Review #1,262: 'Wind River' (2017)

If you weren't already aware going into Wind River of just who is the brains behind this tough, tense and distinctly masculine drama, then it won't take very long for you to guess that it is Taylor Sheridan, the so-hot-right-now scribe behind the likes of Sicario and Hell or High Water. Rounding off his trilogy based around the American frontier, Sheridan directs for the first time here, and proves to be as equally adept with bringing his work to life as he is with penning it. To dub him the new Cormac McCarthy may be slightly condescending to the talented writer, but the comparisons are certainly there to be made. This is the world of tough, lean men doing what they have to do in order to survive or get by in their increasingly dire economic surroundings, and it's certainly a setting Sheridan feels comfortable in, or at least wishes he was part of.

While Sicario placed us in the terrifying, claustrophobic choke-hold of the Mexican drug cartels and Hell or High Water delivered outlaw hi-jinks with serious social and economic undertones, Wind River is a movie of quiet, simmering tension played out against the backdrop of the freezing, desolate mountains of Wyoming. Hard times have come to the titular Indian Reservation and the surrounding areas, but so little apparently occurs here that a police force of over 6 officers is trusted with covering an area the size of a large city. When a young Native American girl (Kelsey Asbille) is found barefoot and dead in the snow 5 miles from the nearest residence, the minuscule department find themselves clearly ill-equipped for the investigation. The girl died from suffocating on the blood in her lungs, brought on by the sub-zero temperature, but she has also been raped. The man who found her, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agent Cory Lambert (Jeremy Renner), uses his knowledge and experience as a hunter to start making connections.

Renner has spent so many years in superhero costumes or starring in forgettable, little-seen box-office under-performers that it's easy to forget just how he made the jump from supporting character actor to leading man material. In movies like The Hurt Locker and The Town, he demonstrated an uncanny skill at playing introverted characters emotionally scarred by past experiences. Yes, he was an outright psychopath in Ben Affleck's thrilling The Town, but it always felt like he was masking something deeper. Lambert is living with his own trauma. He pays visits to his Native American ex-wife to see his son, but their separation was clearly brought on by tragedy. In a moving monologue to the father of the murdered girl (a marvellous Gil Birmingham), he reveals through choked-back tears that his daughter had passed years earlier. It's quite possibly the best work he's ever done; utterly convincing as the strong, silent hunter who can spot a snowmobile track from a mile away, and as a potential romantic interest for FBI agent Jane Banner (Elizabeth Olsen).

She is sent from her office in Las Vegas, and arrives completely ill-prepared for the brutal conditions of Wind River. When she quickly realises she's out of her depth, Banner leans on Lambert to help her navigate the perilous conditions and vast landscape. It's a character seen many times before - even in Sicario - and although Olsen is perfectly fine, her role seems somewhat diminutive and over-reliant on her male counterpart. It's an issue Sheridan should perhaps address in his next venture, but Wind River proves that he is more than capable of visualising his own work. He shoots the wilderness as a cold, unforgiving place, where only the toughest - humans or animals - can survive, turning them wilder and more primitive in the process. The score by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis also give the land a mystic ambience, similar in many ways to their work on The Proposition. Although it does digress into Quentin Tarantino territory and the final pay-off seems over-eager to highlight good from bad, Wind River deserves some recognition come awards season, as does Sheridan as a director to watch.


Directed by: Taylor Sheridan
Starring: Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olsen, Graham Greene, Gil Birmingham, Kelsey Asbille, Jon Bernthal
Country: UK/Canada/USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #1,019: 'Captain America: Civil War' (2016)

'Superhero fatigue' is a phrase commonly batted around amongst critics and forum lurkers whenever a new caped crusader is unleashed into cinemas. Cries of Hollywood running out of ideas are often heard too. Despite all of this, the likes of Spider-Man, Batman and the Avengers crew have Hulk-smashed the box office for years. Most impressively, Marvel's ever-increasing 'Cinematic Universe' has been building now for 8 years and 13 films, films that occasionally claw in over a billion at the box-office. This is not down to audiences simply flocking to the promise of CGI explosions and wise-cracks, but Marvel's insistence on keeping the formula fresh.

