WIND RIVER   3.5***

  Rape and murder on an Indian reservation with Jeremy Renner really coming into his own as a not particularly handsome leading man. He provides a very strong performance as Cory Lambert, a U.S. Wildlife hunter with a high powered rifle often on a high speed snowmobile. The picture opens with a long sequence of a young Indian woman running barefoot across a vast nighttime snowscape until she finally drops dead. Eventually we will find out that she was brutally  raped and was fleeing for her life.  Renner, starts an informal investigation on his own. A rookie FBI agent, (Elizabeth Olsen) is called in to assist with the investigation. A junior woman agent is all the FBI cares to spare for this case, obviously regarded as unimportant because who. cares about Indians ?!? But, since only the FBI has police authority on Indian reservation territory they have to make at least a token contribution to the investigation If this all sounds a bit heavy, well it is, but Writer- Director Taylor Sheridan is careful to inject a healthy dose of suspense and  action to keep the drama gripping rather than overbearing; The finale in particular turns the movie on its head in an unpredictable but extremely effective manner.

Sheridan allows the snowy Wyoming setting to completely envelope the characters in a world that feels like it has no exits, either physically or emotionally. Bravo to Director Sheridan and all others involved in this remarkable outdoor production ( at least 90% was filmed outdoor in the winter ) . The movie was filmed in Utah although the setting is supposedly Wyoming on the Wind River Reservation. An added reality perk, real Indians, not Hollywood palefaces, portray the Native American characters. And do it so well!

I know this is not much of a summary, but that is all you really need to know, besides the fact that I REALLY enjoyed it. Make no mistake: this is a dark film that deals with very haunting subject matter, so there is quite a bit of weight to it, but Sheridan treats this story with the highest level of respect by allowing his very well written script to drive it while still shooting it beautifully. To see such beautiful winter landscape almost took my breath away while at the same time reminding me how dangerous such a hard cold snowy environment can be.  

From a performance standpoint, both Renner and Olsen are excellent in how they dialed it WAY back within their characters with Renner keeping Lambert simple and focused on the task at hand and Olsen showing how Agent Banner is just trying to do the right thing while attempting to understand the situation she’s in while delicately asserting the authority she has representing the FBI.. Graham Greene, as the Indian policeman, gives great balance and levity to their dynamic while keeping his character involved as a reminder of the heightened sensitivity of their situation.

An intelligent, slow burning and provocative movie that enthralls from start to finish, Wind River is an understated gem that deserves an audience which is growing by very favorable “word of mouth”.

Rated R for strong violence, a rape, disturbing images, and language.

Clark

The DARK TOWER    2.5****

   The Dark Tower", is an adaptation of Stephen King's longest story offering as the series covered 8  books.  The series ran from 1982 to 2004  The movie tells the story of the last Gunslinger, Roland (played by Idris Elba) who has been locked in an eternal battle with Walter also known as the Man in Black (Mathew McConaughey), to prevent Walter  from toppling the Dark Tower. With the fate of the worlds at stake, good and evil collide leading up to  the ultimate battle between them since Roland is the only one who can defend the Tower from the Man in Black.   The Man in Black is fixated on destroying the Dark Tower, which protects the many worlds in the universe from the outside evils that look to destroy them. Along with a young boy from Earth with very special mind skills named Jake (Tom Taylor), Roland must find a way to save the universe . Roland is the last of the "Gunslingers", a Knight-like group who protect the world.  Roland is highly skilled and unlike his now dead father and other companions, is impervious to the deadly magic of Walter which has allowed him to remain alive and continue his quest to stop Walter.

The screenplay is awful (done by 4 writers which is always a bad sign). It goes all over the map in terms of tying to tie the quite lengthy story elements together. Having four screenwriters shows throughout as the story rises and falls .. but more often falls creating a huge lack of cohesiveness leading to a mediocre movie. Rumors of a 2 plus hour original run with more background on characters and the fantasy world Stephen King created would have been much better in giving depth to the characters and narrative. But the studio objected to such hefty run-time, and its quality has definitely suffered from its sparse 95 minute run time resulting in the loosely-strung-together story.

A few years back, Peter Jackson was somewhat criticized for turning a relatively slim book, THE HOBBIT, into a sequel of 3 very successful movies, adding characters and adventures that were not in Tolkien’s beloved novel to stretch the franchise out. THE DARK TOWER, has the opposite problem.  This thin (95 minute) film is based on  8 novels from Stephen King and so much is left out, that I walked away thinking I had just seen a Cliff Note's version of this material.  They had 8 novels to choose from, and instead of doing a film as the 1^st sequel, they wrongly decided to cram  all 8 novels into one short run time of 95 min. and that is just not enough time to engage even average viewers and is a tragedy for King fans. Actually this would have been great material for an HBO or Netflix miniseries.

One positive note is the performances. Matthew McConaughey as Walter/The Man in Black was perfection every time  he is on the screen.  He is a ruthless badass villain that he can kill you even without touching you. Idris Elba as Roland the last Gunslinger is basically perfection too.  He goes around shooting the bad guys with special 6-shooter pistols in the most badass way…. the dude is Chuck Norris and a young Clint Eastwood combined. Tom Taylor plays the kid Jake and is impressive and carries his role quite well.

