by Josh Sewell
A Working Man
(Rated R for strong violence, language throughout, and drug content. Opens in theaters on March 28.)
One of last year’s pleasant cinematic surprises was The Beekeeper, an amusingly over-the-top action flick with Jason Statham playing a borderline superhero out to avenge the con artists who ruined his elderly friend’s life. He’s great at playing it straight, even when a movie’s premise is completely ridiculous, which served him well in director David Ayer’s silly but delightful tale of vengeance.
Now the duo reunites for A Working Man, a hard-boiled thriller that seems like a slightly altered remake of The Beekeeper on the surface, but it turns out to be much different in tone. It’s still a fun time at the movies, but a lot darker and grittier. Sometimes you just want to see horrible villains punished in brutal ways – it’s a refreshing change of pace from the real world.
Statham plays Levon Cade, who walked away from a decorated military career to live a simple life. Now working in construction for a kind married couple (Michael Peña and Noemi Gonzalez), he’s forced to brush off his skills when their teenage daughter Jenny (Arianna Rivas) is abducted by human traffickers during a night out with friends.
A Working Man is based on Chuck Dixon’s book Levon’s Trade, the first in a Jack Reacher-style series, so we’ve got the potential for a few more of these. I certainly wouldn’t complain.
Ayer and Statham are a good team, and they’ve made a solid action flick full of well-choreographed fight sequences and brutal violence. (I got another interesting surprise during the opening credits when I saw Ayer co-wrote the screenplay with Sylvester Stallone, who also serves as a producer.)
What’s more, the movie has several supporting characters who are just as compelling as Levon, particularly Jenny. Rivas is terrific in the role – she’s not a clichéd damsel in distress, helpless until the hero comes to her rescue. She does a lot of damage to her kidnappers, refusing to go down without a fight.
Levon also pays a couple of visits to his buddy (David Harbour) – a fellow combat vet who was blinded in battle – and his brief presence suggests a fascinating history I’d be interested in learning more about. Fingers crossed we get a couple of sequels so I can hang out with these characters again. I had a lot of fun with them.
Grade: B
O’Dessa
(Rated PG-13 for violent content, strong language, drug material, suggestive material and thematic content. Now available on Hulu.)
In this original rock opera from writer/director Geremy Jasper, a postapocalyptic farm girl named O’Dessa (Sadie Sink) embarks on an epic quest to track down a stolen guitar that has been in her family for generations. Her journey eventually leads to a strange and dangerous city whose citizens are under the spell of the villainous demagogue Plutonovich (Murray Bartlett).
In order to defeat him, she must join forces with her true love, charismatic hustler Euri (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), to put the power of song to the ultimate test. (If that synopsis made you roll your eyes, the narrative’s execution won’t do much to change your mind.)
Despite a couple of decent songs and charming performances from Sink and Harrison, writer/director Geremy Jasper has crafted a rock opera that barely rocks and has no coherent message at its core. This is probably an outdated reference, but O’Dessa feels like a full-length version of Maureen’s interminable avant-garde song “Over the Moon” from Rent. You know, the part that brings the show to a screeching halt near the end of Act I.
The lack of a complex narrative isn’t necessarily make-or-break in a rock opera, as the thin premises of Tommy, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars and The Wall can attest. But at least those classic examples of the form are interesting and have good music. O’Dessa, on the other hand, feels like Jasper took a lot of (better) pop culture influences, threw them in a blender and created an unappetizing smoothie.
Perhaps worst of all, the flick commits the cardinal sin of wasting the terrific Regina Hall, despite her go-for-broke performance under a ton of ghastly makeup and prosthetics. She’s only in a few scenes, but much of the creative energy evaporates when she’s not on screen – which is a shame since her character disappears with plenty of movie left to go.
I suppose fans of Stranger Things might find portions of O’Dessa appealing because of Sink, but there’s only so much dead weight the actress can carry on her shoulders. Hopefully she can pivot from this clunker toward a better project. To be fair, at least she’s taking chances on risky material. Unfortunately, they don’t always pay off.
