Straight Outta Compton
Dir. F. Gary Gray
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The time just seems right for a biopic based on the artists responsible for the gangsta rap anthem "Fuck tha Police." N.W.A. (an acronym for "Niggaz with Attitude") was a groundbreaking musical outfit from the late 80's to the early '90s commonly referred to as the "World's Most Dangerous Group." They were among the first artists to rap about the reality around them, dealing with explicit lyrics that some viewed as glorifying drugs, disrespecting women, and encouraging the gangster lifestyle. Although their material is rough, and it's right to question some of it, N.W.A. remains an important piece of hip-hop history, and in a world where it seems like every day we hear of police officers shooting unarmed black youths, their raw "reality rap" seems more relevant than ever. It's very strange for such a hardcore group to get the traditional music biopic treatment, but Straight Outta Compton is an absorbing re-telling of the group's story with some great performances and (obviously) a kick-ass soundtrack.
The film follows the formation and ultimate dissemblance of the group, with a focus on the creation of the iconic album Straight Outta Compton. The five youths include an aspring DJ, Dr. Dre (Corey Hawkins), a lyricist, Ice Cube (O'Shea Jackson Jr.), the "business man" Eazy-E (Jason Mitchell), along with MC Ren (Aldis Hodge) and DJ Yella (Neil Brown Jr.). Under the guidance of record producer Jerry Heller (Paul Giamatti), they would go on to revolutionize rap and give a voice to a silenced generation. The first two thirds of this movie are really well put together, and it's hard not to get caught up in this classic underdog story. While I'm sure their struggle is simplified for the screen, the Boyz N the Hood-like urge to avoid the "street" life and the distrust of the corrupt police department makes it very easy to sympathize and root for these characters, all of whom spring to life with some great performances all around. These young actors, all of whom I don't recognize, all snap into their real life counterparts smoothly - they can pull off the humor, the drama, the attitude, and even the singing (although it's obvious they're lip syncing, I bought into it). Plus they all look like spitting images of N.W.A.
For better or worse, the film unfolds very typically in that familiar "rise and fall of a music artist" template. Controversies and conflicts are simplified to help tell its particular side of the story (their derogatory lyrics toward women is ignored), which makes the group look a little too rose-colored. But overall, I really had a great time with this film. The concert scenes are fantastic and really capture the energy of the group, and it does give a broad history for those (like me) who may not be overly familiar with this story. You definitely don't have to be a fan of the genre to enjoy this; it unfurls sort of like a gangster movie. A surprisingly mainstream re-telling of a definitively un-mainstream group, Straight Outta Compton is an unexpected August crowd-pleaser.
Rating: B
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
Dir. Guy Ritchie
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2015 was secretly the year of the spy film; even though it feels like superheroes are what's taken over the multiplexes, there have only been three this year (Avengers 2, Ant-Man, and Fantastic Four), whereas there have been four spy movies released (Kingsman: The Secret Service, Spy, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, The Man from U.N.C.L.E.) and Spectre still on the way. Like Mission Impossible, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is based on the 1960's television program of the same name, and is a decidedly old school throwback to "classic" spy thrillers, actually taking place in the '60s without using an overabundance of "high tech" gadgetry. However, I've never been a huge Guy Ritchie fan, and as of late his output hasn't been promising (the last two Robert Downey Jr. Sherlock Holmes movies), and U.N.C.L.E. just completely fell flat for me. The action was dull, the acting was stiff, the story was convoluted and hard to follow, and in typical Ritchie fashion, it was hollow stylization with nothing to back it up.
The story follows two agents, CIA agent Napoleon Solo (Henry Cavill) and KGB agent Illya Kuryakin (Armie Hammer), forced together to stop a mysterious organization from a nuclear threat (which seems like the plot to half of these movies). Their only lead is the daughter of a vanished German scientist, Gabby Teller (Alicia Vikander), who becomes their only chance of finding him and stopping the generic bad guys. There's not a whole heck of a lot to the story, so the important things here are the actors and the action, neither of which impressed me. Cavill is trying to put on his best American accent here as a "smooth" Bond-like secret agent, but I didn't believe him at all. Alicia Vikander, who was fantastic earlier this year in Ex Machina, also has accent trouble, which changes throughout the picture. Hammer too, grapples with a distracting Russian voice. I found all three leads weird and distracting due to their accents, and bland personalities. Once in a while there'd be a chuckle-worthy exchange between them, but I was honestly bored throughout most of the runtime here.
The action scenes weren't much inspired either; they turn into typically "Ritchie" badly paced excuses for style, such as a split-screen section that attempted to pull a "Brian De Palma," but felt more like Ang Lee's Hulk movie. With Mission Impossible still in theaters, there's no way I can recommend this throwaway movie. It's not completely terrible (the period detail - the sets and costumes - were beautiful, along with the actors), but I was generally bored and got nothing out of it. With so much good stuff in theaters, you shouldn't waste your time, even if you're a curious fan of the show.
