Insurgent Review

Roughly a month ago I finally caught up with last years new hit young adult dystopian thriller Divergent, and my review can be summed up mostly by my final sentence:

"Divergent is a lukewarm bowl of bland but passable punch, and Theo James is the turd floating in it."

Despite this, I expressed some optimism for the franchise going forward because perhaps the first film was merely serving as a decent but completely forgettable way to kick start something exciting and interesting. Perhaps the talents of Shailene Woodley would be given far more room to shine because in order for these types of stories to work, the material needs a star (Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss, for example). Perhaps the character Four, played lifelessly by Theo James, would get hit by a train during the first half of the film.

Addressing these in order: no, no, and close call but no again.

I would be lying if I said Insurgent was a complete failure. Thanks to some really wonderfully realized set pieces and intense action sequences, it delivers the occasional thrill but unfortunately those moments are few and far between, and in a strange way they almost do a disservice to the material. 

What I mean is, in Divergent very little occurred to actually get me enthused, so the entire experience played like one giant blob of mediocre and my expectations for more never rose above a simmer. Insurgent utilizes some fantastic visual effects and decently filmed action and because of this I perked up a bit, thinking maybe, just maybe it was about to go in some compelling directions and get me intrigued for the next entry in the franchise. Not only does it not deliver in this regard, the small amount of good makes the bad stick out like a sore thumb.

Bad acting from some, especially the previously mentioned Theo James. Seriously, I am buying zero of what this dude is selling. The emotions of his character might resonate more if it were played by a tuna fish sandwich. I look into this handsome fellow's eyes and search for any sign of a soul but I come up empty.

Bad casting of the very talented Miles Teller in a role that doesn't utilize any of it, and I swear I have seen Naomi Watts be really good in stuff in the past. Just last year she fit in with the brilliant ensemble of Birdman just fine, a film that went on to win Best Picture, but in Insurgent it felt like she was reading off of a really poorly written cue card. She read lines as if the director was yelling cut when she actually showed some emotion, and then he would inform her of his demands to deliver these words as if she had died a week ago.

Insurgent actually has a few scenes in it that I would describe as being "cool", which is something I couldn't say about Divergent. Despite this, I am giving the second film of the trilogy (or is the last film split into two? Who the hell can keep track of these things anymore?) a lower grade than the first, because outside of those moments of cool is a pile of terribly paced, meandering nonsense.

2/5 

Divergent Review

It is safe to say that I am a fan of Shailene Woodley, which is a pretty shocking realization to come to considering I am still trying to cleanse my soul of that abomination of a television series she starred on before her breakthrough role in The Descendants. After seeing her work in that film, The Spectacular Now, the otherwise terrible White Bird in a Blizzard and The Fault in Our Stars, it is pretty clear that Woodley is a special talent that needed the right material to show she could shine. Unfortunately, as hard as she may have tried in the hit young adult dystopian thriller Divergent, nothing was going to be able to elevate this film above mediocrity. 

Regardless of what reviews and others had said about Divergent, I still needed to give it a fair shake and find out if there was any meat on it's bones. After all, I had doubts about the quality of The Hunger Games franchise prior to the release of the first film, and I have since fallen in love with the story of Katniss and the revolution. Divergent is neither a good nor a bad movie, it is painfully mediocre. A major problem I have hear is the casting from the top down, as despite my admiration for Woodley in general, something wasn't right about her performance here. During quiet moments of reflection or her portrayal of emotional devastation, she fits perfectly into the role and her presence on screen feels right. However, when asked to be an angry, bad ass action star, it just doesn't work, which was correctly predicted by my wife after she read the book. 

What really killed me was seeing the extraordinary talents of people like Kate Winslet and Miles Teller totally wasted in roles far beneath their capabilities. Anyone could have played these boring, lifeless characters reciting material that, to put it kindly, was limited at best, so seeing faces that have previously proved their ability to steal a scene add absolutely nothing here was a hard pill to swallow. 

The story of Divergent takes place in a futuristic Chicago after society has become as simplistic and uninspired as the film itself. When a person begins their adulthood, they must choose a faction to enter into and commit to it for life, no questions asked. However, sometimes a person either doesn't fit into just one or they refuse to accept such a narrow, limited fate, and they do not comply by what is expected of them. Those people are known as Divergent, which is exactly what happens to our heroine of the saga, Tris Prior, played by the aforementioned Shailene Woodley.

I was never troubled by the quality of this movie, but I also was never really compelled by it either. Divergent just sort of is, it exists and it did an adequate job of entertaining me for a while. I will gladly check out the sequel and see if the experience is enhanced in any way, as perhaps the best is still yet to come for this franchise. A step in the right direction would be to limit, or hell, even kill off the character of Four, played (terribly) by the hunky cardboard cutout Theo James. I'm not familiar with this actor previously, so I can't speak to the overall trajectory of his career, but if this is his A game that is unfortunate. Divergent is a lukewarm bowl of bland but passable punch, and Theo James is the turd floating in it.

