Movie Review: Nightcrawler (2014)

Jake Gyllenhaal’s Lou Bloom is an instant classic scuzzball character. He echoes the memorable sociopaths played by Robert DeNiro in his prime (Rupert Pupkin in The King of Comedy and Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver), but he’s less sympathetic than either of those. A parasite on the prowl, Bloom soon fixates on a career ideally suited to his amoral loner/ go-getter character—as a crime journalist during L.A.’s night hours. He listens for crimes in progress on his police scanner, speeds to the scene, and then angles for the most shocking, risque footage he can possibly get away with.

New colleagues Nina (Rene Russo), the struggling news producer he goes to first, and Rick (Riz Ahmed), a desperate “intern” railroaded into the nightmare, are exploitable because they want what Bloom can give them—money, work, success. The risks he takes and the lines he crosses are mainly ethical ones at first, but he quickly realises the quickest way to make a name for himself is to get truly sensational footage. The kind that requires taking bigger risks, eventually endangering lives.

Bloom is the most detestable character I’ve seen in ages. He’s a soulless cockroach rummaging through the misfortunes of others, ravenously feeding off violent crimes, sometimes while they’re still happening. But the news station keeps on buying what he’s selling. Viewer ratings spike with each successive horror scene that hits the air.

Writer/director Dan Gilroy makes us squirm from start to finish here because Bloom is so queasily familiar. We all know people who share his traits, even if they don’t take them to such extremes. He’s society’s Frankenstein’s monster, made from all the worst parts of capitalism. He’ll achieve success by any means, and he’s proud of that.

With End of Watch and Prisoners, and now Nightcrawler, Gyllenhaal is finding the sort of edgy, dangerous roles relished by great actors of the 1970s, and he’s attacking them with gusto. This might be his best performance yet. The film itself is a darkly comic treat. It’s tense and unsettling as a thriller, but the most fascinating part is seeing how far this scumbag will take his obsession, and how much we’ll allow him to get away with.

(What a) Rush: Best Movie of 2013?

With ticket prices so high, and funds so limited, I'm a lot pickier than I used to be when it comes to cinemagoing. Consequently, I tend to rely on filmmakers I trust, or if a film's received great notices and I kinda like the sound of it, I might give it a try.

Rush is directed by the versatile Ron Howard, who's been world-class for years now, and he's on top form here, generating propulsive energy from nearly every scene, whether on or off the racetrack. The film chronicles the famous rivalry between Formula One drivers Niki Lauda and James Hunt.

It's a fascinating relationship. The two couldn't be more different, in life, in their approach to racing, and it's this constant friction that powers their individual--and combined--excellence. Without the other, neither would be as determined to excel. In their many brief scenes together, Hunt and Lauda seem able to instinctively pick each other's ego apart, as if they know what makes the other tick in ways that even their wives and friends do not. They're two sides of the same coin. Hunt can't stand his Austrian rival's stoicism, while Lauda despises his British opponent's flamboyant lifestyle; yet when they're behind the wheel, all that disappears, and it comes down to raw driving talent, of which both possess an equal amount, and moreover, they know it.

Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Bruhl match each other acting-wise as well. They're brilliant as Hunt and Lauda. Not a false note in the entire film. Scriptwriter Peter Morgan (The Queen, Frost/Nixon) weaves the parallel stories cleverly and punctuates his scenes with dialogue exchanges that chip away at what makes these two characters tick. Terse, pungent interplay is frequent and memorable.

Finally, the races themselves are some of the best I've seen. They roar to life, and would be downright frightening if they weren't so thrilling to watch (and hear). Lauda's stance against the more dangerous aspects of Formula One was admirable; lives were lost when they needn't have been, and the other drivers should have backed him up.

I can't recommend Rush highly enough. It's a gripping character study, a sophisticated sports movie, and is impeccably made and acted by all. In short, it's the best film I've seen so far this year. See it the first chance you get.

Movie Review: Looper

Genre: Science Fiction, Action/Thriller, Time Travel
Director: Rian Johnson
Stars: Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Emily Blunt, Jeff Daniels, Piper Perabo

In the latter half of the 21^st Century, time travel is invented but is instantly made illegal. The only practitioners are criminal syndicates who send their victims back through time to be assassinated, where no record of them exists. These murders are carried out by ‘loopers’, hired killers who wait at an appointed place and time, somewhere remote, for their victim to appear. One shot does the trick. Every now and then a looper’s older version is sent back to be terminated—known as “closing a loop”—at which point the young looper is allowed to retire until that fateful day in the future.

Confused? You won’t be once the plot kicks into gear. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Joe, a ruthless looper who hesitates when his turn comes to close his own loop by killing his older self (Bruce Willis). A clever game of cat and mouse ensues, with both Joes being hunted by the looper organisation run by Jeff Daniels (on top form). But that’s just the set-up for what becomes a fascinating story chock-full of what-ifs and moral quandries. The action scenes are brilliant, there’s a welcome irreverent streak running through much of the film, and the actors are all very good, especially Emily Blunt playing against type as a foul-mouthed, hobo-phobic mother with a secret.

In my opinion Bruce Willis is well-suited to science fiction. Effortlessly charismatic, he’s also the most down-to-earth of the big action heroes of recent decades, and right away gives these future scenarios a jaded, human quality. Twelve Monkeys, The Fifth Element, Surrogates, and now Looper, writer-director Rian Johnson’s ingenious time travel thriller: each looks to Willis to provide the wounded heart of the story. The same can also be said of The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, arguably his two best roles, in which he managed to ground supernatural goings-on with very real, sensitive portrayals.

