Archive for the ‘J. C. Chandor’ Category

Kraven the Hunter

Director: J. C. Chandor

Cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Fred Hechinger, Russell Crowe, Alessandro Nivola, Ariana DeBose, Christopher Abbott, Levi Miller, Billy Barratt

Running Time: 2 hours and 7 minutes

Film Rating: 6.5 out of 10

A  Most Violent Year director J. C. Chandor takes on a fringe superhero film in the eagerly anticipated Kraven the Hunter starring Golden Globe winner Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Nocturnal Animals) as Sergei Kravinoff, the eldest son of Russian gangster Nikolai Kravinoff played with a vodka infused accent by Oscar winner Russell Crowe (Gladiator).

The 34 year old British star, Taylor-Johnson got into seriously transformative physical shape to play the Hunter, a highly skilled trained assassin and general tough guy who is protective of his creepy younger brother, the chameleon like Dimitri, wonderfully played by Fred Hechinger last seen in Gladiator 2 as the crazy bloodthirsty Emperor Caracalla.

Kraven the Hunter starts off in Siberia then the action moves swiftly to London and then onto Ghana where a hunting expedition goes bad when Nikolai takes his two young sons to hunt wild animals to toughen them up. The younger characters are played by Levi Miller and Billy Barratt respectively.

As entertaining and exciting as this film is, Kraven the Hunter lacks two essential elements to make a narrative mesmerizing: a truly depraved villain and a sexy leading lady.

Alessandro Nivola (A Most Violent Year, Ginger and Rosa, American Hustle) plays the rival gangster villain Aleksei Sytsevich also known as the Rhino due to his unique ability to turn his skin into that of a rhino and deflect any bullets. Unfortunately, Nivola does not make the villain Rhino that menacing and he comes off as a bizarre pastiche of bad CGI villains in a mediocre film saved only by some great fight scenes.

Then there is Oscar winner Ariana Debose (West Side Story) playing the poorly written character Calypso, the only woman in a film about male bravado, aggression and predatory behaviour. Calypso battles to fit into this male world of hunting and killing.

Unfortunately there is no love interest between Calypso and Kraven and she serves as the voice of reason in a high adrenaline action film about male power, domination and the fight for survival and succession.

As Calypso rescues the crossbow wielding Kraven a second time she tells him flirtatiously that legends don’t die.

Fred Hechinger’s Dimitri has a more fascinating character arc and provides a surprising plot twist at the end. Christopher Abbott (Poor Things) pops up briefly as an equally strange henchman called the Foreigner with inexplicable supernatural powers. The henchman’s relationship to the villain is not clearly explained.

Sexualize your characters and make the villain really nefarious. If the screenwriters had done that then Kraven the Hunter would have been a far more superior film.

Kraven the Hunter is a reasonably good action film with cool stunts and weapons, helped by a believable Aaron Taylor-Johnson in the main role but it is not brilliant. It’s an average superhero film which ties masculine strength with aggression, brutality and the fight for survival.

Kraven the Hunter gets a film rating of 6.5 out of 10 and is recommended viewing as an entertaining action film whose storyline could have done with some sharpening.

See it if you have two hours to kill and need tips on how to decorate your man cave.

A Most Violent Year

Director: J. C. Chandor

Cast: Jessica Chastain, Oscar Isaac, Albert Brooks, Alessandro Nivola, Elizabeth Marvel, David Oyelowo, Christopher Abbott, Ben Rosenfeld, Elyes Gabel

Margin Call director J. C. Chandor directs Oscar nominee Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty) and Golden Globe nominee Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis) in the atmospheric thriller A Most Violent Year about the corruption and double dealings in the trucking industry circa New York City 1981.

Chastain and Isaac play a hard core 80’s couple, Abel and Anna Morales who have mysteriously made a substantial sum of money through their transport business Standard Oil which Anna’s father helped set up. Abel is trying desperately to remain an honourable man in his business dealings despite the fact that his trucks seem to be constantly being hijacked on the New York freeways. At first Abel suspects a rival trucking billionaire who has links to the Mafia, Peter Forente beautifully played with a lithe sinister style by Alessandro Nivola (Coco Avant Chanel).

The title of the film refers to the statistics that 1981 was New York’s most violent year in the city’s history, with crime, corruption, hijacking as well as shootings and murders. Despite this, the film itself is not as violent as one would assume, but director J. C. Chandor maintains the pace and at times even leaves visual signifier that the film alludes to violence as opposed to showing actual violence.

This is especially evident in the scene when the Morales, driving on the way back from a late night dinner hit a deer and Anna, wonderfully played with a hardness by Chastain promptly gets out the car and shoots the animal dead, when her husband hesitates.

Oscar Isaac also reunites with Drive co-star Albert Brooks who plays the couples shady attorney Andrew Walsh. With a running time of 125 minutes, the second half of A Most Violent Year could have picked up the pace, the 1980’s crime thriller is held together tightly by the performances of Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain, especially the latter who is superb as the hard edged wife who continually persuades her husband to fight violence with violence. Naturally this eventually occurs when Julian, an immigrant truck driver, played by Elyes Gabel goes missing and also another truck belonging to Standard Oil is stolen.

Audiences that like a sophisticated thriller with a more contextual character study will enjoy A Most Violent Year, but those expecting an action film should give it a miss.

The cast also includes David Oyelowo (The Paper Boy and Jack Reacher) as assistant DA Lawrence who is constantly threatening the Morales livelihood. A Most Violent Year is a fascinating film, layered with each textured shot  paying homage to film noir aimed at viewers that enjoy a more intricate narrative despite its nefarious title.