This Week on Netflix: Warrior

BY: ORANGECHAIR
To date, I have seen and posted a review on ten films I have seen on Netflix. I’ve seen a wide variety of films, funny, san animated and ridiculous. With such a variety of films under my belt I thought it would be impossible to pick a best but this week I saw the best film I have reviewed for This Week on Netflix so far. The film is called Warrior and as long as you can handle some violent MMA fighting, it is a must see.

Now, this comment may piss off Never Back Down fans but, there really aren’t many well known, well done MMA films. Boxing films are a different story. We have the Fighter, Cinderella Man, Rocky and countless others on the list of great boxing films but well done MMA films are few and far between. While Warrior is about MMA fighting and features many different fight scenes, there is so much more to the film than just fighting. The story starts when Tommy Conlon (Tom Hardy) returns to his home town after a long hiatus. Showing up at his father’s house without warning, Tommy finds that the family he left a long time ago has changed. The film tells the back-story of the Conlon family in a very interesting manner, slowly letting the audience put their past together while the story plays out. The family consists of three main players, Paddy Conlon (Nick Nolte), the family’s previously alcoholic, abusive father who has changed his ways and enters the film nearing his one thousandth day sober. Brendan Conlon (Joel Edgerton), the family’s eldest brother is a High School teacher living with his wife, Tess Conlon (Jennifer Morrison), and his two daughters. The final member of the family is youngest brother Tommy Conlon, a lost ex-marine trying to make his way in the world.

The plot of the story isn’t overly complicated. Tommy returns home after leaving with his mother, who passed away after she left Paddy. Tommy, a former High School wrestling star, asks his father to resume training him but this time for the MMA cage rather than the wrestling ring. After a video of Tommy knocking out one of the best fighters in the world is leaked onto the internet, he is accepted to the largest MMA tournament called Sparta. Without each brother realizing it, Brendan also enters himself in Sparta. After being screwed over financially by a misguided investment, Brendan begins MMA fighting on the side for extra cash. When he shows up to work beaten and bloodied, his boss finds out what he has been doing and suspends him without pay. With time on his hands, Brendan decides to train for Sparta in the hopes of winning to save his home and family. The first half of the film focuses on the brothers’ training while the second half features the two underdogs fighting their way through the MMA champions in the Sparta tournament.

There was no part of this film that was lacking in any way. The fights, especially those that take place during Sparta, are intense, brutally entertaining and oddly emotional. I am not the kind of guy that gets invested enough in anything to yell at the television screen but at times during Sparta, especially during a fight between world champion Koba and Brendan, I was on my feet cheering. Beyond well done, emotional fight scenes, the film is full of outstanding acting. Featuring a broken family, anytime Brendan, Paddy or Tommy converse is a heartbreaking scene. A notable scene for both Brendan and Tommy is when they finally see one another at Sparta, conversing for the first time in years. While Brendan tries to understand why Tommy won’t forgive him, Tommy bullishly reiterates his anger. Tom Hardy’s best acting performances in the film are when his character is in the ring. Outside of the ring, Tommy is a quiet, angry man but inside the cage we get to see who Tommy really is. It was amazing to see Tom Hardy give a character such depth using only intensity and body language.

While both Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton give great performances, Nick Nolte steals the show. Prior to this film, I was not much of a Nick Nolte fan. I hadn’t seen him in anything that really wowed me, my favorite performance of his coming from Tropic Thunder. I was absolutely blown away by Nick Nolte in Warrior. Playing a recovering alcoholic desperately trying to reconnect with the family he alienated, Nolte brought tears to my eyes in multiple scenes. As hard as the man tries, his sons cannot get past his past actions. Brendan will not allow Paddy to see his grandchildren, only communicating with him through phone calls or the mail and Tommy no longer has any respect for his father. Tommy sees his father as a trainer, beyond that Tommy is terrible to his father, taking every opportunity to give an off-hand, soul crushing insult. I have never felt for a character as much as I did for Paddy Conlon and never expected Nick Nolte to make me tear up once, let alone three times in one film. Earning him a nomination, and what I think should have been a win, for the 2012 Best Supporting Actor Oscar, this film easily features Nolte at the top of his game.

I cannot reiterate enough how outstanding this film is. When I heard about the film, I was doubtful that I would even enjoy it but now I can say it is one of the best films I have seen in a long time. If you can judge a film but how much I talk about it, this post is already longer than most that I write and I could keep talking about this film for pages. I haven’t even touched on the film’s beautiful use of Moby Dick and Beethoven references. I think I’ll save those for another post. I am going to give this film a very rare 10 out of 10 and recommend it to everybody and anybody that has read this post and has any modicum of interest in the film.

