TL;DR – Joe Baylor receives a 911 call from a woman claiming she has been abducted, and it becomes a race against time to find her. But when all the information you get is via audio only, can you trust everything you’re hearing?

Review (warning: spoilers)

The Guilty opens with a bible quote, “And the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). It then dives into a Los Angeles on fire. Wildfires spread through the region causing chaos everywhere.

Asthmatic Joe Baylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) works at a 911 call centre. He receives a call on his personal mobile from a journalist, Katherine Harbor, of the LA Times seeking to get “Joe’s side of the story”. From the get go, it is clear Joe is dealing with personal issues across the entire gauntlet of being human – physical, emotional and mental. And he is trying to deal with these issues while also working in a high stress environment where emergency callers are phoning in ranging from a guy needing an ambulance because he’s taken drugs to a businessman who has been robbed in his car by a prostitute. Joe does his best to remain calm throughout and handles all the calls professionally even when he’s getting verbally abused. But unlike the callers phoning in, we can see he is one nudge away from bursting a vein.

The personal issues surround the fact that he is actually a police officer who has been assigned duty on the 911 calls while he awaits a court hearing tomorrow involving the shooting death of a 19-year old man. We also discover he has a daughter named Paige and a wife, Jess, that he has been separated now for six months even though he still wears his wedding ring. As the movie unfolds, it becomes clear that Joe is under investigation and his partner, Rick, is to testify as a witness to the shooting. You pick up pretty quickly that this may be a case of excessive police brutality resulting in a death that should not have occurred.

Joe then receives a 911 call from Emily Lighton (Riley Keough). Emily sounds distressed but does not clearly articulate why she has called 911. Joe initially thinks she’s drunk, but he then hears a man’s voice in the background and he deduces she has been taken against her will. He proceeds to ask yes and no questions and pieces together she’s been abducted.

The movie’s strength and delivery of thrills comes from its lead actor, the fact that virtually all scenes are from the confines of the 911 call centre and the voices from the people on the other end of the phone.

Joe goes above and beyond to piece together what has happened and he concludes the following: 1) Emily has been abducted by her husband, Henry Fisher (who has served time previously for a DUI), 2) They have a daughter, Abby, and a baby son, Oliver, who has been left home alone, and 3) Oliver has been killed by Henry.

As the film progresses, you can see Joe is unravelling. He starts breaking protocols and doing things that you would not be allowed to do when working in a 911 call centre. For example, he is able to get Henry’s phone number and calls him directly, unleashing a diatribe of anger, yelling at Henry to give himself up and return Emily unharmed. Another example involves him calling his sergeant, Bill Miller (Ethan Hawke) to get an officer to go to Henry’s place and “kick down his door”. Joe’s emotional entanglement in Emily’s fate is driven by the one thing that he has refused to acknowledge.

That he is guilty of manslaughter, killing a 19-year old man in the line of duty, when he didn’t need to.

His desperation for redemption is through saving Emily. But the twist comes when he discovers, to his horror, that Emily is the one responsible for hurting Oliver, her son. Turns out that she suffers from a mental disorder, took a knife to her crying baby boy because she thought he was in pain with snakes in his belly. This is done all over the phone, so you don’t see any of this, but from the audio alone, you feel the horror that Joe feels. Henry is actually trying to take Emily to a psychiatric hospital. There’s flaws in all of this because Henry should have called the ambulance and the police. The fact he tries to whisk Emily away to a psychiatric hospital leaving Abby and Oliver by themselves is illogical (all the more so because he would have found that Emily had hurt Oliver). That aside, Joe realises his mistake. When he eventually is able to get a hold of Emily, she’s standing on an overpass overlooking the freeway and you know she is contemplating suicide. Joe pleads with her saying the Abby and Henry needs her, but it is only when he confesses to the shooting of the 19-year old man that Emily pauses.

By confessing his guilt, he saves Emily and later finds out that Oliver has not been killed but is in intensive care. The film ends with Joe calling Rick and telling him to testify to the truth and recant his original statement, which assumes that Joe did everything by the book in the shooting. Joe then calls Katherine Harbor and tells her he’s going to plead guilty to manslaughter.

