Dope (7/10): A different coming of age comedy

“I'm from a poor, crime-filled neighborhood, raised by a single mother, don't know my dad, blah, blah. It's cliche.”

Writer and director Rick Famuyiwa delivers an energetic coming of age film that goes out of its way to avoid cliches. That is why despite having a familiar premise, the characters  feel unique and are fun to hang around with. This film premiered at Sundance and it was well received thanks to Shameik Moore’s charismatic lead performance. It’s a feel good movie about a straight-A student who despite growing up in a poor neighborhood dreams of being accepted into Harvard. Malcolm also happens to have a punk band and hangs around his two best friends, Jib (Tony Revolori) and Diggy (Kiersey Clemons). The three are geeks who happen to be fascinated with 90’s hip hop culture, but Famuyiwa writes these characters in such a way that they don’t feel like your typical geeks from high school. The three friends have a difficult time surviving their last year in high school, but things take an unexpected turn for them when a drug dealer named Dom (ASAP Rocky) invites them to his birthday party. A riot ensues later that night in the club and Dom hides the drugs in Malcolm’s backpack which will in turn unfold a chain of crazy events that will put his and his friends’ lives in danger. I know the premise might sound a bit familiar for a coming of age film, but the movie does avoid familiar cliches and ends up taking a life of its own. Not every scene works in this comedy and I was grossed out a couple of times (the Chanel Iman scene didn’t work for me), but there are some funny moments. There is one scene where Malcolm and his friends are having a conversation with their stoner buddy (played by Blake Anderson) about why white people can’t use the n word. The film also ends with the main character breaking the fourth wall and giving us a moral lecture about racism which many found to be a bit preachy and out of place, but I didn’t have an issue with it.  

The things the film does get right is the energetic editing that keeps the pace of the film moving at a fun beat and the fantastic soundtrack from Pharell Williams. It’s hard not to enjoy a film that pays tribute to some of the 90’s pop culture references and there is even a scene where Dom’s character disses Malcolm and his friends for being overly excited about that era, so even if you weren’t a fan of the 90’s you can enjoy his rant about it. The film always has this feeling of being fresh and fun and Shameik Moore plays a huge role in doing so. His friends don’t get much character development and are only there to back him up at times or land a strong joke, but they have strong enough chemistry with Malcolm to give the film its energy. Forest Whitaker is the narrator and we get several interruptions during several moments in the movie to hear what he has to say. I don’t know if it was necessary, but it didn’t take away from the movie either. There is also a romantic relationship that is very loosely explored between Malcolm and Nakia (played by Zoe Kravitz), but it isn’t really a big part of the film. The entire film feels fresh because it’s very different from other coming of age films. As I mentioned before these aren’t the typical geeks we’ve seen in other films and Malcolm has a strong and charismatic personality that allows the story to rely on him. The script is witty and avoids falling into familiar stereotypes and that is why I enjoyed this comedy.    

Mad Max Fury Road (9/10): Geroge Miller's vision perfectly executed in this action pounding orchestra of a film

“As the world fell it was hard to know who was more crazy. Me... Or everyone else.”

To describe George Miller’s fourth post-apocalyptic Mad Max film as crazy would be an understatement because it is one of those rare over the top and unique action films that keeps you at the edge of your seat during its entire runtime with fantastic car chases and inventive fighting scenes that feel like a breath of fresh air in an era dominated by CGI effects. The visuals absolutely stun you and Miller’s amazing vision of this apocalyptic wasteland is beautifully captured through the camera. It may have taken 30 years for this sequel to be released, but it is a huge improvement over Beyond Thunderdome and it manages to build on what The Road Warrior had achieved by introducing a much more chaotic world and colorful characters. Fury Road works both ways as either a sequel or a reboot, and it erases most of the problems I had with Max’s character in the previous film. This is a return to what Miller had done in The Road Warrior, but with a much higher budget to work with and that allowed his vision to be fully fulfilled here. Three more Mad Max films are already in the talks and I can’t wait to embark with Max on his next adventures. This is going to be a very difficult film to top and so far it’s the best 2015 has to offer.

