Drama

Peterloo

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Written and directed by critically acclaimed filmmaker Mike Leigh who is also a well-known playwright and director of theater, Peterloo is a very British historical drama with a great amount of oratory that tells the true story of the 1819 Peterloo Massacre of peaceful protesters against the British government in Manchester, England. The film’s events take place after the famous Battle of Waterloo in which British forces defeated the French led by Napoleon Bonaparte, and one young soldier who returns home to poverty-stricken Manchester where there is talk of rebellion against the aristocratic British government. Much of the first part of the movie follows the young soldier’s family as well as other political activists demanding more voting rights and reform in the Parliament. Eventually, a group of Manchester leaders of the protest movement convince the notorious activist Henry Hunt, played by the terrific Rory Kinnear, to give a fiery reformist speech in front of tens of thousands in Manchester in hopes of forcing the British government to take action. Closely watched by local political and police officials hostile to the protesters, up to 60,000 people gather at St. Peter’s Fields to hear Henry Hunt’s speech. However, the local British forces and militia stir up chaos in which the thousands of protesters are scrambling for cover, and, ultimately, as many as fifteen bystanders may have been killed by the British in the melee. Overall, I found the film to be an historically interesting film that, at times, felt rather dry with the abundance of highfalutin dialogue but did an excellent job of depicting the horrific Peterloo Massacre on its 200th anniversary.

Girls of the Sun

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Directed by French filmmaker Eva Husson in her second feature film, Girls of the Sun is a surprisingly less-than-remarkable war drama that has the best of intentions by telling the story of a group of Kurdish female soldiers fighting ISIS. The all-female battalion led by the tough former lawyer Bahar is based on the remarkable Yazidi female soldiers from Iraqi Kurdistan fighting alongside their male counterparts in defeating the brutal ISIS regime that had taken hold of their territory. In a rather disjointed way in which the plot swerves rapidly between characters, the film follows this group of women who were compelled to fight after being freed from ISIS captivity as sex slaves and many of their husbands and sons were either killed or captured. The movie unnecessarily chooses to present their story through the eyes of a Westerner, specifically a veteran French war correspondent named Mathilde who is embedded with the unit for several days. Over the course of several days in which the film takes place, we witness the female soldiers trying to take back their small village in the Kurdish territory of Iraq and are engaged in several well-shot battle sequences. At random intervals, the filmmaker attempts to take a closer glimpse of the characters by presenting flashbacks of mostly the main character Bahar who is showed being taken captive, sexually assaulted, and searching for her son. Overall, I was disappointed in the cinematic treatment of such a compelling and important story about a group of courageous and powerful women; the narrative incoherence and lack of character development does not do any justice to the truly remarkable protagonists.

The Best of Enemies

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Written and directed by first-time filmmaker Robin Bissell best known for producing 2003’s Seabiscuit and 2012’s The Hunger Games, The Best of Enemies tells a truly unbelievable story of segregation bringing two unlikely people together and is headlined by two critically acclaimed actors, but its desire to discuss racial harmony in appropriate terms is not fully realized. Set in the racially charged atmosphere of Durham, North Carolina in 1971, the plot follows two very different characters on completely opposite sides of desegregation: the leader of the local Ku Klux Klan chapter C. P. Ellis, played by Oscar winner Sam Rockwell, and the leader of a local black activist organization Ann Atwater, played by Oscar nominee Taraji P. Henson. After the elementary school for African-American children is partially destroyed in a fire, a town-wide debate rages over whether to desegregate the school system and allow the black children to attend an all-white school. Eventually, a series of community consensus-building biracial meetings known as a charette is organized by the black activist Bill Riddick, played by Babou Ceesay. Rather unexpectedly, Riddick chooses Ellis and Atwater as co-chairs of the two week-long charette to try and come up with solutions regarding segregation and the Durham school system. In what appears as a more sympathetic portrayal of Ellis who struggles with the ideology of white supremacy, the movie spotlights a lot of attention on Ellis and his wife Mary, played by Emmy nominee Anne Heche, and their life struggles despite the fact that Ellis is a public leader of an avowed racist organization. We do witness some of the racist policies and acts of racism that directly affect Atwater and the black community of Durham, but, rightly or wrongly, the filmmaker makes the decision to focus more attention on showing the effects that Ellis and white sympathizers undergo as a result of working with black people. Despite the questionable handling of such sensitive racial issues by a white filmmaker, the underlying true story of Ellis and Atwater working together and eventually becoming friends is remarkable enough to be explored as a movie. Overall, I found it to be a fascinating historical take on a truly unusual friendship but came away from the film questioning if the issues of race were properly discussed, without sugarcoating the serious problems or becoming a white savior movie.

