Movie Review Paradise City

Paradise City (2022) 

Directed by Chuck Russell 

Written by Corey Large, Edward John Drake, Chuck Russell 

Starring John Travolta, Bruce Willis, Stephen Dorff, Blake Jenner 

Release Date November 11th, 2022 

Published November 9th, 2022 

The effort that Director Chuck Russell puts into not putting John Travolta and Bruce Willis on screen together, despite their being co-stars in the new movie Paradise City, might have been better used to make a good movie. But, that's just wishful thinking. No, instead of bothering to make a good movie, Russell spends loads of time creating scenarios that led to his stars never sharing the screen at the same time. Why? Who knows. I'm not familiar with whether or not there is some issue between Willis and Travolta. 

All I do know is that they have a scene in the movie Paradise City where Travolta and Willis's characters, a wanted international criminal who underwent serious facial reconstruction, and the world's greatest bounty hunter respectively, are supposed to be sitting in a restaurant together. It's a flashback to an important face to face showdown that is edited to have only given us a vague sense that perhaps the two stars had been in the same room at the same time. 

The... inelegant, to the be charitable, camera and editing gymnastics that keep Travolta and Willis from having to breathe the same air in the same room are the most notable thing about Paradise City. Like me, if you waste your time watching this Z-Grade thriller you will spend most of that time wondering why Travolta and Willis never share the screen, even when their characters are supposed to be in the same room having an important confrontation. 

The movie opens with Bruce Willis in a car racing along some Hawaiian roadway. He crashes and retrieves a hooded figure from the trunk. He drags this hooded figure to the beach and waits for the people chasing him to come along. He tries to reason with, what appear to be corrupt members of law enforcement, Willis' go-to late in career villains, before he's forced to release his hostage and is subsequently brought down in a hale of bullets. 

The hooded prisoner is Travolta but we only find that out later when we see the aftermath of the shooting, Willis's bounty hunter miraculously survives, and with Willis fully out of frame and dying in the ocean, the hood comes off to reveal Travolta. Again, I don't know if there is some kind of beef between Willis and Travolta, it's just this weird choice the movie made. Perhaps they could save money by shooting their most expensive cast members separately, that seems logical, but regardless, it's deeply distracting and with the remaining cast headed up by Blake Jenner and Dollar Store Christian Slater impersonator, Stephen Dorff, it's easy to get distracted. 

Click here for my full length review of Paradise City at Geeks.Media. 

Movie Review: The Banshees of Inisheren

The Banshees of Inisheren (2022) 

Directed by Martin McDonough 

Written by Martin McDonough 

Starring Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Kerry Condon, Barry Keoghan 

Release Date November 4th, 2022 

The Banshees of Inisherin stars Colin Farrell as a farmer named Padraic whose life is thrown into chaos when his closest friend, Colm (Brendan Gleeson), randomly decides that they are not friends anymore. Without explaining why, Colm refuses to answer the door when Padraic comes to call at the usual time to go to the pub. Later, Colm returns only to find Colm has left to go to the pub. He assumes this means they will meet for a pint but at the bar, Colm tells Padraic to leave him alone. 

Did Padraic get drunk and offend his friend? He doesn't think so but Colm won't say either way. Eventually, after prodding from Padraic's sister, Siobahn (Kerry Condon), and the local priest, during confession, Colm finally says what is going on. In a blunt conversation, Colm says Padraic is boring and conversations with him are a waste of time. Colm wants to spend what life he has left, however many years that is, building a legacy for himself by writing music and creating art and he can no longer afford to have Padraic wasting his time with nattering, inane conversations about farming. 

The story of The Banshees of Inisherin is set in 1923 on a fictional island off of the coast of Ireland. The tiny village is lined with rock walls and dirt walkways and roads. Everyone is in everyone else's business all the time. Gossip is trade on Inisherin and thus, the unexpected conflict between Colm and Padraic becomes a top conversation. As the story evolves and the sweet, naïve, and sensitive Padraic tries to reach out to his friend, things take a dark and darkly comic turn. I don't want to spoil any of the oddity of The Banshees of Inisherin, the strange and unexpected twists and turns, especially from Gleeson's Colm drive the second start of the third act of The Banshees of Inisherin. 

