Monday, 29 October 2012
FILM REVIEW: END OF WATCH
Roadshow Films
Now Showing
Just as a successful police pairing means being able to rely on your partner, the success of the buddy cop film rests almost entirely on the chemistry between said buddies. Be it Mel Gibson and Danny Glover in the Lethal Weapon series, or Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill in 21 Jump Street, you need to know that the other guy has got your back.
Thankfully for writer-director David Ayer, his two leads – Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena, both in excellent form – have chemistry to burn in End of Watch, a fly-on-the-wall police procedural where the two actors are rarely seen without the other and whose camaraderie is as authentic as it is winning.
Brian Taylor (Gyllenhaal) and Mike Zavala (Pena) are officers in the LAPD, patrolling the streets of south-central Los Angeles in their squad car and always on the lookout for some dangerous action: missing elderly mother, meh. Meth labs and drug cartels? Bring it on! They're a gung-ho duo who take just as much fun (perhaps more) in their work as they do pride, which may rankle some of their colleagues (including David Harbour, Frank Grillo, and a far-from-Ugly Betty America Ferrera) but more often than not gets the job done.
Taylor, for whatever reason (it is never really explained), has taken to shooting their daily patrols on his digi-cam, and has wired himself and Zavala up with mini-cameras so he doesn't miss one bit of the action.
This also captures the fun, frank and at times personal conversations between the two cops, and whether riffing on or ribbing each other, or opening up about their relationships (Zavala has a wife and his first child on the way; Brian has started dating someone special, played by Anna Kendrick), the pair are amusing, engaging and highly likeable.
Not so taken with the duo is the local chapter of a Mexican drug cartel. When Taylor and Zavala cross their paths one too many times, upending drug shipments and a people smuggling operation, a hit is placed on the cops making for an already dangerous life on the beat downright deadly.
The entirety of End Of Watch is shot in a hand-held manner which ultimately proves to be as distracting as it is annoying, not just because of the shakiness of the cinematography (Oz critic David Stratton must have had stroke while watching this), but because Ayer dispenses with the rules of his own conceit not too long into the film.
There are point-of-view shots which can only have been filmed by someone who either does not have a camera (although a lot of people in EOW, including the crims, tend to: the YouTube generation?) or who simply isn't there. No doubt intended to give the pair's life on the beat an immediacy and authenticity, the fly-on-the-wall approach as executed here proves more irritating than enlightening.
But that's a minor quibble. What is impressive about End Of Watch, and the reason you should see it, are the central performances. Gyllenhaal and Pena are a winning combination whose chemistry overcomes any cop film cliches or shaky-cam issues. Whether busting crims or each others' balls, they make for an arresting pair.
Thursday, 25 October 2012
FILM REVIEW: ARGO
Roadshow Films
Now Showing
Truth, as they say, is often stranger than fiction. And in Argo, Ben Affleck's third and most confident outing as a director, the truth – that of the clandestine CIA goings-on behind the American-Iranian hostage crisis of 1979-1980 – is also far more entertaining than it has any right to be.
Argo is also gripping as it plays fast (and only slightly loose) with events which unfolded following the Iranian revolution where Iran's leader, the Shah, was replaced by Ayatollah Khomeini. The Shah fled to the U.S. and in protest, Iranians (mostly students) vented their anger on the American Embassy, storming the premises and setting the hostage crisis in motion which would continue for 444 days.
But not before six Embassy employees (character actors Tate Donovan, Clea DuVall and Scoot McNairy among them) managed to 'slip out the back' and seek refuge in the home of the Canadian ambassador, Ken Taylor (Victor Garber).
Affleck captures these events so perfectly it's almost as though he and his cinematographer (Rodrigo Prieto) were there, making it difficult to discern what is actual footage from the time and what has been recreated. In fact, the period detail of the film – the clothes, the cars, and the hair, so much hair – is excellent; enough to effectively transport us back to 1979 but not so as to draw attention to itself.
The CIA's initial plan to get the six Americans out of Tehran? Bicycles. They'll deliver them to the Canadian Embassy and the six will simply pedal across the Turkish border to freedom.
But CIA exfiltration expert, Tony Mendez (Affleck, impressively sporting long '70s locks and beard), has another idea, the better bad idea if you will: he'll fly into Tehran posing as a Canadian film producer with plans to shoot a science fiction film in the country's sandy surrounds; the six fugitives will be issued with Canadian passports and fly out with Mendez as members of his film crew.
To successfully pull-off this subterfuge, Mendez heads to Hollywood and enlists the help of one-time ace producer, Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin in fine, cantankerous form), and Oscar-winning make-up artist, John Chambers (John Goodman); the trio settling on the screenplay for Argo, a Star Wars clone which would seem perfectly suited to being filmed in the Middle East.
These Hollywood sequences provide Argo with a great deal of humour, and perhaps lulling us into a false sense of security, for once Mendez touches down in Tehran and the operation is set in motion, Affleck ratchets up the tension to almost unbearable levels: the third act of the film makes for some of the most gripping cinema of 2012.
The ending may never be in doubt (even if you don't know all that much about the Iranian hostage crisis - or this aspect of it which was revealed when CIA documents were declassified in 1997 - you can bet Hollywood doesn't make self-congratulatory films about the deaths of six Americans), but as they also say, it's the journey that matters, and Argo is a ripping yarn, gripping (and amusing) in the telling.
