Hafstrom, Mikael

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    ‘Slingshot’ Review: Trapped in Space

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    The paranoia sets in all too quickly in this spare psychological thriller, starring Laurence Fishburne and Casey Affleck.In space no one can hear you scream, and in “Slingshot,” no one can tell you if you’re losing your mind or not. That’s the spare premise of Mikael Hafstrom’s psychological thriller, a film that attempts to graft tropes of the genre onto the inescapable corners of a spaceship, but can’t find the actual parts to make the transfer.John (Casey Affleck) is on a high-level mission with two other astronauts aiming to slingshot themselves onto Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, in the hopes of harvesting methane as an energy source. Across the long voyage, the crew repeatedly enters hibernation sleep, which begins to fray their sense of reality. John begins seeing his lover on the ship and can’t tell if his other crew mate, Nash (Tomer Capone), is losing it himself as he begins scheming against Captain Franks (Laurence Fishburne).The paranoia sets in all too quickly in this awkwardly paced thriller, and it’s among a handful of defects in a film whose creative process seemed to begin and end with its final twist in mind, haphazardly and unconvincingly working backward to construct what’s necessary to build up to it.Even allowing for its small budget, the film has the look and feel of a cheaply produced cable sci-fi drama, an effect that isn’t helped by its clumsy narrative structure and dialogue, especially in the Hallmark-like romantic flashbacks between John and his lover (Emily Beecham).Affleck and Fishburne do what they can to salvage things, and the final stretch picks up some momentum as it becomes tense between them. But by then, watching them contend with each other is to see two actors as trapped as their characters are in their doomed spacecraft.SlingshotRated R for language and some violent, bloody images. Running time: 1 hour 49 minutes. In theaters. More

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      ‘Outside the Wire’ Review: At War With the Robots

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘Outside the Wire’ Review: At War With the RobotsThis Netflix film starring Anthony Mackie is neither curious nor bold in the ways it depicts a sentient robotic revolt.Damson Idris, left, and Anthony Mackie in “Outside the Wire.”Credit…Jonathan Prime/NetflixJan. 15, 2021, 11:12 a.m. ETOutside the WireDirected by Mikael HåfströmAction, Adventure, Fantasy, Sci-FiR1h 54mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.The director Mikael Hafstrom’s “Outside the Wire,” the latest Netflix combat film set in an exotic location, offers empty-calorie action in a less than fulfilling, Cold War-inspired robotic revolt narrative. The film’s redundant intertitles — several characters repeat the same information later — explain the outbreak of a civil war taking place in the year 2036 in Eastern Europe. U.S. troops, with the assistance of robotic soldiers called Gumps, serve as peacekeepers against the region’s ruthless criminal warlord Viktor Koval (Pilou Asbaek). Harp (Damson Idris), a dispassionate drone pilot, is ordered to the war zone as punishment after his cold calculation led to the deaths of two Marines. Paired with a top-secret android, Leo (Anthony Mackie), as his superior officer, he embarks on a mission to stop Koval from obtaining nuclear weapons.Like several sentient-robot films (“The Terminator,” “Ex Machina”), “Outside the Wire” presents an android-as-slave metaphor, except this time with a Black actor. While the Gumps are physically and verbally abused by their human comrades, Leo is equally dismissed as “not one of us.” And Harp, a Black soldier without the discipline to say “sir” to his superiors, is assigned to what amounts to a robot overseer in Leo. While this metaphor serves as the thematic backbone to Leo and Harp’s mission, the incurious script by Rowan Athale and Rob Yescombe leaves the conventional subject threadbare.[embedded content]The cinematographer Michael Bonvillain maps the shaky-camera style he used on “Cloverfield” — what Roger Ebert at the time called “Queasy-Cam”— onto the firefights in “Outside the Wire” to bewildering results. The film’s opening siege, for instance, depicting a platoon’s battle to recover a fallen comrade trapped in a crossfire, is spatially uncertain. Grainy establishing shots of the skirmish offer little visual information other than its location on an expressway. Without viewers knowing where, and at whom, the soldiers are firing, the onscreen action is rendered indecipherable. Mackie’s quirky performance — Leo ends every order to Harp with an uncomfortable smile — is likewise baffling. Under the guise of looming worldwide destruction, the film builds to an overwrought finish involving unsurprising betrayal, and even more undramatic twists. “Outside the Wire” is a futuristic war movie that lacks imagination in the present.Outside the WireRated R for extreme robot-on-robot violence. Running time: 1 hour 54 minutes. Watch on Netflix.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More