Watching Spotlight feels like watching the functioning of an efficient and well-oiled machine. A nuts & bolts procedural from a suitably restrained director that's supported by a top notch cast of actors delivering grounded and realistic performances.
There's almost no directorial flair or intense moments of theatrical performance. In fact you'd be surprised to realise that for a journalism drama there's not even that much in the way of actual drama. For a subject as provocative as child abuse in the catholic church the film remains surprisingly muted. Nobody on the Spotlight team reporting on the church end up publicly shamed for their investigation. Nobody is harassed on the street, ostracised from their community or driven out of their home by angry churchgoers. Hell, the characters even remark with surprise that The Boston Globe isn't being picketed once the scandal is revealed. Yet as santised as the film is it still somehow works as a compelling story.
A big part of that is the clever script by Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer. It presents the real life events of Spotlight's investigation as accurately as possible but with a coherent beginning, middle and end. Opening with the arrival of Marty Baron (Liev Schrieber) as the new editor of The Globe. Baron's role is not only to organically establish the Spotlight Team and what they do (basically long-term investigations of major scandals) but also position him as the outsider, to whom things are done differently, who can encourage the team in ways they ordinarily wouldn't thinks. While the focus then mainly shifts to Spotlight and its investigation Baron remains on hand as the 'big picture' guy, the one less concerned with the individual priests and more the system that allows them to avoid prosecution.
The central theme at play here is willful ignorance. The fact that all of Boston could have seen what was going on if they had the will or consideration to look. So it's no surprise that once Spotlight does look, the evidence begins to pile up and up. Witnesses are brought out of the shadows, patterns in the movement of priests from parish to parish start to emerge and important documents, thought to be sealed under court order, quickly come to light. Information that Spotlight thought buried was, in fact, right under their noses the whole time. The almost effortless success of their investigation soon reveals that the films key conflict is not 'Will this come to light?' but 'Can we really stomach what we're about to discover?'.
To its credit Spotlight is never gratuitous with the grim reality it is unearthing. Most of the crimes committed are discussed in retrospect but with the long-term damage visible in it's victims. It's a testament to the emotional weight that even bit players like Michael Cyril Creighton and Neal Huff can bring to an already stellar cast. The only downside it that this has little impact on the Spotlight team themselves. There are a few tidbits here and there, including Mark Ruffalo's big climax that will likely feature whenever an awards show reaches the film in its nominations. However the scarcity of these scenes causes them to clash with he film's otherwise down-to-earth aesthetic and dialogue.
Yet for all its faults Spotlight works as a piece of journalistic drama. Communicating the procedures and perils of investigative work in the modern era (albeit the modern era of the early 00s). More a process of arranging appointments and tedious legal battles. It may not be cinematic but it is damn compelling.
Monday, 22 February 2016
Tuesday, 19 January 2016
The Hateful Eight out of Ten
Quentin Tarantino's been on such a powerful run the last few years that it's easy to forget that the beginning of his career as a filmmaker was predominantly spent making incredibly well-written, well-crafted homages to other genre films. While he's never lost this unique style for his latter films (Inglorious Basterds is a Nazisploitation flick i.e. Illsa and the She-Wolves, Django is blacksploitation meets spaghetti westerns), he's put it to good use discussing topics like race, propaganda and the misappropriation of culture.
In contrast The Hateful Eight feels like Tarantino cutting loose. Taking a step back from controversial topics and returning to a masterful dissection of linear storytelling. Admittedly one flavored with the slick dialogue, big characters and sadistic violence that one expects from the man. The result is easily one of the most violent, twisted and nihilistic films to come out in a long time but no less fascinating and most importantly entertaining for it.
The deceptively simple set-up finds Kurt Russell as John 'The Hangman' Ruth escorting his bounty Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh) to hang sometime in post-civil war Wyoming. Along the road he picks up two disreputable characters; fellow bounty hunter Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson) and renegade-turned-sherriff (he claims) Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins). With a blizzard threatening to freeze them the group take shelter in Minnie's Haberdashery only to find the proprietor has left for the week, a group of likewise disreputables are taking refuge and everyone finds something amiss about the whole situation.
In fact everyone at Minnie's Haberdashery is hiding something or other and it's there that the film has more in common with Agatha Christie than Charles Portis. With the titular eight (plus Ruth's driver O.B.) trapped together watching Tarantino's dialogue slowly nurse out details of characters, almost all of whom are working to mislead both each other and the audience.
This is the closest the film comes to an underlying theme. Like the mythologised heroes and villains of the old west the character know each other mostly by reputation. Ruth and Warren are notorious as bounty hunters and Mannix is a known vigilante and we only have his word that he's now Sheriff of the nearby town. Meanwhile the other members of the octet include General Smithers (Bruce Dern), a confederate soldier with a reputation of his own, Oswaldo Mobray (Tim Roth) a soft-spoken Englishman with his own business cards, Joe Gage a withdrawn cowboy content to write his memoirs and Bob a suspicious Mexican who claims to be running the place in Minnie's absence.
Inevitably tensions flare between the group and allow the cracks in each facade to emerge. Most notably Warren's who makes it clear that he is no parallel to Tarantino's Django. Stripped of any romanticism Jackson's Warren freely admits both his heroics during the civil war and his work as a bounty hunter is purely an excuse to revenge himself on white people. Revealing the depth of his sociopathy in an epic monologue that serves at the catalyst for everything to go to hell in the final chapters.
While Jackson is the showstopping performance everyone else takes the opportunity to quietly impress upon us. As the sole cast member with nothing to hide Leigh's Domergue occupies the role of a mischevious imp, providing some of the film's dark humour as she gestures and cracks unsavory remarks (to say the least). Unfortunately she's also the character that suffers the worst despite committing the least of the hateful eights atrocities. Tarantino's treatment of her feels constantly like a tonal bait and switch, inviting us to laugh at the slapstick nature with which she's assaulted only to make us feel guilty as the camera lingers on her agonized face and dripping blood.
