Lawless
With Wit, Reviewed By Kimmo Mustonenen
Warning: This review was fueled by Kossu.
The shots were flowing into my stomach place, the sweet burn up into my brain stem, and then my brain thoughts shot out of the finger ends on the keyboard.
As it should be.
I went to the cinema with a fellow reviewer, Yves.
He is as much a foreign as I, but since he is French he is funny in America.
He would tell me over and again that in France Shia LaBeouf is really Shia “The Beef.”
I would say no, it is really Shia “The Douche.”
Yves laughed, then I laughed like a horse and the lovely Kossu shot straight from my mouth to out of my nostril area.
Pain. Delicious pain.
And I would tongue bathe the now salty Kossu (not good, do not try to shoot it out of the nasal) off of my upper lip and drink again.
Then one more shot. And again. I was wasted!
Plot? Yeah. Attention, be forewarned, “Lawless” is based on real events!
To contextualize the plot, narrator, protagonist of the story, informs you of immediately the rules – or rather the lack of rules – that takes place in Franklin County, Virginia in the early 1930s (wow, in “Lawless” the 30s sucked a giant wiener!).
Bondurant brothers are notorious bootleggers. The stakes are simple in a world without rules where the police are corrupt and justice sold, the three brothers “hold sway.”
Characterized without subtlety – the youngest is puny (“The Beef” is type-cast here – damn, another shot out of my nose) – the players will evolve gradually, as develops an adventure without surprise, to tend to be completely expected (and unsurprising).
Shia LaBeouf is absolutely not convincing in the role of the coward who becomes manly.
Tom Hardy (Bane! With a face to be seen!) and Jason Clarke embody their characters beyond the artificiality induced staging to be almost human.
Then they presents the majestic Jessica Chastain but is allowed to play nothing but a bore.
Why do women in movies like this only appear so that we want them to be naked? That would be great.
Note – Mia Wasikowska is the hotness. There should be more of the naked with her, too. In every movie that I ever have to see again.
God, make it so.
Not surprisingly, the female characters are hopelessly secondary and generate a dynamic of self-pity.
Why, why, why?
In short, John Hillcoat (director of the laugh riot fun fest “The Road”) book a gangster film with a pathetically inadequate story to the point of becoming ridiculous and women are for decoration.
Except for Mia Wasikowska. Decoration maybe, but I love her.
Lots of bang! Blood! Death!
People die for no reason. Characters never change.
Jessica Chastain takes her clothes off.
More bang (not guns)! More blood! More death!
This I learned of American History – in U.S.A.depression everything was brownish and dirty.
Everybody was on his body with a gun. And it was legal to shoot people.
Until Guy Pearce comes around and acts all weird.
Then there is MORE shooting. That is a lot of learning from one movie.
So, my smart thumb droops floor-ward.
My horny thumb thinks, “damn, this was good – put that Mia goddess in everything!” So that thumb strains for the ceiling (hubba hubba).
Should this be allowed to be seen by your eyes?
Do you have $10 to waste? Then go.
If there is anything else you can do with your limited time on Earth, do that instead.
Life is too fucking short.
Kimmo Mustonenen – (Kimmo On Kino) – Behind The Proscenium
P.S. College football has returned. I now feel like an American from toe to top with my new love of the game! This “tailgating” is my new love thing. Fried meats, booze, dip, chips, booze, etc. If this in Finland was to exist we would all have frozen happily to death outside in the first blizzards of September! Hooray for warm America! And hooray for college football! Except for Alabama – you can suck it.