Nightcrawler(2014)

"The City Shines Brightest at Night"



PLOT
When Louis Bloom, a driven man desperate for work, muscles into the world of L.A. crime journalism, he blurs the line between observer and participant to become the star of his own story.


REVIEW

Grim, Gritty,Sleazy, right in your face are all good ways to describe the Dan Gilroy Directed, Jake Gyllenhaal starring film Nightcrawler. Its the type of film that doesn't come along to often, but when it does you have no choice but to sit back and watch it all unfold right before your eyes.

Not since the opening shots of 2011's Drive has L.A. night sky has a film drawn viewers into what was to come and what follows is definitely not an normal tale.

Nightcrawler  follows the life of Louis Bloom(Gyllenhaal) who is a self educated man, who is desperate for work(some one at first people can relate too) and will do anything to get a job,after failing to get work at a labor yard, Lou on his way home witness a real life heroic scene where two police officers saves a person from a burning car(this has been shown on the news countless times).While Lou is watching everything happen, a van pulls up and two men quickly jumps out with video equipment and hurries over to record the scene.

After the men get what they want, Lou approaches the one who was directing the whole thing Joe Loder(Bill Paxton) and begins asking questions about what he does and tries to get himself hired by Loder, but is shot down.

Louis being the driven individual that he is decides to research as much as he can about freelance crime journalism and starts up his own company, he quickly learns that its not as easy as it looked, but instead of moving on to something else he decides to do better and he gets his break one night where he gets some really good footage of EMTS working on a carjacking victim who was shot.

He takes this footage to a local news station looking to sell it, here he meets program director Nina(Rene Russo) who lives for the bloody and criminal stuff, after an unique conversation with her. The two begins a business relationship.

Louis feelings good decides to hire some one to help him navigate around the L.A. area after an awkward "Job Interview" Rick(Riz Ahmed) becomes his first and only employee.

Nightcrawler doesn't play out like a traditional film and the story is a complex one with a lot of social commentary. On one hand Lou Bloom is just a man who is trying to make a way for himself and live the american dream, He's well spoken, he is career driven and wants an successful and stable lifestyle, but the problem is that Louis is very deceptive, conniving and an shady individual.

There are a lot of themes and motifs that play through out the film one of the main ones being the social commentary of how the media can be very misleading and manipulate the truth for their own gain(ratings) especially during one scene where Nina push News Anchors into using the scare tactic of crime invading the white suburban communities.

The acting here is top notch and led by Jake Gyllenhaal who is in every scene of the film and turns in probably his best performance of his career, the way that he becomes the character Louis "Lou"Bloom can not be praised enough, Gyllenhaal does a perfect job of making you hate him but also being intrigued by him. His performance is very much worthy of any major award nomination. I wouldn't be surprised either if he is snubbed as well because he is just that good and this has happened in the past as well. I can't imagine anyone else in this role.

Rene Russo is surprisingly good here especially since I've never seen her like this before, it was refreshing to see. Maybe only a handful of actresses could have pulled off this role. Russo shows here that she still can give a good performance when the character is written well. The relationship she and Louis have through out speaks a lot about how many relationships not just professionally but personal ones seem to be going these days and a perfect example is the exchange between the two in a dinner scene.

It was nice to see Bill Paxton in this film(any film for that matter) as Career Nightcrawler Joe Loder, sadly he doesn't get enough screen time and seems to only been a plot device for Louis Bloom,even still with limited screen time he is still at his Paxton best, as a fan of his It would have been really good to have seen more of his character in contrast to Louis.

If there are any flaws with the film, it would be what appears to be the major conflict of the third act that seems to come to an abrupt end, with a couple of hints towards weather or not Lou would literally do anything to get what he wants and the Detective that's investigating the case really doesn't bring anything to the table and honestly could've been cut out of the picture since the movie ends the way it does, because of this I do believe it takes away from the movie but not to much to the point that it affects the overall goodness of the movie.

