THE ORDER

2024 Amazon MGM Studios

Rated: R

Length: 1 hr 55min

Action ~ Drama ~ Suspense

Starring: Jude Law, Nicholas Hoult, Tye Sheridan, Jurnee Smollett, Alison Oliver, and Marc Maron.

“Defeat…..NEVER……..Victory………FOREVER!”

Here is the synopsis from The Order Movie’s Official Website:

For over a year, a series of bold daylight bank robberies and armored car heists leaves law enforcement baffled and the public panicked throughout the Pacific Northwest. As the attacks become increasingly violent, FBI agent Terry Husk (Jude Law) becomes convinced that the robberies are the work of domestic terrorists that plan to use the loot to finance an armed uprising against the U.S. government.

Based on a true story, The Order follows Husk and his team into the tangled world of white supremacists as they try to head off a violent uprising that could shatter the nation. As the militia builds a war chest of over $4 million, Husk pursues the malevolent racist Bob Mathews to a final bloody standoff that will go down in U.S. history.

Here’s what I think about that:

An absolutely horrifying look inside the workings and the mindset of a group of White Supremacists. It is also a deeper look into their beliefs and their Manifesto/Bible/Handbook The Turner Diaries. A 1978 novel by William Luther Pierce, the founder and chairman of National Alliance, a white nationalist group, published under the pseudonym Andrew Macdonald. And also their willingness to do whatever is necessary to achieve their aims, even murder.

In a nutshell The Turner Diaries advocates extreme violence by any means necessary to achieve the means to overthrow the US Government. Then inciting a race war and ethnically cleansing America of any non-white peoples. Then using America’s Nuclear weapons on New York and Israel, allowing Arab countries to destroy what is left of Israel and the Israeli people. Then nuking Russia so a Russia-America Nuclear war destroys Americas cities and world civilization. To then be replaced by The All White Order.

There is a reckoning they call “The Day of The Rope” where the non-whites and anyone who has helped or aided them are all hanged in a single day. I recall the images of The Jan. 6th riots at the Capitol and seeing a platform with three rope nooses ready for the Vice President, Pelosi, etc.

Jesus…..this is very scary shit. Is America the new Germany? Is someone recently voted into power the new Adolf Hitler? Seriously….this is horrifying stuff. Not for the faint at heart. Some of you should just turn off the TV and go back to working in your gardens.

Here’s what I thought about the movie:

I thought it was good. Lots of action, drama and suspense. Robberies, murder, car chases and more as the FBI and the local police chase down members of The Order. As members of The Order are stalking the police, the FBI and anyone who is getting in their way of attempting to make The Turner Diaries a reality. Jude Law did a great job as the brooding FBI agent hell bent on stopping the insanity. Nicholas Hoult was eerily sinister hiding behind the all American boy façade of Bob Mathews while plotting America’s destruction. Tye Sheridan as the local police officer caught in a moral dilemna between right and loyalty to his hometown people.

I really thought all the actors did a great job, I liked it. I thought it was really good. Scary and eye-opening knowing it was a true story and that was forty years ago. It makes you worried about the future and what is to happen to America. Thank God for the men and women out their fighting the battles in our homeland we don’t get to see if someone doesn’t make a film out of it.

So yes I liked it, I recommend it.

But know what it is, a horrifying true look at White Supremacy in America.

To Catch A Killer

2023 Vertical Entertainment

Rated: R

Length: 1 hr 59min

Action ~ Crime ~ Drama ~ Mystery ~ Thriller

Directed by: Damián Szifron

Starring: Shailene Woodley, Ben Mendelsohn, Jovan Adepo and Ralph Ineson.

“I’d rather be hated for who I am, than be loved for what I’m not”

Baltimore….New Year’s Eve…….a gunman kills 29 people sniper style. Eleanor Falco (Shailene Woodley) is a Baltimore Police Officer and responds to the scene. FBI Special Agent Lammark (Ben Mendelsohn) is chosen to lead the investigation into the mass murder. The next morning as he addresses the Police Department he happens to overhear Officer Falco and another officer talking about him and is surprised by what she said in response. He questions her about her comments and is surprised by her answers. Impressed with her he decides that he needs her on his special team and requests that she be allowed to be the liaison between him and the Police Department.

