Review: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (2016)

Posted on January 27, 2017 by Sam S-P
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War reporting going SNAFU: Broadway Video/Little Stranger

I wasn’t expecting to get as much out of WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT as I did. I do like most of Tina Fey’s work, but war comedies can be a difficult balancing act, especially when handling such recent, raw events. Thankfully, the film is smart,  mostly sensitively handled take on the war in Afghanistan held together by a very strong lead performance from Fey.

Journalist Kim Baker (Tina Fey) is sent to Afghanistan at the height of US military involvement to bring coverage of the war back Stateside. She begins as a dangerous liability to the unit she is attached to but finds her confidence enough to do important work on the ground and keep the American public informed. But on the ground and in the middle of a war zone the situation changes quickly and Kim’s home life begins to interfere with her vital role as a war correspondent.

Robert Carlock’s dialogue is witty but not overly polished, the gags rarely run exactly as you expect them to. It’s a cruel but amusing setup for why certain journalists were sent to Afghanistan: “You are all the unmarried, childless personnel”. Basically, who can we afford to lose if things go wrong? There’s probably a certain amount of truth in that. American Soldiers aren’t presented as the invaders here, but their reason for being there is constantly called into question, like when Kim, in interview mode, asks a marine why he enlisted, he replies “I’m a big fan of the movie PREDATOR and I’m the same height as Arnold Schwarzenegger”. There are some nice one-liners too, when Kim produces an orange rucksack that she plans to bring on patrol, a sergeant screams, “Where you gonna hide this, inside a sunset?”

Tina Fey is recognised as a brilliant writer and talented comic performer, but I think she is underappreciated as a “serious actor”. Here, despite the film’s marketing as the usual raucous comedy, like PINEAPPLE EXPRESS with a location change (this isn’t) Fey is able to show her considerable range. The subject matter is challenging, the debate is intense, some of the imagery pretty horrific. There are moments of intense contemplation, the real cost of the war is never in doubt, and Fey completely sells that drive every good journalist has to tell the right story at all costs. Christopher Abbott as Kim’s guide Fahim brings a lot of heart and another perspective to the film and Martin Freeman has fun playing a jerky photojournalist even if his role becomes ever less necessary as the plot moves on.

Now what on Earth is Alfred Molina doing in this film playing a Muslim community leader? He’s dropped out of somewhere else, a far more unpleasant place of lazy parody and stereotypical shortcuts. It’s like a character from a 70s sitcom decided to try his hand in something more serious, and it’s completely innocuous. Margot Robbie is ridiculous as well, so ridiculous and unpleasant in fact that her vacuous character is probably a close approximation of somebody real. Her presence seems solely to justify a scene describing just what a girls’ night out in Kabul entails (a sequence which mostly manages to waste the skills of A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT’s Sheila Vand).

There have been funnier war comedies and more biting satires, but it’s the earnesty that comes through strongest in Whiskey Tango Foxtrot; real people in difficult situations trying to do what they think is the right thing. When it’s really pushing for a gag (the disastrous televised first woman in Afghanistan driving) it doesn’t work as well, but when it’s letting Fey do what she does best or questioning the point to the war without diminishing the sacrifices of real people, it comes close to shining. SSP

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Review in Brief: Don’t Breathe (2016)

Posted on January 25, 2017 by Sam S-P

What a treat of a horror-thriller DON’T BREATHE is. Stephen Lang’s Blind Man fighting off teenage burglars isn’t just played as an unstoppable monster (though he becomes that towards the end) but also a scared and unhinged human being. Between this and the EVIL DEAD reimagining, Fede Alvarez is making a real name for himself as a maestro of scares (a key scene in this where the Blind Man turns the tables on the home invaders might be the most frightening this decade). Camera work has rarely been used so effectively to build dread and keep you guessing where the next threat will come from, and the film would make a great double-bill with HUSH – both films employing sensory impairment in striking ways to drive the plot and provide original set pieces. Is it silly and increasingly, unnecessarily nasty? Yes, but it’s also an adrenaline rush throughout and something pretty different to the usual jump-scares. SSP

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Review: La La Land (2016)

Posted on January 24, 2017 by Sam S-P
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Magic hour maneuvers: Black Label Media/Gilbert Films

Every so often a film comes along that captures the public imagination and wows critics alike. Usually in the lead-up to the Oscars, critics and cinephiles have plenty to talk about but the public can be left cold. Between the music, the performances and the cute chemistry, LA LA LAND is a real crowd-pleaser and has a good chance to sweep at the Academy Awards (fourteen nominations – count ’em!). But does it deserve such acclaim?