The Aftermath

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Based on the 2013 novel of the same name written by Rhidian Brooke, The Aftermath is a visually stylish period drama with a terrific cast and intriguing story, but the film falters as a result of its formulaic and soapy script. Set in war-ravaged Hamburg, Germany in 1946 following the end of World War II, the plot follows a beautiful young English woman named Rachael, played by Oscar nominee Keira Knightley, who reunites with her husband Lewis Morgan, played by Jason Clarke, serving as a colonel in the British Forces Germany tasked with helping rebuild post-war Germany. Unbeknownst to her on her arrival to Germany, they are to live in a large mansion owned by a German widower who is going to be displaced from his home along with his teenage daughter. The previously wealthy architect Stefan Lubert, played by Emmy winner Alexander Skarsgård, and his rebellious daughter Susan are allowed to stay in the attic of the house until the time comes when they have to move out on the orders of the British military. Deeply unhappy about the situation and having to live in the ruins of a city away from the comforts of London, Rachael expresses her great displeasure to her husband who is often out of the house working long hours. Almost from the instant that the characters meet one another, it becomes rather predictable that Rachael and Stefan pretty soon begin a friendship and then a intimate romantic relationship that is kept a secret from Lewis for a time. Aesthetically well-crafted, the movie seems to drag on for a while as the illicit affair begins to cause great problems in Rachael’s marriage and Stefan’s connection with his depressed daughter who lost her mother and his wife in a bombing during the war. Overall, I thought it was a decent movie that surprisingly did not use the extremely talented cast to its full potential and relied too heavily on the expected tropes of the romantic drama genre.

Hotel Mumbai

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Based on the 2009 Australian television documentary Surviving Mumbai, Hotel Mumbai is a well-acted and terrifyingly realistic depiction of the horrific terrorist attacks across the Indian city of Mumbai in November 2008. The film begins by simply showing the workers and hotel guests of the luxurious Taj Mahal Palace Hotel getting ready for a normal day, in particular a waiter named Arjun, played by Oscar nominee Dev Patel, who has a young wife and baby daughter. Nothing is out of the ordinary and the head chef Hemant Oberoi, played by famed Indian actor Anupam Kher, is preparing his large staff for the daily meals. In addition to getting familiarized with the staff who will later become heroes, the audience is also introduced to the guests, including a young Muslim Iranian-British heiress Zahra, played by Nazanin Boniadi, and her American husband David, played by Golden Globe nominee Armie Hammer, along with their infant Cameron and nanny Sally. We also meet a mysterious Russian named Vasili who used to work for the Soviet government and is played by Jason Isaacs. The rest of the movie is a harrowing dramatization of the devastating terrorist attack and shows a group of young men on a killing spree and are given orders throughout the siege from a Pakistani terrorist leader known as the Bull. Although they attacked at least 12 sites across the major Indian city from November 26 to November 29, the movie primarily focuses on what happened at the historic and iconic luxury hotel. In order to recreate the tragedy, the film does rely on using the exact words used by the terrorists and gruesomely shows the violent and indiscriminate murder of civilians throughout the hotel. The movie perhaps treads on a very thin line of exploitation, but I feel that it does not because it shows the heroic actions of the hotel staff and the guests who are trying to help others survive. For instance, Dev Patel’s character and the head chef escort guests through dangerous corridors in order to get them to safety even after they had the chance to safely escape the hotel. The story also follows the young family who are simply trying to survive and the husband and father David taking great risks to make sure that his son and the nanny who are in a different part of the hotel are safe. All the while, the obviously brainwashed terrorists continue to gun down everybody they encounter and begin to set the hotel on fire. One of the more tragic aspects of the film is the portrayal of the local police attempting to stop the terrorists but unable to do anything due to a lack of training and having to wait for the special forces hours away in Delhi. Overall, I found it to be a very hard to watch a movie at times but is a well-crafted depiction of such a brutal act of terrorism that left 174 people dead across Mumbai and the degree to which normal people become heroic at times of great challenge.

