REVIEW : Insurgent (2015)

And the Divergent series is back, this time with a longer and clunkier official title of The Divergent Series: Insurgent. But if I'm being completely honest, it came back with less bang than the first movie did.

Insurgent picks up from where the previous film left off: the main character Tris (Shailene Woodley), her very hunky boyfriend Four (Theo James), her brother Caleb (Ansel Elgort) who runs funny, and the very annoying git that is Peter (Miles Teller), have escaped with their lives and are seeking refuge in Amity camps. On the other side of town, the bad guys that are led by Erudite leader Jeanine (Kate Winslet) have found themselves a box that was guarded by Tris and Caleb's now-dead parents, a box that is rumoured to hold an important message from the Founders on what to do in case of a crisis. And there is no other way to open it than by using a Divergent. (It is only after watching the movie and refreshing my memory by reading the book's summary did I realise that this box and the tests needed to crack it open do not exist in bookverse. Apparently, it's not the only big difference there is.)

This whole thing? Doesn't happen in the book.

Be warned though : Insurgent is not a movie you can go into without watching Divergent first. The closest you have for a summary is Jeanine on monitors on the side of police trucks, explaining how every last Divergents—those who fit into too many boxes in their Faction society—must be hunted down because "they are a threat to the fabric of the Faction society.

I loved Divergent. I've never read the book, never planned on watching it in the first place since one can only take so much YA dystopian fiction before feeling completely nauseous. And maybe it's because of that, maybe it's because I never had much of an expectation in the first place, I was blown away by Divergent. Perhaps that's the beef I have with Insurgent; I was so blown away by Divergent that a certain level of expectation has been fixed, I needed something more, something better from Insurgent in order to be impressed. I thought Divergent was amazing simply because I had no expectations going in and it was easy to impress me. Insurgent had to try harder this time and it's sad to say that it didn't.

Naomi Watts plays Four's mother; it's just disconcerting that she looks like she's the same age as him.

It's not to say that Insurgent is bad; as someone who watched it because she loved the first movie, it was decent at best. Everything was just all right. The writing is just all right; the world that the series is set in seems to be a little less all right than in Divergent for some reason. If there's something in this movie that is better than all right, it would be Shailene Woodley's acting, and the special effects in Tris's dreams and the countless simulations she's thrown into. 

If there's one thing that fundamentally wrong with Insurgent when you compare it with Divergent is the soundtrack, or the lack of it to be more precise. I won't deny the possibility that the reason I love Divergent as much as I do was partly because of its killer soundtrack, scenes with Ellie Goulding crooning in the background or M83's ballad sending shivers down my spine, nothing of that sort exists in Insurgent. Who knows, maybe they spent most of the budget on special effects and allocated little to none for the music department.

In short, Insurgent is a much poorer sequel to Divergent on many fronts. Maybe they're trying to emulate the book series since each book becomes progressively worse in terms of quality and plot. But hey, that's a story for another day.

Raise your hand if you have ever been kissed by Shailene Woodley.

I rate it : 6/10 stars

THE GOOD : Shailene Woodley's acting and the special effects, that's pretty much it.

THE BAD : So much wasted talent in one movie (Naomi Watts, Octavia Spencer, even Maggie Q who returns from the first but has an appallingly short time onscreen in this installment); almost everyone seems to be an asshole in this movie

WATCH IT IF YOU...

• ...are a fan of the first movie. (Just don't get your hopes too high up)

• ...are a fan of the book series (Obviously)

• ...would like a reunion of Shailene Woodley's famous onscreen boyfriends.

INSURGENT (2015)

Genre : Sci-Fi Adventure

Runtime : 119 minutes

Director : Robert Schwentke

Cast : Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Miles Teller, Kate Winslet, Ansel Elgort

REVIEW : Whiplash (2014)

I watched Whiplash way before its official release in Malaysian cinemas. And when it was announced that it would be released on the 12th of March, my thoughts were something along the line of "About bloody time."

