Film Review: Self/less (2015)

Copyright: Focus Features

There are several key points to this film which really remind me of the movie Limitless, and it�s not just because of its name. In both films, fringe science unlocks something incredible for the main protagonist, but also opens the door to something really dark once the protagonist breaches its chrome and shiny surface. 

In both films, the main character is a person full of energy and the will to live, but who is somehow bound to their current, undesirable state � in Limitless, it was the lack of professional drive that kept its main character down.

In Self/less, the main character is Damian, an incredibly wealthy old man who is coming to the end of his natural life. But Damian can�t accept the notion of mortality that easy, so he seeks a company offering a chance to start all over, using a device that transfers his mind into a new, synthetic body, grown from scratch.

With death being the only other alternative, Damian decides not to shuffle off his mortal coil and accepts the offer of Professor Albright, who�s classic style for fashion is only eclipsed by his thinly wielded evil interior, which the film foreshadows way too much.

At the moment of the switch, the character of Damian passes from Ben Kingsley to Ryan Reynolds. While Kingsley is in the driver seat, the film possesses a nice aura of mystery and intrigue, because the veteran actor does presents really well powerful characters which are dislikable but understandable. Here, Damian�s struggles with missed opportunities and grim possibilities, and Kingsley makes it works. The director Tarsem Singh makes the introduction in a subtle but engaging fashion, making the audience invested in Damien�s plight.

But, once the transition takes place and Reynolds becomes Demine, Self/less just loses it. I like Reynolds, especially his comic talent, but here, he simply melts into the bland surroundings in which the film takes place from that point on. Damian moves to New Orleans, but the film quickly ends up being filmed in plywood houses in the suburbs, small country roads and abandoned warehouses turned secret medical labs, as if the scenes from affordable actions movies like Bangkok Dangerous were suddenly offered to Singh at discount prices. Like the predictable story and uninteresting twists, from that point on, Self/less glides into a really mediocre thriller. This final element really makes the film a spiritual continuation of the equally flawed Limitless.   

Film Review: Broken Horses (2015)

Copyright: Fox Star Studios

For me, Broken Horses is a strange, ill-fitting mixture of a distinctive cinematic sensibility and a precisely defined time and place in which the film is supposed to be set. The film�s director, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, started working on films over 40 years ago, but in this piece, he only manages to end up as a person who is coming from a completely different place of creative thinking, and gets lost in a strange land of different cultural values and approaches to telling tales.

Broken Horses is a story of two brothers who get separated in a small southern US town when their father and the local sheriff, gets murdered. One brother goes away and becomes a successful musician, while the older one remains, falling under the influence of a local crime boss. Many years later, the younger brother returns, but he is not wanted in the dust bowl of his old hometown.

With a cast of great actors, primarily Vincent D'Onofrio, Anton Yelchin and even Chris Marquette (even though he took his role way over the top), Vidhu Vinod Chopra takes Broken Horses to art-house territory and back into cartel-thrillers in a matter of minutes. These constant transitions are nauseating, even though they take place in really impressive, almost theatre-like sets and feature some fine cinematography in the style of the modern western/neo-noir films. A lot of this is the work of Tom Stern, a director of photography well-known in the AAA realm of Hollywood.

In Broken Horses, it is the main director who doesn�t know how to approach this story of the two brothers, apart from its beginning and its end. Like many films with a lot of style and inadequate amounts of substance, it is the middle segment where the Broken Horses fail to be an impressive work of art, but also to entertain in any way.

Film Review - Insidious: Chapter 3

Copyright: Stage 6 Films

No matter how I approach it, I have to conclude that Insidious: Chapter 3 is an okay film. As a whole, it lacks any serious problems, but also any cutting-edge twists on the defined formula to make the movie anything more impressive than a slightly average horror. If this film was a car, it would be a 5-year old Volkswagen Polo � sure, it�s a comfortable and reliable vehicle that doesn�t mostly leave anyone hanging because of an unexpected issue, but it�s still hard to get really excited about it.

