Tag Archives: Jake Gyllenhaal

Everest

Everest is big. Appropriately so. It’s a big story with a big cast of characters and, of course, a big mountain. The biggest mountain, actually. The film is best viewed on a big screen.

In 1996, Rob Hall (Jason Clarke) and Scott Fischer (Jake Gyllenhaal) led expeditions to Mount Everest. Other groups were also at base camp, all set to make a final ascent on May 10. Everest shows Hall to be a conscientious, detail-oriented leader, a “hand holder” as Fischer calls him. Fischer is a more casual leader with his climbers.

Among those in Hall’s group are Beck Weathers (Josh Brolin), a big, boisterous Texan; Doug Hansen (John Hawkes), a mailman of more modest means than most climbers; Yasuko Namba (Naoko Mori), a quiet Japanese woman; and Jon Krakauer (Michael Kelly), a journalist who plans to do a cover story on the trek for Outside magazine.

Emily Watson and Elizabeth Debicki are Hall’s base camp support team. Hall’s pregnant wife Jan (Kiera Knightley), who had climbed Everest with him in ‘93, is at home in New Zealand where she communicates with him by phone. Robin Wright plays Weathers’ wife, back home in Texas.

If you are unfamiliar with the story you may want to avoid plot synopses and remain unaware of the challenges the climbers encountered on May 10, 1996.

Though the story of the May 1996 expedition to Everest has been told before, most notably in Krakauer’s book Into Thin Air, this new movie provides thrilling visuals and recreates the real-life peril of an Everest climb. Director Baltasar Kormakur brings the tale to life with realistic location shots in hazardous weather conditions. The cast and crew are to be congratulated for what one would presume to have been a tough shoot.

For those who have read Krakauer’s book (which I, incidentally, consider to be the best non-fiction book I’ve ever read), there are slight differences in the story told in the film. Most significantly, the logjam that occurs at the Hillary Step just below the summit plays a bigger role in the book than in the movie.

Last year’s Wild has led to more traffic on the Pacific Crest Trail this year and the recent A Walk In The Woods is expected to send more hikers to the Appalachian Trail in 2016. Will Everest result in even more climbers attempting to ascend to the top of the world? Probably, even though the danger of an Everest climb far outweighs than that of a trail hike. The difficulties chronicled in Everest will, for many, likely be outweighed by the lust for adventure and the glory of reaching the summit.

If you prefer to experience an Everest climb vicariously (as do I) and enjoy a good story about people who climb, the best way is to see Everest. And remember, this is one to see on a big movie screen.

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Southpaw

 

Controlling rage can be a challenge for anyone. For a boxer, uncontrolled rage can be devastating, professionally and personally. In Southpaw, a classic redemption movie, it is self-control that saves the day (along with boxing skill).

Billy Hope (Jake Gyllenhaal) is an undefeated light heavyweight champ who wins with sheer physicality fueled by anger. Because his style is more about strength than grace, he leaves himself open to opponent punches. Following a big win, wife Maureen (Rachel MacAdams) urges him to take a break. She fears he’ll become punch drunk.

Later, as Hope exits a charity event, he is taunted by up-and-coming boxer Miguel Escobar (Miguel Gomez). Maureen urges her man to keep moving but his rage takes over and the two boxers get into a scuffle. As the tussle escalates, someone pulls out a gun. A shot is fired, killing Maureen.

Things go downhill quickly. An angry Hope drives a car into a tree. In his return to the ring, he punches out a referee, leading to his suspension. The big money offers from promoters and HBO disappear. He loses his mansion, his cars and, most sadly, his daughter Leila (Oona Laurence).

Uncontrolled rage is the culprit again at the court hearing to decide whether his daughter becomes a ward of the state. He loses her.

Hope moves into an apartment in a seedy part of town and takes a job as a janitor at a small boxing gym run by Tick Wills (Forest Whitaker). As Hope begins to mentor the kids who frequent the gym, Wills develops a fondness for Hope. Following an unsanctioned exhibition, Hope gets a shot at a match versus Miguel Escobar.

With training and support from Wills, Hope steps into the ring with a different attitude. Hope plays defense as well as offense. If you’ve ever seen a sports movie, you can guess the outcome.

Gyllenhaal, who has been brilliant in recent films Nightcrawler and Prisoners, should be a strong contender for year-end awards for his work in Southpaw. This is a gritty performance filled with realistic fight sequences and injuries that look painful.

Southpaw is beautifully directed by Anthony Fuqua. A favorite shot is a POV shot snakes around a corner to show a physically and emotionally spent Hope sitting naked on a shower floor.

The movie is good. Gyllenhaal’s performance is the reason to see it.

