The Old Man & the Gun (2018) - Lowery's lackluster caper career cap for Redford

♥♥

 

Only an impeccably dressed star Robert Redford with his face covered appears on this minimalist poster for David Lowery's The Old Man & the Gun

Forrest Tucker is a veteran career criminal specialized in bank robbery, who in a situation of escape takes interest in a gracious older lady with engine failure, who turns out to become important for him. Almost as important as the bank robberies.

 

The Old Man & the Gun is written and directed by David Lowery (Deadroom (2005)), based on David Grann's (The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon (2009)) 2003 article The Old Man and the Gun from The New Yorker, which concerned the real-life story of Forrest Tucker.

Robert Redford's (War Hunt (1962)) star persona as a gentleman outlaw gets a classy ribbon tied around it in the shape of this quietly mulling true-crime picture, with an unimpressed working-man Casey Affleck (Committed (2000)) after him and Sissy Spacek (Badlands (1973)) as the sweet, unexpected new romantic partner.

It is all very sweet but also dull in its virtuous cinematic nature, ('a last show for the old champ' sort of thing), a film that drifts ahead nice and easy without much thematic ground to it. Well-produced but slow going.

 

Related post:

 

David Lowery: Pete's Dragon (2016) - Lowery plays Disney remake safe

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 15.8 mil. $

Box office: 17.8 mil. $

= Big flop (returned 1.12 times its cost)

[The Old Man & the Gun premiered 31 August (Telluride Film Festival) and runs 93 minutes. Shooting took place around April 2017 in Ohio, Michigan, Texas and Kentucky. The film opened #32 to a 142k $ first weekend in 5 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #10 and in 1,042 theaters (different weeks), grossing 11.2 mil. $ (62.9 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Italy with 1.4 mil. $ (7.9 %) and the UK with 791k $ (4.4 %). The film was nominated for a Golden Globe and won a National Board of Review award, among other honors. Lowery returned with a TV-series, a segment and a short prior to his theatrical return The Green Knight (2021). Redford returned with a voice performance in Buttons, A New Musical Film (2018) and physically in Avengers: Endgame (2019); Affleck in Light of My Life (2019); and Spacek in 3 TV-series and a music video prior to her theatrical return in Sam & Kate (2022). The Old Man & the Gun is certified fresh at 93 % with a 7.60/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of The Old Man & the Gun? 

Lord of War (2005) - Cage thrives with a ghastly lead in Niccol's terrific, troubling war drama

♥♥♥♥♥

+ Best Villain of the Year: Nicolas Cage as Yuri Orlog + Best War Movie of the Year

Star Nicolas Cage chillingly recreated with multi-colored bullets on this menacing poster for Andrew Niccol's Lord of War

One of the world's largest illegal arms dealers and arguably one of the worst persons to touch its surface, Yuri Orlog is the subject of Lord of War.

Lord of War is written, co-produced and directed by great New-Zealander filmmaker Andrew Niccol (Gattaca (1997)), based on several real-life arms dealers and infected third world conflicts. Nicolas Cage (Army of One (2016)) is perfect as the fascinating and eerie title character; he throws himself bravely and fearlessly out on deep waters yet again here with a truly despicable role. In Lord of War, Cage gets solid backup from Bridget Moynahan (Battle Los Angeles (2011)), Jared Leto (Lonely Hearts (2006)) and Ian Holm (Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994)).
This societally critical war drama is shot and scored by filmmakers who seem to know their Scorsese, (the American master filmmaker seems a tangible source of inspiration for Niccol and Co.) 
The impact comes through irregardless: Lord of War is a strong and despairing (anti)war picture that makes its audiences alternatively laugh and cry.

 

Related post:

 

2005 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

Watch one staggering scene from the film here

Cost: 50 mil. $
Box office: 72.6 mil. $
= Big flop (returned 1.45 times its cost)
[Lord of War was released 16 September (USA) and runs 121 minutes. Shooting took place in New York, Utah, the Czech Republic and South Africa, including Cape Town, from August - November 2004. A Czech weapons dealer source supplied the production with 50 tanks, which were shipped off to Libya weeks later. The production bought 3,000 SA Vz. 58 rifles to stand in for Kalashnikovs, as they were cheaper than buying prop guns. The film opened #3, behind fellow new release Just Like Heaven and holdover hit The Exorcism of Emily Rose, to a 9.3 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd week and grossed 24.1 mil. $ (33.2 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 8.3 mil. $ (11.4 %) and the UK with 4.3 mil. $ (5.9 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 3.5/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. It also won a special recognition mention from the National Board of Review. Niccol returned with In Time (2011). Cage returned in The Weather Man (2005). Lord of War is fresh at 62 % with a 6.17/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Lord of War?

