Louder Than Bombs (2016)

To me, this movie is perfection.

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Did you people see the same film I saw?

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Louder Than Bombs is a very earnest film that ultimately succeeds because its heart is in the right place. All the actors are very convincing in their portrayal as a close family that is devastated when the mother Isabelle (Isabelle Huppert) dies. Previously, she had suffered emotional conflict from being a very successful war photographer and having to combine that with motherhood and home life. As her damaged younger son Conrad, actor Devin Druid utterly steals the movie from his more experienced co-stars including Gabriel Byrne as his Dad and Jesse Eisenberg as his much older brother, Jonah. Druid conveys a keen intelligence but also depression, isolation, and trying to work out his problems on his own. A really demanding role and he succeeds beautifully. Gabriel Byrne has a fairly easy role as a very caring father who doesn't know how to handle Conrad's behaviour. Eisenberg's role is not as defined as Druid's -- Jonah's wife has just had a baby, Jonah has an affair, he tries to catalogue his mother's photographs but to me it didn't amount to much. Contrary to the film's title, there isn't a lot in the movie about Isabelle's work in war torn countries. I guess the movie is more about grief - about how the three men aren't coping at first, and how they eventually learn to cope. Special mention to a a smaller but lovely role from Ruby Jerins, playing Conrad's love interest Melanie. Jerins had a strong part as the nurse's troubled daughter in the TV series Nurse Jackie, and here she plays the quintessential flawed teenager very well.

Families in crisis. Movies which explore that topic can be difficult to watch, but can also reaffirm what is important about family and suggest how we and our loved ones might move forward when confronted with difficult times. Of course, there are many different kinds of crises that can be portrayed on film. Some of these family dramas revolve around the death of a family member (e.g., Best Picture Oscar Winners "Ordinary People" and "Terms of Endearment", plus "A Cry in the Dark", "Steel Magnolias", "The Descendants", "Still Alice"). Other times we see families battling an existential threat ("The Impossible", "San Andreas", "No Escape"). Often the family crisis doesn't have to do with anybody dying, but with the family unit splitting apart due to issues like divorce (Best Picture Oscar Winner "Kramer vs. Kramer", "The War of the Roses", "Mrs. Doubtfire", "Liar, Liar"), crime ("The Godfather", "Raising Arizona", "Running on Empty", "Falling Down", "Road to Perdition") or just because they forgot what it means to be a family ("The Story of Us", "American Beauty", "Winter's Bone"). The drama "Louder than Bombs"(R, 1:49) has things in common with several of the films mentioned above.Noted war photographer Isabelle Reed (Isabelle Huppert) died near her New York home when the car she was driving collided head-on with an 18-wheeler. A few years later, her widowed husband, high school teacher Gene Reed (Gabriel Byrne), and his sons, teenager Conrad (Devin Druid) and college professor Jonah (Jesse Eisenberg) are still struggling to move on from Isabelle's death. Gene is in his first post-Isabelle romantic relationship with a fellow teacher named Hannah (Amy Ryan), while working hard to connect emotionally with Conrad, who has become very surly and emotionally withdrawn (even for a teenager). Jonah lives out of state where his wife has just had their first child, but he comes home for an extended visit to help his dad finally sort through Isabelle's things in her photographic dark room.A museum is planning a retrospective of Isabelle's work and a family friend (David Strathairn) who works at the museum, is writing an article for the New York Times to promote the exhibit, all of which forces the Reeds to relive their memories of Isabelle and her tragic death. As we see flashbacks of Isabelle's life and relationship with her family, tensions rise among the three Reed men in the present. Conrad clearly still has unprocessed feelings regarding his mother and there's something about his mother's death that his father has never told him. As Gene struggles with that secret and with his inability to talk to his younger son, he is trying to keep his romance with Hannah a secret… and also learns about some things that his deceased wife had kept secret from him. Like his father, Jonah also learns some surprising things about his mother, struggles with his feelings and the secrets he is keeping, does his best to reach out to Conrad (a little more successfully than his father), and he secretly gets involved with a local woman."Louder than Bombs" is depressing and unsatisfying. In tone, it's like "Ordinary People" (but not as touching), in content, it resembles "The Descendants" (but not as entertaining) and in its storytelling, it reminds me of "Knight of Cups" (but not as creative). What we have here is a story filled with unlikeable characters who have very little personality, cavalierly lie and commit other indiscretions and seem unable or unwilling to look beyond their own self-interest. The lessons about family bonds are only faintly sketched and even the title has very little meaning. "D+"

There is a scene towards the end where a teenage boy is walking a drunk teenage girl home after a late party. He is a quiet boy and she is the cheerleader. They walk through the neighborhood in the early hours of the morning right before the sun rises. This scene is what I like to call a Life scene. It goes on and on just like real life. Its a real and beautiful moment. It is true. Louder than bombs consist of a few more scenes like this and although I didn't Love the movie as a whole I did Love a lot of scenes. Jesse Eisenberg gave one of his worst performances in Batman V Superman and now he gives one of his best performances. He is sly and cunning and seems that have everything in check. So does the father played by gabrielle Byrne. In the beginning in seems like the youngest son is the most lost after the death of the mother played by the always excellent isabelle huppbert, but it isn't until the end that we see that the youngest son was the one that was the most put together. Louder than Bombs is a good movie, maybe not great but good and it has terrific performances from the entire cast. ***1/2 out of 5.

Most coming-of-age films lean on the romantic comedy or melodrama for shape and structure, usually with a linear storyline that leads to a metaphorical awakening or some other resolution. As you might expect from a Norwegian director, Louder than Bombs (2015) avoids this well-trodden approach by telling a multi-layered fractured tale that looks more like a thriller than a teen-drama. Adolescents who clam-up tightly to exclude the world while they catch up with its emotional challenges are common stories. The one in this film is like a bomb about to explode and his story forms the narrative spine along which several sub-plots radiate in all directions.Conrad is an introspective young war-gamer who has closed off to the world since his famous war photographer mother Isabelle was killed three years ago. He keeps to himself at school and defiantly ignores his well-meaning ex-TV star father. A photo exhibition is planned to commemorate Isabelle's work and a former colleague plans an article that will reveal the secret truth of Isabelle's suicide. Conrad has been shielded from this truth, as well as from the affairs of his father and brother. Over-protection has increasingly isolated him until he tries to connect with a girl in class. It's a complex non-liner plot line with several flashbacks that shift across narrative lines to create the visual effect of a perfect storm of fractured people. Isabelle's war images and her memory keep appearing but the battle we are seeing is raging in the minds of those she left behind who struggle to move on with their lives.The film has an unsettling asymmetrical style about it. You find it in the withholding of truths, in the gender inversion of a war zone mother and a TV soapies father, and in hair-trigger Conrad lashing out in all directions. While the acting is often melodramatic, the filming is edgy with sharp editing cuts and sudden discordant images that feel out of context (like tumbling aerial schoolgirls). It has an uneven but reflective pace that disorients the viewer and leaves them uncertain how the story can hold together. But through the foggy mess of their lives appears hope for better times. More art-house than spoon-fed, the film feels refreshingly free of clichés and leaves you thinking about the impact of distant memories on daily lives.