Velvet Buzzsaw (2019)

Score: 4.5 / 5

Dan Gilroy may not be the year's premier horror filmmaker, but no one can say he doesn't try daring new things with each project. Here he turns his attention away from seedy bottom-feeders in the news as well as shady lawyers in a morality play and turns his considerable insight and wit to the world of contemporary art. In doing so, he captures a dazzling, damning, and deeply disturbing look at the ways we treat art nowadays.

When she stumbles across a dead man in her apartment building, Josephina (Zawe Ashton) sneaks into his unit and discovers tons of beautiful paintings. She steals them and soon the L.A. contemporary art world clamors for the work. But the dead artist, Vetril Dease, had poured some of his inner demons into his paintings, stemming from his abused childhood that culminated in murdering his father and subsequent debilitating mental illness. Having violated his specific instructions to destroy his art, the greedy art dealers and critics become prey for the vengeful art they've profited from.

Sound brilliant? It is. Think The Picture of Dorian Gray meets It Follows, and you've about got the entire horror aspect of this movie. But what makes Velvet Buzzsaw a really amazing movie is that, in terms of its structure, it's not even a horror flick.

We begin not with the crazed artist painting his masterpiece nor do we even know about his death for the first several scenes. Instead, we start in an art exhibition in Miami Beach with an art critic named Morf Vandewalt (Jake Gyllenhaal), whose caustic wit and transcendent taste seem to have earned him a prestigious place in contemporary artistic circles. He passes through the gallery attentive more to the guests than the art, fleetingly trading gossip and insider info on the biz. His date is Josephina, who works for famed gallery owner Rhodora Haze (Rene Russo), and they quickly begin a sexual relationship when Morf reveals unhappiness with his boyfriend. But this, too, is fleeting. Morf is not the relationship guy, he's the social status guy.

With this inciting incident, the film is immediately established as a razor-sharp satire. Rapid-fire dialogue reveals characters' infinite disdain, avarice, and no small amount of personal loathing. You can never quite shake the feeling that these people know their entire sense of identity is based on being unable to create anything; they merely feed off what others make, hoping to grab whatever social and financial power they can by cheating the artists and making what should be experiential consumptive.

Leave it to Dan Gilroy to not only lampoon an entire institution but to make a complex and sophisticated piece of art in doing so. Everybody has ulterior motives, and all are impossibly selfish. Gilroy has a knack for these utterly unwholesome characters, and here he adds campy flamboyance to them. Perhaps best in this vein are Toni Collette and Rene Russo, vying for Morf's favor and the hottest pieces on the market, with their bizarre costumes, striking hair, and deliciously affected speech patterns. The film's color palette and cinematography paint a highly stylized world for our endless pleasure, the kind of cinematic candy that makes your mouth water and pucker up at the same time. What else would you expect from the production designer Jim Bissell (Suburbicon, Juamnji, 300) and cinematographer extraordinaire Robert Elswit?

With its large cast, short running time, and lots on its mind, Velvet Buzzsaw could have derailed into a sordid mess of half-baked ideas. Instead, thanks to precise writing, focused direction, and stellar work from cast and crew, it cuts deep into the state of art in a postmodern capitalist world of ownership and validity and subjectivity.

Roman J. Israel, Esq. (2017)

Score: 3 / 5

Roman J. Israel, Esq. should have just been titled Denzel, because a) nobody can remember its actual title and b) he's the best part of it.

Roman Israel J., Esq. is a character drama of the highest caliber. Delving deep into the consciousness and conscience of an impossibly complex character, the film revolves around its titular protagonist (Denzel Washington, in a mesmerizing performance) as he works to save his job. He's the behind-the-curtain brains of a two-person law firm until his partner (and former professor) has a heart attack. Taking over, Roman finds that his firm is broke and that it had engaged in some morally bankrupt deals. His idealism wounded, he begins to work for George Pierce (an impeccably dressed Colin Farrell) and he uses his knowledge on a case to collect reward money for identifying a killer. With his newfound wealth, he attempts to live the life he has long denied himself: he goes on dates with a beautiful woman with similar passions for justice (Carmen Ejogo), he leases a fancy apartment, he buys stylish suits.

