☆ ☆ ☆ ½
Free
Fire (2016) – B. Wheatley
Yes, it’s basically a 90-minute gun fight
between characters to which we are never properly introduced and which are
never fleshed out. So, if that’s not
what you are after, look elsewhere. I
wasn’t sure it was what I wanted either.
But I enjoyed High Rise (2015) from director Ben Wheatley and so I
thought I would give it a try. So,
beyond the fact that it’s shallow, it is a marvel of technical craft. Basically, you have 10 (or 13) people spread
out across a warehouse floor, shooting at each other, getting hit but not
killed (as Wheatley apparently wanted realism and drew from actual FBI records
of gun battles), dragging themselves bloodily to different hiding spots, and
mustering all their strength to escape, call for reinforcements (on the one
telephone, as this is set in 1978; cue John Denver), or kill the
opposition. That’s about it, except that
it is also pretty funny. The technical
wizardry is less to do with blood and gore and a lot more about the editing and
storyboarding that keeps the viewer straight with both who is still alive and
their physical location in the complicated set.
But, yeah, if you don’t want to see blood, violence, and a lot of
swearing, this isn’t your film. Starring
Bree Larson, Cillian Murphy, Armie Hammer, Noah Taylor, and others with whom I
was unfamiliar (Sharlto Copley is a stand-out and Babou Ceesay has a great
surprising turn).
No comments:
Post a Comment