ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER Review

There is a moment in Paul Thomas Anderson’s tenth feature film, One Battle After Another, where Leonardo DiCaprio’s retired revolutionary Bob Ferguson is on the run in search of his daughter, Chase Infiniti’s Willa Ferguson. Bob is having a difficult time finding an electrical outlet where he can charge his phone so that he might make a call allowing him to obtain the necessary information concerning a rendezvous point where he will hopefully be reunited with Willa. Thanks to Benicio del Toro’s Sensei Sergio, Bob finally finds a working outlet and proclaims multiple times, “I have power!” It’s a simple sentiment that in the context of the scene is celebratory and speaking specifically to Bob getting one step closer to finding his child, but because DiCaprio chooses to repeat the words more than once they inherently bear a significance that gives way to consideration of what these words sound like on their own, without the context in which they’re spoken. Without context, it is easy to assume that a statement such as “I have power” is more a proclamation than something meant to express happiness which is Anderson's point: the noise is a distraction from the intent. 

One Battle After Another, based loosely on Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel “Vineland”, is a movie all about how power works; about how much of civilization is built on the whims and desires of power-hungry men who both seek to shape the world in accordance with their own concepts of truth as well as eradicate any reminders of their own shame. This is true for characters on both sides of history in Anderson’s film and the writer/director, despite making it clear who he believes are the good guys and who are the villains, does not let any one character off the hook. One Battle After Another could just as easily be seen as a cynical takedown of those in power as it can a hopeful rallying cry for change in a world gone awry but whatever lens one chooses to view it through, there’s no denying the big, broad, bombastic, and most importantly - bizarrely beguiling - entertainment value Anderson is able to deliver alongside his countless ideas.

Official Trailer for Wes Anderson's THE FRENCH DISPATCH

The first trailer for Wes Anderson's follow-up to his 2016 stop-motion film, Isle of Dogs, is here and is his first live-action film since what is arguably his masterpiece in 2014's The Grand Budapest Hotel. The French Dispatch “brings to life a collection of stories from the final issue of an American magazine published in a fictional 20th-century French city.” Per usual, Anderson rounded-up quite the cast for what will be his tenth feature with both new additions and some returning favourites. Bill Murray plays the editor of the aforementioned American magazine who is trying to put together this publication’s final issue. As this narrative is happening, the audience will see three different stories being covered by his staff members come to life in a way only Anderson could seemingly conceive. It is in bringing to life these three different stories that I assume Anderson adopts the different visual styles we see glimpses of in this first trailer; there is of course the black and white, but the predominant characters of those clips also appear in clips that are in color while there also looks to be a circular shot of a host of characters that feels very out of character for Anderson. The fact I'm wholly intrigued by a director's choice to use a certain kind of shot over his typical, perfectly symmetrical style of framing is proof enough as to why Anderson is not only engaging as a filmmaker, but as a storyteller in general. I don't even know where else to start with how excited I am about a new, live-action Wes Anderson movie for as much as I love his animated outings there is something about seeing him breathe his vision through a cavalcade of famous faces all perfectly embodying his sense of tone and timing that is both strangely exhilarating and reliably uproarious. And while The French Dispatch looks to not skew too far from what everyone loves about Anderson's work this does have the feeling of the filmmaker having done something very big and quite special to celebrate it being his tenth feature. I wholeheartedly expect Anderson to continue making his own brand of movie for as long as he has something to say, but it will also be interesting to see if he, in any way, is evolving his own style here for despite believing the man is incapable of spinning his wheels it does feel it will be necessary to continue to show growth-even if that growth is only through his storytelling prowess rather than his visuals. The French Dispatch also stars Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, Wally Wolodarsky, Bob Balaban, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand, Timothée Chalamet, Léa Seydoux, Benicio del Toro, Henry Winkler, Elisabeth Moss, Griffin Dunne, Lyna Khoudri and opens on July 24, 2020.

