Concussion

For F*** Magazine

CONCUSSION

Director : Peter Landesman
Cast : Will Smith, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Albert Brooks, Alec Baldwin, David Morse, Paul Reiser, Mike O’Malley, Hill Harper, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje
Genre : Drama
Run Time : 123 mins
Opens : 14 January 2016
Rating : PG13 (Some Coarse Language)

            In this medical drama based on true events, something is driving America’s football players to madness, resulting in dangerous mental instability and suicides. Dr. Bennet Omalu (Smith) is a forensic neuro-pathologist from Nigeria, working under pathology consultant Cyril Wecht (Brooks) at the Allegheny County Coroner’s Office in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh Steelers centre “Iron” Mike Webster (Morse) dies at age 50, homeless and deranged after suffering from dementia. Upon conducting the autopsy, Omalu finds it peculiar that Webster’s brain appears normal. The Steelers’ former team doctor Julian Bailes (Baldwin), having witnessed Webster’s decline first-hand, volunteers to help Omalu. Several other players display similar symptoms and die in quick succession. Omalu’s exhaustive research leads him to the conclusion that Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative disease brought about by repeated brain trauma, is to blame. Omalu and his wife Prema Mutiso (Mbatha-Raw) must brave the uphill battle as the National Football League (NFL) aggressively attempts to discredit Omalu and bury his research.

            Concussion is based on the GQ article Brain Game: Football Players and Concussions by Jeanne Marie Laskas. While a film about brain trauma research does not sound particularly exciting, the controversial hot-button issue of the NFL’s denial that collisions as part of playing football can lead to potentially fatal brain damage is fuel for a searing prestige picture. Writer-director Peter Landesman pitches Concussion as a rousing David vs. Goliath tale of the heroic little guy taking down the evil wealthy corporation, but the film always feels too slick and glossy and, as a result, inauthentic. While the death of noted football players from CTE is a tragedy that is worth discussing, the film tries to sell it as the worst thing to ever befall humanity in all of its history. There are multiple artificial attempts to pump the story up, all of it accompanied by an overblown score that sees composer James Newton Howard at his highest “sombre drama” setting.

            Because of the immense power and prominence of the NFL, the “standing up to the man” quotient that Concussion possesses is worthy of admiration, but it’s insufficient basis on which to recommend the film. The romance between Omalu and Prema is treacly and feels entirely tacked on, while the film bends over backwards to simplify the medical jargon, boiling Omalu’s research down to its most easily understandable: football players get hit in the head; this is bad. There are things that Landesman gets right: Justin Strzelczyk’s (Matthew Willig) violent outburst against his wife and children is a frightening, haunting moment. When an angry football fan calls Omalu’s home to harass him, accusing him of “pussifying this country”, it’s a great example of how sports fans can sometimes be thuggish and bullying in their zealousness. 

            Smith is clearly gunning for Oscar glory with his performance in the film, and it is blatant stunt casting. While Smith has proven himself capable of strong, absorbing performances, he stops a good distance short of being convincing as Dr. Bennet Omalu. In a truly great performance, particularly a portrayal of a real-life person, the actor should completely vanish into the role. It’s evident that Smith has put effort into the performance, but when all is said and done, he’s still A-list movie star Will Smith. Even putting aside the fact that Smith bears almost no resemblance to the actual Omalu, his presence is distracting. Mbatha-Raw gets little to do as the designated love interest, and a scene in which Prema teaches Omalu how to dance at a club is almost cringe-worthy. Brooks and Baldwin contribute solid performances and Morse’s brief appearance as Webster, Pittsburgh’s favourite son-turned mad vagrant, is effectively disturbing and tragic.

            The nobility that drives Concussion often crosses over into smothering self-importance. Omalu has many speeches about the American dream, and he is depicted as an American hero who just happens to come from Nigeria. The shattering of Omalu’s idealism is handled via awkward chunks of dialogue. This is a film with something to say and it says so loudly and with conviction, but the feeling that Omalu’s story has been squeezed into the standard “inspirational underdog” tale mould is very hard to shake. Concussion is more Oscar bait than it is incisive exposé, and as much as it takes the NFL to task, it’s still relatively early days for CTE research and the full impact has yet to play out.

Summary: Concussion’s righteous indignation can only carry it so far, with a clumsy screenplay and a lead actor who’s not the best fit for the part letting it down.

