Tag: Jake Gyllenhaal

Movie Review – ‘The Sisters Brothers’ – The Edge of Modernity

Directed by Jacques Audiard
Written by Jacques Audiard & Thomas Bidegain, based on the novel by Patrick DeWitt
Cast: John C. Reilly, Joaquin Phoenix, Jake Gyllenhaal, Riz Ahmed, Rutger Hauer, Carol Kane, Rebecca Root, Ian Reddington, Richard Brake, Allison Tolman, Creed Bratton
Soundtrack: Alexandre Desplat

Another week, another pleasant surprise (and another cameo from Richard Brake).

A darkly comic yet also deadly serious film, the trailer I saw for The Sisters Brothers (which is not the one attached to the above poster) highlighted the comedy more so than the dark, which is a bit misleading.  To be fair, there are a number of laughs throughout the film, but, while I would not compare it in overall style or tone, in many ways it’s as ruthless and frank as another recent western, that being Scott Cooper’s Hostiles.

Still, the movie is of a quality worthy of comparison to the upper-mid-tier works of the Coen Brothers, as well as Martin McDonagh’s brief filmography, as while it may be brutal at times, it certainly does not lack in humanity.

If I have any two criticisms, for one, I was rather confounded by Jake Gyllenhaal’s performance (maybe his accent is actually completely period appropriate and I’m just ignorant, but it just seemed stilted to me), and, secondly, Alexandre Desplat’s score didn’t feel quite right, either as a reflection or a juxtaposition.

Other than that though, John C. Reilly (who also has a producer credit) and Joaquin Phoenix are absolutely terrific as the titular brothers, and Riz Ahmed, though not at first, eventually threatens to steal the movie outright.

Lastly, one rather fun aspect of the film is the characters finding amazement and bewilderment at things that are not only commonplace, but completely taken for granted in contemporary American society.  In a time when many people casually long to have been born in another time and/or place, these moments are a stark reminder of how harsh merely existing used to be in this country.

Despite its coarse nature, I very much enjoyed The Sisters Brothers and definitely found myself surprised at how heartfelt it is.

And I loved that it literally started with a bang (a number of them, actually).

Rating: ★★★★☆

Movie Review – ‘Southpaw’ – I AM PREDICTABLE

Southpaw

Directed by Antoine Fuqua
Written by Kurt Sutter
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rachel McAdams, Oona Laurence, Forest Whitaker, 50 Cent, Naomie Harris, Beau Knapp
Soundtrack: James Horner (God rest him)

What a disappointing week.

First, the USMNT gets knocked out of the Gold Cup by Jamaica, and now I have to talk about this movie.

Let me say this first: if, for some reason, you have not seen the trailer for ‘Southpaw’, but still want to see it, do it; you have my blessing, but do not, not, not watch the trailer before paying to see it.

Because, for whatever reason, the people marketing this film decided to put all of us moviegoers in a Catch 22.  They wanted to draw us in by capturing our attention with the trailer, but, unfortunately, seeing this movie after seeing the trailer is a largely futile, and, dare I say, boring experience.  I hate using the word ‘boring’.  I like to think my attention span is better than the vast majority of people out there, but ‘Southpaw’ forced my hand on this.

I hope I’m making myself clear here.

I desperately wanted to like this movie, I really did, and it almost, kind of, sort of won me over in the end, but not enough to recommend it; because right off the bat I spent more than 55% of the running time feeling my buttocks go numb, because no matter how hard the movie tried to grab me by the heartstrings, it just couldn’t, because I almost always knew what came next, because the trailer had already told me.

And it really is a waste, because, by and large, ‘Southpaw’ is well done.  It’s competently shot, the performances are pretty good all around, and they did a great job of getting the real world of pay-per-view boxing (including HBO’s Jim Lampley and Roy Jones, Jr.) into the film, but there’s nothing special enough to transcend the predictability of the script.  To be sure, it starts to get better in the second half, and eventually it did tug on my heartstrings, but it took way too long to get there, and for that reason I can’t recommend people seeing this theatrically if they’ve already seen the trailer.

The production values are certainly better than most direct-to-video garbage out there, but, unfortunately, ‘Southpaw’ is barely worth a rental.

Rating: ★★½ out of five

P.S.
Despite being a movie about a boxer, I would not call this a “sports movie”.  It’s more of a straight drama that happens to be about an athlete.  Just to be clear.