Blogorium Review: Lawless

 There was pretty much no way I wasn't going to see Lawless, the new film from director John Hillcoat (The Proposition, The Road) and writer Nick Cave (of "and" The Bad Seeds, The Dirty Three, and in this film The Bootleggers). In fact, I broke my "don't go see a movie alone" for the first time since Eyes Wide Shut to catch a 9:25 showing the night it opened. While I used my employee ability to see it for free, believe me when I say I would have paid to watch Lawless. With that combination of director and writer, a story (based in fact) about three brothers who bootleg alcohol during prohibition and the cast they'd lined up, I wasn't expecting to be disappointed.

 The Bondurant brothers: Forrest (Tom Hardy), Howard (Jason Clarke), and Jack (Shia LeBouf) distill moonshine in Franklin county, Virginia, the "wettest county in the world" and business has been good to them. The brothers are the stuff of legend around Franklin county, in large part because Forrest has the ability to survive injuries and illnesses that would kill any other man. His "indestructible" nature and propensity for speaking little and sudden, brutal outbursts of violence have the respect of other moonshiners, and keeps the unpredictable Howard and sensitive Jack in their good graces. Things change when the normally amenable local police come under the jurisdiction of Mason Wardell (Tim Tolin) and Special Deputy Charles Rakes (Guy Pearce) come in from Chicago and begin making demands, or else.

 Forrest decides not to play along, raising the ire of Rakes and ending up on the wrong side of a screwdriver to the throat. Jack, eager to prove he's strong enough to be a part of the family business, strikes a deal with Chicago gangster Floyd Banner (Gary Oldman) and keeps the Bondurants in business while his older brother recovers. In the meantime, Jack decides he wants to woo Bertha Mennix (Mia Wasikowska), the daughter of a local preacher. She takes a liking to him, but her strict religious family recognizes trouble immediately. The success of the Bondurant boys enrages the Special Deputy, and he reveals just how far he's willing to go to end the legend of Forrest Bondurant once and for all.

 In a lot of ways, Lawless is a companion piece to The Proposition, and not merely because both are "period" stories; both films deal with familial bonds between brothers on the wrong side of the law and the consequences that can bring, albeit to different ends. Outside factors force the brothers to choose against their best interests in order to protect each other. If The Proposition is a "western" set in colonial Australia, then Lawless is a rural "gangster" film mostly without gangsters. Floyd Banner is a minor role, and while the boys do travel to Chicago to do business, if you're expecting something like Boardwalk Empire based on the chronological setting, prepare yourselves accordingly. This is more like Public Enemies by way of Matewan, but in a the best possible sense. Like The Proposition, it is a violent film, at times graphically so, and with that in mind I can understand why Roger Ebert considers it the kind of story that only deals with horrible people doing horrible things.

 From people I've talked to, Shia LeBeouf seems to be their concern as the "weak link" in an otherwise strong cast, but I have to say that as the weakest of the brothers, as the one who most desperately wants to impress Forrest, LeBeouf's Jack has much of Lawless to carry and does it quite well. You can understand what he sees in Bertha and why she's taken with him, even if the Bondurant reputation keeps her at bay. Speaking of which, Wasikowska has what should be the thankless "love interest" role and makes Bertha someone we care about, someone we worry for when Jack lets success get to his head. To be fair, Jack's success alongside Cricket Pate (Chronicle's Dane DeHaan) is born out of hard work, and when things go well, it's hard to blame them for celebrating and emulating the likes of Floyd Banner and Al Capone.

 Guy Pearce nearly steals the show as Charlie Rakes, the preening, squeaky-voiced Special Deputy with an affinity for brutality, matched only by his insistence on keeping clean at all times. Rakes wears one pair of gloves when beating Jack and another for when he chooses to use his gun. It's a greater insult to mar his face or mess his hair than to openly break the law, although it turns out there's one thing that Rakes hates even more than being disliked by criminals. With his shaved eyebrows and strange accent, it would be easy for Charlie Rakes to slip into caricature, to stand out too much from the rest of the cast, but Pearce always keeps him in check, a potent threat and not merely a joke of an antagonist.