The real surprise here though is Walton Goggins as Mannix. Goggins has been around for years as the kind of actor you've always seen but could never name, usually playing foolhardy, disreputable characters like Mannix. Here he's playing delightfully to type but positioned as a character who always seems just on the verge of doing the right thing. He never approaches anything resembling redemption, remaining a thoroughly despicable bigot, unapologetic over his past atrocities but Tarantino at least gives him a satisfying conclusion.
As usual Tarantino's craftsmanship is well on display. His dialogue feels at once typically otherworldly yet completely natural. With few exceptions the cinematography passes by beautifully with little of the directorial flair that can often break the illusion. As with Django Unchained the films Achilles heel is in the editing. It seems Tarantino, along with the audience, is still morning the loss of Sally Menke. The opening shots drag on far beyond the point of spectacle, the chapter breaks merely serve to stall the proceedings and the first hour could stand to be significantly trimmed. The film pick up momentum significantly once we enter Minnie's Haberdashery and doesn't drag again until the final moments.
The Hateful Eight is unlikely to go down as Tarantino's finest film. It's a compelling mystery drama clothed as a Western but does very little new with the material. Filmmakers have been trying to destroy the romance of the Old West since the days of Soldier Blue and while Tarantino brings a fresh new take it isn't worth the slog of the films weaker moments. When it works though, it works. Fun, shocking, tense, even sad at times. It's the kind of film I'm willing to call a flawed gem, something that shines to me and maybe you too.
In contrast The Hateful Eight feels like Tarantino cutting loose. Taking a step back from controversial topics and returning to a masterful dissection of linear storytelling. Admittedly one flavored with the slick dialogue, big characters and sadistic violence that one expects from the man. The result is easily one of the most violent, twisted and nihilistic films to come out in a long time but no less fascinating and most importantly entertaining for it.
The deceptively simple set-up finds Kurt Russell as John 'The Hangman' Ruth escorting his bounty Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh) to hang sometime in post-civil war Wyoming. Along the road he picks up two disreputable characters; fellow bounty hunter Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson) and renegade-turned-sherriff (he claims) Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins). With a blizzard threatening to freeze them the group take shelter in Minnie's Haberdashery only to find the proprietor has left for the week, a group of likewise disreputables are taking refuge and everyone finds something amiss about the whole situation.
In fact everyone at Minnie's Haberdashery is hiding something or other and it's there that the film has more in common with Agatha Christie than Charles Portis. With the titular eight (plus Ruth's driver O.B.) trapped together watching Tarantino's dialogue slowly nurse out details of characters, almost all of whom are working to mislead both each other and the audience.
This is the closest the film comes to an underlying theme. Like the mythologised heroes and villains of the old west the character know each other mostly by reputation. Ruth and Warren are notorious as bounty hunters and Mannix is a known vigilante and we only have his word that he's now Sheriff of the nearby town. Meanwhile the other members of the octet include General Smithers (Bruce Dern), a confederate soldier with a reputation of his own, Oswaldo Mobray (Tim Roth) a soft-spoken Englishman with his own business cards, Joe Gage a withdrawn cowboy content to write his memoirs and Bob a suspicious Mexican who claims to be running the place in Minnie's absence.
Inevitably tensions flare between the group and allow the cracks in each facade to emerge. Most notably Warren's who makes it clear that he is no parallel to Tarantino's Django. Stripped of any romanticism Jackson's Warren freely admits both his heroics during the civil war and his work as a bounty hunter is purely an excuse to revenge himself on white people. Revealing the depth of his sociopathy in an epic monologue that serves at the catalyst for everything to go to hell in the final chapters.
While Jackson is the showstopping performance everyone else takes the opportunity to quietly impress upon us. As the sole cast member with nothing to hide Leigh's Domergue occupies the role of a mischevious imp, providing some of the film's dark humour as she gestures and cracks unsavory remarks (to say the least). Unfortunately she's also the character that suffers the worst despite committing the least of the hateful eights atrocities. Tarantino's treatment of her feels constantly like a tonal bait and switch, inviting us to laugh at the slapstick nature with which she's assaulted only to make us feel guilty as the camera lingers on her agonized face and dripping blood.
The real surprise here though is Walton Goggins as Mannix. Goggins has been around for years as the kind of actor you've always seen but could never name, usually playing foolhardy, disreputable characters like Mannix. Here he's playing delightfully to type but positioned as a character who always seems just on the verge of doing the right thing. He never approaches anything resembling redemption, remaining a thoroughly despicable bigot, unapologetic over his past atrocities but Tarantino at least gives him a satisfying conclusion.
As usual Tarantino's craftsmanship is well on display. His dialogue feels at once typically otherworldly yet completely natural. With few exceptions the cinematography passes by beautifully with little of the directorial flair that can often break the illusion. As with Django Unchained the films Achilles heel is in the editing. It seems Tarantino, along with the audience, is still morning the loss of Sally Menke. The opening shots drag on far beyond the point of spectacle, the chapter breaks merely serve to stall the proceedings and the first hour could stand to be significantly trimmed. The film pick up momentum significantly once we enter Minnie's Haberdashery and doesn't drag again until the final moments.
The Hateful Eight is unlikely to go down as Tarantino's finest film. It's a compelling mystery drama clothed as a Western but does very little new with the material. Filmmakers have been trying to destroy the romance of the Old West since the days of Soldier Blue and while Tarantino brings a fresh new take it isn't worth the slog of the films weaker moments. When it works though, it works. Fun, shocking, tense, even sad at times. It's the kind of film I'm willing to call a flawed gem, something that shines to me and maybe you too.
