Film Review: Hustlers

"This City, This Whole Country, Is A Strip Club. You’ve Got People Tossing The Money, And People Doing The Dance..."

Based on the 2015 New York magazine article, "The Hustlers at Scores", by American journalist, Jessica Pressler, Hustlers is the latest from the superbly named New Jersey filmmaker, Lorene Scafaria, who returns to cinemas in a directorial sense after the successful one-two of the 2012 Steve Carell staring, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World and the 2015 comedy drama, The Meddler. Featuring a particularly starry, female-led ensemble cast, Scafaria's latest primarily follows Constance Wu's (Crazy Rich Asians) Dorothy over the course of nearly a decade as her career as a stripper leads her into the path of Jennifer Lopez's (Out of Sight) Ramona, a powerful and streetwise matriarch who soon teams up with her fellow strippers in order to rip off high profile clients in response to the economical effect of the 2008 Financial Crisis. Less The Big Short and more a spicy blend of Showgirls meets Ocean's Eleven, just without the R-rated extremism of the former, Hustlers is a thoroughly engaging and brilliantly acted original crime drama, one which benefits from a tight, well-judged runtime and an element of spicy exoticism which most mainstream pictures would be too afraid to touch let alone actually produce. 

With a central narrative which feels comfortable remaining within the confines of reality and seemingly sticks close to the real life events, such a decision both benefits and hinders Scafaria's movie, one which shifts along an elongated, year jumping time frame with relative sharpness and ease, due in part to some Scorsese-esque storytelling, cut-throat editing techniques and key characters which manage to be both well-rounded, charismatic and engaging. Central to the film's success is undoubtedly Lopez who in her career best performance manages to evoke a wide range of characteristics, traits which develop her character from the savvy, sexy titan of the stripping industry to a relentless, greed-inflicted criminal, one who is determined to return the pain of the financial crisis on those who she believes is responsible. With Constance Wu continuing her excellent leading form after her success with Crazy Rich Asians and the movie having a fundamentally likeable sensibility, the only real downfall of the picture is how forgettable the central plot device actually is, with the inevitable outcome predictable and therefore lacking any sort of gut-punching memorability, but where the movie lacks in any sense of grandiose it more than makes up for in terms of style and for a movie which clocks in at just under two hours, Hustlers is well worth your time.  

Overall Score: 7/10

Film Review: Mile 22

"We Fight New Wars. The Old Options, Military, Diplomacy. They Don't Always Succeed..."

Acting as the fourth collaboration between Mark Wahlberg and director Peter Berg after Lone Survivor and the excellent one-two of Deepwater Horizon and Patriots Day, Mile 22, based upon a screenplay written by American writer, Lea Carpenter, sees Wahlberg as James Silva, the ferociously agitated, quip-laden sociopathic leader of Overwatch, an elite, CIA-led special ops division who are tasked with traversing the destructive roads of Indonesia as they attempt to extract a prize asset from the country into the United States in return for the location of missing weapons grade plutonium. With Berg's previous releases successfully managing to balance the re-telling of horrific true events with strong storytelling and well orchestrated action set pieces, Mile 22 manages to bat in completely the opposite direction, with Berg's latest a film which can only be described as a crazed frenzy of a movie, a ninety minute, action packed head rush which is as violent as it is overly ridiculous, and a movie which results in you leaving the cinema with a guaranteed headache and a high chance of tinnitus as you feel your body become overcome with exhaustion from the events that have occurred before your eyes on screen. 

Whilst strictly based on some form of "true story" regarding the existence of the Overwatch programme within contemporary wars across the globe, Mile 22 clearly wavers towards fictionalised events in which Wahlberg's Silva and his team of cold-hearted killers have free reign to blow up, violently execute and cause as much general havoc as they desire. With paper thin characterisation which mainly focuses on our "heroes'" penchant for killing as effortlessly as possible, this only results in there being no sympathy whatsoever for events which unfold throughout the movie, particularly towards Wahlberg's Silva, a foul-mouthed, utterly despicable smart-ass, a leading performance which made me wonder whether Wahlberg had actually been incredibly mis-cast due to Wahlberg not at all managing to balance the OTT nature of his character and ends up coming across more annoying than heroic. However, with a heart-stopping editing pace, crunchy action scenes with gunfire aplenty and a rousing, physical performance from arguably the greatest action star of the past decade in the form of Iko Uwais (The Raid, The Raid 2, Headshot), Mile 22 was a film in which I was never bored, and for a film in which its' mistakes are blindingly obvious, Berg's latest is a confusing, often manic, all action speed rush which sort of won me over the more it ventured into the realms of complete and utter ridiculousness. 

