My Favorite Collection: Mystic River (10/10)

“We bury our sins here, Dave. We wash them clean.”

     

Mystic River and Unforgiven are my two favorite Clint Eastwood films and depending on which one I see last I tend to put in first place. Right now I’m inclined to declare Mystic River as Eastwood’s best film, but that is subject to change anytime (perhaps even before I finish writing this review). Nominated for six Academy Awards, the film won two: Sean Penn for Best Actor in a Leading Role and Tim Robbins for Best Supporting Actor. I was rooting for Brian Helgeland’s wonderful screenplay adaptation from Dennis Lehane’s novel, but it lost out to The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Helgeland had previously won an Oscar for his adaptation of L.A. Confidential, which is another wonderful thriller. Lehane’s novel adaptations have always translated well to the big screen and I recommend each one: The Drop, Shutter Island, and Gone Baby Gone. So when putting these two great writers together you are guaranteed an intriguing story with rich characters, which is one of the reasons why I love Mystic River. On a side note I just want to say that Lehane’s novel, Live By Night, is being directed by Ben Affleck and will be released some time next year. It’s already my frontrunner for Best Picture at the 2017 Academy Awards without knowing anything else about it. 

Mystic River’s underlying theme is the loss of innocence. The story centers around three childhood friends whose life is forever changed when one of them is abducted and molested for several days before he manages to escape. The film centers on these three characters now that they are adults. Dave (Tim Robbins), the victim, is now a married man, but he is clearly traumatized by the abuse he received. Sean (Kevin Bacon) has become a homicide detective, while Jimmy (Sean Penn) is an ex-con who is now a loving father of three. When Jimmy’s daughter goes missing and is found dead, Sean takes over the investigation, but Jimmy is not going to let whoever committed this terrible crime go unpunished. 

Mystic River stands out for its clever screenplay, and that usually translates to fantastic performances. Sean Penn delivers one of his best performances and the scene where he finds out his daughter has been murdered is heart-breaking. Tim Robbins is also fantastic playing a traumatized man whose life was changed by that terrible event during his childhood. Sean Penn is perhaps given the most straightforward scenes as the detective, but even he shares some powerful scenes with Sean Penn. Laura Linney and Marcia Gay Harden also have some intense dramatic scenes. The film stands out thanks to its powerful performances and the surprising dark reveals along the way. It could even stand out on its own for the detective story, but it is carried to another level thanks to the impressive performances and Eastwood’s solid direction.

“The last time I saw Dave…That was twenty-five years ago, going up this street, in the back of that car.” That quote left me with goosebumps all over my arms and a quick chill run through my spine.

My Review: The Fifth Estate (6/10)

"If you want to know the truth... no one is going to tell you the truth. They're only going to tell you their version. So, if you want the truth, you have to seek it out for yourself."

The Fifth Estate is an engaging political thriller based on real events involving the popular and questionable internet site, WikiLeaks, which intended to work as a sort of watchdog site exposing the corrupt actions of powerful organizations and governments. Despite all the media attention this got all over the news, audiences didn't seem too interested in checking out this film. If you've basically kept up with the news about WikiLeaks than this film doesn't offer much more than a dramatic story focusing on the main characters. In the end this film only tells its own version of the truth, but if you really want to know what happened you will need to investigate more on your own. The Fifth Estate raises some interest towards the subject, but it never really informs much about it. Despite being a bit one sided and exposing Assange as an egocentric and obsessive character, it still managed to raise interesting questions. The film focuses more on the relationship between Assange and Daniel Berg who teamed up to build the site than on the actual events themselves. It is worth watching for the dynamic relationship between the two, perfectly played by Benedict Cumberbatch and Daniel Bruhl, two actors that weren't on my radar before 2013, but have had an impressive year.

The Fifth Estate was based on Daniel Domscheit-Berg (Inside WikiLeaks: My Time with Julian Assange at the World's Most Dangerous Website) and David Leigh's books (WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy) and the screenplay was adapted by Josh Singer (The West Wing) which focused on the relationship between WikiLeak founder, Julian Assange (Benedict Cumberbatch), and Daniel Berg (Daniel Bruhl) who teamed up with him to guarantee that the website would protect the anonymity of the whistleblowers that were exposing corruption and dark secrets of powerful organizations such as banks or dictatorships. Thus the site began exposing corporate crimes and other government secrets at a very fast pace. However when the site receives thousands of confidential US military and government documents, Assange and Berg differ in how they should deal with this sensitive material. 

The lack of public interest in the WikiLeak scandals kind of hurt this film, but the truth is that with everything that went on it's hard to decipher what the intentions of the producers of this film truly are. It might be one sided, but it still presents some interesting points and it is left to the viewer to keep on searching for the truth on their own. The focus of the film is on the relationship between the two main characters and I was fine with that because the performances were strong. Alicia Vikander, Laura Linney, Anthony Mackie, and Stanley Tucci aren't given much to do with their characters considering the plot kept on jamming a lot of information in a short period of time and they really didn't stand out, but it was still nice to see some of these talented actors here. Vikander is gorgeous and I'm glad she's getting more roles after her great performance in the danish film, A Royal Affair. Bill Condon is a talented director (Gods and Monsters, Kinsey, Dreamgirls), but The Fifth Estate is a flawed film. We never learn much about the secrets that were being uncovered, since the film focused more on the relationship between Assange and Berg. It's more interested in the characters and exposing Assange's flaws than in telling the actual story. Cumberbatch and Bruhl save this film and make it watchable.