After a few years churning out average to above-average (and one excellent in 2008's Iron Man) origin stories for the individuals that would, in 2012, reluctantly team up to become The Avengers, producer Kevin Fiege was obviously wary of wavering interests. Marvel's work since 2014, since the mediocre Thor: The Dark World in 2013, has been exceptional, placing their heroes and villains in a variety of cinematic genres. Captain America: The Winter Soldier played out like a 70's spy thriller, casting Robert Redford to reinforce the tone, Guardians of the Galaxy often felt like bizarre B-movie with a bigger budget and a more talented cast, and Ant-Man, a movie many predicted to be a disaster, was a full-on comedy, bolstered by the presence of an effortlessly charming Paul Rudd.

The latest - and by far the best - is the third and possibly final entry into the stand-alone Captain America series. Retaining The Winter Soldier's directors Anthony and Joe Russo and also much of the same tone, Civil War pits its second most popular superhero against its first, Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man. Also along for the ride is almost every other hero on the roster, along with a couple of new ones. But what makes Civil War very much a Captain America film and not The Avengers 3 is the Russo's remarkable grasp of their characters. With Bucky Barnes aka The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) back on the scene as a very wanted man, Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) finds himself torn between his loyalty to an old friend and being held accountable for his superhero actions. It is the friendship between the two that remains at the heart of the film.

When Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) accidentally causes mass destruction in Lagos on a mission led by Captain America, the Secretary of State Thaddeus Ross (William Hurt) informs the Avengers that the United Nations are passing a bill known as the Sokovia Accords, which will see them under the control of a UN panel. Full of guilt over his balls-up with creating Ultron, Tony Stark backs the bill, as do War Machine (Don Cheadle), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Vision (Paul Bettany). With little confidence in the government, Steve opposes the bill, and is followed by Falcon (Anthony Mackie), Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Ant-Man. Tensions are raised higher when The Winter Soldier is accused of bombing the UN conference in Vienna and becomes a wanted man all over the world.

What makes Civil War such a gripping film is its refusal to offer any easy answers. Depending on your own political and personal views, Captain America could be the antagonist of his own movie, causing a war between friends over his blind loyalty to a friend he knows is a mass-murderer, albeit a brain-washed super soldier experiment. On the flip-side, the character Downey Jr. has now immortalised and the hero to always receive top billing could become a knee-bending traitor seeking accountability for his own irresponsible actions during the events of Age of Ultron. More likely, and more interestingly, you will come to realise that there is simply no right answer.

So it all comes down to who wins the fight. And what a fight it is. One of biggest flaws of Batman v Superman was its failure to come up with a believable scenario that would cause the good guys to beat on each other only to come to realise they are on the same side. Not only does the brawl feel organic, taking place at Leipzig airport with each character allowed more than one moment to shine, but it also refuses to offer any easy solution or a big bad for the team to unite against. The motivation and plan of the film's villain, Helmut Zemo, played with a remarkable subtlety by Daniel Bruhl, is kept a mystery until near towards the end. And just when you think you finally know where it's all heading, it side-steps you and goes in a completely different direction.

The film's biggest flaw is the introduction of Spider-Man, who is finally back in the hands of Marvel after Sony's failure to re-boot the franchise with Andrew Garfield. Played by Tom Holland, who is the best Peter Parker yet, his entry into the fold feels shoe-horned and slightly awkward. But when he is let loose during the airport fight, he damn near steals it until Ant-Man shows his new friends just what he can do. The other newbie, Black Panther aka the Wakandan T'Challa (a gravelly Chadwick Boseman), plays a bigger role than you might expect, still learning and developing into the king he will become. Above all else, Civil War is simply a blast. With such care taken with its army of characters, each getting their own arc, its easy to become emotionally invested. So when Cap and Iron Man really get down to business, it becomes unbearable to think that one of them may not walk away. Bravo, Marvel and the Russo's.


Directed by: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo
Starring: Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Scarlett Johansson, Chadwick Boseman, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany
Country: USA/Germany

Rating: *****

Tom Gillespie

Review #867: 'Avengers: Age of Ultron' (2015)

With the Marvel Cinematic Universe growing increasingly larger every year, returning director Joss Whedon was faced with an even more monumental task than he did in 2012 with The Avengers, the movie that finally brought together the superhero collection of huge personalities united by one goal, but each wanting to go about it in their own way. Each standalone film has developed key supporting players necessary to the character whose name is on the poster, and with The Avengers' climax allowing its Earthlings to gaze into a wormhole and last year's Guardians of the Galaxy unleashing aliens a-plenty, Marvel's world has truly become a universe.

