Killing Them Softly

Killing Them Softly is just the type of vehicle to get me all worked up. Gangster movies are somehow inherently in my wheelhouse. So when you get Brad Pitt, a director that I’ve been hoping to see again since 2007, and a handful of my favorite ensemble players together to make a movie about hit men and mob types you’d think you’d have a surefire recipe for a good movie. Well yes and no. The film has its moments. A story of the perpetual plight of today’s hit men to terminate certain members of a seedy criminal underbelly who have made bad choices they cannot undo. It’s a story that relates organized crime to the rest of the world. Hard times are hard times, even the mob is in a recession. When they used to get 15 for a job, now they might be lucky to get 10. These days guys will take on the risk of pulling a double just to make ends meet.

Jackie (Brad Pitt) is a hired gun who is called in to take out two junkies who have made the mistake of robbing a high stakes poker game of a charismatic character connected to the mob named Markie (Ray Liotta). The junkies, Frankie (Scoot McNairy) and Russell (Ben Mendelsohn), are one of the more inept criminal duos one would ever run across. When Russell isn’t kidnapping dogs to resale he’s usually too immersed in a fog of heroin to realize where he hid the take and Frankie’s not much better. He appears to always be filled with anxiety and over flowing with feelings of guilt, noticeable traits that keep Frankie from ever being an effective hood. This where the story runs into the issue of lacking any exceptional appeal, there aren’t any challenges for the protagonist Jackie to see the hits through. The two targets seem like shooting fish in a barrel. The story relies more on the narrative of the hit man and the annoying red tape and bureaucracy that they have to go through just to get the job done. Pieces of the film are wickedly funny and capture a rarely seen spirit in the crime genre, but unfortunately most of the film seems to tell an average story just for the sake of telling one. For instance when Gandolfini enters the picture. He plays Jackie’s washed up hit man buddy who can barely stay sober enough to make it out of his hotel room. The two dialogue heavy scenes between Pitt and Gandolfini seem a bit uninspired, although I can say that Pitt’s turn as the pragmatic killer for hire is extremely good stuff. Killing Them Softly might not be one of his best films, but it definitely encases one gem of a performance. Writer/director Andrew Dominik seems to gel with Pitt and has pulled full potential out of him for their second collaboration. The main problem with the film is that things just seem to happen. Visually, the film is dark and gritty, and has a muted stylistic shine, but too of the supporting actors like Sam Shepard and Ray Liotta go underutilized. Richard Jenkins as “Driver” sitting in the car hashing out the details with an annoyed Jackie were the highlights of this movie for me, but its not enough for me to recommend it. The film looks great. It just ends up being a little flat and dull at times.

The political undertones seem to work at times, then turn around and fall flat. We constantly hear sound bites from off screen of both Obama and McCain’s 2008 political campaign speeches. It made me think that this also could’ve been the right project for say, an Oliver Stone. But then I had an epiphany, director Andrew Dominik wasn’t the man for the job. When I noticed the majority of the film repeating these dialogue heavy scenes spiked with dark humor I immediately thought of the Coen Brothers. So maybe Dominik wasn’t the best filmmaker for this this particular story, I will pass the situation off merely as victim of circumstance. I’m sure the source material, Cogan’s Trade by George V. Higgins, is great but Dominik goes the way of too much style over substance and misses in what might’ve had potential of being a great American crime movie. Dominik will hopefully return to form shown by directing 2007′s most underrated gem, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. The truth of the matter is that even if I were to have read my semi-negative review beforehand I would’ve still plopped down my twelve bucks to see Pitt, Liotta, and Gandolfini as gangsters anyway. At times, those guys are worth it in just screen presence alone to me. Only in America.

-JB

Skyfall

Daniel Craig proved to the skeptics that he could fill the large tuxedo and shoes of James Bond when he debuted with Casino Royale. Bringing us the raw and unpolished Bond early in his career, a new breed of Bond movie was born. Casino Royale showed us a more physically engaged Bond and more action than we’d ever seen before. Then the second installment of the Daniel Craig era fell flat with overstuffed sequences and lackluster story in the below average Quantum of Solace. But there was hope of a turnaround when director Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Road to Perdition) was tapped for Bond 23. With Skyfall, Mendes wisely dials down the bloated action that we saw in Quantum of Solace and creates a hybrid, one part modern day blockbuster, one part throwback. Uber stylish, devilishly funny, but above all, Skyfall is an exuberantly fun ride at the cinema.

