Film Reviews by TB

I like films that push boundaries, irrelevant of the content. It doesn't matter if it's about drugs, violence, sex or any other difficult element of existence; a piece of work that confronts this unapologetically & honestly can be the most powerful thing you can watch, to really move & impact you. And sex/relationships on screen is one that for me holds in many ways the most powerful impact, for the simple reason that we live in such an overtly/oversexed world, but also one where there is precious little honesty about how intimacy really is & how it affects people. Then added to that is the absolute hysterical reactions of certain parts of this same media who condemn these films as immoral or pornography

At their best, films like Young Adam and Intimacy are absolutely devastating in their portrayal of sex & relationships on both the main character & the people around them. Young Adam shows a totally immoral & soulless man who literally sleeps with multiple women, irrelevant of the impact on anyone else, to simply try & feel something. Intimacy shows a recently divorced man who has regular sex with a mysterious woman, realising just how empty, squalid & pathetic his own life is.

At their worst, you get films like 9 Songs...

Effectively, the film charts a relationship from the first meet-up at a music gig between Matt & Lisa, from the perspective of Matt looking back on his time with her in the UK, whilst in the Antarctic in his job as a climatologist. We see their relationship go from one of passion & intensity to the standard monotony of being together then the inevitable break-up when Lisa returns to her home in the USA. In between seeing them together, we also see the titular 9 songs performed live by a variety of musicians.

Sadly, despite the efforts & bravery of the 2 actors, this is not a good film. Mentioning the actors, unfortunately neither of them are very good, of course appreciating that with a film which absolutely unapologetically has been made to show pretty much every sexual act performed for real, meant that you were never going to get well-known or incredible actors for the parts. O'Brien in particular has probably been cast partly because he agreed to the demands of the film & mainly because he has an enormous member. And whilst Stilley, from the interviews she gave, took part in the film for noble reasons, she just is in the scenes, either saying her lines unconvincingly or being rogered convincingly. But there is little to no chemistry between the pair of them.

The other big point for me was how this film was made. Shooting it in DV might in some scenes give it an intimacy & closeness, but most of the time, it just looked bloody terrible. In particular, the colour scheme was at points so garish, it was horrible to look at. The various scenes that were set up were relatively contrived & apart from the sex, there wasn't really any other things of note in terms of how the relationship progressed. Even the sex itself is not well-shot (ironically...) When it does finally end, I just felt nonchalant.

I do absolutely give respect to everyone involved, but what they have created does one thing & one thing only: show real sex on screen/push that particular boundary. And without a decent story to hold it together, all it ever was for me was a series of vignettes which happened to show 2 average looking people going at it. And as the aforementioned films at the start of this review prove, there is such potential & power to be had from these types of stories.

Some films you watch are bad. They have all the right ingredients, but they totally fail in every way. And when they also have a cast that should guarantee an amazing movie, it makes it all the more puzzling. But then there are films like Killing Them Softly, which are not only bad, but also aggressively nasty alongside that.

Brad Pitt stars as Jackie Coogan, a mob enforcer who is brought in to investigate a mafia card game that was robbed. Suspicion has fallen onto Markie Trattman, the organiser of the game, who previously set up a robbery of one of his games & confessed to it, somehow earning a pass from the very people who he robbed. Coogan immediately sees that this robbery was committed due to the suspicion that would fall onto Trattman again, so he sets out to take down the actual perpetrators, enlisting the help of Mickey Fallon, a once-legendary but now alcoholic & on-parole hitman.

From the opening moments, this film grates. It is clearly setting itself up as a comment on/critique of the state of the USA/World economy, but the way it does this is literally by repeatedly hitting you over the head with its messages. It also features some of the most badly written & unpleasant characters imaginable, but ones who are literally in no way relatable or believable.

Take Markie Trattman for example: the film invites us to buy into the fact that he is buried in deep within the mob, running highly sensitive card games where hundreds of thousands of dollars are involved/exchanged. We are then shown him staging a robbery, pocketing the money, getting drunk & casually telling these gangsters that he did them over, laughing in their faces. And instead of being put against a wall & shot, they give him a free pass & allow him to keep running the games... This literally would not happen, in any way, in any universe.

