Film Cell

Reviews, musings and snapshots of Film Culture

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10 Best Films of 2016 (Part 2)

The second half of my top 10 picks for the films you have to have watched over the last year.  Check out part one here.

Room

Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay captivate in a difficult but ultimately uplifting tale of transition from an enforced capsule world to modern society with all its thrills, distractions and complications. Joy (Larson) is kidnapped and taken from her home at the age of 17, forced to live in the shed of her captor and tormentor for 7 years.  Two years in to the ordeal she gives birth to the offspring of her violation, a boy named Jack (Tremblay).  She raises Jack within her cell but crafts a world of adventure and mystery as a coping mechanism for the boy, a world she has to then tear down in order to escape and build a future for them both.  It’s beautiful and emotional storytelling, a tale of brave and transformative love in the face of adversity.

The Witch

A muddy, confusing swamp of a film that clings and seeps through your conscience in all the ways it needs to.  It received some ire from filmgoers for not being The Conjuring, a film it was never intended to be, but an open mind will be justly rewarded… and unsettled.  A superstitious family isolated in 1630s New England are torn apart by witchcraft, black magic and possession.  Or are they? The uncertainty between reality and fiction, fear and danger, mind and matter – is at the centre of the unravelling. Scary stuff.

The Neon Demon

If ever a film could be accused of being style over substance, it’s Nicolas Winding Refn’s The Neon Demon – and that’s saying something, coming from the director of Only God Forgives.  Elle Fanning stars as an aspiring model who moves to Los Angeles and is devoured by its intoxicating world of dangerous aestheticism as their otherworldly beauty hints at something even more dangerous and supernatural.  It’s one of the most visually powerful films I’ve ever seen and even in its weaker moments it has impact – an excess of visual splendour and a dark wit to boot.  Just look at that trailer.  LOOK AT IT.

The Big Short

Many people say the housing market crashed because it was a problem too boring for most of us to bother try and understand.  The Big Short aims to rectify that as the director of Anchorman takes on the world of high-finance banking, the credit and housing bubble collapse, and the reason the world has landed in its current unstable market position. A few friends jump in to help create a rock and roll ride that’s as entertaining as it is enlightening, they include: Ryan Gosling, Christian Bale, Steve Carell, brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Selena Gomez, Karen Gillian.  There are holes – but it’ll leave you angry and hungry to learn more.

Revenant

Thoroughly engrossing, exhausting and terrifying – a study in pain for 2 hours 36 mins.  Though to limit its understanding at this would be to deny its beauty and scope, and there’s something to be said for the trial of man’s fortitude and his ability to go beyond mortal ability for his own sense of justice.  A frontiersman (hello Leo, nice Oscar) experiences horrific savagery from both the untamed wilds and its inhabitants, betrayed by his own and left for dead he claws his way back on to a journey of brutal revenge.  Alejandro G. Inarritu’s intimate and unflinching style creates such a degree of heightened reality that you’ll be shaking long after the credits roll. Relentless and unmissable.

Part 2/2 

[filmcell]

10 Best Films of 2016 (Part 1)

So we reach the end of 2016 and look back across everything we managed to miss while pre-occupied that the world was about to end.  The signature disclaimer should be made that I actually missed a few films that I really wanted to see, so Son of Saul won’t be making an appearance despite the fact it received stellar reviews across the board.  Sorry.

These are the ten that made the most impact for me across the year (split in to two parts as Tumblr has now limited the number of videos).

American Honey

A heady and atmospheric dive in to sweet Americana and youth’s urges – following a young girl (Sasha Lane) who runs from her troubled home to join a travelling sales crew, peddling magazine subscriptions across Midwest USA.  Finding her feet in the buzzing but dangerous social bubble of the touring group is half the battle as she fights and finds her way despite many challenges.  Shia LaBeouf prominently stars (no wait, come back) in one of the finest performances of his career.

Kubo and the Two Strings

A sublimely animated fantasy feature, a rare treat in the form of stop-motion and voiced by a stellar cast including Charlize Theron, Matthew McConaughey, Rooney Mara and Ralph Fiennes.  A fairy-tale of sorts leaning heavily on the stylings of the orient – a young boy frustrated by the trappings of his life accidentally summons vengeful spirits from his past that set him back on course for a cruel fate. He joins forces with a beetle, a monkey and battles across more mythical moments to save his family.  It looks gorgeous but it’s also full of heart, I didn’t even include it in my picks for its busy month of release but it beat them all for impact and lingers long in the memory.

Your Name

The highest grossing Japanese film of the year (the first to break the top 10 since Studio Ghibli’s domination), this animated romance drama is wrapped in mystery and charm that’s sure to bedazzle and beguile. Starting off with a basic body-swap premise, a girl and boy exchange bodies without much control.  They try to leave each other messages and guidelines as they learn more about their situation, in a typical cute coming-of-age way – and the film expands and becomes more fantastical from there, realising itself as so much more.  It’s exceptionally beautiful in both looks and themes and left the majority of the audience in tears.  Bring tissues.