This is really a good film that I could see getting some what of a cult status because of the tone and themes and its real to life approach towards the medias role in today's society. Gyllenhaal's performance alone is reason enough to watch this movie, because he is just that good. so If you haven't seen Nightcrawler yet, I highly recommend it.

MY RATING
8/10


CAST
Jake Gyllenhaal-Louis Bloom
Rene Russo-Nina
Riz Ahmed-RIck
Bill Paxton-Joe Loder
Ann Cusack-Linda
Kevin Rahm-Frank Kruse
Kathleen York-Jackie
Michael Hyatt-Detective Fronteiri

American Mary (2012)

"She's an artist"



PLOT

The allure of easy money sends Mary Mason, a medical student , into the world of underground surgeries which ends up leaving more marks on her then her so called "freakish" clients



REVIEW

American Mary are a breath of fresh air into the horror genre, the 2nd feature film release by Jen/Sylvia Soska aka The Twisted Twins.

American Mary is a dark, intense film about a Mary Mason (Katharine Isabelle) who is down on her luck while she's going to medical school, finds herself applying for a job at a strip club owned by a man name Billy Barker (Antonio Cupa) who finds Mary interesting because he actually reads over her resume and knows that she really shouldn't be there because of all of her schooling.

Mary is thrust into the underworld of extreme surgery thanks in large to one of the club dancers Beatrice(Tristan Risk), she has had a lot of surgeries that have transformed her into a real life version of Betty Boop, after witnessing some of  Mary's work that she performed on a guy at the club during her "Interview".

Beatrice brings more work to Mary thanks to a friend of hers Ruby RealGirl (Paula Lindberg) who wants to be transformed into a human doll by having her nipples and labia removed, which at first Mary isn't to comfortable with doing but after being offered a lot of money, she goes ahead with doing the surgery.

Things really take a turn when Mary who now is doing better with her life and has been doing her Residency at an local hospital is invited by Dr.Walsh( Clay St. Thomas) to a party where she runs into her med school professor Dr. Grant (David Lovgren) who drugged and rapes her, Mary herself transforms on the inside.

I really enjoyed this movie, its very well written and acted by the cast who outside of Katharine Isabelle were unknowns to me, standout performance for me goes to Tristan Risk who plays Beatrice, where all of the other characters seem very dark for varies reason, Beatrice is the one light character who even though she might look the oddest, might just be the most normal of the bunch.

Katharine Isabelle does a great job as Mary who transforms a few times threw out the movie not physically but mentality, she's like a sexy angel of torture if there is such a thing. the relationship she has with Beatrice is good and even though at first Mary seems bothered by her finds her to be her friend by the end, which is very well played out.

Antonio Cupa as Billy is a complex character who when first introduced in the film seems like the type of character that has been seen in other films  before but where he differs is that he has feelings for Mary but he never really is able to express himself towards her except for maybe one scene.

Directors Jen and Sylvia Soska make a nice cameo appearance in the film as two very twisted twins who call upon Mary to do some unique surgery on the pair, those two character should have a movie of their own that follows their travels around the world post surgery.

The special effect here are really done well, as a fan of practical makeup effects in films, in a era now where CGI has basically taken over its always good to see real effects on real people, not only are the gore effects done will but the ones done during the surgery scenes are top notch as well, also the makeup work done on Tristan Risk and Paula Lindberg are very realistic.

My only problem or complaint with the film is the ending, I get why it ended the way it did, but It seemed to come to quickly and felt like there were a few loose ends left but it doesn't take away from an otherwise very well made movie.

I must admit this is my first Twisted Twins film but it surely will not be my last and now I'll be going back to watch their first feature film Dead Hooker In A Trunk and also their newest film See No Evil 2 and anything that they make in the future, they have a new fan following their work now.


