23. Nightcrawler

November 15th in Chicago. Dan Gilroy makes his directorial debut in this Fincher-esque thriller starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo (director's wife), Bill Paxton and Riz Ahmed. Gyllenhaal is Lous Bloom, a bit of sleazoid and budding sociopath. Louis is robbing a construction site  when he beats up (or kills maybe?) a security guard and takes his watch. While trying to sell his haul to a contractor he asks about a job and he's turned down because he's a thief. Louis stumbles upon a car accident and meets Joe Loder (Paxton), a freelance cameraman filming the accident. Louis has found his calling.

Louis steals a bike and trades it for a camcorder and a police scanner to go looking for trouble. Louis films the aftermath of a carjacking and sells the footage to Nina (Russo) at Channel 6. Amped up by Nina's advice, Louis hustles and gets some good stuff. He even hires an intern, Rick (Ahmed) to help him out. Nina likes his work and he gets better payoffs. He soon upgrades his camera equipment, scanner and gets a fast car. Louis' hustle and drive (he goes so far as to start staging accident scenes to make things more gory, "if it bleeds it leads.") are what separates him from the likes of Loder. Loder, who has given the ungrateful Louis a lot of tips, tries to hire Louis but Louis turns him down. Loder then scoops Louis and reminds him that it could've been him. Louis decides to tip the scales in his favor by sabotaging Loder's van so it gets in an accident. When the call comes over the scanner about the accident, Louis is there to film the badly injured Loder being extracted from his mangled vehicle.

Since the only female Louis has anything resembling a relationship with, decides to pressure her into sleeping with him by threatening to take his footage elsewhere. Louis' big moment is when he and Rick beat the police to a home invasion in an affluent LA suburb. Louis films the culprits leaving the house then goes inside to film the carnage. The triple homicide leads to police detectives requesting the edited tape from Nina and eventually Louis finds himself being questioned as well. It turns out that the incident was a result of a bad drug deal but Nina opts not to use the info and keep with the "terror in the suburbs" angle. Louis uses the footage of the killers, footage that he conveniently edited out of the footage he gave to Nina and neglected to tell the police about. His plan is for him and Rick to follow the killers into situation where an arrest will be worth filming. He follows the killers to a restaurant and dials 911. The cops show up, a shoot occurs and then a high speed chase that ends in brutal accident. Louis lures Rick by telling him its safe to film the dead shooter. The shooter still has some life left and he guns down Rick while the camera is rolling. The film ends with Louis giving a motivational speech to his new interns and his 2 new vans.

Gilroy, who has more writing credits than directing credits, does a real nice job of showing the dark, gritty and often morally ambiguous side of "nightcrawling," the freelance journalism of chasing down crime, accidents and fires. It's sh*tty work but someone's got to do it apparently. Excellent performances all around. Gyllenhaal is excellent is the sociopathic Louis who apparently memorized a self-help book. Once he gets going, nothing will stand in his way. I still think he killed the security guard he tussles with in the beginning of the film. Louis is a creepy guy that one should back away from when he enters the room and starts talking. Russo is great as the washed up reporter turned editor who's kind of down on her luck until she meets Louis. The footage that Louis provides give Nina's career a boost and she does some things that are morally reprehensible and I think she knows it. But she's all about her career, after all as Louis put it, she "works the vampire shift" at the worst rated news station in the city. What choice does she have.

This is a very, very good film that is worth watching. This is one of the better films I've seen this year. Check it out.

22. St. Vincent

November 8th in Chicago. Bill Murray is Vincent; a retired, gambling, alcoholic, bitter Viet Nam veteran living in Sheepheads Bay, NY. Vincent lives alone and the only relationships he has is with his bar pals, Daka (Naomi Watts) the pregnant Russian prostitute that visits him weekly and his bookie (Terrance Howard). After driving home drunk and sleeping it off on the kitchen floor, Vincent is awoken to the sound of a tree branch falling on his car caused by the movers bringing in Vincent's new neighbors, recently divorced mother Maggie (Melissa McCarthy) and her son Oliver (Jaeden Lieberher).

The story is pretty simple, bitter Vincent starts to look out for bullied Oliver. Vincent and Oliver begin to take a shine to each other. Vincent endows Oliver with some street smarts and Oliver gets Vincent to become a little less bitter. Now Vincent does not like people but he always seems to do the right thing. He has a wife that has Alzheimer's that he visits in the nursing home weekly. He seems content with showing the world what a jerk he is instead of a cantankerous old man with a good heart. Vincent suffers a stroke when his bookie comes to collect. Maggie, Oliver and Daka all pitch in to help Vincent. Oliver gets assigned an assignment to find an everyday saint from his parochial school and guess who he chooses? Turns out that Vincent was a decorated veteran who saved some his fellow soldiers in Viet Nam and he's been visiting his wife for years despite the fact that she doesn't remember him.

