REVIEW: Bang Bang Baby

MOVIE
Bang Bang Baby

CAST
Jane Levy, Justin Chatwin

RATING
NR

RELEASE
September 19, 2015 (NYC)
November 10, 2015 (VOD)

DIRECTOR
Jeffery St. Jules

STUDIO
Random Media

RUNNING TIME
1 hour 29 minutes









STARS
**









REVIEW:

Well, I'll give "Bang Bang Baby" credit for something: it's extremely original.  At the same time, though, it's also extremely weird and absurd throughout.  This is a sci-fi musical dramedy that takes place in Canada circa early 1960s.  The movie stars Jane Levy from the "Evil Dead" remake along with Justin Chatwin from Showtime's "Shameless" and character actor Peter Stormare.  Levy plays a lonely teenager named Stepphy, who dreams of becoming a singer, as many girls do.  She ends up winning a singing competition that would require her to go to New York City, but her alcoholic dad refuses to let her go.  Stepphy's fate changes though when a musical idol of hers just happens to cross paths with her when his car breaks down just near her home.  As if things couldn't get stranger, a mysterious chemical leak happens that begins to give the townsfolk a series of bizarre mutations.

While the film itself takes place in the 60s, the vibe, look, and sound of the soundtrack feel as if they're more so from the 50s.  The sets, for example, are very nice visual treats for the eyes.  However, they give off a feel as if they're confused about what period they're trying to represent.  It got annoying at times to keep reminding myself that this was supposed to take place around the same time as something like movie/musical "Hairspray" was set.  Speaking of the soundtrack, it's overall pretty mediocre.  There are some songs, particularly the film's opening number "Juniper Lane," that are quite catchy and very well done.  Others, though, are not as good and didn't have quite as much of a flowing rhythm as others did.

The casting choices in the movie are all over the place.  On one hand, you have Jane Levy and Peter Stormare giving pretty solid and believable performances as their respected characters.  On the other hand, you have Justin Chatwin and David Reale giving mediocre to awful performances.  Chatwin seems to be trying too hard to channel his inner Elvis and in trying to do so becomes a very hollow, irritating, and one-dimensional character.  Granted it seemed like that was the filmmaker's intentions with this character, but the way he was executed was rather poor.  As for Reale, I guess you can say he's the film's main antagonist.  It's one thing for a character to be menacing and unlikable, but if you have your villain be so irritatingly annoying that you're not given the chance to be genuinely afraid of him or even have him be something of an interesting character, then there's a problem.  Every time Reale was on screen my insides twisted and I had a couple of minor headaches merely because of his presence in the movie.  Chatwin is a talented actor, and I'm sure Reale is too, but here they do not deliver enjoyable performances whatsoever.

As an aspiring filmmaker, it hurts to bash on a film from a first-time feature director/writer.  It hurts even more because I could see so much passion that went into making this movie.  It's very clear from watching this movie that writer/director Jeffrey St. Jules loved what he was making and created this from a place of true energy and imagination.  In fact, it was because of this passion I saw that I even gave "Bang Bang Baby" a second watch, something I rarely do for newer-released films.  That second viewing only made me dislike what I saw even more, sadly.

If this was supposed to be a comedy at parts, I never laughed.  If this was supposed to be a drama where the audience is meant to sympathize with the characters, I never felt so much as a twinkle of that until the film's third act.  The ideas and concepts featured are interesting ones, but, unfortunately, they all just felt like an odd mixture of things that never fully meshed together to make something good or great.  "Bang Bang Baby" may appeal to a select few people out there.  After all, it did win the "Best Canadian First Feature Film" award at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.  Unfortunately for this writer here, the movie didn't connect or become something more than a bunch of cool ideas/concepts.  If you're a fan of fresh and original material, I'd honestly say give this a watch merely because of how much creativity went into it.  As a movie-lover, though, I can't say that this is a good movie worth your time, unfortunately.

