Wildlife

'Wildlife (2018)' is well made in every way, with its fantastic performances combining with its restrained but assured direction and solid but somewhat unremarkable script to paint a realistic portrait of a failing family seen through the slightly immature yet more world-weary than he's given credit for young lead. The piece isn't necessarily all that powerful, though, and is, sadly, pretty unmemorable, to boot. It's a bit of a strange case because I was invested in the story, characters and overall world right from the off, always involved in its twists and turns and feeling as though I was participating in its narrative (in the sense that I wasn't spoon-fed everything), but I literally forgot I had even seen the feature not two hours after getting home from the cinema, only remembering after being reminded what it was I'd just watched, which doesn't bode well for its overall lasting impact. It also marks it, perhaps, as an experience more adept at setting up a confident new directorial talent than anything else, one rife with opportunity for its actors to impressively stretch their 'acting muscles' and for its plot to portray a more nuanced view of its core players than we usually see in typical 'Hollywood' fare. Of course, your mileage will vary depending on how much it connects with you, and I'd easily recommended giving it a watch at least once. 6/10.

Carey Mulligan and Ed Oxenbould are great in this lovely drama. The music is riveting and so is the sound editing; both ambient. I am quite intrigued by so many scenes very captivating! So glad Wildlife is available on showtime, I would highly recommend it.

This movie is being described as "A boy witnesses his parents' marriage falling apart after his mother finds another man." And while I think thats true, I think its a bit more complex than that. It also is a bit of a coming of age story where Joe has to grow up and be the adult in this family, but also it seems that mom is having a mid-life crisis (although shes not quite mid-life) and trying to discover who she is outside of being the "perfect 50s housewife" that perhaps she feels trapped in. There's a lot of symbolism in this movie. The backdrop of this movie is that there is a wildfire that has been raging and the townspeople have been desperately trying to put out. And that correlates with Joe and his own family. Hes trying to put out the fire in his own family. Also, Joe works at photography studio and Paul Dano (the director and co-writer) even said that this is supposed to be a PORTRAIT of a family life.

Speaking of Paul Dano, I think he did well with his directorial debut. I think visually there are some gorgeous shots in this movie. Like for instance where Joe is watching the wildfires (and hes perfectly centered - probably again to mimic the portrait vibe). Also where Joe is about to give up but it starts to snow and hope has regained. I liked the film for the most part. They do frame the film by following Joe's perspective. And I think its mostly effective in making you feel for this kid, my only problem is there are a couple of parts where I feel like there are gaps in the story. Without giving too much away there is a scene where Jerry (Jake Gyllenhaal) has decided to seek revenge and it ends up backfiring. And yet, the next time we see him everything seems to be fine. And it never really gets explained what happened. Theres a brief line that they decided it was a "misunderstanding" but you never really see what happened and he also gets hurt during this, and that never gets brought up again either. I know Paul and Zoe (the other writer) were adapting this from a book and perhaps thats the way it is in there too. But I personally found that a little frustrating. I needed a little more.

Carey Mulligan is fantastic in this. She would be deserving to have her name thrown in the hat for awards season. I also thought Ed Oxenbould was a standout too. Which is good to hear since he's onscreen for pretty much most of the movie. I definitely will be looking forward to more of his things. I also thought Jake Gyllenhaal was good but hes absent for a good chunk of the film and so he just didnt stand out as much as Carey or Ed did.

Overall I liked the film. It wasn't perfect, but I would totally check out another film that Paul Dano directs.

This happened to be one of my most hyped films of the year. I am a big fan of Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan so I knew I had to check this out as soon as earthly possible. Had the pleasure of attending a screening of this film at the IFC Center with directer Paul Dano and co-wwriter Zoe Kazan present for a Q & A. The film is beautiful to look at with rich cinematography, has a number of strong performances with a fantastic one from Carey Mulligan, and shows that Dano and Kazan have the talent to get behind the camera and bring a quality piece of work.

The film shows a family in 1960's Montana and how life changing events cause their family to fall apart. After the father is fired, he decides to take a job putting out wildfires which causes him to leave the home for an extended period of time. During this time his wife struggles trying to hold her family together by doing whats best for them but she also questions if she even loves her husband. All this while, their teenage son has to watch his parents drift apart silently. The film stars Carey Mulligan, Jake Gyllenhaal, Ed Oxenbould, and Bill Camp.

As mentioned earlier the cinematography and especially the scenery in this film are gorgeous. Lush, rich and a perfect description for a simpler quieter time in 60's Montana. The film gets quite uncomfortable as you start wondering about the state of mind Jeanette Brinson (Mulligan) and what she gets herself into. You are basically like the teenage son Joe (Oxenbould). You see things from his lenses, feel exactly what he is feeling, and can't look away much like him. Its a startling tale but one that depicts a perfect looking family where it is anything but.

Carey Mulligan is one of the best actresses out there today, that's not even a debate. She's had so many great performances that I don't even know which is her best. This is definitely up there though. It's such an introspective look into the lives of a family where things are just beyond repair. I'm very impressed by Dano and Kazan. Both are talented on the camera but wow they were able to engineer something so wonderful behind the camera. I'm definitely intrigued to see if the duo decide to continue with film-making an writing.

8/10

This film tells the story of a couple and a teenage son, whose lives are changed by the husband's decision to fight a wildfire.

The story is simple but is surprisingly engaging. Carey Mulligan does a great job yet again, in portraying her varied and complex emotions. In fact, the husband, wife and son all portray what they are going through beautifully and convincingly, and I really feel for every character in the household.