The Town
I have decided I definitely like the kid's new job... Regal's theater comes with bennies...
Spoiler warning!
So, three weeks working and we're already on our second free movie. This is rather cool. Since she did not want to see what I thought looked interesting and she wanted to see something called Easy A... she got two differing passes.
The Town - set in Boston, Charleston suburb to be specific. Interesting tidbit - that area of Boston produces per capita the world record of bank robbers/armored car heist experts. The movie is full of conundrums and questions. Is nature or nurture the source of man's trouble? The protagonist (and yes, I avoid calling him the hero for a reason) is a second generation heist man. He specializes in jobs that leave little evidence, no one gets hurt, and they are in-out in minutes. That said, when it comes down to it, he is just as violent as his crew and has no trouble walking up to an apartment full of men he does not know and using a sledge hammer to break in and beat them because they MIGHT be the same ones who harassed the woman he's currently in love with - are they the same ones? Unknown because he was not there and she did not know their names... The so called good guy - a very driven, hard-assed FBI agent who is clean but not squeaky clean because he pushes the edges on legalities at times but he does not actually bend or break any laws that we see.
The cinematography is awesome - I love the vistas, no matter it they are eagle eye views down in to the old brick neighborhoods of Boston or the panorama view of a dying neighborhood covered in graffiti. The plot - well, I'm not sure there is an actual plot beyond the attempt to survive in a world where the characters seem to have few means of going past where they are or escaping their very rough world. The good guy does not win. The bad guy does not get away clean. The guy does not get the girl. The slightly crazy best friend/brother refuses to go back to jail so he grabs two empty weapons, stands up, and walks out into a hail of gunfire - death by cop.
All in all, the movie is well worth watching. Why? Because the characters are complicated and very realistic. The interactions are very well done and the little pieces of the character's lives that the viewer gets to see are very close to ones that are normal... picnics, children, grocery shopping, work... Their lives are neither black nor white but shades of gray. You can look at them and see the 'heroic robber with heart of gold trying to go good' or you can see the 'bank robber who finally learns right from wrong' or the 'kid in over his head' or the 'cop on the edge'... or. What can I say, I like complicated movies sometimes.
So, I liked this one.
Spoiler warning!
So, three weeks working and we're already on our second free movie. This is rather cool. Since she did not want to see what I thought looked interesting and she wanted to see something called Easy A... she got two differing passes.
The Town - set in Boston, Charleston suburb to be specific. Interesting tidbit - that area of Boston produces per capita the world record of bank robbers/armored car heist experts. The movie is full of conundrums and questions. Is nature or nurture the source of man's trouble? The protagonist (and yes, I avoid calling him the hero for a reason) is a second generation heist man. He specializes in jobs that leave little evidence, no one gets hurt, and they are in-out in minutes. That said, when it comes down to it, he is just as violent as his crew and has no trouble walking up to an apartment full of men he does not know and using a sledge hammer to break in and beat them because they MIGHT be the same ones who harassed the woman he's currently in love with - are they the same ones? Unknown because he was not there and she did not know their names... The so called good guy - a very driven, hard-assed FBI agent who is clean but not squeaky clean because he pushes the edges on legalities at times but he does not actually bend or break any laws that we see.
The cinematography is awesome - I love the vistas, no matter it they are eagle eye views down in to the old brick neighborhoods of Boston or the panorama view of a dying neighborhood covered in graffiti. The plot - well, I'm not sure there is an actual plot beyond the attempt to survive in a world where the characters seem to have few means of going past where they are or escaping their very rough world. The good guy does not win. The bad guy does not get away clean. The guy does not get the girl. The slightly crazy best friend/brother refuses to go back to jail so he grabs two empty weapons, stands up, and walks out into a hail of gunfire - death by cop.
All in all, the movie is well worth watching. Why? Because the characters are complicated and very realistic. The interactions are very well done and the little pieces of the character's lives that the viewer gets to see are very close to ones that are normal... picnics, children, grocery shopping, work... Their lives are neither black nor white but shades of gray. You can look at them and see the 'heroic robber with heart of gold trying to go good' or you can see the 'bank robber who finally learns right from wrong' or the 'kid in over his head' or the 'cop on the edge'... or. What can I say, I like complicated movies sometimes.
So, I liked this one.