Action
Ambulance (15)
Review: For more than an hour of the cacophonous action thriller Ambulance, orchestrated with chest-thumping brio by Michael Bay, the life of a wounded LAPD officer hangs precariously in the balance on a stretcher in a speeding emergency response vehicle. This turbo-charged English language remake of a 2005 Danish thriller also flatlines on more than one occasion, whether it’s a preposterous DIY medical procedure to remedy a ruptured spleen, a canine companion in peril or screenwriter Chris Fedak gleefully referencing Bay’s 1996 prison break The Rock in dialogue.
Ambulance is crammed to bursting with the director’s trademarks: whirling camerawork including dizzying shots with drones, slow-motion gun play and a wanton disregard for property with an engine and four wheels. The automotive carnage is spectacular but overblown, causing one sardonic supporting character to survey the escalating damage via CCTV and quip, “Yeah, that’s a very expensive car chase right now”. Jake Gyllenhaal and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II angrily bellow above the din as siblings in dire straits but their testosterone-soaked antics are repeatedly drowned out by a thunderous, drum-heavy score from composer Lorne Balfe that rattles craniums and compels me to self-administer a full dose of paracetamol as soon as the end credits roll.
US Army veteran Will Sharp (Abdul-Mateen II) faces crippling bills for an experimental treatment for his wife Amy (Moses Ingram), which isn’t covered by their medical insurance. Desperate times call for dumb measures and Will turns to his livewire adopted brother, Danny (Gyllenhaal), a career criminal with 37 bank robberies to his name. Danny is masterminding a 32 million dollar bank heist and he offers Will a cut of the ill-gotten gains by joining his five-man crew.
A perfect plan unravels when rookie cop Zach (Jackson White), a recent graduate of the police academy, arrives unexpectedly at the bank during the robbery to ask one of the tellers out on a date. The officer takes two bullets during a scuffle and ballsy paramedic Cam Thompson (Eiza Gonzalez) and her partner Scott (Colin Woodell) race to the scene. Their chariot with sirens is a perfect getaway vehicle for the fugitives, setting in motion a protracted chase around city streets with law enforcement led by Captain Monroe (Garret Dillahunt) and FBI Agent Anson Clark (Keir O’Donnell).
Set over the course of one frenetic day, Ambulance prescribes base pleasures with occasional wry humour like when Cam attacks Danny with a fire extinguisher and the crook berates her for messing up his attire: “This is cashmere!” Bay’s picture is cut from cheaper cloth, albeit with an exorbitant price tag for the jaw-dropping stunt work and motorised mayhem that needlessly adds an hour to the original film’s svelte 80-minute running time.
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Drama
The Worst Person In The World (15)
Review: In A Picture Of Dorian Gray, author Oscar Wilde proposes that experience is just another name men give to their mistakes. The restless millennial at the centre of Joachim Trier’s exuberantly crafted comedy drama certainly accumulates a lot of experiences as she kisses farewell to her 20s, neatly distilled by the Norwegian film-maker into 12 chapters, an epilogue and a prologue. None of these missteps is sufficiently grievous to warrant the titular dishonour.
The self-defeating heroine, who is impetuous and directionless, would disagree, blaming herself for the misfortunes of others, including an accident with a light fitting. When she pushes the self-destruct button, or hammers it furiously in futile attempts to satisfy her fickle heart, good people are the collateral damage.
Nominated for two Academy Awards including Best Original Screenplay and International Feature Film, The Worst Person In The World stylishly concludes the writer-director’s Oslo Trilogy comprising Reprise and Oslo, August 31st with a series of heartfelt, bittersweet and moving vignettes galvanised by a powerhouse central performance from Renate Reinsve. It’s an exhilarating trek along her character’s emotional spectrum from tearful loneliness and crushing despair to giddy carefree abandon, including a second chapter entitled Cheating that brilliantly captures the heady scent of possibility during a flirtatious first encounter at a party.
In Trier’s picture, the couple’s playful to and fro includes sniffing each other’s musky armpits and quietly observing their respective toilet regimes. “We didn’t cheat,” they agree with mutual smirks. The Worst Person In The World doesn’t cheat either in its pursuit of rich, layered and uncomfortably relatable characterisation.
When we first meet student Julie (Reinsve), she is in the throes of an existential crisis of her own making. Drowning out her gnawing sense of unease with the “digital interference” of social media, Julie casually changes her scholarly focus from medicine to psychology and then photography. Boyfriend Aksel (Anders Danielsen Lie), 15 years her senior and a successful graphic novelist, is ready to settle down and have children but Julie is resistant to parenthood.
One night, she gatecrashes a wedding reception and verbally spars with guest Eivind (Herbert Nordrum). Soon after, Julie jettisons Aksel to embark on a passionate relationship with the new man. Regrets surface. When you don’t have to tend the grass on the other side of the fence, it’s bound to look lusher and greener.
The Worst Person In The World is a wondrous character study that spares Julie few blushes. Reinsve’s irresistible performance draws on a script co-written by Trier and Eskil Vogt, which sends Julie along a flimsy tightrope between celebration and self-annihilation. At one point, Aksel devours an article that Julie has penned on female sexuality and anoints it “intellectual Viagra”. Trier’s stimulating picture also merits such lofty praise.
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