Relay: A suspenseful race

Relay (2025) • View trailer

Four stars (out of five). Rated R, for profanity

Available via: Movie theaters

By Derrick Bang • Published in The Davis Enterprise, 8.24.25

This is a slick little burst of adrenaline.

 

Director David Mackenzie’s sharp handling of Justin Piasecki’s original script evokes fond memories of 1970s “paranoia thrillers” such as The Parallax View, The Conversation and Executive Action.

 

Ash (Riz Ahmed), well aware that his client's movements are being monitored at all
times, finds it increasingly difficult to help her evade this surveillance.

In terms of pacing and cinematographer Giles Nuttgens’ numerous long takes, Mackenzie’s approach also is old-school, despite the action taking place very strongly in present-day Manhattan. At a tense and suspenseful 112 minutes, this film deserves to be viewed uninterrupted, so plan accordingly.

Ash (Riz Ahmed), a former failed corporate whistleblower, nearly killed himself via guilt-induced alcoholism. Now several years sober and faithfully attending AA meetings, he has re-invented himself as a solitary “fixer” who helps others in similar dire straits: people who attempt to be a whistleblower, but then fearfully panic and wish solely to return the stolen data, in the hopes of being left alone.

 

Ash acts as a go-between, brokering lucrative payoffs between corrupt corporations and the individuals who threaten their ruin. He arranges for the data to be returned, while retaining a carefully protected copy himself, as a means of ensuring his client’s ongoing safety. 

 

Ash remains a unseen figure in the shadows, keeping his identity secret via meticulous planning and an exacting set of rules. He operates via disguises, discarded phone SIM cards, U.S. Post Office drops under multiple fictitious names — often in other cities and states — while living in a high-security building and masterminding each operation from an equally fortified “war room.”

 

He never speaks to a client, instead maintaining anonymity via the “Tri-State Relay Service,” which provides specially trained operators to relay telephone conversations between people who are deaf, hard of hearing or speech-disabled. He types his messages; they’re communicated verbally to the client by a relay operator; the client responds verbally, which in turn is relayed back to Ash’s laptop.

 

It’s fascinating: slow, but quite effective.

Nimona: Top-flight fantasy

Nimona (2023) • View trailer

Five stars (out of five). Rated PG, for dramatic intensity and occasional rude humor

Available via: Netflix

By Derrick Bang

The best science fiction and fantasy stories — even on the big screen, going back to 1927’s Metropolis and 1936’s Things to Come — have employed these genres as a means of illuminating and indicting lamentable, real-world human behavior.

 

Sir Ballister Boldheart is startled to discover that — among her many other unusual
talents — his new sidekick, Nimona, can breathe fire.

Rod Serling became famous for using his Twilight Zone scripts as subtle message parables on bigotry, government oppression, mob mentality, social justice, war-mongering and individual dignity.

This noble calling has since been picked up by animated features; The Iron Giant, Inside Out, The Sea Beast and Elemental spring readily to mind.

 

Nimona now joins their ranks … and it’s likely to remain this year’s best and most boldly audacious animated feature.

 

Co-directors Nick Bruno and Troy Quane’s inventive fairy tale has the breathless, rat-a-tat pacing of a classic Warner Bros. Road Runner cartoon; the snark we adore in the Shrek series; and the hilarious visual set-pieces typical of the Despicable Me and Minions franchises. But although this new film is fun — and that’s Fun with a capital “F” — its power comes from the shrewdly savvy script, with its up-to-the-minute real-world references, by a sextet of writers, loosely adapting ND Stevenson’s (much darker) 2015 graphic novel of the same title.

 

The story’s core message: the shameful human tendency to regard “the other” as a monster.

 

But that doesn’t become clear immediately, in a twisty saga that hits the ground running, and never lets up.

 

A brief prologue — cleverly animated via still images within ancient scrolls — depicts the origins of a futuristic medieval world where sword-wielding knights exist alongside flying vehicles, giant screens and breathless media personalities. Society has been shaped by events a millennium past, when the mighty warrior Queen Gloreth slew the fire-spouting dragon that prompted the realm to erect towering walls to protect it from similar monsters beyond.