Civil War

There are more than 10 films better than this – heck, the other Marvel release Doctor Strange is better than this – but I enjoyed it so much it had to find a place.  Captain America and Iron Man go head-to-head over the accountability of their actions and their role alongside or separate from governmental control.  The cinematic equivalent of throwing all your toys in the same box and smashing them against each other, there’s a base level thrill that’s unmatched by many of its betters.  There’s a worrying shift in the latest superhero films in that they work better once you add your own understanding and outside contexts on top but Civil War stands as immediately more rewarding and consistent than other efforts.  Here’s looking at you, Batman.  

Arrival

A sci-fi mystery dealing with first contact, Arrival doesn’t arrive guns blazing but instead crafts a different tale of communication, language and family.  As 12 ships land on Earth in different locations – scientists, soldiers and everyone in between (including Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner) scramble to unravel their intention before someone shoots first.  The real joy of the film is the spin of its reveal but there are rewards in unlocking the puzzles of their language too and the interplay of each country’s reactive process.  It’s touching and intimate, as far from that other Goldblum led disaster piece as you can get without the benefit of light speed, worthy of your time and attention with a message of hope to take home.  And we all need a bit of that, right?

Part 1/2 - Read Part 2/2

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5 Films To Watch in September 2016

A rich month with many fine films to choose from, I select a few of the most promising.

Cafe Society

2nd September

A Woody Allen film idealising 30s Hollywood from the viewpoint of a young Manhattan Jew, who’d have thought?  Breezy with an easy charm, dashed with frequent flashes of wit.  It’s interesting enough just watching Jesse Eisenberg pull a two hour Allen impression but a strong turn from Kristen Stewart completes it.

Captain Fantastic

9th September

Looking like one of those beautiful family films with an off-kilter heart of gold - a father who raises his children in a paradise of discovery and learning has to test his ideals against a reality that fights against him.  Early looks are really promising with a strong support cast assisting leading man Viggo Mortensen who rarely puts a career step wrong.  Expect tears, smiles and life lessons.

Don’t Breathe

9th September

Delightfully playful with scenes that look genuinely terrifying as they play with our perceptions and senses.  ‘One last job’ goes wrong as a crew choose the wrong house and find themselves victim of a blind serial killer.  Expect an absurd thrill-ride with plenty of jumps and scares.

Magnificent Seven

September 23rd

A remake gets a remake, does it say something of the Hollywood process that we can’t imagine anyone standing for a revisiting of the seminal inspiration Seven Samurai?  A brilliant ensemble cast led by man of the hour Chris Pine and man of yester-hour Denzel Washington makes me think this may justify itself.  With steady hand Antoine Fuqua at the helm, lets hope we get the Training Day and Southpaw side of his talent set and less of Olympus Has Fallen.

Free State of Jones

30th September

Always game for a historical epic, I’m really hoping we see an extended McConaughey-ssance.  Ripping up the history of the Civil War, he plays a Confederate army deserter who rises to lead a band of outcasts against corrupt oppressors.  The visuals look gorgeous, here’s hoping the potentially heavy-handed moral theatrics run true.

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Room

Film Review

Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay captivate in a difficult but ultimately uplifting tale of transition from an enforced capsule world to modern society with all its thrills, distractions and complications.

“When I was four, I only knew small things.  Now I’m 5, I know everything.”

Joy (Larson) is kidnapped and taken from her home at the age of 17, forced to live in the shed of her captor and tormentor for 7 years.  Two years in to the ordeal she gives birth to the offspring of her violation, a boy named Jack (Tremblay).  

She raises Jack within her cell but crafts a world of adventure and mystery as a coping mechanism for the boy, a world she has to then tear down in order to escape and build a future for them both.

Central to the film’s power is the relationship within this family dynamic, frequently melting with overwhelming love and compassion before hurtling in to the inevitable contradiction inherent to their position.  

It starts from the first frames, as Joy pours affection in to building up the very thing she loathes. Room is both her home and torment, a safety blanket for Jack and an eternal reminder of her own status as a victim. It’s unfair and yet necessary, adorable and wrenching.

Their waking hours are led by ritual.  They say hello to the lamp and plant in the morning, make meals from scraps and largely entertain themselves.   We see a lot of the world through Jack’s eyes and he leads us through it with all the confidence of a boy who thinks he has seen it all, as within his confines he pretty much has.  The language is simple, bullish certainty burdened by misunderstanding.

“Plant is real but not trees.  Mountains are too big to be real.”

Unfortunately for the two breaking free is just the next step of their struggle, family interactions are careful but testy and acclimatising is difficult for both mother and son.

It’s to the credit of Emma Donoghue’s writing and Lenny Abrahamson’s story craft that a delicate and difficult subject matter is handled with such deftness.  It’s uplifting, heartfelt and aspirational – assuredly looking forwards with hope instead of dwelling on the voyeuristic, nasty and exploitative nature of the crime.

Room is beautiful and emotional storytelling, a tale of brave and transformative power in the face of adversity.  The sobbing crowd across my showing of the film can attest to that too.

[filmcell]

10 Best Films of 2015

Another Best Of list to finish the year!  This comes with all the qualifiers of my 10 Best Films of 2014 list, but I crammed in Birdman as I was annoyed I couldn’t include it last year.  I’ve tried to strip out films that felt broadly similar in experience and theme so there should be something in there for most people!

