Updating Greek play Lysistrata to the windy city (where more Americans have been killed in the last 15 years than in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts combined), Chi-Raq sees rival gangs the Spartans and Trojans trading bullets. Full of righteous anger packaged in signature swagger, it’s as purposeful and provocative as any Spike Lee joint. Chi-Raq, set in Englewood, Chicago, is a state-of-the-union address on America’s hot issues of gangs and guns. Spike Lee doesn’t do subtle, but then he’s hardly cracking nuts. Yet Manchester by the Sea offers its own particular joys, going places that few movies dare to consider these days. If it’s thrills or cheer you’re after, you’re in the wrong place. But such is the authenticity on display elsewhere, it doesn’t feel schematic. True, withholding the source of Lee’s emotional shutdown for a late reveal is something you expect from a thriller rather than a sombre character study. Under grey skies clogged with pellets of snow, the drama inches along, with flashbacks revealing that Lee was once married to Randi (Michelle Williams), who still lives in the area. A morose, taciturn loner given to communicating with his fists after too many beers, Lee is horrified to find that he has been named legal guardian of his teenage nephew Patrick (Lucas Hedges), whose ties to Manchester-by-the-Sea – hockey team, rock band, two girlfriends – mean Lee will need to stick around his hometown for a good while to come.
Beautiful Boyīoston janitor Lee (Casey Affleck) returns to the titular town in Massachusetts when his older brother Joe (Kyle Chandler) dies of a heart attack. Like the harrowing data that inspired it, though, it defies redaction. Burns’ film is not an easy watch, not least when it depicts what took place in Langley’s infamous “black sites”. That it does should be attributed not just to the dogged conviction Driver exudes as its righteous hero but also to the film’s unshakeable belief that the ugly truth will ultimately out. As Matthew Rhys’ reporter ruefully observes, “they sent you off to build a boat they had no intention of sailing.”Īs vessels go, The Report is one so overloaded with names, dates, flashbacks, and acronyms it’s a wonder it stays afloat. Having assembled his torture dossier, though, Jones faces another uphill struggle to get it published. Tasked by Senator Dianne Feinstein (a coolly commanding Annette Bening) with leaving no stone unturned, Senate staffer Daniel Jones – infused here with simmering indignation by a driven Adam Driver – systematically details the brutalities inflicted on all of the Agency’s 119 detainees.
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