SATURDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2016

Review ‘Man Down’ waits too long to deliver worthy message

an Down carries a poignant message This image about American veterans’ mental released by Mhealth needs, but you may give up Lionsgate shows on the movie before it gets there. Nothing is Ryan Gosling, left, clear until the film’s final moments, which hit and Emma Stone in with a gut punch just before the credits roll. a scene from, Until then, the story is told through disjointed “La La Land.” — AP flashbacks that make it hard to know what’s going on and who to root for. Director Dito Montiel bounces between boot camp, active duty in Afghanistan and life in post-apocalyp- tic America, with star Shia LaBeouf’s haircut and beard scruff the only real indicator of where we are in time. LaBeouf’s performance is powerful, maybe his best to date, but it’s unduly burdened by Q&A: an erratic story structure that doesn’t engen- der empathy for his character. He plays Gabe, a Marine who enlisted with his lifelong best ogart and Bacall. Tracy and Hepburn. film was Damien encouraged us to bring our friend, Devin (Jai Courtney). When we first see Stone and Gosling. The hugely charming experiences to these characters. the two men, they’re dirty and bearded, not BLos Angeles musical “La La Land” seals it: AP: How do you feel about being a part of in uniform, brandishing guns in a bombed- Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling have entered the proudly big-screen film like “La La Land” at a out city as they desperately look for Gabe’s ranks of great cinematic couples. Their easy rap- time when television is seen as eclipsing the son. Gabe carries a worn picture in his pocket port together was first hinted at with “Crazy, movies? Jai Courtney, from left, Shia LaBeouf and of his wife, Natalie (Kate Mara), and their tow- Kate Mara arrive at the Los Angeles pre- Stupid, Love,” and carried through the crime STONE: I don’t think films are less than TV headed little boy, Jonathan (Charlie Shotwell, drama “Gangster Squad.” Those, though, were now, but there are some amazing characters on miere of “Man Down” at ArcLight Cinemas heartbreaking in the final scenes). Suddenly, Hollywood on Wednesday. — AP only appetizers to Damien Chazelle’s “La La TV, so I understand why people want to do TV. uniformed, clean-shaven Gabe is in an office Land,” in which they star as two flailing aspirants When movies are at their full glory, I think it’s being questioned by a military counselor Marines have something to do with the disap- trying to make it in LA. Stone plays an actress, pretty mind-blowing. What do you think, Ry? (Gary Oldman, disappointingly flat). The pearance of Gabe’s son, so Gabe and Devin Gosling a jazz pianist. They sing. They dance. GOSLING: When I first met with Damien, it counselor is asking about “the incident,” and have gone rogue? Or did Gabe harm his son, They patter like Cary Grant and Katharine wasn’t about this. It was just kind of a general Gabe is stoic. and that’s why he’s being questioned by a Hepburn. “La La Land,” a resurrection of joyful meeting. He has a very infectious love of movies Then it’s basic training at Camp Lejeune, military counselor? That distinction is key if 1930s studio musicals on contemporary LA but also of the experience of going to the where Gabe and Devin are new recruits being we want to root for the good guy. streets, is an impassioned argument for the movies. He talked a lot about wanting to make toughened up by an unrelenting drill ser- Screenwriter Adam G. Simon’s nonlinear story movies, in all their widescreen glory. And part of movies that you couldn’t watch on your iPhone, geant. Natalie sweetly shaves Gabe’s head as parses out details in such a way that we does- that vintage Hollywood experience includes big that you really wanted to see in a theater with he prepares to ship out to Afghanistan. Now, n’t know enough about Gabe’s situation to ol’ movie stars. an audience. Gabe and Devin are back from the war, beard- experience his emotional arc until the very In an era that has struggled to produce them, AP: Your love of movies seems clear, since ed and dirty, wandering dystopian streets and end, which feels like a lost opportunity given Stone and Gosling stand apart as two of our you’ve previously acknowledged stuffing threatening a homeless man as they look for its heart-wrenching heft. Without that con- best answers. In “La La Land,” they’re our version DVDs down your pants. Gabe’s family. Now clean-shaven Gabe is driv- text, it’s hard to fully appreciate LaBeouf’s of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, maybe