It's that time once again, when the hangover begins to subside and the biting winter winds can be felt. An icy realisation sinks in... it's January again, yuck. I'm cold, penniless, and even worse I've watched a bunch of movies and forgotten to talk about them at all. New Year, New Memory Loss. There are a variety of things I wanted to write up and probably many more that I have yet to digest. It's never going to be as comprehensive as I would like, but that's often the way of things. There are always more to enjoy, endure or suffer through, but here are just a few.
BABY DRIVER (2017)
Let's get down to it and start with Edgar Wright's long gestating music fuelled crime thriller, with all of it's influences from Hill to Melville and beyond. It starts strong with an opening heist set piece that shows us all the great action chase magic that we could want, along with all kinds of accompanying soundtrack wizardry. Baby (Ansel Elgort) has permanent tinnitus from a childhood tragedy and so he has to listen to music while he works as a getaway driver - which also comes in handy with his timing of the jobs. The first act is all pretty solid as his life in Atlanta unfolds, and we learn that he is of course not a bad guy at heart, he's just unlucky enough to have the right skills for the wrong crowd.
We see his daily grind, life with his father figure, and of course his plans for one last job. However the rest of the story is a lot more uneven, and the kind of perfectly timed jukebox tracks never really fit together the same way after their initial tease. The action itself is never quite as sharp as those first few minutes, and the music never feels quite as cleverly implemented. In terms of the storyline it's all pretty basic genre stuff with shady crooks, conniving crime bosses, and bland romantic interests. It feels a little flat, and lacks both grit and depth. There's something missing, and I have a feeling that it's the writing of Simon Pegg. Something like Hot Fuzz nailed all of these homage elements but had more heart and brains. It's enjoyable for the most part, but I take no pleasure in saying I needed much more from this.
3/5
VALERIAN (2017)
Onto something that I found far more aggravating, since Luc Besson is back in the director's chair again. This time he's trying to recapture some of that old style magic using ideas from French comics directly, rather than just as an inspiration like in The Fifth Element. However unlike that earlier Mœbius styled adventure which had the likes of Bruce Willis, Ian Holm and Gary Oldman at the centre, this is bizarrely devoid of character outside of all the weird and wonderful locations. Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Laureline (Cara Delavingne) are just terrible, both as action stars and as romantic leads. Valerian is constantly doing some kind of weird tough guy voice the whole time which never works, and their motivations and decisions throughout are about as as muddled as the narrative.
It's as if they couldn't figure out how to write an anti-hero meets action-woman duo... and just threw a bunch of random clichés together in any random order. There are hints of things starting to come together as a pure space fantasy spectacle movie, with a great intro sequence (set to Space Oddity) showing how humanity first built towards the future, and some big action moments are fun. The promotional materials featured a lot taken from a corridor chase set piece as Valerian smashes through various alien worlds inside one gargantuan colony, and it's probably the standout moment. But everything else is so dry, so tonally messy, and so tedious, it's a tragedy to see so much design work go to waste. It feels alien in all the wrong ways. The plot itself is fairly basic but it's told in a convoluted way full of long expository pauses at the wrong moments, and it's in dire need of a new cast, a new editor and any sense of adventure.
1/5
ATOMIC BLONDE (2017)
There's a running theme occurring here with music playing to striking visual montages, and this is an idea which feels at its most direct here. Like Baby Driver there are a series of action sequences set to catchy pop tunes, and like Valerian all the best bits were used in trailers. But where does it stack up in terms of entertainment value between the two? Well... somewhere right in the middle unfortunately. While Edgar Wright purposefully chose his soundtrack to use in a specific way, planned out over years; here it's more of an overt gimmick that makes everything feel like a music video. Style comes first with on screen text and lots of dramatic lighting, engaging storytelling comes second. This sort of feeling crept in occasionally during the John Wick films, but it never outstayed its welcome like this. It shares some DNA but it isn't stripped down enough to feel compelling.
Instead what we get is a Cold War spy thriller that feels like there are two movies being smashed together; one being a series of neon coloured synth band promos, and the other being a cold, clinical John le Carré wannabe. It suffers from a serious pacing problem because of this, and everything that happens has a stop and start motion as Charlize Theron talks about finding a list of East Berlin agents in one moment, before starting to breaking bones and shoot guns in another. Music tracks inside the film itself start on cassette players or on car stereos, then fade in and out pausing to let the action or the dialogue come to the front. But this happens so often in the same way that any novelty is immediately lost. There are some great uses of Peter Schilling and New Order peppered throughout, and some fight scenes are fun; but there's never enough substance, and it just becomes exhausting after a while.
2/5
SPLIT (2016)
So with one tenuous link down let's move on to the next. Here we have another appearance from James McAvoy so I should probably get in a quick review of M. Night's latest feature while we're here. There are still a few gimmicky feeling elements going on (one actor doing many personalities) but in this case it's actually all pretty engaging. The premise on the outset is simple at first, as a sinister figure (sometimes) calling himself Kevin kidnaps a trio of girls from a parking lot and keeps them in his creepy basement. The reasons are unclear, but it has something do with the arrival of 'the beast'. Whether this is all in his head, just another personality, or something weirder is left unexplained for most of the story, and we're just left with these characters and the situation.
It's odd, it's atmospheric, and it's got a great central performance. Anya Taylor-Joy from The VVitch is also good as the main protagonist; a troubled girl trapped in a bad situation with two others she isn't really that friendly with. The mostly single location is used very well, and they get some good mileage from an eerie underground setting set full of wires, plumbing and shadowy rooms. It sort of undoes some of this during the third act as Kevin's shrink starts to figure out what's really been going on, and the reveals are a bit too much by the end. But there's enough suspense, dark humour and general oddness to keep things interesting, despite an unnecessary sequel hook being shoved in at the last minute. Still, to get from Lady in the Water to this, it looks like things are starting to work out despite the incredibly long and incredibly arduous detour.
3/5