MY RATING

8/10

CAST
Katharine Isabelle- Mary Mason
Antonio Cupa- Billy Barker
Tristan Risk- Beatrice Johnson
David Lovgren- Dr. Grant
Paula Lindberg- Ruby RealGirl
Clay St. Thomas-Dr. Walsh
John Emmet Tracy- Detective Dolor
Twan Holliday- Lance
Sylvia Soska- Twin # 1
Jen Soska- Twin # 2

Only God Forgives (2013)

"Time To Meet The Devil"


PLOT

Julian, a drug smuggler thriving in Bangkok's criminal underworld, sees his life get even more complicated when his mother compels him to find and kill whoever is responsible for his brother's recent death.


MY THOUGHTS

Only God Forgives is director's Nicolas Winding Refn follow up to 2011's sleeper hit Drive also starring Ryan Gosling, Refn takes us once again into the underworld but instead of L.A. we're taken half way around the world to Bangkok were things are done a lot different then they are done in the states when it comes to criminal underworld.

Ryan Gosling stars as another stoic character Julian who doesn't have to much to say but lets his facial expressions or lack there of do most of the talking for him, when we first meet Julian he is running boxing fights with his older brother Billy(Tom Burke) who seems to be more in control of operations while Julian is just there to support him.

After a boxing match Billy decides to go out on the town alone looking for a woman or in his case a young girl to have sex after being turned down by a sex trader who won't offer up his young daughter to Billy, he finds himself wondering the streets and comes across a few young girls sitting on the streets, he takes a liking to one of the girls.

The police gets called to the building where Billy is and when they go into a room, they find the young girl dead on the floor and Billy who appears to be covered in blood sitting on the side of the bed, Chang(Vithaya Pansingarm) walks in a looks around, he calls for the owner of the building to enter the room, after an exchange with the man, we find out that the young girl is his daughter and Chang tells the man to do whatever he wants as he and the other police leave.

The man kills Billy and int return is taking by Chang and the other police out to a remote location and Chang cuts off the man right hand telling him "This isn't about your dead daughter, but about your 3 remaining daughters" Julian gets word about what's happen to his brother and goes to find the man who killed him and as he is about to kill him, when he finds out that Chang is the one who ordered the man to kill Billy, which complicates things since Chang is a cop.

As word gets to Julian and Billy's mother Crystal(Kristin Scott Thomas) she comes to town at first happy to see her one remaining son, but quickly becomes upset with him as Julian tells her that he did not kill the man who killed Billy "It's more complicated then that" Crystal decides to have Chang killed herself, but things do not go according to plan.

Only God Forgives is one of those type of movies that come along every so often that leaves you with more questions then answers some times that's a good thing and sometimes it's  bad, but Only God Forgives seems to be both for me, one on hand the set designs, camera work, soundtrack, Kristin Scott Thomas are all great, but the pacing, lack of real story, Stoic Ryan Gosling, no real likable characters, Winding Refn's carelessness of character development help bring it down.

Only God Forgives is not a movie for mainstream audiences which in most cases is a good thing but even as a arthouse movie fan or general movie fan this movie really makes one think about just how much of a movie fan they are because its a very pretentious movie with awkward pauses and overdone Ryan Gosling staring either at other characters or his hands threw out the movie.

I don't want to be to critical of the film because for every con there is a pro and vise versa, Kristin Scott Thomas steals the movie as the evil mother who seems to be the reason Julian and even Billy were the way they were when Crystal puts Julian down in front of his girlfriend at dinner lets the viewer in to just what kind of relationship she had with her sons, now for me it's almost implied that Crystal had more then just mother/son relationship with her boys with how she touches Julian and how she speaks about Billy being bigger then Julian. I have no problem with these topics(even though some might) but if Refn would've explored this more then maybe I would've felt more for Julian.