Let me know if I’ve missed your favourite off the list... in no particular order:

Mad Max: Fury Road

"A high-octane beast of an action movie, furiously driven to an unrelenting and urgent beat - resetting the bar for quality in a stale genre while dripping with invention and mad design."  Full thoughts here - enjoy one of the most exhilarating cinematic experiences out there.

Watch the trailer - Available to rent and buy

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night

If you only watch one Iranian Feminist Vampire Western this year, make it this one.  Dripping with style and blood it boasts an effortlessly on trend soundtrack, an involving romance and looks beautiful shot in monochrome.

Watch the trailer - Available to rent and buy

Mistress America

“Fans of Frances Ha have a lot to like here and Baumbach frequently appears to be at the height of his powers when working with his muse.  New York gets another love story and we get one of the smartest comedies of the year.”  Full thoughts here, I adored this screwball/farce cine-blend.  A sharp and self-aware script, any pretense is cast off with charm and warmth.

Watch the trailer - Available to rent and buy

Carol

Gorgeously shot with endearing and engaging central performances from Rooney Mara and Cate Blanchett, a heartfelt human drama wrapped in a hazy New York daydream without a single misstep.

Watch the trailer - Still in cinemas

It Follows

“It Follows is a polished gem of a genre film, knowingly tipping its hat to the great while crafting something unique and exhilarating.   A sly social commentary on the obvious themes without the judgement of a morality tale and it builds key moments with likable and believable characters that suck you in.”  Full thoughts here - Maika Monroe appears for two years in a row in my Best Of film lists and we’re introduced to a new horror auteur in David Robert Mitchell.

Watch the trailer - Available to rent and buy

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

What can I say?  Apparently nothing without spoiling it for somebody... so I will say: I went from indifferent to euphoria thanks to the hype train and the film entirely stood up to lofty expectations.  An exemplary production along the blockbuster blueprint the first film created so many years ago in a galaxy not so far away.  I can’t wait to see more.

Watch the trailer - Still in cinemas and may well be forever

Steve Jobs

A controversial selection I’m sure as Danny Boyle’s definitely-not-a-biopic drew its fair share of criticism... but Fassbender’s engaging turn as the Apple leader couples with a classic rapier sharp script made for an arresting take on themes of genius, sacrifice and obsession.

Watch the trailer - Pre-Order

Birdman

Otherwise known as Michael Keaton’s resurgence, Alejandro Inarritu crafted an involved and cinematic visual style while weaving together his cautionary tale of fame and art.  Long and impressive unbroken takes followed characters from stage front to back street while giving space for his actors the space to really let loose.  Little bit of meta play helps too.

Watch the trailer - Available to rent or buy

Ex Machina

Alex Garland transitions from being one of England’s most interesting writers to becoming one of its most visionary directors with an astoundingly confident and imaginative debut.  Domhall Gleeson, Oscar Isaac and Alicia Vikander hold the humanist heart of the sci-fi drama together and keep you guessing at every turn as they explore the boundaries of A.I and control.

Watch the trailer - Available to rent or buy

Crimson Peak

“Above all else it’s a darkly enchanting film with the modern violence and terror being a natural extension of its gothic horror roots instead of a desire to reinvent and bring new frights to the screen.  A new classic and one of Guillermo’s finest."  Full thoughts here.

Watch the trailer - Pre-Order

Honourable mentions go to: Amy, Slow West, Inside Out, Macbeth, The Martian, Bridge of Spies, Ant Man and Avengers: Age of Ultron

[filmcell]

Crimson Peak

Review

“It’s not a ghost story, it’s a story with ghosts in it.  The ghosts are just a metaphor”

So says Mia Wasikowska’s Edith Cushing in a purposeful line that won’t be championed by the marketing department any time soon, but is central to the film’s Gothic Romance ethos.  Like Pan’s Labyrinth, Guillermo Del Toro’s monsters do more than go bump in the dark.

Edith is an independent would-be writer (receiving Jane Austen comparisons as a slight, she fires back with Mary Shelley) constrained by the gender politics of the time and her father, a proud self-made industrialist.  She’s whisked away by the devilishly handsome and charming baronet Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston) who appreciates her talents and spirit, and whose intentions are doubted due to his original intent being her family’s wealth...

Spirited back to England and the fading fortunes of the Sharpe family’s Allerdale Hall she discovers more about the tortured past of the decaying mansion and her husband’s close relationship with his sister Lucille (Jessica Chastain).  But Edith has always been haunted and her mother returns from death to warn her of Crimson Peak...

“Ghosts are real.  This much I know...”

The first accolades have to go to the costume, design and painstakingly detail lavished on every frame of the feature.

Swirling scarlet silks contrast hard against subtle snow drifts cascading from the rotten open roof of the dark ebony castle, a living portrait in each shot.   Vibrant colours more commonly found within a Hammer or Argento film lend it an otherworldly quality that’s not quite beautiful but ferociously evocative.  

The deep crimson of the clay seeps from the floorboards and walls of the mansion, leaking in to the footprints of those that tresspass upon it - leaving their impressions on the landscape to linger a little longer than desired.

It’s almost distracting how the aggressive visual elements frequently threaten to overwhelm the details of the plot and script, which leans a little too closely to the hammy nature of Pacific Rim over his more nuanced works.  However the theme of work, built on many of years of genre tradition, carry us on through.

