Gone Girl (2014)

Gone Girl stars Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike (image via WikiCommons)

In a word: twisty
Movie Pieces Rating: 4.5*/5

Nestled in the movie release calendar, next to the superhero tentpoles and the Young Adult adaptations, a deliciously grownup, multi-layered film like Gone Girl feels like a long-forgotten gem.

Amy and Nick Dunne are the dream team. A high-flying New Yorker couple who move to Kevin’s sleepy home-town when his mum gets sick. One day – on their anniversary in fact – Kevin comes home to find signs of a violent break-in and his wife missing. But it’s not long before he’s cast into a nightmarish world when suspicion falls on him, and their whole life together comes under scrutiny from police, neighbours and, the inevitable media circus.

Ben Affleck is perfectly cast as the cocky, slightly too charming husband who seems to get less trustworthy with every word he utters. Rosamund Pike is a revelation as Amy, the Hitchcock blonde-esque child star, who is seen completely differently by each person who knows her. She is fascinating, yet unknowable which gives every second of her screen time an “edge of the seat” quality.

Like Argo, which also stars Ben Affleck, Gone Girl (an adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s bestseller) is an entertaining thriller that gallops through its running time with more twists and turns than you could shake a fist at. And like Argo it also shares complicated themes and characters that avoid the simple good/bad dichotomy that most modern thrillers fall into so easily. As an audience you can’t slack off while watching Gone Girl – you’re constantly tested on what you’re seeing, and prevented from taking an easy value position. That might sound rather worthy or like hard work but far from it. Gone Girl is intelligent, clever filmmaking but it’s wickedly enjoyable at the same time.

Reviews I rate: Gone Girl
Cinephile: David M. Keyes’s Gone Girl review
Variety: Justin Chang’s Gone Girl review

Kick-Ass (2010) – 4.5*

Dir: Matthew Vaughn/ Writers: Matthew Vaughnand Jane Goldman / Cinematography: Ben Davis

And, fight! - image: Yu Chieh Fang FlickrCC

Not one for granny

Clever, colourful and crude, Kick-Ass is a whole lot of fun. But don’t let the bright colours or the school-girl fool you. This is adult entertainment and no mistake.

Taking a sly, but affectionate look, at the fine line between have-a-go superhero fantasists and vigilantes, Kick-Ass starts out tame(ish) and ends up like a tiger. Aaron Johnson plays geeky guy Dave, overlooked by everyone, and an easy target for the local bullies until one day he decides to buy a mail-order diving suit and play superhero – aka Kick-Ass.

A few painful setbacks later he stumbles into the path of the real deal…no, not Batman but a scarier, hard-core incarnation – ‘Big Daddy’ (Nic Cage) with a tough-talking, fast-kicking, shoot-em-up (fo’ real) side kick Hit Girl – who also happens to be Big Daddy’s eleven-year old daughter, Mindy. Make no mistake though, this is no ordinary tween and the father and daughter tag team has long crossed the line into law-in-their-own hands territory.  They’re on a mission to take down mob boss Frank D’Amico and nothing – not even the hapless Kick-Ass is going to stop them.

Not always as funny as it thinks it is, and the mix of extreme slo-mo violence doesn’t always gel with the casual humour but the third act – to use a lazy pun – absolutely kicks ass (arse if you’re a Brit). Funny, emotional, stirring, with innovative fight sequences – one of the most satisfying action films I’ve seen in a long time.

* Adapted from the comic book by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.

Rating for Kick-Ass: 4.5/5
IMDb entry

The Guard (2011) – 4.5*

Dir: John Michael McDonagh / Writer: John Michael McDonagh / Cinematography: Larry Smith

Brendan Gleeson is amused / gleeful? (image: Oneras FlickrCC)

With guards like this who needs…
Do not be fooled by Brendan Gleeson’s cherubic face and his role as a village cop/Garda on the West coast of Ireland, for this take on the age-old mismatched cops / buddy comedy is like Local Hero pumped through a Tarantino filter. From start to finish this is as crude, lewd, violent and, of course, as witty as anything QT might put out, and then some. Which starts to make sense when you work out that rookie director, John McDonagh’s brother is Martin McDonagh – of foul-mouthed but equally funny In Bruges fame.

