John Wick: Action Entertainment of the First Order.

Movie Review: John Wick

Director: Chad Stahelski

Reviewed: 26 February 2015

jamesintexas rating--****

 

Wow.

John Wick is an undeniable masterpiece, a true ballet of death and mayhem with more gunshots to the head and vicious violence than should be allowable; yet somehow, everything comes together, and it works. It must be the magic of Keanu Reeves and a clear, sleek vision from director Chad Stahelski.

John Wick takes familiar tropes of gangsters and ex-killers, fathers and sons, unwritten codes, honor among thieves, and pure malevolence, and, somehow, mixes it all up together in a fun, fresh way, and makes them all work. Every time a familiar actor popped up in this film for a brief cameo or supporting role, I smiled. Beyond it being cast extremely well, it has a sense of style that sets it apart from the crowd, a slickness and a sheen to its cars, hotels, clubs, and weaponry. Reeves play the eponymous main character, a man pulled back into the world of violence that he thought he left because of a thoughtless crime.  To say more would be to take away from the film.  Really, that's all you need to know.

The film is so lean and so efficiently told that it eschews catch-phrases and pithy one-liners for an existential sort of mystique. What can be said about Keanu Reeves?  In a nearly silent performance, he is remarkable. His physicality is truly that of a dancer, and he out-Matrixes himself in this film, and he morphs into an older, tougher warrior. It might be his best work yet.

There is some incredible world-building here with the gold coins and secret dance clubs and the minor characters who could have their own movies. I feel like the film owes some of its power to video games and their kinetic movement, yet I don't want to discredit or disparage John Wick at all.  Like The Raid several years ago, I found the film compulsively watchable, and it was the first movie in a long while that as soon as it ended, I wanted to watch it again.  And again.  It is one of my top five favorite films of the year. 

Wow.

Begin Again: Light and Fun and not Once.

Movie Review: Begin Again

Director: John Carney

Reviewed: 16 February 2015

jamesintexas rating--**1/2

John Carney, the director of Once, tries again to catch lightning in a bottle with a dramatic story between two musical lead characters juxtaposed against the creation of some bona fide songs. Where it worked in Once to dizzying, intoxicating effect, here in Begin Again it seems forced and contrived, showing the strings without the former film's effervescent charm.

Keira Knightley plays Gretta, thrown over song writer from across the pond, visiting New York City with burgeoning rock star Dave (Adam Levine), who finds herself onstage at an open mic at a small bar one night, and her tune catches the imagination of disheveled and nearly disgraced album producer Dan (Mark Ruffalo). Dan hears both what is there and what is not there, supplying the supplemental strings and drums with his mind, leading into an altogether strange scene of Gretta singing and Dan's visions of the instruments behind her playing themselves. Carney stages the opening quite inventively with the audience seeing the moment of connection and then flashing backwards through both characters to see what led them to this place and time. In a rut professionally and personally, Dan sees Gretta as a way to return to greatness, and in order to convince former partner Saul (Mos Def), he convinces Gretta to record an album on the fly around the city over the course of the summer. He also figures out a way to involve his strained relationship with his daughter Violet (Hailee Steinfeld) and ex-wife Miriam (Catherine Keener). The film's got rejuvenation on its mind (see the title).

Now, the impulse for this suggestion of making her first album this way, an important one that is crucial to the plot and her buying into Dan as legitimate, just happens, and I suppose that's where we are just supposed to trust Dan instead of wondering why he saved an idea like that for someone he barely knows. To his credit, Dan arranges a makeshift back-up band to play behind Gretta, and locales from the tops of tall buildings to noisy alleyways are used as music studios for these songs. And the songs are fine, if instantly forgettable, and again, if Carney had not set the bar so high with Once, with its Academy Award winning lead song, that would not be as much of a problem. But, here, I think the songs are fine but never great, despite one earning an Academy Award nomination.

Everyone is doing fine work here, with two lead performances that are fine, but I found myself often more interested in the supporting players (James Corden excels as an old mate from England; Cee Lo Green is quite funny as a living legend and deus ex machina) than its simplistic industry politics. Who needs recording studios? Who needs the current release and pay structure set by music executives in the age of twitter? The film has some challenging ideas and adds in its coda a burst of internet savvy suggestive of a bolder film. The film skirts the darkness of Dan's alcoholism and his quiet conquering of it. It is a shame to cast an actress of Catherine Keener's caliber and then give her character little to do, and sometimes I felt like Ruffalo's character has a vague idea of producing that consists of dancing wildly and grooving into the faces of the band members.

Ultimately, I feel like the film is harmless and a bit fun, with a mostly understated chemistry between the two leads, thankfully, that never takes over the film. There's some fun here, as I said, and it is probably worth a look. But mostly it makes me want to re-watch Once.