Natalie Portman in a Western and then a Bunch of Indie Films
"Jane Got a Gun"
starring: Natalie Portman, Joel Edgerton, Ewen McGregor, Noah Emmerich, Boyd Holbrook, Rodrigo Santoro
written by: Brian Duffield, Anthony Tambakis and Joel Edgerton
directed by: Gavin O'Connor
Here's what should have been a positive feminist film but instead was turned around and the female lead character sort of plays like a secondary character instead of the focal point of the story. And, with Natalie Portman playing the lead, Jane, you'd think that the film would've done well enough, because she has more than proven her worth as a lead actress. Hell, she even produced the film, which sat on the shelf and then was pushed back as the terrorist attack in Paris happened. There were production halts and the director was ousted after differences of opinion. The male roles were switched multiple times, as well. Then, the backing studio went bankrupt and the film just seemed cursed from the start. It certainly does not help its cause, especially when the film just doesn't offer anything new or exciting the the Western genre. It's pretty downright boring, actually.
"Batkid Begins"
written and directed by: Dana Nachman
Everyone has most likely heard or read about this heartwarming story about a boy and his wish.
November 15, 2013, the Make-A-Wish Foundation turned parts of San Francisco into Gotham City so five-year-old leukemia survivor Miles Scott could live out his fantasy of being Batman. Since Miles was too young to save the city on his own, acrobat and former stuntman Eric Johnson volunteered to play Batman, leading his mini-me to each of the foundation’s three staged scenarios, then gently guiding the boy through his part of the action. Dana Nachman’s Batkid Begins anatomizes the extensive planning and social-media heat lightning that turned the day into a global phenomenon, after a Facebook plea for volunteers to play grateful Gothamites went viral.
This is a feel good documentary and as an audience member you are hard-wired to root for the title character, a cute, round-cheeked little farm boy who had battled leukemia for years by the time he entered first grade and you smile as you watch him live out his dream for that one fateful day.
As the story of his big day unfolds, any hope of meaningful reflection or insight is doused by a steady drip of often redundant and banal observations, mostly about the unprecedented size or cooperative spirit of the crowd that showed up to cheer him on. The film keeps reminding us how much planning went into the event and how many people got involved, but it offers surprisingly little insight into what it meant to the people involved. Miles was too young to express what he was thinking or feeling, and even his parents could only guess whether he experienced his stint as a superhero as reality, playacting, or some combination of the two. We also don’t hear much from the throngs who showed up to witness his fake feats. When the filmmakers get around to interviewing crowd members, their comments are superficial, generally some variation on: “We read about it, loved the idea, and decided we had to be part of it.”
It would've felt more realistic if there were more feelings portrayed by everyone involved in the film, and less about how hard it was to put this "event" together. It plays more like a long-winded commercial for Make-A-Wish than anything else.
............................................................
"The Vault"
starring: James Franco, Scott Haze, Taryn Manning, Francesca Eastwood, Q'orianka Kilcher, Jueff Gum, Clifton Collins Jr., Keith Lonekar, Jill Jane Clements, Michael Milford, Debbie Sherman
written and directed by: Dan Bush
This is one of those films that tries too hard to be too much in the short running time it's given. It's a bank heist. It's a ghost story. It's a thriller. All in all, it's a distracted mess that never delivers on its promise from the beginning. It sort of reminded me of another bank-heist-gone-wrong C-film with Henry Rollins that i recently reviewed here, as well.
Kicking off with a mangled bank robbery led by Taryn Manning and Clint's daughter Francesca Eastwood, this horror hybrid could have been a cool idea if the script and plot had been repaired prior to production. The writing is hampered by amateurish line readings as a distinct feeling of non-committal performances drag this thing through the mud. For Franco this was nothing but a paycheck. Even the bare bones talents of Eastwood and Manning are far beyond the freshman level scripting and absolute lack of a real semblance of originality here. If a better scriptwriter had been attached to flesh out key elements, this could have been way better.
With almost no explanation whatsoever, our lead criminals begin to die one by one as they're whacked by mysterious ghosts that inhabit the bank. Using terrible looking visual effects that don't do anything for the viewer, it's a blessing that this project is so short. For a movie that qualifies as horror, there is nothing scary about The Vault other than the amount of money they threw at marketing this.
..............................................................
"A Light Beneath Their Feet"
starring: Taryn Manning, Madison Davenport, Carter Jenkins, Kali Hawk, Maddie Hasson, Kurt Fuller, Nora Dunn
written by: Moira McMahon
directed by: Valerie Weiss
This is one of those indie films that hits you hard, if you actually see it, because it plays so real, dissecting a real, true-to-life kind of story about children with a parent suffering from mental illness and the consequences of that for the child and everyone involved, honestly. Often times, the parent is being parented by the child, and the child is the adult in the relationship. The film really belongs to the unknown actress, Madison Davenport, and she handles the heavy load very well.
When the film begins, Beth (Madison Davenport) is a very successful high school senior...so successful that she actually has some amazing options for college...Northwestern as well as UCLA. While she really wants to go to UCLA, there is a problem. Her mother, Gloria (Taryn Manning), has a mental illness and can barely care for herself.
The underlying question ultimately is- Will Beth ever be able to have a life of her own (which is played simply with answering whether or not Beth can attend the college of her first choice- kind of a simple question, but it leads to so much more, acting as the catapult for the rest of her life).
This was a good film, but also kind of hit a little close to home as I have been the child of a parent with mental illness my entire life, and especially at the crucial, pivotal, and perhaps life-altering period of adolescence. There was a lot that went on during my own experiences, a lot that doesn't need to be covered here, but rest assured, it definitely can be quite scary, especially when you are a teenager trying to discover exactly who you are and who you want to be.
Indie films like this tell it like it is and don't try to sugarcoat things, and sometimes, that feels okay, even though many of us attend films for the escapism not the realism.
..................................................................
"Cat Run 2"
starring: Scott Mechlowicz, Alphonso McAuley, Winter Ave Zoli, Vanessa Branch, Leonardo Nam, Gregory Alan Williams, Brittany S. Hall
written by: Andrew and Matt Manson
directed by: John Stockwell
If your a teenage boy, you'd love this "franchise" and especially the first few minutes of this sequel because it's all T & A, nudity included. The whole film plays like a teenage boy's wet dream, almost, and definitely has an adolescent sense of humor about itself. Like, the filmmakers know they're not making Oscar worthy material, so they simply have fun with it, and run with it as well. They do tell a succinct story, with a problem and solution, and the ride is enjoyable. This is escapism in film form, for sure.
Stockwell does a good job with paying homage to film genres (i.e. kung fu) that he enjoys and took pieces of them, much like Tarantino does (but much much better).
.....................................................................
"Monsters"
starring: Scoot McNairy, Whitney Able
written and directed by: Gareth Edwards
Talk about an unexpected great film. That's what I love about filling my Netflix queue with a ton of movies. This indie film was a gem in a boatload of films. I completely enjoyed it from start to finish, and the ending was quite a surprise. The film, also, clearly has something to say.
This is apocalypse in medias res, set six years after a NASA probe fell to Earth – at the U.S./Mexico border, to be specific – and unleashed alien matter that has since thrived and multiplied. The military walled in the infected zone, as it's known, and once a year shuts down the coastal route between the uninfected portions of Mexico and America for the aliens' six-month breeding period. At the film's beginning, photographer Kaulder (McNairy), a sort-of professional creature chaser, reluctantly agrees to escort his boss' daughter, Samantha (Able), out of Mexico and back to her stateside fiancé; with two days to go before the military shuts down passage, their attempt to flee has a last-plane-out-of-Saigon feel to it.
This is a slow-burner of suspense and a romantic film that takes awhile to get where you where it ends up, with a lot of lingering and sometimes silence, but it's all worth it. It's an authentic piece of acting on both the leads and you genuinely feel the chemistry building between the two, almost sensing that they are not acting. This is an understated film that begs to be watched and appreciated.
starring: Natalie Portman, Joel Edgerton, Ewen McGregor, Noah Emmerich, Boyd Holbrook, Rodrigo Santoro
written by: Brian Duffield, Anthony Tambakis and Joel Edgerton
directed by: Gavin O'Connor
Here's what should have been a positive feminist film but instead was turned around and the female lead character sort of plays like a secondary character instead of the focal point of the story. And, with Natalie Portman playing the lead, Jane, you'd think that the film would've done well enough, because she has more than proven her worth as a lead actress. Hell, she even produced the film, which sat on the shelf and then was pushed back as the terrorist attack in Paris happened. There were production halts and the director was ousted after differences of opinion. The male roles were switched multiple times, as well. Then, the backing studio went bankrupt and the film just seemed cursed from the start. It certainly does not help its cause, especially when the film just doesn't offer anything new or exciting the the Western genre. It's pretty downright boring, actually.
Jane may get her own gun in this Western, but she also depends on the services of the bona fide gunfighter Dan Frost (Edgerton). Frost also happens to be Jane’s former beau, and that’s how the roiling romance story (with numerous flashbacks) begins. Jane Got a Gun is more romance in an Old West setting than Western with a romantic angle, and the story’s action is perpetually interrupted to unfold the couple’s backstory, and never lets up until they ride off into the sunset at the end.
Handsomely mounted and mildly engaging, Jane Got a Gun tells a familiar story about the struggles faced by women 150 years ago. The film opens in the New Mexico territory in 1871 as Jane’s husband Bill Hammond (Emmerich) returns home half-dead with gunshot wounds in his back, courtesy of the Bishop boys, a fearsome gang with whom the pair has had previous tangles. Jane promptly parks her little girl with a neighbor, rides to Dan’s place to beseech his help, then returns home to protect her land and her husband. Before long, the Bishop gang will come to call.
............................................................"Batkid Begins"
written and directed by: Dana Nachman
Everyone has most likely heard or read about this heartwarming story about a boy and his wish.
November 15, 2013, the Make-A-Wish Foundation turned parts of San Francisco into Gotham City so five-year-old leukemia survivor Miles Scott could live out his fantasy of being Batman. Since Miles was too young to save the city on his own, acrobat and former stuntman Eric Johnson volunteered to play Batman, leading his mini-me to each of the foundation’s three staged scenarios, then gently guiding the boy through his part of the action. Dana Nachman’s Batkid Begins anatomizes the extensive planning and social-media heat lightning that turned the day into a global phenomenon, after a Facebook plea for volunteers to play grateful Gothamites went viral.
This is a feel good documentary and as an audience member you are hard-wired to root for the title character, a cute, round-cheeked little farm boy who had battled leukemia for years by the time he entered first grade and you smile as you watch him live out his dream for that one fateful day.
As the story of his big day unfolds, any hope of meaningful reflection or insight is doused by a steady drip of often redundant and banal observations, mostly about the unprecedented size or cooperative spirit of the crowd that showed up to cheer him on. The film keeps reminding us how much planning went into the event and how many people got involved, but it offers surprisingly little insight into what it meant to the people involved. Miles was too young to express what he was thinking or feeling, and even his parents could only guess whether he experienced his stint as a superhero as reality, playacting, or some combination of the two. We also don’t hear much from the throngs who showed up to witness his fake feats. When the filmmakers get around to interviewing crowd members, their comments are superficial, generally some variation on: “We read about it, loved the idea, and decided we had to be part of it.”
It would've felt more realistic if there were more feelings portrayed by everyone involved in the film, and less about how hard it was to put this "event" together. It plays more like a long-winded commercial for Make-A-Wish than anything else.
............................................................
"The Vault"
starring: James Franco, Scott Haze, Taryn Manning, Francesca Eastwood, Q'orianka Kilcher, Jueff Gum, Clifton Collins Jr., Keith Lonekar, Jill Jane Clements, Michael Milford, Debbie Sherman
written and directed by: Dan Bush
This is one of those films that tries too hard to be too much in the short running time it's given. It's a bank heist. It's a ghost story. It's a thriller. All in all, it's a distracted mess that never delivers on its promise from the beginning. It sort of reminded me of another bank-heist-gone-wrong C-film with Henry Rollins that i recently reviewed here, as well.
Kicking off with a mangled bank robbery led by Taryn Manning and Clint's daughter Francesca Eastwood, this horror hybrid could have been a cool idea if the script and plot had been repaired prior to production. The writing is hampered by amateurish line readings as a distinct feeling of non-committal performances drag this thing through the mud. For Franco this was nothing but a paycheck. Even the bare bones talents of Eastwood and Manning are far beyond the freshman level scripting and absolute lack of a real semblance of originality here. If a better scriptwriter had been attached to flesh out key elements, this could have been way better.
With almost no explanation whatsoever, our lead criminals begin to die one by one as they're whacked by mysterious ghosts that inhabit the bank. Using terrible looking visual effects that don't do anything for the viewer, it's a blessing that this project is so short. For a movie that qualifies as horror, there is nothing scary about The Vault other than the amount of money they threw at marketing this.
..............................................................
