Review: Nymphomaniac Vol. I

Image courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.

Danish enfant terrible Lars Von Trier's latest - a two-part chronicle of a self-proclaimed "Nymphomaniac" - finds the filmmaker at his most cinematically - if not necessarily, thematically - ambitious. It will be difficult to render a final verdict on the entire project until "Vol. II" drops in two weeks, but while the film does not have the pointed commentary of "Dogville" or the grandeur of Von Trier's 2011 masterpiece "Melancholia," the first half of "Nymphomaniac" has more than its share of memorable sequences and appears to be a prelude for much darker material to come.

After an uncomfortably-long fade to black following a brief title card flash scored to Rammstein, we spot the body of a woman named Joe (Charlotte Gainsbourg) laying in a dank alleyway where snow is slowly falling. She is discovered by Seligman (Stellan Skarsgard), a recluse who lives in a small apartment around the corner from the alley.

Following their semi-awkward introduction, Joe begins to tell the tale of how she arrived in the alley with a beaten and bruised face. "I'm a bad person," she says, beginning her story in childhood where she lives with her caring father (Christian Slater) and "cold bitch" mother (Connie Nielsen).

From an early age, Joe has a proclivity toward sexual activity. During one particularly memorable scene, teenage Joe (played with courage by Stacy Martin) and a friend play a game on a moving train during which they attempt to collect the most sexual conquests prior to the train's final stop. It is somewhat of a relief that Joe's sexual awakening and increasingly disturbing addiction are not linked to anything in particular - no early molestations, traumas or divorces. The picture does not try to psychoanalyze away her condition with any easy answers.

The film is told in a digressive style in that Seligman often interrupts Joe's storytelling to insert his own opinions - which, oddly enough, cover everything from fly fishing and dessert forks to Baroque music. The film's stylistic piece de resistance involves a three-way split-screen effect during which Joe talks about how, much like a piece of music, her three main lovers act together (not literally) as various instruments (not literally) that compliment one another.

As for the picture's acting tour de force, the show-stopper scene comes courtesy of Uma Thurman, who plays the jilted wife of one of Joe's lovers. In one of the film's funnier moments, Joe gives the man an ultimatum, not because she wants him all to herself, but because she believes it will scare him away. Then he shows up with his suitcase at the door. Shortly afterward, Thurman appears with her three children in tow, asking whether she can show the kids Joe's "whoring bed" and reminding them never to find themselves in similar situations. It's a scene that is equally hilarious, emotionally fraught and horrific. Thurman gives her best performance, though a brief one, in some time.

One of the key elements to Joe's character is her self-proclaimed war against love. She keeps her men at a distance with the exception of Jerome (Shia LaBeouf), to whom she lost her virginity. During a twist of fate, Joe later works for Jerome in his office and, during the picture's final sex scene, proclaims a line that will set up the second film. The only other man for whom Joe feels any affection is her father, who we see slowly wasting away in a hospital bed during a scene that is meant to be upsetting and emotional as well as provide a bit of foreshadowing, but ends up being one of the movie's weaker sequences, slowing down its momentum.

Of course, much of the writing on "Nymphomania" has focused on the numerous - and graphic - sex scenes. But it's pretty obvious - both from a visual standpoint as well as due to the concept of Joe's emotional removal from her various flings - that Von Trier does not intend for these scenes to be titillating. One particular slideshow of various, um, equipment is meant to come off as clinical.

Where "Nymphomaniac" stands in Von Trier's overall body of works remains to be seen. While I enjoyed "Vol. I" and appreciate the director's ambitious and daring approach to the material, the picture hasn't - as of yet - hit me as hard as "Melancholia," "Dogville," "Breaking the Waves" or "Dancer in the Dark." But I've yet to see "Vol. II." And even if the entire film ends up being second tier Von Trier, that's still something that comes pretty highly recommended.

Review: Need for Speed

Image courtesy of Touchstone Pictures.

The machines may have already won - that is, if "Need for Speed" goes on to follow the success of the "Fast and the Furious" and "Transformers" franchises. Moviegoers whose idea of a good time consists of watching large pieces of metal and plastic fly through the air and occasionally slam into other large pieces of metal and plastic might possibly love "Speed," which is - not surprisingly - based on a video game.

What's particularly sad about the film's human element, which takes an obvious backseat to the machinery, is that it includes Aaron Paul's first post "Breaking Bad" appearance and the return of Michael Keaton, who was also featured in last month's ode to clunky pieces of steel, "Robocop."

Yes, perhaps I'm taking this all a bit too seriously. To be fair, "Need for Speed" has more than a few car chases that are well-shot and exciting when they need to be. And despite a script filled with hammy expository dialogue and outright weirdo flights of verbal fancy, you can't completely drown out the screen presence of actors (Paul, Keaton, etc.) with loads of it to spare.

