Dreamed up by Max Landis and director Josh Trank, it follows a trio of Seattle high school seniors—outcast Andrew (Dane DeHaan), his cousin Matt (Alex Russell) and popular kid Steve (Michael B. Jordan)—via Andrew’s camera (and, later, other camera vantage points) as they acquire telekinesis, and other abilities, after touching what we assume is an alien artifact.

The film is at its most fun as the boys use their powers for mischief—blowing up a girl’s skirt, scaring people in a toy store, shoving a BMW across a parking lot, skipping rocks. It turns downright exhilarating when they learn they can fly, soaring, and even playing football, among the clouds. Their teenage exuberance at this discovery is contagious.

But the dangers of having these abilities start to become apparent after Andrew playfully shoves a car off the road and into a river. Where Matt and Steve are well-adjusted teens, Andrew is angry, dealing with bullies, an alcoholic father (Michael Kelly) and a sick mother, and so his abilities cleverly reflect his bottled up hostility toward the world. Watch as he unleashes a roar of rage at one point close to the end, shattering windows and making the ground tremble.

So the film descends into ever darker territory, though remains completely compelling, as Andrew spins out of control, killing neighborhood thugs, ripping out a bully’s teeth, inadvertently blowing up a gas station and blowing a hospital room to pieces. It all culminates in a fantastic finale, a super duper showdown between Andrew and Matt that involves, among other things, the Space Needle, a city bus and an exploding helicopter.

Dialogue isn’t the film’s strong suit, to be sure, but it more than makes up for it in other ways, especially in how Landis and Trank are constantly able to have us see Andrew, who’s almost always with camera, via mirrors, the camera of a cute blonde girl (Anna Wood) Matt likes, hospital security footage and the like. Their most ingenious method, though, is having Andrew use his abilities to make his camera float above the action. (The bloody-nose-something-is-wrong conceit is also neat.)

Not to dilute the contributions of Russell and Jordan, who are solid, nor Trank’s skill at inserting convincing effects amid all the handheld mayhem, but none of this would have worked without DeHaan. Resembling nothing less than a young Leonardo DiCaprio, the 26-year-old perfectly and beautifully embodies bullied-teen misery. The only difference is that, when this teen becomes enraged, he can crush a car simply by closing his fist. – [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

Drama/Sci-Fi/Thriller

Rated PG-13

DVD Release Date: 5/15/12

First question:
Who is Gina Carano?

Gina is a mixed martial arts fighter and, I’m totally serious, a former “American Gladiator.” While this is not her first movie, it is probably her first movie to play in a movie theater.

Second Question:
Can Soderbergh do action?

In short, yes, better than most. While he’s known for more artful fare, the action in Haywire is exceptionally well executed.  There isn’t the crutch of a shaky camera or fast cutting; clearly Soderbergh trusts his fight coordinators, and the stunt performers.

Third Question:
Okay, I’m kind of interested, is there anyone else in it?

Well I mean, sure. There’s Ewan McGregor as the shady security firm owner, Michael Douglas as the CIA guy, Antonio Banderas as the guy with the awesome beard, Bill Paxton as Carano’s father, Channing Tatum as a former partner, Michael Angarano as the helpful kid with the car, and Michael Fassbender as a freelance operative.

Fourth Question:
Wow, that sounds like a great cast, and with the awesome action, are there any drawbacks?

As much as Gina Carano is an amazing butt-kicker, she clearly never went to Stella Adler. She does fine, but sometimes her delivery can be oddly stilted, and the internet says that Soderbergh altered her voice in post. The rest of the cast is fine, but kind of forgettable. While critically well received, the film didn’t do gangbusters at the box-office, bringing in 18 million domestically.

Fifth Question:
Now I’m torn, what do you think, Noah?

I’d say go for it. It’s not a perfect film, I didn’t root for Carano like I did Matt Damon in the Bourne movies, but the action is phenomenal, the script is interesting, and it’s probably one of the best shot action movies I’ve seen. – [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

Action/Thriller

Rated R

DVD Release Date: 5/2/12

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (note the official title uses a dash to avoid the awkwardness of two colons) is, arguably, the best of the four Tom Cruise-led films based on the classic 1966-1973 TV series. This has a lot to do with the hiring of director Brad Bird, who heretofore had only directed animated films, and excellent ones at that (The Iron Giant, Ratatouille). His live-action debut benefits most from his experience making the superhero satire The Incredibles at Pixar, which I consider to be among the best action films in decades. Though ostensibly a family-friendly comedy adventure, Incredibles had cracking energy and staging in its action setpieces, and with its James Bond-esque villain and clever gadgets, had a lot of spy movie style of its own.

