Movie Mercs Blog
We watch the movies so that you maybe, possibly might not have to. www.MovieMercs.com or www.MovieMercsPodcast.com!
Wednesday, February 7, 2018
Film Review: Only The Brave (2017)
Monday, January 29, 2018
Film Review: The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)
Director:
Yorgos LanthimosWriters:
Yorgos Lanthimos, Efthymis FilippouTuesday, January 16, 2018
Film Review: Netflix's The Polka King (2018)
Thursday, January 11, 2018
Top 10 Films of 2017
First, the following films have been omitted from this list as I haven't had a chance to see them yet. I can tell you right now, The Disaster Artist, The Phantom Thread and Ladybird should probably all make this list, but to be fair, I want to see them first . Here's what is omitted:
The Disaster Artist
Ladybird
The Phantom Thread
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Call Me by Your Name
Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri
I, Tonya
The Killing of a Sacred Deer
Ingrid Goes West
Detroit
With that MovieMercs.com presents:
The Top 10 Films of 2017
10. Guardians of The Galaxy: Volume 2 (8 of 10)
Director: James Gunn
Writer: James Gunn, Dan Abnett
Starring Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Kurt Russell
This was my most anticipated movie of 2017. I have been a GIANT James Gunn fan since Slither found it's way into my dvd player all those years back and I have been following his career since. When he was announced as the director of a Marvel movie, I told everyone for two years it was going to be epic. Then they cast Chris Pratt, my favorite idiot from TV (Andy from Parks and Rec) and I really wouldn't shut up. Enter into the frey, Guardians of The Galaxy, which played like a space installed version of Indiana Jones and both stole our hearts and our walking around money. It was inevitable that Gunn would get the team back together.
What he does in the sequel is continue the good times and catchy soundtrack from the 1970's, but adds Kurt Russell as Star Lord's father, Ego the Living Planet. Russell is perfect for the role and brings his kind of cool all the way through.
9. The Big Sick (8 of 10)
Director: Michael Showalter
Writer: Emily V. Gordon, Kumail Nanjiani
Starring: Kumail Nanjiani, Zoe Kazan, Holly Hunter
The Big Sick was getting stellar reviews around the film festival circuit early in the year. That is a sure sign of a strong indie film. The story revolves around the true story of Kumail Nanjiani (Silicon Valley's Dinesh) and his wife (then girlfriend), who contracts a mysterious and serious illness and Kumail's interaction with her family and her during this process. Knowing the outcome in real life made this more of a love song to co-writer Emily V Gordon (who is the girlfriend character played by Zoe Kazan) told through the eyes of Nanjiani. The result is a carefully sweet confession of learning life's lessons the hard way, but that learning these lessons can lead to unexpected things.
Director, Michael Showalter, who until now has relied on his slapstick mastery in such projects as Wet Hot American Summer and The Baxter, finally found an outlet for his chipper charmed sense of humor and it blends quietly into the film as if it were baked in perfectly. There is no room in this for silly jokes about butts or big hammers hitting heads, this is a sophisticated, love story with the real world of comedy allowing the trouble drama scenes feel as real as our own. With amazing performances from Holly Hunter and Ray Romano (who continues to show range after CBS), this is a beautiful story of sad pieces put together. The Big Sick is a must watch.
8. John Wick: Chapter 2 (8 of 10)
Director: Chad Stahelski
Writer: Derek Kolstad
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Riccardo Scamarcio, Ian McShane
John Wick shot onto the scene with one of the silliest premises of all time. An ex-assassin nicknamed "The Boogeyman" is forced to exact revenge on the men who steal his car and murder the dog his dead wife left for him. The rest is glorious, bloody history. Keanu Reeves dominated the screen with double taps and quick reloads, all the while delivering havoc in horror measures. With Chapter 2, they shed co-director David Leitch (who directed Atomic Blonde this year and Deadpool 2 next). They also shed all of John Wick's dead weight as the sequel blasted onto screens earlier this year to resounding reviews and a $171.5 million worldwide gross (off a $40 million budget).
