Review: The Hateful Eight (2015)

Posted on January 17, 2016 by Sam S-P
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The Hateful Eight (2015): Double Feature Films/FilmColony

With THE HATEFUL EIGHT Quentin Tarantino may well have invented a new sub-genre: the misdirection-Western. The mystery that is seemingly a key plot point from the second act onward is, in fact, pretty incidental. While this might disappoint some, the film is more about the slow-burn of eight character reveals, with sleight of hand, deception and glorious ultraviolence aplenty along the way.

When a group of strangers – bounty hunters, authority figures and ne’er do wells – take shelter from a blizzard in an isolated Wyoming cabin during the aftermath of the American Civil War, tensions soon ramp up and it becomes clear that just about everyone is not who they say they are. Who, if anyone, will survive the night with their lives, secrets and consciences intact?

Tarantino puts forward an interesting thesis on the American justice system. Thanks to the current negative public perception of what the police will resort to in order to “protect and serve” and their bias against certain segments of society, Marquis Warren’s (Samuel L. Jackson) fiery speech on the difficulties of being a black man in a divided country packs a real and uncomfortably topical punch. That said, Tarantino also seems to advocate capital punishment in some circumstances by the end of his film. There’s no reason why you can’t believe the truth of both of these opinions.

I don’t know enough about, or generally notice, a film’s aspect ratio to comment on whether it is clever used or not. The demanding technical requirements for presenting the film how its director wished may well have been the reason UK cinema chain Cineworld pulled it, or it could have been for pettier business reasons. What I do know is that this film looks amazing throughout. The stillness and the careful, almost obsessive, construction of wintery vistas and the oppressive prison that is the interior setting of the majority of the story may well make it Tarantino’s most beautiful film to date.

Both of Sam Jackson’s best performances over the last decade have been with Tarantino. In DJANGO UNCHAINED, he was a self-hating pro-slavery houseboy determined to hold on to his position of relative status, in his way the most despicable character in a film of despicable characters. Here, as Civil War veteran Major Marquis Warren, he is the Oscar-worthy heart, soul and mouthpiece of the film, brimming with fury and ever-ready with a deadpan retort. Almost as good as Jackson is Walton Goggins. Playing maybe-Sheriff Chris Mannix, he gets a lot of the funniest moments as the bigoted idiot among the Eight. The latest on Tarantino’s long list of career reinventions in Jennifer Jason Leigh who makes scene-stealing feral prisoner Daisy Domergue terrifying and funny in equal measure, wisely avoiding becoming a parody of the mentally ill. Tarantino’s slick-as-usual script gives everyone in the impressive ensemble their moment and every character multiple shades, ambiguities and contradictions.

Tarantino usually likes to launch straight in with a shock and a spatter of scarlet (or inky black if he’s shooting in black-and-white). The Hateful Eight is is measured, almost glacial in its pacing. Tarantino is taking his time and doesn’t care if you notice it. The first shot, of religious icon smothered in snow remains unbroken throughout the slow crawl of the opening credits accompanied by the primal build of Ennio Morricone’s score. Nothing much beyond introducing the characters actually happens before the first hour is through. Fret not though, everything kicks off in the film’s second half and, gratifyingly, you have no real idea which way the plot is heading.

The release of a new Quentin Tarantino film is always an event and it never takes long for the comparisons to begin. QT’s Eighth film (if you count the KILL BILL volumes as one) comes within a hair’s breadth of his 1990s heyday in ways that, for me, INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS and Django didn’t quite reach. As well as tearing into American injustices without mercy, it’s hugely entertaining and every stylistic quirk and plot twist or character blindside has a clear purpose for being there. Let us indulge Mr Tarantino for taking his time and leaving things unresolved for the sake of the impact of this story once it all gets going. SSP

 

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“Alas…he won’t be joining us for the rest of his life” (RIP Alan Rickman)

Posted on January 14, 2016 by Sam S-P

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January 2016 will go down as a cruel time for the arts. Just days after transcendent musician David Bowie passed away at 69 from cancer, character actor extraordinaire Alan Rickman has died at the same age from the same dreadful disease.

Comfortable on the stage or screen, in front or behind the camera, Rickman was versatile and wickedly talented. He made his feature film debut in DIE HARD and completely stole the show from Bruce Willis by portraying one of the all-time great movie villains. Despite being a pretty off-the-cuff performance (he was cast days before filming), Rickman as self-styled terrorist leader Hans Gruber was a pleasingly simple villain – charismatic, tailored, claiming to be fighting for a greater cause but in fact just in it for the money.

