MISSION IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT: 4 ½ STARS
Writing a review for 鈥淢ission Impossible 鈥� Fallout鈥� gave my thesaurus a workout. The film, the sixth instalment in the Tom Cruise franchise, is jammed to the gills with next-level stunts that require an expanded vocabulary to describe. Words like 鈥榚xtreme鈥� or 鈥榚xciting鈥� or even 鈥榚pic鈥� (and those are only the 鈥榚鈥� words) don鈥檛 come close to describing the behemothic action sequences contained within.
Cruise returns as the seemingly invincible action man and IMF (Impossible Mission Force) agent Ethan Hunt. Hunt and his crew, tech wiz Benji (Simon Pegg) and agent Luther (Ving Rhames), are charged with finding and capturing anarchist Solomon Lane (Sean Harris), a baddie who was the leader of the Syndicate during the last film, 鈥淩ogue Nation.鈥� 鈥淲hatever you heard about Lane,鈥� explains Hunt, 鈥渋f it makes your skin crawl it鈥檚 probably true.鈥� Lane is working with the mysterious and murderous John Lark, a man with some extreme ideas about squashing the world order.
As Lark and Lane collect the necessary plutonium to fulfil their plan the CIA begins to have doubts about Hunt鈥檚 loyalty. Add to that the return of former MI6 agent Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), and some newbies, CIA assassin August Walker (Henry Cavill) and black market arms dealer and lady of mystery White Widow (Vanessa Kirby) and you have lots of characters to fill the space between the stunts. Complicating matters is the fallout from some of Hunt鈥檚 previous, well-intentioned missions.
There are a lot of very good-looking people in 鈥淢ission Impossible - Fallout.鈥� Handsome fellas and femme fatale鈥榮, they are all woven into a stylish story of international intrigue and plutonium. Like the others 鈥淢I鈥� movies it鈥檚 packed with exotic locations鈥攐nly James Bond has more air travel points than Ethan Hunt鈥攄oublespeak and double crosses but the narrative doesn鈥檛 matter that much, it鈥檚 all in service of the Bunyanesque action.
Choreographed to an inch of Hunts life鈥擟ruise really puts himself out there for this one鈥攖he realism of the stunts gives the movie a sense of danger and the Green Screen Department the day off. Monumental, vertigo inducing single sequences take place on land, wheels, water and air. Only the screeching of tires score one eye-peeling chase scene between a motorcycle and a car. Visually it is so visceral director Christopher McQuarrie wisely avoided cluttering the scene with frenetic music. It doesn鈥檛 need it.
Of course those looking for a finely crafted John le Carré style story of espionage in 鈥淢ission Impossible 鈥� Fallout鈥� will be bitterly disappointed. While it does contain huggerymuggery it frequently falls just this side of making sense. That鈥檚 not to say it isn鈥檛 entertaining.
Even when Hunt isn鈥檛 in action the movie is in perpetual motion, but Frederick Forsyth this ain鈥檛. Instead it is an elephantine (although no actual elephants appear) action epic that breaks the blockbuster norm of cutting away to an action sequence every ten minutes or so. It鈥檚 made up of three Brobdingnagian set pieces stitched together by words that mostly make sense.
BLINDSPOTTING: 4 STARS
鈥淏lindspotting,鈥� the debut film from director Carlos Lopez Estrada, filters an essay on privilege, gentrification and violence through the lens of one relationship. Colin (Daveed Diggs) and Miles (Rafael Casal) have been friends since childhood but still have much to learn from one another.
Set in Oakland, California the bulk of the action takes place over the course of Colin鈥檚 last three days of probation on an assault and battery charge. Living in a halfway house, Colin works as a mover, with best friend Miles, for his ex-girlfriend Val (Janina Gavankar) and has a strict curfew of 11 pm. He鈥檚 trying desperately to stay out of trouble but Miles, a loudmouth who carries a gun, is a loose cannon, always on the edge of blowing up the situation.
When Colin witnesses a cop shoot an unarmed African-American man in the back he鈥檚 plagued by nightmares and an increasing sense of trauma and dread. A situation at a party that escalates out of control forces Colin to assess his place in the world, or at least, his place in a rapidly gentrifying Oakland.
鈥淏lindspotting鈥� is a happily undisciplined a movie. Raw and brimming with ideas, it鈥檚 an exciting look at contemporary life that kicks preconceive notions of storytelling to the curb. Co-writers and co-stars Diggs and Casal weave a story that bristles with provactive ideas. Funny one moment, tragic the next, it confronts the viewers ideas not only on the narrative form of the storytelling but the stereotypes so often used to portray people of colour in movies.
Director Estrada builds tension all the way through leading up to a surreal showdown that brings the story into sharp focus.