“Love makes monsters of us all”

The principle characters are delightfully built around their archetypes (waifish and spirited innocence; tall, dark, mysterious charm; cold and hostile beauty) and the cast dance in the moral ambivalence of the Victorian melodrama.  Tom Hiddleston and Jessica Chastain are a particular delight as the sinister Sharpe siblings, clearly reveling in their love of the source material and its inspirations.

Dangerous sexuality offsets restricted societal norms and the past literally claws at the future, leaving us uncertain and at the mercy of the twisted fairytale.  As the director lovingly guides us through the tropes and few truly surprise there’s still enough grey areas to embolden their interplay and hold interest in their perverse motivations and fates.

As a horror film it’s not particularly scary with cgi creatures preferred over the more physical beasts of Pan’s Labyrinth, although there were winces and chills in my audience screening - but by the end you realise it’s beside the point.  

Above all else it’s a darkly enchanting film with the modern violence and terror being a natural extension of its gothic horror roots instead of a desire to reinvent and bring new frights to the screen.  A new classic and one of Guillermo’s finest.

[filmcell]

5 Films To See This October

October 2015

Five films set to hit cinemas this month… which will you be watching?

The Martian - OUT NOW

OK so this one technically came out 30th September but it should be right at the top of your list, especially if you’re looking for distractions this weekend.   It’s optimistic and feel good without being shmaltzy, pretty much everyone is very likeable and its pragmatic approach to storytelling is helps undo the ill will from the more existential Prometheus (which I actually enjoyed, for all its flaws).

Crimson Peak - 16th October

A lavishly gothic Victorian chiller of a love story starring Tom Hiddleston, Mia Wasikowska and Jessica Chastain.  Three actors I adore, directed by one of the most talented and imaginative fantasy directors around in Guillermo Del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy).  Could be hammy, most definitely will be beautiful.

The Lobster - 16th October

Arriving with no fanfare at all, this quirky oddity from the director of the bizarre and slightly unsettling Dogtooth enjoys a rich cast including Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, Lea Seydoux and Olivia Colman to name a few.  It looks offbeat, curious and possibly hilarious version of Spike Jonze’s Her.

Beasts Of No Nation - 16th October

A dark and harrowing tale of a young African child forced to join a band of mercenary fighters and transform in to a young child soldier, with a strong looking performance from Idris Elba.  Directed by True Detective’s Cary Fukunaga (also did Jane Eyre) and a Netflix film, so you don’t even need to leave the house!

Spectre - 23rd October

Bond.  James Bond.

[filmcell]

4 Wes Craven Films That Defined Horror

Wes Craven wrote a LOT and when you create so much you can expect more than a few duds... but he also defined the horror genre for a lot of fans and created some true classics that will long be remembered (the sign of which is that they’re all being remade).  His imagination was seemingly infinite and these were his most memorable.

Scream 

Bringing the horror genre screaming in to the mainstream with a pop culture playbook and self referential stylings - Scream's smart script and play on tropes (even as it created its very own) makes it an important milestone in slasher cinema. What's your favourite scary movie? 

Watch the trailer

Nightmare on Elm Street 

The first of Wes Craven's lucrative franchises and one of the most popular mythos in all of horror, it gave birth to Robert Englund's Freddy Krueger. A gruesome and terrifying serial killer that stalks his prey in their sleep making it an inescapable fate and literally the stuff of nightmares. One, two, Freddy's coming for you... 

Watch the trailer

The Hills Have Eyes 

Another shocker with more of a B movie flair, a family campervan breaks down in exactly the wrong area of rural America and the local mutant savages descend from the hills to terrorise and torture. Wes originally wanted to stretch the film even further but after originally planning to kill the family's baby the cast threatened to mutiny and a more hopeful ending was introduced. A survivalist narrative against the atomic fear. 

Watch the trailer

Last House On The Left 

Vile, disturbing and nasty revenge fantasy with a definite trigger warning, this is not for the faint hearted. A seminal film in shock cinema with a deserving reputation for it, Last House on the Left pushed as many boundaries as it could back in 1972. Two teenage girls are kidnapped on the way to a rock concert by a group of convicts who rape, brutalise and murder them. Unknowingly, they stay overnight in one of the kids' parents' homes and as one of the daughter miraculously makes it back alive the family have their revenge.  I found this a very difficult watch...

Watch the trailer

[filmcell]

5 Netflix Films You Have To See

28th August 

The Babadook 

 A horror film that's more than just jump scares, The Babadook will chill you to the bone and linger in the mind long after. A frightening boogeyman story that combines pedophobia, anxiety and depression in to an unnerving fable centred on a children's book.  For bonus points for cineliterate types, try watching the short film it’s based on afterwards.

Watch the trailer

Frank 

Michael Fassbender in an unrecognisable role that somehow allows him to steal the show despite wearing a giant comic head for the film. A smart and darkly comic look at identity and counterculture - as Domhnall Gleeson becomes infatuated with an alternative rock group and the personalities within, attempting to steer them from his roadie position to a more successful and profitable future. Obviously, it's a bumpy ride. 

