Whiplash (2014)

Director: Damien Chazelle
Writer(s): Chazelle
Starring: Miles Teller, J.K Simmons, and Melissa Benoist

Critics tend to overhype movies; it’s almost as if most of them are all in the same room when they type up their reviews, feeding off of each other.  I almost picture a 12 Angry Men kind of scenario, where the handful of critics that dislike a movie are slowly subjected to the opinions of the majority critics that liked it, until their opinion is completely changed, and all of them are in agreement.  If you don’t believe me, take a look at most critic vs. user scores on Rotten Tomatoes…oftentimes, the most critically lauded films have relatively terrible user scores, and vice-versa.

Now I’m going to be a complete hypocrite by saying that if a movie gets almost unanimous praise, it pumps me up into seeing it.  I suppose that’s the whole point of the critic.  In some cases, I’m sure a critic, or more likely, a set of critics, are paid-off to write positive reviews (I’ve read that certain studios have certain deals with certain publications, preventing said publications from rating their movies too low) and all that is just factored into the movies’ million-dollar marketing budget; that would certainly help to explain why critically-lauded movies tend to overwhelm me more often than not.

Yet every once in a great while, they get it right.  Such is the case with Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash, a film that has more non-stop energy than the average action film.  It’s also a great movie for those that are typically turned-off by the current formula of theatrical releases, which seem to state that the more convoluted and hard-to-follow a story is, the better.  Whiplash simply focuses on Andrew, as he is “mentored” by music teacher Fletcher.  But Fletcher isn’t an easy man to get along with, or else this would be a boring movie; he’s the type that can see the potential in someone, and will stop at nothing to bring it out of them.  Even if his tactics might cross the line into emotional and psychological abuse.

As simple a story this is, it’s one that easily could fall flat without excellent performances from its cast, and Miles Teller (as Andrew) and J.K. Simmons (as Fletcher) are more than game.  I would say that the Academy Award awarded to Simmons as Best Supporting Actor is further proof of his stunning turn, but the Academy is nothing more than a politic-filled shitshow handing out awards that are every bit as meaningless as “verified accounts” are in Twitter (and with about the same set of vague, always-changing rules).  However, this certainly isn’t met to discredit Simmons, and all he has accomplished in this picture; he stalks and rages across the set, ferociously delivering his lines with an almost-frightening believability.  Like the best roles, it doesn’t feel like he’s playing the part just to appease a director and camera; it feels like an actual extension of who he is.  But Teller plays the perfect “victim” to his maniac, and what we have is a horror-movie dynamic caught up within the framework of a drama.

All this being said, Whiplash is certainly not flawless; it somehow feels the need to throw in a couple subplots that mainly go nowhere, simply because Hollywood movies seem to require that there be subplots, no matter how pointless or unnecessary they may be.  These scenes, while pretty rare, also help to undo some of the momentum created by a film that has more intensity than 90% of all horror movies released in a given year.  They also make the film drag in parts, and feel slightly overlong; while the “action” sequences are so gripping that time just melts away, the added dramatic scenes, which add no weight to the story, but add a few unnecessary minutes to its running time.  If only they had trimmed off the “excess fat” and focused entirely on Andrew, this would have been as close to a perfect film as it possibly could have.

But this could be the perfect compromise for a date film; there’s enough kinetic motion to appease action movie fans, yet equal amount of emotion and inspiration to appease those that like to focus more on the story.  It’s a simple fable of two men who share a common goal, yet have to take two very different paths to get there, and it’s easily one of the best movies I’ve seen in the last couple years.

RECAP: There are plenty of intense sequence to appease action movie fans, yet enough emotion to enthrall those that enjoy a good story.  Performances, mainly from Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons are just about pitch-perfect (lazy pun intended), and the writing is sharp (lazy pun intended).  It does throw in a couple unnecessary subplots that essentially go nowhere, while briefly dragging the film down, but it always manages to regain its momentum.  One of the best movies I’ve seen in the last couple years.

RATING: 8.5/10

Compliance (2012)

Director: Craig Zobel
Writer(s): Zobel
Starring: Dreama Walker, Ann Dowd, and Pat Healy

“Inspired by a True Story.”  Any time a movie starts off with those words, I can feel my heart sink into my chest a little bit.  Opening with the fact your movie is “based on a true story” has become such a gimmick in films over the past few years, and even those movies tend to stretch the truth about 50% of the time; when we’re dealing with “inspired”, it’s more like 90%.

