Southpaw

http://southpawfilm.com/

I was originally meant to see Southpaw on my birthday. Being a Jake Gyllenhaal film I should have seen it on it's opening day, but my bestie came down for my birthday weekend and that night we had tickets to see Bradley Cooper in The Elephant Man, so Southpaw was pushed back to my birthday. Only 2 days after release, I could live with that.

On the day, the weather was terrible so we holed ourselves up in the cinema and watched Labyrinth (being shown at our local independent cinema) and Inside Out (as it's tradition to watch a Pixar film on my birthday) and when that had finished we were all tired and wanted to get home. So no Southpaw for me. Eventually I managed to see Southpaw last Thursday along with Mission Impossible and Minions. Bit of an odd triple bill to say the least.

The movie is about successful boxer Billy Hope (Gyllenhaal) who loses his wife Maureen (Rachel McAdams) in a tragic accident, when another boxer challenges him at a charity event. He loses a lot more than Maureen when in the process of grieving for his wife, he crashes his car whilst under the influence. His house, his possessions and his daughter are all then taken from him in quick succession. Billy finds himself literally on the ropes and trying to get his life back together.

The trailer for the movie gives a lot away, but at the same time sets the film up as being a very gritty and really quite violent piece of cinema. When in reality, at it's core, this is a film about family. It's a film about losing sight of who you are and finding the strength to get back to being that person. Gyllenhaal gives one of the best performances of his career. Yet again becoming the character so completely that you don't see him anymore, you just see Billy. Struggling father and athlete. You will have probably all heard that this is "the best boxing movie since Raging Bull" so I won't harp on about the actual boxing scenes, but they are very realistic and you can tell that everyone involved worked hard to make them so. 

I was also pleasantly surprised by Forest Whitaker. In the past I have found his performances a little hit and miss. Sometimes he's great and other times (more often than not) he can be quite over the top. His achievement here was to put in a grounded and believable performance, and his inclusion in the movie added an acting heavyweight to the ensemble rather than detracting from it. 

I'm only sorry that I've been so busy lately that this review has been on the back burner. It looks like this movie might have already left most cinemas, and with Mission Impossible Rogue Nation coming out, it has probably done so too soon for a lot of people to see it. If it is still on at a cinema near you though, and if you're a fan of the realistic boxing movie, or of an unexpected family drama, do go and see Southpaw. 8 out of 10. 

Viewing Date - 30th July 2015

UK Release Date - 24th July 2015

Cast Overview:

Jake Gyllenhaal ~ Billy Hope
Rachel McAdams ~ Maureen Hope

Forest Whitaker ~ Tick Wills

Oona Lawrence ~ Leila Hope

50 Cent ~ Jordan Mains

Director ~ Antoine Fuqua

Writer ~ Kurt Sutter

Nightcrawler and Enemy - Jake Gyllenhaal Double Review Special

http://nightcrawlerfilm.com/

I started writing this double review a few weeks ago, but as has been the way with me recently, I have found my muse has wandered, and with it, my inclination to review has wavered.

But then I saw that both Total Film and Empire have stolen my idea of doing a double review of these two movies, and outraged by this I have found renewed passion for finishing my own double review. 

Since I started my review blog in 2011 I have reviewed every film of Mr Gyllenhaal's and I must admit, I felt a little like I had let myself down when I didn't write a review of Nightcrawler. And it wasn't for lack of liking the film either. It was simply a lack of time (and as mentioned above - inclination).

When I travelled to London recently to see Jake's new movie Enemy, I thought that might give me the excuse I was looking for to finally put my thoughts down on Nightcrawler too.

Nightcrawler opens on Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) stealing from a construction site, and then quickly shows him assaulting and then robbing a policeman sent to investigate the situation. He then tries to talk himself into a job with the man he sells his stolen wares to. Turns out the guy will happily buy stolen goods but he won't employ a thief. All Lou wants is a job. On his way home he sees a traffic accident, and the camera men who are immediately on the scene filming this for TV news corporations. News stations who are out to up their ratings through any means necessary. Lou gets himself a camera, a police scanner and an assistant and before he knows it, he's earning money for his daring and sometimes disturbing footage.

As a long time Gyllenhaalic (yes, that's our given name), I can certainly say that I have never seen Jake portray a character quite like this. Even in Donnie Darko, whilst the character had mental health issues that might have made his behaviour unfathomable, I don't think I would go so far as to class him as disturbing. But Lou Bloom is definitely that. He has no sense of boundaries, and makes no apologies for his reactions to the situations he finds himself in.

