Hell or High Water (2016) Review

“Only assholes drink Mr. Pibb.”

 Recently, the American western has been making a comeback since the remake of True Grit. After True Grit we’ve got films and television shows such as Bone Tomahawk, Slow West, The Salvation, The Homesman, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, Justified, and Hell on Wheels. A lot of the westerns have brought fresh and unique approaches to the genre. Essentially westerns are love letters to a long-ago era. The stories are usually simple, but the dialogue almost poetic. The desperado usually wears black and the protagonist wears a white stetson. The desperado can even be the hero of the story. Watching a good western is one of my favorite things to do. Hell or High Water, a rare modern western, is a gritty captivating film that stays on the viewer’s mind even weeks after watching. Hell or High Water works on so many different levels. It’s certainly one of my favorite films of this year.

  The story is about two brothers, Tanner and Toby Howard that turn to robbing banks for their livelihood. They rob a specific chain of banks for a personal reason. Their mother had just passed away from a terminal illness and she left them the family farm. They can’t live on the farm since it’s about to reach foreclosure from the bank. So then Toby plans to rob from the soulless banks that robbed them of their land. So it’s a mission to correct the wrongdoings that was brought upon his family. The brothers aren’t criminals (well Toby anyways) they’re simply desperate. With the news about the robberies, a Texas Ranger and his partner search for the robbers.

   The film’s opening scene shows the brothers calmly and without any violence robbing a bank. Toby wanted to rob the bank when it first opened when there were no customers. The brothers only take the small bills from the front. They get away easily, bury their vehicle, and carry on to the next bank location. Toby is a soft-spoken, concerned, strong, and well-mannered man. He’s divorced and his two sons live with his ex-wife. He can barely pay child support for them. His intentions are essentially good. He wants to give the family farm fully paid to his children so they won’t have to live in poverty. Tanner is an ex-convict who is wild, erratic, hard headed, but has a strong love for his brother. He’s doing the robberies for his brother and for the thrill of it. Toby makes sure that no innocent people are harmed during the robberies and that’s why he made a foolproof plan.

   Once word is out on the bank robberies two Texas Rangers Marcus and Alberto search for the people responsible. Marcus is senior investigator in the department. He’s almost retired and wants to go out in the blaze of glory for his last case. He seems to always be worn out and breathes heavily when he walks for too long, but is smart when it comes to solving cases. Marcus is rather racist and extremely sarcastic. He makes racist and bigoted jokes about Alberto’s heritage (Native American/ Mexican). The both banter back and fourth. It’s a reminder of when friends could tease one other without worrying about class action lawsuits. Their friendship provides both insights into the culture of West Texas. Alberto provides his thoughts on where America is going. He points out how the whites robbed the West and took it from the Natives and now it’s happening to the white families who have owned their property for generations. What he says is full of truth and irony. The conversations Marcus and Alberto have are some of the best writing I’ve seen on film.

    West Texas is still the Wild West. The film feels like it’s a love letter to West Texas. The desert towns feel like they’re ghost towns. When the brothers pass through the towns there’s many foreclosure signs, pawn shops, loan shops, and the banks. Director David McKenzie (Starred Up) wanted to show the viewer the town’s desperation visually. That the bank’s greed is changing a once beautiful flourishing land. He wanted to portray that the banks have become judge, jury, and executioner for people who aren’t wealthy enough then strip them of their family possessions.

   The cast is superb as they all gave such amazing performances. Ben Foster plays his typical character, the charismatic maniac, but he plays it so well especially in this film. If you haven’t seen any of his films watch 3:10 to Yuma and Ain’t Them Bodies Saints they’re really good. Tanner’s character is unpredictable but holds a strong code when it pertains to family. Chris Pine truly shines in this film. He showed his potential as an actor in the Star Trek reboot series and in Hell or High Water he finally proved his acting ability. Pine gives a fresh, subtle, and an emotionally persuasive performance. Jeff Bridges is great as the sarcastic Texas Ranger on his last case before retirement. Jeff Bridges is basically playing himself, which is fine by me.

  The cast may be outstanding, but the true star of the film is the script. It rises above the typical bank robbery film due to the phenomenal writing of Taylor Sheridan who wrote last year’s Sicario. The dialogue is some of the best I’ve seen in a film. I always look for good dialogue, which is why I love the Before Sunrise trilogy, Glengarry Glen Ross, My Dinner with Andre, and Pulp Fiction.  The dialogue has that natural feeling to it from the brothers to Marcus and Alberto.