Leigh Whannell, an old buddy of the Insidious/Sinister/Conjuring horror guru James Wan, got a chance to direct this film and he did a solid job. The film moves at a steady pace and like most Wan-like modern horrors, it builds up its tension quickly and effectively, mainly because all those Millennials watching it don�t have the time to sit through a prolonged introduction. Still, as a not-too-ambitious film, it keeps its viewers interested throughout.

With this approach, Whannell places the main character of the story, a teenager by the name Quinn, in a situation where she seeks out Elise Rainier, a spiritual medium who now stopped working. Quinn, who is experiencing strange things in her home, is desperate to come into contact with her deceased mother, and Rainer agrees to help her, suspecting that dark forces wait her on the other side. The session is unsuccessful and Quinn returns to her building apartment, not knowing are the strange things she previously felt her mother�s spirit or something more menacing (or shall I say, sinister).

With a nice and tidy runtime of 97 minutes, Insidious: Chapter 3 continues to follow the path of Insidious: Chapter 2 and moves the series to the Saw territory, where we can expect to see new installment pop up regularly. As the production values diminish and the lore of the story expands ("the Further", Specs and Tucker are back, and so on), I�m impressed by Wan�s ability to develop insanely financially successful films (Chapter 3 already grossed 110 million on a 10 million budget), but I also miss the edginess and gripping storytelling of the first film, now present in a really miniscule amounts. I fear that the same dimension of this film series will only continue to become more and more diluted.

Film Review: Love & Mercy (2015)

Copyright: Roadside Attractions

The goal of the Love & Mercy and its director Bill Pohlad are clear from the first moment of the film, which show John Cusack as an older Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys who wants to buy a car somewhere in the 1980�s. Wilson, now an unrecognizable middle-aged man, lost all of this drive and creativity that help him create one of the most successful bands in the U.S. history.

Deeply troubled by emotional issues and under the constant supervision of a strange psychotherapist, Wilson loses days and months, maybe even years in a haze of prescription drugs and complete lack of interest in anything in the world around him. Then, without any warning or sign, the story rewinds 20 years into the past, where the young Brian, now at the top of his game, desires to make an incredible album which will break away the Beach Boys from their fake surfer vibe he gradually came to despise.

But at the same time, his mind is eroding, accompanied by audio hallucinations and deterring emotional stability, which is additionally fueled by drug use. At both times, Wilson tries his hardest to follow his vision and share the love he feels with people around him but ends up isolated in the world that is becoming more and more distant to him.

Pohlad made Love & Mercy in a way that really underlines Wilson�s musical genius and his ability to expand the realm of popular music when no one asked or expected that of him. The film shines while it shows famous Beach Boy�s songs being made in the studio and Wilson, who is terrifically portrayed by Paul Dano, both lost in his miraculous world of sounds and terrified by the things he suspects are coming. Unlike the, for example, Benedict Cumberbatch's uneven presentation of Alan Turing in The Imitation Game, Dano makes Wilson�s instantly connectable, even when he�s losing his mind. Because of this, all those who love or at least know these songs will definitely feel at least a spark of jubilation while they watch how Good Vibrations or some other track slowly come into existence. At the same time, they will also some other darker emotions, seeing in what agony they were created.

Pohlad, who isn�t new to movies but is new to directing, can�t evade the lure of the regular protagonist-antagonist plotline, which dampens the part of the story which takes place in the 1980�s. Here, Dr. Eugene Landy is depicted as a tyrant and a madman who keeps Wilson down, while his newfound girlfriend tries to pull him out of this toxic relationship. Paul Giamatti does a great job as Landy, but I feel that this part of the script failed an otherwise wondrous film by making sure the audience had a bogeyman to hate. Like the Wilson�s real life, I feel this uncalled-for Hollywoodization of his story only subtracted from it but didn�t add much an aside of the cheap thrills of having a bad guy in this musical biography.

There is no doubt that the mind of Brian Wilson was and probably still is a marvelous and terrible place. As a gentle soul who wanted to give people the gift of music, he got a life that had way too much suffering and pain. Love & Mercy might not do him justice in every possible way or as much as he deserves, but it is still a window into a fascinating man. It is clear that the world needed that window and having it is a joyful occasion.