Aspiring actress Mia (Emma Stone) and struggling jazz pianist Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) fall for each other after a chance encounter. How will they balance their blossoming relationship with professional struggles and successes in the vibrant but unforgiving city of Los Angeles?

Neither Stone or Gosling are born song and dance people, but they feel all the realer for it (or as real as you can be in a musical). I loved that you hear tap shoes scraping on tarmac as the couple begin to dance on their late-night journey home. It’s the little human flaws that make the movie, with Mia’s central solo song “Audition (The Fools Who Dream)” making the most of Stone’s imperfect voice in heart-wrenching fashion. Gosling’s jazz piano playing is impressive, but no more so than a raw little scene which marks a turning point in the pair’s lives and relationship as they argue over dinner.

The musical numbers are dynamic and vibrant, the tunes themselves hummable even if most of the lyrics don’t stay with you after one viewing. The colourful and ambitious opening freeway traffic jam spectacular “Another Day of Sun” stands out, as do some of the more intimate ditties (“City of Stars”) with long and languid takes capturing these set pieces, made all the more impressive by utilising real locations rather than vast fabricated studio sets.

As well as the characters and what drives them are fleshed out, you do find yourself wishing that Mia’s career ups and downs were tracked as closely as Sebastians’s. The tried-and-tested formula of telling a story by seasons is used up to a point, before we flash forward by years to complete the tale without warning. We go into the studio with Seb and cover the most vapid aspects of his industry as he sells out for some success, but much of Mia’s story is told offscreen, which I thought was a shame.

The film really captures the soul-crushing cycle aspiring actors find themselves stuck in. Of course Mia works as a barista to make ends meet, and the showbiz party she and her housemates attend with the hope of being spotted is all glitz with a sickening undercurrent of seediness – just what will they have to put up with for an opportunity? Just how many young actresses have to degrade themselves for their big break, how many are flat-out ignored because they don’t tick enough boxes?

What La La Land also captures is that faltering, tentative phase of new love. Mia and Seb test the water and have fun before committing to anything serious, particularly in their flirtatious SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN-riffing first encounter, and everything is almost ended prematurely with the simple phrase “I hate jazz”. A lot of fun is had in referencing Classic Hollywood, though this can sometimes be overkill. Mia’s coffee shop is on a studio lot (because of course it is) and said studio lot and everything that is going on within it looks like prestige filmmaking hasn’t looked in 50 years. Studio filmmaking comes across as cruel, vampish and impersonal, independent auteurs with vision as shining lights of opportunity for well-intentioned and talented would-be actors (WHIPLASH director Damien Chazelle here polishing his halo).

The film takes us on three different paths through the story, zipping backwards and forwards and commenting on what might have been. You can have your dreams and you can have true love, but you’d be hard-pressed to have both. You can see why La La Land been embraced near-universally, even if it hasn’t quite bewitched me with its spell. It’s feelgood and soulful and witty in discussion of Hollywood’s favourite subject: itself. SSP

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Review: Silence (2016)

Posted on January 17, 2017 by Sam S-P
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Sorry, I can’t hear you over the sound of my symbolism: Cappa Defina Productions/EFO Films

The release of a new Martin Scorsese film is still something to mark on your calendar, but perhaps the undoubtedly ambitious guilt trek SILENCE was too personal for his own good.

Two Portuguese Jesuits travel to Japan to investigate reports that their mentor Ferreira (Liam Neeson) has abandoned Christian teachings and gone native. Japan is a dangerous place to be for any Christian, and soon fathers Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) and Garrpe (Adam Driver) find themselves persecuted along with their new secret congregation by a relentless inquisition.

Silence is certainly a handsome-looking film, ugly-feeling film, with tropical mountainsides (Taiwan standing in for Japan) and volcanic plateaus shrouded in dramatic mist Kurosawa would be proud of in extreme contrast with horrific acts of torture and abject human misery. The attention to detail in the period costumes and historical locations lend this story a level of authenticity just as the bewildering decision to have some or the English-speaking cast affect Portuguese accents for the first few scenes breaks the illusion.