 

A long succession of highly trained young warriors has maintained this tradition; the story begins as the current inductees are about to be knighted by Queen Valerin (voiced by Lorraine Toussaint). This group’s stand-out member is an anomaly: Ballister Boldheart (Riz Ahmed), the first knight-to-be who’s not a member of the aristocracy, but instead was hand-selected by the queen, when he was just a street urchin.

 

This hasn’t gone over well with many citizens, who disapprove of placing the realm’s safety in the hands of “a commoner.” Fellow inductee Thoddeus Sureblade (Beck Bennett) is openly contemptuous, having bullied Ballister since they began training. The only saving grace: Ballister’s friend and lover, Ambrosius Goldenloin (Eugene Lee Yang), whose noble lineage hails all the way back to Queen Gloreth.

Rogue One: Plenty of thrills in this Star Wars entry

Rogue One (2016) • View trailer 
Four stars. Rated PG-13, for intense sci-fi action and violence
By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 12.16.16

The Force is strong with this one.

Rogue One is a crackling entry in the Star Wars canon, perhaps most accurately subtitled Episode 3.95. It takes place immediately preceding 1977’s original Star Wars, and in fact can be viewed as the events abridged in that film’s opening text crawl.

Once Jyn (Felicity Jones) agrees to join Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) on a mission to find
and rescue her father from the evil Empire, she's startled to discover that her new
partner's companion droid, K-2SO, is a former Imperial Enforcer Droid ... with a
distinct inferiority complex.

The fast-paced script — credited to John Knoll, Gary Whitta, Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy — is equal parts heist thriller and down ’n’ dirty war film: a fairly grim escapade, by this series’ usual standards, taking place at a time that finds the severely overmatched rebel Alliance without much of the “new hope” promised by the eventual arrival of Luke, Han and the many others destined to enter the fray.

This film’s essential place in series continuity notwithstanding, director Gareth Edwards and his scripters manage the neat trick of making it a solid stand-alone adventure, for the benefit of any first-time Star Wars viewers (assuming such individuals still exist). This adventure builds to a terrific climax, while also delivering an unexpected degree of emotional gravitas.

The prologue and first act are a bit top-heavy with exposition and the need to introduce a lot of new characters, but — once beyond the information dump — it’s smooth sailing.

Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen), once a respected scientist with the evil Empire, became appalled by the weapons of mass destruction he’d been fabricating for his masters; he fled to an outworld planet with his wife Lyra (Valene Kane) and their young daughter Jyn, hoping to remain beneath the Imperial radar. As the film opens, they’ve just been found by Imperial Director Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn), a former colleague, and now an implacable enemy determined to put Galen back to work on a massive new project.

From the moment we meet him, Mendelsohn oozes the “foul stench” that has characterized the best of the Star Wars middle-management villains. His curled-lip sneer and quietly condescending tone make him the pluperfect martinet.

Krennic succeeds in his task, but little Jyn manages to escape and hide in a bolt-hole, where she’s eventually rescued by Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker), a rebel guerrilla fighter given considerable exposure in TV’s animated Clone Wars series. (It’s nice to put a live-action face to this character.)

Jason Bourne: One helluva ride

Jason Bourne (2016) • View trailer 
4.5 stars. Rated PG-13, for intense action and violence, and brief profanity
By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 7.29.16

Wow.

Director Paul Greengrass certainly hasn’t lost any of his juice. This newest installment in the Bourne franchise is relentless: It hits the ground running, never lets up for two full hours, and is bookended by a pair of spectacular action sequences.

After learning that Nicky (Julia Stiles) has obtained proof of CIA black-ops programs that
relate to his past, Bourne (Matt Damon) arranges to meet her at an Athens plaza, where
they hope to blend into a melee between rioting civilians and local police officers.
Unfortunately, this chaos does nothing to stop the efforts of pursuing CIA teams.

