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Out of Blue - Film Review
Apr. 14th, 2021 07:07 pmI'm going to start at the end.
When I came back from watching it at the cinema I looked it up on wiki, and found out that it's based on a book (Night Train by Martin Amis), and that book is a parody. Which makes the film make so much more sense. Unfortunately, the film lacked that reflexive self-aware quality of good parody. There's a beautiful quote from the Torygraph that I think sums the film up perfectly - "This New Orleans-set detective thriller from Carol Morley pulls off an undesirable yet weirdly impressive coup: the twist ending to its murder mystery is somehow simultaneously preposterous and obvious, like a clown car parping and swerving its way towards you from the far end of an airstrip." (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/blue-review-neo-noir-murder-mystery-far-oddball-good/).
That statement is true of everything that happens in the film. You think, oh, they're using this tired trope in this really unsubtle way to subvert it. And then they don't. It's not just one tired trope, it's all of them. In sequence. In obvious sequence.
It wouldn't be so bad, I mean basic thrillers are ten-a-penny, yeah, they're not good, but they're not bothersome either, they're Sunday-afternoon-plans-have-washed-out films. But this keeps putting on these airs and graces, all "I am a serious film, making serious statements. I AM ART!" when it's really not. It tries to be clever and turns out dumb. Also the physics is terrible. But I suspect that's deliberate, because the physics they use is all trope-y and we're back to "tired trope played straight."
It's a waste of some lovely cinematography and a good soundtrack. And some solid performances. Patricia Clarkson as Mike Hoolihan gives enough mystery and enigmatic to be engaging despite being all but one of the hard-bitten female detective clichés. Toby Jones is Toby Jones so you know he's good. Aaron Tveit's Detective Silvero does a good job of sleazy and sinister ... like every other male character. Basically, the female characters suffer and the men are sleazy and sinister. It's very thin that way.
It's one of those rare films I'd actually disrecommend.
~~~~
One good thing did come out of the film - I have finally found a framework for what I want female Gambit to look like. So for years, I've had a couple of ideas for a gender-swapped Rogue 'n' Gambit story but I could never figure out what Gambit looked like. I've seen photos of several female Gambit cosplayers and they're all amazing but I couldn't get a feel for how girl-Gambit would move and then I saw this and Patricia Clarkson is it. There's this moment when she smiled and turned her head just slightly away, it was full-force girl-Gambit and all "I will follow you through whatever to do whatever fun thing you have planned even though I am sure it is dangerous". I have female Gambit sorted. Now just to get to writing the story.
When I came back from watching it at the cinema I looked it up on wiki, and found out that it's based on a book (Night Train by Martin Amis), and that book is a parody. Which makes the film make so much more sense. Unfortunately, the film lacked that reflexive self-aware quality of good parody. There's a beautiful quote from the Torygraph that I think sums the film up perfectly - "This New Orleans-set detective thriller from Carol Morley pulls off an undesirable yet weirdly impressive coup: the twist ending to its murder mystery is somehow simultaneously preposterous and obvious, like a clown car parping and swerving its way towards you from the far end of an airstrip." (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/blue-review-neo-noir-murder-mystery-far-oddball-good/).
That statement is true of everything that happens in the film. You think, oh, they're using this tired trope in this really unsubtle way to subvert it. And then they don't. It's not just one tired trope, it's all of them. In sequence. In obvious sequence.
It wouldn't be so bad, I mean basic thrillers are ten-a-penny, yeah, they're not good, but they're not bothersome either, they're Sunday-afternoon-plans-have-washed-out films. But this keeps putting on these airs and graces, all "I am a serious film, making serious statements. I AM ART!" when it's really not. It tries to be clever and turns out dumb. Also the physics is terrible. But I suspect that's deliberate, because the physics they use is all trope-y and we're back to "tired trope played straight."
It's a waste of some lovely cinematography and a good soundtrack. And some solid performances. Patricia Clarkson as Mike Hoolihan gives enough mystery and enigmatic to be engaging despite being all but one of the hard-bitten female detective clichés. Toby Jones is Toby Jones so you know he's good. Aaron Tveit's Detective Silvero does a good job of sleazy and sinister ... like every other male character. Basically, the female characters suffer and the men are sleazy and sinister. It's very thin that way.
It's one of those rare films I'd actually disrecommend.
~~~~
One good thing did come out of the film - I have finally found a framework for what I want female Gambit to look like. So for years, I've had a couple of ideas for a gender-swapped Rogue 'n' Gambit story but I could never figure out what Gambit looked like. I've seen photos of several female Gambit cosplayers and they're all amazing but I couldn't get a feel for how girl-Gambit would move and then I saw this and Patricia Clarkson is it. There's this moment when she smiled and turned her head just slightly away, it was full-force girl-Gambit and all "I will follow you through whatever to do whatever fun thing you have planned even though I am sure it is dangerous". I have female Gambit sorted. Now just to get to writing the story.
