Southpaw

Antoine Fuqua's newest film was unabashedly cliche but it was more than just another boxing movie, or another hero-to-underdog-back-to-hero again movie, because of the emotionally resonant work of its main cast particularly Jake Gyllenhaal, Oona Laurence, Rachel McAdams and Forest Whitaker.

The narrative by writer Kurt Sutter was typical of many hero-reborn stories over the years, and some parts may be too heavy handed. However, Fuqua wisely kept the focus on Gyllenhaal and did not stray too much into the emotional quagmire that Sutter's script potentially had.

However, the rise and fall of this film rest solely on its cast. And Gyllenhaal was outstanding.

Following his Oscar-snubbed role on Nightcrawler, Gyllenhaal returns with another fully-committed role that, depending on how the year shapes up, may or may not see him in contention again. He really found the character and slipped into him totally. There was no vanity nor ego in his portrayal of the boxer, and as he experienced the losses and wins, the audience was able to connect and empathise.

McAdams played a pivotal role in the story and was the emotional anchor throughout. She and Gyllenhaal had great chemistry and she really showed her depth (together with the Season 2 of True Detective).

Whitaker takes on a supporting role here, but this man, as we know, is capable of so much more! And here, he and Gyllenhaal had a natural chemistry that made their on-screen mentor-student relationship believable.

The other real star of this film was young Oona Laurence. Yes, a child actor that was brilliant and absorbing (and not annoying). Laurence held her own against Gyllenhaal and will be a fine actress to keep an eye out for. If only there were more accomplished stage child actors for the big screen.

Lastly, the music was exceptional. A brilliant juxtapose between John Horner's classical strings and Eminem's heavy rapping, reflecting the story and Gyllenhaal's character's arc.

Irrational Man

Woody Allen's latest sees him using film to explore his own dark philosophies of life, and he does not even try to hide the blatant-ness of it. At least this time round, Emma Stone has better chemistry with Joaquin Phoenix than she had with Colin Firth in the lighter, more romantic Magic in the Moonlight (the irony!).

Using the classic Three Acts structure, Allen used it to explore his own believes in morality and amorality and his own existentialism crisis. However, it lacked grace and subtlety and courage, with Allen just dipping his toes - and occasionally the whole foot - into the subject matter.

The story itself was predictable and borderline indulgent and it really did take its time. There were no unexpected curveballs, so the process of getting to the end had to be interesting and riveting to sustain the (intelligent) audience's attention. Sadly it was not.

Not even the snazzy Jazzy soundtrack could help to distract much.

Phoenix was a great choice to play the lead. He is one of the better actors of his generation and always inhabit his characters with the deepest understanding and dedication. Here he is overweight (gosh, that paunch was distracting!) and slumped over in the First Act, Rougeishly handsome and straight-back in the Second, and a slow crumbling of the facade in the Third.

Stone on the other hand, replayed her wide-eyed Romantic ingenue, for which she does a great job. But opposite Phoenix with such dark material, she paled. She held her own much better in the rom-com with Firth. Her wide-eyes failed to convey the necessary emotions and complexity that her character needed. Perhaps it is time for Allen to look for another muse.

Whereas Parker Posey held her own against Phoenix. Her scenes with Phoenix were the highlights of the movie. Together they both felt natural, and Allen's dialogue felt less self-serving.  Posey was a delight to watch.

Phoenix and Posey would be the reasons to see this 90-odd minutes film that felt like 180.

Ant Man [IMAX/3D]

An enjoyable film and a decent addition to the ever expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe, with a charming turn by Paul Rudd and great use of 3D-effects, but marred by the ghost of Edgar Wright (and Joe Cornish) and a general uneven-ness in terms of tone and characters.

As an origin story, the basic structure was there. Director Peyton Reed brought us from Point A to B to C and D smoothly and there were enough humour within to make this a sort of Marvel's Ocean Eleven. Reed's action sequences were also entertaining enough although nothing too mind-blowing.

But the biggest problem was that Wright's fingerprints could still be seen through Reed's gloves and the glimpses of Wright's DNA leave Ant-Man wanting.

Wright and Cornish have a very particular style and it peeks out at times in certain sequences, but these moments never really got to shine and hence it ended up giving the film a certain sense of uneven-ness.

Furthermore, Marvel's insistence to tie up every movie so succinctly with the greater MCU made it even more uneven, with certain parts of the film feeling like they were haphazardly mashed-up to give a whole. As much as we loved to see Hayley Atwell, John Slattery and Anthony Mackie, their scenes really ought to feel more organic.

I have a feeling Ant-Man will tie in very nicely with MTvU.

Adam Mckay and Rudd contributed to the screenplay, and it was evident with many of Rudd's lines. However, most of the people he played opposite with could not parlay with him as effectively. The only true standout was Michael Peña who owned his role and had great comedic timing with Rudd.

Rudd was great as Scott Lang, although his backstory should have been more developed. But Rudd had the screen charm and that handsome-ish yet rouge-ish and boy-ish charisma to play a thief-turned-hero. He is likeable but yet serious. And of course he wrote his own lines and was able to deliver the one-liners as they should be. That's an advantage right there.

Michael Douglas as Hank Pym was a disappointment. Douglas had no connection with his character and as the dead-panned one opposite the goofball Rudd, Pym was just boring. He and Rudd had no chemistry.

Evangeline Lily and Rudd were not much better. I wonder how Wasp would be like if Joss Whedon had got his hands on her. Her character was just as one-dimensional and predictable and boring.

(Whedon and Wright and Cornish should do a film together!)

