Review: End of Watch (2012)

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2012, Anna Kendrick, David Ayer, End of Watch, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Peña

Director: David Ayer
Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Peña, Anna Kendrick
Plot: We follow the daily lives of two Los Angeles police officers via a documentary-style, as they come up against a criminal gang hell-bent on revenge.

Ever since Jake Gyllenhaal blazed his own cinematic trail as the title character in the weird and wonderful Donnie Darko, he has built up quite a varied CV. Zodiac and Source Code proved his ability to play leading characters well, but he never shies away from challenging roles such as Brokeback Mountain and End of Watch, for which he spent a few months with real-life police officers while researching his role in the film, which gives us a very authentic view of life on patrol in the one of the most violent cities in the world.

A high-speed police pursuit ends in a shootout in South Central Los Angeles. The LAPD officers involved, Brian Taylor (Gyllenhaal) and Miguel Zavala (Peña), are unharmed. They return to the station where it is revealed that the two are close friends and Brian is going to film them as they go about their job for a film project. A public disturbance call leads them to the house of Mr. Tre (Cle Shaeed Sloan), who yells abuse and ends up fighting Miguel, who wins his respect for not charging him with assault. Later that night, Tre and his fellow Bloods gang members are attacked by a Latino gang in a drive-by shooting incident. The following evening Brian and Miguel are called to the Latino gang’s house where they come face to face with the leader, Big Evil.

Brian tells Miguel that he has a hunch about Big Evil and decides to stake out his mother’s house. They pull over an apparent gang member who draws a gun on them, but is disarmed – the officers find a number of ornate guns and cash in the car. After rescuing a number of children from a house fire and receiving a Medal of Valor for their efforts, the pair arrest another man linked to the gang, who is found to be holding a number of people captive in his house as part of a human-trafficking ring. Brian and Miguel are subsequently told by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent that they would be best advised to lay low due to a potential revenge attack. This significant arrest leads them on a path of confrontation with the Latino gang for a deadly showdown.

End of Watch doesn’t really know what it wants to be. We start off with a very interesting take on the buddy cop stereotype. Instead of two wildly different personalities, Brian and Miguel, despite their different backgrounds, are quite similar to each other. Following these two police officers around in a documentary style is something that most of us would be able to enjoy quite easily, especially considering that Gyllenhaal and Peña are likeable actors playing very likeable characters. Then the action switches to the so-called ‘bad guys’, who are filming their rather violent exploits on their cell phones – are we now in ‘found footage’ territory? This is never explained. Neither is the fact that the plot suddenly lurches across at certain moments towards being a standard drama – a sex scene which would fit into any drama is thrown in for good measure and to confuse its audience once again – who is filming this now? Perhaps an unseen voyeur, but again we don’t get answers. Technicalities aside, the film is terrific. The very violent world of the LAPD we are thrust into feels very genuine, even if you haven’t been anywhere near the streets of Los Angeles, the experience is very authentic – especially when the action concentrates on our two main protagonists.

Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña are perfectly cast. Their chemistry as both colleagues and friends is absolutely spot-on and there is need whatsoever for a delve into their respective pasts or careers to really get a taste of their characters. Almost immediately we are gladly invited to join them to see what their day-to-day lives are like and it is a true testament to both actors that the relaxed, easy-going style of Brian and Miguel is very watchable indeed. Gyllenhaal could have quite easily played the brash, heroic cop cliché, while Peña may have taken on the token Hispanic and gone through the motions. Instead what we have is a great script by director and screenwriter David Ayer, which provides the most entertaining moments in their patrol car as the two bicker and banter about each other’s families and the contrasting attitudes to life. These scenes also serve as an antidote to the particularly brutal drama that unfolds in the background to an unrelenting crescendo for the finale. Ayer’s direction, although uncertain about the approach that is meant to be taken in regards to how the film is trying to convey its message, is assured and thankfully shorn of the clunky editing that appears to have become obligatory for violent dramas these days.

