Gangster Squad.

In 1946 the Los Angeles Police Department created a special unit to rid LA of its criminal elements. It eventually became known as the Organized Crime Intelligence Division. In 2013 film director Ruben Fleischer made a film loosely inspired by events of the time, Gangster Squad. The screenplay was written by Will Beall, which was based on the novel Tales from the Gangster Squad by Paul Lieberman, and concentrates on one of LA’s notorious gangsters Meyer Harris Cohen known as Mickey Cohen to both his friends and his enemy’s. Cohen was part of the Jewish Mafia and according to Fleisher’s movie ran all the rackets in Los Angeles, building up an immense criminal empire.

 

The Gangster Squad.

Josh Brolin plays the square chinned honest cop Sergeant John O’Mara, who has a pregnant wife and is the tough WW2 ex special operations operative who is tasked with setting up the squad by Nick Nolte’s gruff Chief Parker. The group is to work outside the law with no police support or badges with Parker stating that he does not want to see any arrests just the permanent demise of Mickey Cohen (a manic Sean Penn) and his henchmen! Other members of the squad are the good looking playboy Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling), the wiretap expert Conwell Keeler (Giovanni Ribisi), street cop Lieutenant Coleman Harris (Anthony Mackie), sharpshooter Max Kennard (Robert Patrick) and his Hispanic partner Christmas Ramirez (Michael Pena).

 

The Gangster.

Yes, it is a cliché of all the gangster films you have ever seen albeit one with a modern sheen. Yes, the action is very much over the top, but in my opinion these make an enjoyable watch, even if your not sure if it’s a film noir or a police procedural – but does it really matter - smart suits, flash cars and a femme fatale in the shape of Emma Stone what more do you want, it even references the Blues Brothers (1980). Pretty to look at with its late forties period detail, it’s a movie that does not beat about the bush, straight to the point, forget subtlety. 

The femme fatale.

Only God Forgives.

Having seen this Bangkok set crime thriller twice since its release in August 2013 I can now say with some certainty that the bulk of the critics that booed Nicolas Winding Refn’s latest movie at Cannes press screening were wrong. Only God Forgives (2012) is a brilliant antidote to all these ‘feel good movies’ that the cinema going public are accused of clambering after. It’s that slap across the face that French director Mathieu Kassovitze was talking about in a Guardian newspaper interview about his film Rebellion (2011). It’s strikingly menacing, brutally violent and its climatic fight scene is as beautifully choreographed as any thing you would have seen on the big screen. The colour hue totally enhances the narrative, the darkness of Refn’s story is totally mesmerising.

 

The sexy evil mother from hell!

As is the acting, with Ryan Gosling following up on his role as Driver in Drive (2011) as the uncommunicative Julian Thompson, an American expatriate living in Bangkok who runs a Muay Thai gym as a front for his dealings in the Thai criminal underworld.  His brother Billy (Tom Burke) is beaten to death, sanctioned by the police Lieutenant, Chang, (Vithaya Pansringarm) known as the angel of vengeance, by the pimp father of a sixteen-year-old prostitute that Billy has just killed. Its when the brothers domineering mother Crystal arrives from America to extract vengeance for the killing of her first born that things start to get very messy. Kristin Scott Thomas plays Crystal, the sexy evil mother from hell whose relationship with her sons borders the incestuous, a role that’s different from what we have come to expect from this wonderfully versatile actress.

 

The man who thinks he is God.

It’s a modern day film noir, an hallucinatory fable, that brings to mind the work of Wong Kar Wai (As Tears Go By 1988 and Fallen Angels 1995) and the Argentinian director Gasper Noe whose Tokyo set Enter the Void (2009) is similar in its ambiance. Bizarre set pieces litter the movie, where at times the violence is almost unwatchable especially when karaoke enthusiast Chang is involved. Cinematography Larry Smith shoots mainly at night highlighting the neon splendour of Bangkok.  Refn dedicates his film Alejandro Jodorowsky whose Santa Sangre (1989) was also infamous for scenes of mutilation of human body parts. As Philip French opined ‘Only God Forgives is a provocative oddity that like Lars von Triers recent movies looks back nostalgically to a time when it was still possible to stir up jaded audiences and shock the bourgeois’[1].