J. Roman Israel then becomes a clear-cut morality play, and by the time a heavy-handed touch of fate sends consequences his way, Roman's time begins to run out. Until this third act gets a little too contrived, the movie is as excellent a character drama as you are likely to find. Of course, it's also a twisty legal drama that never quite allows its elements to coalesce, much less take flight. And by the time this weird and thrilling climax happens, we're left wondering why there was so much ado about so little. This ending is the kind I'd expect from a real-life story, one that allows its denouement (as the movie does) to succeed where its tragic hero failed, to show that his life was not in vain and that justice prevails. I half expected to see text about the real life Roman and the impact his work had on the justice system. But, of course, this whole damn thing was fictional.

Maybe Esq. Israel Q. Roman would have worked better for me if it were all a thriller, instead of just the climax. Maybe it should have been a pure character study and cut out some extraneous scenes and characters. The movie soars when Washington and Farrell square off: Pierce is exactly the sort of rich bitch Israel hates in the business, and as they butt heads they also rub off on each other. Ejogo, though playing the part as well as she can, can't overcome a screenplay that does her character no favors. Early in the film she was pragmatic and strong, but her speech to Israel during their date is almost absurdly uncharacteristic, wallowing in compassion and sentiment. Similarly, there is little to no sense in Israel's gamble to finger a crook and collect the reward money, and there is nothing as astonishingly stupid as Pierce tailing the hitman out to shoot Israel. Why do these characters suddenly do ridiculous things? You might say money, you might say friendship. I say, poor writing.

For me, Roman Esq. Jr. missed its mark. But it might work for you. There's certainly nothing wrong with seeing Denzel showing his acting chops or Colin showing his beauty for a couple hours. If you want a razor-sharp character study that thrills and chills and rips apart institutions, do yourself a favor and go watch Nightcrawler. That was some fine Dan Gilroy work.

IMDb: Roman J. Israel, Esq.

Kong: Skull Island (2017)

Score: 3.5 / 5

While not quite measuring up to the likes of Peter Jackson's 2005 remake of the classic monster movie, Kong: Skull Island certainly carves out its own place in the pantheon of monster flicks. Featuring an unusually large incarnation of the titular primate, the film crashes along like an equally monstrous beast, shamelessly enjoying its own spectacular style and mindless action. Even occasionally poking fun at itself, the film is essentially the first summer blockbuster of 2017, coming at least two months too early. A sort of breathless adventure that easily scoots you along its two-hour running time, it reminds us that Oscar season too comes to an end, and that the age of extended franchises and multiverses remains alive and well.

If you've ever seen a Kong movie, you know the plot. If you haven't, shame on you. I won't bore you with the mundane details of the premise except to say that this picture is indeed a part of a larger franchise: the Warner Bros. / Legendary Entertainment MonsterVerse, begun by the brilliant Godzilla in 2014. The post-credits scene indicates the direction of the new franchise by revealing the studio's acquisition of other monsters, apparently including Mothra, Rodan, and Ghidorah. Whereas Godzilla felt like an art-house flick that happened to have an enormous budget, Kong feels every bit the costly major studio bash it is, replete with screwball soundtrack and tons of thick CGI. Avoiding the epic scope of Jackson's film, this one instead seems content with being a messy little fever dream of violence. Silly little jump scares and up-close monster battles edited at a frenetic pace keep us bewildered and excited. Layer in the tongue-in-cheek dark humor and pseudo-dramatic close-ups and you've got a beast of a picture that's not quite as horrifying as giant lizards and spiders but more exhilarating than an island of giants. So to speak.

Characters are thinly written, as if the writers are reminding us that we should only be watching for the spectacle. Dry, dark, and occasionally hilarious (though only meaning to be so half the time), the characters fill out an ensemble a little too big for its own good; even as each team member is introduced we ignore their names and roles because we know they will end up dead eventually. The ones who do matter capture our attention through sheer beauty (because the script gives them almost no help): Tom Hiddleston and Brie Larson are the two that matter here, make no mistake. While likable performers surround them, these two stars allow their characters to be fleshed out even in silence, existing fully in their world through the sensation of touch. They strike up a familiar rapport in the film and always seem to have each other's back, a nice dynamic shift of camaraderie in a film of violent mercenaries.

