Wind River
Dir. Taylor Sheridan
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Crime thrillers are a dime a dozen nowadays, and especially with the current TV renaissance we're living through, bringing us shows like True Detective, Fargo, Hannibal, and Ozark to name a few, it's very difficult to bring the same level of depth and character development to a single 2 hour film. However, Wind River, the directorial debut of Taylor Sheridan, best known for writing Sicario and Hell or High Water (my #2 of 2016), manages to deliver the same thrills and complexity that we've been spoiled with over the past few years on the small screen. Sheridan's film succeeds in that it not only acts as a nail-biting drama, but also has a lot to say about survival, what life is like on an Indian reservation, and the toll grief takes on us. In all the right ways it's haunting, beautiful, disturbing, extremely well-acted, and in my mind one of 2017's must-see movies!
The film follows a wildlife officer, Cory Lambert (Jeremy Renner), on a American Indian Reservation in Wyoming. The law is spread really thin on the "Rez" (6 officers spread to cover an area the size of Rhode Island), so when Lambert finds the frozen, battered body of an 18-year-old woman lying dead in the snow one day, there's not exactly a lot of resources at their disposal to catch the killer. Teaming up with Lambert, FBI agent Jane Banner (Elizabeth Olsen) also arrives to aid in the investigation - although her urbanite life in sunny Florida hardly prepared her for the harsh conditions to follow.
Although the overall story is a bit cliched, I thought that the filmmakers did an amazing job with just about every aspect of this film. I haven't seen Renner this good since his role on the episode of Louie, "In the Woods" (very underrated episode!); over the course of the film he powerfully shows how solving this murder isn't just another job for him - it becomes personal. His relationship with Olsen's character is refreshingly free of a "love interest," more that of mutual respect from wildly different people. I also thought every scene he shares with the grieving father of the murdered girl (Gil Birmingham) was great, as both men, who want to project a kind of "macho" charisma, start to emotionally crumble under the weight of the injustices they face.
Just as he did with Hell or High Water, Sheridan expertly weaves a strong social commentary through the lens of a gripping crime story without being preachy. Placing a typical murder story in this unique environment gives practically every element of the story more depth. I don't want to incur spoilers, but I was damn impressed by this movie, and it definitely sits among some of the best I've seen this year.
Rating: A-
Good Time
Dir. Benny & Josh Safdie
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Since becoming a world-wide superstar after playing a sparkling vampire in the teeny bopper Twilight series, Robert Pattinson has been desperately trying to escape his public image of "teen heartthrob" with challenging, offbeat films like The Rover and David Cronenberg's Cosmopolis. Although commendably ambitious, I never really felt he came into his own with those flicks - but Good Time marks a huge change in my view of Pattinson as an actor. From directors Benny and Josh Safdie (Heaven Knows What), Good Time is sort of like Of Mice and Men meets Taxi Driver meets Enter the Void and an Oscar-worthy acting showcase for Pattinson. It's a crazy, intense, colorful, gritty heist movie that held me in its grip and totally blew me away for its entire run time.
The film begins in New York, with Constantine Nikas (Pattinson) and his mentally handicapped brother Nick (Benny Safdie) attempting to commit a bank robbery. However, the job gets botched, and Nick lands in prison while "Connie" manages to escape. The rest of the movie is a twisted, unpredictable, non-stop odyssey through a whacked-out New York underground as Connie races against the clock to accrue the necessary bail money for his brother.
The feeling of adrenaline and desperation is palpable from beginning to end, and Good Time definitely solidifies the Safdie Brothers as fantastic "indie" voices in cinema today. The heavy electronic music score is one of the best of the year and the performances feel like a documentary capturing real people (Pattison's real British accent is undetectable, and Safdie's "slow" speech seems creepily authentic, as you can tell basic thoughts take a little more effort for him). Sort of like Taxi Driver, this movie forces the viewer to look at some of the "lowest" rungs of society, and asks us: How did these people get this way? Where did our society let these people down?
To me, Good Time is pure cinema, in the idea that the feelings it evokes cannot be experienced in any other way than on the screen. I loved this movie, and despite its heavy subject matter and panic-inducing suspense sequences, I had a good time watching it.
Rating: A
Brigsby Bear
Dir. Dave McCarey
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NOTE: I hate when this happens, but I missed about two minutes of this movie because I could no longer hold in my urine and had to leave for the restroom. Who knows if those two minutes would've affected my rating, but just letting you know.
Brigsby Bear, written by and starring current SNL cast member Kyle Mooney, has a surprisingly un-comic premise: James Pope (Mooney) grew up in an underground bunker, with only his parents (Mark Hamill and Jane Adams) and his massive VHS collection of "Brisgby Bear" tapes - a low budget public access children's show - to keep him company. However - SPOILERS - at the tender age of 25, after the FBI raids his desert home, James finds out for the first time that the outside world is not filled with airborne toxins, and that his parents actually kidnapped him as a baby. Returning to his real family all these years later, James has to deal with the after effects of living a sheltered life for so long and somehow learn to make connections with people - made all the more complicated by his obsession with "Brigsby Bear."
The above description sounds more like some kind of demented, serious psychological drama, but Mooney expertly balances the tone between sadness and a genuinely warm light-heartedness. Similar to Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt on Netflix (only without that show's hyperventilating kookiness), this movie takes a story where the central character knows a lot of pain, and turns it into a kind of strange, but engaging coming-of-age, fish out of water comedy. It's a balancing act at that works thanks to a well-crafted script and nuanced characters, especially from Mooney, who never judges the characters (even the "kidnappers").
Brisgby Bear is oddly inspiring and also eventually becomes one of the best "movies about making movies" I've seen since possibly American Movie. Strange and lovable, just like its protagonist, Brigsby Bear is further proof that the cast of SNL has a ridiculous amount of talent that extends far beyond their goofy characters on short-form sketch comedy.
Rating: A-
Ingrid Goes West
Dir. Matt Spicer
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One of the greatest movies about how media can be destructive for mentally unstable people is the all-time classic Network from 1976. In it, anchorman Howard Beale (Peter Finch), after realizing he's about to be fired due to low ratings, decides to shoot himself live on TV. Entering into an angry rant while the cameras are rolling, all of a sudden the UBS network gets a huge boost in ratings. In many ways, I found Ingrid Goes West to be the "Network" of the current Instagramming, Facebooking, social media generation.
Aubrey Plaza plays Ingrid Thorburn, a mentally unstable woman living in Pennsylvania. After finding out a "friend" of hers did not extend an invite to her wedding, she shows up and sprays her with a can of mace, landing her in a mental ward. Following her release, Ingrid grows obsessed with a social media starlet named Taylor Sloane (Elizabeth Olsen), who appears to lead a "perfect" life - going to the best restaurants, wearing the best clothes, having the best parties - nothing but the BEST. With the inheritance left after her mother's death, Ingrid decides to move to California and worm her way into Taylor's life, attempting to befriend her and to become social-media famous in some unsettling, disturbing ways.
This movie, similar to Brigsby Bear, examines a very dark subject with humor and satire. However, this flick doesn't shy away from the worst impulses of human behavior, and Aubrey Plaza, who has continued to surprise me with offbeat projects like Life After Beth and Legion, completely commits to this character without making her feel like an inauthentic caricature. While you can't really root for her, her self-destructive journey filled with lies and deceit is fascinating and makes you wonder about the ramifications of putting yourself online. This film should be required-viewing for media studies classes in my opinion, as it shows how destructive our current "like" culture can be. Really smartly written and well-acted, Ingrid Goes West expertly balances its tones and presents one of Plaza's best performances to date.
Rating: A
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