Allied

Allied

The movie that is rumored to break up Branjalina does not live up to the hype. While it is an intriguing historical drama set in the middle of World War II, the famed love story is not developed enough for me to believe. Brad Pitt plays Max Vatan, a Canadian allied spy who is dropped in to Casablanca to meet up with Marianne Beausejour (Marion Cotillard), a French Resistance fighter. Their task is to assassinate the German Ambassador to Morocco in under 10 days. The odds of their survival are low and the stress pushes them together. There are three noticeable moments when the film makers put effort into selling that the couple might be falling in love. None of which warrant Pitt’s abrupt turnaround from his earlier feelings that emotions cause people to make mistakes and die. His sudden proposal of Marianne coming to England and marrying him had me thinking it was some sort of plot twist later on and all part of the allied spy network but (SPOILER ALERT) it’s not. The whole thing had me wanting to love the film but by the ending feeling disappointed. The biggest concern with the film is that the entire premise is that Max and Marianne are deeply madly in love. When you can’t set that up in the first half-hour of buildup, there is something wrong. Eliminate the first quarter outside of England and the film increases in likability by tenfold. Pitt and Cotillard both put in excellent performances especially when the tension rises. The tension is constant throughout the film, just when you get a small reprieve from the central narrative, a subplot tense moment is hurled at you keeping you in suspense until the tension cranks back up in the main story-line. The viewer is never given the typical levity throughout the film to ease the adrenaline and being that it is a drama thriller and not an action thriller, this can get in the way of the enjoyment of the film. It just seems to drag itself along quite a bit, continuously finding minor ways to keep the pressure level high. Other than those issues it is a fine period piece, paying incredible attention to detail and giving a small insight on the German Blitz. 1 pipes out of 4.

Edge of Seventeen

Edge of Seventeen

I will preface this review with that it is coming from someone who had rough teenage years so I have some bias. The idea for the film is well thought out and it is filmed very well. Also with it trying to aim at a wide audience it portrays some common difficulties and struggles of a teenager. That being said, I struggled mightily with the film with my background in high school. Hailee Steinfeld plays Nadine, a 17-year-old struggling with her identity in the world with no one to help her, as her one good parent passes away in front of her eyes from a heart attack. While I know this is a difficult time for her and her family, the director portrays Nadine as a complete outsider at school with only one friend. Because of how attractive Steinfeld is, this simply would not be the case in real life. It also doesn't make sense when she acts like she is no one likes her, and then just blows off a classmate who is obviously interested in her because he simply is too much of an "good old man soul". It may sound harsh, but speaking from experience, beggars can't be choosers and yet that is exactly what she is. He is not cool enough for her to be interested in as she lusts after the punk bad boy. This brings us to her dynamic with the other characters in the movie. From the very beginning her brother is portrayed as a selfish sports jock and there is no indication of anything different until the end. Side note, for her brother and best friend to hook up, which is in the trailer so I am not spoiling anything, is a terrible thing for them to do, especially the best friend. She has firsthand experience of how much of a jerk Nadine’s brother is to her and yet she "falls in love with him" after a one night stand. The main bright spots of the film are woody Harrelson and Hayden Szeto. Harrelson plays the down to earth, real talk teacher that Nadine constantly is coming to for advice even though she often doesn't like what she hears. Szeto plays Nadine’s lone admirer at the school who she is often ignoring. I honestly got more of an experience out of what it's like to be a teenager from him than from any other character and he is defiantly a minor side character. Both of these characters bring the much-needed comedy in an otherwise deeply depressing film. Kira Sedgwick plays Nadine’s unstable mother which she does well by making you absolutely hate her and wish she wasn't allowed to have children. The problem is much of the tension between mother and daughter seems manufactured as the filmmakers don't seem to know what kind of relationship they want them to have. Most of the time the relationship seem strained and unfixable only for there to be a sudden mood change that is not explained. Sedgwick is a very flat character with no evident growth. That, I think is the biggest problem with the film. All the characters are flat, have little to know shown growth and then at the end we are just supposed to accept that they have somehow grown. Nadine is the closest character to round as there is in the film, and most of the time she just seems whiny, only changing when forced to see knew evidence that is pulled out of thin air. Putting my personal issues aside I would say the film is average, gives a nice attempt at showing the teenage experience but definitely is not the masterpiece it seems to be trumpeted as. 2 pipes out of 4

The Accountant

The Accountant

With a boring name, The Accountant delivers on the action and intrigue. One of the better action flicks of the year, Ben Affleck rebounds after the dud of Batman V Superman to remind us he still has the skills. While the plot can be a stretch at its convenience at times, once one removes the stigma of the improbability of an autistic man becoming an accountant for the black-market kings of the world, it makes a lot of sense. The film follows Christian Wolfe (Ben Affleck) a heavily autistic accountant raised by a militaristic father who felt his autism was a crutch. Through brutal lessons and overexposure to triggers, Wolfe is turned into a high functioning autistic machine. Now a well-known in some circles as accountant for the underworld, cooking the books for mafia bosses, dictators and the like, he keeps a low profile as a small business tax consultant. Things go sideways when he is asked to uncool the books of a Private prosthetic company about to go public. Anna Kendrick plays the naive CBA who unintentionally found the error that brings Wolfe in to investigate and sets the whole drama in motion. There are plenty of things that are predictable in the film but they are all good natured and if you’re not paying attention they may seek up on you. You may just be too involved in the story to worry about what's coming next as I was. When Hollywood needed a solid action film to remain relevant, they have found it with the Accountant. Sometimes it’s best to go back to the basics and go with what you know. 3 pipes out of 4.