What made it so good? Simple, Keanu. Here, Reeves is unhinged, not so much about revenge this time, this time it's survival. When the whole world around him falls down, it is Reeves who shows incredible range physically while driving home the meticulous, calculated and stylish John Wick persona in every scene. He is quicker than before, more awakened and incorporates so many judo throws and improvised action that this film was like a ballroom blitz (literally). The story was better than the first and it forced John Wick into a corner, which is exactly where fans want him. With great effort by Common,as Wick's enemy counterpart, the action had the perfect places to excel and overcome the first and did at every turn. From the set designs, the use of colors and space to the unrelenting cat and mouse between Reeves and Common, John Wick : Chapter 2 could go down as my second favorite film of 2017.
7. Dunkirk (8 of 10)
Director & Writer: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Fionn Whitehead, Tom Hardy, Kenneth Branagh
We were able to review this one, so please check out our review HERE.
The film has a strong sense of grandeur and stays close to historical accuracy. The distribution of storytelling by land, air and sea develops an interesting narrative that collects in pools of intense survival scenes cut between air battles and the calm limbo on land. This is a love letter from one of the best visual directors ever born and everything about it proves willing to go outside of what a conventional war film would. They don't rely on the fog aspect, where body limbs blow off and blood spills onto screen, instead, Nolan allows the environment to be the main character and the actors are simply moving through it. With huge highlights in ever air battle with Tom Hardy, who is a madman in the sky, there is this sense of urgency and survival while building a beautifully visual and striking film overall.
6. Thor: Ragnarok (8 of 10)
Director: Taika Waititi
Writer: Eric Pearson, Craig Kyle & more
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett
This is another film we were lucky enough to see in 3D and review. READ IT HERE!
Of all superhero films this year, in a year where comics shined dramatically and thematically, there was only one true winner of them all...THOR RAGNAROK! From start to finish, this film was both a visual and comical blast of entertainment. Equal measures beautiful and brutally hilarious, director Taika Waititi revamps and reboots the Thor franchise without breaking the Marvel Cinematic Universe cycle. How? He strips Thor of all the pieces we identify him with and then builds him up as more of the comic version of the hero than ever before. With amazing performances from the entire cast, especially Chris Hemsworth and Taika Waititi himself (Korg) and an action packed fight between Thor and Hulk midway, this colorful, insane film is arguably the biggest surprise of the year. When it beat out Justice League in the box office, however, it became a beacon for quality superhero films that take risks and try to do things right and how that formula is much better than Zack Snyder's dark, slow and boring one.
5. Logan Lucky (8 of 10)
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Writer: Rebecca Blunt
Starring: Channing Tatum, Adam Driver, Daniel Craig
4. Baby Driver (9 of 10)
Director & Writer: Edgar Wright
Starring: Ansel Elgort, Jon Bernthal, Jon Hamm
When Edgar Wright dropped out of Antman just before shooting started, I told everyone Marvel was going to regret driving him off a project he had worked on since before Iron Man. While they may not have felt it when Antman came out, the proof was in the picture and Peyton Reed's lack of experience with action and big budget productions bleed through the quick cut, close up heavy film that should of been just over two hours but Reed rushed so rapidly from scene to scene it ended up being somewhere around an hour and forty minutes. Wright walked though, all the way over to SONY and was able to get the budget and freedom he wanted to direct a movie about a young driver who had to listen to earbuds to drown out the "hum in his drum". The result is Baby Driver, a far superior film than anything Peyton Reed ever did (Yes Man and Bring it On, please).
What makes this movie great is the incredible intricacies and awareness of Wright. Wright is the type of person to build around an idea with such passion that the people who are around him during this time often excel and shine as well. This time, the actors all came with their A game in play and like an All-Star home run derby, everyone was swinging for the fences. The acting, however, couldn't compete with Wright's keen style and ability to blend his amazing soundtrack of self selected songs with every inch of motion on screen. When our driver, "Baby", dances his way around town to his ipod, we watch as Wright syncs up every movement perfectly with the beat...all the while holding the shoot to make it a single take and force the film crew to really work in unison to succeed. The results are obvious and wondrous and Wright's continued progression as a filmmaker was rewarded with rave reviews and a personal best $226.9 million worldwide ($107.8 million in America alone) off a tiny $34 million budget. With award season around the corner, Baby Driver is on the radar to clean house in the original script, directing categories. Hard to top this driver.