But nothing comes as close to sheer stupidity as Mickey Fallon. Once a legendary, celebrated hitman, he is now nothing more than a ridiculous caricature: pathetic, addicted to drugs and alcohol & useless. He has been arrested & bailed, but Coogan is absolutely adamant that, despite the baggage & warnings from others not to go near him, that Fallon is the only one to do the mob hits. Fallon then blows off the job, checks into a hotel room, orders prostitutes & drugs, drawing as much attention to himself as is physically possible, despite the fact he's meant to be a world-class hitman, as well as violating his parole. And the film wants us to accept at face value that anyone from the mafia would have anything to do with or be within 100 miles of someone who is this much of a liability...

The other thing this film has which is not only unpleasant, but also totally out of place, is several scenes of unbelievably graphic & nasty violence. None of it fits within the story and seems to have been put in simply to shock & get a visceral reaction from the audience. For me, it actually was just horrible & fairly repellent, like the rest of the film.

Nothing works, is believable or watchable. It is a movie filled with horrible horrible people doing horrible horrible things to each other, without any reason to exist or deserve your attention.

Avoid.

After the nano-budget & shot-on-the-fly film Tangerine, which debuted to critical acclaim & extremely good box office, Sean Baker was able to have much more creative freedom & ambition for his next work. Whilst I haven't seen Tangerine, I was interested after the critical acclaim for The Florida Project, as well as watching anything Willem Dafoe is in. The results are mixed, but still a good watch.

Moonee is a head-strong & determined 6 year old girl who lives with her unemployed mother in a housing complex just outside Disney World. She spends her days hanging out with her friends & getting up to no-good, blissfully unaware of the huge financial & mental difficulties her mother/the other adults are in. The film follows the children & the changing circumstances they face.

What I really loved about this film was quite simply its overall lightness of touch, despite the heavy & sometimes upsetting themes. In particular, the children's interactions with Bobby, the manager of the complex who is in many ways the closest thing they have to a father figure, are the beating heart of the film. You can tell that these kids are the closest & most important thing in Bobby's life and he is fiercely protective of them, such as when he catches what is almost certainly a paedophile trying to interact with them and absolutely ripping him to shreds.

The colour scheme & general fly-on-the-wall shooting style is also excellent, really making the film stand out & grab your attention. The soundtrack is full of popping music, perfectly set to the action on screen.

Sadly, this film does have some quite significant issues, mainly how some of the characters are written. Moonee's mother Halley is extremely obnoxious & repeatedly makes a litany of poor decisions, then when the chickens come home to roost, either reacts violently or forces everyone else, including her 6 year old daughter, to either take the flack or pick up the pieces. She also at one stage violently attacks a mother in front of her child, and yet the film bends over backwards to try & make excuses for her/somewhat justify her behaviour. It does leave an extremely bitter taste and de-rails the film to a certain extent.

As much as this film does have its issues, the child actors are absolutely outstanding. All of them really have been directed exceptionally well & are unbelievably talented. Willem Dafoe is however the shining star & was rightfully nominated for an Oscar for his work.

Overall, a good watch, but definitely not worth the critical adoration given to it.

The debut of the filmmaker Rapman, this film was born out of his massively successful YouTube videos, which then gave him the money to turn this into a feature film. The story follows two best friends who live in neighbouring parts of London, who slowly get immersed in the warring gangs and eventually become enemies through their association with these gangs. The whole film is told through the medium of rap, which does give a different & unique element to this movie.

The lurid headlines I referenced, which totally overshadowed the film & it's release, concerned an initial attack on the police with machetes in Birmingham, but then multiple other incidents were reported at showings around the country, leading big cinema chains to pull the film. The fallout from this, as well as questions of racism being brought up, to me have no impact on how I saw the film or viewed it. I watched it purely on its merits.

It does start well, plus the music score is very good. Certainly the rap element worked well in establishing character & motivations, as well as the camaraderie between the different characters on screen. However, it then just started to become boring & I was less and less engaged. After about an hour I switched it off, having given it a really good shot, but finding myself disengaged.

A good attempt to depict street life, but one which didn't do much for me.

I rented this as it was a small budget little film which had got some great reviews & awards. It also had potentially extremely powerful subject matter (openly gay black man who is homeless & rejected by his mother joining the Marines to try & get his life back on track,) as well as a comment on how the military is now compared to when the writer/director enlisted. By this I mean the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy which was then repealed & soldiers could be open with their sexuality.

