Powerful.  Painful.  Difficult to watch.  Impactful.

Kathryn Bigelow, the director of Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty, has now completed her third true story to film, as she tells a story set during the Detroit race riots of 1967.  This is a period of time that I am unfamiliar with, so I entered Detroit without any preconceived expectations.

But here is the thing that I think the film has misrepresented about itself.  Honestly, I do not think that the movie is about the Detroit riots.  This film is centered about the events that happened at the Algiers Motel on one night during the Detroit riots.  Because the riots are in the background, there had to be attention paid to them, but the film’s main story beat certainly occurs during the second act when the Algiers Motel comes into play.

Historically, the Detroit Police responded to someone firing a gun from the Algiers Motel (according to the film, the gun was actually a starter’s pistol) and a small group of Detroit policemen took the motel’s residents and lined them up against the wall and basically attempted to torment and torture them into a confession.

Because there was such a group of individuals involved in this movie, the first act does play as jumbled, because each of these characters needed to be introduced and their reasons for arriving at the Algiers needed to be covered.  Add to this the necessary background information on the riots that was presented in the first act, it is no wonder why the first act feels clunky, especially when compared to the tension filled and kick in the stomach that is the second act.

The cast is amazing.  Each actor in this film brings perhaps their best work ever.  John Boyega, whom despite the trailers is not the main character, brings such a richness to the character of Dismukes.  He was a security guard who approached the National Guard and wound up following along after the “sniper” shooting.  You can see how Boyega has to walk a tight rope between what he sees happening and being able to justify in his head why it is being done.  He believes that the police are on the side of the law, but it is clear that he had issues with some of the tactics.

Another stellar cast member is Gotham’s Jerome, Will Poulter.  Poulter plays the main Detroit racist cop who does such tremendously violent and cruel things, despite believing what he was doing was the right thing.  Poulter was terrifying and was as frightening as any horror movie monster.  You have a visceral reaction to the man and you just wish someone would step up and stop him from doing the heinous things he was doing.  I think this was a potential Oscar worthy performance.

If I had to pick, Algee Smith would be the character that would be considered the main character as his story has the most consistent through line through all three acts.  Smith played Larry, an up and coming singer whose big break with Motown was ruined because of the riots.  This is a character that you see have the most development and the one to whom the story has the most effect.

There are plenty of other strong to great performances here including Jacob Latimore (from Sleight), Ben O’Toole, Jack Reynor, Anthony Mackie, LOST’s own Walt- Malcolm David Kelley, Hannah Murray, Kaitlyn Dever and Nathan David Jr.

That second act just busts you in the gut.  You feel uncomfortable and helpless.  Bigelow successfully places you as the audience in the place of the people being tortured by the cops, and you can’t help but feel not only empathy, but a weakness, a helplessness.  It is palatable.

One of the things that hit me personally was how there were so many other people involved in this situation, whether it was John Boyega’s character or National Guard officers who looked at the situation, realized that what was going on was excessive or downright wrong, but none of them did anything about it.  They had several scenes of these other members of law enforcement literally turning away and saying that this was “Detroit police’s case.”  They did not want to get involved.  They did not want to get their hands dirty and, because no one was willing to step up and say the process of what was happening was wrong, innocent people wound up dead.  It was very frustrating as a viewer who wanted the story to turn out okay.

Now, I do not think this is a perfect movie.  In fact, I would venture to say that the first and third acts of this movie were, at best, okay.  I think they both suffer in retrospect because the second act was so compelling and so suspenseful that the resolution just does not, or cannot, match it.  Yes, I know that there was only so much you could do at the end since this was a true story, but the presentation of that end was nowhere near as captivating as what had come before it.  There was also a strange animated beginning of the film that, seemed fine at the time, but now doesn’t fit with the rest of the movie.  Honestly, I do not remember much about the animation, so it did not do its job.

This is a powerful movie that made me question why people can be so cruel simply because of a surface difference like skin color.  The film clearly connects to the world that we live in today as well, as this is a big theme of the film.  However, it is not just a “blame the cops” piece.  One of my favorite moments of the late second act was when Larry had been released and he was running, injured and bleeding, through the streets of Detroit, he stumbled across another Detroit police officer who was shocked at what had happened to him and helped him to the hospital.  There was nothing about his skin color.  He was just an injured man who needed help and this officer helped him.  This small moment of humanity is Bigelow’s way of showing that not every police officer was a racist piece of crap.  It just happened that the three main Detroit cops in this story were horrible people, but that was not them all.  I really appreciated that scene.