I wouldn’t have thought Greengrass ever could top the mano a mano melees in 2004’s Bourne Supremacy, but he has ... and then some. Jason Bourne is a taut, breathtaking experience, its giddy momentum the result of equally fine work by editor Christopher Rouse, a longtime Greengrass colleague (and Academy Award winner, for 2007’s The Bourne Ultimatum).

Greengrass and Rouse also collaborated on the timely, ripped-from-the-headlines script, which references the “safety or security?” argument at the heart of the recent spat between Apple Inc. and the FBI. The players have been altered to avoid lawsuits, but there’s no question which side of the fence our filmmakers occupy. Having navigated conspiracy-laden waters for more than a decade, Greengrass clearly doesn’t trust government agencies to have their citizens’ best interests — or privacy — at heart.

And with paranoia running rampant these days, this film definitely captures the national zeitgeist.

When last seen, Bourne (Matt Damon) had successfully back-tracked his actual identity, along with those responsible for the CIA training that transformed him into a hardened assassin. The victory was pyrrhic, as it left him without friends or a country. Convinced that the CIA would have him “erased,” he simply vanished.

Having remained off the grid for nearly a decade, Bourne has become a ragged, rootless shell, subsisting on meager earnings from underground bare-knuckle boxing matches. Damon’s grim features are weary and despondent during this introductory montage: the quiet despair of a man lacking purpose.

Then, suddenly, a blast from the past: He gets a message from former CIA colleague Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles), who — also long on the run — has joined a hacking collective with the goal of exposing CIA dirty tricks. Her quest has borne fruit: 30 years’ worth of black ops files that include Operation Treadstone — which “created” Bourne — and something new called “Iron Hand.”

Even more damning, Nicky has uncovered additional details pertaining to Bourne’s actual identity — David Webb — along with the strong suggestion that his father, Richard (Gregg Henry), was directly involved with Treadstone. This revelation lends context to another of Bourne’s still fragmented memories: something having to do with a long-ago lunchtime meeting with his father.

Closed Circuit: They're watching us!

Closed Circuit (2013) • View trailer 
Four stars. Rating: R, for profanity and brief violence
By Derrick Bang

Nobody does an edgy, paranoid espionage thriller better than the British.

No doubt it comes from living under the unblinking eyes of all those surveillance cameras. (Big Brother, indeed!)

With their supposedly slam-dunk case having gone increasingly pear-shaped, Martin
(Eric Bana) and Claudia (Rebecca Hall) wonder about their next step. Trouble is,
they shouldn't even be a "they"; because of the nature of this terrorism trial, Martin
and Claudia aren't supposed to communicate ... even when each begins to worry
about pernicious surveillance.

Way back in the day, Closed Circuit would have been a tidy little B-entry, designated as the bottom-of-the-bill companion to some prestige A production. The irony is that many of those so-called B-films were far more entertaining than their big-budget cousins.

The same can be said for Closed Circuit, which outshines several of this summer’s disappointing blockbusters: better acting and directing, and a vastly superior script.

And yet, sadly, it probably won’t make a dime. Getting released immediately prior to the Labor Day weekend is akin to television’s Saturday evening kiss-of-death timeslot: Nobody will notice.

That’s a shame, because scripter Steven Knight definitely knows his way around this genre, having previously dazzled us with his twisty plots for 2002’s Dirty Pretty Things and 2007’s Eastern Promises. This guy can write; he has a gift for putting ordinary people into extraordinary situations, while avoiding the burst of brilliant resourcefulness that turn American action stars into invulnerable, lone wolf superheroes.

When the two protagonists in this narrative eye each other bleakly, during a calm between storms, and acknowledge that there’s no way to put this particular Humpty Dumpty together again — no successful exit to the catastrophe — we know they’re right. The situation is beyond salvation, beyond their control.

And, maddeningly, it always has been.

Closed Circuit — marvelous triple-entendre title, by the way — opens its ripped-from-the-headlines story with a terrorist attack at a busy London market. With 120 civilians dead and the British public screaming for justice, an anonymous tip leads police to one surviving member of the suspected terrorist cell: Farroukh Erdogan (Denis Moschitto).

Preparations begin for what promises to be the trial of the century.