With the best will in the world, Garfield doesn’t yet have the skill to carry a film solo. Adam Driver and Liam Neeson do, but their contributions mainly come in the opening and final twenty minutes respectively. Garfield is fine when he has someone to play off, such as in the film’s excellent and emotionally charged final stretch where Rodrigues confronts Ferreira, but he is just not a compelling narrator or a character with enough layers to spend this amount of time with. I just wish we spent more time with Garrpe, who probably went through a much more interesting crisis of conscience offscreen. When he quite rightly realises the priests’ presence is endangering the remaining native Christians, he disappears to protect them, an act that must have wracked him with guilt and which is completely nulified by Rodrigues staying. Rodgrigues’ blind faith keeps him on his unwavering path no matter how many are harmed for his religion and he only relents with the express permission of his Lord and Saviour, and I found that hard to fathom without a faith myself.

While a time of sacraments and rituals, idols and inquisitors was not a subtle one, you find yourself asking Scorsese to cool it with the sledgehammer symbolism found throughout his film. The use of light levels and layers of sound would have probably been enough to amplify the subtext here. Jesus appears in the water and in the floorboards, silver pieces are scattered on the ground following a great betrayal, martyrs are subjected to cruel and unusual punishments and are very dignified in their agony.

This is Scorsese cleansing his soul, and I don’t think he cared how grueling it would be for the rest of us to sit through. I don’t have a problem with what he’s saying about the world, about faith, and his message comes through vividly in the end, but I’d have liked more tonal shifts along the way to break up the monotony. The thematically similar THE MISSION and APOCALYPSE NOW – with which Silence shares a plot through-line and mood – could both be as intense, but they also had peaks and troughs and more than one shade.

Undoubtedly religious atrocities were committed by the Japanese in this period. The same goes for Christians trying to spread their doctrine in countries socially and culturally the antithesis of European Christendom. Neither side comes out well, and nor should they. I understand Scorsese feeling like this was a film he had to make, but it’s hard-going with little reward for the majority of viewers. Beyond the impressive vistas, strong supporting players (particularly the Japanese cast) and a genuinely enlightening and affecting final stretch, this isn’t going to be counted among Scorsese’s great successes, even if I can’t dismiss it for being uninteresting. SSP

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Series Retrospective: Bourne

Posted on January 14, 2017 by Sam S-P

In the latest look back at a long-running series, I’ve decided to look at everyone’s favourite amnesiac assassin, Jason Bourne. Robert Ludlum’s antidote to Bond has been knocking around for a while, and has not let his author’s passing and Matt Damon’s temporary departure slow the pace.

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The Bourne Identity: Universal

THE BOURNE IDENTITY (2002) The first, leanest, and in my opinion the best Bourne movie, IDENTITY stood out from fellow spy actioners in the early 2000s. Doug Liman might not be as dynamic a director as Paul Greengrass, but he coaxes two great performances from Damon and Franka Potente and his action is beautifully unfussy. The mythology is kept vague but implications are intriguing, assassins (notably a bookish-looking Clive Owen with a hunting rifle) could be brushed past on the street and you really believe Bourne could just melt away.

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The Bourne Supremacy: Universal

THE BOURNE SUPREMACY (2004) Greengrass arrived in the Bourne franchise like a freight train. SUPREMACY’s plot is a little messier, but the momentum never ceases and the trend was set for immediate hand-held action that has only just started to fall out of favour twelve years later. Yes, you can blame this movie for sloppy, rating-chasing action movie editing (it looked good in 2004…) Some of the cast might be annoyed their characters were knocked off early, but their space is filled admirably by a more active Nikki (Julia Stiles) and the caring face of espionage Pam Landy (Joan Allen). 

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The Bourne Ultimatum: Universal

THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM (2007) The most linear Bourne film, plot-wise, but ULTIMATUM boasts immediate, frenetic action and puts you right in the heart of everything that is going on. The camerawork can be more jarring than immersive at times, and while I quite like the conversations shot not just over-the-shoulder but from behind whole bodies with elusive glimpses of the tense participants, it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. They still don’t address how Bourne can get round the world without changing his face (I don’t care how many passports you have – it still looks like you!) but if you go with it it’s a thrilling conclusion to the story.

