‘Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant’ Spotlights the Plight of an Afghani Ally Targeted by the Taliban

April 19, 2023

jmunney Cinema, Movie Reviews , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

A key member of The Covenant (CREDIT: Christopher Raphael/Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures
© 2023 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Dar Salim, Alexander Ludwig, Anthony Starr, Emily Beecham, Jonny Lee Miller

Director: Guy Ritchie

Running Time: 123 Minutes

Rating: R for Modern Warfare and Drunken Vitriol

Release Date: April 21, 2023 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant at first looks like a pretty typical 21st century war film, with lots of sweating and tumbling through mountainous desert terrain. It’s April 2018, and Sergeant John Kinley (Jake Gyllenhaal) finds himself squarely in the crosshairs of a resurgent Taliban, with nobody to protect him except his Afghani interpreter Ahmed (Dar Salim). Then about halfway through, the film pivots to the tangled odyssey of John repaying the favor by attempting to secure American visas for Ahmed and his family. It’s a high-stakes rescue mission with no promises of safety or success, as the only way to track down an Afghan citizen on the run from the Taliban is by jumping right back into the cauldron.

What Made an Impression?: The Covenant kicked off by having the gall to give me terrible flashbacks to Guy Ritchie’s last release, Operation Fortune: Rose de Guerre, as I struggled to keep track of everybody’s names and motivations. I thought I was paying attention well enough, but combat is obviously high-pressure, and soldiers can frequently find themselves in situations where it’s too dangerous to say their names to each other, let alone anything at all. But then that midpoint reinvention came along, and it was absolutely critical, and profoundly welcome. Suddenly it became clear that this wouldn’t be just a straightforward depiction of modern warfare, but an opportunity to call attention to an urgently timely issue. Furthermore, Sgt. Kinley would now have plenty of chances to say his own name and Ahmed’s over and over again.

Where The Covenant delivers its central point most saliently is a montage of John driving himself into a Kafkaesque rage over the futility of America’s visa process. It maybe fast-tracks a bit too much the development of him being driven to ruin by booze, but it works to convey just how destructively frustrating this bureaucracy is. The extraction scenes are pulse-pounding and cleanly edited, but the effect is stronger when the focus is on the conversations and negotiations. Thousands of real-life Afghans who worked alongside Americans are desperately waiting for their fortunes to turn as Ahmed’s did. If The Covenant can manage to throw a light on their plight, even just a little bit, then it will have been worth it.

Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant is Recommended If You Like: Going beyond the headlines of the nightly news

Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Visas

This Is a Movie Review: T2 Trainspotting

March 15, 2017

jmunney Cinema, Movie Reviews , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

This review was originally published on News Cult in March 2017.

Starring: Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller, Robert Carlyle, Anjela Nedyalkova

Director: Danny Boyle

Running Time: 117 Minutes

Rating: R for Pointy Things – Both Body Parts and Devices You Stick Into Your Body

Release Date: March 17, 2017 (Limited)

1996’s Trainspotting features one of the most iconic opening shots in film history, as Ewan McGregor’s feet fall from the sky and then pound the Edinburgh pavement to the inimitable strains of “Lust for Life.” The kickoff to 20-years-later sequel T2 Trainspotting directly calls back to its predecessor, but in a sly way that ensures this is no empty exercise in nostalgia. And really, how could it have ever been that? Getting back together with your junkie criminal mates is not exactly the stuff of teary-eyed reunions. T2 falls short of reaching the landmark status of the original (a nearly impossible task), but its themes (“choose life,” choose whatever the hell you could possibly choose) and hallucinogenic style remain intact.

It has been several years since I saw Trainspotting, and over the course of T2, it becomes abundantly clear how many plot specifics I have forgotten. Luckily this is the type of sequel that fills you in on everything, with enough dreamy flair to prevent any flashbacks feeling like spoon-feeding. Renton (McGregor) has been living in the Netherlands with his Dutch wife; he still runs, but for exercise, not to escape the law. Spud (Ewen Bremner) got clean for a little while, but is now on the brink of suicide. Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller), in between “running” a family pub, is pulling a sleazy blackmail extortion scheme with the help of his young Bulgarian “girlfriend” Veronika (Anjela Nedyalkova). Franco (Robert Carlyle) is serving a 25-year jail sentence and scheming to get out. And Diane (Kelly Macdonald) is now a lawyer, dropping in for a cameo consultation.

Nobody is thrilled over Renton’s return, considering he stole everyone else’s shares of the drug deal at the end of the first film. But they mostly reconcile enough to commit to Sick Boy’s plan to open a “spa” (i.e., brothel). Franco, fulfilling the wild card role, is off on his own teaching his son how to sell stolen goods; he is much less forgiving when his and Renton’s paths cross.

Whether or not they succeed (or what success even is in this situation) is beside the point. T2 is about taking stock of one’s life, and how unsettling such midlife reflections are with a druggie past (and present). Director Danny Boyle throws out all his tricks to make this chapter simultaneously unsettling, beautiful, and hypnotic. Camera angles are slightly askew, slow motion and freeze frames disrupt the rhythm, and even Snapchat filters are used to great effect. Adding to the surrealism (for non-Scottish audiences) is the impenetrability of the thick accents. There is a bit of fun with subtitles during one Franco scene, but otherwise we are left to our own devices to figure out what the hell everyone is saying. For the most part, I do not even bother with such translation; I would advise you to do the same.

In one unforgettably riveting scene, McGregor resurrects the classic “Choose Life” monologue for a new generation. The rejection (but also pseudo-acceptance) of capitalism inherent in these speeches is what fuels this series. There is plenty left in the tank to continually define the Trainspotting thesis. In just five minutes, McGregor demonstrates beyond a shadow of a doubt why he would ever want to revisit such an iconic role.

T2 Trainspotting is Recommended If You Like: Sequels That Seem Unnecessary But Turn Out to be Quite Fulfilling

Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Needles Shared Between Friends