Racism is bad, buddy road movies are good, and few show that better than Green Book. In many senses, it's too formulaic and adheres to too many stereotypical scenarios and characters but the chemistry onscreen is electric. Mortensen and Ali are both on brilliant form and it is the way they work together that really lends Green Book its success.
Green Book manages to be powerful in the issues it portrays but also funny and heartwarming. That may seem like it would undermine the severity of racism but it actually emphasises the contrast in the way successful African Americans were (and are) treated. The film has been riddled with some scandals - some more scandalous than others - but that shouldn't detract you from the fact that this is a good, mostly well crafted, film. That being said, its biggest weakness is not anything that happens on screen, but rather that none of that is hugely memorable. There's nothing bold here and it causes Green Book to slowly fade into a cinematic mist of similarly well-intentioned but safe film-making.
Roma
A cinematic love letter, in part to Cuarón's home country of Mexico, and in part to the language of film making. An emotive, powerful piece of cinema that never drifts through life, but purposefully captures the unfolding events of a young maid's life.
Roma has everything one could ask for (except colour, I suppose). Its shot in beautifully crisp black and white (rivalled only by this year's Cold War), holding its gaze and refusing to cut away. The camera pans with characters as they navigate relationships with one another, balancing employment and class. Cuarón isn't afraid to let things sit for a moment, allowing the audience to fully absorb everything in front of them. Similarly, he introduces details that seem small or insignificant and grows them into a full and powerful climax without the need for constant action, CGI magic, or big names to make it captivating. This love letter is written to ask its lover, the viewers, to come home and remember what made them fall in love with cinema to begin with.
The Favourite
What happens when you take a director known for a film about single people being turned into animals and have them direct a period piece about a 1700s queen and the ladies in her court? You get The Favourite; a daring and dizzying display of regal ridiculousness captured with whip pans and a fish-eye lens.
The Favourite boasts stunning performance from its three leading ladies, Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz, and Olivia Coleman. They are all devilish and controlling but also weak at times which opens up opportunities for power struggles to emerge, and these struggles are the backbone of the narrative. This is a weird world of duck and lobster racing, of sapphic love-making, and of rotten fruit throwing Torys but its absurdity never feels out of place or unneeded. This is the world Lanthimos has created in order to tell this story, this foul-mouthed reality is not so different from our own and it is the best reality to tell this story.
Blackklansman
Blacksploitation films may have faded out of popular culture (and probably for good reasons) but if there were one man to play with the genre, it would be Spike Lee. The veteran director is back with a fun recreation of a completely bizarre police case.
The concept alone, a black man infiltrating the Ku Klux Klan, seems ridiculous but there is a reality here Lee wants to present. From the moment the screen flicks into life, you can feel Lee's purposeful hand guiding the viewer, using cinema as a point of focus. Scenes from Gone With The Wind and Birth of a Nation grace the screen before anything happens, putting the slave-driving South (particularly that glorified in celluloid) in the audience's mind immediately. The rest of the story is fun, dramatic, and well performed but don't let the light tone and historic setting fool you. Lee closes as purposefully as he opens, jumping forward to the present and showing the viewer cars ploughing through crowds of black protestors, reminding us that racism is not dead and in fact, racism still kills.
A dazzling directorial debut from Bradley Cooper, breathing new life into a classic Hollywood narrative. As the fourth re-imagination of of the same story, there's a danger of being stale and tired, falling victim to over-used tropes and clichés. Cooper, however, fearlessly presses on like a veteran and creates one of the year's biggest and boldest hits.
A Star is Born requires one thing to succeed: a real star. Fortunately, it has two. Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper are astonishing, with Cooper particularly turning in the performance of his life and Gaga's mesmerising voice will blow you away; the leads make this story real. There's an overwhelming feeling of truth hidden behind the artifice of cinema, helped in no small part by having a pop star reenact the climb to fame with dialogue that feels pulled directly from Gaga's backstory. It's a beautifully shot, masterful piece of work, that seamlessly overcomes its weaknesses such as pacing in its third act. Like the songs it contains, the film hardly misses a note. It's enthralling, moving, and musically outstanding.
