BLOOD FATHER opens with a teenager (Erin Moriarty) being refused sale of cigarettes but able to buy ammunition, because America. There is genuine pain to Mel Gibson’s latest comeback performance and frustration at a broken justice system in addition to the expected, and tired, dad-empowerment fantasy. The film has a nice gritty-beautiful aesthetic, visceral and bloody brawls and a few reasonable gags, like John on the phone to his only friend (William H Macey, still rocking his SHAMELESS haircut) for advise on parenting, only for the camera to pull back and reveal their grubby trailers are only about 1000 yards apart. Attempts at injecting philosophical musings into the economic screenplay are laughable, as is midlife Mel missing a lot less than an apparently deadly Sicario, but brutal reality still occasionally intrudes, making this a cut above most TAKEN-alikes, even if it’s not exactly memorable on its own terms. SSP
Review in Brief: Blood Father (2016)
Review: Power Rangers (2017)
Colour-coded team assemble!: Lionsgate/Saban Entertainment
Let’s be clear from the outset: I have nothing invested in POWER RANGERS at all. I never watched the show, I never had the toys, I know nothing about this property beyond the fact that they re-edited a janky Japanese show with English-speaking actors. Now comes the latest big(ish) budget reboot for the next generation, though I only saw 90s kids at my screening.
An ancient intergalactic conflict reignites and the latest generation of Power Rangers are chosen to defend their home from all incoming threats. Can a group of five teenagers unite and learn to wield the powers bestowed upon them?
As admirable as trying to further diversify the team is, having the Rangers sit around a campfire and literally explain the way their characters have been written was a bit on-the-nose for me. The actors all do reasonable enough work (the young actors – I don’t really know what Elizabeth Banks was shooting for as the villain), with Jason (Dacre Montgomery) and Billy’s (RJ Cyler) motivations firmly established in an early scene where the former open-handed slaps a bully in defense of the latter. Unfortunately the others who appear just in time for the accident that gives them their powers (Ludi Lin’s Zack and Becky G’s Trini in particular) are hurriedly and inconsistently defined. Why is Trini considered a weirdo, because she wears a beanie and doesn’t talk a lot? Just once, can’t we have a teen with a sad family backstory express themselves in another way than just being a tool? Characters contradict themselves too, with Zack putting on a hard-man act but more than happy to open up because it’s the aforementioned “share with the group” scene, and when it’s revealed that Kimberly’s (Naomi Scott) guilty secret is the distribution of a friend’s explicit pictures, she feels so guilty that she immediately shows Jason the incriminating evidence.
Anyone who was fooled by the moment where a key character apparently dies for about 10 minutes needs to watch more movies. The way this sequence is played, with the score and cast changing drastically to sombre and serious is frankly laughable. Half of the time the film’s style overshadows the material. I’ll give director Dean Israelite his dues for pushing for a distinctive visual style (Matthew J Loyd of COP CAR makes the opening fleeing from the police far more interesting than it should be by smoothly rotating the camera as the action progresses) but the script (credited to 5 writers) just doesn’t live up to it.
The action is fluid and glossy, but confined to the final 20 minutes. The Rangers grapple with rock monsters on the ground and Goldar, a walking mountain of liquid bling, from their dinosaur-shaped mech suits, Zords. I feel like the Zords should be cooler: as they are (much like a few other elements of the film) they’re fine, but they don’t inspire a “OMG that’s cool” reaction. Perhaps we needed more time to take in the designs or they needed more character within the action. It’s easier to make out what is going on in the set-pieces than in say, TRANSFORMERS (which gets a name-check), but it’s a conventional action finale that won’t stay with you other than breaking the record for the number of times characters mention Krispy Kreme.
I can’t feel strongly either way about Power Rangers. It’s competent, it’s admirable in the manner it tries to revive the franchise for a modern audience and there are some pleasing stylistic touches. But the character work, despite the actors’ best efforts, is mishandled, it’s tonally more than a little weird and the action should have been better spread across the film. The Power Rangers fan friend I saw this with reckoned this was a decent version of the mythology, but I find myself thinking it would take something truly special to bring me back to this world. SSP
Review in Brief: Sing Street (2016)
John Carney is clearly fascinated by the process of making music. ONCE explored the breakthrough album, BEGIN AGAIN the production and business side of the industry. SING STREET captures music making at its most pure – getting a group of friends together, trying things out and having fun. The musical sequences manage to avoid too many comparisons to THE COMMITMENTS by colourfully working their way through the 1980s in pop music with nailed-on pastiches of the decade’s trends. One of my favourite moments is one of the most simple – two brothers sitting on the stairs contemplating their deeply unhappy mother as she sits on the front doorstep with her back to them. Carney has gathered a really talented musical ensemble, particularly the astounding multi-instrumentalist Mark McKenna (who gets to show off hilariously in a montage where he proceeds to play a succession of increasingly obscure instruments). You’ll be uplifted and humming to yourself for a long time afterwards, I promise. SSP
Review: Beauty and the Beast (2017)
Dressed for the occasion, but who wears it better?: Walt Disney Pictures
Even for Disney, it’s an audacious move to out-musical your own musical. THE JUNGLE BOOK upped the spectacle and downplayed the songs, CINDERELLA was out to make sense of its protagonist in her time and place and again skipped the singing. Their latest glossy remake BEAUTY AND THE BEAST is the animated film and more, with faithful reproductions of iconic images and songs, orchestration and choreography all amped-up and given real broadway oomph.
