Review #1,425: 'Edtv' (1999)

It's too bad for Ron Howard's Edtv that its arrival came shortly after Peter Weir's masterful The Truman Show, a film received with adoration by both critics and general audiences alike. Both are satires that comment on the state of trash TV and how audiences will watch literally anything providing they follow a comfortable (and manipulated) narrative, but both took their own unique approach. Jim Carrey's Truman was of course completely unaware that millions tuned in every day to see him live out his life in a supposedly Utopian confines of a television studio, but Matthew McConaughey's video store clerk slacker happily signs up to have bulky cameras and a boom mic follow his every move. Edtv certainly lacks the bite and incredibly dark undertones of Weir's masterpiece, and is content with structuring events around a familiar rom-com narrative, but Howard's film gets its message across with sufficient charm and wit, and almost twenty years later feels spookily prophetic.

True TV producer Cynthia (Ellen DeGeneres) pitches an idea to her stuffy boss Mr. Whitaker (Rob Reiner) that will involve following one individual, 24/7, as they go about their everyday lives. Whitaker reluctantly agrees, so the camera crew heads out into the city to find what they hope will be a new superstar. Ray Perkurny (Woody Harrelson) is eager to grab the limelight, hauling his girlfriend Shari (Jenna Elfman) and younger brother Ed in front of the camera to endure his obnoxious jokes. Cynthia, charmed by Ed's good looks and humble outlook, opts for the younger brother, and so EdTV is born. Ratings are terrible at first, with Ed waking up with a hand down his pants to a horrified audience, but start to improve as it becomes clear that Ed harbours feelings for Shari. Soon a narrative forms, much to Cynthia's liking, as Ray accidentally reveals to the world that he's a cheating scumbag, and Ed's absent father Hank (Dennis Hopper) turns up in an attempt to reignite their relationship.

As the audience grows, so does their influence on the show's events, with polls and talk shows about EdTV seem to litter every channel. With Shari reluctant to play out a romantic relationship in front of a camera crew, a beautiful and willing supermodel (played by Elizabeth Hurley) is thrown into the mix to spice things up. With the power to voice your opinion on a global scale now at everybody's fingertips, along with the ability to hit record at any given moment, Edtv is stunningly accurate at depicting the toxicity this level of access can influence. The film seemed to know exactly where our pop culture was heading, and it reminded me of the unnerving time I observed a family member watching Big Brother housemates live as they slept motionless in their beds. Yet as events are forced to play in a more traditional, consumable manner, Edtv pulls most of its punches, and the story becomes more about Ed's will-they-won't-they relationship with Shari than the abyss of toxic waste we were steering ourselves toward.  Despite the best efforts of an incredibly talented cast - Martin Landau delivers a particularly fine performance as Ed's stepfather - the film is never vicious enough to hold the attention for a running time of over 2 hours.


Directed by: Ron Howard
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Jenna Elfman, Woody Harrelson, Ellen DeGeneres, Martin Landau, Sally Kirkland, Elizabeth Hurley, Rob Reiner, Dennis Hopper
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #1,394: 'Solo: A Star Wars Story' (2018)

During the countless times I watched George Lucas' original Star Wars trilogy as a child, teenager and adult, I don't recall ever wondering how Han Solo became the sarcastic, smirking smuggler that definitely shot first. Ever since Disney acquired Lucasfilm and announced that not only would they be continuing the story that began back in 1977 but would also be giving some of the fan-favourite supporting characters their very own spin-offs, there's been a split in the fandom between those gagging for anything Star Wars related on the big screen again and those opposed to a project that would both render the many beloved novels set in the Star Wars universe as un-canon, and undermine the story already told. Rian Johnson's The Last Jedi is either loved or hated (I loved it), but the one announcement that brought all the fans together in united opposition was Han Solo's very own spin-off, which would be set in the past and not feature the man who helped make the character so iconic, Harrison Ford.

You may not care just how Han won the Millennium Falcon from Lando Calrissian, or how he met Chewbacca, or how he got his hands on that cool blaster, or how he made the Kessel Run in under 12 parsecs - but Solo: A Star Wars Story is going to tell you anyway. While this isn't necessarily a bad thing, it does give Solo a sense of weightlessness and the feeling of a filler episode in the middle of television series with too many episodes. With such little stakes at play, the success of Solo comes down to the charm of its actors, and the casting of Alden Ehrenreich was a very shrewd move indeed. He isn't a famous name, or even a pronounceable one, but his scene-stealing performance in 2016's Hail, Caesar!, where he managed to overshadow the likes of George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, John Brolin and Ralph Fiennes, bristled with star quality. Harrison Ford could never be replaced and Ehrenreich seems to know that, so while every now and then you get a glimmer of Ford's smile and his iconic one-handed shooting stance, Ehrenreich makes the role his own, replicating the charisma and infusing it with a youthful innocence.

