The Light Between Oceans

★★★★★ - A Review by Cameron Kanachki

"One day, this will all feel like a dream." That's an inspiring, but also, emotional quote from Michael Fassbender in The Light Between Oceans, an emotionally devestating masterpiece. Fassbender portrays Tom Sherbourne, who has just finished serving in the Australian military on the Western front of WWI. Tom, asking for some time alone to himself, accepts a temporary job as a lighthouse keeper on the secluded island of Janus Rock, a hundred miles off the coast of Western Australia, between the Pacific & Indian Oceans. Eventually, he is called back to the mainland town of Point Partageuse, where he is told that his job is now permanent. On the mainland, he meets Isabel Graysmark (played by Alicia Vikander), the daughter of the town's reverend. Eventually, after months of writing letters, they get married, & both return to Janus Rock.

However, after two miscarriages during their marriage, Isabel becomes severely depressed, sitting by the graves they set up for their stillborn children. One day, an astonishing event occurs. A small boat washes up on the beach, with a dead man & an infant girl in it. They look after the baby for a few days, before Isabel wants her & Tom to raise it. Tom wants to report the incident, so they could eventually adopt it, but Isabel, fearing that they wouldn't let them adopt her because they live in seclusion, does not want that to happen. She believes that since no one knew she miscarried again, they could say that she gave birth early & no one would be the wiser. Eventually, Tom agrees, buries the man's body, & they raise the girl, naming her Lucy, & all is well on Janus Rock.

Four years later, they return to the mainland for the first time with Lucy. While there, they meet Hannah Roennfeldt (played by Rachel Weisz), a local woman who encountered a horrible tragedy. Four years prior, her husband & daughter died at sea. They both recognize immediately that Lucy is Hannah's daughter, Grace. Tom wants to tell the truth, but Isabel is adamant that they do not tell her that they have her daughter. This leads to a harrowing series of events that changes everyone's lives forever.

Fassbender, Vikander & Weisz give heartbreakingly excellent performances, making you feel sympathetic for them all. The direction & screenplay from Derek Cianfrance is amazing, with Cianfrance directing another excellent film after 2010's equally emotionally devestating Blue Valentine, & 2013's underrated The Place Beyond the Pines. The film score from Alexander Desplat is beautiful. And the cinematography from Adam Arkapaw is breathtaking, with absolutely stunning shots of the ocean. This is definitely one of the best & underrated films of the year so far.

War Dogs

★★★★★ - A Review by Cameron Kanachki

"GOD BLESS DICK CHENEY'S AMERICA!" That's an absurdly hilarious quote from Jonah Hill in War Dogs, one of the funniest & best films of the year. The film is based on the book Arms & The Dudes by Guy Lawson. Hill plays Efraim Diveroli, who, in 2005, started a company called AEY Inc., which fills arms orders for the government for the war in Iraq, & gives his best friend, David Packouz (played by Miles Teller), a high-ranking job in the company. Packouz, although he is unsupportive of the war, takes the job on account of the fact that his also-anti-war girlfriend, Iz (played by Ana de Armas) is pregnant, his massage therapy job isn't paying much, & he's not good at selling bedsheets. Efraim tells David to bid for the smaller arms orders that still cost millions of dollars. One of these orders, an order of Berettas, sends them right to Iraq, after an arms embargo from Italy to Iraq deroutes the shipment to Jordan, but instead of waiting of a permit to fly the shipment to Iraq, they instead drive to Iraq & finish the deal, putting them on the map. 

Eventually, Efraim & David secure larger deals for more money, including a multi-million dollar deal to supply Afghanistan with AK-47 ammunition, but it sends them on a downward spiral caused by Efraim's instability & rising ego & a partnership with Henry Girard (played by Bradley Cooper), an arms dealer on the US terrorist watchlist.

Hill & Teller were extraordinary, with Hill playing against type by portraying a person with a growing antagonistic mindset, & Teller showing off more of his acting range. The direction from Todd Phillips was great. The screenplay from Phillips, Stephen Chin & Jason Smilovic was also brilliant. The editing from Jeff Groth was excellent. The cinematography from Lawrence Sher was breathtaking. And the soundtrack was amazing, showing that 2016 is a great year for film soundtracks. This is definitely one of the funniest & best films of the year so far, perfectly depicting the monstrosities of war & arms dealing.

