Review: Mud

by Trevor Kirkendall
★★★★

There’s a moment early in “Mud” where two boys are riding down a river in a boat. They stop where one river meets another, wondering whether or not to proceed. Ahead of them sits a small island. After a brief moment of question, they continue on their way. It’s a good thing they do; otherwise there would be no story to tell. Its that imaginative speculation that drives them onward. Later, they’ll find something unexpected, and hear stories from unknown people who may or may not be exactly what they seem. For the 130 minutes that make up “Mud,” you see the world through a young person’s eyes. Its probably been awhile for a lot of us since we’ve looked at the world like this. What we have here is a coming of age film, the quality of which we haven’t seen in a very long time.  

Tye Sheridan (“The Tree of Life”) stars as Ellis, a young teen who enjoys hanging out with his best friend Neckbone (Jacob Lofland), both of whom are always open to adventure. Also there’s that active interest in girls that’s beginning to form. One day, the two boys take Neckbone’s small fishing boat across the river to an island where they’ve heard a boat has been found stuck in a tree. They find the boat, but they also discover the boat’s already be claimed by a loner named Mud (Matthew McConaughey).

Mud doesn’t think of himself as a hobo or a burnout. No, he’s here because he wants to be here. He’s here because he’s waiting to meet up with the love of his life, Juniper (Reese Witherspoon). Ellis takes a liking to Mud and wants to help him get back with Juniper. Call it childhood innocence, but Ellis believes that if you have someone in your life that you can identify as your “one true love,” then you need to be with that person.

The problem for Mud is that there are plenty of people out there looking for him. Mud is wanted for murder. Not only are the police looking for him, but the next of kin to the man he murdered also want a crack at him. This includes the man’s brother (Paul Sparks) and father (Joe Don Baker). They believe Ellis and Neckbone might know the whereabouts of Mud.

Despite the fact that Mud is murder and a fugitive on the run from justice, I found myself rooting for him for most of the movie. Writer/director Jeff Nichols provides only a little of Mud’s back story at a time so that you never really know exactly who he is until well into the final act. He has this innocence to him, almost like Ellis. Mud seems to believe the all his problems will disappear and everything will be right in the world once his beloved Juniper is beside him.

McConaughey really sells this role. He has never been better. Those little nuances he has that have become laughable caricatures easily punned by the likes of “Saturday Night Live” or “Family Guy” are virtually nonexistent in this performance. You almost forget you’re watching Matthew McConaughey in this role.

But its Tye Sheridan who steals the film right out from under McConaughey. He plays the part of Ellis with the type of maturity usually seen by seasoned veterans, not kids acting in their second feature. The film is told through his point of view. Nichols’ screenplay is full of subplots and they all involve Sheridan’s character. Not too many films feature one character on screen for the entire time; that’s a bit challenging to successfully pull off. Sheridan does it great ease here. If he plays his cards right, he should have a long and successful career if he wants it.

It’s been awhile since we’ve seen a real solid coming of age tale, but Jeff Nichols has made that wait worthwhile. This is my favorite movie so far this year. The imaginative wonder of Ellis and his whole outlook on life and love, combined with some amazing cinematic imagery from Nichols’ usual director of photography Adam Stone, give this film a unique feel. Something almost distinctly American. 

My childhood never remotely resembled that of Ellis and Neckbone’s, yet I found myself reminiscing about it after watching this. But the longer I watched Ellis and Mud interact with each other, the more I wanted to get in there and tell them their intentions are good, but sometimes the world just doesn’t work that way. You can see yourself in this part, growing up with the characters as the film unfolds. That’s what a great coming of age film should do for you.

Review: Iron Man 3

by Joe Moss
★★★

SUMMER TIME!! The season begins with a bang. Well…ok a bang, a crash, a crescendo of explosions, some melting metallics and a cacophony of screams and shouting.  Welcome once again to the summer blockbuster movie season and the newest installment of the Disney/Marvel Universe—Iron Man 3. Director Shane Black (“The Last Boy Scout”, “Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang”, “ Lethal Weapon 2”, and “The Long Kiss Goodnight”) stays true to his identity as a film maker by cramming Iron Man 3 with plenty of shtick humor, long action sequences, and plenty of physical substance. Enough to make the average movie goers oohhhh and ahhhh all the way to the bank.

But…once you look past the green screen production into the plot development of the film, now there we can see a few small issues—a lack of substance and development in the screenplay written by Shane Black and his collaborator Drew Pearce. Once you get past the obvious main plot of the film—Mandarin (played by Ben Kingsley) attempting to give America a lesson in humility the small nuances of the under-story begin to show too many gaps.

(warning….some small spoilers are present)

1)      Where is the character development of the Mandarin? He was alluded to in the first installment of Iron Man, but just appears suddenly with no real back-story. Additionally, as I am not a avid comic reader by any stretch of the imagination, even I know that the Mandarin is supposed to be aristocratic Chinese with 10 power rings of alien origin. This is not quite what we get in the movie…

2)      Who is Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce)? While we are provided a small amount of interplay during a 15 minute back-story involving Tony Stark and Dr. Maya Hansen (Rebecca Hall) this does not seem enough to truly foreshadow the events that occur throughout the remainder of the movie. Then we are hit with a small segment that mentions Aldrich used to attempt to woo Pepper. Hmm?

3)      Finally the most glaring omission revolves around how the film was billed as an attempt to examine whether Iron Man makes Tony Stark  or whether Tony Stark makes Iron Man. And this theme plays throughout the majority of the movie quite well—and ultimately answers it at the end with sweet aplomb. What doesn't really work with the Iron Man image is Tony’s self pitying introspection intermingled with panic attacks when questioned?? Tony…panic attacks?? I understand how the Shane Black was attempting to humanize Tony Stark, but he doesn't give us a reason to believe.  It is mentioned that Tony is having difficulty dealing with the events of New York (from The Avengers), but the screenplay never really gives us substance in this regard. What were the problems? Why can’t Tony sleep—a dream about falling is all we get.

The cinematography by Oscar winner John Toll (Legends of the Fall, Braveheart) are perfectly on par; and the film editing by the partnership of Jeffery Ford and Peter S. Elliot is visually flawless. So, even with these small questions left unanswered for me, I do have to say that Iron Man 3 is a spectacular movie and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.

Review: The Place Beyond the Pines

by Joe Moss
★★★★

In much the same vein as director Derek Cianfrance’s oscar nominated film Blue Valentine (2010), also starring Ryan Gosling, The Place Beyond the Pines is raw, captivating and visceral. Truly an emotional thrill ride from its gradual beginning sequence to the closing scene in upstate New York. “If you ride like lightning you’re going to crash like thunder.” Mechanic Robin (Ben Mendelsohn) deftly delivered line provides the central dogma of the film. Pines is a film that explore the inner psyche—specifically man’s ability to deal with moral decisions in the face of adversity and the ethics of how to rectify a downward spiral of problems established through careless decision making. The film plays out through segmented interplay of three vignettes spanning a seventeen year period wherein the two top billed characters Luke (Ryan Gosling) and Avery Cross (Bradley Cooper) share a collective five minutes on screen together. But this works beautifully!

Luke is the epitome of a carnie motocross dareveil—handsome, carefree, and broke. He reunites with an old flame, Romina (Eva Mendes) from a previous trip with the carnival through Schenectady, NY, only to discover a surprise that changes his life. Avery Cross (Bradley Cooper), a rookie cop/Ivy League educated lawyer with a serious need to impress his father—retired State Supreme Court Justice Al Cross (Harris Yulin). Avery inadvertently kills a man in the line of duty, but is shot himself in the process. Quickly categorized as a wounded hero, Avery begins his path of self discovery whilst dealing with his own knowledge of the situation and issues in the police department. The third act introduces us to two young men in high school AJ (Emory Cohen) the charismatic, popular spoiled rich-kid; and Jack (Dane DeHaan), the enigmatic, loner, stoner. They quickly reach an understanding with one another that ultimately allows the film to come full-circle and close all wounds previously opened throughout the screenplay.