There are other major ingredients that make this latest M:I so successful. For one, it feels a lot closer in spirit to the original series’ style, which emphasized a more team-oriented operation instead of following a lone operative the whole way through. This time we have a team, consisting of Ethan Hunt (Cruise), hacker and gadgeteer Benji (Simon Pegg), Carter (Paula Patton), and a suspiciously formidable analyst, Brandt (Jeremy Renner). From beginning to end, these four are all involved on each mission, though Cruise remains in the star forward position. I should point out that while Tom Cruise the actual human being still weirds me out, I did enjoy watching him do the whole Ethan Hunt thing again, and his costars are well-chosen to conceal his diminutive stature.

Another hallmark of the Mission:Impossible franchise, both on the small screen and large, was the application of all manner of gadgetry and clever subterfuge, and this is where Ghost Protocol really shines. While even the James Bond films of late have either largely abandoned the mechanical wizardry or trotted out a bland parade of smartphone product placement, the gadgets in this movie impress not only with their ingenuity but with their unreliability. Nearly every single tool and/or scheme that the good guys employ somehow manages to fail in some way, necessitating a lot of improvisation and what could euphemistically be called “operational compromises.” For my money, this is where most of the fun comes from.

I can’t really say that Ghost Protocol surpasses its predecessors on every front–both the villain and his evil plot are pretty generic, leftovers from Cold War nuclear gamesmanship, and the final scene does a little too good a job letting the audience come down from its adrenaline rush. But the action setpieces are great fun, the mix of humor and drama is spot-on, and the locations are dramatic (especially the prominently showcased Burj Khalifa in Dubai, by far the tallest building in the world). Bottom line: this is an extremely entertaining action crowd-pleaser, something we’ve been missing for at least a month or two. – [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

Action/Adventure/Thriller

Rated PG-13

DVD Release Date: 4/17/12

Anyhow…

Sometimes, though, remakes really work. They add something that gives it just enough spin, just enough of a difference you can view it as an entirely different film. The Departed, A Fistful of Dollars, Down and Out in Beverly Hills, even The Toy, all films based on previous foreign language films, all tweaked appropriately for American audiences. It can be done.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), is not one of these exceptions.

The story of a disgraced journalist hired to solve a 30 year old murder, aided by a damaged gothy investigator, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) is a carbon copy of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009). Sure it’s got a Trent Reznor score, and sure it’s always nice to see Christopher Plummer, but it’s the same movie. They all speak English. It’s still set in Sweden, they’re all supposed to be Swedish, but English they doth speak. I suppose that if The Hunt for Red October taught us anything, it is that as long as someone has some sort of accent, we can believe they’re from anywhere.

There are slight differences between the two, and some have said the 2011 version is closer to the book. I haven’t read the book, so I can’t tell you for certain, but it can’t be much closer, because they are 99 percent the same movie. Director David Fincher did a couple of visually interesting things that weren’t done in the 2009 version, but the rest of the film is so straight forward, they almost feel out of place.

All of my sourness aside, since The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009) is such an amazing film, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) is essentially the same movie, that means it too is really good. And as much as I didn’t think it needed to be made, and I don’t feel they made any improvements over the original, it’s still an awesome thriller.
So if you didn’t see the original because it was subtitled, or if you, like my mom and most people with eyes, think Daniel Craig is dreamy, I would definitely recommend seeing The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011). – [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

Crime/Drama/Mystery

Rated R

DVD Release Date: 3/20/12

Gary Oldman, whose career seemed to fly off the rails nearly 20 years ago after an initial impression on the screen which predicted nothing but stardom, gives one of the best, and easily the most unique, performances of his career as ‘retired’ British agent George Smiley. Oldman has, for far too long, been getting by on screen by a reliance on over-acting that would make even holiday hams like Pacino and Hopkins wince, spitting and shouting when simple recitations were in order. Here, playing a role originally played by Alec Guiness in the BBC version of the story, he has abandoned everything that had begun to define him, and offers an impeccable performance of calm, muted observation that, in its inexpressiveness, expresses much more than his history of shouting ever could. It’s the best performance of his career since playing Joe Orton in Prick Up Your Ears nearly 25 years ago, and well worthy of the Oscar nomination it brought him.

