Sicario (9/10): VIlleneuve delivers a brilliant atmospheric thriller

“You will not survive here. You are not a wolf, and this is a land of wolves now.”

It’s been over a month now since I’ve seen this film and it has stuck with me in a way few films have this year. Denis Villeneuve is a talented director who knows how to build the right atmosphere for his movies. Sicario is all about tone and atmosphere. We’ve seen the premise of this film done to death, but somehow Villeneuve and screenwriter Taylor Sheridan manage to tell a familiar story in a very unique way. The success of Sicario isn’t that it has a unique premise or a fantastic twist, but that it manages to tell a familiar story in such a captivating way with some of the best performances of the year. Sicario will be included in my list of the best films of 2015 without a doubt, and it is a must see for movie fans around the globe. Emily Blunt continues to expand her acting career with another brilliant performance although its Benicio de Toro who will get all the accolades for getting the stronger dramatic material to work with.

The film has the best opening sequence by far in a movie released this year as we are introduced to Emily Blunt’s character, Kate Macer, who is leading a SWAT team across an Arizona desert and into a house where they suspect to find one of the Mexican cartel leaders, but end up finding much more than what they bargained for. Kate is a tough DEA agent who is determined to bring down the Mexican cartel. Once they arrive back at the station she is introduced to Josh Brolin’s Matt Graver, a superior who wants her assistance in catching the cartel leader who was responsible for the events that unfolded at the house. Graver has a suave persona, he may be in charge of the operation but he seems laid back with his flip flops and cargo pants. His right hand man is much more silent and mysterious. It’s Benicio del Toro’s Alejandro, who certainly seems menacing and is hiding something underneath his calmed demeanor. He is evidently a man who has seen and experienced a lot of things in life. Kate accepts the mission despite not being fully informed of what she must do and she becomes a surrogate for the audience as she tries to understand what these men are up to just as we do. Villeneuve keeps the audience hooked and engaged while taking us through the Mexican border an back again with some magnificent cinematography from Roger Deakins. Sicario is a brilliant film that maintains the tension throughout its entire runtime. My only complaint is that the second half isn’t as strong as the first.

Sicario is a film that should receive several nominations come Award time and I can’t see how Del Toro won’t be nominated for his superb supporting performance here. Although I must say that Brolin and Blunt are equally deserving for their work. Blunt is much more subtle in her approach as she has to adapt to this masculine dominated world and is constantly left in the loop of things. Brolin plays a character that he could play in his sleep with his suave and cool exterior, but he does it so well that it’s hard not to sympathize with him. Del Toro is menacing and his turn as Alejandro will be one of the most memorable characters of the year. He has some great scenes. It’s hard to avoid some comparisons with Zero Dark Thirty, especially the way some of the scenes were shot and how it focuses (although in a very different way) on two strong motivated female characters who are determined to accomplish their goal in a masculine run world. It also happens to be a very intelligent thriller that manages to tell a familiar story in a fresh way. Sometimes it’s not what you say, but how you say it that makes the difference and in Sicario Villeneuve manages to craft an engaging work of art. This is the Zero Dark Thirty of war on drug films. 

Inherent Vice (4/10): The First time I was disappointed with a PTA film

“She came along the alley and up the back steps the way she always used to. Doc hadn't seen her for over a year. Nobody had.”

Before I get a lot of hate for disliking this film I just want to say that I have a lot of respect for Paul Thomas Anderson as a director and have rated all of his previous films with at least four out of five stars. Inherent Vice was one of my most anticipated films for 2014 because his recent movies have been mesmerizing. The Master and There Will Be Blood are both films that I absolutely love. Inherent Vice unfortunately didn’t work for me and I had a very difficult time keeping up with the movie’s plot. I was unfamiliar with Thomas Pynchon’s recent novel which this film was adapted from, and perhaps the movie works best for audiences who have read it, but I just couldn’t follow what was going on. There are many characters who seem to be mumbling their lines and stoned out of their lives, so at times it was hard to figure out wether we were seeing actual events or simple hallucinations. I also had difficulty understanding a lot of the dialogue and found the pacing extremely slow. I put a lot of effort into trying to understand the plot of the film, but I simply didn’t get it. The comedy didn’t work for me either and at times I felt like I was missing a lot of the jokes everyone else seemed to enjoy. It was one of the rare films that I thought I wasn’t going to be able to finish, because I felt tempted to walk out of the movie. I kept with it out of the respect I have for Anderson’s work, but in all honesty I wasn’t able to engage with the characters.