I'm Not There (2007) - Haynes' experimental Bob Dylan biopic is half-good, half-bad

♥♥♥

Cate Blanchett with a lit cigarette and a Bob Dylan-curled, disorderly hairdo strikes a pensive pose on this sparse poster for Todd Haynes' I'm Not There

I'm Not There is an atypical biopic of a great creative champ of our time, Bob Dylan: 6 different actors portray different aspects of the mysterious folk and rock music hero's life and long career.

I'm Not There is written by Oren Moverman (Face (2002)) and Californian master co-writer/director Todd Haynes (Velvet Goldmine (1998)).
I will admit that I didn't really understand this film. To think that this is supposedly Dylan, or 'the many Dylans'... Maybe I don't know Dylan well enough to truly get it, or maybe I'm Not There really is narratively in search of a structure as well as visually confusing.
I didn't get why Christian Bale (Heart of the Country (1987), miniseries) is cast as one of the actors portraying Dylan; the two seem so very different.
The reason that I still give Haynes' intangible and somewhat elitist concoction 3 hearts is for its poetic values, the music (many great Dylan songs are featured), and for Marcus Carl Franklin (But Not for Me (2015)), the black kid who plays another iteration of Dylan, and Bruce Greenwood (Cell 213 (2011)) who is also good in the film. Franklin sings, acts and speaks like something of an angel here.
I'm Not There surely was a lot of work to make. Watching it feels like an odd recess.

Related posts:

Todd Haynes: 2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 
Top 10: Best 'box office success' movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
Carol (2015) - Haynes' romance adaptation is a triumph
Mildred Pierce (2011, miniseries) - Haynes' spin on the Cain classic is a luxury 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 20 mil. $
Box office: 11.6 mil. $
= Huge flop (returned 0.58 times the cost)
[I'm Not There premiered 3 September (Venice Film Festival, Italy) and runs 135 minutes. The title comes from the song I'm Not There by Dylan in 1967, which wasn't released until this film brought it to light. Haynes' fractured concept impressed Dylan to let him use his music in the film. A 7th character, a Chaplinesque tramp in Greenwich Village, was scrapped before filming began. 9 companies collaborated to make it. Shooting took place in Québec, Canada, and in Los Angeles, California from July 2006 - ?. The film opened #17 to a 730k $ first weekend in 130 theaters in North America, where it peaked #15 and in 149 cinemas (different weeks) and grossed disappointing 4 mil. $ (34.5 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Germany with 1.2 mil. $ (10.3 %) and France with 1 mil. $ (8.6 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 3.5/4 star review, translating to two notches better than this one. It was the last of Heath Ledger's films (he also plays Dylan in the film) to be released before his death by an overdose in January 2008. The film was nominated for 1 Oscar: Best Supporting Actress (Cate Blanchett, who also plays Dylan, the iteration most critics went wild over), lost to Tilda Swinton in Michael Clayton. It won a Golden Globe, was nominated for a BAFTA, won 2/5 Independent Spirit award nominations, 3/4 wins at Venice and many other honors. Haynes returned with Mildred Pierce (2011, miniseries), an episode of Enlightened (2013, TV-series) and theatrically with masterpiece Carol (2015). Franklin returned in Be Kind Rewind (2008). Dylan stated in 2012 that he thought I'm Not There was "all right", that it "looked good" and that the actors were "incredible". I'm Not There is certified fresh at 77 % with a 7/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of I'm Not There?

Snowden (2016) - Stone's inflammatory political thriller is a powerful must-see

♥♥♥♥♥

 

+ Best Biopic of the Year

Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the gentle title character on a sleek poster for Oliver Stone's Snowden

 

Snowden is the 20th fiction feature from great New-Yorker filmmaker Oliver Stone (Born on the Fourth of July (1989)). It is written by Stone and Kieran Fitzgerald (The Homesman (2014)), based on two novels: Luke Harding's (WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy (2011)) non-fiction The Snowden Files (2014) and Anatoly Kucherena's (We Cannot Do Without Bloodshed (2003)) fictionalized Time of the Octopus (2015).

