THE COMPANY YOU KEEP

THE COMPANY YOU KEEP
Written by Lem Dobbs
Directed by Robert Redford
Starring Shia LaBeouf, Robert Redford and Julie Christie

Sharon Solarz: The past 30 years in one sentence. Must be nice to see the world so clearly.

For those who are perhaps not familiar with the Weather Underground, they were an American radical organization that employed violence against their own government in protest of the Vietnam War. In Robert Redford’s latest film, THE COMPANY YOU KEEP, Redford imagines what it would be like for some members of the group to still be alive and hiding in America today. They were once ardent protesters, who were branded terrorists, and now, the few that remain, are soccer mom’s or local lawyers in small towns. Their lives have slowed and unfortunately, they brought the pace of the movie with them.

At the onset of the film, a mother (Susan Sarandon) sends her kids off to school and sets out to turn herself in to the FBI for crimes she committed while she was a member of The Weathermen, as they were also known. This event triggers newfound interest in the case and the few others who remain hidden are suddenly being actively hunted again. The primary target is Jim Grant (Redford), a single father just trying to keep his daughter (Jackie Evancho) happy after the passing of her mother a year prior. He is uncovered by a local journalist (Shia LaBoeuf) and from that moment on, he runs. Subsequently, we follow and wait to find out if the man who has been running for 30 years can continue to do so successfully.

What Redford is hoping for here is that we see all of the ideals that The Weathermen stood for also running and hiding in today’s contemporary setting. Instead, what we get is a thriller where an older, yet surprisingly spry, gentlemen, runs as fast as he can, without realizing that isn’t really that fast at all. Contrasting yesterday’s conviction with today’s lack thereof is nothing revelatory though, which leaves THE COMPANY YOU KEEP feeling a tad gummy when it’s meant to be biting.

LAWLESS

LAWLESS
Written by Nick Cave
Directed by John Hillcoat
Starring Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, Jessica Chastain, Mia Wasikowska and Guy Pearce

Maggie: Ain’t that just like you, to believe your own goddamn legend?

LAWLESS, John Hillcoat’s follow up to the quiet and haunting post-apocalyptic contemplation, THE ROAD, is in many ways, the direct opposite of that film. While it is often just as visually interesting, it is a much louder film than his last. LAWLESS oscillates between the kind of quiet moments one expects from a prohibition-era period piece and the kind of roaring gunfire one expects from a mobster film from the same period. It boasts an unbelievable cast of actors but sadly even they cannot breathe life into this surprisingly drab film. For all its pedigree, LAWLESS is simply far from flawless.

Based on the true account of the Bondurant brothers, as chronicled by descendant, Matt Bondurant, in his novel, “The Wettest County in the World”, and adapted by singer/songwriter, Nick Cave, LAWLESS focuses most of its attention on the runt of the litter, Jack. Jack is played played by the guy who coincidentally also has the most to prove in this project, Shia LaBeouf, who steps away from big budget blockbusters and toward bigger budget indies instead. To make this point abundantly clear, which Hillcoat does again and again with many of the film’s failed attempts at subtlety, LAWLESS opens with a young Jack being taunted by his older brothers as he struggles to catch the runt of a pig litter on their farm. LaBeouf catches the metaphorical pig and demonstrates his potential for meatier fare as his career continues, but when you’re acting opposite the likes of Tom Hardy, Jessica Chastain and Mia Wasikowska, your best isn’t necessarily good enough.

LAWLESS is also relentlessly violent and entirely unapologetic about the whole thing. As Jack escalates his brothers’ bootlegging operation in the face of mounting corruption amongst the police, a war is waged and it isn’t a pretty one. The question becomes what is anyone actually fighting for though. Every character, save for Jack once he gets a taste of success, is cold and dispassionate. When they pick up their guns, no one has any concern for human life, be that their own or any one else’s. There is rarely ever a moment of joy on any one face and this rampant lifelessness leaves the impression that all of this violence is simply unnecessary. As a result, LAWLESS is left rather listless.

060. Transformers: Dark of the Moon

060. (19 Feb) Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011, Michael Bay) 38



Michael Bay's ability to establish space and time is as weak as ever. It's apparent there are a handful of major scripted, loosely connected plot points that have to be tied together by any means necessary. Bay's method is fading to black and using a handful of establishing shots in places where there should've been considerable set-up, most notable in the Chicago-set finale. That's almost completely sprung on us with no clear lead-in.

Plot, of course, is scarcely why Bay's movies are so popular. His action sequences remain exhilirating, particularly a freeway chase and a mind-blowing few minutes in a collapsing skyscraper. In a just world, these would be enough to lock the film down as the Oscar winner for Best Visual Effects. (The first Transformers losing that honor and the second being snubbed altogether is rather shameful.)

Other nominations for Sound Mixing and Sound Editing are clearly well-earned. That Chicago finale has some outright spectacular sound. Incoherent as the story may be, there's a remarkable cohesion in the sound design that ties the films together. Were it not for the noise and glossy appearance, this would be totally intolerable.

