Downsizing

Paul Safranek (Matt Damon) and his wife Audrey (Kristen Wiig) have a pretty typical existence, living from day to day, struggling to make ends meet etc. So when a college reunion comes around and they meet some old friends who have taken advantage of new technology that has enabled them to downsize they are intrigued. Downsizing in this sense means literally being reduced to being a few inches tall and they are now living in the Leisureland community of the shrunken.

It’s win-win for everyone. Mini people take up less space on a crowded planet and consume less, conserving resources as well. It also turns out that the exchange rate in Leisureland is pretty phenomenal and so everyone lives like rich retirees whatever their age. So Paul and Audrey decide to go for it.

What is great about the film is all the thought that has gone into the downsizing process itself. From detailing the discovery of the technology to showing the actual mechanics of it being done, which involves shaving off body hair and removing teeth to have them replaced later with new smaller ones. For which they have medical teams at either end, large and small, working together. It is actually eerily convincing.

The only problem for Paul is that Audrey bottles out at the last minute and instead files for divorce. The heartless ***. If this sort of thing really was possible then I’d be looking forward to the new adventure with my other half. So it would have been nice to see where that story would have gone but Paul is cut adrift by his wife and so is the film.

The film quickly needed to find him a new partner in arms to explore this new world with but instead all he gets is a dodgy neighbour called Dusan (Christoph Waltz) and it’s not even close to being enough.

Not only does Paul's wife take herself out of the film but pretty much everyone else from the first half hour is also stranded in the ‘big’ world which is then abandoned completely spawning a totally different film for the second half.

The second half stays in the ‘little’ world, so this world becomes the norm and it is painted as just like the ‘big’ world they have left behind with the same problems and imperfections. Which may be the point but it’s like they simply forgot to write the rest of the story and there is no longer anything clever or inventive about the film.

Instead Downsizing bangs on about the poor and the environment and rapidly falls apart despite Ngoc Lan Tran (Hong Chau), a girl from the poor community, gallant attempts to save it.

It is very disappointing that a film that had such a great premise simply doesn't deliver on it.

All the Money in the World

It's a true story of course that in 1973, 16-year-old John Paul Getty III (Charlie Plummer) aka Paul, grandson of the world's richest man John Paul Getty Snr was kidnapped in Rome by an organized crime gang. The kidnappers demanded a ransom of $17 million which the older Getty (Christopher Plummer) refused to pay because he really didn’t want to spend the money.

Instead it was left to Paul’s mother Gail Harris (Michelle Williams), ex-wife of John Paul Getty Jr (Andrew Buchan), to do all the battling and negotiating for her son’s release. She had gained custody of all Getty’s grandchildren when they divorced in exchange for not taking any of Getty’s precious money as alimony. However, this means that she has no money herself to pay the ransom.

Getty asks Fletcher Chase (Mark Wahlberg), an employee of his and part time thug, to somehow get Paul released, cheaply. 

Weeks go by without anything happening, aside from a burnt body turning up in a river which they initially think it is Paul but it isn’t. It’s one of the kidnappers who was killed by his colleagues after accidentally showing his face to Paul. 

The kidnappers then lose patience and sell Paul on to a different gang who reduce the ransom demand to $4 million which causes Getty Snr to finally agrees to contribute something but only $1 million. Which is the maximum amount that he can claim as tax deductible and that is on the condition that Gail gives up custody of all the children.

 

However with the random still $3 million short, the kidnappers cut off one of Paul’s ears. Only when this turns up in the post does Getty grudgingly, under pressure from Chase, agree to pay the full amount.

 

Gail and Chase take the money to Italy and attempt an exchange for Paul, but he has legged it as soon as he was freed. Then when the captors realize that Chase has also led the police to them, they too are hunting Paul. This time to kill him.

There is a happy ending of course. Paul is saved and the elder Getty dies leaves his wealth to his kids, not that any of it is in cash. It has all been invested in paintings, sculptures and the like. Most of which are now in the Getty Museum.

Rather impressively many scenes were quickly and cleverly reshot with Plummer after Kevin Spacey was removed from the role by the director Ridley Scott but only after shooting was complete. It is a credit to Scott and to Plummer that you really cannot tell. Plummer in fact is excellent throughout.

Meanwhile Wahlberg is an odd choice for his role and in a film where everyone else is pretending it really is 1973 the rather wooden Wahlberg seems to be playing himself. 2018 style. 

It’s an informative film but one that seems to have taken liberties for a more exciting plot and is quite unbelievable in places. Decent watch though.

The Darkest Hour

The Darkest Hour here is Winston Churchill’s, with Hitler’s forces poised across the Channel ready to invade in May 1940, and his darkness lasts considerably longer than an hour.

Churchill (Gary Oldman) finds himself not only up against Hitler but also most of parliament who don’t approve of him, his vision or his motives. Many still wanted appeasement and are agitating for a deal with Germany particularly the recently deposed Neville Chamberlain (Ronald Pickup).

Chamberlain wants fellow appeaser Lord Halifax (Stephen Dillane) to be his successor but Halifax doesn’t fancy the job and they are forced to turn to Churchill as he is the only man the other political parties would support. On the bright side it is a job that comes with a cutesy young WAAF secretary (Lily James).  

Once in power, Churchill refuses to negotiate for peace while everyone thinks he is mad for thinking that he can beat the Germans particularly with all the Allied forces currently heading for defeat at Dunkirk. They think he’s even more insane when, against all advice, he orders a suicide attack from Calais as a distraction while Dunkirk is evacuated.

