Wind River (September 2017)

fficial Australian release date: 10/8/17. Viewed: 9/9/17.

Director: Taylor Sheridan

Actors: Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olsen, Graham Greene, Kelsey Asbille

Genre: Mystery / Drama

Rating: MA

‘Wind River’ is from the writer of ‘Sicario’ & ‘Hell or High Water’, but is only Sheridan’s second directorial effort, which makes it all the more impressive. It’s a really simple plot – a Native American teenager is found dead, by Lambert (Renner) in the Wind River reservation and Banner (Olsen) is the FBI agent assigned to solve the case. Lambert is a tracker and hunter ad knows the terrain, so helps local cop Ben (Greene) and Banner in the snowy mountains.

Nick Cave & Warren Ellis bring their sparse, ‘Skeleton Tree’-like sounds to the score and soundtrack, and it definitely helps set the mood and highlight the sparseness of the northern Winter (or Spring, technically). The film moves along quite rapidly, with the investigation never boring, but still time to build plenty of backstory for Lambert and the reservation.

The final 20min or so is handled really well, with a few surprises thrown in. Similar to the Australian-set ‘Goldstone’ in some ways. It all looks beautiful (odd that it was filmed in Utah, not in the real-life reservation in Wyoming), with plenty of nice scenic and animal shots, but also plenty of sadness. Renner and Olsen carry the film with nuanced performances, and there’s thankfully no romantic distractions. It’s just a great, straightforward crime-solving scenario, done right.

Overall: Really well-made murder mystery.

Gav's Rating: 4 stars.

The Hitman’s Bodyguard (September 2017)

Official Australian release date: 31/8/17. Viewed: 2/9/17.

Director: Patrick Hughes

Actors: Samuel L. Jackson, Ryan Reynolds, Gary Oldman, Elodie Yung

Genre: Action / Comedy

Rating: MA

‘The Hitman’s Bodyguard’ has been marketed as a parody of Costner/Houston’s ‘The Bodyguard’ from 25 years ago – but having never seen that, I can’t compare. It is a pretty straightforward action/comedy, probably more like ‘RED’. Plot is very simple – a Belarusian dictator (Oldman) is being tried at The Hague and Interpol need evidence from a hitman he tried to hire, Kincaid (Jackson). Thanks to Agent Roussel (Yung), Bryce (Reynolds) is assigned with getting him safely from England to Holland.

There’s a bit of unnecessary backstory about Bryce’s bodyguard business, and some serious moment with him & Roussel, but the film’s at its best when it’s just Reynolds & Jackson on screen, bantering back and forth with at each other. Sure, there’s plenty of gunfights, explosions, some Bourne-like stunts and actually a surprisingly high body count, but you never feel like much is at stake and wish they’d focused more on the humour than the action.

It’s clear Jackson is having a ball and it’s great to see him laugh genuinely. Reynolds is serviceable, but plays the straight guy, and it’s always fun to watch Oldman as the villain. Great cameo from Hayek too. This might almost set the record for the most Jackson “mother-f***er”s uttered in a film too! Nothing new, no truly hilarious moments, but fun enough.

Overall: Passable shoot-em-up comedy.

Gav's Rating: 3 stars.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (August 2017)

Official Australian release date: 10/8/17. Viewed: 13/8/17.

Director: Luc Besson

Actors: Dane DeHaan, Cara Delevingne, Sam Spruell, Clive Owen

Genre: Sci-Fi / Action

Rating: M

‘Valerian & the City of a Thousand Planets’ is director Besson’s return to science fiction, after ‘The Fifth Element’ (classic – now 20 years ago!) and ‘Lucy’ – which this is thankfully better than. ‘Valerian’ obviously doesn’t quite live up to the bar set by ‘The Fifth Element’, and while it has a few similarities, it’s sufficiently different to be it’s own entity. I haven’t read any of the graphic novels, so I went in just expecting a big space adventure – and that’s pretty much what you get.

