Posts Tagged ‘Maika Monroe’

Reminders of Him

Director: Vanessa Caswill

Cast: Maika Monroe, Tyriq Withers, Nicholas Duvernay, Lauren Graham, Bradley Whitford, Rudy Pankow, Zoe Kosovic

Running Time: 1 hour and 54 minutes

Film Rating: 6.5 out of 10

Director Vanessa Caswill’s transition from TV director to big screen director does not come off effortlessly in the lacklustre film adaptation of New York Times bestselling author Colleen Hoover’s novel Reminders of Him starring a low key cast including Maika Monroe as Kenna Rowen and Tyriq Withers as Ledger Ward.

Reminders of Him revolves around the redemption story of Kenna Rowen who moves back to Laramie, Wyoming after serving prison time for vehicular manslaughter when her boyfriend, Scotty Landry played by Rudy Pankow is killed in a freak car accident when she was driving them towards a diner.

Fast forward 6 years and Kenna is an ex-convict out on parole and dead broke and trying to find a job. She moves into a motel complex called Paradise and then she begins to pick up the shattered mess that is her life. Her beautiful daughter is being looked after by her dead boyfriend’s affluent parents Grace and Patrick Landry expertly played by Lauren Graham (Because I said So, Sweet November) and Bradley Whitford (Get Out, Saving Mr Banks). Scotty’s best friend Ledger Ward is playing foster dad to the precocious 5 year old, brilliantly played by Zoe Kosovic.

Unfortunately unlike director Justin Baldoni’s glossy adaptation of another Colleen Hoover novel It Ends with Us, this film version does not lift off the page and the characters with the exception of Ledger appear to be dull.

This film lacks a good casting director, since now there is an Oscar category for that profession and Reminders of Him needed a prolific actor or two to rejuvenate this film despite its autumnal cinematography by Tim Ives and breath taking mountainous scenery.

Reminders of Him begins with conflict and despair and as the narrative winds along a slow road to a more redemptive conclusion, the story leaves the audience with more questions than answers.

Romantic dramas always find an audience judging by how fill the cinema was on a Sunday afternoon, however this film could have been so much better yet it is saved by a great performance by Tyriq Withers (Him, I Know What You Did Last Summer) as the hunky bar owner Ledger Ward whose charismatic screen presence makes up for all that is missing with Maika Monroe as Kenna.

Maika Monroe (Independence Day: Resurgence) does lacks some screen presence, which is something she can work on as an actress and draw inspiration from the exceptional female talent on screen this decade.

Rudy Pankow’s onscreen moments as the pivotal Scotty Landry are too few to make the flashbacks scenes resonate emotionally.

Reminders of Him gets a film rating of 6.5 out of 10 and is a romantic drama without the fireworks or flair, a middle of the road story about tragedy, loss and redemption.

Recommended for those that enjoy light hearted stories stripped of glamour or substance.

Mark Felt:

The Man Who Brought Down the White House

Director: Peter Landesman

Cast: Liam Neeson, Diane Lane, Josh Lucas, Tony Goldwyn, Kate Walsh, Marton Csokas, Tom Sizemore, Eddie Marsan, Ike Barinholtz, Maika Monroe, Michael C. Hall, Bruce Greenwood, Julian Morris

Parkland and Concussion director Peter Landesman takes on another factual drama in his detail heavy fictional account of the Watergate scandal called Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the Whitehouse.

It’s April 1972 and Mark Felt, deputy assistant director of the FBI deftly underplayed by a haggard looking Liam Neeson is hoping to get the job of Director of the FBI after the death of J. Edgar Hoover.

Oscar nominee Liam Neeson (Schindler’s List) plays Mark Felt brilliantly, underplaying the amount of stress he is under when Felt is by-passed for the directorship for a Nixon crony Gray played by Hungarian actor Marton Csokas (Noah, The Equalizer).

Felt, who always played his cards very close to his chest, realizes that there is a massive conspiracy within government agencies. These fears are confirmed when the magnitude of the Watergate scandal broke in 1972 in which covert ex-spies where caught red handed breaking into the National Democratic Convention headquarters at the Watergate Hotel just prior to the November elections.

President Nixon got re-elected in November 1972 but Mark Felt soon realizes that a move by the government to capture the integrity and independence of the FBI when the slimy Billy Sullivan is poking around headquarters. Sullivan is suitably played by Tom Sizemore who hasn’t been in many films recently but is most remembered for his roles in Natural Born Killers, Saving Private Ryan, Black Hawk Down and Heat.

If audiences like detailed political docudrama then Mark Felt is for them.

Don’t expect action in this drama which is saved by memorable scenes between Neeson and his co-star Oscar nominee Diane Lane (Unfaithful, Trumbo) who plays his wife Audrey Felt as the couple also battle with the disappearance of their wayward daughter Joan played by Maika Monroe (Independence Day).

Mark Felt is a fascinating portrayal of one man’s ability to stick to his own ethics at a time when the Nixon administration was beyond reproach as Felt clandestinely feeds classified information to Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward played by Julian Morris and Time magazine journalist Sandy Smith played by Bruce Greenwood.

Felt was indeed the man who brought down the White House and in media circles was known only as deepthroat, a rather sexy title for an informant and extremely valuable source to the Fourth Estate which eventually caused the impeachment of President Richard Nixon and his administration.

Despite the intrigue, Mark Felt does get caught up in the details and scores a film rating of 7 out of 10. It is nevertheless a fascinating film for those that enjoy an intriguing docudrama. 

The film does feature a superb supporting cast including Eddie Marsan, Michael C. Hall, Tony Goldwyn and Josh Lucas. Recommended for viewers that enjoyed director Peter Landesman‘s previous American historical drama Parkland about the assassination of JFK.

Independence Day: Resurgence

Director: Roland Emmerich

Cast: Liam Hemsworth, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Travis Tope, Sela Ward, Judd Hirsch, William Fichtner, Maika Monroe, Brett Spiner, Jessie T. Usher, Vivica A. Fox, Nicholas Wright

After twenty years and the success of Roland Emmerich’s Independence Day, the bad news is that the aliens have returned! This time they are bigger, nastier and have more sinister intentions.

Emmerich’s new long anticipated sequel, Independence Day: Resurgence crosses the generational divide and introduces a whole new cast of actors and has the added bonus that twenty years later the technology both onscreen and in real life has vastly improved.

Independence Day: Resurgence is a big budget sci-fi thriller guaranteed to fill the cinemas and makes its money on its legacy of the success of the original. Featuring an all-star cast including Liam Hemsworth, Jeff Goldblum, Judd Hirsch and Bill Paxton along with new comers Charlotte Gainsbourg last seen in Lars von Trier’s Nymphomaniac, Maika Monroe, Sela Ward and Travis Tope. Prison Break’s William Fichtner makes a fitting appearance as an American general who by chain of events becomes the US President.

The visual effects are superb and the dialogue is corny, but who cares the aliens look scary and half of the earth’s population gets obliterated including major cities like London and Singapore. As an American propaganda film, Independence Day: Resurgence does a brilliant job of reminding the world that whatever the threat, in this case hideous aliens, the Americans can save the world!

Don’t expect too much depth in this film, but nevertheless Independence Day: Resurgence is entertaining viewing, visually grand and has awesome special effects.

Independence Day: Resurgence for all its American bravado is enjoyable and worth seeing for some amazing Alien versus Man sequences both on earth and in outer space.

Recommended viewing for die hard lovers of apocalyptic Sci-Fi films which in this case doesn’t appear to be all that threatening or even hold a specific allegoric message.