The original score written by Mike Patton (Black Hawk Down, Young Adult, and Body of Lies) provided the correct counterbalance for the cinematographic flow of the film—almost at times acting as the pulse of the film through repetitive resonant chords. The screenplay by Cianfrance and his cowritters (Ben Coccio and Darius Marder), was chaotic, surreal, and yet soothing—in other words, it mimicked life to perfection. Because of this powerful exploration of life in a small town, the film will not be something of mass appeal; but for those who can appreciate character and plot development at its finest—go see this film. I will definitely keep it on my Oscar watch list for 2014.

Review: Iron Man 3

by Trevor Kirkendall

★★★

The summer movie season has finally arrived, and what better way to start than with another entry into the Marvel universe. Marvel seems to have a very firm grip on this first weekend in May. After last summer’s “The Avengers,” why not kick off this summer with their next stand-alone feature with arguably their most popular character?

For the sake of not playing the spoiler role, I’ll be brief and somewhat vague.

“Iron Man 3” begins some time after the events in “The Avengers,” though they do not specify how long. Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) is having difficulty sleeping and suffers from panic attacks. He attributes his recent struggles to the events that took place in New York during “The Avengers.” His relationship with his girlfriend Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) has continued to grow. His best friend Colonel James Rhodes (Don Cheadle) is away acting in his new role as the Iron Patriot (a rebranding of the War Machine suit we saw in “Iron Man 2,” complete with a new paint job). So things, for the most part, could be going better.

Then all hell breaks loose with the emergence of an evil terrorist, known as the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) who no one can seem to find. The Mandarin is blowing up places around the globe, yet he’s not using any type of explosives. Interesting.

Elsewhere, a mysterious scientist with a brief history with Tony shows up looking for Stark’s assistance. This is Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce). Stark’s personal assistant, Happy Hogan (former “Iron Man” franchise director Jon Favreau), becomes suspicious of Killian and his muscle man, Savin (James Badge Dale). Happy stumbles upon Killian and Savin in the midst of evil deeds. The result of such deeds leaves Happy incapacitated for a time, and Tony out for revenge.

Shane Black has his fun with this one. Who could blame him? He’s the latest filmmaker to get an opportunity to direct something for Marvel, one of the only studios out there that seems to be playing all the right cards at all the right times. Personally, I’m not a comic book fan, yet I’m somehow drawn to these films every time a new one is released. Producer Kevin Feige has done tremendous work for this studio bringing the entire comic book universe to life.

I find no fault with Black and Feige wanting to have their fun. “Iron Man 3” is an extremely satisfying addition to the Marvel universe. No doubt it will leave fans chomping at the bit, waiting to see where Marvel choses to go next. And there’s still three more Marvel movies coming before we get the next “Avengers” installment.

The problems that lie in “Iron Man 3” are the same issues that plague just about every other big budget summer movie. Black sacrifices substance for spectacle. Action sequences with heavy effects drive the film. There might be four or five large-scale action sequences in this film, but everything in between is mere filler that does little to advance the story.

Downey, Jr. plays his role just as well as he ever has. As Tony Stark, he appears much more exhausted and lifeless at times, the wear and tear of being Iron Man clearly taking its toll on him. Black’s effort to make Stark seem more human than in previous installments works quite well. You almost feel bad for Tony, until you realize he’s a billionaire and you’re not.

Despite his success with Tony, Black misses the mark with his villains. Motivation for their sinister plans never seems to be fully established. It’s almost as if they woke up one day and thought it would be fun to go start fires around the world, and, while we’re at it, kill Tony Stark too. Sure, there’s some back-story that doesn’t make things too out of place, but its so loose and generic. It’d be like me suddenly reappearing to seek out some sort of misplaced vengeance against the kid who broke my wrist in the sixth grade. Yeah, I remember that and I remember how it felt, but is that really worth my attention after so many years?

