24th Mar2018

Unsane (Film)

by timbaros
Claire Voy stars as Sawyer Valentini

Claire Voy stars as Sawyer Valentini

Is Sawyer Valentini a bit crazy and imagining things or is it all in her head?

Claire Foy (The Crown) plays Valentini, a young successful career woman who had an issue with a stalker years ago. But it’s all behind her now. She’s focused on her career (though her creepy boss offers to take her out of town on a business trip), and just basically getting on with her life.

She goes to see a mental health counselor for a checkup but soon enough, strangely, she is committed against her will in a mental hospital, locked up with people who are all certifiably crazy, so surely why is she locked up with them when of course she is not crazy. She gets a hold of her mother who tries to get her out, but to no avail. Could this be a scam the hospital is involved in just to get her insurance money? But then Valentini recognizes one of the staff who was, or perhaps wasn’t, her stalker. ‘Unsane’ takes us through Valentini’s nightmare experience in the mental hospital and her quest to escape the unjustice, and possibly the stalker, that she is currently facing.

Director Steven Soderbergh in 2013 announced that he was retiring from filmmaking, but ‘Unsane’ marks his second go since then as director (last year’s successful ‘Logan Lucky’ was his ‘return’). ‘Unsane,’ which was shot on an iphone (just like the huge hit ’Tangerine’) is a strange choice for Soderbergh, as he made many successful and award-winning films early on in his career. While ‘Unsane’ won’t be winning any awards, and as the second half spirals a bit out of control relegating it to ‘B’ movie status, it’s still a scary pyschological thriller that will leave you on the edge of your sit with a nail-biting performance by Foy.

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28th Aug2017

Logan Lucky (Film)

by timbaros
DSC_3663.nef

Steven Soderbergh said in 2013 that he planned to retire from filmmaking. Well, his short retirement is over and he’s back in the cinema with “Logan Lucky.”

The man who gave us “Sex, Lies and Videotape,” “Out of Sight,” “Erin Brokovich,” “Magic Mike,” and the Ocean’s Trilogy has returned with a film that, while it’s not groundbreaking, is littered with excellent performances but its a case of been there seen that.

So alike “Logan Lucky” is with “Ocean’s Twelve and Thirteen” that it could as well have been Ocean’s fourteen but set in the Confederate state of Virginia. “Logan Lucky” is the story of a bank robbery, a bank robbery that’s so cleverly planned and executed that it’s a bit unrealistic and unbelievable.

Channing Tatum is down on his luck Jimmy Logan who can’t seem to get a break and keep a job due to his permanent limp. His daughter, Sadie (a memorable and amazing little Farrah MacKenzie) is a beauty pageant winner wanna be, and she’s in the care of his ex-wife Bobbie Jo (a very good Katie Holmes). His one-armed brother Clyde (a good as usual Adam Driver) owns a bar called Duck Tape, and they have a sister Mellie (Riley Keough). Jimmy, after talking to brothers Sam (Brian Gleason) and Fish (Jack Quaid), who have mentioned that their other brother Joe (Daniel Craig, at his best ever, better than his James Bond character), who happens to be incarcerated, can and will break out of jail and can help the gang break into the underground cash-handling system at the Charlotte Motor Speedway during one of the it’s busiest days of the year – the Coca Cola 600 race. Did I mention that the plot is a bit far-fetched?

Clyde (who got himself arrested just for the sole purpose of helping Joe escape jail for the day) and Joe successfully, in another ridiculous moment, escape jail. And it’s then a dream team attempting to steal money from a stadium chock-a-block full of people yet there is absolutely no one guarding the underground area where the money is dropped in via a tube system. Absolutely no one, not a security guard, employees, garbage collectors, no one at all. And all seems to go according to plan, thus lacking in any suspense whatsoever.

It’s in the performances where “Logan Lucky” is saved, barely. Craig is fantastic as the seasoned thief, Driver is good (as always) as the one-armed brother. Holmes surpasses expectations as Jimmy’s ex-wife who is now married to a wealthy man (more of her in the future please), while Seth MacFarlane is unrecognizable and fantastic as an arrogant personality famous for who knows what. The script, by Rebecca Blunt, has some very good moments but “Logan Lucky” is basically “Ocean’s 14” but with a better cast and a cool and quirky Southern vibe. Perhaps Soderberg’s next film will be an original, this one certainly wasn’t. But he’s putting together “Ocean’s Eight” at the moment, so it will be more of the same.

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