Tag: Victor Garber

  • ‘Sicario’ hits it out of the ballpark

    ‘Sicario’ hits it out of the ballpark

    Emily Blunt as FBI Agent Kate Macer in 'Sicario'
    Emily Blunt as FBI Agent Kate Macer in ‘Sicario’

    Bleak.  Gritty.  Raw.  Realistic.  Gripping.  There are at least two dozen adjectives that can be properly applied to describe Sicario, the latest film from Denis Villeneuve.  Once again teaming up with cinematographer Roger Deakins, as he did in the excellent movie Prisoners, the results are staggeringly excellent.

    Emily Blunt portrays “Kate Macer” who is the leader of an FBI kidnap/response team.  The film opens as she and her team storm a house near Phoenix where they believe a drug cartel is holding some hostages.  What they find is far more alarming.  In the aftermath, Kate’s partner “Reggie Wayne” (Daniel Kaluuya) is slightly injured in a massive explosion.  In the aftermath of the discovery of what was concealed within the walls of this house, senior FBI officials meet with outside “consultants” one of whom is “Matt Garver” (Josh Brolin).  Describing himself as a “DOD consultant, he wants Kate to be seconded to a team he is assembling to try to get to the head of the cartel believed responsible for the house of horrors in Arizona.

    Emily Blunt and Daniel Kaluuya outside the "House of Horror" in 'Sicario'
    Emily Blunt and Daniel Kaluuya outside the “House of Horror” in ‘Sicario’

    Not sure why she is there, and forced to go without her partner at first, Kate meets “Alejandro Gillick” (Benecio del Toro) who has taken a very interesting path to wind up as part of Garver’s operation.  His team, along with members of the Army’s elite Delta Force, go to Mexico to bring back a prisoner who was being held by the Mexican government.  He is related to one of the leaders of the cartel and they intend to get some info from him that will lead them right up the ladder to the top.  As Garver puts it, “to stir things up.”

    Reggie is brought in eventually and he and Kate go along on another operation, this one to penetrate the border through a secret tunnel.  They don’t know the real reason why they are there and that just intensifies Kate’s frustration with the entire situation.

    Josh Brolin as "Matt Garver" with two of the operators from Delta in 'Sicario'
    Josh Brolin as “Matt Garver” with two of the operators from Delta in ‘Sicario’

    This is one of those movies where there are no real heroes.  Just as in the real-life situation in our nation’s relentless and to this point, futile, war on drugs.  The truth is that for all the busts we see portrayed at the border on “reality” television, massive quantities of illicit drugs continue to pour over our border and this is a rare film that manages to capture this truth.  The action ebbs and flows in a perfect mix with the attempt of Kate to find out why she is involved and what exactly she is involved in doing.

    The best part of this film is the outstanding cinematography work of the brilliant Roger Deakins.  Nominated 12 times for an Academy Award for his work in cinematography, I hope that the 13th time will be charmed for him.  The film is completely engrossing, particularly in one scene as the team is about to cross the border from Mexico back into the United States.  Seldom has so much tension been generated by nondescript cars crawling in a very congested piece of highway.

    Emily Blunt gives a very strong turn as a tough FBI agent who like every human being, does have a breaking point.  The rest of the cast is also excellent and while the script and story aren’t perfect, the minimal flaws are not worth further discussion.  This film is a winner.

  • Director Tarsem Singh’s ‘Self/less’ is sadly, soulless

    Director Tarsem Singh’s ‘Self/less’ is sadly, soulless

    Ryan Reynolds in ‘Self/less’

    Human beings have been in search of immortality since we first learned about death.  Self/less is the latest in a long line of films exploring the ‘what-if’ of being able to live beyond our alloted “three-score and ten” as someone once wrote.

    “Damian Hale” (Kingsley) is a brilliant real estate mogul in New York City who has conquered every challenge in his life save two.  He no longer has a relationship with his daughter “Claire” and he wants that to change.  The motivation for that desire is that he is dying of cancer.  Someone slipped a business card to him anonymously that says the people identified on the card can help him, so deciding he has nothing to lose, he makes the call.

    Ben Kingsley as "Damian Hale" in 'Self/less' before he sheds this body
    Ben Kingsley as “Damian Hale” in ‘Self/less’ before he sheds this body

    He winds up in touch with “Professor Albright” (Goode) who explains that by a process known as shredding, he can have his mind placed into a healthy body that was genetically engineered in his laboratory.  Albright explains that he only offers his services to those who possess great minds, in order to give them more time to accomplish extraordinary things.  Having nothing to lose, Damian goes ahead with the process.

    He awakens in a new body (Reynolds), is given a new identity and access to the large sum of money he set aside for his new life.  After a period of adjustment, he becomes comfortable in his new life except for some apparent “flashbacks” to memories he did not possess prior to the shredding process.  He grows determined to find the origins of these images and this leads to his discovery that his new body isn’t what he was promised.

    Natalie Martinez, Jaynee-Lynne Kinchen and Ryan Reynolds in 'Self/less'
    Natalie Martinez, Jaynee-Lynne Kinchen and Ryan Reynolds in ‘Self/less’

    Few directors have been as hit and miss as Tarsem Singh has been since his 2000 feature film debut with The Cell.  The Fall in 2006 was a masterpiece but his 2011 follow-up Immortals is one of the ten worst films of the current decade thus far.  Mirror Mirror was fun but this is tedious at best.  Visually satisfying to the eye but with story and dialogue that makes it seem longer than its 116 minute run time.  The transition of one morally bankrupt person due to the treachery of another is an idea worthy of exploration but even the best efforts of Ryan Reynolds can’t salvage this movie.  The action/adventure segments aren’t well-done and while it is easy to root for the widow (Martinez) and her adorable daughter (Kinchen), it is very difficult to care about any of the other members of the cast.  Michelle Dockery is good but underused as “Claire” and Victor Garber is excellent as the man who was behind Damian Hale as he ascended to the towers of wealth and power.

    Perhaps the real message should be that we are given a relatively short time here and rather than trying to extend it beyond that to which we were gifted, we should make the most of the precious moments that we have.

    Rating – PG-13 for sequences of violence, some sexuality, and language

    Running time – One hour and fifty-six minutes