Black Panther
Marvel films dominate today's cinematic landscape and appear in, and regularly on top of, lists of the best movies of the year. Whether you believe they're that good or not, no one can deny their cultural impact and certainly not that of Black Panther. The eighteenth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe caused a worldwide stir at the beginning of 2018 when it was released and those ripples are still apparent now, a year on. It's clear to see why; in a cinematic universe, and more widely a cinematic landscape, featuring predominately white male heroes, the lack of representation for people of colour in cinema's biggest franchise was painfully apparent.
But Black Panther is not just a check box for the MCU's diversity quota; it's a political commentary, a thrill ride of power struggles, and one of the MCU's best movies. In many practical elements, it is flawless. Its production design and costume design are inspired, drawing inspiration from African tribal wear - the image of which contrasts with the valuable knowledge and resources the Wakandans have to offer. It feels more timely, more pertinent today than Marvel's other films, but even its visually impressive and strong design, fresh take on the superhero genre, and brilliant performances can't save it from feeling too neat, too restrained by the bigger picture that the MCU has in sight. With a bit more freedom, it's exciting to imagine what Black Panther could have been.
Bohemian Rhapsody
The controversies surrounding new allegations of sexual misconduct by director Bryan Singer may be an external factor affecting how (and if) one watches Bohemian Rhapsody but on on it's own merits, it still struggles. It's not a bad film, but it's not great. It's all spectacle and no depth and it feels like a cheap imitation of a creative genius. It's not just air-brushing to compress the narrative, it's unnecessarily manipulating Mercury's life to evoke an emotional response and tell a more compelling story. But it feels dishonest; Mercury was a legend, so why adjust key aspects of his life? In order to tell a 'better' story?
And despite being an entertaining romp through Queen's greatest hits, it's often emotively flat. The supporting cast are one dimensional at best which elevates a brilliant performance by Rami Malek by contrast. But there's no character development beyond Mercury, which is strained anyway and mostly hinges on a literal descent into a gay underworld. Maybe there was something worse here, salvaged into something watchable and mostly enjoyable by veteran editor John Ottman, but it's not inventive, innovative, and inspiring like its subject. And really, isn't that what Freddie deserves?
Vice
Featuring a powerhouse politician embodied in a powerhouse performance by Christian Bale, Vice tells the story of Dick Cheney; his subtle rise to a position of power and how he wielded that power. Adam McKay’s energetic follow up to The Big Shortis angled in a way designed to make Thanos look like a puppy dog. It’s partisan and biased but it’s completely compelling film making, playing with narrative story structures and using its cinematic medium to full effect. There’s a restaurant scene where the menu offers tasty travesties from the invasion of Iraq, a false ending, archival footage, a Shakespearean soliloquy, and much more. It’s a storytelling marvel.
That being said, it sometimes rushes and sometimes drags and occasionally becomes confusing as we jump between self-aware meta-scenes, safari footage, and the main narrative. There’s a lot to digest which will no doubt require multiple viewings and it’s exciting enough to not make that a chore. It's funny, which only highlights the severity of its subject matter. It's a well aimed satire and, for the most part, it hits its mark dead on.
Three-time Oscar winner (and seventeen-time Oscar loser, technically) Meryl Streep takes on the challenge of publishing a news story. What sounds like a relatively unexciting premise turns out to be a relatively unexciting film. Despite Tom Hanks by Streep's side giving it his best shot, he's unable to make the film what it could be.
What the film could be is a great newsroom melodrama, landing somewhere between All The President's Men and Spotlightbut in reality falling short of both of them. It is well trodden ground and nothing new is added in The Post except some great characterisations from the likes of Hanks and Odenkirk.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Imagine a world painted in grey. That is the world that Martin McDonagh has consistently portrayed in his films (In Bruges, Seven Psychopaths) and is most fully realised in Three Billboards. Ultimately a story of revenge but how far is too far in the search for justice? That is the question posed by McDonagh here and it is a difficult pill to swallow.
