Killer Joe Review (Kirk Haviland)

Killer Joe (2012)

Starring Matthew McConaughey, Emile Hirsch, Juno Temple, Gina Gershon and Thomas Haden Church

Written by Tracy Letts

Directed by William Friedkin

Iconic director William Friedkin returns to the big screen this week with Killer Joe, his first feature since 2006’s Bug. The director of classic films like The Exorcist and The French Connection this time around brings us an extremely dark comedy of a murderer for hire that goes wrong in almost every way. Killer Joe may also be the film that brings us the most compelling performance in McConaughey’s career as the titular Joe.

After losing two kilos of drugs from a local supplier, Chris Smith (Hirsch) hatches a plan to get the $6,000 he owes to save his life. Enlisting the help of his father, Ansel (Church), mother-in-law, Sharla (Gershon) and sister, Dottie (Temple), Chris lays out the particulars of his nefarious scheme. You see Chris and Dottie’s mom, Ansel’s ex-wife, has a $50,000 life insurance policy that is all in Dottie’s name. Not having the fortitude to execute the deed of killing her themselves, the group enlists the services of Police Detective Joe Cooper (McConaughey), a corrupt officer that has a thriving murderer-for-hire business on the side. Cooper comes with a set of strict rules for business, one of which is that he gets paid up front in full that Chris and Ansell find out about upon meeting the man. Not getting the money, and despite his own rule, Joe becomes enthralled with the beautiful yet simple minded Dottie and proposes that she become a retainer on funds due. Dottie agrees, very reluctantly and without a lot of notice from Chris and Ansell, to the terms set forth by Cooper leading to a very sensual private dinner between Joe and Dottie. Of course things don’t play out as planned and Chris is left trying to scramble to find a way out for his now infatuated sister, whom he may or may not be obsessed with himself in a very non-brotherly way. And the already dangerous Cooper proves just how dark he can get.

Killer Joe is a very disturbed little film. The script from Tracey Letts does not fear to go where most movies would not. Equal parts wit, kink, and melodrama, Killer Joe takes a simple premise and does something completely original with it. The dialogue is original and crisp; a well-developed script that does contain a predictable twist towards the end, but the manner in which this twist is presented is both uncomfortable and hilarious at the same time. McConaughey is brilliant in the film. His Joe has a menacing nature in every moment he is onscreen, explosive and destructive in the blink of an eye, yet doting on the simple Dottie. Speaking of Dottie, Juno Temple does everything she can to steal this movie from McConaughey. Her performance mesmerizes you when she is onscreen. Temple has been putting together a great string of films and is definitely someone to keep an eye on. The rest of the cast also puts in some solid work, with this probably being the best thing I’ve seen Gershon in the last 10 years. The setting and set design resonate the desperation and broken down dynamic of the family at its core. Friedkin is a master at ratcheting up tension and not letting up when the audience is ready to let go, but exactly when he feels like it, which is epitomized by the final act of the film – it’s relentlessness. You’ll never look at KFC the same way again.

Killer Joe is a brutal and unflinching dark comedy that is also hilarious. Friedkin should be applauded for realizing his vision and doing it so unflinchingly. If you can handle it, Killer Joe is a definite recommend.

Killer Joe starts, hopefully in a theater near you, this Friday Aug 10th. Check your local theater listings for details.

Till Next Time,

Movie Junkie TO

Make sure to keep up with what’s going on at Entertainment Maven by liking our Facebook page and having updates delivered right to your Facebook News Feed. It’s the only way to stay on top of all of our articles with the newest blockbusters and all the upcoming films and festivals in Toronto.

Follow me on twitter @moviejunkieto

Contact me at moviejunkieto@gmail.com

Oslo, August 31st Review (Kirk Haviland)

Oslo, August 31st

Starring Anders Danielsen Lie, Hans Olav Brenner, Ingrid Olava and Malin Crepin

Written by Pierre Drieu La Rochelle, Joachim Trier and Eskil Vogt

Directed by Joachim Trier

Off an extremely successful, record breaking European theatrical run, The TIFF Bell Lightbox welcomes the Cannes sensation Oslo, August 31st for an exclusive first run starting Friday August 10th. The Norwegian film from director Joachim Trier, a distant cousin of maverick director Lars Von Trier, stars the same actor from his award winning directorial debut Reprise, Anders Danielsen Lie, in a heavily character driven piece about a recovering addict and his return to the titular city.

