Review: "A Most Violent Year" (****½)

Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac star in "A Most Violent Year."

From the opening credits, "A Most Violent Year" is hypnotic. A tracking shot shows our lead, Abel (Oscar Isaac), jogging through a chilly New York. It’s 1981. Passing graffiti-covered buildings, piles of dirty snow and junk yards, we’re introduced to a New York rarely seen in film. The gorgeous, crisp sepia-toned colors and cool, clean tracking shots call to mind some of David Fincher’s more recent films. Perhaps writer director JC Chandor took a page from Fincher’s how-to-make-anything-and-everything-look-amazing playbook. It’s beautiful. The sun starts to rise as the city wakes up. After Abel finishes his morning run, we see his wife, Anna (Jessica Chastain), applying her make-up and listening to the local news on the radio as she stares into the mirror and exhales cigarette smoke. Soon after, the couple meets up in a damp, snowy parking lot as Abel grabs two brief cases from the trunk of his car and tells Anna that she “looks very nice.” At the same time, a young man driving a large truck pays his way through a toll booth on a bustling highway. The man is immediately blocked in by two cars, pulled out of his truck and beaten up by two strangers with hand guns. The words “A Most Violent Year” appear on the screen accompanied by the sound of a passing train.

Review: "Gone Girl" (****½)

Editor's Note: It is a pleasure to introduce you to the newest part of the Reel Georgia team, Ali Coad. I met Ali in early 2014, when we both began working for the Atlanta Film Festival. Ali holds a degree in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Georgia, so you'll have to pardon my writing once you read hers. But however eloquent she may be—and she is very eloquent—everything Ali writes exudes a crystalline sincerity, as if your best friend is writing to you personally. I know y'all will enjoy all that Ali has to offer and I look forward to reading every word. -CM

Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike in "Gone Girl" 

I had read Gillian Flynn’s novel “Gone Girl” prior to seeing director David Fincher’s captivating adaptation, and in my humble opinion, this film lives up to all the volcanic hype and energy that presupposed it’s release. I liked the movie just as much as, it seems, most people did. I saw this film with a friend of mine who was in the enviable, nearly-impossible position of knowing nothing about this movie; I don’t really know how that happened, but it did. She knew who Ben Affleck was and, really, that’s about it. And when the twists and turns came, as we all knew they would, I’d catch small glimpses of her reactions and there was this beautiful, thrilling purity to it. Despite knowing what was going to happen, I still loved the intricate flimflam, but the electric magic of the big reveal was lost on me simply because I saw it coming. I still enjoyed it, but it didn’t pack the same punch for me as it did for my friend.

“Gone Girl” is the story of Amy and Nick Dunne. How from the outside looking in, they have a loving, perfect marriage. Fincher reinforces this idea by filming them through long hallways, through windows, in closed-off spaces; he really highlights the claustrophobia that can, sometimes though not always, accompany a partnership, even a loving one. It’s fair to say, like any other couple, that Amy and Nick struggle: Nick looses a job, his mom gets sick, Amy has parental pressures and obligations, they move, they argue over children. But at the end of the day, they love each other. Or so it seems.

Review: "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" (****)

Ben Stiller stars in "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty"

The not-so-secretly talented Ben Stiller is at it again. “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” a remarkable tale about an average man, is the second film to adapt James Thurber’s 1939 short story by the same name. Samuel Goldwyn, Jr., whose father produced the original in 1947, oversaw sixteen years of developmental changes before finally taking root in a partnership with 20^th Century Fox. Stiller, who directed "Zoolander" (2001) and "Tropic Thunder" (2008), landed both the lead role and director’s honor.

Walter Mitty (Ben Stiller) is an affable, unassuming career photojournalist at Life magazine. When the magazine announces that the future of Life is Life Online, an internet-only format that threatens a number of tenured values and employees, Walter, who processes the negatives of any photo Life publishes, begins to worry. When he realizes he can’t find the negative planned for the final issue’s cover photo, he starts to panic. His international journey to uncover the photo’s whereabouts connects him with places he’s never heard of, fears he’s never faced, and a girl with whom he’s never had the courage to flirt in person.