La La Land (January 2017)

Official Australian release date: 26/12/16. Viewed: 30/1/17.

Director: Damien Chazelle

Actors: Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, John Legend, J.K. Simmons

Genre: Musical

Rating: M

Lots of people have been asking if I’ve seen ‘La La Land’, so I thought I had better give it a chance, even though musicals aren’t my thing – better late than never, right? I always list the four most prominent actors when I do a review, but I truly struggled to think of anyone else to fill the 3^rd & 4^th slots, since this film has two stars, and at least one of them is on screen the entire time, with little time dedicated to anything/anyone else. Maybe not a bad thing, but it does mean the film gets a bit monotonous.

Sebastian (Gosling) and Mia (Stone) are easy to watch and are good in this, but I don’t think either of them is a particularly good singer or dancer. My main problem with musicals is: why? If a scene’s not interesting enough to sustain momentum without having song and dance, then cut it! At least in animated films, they seem to find ways to weave songs in organically – and they’re catchy. Here, I didn’t find any of the songs very catchy or interesting – most are kind of mopey. Otherwise, it’s all quite predictable – they fall in love, they chase their dreams, the end.

The ending is semi-interesting, but every time I started to get pulled into the film when there’s a stretch with no singing, it suddenly appears again – always out of context – and pushes me back out. It’s definitely not a bad film, I just felt like nothing really happened – sure, there’s some romance and they’re good actors, but there’s no real story or humour to be found.

Overall: Average romance musical.

Gav's Rating: 2.5 stars.

Split (January 2017)

Official Australian release date: 26/1/17. Viewed: 28/1/17.

Director: M. Night Shyamalan

Actors: James McAvoy, Anya Taylor-Joy, Betty Buckley, Hayley Lu Richardson

Genre: Thriller / Horror

Rating: M

‘Split’ refers to James McAvoy’s split personalities – or dissociative identity disorder (DID) – of which he has 23. He plays Barry, Hedwig, Kevin, Dennis, Patricia and a few others you get to see. The film wastes no time, with him abducting Casey (Taylor-Joy), Claire (Richardson) and Marcia (Sula) and they all wake up in a strange room. You’re then introduced to a few of his personalities – Dennis is mostly in charge – and they’re not all malevolent.

He also visits Dr Fletcher (Buckley), who genuinely tries to help him and slowly figures out it’s not Barry she’s been talking to, but Dennis. The girls try to escape, but are thwarted, as it becomes a race against time before “the beast” arrives. This ominous arrival drives the momentum and plot. It’s a little slow in parts, but keeps your interest throughout.

McAvoy is excellent, with his ability to change expressions, accents and mannerisms fantastic, and Taylor-Joy shows good depth too (Casey’s childhood is slowly revealed to give background). The final 20min is frenetic and the ending is both scary, creepy and well-handled – except perhaps for the final minute cameo. Good to see Shyamalan back.

Overall: Well-made creepy thriller.

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars.

Live By Night (January 2017)

Official Australian release date: 26/1/17. Viewed: 26/1/17.

Director: Ben Affleck

Actors: Ben Affleck, Chris Messina, Zoe Saldana, Chris Cooper

Genre: Drama / Action

Rating: MA

‘Live By Night’ (FYI, “live” as in ‘liv’, not ‘lie-ve’ – “sleep by day, live by night”) is the fourth film Ben Affleck’s directed (after ‘Gone Baby Gone’, ‘The Town’ and ‘Argo’), and sadly it’s my least favourite of his. That’s not to say it’s bad, since he’s a better director than he is an actor, but that’s where the problem lies – it’s quite hard to truly warm to his character, Joe, in this. I wish he’d cast other people as leads, like in ‘Gone Baby Gone’. It’s set in 1920’s prohibition-era Boston (where else), but he eventually relocates to Tampa, Florida, to run the rum trade for the Italian gang.

The start’s OK, but needed more of his father (Gleeson), as he gets caught between the Irish and Italian mobs. Joe meets Graciela (Salanda) in Tampa and falls in love and has to put up with the KKK calling him and her all sorts of things, but that’s eventually sorted – the film doesn’t really delve too much into the racial implications of things. Joe & Dion (Messina), his trusty off-sider, meet the police Chief (Cooper) and his daughter, Loretta (Fanning), which has implications later on. The main plot centres on Joe & Dion trying to branch into the gambling/casino business and the hurdles they face.  

There’s a tale of vengeance in there, plus a cautionary tale of not losing yourself while trying to be someone you’re not and all the while you still feel a little bit of “why do I care?” There are some great fly-over scenery/sunset shots in Florida, and a decent ending, but it all feels a bit too dragged out (130min, when it could’ve easily wrapped up after 105min) with no real connection or purpose made. The set design and cars are certainly cool and of the era, but the shootouts never seem enough or to have enough at stake.

Overall: OK gangster/vengeance film.

Gav's Rating: 3 stars.

Lion (January 2017)

Official Australian release date: 19/1/17. Viewed: 24/1/17.

Director: Garth Davis

Actors: Dev Patel, Sunny Pawar, Nicole Kidman, Rooney Mara

Genre: Drama

Rating: PG

‘Lion’ (the reason behind the title is revealed at the end) is an amazing journey – and a true story too! Simple premise – Saroo (Pawar – one cute kid!) helps his brother, Guddu (Bharate), little sister Shekila (Solanki) and mother (Bose) to survive in the Indian poverty, when one day his brother accidentally loses him on a train station. Being only five, after travelling for two days, Saroo can’t pronounce his home town correctly, so he ends up in a juvenile prison, along with thousands of other lost kids. The time spent (45min) with young Saroo builds his character and back story nicely, and displays the vibrant and bustling India.