A vain and greedy prince (Dan Stevens) is cursed to live as a beast until he can inspire true love through his actions rather than his appearance. When ahead-of-her-time dreamer Belle (Emma Watson) comes across the Beast’s cursed castle while searching for her missing father, two of society’s outcasts find an unexpected connection.
As unnecessary as this remake in theory is (the animation being one of those near-perfect examples of the form), director Bill Condon and every artist and craftsman involved do this re-telling justice. Alan Menkin returns along with Tim Rice to embellish the already beautiful songs (I loved the liberal sprinkling of notes on the harpsichord throughout and the unexpectedly dark additional line about war widows in “Gaston”). Rest assured, the new rendition of “Be Our Guest” is truly glorious, one of the most impressive musical numbers I’ve seen and understandably the most expensive in history since Emma Watson is the only “real” element in the hugely complex sequence. Watson, Stevens and Ewan McGregor as candelabra maître d’ Lumière all show off their formidable vocal range and Luke Evans may well have been born for his role belting out songs as the ultimate goofy narcissistic baddie Gaston.
They had to get the central pairing spot-on, and though Watson is charming and Stevens able to convey a lot of pain and disguised vulnerability through his sexy-Beast CG makeup, I wasn’t as instantly compelled by their relationship as I was in the animated version. Maybe it was because the animated Beast was more bestial in his appearance and physicality, his contrast with and love for Belle more marked, whereas Stevens’ Beast is a very tall and attractive man with big blue eyes, velvety fur and hipster beard (Belle even cheekily asks him if he’d consider growing it back when he returns to human form at the end). But then Beast shows, and gifts, Belle his library and with it his heart,and they had me. The couple connect through a love of literature, feeling outcast and pain in their past (more explicit in this version) and present. Anyone who doesn’t feel their heart flutter slightly as the unlikely couple begin their tentative and tender waltz clearly left their heart outside.
The production design, from lovingly crafted costumes to meticulously detailed and decorated sets and CG character designs, is decadent. The opening sequence featuring Beast’s initial transformation at a extravagant ball (Stevens looking and acting like a silent movie LeStadt) grounds the world in time and place and gives the designers cues to draw upon throughout as we rely increasingly more on CG to populate this story. The rich colours, glittering gilt and marble and expansive spaces with iridescent light were almost too much to take in in IMAX, especially as Belle and Beast whirled around the ballroom.
I will say the film’s early steps are slightly faltering, introductions unnecessarily stretched out and I’d have liked some references to Cocteau’s LA BELLE ET LA BÊTE beyond “handy” wall lighting, especially considering Condon’s choice of French end credits. Though the film is currently the longest of Disney’s remakes, I think it could have also stood to be longer still to expand on some of the briefer musical sequences. Disney may have out-musicaled their own musical, but if money wasn’t an object (and bring Disney, it probably wasn’t) then this could have been pushed even further.