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Nightcrawler

 

TV news is a competitive business. Every station wants the big story. Some will pay good money to freelancers with video cameras for exclusive footage.

Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) is an L.A. ne’er-do-well who wants to go legit. As Nightcrawler begins, he sells fence (chain link) to a fence (guy who buys stolen goods) and asks the buyer for a job. When Lou happens upon a news photog (Bill Paxton) shooting video to sell to TV, he decides to try it himself.

Lou finds a willing buyer in Nina (Rene Russo), a news director at an L.A. station whose ratings need help. Lou continues to bring graphic footage to her and the ratings inch upward. “If it bleeds, it leads” is a TV industry half-joke, one with more than a grain of truth behind it. In the battle to titillate news viewers, Nina keeps asking for shocking video.

As the checks roll in, Lou hires an assistant, Rick (Riz Ahmed). He buys a new, faster car. He gets better monitoring equipment to listen in on police calls.

Lou is a scheming pragmatist who aggressively woos Nina with logical arguments and, of course, exclusive video. His online research tells him that she has had trouble keeping a job and that she will soon be up for renewal. She needs him.

Lou boldly goes into places he shouldn’t to get juicy footage. Eventually he goes too far. But even when he oversteps, he continues to bring the goods to Nina and her news team. She has few boundaries regarding what she’ll put on air and Lou responds. Nightcrawler may exaggerate the lengths TV stations will go to lure viewers, but not by much.

Gyllenhaal’s Lou is a likeable charmer. He’s a bit smarmy, not far removed from Leave It To Beaver’s Eddie Haskell. Even though he does things that are wrong, it’s easy to root for him. He’s also funny—though not always intentionally.

After last year’s excellent performance as a detective in Prisoners, Gyllenhaal follows with a completely different character and another memorable role. At age 33, he has already amassed a respectable acting resume. As he moves into more mature roles, I look forward watching him grow into a major film star.

It’s good to see Rene Russo back onscreen. Except for the Thor movies, she’s been absent for the last decade. At age 60, she brings appropriate intensity to her role as Nina.

I’m happy to report that rookie director Dan Gilroy (he also wrote the script) did not make Nightcrawler to rip into the TV news biz for its love of crime and gore. He accepts that as a given. Instead he focuses on bringing this interesting character and his story to the screen. Good jobs, Dan and Jake!

 

 

 

 

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Prisoners

Prisoners is intense. To maintain energy and interest for two and a half hours, a film needs to keep moving. This detective story with a vengeance twist doesn’t stop throwing new plot developments until the screen goes black.

Hugh Jackman, in a non-singing role, is the more bankable star of Prisoners. But Jake Gyllenhaal delivers the stronger performance as a police detective charged with solving the disappearance of two young girls.

The Dovers (Jackman and Maria Bello) and the Birchs (Terrence Howard and Viola Davis) are suburban neighbors who get together for Thanksgiving. After the meal, their two young daughters go outside but soon disappear. Their older siblings recall seeing an old RV. When it is found, suspect Alex Jones (Paul Dano) is brought in and questioned by detective Loki (Gyllenhaal). But Jones has an apparent learning disability and can barely talk. With no solid evidence, he is released.

Dover, however, is convinced that Jones is the perp. Shortly after Jones is turned loose, Dover imprisons Jones inside an abandoned apartment building where he beats and tortures him. He enlists the aid of the Birchs (first Mr., later Mrs.) in the effort to get Alex to tell where the girls are.

Loki meanwhile pursues other leads, which take him to a couple of creeps including a priest on his sex offender list (Len Cariou) and a slimy guy who buys kids clothing but has no kids (David Dastmalchian). Loki finds weird things in each of their homes. He stops by Alex Jones’ home and talks to his mom (Melissa Leo) in his search for solid evidence.

Loki’s frustration increases until the Birch girl is found. In the wake of that occurrence, almost everything gets resolved.

Jackman is not the first male actor to express extreme anger about a daughter being abducted, but he carries it off well. Bello, Howard and Davis, sadly, have little opportunity to show their acting chops. Dano plays the simpleton perfectly. Leo is initially unrecognizable as the dowdy middle-aged mom. And Dastmalchian has a look that should get him as many decent “creep” roles as he can handle.

The reason to see Prisoners (along with trying to figure it all out) is Gyllenhaal. He maintains a level of intensity that hovers just below the boiling point through most of the film. He does blow his top a time or two.

Jake owes a debt to writer Aaron Guzikowski for handing him a great character and to director Denis Villenueve for delivering the story in a straightforward way, without any tricky stuff.

Prisoners has the grim look of rainy winters down south. (It was filmed in Georgia, a state that actually does have sunny days, though not in this movie.) It has no real comic relief. Prisoners is intense.

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