother plot doesn't even go into play until over an hour after the film starts.

The film opens with an comfortable scene where Harlan DeGroat (Woody Harrelson), is at a drive in theater with his date. He turns into Woody Harrelson, and argues with his date, before beating a man, and walking out. Cut to Russel's introduction, working in a steel mill in Pennsylvania. He leaves work, and find that his brother, Rodney (Casey Affleck), is gambling on races, and in debt to a local loan shark. There is an immediate connection between the two, and their relationship is setup in mere seconds. Russel pays part of Rodney's debt to John Petty (Willem Dafoe) some time later, and we even meet Russel's girlfriend Lena (Zoe Saldana) in between. It's a tightly paced first act that lands Russel in prison for drunk driving. When he is release, Russel learns that Rodney has gotten involved with underground fighting to pay off his debts to Petty.

I had this horrible dream that I was dating someone who couldn't emote.

If I have any issue with the story, it is that the first act can seem a little flaky at first. With Russel ending up in jail only minutes into the film, and the fact that Russel barely seems drunk when he leaves the bar, the whole movie doesn't seem to know what it is doing for a few minutes. Thankfully, by the time the second act finally finds a pulse, the rest of the film finds a way to make the first act seem worthwhile. However, this still makes the first act weak, because it shouldn't rely on the second act to give it purpose. I will say that the finale is intensely satisfying.

What I find strange is that Out of the Furnace is marketed as a revenge film, but it has more to do with self-absolution following tragedy. Both Russel and Rodney are dealing with their ghosts. While Russel deals with the deaths he caused in his car accident, Rodney is the survivor of four tours of duty in Iraq, and carries gruesome memories that disrupt his performance in fights that he is supposed to be throwing. It's a taut drama, but hardly the thriller that the marketing illustrates.

The first rule of Fight Club is please stop making Fight Club jokes.

Out of the Furnace is probably the most earthy film I've seen this year. A muted color palette tinged with hues of warm yellow are cast on dark colored walls and living areas, and there are moments of high contrast lighting. It's got this brilliant early seventies vibe, all the further augmented with soft focus and a lot of steady handheld photography. There are a few shots that I felt were less than inspired, but aside from those nitpicks, it's a gorgeously shot film. Juxtaposed with a subtle soundtrack of simple guitar lines and sustaining woodwinds and light strings, there are a lot of warm moments with Russel, and sequences of stark desperation with Rodney. I have to give special recognition to the inclusion of Release by Pearl Jam early in the film. In retrospect, that should have told me exactly what kind of movie I was dealing with.

In all seriousness, these guys did more acting in this scene
than what's contained in an entire stack of Man of Steel blu-rays.

Out of the Furnace sees one of Christian Bale's finest performances to date, spoken with great care and more heart than I've ever seen him put into a role. Willem Dafoe proves to slip outside of the loan shark stereotype, and prove to be more likable than Casey Affleck, who still performed extremely well. Woody Harrelson played the typical Woody Harrelson act, but it's still an intense and disturbed performance, and shouldn't be discounted. The writing is top notch, and the experience overall is far more memorable than I'd expected. With a lot of competition in the theaters right now, I can still say that Out of the Furnace is among the best on the big screen right now. 

Review: The Counselor

by. Joe Moss
★★½

The latest Ridley Scott venture, "The Counsleor," is a sexy, thrill ride of drugs, debauchery, double-crosses and death all rolled into an all-star ensemble cast. While there is a little lag time throughout the film, there is plenty of high octane (or rather high testosterone/estrogen) to quickly get a rise out of the viewer almost instantly after the lulls.

Michael Fassbender (The Counselor) is a generic lawyer who mixes with some seedy, wanton, yet EXTREMELY high priced clientele. With these various connections, he finds himself at the crux of a 'deal he cannot refuse' to make mucho dinero mas rapido--a deal centered on international cocaine smuggling. A deal he takes with minimal thought to continue to support his lavish lifestyle inclusive of the mountain-top views of New Mexico, the Bentley convertibles, and the 8 carat diamond ring for his finance, Laura (Penelope Cruz). But...as all of these schemes do, this deal goes south quickly due to a few errors that seem just TOO coincidental. Killed runners and missing trucks all linking back to Fassbender's character do not ingraicate him to the finaciers. Excuses and crying abounds, yet the drug barons could care less, they simply want their money and they want it immediately--or else. For all of the plotting and running, Laura pays the ultimate price even though she was the clueless by-stander in all things.

Fassbender's chief connection to the crime world, Reiner (Javier Bardem), seems to float through life without a care. While he helps set the deal, he offers absolutely no insight whatsoever into how to actually handle the stress when things go wrong. He and his sexy girlfriend, Malkina (Cameron Diaz), run a bar, raise cheetahs, and throw wild parties with seemingly endless supplies of cash, drugs, and liquor. Westray (Brad Pitt), Fassbender's seecond contact, supplies the common sense and guidance; but even he doesn't listen to his own advice in the end. Once the events of the double-cross are set into motion, nobody is safe from the vengeance to come.

Cormac McCarthy's (No Country for Old Men) story-line is mesmerizing and true-to-life in the twists and turns, yet the movie falls just a little flat and almost one dimensional. There were many cliches embedded throughout the film that showed an extreme lack of vision. With the all-star cast assembled, there should have been a little more use of Penelope Cruz's character than the (maybe) 10 minutes of screen time allotted. I would liked to have seen a little more back-story on Fassbender's character to show how he really became associated with this underworld. And the use of Rosie Perez in the film should have had more than 4 minutes, considering how her role becomes integral in the downfall of all things Fassbender. However, that said, the screen time for Cameron Diaz was nothing short of amazing.

Cameron Diaz epitomized the sexy, temptress double-crossing femme fatale in this role. She OWNED the entire cast from the get-go. Her character Malkina, intertwined herself into every wrinkle, and fold of the goings-on and did it with such aplomb and wiliness that not once was she suspected of her deception. People treated her like a backdrop to the setting, and she used this to her advantage. I feel that Cameron Diaz is OSCAR-WORTHY for this role and would feel it an extreme injustice if she is not mentioned repeatedly in the coming months. The movie truly starred and showcased her acting ability. Cameron absolutely stole the entire movie!!

Final recommendation--Go see this if you desire a movie that is about the pitfalls of the drug-trade mixed with an almost X-rating AND if you really want to see that Cameron Diaz can act.