   David Mackenzie and Taylor Sheridan created a masterpiece of a western. It’s a film that is composed of many complex themes like corporatism, family, the American Dream, racism, and where America may be headed one day. Toby states that he’s never been a part of the American Dream because the family has always been kept poor. That the family has been in poverty for so many generations that it has slowly became a sickness. He doesn’t want his children to be a part of such a sickness. Toby wants them to live the American Dream as best they can. Even though Toby rather do anything else than rob banks, but he does it for family. Tanner enjoys being a criminal, but he’s being careful because he’s helping his brother. Marcus is conflicted because the town finds the brothers to be heroes robbing the banks that have been robbing them.

    Hell or High Water is a perfect film. It rises above the typical heist film with its many complex themes and great dialogue. Many of the summer films were simply popcorn movies, with an exception to a few films, so it was nice when this came out.

5 out of 5

Kubo and the Two Strings (2016) Review

“He looked into my eyes and uttered four simple words. These words changed everything… ‘You Are My Quest,’ he whispered. I have seen the wonders of the universe, but the warmth of his gaze as I looked into his eyes. That… that I had never known. It was his humanity I saw.”

   Kubo and the Two Strings is an extraordinary film that provides some complex themes along with some of the most strikingly gorgeous animation that I have ever seen. To express its story, the film uses a blend of origami and stop motion. It’s Laika’s best film since Coraline.

  The film is set in Japan and references Japanese folklore, the samurai code, and Buddhism. "Recognizing his compassion, I recognized my own." It's like the lessons of Buddhism can be condensed to that one sentence. The director Travis Knight said that his mother-in-law and her family are Buddhists and he wanted a film that dealt with that because that sort of spirituality is something one hardly sees in a film. I’m glad that he did that because Buddhism is a beautiful thing and it really adds to the story. The film provides how the Buddhist custom of the festival of Obon is like when the spirits of loved ones come back. I also like how they incorporated cranes into the story. It shows the Western viewers a different way of conceptualizing death, human identity, mourning, and memory.

    The story is about a one-eyed child named Kubo. He lives in an uninhabited mountain with his mother who is very grief-stricken. When he isn’t taking care of his mother he performs origami tricks with his magic shamisen for the neighboring village. He always tells the same story about his father who is on a mission to destroy the Moon King with help from three pieces of golden armor (sword, helmet, and breastplate).  After accidentally disobeying his mother by staying out after dark he encounters his mother’s sisters who are just as evil as the Moon King. His mother reawakens to save her son from her sisters. She uses the last of her powers to protect Kubo. He awakes in a blizzard and sets off to find the three pieces of golden armor to defeat the Moon King once in for all. On his journey the strict Monkey, Kubo’s origami model of his father Little Hanzo, and the forgetful Beetle accompany him.

  The film tells the viewers that everyone has the capability to tell their own stories. The theme resonates quite a bit in the film. When Kubo’s mother tells him the tale of how she encountered his father we find out she was ordered to slay him. She then changes her story during their fight when she lets herself love him and to be loved by him. Kubo thinks he knows how his story will end till he fights the Moon King. He comprehends that vengeance isn’t the perfect ending, but kindheartedness is.

   When watching animated films I always search for morals that will teach children valuable lessons. So I was quite pleased with Kubo and the Two Strings. It teaches that loss can be good. Death is inevitable, but with death comes transformation and with that comes peace. Regardless of how much it can hurt or upset us that with our memories of them they’ll always stay with us. Memories give us strength.

  What does “the two strings” in the title mean? I think it changes throughout the film. First it starts off with life and death, then mother and father, Monkey and Beetle, Buddhism and Shinto, and lastly creativity and storytelling. At least that’s what I got from it.

   There’s only one flaw about Kubo and the Two Strings. The film is set in Japan and the characters are Japanese, but white actors voice the main characters. The performances are great even though I wish that Japanese actors did the voices. Granted some of the minor roles are played by Japanese actors like Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (Mortal Kombat, The Last Emperor) and the great George Takei (Star Trek, “Oh My”). I think Laika did this to attract many Western audiences to their film with big name actors.