Watch the trailer

Dallas Buyers Club 

Matthew McConaughey's Oscar winning role as a rancher and cowboy who fights against the antiquated and restrictive health system to deliver medication to AIDS patients after he contracts the virus himself. Always gripping, the true story of Ron Woodroof pulls apart stereotypes as his ignorance is swept aside through experience. 

Watch the trailer

Jack Reacher 

Another Tom Cruise film from director Christopher McQuarrie (Edge of Tomorrow, Mission Impossible 5) who knows how to get the most from his star. This time one of cinema's most charismatic screen presences plays a former military man who has to solve a case that isn't as straight forward as it first seems. A story with plenty of twists and turns spread through explosive action sequences and a strong sense of style. 

Watch the trailer

Wreck It Ralph 

After dropping off many radars for the sheer audacity of not being a Pixar film, Wreck It Ralph turned out to be an absolute joy. Stacked full of references to games culture young and old - it has a heart of gold, a cute line about being different and a slick sense of humour too.

Watch the trailer

[filmcell]

Mistress America

Film review

Noam Baumbach and Greta Gerwig's latest collaboration tears through an idealist New York straight from the neurosis of Woody Allen by way of Lena Dunham's Girls - as it jumps from smart screwball comedy to awkward stilted farce, endearing and hilarious at every step.

Upcomer Lola Kirke stars as Tracy, an undergraduate aspiring-writer who struggles to connect with her course and coursemates:

 "You know the feeling of being at a party where you don't know anybody?  College is like that.  The whole time."

 Her openness to the academic dream quickly fading, she reaches out to future sister-in-law Brooke (Greta Gerwig) whose confident and charismatic dynamism helps her discover the New York she pines for.  The city that only exists in Andy Warhol spotlights and lomogrophy portfolios.  Brooke is at once everything and nothing, as Tracy falls for the former and slowly realises the latter.

The whirlwind escapades take us from loft parties, backstage tours, start-up meetings and artisan dining as Brooke crashes through a hipster’s instagram profile on film.  Concepts and commitments being interchangeable, the next big adventure is a restaurant that's also a shop, that's also a cooking school, that's also a hairdressers.  So far, so farce.

Carried along in the wake of Brooke's ambition and stuck somewhere between new age intern and lovesick puppy, eventually Tracy alienates those around her too as her imitation of her muse's swagger creates collateral damage.  Her innocence replaced by something colder before being torn down... by the end, all are flawed and equal in the eyes of this nonchalant judgement.

 "There's no cheating when you're eighteen.  You should all be touching each other, all the time."

The script is wickedly smart, packed with empty soundbite lessons burying half-truths alongside infinitely quotable declarations.  It tears down as much as it builds, often embarrassed by its own ambition.  

The pace of the delivery is both fiendishly quick and uproariously stilted and studious, with a purposefully awkward cadence sitting somewhere around Aaron Sorkin penning a Wes Anderson feature.  "The Westest Wing; and other such stories".

It's a peculiar and warming pattern as Tracy struggles to emulate her peers and icons - crafting a lyrical narration across the story that doesn't quite fit, yet certainly works. A noted reflection of her ambition stretching too far without jarring.

There’s comedy in this artificial structure through which you can see the string being pulled - which adds to the fraying edges of their half baked personas.

 "I am just in love with everything but can't figure out how to make myself work in the world."

Fans of Frances Ha have a lot to like here and Baumbach frequently appears to be at the height of his powers when working with his muse.  New York gets another love story and we get one of the smartest comedies of the year.

[filmcell]

Ant Man

Film Review

Ant-Man is a clear Paul Rudd vehicle in the way it embodies all the qualities that set him up as America’s nice-guy: it’s sweet, likeable, effortless and giving.  It’s the funniest Marvel film and the smallest, in scope as well as the size of our diminutive hero, giving an intimate and family friendly angle in to the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe).

Paul Rudd plays Scott Lang, an ex-con with a heart of gold who’s roped in to pull off that one last heist. Michael Douglas’ Hank Pym is a retired Ant-Man and a recluse who lost his own company and walled himself within his own household to keep his heroic science a secret, his hidden wealth setting him up as an easy target for aspiring cat burglars (not robbers, as the film is keen to stress).

The tables turn of course as Hank convinces Scott to help him bring down his old company who stole the Ant-Man research to build their own weapons of tiny destruction.  Both of their stories are centred around disconnections with their daughters with obstacles to overcome (physically and emotionally, obviously) and relationships to rekindle.

Marvel comics generally come under three headings: flagship titles, crossover events and side events. The flagship titles are the big sellers, the main characters at the centre of whatever comprises the current universe or those who have proven standalone best sellers.  The crossover events are created for publicity and any opportunities for jumping on points, they usually deal with cosmic scheming, world saving, universe resetting activities and try (with mixed success) to pull everyone together for a single narrative push.

Then you have the side events.  Away from the watchful eye of the executive overlords more interested in bending your subject matter within the confines of a two year event arc, the more independent creators are left to play with ideas, concepts and reflections.  Often more intimate, always more interesting – they’re self-aware and referential with more human qualities.  Guess where Ant-Man finds itself?

