Slow West (2015) - Maclean's contemporary-minded, digital, forgettable West

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Its four stars' faces against blue cloudy skies make up this untraditional poster for John Mclean's Slow West

A bounty hunter helps an enamored teenager with his young lady, who has a high prize on her head, through the perils of the deadly wild west.

Slow West is written and directed by debuting John Maclean (Man on a Motorcycle (2009, short)).
It is a kind of reconstructivist western, which conjures up a portrait of the mystical west, which doesn't conform to the established facts that the genre's past classics have taught us as moviegoers. Instead character after character here share related reflections, which more seem to come from our present day, (and surely hail directly from writer-director Maclean.)
No one really distinguishes themselves in Slow West, and I continually wondered why Michael Fassbender's (William and Mary (2005, TV-series)) character continually helps the smitten Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Road (2009)) character.
In terms of style and technique, the film also doesn't lean on the genre's traditions and conventions, and its very digital texture (or in actuality a lack thereof; a crisp, modern smoothness) is profoundly hard to swallow for this western fan.
Slow West is a small, easily forgotten, and not very promising debut, - and an extremely overrated film.

 

Related post:

 

2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Estimated 2 mil. $
Box office: 1.2 mil. $
= Huge flop (returned 0.6 times its cost)
[Slow West premiered 24 January (Sundance Film Festival, Utah) and runs 84 minutes. Shooting took place in New Zealand and Scotland around October 2013. The film opened #36 to a 67k $ first weekend in 50 theaters in North America, where it peaked the following week at #35 and in 54 theaters and grossed 229k $ (19.1 % of the total gross). The biggest market was the main production country the UK with 559k $ (46.6 %); North America was 2nd biggest and Germany 3rd biggest with 225k $ (19 %). In North America, the film was simultaneously released as video-on-demand, which may have contributed to the low gross. Numbers from its performance on VOD are unreleased. The film won a Sundance award and was nominated for a British Independent Film award and a European Film award, among other honors. Maclean has stayed clear of directing since but made some music instead. Fassbender returned in Macbeth (2015); Smit-McPhee in Gallipolli (2015, miniseries) and theatrically in X-Men: Apocalypse (2016); Caren Pistorius (Mortal Engines (2018)) in The Light Between Oceans (2016)) and Ben Mendelsohn (Vertical Limit (2000)) in Mississippi Grind (2015). Slow West is certified fresh at 92 % with a 7.47/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Slow West?

The Place Beyond the Pines (2012) - Bad decisions reign in Cianfrance's crime drama epic

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+ Best Crime Movie of the Year

Ominous poster for Derek Cianfrance's The Place Beyond the Pines

A stunt motorcycle-driver learns that he has a baby son and begins to commit bank-robberies to provide for the family, he doesn't really have. This gets far-reaching consequences.

The structure of Pines is unusual, because the film is almost three stories, told one after the other. It is often hard to watch, because it has so many assholes in it, and because everything SPOILER goes haywire for our protagonists, step by step over the course of the expansive 140 minute playtime.

Dane DeHaan impresses in Derek Cianfrance's The Place Beyond the Pines

The casting is perfect, with excellent performances from particularly Bradley Cooper (The Hangover (2009)), while Dane DeHaan (Kill Your Darlings (2013)), Ben Mendelsohn (Animal Kingdom (2010)) and Ray Liotta (Goodfellas (1990)) are also quite good. Ryan Gosling (The Notebook (2004)) is good, but essentially does what we have seen him do before, especially in Drive (2011).

- Could director Derek Cianfrance (Blue Valentine (2010)) be a Nicholas Winding Refn fan? Pines has reminiscences of both Drive (2011) and Pusher II (2004).
The film includes a cool chase scene, is generally very well executed and also bolsters good musical work and choices by Mike Patton (Crank: High Voltage (2009)).
There is an atmosphere of defeat that hangs over the entire film, a downbeat affair if there ever was one: One desperate (male) decision-maker blends over into the next; generations of bad decisions go hand in hand. SPOILER But perhaps redemption is possible, or so the ending indicates anyway. Cianfrance's fierce appetite for tragedies continues unabatedly here. No sense of religion or morals interferes with any of the characters.
The title refers to the Indian meaning of Schenectady, New York, where the film takes place.

Related posts:

Derek Cianfrance: 2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
Blue Valentine (2010) or, Falling in Love and Breaking Up

Watch the trailer for the film with Danish subtitles and the music of the French band Suicide here

Budget: 15 mil. $
Box office: 47 mil. $
= Box office success

What do you think of The Place Beyond the Pines?

Animal Kingdom (2010) - Ruthless Aussies in tight debut

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+ Best Australian Movie of the Year

Covered in shadows and ominous shades, a family portrait makes up the eye-catching poster for David Michôd's Animal Kingdom

J calls his grandmother, when his mother dies of a heroin overdose. But in his new, villainous family, their laws are the only that count.

 
The suspense builds up slowly in Animal Kingdom, the very impressive debut of Australian writer/director David Michôd (The King (2019)). The film is based on the true story of the Pettingill family of Melbourne, who in 1988 saw its Trevor Pettingill acquitted of a double police murder. 
The visual realism paired with an intense score by Antony Spartos (Upright (2019-20, miniseries)) makes the film a joy to the senses. As the cold-blooded matriarch Jacki Weaver (Reclaim (2014)) shines, and so do others such as Ben Mendelsohn (Darkest Hour (2017)) as a really nasty bugger.
Animal Kingdom is filled with abhorring characters and disillusioned atmosphere. It ends abruptly. It is a crime movie that, in spite of all the praise here, has found many bigger fans than I. Difficult to say why, perhaps it just doesn't fabulate enough for my taste. It's simply a bit too kitchen sink crude for me to get over-ecstatic about it.

Related posts:

David Michôd: 2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV] 

2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

The Rover (2014) - A dreary journey to Michôd's desolate, hopeless Australia 

2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

Hesher (2010) - Susser's immature, rebel-centered debut (co-writer) 

 

Check out the film's trailer here

Budget: 5 mil. A$, approximately 3.86 mil. $
Box office: 7.2 mil. $
= Big flop (returned 1.86 times its cost)

[Animal Kingdom premiered 22 January (Sundance Film Festival) and runs 113 minutes. Shooting took place in and around Melbourne, Australia. The film opened #41 to a 61k $ first weekend in 7 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #38 and in 61 theaters (different weeks), grossing 1 mil. $ (13.9 % of the total gross). The film's biggest market was Australia with 4.3 mil. $ (59.7 %), then 2nd biggest North America and 3rd biggest was the UK with 785k $ (10.9 %). It was nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar (Weaver), lost to Melissa Leo in The Fighter. It won 2 National Board of Review awards, a prize at Sundance, and many other honors. The film was remade as a US TV-series with the same title, which started in 2016 and is still running. Michôd returned with Enlightened (2013, TV-series) and theatrically with The Rover (2014). Joel Edgerton (Gringo (2018)) returned with a voice performance in Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole (2010), in The Thief (2011, short) and with a physical theatrical performance in Warrior (2011); Mendelsohn in Needle (2010); and Guy Pearce (Memento (2000)) in The King's Speech (2010). Animal Kingdom is certified fresh at 94 % with an 8.00/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Animal Kingdom?