As they work together to track down the killer, Agent Lammark realizes that Officer Falco is a very bright and perceptive individual. Looking at her record he surmises that she is also very deeply disturbed and haunted by something in her past. And she might just be the only person that could get inside the head of the man they are searching for. Kind of like a modern day Clarice Starling from Silence Of The Lambs. They work together to hunt down the mass murderer with no clues and Officer Falco’s intuition, while they fight the bureaucratic need for a quick resolution to the city’s nightmarish scenario.

The Director Damián Szifron is a very successful Argentinian Film Director and he co-wrote this movie with Jonathon Wakeham. It is his first foray onto American Films with Vertical Entertainment picking up the movie in 2022 and changing the name from Misanthrope to To Catch A Killer. Shailene Woodley does an excellent job in this movie. I loved her character and the way she played the role. All the way through right up until the end, I was rooting for Shailene and Eleanor Falco. I am a Shailene Woodley fan, there is something different about her, the way she acts and approaches her roles.

Killer Heat was the most recent movie I saw and reviewed with her in it, liked her in that as well. HBO’s Big Little Lies was another good one she was in, as well as the Divergent series. Ben Mendelsohn also did a good job in this movie as The FBI lead man. I think they were both at the top of their game in this one. I loved the storyline as well. A mass murder with no clues, Officer Falco’s tortured psyche and intuition, the battle to find the murderer and the truth while trying to keep the bureaucrats at bay. The movie kind of flew under the radar before it landed on Netflix yesterday and is already Number one on The Netflix Top Ten Movies List.

I enjoyed it and I would watch it again……

And Yes….I recommend it.

Killers Of The Flower Moon

2023 Paramount Pictures

Rated: R

Length: 3 hr 26min

Action ~ Crime ~ Drama ~ Epic ~ Mystery ~ Romance ~ True Story ~ Western

Directed by: Martin Scorsese

Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone, Jesse Plemons, Tantoo Cardinal, John Lithgow, Scott Shepherd and Brendan Fraser.

“With it’s great black wings of spray, arcing above the rigging, it rose before them like an angel of death.”

In 1821 the Osage Indians were removed from their homes and land they had lived on for generations alongside the Osage river. They were relocated west to the US Government designated “Indian Territories” in Oklahoma. Their former home and lands were sold to white immigrant settlers while the Osage tried to survive on the unhospitable barren Oklahoma land that was foreign to them. It was given to them because none of the white people wanted to live there, being too barren and not much good for farming. They were the poorest people in the United States.

75 years later a group of Osage Indians were walking through the fields of flower blooms in the valley during the annual Flower Moon. The Flower Moon is a name given to the full moon in May by the Osage people because of the flower blooms that take place every year. During May in the Oklahoma hills and valleys of the Indian Reservation, the fields of blooming flowers die out when taller plants crowd them out. The Osage refer to the month of May as “The time of the Flower Killing Moon”. As they were walking they came to a clearing and a patch of mud. Suddenly out of the middle came a geyser of black oil.

The Osage people were sitting on a vast underground oil reserve and almost overnight became the richest people in America. Because nobody wanted the land in the beginning, they had been given and retained all the mineral rights to the land. Almost overnight, the oil companies and oil prospectors invaded the once undesirable Oklahoma land, driven by greed and the temptation of riches beyond the imagination. The money flowed quick and in great volume. Suddenly it became fashionable for a white man to marry into an Indian family and acquire the rights by marriage, or by murder if necessary. It is against this backdrop that KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOONtakes place.

Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Ernest Burkhart who has just returned home to Oklahoma having been discharged from the army due to a health issue. He returns to his Uncle William Hale’s (Robert De Niro) farmhouse where he is reunited with his brother Byron Burkhart (Scott Shepherd). Uncle William informs him of the current climate amid the oil rush in the county. He tells Ernest that it would serve a fellow well if he were to wed into an Indian family with “Headrights”, he and his family would do very well for themselves. Ernest soon falls for an Indian woman named Mollie (Lily Gladstone), who’s mother and sisters own a very large chunk of “Headrights”. William tells Ernest that Mollie’s mother Lizzie is on her deathbed and soon Mollie would follow.