Overall Score: 6/10

Film Review: I Feel Pretty

"I've Always Wondered What It's Like To Be Undeniably Pretty..."

Following on from the mediocrity of Trainwreck and the sheer awfulness of Snatched, the latest face of American comedy in the form of Amy Schumer returns this week with I Feel Pretty, an attempted idealistic comedy written and directed by the film-making duo of Abby Kohn and Mark Silverstein, whose previous work together includes Valentines Day and How To Be Single, which sees Schumer as Renee Bennett, an inspiring low-level worker for cosmetic giant, Lily LeClaire whose concerns regarding low self-esteem and sweeping generalisations regarding society's reaction to those not considered "perfect" are suddenly vanquished after an accident which results in her seeing her own body image in a completely different light. With the film's trailers pretty much giving away the entirety of the narrative from beginning to end, Schumer's latest is a movie which relies too much on the supposed talent of Schumer and the underlying message of the film, but with a severe lack of comedic elements whatsoever and a convoluted, confused and mistreated discussion regarding beauty being on the internal rather than the external, I Feel Pretty is somewhat majorly out of fashion. 

With Schumer attempting to juggle a wide range of narrative strands which range from her fortunate psychological switch, a relationship with Rory Scovel's (The House) Ethan and her blossoming career path, one aided by the ever radiant Michelle Williams (Manchester By The Sea) as the highly pitched Avery LeClaire, a similarly confused fashion mogul whose freakishly kooky performance is undeniably the best element in the film, I Feel Pretty primarily fails to warrant its' nearly two hour runtime and unsurprisingly outstays its' welcome come just before the eighty minute mark. With the middle section of the movie in which Schumer manages to embrace her sudden boost in confidence actually managing to develop her leading character into someone resembling more of a walking punch bag than a redemption punching martyr for societal freedoms, the underlying themes regarding the expression of our individual beauty just becomes totally tedious, concluding in a cringe-laden final speech in which female liberation is expressed whilst conducting a pitch for high-end beauty products which attempt to make the lay person much more attractive. With no laughs, a lack of diligent editing techniques and Schumer yet again failing to impress, I Feel Pretty should have just focused on Michelle Williams' character, something of which I would happily have enjoyed much much more.

Overall Score: 4/10

Film Review: Breathe

"No One's Ever Believed It's Possible To Live As You Do..."

Whilst Andy Serkis is the type of Hollywood star who can rarely do wrong in my own humble and completely correct opinion, his directorial debut in the form of Breathe puts aside the man we have come to know and love as Gollum, Caesar and that one armed chap from the MCU with a movie which is as far away from mystical beings and superhuman heroes as one could possibly get, with Serkis' debut focusing on the true story of Robin and Diana Cavendish and their lifelong battle with the former's fight with permanent paralysis after being stricken with polio. Whilst the film features a likeable leading duo in the form of Andrew Garfield and The Crown star, Claire Foy, Breathe is unfortunately a hard task of a movie, one which takes both too long to begin and an eternity to end in the space of a two hour runtime which utilises a narrative which really doesn't have enough to say at all in order to keep its' audience entertained throughout, and whilst there is real heart at the centre of the film's production, Serkis's movie is the type of movie which more often begins to grind the mind rather than warming the heart.

With an opening title which not only sets the pacing for the movie but evoked the workings of classic movies in a similar ilk to Sofia Coppola's beautifully crafted title card in The Beguiled earlier this year, Breathe begins by handing the audience the movie's leading relationship pretty quickly but without any real meaningful sense of substance, a decision which becomes much stranger as the film heads into a final act which easily could have been condensed into losing at least twenty minutes, twenty minutes which instead could have been spent on an opening act which focused more on the development of the meeting between Robin and Diana rather than just passing it off and expecting the audience to generate empathy from out of completely nowhere. Because of this decision, the opening act ultimately feels rushed whilst the concluding act features more endings than The Return of the King, and whilst I can enjoy saccharin sweetness when done effectively, Breathe is the type of movie which feels it necessary to flog the sympathy doll as much as possible without any of it really working. Sorry Mr. Serkis, we're off to a rocky start. 