We first meet Han hot-wiring cars on Corellia, an awful planet where orphaned children are forced to steal for slug-like gang-boss Lady Proxima (voiced by Linda Hunt). With their lives in danger from the local gangs, Han and his lady friend Qi'ra (Emilia Clarke) decide to make a break for it, but at the airport they are separated, with Han fleeing to join the Imperial Navy and Qi'ra taken away by her pursuers. Three years later, Han is serving in the Military after being kicked out of the Flight Academy, fighting as an infantryman on a planet called Mimban. There he encounters a gang of criminals posing as Imperial soldiers led by the enigmatic Tobias Beckett (Woody Harrelson) and attempts to blackmail them into letting him join them. Instead, he is thrown into a pit for desertion, where he meets the formidable Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo). They escape and manage to convince Beckett to enlist them for a job to steal a shipment of coaxium. Now officially an outlaw, Han is brought into a dangerous world controlled by a criminal syndicate called Crimson Dawn. Beckett answers directly to crime boss Dryden Vos (Paul Bettany), whose favourite advisor is a young lieutenant named Qi'ra.

Solo likely won't convince those soured by The Last Jedi or especially those who failed to see any potential in Han Solo origin movie in the first place, but it may be a nice, if forgettable, surprise for some. Like the other 'Star Wars Story', Rogue One, Solo was hit with numerous problems during production, the most notable being the firing of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller and the subsequent hiring of Ron Howard. Star Wars has always been a rule-bound universe, and Lord and Miller's loose, improvised style was perhaps too much for studio executives looking for a guaranteed hit. Howard was a reliable, safe choice, but one has to wonder how much fun Solo could have been in the hands of those responsible for 21 Jump Street and The LEGO Movie. What we have is a perfectly entertaining adventure movie that is surprisingly coherent given the patchwork built into it, but nothing worthy of the Star Wars banner. History will remember the film as the first Star Wars flop, and will cause historians to wonder why they didn't choose to given Donald Glover's Lando his own movie instead. On a positive note that will no doubt unite the fan-base, a box-office return of south of $400 million seem to have woken Disney executives up to the idea that there is such a thing as too much, too soon.


Directed by: Ron Howard
Starring: Alden Ehrenreich, Joonas Suotamo, Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke, Donald Glover, Thandie Newton, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Paul Bettany
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #1,306: 'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri' (2017)

Along an overgrown, disused highway somewhere outside Ebbing, Missouri, three formerly dilapidated billboards still bearing the torn remains of whatever advertisement was previously displayed there over a decade ago, have suddenly sprang back into life. Only the messages delivered aren't in the name of some big-name brand or local company, but they are the deliberately confrontational words of grieving, thoroughly pissed-off mother Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand). The first billboard reads 'Raped While Dying', followed by 'And Still No Arrests', and finally 'How Come, Chief Willoughby?' The opening scenes of Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, which see Mildred negotiate a deal with businessman Red Welby (Caleb Landry Jones) and quickly install the provocative messages, set up a David-versus-Goliath story, in which a justice-seeking woman sets out to shame and spring into action the police department she feels has failed her following the brutal rape and murder of her daughter.

Yet, this being a film written and directed by Irish playwright Martin McDonagh, the kind of story suggested in the trailer is only the tip of a far more engaging and complex iceberg, and one that isn't afraid to take you to some incredibly dark places and urge you to accept the redemption of a truly repulsive character. The police department, led by family man and all-round likeable pillar of the community Chief Willoughby (Woody Harrelson), take the billboards as a declaration of war, but Willoughby, being a sensible officer of the law, pays a visit to Mildred for some one-on-one time in the hope of resolving the matter peacefully. They chat almost like old friends, or former lovers who have stayed on good terms, but Mildred is unmovable in her quest. Even the revelation that Willoughby has terminal cancer and is close to death isn't enough for Mildred to think twice about her actions, and it turns out that she was already privy to this information before renting the boards. "They won't be as effective after you croak," she admits, almost like it's her way of apologising.

