Movie Review

Triple 9 is nearly unwatchable even with all those big-name actors

In moviemaking, there are almost no guarantees for success, no matter how much you stack the deck. You can hire many of the best people, but if one of the cogs in the machine doesn’t work the way it should, the whole thing fails, through no fault of the other parts.

A fine example of the tenuous nature of filmmaking is Triple 9, a crime drama that appears to have everything going for it — only to wind up a complete and utter mess. Directed by John Hillcoat, it joins the legions of films before it that blur the lines between good and bad, cop and criminal.

The film ostensibly centers on a group of five robbers (Chiwetel Ejiofor, Norman Reedus, Anthony Mackie, Aaron Paul, and Clifton Collins Jr.) who open the film robbing a bank at the behest of Russian mobster Irina Vlaslov (Kate Winslet). Among that group of five are a couple of cops, a thread that leads to interaction and conflict with two supposedly honest cops, brothers Chris and Jeffrey Allen (Casey Affleck and Woody Harrelson).

It’s so packed to the gills with recognizable actors that it appears Hillcoat and screenwriter Matt Cook felt the need to highlight all of them, a technique that ends up doing none of them any good. Instead of just focusing on the crimes the thieves want to commit and the cops who want to stop them, Hillcoat and Cook pile on subplot after subplot, leaving the audience unsure as to what in the bloody hell is going on.

The second half of the film is particularly bad, as the film checks in with every character seemingly every few seconds — a choppy, disorienting experience that further discombobulates an already confusing plot. Plot lines are wrapped up randomly or not at all, almost as if the editor was haphazardly cutting scenes together.

With so many big stars in the same movie, you have to think that they all saw something in the script that made them want to commit. So one can only assume that mistakes were made in the shooting or the editing. Whatever it was, it makes the movie almost unwatchable, which is a shock considering the quality of the actors.

Triple 9 — which, if you must know, is the police code for an officer injured in the line of duty — appeared to have all the elements to compare with crime classics like Heat or The Departed. But it never comes close.

Woody Harrelson and Casey Affleck in Triple 9.

Woody Harrelson and Casey Affleck in Triple 9

Photo by Bob Mahoney/Open Road Films

Woody Harrelson and Casey Affleck in Triple 9.

Movie Review

Great acting and directing drive The Christophers to artistic heights

Michaela Coel and Ian McKellen in The Christophers

Photo by Claudette Barius

Michaela Coel and Ian McKellen in The Christophers.

Director Steven Soderbergh is one of those filmmakers who — aside from the Ocean’s series — never seems to make the same kind of movie twice. He is somehow able to adapt his abilities to all sorts of different stories, making each of them as compelling as any other. His latest masterclass is in the London-set film, The Christophers.

Lori Butler (Michaela Coel), who restores art for a living, is approached by brother and sister Sallie and Barnaby Sklar (Jessica Gunning and James Corden) with a scheme. They want her to become the new assistant for their aging father, Julian (Ian McKellen), a famous artist known for a series called “The Christophers,” in order to gain access to unfinished paintings from the series and complete them herself.

Lori accepts the deal despite having some uneasy feelings about Julian, with whom she had a bad interaction years ago. Julian is just as wary, both because he knows of his children’s interest in the unfinished works, and because he would prefer to be left in peace. Although the trepidation on both sides continues for the bulk of the story, a grudging respect arises between two artists who know skill when they see it.

Directed by Soderbergh and written by Ed Solomon, who last collaborated on No Sudden Move, the film is astonishing in its ability to be compelling with such a small story. Much of the film is spent inside Julian’s multi-story home as Julian and Lori have low-level confrontations about a variety of things, including the meaning of his art, her abilities, the fate of the remaining “Christophers,” and more. Each conversation brings out more detail about their worldviews and their thoughts about their lot in life.

Much of the success of the film lies in the performances of McKellen and Coel. The 86-year-old McKellen has not lost his ability to astonish with the spoken word, and the monologues he delivers are engrossing even when they’re about mundane things. Coel, best known for the 2020 HBO show I May Destroy You, is a great foil for McKellen, never backing down from his challenges and giving her own unique takes on her lines.

While the film can be enjoyable for non-art lovers, those who appreciate the vagaries of the art world will have a lot to chew on. Soderbergh and Solomon debate a lot of aspects of art, including whether it’s possible to separate the art from the person making it, why some art is valued more than others, the ethics of forgery, and more. Because the film is about a fictional artist, it gives the filmmakers a bit more freedom in their criticisms.

Aside from McKellen and Coel, Gunning (Baby Reindeer) and Corden are the only other two people who get significant screen time in the film. Both of them are, let’s say, acquired tastes, and each gives an elevated performance that matches the energy of their respective characters. Tilly Botsford makes a nice impression in a small role as Julian’s masseuse.

Soderbergh’s last three films — Presence, Black Bag, and now The Christophers — have nothing in common other than the expert filmmaker helming all of them. When you can make a ghost story, a spy film, and a small film about artists equally interesting, you know you’re doing something right.

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The Christophers is now playing in theaters.

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