Movie Review: The Apprentice (2024)

Genre: Biography  

Director: Ali Abbasi  

Starring: Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong, Maria Bakalova  

Running Time: 122 minutes  

Synopsis: In a decaying New York City of the 1970s, Donald Trump (Sebastian Stan) is a budding real estate developer still under the shadow of his father Fred (Martin Donovan). Donald dreams of building a glitzy hotel to help revitalize the city, and finds a mentor in cut-throat lawyer Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong), who demonstrates the ruthlessness required for high-stakes dealmaking. Donald's confidence grows with every deal and he romantically pursues Czechoslovakian model Ivana (Maria Bakalova), but his ego starts to damage his relationships. 

What Works Well: This hard-hitting, behind-the-scenes look at the making of a mogul focuses on the spiky partnership between Trump and Cohn, with both Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong in excellent form. Writer Gabriel Sherman traces a rich arc from mentor/apprentice to domination/destruction, as Cohn imparts lessons from the big book of brutal business but also inadvertently unleashes latent narcissism. The fraught bond between Donald and his difficult father Fred is the other point of influence, and director Ali Abbasi deftly reveals a son determined to surpass his father's achievements and seeking elusive acknowledgement. The fast pacing gallops through a glitz and glamour world fueled by amphetamines, ambition, and a power-couple marriage, and still finds time to probe Donald's attitudes towards flailing brother Fred Jr. and the ravages of AIDS.

What Does Not Work As Well: Trump's challenge with the threat of bankruptcy is only briefly hinted at, and beyond dirty tricks, his penchant for structuring audacious deals is short-changed.

Key Quote:

Roy Cohn (to Trump): You create your own reality. Truth is a malleable thing.

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Movie Review: Endings, Beginnings (2019)

Genre: Romantic Drama  

Director: Drake Doremus  

Starring: Shailene Woodley, Jamie Dornan, Sebastian Stan  

Running Time: 110 minutes  

Synopsis: 30-something Daphne (Shailene Woodley) breaks up with her long-term boyfriend Adrian, abandons her job, and moves in with her sister Billie (Lindsay Sloane). Daphne quits drinking and commits to being single for a while, but at a New Year's Eve party she meets free-spirited Frank (Sebastian Stan) and the more serious Jack (Jamie Dornan). She is soon romantically involved with both of them, despite learning they are close friends.

What Works Well: Shailene Woodley tries hard to make something out of the perpetually smoking and none-too-bright Daphne, while Wendie Malick as her effectively off-putting mother Sue deserved more screen time.

What Does Not Work As Well: Director and co-writer Drake Doremus enjoys filming his sideways-drifting characters from the back with unnecessarily jerky camerawork, and much of the improvised dialogue is unsynched from the visuals. All the attention-seeking flashiness fails to mask the embarrassment of three purpose-free hormone bags engaged in emotionally asinine behaviour, and the drama quickly becomes exceptionally tedious. Daphne's search for companionship is not helped by Frank and Jack being virtually interchangeable, other than when engaging in sex.

Conclusion: How to fail at life by really trying.



All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Movie Review: The Last Full Measure (2019)

A biographical drama retroactively examining battlefield heroics, The Last Full Measure is earnest but veers towards persistent reverence.

In 1999, Vietnam War veteran Tom Tulley (William Hurt) advocates for reopening the case of Air Force Pararescueman William H. Pitsenbarger (Jeremy Irvine) to determine if he posthumously deserves the Medal of Honor. Ambitious Pentagon staffer Scott Huffman (Sebastian Stan) is tasked with conducting the necessary research.

In April of 1966, a US Army platoon is caught in a Vietnam jungle ambush and suffers heavy casualties. Pitsenbarger rappels onto the battlefield from the safety of his helicopter to help evacuate the wounded. He saves many lives before succumbing to enemy fire, but is then awarded the Air Force Cross rather than the coveted Medal of Honor. 

Scott is initially uninterested in the entire file, but is soon drawn into the case as he tracks down survivors and hears the stories of the men involved in the fateful battle, including Billy Takoda (Samuel L. Jackson), Ray Mott (Ed Harris), and Jimmy Burr (Peter Fonda). Pitsenbarger's parents Frank and Alice (Christopher Plummer and Diane Ladd) support Scott's investigation, with Frank's ill health adding a sense of urgency.

Written and directed by Todd Robinson, The Last Full Measure is inspired by real events. The film sets out to salute the heroes of a war gone bad, and achieves this objective with ardent respect. The screenplay carries a nervous yearning for a final polish, but the production values are slick, and the tone is serious, inquisitive, and always searching for the positive instinct within the human spirit. 

As bureaucrat Scott delves into the case, frequent flashbacks from multiple perspectives recreate the ambush at the centre of Pitsenbarger's story. The combat scenes are suitably chaotic, the on-the-ground soldiers trapped by intense enemy fire and gripped by confusion and fear. Into this arena drops Pitsenbarger to help save the wounded, and The Last Full Measure never holds back on representing the medal winner as a mythical saviour. Soaring emotive music augments the square-jawed fearless warrior image, actor Jeremy Irvine encouraged to rise above the mayhem of mere mortals.

The surrounding modern day men-of-war stories enhance the drama. Scott's investigation reopens old wounds, rekindling memories of battlefield mistakes that still haunt surviving soldiers tortured by the belief they should have done better. Samuel L. Jackson, Ed Harris, and Peter Fonda embody veterans living with waking nightmares populated by death, gore, and disillusion. In an elegant gesture, John Savage appears as a sage and healing presence in the post-war Vietnam jungle, 41 years after his seminal ordeal in The Deer Hunter. 

