Movie Review: The Last Duel (2021)

Genre: Medieval Historical Romance Drama  

Director: Ridley Scott  

Starring: Matt Damon, Adam Driver, Ben Affleck, Jodie Comer  

Running Time: 153 minutes  

Synopsis: In France of the late 1300's, Jean de Carrouges (Matt Damon) and Jacques le Gris (Adam Driver) are warriors serving the King through the powerful Count Pierre d'Alençon (Ben Affleck). After Jean saves Jacques' life in battle, their paths diverge and their friendship suffers. Desperate for an heir, Jean marries Marguerite (Jodie Comer), the daughter of a traitor, and continues to lead men into battle. The womanizing Jacques turns to politics and becomes Pierre's confidant, reaping land and title rewards at Jean's expense. Jacques than falls in love with Marguerite, setting up an epic duel to the death between the two men.

What Works Well: Based on actual events, the film is structured into three chapters recounting the same events from the perspective of Jean, then Jacques, then Marguerite. The he said, he said, she said sequencing gels into a powerful drama of personal rivalry culminating in a disputed rape. Themes of friendship, betrayal, honour, and gender roles provide an undercurrent to broader narratives of politics and war, director Ridley focusing more on people than strategy. The grey and muddy aesthetics capture a medieval France dominated by landlords, warriors, and imposing castles providing a backdrop for short but effective displays of battlefield brutality.

What Does Not Work As Well: The differences between the three versions are often subtle, and sometimes non-existent, resulting in tedious repetition and a bloated running time. While the performances are uniformly adequate, it is jarring to find Damon, Driver, and Affleck, all strongly associated with defining their current cinematic era, congregating in the medieval muck.

Key Quote:

Jean de Carrouges: God will not punish those who tell the truth.

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Movie Review: Ferrari (2023)

Genre: Biographical Drama  

Director: Michael Mann  

Starring: Adam Driver, Penelope Cruz, Shailene Woodley, Patrick Dempsey, Sarah Gadon  

Running Time: 130 minutes  

Synopsis: It's 1957, and Enzo Ferrari (Adam Driver) is struggling to maintain control of the company he founded with his wife Laura (Penelope Cruz) after the Second World War. Still grieving the recent death of his son, Enzo is facing financial difficulties and an on-track challenge from Maserati, all while juggling Laura with his long-term secret lover Lina Lardi (Shailene Woodley). He hires driver Alfonso de Portago (Gabriel Leone) in preparation for the Mille Miglia, a grueling endurance race that may represent Ferrari's last chance to attract investment.

What Works Well: This biography focuses on one year in the life of a legendary sports car tycoon, and Troy Kennedy Martin's script succeeds in revealing some depth to Enzo's character. An otherwise stoic Adam Driver mines the foundation of Ferrari's emotionless reaction to death (he lost two friends on the same weekend in his racing days), and in perhaps the best scene, expounds on his ruthless competitive philosophy. The final quarter is dominated by racing action, and cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt excels in conveying the raw speed of a dangerous event through scenic Italian locations.

What Does Not Work As Well:  A large back-end investment in the Mille Miglia is not supported by sufficient introductions, unbalancing narrative foundations. Director Michael Mann collects several previously incidental racing drivers and unleashes them in identical looking machines. Suddenly thrust into the centre of attention, the drivers remain indistinguishable in their driver's seats, while the race format is never explained. Elsewhere, various plot threads are left dangling, neither Ferrari's search for investment nor his complex relationships with Laura and Lina arriving at satisfactory resolutions, despite the lengthy running time.

Conclusion: Demonstrates good speed, but sputters on the way to the finish line.



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Movie Review: This Is Where I Leave You (2014)

Genre: Comedy  

Director: Shawn Levy  

Starring: Jason Bateman, Jane Fonda, Tina Fey, Adam Driver, Rose Byrne, Corey Stoll, Katheryn Hahn, Connie Britton, Timothy Olyphant  

Running Time: 103 minutes  

Synopsis: Judd Altman (Jason Bateman) discovers his wife cheating, then his father dies. The family gathers for seven days of mourning, reuniting Judd with his mother Hilary (Jane Fonda), sister Wendy (Tina Fey), brothers Phillip and Paul (Adam Driver and Corey Stoll), and high school friend Penny (Rose Byrne). Hilary is an author known for exploiting her children's embarrassments; Wendy's husband is inattentive and she reignites a relationship with neighbour Horry (Timothy Olyphant); the irresponsible Phillip shows up with older woman Tracy (Connie Britton); while Paul and his wife Annie (Katheryn Hahn) are having trouble conceiving a child.