3. Get Out (10 of 10)
Director & Writer: Jordan Peele
Very few films attempt what Jordan Peele has with the horror/thriller/comedy that is Get Out. This is a film that hinges on mystery in the same flavor that Hitchcock would savor, but with a much deeper meaning than anything else made this year. This is the story of a black man visiting his white girlfriend's parents for the first time...only to find things aren't exactly as they appear on the surface. Add in a whole slew of tense, quiet moments expertly maneuvered by Peele and you have yourself a bonifide nail biter.
At it's core, Get Out is a story of social commentary in a time where the call for equality is a battle cry. Peele knows this and executes his story first, with keen thought behind it and then worries about the boarders of race and perception of culture. As a result, the audience is captivated by the nerve-racking tension and unspoken spook, but learning a lesson about how white and black cultures differ (even if the white culture depicted is exaggerated to a thriller level degree). Constantly, Peele displays adapt ability to curve the mood of the picture to benefit the tone. His insert of comedy is perfectly placed and without needless props or simple humor, but baked into the bigger picture. With a perfect twisting ending that pays off everything Peele winds up and stellar acting from Daniel Kaluuya and Allison Williams (and everyone really), this is a strong thriller film with true purpose and actual meaning. Something original to learn from and enjoy, which is rare in the world of remakes and half cocked studio franchises. One day in the future, we will hail Get Out as a film for the time, that was entirely needed.
2. Wind River (10 of 10)
Director & Writer: Taylor Sheridan
Starring: Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olsen, Jon Bernthal
We reviewed Wind River late last year. Check it out HERE.
Taylor Sheridan was an actor on the first season of Sons of Anarchy, playing Deputy Hale, who was eventually killed off for some pointless reason. Since then, he has produced more influential and critically praised films than everyone on the entire show (seriously). As a writer, Sheridan wrote the stellar Sicario, then followed it up with Hell or High Water, and then took on directing with this year's Wind River. While the script may not have been as cutthroat and ruthless as Sicario, the story was more important. The plot revolves around a young native american girl who is found dead in the winter mountains of a Wyoming reservation. As Elizabeth Olsen arrives as an FBI agent, she works with tracker, Jeremy Renner, to solve the death and prove it to be a murder. From there, the film is quick, precise and brutally heartbreaking. Sheridan shows a real knack for being behind the camera, leading the film exactly how it should to maintain the tense pace.
The acting is truly on display in this one and not nominating Renner for an Oscar will be a tragedy. Blending his ability to display deep rooted pain with Sheridan's sharp writing makes the most out of a character we learn small chunks of along the way. By the end, Renner is utterly captivating to watch. With great supporting acting and a willingness to speak out against the social injustice for native american women, who are the only gender and race of people in America who the police do not file missing person reports for, Sheridan allows the dark corners of his story to bond with the white cold of the winter as a lesson to us all. I was so amerced in this film, which moves quick, that I often yelled at the screen in overreaction to the lingering tension built. While this film has already seemed to been blackballed by the Golden Globes because of it was originally produced by The Weinstein Company, the company agreed to cut their ties with the film, giving it back to Sheridan and the other producers and donate the entire proceeds of the film's gross to native american female victims. Still, the name holds a black cloud over the film and has led to it being overlooked.
First off, FUCK EVERYONE WHO DID NOT SEE THIS MOVIE! You were all killing me last year, a year where Vin Diesel grossed the most money by any actor due to a Groot technicality. A year where you all poured hundreds of millions of dollars into IT, even though it was laughable rather than frightening and championed Wonder Woman for being "amazing" even though it stole the plot to Captain America: First Soldier (it was still very enjoyable). Instead, of going to the film event of the decade, more people watched Bright on Netflix (11 millon people and growing). With that, here's why this film is #1.
