Live By Night

Okay. I know that Ben Affleck is incredibly famous and therefore can pretty much do whatever he wants now. But I went to see this film with a good friend of mine and we both left more than a little baffled at how this film was bungled so badly, so apologies if this review seems a little lost in translation. I’ll do what I can to try and make sense of this Batfleck rollercoaster and maybe it’ll help me understand it better? Here goes nothing.

Set in the 1920’s, Live By Night follows the life of ‘good man’ Joe Coughlin, who becomes disillusioned with the life of rules and laws after his time serving the war in France. Upon his return home he turns to petty crime and robberies, which he executes with his trusted partner Dion (Chris Messina). Although content in this life, Joe’s father and Chief of Police Thomas (Brendan Gleeson) warns him that his bad deeds will come back around. In particular, Thomas is concerned about Joe’s fraternising with Irish mob boss Albert White’s (Robert Glenister) mistress, Emma Gould (Sienna Miller). When their affair is discovered Joe is beaten almost to death, and after serving time seeks out revenge on White by joining his rival, Italian mob boss Maso Pescatore (Remo Girone). From here, Joe and Dion set up shop in Florida and attempt to make a living illegally transporting rum to Pescatore’s speakeasies, however seem to run into trouble at every turn. Conquering the coast while prohibition is still in full swing, the pair must make decisions about what is more important to them: money or morals. The film also attempts to discuss issues of love, loss and family, while being surprisingly funny in moments.

The positives: The amount of historical references this film has is actually pretty cool. Its clear that Affleck was trying to be as accurate as possible, and although he fell a little short of the mark at times, it still made for a lot of interesting plot twists in the film. The acting from Messina, as well as Elle Fanning’s role as Loretta Figgis (the daughter of Florida Chief of Police) really stood out as both comic relief and symbols of purity in the world of skewed morals respectively. As well as this, the acting from both of the major mob bosses (Girone and Glenister) was also gritty and at times genuinely frightening. However, of all the scary things about this picture, the worst is that its still surprisingly relevant to the world of today. With issues of race relations, dirty cops and even the Ku Klux Klan making an appearance, this film feels as though it speaks to a lot societal issues, even though its set back in the 20’s and 30’s. Its actually a little depressing to think about, but its true.

The negatives: How do I even begin to talk about the plot of this film? Although the subject matter and characters were interesting (partly because I’m a sucker for 1920’s history), after about 40 minutes in the entire setting changes and it feels as though you’re watching an entirely different film. There were parts of the dialogue that felt unnecessarily convoluted, and plot points that came out of left field and left me struggling to keep up. In short, some of the most interesting parts of the movie didn’t revolve around Affleck’s character, most of the female characters were simply used as pawns for the males, and there were other bits that just felt slow and ruined a lot of the fun of the action, like the chase scenes and shootouts. All in all, the film felt like it was edited poorly and the scriptwriters hadn’t been given enough time to work out the kinks, which is a shame because this could’ve been a really great film had it been thought through more.

If you’re like me and you love the 1920’s era, or maybe you’re just an Affleck fan, you might enjoy this film. But its definitely not worth a watch in the cinema and its messy setup really let it down. Hopefully we’ll see better from Affleck in the future.

High-Rise

Ben Wheatley's adaptation of J.G. Ballard's classic 1975 sci-fi novel brings up a lot more questions than it answers, although none of them really are about the fate of the characters. The themes revolve around the futility of utopia and how fragile society really is. While these themes are fantastic to explore in a film, the presentation of them seems a little muddled and it takes a while to sort them out through a lot of mess.

Dr. Robert Laing (Tom Hiddleston) has just moved into a new high rise apartment building which has everything you could ever want contained in a single building. It seems like a perfect place to live, with places to shop, exercise and socialise all in one. After getting closer acquainted with his neighbour Charlotte (Sienna Miller), Laing learns that there is a fragile class hierarchy within the building, with poorer families on lower floors and wealthier couples and singles further up the building, with the architect of the building, Royal (Jeremy Irons), living in the rooftop penthouse. Soon the building starts to fall into disrepair and with that the social structure begins to disintegrate leaving Laing to question the hierarchy and his place in it.

