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Tag Archives: Ex-con

Blood Father (2016)

28 Sunday Aug 2016

Posted by dullwood68 in Movies

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Action, Crime, Diego Luna, Drama, Erin Moriarty, Ex-con, Jean-François Richet, Literary adaptation, Mel Gibson, Michael Parks, New Mexico, Peter Craig, Thriller, William H. Macy

Blood Father

D: Jean-François Richet / 88m

Cast: Mel Gibson, Erin Moriarty, Diego Luna, Michael Parks, William H. Macy, Miguel Sandoval, Dale Dickey, Thomas Mann, Richard Cabral, Daniel Moncada, Ryan Dorsey, Raoul Trujillo

The recent career of Mel Gibson has seen him appear in one movie per year since 2010 (with the exception of 2015). While personal troubles have dogged him over the last ten years, and caused him no end of embarrassment – and given Ricky Gervais the opportunity to make one of the best jokes about an actor, ever – Gibson has tended to stick to the action genre that has stood him in such good stead in the past. Aside from his role in The Beaver (2011), Gibson’s choice of roles has seen him engage fitfully with the material on offer, and he’s been the villain in two action sequels that should have been much, much better: Machete Kills (2013) and The Expendables 3 (2014).

But now, with Blood Father, Gibson finally has a role he can really sink his teeth into, and the result is a performance that serves as a (much-needed) reminder of just how good an actor he really is. An adaptation of the novel by Peter Craig, and co-written by Craig and Andrea Berloff, the blood father of the title is an ex-con by the name of John Link. He’s been out of the joint for a year, and sober for two. He lives in a trailer outside a small town in New Mexico, and is a tattooist by trade. He’s also divorced, and has a seventeen year old daughter, Lydia (Moriarty). But Lydia has been missing for the last three years, ever since she ran away from the home she shared with her mother and her mother’s third husband. John has hopes of finding her one day, but without any clues as to her whereabouts, it’s unlikely he will.

Blood Father - scene3

It’s Lydia who finds him. Having gotten involved with a junior member of a Mexican cartel, Jonah Pincerna (Luna), Lydia finds herself in very deep trouble when Jonah raids the home of someone who’s been stealing from him. As a test of her loyalty he asks her to kill the woman there; Lydia ends up shooting Jonah instead. On the run, and with no one else she can call, Lydia contacts John and he arranges to meet her. He takes Lydia back to his trailer, but it’s not long before Jonah’s crew turn up looking for her. The ensuing gunfight prompts John to leave and take Lydia with him, and to find out more about Jonah and his connections. After a lucky escape from the police, John discovers that the cartel have sent a hitman (Trujillo) to kill Lydia.

A reunion with an old army buddy, Preacher (Parks), goes awry when he attempts to claim the missing persons reward money put up when Lydia ran away. She and John manage to get away, and at a motel they change their appearances, John shedding his beard and Lydia dyeing her hair blonde. While John travels to a nearby penitentiary to visit an old friend, Arturo Rios (Sandoval), who has concrete information about Jonah, Lydia is persuaded to take herself to a public place by John’s sponsor, Kirby (Macy), and trust no one. But it’s a set up, and Lydia is abducted. Her abductors contact John, and a rendezvous in the desert is arranged, but it’s a rendezvous that is likely to end in both of them being dead…

Blood Father - scene2

Fans of Mel Gibson the actor will be glad to see that his performance in Blood Father is very definitely a return to form. Ostracised and pilloried for the racist remarks he’s made in the past, Gibson seemed to be getting by on the goodwill of others – Jodie Foster, Robert Rodriguez, Sylvester Stallone etc. – and while he’s still a highly watchable actor in his own right, there was always a feeling over the last few years that Gibson wasn’t trying too hard, that the work he was taking on couldn’t have been challenging for him, and so he wouldn’t rise to the challenge. Here, though, Gibson has found a role that is not only challenging, but inspiring, rewarding, and above all, one of the best fits for his skills as an actor.

