Kill The Messenger

Gary Webb (Jeremy Renner) died a very unhappy man in 2004.  He spent the last 7-8 years of his life chasing a story that was “too true to be told” as one of his sources put it.  A story that the government (read CIA) was aware (not complicit in as many words) about of the explosion of Crack Cocaine in  Los Angeles and how it was used to fund the Contra rebels of Nicaragua.

Muppets Most Wanted

How many of you have seen The Muppets (2011) starring Amy Adams (my favouritest – if there is something like that) and Jason Segel? Well it really doesn’t matter if you saw it or not.  I for one, come from the latter group.  I was in 2 minds before I walked in for the preview with half a mind saying why bother with this one?

The Place Beyond The Pines

I had seen Blue Valentine when it released a couple of years back and was quite wary about The Place Beyond The Pines.  Derek Cianfrance gave me the impression of being an arty farty director in his previous outing.  Michelle Williams of course did a fine job in that movie one and earned herself a nomination.

Killing Them Softly

Andrew Dominik has 2 movies as a director before Killing them Softly. One of them had a really really long name called The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (super fodder for a random round of Dumb Charades right?). That one was as long drawn and slow as the name was but it was also extremely carefully made with a lot of attention to detail. Killing Them Softly is no different. And I would assume that his first movie – Chopper – would have been the same.

Killing Them Softly is the story of one Jackie Cogan (Brad Pitt), a hired killer typically used by a surprisingly very organized mafia. So organized are the mafia that they have a representative for something like a board of directors who take specific calls through proper consideration – in other words, there are very few decisions that are actually taken. They are more of a figurehead.

Jackie is the right hand man of Dillon (Sam Shepard) who is currently unavailable to do the dirty work. Whats the dirty work? Doing away with Johnny Amato (Vincent Curatola) and Markie Trattman (Ray Liotta) along with their 2 bit cronies Frankie (Scoot McNairy) and Russel (Bill Mendelsohn).

Why does this have to be done? Because the four of them are responsible for robbing money from locally arranged mafia run card games. Who has lost money? Only those who were playing at the time but if not handled, the repercussions on the mafia would be huge – A risk that no one can afford to take.

So we go through a painfully slow 97 minutes where the entire story unfolds piece by piece backed with a background score that is not quite a score but very interestingly pieced audio clips of the 2008 campaign of President Obama and several clips of the financial melt-down. Very very quirky but then that’s Andrew Dominik for you in one word – quirky. After a while it actually grows on you.

One of the aspects that really will not go un-noticed would be the cinematography. There is a particular sequence where Frankie and Russell are having a conversation where everytime Russell’s point of view is shown pretty much like you would see something when you are really doped. Extremely well done I must say.

Overall, a very slow movie and as mentioned earlier, very painfully crafted. If that’s not your cup of tea then I suggest you strongly avoid it. As such it doesn’t have too much to be seen on the big screen. You can watch it on DVD. But it doesn’t take away from it, the fact that it is a very good movie indeed. 7 on 10.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3931415065/

Charlie St. Cloud

The in-flight schedule screamed out, “Zac Efron as never been seen before”.  It went on to describe how this was Efron’s first attempt @ a serious sort of a movie and not the usual Chick Flick & Musical stuff that we are used to seeing from him.  Now I am no Zac Efron fan but I must admit that I was quite intrigued with the strong write up.  Most importantly, I have, in the recent past, seen other chocolate boy heroes of the likes of Joseph Gordon Levitt (Inception, 500 Days of Summer) make a successful transition to what could be termed as quality movies.  Add to that, the summary of the movie seemed quite interesting and I was very keen to see if Efron could really pull off a role that would need significantly higher levels of intensity and emotions and not just preening around in the dreams of girls – something that Efron is really good at – and I mean that in a really positive way.

Charlie St. Cloud (Zac Efron) is around 18.  He is the eldest of 2 brothers.  Samuel (Charlie Tahan) is the younger of the two.  They are being bought up by their single mom Claire (Kim Bassinger) who is a nurse at a local hospital and works a double shift more often than not.  She needs to save money to put Sam through school and Charlie through to Stanford which he should make it through with a Sailing scholarship (I mean when will stuff like this ever come to India????).  Charlie is an ace sailor and teams up with Sam to win the local championship in grand style by a hair’s breadth, much to the joy of most people and the disappointment of his competition.  Charlie is about to celebrate the victory that evening but is told by Claire that he is on Sam duty coz she has to run her 2^nd shift. So Charlie spends time with Sam for a bit.  But his youth gets the better of him and he decides to play truant.  As he tries to sneak away, Sam catches up with him and insists that he should go along. Disgruntingly Charlie agrees.  As they are driving through the town and playing the fool while driving, they crash into a truck.  The paramedic, Florio Fiorentte (Ray Liotta) refuses to give up and in the process revives Charlie.  But is unable to save Sam.  Now Charlie has to live with the thought of being responsible for Sam’s untimely death.

CSC is a movie that runs extremely high on emotions.  It deals with the extremely sensitive topic of responsibility for someone’s death.  It is hard enough to live with the thought leave along having to deal with it personally.  And how does one deal with it if its your own kid brother? God knows none of us want to be in Charlie’s place.  Having said that, director Burr Steers still had to get the concept to life. His previous attempts would not have inspired too much confidence in anyone.  His only directorial effort before this was again with Zac Efron in that RomCom called 17 Again.  However, he does show that there is talent lurking somewhere in him.  Most scenes are handled very sensitively and effectively.  And surprise surprise – turns out that Zac Efron is NOT a one trick pony.  He plays the lead role of Charlie quite well and is able to emote very well in most situations.  The support cast is nothing to be too excited about.  Anyways it is a movie centred around a single character and I guess Mr. Efron has proven himself to the extent that he can be considered for future, more serious projects ala Joseph Gordon Levitt.  Although it must be said that Mr. Levitt far supersedes Mr. Efron in acting talent.  Yet another one not released in the motherland.  Should have been.  Would have done reasonably well I would guess.  6 on 10 from my side.