When there are films with the subject matter being discipline and improvement, Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre’s “The Mustang” shows how one man is destined to make a difference in his life. The difference is with training horses. Actor, Matthias Schoenaerts is Roman. Roman has been in jail for years for committing a crime that is not well known. He has temper issues, trust issues, and on top of that, he has a kid that is pregnant. He is introduced to Myles (played by Bruce Dern). Myles is the captain of the horses that are used to be trained by prisoners as a rehabilitation program. Myles gives Roman the opportunity to work with the horses. The problem is that training horses, is harder than Roman thinks. That is because Roman is quite impatient and very confrontational. In the opening of the movie, Roman is already all fueled and angry.

With “The Mustang” I find that redemption is an aspect to the movie. In moments of the movie, where Roman is in group sessions with his other inmates, or in visiting hours with his daughter, he does mention a couple of times about how he regrets his judgment that got him to end up in prison. With that, he feels that training horses is making him start to feel like he is in a more positive place. With that, he hopes that he can make up when he eventually is released from jail. Myles has hope in Roman, but also Myles does not remind Roman of how horses can be a different challenge on different occasions. The two main challenges that Roman faces is having patience with horses, and how long he may be in prison for.

The director played Diane in “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” (2007). I felt “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” was quite similar because of how both films gear on characters who cannot do much in the world, and they want to make a difference despite their restrictions. In “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” the character is almost completely paralyzed, and his only way of communicating is to blink his eyes for yes or no. In “The Mustang” the character’s reputation is based on how well he can train the horses with very little experience. Both are very detailed in elements to why the characters have restrictions and struggle to get farther than they would like to.

“The Mustang” is one of those movies that has only some dialogue but not a whole lot. That element in the film’s writing I feel helps us understand Roman through his facial expressions and anger that he has built up inside him throughout the movie. The moments where Roman outbursts are unexpected and that intensifies certain scenarios that viewers do not see coming. Based on Roman’s background, viewers will also wonder if he can behave or hold his attitude together. “The Mustang” has unexpected events that will hold attention well. I will say three and a half stars.

I came across watching “Secret Window” recently after about six years of not watching it. I went back and read reviews, it had some good and some bad, and to me the film is not, amazing or horrible, it is average but needs improvement. “Secret Window” is a film that leaves viewers to have multiple questions as the movie goes on. The film has some terror, tension, and disturbing scenarios that creates a pattern of an unexplained puzzle and that does not make sense to its viewers. The film stars Johnny Depp (as Mort), John Turturro (as John), Maria Bello (as Amy), Timothy Hutton (as Ted), and Charles S. Dutton (as). These characters play a role in this catastrophe that is in the hands of one man whose life may be at risk due to plagiarism.

The main character is Mort. Mort is someone that has a successful career as a writer, however is going through a divorce. He lives in a cabin in a forest around the out skirts of New York. He is introverted and does not have much of a social life. That is until one day, another writer (John) knocks on his door and starts to interrogate him claiming that Mort had stolen one of his stories. Mort believes that it is all a lie and is false and he starts collecting facts and evidence to prove his belief that John is making the scenario up and is crazy. That may be the truth, but harrowing events starts to impact Mort’s life the more he denies what John claims. Mort finds himself having to go back to talking with his soon-to-be ex wife Amy and her boyfriend Ted. This is challenging for Mort because he has memories of events that he believes to be the cause of him and Amy separating. He also hires a detective (Ken), and that detective is very costly and is not solving many of the answers for Mort. Throughout the film, Mort tries to piece together if John is right or wrong.

The film is attention-grabbing, but in a sense, cheesy. A couple of conflict scenarios in the film do not make sense. I feel the director, David Koepp, tries to have his viewers gear on one character when it comes around being curious to who is responsible for damages in the movie. A pet is killed early in the film, a house is burned down by someone, and people are found dead in a car in a forest. Viewers wonder if John is responsible for them, however there is a twist to those shady events.

