Film Review: Dope (2015)

Copyright: Open Road Films

It�s both strange and interesting to see that for the upcoming generation of teens, mainly those born in the late 90�s, the same decade is slowly becoming a part of an urban legend. Like the 80�s for those who are 10 or 15 years older, the time period that has passed since then allowed this decade to receive a shiny gloss that makes it look very appealing. Dope is not a film about the 90�s nostalgia, but the fact that it does include it as one of the main plot points shows that its creators and producers were able to recognize emerging trends. Fortunately, they didn�t ruthlessly exploit them but instead coated the bitterness of the film�s core message in an easily salable form.

It�s only when Dope is inside of our bellies that we recognize the grim topics it explores � mostly the rampart 2.0 racism that still dominates over the African-American and Latino communities in the biggest US cities. Its director Rick Famuyiwa is by no means a household name, but after this film, it is undoubted that he will receive plenty of exposures.

When it comes to his style and approach to troublesome social topics, he reminds me of a combination of a young Spike Lee and a more cheerful version of the young Darren Aronofsky. Throughout the Dope movie, the plot keeps unraveling and falling like a piano on top of a group of Inglewood nerdy kids who get into their possession a bag of MDMA and end up being chased or pressured by different criminal elements.

The main character of the group is Malcolm played really well by Shameik Moore, the de facto leader of the three-part gang. The three of them share good grades, no gang affiliation, love for the 90�s hip-hop and really bad but intentional fashion style. Moore translates both the comical confusion of his horny, but good-natured character, and also his seriousness about his place in the world, which is sadly shaped by his skin color and family background. Here, like in many of Spike Lee�s films, the theme of the film is a personal struggle within a man who must choose how to perceive a racist society � will he oppose it directly or try to work from the inside of the system.

Aside from these ideas, Dope 2015 has plenty of humor. In many ways, it is a sequel to Superbad, where kids from upper-middle class families have been replaced with ones from a poor, crime-ridden neighborhood. But still, the key points for the character remain the same � stay out of jail and have sex for the first time. All this takes place in a mayhem-infused environment, now a lot more impacted by things like Bitcoin and social media. And like the recent Inherent Vice, the film abundantly utilizes the location of Los Angeles, providing its story with plenty of gorgeous urban shots.

Dope is by no means a perfect film from a cinematic standpoint. Its use of narrating characters is unstable and a middle segment of the film begins to meander and disperse its energy. But it has a strong basic engine and it provides more than enough power for this coming of age comedy, set in a very real drama of a racially divided society.

Film Review: Pay the Ghost (2015)

Copyright: RLJ Entertainment

Since Nicolas Cage became a one-man-meme generator a couple of years back, a notion has grown in the public consensus that the man simply can�t act very well or according to the designated character. Of course, this idea elegantly ignores films like Vampire's Kiss, Wild at Heart, Raising Arizona, Guarding Tess, Leaving Las Vegas and Adaptation. 

Yes, it�s true that his choice of films in the 21st century wasn�t exactly stellar (Bangkok Dangerous, for example) and his manic energy often comes out in sublimely weird ways, but essentially, in my opinion, Cage has absolutely nothing to prove anymore.

Now, he obviously works using the Michael Cain rule of accepting all that is offered to him in his price range and Pay the Ghost is strangely one of the best films he participated in over the last few years.

But, this is more about his low artistic standards than the quality of this movie because this film is an average medium-budget horror which provides one or two interesting visual moments, but the rest is located in its entirety VOD territory; indeed, I bet many will watch Pay to Ghost on line primarily, instead of going to a theater.

In the story, Cage plays a college professor whose son disappears one Halloweens night. A year later, he is adamant about finding him, especially because he is certain that paranormal things were somehow involved. The director of the film, Uli Edel, brought very little of his sharp German-style cinematography, like the one we saw in The Baader Meinhof Complex, and instead drowned the film in general New York locations and settings. The same is true for the film�s horror moments, which generate tension, but do it with without much tact or grace. Similar to the story of the thriller Before I Go to Sleep, Pay the Ghost has it all from a narrative standpoint but lacks that spark that can really animate the story in a more engaging emotional way.

But, when it is compared to a regular, run-of-the-mill horror, watching Pay the Ghost movie is a pleasant experience, with much unwanted distractions or annoyances. I�m sure that Uli Edel can create a lot better horror films than this one and I would even like to see Cage act in them in the future.

Film Review: Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015)

Copyright: Paramount Pictures

The latest installment of Mission: Impossible franchise seems determined to impress right from the first minute. As the well-known images of Tom Cruise hanging from an ascending cargo plane appear on the screen, along with a visceral feeling of anxiety (the director Christopher McQuarrie knows his action sequences), the audience is left to witness a film flawlessly made for the 5-second attention span generation.

As the story progresses, there is no time to slow down the action or take a break. The thriller and action modules just come one after another, linked together by a vague plot about a terrorist organization wanting to change the world for the better by killing important people and blowing things up.

Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt runs around once more, looking fit and stylish, strangely untouched by over 20 years since the first Mission: Impossible films both in stature and the way he presents his character. In the subsequent 2 hours of Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, several fantastic segments take place, covering everything from suicide bike chases to suicide breath-diving hacking intrusions.

It seems to me that McQuarrie deliberately targeted that physical sense of danger threatening Ethan Hunt, determined to make the same feeling the main connection line to the audience. During the film, we fear that Ethan will fall from an airplane, drown in an underwater database or crash while speeding on his bike. In this sense, the film is a lot like those YouTube clips where you see Russian teenagers climbing radio antennae with a mounted GoPro camera. It�s thrilling, but really shallow, which is in the case of Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation a completely valid choice, along with the decision to provide an unimpressive conclusion to the story, because it obviously doesn�t matter what happens in the end, as long as the beginning and middle are fun and interesting.

Like McQuarrie and Cruise previous film Edge of Tomorrow, the action is great and the story is there only to provide the a setup for a string of thrill & mayhem sequences. It seems to me that the even emptier narrative of the Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, filled with usual, but pointless spy elements, works a lot better than an apocalyptic science fiction setting for this type of movie.

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.