Eye in the Sky

For F*** Magazine

EYE IN THE SKY

Director : Gavin Hood

Cast : Helen Mirren, Aaron Paul, Alan Rickman, Barkhad Abdi, Jeremy Northam, Iain Glen, Phoebe Fox

Genre : Drama/Thriller

Run Time : 102 mins

Opens : 7 April 2016

The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones in warfare has, to put it mildly, opened up quite the can of worms. This thriller delves into the myriad complications involved as UAVs are deployed high above the battlefield. British Colonel Katherine Powell (Mirren) is in charge of a secret mission to capture a group of wanted Al-Shabab terrorists in Nairobi, Kenya. Lieutenant General Frank Benson (Rickman) is keeping a close watch on the proceedings in the Cabinet Office Briefing Room A, or COBRA, at Whitehall. At Creech Air Force Base in Nevada, American drone pilot Steve Watts (Paul) has the responsibility of pulling the trigger. When a nine-year-old girl named Alia (Aisha Takow) enters the blast radius, it throws a spanner in the works, with Kenyan intelligence operative Jama Farah (Abdi) sent in to try and mitigate the situation. As the window to hit their high-value targets closes, Col. Powell and the others running the operation will have to make life or death judgements while taking the various consequences into consideration.

            Movies about hot-button issues have the power to generate meaningful and thought-provoking conversations, at the risk of coming off as preachy, heavy-handed or ill-informed. The politics and the human cost of drone warfare are heavy subjects indeed, so it is to the credit of director Gavin Hood and writer Guy Hibbert that Eye in the Sky is taut and thrilling even as it delves into the relevant quandaries. Eye in the Sky unfolds in real time, with an unrelenting urgency sustained throughout its duration. The film unexpectedly steps into political satire, almost as if In the Loop has snuck into this tense thriller. The intentional yet uncomfortable moments of humour are derived from the lattice of red tape that has to be navigated as the decision to deploy the drones’ missiles or not is made. Instead of undercutting the tension, these instances add to the viewer’s frustration, further immersing us in the proceedings. The film effectively highlights how protocol is necessary yet can often stand in the way of things getting done.

            This is not a movie that calls for explosive theatrics, and most of the actors are seated or standing about in small rooms for the bulk of the film. In fact, Mirren, Rickman, Paul and Abdi did not even meet each other during production. Mirren effortlessly projects authority as Col. Powell, modulating her performance such that the character does not come off as a typical military hard-ass type. She eloquently puts across Powell’s thought process and when the character has to make tough calls, we understand she’s backed into a corner yet still question the validity of her judgement. Paul has an inner decency and earnestness which makes up for the fact that there’s not too much to the character. While the “conflicted drone pilot” might be on its way to becoming a cliché in and of itself, the way Paul’s Steve Watts attempts to reconcile his anguish and his obligation to duty is suitably compelling.

            The late Rickman, in one of his final roles, reminds us why his passing is such a loss to film. As General Benson, Rickman is level-headed and focused, and the actor does so much with little more than a withering stare and that sonorous baritone. A scene in which he’s buying a doll for his granddaughter does come off as a too-obvious attempt at humanising the character.

Abdi, best known for his Oscar-nominated role in Captain Phillips, is authentic as the resourceful man on the ground who is in charge of piloting a high-tech surveillance robot disguised as a beetle. The actor was struggling to get by even after his critically-acclaimed turn in that film, so one hopes more roles like that of Jama Farah find him. Iain Glen’s British Foreign Secretary James Willett, recovering from food poisoning while attending an arms manufacturing convention in Singapore, is the most Iannucci-esque the film gets and it does threaten to turn a little silly, but thankfully backs away from that cliff.

            From the film’s opening, which shows Alia’s father ensuring she gets an education and gets to play even as their town is oppressed by religious fanatics, we know we’re in for a degree of emotional manipulation. However, director Hood (who also plays a supporting role as an American Air Force Colonel) displays considerable nuance and the film strives to send the message that there are no clean-cut “good options” in war, no matter how high-tech the arsenal gets. While the multiple settings of London, Nevada, Hawaii, Nairobi, Singapore and Beijing create a sense of scale, there are also points where it feels the story is stretched a little too thin. This Singaporean writer also couldn’t help but notice that the wrong type of traffic lights is seen out the window in the scene set in the Southeast Asian nation. Still, that’s but a small nit to pick in this engrossing and provocative but even-handed thriller.

Summary: Even as it poses heady, heavy questions regarding the ethics of drone warfare, Eye in the Sky does not get bogged down in politics and provides edge-of-your-seat entertainment in addition to food for thought. 

RATING: 4 out of 5 Stars

Jedd Jong 

Trumbo

For F*** Magazine

TRUMBO 

Director : Jay Roach
Cast : Bryan Cranston, Diane Lane, Helen Mirren, Louis C.K., Elle Fanning, John Goodman, Michael Stuhlbarg, Alan Tudyk, Adewale Akinnouye-Agbaje, Dean O’Gorman, David James Elliott, Christian Berkel
Genre : Drama
Run Time : 124 mins
Opens : 25 February 2016
Rating : PG13 (Coarse Language)

How agonising would it be to write something so spectacular and widely-lauded, yet be forcibly denied credit? This reviewer wouldn’t know because he’s never written anything nearly that good, but Dalton Trumbo (Cranston) certainly knew that feeling.