What Works Well: The extended Altman family antics provide a steady stream of humour, mainly because their foundational eccentric attributes and rub-points knowingly reflect widespread dynamics with only slight exaggerations. Jason Bateman conveys bemused calmness barely containing rage, and shares the spotlight with a terrific cast. Director Shawn Levy keeps the mood light and introduces new twists at a steady clip, nourishing the humour with revelations and affection as the Altmans occasionally rise above quirks and towards hidden strengths.

What Does Not Work As Well: Writer Jonathan Tropper has a few more characters than good ideas: several scenes declare bankruptcy and default to juvenile fistfights, while the rush to release tension through sexual escapades is quickly predictable.

Conclusion: This is where adult siblings confirm the wisdom of living apart.



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Movie Review: The Report (2019)

Genre: Drama

Director: Scott Z. Burns

Starring: Adam Driver, Annette Bening, Jon Hamm

Running Time: 119 minutes

Synopsis: In 2009, U.S. Senator Diane Feinstein (Annette Bening) learns that the CIA destroyed interrogation tapes of detainees held after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. She launches an investigation headed by staffer David Jones (Adam Driver) to research millions of related CIA documents. He uncovers the CIA's program of "enhanced interrogation techniques" (ie torture) used at secret detention sites. The report takes years to compile and grows to thousands of pages, as the CIA mobilizes to defend its actions.

What Works Well: Based on actual events, writer and director Scott Z. Burns captures the dogged efforts of one senator and one staffer to expose dirty intelligence secrets. Adam Driver conveys David's escalating rage as the work consumes his life, while Annette Bening excels at portraying a veteran politician keeping her researcher on an even keel. Haunting flashbacks recreate the brutal and useless torture of detainees, while numerous Washington DC agencies, officials, politicians, and administrations provide a backdrop of intrigue. Jon Hamm, Maura Tierney, Tim Blake Nelson, and Ted Levine enrich the cast.

What Does Not Work As Well: The cinematography chokes on diffused sickly yellows as a visual metaphor of torture contaminating national identity, resulting in a grinding cinematic mood. None of the characters have a life outside the central report investigation, and the final act, devoted to arguments about releasing the report, is properly bogged down in political minutiae.

Conclusion: A respectful but ultimately uninspired documentation of counterproductive actions limply justified in the name of national security.



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Movie Review: House Of Gucci (2021)

A family-and-business saga, House Of Gucci is an engaging but notably ovelong romantic drama-comedy. 

In 1978, Patrizia Reggiani (Lady Gaga) is the daughter of a truck company owner. At a party she meets Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver), a law student and heir to 50 percent of the luxury brand. She pursues him romantically and they are soon married. Maurizio's father Rodolfo (Jeremy Irons) does not approve of Patrizia, believing she is just a golddigger, but Rodolfo's brother Aldo (Al Pacino) is more welcoming. Aldo's son Paolo (Jared Leto) is the family fool.

The ambitious Patrizia has a sharp business mind and befriends psychic Pina (Salma Hayek). Patrizia then inserts herself into the family's affairs by manipulating Maurizio and Paolo. After Rodolfo's death she tries to manoeuvre for full control, but Maurizio eventually tires of her antics and their marriage heads into trouble, leaving Patrizia vulnerable and deeply resentful.

Inspired by real events, House Of Gucci has the perfumed gloss of a high-end fashion magazine. The screenplay by Becky Johnston and Roberto Bentivegna finds plenty of material spanning more than 15 years in the cocooned world of the wealthy, and maintains admirable energy. Romance, business, connivance, and family feuds ensure a steady stream of narrative twists. Director Ridley Scott stages the Gucci clan antics with bravado, embracing the aloof glamour of wealth. 

