The Night Agent is a 10-episode series streaming on Netflix about an American government conspiracy. The story follows an FBI agent who found himself at the right place at the right time, Peter Sutherland (Gabriel Basso) was on a train when he discovered a bomb. His ability to neutralize the threat and drastically reduce the number of casualties caused him to get a promotion. Because of his actions, he became the agent that picks up the phone of an emergency FBI line. A phone that normally never rings until Rose Larkin (Luciane Buchanan)  is on the other end. The both of them find themselves so deep in a conspiracy that it reaches up into the Oval Office. 

Peter is someone who religiously does everything by the book, with hopes of helping him escape the tainted past of his father. While Rose has no problem bending the rules in order for her to survive. They both have to find a way to compromise if they wish to stay alive. 

Interpretation 

The show had a great pace the whole way through as the audience slowly unravels the truth behind what is going on in the White House. The depth of the characters made it hard to assume what would happen next and who you could trust. The viewers had no choice but to become their own detectives throughout Night Agent. The series showed a multitude of thrilling scenes that had me on the edge of my seat. This is a series for those who love conspiracy theories. Also, a show made for the people who loved the Jason Bourne series.  I would definitely recommend The Night Agent as a great short show to watch, especially since it’s already been renewed for another season. 

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It begins with what we think are just the average bank robbers stalking out their next hit. In a small town, we follow Stig (Mark Wahlberg) and Bobby (Denzel Washington) who blow up the diner across the street from the bank and eventually rob it.  Unbeknownst to them, they both are on the right side of the law with Bobby being with the CIA and Stig being a part of the Navy. Both sides doing it to take down drug lord Papi Greco (Edward James Osmos). This all gets complicated after they find way more money in the bank than they were supposed to. They also create new enemies after they learn that the money isn’t Papi Greco’s. With money in the mix, everyone turns on one another leaving Stig and Bobby both out of their organizations as AWOL. The true owner of the money reveals himself as Earl (Bill Paxon) a countryman who interrogates everyone he comes in contact with in search of the money.  It’s unclear if he owns the money or if he was sent to receive it. Also in the mix is a love interest and CIA colleague, Deb (Paula Patton). 

Bobby and Stig develop a bromance as they lose trust in the people around them and realize the ‘Us vs Them’ dynamic. A bond is formed and it’s one that can not be broken by money. 

Interpretation 

This movie’s heart is about sticking it out for the guy beside you. Bobby is known as someone who always knows a guy, yet he has no one who’s truly close to him. And Stig is too blunt and talkative for anyone to like him. They both belonged to their respective organization and yet they were turned on for the money. Bobby already understands that this is just the nature of business, while Stig resists and believes it should be more about the man next to you. This is an understandable take from a military man. With camaraderie being such an important element to any branch of the military. This mentality eventually infects Bobby and allows him to establish a true relationship with somebody. Making it about 2 guns.

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Denis Villeneuve is the director of the crime-thriller movie Prisoners. The film’s opening scene shows a deer looking for food in a snowy forest as a shotgun barrel enters the picture. In the movie, Hugh Jackman plays Keller Dover, who goes deer hunting with his son Ralph (Dylan Minnette).  Keller advises Ralph to always be prepared as they make their journey home.

When two young girls vanish and the police are unable to discover any clues, the movie takes a terrible turn. In an effort to recover his daughter and the other missing girl, Keller decides to take matters into his own hands. The movie focuses on the conflict between Keller and the primary investigator Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal), as well as the emotional and physical toll placed on the two criminally suspected prisoners. When the characters see startling inconsistencies in their environment, their nerves get frayed and their tempers flare.

Interpretation 

The compelling and powerful movie Prisoners examines issues of justice, morality, and the extent people will go to defend those they care about. Hugh Jackman, who plays the frantic father, gives a standout performance, as does the rest of the ensemble. The tension-filled environment of the movie, along with its cleverly devised narrative, makes for an exciting and intense viewing experience. Prisoners is a must-see for those who enjoy criminal thrillers and well-made movies that keep you on the edge of your seat.

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The Menu is a 2022 American black comedy horror film, it’s directed by Mark Mylod and written by Seth Reiss and Will Tracy. It is based on an original story created by Tracy and produced by Adam McKay, Betsy Koch, and Will Ferrell. The film boasts an impressive ensemble cast, including Ralph Fiennes as a renowned celebrity chef, Hong Chau as his assistant, and Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult, Janet McTeer, Reed Birney, Judith Light, and John Leguizamo as diners at his exclusive restaurant.

The focus of the movie is on a group of affluent diners who travel to a private island to dine at Julian Slowik’s upscale restaurant, Hawthorne. However, nobody is aware of the brilliant chef’s intentions for tonight. After all, the arrogant chef has spent years pushing the frontiers of exquisite dining and taste. The host can now finally present his masterpiece.