The role of Mildred was written specifically with McDormand in mind, and the result is her best performance since 1996's Fargo and will surely bring her second Oscar win come March. The first time we lay eyes on her she is marching into town like a gunslinger seeking revenge, dressed in blue overalls and sporting a tightly-wound bandanna. Despite the pleas of her teenage son Robbie (Lucas Hedges), who is bullied in school because of his mother's antics and performance on the local news station, as well as threats from the drunken, racist Officer Dixon (Sam Rockwell), Mildred is unwavering in her strides for justice. Even her deplorable, wife-beating ex-husband Charlie (John Hawkes) voices his disapproval, but it all falls of deaf ears. Yet despite her questionable methods and finger-pointing at a police department who seem to have genuinely run into a dead end with the case, you stay with her until the end. I can't think of any other actress working today who could pull of a feat with such conviction, especially when dealing with a character who spends most of the movie keeping her real emotions close to her chest, or channelling them into rage.

McDonagh views small-town America as tightly-knit and full of big characters, a place where everybody knows everybody and gossip spreads like wildfire. In many ways, Three Billboards shares much in common with Calvary, the under-appreciated effort by the director's brother John Michael from 2014, and is structured almost like an ensemble piece. By bringing in a wealth of colourful supporting characters, played by the likes of Peter Dinklage, Abbie Cornish, Kerry Condon and Clarke Peters, as well as those already mentioned, McDonagh can explore themes of anger, bitterness, loss and loneliness on a far grander scale. While the wonderfully obscenity-laden script will keep you both laughing and wincing throughout the running-time, the film is at its most compelling when showing genuine compassion for the characters inhabiting the story. It refuses to judge anybody too harshly, even peeling back the layers of the most loathsome character in the story, the permanently hungover Dixon, who is played by a career-best Sam Rockwell. Three Billboards somehow manages to be both enormous fun and utterly heart-wrenching, and coming off the back of the underwhelming Seven Psychopaths, this is a huge stride in the right direction for the enormously talented McDonagh.


Directed by: Martin McDonagh
Starring: Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, Lucas Hedges, Abbie Cornish, Caleb Landry Jones, Peter Dinklage, John Hawkes, Clarke Peters
Country: UK/USA

Rating: *****

Tom Gillespie

Review #1,226: 'War for the Planet of the Apes' (2017)

Matt Reeves' War for the Planet of the Apes, the reboot of the classic series that also work as prequels of sorts, isn't the first ape-led movie this summer to draw inspiration from Francis Ford Coppola's Vietnam classic Apocalypse Now. While Kong: Skull Island attempted to re-create some of the visuals from Coppola's masterpiece, especially the helicopters whizzing past the sunset moment that adorned the posters, it shared little of its psychological tone and gravitas. In War for the Planet of the Apes, the only obvious references are the words 'Ape-pocalypse Now' scrawled by humans in a dingy sewer, and Woody Harrelson's bald, painted and psychotic antagonist The Colonel. Yet War also shares much of its weary, exhausted tone, and the psychological effects of battle are a key theme running throughout, as is the desire for revenge driven by an unquenchable hatred.

For anyone hoping to enjoy an action-packed blockbuster full of explosions and thrills will likely be disappointed, or at least take aback by how serious Reeves and co-writer Matt Bomback approach the subject matter. After the blistering finale of the previous film, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, which offered the delightful sight of an ape riding a horse wielding two machine-guns, it would seem more fitting to switch the two titles around, and there is little war in this trilogy-closer, but there is certainly a dawn of something big. Beginning 2 years later, Caesar (Andy Serkis), who can now speak as eloquently as any human, is still haunted by his former ally Koba (Toby Kebbell), whose feelings of pure hatred towards his human abusers could not be quelled by Caesar's teachings of tolerance. Leading a huge tribe hiding out in the woods, they are attacked by the military but manage to defeat the small band of soldiers. After this pulse-racing opener, Reeves takes his foot off the pedal to focus on Caesar's inward struggle and personal journey.