Monday, 11 January 2016
Top 10 of 2015
So 2015 kind of flew by and while it was a rich and full year of films, many scoring highly, I still struggled to fill out a top ten. Make no mistake I saw my fair share of films, possibly more than any other year, but there was a distinct lack of films that specifically tweaked even my broad range of turn-ons. With much of the good stuff falling just short and even the two Marvel movies turning out fairly vanilla it's been a frustrating thing to watch. But thanks to playing catch up on DVD and courtesy of Bristol's Cube Microplex I have managed to film ten films releases in 2015 that made the grade.
Now bear in mind I didn't manage to see everything so if you're surprised that Sicario, Inside Out, Brooklyn or Bridge of Spies are absent just assume I would have otherwise added them. This also applies to films already out in the US but which won't reach my eyes until early 2016. Hence The Revenant and The Hateful Eight being omitted. They may appear in my Top 10 for the following year though. So without further ado:
10) Steve Jobs
I'll be the first to admit that Aaron Sorkin is a hit and miss scriptwriter (an opinion that may change when I finally mainline The West Wing) but Steve Jobs is a solid hit. A duel acting masterclass from Fassbender and Winslet with supporting turns from Jeff Daniels, Seth Rogan and Michael Stuhlberg. Thanks to Danny Boyle's direction the two hours of solid tech talk flows seamlessly and opens a window into the mind of a deeply...well deeply obnoxious human being. That said, Sorkin's version of the Apple CEO is an endlessly watchable creature. Determined, calculating, ruthless Fassbender's Jobs is always in deep thought but every once in a while he seems to be thinking about something other than himself.
9) Trumbo
Granted this is in part cheating since the film won't be released until later in the coming year. Still it's interesting to pick Trumbo since it's ultimately a film that doesn't work. It's the story of the Hollywood 10, ten writers blacklisted during the witch-hunts of the McCarthy era 'Red Scare'. It's something that should be profoundly tragic, ten talented people who were denied a livelihood and many never regained it. Yet Trumbo is one of the most cartoonishly comical films of the year burying Bryan Cranston under a Salvador Dali 'tache and high-pitched squawk. Similarly ostentatious turns come from the likes of Helen Mirren, John Goodman and Christian Berkel as very real figures from Hollywood's past. And somehow it carried itself thanks to a consistently amusing script and a sympathetic performance from Cranston.
8) The Martian
The Martian has appeared on numerous top ten lists already, even at the top of some and well-deservedly. It's definitely one of the most well-crafted films of the year, a smart hard science rescue film that's also incredibly fun and compelling to watch. The quality of which is vastly inflated by the best Matt Damon performance in years, playing the ultimate 'science bro' with a jokey demeanor that never ignores that weight or desperation of his situation. My only regret is that, with it being neither as gripping as Gravity or as emotionally powerful as Moon it just couldn't make it into the top five.
7) The Clouds of Sils Maria
This was a small but endearing look into the representation of women in the arts. Starring Juliette Binoche as an aging actress preparing for an upcoming role as the older counterpart to the ingenue role that once made her famous. Playing off her is an on-form Kristen Stewart as her co-dependent personal assistant who tries to help her come to terms with the role. The interplay between the two is organic and telling as the many layers to both their relationship and the film begin to surface. It's an endlessly watchable curiosity that leaves you pondering days after.
6) Star Wars: The Force Awakens
The Force Awakens logically shouldn't work. It's a brazen rehash of the original Star Wars film coloured with a diverse cast and countless nostalgia nods to the franchise, and yet work it does. Sure once iconic moments like the destruction of a planet or an assault on a certain enemy superweapon lose their emotional impact but everything with a new twist feels new and fresh and fun in a way I can't remember Star Wars feeling like. Abrams' cinematography makes you constantly feel in the moment of a swiftly-moving story, the characters and suitably new spins on established archetypes, the old guard cast-members are as smooth as they've ever been and I was genuinely curious to see where things go.
5) Dear White People
This didn't get a wide distribution in....anywhere but in terms of this years comedy offerings it has to be the best. Ostensibly a film about race and racial identity centered on four black students at a predominantly white Ivy league college. Each one is trying discover or establish their own personal identity while dealing with their white peers constantly misappropriating black identity. It's a smart look at race, white privilege, student radicalism and the relationships between different cultures that manages to be brilliantly funny throughout if a little soapboxy at times.
4) Carol
At the time of writing Carol is the big awards-baiting 'issue' movie still being talked about and while it checks all the boxes of such a film it still deserves the recognition. Carol is a sweet, endearing love story between two women completely sold by the performances from Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara. Refreshingly the struggles of such a relationship in a less enlightened period setting are secondary to the much more personal conflicts between two very different people overcome by a strong attraction. Powerful, emotive and endlessly captivating thanks to a swift and elegant direction by Todd Haynes.
3) Crimson Peak
I know, I know. It isn't scary. It's too melodramatic. It's predictable. Mia Wasikowska is magically able to walk off a broken leg (OK that one's kinda valid). Thing is while Crimson Peak has all of these problems it still contains everything I love about Guillermo Del Toro while still being a very compelling Gothic Romance. Big, bombastic, entertaining characters, elaborately grim sets and a central love story that is at once a complete pastiche yet still wholly believable. This was a film that I loved from start to finish.
2) Ex Machina
This was a film that came out at the start of the year and stayed in my consciousness throughout. A smartly written film that encompasses a range of topics from trans-humanism to gender dynamics. It pitches itself as a hard science fiction film until the very last moments when it turns into a grim horror and yet never loses its aesthetic identity. Driven by smart, well-characterised performances from Dominhal Gleeson, Oscar Isaac and a deceptive turn from rising star Alicia Vikander.
1) Mad Max: Fury Road
Well What else could it be? Fury Road is hands down some of the most fun I've had in the cinema this year. Easily the best action film since The Raid 2, proof that you can make an old-school, eighties bone-cruncher that fits in a modern world that reflects modern issues. Imperator Furiosa is one of the most badass action women since Ellen Ripley, Tom Hardy makes an iconic role his own and George Miller builds a fully realised post-apocalyptic wasteland with its own culture and nuances. There's no film in 2015 that has provoked as much feeling or thought as Mad Max and that's why it's my film of the year.
