Director: Shane Black
Writers: Shane Black, Anthony Bagarozzi
Stars: Russell Crowe, Ryan Gosling, Angourie Rice

Synopsis: A mismatched pair of private eyes investigate the apparent suicide of a fading porn star in 1970s Los Angeles.

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DIRECTION
Shane Black has certainly cultivated his own following over the years, which started with his Lethal Weapon connections, then picked up steam with the cult-hit Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and finally going mainstream with Iron Man 3 back in 2013. The way Black conjures unique characters in crazy situations with clever plot developments is quite impressive, so it’s no surprise he’s been able to find an audience. He’s able to use simple tactics that make for a fun, movie-going experience and The Nice Guys is no different. From a direction standpoint, Black’s biggest victory are the performances he gets from Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe, who carry (almost) everything in this film. Black uses some great editing techniques to deliver some humor and his camera work at time amplifies the chaos of the story, but it’s mostly Gosling and Crowe who make those elements engaging. Still, you have to credit Black as a director for, not only gathering those performances, but taking advantage of them by being deliberate with how he pursued those characters. There are moments where Black will set up a certain notion before pulling the rug out from under you. The narrative may be a little overwritten but Black is purposeful in his direction and he makes certain themes feel visceral, and simply hysterical, by being as intentional as he is in this film.

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SCRIPT
Shane Black the director is a treat in The Nice Guys but as a writer, he and co-writer Anthony Bagarozzi do stumble a bit. The Holland March (Gosling) and Jackson Healy (Crowe) characters are compelling in their own right and their scenes together are a riot. And as mentioned above, Black and Bagarozzi are deliberate in their approach to the individual characters. March is a private investigator but he’s somewhat of a mess and everything he does seems to go wrong. Yet, he also has moments where he showcases he’s very capable of being a good P.I. We see several scenes where you think March has fallen down the rabbit hole and climbed out of it before Black undercuts your expectations and we see March is still in the hole. Healy is more of the straight-man here but he also has a few surprises along the way.

Now, the irony in all of that, while Black and Bagarozzi are deliberate with the March and Healy characters, the film overall feels too calculated. The screenplay pays attention to the details in parts but loses clarity on the whole. As a result, the characters are fascinating but the overall narrative never knows what it wants it to be. And while The Nice Guys is meant to be a set-up for fun banter between March and Healy, the aesthetic of the film isn’t structured like Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice for example, where the disjointedness of that narrative is purposefully all over the place to symbolize a drug-fueled state of mind. The plot does have it’s purpose in The Nice Guys and therefore it’s lack of clarity isn’t well earned.

Additionally, there’s exposition and a few major developments that are lazily written and become extensively contrived, halting any momentum the film does build. There’s especially a big mishap with a certain character near the third act where this character makes a sudden left turn that has zero explanation. Some may argue that none of that matters but the film’s lack of clarity does hinder the overall experience. The Nice Guys goes out of it’s way to set up a mystery but then decides it doesn’t care to answer it fully, which will leave some audiences frustrated.

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THEMES
The screenplay may be a bit messy but thematically there’s some interesting notions here about parenting, the effects of sex and violence on children and how that effects parent/kid relationships. However, the heart of the film is centered around these ideas of innocence and virtue in a world lacking those convictions, which ultimately ties beautifully with those aforementioned notions. The opening scene of the film see’s a young boy witness a car crash, who then proceeds to the crash to find a naked woman lying on the ground. He takes an action that opens up the idea of virtue in a moment where his world was not innocent. This through line is carried robustly by Holly March (Angourie Rice), the daugther of Holland, who is the moral compass of The Nice Guys. Continually throughout the film, she finds herself in situations of indecency, violence and even L.A. smog (beautiful symbolism), yet she yearns for that virtue and innocence that no one else seems to care about. Black wonderfully juxtaposes those realities and ties them in perfectly to the progression of the (Holland) March and Healy characters.