Wendell Everett (Don Cheadle) is a straight-laced FBI agent who gets packed off to Ireland when his morals get in the way of his colleagues under-the-table activities. There to assist on a major drug bust he finds that even on the other side of the Atlantic he’s seen as too much of a killjoy to be let in on the fun.

Garda Sergeant Gerry O’Boyle whose dubious pastimes include (very) young-looking prostitutes, midgets and confiscated drugs by the bucket-load, becomes an unlikely ally when Wendell decides to follow a hunch and do a spot of investigation in the wilds of Galway, but their tentative steps towards an understanding are both hilarious and heart-warming.

The easily offended should stick well clear as racist, sexist, anti-religion and every type of un-PC comment come flying past with equal abandon. But if you’re looking for a fresh, tightly-written thriller that manages to skip past every buddy movie cliché going, you’re in for a treat. Cheadle and Gleeson have a natural rapport which makes their scenes a delight and Mark Strong adds to his growing list of scene-stealing performances as the bored, but lethal, mobster Clive Cornell.

And just how often do you get to say that a film really wasn’t long enough?

Rating: 4.5/5
IMDb entry for The Guard

Winter’s Bone (2010)

Dir: Debra Granik / Writer: Debra Granik and Anne Rosellini / Cinematographer: Michael McDonough

Exercise Ozark style (image: worthingtheatres FlickrCC)

Life’s a bitch and then you die
Sparse, beautiful and as uncompromising as the countryside it’s set in – Winter’s Bone is a harsh introduction to back country life in America’s Ozark mountains.  Living off the frozen land, their wits and the illegal (home-made) drug trade, the insular mountain community keeps their families close and their secrets closer.

Young Ree Dolly (an Oscar-worthy performance from relative newcomer Jennifer Lawrence) lives a hand-to-mouth existence scraping together food and dignity to raise her young siblings with little help from her mentally fragile mother and her meth-cooking, largely absent, father. The brutal daily grind takes a steeper downward turn when the police come knocking to tell her that her father has skipped bail – with their house as bail surety.

The measure of the girl, the actress and the film comes at this point when, rather than succumbing to any one of several understandable emotions (hysterics, tears, panic), Ree resolutely sets her chin and states “I’ll find him”. No melodrama. No grandstanding.  And so begins Ree’s thankless task tracking loaded hints and whispers on the grapevine, lifting long-buried rocks and seeing what comes to light. Dogged and determined, this old-before-her-years teen asks for no sympathy but gets it in spades for her flinty refusal to give up despite the verbal and physical warnings from the increasingly rattled local clans.

A classy, absorbing, drama at first, this soon picks up pace and weaves in a genuinely nail-biting thriller plotline for good measure. And a necessary postscript for the outstanding performance of John Hawkes as Ree’s unsettlingly mercurial uncle, Teardrop…a man who makes you shiver every time he slips onto the screen.

Rating: 4.5/5
IMDb entry for Winter’s Bone

A Single Man (2009)

Dir: Tom Ford / Writer: Tom Ford / Cinematography: Eduard Grau

Tom Ford's fabulous world (image: 水泳男FlickrCC)

Do not confuse with A Serious Man.  Big mistake.

Fashion designer Tom Ford’s first foray into film is, as you might expect, a stylish affair. Slow, sensuous, with tight close-ups and choreographed mood lighting that alternately illuminates, flatters and veils his subjects.  He creates a slo-mo 50s world of beautiful people in beautiful clothes, diffused colour, Sobranies and booze. Lots of booze.  It’s really no surprise to hear that the production designers from hit TV show Mad Men had a hand in the ambient magic on-screen here.

What is a revelation, however, is Colin Firth. Playing yet another buttoned-up English gent, Ford’s mastery of the male form in a sharp suit transforms him into a vision of sartorial elegance.  As career-changing a performance as his Mr. Darcy, Firth’s turn as George, the gay man failing to cope after the death of his lover, is faultless. For such a sombre, low-key film to work it is crucial that he hold the audience’s attention. Firth makes George absolutely compelling as we follow him through what he plans to be the last day in his life.

