Pluskylang Great Film overall

ShangLuda Admirable film.

Bessie Smyth Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Isbel A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Robert J. Maxwell I'm probably giving this disguised story of the two Washington, DC, snipers more bonus points than it deserves, simply because it's not a sensationalize, dumbed-down piece of dreck dripping with exploding heads. Those who made the flick put some thought into it and made some hard decisions about how to structure it and bring the elements together. That they failed in many way doesn't detract from their willingness to take risks. It's not "based on a true story," thank God. It's thoroughly fictionalized, although the two chief characters -- the embittered "father", Isaiah Washington, and his zombified "son", Tequan Richmond, obviously represent the two snipers of infamy who drove around Washington, DC, shooting people at random from a hole in the trunk of a blue Caprice.Both performances are professional in caliber. As the kid, Richmond hardly has any lines. Washington is a fine actor. He gives a convincing impression of a distraught father over the phone while trying to con confidential information out of some bureaucratic cog. He's far from a stereotypical ghetto black thug. He speaks clearly, is intelligent, is a obsessive parent, and ends his gerund phrases with "ing." It's only his reasoning that is as screwed up as a super-long strand of rotini. They took his kids away, so he's going to bring the government down.The photography is aptly blue and sepulchral. The shabby environment of the American Northwest, all rain and pitted aluminum siding, is neatly captured, as is the complex density of Washington's relationships with his few white friends. One of them, looking like a guy you'd cross the street to avoid, is a gun freak. They're old friends, evidently, yes, but they know trouble when they see it. The freak and his worried wife are only too glad to see Washington and Richmond take off in their Caprice for sites unknown -- without anyone saying a word to anyone else.That holding back is innovative in a movie about serial killers. It's also a symptom of the film's weakness. It's very tense (we know what's coming) but not very exciting. Scenes that are important to the viewer are missing. A cop car finds them sleeping in a roadside pull off. Washington is very apologetic and polite. The cop says he will only write them a warning for parking overnight but don't let it happen again. He checks the rear of the Caprice then shuffles to his car radio and we hear him say, "I think I've got something here." And -- BANG -- the pair are in prison and we never see Washington again. No arrest. No interrogation. No trial. Nothing.It's not much of a crime story. We only see one traffic cop. As a character study, it's okay but the dynamics between the two are so obvious that not much time needs to be spent on them. Richmond is a kid from the Caribbean without parents. Washington is a parent who wants his kids.In it's own quiet way -- perhaps too quiet -- it's a powerful movie, worth seeing. I really dislike action movies in which Arnold wrenches off somebody's head with a wisecrack, but this one is a bit like watching a performance of Julius Caesar that skips Caesar's assassination and the suicide of Brutus.

Steve Pulaski The Beltway sniper attacks was one of the first mainstream news stories I remember quite vividly as a child (with September 11th excluded). I was six when they occurred and it was right around that time when I began to become interested in mimicking what my parents did. So, naturally, I'd sit in front of the TV with my dad at around six at night and watch the news. I remember hearing the words "sniper," "gas station," and "people shot" in the same news story and being absolutely petrified of gas stations from that moment on. I didn't know these shootings took place in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington D.C., not in Illinois where I had lived. I remember going to the grocery store with my mother one day and stopping for gas beforehand, right around the time when the snipers were on their killing spree. I was so petrified and paranoid that once we stopped at the pump for gas, I got on the floor of the backseat of my mother's Bonneville Pontiac and began crying and screaming, imploring my mother to come back inside the car and drive away. Garbled announcements on the loud-speaker at the local Speedway scared me even more, and I remember never being more scared in my life. I seriously felt as if I was going to die.Such memories came back while watching Alexandre Moors' directorial debut Blue Caprice, a film that, eleven years later, makes a commendable attempt to profile the two shooters behind the sniper attacks and show the brainwashing of a minor who happened to come into the presence of a dangerous man with a disregard for humanity. The dangerous man was named John Allen Muhammad, with the minor named Lee Boyd Malvo, both of whom were arrested and found guilty of committing random murders through the Virginia, Maryland, and Washington D.C. area using a sniper-rifle fired discretely from the trunk of their blue Chevrolet Caprice.It would seemingly be accurate to state that the public may need a pretty hefty reminder about this mass murder in America. What seemed to captivate us and rock our lives has now gone on to live in the shadows of obscurity, remembered by few. The outcome, or the killers for that matter, I believe, is a little known fact today and thankfully Moors has not only made a movie about the subject matter but a great movie about the subject matter, quite possibly earning the title of the best horror film of 2013.John is played by a fantastic Isaiah Washington, while Lee is portrayed by Tequan Richmond, an actor just a bit older than Malvo was during the time of the murders. We open by seeing the listless life of Lee, an abandoned soul picked up and cared for by a man named John, who will end up serving as the boy's father figure (to the point where he is actually referred to as "father" and "dad"). John has an agenda, a violent, soulless one. One that is predicated off of teaching random people a lesson.The film chronicles the Beltway sniper attacks from a psychological point of view. One that exhibits the cause-and-effect of Lee's transformation from a lost, impressionable child to a violent, and sick-minded individual. This point of view is a courageous one for first-time director Moors and first-time writer R.F.I. Porto. The film shows the way John picked up Lee at just the right time in his life, when he had no one, and gave him someone - a violent, deeply disturbed person with a frighteningly unpredictable agenda.There are issues, however, to Moors and Porto's portrayal of the shooters' actions. For one, we never quite get inside the head of John, learning his true motives or his actual thought-process behind what he believes. There doesn't seem to be a method to his madness. Perhaps this is because the two filmmakers didn't want to jump to conclusions on what the man was inherently thinking at the time, but if you're going to make a film depicting the events that happened before a devastating line of mass murders, you might as well try and offer a potential motive. Several have been tossed around in this case, from mental illness, to religious beliefs, etc, but like with most mass shootings and murders, there is never a fine conclusion.The other issue I see is a smaller one and that's the shooting sequences themselves. There is one we actually see from start to finish, involving the blue Caprice being parked in a department store parking lot with it's rear bumper facing the store. Lee ready to fire inside the trunk, looking through the scope with the sniper's end barely outside the hole in the trunk and John ready to speed away. We watch through Lee's scope, as he unsteadily moves the gun around, seeking his next victim, almost settling for a black man on a cigarette break before settling on a man in a beige suit with his back turned to the store. This scene is suspenseful and beautifully captured, only making one wish the last half of the film could've had more of a suspense focus.But when you see how intimate, careful, and lyrically staged everything else in Blue Caprice is, more and more of Moors' vision becomes clear and dominant over the lacking suspense aspects that, in the end, would be fine for another film. For the first film on a case that rocked three states and killed and injured many, this is a remarkably solid film, with great performances from Washington and Richmond and writing and directing that proves nothing but indicative of future potential. Using actor and filmmaker James Rolfe's analogy for something impossible, "if a blue moon occurs on Friday the 13th and all the planets align" this film will find a way in high school and college psychology courses.

