The Hateful Eight (***)

*I went into this film having not read a synopsis nor watched a trailer. As such, I think the movie had a surprising effect and I will mention here that there are probably a plethora of spoilers ahead. 

There are a lot of funny things about "The Hateful Eight," Quentin Tarantino's 8th film in his directorial canon. It was shot on a glorious 70mm film stock, and yet most of it takes place in one room. It has the outward appearance of a classic spaghetti western, and yet the claustrophobia and dialogue makes it feel more like a 'who-done-it' caper. In terms of comparing the movie to a counterpart (and as Tarantino has confirmed), it feels more like the horror flick "The Thing" than say, "The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly." It's a movie of raw talent, skill, and craft. Why does it feel like the shadow of a better film?

As the title suggests, we encounter an ensemble of eight travelers from the Civil War era snowscape of Wyoming (9 if you include the driver of the wagon). One by one, we meet our band, a group of witty, street smart travelers and criminals and law men who talk with an ear for Shakespeare and a universal talent for small talk. There's Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L Jackson), a bounty hunter with three fresh corpses. He flags down John "The Hangman" Ruth (Kurt Russell), a brazen moustache of a man shackled to his own bounty: the wildly obtuse Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh. She's just astounding in the role). Warren hitches a ride and they move on in a 'Wizard of Oz' type fashion to pick up their next passenger: a conman turned Sheriff named Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins).

So it goes for a while until they find themselves in the midst of a blizzard and marooned at Minnie's Haberdashery. Here it turns more or less into the cast of Clue, with a General (Bruce Dern), a Mexican ("Bob," played wonderfully by Demian Bichir), a hangman (Tim Roth), and a writer (Michael Madsen). With nothing to do but talk and a mystery surrounding (among other things) poisoned coffee, the fate of these eight soon becomes a test of mortality and wits.

The film, as is most Tarantino lore, is broken down into chapters, slowly introducing character by character and leading to a fairly explosive climax. The 70mm Roadshow version I watched even had an Entr'acte and Intermission. What began as a slow introduction was soon replaced with tension and filmmaking one comes to expect from a director of such insurmountable film knowledge and trivia. Midway through I was convinced this was a film of all development and no payoff. By the end I was surely proven wrong.

The screenplay is razor sharp and is carried by perhaps the most skilled cast of the year. In many ways this is a movie that resembles a stage performance, playing out in real time and using traditional blocking to progress the story with a unique dymanic. Coupled with Rob Richardson's glorious cinematography (there are truly some glorious shots) and the music of Ennio Morricone (you can just hear the whispers of some great spaghetti westerns in the simple melodies. This is an Oscar-winning score for sure), Tarantino's film indeed takes on a more cinematic mythos than his previous stories.

My problems with the film (and the reasons I found it so difficult to write a review at first) is surprisingly from the violence. For a movie with such a limited setting, the language of gore in this film is about as shocking as anything I think I have seen. Do they give NC-17 ratings on violence alone? Surely this is a film that could warrant it.

Most of the violence revolves around Daisy, a woman we are told is a savage murderer who deserves the noose. Scene after scene, we witness her being beat by Ruth, and by Marquis, and the sheriff, all manner of blows to the head and face. By the end of the film she is literally drenched in blood and brain matter, her initial black eye at the beginning of the film not even visible. This is not to denounce the film as misogynistic (would it be as disturbing if the character was a man?). My trouble with the film comes from the sadistic joy these men have abusing a woman we are told is violent, and yet never is the audience provided the same justification to hate her as well. To us, she is merely a woman in chains, beaten to within an inch of her life time after time (though through a small smile we know she is still unharmed, relishing in the anarchy she stirs to life). As a performance, Daisy Domergue is the highlight of the film and Jennifer Jason Leigh's final moments on screen are legendary. As a focus of entertainment by means of torture, I am yet to be convinced.

The rest of the film is what we would come to expect: Samuel L Jackson (surprisingly brilliant in his leading role) calling his co-inhabitants "motherfuckers" (suspension of disbelief leads me to believe this was a term coined around the Revolutionary War era), bullets fly, and the camera oftentimes leads us to clues unknown to the characters at the time. During the best scenes, this is a film that would do Hitchcock proud. At it's worst, it amounts to little more than a snuff film littered with gore and shock value for the sake of mere disgust. I still believe this is a film of unmatched skill and talent. Maybe one of the best of the year in that regard. I just think that after the credits rolled and the lights went up, the knots in my stomach were more a result of disgust than ecstasy.

SIcario (*****)

"Sicario" completely took me by surprise, leaving me with an overwhelming feeling of amazement and wonder. Amazed by such a tightly-written thriller with clear characters and thrilling moments, wondered by the art of such a story and an eagerness to watch it again.

Denis Villeneuve has directed some good films (Prisoners) and some curious films (Enemy), but for the first time it feels like he has helmed something important. The story is layered with a depth of character development that it's oftentimes difficult to determine even a main character. My guess is Kate (Emily Blunt), an FBI agent who is used to being thrust into danger. The opening scene depicts a drug raid gone sour (and do I mean it's bad). She's strong-willed and good with a gun, but even in these early moments we sense a vulnerability; a sense that she is in well over her head.