On a busy night at Chickwich, a random caller, identifying himself as a police officer, informs the store’s manager, Donna, that one of her workers stole money from a customer’s purse earlier in the day.  That worker is Becky (well played by Dreama Walker), a young, blond girl who was only there to pick up a shift.  He says he has the customer there with him, as well as surveillance footage that can confirm what she says is true.  He also says he’ll be there as soon as he can get there, but that he’s currently busy with another case, a lie that slowly grows to involve Becky’s brother.  Until he can get there, he needs Donna to “help him out”…a request that starts off with a “simple” stripsearch, but over the course of the next couple hours goes from bad, to unbelievably bad, to unbelievably worse.

Compliance is certainly a frustrating movie to sit through, but it’s not because of how much the truth has been stretched, which is startling, considering all the things this movie puts poor Becky through.  It’s frustrating because all of the events depicted herein actually happened, almost exactly as depicted (you can find surveillance footage from the actual event on YouTube).  And it’s frustrating because this isn’t the only time something like this occurred; the caller responsible for pretending to be “Officer Daniels” made similar calls to several other fast food restaurants, and while this was as far as any of them went, several employees across several restaurants were stripsearched.

But this is a special case, in which the events go far beyond what you would think human nature would allow.  I won’t go into specifics (if you really want to ruin it for yourself, or don’t plan on watching the movie, articles about it are everywhere), but I can kind of see why the manager started falling for it initially.  However, once the caller, a supposed policeman, mind you, started asking questions as to what the victim’s breasts looked like (supposedly under the pretense of identifying marks), or ordering people to constantly take her apron away, that’s when I feel like common sense should kick in.  Unfortunately, for poor Becky, it never does.  Well, not until the janitor gets sucked into the situation, and starts to realize what exactly is going on.

The ending (which showed the ensuing police investigation) felt a little tacked on, especially considering it was crammed into a small ten-minute window.  The way it was presented made it feel a little forced and unfocused, especially since there was nothing that couldn’t have been summarized by a brief scroll of text.

Even more maddening is what happened in real-life after the incident:  The caller is acquitted of all charges due to a lack of evidence.  The store manager was fired from McDonald’s, yet received a $1.1 million settlement from them (though, to be fair, the main victim claims she felt the store manager was also duped in this situation, and was on her side).  The main victim received a $6.1 million settlement, but unsurprisingly also suffered from severe emotional trauma and PTSD, something she will no doubt have to live with for the rest of her life.

In short, go into this movie prepared to be pissed off.  Actually, just go ahead and expect to be worked up into an uncontrollable rage.  What happened to this poor girl is inexcusable, and made even more terrifying when you realize that, under the wrong circumstances, this same thing could happen to just about anyone; you, a family member, or someone you love. 

RECAP: It’s a draining experience, but Compliance accurately details a prank call gone horribly, horribly wrong (well, for everyone except the caller).  There are several moments that you’ll be mumbling to yourself (or screaming at the TV) in disbelief, only to find out that it actually happened, while the overall great acting only adds to the intensity.  The ending felt unnecessary, unfocused, and tacked-on.  But for those that can stomach it, this is virtually a must-see, if for no other reason than as a harrowing glimpse into human nature, and the things people will do when they believe they are in the presence of authority.  A great, minimalist score only helps add to the atmosphere.

OVERALL: 7.5/10

Ichi the Killer (2001)

Director: Takashi Miike
Writer(s): Sakichi Satô, based on a comic by Hideo Yamamoto
Starring: Tadanobu Asano, Nao Ômori, and Shin'ya Tsukamoto

I lived a pretty sheltered “movie life” back from the time I was a kid, to the time I was in my mid-teens. You know that kid that was never allowed watching “R”-rated movies, even though he was in high school?  That was me.  I think that is at least part of the reason why once the ban on “R” movies was lifted, and I was allowed watching whatever I wanted, I tended to seek out the most vile stuff I could, almost as if making up for all the lost time (though I still at least tend to avoid some stuff, like the Faces of Death series, and most things with no artistic merit whatsoever).

