LOST GIRLS : Wednesday 25th March 2020.

In these very trying and testing times for us all that has seen many cinema's, Odeon's, and movie theatres around the world close their doors for the foreseeable future because of the escalating threat of the COVID-19 Coronavirus taking an ever increasing hold on the world at large, many film and television productions halted in their tracks indefinitely, and new film releases pushed back to some future date when some sense of movie going normalcy is expected to resume, I have, needless to say, had to adapt to this new world order. And so with my usual Reviews of the latest cinematic releases being curtailed, instead I will post my Review of the latest release movies showing on Netflix until such time as the regular outing to my local multiplex or independent theatre can be reinstated.

In the last few weeks then, a number of new feature films have landed at Netflix - of which I review as below 'Lost Girls' which I saw from the comfort of my own sofa on Wednesday 25th March.

'LOST GIRLS' is Directed by the American documentary filmmaker, Producer and Writer Liz Garbus, whose previous notable works include 1998's 'The Farm : Angola, USA' which was nominated for an Academy Award, 'The Ghosts of Abu Ghraib' which won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Non-Fiction Special, 'Bobby Fischer Against The World' which opened the Sundance Film Festival Premier Documentary Section, 'Killing in the Name' also nominated for an Academy Award, 'Love, Marilyn', and 'What Happened, Miss Simone?' again nominated for an Academy Award. This is Garbus' first full length feature film debut after her previous 30+ documentary outings. This film is based on a true unsolved murder mystery as recounted in the book 'Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery' by Robert Kolker. The film saw its World Premiere showing at the Sundance Film Festival in January this year, and was released in mid-March on Netflix.

The film opens at night, with a girl running and screaming down a deserted dirt road being pursued by a vehicle behind with its headlights glaring. The girl frantically runs into scrubland, never to be seen again. It is May 2010. Fast forward a few days, and mother of the 24 year old girl in question Mari Gilbert (Amy Ryan) has been leaving text messages for her daughter Shannan Gilbert, and her sister Sherre (Thomas McKenzie) has been leaving voicemail messages all of which have gone unanswered. Mari visits the local Police Station who reveal to her that Shannan made a 911 call from Oak Beach, Long Island at 4:51am, the alleged night of her disappearance. Playing back a recording of that call it sounded as though Shannan was panicked and running at the same time, although the Police authorities took over an hour to respond to the call arriving at the scene at 6:10am by which time there was no trace of the girl.

Shannan we later find out was a sex worker, and was put into foster care when she was twelve years old by her mother who couldn't cope with her daughters bipolar disease and who as a single mother struggled to make ends meet, as she still does, working two jobs and on occasion has asked her daughter for a handout, while remaining mute about where Shannan gets her money from, although secretly knows the truth. This secret however, rises to the surface once Shannan is officially declared a missing person, leaving Mari to reveal the truth to daughters Sherre and Sarra (Oona Laurence).

While the Police undertake a search for Shannan within the Oak Beach community, they come across the remains of a body, then another, then another. Soon in the fullness of time, ten bodies are recovered in a stretch of wasteland bordering the affluent Oak Beach gated residential community. Mari crosses paths with Police Commissioner Richard Dormer (Gabriel Byrne) who is handed the case, and ploddingly goes through the motions in an attempt to locate her missing daughter and uncover who is behind the murders.

In the meantime, the hardworking, angry and determined Mari has become the surrogate leader of the mothers of the other identified girls whose bodies were discovered in the process of searching for Shannan. They decide to hold a vigil at Oak Beach - all of them feeling ignored and demoralised by the lack of support from the authorities, until one year in, and Mari persuades Dormer to dredge the swamp which was the one place that the Police had not looked because it was practically inaccessible. In the intervening period, a local tip off had alerted Mari to Dr. Peter Hackett (Reed Birney) the local overseer of the Oak Beach gated community who seems to have plenty of circumstantial evidence stacking up against him, but nothing concrete.

Eventually, Shannan's body is discovered in the swamp, but more than twelve months after her reported disappearance, and all because the swamp was deemed too hard to search by the Police. Had it not been for Mari's dogged determination and relentless pressure on the Police to do something, perhaps Shannan's body may never have been uncovered. The Police and public at large didn't seem to take Mari and those other mothers seriously because they're women, perhaps from a less well off background, and because her daughter in particular was involved in an often dangerous profession with a history of being judged and often condemned.

Before the closing credits roll we learn that still eight years on the Long Island serial killer who Police believe was responsible for between ten and sixteen murders over a period of twenty years still to this day remains unsolved. Investigators believed that Shannan died of an accidental drowning that was unrelated to the crimes of the Long Island serial killer, but Gilbert challenged the finding and fought to have the case reopened as a murder investigation. An independent autopsy sought by Gilbert’s family found that Shannan may have been strangled to death. We also learn that on 23rd July 2016 Mari Gilbert was stabbed to death by her daughter Sarra who suffered from schizophrenia. Sarra was charged with second-degree murder and fourth-degree possession of a weapon, convicted of murder, and sentenced to 25 years in jail in August 2017. A truly sad case in every respect!