Less effective is a bit of villainy in the form of Scott's boss Carlton Stanton (Bradley Whitford), who pulls on levers of careerism to protect his bosses as the investigation reveals military missteps.

Steering away from wit, cynicism, or broader questions about war, The Last Full Measure succeeds in saluting valour within sacrifice.



All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Movie Review: The Devil All The Time (2020)

A sprawling multi-generation epic, The Devil All The Time is an intersecting drama engrossed in themes of faith, moral corruption, crime and revenge.

While serving in the Pacific during World War Two, Willard Russell (Bill Skarsgård) has a harrowing encounter with a dying Marine. After the war Willard returns home to the rural West Virginia - Ohio border region and marries Charlotte (Haley Bennett). They have a son Arvin and Willard turns to religion to help combat his war-induced demons. His mother Emma (Kristin Griffith) had wanted him to marry Helen (Mia Wasikowska), who instead weds travelling fake healer Roy (Harry Melling) and they have a daughter Lenora.

Tragedies disrupt Arvin and Lenora's young lives and by 1957 they have both moved in with Emma to be raised as step-siblings. In 1965 Lenora (Eliza Scanlen) is suffering high school bullying due to her devout nature, while Arvin (Tom Holland) tries to protect her. Ahead of them are challenging encounters with sleazy Reverend Preston Teagardin (Robert Pattinson), murderous couple Carl (Jason Clarke) and Sandy (Riley Keough) Henderson, and Sandy's brother, corrupt sheriff Lee Bodecker (Sebastian Stan).

An adaptation of the 2011 novel by Donald Ray Pollock (who contributes the narration) and co-produced by Jake Gyllenhaal, The Devil All The Time settles down for a captivating 138 minutes of fluid character-driven storytelling. Breathing deeply from the rustic milieu of small backwater communities where religious fervour obscures reason with startling outcomes, director and co-writer Antonio Campos conjures up overlapping arcs spanning 20 years in the lives of memorable people.

Evil intentions skulking within religious verbiage and outlaw acts stemming from good intentions are the combustible fuel mix. From the moment he stumbles upon a badly wounded soldier nailed to a battlefield cross, Willard then his son Arvin confront a succession of moral dilemmas where the wrong action may be the right thing to do. In a time and place with limited other resources, faith is the most readily available route promising some version of salvation, but here malevolence awaits, charlatans lurking to exploit the vulnerable.

With about 10 influential characters and numerous events to cover, Campos maintains a superb level of intensity by deploying brisk pacing, spikes of gore and a dash of cogent flashbacks to reveal fate's invisible hand at work. From an early 1945 scene at a diner where both Carl and Willard meet their future brides all the way to the final showdown in the shadow of a once-standing cross echoing back to the war, The Devil All The Time carries the sly winks of the past, present and future huddled together. 

The ensemble cast members share the screen time with laudable efficiency, exploiting their moments to maximum effect and quickly establishing inherent conflicts. Harry Melling is suitably unhinged as Roy, his spider jar trick a highlight only until he surpasses his own derangement. Robert Pattinson as a predator disguised as the new preacher in town emits a stench powerful enough to waft right off the screen, while Bill Skarsgård and Tom Holland convince as successive generations of the same conflicted man.

The Devil All The Time is also everywhere and in everyone, some souls succumbing, others resisting by perilously outflanking evil.



All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

Movie Review: Destroyer (2018)

A crime and revenge investigative thriller, Destroyer offers a satisfyingly rich narrative and a complicated protagonist brought to life by an immense Nicole Kidman performance.

Veteran Los Angeles police detective Erin Bell (Kidman) attends the murder scene of an unknown victim. Erin is shunned by most of her colleagues, who consider her a hard-drinking has-been. After receiving a dye pack stained $100 bill in the mail, she deduces notorious gang leader Silas (Toby Kebbell), who specializes in violent bank robberies, is back in action. Many years prior, Erin and Chris (Sebastian Stan), another LAPD detective, infiltrated Silas' gang in an operation that ended badly.

To track down Silas, Erin works through his associates, including former gang members Toby  (James Jordan) and Arturo (Zach Villa), as well as lawyer DiFranco (Bradley Whitford) and Silas' girlfriend and partner-in-crime Petra (Tatiana Maslany). Erin is simultaneously struggling to control the behaviour of her 16 year old daughter Shelby (Jade Pettyjohn), while in flashback, Erin and Chris' dangerous covert mission within Silas' den is revealed.

The story of a tough woman at the end of her rope, Destroyer boasts a multi-layered narrative riding the immense but contorted energy of a compelling central character. Nicole Kidman is exceptional both as the present day broken Erin tracking her nemesis, and the young, wide-eyed rookie sucked into a life of crime within Silas' orbit.

The film is engrossing thanks to Kidman's damaged rage, but it is much more than just a performance showcase. As directed by Karyn Kusama and written by Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi, Destroyer weaves a complex story of greed, romance, loss and retribution around Erin, with plenty of secrets and actions from both her past and present waiting to be disclosed. Everything that could have been predictable is shattered with confounding revelations.

The mother-daughter conflict does not work as well, the scenes of bad-tempered miscommunication between Erin and Shelby emerging as the most routine aspects of the film. Kusama also dangles a wilderness trek rich with possibilities but leaves it unresolved, while the character of Silas could have been provided with more texture.

But the film's weaker moments are outshone by the sharply executed human-centred action scenes, Kusama and Kidman always pausing at the right moments to convey Erin debating her options and gathering up her courage before jumping into action. Gradually the detective evolves into an unforgettable flawed warrior, not so much chasing a criminal as the demons haunting her soul.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.