Southpaw

My Grade:  A

Jake Gyllenhaal is quickly becoming, well, has become one of my favorite actors currently working. This happened ever since he elevated David Ayer’s End of Watch from what could have been a run-of-the-mill cop flick to something visceral and engrossing. He picks solid movies with meaty roles in which he can really show off his acting chops. They are also wildly varied roles as of late.

On its surface, Southpaw looks like a standard sports drama with an equally standard revenge plot woven in. At its heart, though, it’s the story of a broken man who loses everything which allows him to discover what really matters:  family. The only family he has left after his violent temper leads to his wife’s untimely slaying is his daughter, Leila (a revelatory turn from Oona Laurence), whom he also loses when a court determines he is not fit to be her guardian because of his temper and substance abuse. Not to mention, he loses his mansion when he gets sued for attacking a boxing referee, so he is essentially homeless. The majority of the rest of the runtime is spent outside of the ring as Billy fights his own personal demons to get his daughter back.

It really is a shame that the trailers ruined the moment in which Billy loses his wife. Even though you know it’s coming, it still lands like an emotional sucker punch thanks to Gylenhaal’s performance. But, it could have been a much more powerful moment if we didn’t see it coming. If your eyes don’t well up at that moment, there are plenty of other moments for you to fight back tears. Most of which are courtesy of Billy and Leila as both of them try to work out their new relationship in the absence of their wife/mother. These are the best scenes in the film and are truly a testament to the writing and the performances from Gyllenhaal and Laurence.

Adding to the emotional weight is the blind-in-one-eye trainer, Tick Wills (yet another great performance from the always good Forest Whitaker). He used to be a boxer himself but now runs a gym for at risk youth and serves as a father figure to most of them. He also has his own demons to spar with. That just goes to show how rich every character is in this film. “Sons of Anarchy” creator Kurt Sutter has penned a script that goes far beyond just fleshing out a few main characters to make Southpaw stand out from the herd of sports dramas and revenge pictures. Couple that with Antoine Fuqua’s (Training Day, The Equalizer) character focused story-telling and you can’t help but be drawn in whether you’re a boxing fan or not. Even Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson gets to do some acting and succeeds in gradually peeling away the layers of his greedy agent, Jordan Mains.


Overall, Southpaw tells an engrossing story about a father’s struggle to be there for his daughter. All the welterweight championship belts, mansions, gold watches, and fame don’t define you as a man. Being the father you need to be and being able to look at yourself in the mirror are the real victories.

Creep

My Grade:  A-

Found footage films are all too common in today’s horror film landscape. It seems like every wanna-be filmmaker starts off with a found footage horror that is supposed to scare the pants off of you. They can’t all be The Blair Witch Project or the Paranormal Activity films, though. It’s not often that something new and interesting is done with this overused horror trope. Creep breaks that cliche mold, though. 

Creep follows Aaron (played by writer/director Patrick Brice) a freelance videographer as he takes a one-day gig in a remote mountain community. His client, Josef (Mark Duplass in a stunning departure from his usual roles) wants to make a video diary of sorts for his unborn son because he is terminally ill and may not live to see the birth of his son. It has all the makings of a quirky, feel-good dramedy but, as you might expect, everything isn’t as it seems. Things get weird, awkward, dark, and down right terrifying. 

The thing about Creep is that it’s not all in when it comes to the horror genre. It plays out more like a slow burn thriller with some decent twists and turns and a top-notch payoff. But it does offer some solid scares along the way. As with any found footage film, the first person point of view is immersive and adds tension by mostly only letting the audience see what Aaron sees. Brice uses this format very well to keep his audience on the edge of their seats. 

This film would be nothing without the outstanding performance by the titular creep:  Mark Duplass. Duplass usually plays the quirky, good looking, goofball friend or the unexpected love interest. He is most well known as Pete in the FX comedy “The League.” That makes his performance in Creep all the more impressive because it’s a far cry from his usual roles. It’s refreshing to see him being, dare I say it... creepy.

