Chromium52 Reviews

The Independent (2022)

Paint-by-numbers political thriller

[4/10 · 10 April 2023]

A driven young journalist digs into an important but mundane matter of underfunded school budgets and finds herself with the corruption scoop of the decade, going right to the heart of the presidential election campaign. Do not worry, I have not spoiled the film. This is all within the first ten or so minutes.

What plays out after is, unfortunately, not the tight, high-stakes, intelligent journalism thriller one might have expected from someone who spent significant time with an inside view of the political world during the Obama campaign, but a sleepy, phoned-in drama where critical plot points come about by people making obvious and out-of-character mistakes, not because they follow from the events or character psychology, but because the plot needs specific things to happen. After a promising start with appearances from actors with an excellent track record in the genre, the film dozes off into half sleep.

Brian Cox does what he can with a character that never gets much development beyond the cliché of the jaded old hand with rough edges (with a signature order of a steak cooked not just rare, but bloody) who grudgingly becomes the mentor of the plucky young talent. Timothy Busfield is wasted in a minor role with very little screen time.

The shining exception is Jodie Turner-Smith in the lead role, who manages to infuse her character with a lot more complexity than the manuscript provides for. Her Eli is simultaneously a hungry and intelligent young journalist with a reckless streak, and green, a little out of her depth, and believably vulnerable. It is just a shame she is stuck in a film that does not repay her efforts.

In the end, The Independent becomes a sleepy and forgettable repetition of plot ideas we have seen before and a reminder that we live in a political climate where truth is once more much stranger than fiction.

John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017)

A very shine shell of empty action

[5/10 · 10 April 2023]

After the closing credits, I went to the plot summary on Wikipedia. Surely I must have missed something? I had not. The plot of John Wick Chapter 2 really has no more than a small handful of points connected by long, long action sequences, each more ridiculous than the next. But there is also no denying that they are aesthetically well made and, at least for some time, entertaining. Of course, this is the point of the John Wick films: give a talented stunt crew all the money and resources they need to build an outsized spectacle of technicolour ultraviolence. Set design and cinematography is absolutely top notch. Everything is in vivid colour, the sound design is spectacular.

But ... It becomes tedious and repetitive after a while. After the first couple of action sequences, we have seen it all. And the plot is so thin that besides the action, nothing much happens. The world building of the John Wick universe - the Continental, the underworlds networks, the look and feel - is wonderful and enticing, but isn't much moved forward. Unlike the first John Wick film, none of the characters are particularly interesting or memorable. The dialogue is so sparse it feels like an afterthought, leaving no room for actors to build characters. And so the film ultimately outstays its welcome.

+Cinematography and set design +The John Wick world -Too long and repetitive -Ultimately feels like a 2h intro to Chapter 3 -Very little character development.

The Core (2003)

The worst movie science - but not the worst film

[4/10 · 5 August 2021]

Well, I finally watched it. The film known for having the worst movie physics of all time. And you know what, it didn't suck. The Core is not a good film - not by any stretch - and the "science" really is aggressively moronic, but it is a film that is a popcorn blockbuster, knows it's a popcorn blockbuster, and doesn't try to be anything other than a popcorn blockbuster. And it takes itself exactly as seriously as it deserves - i.e., not at all - and therefore manages to be mildly (if occasionally unintentionally) entertaining through its two-hour runtime.

This sets it appart from a film like Armageddon (which features not only offensively stupid science, but equally offensively stupid story telling and production), or faux-philosophical films like Sunshine (essentially a remake of The Core, with equally idiotic science, but which tries to sell itself as "deep and meaningful" by a space setting, ponderous pacing, and superficial psychologising of its characters) or Ad Astra (which again uses ponderousness to try to trick its audience into thinking it is deep and meaningful and forget that the plot is stupid). It may not be a good film, but I'd rather take The Core and a bowl of popcorn any day.

+ Does not take itself seriously + Actually funny, if sometimes unintentionally + Good pacing

• Atrocious pretence at science
• Not actually a good story
• Effects that weren't really state of the art even in 2003
• Actors struggling to do what they can with the material - not always successfully

Best scene: "But what if we could", only because you can't tell if it's unintentionally hilarious or the most well-placed deadpan moment in the history of blockbuster films.

Three Days of the Condor (1975)

The art of spinning a good yarn

[7/10 · 17 October 2020]

In some way Three Days of the Condor is a story as old as time that has been told countless times. On the other hand, there is an art to the spy thriller and every time it is done right, it is enjoyable. Three Days of the Condor is a classic spy thriller done right. It spins a tight yarn that keeps suspense up and giving nothing away too early without resorting to ridiculous plot twists.

We can certainly tell that this is a 70's film, not just by the obvious aesthetics, but because of its general 70's sensibilities and in the general production value at times. The film might feel a bit dated, in particular at the beginning, but it really does show that sometimes, as the Swedish expression goes, "old is the eldest" (a joking implication that an older generation beats a younger at their game). Film makers of today could do a lot worse than to study what makes Three Days of the Condor Work. It has been noted a predecessor of, e.g., the Bourne films and the older product comes out by far superior in comparison. Three Days of the Condor understands that action sequences are the servants of the thriller plot, not the other way around. The action in Three Days of the Condor are sparing and always springs from the necessities of the story and never outstay their welcome.

