The Accountant (2016)

Score: 2 / 5

If you're not a fan of Ben Affleck's stony-faced acting, you're going to hate this movie. If you, like me, don't mind it so much, you're going to be okay with this movie. If you like movies that don't really make sense, overreach their goals, and overstay their welcome, then this flick is all for you!

The Accountant looked like a potentially solid crime thriller and Oscar-bait for Affleck, who plays an autistic public accountant who moonlights as, well, another accountant for criminal enterprises seeking internal leaks. Affleck's committed performance is admirable; the rest of the film is not. Actually, it's a bit of a mess. While I enjoyed Bill Dubuque's script in The Judge (2014), I did not here. Most of its half-baked ideas could work if there weren't so many and if they all fit into the same story. I'd argue that the only reason to go see the film is in its heartfelt intention to provide a badass leading action man who happens to be autistic. And that is more than enough reason to go watch, by the way. It's just too bad that character wasn't in a better film.

The cast is lovely, but almost all of them are criminally underused. Anna Kendrick plays your basic damsel in distress, Jeffrey Tambor and John Lithgow are almost absent entirely, which begs the question why they are even involved. JK Simmons is given some nice screen time -- which of course he steals -- and Jon Bernthal masterfully commands the film's climax. The fight choreography is rather lovely, and a few of the action scenes are handled with entrancing skill by the cinematographer and editor. Not much else in The Accountant works. Not even its title.

And it's not all the writer's fault, as director Gavin O'Connor flies along without focus. Fleeting images and time lapses provide little more than a vague overview of the entire lifespan of our protagonist, making what should be a taut thriller about one particular case into a lengthy, vague origin story for what seems to be a potential franchise. Actually, more than once I wondered if I was watching an alternate-universe origin story for Batffleck. The only thing that brought me back from that dark precipice was the film's constant cliche-mongering. Cliches of disabilities lead to cliches of leading men in a cliched action plot, and all those cliches swim around in their own stew until about halfway through the film, when the plot finally begins to coalesce into a preachy cliche about embracing differences especially in your own family.

Maybe I'm just bitter because I wanted it to be better. But its hypocritical condescension and irritating banality make the film one of the biggest disappointments of the year.

IMDb: The Accountant

Deepwater Horizon (2016)

Score: 2.5 / 5

In case you forgot, this picture will make you angry at BP all over again. Without going near the dangerous waters of the real-life events at Deepwater Horizon, I can say that this film works on its own terms and packs a few not-so-subtle punches. For the most part, however, it's exactly what I expected it to be.

Turning an enormous tragedy into a small-scale disaster, Deepwater Horizon never feels necessary, and worse, never feels inspired. Rather than augmenting its familiar story with powerful performances or Big Themes (as we see in most major disaster flicks), this film plays it safe and small, sticking strictly to the action. While there are some nice touches to the action, it never has much heart to it. Thankfully, there is enough distraction that I never laughed out loud at the thin dialogue and frantic editing. The sound mixing and sound editing are notably impressive, and the apparently practical set design is a study unto itself.

So, technically, the movie is dazzling. However, there are almost no characterizations of the considerable cast, making the ensemble drama just that. We see some nice performances -- John Malkovich is particularly delightful -- but nothing worth gushing over. As such, the fatalities of the film fall pretty flat, and the emotional climax is more climactic because of the fiery background effects than because of the performances of our leads. In fact, the most emotional scene I saw happened about halfway through, as a nearby ship views the explosive oil spewing into the night sky. A bird flies in, crashing through the bridge of the ship, coated in oil and shrieking as it smashes into windows and desks before dying. If there is a central visual message from the film, that is it.

The film's worst sin, though, is its flat sense of inevitability. Seemingly after each of the initial scenes, the camera cuts away to the base and its underwater pipes, showing the immense pressure and looming catastrophe before the film has even set up its narrative focus. There's never a moment when we don't know exactly what's going to happen. Because of this, I was disappointed in director Peter Berg, who has proven himself fully capable and even talented in helming an action-thriller. Here, though, I couldn't see a creative inspiration at work. Instead, I see substance ignored in favor of technical skill; a routine form of shallow entertainment, as mindless as it is predictable.

