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.

This Must Be the Place.

The first film to achieve widespread critical acclaim for the Italian film director and screenwriter Paolo Sorrentino was the 2004 psychological thriller The Consequences of Love that told the story of a lonely and secretive Italian businessman living in a Swiss hotel and his involvement with the Mafia. But my favourite Sorrentino film to date is II Divo (2008), a riveting tale of political intrigue and organised crime based on the extraordinary life of Guilo Andreotti, seven times Italian Prime Minister. Andreotti's long career was dogged by persistent accusations of conspiracy, Mafia connections and state-sponsored terror between the late 1970s and 1992. This is an absorbing study of the workings of the European political machine and its links with the Catholic Church and organised crime. Toni Servillo (Gomorrah 2008) gives a magnificent performance as Andreotti that secured him the Best Actor European Film Award. This political drama also won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in the same year. What could have been a boring subject matter is brought to the screen in an interesting and exciting way. Visually gripping, beautifully shot, skilfully edited and includes an exceptional sound track. A complex story that’s not always easy to follow and certainly warrants more than one viewing, but very highly recommend.

Cheyenne ex rock-star.

Cheyenne's wife Jane carries out her day job.

The 42 year old director’s latest movie, the first to be made in the English language, This Must Be the Place (2011) has been described by him as a ‘reckless’ piece of work by which I would take to mean something a little different, something out of the ordinary, almost a fantasy, although it bares no resemblance to Wes Andersons movies it does at times have that same quirky feel. The best way to define this film is that it’s a story of the coming of age of a 50 year-old boy-child who just so happens to have been a famous rock star.  Cheyenne leaves his mansion in Dublin to travel to America to see his dying father who he has not seen for thirty years. Following clues in a sketchbook found at the side of his estranged Jewish fathers deathbed and with a world famous Nazi hunter Mordecai Midler (Judd Hirsch) in tow he sets out to track down a Nazi war criminal that his dead father has accused of tormenting him in Auschwitz, that’s if the 90 year-old is still alive?

The strength of this road movie, shot in Dublin and America, is in the portrayal of the aging Goth Cheyenne by the brilliant Sean Penn who went out on a limb to play this unusually humorous part, for Penn at least, and choosing to work with a European director on a project that was never going to be easy, playing an interesting but complex character with a high voice and makeup!  The exceptionally cast includes the Coenesque Francis McDormand who plays Jane, Cheyenne happily married wife of 35 years, Eve Hewson, the daughter of U2’s Bono, is Mary a young Goth who is the friend and fan of our ex rock star. There’s also a Paris Texas style cameo from Harry Dean Stanton who Cheyenne meets in a diner on the American leg of his road trip and discovers he’s sitting opposite the oddball character that patented the idea of wheels on suitcases!  

Cheyenne and Jane make good use of their empty swimming pool!

Sorrentino admits that the film is based on key events in his teenage years, his love of American cinema, the music of Talking Heads, it was a David Byrne song that gave the film its name and can be seen in the film performing, and he even referenced the Cure by making the main character a Robert Smith look-a-like. This movie was not well received by the critics but I found it very entertaining in an eccentrically enjoyable way and would highly recommend it to people who enjoy their cinematic humour a little off the wall. 

Cheyenne's best friend Mary.

Fair Game.

Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame.

Doug Liman’s (The Bourne Identity 2002) latest movie is a biographical thriller based on two memoirs, Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House written by Valerie Plame and the former United States diplomat Joseph C Wilson The Politics of Truth: Inside the Lies that Led to War and Betrayed My Wife CIA Identity: A Diplomat’s Memoir. Fair Game (2010) stars Naomi Watts as Plame and Sean Penn as her husband Joseph C Wilson. It’s retells the story of the outing of Plame, a former United States CIA Operations Officer, by the Washington Post after her husband questioned the White House’s use of evidence on the alleged existence of Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq. 

Naomi Watts as Plame.

In late 2001 Valerie Plame is appointed to manage the CIA’s Joint Task Force on Iraq, focusing on counter proliferation intelligence gathering. In late February 2002 Wilson travelled to Niger at the behest of the CIA to investigate their alleged sale of uranium to Iraq, although Wilson finds no evidence his report is used to confirm the British claim’s that the Iraqis are building nuclear weapons. Based on this British/American interpretation troops enter Iraq. Its when Wilson publishes his article in the New York Times exposing the distortion of his findings to serve the war mongers case that his wife is exposed publically as a CIA agent something even the couples closest friends were unaware of.

Sean Penn as Wilson.

This familiar fact-based drama has been converted into a taut, and for the most part interesting, political thriller with a great performance from Watts whose resemblance to the real Plame is uncanny. Sean Penn gives a great interpretation of a man of principal along with all the smouldering anger that’s involved. A very believable interpretation of these shadowy events. The film won the Freedom of Expression Award from the National Board of Review.

The Tree of Life.

Earths Beginnings.

The Meaning of life?

I can categorically state that Terrence Malick’s latest movie, his first for six years, is strangely different from many other movies you would have seen.  Amongst a great deal of critical controversy The Tree of Life (2010) won this years Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. It’s a film full of wonderful images with marvellous use of sound and developed from three separate narratives. The central story is of a middle class family, mum, dad and three boys living in late 1950’s Waco Texas. Mr O’Brien (Brad Pitt) is head of the family; a disciplinarian who seems to believe in the old adage that its best to be cruel to be kind. A man who gave up a musical career to become a manager at the local oil plant. Mrs O’Brien (Jessica Chastain) dotes over her three boys, not always supporting her husband in his strictness regime, and who along with the boys, enjoys a certain amount of freedom when her husband is away on his long business trips. The families story is revealed via the present day, recounted through by the troubled eldest son Jack O’Brien (Sean Penn) now an architect working in a high-rise glass tower in Dallas. Looking back at his childhood he relates how the death of his youngest brother at the age of nineteen effected him greatly, an incident that casts a great shadow over the complete film. Jacks subconscious wants nothing more than the whole family to be reunited. The most surreal section of the film is the imagery showing the inception of earth and the origins of life. Malick successfully works the sections together, but not in the form of a linear narrative.

The movie begins with a quotation from the Bible’s Book of Job “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding, who determined its measurements – surely you know” A film full of spiritual symbolism and as one critic commented ‘rich in prayer and beauty’ which is emphasised for me by the gentle acting of Jessica Chastain as mother and wife, a character that seems to float rather than move through the film. As I said in my opening this is not your standard Picture House fodder, it’s a movie that viewers will have to assess themselves. Malick posses the question, why and for what do we exist? No two people will draw the same concussions. In my opinion the answer he gives, is family, that vague dream of happiness that we sometimes allow ourselves and maybe success in life. I would be interested to know what you think!!