Just Mercy Cert: 12A / 137 mins / Dir. Destin Daniel Cretton / Trailer The UK film distribution community’s resolution of Po-Faced January™ continues*1 as director and screenwriter Destin Daniel Cretton brings us Just Mercy, based on legal-aid lawyer Bryan Stevenson’s true-life book of the same title.
Set over the course of 1986-1993, Michael B. Jordan portrays Stevenson as he works for inmates on Death Row in an Alabama state prison. One of his clients is Walter McMillian (Jamie Foxx), whose sentence for murder is shaky at best. Stevenson begins the arduous task of investigating the case properly in a bid to overturn the conviction, coming up against all the obstacles one would expect in a small town in America’s southern states. Ahem.
STILL Now it’s easy to be cynical about a film like this, but it’s easier still to be unquestioningly swept up in the earnest drama. Just Mercyis very good at what it does, but that’s undercut by having such a broad target that it’s difficult to imagine a version of this film which wouldn’t work. Foxx does best out of all the performers here, his mix of defiance, introspection and dignity perfect for the role of a wrongly-condemned man. Likewise, Jordan copes well with the faith and dogged determination of a rookie lawyer trying to unearth the truth, but struggles more in the moments of anger which Stevenson has to endure. Brie Larson plays a lawyer’s assistant*2.
But the film itself lacks the punch that the true story should have, almost pedestrian in its direction and pacing. Just Mercy is almost exactly the film an audience expects, walking a well-trodden path without ambition. Which, given the actual gravity of the events, is borderline negligent.
BLOSSOMS A large part of the problem (for a film which I enjoyed, remember) is the almost autopilot structure. Perhaps assuming that everyone watching remembers the case from three decades ago*3, Stevenson is almost immediately convinced that McMillian is innocent, even before the exonerating evidence is discovered. And because the film is from Stevenson’s perspective, the audience then becomes convinced he’s innocent, too. So while there’s still some jeopardy in overturning Walter’s conviction*4, there’s never any narrative doubt or a chance that Bryan will uncover something he wishes he hadn’t. A little moral ambiguity would have made for a much stronger film.
Because as much as Just Mercy has working in its favour, the film is shameless awards-bait. It ticks all the right (and righteous) boxes for judging panels, while the 12A certificate ensures there’ll be nothing in there to actually upset them properly. Closing out with a montage of the real-life players (because of course), there’s the lingering thought that the film should be upsetting. Like this week’s other contender, we’re a long way off these issues being fixed. Patting ourselves on the back that justice is occasionally done isn’t really a workaround.
Ultimately, Just Mercy is a decent film, but a forgettable one. Far more forgettable than a story like this should be...
Imagine if John Grisham was doing 1980s daytime TV movies.
This will sit well on the shelf next to Green Book.
If you think you know what you're going to see then you know exactly what you're going to see, so that's very much up to you.
Streaming, there won't be too much re-watching in this.
It's certainly 'up there' for the ones who shine.
That's possible.
There isn't.
Level 2: Tim Blake Nelson is in this, and he was in that Lincoln with David 'Kallus' Oyelowo, Joseph 'Slowen' Gordon-Levitt and Adam 'Kylo' Driver
Although it's a shame I'm not Marvel-spotting for this bit because the film's got Killmonger/Human Torch, Captain Marvel and Electro in it. Also, Tim Blake Nelson was Samuel Sterns in 2008's Incredible Hulk, but like I said, that's not what this bit's for.
*1 For what it's worth, not everything is doom and gloom as my local has an advance screening of the upcoming riotous comedy Like A Boss in a couple of weeks' time. I'm not going of course, as by the looks of the godawful trailer it'll make me far more angry than any hand-wringing awards-nudgers ever would. [ BACK ]
*2 And yes, the depth of that sentence is largely reflective of Larson's role in the film and the scope which she had in defining it. The second-best thing about Room is here as a secretary. Just wow. [ BACK ]
*3 And yes, I'm saying after assuming earlier this week that everyone watching Bombshell will have read the news reports of the case in 2016. A quick scant of social media the very next day shows that this is not the case. Mea culpa with that one. [ BACK ]
*4 Because let's be fair, nobody makes this film with this cast for a January release and has the third-act reveal of "anyway it turned out he had done it after all, so we watched him fry while we had a beer...". The actual identity of the actual murderer is something of an afterthought by the way, but since the case was never successfully closed that's perhaps understandable.