The pressure valve is released. Though Joe knows he will serve years in prison and not see his daughter, he knows he has taken the correct course and will not be eaten away by guilt.

And thus, the truth has made him free.

Gyllenhaal is in fine form throughout the film. I was unaware at the time that The Guilty is an American remake of a Danish film of the same name. From what I can gather, the Danish original is far superior, but having not seen it, I am free to view the American remake without bias. Through those lens, I enjoyed the thrills this movie delivered.

7.5 out of 10

TL;DR – the hero’s journey of Raya has the usual splash of Disney formula as she embarks on finding the pieces of a magical gem that will banish the evil spirits of the Drunn and reunite the land of Kumandra.

Review (warning: spoilers)

Visually stunning, Raya and the Last Dragon, takes you on a journey to the mystical land of Kumandra where evil spirits known as the Drunn are seeking to destroy life and turn all creatures into stone. In an act of sacrifice, five dragon guardians combine their magic to create a gem that banishes the Drunn. Though the land is revived, Kumandra separates into five tribes – Heart, Fang, Talon, Spine and Tail and in the ensuing centuries, they battle for possession of the gem.

Fast forward five hundred years and we are introduced to Raya, the daughter of the chief of the Heart tribe who are the current protectors of the gem. Raya’s father wants to reunite Kumandra with the other four tribes. He extends an olive branch and invites the other tribes to a feast with the aim towards reconciliation, healing and peace.

Of course, you know that is not what is going to happen. Jealousy, betrayal, hatred reveals their ugly heads and the gem is fought over resulting in it breaking into five pieces. One piece whisked away by each tribe, unleashing the Drunn back into existence and causing everyone in the Heart tribe to be turned to stone by the evil spirits except Raya, who is saved only through her father sacrificing his own life.

There are plenty of not-so-subtle messages throughout the film. The Drunn arguably a manifestation of humanity’s own fear and avarice; the Heart tribe being the first to turn to stone (stone hearts representing absence of love, kindness and compassion); the Fang tribe triggering the betrayal (‘fangs’ always linked to snakes that represent the idea of evil and greed); the dragon-shaped river, its water a barrier that the Drunn cannot cross, symbolising the flow of life and if it were to ever dry up then the Drunn would roam freely and cause death; and how trust and forgiveness are the only true tools that can put back together a broken land.

All these messages are reflected through Raya’s story and her actions. Her journey to locate Sisu, the last dragon, and ask her to create a new gem shows a misguided belief that she alone can free her father and the rest of the Heart tribe from petrification. Because she experienced betrayal that resulted in her tribe’s destruction, she trusts no one and hunts for six years trying to locate Sisu. When she finally finds the last dragon, Sisu reveals she cannot make another gem for it was formed through the sacrifice of her four siblings.

Raya decides to then steal back the other four pieces of the original gem and put it back together with Sisu’s help. Along the way she encounters interesting and unique individuals from each tribe who join her on her quest. Still, Raya has trust issues and it is only when they all converge in the tribal lands of Fang, does Raya realise that the true path forward in overcoming the Drunn and healing Kumandra is through forgiveness, love and sacrifice and having heart spine, fang, talon and tail work together (see what the writers did there?)

Plenty of symbolism, none of it subtle, but that does not detract from an enjoyable film for young and old. Disney cannot help themselves from putting in their own touches. For example, for all its Asian cultural references, Sisu’s personality reminded me a bit too much of the genie from Aladdin or Mushu from Mulan. Sisu represents the age-old conscience companion in many Disney flicks (Jiminy Cricket would be proud). Another example, is the need for other way-too-cute characters like Tuk Tuk, who is a cross between an armadillo and a pill bug, that is Raya’s pet, and later grows into her steed and primary mode of transport (I definitely want my own Tuk Tuk). Disney tries to go against type with another too-cute character, Little Noi who Raya meets in Talon. Little Noi is depicted as an infant girl with chubby cheeks and infectious smile but turns out to be a con-artist. The end result is mixed and not entirely effective.