The last time a director returned for a Marvel sequel, we ended up with Jon Favreau's Iron Man 2 (2010), a messy let-down of a film that lacked invention, to the point that it felt like the guy behind the camera had lost all interest by the end. In a way, Age of Ultron suffers from some of the same problems. Like all Marvel films, it pits it's leads against a 'new threat', climaxing with a battle in the air that features lots of punches, blasts and quips. But for all it's narrative familiarity, Whedon still finds new ways for his heroes to batter their opponents, keeping the jokes fresh and genuinely witty, and ensuring the ragtag, flawed bunch are always eager to be at each other throats (quite literally - I think every character is grabbed by the throat at some point).

Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is still suffering from nightmares and flashbacks of his journey through the wormhole and seeing the threats lurking amongst the stars. He and the Avengers, now led by Captain America (Chris Evans), attack the Hydra outpost of Baron von Strucker (Thomas Kretschmann), the monocled Nazy glimpsed at the end of Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) in possession of Loki's scepter. Von Strucker's defences are useless when faced by the Avengers, but that is until he unleashes the twins Pietro (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen); the former possessing super-speed, and the latter able to enter people's mind and unleashing their darkest fear. When Wanda screws with Stark, he sees his friends dead, powerless to stop it. She is like the ultimate bum acid trip.

After retrieving the scepter, Stark and Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) discover an artificial intelligence hidden inside, and use it to kick-start the Ultron program, an independent-thinking army of robots designed to protect Earth from any threats, allowing the Avengers to retire in the process. But Ultron (wonderfully voiced by James Spader), having consumed huge amounts of data through the internet within seconds of being activate, concludes that the only way to save the planet is to eliminate the one's responsible for slowly destroying it - humanity. Upon discovering what Stark has created, Captain America and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) are furious. And so are the public, who are terrified with the amount of carnage taking place around them as Ultron journeys to Africa in search of vibranium, the near-invincible metal that will allow him to create the ultimate body.

On top of the character's already mentioned, the Avengers also consist of Scarlett Johansson and Jeremy Renner. Add to the mix the returning Don Cheadle, Anthony Mackie, Samuel L. Jackson, Cobie Smulders, Hayley Atwell, Stellan Skarsgard, Idris Elba and Paul Bettany - who appears in the flesh for the first time as the Vision - as well as newcomers Linda Cardellini and Andy Serkis, and you have one hell of a hefty line-up. Whedon has juggled large ensemble's before with the tragically cancelled Firefly and it's follow-up movie Serenity (2005), as well as the first Avengers, but he has a noticeably weaker grip on his cast this time around. It jumps from one action scene to another, slightly smothering the quieter scenes in between, failing to allow them to breathe and flow.

The one exception involves a welcome retreat for the Avengers, who choose to lay-low at Hawkeye's (Renner) humble abode after causing more chaos with Ultron. Clearly feeling guilty at the shoddy deal Hawkeye got last time around, who spent most of the movie controlled by Loki, Whedon has finally made him interesting. He acknowledges his inferiority when compared an unstoppable green monster and the God of Thunder, and even comments on the lunacy of fighting off an army of killer robots with a bow and arrow. His warm relationship with his wife (Cardellini) and his children, as well as his various personal face-off's with Pietro, provide a human connection in the midst of a 90 year-old super soldier and a millionaire playboy genius.

With Marvel's Phase Three almost upon us (once Ant-Man is finally released later this year), Age of Ultron was always in danger of being little more than a stepping-stone to what's to come. Yet although it certainly hints at upcoming characters (the fictional country of Wakanda, home of the Black Panther, is mentioned) and future events (Thor is troubled by his Wanda-induced apocalyptic visions, which are to take place in Thor: Ragnarok (due 2017)), it also moves the story forward and evolves its characters. Marvel certainly needs to change its formula though (the paranoid thriller twist on The Winter Soldier was a stroke of genius); the smash-heavy climaxes have become tired. Ultron is also not really the threat he was set-up to be, but he's utterly electric when on screen, Spader providing a biting wit to his growls. It is far for perfect, and inferior to its predecessor, but riotously entertaining throughout.


