Movie Review: Leave The World Behind (2023)

Genre: Survival Drama

Director: Sam Esmail

Starring: Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali, Ethan Hawke, Kevin Bacon

Running Time: 141 minutes

Synopsis: Stressed out New Jersey couple Amanda and Clay (Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke) book a family weekend getaway at a secluded Long Island house-for-rent. A day at the beach with their kids Rose and Archie is interrupted by an out-of-control oil tanker, then the internet and television signals mysteriously fail. In the middle of the night, the tuxedoed G.H. (George) Scott (Mahershala Ali) and his daughter Ruth (Myha'la) knock at the door, with George claiming to be the home owner, as evidence mounts of strange events occurring at a large scale.

What Works Well: The adaptation of Rumaan Alam's book (and a good companion piece to 2015's Into The Forest) slowly but surely builds sinister momentum at personal and global levels. From the racial tension of two unknown blacks intruding late at night onto a white family's perceived sanctuary, to broader societal cracks giving way under external pressure, director and writer Sam Esmail constructs a portrait of psychological and physical fragility. A tick, a drone, a vague but persistent emergency signal, and a piercing sonic assault are joined by larger catastrophes - beware the driverless Teslas! - to signal the end and the beginning. Esmail's directing is full of top-down flourish, and while Julia Roberts and Mahershala Ali never need to stretch, they do add the necessary intellectual and psychological touches.

What Does Not Work As Well: Without demystifying the premise, the long running time should have accommodated sharper event interpretations. The metaphysical involvement of animals (primarily deer and flamingos) is only tangentially resolved, and some character actions (a kid setting off alone into a strange house) and event resolutions (just take those blue pills for a seemingly horrifying ailment) stretch credibility.

Conclusion: Weekend getaways may just be gateways to much heightened anxiety.

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Movie Review: Where The Truth Lies (2005)

A neo-noir murder mystery set in the world of celebrity decadence, Where The Truth Lies boasts an ambitious plot, a complex structure, and magnificent period sets, but is also beset by muddled perspectives and excessive narration.

The movie unfolds in two time frames. In the late 1950s, the superstar duo of Vince Collins (Colin Firth) and Lanny Morris (Kevin Bacon) are a top nightclub entertainment act, highly sought after for fund-raising telethons. Their fame affords them the finest luxuries in life and limitless access to drugs, alcohol, and women. Reuben (David Hayman) is Lanny's loyal fixit man, while New Jersey mobster Sally (Maury Chaykin) uses Vince and Lanny to generate publicity for his hotel properties.

In the early 1970s, journalist Karen O'Connor (Alison Lohman) secures an assignment to interview Vince, now a fading has-been in Los Angeles. Her magazine is willing to pay Vince $1 million for a tell-all about the glory years, as long as he also talks about the mysterious case of Maureen O'Flaherty (Rachel Blanchard), a hotel maid found dead in the New Jersey hotel suite of Vince and Lanny when they were at the height of their fame. While on her assignment Karen coincidentally also meets the still charismatic Lanny, and is drawn into the shroud of sordid secrets surrounding the two men.

Written and directed by Atom Egoyan, Where The Truth Lies is classy and glitzy adult-oriented entertainment, wrapping commentary on the trappings of fame around a lascivious unsolved mystery featuring a nude dead woman found in a tub. Never less than gripping, the film demands concentration and rewards it with visual splendour, a gradual peeling of glamour to reveal the darkest rotten core of celebrity culture, and a study of two complex men far removed from their public personas.

The film jumps back and forth between the present and the past, and the flashbacks to the late 1950s feature two key locales in Florida and New Jersey on either side of an epic telethon. The narration is intended to evoke noir fundamentals, but similar to all the time jumping, Egoyan pushes beyond what is necessary. With Lanny writing his own book, Vince providing selective commentary, Karen delving into a world she knows little about and even her friend Bonnie (Sonja Bennett) getting in on the storytelling, multiple perspectives, some of them unreliable, compound the various dates and places to create a proper maze of orientation.

Egoyan calls upon themes of warped reality from Alice In Wonderland and lobsters as representations of both luxury cuisine and bottom-crawling moral bankruptcy to pile on metaphorical layers. And several sex scenes leave little to the imagination, the story of Vince and Lanny intertwined with sexual adventurism and crashing hard against personal and societal limits.