There are some great performances in Inherent Vice. Joaquin Phoenix is impressive and delivers a solid and believable role as Doc Sportello, a private eye who is constantly getting high. Josh Brolin also delivers as Bigfoot, the tough detective who is always on Doc’s back. Katherine Waterston plays this sort of femme fatale who had been Doc’s girlfriend in the past and needs his help investigating her current lover (Played by Eric Roberts). I don’t want to get into details into the plot because it isn’t really important in Inherent Vice. This isn’t your conventional detective mystery story. The narration is hard to follow and many characters are introduced in the story with no specific purpose other than to invade Doc’s world. 

Anderson tends to choose projects that center on the end of an era, and in Inherent Vice it revolves around the end of the psychedelic 60’s. You get this sense of nostalgia towards that era where the hippies dominated the scene. Anderson does a great job at capturing that period very well and he transports us to this time. It is perhaps the greatest thing about this film along with the strong performances, but the lack of a cohesive narrative and its extremely long running time made it very difficult for me to endure. This is the first Anderson film that I have to admit I didn’t enjoy and that I won’t be revisiting any time soon. The story is completely absurd and the humor wasn’t for me. I kind of feel like I’m the odd one out when everyone else is praising the comedy because I simply never got it. It was a very boring and non engaging experience personally, but I still haven’t lost my respect for what Anderson does. I just wasn’t interested in these character and wasn’t able to follow the story (which I think is purposely done this way). I think The Big Lebowski does a much better job of creating a fun experience for the audience with engaging characters without having an important plot. 

My Review: Savages (8/10)

¨It started here in paradise, Laguna Beach, where they say God parked himself on the seventh day, but they towed him on the eighth.¨

When the movie began I thought I was actually watching a trailer for another Hostel movie or something like that, but once I realized that it was actually the opening of Oliver Stone`s new film I knew I was going to be in for something different. I knew the film would be much darker than his latest efforts going back to his Natural Born Killers days and I was excited about it. Then I heard Blake Lively`s voice over narration and it kind of killed the momentum. Despite the fact that there was no need for the narration and some other minor issues, I really enjoyed this film for the most part. I don’t think I was so hooked with a thriller like this one all year. I was literally at the edge of my seat once the boring setup was over with. The two biggest issues I had with this film had to do with the beginning and the ending, but for most of Savages I was really entertained and hooked. There are some great performances here as well, although they had to do more with the secondary characters than the main ones. Savages could have been one of my favorite films of the year if it weren’t for those issues I had. The film is really violent and difficult to watch at times, but if you like these kinds of thrillers then you will enjoy this movie. Oliver Stone made a name for himself way back in 1979 when he won an Oscar for the adaptation of Midnight Express, and followed such success by directing films like Platoon, Nixon, Wall Street, Born on the Fourth of July, JFK, and Any Given Sunday. He`s done very diverse projects, but Savages is perhaps one of his most violent and darkest films to date, at least from this century. It will stick with you long after the movie is over.

Ophelia (Blake Lively), -who actually calls herself O after realizing she was named after the suicidal character from Hamlet- lives an ideal life in Laguna Beach along with her two lovers, Chon (Taylor Kitsch) a former Navy SEAL, and Ben (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) a bright marihuana producer and entrepreneur. Ben and Chon have been best friends since High School and have no problem sharing their love with O. The two friends are very different from each other; Ben is peaceful while Chon who has been affected by war in Iraq is more of a violent person. The two have had success with their marihuana business since the weed that they produce is one of the best in the world. They run things as peacefully as possible, but when a Mexican drug cartel wants to become partners with them, things begin to get out of hand. The cartel is run by la Reina Elena (Salma Hayek), and Lado (Benicio del Toro) is in charge of doing the dirty work. When Elena tries to force the two men to associate with her through Alex (Demian Bichir) and they refuse, she sends O to be kidnapped. Ben and Chon will do whatever it takes to get the love of their lives back, while fighting off this dangerous cartel. A dirty FBI agent named Dennis (John Travolta) assists the Californian duo by providing some key information of the cartel. This is where things begin to get ugly and the violence escalates.

