Lately, we've paid more attention the to the e-mails we receive from our streaming services.....you know the ones we mean, where they warn you about the movies about to get kicked off the service, so you better assemble your rear end in front of your TV/Laptop/Phone before you miss them forever.
Usually these reminders detail films we've already seen or films we would watch only at gunpoint.
But Netflix caught our eye when they informed us the clock was counting down on these two we'd been meaning to take a look at for years......
And bless Neflix's streaming little heart, we're not sorry we carved out the time to finally catch up with them.....
The Gift (2015), written and directed by its co-star Joel Edgerton, is a razor sharp little exercise in the Cinema of Unease and Cringe.....and worthy enough of being called Hitchcockian.
It's a psychological thriller that slowly but sadistically turns the screws on both its characters and the audience. And when it's done putting out its last nasty twist, it leaves you not elated at its outcome, but somehow saddened at the sight of lives destroyed.
Young married professionals Simon and Robyn (Jason Bateman, Rebecca Hall) just moved into their luxurious glass-walled house. They're approached and befriended with creepy passive-aggressiveness by Gordo, a long forgotten high classmate of Simon's.
But something's not quite right about Gordon and it soon becomes clear he's out for revenge on Simon for some terrible incident that Simon perpetrated on him in high school, forever ruining his life.
And here's where we end the details, because the nerve-wracking fun of watching a story like this play out is why you watch a movie like this to begin with. Unlike the Fill-In-The Blank from Hell thrillers that ruled the 1990's ("The Hand That Rocks The Cradle"), director-writer Edgerton cleverly flips the script on the usual victim-villain dynamic, deepening the emotional stakes far more than the usual 'Nanny from hell/Landlord from Hell' were ever able to accomplish.
Even if you miss it before it Netflix ousts it, try to find it on another platform.....it's a four star gem. (****)
The Accountant (2016) stars Ben Affleck as a most extraordinary action-adventure protagonist. He's Christian Wolff, a wizard of an accountant who not only balances the books, he executes the crooks.......with Jason Bourne/John Wick efficiency.
An autistic savant with the skills of IBM's most powerful computer, his clientele seems to consist of mostly American gangsters and European terrorists. And as the guy who finds out where all the cash (and bodies) are buried, he usually has to slaughter his way out of trouble. No problem for Christian since his cruel, ruthless Army dad deliberately trained him and his brother in expert martial arts and sniper skills.
Affleck renders this character with surprisingly understated skill and even humor. This is one Rain Man who's going to rain death down upon anyone who's foolish enough to think he's just an accountant......cause he's as good at crunching bodies as he is crunching numbers.
Sensational supporting cast really puts this across....Anna Kendrick, John Lithgow, Jeffrey Tambor, and especially Jon Bernthal as an equally brutal rival freelance hitman.
4 stars (****). BQ says don't let this one get by you either.
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