But, as is the case with a lot of these types of films, it mainly misfires; trying to cover too many bases & points, but not succeeding with any of them. More than anything, it comes across as almost a tick box exercise. Every single one of the hot button issues prevalent at the moment is addressed, whether it is homophobia, racism, patriotism ect. But none of them are covered well.

The other big issue with this film is that it is terribly edited & scripted. We jump forward in time with no proper build-up to this/indication that it has happened, only realising it when we see that the recruits are at the next stage of their training. One instance of this is particularly poorly done & makes no sense, after the sabotage of one of the tests.

With regards to the actors, as much as Jeremy Pope gives a committed performance, alongside the other cast members, they are all let down by the terrible direction & structure of the movie. It also wastes the talent of Gabrielle Union, who is in this movie for less than 10 minutes & is almost a glorified cameo, but totally wasted.

Somewhere in this mess there is a powerful story & tale of redemption. But despite the writer/director also being who this all happened to, it is mainly a let-down & a wasted opportunity.

I first knew about the John Cooper cases (or the Bullseye killer as some sections of the media crassly called him, after he was convicted partly due to his appearance on the aforementioned TV gameshow,) watching a television documentary. The events, despite being absolutely horrific in terms of their brutality, also stuck with me for the sheer number of them in the period of time committed (multiple murders alongside over 30 burglaries & violent sexual assaults.) This television series looks at the reopened investigation led by Steve Wilkins, who was determined to track down the demonic & dispicible individual who had carried out this rampage.

The series is absolutely outstanding for many reasons, but mainly because it emphatically puts the victims of Cooper's front & center of the programme, whether it is the casualties of his criminal acts, through to his own family members. It was revealed that Cooper's estranged son was spoken to at length by the writer/director/producing team, especially as his evidence was crucial in convicting his father of the multiple crimes. His life, including horrific assaults & abuse as a boy, was pure hell and added to that was the fact that Cooper repeatedly attempted to blame/point the finger at his son as the perpetrator of his crimes. The abuse & mental torture inflicted on his mother/Cooper's wife is also repeatedly shown in horrific detail.

The script is perfect, the performances great (especially Evans & Allen,) and the whole series gripping. Even though I remembered many of the details of the case, there were still some surprises along the way. It is also a perfect length, each of the episodes exactly right in terms of content & pacing. I marathoned all 3 and the nearly 2 & a half hours flew by.

A wonderful & powerfully made TV series.

When I think of this film, I keep being drawn back to Sexy Beast, mainly due to how they are as films/their refusal to be pigeonholed as one particular genre. With Sexy Beast, it's a gangster film but it's not a gangster film; it's a love story but it's not a love story; it's a heist film but it's not a heist film ect ect. And You Were Never Really Here is exactly the same in many ways. This is a film about a contract killer, but whereas people would immediately think of John Wick or Tom Cruise in Collateral, to simply say this/try to describe it as that type of film is to criminally undersell it. This film is so much more than that.

Phoenix stars as Joe, who is a deeply traumatised & profoundly disturbed ex-soldier & FBI agent. His specialty is rescuing trafficked girls & using extreme violence against the perpetrators. He is hired by a US senator whose daughter has been kidnapped & sold into the sex industry. However, the rescue is anything but simple & Joe soon finds himself in a much more dangerous & complex situation.

From that description, most people who are even semi-regular film watchers would immediately have in their minds an idea of what this movie is about/how events will go down. And that is part of its genius. The funniest thing about this film is the fact that it is almost totally disinterested about the contract killer element, using it almost as a set-up. The movie is much more interested in what happens before & after the killing/action. The only scene where there is any real action shown is viewed through CCTV cameras which are out of focus & show only the vaguest elements of the confrontation.

Joe himself, who is on screen for almost the entire runtime, is a fascinating individual. The film shows him as someone who almost has to have the life he has, because there simply would be no other place in society for him. He is one of what Matthew McConaughey in True Detective called "A needed bad-man. We keep the other bad men from the door." Outside of his hits, Joe is also a man who is almost crumbling, such as his internal meltdown at a subway station, where you literally see his brain & mind collapsing.