The movie opens and closes with two elaborate set pieces full of inventive action sequences, but it’s the nuance and charm channeled from classic Bond past in between acts one and three that makes Skyfall hum like a well-oiled machine. We jump right in as Bond (Daniel Craig) gives chase to an operative carrying a hard drive containing a list of MI6 agents embedded in terrorist organizations. Bond tracks him on foot, motorcycle, and finally atop a speeding train with M (Judi Dench) giving he and fellow agent Eve (Naoime Harris) direction via their radio earpieces throughout. As Bond and the enemy struggle atop the train Eve is given the order to take the shot and accidentally takes the wrong guy out, plunging Bond into a river hundreds of feet below seemingly to his death. But come on, Bond can’t stay dead for long. After a terrorist attack threatens M’s life and the sanctity of MI6 agent 007 resurfaces to get back in the game. He’s lost a step though. A steady diet of booze and pills during Bond’s wounded hiatus has taken a toll and he must retrain and sharpen his skills before he reenters active duty. Getting to see Bond down and out and then make a Rockyesque comeback was a big reason the movie worked so much for me. Not that you needed more of a reason to root for Bond, but I thought it was nice touch to continue with Craig’s stripped down, more human version of the character. Then add in Javier Bardem as Silva the disavowed agent turned maniacal terrorist. The cat and mouse and secret agent mind games between 007 and Silva keep your eyes glued to the screen and Bardem brings the pain as the tech savvy psychopath.

Ralph Fiennes as M’s apparent successor Gareth Mallory and Ben Whishaw as a young and emo Q turn in memorable performances and set a nice foundation of characters for the next films. But Mallory and Q aren’t the only things we get reacquainted with. Bond dusts off the old Aston Martin that started in Goldfinger nearly 50 years ago. It serves as a getaway car to safe house that not only explores James Bond’s Scottish origins, but also sets up an ingenious climactic showdown between Bond and Silva. The production design from that final set piece, along with capturing the luminescent energy of China, and the cool greys of the United Kingdom show one more example that Skyfall is tightly crafted across the board in all aspects of movie-making. It’s a true visual and cerebral gem.

Skyfall will no doubt be pure eye candy for Bond fans, but I would venture to guess it will be equally exciting for audience members that aren’t well versed in the history of the series as well. Daniel Craig has finally found his stride as the secret agent icon and I look forward to the next two films in the series that he has signed on for. We can only hope that the Mendes and company will stay together for those next films too because this cast and crew has managed to orchestrate one of the top five Bond movies of all time with Skyfall. And for me, Daniel Craig just moved into a close second place behind Mr. Connery. 007 is alive, well, and at the top of his game. Keep calm and carry on.

-JB

Seven Psychopaths

Seven Psychopaths is whacked out, over the top, and a hell of a lot of fun. A dash of Pulp Fiction, a little bit of Adaptation, mixed with the continued sharp writing skills of writer/director Martin McDonagh make this film one of the best ensemble comedies I’ve seen in quite a while.