Corey Stoll is on a roll ever since his turn on House of Cards. but here he was just another cookie-cutter, one-dimensional Marvel villain. And not even a very convincing one at that. Marvel either needs to gives us more complex villains like Daredevil's Kingpin (although granted a series does allow more time for character development) or more hammy ones like Ultron.

The Captain America franchises work well because they do not usually have a villain per se.

Again, the music - by Christoph Beck - was another decent MCU score.

The mid-credits scene was kind of expected. The end-credits scene, however, makes me excited for Captain America: Civil War!

At the end of it, I wished we could have gotten Edgar Wright's vision instead of Marvel's.

Inside Out

This was possibly the best animation Pixar - or any other studios for that matter - has done in a long time (since WALL-E, in my opinion). It was insanely smart with so many layers that an adult can appreciate, yet so expertly geared towards the young. There was joy, sadness, drama, pathos, tears, lots of laughter and even fear and disgust. It really ran through the gamut of feelings, In short, Brilliant!

But before we talk more about Inside Out, some time should be spared for the animation short tagged in front of it. Lava is another triumph for Pixar. Like most of their shorts, the concept is simple, but what was different here was the simplicity in its expression of love. A simple Hawaiian song that in its 7 minutes run time managed to make us smile, sing along, felt sad, then hopeful and lastly happiness. It was a great foreshadowing to the main movie itself.

Now, the film itself. Inside Out is so simple in its premise: What's goes on inside someone's head? The execution itself is simply complex. There were so many ideas and concepts that Pete Docter and company touched on that could have been further explored. The mind is really such a complex system but kudos to Docter and Co. for finding a way to make it so accessible to the young minds out there. 

The story itself was also very simple. Imagine a Thelma & Louise in your head with two opposing characters. That was what this film was essentially about. A road trip for 2 gals and the interesting people and places that go to and meet along the way. 

One of the best thing about the movie was how it did not shy away from a difficult theme: emotions are crucial and they formed us for who we are, even negative emotions like sadness and anger are important to the development of our personality. Life is about being happy, but sometimes we need to embrace the duality of our emotions to reach that state.

There were so many moments in the film that I wished we could have spent more time to explore: Abstract Thinking, Imagination Land, The Subconscious, Memory Dump, the interactions of the emotions in different persons and why are Riley's emotions of both gender?

That is not to say that this film has no drawbacks, but bearing in mind that the target audience are a lot younger, we can give it a wider pass. Small plot contrivances are unavoidable. This film could have gone a lot darker and the adult/cynical side of me wished it had dipped more than just the little toe into it. Sadness had so much more potential to explore. Why "things" happen around her.

A road trip between Sadness and Fear would have been a dark, and interesting, journey to take.

Similarly, kudos to Amy Poehler and Phyillis Smith as Joy and Sadness. Their voice work really helped to bring alive the characters. Richard Kind was also outstanding as Bing Bong. The rest of the emotions: Mindy Kaling, Bill Hader and Lewis Black were great too and had their moments.

Michael Giacchino scored the film and such a step up from his previous two works for Jurassic World  and Tomorrowland. The main theme was simple yet elicited a certain child-like gaiety that resonated with core theme of the movie. 

There are so many potentials for sequels! Let's hope Disney/Pixar don't screw this up.

Amy

An intimate and harrowing look into the brief life of Amy Winehouse.

What this documentary did very well was that Asif Kapadia and company gave us a very personal look into Winehouse - from her rise to fame to her addiction and ultimately - and sadly - her untimely demise.

Kapadia wisely used a mix of video recordings (so many camcorders at that time! - the modern equivalent will be Instagrams, Vines, Tweets and Facebook statuses) with Winehouse's lyrics and voice-overs by the people close to her, and often times too, Amy's own words to give a very intimate look into that period of her life.

However, one thing that this otherwise riveting documentary could have done better was if it could have gave us a better understanding of Amy Winehouse the person, rather than Amy Winehouse the celebrity/drug addict.

One leaves the theater with a feeling that although I know about the life and times and tribulations of Amy Winehouse, I still do not really know who is Amy Winehouse. An intimate look that lacked the intimacy.

But if nothing else, this would serve as a great cautionary tale against drug/alcohol addiction! Looking at you Lindsey Lohan!

Magic Mike XXL

A pale comparison to the original and this was already giving it the Ultron treatment: a lower expectation for a sequel of an unexpectedly wildly successful film.

This road trip really went nowhere. Poor characterisations throughout with the flimsiest of plot (even less material than the strippers' - sorry, male entertainers - g-string or throngs, and a sorry excuse to try to get away with it all with a minimal showing of skin. If all else fails at least own the nudity. 

Why Channing Tatum would want to do this after his turn on Foxcatcher? At least Matthew McConnaughey had the right idea to bail. And Alex Pettyfer too. 

They tried to make this sequel a bromance-heavy road trip but it really fell short on the comedy. Maybe except for Joe Manganiello, the rest of the cast had no comedic timings. Manganiello was the breakout star of this sequel - good for him!

Reality and realism was really thrown out of the back seat in this poorly acted, scripted and directed money-grabbing sequel. And there was not even enough skin/nudity shown! 

Leviathan (Левиафан)

What a great film this was! A depressing but emotionally resonant movie that bravely showed the corruption within (the Russian) Government and the complicity of Religion, and how they, hand in hand, but also with the actions of Man, led to the destruction of lives and shattering of dreams. Is there Hope? Are we just but doomed to be nothing but a skeleton in the sands of time, left there beyond our control? Or are we instruments of our own Fate? Which will give the better outcome? The Heart, the Mind or the Faith? A real masterpiece that was more complex than it seemed.