Blurring the lines by removing the 'good' from the 'good guys' and adding humanity and pain to the anger and resentment, and in many senses ignorance, McDonagh brings something darkly unique to his film. Despite being side-splittingly funny, Three Billboards is a hard watch. It's narrative is grounded in the unspeakable - rape, brutal murder, suicide, cancer - but few films about these issues could be so entertaining without making light of its subject matter. There's no tidy resolutions here, but then again, when are there in life?
Lady Bird
Growing up is something that everyone has to face, whether they'd like to or not, so the having that reflected in film is something we can all relate to and none do it better than Greta Gerwig with Lady Bird.
The complexity of relationships and reputations in teenage years is hard to grasp on film, not just for the young protagonist, but also for their families. Set against the backdrop of Christian doctrines and American poverty, the conflicts are all the more real, all the more touching. The film boasts outstanding performances by Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf who make the film what it is, the mother daughter relationship/ conflict being central to the narrative (and in a more subtle sense, the name of the film). It's hard to be heartfelt and heartwarming but this does just that and makes it seem effortless.
Darkest Hour
Whilst its easy to write a biopic of Winston Churchill off as pure 'Oscar Bait' (and many have - or at least described it as such - more on this another day), that would be to overlook the feat that is Darkest Hour. Gary Oldman's performance is the selling point here, which isn't wrong, but it is a pity.
What's being overlooked here is a powerful visual story teller in Joe Wright. As darkness descends over Britain, darkness surrounds Churchill on screen. Wright is not fearful of negative space claustrophobic space, an under-rated quality in an age of mega-Marvel cinematic universes, and despite the darkness, he creates something that is often funny, engaging, and moving. Is it cliched, yes. Is it predictably structured, yes. But most importantly, does it still manage to be innovative and fresh. The answer is still yes. The Shape of Water
The Oscars are no stranger to an all out romance film, but they don't normally involve swamp men. Guillermo del Toro creates something sinister yet beautiful in his lagoon-loving monster and builds a world around him that emphasises that. Michael Shannon, the testosterone fuelled patriot, presents the sinister whilst Sally Hawkins, the mute monster lover, is the beautiful.
There are clear senses of right and wrong on display here; it is an ultimately moral film. It's easy to get your teeth into - which is certainly helpful considering the absurdity of the central romance - which only goes to demonstrate how brilliantly talented del Toro is in crafting the bizarre. It feels nostalgic, but not familiar. It deals with the difficult, but is never difficult to watch. It's about as unique as you can get and it never seems to take itself too serious - Octavia Spencer - an African-American in the sixties - and Richard Jenkins - a gay man in the sixties - providing some much needed heart and comic relief. This is film-making at its finest.
Documentaries are some of the most under appreciated works of film out there. It’s not easy to take non-fiction subject matter, cram archival footage in, and jump between talking heads and make it is an engaging as any good thriller out there, but the best ones do just that. I’m not talking here about the ones with a charismatic guide to take us through what’s happening (like Super Size Me, Catfish or Fahrenheit 9/11), I’m specifically talking about those that let interviews and the events tell their own story (see Blackfish for one example). Today’s film is not only a record breaking, Oscar winning endeavour, it also tells the story of one of the biggest rise and falls in American history. This is OJ: Made in America.
We’ve all heard the name OJ Simpson, but do we all know who he is and what happened to him? OJ: Made in America details the the incredible rise and the even more spectacular fall of one of the most astonishing Americans to ever walk the planet. Following OJ from the ghettos of California, to the heights of the National Football League, to a prison jumpsuit in Nevada, the documentary clocks in at just under 8 hours but was sensibly separated into five meticulously structured parts. Focusing on his football career, his fame and fortune, his darker violent side, the trial of the century, and OJ’s life post trial respectively, the documentary breaks down the narrative of OJ’s life beyond the court room. Whilst other big players in popular culture are also focussing on the judicial phenomenon that was the trial (see American Crime Story: The People v OJ Simpson), OJ: Made in America paints a riveting bigger picture of racial injustice in the USA, of a harsh and violent LAPD, of the American justice system, and of our cultural obsession with celebrity status. It is more than a biopic, it is an analysis of a broken and divided society.
