Movie Review: Spinning Man (2018)

Genre: Philosophical Crime Drama  

Director: Simon Kaijser  

Starring: Guy Pearce, Pierce Brosnan, Minnie Driver  

Running Time: 100 minutes  

Synopsis: Dr. Evan Birch (Guy Pearce) is a Professor of Philosophy with a tendency to desire his female students. When a cheerleader goes missing in the nearby woods, Detective Malloy (Pierce Brosnan) investigates and Evan emerges as a suspect. He denies any wrong doing, but evidence linking him to the disappearance starts to emerge, straining his relationship with his wife Ellen (Minnie Driver). Meanwhile, Anna (Alexandra Shipp) is the latest student attempting to seduce Evan.

What Works Well: Philosophical musings related to memory and truth mix with a standard police investigation of a shifty suspect. Unreliability as a foundation of thought and recollection emerges as an intriguing theme, Guy Pearce embodying uncertainty as either a natural condition or defence tactic. An understated Pierce Brosnan and an increasingly irritated Minnie Driver provide able support.

What Does Not Work As Well: With a limited number of suspects and mounting evidence pointing in only one direction, director Simon Kaijser and writer Matthew Aldrich (adapting a book by George Harrar) desperately needed a good third act, but they miss by a large margin. Incoherent padding leads to a desperate final 15 minutes that unravel into a rushed and unsatisfactory mess. 

Conclusion: Stops spinning just when it matters most.



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Movie Review: Grosse Pointe Blank (1997)

A romantic comedy with a twist, Grosse Pointe Blank follows a cold-blooded but sympathetic hit-man as he attends his high school reunion to pursue his dream girl while dodging bullets.

Martin Blank (John Cusack) is an independent assassin for hire, receiving his missions through his assistant Marcella (Joan Cusack). Fellow hit-man Grocer (Dan Aykroyd) tries to convince him to join a cartel, but Martin wants to maintain independence. Starting to feel depressed and jaded Martin's mood is not improved when a couple of his missions are bungled. His shrink Dr. Oatman (Alan Arkin) is of little use.

After being nagged incessantly by Marcella, Martin agrees to attend his 10 year reunion at Grosse Pointe high school in a Detroit suburb, but only after his next target happens to also be in the same city. He uses the opportunity to try and win back the love of Debi (Minnie Driver), the sweetheart he abandoned on prom night ten years prior. He also bumps into other high school friends including real estate agent Paul (Jeremy Piven). As he makes progress in wooing Debi, Martin realizes that Grosse Pointe is crawling with hit men, and that he may be a target.

Set to a continuous soundtrack of mid-1980s hits, Grosse Pointe Blank takes a sardonic look at the love life of a killer. Directed by George Armitage with John Cusack co-writing, the film goes into rarely explored territory where killers need affection too, and laughs, love and hot lead collide. It doesn't necessarily always work as intended, but enough emotional mayhem registers to make the film stand out.

With so much going on some parts of the narrative kookiness understandably land awkwardly. Unless blatant satire was the goal, Debi's ability to look past Martin's profession and love him anyway was never going to be an easy sell. The music soundtrack also occasionally overreaches and gets in the way. While the selection of hits from the 1980s is a boon to fans of the decade, stretches of the film introduce a new track every 10 seconds, the songs disintegrating into useless snippet territory. And finally the big reunion scene is a messy series of encounters that seem to start and stop at random and offer nothing new.

But for the most part Grosse Pointe Blank delivers an irreverent mash-up of wild action, romantic pursuit, career depression and caustic comedy. And the genres somehow rub against each other at the right angles, the film emerging as a unique hybrid refusing to adhere to any preconceived notions of formula. Rarely has a love story with a high school backdrop been interrupted by an intense gunfight between two assassins culminating in a bomb placed in a microwave. And of course the battle happens to take place in a mini mart that displaced Martin's childhood home, just to add to the hero's depressed sense of aggrieved angst.

John Cusack brings his persona of intense cool to Martin Blank, and provides the film with its critical centre of gravity. None of the other characters are too important to matter. Even Debi is reduced to lazily orbiting Martin's disorderly life, Minnie Driver unable to exert much pull on the proceedings other than work through Debi's residual anger issues.

Grosse Pointe Blank bravely goes back home, and with a wicked smile gleefully breaks all the rules.