Caesar's hand in forced when some of his immediate family are murdered by a renegade militant group headed by the genocidal Colonel, who isn't given a name, or much personality until his motivation is eventually explained. Although he sets out on his quest for revenge across the snowy mountains alone, he is soon joined by his loyal companions Maurice (Karin Konoval), Luca (Michael Adamthwaite) and Rocket (Terry Notary, who also did the motion-capture for Kong), who continue to trust the judgement of the leader they have followed from the very beginning. They soon pick up a couple of new faces, the mute young human Nova (Amiah Miller), and former zoo resident and chimpanzee Bad Ape (Steve Zahn). The latter offers the series a levity so badly lacking in the previous instalments, and Zahn wonderfully captures the character's adorable mixture of naivety and weariness, as well as delivering the film's few funny moments. It soon transpires that the clan Caesar had left behind and believed to be on their way to safety have been rounded up by the Colonel and locked away in a concentration camp of sorts, so it becomes a race against time to prevent the extermination of his species.

Dawn represented the very pinnacle of special effects, with the CGI rendered characters interacting seamlessly with their human counterparts, as well as the drizzly forest surrounding them. War somehow eclipses this, taking such care with its special effects that you can truly see the humanity in Caesar's eyes. Even the Colonel acknowledges this by marvelling at how almost human Caesar appears, yet this does not sway his disdain. But this shouldn't take anything away from Serkis' performance. As well as nailing the physicality of the primate's movements, he also delivers a performance of remarkable intensity, yet also one of warmth. Caesar's pacifist attitude has constantly been met with aggression, and his tolerance has taken a battering over the course of Rise and Dawn. He is an ape at the end of his tether, willing to risk certain death to see one man burn, but he also recognises the good side of humanity in the form of the harmless Nova, who has witnessed the barbarity of her species first hand. It's incredibly heavy stuff for a big-budget picture, but although some of the symbolism may be clumsily-handled in parts, this is refreshingly mature stuff. It left me with both the sensation of satisfaction after a fitting closure to the story, and the desire to see the franchise push on even further.


Directed by: Matt Reeves
Starring: Andy Serkis, Woody Harrelson, Steve Zahn, Karin Konoval, Amiah Miller, Terry Notary
Country: USA/Canada/New Zealand

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #1,035: 'Triple 9' (2016)

Boasting an enormously talented ensemble cast and a multi-layered story of corruption and greed set in the murky criminal world of the Russian mafia in Atlanta, John Hillcoat's Triple 9 has the ambition of Michael Mann's Heat (1995) but neither the scope or the running-time to convincingly pull it off. Telling the tale of a gang of hardened criminals and bent coppers coming together to pull of a heist, and then another, to save the skin of a brutal Russian mafia boss, it is hardly the most original entry into the crime genre, but manages to sneak a pass thanks to some splendid visuals and Hillcoat's signature brutality that gives the film a unique, raw edge.

Two cops - Marcus Belmont (Anthony Mackie) and Franco Rodriguez (Clifton Collins Jr.) - and three criminals - gang leader Michael Atwood (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and brothers Russell (Norman Reedus) and Gabe Welch (Aaron Paul) - come together to rob a bank in order to retrieve a security deposit box containing evidence against the husband of mafia boss Irina (Kate Winslet). After a narrow escape, they are refused payment and are ordered to pull off another job to again retrieve data on Irina's husband. The job is near-impossible, so the gang come up with an idea of triggering a 'triple 9' call, which involves all police responding to an 'officer down' and heading to the location of the incident, therefore diverting all attention away from them. Marcus's new partner Chris Allen (Casey Affleck), a bullheaded new recruit quickly making enemies with the Mexican gangs, is chosen as the ideal candidate.

There's an undeniable star power to Triple 9, and the film struggles to allow them all the chance to shine. Because of the lack of running time required to properly develop the many characters, they are either painted with incredibly broad strokes or so thinly that they are relegated to merely 'tough good guy' or 'tough bad guy'. Weaving in and out of the main set the central story is crack-snorting Detective Jeffrey Allen (Woody Harrelson), the hard-nosed yet likeable sergeant investigating the gang, who also happens to be Chris' uncle. Just in case his questionable drug habit isn't enough, the camera insists on showing us every bead of sweat running down his unwashed brow to reinforce the idea that this really is a tough guy who doesn't play by the rules. Triple 9 is sadly chocked full of tired genre cliches, right down to the tacky dress-sense of Winslet's Russian gangster, all big hair and garish outfits.

