those who wish me dead

Overlooking the generic, clunky title, Taylor Sheridan's Those Who Wish Me Dead, scripted by Sheridan, Charles Leavitt, and Michael Koryta (based upon his novel), is crackling, middlebrow Hollywood entertainment. It's perhaps wishful thinking, but in a time where the industry is at a crossroads, I do hope that this kind of mid-budget snappy thriller is churned out by the Hollywood machine more often than turgid, unengaging money-grab retreads like the recent Mortal Kombat. But given the tepid audience and box office results so far, more studio films of this type are looking unlikely unless they are slated for Netflix. As with his previous movies, Sheridan intertwines the twisty adult crime thriller with punchy action / adventure within elements of the American West. This combination makes a more cinematically impactful one in his masterful Hell or High Water or even the uneven, but occasionally fascinating Wind River; Those Who Wish Me Dead, while slick and entertaining, is more tacky and lightweight, and maybe nice for the director / writer not to have to deal with something particularly profound.

The plottish plot mixes the lives of Montana wilderness firefighters (including Angelina Jolie as a particularly self-destructive smokejumper haunted by a traumatic incident) with a D.A.'s assistant Owen (Jake Weber) and his young son, Connor (Finn Little, in an impressive turn) on the run from Florida from a murderous pair of assassins Jack (Aidan Gillen at some sinister heights) and Patrick (Nicholas Hoult playing well against type). Owen knows too much about things (none of which I can really recall being materialized or become too clear in the picture) and must be killed by Jack and Patrick under orders from ruthless, budget-cutting boss Arthur (Tyler Perry in a bit of a throwaway part). There's also Owen's brother-in-law Montana wilderness sheriff Ethan (Jon Bernthal) and his kick-ass pregnant wife Allison (Medina Senghore turning a potentially nothing part into something really exciting). 

It's kind of exhausting trying to encapsulate this tangle of a tale and there's some talky set-ups; I can see why Koryta's work probably makes a good page-turner. The first half of the movie is a bit wobbly in its zig-zag character sketching. But once things get going and the worlds of these characters collide, it's often thrilling and fun (watch Jolie fall from a cabin in the sky on stilts and wince as she pours peroxide on her wounds and get struck by lightning and run towards a forest fire!) all with a bombastic score by Brian Tyler booming about. Visually, the CGI effects (lightning bolts and forest fires ablaze) have a shiny, campy appeal, but can also be sort of beautiful at the same time, like the imagery of falling ash. 

It's interesting to see a true movie star in this action movie role playing a somewhat textured character (not a superhero or stock fantasy role) of considerable strength and physical ability. This doesn't feel too common anymore. Her scenes with Little are sometimes the strongest in the movie, with scrappy, emotional appeal. So with that, the overall sturdy ensemble, plus the zippy action the film packs in, Sherdian's movie is one of the more refreshing ones to come along at this juncture for mainstream movies, despite being somewhat silly and extraordinarily overwrought. **1/2

-Jeffery Berg  

bird's eye view

I love this Tom Ford eyewear campaign a la The Birds.

cagey george in his glass cage

In adapting a classic novel for a film, it seems to me a filmmaker has the responsibility of at least capturing the spirit of the source, even if the adaptation makes many changes. Tom Ford's A Single Man is certainly a noble attempt for a new filmmaker and it shows a lot of confidence. Yet, by making Isherwood's George suicidal, the film version becomes plodding and morose.

Indeed Ford was probably trying to add some dramatic tension. He has recently shared that an unnamed family member committed suicide in a way similar to what George's character plans: "It was exactly that suicide. Everything planned, everything laid out, suit, cuff links, zipped himself in a sleeping bag so he wouldn't make a mess." By drawing on his personal life, Ford does indeed make the work interesting. Yet the book, so slim and fleeting, with pages of rich dialogue, is a celebratory and somber rush of a single day in the life of a middle-aged gay man in the early 1960s. Isherwood's George, particularly observant of his rapidly gentrifying Los Angeles suburb, offers many crackling insights. Ford infuses the movie with an overwrought, changeable warm and cool tone, exaggerated tick tock clocks, and slow-mo student film-ish shots of people's eyes and lips, to show George's isolation and fragmented world view. It has a healthy love for Bergman, Almodovar, and Wong Kar-wai's In the Mood for Love. And it is certainly a stylish affair (George's get-up is, as you may have guessed, Tom Ford, while Julianne Moore seems to be having fun with her part as a boozy, hopelessly in love fag hag with bouffant hair). But because Ford's George is so morbidly depressed, it's difficult to discern the meaning of whatever substance of Isherwood's is left intact. The entire movie becomes a will he or will he not kill himself kind of game. And that kind of dance can really only be viewed once. Isherwood's novel still feels fresh. Ford's film feels dated.


However there are things to be admired here. And perhaps it's wrong for me to do so much comparing and contrasting; a film is meant to be reviewed on its own merit. The re imagining of George as the sleek professor works largely due to Colin Firth and the brilliant set design. His modern, glass house, open for the world to see, is an ironic womb for such an isolated character stuck in the past. It's also a glimpse of the promise of what George's life used to hold. Colin Firth is a reason to see the picture. He has always been a quiet, very real presence in his best roles as difficult-to-read, aloof Mr. Darcy's. George is another one of those roles and he tackles it with gusto. The other supporting players are electric including the very handsome Matthew Goode as George's old lover and the very handsome Nicholas Hoult as a radiant, curious young student. The scenes involving these two really jolt George (and the film) to life. They connect with insular George in surprising ways. Despite the film's flaws, Ford should be commended for bringing such a strong cast to the screen and for taking on such an ambitious project. **1/2

-Jeffery Berg