When I have watched this movie, I can tell the writing was done to make Mort to be a self-absorbed, and opinionated person. That is because whenever anyone in his life tries to have him to terms with himself, he acts like he is above everyone else, and does not admit at all to his negative attitudes or sarcasm. He is someone that will believe his problems will blow over him, and not be a big deal, but they do turn to be big deals slowly. For Depp’s character, he is nerdy, angry, and clueless towards how to deal with his problems. He puts off important priorities just because he wants to believe he is right.

For Turturro’s character, he is someone that tries to create tension and stress for Depp’s character. He dogs Mort for the manuscript that Mort claims he wrote and that he did not steal from him. He threatens to make Mort’s life miserable and place all kinds of charges on him. Those threats start to put Mort in a place where he cannot runaway from his problems. The other issue is that this is not the only issue for Mort, the other issue is finalizing his divorce with his Amy. Mort being set in his own ways prevent him from his other responsibilities in his life, and he does not have very many.

For Koepp, I felt “Secret Window” was an average film for him to direct. The film may seem predictable, but it is not. Many of the unanswered questions in the film are the opposite answers of what his viewers think. That is why I have grown to enjoy “Secret Window” in the amount of times I have watched it. The sense of dramatic irony that Koepp uses leads to a catastrophe in one moment of the film or the other. Did Mort steal John’s story? Did John commit those crimes? All are questions that has a wild explanation towards the climax of the movie. That is why I find “Secret Window” as a film that is worthy of a viewing every so often.

Now this is the psychological thriller that I am talking about. “Greta” is a film that is not only disturbing by its subject matter, but because the trailer misleads its viewers to the type of evil psychopath that Isabelle Huppert is. Chloe Grace Moretz is the innocent, young friend that is just concerned about her safety, but that does not matter to Huppert. The director, Neil Jordan (who is a decent director) has the setting to be mellow, but slowly increase with tension, psychological fears, and an increasing amount of unanswered disturbing questions that Moretz does not know the answer to. In Huppert’s recent film “Elle” (2016), she plays someone that got assaulted but is fearless to find the answer. In “Greta” Huppert does the assaulting, but Moretz is nowhere near fearless.

The film starts with Frances McCullen (Moretz), a student working as a waitress in New York with a hard past. She takes the subways consistently in the cities of New York and comes across a purse assuming that is missing. She looks through the purse and finds an ID saying Greta Hideg (Huppert). Frances returns the purse to Greta and they start to hang out occasionally. For Frances she feels she has found a positive role model in her life. That is until one day she comes across a cabinet full of multiple purses that are the same that she found on the train. This causes Frances to want to cut all communications with Greta and not be associated with her. That incident is just a nightmare beginning for Frances. Greta begins to send her multiple emails, phone calls, and consistently stalks her at any place she knows she is associated with. Frances hopes that this will blow over, but it continues to worsen day by day. This leads Frances to have to put matters into her own hands and consider fighting back if she must.

There is a moment in “Greta” where Frances assumes that Greta is not as dangerous. She is dangerous. Frances’s roommate and best friend Erica Penn (played by Maika Monroe) is at a club and Greta sends Frances pictures of Erica saying she is following her. In this thriller, Greta involves what is important to Frances to try and play mind games to get her to be friends with her. With that, the film is not that predictable. That makes the film better than some viewers may think. Many thrillers have a predictable setup where they have the main character be the only focus for the antagonist. In “Greta” the antagonist’s focus is Frances and the people that are important in her life. That will leave viewers to be curious whose life is going to be more on the line.

As I watched this movie, my mind felt haunted, but I could not look away. Huppert’s evil persona had my full attention. She has scary dialogue, facial expressions, and an attitude that Moretz feels she cannot overcome. The film is a cat and mouse game between a middle-aged woman and a young girl in her early college days. I was wondering throughout the movie if Moretz is going to escape or not. If that is an answer one wants to find out, that is an answer to wait until the movie is seen. I will say though, this is a big screen experience for a movie. Most psychological thrillers are not that good these days, but “Greta” I felt was excellent work. I will say three solid stars.