Inevitably, there’s more than a smidgeon of Martin Riggs lurking inside the character’s DNA. Witness John’s response to the arrival of Jonah’s henchmen and the gunfight that follows: he’s dismissive of them, and once they open fire and he has to deal with them he gives angry voice to the variety of ways that their appearance will lead to his breaking parole. He’s pissed off, he’s mostly unconcerned by their firepower, and he can’t wait around for the police – the sensible thing to do – because he’s convinced they won’t believe a word he says. Playing John with a fatalism that speaks volumes for the character’s mindset, Gibson gives one of the best performances of his entire career, and proves as mesmeric an actor as he was back in the late Eighties, early Nineties. As he scowls and growls his way through the movie, Gibson also imbues John with a subtle vulnerability that adds depth to the character and makes his need to reconnect with Lydia entirely credible.

Blood Father - scene1

Thanks to the combination of Gibson’s performance, Craig and Berloff’s astringent screenplay, and Richet’s sharp, purposeful direction, Blood Father is more than just a standard action drama punctuated by brief, kinetic bursts of violence. It has an off-centre sense of humour, is sure-footed enough to keep John and Lydia’s relationship free from sentiment, makes very good use indeed of its stunning New Mexico locations (beautifully lensed by DoP Robert Gantz), and above all, maintains a level of tension that many other so-called thrillers fail to achieve for even a fraction of the movie’s running time. As a return to form, Gibson couldn’t have picked a better vehicle or character, and the movie is proof positive that he’s still as mercurial an actor as ever, and that when the right role comes along, he’s nigh-on untouchable.

Rating: 8/10 – with deft supporting turns from the likes of Sandoval and Macy allied to Moriarty’s low-key, sympathetic portrayal of Lydia, Blood Father is more than just a vigorous action thriller; despite its awkward title, the movie explores themes of loss and regret, hope and sacrifice, that elevate the narrative beyond its basic, conventional set-up and make it one of the more astute “relationship dramas” out there.

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Fruitvale Station (2013)

13 Friday Jun 2014

Posted by dullwood68 in Movies

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Tags

BART, Bay Area, Drama, Ex-con, Fruitvale, Melonie Diaz, Michael B. Jordan, Octavia Spencer, Oscar Grant III, Review, Ryan Coogler, Shooting, Transit police, True story

Fruitvale Station

D: Ryan Coogler / 85m

Cast: Michael B. Jordan, Melonie Diaz, Octavia Spencer, Kevin Durand, Chad Michael Murray, Ahna O’Reilly, Ariana Neal, Keenan Coogler, Trestin George, Joey Oglesby, Michael James, Marjorie Crump-Shears

Oscar Grant III (Jordan) is a twenty-two year old resident of the Bay Area in San Francisco.  On New Year’s Eve 2008 he has a number of  problems he’s trying to deal with: he’s had a one night stand that his girlfriend Sophina (Diaz) hasn’t fully forgiven him for, he’s been unemployed for two weeks but hasn’t told Sophina, he’s holding drugs that he is expected to sell, the rent is due on January 1st and he doesn’t have the money, and to cap it all it’s his mother’s birthday (more of a welcome distraction than a problem, but still something to be added to the mix).  Oscar has done time and is trying to make a new life for himself, but all these problems seem to be holding him back.

As the day progresses we see him struggle with the demands of being a father – to his endearing daughter, Tatiana (Neal) – of being an ex-employee trying to get his job back, and how to put his drug-related past behind him.  He sees or speaks to friends and family, helps out a stranger in the supermarket where he used to work, antagonises his ex-boss, shows some kindness to a stray dog that gets run over, he gets rid of the drugs he’s holding, and he helps organise his mother’s birthday party.  After the party, Oscar, Sophina and some of their friends take the train to the Embarcadero to see in the New Year.  Returning home around two a.m., an altercation breaks out on the train as it arrives at the Fruitvale Station.  Transit cops at the station detain Oscar and three of his friends.  When one of them is handcuffed, Oscar protests enough for two of the cops – Officers Caruso (Durand) and Ingram (Murray) – to restrain him face down on the ground.  In the process of handcuffing Oscar, Ingram stands clear enough to draw his gun and shoot Oscar in the back…

