Review of Louder Than Bombs (2015) by Martin G — 05 May 2016

A couple of times older brother Jonah (Jesse Eisenberg) tells younger brother Conrad (Devin Druid) watching the latter's DVD games "Boring but interesting" "Louder Than Bombs" is boring and, occasionally, interesting more due to the actors than the screenplay by Eskil Vogt and Joachim Trier Trier and the experimentation by the director Joachim Trier.

Last week writing about "Viva" I said that I am a sucker for movies about father and sons well here we have a father with two sons and I didn't get involved with the story but the actors! Gabriel Byrne, currently receiving raves for his performance as husband/father on Broadway in "Long's Day Journey into Night" has one of the most interesting faces on the motion picture screen today. He is the father, Gene, of Conrad and Jonah, widower of Isabelle (Isabelle Huppert), and, as the film opens, a new grandfather, courtesy of Jonah.

There is a 10-15 minute scene between Devin Druid and, with a typical teenage crush on Melanie (Ruby Jerins) who he is walking home from a party that is delightful, funny but so more important showcases a male teenager in all his awkwardness, fumbling and misunderstanding a teenage girl! We also meet their teacher Amy Ryan who is involved with Gene and Jonah's wife Amy (Megan Ketch) along with one of Jonah's high school girlfriend Erin (Rachel Brosnahan) and Isabelle's longtime colleague Richard played by a very impressive good looking David Strathairn who really is unnecessary to the drama.

All in all there are two reasons for seeing "Louder Than Bombs": watching Gabriel Byrne's face, even when doing nothing, and Devin Druid's spot on performance as a teenager but then I don't feel that is enough to watch this boring 100 minute film.