Whiplash doesn't go down the conventional road that most films about music usually take. Most films of this type would tell you that the greatest and most important driving force behind a musician is a passion for the art (or something along that line), but it's hard to tell whether or not this passion exists in Whiplash. Andrew Neiman (Miles Teller), a first-year at Shaffer Conservatory, is recruited into the school's studio band by Terence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons) who is the conductor. You'd think Fletcher to be a pretty chill guy in real life, that the real him is not like draconian tyrant in the music room, and he eases the newcomer Andrew with small talk, telling him to "relax" and "have fun".

That is until he decides to hurl a chair at him before hurling even worse insults. Insults that were twisted from Andrew's personal details and exploits his weaknesses and insecurities. 

Insulting one's father and mother, that's how low Fletcher can go.

Whiplash is a thrilling ride, an intense journey of a boy doing all it takes to earn the approval of his Devil of a mentor; a harrowing journey of a man searching for his own prodigy, his own Charlie Parker, even if it means he has to destroy said prodigy first.

You'll feel personally victimised alongside Andrew when Fletcher starts barreling abuses at him, but it's satisfying when Andrew fights back in small, small measures until that grand finale. 

And I do mean grand. By the end of all of it, you'd find that you've forgotten to breathe. 

It's no surprise that Simmons walked home with an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor after watching him in this movie. He does an absolutely incredible job portraying the menacing Fletcher. (FYI, Fletcher's character was inspired by director Damien Chazelle's music teacher from high school) It's not hard to be lulled into a false sense of security when he's tender and kindly, allowing yourself to think, "Maybe he's not a bad person..?", only to have those thoughts crushed when you realise how terrifying he actually is when he does things that can only be described as evil. It's a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde story, although with much more Hyde on-screen. 

Amy Chua has got nothing on Terence Fletcher.

However, you don't get a Terence Fletcher if you don't have an Andrew to terrorise, and while Miles Teller did not receive a nomination for the Oscars, he still deserves all the praises he can get. While in Simmons case it's a juxtaposition between an angel of devil, Teller plays his part convincingly as a kid who's hopeful in the beginning, yet gradually becomes more jaded as time goes on. He sheds his signature smirk for a more serious demeanor. Because Andrew is awkward, so is Teller. You don't have to be a drummer under a tyrannical mentor to know what it feels like to be in Andrew's shoes; Teller does that for you.

When all is lost, what is left?

There's really only one question asked in the entirety of Whiplash : what does it take to be a great? Passion? Talent? Discipline? Or maybe blood, sweat and tears in the most literal of sense? Does it take a walk through hell, sacrificing everything in the process, is that the price of greatness and success? To be the best, does it mean locking yourself up, isolating yourself from people you care and who care about you, playing till your fingers bleed, till you're torn and defeated on the inside?

And when all that's said and done, is it all worth it?  

And also, when it comes to raising greatness, how much to too much? How far do you have to push before everything backfires? 

(Okay, so maybe more than just one question.)

Whiplash doesn't answer those questions; it's up to you to gauge the right and wrong of Fletcher's teachings and Andrew's following. Along with these questions, when the last note is played and the camera pans for one last time, it's up to the viewer's own discretion to define what that final shot truly stands for,what Whiplash stands for, and what it means for the untold future of both Andrew and Fletcher.

"Not quite my tempo."

I rate it : 9/10 stars

THE GOOD : Acting by everyone was spot-on; great jazz music that is unlike the ones on a Starbucks' playlist; editing and cinematography are so tight that the intensity is real

THE BAD : To the trained individual, drummers especially, Miles Teller drum-playing may seem fake and off-sync; musicians may find the lack of fun and love for music to be ludicrous. (But still, not reasons for you to not watch this movie.)

WATCH IT IF YOU...

• ...want J.K. Simmons to teach you to swear in some pretty colourful ways.
• ...want to watch Miles Teller suffer.
• ...are not planning to take up jazz drumming anytime soon.
• ...like to hear your heartbeat in your ears and not breathe for 100 minutes or so. 

WHIPLASH (2015) 

Genre : Drama, Music

Runtime : 107 minutes

Director : Damien Chazelle 

Cast : Miles Teller, J.K. Simmons, Paul Reiser, Melissa Benoist