An emerging political scandal in Toronto in 2013 seen through the eyes of young staffers at city hall and a local newspaper.
Ricky Tollman’s independent feature Run This Town is one that has great ambitions. A large portion of it plays out similarly Adam McKay’s The Big Shortin that it is full of quick-cut editing styles and feels like a black comedy documentary more than anything else. The style on display here, while not unique and somewhat tired at this point, did work well for the type of movie that Tollman was going for. Sadly, the technical elements on display here are some of the strongest aspects of Run This Town.
That’s not to say that the film doesn’t have anything going for it besides its in your face editing, because it does. For the first act, the script does set up some genuine tension and intrigue with its politically charged story centered around former Toronto mayor Rob Ford (Damian Lewis). We don’t really see him that much in the movie as Tollman tries to save his appearances for the right sequences. While the story is in relation to Ford, at its core, this film is about this group of young journalists that get caught in the messy web of a humongous scandal.
For the most part, the lead characters that we follow don’t get a whole lot of development along the way. They don’t even have arcs. They can only be interesting once the film’s second act kicks into place, as that is the section of the movie in which these people feel like they need to take action with this scandal. They feel like it is their responsibility to do something about it.
The person that feels the strongest about this story and wants to get it out there the most is Bram Shriver (Ben Platt), who works for an entertainment company called The Record. As an employee there, he feels like he doesn’t have a lot of room to grow. He feels like he isn’t sure if he wants to keep doing what he is doing there because all his job lets him do is publish top ten list articles, such as the “Top 10 Best Burgers in Toronto”. While he appreciates the work that they give him, he knows deep down inside that he can do much more than write articles like that. He wants to be taken a bit more seriously. He knows that he is capable of writing much more than just top ten articles. Watching his story unfold was easily one of the best elements about the film.
Speaking of Bram, he is played with a sense of raw power by Ben Platt (Pitch Perfect, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk). Platt feels intentionally reserved and quiet as the character, but feels totally invigorating and enthralling whenever he needs to be. Looking at his acting on display here was quite intriguing, as it felt like at any moment, he could explode and reach his breaking point. It was fascinating.
I really wish I could say that the rest of the movie was as fascinating as Platt’s performance (and all of the other performances, too). What makes this film greatly suffer is, unfortunately, its screenplay. Clocking in at ninety nine minutes, Run This Town feels significantly shorter than it should have been. The script throws so many philosophical ideas and themes towards us and tries to see if it will all stick. It doesn’t. They only chose to focus on some of the most surface-level themes, where there should’ve been focusing on the other plotlines they teased along the way.
It’s story is told in a disappointingly sloppy way and, for a long while, it feels like it is never going to go anywhere. There are simply way too many scenes of characters talking to one another without ever progressing the plot along. The first act feels like a set-up for the following two acts, which is totally fine. The problem is that the following acts don’t do a good enough job of resolving the conflict that was set up earlier.
As a result, we have a movie that feels half-baked and lackluster in the grand scheme of things. If the script had spent more time trying to develop the characters a little better and focused more on making this story feel more juicy and deep-cutting, it could have been a greatly entertaining drama.
Run This Town ultimately doesn’t go anywhere with its underwhelming and bland script that doesn’t quite handle its ideas in a satisfying way.
After staging his own suicide, a crazed scientist named Adrian Griffin (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) uses his power to become invisible to stalk and terrorize his ex-girlfriend Cecilia Kass (Elisabeth Moss). When the police refuse to believe her story, she decides to take matters into her own hands and fight back.
Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man serves as a retelling of the classic story of the same name by legendary science fiction and horror author H. G. Wells, and has often been retold in the feature film format as well. The one that you are probably the most familiar with is the 1933 version directed by James Whale. It is widely regarded as one of the most influential horror movies of all time thanks to its creepy thrills and excellent adaptation of Wells’ original story.
But as great as that 1933 film was, Whannell’s adaptation of this story will go down as the definitive edition. It is an extraordinarily inventive, expertly crafted masterclass of horror with one of the most gripping and enthralling screenplays that the genre has to offer in this day and age.
On the surface, The Invisible Man comes across as a fully fledged horror movie. It’s even how it has been marketed in all of the trailers, posters, and other promotional material. But going into the theatre expecting traditional horror would be a gargantuan mistake, as this is a psychological thriller in every way. It’s a story about a woman who feels unheard and disregarded by everybody around her after getting terrorized by this unseen force, and along the way, we get to go on a thought-provoking journey with her.
