Sicario (2015)

Directed by: Denis Villeneuve
Country: USA

Movie Review: “Sicario” is an adult, virile, expertly crafted thriller. Just as we expected since it was directed by the acclaimed Quebecois filmmaker, Denis Villeneuve, who already had stun us with the rigorous “Polytechnique”, the thrilling “Incendies”, and the enigmatic “Enemy”. His last, “Prisoners”, despite the great performances of Hugh Jackman and Jake Gylenhaal, was the weakest link of a vibrant career, a sort of a breach that “Sicario”, which intelligently addresses an exceptional operation carried out by the CIA to hunt the leader of a drug cartel that infests the troublesome US-Mexican border, comes now to restore. The TV series actor, Taylor Sheridan, has an auspicious debut on screenwriting, devising a story that never felt unreal, strained, or pretentious. Every move is made seamlessly, and even the darkest and most violent moments are compelling and utterly absorbing. Emily Blunt is Kate Macer, an acute FBI agent who plays an important tactical role in a SWAT team that recently has discovered dozens of mutilated bodies concealed in a secluded house in Arizona. Almost without any explanation, she’s assigned to help with an unclear CIA mission said to occur around the El Paso area. Kate will operate under the orders of Matt (Josh Brolin), a flippant consultant for the Department of Defense, who doesn’t stop to surprise us along the way. He’s the kind of guy who goes to important meetings wearing flip-flops, adopts a disconcerting posture when questioned, and embraces a natural carefree attitude. The team also relies on the ambiguous Alejandro (Benicio Del Toro), a drug-cartel connoisseur with a shadowy past. His determination may be similar to Kate’s, but his true motivations, integrity, and modus operandi are totally distinct. “Sicario” carries high levels of tension, a considerable number of violent action scenes, and a psychological side that works in the plenitude of its possibilities. It doesn’t cross the borders of perfection (a redundant subplot involving a Mexican police officer feels time-consuming), however, it’s equipped with a down-to-earth photography, a disquieting musical score, and gutsy action scenarios. All the performances were phenomenal, but Del Toro is the one who steals great part of the show.

Five Star (2014)

Directed by: Keith Miller
Country: USA

Movie Review: Presented as a low-key fiction-documentary hybrid, “Five Star”, stars James ‘Primo’ Grant, a real member of the Brooklyn’s gang Bloods since the age of 12, who playing himself, might gain some sympathy from some viewers, even considering that this type of characters are usually seen as ruthless and despicable when portrayed in movies. A real life environment, in which we see the protagonist doing multiple jobs, such as security or bodyguard, in order to provide for his family, may do the trick. The film starts with a long shot of Primo talking about his family and how he missed the birth of his beloved son while he was locked in a prison. He says he promised his kids to never leave them again. Back into the vicious streets he knows as the palm of his hand, he proceeds with the illicit business, always honoring the agreements made and demanding respect (the word we hear the most) from the clients as well as from his own members. As he decides to be a better father and husband, he’s also willing to give an opportunity to John Diaz, who learns the codes and culture followed by the gang. John is a difficult teenager whose father, Primo’s mentor, was killed by a stray bullet. Even respecting his good mother very much, John doesn’t hesitate to refuse a job in a local supermarket to accept the offer of Primo who keeps insisting that in his ‘business’ there’s no room for mistakes. There’s no need to say that problems arise when John is assigned with his first package drop-off. Director Keith Miller (“Welcome to Pine Hill”) deliberately leaves ambiguity hovering in terms of what is fiction and what is real, as the film runs at an unhurried pace. He avoids violent scenes, but builds an acceptable tension throughout the episodes that are captured by an often-unsteady camera. The performances, if not great, could have been worse, taking into account the actors’ inexperience. “Five Star” was never vibrant, but it was still able to make us think about the lives of these men, trapped into the mean streets since the day they were born.

The Mend (2014)

