Noir-vember: Collateral (2004)

It’s something we have seen happen in movies before, the businessman with a busy schedule who offers to pay a driver for a whole night of work. All the driver has to do is get the passenger to various places on time, wait, and receive a nice bonus at the end of his shift. This particular businessman is Vince (Tom Cruise), and the taxi driver is a man named Max (Jamie Foxx). Vince has five jobs to do, but Max becomes alarmed after the first job, when a dead body falls on his taxi. That’s when he finds out that Vince is a hitman. 

Directed by Michael Mann, and written by Stuart Beattie, Collateral is best described as, to use the technical term, an absolute beast of a film. Set mainly during one night in Los Angeles, it’s a two-hander that makes the most of two fantastic leads delivering performances up there with their best work.

It also makes the most of L.A. Mann gets the right people working with him to put his vision onscreen in the way that best showcases his eye for cityscapes, and how human animals move around them when being pursued, or even trapped. This is a gorgeous and glossy film, and it manages to avoid claustrophobia, even when a number of scenes simply show Vince and Max talking while the cab is driving around. Mann doesn’t put a foot wrong, and when the action beats hit, well, he once again does what he seems to do best. The nightclub scene in this film holds up as a flawless bit of entertaining violence, a precursor to the visceral thrills of the John Wick movies.

Sporting an uncharacteristic grey head of hair, Cruise is perfectly fast as the cool, calculating killer who lives by his own moral code. He’s a terminator, but one affected by elements of the human condition. Foxx is just the right mix of comfortable chat, nerves, and quick thinking as he gets drawn deeper and deeper into a nightmare scenario. Around the two leads, you get one hell of a supporting cast all giving great performances. Mark Ruffalo and Peter Berg are two cops trying to figure out what is going on, Jada Pinkett Smith is a lawyer who stands out as Max’s favourite client of the shift, and there are a number of familiar faces elsewhere, from Barry Shabaka Henley to Bruce McGill, Javier Bardem to the briefest turn from Jason Statham.

Maybe not as successful as it wants to be when really trying to push the urban jungle and predator/prey analogies, Collateral does everything else pretty much perfectly. From the pacing to the soundtrack, the set-pieces to the foreshadowed final moments, this is gripping, very cool, and arguably the most fun film that Mann has delivered within this subgenre.

9/10

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Mubi Monday: Lucky (2017)

There are a couple of credits that appear after this movie in the filmography of the late Harry Dean Stanton, but I think that is more to do with the timing of the releases, which is why I would be happy if we can all agree that Lucky is his last main movie role, and it's difficult to think of a more fitting swansong for a career so full of memorable turns. It's a shame that he died approximately two weeks before this was officially released, as I am sure he would have been very proud of the final product.

The story itself is simple. Stanton plays Lucky, an old man who goes through the same daily routines as he deals with his old age, the fact that you can no longer smoke in many of the establishments that he used to enjoy smoking in, and how his friends are dealing with their own growing sense of mortality. Lucky is one of those little films that doesn't feel as if it says anything important, it's just the chance to hang out with a great character, but it has some wisdom buried in many scenes. And even if it didn't . . . just spending time with Stanton in a role seemingly perfect for him is enough of a reason to want to give it your time.

Logan Sparks and Drago Sumonja, both able to now list this as their first filmed script, have written such a sweet little film that it's hard to think of it not being personally shaped around Stanton and friends (David Lynch has a small role, as do Ron Livingston, Tom Skerritt, Beth Grant, James Darren, and Barry Shabaka Henley). It's a perfect combination of words and cast.

John Carroll Lynch is the one bringing it all together, making his directorial debut after many years of being "that guy" in a number of movies (you may not recognise the name, but you know him), and I hope he follows this up with some other directorial work. He has a great eye, certainly has faith in his cast of quality characters, and also has the patience to hang back and trust that viewers will wait through many quiet moments to enjoy some of the small, but wonderful, payoffs.

Stanton is a treat throughout, unsurprisingly, and his final moment here is just about as bittersweet as you could get. It's a truly fortuitous bit of cinema magic. Lynch gets on well alongside his good friend, not asked to stretch himself while he and others simply orbit the central character, and everyone else mentioned steps up to the quality of the material. Even Livingston, who I like but rarely view as a great actor, makes the most of a moment that allows him to deliver some of the best dramatic dialogue he has ever been given (to my knowledge). Yvonne Huff, Bertila Damas, and Ana Mercedes also deserve a mention for their work.

It's hard to separate my reaction to this as a movie from my reaction to it as a poignant celebration of the massive talent and wonderfulness of Stanton. Others may want to knock my rating down a point or two, but I'm happy to reassure fans of the star that this is an unmissable performance, as well as an amazing tribute to him.

9/10

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Mubi Monday: Paterson (2016)

I have absolutely no idea how I am going to recommend this to other people, or even what I may end up actually having to say about it, but let me make clear from the very beginning that Paterson is an absolute delight from start to finish, largely thanks to the captivating presence of Adam Driver in a lead role that allows him to once again show why his career has gone from strength to strength over the last decade.