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[1] The New Review 4^th August 2013.

The Place Beyond the Pines.

When I first saw Blue Valentine (2010) I was not sure if I liked it, no so with Derek Cianfrance third feature film The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), which again features Ryan Gosling, who seems to get better ever time I see him. This new film is American film noir at its very best, a movie any serious cineaste should make every effort to see. Everything is right about it, from the wonderfully convincing acting to the feel of British born Sean Bobbitt’s cinematography, who was also responsible for another film noir The Killer Inside Me (2010) .  But its backbone is its brilliant narrative that could have been written by Denis Lahane instead of Cianfrance and his co-writers Ben Coccio and Darius Marder. Totally compelling, a story in three acts about the unbreakable bond between fathers and their sons. A film full of surprises, with just the right amount of sentimentality.

A story of fathers and their sons.

New York cop Avery Cross.

This totally captivating movie is set in the upstate New York town of Schenectady, which incidentally is where the title of the film comes from it’s a Mohawk word meaning ‘place beyond the pine plains’. The first of the two fathers that dominate our story is Luke Glanton (Gosling) who scrapes a living as part of a travelling carnival show where he performs a wall of death stunt act. Passing through Schenectady he decides to look up an old flame Romina, played by Eva Mendes who I last saw in Leos Corax’s Holy Motors. On visiting her family home he discovers he has a six-month-old son called Jason. Luke decides to give up his nomadic life style and look after his newly found family. He obtains a badly paid job as a mechanic in a rural car repair shop. His employer, the wonderfully expressive Australian actor Ben Mendelsohn, spots the former stunt mans potential and the pair carry out a string of lucrative bank robberies which places Luke Glanton within the radar of the second of our two fathers the ambitious New York cop Avery Cross, another breakthrough role for Silver Linings Playback Bradley Cooper. 

The Ides of March.

The 15^th day of March in the Roman calendar is known as The Ides of March. This date in 44 B.C. is best remembered for the death of Julius Caesar who was stabbed 23 times in the Roman Senate (painful) by a large group of conspirators. It is alleged that a seer or prophet had foreseen Caesars assassination and warned him to ‘beware the Ides of March’. I suppose the equivalent today would be the Prime Minister David Cameron being stabbed by his backbenchers on the floor of Parliament: televised of course. The soothsayer? Probable Nicholas Clegg.

George Clooney and Ryan Gosling.

Which brings me to George Clooney’s return to form after the rather disappointing The Descendants (2011) Actually released before this film, The Ides of March (2012) as you may guess from my wee ramble above, is a political conspiracy thriller/drama that touches very nicely on the dark side of a political campaign. Clooney not only plays the part of Mike Morris Governor of Pennsylvania and a Democratic presidential candidate but directs his 4^th film, produces and co-writes this intriguingly pacey adaptation of Beau Willimons 2008 play called Farragut North, which in turn was loosely based on the 2004 Democratic primary campaign of Howard Dean who served six terms as the 79^th Governor of Vermont!  

This strong story is about the power and corruption involved in politics and the back room staff involved.  Exceptionally acted by an ensemble cast of the highest calibre led, not by Clooney but by the splendid Ryan Gosling, who gets better every time you see him, as Stephan Meyers, deputy campaign manager for Morris, Philip Seymour Hoffman, as Paul Zara Stephan’s boss, Paul Ciamatti the rival campaign manager and also Evan Rachel Wood, Marisa Tomei, Jeffrey Wright and Max Minghella.  A well made movie for film lovers of intelligent cinema that respect a director of integrity who in turn treats his audience with respect. 

Drive

Driver.

