Netflix And Chill: Set It Up (2018)

There was a time, up until very recently actually, when I hadn't really taken much notice of Zoey Deutch. I didn't view her as a standout in supporting roles, I didn't realise she was the daughter of Lea Thompson and Howard Deutch, and there was nothing in her filmography that seemed to pique my interest. That's all changed now. Not only have I recently watched a few films in the past few weeks that have featured Deutch, I've also been completely won over by her ability to move between comedy and drama with a very obvious likeability. 

Deutch plays Harper in this, a young woman struggling with the constant demands from her workaholic boss, Kirsten (Lucy Liu). Glen Powell is Charlie, a man who works in the same building as Harper and has the same problem with his boss, Rick (Taye Diggs). Once they meet and share their woes, Harper and Charlie eventually come to realise that their lives could get easier if they can set up a love match between their bosses. It should be easy enough, considering how much Harper and Charlie plan and maintain the schedules of their respective bosses. All they need to do is keep pushing them together.

One of only a few feature films directed by Claire Scanlon, and one of the better screenplays from writer Katie Silberman, Set It Up is easygoing and fun for those who don't mind watching something that follows a very well-known formula. The laughs may not be big, but they're impressively consistent throughout the 105-minute runtime, and the whole thing is carried on the shoulders of the two leads, as well as some great supporting cast members. So your enjoyment of it is going to depend on just how much you like the leads, and I am certainly a big fan of both by now.

Both Deutch and Powell are on top form, effortlessly working so well together that their journey to the expected big moments in the finale is satisfying and very easy to root for. There's enough friction between them, and enough obstacles, but no potential problem is insurmountable. Both Liu and Diggs are also doing great work, frequently being so enjoyable that it might make you wonder (as I did) why they never got that one major role to insert them into the mainstream collective consciousness. Joan Smalls is entertainingly vain and selfish, Meredith Hagner plays a good BFF, and Pete Davidson is a lot of fun in his small supporting role, but everyone works so well here because they're complementing two leads who already make the movie well worth your time.

It could be a bit funnier, it could spend a bit more time delivering some very heightened romance, and it could work harder to subvert the rom-com tropes that are being commented on by our two leads as they attempt to force a meet-cute and develop a relationship between two unaware individuals. I admit that there's a lot that could have been better. That didn't stop me from watching most of it play out with a doofy smile on my face though. I suspect most won't enjoy it as much as I did, but I still recommend it nonetheless. 

6/10

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Go (1999)

Directed by Doug Liman, and written by John August, Go is often described to people as a teen version of Pulp Fiction. Seriously, you'll find that phrase in almost every major review of the movie, so I decided not to buck the trend here. It's got drugs, some violence, plenty of dark humour, a great soundtrack, and a few main events shown from the viewpoints of different characters, which all means that the comparison point is a good one, even if Pulp Fiction is itself hugely influenced by a multitude of movies to have come before it.

Anyway, let me try to describe the various escapades. First of all, we get Ronna (Sarah Polley) looking to make some quick money as she faces eviction over the Christmas holiday season. She seizes her chance when a couple of guys (Scott Wolf and Jay Mohr) come into her work looking for her colleague, Simon (Desmond Askew). Simon often sells drugs so when these two potential customers start to enquire about any other potential supply avenues, Ronna decides to arrange a sale. She then has to buy product from dealer Todd Gaines (Timothy Olyphant), which puts her at serious risk if anything goes wrong during the proposed exchange. Things go wrong. Meanwhile, Simon is having a blast in Las Vegas with his friends (Taye Diggs, Breckin Meyer and James Duval). Vegas is such a glorious place to be, as long as nothing goes wrong. Things go wrong. There's more to discover here, but part of the joy of the film is finding out how the tales are interconnected and just what changes when seen from a different viewpoint.

Liman and August do a fantastic job here, keeping the energy levels up without the film every feeling hyperactive, and peppering conversations with great lines and references without it feeling overly-stylised. They also take a number of standard situations that we've seen done many times before and manage to give each one a twist, often weaving confidently between the sublie and the ridiculous. All of this would be impossible if it wasn't for the fantastic ensemble cast, taking the material and elevating every bit of it.

Polley, Wolf, Mohr, Askew and Diggs have rarely been better, and Olyphant is as great as he always is. Then we have William Fichtner as a slightly strange lawman, Jane Krakowski as his equally strange wife, Nathan Bexton as a pill-popper who hallucinates about conversations with cats and dancing with strangers to the Macarena, and even Katie Holmes does okay in her role. There's even a small, fun role for Melissa McCarthy that's worth looking out for.