Though brief, the strong support performances from Julianne Moore as faded beauty Charley (George’s long-standing best friend and one-time lover), Nicholas Holt as a young student George has an affinity with, and Matthew Goode as his dead partner, are extremely effective adding humour, energy and an insight into George’s life.

Initially the stylistic flourishes can be distracting – the lighting changes synchronised with George’s emotions, the odd camera angles and particularly the resolutely slow pacing) but quickly they become a valuable part of the narrative.

Self-assured on all fronts, this is a beautiful yet highly engaging piece of cinema.

Rating: 4.5/5
IMDb entry for A Single Man

* Based on the novel by Christopher Isherwood

The Social Network (2010)

Dir: David Fincher / Writers: Aaron Sorkin and Ben Mezrich / Cinematography: Jeff Cronenweth

The perils of socialising (image: Leezefield FCC)

Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer
More clever filmmaking from David Fincher ably supported by the script wizard himself, Mr Aaron Sorkin. Together they deliver a master class in how old media can illuminate the new.

Fincher and Sorkin take the view that all stories – no matter how modern they might appear – are as old as the hills. And so, the self-proclaimed technophobes take a large pinch of truth and sprinkle it with Hollywood fairy dust. Facebook’s rise to global domination becomes, in their hands, a rags to riches success story – where the geek (rather than the meek) inherits the earth.

Rather than focus overmuch on the technological wizardry that’s at the heart of the true story (that would make a dull dull film) they delve into the all too human emotions – greed, ambition, envy and pride – that (they suggest) drove Facebook from its inauspicious beginnings – as college student Mark Zuckerberg’s ex-girlfriend-bating website revenge project – into a billion dollar business.

The collection of leads are outstanding: Eisenberg (as Zuckerberg), Garfield (as best friend and key collaborator Eduardo Saverin), snake hips Justin Timberlake (as the oily Machiavellian Napster founder Sean Parker) and the awe-inspiring Arnie Hammer (who plays both of the trustafarian Winklevoss twins) all add their distinctive thread to the weave of this complex story.

Picking sides or finding a moral position to take is almost impossible when presented with the range of different perspectives and equally compelling arguments that have become Fincher’s trademark over the years.

Philosophical shades of grey, matched with the kind of cinematography that makes the senses reel (a standout is the boats-eye view of the Henley Regatta) and supremely nuanced acting – it’s a powerful combination.

Rating: 4.5/5
IMDb entry for The Social Network

The King’s Speech (2010)

Director: Tom Hooper / Writer: David Seidler / Cinematography: Danny Cohen

A grumpy pair of HRH's (image: Lancashire Council FlickrCC)

The King’s English
Colin Firth stars in another award-winning performance as the stuttering, stammering Prince Bertie…contentedly living life in the (relative) shadows as second in line to the English throne.  All too soon his quiet life is upturned after self-absorbed brother Edward (a finely-tuned performance from Guy Pearce) chooses a dame (Wallis Simpson) over duty and he’s thrust into the spotlight to become King George VI and the father of good Queen Liz.

For once, Edward’s glamorous but ever-so-slightly sordid romance takes a backseat to his brother’s story, and the film is all the richer for it. Focussing instead on the relationship between Bertie and his unorthodox Aussie speech therapist Lionel Logue (the excellent Geoffrey Rush) and with delightful glimpses into the loving family life he shared with Queen Mum (the fabulous Helena Bonham Carter) this is a refreshing, and oddly comforting, portrait of a man learning to overcome his demons.

Rating: 4.5 / 5
IMDb entry for The King’s Speech

A Prophet / Un Prophete (2009)

Dir: Jacques Audiard/ Writers: Jacques Audiard, Thomas Bidegain , Abdel Raouf Dafri, Nicolas Peufaillit/ Cinematography: Stéphane Fontaine

Director + star at a different kind of pulpit (image: dada verver FlickrCC)

It’s “A” not “The”…
Gripping French prison thriller with parallels to The Godfather‘s innocent-to-kingpin criminal conversion.