In many ways, the film also makes no apologies, which is refreshing, but also adds a darkness to the film. As such, some may find the film that was already dark - in both tone and setting - goes too far. Personally I found it an interesting character study and a great performance from Gyllenhaal that bounces perfectly between creepy and intriguing. This might be the first character he's portrayed that I didn't want to sleep with, or in fact meet in a darkened alley, and yet I'd love to pick his brain. 

It won't be one for everyone, so maybe only for the true Gyllenhaalic, or those who like their thrillers dark with a hint of pitch blackness. 7 out of 10. 

 

Viewing Date - 27th October 2014

UK Release Date - 31st October 2014

Cast Overview:

Jake Gyllenhaal ~ Louis Bloom

Bill Paxton ~ Joe Loader

Ann Cusack ~ Linda

Rene Russo ~ Nina Romina 

Written and Directed by Dan Gilroy

http://enemy-movie.com/

I believe Enemy actually came out in the US sometime in 2013, which is weird because until very recently I'd not heard of it at all. I heard it was showing at my favourite London cinema The PCC and decided that I could not call myself a true Gyllenhaalic if I didn't go to see it. A little over a month later I found the DVD for sale in Sainsbury's so now I'm really confused as to how it managed to get a DVD release so soon after the cinematic one, which according to IMDb was only January of this year in the UK.

Anyway, onto the film. Enemy sees Jake take on two different roles, one is Adam Bell - history professor, who discovers an actor named Anthony Claire (Jake's second role in the movie) after watching a movie a colleague recommends to him. Anthony is the spitting image of Adam and understandably, Adam has some questions relating to this mysterious doppelganger of his. Are they related, separated at birth perhaps? Adam's mother says not, but there is something unconvincing about the way she snubs his queries. Adam becomes fixed on finding answers, and eventually Anthony agrees to meet him, but will that solve anything, or just raise more questions?

Sadly that's all Enemy really does. Raise questions and provide no answers. At the end of the movie, immediately following a sequence involving a giant spider (Arachnophobes beware, Spiders of the tarantula and giant variety are featured in various ways throughout the movie), my friend and I just looked at each other and said "okaaaaaay". Now maybe we're just not intelligent to 'get' it. But I like to think of myself as reasonably intelligent, and she is of a far superior intellect to me, and a person with a knowledge of the hidden depths of the psyche. Her take on the spiders is that spiders often represent hidden traumas involving a person's mother. Wikipedia has this to say: There is a passage from Saramago's The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis, in which he compares the fascist police and their allies to spiders: "There is no lack of spiders' webs in the world, from some you escape, in others you die. The fugitive will find shelter in a boardinghouse under an assumed name, thinking he is safe, he has no idea that his spider will be the daughter of the landlady … a dedicated nationalist who will regenerate his heart and mind." 

Feel free to make your own mind up, but I always feel that if someone walks away from a movie feeling like they didn't 'get' it, then that movie has alienated them. Which is not the point of movies. I don't like one-upmanship at the best of times, but if a film makes you feel like you're not intelligent enough to watch it, that's not good. You don't want to alienate the people who will potentially pay for what you've made. 

I can only assume this is why the movie has had such a limited UK release and why until recently, I wasn't even aware it existed. Jake plays wonderfully against himself, and creates two very different people on screen, with very contrasting identities, but the film as a whole just feels like a vehicle to show him off and doesn't really have any substance. If I'm honest, I don't really see what it was about this script that appealed to him, other than the challenge of acting opposite himself. I feel like a teacher writing his report card but Jake dear, you must do better next time! 5 out of 10 (and at least 1 of those points is for Jake's magnificent beard). 

 
Viewing Date - 10th January 2015

UK Release Date - 2nd January 2015

Cast Overview:

Jake Gyllenhaal ~ Adam / Anthony

Melanie Laurent ~ Mary

Sarah Gadon ~ Helen

Isabella Rossellini ~ Mother

Director ~ Denis Villeneuve

Writer ~ Jose Saramago (Novel) and Javier Gullon

Prisoners

http://prisonersmovie.warnerbros.com/

I first became aware of Prisoners when my bestie in the US told me she'd seen the trailer for the film, fully expecting me to know what it was. As a long time fan of Mr Gyllenhaal I was both surprised and disappointed that this film could get to the stage where a trailer was in theatres and I was unaware of it's existence. Clearly my dedication is slipping. In my defence, I was expecting Jake's next film to be a movie going by the title of 'Nailed' but apparently that film has long since been shelved.

