Man Down (2016)

Pretty Good

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

I wasn't expecting this when I began the film. This was heart wrenching to say the least. Great performance by all of the stars. Shia nailed it.

The critics went entirely too hard on this movie. It was a good movie. Shia, Kate, Gary, Jai and Charlie all did fantastic. The cinematography was great. As a movie critic, do you get so bogged down with certain details that you forget the human aspect? Do you forget emotion? What are you focused on? The plot was good. The execution was great. Don't be so hard to please, that you forget how to enjoy yourself. Watch the movie, and think for yourselves. Don't listen to the critics.

Man Down is very much a mixed bag of a film where the filmmakers seem to throw pretty much everything into the mix apart from the kitchen sink. It's almost as if they use the old adage of 'throw enough mud at the wall and eventually some of it will stick.' In fairness, some of it did stick, but sadly there's also an awful lot that didn't...The narrative is clearly a big problem with this film; it darts about all over the place, but never in a way that makes much logical sense. Another issue is that I found that it flitted from one scene to another without offering me much to reflect upon; it breezes through the story so quickly that it's barely possible to care about anyone or anything that happens. The choppy storyline also makes it hard to follow and whilst it does come together and sort of makes sense at the end that doesn't make for a particularly good viewing experience overall. Another issue I had with this film is that it seemed to spend too much time focusing on what I'd call less interesting areas; Drummer's de-brief seemed to take up about a third of the film's running time - wouldn't 5-10 minutes at the end have been sufficient? The earlier scenes involving Drummer's home life were also uninteresting (although part of the problem I had is that LaBeouf and Mara had literally zero chemistry).Where the film starts to improve is once we get into the final third of the film where we start to witness Drummer's PTSD and the effect that it has on him and everyone around him. Whilst the film does little new in this area, it was still good to watch and this is all helped by a wonderful performance by LaBeouf - he hasn't always been brilliant in the past, but here he does excel and is very believable (both before his PTSD and during his PTSD). In retrospect, it seems clear that some of Drummer's scenes are pre-war scenes (before his PTSD) and some scenes are during his PTSD - I got the impression that the scenes where Drummer finds a survivor whilst looking for his son and wife weren't real and this was a fictitious scenario that was played out in his head as a result of his PTSD - at least that's how I saw things!!.I've given this film half marks and to be fair most of those marks arrived in the second half of the film (mainly for the PTSD aspects and for LaBoeuf's performance). Unfortunately, I found that the film didn't focus enough of its energy in the right areas a lot of the time resulting in a messy film that never really held my interest until the last half an hour. If you can cope with the choppy narrative, slow-pace and are interested in the subject matter then this may work for you, but I've got a feeling that a lot of folks (like me) are ultimately going to find Man Down a rather disappointing waste of potential.

This movie approaches a very delicate, difficult and disturbing subject in a heart-felt, touching and clever way.The writing, shot composition and acting gives a reality; the close and intimate camera angles whenever there are family shots makes it more of a fly on the wall documentary than movie. The head-shaving scene, 'man talk' in the car and the goodbye scene on the slide are all poignant and touching scenes. There is no superfluous narrative, the language is real and used to great effect.The organic way the movie unfolds is very clever; jumping from backstory to the current in a series of well composed and paced sequences. The story line sucking you in as the time between jumps increases towards the end of the movie.The acting by Shia LaBeouf is outstanding throughout the movie; the psychological assessment scenes in particular are very moving...showing physical ticks, verbal restraint and immaculate timing.The fracturing of Gabriel Drummers psyche and the reveal was totally unexpected and executed at exactly the right time. The scenes replayed minus Jai Courtney tying the symptoms and the plot together. The fact there is no post-apocalypse and Gabriel has gone 'first blood' in normal America is a very clever commentary on the lack of long-term support for veterans. Although the movie emphasises the extreme end of the spectrum of symptoms it does not detract from the fact that mental health is still unrecognised, marginalised and unsupported in the modern world.I'm confused why this masterpiece has scored so low on IMDb and critics have panned it. The acting, writing, subject matter and cinematography are all fantastic. Maybe the lack of hand-holding and the pacing; two factors out of many that elevate and set this film apart, has left the masses bewildered.In one word 'Brilliant'!