In Fury Road, Tom Hardy replaces Mel Gibson for the lead role of Max, a wondering warrior who’s still coping with the loss of his wife and son as he travels through the post-apocalyptic deserted wasteland. The film begins with a group of bandits chasing Max who eventually capture him and take him to The Citadel, where a ruthless leader named Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne) controls the water supply for the masses that have gathered below the heights of the mountain where he is based. Joe doesn’t just control the water supply, he also has a large army of War Boys who he has trained to sacrifice themselves willingly for his service, farming women who breed their breast milk, and even several beautiful wives to give him children. Joe has created quite an empire, and Max has been enslaved to serve as a blood donor for the injured War Boys. We are introduced to this crazy place and its rules as Joe sends his trusted lieutenant, Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) on a local errand with her fuel filled rig to Gasland. However, she  decides to take another route and her intentions are soon revealed. She is helping some of Joe’s wives escape from their enslavement promising to lead them to the green lands. When Joe discovers that she has betrayed him he sends all his boys out on a desperate chase and that includes Nux (Nicholas Hoult), one of the War Boys who is using Max as his personal blood bag. Nux chains Max to the front of his vehicle and brings him along the desperate and nonstop chase that ensues. For the next two hours Fury Road is basically one extensive chase that will get the entire audiences’ blood pumping.  

I’ve praised Miller’s vision and his direction, as well as the spectacular action set pieces he has crafted, but it wouldn’t do this film justice if the cast didn’t receive its share of praise as well. It isn’t easy to fill the shoes of such an iconic character like Mad Max, but Tom Hardy pulled it off in a very convincing matter. As much as I like Mel Gibson, I have to give Hardy a lot of praise for delivering such an entertaining performance. He is one of my favorite actors working today. It was also great to see Hugh Keays-Byrne back in a Mad Max film playing a different character this time, but he absolutely nailed the menacing role of Joe. Nicholas Hoult was also a pleasant surprise, but perhaps the greatest addition to this franchise was Charlize Theron’s Furiosa who injects the film with a very much needed feminist tone. Theron delivers perhaps the strongest and most memorable role in the movie and she is one kick-ass action star. It helped that she got a lot of action scenes where she actually got to do something instead of being the damsel in distress. The look of the film is also breathtaking, and the way that Miller envisions this world is simply fantastic. The cool vehicles are built from all sorts of scrappy metals and materials you’d collect in the wasteland. Everything about this film is simply fantastic and the action scenes don’t disappoint one bit. You will feel the rush from the very opening scene and it will continue long after the credits begin to roll. Fury Road is the best film of the franchise.   

Good Kill (4/10): Interesting premise that gets lost in the repetition.

“Don't ask me if this is a just war. It's just war.”

Director Andrew Niccol has proven in the past that he’s capable of directing smart and intelligent sci-fi films like Gattaca, but he can also direct duds like The Host. Good Kill is on the one hand a unique war film because it focuses on the army’s use of drones for fighting and the effects it has on the soldiers, but on the other hand it feels very repetitive and heavy handed with the message. Ethan Hawke plays Tom Egan, a former Air Force pilot who has served on six tours, but is currently fighting from inside a bunker near Las Vegas controlling the drones like if he was playing a video game. He is fighting the war in a way he isn’t accustomed to, and the effects of each long distance kill are taking a toll on him. As opposed to his tours, he can now return home each day to his beautiful wife Molly (January Jones) and two kids. But he can’t manage to separate his comfortable life at home with his service in the bunker. He’s desperate to get back on a real plane, but his superior, Jack Johns (Bruce Greenwood) needs him to continue fighting the war from the control room. Tom begins to question the ethics of what he’s doing, and he’s also having trouble communicating his feeling to his wife whom he feels more and more distanced to. He feels like a coward at times and it’s a feeling that his new partner, Vera (Zoe Kravitz) seems to share with him. When the crew begin receiving direct orders from the CIA, his ethical questioning gains more weight and his life begins to unravel at home. 

The film opens with a very interesting premise and the first fifteen minutes are gripping.  Ethan Hawke delivers a solid role in this character study that shows the effect that the war is taking on him, but after a while everything begins to feel extremely repetitive and the story begins to drag while continuing to hammer the nail in the same place. He questions each order he receives, he returns home to his nagging wife, he drowns himself in alcohol, and the next day the same thing happens. The film lacks subtlety and it focuses on the effects that fighting a war from home has on some of these soldiers in a rather conventional way. Ethan Hawke gives a much more subtle and restrained performance than what we are used to seeing him in. He delivers a very solid performance and we see the stress that he’s going through simply by looking at the wrinkles in his forehead (which explains the use of extreme close ups on Hawke’s face). He makes this a much better movie than what it really is, but it wasn’t enough for me to recommend it. Niccol is basically criticizing the new video game style of war policy by portraying the ethical dilemma the soldiers go through. Good Kill lacks subtlety but we do see a side of the war we hadn’t seen before. 

