Movie Review: Following (1998)

Following (1998)

 Reprinted from The Young Folks as posted on November 10, 2014

Once you reach the stars, perhaps it’s time to make a return trip to Earth. Writer/director Christopher Nolan’s hotly anticipated new film Interstellar has been described as his grandest and most ambitious work yet (if not necessarily his best), and this inspired me to revisit his very first film: Following. Far from the $150 million plus budgets of his blockbuster work, Following was made on a peanuts budget of only $6,000 (even less than the many cheap found footage horror movies), but it already lays the groundwork for the common thematic material and stylistic touches that Nolan continues to explore to this day.

The film is about a young man (who goes by multiple names) who is intrigued by the lives of strangers to the point where he’s willing to follow them around all day and become invested in their daily routines. One day the stranger he is following notices and confronts him about it. This man, named Cobb (a name that would be repurposed for Leonardo DiCaprio in Nolan’s own Inception), is a burglar who brings the protagonist along on break-ins and eventually seduces him into the lifestyle of a career criminal. In the guise of his new identity, the young man soon begins a relationship with a woman whose house he broke into, and that’s when everything begins to unravel around him.

 

Of Nolan’s later films, Following most closely resembles his breakout hit Memento in its affinity for film noir tropes as well as the psychological uncertainty of its characters’ motivations. The Young Man falls in line with many of Nolan’s obsessive protagonists, and his striving to live through others who have more than him provides a real character-based reason for the familiar “ordinary man sucked into a life of crime” story. As it becomes apparent, though, not everything is as it seems, and each character keeps their motivations close to the chest.

With many filmmakers working on low resources, their first films can feel like rough sketches of ideas that would be more fully explored in their later works, but with Following it’s clear that Nolan already had a clear picture of the kind of story he wanted to tell. Apart from missing cinematographer Wally Pfister, whose crisp and sterile imagery, in contrast to the grainy black and white looseness of this debut, would define each of the director’s films from Memento and on, Following works as more than just a cinematic curiosity.

With frequent early collaborator David Julyan handling music duties (whose minimalist work is a refreshing, far cry from the Hans Zimmer bombast found in the Batman films and Inception), Nolan pulls a Robert Rodriguez by controlling most production duties but with much more success in executing his intentions. Rodriguez’ super low budget debut El Mariachi is an obvious comparison on multiple fronts, including the feeling of creative freedom and discovery as we see a budding filmmaker find his groove. Nolan fans that prefer his more grounded output like Memento and especially The Prestige will greatly appreciate the use of non-linear story structure and plot twists rooted in character work.

It’s these qualities that show how Following isn’t just an anomaly or a prelude for what was to come in the director’s career, and was even deemed worthy of a recent Criterion Blu-ray restoration. Fans of Christopher Nolan’s work will greatly appreciate the recurring themes and visual touches that would materialize later on. Meanwhile, neophytes will also enjoy seeing a filmmaker utilize their limited resources to their advantage in creative ways, much like other filmmakers such as Darren Aronofsky and Sam Raimi did with their first films, Pi and The Evil Dead, respectively. And if you thought Memento was Christopher Nolan’s calling card, then it’s time to correct this by seeking out Following in the near future.

TV Review: Boardwalk Empire (5×08) – “Eldorado”

TV Review: Boardwalk Empire (5×08) – “Eldorado”

Reprinted from The Young Folks as posted on October 27, 2014

In spite of the numerous colorful characters that have popped up on Boardwalk Empire and evolved over the years (and then died brutal deaths, usually), this Prohibition gangster story has always been about Nucky Thompson. Even when the show digressed into subplots and pushed the Atlantic City bootlegger aside to make room for others, he has always hung around the sidelines shifting them to fit his needs or the needs of others on his side. Now, five years after Boardwalk Empire premiered on HBO and ten years after the show’s timeline began, Nucky Thompson’s story draws to a close in the series finale “Eldorado.”