Where OJ: Made in America really achieves is in the way it builds information to culminate in the biggest impact. Talking heads of friends, family, locals, jurors, and police officers amongst others are introduced with little to no context. Mark Fuhrman in interview, for example, offers comments on the Rodney King riots and Nicole Brown’s abuse calls before the documentary reveals his involvement in the case as a racially abusive liar, but it also gives him the opportunity to defend himself. Information is revealed when it is important to the story that director Ezra Edelman is trying to tell, like he is presenting the case in court himself. He allows all sides to have their say on the case and on OJ and the racial divide in America in general. It creates constant drama, suspense, and intrigue and even eight hours in you will want to keep going and hear more.
Its more important for Edelman to tell the story of America than it is of OJ, thus the tagline for the feature: ‘Made in America’; that’s the real heart of the documentary. Whilst other documentaries on OJ have tried to critique the evidence or find alternative theories, Edelman explains how we ended up in that court room and how the country was so divided on the verdict. It’s painful to watch at times, refusing to shy away from the gruesome. It is the mark of a director who has something important to say. Whilst 13th made similar comments on the state of racial divide in America, OJ: Made in America isolates a specific example that the world is already aware of and bleeds every ounce of contextualising information it can out of it to drive home its point and focusing on such a renowned and particularly charming and popular figure in American culture adds to its appeal over the it’s more evangelical contemporaries.
OJ: Made in America taps into the true-crime zeitgeist of Making a Murder and Serial but it is shocking in a different way. This documentary isn’t just exploring a potential wrong verdict. It’s very real; the issues it presents are those that our world knows and experiences still. It is not an isolated incident. One part sport movie, one part rising star story, one part race documentary, and one part crime thriller, OJ: Made in America is a rollercoaster and it may be uncomfortable at points but you won’t want to get off.
Drugs, race, homophobia. These are all powerful topics to approach in a film separately, let alone together. Is it ambition and bravery, of stupidity and foolishness? Let’s look to Moonlight to see.
One man’s life contains many stories; far too many to easily include in a two hour screenplay. That being said, Moonlight provides the cliff notes for its protagonist's journey from childhood to adult hood, with a pit-stop at the teenage years for good measure. Chiron (Alex R. Hibbert) is a young boy, bullied and excluded by the bigger boys at school. His mother (Naomi Harris) has fallen victim to a drug habit leaving Chiron to often fend for himself. However a drug dealer Juan (Mahershala Ali) and his girlfriend Teresa (Janelle Monáe) take him in when his home is not friendly, and treat him right. As Chiron (now Ashton Sanders) grows up, the bullying gets more severe, his sexuality and friendships become more confusing, and his life seems to spiral out of control. Eventually, we get to see where all of this gets him in the third act of the film.
Structured into three acts - Little, Chiron, and Black - Moonlight cleverly manages to essentially sew three shorts together to create a modern masterpiece. It doesn't have to show immediate relationship between actions and consequences, instead allowing them to play out over a lifetime giving the film a punchy pace, with nothing feeling unexplained or out of place. It also allows the film to build to multiple climaxes, one within each act, the most striking of which is in the middle episode - everything before builds to this point, everything after is a result of it. Director Barry Jenkins bombards the audience with visual information and it is glorious; it makes the film beautiful to watch as well providing extra detail about what is happening.
With stunning performances throughout, Moonlight allows a varied cast the opportunity to shine, with its lead played by three different actors - youngster Ashton Sanders playing the teenage Chiron is the standout of the three - but the best performances are in the supporting cast. Naomi Harris is at her very best in a hugely emotive role. It’s a role full of pain, and Harris doesn’t hold back. Mahershala Ali too, as Juan, is phenomenal. Though he is only present for the first act, his performance is easily the most memorable of the two hour runtime and his impact is lasting. Here, he solidifies his name as one of the go to actors in Hollywood.