Taylor Kitsch has had a very busy year with John Carter coming out earlier this year and then Battleship. I don’t think he`s a very good actor, but this is perhaps his better work. I really didn’t know who Aaron Taylor-Johnson was until I heard he was the guy from Kick-Ass. He is unrecognizable in this film, and of the three leading actors, he´s by far the best. I thought he gave a strong performance here, although in my opinion the best performances come from the secondary actors. Salma Hayek and John Travolta were great and remind us once again why they have been such successful actors over the years. My favorite performance came from Benicio del Toro who I thought was brilliant and one of the best villains of the year. The story is really gripping and intense; if it weren`t for the narration or the pretty loose ending than this would´ve been a perfect movie. It`s still worth your time and you won`t regret Savages if you enjoy suspenseful thrillers and don`t mind a little bit of violence. It`s not a perfect movie, but I recommend it for the suspense and tension that Stone creates in this noir pulpy film.

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My Review: The Wolfman (4/10)

¨Terrible things Lawrence, you've done terrible things. ¨

(4/10) This is a remake of 1941`s Universal Studios monstrous creation named The Wolf Man. One thing that the original had going for it is that it was a creature that hadn`t been on screen before and it became a classic horror film. I can imagine audiences being blown away by this monster and scared to death. Now almost 70 years later they have decided to remake the film using all the technological advances and of course the effects are much better. The Wolf Man seems much more real than the one in the original, but we are already used to seeing these monstrous creatures and have already grown used to seeing these incredible effects. Audiences nowadays need a good story to go along with the effects. I can imagine people being more terrified with the original version because it was something that audiences weren`t familiar with. Nowadays we have been bombarded with all kind of creatures on screen, from aliens, to vampires, to gremlins, to predators, to dinosaurs, and so on. We have even seen a comedy about a teenage wolf man (starring Michael J Fox) so the unknown element that was present in 1941 now is gone. These creatures are not scary on their own; you need a decent script to aid with the frightening scenes. That is why director Joe Johnston (Jumanji, The Rocketeer, Jurassic Park III, and Hidalgo) brought two well known screenwriters to help him with the movie: Andrew Kevin Walker (Seven and Sleepy Hollow) and David Self (Road To Perdition). Unfortunately this time around I didn`t find the script very helpful and ended up with a movie that seemed to miss some important elements. By the way, the effects aren`t that great either (the werewolves in the Twilight saga are done a lot better than this).

The story takes place in a small town near London during 1890. Lawrence Talbot (Benicio del Toro) is a Shakespearean actor who has gone to America and left his father and brother after his mother`s death several years ago. Now he is back in England for a short while working on a play and he receives a letter from his soon to be sister in law, Gwen (played by the beautiful Emily Blunt from The Devil Wears Prada) saying that his brother is missing and wants him to aid in the search. By the time Lawrence shows up at his home his brother has been found slaughtered by some sort of beast or demented person. Lawrence promises Gwen that he will find the killer. Lawrence reunites with his father, Sir John Talbot (Anthony Hopkins) and memories from his troubled childhood begin to haunt him. All the while Sir John has a calm and serene attitude and he seems to be hiding some crucial information. Meanwhile Lawrence decides to investigate a gypsy camp because his brother dealt with them a lot. Several other murders continue to take place so a Scotland Yard officer (played by Hugo Weaving) is sent to investigate the strange occurrences. Somehow Lawrence becomes the prime suspect after recovering miraculously from the creature`s attack and the plot develops from that point on.

I didn´t have any problems with the cast, I thought that they all gave good performances and were actually above average for a horror film. Benicio del Toro is a great actor and he has proved that he can carry a movie. Anthony Hopkins is one of the best and even though he isn`t as great in this movie as he is in most of his films his average is better than most good performances from many other actors. Emily Blunt also does what she can with a character that didn`t seem to play an important role although she should have been key if the story was developed better. I think the true star of the film was Hugo Weaving. He had a minor role, but he stole every scene he was in as the Scotland Yard officer. The main problem I had with this film was that there were very few scares and the story was developed very poorly. Some moments were very entertaining, but others seemed to drag and the story lacked its effect. There is some gore in The Wolfman so fans of that genre will be pleased, but there are not many scares so don`t expect to be frightened by this movie. There were mixed reactions in the theater; the person next to me fell asleep in a couple of occasions, but then at the end there were a couple of people that ended up clapping and cheering for the movie. What really made me give this movie four stars out of ten was the ending which I thought was developed poorly and should have been done much better. It seemed to be missing something and it just didn`t convince me. I would recommend you to skip this movie unless you are a true fan of The Wolfman; and it will probably satisfy some blood thirsty gore fans as well.