Friends With Money: Review of Beatriz at Dinner

Beatriz at Dinner

Director: Miguel Arteta

By Alex Watson

The theme of white privilege is tackled hard in Miguel Arteta's Beatriz at Dinner.  Despite not taking full advantage of the increasing animosity on display, there is a powerful and tragic message underneath. At heart, this is a hard-hitting character study of a woman who still feels oppressed in the country she lives in. It is also a wonderful satire of Donald Trump's America and the tactlessness of the social elite.

Beatriz (Salma Hayek) is a healer and masseuse living in Los Angeles, who love the environment and animals. After a tough start, she travels out to Newport Beach for her appointment with client Cathy (Connie Britton). When car trouble prevents her departure, Cathy invites to stay for dinner much to the aggravation of her husband Grant (David Warchofsky). Once the party begins Beatriz has the displeasure of meeting boorish billionaire Doug (John Lithgow) whose views soon make her feel very unhappy.

The intentions of Beatriz at Dinner are carefully laid out early on. During the movie's opening, Beatriz finds that her beloved pet goat has been strangled to death. Even after years in America, she is still viewed as a guest and being accepted is a faraway dream. Her views on the world are that it is too be loved which almost immediately puts her at odds with her affluent hosts. Arteta does an excellent job of letting the anger simmer. Although Cathy claims to love Beatriz like family after aiding her daughter through cancer, their relationship is purely monetary. Even her attempts to bond with fellow rich guests Alex (Jay Duplass) and Shannon (Chloe Sevigny) are met with mockery. Her outcast status is made painfully obvious and her strained attempts at conversation threaten to pop the happy capitalist bubble.

When Doug arrives he firmly represents everything Beatriz despises. He's rude and arrogant, happily exploits workers, kills animals for fun, uproots people's homes to make way for his new hotel's and worst of all, he pollutes the earth. Yet despite all these shortcomings, his fellow co-workers and their wives adore him for providing the cash to live their wealthy lives. Almost immediately the pair butt heads and Mike White's script makes full use of the mutual hatred. Beatriz is the one compassionate voice in a room full comfortably blind followers. Although it begins to feel increasingly stagey, Arteta does a fine job of keeping this showdown between two world's feel brutally relevant. Doug is a man whom people will always admire no matter what wrongs are committed. The increasingly sharp dialogue lands the intended blows each time, but we wonder how much steam Beatriz really has left?

Although this is a brilliantly executed piece, Beatriz at Dinner feels way too short and the fact that Arteta refuses to give us the desire explosions leaves us feeling deflated. However, take nothing away from the shocking ending that occurs because the final image is one that will haunt you afterwards. Throughout the movie, there is a sense of injustice that carries well in Trump's America. Hard-working and kind people like Beatriz are considered a dying breed whose voice is gradually fading away. Her hosts will happily take all the wrong roads as long as the money keeps coming in. Arteta also gives a powerful social commentary at the difficulties immigrants now face and the uncertainty of what could be.

One of Hollywood's most underrated talents, Salma Hayek gives a performance of pure class as Beatriz. A very new age soul, Hayek injects a great deal of heart and feeling into this character. Believing that all humans are connected, her views are dismissed as ludicrous and her ever increasing disillusion is heartbreaking. John Lithgow makes a fine verbal duelling partner and as the repulsive Doug, he gives us the most gut-wrenching character 2017 will bring. Giving his character a sickening smugness, Lithgow forgoes any kind of charm and gives us the ugly face of Corporate America.

Beatriz at Dinner is a movie that although it leaves us wanting way more, is still a movie that deserves recognition.

By The Numbers: Review of The Accountant

The Accountant 

Director: Gavin O'Connor 

By Alex Watson 

While The Accountant does have stretches where it succeeds as a straight thriller, its underdeveloped story, and misjudged feel are sorely lacking tension. Ben Affleck gives a committed performance, but even he cannot rise to give this movie the dramatic touch it badly needs. Director Gavin O'Connor seems to want to create some sort of autistic superhero and due to a ham-handed backstory for the character and its tendency to gloss over key character points leave us with a lack of empathy.

Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck) is a math savant who runs a small accounting practice, but his work is a mere front for his work does illegally accounting for some the world's most dangerous people. When he is recruited work for a big robotics firm run by Lamar Blackburn (John Lithgow) he uncovers a significant amount of money going missing. During this time he comes across pretty accountant Dana (Anna Kendrick) and he is also been chased by Treasury agent Ray King (J.K Simmons). Where does the trail lead? The answer to that will involve bodies stacking up. 

O'Connor seems unsure about what way he wants to take The Accountant because it starts with some intriguing mystery as we see King talking to a colleague about this mystery figure who traces missing money for the baddies. Christian is a character who is very much a loner and to the films credit it does get a lot of details right about his condition as he doesn't like eye contact, has problems with social cues and is prone to fits of anger when he cannot finish something. What it loses points on is the depiction of his martial arts upbringing by his high ranking army father who groomed him from a young to be some kind of superhero. Also immediately, O'Connor throws believability out of the window when it is revealed that also his hideouts are filled the brim with all the latest fancy weaponry and he can drop everything and move within minutes.

The main problem is that so much of story feels confused and not much makes sense. At the centre is a potentially interesting story of corporate corruption, sadly due to a poor script by Bill Dubuque, motivations are confused and the plot becomes muddled from there. It seems like O'Connor is more interested in letting the bodies hit the floor that really explaining what is happening to his audience. Dana is a character that although introduced as the sweet romantic relief, is drastically underwritten to the point of being unnecessary. There is zero chemistry alongside Christian and the sloppy romance approach just feels awkward and unreal. His motivation for wanting to see her live is completely glossed over and seems like an eleventh-hour story addition. Similarly ill-explained are the intentions of mysterious man Braxton (John Bernthal) who goes from place to place makes bizarre threats but not clueing us into the bigger picture. 

A clumsy and mismatched ending with some predictable twists is also a big problem for The Accountant as things come full circle. What could have been a cold-blooded and remorseless finale is fumbled at the one-yard line by O'Connor who tries to add a comedic touch. Throughout we see Christian take aim with his huge sniper rifle and emotionlessly kill any number of hitmen with a brutal efficiency.  While the final moments do so his great killing ability it just feels a flavorless and dull end to this journey which doesn't bring its audience much joy. Its focus on how autistic are just people and capable of being stone cold killers feels like a big misjudgment when the story alone of Christian being the man who goes where the average fears to tread would have been fascinating alone. Gavin O'Connor has made some good films, Miracle and Warrior showed the bonds of brotherhood well, his thriller credentials remain in the balance. 

Ben Affleck does his best to bring Christian to life and on some levels, he does succeed because he handles the little details of his diagnosis well. His portrayal of this character as some kind of weapons Superman leaves his character feeling mismatched and he is never really able to recover from this tailspin. There are solid supporting turns for Anna Kendrick, J.K Simmons, and John Lithgow, but none really has much to work with and for a cast of this caliber they feel stranded in a weak story line. 

The Accountant is a thriller that could well have had more merits, but instead, the audience will have to stick to playing count the body numbers.