SICARIO: DAY OF THE SOLDADO Review

Denis Villeneuve Stefano Sollima is not, but that doesn't mean the Italian-born director can't make an entertaining if not necessarily worthy follow-up to Villeneuve's 2015 thriller. To be fair, my memories may serve a bias against any Sicario sequel not directed by Villeneuve or one that doesn't include Emily Blunt's Kate Macer as it was the first film I saw at my first ever Toronto International Film Festival. That said, I haven't re-visited that now first film since it was released on Blu-ray and so, while I remember being overcome by the tension of the piece and the fact its ideas were more prominent than its story it would seem my actual memory of the film as opposed to my fondness for the experience surrounding the film is something that shouldn't allow me to hold that film in as high regard as I did going into this sequel. Day of the Soldado or what should have simply been titled "Soldado" is what might be referred to as a "fine enough" follow-up in that it does the best it can with the tools it was handed in order to create such a follow-up. Where Sicario was an examination of the complexities of these people who were trapped in a world convoluted beyond their ability to be able to rectify it as everything around them only continued to spin in vicious circles this sequel struggles to find anything to add to this statement. With Soldado, Taylor Sheridan (Hell or High Water, Wind River) returned to pen the screenplay, but it seems he didn't have much more to say as Soldado more or less addresses the same themes and ideas as its predecessor while exploring them through the (much different) perspective of Benicio Del Toro's Alejandro who was an intentionally vague supporting character the first time around. Granted, Del Toro's performance as Alejandro was one of the most distinctive and memorable factors of that first film to the point the attention is not only warranted, but desired to a certain extent. And though Sheridan's script along with Sollima's direction and Dariusz Wolski's cinematography (though it's hard to beat Roger Deakins) all contribute to delivering an entertaining and tension-filled actioner the main issue is the shifting of perspectives as doing so makes these men who were once shrouded in mystery and their moral compasses all the more unclear less so and therefore nowhere near as interesting. It might also be that given the real-world environment Soldado has been released into that a movie with such content should be required to not be as careless with the complicated Mexico/U.S. relationship, but Soldado is ultimately too generic to leave any lasting scars.

STAR WARS: EPISODE VIII - THE LAST JEDI Review

It doesn't end with a space battle. It does begin with one though. And it does still come down to stopping a big laser from destroying what is positioned as the final stronghold of the resistance. This is The Last Jedi simplified, of course, but the point is, patterns. Stanzas. Everything in Star Wars, since the days of George Lucas, has worked in this recurring metrical unit where the past predicts the future and the future dictates the fate of our favorite characters. There is a great sense of scope and history in these films and with Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson (Brick, The Brothers Bloom, and Looper) has utilized this rich history in a way that kind of upends those patterns. Those verses that were seemingly an inherent part of the Star Wars DNA. Typically, this would be something unexpected, but applauded as it would lead one to believe there are bold choices being made and new directions being taken and while this is true to a certain extent, what happens when you don't always like or agree with the choices being made or the direction being taken? With The Force Awakens J.J. Abrams created a revival for a new generation balancing the tasks of paying respects to the previous trilogy, setting-up new parts of the universe to be explored, and establishing a new generation of characters that fans could fall in love with. Key to this was Abrams backdrop of this great mythos and grandeur that only hinted at the darkness that had befallen the characters of the original trilogy since we'd last seen them. The Last Jedi would then seemingly follow through on the promise of this mythical status that had befallen Luke Skywalker and so there was much to be excited for going forward in the series. In fact, The Force Awakens put in place so much to build this aura of mystery and gravity that it was probably impossible for Johnson to deliver on all of them, but with the re-introduction of Mark Hamill's Skywalker here it is clear this is in fact, "not going to go the way we (or at least I) thought," as Johnson immediately dispels this sense of mysticism in favor of a joke. A moment of deadpan humor that put me in a hesitant state of mind from which I don't know that I ever recovered. I've now seen the movie twice and I felt the same way both times. To be clear, I'm more than up for a movie that is self-aware to the point of not taking itself too seriously, but this almost broad comical direction and unwillingness to divulge that rich history or take advantage of it in the way The Force Awakens so gracefully set it up is nothing short of disappointing and may in fact be the most depressing aspect of what The Last Jedi seemingly promised and failed to deliver.