This was a good film and a nice role for Murray but he seems to play and older less affluent version of Herman Blume from Rushmore. Solid acting all the way around especially Lieberher as Oliver. The film was written and directed by Theodore Melfi. Melfi has 15 producer credits since 1998 and has a few shorts to his director credits. There are plot points in the film that come off as potential big moments but don't pay off. Vincent takes Oliver to the track and with advice from Oliver, Vincent wills the trifecta. Vincent gives Oliver a cut and opens a bank account for him. Vincent empties the account but nothing every becomes of it. He still gets to be "canonized" by Oliver. When Maggie's ex-husband forces a custody hearing, it comes out that Vincent has taken Oliver to the track and to the bar. Maggie's ex then gets visitation rights. Again no repercussions. I guess since it's Bill Murray, it's all good.

This is not a bad film but it isn't all that great either. There's not a whole lot that's new and it seems Melfi is trying to make a quirky, character driven film a la Wes Anderson. There are some flaws but its a good film with solid acting all around. Worth a view if your a Murray fan for sure. 

21. The Quiet Ones

This was another On Demand viewing (this is a nice system that I am taking advantage of) that took place on November 7th. My girlfriend and I dig scary films. Now, I am partial to the stalk/slash films (from my 80s childhood) but she's into more possession type films. We've done a few Netflix binges that had some decent films and some bad ones. Which is the problem with these particular films, they are hit or miss. They flood the market and all can look pretty cool in the trailer but it's a crap shoot.

The film is loosely based on the Philip Experiment, where a group of parapsychologists try to prove that the supernatural does not exist (that usually means that it does indeed exist and with dire consequences). Jared Harris plays Professor Coupland, the Oxofrd professor leading the experiment, rounding out his team are Krissi (Erin Richards), the group hottie, Harry (Rory Fleck-Byrne) and Brian (Sam Claflin). Krissi and Harry are students of Professor Coupland and Brian is the cameraman hired to chronicle the experiment. The subject of the experiment is Jane (Olivia Cooke) a young woman who's spent most of her life institutionalized for various alleged mental disorders. Coupland manages to get a hold of her, convinced that she's not crazy and has the ability to manifest weird sh*t when provoked.

Since the mental health laws are pretty lax in England in the 70s, Coupland manages to stash Jane away in a remote country manor (remote being equal to death). The group take turns keeping an eye on Jane and also trying to provoke her manifestations. Sure enough, weird sh*t begins to happen and it starts to freak everyone out.

This constitutes weird.

As the weirdness mounts Coupland and the rest start to come unglued. Brian starts to fall for Jane and decides to do some investigating as he questions Coupland's story about her origins. What he finds out (without the internet mind you) is that Coupland lied about a previous experiment with a patient that turned out to be his son and that Jane's manifestation, Evey, actually killed the members of the cult that worshipped her in a fire. Jane is really Evey (not too sure how this happened but it did). Allegedly. Jane/Evey uses her telekinetic powers to dispatch Harry and Krissi in gruesome fashion. Coupland subdues Jane/Evey and knocks out Brian when they argue over her. Jane is strapped down to  gurney as Coupland is going to give her a lethal injection to stop her heart long enough for the negative energy to dissipate and cure her, allegedly. Brian breaks free, beats up Coupland and revives Jane/Evey. Jane/Evey mentally removes Brian from the room, kills Coupland and sets herself on fire. The film ends sometime in the future with Brian clearly institutionalized being asked about the events of the fire (he's been blamed for everyone's death), he goes a little crazy and his hands start burning just like Jane's. Fade to black.

This film moved a little slow and quite frankly was not that good. It mixes the 1st person narrative with "found footage" and it doesn't work all that well. There are some genuine scary moments but it's not enough to overcome the drabness. Jane/Evey is a bit too derivative of Carrie White and Charlie McGee and the rest of the characters were cliche as well (not only is Krissi sleeping with Harry but she's seeing Coupland on the side as well, a bit too cliche and it does nothing for the plot). The Taking of Deborah Logan is a better film in my opinion.