Anders (Danielsen Lie) is a recovering addict in a rural rehab program. Coming near the end of his program Anders has been feeling more and more disconnected and actually does something drastic just to feel something. Given leave so that he may go into Oslo for a job interview, Anders decides to try to connect with his past by first paying a visit to Thomas (Brenner), another former junkie. Thomas, now a family man with two small children and a wife Rebecca (Olava), is happy to reconnect with Anders as he has grown stagnant in his life and yearns for his older, wilder days. Before Anders leaves, Thomas invites him out to a party later that evening, but Anders politely declines. Anders goes out for his interview and it does not go well. He goes to meet his sister for lunch, which goes even worse. Walking around Oslo, observing his surrounding and battling with the inner debate over what to do, Anders ends up at the party. Upon arrival Anders dives right back into the alcohol that he has been recovering from this whole time. As the night carries on Anders continues to slip deeper and deeper back into the lifestyle and the depression that once ruled his life, and continues to make bad choice after bad choice.

Oslo, August 31st is a hard yet engaging watch with a strong lead performance at its core. With not much of a narrative, Oslo, August 31st is a character driven piece that follows the slow descent of Anders back in to the drug fueled underground scene of Oslo that he had worked so hard at climbing out of. The city itself is set up immediately as a character, as the film opens with random thoughts and recollections from a variety of narrators musing about the city itself. Very beautiful to look at, the film’s cinematography is expertly displayed here. Director Trier keeps the film moving and fills the background with interesting scenery and characters that keep us invested in the film. Danielsen Lie is fantastic as the brooding Anders, wearing the pain and emotion on his face that belies the suffering below along with flashing a misleading grin that sucks you in and makes you feel that he may be enjoying the journey back into the dark. The supporting cast does some solid work here, Anders sure brings along a lot of pretty ladies with him, but this is Ander’s story from the very start.

Oslo, August 31st is a fascinating piece of cinema that works on many levels. But be warned, this is not a Hollywood film with a tacked on happy ending, it’s a spiral downwards that keeps going to its bleak and depressing ending, but it’s ultimately a fitting and very believable finish to our time with Anders. Oslo, August 31st is a definite recommend, and I’m betting an early candidate for a Best Foreign Language Academy Award nomination.

Oslo, August 31st starts its exclusive run at the TIFF Bell Lightbox Friday August 10th.

Till Next Time,

Movie Junkie TO

Make sure to keep up with what’s going on at Entertainment Maven by liking our Facebook page and having updates delivered right to your Facebook News Feed. It’s the only way to stay on top of all of our articles with the newest blockbusters and all the upcoming films and festivals in Toronto.

Follow me on twitter @moviejunkieto

Contact me at moviejunkieto@gmail.com

Paul Williams: Still Alive Review (Kirk Haviland)

Paul Williams: Still Alive (2011)

Starring Paul Williams

Written and Directed by Stephen Kessler

In a year where this critic has personally seen some fantastic music documentaries the likes of Marley, My Father and the Man in Black  and Charles Bradley: Soul of America, I was wary that a documentary about singer/songwriter Paul Williams could measure up. Fortunately director Kessler delivers a very personal, funny and engaging film about not only Paul but himself as well. Paul Williams is indeed alive and very feisty in this film, using shot footage mixed with archival footage as we trace the rise, fall and rebirth of the man that wrote the immortal “Rainbow Connection” amongst other classic songs.

Director Kessler starts musing about how he used to admire the 5’2 Williams as a child. Williams had a very storied career in the 70’s, acting in major television shows and movies like Smokey and the Bandit and the cult classic Phantom of the Paradise. Along with recording his own albums Williams wrote chart toppers for David Bowie, The Carpenters and his greatest hit was in collaboration with Barbara Streisand off the A Star is Born soundtrack, a song that won him a Academy Award. Kessler attempts to purchase one of Williams’ albums online and aaccidentally discovers that the man he thought was dead was very much alive. Travelling to Winnipeg, Manitoba for “Phantompaloza” in 2006, celebrating the aforementioned Phantom of the Paradise, Kessler meets a now 16 year sober Williams as her performs a live concert as part of the event. Convincing Williams to allow him to film him for a documentary, Kessler spends the next couple of years filming the sometimes cantankerous Williams, as the two eventually bond over terrorist threats during a tour of the Philippines, and discussing where it all went wrong while simultaneously tracking his career through the 70’s with intercut archival footage. Williams is affected greatly by a clip of him hosting a talk show completely out of his mind on cocaine in the early 80’s, a clip he does not finish watching. Based on this though, as it is one of very limited footage the director could find at the time, Williams opens up his storage unit full of boxes of mementos and rare footage that fills out the documentary.