It’s all thanks to the superb screenplay by Whannell. This is not his first outing in the genre either. Far from it, actually. In the past, he has penned the scripts for several films in the Saw franchise, Insidious, and Dead Silence. He has only recently dipped his toe into the directing field, with him helming Insidious: Chapter 3 and Upgrade just a couple of years ago.
This is without a doubt his finest work to date. With every passing scene, he finds incredibly genius ways to divert viewers’ expectations and constantly leaves you guessing what will happen next. This is something that is so rare for the genre nowadays. A bunch of horror movies are extremely predictable and feel stale. It can be genuinely tricky to find new things to do creatively, yet Whannell has found a way to craft a highly grounded film about revenge, family, and being heard, all while telling an incredibly thrilling story that will surely delight those looking for adrenaline.
As the film progresses, we constantly feel on edge. It truthfully felt as if the titular villain could have shown up at any moment to hurt our protagonist, and a lot of this tension is created due to the absolutely stellar sound design. This is a crucial element in horror. Using sound in an effective way works in spades, which is one of the reasons why A Quiet Place was so riveting. Both The Invisible Man and A Quiet Placefeel extremely suspenseful and silent for a large portion of the running time. They are so quiet, in fact, that it makes us feel like we can no longer breathe because we are constantly waiting for something to happen. But then, right when we least expect it, we may hear something loud of subtle that gives us a shock. Using the right sounds when audiences least expect it can go a long way, and The Invisible Man does that brilliantly.
The sound design is also finely complimented with some of the most impressive cinematography in the past year. Stefan Duscio (Upgrade, Jungle) served as the film’s director of photography and finds ways to set up the camera in bone-chillingly effective ways. He uses a ton of wide shots, which makes the audience feel as if the Invisible Man is lurking in every scene, but we just can’t see him.
All of these great technical elements come together to make a visually stunning movie on every level. But all of that aside, what stands out as exceptional here is Elisabeth Moss as Cecilia. This is not only the greatest performance she has ever given in a film, but it is downright Oscar worthy. The Academy will surely not nominate her for anything, due to this being a horror movie, but she really deserves recognition for this role.
She portrays Cecilia with an extreme sense of vitality and emotion, and stands out as above the echelon. Watching her onscreen is a movie in and of itself. She is truly encapsulating here. In addition to this, her character is one that is greatly unpredictable and invigorating to follow.
Throughout the course of two hours, we learn plenty of information about her and her past life with Adrian. We know that he was incredibly abusive to her when they were together, and she felt like she was constantly on a leash. She felt as if she did not have any freedom whatsoever. Watching Cecilia finally attempt to break free from this pain was emotionally moving and exciting. Her character development and overall arc was incredibly powerful to see unfold.
Aside from Moss, all of the other actors do fantastic jobs in their roles as well. None of the others feel sidelined, either. They all feel like they are playing integral roles in the overarching story. A story that was equal parts spellbinding and shocking. If Whannell wants to continue making movies like this, there would be absolutely no complaining from me.
Inventive and brilliantly suspenseful, The Invisible Man is a masterclass of horror, and further cements Leigh Whannell as one of the genre’s most exciting voices.
A troubled young woman named Abby (Tuppence Middleton) returns to her hometown of Niagara Falls, where the memory of a long-ago kidnapping quickly ensnares her.
Albert Shin’s latest feature film Disappearance at Clifton Hill starts off with a bang. A creepy opening lets us in on an unnerving scene. A young child is with her family in the Niagara Falls area taking pictures with one another. So far, so normal right? However, right out of the corner of her eye, she sees what she suspects is a kidnapping. During her adult life, she has not really been able to shake this incident from her memory. She feels almost as if it is her responsibility to uncover this mystery that may or may not have happened all these years ago.
The way the opening of the film sets up the rest of the story along the way was done in a great and brilliant way. Unfortunately, as impressively crafted and acted as Disappearance at Clifton Hill is, it ultimately fizzles out as a disappointingly bland and generic mystery thriller that suffers from its incoherent screenplay and uninspired storytelling.
Shin co-wrote the script for the film with James Schultz, and while they do set up some genuinely creepy and disturbing scenes, the vast majority of these plotlines don’t go anywhere all that exciting or intriguing. Furthermore, it takes an incredibly long time for them to get going too. The first thirty minutes of this movie are there to set things up and get viewers interested. The problem is that it not only makes it hard to revisit the film a second time, but it gets a bit frustrating on the initial viewing. A large portion of the first thirty minutes is expository dialogue being spoken by a few characters and pointless sequences that could have either been significantly trimmed down or removed from the film as a whole.