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The Bourne Legacy: Universal

THE BOURNE LEGACY (2012) Then they made LEGACY. Or at least writer Tony Gilroy did. few writers can direct, and vise versa. This was more of a glorified placeholder for when Damon and Greengrass decided to come back. Jeremy Renner usually makes for a compelling lead or at the very least characterful support, but his Bourne-replacement Aaron Cross (I’m actually amazed I remembered his name without Wikipedia) is just vanilla up until a seriously stupid late plot revelation where he becomes a bit of an insult to a large portion of society. Add to this run-of-the-mill villains and constant reminders of a better film you could be watching (it takes place concurrently with Ultimatum) and you end up with a waste of your time.

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Jason Bourne: Universal

JASON BOURNE (2016) It seems like Greengrass wanted to do a film about the Greek austerity riots and/or CIA/NSA surveillance, but then he remembered Bourne and decided to fold these real-world events back into the spy’s ongoing exploits to make sure audiences went to watch it. This soft reboot is certainly relevant and it moves along excitingly enough, but it’s consciously ticking boxes and it artificially creates a new mystery for Bourne to solve and asks you to suspend your disbelief a little too much.While it’s good to see him return, Damon clearly had to put in very little effort beyond getting back into lean, mean shape.

Would I watch more Bourne if they made them? Probably. Would I rush to see it now they’re clearly cattle-prodding it to keep the story going? Probably not. SSP

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Review: A Monster Calls (2016)

Posted on January 11, 2017 by Sam S-P
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Bark worse than his bite? (Sorry): Apaches Entertainment/La Trini

I read A MONSTER CALLS over Christmas in preparation for this. What took me so long?

Conor (Lewis MacDougall) doesn’t have the luxury of a happy childhood. Between his mother (Felicity Jones) losing  her battle against cancer, his icy grandmother (Sigourney Weaver) outstaying her welcome and constant torment at school, Conor finds himself coping alone. Then, at his lowest point, a monster calls…

Having Liam Neeson on board to play the Monster and also someone else in the form of a photograph on the mantelpiece is a master stroke – here Patrick Ness adds a certain extra poignant factor to the self-panned screenplay adaptation of his story. Advantages of authors being part of the process of visualising their own work include but are not limited to, unparalleled understanding of the source material and the need to refine and improve what has come before. Having another pair of eyes guiding the ship doesn’t hurt either, and director JA Bayona keeps the whole thing simultaneously grounded and wondrous and gets the very best out of his cast.

It’s great to see Sigourney Weaver in a non-glamerous role. She begins as Grandma is described in the novel; a well-groomed and severe older woman, but as events unfold, protective layers peel away and she becomes worn away, real and human. But it is the tenderest of central pairings in Conor and his mum and MacDougall and Jones’ perfectly-pitched performances that keeps you rooted to this story. It’s a complex relationship for a thirteen-year-old to have with a parent, but one that rings painfully true. It is a simple truth at the heart of this tale, but not an easy one.

There are canny references throughout to sympathetic monster movies (KING KONG, Universal’s FRANKENSTEIN) which might have been a bit presumptuous if A Monster Calls couldn’t proudly stand side by side with its subgenre fellows. We also get thematic and aesthetic links to other modern fantasy allegories like PAN’S LABYRINTH, being as it is another tale featuring a child’s experiences front-and-centre but presented in a very adult fashion, though Bayona perhaps chooses to blur the lines blur a little more between realities than del Toro did.

The animated sequences with Neeson’s narration are the perfect realisation of the book’s stories, and the film wholeheartedly embraces the unique advantages of working in a visual medium. The three tales the monster tells to Conor are living ink, bold and graphic but  never fully tangible to fit with Ness’s themes of avoiding confrontation of difficult situations and as tribute to the work of Jim Kay who illustrated a run of the novel. It was a tall order to visualise squiffy dreamland physics and the horrific jumps between reality and unreality with such aplomb, but somehow it works as a compelling tapestry.

You can almost hear the production design team screaming “don’t do an Ent!” so the Monster instead appears as a yew tree tangle in rangy humanoid form with Liam Neeson’s sharp profile and formidable glower as his booms forth his dialogue. He is frightening, as any monster should be, but he is also engagingly, and humanly, irritable, and somehow his outbursts that shake the earth and bring forth an internal inferno soften him and bring him closer to our human protagonists – he’s just as fallible an occupier of grey areas as the rest of us.