It is the late 1940s in Hollywood and Trumbo is highly in demand as a screenwriter. He is a member of the American Communist Party, he is one of the “Hollywood ten”, a group of screenwriters subpoenaed to testify before Congress. Trumbo is ostracised as his relationship with his wife Cleo (Lane) and three children is put under immense strain. Trumbo becomes a target of gossip columnist Hedda Hopper (Mirren) and his disavowed by his friend, actor Edward G. Robinson (Stuhlbarg) so Robinson can protect his own career. Trumbo is unable to find work after being blacklisted, so he lets his friend Ian McLellan Hunter (Tudyk) take credit for Roman Holiday, which eventually wins an Academy Award. Gradually, rumours begin to swirl surrounding Trumbo’s clandestine ghost-writing. As the likes of Kirk Douglas (O’Gorman) and Otto Preminger (Berkel) hire Trumbo to craft screenplays for them, Trumbo inches closer to finally getting the credit he is due.

            It’s no secret that Hollywood loves movies about itself, and as a biopic about a prominent Hollywood figure, set against the backdrop of Cold War political turmoil, Trumbo does come off as Oscar bait. It’s a noble story of a stridently principled and talented man who risks everything to stand by his ideals. It is the hope of the filmmakers that audiences at large will find something in this story to identify with, because Trumbo often plays a little too “inside baseball” to be readily accessible. It’s not a difficult story to understand and Dalton Trumbo does deserve to have his story told, but if one isn’t that big a cinephile, specifically of the era in Hollywood during which Trumbo and his peers were active, Trumbo can be difficult to get into. This might sound disparaging and rest assured we don’t mean it that way, but Trumbo does feel like a film made for HBO. Director Jay Roach and star Cranston will next collaborate on one such HBO film, the Lyndon B. Johnson biopic All The Way.

            John McNamara adapted the biography Dalton Trumbo by Bruce Alexander Cook into this film. It seems that any writer tackling a script about a titan in the same field would be painting a target of considerable size on his own back. Adding to the risk is the fact that such revered classics as Roman Holiday, The Brave One and Spartacus are not only referred to, but are key components of the story. There is a righteous indignation that McNamara brings out in his script, but Trumbo says in a speech that there were “no heroes and villains” while the witch-hunt for “commies” was ongoing, yet several characters do feel exaggerated in the name of artistic license. Director Roach is known for helming comedies such as the Austin Powers and Meet the Parents trilogies as well as Borat and The Campaign. Perhaps the closest he’s come to directing a drama is the HBO film Game Change, about Sarah Palin’s vice-presidential bid. While there are no obvious missteps in his direction, perhaps the material could have benefitted from a defter touch.

            The ace up Trumbo’s sleeve is Trumbo himself, brilliantly portrayed by Cranston. For audiences who only knew him as bumbling dad Hal from Malcolm in the Middle, Cranston made the world collectively drop its jaws with his staggering, indelible Walter White in Breaking Bad. Cranston’s Trumbo is not a boring hero, he can be frustratingly stubborn and ornery but that twinkle in his eye and the spark of true giftedness draws us to him.

Leading the supporting cast, Lane is wonderfully convincing as a woman of the 50s. She handles the role, particularly the scenes in which Cleo confronts her husband about being swallowed up by his ghost-writing and becoming hostile towards his family, with strength and grace. Elle Fanning portrays Trumbo’s eldest daughter Nikola, and her relationship with her father is contentious but understandably so. Louis C.K. and Alan Tudyk, both more often associated with comedic roles, both deliver solid dramatic turns. O’Gorman and Berkel’s impressions of Kirk Douglas and Otto Preminger respectively are entertaining and just broad enough. Goodman is charismatically boorish and Mirren chomps down on the role of the catty, flamboyant gossip columnist with great relish.

            Trumbo is a biographical drama set in Hollywood with a talented actor in the lead role just waiting for the kudos to roll on in. In that regard, it’s a safe albeit not especially satisfying awards season offering. For those already enamoured with the period, the 50s style and décor might be eye-catching, but director Roach doesn’t do quite enough to hook the audience in and transport them right into the thick of 50s Hollywood. There’s earnestness aplenty, but a disappointing lack of pizazz.

Summary: Star Bryan Cranston is firing on all cylinders, but because it is only moderately successful at breathing life into the history it depicts, Trumbo holds the audience at arm’s length.

RATING: 3 out of 5 Stars

Jedd Jong 

RED: Retired, Extremely Dangerous

So the first review to be posted is also my latest. Red is now showing in theatres.

Movie Review                                                                                                             11/11/10

RED

2010

Starring: Bruce Willis, Mary Louise-Parker, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren

Directed by: Robert Schwentke

Summit Entertainment/diBonaventura Pictures.