Gruff at times and loveable at others, Williams comes off as extremely likeable and you really do root for him. The archival footage is fantastic, Williams a regular on shows like The Tonight Show, The Muppet Show, Match Game and many more is a genuinely funny man. Though despite all the accolades, Williams is at his happiest now. With his 3rd wife, he admits he was not a good husband to his first 2, on tour and invested in his career and being completely sober, Williams is enjoying his connection to his fans and being able to perform for them.

While not as strongly produced as the documentaries I mentioned earlier, Paul Williams: Still Alive is still a hell of a lot of fun. The Archival footage is great and there is so much laughter in here mainly because Paul himself is truly hilarious. For a fun light-hearted time I give Paul Williams: Still Alive a solid recommend.

Paul Williams: Still Alive starts an exclusive run at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema on Friday August 10th.

Till Next Time,

Movie Junkie TO

Make sure to keep up with what’s going on at Entertainment Maven by liking our Facebook page and having updates delivered right to your Facebook News Feed. It’s the only way to stay on top of all of our articles with the newest blockbusters and all the upcoming films and festivals in Toronto.

Follow me on twitter @moviejunkieto

Contact me at moviejunkieto@gmail.com

Magic Mike Review (Paolo Kagaoan)

Magic Mike (2012)

Starring Channing Tatum, Alex Pettyfer, and Olivia Munn

Directed by Steven Soderbergh

Andy Richter, in an episode of the Conan O’Brien show, had a valid criticism on Magic Mike – where’s the gay content? One of the actors playing a male stripper, Matt Bomer, is gay, but 100 of the characters ogling him are women. But then again this is not a club within a main street in a large city with an equally large gay population that is most likely to be the target audiences of Club Xquisite. This is a smaller city – Tampa, Florida – and a healthy Google and yelp search would show where the movie’s leading actor and script consultant Channing Tatum, playing the titular Mike, did his stripping in what which looks like a ‘ladies night’ kind of venue. And men who I assume are straight have no problem going to the venue a day before or fifteen minutes before ladies night.

Then again we’re wired to assume that all (sexual) gaze is male and all money (for sexual purposes) is male. However, as we can see, hordes of tiara-wearing bachelorettes are willing to offer their hard earned dollar bills to these men. The movie subverts the gender expectations of who provides for whom not only in a sexual way but also in a fraternal way. Fellow Tampa resident Brooke (Cody Horn) lets her brother Adam (Alex Pettyfer, in a scarily accurate performance as a young bearded American slacker) sleep on her couch before he eventually becomes Mike’s protegee.

But let’s go back to the sexual notions. After Brooke shows moral support for Adam at his new job, she almost leaves until she gets glued to Mike performing to a Ginuwine song, dancing until his oversized thick hoodie and equally oversized sweatpants come off to reveal a svelte body. Horn pulls a great performance in this scene, her stoicism lets us, her audience, project layers of emotion and gender assumptions onto her. She’s disgusted, thinks this is beneath her, is eventually turned on yet almost doesn’t allow herself that same voyeurism that other women in the room are experiencing.

Magic Mike celebrates Tatum’s body as well as providing a critique that most moviegoers only see Tatum – and other men maligned as troglodytes – as a body. Most of the routines involve him as the titular Mike slinking towards the young women in Xquisite. One of the said routines is the Ginuwine routine, dancing to a song that’s as universally deemed as sexy as he is. His hoodie and sweatpants can’t hide what’s underneath. It’s the way he carries himself, Tatum fleshing out a virtuoso performance as himself.

