Mud (2012)

4/5

Mud is essentially a coming-of-age tale hidden within a character study wrapped in a crime thriller. One fateful morning, Ellis (Sheridan) and Neckbone (Lofland) meet a mysterious stranger with crosses under his boots and a gun tucked into his pants who calls himself Mud (McConaughey). Ellis cautiously helps Mud get food and supplies so that he can flee the people chasing him, but soon finds himself getting in way over his head. As the danger mounts and he gets deeper and deeper into trouble, Ellis discovers that Mud may not be who he thinks he is.

Mud is a uniquely American movie, although not because of its setting or vernacular. It projects universal ideas, but does it with an American ethos and sensibility: the loneliness of rejection, the guilt of parents' divorce, the hurt of being lied to. It echoes an honesty and authenticity that is rare in modern film, but it's ultimately unsatisfying. The resolution at the end, while exciting and stimulating, feels a little barebones. It supplants emotional truth with a gunfight, it forgoes maturation and change for a protection borne of necessity, and it wraps up way too many threads into what ends up being one very eventful night for our protagonist. But it tries so hard to be something so good that it is hard not to give it credit. It's a wonderful film with big ideas that doesn't quite meet its own lofty ambitions.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1935179/

Premium Rush (2012)

1/5

Premium Rush is one of the most ridiculous movies I've seen recently. The story is not only ludicrous on its own merits, it is also told in an unnecessarily convoluted fashion. It goes backwards and forwards and every which way, with its only purpose seemingly to keep certain plot points hidden from the audience so that they can reveal it as a big surprise at the end. I have no problem with non-linear storytelling so long as it adds some sort of value instead of just existing for the sake of being different. The plot, as in all action movies, is pretty underwhelming: a guy rides a bike around NYC while being chased by cops in cars and on bikes. That's about it. There were way too many 1) chase scenes in which cyclists get terribly injured, 2) irrelevant side characters, and 3) not-so-subtle racial stereotypes. All in all, it's a pretty middling action flick with nary a redeeming factor and lots to dislike.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1547234/

Revolutionary Road (2008)

5/5

Revolutionary Road is an expansive blue ocean. It appears beautiful from afar, but roiling underneath it is sorrow and anger erupting in ferocious waves. It touches all of us, pooling at the feet of some, submerging others. I am in the latter camp; I am a victim to this devastating film. I get jitters remembering everything that happened. My pulse quickens and my knees weaken. And I can't get that nightmare out of my head.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet play Frank and April Wheeler, a young couple that recently moved into a suburban house on Revolutionary Road in the 1950's. Their happiness is a facade for the hopeless emptiness they're experiencing. Frank works at a job he can't stand and comes home to a wife who can't stand being home. They hate each other. They remain together for the sake of their children, but realize it's worse for everyone to stay in that situation. Separation is not an option. What can they do to escape their self-imposed, once-desirable imprisonment?

The acting is impeccable, heart-felt, and full. It makes the pitch-perfect writing all the more unbearable. The music infiltrates your subconscious. The cinematography stays on the sideline, subtly affecting your perceptions and focus. The editing is tight; it plays with time fluidly but intuitively. And for all the movie's effectiveness, for all of Sam Mendes's brilliance, it hurts. This is not an enjoyable film. This is not entertainment. This is a condemnation of all we hold dear in America. This is a searing indictment of our success, our greed, and even our appearance. By the end, we simply want to stop listening, to ignore it and hope it disappears. What a sorry, tired answer that is. But it is our only chance.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0959337/