Less concerned with melodrama and mythos, Ant-Man flourishes in the little moments of humour and self-aware fantasy play.  It’s a wonder you suspend disbelief at all with squadrons of flying ants launched in perfect formation and invisible punch-ups with guards courtesy of minute man-to-ant combat, all of course climaxing with a much marketed showdown on Thomas the Tank Engine.  How could such an absurd power stand toe-to-toe with the big hitters?  But you stick with it.  And it clicks. It works because Ant-Man is at all times trying to enjoy itself.

The result of 11 years of plans that ultimately saw the ejection of its chief collaborators Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish, fan reaction was always going to be stacked against the new team led by Yes Man’s Peyton Reed.  It’s to the film’s credit that with some bravado and charm it has so far managed to totally win over its sceptical audience.

Marvel films are defined by their punchlines and as the most conventionally comedic of the series so far, Ant Man is certainly no exception.  Scott Lang is a sarcastic, playfully heroic sort while Hank Pym’s straight man provides the perfect comedic foil to bounce off.  Failed training montages segue in to winks and nods to the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe (“First thing we need to do, we have to call the Avengers”), with very direct threads provoking wide grins and rewarding those aware of the complete picture.  A tussle with an Avenger was a particular highlight.

Standout support performances from Michael Pena, Corey Stoll and Evangeline Lily’s Hope all help shape the feel of the film and those infamous after credits scenes help set up a brand new super hero tied in to the Ant-Man legend and allude to the Civil War to come.

Ant-Man presents a twist to a familiar formula and a welcome tangent to the usual tone.  There’s definitely room within a crowded line-up for this tiny hero…

[filmcell]

Amy

Film Review

Asif Kapadia’s Amy is a sympathetic tragedy tale – a tall glass filled with success, hope and despair that has you screaming at the screen for an impossible twist and happy ending until the credits roll and the house lights lift to reveal the tears on your neighbour’s cheeks.

It’s difficult to tell if the narrative began with the person or the music, so firmly are they intertwined – but I feel it may be the latter.  Each lingering lyric and melancholic note hits with the force of a sledgehammer as their true contexts are brought forward.  Amy always sang from the heart and the canvas is painted vividly as they serve perfect punctuations throughout her life.

Back to Black never sounded so desperate as when led through by her own tale of abandonment and crashing despair.  Rehab props a poignant note as a close friend laments a chance to pull Amy from the tracks that led over the cliff edge. Would the music have survived?  A balance between creative empowerment and personal safety they ultimately lost.  The victories in her craft damning swiftly her in the same beat.

Much has been made of Mitch’s villainy and his anger at the film’s depiction of his presence in her life - but he isn’t show as cruel, merely ignorant and uncaring.  He didn’t create Amy’s situation, he just didn’t help it. His true crime is his passive acceptance of her damnation and he’s more unsympathetic than hateful.  An enabling industry that required her to be dancing that knife-edge wears the role more suitably.

Amy herself comes across with warmth, wit, good humour and vulnerability.  We get to know the human behind the headline – from a 14 year old singing Happy Birthday to her best friend to a desperate and isolated character lost on stage.  Totally alone yet among tens of thousands who focus their sole attention on her.  

Moments of weakness are pitched as sympathetic and unfortunate – pleas for help over ridicule and the consequences of which should guide our attitudes over the next celebrity victimisation plastered on billboards for our attention.

The insecure and self-destructive have always been cast with a romanticised light and nowhere are the conflictions of undeniable talent, tortured souls, painful reflections and spiraling fatal addictions interwoven as deftly.

In contrast to Senna’s hero worship at the altar of motorsport, daredevilry and thrill-seeking – Amy is more pained - both a giddy celebration of her success and a sombre reflection of the moments that hit directly before and after.  A summation of what we ask from our fractured idols.

Both paint stories that ended too soon and whose third acts were scripted by their situations.  Senna pushed the limits of a dangerous living and paid the price in a blaze of glory – a glorious death of sorts that was seen as an unfortunate part of the deal.  In a very different way, Amy’s destiny is similar – the pains of the artist, the very same demons that gave her a dagger to cut to our very souls ultimately proved more harm than good.

Kapadia does not paint a rosy picture of drug addiction, bulimia, alcoholism and ill love. The press are painted as devils and their incessant hounding of Amy in her most vulnerable moments raises a fury few other cinematic experiences have.  It’s a difficult watch – but one that nourishes our understanding.

In a better world, Amy would inspire the same retaliation against gutter press and the victimisation of our artists that Blackfish did for sealife treatment in captivity.  in all likelihood, we’ll begin the vicious circle again.

[filmcell]

Jurassic World

Film Review

The Jurassic park franchise is a smart and experienced creature.  Like many caged beasts it has grown wary and maddened after years of being poked and prodded for others amusement but it knows at all times what it is.  Even if it isn’t what it once was.

It longs for what once was.  When it was new and fresh, when audiences were spellbound by movie magic and the fact it even existed at all was a marvel and a wonder.  

The beast that remains used to be cynical and wary of invasive technology and corporate power.  It cheered and snickered when cars broke down, rolled its eyes as screens flickered and noted sagely that nature cannot be tamed, that the feral reptiles refused to move to the Park's schedule, that life finds a way.  