This is most likely another film that I will not watch again, but I was glad that I saw.  It made me think and it hit me with powerful emotions like a sledgehammer.  You should definitely see Detroit because it challenges your thoughts and perceptions of the world.

4.5 stars

We have a new entry into the film genre of “so bad it is good.”

Kidnap is an extremely stupid, completely implausible, and frustratingly silly movie that is actually quite fun to watch.  It’s not a good movie, but it appeals to the crowds who like a bad “B” movie that you can laugh at and wonder why these lame characters make the choices that they make.

Halle Berry plays Karla Dyson, a recently separated wife who takes her son Frankie (Sage Correa) to the park for some mother-son fun time, only to have him taken by two lowlifes.  Karla sees this, and, like a woman possessed, pursues the kidnappers relentlessly through the streets of New Orleans, bystanders be damned.

Nothing will satisfy the onslaught of the maternal instinct overwhelming Halle Berry in Kidnap, except for the immediate return of her son.  Honestly, I think that if this woman was in hot pursuit of me, I would have tossed the kid out and left to fight another day.

Halle Berry says in the film, “You took the wrong kid!” and that is without debate.

The action scenes in this film are edited terribly.  In these scenes, there are so many rapid cuts that it is almost impossible to tell what is going on.  There is one scene, in particular, in a tunnel that appears to be moving in slow motion.

Things happen in this film that can not possible happen.  Halle Berry is a great driver and her minivan has to be the most kick ass minivan ever constructed, because that thing takes so much punishment and just keeps on running.  Plus, she would be able to pull over, but then almost immediately find the kidnappers once again.  She was amazing in her trailing abilities.

Of course, I kept on wondering why she didn’t do certain things.  I don’t know how many times she had a weapon in her hands only to put it down for no apparent reason and never return to it.  These kidnappers also seemingly gave her ample opportunities to stop them, but she never took advantage of it.

At one point, the kidnappers had indicated that they had a knife at the throat of Frankie, and then a few minutes later as the car drove directly beside the minivan, held that same knife out of the window, exposing his entire arm.  One swerve would have crushed his arm and caused him to lose that knife easily.  Instead, she does not take that action.

Later Halle is in the kidnappers’ home with a shotgun, lays it down to call 9-1-1, and leaves it on the counter.  Um… don’t leave it there.  It was the kidnappers’ gun, they might be able to use it on you later.

There is also a situation where an attack dog chases Halle into the water, but then just kind of disappears.  The dog literally is never seen again after this.

And anyone who happens to get in the kidnappers’ or Halle’s way are either dying or having their car crushed.  There are so many innocent bystanders that pay the price here that it is amazing that the police aren’t out in full riot gear trying to stop both of these forces of nature.

Halle Berry is probably the best thing here, but she overacts throughout and the dialogue is laughable.  The action is poorly shot and edited.  There are so many times that I found myself thing… “why doesn’t she just do this?” that it became annoying.  This is another film that could be a great RiffTrax Live film, because, even though it is a terrible movie, it was kind of fun.

2 stars

YouTube personality John Campea tweeted out, about The Dark Tower, that the movie wasn’t as good as he had hoped, and was not as bad as he feared.  That is about the perfect description of the new Stephen King adaptation starring Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey.

The Dark Tower is a series of novels written by King that has been rumored to be adapted into some form or another for years now.  Sony has finally settled on a feature length film, after considering several options.

In the film, young boy Jake (Tom Taylor) has dreams of another realm where the heroic gunslinger Roland (Elba) is protecting the life-sustaining tower from the evil Man in Black (McConaughey).  The Man in Black is trying to bring the tower down which would open up the world to monster from outside the universe.  These dreams lead Jake to be seen as a troubled, if not mentally unbalanced, young boy.

When Jake finds a portal to the other world, he realizes that his dreams were more realistic than he imagined and it placed Jake on the path to an attempt to prevent the apocalypse.