Directed by: Joss Whedon
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, James Spader, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany
Country: USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #781: 'Godzilla' (2014)

Flicking the memory of Roland Emmerich's disastrous 1998 Godzilla movie away with it's mighty finger, Gareth Edwards' 2014 re-imagining is an altogether mightier and maturer beast. The biggest question stemming from message boards and critic reviews alike, is whether the colossal lizard is seen, or even glimpsed, enough. Anyone who saw 2013's incredibly dull monster/machine pile-up Pacific Rim will surely be aware that more is not necessarily better, and CGI is soulless without a heart. So my answer to that question would be a yes, as although Edwards teases us perhaps one time too many, when the beast finally roars, it's spine-tingling.

The screenplay by Max Borenstein, based on a story by Dave Callaham, opts not to have the King of the Monsters the result of nuclear testing, but one of many ancient creatures laying low, feeding on the energy from the Earth's core. In 1999, scientists Ishiro Serizawa (Ken Watanabe) and Vivienne Graham (Sally Hawkins) discover the skeleton of a giant creature in a collapsed mine, and two pods. One pod has broken open and left a trail leading into the sea, and the other remains dormant. In Japan, unusual seismic activity causes a nuclear power plant to leak radioactive steam, killing the wife of plant supervisor Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston). Fifteen years later, Joe's son, bomb disposal expert Ford (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), returns to Japan to find his father still obsessing over the unexplained events that led to his wife's death.

This sounds like a lot of plot for a movie primarily about giant, rampaging creatures. The director previously made Monsters (2010), a low-budget, very human drama about a world facing an alien invasion, only the focus was on the romantic relationship between it's two leads. Edwards clearly isn't interested in simply blowing shit up for our amusement, he wants us to care for the people dodging the flying cars and falling skyscrapers. It's an admirable approach, and is careful not to serve up stock chin-stroking villains or supporting characters you are waiting for to croak, but does make the mistake of offering one-dimensional archetypes as our protagonists. We have our square-jawed lead, our brilliant but possibly mad scientist, and even an expository ethnic character to make sure we're keeping up with the plot.

There's also the problem of Taylor-Johnson, who although is a perfectly likeable actor, does not have leading-man chops. This combined with his thinly-written character makes it incredibly difficult to get caught up in his long journey back to his loving wife (Elizabeth Olsen) and child (Carson Bolde). But while the film may often move at a snail's pace, it is never boring. Though the titular giant takes his time before popping his head up out of the water, there's two other bat-like creatures causing havoc, usually seen from the ground-up or on news reports, heightening the tension by creating a sense of realism. It's a very modern-day Gojira, developing it's own mythology yet appeasing fans of the beast's many incarnations, and no doubt frustrating those wanting to see an epic CGI smack-down. For a truly satisfying experience, just check out Ishiro Honda's 1954 original.


Directed by: Gareth Edwards
Starring: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Bryan Cranston, Ken Watanabe, Sally Hawkins, David Strathairn, Juliette Binoche
Country: USA/Japan

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #718: 'Oldboy' (2013)

The recent splurge of Hollywood remakes of successful Asian exports have damaged the credibility of the remake, or the 're-visioning', as some of the more self-respecting directors dub them. It's east to forget that filtering a famous story through another artist's vision can produce great results, and without remakes we wouldn't have the likes of The Maltese Falcon (1941), A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and The Fly (1986). When Hollywood got it's grubby hands on the rights to a remake of Chan-wook Park's idiosyncratic modern classic Oldboy (2003), fans were up in arms. How would this story of octopus-munching and incest translate to an American audience? Then, Spike Lee was on board to direct, and people were as intrigued as they were confused.

Josh Brolin is Joe Doucett, a scumbag salesman who repeatedly drinks on the job and makes inappropriate passes at his clients girlfriend's. After another night of heavy-drinking and missing his daughter's birthday, he meets a woman with a yellow umbrella. The next morning, he wakes up to find himself in what looks like a hotel room, but is actually a prison in which he'll spend the next twenty years. Given Chinese food and vodka to consume every day, and seeing the news of his wife's murder and his daughter's adoption on the news, Joe eventually attempts suicide. He is saved, with the aid of his captors, and starts a vigorous routine in which he prepares for revenge. Then one day, he wakes up in the middle of a field with a cell phone and a lot of questions.