And it's a lust for wealth and power that drives Patrizia. The Gucci's themselves are relatively boring, and it's left to an outsider to burst into their world and shake it up, igniting a delicious clash between classism, social ladder-climbing, and eurotrash. It's all fun and games until someone dies, although for better or worse, the film steers towards violence with a silly grin.

The cast is simultaneously captivating and caricaturish. Almost unrecognizable under layers of makeup, Jared Leto is simply out there as Paolo, milking the role of pathetic idiot for all it's worth. Pacino is more restrained but still flamboyant. Lady Gaga and Adam Driver hold the centre of the circus together with assured performances, Gaga's take on Patrizia underlining her demands for a place in the sun, while Driver tracks Maurizio's meandering journey from withdrawn young man to ruthless business tycoon.

At 158 minutes, House Of Gucci is inexcusably too long, Scott's lazy editing allowing every scene and sequence to go on. The characters are over-the-top entertaining, but they could have been hustled along with better discipline.



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Movie Review: Marriage Story (2019)

A family drama, Marriage Story is a hard look at a divorce case dissolving from amicable to hostile.

The marriage of Charlie (Adam Driver) and Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) Barber is falling apart and heading for a divorce. He is the director of a small but well-regarded New York City theatre company. She is his star actress, having give up a possible movie career. They have an 8 year old son Henry, who still prefers a parent to sleep next to him and is late in learning to read.

Nicole now perceives Charlie as self-absorbed and neglectful of her career. She relocates to Los Angeles, taking Henry with her, and starts filming a television pilot. Although they had promised not to use lawyers, Nicole hires the high-powered Nora Fanshaw (Laura Dern) and files for divorce. Charlie is shocked, and counters by hiring the laid-back Bert Spitz (Alan Alda). The custody battle hinges on whether the family is based in Los Angeles or New York, and through the legal process all the irritations between the couple come flooding out.

Although Marriage Story is far from original, it is earnest and elevated by sincere performances. Director and writer Noah Baumbach revisits terrain he already traversed in The Squid And The Whale (2005), and earlier made familiar by films like Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) and A Cool Dry Place (1998).

The focus this time is on the disruptive and expensive impact of aggressive lawyers in the domestic break-up. From the moment Nora sinks her hooks into Nicole, the divorce trajectory turns from a tentative drift to a swelling avenue of bitterness, with the lawyers the only beneficiaries. Baumach's script allows the depth of Nicole's unhappiness to be revealed in layers, and perhaps her reaching out to Nora was suppressed resentment bursting forth.

The issues generated by Charlie's ego and Nicole's unheralded sacrifice festered for years, and are now exposed in long dialogue scenes. Some work better than others. Nicole revealing the marriage's history to Nora in a long take is simply captivating, with Johansson mesmeric. Later the couple's attempt at civil discourse turns into a emotional shouting match and does not quite land, Driver willing but not quite able to convey the intended anguish.

Laura Dern makes a sharp impression as a barracuda in high heels. Ray Liotta gets a couple of scenes as the legal weapon Charlie considers using for the battle ahead.

A few moments of humour are sprinkled throughout the drama, but Baumbach allows the film to creep to an astonishing 136 minutes. The Los Angeles vs. New York debate drags on for far too long, and a knife incident is a needless distraction. A couple of wholly unnecessary songs add to the tedium.

Sifting through the debris of a once happy union, Marriage Story conveys the unfortunately all-too-common pain and sorrow of breaking up, made much worse by lawyers smelling profit.

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Movie Review: Paterson (2016)

An idiosyncratic low-key slice-of-life drama and romance with some humour, Paterson looks for artistry in absolute normality.

The film takes place over the course of one week in the nondescript suburb of Paterson, New Jersey. Born and raised in the community, Paterson (Adam Driver) is an amateur poet and transit bus driver. He lives a quiet routine-based life with his partner Laura (Golshifteh Farahani), a stay-at-home decorator (everything in black and white) and cupcake baking aficionado, and their bulldog Marvin.

Every day Paterson wakes up at the same time, has the same breakfast and drives the same route. He overhears snippets of conversations between bus passengers, and ends the day by taking Marvin for a walk and stopping for a beer at the local pub, where he interacts with the bartender and a few regulars. During work breaks he fills his notebook with poetry.