This same praise can go to the entirety of the cast, one of the most impressive collections of talent brought together for a film in many a year, which features Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, Benedict Cumberbatch, Mark Strong, Toby Jones, John Hurt and Ciaran Hinds as disparate members of British Intelligence who are working undercover to combat the Russians in the early 1970s. One of these men is also, as we discover early on, working as a mole inside the service for the Russians. The question is, who is it, and why? It’s up to Smiley to find out. I could explain more, but it’s all too tangled in the tentacles of the narrative for me to adequately explain. There’s a lot to take in.

One of the criticisms of the film, and it has its merits, is that, due to the necessity of paring the story down from a grand sprawl to a tidy 120 minutes, it can all get a bit muddled. Because there is a need for so much exposition, and a large number of the story is told in flashbacks, it can be hard to always follow the narrative. This, generally, is a problem with these sorts of espionage tales, so it’s not a worrisome issue, but it is important to pay close attention to the tiniest details. One of the strengths of the film is it eschews all ‘flashing lights’; there are no ham-fisted moments where the director decides to telegraph the story for you. This is an engrossing story, so be engrossed.

The director, himself, is another strength of the film. Swedish filmmaker Tomas Alfredson, who made such an impact on viewers with his previous film, the masterful and brooding vampire story Let the Right One In, continues apace with a visually and stylistically restrained effort. It is a tone that matches its protagonist, the reserved Smiley, and its subject matter. Silver and cold, the measured look and pace of the film allows the story to unfold in the way that it should, minus any action set pieces or rapid fire cuts. The star of the film is the narrative; the actors, no matter how brilliant, are there to present the words. It takes an exceptional director to recognize this, and make it come to life. He does so in a way very few of his contemporaries would have even tried. The score, by Alberto Iglesias, also merits special attention, as it aids in establishing mood and tone and is never obtrusive, or attempting to manipulate emotions which don’t exist. Which, in many ways, is the lesson of the espionage game; don’t get too close to anyone. They’ll betray you. – [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

Drama/Mystery/Thriller

Rated R

DVD Release Date: 3/20/12

Almodóvar seems to have been attempting to push his usual melodramatic impulse (which I have always enjoyed, since it derives directly from Nicholas Ray and Douglas Sirk) to macabre, Grand Guignol heights in this tale (loosely reminiscent of Eyes Without a Face) of a surgeon (Antonio Banderas) who creates new, impervious skin for an injured woman he keeps captive in his house. I get the distinct, creepy feeling that Almodóvar has been watching some of the latest examples of the torture-porn sub-genre, which if it is ever to be elevated to the level of art, will need more than the clean visuals and long takes employed here. The male gaze is an age-old staple of the movies, but when women are treated this objectively and roughly, disappointing comes off as the mildest choice of adjective.

One more thing – near the end of the film, as part of his parade of beautiful shots, Almodóvar gives us what appears to be a jaw-dropper – an overhead shot of a death tableau, with the camera obviously placed where a room’s ceiling would normally be. Again, this is an homage to many great cinematic moments, including Hitchcock‘s shot behind Cary Grant‘s back on the train in North by Northwest, and, in the most glaring comparison, Scorsese‘s overhead of Travis Bickle and Iris, following a paroxysm of carnage, toward the end of Taxi Driver. In The Skin I Live In, the shot feels neither earned nor original. – [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

Of course, it’s less a plot than an excuse for the 56-year-old Atkinson to ply his entertaining physical schtick, making funny faces and talking in funny voices and fighting with himself, coming off as a slightly smarter version of Inspector Clouseau. The humor is generally family-friendly, with a few scenes (Atkinson’s dragging around of rocks) just skirting the PG boundaries.

A lot of the gags are merely humorous instead of flat out hilarious, though. I actually laughed less than I did at Steve Martin in The Pink Panther 2. The big set pieces–Atkinson fleeing from his colleagues in a high-tech wheelchair and Atkinson pursuing a young Asian thug–are certainly clever, and made me smile, but they never made me bust a gut.

Which is not to say the film lacks real laughs. They just don’t come consistently. Indeed, I did laugh anytime Atkinson, in a recurring gag, mistakenly manhandled the wrong woman while chasing a little Asian lady assassin and repeatedly banged her on the head with a tray. I also liked his mishandling of Anderson’s cat, and the pneumatic chair bit had me in stitches.