Now bear in mind I didn't manage to see everything so if you're surprised that Sicario, Inside Out, Brooklyn or Bridge of Spies are absent just assume I would have otherwise added them. This also applies to films already out in the US but which won't reach my eyes until early 2016. Hence The Revenant and The Hateful Eight being omitted. They may appear in my Top 10 for the following year though. So without further ado:
10) Steve Jobs
I'll be the first to admit that Aaron Sorkin is a hit and miss scriptwriter (an opinion that may change when I finally mainline The West Wing) but Steve Jobs is a solid hit. A duel acting masterclass from Fassbender and Winslet with supporting turns from Jeff Daniels, Seth Rogan and Michael Stuhlberg. Thanks to Danny Boyle's direction the two hours of solid tech talk flows seamlessly and opens a window into the mind of a deeply...well deeply obnoxious human being. That said, Sorkin's version of the Apple CEO is an endlessly watchable creature. Determined, calculating, ruthless Fassbender's Jobs is always in deep thought but every once in a while he seems to be thinking about something other than himself.
9) Trumbo
Granted this is in part cheating since the film won't be released until later in the coming year. Still it's interesting to pick Trumbo since it's ultimately a film that doesn't work. It's the story of the Hollywood 10, ten writers blacklisted during the witch-hunts of the McCarthy era 'Red Scare'. It's something that should be profoundly tragic, ten talented people who were denied a livelihood and many never regained it. Yet Trumbo is one of the most cartoonishly comical films of the year burying Bryan Cranston under a Salvador Dali 'tache and high-pitched squawk. Similarly ostentatious turns come from the likes of Helen Mirren, John Goodman and Christian Berkel as very real figures from Hollywood's past. And somehow it carried itself thanks to a consistently amusing script and a sympathetic performance from Cranston.
8) The Martian
The Martian has appeared on numerous top ten lists already, even at the top of some and well-deservedly. It's definitely one of the most well-crafted films of the year, a smart hard science rescue film that's also incredibly fun and compelling to watch. The quality of which is vastly inflated by the best Matt Damon performance in years, playing the ultimate 'science bro' with a jokey demeanor that never ignores that weight or desperation of his situation. My only regret is that, with it being neither as gripping as Gravity or as emotionally powerful as Moon it just couldn't make it into the top five.
7) The Clouds of Sils Maria
This was a small but endearing look into the representation of women in the arts. Starring Juliette Binoche as an aging actress preparing for an upcoming role as the older counterpart to the ingenue role that once made her famous. Playing off her is an on-form Kristen Stewart as her co-dependent personal assistant who tries to help her come to terms with the role. The interplay between the two is organic and telling as the many layers to both their relationship and the film begin to surface. It's an endlessly watchable curiosity that leaves you pondering days after.
6) Star Wars: The Force Awakens
The Force Awakens logically shouldn't work. It's a brazen rehash of the original Star Wars film coloured with a diverse cast and countless nostalgia nods to the franchise, and yet work it does. Sure once iconic moments like the destruction of a planet or an assault on a certain enemy superweapon lose their emotional impact but everything with a new twist feels new and fresh and fun in a way I can't remember Star Wars feeling like. Abrams' cinematography makes you constantly feel in the moment of a swiftly-moving story, the characters and suitably new spins on established archetypes, the old guard cast-members are as smooth as they've ever been and I was genuinely curious to see where things go.
5) Dear White People
This didn't get a wide distribution in....anywhere but in terms of this years comedy offerings it has to be the best. Ostensibly a film about race and racial identity centered on four black students at a predominantly white Ivy league college. Each one is trying discover or establish their own personal identity while dealing with their white peers constantly misappropriating black identity. It's a smart look at race, white privilege, student radicalism and the relationships between different cultures that manages to be brilliantly funny throughout if a little soapboxy at times.
4) Carol
At the time of writing Carol is the big awards-baiting 'issue' movie still being talked about and while it checks all the boxes of such a film it still deserves the recognition. Carol is a sweet, endearing love story between two women completely sold by the performances from Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara. Refreshingly the struggles of such a relationship in a less enlightened period setting are secondary to the much more personal conflicts between two very different people overcome by a strong attraction. Powerful, emotive and endlessly captivating thanks to a swift and elegant direction by Todd Haynes.
3) Crimson Peak
I know, I know. It isn't scary. It's too melodramatic. It's predictable. Mia Wasikowska is magically able to walk off a broken leg (OK that one's kinda valid). Thing is while Crimson Peak has all of these problems it still contains everything I love about Guillermo Del Toro while still being a very compelling Gothic Romance. Big, bombastic, entertaining characters, elaborately grim sets and a central love story that is at once a complete pastiche yet still wholly believable. This was a film that I loved from start to finish.
2) Ex Machina
This was a film that came out at the start of the year and stayed in my consciousness throughout. A smartly written film that encompasses a range of topics from trans-humanism to gender dynamics. It pitches itself as a hard science fiction film until the very last moments when it turns into a grim horror and yet never loses its aesthetic identity. Driven by smart, well-characterised performances from Dominhal Gleeson, Oscar Isaac and a deceptive turn from rising star Alicia Vikander.
1) Mad Max: Fury Road
Well What else could it be? Fury Road is hands down some of the most fun I've had in the cinema this year. Easily the best action film since The Raid 2, proof that you can make an old-school, eighties bone-cruncher that fits in a modern world that reflects modern issues. Imperator Furiosa is one of the most badass action women since Ellen Ripley, Tom Hardy makes an iconic role his own and George Miller builds a fully realised post-apocalyptic wasteland with its own culture and nuances. There's no film in 2015 that has provoked as much feeling or thought as Mad Max and that's why it's my film of the year.
