Movie Review: The King

The King *** ½ / *****

Directed by: David Michôd.

Written by: Joel Edgerton and David Michôd.

Starring: Timothée Chalamet (King Henry V of England 'Hal'), Robert Pattinson (The Dauphin of France), Ben Mendelsohn (Henry IV), Joel Edgerton (Sir John Falstaff), Lily-Rose Depp (Catherine), Dean-Charles Chapman (Thomas of Lancaster), Thomasin McKenzie (Philippa), Sean Harris (William), Tara Fitzgerald (Hooper), Tom Glynn-Carney (Hotspur), Ivan Kaye (Lord Scrope), Andrew Havill (Archbishop of Canterbury), Tom Fisher, Edward Ashley (Cambridge), Tom Lawrence (Westmorland), Nick Wittman (Herald), Steven Elder (Dorset), Thibault de Montalembert (King Charles VI of France).

 

David Michod’s The King is a film about one of England’s great warrior kings – Henry V – who had many legendary wins on the battlefield, but that makes it clear from the get go that it is a role he never wanted. Based loosely on Shakespeare’s various Henriad, without citing the famous writer, or using his language, the film condenses the action, and puts a new spin on it – getting through it all in a little under two-and-a-half hours. It’s not a particularly original film – it won’t make you forget either the Olivier or Branagh version of Henry V, nor Braveheart a film that the battles are clearly inspired by, nor Chimes at Midnight, the Welles masterpiece that remains the best take on Falstaff now and forever, – but it is a different take on this oft-told tale, with some winning performances and filmmaking at its core.

 

When we first meet Prince Hal (Timothée Chalamet), he is a young hedonist, with floppy hair, waking up next to a woman he doesn’t know after yet another hard night of partying. He is the Crown Prince – but he hates his father, Henry IV (Ben Mendelsohn), a petty, puffy tyrant and doesn’t much care when he is informed that he won’t become King after all – that will go to his younger brother. But, of course, things don’t turn out that way – and Hal becomes Henry V, the ruler of England, who is almost immediately mired in one military campaign after another. He doesn’t want fighting – he thinks his father’s infighting within England was petty and silly, and he ignores the first few insults hurled at him by France – while all his adviser tries to goad him into going to war. Of course, who can he trust among his advisers – who also advised his father after all. William (Sean Harris) seems to be the one who listens to him closest, but he’s not truly at ease with him. His sister (a wonderful Thomasin McKenzie cameo) tells him to watch out for those advisers. He will eventually bring in his old drinking buddy Falstaff (Joel Edgerton) – a knight, and former military hero, who now basically drinks, or commits petty crimes so he can continue to drink. And eventually, whether he likes it or, there will be war with France.

 

This is a story you’ve likely seen before – but not quite in this way. The performances have much to do with that. Chalamet would not have been my choice here, but I was clearly wrong – he is excellent as the principled, idealist but undisciplined young Prince, who has to become King, and do what is right. The themes here are familiar – it’s hard for a good man to be King, or for a King to remain a good man or Heavy is the head that wears the crown or whatever cliché you prefer. But it comes together nicely in Chalamet’s skilled hands – making his Hal appropriate for the film, yet seemingly more modern. For comic effect, Robert Pattison has a few scenes as the foppish, silly Dauphin of France – and he’s clearly having a field day with his silly accent just this side of Monty Python, and mannerisms. Had he more scenes, perhaps it would have worn thin – but as it stands, it’s just about perfect. But it is co-writer Edgerton as Falstaff who I think is best here. No, he cannot hope to erase the memory of Welles’ Falstaff in the brilliant Chimes at Midnight – but they do something similar here, taking a comedic character, and turning him into a more thoughtful, tragic figure – someone who drinks as a way to forget what he has done, who doesn’t seek out more war, but does what he must anyway.

 

When the massive battle of Agincourt does arrive, Michod goes for it at full tilt. It is a muddy, bloody mess – but a brilliantly staged one from Michod, which is both viscerally exciting, genuinely moving, and showing off the strategy behind it all. Perhaps he’s cribbing from Braveheart a little – but the battles have their own flavor to them as well.