Lawless: Even a Deep Hatred of Shia Lebeouf Can’t Ruin This One

By: ORANGECHAIR
I am not a Shia LeBeouf fan. I’ll come right out and say it. The last role I liked him in was Even Stevens, other than that he has pretty much been ruining movies for me with the exception of Holes. He was watchable in Transformers but let’s face it, it doesn’t take much skill to run around and yelled “BUMBLEBEE.” As much as I dislike Shia LeBeouf, I love Tom Hardy. There hasn’t been a single role I have disliked Tom Hardy in. When I saw the first commercial for Lawless I was torn. I did not want to go see a film with Shia LeBeouf but I did not want to miss a film with Tom Hardy in it. Eventually, my love for Tom Hardy overcame my aversion to Shia LeBeouf. I saw Laweless in theaters and I am extremely glad I did.

Lawless tells the story of the Bondurant brothers, famous Prohibition bootleggers from Franklin County, Virginia. Selling their moonshine to civilians and police officers alike, the brothers play by their own rules and ignore everything else. They are lawless. The operation is run by the quiet, eldest brother, Forrest Bondurant (Ton Hardy). Legend has it that Forrest is invincible, something he proves multiple times throughout the course of the film. A quiet but violent man who always has a set of brass knuckles handy, Forrest only shows his soft side when around Maggie Beauford (Jessica Chastain). A city girl hired to work at the brothers gas station, Forrest and Maggie eventually foster a romantic relationship. Drunken and angry, the middle Bondurant, Howard (Jason Clarke), acts as the operations muscle. When angry, Forrest attacks enemies with fierce violence but for day to day issues, like lookout jobs, backup or dealing with the law trying to shake them down, Forrest leaves the muscle work to Howard.

The final and youngest Bondurant who serves as the main character for the film is Jack Bondurant (Shia LeBeouf). As Officer Charlie Rakes eventually says, Jack is the runt of the Bondurant litter. A young man who desperately wants to be a part of the family operation, Jack is given and takes as many chances as he can to help out his brothers. It becomes clear that Jack is not a fighter like his brothers are after a number of scenes were Jack is taken advantage of and often times brutally beaten. As Jack is allowed to participate in the business, he starts to think to highly and eventually puts himself, the woman he is courting, Bertha Minnix (Mia Wasikowska), his best friends that acts as his right hand man, Cricket Pate (Dane DeHaan) and the entire operation in danger. Experience, anger and a personal assault on Cricket eventually ends up teaching Jack how to be a Bondurant and he steps up in the end of the film to try and save his reputation.

Though there are many characters, twists and turns, the plot of the film can be stripped down to some simple components. The films villain, Officer Charlie Rakes (Guy Pearce), is a special detective brought in front Chicago to end the bootlegging fiasco in the wettest county in America, Franklin County. Targeting every bootlegger in the county, including the Bondurants, Rakes goes to extreme lengths to destroy them. Attacking them from every angle, Rakes basically goes to war with the brothers, a war the Bondurants are happy to participate in. Each side takes shots at the other, fight with guns, knives, brass knuckles and fists, eventually coming to a final showdown one a bridge leading out of the County.

My only disappointment with this film was the fact that Gary Oldman was only in it for about five minutes. Playing Chicago gangster Floyd Banner, Jack and Cricket are obsessed with Oldman’s character and eventually end up selling him their moonshine. Every moment he is onscreen, Oldman is brilliant (as he always is) but the film’s advertisements suggested that Oldman had a large role in the film which was not the case. I found this to be very disappointing.

Other than a lack of Oldman, I can’t find much wrong with this film. Tom Hardy, though he plays a quiet character, gives one of my favorite roles of his career, breaking up his angry violent spells with moments of dry humor. Guy Pearce bring to life a villain with such brilliance that I hope a Best Supporting Actor nomination is in his future. Mia Wasikowska and Jessica Chastain are both stunning and hold their own amongst the angry men, bringing notes of delicacy to the rough and tough film. Even Shia LeBeouf, who I expected to dislike in the film, did a good job. He portrayed Jack in the perfect light, allowing the audience to watch him grow up and stand up for himself by the end of the film.

Filled with beautiful scenery this film was an all around winner. Director John Hillcoat and writer Nick Cave made sure that the film wasn’t just about the fighting and violence, giving characters depth and playing with light and shadow at perfect times. As far as me liking the film and being entertained by it, Lawless gets a 5 out of 5. Looking at it being a good film, considering shot composition, directing, acting and writing I give this film a 4 out of 5, giving an overall 9 out of 10. The violence at times does get gratuitous and intense but if you can handle it, this film is a must see.