Midsommar

Midsommar (2019)

Starring Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, William Jackson Harper, Vilhelm Blomgren, and Will Poulter 

Directed by Ari Aster

Written by Ari Aster

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: B

Detroit

Detroit (2017)

Starring John Boyega, Will Poulter, Algee Smith, Jacob Latimore, Anthony Mackie, Jason Mitchell, Hannah Murray, Kaitlyn Dever, Jack Reynor, Ben O'Toole, Nathan Davis, Jr.,  and John Krasinski

Directed by Kathryn Bigelow

Written by Mark Boal

***This film is currently streaming via Hulu***

Summary (in 500 words or less):  Riots in 1960s inner city Detroit create great tension between the police and the African American residents in the community.  One evening, three Detroit police officers invade the Algiers Motel after a supposed sniper attack and create a brutal night from hell for a group of innocent young men and women.

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Free Fire

Free Fire (2017)

Starring Sharlto Copley, Armie Hammer, Brie Larson, Cillian Murphy, Jack Reynor, Babou Ceesay, Enzo Cilenti, Sam Riley, Michael Smiley, and Noah Taylor

Directed by Ben Wheatley

Written by Amy Jump and Ben Wheatley

***This film is currently streaming via Amazon Prime***

Summary (in 500 words or less):  A group of criminals meets up with weapons salesmen at an empty warehouse when chaos erupts and bullets start flying everywhere.

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

Movie Review - Sing Street

Sing Street (2016)

Starring Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, Lucy Boynton, Jack Reynor, and Mark McKenna

Directed by John Carney

***This film is currently streaming via Netflix***

John Carney crafted one of my favorite movies of all time in Once -- a film filled with hauntingly beautiful music and achingly nuanced performances from two leads who'd never acted in films before.  Carney's music-centric follow-up Begin Again was a bit of a disappointment, failing to capture the magic and heart of his Academy Award-winning 2007 film.  Admittedly, because of the lackluster Begin Again, I was a bit hesitant to watch Sing Street, wary that writer-director Carney was a one-trick pony.  Fortunately, I'm incredibly pleased to report that Carney hasn't lost his touch as Sing Street is full of boisterous charm, cleverly inspired 1980s-style tunes, and joyously innocent performances from a cast of young folks.

With his parents' marriage falling apart, high schooler Conor (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) is forced to leave his private school for a free all-boys state school run by the Catholic Church.  The quiet Conor finds it tough to fit in, being immediately bullied by a particularly nasty kid right off the bat.  One afternoon, though, he spots a lovely girl sitting on a stoop across from the school and he gets the nerve to go over to talk with her as a way of trying to impress the others in his class.  The girl -- Raphina (Lucy Boynton) -- is amused by Conor's charm, but she wants nothing to do with him until he mentions that he's in a band and needs a model to appear in a music video.  Despite normally wanting nothing to do with the boys at the school, Raphina is preparing to move to London to advance her career in modeling so she agrees to meet Conor and his band to take the gig in the music video.  The only problem -- Conor isn't in a band so the frantic search to find bandmates and create songs begins.

Set in 1985 Dublin, Sing Street is a charmingly pleasant coming-of-age film that just happens to have some great music added to the mix.  Writer Carney smartly doesn't try and make this film anything deeper than what it is -- two high school-aged kids in Conor and Raphina trying to figure out what to do with their lives.  The joyful exuberance that comes from Conor and his buddies' love of music pours out of every scene and leaves the viewer smiling from ear to ear.  The cast of unknowns -- to me, at least -- is winning and their wide-eyed innocence is believable.

Sing Street really is an ode to the 1980s showing its appreciation for both the music and cinema of that decade through lovingly crafted homages that feel natural as opposed to forced.  While quite different from the depressing (though fantastic) Once, John Carney is back on top of his game with Sing Street which deserved much more love from the public when it was released last summer.  (And how this film didn't get an Academy Award nomination for Best Song is beyond me.)

The RyMickey Rating: B+

Movie Review - Glassland

Glassland (2016)

Starring Toni Collette, Jack Reynor, and Will Poulter

Directed by Gerard Barrett

Two great performances...one boring movie.  That about sums of Glassland -- so much potential and yet disappointingly disengaging.  Writer-director Gerard Barrett has crafted a fantastically emotionally fraught thirty minutes...and then not much else after that.  However, what's good is really good and shows that Barrett has an eye for grippingly emotional heartache.

Jack Reynor is John, a Dublin taxi driver, whose mother Jean (Toni Collette) is drinking herself to her demise.  Living with his mother is a job in and of itself with John having to attempt to watch after her whenever he's not out in his cab.  Finally, after one particularly rough night when he finds his mother unconscious with vomit strewn across her bed, he decides that he has to try and help her kick her addiction, forcing her into a rehab facility.

Reynor is a newcomer to me and shows strength as the beleaguered Jack, creating emotional heft in his grim desperation.  His love for his mother shines amidst his dreary surroundings, but it doesn't come without heartbreak.  As good as Reynor is, Toni Collette is even better, embodying the harrowing downfall of an alcoholic with such painful earnestness that it was sometimes uncomfortable to see her unravel in front of our eyes.

The duo's interactions with one another made me wish that Glassland was a better film, but unfortunately there's not much story here.  Side plots about Jack's friend Shane (Will Poulter) attempting to reconnect with his young son and a human trafficking ring into which Jack is pulled are throwaway stories used only to pad the film's runtime which is already a short ninety minutes.  In the end, Glassland is a bit of a misfire, albeit one with some wonderful and humanistic portrayals.

The RyMickey Rating:  C