While the audacity is undeniable, so are the film's weaknesses. Karen has a connection with Lanny from a childhood appearance on a telethon, but no one has a connection with the victim Maureen, who remains a blank presence for too long despite a clumsy visit with her still grieving mother. Alison Lohman is miscast and unable to convince or generate the necessary depth, the actress often flattened by her character's baroque prose. And finally after all the elaborate plot and indulgent format machinations, Egoyan somehow arrives at one of the oldest and blandest resolutions in the mystery genre.

But despite the potholes, Where The Truth Lies is refreshingly daring, a modern twist on classic themes of hubris and the dangers lurking behind the curtain of applause.



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Movie Review: Patriots Day (2016)

A crime drama recreating the 2013 Boston Marathon terrorist bombings, Patriots Day is a taut and precisely crafted fact-based thriller.

It's April 2013 in Boston, and Sergeant Tommy Saunders (Mark Wahlberg) is working his way out of the police doghouse for kicking a fellow officer. Police Commissioner Ed Davis (John Goodman) assigns Saunders to menial crowd control duties at the marathon finish line, where terrorist brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev detonate two pressure cooker bombs. The bombings narrowly miss Tommy's wife Carol (Michelle Monaghan), but three innocent people are killed and hundreds injured, many suffering lower body injuries and amputations.

The FBI's Richard DesLauriers (Kevin Bacon) takes charge of the investigation, and through a review of CCTV and cell phone video the Tsarnaevs are flagged as primary suspects. The brothers attempt to flee by car to New York, victimizing MIT security guard Sean Collier and carjacking college student Dun Meng. Enforcement authorities catch up with them in the suburb of Walkerton, where Sergeant Jeffrey Pugliese (J.K. Simmons) leads a small police detachment.

Although Tommy and Carol Saunders are fictional, most of the rest of the characters populating Patriots Day are real. Director and co-writer Peter Berg, again teaming with regular collaborator Wahlberg, effectively wraps his film around the terrorism attack and the tense days that followed. Given the time and geographic sprawl of events, the film is surprisingly spry, Berg displaying a welcome nimbleness to capture diverse perspectives and a drama unfolding in discrete but connected chapters.

While one objective is to celebrate the Boston Strong spirit that emerged after the attack, Patriots Day does not sterilize the often imperfect actions of investigators and enforcement agencies. The FBI's DesLauriers and Boston Police's Davis lock horns in a debate around whether to publicly release the photos of the presumed suspects, as hours pass by and their identities remain a mystery. Later, police actions are often chaotic and uncoordinated as multiple agencies run into each other, poor discipline and miscommunication allowing the bombers to remain on the loose longer than necessary.

A decision to essentially lock down the city and ask residents to shelter in place while SWAT teams conduct door to door searches is portrayed as an adhoc martial law declaration, and interrogators are also challenged in attempting to crack the silence of Tamerlan's arrested devout wife Katherine Russell (Melissa Benoist, in a small but chilling role).

With plenty of ground to cover Berg avoids dawdling in one place for too long, and mastefully introduces enough background to provide depth to most of the key characters. The bombing scene is haunting in its random cruelty, and the Watertown shootout is recreated as a study of violent chaos, unsuspecting police officers tangling with determined terrorists at close quarters.

Wahlberg cruises through the surreal events in the role of guide and representative of Boston as a proud if temperamental society, tough and caring in equal measures. Trent Reznor contributes a suitably eerie music score, often stripped down to a forceful continuous sound effect conveying exasperated tension as a community holds its breath in the grip of unknown assailants.

The worst atrocities spawn remarkable resiliency, and Patriots Day captures both extremes of an exceptional chapter in the life of a city.

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Movie Review: Diner (1982)

A coming of age drama with some humour, Diner navigates the crevasse between youth and adulthood through the story of six men grappling with growing up.

It's Christmas time in Baltimore, 1959. As both the year and decade draw to a close, a group of college friends converge in preparation for the upcoming wedding of sports trivia fan Eddie (Steve Guttenberg). His five buddies include the already married music trivia addict Shrevie (Daniel Stern), the rich, aimless and frequently drunk Fen (Kevin Bacon), charismatic gambling addict Boogie (Mickey Rourke), New York-based Billy (Tim Daly) and circumspect Modell (Paul Reiser).