The Banshees of Inisherin is strange only because it's a story that isn't often told in movies, a story of male friendship and companionship. Director Martin McDonaugh is exploring the complex dynamic of masculinity and friendship in a sensitive and terrifically odd way. The character of Padraic is representative of a group of men who define themselves in their work, they keep their head down and they let the world happen around them. Colm, through his age and experience, is eager to be a man with a legacy, a man to be remembered. He wants to make things happen while Padraic just wants to have a pint with someone. 

The unique dynamic between these two men, one complicated and fraught, the other simple and resigned, is fascinating as much for the heart and soul that Gleeson and Farrell invest in these characters as it is for the unusual topic of complicated male friendships. I'm resisting assigning political metaphors to each character but that is certainly one reading. One man thinking of the future and a legacy, the other wanting the world to stay as it is. One man willing to go to extremes to push forward the other lost in despair at what is being lost. 

Read my complete review on Geeks.Media 

Movie Review Anatolian Leopard

Anatolian Leopard (2021) 

Directed by Emre Kayis 

Written by Emre Kayis 

Starring Ugar Polat, Ipek Turktan, Tansu Bicer 

Release Date November 4th, 2022 

An incredibly sad man visits his daughter as she prepares to play as part of a symphony concert. He's arrived with a gift to give her and ever so briefly we can see happiness in his eyes. He's greeted warmly by his daughter but the camera captures the scene at a distance as the pleasantries of father and daughter aren't all that important. The brief pleasantries are interrupted by the arrival of a woman about the age of the sad man. Context indicates that this is the mother of said daughter. 

Trailing immediately behind the mother who immediately has taken over the scene with excitement and photos and selfies, are another older man and a young boy. Again, just reading the context clues, the dialogue is entirely made up of pleasantries heard from a distance as the camera remains several feet away across a crowded room, we know that this is the mother's new husband and son. The age of the boy indicates that the sad man and the mother have not been together in a long time. 

There is also a slight indication that the marriage ended badly as the two don't share even a minor pleasantry, she pushes past him and in his sadness, the sad man recedes into the background. It's not just the movement of the actors, it's the contrast in the costumes. The sad man is dressed sadly, bland dark colors, rumpled, and indistinct. The mother is dressed in a bright white expensive fur coat and the husband and son, though not dressed in bright colors, they are dressed in shades brighter than the sad man that help to notably set them apart. 

The cherry on top of the scene is the mother handing her daughter a gift. She has purchased a home in London for her daughter who appears to be traveling there to further her career. The sad man decides not to give his far more modest gift, preferring to slink away and leave quietly after the daughter excuses herself to hurry to the stage. The aching sadness of the scenario, the staging, the costume, all of this remarkable detail in this scene from the much hailed Turkish film Anatolian Leopard is delivered in barely more than 2 minutes of screen time. 

I adore this. I am celebrating the remarkable work of director Emre Kayis in this moment. Far too many films lack the skill to deliver this much astonishing yet simple detail without reams of expository dialogue. No one in this scene introduces themselves, we are asked to read the room and color in the details of the moment in our mind. That might seem simple since, as movie goers, we are trained to absorb mundane details, but when you watch as many movies as I do you come to appreciate moments like this where film technique tells the story rather than ham-handed screenwriting. 

This quiet, seemingly unimportant moment provides the back story of our main character, that incredibly sad man we will come to know as Fikret, though everyone calls him The Director. He has a daughter though they aren't close. He's divorced, unhappily so, and his wife has moved on with great success. He's humble, sad, reserved and ashamed. This scene is the thesis statement on the motivation for the rest of the movie, for everything that will come after this scene. It's just over two minutes and a complete statement about the character and this movie is set in place. 