Let me get two things out of the way. One: Drive (2011) is a great “American” film highly recommended for intelligent film lovers that enjoy a good strong slice of adult entertainment. Two: Its has an 18 certificate which means that the film may include scenes of hard drug use, supernatural horror, explicit sex or in the case of the film under discussion, very strong gory violence. Where’s he going with this you may well ask? Well I’ll tell you, when you attend a cinema to view an “18” film you relinquish the right to complain about the films content, knowing full well that it will probably upset you if you have a weak disposition. Even so, in my opinion the film includes no more violence than your standard child’s fairy story where the wicked are always punished in what can be violent and extreme ways, preserving innocence and purity against evil.  I would suggest however that cinema goers take due account of the certificate that the BBFC award a movie before shelling out their well earned pennies. Enough of this rant, on to the business in hand.

Irene.

As your now aware the RBC Film Club featured Drive on Monday night. The evening began with a short but precise introduction from our resident film scholar Connor McMorran. Described as 2011’s coolest movie it tells a story about a man who is known only as Driver. An outsider, a skilled mechanic and a movie stuntman by day and a getaway driver by night, whose life appears to be managed by garage owner and cripple Shannon. When Driver meets Irene, a waitress in a local diner and mother of a young son Benicio, he suddenly finds a mission in life. Irene’s husband comes out of jail with outstanding financial obligations to the local mob, our wheelman decides to throw his weight behind the ex-con to allow him to pay his dues and retire to a life of domestic bliss with his young family. Nothing goes to plan and subsequently throws Drivers life into an ever-increasing violent spiral.   

The discussion that followed the screening raised some interesting points. Firstly how American was this movie? Its director Nicolas Winding Refn, known for violent movies including the Copenhagen based Pusher trilogy and the British movie Bronson (2008) (that elicited such a great performance from Tom Hardy), is Danish so the whole thing is filtered through the eyes of a budding auteur with a European perspective. Hossein Amini an Iranian wrote the screenplay adapted from the 2005 novel by James Sallis. In particular the lighting and the camera work gave it the feel of a European art house movie and along with the sudden intense violence of a modern South Korean film injected a edgy tension in to this very well made movie. Another point was the film influences. The director has acknowledged that both Peter Yate’s Bullitt (1968) and John Schlesinger’s 1975 movie The Day of the Locust were an influence. But I would suggest that Sergio Leone’s Spaghetti Western characters inspired the personality of Driver: an outsider, no background or past, no real name, lack of the spoken dialogue and like the cars he drives, has an unremarkable facade that deliberately masks the fearsome capability beneath the surface. I would suggest that the “coolness’ could be based on a certain Mr Steve McQueen, some of the characters he played in the sixties and early seventies display similar characteristics.

Driver gets to know his neighbour.

Something else that was discussed was the cast. Our stunt man was played by the very promising Ryan Gosling, a London born Canadian whose best work to date has been Half Nelson (2006) Lars and the Real Girl (2007) and a film recently shown at the RBC Film Club Blue Valentine (2010).  Irene, an under written part which does not allow the 26-year-old British BAFTA winner Carey Mulligan any real acting scope. Mulligan made her feature film debut only 6 years ago in Pride and Prejudice (2005), since then I have seen her in And When Did You Last See Your Father (2007), Public Enemies (2009), her big break came with the award winning An Education (2009) and the highly acclaimed Never Let Me Go (2010). The mob connected Shannon is performed by Bryan Cranston an American TV and film actor who grew up in Los Angeles where the film is set. Shannon’s mob connections are played by comedian Albert Brooks and Hell Boy himself Ron Perlman. Irene’s husband is acted by Oscar Isaac who indecently was King John in Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood (2010). The mysterious Blanche, involved in the robbery that when wrong, is portrayed by Mad Men actress Christina Hendricks. It was agreed that it was a very interesting and inspired cast who all played their part in making this stylish film one of the ever growing list of impressive American films. And don’t forget to order the Chris Martinez soundtrack you won’t be disappointed.