I’m splitting hairs. Sacrificing substance for spectacle is nothing new in the summer months. We all know Black knows how to write (“Lethal Weapon” anyone?). Everyone knows what they’re in for when watching this. Downey’s sarcastic humor is right on, as usual. The action sequences are great. At times they can even be borderline intense. That’s what everyone wants.

The shortfalls shouldn’t even be a concern. Die-hard fans of the comic books, no less, will find fault somewhere. They always do. Not being a fan myself, I have no idea who these characters are other than the information that’s presented in the films.

No matter what type of fan you are, this will be one of the most fun experiences you’ll have at the movies this summer. Even with such a stacked slate of action films, “Iron Man 3” should hold up very well. It’ll be a busy summer, and we’re only getting started.

Review: The Place Beyond the Pines

by Trevor Kirkendall

★★★★

Guilt is an overbearing emotion that we all must come to grips with at many points in our lives. How we handle guilt is where our differences in character come into play. Derek Cianfrance explores the power of guilt in his harrowing film “The Place Beyond the Pines.” The “Blue Valentine” filmmaker has once again delivered a powerful exploration of raw human emotion that resonates long after the film has finished.

Cianfrance reunites with his “Blue Valentine” star Ryan Gosling who plays Luke, a motorcycle stunt driver in a traveling circus. He has a troubling past from which he’s continually attempting to escape. Upon a visit to his former stomping grounds, he discovers he has actually fathered a son with an ex-flame, Romina (Eva Mendes). The thought of not being around for his son drives him to leave his spot in the circus and stay around to provide for him.

How does one provide for their child without a job? Well, robbing banks would be one way. With the assistance of new local friend (Ben Mendelsohn), Luke begins robbing banks using his motorcycle skills to evade the police. Luke’s presence back home, and the large sums of money he now hands off to Romina, creates some tension between he and Romina, along with her boyfriend (Mahershala Ali).

Elsewhere, recent Oscar nominee Bradley Cooper shows that his masterful performance in “Silver Linings Playbook” was not an accident. He plays Avery, a patrol cop also attempting to put a bit of his own guilt behind him. Both Cooper and Gosling portray their respective rolls in a somber tone, easily identifiable with any viewer.

            

Cianfrance and his cowriters Ben Coccio and Darius Marder have delivered a complex screenplay, full with the same dark emotional power that made “Blue Valentine” such an intoxicating story. Cianfrance set his sights high with this one. The film is delivered in a very ambitious way that challenges the audience to be absorbed for all 140-minutes in order for the themes to be driven home. His ability to wrap such raw emotion and ambitious storytelling into a beautifully shot and brilliantly acted film makes Derek Cianfrance a talent to behold in modern American cinema.

            

I found myself identifying with each character in each section of the film. Gosling’s character spends the film riddled with guilt over how he hasn’t been there for the first year of his son’s life. He is, however, determined to be there for the rest of it. But he is a criminal with a violent past. Can any of us successfully change who we are and masquerade through life as someone we are not?

            

Cooper is the same way. A moment in his career causes him to question weather or not he’s fit to be an officer of the law. Another moment that involves some dirty cops (including a small but powerful role by the great Ray Liotta) causes him to question it even further.  Can he change, or not? These types of questions are what make characters come to life. Most films these days refuse to ask such difficult questions and rely on flashy visual effects to rescue the entire film. Sorry, but that doesn’t work.

           

Without going into any details that would risk spoiling the elements of this movie that make it brilliant, two great performances are turned in by Emory Cohen (TV’s “Smash”) and Dane DeHaan (will be a known name after next summer’s “The Amazing Spider-Man” sequel).  Screen time for these two is limited, but they help bring this emotional whirlwind of a ride to spectacular finish.

            

While it may be a challenge for some, “The Place Beyond the Pines” is a welcomed stroke of genius so early in the calendar year. Derek Cianfrance is one of the most talented writer and directors to emerge in recent years. Filmmaking is about more than just filming actors in front of a green screen and creating a vast landscape behind them. It’s about bringing out raw emotion from your audience. That’s one thing computers can’t do. As long as there are auteurs out there like Cianfrance, true filmmaking isn’t going anywhere.   

