Although it’s ambiguous about much, Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island makes two things extremely clear: Leonardo DiCaprio is a seriously big movie star, and delivering on genre expectations excuses a multitude of sins as far as audiences are concerned.

The Scorsese-directed suspense-horror film has been number one at the U.S box office for two consecutive weekends, despite its stunning  collection of genre cliches, long-out-of-fashion narrative ambiguity, agonizingly slow pace, and few real surprises, along with the director’s usual arresting visual style. Thus a good deal of the credit must go to DiCaprio’s star power.

Telling the tale of a U.S. Marshall, played by DiCaprio, who with his new partner investigates the escape of a violent prisoner/patient at a federal detention and treatment facility on an island several miles off the coast of Massachusetts, Shutter Island employs enough horror and suspense cliches to scare off any discerning moviegoer. 

There are, for example, the isolated island itself (so reminiscent of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None and many other suspense stories), a stormy scene in a graveyard, wanderings through a confusing maze of corridors in an insane asylum, the hardnosed detective investigating a case that becomes much more complex than he thought it would, a sinister ex-Nazi, a character’s disturbing memories of wartime, classical music backing a scene revealing atrocities, weird people making perplexing claims, a character taking a hypodermic away from a doctor and injecting the latter, an automobile explosion, and many, many more.  (more…)

Big movie twists are fine. I appreciate them when they work and sometimes even when they don’t. There’s all kinds of gimmickry in storytelling and The Twist has always been one of my favorites. Regardless, we all love a movie twist that knocks us out; a “Sixth Sense” kind of twist where (with the help of the filmmaker) you rerun the story in your mind and feel a great amount of satisfaction as the pieces all come together. Even less successful movie twists work on some level. The last reveal in “Unbreakable” might not have been a “Sixth Sense” wowser but is arguably successful within the context of its own world and without the specter of its predecessor might have received the respect it deserved.

In order for this kind of twist to work, however, a film must accomplish two things. First, the story shouldn’t require the twist in order for it to be successful. What precedes the twist should be stand-alone compelling – a good movie all on its own.  Second, the twist should make you want to see the film again, and as soon as possible, because now what came before takes on an entirely new dimension that requires another viewing to truly savor.

And this is where “Shutter Island” fails. *SPOILERS COMING*

The two hours or so to director Martin Scorsese’s Big Reveal is a long haul, especially after you lose all interest after the first thirty-minutes due to a narrative that never gels or grabs hold. The acting is fine and the look of the atmospheric production is top-notch in that foreboding kind of way (aided by Bernard Hermann-esque flourishes in the score). But the mystery of an escaped patient on a big spooky island simply isn’t all that compelling. Nothing makes much sense once the second act really gets going, and while the Big Twist does work in explaining what came before, the thought of reliving two muddled unfocused hours was the furthest thing from my mind. (more…)

Is it better to live as a monster or to die as a good man? It’s a central question revealingly asked only at the end of an emotional ride in Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese’s latest film, “Shutter Island.” Set in 1954, Leonardo DiCaprio leads a strong cast as Federal Marshall Teddy Daniels, who visits a mental hospital while investigating the disappearance of a brutal female inmate. Ashecliffe Hospital, located at a former Civil War fortress on Shutter Island off of Boston’s harbor, is a haunting facility that Daniels believes is a cover for government-funded mind control experimentation. The fact that Daniels saw the horrors of such scientific experimentation as a soldier during World War II, and that the man responsible the death of his wife (Michelle Williams) is a resident of the mysterious institution spur his investigation, lending personal drive to his federal orders. 

But as migraine-fueled hallucinations intensify and the administration become increasingly secretive and restrictive, Teddy’s investigation forces him to confront the truth that the island’s doctors depict. And it’s ultimately left to the audience to decide what truly happened on Shutter Island. 

Set against the backdrop of a hurricane, nightmares are more terrific, sunshine more comforting—and scarce. Daniels and his new partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) arrive at Shutter Island to an oppressive symphonic score making the gray skies and dreary buildings exaggeratedly eerie. But for the rest of the film, music plays masterfully to emphasize mystery—or in the film’s most tragic moment, its absence and the cheerful chirping of birds accentuate the heavy emotions of the moment, allowing audiences to focus solely on the performances of DiCaprio and Williams. Supported by a strong cast, “Shutter Island” has had the best acting I’ve seen in a film so far this year, and I doubt it will soon be beat.  (more…)

You can find today’s Gregalogue, “People Died, WaPo Lied,” over at BigJournalism.com!

Tonight, we’ve got Chris Cotter, Imogen Lloyd Webber, Tom Shillue, and my mom! Also a very special Joshua McCarroll segment!

Teddy Daniels is a U.S. Marshal who’s having a really tough week. He’s incredibly seasick, yet has to ride a rickety boat across choppy waters to a place called Shutter Island. Worse, the foreboding location isn’t just a misbegotten piece of land; it’s actually the most unique prison on the planet – a place that houses the most criminally insane people imaginable, yet tries to do so with dignity rather than the physical and psychological abuse that was a hallmark of institutional attitudes of the time, 1954.

Daniels is heading over with his new partner Chuck Aule, to investigate the mysterious and seemingly impossible disappearance of a female murderer from her locked room in the dead of night at the island’s maximum-security Ashecliffe Hospital. Once there, the duo find that the hospital staff, led by the psychiatrists Dr. Cawley (Ben Kingsley) and Dr. Naehring (Max von Sydow), seem to be throwing up one obstruction after another, and a vicious hurricane is on its way in the dead of night. (more…)

With 9 reviews in and “Shutter Island” currently sits at 89% at Rotten Tomatoes. 8 positive reviews to 1 negative. (more…)

The payoff for sitting through a dozen craptacular releases is that one movie where you actually say, “Damn, that was worth the $11.50 and the kidney I spent to see it.”  As a modern moviegoer, you must be an eternal optimist.  You must hope against hope that the trailer you liked didn’t contain every single good scene and funny joke in the movie, and that the reviewer who raved isn’t covering up some pinko agenda that’ll make you choke out on your Goobers. 

You have to believe that out there somewhere is an action movie director who knows what a tripod is.  That there is a young lead actor who has never starred in a CW television series about beautiful but sensitive teenage male models with supernatural powers.  That there is a comedy screenwriter who can imagine a “funny” situation not involving a bodily fluid.  That Michael Cera will one day play a different character.

In that spirit, a spirit of Pollyannaish hope in the face of overwhelming evidence indicating that Hollywood’s product will almost certainly continue to demonstrate that evolution is a two-way street, I present ten movies that are coming within the next six months that might actually be good – or at least not make me throw things at the screen and slap around the ushers. (more…)