Blade Runner 2049 picks up where the original Harrison Ford/Ridley Scott film left off, but with a 30 year age gap. In that time, things in this futuristic world has changed, but one thing hasn't, Blade Runners be hunting replicates, the humanoid clones developed by Tyrell Corp. Enlisting Denis Villeneuve, arguably the best director currently alive, who stole our minds with Prisoners and brought us to the dark side of the world with Sicario, then bent time and space with Arrival, came into Blade Runner with a perfect respect for the source material. His strong suit is his vision, which wallows in the shadows when it isn't sprawling with widescreen scenic shots of a displaced future. When you include the fact that this film has THE BEST SOUND MIXING of any film EVER and stunning, colorful visuals, it is no wonder why Villeneuve was given over $100 million to make the film.
The story might not be the most original, but it beckons all fans of the original to go on another run and with a solid and emotionally deep performance from Ryan Gosling, the film can follow his Agent K to all the dark spots of his journey properly and with perfect justice. That is what Villeneuve does, blends the old guard with the new and builds on it. He doesn't try to reboot the technology Ridley Scott developed in the 80's, he takes it all and ages it thirty years to make it all seem logical and proper. He pays heavy tribute to the original, infusing Scott's neon city steampunk into every shot of technological glory. This is a display of directorial force and a crash coarse in how to use sound to drive a movie to new levels. I couldn't get over how visually amazing and real everything was, but then when the music took over, it stole the scenes. Harrison Ford was sharp and so well versed in his craft, we almost forgot he could do drama, but here, it's on full display. Add in high target action, a thoughtful purpose, one of the best villain monologues since Blade Runner and an enduring story with years of care put in it, this is the best film of the year, the best film of the decade and maybe the best sequel ever. You need to see this, do yourself a favor, even if you never saw the original, this is a MUST WATCH FILM and the new bible to true filmmaking.
Tyler Baker
Wednesday, December 27, 2017
Film Review: Dunkirk (2017)
Starring: Fionn Whitehead , Tom Hardy , Kenneth Branagh
Since the release of The Dark Knight in 2008, Christopher Nolan has had his way with Hollywood. Sure, he was far established by then with incredible directing efforts with Memento, Insomnia, Batman Begins and The Prestige, but 2008 marked the beginning of Christopher Nolan's domination of the big screen. His advanced understanding of time structure, storytelling and character development was only overshadowed by his keen eye for beauty and grandeur. As a result, we were awarded such amazing follow ups as Inception, Interstellar and The Dark Knight Rises. What we really were getting was an auteur mastermind of filmmaking who had refined his craft to the teeth. His efforts as a filmmaker could only be quenched by his need to tell amazing, original stories. From all of this, after the superhero franchise trilogy and the space odyssey and the magic show, Nolan was finally ready to make his passion picture, Dunkirk. While he takes many risks with this war film based on the true story of British and French soldiers during World War II evacuation, there isn't an inch of this film that isn't addressed with complete adore and attention worth watching. This is Nolan reminding us that he isn't just another director, he's a filmic genius and we need to stop forgetting.
First, let me just say I loved Dunkirk for what it was, a story without telling a direct story, built on actions and scenes of motion rather than a cast of characters explaining everything to the audience as if they weren't smart enough to grasp it. Nolan never insults his audience that way, however some people find his work in Inception to be insulting for the complexity of the story as "arrogant". Nolan has a specific vision within his mind and attempts at the most finite level of everything to get his shots the way he sees them inside his mind. Does this alienate the audience? I always looked at it this way, would you rather have a person trying to cash a check by making the same crap you've seen twenty times or a person who would go through personal trials to take the risk of doing something original or amazing with the utmost respect for the source? No brainer, right? That is why 90% of Michael Bay movies have over-dramatic explosions and trash-bin reused one liner jokes and Christopher Nolan won Oscars with a Batman movie.
Dunkirk is built on the concept of telling the story in three phases, land, air and sea. We get to jump through the beaches of Dunkirk, where the soldiers are nothing but sitting ducks for the constant swarm of enemy fighter planes bombing them, to the air where Tom Hardy seems to battle the entire enemy sky fleet on his own, then focus on the rising water of a sinking ship as the young men soldiers pile out into open waters to survive. Without a focused narrative, Nolan is able to build this "snowball effect" he attempted to create purposely where everything builds up throughout the entire movie on it's own. Without force. That is a kind of skill almost no filmmaker has besides Nolan. In fact, he is perhaps the greatest director of all time when it comes to juggling scenes within different time frames, while still holding the integrity of the drama. What he does great in Dunkirk is find a young cast, led by Fionn Whitehead in an almost silent role, to display the desperation of the British soldiers in limbo. We follow them, wanting to know what will happen next, but the split between the sky and the sea make for a nice pace of action and story.
