Molly's Game (2018)

You may not have heard of her before this film but Molly Bloom but her story is pretty damn cinematic. Olympic skier has a tough fall, taken out of the sport and decides to take a gap year before going to law school and stumbled her way into an exclusive poker club. She ends up being a total queen and running her own million dollar poker night in multiple locations in America, not without problems like Russian mafia and the FBI. Sounds sick right? Well she wrote a book and now we have this baby in the cinemas. 

I can't believe I went that long without talking about Jessica Chastain. She is outstanding in this. And the more I think about her the more I think she is a fantastic actor all round. She's been in some great stuff and made some great creative choices. Loved her in The Help (2011) as well as Interstellar (2014) and The Martian (2015). (And look out for Painkiller Jane she will be perfect). The film is narrated by Bloom, and Chastain captures that well, she engages with the audience immediately and maintains that. Will say quickly as well, the teenage version of her was also fantastic and really captured the character's tone the same as Chastain. Samantha Isler played a younger version of Bloom to a T and helped build her life up until when we find her. 

The direction was great, Aaron Sorkin, known for writing some bloody good stuff, The West Wing, A Few Good Men (1992) and The Social Network (2010) to name a few, knocks it out of the park with his directorial debut. Though I imagine he had a helping hand from Kevin Costner who played Bloom's father but also has experience in directing. Costner was great, believable amount of pushy vs supportive parent and brought a justifiable means to Blooms resentment. There is a great scene with Costner and Chastain in which they bounce off each other well which was quite touching.

Idris Elba OR SHOULD I SAID I-DISH ELBA. What a dish. Attractive man, attractive character. He plays Charlie Jaffey, Bloom's lawyer, father and purposely good and high in morals for a lawyer without being too preachy. His interactions with Chastian actually get a few laughs, there's some natural back and forths between them both quietly and with louder outbursts. Really the whole cast was pretty great. 

The poker team have a few different memorable characters, Michael Cera plays 'Player X' / a fictional self. A famous actor that plays poker as a means of pushing his power around more than his money. It's not confirmed who this actually is but it's interesting to think about the amount of powerful players in the early noughties that would throw their money around on the table. 

It was well shot, well edited with good sound mixing. I think though long I enjoyed the narrative choice and how we flipped between the present and the past. They integrated the past with the lessons learnt well and we were never rushed in between locations or times. The costumes we great, sometimes its hard to notice a time different when a film is set so recently, essentially the main noticeable difference is the mobile phones. They have buttons. The costumes and makeup were gorgeous, they drip with expense and risk as the underground poker games do. There's a slight grittiness to the game, the smoke and grumbles which make the games feel more validated. 

I haven't yet read the book, though now I intend to, so I can't say how good of an adaption it is but it is a great screenplay. Perfect choice of formatting for the story. Yes it is long but you honestly don't really notice. 7/10

CINEMATES - A 

The Mountain Between Us (2017)

This film sounds more dramatic than it is overall, but the story captures you regardless.

Alex and Ben (Winslet and Elba), are complete strangers who meet because they have share the need to get to the same place, but a storm is going to prevent them from doing this. Alex then comes up with the idea that they can hire a tiny plane and someone to drive it. Unfortunate events result in them crashing and only having their dead pilot’s dog for company. They need to figure out how to survive on a completely snow-covered mountain, whilst debating whether to leave to attempt to find help, risking Alex’s health – as she injured her leg in the crash or battle it out, and risk their lives by staying there.

OOOOOH DRAMA.

 

I feel like in recent years we’ve had a few films like this with the undertones of survival in them, and I’m not mad about it. They aren’t getting repetitive, because although there are going to be obvious similarities, the cast, and intricacies of the story vary. This film was no different. This is what initially intrigued me with this – the cast. Both fantastic actors, both with some big titles under their belts, and both bloody British (yaaaaaaaas!), but was there going to be chemistry? They were really, the only two actors we saw throughout this whole film, so they HAD to be good together for this film to be even slightly successful.

My god, there was chemistry – they both worked wonderfully together, and I must say Kate Winslet – your American accent isn’t infuriating. As soon as the film starts we are left with just the two of them, and very, very early on in the film the plane crash happens. At this point I really thought, there is no way this is going to be good. There is no way they can be amusing for nearly 2 hours. I was so wrong. We really got to understand the characters, and over those few weeks they were together we got to learn about them, and share a journey with them – the experience really was as corny, yet thrilling as I’m making it sound.