Note: During my screening, there was an unbearably obnoxious girl sitting a few rows behind me that would not stop laughing at every little god damn thing. Things that warranted a chuckle she was screeching over. Things that weren't really even jokes she was yelping over like a hyena on acid. There's no way this didn't effect my opinion of the film, so that may partly account for my relatively low rating.
Rating: C-
Shaun the Sheep
Dir. Mark Burton & Richard Starzak
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I've always had an appreciation for clay animation. Both Wallace and Gromit and Chicken Run were childhood favorites of mine, and it was always fascinating to me that you can tangibly see the painstaking work that went into animating them by hand. Shaun the Sheep, based on the TV show of the same name, is the latest from Aardman Studios, in which Shaun, like Babe before him, goes to the city, in search of his lost farmer. While this one is definitely more geared towards little ones than adults (unlike Chicken Run, which was a bit more adult-friendly with its Great Escape plot), Shaun the Sheep is a totally charming, cutely-animated quaint adventure that somehow feels very "British." Also it's worth noting that there is not a single line of dialogue in this entire film. It was totally refreshing to see a kids movie like this just go for it - to try and capture the pure cinematic storytelling from the silent era where visuals alone had to tell the story.
When shaun and his sheep pals decide to take a day off and have some fun, they accidentally knock the caravan in which their farmer is sleeping down a steep hill, and he ends up in the middle of the city, lost and amnesic. So Shaun and company sneak down there to try and find him, all the while trying to avoid the animal control guy. It's a very simple story that kids of all ages can enjoy, which is nice, but it doesn't have as many "winking to the parents" moments as a usual Pixar or Disney outing. The animation also isn't quite as eye-popping as anything from say, Laika animation (whose Coraline and Paranorman are underrated masterpieces), but it feels like a fun, cute, slightly expanded episode of the show. There are a lot of small "background" gags that I'm sure I didn't notice on a first watch, but overall I didn't laugh more than a chuckle. The best word I can use to describe it is "quaint." If you're sitting at home, scratching yourself, and wondering, 'Gee, I could go for something quaint right about now,' look no further.
Note: My theater experience watching this film was perhaps one of the worst and most bizarre I've ever had. There was a mother with five kids sitting behind me, and the youngest was crying throughout the entire thing (this was a 9:00pm showing on a Wednesday night, which I assumed would be toddler-less). She left the theater about midway through the film, only to return 10 minutes later, kid still screaming, and her other four running back and forth, banging a sippy cup on the empty seats in front of them. Then there was an extremely overweight man in the front row who laughed at every little thing, who sounded like a complete madman. His laugh did not make sense - it sounded like someone had slowed down a recording of a normal laugh by 20%. Then there was a father and daughter in front of me who kept stomping their feet whenever music played. Stomping really violently. Again, this may have factored into my rating.
Rating: B-
Dark Places
Dir. Gilles Paquet-Brenner
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Having read Gone Girl and Dark Places (and soon to read Sharp Objects), I can already say that Gillian Flynn may be one of my favorite authors, currently. She has a dark, snappy, sarcastic sensibility that I really connect with, and it's a sensibility that could make for a great movie adaptation. David Fincher's Gone Girl managed to replicate that same tone, and captured the imagery of the book really well, while showing us unequivocally that a pre-Batman Ben Affleck had some acting chops. Dark Places, adapted from Flynn's second novel, unfortunately doesn't do the same trick.
The story follows Libby Day (Charlize Theron), a woman from Kansas who tries to piece together the facts of her family's murder 25 years after her testimony. A secret society, known as the "Kill Club," which specializes in unsolved murders, approaches her to get to the bottom of the mystery of "who killed the Days?" Was it Libby's heavy metal-listening brother Ben (Tye Sheridan and Corey Stoll)? Was it her abusive father Runner (Sean Bridgers)? Was it Ben's girlfriend Diondra (Chloe-Grace Moretz)? Or was it something even beyond that? The book is a real page-turner, as more and more of the mystery is revealed through a typically novel-y flashback structure. Although the movie sticks closely to the page, it simply doesn't translate very well. The many characters and different timelines make for a jumbled mess of a narrative, and the "inner monologue" that made Libby such a fun, but dark, character to follow is totally missing despite Theron working 110%. Most of the actors seem like they're going through the motions, and the film feels like a passionless retread of the book, like a really boring English teacher reading aloud an otherwise interesting story to the class.
Perhaps without someone like David Fincher at the helm, it's difficult to make such a specific voice pop off the page and onto the screen. Because it's not necessarily the story itself that makes Flynn a great writer, it's her singular mode of telling it. Fincher has always been great at taking the words of other writers and making them shine in his own way, but I don't think Gilles Paquet-Brenner was able to do that with Dark Places. Dark Places is bland - it's "dark" certainly, but that doesn't mean it needs to be dull. The film wastes a great story and an A-list cast just, in my mind, to ride on the success of Gone Girl, which is a disappointment. My advice: read the book, skip the movie.
Rating: C-
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