That’s perhaps the key to Looper’s success. Johnson downplays the futuristic bells and whistles and turns up the human interest. Flying vehicles and hi-tech gizmos are almost throwaway elements in the background, while characters’ flaws and behavioural quirks are always revelant. In short, it’s the kind of science fiction we need more of: smart, exciting, plausible, and populated by real people. How many time travel movies can you say that about?

Movie Review: The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn

What begins as a fun, nimble little mystery in the first act soon kicks into comedy-action-adventure high gear when junior reporter Tintin, with his brave dog Snowy, stumbles upon boozy Captain Haddock (an excellent Andy Serkis), whose family legacy may prove pivotal in a race to uncover the secret of the Unicorn.

From that point on, it’s more or less non-stop comedy—some fizzles, most of it works—with gags ranging from jaw-dropping blockbuster chase antics to throwaway background humour. Captain Haddock works brilliantly for the most part: he’s unpredictable, endearing, and colourful in all the ways Tintin himself isn’t. While the youngster is well played by Jamie Bell, he’s mostly just there to work out the clues for the audience. Tintin and Haddock make for a good double-act, though: brains and brawn, cunning and in-over-his-head rashness; together they’d make a good Indiana Jones.

The plot is a by the numbers mystery/adventure/treasure hunt, complete with bumbling detectives (so-so comic support from Simon Pegg and Nick Frost), exciting sea plane action and hidden clues, but it’s brought to life in gorgeous visual style. While the script only comes alive in fits and starts, the whole film is bursting with rich detail, and is given added depth by good, solid use of 3D. The virtual camerawork throughout is stupendous.

One extended chase sequence through the flooding streets of a North African city is so dazzling and dizzying it reminded me why no other filmmaker can match Spielberg when he lets his imagination out for a spin. Another action scene, told in flashback, depicts a breathless pirate showdown in a storm, and features some of the most playful transitions I’ve seen since Ang Lee’s Hulk. There’s a pretty good villain, too, played by a wily Daniel Craig.

Snowy, while definitely smarter than your average cute canine, is also given to chasing cats, digging up fossilised bones from the desert, and gobbling sandwiches at decidedly inopportune moments. In other words, he’s an instant audience favourite.

All in all, it’s a rollicking good adventure, one of Spielberg’s most fun movies in a long time, and I’ll be buying it on Blu-ray next year.

Rating: 4.5/5

Movie Review: Transformers: Dark of the Moon 3D

Say what you will about the "soulless" brand of movie mayhem served up by the likes of Michael Bay, Jerry Bruckheimer and Roland Emmerich; roll your eyes at the crassness of it all; but have no doubt: audiences love this stuff. They're not being hoodwinked or manipulated into seeing anything they don't want to see. They, we, I know exactly what I'm paying my tenner for.

On the way out of a screening of Emmerich's 2012, someone described the experience as "like an apocalyptic rollercoaster." And that's a pretty fair summary, if you ask me. These are sensorial thrill-rides, state-of-the-art theme park attractions as much as they are movies. Audiences want to be blown out of their seats by the audiovisual experience. As long as the plot is coherent, the characters are likeable enough for us to care whether they survive or not, there's an occasional laugh throw in to preserve that rollercoaster giddiness, well, there's your formula for this sort of thing. I can imagine select 3D scenes from this third Transformers film playing to sell-out crowds in any Universal Studios or techno theme park.

Dark of the Moon has stupendous scenes of destruction, perhaps even surpassing the aforementioned 2012. Director Bay's robot battles are epic. The hour-long showdown in a battered Chicago is worth the admission price alone. Vehicular carnage, military firepower, transformer face-offs galore--this sequence has it all, including skyscrapers being crushed and toppled by giant robot snakes. The 3D, too, is stunning, with a daredevil freefall by Josh Duhamel and his special ops rangers into a maelstrom of robo-carnage being the standout. It's eye-popping stuff, and just when you think Bay has peaked, he ups the ante tenfold until your brain can barely process what he and his filmmaking wizards have wrought with their limitless FX budget.

The series' throwaway humour is as hit-and-miss as ever, with John Turturro's oddball Agent Simmons and his even weirder German sidekick (Alan Tudyk) generating the most laughs. Ken Jeong is atrocious in his brief (but not brief enough) role as a paranoid office worker--probably the most grating comedy performance since Chris Tucker's screechy turn in The Fifth Element. Other series newcomers include John Malkovich and Frances McDormand; the former is given nothing to do, while the latter is good fun in her role as the brassy National Security Chief.

Duhamel and Tyrese are solid as ever in their stock gung-ho roles. Shia Laboeuf goes hysterical once too often but at least his character, Sam Witwicky, wants to join the action this time around. Brit model Rosie Huntington-Whitely is sweet as his new girlfriend, Carly, and makes a decent replacement for the Fox (whom I did miss, I have to say). In the transformers' cast, Leonard Nimoy makes a great contribution as the powerful and crucial Sentinel Prime.

I'm going to recommend Transformers: Dark of the Moon 3D to anyone who enjoyed the first movie, those who love action on a grand scale, or anyone who wants to see the potential of 3D technology. The SF prologue, including a nice alternate history reveal during the Apollo 11 EVA, showcases some breathtaking 3D framing and depth design. And the extended finale in Chicago is the must-see action event of the summer.

It's pretty much indefensible as anything but a thrill-ride, but I thoroughly enjoyed this one, as did the (astonishingly multi-cultural) audience at my IMAX 3D screening. It runs a bit long at two and a half hours, but once the Chicago sequence starts, you'll be gripped to the end.