 

Michod is the talented Australian filmmaker, who still hasn’t topped his excellent debut film Animal Kingdom (although his follow-up, The Rover, is perhaps more ambitious). This certainly makes up for his last Netflix film – the misfire War Machine with Brad Pitt – and shows the talent he has. Perhaps he never will make a film quite as good as Animal Kingdom again – but more films like The King would be fine by me.

Movie Review: War Machine

War Machine ** / *****

Directed by: David Michôd.

Written by: David Michôd based on the book by Richael Hastings.

Starring: Brad Pitt (Gen. Glen McMahon), Anthony Hayes (Pete Duckman), John Magaro (Cory Staggart), Anthony Michael Hall (Greg Pulver), Emory Cohen (Willy Dunne), Topher Grace (Matt Little), Daniel Betts (Simon Ball), Aymen Hamdouchi (Badi Basim), RJ Cyler (Andy Moon), Alan Ruck (Pat McKinnon), Nicholas Jones (Dick Waddle), Will Poulter (Ricky Ortega), Lakeith Stanfield (Cpl. Billy Cole), Ben Kingsley (President Karzai), Meg Tilly (Jeannie McMahon), Griffin Dunne (Ray Canucci), Josh Stewart (Captain Dick North), Tilda Swinton (German Politician).

 

There’s been a lot of talk in recent weeks about Netflix – and its effect on movies – and whether them making their own movies, and mainly bypassing theatrical distribution to straight out to Netflix subscribers to watch from the comfort on their own couches, is a good thing or a bad thing. We can argue about a lot of bad things Netflix does – and I wouldn’t disagree (the worse thing is that Netflix has yet to find a way to make the movies they make or acquire seem like they must be watched, as they have done with their TV shows – and some very good movies are falling through the cracks that way). But in general, if Netflix wants to give a lot of money to good filmmakers to make a film no one else is willing to pay for, go for it. And David Michod is a filmmaker I quite like – his feature debut, Animal Kingdom, made my year-end top 10 list a few years ago, and I liked his follow-up The Rover more than many, and even more in retrospect. So giving him a lot of money to make a film with Brad Pitt felt like a good idea to me – and probably to Netflix as well, and it’s a bet I’d probably make again – even if the result this time around is the limp war satire War Machine – a film that never really finds its footing.

 

The year is 2009, and Obama has just become President. One of the things he has done is put General Glen McMahon (Pitt) in charge of the War in Afghanistan. It’s not a post that McMahon will have for very long – and this movie documents exactly why that is. McMahon’s strategy is woefully wrongheaded, he is given no support, and he basically lets a journalist see everything he does, who will of course report it, and make him look bad, leading for him to get replaced by someone else – who will, of course, do the exact same thing.

 

At the center of nearly every scene in the film is Pitt – and if nothing else, you have to say he delivers a daring performance. Note how I didn’t see it’s a good performance, because I’m not sure that it is, but he makes a choice, and sticks with it, knowing full well some will hate it, so let’s give him that. He plays McMahon as a kind of real life version of George C. Scott’s General Turgidson from Dr. Strangelove – but somehow wants to make McMahon both broader, and more human. It doesn’t really work, because how the hell can it. He spends the movie speaking in a strange clipped voice, constantly squinting, and running in the most bizarre way imaginable. Had Michod committed to making this an out-and-out comedy or satire, the performance may really have worked. But he doesn’t do that.

 

War Machine can never quite figure out what it wants to be. It is, in essence, about the conflict between the Obama administration, who wanted to get out of Afghanistan as quickly as possible, and the soldiers on the ground, who are still being asked to fight, and in some cases die, for a war they know the administration no longer supports. Strangely, the film itself almost remains apolitical about the whole thing – so hard line right wingers can watch the film and see it as a failure of a cowardly Obama, and hard line left wingers can see McMahon and company as gung ho war mongers. That’s not really because the movie plays things fair, as much as it seems like the film has no opinion on anything, ever.

 

Still, there are scenes that work. There is another fine supporting performance from Lakeith Stanfield (so memorable in Short Term 12 and Get Out, among many others) as a young soldier who quite rightly no longer knows what the hell he’s supposed to do, and doesn’t shy away from making that known. The third act works better than the rest, because that’s when there are actual stakes at play, not a bunch of meaningless chatter like the rest of the film.

 

But overall, War Machine just never hangs together. There’s a moment here and there that work, but overall the film is a mess. It was clearly made by talented people, all of whom made certain choices throughout – it’s almost as if they never discussed those choices with each other though, and the result is a film that just doesn’t work.