 I realize I haven't even mentioned Jessica Chastain, who plays Maggie Beauford, a woman who left Chicago and came to Franklin county looking for work. She ends up in the gas station / restaurant the Bondurants use as a "cover" for their business, and like everybody else in Lawless, her history is far more complicated than one might suspect. Chastain has more to work with than Wasikowska as a character, and I was pleasantly surprised that despite what and who Maggie knows that her character's development is more than a plot device. There are a number of other recognizable actors in smaller roles that made me happy as the film went on: Noah Taylor (Almost Famous, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou) is Floyd Banner's right hand man, Lew Temple (The Devil's Rejects, Unstoppable) is one of Franklin county's deputies, and even Jason Clarke, the Bondurant brother who isn't as well known, has been memorable on Brotherhood and in Death Race, Public Enemies, and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.

 Okay, so clearly I haven't even mentioned Tom Hardy yet, who is the main attraction for most people who don't know who John Hillcoat is. After The Dark Knight Rises, he's on everybody's radar, and while I'd love it if more of you would go back and watch Bronson, Layer Cake, Inception, or Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, I'm happy you're going to see Lawless because he's in it. And disappoint Hardy does not: Forrest Bondurant is mostly silent, and Hardy finds ways to diminish his size under baggy sweaters and an oversized fedora. When Forrest speaks, he often begins by muttering or making a noise that feels less like an acting choice and more like an appropriate reaction to he's just heard. There's a great scene near the end of the film between Hardy and Chastain that suggests even Forrest can't separate the legend from fact about his life.

 I mentioned before that Lawless is based on a true story, documented in The Wettest County in the World by Matt Bondurant, grandson of one of the brothers. The film closes with a picture of the real Bondurant brothers as boys, and gives greater context to Jack's narration during the film, one that rides the line between the myth of the family and the reality as it moves forward to the other side of Prohibition. Also adding to the film's slightly unreal quality is the choices in music (performed by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, as well as The Bootleggers, Ralph Stanley, Willie Nelson, and Emmylou Harris), most of which are anachronistic to say the least.

 That said, while it's initially strange to hear "White Light / White Heat" or Townes Van Zandt's "Snake Song" in a film set in the 1930s, the lyrically appropriate choices don't distract in a way that, say, Moulin Rouge does. Only "White Light / White Heat" is immediately recognizable, and it appears more than once during the film in different incarnations.

 Finally, this may simply be the Cap'n alone on crazy island, but the climactic showdown of Lawless reminded me of the end of Porky's. That's not in any way meant to diminish my enjoyment of the film, or even to suggest that the two movies are in any way similar, but somewhere my loony brain made that synaptic connection. Go figure.

Blogorium Review: Attack the Block

 Attack the Block is a movie I'd been interested in, but cautiously optimistic about. Films that seem to come out of nowhere and get heavy praise from "geek" friendly websites tend to reach a fever pitch of hyperbole about how "awesome" it is. By the time the average moviegoer gets to see an Attack the Block or Kick-Ass or Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (or even Stardust), the end result is underwhelming. These movies aren't usually the second coming, and even if they are really good (and Attack the Block is better than really good), they get beaten up for not living up to exaggerated hype. Opportunistic bloggers and critics sick of hearing how "amazing" something is will use this disconnect to "take the film down a peg" and the general public is left with the impression that the latter opinion is more trustworthy.

 The film is sort of a mirror universe version of Harry Brown, where the kids are the heroes and instead of a cantankerous old man, visitors from outer space threaten their way of being.  I noticed that the first wave of really negative reviews of Attack the Block focused on the fact that the "heroes" of the film are not only anti-heroes, they're downright unlikable for long stretches of the film. Windham Tower in South London is the home of Moses (John Boyega), Pest (Alex Esmail), Jerome (Leeon Jones), Biggz (Simon Howard) and Dennis (Franz Drameh). The first thing you see them do is rob Sam (Jodie Whittaker), a nurse who lives in the same building (though they don't know that yet).

 The gang of teenagers are interrupted when a creature falls from the sky and destroys the car near them, and while investigating, Moses is attacked by the alien. The boys decide to chase the alien down and kill it, and instead of being afraid, they parade its body around the neighborhood, bragging about how they run the block. Eventually deciding it might be worth money, they take it to the top floor where Ron (Nick Frost) sells weed, and Moses hides the alien corpse in his grow room with the permission of Hi-Hatz (Jumayn Hunter). From the window they see more creatures falling (overlooked by most of London because of the fireworks) and head out to kill more aliens. Unfortunately, the new arrivals are a lot more dangerous, and they seem very interested in Moses and his friends.