However, as the second act draws to a close and the third act starts up, Disappearance at Clifton Hill‘s entertainment value picks up tremendously. From there, we actually get to learn a lot about the aforementioned kidnapping, and it is by far the most enjoyable part of this picture. As entertaining and often satisfying as it is, it doesn’t really have that much of an emotional impact or shock value due to the rest of the movie beforehand being relatively dull and uninspired. A lot of the story feels similar to other, better mystery shows like Twin Peaksand The X-Files.
If there is one thing to praise here, it is absolutely the acting on display from the whole cast. They all bring their A-game to the movie and there truly is not a weak link among the entire ensemble. While some of them don’t really get a lot to do sadly, seeing their great performances on display was a treat. Out of them all, the standout is easily Middleton as lead protagonist Abby. She portrays her with a great sense of vitality and she feels remarkably raw throughout.
In addition, the film contains a delightfully creepy score from Alex Sowinsky and Leland Whitty. It is their music that kicks off the entire thing and they carry greatly unnerving tunes throughout the entire running time. Their musical score was accompanied with some stellar cinematography by Catherine Lutes as well.
As a whole though, this was an underwhelming movie that felt like a missed opportunity in a ton of areas. With a better screenplay, this could have been one of the first great movies of the year, but sadly, Disappearance at Clifton Hill suffers from an incoherent and uninspired script even if it boasts great performances and stellar technical achievements.
When a young family moves to the Heelshire’s residence, terror strikes when a boy from the family named Jude (Christopher Convery) discovers a doll called Brahms that appears to be eerily human.
So far, in the year 2020, we have been cursed with quite a number of horrible horror films. In the first week of January, Nicolas Pesce released his new vision for The Grudge, which was a painfully contrived and bland reboot. Then, we got Floria Sigismondi’s feature adaptation of classic novel The Turn of the Screw in the form of The Turning, which turned out to be a massive disappointment. If that wasn’t bad enough, just this past week, Blumhouse Productions released their worst movie since Truth or Dare, a horror film version of the beloved television series Fantasy Island.
But, out of all the early year horror movie releases, William Brent Bell’s Brahms: The Boy II, was one of the films that had the most potential to be great, despite having a ridiculous title. A few years ago, Bell helmed the previous installment in the franchise, The Boy, which was met with mainly mixed reviews from both critics and audiences alike.
There were some that thought the film was delightfully creepy and a welcome surprise release for the month of January, which is widely regarded as the month where movies go to die. But, there were also some people (myself included) that thought The Boy was a missed opportunity for the most part.
The whole “evil doll comes to life and starts to kill innocent people” idea is nothing new. Far from it, in fact. One of the most beloved horror franchises is that of the Child’s Play or Chucky franchise. Throughout the decades, many generations have been creeped out by the Brad Dourif and now Mark Hamill voiced doll, and it seems like the franchise will not be going anywhere soon.
But viewers that are looking for a little bit more originality with the creepy doll movies have not had much luck in recent years. With that being said though, the original Boy did have its moments where it shined, namely its twist ending that took plenty of people by surprise. Does it make a lot of sense when you think about it in retrospect to the rest of the film? Not really. In fact, it is a little bit goofy. But it was certainly a shocking ending and genuinely set up a sequel that could be incredibly interesting. Bell’s original film paved the way for a follow-up with plenty to explore and expand upon.
Whether you expected this to be good or not, there is some bad news. Not only is Brahms: The Boy II not a worthy sequel to an otherwise mediocre film, but it is far worse than its predecessor and the worst horror movie of the year thus far.
Weak jump scares and painfully boring and long drawn out sequences are the least of this movie’s problems. Yes, the endless string of jump scares was extremely tiring. There are few things that people hate more than jump scares, and this film is riddled with them. To make matters worse, they are “false jump scares”. Instead of the jump scare consisting of something actually creepy like a figure popping out of a corner, it is always something incredibly ridiculous such as the main child Jude sneaking up behind his mom and scaring her.
Additionally, yes, it’s immensely boring. Even with a running time of only eighty six minutes, the film feels remarkably longer due to there being no real meat on this screenplay. This absolutely feels like a first draft in every way. You know there’s a problem with your film when the scariest thing that happens in it is a doll moving its eyes around. A movie with a running time of less than ninety minutes including credits does not have anywhere to go really. It takes about thirty to thirty five minutes for anything remotely creepy to occur in Brahms: The Boy II. The scenes that play out beforehand are extremely bland and lifeless.
Something else that was greatly frustrating here was the characters. They have next to nothing for development. In the original film, my favorite aspect to the entire thing was Lauren Cohan as Greta Evans. Not only did she deliver an emotionally raw and riveting performance, but her character was one that was impressively fleshed out. We were given a good reason to care for her and her plight. Whenever she got herself tied up in a sticky situation, it was easy to root for her. With this sequel, the characters get nothing to do. They all have one little personality trait on display and that’s it. Jude’s character is there to be Brahms’ best friend. Throughout the movie, he is seen giving him food, doing homework while Brahms watches, and gets mad whenever his parents tell him to cut it out. That’s literally the extent of Jude’s character, and it was frustrating.
Speaking of his parents, they get just as little to do here as well. In fact, they get even less. Liza’s character worries throughout the entire movie and that’s it. Something creepy happens in the house, and she expresses concern. The same thing goes for her husband and Jude’s father Sean (Owain Yeoman). Seeing this highly talented cast of actors get absolutely nothing to do in terms of a character point of view was frustrating and maddening. But it also makes me think why these actors accepted roles in this film in the first place.
There is nothing even impressive on a technical scale here either. It’s not as if the cinematography by Karl Walter Lindenlaub is bad or anything, but it most certainly is nothing remarkable or anything like that. There is not a single shot in the entire film that is going to stick with me. It’s all extremely generic and surface level stuff. Even the score by Brett Detar is average, and the editing on display by Brian Berdan is genuinely jarring in numerous scenes, with a lot of poorly done slow motion sequences incorporated.
All of those massive issues aside though, the other humongous problem with Brahms: The Boy II is the fact that it acts as if the first movie doesn’t even exist. Yes, you heard me right. If you absolutely adored that first film, you’re more than likely going to hate this movie and be massively let down.
The ending of the predecessor was greatly promising and set up a potential franchise that had a lot of areas to explore. Spoiler alert for the original film if you haven’t seen it yet. Throughout the running time, Lauren Cohan’s Greta is seeing terribly weird things going on around the manor. She feels like she is being watched and it seems to her like the doll Brahms could possibly be alive and moving around. At the climax of the film, after the doll is shattered in pieces, it is revealed that Brahms, who was thought to be dead many years ago, is actually very much so alive and has been living in the walls of the Heelshire Manor the whole time. He was the person that was moving around the house at night and he was able to watch Greta via the Brahms doll.
As mentioned earlier, there are a lot of problems that arise with that twist ending, especially if you have seen the film, you’d know that there are some things regarding that twist that just don’t make a lot of sense. But on the other hand, it brilliantly sets up a potential franchise where we could follow the grown up Brahms as he tries to find new victims to torment as they go into the Heelshire Manor.
In Brahms: The Boy II, they basically retcon the entire ending of the previous entry. As said, at the finale of the original, we learn that an adult man named Brahms was the one that was responsible for all the creepy things that happened throughout the entire movie. He’s the one that was able to move the doll around, because whenever Greta was not looking, he would go and move the doll to another room.
Within the first thirty minutes of this follow-up, we see the Brahms doll’s eyes literally move around and we see his body move around all on his own. The entire question that viewers had on their mind while watching was “Is the doll possessed? Or is something else at play?”. The answer? Something else was at play. A grown man was responsible for moving the doll. Here, they pretend like that is not true. What’s also incredibly shocking about this massive retcon is the fact that this sequel is penned by the same screenwriter of the first, and is directed by Bell, who also helmed the first. Why they would retcon the biggest twist of the original movie is beyond me. It’s actually a massive disappointment and is going to anger anybody that loved that twist ending.
Watching a movie like this is tiring. Not just because it is a drastically weak movie with poor writing, character development, scares, etc. But because, while watching it, you can see all of the things that they could have changed to make it significantly better. One can only hope that horror movies will improve sometime soon in the year, because right now, it is not a great time to be a fan of the genre.
Brahms: The Boy II is a colossal disappointment due to its severely dull screenplay and awful character development, weak scares, and its disregarding of the original.
A domesticated St. Bernard/Scotch Collie dog named Buck is stolen from his Santa Clara, California home and sold to freight haulers in Yukon. Crossing paths with a man named John Thornton (Harrison Ford), the two embark on an adventure where Buck finds his true place in the world.
