Review #1,144: 'The Accountant' (2016)

Audiences are obsessed with superheroes these days. Perhaps it's down to these caped crusaders offering a more straightforward answer to crime and corruption or the genre's lack of grey morals in our increasingly confusing world, but it's nearly impossible to avoid coming across a meta-human of some description in the multiplexes. While he may not have been bitten by a radioactive spider or possess the mutant gene, Ben Affleck's Christian Wolff is every inch a superhero. His power, as he describes it, is high-functioning autism, which means that he makes sure everything in view is at its proper angle before tucking into a meal, and tends to freak out when he doesn't see something through to the very end. Oh, and he's also a master of hand-to-hand combat and owns an arsenal of weapons so ridiculously huge that even Chuck Norris would blush at the sight of it.

Gavin O'Connor's The Accountant begins by introducing us to Wolff, who at first appears to live a low-key life for a small-town accountancy firm, eating dinner alone every night in what is clearly a strict routine. He's also a mathematical genius, using his skills as a mental calculator to cook the books for some of the world's wealthiest and most dangerous criminal organisations. His latest job is to audit the books of expanding corporation Living Robotics, whose low-level employee Dana (Anna Kendrick) has found numerous discrepancies when conducting her own audit. Christian ignores Dana's months of work and finds the missing money overnight, turning the office windows into a huge equation (seemingly the go-to quirk for movie geniuses). The company's CEO Lamar Blackburn (John Lithgow) decides it's case closed when the chief financial offers turns up dead the next day, apparently of a deliberate insulin overdose.

There's also much more going on away from the central character. Ray King (J.K. Simmons), a director at the Treasury Department, knows of Christian's alias as the 'Accountant', and has pictures to prove his association with some incredibly powerful and scary men. He blackmails data analyst Marybeth (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) into assisting him after exposing her petty criminal past, with only the photos and a few known alias to work from. An unnervingly charming hitman named Brax, whose motivations and true intentions are kept hazy at best, keeps popping up every now and then, and he is played marvellously by Jon Bernthal. There's also Christian's backstory to get through - the discovery of his 'disability', his strict military father who wants to toughen his son up so he can function in the real world, and his combat training. It's a hell of a lot to cram into 2 hours and 8 minutes, and this would be frustrating were in not for the distraction of the movie's willingness to take its character into such increasingly preposterous situations.

To put you in the picture, Christian Wolff is the combination of two of Affleck's buddy Matt Damon's most iconic characters: Jason Bourne and Will Hunting - although Bourne was never so eager to shoot people in the face. It could certainly be argued that this is Affleck's fourth outing as a superhero (after Daredevil, Superman and Batman), and at times he may as well be donning the cowl as he effortlessly punches and blasts his way through hoards of bad guys. After all, it's been theorised that Bruce Wayne suffers from a form of autism. The action is incredible at times; a mixture of The Raid's Pencak silat and John Wick's hyper-stylised gun porn. Yet, 'entertaining' is all that The Accountant aspires to be, and any suggestions of a more studios portrayal of autism raised during the quieter and more humorous first half gives way to generic audience-pleasing. It survives on its tantalising and original premise and the strength of its lead's subtle performance, and I would certainly watch a follow-up.


Directed by: Gavin O'Connor
Starring: Ben Affleck, Anna Kendrick, J.K. Simmons, Jon Bernthal, Jeffrey Tambor, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, John Lithgow, Jean Smart
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #1,060: 'Raising Cain' (1992)

After the critical and commercial public flogging he received for his bastardisation of Tom Wolfe's fascinating, multi-layered and often hilarious novel The Bonfire of the Vanities, Brian De Palma turned back to the genre that had served him well early on his career, the psychological thriller. With crime 'biopic' The Untouchables (1987) and the hit-and-miss war drama Casualties of War (1989), De Palma has seemingly turned his back on the world of Hitchockian suspense, but his career was in serious danger. The result was Raising Cain, a movie so utterly ludicrous and ham-fisted that it's a wonder how he is still making movies. Yet, there's something perversely irresistible about the film.

