David R. Walker

Posts Tagged ‘John David Washington’

Tenet

Director: Christopher Nolan

Cast: John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Kenneth Branagh, Elizabeth Debicki, Michael Caine, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Andrew Howard, Himesh Patel, Jack Cutmore-Scott, Clemence Poesy, Wes Chatham, Martin Donovan

If a man goes back in time and kills his own grandfather then he would never have been born.

That is the Grandfather Paradox and the basic notion of director Christopher Nolan’s stylish and innovative, time-bending espionage action film Tenet set in Kiev, Ukraine, Mumbai and Oslo in Norway.

Besides the mesmerising action sequences, the critical part about Tenet is the clever casting of the son of Denzel Washington, Golden globe nominee John David Washington (BlackKKlansman) as The Protagonist opposite the dashing British actor Robert Pattinson (Cosmopolis, Twilight, Queen of the Desert) as Neil.

Tenet is like Inception but set within the rough estimates of a spy genre, superbly written and directed by Christopher Nolan and featuring an outstanding original music score by Swedish film composer Ludwig Goransson who won an Oscar for original score for Black Panther.  

To describe the plot of Tenet as a paradox is an understatement. It is a carefully constructed set of semiotic images punctuated with some astounding action sequences especially on a Norwegian highway and on an opulent skyscraper in Mumbai.

While the protagonist is in Mumbai, he comes across his Tenet contact Mahir wonderfully played by Yesterday star Himesh Patel, which leads him into the murky world of international arms dealing and he discovers a nefarious inversion machine that can alter both the past and devastate the future.

From the eye-catching hostage scene in an Opera house in Kiev, Ukraine to the final time-bending battle sequence spliced with a rather poignant confrontation by the femme fatale Kat superbly played by Elizabeth Debicki (Widows, The Great Gatsby, The Tale) with her vicious misogynistic Russian arms dealing husband Andrei Sator, played with an Oscar worthy performance by Kenneth Branagh (Dunkirk, My Week with Marilyn, Murder on the Orient Express) aboard a luxury yacht off the coast of Vietnam, Tenet is an exotic, elegant and asymmetrical action film, with an innovative plot that will challenge the viewer to watch carefully.

For sheer originality and perfect casting, Tenet is worth seeing. For incredibly intricate and carefully orchestrated action scenes especially those involving a transport plane crashing into Oslo Airport, Tenet is phenomenal.

After months of being deprived of real original and ground breaking cinema, Tenet is a must see film on the big screen with surround sound and should be a good reason to get back to the auditorium to see this spectacularly complex and clever piece of cinema.

Tenet gets a film rating of 8.5 out of 10 and is highly recommended viewing.

Once again, the multi-talented director of The Batman Trilogy, Dunkirk and Inception, Christopher Nolan does not disappoint.

The Old Man & the Gun

Director: David Lowery

Cast: Robert Redford, Casey Affleck, Sissy Spacek, Danny Glover, Tom Waits, Tika Sumpter, John David Washington, Elisabeth Moss, Keith Carradine

Oscar winners Robert Redford and Casey Affleck unite in a languid and quirky bank robber film entitled The Old Man & the Gun beautifully directed by David Lowery. Possibly Hollywood Legend Robert Redford’s final film who shot to fame with some superb onscreen performances in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Out of Africa and The Sting.

Redford plays compulsive bank robber Forrest Tucker who along with two other crew members Teddy played by Danny Glover (Lethal Weapon, Grand Canyon) and Waller played by Tom Waits (At Play in the Fields of the Lord, The Book of Eli) casually and with an unusual amount of charm rob banks mainly in the American Mid-West and Southern States of Texas, Arkansas and Missouri in the early 1980’s.

What really ignites The Old Man & the Gun is the sophisticated dialogue between Forest and his love interest Jewel wonderfully under played by Oscar winner Sissy Spacek (The Coal Miner’s Daughter) who is fascinated by the handsome and mysterious drifter who is also a thief.

Oscar winner Casey Affleck (Manchester By The Sea) plays Dallas police detective John Hunt who relentlessly chases Forest Tucker and successfully identifies him as the charming old man who is sticking up unsuspecting bank tellers all over these Southern States.

There is a fantastic scene between Affleck and Redford where they meet by chance in the men’s room of a diner in Dallas and the tension between the young ambitious detective and the old ruthless bank robber is charged with energy and sophisticated bravado.

The Old Man & the Gun is slow moving in parts but those that love seeing acting legend Robert Redford on the Big Screen should definitely see this charming and quirky bank robber tale which does not make the crime melodramatic or too simplistic, but purely unbelievable. As this film shows audiences that Bank Robbing is a compulsion for some people that prefer a dangerous life of crime as opposed to earning an honest living.

Supporting Cast for The Old Man & The Gun include Denzel Washington’s son John David Washington as Lt. Kelley and Tika Sumpter as Detective Hunt’s supportive wife Maureen.

Beautifully acted and superbly directed, The Old Man & the Gun gets a film rating of 7.5 out of 10 and is recommended viewing as a classic tale of robbery, romance and rivalry.