But “Eldorado” is the end of the line for others, too, especially for Al Capone and his little tax troubles. Until the final minutes, this finale is a mostly quiet farewell for these characters, taking its time to wind things down. This is especially true for Al, who gets to have a scene alone with his deaf son to say his goodbyes. The interaction is not entirely successful at the resonance that it strives for, given that the son has been almost entirely absent from the show for a long time, so this “payoff” doesn’t feel truly earned. However, Stephen Graham’s performance dials back the grandstanding to such a degree that it reveals Al’s rare tender side, adding one last sliver of dimension to the legendary figure before his court time.

Even Margaret Thompson, no one’s favorite character, gets to go out on her own terms as she makes some more money for her husband and a concerned Joe Kennedy, who unsuccessfully asks her on a date. For a character whose primary function has mostly been to play the doting wife, Margaret’s shown a remarkable amount of agency for herself in what little time she has had in this truncated season. She’s certainly achieved more than poor Gillian has, though we’ll get to her in a moment.

With their grudge against Nucky mostly settled, the Lansky/Luciano double team set their sights on tying up other loose ends. After dispatching two assassins to take out Valentin Narcisse in a public showing (RIP), the head honchos contemplate about their futures, which have them laying the groundwork for the organized crime tree that would spring up in the coming years. Meanwhile, Eli doesn’t have nearly as much to show for. Disowned from his family and living in a crappy tenement, it will be a long time before the younger Thompson brother can pick himself back up, although the bag of cash and a shaving razor (a subtle little bit of humor for the increasingly disheveled Eli) left by Nucky will surely help things out.

As I said earlier though, “Eldorado” is Nucky’s time, both Nuckys in fact. Following last week’s advancements, the young Nucky storyline finally caught a second wind and justified its existence even with the spinning it took to get to this point. Talking about them separately wouldn’t do them justice, since the fates of Marc Pickering and Steve Buscemi’s incarnations of this character are intertwined thematically and literally. Contrary to what I thought in last week’s penultimate episode, Gillian’s letter to Nucky does not lead him on a path of redemption for the life-shattering choice he made by giving her over to the Commodore.

They have a reunion, but it’s clear that Gillian is pretty much beyond salvation, drained of most consciousness by the terrible asylum conditions she lives in. Instead, the choice that led him down the dark path is also, in a far-reaching sense, the choice that ultimately kills him. Young Nucky’s strive to climb the social status ladder and old Nucky’s attempts to fix all his problems with money have been his major weaknesses, as boy Joe points out on the titular boardwalk. Joe, as some fans predicted, is actually Tommy Darmody coming to avenge the fates of his father and grandmother.

In a marvelously inspired piece of editing that ranks among the most memorable sequences this series has pulled off, the episode cuts between young Nucky extending his “helpful” hand to Gillian and Tommy executing vengeance on the man who sent Gillian on her tortured path. Nucky Thompson’s end recalls Walter White’s in the meth lab, with him slumped on the boardwalk he used to rule over with a bullet in his face due to his past transgressions. Boardwalk Empire may never have been the most even show around when it came to moving its pieces along, but when it saw an endpoint in sight it dived forward with gusto to nail those payoffs, and the series finale “Eldorado” was no different.

TV Review: Boardwalk Empire (5×07) – “Friendless Child”

TV Review: Boardwalk Empire (5×07) – “Friendless Child”

Reprinted from The Young Folks as posted on October 20, 2014

Playing the long game in TV storytelling is tricky business. The general principle is that patience pays off eventually, but that doesn’t mean that the build-up to the payoff shouldn’t be involving too. Boardwalk Empire often walks that fine line, and the end results usually but don’t always justify the water-treading. In the case of season five, Nucky’s flashbacks and Gillian’s asylum stay have been the odd ducks of this year’s storylines. And while I stand by what I’ve written about them in previous reviews, last night’s “Friendless Child” finally provided them with the dramatic weight that’s mostly been missing.

With the young Gillian now staying at the Thompson household after being caught by Deputy Nucky last week, Nucky and Mabel must decide on what to do with the child. Nucky would rather send her back to the Trenton orphanage where she came from, much to Mabel’s chagrin. Fleshing out Gillian with this back-story and her relationship with Nucky long before the events of season one turns out to be much more engaging than Nucky bumbling around as a kid in the early going.