One movie I’d heard about was Takashi Miike’s Ichi the Killer.  I’m not exactly sure when I first stumbled across it, probably in my early twenties, but all I remember was being eager to see what all the hype was about.  So I simply downloaded it illegally, skimmed through some scenes as quickly as I could, saw a few terribly-done CGI sequences, and, majorly disappointed, never went back to it, eventually deleting it from my computer and deeming it nothing more than a waste of time.

Just recently, I re-stumbled upon it, and got my wife interested in seeing it with me, something that wasn’t very hard once I mentioned there was a lot of violence involved.  Rather than going the illegal route (something I’ve cut back tremendously on since getting rid of cable and getting Netflix), I borrowed it from, of all places, the local library, and we settled down to watch the whole thing, rather than the bits and pieces I had settled for so many years ago.

The plot in this one is similar to the flimsy plots of many slasher movies, in that its only function is to allow as much carnage as possible:  Kakihara is a sadomasochistic hitman, looking for the boss of his yakuza organization.  When he carries out hits, he doesn’t just put a bullet in the victim, he draws it out as violently, and as painfully, as possible.  Yet word starts spreading around about a man named Ichi, a psychotic, emotionally-fragile man who’s also targeting yakuza members; and the stage is set for both men’s paths’ to cross, though of course, director Takashi Miike (who directed the excellent Audition) throws in plenty of hapless victims for both along the way.

Watching the uncut version in its entirety, gave me a new appreciation for the film’s violence, which alternates, sometimes uncomfortably, between brutal realism, and almost-slapstick ridiculousness.  There are certainly a couple horrible moments of laughable early-CGI attempts (a character getting cut in half is so fake-looking, that it immediately reminds one of those terrible “Syfy Original Movies”), but thankfully these bad effects are limited to just a couple of times in the movie’s two hour-plus runtime.

The performances are interesting across the board, but it stands to reason that the two most interesting would be Tadanobu Asano’s Kakihachi, and Nao Omori’s Ichi…both of them are mentally unstable, psychotic killers, but they both approach their murders in very different ways, which makes for an interesting character study of sorts, of which the likes very few directors could have pulled off.

I did find the running time to be a tad on the excessive side—it feels like such a thinly-plotted movie easily could have ended somewhere around twenty minutes sooner—but overall, this is a creative, original, taboo-shattering film that anyone with even a remote interest in extreme cinema should check out.

RECAP: Takashi Miike’s off-the-wall yakuza flick features an absurd amount of violence, often taken to comedic extremes, and seems to get its kicks from shattering taboos (I can honestly say there are a few things in this movie that I can’t say I’ve ever seen in a movie before), but its creative, freewheeling effectiveness is somewhat marred by an overlong running time, and a few laughably bad CGI effects.  Still worth a watch for anyone even remotely interested in extreme cinema.

OVERALL: 7.5/10

TRAILER

White God (2015)

Director: Kornél Mundruczó
Writer(s): Mundruczó, Viktória Petrányi, and Kata Wéber
Starring: Zsófia Psotta, Sándor Zsótér, Lili Horváth, Bodie & Luke

There are people on one end of a spectrum that take their love of animals a little bit too far, revering them and valuing their lives moreso than those of most humans.  Usually, their argument is something along the lines of “Animals are pure and sweet and know nothing but love, while humans are vile, violent creatures.”  I would know this firsthand; I married a woman like this.  And yes, she is still my wife.  She stops in her tracks any time she sees a stray dog, and will only relax upon seeing that its owner is nearby, and she would be the person that would break the glass of a car to rescue an animal left out in extreme heat or cold (and she has come very close to doing this already).  Needless to say if it ever came down to a situation where she could only save my life, or our dog’s, I would be very, very nervous.

On the other end of the spectrum, you have people that admire their pets, but are of the mindset that they are nothing more than animals.  They love them and take care of them, maybe even treat them like part of the family, but they wouldn’t hesitate to get rid of them under the right circumstances; such as putting them down rather than paying for a costly procedure that only has a small percentage of succeeding.  I would snugly fit into this category.