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Movie Review: I Give It A Year (2013)

A romantic comedy with a difference, I Give It A Year takes a subversive perspective on the genre and achieves edgy success.

The film starts with London couple Nat (Rose Byrne) and Josh (Rafe Spall) nine months into their marriage and already comprehensively in the emotional doldrums. In flashback, their troubles are revealed, starting with a messy wedding day punctuated by a best-man speech from hell courtesy of Josh's friend Danny (Stephen Merchant). Josh is a struggling writer, Nat is a high powered advertising executive, they share little in common, and their home life quickly descends into mutual irritations.

But their real challenges begin when Josh's ex-girlfriend social worker Chloe (Anna Faris) reemerges, and it's clear that they still have feelings for each other. Meanwhile Nat meets dashing rich executive and potential new client Guy (Simon Barker), and he aggressively pursues a romance. Josh is much more interested in Chloe, Nat is really interested in Guy, and the inconvenience of their young marriage is just getting in the way.

Directed and written by Dan Mazer, I Give It A Year is a less than serious shot in the arm for the rom-com genre, and it lands its punches exactly as intended. This is a foul-mouthed, no holds barred adult-oriented comedy, stressing the laughs much more than the romance, and finding many quite hilarious moments. Mazer sets out to dismantle as many cliches as he can find, and conjures up frequent scenes of awkwardness that nibble away at any notions of fluffy romance.

Merchant's unfiltered brand of politically incorrect comedy acts as a regular dose of disruptive steroids and contributes to the film's ethos. Elsewhere a clumsy attempted threesome does not work as well but makes the point of dispelling the thrill of that act. Much better is a ridiculously funny highlight featuring a delicious combination of two excited doves, a violinist, a platter of oysters and a ceiling fan.

The film's intentions are to demonstrate how a seemingly perfect union can takes a wrong turn, some temptations are too good to ignore, and mistakes of the heart can lead to domestic misery. It's all delivered with a self-deprecating tone, helped by an appealing Rose Byrne performance. She occupies the space where professional ambitions, opportunities for lust and the tug of faithfulness collide in a mushroom cloud of guilt. Rafe Spall plays his part, but is overshadowed by both Byrne and Anna Faris, who delivers the most honest performance as a down to earth woman unaware of her appeal.

The cast also includes Minnie Driver as a caustic and long-married mutual friend, and Olivia Colman as a less than helpful marriage counselor.

Playful and incendiary, I Give It A Year cheerfully sticks needles into the doll of familiarity.

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The Movies Of Minnie Driver

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

GoldenEye (1995)

Sleepers (1996)

Grosse Pointe Blank (1997)

Good Will Hunting (1997)

Barney's Version (2010)

I Give It A Year (2013)

Spinning Man (2018)

The Beekeeper (2024)

The Assessment (2024)

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

Movie Review: Good Will Hunting (1997)

A drama about the value of intellect as a natural gift, Good Will Hunting is a dazzling achievement. Matt Damon and Ben Affleck announce their proper arrival into the movie industry with a witty script about a young man withholding his own potential behind a wall of acrid charisma.

In Boston, Will Hunting (Damon) lives on the wrong side of town, and is working as a janitor sweeping the floor at MIT. Will is an orphan and had a rough childhood, but he is also a cocky genius, supremely confident and a voracious reader, with a particular aptitude for solving complex math problems. To avoid any risk of disappointment, Will emotionally pushes everyone away and shuns any opportunity to improve his lot in life. He prefers instead to pick fights with hoodlums and hang out with his blue collar friends, particularly best buddy Chuckie (Affleck). Will's advanced mathematical skills come to the attention of renowned MIT Professor Gerry Lambeau (Stellan Skarsgård), just as Will lands in legal trouble for striking a police officer during a meaningless street brawl.

As a condition of avoiding serving time, Gerry agrees to take Will under his wing and make sure that he sees a therapist. Will and Lambeau work well together tackling math problems, but finding a therapist who can penetrate Will's hard exterior proves difficult. Eventually Gerry reaches out to his former college classmate Dr. Sean Maguire (Robin Williams), a psychology professor himself struggling with the death of his wife. Will starts dating Harvard student Skylar (Minnie Driver), but opening up to her will prove to be as difficult as having meaningful conversations with Sean.

