Review #1,430: 'Venom' (2018)

I don't recall ever seeing Tom Hardy attempt comedy, but he's in full Ace Ventura mode in Venom, Sony's latest (and successful) attempt to squeeze the dollars out of what few Marvel characters that remain under their ownership. After failing to reboot Spider-Man and coming to an agreement with Marvel Studios to share the character, Sony have been left with the web-slinger's rogue gallery, and with some kind of anti-superhero universe clearly in mind, they have kicked events off with their most popular villain, the hulking and long-tongued Venom. You may remember the character from the franchise-killing Spider-Man 3 in 2007, and you also may believe you've gone back in time over 10 years when watching this spectacularly dull and frustratingly origin story, which harks back to the dark days of the Ben-Affleck-headlined Daredevil and Tim Story's Fantastic Four.

A spaceship launched by the shadowy Life Foundation crashes down to Earth carrying four symbiotic alien lifeforms gathered from a nearby comet. Three are retrieved by the Foundation's Elon Musk-esque CEO Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed) and taken back to their San Francisco research facility for experimentation, but one escapes, latching itself on to an ambulance driver before hopping between various people in an attempt to find a suitable host. Enter Eddie Brock (Hardy), an investigative journalist who trades in exposing and bringing down corrupt organisations. When given the chance to interview Drake, Eddie naturally uses the opportunity to question the entrepreneur about some of the horrific allegations, including experimenting on humans. The interview is cut short, and soon Eddie finds himself fired and split from his fiancee Anne (Michelle Williams). He sees the chance to redeem himself when a disgruntled Life employee gives him access to their labs, which turn out to be holding cells for symbiote testing on the homeless. The rest you can guess: a symbiote finds its way onto Eddie and he spends the rest of the film dealing with newly-acquired powers (and taste for human heads).

Marvel Studios have got the formula down to a tee, endearing superheroes to millions of new fans who had never touched a comic-book in their lives. It's somewhat sad to see Venom try to take the genre back more than a decade, when many studios were under the impression that the only way an audience will buy into a world of superpowers is through forced humour. The MCU balances humour and drama in a way that almost guarantees your emotional investment, and if you're going to go for all-out comedy like Ant-Man or Thor: Ragnarok, y'know, make it funny. The sight of Hardy cooling down in a lobster tank or flashing expressions of gormless confusion for nearly two hours does not make for pleasing entertainment. The actor is incredibly bad, and his choice to go with a mumbled accent and hunched posture means that his character fails to convince as a journalist with serious credentials. The remainder of the cast don't fare much better, although its hardly their fault. It's a thankless role for Williams, who is given little to do other than playing the role of Eddie's conscience, and Ahmed has no dimension to play around with as the stock soulless corporate type. The climax is a forgettable smack-down featuring two indistinguishable CGI creations, something The Incredible Hulk did far better ten years ago. Despite all of this, Ruben Fleischer's bland fossil of a film raked in over $800 million worldwide, so I'm afraid a sequel is inevitable.


Directed by: Ruben Fleischer
Starring: Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed, Scott Haze, Reid Scott, Jenny Slate, Melora Walters
Country: USA/China

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie

Review #1,280: 'Dunkirk' (2017)

There are countless stories of courage and bravery that made their way out of World War II, but perhaps none more famous or as inspirational (at least to us British) as the story, or miracle, of the Dunkirk evacuation. Following the six-week long Battle of France, Allied forces found themselves holed up on the beaches of Dunkirk and surrounded by German forces. Over the course of eight days, over 300,000 troops were rescued by a hastily assembled civilian navy of fishing boats, yachts and lifeboats called into action from Britain. Although Churchill was quick to remind the people that "wars are not won by evacuations," the incident became a symbol of British stiff-upper lipped stoicism and a powerful propaganda tool.

Many movies have covered the event, from 1942's Mrs. Miniver to 2007's Atonement, as well as Leslie Norman's underrated 1958 film Dunkirk. But none have managed to capture the sheer horror of the situation these troops found themselves in as Christopher Nolan's latest, which is an out-and-out masterpiece of technical wizardry and raw, grinding sound design. Long a passion project for the director, Dunkirk drops you into the thick of the action from the get-go with the welcome assumption that audiences will enter the film with at least some prior knowledge, and doesn't let up until the very end of its relatively short 106 minute running-time with the constant ticking of what feels like an ever-present clock. Nolan is determined to put you through the wringer, and does so by placing you up close and personal with the men on land, at sea, and in the air.

The closest person we have to a leading character is Tommy (Fionn Whitehead), a young and resourceful grunt who stumbles onto the beach after evading the Germans. He quickly plots his escape by attempting to board a boat carrying a wounded soldier, and later teaming up with a young soldier played by Harry Styles (who is absolutely fine) as they try desperately to survive the growing carnage. At sea, proud mariner Mr. Dawson (Mark Rylance) sets sail from Britain to rescue "our boys" and do his part in the war. Picking up a shell-shocked soldier played by Cillian Murphy on the way, Dawson must navigate oil-soaked waters with burning ships all around and avoid the German planes screaming in the sky. Battling the Luftwaffe in the air are Spitfire pilots Farrier (Tom Hardy) and Collins (Jack Lowden), the former having to carry out his duty without the aid of his fuel gauge.

