Gringo

First Hit: This was a quirky film that I liked more than I thought I would with a few over the top scenes.

I didn’t know what to expect from this film and that was a good thing.

The premise is that Richard Rusk (Joel Edgerton) and Elaine Markinson (Charlize Theron) run a pharmaceutical company that is struggling to survive. Working for them is Harold Soyinka (David Oyelowo) who is a close friend of Richard.

Harold oversees their drug producing operations in Mexico. Unbeknownst to Harold, Elaine and Richard have made a deal to sell the company and a new formula to someone else. However, another group knows about this new formula that will make someone a lot of money. This formula is in a safe in the Mexican operational building.

Additionally, Harold is out of the loop about his wife, who has asked him for a divorce. He doesn’t know that his wife is having an affair with Richard.

Despondent over his impending divorce, and discovering his bosses do not support him, he quits his job and plans to disappear in Mexico.

Throughout all this, the deal with the purchasing pharmaceutical company is falling apart, the formula has been stolen and warring factions are brought into play. Then Richard hires his mercenary brother Mitch (Sharlto Copley), to find Harold, kill him if needed, and help resolve the theft.

All of this sets up situations that are both suspenseful and over the top funny. Some of the funniest scenes are with Elaine as she uses her sexuality to lure people to decide things her way.

Edgerton was good as the sex charged company man. Theron was over the top funny and bawdy in her portrayal of Markinson who wanted to get ahead using any means possible. Oyelowo was very funny as the trusting husband and employee believing that if he worked hard and obeyed all the laws, he’d be successful. The ending helps this ongoing riff. Copley was great and over the top and a skilled mercenary. Anthony Tambakis and Matthew Stone wrote this quirky screenplay that I enjoyed. Nash Edgerton did a fine job of getting the actors to engage in this film.

Overall: This film had enough laughs and engaging scenes to make it worth its’ while.

The Square

First Hit:  One of those films which got worse the more it went on.

With my senses heightened by the very intense and shocking film short that previewed before the main attraction, I was sorely disappointed by the uninteresting main feature, The Square. 

A film requires me to care about or engage with one or more characters so that I connect and watch it with engaged interest. The Square did nothing to invite me in. Why should I have cared about Raymond Yale (played by David Roberts)?

The perpetually frowning man doesn’t speak to his wife, is having an affair, cuts construction preference deals behind the owner’s back, and treats his workers rather badly.

The film makers ask us to care because he is having an affair with Carla Smith (played by Claire van der Boom) who is married to a mullet haired tow truck driver named Greg “Smithy” Smith (played by Anthony Hays) who is hiding ill begotten money in their house. Are we supposed to feel sorry for her? She doesn’t have any kids, has a job and could leave anytime she wants.

But no, she only wants to leave her husband for another man who ignores his current wife. Are we supposed to like Smithy? No, because Smithy invites sorted friends over to the house (one who wants to have an affair with Carla), and then orders Carla around like she is his slave (“get some food up the boys are hungry"). 

Do we have any history about either marriage? No, nothing. We’re supposed to take it on face value that we are to care about Carla and Raymond because they have great front seat car sex. As they make plans to run away together, they end up accidentally killing Smithy’s mother in a arson attempt to burn Greg and Carla’s house down to hide the fact that Carla is stealing the hidden money. 

As the film moves on, the accidental killing causes a chain of events which result in more hurt people, deaths and other stupid un-thought out actions. Sitting in the theater, I realized that writer and actor Joel Edgerton and director Nash Edgerton forgot a cardinal rule of filmmaking; get the audience to buy into the premise at the beginning of the film.

Roberts wasn’t given a chance to be effective because the script was restricted. Boom was better in her role but I found it difficult to get why she was married to Smith (Hays) in the first place. Hays was good as a jerk and a demanding chauvinistic Australian husband. Joel Edgerton wrote an ineffective script and Nash Edgerton's direction didn’t make it any better.

Overall:  This film was generally a waste of time, mostly predictable and poorly conceived and executed.