MACBETH Review

There is always the daunting feeling walking into a Shakespeare adaptation that you'll never be able to keep up with the story due to the language being fired off by actors rather than being able to personally read it and evaluate the dialogue in your own time. The same is true with director Justin Kurzel's (next year's Assassin's Creed) Macbeth for, while I was familiar with the story having read the play in high school, I couldn't remember every detail and I certainly wasn't familiar enough with the language to understand everything as would be necessary after only a single viewing. And so, the idea of watching the film, much less writing about it felt incredibly daunting. After attempting to strip my mind of everything but the cinematic experience I was about to embark on I immersed myself in the Scottish lore of the titular Thane as he was submerged into this hugely stylistic world that Kurzel would use to convey the complicated language of the play. It is in the imagery that Kurzel's interpretation excels and where it sets itself apart. Where it falters is in the changing of a few major aspects from the source material. Overall, this particular adaptation comes out a winner given it has the ability to connect with modern audiences through its expansive and dark visual prowess while briskly delivering the main ideas of Shakespeare's play. It doesn't hurt that Kurzel has recruited the talent of actors like Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard to convey such material to modern audiences as each contain enough gravitas in their stares alone to guarantee the audience pays attention. It is not in any of these individual facets that Kurzel's film fails to engage the audience, but simply in the amalgamation of so many experimental factors that they override the bare bones brutality of the story and all that it intends to say. I enjoy how much Kurzel uses his exceptional visual ability to convey the necessary story beats, but by more or less having screenwriters Jacob Koskoff, Michael Lesslie, and Todd Louiso compact the narrative into a less than two hour experience some of what the imagery suggests is lost in the lack development.

CHILD 44 Review

Child 44 is a movie that seems to want to be one thing, but doesn't know how to be that thing. It has ideas of how to be this grand period piece/spy thriller yet it isn't sure how to convey the inherently intriguing story it is dealing with. There aren't necessarily too many facets occurring or even a lack of focus, it's simply put: a script issue in that the gripping story wasn't told in the most gripping of ways. It is actually somewhat impressive that what was seemingly used as the shooting script was able to make it to that stage in the first place. If the film I saw was taken directly from the screenplay, and it's highly unlikely there was any improv on this set, then one would imagine it would come to light pretty obviously that there were some major structural problems that needed to be reassessed. Instead, director Daniel Espinosa (Safe House) and his exceptionally talented cast drift through this somber and distinctly cold film without seeming to notice that the pieces weren't congruent. There could be any number of reasons Espinosa and his crew didn't take note of these shortcomings while in the midst of shooting as I imagine there is a great pressure to get things done in a certain amount of time and under budget, but while something should have come of this in the editing room (where many directors admit the a film is truly made) the major issues still come back around to point their fingers at the script. Based on what the final product delivered this was more like the second draft of a screenplay rather than one further down the road, one that was able to find its voice and emphasis on particular themes. Adapted from a novel by Tom Rob Smith and written for the screen by Richard Price (who hasn't written a feature since 2006 and has tellingly worked more in television) the editors were unable to craft a slimmer film from the footage that was shot because each moment admittedly relies on a detail in the previous scene to move forward despite the two halves of the film feeling completely disconnected.

First Trailer for CHILD 44

Between The Dark Knight Rises, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Lawless and now Child 44 Tom Hardy and Gary Oldman might as well star taking roles in all of each others films no matter the lead. Still, the reason to be interested in the latest from director Daniel Espinosa (Safe House), for me at least, is that it features a seeming intense performance from Hardy. Hardy is not only one of the most exciting actors working today, but one of the most diverse and, in my opinion, the best. Between Locke and the (underrated) The Drop from last year Hardy has established himself alongside the likes of actors such as Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Fassbender who are young, still feel up and coming and yet have the power and credibility to make their own creative choices and do the projects they actually want to do. With that said, I can't help but be excited for what Child 44 holds and what kind of year it might kick off for Hardy who will follow it up with at least three more major projects by years end. As for the film itself, this first full trailer gives us plenty to chew on as it dives deep into the plot taking place in Moscow of 1952. A disgraced member of the military police (Hardy) investigates a series of nasty child murders after his fellow soldier and his wife lose their son. There is a distinct style to the piece and an atmosphere that is almost irrepressible. More than this, the premise is extremely dour and feels right in line with the kind of mood Hardy typically thrives best in. Child 44 also stars Paddy Considine, Joel Kinnaman, Jason Clarke, Noomi Rapace, Charles Dance, Vincent Cassel and opens on April 17th.

