BITE-SIZED: Margin Call (JC Chandor, 2011)

Realising that the market is about to collapse, an investment bank decides to engage in a fire sale that might save the company, but destroy everyone who works for it.

On its face, Margin Call did not seem like a movie I would enjoy. For one, my understanding of the financial sector is poor, and the subject did not sound that interesting to me.

What a turnaround. 

It has now become a movie that has become a favourite.  

Eminently rewatchable, I have watched this movie a number of times. Every time a scene pops up on Youtube I find myself watching it and then going back to watch the film from the beginning.

A movie about people in the eye of the storm, Margin Call is a fantastic thriller. Considering most of the action is limited to a few floors of the company's building, this is a real achievement.

Taking place before the great recession starts, the film shows people trapped in the mindset of upward mobility.

There are no people with principles - they are still after the money. Characters are either cold-hearted predators or willing enablers, aware of what they are doing to the economy, to ordinary people, but they are too plugged into the system to do anything about it.

With a deadline to get rid of their toxic assets - and the knowledge that the sale of these assets will wreck their sector and destroy their careers.the film begins to build the sense of our 'heroes' being under siege.

This sense of mounting conflict is reflected explicitly in the way the characters view their task - the monologue that rouses the staff is phrased in militaristic, almost patriotic terms.

The film does not go for the pat, easy route of having the company fail - they manage to complete the fire sale, and the story ends with CEO Tuld (Jeremy Irons) looking ahead to the future. He already has historicised this crisis as one of many - as an inevitability that can still be turned into an opportunity.

It is a wonderfully hideous finale - a case of un-learning so timeless it feels even more relevant than it did in 2011.

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The Hunt For Red October (John McTiernan, 1990)

The Soviet Union's most powerful submarine, the Red October, is on its way across the Atlantic.

As the western alliance scrambles to work out what its mission is, a young CIA analyst, Jack Ryan (Alec Baldwin), comes to a sudden, seemingly unbelievable realisation:

The submarine's captain, Ramius (Sean Connery), is not spearheading an attack. He's making an escape...

This is a great movie of a kind that will never be made again - on a couple of different levels. Firstly, it is an example of a genre (the techno-thriller) that have migrated from cinema screens. The movie is also a time capsule, not just for a specific aesthetic or in terms of production values, but of a point in time.

Made between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the USSR in 1991, The Hunt For Red October is a movie about smart people trying to avoid conflict that cannot help but feel completely idealistic. Technically, the movie takes place in 1984, which makes the portrayal of the Americans' actions feel somewhat naive.

Acknowledging that, that focus on brains over guns is what makes The Hunt for Red October so great. The Jack Ryan movies were big business back in the early nineties, and surprisingly consistent considering the personal changes that took place behind the scenes, specifically the change of leading man. In retrospect they feel like the ultimate reaction to the steroidal action movies of the 80s.

The first film made from the best-selling novels of Tom Clancy, Red October was directed by John McTiernan, on the heels of his success with Predator and Die Hard. The Director of Photography was Jan De Bont, who also shot Die Hard and later became a director with 1994’s Speed.

The connection with Die Hard is important, since Die Hard is another movie where the machismo is offset by brains.

Making 200 million on a 30 million dollar budget, Red October is a great example of the middle tier of Hollywood product, a popcorn movie made for adults.

Part of the success of the movie is casting - the studio originally wanted Kevin Costner but he was doing Dances with Wolves, so the role went to Alec Baldwin. 

Baldwin's relative youth works well with the older cast, but he has the authority to sell Ryan as a super-intelligent analyst who can stand toe-to-toe with Connery

The fine actor Klaus Maria Brandeuar was originally cast as Ramius, but he ended up leaving after a few weeks. While a fine actor in his own right, it is impossible to see anyone in this role other than Connery.

John McTiernan described the relationship between Ryan and Ramius as similar to that between Long John Silver and young Jim Hawkins in Treasure Island. While it is unclear if the actor was aware of this influence, he does evoke a similar mixture of attraction and danger. 

Connery brings a guile and deadpan humour to the veteran soldier. There are moments where it seems like Ramius seems geniunely amused that his gambit is coming off.

The first of the Jack Ryan franchise, The Hunt For Red October is both a classic sub movie and a reaction to the bombast of the typical action fare of the eighties.

It is also fitting that the movie ends up as a passing of the torch, from an icon of an earlier, Cold War-based form of espionage-based escapism, to a new, younger generation of the genre.