The Mustang

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Written and directed by French actress Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre in her directorial debut, The Mustang is a beautifully crafted drama with a powerful story of redemption and marked by terrific acting performances. The plot follows an inmate named Roman Coleman, played by the extremely talented Belgian actor Matthias Schoenaerts, who finds himself transferred to a rural Nevada prison and does not like to engage with the other prisoners and would rather be in isolation. He is a very quiet man who has obviously struggled in the past but wants to make up for his past violent crimes and reconnect with his estranged adult daughter. Eventually, after he is assigned to outdoor maintenance for a horse training program run by the inmates, he catches the eye of a grumpy elderly horse trainer named Myles, played by Oscar nominee Bruce Dern. Myles recruits Roman to become a member of the horse rehabilitation program that tries to break wild horses so that they can be sold off at auction. His humanity slowly begins to show as he develops a relationship with one of the mustangs who, like himself, is in need of redemption and rehab to rejoin the general population. Through the close connection to the horse who is also needing help, Roman breaks out of his shell and makes friends with a fellow inmate and horse trainer named Henry, played by Jason Mitchell, as well as having somewhat of a father figure in the civilian Myles. The film provides a sympathetic view of the redeeming qualities of having a meaningful job while incarcerated and provides insight into a rather unusual horse training program that most people have never heard of as being part of a prison system. All of the lead actors, especially Matthias Schoenaerts and Bruce Dern, bring a certain level of realism to their roles by giving intimate yet emotional depth to their characters who are based on real men. Overall, I found it to be one of the much more sympathetic depictions of what it must be like for prisoners who are trying to change their lives for the better, and the film is able to do this as a result of the outstanding directorial vision and acting performances.

Transit

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Directed by critically acclaimed German filmmaker Christian Petzold best known for 2014’s Phoenix, Transit is a powerful dramatic film with a very unique and creative adaptation of a 1944 novel set in German-occupied France during World War II. Instead of the setting being World War II, the filmmaker makes the clever decision to have the story of a man trying to escape from a fascist regime take place in modern-day France. The sometimes rather unusual movie follows a German living in oppressive France named Georg, played by terrific German actor Franz Rogowski, who is desperately trying to flee the country for a better life in either the United States or Mexico. Much of the plot revolves around him trying to obtain a visa and transit papers to leave the port city of Marseille and travel by ship to a free country. He pretends to be a famous revolutionary writer named Weidel who has already obtained the proper paperwork to leave France but has just committed suicide. Eventually, he gets to know the writer’s widow Marie, played by German actress Paula Beer, who is also trying to leave the country but is searching for her husband who she does not know is dead. Over the course of getting to know each other, Georg and Marie begin to fall in love with each other, which complicates her search for her husband. Georg also befriends a young boy named Driss who is the son of one of his deceased friends. Along the way, we meet a same group of refugees meeting in bars, restaurants, and embassies hoping also to escape fascism. In addition to the twist on the setting, the movie also has a mysterious narrator who occasionally gives random narration about things that are not entirely clear. Overall, I found it to be a very intriguing foreign language film that is able to capture the fears of today surrounding nationalism by taking a World War II story and making it contemporary.