Monday, 14 December 2015
Tangerine: Like a Familiar Dream
The most shocking thing about Tangerine-currently being touted as one of the best films of 2015-is just how conventional it feels. Once you get past the novelty of a film providing some representation of an oft-marginalised group plus the iPhone aesthetics you realise that Tangerine is just another 'crazy day in LA'. And sadly it isn't one that's particularly dramatic or even funny. Which isn't to say the film is bad, simply underwhelming and leads one to wonder exactly what the fuss is about.
But to the film itself. The film is centred on Sin Dee (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) and Alexandra (Mya Taylor), two trans-women and prostitutes whose friendship is very much the emotional core of the film. Sin Dee has just finished a brief stint in jail only to discover that Chester, her boyfriend and pimp, has been cheating on her with a 'fish' (a cisgender female). So they embark on a haphazard voyage across LA to track down the fish and confront Chester. Meanwhile Alexandra is focused on singing at a local club and trying to encourage her friends to come.
What follows feels like a rather bog-standard succession of encounters among the denizens of Los Angeles mostly other transgender people until Sin Dee finally finds her fish. The problem being that while most films would use each scene to construct a comic set-piece or flesh out its characters to Tangerine they're merely stepping stones. Each new character is a chance for Sin Dee to demonstrate her obnoxiousness and Alexandra her exasperation. There are no surprises, Sin Dee finds the woman and drags her across town, stretching out suspension of disbelief in the process, before at least trying to reconcile things with Alexandra.
Alexandra's show is the tragic peak of her character. Something she's been putting considerable time and effort into an in the end is just another seedy LA bar that she had to pay to sing at. It's a small, sad performance only attended by a late Sin Dee and the fish she's literally dragged into the situation. To Tangerine's credit there's no pat moment of reconciliation, no revelatory turn that will redeem these characters of their bad behavior. This is a film about loud, rude angry people in a world where the only thing they have of value is their own bodies. It would be disingenuous to suggest some greater change or arc is going to come across two people who exist as the flotsam of an abusive industry.
The friendship between Sin Dee and Alexandra is the film's strongest quality. Two people with only each other whose loyalty is tested by Sin Dee's temper and Alexandra's aspirations. Alexandra is definitely the better characterised of the two, just as outspoken as Sin Dee and quick to anger but tempered with a desire to do better. She's past being sick of her life as a prostitute and has little time for Sin Dee's antics but is still ashamed to disappoint her.
The film also takes time out for a subplot about Razmik (Karren Karagulian), an Armenian cabdriver with an interest in Sin Dee and Alexandra, unbeknownst to his wife and child. Early scenes of Ramik picking up passengers, all with their own comic moments to experience, feel inorganic to the actions of Sin Dee and Alexandra. And while his story does eventually payoff it doesn't stop the character feeling like a distraction from the main action.
Eventually the disparate characters of Sin Dee, Alexandra, Chester and Razmik come together for a farcical showdown at a local donut shop. While the scene does bring the film to some sense of a climx there's little in the way of drama in a scene about five or so people yelling at each other. Secrets are revealed and everyone hurls verbal abuse at each other until they can no longer stand it. Funny yes, but without any kind of dramatic context to make it meaningful.
Tangerine is an exceptional film, but it's exceptional only for its courage and the circumstances which brought it about. The fact that it was shot on an iPhone certainly gives it a unique look but one devoid of the suspense, amusement or engagement we get from clever uses of cinematography and editing. I am glad that Tangerine exists and that contemporary culture is recognising transgender people as a part of our society's fabric but this is not a film I'll be returning to soon.
But to the film itself. The film is centred on Sin Dee (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) and Alexandra (Mya Taylor), two trans-women and prostitutes whose friendship is very much the emotional core of the film. Sin Dee has just finished a brief stint in jail only to discover that Chester, her boyfriend and pimp, has been cheating on her with a 'fish' (a cisgender female). So they embark on a haphazard voyage across LA to track down the fish and confront Chester. Meanwhile Alexandra is focused on singing at a local club and trying to encourage her friends to come.
What follows feels like a rather bog-standard succession of encounters among the denizens of Los Angeles mostly other transgender people until Sin Dee finally finds her fish. The problem being that while most films would use each scene to construct a comic set-piece or flesh out its characters to Tangerine they're merely stepping stones. Each new character is a chance for Sin Dee to demonstrate her obnoxiousness and Alexandra her exasperation. There are no surprises, Sin Dee finds the woman and drags her across town, stretching out suspension of disbelief in the process, before at least trying to reconcile things with Alexandra.
Alexandra's show is the tragic peak of her character. Something she's been putting considerable time and effort into an in the end is just another seedy LA bar that she had to pay to sing at. It's a small, sad performance only attended by a late Sin Dee and the fish she's literally dragged into the situation. To Tangerine's credit there's no pat moment of reconciliation, no revelatory turn that will redeem these characters of their bad behavior. This is a film about loud, rude angry people in a world where the only thing they have of value is their own bodies. It would be disingenuous to suggest some greater change or arc is going to come across two people who exist as the flotsam of an abusive industry.
The friendship between Sin Dee and Alexandra is the film's strongest quality. Two people with only each other whose loyalty is tested by Sin Dee's temper and Alexandra's aspirations. Alexandra is definitely the better characterised of the two, just as outspoken as Sin Dee and quick to anger but tempered with a desire to do better. She's past being sick of her life as a prostitute and has little time for Sin Dee's antics but is still ashamed to disappoint her.
The film also takes time out for a subplot about Razmik (Karren Karagulian), an Armenian cabdriver with an interest in Sin Dee and Alexandra, unbeknownst to his wife and child. Early scenes of Ramik picking up passengers, all with their own comic moments to experience, feel inorganic to the actions of Sin Dee and Alexandra. And while his story does eventually payoff it doesn't stop the character feeling like a distraction from the main action.