Now it’s resigned itself to a world overrun by techbro culture.  It has its own Social Technicians and Viral Behaviourists.  InGen’s CEO is basically a superhero and we’re definitely not reaching too far but luckily there’s that age old enemy to gun for: the military.

Reluctantly it gives us what it thinks we want - the wild is tamed, the feral is featured - little cute monsters wear harnesses as toddlers ride them for their parents’ digital vanity.  

“It’ll make the one I’ve got down in Kenya look like a petting zoo!” - sorry Hammond, life funds a way.  The T-Rex now appears on command.  The raptors don’t test the cages.  Although how safe is a mosasaurus that jumps that high?

Do you remember how good JP used to be?  The franchise beast does.  Every beat is some lingering memory, a half snatched moment.  Oh, remember how great this car was?  How about these crazy goggles?  Quick find another reason to play the theme tune.  Its forlorn loveletter to the past is an admission of defeat before the playing really begins, an underdeveloped sense of identity and a resoundingly sad note about the nature of the game itself.

But - it’s wily.  It has a few tricks and they have nothing to do with shock and awe.  No feathers?  Frog DNA.  Loose end = tied.  It has charm too - so much that it seeps through the cracks of the creature’s hide and masks the wear.

The Jurassic Park creature of then was an alpha of the moment - the Jurassic World beast we have today is a beta of the NOW.  It’s an example that we may never hit those heady heights again because we’ve moved too far.  There’s nothing left to discover and invention is destined to disappoint.  Maybe it’s as good as we’ll get.  

“No one’s impressed by dinosaurs anymore”.  What’s left is an oddity, a thrilling lamentation.  Half showpiece - half museum.

[filmcell]

Mad Max: Fury Road

Film Review

A high-octane beast of an action movie, furiously driven to an unrelenting and urgent beat - resetting the bar for quality in a stale genre while dripping with invention and mad design.

Mad Max: Fury Road takes place in a rebooted apocalyptic world not wholly dissimilar to the previous trilogy but also not beholden to them - Tom Hardy’s Max is firmly its own beast while delivering nods to the iconic moments and items that defined Mel Gibson’s tenure.  This is the jumping on point.

At sometime after the nuclear apocalypse, in a desert hellscape somewhere on the planet, in a world of non-specifics: a citadel of psychotic warboys is ruled over by Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne).  A tyrant who holds his people to ransom by controlling the water supply, creating a cult of idealised death by giving them nothing to live for.  Charlize Theron’s Imperator Furiosa, the thematic and narrative drive of the film, begins the revolution by smuggling away the warlord ruler’s wives under the guise of a fuel run and making the start of a hellish and frantic dash for safety.

This dash and resulting chase is what defines the film and the finesse and verve in which it’s delivered is frequently overwhelming, rewarding and one of the standout experiences of the year.  And experience is the right word - for Mad Max is something to live through and survive - exhausting in the best possible way.  This is 12 rounds in the ring and winning, a far cry from Michael Bay’s equally exhausting journeys that feel like a slog through an extended commute.

The first build up of sequences alone deliver more immediate gratification than other blockbusters can sum across their 150 minute runs - and there was an audible outtake of breath at the first of Fury Road’s infrequent pauses, a sudden realisation that we had forgotten the most basic of motor functions in response to the visceral onslaught.

Its success is a masterclass in movement, momentum and furious edits.  A pacing rhythm of urgent violins and crunching riffs in perfect synergy with the careful mayhem wrought on screen.  It feels heavy and dangerous.  You’re left unsafe through every moment as explosions tear in to scenery, body counts rise and vehicles are made to dance in a way that leaves the Fast and Furious franchise a footnote in a genre of vehicular slaughter it defined mostly by itself.  The stunts have a firm grounding in reality, every crunching collision hurts and your heroes are always a little too close to death.  Perfection.

This ballet of violence is soundtracked very literally through the film by one of the many war rigs, lavishly adorned as a marching band from hell - layers of pounding drums led by a nightmare on a guitar, spewing fire in front of a mountainous heap of tall stacked amps to rouse their warband to a frenzied state of madness.

The result is a fevered sense of anticipation that not only drives the action but enhances the suspension of reality as you’re hurled ever closer to insanity.  You suddenly arrive at a state where everything is game - so brutally cinematic that you’re lost in the world, rather than pulled right out.  How else would you sympathise with confused warboy Nux (Nicholas Hoult) - a tortured and psychotic cultist whose actions are driven through a maddened grasp for a glorious death?

So the experience is first and foremost and certainly the most prominent impression you’re left with as you stagger back out in to the world - but the joy is also in the reflection and realising that the world supports it so dutifully.  Our titular hero takes something of a backseat to Theron’s Furiosa whose break for freedom, independence and something more is heartfelt and empowering.  The sets are staggering, the costumes carry the flair of the vision and the highly saturated, bleeding colour sets leap from the screen.

It’s a film of extremes - artistically through direction and world building as much as theme and consequence (hello dystopian sci-fi reflection of fractured societal factions).  It’s a film you feel, quite literally if you’re watching on a big enough screen but also through sympathy and some of that from unlikely sources.  George Miller has fully earned his title of ‘mastermind’ and Warner Bros should be kicking themselves that they let his Justice League film drop. 

It’s a modern classic and a masterpiece.

