I Saw The Light Review

Broken record--Tom Hiddleston as influential country musician Hank Williams in I Saw The Light
                    I have long held the belief that a biopic is only as great as its lead. If the lead performance in a biopic fails, so falls the rest of the film. Here is a biopic whose lead performer deserves some kind of medal for overcoming the pile of garbage that has been laid out before him. Tom Hiddleston is amazing in I Saw The Light, a film chronicling the life of the undeniable king of country music, Hank Williams. The film, directed and written by Marc Abraham (whose previous film, Flash Of Genius, is a surprisingly fascinating look at the man who invented the windshield wiper), cannot even come close to equaling Hiddleston. This is a dry, dull, lackluster, stilted, incredibly cheap production that only manages to get more frustrating as it moves along. By the last half an hour, I was questioning whether or not the film was even going to have an ending.

                   The film attempts to chronicle the rise and fall of Williams, from the days in which he first started to make it big to his alcoholism to his marriage to Audrey (Elizabeth Olsen,) the wife who insists that she be part of his persona even as their marriage falls apart. All of these elements could potentially make an interesting biopic and Williams is a towering industry figure. However, Abraham makes all of this feel so disjointed, especially when the usually reliable Bradley Whitford shows up as Hank's friend and way into the record industry, Fred Rose. Rose's relationship with Williams could be an interesting one to explore but here, he's used as the exposition guy. Most of the time, Rose is shot in a documentary-style format in which he explains things that the film should have been showing.

                     Olsen is actually quite good as Audrey, but that character is so unpleasant and her marriage to Hank so uninteresting that when I started to realize it was going to take up 75% of the film, I felt the urge to check how much more of the film there was left. There's something to explore in the show business wife who ultimately just ends up using Hank to get in with the in crowd but Abraham backs down every time potential rears its head.

                    The only times the film really comes alive is when Hiddleston performs as Williams. It's astonishing to see how Hiddleston manages to sound almost identical to Williams, a man with whom distinction and extreme energy was just part of singing. Dedicated as he is, however, Hiddleston cannot save this film. There is so much fascinating stuff to explore about Williams. There is a story here that has yet to be told properly. A few years ago, The Last Ride did an equally disappointing job at telling the Hank Williams story. Perhaps Williams's story needs a filmmaker who is more meticulous. Abraham throws everything to the wall with very, very little sticking. Director Harry Thomason and writers Howie Klausner and Dub Cornett didn't exactly bat a thousand for The Last Ride, either. As a film, I Saw The Light succeeds only in being a cure for insomnia. As a way for an incredible actor to truly show off his chops, Hiddleston's performance is as good of an example as you can get. I just hope by praising Hiddleston and nothing else, I didn't make him so lonesome that he could cry.
(1/2 out of 5 Stars, The film is rated R for some language and brief sexuality/nudity)

Kill Your Friends Review

Spinning heads----Nicolas Hoult as Stelfox, an insane but persuasive recruiter for a record label in Kill Your Friends
                       Director Owen Harris and writer John Niven must have studied American Psycho, The Wolf Of Wall Street and even Vampire's Kiss among others until they knew these films like the back of their own hands. Their new film, Kill Your Friends (based on the novel by Niven) is another film about an insane businessman who manages to win over both his higher ups and the audience by being so utterly charming in his looniness. While this film may not reach the great heights of something like American Psycho or The Wolf Of Wall Street, it does manage to be a thoroughly satisfying dark comedy with a lot of tricks up its sleeve, not the least of which is Nicolas Hoult, an actor who I am more fond of when he plays the bastard rather than the hero, although he does admittedly juggle both here.

                       In the film, Hoult plays Stelfox, a man who spends his days listening to music from aspiring artists and recruiting a select few of them for the record company he works for. The very beginning narration features Stelfox talking about how only a few of these wanna be musicians will actually get anywhere in the industry and the rest are destined to be forgotten about. Stelfox will do anything to get ahead in the business, even if that includes....well, see the film for yourself.

                       On a daily basis, Stelfox seems to look around the meetings the record company has with disdain. Each and every coworker of his has something completely wrong with them. This could include Nikki (Ella Smith) being way too obese or Waters (James Corden) consistently being drugged up. A lot of what makes Stelfox charming despite his horribleness is his ability to be so completely unaware of his own many shortcomings yet zoom in on everyone else's. In this way, he reminded me a bit of a darker, more disturbing version of Steve Carrell's Michael Scott. Both are men so thoroughly oblivious about themselves that they become more likable for it.

