For It Is Man's Number: wayne duvall

Showing posts with label wayne duvall. Show all posts

Sunday, 22 June 2025

Netflix And Chill: Prisoners (2013)

Another day, another film that I delayed watching for over a decade, despite strongly suspecting that I would love it. Prisoners is written by Aaron Guzikowski, directed by Denis Villeneuve, and stars Hugh Jackman, Maria Bello, Terrence Howard, Viola Davis, Jake Gyllenhaal, Paul Dano, Melissa Leo, and David Dastmalchian in a number of main roles. That's a hell of a cast, and Prisoners is a hell of a film.

A dark and downbeat crime thriller, this is the story of two girls (Anna, played by Erin Gerasimovich, and Joy, played by Kyla-Drew Simmons) who disappear. Their parents obviously fear the worst, but there may be a chance for a good result with Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) on the case. It doesn't take long for the police to haul in a prime suspect (Alex, played by Paul Dano), but things are complicated by the fact that he has the mental age of a small child. He's clearly guilty though, at least according to Anna's father, Keller (Hugh Jackman). Which leads to him coming up with his own plan to get information when the police have no choice but to release Alex back into the care of his guardian (Holly, played by Melissa Leo). Keller has an empty building available to him, a hankering for some violent retribution, and a variety of ideas that he think will force Alex to tell him where his young victims are.

The first thing worth noting here is that this isn't quite as great as it could have been. Guzikowski's screenplay leaves characters repeating themselves too many times, and it feels heavily indebted to a couple of crime thrillers helmed by David Fincher. Mind you, if you're going to be influenced by other art then you may as well be influenced by some of the best, and that is certainly the case here.

Villeneuve is happy to go along with the same mindset. This is a dark world, with almost every scene accompanied by a heavy downpour once the young girls have gone missing. Making important decisions about what to show and what to heavily imply, Villeneuve keeps things riveting for those who can handle the subject matter, helped by the fact that the direction and screenplay seem to keep a tiny portion of hope dangling in front of our faces like a carrot to help us avoid being beaten with the stick.

In terms of the acting, it's hard to be critical of those doing fantastic work with what they're given. It's just a shame that some of what they're given isn't the best material for them. This applies especially to Gyllenhaal, who is made to repeat one or two playbook lines in a way that I know is supposed to show him just wanting to de-escalate situations and get him away from emotional victims as quickly as possible, but is then shown so committed to his job that it feels at odds with that robotic "auto-pilot" mode we've seen elsewhere. Jackman is allowed to go to level ten righteous anger and stay there for the duration, Bello starts to medicate, and both Davis and Howard are used well to show the complex emotions of loving parents wanting answers about their child, no matter what it might take. Dano is absolutely fantastic, even if he doesn't say much, and Leo ends up stealing one or two scenes, while Dastmalchian comes along later in the movie to deliver another reframing of the whole narrative (this happens two or three times throughout the film, with Villeneuve and Guzikowski as interested in making viewers question themselves as they are in the journey of the characters onscreen).

It falls short of greatness in a couple of small ways, but Prisoners is very good stuff indeed. It's basically what you'd expect from a director as good as Villeneuve working with a cast of this calibre on a story about grief, pain, well-honed detective skills, and revenge.

8/10

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Tuesday, 27 July 2021

Werewolves Within (2021)

A lot of people had mentioned Werewolves Within over the past few weeks so I was keen to see it. I like werewolf movies, I like a good comedy horror, I figured this would be an easy one for me to enjoy. It turned out not to be as easy as I first thought. I didn't actively dislike this film at any point, the main cast members are too likeable or fun to keep that from happening, but it wasn't ever that good. It's not that funny, and the lycanthropy is barely a part of the film. It's as if far too many people have still to discover the superb Game Of Werewolves. Or even the more recent The Wolf Of Snow Hollow.

But let's focus on this film anyway, which is the one I am reviewing today. Sam Richardson plays Finn Wheeler, a forest ranger who has been posted to the small town of Beaverfield. The town is currently divided by the people who support a pipeline being proposed by a local businessman and those against it. Meeting a postal worker, Cecily (played by Milana Vayntrub), Finn gets to accompany her on her round as she introduces him to the various residents. It's not long until a dangerous secret is revealed, and Finn is tasked with trying to keep people calm and find out what is damaging generators and looking to potentially kill people. The signs all point to a werewolf, but there's a chance that it is just one of the more eccentric locals having dived headlong into murderous madness.

