Wind River (2017)

When the corpse of a young woman is found on a Wyoming Native American reservation, a young FBI agent, Jane Banner (Elizabeth Olsen), is tasked with figuring out exactly what happened. She is helped by a wildlife officer, Cory Lambert (Jeremy Renner), and accompanied during her investigation by a tribal police chief, Ben (Graham Greene). Banner runs into a lot of resistance as she tries to solve the case, from the Native Americans who distrust her to the local medical examiner who refuses to class the death as a homicide, despite it seeming fairly obvious. There's also the crowd of men who work on a nearby drilling site to deal with, especially when it comes to light that the victim was apparently dating one of them.

This is a film written and directed by Taylor Sheridan, and it's worth noting here that there's a lot to discuss and pick apart when it comes to Sheridan's decisions here, both behind the camera and while discussing his film as it pertains to the horrible statistics that show just how many Indigenous women are abused, raped, and/or murdered in comparison to other ethnic demographics (and I know I should grasp some better, more humane, wording, but I am navigating this paragraph as best I can). I'm not going to dig too deep into Sheridan's psyche, but I will say that others with greater insight than myself have praised some of his intentions while also criticizing him for some of his casting and his contribution to the common pattern of "dying Indians" presented throughout cinema.

With that said, let's get back to the standard film review. Wind River is, for the most part, an enjoyable and interesting thriller that, for me, mixes in some really worthwhile explorations of the Native American way of life, whether that is tied to how they are viewed/misunderstood by others, and how they shouldn't have to tolerate those wandering into their lives and culture with no knowledge of either, or whether it's trying to convey how they process different types of grief. Although it speaks more to my own blind spots than anything else, I didn't consider the troublesome elements (e.g. the aforementioned "dying Indian" trope, the casting) while everything was playing out. Would the film have been better with someone else cast in the role played by Renner? Yes, but I could say that about almost any film that has Renner in it. I do think his casting probably helped to fund/sell the film, and I think his position as an outsider who managed to integrate into the community does offer an extra angle to everything that ultimately makes it a good decision.

It's useful that the film casts such a fantastic ensemble around Renner nonetheless, and almost every other main performer delivers something better than the "big name". Olsen is allowed to act unsure and awkward without ever seeming incapable, and she does a great job with a role that could have easily been sorely mishandled. Greene is always a welcome screen presence, and he's dependably fantastic here, as are Gil Birmingham, Kelsey Asbille, Julia Jones, Jon Bernthal, and James Jordan, all namechecked here because they each have at least one or two moments that allow them to prove how good they can be.

You could argue at length about who would be a better choice to tell this story, as well as what could have been improved, but I am going to simply appreciate what we have here. That doesn't stop me from seeking out other cinematic voices, and I encourage everyone to do just that at every opportunity, but I definitely think that this works brilliantly as a crime thriller, as a look at a problem that more people should be reminded or made aware of, and as a springboard for conversation. There's also a lot to appreciate on a purely technical level, including some crisp and beautiful cinematography from Ben Richardson and a score from Nick Cave and Warren Ellis.

Very much worth your time, as long as you can stomach the more disturbing scenes, and very much worth discussing, even if you end up completely disagreeing with my own opinion of it.

8/10

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Maverick (1994)

Springboarding from the old TV show (not one I have ever actually seen), Maverick is a comedy Western that coasts along on the charm of the leads, rejigs a lot of the classic Western tropes in ways that subvert them for comic effect, and entertains from start to finish. It's the kind of film that has the feeling of good humour and camaraderie emanating off the screen, and I think it's one that too many people seem to have forgotten about already.

Mel Gibson plays Bret Maverick, a cowboy who lives for the thrill of the draw. The draw of cards from a deck. He’s a gambler, and one who makes more money by acting naive. He also stays alive by acting cowardly, avoiding fights whenever he can. But being unwilling to fight everyone who wants a fight doesn’t mean that Maverick is incapable. He’s actually quick and sharp with a gun, and his wit. Alongside a couple of other main characters (Annabelle Bransford, played by Jodie Foster, among them), Maverick is aiming to get his place at a major poker tournament set to take place on a riverboat. He needs his entry fee, he needs to avoid people who are dead set against him taking part, and he needs to keep lady luck on his side.