The Osage People were becoming victim to the white man’s diet and sugary confections. Diabetes was becoming very common and many died from lack of care. And Mollie had diabetes like her dying mother. They were also falling victim to the white man’s greed as Osage people were suddenly becoming victims of violent murders and poisonings referred to as “The Wasting Deaths”. Being Indian deaths there was not much concern for how they were dying, nor any inquiries into why. The foul play and deception led to a string of murders that was brought to the attention of Calvin Coolidge by Mollie. The President brought together a group of highly skilled detectives and law men to investigate. They were the unofficial beginnings of The FBI.

When the FBI arrived and started to investigate, they discovered a plot hatched by William and his family to deceive the Osage people and acquire mineral rights for his family at any cost, even if it meant poisoning and killing. This is unfortunately a True Story, based on the book by David Grann, Killers Of The Flower Moon. It is a long movie coming in at 3 hours and 28 minutes, but it is a good one. A fascinating tale of greed, betrayal and deception. I really liked Lily Gladstone in this, thought she did an excellent job. Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro were great as always. It is well shot, great cast, great director, great story…..what’s not to like? Well, maybe the length…….

Highly Recommended!

Two Thumbs Up!

Above Suspicion

2021 Lionsgate

Rated: R

Length: 1 hr 44min

Action ~ Crime ~ Thriller ~ True Story

Directed by: Phillip Noyce

Starring: Emilia Clarke, Jack Huston, Sophie Lowe, Austin Hébert, Karl Glusman, Chris Mulkey, Omar Miller, Kevin Dunn, Thora Birch and Johnny Knoxville.

“That’s the way the devil comes. He don’t come to you as evil. He don’t come to you on fire. He comes as everything you ever wanted. He comes to you as you.”

Emilia Clarke stars as Susan Smith, a divorced mother still living with her ex-husband in Harlan County, Kentucky. Her ex husband Cash (Johnny Knoxville) is a drug dealer and they are both addicted to drugs. Economically there are not many options in town and Susan and Cash survive on welfare checks and drug money. For the sake of their children and economic reasons they live in the same trailer just outside of town, where they also throw parties and sell drugs.

Jack Huston stars as FBI Agent Mark Putnam. Mark has just moved to town with his wife and new baby to investigate a series of bank robberies. The suspect Joe B is currently residing with Susan and Cash along with his girlfriend in the trailer. As Mark investigates the trail of Joe B, it leads him to Cash and Susan. He attempts to convince Cash to cooperate and become an informant but soon realizes that he has a better chance of getting Susan to co-operate.

Susan willingly becomes his informant, already infatuated with this new dark haired stranger in her life. She sees Mark as a way out of the dead end existence she is living and the two quickly become romantically involved. Their relationship becomes very entangled and dangerous for Mark who realizes he is putting his Marriage and career at great risk. He tries to break it off with Susan but she refuses to let go. Mark eventually puts in a transfer request for a different field office and moves his family to Florida.

The movie follows the story of Mark and Susan and their tumultuous affair and horrific ending. After returning to Pikesville, Kentucky to wrap up a case, Mark tries to talk to Susan one last time about letting go. They go for a ride out to the mountain and Susan becomes very agitated and violent at Mark’s insistence that the baby she says she’s carrying is not his. A violent fight ensues and Mark strangles Susan, drops her body in the woods and goes back to Florida.

Over the course of the following year Mark Putnam can’t escape his guilt and remorse and confesses to the crime of killing Susan Smith. Mark was sentenced to 16 years in prison, served ten, and is now re-married and living in Georgia. He was the first FBI Agent to ever be convicted of Murder.

I love the True Story movies and this is one hell of a story. Adultery, jealousy and a crime of passion. I am not familiar with Emilia Clarke but I love her in this. Jack Huston is also very good in this role. Johnny Knoxville does an outstanding job as the drug dealer Cash. I have watched this movie three times now and I would watch it again. It is a great story and movie, but I think that Emilia Clarke’s performance as Susan Smith is absolutely riveting and is what really keeps me coming back.

Highly Recommended!

Two Thumbs Up!