"A Light Beneath Their Feet"
starring: Taryn Manning, Madison Davenport, Carter Jenkins, Kali Hawk, Maddie Hasson, Kurt Fuller, Nora Dunn
written by: Moira McMahon
directed by: Valerie Weiss
This is one of those indie films that hits you hard, if you actually see it, because it plays so real, dissecting a real, true-to-life kind of story about children with a parent suffering from mental illness and the consequences of that for the child and everyone involved, honestly. Often times, the parent is being parented by the child, and the child is the adult in the relationship. The film really belongs to the unknown actress, Madison Davenport, and she handles the heavy load very well.
When the film begins, Beth (Madison Davenport) is a very successful high school senior...so successful that she actually has some amazing options for college...Northwestern as well as UCLA. While she really wants to go to UCLA, there is a problem. Her mother, Gloria (Taryn Manning), has a mental illness and can barely care for herself.
The underlying question ultimately is- Will Beth ever be able to have a life of her own (which is played simply with answering whether or not Beth can attend the college of her first choice- kind of a simple question, but it leads to so much more, acting as the catapult for the rest of her life).
This was a good film, but also kind of hit a little close to home as I have been the child of a parent with mental illness my entire life, and especially at the crucial, pivotal, and perhaps life-altering period of adolescence. There was a lot that went on during my own experiences, a lot that doesn't need to be covered here, but rest assured, it definitely can be quite scary, especially when you are a teenager trying to discover exactly who you are and who you want to be.
Indie films like this tell it like it is and don't try to sugarcoat things, and sometimes, that feels okay, even though many of us attend films for the escapism not the realism.
..................................................................
"Cat Run 2"
starring: Scott Mechlowicz, Alphonso McAuley, Winter Ave Zoli, Vanessa Branch, Leonardo Nam, Gregory Alan Williams, Brittany S. Hall
written by: Andrew and Matt Manson
directed by: John Stockwell
If your a teenage boy, you'd love this "franchise" and especially the first few minutes of this sequel because it's all T & A, nudity included. The whole film plays like a teenage boy's wet dream, almost, and definitely has an adolescent sense of humor about itself. Like, the filmmakers know they're not making Oscar worthy material, so they simply have fun with it, and run with it as well. They do tell a succinct story, with a problem and solution, and the ride is enjoyable. This is escapism in film form, for sure.
New Orlean-based PI's Julian (Alphonso McAuley) and Anthony (Scott Mechlowicz) head to Louisiana after Anthony wins entry to a TV cook-off. They stay with Julian's uncle and soon learn Julian's soldier cousin is in deep trouble and needs their help. The pair, of course, agree, and soon they find they've stumbled onto something involving "bio-engineered super-assassins," and international intrigue that they somehow bungle their way through without getting killed, no matter how many bullets come their way.
Winter Ave Zoli does a fantastic job of playing the sexy and oft nude super-assassin Tatiana. The high-ranking officer of a military base is having a celebration but when the two strippers meant to be the evening's entertainment arrive, they turn out to be Tatiana and another sexy super-assassin. They've been ordered to hack the base computer and download plans for a bio-weapon, however, the alarm is raised before the job can be completed. Tatiana gives a demonstration of just how effective the super-assassin's can be by easily taking out one soldier after another without breaking a sweat. Zoli coped remarkably well with the physicality of her role and appeared comfortable with the fight choreography.
Stockwell does a good job with paying homage to film genres (i.e. kung fu) that he enjoys and took pieces of them, much like Tarantino does (but much much better).
.....................................................................
"Monsters"
starring: Scoot McNairy, Whitney Able
written and directed by: Gareth Edwards
Talk about an unexpected great film. That's what I love about filling my Netflix queue with a ton of movies. This indie film was a gem in a boatload of films. I completely enjoyed it from start to finish, and the ending was quite a surprise. The film, also, clearly has something to say.
This is apocalypse in medias res, set six years after a NASA probe fell to Earth – at the U.S./Mexico border, to be specific – and unleashed alien matter that has since thrived and multiplied. The military walled in the infected zone, as it's known, and once a year shuts down the coastal route between the uninfected portions of Mexico and America for the aliens' six-month breeding period. At the film's beginning, photographer Kaulder (McNairy), a sort-of professional creature chaser, reluctantly agrees to escort his boss' daughter, Samantha (Able), out of Mexico and back to her stateside fiancé; with two days to go before the military shuts down passage, their attempt to flee has a last-plane-out-of-Saigon feel to it.
This is a slow-burner of suspense and a romantic film that takes awhile to get where you where it ends up, with a lot of lingering and sometimes silence, but it's all worth it. It's an authentic piece of acting on both the leads and you genuinely feel the chemistry building between the two, almost sensing that they are not acting. This is an understated film that begs to be watched and appreciated.
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