Only the Brave (Joseph Kosinski, 2017)

Based on a true story, Only the Brave concerns the Granite Mountain Hotshots, a team of firefighters who lost their lives in a tragic incident in 2013.

I was shocked by how much I enjoyed Top Gun Maverick.

I had seen Joseph Kosinski’s previous movies. While I thought he had an interesting aesthetic but neither Tron Legacy nor Oblivion were that compelling.

I was liable to chalk up Top Gun 2’s success to the collaborative power of filmmaking (particularly the involvement of Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie).

But then I watched Only the Brave. 

While this film carries over a few cast and crew members with Top Gun 2, it lacks that movie’s scope and visceral thrills.

There is a terse, unsentimental sincerity to the movie, a sense of being grounded in the lives of this team and their community.

At the centre, Josh Brolin anchors the whole production. He delivers an un-showy performance that mirrors the film’s no-nonsense approach. It is an empathetic portrait of a professional man struggling to express himself, but without any external business. It is not a performance that feels geared for the award circuit.

Jennifer Connolly matches him as his wife. Once again, hers is a generous, understated performance that feels like a living, breathing woman. 

What I love about the performances and the movie is that it never feels like the project is aiming for anything other than honouring the people it is based on.

It is not trying to stand in the way of the story. It is not a docudrama - Kosinski does not aim for that kind of fly-on-the-wall aesthetic, but maintains a restrained sense of classicism.

While the movie ends in tragedy, the story is not concerned with that event. There is no sense of building doom or irony.

It is about the team, with newbie Brendan (Miles Teller) as the entry point. 

Miles Teller has gained a poor reputation offscreen. Some online voices really dislike his acting.

I have always liked him. I thought his performance in The Spectacular Now was so heartbreaking.

And it was interesting to see someone in movies with obvious facial scarring. As someone with visible scars, it is nice to see someone who looks like they live in the real world.

Teller’s character is a recovering addict.

Once again, something that could be cliche-ridden instead feels more grounded.

There is nothing that is cliche or overly familiar about his portrayal. It feels like he has hit bottom. No sense of joy in the addiction; he passed that point a long time ago.

On paper his character, and arc, could have been a seed for something broader and more formulaic. There is a version where Only the Brave is a straight-up disaster movie.

But the film is not concerned with fitting the story into a familiar format. 

It wants to tell the story of this team and the community they were a part of. 

Quietly affecting.

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