Dr. Carter Nix (John Lithgow) is a respected psychologist suffering from multiple personality disorder, who, at the beginning of the movie, chloroforms a young mother and steals her child while being egged on by one of his cockier alter-egos, Cain. His wife Jenny (90's mainstay Lolita Davidovich) is concerned that Carter is spending too much time obsessing over their daughter, who he seems to view more of a subject of study than his own flesh and blood. Jenny rekindles a romance with a former flame, Jack (Steven Bauer), and the two are spotted by Carter making love in the woods. As Carter struggles to keep his many personalities in check, Jenny struggles to separate her dreams from reality.

While watching the movie, I kept wondering if this was truly the same De Palma who forged such well-constructed thrillers as Sisters (1973), Dressed to Kill (1980) and Blow Out (1981); films that often carefully towed the line of B-movie daftness yet managed to stay grounded. Is Raising Cain a bad movie? Yes, probably. But with the casting of De Palma's favourite ham John Lithgow and its sickly, TV movie aesthetic, there's something oddly fascinating about its silliness. It attempts to confuse its already convoluted plot even further by staging scenes within dreams within memories within more dreams. While this is certainly frustrating, I was still rooted to my seat, desperate to see how this nonsense plays out. His films are often divisive, but Raising Cain had even the most hardcore De Palma fans questioning their loyalty. Personally, my love far outweighed the hate.


Directed by: Brian De Palma
Starring: John Lithgow, Lolita Davidovich, Steven Bauer, Frances Sternhagen, Gregg Henry
Country: USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #860: 'The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension' (1984)

Boasting a wacky title and a wackier plot, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension was always tailored for cult success. Naturally, it bombed at the box office and left critics befuddled, but now has an army of loyal fans behind it. The main problem with the film is that it's far too aware of his cult fate, constantly striving to be that more out-there with its kitschy sets, crazy outfits and zippy one-liners. It tells the story of Buckaroo Banzai (Peter Weller), a neurosurgeon, test pilot, physicist and lead singer of a rock band, who, while testing his new jet car, manages to cross into the 8th dimension with the help of a device called the 'oscillation overthruster'.

Upon learning of Banzai's success, Dr. Emilio Lizardo (John Lithgow), who was at the helm of a failed experiment using the overthruster in 1938, breaks out of a home for the criminally insane. His experiment left him only half-way through the dimension, during which time an alien named Lord John Whorfin managed to take over his mind. Whorfin is the leader of the reptilian Red Lectroids, who were banished into the 8th dimension by the Black Lectroids, a friendlier alien race who sound like rastafarians. Banzai's exploits alerts them all, and, with the help of the Hong Kong Cavaliers, his gang of ass-kicking musicians/scientists, and a girl who has caught his eye (Ellen Barkin), Banzai is caught up in a race against time to save the planet.

This is quite clearly a movie not to be taken seriously. Lines such as "evil pure and simple by way of the eighth dimension!" are spoken with tongue poking out of cheek, and Lithgow's knowingly ridiculous Italian accent gives Nicolas Cage a run for his money. While certainly fun, it tries to be too many things at once, be it a romance, sci-fi, an action movie, a comedy, a satire or a spoof, it doesn't fully deliver in any of these areas. The heightened self-awareness can often leave you with the feeling that you're being left out of the joke, with the faux-trailer during the closing credits - that may have happened had the film not bombed - reinforcing this idea. Fans will argue that I 'don't get it', and I probably don't, but I certainly enjoyed it's camp aesthetic, amusing one-liners, and enormous cast of talented character actors.


Directed by: W.D. Richter
Starring: Peter Weller, John Lithgow, Ellen Barkin, Jeff Goldblum, Christopher Lloyd, Lewis Smith, Clancy Brown, Dan Hedaya
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #851: 'Interstellar' (2014)

Christopher Nolan and his writing partner/brother Jonathan have made a career out of delivering cold, intelligent blockbusters that often work like a puzzle-box slowly unravelling in front of your face. For their next trick, the duo have tackled the great beyond, gazing in awe at the skies while ensuring the heavy layer of science makes sense. You may need a degree or a PhD to fully understand what is going on here, but the Nolan's respect their audience enough to allow their exposition-heavy story to unfold without spoon-feeding. Interstellar is their most ambitious, while not their best, project yet.