[ BACK ]
DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
The art of the con is as old as the first interactions between humans, when one hunter or gatherer saw a rival's horde and realised there was an easier way to get all that without the hard work. Now it's one thing to fool the gullible or the easily distracted, but to pull off a job under the noses of people already on their guard, knowing someone's trying to get one over on them? That's where the real skill lies, my friend. That's the con.
And it turns out that Chris Addison is an absolute master at this*1. You know that The Hustle is going to be not worth watching. Chris Addison knows that you know. You know that Chris Addison knows you know. But there's only one way to sate that morbid curiosity. To find out how right you are. To prove your critical and intellectual superiority against your opponent and your natural instincts. And with that, the trap is sprung.
Because you've given Chris Addison 93 minutes of your life and you ain't getting those back.
Well played, Addison. Well played.
CAPER The Hustle is not good. A minimalist, animated title sequence evokes the feel of 1960s caper-comedies, with an air of wit and wry faux-sophistication that's wholly missing from every other aspect of the film. Imagine a gross-out comedy but with a 12A certificate so that it can't do the gross-out moments. Or, apparently, the comedy.
Adapted by Stanley Shapiro, Paul Henning, Dale Launer and Jac Schaeffer from 1988's well-loved Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, this Anne Hathaway / Rebel Wilson vehicle incorporates the classic farce setup and blends in elements of its namesake, the BBC TV series Hustle*2. Although those elements don't include a clever, intricate plot with twists, sleight-of-hand, reveals or any actual hustle. Unless I missed an episode where Jaime Murray spends a full minute in an airplane toilet making half-hearted puns on the word 'arses' before having noisy sex with a mark for no discernible plot or character-based reason.
MASKER You know those outtakes they put at the end of studio-comedies, where the ill-timed, missed-cue goofing around on set had the crew in stitches but was nowhere near good enough to make the final story-edit? The Hustle is like an entire movie cut together from those. It's like the cast have been allowed to ad-lib their lines but still think they're in rehearsals and the cameras aren't running yet. It's like Hathaway and Wilson have dared each other to make the worst, most cack-handed thing in their careers and this is neither of them wanting to admit defeat by pulling out first.
And while Hathaway's accent is like false nails being dragged across a blackboard for an hour and a half (which the film exacerbates by steering clear of confirming if it's meant to be deliberately bad, in-character), her performance is at positively Les Mis-levels compared to Rebel Wilson's, whose resolute lack of effort here is truly outstanding. It's not even that Wilson looks bored by the script, she actually looks visibly annoyed. Like her agent couldn't find the get-out clause in the contract and now it's too late. Still, at least the Australian comic's dignity is intact, only being employed to do a Melissa McCarthy style 'haha it's funny because the fat lady falls over!' routine four (FOUR) times in a single film.
UTILITY-BELTER Still, at least there are no morally problematic elements like the 'blindness is hilarious' joke which was dragged out for far too long in a sketch for Anchorman 2. Oh wait, no that's right. Here it becomes an actual central plot component for the second and third acts, while the audience reason that if they suddenly lost their vision, they'd at least have half of their experience of this film removed...
The Hustle may not be as badly assembled as the Little rehash, and it may not be quite as tasteless as the C.H.i.P.s rehash, but everyone involved should know better. This is just lazy, tone-deaf and embarrassing.
You may have walked away with the money but the joke's on you, Addison.
This blog is filled with the takedowns of many a shit comedy movie, but I can't think of any other which fails this solidly in these specific ways, so I'm not going to commit to a direct, like-for-like comparison.