End of Watch is different from your average cop drama. Superb acting, a witty yet tightly wound script and a genuine relationship between two officers which is captivating, fascinating and dramatic. Ayer could and should have stuck with the original plan – a documentary-style trip around South Central Los Angeles, purely from the perspective of the LAPD. Just this idea alone would have been enough to enjoy for a solid two hours, maybe even for three.

Rating:

Trailer: The English Teacher (2013)

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2013, Craig Zisk, Greg Kinnear, Julianne Moore, Lily Collins, The English Teacher

Director: Craig Zisk
Stars: Julianne Moore, Lily Collins, Greg Kinnear
Plot: An English teacher’s life is disrupted when a former student returns to her small town after failing as a playwright in New York.

Release Dates: 17th May (USA), TBC (UK)

Trailer: Before Midnight (2013)

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2013, Before Midnight, Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Richard Linklater, Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick

Director: Richard Linklater
Stars: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick
Plot: We catch up with Jesse and Celine nine years on in Greece. Almost two decades have passed since their first meeting on that train bound for Vienna.

Release Dates: 24th May (USA), TBC (UK)

Review: Amour (2012)

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2012, Amour, Emmanuelle Riva, Isabelle Huppert, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Michael Haneke

Director: Michael Haneke
Stars: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Emmanuelle Riva, Isabelle Huppert
Plot: A retired couple live a very cultured lifestyle as retired music teachers, but when one of them has a stroke, the effect is devastating.

Long-distance relationships are one thing, but to maintain your love for someone when they are barely able to communicate, is far more heartbreaking. Strokes rob people of their most basic faculties, forcing their other half to watch as their lives together are jeopardised while the disability often takes hold. The Sea Inside, Gods and Monsters and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly all studied the effect that these most destructive of afflictions can have on people. Amour (simply ‘love’ in French) tackles this theme, but like these films strips away any dreamy notion and presents the events through the cold, hard light of day.

Firemen break down the door of a Parisian apartment to find the corpse of Anne (Riva), laid out on a bed, surrounded by cut flowers. The plot flashbacks a few months, where Anne and her husband Georges (Trintignant), both retired piano teachers in their twilight years, attend a recital by one of Anne’s former pupils. the following morning, Anne suffers a stroke, but it is not apparent to Georges, as she sits for a few minutes in a catatonic state, not responding to his questions. When Anne finally becomes lucid once again, she has no memory of what happened and Georges feels as though she is playing some kind of trick on him. Georges remains concerned however and he takes Anne to see a doctor. She is diagnosed and subsequently undergoes surgery which is unsuccessful, leaving her paralysed down the right side.

Now confined to a wheelchair, Anne makes Georges promise her that he won’t send her to a nursing home or back to the hospital. He agrees and becomes Anne’s dutiful if reluctant caretaker – he himself is getting old and struggles to cope. One day, Anne tells Georges that she doesn’t want to carry on living. The pupil whose concert they attended, visits Anne and Georges at their apartment – Anne engages in a lively conversation with him, giving Georges hope that her condition is temporary and that she might recover. Unfortunately, Anne suffers a second stroke that leaves her almost completely incapacitated, unable to speak coherently. Georges employs a nurse to take care of Anne, three days a week despite the protestations of their daughter Eva (Huppert), who thinks she should go into care. As Anne’s condition deteriorates, Georges faces up to the fact that he cannot bear to see her suffer any longer.

The title of Amour gives you everything you need to know about the film. The central theme that runs all the way through the plot and permeates everything single scene, is Anne and Georges unshakeable devotion and love for one another. From the start, there is a very real sense that what we are witnessing isn’t acting at all, but a genuine couple who have been together for years. This extremely comfortable familiarity is reflected in their apartment which is quite grand, very tidy but plain, their cultural backgrounds evident in the huge collection of books (and presumably musical scores) in the living room. Herein lies the only criticism that you could possibly level at the screenplay. We are left to assume that Anne is a vivacious character, very intelligent with a large circle of friends – her first devastating stroke happens within the first ten minutes or so and as a result, we are not able to really get to grips with her personality. Despite the fact that the subject matter is both heartbreaking and effortlessly thought-provoking, the script just falls short in this regard. The emotional impact would have been far greater if Anne’s sudden deterioration was much more pronounced and there was at least half an hour for us to see Anne on top form before she is struck down so brutally.