I really liked the first part of this film.  The set up with Jake and his escape from the Men in Black’s forces and having to try to figure out what to do was really enjoyable.  I liked the performance of Tom Taylor and I was buying into the story at that point.

Unfortunately, the film could not maintain that level of excitement from me as the film felt too rushed and crammed together.  You get that when you try to take material from an eight book series and include it into a movie of 95 minutes.  So much of the film felt flat and unsatisfying.  I am not someone who has read the book series, and I believe that those people who have read the books would really dislike what was given to the audience in this movie.

Both Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey are decent in their roles.  Elba as the Gunslinger has some background given to him, but not enough to really flesh him out.  Roland is on a revenge story to kill the Man in Black, and it is touched on, but I could have used more than what we got.  And the Man in Black really was basically just an evil villain, without any real motivation or desires.  That is okay, but I have always preferred a little more depth to my villains.  Still, the pair of them do a decent job in the film.

I disliked the ending sequence of the film.  I thought it was extremely anticlimactic and disappointing.  The final battle between Roland and the Man in Black was not the greatest film battle ever on the screen and it should have been considerably more.

One of the problems of the scene was how much it was based on the Gunslingers’ motto, which, to me, was difficult to understand.  It was as follows:

I do not aim with my hand. He who aims with his hand has forgotten the face of his father. I aim with my eye. I do not shoot with my hand. He who shoots with his hand has forgotten the face of his father. I shoot with my mind. I do not kill with my gun. He who kills with his gun has forgotten the face of his father. I kill with my heart.

And I just don’t know what that means or why I should take it to heart.  Perhaps I needed more background knowledge of the Gunslingers to understand the meaning of this quote, but “I kill with my heart”?  And the whole “forgotten the face of his father” makes little sense outside of a nice piece of alliteration.  What does it mean to have forgotten the face of your father?  With that such a prevalent motto in the third act, I would have liked more context as to why this motto is so important.

The mythos of this film is touched upon, but there feels like much more has been omitted than included, and this is a problem.  If we had more information on the Gunslingers or the Man in Black or the tower or the monsters outside or any number of things, we would care more about what happens in the film.  Unfortunately, there is only so much that they can cover in 95 minutes.  The Dark Tower feels like something that should have been a multi-episode Netflix series to properly cover the mythology and develop the characters effectively.  Sadly, that is not what we got.

Having said all that, the film could be worse.  I liked the performances of the three main actors and the action was fine.  The story was simple and straightforward and the film moves briskly.  Too briskly?  Yes, but if you head into The Dark Tower with limited expectations, you can have some fun with it.  If you are hoping that this will be the next big Hollywood franchise and sustain film after film of  action, you may be disappointed.

3 stars

Infidelity is explored in the new film, The Lovers, directed by Azazel Jacobs and starring Debra Winger and Tracy Letts.

Mary (Debra Winger) and Michael (Tracy Letts) are a long married couple who are both involved in serious affairs.  Mary and Michael go through the motion of their marriage without any love or passion, making up excuses so they can see their individual lovers.  However, an unexpected spark between Mary and Michael ignites their passion within the marriage, leading to an unexpected “affair” of the spouses.

There is no doubt that The Lovers is charming.  Both Debra Winger and Tracy Letts bring their best in the film that depends completely on the chemistry between the leads.  It was sad to see them sleepwalking through their lives and when they find their way together, the film seemed to take off.

That is why I was not a fan of the end of the film.  Without spoiling it, the end of the film seemed to me to take away from the narrative of the film.  It made both Mary and Michael into hypocrites and people I did not like.

Neither of the other partners are likeable at all.  Lucy (Melora Walters) is downright kooky, whereas Robert (Aidan Gillen) was about as milquetoast as you can get.  I didn’t want either of these characters involved int he story at all.

It plays as a condemnation on the state of marriage in today’s world, but I don’t think that is truly the case.  I think it is more of a suggestion that neither Michael or Mary are very good people and the film examines what happens when these types of individuals become connected in marriage.

The performances are strong here, but I found the message to be muddled and I am not certain I took what the director wanted me to take from the film. The Lovers was a decent enough watch, but it was not as satisfying as I thought it might have been.

