For It Is Man's Number: michael pitt

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Sunday, 24 November 2024

Netflix And Chill: Reptile (2023)

Not only is Reptile co-written by director Grant Singer, but star Benicio Del Toro apparently had a helping hand in the screenplay, alongside Benjamin Brewer. That makes it even more curious, considering how Del Toro is the best thing in it DESPITE the weak screenplay. A messy mix of neo-noir tropes and moments that seem to be struggling to give the movie more substance, Reptile is enormously unsatisfying. And it's made all the worse by how badly it wastes a great cast.

Del Toro plays a cop named Tom Nichols. He's been entangled in some bad stuff in the past, but he seems to be trying his best to be good at his job. That is essential when he is called to the scene of Summer Elswick's murder. Summer's body was discovered by Will Grady (Justin Timberlake), making him a prime suspect, but others soon start to arouse suspicion. It doesn't help that Grady and his mother (Frances Fisher) have upset people with their business practices. One of those upset people is a young man named Eli (Michael Pitt), who blames the Gradys for the suicide of his father. Maybe there's more to the case than what seems obvious though. Maybe Tom needs to start looking at everyone around him with equal suspicion.

Although he has a wealth of experience helming music videos, this appears to be the feature debut from Singer. That makes complete sense when you consider how much (misplaced) faith he has in the strength of such clumsy and half-baked material. There are some good moments here, some strong individual images, but there are just as many moments that don't work, whether it's the plotting of the central mystery that doesn't feel worth really caring about or the moments that have a discordant piece of music increasing in volume in a way that's supposed to unnerve viewers and lead to some nerve-tingling climax, but then fails to present anything to justify that audio choice. With both Brewer and Del Toro similarly inexperienced in the role of feature writer, Reptile is left as a collection of decent images that can barely cling on to the decomposing skeleton of the script that should have given it a strong centre.

Del Toro is much better in front of the camera though, and he's the best thing about this. His performance is easily on a par with some of his best work, and equally thoughtful and morally discombobulated, at times. Alicia Silverstone is excellent in the role of his wife, although she also suffers from one or two moments that seem to just peter out just as they could get more interesting. Timberlake is fine, working comfortably with a persona that he tends to portray well in movies, Fisher is riveting, despite having disappointingly little screentime, and Pitt adds another quirky turn to his repertoire. The fact that the film also has room for great work from Eric Bogosian, Domenick Lombardozzi, and Ato Essandoh (playing the partner to Del Toro's character) is both a plus and a minus, because everyone here deserves to be delivering that great work in a stronger film.

I'm guessing that this is a story that Del Toro was passionate about, considering he also attached himself as an executive producer, and I can see how the whole thing could have been handled much better, but the end result feels like a wasted opportunity. The cast cannot be faulted though, nor can the cinematography from Mike Gioulakis (with shot choices and framing complemented by some fine editing from Kevin Hickman). Technically, all is well. It's just the writing and direction that work against it, but those are the two areas that need to be locked down for this kind of material.

4/10

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Monday, 17 June 2024

Mubi Monday: The Dreamers (2003)

I don’t know how I could have ever forgotten that Bernardo Bertolucci once directed a movie that starred Michael Pitt, Louis Garrel, and Eva Green, but I did. Rummaging around in the depths of my own memory banks, I vaguely remember it being released before I was more aware of Bertolucci’s films (aside from his most notorious title), and it was certainly before I would have been won over by the cast. So it came and it went without making any lasting impression on me.

Set in a turbulent Paris of the 1960s, this is the tale of a young American (Matthew, played by Pitt) who ends up befriending a pair of intriguing, but also potentially dangerous, twin siblings (Isabelle and Theo, played by Green and Garrel). They are safe, and largely sheltered, when spending time indoors sharing a love of cinema, indulging in games that lead to erotic forfeits, or engaging in philosophical discussions, but the outside world cannot be avoided forever.

While I have enjoyed, and loved, some of his work, I have never been as big a fan of Bertolucci as some people. Last Tango In Paris is a cold and clumsy movie that remains notorious for one horrible scene, and it was a mistake to start with that major touchstone when I started broadening my cinematic horizons. But for anyone else who feels the same way, I highly recommend checking out The Sheltering Sky and, his masterpiece, The Last Emperor. And this. Yes, this is an erotically-charged look at human connection and development that works far better than the film that many others view as the standout from his filmography.

Adapted from his own novel into screenplay for my Gilbert Adair, there’s a constant feeling of worlds pressing against one another here, be they worlds of flesh and bone or worlds of political and philosophical division. While one character is shown to be an outsider, it could be argued that all three of our leads remains outsiders for the majority of the runtime, and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing when viewers are reminded of the environments that they are keeping themselves away from.

The direction from Bertolucci is superb, allowing us to move around, and in between, the three leads as they spend their time playing, fighting, and generally intertwining themselves into one big mix of limbs and genitalia.

As for the performances, everyone is impressively fearless when it comes to delivering the material. I couldn’t pick any one over the other, and am happy to say that this remains a highlight in the film careers of all three main players (which is a particular compliment to both Green and Garrel, who have gone on to display their talents in numerous other projects, while Pitt seems to have been intent on scuppering his own progress throughout the past couple of decades). There are also a couple of scenes that allow Anna Chancellor and Robin Renucci to play the parents of our hedonistic twins, and those moments show a nice understanding between different generations, even with the obvious division still there.

With a selection of great songs on the soundtrack, as well as numerous film references and clips interspersed throughout, there is plenty of sugar coated around the bitterness at the heart of it, and I appreciate both Adair and Bertolucci avoiding the many very dark paths this could have taken. It is called The Dreamers, after all, so a sudden nightmare wouldn’t be out of place, but the real horrors are outside the bubble of irresponsibility that our leads reside in. Even if we know that they will have to fully wake up and leave that bubble one day.

8/10