I honestly didn’t think A Monster Calls would get me. The book brought forth tears but I found myself not quite shaken with the same emotional force as I was on the page. Then the final couple of scenes came and I’ll admit I bawled. I’d have personally played the ending slightly differently in the way it’s put together on screen, but that’s really splitting hairs and it remains a spiritually satisfying conclusion and a promise that a better life is to come for Conor. You’ll have to catch this at some point as it may very well be a future classic. SSP

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Film Confessional: Gods of Egypt

Posted on January 6, 2017 by Sam S-P
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A far deadlier Riddles in the Dark: Summit Entertainment/Mystery Clock Cinema

I have a confession to make…I actually quite like GODS OF EGYPT. I enjoyed watching the film that made Alex Proyas aggressively lambast film critics for not giving him a chance, pretty much from when the first trailer dropped. I can see it’s a flawed work, but it’s flawed in fascinating ways.

You can’t fault Alex Proyas’ bonkers ambition. You can never fault his ambition. Unfortunately he’s only ever produced two knockout movies in a fairly lengthy career (they were the dark and emotional THE CROW and the dark and emotional DARK CITY). All his others tend to be interesting on their own terms and aesthetically striking but with drawbacks.

Gods of Egypt could be called just about anything but dark; the brief given to everybody who worked on the project was “Planet Egypt”. This shows. Think of this like the 60s Greek mythology adaptations like JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS but dipping into a different culture and adding a liberal splash of FLASH GORDON. I know there were complaints of whitewashing from the off, and while I can understand this criticism it doesn’t bother me anywhere near as much as it did in Ridley Scott’s EXODUS, which was a fairly serious dramatic re-telling of a religious story firmly rooted in a real time and place, where nobody should have been white. Here the story is nominally Ancient Egypt-set, but it’s a romp, it’s a colourful fantasy where real-world logic rarely intrudes.

Whatever it is, the film is jam-packed with ideas. We see Ra’s (Geoffrey Rush) space-barge dragging the sun over the side of a flat earth shortly before its pilot pauses to battle a space monster; then there’s the sight of Set (Gerard Butler) riding to war in a chariot pulled by flying scarabs and a god being mobbed by the spirits of the dead as she falls into a dark, swirling vortex the moment a protective charm is removed. The film’s batty internal logic works; if gods lived among us they would do everything grandly and opulently, humanity would be regarded as little more than a nuisance.

I was generally impressed with the designs of the sets and of the creatures (the sphinx above is a particular highlight), though I question whether the gods’ true forms should have been bio-mechanical, because as soon as you have living metal titans duking it out on top of a pyramid, your thoughts tend to jump straight to TRANSFORMERS. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Butler don’t seem to have bothered changing characters since the last “historical” epic they took part in, and don’t exactly stretch themselves, nor does Chadwick Boseman’s putting on a plummy English accent as he contemplates the meaning of a head of lettuce, not that this material ever asks them to. Also, after all these years, is the use of forced perspective really the only way to have different scales of character appearing in the same scene? The gods and the mortals never look like they shared the same soundstage, never mind the same world.

The script is appropriately naff for a high-concept B-movie; somewhere between Tolkien and Shakespeare but more cloth-eared (“Every night the battle between chaos and creation must go on, otherwise the world will be destroyed”). This isn’t really a criticism, in fact it’s part of the entertainment value. I don’t really understand why Proyas got so defensive over the negative reviews the film received. It’s not high art whatever the director thought, but I think it will have a life as a bit of a cult gem. There’s nothing wrong with producing trash if it’s fun, if it’s memorable, and I don’t think you should be ashamed of every now and then turning out a product like this. It’s less problematic if you treat is as pure escapism and far more enjoyable if you switch off your brain and have fun. SSP

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Looking Back and Looking Forward: 2016, Part 2

Posted on January 1, 2017 by Sam S-P

Here are the very best, and the very worst films I’ve seen this year. MOONLIGHT, LA LA LAND and MANCHESTER BY THE SEA aren’t out in the UK for another few weeks, so don’t look for them here. Absent also from the best are most of the blockbusters, and none (bar animation) rank among my best. No not even ROGUE ONE quite made it (FANTASTIC BEASTS and DOCTOR STRANGE were better anyway). So without further ado…

The Best:

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Adult Life Skills (2016): Pico Pictures

5. ADULT LIFE SKILLS A lot of people will have missed this little gem. It’s charming and genuine and doesn’t sugar coat how profoundly losing a family member affects people. There are cute little finger puppet film pastiches scattered throughout, but the focus is always on telling an honest story of real, rough-around-the-edges people going through difficult times.