Preceding the Jason Bourne films as a reaction to typical action and spy fare, the Jack Ryan films put more focus on process, technology and brains. While the later films have their strengths, Red October represents the best example of the series, turning into a hi-tech chess match without losing sight of its lead characters who spend most of the movie miles away from each other. 

This movie lays out exposition so well - it cuts efficiently between Ramius and Jack Ryan without ever losing a sense of moment.

McTiernan’s direction is key - his use of extended takes and spatial relations within shots to establish geography and power relations conveys so much information without a word being spoken. I love the moment when TIm Curry is talking in the mess and the camera moves behind him to show Connery and Sam Neil looking at each other - we immediately understand his character, setting up his gullibility.

While not technically an action movie, Red October has its sense of momentum: Ryan is constantly on the move, going from delivering a report to the guts of a nuclear submarine by the end of the movie.

Everything has a sense of scale and danger: even Ryan’s attempt to board the Dallas, which could have just been treated as a spectacular entrance, is an exercise in tension and the sheer effort it takes to carry this dangerous manoeuvre off (the focus on the officer who is trying to catch him).

The escalation of stakes in this movie is fantastic - there is no underlying sense of sabre-rattling. Everyone is on edge about what could happen.

What is great about the third act is how it is premised on de-escalation:

The Americans cannot let on that they know about Ramius’s defection AND they cannot engage the Russian hunter-killer sub or risk starting a war.

A great movie.

Related 

Patriot Games

Clear and Present Danger

The Sum of All Fears 

Jack Ryan - Shadow Recruit

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OUT NOW: Project Hail Mary (Phil Lord and Christopher Miller)

Sent on a one-way mission to save the sun, Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) discovers his crew-mates have died.

Alone on a ship he can barely understand, Ryland's mission is further complicated when a strange craft appears alongside his...

It has been 12 years since Phil Lord and Chris Miller's last directorial effort, 22 Jump Street. In between, they became Sony's animation braintrust, helping to shepheard the Spiderverse movies to the screen.

They were also the directors of 2018’s Solo - until they were kicked to the curb partway through filming.

After watching Project Hail Mary, some people at Disney must be cursing into their Star Wars pillow. 

There is a sense of scale here, and a tactility to the world-building that feels distinct from their previous work - but one can glimpse the same meticulousness and attention to detail.

The film is a bit too long - and there is a narrative framing device that wears out its welcome.

Project Hail Mary is solid four-quadrant filmmaking.

In the lead, Ryan Gosling is, unsurprisingly, magnetic. He brings that same unique mixture of whimsy and earnestness that defines his screen persona. Grace is a smarter sibling to his character in The Nice Guys - down and out, but driven by an inherent curiosity and bloodymindedness to ultimately do the right thing.

Gosling has never opened a movie on his own. Hopefully this film will solidify his A-lister status.

And now to his co-star.

Rocky, voiced by James Ortiz, and brought to life by a combination of puppetry and visual effects, is a marvel.

A combination of a spider and a collection of boulders, this eyeless alien is a fantastically original creation. Using a version of sonar, this character relies on sound to navigate the world.

This reliance on physical touch leads to Grace having to figure out a new form of communication, via handmade models and figurines. 

The movie, intentionally or not, turns into a metaphor for problem-solving, creativity, and handmade craft. 

The second act is so strong, as Grace and Rocky bond, and Grace learns to regain his sense of hope, that the third act cannot help but feel like a letdown.

The film presents our hero with a series of increasingly dire choices - any of whom could have served as endings to his journey and the movie. But the film keeps going, ending on a moment that goes beyond having your cake.

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Laura (Otto Preminger, 1944)

Following the murder of Laura Hunt (Gene Tierney), detective Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews) is put on the case to find her killer.

As he is drawn into her world, McPherson finds himself falling under the dead woman’s spell…

When I first started university, I read something which has stuck with me ever since. It is a line from David Henry Hwang’s M. Butterfly:

“Because only a man knows how a woman is supposed to act”

The idea of a woman as a construction, an idea, and the clash between the construct and a real person.

That conflict has fascinated me long before I read that line, but it unlocked that theme.

And I soon began to pick it out among movies I enjoyed: Vertigo, Mona Lisa and Ex Machina.

I have only seen Laura once before, almost two decades ago, but it was not as sticky as those other movies.