If nothing else, the air battle scenes with Tom Hardy are a calculated adventure to behold. Everything about his character, from the beginning of the film to the end is powerfully placed as a reminder of the slow spots on land or sea, where people are trying to survive, that there is still a war above them. With great performances all around, Nolan's care of casting is safely managed by his actors. He then places them in danger and lets them slip in and out of it like waves on a constant tide.
Visually, the film is a wonder, but that was a given considering how much Nolan loves IMAX cameras and widescreen format. He continues to be the closest grand scale director to Ridley Scott, who's The Martian mirrored Interstellar visually in a lot of ways. Nolan has taken his visual talent to many different levels however and seems in complete control of everything in Dunkirk. His care of the fictional characters telling a real life story have purpose and meaning, which is missing in so many movies these days. If nothing else, Dunkirk is further evidence that Christopher Nolan should be given $200 million and let loose upon the Earth whenever he has an idea. Dunkirk was born in the 90's, when he traveled the route of the English Channel that rescue boats from England took to save soldiers. He refused to make it until he had enough experience with action films. That kind of care, waiting twenty years to make a movie right, is a dying art in cinema and one that we are ALL rewarded with by the masterpiece that is Dunkirk.
8 out of 10
Tyler Baker
Tuesday, December 26, 2017
Film Review: Netflix's Bright
Director: David Ayer
Writer: Max Landis
Starring: Will Smith, Joel Edgerton
Back when the script for Bright was circling studios to produce and distribute the film, Netflix outbid everyone and quickly attached Will Smith to headline the flick. It was obvious by the $90 million price tag on the film, it was meant to be a stepping stone for Netflix's film division, the only part about the streaming giant that hasn't taken off. They've produced a few mainstream movies, from Beasts of No Nation to this year's War Machine with Brad Pitt, but nothing with a budget as big as Bright. When they elected to bring in David Ayer as director (and script re-writer) it signalled that Bright would more than likely be a dreadful affair. Sure enough, the one trick pony who couldn't execute the stolen episode of Arrow he used for a shooting script in Suicide Squad once again takes a could be original film and turns it into a slipped disc of fractured filmmaking. The end result is a very underwhelming, utterly predictable and overall boring film with an eventual boring sequel already green-lit.
When I first heard of Bright, it was somewhere after I had watched Suicide Squad, entirely against my better judgement and hearing the news that Will Smith was coming to Netflix enthralled me. Then I got the grave news that the film would be manned by David Ayer and that he would rewrite Max Landis' script. Well, Neither Ayer or Landis are on a hot streak lately. Landis most recent film credit was writing Victor Frankenstein, one of the worst films of last year. Ayer, who I believe peaked with his writing credit for Training Day, has failed to make three other films that aren't just some rehashed, scene jumbled play on that same Training Day script. Ayer showed his complete inability to manage a big budget or create an original script in Suicide Squad. Putting them together with Will Smith, who hasn't exactly been going hard at the acting game lately, just seemed too problematic for Bright to work. Still, I watched it opening day like everyone else.
What I found was a lazy use of fantasy elements, which was the focus of the trailer all along. It was obvious that Ayer had rewritten the script, since every scene from Training Day was in the film, with the exception of the scene where Ethan Hawke smokes crack. Over and over, I kept cursing at the screen for having to see the same five scenes in every David Ayer corrupt cop drama, but this time it didn't even make sense. When he used the fantasy elements, he only used them in little pop up mentions to service the lazy, gutted story that went nowhere. Hell, there was a dragon in one scene so brief and unexplained, most people probably missed it. It was this lack of depth in the conceptual stage of the film that suffers the most. Besides the fact that Ayer is a mess behind the camera, lacks true cinematic vision and can't assemble an action shot with any rhythm, the real problem is his constant need to insert the same tropes in all his movies. Everyone is racist and cops are corrupt is his main draws. You saw this in Training Day, Deep Blue, Street Kings, and End of Watch. This reason alone should be enough to keep Ayer's name off cop drama directors lists; but apparently Netflix had to learn the hard way.
