Film Review: Beautiful Boy

"My Son Is Out There Somewhere, And I Don't Know What He's Doing! I Don't Know How To Help Him..."

Following on the early year release of the quite baffling Robert Zemeckis directed Welcome to Marwen, Steve Carell (The Big Short) returns once again to the big screen with Beautiful Boy, a low-key and rather delicate insight into the troubled family life of American journalist and author, David Sheff, whose 2008 memoir of the same name acts as the basis for a movie focusing on the central relationship between Carell's Sheff and his young, overly troubled and drug addicted son as played by the breakout star of the past few years, Timothée Chalamet (Lady Bird, Call Me By Your Name). Directed by Belgian filmmaker, Felix Van Groeningen, who also contributes to the screenplay alongside Lion screenwriter, Luke Davies, Beautiful Boy is a particularly somber cinematic glance into the effect of substance abuse and addiction, a film which although struggles to maintain a constant flow of greatness throughout its near two hour runtime due to some rather messy and dragged out pacing, succeeds in presenting a wide range of themes and ideas with a level of dramatic authenticity which makes the final product something both emotionally draining and cinematically fulfilling, and with a central acting duo with talent and chemistry to burn, Beautiful Boy is annoyingly just short of something rather excellent, but still highly impressive nonetheless. 

Bouncing back and forth throughout the early life of Chalamet's Nick across three main time periods, Beautiful Boy takes the nonlinear narrative approach in attempting to portray a boundless familial bond between father and son, with Carell's David a well educated, respected and grounded caring family man who is completely bedazzled by a fundamental lack of understanding regarding his son's reliance on a horrifying range of illegal substances when the world has seemingly been handed to him on a plate. Will Carell and Chalamet joyously bouncing off of each other with a level of acting which just breathes authenticity and has no problem whatsoever in attempting to construct a sense of realism, the differences in performance type also benefits the film as a whole, with Chalamet's drug-fuelled transformation carrying the almighty stand-out heft seen before from other actors in the likes of films with tonal similarities such as Requiem for a Dream and Dallas Buyers Club, and Carell counteracting the extreme side of things with a nuanced, empathetic and quite understated performance which ranks up there with his best dramatic work since Foxcatcher. With an ocean-like cinematography, a really interesting soundtrack which blends indie guitar riffs with a jukebox soundtrack, allowing for one of the best scenes in which a teenage Nick bellows out "Territorial Pissings" alongside the radio, Beautiful Boy is indeed a really interesting two-sided character piece, which although does let itself down with a rather silly elongated runtime, works best in the dramatic sense by having that horrific sense of unease the most impressive works about substance abuse always need to include in order to really stick and make a lasting impression. 

Overall Score: 7/10

Film Review: The Infiltrator

"Promise Me This Is The Last One..."

Who would have thought that Hal from Malcolm in the Middle would have turned out to be one of the biggest, baddest and reputable actors come 2016? Ever since making major waves in Breaking Bad with his sublime portrayal of Walter White, Bryan Cranston seems to be in the joyous position of being able to pick and choose what he wants to do, when and where, with his latest project, Brad Furman's The Infiltrator, only extending Cranston's pedigree as one of the greatest actors of this generation alongside a strong cast including Diane Kruger (Inglorious Bastards), John Leguizamo (John Wick) and Amy Ryan (Birdman) in a highly dramatised portrayal of Robert Mazur, a US Customs agent who goes undercover as a corrupt money-laundering businessman in order to bring down Pablo Escobar's infamous drug operation. Although The Infiltrator falters from hardly bringing anything original to the tale of undercover operations, the illegal drug trade and gritty crime dramas in general, it does benefit from a simply outstanding performance from Bryan Cranston in the lead role. Boy, does that man love being two-faced. 

Although plot contrivances and exposition galore prevent The Infiltrator from being as silky smooth as other films of a similar ilk, Bryan Furman's drama focuses primarily on the absurdity of an undercover operation, squeezing out tension left, right and centre in order to empathise with the central character and the torment of a double life in which one wrong step could potentially result in not only losing his own life but his entire family too. Adding to the deception is the inclusion of Diane Kruger as Cranston's makeshift fiancee who is only added to the disguise after a brief slip of the tongue, whose rookie nature only adds to the worries of our titular infiltrating agent. Although the ending is ever-so-slightly rushed and feels rather flashy in a mostly stripped down hard-edged crime drama, The Infiltrator is a solid two hour drama, one which if failed to feature the larger-than-life presence of Cranston in its' lead role may have failed completely. Thankfully for Brad Furman, Cranston is the film's selling point and rightly so; he's electric. 

Overall Score: 7/10

Film Review: Bridge of Spies

"We Have To Have The Conversations Our Governments Cant..."

Much like Disney, Marvel, and Bond, the singular word that is "Spielberg" automatically creates a blinding vortex of cinematic vigor and eager anticipation, a feat of which is arguably expected more so than any other directorial name that has come and gone in the past thirty years or so in the eyes (or ears) of the widespread general public. Of course such a household name such as Steven Spielberg has been helped in part to the simply spellbinding back catalogue that Steven Spielberg has created over the course of more than forty years, of which includes my personal favourites Minority Report, Saving Private Ryan, and the first three Indian Jones movies among many many others that have gone on to win both critical and financial acclaim as well as a rafter of awards including the odd Oscar or two. With Bridge of Spies, Spielberg's latest offering only continues his remarkable career, combining the reliable acting efforts of Tom Hanks, the writing credits of the Coen Brothers, and a Thomas Newman score, creating a classy, entertaining, and pleasingly intelligent Cold War thriller.

Bridge of Spies focuses on the true story of American lawyer James B. Donovan (Tom Hanks) and his attempt to successfully negotiate the exchange of the captive Soviet Union spy, Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance) for Francis Gary Powers (Austin Stowell), an American pilot who was shot down and captured by the Russians during the height of the Cold War in 1957. What makes Bridge of Spies rather splendid is due to a wide range of different factors. One of the most important within the film was how, much like many Cold War era flicks including Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Dr. Strangelove, Bridge of Spies manages to effectively handle the strange sense of paranoia and impending doom present in such an ambiguous era where nuclear disaster was a realistic and dangerous threat to both the Soviet Union and the US. Although not being directly part of the main plot threads, the possibility of nuclear war is rife throughout Bridge of Spies and is particularly startling during a scene in which we witness a young classroom watch help guides regarding what to do if a nuclear strike ever occurs on US soil, a frightening experience if ever there was one.

Yes, the Coen Brothers led script is aptly superb, and Janusz Kaminski's chilly cinematography adheres to the notion of the rather ironically named "Cold War", but the true winners here are no doubt the leading actors with Tom Hanks continuing on with his fine acting form present in Captain Phillips, whilst esteemed stage actor Mark Ryland as the Soviet spy, Rudolf Abel. also stands out with his suave, silent and sophisticated portrayal of the convicted felon, unsure of his future in either the confines of the US or his freedom in the homeland of Soviet Russia, being a integral part to the films' effectiveness. Although a shade too long in places, and ending on a sense of sentimentality that Spielberg is wholly renowned for, Bridge of Spies will no doubt be a huge part of next years' Oscar ceremonials as classy Spielberg war flicks tend to be the best kind of Oscar bait, but unlike some supposed Oscar tipped films that are set to come out in the upcoming months or so, Bridge of Spies is one film where it does deserve the credit it hopefully will get in the near future or so and fits snugly into the ever-growing list of films directed by one Comrade Spielberg. 

Overall Score: 8/10