New Trailer for STAR WARS: EPISODE VIII - THE LAST JEDI

In the two years since The Force Awakens debuted in theaters it has become one of those easy to watch movies you can put on at anytime and always count on getting hooked. Sure, the issues it had with aping A New Hope have become all the more glaring, but at the same time so has the incredibly strong work with all of the new characters that were introduced and by virtue of that-our desire to see those character's journeys continue has only increased. All of that to say we now finally have a new, extended look at director Rian Johnson's (Brick, The Brother's Bloom, Looper) follow-up to J.J. Abram's safe, but respectable introduction to this latter trilogy. Every other movie in town has pretty much cleared out sans DreamWorks Animation's Ferdinand which should make for fine counter-programming while a plethora of other major releases follow in the weeks afterward including the Jumaji sequel, the third Pitch Perfect movie, the Hugh Jackman/Zac Efron musical The Greatest Showman as well as a handful of other adult-centric films that I'm eager to see how everything shakes out at the holiday box office. That's not what we're here to talk about though, that would be The Last Jedi and what this new trailer tells us about what we can expect for Episode VIII. While Johnson warned fans per his Twitter that if they want to go into the movie as unknowing as possible to avoid the trailer, but even for someone who generally avoids later trailers and clips altogether it was next to impossible to not watch this new Star Wars trailer as we've seen no new footage or hint at story since the teaser dropped in April. The tease that Rey's hero might not be all she'd built him up to be seems to continue to take shape in this new trailer as Daisy Ridley and Mark Hamill's Rey and Luke don't exactly share the master/padawan relationship I think most expected them to develop after the tease at the end of The Force Awakens. There will of course be much dissecting and speculating, but for now let us just bask in the glory of seeing new images of a new Star Wars movie that will hopefully answer some of those burning questions left by The Force Awakens as well as the full-on return of Hamill to the role of Luke Skywalker. The film also stars John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Laura Dern, Adam Driver, Carrie Fisher, Domhnall Gleeson, Lupita Nyong’o, Andy Serkis, Kelly Marie Tran, Gwendoline Christie, Warwick Davis, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, and Benicio Del Toro. Star Wars: The Last Jedi opens December 15th, 2017.

First Trailer for STAR WARS: EPISODE VIII - THE LAST JEDI

If all would have gone according to the original plan we would actually be seeing The Last Jedi open in theaters next month, but that of course wasn't to be and so here we are-two years removed from the, "Chewie, we're home," moment when the world got their first real glimpse at what this new Star Wars trilogy might offer and luckily everything went down well with The Force Awakens. All of that to say we now finally have our first look at director Rian Johnson's (Brick, The Brother's Bloom, Looper) follow-up to J.J. Abram's safe, but respectable introduction to this latter trilogy. Every other movie in town has pretty much cleared out and with the Star Wars celebration kicking off in Orlando this week we have already been blessed with a plethora of news around that galaxy far, far away, but this is undoubtedly what everyone was looking forward to the most. While watching the live The Last Jedi panel this morning featuring Johnson as well as President of Lucasfilm Kathleen Kennedy they teased a few new details about the eighth installment including a hint that Rey's hero might not be all she'd built him up to be. The likes of Daisy Ridley and Mark Hamill talked as minimally about the story as possible, but we'll take what we can get. Besides some vague plot details there wasn't much to take away despite a few new stills from the film adding to the excitement. Other guest appearances included BB-8, John Boyega, and Kelly Marie Tran who plays a new character named Rose who is a maintenance worker in the resistance, but this was all for show more than it was tell as none of the panelists divulged much about the new film-until that first teaser/trailer was released. There will be much dissecting and speculating I imagine, but for now let us just bask in the glory of seeing the first images of a new Star Wars movie that will hopefully answer some of those burning questions left by The Force Awakens as well as the full-on return of Hamill to the role of Luke Skywalker giving long-time fans chills for days. The film also stars Adam Driver, Carrie Fisher, Domhnall Gleeson, Lupita Nyong’o, Andy Serkis, Gwendoline Christie, Warwick Davis , Kenny Baker, and Benicio Del Toro. Star Wars: The Last Jedi opens December 15th, 2017.

