Starred Up Review

Jack O'Connell is clearly about to break through and become a major film star, and while I personally didn't care for the Angelina Jolie directed Louis Zamperini biopic Unbroken at all, the reason I didn't find the entire experience to be completely vile was on a performance level, most specifically the work of O'Connell in the lead role. That brings me to another 2014 release although one far further under the radar and unknown to most, the British prison crime drama Starred Up with that fresh faced O'Connell in the lead again, and I had to laugh as I watched this film because I have to feel bad for the guy. Twice this year I have admired his performances and both times the roles have involved getting the shit beat out of him and facing near death experiences. 

The key difference is that the punishment involved in the Unbroken narrative was draining to the point that I shut down, I couldn't take it anymore because the entire experience was so one note and forced, like I was literally being told when to care, like they were begging for me to drop a single tear on certain cues. Starred up is hard hitting and painful but appropriately so, never manipulative, never forced, and surprisingly never draining despite the gritty conditions of the setting and the dour mood that hangs over a majority of the sequences. The story here revolves around a young man named Eric Love, played by Jack O'Connell, as he transfers from a facility that houses juvenile detainees to an adult prison. Eric will have to navigate some far rougher waters in this new location, but one inmate complicates the dynamic even more than what you would expect: his also incarcerated father, Neville, played brilliantly by the always excellent Ben Mendelsohn. 

The prison location feels overused and familiar in the world of cinema, and some of the sequences in which Eric attends group therapy sessions to try to deal with his over-the-top aggression feel like a scarier version of Good Will Hunting, yet despite this Starred Up transcends any sort of narrative drag due to cliches because it is so damn well made and the performances are top notch. At the end of the day, this isn't a film a love on a personal level and it isn't one that I will crave revisiting one day as I count the minutes remaining at work, but I also would be more than willing to watch again down the road because the craft and characters deserve to not be forgotten. It's impossible not to admire every single little thing that Starred Up does well.

4/5

Unbroken Review

Over a decade ago, I walked out of the theater feeling like I had been beaten over the head with a shovel. I was dazed and speechless, but not because of the power of cinema or a narrative that was effectively hard hitting and meaningful. I was feeling the effects of a film that drilled home a single tonal note for two hours with relentless brutality, and I promised myself I would never watch that work again.

The film I am speaking of was The Passion of the Christ, and I have never felt compelled to waiver from that one and done, single viewing pledge, but right now I feel as if I have witnessed its, for lack of a better word, spiritual sequel. Ten years later I felt a similar unpleasant wooziness when I tried to stand up after watching Unbroken, directed by Angelina Jolie, a work that I had assumed months ago would be a shoe in for not only a Best Picture nomination, but likely a win as well. Not only is this not worthy of award recognition, I can't find enough reasons to even recommend seeing it.

Now, unfortunately I feel as if I must mention this, but I am not trying to be offensive to religion or to minimize the atrocities the subjects of these films went through. My criticisms of both The Passion of the Christ and Unbroken are not commentaries on how I feel about Jesus Christ or Louis Zamperini, but rather merely a focus on how those films failed at their attempts to tell important, powerful stories. Unbroken is exhausting to watch and it accomplishes absolutely nothing with its attempts to be an inspiring biopic, which is a shame because Zamperini absolutely deserves to have an inspiring biopic made about him. Two hours of the same beats, the same tone, and the same visual palette, and that last part is the hardest for me to criticize because I am typically a massive fan of the genius cinematographer Roger Deakins but his contribution to this film simply did not stand out like I expected it to.

The film isn't a total failure and isn't worthy of the type of admonishment that I would relegate to a work that is offensively poor. Jack O'Connell is often times pretty great as Zamperini and that goes for the performances all around. The music by Alexandre Desplat is sweeping and captivating yet subtle when it needs to be, doing its best to remind us when we should be moved or inspired, something the narrative isn't able to actually achieve. Unfortunately, the direction by Jolie is clearly second rate and amateurish, as Unbroken is sorely lacking any sort of unique vision that elevates it beyond the many previous works it seems to imitate without reaching their heights.

A film like 12 Years a Slave was able to balance the necessary brutality to tell such a story with a proper amount of eloquence, the talents of a screenwriter who knows exactly when to punch their audience in the gut so that the blow would undoubtedly be felt by those watching. Applying those punches constantly over the course of 120 minutes render them powerless, more nauseating than substantial and thus the film will without a doubt be given the same promise as that other movie did back in 2004. A second viewing simply will not be in the cards with Unbroken.


2/5