With only two characters for company during the majority of running time, the acting has to be exemplary. Emmanuelle Riva’s nomination for an Academy Award is well deserved, even though she spends most of her scenes bedridden. Her dialogue is relatively sparse, even before her stroke – this demands the use of a look or a gentle touch to convey Anne’s feelings about her condition – Riva’s ability to pull this off is nothing short of remarkable. Surprisingly though, Jean-Louis Trintignant’s performance as Georges did not get any Oscar recognition. He carries not only Riva in the physical sense, but also much of the film as Anne’s dutiful husband. His character’s sense of ambiguity is evident – one the one hand, he is an old man himself and feels deep down that his wife is better off in a home yet he is compelled to fulfil her wishes and outwardly refuse help initially, only relenting slightly to allow a part-time nurse into the apartment. Trintignant conveys these conflicting emotions superbly and is worth the watch alone. Michael Haneke’s direction harks back to arguably his other best-known film, Hidden. His lingering style suits the themes being explored – the camera remains stagnant and reflective on occasion, the editing never requires a dramatic cut, but lets us think instead.

Amour is no easy watch by any means, but it is a stark demonstration of how love should endure into our later years. Riva and Trintignant are superb as our protagonists whose lives are torn apart by cruel fate. However, with a touch more investment in Anne’s character at the beginning, the devastating effects could have been felt much, much deeper.

Rating:

Trailer: Disconnect (2013)

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2013, Alexander Skarsgård, Disconnect, Henry Alex Rubin, Jason Bateman, Paula Patton

Director: Henry Alex Rubin
Stars: Jason Bateman, Alexander Skarsgård, Paula Patton
Plot: A drama centered on a group of people searching for human connections in today’s wired world.

Release Dates: 12th April (USA) TBC (UK)

Trailer: Trance (2013)

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2013, Danny Boyle, James McAvoy, Rosario Dawson, Trance, Vincent Cassel

Director: Danny Boyle
Stars: James McAvoy, Rosario Dawson, Vincent Cassel
Plot: An art auctioneer who has become mixed up with a group of criminals partners with a hypnotherapist in order to recover a lost painting.

Release Dates: 27th March (UK), 5th April (USA)

Review: The Master (2012)

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2012, Amy Adams, Joaquin Phoenix, Paul Thomas Anderson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Stars: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams
Plot: An army veteran returns from WW2 looking for direction in his life and finds it in The Cause and its mysterious leader.

Cults are always a fascinating theme for filmmakers to explore. Not only is the way that they operate interesting, but also the way in which they ensnare their followers and brainwash them, making it extremely difficult for them to leave, even if they wanted to. Martha Marcy May Marlene took a very honest approach, with a great performance by Elizabeth Olsen. At the more extreme end of the scale, Rosemary’s Baby was shocking yet used surprisingly little in the way of visuals, mostly suggestion. The Master takes the more subtle approach, although there are times when violent outbursts are never far away.

Freddie Quell (Phoenix) stumbles out of the navy following the end of World War II and struggles to adapt to society once more. An alcoholic and obsessed about sex, he eventually finds employment as a portrait photographer, but is fired after getting into a drunken fight with a customer. He later gets a job on a cabbage farm, but his moonshine poisons one of the workers and he is chased away. One night, Freddie stows away on a yacht belonging to Lancaster Dodd (Seymour Hoffman), the leader of a movement named “The Cause”. When Freddie is caught out, he is invited to stay on board by Dodd and is invited to his daughter Elizabeth’s (Ambyr Childers) wedding, as long as he makes more moonshine which the mysterious head of the group has grown a taste for.