Despite many stylish flourishes 鈥淏lindspotting鈥� feels authentic. Perhaps it鈥檚 because of the warm camaraderie between Diggs and Casal or perhaps it鈥檚 because of the sense of nuance given to large scale issues of race, loyalty and class.
SHOCK AND AWE: 2 STARS
With news organizations under fire from all sides these days along comes a movie about journalists who spoke truth to power. 鈥淪hock and Awe,鈥� the new film from director Rob Reiner, details the efforts of the Knight Ridder journalists who questioned the reasoning behind the 2003 Iraq War.
The main thrust of the narrative begins on September 11, 2001. As the press struggle to find the real story behind the terrorist attack, George W. Bush's White House begins a campaign of misinformation, shifting the blame from Islamic extremist Osama bin Laden to secular leader Saddam Hussein. Knight Ridder reporters Warren Strobel (James Marsden) and Jonathan Landay (Woody Harrelson) sense something is not quite right with the story, even though many of their colleagues eat up the Bush administration story of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Their insiders suggest the White House is deliberately trying to start a war with Iraq, forging a connection between Hussein and Al-Qaeda.
When Knight Ridder papers like The Philadelphia Inquirer decline to publish their reporting editor John Walcott (Reiner) reaches out to a big gun, Bronze Star-winning war correspondent Joe Galloway (Tommy Lee Jones), for help. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 write for people who send other people鈥檚 kids off to war,鈥� says Walcott. 鈥淲e write for people whose kids get sent to war. You only have one thing to ask: Is it true?鈥� With Galloway鈥檚 support Landay and Strobel burn shoe leather to support their "Donald Rumsfeld is lying" angle.
There is not much either shocking or awesome in 鈥淪hock and Awe.鈥� The story should be edge of your seat stuff but feels muted. Part of the trouble is the amount of exposition particularly a speech from Strobel鈥檚 love interest Lisa (Jessica Biel) that sums up 4000 years of Iraq history in just under two minutes. It doesn鈥檛 make for good drama, despite the explosive nature of the true events.
Perhaps the movie鈥檚 indignation about politicians and media not valuing the truth feels blunted in this time of Fake News. Or perhaps it is lost in the film鈥檚 breezy nature. Either way, the result is a movie that has its heart in the right place but isn鈥檛 angry or intrepid enough.
GENERATION WEALTH: 3 ½ STARS
Lauren Greenfield has made a career doing in depth films about superficial people. Movies like "kids + money" and 鈥淭he Queen of Versailles鈥� examine the relationship between wealth, excess and humanity. Her latest, 鈥淕eneration Wealth,鈥� begins as a look at the lifestyles of the rich and (not so) famous in Los Angeles but blossoms outward to become an international study of the price of greed.
The documentary almost plays like a career retrospective, blending her own experiences as an artist covering the American Dream with the price she has paid as a parent. 鈥淚 am in constant motion and I live with the consequences,鈥� she says, 鈥渂ut it鈥檚 also one of the things I love. It gives my life meaning.鈥�
Interspersed with her personal story is a blend of archival material form her earlier films and follow-up interviews with her subjects. We meet the son of a rock star whose outlook on life was shaped by the idea he鈥檇 never be as successful as his dad. There鈥檚 Florian Homm, a former hedge funder, now on the run from the FBI, who describes his former existence as 鈥渁 hamster in a diamond studded gold wheel,鈥� while sucking on a fat cigar. Notorious Charlie Sheen playmate and porn star Kacey Jordan is a poignant reminder of the downside of a life spent becoming a human commodity.
Early on interesting points are poised as to how and why we鈥檝e become so greedy. One commenter suggests that mass media and TV are a form of violence. 鈥淭wenty four hours a day,鈥� he says, 鈥渢his fictitious lifestyle, which we鈥檙e all told we can have, fuels a sense of inadequacy.鈥� People used to aspire to be like their neighbours and wanted just a bit more than they had. Now they want more than the Kardashians. When they can鈥檛 live up to that ideal, he continues, 鈥渢he only social mobility you have is fictitious. The presentation that you give to the rest of the world denies your own reality.鈥�
Plastic surgery, status and social mobility are essayed in an increasingly scattershot way. It鈥檚 a sprawling work, occasionally too sprawling. Greenfield aims to contextualize the effects of unbridled greed in the world but rarely effectively gets deep into the macro.
The movie works best when the stories she tells are smaller, more personal. Jordan鈥檚 life, for example, is a cautionary tale that effectively puts a human face on the very points about materialism and hubris that Greenfield wants to shine a spotlight on.
鈥淕eneration Wealth鈥� has much to say but, by the time the credits roll, can be summed up with a quote from Homm. 鈥淚f you think money will buy you anything or everything, you鈥檝e never ever had money. You can鈥檛 buy the smile on your child鈥檚 face.鈥� Greenfield wants us to know that greed, despite what Gordon Gekko so famously said, is not good.