The local Fells Point Diner is their favourite hangout and meeting point. Eddie is planning to subject his fiancée to a sports trivia test before finalizing the wedding. Shrevie and his bride Beth (Ellen Barkin) are already running into trouble in their young marriage. Boogie is in debt trouble and encourages bets on his dating exploits to raise cash. Billy has trouble defining his relationship with his close friend and television producer Barbara (Kathryn Dowling). And Fen is living a carefree prankster life, refusing to grow up.

With no traditional narrative structure and plenty of improvisation, first-time director Barry Levinson crafts a fine spiritual successor to American Graffiti. Diner features a brilliant cast full of pre-stardom talent, and a fluid tone allowing the men to reveal their stories through natural conversations punctuated by often misguided adventurism.

The film is set in Levinson's home town, and inspired by his own experiences. The common theme is the struggle for emotional growth, as the men confront the collective challenge of transitioning from what mattered in their youth to embracing the responsibilities of being men.

Eddie is hiding insecurities behind the pointless test he is imposing on bride-to-be (and never properly seen) Elyse, and will face his own test on what matters. Shrevie is childishly upset at Beth because she does not understand or appreciate his useless talent for knowing the song, label and colour of every hit single's B-side. She turns to Boogie for comfort, triggering another test of responsibility. Boogie himself is busy pretending to be a law student to attract the ladies while accumulating debt, and before the new decade dawns will need to confront the consequences.

Billy is close to Barbara, a woman embracing her career. Circumstances force them to contemplate the future, and the relatively simpler answers of the 1950s won't work anymore. Fen's life is wasting away in the arena of irresponsibility, and an encounter with his grounded brother reveals the breadth of separation possible between siblings. Modell is more of an observer and witness, pushing buttons as appropriate, but other than never directly asking for anything, his character is the least developed.

Levinson's remarkable achievement is in convincingly portraying the cast members as friends. He encouraged the young men to hang out together before filming, avoided excessive rehearsals and stimulated improvisation. The result is an undeniable vibe of close friendship, and Diner glows with the warmth of men most at ease hanging out together.

Mickey Rourke was third billed after Guttenberg and Stern, but exudes the undeniable star charisma that would soon catapult him into stardom. The other cast members are all steady, with Steve Guttenberg demonstrating sufficient promise to suggest he chose the wrong career path upon veering to mostly trivial comedies.

For the six friends Diner is simultaneously about not much and everything, the future hanging in the balance as young men confront short-term decisions carrying long-term implications.

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Movie Review: Flatliners (1990)

A drama and thriller with some horror elements, Flatliners offers an intriguing premise and proceeds to bungle it with wayward execution.

At a prestigious medical school, Nelson (Kiefer Sutherland) is a student obsessed with exploring the death experience. He convinces his friends and classmates Rachel (Julia Roberts), David (Kevin Bacon), Joe (William Baldwin) and Randy (Oliver Platt) to participate in flatlining experiments, killing themselves with electric shocks for a few minutes before being revived with a defibrillator and CPR.

Nelson goes first, followed within days by David, Joe and Rachel, with each student prolonging the death stretch ever longer. The troubling visions they experience during their brief deaths are derived from their past and present lives, and continue to haunt them in the days after the experiments. Nelson, David and Rachel encounter figures from their childhoods, while the womanizing Joe confronts the consequences of his selfish actions.

Directed by Joel Schumacher, Flatliners is most notable for featuring a good collection of up-and-coming talent in the form of Sutherland, Roberts and Bacon. Despite the lack of adequate character depth, the often pouty star potential is potent, their hair carries flowy vestiges of the 1980s, and they collectively improve the film's otherwise ragged watchability factor.

The proposition around keen young medical students with Nobel Prize stars in their eyes eager to make a name for themselves by experiencing death and living to talk about it from a scientific perspective has the basis for a good film. Unfortunately, Schumacher and scriptwriter Peter Filardi lose their way early. Schumacher goes for a faux gothic aesthetic featuring gargoyles and a spooky old building under renovations where Nelson and his group set up shop to conduct their experiments. The decision to steer the film towards horror-lite territory is questionable, and displaces what was proclaimed as an intellectual pursuit.