Dodd starts a gruelling form of questioning called Processing, subjecting Freddie to an in-depth analysis to find out about his life’s troubles that have led him there. Freddie tells Dodd that his father died, his mother has been institutionalised, he may have had an incestuous relationship with his aunt and that he had to leave the love of his life Doris (Madisen Beaty) to go to war and he hasn’t seen her for a few years. Dodd and Freddie make a mutual connection and the two grow a bond as Freddie spends more time with Dodd’s family and friends. However, Freddie’s troubled psyche seems to be waiting for an excuse to vent itself and he brutally assaults a man who questions Dodd’s methods in public. Meanwhile, Dodd’s teachings take him around the world and it is up to Freddie to decide whether or not to devote his life to him.

The Master is a typical Paul Thomas Anderson film, in that it will divide audiences due to the style that Anderson employs to portray the story. There is very little to like about any of the characters – even in an anti-hero way, the opportunity to empathise with our main protagonist Freddie Quell is difficult, despite his circumstances which can be described as being very trying at best. Anderson’s script is notable for its short, sharp dialogue which reflects Freddie’s erratic behaviour and Dodd’s equally unpredictable temper that we see erupt from time to time when his dubious methods or teachings are picked apart. Having likeable characters is not essential, although being willing to join them on their personal development throughout the film is hard to do here, simply because there is a strong sense of sterility and alienation – what happens on-screen is at times not easy to watch due to the unconventional themes being explored. However, in a way this serves the storyline well, as it is given an edge – you never really know what is going to happen next, such is the plot starved of obvious clichés – in some ways a welcome fact, indeed.

By far the best aspect of the film is the acting. Joaquin Phoenix inhabits his character Freddie with aplomb, perfectly conveying the idea that he is badly damaged goods and is desperately looking for salvation after completely losing his way following the war. There are so many war-related films that deal with the immediate effects of being on the frontline, but rarely do we get to see close-up how someone would cope having to find their feet on their own  – Phoenix not only convinces here, but also in Freddie’s impressionable nature when joining ‘The Cause’. Philip Seymour Hoffman’ character of Dodd is both mysterious and profound, but also terrifying in the way in which he captivates his followers. Much like John Hawkes’ Patrick in Martha Marcy May Marlene, the grip Dodd has on his followers and his charisma is very well done by Hoffman, who matches Phoenix in the unpredictability stakes. Amy Adams, better known for more sedate romantic comedies shows her range with a very fine supporting role as Dodd’s wife Peggy, thoroughly deserving of her Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress (emulating Phoenix and Hoffman for their nominations).

The Master doesn’t appeal to a mainstream audience, because it deliberately avoids following convention, having a unique, minimalist style. The plot might not be commercially-friendly, at two hours quite a long slog at times, but as Joaquin Phoenix’s return to form, this most definitely is.

Rating:

Review: Rust and Bone (2012)

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2012, Armand Verdure, Jacques Audiard, Marion Cotillard, Matthias Schoenaerts, Rust and Bone

Director: Jacques Audiard
Stars: Marion Cotillard, Matthias Schoenaerts, Armand Verdure
Plot: A drifter travels from Belgium to southern France with his son where he forms a bond with a killer whale trainer who suffers a devastating accident.

French actress Marion Cotillard first came to international prominence when she took on the role of Édith Piaf in La vie en rose which won her a Best Actress Oscar at the 2008 Academy Awards. Since then she has been top of the list of Hollywood’s casting agents, with parts in Inception, Midnight in Paris, Contagion and The Dark Knight Rises. Cotillard still enjoys returning to her native roots and does so in Rust and Bone (De rouille et d’os), in which she takes on a challenging role as a woman who suffers a horrific accident which turns her life upside down.

Alain (Schoenaerts) is an unemployed drifter who, with his son Sam (Armand Verdure), decides to travel to Antibes in the south of France to stay with his sister Anna (Corinne Masiero) while he tries to find work. However, Anna has her own problems concerning her job and living situation without Alain complicating matters, but she takes him in anyway, albeit reluctantly. Alain manages to find a job as a bouncer at a local nightclub, where he meets Stéphanie (Cotillard), who gets involved in a brawl with another man, which Alain breaks up. He takes Stéphanie back to her apartment and gives her his number in case she needs someone to talk to. Alain then leaves and the two go their separate ways, assuming neither will see one another again.