The themes that Refn does explore are more philosophical and religious hence the title, the character of Chang almost seems other worldly with how he seems to almost appear and in one scene disappear into thin air, I read that Refn said that Chang might be the reincarnation of the character One Eye from his previous film Valhalla Rising(which I haven't seen yet, but I will) and on set he would whisper to Vithaya Pansringarm that he is god, In most of his scenes you can see that connection but to a normal movie goer these type of things will fly right over their heads.

Probably one of the better scenes in the movie is the fight scene between Julian and Chang, if there was a better build up to it then it really would've been something to talk about but most of the cons in the movie take away from the pros this scene almost will be forgotten, btw its not really a fight more like a beatdown, I won't say who exactly won you'll have to see the movie for that.

Nicholas Winding Refn is one of the better directors out today but I hope that he will reign in some of his pretentious ways of filmmaking because I don't know if I'll keep sitting threw more of his films that are like this. If your a fan of the over stylized, pretentious, methodical paced films then this is the film for you, I'm really on the fence with this film but I can say I will not be seeing this movie again anytime soon.  

CLOSING

Only God Forgives was one of my most anticipated films of 2013 after seeing trailers for it and because I am an Nicholas Windinf Refn, Ryan Gosling fans and really wanted to see Kristin Scott Thomas turn here which I feel after watching is worthy of at least an award nomination I was somewhat let down with what the movie turned out to be, its not a terrible movie but its not a good movie.




MY RATING
6/10


CAST
Ryan Gosling- Julian

Kristin Scott Thomas- Crystal

Vithaya Pansringarm- Chang

Tom Burke- Billy

Gordon Brown- Gordon

Yayaying Rhatta Phongam- Mai

The Place Beyond The Pines (2013)

"If you ride like lighting, you're going to crash like thunder"


MY THOUGHTS

The Place Beyond The Pines is set up in a three part arc about fathers and sons and life decisions that affect future events.

ACT I is about Luke(Ryan Gosling) who is a motorcycle stuntman who has a baby with Romina (Eva Mendes) and wants to be apart of the baby's life and decides to become a bank robber in order to provide for the kid.

ACT II centers around Avery Cross (Bradley Cooper) who becomes a local hero after bringing down a local criminal who gets mixed up with a corruption scandal that is running rampart threw the city and puts him at odds with fellow cops, friends and his family.

ACT III revolves around Jason(Dane DeHaan) and AJ(Emory Cohen) teenagers who are the sons of Luke and Avery and everything that goes on between them is tied together by past events of both their fathers.

I was really surprised when I saw this movie, in a very good way, because they trailer for this movie is a little misleading but misleading in a good way because once you see how the movie plays out it was a good thing certain things were not spoiled in the trailer which seems to be a normal thing these days.

The Place Beyond The Pines is one of those movies that really hits home to me because I can related to a few of the themes that play out over the course of the movie and I'm sure anybody else who sees this movie will as well.

Ryan Gosling gives another great performance here as Luke the mysterious stuntman turned bank robber, he doesn't have to say much just like his character in Drive but its all in his emotions and facial expressions which makes this a great turn for him, you will feel sorry for him even though his actions are bad his intentions are for good.

Bradley Cooper really shows here just like in Silver Lining Playbook why he should've won the Best Actor award this year, but after that movie and now this one, I'm sure his time is coming were he'll be winning that award. he has really come a long way from The Hangover movies and good to see him showing what he can bring to the table as an actor.

Eva Mendes probably gives her best career performance here which is a good thing because her character goes threw probably most ups and downs second to only Bradley Coopers character, maybe its a good thing her and Gosling are in a relationship in real life because it seems like some of his acting is rubbing off onto her now.

Dana DeHaan who plays Jason seems to be up and coming star with alot of potential after turns in Chronicle, Lawless and the HBO series In Treatment his star can only seem to get brighter.

I swear Ray Liotta is in every kind of movie that comes out in recent years, he is very good here and shows that he can still be a strong support actor in a big movie come on  Hollywood what are you doing have you forgot Goodfellas.