Fighting with My Family

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Written and directed by English comedian and actor Stephen Merchant in his directorial debut, Fighting with My Family is a surprisingly endearing comedy drama based on the true story of a young British woman growing up in a family obsessed with wrestling who successfully makes her way through the tryouts for the WWE. We first meet the protagonist Saraya who later goes by the stage name Paige, terrifically played by Florence Pugh, as a young girl who fights with her brother Zak, played by Jack Lowden, in their parents’ small-time wrestling circuit in Norwich, England. As a result of their wrestling obsession and punk appearance, the family is often made fun of outside of the wrestling world and is led by the unusual yet loving parents Patrick, played by the always funny Nick Frost, and Julia Bevis, played by Lena Headey best known for her role in Game of Thrones. Eventually, the siblings get to participate in the London tryouts for the WWE at the invitation of the WWE trainer Hutch Morgan, played by Vince Vaughn, but Paige is the only one picked to go to Orlando, Florida to train in the NXT development program for the WWE. She has very mixed emotions because her beloved brother who she has always worked with is overlooked by the WWE. In somewhat typical sports movie fashion, we see Paige struggling in a series of training montages, and, at one point, she threatens to quit before she is encouraged by her family to pursue her lifelong dream. For a while, Zak is deeply depressed about not having a chance like his sister in the most popular wrestling circuit and begins to drink even though he has a new wife and a young baby at home. Over the course of the movie, Dwayne Johnson who started his career in the WWE as The Rock appears randomly and gives Paige advice about how to succeed in the wrestling world. Overall, I found it to be a terrific uplifting film that effectively presents another side of the WWE in which it is like any other sport or form of entertainment that helps bring families together. It is much more than a wrestling movie; at its heart, it is a beautiful story of family and the pursuit of dreams even when it is extremely hard to accomplish.

Cold Pursuit

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Directed by Norwegian filmmaker Hans Petter Moland who directed the original 2014 Norwegian film that Cold Pursuit is a remake of, Cold Pursuit is a dark comedy action film that has a uniquely twisted and humorous script and is led by another entertaining action star performance given by Liam Neeson. The film follows a ski town snow plow driver named Nelson Coxman, played by Oscar nominee Liam Neeson, who seeks vengeance for the death of his son by going after competing drug gangs in in the remote fictional town of Kehoe, Colorado. His major target is a Denver drug lord nicknamed Viking, played by a psychotic Tom Bateman, who his son got mixed up with and Nelson goes on a killing spree viciously murdering several of Viking’s men. Eventually, a war between Viking and a Native American drug lord named White Bull, played by Tom Jackson, after Viking suspects White Bull of being responsible for the deaths of his men. Along the way, Nelson’s brother nicknamed Wingman, played by William Forsythe, who used to work for one of the drug cartels helps him find possible leads in the death of his son. In a similar fashion like Liam Neeson’s first action flick Taken but to a much more bloody degree, an absurdly high body count quickly rises, especially towards the climax when the drug cartels and Nelson engage in a all-out shootout. Overall, I found it to be an entertaining action movie with the right amount of dark humor to mark a departure from the tropes of the often over-bloated action genre, but it is definitely not for the faint of heart as a result of the over-the-top violence.

Arctic

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Directed by first-time Brazilian feature filmmaker Joe Penna who rose to fame as a YouTube star, Arctic is a terrific survival movie that follows a rather simple yet extremely compelling script and is greatly enhanced by the brilliantly believable performance given by Mads Mikkelsen. We first meet the protagonist, played by the captivating Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen, in the middle of his harrowing adventure to simply survive while he waits to be rescued somewhere in the frigid and inhospitable Arctic Circle. The audience gathers that he was involved in a plane crash in which he was the only person aboard flying cargo across the Arctic. The first half of the movie follows his daily arduous tasks of living in such a harsh environment with very little supplies. There is very little or no talking throughout as he does such simple routines as hand cranking a radio transponder for him to be located, setting up traps for fish, and creating a large SOS sign in the snow. Through the use of epic cinematography, his surroundings are breathtakingly beautiful with pure white snow and no evidence of humanity as far as the eye can see. It really captures the essence of the story as the struggle between man and nature. Eventually, during a helicopter rescue gone terribly wrong, he must take care of a gravely injured female rescue copilot who does not speak his language and is in and out of consciousness. With such an emotive face and piercing eyes, Mads Mikkelsen is one of the few actors capable of taking on such a role in which he expresses a wide range of emotions through non-verbal means. By taking on the responsibility of somebody else as he himself struggles to survive, he goes through a series of feelings of despair and whether to make the extremely difficult decision to leave his new dying companion behind so that he can trek a long distance to find help and stay alive in such a brutal place. Overall, I found it to be an extremely compelling film primarily as a result of the acting talents of Mads Mikkelsen and viscerally showing what it must be like to survive in such an unimaginable situation. The real thrill of the straightforward story is whether he will ever be rescued and what will happen to the young woman that he discovers.