Phoenix is incredible, particularly for his transformation into this role. Gone is the wiry, lean & almost emaciated/alcoholic naval veteran from The Master; instead we have what many people would imagine Joe to look like: a hulking & muscle-bound lump of pure danger & power. Sporting massive arms & shoulders, Joe is a leathal & silent ball of rage & PTSD, a man whose silence is more scary than his almost childlike & innocent voice.

I am not going to say any more about the story, because the less you know about this film, the more you get out of it. Suffice to say, this film goes in completely strange & brilliant directions.

Finally, full kudos must go to Lynne Ramsay for writing & directing this masterpiece. After We Need To Talk About Kevin, she has shown herself to be a filmmaker of staggering talent, as well as someone who is able to get career-best performances from her actors. A incredible & searing filmm

I am not a comic book film fan. As I have mentioned before in my other reviews, the main reason I watched & loved the Dark Knight trilogy was because they were directed by Christopher Nolan/were Nolan films, which interested me far more than the fact they were Batman stories. After watching Batman V Superman Dawn of Justice (not liking the theatrical version but really enjoying the Ultimate Cut,) I had no real interest in seeing Justice League, especially after reading the excoriating reviews.

It is important to mention that one of the reasons for the serious issues with the film was due to change of director mid-way through the shoot due to the personal tragedy affecting Zack & Deborah Snyder, who left the movie & which was then completed by Joss Whedon. However, it seems from everything that was said about this film's production, including significant reshoots due to atrocious test screenings, that the Synder's departures have made little difference to how the end film turned out.

This film is a total mess in every way you can think of: script, shooting, editing, pace; I mean literally everything. The only slight shining spark is Barry Allen/The Flash, but that was only in the 40 or so minutes I tolerated watching it. This film's story is literally Ben Affleck's Bruce Wayne travelling around the world to chat with superheroes to team up to defeat a generic big bad who wants do Yadda Yadda Yadda; I couldn't care less what happens.

This is a big, loud, stupid, bloated mess, which cost an absolute fortune, bombed at the box office and whose budget should have been split 100 different ways to fund small-scale films which would have probably had much more impact & been of a much higher quality.

In 2013, the Boston Marathon bombing took place, irrevocably changing the lives of everyone affected both directly and indirectly. Multiple TV/film/documentaries have been made about it, Patriots Day being one of the most high profile. But there was one picture taken that day which then became a symbol of that horror, of Jeff Bauman with both his legs blown off being rushed to hospital. Following on from that, his accurate description of the bombers, helping to lead law enforcement to kill one of them & capturing the other, elevated Bauman to the status of minor celebrity. This film looks at not only the trauma of that day, but his struggle to accept his disability & deal with the ongoing mental scarring.

Gyllenhaal is excellent as Bauman, however like Southpaw, this is a film which doesn't really deserve him. Without Gyllenhaal, this film would have totally failed, his powerhouse performance really elevating what is a standard clichéd script. There is good work as well from Miranda Richardson as Bauman's alcoholic mother, who is also caught up in the maelstrom which has surrounded her son.

But despite the good intentions, this film for me was never more than 3 stars. I have yet to watch the Netflix documentary on the marathon bombing but for me, despite some issues with its script & structure, still the definitive film about the attacks is Patriots Day.

Whilst flicking through BBC iPlayer, I came across a documentary looking at the reopened investigation into the "Steeltown Murders" and in particular it's groundbreaking first use of using familial DNA (the DNA of close relatives to link to the actual murderer) to solve a crime. This documentary was absolutely outstanding, packing huge amounts of story, emotion & suspense into an hour. Repeatedly throughout the programme, snippets of/reference to this drama series were made, so having loved that documentary, I immediately stuck Steeltown Murders onto my list. But the series is in many ways a massive missed opportunity, as well as being at times unbelievably heavy-going.

In 1973, two young women who were friends & out for the night were found murdered in woodland. Despite a massive police operation, as well as several poor decisions from the leadership, no leads were found/no perpetrators brought to justice. One of the original team who stayed with the force hears through the grapevine 30 years later that the police are re-examining the case, mainly due to the incredible advances with science/DNA, and actively pursues becoming part of the team. This series then looks at the challenges & hurdles put in their way, which eventually culminates in them catching the murderer through this new DNA technology, plus linking him to another unsolved murder committed years earlier.