In the near-future, Earth is slowly succumbing to famine due to crop blight. History is being re-written in schools to drive home the importance of saving the planet, and ex-NASA pilot Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) is one of many given the responsibility of growing a successful crop. When a mysterious force sends binary messages to him through a bookcase in the bedroom of his daughter Murph (Mackenzie Foy), Cooper arrives at a secret NASA base, where Professor John Brand (Michael Caine) is planning to send a willing crew of astronauts through a wormhole in space to search for a new home for humanity. Their previous mission has uncovered three potential planets, but the astronauts have not been heard from since.

Cooper, leaving his devastated young daughter behind, and a small crew (consisting of Anne Hathaway, Wes Bentley, David Gyasi and a humorous robot) set off on the mission, while Brand stays on Earth to work out the formula that will solve the problem of transporting every man, woman and child on Earth millions of light years through space. One of the planets is so close to a black hole that it causes gravitational time dilation, meaning that every hour spent on its surface is seven years of time back home. After a disastrous mission, Coop finds that his children have aged 23 years (and becoming Jessica Chastain and Casey Affleck in the process), and Murph is now working for Professor Brand.

While this is a lot of plot to take in, and it really isn't the half of it, the Nolans' skill at storytelling and narrative mean that you feel that, no matter how insane the proceedings get, things are going to add up in the end. When the film often threatens to get muddled with heavy explanatory dialogue that doesn't really help and trying to help us understand the workings of black holes, gravity and space travel, Nolan ensures that he doesn't lose his focus. The big idea is that we are not meant to stay here. We are destined to leave, explore and discover. Nolan's passion for the subject is clear as day, and his sense of wonder is brought to life by cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema, who paints space as something wonderful, strange, and fucking terrifying.

Despite the film's often crazy ideas, it feels authentic. Nolan worked closely with theoretical physicist Kip Thorne on developing the film, so Interstellar is (ironically) grounded, and Nolan wisely doesn't try to replicate the philosophical approach of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). It's far from perfect - you could easily pick at plot-(black)holes, some explanatory scenes are heavy-handed and ridiculous, and the warm-up is far too long - but you have to admire the ambition, and be grateful that there's a film-maker out there who can repeatedly prove that the casual movie-goer isn't stupid. 2001's crown is comfortably safe, but Interstellar is a fascinating, engaging and one-of-a-kind experience. Even if you don't like it, I bet you'll be talking about it for days afterwards. Plus it has the most loveable astronaut's-best-friend robots since Silent Running (1972).


Directed by: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, David Gyasi, Michael Caine, Casey Affleck, Wes Bentley, John Lithgow, Topher Grace
Country: USA/UK/Canada

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #697: 'Obsession' (1976)

Brian De Palma has never denied that his main influence is the work of Alfred Hitchcock, yet, his early movies especially, have often been unfairly dismissed as rip-off's. This, of course, is simply not true, and I argue that De Palma allow his films to flourish with his own sense of style and intrigue, while closely following themes that the great master observed himself. Of all his more Hitchcockian productions, Obsession is one his least remembered when compared to the likes of Dressed to Kill (1980) or Body Double (1984). It's certainly one of De Palma's more ludicrous and often outright barmy films, but there is much to enjoy here in a guilty sort of way.

In 1959, wealthy real estate developer Michael Courtland (Cliff Robertson) receives a ransom note demanding $500,000 in cash for the return of his wife and daughter. The police are notified, and following a botched arrest, his wife and daughter are killed in a getaway car. Fifteen years later, Michael, who seems to exist in a state of reserved grief, arrives in Florence with his friend and business colleague Robert Lasalle (John Lithgow) to tie up a land deal. While visiting the church he met his wife years before, he meets a young painter named Sandra (Genevieve Bujold) who is the exact doppelgänger of his dead wife.