 

It also provides a thematic connection with Gillian’s current situation in 1931. The show is clearly drawing a parallel between the harshness of her younger years and now at the asylum. Knowing that Nucky will eventually give her over to the commodore, present day Gillian’s plea letter to Nucky for help draws a clearer arc of redemption for our protagonist. The decision that ultimately set him on the dark path will eventually (presumably?) lead towards his last move.

Prior to that, though, the gangland war between him and the Luciano/Lansky/Torrio team had been raging on between now and last week’s “Devil You Know,” which is cannily explained in a radio news show condemning the criminal menaces terrorizing the streets. I can’t help but feel that this was an instance where the shortened season order forced show creator Terrence Winter and his writing team to nip and tuck their plotlines. It feels like an entire episode devoted to the conflict is missing, and to jump from Mickey’s “To war!” moment to basically the end of it all with everyone sorting things out deflates the tension, even with Mickey biting the bullet.

However, placing Nucky on desperate terms with his men constantly dying in battle does allow Steve Buscemi the chance to break out of his character’s terse but laid back composure. He’s breaking down and he knows that the only way to end this well is to strike a deal with his adversaries by giving up everything to them. Even if it means getting on his knees and allowing the two to walk all over him, Nucky’s will to drop it all right then and there.

 

This is especially important to him given that Lucky and Meyer took Will Thompson hostage after Nucky’s men took one of their own. The timing couldn’t have been worse as Eli, fresh off the Chicago train with flies in tow and looking worse for wear, tentatively reunites with his son on the street after so many years apart. The dichotomy between the pair’s life paths couldn’t be more apparent than from Will’s well-groomed suit and Eli’s rumpled and dirty mess of an outfit. Like Nucky, Eli has been pushed to the brink, and he too wants to just set things right.

When Lucky’s gang gets trigger happy at the hostage exchange, the simultaneous rage and terror on Shea Whigham’s face truly shows how Eli will do anything to hang onto the one good thing left in his life. This would include offing Don Maranzano with a goon squad in a hit scene that strongly recalls the murder of Julius Caesar. Whether that connection was intentional or not is hard to tell, but it does allow the Don to go out in grand fashion. Everyone’s on their way out in some way, shape, or form, and come next week’s series finale, it seems like the Capone empire is about to crumble too, if Mike D’Angelo gets his way.

Movie Review: Fury (2014)

Fury (2014)

 Reprinted from The Young Folks as posted on October 17, 2014

War is hell. Anyone who has seen a number of war films can surmise this. It’s the basic backbone of almost every war film not starring John Wayne or Captain America, and by this point you would think that we have learned that enough by now. But writer/director David Ayer, probably tired of writing L.A. cops for most of his career, thinks otherwise. With Fury, his second 2014 film after the risible Sabotage, Ayer doesn’t just think that we need to see more World War II soldiers diving into the muck. He wants to rub it in our faces until we’re left beaten and bruised afterwards. Also: bored from exhaustion.

Fury follows the crew of the titular Sherman tank as they ride through Germany in the last months of the war. Hitler and the Nazis are desperate enough to use every last strategy possible, including forcing women and children into the fray, and the Allies continue treading through the battered country in the face of superior firepower. One of Fury’s crew members has been killed in battle, so now they’re stuck with a young replacement barely out of grade school who hasn’t seen a day of combat experience.

 

Fury eschews a goal-oriented story in favor of observing these rough-hewn men jumping from battle to battle, where their only objective is to kill Nazis and survive by the skin of their teeth. If there’s something that can be commended about the characters, who are as thin as they come without playing into easy stereotypes, it’s that the film doesn’t shy away from showing the Americans look just as brutal in their tactics as the Nazis were. In one particularly uncomfortable scene, Brad Pitt’s “Wardaddy” breaks in Logan Lerman’s Norman by forcing the boy to shoot a surrendered German soldier in the back.

