"The Equalizer": A Good Movie For Your Dad

Now Available on DVD and Blu-Ray

The Equalizer is exactly the kind of film that my dad would have liked.  There’s an emerging genre of films that specifically appeals to his demographic, a harkening back to the action flicks of the 1980s, starring an aging male protagonist whose combination of skill, experience, and raw masculinity make him an unstoppable badass capable of taking down armies of bad guys all by himself.  For the epitomous example, simply look to just about anything Liam Neeson has done in the last decade, most notably the Taken franchise.  Denzel Washington is filling the protagonist shoes this time around, and the role of the daughter in need of rescue is symbolic rather than actual, but otherwise, you pretty much know what to expect here.

Robert McCall (Washington) is an ex-black ops agent working as a clerk in a home improvement superstore.  He’s a generally friendly guy, always helping out where he can.  In his nightly ritual of going to a local diner to read, he meets and befriends a young woman who is clearly being used in the sex trade.  After her pimps beat her nearly to death, something snaps inside Robert so that he kills the Russian gang responsible for the young woman’s brutalization.  However, this gang consisted of some big players in the Russian mob, so the top brass sends their best assassin to track down McCall and put him in his place.

What I found particularly interesting about The Equalizer is that McCall seems to have some obsessive compulsive tendencies, and it seems to be implied that those tendencies are what allow him to have such honed killer instincts and reflexes.  This is perfect for Denzel Washington’s subdued and subtle acting, as he communicates most of this non-verbally and without making a show of it.  It’s an interesting character detail, even if it isn’t an accurate portrayal of the suffering people actually experience due to OCD.  However, as the film progresses, this is pushed into the background and never really expanded upon, so even if you were to find it offensive, it’s not actually so prevalent as to ruin the experience.  Personally, though, I thought that it would have given the film a unique identity.

However, the film has some second act pacing issues, where McCall’s helpful nature leads him to enact his own vigilante justice.  The film again hints that this is because he can’t turn this newly reawakened compulsion off, but never quite bites that hook.  Instead, these scenes largely don’t tie into the main narrative.  As the Russian assassin gradually figures out who McCall is and plots to make an example of him, McCall just casually beats guys up to pad out the runtime.  This causes the film to feel a bit overlong, and by the time the third act one-man-against-an-army climax rolled around, I was more than ready to be done with it all.

Overall, though, I don’t think The Equalizer is that bad of a film.  Yeah, it’s formulaic and its most creative elements seem to have gone to waste, but Washington is the perfect leading man for this sort of role, and long-time action director Antoine Fuqua really knows how to effectively burn a dramatic explosion or gunshot into your memory.  If you’re looking for a lazy weekend flick that doesn’t require too many brain cells and a minimal attention span, this might just be the “dad movie” for you.

Have a favorite “dad movie?”  Share your favorite in the comments below.

"Beyond The Lights": A Uniquely Feminist Romance

Now Available on DVD and Blu-Ray

Beyond The Lights piqued my interest for one reason: it is a dramatic romance that was critically well-received.  Romances as a genre are notorious for being shallow and formulaic, often relying on little more than the physical chemistry (or imaginations thereof) of the two leads.  If that’s your escapist fantasy, I suppose there’s nothing really wrong with that, but it’s hard to deny that most times romances are made on the cheap and released on box office off-weekends with the hopes of drawing in women and their obliging dates.  So what makes Beyond The Lights so different?  Well, first of all, it seems like director Gina Prince-Bythewood actually gives a damn about producing a powerful piece of cinema, and despite the film still adhering to tried and true genre conventions, she largely succeeds.

Our protagonist is Noni, a budding pop star who has been pushed by her mother all her life to be the best.  Under the pressure of being in the constant spotlight and having to adhere to a staged romance with a fellow performer, she climbs her hotel room balcony with the intention of jumping.  Enter Kaz, a police officer who responds to the emergency call and ultimately pulls her back from the brink.  Through a series of chance meetings and revealing conversations, it becomes clear that the two have a lot in common, with Noni’s mother pushing her into becoming a sexualized pop idol in the name of success and Kaz’s father pushing him into politics, even though police work is how he truly feels fulfilled.  Through their newfound love, they begin to find the strength to overcome their predestined paths and break free of their parents’ control.