In their relationship Laura does most of the talking, encouraging him to safeguard his poetry by photocopying his notebook, expressing her dreams of becoming a country singer, and planning for a weekend bake sale.

Inspired by the poetry of William Carlos Williams, who was from Paterson, and with additional poetry by Ron Padgett, director and writer Jim Jarmusch creates a serene portrait of talent lurking underneath the thicket of ordinariness as an average couple from a working class neighbourhood navigate their way through a settled routine.

Barely anything noteworthy happens over the seven weeks. The height of excitement in Paterson's life is a minor bus mishap, and then a brief drama at the bar. And yet the flickers of potential and joy nurturing his existence are everywhere. This is a bus driver who loves to both read and write poetry, his creativity hiding behind his introspective nature and bus driver's uniform. And Laura is a loving and supportive wife with dual streaks of business and creative ambition.

And Jarmusch playfully inserts coincidences all around Paterson hinting at his potential or destiny. Laura mentions dreaming about the couple having twins and suddenly Paterson is noticing twins all around his community. And two of the strangers he meets during the week are amateur poets who also write their poetry in private notebooks: a young girl waiting to be picked up by her mom, and in the film's most poignant moment, a Japanese tourist who intervenes when Paterson is at his lowest ebb. Unspoken but unmistakable mutual inspiration crackles in both encounters.

Adam Driver stays within himself as a quiet man content with his well-defined routine, never even hinting at a willingness to seek any level of commotion. Golshifteh Farahani provides most of the film's warmth with a genuine performance, portraying Laura as equally at peace but still seeking her progression in life. The bulldog Marvin is the essential third member of the family, an adorable feisty but low-rumble presence.

Paterson the place and the person are every place and every person. For the vast majority life is a routine, but delicate, essential and loving individual virtuosity resides in every corner.

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Movie Review: The F Word (2013)

A romantic comedy about the pitfalls of friendship evolving into love, The F Word (here the F is for Friends; the film is also known as What If? to sidestep the sly original title) features good laughs, amiable performances and sparking chemistry but not much originality.

In Toronto, technical manual writer Wallace (Daniel Radcliffe) is finally over his previous failed relationship. At a party he meets animation artist Chantry (Zoe Kazan), the cousin of his best friend Allan (Adam Driver). Wallace and Chantry hit it off, but agree to be just friends because she is already in a long-term committed relationship with boyfriend Ben (Rafe Spall), a United Nations policy negotiator.

Allan enters into a new relationship with Nicole (Mackenzie Davis), while Chantry's sister Dalia (Megan Park) tries to seduce Wallace. Ben relocates to Ireland for a six month assignment, clearing the way for Wallace and Chantry to develop a stronger bond. But transforming a deep friendship into a romance will not be easy for either of them.

The age old question of whether men and women can ever be just friends gets another treatment, and in the hands of director Michael Dowse and a game cast, the potholes along the well-intentioned road of friendship provide ample opportunities for humour. A Canadian-Irish co-production, The F Word offers a satisfying clutch of idiosyncratic characters navigating careers and love lives, and while the ultimate destination is as predictable as the genre demands, the journey is never less than pleasantly breezy.

The conundrum of an emerging attraction with one partner already pre-committed powers the film. Ben is a rising star in his chosen career field and offers plenty of attractive stability, but he may already be taking the relationship with Chantry for granted, creating the emotional encouragement for her and Wallace to take every tentative next step.

Plenty of joy is derived from the instant chemistry between Daniel Radcliffe and Zoe Kazan, and both actors easily embrace their roles as slightly insecure but nevertheless willing partners in the quest for companionship. But while the script is mostly sharp and enjoys some genuinely funny exclamation points, passages of dialogue are obviously improvised, and these tend to be weak, often defaulting to unfunny and gross non-jokes about body functions. Also disappointing is the oh-so-predictable tiff Wallace and Chantry are forced to suffer through before finally sorting out their relationship.

