Hypnotic (2023)

Direction: Robert Rodriguez
Country: USA

Director Robert Rodriguez made a name for himself in the ‘90s with rowdy, bloody movies such as El Mariachi (1992), Desperado (1995), and From Dusk Till Dawn (1996). His new release, Hypnotic, flagrantly misses the grip and frisson required for a solid thriller. 

A sixth sense plays a key factor in a story that doesn’t hold up; the chemistry between Ben Affleck and Alice Braga is bland; and Rodriguez directs with a heavy hand. Thus, the film never quite gels into a cohesive cinematic experience, and is, far too often, simply boring and too inconsistent to entertain.

Affleck is David Rourke, a tough police detective whose daughter was abducted in a park. Through therapy, he spent considerable time dealing with trauma and guilt, and was finally considered apt to return to duty. While investigating a series of mind-bending robberies, he finds out that the criminals behind them are strangely connected with the kidnapping of his daughter and a shady governmental program. Still, the mission to find her would be impossible without the help of psychic Diana Cruz (Braga). 

Aggressively formulaic, the film is stitched with clichés and implausibilities. Maybe if in the hands of David Cronenberg or Christopher Nolan, this story - co-written with Max Borenstein (Godzilla, 2014; Worth, 2020) - would have a different appeal. Hypnotic is as misleading as everything you see on the screen. I couldn’t help feeling bluffed in the end, sadly realizing how empty this experience was.

Air (2023)

Direction: Ben Affleck
Country: USA 

Air marks the return of Ben Affleck as director, seven years after the disappointing Live by Night. Although he also stars here as Phil Knight, the billionaire CEO of Nike Inc., the central figure of this decent-enough sports biographical drama is played by Matt Damon. He is Sonny Vaccaro, a basketball scout and marketing executive who will trigger a unique historical shoe deal by approaching the young star Michael Jordan to sign with Nike - against his favorite Adidas. It’s the famous Air Jordan shoes we’re talking about here. The year is 1984, and the film brings plenty of nostalgia through music and some transient sequence of images.

Even so, you don’t have to be interested in basketball or Jordan, who doesn’t speak throughout the whole film, since the story is told with enough conviction and transparency to connect with people who are not into the NBA. Because more concerned with the characters and their personal goals than with the sport itself, everyone should be able to enjoy it. 

The film’s main strength is precisely that it's a great story. It’s also well acted by a cast that includes Viola Davis, Jason Bateman and Chris Messina in strong supporting roles. For his part, Affleck keeps the narrative moving at a nice pace. 

Narrative-wise, though, Air doesn't have an original bone in its body - the film falls into typical American standards of emotional tension - but, being entertaining and informative, it succeeds at bringing an usually forgotten part of sports history into the minds of today's audiences.

Deep Water (2022)

Direction: Adrian Lyne
Country: USA 

20 years after a so-so adaptation of Claude Chabrol’s The Unfaithful Wife, the distressingly erratic American filmmaker Adrian Lyne (Fatal Attraction; 1987; Indecent Proposal, 1993) returns with Deep Water, a crippled erotic thriller starring Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas. They form a discredited married couple who, no longer bonded by love, agrees to an open relationship where the lack of limits becomes intolerable. While she takes sexual partners home, he makes sure to get rid of them in the most discreet manner possible. 

The trouble with this film begins with its story, which never plays fair with the audience. Lyne doesn’t explore the dark side; he merely exploits it, and nearly every scene becomes ridiculous and tedious. Moreover, this is another failed effort at making Affleck a decent actor, whereas Armas is far from convincing either in her uncontrolled sexual impulses and provocations. 

Overall, Deep Water is a poor effort; one that’s difficult to forgive. In addition to the unlikable characters and an abominable screenplay by Zach Helm (Stranger Than Fiction, 2008) and Sam Levinson (Euphoria TV series, 2019-2022), who worked in accordance with Patricia Highsmith’s novel of the same name, the film is turned into a further embarrassment through forced coincidences, the absence of thrilling moments, and an unremarkable execution. Believe it or not, its most outstanding achievement was making me laugh without even trying to be funny.

The Way Back (2020)

Direction: Gavin O’Connor
Country: USA

The eighth feature film from American director Gavin O’Connor (Tumbleweed; Warrior), The Way Back, is a clichéd and overlong mix of addiction drama and revitalizing sports, whose unbalanced parts diminish the force of the whole. 

Ben Affleck (Argo; Gone Girl) stars as the miserable Jack Cunningham, a construction worker and former basketball all-star who spends his nights drinking like a fish as a consequence of the loss of his little son to cancer and subsequent separation from his wife, Angela (Janina Gavankar). The first opportunity for redemption arises when he’s invited to coach the catholic high school basketball team of Bishop Hayes. Jack reformulates the team, promoting the introverted Brandon Durrett (Brandon Wilson) to captain. The latter lacks confidence, going through a similar problem with his father as Jack went in his youth. But miracles do happen, and the team step up efforts to reach the playoffs, having a sober Jack at the helm. Yet, a relapse puts everything in jeopardy.

While the script by Brad Ingelsby (The Dynamiter; Out of Furnace) never quite crackles as it might, O’Connor tries to infuse some heart in the execution, only succeeding from the sports point of view. In the end, regardless of an Affleck fully committed to his role, we have an ordinary film, respectable in terms of message but with a superfluous flair for melodrama. 

The Way Back brings nothing new and its authors seem satisfied with the overdramatic artifice set to obstruct imagination.