So onto Prisoners. When two 8 year old girls go missing on Thanksgiving, and the man who is taken into custody is released, the fathers of the girls, Keller Dover (Jackman) and Franklin Birch (Howard), decide to take matters into their own hands. They kidnap the young man, Alex Jones (Dano), and despite his already fragile and child-like mind, they torture him for information. Meanwhile, Detective Loki (Gyllenhaal) looks to maintain his track record of solving every case he's ever had, and continues his search for who he believes is responsible for the abduction.

The unfortunate character name of Gyllenhaal's detective aside, Prisoners is actually an incredibly tense, sometimes disturbing, look at what happens to the family left behind when a child goes missing. Jackman gives one of the best performances of his career here. His loyalty to his family making his character unhinged in his pursuit of answers. Howard, Bello, Davis and Leo all impress, but Jackman's main support in the majority of his scenes is Paul Dano, who turns in one of the creepiest performances I have seen in a long time. Then there's Gyllenhaal, who never fails to impress me. His subtle, understated, performance was just what the film needed to set him apart from the other great actors on show.

The direction is tight and the story has more twists than Chubby Checker. But it's not a fun film, and it's not an easy film to watch. At over 2 hours, it's an investment. Having said that, if you want to see great actors in a taught, suspenseful thriller, this is definitely the one for you. 8 out of 10.

Viewing Date - 23rd September 2013

UK Release Date - 27th September 2013

Cast Overview:

Keller Dover ~ Hugh Jackman

Detective Loki ~ Jake Gyllenhaal

Nancy Birch ~ Viola Davis

Grace Dover ~ Maria Bello

Franklin Birch ~ Terrence Howard

Holly Jones ~ Melissa Leo

Alex Jones ~ Paul Dano

Director ~ Denis Villeneuve

Writer ~ Aaron Guzikowski

End Of Watch

http://www.endofwatchthefilm.com/

Anyone who follows my little review blog on a regular basis will know that I have my fair few crushes on movie men (and occasionally on film females too ;0), but anyone who's followed my blog since last year - back when it was Film Reviews 2011 - will know that Jake Gyllenhaal is my prince among men. As such I look forward to his movies above all others, and where possible I see them as many times as I can at the cinema. Jake actually holds my record for the most multiple viewings of a film EVER with a total of 8 trips to see Brokeback Mountain.

Since 2011's magnificent Source Code however, it's been quite the wait for another Jake Gyllenhaal film. I believe this has had something to do with his appearance in the off-Broadway play 'If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet', but it could also have something to do with the fact that there are several films on his IMDb filmography that state they're in post production. A state that I recall seeing them in more than a year ago. Having said this, End Of Watch did kind of creep up on me as I thought it was further down the line than some of Jake's other movies, and before I knew it, it was being released. 

The film has been shot documentary style to capture the gritty realism of a day in the life of a cop in South Central Los Angeles. We follow LAPD officers Brian Taylor (Gyllenhaal) and Miguel Zavala (Michael Peña) as they do their daily rounds, car chases, checking on the elderly, toning down house parties is all just part of their daily routines, but when the two officers start homing in on gang members in South Central they soon find that they are the ones being targeted.

Let me start by saying that this is not my kind of movie. At all. But having said that, I am glad that Jake made it as I wouldn't have seen it otherwise, and overall I am glad I've seen it. Maybe with someone else in the role of Taylor I wouldn't have liked the film as much, but as it was I thought Jake was great and he had a good spark with Peña. Their chemistry made their partnership believable, which in turn leant a lot of weight to the film. And the film certainly surprised me, in more ways than one. 

The only thing I didn't really like about it, and this will seem really frivolous, was the swearing. Just to put into context, one of my favourite gritty, true to life films is The Town. There is a lot of swearing in The Town. But not every other word. It just takes the whole thing from being realistic and believable to the exact opposite of the scale. No-one, I don't care what scummy town they come from or how little of a good upbringing they've had, no-one says the f word every other word. Yet one character in End Of Watch did just that. EVERY F*CKIN OTHER F*CKIN WORD. F*CK. It was just ridiculous and really hampered my enjoyment of the film.