Moonlight is a brilliantly and beautifully told story. It is proof that a film’s topic doesn’t have to be big and grand or based on some incredible story; a simple story told well is more powerful than powerful story executed poorly.
Some things in life take you by surprise and turn everything upside down. It can complicate relationships, the way you communicate, and change who you are. And when that happens a few times, it can become overwhelming. This is Manchester by the Sea.
Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck) is the caretaker of a block of apartments where everyone treats him like dirt. He is an awkward guy, swearing at tenants and fighting in bars, struggling to really connect with anyone. So when his brother dies of heart complications, leaving behind a son, Patrick (Lucas Hedges), and a will listing Lee as his new guardian, it's no surprise that Lee finds it difficult to adjust to this new development. Conflicted by his new role in life which is trying to force him to relocate to Manchester from Boston, he and Patrick butt heads over how they see their lives progressing, but ultimately they are both trying to cope with grief in their own way.
Writer/ director Kenneth Lonergan has created an extraordinary piece of cinema here. It's understated and gentle in its approach but its narrative structure and pacing really pack a punch. We're introduced to Lee as a mystery figure - 'is that the Lee Chandler?' one character asks - and slowly Lonergan reveals the secret side of his protagonist, building up a story line in the present before flashing back to expose Lee's past with precise timing for maximum effect. This is assisted in no small part by remarkable, career defining performances by Casey Affleck and Lucas Hedges. Their on-screen chemistry (and this extends to the further cast also, but the two leads particularly) encapsulates Lonergan's screenplay, hitting every off beat pause and every awkward interruption. The camera lingers uncomfortably in the middle of broken dialogue and jarring conversations, or even moments of strained silence. It's painfully funny; we are the flies on the wall of Lee's life as he stumbles and stutters through it.
Manchester by the Sea is arguably flawless in its execution. Despite its hilarity, it is also desperately sad at points which helps to demonstrate Affleck's range but also adds variety to the film. his rows with his wife Randi, played incredibly by Michelle Williams, serve to show both Randi and Lee's darker sides, their hurtful sides. In less capable hands, it would suffer from tonal inconsistencies, but not here. In Lonergan's hands, this is where the film thrives, building on the changes in pacing and tone to allow for the greatest impact. The deeper the film goes, too, the better it gets - it never loses its way or tries to be more than it is. It is confident in itself, comfortable in its awkward, uncomfortable screenplay and performances. Despite having a socially disconnected, the film is driven by emotion and the passion is clear, even if it is understated.
A well crafted screenplay, brought to life by its author and embodied by its cast. There are many moving parts in Manchester by the Sea and they are all committed to telling this story to the best of their abilities. The result is a marvellously moving, captivating and hilarious piece of cinema.
Baseball, racial tension, and garbage men; what do these things have in common? They are all heavily featured in Denzel Washington's fast talking, hard hitting, third directorial feature. This is Fences.
Life has been tough on Troy Maxson (Denzel Washington). He was once an aspiring pro baseball player but never made it due to his race, so he believes. He has a loving wife, Rose (Viola Davis) who supports him and guides him as he strives to support his family. He has a brother Gabriel (Mykelti Williamson) who has a mental disorder, an estranged son, Lyons (Russell Hornsby), who only comes by for money once a week, and a younger son, Cory (Jovan Adepo), who has the potential to be a pro football player. We see Troy juggle these relationships, but keeping up a wall, not letting anyone penetrate or get too close. But when you've seen life chew up people and spit them out, it's hard to share warmth and encouragement with your family when reality is not so kind.