Rickman continued to play villains in Hollywood with ROBIN HOOD: PRINCE OF THIEVES as a campy and wisecracking Sheriff of Nottingham who shared more than a little DNA with Rowan Atkinson in BLACKADDER II (leather, earring, codpiece, sneer) and a perverted Judge Turpin in SWEENEY TODD for over a decade later.

Rickman didn’t – despite his (inaccurate) scary public perception – just play villains. He had a leading man’s presence, distinctive looks and deep, drawling voice allowed him to show a different side as shy and tender Colonel Brandon in Ang Lee’s SENSE AND SENSIBILITY and again as Emma Thompson’s midlife crisis-suffering husband in LOVE ACTUALLY and he even indulged in a bit of knowing self-deprecation in stardom parody GALAXY QUEST.

No-one’s careers are without blemishes (voicing the Caterpillar in Tim Burton’s lumbering ALICE IN WONDERLAND and agreeing to appear in the risable GAMBIT remake sans clothing spring to mind) but Rickman always seemed to put his all into whatever he tried his hand at.

Rickman will  be synonymous with different roles depending on your age and your interests. For me, a 90s child, he will always be Severus Snape, the most interesting, entertaining and contradictory character in the HARRY POTTER franchise. Rickman’s unique cadence and upright physicality were easily mocked, but perfect for portraying the dark heart of JK Rowling’s wizarding saga.

For all the high points in his varied career, the thing that really made Alan Rickman special was that he never seemed to look down on any project or anybody he was asked to work with. Fantasy or real-world, drama or comedy, family oriented or decidedly more adult, he brought great characters to life with passion and has left an indelible impression on generations. SSP

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Review: Aloha (2015)

Posted on January 11, 2016 by Sam S-P

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Hey they used the old film studio logos and fanfares – that probably means something, right? A lot in ALOHA probably means something, but I’ll be damned if I can puzzle out what Cameron Crowe wanted his movie to say, or to be.

Returning to Hawaii after a decade, famed military contractor Brian Gilcrest (Bradley Cooper) is asked to oversee a land blessing before it is developed into a valuable space launch site for his employer. His government handlers may have other plans, and Brian must also contend with affairs of the heart – his re-married ex Tracy (Rachel McAdams) and his spunky airforce guide Allison (Emma Stone). 

What would possess you to write into your script that Emma Stone is 1/4 Hawaiian and 1/4 Chinese when she so obviously isn’t? If the characters in this film don’t seem to believe it (and they don’t) then how are we meant to? Allison doesn’t need a reason to get all weepy when the native Hawaiians do something traditional to their culture. Giving a character a mixed heritage doesn’t automatically make them a more rounded or compelling character if they are still lazily written and inappropriately cast.

Every conversation in Aloha is needlessly quirky, full of tics and affectations and trying so hard to be cute. This is probably to cover up for the fact that most of the film is so clumsy and disjointed and not all that interesting. Crowe is just trying too hard to be liked, long gone are the ALMOST FAMOUS days when he was charming and perceptive.

Crowe has come up with a really unimaginative future where NASA, the military and telecoms companies have blended into one capitalist amoral mass. It allows for about as much excitement as you’d expect, with characters often engaging in contract discussions that sound very much like they’re on the phone to their own internet providers. When the dialogue doesn’t lull you to sleep and tries to be clever it fails to say anything about our world today or where it is heading. Yes people use technology a lot in their daily lives and we aren’t reaching for the stars the way we used to – and?

I really don’t get this film’s take on Hawaiian culture. Crowe probably intended to be respectful but comes across as more patronising. Cooper’s character is the audience surrogate who offhandedly insists he knows all about the local customs but in reality has very little respect for them. Crowe is judging us by expecting us to identify with Brian despite the fact that he’s an arrogant and abrasive toolbox. Crowe wants us to know how sensitive and culturally aware he is and is prepared to deliver his knowledge like a sugar enema with Stone going “wow” or commenting on how touched she is by taking part in local customs every few minutes.

There’s actually a scene where Allison appears to be getting a kick out of Brian describing how he has been shot multiple times. Then she has sex with him seemingly just because he survived and that’s spiritual…or something. Maybe give this scene another pass at the scripting stage?

The sight Bill Murray doing an awkward dancefloor shuffle with Emma Stone and Alec Baldwin shouting really loud is not worth the price of admission. Murray and Baldwin might as well have not have not shown up at all as they only have a couple of scenes apiece that don’t add anything of real note to the story. Both of their characters’ contributions to the overall plot could have been achieved offscreen.