Unfortunately, this is actually (and quite surprisingly, given the pedigree of studio/writers/producers,) an extremely poor quality series. As in, a genuine misfire & disappointment. The actors, especially Philip Glenister, don't really gel together. The early episodes keep repeatedly jumping backwards & forwards in time, sometimes 4 or 5 times within a minute, creating a jarring & confusing watch. The script is overlong, the direction relatively lackluster.

But more than anything, which again is in stark contrast to the documentary, this series is really boring. Several times in the first 2 episodes, I was disinterested & had to force myself to keep watching, telling myself it was going to get better. To be fair to the series, the final episode was the best of all of them, but then it didn't have a very high bar to beat...

One of the other reasons I am frustrated with this series is that welcomingly, it spends a lot of time looking at a woman called Sita, who was close friends with the two murdered girls & only left them that fateful night as she was dragged away by her father, who actively controlled his daughter's life (ironically in this instance saving her but condemning them.) The series takes pains to look at the effects that she suffers with, such as survivors guilt & trying to process all these horrific emotions. But it never truly clicks, despite the good intentions of the writers.

With better direction & script, plus a recasting of the main lead, this really could have been something. However, and it gives me no pleasure to say this, I don't recommend watching this series. Find the accompanying documentary (as of the middle of October, it is still on iPlayer,) which is immeasurably better than this & features the actual detectives who worked on the case.

In 2003, The Room was released. Branded one of the worst films ever made, this went from being a slur to a badge of honour, provoking fascination & laughter from the many fans who came to see it as an extra-ordinary piece of entertainment. As is the case with most cult films, a huge amount of interest was generated with how the film was created, which only intensified after multiple behind-the-scenes reports of the chaos as well as the behaviour of Tommy Wiseau, the writer/director/lead actor/producer.

A best-selling book about the production, called The Disaster Artist, was written by Greg Sestero who played Mark & also was Wiseau's friend & producing partner, without whom the film could not have been made. The book itself became a cult best-seller, which led to this film being made by James Franco, himself an avid fan of The Room.

The best part of this film is without doubt the portrayal of Wiseau as in many ways a deeply lost & troubled man, who desperately wants to be an actor and totally buys into the American Dream of being able to do anything he wants, in his case become a famous actor & successful filmmaker. As much as there is also ridicule flung at Wiseau from all directions, the film is very empathetic in its portrayal of him.

It is clear that James Franco, who also writes & directs, has fully committed to his performance, his voice in particular indistinguishable from the real Wiseau. Dave Franco is also good as Sestero, showing him as a deeply ambitious actor but also a man with a good heart, who sticks by his friend even though he is many times used & exploited by Wiseau.

However, when it comes to the rest of the film, it is actually fairly disjointed & unfocussed. I do fully appreciate that the vast majority of people watching will be doing so because they are fans of The Room or heard about the backstage chaos, so in effect they already have skin in the game. But for me this was never more than a 3 star film, simply because it adds nothing particularly new to what is already known. There are some funny moments, particularly with infamous scenes which would have taken a professional actor 1 or 2 takes to shoot & which Wiseau was still struggling to get through after 30.

Worth a watch, but nothing to get too excited about.

Picking up immediately after the events of the second film, John Wick is a hunted man. A massive bounty has been placed on his head & unlike in the first two films, he is excommunicado from the Hotel Continental, meaning he has no protection. He then has to frantically keep moving to escape the hoardes of assassins after him, all eager to claim the massive bounty on his head.

In every respect, the story and stakes have been heightened, although there are signs that i

I originally rented this film for one reason: having seen him do outstanding work in the film Joe, I was wanting to watch anything that Tye Sheridan was in. And it was clear after seeing this, alongside other performances, that Steven Spielberg felt the same way.

However, despite the usual world-class production values that every Spielberg film has, as well as a cast to die for, the honest truth is that I couldn't in any way get involved with or be interested in anything that was happening on screen. I have said before in other reviews that Sci-Fi is not a genre which, on it's own, I'm that interested in.

And after about half an hour, with roughly 20 minutes of that trying to keep interested & stop my mind from wandering, I switched it off. I just didn't care enough about the story, despite my initial excitement, to stick with it. It may have turned into something brilliant, but this just didn't happen for me.