Fikret is The Director of a state run Zoo in his home country of Turkey. The zoo is set to be torn down and replaced by a tacky theme park and The Director's career, the one thing that has defined the past 22 years of his life, is being taken from him. Rather than be bitter, The Director is resigned and simply awaits his fate like a condemned man. His every action is like a last tribute to who he was and goodbye the people he has met along the way. 

The only thing standing in the way of Fikret's condemnation is the Anatolian Leopard, a rare and endangered species of big cat. The zoo cannot be closed and torn down until the Leopard is moved safely to another zoo. Until then, the status quo of the zoo remains in place. Fikret isn't actively keeping the Leopard from being moved but he isn't acting quickly to comply with his orders either. Then, something happens that changes the movie from a bleak character study to a dark comedy of manners and mild murder mystery. 

It's a shift so subtle and ingenious that you catch yourself being surprised by your own smiles and chuckles as the film progresses. All the while, Fikret only occasionally rises from his stupor. The brief and muted comedy and the murder mystery happen around him in the margins, even as he is the catalyst for it all through one big and surprising decision he makes. That decision briefly brings light to his life via his friendship with his assistant, Gamze (Ipek Turktan) who helps him unexpectedly. 

The rest of Anatolian Leopard I will leave you to discover for yourself. I know mainstream American audiences don't see many foreign films but I do hope you will give this film a chance. It's small and thoughtful and incredibly well constructed and it deserves an audience. The performances are lovely and sad, the slow burn story and the quietly developed themes are exceptionally captured by a very skilled and caring director in Emre Kayis. 

Find the rest of my review of Anatolian Leopard at Geeks.Media. 

Movie Review Causeway

Causeway (2022) 

Directed by Lila Neugebauer 

Written by Elzabeth Sanders, Luke Goebel, Ottessa Moshfegh 

Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Bryan Tyree Henry, Linda Emond 

Release Date November 4th, 2022 

Published October 29th, 2022 

Apple TV 

12 minutes 49 seconds into Causeway... 

What have we learned?  Jennifer Lawrence is a former soldier dealing with PTSD. Having been shipped home to recover she'd entered a halfway house facility and was cared for by Sharon, a nurse. We don't know exactly what the nature of Lynsey's injuries are. We don't see any physical scars. We see her unable to walk at first. We see Sharon having to help her do tasks such as use the bathroom. We see her going through physical therapy and learning to walk again. 

And, before she leaves Sharon's care, Lynsey is running again and has recovered her physical capacity to the point where she thinks she's ready to redeploy. Sharon tells her to slow down. At the point where we have stopped, Lynsey is leaving rehab with Sharon and will be returning to her hometown. She claims that her mother will be picking her up at the bus station and that her brother may or may not be around as well. 

In terms of the filmmaking, director Lila Neugebauer favors dark, naturalistic interiors. The darkness of the cinematography is a visual companion to the darkness of Lynsey's mental state. Thus, when seen jogging and driving a car, and seeming happy, the lighting of the scenes is brighter, sun peeking through clouds, if you don't mind the metaphor. On the bus however, as Lynsey is riding home, we are back in the dark interior. Rain on the bus window, no lights on inside the bus, deep black shadows surrounding Lynsey as she takes a pill and darkness dominates the scene despite the fact that she's seated next to a window. 

Is 12 minutes 49 second long enough to be considered an opening act or do we have to wait a little longer to make that determination? These 12 minutes and 49 seconds are important to establishing who Lynsey is and what she's struggling with but are they merely exposition? They do seem to lack energy, though I can't imagine how one might get energy into such scenes. I'm curious but not wholly satisfied with the start of Causeway. 

Lethargy is part of Causeway but I don't mean that as a negative. Indeed, the tone matches the setting, a hot New Orleans summer. Lynsey gets a job as a pool cleaner and the hard work and sweat, paired with how generally tired Lynsey's brain injury has left her, the lethargy makes sense, it's part of the story. It also creates a tone of struggle and catharsis that presents physically while building to the emotional catharsis. 