Despite the immense talent of its actors, lazy writing and too much time spent watching these characters flexing their muscles at each other means that none really make an impression. Ejiofor certainly tries, but he fails to make us sympathise with his character, who is supposed to be the conflicted emotional core of the film, and Paul repeats his Jesse Pinkman shtick without the benefit of 5 seasons worth of character development. Things lighten up when a few heated exchanges simmer with tension, as Hillcoat makes it clear from the outset that no character is safe. With his best films, The Proposition (2005) and The Road (2009), Hillcoat demonstrated a real talent forging an extremely dark mood, brimming with atmosphere and lurking threat, but here, he manages it only fleetingly, finding little time to do so amidst an overstuffed plot.


Directed by: John Hillcoat
Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Casey Affleck, Anthony Mackie, Woody Harrelson, Clifton Collins Jr., Kate Winslet, Aaron Paul, Norman Reedus, Gal Gadot
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #1,006: 'The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2' (2015)

One of the ugliest and blatant money-spinning schemes to emerge from Hollywood in recent years is the trend of splitting up the final entry of a successful book series unnecessarily into two parts. Although I wasn't overly keen on The Hunger Games' second entry, Catching Fire (2013), it was at least - along with the original 2012 movie that kicked off the successful movie franchise that helped launch Jennifer Lawrence into super-stardom - decently paced; a tight, nifty thriller with some enjoyable set-pieces. Part 1 of Mockingjay lacked anything in the way of spectacle, and while Part 2 certainly delivers on the action front, it still stutters due to stretching a pretty slim book into over 4 hours of screen-time.

Following a slow start during which we meet up with heroine Katniss Everdeen (Lawrence) who is coming to terms with the horrors of war and the re-emergence of the emotionally damaged Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) in her life, things pick up when Katniss defies the orders of revolution propaganda chief Plutarch Heavensbee (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and the increasingly shady President Coin (Julianne Moore), and forces her way to the front line. What Katniss and her team face on their way to assassinate President Snow (Donald Sutherland) is a city booby-trapped to the gills with giant machine guns, flamethrowers, and other imaginatively-designed instruments of death awaiting them at every turn. Circumstances have changed but the Games remain the same.

What Part 1 lacked most of all was the Hunger Games themselves, and here they are cleverly woven back into the story. As absurd some of the set-ups are (surely a couple of well-placed soldiers armed with walkie-talkies and sniper-rifles would have been more efficient and cost-effective?), they undoubtedly eject the film with the excitement it sorely needs. Mockingjay Part 2 is also extremely dark and violent, pushing its UK 12A certificate to breaking point. One set-piece set in a sewer that sees a horde of snarling monsters chase our heroes in a scene straight out of a horror movie and a genuinely shocking (if you haven't read the books) moment of brutality near the end prove to be brave and mature decisions. And why shouldn't young folk see death depicted without the usual padding or sentimentality?

I also applaud the story for taking an unconventional approach to the inevitable Everdeen-Snow showdown, but its here that events take a confusing turn as Lawrence's Everdeen is kept at an emotional distance that clouds her motivations without the aid of narration, and the movie struggles in the closing moments. It's also an ending that should have come the film before, with the slicing of the story resulting in Part 2 going out with a slight whimper when it could have been explosive. On a positive note, it seems that audiences are finally catching on to the kind of studio greed that forced them to watch the likes of The Hobbit for nine hours over three years, as Lionsgate's movie performed poorer than expected at the box office (though it still made a shed-load).


Directed by: Francis Lawrence
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Donald Sutherland, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Julianne Moore, Elizabeth Banks
Country: USA/Germany

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #948: 'The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1' (2014)

Following in the footsteps of fellow hit book franchises Harry Potter and Twilight (and arguably The Hobbit), the final entry into The Hunger Games series splits the final book in two, no doubt causing the producers to rub their hands together at the idea of doubling their profits while arguing that the decision was ultimately a creative one. While it would be cruel to state that the result is half a complete movie, Mockingjay Part 1 doesn't feel finished because, well, it isn't. So we get a build-up without a satisfying climax, while the action remains suitably thrilling and Jennifer Lawrence again demonstrates why she is the most powerful actress in the world right now.

The Hunger Games - which pitted a member of each of the lower-class districts against each other in a fight to the death - are now over, and full-scale rebellion is under way. Katniss Evergreen (Lawrence) has been whisked off to District 13, where freedom fighters are holed up as they plan to finally overthrow wealthy dictator President Snow (Donald Sutherland). Under the leadership of rebel leader President Alma Coin (Julianne Moore), Katniss is groomed by former Hunger Games Gamekeeper Plutarch Heavensbee (Philip Seymour Hoffman) to be the face of the rebellion and places her in propaganda videos, only Katniss can't act for shit. In the hope of drumming up support, Katniss is sent out into the field with a group of film-makers to witness the destruction inflicted on her people in her absence.