These stories do not take place chronologically, a gimmick now something of a Nolan trademark. While this works wonders in a film like Memento, it adds an unnecessary layer of confusion to the unfolding narrative in Dunkirk, occasionally removing you from the action as you try and establish where we are in the story. With Nolan's decision to do away with any backstory to the characters - who are still fully realised and wonderfully performed - there's also a lack of emotional investment. Yet it could be argued that this approach only adds to the fog of war and the terrifying randomness of combat, and this is the most thrilling depiction of battle since 1998's Saving Private Ryan, only without the spatter and gore. Nolan also avoids flag-waving patriotism and finger-pointing, something that Spielberg's Oscar-winner failed to do. Although it's not the complete masterpiece many of us hoped for (although I suspect the majority will disagree), Dunkirk is one of Nolan's most accomplished and dazzling pieces of work. It may not move you, but it will leave you in awe.


Directed by: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Fionn Whitehead, Mark Rylance, Tom Hardy, Kenneth Branagh, Jack Lowden, Harry Styles, Tom Glynn-Carney, Cillian Murphy
Country: UK/Netherlands/France/USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #974: 'Legend' (2015)

Peter Medak's 1990 film The Krays, starring Gary and Martin Kemp from Spandau Ballet as the titular London geezers, was decent, anchoring the twins' narrative on their overbearing mother, played ferociously by Billie Whitelaw. But seeing the film now, over two decades later, its synth-heavy score makes it feel dated and presses the need for a modern re-telling. Director Brian Helgeland bagged one of the most charismatic actors on the planet to play not one, but both of the twins for his update, and when the trailer first emerged on the internet for Legend, it felt like we were finally getting the definitive story of two of the most notorious gangsters in British history. So how on Earth did Legend turn out so mind-numbingly terrible?

In the early scenes we are carried along on a wave of genre cliches, from the spontaneous date proposal from the charming bad boy to the curious girl who should really know better, to a Steadicam shot of a swinging nightclub interior as the girl drinks this glamorous new world in without questioning how such luxury was achieved. It works like a students version of Goodfellas (1990), only without the originality, style or sparkling dialogue. The girl is Frances, or Frankie, and her new fella just happens to be Reggie Kray (Tom Hardy), former boxer-turned-criminal kingpin who, along with his twin Ronnie (also Hardy), are well on their path to ruling London with an iron fist. However, Legend seems more invested in the relationship between Reggie and Frankie than any of the twins' brutal schemes, and Emily Browning fails to inject any life into a thanklessly written role.

One of many of the film's baffling decisions is to have Frankie provide the voice-over, forcing her to deliver such lines as "a cup of tea can solve anything," with semi-conviction. Helgeland's script for L.A. Confidential won an Oscar in 1997, but Legend's dialogue makes the dullest of ITV dramas sound like Shakespeare spoken by Alan Rickman (R.I.P.). Yet this could be forgiven had the on-screen action possess an ounce of narrative coherency. Instead, Helgeland portrays the ups-and-downs of Reggie and Frankie's rocky marriage, dipping in and out of the Krays criminal activities whenever it seems to want to show us someone getting punched or shouted at in a style not to dissimilar to the work of Guy Ritchie.

Hardy tries his best, but his two characters have been written so cartoon-like that it's difficult take them seriously. Reggie is the brain who hides his violent urges, and Ronnie is the unhinged muscle who has no desire to disguise his brutal tendencies, seemingly revelling in telling other gangsters of his preference to boys. Ronnie is certainly the most interesting of the twins, but he gets a surprising lack of screen-time. His scenes with his more successful and handsome brother provide the stand-out moments, namely a bar fight that sees Hardy fight Hardy, but the complexity of their rocky relationship is only glimpsed and barely explored. Small roles for the likes of David Thewlis, Christopher Eccleston, Sam Spruell, John Sessions, Paul Bettany and Taron Egerton are highlights - Egerton, as 'Mad' Teddy Smith, in particular - but this is small praise for a film that simply left me bored and unenlightened.


Directed by: Brian Helgeland
Starring: Tom Hardy, Emily Browning, Christopher Eccleston, Taron Egerton, David Thewlis, Sam Spruell, Chazz Palminteri
Country: UK/France/USA

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie

Review #961: 'The Revenant' (2015)

Although it took home the Best Picture gong last year and I personally found it an immersing and wonderfully bizarre experience, Birdman Or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) was far from the year's most satisfying movie. Still, director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu demonstrated enough desire to take the movie-going experience to the next level (with unfathomably long takes masterminded by cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki) to have me excited about his next project, and the revelation that it was to be set in 1820's America around the legendary story of Hugh Glass had me foaming at the gills. While The Revenant is not the masterpiece I was hoping for, it is a gruelling, brutal and frequently breathtaking tale of survival.

Glass's story has been altered to fit a more conventional narrative, and the opening scenes introduce us, Terrence Malick-style, to his Pawnee wife (Grace Dove) and son Hawk (Forrest Goodluck), in flashback. These floaty, dream-like moments quickly give way to the harshness of the Louisiana wilderness where Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his son are working as part of a fur-trapper party under the command of Captain Henry (Domhnall Glesson). While Glass hunts for pelts, the rest of the party are set upon by hostile Arikara Indians, who slaughter a third of the men before the ragged group, with Glass, escape down river. This opening scene, as teased in the trailer, is the film's Omaha Beach, and is captured by Lubezki's never-still camera, constantly swirling from one act of brutality to the next.