Interpretation 

The Menu talks about the never-ending need for the upper class to satisfy themselves, the difference between givers and takers of the world, and the loss of passion for one’s craft. It was an amazing performance by Ralph Fiennes. The movie brought up very interesting themes from the writers Seth Reis and Will Tracy. 

From the start, we hear about how exclusive this event is, (it being on it’s own island and all) which immediately puts those those who are able to attend in an elite category. Chef Slowik’s view of the elites is stated in the movie and it paints a picture of the society we live in now. Slowik explains that he’s a victim of his own success. Buy cooking for the elites. He has lost the passion that he once had. Those that have many don’t appreciate the details and it was the love of the details that made him enjoy serving people.

Margot was an unexpected guest for this exclusive island experience. Her being the anomaly causes Slowik to decide which side she is on. Either she is a giver or a taker. It is only through getting to know Margot more that they decide which side she belongs to. 

The movie shares similar elements to another film that was released in 2022, Knives Out: Glass Onion. From having a private island to the ensemble cast. However, this film was very fresh in terms of the message that it’s attempting to relay. Overall I found watching the film to be a refreshing experience and most certainly a film I would recommend. 

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I decided to first watch this movie because the concept behind it interested me. I think that there are a lot of places you can go with the concept of having drugs that can alter a person’s emotions in drastic ways. The beginning clip of the movie had me asking several questions and caused me to be excited for the adventure I would go on watching this movie. From the jump, Steve (Chris Hemsworth) would claim that they were doing all of this to help people but it was very clear that there is a motive under the surface. Steve’s personality lead me to believe that he was a psychopath fairly early into the movie. It was clear that he had a way with words and he would use this to get people to do what he wanted. This is shown when he mentions the committee and how they made all the decisions. He made it seem like he had no say in the matter when in reality it was all him. As for Jeff (Miles Teller), his reasoning behind participating in the experiments was that he saw it as his way to redemption. Jeff was constantly told that his action would lead to millions of lives being saved.  

The experiments were all centred around love which had me believe that that was what Steve and Veraline (Mark Paguio) were attempting to create. A drug that could cause you to love even those truly lonely would be able to experience true love. While the experiments were conducted Jeff and a girl he shared duties with at the facility named Lizzie (Jurnee Smollett) started to fall in love. So while Steve was trying to forcibly create love between two people Jeff organically fell in love with someone. Jeff would be given a dose that made him love Heather (Tess Haubrich) but outside of the experiment Jeff had no feelings towards Heather at all. I wonder what the effect of the drug would have been if the experiment was done between Jeff and Lizzie. 

An experiment goes bad, which ends with Heather cutting her own neck and Jeff being partially responsible for it. However, through the chaos of the event, Jeff was able to go through the notebook that Steve has been using to document his findings. This is when Jeff discovers that Steve’s whole committee story is a lie and that all the experiments are leading up to something big. This newfound distrust causes Jeff and Lizzie to be against the whole Spiderhead facility and wonder if living at State would be better.  Jeff ends up confronting Mark about the things done in the facility and the true purpose of it all which causes Mark to break down. He ends up confessing to what they’ve done which means he is all for whatever plan Jeff comes up with. The next day Steve uses his knowledge of the relationship between Jeff and Lizzie to get Jeff to administer a drug called Darkenflox to her. Throughout the movie, Jeff has been against dishing this drug out because he first hand has felt it. Jeff, Lizzy, and Steve have a back-and-forth about whether Jeff should do it which he decides not to do. However, Jeff does end up using the same drugs to affect Steve. They get into a big fight and Steve ends up giving Lizzie a huge dose of Darkenflox. Jeff rushes to take the drugs out of her while Steve learns that Veraline called the police to arrest him, so he makes a run for it. Lizzie and Steve also decide to make a run for it. Steve ended up dying in his escape while Lizzie and Steve got away. 

Interpretation 

Throughout the story, we were told the different backstories of several characters. The interesting thing about their stories is it all involved someone doing something bad to someone they loved. Which coincidentally is the true purpose behind the Spiderhead facility. Steve’s ultimate goal is to create a drug that will make people follow any command even one they don’t want to do. And the thing people don’t want to do most is to hurt a loved one. As for the philosophical core of this movie I can’t figure out what the writer was trying to convey. Maybe he was trying to show that the people we love are the people that we tend to hurt the most or that love is not like the other emotions where you can force it on someone. Other than that I did find the story to be interesting but I did think that the ending was lacking in terms of bringing all the ideas together to make a cohesive movie. 