Driver plays Paterson, a bus driver who lives in the town of Paterson, New Jersey. He has a routine that seems to work for him. Work, catching up with his wife (Golshifteh Farahani), walking the dog, and enjoying a beer or two at a local bar. He also works on a variety of poems, influenced by the work of local poet, William Carlos Williams.

Directed by Jim Jarmusch, who also wrote the script, based on work by William Carlos Williams and Ron Padgett, Paterson is one of those slight films that feels about nothing while paradoxically feeling as if it may just hold secrets to the best way to get through modern life. If you take anything away from the film then perhaps it is how easy it can be to make the everyday and mundane into something poetic and worth taking note of. Even a matchstick is made into something beautiful and memorable here.

Although it wouldn't be half the film it is without Driver in the lead role (I could close my eyes and listen to that man read the phone book, but his ability to remain deadpan and calm despite whatever happens around him is also a big plus), Paterson also boasts a talented selection of supporting players. Farahani does well in her role, helping to make something more of a flighty character who could easily have come across as more annoying. Because it's hard to stay onside with someone who dreams of increasing their cupcake sales while trying to become a . . . country music artist. Barry Shabaka Henley is Doc, the owner of the local bar, and Chasten Harmon and William Jackson Harper are a couple of people who aren't in a relationship, despite how much Harper wants them to be in a relationship. Sterling Jerins is a young girl who shares a lovely little poem with our lead, and Masatoshi Nagase pops up to share a moment of appreciation for William Carlos Williams.

This is absolutely a film that you can go without seeing, it doesn't really say anything new or say it in a completely original way. Yet it's a rewarding and worthwhile experience, and one of my favourite viewings from the past month or so. Sometimes you don't need a story telling you something new, sometimes you don't need innovation in the storytelling techniques. A reminder of things buried away in the recesses of our mind can be just as good, a nudge to get us willing to look at things from a slightly different angle, be it a matchstick or time spent without a mobile phone (Paterson doesn't have one, which is perhaps what enables him to spend more time capturing imagery more poetically).

9/10

You can buy the movie here.
Americans can buy it here.

Carrie (2013)

"You will know her name" was the tagline used to advertise Carrie, which kind of highlights the whole problem with the film. Any horror fan already DOES know her name, from either the source novel (by Stephen King), or the original movie, or the belated sequel, or even the OTHER remake. Let's not mention the stage musical. Which means that Carrie is a film pushed/marketed towards younger viewers, or perhaps even non-horror fans.

It all starts off with a bit of unnecessary unpleasantness as we get to see Julianne Moore endure an unexpected home birth, welcoming Carrie White into the world. Moving forward many years, Carrie (Chloe Grace Moretz) is now in high school. She's not that popular, and it probably doesn't help that her mother is a strict religious zealot. Things come to a head when Carrie is surprised by her first period while showering. She has never been told about the changes that her body will go through. While needing help, and being terrified, the other girls simply taunt and humiliate her. As well as the usual changes that young women go through, Carrie also finds that she has a unique talent for telekinesis. Studying up on the subject, Carrie decides to develop her powers. Meanwhile, Sue Snell (Gabriella Wilde) is one of the few young women feeling bad for her part in mocking Carrie, and convinces her boyfriend, Tommy (Ansel Elgort), to take the poor lass to the prom. Mean Chris Hargensen (Portia Doubleday), however, plans to make sure that the night is memorable for all the wrong reasons.

While it felt redundant to surmise the plot in that previous paragraph, it seems most appropriate for this review. Because the main word to use in describing Carrie is redundant. Writers Lawrence D. Cohen and Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa bring nothing new to the table, because there's nothing else to be siphoned from the story. Director Kimberly Peirce then makes everything worse by throwing around a load of unnecessary, though not unexpected, CGI and by the poor choices that she makes with the direction given to the cast.

Oh, that cast. I actually feel quite sorry for most of the people involved here. One fantastic cameo from Hart Bochner aside, the cast all have the potential to be great in their roles, but are largely wasted by the script and inept direction. Doubleday wasn't great in the role of Chris, but Wilde and Elgort were both perfectly fine as the two youngsters trying to give Carrie one great night out. Greer comes out of it best, portraying a sympathetic P.E. teacher without overdoing it. The same can't be said of Moore and Moretz, unfortunately. The former pitches her performance in line with the original turn by Piper Laurie, so that's not so bad, but Moretz is asked to portray Carrie in full telekinetic mode as someone twitching their head around and making wiggly hand movements like someone overacting at a Harry Potter LARP event. She's great with the other aspects of the role, portraying the sweetness, shyness and general insecurities of the character with ease, but the last 20-30 minutes leave her flailing, literally.

Yet, as much as it angered and frustrated me, I still found enough individual moments in Carrie to stop me from completely hating it. I couldn't say that it ever even reached the level of average, but the cast helped it to stay away from the very bottom of the barrel. They just couldn't stop it from being so, and you have already guessed my next word, redundant.

3/10

http://www.amazon.com/Carrie-Blu-ray-DVD-Digital-UltraViolet/dp/B00GNAO796/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1404752854&sr=1-1&keywords=carrie