The writing is also very good. The dialogue is so natural between Aaron and Josef that I would be willing to bet that a good bit of it is ad-libbed. But, there are so many set-ups and payoffs it’s ridiculous - and very rewarding for the viewer who has paid attention. Things get brought up almost as a joke that foreshadow something later that isn’t so funny. However, the script is surprisingly funny in that awkward comedy kind of way.

The biggest issue I have with Creep is that we learn very little about our videographer Aaron. Other than a few anecdotes about his life, there isn’t much of a character there. So, when he is in danger, I don’t worry as much as I should for him. Simply putting me in his shoes by showing me everything through his camera lens doesn’t make me root for him any more. I root for him because I’ve seen enough movies to know I’m supposed to, not because I know enough about him to empathize with him or really care about his well-being.

Overall, Creep is a stand out in the over-populated found footage genre. It’s even a stand out in the horror/thriller genre due to strong writing, natural dialogue, a solid build up of intensity, and (most of all) a stellar performance from Mark Duplass. This film just hit Netflix so I would highly recommend adding it to your list. Its taut 82 minute run time flies by and is well worth a watch. 

Defending my "Ignorance"...

My last post ruffled some feathers. It seems like the biggest beef people had with my post was when I said “being gay, lesbian, or bisexual is a choice.” After being called ignorant for that stance, I thought about the definition of “ignorant”. It’s thrown around a lot these days (especially when discussing hot-button topics), but what does it really mean? According to the New Oxford American Dictionary, it means “lacking knowledge or awareness in general or about something in particular, uneducated or unsophisticated, discourteous or rude, or easily angered.” After thinking about it some more, I thought that the only way I could really be called ignorant is if I blindly believed something without any reasoning behind it. If my answer to “why do you believe that” was “because I do,” then some might consider that ignorant. With this in mind, I would like to explain the “why” behind my stance on this topic.

I firmly believe that nobody has ever been or will ever be born gay. I believe it is a sinful lifestyle. Granted, my beliefs are grounded in The Bible which means some would label me ignorant for believing in a book written thousands of years ago. But I do and that book governs my beliefs. So, if homosexuality is a sinful lifestyle, God would not make someone gay any more than he would make them a thief or a murderer. I don’t think I can explain it any better than controversial blogger Matt Walsh said in his recent article for TheBlaze.com:

“Your race, your sex, your species -- these are categories of being. They can’t be altered of modified. They are given to you, they are you... The same cannot be said of homosexuality. What a homosexual is experiencing is a compulsion, a temptation, a proclivity.”  

You can’t be born gay, but you can be born with and/or develop a predilection to being attracted to or wanting to be intimate with members of the same sex. It’s similar to if someone struggled with the urge to steal or lie. It’s nothing more than a temptation, albeit, a very strong temptation for some. And a temptation that can be overcome. 

What is really sad in our society is that giving into this particular temptation is not just accepted; it’s celebrated. It’s trendy to be gay. You get called “brave” for coming out of the closet and you become part of a loving community of people living a similar lifestyle. It would be interesting to see how prevalent homosexuality is in third world countries where there is no media to celebrate being gay and there’s no TV or movies to portray gay couples. Since this particular sin is so accepted and celebrated, someone with homosexual urges that may have tried to repress them because they’re sinful gives up and embraces that lifestyle because they are embraced by the LGBT community for doing so. And people base their entire identity on it. Looking at it through my belief system, it would be similar to someone wrapping their entire identity around being a liar, thief, cheating spouse, fornicator, or murderer. 

I know that some will be offended by my calling homosexuality a sin. And some may think I’m being judgmental and throwing stones. I am not. I’m not anywhere near perfect. I have my own sins I struggle with just like anyone else. And it’s not my place to judge anyone or your place to judge me. I’m just sharing the “why” behind me beliefs so nobody thinks I am just blindly following something I was told when I was a child with nothing to back it up. I’m not trying to shape your beliefs because I’m sure you feel just as strongly about what you believe as I do about what I believe. Ultimately, though, it doesn’t matter what I think about it or what you think about it. It matters what God thinks about it.

If you’re reading this and don’t believe the same thing as I do, that’s okay. I’m not going to disrespect you or cut you down. I won’t even belittle you like so many have done to me for my beliefs. All I can do is defend my beliefs and ask that you respect them as I respect yours. I can still accept, love, and even befriend someone with whom I disagree. I don’t have to love or celebrate their lifestyle to love them. So call me what you want but I’m not an ignorant or hateful person. I am just a guy whose beliefs are quickly becoming the minority and wants to be respected the same way everyone wants to be respected. I don’t deserve being called names any more than a homosexual does. So let’s expand #LoveWins to include people who share my point of view, not just the politically correct point of view.

That’s all for now... 

Bigots and Hate Speech...

I am a southerner and a Christian. I am also not a fan of gay marriage being legalized or the trendy nature of being trans-gender. That doesn’t, however, make me bigotted, hateful, or ignorant. 

Just because I strongly believe being gay, lesbian, or bisexual is a choice and you’re not born that way; that doesn’t mean I hate any members of the LGBT community. I’m not going to shame them, hurt them, or disrespect them just because I believe differently than them and have chosen to live a different lifestyle than they have. Just like I’m not going to shame, hurt, or disrespect someone because they choose a different career than me or choose a different religion (or no religion) than me. People are people and we all make our own choices in how we want to live our individual lives. That’s the beauty of living in this country. 

The biggest problem in all of this that I have is when my opinion isn’t respected because it isn’t the trendy, popular, or politically correct opinion. I am supposed to accept and celebrate a Supreme Court decision that directly opposes my personal beliefs or, if I don’t, I get called hateful or ignorant. That’s the equivalent of me calling a gay person a “fag”. I wouldn’t do that. So why do you call me a bigot? You feel as strongly about your beliefs as I feel about mine. But mine are “wrong” because it’s not supporting “equal rights”? If “equal rights” meant that people would stop being hateful to other people, then I’m on board. But that’s not what it means. It creates an environment where people like me are told to shut up and called names because we believe in something different. Tell me something:  how is that any different from what the LGBT community has been crying out for? They have an “alternative lifestyle” but they want their voices to be heard to to not be treated differently. I have “alternative beliefs” but it’s okay to call me names and deem me ignorant. People need to start practicing what they preach.

Another problem I have in what I’ve been seeing on Twitter and other social media platforms is the stereotype of southerners as hateful, racist, idiots. Sure, some southerners are bigots and kind of dumb. But so are some people from the Northeast, Midwest... even the West Coast! Hateful people are everywhere but the South gets pegged as the hate capital of the country. Is it because of a silly flag argument? Is it because of the Civil War? That ended 150 years ago! Move on!

If you choose to celebrate a landmark Supreme Court decision, protest the flying of a “racist” flag, or just live your life in a way that’s different from how I live mine, go for it. Don’t expect me, though, to change my beliefs to accommodate for the changing times just like I don’t expect you to change your beliefs because of this blog post. All I ask is that southerners, Christians, and anyone who holds to similar beliefs get some respect. We don’t deserve to get hate speech spewed at us because we don’t applaud Bruce Jenner for identifying as something he’s not, aren’t excited about the quickly approaching full legalization of gay marriage, and don’t want to watch a bunch of shows about how trendy it is to be trans-gender.

That's it for now...

Spy

My Grade:  A

I wouldn’t say I am a Melissa McCarthy fan, but I don’t dislike her either. I find her style of comedy mostly funny but obnoxious at times. That’s why I have a hard time dealing with her when she is forced to carry an entire movie (like the absolutely terrible Tammy). With a strong cast to back her up and carry some of the comedic load, though, McCarthy soars in the recent action/comedy Spy.