On that note, Three Days of the Condor understands timing. Despite not being particularly fast paced, it clocks in at under two hours without feeling like any plot point is underdeveloped or that the plot is particularly thin. On the contrary, the plot manages several twists and it is one of its strong points. The film opens with Turner (Robert Redfort) casually coming into work late. We get the feeling of a workplace where, despite being a CIA department, rush and stress are far away. This is not the frontline - this is an analysis department that spends its time reading and analysing and reporting. Turner leaves, in a violation of proper procedure that no one seems to be able to give more than a perfunctory notice, by a back door to get lunch. It is his luck: he comes back, via the front door this time, jokingly noting that it is unlocked in "a bit of a breach of security protocol", to find everyone murdered. Turner does not even know what the proper response protocol is. The film imperceptibly tightens the tension as it goes on and Turner finds himself navigating increasingly treacherous waters. Before we know it, we are on the edge of the seat.

At this point we are willing to forgive the occasionally weak acting, from Redford in particular. This is a film that does not take itself too seriously, which is to its advantage in plot and pacing, but betrays it occasionally in the acting and direction. The exceptions here are Faye Dunaway as Kathy, who manages to make what could only be a bad case of Stockholm syndrome seem not only believable but like genuine affection, and Max von Sydow as the enigmatic French agent.

I do wish some characters had been better developed, but maybe in the end is just as well that the film doesn't try, possibly at the expense of becoming too long. Three Days of the Condor is a film that knows its purpose: to spin a good yarn and not pretend to any more profound depths. It is already a lot more intelligent than many other spy thrillers - and very good entertainment.

Blue Jay (I) (2016)

Technically superb make-up on flat characters and story

[3/10 · 17 October 2020]

Since the advent of colour film, filming in black and white is done to achieve specific artistic purposes. It can be done to set a mood, like in Schindler's List, or to mark a transition between the real and the strange, as in Stalker. Used right, it might even bring us closer to characters in a different era, as in the underrated Elisa y Marcela. But in Blue Jay, despite the undeniably superb technical and aesthetic quality, it comes off as pretentious, as an attempt to put on "artsy" make-up to pretend there is more to the story than there is.

There is one fundamental question that all films - character studies in particular - need to answer: why should we care? Mark Duplass and Sarah Paulson are both accomplished actors and there are moments of great acting throughout the film, but ultimately we are left wondering why we should care about these two people in particular. We have all been the audience of "you had to have been there" stories - meaningful and funny to those involved, but impossible to convey to someone who was not. As high-school sweethearts Jim (Duplass) and Amanda (Paulson) chance upon each other in a supermarket twenty years after they both left town and embark on a day of silly reminiscing that evolves into play-acting "what if we had stayed together", I increasingly cannot shake the feeling that I am being told just such a story.

The two actors improvise their way through an unscripted story of make-believe that hangs together sometimes by the thinnest of threads until we get to the big reveal: What happened those twenty years ago that broke Jim and Amanda up and why have they not spoken in all those years? Of course, that's what happens to most high-school sweethearts without any particular reason beyond life happening as it does to us all. But high schoolers finishing school and leaving town in different directions does not make a film so Blue Jay duly presents us with ... a cliché. And it is at this point that Duplass leaves any pretence of verisimilitude. Up to this point, all we have seen is progressively less believable play-acting, and so Duplass's Jim mostly comes off as emotionally stunted. And why should we care? The black-and-white cinematography feels more like a mist to mask how thin the story and the characters are than a way of enhancing an emotional impact that just is not there.

The Prestige (2006)

Excellent production with a broken plot contract

[6/10 · 7 April 2020]

The Prestige is a superb period mood piece with outstanding cinematography, excellent acting, great dialogue - and a plot that is a huge let down.

We are told that every magic trick consists of three parts: the Pledge, that sets the stage and seemingly makes any trickery impossible, the Turn, where the trick happens, and the Prestige, where it all comes together to amaze and baffle the audience. The Prestige delivers a zinger of a Pledge: a vividly imagined Victorian London, a mysterious death, and two young genius friends turned bitter rivals - and an impossible piece of stage magic on which it all hinges. It all plays out splendidly with fantastic performances by both lead and supporting actors (with the exception of David Bowie's poorly conceived Nikola Tesla, and Scarlett Johansson, while great, is wasted on a role that never goes anywhere).

But The Prestige lacks the Prestige. After setting the expectations high for a fiendishly clever reveal, the entire soufflé collapses as the finish relies on not one but two cop-outs that break the contract between storyteller and audience.

All in all, The Prestige is immensely enjoyable for its acting, dialogue and cinematography for close to two hours, despite some plot weaknesses and occasional slow pacing, and equally immensely frustrating as the expectations for a clever reveal are not so much subverted as simply betrayed.

Had as much effort been put into the plot as into the production, The Prestige might have been a masterpiece. As it is, it is still a very good film as long as you don't invest too much in the plot reveal.