My re-appreciation for it started after I found a copy of Vera Caspary’s book in a used bookstore. Reading it reignited my interest in the story.

Another catalyst was Foster Hirsch’s biography on Otto Preminger, which provided an in-depth breakdown of the film’s production.

 

Watching it now, I do not know why I did not enjoy it on my first go-around.

Laura is such a beautiful encapsulation of the idea of the woman as an idea - not just an image, but a story. 

The film opens on Laura’s painting - the image which act as the foundation of, and cover for, the various imagined versions of her. 

As the camera pans around Waldo’s apartment, his voice introduces us to the story, and also offers the first characterisation of the title character. Unlike the other characters in the film, he references his own role in mythologising her.

The characters’ personal images of Laura are reflections of their own deepest needs and desires:

Laura is a reflection of Waldo’s command of taste, his knowledge of how to own and use beauty and femininity. 

For Dana Andrews’ McPherson, she is a mystery to be solved, a beauty who is perfect because she no longer exists - the perfect companion for a man who avoids intimacy.

Dana Andrews’ understated performance matches the film - a placid surface barely hiding the roiling fire underneath.

He is matched by Clifton Webb’s preening, barbed performance as Waldo Lydecker. Once again, his sophisticated front is a mask, hiding a deep well of jealousy and hate.

I do not have any real thoughts about Gene Tierney in the title role. Critics at the time were disappointed, believing the reveal robbed Laura of a sense of mystery and power. 

But that is the point.

The power of that image is meant to be punctured. Once we see the real person, we are meant to recognise how artificial it was. 

One key change in adaptation, the murder weapon, was a point of contention between the phallic symbolism of Caspary’s choice (a gun disguised in a cane) and Preminger’s belief in realism (the gun is hidden in a clock). 

I tend to side with Caspary - the symbolism is obvious now, but fits with Waldo’s character - the mix of urbanity, sex and hidden violence. 

Laura is a deceptively cool film - it is all glacial surfaces, hiding the boiling passions and unspoken desires of its characters.

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Sanjuro (Akira Kurosawa, 1962)

When his slumber is disturbed by a group of naive samurai, a nameless grizzled ronin (Toshiro Mifune) is drawn into their dilemma:

A group of corrupt local officials are conspiring to bring down the lord chamberlain, and have kidnapped him and his family.

The ronin reluctantly joins the bumbling warriors in trying to foil the villains' scheme.

In the course of this, he comes up with his own plan to bring down the schemers - from the inside...

“Good swords stay in their sheaths”

Yojimbo was one of the best first watches I have had in years, and I waited for an opportunity to see the sequel on the big screen.

Originally, this review was going to drop in 2024. When the 4K restorations of Akira Kurosawa’s films were released later that year, I bought a ticket for a Sanjuro screening.

Initially I found the set up to Sanjuro a little confusing. We open on the young samurai gathering to discuss their problems with their lord.

It is a little dialogue-heavy but it sets up one of the key dynamics of the film: the samurai deliberate on a problem - their lord refusing to accept their petition on corruption - only for the ronin to intervene and point out how they are on the wrong track.

As with the previous movie, the ronin has to match wits with a larger enemy - but he also has to look after a collection of other characters: the chamberlain’s wife and daughter, as well as the nine earnest samurai whose pride and lack of cynicism put them at risk.

Unlike the ronin’s first adventure, the stakes are higher than saving his own skin.

The film is almost like the set-piece with the family from the previous movie - except if the ronin had to save them for the length of a movie. 

This sense of tension has its comedic elements, but also means the movie is ultimately more dramatic.

I found it a little leaden - the nine samurai work as comic blob, but the film ends up feel a touch less fleet-footed.

I found myself starting to lose interest, but the ending completely reversed my feelings - the final scene not only elevates the film but takes it into its own space, apart from its predecessor.

Over the course of the film, the ronin has grown to loathe his key talent.

Confronted with the villains’ muscle, Muroto (Tatsuya Nakadai), a swordsman of comparable skill, Mifune’s swordsman is forced into a literal form of self-reflection.

Their final duel represents not just the death of Muroto, but the death of Mifune’s self-image.

Gone is the laconic loner; Sanjuro leaves his second adventure haunted by his own capacity for violence.

Related

Yojimbo

If you are new to this blog, I also co-host a podcast on James Bond, The James Bond Cocktail Hour. 

You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

If you enjoy something I wrote, and want to support my writing, here’s a link for tips!