“Wardaddy,” who is willing to win at any cost, walks a line between immoral and heroic in Pitt’s hands, which is more than can be said for the rest of the tank crew, wasting actors Jon Bernthal (The Walking Dead), Michael Peña (End of Watch), and a better-than-average Shia LaBeouf in one-dimensionally unlikable roles. Lerman, like most of his performances, is serviceable as the audience avatar without making too much of an impression. It’s hard to care about most of these people when Ayer seems to care more about how many ways he can turn the human body into mince meat.

Watching Fury is like watching Saving Private Ryan edited down to its bare violent scenes, and to his credit Ayer conjures up a couple of tank battles that rival the intense standoffs of Spielberg’s film. The three-on-one game of chicken is the highlight set piece, as the Americans have to outmaneuver the much stronger German tank in close quarters. Small details like the whistle of tank shells and the teamwork tactics employed show off the minutia of war that isn’t often seen in movies.

But the unrelentingly dark tone eventually becomes so overbearing that the violence soon enough turns from shocking to tiring. Without more engaging characters or worthwhile thematic weight, the relentlessness of it all turns the film into a one-note gore show. Steven Price’s overwrought score doesn’t help matters, especially in an “unexpected” death scene that can be predicted the moment you meet these characters. Subtlety isn’t in Ayer’s playbook, and his script works better when it’s focusing on the Pitt/Lerman dynamic or the life-and-death struggle of surviving against all odds rather than the atrocities of war. But at least it’s better than Sabotage.

TV Review: Boardwalk Empire (5×06) – “Devil You Know”

TV Review: Boardwalk Empire (5×06) – “Devil You Know”

Reprinted from The Young Folks as posted on October 13, 2014

There’s no way to get around it. Yesterday’s episode of Boardwalk Empire, “Devil You Know,” pulled out all the stops in a way that the best late season Boardwalk episodes always do and then some. It’s become an expectation by now that even though the show tends to meander around its world, when it starts back up it will eventually click together as things heat up towards the conclusion. With the foreknowledge that the real end is near, “Devil You Know” clues us in that everyone is fair game for death’s door at this point.

Before we get to the meat of this hour, let’s get the Nucky business out of the way first. Marc Pickering continues his best Steve Buscemi impression as the younger Nucky deals with Mabel’s pregnancy and patrols around the boardwalk on deputy business. There’s not much to it until the end when Nucky catches the child thief he’s been looking for… and it turns out to be none other than Gillian Darmody. It isn’t so much what we see in this episode than it is what we know comes later that makes the connection so disturbingly effective. With Nucky still looking to be in the Commodore’s good graces, he’ll eventually hand little Gillian over to the Commodore and forever change both her life and his. Nucky’s soul is on its way out the door.

 

Back in the present, Buscemi’s Nucky drunkenly toils around a dive bar with two women. His subsequent fight with an irate man and eventual mugging by the women is little more than a diversion until when Mickey rallies the men for a gang war. With that said, it’s a diversion that has its virtues. After so many long stretches of Nucky working behind the scenes, it’s nice to see him doing the dirty work himself when he trades fists at the bar. Nucky has traditionally been such an uptight fellow that seeing him drunkenly rumpled is a refresher that allows Buscemi’s performance room to play things looser and more freewheeling.

But it’s the Chicago and Chalky storylines that really steal the thunder and make up for any minor slow patches. Nelson and Eli’s attempted scam on Capone goes belly up (did we really expect it to succeed?) and it’s clear that it’s the end of the road for them soon. I was sure Eli, with his reckless attitude as of late, was going to bite it in the end, but Nelson ended up catching the fatal bullet to his cranium. He did it on his terms, though, releasing all his pent up anger in a cathartic religious freak-out on Al that only Michael Shannon could deliver. It also offered Mike D’Angelo a quick fix chance to secure his cover before it could be blown as he ended Nelson’s life in shocking fashion. Eli’s “reward” of a crumpled bill for one train ticket seemed pretty appropriate for his desperate situation.