Stéphanie, it is revealed, works as a trainer of killer whales at an aquarium and it is during one of the shows that a tragic accident occurs which leads to her legs having to be amputated. Meanwhile, Alain is told by one of his work colleagues that he can earn extra money from illegal kickboxing fixtures, something that he used to do as a professional, a few years previously. Stéphanie is now feels helpless, alone and depressed – she calls Alain who comes over and takes her to the beach where they swim. As time progresses, the two become increasingly close and regularly have casual sex, even though Alain enjoys similar company other many other women. Alain takes Stéphanie to his kickboxing matches, enjoying a fair amount of success – however, an incident involving Sam forces Alain to rethink how his life is panning out.

At the heart of Rust and Bone are two damaged characters who have suffered either bad luck or a lack of meaning in their lives – the storyline throws them together as we watch Alain and Stéphanie meet in the middle, away from the void in which they spend most of their time. Both protagonists feel helpless by themselves, but when together they find some kind of solace in one another which takes them towards giving everything a semblance of stability. Surrounding the plot is the beautiful setting of southern France which is juxtaposed against the dark drama and tragedy that unfolds within it. Whether this is deliberate is open to debate, but you can quite clearly see how even those who live in paradise are subject to the same fate as people who hail from less glamorous climes. Screenwriters Jacques Audiard (who also directs) and Thomas Bidegain have fashioned a fantastic script which is involving, heartbreaking but ultimately gripping throughout, even though the temptation to go for the obligatory dramatic finale proves to be too overwhelming. Thankfully though, we feel a great deal of sympathy for our protagonists where there could so easily have been nonchalance.

Marion Cotillard’s performance is undoubtedly the star attraction. She is able to convey her character’s rudderless personal life which is dominated by her love of killer whales. Portraying the fact that it is one of these magnificent animals that causes her tragic circumstances and takes away her ability to work alongside them (at least for the foreseeable future), is a difficult thing to pull off but Cotillard achieves this in spades. She also has to put across Stéphanie’s difficult physical and psychological rehabilitation, which is hard to watch at times, but the tender moments with Alain once again display her fabulous acting range and goes some way in putting her dire death scene in TDKR at the back of the mind. Matthias Schoenaerts, whose filmography has up to this point been nowhere near as illustrious as his co-star, not only packs a punch during his fight scenes, does a very admirable job as Alain during the more nuanced moments. He has clearly impressed someone in Hollywood, as he is due to star in no fewer than six films due for release over the next 18 months. One of the highlights is Audiard’s direction – the all-too-brief scenes with the whales are absolutely exquisite and when Stéphanie and Alain go swimming, the effect is positively dream-like.

Rust and Bone is beautifully filmed and the performances speak for themselves. If there is one criticism, it would be that the melodramatic denouement is unnecessary. Until then, the lid had been kept on a simmering plot that had avoided clichés and succeeded in using both stark realism and beauty to convey the plot and done a wonderful job of keeping its audience on tenterhooks throughout.

Rating:

Trailer: Emperor (2013)

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2013, Emperor, Kaori Momoi, Matthew Fox, Peter Webber, Tommy Lee Jones

Director: Peter Webber
Stars: Tommy Lee Jones, Matthew Fox, Kaori Momoi
Plot: As the Japanese surrender at the end of WWII, Gen. Fellers is tasked with deciding if Emperor Hirohito will be hanged as a war criminal. Influencing his ruling is his quest to find Aya, an exchange student he met years earlier in the U.S.

Release Dates: 8th March (USA), TBC (UK)

Review: Holy Motors (2012)

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2013, Denis Lavant, Edith Scob, Eva Mendes, Holy Motors, Leos Carax

Director: Leos Carax
Stars: Denis Lavant, Édith Scob, Eva Mendes
Plot: From dawn until dusk, Monsieur Oscar travels around Paris in a limousine to attend “appointments” to perform in front of cameras that may or may not be there.