Directed by Richard Donner and written by William Goldman, the marriage of expertise both behind and in front of the camera makes this a real treat. It’s easygoing - the more tense and dangerous encounters remain focused on being cinematic, without needing to add grit or any complete revisionism - and the story hits all of the expected beats without feeling tiresome. Goldman has given us better scripts, undoubtedly, but this is a film that really plays to his strengths, and subsequently rewards anyone who appreciates his writing skills (which should be pretty much everyone).

Gibson gives a star turn up there with the best of his star turns, charming and cheeky and always one step ahead of people who think he is two steps behind. He’s a reluctant hero, always making time to sigh and roll his eyes before endangering his life to help others. Foster isn’t quite as good, playing her scheming “Southern belle” character in a way that fails to light up the screen as it should. She improves as the film goes on though, and her comedy chops work better whenever she is verbally sparring with Gibson. James Garner is welcome in his strong supporting role, especially as he brings the baggage of his performance in the main role when it was a TV show, and the rest of the cast is stuffed full of great actors and faces from the Western genre. James Coburn, Dennis Fimple, Denver Pyle, Leo Gordon, and many others are all given some screentime. There’s a great villainous turn from Alfred Molina, a very fun cameo from Danny Glover, and a hilarious sequence with Graham Greene helping the main character to scam some money from a rich hunter. Add in small turns from Geoffrey Lewis, Art LaFleur, Dan Hedaya, and Max Perlich and you have a non-stop parade of great turns.

There’s also a playful Randy Newman score, a number of impressive stunts (including an excellent runaway coach sequence), players winning poker with hand that defy astronomical odds, and occasional glimpses of classic cowboy gun-handling. And it all adds up to a fun time, one that doesn’t even feel overlong with a 2+ hour runtime because you are rarely left without a smile on your face as things play out.

8/10

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Atlantic Rim (2013)

The recent cinema release of Pacific Rim 2 made me want to rush along and see it. Unfortunately, I couldn't. So I decided on the next best thing. I would finally watch the mockbuster version of the first movie, courtesy of The Asylum. How bad could it be?

There's no need to keep you in suspense here, the answer is very bad, very bad indeed.

The slight plot sees a big monster coming out of the sea to cause some major damage and death, which leads to three people (David Chokachi, Anthony 'Treach' Criss, and Jackie Moore) being placed in giant robot suits and ordered to explore the area, eventually fighting the big beastie. But that only leads to a brief reprieve. There's a bigger and tougher monster coming, and the suits need to be improved for fighting purposes.

Although running for just about 85 minutes, Atlantic Rim still overstays its welcome because the script - written by Richard Lima, Thunder Levin, and Hank Woon Jr - is so slight and undercooked. The three main characters are, essentially, defined by the colours of their robots. Chokachi is red, 'Treach' is green, and Moore is blue. Chokachi is also the wildcard who gets results, obviously, but that doesn't matter when the action scenes take place, sequences that alternate between showing the cast badly pretending to be involved while enclosed in very cheap sets and showing us some bad CGI.

Director Jared Cohn adds nothing to the material either. He relies on the cast and the pacing, neither of which work well enough for even the most undemanding sci-fi/action movie fan. You get the usual selection of recycled sets and footage, you get a lacklustre score that is supposed to be rousing at times, and you get nothing to care about at any point in the film. Despite the stakes that are spelled out for you, nothing matters. Because everything is so badly faked that it's impossible to suspend your disbelief while watching.

Graham Greene is the main familiar face onscreen, playing the general trying to do his job under difficult circumstances, and he is the only reason I don't rate this any lower, even if he's given just as many awful lines of dialogue as everyone else. At least he retains a small iota of charisma, unlike the three bland leads.

This is one to avoid, like a lot of the mockbusters from The Asylum. But I'll end up seeing the second one too, goddammit I just KNOW I will. So expect a review of that at some point.

