Ryan's Reviews 17: Last Embrace (1979)

Ryan's Reviews: Last Embrace (released 1979) Ryan's Rating: 3 out of 4 stars.

    A covert agent for the U.S. government, Harry Hanon (well played by Roy Scheider), witnesses his wife's murder during an ambush in a Texas restaurant. Her death causes a mental breakdown and as the film opens he is being released from a psychiatric hospital (ostensibly for government agents) but still suffers from nightmares of the incident and sudden extreme tremors in his hands. Almost immediately he begins to suspect people are after him but is it real or simply paranoia?

    When he returns to his New York City apartment he finds it has been sublet by his "company" to a PhD student studying anthropology, Ellie (Janet Margolin). She gives him an envelope which was slipped under the door with his name on it. The envelope contains a paper with two Hebrew words and a mysterious symbol. Harry takes the letter to a Rabbi (David Margulies) and also a Princeton University Hebrew Studies professor (John Glover) who inform him the note means "Avenger of Blood" and everyone who has received similar notes has been killed. Ellie begins to feel the need to help Harry and Harry soon realizes he needs all the help he can get to figure out what is going on and to save his own life.

    A very Hitchcock inspired film, those familiar with Hitch's work will notice references to his films especially in the last ten minutes but also peppered throughout the story. Last Embrace is an early film by director Jonathan Demme (who later won a Best Director Oscar for Silence of the Lambs in 1991) and released a year before his breakthrough with Melvin and Howard (1980). One of Demme's trademarks are characters who appear to speak directly into the camera but are not breaking the "fourth wall" (think of the scenes between Clarice and Hannibal in Lambs). While it only happens a few times here when I saw it happen a big smile spread across my face. I love seeing a director early in their career finding their hallmarks. He also uses real locations to his advantage, for instance the brief scene in NYC's Paley Park is simply and wonderfully staged to make use of the water feature and water tunnel; the Niagara Falls sequence is also exciting. Aside from his adept use of locale I appreciate the time capsule feel of seeing the areas in 1979.

    This film is ostensibly a Neo-Noir but also a bit of the 1970s paranoia thriller genre and definitely a Hitchcock inspired tale (though the story is based on the 1977 novel The 13th Man by Murray Bloom). It is one of those movies you have to go with the flow to enjoy. For instance the opening sequence seems a bit hokey and over the top but we soon learn it is one of Harry's recurring nightmares so the style quickly makes sense in that regard.

    From a story sense the narrative is not perfect (also some of the 1970s mores are obviously dated) as the plot takes some odd turns and some threads vanish with no explanation. Christopher Walken (fresh off his Oscar winning role the year before in The Deer Hunter) has two brief scenes as Harry's Agency boss but then vanishes completely from the rest of the film. As well when the mystery begins to be unraveled it all becomes a bit too implausible, one revelation comes in such an odd way I thought it was another dream sequence.

    Yet when the film was over I was truly drawn in and cherished the viewing experience. Even with its flaws the suspense works, I cared about the characters, and I would like to watch the film again.

Ryan's Reviews 16: To Catch a Killer

Ryan's Reviews 16: To Catch a Killer (released 2023). 
Ryan's Rating: 2 out of 4 stars. 

    On midnight New Year's Eve 2023 a sniper kills 29 people throughout the city of Baltimore (though it could be any city and is clearly filmed elsewhere as the credits indicate Canada and Buenos Aires). A young troubled Baltimore police officer Eleanore Falco (played by Shailene Woodley who also co produced with the film's director/co-writer) is on patrol during the shootings and is inexplicably drawn to see who the sniper is. When they find the sniper's perch, during a neat moment using laser beams to triangulate all the deaths throughout the city, the Baltimore FBI office sends in Special Agent Lammark (Ben Mendelsohn), a once legendary agent who has been disgraced, to lead the search for the sniper. Lemmark senses something in Falco and selects her to be "liaison" for the FBI but she is actually his right hand investigator and she often provides key and quick insights to the case. The film continues from there.

    Ostensibly, the movie is in the same vein as those 1990s and early 2000s mystery thrillers like, Silence of the Lambs, The Bone Collector, and several of the Ashley Judd star vehicles. But To Catch a Killer is nowhere as good as any of them because it never really decides what kind of movie it wants to be. At times it is a character driven mystery thriller very close to Lambs or Bone Collector at others it is closer to something like Patriot's Day where we are documenting the investigation of a tragic event (though this one is fictitious unlike the Boston Marathon bombing it is still unfortunately very believable). In the last thirty minutes it wants to be a deep drama and makes the story anticlimactic.

    Woodley at first seems miscast, in her opening scenes as the patrol officer she seems out of place, but once she "joins" the FBI she fits in much better. She is also given semi-interesting character scenes, swimming alone in a pool at night, looking conflicted while in the bathroom, but they never give us more insight into her character aside from what we know. There is even a late moment where we are shown a heroin spoon and strap in her kitchen drawer which seems like it should be a big issue but is never mentioned. All these moments are intriguing because most movies would not take the time with these little character details but they don't really add up to anything. Mendelsohn is not bad as the seasoned FBI agent but most of his dialogue consists of elaborate speeches that don't give us more insight into his character. I also found they never really explain the connection Lemmark sees between Falco and the killer. This aspect is repeated many times during the movie but I didn't really see a connection aside from both being loners.