TIFF 2015: SICARIO Review

There is something exceptionally startling about director Denis Villeneuve's approach to his rather subtle character examinations. Neither Prisoners or Enemy did anything to necessarily expand our minds to the way we work as humans, but they called often dismissed thoughts and qualities to the surface. With his latest, Sicario, the director is once again examining the human condition under the most stringent of circumstances and once again he puts our nerves through the ringer. Having more than enjoyed both of Villeneuve's previous studio efforts (I've yet to see Incendies, but clearly need to) and anticipating his latest if not based on his previous work, but for the trio of stellar actors he recruited to execute this feature I walked away from Sicario with a stunned respect for how what was being said was in fact stated. Brutal beyond measure, unflinching to a fault and featuring an extremely serious tone balanced by a slight comedic performance from Josh Brolin, Vileneuve has crafted a film that is not wholly concerned with plot as much as it is the examination of the complexities of these people who are trapped in a world convoluted beyond their comprehension that only continues to go around in circles. Sicario is by no means a masterpiece of the genre as it does tend to lose some of it's steam in it's middle section, but it more than makes up for it with a chilling conclusion and a tension throughout that is something akin to unshakable.

First Trailer for Denis Villeneuve’s SICARIO

It must be Thursday as the trailers continue to show up though I'm not sure why Lionsgate decided to release the first trailer for the latest from Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners, Enemy) today. Given there's not much to attach it to this weekend I'm guessing we'll see it before Terminator Genisys in a few weeks in hopes of getting people into the film this fall given the action aspect, but given this is coming from Villeneuve I expect it to be a lot more than the standard drug cartel/action flick. Coming off its well-received premiere at the Cannes Film Festival it was not only Villeneuve's direction that garnered praise, but the exceptional cast as well as the cinematography of Roger Deakins and the script from Taylor Sheridan (Sons of Anarchy). The trailer presents a tense and lawless world that slings Emily Blunt's novice police officer from Tucson across the border to Mexico where violent warfare is constantly erupting. With a pair of mercenaries by her side Blunt's character is enlisted to try and help track down a cartel high on the totem pole and hopefully add a win to the FBI's war on drugs. Josh Brolin and Benicio Del Toro co-star as the mercenaries and members of a government task force with Del Toro seeming to have a deservedly showy role here. Sicario will open on September 18th in limited release before expanding wide on September 25th which is similar to the Prisoners release date two years ago. With the nationwide expansion date the film will open opposite the Nancy Meyers comedy The Intern, Hotel Transylvania 2 and the Kate Beckinsale-fronted horror film The Disappointments Room. Hit the jump to check out the trailer.

INHERENT VICE Review

They say the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. If you agree with that line of thinking than you will likely be disappointed in the latest from director Paul Thomas Anderson. At nearly two and a half hours, it is a mess of a masterpiece that begs for you to dissect every scene and every line of dialogue as well as how the actor speaking a said line conveys the meaning of their dialogue. Do we place this kind of importance on the film because it does indeed come from a filmmaker with the unique status of Anderson? If it came from a lesser known director would the awaiting audience be as accepting? It's hard to say and it hardly matters because no one else would ever make films like the ones Anderson crafts. Like his other six features, Inherent Vice is wholly a concoction of the directors singular voice and style. From Boogie Nights to There Will Be Blood and Magnolia to The Master Anderson has demonstrated an eclectic range that gives each new film a dynamic all its own. It has always been clear his sentiment is slightly off-kilter, but he has never made anything as loopy or goofy as what we have here and somehow it seems as if this is the truest representation of the person Anderson actually is. As much as Inherent Vice fits perfectly into Anderson's diverse filmography it is the way he has approached the project that stands out more than anything, maybe even more than the finished product itself. Set in Gordita Beach, California in the summer of 1970 as Vietnam rages on and the sixties come to a screeching halt the director infuses his film with this aesthetic by consistently relying on the style of limited camera movement and the framing of shots to capture specific angles that immediately conjure up references to films of the time period in which his film is set. From the attention to detail to the technicolor texture of the images and more forward to the seemingly blind, but no doubt highly calculated preciseness of not seeming to give two shits Anderson delivers a film that, on the surface, seems to make little sense at all. And yet, as one begins to dig deeper and break down the whole of the film into single scenes, individual moments and certain pieces of dialogue it somehow makes more sense even if that bigger picture is all but lost. While Inherent Vice isn't and won't be hailed as Anderson's greatest work, it is easy to see it becoming the one his loyal fans end up returning to most often.

