Los Angeles Times - 23.08.2019

L ATIMES.COM/CALENDAR FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2019E5

Every Sunday, we

turn big spenders

into big savers.

Lookforgreat deals from these

top brands in this Sunday’s Times:

Toadvertise,call1.800 LA TIMES

By advertiser request, not all inserts will be distributed to all zones. 12BR963

LAA6096861-1

Lookfor great deals from

these top brands in this

Sunday’sTimes:

OYA

ST

KEEPING INDEPENDENT MEDIA ALIVE FOR GENERATIONS TO COME

JOIN US FOR A GALA BENEFIT EVENT

TU

PM! TU AY

Ti

AT YE

AT THE MOVIES

The “Has Fallen” series,
“Olympus,” “London” and
now, “Angel Has Fallen,” is a
curiously enduring fran-
chise. It seems Mike Ban-
ning, a foul-mouthed Secret
Service agent played with a
lumpy gruffness by Gerard
Butler, has filled the void of
the Everyman action hero,
displaced by those with
superpowers and elegant
martial arts skills. Mike’s
just a guy with a wife and kid
who happens to be incred-
ibly enthusiastic about stab-
bing people. And if there’s
one thing we’ve learned in
this series, it’s always bring
Mike to a knife fight.
Mike has become a ci-
pher, a character around
whom a filmmaker can proj-
ect the paranoid political
fantasy of the week. In
“Olympus Has Fallen,” An-
toine Fuqua threw him into
“Die Hard in the White
House” against North Ko-
rea, while Babak Najafi
plunked him into an interna-
tional terrorist attack by a
nefarious Middle Eastern
group in “London Has Fall-
en.” Naturally, the only place
to go now is home. “Angel”
director and co-writer Ric
Roman Waugh plops Mike
into his own “Three Days of

the Condor,” a conspiracy

thriller in which the U.S. gov-

ernment has turned on him.

This time, it’s our hero

who has fallen, the “guard-

ian angel” to President

Trumbull (Morgan Free-

man, the only returning co-

star). After a drone attack

on the president during a

fishing trip, Banning wakes

up cuffed to a hospital bed,

framed to take the fall for the

attempted hit. Indicted and

imprisoned, then kidnapped

by the very mercenaries who

did try to kill the president,

Banning has no choice but to

go rogue (as per usual).

The tone of “Angel” is far

more somber than the wise-

cracking “Olympus” or the

frothing, jingoistic “Lon-

don.” The weight makes the

film strangely dull at times.

(How can a scene of Butler

crashing a big rig into a tree

be so flat?) But some mo-

ments in this outsize take on

“The Fugitive” hit a real

nerve, such as a shootout in

an office building where

young bearded white men in

tactical gear pump thou-

sands of rounds into drywall

and office furniture. Ban-

ning is our fantasy for those

very real scenarios: a strong,

resourcefulyet exceedingly

normal man of action.

Waugh brings a chaotic,

vertiginous style to “Angel,”

potentially the best-looking

of all the films, though it’s

still riddled with unfortu-

nately sketchy green screen.

The director asserts Ban-

ning’s relatability and his

vulnerability visually. He

places the audience within

Mike’s subjectivity during

the action scenes, looking

down the barrel of his gun as

if in a first-person shooter

game, the sound dropping

out to a muffled hum when-

ever he gets his bell rung.

What’s truly daring, how-

ever, is that the script (by

Waugh, Robert Mark Ka-

men and Matt Cook) actu-

ally addresses all the brain

injuries Mike must have suf-

fered in the gleefully un-

hinged splatterfests of the

first two films. He’s been

scamming doctors for pain

pills and even admits he’s

got a lot to address, person-

ally (but in, you know, a very

tough, masculine way). Mike

Banning going to therapy?

The mind reels.

At the heart of the “Has

Fallen” franchise is the affec-

tion between men, and

Butler always shares the

best chemistry with his male

costars. In “Angel,” that

sparkcomes from Butler’s

scenes with Nick Nolte, as

his father, Clay, a veteran liv-

ing off the grid. It’s Clay’s

older, wiser perspective that

pushes Banning to take

stock of his life. Surprisingly,

the tough guy is willing to

grow and change, along with

the franchise itself, even if it

is as goofy and violent as it

always has been.