McAdams and John Krasinski both appear to be starting in a different, and much better, relationship drama to everyone else, but they don’t get enough time to elevate the rest of the film. There is one well thought out moment that hints at the Crowe of the past, with two guys sharing a silent moment with meaningful looks, their looks subtitled amusingly for the audience’s benefit.

When all’s said and done, why should I care? I don’t care enough to be offended, or even to be annoyed. I’m just permanently disinterested watching Aloha. Did I mention it’s really boring? SSP

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Review: Black Mass (2015)

Posted on January 4, 2016 by Sam S-P

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BLACK MASS is a frustrating beast. I’d recommend you just watch THE DEPARTED again instead as it’s a much better Boston gangsters and informants movie  that was partly based on Whitey Bulger’s story anyway.

In the 1970s and 1980s, few names struck as much fear into the hearts of those who lived and worked in South Boston as James “Whitey” Bulger (Johnny Depp). Bulger and his gang’s rise becomes meteoric when he strikes a deal with FBI Agent John Connolly (Joel Edgerton) for free movement and non-interference with his crimes in exchange for information on Bulger’s competitors. But can Bulger ever be truly controlled, and is anything really worth Connolly selling his soul to the devil?

The makeup used in the film to transform the cast into infamous figured at various stages of their life isn’t quite J. EDGAR-level awful, but it’s bad. One of the first things we see in the film is poor old Jesse Plemons caked in jarring old-age makeup in close-up, then we see him in an unconvincing curly wig as a younger man a few moments later. We are forced of course to regard Johhny Depp looking nothing like Whitey Bulger and more like Gary Oldman as Dracula with Day-glo eyes throughout. Particularly illusion-shattering is a scene where Bulger is exercising at home before doing something nefarious and you can actually see the prosthetic skin fold around his neck as he does sit ups. I think the intention was to make him look more demon than human, presumably to emphasise the monstrosity of his character, but it’s too much. He ceases to be a chilling real-world monster and becomes a cartoon character.

The plotting is all over the place. We never get any real sense of what the FBI are actually getting out of their deal with Bulger. We just have lots of disconnected crime vignettes where Whitey gets to order the death of whoever he likes while the feds turn a blind eye. Agents pass some apparently important piles of evidence around and Connolly rockets up the ranks, but we don’t know why. You need more connective tissue, thematic juxtaposition or at least a consistent build of momentum to keep a story like this from coming off the rails.

The script by Mark Mallouk and Jez Butterworth is generally uninspiring stuff, the aesthetic throughout the film is grey and dull. Does every major movie set in Boston have to feature a St Patrick’s Day parade? I know Bostonians are proud of their Irish links, but there’s more to their culture than that. In short, there’s very little for a solid cast like this to really get their teeth stuck in to.

Depp is fine, and so is Edgerton, both good at the long hard stare and conveying godlike levels of arrogance. It’s good to see Depp having to put some thought into a performance again, but the way they’ve made Bulger look is so distracting that it gets in the way of truly appreciating Depp’s skill, and I never found him scary as a character. Benedict Cumberbatch on the other hand is stunt-casting of the highest order. He plays Bulger’s senator brother so they’ve given him jowls to  square off his face and make him look more like Depp, which he still doesn’t. His coasting performance and wobbly accent suggest he wasn’t the best man for the job, but is simply in the film because SHERLOCK is so massive.

Scott Cooper is a good director – he got great performances out of his cast in CRAZY HEART and he brought a striking look and a hard edge to OUT OF THE FURNACE. He may have attempted too much here or just never quite grasped what was required to tell this story in a compelling way. Black Mass is not a terrible film – at least Johnny Depp is trying again – but the spell is broken all too often and the whole thing becomes disjointed to the point of incomprehensibility. SSP

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Review: Wild Card (2015)

Posted on December 30, 2015 by Sam S-P

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I like a Jason Statham movie as much as the next guy. There’s also a certain pleasure in seeing Statham being beaten up by a toupee-wearing Max Casella early on in the film, and in a goon having his forehead sliced open in slow-motion with a credit card, but very little else to recommend in WILD CARD.

Swindler/hard man Nick Wild (Jason Statham) gets an assignment to chaperon a young millionaire (Michael Angarano) on his first trip to Las Vegas. While his employer behaves himself, trouble still finds Wild when he comes to the aid of a friend (Dominik García-Lorido) who has been roughed up by a mobster (Milo Ventimiglia).

