Gold

This review is going to venture into spoiler territory. I really tried not to, but a lot of Matthew McConaughey's good acting comes into play about ten minutes from the end of the film.

Matthew McConaughey has had a good run over the last five years. He has successfully rebranded himself as a serious actor who is able to handle fare that is outside the surf-rom-com flicks that made him famous. Because of this turnaround, I think that there is a lot of unwarranted pressure for every performance he gives to be bigger and better than the last. While the performance in Gold isn't his best, the character he plays is very captivating and surprisingly original (only partly original, but I'll get to that).

Kenny Wells (McConaughey) is an unlucky businessman whose family has been in the prospecting business for four generations. After his family business fails, he finds himself working out of a small bar in Reno, Nevada, trying to get backers on potential mining claims with little to no assurance that the sites he has chosen have any real mineral deposits. One night, he has a drunken dream about a geologist he once met and a potential claim in Indonesia. Pawning all the gold he has, Wells hopes on a plane to Indonesia to hunt down Michael Acosta (Édgar Ramírez), the geologist from his dream. Together they journey into the jungles of Borneo and and stumble across the biggest gold find of the decade.

It really made me happy that Gold was pretty original. While it is based on an actual tale that happened in Indonesia in the early 90s, only key elements are really taken from that and even then things have been changed. The first half of the movie is definitely the strongest part. It is a fun jungle adventure with hints of Apocalypse Now, Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park. It is as if director plucked the essence of the jungle scenes that appear in those movies and used it to lay a familiar setting that we can feel comfortable with. The other good part comes at the end of the film, where it turns out that there was no gold claim at all and Acosta just faked the fact that there was a deposit where he said there was. He did this through a con called salting (it's pretty cool). Not only is this twist and the end of the film pretty awesome (the whole time we're assured that there is gold), but McConaughey is amazing as a man who has just been betrayed by someone who he thought was his best friend. The movie starts out with what we think is narration by Wells, but we learn at the end is actually an FBI interview to see if he is guilty of fraud.

Gold really struggles during the middle and lead up to the twist reveal. It switches from not quite adventure movie to slow business drama. There's a lot of talking about who to sell the gold to and people taking advantage of Wells. It becomes really quite boring. There is an imitation of The Wolf of Wall Street as we see Wells claw his way back to the top, but we've seen that in countless movies before and since then and this doesn't add anything new. There are countless supporting characters who get lost in the mix and it's quite disappointing considering the fact that they are played by well known actors like Stacy Keach and Corey Stoll. These actors are wasted talents in this movie, especially Bruce Greenwood, who at least tries to stick out with a decent South African accent, but is hampered by having only three scenes in the movie. I will praise Toby Kebbell however, for his tiny role as the sympathetic FBI agent.

While Gold has some good elements, it focuses on all the boring parts of the story. The relationship between Wells and Acosta gets buried by focusing too much on the business side of things, which while helpful in setting up the twist, is a tiring time to get through. Stellar performances from the three leads (McConaughey, Howard, Ramírez) are cancelled out by the many mediocre ones.

Café Society

Café Society is fun, romantic, and surprisingly smart, with a lot more going for it than it might seem. As we get a glimpse into contrasting scenes of New York and Hollywood during a rich and vibrant time in America's history, we begin to see the mentalities of the esteemed and the successful, and begin to realise there is perhaps this side to all of us. Employing a colourful and exciting aesthetic and a rich and genuine cast, Woody Allen achieves an interesting and engaging movie with a lot to think about.

Set in the mid 1930s, Café Society follows Bobby Dorfman (Jesse Eisenberg) as he decides to leave his quaint life in the Bronx behind and move to Hollywood to make a name for himself. Bobby hooks up with his uncle Phil (Steve Carrell), a highly successful film agent, who helps him get a start in the industry. Bobby quickly falls for the charming Vonnie (Kristen Stewart), Phil's surprisingly grounded secretary, however complications force the two apart. Bobby returns to New York to run a night club with his gangster brother Ben (Corey Stoll), before his life gets shaken up once again as Vonnie re-enters the picture.

The writing is surprisingly clever, with an easily missed message smartly woven into the changes experienced by the characters. While the end of the movie may ultimately leave audiences wondering if it was nothing more than a comfortable romance flick, the changes experienced by the characters throughout the film suggest otherwise. As Bobby remarks to Vonnie how she has fallen into the glitz and glamour lifestyle she had once loathed, we can't help but realise the same of Bobby himself, who perhaps only became this way through the bitter lessons learnt during his time in Hollywood. Needless to say, there is much to think about in the film's true meaning, and Woody Allen crafts these complicated pictures of society masterfully.