Overall Score: 4/10

Film Review: The Bye Bye Man

"Don't Say It, Don't Think It..."

Of all of the many cinematic genres within the spectrum of movie-making today, horror is perhaps the one arguably hardest to crack successfully, particularly in recent years where the generic formulaic feel of "cattle-prod" cinema has been the default setting for many poor examples of the genre, resulting inevitably in shoddy critical examinations and even worse box office figures, leading many to come to the conclusion that perhaps the genre as a whole is ever-so swiftly running out of steam. In the case of The Bye Bye Man, it comes as no real surprise that not only is this embarrassment of a horror more than happy to settle into such preconceived notions, but it is a film which insults the intelligence of even the most amateur of horror fanatics, with a non-existent sense of threat grinding its' way into submission alongside a clunky, cliche-ridden screenplay, one which is stretched to the limit in order to splutter some sort of reason for existence upon the big screen when it undeniably belongs within the straight-to-DVD bargain bin in your local supermarket. As you might be able to tell, The Bye Bye Man is an utter, utter, utter work of horror from beginning to end. Just not in a good way. 

With a premise which blatantly rips off everything from The Babadook to A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Bye Bye Man suffers from a fundamental issue of being mouth-gapingly stupid both in execution and production. A trio of leading characters you really don't care about, a leading bogey-man who isn't scary in the slightest, a cop-out ending which obviously is there for franchising potential and more laughs than scares is a selection of the many issues surrounding the film, one which is directed with no real sense of character by Stacy Title and includes strange, off-kilter cameos from the likes of Carrie-Anne Moss and Faye Dunaway who can only be involved in the project due to the promise of a improved bank balance. Whilst I can enjoy stupid, b-movie silliness as much as the next person, The Bye Bye Man really has nothing at all in its' favour, an overly cheap knock off a horror movie which needs to make the most of its' short stint in the cinema in order to recuperate the cost to create its' sheer awfulness, awfulness which can only result in being a film you simply have to leave by saying bye bye man. Yeah, I know. 

Overall Score: 2/10

Film Review: Bad Moms

"You're The Best Mother That We've Ever Seen, You Give Your Kids Salad...!

Let's face it; US comedy can sometimes be a drag. Not only is comedy itself one of the hardest genres to actually succeed in when it comes to the movies, it is also one of the easiest to get wrong. With Bad Moms however, it was one those rare cases in which although the trailer made it out to be another lazy, ill-judged mess of a movie, the final product was something rather solid, something that not only was continuously funny throughout, but also included a rare sense of warmth in its' attempt to address something trivial and commonplace in everyday life; motherhood. Where some may get upset by its' rather hideous portrayal of the father figure within the world of Bad Moms, personally, the shift from masculine-strung comedy to that of the female POV was a refreshing subject matter, harking back to the critical success of films such as Bridesmaids and others in recent years which have seen the rise of the female-led comedy in cinema today. Although it's fair to say that not every comedy has hit the mark in recent years, with The Boss being an example of when it goes completely wrong, Bad Moms is a solid example of when comedy is done right. 

Where the film ultimately succeeds is in its' true-to-life depiction of the overworked parent, with Mila Kunis' Amy being mother of unbearable struggles, with family life intertwining with school life intertwining with work life as well as the constant struggle to actually enjoy life rather than actually just managing to pull through reasonably unscathed. Where the movie loses touch is during scenes of recklessness, due in part to the two directors' affiliation with movies such as The Hangover, and although a film named Bad Moms has to include some sort of debauchery in some sense, the moral object of the film suggests that maybe being THAT bad isn't exactly the way to go. Although the film does sink into overbearing saccharin sweetness come the final act, Bad Moms manages to fight through the trivial acts of Hangover-esque plot-lines and sway into a comedic drama that says a lot about parenthood in the 21st century without ever feeling as if it's preachy or just plain dull. In a week where the creators of The Hangover franchise have pulled out both Bad Moms and War Dogs, maybe US comedy is back on the up and up? 

Overall Score: 6/10