Edward Snowden, a precarious but deeply dedicated young American male, finds out that he can best serve his country by using his prodigal computer skills, working for the NSA and CIA. Over the course of several years, he is increasingly distraught by the covert tactics of his government, leading up to his becoming a whistle-blower for The Guardian in 2013.

Stone, once again, succeeds with a controversial, highly relevant and political current issue, - namely that of Edward Snowden and the mass surveillance and privacy infringement and espionage perpetrated by the US government. His film is arguably more important, inflammatory and needed than any other he has done in decades. As such, it is this year's The Big Short (2015); a thrillingly substantial outlaying of outrageous recent history; eye-opening and assured in its conviction: That Snowden is no suspicious expat that deserves decades behind bars or to rot in his involuntary refuge in Russia, but is, in fact, an American hero, a brave friend of the common man and an excellent citizen.

Cinematically, Snowden isn't as innovative as Big Short. But it's solid all-around, deftly illuminating the problems of mass surveillance in the digital age while letting us ever closer to its title protagonist and his struggles as a loyal citizen with increasingly burdening knowledge and feelings of complicity.

Thanks to a stellar cast that Stone has managed to gather, the film becomes a riveting encounter: Joseph Gordon-Levitt (10 Things I Hate about You (1999)) has a smugness that peaks through his otherwise impressive performance; he really embodies Snowden credibly. Shailene Woodley (The Fault in Our Stars (2014)) is, once again, excellent, here as the very normal, loving girlfriend. Rhys Ifans (Another Me (2013)) and Nicholas Cage (Drive Angry (2011)) appear and are great in minor but pivotal parts, and the cast is full of exceptional actors; young up-and-comers like Scott Eastwood (Diablo (2015)) and Ben Schnetzer (Pride (2014)) and more seasoned actors like Timothy Olyphant (Deadwood (2004-06)), Joely Richardson (101 Dalmatians (1996)), Tom Wilkinson (RocknRolla (2008)), Zachary Quinto (Star Trek Beyond (2016)) and Melissa Leo (Flight (2012)).

Don't go into Snowden expecting a break-neck paced conventional thriller. - Its hero is a geek, and it's about technology and the real world, which is thrilling in another way. - But no less thrilling, mark you. Snowden is a must-see.

 

Related posts:

 

2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

2016 in films - according to Film Excess

 

Watch an official trailer for the film here

Cost: 40 mil. $

Box office: 22.7 mil. $ and counting

= Too early to say

[Snowden premiered September 9 (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 134 minutes. Stone was working on a film about Martin Luther King's last years with Jamie Foxx starring when he started getting contacted about Snowden and eventually went to Russia and met him. Stone allegedly paid 0.7 mil. $ for the rights to Harding's book and 1 mil. $ for the rights to Kucherena's, scrapping the King biopic. Financing proved tough: Stone and his producer financed the film themselves until 8 days before production, when French and German financing came through: Probably due to its controversial content, it was not possible to get American financing for Snowden. The film was shot in 62 days from February - April in Munich, Germany, Moscow, Hawaii, Washington, D.C. and Hong Kong. The budget was so tight that when Stone's mother passed away, he had to miss her US funeral, because the production couldn't afford any delay. Fears of surveillance and hacking by the NSA made the cast and crew adhere to special precautions during production. Gordon-Levitt, who had also gone to Moscow to meet Snowden and his girlfriend to prepare for his part, donated his entire salary to the production. The release was pushed out from a December 2015 release until the fall of 2016. The film opened #4, behind Sully, Blair Witch and Bridget Jones' Baby, to an 8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spend its 2nd week in #5 and then left the top 5 and has to date grossed just 18.8 mil. $. The film has yet to open in several important markets like France, Germany, Spain, the UK, Italy and Japan, and hopefully it will still gather the much larger audiences it deserves, and avoid becoming a major flop. Snowden is fresh at 63 % with a 6.3 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Snowden?

Side Effects (2013) - Modern people screw up in excellent thriller

♥♥♥♥♥

+ Best Thriller of the Year

Four stars with apprehensive looks are divided by a blood-red medical cross on this poster for Steven Soderbergh's Side Effects

 

Side Effects is Georgian master filmmaker Steven Soderbergh's (Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989)) second film in 2013, the other one being Liberace-biopic Behind the Candelabra, which was also favorably reviewed by Film Excess here: Behind the Candelabra (2013) - Restraint and extravagance. It is his 24th feature.
This one is a psychological thriller about psychotropic drugs, their use, over-use and implications in America today. If it sounds like a university lecture for people with glasses, don't worry, it's not. Side Effects is a wildly successful suspense-movie.