Review: 42

by Trevor Kirkendall

★★★

Everyone should be familiar with the legend known as Jackie Robinson, the first African American baseball player to play on a Major League team. Such a legend, in fact, that all of baseball has retired his number. With the exception of New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera, no one in the game of baseball will ever wear 42 ever again. Each Major League ballpark has number 42 hanging up along side the individual club’s own retired numbers. You’ll also see the number 42 on a baseball field is April 15, the anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s big league debut. In the Majors, that’s called Jackie Robinson Day, and every player in the ballpark that day will wear number 42. You can’t be more of a sports hero than that.

In the 1940s, professional baseball was segregated just like everything else in America. Black ball players played in the Negro League. This was where Jackie Robinson built his reputation.

“42” follows Robinson’s (Chadwick Boseman) career from the time Brooklyn Dodgers manager Branch Rickey (Harrison Ford) plucks him from the Negro League through his first season with the Dodgers in 1947. Rickey decides baseball is ready for a black man to join the league that has been exclusive to white ball players. He chooses Jackie Robinson not only because of his record, but because he believes Robinson has the guts to do this.

The film is essentially broken up into two acts. Biopics rarely seem to follow a three-act story structure, but it works well here. The first act is dedicated to Jackie’s times with the Montreal Royals, the International League affiliate of the Dodgers. He spent the 1946 season here preparing for his major league debut that would follow next season. It’s during this half we get to know his wife Rachel (Nicole Beharie) and sports writer Wendell Smith (Andre Holland). The film tries to show a true friendship form between Smith and Robinson, but ultimately fails to materialize as Smith’s role in the second act is relegated to almost obscurity.

The second act chronicles Jackie’s first year with the Dodgers in 1947. He seems to have a good working relationship with manager Leo Durocher (Christopher Meloni), who unfortunately doesn’t hang around for too long. The other players on the team are very apprehensive of Jackie’s presence in the locker, including future Hall of Famer Pee Wee Reese (Lucas Black). People from other ball clubs don’t seem to like Jackie being there, none worse than Phillies manager Ben Chapman (Alan Tadyk) who serves as one of the most vocal detractors. Tadyk’s role must have been tough, given that the majority of the film’s verbal abuse falls on his shoulders.

Overall, “42” follows a pretty standard biopic formula. Most people should already know how things unfold. Biopics generally want to chronicle a story or moment in history that is uplifting rather than disheartening.  Everyone should have some idea of what to expect.

Oscar winning writer/director Brian Helgeland (LA Confidential) doesn’t stray far from the successful formula that has worked on so many other movies in Hollywood’s history. The added humor throughout is very well placed and well timed. He seems to have enjoyed writing and directing the material during Jackie’s big league career more than the minor league scenes. The first act crawls along, and performances across the board are flat. Once we get to Brooklyn, the pace quickens and everything becomes much more interesting.

I haven’t seen Chadwick Boseman in anything else before this. This is an impossible role to play. Boseman does the best he can at bringing the legend to life. He only has a handful of scenes where he sells the stress and magnitude of what Jackie is actually doing. For a breakthrough performance, Boseman sure picked a tough one.

But its Harrison Ford who owns this movie. Whenever he is in a scene, everyone else seems to struggle trying to keep up with him. Its refreshing to see a role like this from someone as seasoned as him. Ford could play in any film he wants, and he choses to play a role with such depth, where his emotions lay only in his eyes, and in the cadence of his speech. This performance is nothing short of sensational. It’s a shame that Ford has never generated any kind of awards buzz in the past, especially for a man who has originated no less than two of cinema’s most iconic rolls. If ever there was a time for his peers to take notice, this is it.

Despite a long first hour and generic story formula,“42” does help us to recall a time in history that becomes more and more unbelievable the further we get away from it. Jackie Robinson’s presence on the baseball diamond changed the game forever. You don’t have to be a fan of baseball in order to appreciate what Jackie meant to the game. He equally meant it to the world. 

