Three releases currently in cinema, Michael Bay’s “Ambulance”, Ruben Fleischer’s video-game adaptation “Uncharted”, and Daniel Espinosa’s comic-book adaptation “Morbius” offer divergent (and sometimes convergent) approaches to what blockbuster filmmaking looks like in 2022. Even as neither of the three reaches Matt Reeves’ “The Batman” as far as blockbuster filmmaking goes this year, I know I’ll be thinking about “Ambulance” – its stylistic approach to staging a crime thriller, its complex performances working in tandem (and sometimes at intriguing cross-purposes) and the intriguing ambivalence of its approach to morality and ethics in contemporary America – for a while. One inarguable fact about “Ambulance” is that there are depths to its filmmaking and even its themes that demand consideration as each frame teams with energy that feels shockingly (and also worryingly) distinct from the genericity of too much that’s playing in the larger wide-release cinematic complex.
In typical Michael Bay fashion, “Ambulance” begins in high gear and stays there for most of its runtime. As far as set-ups go, the story is typically bare, waiting for the dazzling escapades that come before the end of the first act, and don’t let up until the very end. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II plays Will, a war veteran who has been tossed aside after being discharged, with a sick wife and a young child. He’s looking for work to assist. His brother (Jake Gyllenhaal as Danny, in the walking form of someone who seems continuously high on amphetamines) is a lifelong criminal who helps Will out by including him a team that’s set to pull off a major bank heist. This goes wrong, and badly. The two brothers are separated from their team, in an ambulance with a shot police, and a traumatised paramedic on a highspeed chase throughout LA. Of the 136 minutes running time, roughly ¾ is spent on board that very ambulance. And each of those minutes, including a last ten minutes that I am somewhat uncertain on, are filled with kinetic, stylistic flourishes and a wholly committed approach to crime on screen that feels incredibly thought out and effective.
In short, “Ambulance” is a great time at the cinema. Every other scene features a new character, introduced with some flourish that feels – at first – extraneous. But with each new addition the script (from Chris Fedak) is putting together a very focused labyrinth of personalities and peoples to reach a climactic confluence of events that feels particularly impressive for the kind of films playing alongside it in cinemas. A lot of this comes from the film’s drone technology. Bay along with cinematographer Roberto De Angelis and editor Pietro Scalia have such a distinct vision of what this version of LA looks like that it gives everything on screen a sharp visual identity that feels exciting to watch. Scalia’s work in particular harkens back to his really aggressive approach to violence, bodies and machinery from “Black Hawk Down”. “Ambulance” isn’t working at that war-epic scale, but it’s really thrilling as a genuine piece of filmmaking that has such clear ideas about giving audiences a constant burst of intensity that never lets up. The visual commitment to stylistic flourishes that border on insanity, with an ability to gracefully draw back when needed feels necessary amidst stranger approaches to blockbuster filmmaking.
I say this, even as I’ve been trying to wrestle my own ambivalence about the moral stance of “Ambulance” with my excitement about its filmmaking, though. This ambivalence has as much to do with the murky dichotomy of the stakes the film sets up as well as with the (perhaps intentional) ways that the film itself unfolds as an intense adrenaline-soaked experience that then leaves you with a sense of unease when the intensity falls and you’re left to grapple with that resolution. Beyond the question of thinking too hard about a fun blockbuster, I do wonder on the film’s own murkiness in seeming generally less energetic and interested in its law-enforcement characters but also feeling tethered to an ultimate sense of law and order at its core that feels hollow as opposed to illuminating or even challenging. A final decision of a major character in the climax feels so odd that I find myself thinking of its implications for a long time after.
And yet, that kind of ethical – and even thematic – messiness isn’t really a mark against a film that has an interest in using the possibilities of what a film can DO in a way that feels so genuinely exciting. Moreover, its handle on contemporary America as a place of capitalistic rot feels apt with a late-film moment of dejected bodies surrounded by flying dollar bills feels fittingly dismal. After a brief time away from the movies in the cinema, the heights of “Ambulance” felt seductive in ways that almost made me overwhelmed. It’s the kind of ecstatic response to actual filmmaking that feels genuinely propulsive and invigorating. A film like “Ambulance”, which emphasises its kinetic silliness and ribald sensibilities, feels so valuable and genuine and energetic right now. It’s a sensibility and purposiveness that’s all but absent in “Uncharted” – a limp and crude film about a search for lost-treasure that felt tiresome by the minute, so much so that it made me momentarily worried about the future of Tom Holland as an actor. Holland, a celebrity I genuinely enjoy in interviews, feels lifetimes away from his virtuosic work as a child in “The Impossible”. In the banalities of “Uncharted” he feels neutered and colourless in ways that feel enervating. Despite better reviews, I found it way less engaging that the schematic “Morbius,” which I must admit to being vaguely intrigued by. Even as Jared Leto’s personal celebrity feels tiresome, he at least has a sense of character more than any figure in “Uncharted”. In fact, “Morbius”, despite its odd structure, feels interesting for me for its odd – but still intentional – approaches to its world and visuals. “Uncharted” on the other hand feels genuinely pallid, insensible and un-invigorating. Perhaps I am too susceptible to things that are specific rather than generic, but I can think of very few films specifically like “Morbius.” “Uncharted” contains nothing that has not been done better on every level elsewhere in better films. “Ambulance,” meanwhile, is invigorating even as its working within a very familiar framework of brothers on different sides of the law, the criminal as protagonist and the highspeed chase as a film plot. Despite its familiarity, it’s exciting and indelible stuff. More of this in blockbuster cinema, please.