Romantic comedies can receive big boosts from well-written supporting characters, and here a torrent of relationship cheerleading and jeering is added from the energetic sidelines. Chantry's cousin and Wallace's best friend Allan and his new girlfriend Nicole are interested observers when they are not sexually devouring each other; Chantry's sister Dalia is recovering from her own break-up and targeting Wallace as the perfect rebound; and Wallace's sister Tabby (Meghan Heffern), a single mom, leans on him for informative babysitting sessions.

The friendship prospects both jump to life and are threatened with evolution from the very first meeting between Wallace and Chantry. The F Word confirms the obvious, but with bittersweet congeniality.

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Movie Review: BlacKkKlansman (2018)

A biographical police investigation drama, BlacKkKlansman is a slick story of hardened bigotry lurking just beneath the surface of American society.

It's the early 1970s, and Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) is admitted as the first black police officer in Colorado Springs. Smart and ambitious, Ron agitates to join the undercover investigations unit, and is finally assigned to monitor a talk by a former Black Panthers leader. He meets student civil rights activist Patrice (Laura Harrier), and they start a friendship without her knowing his real profession. 

Next, Ron phones up the Klu Klux Klan claiming to be a racist bigot, and local leaders invite him to attend introductory meetings. White and Jewish Detective Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver) impersonates Ron for the in-person meetings. Together they uncover the Klan's local activities, including a potential bombing plot. Meanwhile, Ron starts phone contact with the Klan's national leader David Duke (Topher Grace), who is attempting to upgrade the Klan's image and is planning a visit to Colorado Springs.

Directed and co-written by Spike Lee, BlacKkKlansman is inspired by real events from Ron Stallworth's career. The film is a smoothly-delivered, hard-hitting and unblinking condemnation of racism and antisemitism persisting in American culture, as revealed through an audacious police investigation. And despite the serious subject matter, Lee makes sure to include a sharp streak of humour, almost in comic disbelief at the prevailing primitive mindsets.

Opening with the sacking of Atlanta scene from Gone With The Wind, Lee draws a straight line to the seething anger among white supremacists over the end of societal segregation and the 1960s civil rights movement, with Blacks perceived as unworthy sub-humans, and Jews thrown into the mix as equally despicable elements of society.

After tolerating menial assignments as a rookie officer and witnessing hidden and overt racism within the department, Ron talks his way to more meaningful assignments. He takes the initiative to open the cover on the sewer of hatred and with Flip's help descends into the filth. One possible side effect of blind bigotry is the inherent stupidity of idiots attracted to the cause, and in next to no time the black Ron (over the phone) impersonated by the Jewish Flip-as-Ron is being invited to join the movement as a card-carrying member of the Klan.

The film stares in disbelief at the unfathomable and sickening level of enmity hiding in plain sight, contrasted with Black students and civil rights movement stalwarts feeling their way towards empowerment. While the film is set in the early 1970s, Lee is blunt about the enduring modern applicability of the struggle for equality and dignity. David Duke's public three-piece suit disguise is presented as the door to political acceptability and future ascent to power, discussed in the film as an absurd outcome until the epilogue suggests otherwise.

For dramatic purposes the film fictionalizes the bombing subplot, allowing Lee to glide to a satisfying climax. A final phone call between Stallworth and Duke is unnecessary, and detracts from the film's postscript impact.

The performances are adequate, John David Washington and Adam Driver getting on with the job and staying out of the way of the narrative juggernaut. Jasper Pääkkönen as Felix, the most ominously deranged local Klan member, is a standout in the supporting cast.

In documenting a society still suffering from pockets of severe asininity, BlacKkKlansman is both authoritative and enraging.

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Movie Review: Logan Lucky (2017)

A redneck heist movie, Logan Lucky offers some laughs but is too clunky and cluttered to succeed.

In North Carolina, Jimmy Logan (Channing Tatum) is fired from his construction job at the Charlotte Motor Speedway, but not before hatching up a robbery plan targeting the subsurface cash-carrying pneumatic tubes. Jimmy teams up with his brother Clyde (Adam Driver), a bar owner who lost an arm in the Iraq war, and they recruit imprisoned safecracker Joe Bang (Daniel Craig) and his two dimwit brothers Sam (Brian Gleeson) and Fish (Jack Quaid).