We jump on the back of the horse and off again, follow men as they kill and then be killed, under water and onto a boat, and then we are left to catch our breath. Combined with the eerie score, it makes for a delirious and awe-aspiring set-piece. As the group decide just how to get back to camp with their lives, they touch land again where Glass is set upon by a grizzly bear, in what is surely cinema's most convincing moment of man vs. nature. The attack has been compared to a rape, and as Glass screams for his life while being brutally and helplessly torn apart by the giant beast, it's hard to avoid the comparison. Found by his group, he is left in the care of the unhinged John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy) and youngster Jim Bridger (Will Pouler). Betrayed and left for dead, Glass must drag his broken body across 200 miles of wilderness for revenge.

The famously difficult shoot, in which the crew were given the task of shooting chronologically on location using natural lighting, all in the harshest of environments, certainly benefits the film. The exhaustion is etched on the character's faces, with DiCaprio in particular carrying the film on his shredded back as he sucks marrow from a long-dead animal carcass and snuggles up inside the body of a horse for warmth. The film doesn't so much celebrate the strength of human will when faced with impossible odds, but marvel at how much the human body can withstand in the most unwelcome of locations. Through Lubezki's lens, the wilderness has never been a more fearsome foe, but also rarely quite as beautiful. Both DiCaprio and Lubezki are surely odds on favourites come Oscar time - the former a talent deserving of Academy recognition and the latter looking for his third triumph in as many years.

However, the film is not without its flaws. The tweeks to Glass's real-life story (or what is known of it) mean that Inarritu has opted for a more conventional revenge flick that side-steps any deeper questions that may arise about America's dark history, and fails to add any real dimension to the other races caught up in the action. The Arikara's certainly have a reason for their relentless pursuit, but no explanation is given to why this group is so hostile. The same can be said for the team of French trappers, who appear briefly and serve as little more than a plot device. Near the end of its 150 minute running time, it ponders the purpose of revenge like a thousand movies before it but fails to say anything new. Yet, while it arguably fails thematically, The Revenant is at its best when its showing off, delivering a couple of key set-pieces that throw you head-first into the mayhem like nothing else I've seen, backed by impressive performances by DiCaprio and a mumbling Hardy.


Directed by: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Domhnall Gleeson, Will Poulter, Forrest Goodluck
Country: USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #919: 'Child 44' (2015)

The idea of a thriller/murder mystery set in the 1950's Soviet Union, where to be accused is to be found guilty and the majority of the population live in state of constant paranoia, starring such acting powerhouses as Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, Gary Oldman, Paddy Considine and Jason Clarke, who have all starred in some damn fine movies over the past few years, would make one assume they were in for a guaranteed masterpiece. Based on Tom Rob Smith's 2008 novel, the first of a trilogy, Child 44 the film is overstuffed with disconnected sub-plots, mud-brown grimness, rushed storytelling. and a smorgasbord of thick Russian accents delivered by a mostly European from a variety of countries apart from Russia.

Beginning in a war-town Ukraine where starvation has wiped out a bulk of the population, young Leo Demidov (Hardy) escapes an orphanage and into the arms of a sympathetic soldier, who adopts him and gives him a home. Years later, and Leo is a war hero, having his picture taken raising the flag of the U.S.S.R. over Berlin, and has a beautiful wife in Raisa (Rapace). While the country lives in fear, Leo and his comrades dine in fine restaurants. He is an obedient soldier, hunting down and capturing suspected traitor Anatoly (Clarke), but also shows restraint and empathy in his work, trying to convince Anatoly to confess to escape his inevitable torture and execution, and dressing down fellow soldier Vasili (Joel Kinnaman), a known coward from the war, when he executes a peasant couple in cold blood.

Vasili, who rises through the ranks to become understudy to Major Kuzmin (Vincent Cassel), becomes Leo's nemesis. When Leo is called in to investigate a gang of citizens suspected of working against the state, Raisa is implicated, possibly by Vasili as a grudge against the man who humiliated him in the field. Leo must face a choice of giving up the woman he genuinely loves, or handing her over and maintaining his social position. Meanwhile, the child of one of Leo's friends is murdered, and may possibly be connected to other murders that have happened in the vicinity. But the higher-ups fails to acknowledge the murders, as serial killers can only be the product of capitalism, and there are no murders in paradise. Leo, refusing to hand his wife over, is sent to take a demeaning position in Volsk, operating under the command of General Nesterov (Oldman), where more bodies are found.

Child 44 has all the ingredients for an intense whodunit and character study from a time and place rarely depicted by mainstream cinema. I haven't read Smith's book, but judging from the critical praise and awards lavished upon it, director Daniel Espinosa, best known for action fare Easy Money (2010) and Safe House (2012), seems to have only skimmed the back cover, forgetting to add anything resembling tension or believable character development. 2006's German masterpiece The Lives of Others created an overwhelming sense of fear and paranoia within its characters, but Espinosa seems to be more invested in rushing his way through the plot to get to an end that is in no way satisfying. The performances, despite being burdened with thick Russian accents (though the cast generally stay on the right side of those Compare the Meerkat adverts), are solid, although Oldman and Considine are wasted. At 137 minutes, the film feels long when it should feel short, and you get the idea that this may have worked better as a mini-series, where better care could have been taken to tell the story with the patience it deserved.