First Trailer for Paul Thomas Anderson's INHERENT VICE

It seemed as if we would never get a trailer for the latest Paul Thomas Anderson contraption, Inherent Vice, but now that we have it seems its over two month away release date will take forever to get here. I had no idea what to expect from this adaptation of the Thomas Pynchon novel and knew little about it other than the summary of said book. Given that, I was beyond anxious to dive into the trailer and upon first glance this couldn't be a better mix of everything I hoped it would be considering the style in the stills we'd seen up to this point and an unexpected comic tone that seems in line with Anderson's natural instincts. I love the look of the trailer (Anderson re-teams with cinematographer Robert Elswit after The Master) and I assume he is again shooting on 65 mm film using the Panavision System 65 camera. It gave The Master such sweeping, epic scope and even on your computer screen you can see the depth of some of the shots here. Besides the excitement that comes along with a first glimpse at footage from a new PTA film there is also the brilliant cast he has in place here that is on full display. Joaquin Phoenix re-teams with the director for his second go- around, but this time as drug-fueled detective Larry "Doc" Sportello. The remainder of the cast features Josh Brolin (getting a nice bit in the trailer), Owen Wilson, Katherine Waterston, Reese Witherspoon, Benicio Del Toro, Martin Short, Jena Malone and Joanna Newsom. Inherent Vice opens in limited release on December 12th before going wide on January 9, 2015.

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY Review

In the late summer of 2006 a friend and I went unsuspecting into our local dollar theater to see a few movies we'd missed earlier that year. One we had no idea of what we were getting into, but were interested in due to the fact it featured Elizabeth Banks in a starring role was Slither. It was one of those experiences you walk away from as a nineteen year-old kid and wonder what the hell you just watched. At that age everything needs to fit squarely into a category, it has to have some semblance of order for you to think it is acceptable in the adult world and this was an R-rated horror film so that was what we expected, or at least that is what had been advertised. What Slither actually turned out to be was a literal gross-out comedy that played on the several homages it contained to horror films of days past and was more in the vein of Evil Dead than anything else. I say all of this not only to reference my introduction to the work of director James Gunn, but more to put into context the kind of non-expectations I'd set for Guardians of the Galaxy. I didn't want to know what to expect, I didn't want to understand the universe and I certainly didn't want to have any preconceptions about who these characters were given their ridiculous appearance. I'd walked into Gunn's strikingly strange Slither with zero expectation and walked out fully appreciating it for its wackiness and ability to transcend genres while clearly doing whatever it wanted. I hoped for the same thing from Guardians despite the fact Gunn had submitted himself to the powers that be at Marvel. I don't look at Marvel as this monster who assumes creative control and only hires directors willing to do their bidding because it is clear they have a plan for where they want all of this to go and they are looking for those willing to work with them on that ultimate goal, which anyone should be able to appreciate. What I do worry about with each Marvel film is the lack of any original voice coming through in conveying these necessary stories. The stories can be cohesive without the tone or style being the same and while the earth-bound Avengers began to feel more serialized in phase two, Guardians is able to break that mold not only by taking place in the cosmos but by brimming with creativity in every scene of its execution.