I have to say that 'Lost Girls' is an attention grabbing, compelling film delivered in all its grey, gloomy overcast atmospherics. A standout performance from Amy Ryan as the fractured yet defiantly stoic and determined mother who by needs must rises to the occasion in which she has been unjustly thrust, also makes this a watchable film that straddles the line between documentary and narrative feature that Director Garbus has so deftly crafted here. In the end its a story without any closure or a happy ending, just a mothers grief at uncovering the dead body of her eldest daughter abandoned in a swamp, and ultimately the mother too died prematurely. It's hardly a rewarding watch, and at times the story plods along without really going anywhere had it not been for Mari's sheer resolve in frustratingly getting the local law enforcement to get up of their butts and take her case seriously, and for her disruption of the Oak Beach local community. This isn't your usual murder mystery procedural whodunnit in which the bad guy goes down and, in fact quite the opposite, as this case still remains very open ended with no convictions, no suspects, no persons of interest and very little evidence save for the corpses of sixteen  unfortunates, and it's this fact that elevates 'Lost Girls' above those others in the genre.

'Lost Girls' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapboard from a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

SOUTHPAW - Saturday 22nd August 2015.

'SOUTHPAW' which I saw last night, is a film that owes a lot to Sylvester Stallone - the Writer and Star of the 1976 classic boxing film 'Rocky' that won three Academy Awards, was made for just US1.1M and grossed over US$225M and spawned five sequels with another indirect instalment due in November this year - 'Creed'. All of that said there are many similarities between these two films that makes it hard not to draw comparisons, but, this is a respectable film with a solid enough story and its pugilistic star Jake Gyllenhaal as World Light Heavyweight Champion Billy Hope is a standout for a number of reasons.

In case you didn't know BTW, a 'Southpaw' is a left handed Boxer, and in this case we refer to here one very talented, beefed up, toned up, muscled up, six pack brandishing Jake Gyllenhaal in the lead role who lost 10kgs of weight for his last offering (the excellent 'Nightcrawler') to packing on 16kgs of muscle for this film, and it shows! Directed by Antoine Fuqua this film was made for US$25M and has already raked in over US$65M since its 24th July release Stateside.

Unlike Rocky Balboa's story of a down at heel boxing bum whose grit & determination see him rise up in a rags to riches tale, this is a riches to rags telling of a no hope boxing bum kid who has already risen up and is now at the top of his game and enjoys all the trappings of success. He has a huge house in New York, a fleet of cars at his disposal, his child Leila (Oona Laurence) is at private school and his pretty wife Maureen (Rachel McAdams) organises his life in almost every respect. Plus, he has an entourage of trainers, assistants, a manager Jordan Mains (Curtis '50 Cent' Jackson) an accountant, housemaids and so on. Life is good and he's just defended his title and won! What could possibly go wrong?

Well, you could get into a brawl at a charity event at which you have just spoken, be confronted by a challenger for your title who also disrespects your wife in public, and then she gets accidentally shot, bleeds out and dies in your arms while dozens of onlookers stand around gawping and helpless! Exit stage left Maureen, thanks for coming and rest in peace while Billy's life spirals out of control, he drinks, takes drugs, contemplates suicide, looses custody of his precious Leila, the house gets repossessed, the cars sold and everything he owns is gone!

To regain custody of his daughter he must prove to the courts that he is capable of providing for her in a responsible mature manner which recently has been beyond him. We see him as his life implodes and he struggles to come to terms with the sudden death of his wife, his new responsibilities, his rapidly dwindling wealth, he's out on the street and everyone has abandoned him as a no hoper has-been now.

He joins a back street gym to keep fit and get a cleaning job. That gym is owned and operated by former boxer Titus 'Tick' Wills (Forest Whitaker) - sounds like familiar territory when Rocky teamed up with Mickey Goldmill (Burgess Meredith) - and gradually over time the two win a mutual respect for each other. Tick agrees to (re)train Billy back to fighting strength and agility for a chance at redemption against the challenger Miguel 'Magic' Escobar (Miguel Gomez) who taunted him that ill fated night of Maureen's shooting. What follows is a back to basics low-tech training regime the like of which we saw in 'Rocky' too with Tick, like Mickey, proclaiming that it has to be done his way, or its the highway!

Amidst all of this Billy is still trying to convince the authorities that he is fit to take back charge of his daughter, but they remain unconvinced so she remains in the stewardship of Child Services, steadily distancing herself from him. All comes good in the end though as Billy accepts what he must do in order to win back his daughter and reclaim his place in boxing history, as well as his integrity having fallen so publicly from grace. With six weeks only to the big showdown at Caesar's Palace the pressure is on from a personal and professional level.

The final fight scene sees Billy reunited with Leila and she watches on from the comfort of a suite in the arena while Billy and Escobar go head to head in the ring, with Billy very much the underdog (as was Rocky when he went head to head against Apollo Creed). Round after round the two pugilists pummel each other with the fight not expecting to go beyond three of four rounds (cue another 'Rocky' marker) but of course it does, all the way up to a bloody embattled twelve when with a killer southpaw punch Escobar is sent flying horizontally backwards amidst arcs of glorious blood and sweat slo-mo. In the final analysis Billy is declared the winner by a split decision (in 'Rocky', Creed was declared the winner by a split decision too which set up 'Rocky II' nicely for the rematch of the century), and Billy and Leila live happily ever after, we assume, and once again all is good in the world.

I don't mind a pugilistic film offering at all and have seen many, and when it stars Jake Gyllenhaal what other reason to you need to see a film? His transformation into the role physically is impressive, and his lost fractured and struggling character is a testament to his range. The story may be familiar, offering little that is original or new, but it is the deft hand of the Director, there are strong performances from its lead especially and solid believable dialogue that carry this film forward, and ensures it punches above its weight. But, unlike Rocky it didn't keep me on the edge of my seat in the all important boxing ring sequences that for me make this a lesser offering . . . but only just!



-Steve, at Odeon Online-