With its vivid, feverishly colored energy and '70s-style vibes, we might wish that it had given into its wild side a bit more. There's so much potential for craziness in a tale like this, and when married to pulsing lights and vibrant hues I can't help but feel the writers missed some golden opportunities. Instead they stick to formula, ignoring the potential fun in the native human presence, other giants on the island, and even the invading characters themselves. Casting the likes of John Goodman and Samuel L. Jackson was smart, but could have been better if their characters had contracted the same sort of apish madness that, for example, John C. Reilly's has caught. On an island where they clearly don't belong, they probably should have demonstrated some Heart of Darkness-level of crazy.

Then again, I was totally fine ignoring the lack of story and characterizations. I was busy filling my eyeballs with Tom Hiddleston being the perfect gentleman-mercenary in that tight blue t-shirt. Holy bananas.

IMDb: Kong: Skull Island

Nightcrawler (2014)

Score: 5 / 5

I have said before that a single performance does not a movie make. And while I'm not going to eat my words, I should amend them. When a film is "about" (vile phrase) a single complex character, I think the actor can certainly make the film worthwhile. And when the rest of the film is pretty great by itself, this combination of talent, intelligence, and passion makes the experience truly enchanting. Such is the case with Nightcrawler.

Yet another embodiment in our culture's recent fascination with antiheroes, our titular cameraman commands our attention and demands our minds in his nightly adventures. A freelance crime photographer, he prowls the streets of Los Angeles in pursuit of carnage that he might sell to the news. Lou Bloom is a terrifying specter of a man: Isolated and desperate but wildly intelligent and ambitious, he manipulates the world around him to achieve his ends. He disturbs crime scenes to get better photographic vantages, he sabotages his competitors, and he cultivates romantic tension with his boss to stay protected.

Jake Gyllenhaal gives one of his most compelling performances yet, and one that will hopefully earn him great recognition come Oscar night. We already knew that he gets insanely dedicated to his various characters -- changing chameleon-like into everything from a geeky high-schooler to a hunky Persian prince -- but his transformation into the City of Angels' angel of death is perhaps his most astounding yet. His gaunt visage and bulging eyes are the stuff of nightmares (and of Academy favor; we've seen time and again their support of actors who drastically change their bodies for a performance), but the mind behind the visage is even more horrific. His glassy gaze tantalizingly gives us endless room to speculate, and in every moment on screen he is impossible to predict. The moments in which his vast intellect steps aside and his enigmatic soul surfaces caught my breath in an iron grip. Notably, his "what I want" speech to his boss about two-thirds of the way through the film almost knocked me out of my seat.

Rene Russo, though given less screen time than Gyllenhaal, is no less compelling as the morning news director selected by Lou Bloom to employ him. Her own attraction to the dark and dangerous "if it bleeds, it leads" motto serves as the crux of the film's satire on media. Which brings me to another point. As haunting as the film is to me, it never felt unbearably weighty or morbid. Don't get me wrong, it's a thriller through and through, but rather than wallowing in its own sinister atmosphere, Nightcrawler is also an exercise in pitch-black comedy. So much so that rather than giggle, I had to resist shuddering several times. Amazing that a film can provoke such a strong reaction, isn't it?

Writer and director Dan Gilroy, beyond writing one of the most terrifying, articulate male characters in recent memory, expertly controls the film's speed and style. It never feels overwhelmingly plot-driven, and its commentary on the news and crime never reaches beyond the film's scope. Gilroy -- in his directorial debut, no less -- understands Lou Bloom so well that he centers what could easily become a glum noir piece or an overblown action spectacle on intellectual drama (not emotional, never sentimental), making the film a pure psychological thriller. He and cinematographer Robert Elswit together fashion a palpably tense atmosphere entirely out of dramatic lighting, which is easily the most evocative I've seen this year.

IMDb: Nightcrawler