MINI-REVIEW: Sicario

MOVIE
Sicario

CAST
Emily Blunt, Benicio Del Toro

RATING
R

RELEASE
Setpember 18, 2015 (NY/LA)
October 2, 2015 (WIDE)

DIRECTOR
Denis Villevenue

STUDIO
Lionsgate

RUNNING TIME
2 hours 1 minute








STARS
***1/2










REVIEW:

Director Denis Villevenue has tackled some fascinating and haunting subjects in his films, with his two most recent works "Prisoners" and "Enemy" receiving mass acclaim.  With the movie "Sicario," Villevenue tackles yet another fascinating and haunting subject: the drug cartel.  Emily Blunt is the main focus of the movie, playing an FBI agent recruited by a small sector of the Department of Defense to help maintain control and possibly end the war on drugs between the US and Mexico.  This is a movie that is grand in scope, yet the story and characters make it all feel enclosed and more intimate.  Cinematographer Roger Deakins shot this movie beautifully, with some of the imagery featured on screen being more haunting than any horror movie to have come out this year.  Composer Johann Johannson creates a looming and beautiful score that helps give the movie one hell of a depressing vibe to it.  Taylor Sheridan, a writer best known for his TV credits including "Sons of Anarchy," created a gloomy and sad world along with fascinating characters, some more flawed than others.  Villevenue brings his directorial flare to this story, and though this is my least favorite of his films, his style is clearly present and he brings his A-game to the film.

The performances, particularly from the three leads, are all quite stellar.  Everyone brings everything they have to their roles and altogether make up an incredible ensemble cast.  As much as I'm praising this movie, there were some problems I had with it.  When the movie drags, to me it really dragged.  Sometimes it was effective, yet other times it wasn't.  There were some points where the movie as a whole got a tad confusing and hard to follow.  Luckily I was never fully lost from the general story.  The biggest problem I have with the movie is a subplot involving a corrupt Mexican cop and his family.  In my eyes, it didn't need to be in the movie at all.  Had it been omitted entirely, I don't think the movie would have been as slow, nor do I think the quality of the film itself would have been affected negatively.  If anything, I might have enjoyed the movie more had this subplot not been in there.  Despite the gripes I had with it, it's hard to deny how intense and gripping of a film "Sicario" is overall.  It's an intense, well-acted, and well-made movie that is never happy in the slightest.  Although movies are usually supposed to be an escape from our worries and make us feel good, it's important for filmmakers to challenge us and make us feel gloomy and upset over something that's actually happening somewhere else in the world.  For that alone, I would highly recommend checking this one out.

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Freeheld

MINI-REVIEW: Everest: The IMAX 3D Experience

MOVIE
Everest

CAST
Jason Clarke, Josh Brolin

RATING
PG-13

RELEASE
September 18, 2015 (IMAX 3D)
September 25, 2015 (WIDE)

DIRECTOR
Baltasar Kormákur

STUDIO
Universal Pictures

RUNNING TIME
2 hours 1 minute






STARS
***










REVIEW:

Climbing Mount Everest takes courage, strength, and lots of equipment.  Even with all of the necessary requirements, though, things can still go awry on the world's tallest mountain.  "Everest," from director Baltasar Kormákur, tells the true story of one such event.  In 1996, a group of climbers on an expedition to the top of the mountain ended up facing a severe snow storm that tests them all in more ways than one.  The beginning was slow, having the film itself take a bit before becoming investing.  The ending of the movie, ironically enough, is very rushed and wraps things up too quickly for the audience to fully process what just happened.  Having said that, I would still recommend checking out "Everest."  The acting work is strong all around though Jake Gyllenhaal is severely underused in the movie, the visuals are stunning, and the 3D is very good.  It's not necessarily worth paying extra for "The IMAX 3D Experience," but the 3D is a lot better than most post-converted movies to come out these days.  I can't say this is something one should rush out to see, but if it's still playing in theaters around you, or if you're just looking for a beautiful 3D movie to watch just for kicks, then this is one that I'd say is worth seeing.

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REVIEW: Black Mass

MOVIE
Black Mass

CAST
Johnny Depp, Joel Edgerton

RATING
R

RELEASE
September 18, 2015

DIRECTOR
Scott Cooper

STUDIO
Warner Bros. Pictures

RUNNING TIME
2 hours 3 minutes





STARS
***1/2











REVIEW:

The main inspiration for Jack Nicholson's character in Martin Scorsese's "The Departed," Frank Costello, was famed Boston Irish-American gangster Whitey Bulger.  In the time since that film was released, there have been two films about the life of Bulger that have come to the silver screen.  The first was a documentary entitled "Whitey: United States of America v. James J. Bulger," and the second one was a narrative feature from director Scott Cooper called "Black Mass."  The latter is what I'm here to talk about today.  "Black Mass" stars Johnny Depp as Bulger, and the film depicts how he became an informant for the FBI and soon began to use them to get to the top of the Italian Mafia.