My main gripe with the Hunger Games movies (I haven't read the books) are that the 'good guys' we are meant to root for are little more than a collection of one-dimensional generic heartthrobs. Noticeably lacking charisma are Katniss's two love interests, Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth), now a soldier in the rebellion, and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson), survivor of two rounds of the games and now a prisoner of Snow. Out of the young actors on show, it's only Lawrence who manages to sell her character, evoking sympathy as she is forced in front of the camera as a tool of war to spout ridiculous speeches that she struggles to deliver with any earnestness. On the other side, Snow is placing Peeta in front of the camera as he interviewed by TV host Caesar Flickerman (Stanley Tucci) pleading with the rebels to put down their weapons and end the fighting.

The focus on the artistry of propaganda from both sides is one of the most intriguing aspects of the film. Like the themes of class divide and capitalism from the first movie, the way the adult themes are weaved into an action movie made mainly for young adults works well, helping to give the story a gravitas rarely seen in blockbusters franchises. Sadly, scene-stealers Woody Harrelson and Elizabeth Banks are given very little to do as the story struggles to fit them in, but the introduction of Moore as the straight-talking Coin adds class and Sutherland positively purrs his way through his role as the big bad, a character deserving of more development and screen-time. The film is dedicated to Philip Seymour Hoffman, who tragically died during filming, and it's humbling to see the great actor deliver a masterclass when the role doesn't even call for it. As half of a finished movie, Mockingjay Part 1 is as entertaining as it is frustratingly unsatisfying.


Directed by: Francis Lawrence
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Julianne Moore, Donald Sutherland, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #922: 'Seven Psychopaths' (2012)

Even though I wasn't blown away by Irish playwright Martin McDonagh's directorial debut, In Bruges (2008), the film contained enough memorable one-liners and great performances to have me anticipating his next feature. In the four years that elapsed between In Bruges and his follow-up Seven Psychopaths, Martin's brother John Michael wrote and directed the offensively hilarious The Guard (2011), and in 2014 gave us Calvary, one of the truly great films of that year. Martin's limelight has been stolen somewhat, and Seven Psychopaths is a slight let-down. It's a movie about movies, or rather a movie within a movie, or even a movie without a movie - either way, it's a bit of a mess.

Script-writer Marty (Colin Farrell) has writer's block. He knows what his next movie is going to be called - Seven Psychopaths - but the title is all he has. Struggling with alcoholism, he tries to keep his girlfriend Kaya (Abbie Cornish) happy while his unhinged best friend Billy (Sam Rockwell) tries to worm his way into a writing credit. Looking to avoid creating yet another movie glamorising violence, he wants his psychopaths to retain some humanity and have the message of his movie be about peace and love. Billy suggests he takes inspiration from the 'Jack of Diamonds' killer, who only kills high-ranking mobsters and is currently on a killing spree in Los Angeles, and they take an ad out in the local paper asking for real-life psychopaths to come and tell their story.

Billy also kidnaps dogs from rich folk for a living along with his partner-in-crime Hans (Christopher Walken), but they have just stolen a Shih Tzu from the wrong man - gangster and madman Charlie (Woody Harrelson) - a man we first meet trying to fix his gun so he can shoot the young girl who had the dog in her care in the face. Marty has the vaguest of ideas about his other psychopaths - one being a Vietnamese war veteran (Long Nguyen) dressed as a priest looking to avenge his family's murder during the war, and another a quaker (Harry Dean Stanton) who stalks his daughter's killer for decades - but no way of connecting them and one story possibly accidentally stolen. With Charlie on their tail, Marty, Billy and Hans flee to the desert to contemplate their fate and finish the script once and for all.

This is an odd film from start to finish. The opening scene depicts two gangster (Michael Stuhlbarg and Michael Pitt) discussing famous murders of people being shot through the eyeball, before being blown away themselves by the masked Jack of Diamonds killer, It's reminiscent of the Tarantino-inspired wave of self-aware crime flicks of the 1990's, where pop-culture references and quirky humour trumped anything dark and serious. The use of freeze-frames to introduce it's collection of psychopaths also reminded me of the 1990's, when Danny Boyle's Trainspotting (1996) opened the floodgates for countless inferior imitators in Britain to do the very same. Are these the kinds of movies McDonagh was offered in the wake of a successful debut and is now satirising them? Or did he just run out of ideas and resort to emulating a now-dated era?