Don't expect any character development or the story to be rightfully explained. There is no real story, just the quick references of everything magical that is never fully displayed and otherwise serves somewhat the same as a skinny guy flexing at the gym; this movie has no muscle. It is driven from A to B to C without common reasoning and leads to scenes where Will Smith says, "We need to change clothes, their looking for two cops" only to give up his police issued bulletproof vest for a hoodie, walk outside and then INSTANTLY be found by everyone who is chasing him anyway. It is that lack of knowledge of their own script and scenes prior that insult people who waited months for a Will Smith Netflix movie. With a handful of secondary characters who we never even know by name or real purpose and called in acting from the great Will Smith, I couldn't help but feel bad for poor Joel Edgerton, who spent hours and hours a day in makeup to be the ONLY person who showed up to act.
Where they go with the second film, we don't know, all we do know is Will Smith is on board and I personally hope David Ayer will get blackballed from filmmaking sometime next year. Until then, plan on seeing bad versions of Training Day over and over again. I wouldn't even value the cgi, which was only utilized in one scene really, a scene Ayer loved so much he spent more time going back to it then developing the main characters. This is the kind of film that is too lazy to name it's Orc main character anything other than "Nick". This is the kind of film that shouldn't be called a film, it should be called an overpriced piece of shit, because that's what David Ayer created.
3 out of 10
Tyler Baker
Wednesday, November 22, 2017
Film Review: Wind River (2017)
Directed by | Taylor Sheridan |
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Written by | Taylor Sheridan |
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Starring |
Thursday, November 16, 2017
Film Review : Thor Ragnarok
A film as well built as Thor: Ragnarok doesnt come around often in a modern time of quick hit blockbusters and small budget franchises. Most of today is built on reboots, connected cinematic universes and microbudget indie films that have broad appeal. Then you have director Taika Waititi, the director of such great recent indies as Hunt for the Wilderpeople and What We Do in the Shadows, who comes in to an already established connected film world (the only success one so far) and redefines the genre with comedy, creativity and the willingness to kill the old world formula. As a result, Thor Ragnarok is the thunder god franchise star film and perhaps the funniest film of the year.
Lets break it down quick. The highlights is the comedy, sown together by random improv and carefully focusing the feel of it to the amazing cast strengths. Goldblum is Goldblum, Hemsworth carries the very comedic aura throughout and then there is Korg. Played by Waititi himself, Korg the stone gladiator is the funniest character in film since the Step Brothers. His random causality brings a real rise over the plot and steals every scene hes in. The rest of the cast is well fitted for their parts, though some are only there to service the reinvention of Thor's story.
The big bad, Hela, played by Cate Blanchett, is by far the best villian in the MCU thus far and continues to prove Thor films as Marvel's only true villians (with Loki and that big Laser eye guy). Hela is mischievous and unremorseful, having little patience for inferiors who do not bend the knee. She elevates the areas that dont rely on comedy, but danger. It fits perfectly to build the grandeur and scale of the quest of Thor. The stripping of his pieces (hammer, hair, ext) allows us to bond to him like never before. Add in the best version or Hulk seen yet and we have us a stew going.
The colors, the soundtrack, the story, the acting, the everything about Thor: Ragnarok makes this film in the top tier of not just the MCU, not just comicbook movies, but film in general. A nonstop thrill ride, a matter buster for the silver screen, this is a must see film if only to make you laugh your ass off during a bad day.
9 of 10 Stars
Tyler Baker
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Charlie's Monologue
Holy shit, how pathetic would that have been?
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Where Footprints Don't Follow
Film Review: Only The Brave (2017)
Director: Joseph Kosinski Writers: Sean Flynn (based on the GQ article "No Exit" by), Ken Nolan | 1 more credit ...
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Director: Yorgos Lanthimos Writers: Yorgos Lanthimos , Efthymis Filippou Stars : Colin Farrell , Nicole Kidman, Barry Keogha...
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Directed by Taylor Sheridan Written by Taylor Sheridan Starring Jeremy Renner Elizabeth Olsen Wind River is the gripping stor...