Cinema Dispatch: Trap

Trap and all the images you see in this review are owned by Warner Bros Pictures

Directed by M Night Shyamalan

We all know Shyamalan’s decidedly mixed filmography, but as bad as his movies were in the late 2000s and early 2010s, he’s been on a sensational upswing since The Visit and Split. Sure, not everyone like Old and Glass, but there’s no denying that his post-After Earth career has been far more interesting than most of what came before. Does his upward momentum continue with this simple bottle film set at a concert? Let’s find out!!

Cooper (Josh Hartnett) is such a great dad that you believe his World’s Greatest Dad mug is telling the truth, and what better way to prove your dad-bonafides than by taking your daughter (Ariel Donoghue) to a concert for her favorite pop star (Saleka Night Shyamalan)? Sadly, this turns out to be a very bad decision, and not just because of all the screaming tweens, but because this concert is one big trap to catch a serial killer whose been prowling the streets of Philadelphia for years and also happens to be our number one dad. It doesn’t take long for Cooper to put the pieces together, and he starts looking at every corner of the building to see if there’s a way to escape their clutches while also keeping his daughter from learning his dark secret; at least not until the encore and a visit to the merch stand. Will Cooper find a way to keep himself out of jail and his family whole despite the dragnet slowly closing in around him? How does someone like this keep such a terrible secret from everyone he loves, and what will he do when his dark half and his family life start intertwining? Do you think he ever gets the two of them confused?

“And when his arms came off, there was just blood shooting everywhere! Uh… in Minecraft, of course.”     “Cool story, dad. Can we just go to our seats?”
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Cinema Dispatch: Miss Sloane

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Miss Sloane and all the images you see in this review are owned by EuropaCorp

Directed by John Madden

If you really take a look at Jessica Chastain’s acting career, it becomes clear that she’s truly one of the most versatile actors working today.  Not only has she been in high caliber Oscar fare of multiple genres including The Martian, Zero Dark Thirty, and Tree of Life, but she’s also been fantastic in other places like The Huntsman: Winter’s War, Crimson Peak, and Lawless.  Now she’s headlining a political thriller at right about the time that EVERYONE is not in the mood to even be thinking about politics.  Well, I guess we can’t blame her or the director for that, and just because the world is going straight to hell doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy movies like this anymore, right?  Can this new vehicle for Jessica Chastain turn out to be another high point in her illustrious career, or will her role in that Frozen knockoff with Chris Hemsworth turn out to be her highlight this year?  I mean… that WAS a really solid movie that no one but me seems to appreciate, but even so!  Let’s find out!!

The movie follows the greatest lobbyist ever, Elizabeth Sloane (Jessica Chastain) who’s faced with a crisis of… conscious maybe?  Either conscious or competitive zeal; one of those two.  Anyway, the crisis is that the lobbying firm she works for wants her to campaign against a bill that would restrict gun sales to criminals, those on the terror watch list, etc, and her boss (Sam Waterson) is being a REAL overbearing jerk about it.  Not one to suffer fools lightly, Miss Sloane packs up her desks, grabs the best millennial interns under her command, and goes to work for Rodolfo Schmidt (Mark Strong) who is heading the Pro-Gun restriction effort.  Of course, when you bargain with the devil (or in this case someone know what it takes to win) you get exactly what you pay for and Miss Sloane proves to be INCREDIBLY effective despite how uneasy some of her methods make some of her allies, particularly Esme Manucharian (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) who experiences firsthand just how far Miss Sloane is willing to go to get what she needs.  Will the best of the best be able to stand up against the most funded lobby to ever exist?  What can all these starry-eyed liberal babies learn by watching Miss Sloane in action?  What exactly led her to being like this?  Personal tragedy?  A drive to succeed?  Rich relatives that changed her life for the better?

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“Now this is the story all about how my life got flipped, turned upside down.”

Continue reading “Cinema Dispatch: Miss Sloane”