Directed by: Daniel Espinosa
Starring: Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, Gary Oldman, Joel Kinnaman, Vincent Cassel, Paddy Considine, Jason Clarke
Country: USA/UK/Czech Republic/Romania/Russia

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie

Review #916: 'Mad Max: Fury Road' (2015)

Attempting to piece together the chronology of Max Rockatansky's four-movie journey between 1979 and 2015 would be to miss the point of the series altogether. Max Max (1979) was a raw slice of grindhouse that just happened to be financially successful and genuinely brilliant, and has since evolved into something so wildly imaginative and increasingly insane that to try and piece together how many years have elapsed since Mel Gibson's youthful Main Force Patrol officer watch his family murdered and how he has suddenly shrunk and become Tom Hardy would be as deranged as the franchise's latest instalment, Fury Road.

Whether it's a re-boot or a continuation of the story we haven't seen since 1985's Beyond Thunderdome, we are plunged back into the familiar, post-apocalyptic Australian plains (although it was shot in Namibia) inhabited by obscene punks, raging warlords and ragged rebels. Following a nuclear holocaust, fuel and water is scarce, and the residents of the Citadel are ruled over by the ageing Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne), a hulking monster of a man with a breathing apparatus strapped to his face. Max (Hardy) is captured and is used as a 'blood bag' for War Boy Nux (Nicholas Hoult), and when Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron), one of Joe's lieutenants, goes AWOL with an armoured truck full of Joe's many wives, Nux and a small army pursue with Max strapped to the front of his vehicle.

Like its predecessors, Fury Road has little in way of a plot. Similar in many ways to Max Max 2, the film is little more than one huge chase with precious few quiet moments in between. Hardy is as reserved a Max as Gibson was, but strangely lacks the charisma that has propelled Hardy to recent superstardom. Yet Max is more in the background, playing second fiddle to the battering ram that is Furiosa. One-armed, shaven-headed and raccoon-eyed, Theron is in equal measures extremely sexy and utterly intimidating, offering glimpses of vulnerability as her trust in Max becomes more cemented. Furiosa's drive is that she wants to get back to her homeland, which is now little more than a distant memory from her childhood, and Max just happens to be along for the ride. But character development is left in the dust of what is ultimately one humongous chase set-piece.

Although he is now 70 and his recent work has consisted of Happy Feet (2006), Happy Feet 2 (2011) and Babe: Pig in the City (1998), director, writer and producer George Miler shows no signs of losing his touch. Fury Road is the most aggressive Max Max yet, complete with acrobats on huge wires who bend into other vehicle's to attack from above, War Boys getting themselves pumped for violence by spraying a powerful drug called Night Fume onto their lips, and an electric guitar player who sprays flame from his instrument and is backed by a hoard of drummers. Everyone involved in creating the stunts should be extremely proud, as what could have been repetitive turns into a two-hour adrenaline rush. It's not the masterpiece that it has been heralded by critics and audiences alike, but it has breathed life back into a genre stuffed with CGI and former wrestlers.


Directed by: George Miller
Starring: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Josh Helman, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Zoë Kravitz
Country: Australia/USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #861: 'The Drop' (2014)

Based on Dennis Lehane's short story Animal Rescue, and re-locating the action from the author's beloved Boston to the chilly streets of Brooklyn, The Drop is a disappointingly familiar film that shows a lot of promise in its build-up, but one that will most likely be best remembered for being the last screen performance of James Gandolfini. While the movie is hardly a fitting swansong to the actor's tragically short career, there is promise for future generations in the performance of lead Tom Hardy, who plays his deceptively dim bartender with an extremely subtle complexity, only hinting at the real man who lies beneath his shuffled walk and soft voice.

Formerly respected criminal 'Cousin' Marv (Gandolfini) now spends his time behind the scenes at his eponymous bar, while his actual cousin Bob (Hardy) pours the drinks and keep the regulars in high spirits. The bar is a convenient locale for local gangsters to lay their 'drops' - small amounts of cash that are locked in a safe ready for whoever is destined to collect it. When the bar is robbed by masked gunmen, the efficient Chechen mobsters who run the operation are suspicious and demand that Marv and Bob locate their money. So far, so relatively formulaic - 2012's rather disappointing Killing Them Softly covered similar ground.

The Drop is at its best when it hints at these characters' shady pasts and real character - traits these men may have embraced in their past, but have since been suppressed or subdued by new powers. The performances are magnificent all round, and special mention must go to Matthias Schoenaerts, who proves a truly menacing presence as Eric Deeds, the lonesome brute who comes into the picture after Bob finds a beaten puppy in the rubbish bin of Nadia (Noomi Rapace), Eric's former girlfriend. Bob and Nadia form a relationship, possibly out of mutual feelings of disenchantment or perhaps because they both simply care for the animal. Deeds is an intimidating and unnerving manipulator, and Schoenaerts is part of a trio of non-American actors playing American roles astonishingly well here - he's Belgian, Hardy is English, and Rapace is Swedish.

The multiple plot threats naturally lead to a suitably bloody finale, where we learn what really makes these people tick and operate with such efficiency. But for all it's stylish direction and vibrant screenplay by Lehane himself, a disappointingly cliched final scene betrays much of what came before. Up to this point, it is an interesting study of coming to terms with being the kind of man you wish you weren't. To offer salvation to a character who has just accepted this very thing is a simplistic and easy path to take, especially when the build-up is bolstered by an observant eye for detail and thick layer of cynicism, painting it's Winter greys broadly. This contradiction makes the film quite ordinary, when it could have been a compelling study of the insecurity of thugs and the circle of violence that surrounds them.