Directed by: John Magary
Country: USA

Movie Review: Although “The Mend” weaves a few laughable predicaments, I wouldn’t properly call it a comedy. John Magary’s independent debut feature is a vicious, punishing, and scathing study of characters, starring Josh Lucas and Stephen Plunkett as two dysfunctional brothers who simultaneously live in a devouring emotional crisis that leads to self-degradation and existential chaos. Mat (Lucas) and Alan (Plunkett) are suffering from the same ailment - emotional instability - but react in very different ways. The former is lax, unpredictable, and totally carefree (almost self-destructive), spending most of his time wandering the streets of New York, whereas the latter seems unaffected at a first glance, keeping his anger and frustration in an invisible inner level, but despite acting adequately and having a steady job as a legal aid lawyer, he’s prone to easily degenerate in the face of a problem. Instability is not the only point they have in common: both have girlfriends who love them, and they both hold a grudge against their absent father who was diagnosed with Parkinson. On the day before their vacation trip to Quebec, Alan and his girlfriend, Farrah (Mickey Sumner), are giving a small party in their cozy apartment in Harlem when they spot the intruder Mat among the guests. Mat, who apparently broke up with his girlfriend, Andrea (Lucy Owen) and her son after an argument, plans to stay in the apartment while his brother is away, and soon the place is turned into a complete mess. When bedbugs invade Mat’s girlfriend’s apartment, he invites her to the house exactly when Alan unexpectedly arrives from his vacations alone. Devastated and numbed, the latter will admit later that Farrah left him, and now he feels completely adrift. The filmmaking style of Mr. Magary resembles the enthralling realism of the Safdie brothers, boosted by Judd Greenstein and Michi Wiancko’s intriguingly suggestive score, strong dialogues, and the compelling performances from the four main characters. Nevertheless, the film isn’t flawless, occasionally abandoning the required straightforwardness to become diffuse, uneven, and overextended. I had the sensation that the insanity and disorder grow a bit out of proportion in a few crucial scenes.

Gabriel (2014)

Directed by: Lou Howe
Country: USA

Movie Review: Well explored in its thematic and evincing a doleful temperament, “Gabriel” is a crushing drama directed by Lou Howe and starring Rory Culkin as the title character, a psychotic young man who struggles to find some meaning in a life that has been tough to him since he was a kid. The opening scene, where Gabriel, traveling in a bus, offers a cigarette to a little girl and then replies ‘we’re just fucking around’ to her mother when she asks what he was doing, is perfectly demonstrative of how this affected character can behave. Anxious, shaky, and sometimes insolent, the fatherless Gabriel delays the re-encounter with his worried mother and exemplary brother, just to try to find Alice, a former girlfriend whom he wants to marry with, even if he doesn’t see her for a couple of years. This fixation drives him to actions whose consequences are not less than devastating. Before that, there’s time for him to feel overwhelmed and act strangely in front of his family, repeating ‘I’m not my dad’. This statement comes from the fact that he blames his mother and brother for the suicide of his father, the main cause of his trauma. Only his grandmother patiently calms him down for brief periods and forgives his reproachable posture. In turn, his mother, despite acting endearingly, is not much of a help, especially when she says: ‘I couldn’t fix your dad after trying for so many years. And I can’t fix you either’. It’s sad to realize that Gabriel can’t have his own space, as well as the assistance he needs to revitalize his confidence and build the future he dreams – ‘I just want to live like a normal person; have a job, a wife, a life!’. Even so, on a darker scenario, it’s also sad that his urgent actions don’t have an acceptable fundament, being just a desperate attempt to stop the anguish and the restlessness that never leave him. Is Alice the real solution for his displacement? Rory Culkin gives one of the best performances of his career, conveying a believable, painful delirium that is hard to forget.

American Ultra (2015)

Directed by: Nima Nourizadeh
Country: USA / Switzerland

Movie Review: Despite the fondness I have for the solid work of Jesse Eisenberg, reinforced recently by his marvelous performance in “The End of the Tour”, the actor was relegated to a half-depressive, half-sensitive, programmed puppet in the action-comedy flick “American Ultra” by the Iranian-British filmmaker Nima Nourizadeh, who directed according to a script by Max Landis (“Chronicle”). The skilled Eisenberg plays Mike Howell, an apparently common American citizen who works as a clerk in a West Virginia convenience store, likes to smoke pot, struggles with common panic attacks, and loves his girlfriend, Phoebe (Kristen Stewart), more than anything in the world. But after all, nothing is so simple, and Mike is a highly trained CIA agent who is suddenly ‘activated’ by his former supervisor, Victoria (Connie Britton), when she learns that her ridiculous rival, Yates (Topher Grace), plans to destroy him - the one who she considers an asset of several past missions and whose memories were erased. His activation means that the confused Mike (‘am I real?’, he asks), who finds out that his beloved Phoebe is also a CIA agent, is turned into a killing machine that instantly and brutally responds to any attack or threat against him. Mike has to deal with Yates’ operatives, in particular, a psycho called Laugher (Walton Goggins), but counts on his dealer friend, Rose (John Leguizamo) - just another shallow character - to help him survive. Evincing a debilitated script, “American Ultra” promises gold, but delivers pinchbeck instead, shooting in every direction and struggling to find its own voice in the mix of genres embraced. Unfortunately, whether on comedy or action, the film is far from pleasing. Mr. Nourizadeh’s intentions to make the film look like wild and stirring, and at the same time sound funny, were thwarted by his own sense of urgency. He depicts chaos in a thin, occasionally extravagant way, also failing to reach the immediacy of a good joke. Everything seems hackneyed, from the protagonist to the side characters, and in the end, we may categorize this one as AUFF or an American Ultra Formulaic Film.