Tuesday, 23 October 2012
FILM REVIEW: DREDD 3D
Icon Film Distribution
Now Showing
When the trailer for Gareth Evans' high-energy actioner, The Raid, was launched online late 2011-early 2012, all those involved with Pete Travis' Dredd must have let out a collective 'oh, shit!' For The Raid and Dredd share a similar premise – good guys fighting bad guys in a tower block in lock down – and while that similarity is more coincidence than by design, the latter film suffers as a result.
Well, if you've seen The Raid, that is (and if you haven't, you should: it's available on DVD now). Not only does Evans' film benefit from being the first released, but its handling of the concept is far superior to Dredd in every way (except visually).
Dredd is set in the future where society has collapsed, America is now a police state, and justice is meted out by the Judges: judge, jury and (often) executioners rolled into one who patrol the cities on suped-up motorcycles and come fully-equipped with an arsenal of weapons.
And Judge Dredd (Karl Urban, presumably: we only ever see his mouth and chin for he never removes his helmet) is the best of them. Inscrutable, incorruptible and personality-free, Dredd takes his work seriously. He's none-too-pleased, however, when he's assigned to babysit a rookie, Anderson (Olivia Thirlby, unrecognizable from her role in Juno); an underachieving cadet from the Academy but promoted to potential Judge-dom due to her mind-reading abilities.
And those abilities will come in handy when the pair are trapped inside a tower block (the misleadingly named Peach Trees) and targeted for termination by the city's reigning queen of crime, Ma-Ma (Lena Headey, a.k.a Evil Keira Knightley, and here looks like Keira's Domino character fallen on seriously hard times).
Ma-Ma issues a fatwa on the Judges to prevent them leaving Peach Trees with one of her minions in custody. He'll inevitably talk if taken back to police headquarters for interrogation so Ma-Ma declares it open season. Cue The Block, in reverse and with high-powered weapons as the tools of trade.
Based on the comic books – which were given a less than spectacular cinema-outing in the 1995 Judge Dredd, where it was Sylvester Stallone donning the helmet and badge – I'm led to believe that Dredd is a dark and bloody satire on the current state of the world. And Travis' version (penned by Alex Garland, based on characters created by Carlos Ezquerra) is definitely bloody.
But if it is satire than I missed the point. I certainly didn't discern any wit flying amid the bullets and the bodies. And Urban's one-liners fall as flat as some of Ma-Ma's victims (seriously, anyone could have played Dredd so robotic is the performance).
As you can no doubt guess, I wasn't a fan of Dredd. There is a drug in this dystopic future known as Slo-Mo, designed to create for its users the illusion of time moving slowly, and deployed specifically by the filmmakers for visual effect (which is one of the film's few redeeming features; I'll admit there are moments that are visually arresting). But I was hoping at some point they'd introduce another drug – Fa-Fo, or Fast Forward – so I could hurry up and get the hell out of there.
Wednesday, 17 October 2012
FILM REVIEW: SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED
Rialto Distribution
Now Showing
Ever since the publication of H.G. Wells' The Time Machine (in 1895), we humans have been fascinated with the idea of time travel. Not so much the technical aspects of its possibility but where one might go and do were we indeed able to travel through time: into the past to walk with the dinosaurs or into the future to witness mankind colonising Mars? To meet historical figures in their prime, or behold empires at their peak?
So when an advert appears in a small town newspaper calling for potential time travel companions - bring your own weapons, safety not guaranteed - it's completely understandable that it should pique the interest of Seattle magazine writer, Jeff (Jake Johnson).
But given Jeff is also a cynic and, well, a jerk, the advert also tickles his funny bone. He's intrigued to know what kind of nut job would post such an advert and if they are for real, and enlists two interns - "the Indian and the lesbian" - to accompany him on a road trip to suss it out.
The "Indian" is Arnau (Karan Soni), a softly-spoken engineering major who is only interning at a magazine because a diversity of interests looks good on job applications.
And the "Lesbian" isn't a lesbian at all (not that there's anything wrong with that). Darius (Aubrey Plaza) is a droll young woman who is at odds with the world. Believing herself to be smarter than most people (certainly Jeff), her detachment owes as much to her mother's death when Darius was just a teen as it does with the world's general sucky-ness.
But it is Darius who becomes the lynch pin in Jeff's investigation. After the writer makes a first bad impression on Kenneth (Mark Duplass), the poster of the advert, Darius believes she has a better chance of winning the trust of the supermarket employee; questioning the oddly appealing man with the oddly coloured ear about his calibrations.
In no time at all, Kenneth has Darius doing practise drills, with and without a hand gun, even breaking into a local medical facility, and divulging all manner of techno-babble about time travel and what is required for the mission but never what the actual mission is. Just as it is with Darius, you sense there is pain and loss at the core of Kenneth's plight.
And Plaza and Duplass make for a winning combination; his wide-eyed optimism slowly wearing her resistance down and winning over her over.
Meanwhile, Jeff is keen to drop in on a former adolescent flame with whom he enjoyed a summer romance, dismayed to find that time hasn't been kind to the blonde 16-year-old who has resided in his memory for some 15-odd years.
Jeff also encourages Arnau to take advantage of his youth, making it his mission to get the virgin laid: you're only 22 once and you never get the same opportunities again.
Safety Not Guaranteed isn't a film about time travel so much as a film about time: regretting it, hoping against hope to correct it, and more importantly, embracing it.
Director Colin Trevorrow, and screenwriter, Derek Connolly (who based his story on an actual advert, placed as a filler by a magazine employee), know that regret stings and we'd all like to go back in time, have a shot at a do-over, to makes things different if not necessarily right.
That notion, along with the performances of Plaza and Duplass, add poignancy to this small but big-hearted comedy. Make the time to see it.
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