I found this the main problem with Seven Psychopaths, and I felt like I could never be sure if McDonagh was being smart, lazy, or both in an ironic clever-clever way. At the half-way point, the film begins to drag and meander as if McDonagh had genuine writer's block (there's a reason the main character is Irish and called Marty) but kept writing in the hope that it would eventually work itself out. But Seven Psychopaths does have moments of inspiration. As Hans, Christopher Walken makes the welcome return to the large roles that seem to have evaded him of late, and delivers a performance of real humanity. The dialogue too, is as quotable and vicious as you would expect from the man who penned In Bruges, with the humour providing a welcome distraction from the barrage of exhaustive violence - and maybe that's the point. But whatever the point, this will more likely leave you scratching your head trying to figure it out.


Directed by: Martin McDonagh
Starring: Colin Farrell, Sam Rockwell, Christopher Walken, Woody Harrelson, Tom Waits, Olga Kurylenko, Abbie Cornish, Harry Dean Stanton
Country: UK

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #906: 'The Hunger Games: Catching Fire' (2013)

While 2012's The Hunger Games, based on the opener of Suzanne Collins' trilogy, was very much a collection of familiar genre tropes and felt like Battle Royale (2000) for the Harry Potter generation, its themes of class suppression by a ruling elite and the grumblings of a working-class revolution felt refreshing for a story primarily aimed at a younger audience, and also extremely relevant to our times when wealth is seemingly celebrated above all else. Following the first instalment is the awkward middle entry, always struggling to bridge the gap between a fresh new world and its inevitable final showdown. Catching Fire struggles where most other middle sections fail - it's essentially a re-hash of the first film, and fails to progress the story enough to warrant its 2 hour 20 minute running time.

The movie makes a few key mistakes. Above all, it makes the terrible assumption that you've already read the book, failing to explain various aspects of the story which, although it doesn't confuse the rather straightforward plot, it left certain questions niggling in my brain. If the ultimate goal is to kill everybody you're lumped with and be the lone survivor, then why are teams of 'allies' forged by the game maker? What's really going on in the slums that we only glimpse in scenes of dusty faced onlookers? And are The Hunger Games, an event in which young members of the poor are plucked at random to inevitably die, really the best way to control an increasingly disgruntled majority? These questions aside, Catching Fire is also plain boring.

Picking up shortly after the climax of the first film, where the bow-and-arrow-wielding Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) won the Hunger Games with her close friend Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) after choosing to die together rather than one surviving, the two champions are left pondering the aftermath. Finding herself a hero to the enslaved working class, President Snow (Donald Sutherland) insists that she play her role and help maintain social order. Following a few incidents of rebellion, Snow decides that Katniss is a threat and turns to new Gamemaker Plutarch Heavensbee (Philip Seymour Hoffman) for council. His idea is to throw all the past victors of the Hunger Games into the event together, bending the rules in his favour by introducing a natural disaster or event every hour, including poisonous mist and killer mandrills.

Despite Jennifer Lawrence's obvious star quality, Katniss comes across as one-dimensional and charisma-free, failing to justify her 'chosen one' status. Her budding romance with gruff district worker Gale (Liam Hemsworth), to whom she explains that her kiss with Peeta was merely a way to manipulate the audience into aiding her survival (although her feelings may be becoming real), feels like a discarded draft of Twilight. The characters are so robotic that I simply didn't care who lived and who died. Catching Fire ultimately feels like a way of stretching out a story that could have been told in two instalments, where, by the end, I felt like we were no further along than where we were at the start. The ending comes so abruptly that it's obvious the filmmakers are under the illusion that they're leaving us thirsty for more, but while that may be the case for its huge fanbase, it left me staring at the screen waiting for any kind of satisfaction that I knew would never come.


Directed by: Francis Lawrence
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Donald Sutherland, Elizabeth Banks, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Lenny Kravitz
Country: USA

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie

Review #848: 'Nanking' (2007)

Without the focus on the heroic efforts of a small group of European and American expatriates, Nanking the film would be a near unbearable experience. The Nanking Massacre, or The Rape of Nanking as it's widely referred to, took place over a 6 week period in 1937. The Chinese capital city was invaded by Japanese troops, resulting in 200,000 (or more depending on varying estimates) innocent people raped and slaughtered. Tales of civilians being forced to have sex with corpses or family members, unborn foetus's being cut out of their mother's belly with bayonet's, or the gang-rape of small girls and boys are all confirmed here. But Nanking achieves its power not through shocking and repulsing but by showing the triumph of the human spirit in the face of hell on Earth.