Fruitvale Station - scene

By now, anyone watching Fruitvale Station will probably know that Oscar died from his wounds (though it does come as a bit of a shock to learn that had he lived, he would have done so minus his right lung).  In recreating the events leading up to and surrounding Oscar’s death, writer/director Coogler has created a fascinating and complex movie that doesn’t paint Oscar as a resolutely good man, but as a man beset by doubts and fears, and with a temper that can get the better of him – as best displayed in a flashback scene set on New Year’s Eve 2007, when Oscar was in prison (it also helps to explain why the altercation on the train came to happen).  He’s also a generous man, a devoted dad, and doing his best to get his life moving forward on a new track.  He has hopes and dreams, just like everyone else, and it’s this mix of good and bad that makes Oscar so credible as a person, and Jordan’s performance so convincing.

It’s a tribute to Coogler’s handling of the material that even though we know the eventual outcome of the movie, there’s little or no attempt to foreshadow the events that occurred on the platform at Fruitvale Station (the encounter with the stray dog comes close, highlighting as it does Oscar’s innate concern for others, a factor in what happened on the platform).  It’s not until his mother, Wanda (Spencer) persuades him to take the train that night, and not drive, that the often – in movies, at least – convenient hand of Fate steps in.  Once the fight breaks out on the train, the movie also speeds up, swapping its laid-back editing style (courtesy of Claudia Costello and Michael Shawver) for a brisker, faster-paced approach that lends an urgency to the inevitability of Oscar’s shooting.  And when the fatal shot is fired, the investment in Oscar that Coogler has built up, makes it all the more shocking.  It’s an unforgettable moment, and the suddenness of it is like a blow.

Being a true story there have been the usual claims and counter-claims about the movie’s authenticity, with various scenes coming under fire for not having happened at all (the scene with the dog), while Coogler has been accused of manipulating events to suit the needs of the movie.  It’s a very emotive issue, but any movie based on real events will always be “unfaithful” in some respects, and artistic licence will always play a part in how such a movie is put together.  And Fruitvale Station is no different.  But what it gets right is the everyday nuances of Oscar’s life, and the absolute injustice meted out to him by an officer who over-reacted in a situation he wasn’t fully in control of (it’s interesting that while Oscar and his family are known by their real names, the officers involved in Grant’s death have been renamed).  With these aspects so well constructed and identified, the movie gains a strength that is at once restrained and grimly moving.

Jordan (as mentioned above) is convincing throughout, and shows a range and quality to his performance that elevates his portrayal of Oscar, and he’s both sensitive and quietly eloquent.  It’s a bravura performance, as effective for its quiet moments as its dramatic ones.  The rest of the cast put in equally sensitive performances – Spencer’s turn as Oscar’s mother fully encapsulating the sadness she must have felt at the tragic result of persuading Oscar to take the train – though Durand is perhaps a little too heavy-handed as one of the cops that pin Oscar to the ground (he starts off as angry and unyielding and stays that way).

Rating: 8/10 – whatever your thoughts about the merits of adapting a true story for the screen, Fruitvale Station is one of the more honourable movies out there, and avoids any hint of sensationalism with ease; with a superb performance from Jordan, and inspired direction from Coogler, Oscar Grant’s final twenty-four hours are treated with both an admirable constraint and an unsuppressed sense of outrage.