So, despite my 2 star score (which is mainly given for production values,) this was a complete misfire for me. I may one day try to rewatch it if I am in the mood to give it another shot & it pops up on a streaming service, but not something I'll actively seek out.

The worst comedy show I have been to was a Frankie Boyle gig. This was after he had left Mock the Week (no, he wasn’t fired as was inaccurately reported) and had also just won a libel case after being accused of being racist (the newspaper took the joke out of context and Boyle is not racist.) With this legal victory and clearing of his name, Boyle came out on stage and seemed to have written this show to be as revolting and disgusting as possible, as if to really hammer home how rancid his comedy can be. The reason it was the worst comedy show I’ve seen is that none of it was in any way funny...

And that, times by 20, is what Dirty Grandpa is like...

This is a film where Zac Efron walks in on De Niro’s character Dick (you see what they did there?!?) pleasuring himself and this isn’t just a quick fleeting moment, but a long drawn out scene. And this kind of toilet humour is just repeatedly endlessly, in different contrived set ups for the whole film.

I don’t want to list too much more of the film’s content, as the official Cinema Paradiso review is absolutely brilliant in conveying how not just revolting but also unfunny this film is. The only thing I want to add is that I am a big fan of edgy, dark and what some people call controversial humour and jokes. I believe that when you have something/a subject which difficult or upsetting for any number of reasons (such as sexual abuse,) one way to remove the power and horror of this is to find ways to ridicule and undermine it. Whether it’s edgy comedians like Jim Jefferies or even black comedies like Elle or American Psycho, there is amongst the horribleness real, funny, biting humour.

In all of this, the one thing which did stay with me, over & above all the offensive & repulsive things that Dirty Grandpa vomits on screen, was exactly that: it's absolute desperation to offend & shock. To the extent that this is almost the result you'd get if you asked a section of the most messed-up & depraved part of the internet/a forum to come up with the most rancid & revolting story imaginable which also wasn't illegal in terms of content/what was allowed to be shown.

Watching Dirty Grandpa, you don’t laugh or find anything in it funny, you just feel disgusted for having been a witness to it.  You get to the stage where you think, how many different ways are there left to talk about sex and genitals in the worst and most disgusting ways? The best metaphor I can use to describe this film is the dirty old man everyone will have seen at some stage in their lives when out and about, and turning and walking in the other direction so you don’t have to hear or see what he is doing. 

This film is disgusting. For some people, that is reason enough to see it. But save yourself the time and know your life is better having not watched it.  

In our entertainment media, apart from romantic comedies, the most bloated of the genres is police/crime drama. Every year, all around the world, hundreds are released, trying to find a different angle to mine for drama & emotions. Whilst a lot of them are good, with evolving storylines and the time to fully flesh out their story & characters, the truly great ones are very few and far between. But True Detective is without question one of the most influential, incredible, fantastic, phenomenal & gripping pieces of not only crime drama but also television ever made. It also marked a turning point for Hollywood/A-list actors actually doing this shows. Pre-2014, to be on a television show was a sign of career decline, alongside a stupid belief that films & TV series could not be held in the same regard. 

Matthew McConaughey (Rust Cohle) & Woody Harrelson (Marty Hart) play detectives who have recently been paired up within Louisiana State Police. Cohle has come to the unit after a long absence & is an extremely difficult, misanthropic, deeply cynical man. Hart is much more the stereotypical policeman: solid, dependable & direct. The pair meet as they are sent to investigate a body which has turned up in the middle of a field, clearly involving symbols & themes of the occult/dark forces. The series then follows their investigation, set over many years, looking at the toll it takes on them and their families. 

As much as everyone does the best work of their careers here, head & shoulders above everyone else is McConaughey. Once the default go-to guy for romcoms, he had what many called the “McConaissance” with this & other roles including Dallas Buyers Club & Interstellar. His close friendship with Harrelson also pays dividends & the chemistry they have is note-perfect. But there is also excellent work from Michelle Monaghan as Hart’s tough police wife, never sidelined in the thankless supporting role usually written for them. 

This is a series that stays with you, haunts you and blows you away. I loved every second of it and it is without doubt a fully fledged masterpiece.