And so the students one by one undergo the flatlining experience in increasingly repetitive scenes, and not once does Nelson follow through on his initial scientific quest to question, explore or discuss what it all means and where does science go with the visions experienced during death.

It is ironically left to sceptical and secular David to figure out some semblance of how to beat back the diabolical threats haunting the students after they return to life, in what proves to be a most tepid resolution about the need to seek absolution by confronting past misdeeds, real or imagined. Flatliners claims to seek inventive ideas, and ends up with lukewarm guilt leftovers.

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Movie Review: Wild Things (1998)

A neo-noir with an abundance of style and seduction, Wild Things saturates the screen with back-stabbing characters up to absolutely no good, although the fun goes somewhat off the rails in the final third.

In the posh Miami community of Blue Bay, hunky high school counsellor Sam Lombardo (Matt Dillon) is fending off the advances of cheerleader Kelly Van Ryan (Denise Richards). Sam used to be the lover of Kelly's mother Sandra (Theresa Russell), one of Blue Bay's richest women. Meanwhile, Suzie Toller (Neve Campbell) is a white trash teenager from the wrong side of the tracks, holding a deep grudge against Sergeant Ray Duquette (Kevin Bacon) of the local police force. Suzie holds Ray responsible for the shooting death of a friend. Whenever he can, Sam tries to help Suzie, who is held in contempt by Kelly.

Blue Bay is rocked when Kelly accuses Sam of rape. Sandra hires high-priced attorney Tom Baxter (Robert Wagner) to seek justice for her daughter, while a shocked Sam can only afford cut-rate lawyer Ken Bowden (Bill Murray) to represent him. The case makes headlines, and takes a sensational turn when Suzie comes forward to claim that she too was raped by Sam. With his prospects looking grim, Sam's fate is in the uncertain hands of the less than trustworthy Ken.

The synopsis covers barely half the film. Once Ken starts to interrogate Suzie, the revelations cause outright pandemonium, and the courtroom twist is only the first of many to come. Wild Things has plenty of secrets waiting to bust out, as the characters carry many hidden motivations and brutal scores to settle. This is a small film with a big agenda, drawing on the rich noir legacy to bring forward a convoluted story of seduction, big money, betrayal, revenge and class warfare in the Miami heat.

Wild Things is filmed in vivid colours, accompanied by a siren call of a George S. Clinton music score, dripping with the dangerous sensuality of the Florida swamps. And for the most part, director John McNaughton steers the film with silky smoothness, introducing the many characters and focusing on the pervasive lust in a community with too much money and too much time dedicated to rapacious pursuits.

Wild Things' appeal is in updating most of the noir elements into a hyper-driven modern context. The schemers are younger, the money bigger, the scandal more sensational, and the sex more intense, particularly a legendary threesome that provides an exclamation mark next to the film's crowning revelation. But the film also forges ahead with a plot that while comprehensible, just pushes for too many convolutions. Once the twists start coming, they never stop, and with a new reveal every few minutes as the film enters its final half an hour, the surprises lose their edge.

The cast is outstanding in depth and execution. The roles are almost all played straight, with Richards and Russell providing gallons of fervor, Campbell contributing dark broodiness, while Dillon and Bacon (who also served as executive producer) play the men who don't quite know how little control they have. Murray is a riot as a crooked lawyer in unkempt suits, with the twinkle in his eye suggesting that the ruffled persona may just be a camouflage for a sharper than expected mind. Where the wild things roam, nothing is as it seems.

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Movie Review: A Few Good Men (1992)

A military court drama with a superb cast and a razor sharp script, A Few Good Men is an exhilarating story of murder, cover-up, honour and unexpected determination.

When Private Santiago is killed at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba, Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee (Tom Cruise) is put in charge of representing the two defendants. Marines Dawson (Wolfgang Bodison) and Downey (James Marshall) don't deny that they intended to rough up Santiago as a disciplinary measure, but they claim that they were ordered to do so. Lieutenant Commander JoAnne Galloway (Demi Moore) and Lieutenant Weinberg (Kevin Pollak) join Kaffee's defence team.

