Jean-Marc Vallée enjoys playing heartstrings. He’s drawn to more irreverent forms of playing them but his end goals are clear, and what worked so well in Dallas Buyers Club and Wild—using broken and imperfect people to explore physical and emotional journeys—breaks down Demolition. The flawed protagonist in this case-study in grief is Davis Mitchell, whose emotional intelligence is so low it borders on sociopathic, proven by the (literally) destructive way he chooses to deal with the sudden death of his wife. Jake Gyllenhaal plays Mitchell as well as can be expected for such an irrational character, and Vallée’s introspective style pushes things as far as it can in building real feelings toward the story. It’s Bryan Sipe’s screenplay (his first major feature) that appears to be at fault, shoving as many emotionally explosive elements as possible into one script and only hinting at the sort of saving grace that would allow audiences to forgive the sentimental melodrama capping off the film.

Davis Mitchell is reminiscent of American Psycho’s Patrick Bateman in more ways than just his emotional numbness. Clean-shaven, well-groomed, and career-driven, the house he and his young wife Julia (Heather Lind) share is all glass and metal—antiseptic like he is. During an argument while driving one day he and his wife are hit by a truck and Julia dies at the hospital while Davis escapes without a scratch. Shortly after receiving the news of her death, Davis attempts to buy some M&Ms from a vending machine and, when the package sticks in the machine, he takes down the vending machine company’s info.

With keen editing, Davis’ experience of the details of his wife’s death focuses more on everyone else’s emotions surrounding him, while he remains undisturbed. He escapes during the funeral reception to write a letter to the vending company, describing in awkward detail the circumstances surrounding his attempt to buy M&Ms. It feels distinctly unnatural, as nothing of Davis’ nature suggests he’d care much either way at having gotten the candy or not, but we’re meant to understand this is his way of emoting.

After returning to work as an investment banker soon after Julia’s death, Davis’ father-in-law Phil (Chris Cooper), who is also his boss, encourages him to take some time off and deconstruct his feelings. Davis decides to take him at his word, and though he doesn’t immediately take time off work, he does start taking apart almost anything that annoys him or causes him to wonder. This includes a bathroom stall, his refrigerator, an espresso machine, and his work computer. This behavior, of course, leads to some forced time off, and by this point the customer service representative of the vending machine company, Karen Moreno (Naomi Watts), reaches out to Davis after becoming intrigued by his letters.

What follows is a hard to swallow friendship between the privileged Davis and Karen, a low-income single mother dating her boss and a marijuana—or cannabis, as she prefers to call it—user. While much of what happens on-screen is difficult to believe, such as Davis joining a construction crew to help destroy a house just for a reason to use a sledgehammer, his relationship with Karen and her son Chris (Judah Lewis) feels the most contrived. As if unable to pick a theme, the film slips into piling one high drama scenario onto the next, but through the filter of Davis’s inability to feel anything. If emotional appropriation is a thing, this movie embodies it.

How much more can a rich white man take from the world just to try and elicit some sense of grief for his perfectly awesome dead wife? As Davis bitches to the void through his letters to Karen (which continue, by the way, even after he knows she’s reading them, like some real-life Facebook status update), destroys millions of dollars of material possessions many people would be thrilled to own, and then forces his sorry self into the lives of poorer and more generous people than himself all while ignoring his own family’s attempts to show him love, it gets harder and harder to feel any empathy for Davis. It’s a case study in indulgent and privileged grieving.

Vallée is ever ambitious in exploring the nuances of the human condition and, as usual, he creates a film that looks and sounds beautiful. He’s an expert at incorporating music, even if Heart’s “Crazy On You” doesn’t fit here as smoothly as he might think. I find obvious fault with Gyllenhaal’s character but it’s not to do with his performance. If given the chance to express a more complicated range of emotion, it would have been easier to be endeared to Demolition. Watts is likable but her character is a washrag for Davis to wipe his face on. But the standout of the film is Judah Lewis, who is the only one capable of breaking hearts as a teenager trying to both find and be himself. Lewis’ character is the only one portraying emotions that make some sort of sense: teen angst, passion, and uncertainty. If only the film was about him.

Jean-Marc Vallée is pretty intent on making sure audiences get their yearly dose of heavy-duty emotion. After pulling our hearts out in Dallas Buyers Club and making our eyes red with last year’s Wild, it appears he’s back to beat on our empathetic heartstrings once again. And, this time, he’s getting literal.