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Hell or High Water (2016): Film 44

4. HELL OR HIGH WATER Between black-as-pitch jokes, a humanist worldview and stunning scenery, David Mackenzie’s contemporary cowboys ‘n’ outlaws allegory is a bit of a stunner. Jeff Bridges gets to play a little with one of his go-to personas and Chris Pine shows his hitherto untested range as an idealistic criminal.

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Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016): Vertigo

3. HUNT FOR THE WILDERPEOPLE A very New Zealand take on a road movie. It’s keen to be self-deprecating but also shows great pride in its setting and is director Taika Waititi refuses to stigmatise those with difficult upbringings or unconventional lifestyles. What could have been a heavy social drama becomes uplifting, bittersweet and hugely enjoyable. Sam Neill and Julian Dennison make for a perfect pairing.

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Nina Forever (2015): Jeva Films

2. NINA FOREVER Another little indie that deserved a wider release, but may well become a cult classic, is one of the beautiful and creative meditations on grief I’ve ever seen. Abigail Hardingham and Cian Barry are talents to watch, as are the Blaine Brothers who thought up this whole sexy, funny and twisted comic-romance-horror affair. It profoundy affected me and may well stay with you too for a long time.

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Zootropolis (2016): Disney

1. ZOOTROPOLIS The best script of the year and perhaps the film that captured the mood of early 2016 the most succinctly (sadly things got even worse as the year went on) came from Disney, and followed a bunny in a uniform. It’s one of the best-looking things Disney has ever produced, and has plenty to keep kids glued to the screen, but it also has more food for thought and enlightening real-world commentary than any other major studio release this year.

The Worst:

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Get a Job (2016): CBS Films

5. GET A JOB I’m not surprised it took three years for this to be released straight to video in most countries. There’s probably an interesting film to be made exploring the challenges of a graduate wanting to break into online content production along with everyone else if his generation, but this is not it. The characters are repellent or dull, the jokes baseline and everything about it smacks of “that’ll do” filmmaking.

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Suicide Squad (2016): Warner Bros

4. SUICIDE SQUAD I think I said in my original review that this wasn’t quite as bad as DC’s other 2016 superhero movie. Having seen it again, I take that back. On some very basic filmmaking levels (sound, editing, acting) SUICIDE SQUAD is worse. It’s also so miscalculated and stylistically mangled, generic and boring following an ad campaign promising vibrancy and anarchy. But it retains the #4 worst spot on this list slightly above the next movie for one reason above all others.

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Batman v Superman (2016): Warner Bros

3. BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE That reason is that Suicide Squad cost around $175 million. BATMAN V SUPERMAN cost at least $250 million. Hollywood filmmaking can’t carry on like this; it can’t keep exponentially growing outwards and leaving a howling void at its centre. I don’t mind mega-budget blockbusters when they justify their existence, but when they’re this wasteful, this dour, monotone and downright depressing, when I’m looking to get nearly three hours of my life back I have to wonder when it will end.

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Grimsby (2016): Columbia

2. GRIMSBY Sacha Baron Cohen is perhaps one of the best out there at mean comedy. In addition to being mean though, he’s usually entertaining and with a point to make. This is him on autopilot, taking jabs at easy targets, putting the bare minimum of effort into creating a work made up only of ugly stereotypes and doing horrible things with elephants. it’s even worse when it tries to be an action movie or be uplifting. Cohen’s career choices can be hit-and-miss, but what was Mark Strong thinking degrading himself to this?

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The Do-Over (2016): Netflix

1. THE DO-OVER Stop giving Adam Sandler work. Stop encouraging him. He needs to understand that he can’t keep getting paid for bringing us cinematic detritus. Netflix actually gave him a four film deal of which this is only the second (imagine where he’s going with the other two). Sandler of course plays his idea of the coolest guy in the world and David Spade gets all the jokes Sandler thinks he’s above. Lowlights include gags about how scary gay guys are, how dementia is snicker-worthy and how the easiest way to make an impression on a woman is to hit her with your car. You actually feel ashamed of yourself for sitting through the whole thing, and Sandler should feel likewise for making it.