You have to see it now.

[filmcell]

Far From The Madding Crowd

Film Review

Beautiful cinematography, a bewitching landscape and strong cast are only just enough to rescue Thomas Vinterburg’s  Far From The Madding Crowd from its absence of emotional weight.

In Victorian Dorset, independent and headstrong Bathsheba Everdene (played with coy charm by Carey Mulligan and of no relation to Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss) is pursued by three suitors across key moments of her life.  A strong and silent sheep farmer (Matthias Schoenaerts), successful and mature bachelor (Michael Sheen) and an obnoxiously pretty cavalry sergeant (Tom Sturridge).  Cue drama, scandal and mostly an absence of wit.

Your take on the film will be led by your reaction to the following scene, which I don’t consider a spoiler as it happens within the first 10 minutes or so:

A farmer loses all his sheep after his dog runs them off a cliff in the middle of the night.  Stricken with grief he sinks to the ground, beating the dirt with despair as his hound very methodically ensures every single lamb with no exception is hurtled from the edge. 

The whole event is led with such a straight hand, playing on deeply absurd and over wrought drama in a situation so ridiculous that I descended in to fits of giggles in my cinema seat - and this treatment characterises the majority of the film.  So many moments of melodrama dance across a dangerous line of farce, shot with conviction through a hazy looking glass and it completely confuses the senses.

Thomas Hardy’s adaptation is enchanted through golden, hazy hues that transform his landscapes to life but the characters are left wanting for the same treatment.  Everything is surface and events conspire to build up without allowing their consequences to settle, throwing a forced fluidity to no one’s benefit.

Bathsheba proudly proclaims her independent and free spirit to anyone who cares to spot her a moment’s notice, forgetting that sometimes substance of personality is implied and not simply declared.  Sergeant Francis Troy’s comically hateful prince charming routine at least plays on these initial tropes but then becomes handled so delicately later on that you wonder whether it was intentional at all.

And then just at the point where I decided I had been tricked in to a prison of all costume and no drama - the experience abruptly shifts.  The tone darkens and it finds breathing room.  Beyond this point I cared a lot more for the characters and they became a more three dimensional.  They have actual conversations instead of the curt delivery of plot points and it spends time lingering on their quiet moments rather that setting up the next vista.

You realise that the awkward rush of the opening movements came from the story being too large to fit as it struggled to deliver an appropriate sense of time.  Everything is fleeting, unimportant and transitory to herd us towards the real meat of the story and once there it’s almost enough to forgive what transpired before - even if through that journey you suddenly appreciate what those sheep felt as they plummeted from their cliff.

By the film’s final moments I cared for its central characters and found character and compassion in its tender moments - but it’s too uneven to truly recommend to those who sit unfamiliar outside cinema of similar ilk.

“They spoke very little of their mutual feeling; pretty phrases and warm expressions being probably unnecessary between such tried friends.”

It’s a shame the film didn’t push down further or allow itself the space to find similar truths.

[filmcell]

Unfriended

Film review 

Unfriended offers a surprisingly inventive and involving teen chiller/horror that surpasses its easy MTV cash grab marketing - there's a lot to like, it's just a shame it's not that scary. 

Six friends gather for a Skype chat on the one year anniversary of their friend's suicide. Their gathering is quickly interrupted by someone or something taking over the dead girl's online accounts, vengeful for the humiliating and invasive video that led her to take her own life. 

All this takes place as-live within the frame of our lead girl Blaire's desktop as she scampers across Youtube, email, Facebook, Skype and other familiar online actions as she tries to unravel the mystery of her torment. This curious storytelling mechanic is used playfully throughout as the true driving force of the movie, whether it's dipping through Spotify to soundtrack moments of intimacy and fear or hopping through chatroulette to find a rescuer. 

This ingenuity with the narrative device is also what characterises most of the film's finer moments, the wit of the jump scares and creepy tensions keep you drawn in and help break the film out from the crowd of screaming teens crisscrossing a familiar summer schedule.

Indecisive half-baked thoughts and edited truths sit unsent in chat windows to communicate panic and frustration while regretful actions and painful secrets are sent to be hidden in junk folders. 

The teen drama between the tormented is familiar enough though and won't offer many shocks but the consequences might. Friends turn on each other amongst a game of life and death that owes much to the Saw series and features some of its visceral nastiness too. 

Unfriended characterises and reflects the social side of online culture so well that the numerous nods do risk alienating those aren't quite so up to speed with a medium more fiercely adopted by a teen audience. 

Even so, the overarching themes of technophobia form a familiar refrain for a film landing in 2015's online paranoia - with privacy and online control painfully returning back on the helpless victims. It doesn't offer the wider social commitments of films like Pulse/Kairo though, which is similar enough to recommend checking out for additional viewing. Keep this one for the "I told you so" parenting catalogue. 

It's hard not to recommend Unfriended for fans of the horror genre. For a subset of films that relies so heavily on trope and idioms, to find one that twist and subverts them with such gusto should be welcomed wholeheartedly. 

For something scarier, try the trailer to The Gallows - which debuted before this film and terrified me much more than the screening of this film managed to!

[filmcell]

No wonder they needed a new set of Earth's Mightiest Heroes...