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RELATED: Sing Street Movie Review

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PERFORMANCES
It goes without saying but Gosling and Crowe are great in this film. Gosling’s physical comedy and charming attitude is quite impeccable and how that rubs up against Crowe’s intimidating but sympathetic presence is amazing. As great as they are, one could argue that Rice is even better. Narratively, Holly may stifle some of the film’s momentum and she is put in situations that are somewhat eye-roll worthy but Rice’s performance is stellar and the way she carries the film’s themes is impressive for her age. On the flip side of that coin, Kim Basinger gives a rather bad performance and the use of her character is wasted. Keith David and Matt Bomer are cartoon characters but given the film’s second half chaos, they somewhat work here.

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SCORE / SOUNDTRACK
David Buckley and John Ottman get the nod to score here and while overall it’s nothing too memorable, it does fit the 1970’s aesthetic quite well. The soundtrack is the real winner here, featuring hits from the The Temptations, KISS, Earth, Wind & Fire, Bee Gees and more. The soundtrack and the score do work well together and helps engage the audience into the world Black is creating.

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FINAL THOUGHTS
Let’s be clear. Yes, the screenplay has it’s flaws and some of the performances aren’t great, but the film overall is still entertaining. It’s maybe a disappointment if you’re a big fan of Shane Black but the witty dialogue and alluring characters make up for wherever the film is a letdown. There are some affecting scenes between Holly and Holland, as well as Jackson, that crystalize the film’s main themes and motives in satisfying fashion. The nods to Chinatown are quite apparent but effective in homaging the classic. In fact, our good friend Josh Larsen said it perfectly in a tweet, where he said The Nice Guys is like Chinatown after it’s had a few drinks. That is a perfect summation of The Nice Guys because while the film narratively and aestetically does nod it’s head toward Chinatown, it stumbles around, slurs it’s speech and acts completely random at times. Like a good friend who’s drunk and doing silly things, you just can’t help but laugh at them.

Overall Grade: B

Director: John Carney
Writers: John Carney
Stars: Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, Aidan Gillen, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Jack Reynor, Lucy Boynton

Synopsis: A boy growing up in Dublin during the 1980s escapes his strained family life by starting a band to impress the mysterious girl he likes.

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(Back in 2013, this was the structure we used for our reviews, and I thought I’d bring it back. Let us know how you like or do not like it in the comment section below.)

DIRECTION
John Carney is a director that many people may not know but when it comes to music, he’s become a director who knows how to blend music and imagery seamlessly into one beautiful melody. His 2007 film Once garnered an Oscar win for Best Original Song and Begin Again in 2014 received an Oscar nomination for the same category. Both films were critically praised as well, proving that Carney is both capable of compelling filmmaking and conjuring great music for his movies. And now here we are with his latest film, Sing Street, set in Dublin in the early 1980’s. Given what I just laid out, do I even need to mention the music of this film? Well, it kind of seems redundant but yes, the music of this film is really fun, especially if you’re a fan of 80’s music. Tracks such as “Drive It Like You Stole It” or “Girls” could end up with Oscar nominations at the end of the year. Carney has this evocative ability to use music as a thematic and emotional crux that moves you and helps resonate his characters identities. You especially feel that when you’re able to engage with the film’s characters, and in Sing Street, you do feel for it’s characters. You may question the ability of 15-year-old’s to create such high quality of music but the film overall is less about their natural ability and more about how Carney uses the music to say something about art and how that ties to identity, seeking understanding and building relationships. As a result, the music and emotion of this film amplifies Carney’s thematic undercurrent.

All of that said, there are some pacing issues here and Carney isn’t quite able to balance the supporting characters here like he has in previous films. Outside of Cosmo (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) and Eamon (Mark McKenna), the Sing Street band members are simply introduced and that’s it. You could argue the same for a few others as well but given this is Cosmo’s journey, which Carney handles quite well, it’s forgivable in the long run. Sing Street‘s issues are small and Carney lands all the right beats for this film to still resonate loudly.