   Kubo and the Two Strings provides a deep-rooted emotional experience. The sound and visuals bring such a depth that you feel a wide range of emotions. There were times that I felt melancholy, happiness, loss, and much more. Kubo and the Two Strings is one of the better animated movies I’ve seen since How To Train Your Dragon 2 and Big Hero 6. I recommend this film highly.

4.9 out of 5

Apocalypse Now (1979) Review

“I watched a snail crawl along the edge of a straight razor. That's my dream; that's my nightmare. Crawling, slithering, along the edge of a straight razor... and surviving.”

   Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 Vietnam War film, Apocalypse Now, tells an intense, gruesome, convincing, and disturbing story of one of America's worst wars. The film has a fantastic story and characters while using stunning cinematography with magnificent sound mixing. Apocalypse Now loosely is based on Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. It shares many meanings, themes, and even scenes from the book. “My film is not about Vietnam. My film is Vietnam. It’s what it was really like.” Apocalypse Now isn’t simply a war film. It is war. The film provides a symbolic description on the weakening effects that war has on the human consciousness. It’s the most daring films that was ever made and to simply call it a masterpiece would be such an understatement. It’s one of the best films ever made. Apocalypse Now is perfection.

  The opening sequence of the film shows a wide shot of a forest full of palm trees. It seems peaceful until the viewer sees a helicopter fly by. The music in the background is of the song The End by The Doors, which sets the mood of the film. The viewer then sees napalm and shortly after the destruction of the quiet forest still in the wide shot. As the destruction of the forest continues we see the film’s protagonist overlapping with the imagery. It foreshadows what it to come. It’s as if he is he having a flashback, but not really.  It looks more like he’s longing to get back into the absurdity of war.

  As the scene continues it show’s a regular shot of the protagonist’s face up close. The music stops then it cuts to his point of view that is of the ceiling and fan. The fan is spinning and it sounds like a helicopter rotor spinning. He has a gun under his pillow and it looks like he had been drinking quite a bit of alcohol since his glass is practically empty on the bedside table. It’s showing how unbalanced this protagonist is. The viewer is then shown the protagonist’s setting, which is a compressed motel room. His room is somewhat rather dark and when he gets up to peak through the blinds it produces bars of light, which makes it look like he is trapped there longing to be free as he expressed in his opening lines.

“Every time I think I'm gonna wake up back in the jungle. When I was home after my first tour, it was worse. I'd wake up and there'd be nothing. I hardly said a word to my wife, until I said "yes" to a divorce. When I was here, I wanted to be there; when I was there, all I could think of was getting back into the jungle. I'm here a week now... waiting for a mission... getting softer. Every minute I stay in this room, I get weaker, and every minute Charlie squats in the bush, he gets stronger. Each time I looked around the walls moved in a little tighter.”

This is a very great opening scene of as a result of war a man is losing his sanity.

    The protagonist we are introduced to is Captain Benjamin L. Willard and his mission is to "terminate... with extreme prejudice" Colonel Kurtz who has gone AWOL deep within the Cambodian jungle. They tell Willard that Kurtz is delusional and that he has a large group of devoted followers who worship him as if he is a god. The mission to Willard seemed easy, he expected combat, but the journey to Kurtz will test the limits of a man’s soul.

  Willard teams up with a small crew to journey down the river in a navy control boat to kill Kurtz, but before that he had to pass through a coastal region that is heavy in Viet Cong power. “I love the smell of napalm in the morning,” says Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore, which is one of the most famous lines ever said in a war film. Kilgore is originally hesitant to call helicopters in for back up on Willard’s mission, but he changes his mind when he learns that one of Willard’s crew is a professional surfer and that the entrance to the river has good waves. The Lieutenant loves to surf. As they are flying to the destination he plays Richard Wagner’s ‘Ride of the Valkyries’ from the helicopters. He explains to Willard’s crew, “It scares the hell out of the slopes. My boys love it.” He takes on the entire beach with a napalm airstrike. Before the fighting is even over he sends his men into the water to ride the waves because as he put it, “Charlie don’t surf.”

   Finally, they embark down the river and Willard educates himself with a giant folder on Kurtz. The folder delivers a lot of information on Kurtz and as Willard reads it he provides his thoughts on the details. The viewer learns that Kurtz was a highly respected Green Beret. He was an intelligent man, who would be considered normal and was a family man. Then one day Kurtz surrendered to the horrors of man and went down the path that Willard is going on. As the crew descends deeper within the jungle, they all begin to lose what’s left of their sanity. Willard’s decay is that like Kurtz’s.

