KNOX GOES AWAY : Tuesday 22nd October 2024.

I saw the M Rated 'KNOX GOES AWAY' aka 'ASSASSIN'S PLAN' aka 'A KILLER'S MEMORY' earlier this week, and this American crime thriller film is Co-Produced, Directed and starring Michael Keaton who made his Directorial debut in 2008 with 'The Merry Gentleman'. This film saw its World Premiere screening at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2023, had a limited cinema release in the US in mid-March this year, has so far grossed US$654K and has garnered mixed critical reviews.

The film follows a contract killer John Knox (Michael Keaton), who is estranged from his wife and son and lives alone, only interacting with other members of his industry and Annie (Joanna Kulig), the Polish sex worker who comes to visit him once a week on a Thursday, has done so for the past four years, and who shares his love of books. One night Knox meets up with his partner Thomas Muncie (Ray McKinnon) and announces that he has to cut their dinner short as he has to go to the airport to fly out to San Francisco for personal reasons and will be back in 24 hours. Muncie presses him for the reasons behind his flight but Knox just reiterates that it's personal. 

There Knox has an appointment with a specialist doctor and is diagnosed with a rapidly evolving form of dementia called Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease. Knox asks him how long has he got, and the Doctor responds with weeks only. Back home, Knox quickly makes arrangements to cash out and retire from the business. Before that, he undertakes one last job with Muncie. 

During the job, after successfully killing his target but also unintentionally killing the woman who was with him in the shower, Knox accidentally kills Muncie in his dementia-induced state. He hurriedly stages the scene and leaves. Later that night, he is unexpectedly visited by his estranged son who he hasn't seen or heard from for many years, Miles (James Marsden), who tearfully admits to killing a man for raping his sixteen year old daughter Kaylee (Morgan Bastin), Knox's granddaughter. Miles is fully aware of what his dad does for a living, and so believed that his father was the only man he could turn to under the circumstances. Knox tells his son to clean up thoroughly in the shower, while he bags up all of Miles clothes.

Knox instructs his son to remain quiet to the authorities and to go about his normal business as usual. Knox later that night arrives at the crime scene and meticulously removes evidence that may incriminate Miles, while mysteriously storing them away for later use. Meanwhile, determined detective Emily Ikari (Suzy Nakamura) is on both murder cases, and resolves to track down the killer.

Knox later visits his long term friend Xavier Crane (Al Pacino), a former thief. Together, they hatch a plan to set Knox's family up for life while leaving the business behind, all while Knox battles his fading mental capabilities. Meanwhile, Detective Ikari links both crimes to a single perpetrator. 

She questions Knox with little or no clarity, and he later plants the evidence he had previously stored away around his son Miles' home, in an apparent act of betrayal. Miles is arrested for the murder of his daughter's rapist, and is visited by Knox in prison, where Knox accuses his son of ratting him out to the IRS in a tax evasion case several years prior, for which he spent six years in prison. 

Knox visits a cabin in the woods that he used to own but which his son sold two years prior. He breaks in and removes a stone tile from under a wood burning stove to retrieve a small pouch of diamonds. He then wanders off into the woods and gets lost but is picked up by a kindly hiker who calls Crane to come and collect him. Crane drives him home. 

Upon reaching home, he is confronted by a group of three heavy set burglars and Annie, who had become aware of Knox's dementia and the fact that he had been cashing out and ratted him out as a result. Overpowering them all and finishing them off each with a couple of rounds Knox confronts Annie at gunpoint and informs her that she would have gotten a one third share anyway, with the other two thirds going to Miles and his ex-wife Ruby (Marcia Gay Harden).

Despondent, Knox calls Xavier, who wishes him all the best before calling the Police as part of their plan, and telling them that Knox is at home with three dead bodies. He is arrested by Detective Ikari. The Police later discover signs that the evidence found at Miles house may have been tampered with, and planted there by Knox, leading to the conclusion that Knox may have framed his own son for the murder. When asked by Ikari on a possible motive, Miles, recalling his father's accusation of him in prison, responds accordingly, shifting the blame on to Knox. He is then released.

A few weeks weeks later, Miles visits his father in prison. Knox, now having fully lost his mental faculties, does not recognise his own son and is later moved from prison to a medical facility, having only weeks left to live. Miles and his mother receive equal shares of Knox's fortune now split just two ways, ensuring the completion of his retirement plan. Annie, who is spared, is shown receiving Knox's library and opening the cover of 'A Tale of Two Cities'. Knox is seen staring out of a window in a catatonic state. 

'Knox Goes Away' is a slow burn neo-noir crime thriller that doesn't feature explosions, car chases, or OTT gun play or close quarter combat. Instead, Director and star Keaton has delivered a character study that is engaging and nuanced, tautly wound and clever all at once, while eeking out top notch, albeit low key performances from its cast. As for the storyline, it's a little convoluted and almost bordering on the unbelievable, but that shouldn't stop you from enjoying this race against the clock for this hitman with rapid onset dementia to redeem himself to the people he cares most about. 

'Knox Goes Away' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

    

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

COLD WAR : Friday 11th January 2019.