I will admit that director Simon West (CON AIR) makes everything look very nice – all dingy noirish interiors and dusty shafts of light penetrating the gloom. The action is merciless and creatively choreographed to use as many props for brutal offense as possible, like Jackie Chan with added mortal injury. As a side note, are bars in America really that dark or is it just in movies? Please write in.

At the same time, film by its nature is a visual medium and characters don’t half seem to enjoy explain what’s just happened in the plot to the audience. Characters don’t evolve through their experiences or communicate their arcs through performance, they tell you what has happened to them and how they feel. It’s so basic and uninvolving. When the film does use any symbolism it’s the blindingly obvious kind – just once I’d like to see a film set in Vegas without a character contemplating a difficult decision with neon signage superimposed over their face.

Let’s take a moment to remind ourselves that William Goldman wrote BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID and THE PRINCESS BRIDE. His name was plastered all over the marketing as a draw second only to Statham. Wild Card – a film which has a side character that thinks the British are a race – doesn’t quite hold up. The writing in any scene where Nicky isn’t fighting his way out of his current situation is dull, listless, and nasty. Nicky plays an insufferable human being in the film’s opening scene, then it’s revealed it was all an act to aid in an elaborate scheme, but then he carries on behaving like an unappealing tool for the rest of the movie. Protagonists don’t have to be nice, of course, but they have to be interesting.

Another key scene revolves around Nicky doing the one thing you really can’t do in Vegas – card counting. He’s doing it blatantly, cleaning the casino out and gathering a crowd, but he isn’t asked to leave. I know, check your brain at the door and all that, but be consistent, make your film world’s internal logic work, make it tie with your action.

Even if the screenplay was up to scratch, the cast would have to do a lot more to bring it to life. Jason Statham rarely gets plaudits for his in-depth character work, but he’s shown in the past he can do comedy (CRANK), drama (SAFE) and most shades in-between (LOCK STOCK, SNATCH). Here, he’s just going through the motions with support from an uninspiring García-Lorido and a laughable Ventimiglia. Michael Angarano is OK but there’s nothing to his character and Stanley Tucci is wasted appearing in a single scene.

I wasn’t expecting the Earth from Wild Card, so I suppose I wasn’t  overly disappointed. Even for Jason Statham fans it might be a struggle to sit through, for though it delivers the bone-crunching action you’ve come to expect, there’s no fun or vitality to the characters, story, or scripting so everything ends up feeling really laboured once the punching stops. If I were you, I wouldn’t bother. SSP

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Looking Back and Looking Forward: 2015

Posted on December 24, 2015 by Sam S-P

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It’s that time of year, where every critic professional and amateur alike publishes some sort of Best of the Year list. This time last year, I thought 2014 was a mixed bag. 2015 may have been even more so. There have been absolute triumphs, but there have also been complete disasters.

What follows is my Top 10 and Bottom 5 movies released in 2015 as it stands at this moment in time. As always, I’m British, so we won’t get a lot of the Awards Season movies until early next year.

The Best:

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10. TURBO KID Really this one should be experienced rather than described, but you may find yourself surprised how  creative and deliriously fun a story about a teen and his bike fleeing a gang boss in a nuclear wasteland can be. Full review of TURBO KID upcoming.

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9. COP CAR Stand-out young stars with a bright future, a talented and no-nonsense director keen to make his mark and the most spellbinding role for Bacon in years makes this movie really rather special. Full review of COP CAR here.

ST. JAMES PLACE

8. BRIDGE OF SPIES  Spielberg very close to his best, diving into a so-strange-it-could-only-be-true Cold War story told from the perspective of flawed, frightened, and funny ordinary people. Hanks is great, Rylance is even better. Full review of BRIDGE OF SPIES here.

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7. CAROL Two exquisite lead performances, not a hair out of place and a slow-burning story overflowing with passion makes this the romance of the year. Expect a call from Mr Oscar, where I’d be happy to see Blanchett or Mara awarded, and thrilled for them both to be. Full review of CAROL upcoming.

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6. THE LADY IN THE VAN A great adaptation with Smith mesmerising as a mad old biddy with Catholic guilt and Jennings as Bennett and Bennett. Cutting wit and leisurely, down-to-earth storytelling surpasses the film’s apparent modesty. Full review of LADY IN THE VAN here.

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5. MAD MAX: FURY ROAD Miller finally gets to realise the carnage of his considerable imagination in one of the best chase movies of all time. The spectacle is dazzling and palm-sweatingly practical in its execution, but the dense symbolism and careful characterisation allows it to compete with any number of quieter releases this year. Full review of FURY ROAD here.