Beauty and the Beast does not disappoint, in fact it dazzles. Condon emphasises theatricality in all things and brings out the story’s innate melodrama through an accomplished ensemble singing their hearts out in stunning surroundings. Only great passion could have justified this remake, and that is what comes across above all else: love for these characters, this music and this world. SSP
Review in Brief: Eddie the Eagle (2016)
EDDIE THE EAGLE does exactly what it needs to do. It’s undemanding and feelgood, and wisely doesn’t claim Eddie Edwards (Taron Egerton) changed sport in any lasting way (he didn’t). Eddie himself even admits that he is only allowed to compete because Olympic officials couldn’t be bothered to change the rules for qualification for half a century.The ski-jumping scenes are visceral and exciting, making great use of Gopro-style cameras to capture the fear and adrenaline of the athletes. Matthew Margeson’s Vangelis-riffing soundtrack in reassuringly 80s. The sporting movie clichés are out in force, with early success halted by a grievous career-threatening injury, the team have their fallouts and there’s at least three training montages. Olympic sport has become institutionalised, officially sanctioned and without colourful madmen, and that’s a real shame, but telling the stories of these quirky and unique talents still has appeal, especially when it’s presented in such a likeable fashion. SSP
Review in Brief: Supersonic (2016)
I like Oasis as a band, I don’t love them. Both Gallaghers are magnetic, but incredibly abrasive personalities. SUPERSONIC is Oasis in their own words, so you do get the arguments and the clashes, but no major revelations. “Liam’s got a better walk than me” says Noel mockingly when asked about his brother’s positive points. I really liked the scene reconstructions taking audio recordings and applying them to cleverly edited archive footage (credit to SEX & DRUGS & ROCK & ROLL director Mat Whitecross for entertainingly twisting reality) but elsewhere it feels very style over substance. I think Noel probably over-estimates the band’s impact on the music world at large, but if the band are directly involved, you’re not exactly going to contradict him are you? Yes, Noel is talented (as far as I’m concerned, he is Oasis) but the band’s charisma and catchy riffs can only take them so far. Definitely one for the fans. SSP
Review: Eagle vs Shark (2007)
Who says games are destroying our social skills?: New Zealand Film Commission/Unison Films
You can always spot a Taika Waititi project, and EAGLE VS SHARK is unmistakably that. He’s got a unique comic voice and an appealing sideways view of the more painful and complex aspects of our world. Just look at how he juxtaposes a mortifying death with an awkwardly hilarious funeral scene straight after in HUNT FOR THE WILDERPEOPLE, or how characters grapple for meaning and understanding in this, his feature debut. He also likes silly songs, which is very endearing in a filmmaker.
Lily (Loren Taylor) is lonely and unfulfilled, until she gets to know fellow misfit Jarrod (Jemaine Clement) at a costume party. An odd romance blossoms and Lily travels with Jarrod back home so he can confront his arch-enemy.
“Life is full of hard bits, but between all the hard bits are some lovely bits” as mused by Lily may be one of the most simply profound meditations on our short time on Earth I’ve ever heard. Taylor co-wrote the story with Waititi and this quote is typical of the low-key wit of the script at large (another highlight is Jarrod’s botched attempt at a threatening phone call, “Tell him justice is waiting for him” / “OK Justin, I’ll tell him”.
If NAPOLEON DYNAMITE explored crippling battles with depression and played violent video games instead of drawing ligers, it would probably turn out something like this. A hugely dysfunctional family, colourful locals and a protective, small-town mentality towards unusual behaviour (especially if said unusual behaviour happens to belong to a member of your family).
I like that the film doesn’t make excuses for Jarrod’s behaviour. He comes across as a tool, just as he should. He’s a tool with depression, and we should feel sympathy for him, but we should also feel for the misery he puts his family and Lily through. Anyone who’s been through similar experiences with a family member or friend will likely find their heartstrings plucked most painfully by seeing how Jarrod’s dad (Brian Sergent) closes himself off to his family and the world at large following an immense loss, but equally you’ll feel for Jarrod unable to confront his issues healthily or prove himself in his father’s eyes.
There’s an absolute killer of a scene towards the end that sums up what has gone wrong with Jarrod’s fractured family, when Lily asks Jarrod’s dad to answer what should be a very easy question about his son. Animals are key to the story, and at the same time not relevant at all. Our cute-peculiar pair get to know each other at an “animal party” and identify with and feel a connection to creatures they feel a bond with, and misidentifying with an animal, or having someone else misjudge your character causes much pain and upset. Stop-motion animation is also used sparingly, but to moving effect in realising a symbolic companion piece. Who’d have thought mouldy apples could be affecting?
Eagle vs Shark is a pleasantly surprising and sometimes profound dramedy packed with Waititi’s trademark quirks. It’s a small story without spectacle, but also an intimate one which refuses to simplify mental illness and its impact on friends and family. This could have been a downer, but Waititi and Taylor have a light touch and help to make this a quirky highlight of last decade. SSP
Review in Brief: Justice League Dark (2017)
JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK is appropriately dark and pleasingly weird, with incantations, jumping between plains of reality and a giant poo monster charging round a hospital. Yes, you read that last one right. It’s not every day you see Batman (Jason O’Mara) forced to take a back seat and leave saving the day to those with the right skill set, but that’s the intriguing premise here. It’s nice to have a group of comic book characters the vast majority won’t be that familiar with (Constantine, Zatana and Swamp Thing among others) and coming to learn what they’re about on the job, as it were. After some sleuthing and an entertaining spellcasting duel, the film unfortunately ends in the standard superhero battle in a city (not far enough removed from the second half of SUICIDE SQUAD for me) but there’s more than enough oddness and neat visuals to recommend. SSP
Netflix Original Triple Bill: Ghosts, More Ghosts & Greetings Cards
Another day and still a load of original content produced for streaming on Netflix. As ever it’s a varied(ish) bunch and I’d sooner recommend some efforts than others.