Co-written by Affleck and Damon and directed by Gus Van Sant, Good Will Hunting is an intellectual Cinderfella drama. While not exactly rags to riches, Will's journey is from the streets of South Boston to the hallowed halls of MIT, and more importantly, his awakening to the power of vulnerability and the potential for a better life. With a smart script and a spellbinding diamond-in-the-rough central character, the film captivates as it delves into the psyche and spirit of a charismatic genius looking for a cause.

Gerry and Sean represent two distinct father figures and two separate paths available to Will, should he choose to break out of his thick crust of mistrust. Gerry tries to appeal to Will's intellect and charts a course towards potential business success. At great personal cost, Sean batters away at Will's armour, trying to unleash a spirit with unlimited all-round potential. It's a fascinating two-pronged probe on a young man smarter than both his mentors. With Skylar presenting a tantalizing look at what is possible, deep down Will Hunting realizes that to make good, something has to change, and Sean may be his last chance to find out what an alternative future may look like.

The therapy sessions between doctor and unwilling patient held in Sean's cluttered office are at the heart of the film. Sean's own open wound due to his wife's death gives the film a third dimension, and Will an initial target to bore in on as he attempts to destroy Sean as quickly as all the other shrinks. But Sean recovers, regroups and patiently invests the time it takes to reach into the heart of a man who has decided that he never wants to be reached again. The climax of these sessions may be a bit more cinematic than convincing, but the process is a captivating study in progressive cerebral interaction between two determined men, and remarkably excellent filmmaking.


With an unforgettable performance, Matt Damon establishes his screen persona as a smart man with boyish looks and a wickedly playful streak. Robin Williams won the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for his role as Sean, giving the doctor plenty of complex humanity and a steely resolve to not give up on Will when it would have been easy to do so. The complex relationship between Sean and Gerry also helps to provide depth, Stellan Skarsgård doing his bit to create an appropriately arrogant but still genial celebrity professor.

While making good use of the attractive Boston locations, Van Sant keeps the mood buoyant, mixing drama with touches of humour and sprinklings of friendship and romance. Good Will Hunting is a most rewarding expedition.

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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: Barney's Version (2010)

Is there a reason to care about tragedy in the life of a man who does everything possible to undermine all his opportunities for happiness?

Paul Giamatti works hard to create a flawed character worthy of sympathy. Giamatti's performance is flawless, but ultimately, Barney is such a brilliant architect of his own failure that his misery is not sad; it's expected.

Barney (Giamatti) is a chain smoker, a heavy drinker, and a hopeless womanizer. As a young man in Italy, he marries a woman after taking her word that she's carrying his child. It turns out that he's not the father of the still-born baby; he immediately abandons his wife and she kills herself. Moving to Montreal, he inherits a career as a producer of cheap television series and finds his second wife (Minnie Driver), who is attractive, rich and well-educated. And on that wedding day Barney starts uncontrollably lusting after another woman, Miriam (Rosamund Pike). While wallowing in the misery of being married to one woman while chasing another, he carelessly handles a gun while drunk, unintentionally causes the demise of his best friend. He celebrates his second wife's infidelity since he can now more easily dump her.

Although otherwise an intelligent career woman, Miriam eventually and inexplicably falls for Barney's obsessive courtship, and becomes his third wife. She really has no right to be surprised when he eventually starts spending his evenings fueling up on beer and watching hockey games down at the bar instead of paying any attention to her. After having spent half a lifetime pursuing Miriam, Barney takes the first opportunity to cheat on her. Of course Miriam leaves him and he ends up lonely, miserable, and fighting a losing battle against dementia. Perhaps all that alcohol killed a few too many brain cells.

Dustin Hoffman makes a welcome appearance as Barney's father Izzy, a retired cop. There are hints that Barney is only accentuating the self-defeating habits inherited from Izzy, but director Richard Lewis, adapting Mordecai Richler's book, does not explore these themes in too much depth. Bruce Greewood as Blair, the man who eventually provides stability for Miriam, is by far the most normal man in the movie. He is portrayed as steady to the point of boredom, opposite Barney's self-absorbed but colourful life.

Rosamund Pike is luminous as Miriam, and her performance may allow her to achieve a rare feat: a former Bond girl (from Die Another Day) who transitions into a respectable career.

People who help themselves are worth pulling for; instead, Barney is a man who has a special talent for repeatedly pushing the self-destruct button.  We watch more with bemusement than any genuine caring.

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