2.5/5

50 Best Films of 2014 - #30 - #21

On to the next ten, my #30 through #21 favorite films from 2014...

30. The Fault in Our Stars

I have made no secret of the fact that I am a big fan of this film, from the glowing review I wrote when I saw it in the theater last summer to the fact that I included Shailene Woodley in my personal choices for Best Actress of the year recently. I refuse to pretend the tears I shed from this story and the performances that carried it never fell from my eyes. A gut wrenching yet beautiful movie.

29. Selma

An expertly made biopic that nearly avoided all of the traditional tropes that make me roll my eyes at these types of films, Selma gets right what a movie like Unbroken got so, so wrong. Getting punched hurts, unless you get hit every two minutes for two straight hours, which was essentially the narrative of the latter. Eventually you are desensitized to the brutality and you just quit on the experience, where as in Selma, when it hits, it hits hard because it knows just when to land the blows. This is a pretty great and important film.

28. Finding Vivian Maier

A truly fascinating documentary about a eccentric and mysterious nanny who lived a secret, brilliant life as an absolutely amazing photographer. Despite her incredible artistic vision with the camera, she never showed a single picture to anyone, and her massive and breathtaking collection was finally discovered after she passed away. Not only does this film cover her life and her jaw dropping talent, but it asks a pretty important question as well: if someone goes to great lengths to hide something while they are alive, is it fair to show the world after they are dead? Or should privacy extend beyond the length of our lives?

27. Edge of Tomorrow

Easily one of the best surprises of 2014 for me, Doug Liman's Edge of Tomorrow seemed like a turd when I first saw the trailer, but after catching wind of a whole lot of positive word of mouth I gave it a shot. I'm glad I did. A smart, exciting and fun summer blockbuster, and say what you want about Tom Cruise but no one else could play a role like this so damn well. His personal life and religious beliefs aside, Cruise is still an outstanding talent and he demonstrated that again here, and the chemistry with Emily Blunt didn't hurt matters either.

26. John Wick

An action film starring Keanu Reeves titled John Wick? Well, this is obviously going to be terrible. The premise is what? His dog is killed so he gets revenge? You've gotta be kidding me, what a train wreck...

Much like Edge of Tomorrow, this is another example of why I shouldn't judge a work before I see it. John Wick is smart, intense, ultra-violent fun, and that silly premise about the dog makes total sense when framed inside the narrative. Not only does it make sense, it actually strongly resonated emotionally. Sure, if this was real life I would be disgusted with the type of killing spree he goes on as a result of a pet dying, but this isn't real life. This is a movie, an escape from reality, and inside this world I was rooting for John throughout.

25. The Guest

The Guest is a wonderful blend of neo-noir modern cinema and a completely ridiculous yet fun horror film from the 1980's. Carried by an incredibly charismatic lead performance from Dan Stevens and the perfectly executed vision of director Adam Wingard, this was one bad ass, tasty treat. Oh, and that last act Halloween school dance set piece with a brilliantly utilized fog machine? Absolutely amazing.

24. X-Men: Days of Future Past

I was pessimistic about how this film would turn out, what with the massive cast and ambitious to a fault sounding premise. I anticipated a jumbled, messy narrative. I was wrong. The latest X-Men installment was not only top notch superhero comic book fun, what impressed me the most about this movie was the patience it showed to make sure it told a story first, with the action and the special effects taking a back seat when they needed to. Thanks to this extremely impressive effort, I have no pessimism whatsoever about the follow up due out next year. Bring it on.

23. Calvary

Prior to seeing Calvary, I had heard it was a "dark comedy". This may be true, but I think a much more fair label would be a dark, meaningful drama with some comedy bits sprinkled in to ease the tension and lighten the mood. What Calvary does extremely well is explore the unfortunately twisted and uncomfortable relationship society has with the Catholic church thanks to the many documented cases of abuse, and also the tense nature of the role faith in general plays in our lives today. It's a shame that we have to be cautious of a man of the cloth, but given the track record, how could we not?

22. Enemy

What if you saw your exact double? Not just a person who resembles you, literally your exact twin that has no relation to you in any genetic sense. What would you do? 

I will tell you what you should do: watch Enemy immediately. Beware though, this doesn't play like a traditional film and the ending is both terrifying and utterly confounding.

21. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

2013 was a down year for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Sure, I had some fun with Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World, and neither were terrible films by any means, but after the high that was the first Avengers, they certainly felt like somewhat silly and underwhelming let downs. Well, the good news is 2014 turned out to be a banner year for the studio, with Captain America: The Winter Soldier coming first and being just so flat out awesome. After I saw it, I declared it was the best movie yet from the MCU and I stand by that...sort of. At that time it was, but (spoiler alert for the future of this list) a different 2014 release went above and beyond and soared straight to the top.