    The story seems to want to comment on the state of the country with every scene and speech a way to highlight an issue facing America. The issues range from the very first scene where Falco is called to a diner because a homeless woman (who has paid for a meal) has been sitting in the diner for hours eating very slowly and has a liquor bottle in her bag. The social inequality is mentioned multiple times but there are comments on others such as: media over stimulation, mental health, mistreatment of our veterans, environment (during a dinner scene one of the characters talks about plastic pollution), how refuse companies don't actually sort out the compost/trash/recycle like they advertise, gun control, political image making, scapegoating, cover ups, and finally a sequence in a beef slaughterhouse to talk about the harm of our meat heavy diets. All these issues are important and I don't really disagree with any of the comments but the movie doesn't do anything with the issues once mentioned. They seem there simply as a catalog of American problems while never fully engaging in any of them

    Directed by, cowritten, and co-produced by Damián Szifron, a successful Argentine director in his English debut, has some imposed some style to the movie. There is a lot of use of deep focus with something in the foreground and background equally clear, similar to Brian De Palma's style. There are also some good widescreen set ups and a clear framing style which is more than can be said of many movies today. The movie is also decently paced which will hold your attention for the first ninety minutes but everything falls apart in the end which is really a let down.

    Overall I don't recommend the movie, it has good moments but is never a good complete film. You would do better watching those 1990s and early 2000s films like The Bone Collector or Copycat.

Ryan's Reviews 15: Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1

 Quick Note: Changing the title of these little movie reviews but keeping the numbering system continuous, unlike Marvel comics numbering haha.

Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1 (released 2024) Ryan's Rating: 2.5 out of 4 stars.

Now don't let the 2.5 make you think I did not enjoy this movie because I did but it is only a portion of the movie. Unlike say the Lord of the Rings where each installment feels like its own story, Horizon Chapter 1 feels like only a portion of the story. The set up we see here is engaging but the film ends with a "To Be Continued" as this is planned as a four part film series. It is a sprawling epic it feels like a kindred spirit to the epic How the West Was Won (1962) which Costner has said over the years is one of his favorite films. He emulates that film as this is an ensemble piece with a grand cast of familiar faces. For example even though Kevin Costner is top billed he is only in a portion of the film and doesn't appear until about an hour into the three hour story. 

The film has about four or five storylines (like How the West Was Won) that partially intersect but I have a feeling will fully intersect when all four Chapters come out. The first (Story 1) is the land development named Horizon, which is being advertised to people in the East Coast to start a new life for cheap land prices. The person selling (who we don't see until a brief moment at the end of the film) does not actually own the land and we quickly come to find it is in "Indian Territory". There is an excellent opening sequence with a land surveyor and then a family building a house that all learn this fact very quickly. Eventually a large settlement has developed and we meet Sienna Miller's character who becomes one of the several protagonists. Yet the Apache warriors soon stage a raid on the town in an excellently staged battle. This story continues with the addition of Calvary officers (including Sam Worthington) and a hunting party to find the Apache raiders (story 2). There is also a story from the Apache point of view that is left hanging in this installment but I hope will be given more screen time in the next Chapters (story 3).

The next story (story 4) involves Lucy (Jena Malone). The transition to this story line is a bit abrupt but as it continues the story becomes more organic. She is an abused young mother stuck with the wealthy and ruthless Sykes family. When Lucy shoots the baby's father and flees with her infant son the Sykes brothers set out to find her and bring the baby back to the family. This leads to the meeting of Hayes Ellison (well cast and well played Kevin Costner) an experienced cowboy and gunfighter. He is driving a cattle herd through Wyoming and stops in a a small town to have bath where he gets entangled in Lucy's plight. 

The last new story line (story 5) is a wagon train heading west to the town of Horizon. Focusing on the trials of traveling cross country, there is a wealthy couple from England who do not understand they must pull their own weight on the trail, a poor family who is doing more work to help the others (including Will Patton) and the trail "boss" Weyden (played by Luke Wilson) is stuck dealing with all the issues as well as some trail hands who are clearly going to be trouble at some point.

There is a stirring montage near the end which is like a trailer for the future Chapters of this four part saga. One thing to note, some of the scenes shared in previews of this Chapter 1 are only in this ending montage. If you are really looking forward to the scene where Costner is being chased on a horse while firing his rifle over his shoulder that scene is from the ending montage and we will  unfortunately have to wait until the next installments to see how it plays out.

The cinematography by J. Michael Muro, who previously worked on Costner's excellent western Open Range, is first rate bringing out the vastness of the plains, the mud and cold of the mountains, and the arid landscape of the Santa Fe Trail. The story is old fashioned but held my interest. I am excited to see the next installments Chapter 2 is finished but was held back from distribution due to the low box office of this first Chapter. Hopefully it will be released to theaters in 2025. I am a fan of well made westerns like this, I do recommend it (especially the fans of How the West Was Won) but I have to see how the full story plays out before I can add it to my favorites list. Happy film viewing everyone.