IMDb: Deepwater Horizon

The Birth of a Nation (2016)

Score: 4.5 / 5

Not quite familiar with the story of Nat Turner, I found this film to be one of the most engaging and revealing visions of slavery-era America ever made. Flirting in turns with horror and with beauty, The Birth of a Nation captures the evils of slavery while providing a timely parallel for the horrors the black community still faces in America today. More importantly, it is yet another fine example of a recent surge of black film in mainstream cinema: movies made by black people about black people for black people. Of course, it's accessible to all of us, but it presents the rare tale of justice and empowerment specifically for the black man, and that alone deserves some applause right now.

The film concerns Nat Turner, the slave who led a rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia, in 1831. It was one of -- if not the -- most violent (and, arguably, successful) uprising of any slave group in the South. The intriguing part is that Turner was literate and a preacher, depicted in the film as seeing divine visions, whose understanding of the Bible radically changed from one accepting and encouraging slavery to one of wrath and justice for his subjugated people. As such, he undermined the slaveowners' rhetorical claim on the Bible and was able to amass his soldiers into a force that murdered dozens before they were stopped and killed. After the insurrection had ended, white militia and mobs murdered hundreds of black people in retaliation, and state laws all over the South instituted prohibition of black education and black assembly, and required that white preacher be present at all religious services.

Nate Parker proves his acting mettle as Nat Turner, and more than once moved me to tears with his gutsy delivery. I could criticize his direction and writing, however: His film, formulaic and preachy, winds its unbalanced way to a climax that is anything but cathartic. The real joys of his film are in the smaller moments of the first two acts; by the time we reach the brutal third act, we know exactly what to expect, and it's nothing new. Parker does something interesting, too, in focusing so tightly to Nat Turner's figure; we see everything from Nat's perspective, which to my mind makes the film more a biography or character study than a universal story of empowerment and vengeance. We see horrors on screen, to be sure, but the story turns on the rape of Turner's wife (played by the amazing Aja Naomi King), an event we don't even see. Showing it might feel like exploitation, and frankly I'm good with showing less sexual violence on screen, but it's an intriguing directorial choice, and one that, again, focuses on the man's reaction to the event rather than the woman's experience of the event (consider, as counterpoint, The Accused's handling of the subject matter).

A rousing sense of conviction and a passion for black empowerment more than make up for Parker's directorial missteps here; whether if, as various scenes change their aesthetic, we view the film as biographical history, racial horror, action drama, or something else entirely, we are sure to leave the film changed, if only by the sheer urgency of the film's message. The Birth of a Nation is sure to provoke conversations about the morality of retaliatory violence and the religious motivations for bloodshed. It excellently provides examples of how the Bible can be used in defense of opposing ideologies, and opens the door wide for debate on biblical authority and rhetoric. Hopefully it will also spur empathetic conversations about the ongoing need for justice and equality in America.

IMDb: The Birth of a Nation

The Girl on the Train (2016)

Score: 4.5 / 5

If you're going to see this hoping for the October thriller event this year, you might be disappointed. It's not melo. It's not huge. And it's definitely not as accessible as the couple sitting behind me in the theater would have preferred (Which is surprising to me, since the filmmakers pointedly changed the setting from London to New York City for no apparent reason).

If, however, you're going to see this to relish in the darkness promised by the book, you are in for a real treat. Less a thriller and more a tightly wound psychosexual mystery, The Girl on the Train plays out almost as an indie film, complete with shaky camera, abstract editing, claustrophobia-inducing closeups, and an entrancing sense of place. Director Tate Taylor (famous for directing big-budget feel-goods The Help and Get On Up) disappears into his craft here in what is easily his best film yet, losing himself to the character of Rachel almost as much as Emily Blunt does. He views the film with a sometimes blurred camera, disjointed plotlines, and images that we can't trust. Amazing how well he took the unreliable narrator of Paula Hawkins's book and translated it to the screen: Not unlike in Oculus, here we see events happen that are memories and skewed perceptions, and some that even exist solely in the imagination of the characters. Yet there's not a single moment when you doubt the director's control over the film.

