Forsaken.

When you have an actor of Brian Cox standing introducing the UK Premiere of a Canadian western at the 2016 Edinburgh International Film Festival you know your in for a treat and this genre classic was certainly that. All right I admit I am a lover of westerns and Forsaken (2015) is certainly a good old-fashioned tale of good verses bad. Directed by Jon Cassar, who will be best known for his work on the first seven seasons of the TV drama 24, it tells the story of a reformed gunslinger who attempts to resist violence to appease his preacher father.

 

Will John Henry use his guns again?

John Henry Clayton returns home after ten years away following the end of the civil war in 1865. He has become a man that never hesitates to kill another in a gunfight. The problem with John Henry's return is that since his departure his hometown is now jointly controlled by a vicious gang boss and corporate businessman James McCurdy (a very evil Mr Cox) who are terrifying the local farmers into selling their land. If they refuse extreme violence occurs normally ending in a funeral. Gang boss Frank Tillman (Aaron Poole) seems to relish the violence he is employed to carry out. Also employed by McCurdy is a famous gunslinger known as Gentleman Dave Turner (the wonderful Michael Wincott who played Philo Grant in one of my all time favourite movies 1995's Strange Days). McCurdy knows that if John Henry decides to take the side of the farmers and pick up his guns again then the eloquent Gentleman Dave is the only man capable of facing him in a gunfight. Now married with a young son Mary Alice Watson (Demi Moore) is another temptation for the troubled preachers son as she was the woman he left behind. Will or won't he pick up his guns to help the brutalised farmers, what would entice him back to kill men again after the promises to his father? I think we could all guess the answer to that and by the end of the film you will be gagging for that good fashioned gun battle.

 

Will he have to face Gentleman Dave Turner in a fight to the death?

The film's real strength is in the partnering of father and son Kiefer and Donald Sutherland who play father and son in the movie. Brian Cox gave us some background to their relationship informing us that the turbulent association they had on screen was very much like the relationship they had off screen, both men had not got on very well and this film was a chance to put that right. Tears were shed, voices were raised but all was well in the end. Interestingly the two actors have only previously appeared in two films together, but never in the same scene.

 

Will John henry live long enough to rekindle his affair with Mary Alice Watson?

Shot in the province of Alberta in Canada it had its World Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2015 but has not had a general release in the UK but can be found on DVD and believe me its very good example of the western genre and is well worth sourcing.

Freeway.

Where do you start blogging a film like Freeway (1996) Matthew Bright's first outing as writer and director? Perhaps by telling you it’s a sordid over the top tale of woe based on the European folk tale Little Red Riding Hood or better still starting by describing the brilliant early lead performance of Reese Witherspoon as Vanessa Lust, the poor, illiterate underage teenage daughter of a Los Angeles drug addicted prostitute who is sexually abused by her step father and who encounters a serial killer on the way to live with her grandmother in Stockton – a performance that won her a Best Actress Award. Then there were the movie censorship problems due to graphic language and violent content, cut to enable a NC-17 rating when released in the USA.

When both of her parents get arrested, Vanessa steals the car of her family-services caseworker and heads up the Freeway to live with her paternal grandmother who she has never met. When the cars engine blows it force her to accept a ride from charming and sympathetic Bob Wolverton who tells her he is a youth counsellor. During the journey Vanessa finds herself confessing the sordidly sexual details of her childhood but its not long before Vanessa realises the true identity of her driver - just before he attacks her and declares his intention to murder her and have sex with her corpse! He turns out to have been slaughtering young prostitutes in the Los Angeles area.  Thanks to a gun borrowed from her fiancé, Vanessa turns the tables on Bob, shooting him repeatedly and leaving him for dead. Of course it’s not long before the Police catch up with our teenager and she ends up in court. But this is only the beginning of a spiral of depravity for Vanessa.

 

Nice wheels.

It also stars some other well-known actors including Kiefer Sutherland as serial killer Bob Wolverton, Dan Hedaya as Detective Garnet Wallace; the brilliant Honey Bunny from Pulp Fiction (1994) Amanda Plummer as Vanessa’s mum from hell Ramona, with the tragic Brittany Murphy playing Rhonda, Vanessa’s heroin addicted lesbian friend. This 1996 exploitation/grindhouse movie is exceptionally good mainly due to that award winning performance from Reese Witherspoon and did manage to garner some very good reviews and is better than its straight to video sequel Freeway 2 Confessions of a Trickbaby (1999)  

The Reluctant Fundamentalist

The Indian film director, actor and producer Mira Nair has based her latest film on a best selling Booker shortlisted novel by Mohsin Hamid published in 2007, turning The Reluctant Fundamentalist  (2012) into an intriguing and thought provoking political thriller.  It deals with the thorny subject of how America approaches global terrorism through an interview that takes place in an atmospheric Lahore Tea House between Pakistan born Changez Khan and an American CIA agent masquerading as a journalist who thinks his interviewee knows the location of a kidnapped American lecturer whose life seems to be in imminent danger. Khan, played by British born Pakistan actor Riz Ahmed, relates his story to the ‘journalist’ Bobby Lincoln (Liev Schreiber) telling how he left his home country to study in America and consequently becoming a high achiever whose success at Princeton and on Wall Street lands him a highly lucrative job in a New York consulting firm under the tutorship of high flying Jim Cross (Kiefer Sutherland) and in the process lands himself a beautiful girlfriend Erica (a miscast Kate Hudson) whose father happens to be a partner in the firm where he works. Manhattans Twin towers are demolished in a terrorist attack and Changez Khan’s American dream is soured opining ‘the ruthlessness of the act was suppressed only by its genius. David had stuck Goliath’ compelling him to return to Pakistan where he takes up a post as a University Lecturer.

How a single act can affect so many lives?

The movie offers an apt example of how American prejudice after 9/11 can radicalise a law biding hard working Muslim and make him question where and with whom his loyalties lie. The humiliating treatment and the pressure put on these people can help fuel the ever-burning flames of extremism and often rebound’s on the oppressors. As I said previously an intriguing movie with a gradually build up using an intelligent narrative ploy of showing Khan backstory in detail which makes us, the viewer appreciate the difficulties that a young man of Changez Khan ethnic origin has to face in the ‘modern’ world.  In this story of divided loyalties, which was filmed in four countries, Riz Armed gives his strongest lead performance to date following on from films which have included Shifty (2008), Four Lions (2010) Trishna (2011) and ill Manors (2012).