Tag: Richard Jenkins

Jack Reacher

Twists and meaningless McGuffins galore, “Jack Reacher” requires a patience that this pulpy movie doesn’t fully earn.

Look, I get that killing is bad no matter how you go about doing it, but Jack Reacher is a plain thug. Only firing a gun if he’s within point blank range, Reacher prefers to beat the pulp out of lesser opponents, finally getting in a few brutal finishing moves to the crotch, by breaking legs or wrists or finally stomping someone’s face in.

He makes for a disturbingly cold action hero, and the movie that shares his name, “Jack Reacher,” feels much the same.

Blending TV crime procedural talking points with hyper violent vigilante excitement, “Jack Reacher” explores the investigation of a man who went on a sharpshooter killing spree, murdering five random and innocent people, only to frame the attack on an Iraq War veteran discharged for a similar attack. Just before he’s beaten and goes into a coma, he asks for Jack Reacher (Tom Cruise), his former military detective, to come and help him.

Based on Lee Child’s series of novels, “Jack Reacher” has a distinctly literary quality for an action film. It’s labored with a heavy backstory and conspiracy nuance, but all of it in arguably the wrong places. We learn an awful lot about the supposed murderer, the female lawyer, investigator and love interest (Rosamund Pike) and her relationship with her father (Richard Jenkins) and the bizarre mastermind without even much of a reason to be in the movie (Werner Herzog being absolutely sinister and iconic while barely lifting an eyebrow), but very little about the mysterious Jack Reacher. Continue reading “Jack Reacher”

Killing Them Softly

The thinly veiled allegory in “Killing Them Softly” is that the American system of economy and culture is broken, and the people pulling the strings may as well be sleazy, stupid criminals. I say that’s bull, not because I necessarily disagree with Director Andrew Dominik but because his broad analogies, over stylized film and nonsensical story prove nothing.

It’s about two gangsters, Frankie and Russell (Scoot McNairy and Ben Mendelsohn), who are hired to rob a mafia poker game. The logic behind this is that one of the bosses himself, Markie (Ray Liotta), planned such a heist before, and if it were to happen again, they’d know who to blame.

But the bosses, whoever they are, aren’t completely stupid, because they hire Jackie (Brad Pitt) to find Frankie and Russell and just treat Markie like a patsy. The thought process is, Markie and the boys need to die because a message needs to be sent to other members of the mafia that their money is safe and that the black market economy isn’t in danger.

This alone does not make a compelling argument for how American Capitalism works or doesn’t. So “Killing Them Softly” is set around the 2008 Presidential Election, and these gangsters are very well informed on politics. Car stereos are always tuned to talk radio, airport and bar TVs are switched to C-Span, and wherever you go, you hear George W. Bush or Obama talking about the economy.

Simply put, Dominik is reaching. Jackie seems to think he’s picking winners and losers by allowing some parts of this mob economy to fail and be eliminated and others to be bailed out and kept alive. But the specifics as to who dies and why seems vague, namely because this mob doesn’t operate in realistic ways at all.

There’s no sense of community here. There are no women, no backstories, no bosses, and no organized crime against the law-abiding society. There are only rules and senseless beatings. One of the mob’s messengers (Richard Jenkins) explains you can’t get anything done today without passing every money exchange and hit by a committee, which doesn’t seem plausible, only a plot device. Even the sleazy and unlikeable vermin that make up “Killing Them Softly” are constructed as such so that the movie can linger on their bile, like in one scene when Russell hears every dirty, meaningless word and threat out of his partner’s mouth in a slow motion, drug-soaked haze.

“Killing Them Softly” is disgusting, less so for its violence, which during a drive-by murder and car wreck is fetishized beyond belief, but more so for its repulsive characters and cynically repellent ideas about American politics.

2 stars

The Cabin in the Woods

Because all of “The Cabin in the Woods” comes as something of a surprise, this horror film’s real twist is that a movie this clever could end up having an ending so outrageous, cheap and dumb.

It sets loose five teenagers into a slasher-film playground and tempts them with sex, booby traps and creepy gas station attendants before unleashing zombies to murder them.

The clever conceit is that this is a game, if not an experiment, by a secret shadow corporation pulling all the strings. The employees have unexpected fun taking bets on how these kids will choose to die, be it ghosts, psychopathic clowns, mermen, zombies or the notably different family of redneck zombies.

The cute realization is that there are Hollywood studios operating just like this, dropping character types into a fish bowl and then spicing up the outcome with a new monster. Continue reading “The Cabin in the Woods”

The Man Who Wasn’t There

In “The Man Who Wasn’t There,” the Coen Brothers have crafted a beautifully bleak noir.

The Coen Brothers are no strangers to dour films with masterpieces such as “Fargo,” “No Country for Old Men” and “A Serious Man,” but their 2001 film noir is as gracefully desolate, lonely and saddening as any film they’ve ever made. Rarely is a film as beautiful as “The Man Who Wasn’t There” also this bleak.

The title refers to Ed Crane (Billy Bob Thornton), a man so empty of expressions, motivations or purpose that he literally seems absent minded from this world. He cuts hair for a living, but he’s never considered himself a barber.

So what is he? He looks at his wife (Frances McDormand) who he married after two weeks of dating and doesn’t seem to know either. The only thing he does know is that she’s having an affair with her boss, the successful department store owner Big Dave (James Gandolfini).

Ed decides to take a chance on an entrepreneur with the revolutionary idea of dry cleaning. He gets him the investment money by blackmailing Big Dave with the knowledge of his affair, and as is true of any noir, things begin to tumble with a little bit of crime and violence. Continue reading “The Man Who Wasn’t There”

Friends with Benefits

The surprisingly clever and enjoyable “Friends with Benefits” was hampered this year by coming out five months after the much worse reviewed “No Strings Attached.” Who really wanted to see another lame casual sex movie with the OTHER girl from “Black Swan?”

Believe it or not, Mila Kunis would here give Natalie Portman a run for her money as America’s sweetheart. Her character Jamie is not just quick witted and tough but seems free of the hang-ups of the inherently cute and mildly flawed leading lady of most romantic comedies.

There’s a scene early on where Kunis meets her equally charming costar Justin Timberlake, and he catches her walking on the baggage carousel at the airport. What I like is that she doesn’t double take or make an awkward, embarrassed face and rather seems to shrug it off as a kind of funny circumstance.

The whole film is self aware in that way. It’s the kind that just rips on other rom-coms and how silly they all are and winks at the camera with how self-aware it is before totally not innovating in the third act. Oh well, what can you do?

The answer of course is to be silly about it. Kunis and Timberlake have magnificent chemistry and don’t seem to take a minute of their somewhat clichéd screenplay too seriously. They show such stability and comfort in their friendly relationship that they stave off the movie’s urge to rush into the sappy will they/won’t they ending.

Both Kunis and Timberlake are sexy, funny and never intentionally embarrass themselves for a dumb laugh. They rattle off dialogue and the cross cutting can be a headache, but rather than make obscure pop culture references at every turn they seem to have down the inside jokes of a naturally compatible pair of friends.

“Friends with Benefits” is also the sort of movie that makes you blurt out, “What the hell is Woody Harrelson doing in this movie?” I also exclaimed at the appearance of Nolan Gould from “Modern Family,” but the real standout is the completely irreverent Patricia Clarkson. This disturbingly sex driven mother could’ve been a nightmare in another actress’s hands.

Now you’re asking, “So Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis are actually funny and likeable AND they take their clothes off?” Yes, who knew?

3 ½ stars