LAST FLAG FLYING Review

It's 2003 and the memory of 9/11 is still fresh in the minds of most people. It's a time when men of a certain age found the noble thing to do to be to stand up and volunteer to fight for their country, to hunt down the Taliban, and rid the world of this evil that dared to disrupt the previous decade of peace America had experienced with the end of the Persian Gulf War in 1991. This marked the first opportunity for those that were just old enough to remember hints of the conflict in the Gulf War that presented a cause of their own to fight for. One of those who decided to take it upon themselves to do so was Larry 'Doc' Shepherd's son, Larry Jr., a Marine who we learn at the onset of the latest film from director Richard Linklater (Dazed & Confused, the Before trilogy) has been killed in action. It is in this tragedy and the context of these events that Linklater and co-writer Darryl Ponicsan, who also wrote the book this film is based on (and is something of a spiritual sequel to his 1970 novel, The Last Detail, which was also turned into a movie starring Jack Nicholson), come to examine the toll taken, the treatment versus the empty appreciation, and if the ultimate sacrifice would have been an easier route to take than the price most veterans pay for the rest of their lives. Last Flag Flying was initially published in 2004 and so it is very much a product of this great national tragedy itself where there was this immediate unification and call to action that lasted until many soldiers seemed to realize that such action wasn't all it was cracked up to be. That said, Linklater doesn't seem to be interested in making a political film, but rather one about the particular personalities of his three subjects and the necessary appreciation of their perspectives. It just so happens the military and the military lifestyle play a major role in who each of these men were and still are due to the fact this all-powerful entity is still dictating the way in which their lives and the lives of their loved ones do or do not play out. Like many Linklater films, there is more to Last Flag Flying than initially meets the eye as, on the surface, this largely looks to be a road trip movie that documents the rekindling of friendships with the power to work as a healing process for a single parties recent tragedy, but while the film serves this obvious purpose it also means to be a meditation on identity as well as who and/or how we allow that identity to be defined after we're gone.

First Trailer for Richard Linklater's LAST FLAG FLYING

The latest film from director Richard Linklater (Dazed and Confused, Boyhood) is upon us and while last year's rockus spiritual sequel to the auteur's breakout hit was an equally fun and insightful time at the movies it looks as if Linklater has switched back to more somber material for his latest endeavor as Last Flag Flying follows a former Navy Corps medic Larry "Doc" Shepherd (Steve Carell) who re-unites with old friends thirty years after serving together in Vietnam to bury his son, a young Marine killed in the Iraq War. Doc's friends include ex-Marine Sal Nealon (Bryan Cranston) and Reverend Richard Mueller (Laurence Fishburne) with the dynamic and history between the three seeming to carry the weight of the majority of this film as each of the three leads come to learn more about themselves and the lives they've led thus far through both their offspring and those they've met along the way. Based on a novel of the same name by Darryl Poniscan who adapted his own work into the screenplay with Linklater co-writing this looks to blend a variety of things that Linklater does well behind and through the camera. If you've ever seen any of the Before films then you're aware how engrossing Linklater can make a movie that contains nothing more than two people talking. And so, if Last Flag Flying was little more than these three incredibly charismatic actors sitting in a car talking about their lives and experiences as directed by Linklater I'd have no doubt it would be stellar, but considering the magnitude and timeliness of the circumstances not to mention the weight of the baggage that each of these three men certainly carry there is a whole other level that Linklater will be able to work with and on. As for the trailer itself, this looks appropriately solemn with, again, the three lead performances seemingly balancing the complex and various human emotions such a story no doubt entails. Last Flag Flying also stars Yul Vazquez and Cicely Tyson and will have its world premiere at the New York Film Festival on September 28th before opening in limited release on November 3rd.

THE INFILTRATOR Review

The Infiltrator opens with a nice little tracking shot through a 1985 bowling alley as Rush plays on the soundtrack and arcade games make up the lighting. We're informed we're in Tampa yet we're following a man with hair so black it can't be natural and who is wearing a jacket in what is no doubt an insanely hot summer. Something feels off. When the camera finally pans around from the back of the figures head to reveal Bryan Cranston's face and all the stories it tells with its many cracks and crevices, but still ruggedly handsome and definitive features most will know the set-up we've been dropped into. Given the context clues provided not only by the title of the film, but by what we see in the opening seconds it is clear Cranston is undercover and is preparing for a moment of some sort. He's effortless in his adaptation of the customs and dialect in which the men he's now keeping company with do business. From here we are given a brief and subtle glimpse of how adept Cranston's character, who we come to learn is U.S. Customs and Drug Enforcement Agent Robert Mazur, actually is at modifying his persona and adjusting to whatever the situation might call for which will naturally inform moments later in the film to be filled with even more tension once we become invested in the characters. In all honesty, you've seen this movie before. It is easy to pick up on the beats of the story and understand where things are headed even if the real life events this film depicts are likely much more complicated than we're led to believe. By containing this story to what are more or less genre trappings though, director Brad Furman (The Lincoln Lawyer) doesn't limit the power of the story or the tension that unfolds from these moments, but rather gives what is undoubtedly a sprawling epic guidelines by which the highlights and necessary information of Mazur's story can be communicated to a mass audience in a clear and effective way. The Infiltrator may feel somewhat familiar in its execution, but the exceptional cast led by Cranston and by virtue of the unique details that make up the familiar plot there is much to be taken from the film if one is looking for a white-knuckle crime drama worthy of that descriptor.

KILL THE MESSENGER Review

Kill the Messenger is a true tragedy. A discussion, a meditation on the human life and the countless directions it could go according to the mind that is guiding it. It is a story that takes on the model of what its main character goes through reinforcing the difficulty with which he experiences in trying to follow the guiding light he caught a glimpse of as a child. Despite what else might go on in his life Gary Webb (Jeremy Renner) is an idealistic journalist who believes in the power of his profession. He is a man held to the virtues of his responsibilities to the American public and, as he should, takes that responsibility seriously. He is as ambitious as he needs to be in wanting to crack the one big story that might break his career wide open and send him from the bowels of the San Jose Mercury News to the big leagues of the The Los Angeles Times or Washington Post though these ambitions never feel as important as his need to produce quality. What the film tells of more than it does necessarily follow the plot of the story Webb is investigating is the role of man in our society when he plays with the powers that be. What is wrong with our government if we are not allowed to question them without repercussion? In this case the repercussion is that of Webb becoming the story, his credibility called into question, rather than what he'd actually investigated and reported on being the story or point of focus. It is as much a commentary on the integrity of investigative journalism and how it has devolved into what we have today (the 24-hour news cycle on roids) as it is an interesting take on the state of our country which promises and promotes freedom, but will devour you if you take those liberties to a certain extent. Kill the Messenger is an engaging film, one reminiscent of those 1970's Robert Redford films (namely All the President's Men) taking the paranoid political thriller and transcending even that genre classification because of the real life weight the story holds. It is a film that I was thoroughly engrossed in from the way in which it developed Renner's character, giving us more of who this man was than simply a hungry reporter, without allowing the film to become bogged down in details. It is as thoroughly engrossing as it is heartbreaking and as it comes to its conclusion it reveals itself to be truly that.