The picture follows the story of Tobey Marshall, a small town street racing god and mechanic who gets sent to prison after an arrogant former pal and now professional racer (Dominic Cooper) challenges him to a race that leaves the brother of an ex-girlfriend in the morgue. Cooper's Dino Brewster, however, gets off scot-free.

Marshall gets out of the pen two years later, determined to prove his innocence and Brewster's guilt as well as defeat Dino in an illegal race held once every year by a mysterious man named Monarch (Keaton), who acts as some sort of delirious Greek chorus to the action. Thrown into the mix are several mechanics who once worked at Marshall's garage as well as a young British woman (Imogen Poots), who acts as the love interest.

Tobey and the gang must make a two-day trek - at top speeds, of course - from New York to California, where the race will be held. What basically follows is one absurdly ridiculous sequence after another. My favorite is a scene during which Marshall's pals drive alongside his car in a gasoline truck and attempt to fill up his car at 100 miles per hour. At least two characters are required to hang off their respective vehicles to fill up the car, risking their lives. The obvious question: Why not just pull over for five minutes?

Paul gives the material his best, bringing some level of characterization to the underwritten Marshall. He's a great actor when given the right material, so let's hope his next project will give him more to chew on, a la "Breaking Bad."

And it's great to see Keaton back in action - but, good Lord, can we please find him something better to do than this? His character spends the entirety of the film facing the camera, narrating the film's action as if it were that complex and needed further commentary (the whole thing reminded me of the Andy Cohen show that follows the "Housewives" programs. And, yes, I've seen the "Real Housewives"). Keaton is forced to gesticulate, shout, rhyme - yes, rhyme - and make bad puns. His scenes bring the action to a complete halt. On the other hand, while they may be unnecessary and strangely out of place, these scenes at least bring a little personality to an action movie otherwise filled to the brim with cliches.

Review: Enemy

Image courtesy of A24.

Denis Villeneuve's "Enemy" has one of the better freak-out endings in recent memory and it's the type of film that critics will say defies you to make sense of it. But much like David Lynch's "Lost Highway," Villeneuve's follow-up to last year's terrific "Prisoners" is filled with clues that certainly add up to something and is not just a willy nilly exercise in opaque weirdness.

The picture opens with a creepy, dreamlike scene during which Jake Gyllenhaal enters a low-lit room filled with men watching naked masked women engaged in various erotic scenarios, some of which include large, hairy spiders.

We then cut to Adam Bell (Gyllenhaal), a downbeat professor who is lecturing his students on the nature of totalitarianism, reminding them that the Romans "used bread and circuses" to divert the public's attention and that dictatorships thrive on lessening education, artistic expression and any other means of allowing a person to be an individual.

Adam soon learns how it feels to no longer be an individual after discovering his doppelganger in a low budget film that was suspiciously recommended to him by a colleague. The man's name is Anthony Saint Clare (that's right, Gyllenhaal again), a B-level actor whose pregnant wife (Sarah Gadon) even looks a little like Adam's on-again, off-again girlfriend (Melanie Laurent).

Bell suggests a meeting between himself and Anthony, which he soon regrets. He starts to unravel after alpha male Anthony proposes an uncomfortable scenario involving the two men's significant others.

Not since David Cronenberg has the city of Toronto been made to look so ominous. The camera creeps behind Gyllenhaal as he walks through the city's mostly desolate streets, over which electrical wires resembling spider's webs dangle. Even most of the interior scenes are fairly dark, the film's characters attempting to hide from - well, something - in the darkened corners of their apartments.

Gyllenhaal is one of those actors who does not always get the credit he deserves. His terrific work as both the nebbish Adam and the cocky Anthony is on par with his best work - "Donnie Darko," "Zodiac," "Brokeback Mountain" and "Prisoners." He pulls off not one, but two tricky roles here.

So, ultimately, what is "Enemy" about, you might ask? Is it an allegory for totalitarianism and, if so, does the film's final creepy image relay whom is running this particular show? The film is based on the novel "The Double" by Nobel winner Jose Saramago, who lived under a fascist regime for many years in Portugal.

Or is it about the dual nature of self and how one element of a being's personality can take charge over another? Or is it something completely else? Regardless, this is an unsettling little movie with two strong lead performances - by the same actor, mind you - as well a visual style that leaves viewers with an impending sense of doom and a final scene that most will not see coming and will hardly forget.

