Starring: Ethan Hawke, January Jones, Zoe Kravitz, Bruce Greenwood
Good Kill
Director: Andrew Niccol
Rating: 3.5/5
Andrew Niccol first worked with actor Ethan Hawke back in 1998 on Gattaca, this week the pair reunites for their new film Good Kill. Good Kill is just one of a handful of films that will be taking us into the shadowy world of drone warfare this year... and this is one that is not to be missed.
Good Kill tells the story of a Las Vegas fighter-pilot turned drone-pilot (Hawke), who fights the Taliban via remote control for half of his day, then goes home to his wife (Jones) and kids in the suburbs for the other half. As his colleague Vera (Kravitz) voices the objections quietly dawning on him, he begins to question the mission, and whether he might be creating more terrorists than he's killing.
Niccol has had a couple of misses in recent years with the likes of In Time and The Host, but he is back on form with Good Kill, which is as intriguing a movie as it is intelligent. Drone warfare is a very topical and complex issue and yet Niccol has explored it with a delicacy and a tact that I really think works well.
Hawke has already had a great year with the awards success of Boyhood and a great performance in Predestination and he delivers another terrific central turn here.
This is not just a movie about drone warfare, but it is also a character study at those at the controls. Tom Egan is a tortured character who struggles with the ethics of his work. Hawke really gets under the skin of this character as he struggles with the decisions he makes on a daily basis and the consequences of them.
I have been a huge fan of Hawke for many years, and this is another film where he can really show off just how great an actor he is. I think he is rather underappreciated as an actor but he really does shine in Good Kill.
Hawke and Niccol clearly have a great working relationship and Niccol's script has really allowed the actor to deliver some of his best work.
Niccol handles the narrative side of the movie well and I think he does a great job and visualising the inner conflict that is felt by Tom.
Perhaps a little bit more conflict/battles were needed to just to elevate the film even more and make it feel even more like a war film and not just an excellent character piece.
We have seen many movie hit the big screen about the 'war on terror' in recent years, and while Good Kill is not as visceral an experience as last year's Lone Survivor, it is still a movie that is a must see if you are a fan of the genre.