Oliver Parker (An Ideal Husband) directs it all with a certain gentleness, which is good enough, I suppose, even if the action scenes do lack energy. And the supporting cast is solid, with the standouts being Dominic West (The Wire) as a macho fellow agent, Daniel Kaluuya as Atkinson’s young still-living-at-home partner, and an appealing Rosamund Pike as Atkinson’s love interest. – [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

Adventure/Comedy/Thriller

Rated PG

DVD Release Date: 2/28/12

The little-known Elizabeth Olsen (younger sister of the Olsen Twins, who were savvy enough to cash in and get out of movies) makes an indelible screen debut in this excellent psychological thriller from first-time writer/director Sean Durkin. Olsen plays the titular character, a young woman haunted by her past, both inside her biological family and the hippie-like cult which had become her new family, headed by a charismatic sociopath with religious undertones named Patrick (the great John Hawkes, proving to be the most valuable character actor working in films today).

When the film starts, Martha (or, as she has been re-named by Patrick, Marcy May) is escaping the insular cocoon of her life in the cult and gets in touch with her older sister, Lucy (Sarah Paulson), to help with her escape. It is clear to us right away that the two sisters are not close; Lucy, married to a rich English businessman named Ted (Hugh Dancy), is the quintessential social climber, and is content with her life of plenty. Martha has nothing but disdain for her sister, but is so lost that she has nowhere else to turn. She stays with Lucy and Ted at their vacation home, and is instantly uncomfortable within their staid lifestyle, particularly in comparison to the life she has left under Patrick’s control, where sexual freedom, criminal endeavors and a total rejection of ‘bourgeois values’ are the norm. At times almost feral in her behavior, Martha sleeps all day, can barely communicate with her sister without hostility, and is constantly lost in memories of her recent past, much of which we see in flashback. This leads to tensions with Lucy and Ted, and they debate what to do with her, as she seems to clearly be headed for a breakdown of some sort.

Martha is torn whether to stay where she is, or return to the cult, where she is more ‘accepted’ by her ersatz family than by her actual one. She also gets increasingly paranoid about whether Patrick and his allies are coming to take her back. Durkin does an excellent job of switching between the present and her past, gradually showing us more and more of the types of people she left behind, and what inevitably led to her needing to escape. This is the crux of the story, examining the mindset of a seemingly bright, but obviously aimless, young woman who is yearning for something that does not exist. While this sort of idea is basic fodder for storytelling, Durkin never dilutes the effect of his writing by excusing Martha’s behavior with hidden scars. We, much like Martha, don’t know why she is so adrift; it is the universal curse of youth which, for many of us, never ends.

Olsen is tremendous in her performance, showing a woman who almost seems to be in a walking coma, flitting between calm and rage without relying on cheap gimmicks to try to manipulate the audience. Hawkes, measured calm and curdled menace, adds another notch to his increasingly impressive resume, and Paulson is excellent as the older sister who wants to help her sister, but is helpless to do so, while also attempting to maintain a sense of her own self and the life that she, and her husband, have aspired to.

These are the kinds of roles, much like the one Jennifer Lawrence had last year in the terrific Winter’s Bone, that young actresses worth their salt are all desperate to get. It would be nice if they had a pile of scripts to pick from, but much as Lawrence went from an Oscar nomination to a comic book film, a quick glance at IMDB tells us that, for her next role, Elizabeth Olsen is starring in, guess what, a horror film. Well, maybe next year. – [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

Putting aside the final scene, Take Shelter is a terrifically well-realized and well-acted psychological thriller. Michael Shannon stars as a laconic small town Ohio family man. He’s happily married to the suddenly-but-still-welcomely ubiquitous Jessica Chastain with a hearing-impaired daughter (Tova Stewart). He works a steady construction job alongside his best friend (Shea Whigham). His mother, who abandoned him as a child in a grocery store parking lot and was subsequently diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, looms overhead as a genetic portent of what he might become. His anxiety over his state of mind grows as he begins to have recurring nightmares involving ominous storms and menacing attackers surrounding him. He becomes obsessed with expanding the small storm cellar behind his house and readying the protection of his family against the vague disaster which haunts his dreams and eventually his waking life.

What proceeds is a tense and atmospheric (no pun intended) portrait of a genuine psychological breakdown and the family crisis that results. I was strongly reminded of the dynamic at play in Stanley Kubrick‘s The Shining, and Kubrick’s influence is certainly not absent here. Shannon is a more central and therefore–perhaps inevitably–sympathetic figure than Jack Nicholson was, but the audience is never quite reassured as to his stability or the safety of those close to him. His performance and Chastain’s, around which all else is spun, are pitch-perfect. The story serves not just as a compelling thriller founded on psychological disorder but also as a keen reflection of the multi-faceted apocalyptic paranoia that pervades the American psyche. I’m not entirely certain the question is ever answered as to whether Shannon is a 21st-Century Noah or a disciple of Chicken Little, but I’m sure I’ll hear both sides (and perhaps many others besides) from those who watch this movie. - [DVD]