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4. SICARIO Villeneuve’s latest is a striking and gritty thrill ride as visually arresting as it is razor-sharp in its commentary on the unwinnable War on Drugs. Blunt proves her range and re-emphasises her raw talent in the lead, and del Toro is gifted with one of the best roles of his career. Full review of SICARIO here.

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3. MR. HOLMES McKellen and Condon reunite triumphantly to tell a Sherlock Holmes story that isn’t really a Sherlock Holmes story, but a close and often painful examination of the cruelty of dementia. Real heart, thought and artistry has gone into this. Full review of MR. HOLMES here.

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2. STAR WARS: EPISODE VII – THE FORCE AWAKENS The most anticipated movie in a year of most anticipated movies is pretty damn great. Thank The Maker! Abrams was just the guy for the job and balances tipping his hat to the franchise with bold new strides. Ridley, Driver and Ford are great and I was grinning ear-to-ear throughout. Full review of THE FORCE AWAKENS here.

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1. EX MACHINA With intelligence and sheer imagination to spare, but with very few visual embellishments to hide behind, this is an intimate chamber piece and big idea sci-fi rolled into one knockout package. Garland needs to direct more, and Vikander, Isaac and Gleeson make for a formidable trio. Full review of EX MACHINA here.

The Worst:

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5. FOCUS A vanity project for Smith, and a waste of Robbie’s considerable talents. It might have worked as an undemanding romp if it wasn’t so damn pleased with itself, or if it was even a fraction as clever as it thinks it is. Full review of FOCUS here.

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4. ALOHA How the mighty have fallen. Crowe mostly uses his tedious sci-fi-romance-garbage movie to guilt trip his audience about cultural sensitivity. He then expects us to sympathise with an irredeemable Cooper and a so-quirky-it’s-irritating Stone. Full review of ALOHA upcoming (if I can be bothered).

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3. TERMINATOR GENISYS This was the one Cameron endorsed. The resulting stew is a cynical and embarrassing pile of half-baked ideas, actors who clearly want to be elsewhere and not a single memorable action beat. Full review of GENISYS here.

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2. FANTASTIC FOUR The press didn’t kill this movie, the studio did. Whatever Trank intended his creation to be, it instead fell straight off the slab and soiled itself. Despite crimes in the edit, the cast and design team would have had to put a lot more in to make this even passable. Full review of FANTASTIC FOUR here.

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1. MORTDECAI This caps off my worst films of 2015 not because it’s awful (and it is) but because it didn’t have the pressures of either of the previous two entries on this list. It has a decent cast, a proven filmmaker at the helm and largely untapped source material to mine, but it does nothing with any of them. It’s painful to sit through and watching it will make you a less well-rounded person. Full review of MORTDECAI here.

The Most Disappointing of 2015:

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AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON You can’t fault Whedon’s ambition and Olsen and Bettany certainly make their mark. Returning players however make baffling decisions, storylines collapse under their own weight and most crucially of all, Ultron doesn’t work as a character.

The Big Lesson of 2015:

There are a lot of spy movies. Not all are created equal. For every KINGSMAN and MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE that gets it right, you’ve got a SPECTRE that gets weighed down by formula and a MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. that tries to make itself look more interesting than it actually is.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year everybody, I look forward to seeing most of the awards buzz stuff in January and a helluva lot more (hopefully different) superheroes in the months beyond. SSP

 

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Review: Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015)

Posted on December 21, 2015 by Sam S-P
Force Awakens

A new hope: Lucasfilm/Bad Robot

First, a disclaimer: STAR WARS is one of my favourite things in this, or any, galaxy. It was my childhood playground and will always have a very special place reserved in my heart. Now arguably the most highly antipated film event of the decade is here as THE FORCE AWAKENS hits cinemas the world over.

Thirty years after the fall of the Galactic Empire, rebel hero Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamil) has disappeared without a trace. In his absence, a new and sinister presence, The First Order, has emerged and, led by the ferocious Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) they seek to once again subjugate the galaxy. Now a Stormtrooper deserter (John Boyega) a canny scavenger (Daisy Ridley) and a hotshot pilot (Oscar Isaac) seek to halt the advancing darkness and preserve the light.

I wasn’t keen on the idea of JJ Abrams inheriting this universe, these characters. He’s a great marketer, but thus far I’ve seen very little evidence of him being anything beyond a journeyman filmmaker. But with the care and attention he clearly lavished on The Force Awakens, I’ve been proven wrong. For every nod to the past and safe story decision, Abrams and returning EMPIRE STRIKES BACK screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan also take an almighty risk for good measure.