People have been saying that this is Johnny Depp's "comeback" to good roles though I'd honestly disagree.  While his recent choices have either involved acting in Disney adaptations, playing absurd characters in either micro-budgeted indies or Tim Burton movies, and starring in some critically panned films, I don't think he necessarily "left."  Having said that, this is hands down the best work Depp has delivered since his portrayal of "Sweeney Todd."  His green contacts get distracting at times, but other than that Depp loses himself as Bulger and plays this sadistic gangster madman with grace and menace.  The rest of the cast as a whole is very good though one performance I'm going to address is Joel Edgerton's as FBI agent John Connolly.

Edgerton is a great actor, and maybe an even better writer/director, as shown in his work on "The Gift."  Looking back on this movie and the performance he gives in it, though, there are problems present.  His performance overall is not bad, and I don't blame what I'm going to be criticizing entirely on him.  First off, the Boston accent Edgerton uses throughout the movie felt forced and exaggerated.   The second big problem I have with Edgerton, and this I'm mostly going to be blaming on the writing, is that his dialogue gets repetitive.  In fact, his dialogue gets so repetitive to the point where you can make a drinking game out of every time he references how he and the Bulger brothers grew up together and are from "Southie."  The third problem I had with him, and this could be blamed more on the director, is that his character became too much of an annoying and whiny baby when it came to talking to other characters about seeing the current predicaments happening his way.  Joel Edgerton gives a fine performance, but the material and direction given to him made it hard to take him seriously 100% of the time.

Other than what I had to say about Edgerton's character, I honestly have nothing else negative to say about "Black Mass."  Johnny Depp gives one hell of an amazing performance and makes the movie his playground.  Everyone else does a fine job, and the story that they're in is very interesting to watch.  There are some bits of dialogue that don't hit as hard as others, but the screenplay as a whole it pretty top notch.  I haven't seen any of Scott Cooper's other films, but I could tell here that he understood how to make a striking and flowing gangster biopic.  I doubt this will go down as one of the best gangster films of the modern era, but "Black Mass" is undeniably a strong and engaging movie that flows smoothly and never bores.





PREVIEWS YOU MAY SEE:

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MINI-REVIEW: Cooties

MOVIE
Cooties

CAST
Elijah Wood, Alison Pill

RATING
R

RELEASE
September 18, 2015
(LIMITED/VOD)

DIRECTOR(S)
Jonathan Milott,
Cary Murnion

STUDIO
Lionsgate Premiere

RUNNING TIME
1 hour 36 minutes







STARS
***








REVIEW:

The concept for the horror-comedy "Cooties" is a strong one: a zombie epidemic occurs when a poisoned chicken nugget starts turning children who haven't gone through puberty yet into ravenous, cannibalistic monsters.  The staff at a local elementary school get wrapped up in the middle of all of this, and together they must fend for their lives and possibly stop the virus from spreading anywhere else.  As I was watching this movie, I found myself digging and enjoying everything happening on screen.   Reflecting on it afterward, though, I started to notice the flaws that I didn't initially notice.  There are characters and certain jokes here that are set up and shown but ultimately have no purpose to the story whatsoever.  For example, a character will be shown doing something, yet they won't serve any point of being in the movie until the very end.  The middle of the film drags at times, making it feel more like 105-120 minutes than 87 minutes.  That reminds me; the movie should have been a lot longer than it was.  The ending of the movie comes so abruptly and feels incredibly rushed.   Plus it seemed only to have one purpose: to set up for a sequel that may never even get made.

It might sound like I have a lot more cons to say than pros, but as a whole I do see this as a solid little movie.  The blood and gore featured were incredibly well done, there are plenty moments of humor that are hilarious, and the cast is pretty damn great here.  Everyone seemed to be having a fun time making this, allowing the audience and myself to have a fun time with them.  There's one pretty meta joke at the beginning the film that got a pretty big laugh out of myself and the other members of my audience.  I can see "Cooties" having the potential to become something of a cult classic down the road.  Unfortunately, it's hard for me not to notice the flaws that took this down from being a great movie to just a plain old good movie.  "Cooties" had more good elements than bad, but at the end of the day it's hard not to notice that this could have been something a lot better than it ultimately ended up being.