“You should move to a small town, somewhere the rule of law still exists. You will not survive here. You are not a wolf, and this is a land of wolves now.”
If you had told me three years ago that one of the biggest badass action stars in Hollywood would be Emily Blunt, I would have had to look up who Emily blunt was. Then, I would have assumed she was some prim, proper and pretty English girl with no badass action roles in her future. But now, she’s the woman who turned a damsel in distress into a pretty tough character in Looper. She’s the woman who totally kicked all sorts of ass in Edge of Tomorrow. She’s now the woman whose involvement was enough to make excited about the next, grittier step in her badass, action career, Sicario.
Working as an FBI agent in Arizona, Kate Macer (Blunt) is part of a raid that discovers a house with walls stuffed with dead bodies, and a bomb that kills two of her colleagues. The raid also gets her noticed by the CIA, represented by Matt Graver (Josh Brolin), who enlists Kate to join his black ops team as they attempt to take down a Mexican drug cartel. Meeting Matt’s partner, the shady Alejandro (Benicio Del Toro), Kate realises that getting actual results means sometimes playing outside the law. (more…)
“You should move to a small town, somewhere the rule of law still exists. You will not survive here. You are not a wolf, and this is a land of wolves now.”
If you had told me three years ago that one of the biggest badass action stars in Hollywood would be Emily Blunt, I would have had to look up who Emily blunt was. Then, I would have assumed she was some prim, proper and pretty English girl with no badass action roles in her future. But now, she’s the woman who turned a damsel in distress into a pretty tough character in Looper. She’s the woman who totally kicked all sorts of ass in Edge of Tomorrow. She’s now the woman whose involvement was enough to make excited about the next, grittier step in her badass, action career, Sicario.
Working as an FBI agent in Arizona, Kate Macer (Blunt) is part of a raid that discovers a house with walls stuffed with dead bodies, and a bomb that kills two of her colleagues. The raid also gets her noticed by the CIA, represented by Matt Graver (Josh Brolin), who enlists Kate to join his black ops team as they attempt to take down a Mexican drug cartel. Meeting Matt’s partner, the shady Alejandro (Benicio Del Toro), Kate realises that getting actual results means sometimes playing outside the law. (more…)
“If it’s a quiet night out at the beach and your ex-old lady suddenly out of nowhere shows up with a story about her current billionaire- developer boyfriend, and his wife, and her boyfriend, and a plot to kidnap the billionaire and throw him in a loony bin…”
There was a lot of hype about Paul Thomas Anderson that I refused to believe for years. I thought Boogie Nights was pretty awesome, but the pretentious wank of Magnolia and the meandering bullshit of Punch Drunk Love left a bad taste in my mouth for a long, long time. Then, he made There Will Be Blood, a movie unlucky enough to come out the same year as No Country for Old Men. Which is the only reason it wasn’t the best movie of 2007. It was followed by the ambitious, scientology baiting The Master, and I was officially OK with people calling Anderson a genius.
So when I first heard a new Paul Thomas Anderson movie was on the way, I was automatically excited. Then I saw the trailer, and it quickly became one of my most anticipated movies of the year. There Will Be Blood and The Master were dark, brooding, serious and epic. But the trailer for Inherent Vice was goofy, cartoony and genuinely hilarious. In the end, it turned out to be an amazing trailer for a movie that’s not quite amazing, but still pretty good. (more…)
“Death is just like life in Sin City. It always wins.”
Nine years ago, director Robert Rodriguez did what Robert Rodriguez does best. He took a super schlocky, super B grade, super exploitationy all story, and he turned into ground breaking, rule breaking cool that didn’t just ignore its lack of substance, it embraced it. That movie was Sin City, based on the comic book series of the same name by Frank Miller. Using the comics as story boards, Rodriguez even gave Miller a co-director credit.
Nine years is a long time between drinks. Long enough for the shine of that ground breaking, rule breaking cool to have well and truly worn off. Which is why all those same tricks seem kind of boring in Sin City: A Dame to a Kill For. (more…)
Of all the directors working today, especially the A-list guys, Jason Reitman is the one I’ve been on board with since day one. I love Wes Anderson, but discovered him with Rushmore on DVD. I’m a big fan of George Clooney as a director, but never bothered seeing Leatherheads or The Ides of March on the big screen, because they just didn’t seem important enough. But Jason Reitman, I’ve been in the theatre, opening week every time from Thank You for Smoking, all the way to Young Adult. But then came Labor Day, a Reitman movie, starring two big names in the leads, and I don’t know if it even got a theatrical release in Australia. So now I’ve seen it, on a small screen, and my Reitman cinema streak has been broken.
It’s Labor Day weekend 1987, the few days before school starts, and Henry (Gattlin Griffith) enters grade 7. Living with his agoraphobic and depressed mother Adele (Kate Winslet), they go into town for her monthly excursion as she stocks up on enough supplies for another month of hiding from the world. In the local supermarket, Frank (Josh Brolin) quickly and covertly takes Henry and Adele hostage, forcing them to take him to their home, where he can hide out and get ready to skip town after escaping from prison.
It’s petty obvious from the get go that Franks is a criminal with a heart of gold, a victim of circumstance, and just what Adele and Henry need to get out of their collective funk. All of that probably sounds pretty terrible to anyone reading this, and it is the worst part of Labor Day, but it’s not nearly as bad is it could have been.
The inevitable falling in love arc is cheap, rushed and way too convenient in every single way, but the performances and the cinematography more than make up for those shortcomings, making the rest of Labor Day extremely watchable.
The shame about missing this on the big screen is that it is, by far, Reitman’s most cinematic and visually impressive movie. There are a few moments when the wistful, slow motion shots of sun peaking through tree branches border on Terrance Mallick aping pretention, but it never quite crosses that line. All of Labor Day has a golden, summer look that evokes the sweltering heat these characters are living through, but also ads a slight fantastical feel that perfectly suits its told-in-flashback structure. As adult Henry remembers this massive event in his life, it only seems appropriate that it would have this unrealistic, perfect sheen.
I don’t think I’ve heard or read a single rave review for Labor Day I don’t think I’ve even heard or read a single OK one, and I don’t get it. Sure, the story is a little obvious now and again, and some of the character decisions seem totally unearned, but I still couldn’t help really, really liking it. Which means Reitman’s track record is still pristine as far as I’m concerned. The performances are all really strong, and at under two hours, it never outstayed its welcome. Even if you can’t get on board with the story, watch it with the sound down, listening to your favourite album. Because every single frame really does look amazing.
Bored and Dangerous 