Ten Statements About....KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE (2015)

"...a man with an umbrella is always prepared..."

“Manners maketh man. Do you know what that means? Then let me teach you a lesson."

1) In spots, this is the Avengers (the TV show, not the comic/movie franchise) movie that I always wanted, and so much of that is because of Colin Firth’s Hart.  He is the best John Steed never named John Steed, and is made all the more remarkable by the sense that Henry was as much a rebel as Taron Egerton’s Eggsy is when he was younger.  If only the Mark Millar-isms didn’t keep creeping into the film....

2) And speaking of Egerton, thank goodness the film doesn’t shy away from Eggsy’s, well, dickishness.  While he has aspects that are admirable, he’s never too far away from his chaviness right up to the payoff in the, ahem, end.

3) What is up with Samuel L, Jackson’s performance as Valentine?  It seems all mannerisms and quirks, and that lisp he affects bugs me the fuck out.

I've heard of wet dreams before, but this is ridiculous.

4) For a film that wears its love of spy culture on its sleeve, quoting and referencing everything from James Bond to Maxwell Smart to Jason Bourne, its got some sincere disconnects that can be laid at the feet of Millar.  When the good guys gleefully blow up the heads of major world leaders, the feel Vaughn is going for is lost.

5) While I have no problem with the film’s comedic coda given the James Bond formula it’s aping, the thing that makes it not quite work is that there’s a painstakingly created potential love interest in Sophie Cookson’s Roxy.  The script does a lot to forge this bond between the two only to have her discarded towards the finale without any resolution to their arc.

6) One of the spy tropes this film gets a hundred percent right is the henchman, Sofia Boutella’s Gazelle.  Grotesque but graceful and a formidable presence, Boutella gives this film her all, and her presence livens up the proceedings while also giving us a Hell of a ‘final boss’ for Eggsy to fight during the climax.

"I'm gonna introduce you to this chick with a machine
gun for a leg.  You two would get along great!"

7) Given that this is a film based on a Mark Millar comic, it’s excessively violent--so violent it almost doesn’t fit into the superspy movie genre the script gleefully wants to emulate.  Every time a human being gets sliced in half, or we sit through a horrifyingly brutal sequence where Hart slaughters a church full of people gone mad with bloodlust, we’re tossed right out of the spell this film weaves throughout its narrative.

8) I’m not surprised that Michael Caine is cast as Kingsman head Arthur given Caine’s position in the canon of superspy movie culture.  But I was surprised at how Arthur’s story arc ends up--although I shouldn’t have, given Mark Millar’s involvement.

9) Given the nature of the MacGuffin, I have to ask...did somebody watch too much Russell T. Davies era Doctor Who?

10) While I may not appreciate the way the storyline involving Eggsy’s mother was handled, I do appreciate that it is given a payoff in the post-credit sequence.

Overall...A peculiar film that is a very good pastiche of superspy movies, but becomes a mess whenever it hews closely to the Millar original and revels in its low sexuality and high brutality.

I was at the Atlas this time--maybe for the last time, given I’m moving at the end of this month.  Among the trailers were ones for The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (which, to my pleasant surprise, is going to be a period piece), Ant-Man (which could have benefitted from not having that goofy comedy sting at the end), and...shudder...Paul Blart Mall Cop 2, which proves than Kevin James can’t be funny in an unfunny Die Hard parody.

Ten Statements About....WHERE THE TRUTH LIES (2005)

You may think hot lesbian sex is all good..but when it's an
Atom Egoyan film, you're going to regret the ogling...

"See, what you have to understand is that Vince and me were essentially a boy/girl act. I was the tramp ready for any sort of action, and Vince was the gentleman always trying to make me behave myself. I was pleasure, and he was control" I was rock n' roll, and he was class. His presence gave America permission to like me."