Directed by: Michaël R. Roskam
Starring: Tom Hardy, James Gandolfini, Noomi Rapace, Matthias Schoenaerts, John Ortiz
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #784: 'Locke' (2013)

Ever been stuck on a motorway at night, anxious to reach your destination, and with the sounds of "are we there yet?" running through your mind? Locke is a British drama by director/screenwriter Steven Knight, the man responsible for Dirty Pretty Things (2002) and Eastern Promises (2007) which takes place entirely in the miserable setting of the M1, and in fact never, with the exception of the opening minute or so, leaves it's protagonist's car. It could easily be dismissed as a narrative trick, a gimmick films often use to elevate it's dull story. But the claustrophobic and dreary setting serves a purpose, a portal into the mind of it's eponymous hero, charismatically performed by the magnetic Tom Hardy, in what is surely his best performance.

On the night before Europe's largest-ever concrete pour (outside of military and nuclear projects), construction foreman Ivan Locke (Hardy) throws his hi-vis and boots into his BMW, and sets off on what will turn out to be a traumatic journey from Birmingham to London. His boss, saved in Locke's phone as 'Bastard', is pissed at Locke for abandoning his post, and duly fires him. Determined not see his work fall apart, he stays in touch with Irish friend Donal (Andrew Scott), who carries out Locke's instructions. He also has news for his wife (Ruth Wilson), who is waiting with his children to watch an important football match. Armed with just Bluetooth and his beloved work binder, it will be a night that sees Locke's carefully constructed world fall apart.

It's hard to describe the plot without revealing too much. Locke's situation lacks originality and complexity, but the film holds your attention with the way the many phone calls he makes slowly begin to claw away at a man whose life, until now, has been a well-constructed success. Such a confined narrative structure demands a great performance, and Hardy, shedding the hard-man persona he developed in the likes of Bronson (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012), delivers it with aplomb. With nowhere for the camera to go apart from the occasional glimpse of the road, Hardy holds the screen throughout. Some things don't quite work, such as Locke talking to his dead father (a moment that reeks of lazy exposition), but for a film about a man in a car talking on the phone to people we never see, it's often gripping stuff.


Directed by: Steven Knight
Starring: Tom Hardy, Olivia Colman, Ruth Wilson, Andrew Scott
Country: UK/USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #729: 'Inception' (2010)

Inception wasn't the only time English writer-director Christopher Nolan has blown our minds with a big-budget summer blockbuster - two years before, he made The Dark Knight, which destroyed most people's pre-conceptions of what superhero movies should be made of, and showed you that movies designed to make a lot of money can work your brain as much as your heart-rate. Inception also blows the minds of it's characters, themselves barely able to keep up with the multi-level dream universe they create. It's a film that revels in it's own heavy exposition; finding visual thrills in discovering the possibilities of consciously walking through a dream, or showing you the beautiful art of dream-stealing.

It follows Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), an exiled criminal who makes his money from corporate espionage jobs bankrolled by rich CEO's. Only, Cobb applies his craft by entering people's dreams, extracting information left over by the dreamer's subconscious, usually within a locked safe or protected by projections of that subconscious. After a botched job, Cobb's target Saito (Ken Watanabe) offers him the chance to redeem himself and to go home, only the task is not to steal information, but to implant it, known as 'inception'. Saito wants Cobb to implant an idea into the head of Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy), the heir to an energy conglomerate. Cobb alone has ever achieved inception, but it is a near impossible task, especially with the psychopathic projection of his dead wife (Marion Cotillard) stalking his subconscious.

It's a dangerous and bold thing for a mainstream director to have confidence in it's audiences intelligence. If there's a main problem with Inception, it is probably that things get a little too baffling at times, as the crew delve deeper and deeper into the levels of the dream, and new rules start to apply. There is a lot of information to process here, and the film spends nearly its duration trying to explain it to us. But Nolan is a fantastic writer, and most directors would lose the audience without such expert storytelling ability and great dialogue. Thankfully, Ariadne (Ellen Page), an architecture student recommended to Cobb to design the dream world, plays as a proxy for the audience, learning as we learn.

Ariadne is one of a bunch of experts lined up for the job - Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is Cobb's right-hand man and the brains behind the job, Eames (Tom Hardy) is a skilled in-dream impersonator, and Yusuf (Dileep Rao) is a chemist who provides a knockout drug so powerful that the dreamers cannot be shaken awake. There's also Tom Berenger, Michael Caine, Lukas Haas and Pete Postlethwaite in the mix, making this a huge ensemble. As expected, Nolan keeps tabs on them all, never allowing you to forget about anyone or about what the role they have to play. It's a miracle he even managed to line up such an impressive group of actors, let alone make sure no-one gets lost amongst the thick plot.

Although the climax gets a little too over-crowded in the final half an hour, and Nolan places us in the pretty dull setting of a snowy mountain, this is still innovative, stylish and exciting action cinema. It still abides by all the standard rules of the genre, but it dares to toy with them and to keep the action moving with intriguing sub-plots or simply delivering an exceptional set-piece (Arthur's no-gravity hallway fight comes to mind). It bends the mind as much as it bends the rules, and this is much about the strangeness of dreams and what it means to dream them. Nolan went on to deliver an ever better movie two years later with The Dark Knight Rises (2012), and I'm eagerly awaiting his upcoming Interstellar (2014). He alone has reawakened my faith in the 'big' movie, proving that films can deliver brains as well as bang for your buck.