Clyde intentionally gets himself imprisoned in the same facility as Joe, and they spark a mini-riot as a diversion while they temporarily break out of jail and join Jimmy and the others under the Speedway on the day of the Coca Cola 600. Not much seems to go according to plan, and it's up to FBI agent Sarah Grayson (Hilary Swank) to try to clean up the post-heist mess.

Director Steven Soderbergh came out of a short-lived retirement to direct Logan Lucky, and maybe he need not have bothered. A lowbrow Ocean's Eleven set amongst the ignoramus set, it's never clear if the film is making fun of or celebrating its protagonists, and in any case, it barely matters. While there may have been some merit in exploring unsophisticated thievery among the unwashed, the film is disjointed, uneven, and overstuffed with incidental secondary and tertiary characters.

In addition to Jimmy, Clyde, Joe, Sam and Fish, Mellie (Riley Keough) is the sister of Jimmy and Clyde; Bobbie Jo (Katie Holmes) is Jimmy's ex-wife, and Moody (David Denman) is her current husband; Max (Seth MacFarlane) is an insufferable Nascar team owner; Dayton (Sebastian Stan) believes himself to be a finely tuned driver, and Dwight Yoakam plays prison warden Burns. All are barely developed characters poking in and out of the movie at regular intervals, tripping over each other and contributing little.

Channing Tatum and Adam Driver do their best to elevate the material, and the exchanges between the brothers, with Driver particularly effective as the sombre sibling fully convinced a curse hangs over the Logans, is the best thing going for the film.

Otherwise, the heist logistics and details are never explained, Soderbergh creating narrative chaos by clarifying nothing. Once some light is shed on what everyone was running around doing, the film's logic, already strained, falls apart, the heist details too far-fetched and ambitious for any one of the nitwits on display to cobble together.

Rarely funny and never exciting nor clever, Logan Lucky sputters off the start line, does one slow lap and retires into the pits.

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Movie Review: Midnight Special (2016)

A science fiction chase thriller, Midnight Special has a few ideas mainly derived from other movies, and generally wastes them.

In rural Texas, eight year old Alton Meyer (Jaeden Lieberher) is kidnapped by his father Roy (Michael Shannon) and accomplice Lucas (Joel Edgerton). Alton was being raised by a religious cult under the leadership of Calvin Meyer (Sam Shepard). The cult worshipped Alton as he appeared to possess superhuman special powers, including emitting light beams from his eyes and sharing visions and knowledge of supernatural events. Alton mainly functions at night, his eyes covered by shades whenever he is near bright light.

The FBI raids Meyer's ranch, worried that the cult members were stockpiling weapons in readiness for a day of reckoning foretold by Alton. Paul Sevier (Adam Driver) of the National Security Agency participates in the interrogations, and deciphers some of Alton's coded messages, identifying a likely location where he may be headed. Meanwhile, Roy and Lucas connect with Alton's mother Sarah (Kirsten Dunst), as they make their way with the boy to a mysterious rendezvous location pursued by the cult members and the government.

Written and directed by Jeff Nichols, Midnight Special borrows heavily from two Spielberg science fiction classics. Alton is a stranded alien with special powers trying to find his way home, evoking E.T., while the search for a secret location that could be a rendezvous with a superior interplanetary species comes from Close Encounter Of The Third Kind. It's also not a stretch to find echoes of Spielberg's Sugarland Express here as well.

The ideas are borrowed, but the quality of execution and narrative momentum is not. Nichols botches his pacing by playing hide and seek with his plot, the essentials of the story barely progressing from the opening scene to the final 5 minutes. Alton is abducted in the opening credit sequence; Nichols drops obtuse hints about his story for the next 100 minutes, which consist of one long drive and not much else of consequence. Then Midnight Special wraps up with some glistening CGI-created effects set to wondrous music.

Along the way Roy and Lucas prove to be rough-and-tumble kidnappers with relatively good intentions, while Sarah does not quite seem to know what her role is supposed to be. The government types scurry around one step behind the action and botch every opportunity they have to grab a hold of the situation. The religious cult sub-story fades in, then out, then in, before being unceremoniously dropped in its entirety.