In the new trailer for Demolition, which opened last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, Jake Gyllenhaal plays Davis Mitchell, who writes letters of complaint against a vending machine company for that too-often occurrence of a machine failing to deliver on its candy promise. An especially infuriating experience because his wife had died hours earlier in a car accident. When a customer service representative, Karen (Naomi Watts), calls back out of concern for Mr. Mitchell, the two form a wayward friendship which introduces Mitchell to Karen’s son Chris (Judah Lewis).

Davis struggles to truly mourn his wife’s loss and begins a literal deconstruction of his life, with the help of Chris. Chris Cooper plays his father-in-law trying to get him to move on. We imagine tissues will be a must for this one.

Demolition releases theatrically April 8th, 2016.

Broad and brutal, August: Osage County doesn’t offer much in the way of subtlety, but there’s something satisfying about indulging in the bigness of it all. The all-star cast, headed up by a bitch-mode Meryl Streep and a seething Julia Roberts, put up bombastic, larger-than-life performances. Which makes sense, since it’s based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning Tracy Letts (Bug, Killer Joe) stage play. This “home-for-the-holidays” family drama’s (substitute “family tragedy” for “holidays”) transition from theater into the world of cinema isn’t a smooth one (due to director John Wells’ lack of vision), but the venomous dialog delivered by the accomplished, decorated cast make it hugely entertaining.

Streep plays Violet, the cancer-stricken matron of the Weston family. She’s a pill-munching, fire-breathing, queen of cruelty who fancies herself a “truth-teller”, when in reality she’s a mean old witch. Her toxic tendencies have trickled down to her three daughters, effecting them each in different ways. Julianne Nicholson’s Ivy has been rendered uncommonly dependent on Violet, never leaving their Oklahoma family home. Oppositely, ditzy, flighty Karen Weston, played for laughs by Juliette Lewis, has made herself scarce for years. Roberts plays Barbara, who shares a most contentious relationship with Violet and has inherited her mother’s nasty bark. When their father (Sam Shepard, whose screen time is brief and sweet) goes missing, the sisters reconvene at the old Weston house in muggy Osage County, bringing their significant others and heavy baggage (mostly figurative) with them.

The tension between Violet and Barb bubbles, then erupts at the film’s bravura dinner table scene, where deep-cutting insults are flung, egos are eviscerated, and we even get a mother-daughter grappling match. The construction of the scene is excellent; if the basement bar scene in Inglorious Basterds is a slow, steep incline leading to a sudden, furious drop, Letts’ symphony of wicked barbs is a twisty-turny, rickety wooden roller coaster ride full of surprises. There are so many tonal shifts, big laughs, awkward laughs, long silences, explosions of anger, and cuttingly clever jabs that your head will spin (mine almost spun right off my neck).

Streep is as Streep-y as ever as Violet, attacking every syllable of every piece of dialog with full force. Her spiteful glare and inebriated rage are met with a cerebral, sober, but equally deadly antagonism from Roberts, whose performance is raw and stripped-down (she’s usually at her best in this mode). Their scenes together are dynamite across the board, surprising no one. The acting, like the story, is a bit obtuse, but the spectacle of these heavyweight actresses going toe-to-toe, line-for-line, is ridiculously fun to watch.

The two other Julias are excellent as well, and each of the supporting players have wonderful moments. Playing the sisters’ lovers are Ewan McGregor (he still hasn’t gotten that American accent quite right…), Dermot Mulroney (surprisingly funny), and Benedict Cumberbatch (playing a meek, boyish character for once). Abigail Breslin, Chris Cooper, and Margo Martindale also impress.

Wells sits high in the director’s chair, but his filmmaker fingerprint is nowhere to be found. It seems as though he’s gotten Letts to adapt his play, collected some of the strongest actors he could find, and let them all do the heavy lifting while he does little to transform the theater experience into a cinematic one. Aside from moving certain scenes from interiors to exteriors, there’s no effort made to yank the story away from the stage, where its roots are buried deep. Wells does little to nothing interesting with his camera, and there isn’t a memorable shot to be found. It’s visual vanilla.

The film picks up speed as it progresses, with a cascade of earth-shattering revelations in the latter half causing the characters to exit one by one until only Violet and Barb are left. Everyone leaves battered and bruised to the core, but Violet and Barb are left crippled in the wreckage of the family implosion. They’re ugly creatures the both of them, and though Barb is still pretty on the outside, she can see her monstrous future self wasting away right in front of her eyes.