Valerian (DeHaan) and Laureline (Delevingne) are two agents in the galactic federation (sort-of in love – they have a fun chemistry) and are called on to protect the General (Spruell) and the Commander (Owen) of Alpha, which is the so-called “City of a Thousand Planets”. The start of the film – set to Bowie, always a plus – does a great job of introducing how Alpha came about and what it stands for, and letting us know that we’re ~700 years in the future – as well as making the titles go by faster! We’re also introduced to the ‘Avatar’-like species from Mül, who link in to the plot later on.

There’s not really a whole lot you need to know, and it’s a bit ‘Star Wars’-lite at times, but there’s certainly plenty of aliens, robots and action scenes to see. A few odd cameos (Ethan Hawke, Rutger Hauer, Rihanna as a pole-dancer!?), but it’s really all about Valerian and Laureline trying to save the space station. While not really having anything groundbreaking or revolutionary, ‘Valerian’ has moments of humour, some great action scenes, plenty of colour and is an above average film.

Overall: Enjoyable, fun sci-fi adventure.

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars.

The Big Sick (August 2017)

Official Australian release date: 3/8/17. Viewed: 12/8/17.

Director: Michael Showalter

Actors: Kumail Nanjiani, Zoe Kazan, Ray Romano, Holly Hunter

Genre: Comedy

Rating: M

‘The Big Sick’ is a rom-com, but not of the usual formulaic variety, with no clichés, due to it being based on Kumail (Nanjiani, from ‘Silicon Valley’) & Emily (Kazan, from ‘Ruby Sparks’)’s real-life story. Directed by Showalter (‘Wet Hot American Summer’) and produced by Apatow (every comedy from the last 10 years), the film starts as a simple boy-meets-girl story – he’s a stand-up comic in Chicago, she’s studying to become a therapist. They steadily fall in love – it’s nice & unforced.

Because this is a true story and not a fictional “everyone’s happy” tale, Emily gets an infection and has to be put into a coma. Kumail then meets her parents, Terry (Romano) & Beth (Hunter), who are cold at first, as he wouldn’t even tell his traditional Pakistani parents about Emily. The film handles the time at the hospital and dealing with strangers that all care for a common person very well.

There’s plenty of laughs, and heaps of heart, with both the leads being charming and coming across as normal and relatable. The parents are great, with all the actors being in fine form. It’s possibly a tiny bit long, but even though it has some sad moments, it has a good ending and leaves you feeling happy.

Overall: Great comedy about love.

Gav's Rating: 4 stars.

War for the Planet of the Apes (July 2017)

Official Australian release date: 27/7/17. Viewed: 30/7/17.

Director: Matt Reeves

Actors: Andy Serkis, Woody Harrelson, Karin Konoval, Terry Notary

Genre: Action / Drama

Rating: M

‘War for the Planet of the Apes’ is the eighth film in the franchise and does a great job of concluding the ‘Rise’/‘Dawn’/‘War’ trilogy of prequels, as well as linking this back to the original 1968 ‘Planet of the Apes’, via Caesar’s son being called Cornelius. Like ‘Dawn’, humans are almost secondary characters here, and when they are shown, they definitely make you back the apes, who have more humanity and compassion than the surviving humans.

The CGI is now so believable, it’s almost impossible to discern if there’s any real apes in among the CGI ones! Caesar (Serkis) is so realistic in close-ups, you’re basically looking at Serkis. He’s great, and it’s nice to see the added (digital) touch of grey to his coat. Caesar still has his three trusted right-hand apes with him, Maurice (Konoval), Rocket (Notary) and Luca (Adamthwaite). After the humans that have not been wiped out by the Simian flu, led by the Colonel (Harrelson), decide to attack the apes in the Californian forest, Caesar has to fight back to save all of ape-kind.