Ah yes, the good old fashioned “adapted from a book” movie. These can honestly be some of the greatest films sometimes. Novels are obviously well known for being incredibly rich with their stories, intricate details, and length. It’s one of the many reasons why a ton of people say that the book is better than the movie. In the book, there are most likely hundreds of pages chalked full of great detail about the characters, story, and world. In a movie on the other hand, the filmmaker does not have hours to explore these themes and stories, but rather, just about two hours only. Therefore, it can be extremely tricky to adapt any novel into a feature length film, especially if it is a novel as beloved as Jack London’s The Call of the Wild.
Originally published in 1903, the novel tells the exact same story set in Yukon of a dog who is stolen from his home and must find his place in the world, all while meeting a caring and friendly man named John. Throughout the decades, many readers all around the world have fallen in love with this beautifully told and emotionally moving story of man’s best friend, and it is not hard to see why. Each page in the book is filled with great storytelling, a break-neck pace, and interesting characters that you love to follow and want to learn more about. It’s also a novel that had some grittiness to it. While children have loved the story as well, London did not shy away from putting some bleak moments in his story.
The original novel’s story and characters were just two of the biggest reasons The Call of the Wild had the potential to be a great film. The other reason being that legendary actor Harrison Ford portrays lead human protagonist John Thornton. Although Ford made an appearance in a film last year, it was only for a few seconds. While his scene was shocking and extremely emotional, it reminded audiences around the world why we love this guy. Getting to see him back on the big screen in a major role in Chris Sanders’ latest feature brought a gigantic smile to my face.
In the role of John Thornton, he brings a sense of warmth that only Ford can bring. Every single time he is on screen, he radiates a sense of immense confidence and friendliness. You feel like you are best friends with him almost. Seeing his bond with the lead dog Buck was remarkable and truly heartwarming and it was by far the strongest aspect of this film.
Although Ford is certainly terrific in this film and is his best work in quite a few years, it would have been nice to have seen just a little bit more of him. The Call of the Wild has a running time of one hundred minutes, and it takes about thirty five minutes or so for Ford’s character to be properly introduced. Before he is introduced, we follow Omar Sy’s Perrault and Cara Gee’s Françoise, two of Buck’s caretakers. They are eventually shoved completely out of the movie and it felt extremely out of left field.
At its core though, this was an impressively helmed film. Sanders does a great job at adapting this beloved story to the big screen for a new generation, and he shows a ton of skill in his craft. The way he frames certain shots and his fast-paced storytelling for the most part, makes this movie fun to watch. There are some moments where the pacing drags and there are some scenes where there certainly is some down time (particularly in the first act), but at the end of the day, he managed to craft a film that is going to capture the hearts of families, children, and adults alike.
Although its story is one that was deeply inspiring and uplifting to watch, there never really feels like a sense of urgency is present. Since the film is rated PG, you know in the back of your mind that not a whole lot of surprises can be in store because of that rating. Nothing brutal or gritty happens in the book except for one sequence in the final ten minutes, which was a bit of a shame. It is a massively fun movie to watch after the slow first act is over, but even still, there never feels like there is a sense of urgency.
But something that was absolutely phenomenal regarding The Call of the Wild was its cinematography by Janusz Kamiński. In the past, he has served as director of photography on films such as Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One and Lincoln, and also shot Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, another Harrison Ford-lead movie. Despite his past work being truly remarkable stuff, this may be one of his best efforts to date. Nearly every frame on display looks absolutely beautiful, with Kamiński’s awe-inspiring cinematography blending beautifully with the gorgeous scenery of the sunny mountaintops and the warm and inviting forests. It all looks so beautiful and is never dull to look at.
Something that a ton of people on the internet are talking about is the computer generated imagery that is present for the animal characters here, namely the lead dog Buck. Getting an actual dog to do some of these scenes in this film would have been an immense challenge, and therefore, the filmmaker’s opted to use CGI here, and for the most part, it did not bother me. Yes, there are definitely some moments (especially early on), where it is incredibly evident that you are not looking at a real dog. But after about twenty to thirty minutes, the fact that you are looking at an artificial dog honestly leaves your mind because you get so wrapped up in the story.
All of the technical aspects aside though, The Call of the Wild did impress me for the most part. At the end of the day, a great story is what matters the most when it comes to film, and the story, while familiar and unsurprising, was still a blast to watch. Man’s best friend has not had a tale this inspiring and heartwarming in years.
The Call of the Wild tells a story that, while incredibly familiar and unsurprising, is still greatly inspiring and heartwarming, and is a great display of Harrison Ford at his charming best.