Initially, the cocky Daniel is looking for a quick plea-bargain with his counterpart Captain Ross (Kevin Bacon), but a visit to the Naval Base and a meeting with Guantanamo's commander Colonel Nathan Jessup (Jack Nicholson) begin to reveal a deeper story. Santiago was an underperforming Marine, Jessup wanted him kept on the base and "trained", and Lieutenant Kendrick (Kiefer Sutherland) was eager to please, over the objections of Lieutenant Colonel Markinson (J. T. Walsh). But Jessup tells Kaffee that Santiago was granted a transfer, and was murdered shortly before he was due to leave the base. Egged on by Galloway, Kaffee finds the courage to keep investigating. He takes the case to a court martial and argues on behalf of the defendants, resulting in a titanic battle for the truth.

Jessup, talking to Kaffee: I run my unit how I run my unit. You want to investigate me, roll the dice and take your chances. I eat breakfast 300 yards from 4000 Cubans who are trained to kill me, so don't think for one second that you can come down here, flash a badge, and make me nervous.

Written by Aaron Sorkin (adapting his play) and directed by Rob Reiner, A Few Good Men is a gripping experience. The film engages immediately, the complex mystery of what happened to Private Santiago providing layers of depth, the Guantanamo crime setting adding a stab of danger, while the evolution of Daniel Kaffee from carefree arrogance to intense commitment provides a compelling arc. For the entire running length of 138 minutes Reiner does not release the tension, instead building a courtroom emotional rollercoaster as Kaffee's case ebbs and flows, the plucky defence team taking on the establishment and trying to shake the defendants loose from the grip of a seemingly straightforward verdict of guilt.

Sorkin's script gains power as it cleverly transitions from what happened to why it happened. A Few Good Men keeps probing until it arrives at the heart of the issue: the need to maintain a unit's essential code of honour versus an individual's irrefutable rights. In an Army that depends on both to thrive, the collision between what the collective needs and what an individual stands for could have unintended consequences, and a lot can go wrong even when the best of intentions are steeped in a traditional code of conduct.

The film's central clash is translated into a climactic confrontation between Kaffee the unsure attorney and Jessup the wily Colonel on the witness stand. As the sparks finally fly, Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson are both brilliant, bouncing off each other in a battle of wills that is destined to destroy either the lawyer or the soldier. Cruise grows from boy to man as he accepts his destiny to dominate courtrooms, while Nicholson delivers one his all-time great performances as the arrogant base commander, as sure of his methods and motives as he is oblivious to his creeping maniacal tendencies.

Jessup: I'll answer the question. You want answers?
Kaffee: I think I'm entitled!
Jessup: You want answers?!
Kaffee: I want the truth!
Jessup: You can't handle the truth! Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lieutenant Weinberg? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago and you curse the Marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know, that Santiago's death, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives! You don't want the truth, because deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall. You need me on that wall. We use words like "honor", "code", "loyalty". We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it! I would rather you just said "thank you", and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon, and stand a post. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you are entitled to!

The supporting cast is filled with superior talent in every key role. Moore is sometimes awkward but in keeping with JoAnne Galloway's slightly misfit character, and Kevin Pollak as Weinberg provides the calm brains to complement Kaffee's instinctive charisma. Kiefer Sutherland, Kevin Bacon, and J.T. Walsh round out the men in uniform holding different moral perspectives on the same incident.

A Few Good Men finds soldiers of all ranks believing that they are doing the right things for the right reasons. When the outcome is tragic, the foundation is set for an epic showdown in search of justice.

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Movie Review: Tremors (1990)

A comic horror flick, Tremors wins on style and attitude. The story of giant subterranean snakes terrorizing a tiny community is as silly as they come, and it gets the treatment that it deserves, heavy on fun, character, and charisma.

In and around the Nevada desolate desert town of Perfection (population: 14), the resourceful Val (Kevin Bacon) and Earl (Fred Ward) do odd manual jobs and live an uncomplicated life, but hope for better things in bigger towns. They meet Rhonda (Finn Carter), a seismology student on a summer assignment to monitor seismometers in the area. She reports unusual activity, and soon people and cattle are found dead, sometimes gruesomely dismembered.