 

Following a possible suicide attempt, the young wife of a convicted inside-trading perpetrator is introduced to some experimental drugs, which come with unexpected side effects.

 
Side Effects is also the kind of thriller where you don't want to give away an elaborate plot summary, because it would ruin too much of the ride of seeing the film. Suffice to say, Jude Law (Spy (2015)) is excellent as an over-worked but well-intentioned psychiatrist who finds himself in a serious jam; Rooney Mara (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)) is his patient, Catherine Zeta-Jones (The Darling Buds of May (1991-93)) is her old psychiatrist, and Channing Tatum (22 Jump Street (2014)) is her husband.
The exciting script by Scott Z. Burns (The Laundromat (2019)) has more than one unforeseen twist, which impresses along the way. If you have misgivings that Side Effects looks more like well-intended criticism of the pharmaceutical world than an exciting watch, luckily, you're wrong. (And this is perhaps a fault in its marketing.) The film does implicitly say that our over-medicated culture comes with some sick, unwanted side effects, but it goes no further than that, keeping its eye square on the thriller ball.
All the actors are safe in Soderbergh's seasoned direction, and new-comer Mara surprised me positively with her performance in a difficult role. So look out for her.
Otherwise it's a slick and very enjoyable operation: Soderbergh's own photography is as usual über-professional; the editing is sharp, the pacing perfect. And Thomas Newman's (The Judge (2014)) score is right on.

SPOILER A couple of little things annoyed me slightly in the story: There's a scene wherein some people, including Law's doctor character, sit and talk, and they just so happen to shed light on the disagreeable grease that big pharmaceutical companies sometimes use to persuade doctors to use their drugs, (expensive tickets, dinners etc.) This is not really a necessary information for the particular story, and the lines spoken felt out of place. If Burns felt that needed to be in Side Effects, it could have been handled more smoothly elsewhere, I feel.
SPOILER The other little thing is the harsh reaction of the doctor's wife, once he starts to see a tough time. This may very well be a realistic reaction from a modern married woman today, but it is depressing, and we've seen it too much in recent fiction. How about building up relationships via fiction portrayals as well sometimes, instead of always pointing out how weak and easily collapsible the modern nuclear family is? And just to be clear, that path need not compromise the film's suspense. There are multitudes of other ways the wife could have reacted besides leaving her husband immediately.
These are, in any case, minor detractors from Side Effects, which has a top-performing and very good-looking main cast and a smart, pulsating story. Don't miss it.

 

Related posts:

Steven Soderbergh:  Logan Lucky (2017) - Soderbergh returns with amusing, slow hillbilly heist comedy
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
Magic Mike XXL (2015) - Lots of fun and skin but still no gay as Mike goes to the convention (cinematographer, editor) 

2013 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED VI]

2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]  
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess
Behind the Candelabra (2013) - Restraint and extravagance 
Magic Mike (2012) - Soderbergh and Tatum score big with cheeky male strip romp 
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 
2011 in films - according to Film Excess 
Contagion (2011) - Soderbergh's global pandemic creep-out  
Haywire (2011) - Soderbergh's taut, stylish ensemble actioner is a masterpiece

2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]  
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess  
The Informant! (2009) - Soderbergh and Damon's terrific true-crime dramedy  
Che Part One - The Argentine (2008) - Soderbergh's sober depiction of the Cuban revolution 

Ocean's Twelve (2004) - Soderbergh returns with jumbled, glossy heist comedy sequel 
Solaris (2002) - A suffering space question mark  

2000 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 
Top 10: Best crime movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 
Erin Brockovich (2000) - Roberts, Soderbergh and Grant's triumphant biopic   

Check out the trailer for Side Effects here

Cost: 30 mil. $
Box office: 63.3 mil. $
= Flop (returned 2.11 times its cost)

[Side Effects premiered 31 January (New York) and runs 106 minutes. Shooting took place in New York from April - May 2012. It opened #3, behind fellow new release Identity Thief and hold-over hit Warm Bodies, to a 9.3 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd week and grossed 32.1 mil. $ (50.7 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 7.5 mil. $ (11.8 %) and France with 3.6 mil. $ (5.7 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 3.5/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. Soderbergh returned with Behind the Candelabra (2013). Mara returned in Her (2013); Tatum in G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013); Law in Dom Hemingway (2013); and Zeta-Jones in RED 2 (2013). Side Effects is certified fresh at 82 % with a 7.30/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Side Effects?