When the self-contained society begins to break down, it seems like a bit of a surprise, almost as if it was rushed in the script. And while signs of the disintegration are all around, it seems like a shock when it comes. The film as a result almost has a delirious quality that has to do with the lack of lighting that comes along when the lights in the building go out. Some of these stylistic choices also make the subtext about the fall of society and class warfare a little hard to make out, which is a shame because that would a really exciting thing to see. The thing I found hardest to keep up with was the characters ultimate acceptance of what was happening around them. There was little acknowledgement that what was happening was so absurd.

The aesthetics of the film were perfect. While it is not exactly set in the future, it does take place in "the future of 1975", as though all the fashion and furniture and vehicles of that decade never went out of style. It definitely adds a level of comfortability in the beginning of the film as this is an instantly recognisable time and place.

I was surprised at the large cast of stars in this movie as all of the actors are quite a draw. Tom Hiddleston shines as Laing and is completely comfortable in the role. This could be the role that nabs him a James Bond bid because he is able to be suave and also take on some more physical action scenes. Jeremy Irons is always great for a sinister authority figure who you're unsure of whether you can trust him. Elisabeth Moss was a surprise to see in this and although she doesn't have a large part, she is totally takes over her character. Supporting roles from Luke Evans and James Purefoy are just a delight to watch. The only performance I wasn't entirely convinced by was from Sienna Miller, who's character was important but she didn't give the character any real interest.

High-Rise has a lot of great things; it's cast, the style and the themes buried deep down are all what I was expecting from this movie, but in the end it wasn't an entirely enjoyable experience. The sloppy way that the movie was put together felt very disappointing despite the fact that it should have been better.

Burnt

At That Other Movie Blog we have a special relationship with the food film. We don't know whether it's just the fact that they are always slightly weird or if it's because we love food porn. Director John Wells dives headlong into this genre, but unlike Chef's take on street food or The Hundred Foot Journey's exploration of a home cooked experience, Burnt takes into the high stakes kitchen of a high end restaurant.

Adam Jones (Bradley Cooper) is a chef looking to get back on top of his game. After shucking a million oysters in Louisiana, he journeys to London where he seeks out old friend Tony (Daniel Brühl), who is mâitre d' at a high end restaurant. Adam reveals to Tony that he has come back to get a third Michelin star, the highest honour a chef can attain. To do this he acquires his own dream team of chefs, including Michel (Omar Sy), David (Sam Keeley) and Helene (Sienna Miller).

I'm pretty sure that the food film is the 2010's equivalent of the 80's action movie because it has all the same beats one of them. Guy who was once on top has hit rock bottom and through a series of montages defeats the bad guys and comes out on top. In the case with Burnt, the bad guys are Adam's own demons who are getting in the way of him being able to achieve that third Michelin star. I'm not entirely convinced though that this is an interesting enough conflict for a film like this because it forces the other characters to just fade into exposition or motivation for the main character.

And the other characters do suffer. Daniel Brühl's Tony only serves to hint at the life that Adam used to live. Young up-and-coming chef David goes around and tells everyone what a god Adam used to be. Characters like Michel and Helene are both different motivations that drive Adam forward, but that's all they serve as. There was a real missed opportunity in making rival chef Reece (played by Matthew Rhys) a bigger part of the film. The same could be said of Adam's ex-girlfriend Anne Marie (Alicia Vikander), who appears in only two scenes just to make a little bit of unnecessary conflict.

I'm not sure if the London setting was a good choice, or why they didn't take advantage of it more. I understand that it is a city where the Michelin Guidebook holds a lot of weight, moreso than any US city, but at the same time not as much as other European cities, but Burnt doesn't really go out of its way to show that London is a culinarily interesting city. Yes, we do get shown a lot of the multicultural influence that immigrants have on the food culture, but these forays are all too brief, oftentimes being shown in the films many montages.

