Prisoners (2013) - Villeneuve arrives in Hollywood with grim crime story

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Two very serious-looking male stars in a sea of grey and darkness make up this poster for Denis Villeneuve's Prisoners

During a normal Thanksgiving celebration a family suddenly lose two daughters. The tracks to finding them are few, and as despair lurks, the mystery widens.

 

Prisoners is written by Aaron Guzikowski (Contraband (2012)) and directed by Canadian master filmmaker Denis Villeneuve (August 32nd on Earth/Un 32 Août sur Terre (1998)), whose 6th feature it is.

With a strong opening and a monumental rain (so great it made me wonder how it was created) this thrilling, very well photographed (cinematographer Roger Deakins (Sicario (2015))) film pulls you in. It serves several good performances: Jake Gyllenhaal (Jarhead (2005)), Hugh Jackman (The Greatest Showman (2017)), Maria Bello (Lights Out (2016)) and more in the background: Terrence Howard (Iron Man (2008)), Viola Davis (Widows (2018)) and Paul Dano (Youth (2015)) are also good. 

The film is long but it manages to keep us close to its electrically grim story. Unfortunately it is resolved poorly, SPOILER since Guzikowski's script finally refuses to accept the obvious crook (a pedophile) to instead give us some babble about labyrinths, snakes - and Melissa Leo (Coast (2021)) as a heavy! She is a Jigsaw-like (from Saw (2004-) franchise fame) character, who punishes God for children's cancer and locks Jackman into a hole ... - Unsatisfying.

 

Related posts:

Denis Villeneuve: Dune/Dune: Part One (2021) - Villeneuve revitalizes another SF boulder 

2017 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Blade Runner 2049 (2017) - Villeneuve's speculative sci-fi sequel is fascinating but flawed 

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

2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 
2016 in films - according to Film Excess
Arrival (2016) - Villeneuve, Heisserer and Adams head sensational sci-fi wonder
Incendies (2010) - Villeneuve's dreary and depressing, wildly overrated drama 

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 46 mil. $

Box office: 122.1 mil. $

= Box office success (returned 2.65 times its cost)

[Prisoners premiered 30 August (Telluride Film Festival, USA) and runs 153 minutes. Guzikowski's script landed on the 2009 Black List, a list of Hollywood's most popular unproduced scripts. Shooting took place from February - May 2013 in Georgia. The film opened #1 to a 20.8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 2 weekends in the top 5 (#2-#4), grossing 61 mil. $ (50 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 11.6 mil. $ (9.5 %) and France with 9.7 mil. $ (7.9 %). It additionally made an estimated 18.3 mil. $ on the North-American home video market alone. The film was nominated for 1 Oscar: Best Cinematography, lost to Emmanuel Lubezki for Gravity. It also won 2 National Board of Review awards, among other honors. IMDb's users have rated the film in at #163 on the site's Top 250, sitting between Raging Bull (1980) and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998). Villeneuve returned with Enemy (2013). Jackman returned in Chantoozies: Baby It's You (2014, music video) and theatrically in X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014); Gyllenhaal in Enemy. Prisoners is certified fresh at 81 % with a 7.30/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Prisoners?

Lights Out (2016) - Sandberg debuts with effective spook story

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The curiosity-sparking, simple poster for David F. Sandberg's Lights Out

 

Lights Out is the feature debut of David F. Sandberg (Closet Space (2016), short), based on his own same-titled 2013 short and written by Eric Heisserer (The Thing (2011)).

Following the violent, mysterious death of his father, little Martin reaches out to his big sister, who lives alone in the city. Their mother is depressed and mentally unstable, talking to a woman in the house, who died decades ago, and who can only be in the dark.

Lights Out is an old-school spook story or a campfire story, sure to upset especially its younger audiences' night's sleep. It's got an effective gimmick at its heart; a maleficent entity that only moves in the dark. The film gets a lot out of this premise and couples it with a story of mental illness and an incredible skin disease.

Maria Bello (Grown Ups (2010)) is very credible as the mentally unhinged mother, and Gabriel Bateman (Annabelle (2014)) plays the brave boy Martin very well. None of the others are anything less than good, although the bigger sister, essentially the film's protagonist, and her relationship with her long-haired, slightly dopey boyfriend wasn't all that hot. I also wouldn't have minded a little fun in Lights Out, but that isn't part of its game.

Instead it succeeds in being a creepy, very simple horror with some good shocks and effective sound design. Don't expect a gore fest here. Lights Out is not that type of horror.

Watch an official trailer for the film here

Cost: 4.9-5 mil. $

Box office: 110.9 mil. $ and counting

= Mega-hit

[Lights Out premiered June 8 (Los Angeles Film Festival) and runs 81 minutes. Sandberg had not worked with a film crew or been on a film set before directing the film. Filming took place in LA from June - August 2015. The premiere was arranged to benefit from the major success of one of its producers, James Wan's The Conjuring 2's release around the same time. The film opened #3, behind new release Star Trek Beyond and holdover hit The Secret Lives of Pets, to a 21.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd week and to date has grossed 64.5 mil. $ (58.2 % of the total gross). Its 2nd and 3rd biggest markets have been Russia with 3.7 mil. $ (3.3 %) and Argentina with 2.4 mil. $ (2.2 %). A sequel with Heisserer and Sandberg back as writer and director, respectively, has already been announced. Lights Out is certified fresh at 76 % with a 6.3 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Lights Out?

