Mission Impossible 5, Mr Holmes, Tangerine, The Stanford Prison Experiment Reviews

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation
Dir. Christopher McQarrie
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I'm pretty sure Tom Cruise has a death wish. At 53 years old, he's still trying to top himself with death-defying stunts, and Rogue Nation, the fifth movie in the Mission: Impossible franchise, is filled with ridiculously dangerous situations that Cruise chose to do himself, without the aid of a stunt double. What results are some of the most exciting action set pieces you'll likely see all year, including Tom hanging onto an airplane taking off, Tom holding his breath underwater for minutes at a time, and Tom riding a motorcycle at really high speeds without a helmet - all the while being more in shape than I will likely ever be in my entire life. Even though Rogue Nation has a bland and generic spy plot, and doesn't quite have the same level of humor and camaraderie between the characters as Ghost Protocol (the best in the series), the action is so well handled that it will certainly whet the appetite of any action junkie or Cruise-ophile.

Its existence hinted at toward the end of the previous film, the "Syndicate" is a network of skilled operatives who are attempting to establish a new world order through a series of terrorist attacks. With the IMF disbanded by CIA director Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin), Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his cohorts Benji (Simon Pegg), Luther (Ving Rhames), William Brandt (Jeremy Renner), and a disavowed British agent Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), who may or may not be a member of the deadly organization, must team up and find the hidden secrets and faces behind this evil "rogue nation."

McQuarrie is definitely going for a bit of an old school feel here, and especially my having just taught a class on Hitchcock, Rogue Nation wears its influences on its sleeve. The female lead's name references Ingrid Bergman's from Notorious, Cruise is wearing the same jacket Cary Grant wore in North by Northwest during the airplane take-off, and there's an entire sequence at an opera house that was entirely lifted from The Man Who Knew Too Much. While there's a fine line between homage and rip-off, I think they stayed on the right side. But that doesn't excuse its boring story; any time there's a break in the action, the film slows down considerably, with lots of vague "spy talk" about the Syndicate.

I can't get over just how good the action is here though. If you can make it through some eye-rolling moments of "humor" and the inconsequential plot, you'll be treated with a handful of truly astonishing, IMAX-worthy set pieces. Even though they aren't as inventive and funny as Ghost Protocol (nothing tops the Burj Khalifa scene; "Blue is glue, red is dead"), they weren't any less exciting, especially since you can tell it's actually Cruise doing them.  During the motorcycle chase, for instance, when turning sharp corners, the bikes tilt to an almost impossible degree to the side, causing Hunt's knee to briefly bump against the asphalt. Or during the "underwater" scene, you can see and hear him starting to run out of breath. The tangible nature of the action raises the stakes considerably more than say the CGI-fest of something like Pixels.

It was tough to rate this movie as a whole, but just know that the action gets an "A," and if that's what you're in for (and I'm guessing you are since this is a Mission Impossible flick), then you will totally get your money's worth.

Rating: B-

Mr. Holmes
Dir. Bill Condon
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There have been tons of Sherlock Holmes adaptations throughout the years, especially since the character is in the public domain, but just when you think the well of Sherlock ideas has dried up, author Mitch Cullin had the bright idea to make the famous detective a wistful old man. Ian McKellen stars as the once-famous detective, now long-retired and starting to lose his memory. For closure, Holmes must remember his one last unsolved case, with the help of a young boy (Milo Parker), who lives with his housekeeping mother (Laura Linney) in Holmes' seaside farmhouse. Although the film is beautifully shot, acted, and scored, it falls under the weight of its convoluted plot and snail-like pacing.

Watching this film felt like taking a walk through a garden with a forgetful grandfather: the stories he tells are kind of all over the place, but it's a nice day and you don't necessarily care what he's saying, just that the flowers are pretty and he's not quite dead. Mr. Holmes was that same kind of feeling - McKellen is a charming, grandfatherly figure here, the British countryside is stunningly beautiful, but the plot was overly complicated and hard to follow (it's sort of like 3 mysteries in one - which I won't spoil) - not to mention the mumbling, heavy British accents were hard for me to fully grasp without subtitles. This is a good movie for when you don't feel British enough.

Rating: C

Tangerine
Dir. Sean Baker
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We live in an age where just about anyone can make a movie of their own. Tangerine, from writer/director Sean Baker, was shot entirely using 3 iPhone cameras, which goes to show that the only thing stopping you from making a film is your own lazy ass. The film follows a trans woman sex worker, Sin-Dee Rella (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez), who's just out of prison. Back on the streets of LA, she's informed by her friend, Alexandra (Mya Taylor), another trans sex worker, that her boyfriend/pimp, Chester, has cheated on her with some white chick while she was in jail. The whole movie is essentially Sin-Dee's neighborhood search for Chester to whoop his ass.

This very weird yarn plays out almost like a combination of Crank and Slacker, if it were directed by John Waters. In other words: it's wholly original and I give it props for that. It shows a subculture of Los Angeles that's rarely seen in film, and the "iPhone" aesthetic really makes you grounded in this oddball world of transvestite prostitutes and sexually confused taxi cab drivers. Though it's definitely not for everyone, and at times the story drags by showing too much of the "walking from A-to-B" stuff that would even make Peter Jackson balk, Tangerine is at times funny, poignant, disturbing, and refreshing.

Rating: B

The Stanford Prison Experiment
Dir. Kyle Patrick Alvarez
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Human nature is a scary thing. Based on a real event, The Stanford Prison Experiment follows Stanford Professor Philip Zombardo (Billy Crudup), who in 1971 devised a controversial psychological experiment to test the relationship between prisoners and guards. Zimbardo selects 24 young male college students to participate in a 1-2 week long trial for $15 a day. But, as events play out in the mock prison set up in the basement of the Psychology building, things don't quite go as planned (you can get a hint of things to come from the poster). I don't want to give anything away, but they're not exactly singing Kumbaya with each other by the end of it.

I found this minimalist thriller (set almost entirely in one room) to be completely spellbinding. Every actor was at the top of their game here; Crudup plays Zimbardo just right, in that "Walter White" grey zone of semi-bad guy who wants to push to see how far the experiment can go...for science...right? The kids are all also great, and you may notice a number of up-and-coming familiar faces (like Ezra Miller, Tye Sheridan, and Thomas Mann). The stand-out for me was Michael Angarano, who plays a "prison guard." If this kid doesn't get amazing roles after this, there's something wrong with Hollywood; his character makes the decision to fully "play out" the guard role to its fullest to really earn his $15, and he just hits that sweet spot of being both intimidating, but you also realize that he's sort of just doing what he thinks is his job.

I love the questions about identity and ethics this movie brings up, and although some scenes go on a little too long, I was always on the edge of my seat. In fact the elongated scenes just added to the suspense in that it felt like a rubber band being stretched to its limit: eventually it's going to snap. The Stanford Prison Experiment is a fantastic movie that you definitely should not read about before you see it! Highly recommended!

Rating: A-