Click here for my full length review at Geeks.Media. 

Movie Review: Black Adam

Black Adam (2022) 

Directed by Jaume Collet Serra 

Written by Adam Sztykiel, Rory Haines, Sohrab Noshirvani 

Starring Dwayne The Rock Johnson, Pierce Brosnan, Aldis Hodge, Sarah Shahi

Release Date October 21st, 2022 

Published October 21st, 2022

Black Adam is the film version of a shrug. It's a movie that exists and doesn't effect the world in any way. It's a mild, distracting, passing fad. I don't dislike Black Adam, but I am struggling to care about its existence at all. I admire Dwayne The Rock Johnson but he's distinctly average when not working with a great director and Jaume Collet Serra is not a great director. Serra is a serviceable director, a studio hack. Serra is the director you hire if you want a movie to be remarkably average. That's the best description I can think of for Black Adam, remarkably average. 

Black Adam tells the story of the fictional Middle Eastern country Kahndaq. For centuries Kahndaq has been subject to numerous conquering armies and dictators. Only once in history has the country been able to fight back against oppression. This was through the sacrifice of a Champion who stepped forward to destroy a great evil. This came at a great cost however, as the Champion, known as Teth-Adam (Dwayne Johnson), created immense destruction through his God-like powers in his attempt to stop evil. For this destruction, Teth-Adam was imprisoned for centuries in a tomb in Kahndaq. 

In present day Kahndaq, a researcher and professor, Adrianna Tomaz (Sarah Shahi), has discovered Teth-Adam's final resting place. This happens to also be where a crown of ancient evil power is located. Tomaz aims to take the crown and hide it away so that no one can wield its terrifying power. When she and her partners are nearly captured by an invading force, Tomaz uses her knowledge of ancient languages to recite a chant that raises Teth-Adam from the dead. Adam destroys the men who are chasing Tomaz and they begin a tentative alliance. 

Finding out that the 5000 year old meta-human Teth-Adam has been raised from the dead, Amanda Waller (Viola Davis in a minor cameo) dispatches the Justice Society to take Teth-Adam into custody. The Justice Society is led by Hawkman (Aldis Hodge), and his partner Dr. Fate (Pierce Brosnan.). Joining them for this dangerous mission are newcomers Atom Smasher (Noah Centineo) and Cyclone (Quintessa Swindell), meta-humans whose superpowers mirror those of Ant-Man and Storm from the Marvel Universe. 

The middle portion of Black Adam is taken up with The Justice Society facing off with Black Adam while ill-defined baddies take advantage of the chaos to try and steal the ancient cursed crown. The fight between Black Adam and The Justice Society amounts to a lot of chaotic wheel spinning. The one nice thing I can say about it is that Pierce Brosnan as Dr. Fate emerges in this portion of the movie as the most charismatic and interesting character in the movie. The debonair former James Bond plays an aging superhero with magic powers with a strong sense of dignity and good humor. It's honestly one of my favorite Pierce Brosnan performances in some time. 

As for Dwayne The Rock Johnson, well, he's okay. This is not a challenging role for Dwayne Johnson. He already looks the part of a superhero so playing the part was halfway done when he accepted the role. The problem comes in the scripting and direction which has Johnson partnered with a nattering teenager named Amon (Bodhi Sabonguo) whose function is to be a fount of exposition and then to be placed in danger to spark a big action scene. He's also played as a counterpoint to underscore the bravery of Black Adam's son who, in a flashback scene, is shown to have been the true freedom fighter in his family. 