Therefore, my recommendations for End Of Watch are as follows. If you enjoy gritty cop docu-drama's and don't mind the f bombs, you'll like this. If swearing, guns and drugs are not your bag, avoid. 6.5 out of 10.

Viewing Date - 5th December 2012

UK Release Date - 23rd November 2012

Cast Overview:

Jake Gyllenhaal ~ Brian Taylor

Michael Peña ~ Miguel Zavala

Natalie Martinez ~ Gabby

Anna Kendrick ~ Janet

David Harbour ~ Van Hauser

America Ferrera ~ Orozco 

Cody Horn ~ Davis

Director/Writer ~ David Ayer

Source Code

http://www.enterthesourcecode.com/

Here it is. The review that makes or breaks me as a credible, non-biased, professional film reviewer. Holy crap that's a lot of pressure.

My regular readers (or anyone who knows me) will know that the reason this review carries so much weight, is that I have an undeniable, ever present love of Jake Gyllenhaal. Not a crush. Lets not belittle this. It's an all consuming adoration. He is perfect to me. Always has been, always will be. I met him once for all of 5 seconds. It was the most magical 5 seconds of my life.

So now that you understand my affliction, maybe you understand why this review is going to be my defining moment. If I'm too biased I will never be a real, honest to goodness film reviewer. But how can I not be biased when I'm talking about Jake and his perfection? Let me tell you about the film and I'll deal with that conundrum afterwards.

The Source Code of the title is a device which allows a person to cross over into another's identity in the last 8 minutes of their life. There's a very specific explanation of the 'hows' and 'whys' of this in the movie, which I wouldn't want to attempt to re-iterate coz I'd probably get it wrong. The 'hows' and 'whys' aside, the guinea pig here is Captain Colter Stevens who has been placed in the body of a passenger on a train, which explodes 8 minutes later, just as he was getting to grips with what was going on. Capt Stevens mission is to be injected into this re-created scenario, over and over, until he discovers who bombed the train. The outcome of this discovery is to stop a further explosion planned for later that day by the same bomber. In a nutshell, the film is kinda like Groundhog Day crossed with Quantum Leap.

Sound confusing? Well it's really not as confusing as I've made it sound. The film is well timed and explains the technical stuff in a way which sheds light, but doesn't blind you with the science. You find yourself understanding it without feeling like you've been talked down to. Director Duncan Jones, who has only one other feature film under his belt (Moon staring Sam Rockwell), does an impressive job of shooting what is essentially the same scene several times, adding a different spin to each take.

Of course I can't review the film without talking about the performances. Here is where I am torn because I want to tell you that Jake did a great job. But I also don't want you to think I'm just saying that. He really did do a great job, my personal feelings for him aside. I honestly think this film wouldn't work so well without him. Or at least without someone who is able to be likable but also a little weird, and funny but also able to convey emotion. Jake does all of these things effortlessly. If thinking that makes me biased, well I guess my potential new career is down the toilet. But I think you'll agree that liking, or at the very least being on the side of, Capt Stevens is kinda essential to the film. 

My friend who accompanied me to the film thought it was predictable. I guess I'd agree with that to some extent but then I don't think Source Code ever labled itself as a mystery? *Spoiler Alert* I personally found the predictability to be a blessing as the ending I was hoping for whilst watching the film, is the ending I got. *End Spoiler* What did surprise me was the emotion of the movie. The last couple of scenes especially. And how grounded in reality the characters were, despite the fantasy setting. Cast wise, I felt it was a pity that both Michelle Monaghan and Vera Farmiga had little to do in their supporting roles as both were superb. I don't see how the script could have allowed their characters to do more but it was still unfortunate that their roles were so limited.

A film that stands apart from anything else on general release. Source Code will draw you in with it's premise but keep you hooked with it's humanity. 8 out of 10.

Viewing Date - 1st April 2011

UK Release Date - 1st April 2011

Cast Overview:

Jake Gyllenhaal ~ Captain Colter Stevens

Michelle Monaghan ~ Christina Warren

Vera Farmiga ~ Colleen Goodwin

Jeffrey Wright ~ Dr Rutledge

Michael Arden ~ Derek Frost

Director ~ Duncan Jones

Writer ~ Ben Ripley