 

The lack of Valentin Narcisse, and by extension actor Jeffrey Wright, this season has been generally unfortunate, but his lack of screen time prior to this week is made up for by the extended verbal confrontation between him and Chalky that takes us to the final moments of “Devil You Know.” Rather than go out guns blazing, Chalky decides that he’d rather talk it out with Valentin and accept that his inevitable fate is drawing near. Chalky knows that he’s at the end of his rope, and chooses to ensure the future of Daughter and Althea instead of attaining violent retribution. Michael K. Williams’ weathered face and subdued growl speak volumes for the multitudes of pain and heartbreak that Chalky has been put through in the last decade or so.

Sorrow hangs over his face and performance more so than ever, but it also contains a spark of elation, with the career criminal seeing the light at the end of his tunnel and embracing it after he gets the last word on Valentin. Chalky’s warning that “nobody ever been free” leaves Valentin speechless, though Jeffrey Wright’s subtle disgruntled facial twitch says enough. To drive home the tragedy of Chalky’s death by firing squad even further, director Jeremy Podeswa bucks Boardwalk Empire tradition by stopping the song with the cut to black. For an episode that ended up with not one but two major character deaths, the most emotionally resonant moment of “Devil You Know” came from the minimal sound of a record needle, allowing us to bask in the moment as we say goodbye to the great Chalky White.

TV Review: Boardwalk Empire (5×05) – “King of Norway”

TV Review: Boardwalk Empire (5×05) – “King of Norway”

Reprinted from The Young Folks as posted on October 6, 2014

We’re just now winding down on Boardwalk Empire’s endgame, and as we’ve come to expect from all previous seasons of this show, things are about to get hairy for everyone. This week’s installment, “King of Norway,” moves all the pieces forward at least one or two steps as conflicts continue heating up. And when I say all the pieces, I mean all of them. With only three more episodes after this one the writers can’t afford to only focus on a select few anymore, given the shortened season order.

For one thing, the young Nucky storyline takes a massive leap forward in time as Nucky is together with Mabel and now a young adult deputy working for Sheriff Lindsay. Despite Nucky’s occupation shift, the Commodore is still very much in the picture keeping his power hold on the area, and with Nucky working in close proximity to the sheriff, that means more opportunities for the both of them. Another thing of note is actor Marc Pickering as this incarnation of Nucky, who does such a great job emulating Steve Buscemi’s speech and mannerisms that one could almost mistake him for the real thing.

Back in 1931, Nucky arrives at his place to find Chalky waiting for him in a new suit he must have picked up along his travels since the home invasion. With Valentin Narcisse on both their minds, it’s especially disappointing that actor Jeffrey Wright hasn’t had the time to shine this season after becoming a memorable addition to the show last year. Narcisse doesn’t appear in the hour, and so far he has only showed up in one episode, so here’s hoping that the final three are back-loaded with his material. Chalky’s gearing up for a showdown – it’s just a matter of when and how. On a side note, it was nice seeing him and Nucky reconciling after some rough patches when they were last together.

In Chicago, Al Capone doesn’t have anything of immediate concern except maybe constipation issues, although references to his “tax issue” foreshadow his eventual run-in with Prohibition Agent Elliot Ness. The Eli and Nelson comedy duo, however, have much more to worry about. In addition to being turned into Untouchables of their own kind after their original identities get exposed, Eli’s booziness and Nelson’s dysfunctional home life come crashing together. Eli has already knocked up another woman, but that doesn’t stop him from having sex with Nelson/George’s wife while the family is eating.

With the awkwardness continuing to pile on, it means that Michael Shannon and Shea Whigham’s unexpected comic chemistry thrives on. Punchline of the night goes to Shannon twice, once when Eli reasons that his “life is a shipwreck” and Nelson responds, “Land ho!” The other time is when the emotionally tense Nelson exclaims that he refuses to be “ruled by fear” but then immediately answers his wife’s calling. Has this season not taught us yet that Michael Shannon deserves to get his own comedy show and/or film?