Click here for my full length review of Black Adam at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review Triangle of Sadness

Triangle of Sadness (2022) 

Directed by Ruben Ostlund 

Written by Ruben Ostlund

Starring Woody Harrelson, Harris Dickinson, Charibi Dean, Zlatko Buric 

Release Date October 7th, 2022 

Published October 18th, 2022

I always feel like I am not one of the cool kids when I fail to love a movie that others have hailed as a masterpiece. That's unfortunately, how I feel about the Cannes Film Festival winner Triangle of Sadness. Triangle of Sadness is director Ruben Ostlund's latest examination of toxic privilege. After targeting gender roles in Force Majeure and the pretension of the art world in The Square, Ostlund's prime target this time is a group of very rich people aboard a cruise ship which sinks and leaves several very rich people at the mercy of the elements on a deserted island. I can see where the satire is but it never registers as funny for me. 

Is Triangle of Sadness supposed to be funny? I'm honestly not sure. I know I didn't laugh at any point in Triangle of Sadness though I was slightly amused by moments of it. So, if the point isn't humor, what is the point of Triangle of Sadness? Is it pouring puke and feces all over very rich people in a very rich person environment? That certainly does happen in Triangle of Sadness but I don't think it provides a point beyond how money can't protect you from choppy seas and bad seafood. 

The sight of an incredibly rich woman in agony as her dinner rockets from both her mouth and her backend is perhaps a shot at how money can't buy you a dignified end of your life. That's an idea, and one that is uniquely and gut churningly presented in Triangle of Sadness. Does the idea justify the shocking visual? That depends on your tolerance for bodily activities on the big screen. This happens to a character we don't know very well and can only assume is bad just because she is very rich and remarkably demanding in the few moments we do spend with her. 

There is no central character in Triangle of Sadness. Instead we have character types. Harris Dickinson plays a model on the edge of his career. Carl has had success and been the face of a brand for a time. That however, does nothing for him when he seeks to be the face of a new campaign. Now, he's just another handsome face in a handsome crowd. Carl is struggling and his struggle is reflected in his relationship with a successful runway model turned social media influencer, Yaya, played by Charibi Dean. 

On a date at a fancy and apparently expensive restaurant, Carl can't stop himself from getting into a semantic argument over who should be paying for dinner. Carl's annoyance is stemming from his insecurity both economically due to his seemingly flagging career and perceptivity, he's concerned about being a man who can't afford to pay for a fancy dinner. He couches this in the idea of male-female equality and how women want to be seen and treated as equals until the check arrives. 

Yaya, for her part, is having none of this conversation. She sees right through Carl's insecurity. It's not that she's a better person or smarter than Carl, rather, she's been rendered insensitive by never having had to struggle. Yaya is rich, beautiful and successful to the point that she has no idea how much money she has or when her credit card has reached its limit. The interaction between Carl and Yaya is interesting as a surface level critique of gender roles, privilege and masculine insecurity but the nagging argument lasts a little too long and doesn't have a real payoff leading to this plot petering out as it leads to the centerpiece of Triangle of Sadness, the yacht trip. 

The middle of Triangle of Sadness is about the notion of privilege, those who uphold and enable it, and those who are subject to it. We have Carl and Yaya whose privilege comes with the caveat that they must document their excess in order to remain in excess. Yaya's primary income comes not from her lucrative modeling career but rather as an influencer who wields clout to earn brand deals and must flaunt her privileges in order to remain privileged. It's an interesting dynamic but slightly undercooked in the execution. As with such modern satire, it too easily boils down to simplistic contempt for so-called influencers. 

The remaining rich vacationers are grotesque caricatures or clueless excessives who will have their privilege thrown back at them via Ostlund's vengeful seafood and toilets, as mentioned earlier. Again, if you lack a tolerance for such things being portrayed on screen, Triangle of Sadness is not for you. Ostlund goes all in on the puking, pooping, overflowing toilets and general chaotic grossness of a ship at sea with all things going wrong. I nearly quit watching the film at this point and it is a testament to my desire to experience Ostlund's complete vision that I did not simply walk away at this point. 