First-time actor Tahar Rahim puts in a powerful, measured performance as Malik – the boy from the wrong sides of the tracks who finds he is completely unprepared for the violence and manipulation of lifers’ prison politics.

An Arab, he is forced by Corsican gang boss César, into carrying out an atrocity against a fellow Arab – which moves him up the prison hierarchy but still gains him no respect from the close-knit Corsicans.

Beautifully shot and well structured it is absorbing rather than depressing, and fascinating rather than repellent.  Director Audiard finds time for moments of warmth and affection to lighten the air of menace that undercuts the film. Small things like his friendship with Ryad become moments to be treasured.

So much so in fact that, in the end, as with The Godfather you find yourself wholeheartedly rooting for the manipulative, double-crossing killer.

Rating: 4.5/5
IMDb entry for A Prophet

Up In The Air (2009)

Dir: Jason Ritman / Writers: Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner / Cinematography: Eric Steelberg

Clooney's on top of the world (image: 4eFe4 FlickrCC)

Gorgeous George’s Mile High Club
Who would have thought that redundancy could produce such classy, thought-provoking entertainment? But, in Jason “Juno” Reitman’s capable hands, this oh-so modern look at the corporate workplace with its efficiency experts, productivity grids and streamlined firing processes is witty and thoroughly engaging.

Reitman is ably assisted by a superb turn from his leading man. Frankly it’s hard to imagine how anyone other than George Clooney could have made a slightly OCD redundancy consultant (aka ‘The Terminator’) remotely interesting. His Ryan Bingham travels the globe firing the people that companies can’t bring themselves to. A man of routine, he thrives on this nomadic but intensely structured life: pre-booked seats, fast-track queues and ready-made meals.

The Hurt Locker (2009)

Dir: Kathryn Bigelow / Writer: Mark Boal / Cinematographer: Barry Ackroyd

The Hurt Locker (image: worthingtheatres FlickrCC)

Life’s a bitch

Modern warfare is less about jetfighters and field combat, rather a covert, but deadly, game of cat-and-mouse played with snipers, land mines and homemade explosive devices. The Hurt Locker follows the progress of a team of bomb disposal experts 300 days into a tour of duty in Iraq. For these soldiers – on the frontline in this new type of fighting – combat requires vigilance, gut instinct and the painstaking, nail-biting process of defusing the handiwork of the urban bomber.

This may well be ground that has been covered before – alternative gritty, hand-held views of modern warfare like Jarhead or Three Kings. But director Kathryn Bigelow has succeeded where the boys failed – creating something that, despite feeling visceral, is a real class act.

Bigelow does it by trusting in the visual medium – in its ability to create, and narrate, the story without unnecessary exposition. One standout sequence, in the desert after the unit has come under fire from snipers, demonstrates this quality perfectly. They’ve taken cover, and managed to contain the sniper fire, but are still desperately exposed. Time passes. The sky darkens, the sun gets lower in the sky and then we get a close-up shot of Sergeant Sanborn’s weary eye, magnified through the lens of the gun sight, covered with dust and blinking with concentration and exhaustion after hours spent scanning the desert skyline for more snipers.

Despite the distinctive use of digital effects and handheld camera-work, cinematographer Barry Ackroyd – a veteran of Ken Loach’s naturalistic style – never lets technique become a gimmick. This is not jerky-cam 2.0 – the camera is controlled and authoritative with each movement serving a purpose. There’s also none of the usual MTV-style frenetic editing that disorientates more than it illuminates.

Extreme close-ups take the audience right into the middle of the story – letting us see the dust and sweat on the soldiers’ faces, feel their tension and see the very moment their guard comes down. The very next shot pulls back to provide a birds-eye view – making us all too aware of the other dangers that lurk in the volatile surroundings but also providing an opportunity to reflect on the wider context of each incident they face.

The script is equally grown-up.  There are no grandstanding moments, wisecracks or self- conscious moralising. In fact, there’s not one line or frame out of place in this film. Length, tone, style and substance – perfectly judged from start to finish.

Rating: 4.5/5
IMDb entry for The Hurt Locker