Leos Carax is the French answer to Terrence Malick. An enigmatic director, who has made only ten films in 32 years, Carax’s first major work was Boy Meets Girl in 1984, which hailed his arrival and was followed by a few less successful features. Carax returned in 1991 with Les Amants Du Pont-Neuf starring Juliette Binoche and received critical acclaim. In 2008, he co-directed Tokyo! with a segment named ‘Merde’, in which a feral man from the sewer wreaks havoc on the streets of the Japanese capital. Denis Lavant played that character and reprises him here among a pastiche of other roles connected by the mysterious Monsieur Oscar in a very unusual set of circumstances.

A man only known as “Le Dormeur”, wakes up in his bedroom, walks over to the wall (which features the mural of a forest) and discovers a button which opens a door to a passageway, leading to a theatre where an audience is watching King Vidor’s classic film The Crowd. We then join Monsieur Oscar, who is being driven around Paris during the daytime in a limousine by his chauffeur Céline (Scob), to attend various ‘appointments’ around the city. for each one, Oscar must don various disguises and play completely different characters for the benefit of viewers who may not actually exist. In the car, there is a dressing room where he can change into suitable attire and use prosthetics to completely transform his appearance.

The appointments themselves usually involve other people joining in with the ‘act’, whereas there maybe one or two occasions where Oscar finds himself performing for no-one in particular. The long list of scenarios begin with Oscar becoming a beggar on the streets of Paris. He then returns to the limo and is dropped off to perform an action sequence using motion capture, followed by stimulated sex with an actress on a soundstage, whilst being monitored and directed. Monsieur Merde, who first appeared in Tokyo! gets an outing, causing mayhem in a cemetery where a photo shoot is taking place. He kidnaps the model and takes her underground to his habitat in the sewer below. Other scenarios include a poignant deathbed scene, a musical and a gangster film.

Some people say that genius and madness are pretty much the same thing, if not then they are only divided by a very thin, invisible line. Holy Motors is a classic example of how many leading film critics have mistaken genius for the downright inexplicable. At the heart of every good film, there must be two things: a story that makes sense at least on some level and a protagonist who goes on a mental or physical journey, with a motive we are able to see clearly, though it may not be something that the audience can identify with. Motors has a central character who doesn’t appear to have any concrete motive for turning up to these appointments – the plot is just a jumbled mess of sketches that make no sense on their own and even less sense together. Visually, there are one or two scenes that are memorable and interesting, such as the second stop at the motion capture studio, but these are few and far between – instead there are many meetings along the way that have seemingly been plonked in between the more visually arresting appointments. There is a great idea in here somewhere, but it has been lost in the frankly appalling execution.

Leos Carax’s inspiration for Motors came from wandering around the streets of Paris and noticing the vast number of limousines in the city – he wondered about the moving worlds that are encapsulated within. This in itself is a fascinating thought and we have also recently seen this addressed in the dreadfully dour Cosmopolis - it seems that here is another duff attempt to get us excited about long white cars. Carax’s direction is probably the only positive aspect of the entire film. We get to see not only unexplored areas of Paris, but also strange camera angles that reflect the random nature of the characters and scenarios that we are witnessing. But this is not nearly enough. Technical brilliance is all very fine, but you must back this up with substance in the script. Unfortunately there is barely a conversation or a line of dialogue that feels like a genuine movement in a worthy direction of note. Denis Lavant’s vast array of weird characters may elicit a chuckle or two, but this is usually accompanied by the shake of the head in disbelief. Even the appearance of Kylie Minogue looking far from recognisable in very dreary clothes whilst singing in a warehouse, fails to get the pulse racing, even slightly.

Holy Motors is the cinematic equivalent of a piece of modern art. Beloved by those apparently in ‘the know’ and given short shrift by people who can see past the pretentious idea behind it as just a load of old junk. This kind of film was doing the rounds in French cinema from the 1960s to the 1980s – let’s hope that the recent revival of good old-fashioned storytelling such as in Untouchable, is not a passing blip.

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