The Cooler (2003) or, Lady Luck for Bernie

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+ Best Las Vegas Movie of the Year

William H. Macy looks doubtfully out at us in delicious neon on the poster for Wayne Kramer's The Cooler

QUICK REVIEW:

Bernie is a 'cooler' [a person whose bad luck 'cools' off winning tables] in a second tier Las Vegas casino, but as he falls in love with a lovely waitress, the customers begin to win, and his boss Shelly becomes furious.
The acting between William H. Macy (Fargo (1996)) and Maria Bello (A History of Violence (2005)), with an Oscar-nominated Alec Baldwin (It's Complicated (2009)) as the pit-bull-like boss on the sideline, is strong, - and it's also The Cooler's main attraction. The film also has some nice secondary performances, especially from Paul Sorvino (Goodfellas (1990)) as a heroin-junkie-singer.
The drama is strong and realistic in this romantic gangster dramedy, and it walks a fine line in dealing with the uglier sides of life without overdoing it and turning dour.
The film is co-written and directed by South-African filmmaker Wayne Kramer (Running Scared (2006)). I would probably have taken The Cooler in a different direction, but in Kramer's hands, the lady luck-theme is given the floor and SPOILER we receive a happy ending.
Lovely movie.

 

Related posts:

 

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

 

Watch the trailer here

Cost: 4 mil. $
Box office: 10.4 mil. $
= Even-Steven

What do you think of The Cooler?
Other recommendable gambling-movies?

A History of Violence (2005) - Cronenberg's powerful rumination of our violence

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+ Best Indiana Movie of the Year

Maria Bello and husband Viggo Mortensen are faced with a man threatening them with a gun on this ominous poster for David Cronenberg's A History of Violence

Tom Stall and his wife run a diner in a quiet Indiana town, when a duo of thugs roll in and an instinctive act of heroism turns Stall's life upside down.

Viggo Mortensen (Captain Fantastic (2016)) plays the intriguing character of Tom Stall in this country-set thriller; a character which made me speculate just how much a person can really put behind himself mentally and still go on?  
A History of Violence is a clever film that will make different audiences ruminate about several different things. It is written by Josh Olson (Infested (2002)), based on the 1997 same-titled graphic novel by John Wagner (Chain Gang War (1993-94)) and Vince Locke (Judge Dredd (2007-08)), and directed by great Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg (Scanners (1981)).
The clouds of mystery and unknowing are thick here. The strong cast also includes an amazingly mean-playing William Hurt (Beautiful Ohio (2006)), intense Maria Bello (Abduction (2011)) and Ed Harris (Man on a Ledge (2012)) in a performance that is likely to make the little hairs in your neck stand on end.
The opening scene of the film with the cicadas as a compelling soundscape is as intense as the scenes of violence that follow, which are, very appropriately, it seems, dirty and Cronenbergian in their focus on horrific details, and they make a stark and nice contrast to the idyllic small town mentality that is the setting. A History of Violence is a great film.

Related posts:

David Cronenberg: Cosmopolis (2012) - Cronenberg/DeLillo/Pattinson's speculative limo lullaby
A Dangerous Method (2011) - Cronenberg's rather disappointing waltz with the fathers of modern psychology   
Eastern Promises (2007) - Cronenberg invites us to meet the Russian mob in London

2005 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]  
Spider (2002) - Cronenberg takes us to the tormented (and slightly dull) mind of a schizophrenic 
Existenz/eXistenZ (1999) - Cronenberg's 1990s-flavored VR nonsense
Dead Ringers (1988) or, Brothers and Their Instruments 
The Dead Zone (1983) - Eerie sci-fi/horror King-adaptation  
The Brood (1979) or, Marital Fury and Craze!   

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 32 mil. $
Box office: 60.7 mil. $
= Big flop (returned 1.89 times its cost)
[A History of Violence premiered 16 May (Cannes) and runs 96 minutes. Filming took place in Ontario, Canada, including in Toronto, from August - November 2004. The US and European versions of the film differ slightly, with the European version having a bit more gore. The film opened #18 to a strong 515k $ first weekend in 14 theaters (a 36k $ average) in North America, where it widened to peak at #4, behind Flightplan, Serenity and Corpse Bride, the following week with 8.1 mil. $ in 1,340 theaters, leaving the top 5 again thereafter and ended up grossing 31.5 mil. $ (51.9 % of the total gross) domestically. The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 6.7 mil. $ (11 %) and France with 4.1 mil. $ (6.8 %). Its theatrical performance stands at the threshold of the less dire, mere 'flop' status, and the film has likely made a profit with later TV rights and video sales. Roger Ebert gave it a 3.5/4 star review, equal to its rating here. The film was nominated for 2 Oscars: Best Supporting Actor (Hurt), lost to George Clooney for Syriana, and Best Adapted Screenplay, lost to Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana for Brokeback Mountain. It was also nominated for 2 Golden Globes, a BAFTA, won AFI's Movie of the Year Award, was nominated for a César award, a David di Donatello award, and won a National Board of Review award as well as many other honors. Cronenberg returned with a segment in To Each His Own Cinema (2007) and theatrically with Eastern Promises (2007). Mortensen returned in Captain Alatriste: The Spanish Musketeer/Alatriste (2006); Bello in The Dark (2005); Harris in Empire Falls (2005, miniseries) and theatrically in Winter Passing (2005); and Hurt in Hunt for Justice (2005, TV movie) and theatrically in Neverwas (2005). A History of Violence is certified fresh at 87 % with a 7.87/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of A History of Violence?