Blunt, too, gives one of her career's best performances. Though some might take issue with her not being fat, she more than makes up for the character's self-loathing and indulgent vices. Bleary-eyed and convincingly inebriated, Blunt stumbles her way through the picture with intoxicating energy, at once cold and fiery, fearful and fearsome. She and her director must have had a gold-mine of detailed conversations on how to do this movie, because they magically take the book's suggestions and turn them into arresting realities. Together, they turn the whole movie into a voyeuristic nightmare, a malicious cocktail of cruelty and passions and secrets and lies that teeters on the precipice, begging to be rescued but threatening to take you down with it. And down we go, as the film counters its more erotic and violent sequences with pseudo-confessional moments of Rachel's narration; seeing her tear-stained cheeks as she questions her own soul is incredibly sobering for us, if not for her. Watching Blunt in her drunken fury is one of the most awesome things you'll see at the movies this year. Don't miss it.

Hitchcockian in the best way, the film marries genres like it's a game. Suburban sexual thriller meets feminist psychological drama, and we are completely absorbed in the lives of these beautiful, broken people. More than once, actually, I let myself forget the ending and convince myself that literally any of the main characters were the villain. Scene by scene, I suspected someone else, and I wondered if the filmmakers were going to surprise us with a twist ending unlike the book's.

Speaking of the ending, that was the only time in the film that I felt a bit distanced from the film. Danny Elfman's fabulous score is suddenly hushed, and the horror I remember feeling as I read the final 30 or so pages of the book is exchanged for a strange lack of horror. We see terrible things happening, but for some reason it's not as brutal as I wanted the final confrontation to be. It feels oddly emotionless and cold. I don't think it's bad in any way, and it certainly fits with the voyeuristic style of the rest of the film. I just wanted a bit more of a bang. Of course, watching the villain get screwed in the end was thoroughly satisfying, so maybe my complaint doesn't matter.

IMDb: The Girl on the Train

Queen of Katwe (2016)

Score: 4.5 / 5

This is the surprise of the year.

Queen of Katwe concerns Phiona Mutesi, the chess prodigy from Uganda who overcomes impossible odds to achieve international fame. Of course it's also the Disney feel-good drama of the year, and as such it relishes in the sentimental wash that made Remember the Titans (2000) work. What's fabulous here, however, is that this isn't an Americanized version of someone else's story; this picture is wholly a product of its time and place, namely what one of the upper-class children calls the "ghetto" of Katwe.

Phiona (played with astounding power by young newcomer Madina Nalwanga) lives her daily life in constant struggle for survival with her family. One day, as a result of her curiosity and resourcefulness, she stumbles upon a small church chess team. Though at first concerned that this game will not be lucrative for her or her family to survive, its coach (David Oyelowo in his usual pitch-perfect style) immediately sees her promise and works with her to improve her skills and her situation. The obvious pushback comes from Phiona's mother Nakku, who seeks to keep her family together; Lupita Nyong'o is the lynchpin of the film, and her performance steals the camera. Between her oldest daughter choosing to leave, her family getting evicted, caring for a toddler, and the inevitable injuries that come from her children's youth, Nakku provides a much-needed image of motherhood without flaws. She is many things but first and foremost she is love incarnate, and that is not exactly a common trope these days.

In fact, Nakku's character also reflects the nature of the film in that it is a much-needed breeze of cool air in an otherwise heated climate. First, the film features uncommonly excellent production design. Director Mira Nair and her team have fashioned an environment so believable, it's hard to remember it's a set at all. The richly detailed world of the Katwe marketplace is so immersive, I felt I could smell it, reach out and touch it. In our culture of high-action visual nightmares of computer-generated alien civilizations, it's nice to see a mainstream movie with none of that. Second, and far more important, our American audience is experiencing a lack of common-good-ness, and an abundance of leaders who are questionable at best and blatantly manipulative and divisive. Queen of Katwe provides an alternative, a story literally filled with characters who do nothing but care for each other, who reach beyond their situation and empower the unlikeliest among them, and who encourage and help each other with no thought of reward or even recognition.

It may not be the most original movie ever made, but it might be one of the best at what it does. And it couldn't have come at a better time.

IMDb: Queen of Katwe

Snowden (2016)

Score: 3 / 5

Oliver Stone surprises us again. This time, though, I'm wondering if it wasn't the lesser kind of surprise.