The rather tired premise that anyone or anything a bit special attracts ideas of worship or weaponization rumbles in the background. Most of what makes it onto the screen is a distraction, the journey to an empty field existing in a core narrative void. Midnight Special pretends to have a story to tell, but it delivers tepid leftovers devoid of substance.

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Movie Review: Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)

The eighth episode in the original Star Wars saga and the second in the sequel trilogy, The Last Jedi is a magnificent achievement, brilliantly combining the series' familiar elements with original ingredients and powerful plot developments.

Picking up events immediately after The Force Awakens, the resistance fighters led by General Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) are routed, and the evil forces of the First Order under the command of General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson) are moving in for the final kill. Ace resistance pilot Poe (Oscar Isaac) leads a daring bombing counterattack but incurs heavy losses.

Meanwhile Force-sensitive scavenger Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo) track down the legendary Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), now the last known Jedi, on a remote planet. Rey pleads with Luke to come to the rescue of the resistance. He refuses, having still not come to terms with failing to prevent his nephew Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) from turning to the dark side under Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis). Rey starts to experience Force-enabled face-to-face communications with Kylo, and they try to influence each other towards opposite sides of the Force.

Leia is severely wounded in battle, and Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo (Laura Dern) takes over command but immediately clashes with the hot headed Poe. With Rey and Kylo having an in-person audience with Snoke, former stormtrooper turned rebel Finn (John Boyega) and resistance maintenance worker Rose (Kelly Marie Tran) team up for a mission to secure the services of a hacker who can help the remaining resistance ships escape. Their search yields the services of the seemingly capable DJ (Benicio del Toro), but things are about to get much worse for the decimated rebel army.

After the relatively disappointing warmed-over rehash offered by The Force Awakens, Rian Johnson takes over as writer and director and delivers a spectacular boost to the franchise. The Last Jedi is best described as fearless, introducing new Force capabilities, one of the best lightsaber battles in the series within Snoke's inner sanctuary, a stunning landing pad for one essential arc, stirring acts of bravery and sacrifice, and a marvellously tense Force-enabled connection between Rey and Kylo, pregnant with possibilities.

And nothing is taken away from the action set-pieces, here delivered with a searing creativity and clarity of execution. Johnson pushes away from the familiar and finds new showdowns and genuinely thrilling battles, including Poe's bombing raid; the First Order all but annihilating the rebel fleet; a slow but existential space chase; and a finale at a previously abandoned resistance base that features several epic confrontations.

The narrative is pushed forward with Luke and Kylo both offering versions of where it all went wrong, and Luke forced to define his true legacy in unexpected but faultless fashion. Rey makes progress in coming to terms with her origins and role in the unyielding struggle between good and evil. Gradually Poe and Finn unite with Rey at the centre of the story, and now they are joined by the unlikely and disguised heroism of Rose.

The Last Jedi is not without its faults. The running time of 152 minutes is excessive, Finn and Rose's side quest to the casino planet a particular bloat culprit, and some of the multicultural preachiness is flagrant. But Johnson also introduces a mean streak of humour to combat the slow parts. The noisy robot BB-8 and the perpetually worried Porg furry creatures are deployed in just the right doses, and several other characters and creations make timely contributions.

Despite the large cast, a few performances do stand out. Adam Driver emerges as a magnetic presence, the uncertainty within him bursting out in prodigious directions. Daisy Ridley and Benicio del Toro are the other notable cast members, Ridley mixing the perilous unknowns of Rey's ancestry with grim determination, del Toro luxuriating in DJ's confidence as an enigmatic man who can code break his way out of any situation.

With John Williams contributing another iteration of cinema's most beloved music score, The Last Jedi travels at lightspeed to claim a place as one of the most satisfying entries in the legendary series.

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The Movies Of Adam Driver

All movies starring Adam Driver and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

You Don't Know Jack (2010)

J. Edgar (2011)

Frances Ha (2012)

Lincoln (2012)

The F Word (2013)

Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)

While We're Young (2014)

This Is Where I Leave You (2014)

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)

Midnight Special (2016)

Paterson (2016)

Logan Lucky (2017)

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)

BlacKkKlansman (2018)

The Report (2019)

Marriage Story (2019)

The Last Duel (2021)

House Of Gucci (2021)

Ferrari (2023)

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The Movie Star Index is here.