I already anticipate next year to be a far better one at the movies. Judging by this year’s releases from Warner Bros, WONDER WOMAN could go either way, but I do sincerely hope it turns out great. GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 looks like a safer bet, and even the risks like a long-awaited TRAINSPOTTING sequel promise to be interesting at the very least. For me I’m most looking forward to WAR FOR THE PLANET IF THE APES, which follows on from one of my absolute favourite films of 2014, and of course STAR WARS: EPISODE VIII, helmed by one of my all-time favourite directors Rian Johnson. Happy New Year everybody. SSP

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Looking Back and Looking Forward: 2016, Part 1

Posted on December 27, 2016 by Sam S-P

2016 has been a terrible year in the multiplexes, not to mention a particularly black one for art and entertainment in general. Blockbusters have rarely been so lacklustre or downright awful. Mercifully the indie film scene has had a far more successful time of it over the past 12 months, proving that there is still hope yet. Take as evidence my list of favourites of 2016, with nary a blockbuster in sight. Want more? Check out my full reviews for each film and of course let me know what you think of my choices.

The Best:

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Arrival (2016): FilmNation

10. ARRIVAL Clever stuff with emotional weight behind it to keep it firmly rooted to the earth even as it shoots for the stars on a conceptual level. Another effortless success from Denis Villeneuve and Amy Adams’ best turn since THE FIGHTER. It doesn’t matter if you don’t fully understand it; you’ll be talking about it for a while.

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Under the Shadow (2016): Vertigo

9. UNDER THE SHADOW Between this and A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT, it’s been a killer couple of years for Iranian horror. Whereas the aforementioned vamp pic was intentionally disembodied, in its own twisted world, this is firmly rooted in its time and place, and the real-world horrors of war remain for scarier than a malevolent djin.

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The Neon Demon (2016): Icon

8. THE NEON DEMON The most beautiful ugly film of the year, possibly of the decade. Nicolas Winding Refn can do little wrong in my eyes. He’s out to provoke you in style, and by golly does he with this bold and disturbing film that wouldn’t look out of place projected onto a gallery wall. Not an easy watch, but a thought-provoking and occasionally bewildering one.

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My Beautiful Broken Brain (2016): Netflix

7. MY BEAUTIFUL BROKEN BRAIN The most moving film of the year is an unflinching and beautiful journey alongside a young woman, Lotje Sodderland, as she battles to keep herself herself following a sudden stroke. The fact that the subject is a filmmaker herself lends this story immediacy and a style all its own, and eventually getting Lotje’s hero David Lynch’s backing didn’t hurt either.

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10 Cloverfield Lane (2016): Paramount

6. 10 CLOVERFIELD LANE The pleasant surprise of the year. This works precisely because it refuses to be limited by the film it shares a tenuous connection to. The only limitations are those that Dan Trachtenberg and his writers put in place to create a taut three-hander of a chamber piece exploring paranoia and delusion.

The Worst:

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Special Correspondents (2016): Netflix

10. SPECIAL CORRESPONDENTS Ricky Gervais should not direct, and he needs to stop writing himself as some kind of a catch for women just because he’s British. This one had a good concept exploring media and truth, it just wasn’t followed through. The characters are detestable (which is fine) but they’re not interesting (which isn’t fine).

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The Fundamentals of Caring (2016): Netflix

9. THE FUNDAMENTALS OF CARING The intentions behind it, of exploring the difficulty of of being a carer, and receiving care, were pure, but the execution was misjudged and the end result patronising. The performances almost save it, but a solid cast lead by Paul Rudd and Craig Roberts just aren’t enough on their own. Something so earnest shouldn’t come across as so simplistic and borderline mean.

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Ratchet & Clank (2016): Vertigo

8. RATCHET & CLANK There’s little for anyone here aside from bright lights and colour. The game’s style of humour doesn’t work long-form, in-jokes are either mishandled or fleeting, the animation is sub-par and out of an impressive cast on paper, only Jim Ward’s vocal performance as once and future green space berk Quark brings any joy.

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Dad’s Army (2016): Universal

7. DAD’S ARMY The TV show was rarely laugh-out-loud funny, but it had wit and warmth. This film seldom even raises a smile. It’s another case of putting together a good cast and giving them practically nothing to work with. Nobody comes out unscathed, but at least Bill Nighy got to try out a slightly different character to his usual. It’s a waste of actors and not a fitting tribute to the real Home Guard or their previous portrayers.