 I can understand why some critics don't enjoy the fact that audiences are asked to cheer for characters who are (at best) petty criminals. They continue to threaten Sam after an arrest goes wrong thanks to alien attacks and force her to help Pest when one of the creatures bites his leg. They seem to think that it's okay that they robbed her and that things are evened out because she was in the police van when they escaped, so they "saved her life." When things calm down and she mentions that she was thinking of moving because she "didn't like the neighborhood," the boys berate her and Biggz tries to leave her to the aliens when they abandon her first floor apartment. The best apology Moses can offer is that they wouldn't have robbed her if they knew she lived on the block. It's a tough sell for audiences, even if the film ends in a more realistic way than most science fiction films would. It's an odd balance between racial, class, and gender tensions with an alien invasion movie, and I can see why some people react negatively.

 That said, the film is really a lot of fun. Director and writer Joe Cornish keeps things moving at a brisk pace and never over-explains anything. There's no fat in the film: Brewis (Luke Treadway), a Zoology student / pot head that provides what may be the only exposition in the film, and while there are subplots that involve Hi-Hatz (the boys crash into his car and incur the wrath of an underwritten character) and two younger kids - Probs (Sammy Williams) and Mayhem (Michael Ajao) - who look up to the gang, Attack the Block is mostly focused on the boys, Sam, and the "big alien-gorilla-wolf motherfuckers."

 The aliens are sort of like the monsters from Critters, except with longer arms and legs like apes. They're fur and glowing blue teeth, and seemed to the Cap'n to be a mix of practical puppets and CGI. As nemeses, they're a palpable threat, and unlike many "young people vs. mystical something," there are casualties within the gang - usually in vicious ways. Cornish wisely doesn't over-use them, and the logic behind why they might be on Earth is solid enough. Really they just need to be dangerous, which they are, and to keep the tension high and the pace elevated. Cornish uses smoke from Pest's firecrackers to create suspense at critical junctures in the film, and the narrow walls of the apartment complex keep the boys with few options but to fight.

 Whether you like the characters or not (and it's hard not to at least appreciate the Boyega's charismatic Moses), Attack the Block is a very well made film that is getting all kinds of attention because Edgar Wright is an executive producer (Cornish is a friend of Wright's and appeared directed Fuzzball Rally, which followed the press tour for Hot Fuzz). I don't know that I'd say that Wright appears to have influenced Attack the Block in any noticeable way (other than possibly casting Frost in a smaller role than the poster indicates), and the film is more John Carpenter-esque than anything else. I really think that people will enjoy Attack the Block as long as they ignore over-the-top praise. Yes, it is funny. Yes, it is unabashedly R-rated (violence and language), and yes, it's a nice take on the "alien invasion" genre. It's not going to make you breakfast the next morning or walk your dog. Sorry; Attack the Block is just a movie. A damn good movie, which is more than enough for me.

Blogorium Review: Harry Brown

Coming into Harry Brown, I had misgivings that the film was somewhat like Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino, a comparison that popped up repeatedly during the film's brief release. The truth is that Harry Brown is much more Death Wish than Gran Torino; where Eastwood's film is more about stubbornness in the face of change, writer Gary Young and director Daniel Barber's film is akin to Charles Bronson's "this place has gone to hell and somebody has to stand up!" series. A few of the deleted scenes hint at a film more like Gran Torino (particularly a conversation between Brown and a priest after Len's funeral), but Harry Brown is an efficient, well made thriller that manages to add nuance to a normally black and white narrative.

Michael Caine is Harry Brown, an elderly soon-to-be widower living in a lower class estate (i.e. housing project) besieged by hooligans. Well, hooligans sounds less threatening (thanks in part to Bill Hicks' "there's no crime in England" bit on Arizona Bay), but these young drug runners / rabble rousers / violent gang members - introduced in the film by a cell phone video of initiation by crack pipe, followed by a drive by shooting of a young mother - are a menace to everyone living in the estate, so much so that Brown would rather walk around the neighborhood than pass through the pedestrian tunnel they inhabit.

