Falling Down opens with the intensely shot claustrophobic sequence of Michael Douglas stuck in traffic. Full of uncomfortable close ups and an auditory assault, the opening sequence puts you centrally in the experience of a man we only know by his license plate… D-Fens. Having enough, this man just gets out of his car and walks away.
It is pretty clear he is on the edge, and desires to get to his Ex-Wife’s home to see his daughter on her birthday. He starts to run into minor irritations, such as feeling like he is being charged too much for soda or a homeless man asking for money a bit too aggressively. But as things escalate, he angers a local gang. He eventually starts building up a collection of weapons as he carves out a path of “righteous indignation” through the city.
While the authorities do not connect the dots, Detective Prendergast starts to see that these apparently random events are tied to the same guy.
Falling Down was controversial upon release, as it does, on the surface, feed the white grievance attitudes that seemed to have driven some of the workplace shootings that occurred at the time before the film was released. And the ads kind of pushed that narrative. In his first interaction, D-Fens is racist, but it is that racism that we still hear today. He mistakes the ethnicity of the Korean store owner and then rants about immigrants. This is over being charged 85 cents for a can of soda. And when he demands breakfast after the fast food place has stopped serving breakfast, it feels like we are expected to understand his perspective as right.
That said, the film ultimately sides on the belief that D-Fens is, indeed, the villain of the film. In spite of the muddled middle, it is clear he has been in a dangerous state for some time. D-Fens asks Prendergast how he became the bad guy. In a lot of ways, this feels like a stinging indictment of people today. People who spew hate and support cruel ideas are shocked to find out that people do not see them as reasonable good guys anymore. They seem desperate as they see themselves losing power…and do not understand how the life that used to be affirmed is no longer the status quo.
Even though there are some moments that seem to skirt to close to the line of validating the character D-Fens, Falling Down is still a compelling character study. And again, the opening ten or so minutes is cinematic gold. While Schumacher took a lot of heat, Falling Down is a film that proves he had a unique cinematic eye and deserves to be remembered as a respected director.
Fighting With My Family is the story of wrestler Paige. Coming from a lower class family obsessed with wrestling, Zayara and Zak dream of the big time wrestling. When they try out for WWE, only Zayara is selected, crushing her brother. But when she tells him she won’t go, he lets her know he cannot take this away from her.
Frankly, companies do not care about you. Amazon does not care about you. And chemical companies really do not care about you. And Dark Waters is about the fight to not just expose this to the world, but to hold polluters accountable for the destruction they have caused.
Bombshell is the dramatic recounting of the harassment scandal surrounding Fox News top guy Roger Ailes in 2016. Focusing on a wide eyed new Fox News employee Kayla Pospisil. An ambitious Conservative Christian, she finds her reality challenged as she starts to rise through the ranks, eventually becoming a victim of Ailes.
Adam Sandler plays Howard, a man with a once thriving business as a jeweler whose gambling addiction has brought his life to a stressful ruin. When he acquires a gem worth millions, that he plans to auction off, life spirals even farther out of control as his debtors close in.
Destiny is working in a strip club trying to make money. She is taken under the wing of the superstar of the club, Ramona, they start to hatch a plan to increase their incomes by conning their wall street clients. They build up a side business where the women set up private parties where they use drugs, alcohol and the promise of sex to get access to their client’s credit cards and bank accounts, spending exorbitant of the client’s money…and using humiliation to keep the men silent.
It is Ian Lightfoot’s 16th birthday. Shy and reserved, he really has no friends and has always felt like his life was missing something very specific. His dad. When his mother was pregnant, Ian’s father died. Sixteen years later the family has rebuilt itself with his big brother Barley and mother and his centaur stepfather.
When five Indigenous men in Sydney are accused of murder, a lawyer (with no experience in murder defenses) is called on to provide their defense. But instead, he finds he may have always been a part of something larger.
Parasite opens with a family struggling to find access to someone’s wi-fi so they can use their phones. Comical and relatable it is also clear the Kim Family are constantly trying to find ways to make money and cut costs.
I confess…the subject of the film is not close to my heart. Cars are a utilitarian tool for me. So, I confess, the trailers did not excite me much. Damon and Bale are pretty proven variables…and Mangold has shown himself to be a skilled director.
Tripping Through Gateways 