As with many different viewpoints, oftentimes people from one side can’t see eye-to-eye on people with the other.  I can speak from experience that I get annoyed every time my wife drives by a stray dog, then has to turn back around to see where it’s going and who, if anyone, is watching after it (thankfully, these moments are rare, but they have happened).  Likewise, my wife can’t understand how in the world I see my dog as “just an animal”, which he is.  I love him, I’ll pet him, I’ll play with him, and I’ll even be sad when he’s gone, but it won’t pack the same emotional punch for me as if a human friend or relative died—my wife, on the other hand, will absolutely lose it when that day invariably comes.

I’m rambling on with a purpose, and that is to say that White God has not only shown me what it would be like to share my wife’s viewpoint; for two hours, it put me in her shoes.  I was seething at many of the film’s powerful, and all-too-realistic (altruistic?) scenes of animal cruelty.  I cheered when the animals finally got their revenge.  And, dare I say, by the end, I was so overwhelmed, with so many different, sometimes conflicting emotions, that I teared up.  To put that into perspective, I don’t ever tear up.

One of White God’s main strengths is in the simplicity of its story:  Girl has dog.  Girl gets sent to live with father for three months.  Father doesn’t like dog.  Father gets rid of dog.  Dog goes through hardships.  Girl looks for dog.  Dog looks for girl.  That basically summarizes the entire movie; but what no amount of words can possibly summarize, is the thrill you get from watching it.  This is an expertly-made Frankenmovie crafted out of wildly disparate parts: It’s part Milo and Otis, part human/animal drama, part coming-of-age film, and part revenge thriller.  That any of these things fit together at all is shocking; that they all somehow manage to combine to form a single, powerful narrative is nothing short of a minor miracle.

I won’t reveal too much of the story; this is one of those movies that can best be enjoyed the less you know going in.  There aren’t really any twists or turns that can be ruined—the whole movie actually plays out pretty much the way you know it’s going to play out, straight from the outset—but the “fun” of this movie is just putting it on, strapping yourself in, and letting it take you along for the ride.

That “ride” certainly is a bit overlong: clocking in at almost exactly two hours, there are certainly a few scenes that could have been excised without losing any of the film’s raw power.  Lili, the main girl (played by Zsofia Psotta), is also a little stiff, and doesn’t really show much range in her performance; this is a girl who is so attached to her dog that she refuses to leave its side (even taking it to band practice, at one point, because she has nowhere else to go), and yet the highest peak of her emotional performance is “mild irritation.”  It doesn’t feel very authentic, nor does it do much to suck you in to the human side of the story.

But ultimately that’s okay, because White God is all about the dogs.  All 250+ of them, gathering together to defy authority and exact revenge on all the humans that had done them wrong.  These sequences pack an even greater emotional punch when you realize that all of the dogs in the movie, are REAL (none computerized), and everything was shot live.  Even more astonishing?  All of the dogs used in the movie were rescue dogs who, previous to the movie, were never trained.  The trainers, lead by one Teresa Ann Miller, also deserve a lot of credit for their role in the movie, whipping the dogs (figuratively, of course), including Bodie and Luke, who took turns playing Hagen, into filming shape in just five short months. 

If you are an absolute animal lover (as my wife is), you will have a hard time getting through it (she refused to even try):  There are many scenes of rather graphic animal cruelty, and a large number of dogs die in the film.  However, these sequences are what help to make the ending so satisfying; without them, this movie wouldn’t pack half the emotional resonance that it does.  I love revenge films, but even the best of them have never affected me in this way—despite the fact I was sitting in my living room, completely alone, I cheered and hollered as the dogs picked off the objects of their suffering, one-by-one, typically in gory fashion.  It’s an unbelievable sequence, but after the carnage is over, it still manages to elicit tears with one of the best final scenes in recent memory.  As with just about any scene in any movie, it won’t work for some—I could see where some might find it incredibly cheesy—but I thought it was absolutely perfect, and I had chills running down my spine as the credits began to run.

RECAP: White God jumps between so many genres and subgenres you would think its failures are all but guaranteed; yet the expert direction (by Kornél Mundruczó), along with several powerful sequences, make this one of the best, and most unique, revenge thrillers of all time.  I found the acting (especially from Lili) to be a little underwhelming, and there are definitely several minutes that could have been excised without affecting the movie’s raw emotions, but overall, this is required viewing for all but the most emotional animal lover.  It’s certainly not an easy watch, but to merely say the payoff is “worth it” is the understatement of the century.  Highly recommended.

RATING: 9/10