Eventually the disparate characters of Sin Dee, Alexandra, Chester and Razmik come together for a farcical showdown at a local donut shop. While the scene does bring the film to some sense of a climx there's little in the way of drama in a scene about five or so people yelling at each other. Secrets are revealed and everyone hurls verbal abuse at each other until they can no longer stand it. Funny yes, but without any kind of dramatic context to make it meaningful.
Tangerine is an exceptional film, but it's exceptional only for its courage and the circumstances which brought it about. The fact that it was shot on an iPhone certainly gives it a unique look but one devoid of the suspense, amusement or engagement we get from clever uses of cinematography and editing. I am glad that Tangerine exists and that contemporary culture is recognising transgender people as a part of our society's fabric but this is not a film I'll be returning to soon.
Saturday, 5 December 2015
The Crimson Peak of the Winter's Offerings
This is one I came to rather late which believe me I regret now. October was a rather crowded month for releases, money needed to be prioritised and honestly at the time I thought that the English-Language debut of Yorgos Lanthimos needed far more support than a heavily marketed new film from a (relatively) more established director. Well shows what I know as Crimson Peak has long-since be labelled as another of Del Toro's under-performers, even as its gross reached $72 million worldwide. A great shame because it really does stand alongside Hellboy 2 and Pan's Labyrinth as one of his best films to date.
The reason for Crimson Peak's success as a film is the same reason behind every successful genre film these days which is a knowing sense of self. Despite all the ghosts and strange apparitions this is old school, Gothic melodrama that wears its skin transparently yet 100% embraces what it it. A lavish, elaborately staged, camping-performed romance starring a host of characters that are, bizzarely, both archetypal and colourfully realised.
The films stars Mia Wasikowska, and really is there any better actor to cast as an ethereal symbol of innocence?, as Edith Cushing. Edith is the daughter of a self-made businessman from Buffalo NY and an aspiring author of Gothic melodrama. So it makes perfect sense when she falls for the ultimate Byronic heroin Tom Hiddleston's Sir Thomas Sharpe. Sharpe is Baronet with his fortune exhausted and his estate literally crumbling around him and Hiddleston's performance sells the hell out of this. He exudes both villainy and weakness, constantly being outclassed by those around him. The fact that you never really notice how much the film rushed the courtship of Edith and Thomas is a testament to the chaste chemistry the two actors possess. Their love is one of gentle companionship in contrast to what comes later.
When Edith, who is already haunted by the ghosts of family tragedy, loses her father to murder she runs away with Thomas to Allerdale Hall, his estate where the house is falling both in disrepair and being swallowed by the disused clay mines beneath it. Del Toro's set design is always a thing of art and Allerdale Hall is his masterpiece, a traditional English manor that manages to be both vast and claustrophobic. A creature alive, but visibly dying, with constantly-moving parts seen only at the fringes of it's broken husk. Each room and level is so distinct in its design that they feel like characters unto themselves. From the dank, industrial clay vats in the basement to the narrow, spiked hallways and the rotten, winding stairwell.
Allerdale is also residence to Thomas's sister Lucille, a detached creature fixated only on her brother and the grim realities of her life. Jessica Chastain has had a great run this year playing the down-to-earth rationalist among larger, more colourful characters. In Lucille though she gets to really let loose as a creature holding all her madness deep inside her. Like Annie Wilkes she is an unstable character made all the more chilling by how composed and calm she seems on the outside. When she finally does let loose it is to glorious effect, a sharp, terrifying performance that proves her more monstrous than any ghost or ghoul.
That's another thing about the film which has recurred throughout Del Toro's work and not always to positive effect. Del Toro has always been enamored of the supernatural and his films always find the true horror in everyday humans. The unfortunate result is that the more ghostly sequences, heavily featured in Crimson Peak's marketing, never really achieve the tense level of horror associated with films like The Haunting or Psycho. There are jump scares aplenty but they feel cheap and lacking in a more lingering impact. It's not so much the design of the ghosts, which admittedly are shown so explicitly that the horror soon wears thin. It's more to do with the build up of their arrival and how quickly they tranform, in true Del Toro style, from a spectre of torment to a benevolent ally.
There are other problems to be sure. It may be baggage from his Sons of Anarchy days but Charlie Hunnam really doesn't convince as a man of the 19th Century. Too much time is spent teasing him as Edith's rightful companion in what is supposed to be a feminist revision of that kind of trope. The violence is elaborate and cartoonish, which suits the film right up until the end when Edith herself is gravely injured. It may seem like a nitpick but to be able to slam her ribs into a balcony and walk away with only a sprain feels like a stretch.
Perhaps it's part of Peak's charm that it seems so vastly divorced from reality, like Del Toro's previous work Pacific Rim, it feels like a cartoon made with real actors. To the great directors credit this never lessens the experience, the sincerity one feels in the courtship of Edith and Thomas, her terror at the ghosts of Allerdale and the shock at discovering the dark secrets of Allerdale Hall resonate powerfully. The film draws from the conventions of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights but unlike it's predecessors has no time for happy resolutions. Edith won't leave Allerdale with the true man of her dreams and certainly not without the scars to prove she was there. If anything Crimson Peak is the Gothic romance you'll wish you read in school.
The reason for Crimson Peak's success as a film is the same reason behind every successful genre film these days which is a knowing sense of self. Despite all the ghosts and strange apparitions this is old school, Gothic melodrama that wears its skin transparently yet 100% embraces what it it. A lavish, elaborately staged, camping-performed romance starring a host of characters that are, bizzarely, both archetypal and colourfully realised.
The films stars Mia Wasikowska, and really is there any better actor to cast as an ethereal symbol of innocence?, as Edith Cushing. Edith is the daughter of a self-made businessman from Buffalo NY and an aspiring author of Gothic melodrama. So it makes perfect sense when she falls for the ultimate Byronic heroin Tom Hiddleston's Sir Thomas Sharpe. Sharpe is Baronet with his fortune exhausted and his estate literally crumbling around him and Hiddleston's performance sells the hell out of this. He exudes both villainy and weakness, constantly being outclassed by those around him. The fact that you never really notice how much the film rushed the courtship of Edith and Thomas is a testament to the chaste chemistry the two actors possess. Their love is one of gentle companionship in contrast to what comes later.