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SCRIPT / THEMES
Sing Street opens with a scene where Conor (later named Cosmo) and his family are having a meeting and it’s announced that Conor will be attending a new school, the free state-school Synge Street CBS. At this new school, the principal is very strict and 100% by the book and the school’s bully Barry (Ian Kenny) has decided to target Conor, which leads to a rather unpleasant first couple of days. However, during a break one day, Conor sees a girl across the street and decided to approach her. He finds out her name is Raphina and in order to impress her, he says that he’s in a band and that he wants her for a music video he’s shooting. The thing is, Conor isn’t in a band. Yet. So, he and his new friend Darren (Ben Carolan) set out to start a band which they name Sing Street. With the help of his brother Brendan (Jack Reynor), Conor and his friends start making songs that are inspired by different 80’s bands, which intersects with their journey of seeking identity and well, girls. Conor is eventually able to catch Raphina’s eye but it’s not as easy as Conor would like. They do, however, bond over music and the videos they create together, which leads to Raphina re-naming Conor to Cosmo.

At the heart of Sing Street, it’s about inspiration and what it means to be inspired. However, it’s even more potent in how Carney uses brother relationships as a catalyst for that inspiration. Throughout the film, Brendan is constantly giving advice and love to Conor as it relates to music and art. They have conversations over music videos, why certain artists are more pure than others and Brendan is always giving Connor new music to listen to as homework. We learn Brendan is a college drop out but Carney is intentional about making it known that Brendan is very knowledgeable when it comes to music, something Conor highly respects. In fact, to Conor, everything Brendan says is gold and Conor uses that to drive every action he takes.

Conor is an open slate. He’s vulnerable and looking for identity and starts to find himself in the music his brother shows him. He goes as far as to even dress like the artists he’s inspired by, which does have it’s unintended consequences at times. Cosmo may say and do the wrong things in certain moments but he also shows strenght and will power. There’s a fascinating progression of Conor finding inspiration, rooted in his relationship with is brother, and making it part of himself. When Brendan see’s this, he becomes Conor’s biggest cheerleader and is always pushing Conor to the next level to cultivate the best out of him. It’s really moving and is in turn, inspiration itself. It also leads to some immersive imagery and beautiful symbolism in Sing Street‘s final act.

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RELATED: Louder Than Bombs Movie Review

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PERFORMANCES
In his big screen debut, Ferdia Walsh-Peelo gives a rather engaging performance as Conor. As mentioned, Conor is very impressionable and Walsh-Peelo is great at depicting Conor’s transparencies. He makes the music feel real and visceral within the context of the film and overall gives a rather striking performance. As good as he is though, Jack Reynor and Lucy Boynton, as Brendan and Raphina respectively, steal the show. Reynor is really funny in parts but gives some rather stirring dialogue that perfectly reflects the film’s tone and overall messages. Boynton’s layered performance is captivating as well. Raphina has problems and is emotionally lost, something Boynton brings out perfectly. She brings such subtlety to Raphina that was needed and she lays it on at just the right times.

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SCORE / SOUNDTRACK
I don’t even know where to start with this section. As mentioned above, the music is quite wonderful. If you’re a fan of the 80’s, get ready for a nostalgic joygasm. The music here is heavily influenced from bands like Duran Duran, Hall & Oats, The Cure and more. This is a soundtrack you need to seek immediately and listen to on repeat. As great as the music is, it’s how Carney uses it that makes it even more resonate. It works both aesthetically and thematically for Sing Street.

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FINAL THOUGHTS
There is a dream sequence that Conor has that is arguably the best sequence Carney has ever shot. Keeping it vague, it essentially reflects this utopia that Conor wants as it relates to his parents, his brother, Raphina, the school and his band but of course reality isn’t quite that perfect. It’s actually a heartbreaking scene but quintessentially represents what this film is getting at in terms of inspiration, music, seeking identity and using all of that to cope with life’s arduousness. It’s a pretty powerful moment that will stand out in film in 2016. Again, this film isn’t perfect but it’s charm and fun will outweigh whatever problems this film does have and the idea of how brothers inspire each other is genuinly affecting.

Overall Grade: A-

Director: Joachim Trier
Writers: Joachim Trier, Eskil Vogt
Stars: Jesse Eisenberg, Gabriel Byrne, Isabelle Huppert, Devin Druid

Synopsis: The fractious family of a father and his two sons confront their different feelings and memories of their deceased wife and mother, a famed war photographer.