She is recruited by a special ops team that tends to leave her in the shadows. Their goal is to eradicate the leaders of a drug cartel based in and around Mexico, but Kate is rarely given a full breakdown of the plan. A trip to El Paso instead finds them in Juarez, Mexico. A mysterious bodyguard turns out to be Alejandro Gillick (the brilliant Benicio del Toro), a man full of mysteries and potential danger.

In many ways the story is equally about Gillick. He hints at a past and through interrogations and his knowledge of the drug underworld, we come to believe he is a man of intense knowledge and equal danger. Benicio del Toro is no stranger to the world of acting, and here has got to be one of the year's best performances. Gillick is a man of few words, but he has such a quiet intensity that we recall great movie characters like Anton Chigurh or Hannibal Lecter. Perhaps those are unfair comparisons. He is not a villain by the traditional standards, but the manner of his being and his ultimate goal (realized in a couple of the most tense final scenes I can remember) indicate that he is bound to no moral compass to achieve what he wants.

I suppose it's easy to see this as a movie about a drug raid and the fight against drug trafficking in America (similar to something like 'Traffic'). Instead I found the film much more reserved, a study of a person well in over their heads. While Gillick I compared to someone like Javier Bardem's character in 'No Country for Old Men,' Kate then would be a fair comparison to Tommy Lee Jones: a morally sound person that finds the world is simply too much for them to endure on their own.

The performances are all around wonderful, and the look of the film (the great Roger Deakins) continues to be some of the most impressive photography of the year (that is until he releases his next film. Can we believe this man has received soon to be 13 Oscar nominations with no win??). The final battle sees soldiers wandering the desert after sunset. Through mostly night-vision cameras, we follow the action, and in a story with so much gray area and moral ambiguity, the decision to show the footage in a nearly reverse color scheme (black is white and white is black) only gave the situation a visual metaphor that was all the more impactful.

I suppose I could find a flaw with the film if I looked hard enough. I'm sure that's the case with most movies. Leaving 'Sicario,' I was entirely satisfied and unbelievably happy to have watched a film of such skill and intelligence. This is one of the year's very best films.

Trumbo (****1/2)

There's a small but funny moment in "Trumbo" when the title author, blacklisted for being a Communist, is found nominated for an Oscar for a screenplay penned under a false name: Robert Rich. Dalton Trumbo sits around with some others and discuss who would even go up to accept the award should he win. "Don't worry," a producer says, "it's not that good of a script anyways." The moment finally comes, and Trumbo along with his family watch as his screenplay for "The Brave One" in fact wins the award. A producer goes to the stage to accept it on the writer's behalf, and it disappears. Will he ever get his hands on the prize at all?

So goes "Trumbo," a wildly fun and intriguing movie about a group of screenwriters billed as the 'Hollywood 10,' movie makers deemed unable to work in Hollywood due to their involvement with the Communist Party. Does that stop them from working? Of course not! Through schemes and pen names and various means, the authors develop a literal black market of smuggling and drafting movie scripts for production at various studios. Most everyone in Hollywood knows it's them, but since the pictures are good, who's to care?

Bryan Cranston delivers in perhaps his first major leading role. Moustached, wise, witty, and engulfed in a constant cloud of cigarette smoke, Trumbo is presented as an unassuming hero that cares more about supporting his family then winning name recognition and prizes. The challenges build as his work load increases and the threat of losing a job become more hazardous. Locked away in his office or typing away in his tub (18 hour work days, at one point), Trumbo goes gray and frail but never loses his passion for the movies.

Hedda Hopper (Helen Mirren), on the other hand, is presented as the one consistent 'villain' through it all. A former actress turned gossip columnist, she pokes around attempting to uncover the truth if only to boost her readership. She's not one to stand by convictions, but since anti-Communism is all the rage, naturally she must hop on board. Mirren's is a fun, quick, and memorable performance, but does little to upstage Cranston, whose presence on screen we take for granted for being so absolutely believable.

There has been a surge of 'movies about movies,' and the one I most vividly recall is "Argo," another story of the power of Hollywood to save the day in the end. While that film was without doubt a bit more optimistic in it's message, I found "Trumbo" to be even a bit more inventive; more grounded in the reality of such a situation. We all knew Ben Affleck would get the hostages on the plane in the end, but I felt genuinely concerned that Dalton Trumbo was on a track to die penniless and forgotten.

From 'Roman Holiday' to 'Spartacus,' Trumbo's career seemed to be on a never-ending incline after his return to public graces, and yet until the day he died he certainly carried around a bit of controversy. Drastically underpraised in his time and still an icon today, "Trumbo" succeeds at creating entertainment from a dark subject matter, and (though a fairly predictable screenplay in itself) delivers as a solid movie about a little known time in Hollywood history.

Straight Outta Compton (****)

It's kind of amazing watching a movie like "Straight Outta Compton," a music biopic of a group of men who revolutionized music in the late 1980's and continue to influence culture to this day. The end credits do little to gloss over this fact, and clips of Ice Cube and Dr Dre now are all the more amazing considering their roots and the singular idea of a dream to be heard.

