Review: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

* * * *
Director: Martin McDonagh
Starring: Frances McDormand, Sam Rockwell, Woody Harrelson

We are living in an extraordinarily angry time (or maybe it just seems that way because the internet makes that anger inescapable) and Martin McDonagh's Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri functions like a snapshot of that overriding cultural emotion. It's a film about people who are angry about circumstances they cannot change and who, without any productive outlet for that emotion, have nothing but the violence and pain they're capable of inflicting so that the outside world is as chaotic as they feel inside. If you're familiar with McDonagh's previous features In Bruges and Seven Psychopaths, you'll be prepared for the violence of Three Billboards and for the fact that the film often finds a comedic beat or two in the midst of that violence, but what sets this film slightly apart from those previous two is how deeply felt it is on an emotional level. It's angry and then that anger begins to fade into despair and it just leaves you feeling wrecked in the best possible way.

Review: Triple 9 (2016)

* * 1/2
Director: John Hillcoat
Starring: Casey Affleck, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Anthony Mackie, Woody Harrelson, Kate Winslet

Since 1995, all heist movies have existed in the long shadow of Heat, Michael Mann's defining word on the genre. Every once in a while there will be a film like The Town, which struck a deep enough chord to stand somewhat apart, but that's the exception, rather than the rule. Most of the films that have followed Heat have to be content with paling in comparison and John Hillcoat's Triple 9 is no different. A heist movie centering on dirty cops and the Russian mob, Triple 9 features a lot of really good actors playing some pretty stock characters, making for a film that's fairly entertaining most of the time, but ultimately a forgettable entry in the filmographies of all involved. Rarely has such a great cast been assembled for a such a deeply okay movie.

Review: Now You See Me 2 (2016)

* * 1/2
Director: Jon M. Chu
Starring: Mark Ruffalo, Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, Lizzy Caplan

The world probably didn't need a sequel to the 2013 heist by way of magic film Now You See Me, but it made $117 million at the domestic box office so we get one anyway. Never mind that part of the reason the original made as much as it did was surely that it was something new and different, which could go a ways to explaining why the follow-up is finding considerably less success, dismissed by audiences as just another drop in this summer's ocean of sequels. Whether the sequel is actually more worthy of success than the original is difficult for me to say, because as I was watching this one, which continues the story set up by the first and is always referring back to it, I became increasingly aware of how little I remembered the first one. To me, this movie might as well have been called Now You See Me: Or Do You?, as I suspect that it will have more or less the same lasting impact on me that the first one did.

Review: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1

* * *
Director: Francis Lawrence
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Donald Sutherland, Josh Hutcherson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Julianne Moore, Elizabeth Banks, Woody Harrelson

There will come a time once The Hunger Games series finishes when I'll revisit all of the films and perhaps at that point I'll have a better appreciation for Mockingjay - Part 1. Right now I'm having a hard time finding an artistic justification for the series having joined the increasingly annoying trend of splitting the final story of a would-be trilogy into two films (the economic justification is, of course, obvious). Don't get me wrong, Mockingjay - Part 1 is a good movie and I liked it well enough, but there's no denying that it feels distinctly... padded. At 123 minutes it's the shortest film of the series by nearly half an hour, yet it lacks the sense of urgency of either of the predecessor films and the amount of table setting for the next film is much more obvious here than it was in either The Hunger Games or Catching Fire. If those films were representative of Katniss being the "girl on fire," Mockingjay - Part 1 is representative of Katniss being the "girl on a slow simmer."

Review: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)

* * * 1/2
Director: Francis Lawrence
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Woody Harrelson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Donald Sutherland

After watching female led, would be young adult franchises like Beautiful Creatures and The Mortal Instruments crash and burn this year, it's good to be back in the company of Katniss Everdeen, one of the best and most active female characters to emerge in the past decade. Building on the momentum created by last year's The Hunger Games, Catching Fire raises the stakes, creating even more spectacular action sequences that its predecessor, even while it makes the "games" themselves secondary to the politics of revolution. Though the series has seen a change in directors from one film to the next, it hasn't missed a beat and the praise Catching Fire has received for being even better than The Hunger Games is well deserved.

Review: Now You See Me (2013)

* * *Director: Louis Leterrier
Starring: Mark Ruffalo, Morgan Freeman, Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fischer, Melanie Laurent, Michael Caine

Now You See Me is a good film saddled with a bad film's ending. Right up until its finale, it is an entertaining and engaging caper movie, and then it uses the goodwill engendered by its first two thirds as leverage against the cheap trick it pulls at the end. When a film's twist ending requires the audience to completely disregard everything they've learned about a character, to ignore the way that character behaved even when he or she was alone and had no one (except the audience) to keep up appearances for, it's not clever. It's cheating. A good twist is one which not only makes sense according to the film's internal logic, but which inspires multiple viewings so that you can pick up on all the little hints and bits of foreshadowing leading to the revelation. A bad twist is one which exists solely for the shock value that comes with the first viewing and which, on subsequent viewings, just makes everything leading up to the twist seem dumb. The ending of this film is garbage; the rest of the film is pretty good... so I guess I'm recommending the first 100 minutes and warning against the last 15.