Directed by: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Ken Watanabe, Tom Hardy, Dileep Rao, Marion Cotillard, Cillian Murphy, Tom Berenger
Country: USA/UK

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #536: 'Lawless' (2012)

Prohibition-era America is incredibly rich in narrative and mythology. Behind the realities of the great economic depression the underbelly of society rise in criminal organisation, creating the underworld of bootleg alcohol and the clandestine drinking establishments known as speakeasies. With this specific historical backdrop, American cinema has created a glamorised iconography of the 1930's, the idolised gangsters and almost politically justified violence. Lawless only briefly flirts with the glamour of this period, but believes in the self-appointed mythology of it's characters. John Hillcoat and Nick Cave's film embeds itself within the roots, straight to the source of the big city's modern attractions. We're not in Al Capone's Chicago, but deep in the heart of the American wilderness, Franklin County, Virginia.

The three Bondurant brothers, Howard (Jason Clarke), Forest (Tom Hardy), and Jack (Shia LeBeouf), run  a moonshine operation in the sparsely populated backwater town, and despite the national prohibition laws, local authorities participate in alcohol consumption. But even within the moral vacuum of Virginia, the modern corruption and perversity's of the city will inevitably invade. Guy Pearce's sinister and narcissistic "lawman", Charlie Rakes, infects the rustic landscape with his false malevolence. Pearce shaves his eyebrows off for the role, bringing a visual nod towards the characters vanity. His appearance is impeccable, and an odour of perfume is alluded to on occasion, a veneer that hides a deeply sadistic human, a character who also flaunts his wealth within poverty perhaps a signifier of our current perception of the suited banker.

In American Gothic traditions, surrounding the three brothers is a legend perpetuated within the small community, a superstition created out of perceived supernatural beginnings. After the two older brothers escape death in situations where others perished, a myth is attached to them suggesting that the Bondurants are invincible, a narrative that opens a niche in the community where they are impervious to the nations laws. Tom Hardy's middle child is the centre of this family unit, and his hulking presence tersely guides them, where as the elder, Howard, is the fearless bulldog, throwing himself at anything in their way. Forest's violence is calculated, he seems too bulky and clumsy in his laconic mannerisms, but, as in a scene in their bar, a densely packed burst of violence culminates in some horrifically graphic images. Believing your own myth is central to Lawless. Because of this belief, their confidence knows no boundaries. Even the audience is given the evidence to believe, when Forest survives having his throat hacked open.

Whilst the older brothers battle to keep equilibrium, attempting to block the outside, modern world from intruding upon their traditions and redneck hokum, Lawless is fundamentally about the younger Jack, and LeBeouf gives his best performance to date. His character is set up perfectly when witnessing Floyd Banner (Gary Oldman) crashing through the small community, tommygun rattling at the car of his pursuers, the idealised image of gangster chic. Jack idolises these city criminals like teenagers idolise idiot pseudo-celebrity today, highlighting his naivete as he looks into this world from the outside. What comes with Jacks hero-worship is an unwavering ambition to take the bootlegging business further. LeBeouf balances Jack's progression with great intensity, managing the conflicting mix of gullibility and confrontational confidence. Whilst not a perfect performance, I saw a bit of Tom Hanks in LeBeouf.

Like Hillcoat's previous films The Proposition (2005) and The Road (2008), Lawless evokes the visual textures of the landscape. The first in the Australian outback, secondly in a post-apocalyptic world, working again with cinematographer Benoit Delhomme (who collaborated previously on The Proposition), the environment permeates the screen, the dust kicked up from informally created roads, scattered over the wooden, man-made structures, the grit and grime forming with the sticky blood as Jack is violently beaten to the ground by Rakes. The untouched landscape can be both beautiful and malevolent.

A film about corruption, and particularly the long hand that breaks from the city limits to corrupt further afield. 2012 is possibly the perfect time to reflect upon this 21st century depression, and remember not to worship false idols. Nick Cave based his terse screenplay on a novel by Matt Bondurant (grandson of Jack), and obviously is based upon a true story. Whether much has been passed down through the family with ambiguities, the Chinese whisper of myth making is unknown, but the Bondurant brothers seem mythical. Their involvement in a national epidemic, the superstition of death-dodging all add to their own sense of power and the towns fear of them. Are they supernatural heroes of the American psyche? Or, do the older brothers reflect the defeated world of the Wall Street crash, whilst the younger reaches out to the celebrity world of high-class gangster, looking to a future of wealth? It's an interesting inclusion into the reflective nature of cyclical history. As we continue through our own economic crisis, we look back to the past to compare, and check on our evolution, if there is any at all.


Directed by: John Hillcoat
Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, Jason Clarke, Guy Pearce, Jessica Chastain, Mia Wasikowska, Gary Oldman
Country: USA

Rating: ****

Marc Ivamy

Review #425: 'The Dark Knight Rises' (2012)

After a four-year wait, Christopher Nolan's epic Batman trilogy comes to a close to be inevitably branded the greatest superhero trilogy ever made. Even with the films growing increasingly darker and less traditional in the blockbuster sense, Warner Bros. gave Nolan free reign following the huge success of The Dark Knight (2008), both critically and commercially, and he has truly delivered once again with this shockingly intense and often quite unpleasant action-drama. This is a superhero film with no superhero, and a Batman film without Batman for very long periods. Unconventional in every sense, it often feels like it shares the epic scope of TV series The Wire, threading together multiple plots and sub-plots to form a vast story of a city in turmoil, and a man pushing himself to the limits of his capability.

