Tag: Dane DeHaan

LAWLESS Red-Band Trailer

‘We control the fear, you understand? Without the fear, we are all good as dead.’

Acclaimed director John Hillcoat (THE ROAD, THE PROPOSITION) delivers a thrillingly vivid slice of American outlaw history in his epic gangster tale, LAWLESS. LAWLESS is the true story of the infamous Bondurant Brothers: three bootlegging siblings who made a run for the American Dream in Prohibition-era Virginia. Based on author Matt Bondurant’s fictionalized account of his family, “The Wettest County in the World,” the film gathers an ensemble of gifted, dynamic new-generation stars – Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, Mia Wasikowska, Dane DeHaan – alongside two of the finest actors of their generations, Guy Pearce and Gary Oldman. A riveting, intense story of crime and corruption, loyalty and love, brutality and tenderness, LAWLESS is a rich addition to the American gangster canon.

Before the film opens on August 29th, watch the new red-band trailer.

In the mountains of Franklin County, Virginia, the Bondurant brothers are the stuff of legend. The eldest, Howard (Jason Clarke), managed to survive the carnage of the Great War, but he returned home unmoored by what he had seen and done. His brother Forrest (Tom Hardy) nearly died from the
Spanish Flu that took his parents. He beat back death with a quiet strength and ferocious, visceral invincibility that came to define him. Jack (Shia LaBeouf) is the youngest sibling, impressionable, sensitive, smart. Times are tough and jobs are scarce, but the Bondurants are entrepreneurs and have
built a thriving local business by concocting an intense and popular brand of moonshine. But Franklin County’s bootlegging days are about to end with the arrival of Special Deputy Charlie Rakes (Guy Pearce) from Chicago. The new “law” Rakes brings is lethal and corrupt and will challenge everything
the brothers have built and represent. But while the rest of the county gives in to Rakes’ ruthless crackdown, the Bondurants will bow to no one.

As the family rallies to fight Rakes, the fraternal dynamic shifts. Jack’s ambitions and enterprises alter the balance of power between the brothers as he careens into manhood. Dreaming of expensive suits, fast cars and beautiful women, Jack starts his own bootlegging operation, with his friend Cricket (Dane DeHaan) helping him to soup up cars and build stills – even against Forrest’s wishes. Jack starts to prosper, even selling his moonshine to Floyd Banner (Gary Oldman), the big city gangster he idolizes. The lives of the Bondurants are soon complicated by the appearance of two beautiful women: the exotic, steadfast Maggie (Jessica Chastain), who brings a secret past with her and catches the eye of the guarded Forrest – and the quiet, pious Bertha (Mia Wasikowska), who slowly warms to Jack’s charms and channels her own rebellious streak.

Jack’s confidence however soon trumps his good sense, and the consequences will test the brothers’  loyalty and endangers them all. Determined to do whatever is necessary to fight for what is theirs, the Bondurants take up arms and confront the corrupt forces of the law in a faceoff to determine who
controls the wettest county in the world.

LAWLESS opens in theaters on August 29th.

Visit the film’s official site: http://lawless-film.com/

“Like” it on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawlessmovie

Follow on Twitter: @lawlessfilm @WeinsteinFilms  #Lawless

CHRONICLE – The Review

For many, the “superhero” genre is as worn out as an old sock, with so many comic book movies proving they are bigger on their budgets than their concepts. I am, of course speaking of the average movie-goer, not the clutch of comic book fans that frequent the film adaptations, for better or worse. On the other hand, there’s the rare film that takes the superhero genre and turns it upside-down, delivering a fresh new concept or unique spin on the oft over-blown orgies of CGI and miscast megastars we are accustomed to seeing.

On one hand, you have filmmakers like James Gunn who take the superhero genre into an extremist, even exploitative (these are compliments, folks) realm of parody and violence like with SUPER, and smaller comic books of higher quality adapted into quality films such as KICK-ASS. On the other hand, you have filmmakers who take the superhero genre and break it down into its essential parts, with only the core premise remaining, and build something new, something conceptual and less grandiose. One of the best examples is M. Night Shyamalan’s UNBREAKABLE, which gets at the core of what makes a superhero, and their super villains tick on a human level.

CHRONICLE is the newest example of such a film, written by Max Landis (the son of director John Landis) and is the feature film debut of director Josh Trank, who worked as an editor on BIG FAN, starring Patton Oswalt. The story follows three teenagers — Steve (Michael B. Jordan), Matt (Alex Russell), and Andrew (Dane DeHaan) — as they learn to adapt to life with newly acquired abilities as a result of a mysterious discovery during a late night barn rave.

The film presents itself as a found footage project, with the awkwardly anti-social Andrew choosing to record everything on a recently purchased camcorder. This approach works well enough for about the first half of the film, even though most of it is clearly of a higher production quality than would be expected from amateur found footage. This is fine, alleviating concerns that arose from THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT and CLOVERFIELD regarding countless reports of motion sickness.

The problem, and really the only criticism I have of CHRONICLE, is that the film doesn’t fully commit to the found footage concept. The theme is inconsistent, primarily in the third act. In hindsight, this is understandable, as the third act contains most of the large scale action and special effects, which would have been more difficult to capture as found footage. There are attempts to convey and remind the audience of this notion, but there are also ways that this could have been done better, maintaining the perspective throughout the film.

I am purposefully being vague, as not to ruin anything about the ending of CHRONICLE. If you read between the lines, you’ll no doubt figure it out, but to explain how this could have been done better would not do the viewer justice prior to seeing it themselves.

As the three teenagers secretly learn and develop their abilities together, the group dynamics between them evolves and changes, which is where CHRONICLE shines. The characters are well developed, especially Andrew, who is clearly modeled along the lines of the DONNIE DARKO personality type. The film is told from Andrew’s point of view, not just because he is usually the one recording the found footage, but also because this is primarily his story. This in turn also presents another twist in the film’s approach, as Andrew becomes what you might call the film’s antagonist. Again, read into that what you will, but this is as far as I go with explaining Andrew’s involvement.

The special effects in CHRONICLE are achieved successfully, presenting the events on screen in a believable but frugal fashion, never overdoing the scale or flashiness of the effects. One of the most enjoyable scenes involved Steve helping Andrew make an impression during the school talent show, a scene where Andrew’s abilities are put to an impressively ingenious and playful use. The tone of CHRONICLE is very much in the high school “class struggle” vein, with elements of BREAKFAST CLUB and CARRIE mixed in with the previously mentioned DONNIE DARKO, and of course wrapped up in what is essentially a superhero origin story without all the pretentious back story and excess explanations of why and how. Instead, CHRONICLE focuses on how this development affects the three teenagers in their daily lives, and in whom they become.

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars