© FAKESHEMP.NET
  • Home
  • Reviews
  • Podcasts
    • Podcasts
    • Good Movie Monday
    • WTF was that?
  • MEDIA
    • Videos >
      • Photos
  • GLG
  • Blog
  • Interviews
  • About

THE BEAUTIFUL ONES

13/9/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
2017 | DIR. JESSE V JOHNSON | REVIEW BY SHAUN CRAWFORD.
Picture
For the 6 people that are following writer/director Jesse V. Johnson’s career, they’ll know THE BEAUTIFUL ONES has been a long time coming. Shot in 2013, Johnson had grand plans for his latest entry. An homage to the bygone days of Steve McQueen his vision was that of a black-and-white film that touched on the art-house by breaking the fourth wall while still playing for the action crowds. It’s a film where super slow-motion violence is punctuated by playfully glib price tags that hang in the air around the anti-hero Gabriel Tancredi's (Ross McCall) fashion choices.
​
Deemed too arthouse for that crowd, TBO played the festival circuits, failing to find a distributer until now. 5-years down the track, with a forced colourisation of the footage, it may not be the film Johnson & Co. set out to make but at least we finally get the opportunity to see the labor of love.

Set in turf-war LA, TBO is Romeo And Juliet played against a gangster battle-ground. The Tancredi’s and the Romano’s are at each other’s throats and from within this dangerous murk smooth, uber-stylish shylock Gabriel falls in love with Eva Romano.

Bish, bash, bosh, she’s taken and now Gabe has to turn against his kin in order to rescue the love of his life. The plot has literally been retold for hundreds of years.

Picture

Like the best entries in Jesse V. Johnson’s career (The Butcher and Charlie Valentine) his script for THE BEAUTIFUL ONES is a lean, muscular film that doesn’t shy away from the ultimate masculine idea; sharp tailored suits, whiskey on the rocks and straight-razor shaves. The catch is that this lifestyle becomes the downfall for everyone it touches. Johnson’s script is entirely self-aware all the way from the to-camera asides to the fashion choices Tancredi makes.


Ross McCall brings the charm and charisma as he channels the laconic, unshakable cool of McQueen and Marvin while everyone else around him loses their minds. A McQueen obsessed gangster with a soft side that only ever presents itself around women who is as capable in a shoot-out as he is in the sheets.

Fernandra Andrade as Eva is sweet and instantly lovable and while her chemistry with McCall carries a lot of the film as we watch the two of them fall in love over sunset, cliff-side drives in a $100,000 Cobra Roadster and romantic dinner dates, she really doesn’t have much to do other than serve as a counterpoint to McCall’s hyper-masculine tough-guy.

It’s a shame for Johnson that TBOs should arrive so late. The films tight budget is mostly overcome by inventive uses of form and a deft hand in the action department (Johnson has been a stuntman and co-ordinator for decades) but in the intervening 5-years since its production, Johnson has released three other films with a fourth in the can waiting to drop.

His evolution as a filmmaker and storyteller has taken leaps and bounds and, as a result, the failings in THE BEAUTIFUL ONES may feel like a backwards step to those that aren’t aware of the films history, but for those that are and can place it in Johnson’s trajectory, it is an important film in his cannon. The one where he made his boldest choices and likely learned his greatest lessons.
​

It’s won’t be for everyone and it’ll be too easily dismissed as a film promoting ‘toxic masculinity’ but that’s an obvious and simple critique for a film that is so stylish, fun and, at times, surprisingly sweet.
​
Picture
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.


    OUR WRITERS
    GLENN COCHRANE
    JARRET GAHAN
    SHAUN CRAWFORD
    ALEX MAYNARD
    CHRIS THOMPSON​
    Picture

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    September 2010
    April 2010

    RSS Feed

© 2018 FakeShemp.Net    All rights reserved.  FakeShemp.Net Illustrations by MJ Barros. 
  • Home
  • Reviews
  • Podcasts
    • Podcasts
    • Good Movie Monday
    • WTF was that?
  • MEDIA
    • Videos >
      • Photos
  • GLG
  • Blog
  • Interviews
  • About