THE DOUBLE Review

I'm all for attempting innovation and being abstract and I understand to a certain extent I feel what director Richard Ayoade was trying to do here, but that it just isn't all that compelling and thus the reason I found it to be so dull. In fact, I felt like the whole time I was watching Ayoade's sophomore effort that I'd already seen this film and to much better and more engaging effect last month with Enemy. I liked his previous effort, 2010's Submarine, fine enough but never found it to be anything substantial or anything that moved me or left a mark in any way, but the idea alone of watching Jesse Eisenberg and his two distinct but recognizable personas go at it throughout the course of a film was intriguing enough on paper that to see it come to fruition must be an interesting experience to say the least, but as The Double rolled on and it became more and more evident that I wasn't going to be able to pick up what Ayoade was laying down I became all the more disappointed in myself strangely enough because unlike with Under the Skin, I truly feel like I'm missing something here, that Ayoade is such a clever, witty and intelligent individual that I must be missing a point or metaphorical reason he chose to convey this simple story in such an unconventional manner. Sure, I could applaud him for being daring and different in the way that he constructs his own world and his own society and his own rules in which that society functions that is just different enough from ours to be weird and the people act just weird enough in conjunction with the world that it all seems a little out of left field, a little uncomfortable and because of that I appreciate it rather than look down upon it because, well, at least he's trying. The fact of the matter is though, and I said this with Under the Skin also, is that trying to be different and actually accomplishing something original are two completely different things and whether it simply be because I enjoyed the style and tone that director Denis Villeneuve employed on Enemy more than that of Ayoade's here I felt that Enemy accomplished that level of uniqueness to greater effect than what The Double leaves you with because in all honesty I walked away from The Double with nothing more than a headache full of questions. Why did I stick the film out if I only saw it crashing and burning the moment I realized it wasn't going to be my cup of tea? Maybe to prove I can appreciate the academic, open mind of an artist and at least try to draw some meaning from it, but instead I was left cold with nothing to ponder and no questions that burned.

THE WORLD'S END Review

It's almost as if Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright were sitting around listening to Soup Dragons, reminiscing and thought what if that were the basis for the characters in the final installment of their Blood & Ice Cream trilogy. So lovingly referred to as this due to the recurring appearance of the Cornetto ice cream treat in each of the films that all began with 2004's Shaun of the Dead. That hilarious send up of the zombie film that was still able to function as a legitimate zombie film in itself surpassed any expectation or American satire that had come about recently. The same could be said for Hot Fuzz, doing for big, over the top, action movies what Shaun did for Zombies. With the third and final film in their trilogy Director Wright and stars Pegg and Nick Frost have not necessarily landed on another genre to spoof, but instead have mixed the formula up a bit while still holding true to the values that made the first two not just funny and enjoyable, but solid films in their own regard. The World's End comes to us in a time when we've had more than our fair share of apocalyptic ventures on the big screen and even this year what will likely end up being the second best comedy of the year (after this one, of course) is This Is The End. While The World's End isn't necessarily dealing with the end of days and is more a reference to the final pub at the end of a pub crawl that exists as a central plot device the name surely wasn't going to go to waste, not when this team of sci-fi loving writers, directors, and actors could layer on a level of the genre in their own film. And yet, while there are elements of those kinds of hokey, early sci-fi epics here the film never makes it its mission to pick up the tone or character traits from these films, but instead use them as a metaphor, a way to re-enforce the heart of the story they are trying to tell. In the end, this way of thinking is what has made these films and the people involved with making them so beloved by fan boys. Not because there are necessarily memorable laughs, but because they create characters we care about and tell stories we can relate to.

First Trailer for THE WORLD'S END

There has been much talk around Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost's final chapter in their Blood & Ice Cream trilogy that began with Shaun of the Dead and continued with Hot Fuzz. Though many fans have been anxiously awaiting this film for many years it also seemed like it might be out of the question from time to time as well (seeing as it took the gang twice as long to follow up Fuzz than it did Dead), but alas we now have the trailer for The World's End. The film chronicles an infamous pub crawl by five friends (Pegg, Frost, Martin Freeman, Eddie Marsan, and Paddy Considine) who attempted this once before in their younger years but were unable to make it to the final pub appropriately titled The World's End. Ringleader Gary (Pegg) is a a bit of an oddball and likely the most outlandish of the bunch as the trailer indicates he is the one gathering up his old group of now grown up business-type men who don't really care to try and make such an epic pub crawl. These characterizations only add to the humor as Pegg seems to simply be chewing every scene he gets and Frost is playing the opposite of what we've seen him do before in Dead, Fuzz, and even Paul. After grabbing the lead in The Hobbit I hope the comic talent of Freeman is also given a chance to shine here as I've enjoyed Freeman's work since seeing him as the original "Jim" in the British version of The Office. The only piece of bad news about this film is that the UK will be getting the film on August 14th while we here in the United States will have to wait an extra two months when the film will drop the week before Halloween. This is a bit of a let down as I originally thought this would be the late summer comedy that would break out as Will Ferrell and Adam McKay were pushing their's to December. Still, I can't wait to see the film, just upset we'll have to wait so long on this side of the pond. Hit the jump to check out the trailer.