F Gary Gray's directorial effort is an incredibly impressive epic spanning nearly 10 years. It covers a large ensemble cast and so many points, ideas, and cultural events, it's a wonder the film didn't wind up double its run time of nearly 3 hours. What we have is a fast-paced and exciting look into the world of music: the inspiration, writing, and collaboration of it. N.W.A. is the group ("No Whites Allowed?"), and they're using music to voice their anger. While other musicians saw songs as an abstract way to tell a story, Easy-E and Ice Cube were performing "Fuck The Police" to sold out arenas. Reporters and even FBI saw their work as a potential threat to the safety of armed officers; terrorism in a way. NWA saw it as giving a voice to the voiceless.

The cast is nearly beyond belief, not just in physical looks (it's great that Ice Cube's son inherited his father's role, but everyone down to the uncanny transformation of Jason Mitchell into Easy-E is eerie to say the least). The cast works together to present the creation of this rap ensemble with a great passion and honesty. There is love behind this film, and seeing the original artists as producers on the film only confirm this.

Storywise we follow a fairly traditional plot: the rise to power and the struggle to adapt to a life of wealth, etc, etc. I think the more interesting aspects focused on the influence of their founding manager, Jerry Heller (Paul Giamati), and the stake that it drove into the group over time. I'm no expert on rap music and especially not on music of the time, but seeing the unique impact such records could have was eye-opening to say the least. With Ice Cube leaving the group over salary issues and recording music against NWA and his former boss (right down to anti-Semitism), Heller responds with anger. It's defamation of character, perhaps he should sue. Easy-E simply steps back into the recording studio to retaliate through music.

In a way, music is the most powerful weapon.

The Big Short (*****)

I won't claim to understand fully the reasons for the Stock Market Crash of 2008, nor after seeing this film could I speak to it with great fluency. What I can say, however, is that I have a clear picture of the consequences of such a fiasco, as well as the brains (and lack thereof) of the people involved on both sides of the line of guilt. "The Big Short" is billed as a comedy, and in fact it whizzes past so quickly that you can't help but laugh at the absurdity. It's funny until it's simply not, and then it becomes quite a disturbing concept (and quite quickly, too).

There are several key players in the ensemble, and firstly is the talented and yet quirky Michael Burry (Christian Bale), a manager of a hedge fund with self-declared Asperger's Syndrome and a glass eye. He discovers a slight bubble in the widely regarded "stable" housing market that could lead to a total collapse. He decides to bet against the banks at stake, much to their amusement. His research gets out, and surprisingly only a handful of people realize the money that is at stake. From a compulsive trader named Mark Baum (Steve Carell), to a banker from within named Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling), they probe deeper into the market of mortgages and loans to see just how clueless everyone really is.

The first half of the film introduces our cast, one by one, with backstories and cutaways and flashbacks. The film moves with a kinetic energy that is just simply miraculous, and on more than one occasion a character breaks the fourth wall and speaks directly to us. It's an odd and yet perfect choice in terms of structuring the film. Just as the economy is on unstable grounds, so is the style of the film: disjointed, frenetic, and dizzying.

It's so beyond belief that something as catastrophic as this could happen, and yet it's no wonder why given the CEO's and bankers and 'officials' they meet along the way. Asking lenders about why they would approve a loan without the person having any sort of credit score, Baum is told that the repayment doesn't matter, that they make money regardless. Frustrated, Baum asks his team "why are they admitting all this?" only to realize that they are simply bragging about their wealth and greed.

You would think the film would end triumphantly with the "cha-ching" of large checks falling into the laps of our heroes, and yet it feels even more so like a loss. By betting against the banks, these men made literally billions of dollars, and yet one moment in the film reminds us of the disturbing reality: that for every 1% unemployment goes up, 40,000 people die. By profiting off of a collapsing market, so many more millions of people are out of a job and a home.

For being a first-time dramatic film for director Adam McKay, he navigates the territory with the ease of a master filmmaker. Through exposition and hilariously-random cutaways (here's Selena Gomez to explain the financial meltdown), the extremely dense plot and several interwoven stories are presented with a clarity that I don't think many filmmakers could manage.

Christian Bale as the one-eyed discoverer deserves much praise for his zany and focused performance, as does Brad Pitt, playing a retired banker who feels very much like a conservative family man simply trying to do the right thing. The film belongs to Steve Carell, in an intensely layered performance that borders on genius at every given moment. With a glottal tone in his voice and a dark past, the film is that much better for his tremendous work, and I don't see any scenario that doesn't end with his second consecutive Oscar nomination. As a moral compass through the film, Carell's acting is pitch perfect at capturing the absurdity of the entire story, slowly coming to terms with the evil and corruption that is modern society.

I didn't expect much from "The Big Short," but having seen it I am all the better for it. It has reinvigorated the wonder of moviemaking in an otherwise typical Holiday season Oscar-bait lineup. Out of all the films playing in theaters, this is the movie I would immediately return to see once more.