Twice this week I've found myself involved in conversations about Black Mass, the Whitey Bulger biopic starring Johnny Depp as the infamous Boston mobster and FBI informant. It's remarkable considering that, before a few days ago, I kind of forgot that the movie even existed. You can hardly blame me - Johnny Depp hasn't given us serious reason to get excited about one of his movies in quite some time. I've been curious, as I am with just about any movie set and shot in my home town, but it's fair to say that my expectations have been pretty low up until now.
Today we got our first look at the film courtesy of this trailer and I must admit, I'm more than a little impressed.
First things first: unless you count his hairpiece, Johnny Depp makes it through all two minutes of this trailer with nary a silly hat in sight. Huzzah! And those blue contact lenses give him a serious case of Crazy Eyes. It's also worth noting that Depp manages to pull off one of the more convincing Boston accents in recent memory. It's one of those very particular vocal traits that's easy to exaggerate in a comedic context but harder to portray naturally, let alone utilize with genuine menace. The Departed (whose Frank Costello was based largely on Bulger) is one of the high watermarks in this regard. Mystic River is like nails on a chalkboard to my ears.
I hadn't realized that the cast was so stacked either! Joel Edgerton is always a welcome addition to any movie, and I'm a big fan of Dakota Johnson, 50 Shades notwithstanding. Plus Lance/Landry! And might we be treated to the dulcet tones of Benedict Cumberbatch's version of a Southie drawl? I live to dream.
I'm now at the age where a bunch of my friends have kids, which means that they no longer have time to go to the movies. That sounds like a horrifying reality that I want no part of, even though I do want kids eventually. It's a conundrum.
A few of my parent-friends (among others) have told me that they often don't listen to our Daley Screening podcast because they haven't had a chance to see the movie in question, which doesn't really make for an enjoyable listening experience. We initially tried to combat this by doing movie news stuff at the top of each episode, but eventually it just meant that episodes were approaching two hours in length which is a tad unwieldy and perhaps a bit daunting.
Problem solved!
Introducing the Daley Planet podcast, a spin-off of our original Daley Screening podcast. That's right, we're splitting up the podcast into two discreet branches. The Screening will continue to discuss new releases and some old throwbacks in great spoilery detail, while the Planet will focus entirely on the latest news, rumors, casting and trailers in the world of movie magic. We're still playing with the format a bit and working on some recurring bits to include, so if you have any suggestions (for either podcast) leave them in the comments below.
The good news is, because I don't want to pay double the web hosting fees, subscribing to our podcast feed either on iTunes or on SoundCloud will get you access to both shows as they become available. I'm trying to work out a more routine release schedule too; since we typically record on the weekends, I'm shooting for Planet episodes to be come out on Mondays and Screening episodes to come out on Wednesdays or Thursdays. We'll see how it works going forward. Some weeks we might only do one show or the other, as scheduling requires.
Check out our first episode below, in which we talk about Simon Pegg writing the next Star Trek, Tom Hardy's potential replacements on Suicide Squad, and the impending resurgence of The X-Files.
John Carpenter's The Thing is one of my absolute favorite movies of all time, although I admit that I was pretty late to that particular party. It's simply wonderful in every single regard. The Antarctic setting is at once expansive and claustrophobic and the story is twisted in such a way that keeps you guessing till the very last moment. The cast is top notch: a great collection of familiar faces like David Clennon, Donald Moffat, Richard Masur and T.K. Carter, one of the all time great Kurt Russell performances, Keith David at his most badass, and WILFORD FUCKING BRIMLEY. Plus, being a devout worshiper at the altar of 80s cinema, I have an undying love for great practical creature work, the gooier the better. The Thing itself is simply astonishing, the true stuff of nightmares. To be clear, I'm not a digital effects hater, but I've yet to see a digital werewolf transformation that's nearly so compelling as An American Werewolf In London and that shit's over 30 years old.
The idea of revisiting The Thing seemed to fall somewhere between unnecessary and foolhardy. Prequels in general suffer from a critical flaw inherent to the very concept: we already know how the story has to end, so that automatically diminishes all the stakes. That means that, unless you're going to leave us with something that alters our perception of what we thought we knew from the original, you've got to have either a story or a hero that is INCREDIBLY compelling to make it worth our while. Otherwise there's simply no point. You could do a straight remake, but with a film as iconic and borderline perfect as The Thing, why on Earth would you want to? It's not like you're going to improve on what came before.
The Thing (2011) ends up trying to do a little bit of both, and all of it's just plain bad. The fact that it has the same title only led to confusion among audiences as to exactly what kind of story they were trying to tell. Watching the movie probably didn't help. Ostensibly this new film is pitched as a prequel, detailing the story of the Norwegian outpost that first discovered the Thing frozen out there in the ice and there's certainly some potential in that concept. We could learn more about the Thing itself and its ancient ship. Perhaps the Norwegians had some nefarious intent, looking to control the creature like the Weyland-Yutani corporation from Aliens. Hell, even if we got a character that's at least half as awesome as R.J. MacReady, at least that would guarantee some fun.
Unfortunately we get none of that. Instead it's essentially the same story told again, except this time everyone's Norwegian. All of the incredible creature work is replaced with some pretty half-baked digital effects (the final Thing at the end is particularly bad) which is pretty unforgivable. Rick Bottin's grotesque original puppetry puts these digital farts to shame; whereas before I could spend all day staring at those monstrosities, their modern CG equivalents only made me cringe. While the Thing is racking up the body count, the other big villain of the original film is paranoia. Watching everyone second guess each other, trying to figure out who's human and who's not is half the fun. Here there's almost no sense of dread, partially because the Thing itself makes almost no attempt to hide itself, transforming and attacking people right out in the open and often in the stupidest situation possible, like a helicopter in mid-air. It doesn't help that most of the characters are forgettable non-entities, making me not really care who lives and who dies. Mr. Eko from Lost plays Diet Keith David, while the great Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Joel Edgerton are both wasted as half of a watered down version of MacReady.
There are some poor attempts to further our knowledge of the creature, like the revelation that it can't replicate inorganic matter. Sadly it's a pretty dull devlopment, leading to an almost comical recreation of the infamous blood test scene from the original where Mary Elizabeth Winstead's character shines a flashlight in everyone's mouth looking for fillings. It's indicative of an unfortunate tendency of most prequels, where they feel the need to revisit every single detail of how things got to be they way you remember them. For example, at one point Joel Edgerton goes after the Thing with an axe and it gets stuck in the wall. When he tries to pull it out, Winstead tells him to leave it, and you can practically hear the script screaming, "YOU HAVE TO LEAVE IT SO THAT MACREADY CAN FIND IT LATER!" Hell, the movie closes with an in-credits sequence (after a truly disappointing finale) detailing how the last two guys ended up chasing the dog to the American camp in the helicopter. And yet, when the Thing first emerges from its icy sleep, instead of leaving a mostly intact ice-coffin like MacReady discovers, the ice block shatters into a thousand pieces, seemingly for no other reason than "it'll look cool." Also, let's not forget that this is a movie set in the early 80s. While the original featured all sorts of great once-futuristic-now-vintage tech like the chess playing computer that MacReady douses with scotch, there's almost no attempt by its lame successor to show off its period setting. That could have been a lot of fun, but instead it's just another opportunity wasted.
Don't watch this movie. Seriously, just don't. The original is streaming on Netflix right now. Go watch that instead. It's just like the remaquel (premake?) except that instead of sucking, it's fucking great.
--------------------------------------- Title: The Thing (2011) Director: Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. Starring: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Joel Edgerton, Eric Christian Olsen, Adewale Akinnouye Agbaje, Ulrich Thomsen Year Of Release: 2011 Viewing Method: HBO HD
Gavin O'Connor's Warrior frequently invokes the spirit of Rocky, but it almost feels as if someone watched that movie and asked, "What if there were TWO underdogs?"
While I love the Rocky franchise (except for Rocky V, whose existence I refuse to recognize) and boxing in general, I've never been able to get interested in MMA. While the fights themselves are certainly brutal, there's an element of grace and intelligence to boxing that's always felt absent from the meatheads of the UFC. That feeling is partially driven by the actual fights, but also by the type of crowd the sport seems to draw - legions of Tapout-clad douchebags who are only interested in a bloodsport where two mountains of muscle inflict as much damage on each other as humanly possible. The closest I've ever come to enjoying the UFC was watching Rampage Jackson drop that one guy on his head in Joe Carnahan's batshit awesome A-Team movie.
That said, I kept hearing that Warrior was not the simpleminded onslaught of testosterone it appeared to be when I saw the trailers. At the same time, my friend Jeff Schwartz made the suggestion that I should do Manly Mondays to counterbalance Wifey Wednesdays, and while I don't know if I'll do it every single week, I still love the idea. My running tally of potential screenings contains enough war movies, samurai tales and cowboy yarns to keep me busy for months, but I figured Warrior would be a good test run. I have no doubt that in lesser hands, the film would be an absolute middleweight (nyuk nyuk), but the B- script is elevated to impressive stature by four individuals.
First and foremost are Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton as dueling brothers Tommy and Brendan. Separated as teenagers, Tommy cared for his sick mother while Brendan stayed with his abusive, alcoholic father. They haven't spoke or seen each other since, with Tommy serving overseas in the Marines and Brendan marrying his high school sweetheart, raising daughters and teaching high school physics. But in the wake of the financial collapse, Brendan is in serious debt and about to lose his family's house to foreclosure. Desperate for money, he turns back to the fighting career he abandoned so long ago. Meanwhile, Tommy has returned home using his mother's maiden name, looking to do the same for reasons that remain cloudy for much of the film. They each end up competing for a $5 million purse in a winner-take-all tournament called Sparta, but both are considered long shots; Brendan is replacing a fighter who's injured days before the tournament and Tommy is only there because of a viral video of him beating up a ranked fighter. Of course they work their way through the tournament until they have to fight each other in the final round, and even though there's never any doubt who's going to win the money, by then it's clear that there's plenty more at stake between them. That's an impressive feat considering that the two men have only a single scene together before they enter the cage. (Seriously, they fight in a cage. Another reason I have trouble taking MMA seriously.)