   There are three main characters in the film: the jungle or nature in general, Captain Willard, and the Colonel Kurtz. The jungle is swarming with life, yet there’s a stench of death at the same time. The jungle plays an essential part on many of the characters behaviors. In such a primal setting, it can distort the light and darkness of the human soul. The atmosphere in the jungle is in the unknown, which can cause fear. A man no matter how strong will become vulnerable with his surrounding and once he does this he will uncover his darkness. Captain Willard is not an individual; he is simply a tool that his officers use. He doesn’t hesitate when they give him a mission to terminate a highly decorated American soldier. He does whatever is asked of him. Kurtz himself points out that Willard is blind in his obedience to the group. “You’re an errand boy, sent by grocery clerks, to collect a bill.”

    Colonel Kurtz is a fascinating character. Kurtz originally was at one point in time a man of standards and moralities, who is overflowing with philanthropic ideals. Nevertheless, these ideals become consumed by the darkness of power and he turns his back entirely on morality. He acts as if he is god and takes control of a village in Cambodia. To preserve his power he uses barbaric techniques in the village. Yet when Willard arrives Kurtz acts almost childlike. Willard is put into a metal box in the extreme heat. When he wakes up he sees a lot of children peeking through the holes and if you look closely Kurtz is looking through one of the holes as if he’s one of the children. He then opens the door to the metal box, sits down next to it, and somewhat talks about the war. Instead of giving a detailed speech on how the war is meaningless he simply reads an article from TIME that said the Americans were winning the Vietnam War. Kurtz has seen atrocious things throughout his life; things that only death can help escape such horrors. He knows Willard will kill him and he wants him too, but he wants to pass down some knowledge to him before that happens. To let him know the savage nature of war in hopes that Willard will deplore it. So in a way not only was he once a warrior, a monster, god to the village, but a deceiver. He didn’t resist death, but yielded to it.

   The directing was truly remarkable here. The 70s was Francis Ford Coppola’s decade to shine with Godfather 1 & 2, The Conversation, and his last larger-than-life film Apocalypse Now. Most directors make the viewer have the sense that they’re in war while others show the horrors of war. Coppola constructs the feelings of confusion, fear, and the feeling of surprise. That’s something I’ve rarely experienced in a film. The writing was of course astonishing too. The cinematography is so very beautiful. Out of all the Vietnam War films Apocalypse Now is the most impressive, frightening, and unsettling.

   All the acting was hair-raising. Marlon Brando was excellent as Colonel Kurtz. Marlon Brando has always been a highly respected actor. He is transcendent in everything that he is in. It’s indisputable that he is a genius when it comes to acting. It’s well known that he was notoriously difficult to work with, yet his talent when filmed was phenomenal. Seems like Brando knew what he was doing. His version of Colonel Kurtz was quite profound. To me his performance as Kurtz is even more memorable than that he gave in The Godfather. Martin Sheen provides a very emotional performance and it’s probably the best performance of his career. Robert Duvall as Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore was a great supporting character because of how irrational and preposterous he was. Willard’s crew: Sam Bottoms, Albert Hall, Frederic Forest, and a very young Laurence Fishburne were great in their roles.  Dennis Hopper and Harrison Ford’s minor characters were good. Harrison Ford playing the clumsy Colonel G. Lucas (funny) and Dennis Hopper essentially playing well Dennis Hopper.

  The film came out before my time so I was unable to see it in the cinema, but when a director’s cut (Apocalypse Now: Redux) was released in cinemas in 2001 I was immediately there. It’s just a bit longer than the original and still as good. My only gripe about it was the scene at the French plantation. It was very out of place in my opinion. Other than that it was pure perfection. I highly recommend this film.

5 out of 5

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) Review

“I have always loved you. I would rather be a ghost, drifting by your side as a condemned soul, than enter heaven without you. Because of your love, I will never be a lonely spirit.”
   My friend’s father once told me that if you don’t have some form of a religious experience during a martial arts film, it’s not a true martial arts film. That was the most honest thing I ever heard from the man. Many martial arts film have provided me with such an experience such as: A Touch of Zen, 7 Samurai, Harakiri, Curse of the Golden Flower, IP Man, Enter the Dragon, and then there’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Not only did I have such an experience, but I was in complete awe for many weeks even after watching the film. The film is pure cinematic art. I felt like I was in a painting with all the vibrant colors. The action is like you’re watching a ballet. Every movement they make is mesmerizing. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon falls under the Wuxia genre that is Chinese fiction that deals with chivalry, martial arts, and sometimes sorcery. I read a lot of Wuxia novels as a child like the Book and the Sword, The Smiling Proud Wanderer, Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain, and basically anything written by Jin Yong. My imagination always took flight when reading them. So I was thrilled when I heard Ang Lee was directing a Wuxia film. I was not disappointed because he truly captured what I had imagined reading those novels. 
    Chow Yun Fat truly shines in this film. He brings such a spellbinding screen presence in his portrayal of the regal Master Li Mu Bai. He delivers his unspoken feelings beautifully towards Yu Shu Lien (Yeoh) that I believe no one else could have done. Master Li Mu Bai is tired of fighting; he simply wants there to be peace and hopes that one day to spend his life with the woman he loves, but keeps a distance from. Things get complicated when Jen steals the sword Green Destiny. Jen’s master is the evil Jade Fox who killed Li Mu Bai’s master. He is then burdened with the obligation to avenge his master’s death.
    The fight scenes are astonishing and each one is different. Each fight sequence was choreographed beautifully. Their movements were so gracious and the combat so sophisticated. The fight scenes are quite the visual delight. My favorite scene has to be the bamboo forest fight sequence. Everything about that scene is so elegant and tranquil. The scene could be interpreted as serenity. While the trees move back and forth the master stands still even when Jen presses the bamboo hard.

  Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon deals with love, longing, passion, revenge, and expresses it such a deep meaningful way. It’s more than just a martial arts film it has a moving beauty and poetic grace about it. The film transports the viewer to ancient temples, bamboo forests, and the vastness of the desert. The fight scenes are a visual treat and the acting is phenomenal. Ang Lee did a wonderful job on this film

5 out of 5

Shin Godzilla (2016) Review

“Man is more destructive than Gojira.”

   Godzilla is a sixty-two year old franchise and has had thirty-one films throughout the monster’s career. The franchise has had it’s up and downs, but a majority of them have been good. When I heard Toho was making a new Godzilla film I was overjoyed. I waited and waited for a release date for the US. Then finally it happened and when I saw it I was not disappointed.

Shin Godzilla is probably the most unusual Godzilla film to date. It requires an open mind to appreciate it because it is the thinking man’s Godzilla. The film is very comprehensive with its political, economical, and ethical consequences. Then it asks the questions, in an extreme process of scientific details, to why Godzilla exists and how could he move or breathe. So for the majority of the film the viewer follows politicians, scientists, and the military during each detailed step of the Godzilla disaster.

   Over the years, Godzilla has transformed into a ridiculous protector of earth, but with Shin Godzilla it goes back to its roots. In many ways Shin Godzilla is like the original 1954 classic with how it shows the catastrophic horror of Godzilla. That he’s not a character, but rather a walking disaster that leaves behind a trail of radiation that may kill people even after he’s gone. The original was a serious allegory for the horror the Japanese had to face from the atomic bomb. This time I believe it’s a serious critique about how the government handled the tsunami that hit back in 2011 that resulted in nuclear disaster.

   This Godzilla design is probably my second favorite behind Godzilla vs. Destoroyah. The design was fresh and quite amazing. The breath weapon was truly mesmerizing and his backstory was refreshing. My favorite scene was at night when he finally opened his mouth and wreaked havoc on the city. The scene was absolutely beautiful. This Godzilla is probably the most destructive than he’s ever been.

   There’s only two complaints I have with this film. The first is what I have with every Godzilla film. Could do with less humans and needs more Godzilla. The second is Satomi Ishihara’s character with her horrific acting and super terrible English dialog. It seems like every show or film Ishihara is in she ends up being my least favorite character. She’s like the Kristen Stewart of Japan. I heard from someone in audience say that she almost killed the film for him. How on earth she thinks she’ll be a US president with that terrible English beats me. She was just a pointless character.

   Shin Godzilla brings the viewer a unique approach, which at times feels like a documentary. Someone asked me how I would describe this film in five words. I guess I’d say, “Japanese West Wing versus Godzilla”.  It’s a good mix of Kaiju destruction and bureaucracy porn. In a way it could have been called Conference Room: Resurgence. I’m glad that Shin Godzilla wasn’t dubbed because it would have killed the naturalistic approach the film had.

4.9 out of 5