The Judge Review

Robert Downey Jr. has made a name for himself over the past six years. He was a promising actor in the 90's and early 2000's that fell off the face of the earth due to his troubling drug issues. Then in 2008, he starred in the Marvel film Iron Man and since then, he's become a big name box office wise and praised critically for his roles. But after a string of box office hits, Downey Jr. wanted to slow things down and make a father-son drama known as The Judge as his first film produced under the Team Downey company that he owns with his wife. The trailers seemed promising enough and made me think that both Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall had strong chances at this year's Academy Awards. In the end, while Downey Jr. and Duvall give compelling performances, The Judge is a film full of clichés and unoriginality that it's easy to forget about by the year's end.

The main positives truly lie in the performances from Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall. They play a very realistic father and son in this film. Their arguments and support of each other feel realistic and don't feel over sensational unlike the rest of the film. Although their scenes are great together, they shine individually too. You feel for both characters who want respect from each other, but show it in completely opposite ways. The other positives lie in the cinematography and music. Thomas Newman's score is subtle but also very soothing and it fits the scenes well. And Janusz Kaminski's shot choices are very beautiful to look at and the dark color palette works too.

Unfortunately, the rest of the film is a mess. While most of the cast is very good in their roles, they are underused and some characters deserve more development than others. Billy Bob Thornton is truly great in his role and I honestly feel he deserved more screen time than he was given. The only cast member that I felt was truly awful in the role was Jeremy Strong playing Downey Jr.'s mentally challenged brother. It's a lazily done performance that not only is a terrible one, but a truly offensive view of mental disabilities. I'll give Strong slack that some of the blame is from the script, but his performance feels like he's only there to accept the paycheck and run and truly not care about the community his character represents. Strong's performance in the film might be the worst I've seen all year and I hope he gets a Razzie nomination for his role.

The rest of the film's problems lie in its direction and script. Honestly, who thought it was a good idea to hire David Dobkin, a comedy director known for Wedding Crashers and Fred Claus, to direct a domestic courtroom drama? His pacing feels uncertain throughout, he has sprinkles of a courtroom drama, a comedy, and a father-son tearjerker. In the end, there's way too many subplots throughout that the film's long length feels wasted as a result. But hey, at least this film is a step up compared to Dobkin's last film, the atrocious and unfunny The Change-Up. The script does not help it either. Honestly, I called the exact ending of the film 20 minutes in. It rips off so many scenes from other movies and the dialogue feels dumbed down so the lowest denominator cannot predict the film. Unfortunately, for movie buffs like myself, it's very predictable and the films it rips off do a better job at handling the material.

The Judge is honestly a huge disappointment for me. Downey Jr. and Duvall give it their all, but the rest of the film is a predictable, overlong, and dull mess. It has a few good emotional moments and the music and cinematography are fantastic, but honestly I expected a lot better since this was Downey Jr.'s passion project. I do hope he does more films like this given his acting ability, but let's hope the next film is not as forgettable as The Judge was.

Rating: 4.5 out of 10

Gone Girl Review

David Fincher is one of the few directors in Hollywood currently that can take any source material and can completely make it his own while staying faithful. Doing so, he's become the classic director everyone knows and loves him for. He's made many classics out of books that are considered ordinary yet interesting, such as Fight Club, The Social Network, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. When I heard he was attached to direct Gone Girl with a cast of Ben Affleck and Tyler Perry, I had many doubts since the plot sounded like a regular murder mystery novel and the cast hasn't done anything really noteworthy recently. But watching this film, I further realized that I was wrong. Fincher has done it again, and has made a suspense thriller for the ages.

The fact that the book's author Gillian Flynn wrote the script gave me plenty of hesitation as well. We have seen so many great authors write screenplays and the films end up terrible (an example is Cormac McCarthy's disappointing and dull script for The Counselor). But here, Flynn writes it naturally, adding dark and meta humor when necessary and putting the tension in perfect spots. What also surprises me about this script is how she has made so many unlikable characters so relatable that you want them to succeed at the end even if they don't deserve to.

As I mentioned earlier, I was not impressed with the cast announcements originally. Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Tyler Perry, and Neil Patrick Harris haven't done a film like this before and have also never played characters of this type. Yet they all do it so perfectly. Affleck nails it as the lead Nick Dunne, a man who you should hate based on certain facts but you feel pity for because of this disturbing situation. It's obvious he was casted because he can relate to how chaotic the media circus can be because of his famous relationship with Jennifer Lopez, because he feels so natural here. I'm looking forward to him more and more becoming Batman now. The real stunner is Rosamund Pike as Amy Dunne, who gives it her all in every scene and absolutely deserves a Best Actress nomination, if not a win for this powerhouse performance. Tyler Perry is great comic relief as the lawyer Tanner Bolt, and Neil Patrick Harris creeped me out big time as Desi Collins. The rest of the cast do respectively well also.

Fincher creates this world with a beautifully dark and consistently uneasy tone. The dark color grading and beautiful cinematography really help this. Not to mention the stunning score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, the score helps the audience feel with the characters and the unsettling tone naturally. What most surprised me about Gone Girl was how it ended. Fincher's last film The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was a brilliant suspense thriller that kept me on the edge, but the last 10-15 minutes felt thoroughly unnecessary and completely took away the tense, uneasy feeling that the former 2 and a half hours gave me. Gone Girl, on the other hand, wraps up every possible storyline it has but it has possibly the most disturbing ending I have ever seen in a mainstream film in a long time. Fincher plays the last 15 minutes here, thinking the audience will go home safe, but nails it by deciding it to end it by keeping the consistently uneasy tone that the rest of the film has. It's obvious he learned his lesson from Dragon Tattoo.

Gone Girl is a perfect modern thriller, a never-ending nightmare of a film. Disturbing, darkly funny, brilliant casted, and well-written, Fincher has outdone himself yet again. This is one of the few films this year that I went home thinking and worrying about the characters after the film. I still care. This film might end up being my favorite this year if nothing else surpasses it. See it even if you haven't read the book (I didn't read it).

Rating: 10 out of 10