Next up, I will enter the top 20 of 2014. The image above is from an extraordinary little gem that I never saw coming.

If I Picked the Oscars - Best Actress

Despite already approaching mid-February, I'm just finally wrapping up my 2014 cinematic calendar and I thought it might be fun to figure out what my personal picks would be for the Oscars in the the following four categories: Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Director and Best Picture.

First up, Best Actress. These would be my five nominees and the last one listed is my pick to win the award.

Shailene Woodley - The Fault in Our Stars

So what if I am a 30 year old man who wept openly sitting in the theater watching The Fault in Our Stars? I'm not afraid to admit it. As I always say, I don't believe in bad genres or the notion that I shouldn't like something because I am not the target audience, in regards to age or gender. It's very simple really, a good film is a good film, and The Fault in our Stars is just that. A huge reason why it worked so well for me is the completely natural, heartbreaking performance by Shailene Woodley. After I saw the film I mentioned that I was rooting for her to make some noise come awards season, but I knew it was a long shot. In my world she still makes the top five.

Essie Davis - The Babadook

I really hope The Babadook finds the massive audience it deserves, because everyone involved deserves a ton of credit for being a part of a truly great horror film, one with a ton of depth and a powerful message about grief bubbling under the terrifying surface. I can barely find the words to express how brilliantly measured and chilling the performance of Essie Davis is here in the lead. If you haven't seen the film yet yourself, do it. Ba.-ba....doooooooook!

Melisa Sozen - Winter Sleep

Winter Sleep is one of the best films of 2014 and the across the board remarkable performances are a huge reason why. I could rave for hours about the entire ensemble, but if asked to narrow it down and pick one from the group, Melisa Sozen does some quietly powerful, astonishing work. During various dialogue heavy sequences involving her character, Nihal, I simply couldn't take my eyes off of her. Completely brilliant while never being flashy, she steals scenes without even trying.

Rosamund Pike - Gone Girl

Psychotic, beautiful, deranged and timeless, Rosamund Pike in Gone Girl manages to both give me nightmares and yet also feel as if she could have come straight from playing the love interest in a classic Hitchcock film. An absolutely mesmerizing performance as Amy Dunne, I have watched the film twice and my admiration for her managed to grow the second time around. I honestly don't know if I have ever seen her act before this, but I don't need any bigger sample size to determine that with the right material, Rosamund is clearly a breathtaking talent. I hope she continues to take on more fascinating, challenging work, because the range she shows in Gone Girl is incredible.

and the Oscar goes to...

Julianne Moore - Still Alice

If this had been a best performances of the year list, regardless of gender, Julianne Moore in Still Alice would still be at the top of my list. As I said in my review of the film (which can be found here), this was beyond heartbreaking work by Moore. Her portrayal of Alice Howland is devastating, rendering me speechless and literally feeling the hurt as I thought about the tragedy that is Alzheimer's disease long after the movie ended. I am extremely confident the Academy and I will see eye to eye here, as anyone else accepting that trophy on February 22nd would be shocking and unfortunate.

White Bird in a Blizzard Review

Shailene Woodley is fantastically talented, and she delivers another nuanced, top notch performance in White Bird in a Blizzard.

That's it. That's all I got. I spent a good five full minutes baffled at the end of this film trying to determine whether I really, really hated it, or just kinda hated it, and my mental search for positives came up with one thing: the lead performance. Everything else was pretty much horseshit.

Okay, so it has some decent cinematography during the occasional dream sequence, but who gives a flying turd when it pops up in the midst of a lifeless, seemingly pointless narrative that relies on uninteresting voice-overs and absurdly cartoonish performances? What is this film about? According to Peter Debruge from Variety, it is  "a complex take on how teens must break away from their parents to become their own person". What? Where the fuck did he pull this from?

During the first 90 percent of the running time, White Bird in a Blizzard is bland and rather boring. It is less than 90 minutes long and yet it felt like I could have watched the first two Lord of the Rings films during the same time span. Even so, I didn't quite hate the film until the very end. In a matter of moments it went from below-average forgettable to memorably terrible when the totally awful rushed ending is thrown in our faces, again delivered entirely via voice-over, because there is nothing better than 87 minutes of building up to something and then 94 seconds of quickly explaining everything to us. Oh, and the supposed to be shocking twist ending? The icing on the poop filled cake.

You deserve better than this Shailene. We all deserve better than this. Director Gregg Araki may show some potential behind the camera, but please lord, next time either adapt stronger material or hire someone else to wield the pen. A series of who gives a shit moments and characters and weird, trippy dreams all adds up to a total failure of a film.