Although plenty of archival footage is used - from the beautiful, pulsating Nanking sitting proudly as China's capital, to it's destruction through heavy bombing - a bulk of the film consists of readings by actors of diary entries written by the likes of Nazi party member John Rabe and American missionary Minnie Vautrin. Rabe and Vautrin were part of a small, wealthy group of men and women who decided against fleeing Naking, and set up a 'Safety Zone' inside the city. The actors, including the likes of Jurgen Prochnow, Mariel Hemingway, Woody Harrelson and Stephen Dorff, are earnest and understated in their delivery, and this helps give these moments an urgency, when it could have come off as trying to add some Hollywood gloss to a devastating event.

The Japanese agreed to the implementation of the safety zone, but their soldiers would parade the grounds, raping women at will and dragging men off to be executed on mass for being suspected enemy soldiers. Still, the protection offered by Rabe, Vautrin, Bob Wilson et al is estimated at being responsible for the survival of 200,000 Chinese lives. This is hard stuff to watch, one of the most despicable war crimes ever committed - interviews with Chinese survivors and seemingly remorseless and disconnected Japanese soldiers hit particularly hard - but this is essential viewing, proving that in order to move forward, we must look back.


Directed by: Bill Guttentag, Dan Sturman
Starring: Jürgen Prochnow, Mariel Hemingway, Woody Harrelson, John Getz, Stephen Dorff
Country: USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #429: 'The Hunger Games' (2012)

It could be argued that we are living in the last decades of Western Civilisation as we know it. The connotations of our popular culture has all the elements of distraction from what actually matters within our society. Reality television is now the most watched entertainment, with it's collection of delusional contestants vying for their 15 minutes of fame, along with the populous need to both humiliate and celebrate people of little worth. This format of mass-distraction is mirrored in the fall of the Roman Empire, which had its Gladiatorial Colosseum's as both a form of distraction and control. In the 21st century, television (along with other forms of media communication) is used to control and sedate the masses, and foment apathy in the population. It is also a form of contagion that infects those who believe they can also be rich and famous with little or no ability or talent. This seems to be what The Hunger Games is attempting to comment on, within the context of a distopian future.

Set after an uprising during a war, North America has been divided into 12 districts controlled by its centre, The Capitol. Each year one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18 are selected by a lottery from each district to fight to the death in a televisual show. From district 12, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), volunteers herself for the event after her younger sister was selected. Along with male contestant, Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson), are transported to the Capitol, which resembles the Roman cities that the film is attempting to align itself with. After training and attempts to get sponsors, they are let out into a forest world to fight.

I really can't be bothered to explain any further the plotting or character narratives within this film, as you will more than likely have seen it before: The Hunger Games has similar themes, and has an incredibly similar storyline to both Battle Royale (2000) and The Running Man (1987). Whilst it's central character is played well by Lawrence (she has a slight presence on screen with her ordinary beauty), she has very little to do in a weak script, and obvious plotting. The films iconography is lifted wholesale from Roman history, and its depiction of a vapid elitist population fails to enlighten the initial premise (that admittedly could have been good). Within the first hour the film also manages to insult the spectator by repeating certain scenes of dialogue only 20 minutes after it was initially shown ("We are totally aware that that happened, cause not much has happened since, and it happened moments ago").

Writer Suzanne Collins has stated that the inspiration for the book came from channel hopping between reality TV and the Iraq war, but she fails to find a voice strong enough to contextualise all the information into a credible framework, and simply seems to use the idea to speak only to the idiots who watch the reality TV that she seems to want to criticise; in other words the idea has been produced in much more intelligent ways elsewhere, whilst The Hunger Games decreases its concepts to feed it to the masses. Back to the 2010's, it has been suggested that around 90% of teenagers desire fame. In this narrative world, this desire simply is not there. In conclusion, interesting idea which fails to interest - the film is too long, and it simply does not engage.


Directed by: Gary Ross
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Lenny Kravitz, Stanley Tucci, Donald Sutherland
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Marc Ivamy