There’s a nice subplot with Nova (Miller), a young girl they protect, but the overall thrust is that the humans still think they’re better than the evolved apes and treat them like slaves. There’s a massive battle at the end and plenty of great action throughout. The overall pace is good, with it feeling a lot faster than 2 & ¼ hours. The addition of Bad Ape (Zahn) as some comedic relief is a masterstroke, but the film is so meaningful thanks to Caesar’s love for his kin and his determination for them to survive.

Overall: Very fitting finale to an underappreciated trilogy.

Gav's Rating: 4 stars.

A Monster Calls (July 2017)

Official Australian release date: 27/7/17. Viewed: 24/7/17.

Director: J.A. Bayona

Actors: Lewis MacDougall, Felicity Jones, Sigourney Weaver, Liam Neeson

Genre: Drama / Fantasy

Rating: PG

‘A Monster Calls’ has almost nothing to do with a monster – at it’s heart, it’s a straightforward story about a 12-year-old boy dealing with grief, with help from an imaginary friend. It’s from Bayona, the director of ‘The Impossible’ (another very good survival drama), so it will be interesting to see what he does with ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’. The film centers around Conor (MacDougall), a quiet kid who loves to draw, who has a sick Mum (Jones) and a stern Grandma (Weaver). At 12:07am each night, he has a dream/nightmare where he hears a tree-monster calling him.

Filmed in Manchester, there’s plenty of rain and opportunities for spooky shadows and scares, but the beauty is in the benevolent twist taken on the Groot-like “monster” (Neeson), who is obviously Conor’s way of dealing with his mum’s cancer. The watercolour animations set to Neeson’s storytelling is excellently done, with some nice morals thrown in to the “dreams” Conor has when the “monster” is present.

It never gets too fantastic or unrealistic, with MacDougall successfully carrying a great load for such a young actor. He’s helped expertly by Jones & Weaver, who have very significant, but relatively small, roles. It’s not sad the entire film, but it really hits home for the final 15min and did not leave a dry eye in the cinema.

Overall: Very strong, and beautiful, portrayal of grief.

Gav's Rating: 4 stars.

Dunkirk (July 2017)

Official Australian release date: 20/7/17. Viewed: 21/7/17.

Director: Christopher Nolan

Actors: Fionn Whitehead, Mark Rylance, Tom Hardy, Jack Lowden

Genre: War / Action

Rating: M

‘Dunkirk’ is Nolan’s first war film and as such, it’s not typical or predictable. There’s no real introduction to the characters – we’re suddenly in the middle of 400,000 Allied troops being evacuated from France back to England in the middle or World War II. It’s filmed from three perspectives (which works quite well): the land, where Tommy (Whitehead) is trying to get off the beach and Bolton (Branagh) is trying to organize the retreat; the ocean, where Dawson (Rylance) & his son Peter are on a small boat; and the air, where Farrier (Hardy) & Collins (Lowden) are trying to stop the German bombers.

The first thing you notice is the score – by Hans Zimmer – as each of the different viewpoints has it’s own motif, but they are all very persistent and add to the tension and desperation of the soldiers to escape. It’s interesting that you never actually see any German soldiers and “Nazis” are never mentioned, just “the enemy”. There’s no real main character – perhaps Whitehead, as a young, out-of-place infantryman – but they all seem realistic and suitably distraught, just trying their best to survive and make it home. The definition of “lose the battle, but win the war”.

It’s nice to see all the British civilian boats arrive across the English Channel (which looks great in most shots, obviously filmed on a rare sunny day!), with Rylance as the moral compass, and there’s plenty of drama on the beach, but the plane battles are probably the highlight, having you on the edge of your seat, leaning with the pilots. It’s short – 105min, so not an “epic” – and won’t be remembered as the new ‘Saving Private Ryan’, but it’s just as good as last year’s ‘Hacksaw Ridge’.

Overall: Innovative take on the war film.

Gav's Rating: 4 stars.