Suggesting just how troubled this installment is, Patrick Dempsey is the only performer who comes across at all well. He's a surprisingly accomplished villain and is the first actor I've seen in a Bay movie in quite some time that made any kind of positive impression. Ken Jeong is positively deadly. Josh Duhamel is criminally underused. Shia LaBeouf continues to offer nothing while I'd take Megan Fox over Rosie Huntington-Whiteley any day.

TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON

Written by Ehren Kruger

Directed by Michael Bay

Starring Shia LaBeouf, Josh Duhamel, John Turturro, Frances McDormand, Patrick Dempsey and Rosie Huntingdon-Whiteley

Simmons: Years from now, they’re going to ask, “Where were you when they took over the planet?” We’re going to say, “We just stood by and watched.”

Before today, I would never have equated Michael Bay’s directorial style with the soothing effect of a lullaby but that was before seeing TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON. It’s not that the barrage of intergalactic explosions of metal and mayhem that make up the majority of the third entry in the franchise would necessarily put you to sleep; it’s just that after sitting through Bay’s interpretation of the TRANSFORMERS universe three times now has lulled me into a state of semi-acceptance. I’ve never loved his vision for their world, which was a favorite of mine growing up, but I’ve now recognized that it is what it is and it isn’t about to change either. This shift allowed for me to see the latest installment as also the greatest.

Keep in mind that being called the best TRANSFORMERS movie to date is hardly a compliment given the history. Many of the essentials from the past make their inevitable returns this time out. Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) is back as friend to the Autobots and general all-around neurotic player with a giant chip in his shoulder. He now feels, like most of his youthful colleagues coming out of college, that he is entitled to great things right now with no dues to pay. Of course, he already has great things like doting parents (Kevin Dunn and Julie White) and an impossibly attractive new girlfriend, Carly (model, Rosie Huntingdon-Whitely, in her first and hopefully last acting role) but if he doesn’t have the fancy car and hot shot job to go with, then he might as well announce to the world that he is in fact not an actual man. Having saved the world twice already only serves to exacerbate his ego driven anxiety. Sam is stunted but that isn’t surprising given who the direction is coming from.

Part of the reason TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON works better is because it is more solidly grounded in reality from the start. Writer, Ehren Kruger (who also co-wrote REVENGE OF THE FALLEN) integrates Cybertronian lore into actual human history, having an Autobot vessel crash on the moon in the early 1960’s. The space race is then rewritten as a means to get to that ship first, which of course the Americans do. He then follows that up with some reasonably compelling betrayals amongst the Transformer ranks that will certainly appeal to longtime fans. Unfortunately, he fills the rest of the space with the usual misogynistic boyhood fantasies that Bay gets off on so bad. What you’re left with is a slightly more elevated and enjoyable experience that stems from a simple numbing of the senses. And when you wake from the dream, you may still long for what it could have been.

Like, since when is Shockwave not a clunker of a boom box?

WALL STREET: MONEY NEVER SLEEPS

Written by Allan Loeb and Steven Schiff

Directed by Oliver Stone

Starring Shia LaBeouf, Carey Mulligan, Josh Brolin and Michael Douglas

Gordon Gekko: A fisherman always sees another fisherman coming.

Oliver Stone is reputed to be a controversial film director but that isn’t entirely fair. To be controversial, one must make statements that rock the status quo and potentially encourage progress and change. Stone may have started out his career with more of a bite, but the two-time Oscar winner for directing, doesn’t actually have very much to say at this point. Instead, he attaches himself to projects that cannot help but be controversial in nature and allows our already preconceived notions of these subjects to do all the talking for him.

In WALL STREET: MONEY NEVER SLEEPS, Stone revisits one of his most successful films to supposedly reiterate to us what he did in the original WALL STREET, because clearly, we were not paying close enough attention then. In 1989, investment mogul, Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) stepped over everyone he knew for the almighty dollar and ended up going to prison. He was famous for having said that “Greed is good,” but as it turns out, it was pretty bad. So bad that it inspired him to write a book about how greed was going to be the downfall of America. He got rich off that book of course and then Gordon Gekko went on to predict the 2008 economic crisis. If only Stone had made this movie before everything happened. Maybe all of this calamity could have been avoided.

Gordon was released from prison in 2001 to find that no one was waiting for him and the world had continued on without him. Then apparently nothing at all happened for seven years because the story picks back up in 2008. Gordon’s daughter, Winnie (Carey Mulligan) is now dating a Wall Street up and comer, Jake Moore (Shia LaBeouf). Together they share a bright future full of possibility and fortune until their financial flooring falls out from underneath them. This new generation of money players is portrayed as reluctant but yet still able to enjoy their wealth and the lifestyle it affords them. Their ideals, nobility and honour, are still intact but this is just an illusion and lucky for all of us, Stone is here to show them that more money means more problems.

The greed that is bringing everyone down in WALL STREET: MONEY NEVER SLEEPS is exponentially bigger than it has ever been and Stone warns us that we will not survive another financial meltdown like the one that just forced the American government to fork over billions of bailout dollars. Solid performances and some impressive camera work on behalf of Rodrigo Pietro make the experience reasonably entertaining but Stone never lets us forget just how touchy everything is. He preaches of how moral hazard will continue to cripple the market but basically applies the same principals to his own filmmaking. As long as he hides behind the overbearing face of controversy, he will never have to risk anything of his own by actually saying something unpopular himself.