*1 Chris 'Chris Addison' Addison, though? As in Actual Chris Actual Addison? Smart, funny, erudite, widely respected within the UK comedy industry Chris Addison? I mean I know his stand-up credibility was dented when he did the insurance adverts, but he's hardly the first performer to take the obscenely over-remunerated bait offered by those shysters. I mean look at what's left of Harvey Keitel's career for fuck's sake. Still, it's money isn't it? I get that. I hate it, but I get it. In terms of a much-loved British comedian's elephant-in-the-room, The Hustle is the cinematic equivalent of It's Kevin. Yes, I went there. [ BACK ]
*2 To the point where Hathaway knowingly directly references the show's tagline, "you can't cheat an honest man", in an attempt to reassure the audience that the writers, cast and crew know exactly what they're doing in insulting the audience for an hour and a half. [ BACK ]
DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
Y'know, when the poster proudly trumpets "From the studio that brought you X-Men, Days Of Future Past", what you have to remember is that they're also the studio that brought you Fantastic Four. Although if anything, that should only raise audience expectations, right? After all, a period of contrite reflection and furious storyboarding did Sony alright, didn't it?
Well, I can tell you now that Fantastic Four isn't the worst Fantastic Four movie any more. Fantastic Four is*1. The plot of Josh Trank's reboot sees five young actors step into an under-tested machine, who are then hurled into the atmosphere-free void of Simon Kinberg's screenplay, a barren, desolate landscape bereft of drama, charm or wit. Or interest.
How have they done this? How have a real, grown-up studio with a (patchy, admittedly) record of super-hero movies managed to take one of Marvel's best-loved properties and managed to make a film so utterly boring? The script is a perfect example of Perfunctory™, full of stilted clichés and half-arsed exposition and delivered by the poorly-chosen cast as if they'd actually filmed their shared scenes in different rooms, such is the absolute lack of spark between them. The eponymous quartet neither look, sound nor act like any previous iteration of The Fantastic Four (and not in a cool, groundbreaking sort of a way), and are essentially just four kids who have the same super-powers as the adult versions in those other films you're not meant to think about.
And Doctor Doom looks like he's been drawn in by a five-year old.
The film is monumentally dull, not even trying to be anything more than a hastily scribbled note on the cinematic fridge-door that reads "…if we didn't make this now we'd have lost the film rights, sorry!". Given Marvel's heritage and the source-material Fox had to work with, this is inexcusable.
Credit where it's due, Doctor Doom's murderous rampage in the laboratory is quite darkly handled, and at least The Thinglooks a bit better this time around (doesn't sound or act it), but is walking around without any pants on! I suppose that at least answers answers Brody's question…
When the vast majority of the audience at an exclusive advance screening leaves during the preliminary bout of end-credits of a Marvel flick, that tells you how much they enjoyed the previous hour and a half. Although the few of us who sat to the end needn't have bothered…
The business-end:
• Is there a Wilhelm Scream? No.
• Is there a mid-credits scene? No.
• Is there a post-credits scene? No.
• Is there a Stan Lee cameo? No… No.
You don't have to stay through the closing credits. Although in all fairness, you don't have to stay through the opening credits, either.
And that's right, true believer! 20th Century Fox have managed to make a mainstream Marvel movie so unremittingly bad that even Stan Lee didn't want a cameo…
It's not. It's not worth paying to see. The end.
Don't not-watch it for money, wait until it's on ITV2 and don't watch it then.
In no way, shape or form.
…make me pine for a movie where Chris Evans (not that one) snowboards down a mountainside to the backing of Sum41 like some awful Pepsi Max commercial but with a clunkier script?
It kinda does, yes.
....
There isn't.
Fantastic Four stars Toby Kebbell, who provided voice-work for the Star Wars: The Old Republic game. ('Additional Voices': it still counts. You'd have it on your CV as having worked in Star Wars, so it still counts)
DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