Rated PG-13 for material including sequences of gun violence and action. 

ATOMIC  BLONDE    2.0***

   Atomic Blonde isn't really an action movie. It's more of a spy movie, with some action in it. Are the action sequences any good? Yes they are. Too bad there's less than 10 minutes of it. And the problem is, it isn't even a good spy movie. The plot is so convoluted and confusing, good luck trying to explain the story to anyone. The lead character seems like she came out of a comic book but the story surrounding her is so grim and serious that she feels so out of place – from her look to her attitude. This extends to the other characters as well, who are all written to be cool but have attitudes that are lame. This movie made me yearn for an actor like Keanu Reeves with a blank face, because you can at least project your own feelings onto the actor and have him carry all the emotions you have from the story. In this one, everyone but Theron is annoying, unlikeable and grating, so you end up projecting nothing but frustration on your own blank face.

 An undercover MI6 agent (Theron) is sent to Berlin during the Cold War to investigate the murder of a fellow agent and recover a missing list of double agents. Her contact in Berlin is the city's station chief (played by James McEvoy). John Goodman and Toby Jones round out the cast as a CIA chief and an MI6 spy-master respectively. As the lead character, Charlize Theron is pretty convincing in the action sequences but all her talking scenes are pretty monotonous. This is not a problem with the actress but the horrible script. You never understand what her motivations are for doing anything and at times, she doesn't even seem very smart for a spy. This means that whenever she's engaged in any kind of action it’s hard to root for her because you don't who is the bad guy or what is going on.

The 80's soundtrack is very prominent in the movie and it borders on obnoxious at times. Serious scenes are happening but there's happy jovial 80's music blaring in the background and it's annoying. As for the action, they are so few and far in between that it's hardly worth sitting through 105 mins for 10 mins of action. There's a somewhat impressive single take set action piece that goes through multiple stories in a building but because you're confused by the story and not rooting for anyone the scene lacks tension and suspense. Overall this movie was disappointing . Atomic Blonde thinks its cleverer than it actually is. I wish the story was much simpler and didn't take itself too seriously.

Despite the problems with the movie, I enjoyed watching Charlize Theron who is a good actress and one of Hollywood’s most stunning beauties She is totally watchable from start to finish. That makes the   fight scene at least fun to watch. She did a lot of it herself without the use of stunt doubles

Rated R for sequences of strong violence, language throughout, and some sexuality/nudity |

Clark.

D U N K I R K  4.0***

       There have been other films about Dunkirk undertaken  but none have come close to the realism, the grittiness and the intensity that 'Dunkirk' bestows upon the audience. The true story of a retreat that was seen as a huge victory !, Yes, you read that right, the retreat at Dunkirk became one of World War II's greatest tales of heroism in the face of adversity.  Churchill asked his countrymen to help with the rescue and  to ensure that at least 30,000 troops made it home...instead that number in came in at over 300,000, and not just British soldiers. French, Belgians and some Dutch It was an epic tale of a historic spectacle that truly required an honest account from a capable experienced director, that being Christopher Nolan.

The battle of Dunkirk was a short one, May 26 to June 4, 1940. Despite its minimal timeframe, it was deadly. WWII Allied soldiers were trapped, surrounded on all sides by the German Army and had to be evacuated from the beaches of Dunkirk.  Desperation runs rampant during war and  Nolan doesn't waste any time  depicting just how desperate a situation it was as men waited to be taken home, not knowing when the enemy would strike next. Nolan's boldest decision in Dunkirk is to not show one German soldier throughout and it really adds to the film's intensity, the fear of the men trapped on the beach.

There are panoramic CGI shots to show the sheer size of the retreating army (400,000) but the script focuses on one soldier fighting on land to survive the day (Fionn Whitehead), one civilian fishing boat captain (Mark Rylance) and one RAF pilot (Tom Hardy) Nolan uses  non-linear storytelling (not chronological) to stunning effect, with three stories, each from the land, sea and air, all focusing on a different time frame, but effectively intersecting throughout.. Lacking of actual dialogue, the sequences instead thrust the audience into a world of visual splendor and build the narrative through the use of sound and peril, the haunting and deafening sounds of diving German Stukas, the ripping roar of the British Spitfire's engine and the sudden silence, building to impending doom. The sound is one of this film's highlight, with Hans Zimmer returning once more to provide yet another stunning score. Now, the cinematography, well what can be said. Hoyte Van Hoytema is the one behind the camera and is brilliant. The imagery is both stark yet beautiful,  gritty yet serene, .. it's utterly dazzling from the opening shot, it draws you in, it takes you to that beach, it places you in the thick of it, and all the while avoiding the sight of the actual enemy in person, they're just lingering, unseen to the naked eye.

Dunkirk joins the list of all-time great war movies and will surely be up for awards next winter. It isn't a typical movie, it isn't even your typical war movie, this is more, much more. This is a film about the prevalence of heroism, the unwavering spirit of Britishness, and how relentless fear can cripple the best of men.  This is a visual masterpiece  that should be experienced in a movie theater, preferably a true I-Max theater.

Dunkirk is rated PG-13 for intense war experiences and some language.  

Clark