Review: Olympus Has Fallen

by Trevor Kirkendall

★★

The White House is under siege in “Olympus Has Fallen” and the fate of the world is on the shoulders of one very badass dude. And no, it’s not Jack Bauer. “Olympus Has Fallen” is the first of two movies we’ll see this year that feature the White House falling to the hands of enemy combatants (see also “White House Down” later this summer).

Gerard Butler plays Mike Banning, a member of the Secret Service who was once President Ben Asher’s (Aaron Eckhart) head bodyguard. He was relieved of the post, or maybe he quit – the film never does explain this very well, after an accident leads to the death of Asher’s wife (Ashley Judd). He now rides a desk at a different government agency.

One regular evening in Washington, the President is welcoming the South Korean Prime Minster when a large-scale attack is launched on the White House. The attack is led by the sinister Kang (Rick Yune) a former North Korean citizen now working for the South Korean government who has apparently been planning this attack most of his life.

With the White House under enemy fire, Banning picks up a gun and walks right in through the front door, somehow managing to miss every bullet being fired across the lawn. Everyone else dies, except him. In the secured underground bunker, Kang is holding the President hostage, along with the Vice President (Phil Austin), the Secretary of Defense (Melissa Leo) and other White House workers.

One by one, the highly trained Banning begins picking off members of Kang’s army while taunting Kang himself over wireless communication devices, a la Bruce Willis in the original “Die Hard.” He receives his instruction from the Speaker of the House (Morgan Freeman), who is acting as president, the Secret Service Director (Angela Basset) and the Army Chief of Staff (Robert Forster).

As long as the guns are blazing, “Olympus” is not a painful bore, but is rather enjoyable. Director Antoine Fuqua has already proven himself competent action director. His 2001 film “Training Day” was one of the better police thrillers of the previous decade. He continues to show he has the ability to capture high-octane moments on film, and create tension throughout these sequences.

 His downfall here lies in the screenplay, and that is not his fault. Written by first-timers Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt, “Olympus” suffers from rehashed and overused plot devices. Their screenplay is filled with minor subplots that do nothing to advance the story. They are in place to try and create empathy toward our protagonists. The problem is they do not work; they only drag the film along in order for it to clock in right at two hours.

Empathy for Mike Banning never really catches. He’s supposed to be set up as a typical man living in the big city in 2013. He’s obsessed with his job, too obsessed to even notice his wife (Radha Mitchell). President Asher is the same way, although he is president so he needs to be obsessed. That’s the problem with writing presidents in film; you never can truly empathize with him. There are only five men in this world who probably can.

The villains have their own sets of demands, of course, but they don’t seem to justify storming into the White House or killing random innocent civilians either. Their demands are predictable, and don’t even think about trying to take the White House back from them because they already know exactly what the American military will be planning, and they have planned for this. They do have an endgame, too, and its laughable. It revolves around a classified government program. So classified that Gerard Butler doesn’t even know what it is, but not so secret that Korean terrorists found out about it and know exactly what they need to do in order to access it. Hans Gruber and motley crew were more sinister than these guys.

The biggest victim of this botched screenplay is the dialogue. Anytime a character throws his or her head back looking toward the heavens, closes his or her eyes, clenches his or her fists while pumping them into the air and letting out a sorrowful “NO!!” at the top of his or her lungs while the orchestra plays a sappy arrangement, I have to question the writer’s sanity in choosing such overused trash. And I have to feel bad for the actor or actress who has to stand there on set and film that scene over and over again. In this case, the victim was Aaron Eckhart. I’m sorry, Aaron Eckhart.

As long as no one is talking and everyone is just shooting at one another, “Olympus Has Fallen” does its job of being adrenaline pumping action flick. But the lack of substance found in this screenplay really makes the film suffer. And it really does suffer! Since it’s a first time screenplay, I think we can chalk up the issues to that. Not everyone can knock it out of the park on their first step up to the plate.