First Trailer for GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

In what has become increasingly more interesting and all the more mysterious as time has passed, Guardians of the Galaxy stands to either be a massive hit and a step in a new (likely right) direction for Marvel studios or a tragic misfire that may only give caution for the studio to regress back towards more mainstream heroes. As Marvel is a studio that likes to make plans well enough ahead of time though, I doubt they'd be putting as many eggs in the GotG basket if they didn't have a good amount of trust in it. Personally, I am really excited to see both what director James Gunn (Slither, Super) does with a big budget action flick and how comic book movies may change with this release. While Marvel has ventured into the cosmos before with Thor, this will be the first time we have a film taking place completely outside of our own planet with a scale all its own. The sequels as of late have felt more like additions to a long-running mini-series than feature films and have given us beats where we know what to ultimately to expect each time out. What is exciting about GotG is the opportunity it has to re-define the super hero film and turn an unexpected corner. I have never been a big comic book reader, but have always enjoyed films adapted from them and while I've never read a GotG story (I hadn't even heard of them until the film was announced) I am very much looking forward to what this swashbuckling team of space explorers bring to the table. As for the trailer itself, Gunn has assembled an all-star cast that look to be in fine form and while the visuals are stunning I was interested to see how they would pull off making a gun-toting, talking raccoon legit: so far, all looks well. Guardians of the Galaxy stars Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Lee Pace, Karen Gillan, John C. Reilly, Glenn Close, Michael Rooker, Djimon Hounsou, Peter Serafinowicz, Benicio Del Toro with the voices of Vin Diesel and Bradley Cooper and an opening date of August 1st.

SAVAGES Review

After watching Savages, Oliver Stone's latest directorial effort, it seems he may have watched one too many Tony Scott films lately. The diverse director whose career I haven't really followed all that closely but have certainly appreciated many of his efforts including his political runs (Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July, JFK, Nixon, W., and World Trade Center) as well as his more mainstream features that tackle other subject matters (Wall Street, The Doors, Natural Born Killers, and Any Given Sunday). I have seen most of these and enjoyed a good number of them especially when Stone really feels passionate about the story he is telling. You can tell from the craft on the screen that he has put a lot of thought into what his audience is going to see. He has studied the subjects intently, if it was some type of biopic or the world in which his story will take place, he does the research and he knows what he is getting himself into. That still rings true when it comes to Savages, but the after effect of the movie as you walk out of the theater is one of slight confusion over what exactly you just witnessed. The highly saturated cinematography may make everyone on screen look gorgeous and sultry but the drug-dealing, and surprisingly overly familiar storyline become an incoherent mess right from the get-go. Not all is horrible as the film contains several redeeming qualities and even a few moments throughout that made me want to re-evaluate the film completely, but by the time the credits began to roll I was back to the fact that the movie, like its main characters, needed that something more to feel like it might reach its full potential.

Elena (Salma Hayek) and Lado (benicio Del Toro) are
some pretty dangerous drug runners in Savages. 

If you haven't paid any attention to the marketing campaign for this piece then you might be shocked to learn this whole situation revolves around a three-way love affair. Based on author Don Winslow's 2010 novel of the same name Savages tells the story of two friends from Laguna Beach who also happen to be some kind of genius pot growers. They attract the interest of some serious cartel's south of the border and from here get into more trouble than they can handle. Apparently, the stuff that Ben, (Aaron Johnson who you'll recognize from Kick-Ass) a peaceful and charitable buddhist who double majored in business and botany, crafted is of its own variety and stands to be more potent and rare than anything else on the market. As our narrator O (Gossip Girl's Blake Lively) informs us, Ben takes 99% of the violence out of the drug business while that remaining one percent is handled by his best friend Chon (Taylor Kitsch of John Carter and Battleship). Chon is a former Navy Seal who joined the service in order to get the best seeds in the world from Afghanistan. In doing so the two have built a lucrative business and have somehow worked out a deal where they share O, which is short for Ophelia, as in the suicidal potential wife of Hamlet in Shakespeare's famous play. How this works between two drastically different guys is never really divulged and is really the center for most of the problems that Savages has in the first place. Oddly enough though, for all the excess of the film the actual relationship between three leads, while seemingly longing to be the most exploited aspect of the film, is actually the most reserved. Where the movie and its director doesn't shy away is in the violence and unpredictability of its several supporting characters. Herein lies the strength of the film as Salma Hayek, Benicio Del Toro, John Travolta all seem to be having loads of fun here.

Chon (Taylor Kitsch), O (Blake Lively), and Ben
(Aaron Johnson) form the love triangle
at the center of the story.