2/10

Brave souls can pick the film up here.
The same R2 disc can be bought here.

Noir November: Brighton Rock (1947)

"Brighton today is a large, jolly, friendly seaside town in Sussex, exactly one hour's journey from London. But in the years between the two wars, behind the Regency terraces and crowded beaches, there was another Brighton of dark alleyways and festering slums. From here, the poison of crime and violence and gang warfare began to spread, until the challenge was taken up by the police. This is a story of that other Brighton - now happily no more."

I've never been to Brighton, so I can't say if it's all sunshine and sandcastles nowadays, but we can all be thankful that writer Graham Greene decided to make use of it for this tale, giving first readers and then cinema audiences a fantastic, cold-hearted villain in the shape of young Pinkie Brown (Richard Attenborough).

The main story begins with a dead man. That man happens to be dead because of a bit of newspaper reporting by Fred Hale (Alan Wheatley). The dead man was also the leader of a local crime gang, which subsequently forces Pinkie to take over the top spot. And it turns out that the reporter has to spend a day in Brighton, allowing Pinkie and his gang members to plot his demise. Things don't go as smoothly as planned, however, and in the days after the crime it becomes clear that Pinkie needs to deal with women who may be able to get him in trouble. One is Ida (Hermione Baddeley), an older woman who knows just how dangerous Brighton can be, and the other is Rose (Carol Marsh), a young, naive woman who inadvertently saw something that could lead the authorities to Pinkie. But wooing her might just keep her from saying anything important to anyone.

Director John Boulting does well by the material here (Greene adapted his work for the screen, helped by Terence Rattigan), ensuring that everything feels very British while also feeling as dangerous as anything that audiences may have previously only seen in American movies of the time. Brighton may be an unlikely setting for such skullduggery, but that doesn't ever cross your mind once the movie gets underway.

The casting helps immensely, with Attenborough giving a performance that ranks up there with the best in cinematic villainy. He's just so bloody cold and ruthless, making almost every scene that he's in chilling. Between this movie and 10 Rillington Place, it's amazing to me that he was able to overcome such great performances to also play avuncular characters such as John Hammond and Kris Kringle. He's ably supported by William Hartnell, Nigel Stock, Wylie Watson, and Harcourt Williams, among others, with Hartnell and Watson being two standouts for different reasons - the former is reasonable and very careful, the latter is prone to occasional, costly mistakes. Others also do well in smaller, but no less important roles. Charles Goldner, for example, is Colleoni, another crime boss who could cause some major problems for Pinkie, and Wheatley is constantly nervous as the journalist who looks to have very little time left. Baddeley is good as the brash, determined Ida, but Marsh steals the show as the sweet and innocent Rose. It's Rose who we get to care for, and empathise with, even as she makes some silly decisions under the delusion that love has come into her life.

Not as dark as it could have been, and with some moments that jar simply due to how quaint they seem now (a moment with a man talking to two women sitting in deckchairs feels quite out of place), Brighton Rock is nevertheless a great film, an interesting British noir, and fully deserving of the love it receives. It also features one of the best double-whammy, punch to the gut, endings of any film I can think of. Not just any film from this era. ANY film. Full stop.

8/10

http://www.amazon.com/Brighton-Rock-Richard-Attenborough/dp/B006HAJB7U/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1416501168&sr=1-2&keywords=brighton+rock

Noir November: The Third Man (1949)

A tale of death, friendship and black-market trading, The Third Man is a classic mystery thriller that uses a decent script, a great cast, and an evocative location, and creates something that ends up being more than the sum of its parts.

Joseph Cotten plays Holly Martins, a pulp novelist who travels to post-war Vienna to visit his friend, Harry Lime. Unfortunately, when he arrives he finds out that his friend has recently died. And then he finds out that a bunch of people thought he was mixed up in some criminal activities. Not willing to stand around and see his friend's name dragged through the mud, Martins starts to investigate the death. He soon finds out that there may be more to it than just a tragic accident.