There's no shortage of films about racial oppression at the Oscars this year (13th, Loving, Hidden Figures), but Fences is perhaps the most striking of them all. Its main narrative is one of family under pressure and beneath that is the undercurrent of a systematically racially bias society. This is also a film driven by powerful performances from every member of the cast. Denzel Washington is electrifying, rattling through his mini-monologues at a lightning fast pace and it is mesmerising. He is at his best here, fresh off an award winning run of Fences on Broadway with co-star Viola Davis, Washington delivers a monumental performance as Troy having been able to absorb the character during its time on stage. Davis too, in a supporting role here as the gentle housewife Rose, is on top form and this maybe her year to finally take the Oscar statuette home that she has deserved since The Help. Keeping up with her Broadway co-star and hitting every beat where he lets up his pace the film keeps moving and when those gaps in flow come, the audience notice. The leads' spectacular timing emphasise the narrative and power it forward.
This is film making. Stripped clear of unnecessary extras, Fences demonstrates what can be achieved when you combine a good screenplay with a talented director and an outstanding cast. There's no blockbuster special effects, no plethora of A-list names teaming up to fight a common evil, but what is onscreen is spell-binding. Washington's not only skilled in front the camera, but behind it too. He knows August Wilson's play like the back of his hand and his familiarity with it allows him to finely tune every element of his film adaptation to be the best that it can. Staged and blocked like a play, Washington's camera glides in and out of rooms in the small house, lingering rather than cutting, providing the feeling that we are often looking through that fourth wall. It is effective, allowing the actors to really get involved in their scene, together, without interruption or cutaway.
Washington's achievement is simply astounding. For only his third directorial feature, Fences is an accomplishment to behold. Simple and powerful with stellar performances all round. This is an intelligent piece of cinema that doesn't try to be showy. It uses its medium of film to do the basics of storytelling, but it does those basics phenomenally well.
If Best Pictures are not enough to wet your appetite for this weekend's Academy Awards, here are some other nominated films that I have reviewed just for you:
13th(Best Documentary Feature)
13th is a daring documentary. It doesn't deal with an isolated far away issue that we can sympathise with from a distance. It gets up in your face and deals with one of America's biggest contemporary and most contentious problems: mass incarceration. However, this is not a Louis Theroux documentary where they gently try to find answers, sweetly exploring what has caused this mess. Ava DuVernay presents us with a host of academics, activists, and ex-inmates who clearly explain the history of the States' systematic oppression of the African American population, centering the discussion around the 'loophole' in the 13th Amendment that, to paraphrase, says slavery is okay as punishment for a crime.
The documentary really hits home almost exactly half way through the movie when an image of Trayvon Martin fills the screen for an uncomfortably long fifteen-or-so seconds. We're no longer talking about slavery 150 years ago, or the civil rights movement 50 years ago, this is now. The second hour of the film is not easy watching, but it's not meant to be. DuVernay is drawing a big picture and it is an ugly one. We see the violence, the abuse, the police brutality happening in our time, today, on our streets. DuVernay plays these images alongside archival footage from the civil rights movement whilst Donald Trump's voice echoes over the images 'In the good old days...'. A powerfully moving piece of work. It's unpleasant and upsetting, but it is real, and that's probably the most heartbreaking thing.
The Lobster (Best Original Screenplay)
Imagine a world in which singleness is illegal, that those unable to find a mate must either go it alone in the woods or be it turned into an animal of their choice. This is the premise of The Lobster and it only gets weirder after that. Weird though it may be, it is also wickedly funny. Its finest moments of comedy are also some of its darkest, but for the laughs it produces it is completely justified. Kicking little girls in the shin, choking women, dead dogs - these things have almost never been funnier as Colin Farrell's David tries desperately to find a lover.
The film is, in its own way, genius however it suffers from both a tonal problem and pacing problem. Its dry comedy, at first amplified by its drab and mechanical presentation, is later dulled as the gags come fewer and further between and yet the slow pace of the film remains unchanged. This leaves the second half of the film to begin to drag as it goes on. Secondly, the jokes move from dark toward vulgar. At somepoints this lands, using the same shock reflex that the darker jokes work with, but othertimes it feels out of place and uncomfortable.
