Netflix And Chill: Velvet Buzzsaw (2019)

If there is anyone coming to this film expecting something akin to the magnificent Nightcrawler then they're in for quite the surprise. Although there's darkness here, Velvet Buzzsaw is much more of a comedy. Yes, there are horror movie moments, good ones too, but it's the wonderful over the top nature of the thing, and some hilarious lines of dialogue, that ensure you will be smiling throughout.

Jake Gyllenhaal plays Morf Vandewalt, a successful and influential art critic. His opinions can make or break artists, something that he sometimes relishes and sometimes feels pained by. Rene Russo is a gallery owner named Rhodoro Haze, a successful woman who perhaps owes some of that success to her friendship with Morf. When an agent named Josephina (Zawe Ashton), who is a friend of Morf and employed by Rhodoro, finds a collection of paintings in the apartment of her dead neighbour everyone views it as an exciting discovery that could help them all. Unfortunately, the artist had expressly stated that he wanted his art destroyed, and with good reason.

Although never as sharp or biting as it could be, this is a fun commentary on the clash between art and commerce. It shows a market driven by one or two opinions, prices created by deceptions and hype, and the fluid relationships that ebb and flow between people who can help one another up a ladder with no final rung.

Dan Gilroy does another solid job with the writing and direction, despite the fact that he's gone for a tone that may leave some unsatisfied, and even bemused. Gyllenhaal blurting out the line "the admiration I had for your work has completely evaporated" made me laugh hard, and it's when the film is most comfortable with that level of ridiculousness that it's most fun. Thankfully, it is often comfortable with that level of ridiculousness, although the more obvious laughs are couched in between moments that focus on the greed and selfishness of the main characters.

Gyllenhaal has a lot of fun in his role, a rare turn that doesn't need him to be constantly worried or angry or looking as if he might harm himself, and Russo is fantastic in her role. The fact that she seems to only get given good parts to play from her husband is pretty damning when she shows every time that she's still got a lot more to give audiences than just "cameo as Thor's mum". You also get typically wonderful performances from Toni Collette and John Malkovich, and solid little turns from Daveed Diggs, Billy Magnussen, and Natalia Dyer. Ashton, sadly, is a weak link, but that ends up being compensated for in the third act, with the final scenes for her character created to be impressively memorable.

Don't go into this expecting another Nightcrawler. Don't go into it expecting a horror movie, or even a thriller. This is a dark comedy, and if you know that going in then you can appreciate the end result much more. Say what you like about all three films so far directed by Gilroy, they're at least all interesting and thought-provoking, whether they end up working for you or not.

8/10

The Fall (2006)

There's a good idea at the heart of The Fall, but it's not an original one. In fact, it's an idea that has been done many times over, including in the 1981 film, Yo Ho Ho, that it's based on. It's all about the power of stories, the ability of fantasy to help us cope with our reality, and you would assume that director Tarsem Singh is just the right person to deal with that material. It turns out that he isn't.

The basic tale concerns a depressed hospital patient, a bed-bound stuntman (Roy, played by Lee Pace), who ends up whiling away some hours telling a fantastical tale - featuring warriors, bandits, and revenge - to a young girl named Alexandria (Catinca Untaru). As the two patients bond, Roy tries to trick his new friend into helping him with a planned suicide attempt, which leads to tension that bleeds into the story being told.

You cannot fault The Fall for the visuals, unsurprisingly enough. This thing looks consistently gorgeous when delving into the realm of the fantasy tale. It even looks fine when in the more drab reality that is framing the fantasy. It's just a shame that the script undermines all of that good work.

Written by Dan Gilroy, Nico Soultanakis, and Singh, the screenplay for The Fall veers between the disappointingly underdone and the borderline tedious, which is something I never thought I would experience with these ideas and this director at the helm. It feels as if he indulged his own excesses while writing the screenplay and then held back when it came to visualising everything, sadly, and the end result is much the worse for it.

Pace is decent enough in the lead role, and that's all the more impressive considering the fact that most of his scenes have him working opposite a child actress who is quite terrible for most of her screentime. I won't go on, mainly because I don't want to be accused of being unduly harsh, but let's just say that I spent a lot of time wishing that someone, anyone, else was in that central role. The rest of the cast are given very little to do, with Justine Waddell particularly wasted in her role, and it's almost saddening to watch them try their best when actually allowed.

It's impossible to watch this and not think of how things would have been handled by someone like Terry Gilliam, Tim Burton, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, or any other director able to put their own stamp on unique visions. And that's why I end this review by encouraging fans of Tarsem Singh to revisit, and reappraise, The Cell instead. It's the much better option.

4/10

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

Roman J. Israel, Esq (2017)

There are good things in Roman J. Israel, Esq, quite a few good things, not least of which is the lead performance from a superb Denzel Washington. It's just a shame that the film suffers from a real lack of clarity. Does it want to be a character study, or a magnifying glass hovering over some of the biggest flaws in the American justice system, or a look at the slippery slope you can end up on when you make a wrong moral choice even just the one time?

Denzel is the titular character. He's a man who knows the legal system inside out, he has almost total recall of court statistics and numbers, and he's a good man to have on your side if you're ever in trouble. He doesn't appear in court, however, because he does the work behind the scenes while his partner makes the court appearances. That's an ideal situation until his partner has a heart attack, and when Roman turns up to court it doesn't take long to see why he's normally hidden away behind the scenes. He has no filter, which can lead to trouble for himself, and perhaps even his clients.