Now, this sounds like a fairly typical Romeo and Juliet situation, and from a structural standpoint, that’s all too accurate.  However, what really sells this film is that the two leads develop in such a way that feels realistic, both in its emotion and its pacing.  The film knows to take its time, allowing the couple to learn about and understand each other as normal human beings would.  When the two finally do start becoming intimate and sexual, it’s easy to see the connection between them, because we’ve watched it develop and know that there’s more to this than just lust.  The fact that film takes time to develop the two characters separate from one another in dedicated scenes only strengthens the feeling that these are real people experiencing realistic emotions.

But perhaps what elevates this film beyond just being good is that it communicates an incredibly vital message about the objectification of female pop idols.  In order to get to the top, women of that profession must sell their sexual appeal, their personal and private lives, and their souls to make it to the top of the charts.  To see it portrayed from the singer’s perspective, with adoring fans who know nothing of the real her as they scream for more drama and tabloid performing, it really becomes a small wonder that more celebrities don’t succumb to the pressure and break down.  The film shows all this through Noni's controlling mother/manager and the steps her record label coerces her to take in order to promote her image, and it makes Noni’s plight a sympathetic one, one that a lesser film would have glossed over in favor of providing a fantasy-fulfillment scenario.

Beyond The Lights may have the bones of a romantic film, but the portrayal and thematic meat on those bones truly elevate it to be something special.  I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a genre great, but when a romantic film is smartly written, well-acted, and subtextually rich, it’s worth taking notice.  If this type of film is up your alley, I recommend giving it a look.

Have a favorite romantic flick?  Share it in the comments below.

"This Is Where I Leave You": Dramedy Spread Too Thin

Now Available on DVD and Blu-Ray

As I watched this movie, I found myself thinking about the word “dramedy.”  I’ve always thought it a little kitschy, taking the genre of dramatic comedies and just combining the words for convenience.  However, as I watched This Is Where I Leave You, I couldn’t help but think there was a bit more to it; perhaps on a symbolic level, perhaps as a logistical distinction, or perhaps just as a clever way I thought of to start off this review.  See, the word “dramedy” seems to imply that the drama and comedy aspects of a film are intertwined with one another, interspersing comedy to add some relief during a film’s heavier moments.  This works well sometimes, especially when the tone would otherwise be too dour for the story the film is trying to tell.  However, This Is Where I Leave You often feels like the drama and the comedy are on two separate planes of existence, making this feel more like dramatic comedy than dramedy.

And this is a shame because this film has a really damn good cast, pulling in great comic TV stars like Jason Bateman and Tina Fey and putting them with the likes of Adam Driver, Corey Stoll and Jane Fonda, all of whom have some great acting chops.  When Fonda’s character’s husband dies, she brings her four children (played by the aforementioned actors) together for shiva, a seven day Jewish ritual of mourning.  Each of the children has their own issue that they’re dealing with, be it Bateman’s cheating wife, Fey’s work-obsessed husband, Stoll’s inability to impregnate his wife, or Driver’s inability to stop sleeping around even when he has a solid relationship.  Bateman is the undisputed protagonist of these proceedings, as he is given a romantic subplot in the middle of all this mayhem, but everyone is obviously pouring their souls into giving the best performances they can with the material they have.

It’s unfortunate then that the material is so lackluster.  As I said before, the comedy and drama have their own distinct scenes in the film to an almost mechanical degree, almost never overlapping in a way that feels organic.  The shifts can be as great as prat-fall physical comedy directly to saccharine sweet remembrances of the family patriarch, and that makes it really hard to find a definitive tone to the film.  When a film can’t seem to decide how it wants the audience to feel, it’s hard for the audience to feel anything, especially when the crux of the story is the emotional turmoil of coming together to grieve a loved one.  The result is a series of comic gags that fall flat and a serious story that’s hard to care about.

This isn’t helped by the fact that the script leaves a lot to be desired.  Despite how much I love the cast and admire the great job they tried to do, the film just has too many characters to maintain any sort of coherent narrative, with the exception being Bateman’s protagonist.  Each of the five family members has scenes of their own personal turmoil and they also have make narrative room for the dysfunction with each other, and while the film is thankfully only 100 minutes long, there just is not enough time to explore all these plotlines to the extent they deserve.  This makes sense, considering this is an adaptation of a novel, but some of these plot threads needed to be left on the cutting room floor, making way for the protagonist to carry most of the narrative weight while everyone else is relegated to the supporting cast.

As it is, however, This Is Where I Leave You is spread way too thin to be worth recommending.  There are plenty of good dramedies out there, but this sure as hell isn’t one of them.

Has Tina Fey ever successfully made the transition to the big screen?  Leave your thoughts in the comments below.