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The Wendell Baker Story (2005)

19 Wednesday Mar 2014

Posted by dullwood68 in Movies

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Tags

Andrew Wilson, Eva Mendes, Ex-con, Fake driving licences, Harry Dean Stanton, Illegal immigrants, Luke Wilson, OAPs, Owen Wilson, Pension scam, Retirement home, Review, Seymour Cassel, Shady Grove

Wendell Baker Story, The

D: Andrew Wilson, Luke Wilson / 99m

Cast: Luke Wilson, Eva Mendes, Seymour Cassel, Harry Dean Stanton, Owen Wilson, Eddie Griffin, Jacob Vargas, Kris Kristofferson, Will Ferrell

The less successful of the Wilson brothers, Luke has had a patchy career in comparison with his older, A-list sibling Owen, but he’s often provided audiences with more enjoyable offerings – Henry Poole Is Here vs Drillbit Taylor anyone? – even if they haven’t had the same box office success. In The Wendell Baker Story, Luke enlists his brother’s help in telling the story of a man who sells counterfeit driving licences to illegal immigrants before a spell in jail shows him his true calling in life: working in the hotel industry. But when he’s finally paroled, he finds himself working at a retirement home instead.

The home, Shady Grove, is run by Neil King (Owen Wilson). King isn’t interested in providing proper care for the residents, and is running a scam that he thinks Wendell will be the perfect patsy for if it comes to light (the scam involves him falsifying residents’ being there but still claiming their pensions and selling their medication on the black market). As Wendell gets to know everyone better, including Boyd Fullbright (Cassel) and Skip Summers (Stanton), he begins to realise just how bad things are at Shady Grove. With the help of reclusive resident Nasher (Kristofferson), and ex-associate from his driving licence days, Reyes (Vargas), Wendell, Boyd and Skip travel to King’s mother’s home – where the supposed “residents” are actually being hidden – to rescue them and so expose King’s scheme.

Alongside this, Wendell is trying to win back the love of his life, Doreen (Mendes). They were together before he went to prison but while he was inside, Doreen moved on and is now seeing a supermarket owner, Dave (Ferrell). Wendell makes a couple of clumsy attempts to win her back but he doesn’t reckon on just how disillusioned Doreen is with him, even if he is trying to get his life back on track.

Wendell Baker Story, The - scene

Wendell himself is an endearing character, Wilson’s boyish charm going a long way to making the audience like him. He has an innate goodness that anyone can see a mile off, and a small measure of naiveté to match. He gets along with anyone and is able to mend bridges between people (though the prison scene where he gets the Aryans and the Crips to gather in a group hug is a little too far-fetched). But as much as Wendell is a nice guy he’s also a little dull, and Wilson doesn’t add much else to the mix to make him more interesting. That’s left to Cassel and Stanton who make each scene they’re in that much more watchable, especially when they chat up two young women at a store; they inhabit their roles in a way that Wilson doesn’t. The older Wilson is the same, putting in only half a performance and coasting his way through the movie, leaving King looking less like a serious adversary and more like an unconvincing playground bully.

However, the fault for all this lies squarely at the feet of Luke Wilson. As the movie’s writer, star and co-director (with the eldest Wilson brother), Luke fumbles the ball in terms of characterisation and story. Everything is done with a light touch, as if the idea of adding some depth to the movie was anathema, or might spoil the overall effect. While this doesn’t make for a bad movie per se, it does undermine its potential; it’s still enjoyable on a superficial what-you-see-is-what-you-get level, but viewers will probably have seen many other similar movies already. And here, familiarity comes very close to breeding apathy rather than contempt.

But somehow, despite all this, The Wendell Baker Story does raise more smiles than groans, and Wilson’s goofy demeanour does endear. The by-the-numbers plot still works somehow, and the underlying message – that our elders should be treated with respect and as still-valuable members of society – is put across without too much sermonising. Cassel and Stanton are a pleasure to watch (Stanton should do more comedy while he can), there’s a couple of good sight gags, and Ferrell contributes a great cameo.

Rating: 5/10 – in school grade terms, The Wendell Baker Story earns a C- and a recommendation to do better; lacklustre for the most part but amusing enough to save it from being a complete dud.

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