The secondary cast doesn’t get much to do here since the film basically focuses on Hawke’s character. January Jones probably suffers the most due to the stereotypical character she has to play. We’ve seen this role of the nagging wife who doesn’t understand what her husband’s going through played out many times before. The melodrama at home is what ultimately hurts this film and drags it down. Zoe Kravitz and Bruce Greenwood have some interesting scenes, but the repetitive nature of the story becomes unbearable at times. Good Kill tries to say a lot, but it ultimately doesn’t say much. Many have compared it to Eastwood’s American Sniper, but other than the long distance killings there’s not any more similarities. Niccol focuses more on the ethical dilemma of this new approach to war, but he does it by beating the audience over the head with the same idea and through the use of  heavy dialogue. It’s as if he’s forcing the audience to interpret things his way. Niccol’s greatest weakness in Good Kill is his own script overloaded with stereotypical characters which wasted an interesting premise.  

Insurgent (4/10): Bigger and louder sequel, but it doesn't necessarily mean it's better.

“You are living proof that the divergent problem has grown beyond all control.”

Director Robert Schwentke (RED, RIPD) replaced Neil Burger for the Divergent sequel which is much bigger, louder, and action packed. I actually ended up mildly recommending the first film which I found engaging enough thanks to Shailene Woodley’s lead performance. Unfortunately, Insurgent is a step down for the franchise because bigger doesn’t necessarily mean better. The action scenes look great and the film is very pretty to look at, but the main issue I have here is with the story which I felt was so convoluted that I wasn’t able to engage with any of the characters. I honestly couldn’t remember much of what had happened in Divergent (which means it didn’t really make an impact on me the first time around), but we get enough flashbacks and exposition here to recall some of the important events. We are also introduced to the two other factions that the first one left out (amity and candid) so we get new characters that mostly appear on screen for a couple of minutes. Octavia Spencer is the leader of amity and Daniel Dae Kim of candid. Insurgent also introduces us to the factualness who are led by Naomi Watt’s Evelyn. So Insurgent basically ha the same flaws most sequels do, which is try to make everything bigger and it ends up crowding the screenplay and leaving little room for character development. Sure, some of the action scenes are great (mostly the first couple of scenes) but I simply lost interest in the story and found it incredibly tedious and boring. By the end I didn’t really care what could happen to any of the characters. I haven’t had much luck with Schwentke’s films recently and would’ve preferred Burger continued directing the franchise instead. If you are a fan of Veronica Roth’s YA novels you probably will enjoy this, but I’m not familiar with her work and didn’t enjoy this film at all.   

Insurgent takes place right after the events of Divergent so if you haven’t watched the first film you might feel lost. Basically, the story is set in a dystopian future where society is divided into five factions based on people’s virtues. Jeanine (Kate Winslet) is the head of the erudite (the intelligent faction) who basically has control over this wrecked city surrounded by giant walls which separate them from the vast outdoor wasteland. The heroine of the franchise is Tris (Shailene Woodley) who discovers she’s divergent because she doesn’t fit into one faction, but decides however she wants to be Dauntless (the more adventurous and fearless members of society who become the protectors of the city). Here she falls in love with Four (Theo James), befriends Christina (Zoe Kravitz), and is bullied by Peter (Miles Teller) and Eric (Jai Courtney) who are all returning characters in the sequel. In Divergent, Tris discovers that her kind isn’t accepted in society believing they are a threat for not fitting in. She also discovers that Jeanine is planning on taking over the rest of the factions beginning with Abnegation which is where her parents (Tony Goldwyn and Ashley Judd) reside. Her parents are killed in the attack but she eventually stops Jeanine’s plan. Insurgent picks up right after the attack as we follow the surviving fugitives hiding out with the Amity faction. Tris’s brother, Caleb (Ansel Elgort) is also with them. Jeanine will stop at nothing to capture Tris discovering she’s a valuable asset. 

The plot in insurgent felt much weaker and the film focuses mainly on the action sequences. There are way too many characters introduced, which is a shame because it diverts the attention at times from the main ones. Shailene Woodley gives a solid performance but she didn’t carry the film this time around. I found her character a bit less charismatic since she spends most of the film feeling guilty and unable to forgive herself for the loss of her parents and friends. Theo James isn’t any better either and the romantic chemistry that existed in the first film grows weak this time around. Ansel Elgort is devoid of all the charm he brought to the table in The Fault of Our Stars (it is weird seeing him play Woodley’s sister in this film after being her love interest). My favorite performance in this sequel surprisingly came from Miles Teller who doesn’t get much screen time but shines in the few scenes he’s in. The villains aren’t actually very menacing and everything about this sequel felt more boring and tedious to me. Even the simulation and dream sequences are a bit of a letdown and took me away from the film completely.