Welcome to T & C Film Reviews!
Below are the published reviews for each week. Below each list will be the featured review of the week, which will remain on the home page before being moved to our individual blogs the following week.
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Get Out (3/5/17)
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* Featured Review
Jackman, Gyllenhaal hold audience captive in Prisoners
Written by: Tim Luisi and Corey Wackel
Monstrous in its ferocity, Prisoners is a Hollywood thriller that immediately brings to mind David Fincher’s Se7en in its brutality and cynicism. At no point does the audience feel safe, constantly reminded of the danger that inhabits every corner of this morally pitch-black universe. Like the characters themselves we are subjected to a host of horrors and a plot that only builds in intensity as the hours speed by.
What makes Prisoners so great is not necessarily its plot; truth is that we’ve seen much of what is in Prisoners before. What makes it different, though, is the careful consideration it gives its characters that help propel the story along. In the film, two girls go missing on Thanksgiving Day. Keller Dover, the father of one of the children decides to take matters into his own hands and attempts to find out more about the girl’s disappearance from a key suspect. While this happens, the police are attempting to follow a number of different leads that they believe will help them catch the kidnapper. Each passing day only creates more frustration, with Dover and the police beginning to question what lengths they will go to in order to find out the truth.
As mentioned, our guide through director Dennis Villenueve’s underworld is the character of Keller Dover. Portrayed by Hugh Jackman, Dover is not so much a ticking time bomb, but rather an avalanche, starting off explosively and getting perpetually louder and gaining more intensity, the farther that he descends. Angry is not an accurate way to describe Jackman’s performance; he is furious and frightening in only the way that one who has been to Hell can be. Scalding each character in his wake, his is a blistering turn and represents perhaps the greatest performance of the actor’s career to date.
It’s especially interesting to look at Jackman’s performance in the context of his breakthrough, Oscar-nominated role as Jean Valjean in last year’s Les Miserables. In both, he plays a good- some would argue Godly- man forced into actions that are reprehensible to him in order to protect his family. Whereas Valjean is a character that is almost entirely pure, however, Dover is far more complex. Like Valjean, his motives are good, but there are also demons within Dover that drive him past desperation and into violence. To see a Christian character that is neither a stereotyped punch line nor a one-dimensional saint is refreshing. The fact that Dover is so real only makes his pain hit the audience more effectively; he is not blameless, but he is heart breaking.
Equally as impactful is the performance of Jake Gyllenhaal as Detective Loki. In Prisoners, Gyllenhaal gives the best performance of his career, giving his character enough ticks and eccentricities to convince us that we haven’t seen anything like it on screen before. While being reminiscent of performances such as James Stewart in Vertigo and Brad Pitt in Se7en, Gyllenhaal is still able to create something original. His obsession with the case is what drives much of the film and there seems to be a hidden motivation behind his character’s actions. Detective Loki stands to lose just as much as any character in the film and this is made clear by the subtle madness that Gyllenhaal brings to the role.
In addition to the great performances from Jackman and Gyllenhaal, the supporting players all bring their A-game as well. Melissa Leo, Viola Davis, and Paul Dano all give life to characters that could have been stock roles on the page. Like the characters of Dover and Loki, each assures the audience that there is more to their characters than meets the eye.
While the ensemble is universally stunning, it is perhaps not even the greatest element of the film. Like stalwarts of the genre, which includes films like Se7en and Silence of the Lambs, Prisoners greatest strength is in its atmosphere. Obtaining a chilling, beautiful, and terrifying vision from all time great director of photography Roger Deakins (The Shawshank Redemption, No Country for Old Men), and finding its haunting voice from screenwriter Aaron Guzikowski’s script, Prisoners is disturbing, but ultimately powerful. Alongside Villenueve’s strong stylistic efforts and editing work that makes two and a half hours seem more like a single hour of Breaking Bad, all of these components work together to create a bleak worldview that just like the title suggests makes its characters into prisoners, whether that be a literal imprisonment or a prison of mental anguish such as the one that Dover and Loki find themselves trapped in throughout the film’s running time.
It’s rare to find a film anymore that is this affecting or honest. It is dark and not for the faint of heart, but for a film that could have been formulaic, it has so much to say and so many interesting ways to say them. A logical extension of Clint Eastwood’s brilliant Mystic River and Ben Affleck’s Gone Baby Gone, Prisoners is just as haunting, just as powerful, and just as impacting as those masterpieces of tension. Every week on television we see just how easy it would be to make a story like this generic, how simple it would be to make clichéd characters and a storyline where good is white and evil is black. This film does not hold your hand; there is simply evil, sadness, and those rare moments where those forces are defeated. Perhaps even more interesting is the fact that Prisoners never attempts to support or criticize the actions of its characters. Instead, it presents situations of moral ambiguity; it asks the audience to think about what they would do in a similar situation. Would they remain composed and “humanized” or would they allow themselves to twist and bend their own convictions, losing sight of who they are in the process?
So, while the general plot of Prisoners may not be completely original, there are enough genuinely surprising twists and turns that keep us on the edge of our seat to the very end. The characters are also wonderfully realized, each giving a different angle to the overall story. While the film may be forgotten by year’s end, make no mistake; this is, and will be one of the greatest movies of the year. Reminding us of what we are capable of, both the good and the bad, Prisoners is more than a thriller; it is a dark, brutal journey that captures our imagination and never lets it go.