Listening (2015)

Directed by: Khalil Sullins
Country: USA / Cambodia

Movie Review: “Listening”, legitimately cooked by debutant writer-director, Khalil Sullins, is a sci-fi thriller with little dramatic impact and espionage innuendo. The film follows David Thorogood (Thomas Stroppel) and Ryan Cates (Artie Ahr), two penniless grad students who are capable of outline the most brilliant tech ideas and execute them, but are powerless when it comes to the expensive equipment for the experiments. However, their keenness and the excitement that comes from the possibility of being recognized by a great invention, dare them to steal the hardware pieces from the university lab. Their unauthorized experimentation, consisting in a mind-reading system in which one brain deciphers another brain, is carried out in the congested garage of David, who is so committed to it, that he easily forgets his family. This provokes the discontentment of his wife, Mel (Christine Haeberman), whose understanding and cooperation come to an end when they receive a note of eviction due to lack of payment. Moreover, a sense of mistrust had arisen when David asks her to connect her mind to his. The reason is that the images she sees, pulled out of his brain, are strictly sexual and involves a previous session with Jordan (Amber Marie Bollinger), an expedient tech expert who had joined them. The two sagacious friends, amidst renouncements and misfortunes, are lead to a stupendous opportunity in a governmental organization called Darkbird II, which is narrowly controlled by the austere, Matthews (Steve Hanks). The tempting high salary paid by the organization makes the aspiring Ryan, who couldn’t even afford his grandmother’s casket, to forget morals, ethics, and privacy, aspects that David is not willing to be deprived of. “Listening”, which was no more than rudimentary in its presentation and no less than feisty in terms of plot, was able to infuse a flickering tension that wasn’t enough to secure it tightly. Eminently perceptible in its looks, was the mutable saturated color tones used to represent the exterior (yellow), home (blue), garage (green), and the Darkbird premises (white).

Time Out of Mind (2014)

Directed by: Oren Moverman
Country: USA

Movie Review: The timid, but ultimately affecting drama, “Time Out of Mind”, observes the daily routines of a New York City homeless, played expressively by the revived Richard Gere. The film opens with George (Gere), struggling with a hangover, being kicked out by the landlord of the house he occupies. His bed had been the bathtub of the house for a while, and now he’s forced to find a shelter to survive the cold winter nights. The difficulty of being accepted in these shelters, which demand curfews and upset the homeless with a bunch of undesirable questions, in addition to the bureaucracy involved in filing a supposedly simple application for emergency food stamps and cash benefits, almost drive him crazy. Yet, all these annoying issues are considered of minor importance when compared to the fact that his inflexible, estranged daughter, Maggie (Jena Malone), repudiates him in every attempt to establish contact. This is the most painful gap in his miserable existence. The messed up George, alternating between moments of consciousness (he finally accepts he’s homeless) and quasi-delusional states provoked by the alcohol, knows he’s got to try harder, even if he needs to humiliate himself in front of her. Apart from this emotional central idea, the film depicts a few idiosyncratic encounters with some of the quirky homeless characters who inhabit the shelter, cases of the inopportune Jack (Jeremy Strong), who even has a job, and the conflicting and mouthy Dixon (Ben Vereen), who claims he was a jazz musician and sticks to George as a bloodthirsty tick when attached to a source of nourishment. The quarrels between them are stupidly trivial, functioning as a natural constituent of their unassuming friendship. Richard Gere talks more through sad eyes and fatigued expressions than really through words, while writer-director Oren Moverman (“The Messenger”, “Rampart”), equilibrating pretentiousness and honesty, adopts a voyeuristic style, shooting obsessively behind glass windows to create image reflexes, layers, and overlaps.