RATING: 2.5 out of 5 Stars

Jedd Jong 

Focus

For F*** Magazine

FOCUS

Director : Glenn Ficarra, John Requa

Cast : Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Rodrigo Santoro, BD Wong, Robert Taylor, Adrian Martinez

Genre : Romance/Drama

Run Time : 105 mins

Opens : 26 February 2015

Rating : NC-16 (Scene of Intimacy and Coarse Language)

In Batman Begins, Henri Ducard had this piece of advice for Bruce Wayne – “always mind your surroundings”. In Focus, Will Smith plays Nicky Spurgeon, someone whose stock in trade is preying on those who don’t mind their surroundings. A seasoned, talented conman, Nicky is skilled in the art of persuasion and deception. He’s prepared for everything – everything except Jess Barrett (Robbie), an attractive young woman eager to learn the tricks of the trade and become a grifter herself. Nicky has never let down his guard and let his feelings get the better of him, but Jess gets closer than anyone else does. While Nicky is in the employ of billionaire racing team owner Garriga (Santoro), Jess’ presence threatens to throw him off his finely-honed game.

            Escapism is a large part of what makes going to the movies appealing and there’s an undeniable allure to movies that offer a peek into worlds only the privileged few have access to. Focus very effectively seduces the audience, beckoning them into a dizzying, dazzling world of lies and shiny objects. There are certain dangers associated with the subgenre of conman movies – the audience should feel like they’ve been taken on a ride, but not for a ride, the difference almost imperceptible. Nobody likes the feeling of being invested in a film for two hours only to feel played out by the big reveal. Writing-directing duo Glenn Ficarra and John Requa manage to quite masterfully negotiate that, having a firm grasp on the film’s tone throughout. It’s funny and playfully sexy, but there are stakes and the thrills click right into the proceedings where they could have easily felt out of place.

            The other danger of conman movies is that they can often come off as smug, as if the filmmakers are taking particular delight in feeling smarter than the audience. There is a little bit of that in Focus, to be sure, but that’s definitely better than if it were an altogether dumb affair. Real-life sleight-of-hand artist and “deception specialist” Apollo Robbins serves as the consultant on the film, choreographing the elaborate pickpocketing sequences which are very exciting to watch. While most of the jokes do work, there are a few too many at the expense of overweight comic relief sidekick Farhad, played by Adrian Martinez. The character also supplies more crass sexual innuendo than is strictly necessary.

            Remember how Will Smith tried to play against type as a stern, emotionless father in After Earth, to disastrous results? Focus is far more in his wheelhouse and absolutely plays to his strength as an actor. Three parts charming, one part goofy, it’s very easy to buy Smith as the shark with a heart of gold. He’s also the kind of guy who could go out with a woman 22 years his junior and it really isn’t that creepy because he’s that likeable. Margot Robbie, who impressed in The Wolf of Wall Street, is excellent here as well. Jess is simultaneously an ingénue and a femme fatale, Robbie nailing both aspects of the character. We can’t wait to see them together onscreen in next year’s Suicide Squad. At one point, Ben Affleck and Kristen Stewart were attached to star – I think we can all agree that would have had, uh, markedly different results. The devilishly handsome Rodrigo Santoro makes for a sufficiently formidable romantic rival to Smith. B.D. Wong threatens to steal the show in his one scene as an overly-excited high roller.  

            Ficarra and Requa’s previous film was the romantic comedy Crazy, Stupid, Love, which is considered one of the better examples of the genre in recent memory. With Focus, they have crafted what is almost the ideal date movie. Romantic comedies that crowbar in elements intended to appeal to men have often fallen flat on their faces - This Means War or Killers, anyone? Focus does more than serve up a shirtless Will Smith and Margot Robbie in a bikini, it attains an admirable balance of sexiness, laughs and intelligence and features a central romantic pairing that is unique and happens to really work.

Summary: Focus is sharp, slick and sexy, gliding along on the chemistry of its leads.

RATING: 4 out of 5 Stars

Jedd Jong 

Men In Black 3

For F*** Movie Magazine Singapore

Movie Review                                                                                                             21/5/12

MEN IN BLACK 3

(2012)

Starring: Will Smith, Josh Brolin, Tommy Lee Jones

Directed by: Barry Sonnenfeld

            Everyone knows it’s sexy to wear black. This summer, Nick Fury is decked out in a flowing black trenchcoat. Black Widow and Catwoman squeeze into black catsuits. Batman dons his black armour as usual. And of course, the titular government operatives of this film have returned to suit up. Ten years is a long time to be gone, but truth be told, Will Smith as Agent J hasn’t seemed to age a day.