Rating: 9/10
Monstrous in its ferocity, Prisoners is a Hollywood thriller that immediately brings to mind David Fincher’s Se7en in its brutality and cynicism. At no point does the audience feel safe, constantly reminded of the danger that inhabits every corner of this morally pitch-black universe. Like the characters themselves we are subjected to a host of horrors and a plot that only builds in intensity as the hours speed by.
What makes Prisoners so great is not necessarily its plot; truth is that we’ve seen much of what is in Prisoners before. What makes it different, though, is the careful consideration it gives its characters that help propel the story along. In the film, two girls go missing on Thanksgiving Day. Keller Dover, the father of one of the children decides to take matters into his own hands and attempts to find out more about the girl’s disappearance from a key suspect. While this happens, the police are attempting to follow a number of different leads that they believe will help them catch the kidnapper. Each passing day only creates more frustration, with Dover and the police beginning to question what lengths they will go to in order to find out the truth.
As mentioned, our guide through director Dennis Villenueve’s underworld is the character of Keller Dover. Portrayed by Hugh Jackman, Dover is not so much a ticking time bomb, but rather an avalanche, starting off explosively and getting perpetually louder and gaining more intensity, the farther that he descends. Angry is not an accurate way to describe Jackman’s performance; he is furious and frightening in only the way that one who has been to Hell can be. Scalding each character in his wake, his is a blistering turn and represents perhaps the greatest performance of the actor’s career to date.
It’s especially interesting to look at Jackman’s performance in the context of his breakthrough, Oscar-nominated role as Jean Valjean in last year’s Les Miserables. In both, he plays a good- some would argue Godly- man forced into actions that are reprehensible to him in order to protect his family. Whereas Valjean is a character that is almost entirely pure, however, Dover is far more complex. Like Valjean, his motives are good, but there are also demons within Dover that drive him past desperation and into violence. To see a Christian character that is neither a stereotyped punch line nor a one-dimensional saint is refreshing. The fact that Dover is so real only makes his pain hit the audience more effectively; he is not blameless, but he is heart breaking.
Equally as impactful is the performance of Jake Gyllenhaal as Detective Loki. In Prisoners, Gyllenhaal gives the best performance of his career, giving his character enough ticks and eccentricities to convince us that we haven’t seen anything like it on screen before. While being reminiscent of performances such as James Stewart in Vertigo and Brad Pitt in Se7en, Gyllenhaal is still able to create something original. His obsession with the case is what drives much of the film and there seems to be a hidden motivation behind his character’s actions. Detective Loki stands to lose just as much as any character in the film and this is made clear by the subtle madness that Gyllenhaal brings to the role.
In addition to the great performances from Jackman and Gyllenhaal, the supporting players all bring their A-game as well. Melissa Leo, Viola Davis, and Paul Dano all give life to characters that could have been stock roles on the page. Like the characters of Dover and Loki, each assures the audience that there is more to their characters than meets the eye.
While the ensemble is universally stunning, it is perhaps not even the greatest element of the film. Like stalwarts of the genre, which includes films like Se7en and Silence of the Lambs, Prisoners greatest strength is in its atmosphere. Obtaining a chilling, beautiful, and terrifying vision from all time great director of photography Roger Deakins (The Shawshank Redemption, No Country for Old Men), and finding its haunting voice from screenwriter Aaron Guzikowski’s script, Prisoners is disturbing, but ultimately powerful. Alongside Villenueve’s strong stylistic efforts and editing work that makes two and a half hours seem more like a single hour of Breaking Bad, all of these components work together to create a bleak worldview that just like the title suggests makes its characters into prisoners, whether that be a literal imprisonment or a prison of mental anguish such as the one that Dover and Loki find themselves trapped in throughout the film’s running time.
It’s rare to find a film anymore that is this affecting or honest. It is dark and not for the faint of heart, but for a film that could have been formulaic, it has so much to say and so many interesting ways to say them. A logical extension of Clint Eastwood’s brilliant Mystic River and Ben Affleck’s Gone Baby Gone, Prisoners is just as haunting, just as powerful, and just as impacting as those masterpieces of tension. Every week on television we see just how easy it would be to make a story like this generic, how simple it would be to make clichéd characters and a storyline where good is white and evil is black. This film does not hold your hand; there is simply evil, sadness, and those rare moments where those forces are defeated. Perhaps even more interesting is the fact that Prisoners never attempts to support or criticize the actions of its characters. Instead, it presents situations of moral ambiguity; it asks the audience to think about what they would do in a similar situation. Would they remain composed and “humanized” or would they allow themselves to twist and bend their own convictions, losing sight of who they are in the process?
So, while the general plot of Prisoners may not be completely original, there are enough genuinely surprising twists and turns that keep us on the edge of our seat to the very end. The characters are also wonderfully realized, each giving a different angle to the overall story. While the film may be forgotten by year’s end, make no mistake; this is, and will be one of the greatest movies of the year. Reminding us of what we are capable of, both the good and the bad, Prisoners is more than a thriller; it is a dark, brutal journey that captures our imagination and never lets it go.
Rating: 9/10
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