Spy takes a pretty boring premise and makes a fun movie out of it. Susan Cooper (McCarthy) is an analyst at the CIA with dreams of being something more. She doesn’t, however, have the charisma, confidence, or really anything else that would make you think she was capable of being a field operative. But, when a deadly arms dealer discovers the identity of all of the CIA’s field operatives (which happens in multiple James Bond movies, Mission Impossible, and pretty much every other piece of spy genre entertainment), the unknown Cooper volunteers to step up and save the day. And, it turns out she is actually very good at it. 

The reason this story works is because of the interplay between all the characters. Cooper is in love with Agent Bradley Fine (a hilarious Jude Law) but he just sees her as his buddy. She is also bullied by hardcore, foul-mouthed Agent Rick Ford (Jason Statham) in some of the funniest exchanges in the entire film, but he turns out to pretty much be all talk. And when Cooper makes contact with the violent, stuck-up arms dealer with a huge sense of entitlement, Rayna Boyanov (Rose Byrne), their relationship has a great arc that constantly changes and keeps you guessing. These relationships are mined expertly for every ounce of comedy by writer/director Paul Feig who delivers his best film to date with Spy.

As the film presses on, the story grows quite a bit more ridiculous with each passing scene; but that’s okay because it doesn’t take itself too seriously and it serves as a wink at the spy genre in general. It also throws some decent twists at you. While some of them may be a bit of a stretch at times, they work well enough and don’t distract you from the rest of the story.

The biggest disappointment in this film is Miranda Hart as Nancy, Cooper’s co-worker and friend. Most of her jokes didn’t land for me and she annoyed me in most of her scenes. To counteract that disappointment, there is the biggest surprise of the film:  Jason Statham’s comedy chops. He is hysterical. He tells these ridiculous stories of his past experiences as a field operative and his delivery is outstanding. He basically spoofs every character he has ever played and I could watch it all day. Also, Rose Byrne is perfect. Simply perfect in this role.

Overall, Spy is surprisingly good. It’s Melissa McCarthy’s best film to date and shows that Paul Feig has taken huge strides in his writing/directing prowess since Bridesmaids (which everyone seemed to like except me) and The Heat (which I liked but it wasn’t a great movie by any stretch of the imagination). The strong supporting cast allows us to get just enough Melissa McCarthy and serves up a solid spy spoof with some heart.

Get Hard

My Grade:  B

When I first heard Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart were teaming up for a film, I was stoked. I have been a long time fan of Ferrell and I have recently gotten into Kevin Hart’s stand-up comedy. He’s hilarious on stage but I hadn’t seen many of his movies (his cameo in The 40-Year-Old-Virgin is one of the best scenes of that film), so I wasn’t sure how well his stand-up would translate to a narrative film. It turns out that this comedic pairing is outstanding. 

Get Hard follows millionaire James King (Ferrell) as he is arrested for fraud. The judge is tired of seeing white collar criminals do easy time in fluffy, low-security prisons, so he sentences King to do hard time in San Quentin. Rightfully terrified that he won’t do well in such a place, King turns to the guy who washes his car, Darnell Lewis (Hart) to prepare him to survive in prison. Lewis has a clean record and is by no means a thug, but King assumes (because he’s black and poor) that he has been to prison. Needing some money to get his daughter to a better, safer school, Lewis agrees to be King’s incarceration preparedness trainer. They have thirty days before King gets locked up, so they have to hurry. Comedic hijinks ensue, as you may expect.

As with most comedies of this nature, many of the major plot points are highly unrealistic. I can’t fault Get Hard for this because it’s a comedy and comedies are supposed to go a little beyond reality. Some of it is a little too out there, though. And, the “surprising twist” they throw at you in the end is hardly a surprise. You see it coming a mile away.

Intricate plots and mind-blowing twists aren’t what this kind of film is about, though. It’s about farming its outlandish premise for every possible laugh. And it succeeds in that effort. This movie is hilarious. Ferrell and Hart play off each other incredibly well with impeccable timing. Their vastly different looks play nicely on screen as well. Even the supporting characters add a good many laughs including rapper T.I. whom I have never liked in a film before this one.

The most surprising thing about this film, though, is Hart. From the little bit I’ve seen of him in films, he yells through a lot of his performances and is at his best when being a hyperactive ball of energy and (usually) anger. In Get Hard, though, he gives a much more grounded performance adding layers of nuance to his comedy that I hadn’t seen before. It’s something that makes me want to watch him lead in more movies instead of just popping in for a quick, side-splittingly hilarious cameo.

Overall, Get Hard is not a comedy classic but it does what it’s supposed to do:  make you laugh for almost all of its 100 minute runtime. If you can handle a good bit of bad language and a lot of not-so-politically-correct comedy, then this is a good one to check out. 

Furious 7

My Grade:  B+

Here we have a franchise that started off grounded somewhat in reality and almost felt believable back in 2001 with the first entry The Fast and the Furious. It was inspired by a magazine article called “Racer X” written by Ken Li in the May 1998 issue of Vibe Magazine. And, now, it has become a monstrously successful and absurdly unrealistic action franchise with seven entries and perhaps a few more to come. This is a crazy world we live in, right? The films have gotten more and more insane as the franchise has pressed on through its 14 years and Furious 7 is, as expected, the most insane entry yet. Insane, yes, but a white-knuckled thrill ride of the highest order.

Furious 7 brings Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his crew of street racers considerable danger as their past comes back to haunt them. In Fast & Furious 6, the team took down a guy named Owen Shaw and left him in a coma. Now, his older brother Deckard is out for revenge. The thing about Deckard is that he is basically a superhuman killing machine that is nearly impossible to track down and even harder to kill. Even worse, he already killed one of Dom’s crew in Tokyo (which took place in the fourth and weakest entry in the franchise, The Fast and the Furious:  Tokyo Drift) so this one is personal. The hunt for Deckard takes Dom’s team across the globe and requires them to pull off a number of elaborate heists in order to get a shot at Shaw.

Despite the cliche revenge plot and the cliche backstory for the badguy and the cliche tropes of secretive government organizations, this movie is very original in its action. No other film franchise has mastered the art of creating fresh takes on car chases time and time again quite like this franchise. With car chases being a dime a dozen in film, it’s nice to see something unique. Whether it’s realistic or not, it doesn’t matter because if we’re honest, no movie car chase is realistic. So why not go all out? That’s what Furious 7 does. Whether it’s cars skydiving onto a road to then battle with a weaponized bus, or it’s a bulletproof super car jumping between skyscrapers in Abu Dabi, it all works when the franchise is built on physics defying absurdity. And that absurdity is outstanding because it isn’t taken seriously. The filmmakers relish in the absurdity so we are able to sit back and bask in the pure adrenaline of it all.

What this flick offers that some of its other action genre contemporaries don’t is a heart. With all the outrageous action and almost cartoonish levels of violence and explosions, it stays grounded in the bond that these characters share which goes beyond friendship. Might I say it’s like they’re family? I might as well say that since Dom says it about 64 times in every one of the films. So, it’s a little ham-fisted with the family stuff, but it doesn’t just have the characters saying they are family; the characters act like family. Their loyalty to each other makes you root for them.

The acting in this film is nothing to write home about, though. Diesel grunts through all his on-the nose dialogue, Tyrese and Ludacris are hit-and-miss with some of their “witty” banter, and the little bit of dialogue delivered by MMA star Ronda Rousey in her cameo is horrendous. She can certainly throw down in a fight scene, though. The surprise, though, is I have never thought the late Paul Walker was much of an actor, but he is very good here. This is the role he will always be remembered for and that’s fitting because it was perfect for him. It’s honestly a shame he won’t be around to bring Brian O’Conner to life anymore.

Overall, Furious 7 is basically a superhero movie disguised as a plain old action movie about fast cars. It’s outrageous in every sense of the word but it stays grounded in the relationships between the characters and focuses on the loyalty they have for each other despite the constant, death-defying adventures they undertake. It’s just a fun ride.