The performances are all fairly average, with no one really sticking out. Cooper's sociopathic performance doesn't really make him relatable apart from a heart touching scene where he makes a cake for Helene's daughter. Sienna Miller reunites with Cooper again after American Sniper and proves to me once again that they have no chemistry. Brühl can make any performance his own, but Tony feels too much like a weak background character. Omar Sy is very understated in this film and would probably give a better performance in a better film, which this is not.

I wouldn't say I disliked this film, but I also wouldn't say that I liked it either. It's definitely a movie that you have to go and eat at a restaurant after, even if it's Burger King, because the one thing I did learn from Burnt is that there's nothing wrong with a Whopper.

Unfinished Business

Director Ken Scott and Vince Vaughn team up once again in the comedy Unfinshed Business. With a strong cast, 90-minute running time and following in a similar vein to the Jump Street series, this promises to be another bite-sized fun American comedy, at least that's what I had hoped.

Daniel Trunkman (Vince Vaughn) works for a horrible boss (different movie), Chuck Portnoy (Sienna Miller). One day, he decides to quit and start his own business, going into direct competition with Chuck. He recruits Timothy (Tom Wilkinson), whose just been made redundent, and Mike Pancake (Dave Franco), a special-needs man who just failed an interview. One year later, they're coming close to making a deal with a big client, so they travel to Europe. But things get complicated when it turns out that Chuck's company is also vying for the client.

Unfinished Business was written by Steven Conrad (The Pursuit of Happyness), and unfortunately it has a very weak plot. The unlikely party-goers theme has been done several times before, peaking with 22 Jump Street, but here it's just feels tacked-on and not much fun. I honestly can't even rememeber how they ended up doing all the stupid crap that they did. I would never have guessed that I would see Tom Wilkinson starring alongside Vince Vaughn and Dave Franco, smoking a bong, taking (what I assume is) ecstasy tablets and dancing in slow-motion whilst topless women have a pillow fight around him, but then again, he is having somewhat of a renaissance with unusual roles (an Australian cop in Felony, the U.S president in Selma). Suffice to say, this is his weirdest and worst role in recent years.

Dave Franco plays a mildly-autistic "special" young man, who is often the butt of the jokes, and Franco's quirky performance is by far the best part of the film. Unfortunately though, the comedic elements are lukewarm. It doesn't have the huge volume of jokes that attack you from all angles in similar comedies, and the few jokes that are there often don't deliver. This is the kind of comedy that's good for a mild chuckle but will never have you erupting in laughter, something which I was able to test with the three or four mostly silent other people sitting in the cinema with me. On a side-note, there's a surprising amount of nudity in Unfinished Business, with a comparatively high penis-to-breast ratio of somewhere around 4 to 50, take of that what you will...look I was kinda bored, okay.

Vince Vaughn plays the grounded, sensible one, which also makes his character rather dull, and Nick Frost is surprisingly lively for the badly-written part that he recieved. On almost every level this film is just meh. I should disclose that the American sense of humour exhibited here is definitely not aligned with my own, but that's no excuse, because I've really enjoyed similar films over the years like the Jump Street films. It's somewhat saved by Franco's performance and the situations that Wilkinson ends up in, but that's not enough to make it a good movie.

Foxcatcher

I feel as though the latest run of biopic films has culminated with this film. And although Foxcatcher is a biopic that chronicles the relationship between Olympic wrestler Mark Shultz and billionaire industrialist John du Pont, I feel it also is a snapshot into the wrestling world of the late 1980s.

Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum) is trying to make ends meet speaking at schools across America, but still lives in the shadow of his older brother Dave (Mark Ruffalo). One day, Mark gets a phone call from the estate of John du Pont (Steve Carrell), the heir to the du Pont family fortune, to come and discuss leading a wrestling team that John wants to set up. Mark agrees and is hoping to win gold at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. As time progresses, du Pont's behaviour starts to display signs of madness.

This film is a marvel of direction. Bennett Miller knows how to use his actors properly and is amazing at making beautiful and evocative shots. Many times throughout the film when there is great stress happening on screen, the sound drops away to emphasise the powerful images that are being presented to us, a technique which I have always loved.