20. The Taking of Deborah Logan

I saw this film on Netflix on November 1st. This film was released on October 21st, a Tuesday, which means that it was a direct to dvd. Allegedly. I am putting it on this list because this film is the very definition of a hidden gem. It was produced by X-Men director Bryan Singer and not some unknown person. Usually with these types of films I issue a warning because there's so many of them that get released, you never what can be good or bad. Especially the "found footage" types.

Mia (Michelle Ang) is going for her PHD, she decides to make a documentary about Deborah Jill Larson), a woman with Alzheimer's. Mia is going to document Deborah's deteriorating mental state. Deborah is cared for by her daughter Sarah (Anne Ramsay) who lets the film crew into her home mostly because she needs the money. The crew is rounded out by sound guy Gavin and cameraman Luis. Things start off nice but then the weird stuff starts to happen. It slowly builds up and it comes to a head when Deborah starts to hurt herself.

Things get escalate from bad to worse and the weird sh*t keeps piling up and things get downright scary. Deborah's doctor can't explain it, and she goes through a battery of tests but nothing explains the behavior. Things get even more weird when Harris (Ryan Cutrona) starts getting a little too protective of Deborah. After a strange incident where Deborah's old switchboard mysteriously starts working after 30 years, the crew starts doing some digging and comes to find out that there were 4 murders committed by the town doctor who was never apprehended. After another trip to this hospital Deborah abducts a young girl with cancer and disappears with her but is found after a search.

It turns out that the four murders were part of a demonic sacrifice that was never completed and the demon (which will grant immortality) still needs a body. Harris frees Deborah from her restraints, and get attacked for his troubles and she abducts the girl again and takes off to the cave where the murders took place 30 years ago. The crew goes after Deborah and manages to bring the girl back safely after subduing Deborah.

This happened. Very creepy.

Deborah survives but she is in a completely vegetative state when she goes to trial for the murders she committed during the abduction. The film closes with an interview of the girl who survived the abduction and the cancer. At the end of the interview the girl gives the camera a look where maybe when Deborah tried to devour her, something transferred into her.

This was a low budget thriller that borrows heavily from films that have come before it. Derivative? You bet but what film isn't? Especially these types of horror films. This film is currently available on Netflix and I recommend and taking the 90 minutes out of your night and watching it if you're into these types of films. 

18. Fury

October 24th in Chicago. Written and directed by the talented David Ayer  the film is set in 1945 where the allies are making their final push into Nazi Germany and it centers on a battle hardened tank crew that has been together since North Africa. Brad Pitt is SSG Don "War Daddy" Collier, the gritty NCO commander of the tank named "Fury." Here's the rest of the crew:

• Shia LaBeouf: Boyd "Bible" Swan, the gunner.
• Michael Pena: Trini "Gordo"Garcia, the driver.
• John Bernthal: Grady "Coon-Ass" Travis, the loader and token redneck. A real unlikeable character.
• Logan Lerman: Norman Ellison, the 30 caliber machine gun operator. The green replacement who is actually a typist.

The film opens as Fury is coming back from a patrol. The 30 cal gunner was killed on the last mission and they need to get their replacement. The replacement turns out to be Norman Ellison, a guy who's been in the Army for 8 weeks and he's been trained as a typist. On their next mission, the lead tank is ambushed because Norman, who has a reluctancy to kill, wouldn't open fire on children of  the Hitlerjugend. Collier chides Norman for the hesitancy and lets him know that this is life or death. Their mission is to relieve US troops that are pinned down and make it to the next town. After relieving the pinned down troops, Collier makes Norman shoot a German prisoner to "harden" him up. He goes so far as to put the gun into Norman's hands and helps him pull the the trigger.

After a brief respite in the occupied town (where there are some very intense scenes), Fury gets its next mission. The tank platoon is to hold a vital crossroad several miles away. En route to the crossroads the platoon comes across a German Tiger I (in reality the German Tiger Tank was the most feared tank the Germans had. It had an 88mm canon, the allied Sherman tank had a 75mm canon, and was heavily armored) that proceeds to knock out the other 3 tanks in the platoon. Fury gets off a few shots but its 75mm shells bounce of the frontal armor of the Tiger. Their only hope is to outmaneuver it to get a shot into the Tiger's rear section.