The film had me from the very first shot. Star Wars has always done opening sequences well, from the never-ending Star Destroyer bearing down on the tiny fleeing Blockade Runner above Tatooine in A NEW HOPE to the fireworks of the naval battle in space about Coruscant in REVENGE OF THE SITH. Here, we see an unremarkable little dusty planet nestled amongst the stars as it is slowly and ominously eclipsed by the silhouette of a Star Destroyer, its blinking lights blending with the space around it.

Kylo Ren makes his mark as a great villain early on too. He’s not as iconic as Darth Vader of course, but that’s one of the main points of his arc, and his character’s brilliant alternate corruption angle (the exact opposite of Vader’s crisis of conscience) makes him stand out from innumerable black-clad movie baddies. He’s also got a entertainingly twisted sense of humour, asking a torture victim “Are you comfortable?” and once a lackey informs him of a mission failure he throws a massive wall-slashing tantrum followed by a snide “Anything else?”.

Ridley, Driver, Boyega, Isaac, Ford all turn in series-best performances. Ridley is the real breakout as Rey, strong-willed and intelligent with great comic timing, especially when she’s getting frustrated at Finn not being the sharpest tool in the box. Boyega plays Finn the way a lot of Star Wars characters should be – terrified and out of their depth, and Isaac is pure moviestar charm on legs as Poe Dameron. Driver incredibly manages nuance from behind a mask, and becomes the twisted heart of the story when it comes off. It’s lovely that Ford got his famous response to a fan in there, “I used to be” in reply to “Aren’t you Han solo?” and he does a lot of the heavy lifting dramatically speaking as well as still being pretty sprightly for a man in his seventies.

This is not the gleaming Star Wars of the Prequel Trilogy. We are firmly back in the territory of a dirty, lived-in sci-fi world, with subtle design touches and little character moments that hint at the workings of the larger world without ever having to sit down and explain it all. New droid BB-8 is a joyous creation and a welcome, expressive and impressively realised addition to the cast.

The film features what is unquestionably the nastiest lightsaber fighting in the series. You really fear for these characters and know that a single mistake means a mortal wound. The battles in general feel like they have more jeopardy – the skirmish that opens the film is brutal, looking like SAVING PRIVATE RYAN under blaster fire, and our heroes actually feel vulnerable in the action for the first time in the series.

Some cast members are sadly underused, though it seems like they are building towards more focus on them in the sequels. There are a few recycled plot elements as well – the generational destiny/cyclical time  thing doesn’t bother me so much as there being far more plot ideas to use in a Star Wars movie than flying into something big to blow it up.

Niggles aside, The Force Awakens left me pretty well satisfied as a Star Wars fan. It got right what JURASSIC WORLD got so wrong. If you’re going for a soft reboot of your franchise with reverence to what has come before, then you have to preserve that sense of wonder. While the new Jurassic film had its moments, the callbacks and attempts to pay tribute to what had come before felt hollow. The Force Awakens feels like a work of real love for the material, and ends up being a bold new entry in the galactic saga and a sturdy foundation to build on in the future. SSP

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Review: Cop Car (2015)

Posted on December 14, 2015 by Sam S-P
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Keep still, its vision is based on movement: Audax Films/Dark Arts Films

Marvel Studios are unrivaled at spotting raw talent early and snapping it up before the rest of the world notices. From Tom Hiddleston to the Russo Brothers, the latest to be enlisted by the world’s most powerful film studio is Jon Watts, the talented director of COP CAR.

Pre-teen tearaways and best friends Travis and Harrison (James Freedson-Jackson and Hays Wellford) find an abandoned police car on their latest adventure and proceed to have fun with it. Unfortunately for them, the owner of said transport is corrupt Sheriff Kretzer (Kevin Bacon) who has just committed a terrible crime and is trying his utmost to cover it up. With Kretzer hot on their heels and out for their blood, Travis and Harrison’s carefree jaunt rapidly turns into very real danger. 

Watts does a lot with a limited pool of characters – two kids, a dirty sheriff, a victim, a bystander and a dispatch officer – and a couple of locations in and around a backwater town on a hot summer’s day. There aren’t many locales where you could believe a cop could actually run back to town after losing his car, let alone track down the young culprits simply by asking them over the radio what local landmarks they can see.