Like American Sniper, Foxcatcher is a patriotic film. This patriotism, however, is laced with a certain cynicism, with du Pont manipulating other people's sense of nationalism to his own ends. The film also gives a more detailed look into competitive wrestling than I have witnessed before. Since I only learn about the world through movies, my only real exposure had been through scenes in The World According to Garp or Born On the Fourth of July, but here I was exposed to the raw physicality of the sport. There is a jaw dropping scene at the beginning of the film where Tatum and Ruffalo are training together and you can sense the unspoken power struggle between the two. 

This film has some truly transformative performances. Channing Tatum's Mark Schultz isn't the brightest human around and Tatum somehow makes the guy endearing, despite the fact that the character can be slightly one-dimensional at times. Carrell is engaging as du Pont and the movie really shows how charming he was. I was a bit disappointed that Miller didn't make it as clear that he was a paranoid schizophrenic, but Carrell does portray the creepiness to his character well. Mark Ruffalo gives probably my favourite performance of the whole movie as Dave and he really does show how versatile an actor he is here.

Overall, Foxcatcher is a superb movie that despite having some minor problems, I felt that Vanessa Redgrave and Sienna Miller's characters could have been used and explored more and the ending is a tiny bit historically inaccurate, but that's okay given the run time of the film, it is definitely a movie people should watch.

American Sniper

You can almost hear the chorale of chanters reacting to Clint Eastwood's latest film American Sniper with "Oorah! USA! USA! USA!". The project, co-produced by, and starring Bradley Cooper, serves as a biographical depiction of Chris Kyle, known as "the most lethal sniper in U.S history".

Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper) is a Texan that aspires to be a famous rodeo cowboy, but following the 1998 attacks on U.S embassies in Africa, Kyle enlists in the Navy, where he trains to become a SEAL. A competent marksman, Kyle becomes a sniper and after 9/11 is sent into Iraq on his first tour of duty. Before he leaves, Chris marries Taya (Sienna Miller), and after serving his duty, returns home in time for the birth of their son.

After making a name for himself as a deadly sniper, and motivated to serve his country and protect his family, Kyle returns for second, third and fourth tours, racking up over 160 confirmed kills. But each time that Kyle returns home, he seems dislocated and different from how his family remember him, which puts his life on the home-front in jeopardy.

Clint Eastwood has often been described as politically conservative in his direction, yet some of his more recent films such as Million Dollar Baby and Gran Torino have not only focused their attention on underdogs, or long-forgotten veterans, but have managed to depict a variety of perspectives that motivate the audience to reflect. However, in American Sniper, the view is all too clear, Chris Kyle is a hero, serving in a war against evil. There's barely a single Iraqi who's not portrayed as an extremist, or associated with one, and any effects of the war are only seen on Kyle or the U.S soldiers, mainly on the homefront after their return. The elderly woman sitting next to me in the cinema repeatedly mumbled "shoot them" and "boom! yeah" as Kyle knocked them back on-screen, which was not only distracting, but proves that this film is aligned to a one-sided audience. The film is based on Kyle's autobiography and it's clear that Jason Hall's script is paying tribute to Kyle's service through his own eyes, but I would have hoped that Eastwood could have broadened its ideological scope.

Hall's dialogue, which I'm sure is a reflection of Kyle's book, is clever, well-written and delivered through an astounding performance from Bradley Cooper. Sienna Miller perfectly conveys the anguish and frustration that Taya Kyle would have been going through, and a solid supporting cast portray the numerous soldiers and veterans. The film is well shot by Eastwood's go-to cinematographer Tom Stern, and aside from a few dodgy CGI explosions, I was totally immersed in the action. It's perhaps not as engaging as Kathryn Bigelow's two similar features The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty, but nonetheless, American Sniper places the audience right in the middle of a war zone and to great effect.

This is a well made, but very one-sided war film that manages to be affecting in many ways, as long as your patriotic, American sensitivities are highly-tuned. It pays tribute to a man that was undoubtedly worthy of recognition, but ultimately I was left a little disappointed by Eastwood's efforts.