Katie Walsh is a Tribune

News Service film critic.

Liza Mandelup’s debut

documentary feature, “Jaw-

line,” opens with a photo

shoot. Aspiring digital

heartthrob Austyn Tester, a

good-natured teen from ru-

ral Tennessee, asks his

brother, Donovan, to take

his picture with his smart-

phone. None of the many,

many shots are good

enough. They eventually

give up, planning to try

again later for perfection.

The thing is, nothing is ever

quite good enough — or

enough, period — for

Austyn, 16, in his quest for

online fame.

“Jawline” provides an

evenhanded examination of

celebrity and loneliness in

the digital age. At its best,

the movie, a jury prize win-

ner at this year’s Sundance,

offers empathetic under-

standing of all the lonely ad-

olescents aching to be both

heard and understood.

Mandelup is most inter-

ested in exploring the ways

these live broadcasters cre-

ate a sense of community.

Crucially, she talks to the de-

voted young girls who re-

spond to the nonstop mes-

sages of positivity. Their

yearning for connection

gives “Jawline” its beating

heart.

“Storms don’t last forev-

er,” Austyn tells his small

band of followers during a

live stream. Nor does notori-

ety in the digital age. The re-

ality of that short shelf life is

driven home in “Jawline” by

social media talent manager

Michael Weist, who lives in a

Los Angeles McMansion

with a handful of young

broadcasters. To call them

prodigies would be stretch-

ing the definition of the word

beyond recognition, as their

only discernible talents are

posing for pictures, doing

handstands and shooting

silly string into crowds.

Weist’s job seems to con-

sist of badgering his charges

to post more videos and

herding them from one

meet-and-greet to the next.

“Talent is always replace-

able,” he sniffs when the

boys — not much younger

than him — get out of line, i.e.

act their age.

This is the dream to

which Austyn aspires.

“You’re either a settler or ad-

venturer,” he says, and he

wants to move to Los Ange-

les, a place, he says, “where

dreams come true.” Man-

delup charts this innocent’s

journey, illustrating its emo-

tional toll, though in toggling

between Austyn’s striving

and Weist’s “success,” the

movie fails to explain the

scope and economics of the

industry.

The narrow focus does

throw Austyn’s fantasies —

and those of the girls who

follow him — into sharp re-

lief. The film’s most poi-

gnant scene shows Austyn

meeting about 10 fans at the

local mall. One girl, visibly

shaking, tells him she drove

two hours — and waited an-

other three — to see him. “He

values a woman for what she

is,” another says.

But when one girl asks if

he’ll hang out with her the

next day, Austyn doesn’t

know how to respond. “Do

you even know my name?”

she asks. It’s not the only

time in “Jawline” when

Austyn discovers that the

real world is a complicated

place, particularly for a 16-

year-old boy who’s never

ventured outside his little

town.

‘Angel Has

Fallen’

Rated:R, for violence and

language throughout

Running time:2 hours

Playing: In general release

‘Jawline’

Not rated

Running time:1 hour,

37 minutes

Playing: Laemmle

Playhouse Pasadena;

streaming on Hulu

NICK NOLTE, left, plays Gerard Butler’s character’s dad, a veteran living off the grid, in “Angel Has Fallen.”

Lionsgate

REVIEW

‘Fallen’ rises a third time

Gerard Butler returns

as Everyman action

hero, framed and

trying to clear himself.

By Katie Walsh

BUTLER, with Piper Perabo, brings his lumpy gruff-

ness to the third “Has Fallen” movie.

Jack EnglishLionsgate

AUSTIN TESTER,16, is a rising star in live-broad-

cast world in Liza Mandelup’s doc feature debut.

Hulu

REVIEW

Live-stream

stardom awaits

By Glenn Whipp

Sundance winner

‘Jawline’ examines

quest for connection,

fame in a digital age.

The news that matters.

From a source you trust.

Now you can get our award-winning

coverage of news, sports, entertainment

and lifestyle in Spanish.

latimes.com/Espanol

Photo: Luis Sinco, Los Angeles Times, 7/20/2017