Marty (Colin Farrell) is a screenwriter struggling to finish his newest script entitled Seven Psychopaths. Yes, it’s the story of a bunch of maniacs, but he envisions it as more of a story about peace. That is until his daffy friend Billy (Sam Rockwell) gets involved. Billy wants to help Marty finish his script so he places an ad in the paper calling all psychos to come share their stories. Billy and an eccentric old man named Hans (Christopher Walken) run a dog napping business. Billy nabs the dogs, and then Hans returns the dogs days later to collect the reward. A dangerous mistake, later to be found out to be made on purpose, is when Billy captures the prized shih tzu of a hot-headed gangster named Charlie (Woody Harrelson). As all the loony events unfold, Marty is flabbergasted at all the lunacy, but then realizes Billy truly has set in motion a story worthy of a movie. The third act finds Marty, Billy, and Hans hiding out in the desert from Charlie. While they wait for the final showdown they decide to drink, take peyote, and all three brainstorm their ideas for the script. This was the highlight for me. Billy paints a picture of the screenplays final shootout that literally had me in tears laughing. It made me ponder once again on the fact that somehow Sam Rockwell has been lost underneath the couch cushion of notoriety. How has Rockwell not made it to the A list by now? He’s one of the most talented and entertaining actors of a generation. Oh well, maybe Rockwell is just like Billy, content with his place in this mad, mad world. Dark comedies are a tricky thing, and since McDonagh has made the leap from stage to screen he’s shown that he’s one of the masters at finding the balance between humor, violence, and the sadness of the human condition.

Martin McDonagh just makes movies that I like. With the seriously underrated and under appreciated In Bruges, McDonagh brought us a dark comedy that portrayed the softer side of hit men. Now with Seven Psychopaths he brings colorful characters with serious social issues together that creates an inevitable time bomb of comedy. His casting couldn’t have been better either. Farrell, Rockwell, Walken, Harrelson, and yes Tom Waits bring the playful spirit of McDonagh’s writing to every second of screen time. There is something to be said about a film that is at times so goofy, yet self-aware. Inspired, original, and devilishly funny, Seven Psychopaths is a pure delight.

-JB

Argo

Argo is an entertaining, tense, and intelligent piece of filmmaking. For every one of my little hang ups I found with the film there were two or three positive things that quickly popped up and made me forget them. A film that is well acted and put together with the precision you would expect out of a top notch CIA thriller.

In 1979, six Americans escaped the U.S. embassy in Iran after it had been stormed by a deadly mob of protesters. They quickly were taken in by the Canadian Ambassador living in Iran and went into hiding. With all the political unrest and heavy anti-American sentiment in the Middle East the clock was ticking on their lives. If the Iranian police found them, they’d surely be killed. That’s where the CIA’s exfiltration expert Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) comes in. After the white house offers up ultra-conservative rescue plans with minimal risk of political capital and minimal chances the hostages would ever make it out of Iran, Mendez pitches the “best worst idea” of all the plans. He proposes that he go in himself posing as a movie producer and bring the six Americans out as a Canadian film crew. As preposterous as his pitch is, its green lit and Mendez lays the ground work in the states before heading to Iran. He seeks out monster movie make-up artist John Chambers (John Goodman) and mouthy Hollywood producer Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin) to help build a legitimate looking front of a “turnaround” science fiction production entitled Argo. There are some really funny moments with Goodman and Arkin and I would’ve liked to have seen Argo stick with more of the dark comedy that was really working for me. But once Mendez lands on Iranian soil the film quickly gets serious and stays there. Abruptly leaving Chambers and Siegel behind. That shift in tone really annoyed me at first, but once the rescue mission gets into full gear you’ll realize that Affleck, the filmmaker really continues to shine as a story teller and a gifted craftsman. Based on true events, Argo is an interesting piece of American history that needed to be shared. Even though talents like Arkin, Goodman, Bryan Cranston, and Phillip Baker Hall (He’s in literally one scene) seemed to be underutilized and get lost in the shuffle, Argo succeeds as a thoroughly entertaining movie that keeps you wrapped up until the pulse-pounding end. Thanks to charasmatic performances and Ben Affleck and his filmmaking team of technical virtuisos, Argo starts the awards season off with an enthralling bang. The editing in this movie deserves special attention. William Goldenberg (Heat, Seabiscuit) cuts the film with a magician’s touch.

Ben Affleck has proven over and over that he is anything but a one-trick-pony when it comes to directing. Going through somewhat of a resurrection from being a not so respected actor to the heir apparent to actor/directors like Eastwood and Sean Penn, Affleck looks more and more talented and his works continue to get better. Think about the progression from Gone Baby Gone to The Town and now Argo . He’s off to a great start and I can’t wait to see more. Justice League perhaps?

-JB