When Brown's wife Kathy passes, he's left with his friend Leonard Atwell (David Bradley) and bartender Sid Rourke (Liam Cunningham) to keep him occupied, but Len's fear of abuse by the local gang ends tragically, and Harry Brown is left with nothing left but his training in the Marines and an overwhelming urge for justice. Circling his quest for revenge are D.I. Alice Frampton (Emily Mortimer) and D.S. Terry Hickock (Charlie Creed-Miles), local police assigned to Leonard's murder.

Barber and Young find ways to deliver exposition in short, clear bursts, almost entirely with imagery: without saying a word, the film establishes that Harry and Kathy also had a daughter, that she died, and that her death coupled with Kathy's pushes Harry further into a hopeless state, one compounded by Len's ensuing death. Harry Brown is a film abut showing rather than telling, so when bits of exposition (like a story Harry tells to a dying arms dealer about war) appear, they feel organic rather than shoehorned into the plot. Harry's growing disdain for the police investigation compound his grief and bring out a man he "decided never to be again."

We meet the gang in an equally efficient series of police interviews, allowing us enough time to get some idea of who these kids are, what their place is in the gang, and hints at why they have such disdain for the authorities, all in less than ten minutes. I appreciated the fact that the kids in the estate have a good reason for not liking the ineffectual, arrogant local police: Frampton, a transfer to the homicide division, finds herself at odds with S.I. Childs (Iain Glen), a chief more concerned with good publicity and drug busts than working within his community.

When a raid late in the film turns violent, it's clear that police presence in their estate only incites the neighborhood kids to increase the hostility. At the same time, while their motive for hating authority is understandable, Barber and Young never let the central criminals - Noel (Ben Drew), Carl (Jamie Downey), and Marky (Jack O'Connell), and Dean (Lee Oakes) - off the hook for killing Leonard, even if it was in self-defense (as a cell phone video Marky shows Harry proves). Whether or not you agree with their behavior, they believe they have cause for it, creating an interesting struggle in perspective.

It's also important - and rare for this kind of film - to point out that Kathy isn't killed by the gang. Neither is their daughter, who probably died long before the criminals were born. Harry passively watches the kids break into a car and viciously beat its owner into the curb, and initially leaves out the critical detail about who the knife that killed Len belonged to, and his decision to turn violent is calculated, deliberate, and brutal following accidentally stabbing Dean after a drunken night at the pub.

One buys Harry Brown's transformation primarily because Caine straddles the line between old & frail and highly trained assassin with ease. Unlike Eastwood in Gran Torino, you don't initially believe that Harry Brown is a "guy you shouldn't fuck with"; he seems like an old man, just hanging on because he doesn't know how not to. At the same time, this is Michael Caine, and at all times one is aware that he can turn that switch and be the badass these punks can't deal with. And, of course, he does. If it helps, think of your reaction to Liam Neeson in Taken compared to watching the film unfold. Even Charles Bronson, who is supposed to be a "regular guy," still has a face chiseled out of stone in Death Wish. Credit to Michael Caine to believably shifting Harry Brown over the arc of the film.

The rest of the cast is comprised of familiar British faces from TV and cinema, including Mortimer (Elizabeth, Shutter Island, Redbelt), Creed-Miles (The Fifth Element, Nil by Mouth), Glen (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Doctor Who), Cunningham (Dog Soldiers, RKO 281), and particularly David Bradley, who most viewers will recognized as Filch, the eternally suspicious groundskeeper of Hogwarts in the Harry Potter series. It's actually such a shift in character type that I'd daresay that Potter fans will be impressed to see Bradley play a nuanced role.

Harry Brown stumbles a little bit at the end: in an attempt to make the crime more "institutional" outside of the estate, an otherwise minor character is elevated at the eleventh hour to "criminal mastermind" in a way that, while hinted at throughout the film, never quite gels with the revenge narrative. While it is a distraction, I hesitate to say it derails an otherwise fine film, made with care and precision to keep audiences invested throughout. Harry Brown is certainly a breath of fresh air in a genre that appeared to have lost its edge.