7 Chinese Brothers (2015)

Directed by: Bob Byington
Country: USA

Movie Review: “7 Chinese Brothers”, whose title wrongly suggests a gangster Asian movie or a martial arts adventure, is an insubstantial American indie comedy, containing a few good - if immature - ideas that drive us into a dead end. Jason Schwartzman, habitual presence in Wes Anderson’s comedies and the star in the astute comedy-drama ‘Listen Up Philip’ by Alex Ross Perry, who also appears briefly here as an actor, bestows odd movements, imbecilic facial expressions, and a reckless posture, in a performance that attempts to give shape to his character: Larry, the slacker. Fired from his job for stealing money from the tips jar, Larry, who often embarks in French monologues and nonreversible chats with his equally lazy dog, finds another job in the Quick-Lube garage where he is manipulated by the affronting co-worker, Jimmy (Jimmy Gonzales), and is attracted to his handsome boss, Lupe (Eleanore Pienta). Meanwhile, he keeps visiting his spirited grandma (Olympia Dukakis) at the nursing facility, especially when he’s broke and needs some easy cash. His best friend, Major Norwood (Tunde Adebimpe), is the one who takes care of her. After she dies, it’s with no surprise that her inheritance, of 1.3 million dollars, goes entirely to the likeable Major and not for the opportunist, indolent, and insensible grandson, whom she accused of wanting to patronize her. As the main character, director Bob Byington doesn’t put much effort on his filmmaking style, comprised of realistic but inelegant scenarios with an inclination for dereliction. Weird and not so funny, “7 Chinese Brothers” is short in duration (76 min.) but can get you pretty bored, especially if it gets you in one of those days that you’re not in the mood for this kind of pretentious quirkiness. In order to succeed, it relies on the inalterable acting of its cast and a bunch of incongruous situations that are presented with a false feel-good disposition. Sadly, not even the good ideas could be validated by an execution that, on no account, touched harmony. There are much better films about slackers out there that overwhelm Mr. Byington’s forgettable prank.

Queen of Earth (2015)

Directed by: Alex Ross Perry
Country: USA

Movie Review: New York-based filmmaker, Alex Ross Perry, proves to be one of the most lucid and audacious storytellers of our time. After an examination of personal dissatisfaction and ego in the absorbing “Listen Up Philip”, Mr. Perry distinctively crosses a difficult, dramatic barrier in his latest “Queen of Earth”, a meditation on depression and how it can devastate relationships. Even before the opening credits, we are shown a close-up of the terrific actress Elisabeth Moss, in a disconsolate state; the tears roll down her face, blurring the make-up around her sad eyes. She plays Catherine, an artist wannabe who always lived in the shadow of her father, a renowned artist from New York who died recently. Despite the persistent pain associated with that loss, she cries because her dishonest boyfriend, James (Kentucker Audley), just announced the end of their relationship. In the next scene, we’re transported to a house in Hudson Valley that will serve as a one-week refuge for Catherine and her best friend, Virginia (Katherine Waterston), to spend a good time together like they did one year before. Yet, nothing is the same now since Catherine seems alienated, many times confined to her dark room, sleeping too much or too less, eating junk food, and saying she’s not in the mood for talking due to some stupid reason. Their relationship deteriorates even more when Virginia starts bringing the boy next door, Rich (Patrick Fugit), into the house. The provocative Rich is not well tolerated by Catherine, who gets somewhat jealous and uncomfortable with his frequent questions, insinuations, and unnerving posture. She feels more and more insecure, abandoned, and neurotic, eventually losing the little emotional control that she’s still able to find during a tremulous private party at the house. Flashbacks from one year before helps us understand how the things were and how they stand now. Perry’s direction is practical without being obtuse, finding consistency in a script that digs deep into the characters’ soul, and managing to turn the cutting, claustrophobically tense “Queen of Earth” into a modern version of “A Woman Under the Influence” with traces of Bergman.

Grandma (2015)

Directed by: Paul Weitz
Country: USA

Movie Review: If you’re looking for a comedy with attitude, “Grandma” is an option you should consider. Written, directed, and co-produced by Paul Weitz (“American Pie”, “About a Boy”), the film has the merit of putting a lot of soul, energy and charisma in every single scene, no matter if clichéd or not. All those attributes come from the brilliant performance of Lily Tomlin, who generously plays Elle Reid, a conflicting, full-mouthed, feminist and lesbian poet whose angelical 18-year-old granddaughter, Sage (Julia Garner), asks for a little financial help when she finds out she’s pregnant. $600 would solve Sage's worries since she was already booked into a cheap but decent abortion clinic. This way, she wouldn’t have to tell the news to her scarily judgmental mother, Judy (Marcia Gay Harden), a strenuous successful businesswoman. Elle, who is still coping with the death of her longtime life partner and digesting the recent separation from a younger girlfriend, Olivia, cannot help with money since she’s broke, but that doesn’t mean she will abandon Sage to her fate. Driving a beautiful, but debilitated old Dodge, Elle and her granddaughter set off on a road trip, paying a few visits in order to borrow the required amount. The first attempt is Sage’s boyfriend, an indifferent and uneducated brat who learns a lesson from the fearless grandma. Then they meet with a tattoo artist who, unable to pay what she owes to Elle, makes her a nice tattoo on the arm instead. After a bad experience in a café that once was a costless abortion clinic, they rush into another café, where Olivia works, to try selling feminist books to the owner. The last option, and before resorting to Sage’s mother, is Elle’s former husband who’s still resentful about their turbulent past. “Grandma” would be a more serious case if the most evident clichés had been removed from its unbiased script. Still, it manages to keep one steady foot on dramatic and another on funniness, a feat achieved effortlessly due to the excellent Ms. Tomlin, who loudly screams for an Oscar in her first leading role in 27 years.