Picking up eight years after The Dark Knight, Lt. Gordon (Gary Oldman) honours the legacy of Harvey Dent, torn at holding the truth of Dent's insanity and demise from the optimistic citizens. Gotham City's streets are almost completely free of crime, with the exiled Batman (Christian Bale) still public enemy number one following his decision to take the blame for Dent's crimes. As a result of this, Bruce Wayne is living a reclusive life behind the walls of his empty mansion, crippled due to his years as Batman. Arriving in Gotham is missionary Bane (Tom Hardy), a hulking terrorist intent on bringing down the city's stock exchange and punishing the rich for their social crimes. Wayne decides to don the suit once again, and learns about Bane through cat burglar Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway), only to find that he is more than Batman's match both physically and mentally.

Like the first sequel, it's difficult to sum up the film's labyrinth plot. I haven't even mentioned two of the film's new characters or covered anything relating to their story arcs which truly sums up the complexity and depth to Nolan's story. Wayne Enterprises is invested in a clean energy project, headed by Miranda (Marion Cotillard), who have developed a machine that could harness fusion power, which with modification, could be used as a nuclear weapon. Naturally, Bane sees this as the perfect thing to steal in order to bring destruction to Gotham. And with Gordon hospitalised by Bane, rookie cop Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a young man who idolises Batman and knows the truth of his identity, is promoted to detective in order to investigate Bane's intentions and his link to Wayne Enterprises board member Daggett (Ben Mendelsohn).

If all this sounds confusing, then it kinda is. The first forty minutes or so is slow-moving, and is busy jumping between characters new and old, and setting up many sub-plots. It is admittedly a lot to take in, and Nolan doesn't quite have as full a grasp of the narrative as he had with the first two movies. Thankfully, when Bane is introduced and things start to kick off, it is quite difficult to care too much. This is, after all, fifteen minutes shy of three hours long, so there's plenty of time to pack the film. And Bane proves a hugely effective new villain, and although he would always suffer in comparison to Heath Ledger's Joker, Tom Hardy's creation is a formidable monster.

To give Batman his ultimate test, Nolan has given Bane the physically of a gorilla and the voice of a muffled Sean Connery. If that doesn't sound exactly scary, well, he is. His first meeting with Batman leads to the most brutal and ugliest fight ever created. There is nothing remotely elegant about Bane, he uses fists, knees, elbows and his forehead to batter his opponents to a bloody pulp, without showing a flicker of remorse or even acknowledgement. There have been criticisms stating that Bane is difficult to understand under his metallic mask, but although it is quite strange at first, his voice is hugely effective, rattling the cinema's speakers to the point where I actually felt uncomfortable watching him. He is not as layered or quite as memorable as the Joker, but his presence is undeniable, and Hardy deserves every accolade he gets.

This is by far the most emotional of the trilogy, with Wayne facing almost certain death coming up against Bane. Bale gives his finest performance as Wayne, and his scenes with loyal butler Alfred (Michael Caine), who wants nothing more than to see Wayne lead a normal, happy life, prove profoundly moving, with Caine giving a sensational performance. It is Selina Kyle who ultimately brings Wayne out of his nest, and it was her character that gave me the most concerns going into this film. My fears were, sadly, justified, as Kyle proves to be character giving the cheesy one-liners and ends up being a distraction and a slight contradiction to Nolan's dark, grounded Batman universe. Hathaway is brilliant in the role, proving as sexy and as sly as you want Catwoman to be, but it is ultimately the character that annoys.

But in the end, the flaws become a minor blip in what is ultimately a sensational climax to a truly great trilogy. This is not a fun film, and although it is packed with action scenes as exciting and absorbing as anything I've ever seen (the massive climax is mind-blowing), I found it quite psychologically tormenting. This is a superhero movie where police officer's are massacred, a character's skull is crushed with bare hands, and the film's hero is given one of the most severe beatings in recent memory. As good as I could have ever hoped the film to be in the wake of its admittedly superior predecessor, and a finale that will cement Christopher Nolan's vision as one of the greatest creations in big-budget film-making, and a historic stepping stone for the future of blockbusters.


Directed by: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Christian Bale, Gary Oldman, Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Anne Hathaway, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Marion Cotillard, Matthew Modine
Country: USA/UK

Rating: *****

Tom Gillespie

Review #293: 'Warrior' (2011)

Former U.S. Marine Tommy Riordan (Tom Hardy) returns to the home of his estranged father Paddy (Nick Nolte), to find him sober and a Christian. Tommy left home with his now late mother after suffering years of abuse from the alcoholic Paddy, and now Tommy wants to fight in the upcoming mix-martial arts tournament called Sparta, and enlists his father to train him. Meanwhile, Tommy's brother Brendan (Joel Edgerton) is a physics teacher who faces losing his family home to the bank. He also fights mixed martial arts, and when the school board finds out he has been fighting in some small back-alley tournaments, the school suspend him without pay. Brendan must convince his wife to let him fight in Sparta, and must face meeting his brother who hasn't talked to him in years, and his father, who he despises.

Warrior is another successful entry into the recent revisionist sports dramas such as The Wrestler (2008) and The Fighter (2010), that take David-and-Goliath themes and spin them with an almost docu-drama approach, while sticking to the traditions (some could say clichés) of the genre. Here, director Gavin O'Connor (who made the pretty crappy Pride and Glory (2008)) uses a hand-held camera and a muted blue colour palette to also explore family themes such as unconditional love, forgiveness and redemption. Familiar themes, I agree, but thanks to some confident directing and stellar acting from the three leads, Warrior is one of those rare sports films where you truly grow to root for the characters and get caught up in their plight. It also contains some great fight scenes that are surprisingly brutal given its 12A certificate.