                         The film then follows Stelfox as he tries to push his way to the top and take an aspiring young producer, Darren (Craig Roberts) under his wing. The film goes to some extremely dark places but it never feels like it's going there just for the sake of being dark. Stelfox is a legitimately messed up man and the situations he finds himself in are entirely of his own doing. It always feels as if these are the scenarios that someone like this would end up in. Harris and Niven do a great job of portraying the fact that no greater force is causing these situations, just the completely ridiculous psyche of Stelfox. Even when some situations don't work (a scene involving Rosanna Arquette as a prospective client comes to mind,) the film feels authentic. You totally believe that this man could make it far in an industry that's a complete dog eat dog world. The film also does a great job with tone. At points, it becomes so disturbing and weird that calling it a dark comedy may not even be accurate but then a fairly funny scene is waiting right there to be enjoyed a bit later. These tones are balanced fairly well considering how easily both could have screwed the other one up.

                              I can't say Kill Your Friends is by any means great. It does wrap up in a bit too tidy of a manner for this type of film and as I have mentioned, there are some scenes that just do not work. However, an excellent performance from Hoult and an extremely strong supporting cast make this film a thoroughly enjoyable dark comedy well worth seeing.
(3 and 1/2 out of 5 Stars, The film is Not Rated.)

The Bronze Review

Dead last--Melissa Rauch as a former gymnastics third place winner who has to deal with a goofy assistant (Thomas Middleditch) and a rival (Sebastian Stan) in The Bronze
                        Melissa Rauch is one of the most genuinely talented and charismatic comedians working today. She's not afraid to go for it, which may actually be the thing that works against her the most in The Bronze, a film in which she not only stars but that she co-wrote with husband Winston. Right off the bat, Rauch creates a character who is so thoroughly unlikable that it's hard to get invested in her story. Unlike something like Bad Santa, say, there's no understanding of why this person is so horrible. Willie Stokes was a miserable sad sack which was what made him a complete jerk, which made you root for him to some degree. Rauch's character of Hope Ann Gregory, however, is just aggressive for aggressiveness sake. It's also not helped that every other character in the film is either a dip shit or just plain bland.

                           In the film, Rauch plays Hope Ann Gregory, a former Bronze medal gymnastics winner (oh ha, ha) who now lives with her mailman dad (Gary Cole) and spends her day stealing money from letters in his truck and getting free Sbarro at the mall. When she hears that her former coach has died and left her a $500,000 inheritance if she coaches future gold medalist Maggie (Haley Lu Richardson.) With the assistance of put upon Ben (Thomas Middleditch,) Hope soon finds herself fighting rival Lance (Sebastian Stan,) who will forever be upset that his gold medal is nothing compared to her bronze, which she won under near impossible circumstances.

                              The Bronze isn't entirely unfunny. Cole, Middleditch and especially Stan get a few chuckles in each of their roles. However, none of them feel like real people. They feel like props who are there to deliver attempts at comedy lines, which makes the audience often feel bad for laughing at them. Even when Ben eventually pushes Hope out of her grumpiness, it never feels the least bit authentic. There are other things that could have made Hope a more likable character. I doubt any one of them would work but this relationship felt like it should have been the last idea that was thrown around.

                                The other gaping problem with the film is its raunchiness. An extremely dirty comedy can be hilarious if done properly and with wit. However, the Rauches, both major talents, seemed to think that being increasingly dirty is a barrel of laughs. Unfortunately, dirty does not mean inherently funny. When Hope cusses up a storm simply because it's the way that character is, it was incredibly unpleasant to watch. I'm sad to report that the unpleasantness I speak of is not a one or even two off part of the film. In fact, this is a consistently difficult to get through film. Even the funniest scene (an extremely fantastical sex scene) is so out of nowhere and unnecessary that it bordered on uncomfortable.

                                  Rauch is an extremely funny woman and it speaks to her talents that The Bronze is even slightly watchable. I hope that she and her husband get another chance to write a film and that they write something much funnier than this. The Bronze had the potential to be something special but Hope is far too unlikable a character to carry a film, or even make a brief appearance in a film. It's not entirely unwatchable but it comes pretty damn close.
(1 out of 5 Stars, The film is rated R for strong sexual content, graphic nudity, language throughout and some drug use. )