Ava

And How Prisons Lie And Obscure

I love Jessica Chastain, and I’d watch her in anything. What impresses me the most about her is that it felt like she just showed up in Hollywood and everyone just decided this statuesque redhead was gonna be one of the greats. It’s like when Captain Marvel met the Avengers and they were like, yep. I’m glad that I’ve got a week of Jessica Chastain, but to be honest, these are not some of her bigger roles during this period. Still waiting for “The Eyes Of Tammy Faye” to hit one of the streaming sites I use.

While I was in prison, I was able to see Chastain in similarly-thankless parts in “Interstellar” and “The Martian”, while also similarly wasting her talents in the risible big budget mistake “The Huntsman: Winter’s War”. Similarly, “It Chapter Two” was far from the best showcase, and “Dark Phoenix” had her in the least-flattering wig for any leading lady in, maybe, movie history. I was reminded of her beauty and talent as she made a meal of Aaron Sorkin’s dialogue in “Molly’s Game”. As a former ski pro who shifts her competitiveness to hosting high stakes poker games after a debilitating injury, she lets out a roar that cows every male in the movie. Maybe it’s miscasting in that, even when someone like smug Michael Cera demoralizes her, you can feel him blown back by the force of her presence.

I was psyched to catch her in “Ava”, particularly considering she was an outspoken fan of action films and wanted to produce her own in addition to starring in them. But before I got out, I saw another one of her action efforts, “The 355”, and… well, I recalibrated my expectations. “The 355” had some high-minded thoughts on espionage in addition to a cast including Lupita Nyong’o, Diane Kruger, Penelope Cruz and Fan Bingbing. It was also courtesy of director Simon Kinberg, the same idiot who put her in that wig in “Dark Phoenix” (I cannot stress that choosing that wig was IDIOTIC). If there’s anyone who knows about jail, it’s me. And if there’s a “Director Jail”, well, Kinberg has only directed two movies, and he sullied Chastain in both of them. Bury him under that jail.

“The 355” was generic junk, like they took a Steven Seagal script and divided his actions between five separate characters. It stands to reason Chastain would have more luck in a solo outing. Except that, just as she worked with Kinberg twice, this is her reuniting with Tate Taylor, who previously directed her to an Oscar nomination in “The Help”, but has otherwise had an unremarkable middlebrow career. Taylor showed enough genre acumen for the Octavia Spencer shocker “Ma”, but he lacks the daredevil ingenuity to tackle a meat-and-potatoes actioner. Sadly, he was something of a last minute replacement, as original director Matthew Newton stepped down over abuse allegations.

At least the casting agency wasn’t sleeping on the job. For this pretty boilerplate tale of an assassin who seeks revenge after being burned (coming years after Steven Soderbergh’s stylish, brutal “Haywire” with Gina Carano), a notably-decorated cast has lined up to get punched by Jessica Chastain. Her shady boss/father figure is John Malkovich, again delivering lines like he’s evaluating the syntax on the tip of his tongue. The handler that has second thoughts about Chastain’s dedication is a mustached Colin Farrell (who puts up a fight but is basically playing Ewan McGregor in “Haywire”). At least it’s established that Ava has believable origins, as her sick mother is revealed to be none other than THE Geena Davis. Geena Davis gave birth to Jessica Chastain? Pretty damn believable.

There’s a little bit of globe-trotting on the menu, and Chastain shows her bonafides by taking on all comers hand-to-hand. Whereas “The 355” pivoted off bloodless firearm work and a few quick grapples, “Ava” makes a convincing case that Jessica Chastain just might be beating on fools behind the scenes too. Her fight choreography is convincing, but unfortunately that doesn’t carry over too far – there’s a scrap between Farrell and Malkovich that is a decidedly unconvincing slap fight. The idea that John Malkovich of all people can suddenly get into, and maybe win, a fistfight is a little too much science fiction for this genre concept.

I always try to bring this up with female cinephiles, but I’m always a little rankled by movie couples that don’t make sense. There’s a tacky love triangle gumming up the works in this movie, because Ava’s sister (Jess Weixler) apparently made off with her man, and Ava is apparently fixin’ to rectify that. It’s Common, who is a handsome guy with good presence, but could we be done trying to convince everyone this guy can actually act? Pairing him with Chastain reminds me of “Just Wright”, where he played an NBA superstar and had to do scenes with actual All-Stars. As in, great effort, Common, but we all know you don’t belong on this court. Even if we weren’t talking about Jessica Chastain, the character is the daughter of legendary Amazonian Geena Davis. You’d better bring your best and brightest to act alongside whomever plays Davis’ daughter. 

I want to mention something I’ve said before about visibility. What happens to you in prison pretty much stays with you in prison. The Supreme Court has already ruled that as long as they don’t kill you, the Bureau of Prisons essentially has free reign to do whatever they’d like to you, as long as they somehow eventually discipline their own, and also yes Sir Gullible, would you like to buy a box of fresh oxygen? Your best bet, if you are treated poorly in prison, is to reach out to media members who might care. Much easier said than done – “Criminal Treated Poorly” isn’t exactly a headline that moves the needle.

But forgetting all that, one must also acknowledge there is a network of protectors and enablers to ensure the B.O.P. does not face punishment for their actions. I will tell you I am not too fond of Reason Magazine for their both sideisms and for their favoritism towards capitalism. But they are some of the people actually discussing prison conditions. This story here stuck out to me because a judge ruled that footage of prison officials brutalizing a defenseless inmate, footage that will not be seen for “safety concerns”. This is an excuse that can be helpfully levied out to any and all decisions regarding the flow of information outside of a prison. There are laws on the books to prevent the exploitation of victims of crime, and they are being perverted to benefit the brutalists who wear a badge and who commit atrocities. Frequently in my institutions, requests were denied on the basis of what was or wasn’t relevant to “the institution’s penological goals”, a catch-all term employed quite liberally. When you are in prison, you are at the whims of a system that protects itself, whether they act towards you with incompetence or malice. That system, ironically, is also supposed to represent “Justice”. How did we get into this mess?