Saroo is adopted by Sue (Kidman) & John (Wenham – needed a bit more to do) and given a great life in Hobart. They also adopt Mantosh (Ladwa) – Saroo (now Patel) grows up well-adjusted, Mantosh not so much. Saroo meets Lucy (Mara) at university in Melbourne and they fall in love. He then finally decides to search for his mother, brother and sister, which is a tough ask across the billion-plus people in India and the fact he doesn’t know what region he’s from.

The pacing is good – doesn’t feel like a two-hour film – and I would rate this on the same level as ‘Slumdog Millionaire’: they both have some similarities, but quite a few differences, with Patel’s charisma shining through and helping him to carry the film. The support cast is good, but he has to display the most emotion and the ending in India is beautiful. Decent score, great Indian and Tasmanian settings and a great story.

Overall: Excellent tale of hope and determination.

Gav's Rating: 4 stars. 

Moonlight (January 2017)

Official Australian release date: 26/1/17. Viewed: 21/1/17.

Director: Barry Jenkins

Actors: Trevante Rhodes, Andrew Holland, Mahershala Ali, Naomie Harris

Genre: Drama

Rating: M

‘Moonlight’ is the story of Chiron, a small African-American child growing up in the poorer neighbourhoods of Miami. It’s told in three 35min blocks – Chiron at ~7 is called ‘Little’ and played by Hibbert, where he escapes bullying and his mother’s drug habit by finding a role model in Juan (Ali). Chiron at ~17 is played by Sanders as he struggles through high school. Chiron at ~27 is called ‘Black’ and is played by Rhodes after he has moved to Atlanta.  

The film’s a little too arty in parts, putting in sweeping/annoying camera angles and movement when not needed, and a bit too much of the over-dramatic score when one of the actors is just starting at the camera. It does seem to take a while for anything to happen, and – even though you feel sorry for him – I never grew to care too much for Chiron, as you never get to really know him.

The character of Kevin (Piner/Jerome/Holland) becomes more interesting each phase, but also seems a bit underdeveloped. There’s some nice moments, particularly with Juan and Teresa (Monae) – both underutilized – but it all ends abruptly and you feel like you witnessed Chiron grow up, but not really do anything…

Overall: Average coming-of-age film.

Gav's Rating: 3 stars. 

Passengers (January 2017)

Official Australian release date: 1/1/17. Viewed: 3/1/17.

Director: Morten Tyldum

Actors: Chris Pratt, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Sheen, Laurence Fishburne

Genre: Sci-Fi / Adventure

Rating: M

‘Passengers’ is an interesting sci-fi film, in that it doesn’t involve aliens in any way! It has more in common with ‘WALL-E’, than it does with ‘Alien’ or ‘Event Horizon’, as it follows the spaceship Avalon (cool helix design, basically a giant cruise ship) on its way to Homestead II, starting a new colony 120 years from Earth. It’s approximately 30min of ‘Cast Away’ (man trapped alone), 45min of love story and then 40min of ‘Deepwater Horizon’ (survival film)! No time period is given, but I assume it’s ~100 years in the future.

What works well is the casting – two boring people could not sustain this film, but by casting Hollywood’s two best & brightest, it works wonders. Jim (Pratt) is accidentally awoken from his hibernation 90 years early and tries everything to get back to sleep and/or find a solution. Because he’s a passenger and not crew, his options are limited. Eventually, Jim wakes up Aurora (Lawrence), which is handled well, and the two of them falling in love is as interesting as the shots of the galaxy outside the windows. Arthur (Sheen) as the android bartender is also a nice touch. The only other person to get some screen time near the end is Gus (Fishburne), who finally figures out what’s wrong and kick-starts the final stanza.

It’s not hard to watch when you have Jennifer Lawrence is a pool – but as well as being extremely attractive, it helps that both her and Pratt are very charismatic and able to carry out the tender moments and the exciting ones. The shots of the ship in motion and the galaxy in the background are fantastic, and while a bit of it is predictable, it’s a decent ride. Solid ending too.

Overall: Not quite a sci-fi classic, but good fun.

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars. 

Why Him? (January 2017)

Official Australian release date: 26/12/16. Viewed: 2/1/17.

Director: John Hamburg

Actors: James Franco, Bryan Cranston, Zoe Deutch, Megan Mullally

Genre: Comedy

Rating: MA

‘Why Him?’ is a Christmas-set ‘Meet The Parents’ (and is produced by Ben Stiller), from the director of ‘Along Came Polly’ and ‘I Love You, Man’, so you know what kind of humour to expect. The plot is just Stephanie (Deutch) trying to convince her parents, Ned (Cranston) & Barb (Mullally) to like her new boyfriend, Laird (Franco). It doesn’t help that he’s 10 years older (16 years older in real life!), a billionaire and has no filter!

Franco plays his usual loveable doofus, Cranston is great as the straight-man with some moments of madness, but Deutch, Mullally, Cedric The Entertainer and Gluck are underutilised. Keegan-Michael Key does get plenty of chances to shine as Gustav, a German(?) “butler” who is also Laird’s martial arts trainer/best friend. Kaley Cuoco also has a pretty funny cameo-type role. There’s plenty of sight gags and prat-falls, and an amusing bit with a digital toilet that solves the plot at the end.

There’s good use of KISS – both “Rock & Roll All Nite” and the 2-3min cameo from Paul & Gene at the end! Franco pretty much steals every scene he’s in, with his loveable charm and smile and goofy remarks. It’s a fun film, but could be a little quicker and doesn’t quite achieve greatness.

Overall: Good for a few laughs.

Gav's Rating: 3 stars.