Ben Is Back (2018)

They played the trailer to Ben Is Back all the time here. It was on TV and in cinemas before any movie started and yet when the release date came, screenings of it were nowhere to be found and so I had to wait for the home release to have a chance to watch it. 

The story follows Ben Burns (Lucas Hedges), a young drug addict who suddenly returns home from his treatment facility on Christmas Eve. While Ben's step-father, Neal (Courtney B. Vance), and his sister, Ivy (Kathryn Newton), start worrying about the chaos that Ben's arrival will eventually bring, his mother, Holly (Julia Roberts), is filled with joy. Things complicate real quick when Ben's old gang discovers he's back in town.

Like with most movies I see nowadays —I guess I have to pick my movies more carefully—, the biggest issue with Ben Is Back is the story which doesn't really bring anything new to the drug addiction/substance abuse genre. A story that starts out quite strongly but unfortunately, as it develops, turns into a dragged sequence of ridiculous scenarios, and plot holes the side of a lunar crater. And quite frankly, it's all over the place —at first, it's a story about drug addiction, then it's your average crime drama, and then it goes back at being about drugs. Overall, the story is just not compelling, and it's definitely not the reason you keep watching the film until the end.

The characters aren't particularly striking either as Ben is the typical drug addict and Holly is the typical lion-like mother who tries to protect her son at all costs. Furthermore, while Peter Hedges tries to turn the film into some sort of thriller, the focus on the dynamics between the character is completely lost.

The performances, on the other hand, are incredibly compelling, arguably too good for a mediocre film like Ben Is Back. Lucas Hedges gives an intense, astonishing, believable performance as Ben; Julia Roberts is a force to be reckoned with her sensitive, heartbreaking performance filled with the anguish, pain and anger of having a drug-addicted son. It's them that gives the mother-and-son relationship some dimension and tension.

LD Entertainment, Roadside Attractions, Lionsgate

Ultimately, Ben Is Back feels like a wasted opportunity. The film is unfocused —or focused on the wrong things if you prefer—, the relationship between Ben and his mother lacks complexity —I was never really invested in it and if it wasn't for Hedges and Roberts, I wouldn't have given a damn— and the underlying theme that although an addict cannot be saved, his/her family and loved ones will do everything in their power to help him/her, to get him/her out of the hole, feels somewhat forced.

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002)

I'm still on the insane quest to watch every single movie Sam Rockwell has made and, among all those I haven't seen yet (I'm planning on watching some I've already seen, The Green Mile to made one, that I haven't reviewed), I picked Confessions of a Dangerous Mind because this is George Clooney's directorial debut and Charlie Kaufman wrote it. Most important though, I liked the title.

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind depicts the life of popular game show host and producer Chuck Barris (Sam Rockwell) who, at the height of his career, was recruited by the CIA as a contract killer. Well, at least that's what he said.

Anyhow, I had never heard of Chuck Barris nor his story before and I found the story interesting, engaging and entertaining. Only at first though. A little after the CIA subplot makes its entrance, the plot loses its grip and focus, and it feels incredibly dragged. It still takes some interesting turns and twists, but it's quite tedious and barely watchable.

The characters aren't that better. While the flawed and quirky characters of Chuck Barris and Jim Bryd, the CIA agent who recruited Barris, are well developed --that's what Kaufman does best, after all--, the others have no substance, and it kinda feels like Kaufman didn't even want them in the movie. Also, it's hard to care about these people. I just can't believe the man behind Being John Malkovich and Adaptation. wrote this.

Miramax

That said, there's something about Confessions of a Dangerous Mind that makes it worth watching. It's the acting. Sam Rockwell gives another of his underrated performances as Chuck Barris. He brings so much energy, charisma and humour to the role and captures the paranoia and fulfilment of the character very well. Also good is George Clooney's performance as mysterious CIA agent Jim Bryd. He doesn't have a lot of screen time but definitely gets the best out of it. Drew Barrymore and Julia Roberts, on the other hand, are just watchable. It's not their fault though, not completely. They were just given poorly written and underused characters, that's all.

Another solid-ish aspect of Confessions of a Dangerous Mind is Clooney's direction. The film is kinda stylish and has a surrealist and comedic tone that works well with Barris's supposedly true story.