Movie Review: The Rover

The Rover
Directed by: David Michôd.
Written by: David Michôd & Joel Edgerton.
Starring: Guy Pearce (Eric), Robert Pattinson (Rey), Scoot McNairy (Henry), Tawanda Manyimo (Caleb), David Field (Archie), Gillian Jones (Grandma), Susan Prior (Dorothy Peeples), Anthony Hayes (Sgt Rick Rickoffersen), Jan Palo (Gordon).

David Michod’s feature debut, Animal Kingdom (2010) was a great crime drama that elevated the genre to tragic, nearly Shakespeare like proportions. It was about a young man sucked into a life of crime by a femme fatale – the twist being that the femme fatale was not a sexy young woman manipulating the young man by using sex, but rather an older woman (Jacki Weaver) – offering the young man the family he never had. It was a great movie. His follow-up, The Rover, is merely very good. While Animal Kingdom elevated its genre, The Rover is “just” a pitch perfect example of its genre. It’s a dark, post-apocalyptic (economically at least) Western, about a man named Eric (Guy Pearce) who has his car stolen in the first scene, and spends the entire movie trying desperately to get it back – for reasons that only become clear in its poignant final shot. It doesn’t do anything truly revolutionary with the genre, but never takes a step wrong. It’s an expertly written, directed and acted genre film. There are worse things you can be.

When we first see Pearce’s Eric, he’s sweating alone in his car, before he slowly gets up and goes across the street to a bar – where he sits down and drinks water, never uttering a world to the others in the bar. Soon a trio of criminals – Henry (Scoot McNairy), Caleb (Tawanda Manyimo) and Archie (David Field) take over – driving away from a botched robbery at high speed in their pickup truck. They’ve left Henry’s brother Rey (Robert Pattinson) behind – and the argument this inspires causes the truck to flip over. The three get out quickly, and promptly steal Eric’s car and take off. Not one to let this go, Eric jumps into their truck (not destroyed, merely stuck) – and gives chase. Eventually, Eric will meet up with Rey – who isn’t dead like Henry thought – and he becomes his hostage. Then strangely something approaching his partner. He knows where Henry is going and wants to get back to him. Rey isn’t very bright – and never quite realizes (or at least seems to never quite realize) what Eric’s ultimate goal is.

The film was shot largely in the Australian outback, which doesn’t need much work to make it look like a sunburnt, barren Wasteland. Eric doesn’t talk much – but Rey hardly shuts up. Eric doesn’t tell Rey why he’s alone, why he wants his car back or any details about his past (I only know his name is Eric because the credits say it is – if his name is mentioned, I missed it – he even makes a point of not telling one woman his name repeatedly). Only gradually do pieces of his past come to light. He’s haunted by something he did 10 years ago, as the world was collapsing – and even more haunted by the fact that no one seems to give a shit what he did. He got away with something without even trying. He’s basically been a dead man walking ever since. Rey, who along with his brother Henry, are the only Americans in the movie – they came here to work “in the mines” – but turned to crime when that didn’t work out. He has the mentality of a child – although one capable of violence. In some ways his relationship with Henry and with Eric is not unlike the central relationship in Of Mice and Men – he needs someone to tell him what to do, and if Henry is not around, than Eric will do.

The movie is largely made up of individual, violent set pieces. The best happen early – as when Eric walks into a store to try and get information about his missing car, and then ends up in the house next door, ruled over by the vile Grandma (Gillian Jones – excellent). This sequence results in the film’s most shocking act of violence that kicks the films into a whole new gear. Once we realize what lines Eric is willing to cross, the whole movie becomes even darker than it was before.

Pearce is excellent in the movie – this may in fact be his best performance to date. He was the moral authority in Animal Kingdom – or at least he seemed like it for much of the runtime, until you realize how far he was willing to go. Here, we know what he’s willing to do, although do not know why for most of the movie. It’s a largely silent performance, but no less impressive because of it. Robert Pattinson isn’t quite at Pearce’s level in the film – you catch him trying a little too hard at times – but in his quieter moments, he’s quite effective. It’s not a great performance – but it may be the first time I’ve seen him in a movie and thought he is capable of being this good (he was perfectly cast in Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis – although that role required him to be grim and monotone throughout – so it wasn’t exactly an actor’s showcase). The rest of the cast is excellent in small roles that leave larger impressions.