If "Enemy" doesn't quite reach the heights of Villeneuve's previous film, "Prisoners," it's still a very worthy addition to Villeneuve's already impressive resume, which also includes the Academy Award nominated "Incendies" and the haunting school shooting drama "Polytechnique." Here's a director you'll want to keep an eye on.

Review: The Grand Budapest Hotel

Image courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures.

"The Grand Budapest Hotel" is Wes Anderson's best film in a decade - if not more - and it finds the filmmaker in a more reflective and melancholy mood than usual.

The picture begins in 1968 as a writer (Jude Law) relays his run-in with the owner (F. Murray Abraham) of the once-great palatial titular structure who, in turn, tells of how he came to inherit the hotel. The story flashes back to 1932, where the action is primarily set, and Abraham's character is a young bellboy named Zero (Tony Revolori) who comes under the tutelage of one Mr. Gustave H. (Ralph Fiennes), a dandyish concierge at the hotel who makes no secret of the fact that he beds many of the elderly female clientele, including the 84-year-old Madame D. (Tilda Swinton).

Gustave and, to an extent, Zero find themselves in a quandary after the octogenarian winds up murdered and Gustave, much to the dismay of the woman's greedy family - which includes Adrian Brody and a sinister enforcer played by Willem Dafoe - inherits "Boy with Apple," a priceless piece of artwork.

Since this is a Wes Anderson movie, cameos abound, including Owen Wilson, Jeff Goldblum (whose bad luck extends to his cat and his hand), Edward Norton, Harvey Keitel and a slew of other characters, most notably Bill Murray, during a wonderful sequence in which a group of concierges come to Gustave's rescue.

And, of course, the film is impeccably shot with the stylistic pans and tracking shots you'd expect from an Anderson film as well as the dollhouse establishing shots, including an especially lovely one of a dining hall that is repeated twice. Anderson's signature humor is also on display here. "Grand Budapest" is, perhaps, the director's funniest in a while. The biggest laugh for me came early when a young boy interrupts a monologue. Trust me, you'll know it when you see it.

Given the timeframe in which the picture is set, Anderson's latest is a bit heavier and sadder than his previous works and more tragic. The hotel's newest denizens toward the end of the story merely play a small role in this film's narrative, but they'll go on to haunt Europe for more than a decade. And at least two characters are lost to the continent's horrors of the 1930s.

"The Grand Budapest Hotel" is a wistful, funny, imaginative and wonderfully acted (Fiennes gives what may be his most humane performance to date) bildungsroman with an historical backdrop. If "Rushmore" and "The Royal Tenenbaums" remain my two favorites of Anderson's films, this one would likely join "Bottle Rocket" or the underrated "Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" in the second tier.

Review: Non-Stop

Image courtesy of Universal Pictures.

There are no snakes on this plane, but who needs them when you've got Liam Neeson? In this latest collaboration between the unlikely action star and director Jaume Collet-Serra (who was also responsible for 2011's "Unknown"), Neeson plays an air marshal with a past - what other types are there in Movieland? - who is first the investigator and later the suspect in a murder mystery playing out at thousands of feet in the air.

Neeson's Bill Marks, whose name you'll likely never forget due to the number of times it is repeated during the course of the film, has a bit of a drinking problem and some unresolved familial situations. At the beginning of the picture, he boards a plane and, shortly after takeoff, starts receiving cryptic messages from one of the passengers, threatening to kill people on the flight if Marks does not miraculously round up $150 million and transfer it into an account.

The killer keeps his word, although the first few deaths are preposterously carried out. As the body count increases, Marks himself becomes the prime suspect - at least to the investigators on the ground and some of the more wary passengers.

One of the elements Collet-Serra and company nails is how annoying our fellow passengers can be under duress. In fact, the obnoxious behavior of several of the characters on the plane struck a note of familiarity.

On the other hand, "Non-Stop" is pretty much non-stop ridiculousness. If you can get past the completely absurd plot turns, the ludicrous method in which the villains carry out their diabolical plans and the ultimately nonsensical reasoning behind carrying out those plans, you might actually enjoy yourself.

I typically roll my eyes when I hear people insisting that audience members "leave their brains at the door" in order to be able to enjoy so many of Hollywood's movies. In this case, however, that rings true.

"Non-Stop" is often entertaining and Neeson does his best at remaining serious amid completely preposterous twists and turns. It's not a great movie - and not necessarily even a good one, but if you are looking for a silly - but fun - action thriller, you could do much worse than this.

Oscar Picks: Who Will (and Should) Win

Image courtesy of Jeff Monteith.

The 86th Academy Awards ceremony will be held this Sunday, so I'm providing my annual rundown of which films I believe will win and which I believe should win. And, just for the hell of it, I'm throwing in my picks for the biggest snubs in each category.

