Out of the Furnace

Blogs are a pain in the ass. It's like, you have all these ideas and you want to tell them to someone, but no one listens, and having a diary is so last century. So you turn to the internet. You write and write everything you have to say and suddenly all of your thoughts are pouring out of you. And then, before you know it, somehow, you just run out of stuff to say and either move on to newer -- and usually lazier forms of social media -- or get a fucking hobby in the real world.

That seems to be what happened with Mark and I, and this movie blog, unfortunately; we just lost interest in analyzing movies and hurrying back here to share our thoughts with anonymous web surfers. The fact is, a year ago, we were both in situations where sitting around watching and discussing movies was a priority. But things have changed since then. Now we sit around and watch movies, but don't have hours to spend peeling each one apart in our casual, sarcastic style.

Hence, we are going to attempt to implement a new formula to our general reviews: short, concise recommendations and criticisms. That being said, I do intend to continue my Future Film Flashback series. There just haven't been any direct reboots in a while; not since RoboCop. I certainly wasn't going to rewatch the original Transformers, just because Trans4mers was technically a 'soft reboot'. Nor did I feel that any Planet of the Apes movie would be appropriate preparation for Dawn. So get off my ass about that. Besides, more and more movies are being turned into television series these days (see: Fargo, Constantine, Scream, and even 12 fucking Monkeys).

Anyways, that concludes my excuse-laden introduction. Now let me get to this movie I just watched: Out of the Furnace.

I always like it when relatively high-profile actors take on unusual roles. This film boasts an impressive roster of familiar faces, including (if you can't read the poster above) Christian Bale, Woody Harrelson, Casey Affleck, and Willem Dafoe. Bale, of course, has a pretty solid resume of diverse roles, and yet I always go into a movie expecting him to be Batman. Here, he drops the 'troubled tough guy/action hero' persona, and gives the most subdued and restrained performance I have ever seen him in. Meanwhile, Harrelson provides his familiar brand of psychotic tobacco-chewer (always entertaining, but not particularly original), and Affleck mopes around as usual. At the end of the day, the casting is perfect and the acting is surprisingly satisfying.

All that being said, this film doesn't have too much else going for it. From the very beginning, the entire plot is relatively predictable, because we have seen it before. Bale and Affleck are brothers; Bale is a responsible son and boyfriend with a solid work ethic, and his brother is a gambling veteran with PTSD. Both have relatively shitty lives and deal with their problems in different ways, culminating in Affleck getting into trouble and Bale having to come to his aid. It reminded me a lot of Shotgun Stories, another indie film about brotherhood in rural America, starring Michael Shannon (Mark and I reviewed it here).

I would definitely recommend this film if you are into great performances with a solid but simple plot. You may find the slow buildup to the relatively quiet conclusion less than satisfying, but really, we pretty much know how things are going to end once they get rolling. If anything, watch the movie for the uncharacteristically calm and reserved Bale. I would even go so far as to call his performance inspirational, especially in such a bleak film.

And by the way, it is on Netflix.