'NIGHT MOVES': Three and a Half Stars (Out of Five)
Director Kelly Reichardt's fourth movie set and filmed in Oregon. Reichardt (who's from Florida) co-wrote the film with Portland writer Jonathan Raymond. Raymond also co-wrote the Oregon based movies 'OLD JOY' and 'WENDY AND LUCY', with Reichardt, and wrote 'MEEK'S CUTOFF' (which takes place in the 1845 Oregon desert) as well; Reichardt directed all those films. This movie is about three Oregonian environmentalists plotting to blow up a hydroelectric dam. It stars Jess Eisenberg, Dakota Fanning and Peter Sarsgaard. When I finished watching the film I initially hated it but over time I've come to respect it (in some ways at least).
Eisenberg plays Josh, a radical environmentalist who works as an organic farmer in Southern Oregon. Fanning plays Josh's friend Dena. Dena shares a lot of the same extreme political ideals as Josh and agrees to help him detonate a controversial dam. Josh also enlists the help of another friend of his, named Harmon (Sarsgaard). Harmon is a former Marine who knows a lot about explosives. The three find themselves in way over their heads, when their plan goes horribly wrong.
The first half of the movie is excruciatingly slow and not very involving. Once the movie gets to the actual action though (of the story) it gets extremely suspenseful and gripping. I really didn't like the ending though; it made me feel sick and depressed. I also didn't like any of the film's central characters, especially Josh (and I'm a big Jesse Eisenberg fan). Josh is way too socially incompetent and creepy. He means well, at first, but he ends up doing everything a person, in his situation, shouldn't do. That's why I really didn't like the movie, when I first finished watching it, but the more I've had time to think about it the more I've come to appreciate it. It's moody, memorable and it makes you think. As unlikeable as Eisenberg is, in this movie, he does give an amazing performance as well.
Watch our movie review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: youtu.be/TybVNWfCjYM
Director Kelly Reichardt's fourth movie set and filmed in Oregon. Reichardt (who's from Florida) co-wrote the film with Portland writer Jonathan Raymond. Raymond also co-wrote the Oregon based movies 'OLD JOY' and 'WENDY AND LUCY', with Reichardt, and wrote 'MEEK'S CUTOFF' (which takes place in the 1845 Oregon desert) as well; Reichardt directed all those films. This movie is about three Oregonian environmentalists plotting to blow up a hydroelectric dam. It stars Jess Eisenberg, Dakota Fanning and Peter Sarsgaard. When I finished watching the film I initially hated it but over time I've come to respect it (in some ways at least).
Eisenberg plays Josh, a radical environmentalist who works as an organic farmer in Southern Oregon. Fanning plays Josh's friend Dena. Dena shares a lot of the same extreme political ideals as Josh and agrees to help him detonate a controversial dam. Josh also enlists the help of another friend of his, named Harmon (Sarsgaard). Harmon is a former Marine who knows a lot about explosives. The three find themselves in way over their heads, when their plan goes horribly wrong.
The first half of the movie is excruciatingly slow and not very involving. Once the movie gets to the actual action though (of the story) it gets extremely suspenseful and gripping. I really didn't like the ending though; it made me feel sick and depressed. I also didn't like any of the film's central characters, especially Josh (and I'm a big Jesse Eisenberg fan). Josh is way too socially incompetent and creepy. He means well, at first, but he ends up doing everything a person, in his situation, shouldn't do. That's why I really didn't like the movie, when I first finished watching it, but the more I've had time to think about it the more I've come to appreciate it. It's moody, memorable and it makes you think. As unlikeable as Eisenberg is, in this movie, he does give an amazing performance as well.
Watch our movie review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: youtu.be/TybVNWfCjYM