            That’s less that can be said for his curmudgeon of a partner, Agent K (Jones). He’s more dour than ever, and Agent J seems frustrated that he can’t connect with the older gentleman as a friend. A dangerous alien criminal from K’s past, Boris the Animal (Jemaine Clement) has escaped from a maximum security jail, his prison break forming the opening sequence.

Boris causes a rift in the space-time continuum, and when J goes to work at MIB headquarters the next day, his new boss Agent O (Emma Thompson) informs him that Agent K died 60 years ago. A gobsmacked J travels back in time, where he meets the younger K (Brolin) and the two go about trying the prevent the former’s death and returning things to the way they should be, as two versions of Boris stand in the duo’s way.

Will Smith suggested the story to director Barry Sonnenfeld while they were filming the second Men In Black film, as a way to explore K’s backstory. So it’s a little puzzling that while the idea started incubating so long ago, the movie infamously began shooting without a completed script. This definitely hurt the end product, especially since the plot is somewhat complex. While time travel is a convenient plot device, the mechanics of time travel are equally inconvenient to convey onscreen, and the portrayal is iffy to say the least – cue some clunky bits of exposition.

But audiences don’t go to a Men In Black movie for a discourse in quantum physics – they go to see neuralysers, gross-out aliens, laser gunfights and madcap chases. Men In Black 3 contains all of these, but there’s a spark missing. While a marked improvement on the second instalment, this can’t help but feel a little tired and a little old, a sequel ten years too late to care very much about. There are also recognizable bits of other shows floating around – the 60’s setting seems to cash in on the Mad Men craze, the gyro-cycles that J and K ride are very reminiscent of the wheelbike General Greivous used in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, and the “jetpacks” look quite a bit like Doctor Who’s Daleks.

The biggest success of the first Men In Black movie was the buddy cop pairing of Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, who couldn’t be more different. Their chemistry and dynamic brings to mind such successful teams as Mel Gibson and Danny Glover in the Lethal Weapon movies and even Roy Scheider and Gene Hackman in The French Connection. Thankfully, Smith seems to work well with Josh Brolin too, and the latter’s two-hour-long Tommy Lee Jones impression is uncanny and entertaining.

Jemaine Clement’s one-armed Boris is essentially a pirate, prone to baring his teeth, growling and shooting up his victims with bony spikes courtesy of an insectoid organism living in his hand – something like a demonic shoulder-parrot. The character is sort of the alien equivalent of Ian McShane as Blackbeard in last year’s Pirates of the Caribbean sequel. While he’s certainly menacing, there isn’t much that makes him a standout villain.

Once again, Academy Award-winning makeup artist Rick Baker uses his talents to create a menagerie of extraterrestrial critters, but the copious amounts of CGI don’t quite match up to that standard and appear a little plasticky, particularly during the climax set during the Apollo 11 rocket launch at Cape Canaveral. The 3D conversion is half-decent and adds somewhat to scenes that take place at dizzying heights. The action sequences on the whole aren’t anything very special, and the unique possibilities presented by the 60s setting seem to go unnoticed to the filmmakers.

On the humour front, there are several amusing gags, the best of which is how Agent J travels back in time – as he leaps off the Empire State Building, he flies back in time, through the great depression (a suicidal stock broker is seen falling behind him) and the victory parade marking the end of World War II. As is MIB tradition, more celebrities are “outed” as aliens, including Lady Gaga and Mick Jagger, and Andy Warhol (Bill Hader) is revealed to be an MIB agent sick of his disguise as the pretentious artist. However, there are also moments where Will Smith, quintessential cool nice guy though he may be, borders on grating.

            Is Men In Black 3 an entertaining diversion? Yes. Does it offer up a crowd-pleasing blend of sci-fi, comedy and action? Mostly yes. Is it anything groundbreaking? Not really. Will it stand up against this summer’s heavy-hitting blockbusters? Most likely not.

RATING: 3/5 STARS

SUMMARY: Men In Black 3 is less a spiffy suit and more a nice, worn pair of Bermudas: it won’t impress anyone, the colour’s faded a little, they don’t fit as well as they used to, but you like wearing them anyway.

 Jedd Jong