My Review: Breach (8/10)

"Can you imagine, sitting in a room with a bunch of your colleagues, everybody trying to guess the identity of a mole and all the while, it's you they're after, you they're looking for? That must be very satisfying, wouldn't you think?"

Breach is a very intelligent spy thriller much more interesting than Spy Games or any of the other spy movies that have come out in recent years which rely too much on the special effects and not as much on the relationship between the characters. Breach is based on a true story about the mole in the FBI agency that sold millions worth of information to the Soviets in a 25 year span and focuses on the last two months before his arrest. What makes this movie so appealing is that this man, Robert Hanssen lived a very hipocritcal life since he was a very religious man who went to mass every day and seemed to live a very clean life. What makes this even better is that it is a true story based on recent events and the script couldnt have been made up by any Hollywood writers.

The actors in this film are great, but who really stands out in this movie is Chris Cooper. He plays the mole Robert Hanssen brilliantly, and is such a solid actor. In this film he absolutely nails the character and for some moments I was even fooled into sympathising with his persona. This is one of his best performances to date along with Seabiscuit although this time he has more screen time. Ryan Philippe also does a good job as O Neill, the agent who is chosen to work alongside Hannsen and spy on him. Laura Linney completes this well cast movie and also shines in the few scenes she is in. The only performance I somewhat disliked came from the actress that played Phillipes wife. She felt a bit miscast, but the rest of the supporting actors were good and Cooper simply outshines everyone.

Overall I found this movie very entertaining and it mantained my interest for the entire two hours even though we already know the outcome of the film. The movie is worth seeing for Coopers performance alone, but even then there is much more to this that you will find enjoyable and thrilling. The relationship and character development between Hannsen and O Neill is also one of the main ingredients that help make this a succesful film. I recommend this movie!

My Review: The Squid and The Whale (8/10)

"Mom and me versus you and Dad."

The Squid and the Whale wasn't the first Baumbach film I've seen so I kind of knew what to expect. I watched Greenberg a couple of years ago and thought it was a pretty good film, so I've always wanted to watch The Squid considering it was Baumbach's breakout critical hit and has a cult following. I really enjoyed this movie and thought it opened really well with some extremely witty and funny dialogues. It had a very strong opening which helped me get involved quickly with the characters. I have to say that this film managed to maintain me interested in every character despite the fact that they are all unlikeable and hard to relate to. The performances were all really strong and I thought Jeff Daniels was especially great in his role, but I guess Baumbach should get the credit for writing such a witty and funny script about a tough subject. I found myself laughing during these scenes because I've actually met people like this and they are incredibly obnoxious. Despite having such a strong opening I thought the film fell short at the end. This could have been a masterpiece if it didn't end in such an ambiguous note where nothing was resolved. I still haven't watched Frances Ha, but so far this is my favorite Baumbach film and I can see why it received so much love from critics. This was a very personal film for Baumbach and you can sense it in his writing. The film, despite being a bit awkward, felt real and authentic and shows us divorce isn't as easy as it seems.

The film takes place during 1986 in Brooklyn, New York. Bernard Berkman (Jeff Daniels) and Joan (Laura Linney) have been married for several years and have two children: Walt (Jesse Eisenberg) and Frank (Owen Kline). Bernard is a writer who is now teaching literature at a university because he can't get his novel published. He's an arrogant who believes his work isn't getting published because people aren't smart enough. He considers himself an intellectual and believes he is better than everyone else. Joan on the other hand is now becoming the more prominent writer and Bernard is a little jealous about that. Their family is very dysfunctional and divorce is inevitable since Joan has had several affairs and the two have grown apart. The film focuses on how the kids deal with the separation as Walt takes sides with his father who he idolizes and seems to imitate everything he says or does, and Frank takes sides with his mother. Joan and Bernard agree to share custody of the kids and seem to work everything out, but the transition isn't as smooth as they expect and the kids begin to have abnormal behaviors when Joan begins dating Ivan (William Baldwin), and Bernard allows one of his students, Lili (Anna Paquin), to move in with him.

Despite not identifying or liking any of these characters, I thought Jeff Daniels' performance as Bernard was great. It was so funny to see this man behaving as an intellectual yet acting like a kid by being so competitive and wanting everyone to agree with him. It was even funnier seeing how Walt didn't have a voice of his own and began imitating everything his father said. He had an opinion about everything without even knowing anything about it (in literature for example, he would say how great a book was because his father said so but he hadn't even read it). I think that this was one of the themes of the film that resonated the most with me, seeing how children imitate the behavior of their parents. The film doesn't try to point the finger at only one of the parents; I think they are both to blame and are very irresponsible parents. Baumbach really captures the mood and tone of the film by making it feel real and authentic despite the weirdness and dysfunctionality of this family. The film is very short, but he manages to give these characters a lot of depth in such a short time. The Squid is a tragic and sad story, but at the same time it is just so funny and engaging. I really enjoyed this film.