When the non-confrontational Ben decides to decline an offer from the Baja Cartel to join them, their demented and damaged leader Elena (Hayek) does not take kindly to the news of being told no. In order to get the boys and their business right where she wants them she has her heavy handed enforcer Lado (Del Toro) kidnap O and hold her for ransom until Ben and Chon decide to comply with her wishes. This naturally doesn't sit well with the short tempered Chon and it freaks the hell out of the non-violent Ben. It is hard to see where these guys became friends in the first place, but Stone is lucky to have nabbed Johnson for the role of Ben. Johnson is a gifted, if not slightly strange presence that matches the mystique necessary to bring Ben into a real, relatable human being for the audience. On the other hand we have Kitsch who has suffered two major flops so far this year, only one of which seeming to suffer more because of his performance. I was hoping Kitsch would redeem himself here though, and he certainly has. The weak link ends up being Lively as she neither has the credibility or the range to pull off a character who is so sure of herself in her sexuality and so commanding a presence that she should take charge of any situation immediately. In many ways, from what I've gathered about the source material O should be almost as unapologetic a character as Chon. Lively can't hold her own here though, especially when paired up with Hayek who is on fire here in every scene. Lively comes off as more a timid, spoiled, and annoying dumb blonde; a girl who conforms to the ways of what she just watched on MTV rather than the woman who does what she wants to do with no regard for what others think of her. It doesn't help that Lively carries the duty of relaying the story because it exposes her weaknesses within the part and makes the audience question why the two male leads might risk so much for a character we can hardly care about.

Dennis (John Travolta) is a dirty DEA-agent who
is always putting himself first.

Unfortunately, I was unable to read the novel on which this is based before venturing out to the theater to see it. I have to wonder if the transition from page to screen has taken simply the core elements of the story and flashed them across a canvas with careless execution. I would like to believe differently considering this is an Oliver Stone picture and I really do find him an interesting director, but that seems to be the case here. I was anxious, eager even to see this kind of return to the realm of Natural Born Killers for Stone, but Savages doesn't push the envelope in the right ways and instead ends up lingering as a piece of mayhem that involves the unnecessary and disappoints with the short-ended nature with how it treats us to a deeply corrupted and evil world. Only briefly pulling back the curtain completely to give us glimpses of things we don't want to see, but can't help but not look away from. Most of these scenes that in fact do succeed, and do redeem the film from its wallowing love story are the ones that involve an intimidating and unpredictable Benicio Del Toro. This is the kind of role Del Toro has perfected over the years whether it be in The Usual Suspects or Traffic, but he plays it so well he scores every time. I really wish this guy would do more. As for Travolta who portrays a dirty DEA-agent playing both sides of the game he just seems to be having a blast while running circles around the new, young guns who think they know everything and slickly navigating his way around Lado's unnerving interrogations. The three veteran actors here raise the material to the heights I hoped this film was going to originally surpass. The ideas are here, the execution is so sloppy though it turns a movie that could have been a grizzly account of real life drug dealers into a tale of a degenerating world that has long lost its grip on even the most senseless of inhabitants.

           

SAVAGES Review

After watching Savages, Oliver Stone's latest directorial effort, it seems he may have watched one too many Tony Scott films lately. The diverse director whose career I haven't really followed all that closely but have certainly appreciated many of his efforts including his political runs (Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July, JFK, Nixon, W., and World Trade Center) as well as his more mainstream features that tackle other subject matters (Wall Street, The Doors, Natural Born Killers, and Any Given Sunday). I have seen most of these and enjoyed a good number of them especially when Stone really feels passionate about the story he is telling. You can tell from the craft on the screen that he has put a lot of thought into what his audience is going to see. He has studied the subjects intently, if it was some type of biopic or the world in which his story will take place, he does the research and he knows what he is getting himself into. That still rings true when it comes to Savages, but the after effect of the movie as you walk out of the theater is one of slight confusion over what exactly you just witnessed. The highly saturated cinematography may make everyone on screen look gorgeous and sultry but the drug-dealing, and surprisingly overly familiar storyline become an incoherent mess right from the get-go. Not all is horrible as the film contains several redeeming qualities and even a few moments throughout that made me want to re-evaluate the film completely, but by the time the credits began to roll I was back to the fact that the movie, like its main characters, needed that something more to feel like it might reach its full potential.