1/5

The Fault in Our Stars Review

I am a 30 year old man. My daughter is approaching 7, which means that she is closer to the target audience of this film than I am. According to the standard "chick flick" narrative, I am not supposed to enjoy this film, and honestly I noticed a few looks from various teenage girls that seemed to imply that I must have been dragged to the cinema against my will, as if I was begging to make a run for a different theater in search of some explosions and shit, but what people don't seem to realize is this: I just love watching good films, plain and simple. To label The Fault in Our Stars as some sort of lesser work because it was adapted from a novel beloved by girls half my age is a shame, because it means that such strong, confident storytelling and filmmaking isn't getting the respect it deserves.

The Fault in Our Stars is a love story, but not solely one of a young, romantic connection. The truly beautiful thing about this film and the source material by author John Green that it is adapted from is the fact that it has such a huge heart for not just the young lovers that serve as the focal point for the works, but all relationships that suffer from heartbreak when someone so young is faced with such an ugly disease, with long odds stacked against them. As a parent it destroys me to think of my daughter leaving this earth before I do, and the film illustrates this pain without ever being manipulative. It is a story filled with genuine authenticity and real emotions, a story that touches on thought provoking themes like the battle between logic and hope in regards to an afterlife, the concept of not seeking out friendship and love because your death would only bring those people sadness.

The screenplay doesn't bring anything new and flashy to the table because it is essentially lifted right off the pages and onto the screen, using mostly verbatim material from the Green novel, but while that sometimes may seem like lazy writing could instead be looked at with admiration. Anyone could take an already established piece of fiction and hack it to pieces to put their own spin on the material, to make their name and their ego rise above the rest, but it takes balls to admit that the original words are already pretty damn fantastic on their own and don't need much tweaking. What little that was cut from the novel on its journey to the screen was the appropriate fat to trim, as the film doesn't lose anything at all in comparison. I was a tad worried that some of the sections of dialogue featured in the book wouldn't translate well to film, coming off as a little too clean and "pretentious" (the most overused word in film criticism), and some may feel exactly that way, especially in regards to certain plot points like the metaphor Augustus literally puts between his teeth, but I never once felt a falter and I never once felt the urge to cringe.

Of course, this could also be due to the fact that the actors chosen to fill these roles were extraordinary, especially the astonishing and inspiring turn by Shailene Woodley as Hazel Grace Lancaster, the lead of the film. I understand that the finer months of cinema are still yet to come this year, as Oscar season isn't truly rolled out until early October and beyond, but as of today Woodley is my personal front runner for award consideration in early 2015. Nothing ever felt phony or forced, and never once did she appear as an actress being paid to play a role. Woodley was the character, she felt the joyous nature of love, she feared the inevitable death and what it would do to her family, and she suffered the literal pain that was associated with something most people (including myself) take for granted like the ability to breathe. Shailene Woodley was absolutely magnificent here, the perfect choice for The Fault in Our Stars and the official moment that I opened my eyes and realized we were now witnesses to the rise of a truly special career. I felt the emotional power of cinema sitting in that theater yesterday because of the grace and sublime talents of Woodley, as she brought me to tears not solely through her words but also her mannerisms and the deep rooted anguish she expertly portrayed. I am humbled by how incredible she was.

That isn't to dismiss the other fine performances on display here, with Ansel Elgort bringing a clever confidence and charm to the role of Augustus, a character that seems adorably witty to the point of nearly being unrealistic, but his abilities as an actor kept him grounded and believable. The chemistry shared with Woodley throughout this film is undeniable. In the role of their best friend Isaac, Nat Wolff may have been given limited screen time but his presence was felt whenever the opportunity to shine was given. Isaac is a young man suffering from a cancer that has taken his sight, but he continues to make the most out of his life as he seems to recognize that his situation is shitty, but it amazingly could still always be worse. His ailments are awful, but a life without his best friend who stays by his side through it all is a far more scary proposal than what he physically faces. Laura Dern and Sam Trammell were cast in the roles of the parents of Hazel, and it was the moments shared between loving parents and the daughter they never wanted to let go of that truly broke my heart. Their pain as they face the strong possibility of having to bury their only child really resonated with me.

I am a 30 year old man and I openly cried at the cinema during The Fault in Our Stars, and I don't give a shit who knows it. It was a wonderful experience, and the best part was that the emotion wasn't cheaply extracted from me from a mediocre but manipulative film. I cried because the material deserved my emotional response, because the idea of losing someone that means that much to you, the idea of having to say goodbye to a friend, a lover, or a child is almost too much for me to handle. I cried because these fictional characters felt so damn real.

As I exited the theater, the experience almost felt therapeutic, the ability to release so much emotion while watching a film I had fallen in love with. I cried and I cried and I cried, and fuck did it feel good.



4.5/5