For all its frequently ridiculous and quite predictable twists and turns and overwrought melodrama, Obsession succeeds thanks to some stylish direction from De Palma and Bernard Herrmann's lavish, Oscar-nominated score. You can see the ending a mile away, but it does include a nice twist that borders on the repulsive, and with Robertson's subdued performance and Lithgow's reliable charismatic sidekick, the film never becomes quite as silly as it really should be. The main influence here is obviously Vertigo (1958), but retains none of the psychological mystery of Hitchcock's masterpiece, taking a more direct thriller route instead. Don't expect any plausibility (even the most absent-minded viewer could pick apart the plot), but if you can put this aside - or even welcome it - Obsession is a memorable little thriller that is surely due a small revival.


Directed by: Brian De Palma
Starring: Cliff Robertson, Geneviève Bujold, John Lithgow
Country: USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #214: 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes' (2011)

Back in 2001, everything was in place to re-launch a much-loved, yet dated franchise, that was first kicked off way back in 1968 with Planet of the Apes. The mythology was already laid out, and was ripe to be adjusted, experimented with, and ultimately improved upon. The re-make had an interesting (if overrated) director in Tim Burton, who had made a bona fide classic with Edward Scissorhands (1990) and the fantastic and lovingly-rendered Ed Wood (1994). In came up-and-coming A-lister Mark Wahlberg who had impressed in Boogie Nights (1997) and Three Kings (1999), and great support in Tim Roth and Helena Bonham Carter. Then the film came out. And it was shit. And worst of all it didn't make sense. It took ten years to recover, and thankfully another attempt has been made to kick this franchise up the arse. Only this time it seems like they've put some thought into it.

Dr. Rodman (James Franco) is on the verge of discovering the cure for Alzheimer's disease. He tests his drugs on apes, and when one the apes shows remarkable advances in intelligence, he believes he has it. But when pitching his product to investors, the ape escapes and goes on a rampage, only to be shot dead. It turns out she was only protecting her newly-born child, who Rodman takes home to care for. His Alzheimers-suffering father Charles (John Lithgow) is taken by the chimp and they name it Caesar. But as Caesar grows physically, he does so mentally too. He starts to notice that he is more a pet than family to Rodman, and when Caesar attacks a neighbour, he is taken into care by the sadistic John Landon (Brian Cox) and his son Dodge (Tom Felton). While there, Caesar rebels against the cruelty, and educates his fellow chimp-mates.

While Franco may be top billed, the film is stolen by Andy Serkis as Caesar. Of course, the special effects are a marvel and are often flawless. But the character breaks through the effects, and at Caesar's core there is something ultimately human and real. He is the film's heart, if you will, and the film would fall flat on it's face if Caesar was not successfully drawn. Serkis seems to be the go-to guy when a director wants the movements for an entirely CG-character (Gollum, King Kong), and it's clear why. He made Gollum possibly the most memorable character in the last twenty years, and here he shines in the quieter moments, as he broods in his cell, contemplating and absorbing his surroundings. His eyes speak louder than words. It's a triumph of effects and acting.

While there is plenty to enjoy about the film - it is as exciting, action-packed, and as intelligent as you would hope a blockbuster would be - there are some negatives. It's unclear as to why Brian Cox was cast in a relatively thin role that any actor could play, and Freida Pinto, one of the stars of Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire (2008), is wasted and is nothing more than eye-candy. Tom Felton, clearly cast for his twat-like qualities, highlighted in his role as Draco Malfoy in Harry Potter, is given a rather cartoon bad guy to play, and the script never really allows the character rise above cliche.

But these are rather minor quibbles in what is a thoroughly enjoyable film, that equals it's CG-fuelled visuals with brains and genuine heart. A great start to what is hopefully an interesting franchise, and more than enough to diminish those terrible memories of Tim Burton's terrible 2001 re-make.


Directed by: Rupert Wyatt
Starring: James Franco, Andy Serkis, John Lithgow, Freida Pinto, Brian Cox, Tom Felton
Country: USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie