Southpaw (2015) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written August, 2015*

Boxing films are not made that often these days, after the success of Rocky, there's not much more you can do with the subject, so I guess that's why you rarely see them about. While Southpaw brings nothing new to the sports drama genre, its powerhouse performance from Jake Gyllenhaal, engrossing story and sense of style elevate it above its clear cliches.

Gyllenhaal's boxer Billy Hope is a successful boxer on the top of his game when he his cut down by a tragedy and forced to care for his daughter while grieving and training for a lightweight championship belt. It's a cliche story that you would have heard before or similar, but that doesn't mean it is a failure. Things don't need to be original to be good, Southpaw proves that.

Jake Gyllenhaal here further shines his talent as one of, if not the best actor working today (His performance in last years Nightcrawler is one of the best examples of acting ever). He is an absolute work of raw fury here, the dedication he puts into his role is incredible. He handles the boxing scenes extremely well and pulls at the heart strings with the smaller, more emotional moments with his daughter. I was also very surprised by Oona Laurence who plays the daughter Leila, good child actors are hard to come by and she did an excellent job here, especially during the one on one scenes with her and Jake Gyllenhaal.

Forest Whitaker appears as a trainer who runs a gym for dis-privileged children. He was good, nothing amazing, his character might have been a walking cliche, but he was fine. The gorgeous Rachel McAdam's was great in her short role as Billy's wife Maureen.

Antoine Fuqua directs the boxing scenes with raw brutality and realism and keeps the film rolling at a decent pace. I was surprised to see the film was written by Kurt Sutter (Creator of the biker drama Sons of Anarchy), the script may have had a few cheesy and cliche lines here and there, but it worked. The music was also composed by the late and great James Horner, who sadly delivered a very forgettable soundtrack.


It might not be the most original film, but Southpaw is an extremely worthy addition to the sports drama genre with its Oscar worthy performance from Jake Gyllenhaal, Fuqua's direction and excellently paced story of redemption.

8/10 Dans

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Nightcrawler (2014) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written February 19th, 2016*

"American Psycho"

Nightcrawler is one of those films that prove the Oscars are a poor joke. The fact Jake Gyllenhaal didn't get a best actor nomination is a laughable action that further takes away from their credibility. But they made up for it by nominating Eddie Redmayne for his Stephen Hawking performance, that was nothing more than blatant Oscar bait. Honestly, fuck the Oscars.

Gyllenhaal plays Lou Bloom, a deeply disturbed man, who seems to live on odd jobs. He quickly finds a career path when he drives past a car crash and sees a camera crew filming it and decides that's what he wants to do.

What an excellent piece of work this was from first time director, Dan Gilroy, who gives the audience a dark, twisted and satirical take on the American Dream. On top of this, he creates a gorgeous film that highlights the nightlife of Los Angeles in a how I haven't seen since 2011's Drive. On top of this, we get a score from James Newton Howard, which is just beautiful, especially the opening and closing tracks.

The compelling narrative showcases the rise of Lou's career, which gets more and more twisted and insane till you get to a point where he can't become more of a monster. He subverts any expectation where you believe that he can't do anything worse than he does previously. It keeps his character insanely unpredictable and unnerving, you really have no idea what this guy is capable of.

It's one of those films that had so much I loved about it, but none if it comes close to Gyllenhaal's performance. He has embodied a new sociopath for the ages. His creepy smile, intelligence and unpredictability is terrifying. Lou Bloom has quickly become one of my favorite characters of all time, with his calculated actions and deplorable acts, but still he's somehow likable and you kinda root for him, he's smart, ambitious and knows how to get what he wants. The ending is utterly twisted, yet still victorious for the character. I have a soft spot for films where the bad guy wins. We could all learn a little from Lou Bloom.

It has a lot to say about the media too. The characters are all essentially vultures, profiting off the death and misery from others, and the more graphic the footage, the better the ratings. It was a nice, satirical jab at crime journalism, and probably takes pot shots at the job by showing the best at it is a completely heartless sociopath.


Nightcrawler is a unique, original and gorgeous piece of film making from a first time director, boosted by one of the best performances of all time from Jake Gyllenhaal.

10/10 Dans

Nightcrawler is out now on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK
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Okja (2017) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written June 29th, 2017*

"Friend, not food"

I didn't think Netflix had another great film in them after the constant release of utter shite for the past two years after they released Beasts of No Nation, but they've finally done it. Okja is Netflix's first truly great Original Film in some time, and quite possibly their best.