After narrowly escaping the Tiger ambush, Fury makes it to the crossroads and hits a mine, crippling the tank. Norman, now a hardened Nazi killer, goes out on recon as they are expecting a German counterattack while the rest of the crew try to repair the tank. It doesn't take long for Norman to come back with a report that there is a column of German troops on their way. The fact that the Germans are singing, leads Collier to believe that's the Waffen SS. Collier then makes the decision that he will stand and fight, the rest of the crew can pull back to a safer location. Naturally the crew decides to stick with Collier, he's led them this far. There is wave after wave of German attacks on the tank and the crew slowly gets killed off, leaving Norman as the last remaining crew member. Norman uses the escape hatch and is able to elude capture. As day  breaks, Norman is rescued by an American force, the point being, Fury's heroic last stand was the difference in overcoming the German counterattack. The final overhead shot is of the bodies strewn about Fury, remnants of a bloody pitched battle. The waves of men that were broken on the tank. The horrors of war.

There's a lot to like about this film. With a few exceptions, nothing's clean. The soldiers have been on the line for a long time and it shows. I have no idea what it was like to man a tank in WWII but after seeing this film, I have a pretty good idea. It was miserable and close quartered. Whatever beliefs you have, inside a tank they need to be thrown out because every member of the crew must rely on each other to survive. Pitt is the stereotypical archetype of the tough NCO. He is capable of compassion as well as severe brutality when the need arises. He states that his goal is to get his crew home in one piece (as well as kill Germans). At the end of the day though he is a soldier and soldiers follow orders. He was tasked to hold this crossroad and he will hold it goddammit! With or without a fully functional tank and by himself if need be.

The crew is a mash up of different characters. Each has varying levels of unlikeability. Bible is the uber-religious guy, Coon-ass is the very unlikeable hillbilly straight from the 19th century and Gordo is the hispanic driver who is probably the least unlikeable (Bible is unlikeable strictly because he's played by the very unlikeable LaBeouf). Norman is the fish out of water here, much like Coporal Upham from Saving Private Ryan. Collier kind of takes Norman under his wing (maybe it's his innocence) and shows him the ropes. Collier is very hard on Norman at first but softens in certain times in order to let him know that they're both still human beings. Collier has a sense of responsibility to make sure his crew gets home alive and even though Norman is new, he's part of the crew and the pact holds true. Norman must be trained to survive under hellish circumstances.

Ayer does a sensational job of painting a picture of serving in a WWII tank crew. I don't know what that would be like but that's got to be pretty close. It's hot, dark, cramped and smelly (the BO is probably off the chart and combine that with the exhaust fumes, it can't be that good). This is dangerous work and mistakes mean the difference between life and death. The battle scenes are very reminiscent of Saving Private Ryan in terms of it's realism in portraying how the tank hands out death and what happens when a tank's number is up. It's not pretty.

This is a film worth watching but it is not for the faint of heart. The killing is gruesome and the behavior of the US troops in some spots can be a little unnerving. This is what can happen in a brutal war. As Ayer is a director worth keeping an eye on. 

19. Kite

October 24th in Chicago. This was another On Demand viewing. It came down to this or another revenge style film, Falcon Rising. Kite was a bad choice. Based on a 1998 anime by Yasuomi Umetsu where a young girl has her parents murdered by a crime syndicate and she exacts her revenge as a teenager.

The film stars India Eisley as Sawa, the lead character who seeks revenge for the death of her parents. Sawa has got some issues to say the least. She's a drug addict and she's a very lethal assassin. Sawa looks like a pale version of Selena Gomez running around in titillating school girl outfits mercilessly killing gangsters (not a bad a premise right?). Samuel L. Jackson is Karl Aker, the cop who looks out for Sawa in her bloody quest for revenge. Then there's Oburi (played by Callan McAuliffe), he has a past with Sawa but she her memory is hazy on account of the drugs (she only remembers the death of her parents) she doesn't know who the hell he despite the fact that he's always willing to help her out.

The film is set in a dystopian future where the global economy has collapsed and organized crime rules with an iron fist. Despite the fact that the global economy has gone in the toilet, Samuel L. Jackson is a detective (a well dressed one at that) in an international police force. To be honest, none of this makes any sense. If crime rules, why do the cops, who are outgunned, care if a vigilante knocks off the bad guys? They can't control the flow of drugs, human trafficking or roving street gangs but a vigilante cutting off heads of organized crime members is a bad thing. Sawa's plan is usually simple, infiltrate a gang by posing as a teenage prostitute, pick up any intelligence on the mob boss who killed her parents (I can't remember his name) and when she has what she needs, she kills everyone in bloody fashion. Aker is covertly helping her out by keeping the cops off her back and with her drug problems. As you might expect, Sawa hacks her way to Mr. Big and exacts her revenge. Aker ends up betraying her and she's got to kill him. A wounded Sawa and Oburi ride off into the sunset.