I'll See You in My Dreams (2015)

Directed by: Brett Haley
Country: USA

Movie Review: “I’ll See You in My Dreams”, the attentive sophomore feature by Brett Haley, is a heartfelt comedy-drama that meditates on loneliness, aging, and loss. The script, co-written by Haley and Marc Basch, focuses on Carol (Blythe Danner), a former songstress who has been a widow for 20 years and lives unworriedly in a serene high-class neighborhood of LA in the company of her faithful dog. In the first scenes of the film, we follow Carol’s sorrowfulness when the dog gets sick and has to be put to sleep. In addition to this mishap, a dauntless big black rat is seen strolling inside the house. In panic, she flees outside and ends up sleeping by the pool where she’s awakened the next morning by the new pool cleaner, Lloyd (Martin Starr). After an unlovely first contact, the latter not only becomes an agreeable interlocutor but a drinking buddy. However, and despite fond of music, this former poetry student shows to be a mediocre songwriter and an even worse singer. Apart from Lloyd, the distinctive Carol is far from idleness, hanging out with her three best girlfriends with whom she routinely plays cards and golf. The funniest moment of the film is when these ladies go shopping after vaporize marijuana. They often speculate about getting someone to date Carol, who reluctantly agrees to speed dating. Regardless the flop associated with the experience, she bumps into the spontaneous Bill (Sam Elliott) on her way out, and they exchange some flirtatious words. Bill is a wealthy man, with a strong monotone voice, whose wife left him a few years before and died afterward. Even testing the waters, the couple seems very comfortable and happy when together, which facilitates communication and tangible romance. Sadly, bad news knocks on Carol’s door once again, coinciding with the visit of her daughter. Presented through a delicate, thoughtful, and feminine angle, the film never gives up on hope, flowing agreeably but nonetheless unsurprisingly. Even if not majorly impactful, the narrative fluidity and Ms. Danner’s deeply felt performance provide us with the necessary for the film to be considered favorably.

10,000 Saints (2015)

Directed by: Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini
Country: USA

Movie Review: “10,000 Saints” is the fifth theatrical feature from the married filmmakers, Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, whose major success was in 2003, with their unforgettable debut “American Splendor”. Since then, the pair has never overcome the challenges of presenting something fresh and interesting, failing to make the grade with unimpressive comedies such as “The Nanny Diaries” and “The Extra Man”. For their brand new coming-of-age dramedy, they bring together the actors Ethan Hawke, Asa Butterfield, and Hailee Steinfeld, who despite talented, nothing could do to bypass banality. Still, it happens to exhibit a strong start when introducing the young Jude witnessing the separation of their parents in 1980 Vermont. The motive was proudly explained by his imperturbable, large-minded father, Les (Hawke), who also took the opportunity to brusquely disclose that Jude was adopted when he was a child. Seven years later, the teenager Jude (Butterfield) hangs out with his best friend, Teddy, when they are asked to pick up Eliza (Hailee), Les’ girlfriend’s daughter, who arrives from Manhattan. A friendship solidifies among the three youngsters, but their nocturnal adventures mark a crucial turning point in their lives. While Teddy and Eliza were consuming cocaine and having sex in the bathroom of a bar, Jude was beaten up for stealing weed from a parked car. Later on, Eliza retreats home since she returns to NY the next day, leaving the two friends partying a little more. A tragedy occurs when they pass out in the middle of the snowy streets, a consequence of the drugs, and Teddy ends up freezing to death. Jude agrees to move to NY’s East Village with his cool-dude dad. Once there, he joins Teddy’s brother in his garage punk band and reconnects with his secret love, Eliza, who is pregnant from Teddy. This superfluously polished teen/family drama exhibits an edgeless benevolence at the heart while its emotional complexity is turned into an incautiously simplistic muddle.