From the director of Snowpiercer (Bong Joon-Ho), Okja follows a young girl who will do anything to get her genetically enginereed super-pig, Okja, back from the government who want it for their own purposes, so she goes on a globe-trotting adventure to reclaim her friend.

It's all very '80s and Spielbergian to a point, but it really has a strong heart behind it. The relationship between Okja and her human guardian is one of genuine warmth and brings a real emotional core to the film. It really helps if you have a soft spot for animals. Okja could have been a disaster of a creation. Making an original creature for a film can be hit-or-miss, but the technical team mostly did an incredible job bringing Okja to life. It's not as good as say the recent Planet of the Apes films when it comes to bringing a CGI character to life, but they did a good enough job to make us care for Okja.

I did not expect how deep this film would be, or how even heartbreaking and devestating the ending would be. Okja makes a big statement of the morality of factory farming and how we should treat animals. There are moments towards the end that made me feel awful for eating meat and wanting me to try and have a serious go at being vegetarian again. not the piss-poor attempts I've tried in the past. Some of the shit here is harrowing though.

Which brings me to the tone of the film. I'm not massively sure what to expect in Okja, but for the most part, I expected a family friendly film, which led me to be confused by the 15 rating for it in the UK. While I'd say this is a family friendly film for the most part, they do drop several uses of "fuck", which feels at odds for a film that is now restricted to an adult audience, despite being a film that young audiences really should see and learn from.

Bong Joon-Ho delivers some fantastic direction and a cinematic feel that has been sorely lacking nearly all of Netflix's films. There are some really inspired and exciting set-pieces and the film looks gorgeous. I really, really wish I got to see this in the cinema, which will always be a disappointing drawback of a Netflix film.

The cast are all great, although some could have done with a little restraint. The lead child actress Ahn Seo-hyun was excellent, she really carried the film. Some of the bigger names I wish had come off better. Jake Gyllenhaal and Tilda Swinton were clearly having fun with their roles, but veered into hammy territory at times. That said, Paul Dano and Giancarlo Esposito were both great and stole their scenes.

Okja is Netflix's first essential film in over two years. A fun, entertaining and extremely touching adventure film that has a lot to say and has a whole lot of heart. More like this Netflix. Not the fucking aids you shit out like 'Sandy Wexler' or 'iBoy'.

8/10 Dans

Okja is available to stream now on Netflix worldwide
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Life (2017) - Film Review

Review:

Life isn't a particuarly new or even interesting film, I had not much hope for it, but it thankfully turned out to be a very fun film that does what it does very well. A really pleasant surprise and an insanely breezy and entertaining genre film.

There's obvious elements from other films, Gravity, Sunshine and most of all, Alien. It's a fairly simple B-movie concept, a team of scientists on a space station discover a new form of life that they name "Calvin", the new life form quickly becomes a vicious killer and sadistically hunts them down one by one.

Ryan Reynolds and Jake Gyllenhaal

Bar its surprisingly dark and nihlistic ending, Life lacks originality and is quite predictable, but at the same time it's all done extremely well due its cast, fun script and sense of urgency in some really intense scenes of space claustraphobia. Like, I said, it borrows heavily from Alien, but that doesn't mean Life doesn't stand on its own as an entertaining genre film.

The characters are underdeveloped, but the cast do a good job at bringing life to their personalities. Ryan Reynold's does his usual smart-ass routine, which works, although they go a direction with his character I did not expect. Rebecca Ferguson and Jake Gyllenhaal fare better as the stars of the film.

Rebecca Ferguson

But the real star of Life is "Calvin", who really is a terrifying force of nature. Designed to look like some sort of sea creature nightmare, almost like a jellyfish or stingray. When Calvin starts his killing spree, it really is nasty and sadistic. I did not expect the violence to be this grizzly or disturbing. 

There was some violence here that even got a reaction from me, and that honestly takes a lot. I really do hope to see a franchise based around Calvin's race. Maybe a sequel that goes in the way of Aliens and bring a lot more Calvins into the mix?

It's worth noting that there were some rumours going round that this might be a prequel to Sony's upcoming Spider-Man spin-off 'Venom'. This was complete nonsense and has nothing to do with that. The producers refusing to confirm or deny it was purely to create some sort of promotion for the film.

Life is nothing new, but it is a lot of fun, a dark, violent sci-fi horror with some really grotesque body-horror and a pleasantly surprising ending.

8/10 Dans

Life is out now in cinemas in the UK
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