I cannot think of anything really wrong with The Rover. It does precisely what it sets out to do – it’s brilliantly directed and acted, and well written. It kept me engaged from beginning to end. It never really becomes anything more than a pitch perfect genre film. That’s more than enough.

Movie Review: Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom ****
Directed By: David Michod.
Written By: David Michod.
Starring: James Frecheville (Joshua 'J' Cody), Ben Mendelsohn (Andrew 'Pope' Cody), Joel Edgerton (Barry Brown), Guy Pearce (Leckie), Luke Ford (Darren Cody), Jacki Weaver (Janine Cody), Sullivan Stapleton (Craig Cody), Laura Wheelwright (Nicky Henry), Dan Wyllie (Ezra White).

It’s hard to imagine a better debut film coming out this year than David Michod’s Animal Kingdom. The film is a well directed, well written extremely well acted crime drama about the most dysfunctional criminal family I have encountered in a movie in recent years. The film is set in an Australia where the difference between the cops and criminals is pretty much non existant. One unlucky teenager, essentially a good guy but with nowhere else to go, get sucked into this world and is in over his head before he even realizes what is happening.

The kid is Josh (played by newcomer James Frecheville). In the films opening scene, his mother ODs on heroin. With no where else to go, he calls his long lost grandma Janine (Jacki Weaver), who shows up at his door and takes him back to her place to take care of him. Given what happens next, Josh would have been better off fending for himself.

Josh meets his uncles Darren (Luke Ford), barely older than Josh himself and too laid back to really fight against the tide of his family, Craig (Sullivan Stapleton), more of an outgoing hardass and Pope (Ben Mendelsohn), who is the “mastermind” of the group, although I use the term loosely. He seems to be charge because everyone else is scared of him. Along with their friend Barry (Joel Edgerton), these four guys are bank robberts. The problem is the bank robbery division of the police are after them – Pope in particular – and have no qualms about breaking the law to get them. If they cannot arrest them, they’d just as soon gun them down on the street. Their unit is being broken up soon, and they have plans to let these criminals walk away free.

This is a movie that could play out like a typical crime drama – and in many ways it does – but it is also much more intelligent and thoughtful than most of what this genre offers us. For one thing, while the plot may seem familiar, I can honestly say that from one moment to the next, I was never quite sure of what was going to happen. A sense of foreboding and death hangs over the entire movie, just waiting for those moments when it gets too heavy and breaks.

For another, the film is much more well observed than most films in the genre. In Frencheville, Michod found a newcomer capabale of carrying his film. He is quiet and morose – like many teenagers – and this makes him difficult to read. At first, he likes his new family – and is honored that his uncles except him, and approve of his girlfriend Nicky (Laura Wheelwright, a real cutie with acting skills to match), and so he doesn’t question it when he gets more and more involved with what is happening around him. But with someone like Pope running things, it is only a matter of time before things blow up. Mendelsohn gives the best performance in the film, and one of the best so far this year, as Pope who is creepy, cruel, violent and pathetic in equal measures. You can never trust him, and there is something definitely off about him – even his mother suggests that “it may be time to start taking your medication again”. Pope talks a lot about loyalty, and his pathetic attempts at empathy towards the other family members, trying to get them to open up, all fail because they’re all scared of him. It is a truly chilling performance. And Jacki Weaver is perfect as the boys mother. At first, she just seems like a kindly grandma, but as the movie progresses we start to feel that there’s something not quite right about her either – her kisses to her sons, always on the lips, last just a little too long to be considered purely motherly, and when she reveals the depths of her coldness and loyalty, it truly is chilling. Ma Barker has nothing on this woman.

Michod shows great skills behind the camera – from the wonderful opening montage, to his brilliant use of music (did you ever think that the cheesy pop song “I’m All Out of Love” could chill you to the bone? I didn’t, but it does here), his use of slow motion, and his ever roaming camera are all put to great use here. This is a stylish movie, but not one where the style overtakes what is happening. Animal Kingdom is a debut film of such power and skill that I am amazed that Michod had never directed a feature before. He is one of the most promising filmmakers out there right now. I cannot wait to see what he does next.