Tag: Dale Dickey

Movie Review – ‘Blood Father’ – The Word is “Tone”

Directed by Jean-François Richet
Written by Peter Craig (screenplay and based upon his novel) and Andrea Berloff (screenplay)
Cast: Mel Gibson, Erin Moriarty, Diego Luna, Michael Parks, William H. Macy, Miguel Sandoval, Dale Dickey, Richard Cabral, Daniel Moncada, Raoul Max Trujillo, Thomas Mann
Soundtrack: Sven Faulconer

Maybe I’m a fool for feeling this way, but I actually feel bad for Mel Gibson.

Sure, he’s been caught doing some very bad things, and may very well be actively insane, but how many people can we say that about who still get plenty of run in Hollywood?  My guess is a lot.

Have you seen the poster or trailer for ‘Hacksaw Ridge’?  Looks amazing, no?

Notice anything about it from a marketing perspective?  It says, “From the Academy Award winning director of ‘Braveheart'”.  Know who that is?

It’s Mel Gibson.

So, what appears to be the case here is that Mel Gibson’s work is still good enough to be used as a selling point, as long as you don’t actually mention his name.  Fair, perhaps, but they had no problem slapping Roman Polanski’s name on the trailer for ‘The Pianist’, so, maybe it all depends on what you did and how long ago it was.

All of this is to say that Mel Gibson is the best thing about ‘Blood Father’.

He hasn’t had a real signature role since ‘Signs’ in 2002.  Many hoped that ‘Edge of Darkness’ would be something of a return to form in 2010, but it ended up falling rather flat (not to mention the film’s a poor substitute for what is an all-time great BBC miniseries).  ‘Blood Father’ won’t earn him any nominations either, but it is an effective reminder that Gibson still has plenty in the tank, even as a sexagenarian.  There simply aren’t many film actors working today who can pull off the range of emotion from fatherly concern to blind rage like he can.

Anyway, enough about Mel.  Where ‘Blood Father’ fails is that you’re never really sure what the movie is.  Is it meant to be taken seriously?  Is it a cartoon?  At various points you’re inclined to have all sorts of different impressions, and then double the problem when individual performers appear to be acting in different movies themselves (either through their own machinations or because they were directed that way; I don’t know what happened).  Frankly, some of the tonal shifts are enough to hurt your brain.

Arguably worse than that, however, is the shear waste of good talent.  Besides Mel Gibson, you’ve got William H. Macy, Miguel Sandoval (who looks so awesome with a shaved head and all tatted up), and, one of my favorite character actors of ever, Michael Parks.  You’d think a movie about a recovering alcoholic dad trying to protect his estranged daughter from some dangerous Mexicans would be a good use of these guys’ time, but, I don’t know; somehow, something was lost from script to screen, at least that’s my best guess.

I didn’t hate ‘Blood Father’, I’m not suggesting you avoid it like the plague, I was just disappointed it didn’t rise above the level of an average Redbox movie, because it easily should have.

Rating: ★★½

Movie Review – ‘Hell or High Water’ – Lords of the Plains

Directed by David Mackenzie
Written by Taylor Sheridan
Cast: Chris Pine, Ben Foster, Jeff Bridges, Gil Birmingham, Dale Dickey, Buck Taylor, Katy Mixon, Kevin Rankin
Soundtrack: Nick Cave & Warren Ellis

West Texas is poor, banks are bad, and Shiner Bock and Lone Star Beer are good (not to mention Pabst Blue Ribbon).

I don’t think it’s cliché to say we don’t really get major films like ‘Hell or High Water’ much anymore.  You know, a movie with an original script, a few big name actors to carry the load, a budget that’s more than a few dollars but less than a hundred million, and a compelling story rather than a series of scenes leading from one schlock action set piece to the next.

It’ll inevitably be compared to ‘No Country for Old Men‘, which is fair, given that they’re set in the same general vicinity and both center around cash, but I’d call ‘High Water’ less surreal than your typical Coen Brothers affair, and more forthright with its sense of humor (plus, it’s not based on a book).

Much of ‘Hell or High Water’ is straightforward, including the plot.  A pair of brothers, Toby and Tanner (Chris Pine and Ben Foster), start robbing banks in order to raise enough money to wrangle control of their mama’s land back from the bank, and it’s up to Texas Rangers Marcus and Alberto (Jeff Bridges and Gil Birmingham) to put a stop to it.

It might seem small time in comparison to other heist films, but part of what makes ‘Hell or High Water’ so fascinating is that it does feel down-to-earth and quite plausible.  Yes, it’s entertaining and it’ll make you laugh, but it doesn’t rely on a whole lot of flash; just a tightly written story and some top notch performances.  If you really want to be critical, you might say Jeff Bridges is just doing a rehash of his “Rooster Cogburn” from ‘True Grit‘, but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and say they are distinct characters, plus the interplay between him and Gil Birmingham is fantastic.

As far as our brothers go, Chris Pine and Ben Foster really dig in as a couple of poor cowpokes with their eyes on a prize.  Outlaws they may be, but they’re still very much the heart of the movie, and the tension of whether they’ll get away with it or not is very much set in the nature of who they are individually.

If I have one legitimate criticism of the film, it’s that some little bits of dialogue are muffled by the thick accents (which I don’t normally struggle with), but I guess it comes with the territory.

Other than that, I don’t want to say much more.  Like ‘The Nice Guys‘ and ‘Hunt for the Wilderpeople‘, ‘Hell or High Water’ seems bound to be in the top 5 of 2016.  It’s definitely slower-paced than usual, so be prepared for that, but I’d never call it boring.  There’s too much tension for things to ever fall flat.

This is one you don’t want to miss.

Rating: ★★★★½

P.S.
Shades of ‘Breaking Bad’?  Absolutely.