Out To Own Today: Damsel, Widows, and Wildlife

​Out to own today:

​Damsel

“Technically speaking, everywhere is Indian country I reckon,” Samuel (Robert Pattinson)
 
DAMSEL is an indie western that taps into one particular aspect of toxic masculinity: The stalker. This is a gender reversal Wild West FATAL ATTRACTION (1987). Having a male heartthrob as the obsessed removes looks as a factor. No woman is owed to a man. While DAMSEL has wit to accompany its social commentary, the first half feels too much like the ace SLOW WEST (2015). When DAMSEL veers away halfway through, it continues the theme with similar deadpan humour and no sufferance for fools and the entitled.
[To read more, click here.]

​Widows

“What I’ve learned from men like your late husband, and my father, is that you reap what you sow,” Jack (Colin Farrell)
 
I live for films like this. An electrifying crime action thriller, with something to say about the world we live in. The film might have been called misanthropic had the news currently not been filled with reports of political corruption, bigotry, police shootings of unarmed African Americans, domestic abuse, etc. WIDOWS presents a catalogue of crimes, immorality and heartlessness. WIDOWS is not dour, though it is skilfully oppressive. The stakes are high. In the underworld we are shown how unhesitatingly life can be extinguished.
​[To read more, click here.]

​Wildlife

"I'm too well liked. That's my problem," Jerry (Jake Gyllenhaal)
 
Paul Dano, a skilful actor (THERE WILL BE BLOOD, OKJA), unfortunately delivers a shoulder shrug of a movie as a directorial debut. WILDLIFE is a low-key family drama, unfolding in a 1950s American small town, which seems to promise more than it delivers. The only stand out is Carey Mulligan's portrayal of disillusionment. Beyond her performance, the movie feels in short supply of profundity.
​[To read more, click here.]