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The movie begins with Ironhead (Charlie Hunnam) talking to a bunch of military guys. He tells them about a time he choked a guy so badly that he was pissing himself and nearly killed him. This was at a grocery store and he did it because the man skipped him in a line. This touches on the popular theme that is in movies about war veterans. It’s extremely hard for them to fit back into society. Throughout the movie, this same sentiment is echoed. Later we see an operation take place with several soldiers trying to subdue a base. After they accomplished that we learned that the goal of this mission is to gain information as to where Lorea may be. Lorea is a man of wide influence and is apparently a very bad man that has control over Pope’s (Oscar Issac) country. The mission was successful when Pope’s informant tells him where he can find Lorea. Pope’s been looking for him for years. With this news, Pope goes to his old war buddies to complete a mission to go after Lorea. While recruiting we see the many different ways war veterans are trying to live in society. Each one of them is trying to find a new way of living but it’s clear that their lives are all lacking in a way by not being in the army. The money that they will get from this one mission should set them all up for life. The money and thrill of doing what they love again caused everyone Pope wanted to join his mission. The group consists of Pope, Ironhead, Redfly (Ben Affleck), Catfish (Pedro Pascal), and Ben (Garrett Hedlund). 

When they first get to Lorea’s compound and do a bit of reconnaissance. Redfly is able to immediately asses the situation and figure out what they would need to do to have a successful mission. After the reconnaissance, the team finds out that Pope has been lying to them about the funding of the mission. Instead of the corporation that Pope works for, it’s really Pope himself that paid their salary and resources for the mission. This causes everyone to pause but they eventually become convinced that they are the best men for the job. They see the window of opportunity and see this as a very doable job. The operation is soon underway and everything is going well so far. They are able to infiltrate the compound and eliminate all immediate threats. There were two early problems: there was no sign of Lorea and no idea where the money is. Pope realized that the room smells like paint and that’s when they broke open the wall to find stacks of cash. Lorea came out of a secret entrance where he was able to get Ironhead on his side before he himself was killed. 

The sequence of packing up the money is when the first sign of unease within the group made itself evident. They already had more than enough bags and yet Redfly wanted them to keep going because they had enough time. The rest of them thought regardless of the time they should still leave now. Redfly having a tactically brilliant mind causes him to feel a different weight when thinking of all the mistakes he’s made. This shows in every decision he makes throughout the movie. This, among him having a family, is what really gave his character more life than the rest of them. Catfish is the least developed in the movie. After leaving the compounds with those bags of money things only went downhill. They had a getaway plane and on their escape, they didn’t account for the weight of all the money which limited how high the plane can rise. They had to crash land in a farmer’s village. The locals flocked to the money and it caused a debate between the two parties. Tension was raised to a point where Redfly felt no choice but to shoot at the locals, killing several. Pope was able to bargain with the village elder. Giving him a significant amount of money for the lives of the people Redfly killed on top of paying for donkeys. After that, the group continued to make their escape. 

They go across and up the mountains until they are fired at. It was the youth from the same village they came from. Their attack was successful as they were able to kill Redfly before they themselves died. With Redfly gone the group’s main concern was to get his body back home and take as much money as they can home. Mostly all of the money was thrown down a cave. They had to make one last push through a city on the coast with hopes of making it on a boat that’ll take them to safety. After accomplishing that we would next see everyone in a board room where we learn that they walked out with just over 5 million dollars. Which is split 5 ways. When given the decision everyone decides to give their piece of the money to Redfly’s family. But hope is still there when Ironhead leaves Pope with the coordinates of where they threw the money into the cave. 

Interpretation 

Overall this was a good film. The themes were definitely evident early and constantly reoccurring throughout the film. I was happy with the cast of characters and the different stories that followed this very specific framework. Normally most of a movie like this consists of the planning of the big operation with the entire third act being the job itself. This movie focused mostly on the escape from the job and all the complications that come with that. For that reason, this movie followed a different pace which was new and refreshing. A lot of times throughout the film the morality of the characters was put into question. Very often they either did or had strong reasons to do immoral things to get the job done. This involves killing the informant before she ever left for Australia or killing the village people to protect their money. These tough decisions that the character had to face gave the movie more life and depth to the characters as a whole. Leaving all the money with Redfly’s family really left most of their efforts with nothing to show for it. But that revelation can be changed if Pope somehow finds a way to retrieve the buried money. 

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A married couple moves out of the city to start their new life together. This new beginning is halted after Simon (Jason Bateman) runs into an old friend from high school, Gordo (Joel Edgerton). After meeting with Gordo they begin to receive several gifts from him. He even comes by the house when Simon is not home and spends time with Robyn (Rebecca Hall). Robyn enjoys him but Simon still sees the same guy from high school, “Gordo the Weirdo.”After a while, Simon severs ties with Gordo. They later found out that many of the things that Gordo said was a lie and they would blame Gordo for their missing dog. Simon is set in his ways about how he feels toward Gordo while Robyn is far more leaning. 

This film follows one of the most sadistic revenge stories I have ever seen unravel in my life. The movie has a slow burn that has a big payoff at the end. 

Interpretation 

This movie brings up the issues we have with our past and how it’s not so easy to leave the past in the past. Joel Edgerton writes four separate cases of the past catching up with the characters. The first one is Robyn and her addiction to pills. A habit she was able to kick until the interactions with Gordo cause her to fall back into it. Simon thought that since they moved away all their old problems would be left there, but geography doesn’t change much.

Then there is Simon and the fact that he continues to be a bully. It started when he was younger towards kids like Gordo and now when he’s older it’s still whatever Simon says goes. Again, the past catches up with Simon when he tells fake stories about someone. He did it first when he was younger and lied about Gordo then did it again with a coworker in order to get a promotion. These two failing to face their past cost them both tremendously. I believe that is the writer trying to say that we need to confront our past before it comes back to haunt us. Robyn was right to get Simon to apologize to Gordo and make amends for the past.

Finally, there is Gordo himself and his inability to let go of what Simon did to him when he was younger. Gordo is relentless and sadistic in his opportunity for revenge. His actions are his way of making up for the past. 

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Bullet Train is a movie adaptation that consists of an ensemble of different stories colliding onto one train at the same time.  Featuring a star-studded cast of actors all (in some way) looking for the briefcase of The White Death. It would seem that it is fate that brought them all on the train. We are first introduced to Kimura (Andrew Koji) whose son is hospitalized after being pushed off of a roof by Prince (Joey King). Kimura is brought on the train to find Prince and kill her to avenge his son. We then meet the main character Ladybug (Brad Pitt) who is brought on the train for a job where he is tasked to receive the briefcase. While on the train he meets twin brothers Lemon (Brian Tyree Henry) and Tangerine (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) who already have possession of the briefcase. Soon after The Wolf (Bad Bunny) joins the trains to kill two people for his own personal reasons. One is Ladybug for a previous job he had done and the other is The Hornet (Zazie Beetz), who has subtly left her mark throughout the train. 

Ladybug being an unlucky assassin wishes to get this job done with as much ease as possible but, his bad luck proceeds him as everyone’s conflicting objectives collide on the fastest train in the world. This movie is adapted from a book of the same name by Kotaro Isaka. 

Interpretation 

Throughout the movie, a large emphasis is put on the power of fate and how everything that happens is supposed to happen. Ladybug believes strongly that he has been cursed with bad luck and conversely Prince believes she has been blessed with good luck. Yet their separate fates would suggest otherwise. After watching this film I was reminded of a story I once heard from Alan Watts called The Chinese Farmer. Essentially the story highlights that there is no such thing as good or bad luck but merely things that happen to you. A broken leg may seem like bad luck until the army drafts everyone your age to fight but you can’t due to the injury. It is fate that is the driver of all things and it’s only in the final analysis that you can judge the things that you go through.  

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It all begins with a contest that selects a random programmer from a search engine company called Blue Book. The programmer selected is a man named Caleb Smith (Domhnell Gleeson). Caleb is flown out to the middle of nowhere to meet with the owner of BlueBook, Nathan Bateman(Oscar Isaac). Nathan tells him that he is creating AI and that Caleb will be the human component of the Turing test. This is a test developed to see if Nathan’s AI robot Ava (Alicia Vikander) has consciousness. There is a sequence of sessions between Caleb and Ava where they pick each other’s brains. During these sessions, Caleb and Ava begin to build a relationship. A common power outage occurs in one particular session where Ava tells Caleb that he should not trust Nathan. This puts Caleb on edge and causes him to dig deeper into his suspicions. We discover the shady nature behind the creation of Nathan’s AI robots. Nathan explains to Caleb that Ava will be the second last draft AI, and the next one he creates will be a complete version. Because of the relationship they’ve built during their sessions Caleb tells Ava that he’s breaking her out. Unfortunately, Nathan is aware of their plan and takes action to make sure it won’t work. However, unbeknownst to both Nathan and Caleb, Ava has plans of her own and she is able to break out of the facility leaving Nathan and Caleb to die. 

Interpretation 

It seems that both Nathan and Caleb underestimated Ava’s ability. This shortcoming would cost both of them their lives in the end. We learn close to the end of the movie that Nathan had always planned that Caleb would try to let Ava out, this was the whole point of him coming. But he did not anticipate Ava. Not only was her creator underestimating her but so was Caleb. Caleb thought that she cared for him when in reality she was just using him as a means to an end. I believe this was a story to highlight how we underestimate the technology that we create. And that this belief that we are superior to our technology can lead to our downfall. Most of us can’t even put down our phones for an hour, in that sense who is in control of who? 

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