Watch What I Said 6

IMDb: 7.7/10

Rotten Tomatoes: 85%

My Grade: A+

So as part of adding content to this increasingly shitty blog, I've decided to include a weekly segment detailing a movie-a-week that people should check out. I know anyone that reads this blog does so primarily for my reviews, but I'm lazy and don't want to review anything right now. This weekly segment may also contain suggestions from other members of the Public Nerdity Podcast from time to time.

As I said, I'd have a second recommendation for this week. And it's a film I recommend to most people I talk to. If you've been paying attention to Jake Gyllenhaal the last several years, you'll notice he's been quietly doing the best work of his career. Snubbed last year for Nightcrawler, he's also been phenomenal in Prisoners and Enemy. However, the film that really kicked off this excellent stretch was End of Watch. This cop drama thriller from David Ayer, who directed Fury and the upcoming Suicide Squad, mixes traditional filming with a found footage, first person style. It follows two LAPD officers, Mike Zavala (Michael Pena) and Brian Taylor (Jake Gyllenhaal), who are partners as well best friends. We follow Mike and Brian as they deal with the aftermath of a drug bust, and the fallout it ensues. Both Gyllenhaal and Pena are brilliant, making you believe they are the first to bust each others balls, as well as take a bullet for the other. The rest of the cast is great too, boasting the likes of Anna Kendrick, Frank Grillo, Natalie Martinez, America Ferrera, Cody Horn and David Harbour. I tend to dislike the found footage shooting style, but I really love this film.

Do yourself a favour and check out End of Watch. 

Nightcrawler (2014) Movie Review

Wait, this isn't X-Men

Have you ever believed your own philosophy so completely that you were willing to go further than you ever thought possible in order to achieve your self perceived destiny? What if you not only subscribed to that ideal, but also were willing to do whatever you needed to do, whether it was lying, stealing, manipulating or just being a regular ol' motherfucker. That's what you get from Nightcrawler, the directorial debut from Dan Gilroy, a movie so full of ideologies and anarchy that you'll have a hard time believing what is happening.

Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a hard worker. He's the type of guy that spouts lines like "If you want to win the lottery, you have to make the money to buy the ticket". When Lou figures out that he has a knack for being a freelance stringer, (guy who records events at a crime scene right when they happen, then sells it to a news station), he sets himself down a dark road of blood, twisted metal and, potentially, murder. You see, when you're a stringer, blood sells. So with the help of his assistant, a homeless man named Rick (Riz Ahmed), Lou sets out to record as many gruesome things as possible, and perhaps impress Nina (Rene Russo), an executive at the local news station, along the way.

First and foremost, this movie does not function without Jake Gyllenhaal. Looking gaunt and a tad terrifying, Gyllenhaal gives, perhaps, a career best performance. We've seen him play vvulnerable damaged, charming, witty and earnest. But the thing that separates Lou from every character that Gyllenhaal has ever played is that Lou is unhinged. He's a psycho, and he comes across as a ticking time bomb. He's terrifying, unsympathetic and has a stare that will cut right through you. It's a masterful, restrained performance from one of the best actors of his generation, and one that should garner some serious awards buzz.

Also very strong are the supporting cast, made up of, the aforementioned, Riz Ahmed and Russo, as well as Bill Paxton as a rival stringer named Joe. All three are great; Ahmed seems to effortlessly play Rick as a bohemian who gets caught up in Lou's fantasy and feels like he's getting in too deep. Russo is at top form as Nina, who will just as quickly praise your work, as she will call you out on bullshit. And it seems like Paxton is having a mini character actor resurgence. He was great in small roles in Edge of Tomorrow (Or is it Live. Die. Repeat?) and Million Dollar Arm, and he's fantastic here as Gyllenhaal's foil. I don't know what to call his mini-comeback. Paxtonnaisance sounds gross.

Writer/director Dan Gilroy, brother of Tony Gilroy (writer/director of Michael Clayton), crafts an interesting story that often plays on our morals. Is what is happening right? That's what I asked myself a lot of the time. The dialogue is crisp and feels real, and his direction is very good for the most part. At times, it feels like things could have been a bit tighter, though. However, it's a strong debut, and one that I hope he can follow up. 

The film mainly suffers from being a tad overlong, and has a bit of trouble finding it's footing in the first 20-25 minutes. What particularly bothered me was the score, by James Newton Howard, because it simply didn't fit the tone of the movie during that stretch. The score during the final two thirds is great, but the first little while feels like something you'd hear in an episode of Friday Night Lights.

Ultimately, I ended up enjoying the movie. Yeah, it sounds like I had issues with it, but I loved the way the story ended up playing out. And, oh yeah, Gyllenhaal acts so damn well it makes my nuts hurt. It's a story of greed that plays out well thanks to Gyllenhaal's grandstanding performance and my love of self-serving monologues.

Grade: B+

Enemy (2014) Movie Review

Double dose of Jake Gyllenhaal aka Handsome McBeardy-Face

How can we really know who we are? Are we everything we perceive ourselves to be, or simply different figments of an unrealized whole? That is the driving force behind Denis Villeneuve's film Enemy, a slow-paced, mind bending, character study into a man who has found his doppelganger. Adam Bell (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a disgruntled, lonely professor in Toronto, who goes about the same routine daily. Teach, grade papers, get drunk, and have sex with his girlfriend Mary (Melanie Laurent). One day, at the recommendation of a colleague, Adam rents a movie, and seemingly spots himself in the movie. Confused, he searches and finds out there is an actor named Anthony St. Claire, who looks and sounds identical to him. From there, Adam begins to obsess over Anthony, taking himself down a path of self destruction. Or is he?

While the movie makes you think and try to solve the mystery behind the characters, it is squarely placed on the handsome shoulders of Jake Gyllenhaal to carry the film. And carry it he does. Playing the double roles of Anthony and Adam, Gyllenhaal brings a subtly and nuance to both performances that is undeniable. As Adam, he is refrained, quiet and constantly hinting at a deep underlying rage. And as Anthony, he is confident, arrogant and seemingly ready to blow given the opportunity. The fact that I actually forgot that it was the same actor, and simply viewed them as two characters is a testament to his performance and also helps to  give both characters a certain air of ambiguity.

Laurent is also good as Adam's girlfriend, sick of his borderline disinterest in all things except sex. Acting more as a tool to take out Adam's sexual aggression, Laurent still brings her usual level of performance, garnering the right amount of sympathy for a part most seen, and not often heard. Sarah Gadon is also very good as Anthony's pregnant wife, who seems to love Anthony to a fault, but is also tired and frustrated of his arrogance, both members of the marriage ready to start yelling at the drop of a hat. I read people complain about how their characters feel underwritten, but in the grand context of the film, it makes sense why we know what we know about the characters, and how they behave.

Being his second film of 2013, after the critically acclaimed Prisoners (also starring Jake Gyllenhaal), Denis Villeneuve is a filmmaker who is more interested in making a good, interesting film, than something accessible to everyone. Where Prisoners was hard to watch because of it's brutality and dark subject matter, Enemy is a very confusing slow burn. While he creates a sense of despair and paranoia among the characters, he excels at driving a film forward. The driving force being that, as a viewer, I genuinely had no idea what was going to happen next. So many intricate details are lightly sprinkled throughout the film, that it was on a second viewing that I began to put together more of the puzzle.

And make no mistake, the movie is a puzzle, ultimately, with no right answer. A lot of viewers enjoyment of the movie will hinder on their interpretation of the ending, and the subsequent mystery. And despite some flaws, the main one being the God-awful pacing of the film, it a film for those of use who like our films to live in a constant grey area.

Grade: B+