The finale is suitably driven by all that has come before and Raya’s culmination of heartbreak and emotions leading to the revelation that vulnerability and openness are her greatest strengths. Outstanding animation, solid plot, colourful characters and Disney’s trademark soundtrack (it is all orchestral and there are no musical numbers. This was the right decision and the characters are made all the better for it. Thank goodness!) Raya and the Last Dragon is a worthy addition into the Disney canon.

8 out of 10

TL;DR – an artificial intelligence achieves consciousness and seeks to decide whether it should save, enslave, or destroy humanity. It chooses Carol, an ordinary woman, to learn about humans and gives her three days to convince it that humans deserve to be saved.

Review (warning: spoilers)

Carol Peters (Melissa McCarthy) was working as a corporate executive, but unhappy in her job, she now does different part time work while searching for fulfilment in her life. She broke up with her boyfriend, George (Bobby Cannavale) of three years, to climb the career ladder and put her professional aspirations first. And, of course, she now regrets it.

One morning, she wakes up and discovers that all the electronic equipment in her apartment is able to communicate to her because an artificial intelligence known as ‘Superintelligence’ (voiced by James Corden) has become aware and seeks to learn about humans. It needs an average baseline guinea pig and chooses Carol for her averageness and embarks on studying her interactions with others in order to determine whether to wipe out humanity or save it.

Of course when the NSA discovers the existence of the superintelligence, they freak out and get the president’s permission to execute a plan involving blacking-out the entire world and forcing the superintelligence into a data server outside Seattle. They, of course, obtain cooperation from all the other countries faster than a kettle boiling with apparently no need to provide evidence of the superintelligence’s existence or its desire to make humans extinct (yeah, don’t think about this too much).

For an action romantic comedy, Superintelligence has the potential to explore hard truths in humorous or satirical ways. In this day and age, where people connect through Tinder, social networks, and other dating websites/apps, there is much that could have been said. For example, biting commentary around relationship compatibility through computer algorithms, our reliance on Instagram likes, the unreality of Facebook posts, or any number of ways we now rely on technology to somehow achieve happiness.

Instead, what we get is surface level comedy such as Carol brushing her teeth with an electric toothbrush, and the Superintelligence telling her to brush in circles rather than up and down because it can sense how she brushes by being ‘inside’ the toothbrush. And also reminding her to floss.

We are also meant to chuckle when the NSA executes their plan for the black-out and relying on typewriters, carrier pigeons, and table length paper maps of the world (can’t have the Superintelligence know what they are up to even though it has ‘eyes’ in every electronic device in every part of the world and would not be suspicious at all seeing the Government bunker down in a cabin that has a Faraday cage blocking all electromagnetic fields).

The deepest question the Superintelligence asks is what would Carol do if the world was ending in three days. And that leads to her revealing George and her desire to reconcile with him. What follows are scenes where the Superintelligence helps her reconnect and doing things like pretending the Tesla she drives malfunctions forcing her to go up to George’s house after their non-date (that is really a date) to ask if she can use his phone to call a cab.

Yes, it is all pretty silly and sweet and thus missing out on saying anything of real meaning about the world we live in today. A shame because the cast is very good especially McCarthy who does what she can with the limited material. Even if Director Ben Falcone intended this film to be light and airy, the screen writers could have injected a modicum of insight through the dialogue between Carol and George. I was not expecting relationship insights on the level of When Harry Met Sally but when you write a romantic comedy story, the bite is in the two characters interactions with each other and some sort of conflict that drives them apart making them realise they should be together. The ‘conflict’ between Carol and George is simply that George is leaving for Ireland in three days and Carol does not want him to leave. It is all tepid and no heat. The pair not helped by a script that falls way short on delivering comedy and while you feel the attraction between the pair, there is not a sense of any real internal conflict. George wants Carol, Carol wants George, Carol knows the world might end in three days, George is oblivious to this and wants to fly her over to Ireland after a few months once he has settled.

Potential wasted, this film does not reach the lofty heights of its title.

4 out of 10