Warrior was released after Hardy made such an impression on audiences in Inception, but before his masked turn as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises. And man, if you thought he was marble mouthed as Bane, just wait till you see him as here. To be clear, that's not a slam; Hardy makes a vocal transformation here that is fairly astounding. The more time we spend listening to Tommy's slurred speech as he trains in a dingy old gym with his now sober father (Nick Nolte), the more the Rocky comparisons become unavoidable. (The film even takes place in Pittsburgh, further lending to the feeling that we're seeing a similar story play out in a parallel universe.) Tommy is an exposed nerve, a raw killing machine with a singular focus. There's no art to his fighting, he simply pounds his opponents into submission. He does no interviews or press for the tournament, he enters the cage with no fanfare and he exits as soon as the fight has ended. He's a man on a singular mission to win, and he allows nothing else to distract him from his cause.
Brendan is the opposite side of that coin. He doesn't possess Tommy's raw power, but he's a much smarter fighter. Like Rocky Balboa, he's able to withstand insane levels of abuse against much more imposing pugilists. Instead of knocking the other guy unconscious in a matter of seconds, he's in it for the long haul and uses quickness and leverage to pin his opponents and force them to tap out. He enters the ring to Beethoven's Ode To Joy, a crucial component of the philosophy espoused by his trainer Frank (Frank Grillo, soon to face off against Captain America). It's all about rhythm, serenity and focus, qualities which Joel Edgerton embodies wonderfully. While Tommy fights to quell his inner demons, Brendan fights for the love of his family. It's constructive, not destructive, and that gives him a remarkable inner strength. Edgerton is an actor whose star has been on the rise for years. He first appeared to American audiences as young Owen Lars in the Star Wars prequels and he's come a long way since then, playing one of the SEAL team members alongside Chris Pratt in last year's excellent Zero Dark Thirty. It's just a matter of time before the guy really breaks out and becomes a household name.
Recognition must also be paid to Nick Nolte, who does his best work in over a decade. (He's obviously great in Tropic Thunder, but that's a much sillier barrel of monkeys.) Paddy starts the film a thousand days sober, listening to Moby Dick on audio tape and longing to reconnect with his estranged family. While Tommy wants his help as a trainer, he has no desire to rekindle any kind of fatherly relationship with the old man. Brendan is of a similar mind, having been so burned by his father in the past that he's only willing to communicate over the phone or through the mail. Tommy's arrival cracks open a window of possible reconciliation, and watching him struggle to win back his sons is absolutely riveting. It's the kind of work that I honestly didn't think Nolte was still capable of doing. After Warrior he was rightfully praised for playing an elderly horse trainer on HBO's aborted drama Luck. While I haven't caught up with Gangster Squad yet, I have a sneaking suspicion that a decade from now we'll be able to point to this film as the beginning of a Nolte renaissance.
Finally, kudos to director Gavin O'Connor. First and foremost, he stages the combat with a visual coherence that's sadly absent from most fight scenes these days. Part of the challenge of shooting MMA is that the fights often devolve into a tangle of limbs that can be more than a little hard to follow, but O'Connor makes the most of his almost two and half hour running time to give these fights plenty of breathing space. While I couldn't always tell exactly how or where Brendan had leverage on an opponent to make them tap out, it certainly looked painful as hell every time. O'Connor's best known as the director of Miracle, the story of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team. I think that's a really fun movie that knows how to create dramatic tension despite the fact that we all know how that movie's going to end. O'Connor also gets a great performance out of Kurt Russell there, so if nothing else I now believe that the guy has a knack for coaxing the very best from his cast members.
(Spoilers for the following paragraph.) The film's biggest flaw is that the character development is a little lopsided, but that's done purposefully to maintain a sense of mystery around Tommy and his motivations for as long as possible. Brendan is not only fighting to save his family, but he also has all of his students watching and cheering him along from a drive-in theater back home. Brendan's got an entire support system rooting for him and if he loses, then his wife and daughters lose their home. Tommy's goals and proponents are much more removed and abstract, so it feels obvious that Brendan would emerge victorious. But by then, I don't really mind that I'm not surprised, as the journey was really more important than the result.
Gavin O'Connor was recently drafted to take over Jane Got A Gun after Lynne Ramsay declined to show up for the first day of shooting. The movie sounds great, a western about a woman whose outlaw husband comes home riddled with bullets, forcing her to enlist the help of an old boyfriend before her husband's gang shows up to finish the job. Fortunately O'Connor's inherited a cast that includes Natalie Portman, Jude Law...and Joel Edgerton. Warrior not only far exceeded my initial expectations, but it's now got me itching to see what O'Connor can do with really well cast western. And maybe if we're lucky, this will be the film that finally launches Edgerton to the next level.
--------------------------------------- Title: Warrior Director: Gavin O'Connor Starring: Joel Edgerton, Tom Hardy, Nick Nolte, Jennifer Morrison, Frank Grillo Year Of Release: 2011 Viewing Method: Netflix Instant (TV)