Written by Graham Greene, this is a smart film that unfolds at a leisurely pace. Director Carol Reed uses his cast to great effect, simply allowing them to have their conversations and relay information in ways that manage to somehow seem both unfussy and yet never dull. That's due to the fact that the central characters are all nicely fleshed out, with more than one having a secret or two up their sleeves, and also down to great dialogue that spends a lot of time teasing viewers with intriguing details and hints of something being amiss before some great reveals in the second half.

Cotten makes for a likable lead, whether he's arguing with officials (mainly the Major played by Trevor Howard) or finding himself draw to a woman (Alida Valli) who has feelings for Lime. Despite being the main obstacle as Cotten conducts his investigation, Howard still manages to avoid becoming some kind of obvious villain of the piece, helped in no small part by a supporting turn from Bernard Lee (as a Sergeant who enjoys reading Martins' books). Valli is lovely, and her character has a real core of sadness that becomes more and more apparent as things play out. And then, last but not least, we have the man himself. Mr. Orson Welles. He's fantastic, and gets to make the most of his relatively limited screentime with some truly wonderful lines of dialogue, including one great speech that he came up with himself.

There are two other main characters worth mentioning. One, the setting. Made to appear both beautiful and mysterious and home to oh-so-many shadows, Vienna is both a wonderful setting for the events, and also integral to the plot development. Two, the music by Anton Karas. If you don't think you're aware of it then think again, The Third Man Theme (AKA The Harry Lime Theme) has to be, arguably, the most famous tune ever played on a zither. Even those who have yet to see the movie have, probably, heard at least a snippet of the main theme.

A sedate, intelligent thriller for those more interested in characters and morality than chases and cliffhangers (although it delivers some standard thrills in the finale), The Third Man is a film that won't lose its reputation as a classic any time soon. The pacing could be better, with some sections feeling slightly drawn out and one main section feeling slightly rushed, but that's a very minor criticism when considering how much greatness you get to experience in one sitting. Those characters, that music, those shadows, those camera angles. Just wonderful stuff.

9/10

http://www.amazon.com/Third-Man-Joseph-Cotten/dp/B000HEVTEA/ref=tmm_dvd_title_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=1-2&qid=1415887670

This Gun For Hire (1942)

Alan Ladd stars as Philip Raven, the hired gun of the title. He gets in some hot water when his latest employer, via a cowardly middle man (Laird Cregar), pays him his fee in bills that have been reported as stolen. Out for revenge, Raven soon finds himself dragging the beautiful Ellen Graham (Veronica Lake) into his plan. Unfortunately, Graham has a boyfriend who is in the LAPD (Michael Crane, played by Robert Preston), and it's not long until the net starts to close in around them.

Based on a novel by Graham Greene, this is an enjoyable film noir, but it's the least of the Ladd-Lake pairings in this style. Lake, especially, isn't treated well in the first half of the movie, being given a couple of minor musical numbers that feel out of place.

The script by Albert Maltz and W. R. Burnett isn't too bad, those musical moments aside. It keeps the character of Raven interesting, even if he's not very likeable, and lines everything up in time for a satisfying finale that ensures viewers are rooting for the right character by that point.

Director Frank Tuttle does well enough, but I can't help thinking that he could have done better with the cast he has.

Ladd is as good as he usually is in this type of role, Lake is luminous once again, and Crane is solid, but it's the supporting cast members who raise this above average. Cregar is a fantastic, conniving, coward, a man easy to dislike while remembering that he would always have someone else giving him orders, and Pamela Blake makes a great impression, despite only having a couple of scenes. She plays a young woman who dislikes Raven, with good reason, and her performance is a spirited mix of anger and fear.

Having only recently discovered both Ladd and Lake on film, I must say that they have yet to disappoint me. While This Gun For Hire may be the weakest of their film noirs, it's still a good film, and I don't think fans will regret giving this, or any of their other collaborations, a watch.

7/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Film-Noir-Collection-Kirk-Douglas/dp/B000UWXM1C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1384884960&sr=8-1&keywords=film+noir+boxset