Meanwhile he allows Halifax to send word via the Italians that Britain might be interested in negotiating but only because Halifax and co are planing on resigning from the government, probably triggering a vote of no confidence, if they don’t get their way.

However King George VI (Ben Mendelsohn) unexpectedly visits Churchill and backs him, mainly because he doesn’t want to be exiled. Then Churchill bizarrely asks a group of passengers on the London Underground what they think. Did that really happen? Doubt it.

When he realises that the public support him, as do his back benchers, and then when his evacuation of Dunkirk is success even Chamberlain swings behind him as he emerges from the darkness.

It’s a good film but an odd one. I can’t say I learnt anything new and it really covers far too short a period, in my opinion anyway. Gary Oldman is decent as Churchill but then have so many great actors over the years. A bit of a disappointment really.  

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

The action takes place in the remote community of Ebbing, Missouri and a pretty miserable downbeat community it is. Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand) has plenty of cause to be miserable. She works in an bleak gift shop but that isn't why she is miserable. Her daughter Angela was raped and murdered seven months ago. Now she lives with her depressed son Robbie (Lucas Hedges) while her husband Charlie (John Hawkes), who blames her for their daughter murder, has left her to be with Penelope (Samara Weaving), a woman half his age who works at the local zoo. To cap it all the town’s dwarf (Peter Dinklage) has a crush on her.

Frustrated with the police, who have made no progress on the case, Mildred rents three unused billboards on the edge of town and puts up billboards which read ‘Raped While Dying’, ‘And Still No Arrests?’, and ‘How Come, Chief Willoughby?’. 

This has the desired effect, puts the wind up the police and attracts the attention of the local media. Yes while police chief Bill Willoughby (Woody Harrelson) manages to retain his cool, his inept and racist deputy Jason Dixon (Sam Rockwell) takes offence.

He takes his ire out on Red Welby (Caleb Landry Jones), the businessman who rented Mildred the billboards, and arrests her friend Denise (Amanda Warren) on a trumped up charge.

The billboards also upset the townspeople and with Willoughby openly suffering from terminal cancer they too are less than happy with Mildred.

  

She is hauled before the police herself when she strikes out in frustration at her dentist. Then after interviewing her, Willoughby, another one who has a partner almost half his age, goes for a final romantic fling with his wife Anne (Abbie Cornish) and then kills himself before his cancer does the job. Although not before first paying for another month’s rental on the billboards. 

When the billboards are destroyed by arson, Mildred retaliates by chucking Molotov cocktails at the police station and from an impressive distance. Unexpectedly Dixon is inside, rethinking his attitude, career and life after being left a letter by Willoughby and fired by Willoughby's replacement. He ends up sharing a hospital room with Red who is recovering from the injuries Dixon inflicted on him.

Suddenly becoming the nice guy Dixon reckons he has a lead on who killed Angela but when it it turns out the man has an alibi, Mildred and Dixon together conclude that the man must be guilty of some other attack and set together to kill him anyway...

It is a wonderfully complex film in which there is an awful lot going on. It is full of action, (black) comedy, poignancy and rage (plenty of rage). It’s very Coen-ish and incidentally stars Coen favourite McDormand, who brilliantly plays a woman weather beaten and worn down by life. It is her best performance since Fargo.

Probably the film of the year, already.

Molly's Game

Molly’s Game is a true story based on the autobiography of Molly Bloom who ran high stakes poker games in Los Angeles and New York before finding herself subject to an FBI investigation, standing accused of illegal gambling and colluding with organised crime gangs.

The film opens with Bloom (Jessica Chastain) trying to convince a lawyer, Charlie Jaffey (Idris Elba), to take on her case. We then see the rest of the story through flashbacks.

Bloom was a decent freestyle mogul skier, albeit pushed by her overbearing father (Kevin Costner), who didn’t quite make the Olympic team for Salt Lake City in 2002. She ends up severely injured which terminates her skiing career. However her competitive instinct serves her well in later life.

She skips law school to becomes a waitress at a club in Los Angeles where she meets Dean Keith (Jeremy Strong), a real estate developer and she becomes his personal assistant. He has a side-job running underground poker games and he soon involves her in that.

Molly quickly learns how to appeal to the players, whom include many famous and wealthy individuals including film stars, to gain tips. This include the terribly un-PC approach of the ever lowering of the necklines and lifting of the hemlines of her dresses, until you think they’re going to meet in middle. As a career move it works and she runs rings around all of the men but she is smart too.

Her boss feels threatened by her popularity with the players and fires her but Bloom is

now well known enough to strike out on her own, which she does and steal Dean Keith’s players from him.

It all goes well until a few of her players start to run up unmanageable debts and then when she falls out with her number one player, known as Player X (Michael Cera), she is sidelined. However, instead of giving up she moves to New York to set up a new game.

Despite more success, she is again unable to cope with the players who cannot pay and she starts illegally taking a percentage of the pot to cover her losses. The mafia kindly offer to ‘help out’ with the bad payers and after she declines she is beaten up in her home. Then when one of her players is charged with running a Ponzi scheme everything begins to collapses and Molly herself becomes under investigation. 

I do love a real story and this is a good one, entertaining and well told. It cracks along at a speedy pace and boasts a marvellous performance from Chastain. She is phenomenal and she owns this film as much as Bloom herself owned the poker game. Highly recommended.