Haunted house calling: Netflix
I AM THE PRETTY THING THAT LIVES IN THE HOUSE (2016) Yes, it’s another haunted house story where a rich invalid still lives inexplicably alone in a ridiculously creepy house. It’s Gothic central. It’s not at all original plot-wise, but the same can’t be said for the way this story is told or for its unique aesthetic.
Director Oz Perkins and DP Julie Kirkwood do some really interesting things with lighting and focus to build the creepy atmosphere. At times your eyes are made to strain, the camera refocuses as your own vision does…then you see something. Or you think you did. The story is a real slow-burner, but the payoff is unnerving and Ruth Wilson’s performance keeps the whole thing together.
The narration might be a bit overwrought, the framing devices (probably intentionally) confusing, and what did and didn’t really happen is left very ambiguous, which might not be to every viewer’s taste (I don’t really mind). The film starts off trying to say something profound about ghosts, pretty much the same that was said with THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE, and though it never quite reaches that height, it marks out Perkins as a talent with a distinctive style to watch for in future.
Pitching to the phantoms: Netflix
SPECTRAL (2016) This is the kind of film that has soldiers shooting at a ghost, and when that doesn’t work and their bullets pass straight through their target, they switch to heavier ammunition. Of course, when they work out the ghosts are allergic to iron, they conveniently end up in an iron foundry for a HOME ALONE tooling-up montage.
It so wants to be a supernatural version of ALIENS, even down to including a Newt-alike, but the characters just aren’t there. There’s no memorable dialogue or any meaningful moments among the grey action. Also, the poster made it look like James Badge Dale had a laser sword, which he doesn’t (it’s actually a camera that sees in a different spectrum) so I felt a bit cheated.
As shonky as SPECTRAL is for the most part, I’ve got to give Dale props for throwing in “If I reverse the polarity” in his tech babble speech and managing to keep a straight face. In fact, he’s such a consistently reliable actor he almost sells the whole silly concept. This might have made a cool video game, or even a passably entertaining TV series with more time for characters and world-building, but it doesn’t make a one-off movie that’s anything more than drab and unaffecting.
The only face for card shopping: Netflix
GIRLFRIEND’S DAY (2017) Here’s an idea for BETTER CALL SAUL fans: let’s whet their appetite for Season 3 with something nowhere near as good that still stars Bob Odenkirk. Let’s give them something that thinks it’s THE BIG LEBOWSKI but is probably closer to the Coens’ LADYKILLERS remake. This has nothing to do with the Coens, but it’s clearly what they were shooting for with deadpan black comedy and every supporting character being needlessly quirky.
Sadly, Odenkirk doesn’t get to play Saul Goodman again. Ray Wentworth is Saul after a purge of life and soul. He still drives a rubbish car, is down on his luck and is framed in Hopper-esque wide shots, but he is a poor cousin of the dirty lawyer with a heart of gold.
The film has an appealing weird streak running through it (I hope there really is an alternative bar only frequented by those working in the greetings card industry out there), but it feels chopped to bits and Lord knows what the message was supposed to be. I know it didn’t really matter what the inside of the Girlfriend card said, but it does matter what an audience was meant to feel at the end of this, and I mostly just felt bewildered.
Best of the bunch: I Am The Pretty Thing That Lives in the House, because it’s got a clear gameplan and artistry on its side. SSP
Review in Brief: David Brent: Life on the Road (2016)
Things haven’t gone too well for David Brent (Ricky Gervais) even by the standard of the last time we saw him on THE OFFICE. Now he’s just a guy and not the boss, no one is obliged to put up with his rubbish anymore. In LIFE ON THE ROAD he’s the most tragic he’s ever been; just as inappropriate and blind to the discomfort of others as ever, but now chucking every penny to his name at a rock tour that doesn’t leave Berkshire. The songs are just bad enough to be comic songs, but well performed enough to be conceivably real. This line is exploited wonderfully in a coda at the end that establishes which real pop star Foregone Conclusion ended up performing with after Brent (mild spoiler) returns to his office job. The film admittedly sags at points, but the cringe-factor is still there and even after all these years you love to hate spending more time in this sad little man’s company. SSP
SSP Thinks Film 