A great screenplay from Zach Braff was complimented by terrific performances from Florence Pugh and Morgan Freeman. A tragedy at the very beginning of the film sends Pugh's character Allison into meltdown. Her addiction to pills sees her arrive at a self help group where, on the first day, she begins to turn and run after seeing Freeman's Daniel. The critics were mostly unkind: "laboured tale of redemption" and "indifferent material" were not the worst. Their 53% rating on Rotten Tomatoes compares with 97% for audiences. These included "not sure what the critics were watching but they must have been confused" and "ignore the cynical critics" and "the critics are wrong on this one". What do the critics know! OK, there may be flaws, but how many human dramas are produced for cinemas? Unfortunately very few. I found it very emotional with great acting and a very decent script.
Well this was very strange, a sort of fantasy horror where nothing made any sense. It was very stylish and colourful, set on a fictional island resort La Tolqa (Hotel California comes to mind) where rich holidaymakers are looking for something daring to alleviate their boredom. The daring comes in spades. Brandon Cronenberg has followed his father in this kind of creepy body mutation (think eXistenz, it used to be one of my very favourite movies). Alexander Skarsgard is perfect for an innocent when a mysterious young woman (Mia Goth) engages him and his partner in an adventure of a seriously unusual kind. The setting is fantastic filmed with an ultra wide angle lens by cinematographer Karim Hussain. It is one of those films (just like the David Cronenberg above) that will haunt you for a long time. But there was a lot of gore and it didn't have to be so ridiculously violent. And it was bonkers.
When the first notes of Dire Strait's Money for Nothing belted out from the surround sound of the cinema's speakers, I was sold. A montage of images from 1984 accompany the introduction to make sure we know where we are. Let me start with saying whatever you think about Nike and their debatable practices, put those aside, forget that the truth in these movies is never that important, and watch a brilliant movie. I could not believe that first time writer Alex Convery has made such a great screenplay. It's a wonderful story (especially for someone like me who has played the game, albeit really poorly except for one memorable second) and even better dialogue. He was lucky that Amazon Studios picked it up with Ben Affleck as director with his mate Matt Damon in the lead as Sonny Vaccaro.
At the time, Nike may be selling the most running shoes, but in basketball they are miles behind market leader Converse (never heard of them - see later) and Adidas. Sonny convinces his bosses to put all their budget behind one eighteen year old who is yet to play in the NBA and does not like Nike. Michael Jordan. The rest is history. It was interesting that it was Michael's mother who held sway. Viola Davis, as usual, is outstanding. There are some other notable performances, Jason Bateman is better than I have ever seen him, as is Chris Messina as Jordan's agent David Falk.
The epilogue tells us how many millions Nike have made from the Air Jordan. Not surprising when a shoe costs £130 and upwards. Back to where I started with the music. We get the superb Time After Time, Can't Fight This Feeling and amongst others, we go out with Born in the USA. Give me Dire Straits any day.
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