[Review] Song One

Anne Hathaway and Johnny Flynn star in this music-driven, down-to-earth drama that is in the vein of Once and Begin Again, but closer in story to 2013's The Broken Circle Breakdown.

Franny (Hathaway), a traveling PHD student, learns that her estranged younger brother, Henry (Ben Rosenfield of Boardwalk Empire) is in a coma after getting hit by a car. One night, she ends up reading through his journal and finds a concert ticket for a singer-songwriter named James Forester (Henry's favorite artist), played by actual singer-songwriter Johnny Flynn. After the show, Franny approaches James and hesitatingly tells the story about her brother, even though she figures he probably hears this stuff all the time. Much to her surprise, James shows up at the hospital to visit the next day. Franny and James start hanging out, and what follows is a romance, a path of wish fulfillment & attempting to make amends, and a trial of the way music can connect and move us.

While the narrative starts feeling a bit thin as the film plucks along, and the love story itself is very typical, the music aspect is consistently great--from the full live performances to the intimate acoustic clips. Jenny Lewis and Jonathan Rice produced this cohesive collection of sweet and accessible folk songs that all come off as very genuine. Sharon Van Etten (!) even makes an appearance. And Anne Hathaway and Johnny Flynn are both really solid in their understated roles.

When it comes to Song One, the film is likeable, albeit forgettable. But the soundtrack is one that stays.

6.5/10

[Review] Predestination

Amidst Ethan Hawke's award season success for Boyhood, comes Predestination--a brainy and slightly campy sci-fi thriller. This VOD and slim theater release is worth a watch. Or two.

After some opening flashbacks (or are they flashforwards?), we're introduced to the anchoring frame of the film which takes place, yes--at a dingy bar in New York. Bartender (Hawke) meets John (Sarah Snook), formerly known as Jane. John gives his very interesting life story--from his abandonment at an orphanage, to his early experiences with gender dysphoria, to his training with secret space programs. Then, the Bartender reveals his actual profession as a Temporal Agent--or a time-traveling police officer that prevents crimes before they take place. And what we have here is an entertaining combination of Minority Report, Looper, and Christopher Nolan's latest, Interstellar.

The twisty story is actually somewhat predictable, but that doesn't necessarily detract from its overall intrigue, and it still manages to be a bit of a mindfuck. Predestination presents an ambitiously warped tale, but the film never feels like it's in over its head. It's actually easier to follow than expected, which allows you to sit back and enjoy the ride without having to do much head-scratching. Last month, Ethan Hawke stopped by Sway in the Morning while promoting the film and said the entire crew put together an intricate web of storyboard and timelines in order to make sure the narrative was as tight as can be without any major flaws or plot holes. And they seem to have executed it well.

Even though I wasn't as hot on last year's Snowpiercer as most, I liken this film to it in that they're both freshly high-concept sci-fi with smaller platforms despite possessing the accessibility of blockbusters. Sarah Snook gives a show-stealing performance here, and I expect to see big things from her in the future. The directing duo that are booked as The Spierig Brothers are ones to keep an eye on considering such genre fare (their previous films involved zombies and vampires), as they've made leaps with this picture.

Seek out this film if you can, and don't blink.

7.5/10

[Review] Mortdecai

Mortdecai (Johnny Depp) is a swindling art dealer, a renaissance man (sort of), and a freewheeling fool. He flaunts a ravishingly curled mustache, which his clever wife (Gwyneth Paltrow) absolutely despises. He also has a badass, bend-over-backwards "manservant" who essentially keeps him alive.

There's a plot here that revolves around a stolen painting, but the filmmakers don't seem too concerned about creating an intriguing nor entertaining mystery. This thread of the film is quite unremarkable, but it's all the other antics that make this January comedy a surprisingly enjoyable, and better-than-expected excursion.