Grade: D-
(Rated R for strong violence, language throughout, and drug content. Opens in theaters on March 28.)
One of last year’s pleasant cinematic surprises was The Beekeeper, an amusingly over-the-top action flick with Jason Statham playing a borderline superhero out to avenge the con artists who ruined his elderly friend’s life. He’s great at playing it straight, even when a movie’s premise is completely ridiculous, which served him well in director David Ayer’s silly but delightful tale of vengeance.
Now the duo reunites for A Working Man, a hard-boiled thriller that seems like a slightly altered remake of The Beekeeper on the surface, but it turns out to be much different in tone. It’s still a fun time at the movies, but a lot darker and grittier. Sometimes you just want to see horrible villains punished in brutal ways – it’s a refreshing change of pace from the real world.
Statham plays Levon Cade, who walked away from a decorated military career to live a simple life. Now working in construction for a kind married couple (Michael Peña and Noemi Gonzalez), he’s forced to brush off his skills when their teenage daughter Jenny (Arianna Rivas) is abducted by human traffickers during a night out with friends.
A Working Man is based on Chuck Dixon’s book Levon’s Trade, the first in a Jack Reacher-style series, so we’ve got the potential for a few more of these. I certainly wouldn’t complain.
Ayer and Statham are a good team, and they’ve made a solid action flick full of well-choreographed fight sequences and brutal violence. (I got another interesting surprise during the opening credits when I saw Ayer co-wrote the screenplay with Sylvester Stallone, who also serves as a producer.)
What’s more, the movie has several supporting characters who are just as compelling as Levon, particularly Jenny. Rivas is terrific in the role – she’s not a clichéd damsel in distress, helpless until the hero comes to her rescue. She does a lot of damage to her kidnappers, refusing to go down without a fight.
Levon also pays a couple of visits to his buddy (David Harbour) – a fellow combat vet who was blinded in battle – and his brief presence suggests a fascinating history I’d be interested in learning more about. Fingers crossed we get a couple of sequels so I can hang out with these characters again. I had a lot of fun with them.
Grade: B
(Rated PG-13 for violent content, strong language, drug material, suggestive material and thematic content. Now available on Hulu.)
In this original rock opera from writer/director Geremy Jasper, a postapocalyptic farm girl named O’Dessa (Sadie Sink) embarks on an epic quest to track down a stolen guitar that has been in her family for generations. Her journey eventually leads to a strange and dangerous city whose citizens are under the spell of the villainous demagogue Plutonovich (Murray Bartlett).
In order to defeat him, she must join forces with her true love, charismatic hustler Euri (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), to put the power of song to the ultimate test. (If that synopsis made you roll your eyes, the narrative’s execution won’t do much to change your mind.)
Despite a couple of decent songs and charming performances from Sink and Harrison, writer/director Geremy Jasper has crafted a rock opera that barely rocks and has no coherent message at its core. This is probably an outdated reference, but O’Dessa feels like a full-length version of Maureen’s interminable avant-garde song “Over the Moon” from Rent. You know, the part that brings the show to a screeching halt near the end of Act I.
The lack of a complex narrative isn’t necessarily make-or-break in a rock opera, as the thin premises of Tommy, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars and The Wall can attest. But at least those classic examples of the form are interesting and have good music. O’Dessa, on the other hand, feels like Jasper took a lot of (better) pop culture influences, threw them in a blender and created an unappetizing smoothie.
Perhaps worst of all, the flick commits the cardinal sin of wasting the terrific Regina Hall, despite her go-for-broke performance under a ton of ghastly makeup and prosthetics. She’s only in a few scenes, but much of the creative energy evaporates when she’s not on screen – which is a shame since her character disappears with plenty of movie left to go.
I suppose fans of Stranger Things might find portions of O’Dessa appealing because of Sink, but there’s only so much dead weight the actress can carry on her shoulders. Hopefully she can pivot from this clunker toward a better project. To be fair, at least she’s taking chances on risky material. Unfortunately, they don’t always pay off.
Grade: D-
Reach out to Josh Sewell at joshsewell81@gmail.com or on BlueSky @joshsewell.bsky.social
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