Ben Mendelsohn once again steals every scene he's in, in this movie I can't say enough about this guy he is becoming one of those character actors that makes the movie that much better just by his name appearing on the screen and he gives the best line of the movie which is the same as the one I used as the tag line for it
"If you ride like lightning, you're going to crash like thunder"

I highly recommend this movie to everybody because Derek Cianfrance really did a great directing job here, I have yet to watch his previous film Blue Valentine but I will soon because he's a true filmmaker.

everyone in the cast is excellent which is a rare thing these days but with a couple films I've seen recently including this their is still hope for great acting and really stories being told even if their not big budget superhero blockbuster that are coming out right now, but I gave up a chance to go see Iron Man 3 or Star Trek Into Darkness and decided to see this instead and I'm glad I did because movies like this don't come around to often so I didn't want to miss the chance to see it.


MY RATING 9/10

CAST
Ryan Gosling- Luke
Bradley Cooper-Avery
Eva Mendes-Romina
Ben Mendelsohn- Robin
Rose Byrne-Jennifer
Dane DeHaan-Jason
Emory Cohen-AJ
Ray Liotta-Deluca
Mahershala Ali-Kofi

Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia(1974)

 


Starring Warren Oates, Isela Vega, Emilio Fernandez, Gig Young, Robert Webber and Kris Kristofferson 




"One man head has an $1 Million tag, One man will become an animal to get to it, 25 people must die to find out why this is happening"


First let me start off by saying that i didn't know what Category to put this movie in because it has a little bit of everything from Horror, Action, Drama, Romance, and even some Comedy. after repeat viewings i don't think you can put this movie in any one of those category because its a class on to its own.


Now on to Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia, probably one of the best little to unknown films of all time.


The Plot is about a man Alfredo Garcia(who is never seen alive or on screen at all in the movie) his head is wanted by El Jefe(Emilio Fernandez) who's daughter has had a baby and Alfredo is the father, El Jefe summons his goons and tell them to "Bring me the head of Alfredo Garcia" for a $1 million reward, two of the men(Gig Young and Robert Webber) finds Ex Army/Current Piano playing Bartender Benny(Warren Oates) and hires him to find Alfredo for less than the $1 million reward, Benny gets his girlfriend and One time love of Alfredo to track him down...


                                                                                
This movie has become one of my favorite Sam Peckinpah films and All time favorite films, simply because Warren Oates Performance, He plays the character of Benny to perfection in what is one of his rare Leading man roles, now for anybody who doesn't know he modeled the character after Director Sam Peckinpah himself which kinda lets you know what kinda person Sam Peckinpah was which is a little scary, but brilliant at the same time. and worthy of more praise then he got.
                                     
Isela Vega is good in support to Warren's wild man as she is the moral compass of the entire film and of Benny himself. for me one of the standout scenes in the movie comes with her and Kris Kristofferson(Glorified Cameo) as a Rapist Biker, the surrealism of the back and forth between victim and predator takes on a weird twist that you just have to see to fully understand it.
                                                                             
The two men that hire Benny (Gig Young and Robert Webber) are probably two of the most interest characters in any movie because there seems to be a underlying to their relationship that's not totally said but you can kinda of make out from more then one viewing and also a interesting move in any other movie it would be a little weird, but in a movie where everything is a little left of center its completely normal.





Emilio Fernandez as El Jefe is underused this time around but still playing a similar character to the one that he did in The Wild Bunch, even though i disagree with him being underused in a weird way it actually works here.


                                                                                                              


Now for some this movie will be a little tough to get through because its slow in parts in the beginning, but if you can hang in there, what you may think is a slow and lacking film will pay off for you in the end namely the final 30 minutes or so where all hell breaks loose with some great shootout that Peckinpah is known for in most of his movies, so if you like Road movies, 70s sleazey action/crime, Sam Peckinpah and Warren Oates. I highly recommend seeing this little known or completely forgotten gem of a film.




                                                                                                           




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