When Edith, who is already haunted by the ghosts of family tragedy, loses her father to murder she runs away with Thomas to Allerdale Hall, his estate where the house is falling both in disrepair and being swallowed by the disused clay mines beneath it. Del Toro's set design is always a thing of art and Allerdale Hall is his masterpiece, a traditional English manor that manages to be both vast and claustrophobic. A creature alive, but visibly dying, with constantly-moving parts seen only at the fringes of it's broken husk. Each room and level is so distinct in its design that they feel like characters unto themselves. From the dank, industrial clay vats in the basement to the narrow, spiked hallways and the rotten, winding stairwell.
Allerdale is also residence to Thomas's sister Lucille, a detached creature fixated only on her brother and the grim realities of her life. Jessica Chastain has had a great run this year playing the down-to-earth rationalist among larger, more colourful characters. In Lucille though she gets to really let loose as a creature holding all her madness deep inside her. Like Annie Wilkes she is an unstable character made all the more chilling by how composed and calm she seems on the outside. When she finally does let loose it is to glorious effect, a sharp, terrifying performance that proves her more monstrous than any ghost or ghoul.
That's another thing about the film which has recurred throughout Del Toro's work and not always to positive effect. Del Toro has always been enamored of the supernatural and his films always find the true horror in everyday humans. The unfortunate result is that the more ghostly sequences, heavily featured in Crimson Peak's marketing, never really achieve the tense level of horror associated with films like The Haunting or Psycho. There are jump scares aplenty but they feel cheap and lacking in a more lingering impact. It's not so much the design of the ghosts, which admittedly are shown so explicitly that the horror soon wears thin. It's more to do with the build up of their arrival and how quickly they tranform, in true Del Toro style, from a spectre of torment to a benevolent ally.
There are other problems to be sure. It may be baggage from his Sons of Anarchy days but Charlie Hunnam really doesn't convince as a man of the 19th Century. Too much time is spent teasing him as Edith's rightful companion in what is supposed to be a feminist revision of that kind of trope. The violence is elaborate and cartoonish, which suits the film right up until the end when Edith herself is gravely injured. It may seem like a nitpick but to be able to slam her ribs into a balcony and walk away with only a sprain feels like a stretch.
Perhaps it's part of Peak's charm that it seems so vastly divorced from reality, like Del Toro's previous work Pacific Rim, it feels like a cartoon made with real actors. To the great directors credit this never lessens the experience, the sincerity one feels in the courtship of Edith and Thomas, her terror at the ghosts of Allerdale and the shock at discovering the dark secrets of Allerdale Hall resonate powerfully. The film draws from the conventions of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights but unlike it's predecessors has no time for happy resolutions. Edith won't leave Allerdale with the true man of her dreams and certainly not without the scars to prove she was there. If anything Crimson Peak is the Gothic romance you'll wish you read in school.
Saturday, 17 October 2015
The Lobster: An Unconventional Love Story
If you can get over whatever weirdness is behind the core concept of a Yorgos Lanthimos film you’re pretty much good to go. Watching becomes easy once you wrap your head around say, three teenagers raised in complete isolation, people impersonating the dead for money or, in the case of his latest work, a hotel for single people who get turned into animals if they fail. The ‘hows’ and ‘whys’ of this bleak future are secondary to experiencing the effects of a culture which approaches something so natural with such rigidity.
The rigidity though is a big part of The Lobster’s humour. Inducting our protagonist David-Colin Farrell, still sporting his Horrible Bosses beer gut-into an environment that can’t accommodate his sexual curiosity or even his unique shoe size (44.5). For the first half of the film this is the prevailing theme; society’s ingrained tunnel vision around what does and doesn’t work as a relationship. Long term couples like the Hotel Manager-a comically stilted Olivia Coleman- and her partner are a picture of marital misery. Even couples outside of the hotel seemed to be based on arbitrary commonalities like short-sightedness and math skills. It’s all so chilly and formal that David’s early attempts at coupling are painfully awkward. In the hands of a less skilled director such moments would be a slog to watch but Lanthimos has enough of a grasp of timing to make them comedy gold.
It’s not all half-baked attempts at flirting though. The first act is broken up with several trips out to the woods to capture the ‘loners’, people unable to pair who have fled the prospect of being transformed. This is a chance for Lanthimos to stretch his artistry a little with long, slow-motion sequences of the hunt. More importantly though it’s a reminder of the fate that awaits David the longer it takes for him to find a partner. A nice, consistent reminder of his remaining days at the hotel.
The Loners become much more important in the second half of the film when it all goes south for David. In fleeing the hospital and joining the local resistance movement they essentially turn The Lobster into a sort of European Neo-realist version of Equilibrium. Of course Lanthimos is smart enough to not completely vilify the Loners. While they do offer more freedoms they also forbid pairing, require members to dig their own graves and flirting is harshly punished. It’s an apt message, that no society’s version of relationships is applicable to everyone but it didn’t really need this much time to explain. While the humour and characterisation is as sharp as ever it can’t help but drag the film’s momentum to a halt.
The real shame of this is that it doesn’t allow time to build the intimacy between David and his eventual love interest; Rachel Weisz, simply credited as Short-Sighted Woman. Their pairing is deliberately superficial and has some tender moments but it would have been nice if their relationship had been based on mutual interests and chemistry (y’know, like in the real world). To their credit though both Farrell and Weisz manage to work through the script’s knowingly decorous dialogue while communicating a strong emotional bond.