Richardson and Vayntrub are both excellent in their roles here. The former has already stolen a few scenes in a couple of movies from the past year or so, the latter isn't someone I can say I have spotted in any other movies, but I'll look forward to seeing her in more after enjoying her work here. Everyone else does great work, even if I'm not going to namecheck them all here. Definite highlights include Catherine Curtin as Jeanine Sherman, the woman who owns the hotel that Finn is staying at, Wayne Duvall as the businessman, Sam Parker, and Glenn Fleshler as the gun-toting, unfriendly, Emerson.

Written by Mishna Wolff, making her feature-writing debut with a videogame adaptation that certainly doesn't feel constrained by that remit (although I am not familiar with the actual game itself), Werewolves Within is generally an amiable experience. That's about all I can say about it. The direction from Josh Ruben, who also gave horror fans the much-liked Scare Me (liked by a group of people that would not include me among them), does everything required without ever taking the material up a notch. None of the comedy is mined for bigger laughs, none of the few horror moments are made as horrific as they could be, and I found it impossible to ever really care about the mystery element. The majority of the film may be trying to create a The Beast Must Die guessing game, but what's the point in crafting that kind of curio piece if you don't even provide an updated "werewolf break"?

Maybe people enjoy this more when they also have the game as a reference point, so feel free to add a point or two if you fall into that category, but I kept waiting for this to deliver something . . . more. It's pleasant enough for the duration, and doesn't run too long, but it's a shame that it wasn't tweaked to increase the comedy, the frights, or both. Still one to recommend, tentatively, thanks to the sterling work of everyone in the cast.

6/10

Friday, 27 March 2020

The Hunt (2020)

I wasn't sure what to expect from The Hunt, but I can tell you that my expectations were low. It seemed to be a standard riff on The Most Dangerous Game that managed to gain some notoriety by using the modern day polarising of political opinions as the basis for a lot of the main thrust of the plot. Well, that in itself didn't gain it the notoriety. The fact that it had the release date pushed back, and it could tag itself as "the film they didn't want you to see", helped to give it some notoriety. But is that all it has to offer?

No. It turns out that The Hunt is actually a smart and funny thriller that does itself a big favour by not aligning itself fully with one side or the other, in terms of the class divide, and the gap between those who are perceived to be in favour of all freedoms and those who are perceived to be "snowflakes".

Things start off with a number of great moments, a number of short, sharp shocks that deliver bloody entertainment while also making the most of some amusing cameos. It lets viewers know that they're going to see some extreme violence, if sometimes in an almost cartoonish way, and that nobody will be safe. And then we meet the one person we think may be safe for most of the movie. Crystal (Betty Gilpin) is onscreen for a minute or so before showing how much sharper she is than the rest of the people who have been scattered around as prey for some privileged folk who want to bag the ultimate kill. And that's all you need to know. The bodycount is impressive, Crystal has to constantly outwit opponents with more resources and intel than she has, and viewers are carried along to a third act that should provide some answers about how the hunt began, as well as some predictable satisfaction. Hopefully.

Although directed, and directed well, by Craig Zobel, this is a film that is very much covered in the fingerprints of the writers, Nick Cuse and Damon Lindelof (who both also worked together on the excellent Watchmen TV series). It seems pretty clear where they like to align themselves, politically, but they do at least take some time to show how the current lack of tolerance from those who find themselves offended can become a bit of a chicken and egg scenario with opinions being doubled down on and jokes being turned into a reality.

Gilpin is great in the lead, and it's her best movie role yet. She's believably tough and smart, and quickly sets her mentality to a focused survival mode. There are a few hunters given screentime, all of them fun in the way they can't comprehend ever being one-upped by someone they picked to be killed off, but the most recognisable is played by Glenn Howerton, who has fun with a role that taps into the sociopathy/psychopathy of his most famous comedic persona. Macon Blair is good in a very small role, and I'll mention Wayne Duvall, Ike Barinholtz, Emma Roberts, Amy Madigan, Reed Birnet, and Ethan Suplee, all of them doing their bit to add to the thrill of the hunt. Hilary Swank is also in the mix. She may not be onscreen for that long, but she makes a great impression (and it made me realise that I hadn't seen her in a major release for some time, certainly not having as much fun as she has here).

I'm sure that some people will watch this and be annoyed by the script, for one reason or another. It's a no-win situation for anyone writing something that weaves the current trend of making everything an ideological war with standard exploitation thrills. But everyone involved knows that. That feels like it's part of the point.

8/10