Bone Tomahawk.

This infuriating nonsense starts when two particularly unpleasant bushwhackers get disturbed during there bloodthirsty work and run off into the surrounding wilderness only to stumble into a sacred Indian burial ground which these two ignorant human beings desecrate. In the following fracas one is killed while the other flees to the nearby town of Bright Hope and is subsequently jailed by the sheriff. During the following night strange things happen and it ends up with the deputy sheriff and Samantha, the assistant doctor, being abducted. The local token Indian recognises an arrow that the abductees have left behind and informs the sheriff that it belongs to a nameless tribes of troglodytes, which incidentally means 'cave dwellers', from somewhere called the 'Valley of Starving Men'. Up pops a posse to form a rescue party that has to include Samantha's husband who spends the rest of the film hobbling about on one leg due to an accident.

The slowness of the film gets worst when the posse lose their horses and have to walk to starving men's valley. Once they arrive all sorts of nasty things happen, with various members of the party getting their comeuppance for appearing in this daft movie. Normally i like westerns but not this one. I suppose to be fair the cast doesn’t make a bad job; mind you most are seasoned performers that include Kurt Russell, Richard Jenkins, Patrick Wilson and Matthew Fox. Directed and written by S. Craig Zahler who also composed the films soundtrack. If I'm correct this is the former cinematographer’s debut directorial outing and whose next movie goes by the title of Brawl in Cell Block 99, maybe I’ll give that a miss, and please don’t be fooled by what’s written on the Bone Tomahawk (2015) poster!

Gods Pocket.

Hands up time, I have never seen an episode of the critically acclaimed TV series Mad Men, there you are I’ve admitted it! But I do know that it’s set in the 1960’s and its about an advertising agency, and of course I’m aware of some of the actors that are involved including John Slattery and the rather attractive redhead Christina Hendricks.  The reason I mention this is twofold, firstly Slattery has now directed and adapted his first feature film, Gods Pocket (2013) with Hendricks taking the main female lead. It is based on a novel by Pete Dexter who was also responsible for writing and incidentally adapting, Paperboy (2012) for the big screen.

 

Mr and Mrs Scarpato.

Set in 1978 Gods Pocket is a run down district of Philadelphia. An area that seems to accommodate the very underside of humanity, if there not spending there time in the street corner bar there running wee crooked scams for the local ‘connected’ hood Sal Cappi. That is until Jeanie Scarpato (Hendricks) son Leon, gets killed in mysterious circumstances in the construction yard where he works. Jeanie is married to Mickey (the late great Philip Seymour Hoffman) who is Leon’s stepfather and who we first see highjacking a meat truck with Arthur Capezio known as Bird (John Turturro) and Sal. Mickey, who was not born in Gods Pocket and therefore will always be an incomer, will do anything to please his beautiful wife so when she asks him to find out how her rather nasty drug addicted racialist son died, she does not believe it was an accident, he sets out with the help of Bird and Sal to investigate the events leading up to her boys demise. When the journalist Richard Shellburn (the scene stealing Richard Jenkins) hears about Leon’s death he requests an interview with Jeanie for the local paper, on meeting her he immediately falls in love! Meanwhile Mickey is arranging a funeral, with the local undertaker Smilin’ Jack Moran (British actor Eddie Marsan) but is having problems raising the $5000 to keep Jeanie happy!   

 

Local reporter Richard Shellburn.

This is an absolutely cracking movie that should not be missed, if you have not seen it at the cinema then you will have to wait for the DVD release in December 2014. But believe me its well worth it and not just to see Philip Seymour Hoffman in one of his last films but also to enjoy the clever casting, even in the smaller roles, that enables the portrayal of some terrific characters.  American movies always seem to succeed when they show realistic situations and include people that don’t subscribe to the American dream! A worthy debut from John Slattery.

Killing Them Softly.