But this quality of letting people know what he looks like naked even if he’s fully clothed might not be such a good thing. A scene in the movie’s second half opens with the camera looking over Mike’s uber-muscular shoulder, dressed in an expensive suit that looks like it got shrunk in its temporary stay at the dry cleaners. He takes out a big stack of American bills and gets ready for a meeting with someone who might be able to give him a loan for his furniture business. What ensues, despite the meeting’s early promise, is a less sadistic but equally heartbreaking version the Aileen Wuornos’ job interview scene in Monster. He can’t have a loan because his credit rating is too low, if not nonexistent, because he prefers to do his transactions through cash. I felt like admonishing him across the screen, but then again he might not have gone to a college where credit companies peddle themselves to the students, or that his job stops him from being approved to get credit.

Mike can get his iPhone and his house through cash but not a loan to expand his business, and he has to choose between staying with the comfortable life that he has now or forging a more legitimate path, as difficult as it is. This movie, despite its flaws, capably portrays the hurdles within a well-deconstructed and criticized notion of the American dream as well as showing us what Joe Manganiello’s penis looks like inside a pump.

Like Entertainment Maven on Facebook

Moon Point Review (Kirk Haviland)

Moon Point

Starring Nick McKinlay, Paula Brancati, Kyle Mac, Kristen Gutoskie and Art Hindle

Written by Robert Lazar, James Luscombe, Tammy Stone and Elke Town

Directed by Sean Cisterna

Arriving in stores on Tuesday Aug 7th from Anchor Bay entertainment is the quirky little Canadian indie comedy that made the rounds on the festival circuit earlier this year, Moon Point. With a cast mainly made up of friends of the production team and director, the micro-budgeted Moon Point sets out to charm us but does it have enough substance above the quirk and randomness to succeed?

We start by meeting Darryl Sytrozka (McKinlay), a slacker supreme still living with and off his mother as his only source of income is a meager paper route he splits with his wheelchair bound friend Femur (Mac). During his cousin Lars’ engagement party, thrown at his house by his mother, Darryl is bombarded by family members all asking him when he plans to get his act together. One night Darryl sees a news story asking for extras in a locally shot horror film and its star is coincidentally the grown up version of the 10 year old girl that was his first love. Determined that meeting his long lost love Sarah Cherry (Gutoskie) again will finally allow him to hit the proverbial restart button on his life and find some purpose. So Darryl grabs Femur and his new scooter and hits the road for the multiple day trip to Moon Point, Darryl being dragged along behind in a wagon at the blistering speed of about 5 miles per hour. Along the way they meet the usual variety of bizarre characters, including a man in a banana suit (Hindle), and their group grows to three with the inclusion of Kristin (Brancati), who is running away from her own problems. The three carry on, fight and break up along the way until they reach the titular Moon Point.

Moon Point suffers from the same problems that other films trying to emulate the likes of Wes Anderson fall victim to. The difference is that no matter how much quirk and supposed randomness may be all over films like Moonrise Kingdom, the essence of what drives the film and makes it work is the strong story at its core. Moon Point’s focus is more on the situation and set pieces than the story behind this and it suffers for it. The film is muddled and unfocused with points that are very funny and parts that fall very flat. Does having a bad karaoke sequence as a major gag in a film ever work? The actors are really let down by the script here. McKinlay and Mac are passable, they have some chemistry that works. Brancati is our highlight here as she embodies the adorable spunky girl who spins the hearts of our two best friends around her finger. For the little time that she appears on screen the gorgeous Gutoskie does an admirable job as the unrequited love of Darryl’s past. Hindle, as usual, delivers a scene stealing supporting performance that makes you wish there was more. The film looks good as the meager budget does not translate onscreen as anything but a much larger production. Location scouting and cinematography really help flesh out the background. Though despite its great look and casting, the failings of the film still come back to script and direction.

Sadly Moon Point does not work enough for me to be able to get behind it. Moon Point is a non-recommend.

Till Next Time

Movie Junkie TO

Make sure to keep up with what’s going on at Entertainment Maven by liking our Facebook page and having updates delivered right to your Facebook News Feed. It’s the only way to stay on top of all of our articles with the newest blockbusters and all the upcoming films and festivals in Toronto.

Follow me on twitter @moviejunkieto

Contact me at moviejunkieto@gmail.com