On that note the film boasts an amazing supporting cast with great comic timing. Not just Coleman and Weisz but Ben Whishaw and John C. Reilly as hotel residents; the two are equal parts frustrated and pathetic without overplaying it. Ashley Jensen feels a little ‘on-type’ as ‘Biscuit Woman’ a resident who’s a touch too desperate in her attempt to find a match. The real surprise though is Lea Sedoux as the Loner Leader, a capable and somewhat heartless figure who takes pleasure in undermining the hotel’s hollow principles.
The Lobster is utterly unlike any other film this year, save perhaps Peter Strickland’s equally oddball The Duke of Burgandy. A funny and thoughtful look into society’s strict categorisation of human relationships that falls just short of being truly great by its severe pacing problems.
It’s not all half-baked attempts at flirting though. The first act is broken up with several trips out to the woods to capture the ‘loners’, people unable to pair who have fled the prospect of being transformed. This is a chance for Lanthimos to stretch his artistry a little with long, slow-motion sequences of the hunt. More importantly though it’s a reminder of the fate that awaits David the longer it takes for him to find a partner. A nice, consistent reminder of his remaining days at the hotel.
The Loners become much more important in the second half of the film when it all goes south for David. In fleeing the hospital and joining the local resistance movement they essentially turn The Lobster into a sort of European Neo-realist version of Equilibrium. Of course Lanthimos is smart enough to not completely vilify the Loners. While they do offer more freedoms they also forbid pairing, require members to dig their own graves and flirting is harshly punished. It’s an apt message, that no society’s version of relationships is applicable to everyone but it didn’t really need this much time to explain. While the humour and characterisation is as sharp as ever it can’t help but drag the film’s momentum to a halt.
The real shame of this is that it doesn’t allow time to build the intimacy between David and his eventual love interest; Rachel Weisz, simply credited as Short-Sighted Woman. Their pairing is deliberately superficial and has some tender moments but it would have been nice if their relationship had been based on mutual interests and chemistry (y’know, like in the real world). To their credit though both Farrell and Weisz manage to work through the script’s knowingly decorous dialogue while communicating a strong emotional bond.
On that note the film boasts an amazing supporting cast with great comic timing. Not just Coleman and Weisz but Ben Whishaw and John C. Reilly as hotel residents; the two are equal parts frustrated and pathetic without overplaying it. Ashley Jensen feels a little ‘on-type’ as ‘Biscuit Woman’ a resident who’s a touch too desperate in her attempt to find a match. The real surprise though is Lea Sedoux as the Loner Leader, a capable and somewhat heartless figure who takes pleasure in undermining the hotel’s hollow principles.
The Lobster is utterly unlike any other film this year, save perhaps Peter Strickland’s equally oddball The Duke of Burgandy. A funny and thoughtful look into society’s strict categorisation of human relationships that falls just short of being truly great by its severe pacing problems.
Saturday, 23 May 2015
Far From the Madding Crowd: Review
Far From the Madding Crowd is almost a perfect example of the Period genre's pornographic sensibilities. It's an idyllic recreation of rural Wessex in the 1800s. The springs are all lush, sun-soaked fields, the winters all virginal white hills. Carey Mulligan is positively radiant as the worlds cleanest farm owner. And as usual the costume and set design are done to near perfection. All of which serves to make the whole endeavour feel just a little bit unreal,undercutting much of the drama and character relationship.
At the time the hiring of The Hunt director Thomas Vinterberg, co-founder of Dogme '95, must have seemed like a radical choice for an adaptation of a Thomas Hardy novel. Which makes it sad then that the result is so conventional. A well-acted, beautifully shot work that look just too nice to feel authentic and a stark contrast to the 1967 version.
The good news is that the nuts and bolts of Hardy's classic novel are still intact. In Mulligan's hands Bathsheba Everdene is a much more tempered creature. Still independent and defiant but more out of uncertainty than the belief that she don't need no man. It even comes across subtly in scenes in which her strength is called upon. When she takes control of Everdene farm her doubt can be heard in Mulligan's voice and yet when she declares her intention 'to astound you all.' she really means it.
As inciting incidents go it really says something when a film can convey utter horror and tragedy at the death of a flock of sheep as befalls Bathsheba's first suitor Gabriel Oak (Matthias Schoenaerts). With smouldering eyes Oak is a decent man but also one coloured by the conventions of the time, thinking he can woo Bathsheba with the promise of comfort and a good income. When he receives his humbling at the death of his livelihood Schoenaerts really sells his sad frustration becomes a picture of nobility in poverty.
Suitor number two comes in the form of wealthy widower William Boldwood (Michael Sheen). This is a role that would seem every bit as arrogant as Oak in the hands of a lesser actor but Sheen vrings real vulnerability to the role. Of all Bathsheba's suitors his is the most sympathetic with an earnestness to his desire to protect her.
Suitor number three is Tom Sturridge's powerhouse of testosterone Sargent Troy. A soldier who manages to woo Bathsheba into a foolish marriage of passion with his fancy swordsmanship (no, not a euphemism). He is perhaps the weakest of the three but speaks to the folly that exists within Bathsheba despite all her resolve.
The conflict between these three men is mostly understated but builds to an intense climax. Mulligan all the while seems to constantly be ruminating on the nature of love and marriage. Having succumbed to her heart with Troy and wishing to follow her head with Boldwood. All the while building a fond friendship with Oak. By the end you see the relationship which has the most value because it has been built over the years not won with money or showmanship.
This for me is what separates Bathsheba from the likes of Lizzy Bennett and Jane Eyre who seem to be simply waiting for circumstances to permit them to marry. Bathsheba on the other hand genuinely develops a strong friendship with her eventual partner. She's not waiting for equality of position (indeed she is of higher status than him for most of the film) but instead equality of affection.
It's a shame then that such timeless storytelling have to live with such a clean, flat production. Everything's been lovingly crafted to perfection but in such a way that leaves the film feeling passionless. Britain still loves it's Period Porn, if we can call it that, but the genre is so overdone that it's in desperate need of a shake-up. This unfortunately isn't it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)