Don't Breathe

★★★★★ - A Review by Cameron Kanachki

"Now you see what I see." That's a distrubingly terrifying quote from Stephen Lang in Don't Breathe, an absolutely tense, brutal, & unforgiving thriller. Lang portrays Norman Nordstrom, a blind war veteran from Detroit, who is still grieving from the death of his daughter after being hit by a car, with the driver being set free after her rich family from Grosse Pointe paid a large sum of money to him. Meanwhile, three delinquent teens: Rocky (played by Jane Levy); Alex (played by Dylan Minnette); & Money (played by Daniel Zovatto) decide to rob Nordstrom's house for the money. The three have robbed countless houses in order to fund Rocky's move to California with her younger sister in order to get away from her abusive & neglectful mother & her alcoholic boyfriend. After some reluctance from Alex, they agree to rob the house. However, when they go to rob the house, it completely goes awry; Nordstrom kills Money, & now, Rocky & Alex must find a way out & try to avoid Nordstrom.

Lang, Levy & Minnette were excellent. The direction from Fede Alvarez is excellent, along with the screenplay from Alvarez & Rodo Sagayues. The editing from Eric L. Beason, Louise Ford & Gardner Gould is great. The cinematography from Pedro Luque is brilliant. And the plot twist is one of the greatest in film history. This is a brilliant thriller, & is one of the best films of the year so far.

Hell or High Water

★★★★★ - A Review by Cameron Kanachki

"I may have one hunt left in me." That's a great quote from Jeff Bridges in Hell or High Water, one of the 3 best films of the year so far. Bridges plays Marcus Hamilton, a Texas Ranger just days away from mandatory retirement. Hamilton, along with his partner Alberto Parker (played by Gil Birmingham), who is repeatedly teased by Hamilton for his mixed Native American/Mexican heritage, are sent to find two bank robbers in economically downtrodden Northwest Texas. The bank robbers are brothers: Toby (played by Chris Pine) & Tanner Howard (played by Ben Foster), who have robbed multiple banks in order to save their family's farm, which has been recently discovered to have oil on it. Toby wants to pay off the debt so he can leave the farm for his estranged sons. However, due to Tanner's wild nature, the bank robberies start to go awry, eventually culminating in a shootout in a desert mountain.

Bridges, Pine & Foster were excellent. Bridges's performance is his best performance behind his performances in 2009's Crazy Heart & 1998's The Big Lebowski (which is my favorite film of all time). Pine's performance is his best yet, & Foster's performance is his best since his short stint on the classic HBO series Six Feet Under. The direction from David Mackenzie is excellent, along with the screenplay from Taylor Sheridan. And the cinematography from Giles Nuttgens is amazing, with absolutely breathtaking shots of the desolate Texas landscape. This is definitely one of the best films of the year so far, & I expect it to rank highly on my list of the 10 best films at the end of the year.

Lights Out

★★★★ - A Review by Cameron Kanachki

"If she's not a ghost, then what is she?" That's a disturbingly inquisitive quote from Teresa Palmer in Lights Out, a great horror film that falls just shy of being a horror classic. Palmer plays Rebecca, a woman living alone in an apartment who is estranged from her mother, Sophie (played by Maria Bello), who is mentally ill & suffers from depression. Rebecca left home after her father abandoned them. Sophie talks to an imaginary "friend" named Diana (played by Alicia Vela-Bailey). Rebecca's younger brother, Martin (played by Gabriel Bateman), has suffered from insomnia after seeing Diana. Rebecca, fearing for her brother's safety, takes Martin with her to live with her & her lover, Paul (played by Alexander DiPersia). However, social services takes him back to Sophie, where she tells Martin that Diana was a childhood friend of hers when she was at a mental institution for her depression. Diana was extremely sensitive to light, & she died after being exposed to it for too long. Diana is trying to kill anyone who gets between her & Sophie, so now, Rebecca, Martin & Paul must stop Diana at any price.

