Continuing the two themes of actors who I once didn’t really like but who, in recent films, has begun to win me over (Miles Teller) as well as films about characters suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) after serving in wars in the Middle East (Thank You For Your Service) comes the critically panned Man Down, a movie that I don’t ever recall being in the theatre and didn’t know existed until a good six months after it was released. Earning a score of just 17% on Rotten Tomatoes, director Dito Montiel (A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, Fighting) delivers an emotionally disturbing uneven film about a character traumatized by a specific incident that happened on his single tour. Man Down stars Shia LaBeouf (Lawless, American Honey) in what might be his finest performance to date. He stars as United States Marine Gabriel Drummer, who, after a raid and clearing of a house gone wrong in a village in Afghanistan, tells his story to Captain Peyton (Gary Oldman – Darkest Hour, The Dark Knight Rises), a military superior. The critics said that this movie exploits PTSD compared to a more subtle movie like Thank You For Your Service (which also has the advantage of being based on a true story, something that Man Down lacks). While I can see that, especially in the film’s final act, I disagree as a whole. War is hell. It’s one of those things that we don’t have to experience firsthand to believe. But it is something we need to experience firsthand or be close to someone who experienced it firsthand to understand truly. When we can’t, we sometimes turn to books, television, or movies hoping that they will portray a true picture for us. I think that’s what Montiel did here, even if a vast majority of his critics disagreed.
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Category Archives: Kate Mara
Free State of Jones (2016)
With his scraggly beard, yellow teeth, foreboding scowl, and deliberate limp, Matthew McConaughey’s (Amistad, A Time to Kill) portrayal of Newt Knight, a poor white farmer who led an extraordinary rebellion during the Civil War, is a far cry from the same man who was pigeonholing his career a decade earlier by playing the same character over and over in hit or miss romantic comedies like How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Failure to Launch, The Wedding Planner, Fool’s Gold, and The Ghosts of Girlfriends Past to name a few. McConaughey reinvented himself three or four years ago and re-established himself as a dramatic leading man with the likes of The Lincoln Lawyer, Interstellar, HBO’s True Detective, Killer Joe, Mud, and Dallas Buyer’s Club, for which he won Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role at the 2014 Academy Awards ceremony. While he’s had his misses recently (has anyone even heard of 2016’s The Sea of Trees?), he has continued to have the ability to pick and choose his movies, and, unlike his string of romantic comedies, he continues to branch himself out further and further.
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The Martian (2015)
Fans of the self-published debut novel will not be disappointed by Ridley Scott’s (Alien, Gladiator) adaptation of Andy Weir’s The Martian. This is a good movie that should be viewed in 3D on the largest screen that you can see it on. While it doesn’t come close to delivering the same experience as Gravity or even Interstellar, it is one of the rare movies that truly benefits by being seen in 3D. Before I get into this review, I want to mention that I will try to write it from the standpoint of someone who has not read the fictional novel as best as I can, as I know this is something that most people have not read. With that said, I will refer to the novel. I will also give some spoilers, but I will provide notice before diving into any of these. If you read around the paragraphs marked spoilers, you will be okay with reading this review before seeing this movie. The Martian is a very good movie, but it is not great. I was not disappointed by it. If I hadn’t read the novel, I think that maybe the trailers and the hype would have left me wanting more. This movie currently sits as my #6 movie of 2015, but I think there is less than a 1% chance it will finish in my end-of-year top 10. It didn’t have the emotional impact Gravity had, nor does it have the What did I miss? I need to watch this movie again type of feeling Interstellar had. Also, as I will mention, something was missing overall from the performances especially considering that Scott landed the cast of the year. While I will heavily critique this movie, I again want to say that I really liked the movie. It was a very good adaptation of the book. It held my interest throughout its 2 hour and 14-minute time frame.
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Transcendence (2014)
After months of hype, Wally Pfister’s directorial debut, Transcendence, was by its 19% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I remember looking forward to this movie when I first heard about it. However, my hopes quickly extinguished when I saw how poorly the critics received it and how poorly it did at the box office. It grossed only $23 million domestically (although it did end up grossing $103 million worldwide, surpassing its $100 million budget barely and making it a slightly profitable movie). I thought that movie was not disappointing at all, but maybe misunderstood. It was slow (one of its significant gripes), but honestly, not any slower than Interstellar (which critics loved, made a ton of movies in the United States, and was released just a few short months earlier). I know I am in the minority when I say that, despite its limitations and shortcomings, which I will discuss, you should give the movie a chance.
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127 Hours (2010)
After seeing an episode of I Shouldn’t Be Alive a few years ago that showed the story of Aron Ralston, the adventure seeker who got his arm pinned between a boulder and a rock wall and managed to survive, I didn’t know if there was a need for a full-length feature film. I figured that the only way that Danny Boyle’s (Slumdog Millionaire, Yesterday)127 Hours would be able to affect me was if there was a masterful lead acting performance, some stylish directing, or a combination of the two. Fortunately, that was precisely what happened.