Best Picture
Nominees: 12 Years a Slave, American Hustle, Captain Phillips, Dallas Buyers Club, Gravity, Her, Nebraska, Philomena, The Wolf of Wall Street
Will Win: 12 Years a Slave (maybe)
Could Win: Gravity (maybe)
Should Win: 12 Years a Slave
Biggest Snub: Inside Llewyn Davis

Best Director
Nominees: Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity), Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave), Alexander Payne (Nebraska), David O. Russell (American Hustle), Martin Scorsese (The Wolf of Wall Street)
Will Win: Alfonso Cuaron
Could Win: Steve McQueen
Should Win: Steve McQueen
Biggest Snubs: Spike Jonze (Her), Joel and Ethan Coen (Inside Llewyn Davis)

Best Actor
Nominees: Christian Bale (American Hustle), Bruce Dern (Nebraska), Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wolf of Wall Street), Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave), Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)
Will Win: Matthew McConaughey
Could Win: Leonardo DiCaprio
Should Win: Chiwetel Ejiofor
Biggest Snub: Tom Hanks (Captain Phillips)

Best Actress
Nominees: Amy Adams (American Hustle), Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine), Sandra Bullock (Gravity), Judi Dench (Philomena), Meryl Streep (August: Osage County)
Will Win: Cate Blanchett
Could Win: Cate Blanchett. Oh, OK. Sandra Bullock could somehow pull out a win, but it's likely Blanchett all the way.
Should Win: Wait for it... Cate Blanchett
Biggest Snubs: Adele Exarchopoulos (Blue is the Warmest Color)

Best Supporting Actor
Nominees: Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips), Bradley Cooper (American Hustle), Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave), Jonah Hill (The Wolf of Wall Street), Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club)
Will Win: Jared Leto
Could Win: Barkhad Abdi could be the upset here, but it doesn't seem likely that Leto is going to lose this one.
Should Win: Michael Fassbender
Biggest Snubs: Not too many in this category. I suppose you could make the argument for Jeremy Renner in American Hustle, but this category is pretty spot on.

Best Supporting Actress
Nominees: Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine), Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle), Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years a Slave), June Squibb (Nebraska), Julia Roberts (August: Osage County)
Will Win: Lupita Nyong'o
Could Win: Jennifer Lawrence
Should Win: Lupita Nyong'o
Biggest Snub: Lea Seydoux (Blue is the Warmest Color) and, no kidding, the voice of Scarlett Johansson (Her).

Review: 3 Days to Kill

Image courtesy of Relativity Media.

McG's "3 Days to Kill" shows us nothing new. In fact, the story of a Killer Attempting to Go Straight and Spend More Time With His Family After Finding Out He Has a Terminal Illness, or some variation thereof, sounds as if it should be its own genre.

That being said, the film is often watchable enough due to its committed leading performance by Kevin Costner as a, yep, CIA-hired assassin who decides to reconnect with his ex-wife (Connie Nielsen) and daughter (Hailee Steinfield) after finding out he has a strain of brain cancer that will only give him a few months to live.

Of course, there's a catch. There always is in these types of films. Have you ever actually seen a movie where the killer/CIA agent/cop, etc. actually goes completely straight after discovering said illness? Has there ever been a film in which he actually kills no more and just simply spends time with the family? Probably not.

The catch here is that a ruthless CIA higher-up (Amber Heard) agrees to give Ethan Renner (Costner) an experimental drug that will prolong his life, if not save it, in exchange for bringing down a terrorist and his crew, which includes a villain named The Albino. The sequences during which Ethan takes this drug feel as if they are the lost reels to "The Trip." How Heard's character just happened to be able to get her hands on the drug is not explained. Nor is the fact that Ethan tends to take his prisoners to his own apartment for interrogation. Nor is the fact that these criminals never end up paying a visit to that apartment at a later date.

The film aims at being both an action film and a drama about Costner reconnecting with his family. On the first count, the picture works pretty well. There are a number of shoot-outs and car chases, all of which are handled pretty expertly.

But rather than being sentimental, the plot thread involving Ethan and his daughter is mostly humorous, especially an ongoing joke involving Steinfield's character setting Ethan's ring tone on his cell phone.

The film's ending feels strangely inconclusive as if the filmmakers ran out of money before they could tie everything together. Villains are killed and a temporary solution for Ethan's illness is hinted at, but "3 Days to Kill" just sort of stops, rather than concludes.

While not a great film - and not even exactly a good one, McG's picture is not a bad one. Costner gives a little more than is necessary for these type of routine action thrillers and shows better comic timing than you might think was possible. If anything makes "3 Days to Kill" more tolerable, it's his performance.