2.85 stars

Colossal was another movie that I missed while it was in theaters this year.  I had a chance to see it because it was here for one week, but the schedule just did not play out.  Fortunately, it arrived on iTunes and I had a chance to rent it.  And I was so very happy that I did.

Gloria (Anne Hathaway) has had her share of trouble, with her boyfriend who tossed her out to alcohol.  So she decided to move back to her hometown where she ran into her childhood friend Oscar (Jason Sudeikis).  Oscar owned his father’s old bar and he offered Gloria a job as a waitress, as well as providing her with some helpful items to live on.

Business starts to boom as the bar is filled with people wanting to watch the news coverage of the giant monster attacking Seoul, South Korea.  It is not too long after the first attack that Gloria comes to the realization that she was somehow, mysteriously connected to these monster attacks.

This film really took the giant monster genre and turned it on its ear.  It is very original and creative, and it embraces the weirdness of the story.  It makes me think a bit about similarities with the Marvel Comics title Monsters Unleashed.  Anne Hathaway is great in the role of Gloria, really bringing out the uncertainty of the situation as well as the understanding of the dangers that she is responsible for.  Gloria has a distinct character arc through the film, struggling with her own inner demons at first and having that guilt and responsibility lead her to make decisions that she had to make.

Jason Sudeikis was just as wonderful here.  Though there were comedic elements to the role of Oscar, the film takes a dark turn and Sudeikis handles the sinister twist with a deft touch.  You understand why he does what he does and how the life that he had to live forced him to make the decisions he makes.

This movie was unexpectedly deep.  Looking at the trailer and the advertising for the film, it seemed like a fun monster movie.  I did not expect to have as well developed and interesting character and situations that was shown here.

The film takes a definite turn to the dark side about midway through, which was went the idea of the film switched from a monster movie to a movie dealing with alcoholism and abusive relationships.  Gloria had been through plenty of trouble in her life, but this is the chance for her to redeem herself.

There are several genres blended into this film, and Colossal does that better than most.   Usually when there are a lot of genres and tones in the film, it is a mess, but this film manages them beautifully.  Nacho Vigalondo, the film’s director/writer, juggles those in just the right manner.  It never feels jarring when the film shifts gears, even when it does so drastically.

I found myself rooting hard for Gloria to get through the events of Colossal and a big part of that is because of the strong performance from Anne Hathaway.  Hathaway fit the part perfectly and she really brought a heroic note to a character that started off fairly unlikable.

Though I do not want to spoil anything, I will say that the conclusion to the movie was spot on.  I thought the ending was wonderful and really showed the advancement of Gloria’s character.

I really enjoyed Colossal, and I wish I had been able to see it while it was in the theaters.  Fortunately, I caught it on iTunes, but I imagine that the larger screen would have made an even greater difference in the film.   This one was a lot of fun.

4.4 stars

Have you ever felt trapped inside your own life?  In the film Wakefield, Bryan Cranston explores that very theme by taking a step outside and looking within.

Howard Wakefield (Bryan Cranston) is a successful businessman with a beautiful wife Diana (Jennifer Garner) and a perfect family home.  However, there are signs that not everything is right.  Howard is very jealous of any attention Diana receives from other men, but he plays it off as a game that the couple plays, ignoring the trouble within their marriage.  One evening, Howard returns home from work and finds himself in the attic of his carriage house garage, staring out a window at his house.  This view gives Howard a new insight into the life that he had.  He stays hidden in that attic for months, scavenging at night for food, as he grows more isolated by the day.

Bryan Cranston is very good in this role, carrying most of the movie with his performance and his internal monologue.  Howard Wakefield is not the most likeable character, but you can relate to him because of Cranton’s excellent work.  Cranston shows you the isolation, first the figurative isolation he felt while in the marriage- a feeling that was suffocating him- and then the literal isolation he imposed upon himself in the attic.  You see how his new life of “freedom” reinvigorated him while the glances at his old life through the window maintained an anchor in case he wanted to return.

This movie was adapted by writer-director Robin Swicord from a 2008 short story by E.L. Doctorow, and Swicord does a lot with a minimal approach, depending on the skills of Cranston to carry most of the film.  Swicord avoids many of the cliches that you might expect from this, especially at the end, which was both infuriating and perfect.

