Bonus: Locke

[00:00:00] Bonus Chapter Let's do an A24 film, the amazing A24 Studio. Let's get to Locke from 2013. This one is directed by Stephen Knight, written as well by him. I love Stephen Knight, very prolific, eclectic filmmaker and writer.

[00:00:51] It stars Tom Hardy, and then the voices of Olivia Colman, Ruth Wilson, Andrew Scott, Tom Holland, and a few others. And the synopsis is, Ivan Locke, a dedicated family man and successful construction manager,

[00:01:06] receives a phone call on the eve of the biggest challenge of his career that sets in motion a series of events that threaten his carefully cultivated existence. So first off, this movie takes place entirely in a car while he's driving down the highway.

[00:01:22] It also only features, in person at least, Tom Hardy, all the others are voices. This movie definitely stuck with me the first time I watched it even, for a variety of reasons.

[00:01:33] I think I was just starting to notice the A24 name in movies, and this is one that I think didn't do all that well financially, but got good reviews, turns of heads, I think, for its creativity and ingenuity for the very low budget and idea of it.

[00:01:54] And I loved Tom Hardy already from Dark Knight Rises, and I think Tinker Taylor had come out at that point. I was a big Tom Hardy fan, and this is definitely one of his most underrated roles for sure. I love Tom Hardy.

[00:02:06] And giving, in case you don't know, or if you're curious, or if you need a refresher, so he is this construction manager. He had, spoiler, he had an affair with a woman who is now giving birth at a hospital like a couple hours away.

[00:02:23] There's a big construction event or issue happening the next day where they need him, they need Locke, the titular Locke character, to help out and make sure that this planning and execution goes well.

[00:02:38] And what I love about the movie and the ideas of the movie for such a simple concept is how they present this guy, this normal guy who has a good life, he has a family, he has a good job, he's well respected, he's very knowledgeable.

[00:02:57] And he made this one mistake where he had this one night stand basically and now this woman who is alone and scared at a hospital is giving birth to his child. And the whole movie is him saying, I made this choice, I'm going to help her, I've decided

[00:03:15] to help her, I'm sorry if this is getting in the way of everything. His wife of course finds out about it, he's screwing up at work, he's basically losing his job, he's ruining his family, his son knows about it, his whole world is crumbling

[00:03:30] around him and yet he's like, well, right or wrong, I'm sticking to this decision, I'm committed no matter what and I'm going to go see it through. I think that is such a, in how it's written and directed and Tom Hardy is amazing in it.

[00:03:47] It is so well executed, so well presented in terms of that moral dilemma and ethical dilemma of that character and even his, I guess you'd call it single conversations where he's looking in the back seat and he envisions his father there, his late father, and he's

[00:04:08] talking to him and there are these arguments he has with himself, I like that. And the cutting back and forth between different phone calls where he'll talk to his wife about something, then he'll hang up, then he'll call someone at work, and he'll talk to them

[00:04:21] about something and then he's getting another call. It seems so simple to write in such a simple script but I know that if the average person sat down to try to write that and have it make sense and have the weight that it has

[00:04:34] would not work out that easily. So they make something that could go horribly wrong and be very, very boring into a very compelling, very dramatic, unique sort of character piece. So I think this is definitely one of the best early A24 films.

[00:04:53] It is very underrated in a variety of ways. One of Stephen Knight's best and I really will always try and watch what he either directs or writes. He also created Peaky Blinders, the TV show, which is amazing. He's a fantastic, very interesting and refreshing artist.

[00:05:10] Other than that, it's hard to really delve into the movie too much because it is just a guy sitting in a car talking on the phone, which sounds super boring from the outset but it's really not, I promise you. Maybe some people think it is.

[00:05:25] I think it's very, very compelling all the way through and it's only about 80 minutes. It's not three hours long so it's in and out, it's breezy. Give it a shot, especially for those ideas and that character of Locke is, maybe I'm

[00:05:39] in the minority, to me is so fascinating with that. I made a decision. It doesn't matter if I screw the rest of my life up, I've decided to do this and nothing else in a way, nothing else matters at that point.

[00:05:54] So to me that's a very, very interesting question and very well presented. So that is a four and a half out of five.