            “Life begins at 60” has, for a long time, sounded like a pithy excuse to keep the elderly in the workforce and deny them their pension. However, there are some who get more badass with age. Just a couple of months earlier there were The Expendables, a gang of soldiers who had seemingly past their prime but could still do some serious damage. Giving Stallone and co. a run for their money are the team from RED, which stands for “Retired; Extremely Dangerous”. And there is ample proof that those two terms are not mutually exclusive at all.

            Frank Moses (Willis), once one of the CIA’s best agents, has settled into a mundane routine in suburban Cleveland. Moses is nurturing a relationship-by-telephone with Sarah (Louise-Parker), a customer service agent from his pension office, and decides to go down to Kansas to see her.

            Frank is assaulted in his home by a squad of heavily-armed mercenaries, and is made fully aware that his past has caught up with him, and that the CIA has decided to silence him and anyone else who was witness to war crimes committed in Guatemala. The young(er) and ruthlessly efficient agent William Cooper (Karl Urban) is tasked with taking Frank out.

            Sarah is swept up into the whole mess as Frank hops around the country to reassemble his former teammates, a motley crew of similarly-retired and similarly-dangerous characters. There’s Joe (Morgan Freeman), disappointed with life in a nursing home, Marvin (Malkovich), delusional, unhinged but still a sharp operative and Victoria (Mirren), on the surface a genteel and proper elderly lady but a lethal marksman, with some assistance from Ivan (Brian Cox), a former KGB agent and rival.

            It turns out that the team have uncovered a far-reaching conspiracy involving the Vice-President of the United States (Julian McMahon) and wealthy arms-dealer Alexander Dunning (Richard Dreyfuss). And anybody standing in their way had best get out or be prepared to feel a lot of pain.

            Though it doesn’t look like it at first, Red is based on a Homage Comics graphic novel, by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner. However, the film bears little resemblance to the source material, but this is a rare case where that may be to the film’s benefit. As opposed to the serious and gritty graphic novel, the film version of Red is an action-comedy through and through.

            Action-comedies happen to be my favourite film genre. However, it is also a very tricky one. The balance of action and comedy must be just right, and there must also be other elements - style, emotion and the like - to complement the action and the comedy. For me, the benchmark was set by James Cameron’s True Lies, which delivered a highly effective one-two punch of big crazy action set pieces combined with belly laughs.

            Red is different but by no means worse than True Lies. It is that rare gem where everything comes together just right. The cast, the story, the camera work, the action sequences and everything else in-between fit just right. Normally, when a film is described as “patchwork”, it’s not a good thing. But this is a patchwork movie in the same way a beautiful quilt is also a patchwork. The film has style, but a style that is unpretentious and fun to watch, as opposed to sometimes pretentious “stylistic” movies.

            To compare it to the afore-mentioned The Expendables, in which Willis had a cameo, Red seems to triumph. On the surface, both are “Geriatric A-Team”-type action flicks. The former however, for all its macho bravado and nostalgic 80s-style hard action, was a reunion of action heroes with the plot a mere excuse. On the other hand, Red doesn’t take its superstar cast for granted and has many other elements going for it. Perhaps it has more in common with Morgan Freeman’s previous film The Maiden Heist, a whimsical and well-acted comedy that also had older stars.

            It’s hard to come by a good, genuinely funny comedy that is not overly cynical or sardonic. Red is at its core sweet and sincere. Yes, a movie with explosions, missile-launchers, smoke bombs and car crashes is, at its core, sweet and sincere. Red is ultimately very character-driven, and as such it is a good thing that the cast does an outstanding job. With John Malkovich, Helen Mirren, Richard Dreyfuss and Morgan Freeman on the list, one could well mistake this for some Oscar-bait drama. And that’s one of the film’s many strengths: its cast do not seem to consider this to be frivolous or beneath them, and give their all while appearing to be having a blast.

To approach the film from a literary standpoint, its core theme seems to be about rediscovering youth. The two love story subplots, the first between Frank and Sarah and the second between two other characters (I won’t spoil it for you) feel like teenage crushes, puppy love almost, with the gunfights and fisticuffs keeping them from becoming cloying or saccharine. Marvin’s LSD-induced antics seem amusingly juvenile, like that of a crazy stoned youngster. And nobody does unhinged like John Malkovich, believe you me.

            Bruce Willis lets his softer side come through in-between dealing out pain to the bad guys, Karl Urban plays an anti-villain of sorts with a sympathetic edge, Helen Mirren is a blast as the gun-toting-yet-refined Victoria, Morgan Freeman affable as ever, Richard Dreyfuss gleefully evil and Mary Louise-Parker the perfect girl-next-door who finally gets the excitement she’s always wanted.

            Robert Schwentke, who previously ramped up the suspense in Flightplan, proves he can handle kinetic action scenes competently as well. It is amazingly refreshing to be able to watch a proper shootout sequence without the breakneck speed editing, headache-inducing camera angles and unnecessary bells and whistles. And Dame Helen Mirren firing away 50 calibre bullets is a sight that has to be seen to be believed.

            Red may well be my favourite movie of the year thus far. Its combination of heart, style and adrenaline make it a winner. Most of its stars may be age 55 and above, but this is one very fresh film. Red gets my green light.

RATING: 4.5/5 STARS

Jedd Jong Yue