Kill The Messenger

Movies about journalists stumbling onto conspiracies involving the government come along far too long for my liking. And when you watch them, they always seem over the top, filled with action sequences and other things that never happened to the real people. Kill The Messenger, however, doesn't rely on these theatrics to get people engaged. It uses a gripping true story that is hard to comes to terms with because the real world implications are terrifying.

Gary Webb (Jeremy Renner) is a journalist who works for the San Jose Mercury News. He finds out about a conspiracy that involves the CIA wilfully letting drug dealers sell crack cocaine in South Central Los Angeles in order to fund a revolution in Nicaragua that it backs. Webb writes an explosive three-part story that gets everyone riled up. He then has to deal with people attacking his ethics and whether or not the story is true.

This movie takes an interesting approach to the way the history is shown. While the story of Webb and his investigation goes on, the film sometimes cuts away to media footage from the time as well as film taken of the actors as though they were in the 90s. Although this is a fun technique, I found at times that it was slightly distracting.

Jeremy Renner dominates this movie. I know that he is the star, but there is never a scene where he isn't there. I feel that with a movie like this there should be at least one or two scenes where we don't need to see the lead actor. Mary Winstead is amazing as Gary's editor who really wants him to succeed, but feels pressure from her bosses.

Apart from these two actors, everyone else features intermittently or dropped a couple of scenes after they have served their purpose. Barry Pepper, Michael Sheen and Michael K. Williams are all fantastic actors who appear for a scene or two, but their characters are underdeveloped, especially Williams, who plays drug dealer "Freeway" Rick Ross, a man who probably deserves a movie to be made about his own life.

Verdict: A decent movie that tells a part of history that everybody would already know about, hopefully. Not essential watching.

The Place Beyond The Pines

One of the first descriptions I read of this movie said that it was a multi-generational saga. And boy, you better believe it's a saga. But at no stage during the 158 minute running time did I want it to stop. Also, Ryan Gosling.

The Place Beyond The Pines has three consecutive stories that all affect each other and, more importantly, the characters within them. The first story follows Luke Glanton (Ryan Gosling), a stunt rider in a traveling carnival (so basically he's a carnie), who finds out that he has a son from a fling that he had with Romina (Eva Mendes). Because he doesn't want his son to turn out like he did (with an absent father), he promises to provide for him. But Romina has moved on, with a new man in her life, Kofi (Mahershala Ali). Luke still wants to provide for his son, so he starts to rob banks with the help of his friend, Robin (Ben Mendelsohn). This life soon takes a heavy toll on him.

The second story follows Avery Cross (Bradley Cooper), a young hero cop who becomes involved in police corruption. He turns to his father, a former judge, for advice. His father tells him that the best course of action would be to take down the corrupt officers, which include Pete DeLuca (Ray Liotta). He turns them into the district attorney, Bill Killcullen (Bruce Greenwood). He also has an infant son with his wife (Rose Byrne).

The third story picks up fifteen years later. Both Luke's son, Jason (Dane DeHaan), and Avery's son, AJ (Emory Cohen), become friends in high school. It is only after Jason becomes aware of Avery's involvement in his father's death that things start to go off the rails.

This movie is fantastic. This is Derek Cianfrance's second film after Blue Valentine (which also starred Gosling). He has crafted an immense flowing storyline, that whilst doesn't explore every single possibility, is still coherent and easy to watch.

The film also looks amazing. It is set in upstate New York and some of the scenery is amazing. So too is the set design in the small town in which it is set.

In my review for Gangster Squad earlier this year, I said that Ryan Gosling works best when he's outside the Hollywood system. Whilst he's not in this movie for too long, his character resonates and you can see a little bit of him in his son. Because he has worked with Cianfrance previously, you can see that relationship come through. At first I thought his character was going to be similar to the Driver, but not at all. You can see that all Luke wants is what's best for his son.

The character who we see the most in this movie is Avery Cross, so that meant just a little bit too much Bradley Cooper for me to handle. When he's in a movie like the Hangover where he has other actors as a buffer, I find him more tolerable.

The women in this movie are also very strong. Mendes' Romina still shows feelings toward Luke, but ultimately knows what's best for her son. We don't see a lot of Rose Byrne, but when we do, you know that she is a stronger person than her husband.

I always feel good when I see Australians in American film, so to see Ben Mendelsohn in this movie made me feel good. Here, he plays an extremely toned down version of the character he played in Animal Kingdom, a man who has lived the life but is happy to settle down. Ray Liotta on the other hand, plays the greediest person alive. His character knows that because this is a small town, he can get away with his corruption.

Finally, Dane DeHaan is someone to watch out for. I recognised him from Chronicle and I hear he will be playing Harry Osborn in the new Spiderman movie. In this role, he has to carry a lot of emotional weight on his shoulders and he pulls it off perfectly.

Verdict: I'm not afraid to say that this film might have to compete with Django for my favourite movie of the year, because it really deserves it. And, of course, Ryan Gosling.