This seems to be a clear case where producers took a piece of popular anime and made a live action rendition with a more caucasian friendly cast. The street gangs (copied character for character from District 13) are mostly youth based that spend their free time parkouring when their not engaged in criminal activity and everyone knows some form of martial arts. There's not a whole of originality here but I found it interesting that Sawa's origin is eerily similar to that of O-Ren Ishii's origin. The original Kite anime came out in 1998 and Kill Bill came out in 2003, is it possible that Tarantino based the Lucy Liu character on Sawa? I wouldn't be bothered by it since Tarantino "borrows" heavily from obscure films that most of us have never heard of. I just think its interesting. Anyway, I thought this film would be a good way to kill 90 minutes but I was wrong. 

16. Gone Girl

October 4th in Shaumberg, IL. This is a really good perhaps borderline excellent film. Based on Gillian Flynn's book, director David Fincher stays close to the source material. The acting is solid and the narrative sucks you in but can be confusing at times. I didn't read the book but when Fincher directs something, I am going to see it. What makes the film interesting is that it gets people talking. It sparks debate, "dude, she was crazy!"

I don't feel the need to delve into the plot too much but I will try to be brief but not give anything away. Ben Affleck is Nick Dunne, he meets Amy (played brilliantly by British actress Rosamund Pike) at a party in NYC and hit it off. They hit it off so well they get married. Why not? They're the two best best looking people in whatever room their in. Nick and Amy are both writers (explains why they're both so damn interesting!) but Nick is a regular guy and Amy is a trust fund New Yorker. Things go bad financially for both, then Nick's mom's cancer takes a turn for the worse so Nick decides to move from NYC to a St. Louis suburb. While in Missouri, Nick's mom dies, Nick and his sister put their dad in a home. Nick and Amy continue to live in Missouri and Nick takes a job as a professor at a community college. Surprisingly, Amy doesn't work and is living an empty, miserable life in the suburbs (as most trust fund New Yorkers would).

Since I'm trying to be brief, Amy concocts an elaborate plan to frame Nick for her murder. While "missing,"the town and media turn against Nick and he eventually hires a renown lawyer (played brilliantly by Tyler Perry) for help. Things don't look good for him as the noose begins to tighten around him. Amy is hiding out and since the case has captured the nation's attention, relishes in Nick's suffering. Eventually Nick figures out what Amy is doing and starts to go on the offensive. He digs into Amy's past before they met and starts to learn some disturbing things. Amy's plan hits a snag (she gets robbed) and turns to an old boyfriend (Neil Patrick Harris) for help. That plan didn't pan out and she finds her way back to Nick (in brutal fashion). Always the victim.

Fincher is an excellent director and the flows seamlessly and doesn't really slow down. Dark and noirish, it is a great psychological thriller that never gets too clever for its own good. The acting is top notch (I suspect that Rosamund Pike will become a household name) with all of the cast giving excellent performances. There's a lot of notable faces and some some not so familiar faces. This is a must see film in any venue.

As I said before, like this film or not (I liked it!) this film will get you talking. Much like Fatal Attraction did for extra marital affairs in the 80's, Gone Girl will do for couples who think the "know" each other. Nick is no saint. He cheats on Amy and that's what sets her diabolical plan for revenge in motion. Nick isn't very hard to figure out but Amy is complex. Very complex. Is she sociopathic? It was clear that Nick had no idea what was beneath Amy's intelligent and beautiful exterior when he approached her at party. She clearly had a history of manipulative behavior and always seemed to be a victim. Amy narrates the film, she tells a story of a wonderful romance that just turned sour after time. But as the film went on, I wondered what was the truth. She writes everything down in her journal which is used to put the screws to Nick. But how much of it was real. Fincher makes the audience figure it out on their own. The ending is similar to that of Presumed Innocent, when Ford finds out who the real killer was, he goes on as if what happened didn't happen. Nick is in a similar spot but Amy has kind of got him by the balls.

To me, the film seemed a bit like a shot at the media and society; a beautiful, white, blonde woman gone missing gets national attention. Then there's also something that Amy touches on in her narration, how people portray themselves. When Nick and Amy first get together they each put on their most interesting "faces." Nick portrays himself as a suave, cool and romantic guy. Amy in turn, portrays herself as the cool, beautiful yet somehow still down to earth woman (a long shot for her being a trust fund New Yorker who was probably raised by au pairs and maids). They both pull it off and when times are good, everything is fine. It's only when their lives start to get hit with misfortune (they both lose their jobs, Amy's wealthy parents are actually broke and need her trust fund) that their "true" selves come out.