harris_bryan "Blue Caprice" tells the story of the duo behind the DC sniper shootings. A slow, seemingly meandering story soon becomes tense and concise, as it moves toward its inevitable ending. Not much is learned about the motivation behind the killings, but that's the point. It's only human nature to want a reason behind such senseless killings. There appears to be little reason in this case, and would it truly matter it a reason was found?Isaiah Washington and Tequan Richmond have great chemistry as the murderous duo. The character of Lee is lonely and desperate for a father figure. Though John is obviously paranoid and deranged, you can understand why Lee, desperate for any kind of attention, would fall under his sway. The full extent of their relationship is never explained, but that is one more layer of ambiguity the film presents. A good, independent film that told a based-in-fact story well.

Simon_Says_Movies Those who demand easy answers in movies and clear cut motives from its characters will likely find Blue Caprice an unfulfilling and distant character study, one which centers on the Beltway Sniper attacks that left Washington paralyzed for three weeks in 2002. The brilliance of director Alexandre Moors feature debut, in addition to quietly powerful performances from its two main leads, is that it offers no definite answers as to why this massacre transpired. True to life, speculation as to motive ranges from plans to divert attention from the planned murder of one of the assailant's ex wife, revenge against the U.S. government, terrorist ties and general anarchy. Discovering what ultimately drives these monsters is unimportant in the context of this film, but rather it's the troubling and empty journey these men take down the path of evil that is so compelling.Taking on the notorious gunmen John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo are Isaiah Washington and Tequan Richmond and both deliver nuanced and disturbing performances but with varying approaches. We witness a differing speed at which these two finally become the savages which made global headlines – these are individuals with which we both see deeply into but at the same time know nothing about. The way these actors and director are able to make enigmas out of its antagonists without resorting to painting them as faceless monsters is an extraordinary feat.Channelling Idris Elba in the best ways, Washington does Oscar level work as a broken man whose anger and disillusionment manifests in the worst possible way. Between his work on Grey's Anatomy and supporting work in some higher profile fare, he has never really been given the chance to stretch his dramatic legs and he shows how capable he can be when given the spotlight. He plays off young Tequan Richmond with aplomb, with the promising North Carolina native truly coming into his character in the final act after long sequences of shyness and inwardly directed sadness. Among the most disquieting scenes comes when John teaches Lee how to drive, an act between father and son that is considered to be one of the most important bonding experiences of growing up. In knowing what is to come, it takes on a whole new (and ultimately very disturbing) meaning.Aside from inherently being a taut and troubling scenario the way the tension and narrative drive is brought to the forefront is also noteworthy especially when the outcome is so widely known. When we first meet with Malvo (and to a lesser extent Muhammad) we see them as damaged but salvageable individuals – those given an unfair stab at life but who could display redemptive qualities if given the chance. As we see Malvo fall further and further under the manipulative spell of his surrogate father, and who in turn finds fuel in his adoptive son, it's hard to watch not simply because of their actions but where we know this is all headed. In wanting so much for these lost souls to find an honest meaning in life and see them both missing and avoiding them, the dread and tension ratchets up organically and with an impact you won't soon shake.Moors also makes the sound decision never to distort or falsely heighten the actual acts of the shootings. Seeing a man in the throws of death in a pool of blood at the base of a gas pump is powerful enough without seeing these two perpetrate every single act. So to does the choice to not magnify the scope of the crimes with fictionalized getaways or close calls in their titular vehicle. The barrel of a gun sticking out of a trunk and an off screen shot does more than enough in the ugly world we're introduced to in Blue Caprice. There are certainly moments of graphic violence interspersed throughout but they're handled in a brief and ugly manner that serves to showcase the emptiness of it all.Based on the subject matter and the recent horrific gun based acts that have rocked America as of late, Blue Caprice will no doubt bring up the hot button topic of gun control, with some likely looking at the film as a call for help and others as pro liberal pandering meant to take a past tragedy and use it as propaganda. In both instances they would be not only wrong but missing the point of this drama, or rather the pointlessness of these men's actions. Could this act have been avoided with tighter gun laws? Likely. But Blue Caprice has no such pretensions and simply paints a disturbing portrait of men on the edge of reality.Both as a showcase for the skill of the filmmakers and actors and an examination of the flourishing emotional void this duo carries with them every day, Blue Caprice succeeds and does so in manner that will leave you exhausted and troubled. In having so much to hate on screen there is so much to love about this confident inaugural feature, one which worrisomely shows that the loss of one's humanity can begin with a single act.