There were some thrilling moments, like the very real (for them, anyway) danger of going for a walk right at the top of a mountain, slipping, and almost falling off the edge of a mountain. The struggle of being stuck with either just yourself, or someone you barely know and might not like. The fear that you could get attacked by a Cougar. It was all captured well, of course dramatized, but not to the point of it being uncomfortable to watch.

The story was well paced, and set in a beautiful location – it’s hard to believe tonnes of effort was needed for this to be shot well – but then again, what do I know about shooting a film at all, let alone in the snow? The film only had one slight downfall for me. This was the fact that a love story was introduced. I cannot say it wasn’t powerful, because of the connection that Elba and Winslet had, but it at the end of the film because kind of cringe because of the conclusion to the story. I will not deny that the situation they were in couldn’t happen in real life, it was just a perfect example of oh, for god sake does everyone HAVE to fall in love and live happily ever after? Couldn’t one get killed by a bear and the other tell their story?

It was heart-warming, heart breaking, shocking, and pleasant all at once. It was everything I wanted from it, and I would recommend it – and say it’s worth more than some of the ratings I have seen so far.

7.5/10 

The Dark Tower (2017)

I just don’t know where to begin…

The Dark Tower is a story about young boy Jake Chambers who realises he is different from others in his life, whilst battling constantly being told he’s crazy, whilst trying to battle the mystery of his abilities and ‘shine’. He finally encounters the Gunslinger, and the villain of this series – Walter. Jake ends up being stuck in the middle of their battle and all are trying to keep the universe stable by protecting the Dark Tower that stands in the middle of our universe(s).

This sounds like a simple film with a straight forward story, right? It’s not, and this wasn’t what is portrayed in this film. My main struggle here is to not write a book review, or explain how much I adore the mind of Stephen King, because this should be emphasised as not something that represents King’s body of work, and should be viewed as something independent.

The film starts, and we’re straight in which as all film viewers know, comes with both successes and failures. We quickly come to understand the struggles Jake is going through, and are given the chance early on to empathise with him, and his mother. However, due to the length of the film, the only character development we are allowed is his – surprising as there are two main characters we honestly don’t know much about.  

The way the story is presented to us isn’t the only problem this film has. Firstly, the cinematography is consistently poor in this production. I mean, take into consideration the fact that not only are we shown that a lot is happening in a whole different part of the universe, we are also filming in New York. It felt like we were on the same part of planet when flicking between these two worlds, this really took away from the main points in the plot. This could have such a greater impact if even the small things such as the lighting were altered. I understand where the creators were trying to go with this, to emphasise the dark, but come on… no lighting at all? REALLY!? EVEN IN NEW YORK?!

As well as this, the score… it was in no way memorable, this could have helped create an impact by being used as a transition from actions of one character to the next, it’s surprising how noticeable it is that the sound in a film is important when there is almost none.

This film did lack. It wasn’t all bad, it would be unfair to claim that it was terrible, because it wasn’t. The cast was chosen well, they did the job, and Idris Elba was well suited for his role as the Gunslinger, but I don’t know that I can say that is a solid across the entire cast. When we are introduced to the Gunslinger and Jake working together you do understand that there is a connection, but you are left wanting more from them. Matthew McConaughey as Walter… I’m not so sure. As I said, he did the job, of course, and it was fine, but he wasn’t convincing it was an average representation of a character that I remember expecting more from prior to the release of the film.

The only area this film didn’t lack – which I expected, was some okay action. But again, we just needed more! As it began to get good, and we began to see something happen the film switched to a new event because it was just too short for what it tried to do.

Honestly, I just don’t know how I feel about this as a film, let alone something that is part of a serious cult following. Don’t get me wrong, it was entertaining, but there is nothing about it that stands out very well. In comparison to the trailer, I feel disappointed because it set us up for a chunk of Stephen King’s universe. There were some very subtle references to other key parts of his universe in this film, and they just weren’t explained at all. But again, am I making a bigger deal about this because I know about the universe we’re in?
If you are a fan of King’s writing, and are ready to watch this expecting some juicy King greatness, you aren’t going to get it. You will leave wanting more.

I await the next addition to the world of Stephen King, with the upcoming re-release of It, with seriously baited breath. I hope significant attention has been paid to the details in comparison to this production.

It was average, and definitely not for the King super-fan likely to get irritated by missed details.

4.5/10

CINEMATES - S