Trials are expensive. The American system is designed in a way to minimise people actually going to trial. So lawyers will offer plea bargains. Go to trial and risk a sentence of 25-30 years if found guilty, plead without going to trial and we'll give you 5, you can get out in 3 with good behaviour. That kind of thing. Which means, on a lot of occasions, people are too scared to even take a gamble on their RIGHT to a trial, even if they may actually be innocent of the crime.And that's what writer-director Dan Gilroy seems to want to look at here. Then he wanders over to a different area. Then back to the right to trial idea. And then somewhere else. He looks at it, and goes away and comes back to look at it some more, but not as pointedly. It leaves viewers feeling exactly how my wife feels when she sees me hovering around a nice new movie boxset I want to buy, going to other parts of the store before going back to it, making my pleading face until she caves in and says I can buy it. The frustrating thing is that Gilroy doesn't need our permission to commit to his idea, he just thinks that he does. Or he doesn't think he can make a whole movie from it, so he mixes in other ideas that just don't feel as if they belong there.

The great shame is that this confusion, this muddying of the waters, will lead to a lot of people missing one of the better Washington performances in recent years. Despite some of his familiar tics appearing here and there, this is far removed from the usual confident and cocky turns Washington has given us over the past couple of decades. There's also two fantastic supporting performances from Colin Farrell, playing someone who seems like an enemy to Roman but is actually a slick lawyer looking for a chance to improve things somewhat while still working well within the system, and Carmen Ejogo, a young woman who is inspired by Roman, as he is in turn further inspired by her.

In terms of actual dialogue, the script works well. Characters are fleshed out, exchanges are sharp and smart, and interesting ideas are drip fed throughout the main narrative. Again, it's just the meandering lack of focus and structure that undoes a lot of the good work. Viewers don't really get a feel for the time and place, the events take place over three weeks and yet it all feels as if it stretches out for much more than that, and instead of provoking more thought the jumble of elements simply results in a bit of a disinterested shrug.

But those performances make it worth your time. They are THAT good. You also get a very good soundtrack, some cracking songs interspersed by a decent score from James Newton Howard, and at least things move along quickly enough that the 2-hour runtime feels slightly brisker than it otherwise might.

6/10

Americans can buy it here.

Nightcrawler (2014)

Writer Dan Gilroy takes his first shot in the director's chair for Nightcrawler, and there's no point in me beating about the bush here; I can't wait to see what he does next.

Anchored by a central performance from Jake Gyllenhaal that ranks up there with one of his very best, if not THE best, this is a film that beats with the dark, cold heart of movies such as Ace In The Hole, Sweet Smell Of Success, Taxi Driver, The King Of Comedy and To Die For. It's about the manipulation of news in search of ratings, it's about people who don't care about the cost of getting ahead, and it's about (in a way) attaining a certain celebrity status. Many may debate this last point, but I feel justified in including it, considering how the central character measures his success according to the amount of his footage used on TV.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's backtrack ever so slightly.

Gyllenhaal is Louis Bloom, a young man who tries to present himself to everyone as a potential model employee, a real go-getter with an unimpeachable work ethic. Yet, he doesn't seem to be having much luch in his job search. Perhaps it's due to the way in which he could quickly kill someone in between him and his goal. Never one to be disheartened for too long, Louis finds himself hatching a new career plan when he witnesses an accident, and the people quickest to arrive on the scene to film the carnage. The nightcrawlers. It's not long until Louis is arming himself with a camera and setting out to do better, and get closer, than anyone else in town. He makes a valuable contact (Rene Russo) at a local news station, he hires an employee (Riz Ahmed) and he starts to film some grisly stuff, at times even changing some details to make his film more impactful.

Nightcrawler could just as easily have been called Skincrawling, because that is how you'll probably be feeling as you watch it. This is a film that makes you want to shower and then enjoy some UV light once the end credits have rolled. The script and direction by Gilroy both work to immerse you in the world of Bloom, a world in which events are viewed not through normal eyes, but through slightly detached cameras always looking for the best framing and angles.

Ahmed is great as the young man who starts to have doubts about his new job once he sees the mounting potential dangers, Russo makes the most of her best role in years (she really deserves more work, her performance here quickly assures viewers that she wasn't just picked because of being married to Gilroy), and Bill Paxton reminds you of why he's been getting solid supporting roles for so many years. But this is Gyllenhaal's movie from the first scene to the last. He's unnerving, intense, self-deluded, and yet also able to lay on the charm when in polite company. It's a performance that stands out as the highlight of his career so far, which is no small feat when you think of the body of work that he's already amassed.

Not a comfortable viewing, nor should it be, this is a dark character study. It's also a study of that morbid curiosity that is being catered to more and more in a time of increasing news sensationalism, the ability to instantly upload footage caught on recording devices, and the constant pushing of boundaries by different media outlets.

9/10

http://www.amazon.com/Nightcrawler-Blu-ray-DVD-DIGITAL-UltraViolet/dp/B00Q3DMJZW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419276094&sr=8-1&keywords=nightcrawler