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.
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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.
Oh, Gerard. Still growling his way through action movies. Still hoping this is just a phase as the his craggy features become ever-more pronounced. Still picking up the Embittered, Alcoholic, Rule-Breaking Cop™ roles that Neeson is too busy for, most likely because they both share a similar level of accent-control. Anyhow, some casting-call listed that aforementioned part along with the character name "Big Nick O'Brien" and his agent evidently thought it was tailor-made for Paisley's finest. And so it came to be.
Big Gerard stars as Big Nick, a police detective in charge of a specialist counter bank robbery squad in downtown Los Angeles (the bank robbery capital of the world, according to the helpful overlay cards we get in the opening moments). When the boys in dress-down body armour get wind of an imminent job on the Federal Reserve*1, it's scowling all round as we follow the cops and criminals alike through a maze of meticulous planning and frantic gunfire. Nick is constructed entirely from tattoo-ink, cigarettes, scotch, coffee, donuts, Pepto-Bismol*2, a weakness for hookers and a maverick disdain for The Suits™. Textbook stuff, to put it diplomatically.
And amazingly, it's not awful.
Although it's pretty far from great.
It also appears that all of Hollywood's script editors are currently on strike. Den of Thieves should be a clock-punching 95 minute romp of shakycam car chases and punch-ups. Instead, director Christian Gudegast self-indulgently ambles along for 140 of them, seeming to believe the movie has something profoundly unique or meaningful to reveal to the audience and the genre itself. Long brooding scenes of Nick's incidental domestic strife try to shore-up a character who hasn't been built in the first place.
In one over-long interrogation scene, Nick explains to a kidnapped suspect "you're not the bad guys - we are". Probably just as well he cleared that up, since other than himself, getaway driver Donnie (O'Shea Jackson Jr) and chief-crim Ray Merrimen*3 (Pablo Schreiber), the members of each 'crew' are underwritten and interchangeable. For the last hour, even the film itself has no idea who it's actually rooting for. But the end result is the same: a £3 Father's Day DVD assembled from offcuts of every heist movie made in the last 40 years.
Packaged like absolute filler and delivered like it too, Den Of Thieves is fine, if unremarkable. The core idea is solid enough, but the movie lacks character.
As well as characters.
Fuck it, even Triple 9 manages to keep the same shit under two hours..
Nope.
Stream it, tops.
Nope.
Nope.
Nope.
Level 1: This film features Uncredited Stormtrooper from The Last Jedi. And you may well snort at that, but if it was on my CV, that's how I'd be introducing myself at dinner parties.
*1 And I'm pleased to report that the line from the trailer in which Pablo Schreiber describes the Federal Reserve as being "like Fort Knox" has been removed in the final edit. Because as we've all known since 1995, that's a false equivalence. [ BACK ]
*2 Although no packaging is displayed on-screen, Pepto-Bismol is specifically namechecked in the final shooting-script. Although that's still nowhere near as cool as that time Seabrook Crisps got a product-placement deal in a Fast & Furious flick. [ BACK ]
*3 'Ray Merrimen'? Surely he should be Robin Merrimen, if anything? That said, if a movie titled 'Den of Thieves' can be made without Dennis Waterman or Hugh Dennis as the lead actor, we shouldn't expect too much from naming conventions within it.
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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.
For the assembled faithful in Screen 5 on Friday, F. Gary Gray's regaling of the turbulent history of L.A. rap-group N.W.A. is a journey which begins before the BBFC card even makes an appearance, in the form of the trailer for the imminent (not to mention inexplicable) Ride Along 2. Because no matter what highs and lows will be explored among the 147 minutes of Straight Outta Compton, the audience can rest easy knowing the real tragic ending involves one of modern hip-hop's godfathers standing in faux-umbrage next to a shrieking Kevin Hart…
Covering the period of 1986 to 1996 Gray certainly delivers, and superficially, his film looks and sounds utterly magnificent. Okay, the first act is a little like a series of GTA cut-scenes, and it becomes apparent at this early stage that the story is told by deftly jumping between pivotal points in the development of N.W.A. and its ancillary projects. Feeling like a sort of visual Greatest Hits package, those unfamiliar with the broad history of the group should get plenty out of the film, and casual fans of the genre will be able to feel their way through the familiarity. The longtime, hardcore fan-base however, may find the telling a little contrived since so many of the incidents rely on the point-of-view of the narrator, and much of what happens here is already quasi-legendary.
The central cast are marvellous, with O'Shea Jackson Jr being a particular standout as Ice Cube. Jason Mitchell's performance as Eazy-E is similarly great when it's allowed time to breathe properly (see above). And helming the supporting cast is Paul Giamatti in his lengthy role as Jerry Heller, in a firm step towards his goal of securing the Guinness World Record for 'the most cinematic appearances as a transparently manipulative music manager within a year'.
As competently as the film replays the buildup of the Gangsta-scene, it's not really until the timeline reaches the L.A. riots of 1992 that it really feels like it has something more to say. Although by that point, it's so locked into its just-the-facts-ma'am methodology of storytelling that the weight of those events almost seems skipped over. At two and a half hours, it's by no means a short film, but I'd have happily had another sixty minutes or so if it meant getting a more personal perspective. As it stands, the film's not really doing anything new in itself, but what it does achieve is done so well that it doesn't really matter.
Straight Outta Compton is an engaging, if slightly perfunctory music biopic. Although with a setting and soundtrack as awesome as this, most of its flaws*1 are entirely forgivable…
If the music's your thing, yes.
But that's going to be a deal-breaker.
Obviously.
Providing the extras are up-to-scratch, this will be a buy-er.
The performances and performers themselves are magnificent, yes.
It probably does, although I don't think it achieves everything I wanted it to.
Which isn't what director F. Gary Gray had in mind, admittedly.
Nope.
Not that I heard, but the film does open with a pseudo boot-shot.
Dr. Dre is portrayed by Corey Hawkins who made an appearance in Iron Man 3, a film which starred Jon 'Pre Vizsla' Favreau.
*1 Little things like the scene where Eazy-E is diagnosed with AIDS, and is told that his pregnant girlfriend will also have to be tested. Do we learn how he (most likely) contracted HIV? No, we don't. Do we find out if his partner and unborn child were carrying it? No, we don't. Y'know, it's only like his film, after all.
Additionally, there are probably more than a few paragraphs to be written on the depiction and treatment of the (very few) women in the film, but the factual basis of the story means that you can't really blame the film itself, even though you don't have to be happy with it either.
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.