Rhonda, Val and Earl barely survive a close encounter with an ugly, large snake-like beast that travels underground and carries a huge appetite for soft human flesh. They retreat to Perfection, and team up with the local population, which fortunately includes the heavily-armed survivalist couple Burt (Michael Gross) and Heather (country music star Reba McEntire). A siege ensues, with the humans having to survive against repeated attacks from three of the hideous predators.

Tremors plays up personality, and gets away with it. There is nothing here to be taken seriously, and even the more horror-oriented scenes of the monsters devouring victims are more invigorating than scary. Ron Underwood, directing his first feature length movie, succeeds in making the locale and characters much more important than the monster elements. The setting evokes the imagery from every Roadrunner cartoon, and the film plays with the same sensibilities.

Tremors finds a winning combination in Val and Earl, two men rough around the edges, mostly made up of edges, and expertly brought to life by Bacon and Ward. Limited yet resourceful, always talking about the need for a plan but rarely coming up with one that fully works, Val and Earl possess the perfect set of handy skills to create a fair fight with mammoth but blind underground snakes.

Running an efficient 96 minutes, Tremors keeps things simple, Underwood moving the action along quickly, promptly arriving at the energetic people versus monsters moments, and allowing the slick interplay between Bacon and Ward to provide plenty of sharp relief at regular intervals. The rest of the cast members are there mostly to make up the numbers of local residents and token victims. Finn Carter tries for perky but cannot shake well-entrenched daytime soap and television acting skills, nor does she really need to, while Michael Gross and Reba McEntire make more of an impression as survivalists with a basement that the Pentagon would be proud of.

In concept and delivery, Tremors burrows its way to ground shaking entertainment in a compact and boisterous package.

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Movie Review: Sleepers (1996)

An elaborate and dark story of child abuse and calculated revenge, Sleepers is complex, intense and satisfying. Regardless of whether the drama is based on true events, the movie offers a gripping and memorable experience.

On the tough streets of Hell's Kitchen in the 1960s, Lorenzo, Tommy, Michael and Johnny are four young mischievous teenaged boys exploring the world. The influential adults in their lives include Father Bobby Carillo (Robert De Niro) and the local undercover crime boss King Benny (Vittorio Gassman). A prank with a hot dog stand goes terribly wrong, severely injuring a bystander: the four boys are convicted and sentenced to serve time at the Wilkinson Home for Boys, an incarceration and rehabilitation centre.

The four friends are quickly singled out by the Wilkinson guards for special abuse. Sean Nokes (Kevin Bacon), the most ruthless of the guards, embarks on a campaign of emotional, physical and sexual abuse, with several other guards joining in. Father Carillo tries to stay in touch with Michael through regular visits, but the boys withdraw into a cone of silence and refuse to disclose the repulsive abuse that they are suffering.

Fourteen years after being released, Tommy (Billy Crudup) and Johnny (Ron Eldard) are gun-toting criminals. They stumble across Nokes, extract their revenge, and land in court, facing prolonged jail time if convicted. But in a twist of fate, Michael (Brad Pitt), now an Assistant District Attorney, is appointed to prosecute the case, while King Benny arranges for incompetent lawyer Danny Snyder (Dustin Hoffman) to represent Tommy and Johnny. Michael's involvement, with Lorenzo (Jason Patric) acting as a go-between, creates the opportunity for the Wilkinson facility abusers to be surreptitiously exposed in court as Michael tries to manipulate all proceedings to his advantage, but he will need the help of Father Carillo one last time.

Lorenzo Carcaterra wrote the book, and claims that the story is true. This has been disputed by various official sources who claim no records exist for the events described in the book. The controversy doesn't detract from the movie. Director Barry Levinson wrote the screenplay for Sleepers and delivers a moving, well-paced and refined film, neatly split into three thirds: the innocent context, the horrifying abuse, and the cold revenge. Each part has its own attraction, Levinson nurturing the drama from Hell's Kitchen through the torture chambers of Wikinson and finally to the court rooms of justice.