This section of the film also serves as an extended cameo for the most well known member of the cast. Woody Harrelson plays the captain of the yacht, a drunkard and a hardcore Marxist. When the Captain insists on holding his Captain's dinner on a night when the crew knows the seas will be choppy and illness inducing, it's this decision that leads to most everyone becoming violently ill. All save for the Captain who forgoes his dinner in favor of more booze. In drinking, the Captain is joined by a passenger and fellow drunkard, Dimitry (Zlatko Buric) who made his fortune in fertilizer, he is King Shit. Together, the two debate Marxist politics versus capitalism and subject the entire yacht to their debate via a loud speaker. 

Is it interesting? Yes, Woody Harrelson is a very compelling actor. That said, the deck is somewhat stacked in his favor as he debates Marxism with the Shit King, a Russian Oligarch on vacation with both his wife and his mistress at once. This sequence is interesting but it's not funny and it doesn't really strike any big chords. The Captain admits that his Marxist philosophy is undermined by his desire for the finer things in life and Dimitry admits that he's cut a lot corners and done a lot of shady things under the guise of capitalism and with an aim towards denouncing Marxism solely for the fact that it benefits him as a capitalist. Interesting but very surface level stuff. 

The final act of Triangle of Sadness occurs on a seemingly deserted island. The luxury yacht capsized after being attacked by unknown pirates and only several characters survived to make it to this island. With the survivors being Carl, Yaya, and several other millionaires who don't exactly have the kind of skills that translate to survival on a deserted island, leadership falls to a lowly maid named Abigail (Dolly De Leon). Because she is the only one capable of catching fish for dinner, starting a fire, and cooking, she has essentially seized the means of production and placed the ownership class in her employ. She decides who earns the right to eat and thus survive and if anyone displeases her, she can cut them off. 

Click here for my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review Amsterdam

Amsterdam (2022) 

Directed by David O. Russell 

Written by David O. Russell 

Starring Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Robert De Niro, Rami Malek

Release Date October 7th, 2022 

Published October 11th, 2022 

I'm late to the party on the new David O. Russell film Amsterdam. I didn't get an early preview of the movie and that gave me time to soak in some of what other critics have said. That also means I can look at the current discourse around the film, following its opening weekend at the box office, and offer a fair parsing of the movie as headlines in the online sphere hail Amsterdam as a bomb and a box office debacle and calling for the head of David O. Russell for daring to lose money for a Hollywood studio. 

Yes, Amsterdam is projected to lose around $100 million dollars once the box office dust settles. This means nothing more than the marketing campaign for the film was a flop and doesn't reflect anything about the movie itself. I think Amsterdam has some significant flaws but it is a well accomplished movie, perfectly on brand for David O. Russell and featuring several big stars delivering terrific performances amid a very clever, very funny, and wildly absurd and rage inducingly true story. 

Why is it that the movie as a whole takes the blame when the marketing fails? Let's be clear, the marketing of Amsterdam was a failure. The marketing failed to capture the best and most widely appealing aspects of the movie. For instance, the marketing fails completely at taking advantage of the romance between John David Washington and Margot Robbie and that is arguably the best element of Amsterdam, certainly its the most relatable and tangible element of this quirky tonally awkward absurdist comedy. 

Another reasonable question that is not being asked is why a studio spent so much on a story that was going to be a hard sell no matter how many movie stars are in the cast. Amsterdam is a film that succeeds or fails based on your taste for absurdly wordy dialogue, quirky characters, and other unconventional forms of satire. The studio behind Amsterdam have no excuses to hide behind, they could not have approved this script and this director without seeing the tough sell they had on their hands. 

For me, Amsterdam is a tough sell that I was sold on while experiencing it. I had little idea what I was getting myself into when I saw it, because the marketing campaign does little to prepare you for the movie, and I was won over in the end by the odd yet earnest and passionate film that David O. Russell and his team put together. The film is often mystifying and occasionally frustratingly obtuse but it works thanks to this incredible cast and a story so wild you will have a hard time believing it is true. 