Mistress America (2015)

Directed by: Noah Baumbach
Country: USA

Movie Review: Acclaimed film director Noah Baumbach reunites with Greta Gerwig, once again co-writer and actress after the candid “Frances Ha” in 2012, to deliver one more of those special contemporary American comedies that has been making him a persistent mention in the genre. “Mistress America” embarks in the same spirit of “Frances Ha”, presenting a few true moments of genius when portraying the lively adventures of two women who just met in Manhattan: the lonely college freshman, Tracy (Lola Kirke), and her hyperactive hoped-for stepsister, Brooke (Gerwig). The temperate ‘Baby Tracy’ tries to get acquainted with the city, falls asleep in the classroom, and nourishes feelings for a colleague who let her down when he appears with a comically jealous new girlfriend. Tracy, much less impulsive, becomes totally dazzled, inspired, and influenced by Brooke, who in turn, is a creative ‘New Yorker’, a resident of Times Square, who doesn’t produce as much as she plans. The latter is the one injecting a kinetic force throughout the film that makes it talky, eventful, and accelerated. This different individualities work great in terms of narrative balance, making us look to these two new friends in a distinct manner. Their admiration and availability for each other are not only sweet but also salutary for both of them – just like connecting with real family. The film is packed with hilarious situations, colorfully shaped with both frontal and sarcastic tones, and enveloped with the energy of the city. However, and regardless the huge possibilities, I cannot hide a bit of frustration for not being able to consider it a masterwork. The simple reason is that the climax didn’t work so well for me. The scene when Brooke, at the house of her self-seeker friend Mimi Claire, finds out that her entertaining peculiarities are being used in Tracy’s fictional short story, turning the tables on everyone, was too staged (resembling "Carnage"), failing to convince in a crucial moment of a film that had already conquered me. If Lola Kirke was a revelation, Greta Gerwig was flawless, giving the best performance of her career.

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015)

Directed by: Guy Ritchie

Country: USA

Movie Review: Guy Ritchie’s “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” is an espionage action film with comedic touches based on the 1960’s TV series of the same name created by Sam Rolfe. Far from the congruous entertainment delivered in the beginning of his directorial career (“Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” and “Snatch”), Mr. Ritchie manifestly embarks here in an artful scheme of style over substance that keeps storming him for some time now. The story, revealing a disastrous ineptitude to captivate, describes a conjoint mission between the CIA and the KGB to dismantle a menacing Nazi operation. Napoleon Solo (Henry Cavill), a former con turned agent spy, represents the CIA, while KGB relies on the robust Illya Kuryakin (Armie Hammer). Despite their divergences and not without some protests, both agents agree to track down a missing Nazi scientist who used to be an informer for the US Government. To accomplish the mission they will need the help of the scientist’s daughter, Gaby (Alicia Vikander), whose uncle, Rudi (Sylvester Groth), a scoundrel Nazi with a knack for torture, may be the answer. Rudi works for a shipping company owned by a couple, the Vinciguerras, whose past is also associated with evil Nazi maneuvers. With the intention of making it even more international, we also have the presence of a British agent, Waverly (Hugh Grant), who secretly gives a little hand in the case. The screenwriters, Lionel Wigram and Ritchie, inject a few bustling scenes that are nothing more than inconsequentially fabricated situations sprouting very limited fun. It’s all too obvious and jerky and considerably unfunny and familiar. The filmmaker should be aware that energy is vital, but not everything in the genre, when deciding for procedures that just make the film falling into a disoriented spin of mind-numbing boat and car chases, gunshots, and last-minute rescues. The performances are colorless and the score introduces an inauspicious variety of flavors that denigrate the scenes even more.

People Places Things (2015)

Directed by: James C. Strouse
Country: USA

Movie Review: “People, Places, Things”, a moderately funny but tenderly articulated indie comedy, written and directed by James C. Strouse, reveals a gracious delicacy that comes mostly from Jemaine Clement’s casual performance. Here he plays Will Henry, a New Zealander comic book artist and teacher who faces the worst disappointment of his life when he walks in on his wife, Charlie (Stephanie Allynne) having sex with their off-Broadway monologist friend, Gary (Michael Chernus), during the birthday party of their twin daughters. The narrative jumps one year after, and we find Will, now separated from Charlie, immersed in his drawings, in which he represents himself with a speech balloon ‘I just want to be alone’. Everything becomes bitterer when Charlie let him know that she’s pregnant and is considering getting married to Gary. Will’s disordered state can be pretty noticeable – the difficulty to concentrate himself on simple tasks and often confusing the days of the week – especially when his daughters are staying with him. Suddenly, a weird invitation from one of his students, Kat (Jessica Williams), breaks his routine. Kat invites him to dinner at her place, not with her, but with her mother, Diane (Regina Hall), an American literature teacher, who tolerantly accepts her daughter’s scheme but promptly assures the host she's seeing someone else. Will, who had mistaken sole fish for pork cutlets, didn’t leave the place with many expectations. But life is a road with many twists and turns, and Will is once again at Diane’s door, this time to convince her daughter to skip his own class in order to babysit his cute little twin girls. Diane and Will take the opportunity to find that they have much more in common than they initially thought and start seeing each other. This provokes an outbreak of jealousy in Charlie, making Will extremely confused. The jokes are thrown with a serious tone, producing a positive effect, however, there is a final scene (involving Will and Gary) that feels manipulatively strained.

Straight Outta Compton (2015)

Directed by: F. Gary Gray
Country: USA

Movie Review: Hip-hop was part of my childhood in a small scale. I was never an aficionado of the genre, but have to admit an initial curiosity about the multiplicity of grooves and especially about the messages conveyed by its performers. The vibrantly paced “Straight Outta Compton” isn’t just a film about hip-hop but much more. It competently covers the episodes around the formation of the band N.W.A. in 1986 Compton, California, and all the subsequent happenings that led to its end and division of its members: Ice Cube (his son O'Shea Jackson Jr.), Dr. Dre (Corey Hawkins), Eazy-E (Jason Mitchell), DJ Yella, and MC Ren. The director, F. Gary Gray (“The Negotiator”, “The Italian Job”), counted with Cube and Dre as part of the production crew, guaranteeing a biopic as precise as possible. For obvious reasons, these latter two members, together with the ambitious leader, Eazy-E, are the ones whose paths are followed in more detail. The strong social-political context is accurately pronounced, formulating an exultant combination of music, attitude, and action. These aspects fiercely mirror what the musicians were going through in the ghetto - police brutality and intimidation, racial discrimination, and social tensions with emphasis on violence and drugs. In addition to this, we also penetrate into the ‘business’ of the record labels, and the contractual disagreements that first put away Ice Cube, and then Dr. Dre, and later on Eazy-E. Playing both the hero and the villain, Jerry Heller (Paul Giamatti), was the opportunistic manager that claimed ‘I can make you legit’, after discovering their raw talent. However, the creepiest case is the erroneous association between Dr. Dre and the gangster/producer, Suge Knight. At a certain point the divergences among the musicians were beneficial, conducting them to record meaningful albums. “Straight Outta Compton”, whose title was taken from N.W.A.’s debut record, flows at an appropriate steady beat, in defiance of some narrative gaps. Best moment? Playing ‘fuck tha police’ in concert and its tumultuous effects.

Fort Tilden (2014)

Directed by: Sarah-Violet Bliss, Charles Rogers
Country: USA

Movie Review: Even understanding the motivation and intentions of the filmmakers who plunge into this very New Yorker microbudget mockery, I couldn’t avoid being stupefied by its pathetic occurrences and futile tones. The story follows two roommates, Allie (Clare McNulty) and Harper (Bridey Elliott), who dwell in a fantastic apartment (the best the film can present in terms of visuals) of the trendiest Brooklyn's neighborhood, Williamsburg. Both are very competitive in terms of men, and their conversations resume to stupid sex jokes about the perfect dick and what they’re thinking to do with their vaginas. Apart from this humdrum, we follow the two clumsy protagonists in their interminable trip to Fort Tilden where they are supposed to join two young men they had met at a rooftop party. Along the way, the spoiled daddy’s girl, Harper, pays everything by check, including an iced coffee bought in a bodega located in the same ghetto where a kid steals the bike Allie had borrowed from her weirdo neighbor. The same Allie is having problems with the Peace Corp.’s chief after she has skipped work due to a faked sickness, compromising her planned trip to Liberia. There’s still time for a cranky cab trip where the Indian driver dumps them in the middle of nowhere when he finds out that Harper’s father is an executive shark operating in India. At the beginning of their adventure, Harper states that there’s nothing better than biking through the streets of Brooklyn in order to bring fresh air and fresh ideas. Well, those are attributes that “Fort Tilden” definitely doesn’t deliver because its script is not just weak, it’s vulgar! The writers/directors, Sarah-Violet Bliss and Charles Rogers, making their debut on feature film, gave life to two characters that speak, act, and think as children. The film’s climax couldn’t be more basic than Harper attempting to rape a teen guy in the freezing sea. It could have been funny, but redundancy prevails over wit.

The Gift (2015)

Directed by: Noel Edgerton
Country: USA / Australia

Movie Review: Once a bully, forever a bully. This is an aspect that “The Gift”, a dark, twisted thriller directed, produced, and co-starred by Noel Edgerton, tries to emphasize when depicting the very strange re-encounter between Simon (Jason Bateman), a successful tech executive and a former colleague from High School, Gordon Moseley (Edgerton), who responds by the nickname ‘Gordo’. Simon moves from Chicago to a gorgeous, spacious house in a calm neighborhood of LA, in the company of his good-natured wife, Robyn (Rebecca Hall). For them, this change kind of works as a new opportunity after Robyn’s recent traumatic miscarriage. When the couple seemed to have gathered the perfect conditions in order to enjoy life unreservedly, the invasive Gordo, who had been severely bullied by Simon in the past, decides to gift the couple for several times. In addition to that inexplicable behavior, he keeps visiting Robyn when Simon is at work, and is caught in an embarrassing lie when he invites the couple for a dinner in a house that wasn’t his. Yet, also Simon, whose self-assurance is often transformed into arrogance, is caught lying when he says to his wife he doesn’t remember Gordo so well. The apprehensive Robyn ends up troubled by Gordo’s words ‘let bygones be bygones’, written in a letter addressed to Simon. She won't give up trying to find the truth behind these words and the reasons why this odd man stalks them. The film builds a few awesome Hitchcockian tense moments, even taking a recognizable path and adopting a typical mood while presenting us a couple of good twists, which maintain our eyes wide open. The ending, characterized by severity and sickness, evokes shocking final revelations such as those depicted in “Seven” and “The Usual Suspects”. It’s known that long-term abuses can lead to merciless actions and retaliations. This one, in particular, goes beyond the physical. Edgerton shaped the characters with insight and entered with the right foot in the filmmakers’ universe.

The Diary of a Teenage Girl (2015)

Directed by: Marielle Heller
Country: USA

Movie Review: In this successful screen adaptation of Phoebe Gloeckner’s autobiographical novel “Diary of a Teenage Girl”, first-time director, Marielle Heller, who already had adapted it for an off-Broadway play, managed to inflict a very peculiar and personal touch that makes the film rise above the standard levels within the so inviting and yet slippery coming-of-age genre. A glamorous cast was reunited, involving not only confirmed talents such as Alexander Skarsgard and Kristen Wiig but also a fantastic discovery, Bel Powley, who shines in the main role. She gives the body and puts all her soul in the promiscuous 15-year-old Minnie Goetze, a cartoonist wannabe, living in San Francisco in the 70’s, who is radiant for having lost her virginity. Nothing wrong with that, if the chosen man wasn’t her mother’s boyfriend, Monroe (Skarsgard), who wasn’t able to say no to her daring and direct approach - ‘I want you to fuck me’. The experience didn’t stop there since they start having sex on a regular basis for years. All these occurrences are narrated and recorded on audiotapes that Minnie hides in a small box underneath her bed. Minnie’s mother, Charlotte (Wiig), eventually finds the truth, confirming the suspicions already thrown by Minnie’s father, the firm and astute Pascal (Christopher Meloni), who only needed one visit to the house to figure out what was happening. One may conclude that Charlotte has responsibility in the matter since she acts permissively regarding her daughter, in particular during the course of her intoxicating home parties where alcohol and drugs were a constant. But Minnie’s story shows to have a more intricate complexity that can’t be simply explained by this or that aspect. Told from a very feminine perspective, and painted through occasional animation sequences and an insistently attractive light sepia tone that evokes the warmth of the 70’s, this Diary is subtly sweet, emotionally intense, and poignantly funny. The cycle experience-suffer-learn is exposed unreservedly without, however, being radical. And I liked that.

Cop Car (2015)

Directed by: Jon Watts
Country: USA

Movie Review: I wonder how great could “Cop Car” have been if thoroughly put together and well concluded. Director Jon Watts, who co-wrote with Christopher D. Ford, didn’t know how to give the best sequence to a riveting first part where the film straddles between a rebellious teen misadventure and a sort of cat-and-mouse road thriller. The story focuses on two 10-year-old kids who set off for a walk throughout the immense surrounding fields of a small city, just to find a tempting and yet hazardous plaything: an abandoned police car with the key and guns inside, and a beaten guy stuck in the trunk. The car belonged to the disreputable sheriff Kretzer, played with a distinguished firmness by Kavin Bacon, who only wants to retrieve his car. For that, he will have to chase down the kids, now turned into reckless speed drivers, wherever they go. Regardless the trivial plot, which in any occasion satisfies completely, Mr.Watts was able to gear an attractive pace boosted by the energy of the two promising young actors, James Freedson-Jackson and Hays Wellford. Even enriching a few passages with refreshing doses of black humor, the film’s issues are maintained along the fabricated excesses of its plot, aggravated with a despicable finale that makes us think about the absurdity of the whole situation. This leaves us destitute of something palpable at the end of the overfamiliar third act, time for the usual shootouts and car chases. The tensest moments were designed when the kids play with the guns, putting us in an incessant state of alert. As for the rest, “Cop Car” brings nothing new, consisting in a mediocre course of events that keeps oscillating between favorable and fatal. With this being said, the last thing I want is to discourage Mr. Watts, who showed capabilities as a filmmaker. Maybe with a tight screenwriting, he might conquer something more than a few grins when presenting some of his strenuous scenes.