"Demolition" Review
Jake Gyllenhaal spends much of Demolition smashing things into tiny pieces with a hammer. I envied him. It’s what I wish I could have done to this film.
Demolition is a horrible movie about horrible people doing horrible things. In it, Gyllenhaal plays Davis Mitchell, a sociopath-slash-investment banker who watches his wife Julia (Heather Lind in a thankless role) die in a tragic car accident. Naturally, Davis’ next step is to reveal the private details of his loveless marriage, Julia’s death, and his whole life story in a series of complaint letters to a vending company after his Peanut M&M’s get stuck in the hospital vending machine. Yes, it’s really that contrived.
Karen Moreno (Naomi Watts, whose talents are completely wasted) is the woman reading these letters. She’s a sociopath-slash-customer service representative who takes pity upon Davis and begins to stalk him around town. Eventually the two meet, form a bond of some sort, and Davis learns to cope with the death of his wife by smashing his refrigerator full of San Pellegrino and Vita Coco with a large hammer. Or something.
The film is desperate to correlate this imagery of broken walls, furniture, and appliances with its message: that sometimes life needs to be broken down before it can be built back up again. A noble sentiment, but does it require symbolism that’s as subtle as a bulldozer driving through a house? Can’t the point be conveyed without having Davis literally drive a bulldozer through the luxurious modern home that he and his wife used to share?
This protagonist is toxic, hateful, and approximately a thousand times creepier than Gyllenhaal’s character in Nightcrawler (2014). Throughout the film, Davis lies to people, spies on people, manipulates people, belittles people, and generally acts like a selfish asshole. He impulsively destroys others’ property. He’s frigid and rude to his grieving in-laws (Chris Cooper and Polly Draper). He ignores his wife while she’s alive, and insults her memory when she’s dead.
I could go on and on, but I’ll let the MPAA’s R rating “for disturbing behavior” speak for itself. Needless to say, this abhorrent character made the act of watching the film extremely unpleasant. This is despite a fantastically committed performance by Gyllenhaal, who continually proves to be one of his generation’s greatest talents, and is far and away the best thing about the film.
The director, Jean-Marc Vallée (Dallas Buyers Club, Wild) attempts to give the limp, aimless story some kind of energy by stuffing the film with rock tunes, shaking the camera about, and employing some flashy, artsy editing flourishes. But these techniques can’t mask the falseness of writer Bryan Sipe’s script, which is flawed at its very core. Davis didn’t love his wife. He didn’t even like her very much. We know this because he writes it in one of his letters to Karen. So why is he acting out this way? It’s certainly not out of grief or despair. Thus, if the central conflict doesn’t make any sense, why should we as an audience care?
If one were to take a wrecking ball to Demolition and rebuild it from the ground up, it would be possible to create a powerful, sturdy foundation. But, despite the best efforts of Gyllenhaal, Watts, Cooper, and bright newcomer Judah Lewis as Karen’s rebellious teenage son, it’s a hollow shell of a film.
Grade: D+
"Southpaw" Review
With a movie like “Southpaw”, the question is not have you seen the story before, but how is the story going to be told? While the classic redemption story is apparent even from the trailer, the journey to it is gripping and refreshingly real. With stellar performances, “Southpaw” is a standout character study in the ring of boxing films.
The film starts with Billy Hope (Jake Gyllenhaal) on top of the world. He’s the light weight champion of the world, lives in a mansion, and has a beautiful wife, Maureen (Rachel McAdams), and daughter, Leila (Oona Laurence). After his Maureen is tragically murdered (in a breath-taking, dramatic scene) Hope starts to lose control. Running the gamut of grief from anger to depression, by the time he sobers up it’s too late. He’s lost his wife, mansion, and the state has put his daughter in protective services.
With no money, due to fake friends draining him, his excessive spending and his own ignorance, Hope is forced to get a 300 square foot apartment. He enlists the help of Tick Wills (Forest Whitaker) to train him properly to do the only thing he knows how to do, fight. He not only has to fight an opponent in the ring, but he has to fight his own demons and fight to win his daughter’s heart back.
The rich detail that writer Kurt Sutter (Sons of Anarchy) and director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) go into in combination of the script and visuals show a side of boxing we don’t normally think about. They highlight the “performance” of boxing and use the glitz and glamour to their advantage to remind the viewer that there is a person who steps out of the ring after a fight we pay to be entertained by. Sons of Anarchy fans know Sutter’s writing can be emotional and moody, but thanks to great casting (except Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson) each emotional stepping stone is earned.
Jake Gyllenhaal is immersed in the character of Billy Hope. From his mumbled speech pattern to the way he holds his body, Gyllenhaal is totally believable as an adult fighter who came up through the system. The chemistry between Gyllenhaal and McAdams is what award winning performances are made of. While McAdams role is short-lived in the film, her performance is so strong that her presence remains throughout in a way that the words on the page couldn’t have dreamed of!
Forest Whitaker gives a long overdue, subtle, and genuine performance that he didn’t dial in for as Tick Wills. He’s a trainer with demons that we never know the origins of, but they come through in many of his scenes. I’ve never seen Oona Laurence, but after this film she is definitely a young talent to watch!
“Southpaw” is one of those films that feels out of place in the middle of the summer. A film like this usually plays in the winter months for awards consideration, and it should definitely get that! It’s a character study into love, loss, grief, and how we choose to respond when we’ve fallen.
Rating: A