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(Back in 2013, this was the structure we used for our reviews, and I thought I’d bring it back. Let us know how you like or do not like it in the comment section below.)

DIRECTION
Joachim Trier’s Louder Than Bombs is certainly one of the more ambitious films of 2016, so far. The film’s structure is at times non-linear and Trier uses flashback montages as a way of reflecting the film’s pathos and thematic undercurrent. The romanticizing of depression, and potential suicide, is slightly off-putting and will leave some audiences disengaged but overall, Trier’s direction and artistic ambition does amplify the film’s strong emotion that linger’s throughout. Trier’s biggest fault, however, isn’t his ambition but rather his inconsistent ambiguity. The narrative purposefully restricts certain details to let the emotion of the characters be the main focal point, but through evocative narration, much of the film’s beautiful subtlety becomes rather suppressed. To be fair, the narration is expertly performed but it does juxtapose what was successfully working with Trier’s understated approach.

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SCRIPT / THEMES
Most of the story focuses on Gene (Gabriel Byrne) and his two sons, Jonah (Jesse Eisenberg) and Conrad (Devin Druid), who are still coping with the loss of their mother/wife, Isabelle (Isabelle Huppert). Isabelle was a world-renowned war photographer who had been battling some inner demons when she was tragically killed in a car accident. Throughout the film, we start to understand that each member of the family is actually fighting for a way to cope, which leads to actions that render them all despicable at some point. However, screenwriters Eskil Vogt and Trier do a great job of balancing each character and making them honest and endearing on top of their juvenile behavior. That balance by Vogt and Trier works well in making each character feel more human and relatable as it relates to coping with death because you know their actions are rooted in heartache.

At the heart of Louder than Bombs, Trier is interested in how family isn’t always what it seems to be on the surface. We all have something to hide and while that can lead to disconnect, we still have a yearning for our family. We see how Jonah is wanting to understand Caleb. Gene is desperate to connect with Caleb and Jonah on some level. He is heartbroken over (ambigious) details he learns about Isabelle but that only fuels his fire for connection with is sons. In the middle of all of this, Trier introduces the notion that sometimes you can change an image to manipulate it’s meaning, which ultimately ties back to life and death and how that can be interpreted the same way. The family may or may not know all the details surrounding Isabelle’s death but her life can be remembered in a specific way depending on their interpretation. Trier brings this full circle by showcasing images of birth and death, which made for some arduous symbolism but powerful imagery.

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RELATED: The Invitation Movie Review

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PERFORMANCES
Isabelle Huppert is a stand out here. She’s not on screen a ton but her character is the centerpiece of most of the action and she delivers some potent blows when she is on screen. In one scene, after coming back to the U.S., some of Isabelle’s recent photos make it into a big story featured in the New York Times. Her and Gene are celebrating when Isabelle notices a man nearby glancing at one of her photos in the paper, but he briefly turns the page. For all of Isabelle’s ambition and sacrifice, it only took a second for a stranger to see the image and move on. There’s a close up on Isabelle that raises some heartbreaking questions about sacrifice and how far we are willing to go to distance ourselves from family in order to do something we love. And as rich as that is, it only works because of Huppert and her incredibly understated performance. That one scene alone brings understanding to how Gene, Jonah and Caleb respond to Isabelle. Speaking of, Eisenberg, Byrne and Druid are all terrific as well, especially Druid who makes you sympathize with his inner turmoil and why he acts out the way he does. It’s quite the performance from a newcomer.

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SCORE / SOUNDTRACK
Ola Fløttum gets the nod to score here and the music is quite good. It brings a dourness to the film that serves the films tone very well but it also has heart. There’s a fine balance in the music that reflects the emotions of our characters very well and it lingers beautifully.

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FINAL THOUGHTS
While the ambition of this film does come with it’s faults, Louder than Bombs is a film worth checking out if you’re a fan of emotion and how people can interpret that emotion is very different ways. The transformation of that struggle throughout is felt at the end and the final image of Louder than Bombs does resonate powerfully.

Overall Grade: B+