Drive is, in its way, a ‘chillwave’ movie, and not only because much of its soundtrack, as composed in a masterful score by Cliff Martinez, heavily draws on the chill/cold wave genre. Reminiscent, intentionally, of an idea of 1980′s films, as disparate as Bladerunner or Thief, director Nicolas Winding Refn‘s third terrific film in three years (after Bronson and Valhalla Rising) is a further examination of the darkness of the male id, and the violence that can erupt from within, while the surface remains almost eerily placid. It’s hard to think of a better actor to portray this sort of character than Ryan Gosling, who has become the blank face of male anxiety over the last few years in a number of great roles. But don’t think that Drive is some sort of morbid archaeological dig into the ineffectual male; this isn’t some dreary indie movie heralding layabout schlubs. Drive, at its very black heart, is a superb addition to the best of the modern film noir tradition, and, in my eyes, pretty easily the best film of 2011.

Gosling plays an unnamed mechanic/stunt car driver who, when we are introduced to him, is at work on his second job, working as a driver-for-hire for criminals. He isn’t a criminal himself; his job is solely using his skills behind the wheel to drive the getaway car for a commission. He works, in all his jobs, for Shannon (Bryan Cranston), a striving garage owner with his own ties to the local mob, which is headed up by the mismatched partners Bernie Rose (Albert Brooks) and Nino (Ron Perlman). ‘Driver’, as we must refer to Gosling’s character, has no apparent aspirations in any of the jobs he works in. He seems, simply, to exist. His facade, however, begins to crack a bit when he meets his new next-door neighbor Irene (Carey Mulligan), a sweet young mother with a son at her hip and a husband, Standard (Oscar Isaac) in prison. Driver takes a shine to both Irene and her son, Benicio, and gradually ingratiates himself into their lives. The attraction between he and Irene is immediate, but, like all of Driver’s emotions, must remain buried beneath the surface, even as they share innumerable quiet glances in each other’s direction.

Just as Driver begins to feel as though he may have found himself a life to call his own, it’s all shaken by the news that Standard is being released from prison. Standard doesn’t trust Driver, but does not act upon it, hoping to start a new life for his family. Old debts are called in, however, and after Driver finds Standard beaten up in the hallway, and learns of the threat being put to Irene and Benicio, he offers to help Standard with the job he’s been given, a holdup of a local pawnshop. A third partner, Blanche (Christina Hendricks) is assigned to them, and, at first, the robbery seems to go off without a hitch… until it doesn’t. As in the best crime noir, things must fall apart, there must be double-crosses, misunderstandings, and, inevitably, revenge. Driver, looking to protect his new ‘family’, takes after the men who would threaten them, one after the other with scenes of sudden and shocking violence which not only cracks a few skulls, but Driver’s seemingly docile facade.

The story is simple, and engrossing. What sets Drive apart from so many other films of its ilk are the style of the film, with its overwhelming dose of neon-tinted dread, and the cast, all of whom are tremendous. Gosling, as seems to go without saying anymore, is the highlight, his usual chilly stoicism the perfect fit for Driver’s almost cyborg-like qualities. Mulligan, while not being given much to do beyond ‘object of affection’, is sweetly effective as the resigned Irene, and the ever-reliable Cranston is excellent as the beaten-down, chain-smoking loser Shannon. Both Ron Perlman and Oscar Isaac are very good in their limited roles, but the true revelation is Albert Brooks as local mobster Bernie Rose. Brooks, while a truly gifted comedian for over 40 years, has always maintained a reservoir of reserved hostility underneath the laughs, but here he is allowed to show all of his cards in a performance of exuberant menace, the perfect example of a vulgar man who will do anything for money, whether it be as a film producer or a local mob boss. Brooks never hits a false note, or tries too hard to ‘play the villain’. Bernie isn’t always a bad man, but he is more than willing to do bad things to keep himself above the fray.

While Drive wears its influences on its sleeve, the important thing to remember is that These Are Good Influences; the collective pedigree of cast, director, cinematic borrowings, references and allusions are all derived from an understanding of what makes cinema great. This film may not be for everyone, as it is often very violent, has long stretches of nearly no dialogue, and is so heavy with dread and menace that the only brief snatches of light which are allowed to break through are extinguished so quickly you may not even remember them. That’s what the best film noir does. It pulls up the pavement, not to reveal the beach underneath, but to show that it’s just more dirt. – [DVD] [Blu-Ray]