The Lobster is a few strokes away from a masterpiece, but those missing strokes are not small ones. They are unfortunately noticeable and it is a pity because the film ends with the feeling that it could have been more.
Jackie (Best Actress, Best Costume Design, Best Score)
The story of Jackie Kennedy planning a funeral for her husband does not immediately spring to mind as one the most riveting biopics of our time, however Jackie, through its non-linear narrative and excellent performances, manages to be bold and striking. Director Pablo Larraín takes something simple, adds layers of complexity, jumping back and forth in time and even into a television documentary piece the Fist Lady starred, building one narrative to boiling point before switching across to something else. The audience keeps on their toes and becomes engaged in the story Larraín wants to tell.
But the defining feature of this film, as all the marketing suggests, is Natalie Portman playing the titular Mrs Kennedy. Portman is no stranger to playing strong female leads and this could be her peak. She fully embodies Jackie Kennedy, balancing heartbreak, mourning, determination, grief, vulnerability and a gritty drive to make the world remember her husband. It is an astonishingly good performance and one that will no doubt be remembered.
As a whole, the film lacks omph. The supporting cast are in shadows next to the powerhouse that is Portman. They're not poor or even average performances, there is just an inconsistency in quality. Peter Sarsgaard and the late John Hurt both put in a good show here, particularly Sarsgaard again showing his capabilities of being a top tier actor.
Hail, Caesar! (Best Production Design)
The Coen Brothers' latest outing is a comedy noir romp through taking place in the behind the scenes world of 1950s Hollywood. It follows Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin) whose job it is to fix things like press attention surrounding unwanted pregnancies or your lead of a huge blockbuster being kidnapped. When exactly that happens to George Clooney's Baird Whitlock, and he is taken to a group of communist thinkers' hideout, Eddie has to work twice as hard to find a fix.
The film is scattered with moments of excellence and brilliance. Some set pieces really steal the show, particularly an all out singing and dancing spectacular with Channing Tatum as a sailor. However, the film is a bit convoluted in it's delivery. There's quite a lot of intersecting story lines and the narratives sometimes lose their way - you may find yourself questioning when a performer changes into a soviet spy, for example.
Despite this, the film is hilariously funny. The Coens are masters of bringing out Clooney as a fool and a clown (see Burn after Reading and O Brother Where Art Thou?) and throughout, the jokes land as they're intended to. It makes for an enjoyable watching experience but it will probably leave you wanting to pull out one of the Coen's more acclaimed ventures and experience them at their best.
Suicide Squad (Best Hair and Makeup)
'I'll carry your ass if I have to' says Will Smith's Deadshot as we head into the final act of Suicide Squad. He is talking to Rick Flag, played by Joel Kinnaman, but he may as well be talking to the film makers. Suicide Squad is a messy film, and not in a good sense. There's an overwhelming sense of overnighters in the editing room before deadline day and nothing quite fits. It consists of several pieces from different puzzles that director David Ayer is trying to bash into a cohesive picture and whilst you can see what he is trying to make, it's clunky and broken.
There is some strength at the opening and in the final third of the movie, but shamefully for an ensemble piece, several of the supporting characters are left woefully underdeveloped and under-utilised, especially Jai Courtney's Captain Boomerang who is often found flailing in the background with no real substance. Suicide Squad seeks to capture the grit of the Batman comics and Nolan's films, but fails in being nearly as good as either.
Whilst solid leads in Viola Davis, Will Smith, and Margot Robbie (as Harley Quinn) keep the film afloat, the messy narrative and lack of cohesion cannot be saved by a few fun filled action packed sequences to a rock song from the noughties. It would also be remiss not to mention Jared Leto's Joker, a modern age, grill teethed gangster who seems to be able to do the impossible without explanation. Overkill may be too strong a word, and the artistic vision may to be to blame over Leto, but it's hard to ignore the press surrounding his 'method acting'. If there's a silver lining, its that if there is a sequel, it can really only be better.