Naturally, if either of the brothers want to win, they must face the prospect of fighting each other (and if you've seen the trailer, you'll know if that happens or not). Whereas the likes of Rocky (1976) had one clear hero to cheer on, here there's two, and I found myself caring equally about both. As Tommy, Hardy gives a performance of ferocious intensity. He becomes an unwitting national hero when one of his earlier fights goes viral on Youtube, and finds he has the backing of the Marine Corps. Tommy is angry, and this is reflecting in his fighting style. He storms into the ring, smashes his opponents with a few punches, and storms back out. It's no surprise Christopher Nolan wanted him to play Bane in the upcoming The Dark Knight Rises. Brendan is calmer, and his trainer adopts a patient and tactical fighting style to suit Brendan's age. He even enters the ring to the sound of Beethoven. The two performances are equally good, but they are both overshadowed by Nolte, a man so consumed with regret and sadness that is drives him back to drink in one especially powerful scene. Nolte is great here, and I'm sure he'll be up for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar come March.

For those wanting action, there's plenty of it. When the Sparta tournament comes around, there's barely a moment spent outside the ring. They come thick and fast, and are impressively captured by O'Connor's camera. This may be the film's biggest problem, as the emotional core of the film's relies on the conflict between the three leads, especially between Tommy and Paddy. There is some sort of closure in one very good scene, but it is never shown again after that so the story fizzles out while we are consumed by the fighting. But what fighting it is, and when the action is this good, it's hard to be too concerned by the slight neglect of it's main theme. It under-performance at the box office, but I'm sure it will pick up the dedicated fan base that it deserves in the years to come.


Directed by: Gavin O'Connor
Starring: Joel Edgerton, Tom Hardy, Nick Nolte, Jennifer Morrison
Country: USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #223: 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy' (2011)

Retired British Intelligence officer George Smiley (Gary Oldman) is forced out of retirement to investigate a possible mole in the system. Ricky Tarr (Tom Hardy), a spy returning from overseas, confirms the suspicions after having a brief affair with a Soviet Agent, who revealed that an insider was passing information to the Russians. Assisted by Peter Guillam (Benedict Cumberbatch), Smiley must investigate his former colleagues, dubbed by his former boss Control (John Hurt), as 'Tinker' (Toby Jones), 'Tailor' (Colin Firth), 'Sailor' (Ciaran Hinds), and 'Poorman' (David Dencik). Also on his list of interviewees is school teacher Jim Prideaux (Mark Strong), who is a former agent that was shot and captured by the Russians in a previous bungled operation, and has now been cast out by the agency nicknamed the 'Circus'.

After the Harry Potter series ended earlier this year, it's great to see that a stellar British cast can still be assembled. And what a cast it is. The danger, obviously, is that with such talent on display, some people can get left behind or the film can feel over-populated. But, with the exception of Ciaran Hinds, each actor gets their chance to shine. The notable stand-out in my opinion is Hardy, who with his recent back catalogue, can only be described as the best young British actor around. He's a world away from psychopathic jailbird Charles Bronson in, er, Bronson (2008), which is his greatest performance to date. Here, he's a damaged and emotionally-torn grunt who is dealing with the fact that the woman he's possibly fallen in love with has disappeared and most likely dead.

With Alec Guinness making the role of Smiley his own in the BBC adaptation of John le Carre's book, Oldman faced a challenge. But of course, this being Oldman, he makes his turn as the bespectacled, brooding and miserable super-spy into one of his best performances. He's not the over-the-top bad guy or the larger-than-life personality that we're used to from the likes of Leon (1994), Sid And Nancy (1986) or The Fifth Element (1997), but he is quiet, dutiful, and ponderous. I believe in the years to come he will be remembered as one of the finest actors this country has ever produced. The whole film is a tour de force of acting, and mention must go to Firth also, who demonstrates once again why, at the age of 51, he's getting more work than ever.

The film itself is sensational. Every frame, sound, and line of dialogue looks carefully considered. Just like the collection of grumpy spies, the film is slow-moving. It's a film of tone and mood, of greys and browns. This is portraying 1970's Britain, and from the looks of it, it was a miserable and paranoid place to live. The Cold War was in full flow, and Britain was in danger of being left in the wake of it's American allies. The characters reflect the mood of the country, it would seem. The spies are the people that must risk torture, murder, or arrest, all for the apparent safety of Britain, and they must do it all in the shadows. They are unhappy, and have every right to be.

It can be confusing, but when the credits roll after an exceptional closing and lively montage, and all the pieces come together, it's apparent that it's a relatively straightforward plot that has been arranged in a complex manner. It doesn't feel like this was done to make the film seem more intelligent than it is, but a way to keep the narrative interesting, and allowing us to learn things as our protagonist does. It jumps back and forward in time as the various players tell their story, or Smiley finds another piece to the puzzle, and credit must go to director Tomas Alfredson, who directed Swedish vampire masterpiece Let The Right One In (2008), for keeping a firm grip on everything. Just a wonderful film, and one that will surely get plenty of recognition come next years Academy Awards.


Directed by: Tomas Alfredson
Starring: Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, Benedict Cumberbatch, Mark Strong, Toby Jones, David Dencik, John Hurt, Ciarán Hinds, Kathy Burke
Country: France/UK/Germany

Rating: *****

Tom Gillespie