1) While the lure of this film is its presentation as a murder mystery built around speculations on the break-up of Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin (even though the facts of the characters of Lanny and Vince are altered wildly, we are never allowed to escape the idea that these are effigies of Lewis and Martin), it's typical that director Atom Egoyan manages to find ways to twist that mystery in such a way to allow his particular obsessions--grief, sexuality, emotional coldness, control--to shine through.

2) And speaking of emotional coldness, I am not sure how I feel about Alison Lohman. She has an undeniable presence, but there is also a stiffness and coldness to her as an actress that serves to keep us at arm's length, even when her character Karen is in situations that cause her passions to rise. Yes, that chilly nature makes her perfect for Egoyan's distinctive style...but I don't if it works when it comes to a murder mystery like this, where we need to feel the desire for this character to uncover the truth.

3) Whereas Lohman may be too cold for this film, Kevin Bacon is not. Unlike Colin Firth, who moves his effigy so far away from Martin that he'd be unrecognizable if Egoyan took away the marathon and the gang connections, Bacon takes a character of his own creation and logically layers on echoes of Lewis through body language and the pace of his words. And more importantly, Bacon creates a character who is monstrous at time...but also is fairly sympathetic. We feel for Lanny even as we suspect he may be a killer.



And this is me in front of the Eiffel Tower--no wait,
this is an Egoyan film, so it's a photo of you having
cosplay lesbian sex!"



4) There's an interesting 'he said/she said' element to the film, with the developing narration Karen is creating as she writes her book contrasting with the already written out memoirs of Lanny. And as the movie progresses, we see how these two narratives intertwine and reflect each other, allowing Karen to unravel the real truth behind what happened.

5) While I wasn't surprised to see the usual Egoyan acting suspects, I was pleased to see them in parts I didn't expect thanks to the more American sensibilities of this script--Maury Chaykin playing a foul-mouthed New Jersey mobster was particularly amusing.

6) People like my partner Derrick who love movies about writers might like this--Karen is pretty much the POV character, and there's a definite theme of oral history here. The core of the mystery's solution, and many of the plot beats, are triggered because someone identifying herself as a journalist was getting it all down on tape.

7) One of the drawbacks to the solution of this mystery comes from part of the motivating factor for the murder. It's not the why per se--it's the fact that the script is never clear as to the extent of that why. There is an implication that Lanny shared Vince's feelings, not only in the revelatory scene but in some of Lanny's narration...but it's never clearly stated. Egoyan is famous for being ambivalent when it comes to motivating his character, but this is a murder mystery--and a murder mystery needs to have motivation spelled out.

8) I don't know how they simulated Lohman as a ten year old child....but Ye Gods, do those brief scenes with the Alice-y dressed Karen on the telethon come off as creepy. But then, that might be intentional on Egoyan's part.

This may sound weird, but trust me...this is one of the
scariest moments in this film.

9) There's a lot of Alice In Wonderland imagery, which makes sense since Karen starts out as a wide-eyed hero worshipper obsessed on some level with the comedy duo who visited her when she was recovering from polio and ends up falling 'down the rabbit hole' into a tawdry world of lies, fetishism and misconceptions. If only Lohman was able to better pull off the before in that first act.

10) The final disclosure of what actually happened to the murdered girl works incredibly well--not only because of the true monstrousness of the act motivated out of a desire to play out a long game but because the black humor of the solution did not escape Egoyan in the least. I only wish he had found some way to work in the dialogue in a deleted scene that ends with Karen accusing the villian of not only taking a girl's life, but the heart of the girl's mother, and the father's mind. Yes, the scene played wrong and would have screwed with the pacing Egoyan maintained...but the villian's retort of 'I also took my time' is so supremely chilling he stands revealed as the grotesque we didn't suspect he was throughout the film's running time until this moment.

Overall...an intriguing entry in Egoyan's canon that takes a number of risks. While it doesn't succeed entirely, it has enough elements--and a tremendous performance by Bacon--that makes it very watchable.