While it’s revealed that Johnny Torio is working with Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky in their mission to take down Nucky, Gillian’s affairs in the nuthouse don’t look to be improving from her perspective. As I’ve said in previous reviews, her storyline looks more and more trivial than the Young Nucky timeline (which at least made big moves here) as it treads on. Unless there’s some twist that she knows information that others don’t (unlikely), or someone working in the asylum is connected to the mob stuff (also unlikely), it’s still very unclear what the purpose of her inclusion is in such a compressed timeframe. Still, this is Boardwalk Empire, which has a habit of taking multiple dangling threads and tying them together at the last minute, so with only three episodes left it’s time to see what’s in store soon.

TV Review: Boardwalk Empire (5×04) – “Cuanto”

TV Review: Boardwalk Empire (5×04) – “Cuanto”

Reprinted from The Young Folks as posted on September 30, 2014

Al Capone has always been one of the key figures in the evolving saga of Boardwalk Empire, but he was never always the Al Capone of legend. He started out as a small fish in a big pond, maneuvered his way up to the top, and now he’s the big man in town. Capone doesn’t even need to do the dirty work himself anymore as he resides in his nice apartment while the underlings come and go for jobs. He’s no longer just another gangster; he’s a full-blown celebrity with an ego that needs stroking.

Stephen Graham’s portrayal of the famous “Scarface” has, admittedly, been problematic for me in the past. While the rest of the show resembles more naturalistic gangster stories such as The Sopranos and The Godfather, Graham’s performance has often been more akin to pulpy yarns like early James Cagney and The Untouchables, where Robert De Niro’s scenery chewing as Capone fit more comfortably into the comic book tone. Now that we’ve reached this point in Capone’s life on Boardwalk Empire, Graham’s over-the-top posturing clicks with the material in a smoother fashion than before. He’s now gone full De Niro, only this time he’s swinging something sharper than a baseball bat.

Even though the majority of “Cuanto” (the season halfway point) feels confined to the sizable Capone hotel room, there’s a multitude of threads weaving in and out that connect to the bigger picture. Lucky Luciano, clearly unimpressed by the media attention Capone pulls in, wants him in on the operation with Meyer Lansky to take down Nucky Thompson. This plan eventually backfires, with Capone instead warning Thompson about the plan, but the real meat of this comes when Lucky outs George Mueller as former Prohibition agent Nelson Van Alden.

Once upon a time in season one, two men named Lucky and Jimmy Darmody (remember Jimmy? I miss Jimmy) were busted by Van Alden, and now it’s time for the past to get drudged up. I always love it when television shows brings back the past, especially the deep past, to inform current situations. Most viewers probably didn’t remember that Nelson and Lucky once crossed paths, but I’m certainly glad that this show’s writers did, because it leads into this episode’s standout scene. Michael Shannon’s tightly coiled performance as Van Alden is put to excellent use as he weasels his way out of a fatal bullet, and even has room for the driest of dry humor.

Speaking of Boardwalk Empire’s early days, the scenes between Nucky and Margaret this week brought back the spark they once had that then faded amidst their repetitive squabbling later on. The scene with them together in the café gave them the most genuine interaction they’ve had in a while, and seeing Steve Buscemi and Kelly Macdonald banter over wine was a pleasant delight, even if it’s clear that there’s still a little tension left between the couple.

Unfortunately, Nucky’s other romance isn’t meant to be either. Sally’s not-so-engaging business dealings take a turn for the worse when she runs afoul of the Cuban authorities and doesn’t get to walk away with her life like Van Alden did. Sally’s death is unexpected and almost blasé. A death caused by faulty decision-making on both sides that could have easily been avoided, and surely won’t be the last as Nucky’s story draws to a close.

Contrastingly, Nucky’s beginnings as a young boy tread on, but not much more than that. Thematic parallels aside, little Nucky’s adventures by the shore don’t hold much dramatic weight in this truncated season beyond visualizing some of Nucky’s life anecdotes. The time spent on the Thompson brothers’ childhood could have been better utilized exploring Eli’s vastly more compelling current situation, especially since that means Shea Whigham has really been short-shrifted so far this season. I’m imagining an alternative version of the last four episodes where we just follow disheveled Shea Whigham’s boozy antics in Chicago with Mueller, even if it only exists in my dream-scape.