I'll just establish that I was never on board with this remake, even with the intriguing notion that Spike Lee was to direct. Yet Lee was adamant that this is a re-imagining from the original manga text, so I gave it a go. The many homages aside (the octopus, angel wings, the extended hallway fight), 2013's Oldboy does manage to be a film in it's own right. We learn more about Joe before he is captured, and Josh Brolin gives a strong performance as a character that is certainly angrier than Min-sik Choi's Dae-su Oh. This is evident from a beating he gives a young group of jocks, elbowing and stamping, and Lee's film is certainly bloodier. There is also more development given to the young woman who takes pity on Joe, and is played with a fearlessness by the lovely Elizabeth Olsen.

But where Oldboy fails wholeheartedly is the juggling of tone. Beginning with a grainy, handheld 16mm, the sense of reality is thrown out the window come Joe's release. We are introduced to bad guys such as Chaney (Samuel L. Jackson), who dresses like he belongs in the world of Willy Wonka (is there anything this man will not wear?), and the main antagonist Adrian (Sharlto Copley), a big bad so cartoonish that he may as well be twirling a moustache. In Chan-wook Park's movie, the shifts in tone suited the director's style as well the whole general strangeness that comes out of the Asian movie industry, but here it is handled so clunkily that it often comes off a simply laughable. Anyone unfamiliar with the original must find the whole experience simply perplexing.

Ultimately, this isn't a bad effort. I have to applaud it for at least trying to be it's own movie, rather than a carbon copy of a film that was always going to be it's superior. The tweaks and small additions have added little to the story and, if anything, made it more easily accessible. What worked so well for Park's original was it's refusal to abide by the normal storytelling rules, whereas Lee often tries to spoon-feed this strange tale and force it into a conventional and familiar Hollywood narrative. Like the film's protagonist, you can't simply put a story like this into a cage and expect people to enjoy looking at it, you've got to prod it with a stick, let it loose and scare the shit out of everyone. But thankfully, Spike Lee seems to have finally realised that they're called films, not joints.


Directed by: Spike Lee
Starring: Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Olsen, Sharlto Copley, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Imperioli
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #693: 'Martha Marcy May Marlene' (2011)

When we first meet the mysterious 'cult' family in Martha Marcy May Marlene, it seems like the group are living a kind of idyllic, old-fashioned rural lifestyle, where the dungaree-wearing men hammer nails and build all day, while the women quietly do chores and prepare the men's dinner. Everyone seems happy, and the camp leader, the craggy, guitar-strumming Patrick (the fantastic John Hawkes) is charismatic and oddly charming. Yet there's an underlying sense of unease during these scenes, and this is where the film is at its best, slowly revealing through flashbacks the group's real motivations, as if peeping through the curtain of the strange family down the road.

Where the film sadly fails, is that the revelations aren't particularly surprising. Debut writer/director Sean Durkin's intentions are clearly not to produce a schlocky horror film with a big pay-off. It is more interested in the lasting effects the group has on its protagonist, Martha (Elizabeth Olsen), after she escapes and re-unites with her sister Lucy (Sarah Paulson), who is living in middle-class comfort hosting parties with her husband Ted (Hugh Dancy). Durkin heavily researched cults, but found the experiences of a young girl's life three weeks after she had escaped the most interesting, and Martha is an extremely damaged woman. Known by three different names, she has clearly lost her own identity, and finds it difficult to fit back into society.

Lucy and Ted struggle with Martha's increasingly erratic behaviour, as she bursts with fits of anger and innocently enters situations that society have deemed inappropriate. Olsen is a revelation here, giving a performance of maturity and complexity, a hushed, awkward presence in her sister's house of social formality. Hawkes is also impressive, following his creepy, Oscar-nominated performance in Winter's Bone (2010) with another character that slowly reveals himself as the film progresses. But for all it's indie-awareness and technical achievements (the film has a murky, ghostly feel), it's ultimately a victim of its own promises. It does so well at creating tension and foreboding, that it damages the rather predictable revelations. Still, Durkin is a director to keep an eye on, and Olsen, who went criminally unrecognised at an Oscars that was noticeably lacking in meaty female roles, should enjoy a long career.


Directed by: Sean Durkin
Starring: Elizabeth Olsen, Sarah Paulson, John Hawkes, Hugh Dancy
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie