If director Peter Berg’s oeuvre could be boiled down to one sentence it might read something like, “American heroes battle against overwhelming odds.“ Films like “Lone Survivor,“ “The Kingdom“ and “Patriot Games“ have carved out a singular niche for Berg in the action genre. True to form, his new film “Mile 22 “ pits Berg regular Mark Wahlberg and a small team of “problem solvers” against the military might of a corrupt government.
Wahlberg plays CIA operative James Silva, a fast talker and thinker who “only responds to two things, intelligence and pain.“ He heads a team who fight the “new wars,“ the conflicts that don’t make the front pages. They live in a world of violence and “unknown knowns.” “This is dark work,“ Silva says.
Their search for deadly radioactive powder, fear powder as Silva calls it, leads to Li Noor (Iko Uwais), a Southeast Asian informant who wants out of Indonesia. The informant has a disk containing the location of the deadly stuff but will only give the code to open the disc if they guarantee his safe transport out of the country. Trouble is, the corrupt government will do whatever it takes to keep him in their borders.
“Mile 22“ is a violent movie. How violent? The GNP of some small countries probably couldn’t cover Berg’s bullet budget. By the time the informant is scraping one of his victims Max back and forth against a broken, jagged window you may wonder how many more unusual ways there are to off a person. Their handler, played by John Malkovich, says they are involved in “a higher form of patriotism” but the film’s hyper kinetic editing and palpable joy in blowing away the bad guys suggest their elevated patriotism may have a hint of psychopathy mixed in.
Large sections of the film play like a first person shooter video game. There’s even a “scoreboard” where the vital statistics of the team are listed and then go dark as they are killed.
“Mile 22“ wants to make a statement about the murky depths our protectors brave to keep us safe but ends up expending more ammunition than insight.
Director Peter Berg makes manly-men movies about tough guys willing to sacrifice all in the service of others. Films like “The Kingdom,” based on the 1996 bombing of the Khobar housing complex and “Lone Survivor,” his look at the unsuccessful United States Navy SEALs counter-insurgent mission Operation Red Wings, are loud action movies bound together by testosterone and sentiment.
His latest, “Deepwater Horizon,” based on the worst oil spill in US history, fits comfortably alongside “The Kingdom” and “Lone Survivor.” All three are true life tales, ripped from recent headlines, and each of them are loud, in-your-face movies that feel more motivated by muscle than brains.
Mark Wahlberg is Mike Williams, husband to Felicia (Kate Hudson), father to an adorable little girl and the chief engineer of the offshore oil drilling rig Deepwater Horizon. In April 2010 he left for a routine twenty-one day stint aboard the rig that turned disastrous when an uncontrollable gusher of crude oil caused an explosion that ultimately left 11 of the 126 crew members dead.
It takes an hour of getting to know everyone, like British Petroleum executive Donald Vidrine (John Malkovich), no-nonsense crew chief Jimmy Harrell (Kurt Russell) and rig mechanic Andrea Fleytas (Gina Rodriguez), before disaster strikes, both literally and narratively. When the rig blows it takes with it any semblance of storyline, replacing with plot with forty minutes of relentless, fiery action.
Berg doesn’t just want to show you the hellish circumstances that destroyed Deepwater Horizon, he wants you to leave the theatre feeling as though you were there. Fireballs light up the screen as the sound of twisted, breaking metal fills your ears. It’s effective, if a little repetitive after thirty minutes or so. The characters get a little lost in the commotion and are frequently hard to see through the plumes of smoke that decorate the screen.
As an action movie and a story of resilience “Deepwater Horizon” is a visceral experience. As a tribute to the men who lost their lives in the blast it feels less thought through. The In Memoriam roll honours those lost, but feels tacked on after the bombast that precedes it.
Also strange by its absence is any comment on the devastating ecological consequences of the event.
“Deepwater Horizon” is a showcase for Berg’s muscular filmmaking but could have used a little more nuance.
Cut Bank director Matt Shakman has something in common with 35 mm film fanatics Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino. For his movie debut the director insisted on shooting on film rather than digital.
“I’m an analogue kind of guy,” he says. “To do this movie, which is about a town that feels trapped in a distant era, it felt right to shoot it on film. We had to find a way to deal with the financial impact of it, but I found a solution to that. I gave up my salary in order to do it.
“I’ll only get a chance to make a first movie once and to make it on film feels special. I may never get a chance to do it again.”
Set in the hamlet of Cut Bank Montana, the action begins when auto mechanic Dwayne (Liam Hemsworth) accidentally videotapes the murder of the local postman (Bruce Dern). He reports the crime to the local sheriff (John Malkovich), hoping for reward money, but there are complications in the form of the suspicious father of his girlfriend (Billy Bob Thornton), a postal inspector (Oliver Platt) and a reclusive man (Michael Stuhlbarg) violently obsessed with getting his mail.
The script appeared on Hollywood’s 2009 black list of the best unproduced films and has been in Shakman’s hands for five years.
In the beginning he simply loved the twisty-turny story. “Then,” he says, “I [became] like a dog chasing a rabbit at the track. You get these tantalizing elements that start to make everything feel more real.
“When someone like John Malkovich signs on it is so helpful for so many reasons. One, the pleasure, personally, of getting to work with one of my heroes. Two, he certainly helps tell other actors that this is a party worth coming to and the third thing is just the business reality of having a person in the film who can help you with financing.”
Shakman says he knows after the film’s theatrical run “a lot of people will see Cut Bank on their iPads,” and while he prefers the communal experience of watching movies with an audience, he knows times are changing. “They’ll also watch Breaking Bad [on their tablets], so the line has blurred very much between the two kinds of content. It’s all just become stories and where you choose to find them and how you want them delivered.”
The script for “Cut Bank” appeared on Hollywood’s 2009 black list of the best-unproduced films. Whoever makes up that list must have been desperate for a Coen Brothers fix.
Set in the hamlet of Cut Bank Montana—“the coldest spot in the nation”—the action begins when auto mechanic Dwayne (Liam Hemsworth) accidentally videotapes the murder of the local postman (Bruce Dern). He reports the crime to the inept local sheriff (John Malkovich), hoping for reward money, but there are complications in the form of the suspicious father of his girlfriend (Billy Bob Thornton), a postal inspector (Oliver Platt) and Derby Milton, a reclusive man (Michael Stuhlbarg) violently obsessed with getting his mail.
On its surface “Cut Bank” has all the earmarks of a quirky Coen Brothers style romp. Like an wannabe “Fargo” it’s violent, occasionally funny and populated by a talented acting ensemble (in this case lead by Malkovich) which sounds like a winner but is sunk by an abundance of quirky characters in supporting roles— Stuhlbarg’s Milton is a cartoon come to life—and good looking but bland leads in the form of Thor-bro Hemsworth and Teresa Palmer as his budding beauty queen girlfriend.
Old pros Dern, Malkovich, Thornton and Platt cut through this material like a hot knife through butter, but it is mostly the sheer strength of their collective wills that they manage to keep the script, which is ripe with exposition, from rotting on the vine.
Director Matt Shakman has an eye for the setting—the Alberta locations look great—but the town should be a character à la David Lynch’s “Blue Velvet” and here it is simply a backdrop to the action.
“Cut Bank” is one of those movies where there is more to every character than meets the eye, but ultimately is a blink and you’ll miss it experience.
The new “Madagascar” movie spin off is brought to you by the letter P. P is for penguin and puns.
“The Penguins of Madagascar” is the punniest movie of the year. It never met a pun it didn’t like and these penguins give The Marx Brothers a run for their money in the word play department. Based on spin off characters from the “Madagascar” series, these shifty, flightless birds soar in a movie that is more entertaining than the films that introduced us to them.
Skipper (voice of Tom McGrath), Kowalski (Chris Miller), Rico (Conrad Vernon) and Private (Christopher Knights) are penguins on a mission. Dr. Octavius Brine, (voice of John Malkovich) is an octopodian evil genius on a mission to get revenge on a certain quartet of birds for a perceived slight. To save themselves, and perhaps all of penguin-kind, Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private reluctantly team with an animal undercover organization known as The North Wind. Led by the suave wolf Agent Classified (Benedict Cumberbatch) they aim to aid the penguins, but will the high tech spies be more of a hindrance than help?
“The Penguins of Madagascar” has a lot in common with other big screen animated entertainment for children. It is paced at the speed of light, has several frenetic action scenes and seems tailor made to inspire a run on cute stuffed toys at Movies ‘R’ Us. The thing that sets it apart from its animated cousins is the spirit of anarchy in its casting, story choices and even the barrage of puns.
How many kid’s movies feature a cameo by the sublimely surreal director Werner Herzog? Can you name another children’s flick where a character says, “You didn’t have a family and we’re all going to die,” to a newborn? Then there are the puns. They come fast and furious, usually in the form of an off hand comment. The movie’s best running gag involves working movie star names into Dr. Brine’s instructions to his minions. “Nicholas! Cage those penguins!” It’s silly and by the time he gets to Elijah Wood, Drew Barrymore and Kevin Bacon, also hilarious.
“The Penguins of Madagascar” is good, zany fun. No lessons will be learned, no morals taught, nothing gained but a good time at the movies.
Knockaround Guys is an unremarkable coming-of-age story with a gangland twist. The four sons (Vin Diesel, Seth Green, Barry Pepper, and Andrew Davoli) of Brooklyn mobsters bond together to reclaim a quarter of a million dollars lost in a small Montana town run by a crooked sheriff (Tom Noonan). The money belongs to Matt Demaret’s (Pepper) dad, Benny “Chains” Demaret (Dennis Hopper) and his underboss Teddy Deserve (John Malkovich). If they don’t get it back, it’s one of the three Rs for them – roof, revolver or river. Written and directed by Brian Koppelman and David Levien, the same team who wrote Rounders, Knockaround Guys has a straight-to-video feel to it, although the uninspired story is rescued by some very good performances. John Malkovich chews through the screen as Teddy, the conniving Brooklyn Mafioso, and Dennis Hopper is a pleasure to watch in his cameo appearance as the big boss. Of the younger actors, Canadian Barry Pepper shows his chops as the conflicted Matty, while Vin Diesel oozes charisma, but by the film’s closing scenes you wish that these talented actors had more of a script to work with.
The bones for the story of Changeling, the twenty-eighth film from director Clint Eastwood, are borrowed from the infamous Wineville Chicken Coop Murders, a kidnapping and murder case from late 1920s Los Angeles. The sensational child murder case made headlines around the world, shining a spotlight on police corruption by the LAPD and making a media star of Canadian-born serial killer Gordon Stewart Northcott. Eastwood personalizes the story by focusing on the mother of one of the victims, Christine Collins (a goth looking Angelina Jolie).
Changeling’s twisted tale picks up steam when single mom Collins comes home after working some overtime hours to an empty house. Her ten-year-old son Walter is gone without a trace; the front door is locked, his lunch is still in the ice box and his bed undisturbed.
Cut to five months later. The LAPD gives Collins the happy news that they have located her son and that he is alive and well. Trouble is the boy they bring home is not her son. When she protests the police, concerned for the bad press her story would generate, try and convince then coerce her to accept the boy. When she refuses they have her committed to a mental hospital that makes Shock Corridor look like a hotel spa. Luckily she has anti-police corruption crusader Rev. Gustav Briegleb (John Malkovich) on her side. With his help Collins exposes the LAPD cover-up and corruption and tries to get to the bottom of what actually happened to her son.
At two hours and twenty minutes Changeling takes its time to tell the story, expertly weaving the disparate elements—the disappearance, the police corruption and the unexpected serial killer angle—into one seamless, elegantly directed movie. It’s a complex story but one that is carefully laid it out, and while it would likely have been possible to trim a few of the “I want my son back!!” scenes, by and large there isn’t any fat here.
Eastwood sets the tone in the film’s opening seconds by draining the picture of any bright colors. This bleak palate—at odds with sunny California’s sparkling reputation—establishes the somber feel that permeates every scene.
Angelina Jolie’s resemblance to Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride embodies that gloomy feel; her face a sallow shell of the usually beautiful woman caught by paparazzi in the pages of Us Weekly. She’s in almost every scene of the film, delivering strong work as a mother who refuses to give up hope, but for every powerful Oscar bait moment there is another where she veers toward melodrama, relying a bit too heavily on the silent movie five poses of female subjugation technique. The delicate hand clutching at her mouth in despair is effective once, but on repeated use loses impact. It’s a performance that ranges from moving to shrill, but, nonetheless, will likely be nominated come Academy Award time.
Of the other above–the-title cast members Amy Ryan hands in solid work in her small role as a wrongly imprisoned prostitute and John Malkovich is showy, but just a bit too creepy as the fiery Rev. Briegleb. Of the new comers Eddie Alderson does stand-out work as a teen wracked with guilt while regular Law and Order guest star Jeffrey Donovan is suitably evil as Capt. J.J. Jones, the scheming and manipulative policeman.
Changeling often succeeds more as a portrait of a time and place—the recreation of 1920s Los Angeles is breathtaking, and the misogynistic attitude toward women makes the males on Mad Men seem enlightened—rather than a true-life crime drama, but despite its tendency toward melodrama Eastwood has created the first big movie of Oscar season.