The enigmatic character of Edward Snowden and his apparent crimes against the US government seem to be the perfect basis for a political/legal thriller and an engrossing bio-drama. And so they do, as Oliver Stone shows us in the ensemble-driven spectacle that is Snowden. The odd thing with this film, however, is that Stone himself seems to, for what might be the first time in his many directorial features, shrink away from the possibilities of his own film. Whereas his style almost always gives his films' substance a run for its money, here, the only thrilling thing to be seen is the story itself. The fact-based plot and the obviously painstakingly detailed production design are the only things that hold our attention.

Well, okay, maybe not the only things. The ensemble cast (including Melissa Leo, Zachary Quinto, Tom Wilkinson, and even Nicolas Cage) are all at the top of their respective games. Leave it to Stone to handle ensemble casts better than almost anyone. Joseph Gordon-Levitt proves once again his fabulous ability to change characters without a single crack in his performance. He is not quite chameleonic -- we never forget who it is we're really watching -- but his delivery is so pitch-perfect and impassioned that he sweeps us away with it. The movie is stolen, though, by Rhys Ifans as his primary instructor. I won't give anything away, but that man knows how to do his thing.

The movie works best when it's telling its story of governmental espionage and whistle-blowing; it will downright scare you, if you, like me, didn't really understand what the secrets were Snowden leaked. I don't know that the movie convinced me of Snowden's heroism, probably because those tropes were played so heavily-handed. But it's an amazing journey either way, and one that certainly made me pause the next time I wanted to Google search something. The movie tries a few times to become a character drama starring Snowden and his girlfriend (played by Shailene Woodley, unfortunately), and those scenes are woefully underwritten.

I have heard that the 2014 documentary Citizenfour is even more thrilling than Snowden, and I intend to find that out for myself. I wouldn't be surprised; Stone's film often feels dry and uninspired, finding its uncertain way between a not-so-thrilling thriller and cut-and-pasted biography. In short, it's not one of Stone's masterpieces, and if you're watching it for his craft, you will be disappointed as I was. If, on the other hand, you want to see the excellent cast doing what they do best, this is one picture you just can't miss.

IMDb: Snowden

The Magnificent Seven (2016)

Score: 3.5 / 5

The Magnificent Seven might be the answer for those of us who weren't totally happy with The Hateful Eight, and while it's a hell of a ride, it's perhaps not as superlative as its title suggests.

I confess, I haven't seen the 1960 original, nor have I seen the Japanese film on which that was based. On its own terms, though, this film still manages to feel like a rehashing of old tropes and images. Westerns are a dying breed (if not dead since 1992's Unforgiven), and it was perhaps too much to ask for a novel Western that isn't paired with horror (The Walking Dead) or science fiction (Cowboys & Aliens). The camera pushes us into a realm of nostalgia with sweeping vistas of the dusty West and a sepia color palette. The story, too, is so simple that it reads more like a fable or tall-tale, which might have been just what writer Nic Pizzolatto (of True Detective fame) intended.

The real pleasure here is the cast, who are so well-suited for their parts that we don't doubt for an instant that any of them belong in their dirty world. Vincent D'Onofrio steals his scenes with humor and some surprising brutality. I was only a little annoyed by the casting of Peter Sarsgaard as the Big Bad, but then, every time he's on screen I feel a little annoyed. Maybe it's his voice. Everyone else was great in their motley crew of bizarre characters, and we even see, if too briefly, badass lone woman in Haley Bennett, heartthrob pioneer in Matt Bomer, and squinty-eyed henchman in Cam Gigandet.

It's a rousing, swashbuckling experience, and it serves as ample distraction for its over-two-hour running time. Explosive and fast, it features some of the better choreographed shoot-outs in recent movies (though nothing beats Anthropoid's climax), and it dishes out plenty of good humor and heart with the action. **SPOILER WARNING** Its surprisingly dour ending feels a bit out of place. It's good, mind, but the extended violent climax might have paid off a tad more had the film played up the camaraderie and humor earlier in the picture. As it is, the ending is moving and sobering; not so much to bring down your action movie high, but not enough to make the movie stick with you after you leave. With a little more heart earlier on, the ending could have been downright cathartic.

That said, the ending could easily set up a sequel. I, for one, would love to see more Red Harvest (and his biceps) on the screen.

IMDb: The Magnificent Seven