Fans of The Dollop Podcast might recognize the story being told in Amsterdam. General Smedley Butler is a little remembered American hero. General Butler was a bit of an oddball but he proved himself as a leader on the bloody battlefields of World War 1. He, in fact, fought in five wars for his country over the years prior to World War 2. In the 1920s he became a hero of his fellow veterans when he supported the so-called Bonus Army, soldiers who simply asked the government for the money they were promised to go and fight World War 1. 

Butler's passionate defense of veterans made him a leader who could command his own army of former soldiers if he chose to do so. This was the opening that many in the business community, high end CEO's slowly carving up early 20th century America among themselves. They targeted Butler as a man who could displace President Roosevelt whose New Deal politics were taking money from the pockets of the wealthy to bring the poor out of poverty. 

These wealthy men preferred the approach Germany and Italy were taking wherein power was being concentrated at the top and dictators gave favorable deals to those they felt were worthy. Smedley Butler was their choice for puppet dictator of the United States and it is genuinely terrifying just how close to a fascist dictatorship America came. Had it not been for the integrity of General Smedley Butler our country couldd have been changed forever in the worst possible ways. 

Amsterdam is not exactly about what came to be known as The Business Plot. Rather, Russell approaches the true life story through the fictional and comic lens of these three oddballs who met and became life long friends in Amsterdam, in the wake of World War 1. Burt Berendsen (Christian Bale) is a doctor who was urged to join the army and fight in World War 1 by his rich in-laws who felt that a war hero would befit the ideal of the family in the public imagination. Harold (John David Washington) is a lawyer who was conscripted into the military and fought to be treated as equals with white soldiers. 

Burt and Henry are brought together by General Meeker (Ed Begley Jr.) who places Burt in charge the mostly black regimen where Harold is sequestered. Together, they make a pact to watch each other's back. If Burt proves to be a leader who takes care of his black soldiers, Henry will assure Burt that those same soldiers won't shoot him in the back. Burt accepts this as a fair trade and they go to war where they are severely injured. In Paris, the two are treated by Valerie, a volunteer medical worker on the run from her past. 

When the war ends, the three head off to Amsterdam to live the lives of hedonists and friends. In Amsterdam, Burt and Henry are introduced to a pair of secretive men whose work stands firmly between stopping the spread of fascism and the somewhat shady tactics of spy services. Mike Myers ad Michael Shannon play a pair of bird obsessed secret agents who use birdwatching as a cover for what we presume is spy activity. Myers and Shannon's characters protect our trio of friends in Amsterdam in exchange for an unspecified favor in the future. 

After 6 months of partying in Amsterdam and recovering from their wounds, Burt, who was badly scarred and lost an eye in the war, decides to return to America. With his newfound knowledge of European medicine and types of treatments, Burt hopes to help treat soldiers struggling to fit back into society after the war. Henry wishes to stay in Amsterdam with Valerie, the two clearly fall in love at first sight, but she soon vanishes and leaves Henry to return to New York alone to work alongside Burt. 

When the duo are hired to investigate the murder of their former General, General Meeker, the conspiracy plot begins to unfold. Robert De Niro stands at the center of the plot as a General caught between doing the right thing and the wealthy men who hope to use him as their puppet dictator to install a fascist government in the place of President Roosevelt. With the veterans who trust and follow him, De Niro's General has a standing army ready to fight with him and he must decide if he's for sale to sell out his country or if the truth and his integrity is more important. 

Realistically, yes, Robert De Niro has by far the most interesting character in Amsterdam. The characters portrayed by Christian Bale, John David Washington and Margot Robbie are all fine but it is De Niro as the General who recognizes what the underdogs are up against and his place within that conflict. And that is a complicated and lengthy description of a complicated plot. Do you now have a better sense of the marketing challenge of Amsterdam? Exactly how do you reduce this idea to 30 second commercials? I feel it can be done but the marketing team behind Amsterdam appears to have given up far too quickly. 

Click here for my full length review of Amsterdam.