The Company Men is a feel good film about 3 different characters dealing with downsizing at their company. Their family, lifestyles and self-worth all must go through drastic changes. The film’s cast is stacked; Ben Affleck, Chris Cooper, Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Costner, Craig T. Nelson and Maria Bello, but with no fault of their own, the film as a whole does not seem to hit emotionally. The film’s script takes no risks, which in the end, is what hurt it the most.

The Company Men starts off with Bobby Walker (Ben Affleck) driving his Porsche into work. Interrupting him brag about how wonderful his round of golf was today at the country club, is news from his co-workers that he is losing his job. The news hits him as swiftly as it hits the viewer, without warning. He was the divisional sales leader for 12 years and making 120k plus benefits but as of today he is now unemployed.

The news of layoffs spread like wild fire in the office and Phil Woodward (Chris Cooper) feels like he is next. For fear of losing his job, he cowardly hides in another office. As Phil comes home his daughter greets him with news about a school trip to Italy and asks him if she can go. He hesitates with his answer, the reason is obvious, but he replies with, “of course sweetheart”. It was more than a subtle hint of foreshadowing.

Gene McClary (Tommy Lee Jones) finds out about the layoffs while away at an investors meeting. While he is not being let go, the workers underneath his position were laid off. He feels betrayed by his boss who is supposed to inform him of business decisions such as these. Making the situation even more difficult, is that his boss is; the owner of the company, his old college roommate and the best man at his wedding.

You can tell it was not easy for Bobby to break the news to his wife. His self-worth is completely depending on his luxurious life-style he has. This wife goes over the finances and knows that sacrifices will have to be made. For now she tells him to eat more meals at home but it’s not long before she brings up the suggestion of selling the house. Which he immediately rejects, saying it is not needed.

On one morning, Gene’s stock in the company earned him a 2 million dollar raise since the layoffs. Him along with the highest executives at the company are getting brand new offices with generous city views but you cannot help but notice Gene feeling bad about receiving these benefits.

Bobby’s brother-in-law Jack (Kevin Costner) is one of the last people to find out about him losing his job. This was done on purpose as Bobby has always enjoyed living a higher paid lifestyle than Jack’s middle-class one. Jack owns his own small construction company that builds houses. When Jack received the news about Bobby he offers him a job working for him. Bobby declines as he cannot see himself being a “working man”. After all, doing manual labor for a living does not help him retain his lifestyle status he wishes to keep.

The reality of cutting back finally sinks in when Bobby is thrown out of the country club before a round of golf. Although we knew the whole time, Bobby finally admits that he needs to look successful. He considers himself “a 37 year old unemployed loser that cannot support his family.” Sounds like he is going through a mid-life crisis.

Maybe hearing himself say that finally registered or maybe he realized that he needs to put his family’s well-being ahead of his own successful status, but he bites the bullet and sells his beloved Porsche. And as if that was not hard enough for him to do, he ends up doing something he never thought he would do. He asks Jack if he can have a job as a construction worker, he is now a working man.

Bobby had a lot of overcome. He was a father but never really showed it. He cared too much about what other people thought of him. Luckily, he was able to get past these hurdles. Something Gene and Phil might have to as well.

When I watched the trailer for this film, I guessed it would go something like this; man loses his job, has a mid-life crisis, goes on to do manual labor, overcomes his crisis, get offered big opportunity at end with him most likely turning it down because of the new leaf he turned over. The film did not stray very far from that, there were no big surprises in there.

This is John Wells first feature film as a director and it delivers a good message but I felt like it was a little too safe. Also it seemed like the direction at the end was a toss-up on whether or not Bobby was going to stick with Jack or not. It could have gone either way I think the way it went was the wrong one.

Although the script is a little sloppy, the acting was not. Ben Affleck proves that he can do more than just rom-coms. Chris Cooper should have had a stronger role because I felt he was the most powerful in the film. Tommy Lee Jones is fearless and witty. Kevin Costner depicts a hardworking man with true values and does it well.

The Company Men had more potential than it’s outcome. The list of big-named actors does not justify the textbook plot. Also, it was not nearly as emotionally driven as it could have been. The relevant timing of story and real-life recession of the economy was not a coincidence, but rather a smart marketing attempt for viewers to relate to.