A superlative cast studded with stars elevates interest in the latter half of an already engrossing viewing exprience. Robert De Niro's Father Carillo is the only adult who interacts with Lorenzo, Tommy, Michael and John from childhood to the trial verdict, and at every stage he is instrumental in trying to help. Initially, his guidance meets with only partial success: Carillo tries to steer the boys onto the right path but they anyway fall foul of the law; once the boys are at Wilkinson, he tries to get them to talk about the reality of their incarceration, but they are unwilling to speak up. At the third try, Father Carillo is asked to make a phenomenally painful decision in the witness chair, and the destiny of the boys once again rests in his hands.

De Niro's performance is perfect, from a young priest all too personally familiar with the troubles that youth can get themselves into, to the old mentor handed the power to help his friends but at a significant personal cost.

Kevin Bacon is simply chilling as Sean Nokes. Arrogant, smug and heartless, Bacon gives Nokes an invincible aura of self-confidence that psychologically devastates his young victims. Hoffman revels in the stuttering eccentricity of Snyder as a man at peace with having been well-beaten by life. Snyder is Nokes' polar opposite, a has-been lawyer well past his sell-by date, not able to do much beyond reading the questions written for him by others. Brad Pitt rounds out the excellent cast as the adult Michael, a lawyer taking on the risk of his professional life to persecute his friends, generating the perception of wanting to win while plotting his own revenge agenda.

Jason Patric and Minnie Driver are less impressive, Patric struggling to find a place for the adult Lorenzo in the unfolding court drama, while Driver's Carol character seems to exist solely to provide some female relief to the otherwise all-male cast.

Revenge is a dish best served cold; Sleepers gets both the revenge content and the delivery temperature right.

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Movie Review: Mystic River (2003)

The story of a grisly murder that reawakens a horrific childhood calamity, Mystic River is a grand tragedy and a spectacular film. Clint Eastwood directs the drama with the ever simmering tension of unfinished business, and a magnetic and exceptionally deep cast delivers excellent performances.

In a working class Boston neighbourhood, three boys playing street hockey are interrupted by a predator who drives up their street, pretending to be a police officer. Two of the boys, the tough Jimmy and street smart Sean, talk their way out of trouble; the more innocent Dave is bundled into the car, abducted, held captive and sexually abused for four days before finally escaping.

Twenty five years later Dave (Tim Robbins) is married to Celeste (Marcia Gay Harden) and has a young boy of his own. Dave has a lumbering, uncomfortable personality, still very much carrying the scars of the abuse he suffered as a child. Jimmy (Sean Penn) appears to have put a life of crime behind him and is now married to Annabeth (Laura Linney). Sean (Kevin Bacon) is the only one of the three to have moved out of the old neighbourhood, and he is now a police detective, recently and inexplicably abandoned by his wife.

Jimmy's teenage daughter Katie (Emmy Rossum) is shot and then killed by mysterious assailants; on the same night Dave returns home soaked with blood and claiming that he had to kill a potential mugger. Sean and his partner Detective Powers (Laurence Fishburne) are assigned to solve Katie's murder. But the grieving Jimmy is not waiting for the police investigation; he calls on his old underworld buddies to uncover the identity of his daughter's murderer. With Sean and Powers applying pressure, Celeste is not sure which part of her husband's story to believe. Their world once again shattered, Jimmy, Sean and Dave hurtle towards another life-changing encounter with the strange forces of destiny.

Sean Penn (Best Actor) and Tim Robbins (Best Supporting Actor) won the Academy Awards, but all the cast members deliver outstanding performances, filled with nuance, flickers of understated emotion, and smoldering anger, agony or rage. As secrets of the past threaten to break into the open, the characters often say what they need to in order to actually hide what they are thinking. Screenwriter Brian Helgeland, adapting Dennis Lehane's book, creates tough personalities that are frighteningly real in their behaviour, with traits that are only gradually revealed as the present collides with the past and fate comes calling.

Towards the end of Mystic River, the unseen power that women hold over their men surfaces, as both Celeste and Annabeth step out of the shadows to play pivotal roles in their husbands' fortunes. Linney as Annabeth has just the one key scene, but it's unforgettable as she chillingly reassembles her husband's self-worth and pride, readying him to fight on, as he has always had to.