There's one character I have yet to mention, and that is the soundtrack. Jam-packed with cracking tunes, Go has one of the best soundtracks of the 1990s. It's one that I listen to a lot, and it's also one that perfectly complements the visual style of the film. From the opening Columbia Pictures logo to the closing credits, this is another film that proves just how important the perfect song choice can be.

It's worth noting that what I find fun and cool could just as easily be viewed as tiresome and annoying by someone else. This is a film I used to recommend heartily to everyone until I started to realise that not everyone was won over by it in the same way as I was. I still heartily recommend it, but now do so with the standard, usually unspoken, proviso: No film is for everyone.

9/10

http://www.amazon.com/Go-Special-Sarah-Polley/dp/0767835093/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1418650151&sr=1-2&keywords=go

Noir November: The Way Of The Gun (2000)

Written by Christopher McQuarrie, who also decided to make it his directorial debut, The Way Of The Gun is a non-stop assortment of fantastic moments. It is, in fact, a minor modern classic, all too often overlooked in favour of movies that are deemed to have a better pedigree. Considering this film has James Caan in one of his best roles, and a nice turn from Geoffrey Lewis, with two great lead performances from Ryan Phillippe and Benicio Del Toro, I urge everyone to reconsider their opinion of it.

Phillippe and Del Toro play Mr. Parker and Mr. Longbaugh, respectively. They're not good men, as is made clear in perhaps one of the greatest opening scenes in the past 20 years. Drifting along, making money from selling various body fluids (another great scene shows them at a sperm bank), the two men overhear a conversation that starts them thinking about a big score. It turns out that a rich man (Scott Wilson) is about to be given a child by a surrogate mother (Juliette Lewis). Until she delivers the baby, the mother is very valuable indeed. She's being guarded at all times (by Taye Diggs and Nicky Katt), but that won't stop them from pulling off an impressive heist. Or so they hope. Can they manage it, and can they then negotiate themselves a fine payday without too much further trouble?

Full of great humour, resonant dialogue, and a number of great twists and turns, The Way Of The Gun showcases just what a great talent McQuarrie is. He can create cool characters and situations, and he loves to work some grittiness into the material, but he also allows for a layer of warmth that adds to the appeal of almost everyone onscreen. These are movie characters, but they're still allowed to be human.

Despite strong competition, I consider the two central performances here to be career-best turns from both Phillippe and Del Toro. Both work brilliantly in their roles, whether separately or alongside one another, and part of the brilliance of the screenplay is the way in which McQuarrie places them out of their depth without ever making them stupid. Watch their tactics, and listen to every line of dialogue, and you'll soon realise how smart they are. Diggs and Katt are also not stupid. They just happen to find themselves outwitted by an audacious move. Mind you, it takes time to figure out if they're better or worse than the characters played by Phillipe and Del Toro. Lewis is pretty good, although she's required to be the most vulnerable of all the characters onscreen, obviously. Baby bump or no, she has moments in which she gets to show how determined she can be when it comes to protecting her child. But I'd have to say that the scene-stealer of the movie is the mighty James Caan, putting in a performance here that hints at what may have become of Frank, the character he played in Thief. I'd put this up there as one of his best turns, perhaps even second only to his work in the aforementioned film. His scenes with Del Toro give the movie a beating heart, while his scenes with Geoffrey (yes, father of Juliette) Lewis highlight the cynicism and weariness that inevitably take over anyone who continues to work in a world constantly being invaded by the young. Dylan Kussman is the other main player, and does just fine as the doctor hoping to keep his pregnant patient from harm.

There are many moments here that feel cinematically cool, but they rarely feel as if they're shoehorned in there JUST to be cool. Even those, fairly unnecessary, opening scenes serve to set up the characters and the world that they inhabit. And how can you hate anyone who comes up with the colourful phrase: "Shut that cunts mouth or I'll come over there and fuckstart her head!"? It's profane, yet equally hilarious for the way it immediately makes jaws drop.

Is everyone going to love this movie? No. But I firmly believe that they should. McQuarrie is a talented writer-director (I also highly recommend Jack Reacher if you've not yet seen it) and I look forward to what he's yet to show us. It may not equal this debut, but he's failed to disappoint me yet.

9/10

http://www.amazon.com/Way-Gun-Blu-ray-Benicio-Toro/dp/B002NPY7EU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1416514616&sr=8-2&keywords=the+way+of+the+gun