The two young actors James Freedson-Jackson and Hays Wellford are real finds, both naturally energetic and mischievous but also able to deal with far tougher emotions when required. Their relationship dynamic reminded me a lot of Arbor and Swifty in British gritty fable THE SELFISH GIANT – they make some terrible decisions and endanger themselves more than they could imagine, but all in the name of fun, and their unbreakable friendship. And who wouldn’t want to see Kevin Bacon playing a scumbag cop clever enough to get away with it until two sprogs ruin his plans? Who wouldn’t be terrified at the sight of a wiry, wild-eyed, moustached and sweaty Bacon in a grubby vest hunting you down? He woulda gotten away with it if it weren’t for them meddlin’ kids…

The film has a very STAND BY ME feel with heady innocence and hi-jinks taking up much of the first half of the film before everything comes to a head for a pretty harrowing finale. The boys’ walking the line between daring adventure and very real jeopardy is deftly handled throughout, as going too far in either direction would spell doom for the movie. I won’t spoil exactly where the plot goes, but it becomes quickly clear that Sheriff Kretzer is the least of Travis and Harrison’s worries.

Never underestimate the power of a film not outstaying its welcome. At under 90 minutes including credits, Cop Car is a lean and unfussy film that just gets on with telling the story it wants to, embellishes nothing (well, the finale is slightly overwrought) and keeps an eye on the clock so nothing ever drags.

Cop Car is appropriately enough a great ride. It’s tense and well-performed, funny and stylish in a bare essentials kind of way. I’d highly recommend it. With such a vibrant and confident film under his belt, you can’t fear too much for Watts having the challenge of bringing Spider-Man out to play with the Avengers. Then again, Marc Webb was a promising independent director before the Wall-Crawler came a’ calling… SSP

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Review: The Lady in the Van (2015)

Posted on December 8, 2015 by Sam S-P

lady in the van

It’s always nice to sit back and watch a great actor do their thing. THE LADY IN THE VAN is often just that: Maggie Smith, Alan Bennett’s words. and a camera. You might not think Bennett’s stories would be particularly appropriate for film adaptation – internal monologues and modest interiors aren’t exactly inherently cinematic, after all. But when the story is this bizarre, poignant and funny, then you’ve got to ask, why not?

The comfortable Camden lifestyle of playwright Alan Bennett (Alex Jennings) is interrupted with the sudden arrival of the overbearing Miss Shepherd (Maggie Smith) a demanding and quite possibly mad homeless lady with airs and graces that defy where she finds herself in the world. How much will Alan let Miss Shepherd dominate his life, and is the writing she inspires a fair trade for her moving her hideous van onto his driveway?

As Miss Shepherd, Maggie Smith had to have both a well-honed comic sensibility (she is playing an unavoidably funny character) and also to mine a mountain of pathos as the character’s past comes to light (she is also playing an unavoidably sad character). There are both poo jokes at the story’s beginning and an aching dramatic crescendo at the story’s close. There is no limit to Smith’s versatility and she is very well-practiced in the role, originating it as she did on stage. Bennett himself is given not one but two voices, that of the introverted, thoughtful “writer” and the more disgruntled, confrontational “liver” (pun, I’m sure, intended). Alex Jennings equips himself admirably in both roles, stopping short of parody and making both Bennetts likable, flawed, and witty, and all of this achieved despite him not really looking much like Alan Bennett.

As Bennett self-deprecatingly describes the beginning of his latest work, “It’s not exactly Proust is it? It’s not even JB Priestley”. He does himself a disservice. Miss Shepherd, were she not a real person, would be a wonderful invention of a character. Something about the stage production I saw a few years back, despite the immediacy of it, left me a little cold. This film, despite the sometimes unnecessary fleshing out of who Miss Shepherd was and where she came from (in many ways she works better as an enigma)  affected me far more greatly. Bennett would be appalled.

Though the film belongs to Smith and Jennings, it is also packed with the cream of British acting talent, particularly those who have so successfully straddled stage and screen. Most of THE HISTORY BOYS cast have cameos, Jim Broadbent is great as a despicable and abusive retired policeman, and Roger Allam plays the ultimate cultured tosser who dismisses Bennett’s latest play as “That domestic…thing”.

It’s no surprise that Nicholas Hytner has been given the task of helming most of the Bennett film adaptations. After staging the writer’s work for many years and so confidently and sensitively transferring the UK’s favourite play The History Boys to film, who else would Bennett trust? While it’s mostly appropriately low-key in stylistic terms, Hytner does indulge a few showier (but not over-done) moments to accommodate Miss Shepherd’s outlandish personality and her unexpected god-fearing nature. While I do think it works better to meet her at the same time as, and with the same level of bewilderment as Bennett, I understand why he gave her past life more of an introduction here.