Clint Eastwood approaches the peak of his directing career, knitting together a story that connects two tragedies across a span of a generation. His style is calm in the midst of emotional storms, the cameras discretely capturing a proud neighbourhood filled with strong characters in heart wrenching turmoil. In addition to co-producing, Eastwood also contributed an evocative music score.

Mystic River meanders expertly past the often untold stories of pain and suffering that hide behind many nondescript windows, a searing reminder that life can offer up challenging choices at any time, and the smallest decisions can have the most devastating of consequences.

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Movie Review: The River Wild (1994)

A rapid run through the churning waters of a stressed family confronting evil, The River Wild is a rewarding adventure, made memorable by two impressive performances from Meryl Streep and Kevin Bacon.

Gail (Streep) her husband Tom (David Strathairn) and their son Roarke (Joseph Mazzello) embark on a river rafting trip near the Canadian border. The relationship between Gail and Tom is strained almost to the breaking point thanks to his obsession with work and neglect of the family. Gail used to be a river guide and is an experienced river rafter, a fact that intrigues the apparently likable Wade (Bacon), also heading out onto the river with his buddy Terry (John C. Reilly) in another raft.

With Roarke angry at his dad, Wade fills the vacuum and quickly befriends the boy. But as the two rafts make their way downriver, Wade and Terry start to spend too much time with Gail's family at every stop, and both Gail and Tom sense that something is wrong. Sure enough, Wade and Terry are revealed to be criminals on the run, having committed a botched robbery that included the killing of a security guard. Using the threat of a loaded gun, Wade holds the family hostage and demands that Gail navigate them down river, through a highly treacherous section of white water called The Gauntlet.

Wade is one of Kevin Bacon's finest roles. The outward charm hiding heartless cruelty allows Bacon to play to his strengths. Roarke's immediate attraction and subsequent hero worship of Wade, as compared to his stodgy Dad, is compellingly delivered, and adds yet another life lesson to the already rich classroom that the river provides. And when Wade finally removes his nice-guy mask and reveals his true colours, Bacon switches from dangerously friendly to chillingly evil without losing his engaging personality, which makes Wade all the more depraved.

Meryl Streep did most of her own stunts in one her most physically demanding roles. But Gail's arduous journey cannot hide another terrific acting performance from Streep as Gail fights an unfair battle on four fronts: a marital battle with a husband who has checked out; a battle against falling for the charms of Wade, who initially seems to represent all that Tom does not; a battle to save her family from the raging river; and finally a battle against pure criminal evil. When she finally grasps what she is up against, Streep brings out of Gail the steely determination of a woman under mortal threat, doing what is necessary to survive.

David Strathairn as Tom suffers in comparison, primarily because his character's development is the least convincing. From a disconnected husband, uncaring father and boring office worker to a heroic outdoorsman with incredible agility and stamina, Tom's journey does not ring true, despite Strathairn's best efforts. Providing better support is John C. Reilly as Terry, Wade's sidekick and relatively dim servile follower.

Director Curtis Hanson puts the breathtaking scenery to excellent use, and combines the talent of his cast with nature's stunning beauty and power to great effect. Filmed on the Kootenai and Flathead Rivers in Montana and the Rogue River in Oregon, The River Wild may be Hollywood's ultimate salute to rafting, the water growing ever more turbulent as the dangers increase around Gail. But navigating the river is also her strength and advantage over Wade, and as the water gets more ferocious, Gail is riding into her element. The river may be wild, but for Gail the greater challenge is to try and overcome a ruthless criminal and save her family.

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The Movies of Kevin Bacon

All movies starring Kevin Bacon and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

Animal House (1978)

Only When I Laugh (1981)

Diner (1982)

Footloose (1984)

Planes, Trains And Automobiles (1987)

Tremors (1990)

Flatliners (1990)

JFK (1991)

He Said, She Said (1991)

A Few Good Men (1992)

The River Wild (1994)

Apollo 13 (1995)

Sleepers (1996)

Wild Things (1998)

In The Cut (2003)

Mystic River (2003)

Where The Truth Lies (2005)

Frost/Nixon (2008)

Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011)

Patriots Day (2016)

Leave The World Behind (2023)

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.
The Movie Star Index is here.