Palmer, Bello & Bateman were great. The direction from David F. Sandberg is great, along with Eric Heisserer's screenplay. And the editing from Michel Aller is really good. Although it does have a few rough spots, it does provide legitimate scares.

Sausage Party

★★★★★ - A Review by Cameron Kanachki

"I have to try. Everyone will die otherwise!" "Oh, yeah, that's a good point." That's part of a hilarious eye-opening conversation between Seth Rogen & Bill Hader in Sausage Party, the year's funniest & raunchiest film, & the funniest animated film ever made. Rogen voices Frank, a sausage in a package at a supermarket called Shopwell's, along with Carl (voiced by Jonah Hill), Barry (voiced by Michael Cera), a deformed sausage, & Troy (voiced by Anders Holm). All the food wants to do is be chosen by humans & sent into "The Great Beyond." Frank especially wants to be in The Great Beyond with his girlfriend, Brenda (voiced by Kristen Wiig), a hot dog bun. Both of their packages are chosen by a woman aptly named Camille Toh (voiced by Lauren Miller), who also chooses a Middle Eastern lavash named Kareem-Abdul Lavash (voiced by David Krumholtz), a Jewish bagel named Sammy Bagel Jr. (voiced by Edward Norton), & a douche simply named Douche (voiced by Nick Kroll), but not before a jar of Honey Mustard (voiced by Danny McBride) warns them that The Great Beyond is not what it seems. Eventually, in a cart collision, Frank, Brenda & Douche fall out of the cart, & Honey Mustard kills himself. Douche's nozzle is damaged, blaming Frank, & swearing revenge after being thrown away by Darren (voiced by Paul Rudd), a nerdy clerk.

Frank eventually learns the truth about The Great Beyond from Firewater (voiced by Bill Hader), a Native American bottle of liquor, & Mr. Grits (voiced by Craig Robinson), a box of grits. Frank learns that humans will eat them. Frank, Brenda, Kareem, & Sammy try to find their way back, encountering a lesbian taco named Teresa Del Taco (voiced by Salma Hayek) along the way, while trying to avoid Douche, while Barry encounters a Druggie (voiced by James Franco) & tries to make it back to Shopwell's, & Frank, now knowing the full truth, must tell everyone, even though no one will believe him.

The voice cast is excellent. The direction from Conrad Vernon & Greg Tiernan is great, along with the screenplay from Rogen, Hill, Evan Goldberg, Kyle Hunter & Ariel Shaffir, which is also gleefully profane. But the last 10 minutes of the film are shockingly bizarre, & will either make you laugh, make you feel repulsed, or both. This is a delightfully profane parody of Disney & Pixar films.

Jason Bourne

★★★★ - A Review by Cameron Kanachki

"I remember. I remember everything." That's a thrilling quote from Matt Damon in Jason Bourne, an excellent action-filled thriller that almost reaches the heights of the previous films. Damon reprises his role as Jason Bourne, who has recovered from his amnesia. He now takes part in illegal fighting rings. Nicky Parsons (played again by Julia Stiles) has been working with a hacktivist group in Reykjavík, trying to expose the CIA's black ops programs. After finding information about Bourne's recruitment into the CIA & his father's involvement, she travels to Greece to find him, but not before her hacking activities are discovered by CIA Director Thomas Dewey (played by Tommy Lee Jones) & CIA Cyber Ops head Heather Lee (played by Alicia Vikander).

The CIA then sends the Asset (played by Vincent Cassel) to go after Bourne & Parsons. After unforeseen circumstances, Bourne must travel alone to Berlin & London to find more information about why he was chosen & what his father's role in it was, eventually culminating in Las Vegas at a surveillance convention with Aaron Kalloor (played by Riz Ahmed), CEO of social media enterprise Deep Dream, which Dewey is using to create mass surveillance.

Damon, Jones, Vikander, Cassel & Stiles give great performances. The direction from Paul Greengrass is great, along with the screenplay by Greengrass & Christopher Rouse. The editing from Rouse is excellent. Although it does fall below the previous films (except for The Bourne Legacy, which is on par with this film), it is still a great take on the current era of government surveillance, & keeps you wanting more of the Bourne franchise.