Mortdecai is actually best when viewed as an extended sitcom/farcical adventure episode. The tone is completely eccentric, similar to last year's Jude Law-starring Dom Hemingway. Early on, there are some delightfully awkward scenes between Mortdecai and the police inspector (a fitting role for Ewan McGregor). The oddball dialogue blends the posh with the toilet humor, which almost makes the film the equivalent of a feature-length Poo-Pourri ad. The script is filled with running jokes about Mortdecai's mustache, the number of times he's accidentally shot his manservant, and his sympathetic gag reflex (a meta-gag, if you will).

The character of Mortdecai comes off as more of an obnoxious scumbag in the trailer, but he's notably likable and vulnerable in the film. Depp embodies him with an endearing goofiness. He certainly carries the film--in fact, the scenes where he isn't present are nearly unbearable. This comes during a long string of post-Jack Sparrow roles that mix smoothness with quirkiness. It's an obvious Depp role, but it's to the point where it's almost too comfortable. He definitely does it well, but I'm looking forward to seeing him switch things up a bit in this year's upcoming Black Mass (where he'll play Whitey Bulger next to co-star Benedict Cumberbatch under the direction of Crazy Heart and Out of the Furnace helmer).

By no means is Mortdecai an esteemed piece of cinema, but it definitely has a pungent style.

6.5/10

[Review] Leviathan

Not to be confused with 2013's documentary of the same name, Leviathan is a Russian small-town drama loosely inspired by the book of Job from the bible. In a way, Leviathan feels like a spiritual cousin to the recent Winter Sleep, but thankfully it isn't quite as stagnant and tedious.

Set in a peninsula by the Barents Sea, the film revolves around a guy named Kolia (Alexei Serebriakov) and his hectic battle to keep his property from being bought by the city's vastly crooked mayor. The narrative thoroughly explores the general and wide-ranging problems that occur when power is corrupted on multiple levels.

It's all undeniably bleak. This is the sort of film where nothing good comes out of anything. People get screwed. Everyone cheats. Morals are twisted. Despite its gloomy tone, the film brings in the type of tragic and satirical humor that points to how relentlessly messed up everything is, and sometimes all you can do is deliriously laugh at it. These constantly stark outings are difficult to swallow in one sitting, and mileage will certainly vary. The sedate pacing, detail-heavy dialogue, and lack of connection from the cold characters makes this less than engrossing for the most part.

In Leviathan, the sun is always obscured by clouds. The imagery is striking, especially a slideshow-like sequence of the shores near the conclusion. Just like the tide, the story never fully settles. In fact, it ends even more unsettled than when it began.

6/10

[Review] Still Alice

Julianne Moore, Alec Baldwin, and Kristen Stewart are family in Still Alice (based on a novel of the same name), an indie drama about a woman coping with a very rare, extremely early onset Alzheimer's disease.

Alice (Moore) is a linguistics professor at Columbia. She's starting to forget words during speeches and getting lost during her jogs around the city. After she visits a neurologist, she finds out that the mishaps are more than just memory lapses. She struggles to break the news to her husband (Baldwin), as well as her three kids, especially because the disease has hereditary potential.

As you might've already guessed, this is a downer of a film, but it's executed with careful rigor. The story unfolds with a natural poignancy, and the script explores all of the difficult situations Alice faces as she does her best to cope with the disease. We see her mental capacity deteriorate before our eyes, and there are some absolutely crushing scenes, but even though it's often a depressing viewing, it has a number of bright moments to give it balance.

Julianne Moore's performance is superbly convincing. She gives full dimension to the character and is pitch-perfect at every turning point. It wouldn't be surprising if her name gets read during the Oscars. Alec Baldwin is solid and restrained in one of the more serious and compassionate roles he's been in. And after breaking free from Twilight, Kristen Stewart continues to prove to be a genuinely great actress with the indie streak she's been on.

Still Alice doesn't do much to differentiate itself from other films of this subject. It's very similar to Away From Her, it isn't as inventive as Robot & Frank, and it won't be the cult tearjerker that is The Notebook, but it's still a deeply moving examination of a disease that causes so much loss.

7.5/10