'COLD WAR' which I saw late last week is a highly acclaimed Polish foreign language film that is Directed and Co-Written by Pawel Pawlikowski, and said to be loosely inspired by the lives of the Director's parents during the Cold War years of the 1950's in Poland. So far the film has won 22 awards and been nominated for a further 64 including being screened in competition for the Palme d'Or at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, where Pawlikowski took out the award for Best Director. It has also been selected as the Polish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards to be held in late February, and has recently been nominated for five BAFTA's. The film was made for under US$5M, has so far grossed US13M and has received widespread Critical acclaim. Pawlikowski's last feature was the equally acclaimed 2013 'Ida' which took out the Academy Award for the Best Foreign Language Film as well as 68 other wins and 84 further award nominations.

It is 1949, and in the ruins of post-WWII Poland, the chain-smoking pianist, composer and conductor Wiktor Warski (Tomasz Kot) is commissioned by the Soviet state to form a musical ensemble to help rekindle national pride. He is one of a select group of 'talent scouts' tasked with the job of touring around the Polish countryside from snow driven mountain sides, to the valleys and the remote villages and towns armed with a tape recorder to capture the authentic sounds of traditional folk music, songs and dances. In turn, the top talent is enlisted to a once stately home to have their special musical skills honed and be groomed by Wiktor and his Producer Irena Bielecka (Agata Kulesza) for national and international performances - all under the guise of propaganda intended to showcase Stalin as a leader of compassion and connectedness.

Whilst putting the new recruits through their paces Wiktor come across the beautiful Zula Lichon (Joanna Kulig), a blonde fiery and charismatic singer with a past, having allegedly killed her father, or so Wiktor is initially led to believe. And so the pair form a strong bond, that ultimately leads to a relationship that ultimately leads them to Berlin for their first international stage performances, by which time it is the early '50's.

In the meantime, the ensemble of chosen singers, dancers and musicians have undertaken numerous performances across their native Poland and have grown in popularity and reputation, performing to packed out theatres, stadiums and auditoriums across the country. Berlin offers the pair an opportunity to escape to the West and rid themselves of the oppressive Communism that stifles their lives. Zula tells Wiktor 'I will always be with you, everywhere, and until the end of the world'.

Just as the scene is set for their escape to the West, Zula has a change of heart and leaves Wiktor hanging at the checkpoint. A few years later the couple come together again, this time in Paris, and rekindle their love affair amongst the smoke filled environs of the city's jazz clubs, where Zula feels out of sorts with the snobby individuals who frequent such places.

By which time its 1954/5 and the sounds of Billy Haley's 'Rock Around the Clock' reverberate and hail in a new era of rock 'n' roll music, which Zula dances to like a woman possessed with anyone and everyone willing to dance with her, while Wiktor looks on nonchalantly. The pair have a disagreement and part ways, when Wiktor suspects that Zula has been having an affair with movie Director Michel (Cedric Kahn) whom Wiktor has been working with on a soundtrack for a film, and for which Zula has also performed some vocals, leading to her first release of an LP record.

We then fast forward a few more years, this time to Yugoslavia where Zula is performing with her former band of traditional folk performers in what appears to be a celebrated sell out tour. Wiktor has purchased a ticket, and during the show Zula and Wiktor's eyes meet. But, that is as far as this contact goes, as Wiktor is picked up by the authorities and man handled on to a train straight outta Dodge as some sort of illegal unwelcome immigrant.

Battling with the authorities who now claim that his passport has been revoked and he is effectively stateless, where does Wiktor turn to? He is told that he has but one option for repatriation back to Poland and that is to be interred in a prison camp for the next fifteen years for defection. It is now 1959. Zula too has become disillusioned with life in the West and yearns to return to her grass roots in Poland. She learns of Wiktor's prison sentence, visits him, and vows to help him get outta there.

Five years later and its 1964, and Wiktor has been released with the aid of his old friend Lech Kaczamarek (Borys Szyc) whom he worked with back in the late '40's in discovering the local traditional talent that brought the pair together initially. And so in the mid-'60's the pair are reunited to rekindle their love affair once again, but this time on their home turf where is all began fifteen years earlier.

The pair journey by bus to an old bombed out church in a remote village where they conduct their own marriage ceremony in front of a makeshift alter adorned with a couple of candles and which they mark by sharing abridged vows with one another and then each downing a handful of sleeping pills. They then retire to a bench under a tree overlooking sweeping fields holding each others hands in silence, when Zula perks up with 'lets move to the other side, the view is better from there'. Fade to black.

Filmed in stunning monochrome with an aspect ratio of 4:3, 'Cold War' looks and feels like it was filmed in the era in which it is set, and because of Pawlikowski's deft touch and eye for period detail is a film that will undoubtedly leave a lasting impression. The film is dominated by the two leading Actors who portray unrequited love for each other but are torn apart by political oppression, uneasy circumstances and betrayal as played out by two wayward souls who can neither be together nor apart, yet still defies geography and the passing of time. At times the film meanders a little and gets a little repetitive when our two star crossed lovers fall in and out of their stirring relationship seemingly so easily - not once, not twice, not three times but four times, but I guess someone once said 'love conquers all', and this certainly appears to be the case with Wiktor and Zula. Worth seeing on the big screen, and the film has a relatively short run time of just 88 minutes, so if your time poor but want to catch an impressive highly acclaimed film, then you could do a whole lot worse.

'Cold War' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-