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Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates (2016): Fox

6. MIKE AND DAVE NEED WEDDING DATES This manages to be insulting to both genders and not all that funny. Putting aside the trashy (potentially entertaining) premise of advertising for “nice” wedding dates, movies like this need to be carried by the charisma of their performers. But even Zac Efron and Anna Kendrick can’t elevate such weak, charmless material. No comedy film’s funniest moments should be the outtakes over the credits.

I hope you enjoyed the first part of this list. Please join me next time for Part 2, where I will discuss my best of the best, worst of the worst and what we have to look forward to in 2017. SSP

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Review: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)

Posted on December 21, 2016 by Sam S-P
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I rebel, therefore I am: Lucasfilm/Allison Shearmur Productions

Was the emotionally bereft GODZILLA remake just a blip for Gareth Edwards? Thankfully yes it was. There is more genuine humanity, imagination and enjoyment to ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY than there was not only in the ill-advised giant lizard retread, but also in the vast majority of the blockbusters released in 2016. It’s a bit of a treat for STAR WARS fans too, both fleshing out a gap in the timeline and providing new sights to behold.

Born rebel Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) is recruited by the Alliance in their fight against the tyrannical Galactic Empire. Her long lost weapons designer father (Mads Mikkelsen) may hold the key to the destruction of the Empire’s superweapon, The Death Star, and Jyn must lead a team of spies, assassins and outcasts to retrieve this information before time runs out for the Rebels and for the galaxy. 

Finally someone plays with the style of Star Wars. We’re straight into the story sans opening crawl, scene transitions are liberated from the archaic wipe edit (finally Star Wars is edited according to the action rather than the action working around the edit) and character-fleshing flashbacks are incorporated. This was the perfect time to do this: we’re in mostly uncharted waters here, and if Lucasfilm will continue to hire distinct directors to helm these spin-offs, they should be free to make them their own and make every film it’s own thing. Edwards brings with him a more hard-edged documentarian aesthetic, following our heroes a pace behind through crowded and sweaty alien markets and throwing us in the thick of frenetic, brutal battle scenes. I said the opening of THE FORCE AWAKENS was like Star Wars meets SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, Rogue One is more Star Wars meets PLATOON. Edwards gets just the right balance with paying heed to what has come before as well, with chunky, grimy technology and pleasingly terrible 1970s hairstyles.

Felicity Jones as Jyn is a grounded and empathetic lead who kicks some serous ass without any force gimmicks. Alan Tudyk playing towering reprogrammed Imperial droid K-2SO as a mix between deadpan comedian and passive-aggressive child was a master stroke (thoughts out loud on Jyn: “I find her answers vague and unconvincing”, “Do you want to know the odds of her betraying us? They’re high…Very high!”). Ben Mendelsohn’s cold and brutal autocrat Krennic is often undone by his frustration at not receiving credit for his hard work, and sees straight through a deception early on (“Oh look, you wife: back from the dead!”). I wouldn’t say the whole cast are given much to do, with rebel leader Cassian’s (Diego Luna) edginess dropped by the wayside quickly and Forest Whitaker and Mads Mikkelsen acting as glorified (admittedly well performed) plot devices. What I can’t deny is that a certain dark lord’s brief appearance will give you chills and thrills.

Here’s the thing: massive space battles rendered with next-gen special effects are stunning, but bringing a long-gone actor from A NEW HOPE back from beyond the grave with the same? I’m not so sure. It’s undoubtedly a very sophisticated effect, but it’s almost too good, too detailed, and something certainly triggers the uncanny valley sense. I found myself not really listening to the dialogue in these important to the plot scenes, which was an issue. Elsewhere archive footage and outtakes from the original film are used, which work perfectly fine for brief shots.

The plot moves well, even if it doesn’t deviate much from the Star Wars formula. It meets and sometimes exceeds your expectations of action and spectacle, but being a Star Wars film the finale is of course a race against time to destroy something in space. Joining the Rebel Alliance also seems to be a large part about who you know as well as you heart and resolve, as the Rebellion top brass don’t seem much interested in Jyn aside from how they can exploit her familial connections. It’s a galaxy of coincidence, but we’ve always known that. Rogue One hits the right notes, throws in some surprises and gives us time enough to spend with a compelling new group of characters. As another spin-off/prequel in an industry seemingly producing little but, it’s certainly out in front of the pack. SSP

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