Despite some of the compelling mystery behind Miss Shepherd being explained away (Bennett full admitting that these elements are made up by him to service his story and quiet his mind), this remains a hypnotic  story of an unlikely pairing between strangers which is still best summed up by Miss Shepherd’s oft-muttered sentence add-on, “Possibly”. We know only that there was a lady in a van who moved onto Alan Bennett’s driveway. Her name was possibly Miss Shepherd. She was possibly once a nun. She was possibly on the run. She was possibly mentally ill, certainly eccentric. Alan Bennett was fascinated by her, and this is his story told in fine fashion to lift the spirit. Possibly. SSP

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Review: Bridge of Spies (2015)

Posted on December 4, 2015 by Sam S-P

tom-hanks-bridge-of-spies

The thing about Steven Spielberg is that he’s consistent. A couple of clangers aside (and 1941 and A.I ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE are at least terrible in interesting ways) you can usually rely on him to deliver something special. That goes double for when he’s telling a fascinating true story with plenty of substance, and BRIDGE OF SPIES is just that.

As the Cold War reaches its most fraught level, Soviet spy Rudolph Abel (Mark Rylance) is exposed on American soil. The American Constitution gives every man the right to a fair trial, and this unenviable task falls to insurance Lawyer James Donovan (Tom Hanks). Where as most would do their duty and nothing more, Donovan is determined to represent Abel well and secure a prison sentence instead of the blood the American public are clamoring for, lest the Soviets capture one of their own. Meanwhile, a top secret spy plane and its pilot is shot down over the Russian border…

Hanks is having a great few years. As James Donovan, he plays a man utterly dedicated to his profession and to his convictions. He takes on the monumental task of defending an enemy of the state and decides to give him the best representation possible, despite his friends, family, and the nation at large expecting him to do the bare minimum. That is not the man Donovan is. There is certainly something of Atticus Finch about him, a brilliant man in an impossible situation doing his job to the best of his ability. Following the various tribunals and prisoner exchange negotiations, Donovan traveled to Cuba on behalf of JFK to negotiate the release of prisoners from the Bay of Pigs debacle, which could be another film in itself.

Just give Rylance the Best Supporting Actor Oscar now, OK? The whole opening sequence is dedicated to Rudolph Abel’s calmness and attention to detail, and Rylance sticks to this unflappability throughout in his portrayal. He forms a compelling and unlikely friendship with Donovan, who understandably wonders why Abel isn’t acting more worried about his fate, and he simply inquires “Would it help?”

The film looks great in a very classical way. Every shot is carefully constructed by DP Janusz Kaminski, with oppressive high-contrast lighting for the scenes of Abel in prison, warm, sunny colour tints for New York, grey and dead for East Berlin. There are some lovely little details in the dressing of the recreated 1950s city streets, and in the Cold War paranoid homes and schools.

The Coen Brothers were brought in to give the already-excellent screenplay by Matt Charman a little added vim, and you can tell. Donovan’s rapid-fire back-and-forth with a G-man in a bar liberally using “Your guy/my guy…” and uncomfortable smiles is quintessentially Coen. We never really get the answers for what information Abel did actually feed the Soviets, or what damage he might have caused, only that he was a man doing his job, just like Donovan.

It’s a long film, but doesn’t feel it, which is a good sign. I liked that it’s not too weighty and downbeat. It’s dramatic and utterly engrossing, but it’s also quite funny at turns, and always very grounded in humanity. Donovan’s home life may be built around a traditional (almost) nuclear family, but they are an endearingly squabbling and flawed bunch. In a great scene around the dinner table, Jim tries simultaneously to console his daughter (Eve Hewson) who has just been stood up by a date; to explain to his son (Noah Schnapp) why everyone, even a communist deserves a fair trial; and break it to his wife (Amy Ryan) that he will be the man giving said communist that fair trial, putting a spotlight on their family.

A few moments were a little too on-the-nose for me though. Did we need to glimpse the building of the Berlin Wall as we pass through the city, or a juxtaposition of an atrocity in East Berlin with a idyllic moment back in the good old U S of A at the end? The film’s only action sequence, brief but high-octane also seems to have been transplanted from an entirely different movie.

The timely release of Bridge of Spies and the talent involved in the project makes it a little surprising it hasn’t done better at the box office so far. Trust me, it’s not a downer and it’s not hard work. It’s political and deals with serious subject matter, but in the most riveting manner possible, and with great performances, meticulous direction and elegant writing to support it. Overall it’s a very satisfying package and one well-worth checking out. SSP

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