not STONE: You put DVDs down your pants?! ing his son to school as they playfully decide nuanced performance. We don’t understand quite as light on their feet (who is?), but more GOSLING: (laughing) VHS. Look, in these to use the military term “man down” as secret what we’re looking at until it’s over. natural and funnier. How far will they push their kinds of situations, you’re encouraged to say code for “I love you.” He promises to send let- “Man Down” ultimately has a lot to say on-screen chemistry? “Do you think people anything. And it’s celebrated. And then you pay ters from Afghanistan. Now stoic Gabe drops about the debilitating effects of war and the would let us do anything together again?” Stone the price for that later. a reluctant tear while talking to the military dismal reality for many veterans who suffer asked her co-star during an interview earlier this STONE: Was it to be closer to your favorite counselor. from post-traumatic stress. It just waits too fall. “I don’t think we’d be allowed.” movie? long to say it. “Man Down,” a Lionsgate After greeting warmly (Gosling had been GOSLING: No. It was one story a long time The good guy release, is rated R by the Motion Picture shooting “Blade Runner 2049”), the actors sat ago where I had to hide an R-rated movie from The meandering structure creates a little Association of America for “some disturbing down to reflect on why they go so well togeth- my parents. It was very intimate. This is the dan- too much mystery for the audience to know violence, and language throughout.” Running er, their own tortured paths to Hollywood suc- ger of this kind of thing that you do because it where to place its allegiances. Did the time: 92 minutes. Two stars out of four. — AP cess and just how deep their movie love runs. haunts us. AP: Well, it’s a very vivid example of AP: Did either of you hesitate about work- movie love. ing together again? GOSLING: I do love movies but I love making STONE: That was an exciting aspect that it them more. I’ve never found something profes- was our third thing together. The characters also sionally that engages me as much as that. You have by the end five years between them and I work with such a large group of people and it’s think we’d probably known each other that long this constant problem solving process that gets ctors Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher by that point. It’s kind of nice to not have to find you to this end, whatever that is. Sometimes it announced the birth of their second that when the story depends so much on the works and sometimes it doesn’t. It’s always a Achild together, a spokeswoman for connection between the two of them. crapshoot. Kunis confirmed on Thursday. The couple has AP: Did you feel a connection right away STONE: For me, watching movies is what yet to name the baby boy born on Wednesday, on your first film together? makes me want to make movies. I’m so inspired the website E! News reported. The actors and GOSLING: We’ve been asked to improvise a by watching movies. The process of making it is producers have a two-year-old daughter, lot in the films that we’ve done together. I think engaging but I get so reinvigorated every time I Wyatt. They became engaged in February 2014 even in our first audition we were asked to see a great movie. Then I feel like I’m the charac- after a two-year relationship and married in improvise. That just kind of connects actors in a ter in the movie for the rest of the day. Then I July 2015. Kutcher, 38, and Kunis, 33, met as co- way that just saying dialogue doesn’t do. realize I can’t play that same character I just stars on the set of “That ‘70s show,” a television AP: The film portrays some soul-crushing watched. series aired in the United States between 1998 auditions. Were they familiar? AP: What was the first film that you mim- and 2006 in which their characters were also in STONE: The first audition was inspired by icked that way? a relationship. Ryan’s story. STONE: “The Jerk.” Also “Hocus Pocus.” It Kutcher, who also starred in the televi- GOSLING: Yeah, where I had to cry and this was a combination of “The Jerk” and “Hocus sion series “Two and a Half Men,” among his whom he was married from 2005 to 2013. lady took a call in the middle of it. And then just Pocus,” so it shows my age and not my age. other roles, shot to international fame when Kunis previously had a long-term relation- told me to go on, “Pick up where I left off.” That (Turns to Gosling) What was yours? he began dating actress Demi Moore, to ship with actor Macaulay Culkin. — AP was part of what was great about making this GOSLING: “Hocus Pocus.” — AP