Wakefield is an intricate character study of a man in midlife crisis who takes drastic action.  The performance of Bryan Cranston is the main reason to see this movie.  Some might find the film dull, but the “Rear Window”-like quality allows the audience to watch along with Howard in deciding exactly what his life is like.  You feel the isolation and the feeling of being lost from him, despite seemingly having it all.

3.9 stars

Yawn.

I had this one rented on iTunes for a while now, but the length always was an excuse.  With the rental period coming close to being up, I had to make the decision on whether or not to watch it.  I watched it.  That was the wrong choice.

Song to Song is pretentious, boring, and lacks any real sort of narrative structure that would engage anyone other than perhaps the most hoity-toity film student.

The film has a great cast in Michael Fassbender, Ryan Gosling, Rooney Mara and Natalie Portman, and their performances were fine (despite the constant whispering of the cast), but I did not care much for any of the characters involved here.

The movie felt more like a series of voice-over shorts than any sort of complex tale.  It was dull and uninspired.

Terrence Malick continues to create sleepy and dream-like films that are visually interesting to look at, but of which I have not been impressed.  Song to Song is yet another in this line.  Perhaps this fits best in a small coffeehouse with an audience of beatniks and snooty film connoisseurs.  I did not like this much at all.

1.6 stars

Spy thrillers have been done many times over the years, and, fact is, there are plenty of scenes and parts of Atomic Blonde that we have seen before.

However, there are several parts of Atomic Blonde that are really good as well.

Lorraine (Charlize Theron) is a British MI6 agent sent to Berlin in 1989, just prior to the collapse of the Berlin Wall to find a list.  This specific list has the names and basic information for all of the countries double agents and spies on it and plenty of people want to get their hands on this list.

Does that sound like a familiar trope in the spy movie genre?  Ever seen that plot element before?  Yes you have.

Once Lorraine arrives in Berlin, she meets up with David Percival (James McAvoy), another agent whom wants to aid her in the attempt to recover this list.  The Russians are also after it and so… action scenes.

Yes, the plot is fairly basic, although, it does become quite convoluted here as well.  I think the film wants to be more than just an action flick, but it tried to hard to make itself into a spy thriller.  In fact, there are some things that happen in the ending of the movie that do not work, twists that feel as if they were added on for some reason.

Now, the action scenes are tremendous and Charlize Theron is magnificent as this kick ass Lorraine.  Something I really liked was that the makers of Atomic Blonde allowed Theron to look like she has been through these hellacious fights. She has bruises and scars and the signs of war that most spies and heroes in this type of movie seem to recover from without any trouble.  Showing Lorraine wearing the results of her battles really helped me believe that this woman was a bad ass and someone to reckon with.

By the way, there are many great action scenes here, and the action scene in the hallway int he third act is edge-of-the-seat dramatic.  One of the best, hardest hitting, brutal fight scenes you are going to see this year.

James McAvoy is also great in the movie, as an agent that you are never quite sure about.  Whose side is he on?  Also, Sofia Boutella arrives as Lorraine’s love interest and French spy, Delphine.  The scenes between Lorraine and Delphine are very hot, but they are also included to humanize Lorraine.  The time with Delphine is the one time that Lorraine allows herself to be normal, not constantly lying and covering up.  Honestly, there could have been more between these women, because Boutella is not used as much as you would hope.

Let’s talk music.  The film is full of great 1980s songs that I had an awesome time singing along to in my seat.  However, there were some times that I found myself more invested in the music than what was going on in the scene.  This would be an issue, so, although I did enjoy the selection of the different songs, I am not sure they were used as effectively as they could have been.  The music was not as effectively weaved into the story as it was in Baby Driver or Guardians of the Galaxy, that is for sure.

Atomic Blonde is based on a 2012 graphic novel entitled The Coldest City, and the film does feel very stylish like a graphic novel might.  With the action set pieces and the look of Theron and McAvoy, there are plenty of imagery that would appeal to action fans.  Theron is not only an action hero, but she also looks absolutely gorgeous and does most of this action in some serious heels.  The story itself is not as strong, and I do not think it can be categorized into the realm of a classic spy thriller, despite it wishing that it could.  Still, I did have fun watching the film and the action is top notch.  This is one that could have been really fantastic with a little bit of adjustment.

3.4 stars