Since I’ve only recently seen the class act that is Pulp Fiction (1994) I am able to confirm that Killing Them Softly (2012) appears heavily influenced by the Tarantino film? Its about a hit man Jackie Cogan (Brad Pit) as brutal and matter of fact as either Vince or Jules. The story is driven by dialogue that is only interrupted by bouts of gross violence that’s inflicted on some poor sole. Recognize the template?

Hit man Jackie Cogan.

Andrew Dominik set his film in 2008 at a time when America embarked on a transitional stage in its history. It was a period when the collapse of the Banks was rattling the very bedrock of America’s capitalist system and an African American called Barack Obama was competing with George W Bush in an electoral campaign to become the first black President of the most powerful country on earth. Dominik is a New Zealand born Australian who has already directed two award-winning movies, Chopper (2000) and his first collaboration with Brad Pit, The Assassination of Jessie James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007).

Russell and Frankie.

Based on the 1974 novel Cogan’s Trade by George V. Higgins, Killing Them Softly is a neo noir crime drama where a local mobster Johnny ‘Squirrel’ Amato (Vincent Curatola) employs Frankie (Scoot McNairy), a low life thug who is just out of prison, and his friend Russell (Ben Mendelsohn), an unstable petty criminal whose addicted to heroin, to hold up and rob an illegal card game. Markie Trattman (Ray Liotta) has already robbed his own game previously, and although the local Mafia knows he did it, he was never punished.  Which is the reason Squirrel thinks they can get away with it, banking on the fact that the crime bosses will think Markie’s at it again. When the truth comes out Jackie Cogan is employed by the mobs agent Driver (Richard Jenkins) to carry out retribution on those deemed responsible for the robbery.

Jackie chews the fat with fellow hit man Mickey (James Gandolfini) 

As he did with Jessie James, Pit fits the part of cool hit man like a glove. The slow motion killing scene of a driver in a car against the soundtrack of Ketty Lester’s Love Letters (a single I still play on my Juke Box) is extremely well done, as is in fact the whole of this politically tinged film. I must give a special mention to Francine Maisler who was responsible for assembling such a great cast. Mr Dominik confirms his filmmaking abilities with his CV getting better and better. 

The Rum Diary.

Hunter S Thompson was an American writer who started life as a journalist and went on to write various best selling novels. He is credited as the originator of what became known as gonzo journalism, an exaggerated form of reportage where the writer becomes part of the story via a first person narrative. His other claim to fame is his excessive use of drugs and alcohol, which inadvertently led to him sadly committing suicide in 2005 at the age of 67. There had been two feature films based around his work, the first of which Where the Buffalo Roam (1980) starred Bill Murray as Thompson, the second Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) was directed by Terry Gilliam and this time Thompson’s friend Johnny Depp portrayed the journalist.

Richard Jenkins.

After a hiatus of nineteen years Bruce Robinson, who was responsible for Withnail & I (1987), was brought in to write the screenplay and direct The Rum Diary (2011), which was based on Thompson’s novel of the same name. Written in the 1960’s it was not published until 1998.  This time Johnny Depp not only starred in the film but also took on the function of producer. He plays the role of Thompson’s alter ego Paul Kemp a journalist who in 1960 moved from New York to San Juan in Puerto Rico to work on a daily newspaper and found him embroiled with some very unscrupulous US entrepreneurs.  

Giovanni Ribisi.

Lovingly shot on location in San Juan, the strength of this movie is in its very clever use of both verbal and perceived humour and the brilliantly drawn characters played by a superb cast: Richard Jenkins as the newspapers editor Lotterman, Michael Rispoli as Bob Sala news photographer and Kemps room mate and Giovanni Ribisi who steals ever scene he’s in as the substance abusing and Hitler loving Moberg. Depp’s love interest, there always is one, is the beautiful Scarlett Johansson look alike Amber Heard.   Johnny Depp executes his lines with great panache and really gives the impression that he is enjoying playing his role almost as much as this viewer enjoyed watching the film.

Mr Depp and love interest Amber Heard.