Performances are impressive across the board. Jesse Eisenberg employs a mix of his trademark awkwardness (The Social Network, Zombieland) as well as his surprisingly enjoyable and just as recognisable charismatic character (Now You See Me) to create an enjoyable dynamic to the character of Bobby. Likewise, Kristen Stewart proves she has matured much from her Twilight days to deliver a charming and enjoyably complex performance as Vonnie. Cafe Society features an impressive supporting cast, with particular mentions to Parker Posey who continues to raise the question of why she isn't in more A-List movies.

When it boils down to it, however, this movie isn't perfect. While Woody Allen's narration is ultimately enjoyable, it is perhaps unnecessary in telling a story which easily tells itself, and the constant jumps between the two different sides of America can be a bit jarring at times. This being said, the upbeat jazz soundtrack helps draw the viewer into the rich context of the film, easily supported by the constant name-dropping to 1930s Hollywood celebrities such as Fred Astaire and Joan Crawford. While it is often easy for intended immersion such as this to feel forced, Café Society does it with ease.

If you like complicated romance, you will enjoy this movie. If you like jazz and the 30s, you will enjoy this movie. If you like impressive portrayals of socially unsure and evolving characters, you will definitely enjoy this movie. And if you've ever seen a Woody Allen film and liked it, you will enjoy this movie. 

Black Mass

South Boston, or 'Southie', has been the subject of many a crime film over the past decade and a half. Movies like The Town, Southie, The Departed and even Good Will Hunting have striven to accurately portray one of the roughest neighbourhoods in the United States. But one notorious figure has yet to be portrayed on film; that of James 'Whitey' Bulger (Okay so not necessarily true, Martin Scorsese's The Departed was based on his crimes).

Bulger (Johnny Depp) is the leader of the Winter Hill Gang in South Boston during the mid-1970s. He is well known in the community as both a gangster and a pillar of the community. His brother Billy (Benedict Cumberbatch), a state senator, is contacted by their childhood friend John Connelly (Joel Edgerton), who is now a FBI agent who has been tasked with reducing Mafia activity in Boston. He sees Bulger as the key to bringing down this stranglehold they have. So Bulger becomes an informant, all the while continuing his own criminal activity.

This success of this film hinges entirely on whether or not you find Depp's performance as Bulger convincing. Unfortunately for me, I wasn't convinced. Yes, he is unnerving, but I wasn't scared by him, which is the whole point. I think that they were relying on his makeup and new look to add to the performance but it did nothing for me. Outside of this, there isn't too much going on. At a stretch you could say that the intrigue surrounding Bulger's manipulation of the FBI is interesting, but not enough to be exciting.

In fact the film seems like it purposefully goes out of its way to be obtuse. There is a whole subplot involving who owns World Jai-Alai, a sport the movie even admits no one knows what it is (unless you're like me and you do know what it is (I lie, I have no idea what they're doing)). I also feel like this film is needlessly violent. I know Whitey Bulger was an incredibly psychotic film, but you don't need to show every single murder he committed. Sometimes implied violence is just as effective. I also feel like the movie dropped the ball with the ending. It is a well known fact that Bulger was apprehended in 2011, yet the film ends in 1995 with an epilogue about his capture.

Because Depp's performance is so dominant here that the others don't really get a look in. Joel Edgerton's is the only one that is on par with Depp, but it isn't very good. Everyone else is really in the background which is disappointing considering the cast. Benedict Cumberbatch, Kevin Bacon, Adam Scott and Rory Cochrane are all fantastic actors, and while they are in a lot of scenes, they aren't the focus of any of them. Corey Stoll is the only minor performance given any notice, which is good because he carries those scenes. Women are hugely under represented with Dakota Johnson and Julianne Nicholson given barely any screen time.

A hugely disappointing and largely unnecessary biopic. It is not at all engaging, so if you want to see a better film about Whitey Bulger, go rewatch The Departed.

Ant-Man

The build up to Ant-Man has left many Marvel fans questioning how successfully the Hollywood Goliath will be able to pull off  a film on one of their lesser known characters, particularly without the guiding directorial hand of Edgar Wright. Well I'm not a Marvel fan so who knows, I might like it! 

Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) is an unparalleled technological scientist that discovered a group of particles with the ability to change the distance between atoms, effectively able to shrink and grow objects at will. After safeguarding the technology from those that wanted to weaponise it in the 1980s, Pym gave control of his company to Darren Cross (Corey Stoll), his protégé, who know has a sinister interest in re-developing the technology. Pym's daughter, Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) has a broken relationship with her father, but nonetheless turns to him when she becomes worried about Darren's actions.

Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) is a former burglar who can't throw punches, and has just been released from jail. Taking up residence with a former cellmate, Luis (Michael Peña), he hopes to foster a new relationship with his daughter, increasingly difficult thanks to his ex-wife and her new partner. Soon Scott is on the look out for another score to pay child support, and burglarises the home of a wealthy old man with meticulous precision. However all he finds is a dusty old suit. Scott is soon hired by Dr. Pym, planning a heist that will save the world. 

There's no doubt that Ant-Man follows the typical Marvel construction: out-there technology, a self-referential universe, CGI, CGI and also CGI. Where the film diverges is the heist sub-plot that dominates the second half of the film. You can detect the penmanship of co-author Wright, whose other work holds similar crime/heist-centric elements, particularly in Spaced and The Cornetto Trilogy. Ant-Man also scales down on the barraging action and takes some time-out for decent character development - not commonly found in Marvel films - however this also leads to relentless exposition and too many over-emotional scenes that try to get a rise out of the audience. Also tedious is the compulsory attempts to address the cross-franchise Marvel connections. "We'd better call the Avengers", we get it, they all exist within the same universe, enough already! Stop trying to set-up future cross-overs and self-advertise to us! 

Some held concerns that given the...uhh....somewhat trivial nature of Pym's technology, Ant-Man would try not to take itself too seriously and resort to an all-out joke fest similar to Iron Man 3 - which I happen to like, but is not that popular amongst the fans - Well you can rest easy, because it manages to strike a good balance between situational humour and plot development, and the comedy works well with Rudd's usual style. Whilst the action sequences rely heavily on computer generated visuals, the unique qualities of the Ant-man story allow for some equally unique sequences, including a run-in with a newly-enormous bathtub early in the film.

Unfortunately though, there's nothing new or interesting about most of the other visuals, which are stock Marvel and ultimately monotonous, especially when it could have been so much more. It's impossible to ignore the departure of Edgar Wright from the project, who reportedly left due to differences in vision between the Hot Fuzz director and the studio. His attempt at Ant-Man would have most likely been a standout film in the Marvel cinematic universe, where instead we get largely the same recycled formula that the studio knows can produce the revenue. It's a sad situation, but we can be thankful that his influence appears to have made it into the film in some ways, no matter how small they may be. 

Ant-Man is not a great film by any stretch of the imagination. However it does manage to pull away from the pack somewhat, which is crucial if we want to see Marvel develop any unique content in the ever-expanding Hollywood superhero bubble.

This Is Where I Leave You

As I have mentioned before here and here and I think maybe here, I'm a huge fan of movies about families. Doubly so if they're about dysfunctional families. I think it's because I come from a slightly dysfunctional one myself (sorry guys, if you're reading this). Anyway, that is what drew me into this movie.

Judd Altman (Jason Bateman) finds out that his wife is cheating on him with his boss. This comes just before Judd finds out that his father has died. His mother Hillary (Jane Fonda) wants to honour his last wishes by holding the Jewish practice of shiva, which is ironic because they are all atheist. During shiva, they must all stay together for a week. The rest of the family, Paul (Corey Stoll), Wendy (Tina Fey) and Philip (Adam Driver) all have their problems with each other, making the week extremely hard to get through.

I think this movie has my dream cast. All the actors in the rate among my favourites. Jason Bateman is back to his funny ways in a role not too similar to Michael Bluth in Arrested Development, but you can definitely see how this role is so easy for him. Tina Fey is a delight to watch in this and plays a much more sweeter character than some of her more recent roles. Corey Stoll (House of Cards) is great to watch in a comedy although he is a bit more of a straight-laced character.

Adam Driver is a lot of fun in this movie and a lot more wacky than some of the things he has been in and Ben Schwartz who plays the rabbi known only as "Boner" is great as Philip's foil. Schwartz has to be one of the funniest improv actors around (along with Thomas Middleditch) and is just great in this movie. Timothy Olyphant, who I have admired ever since seeing The Girl Next Door, plays a fantastic character who has a touching relationship with Tina Fey.

While the movie does seem to be a great comedy on surface, the movie does have overarching themes of family and taking risks in your life. These moments are sometimes interjected by jokes, but that doesn't interfere with the pacing at all, instead it makes the film more poignant and funnier.

Verdict: A great comedy-drama filled with some wonderful characters and fantastically hilarious moments.