THE END WE START FROM** - BFI London Film Festival 2023 - Day 10

Contemporary England is subject to horrific and sustained rainfall resulting in devastating flooding.  Low lying cities are laid to waste and people scramble to find shelter in higher ground. Soon humanity turns on itself, trampling on each other for scarce food parcels. Some choose to find shelter and blissful isolation in island communes. Others choose to cling onto their past, their memories and some kind of future. 

Within this world, we meet Jodie Comer (Killing Eve) - a young hairdresser - and her husband (Joel Fry).  She gives birth on the night of the flood, and our threesome have to somehow navigate this disaster with a small baby.  The high concept of the film is to show us the everyday frustrations of being a mother in this context. Comer's character finds companionship with another mother played by Katherine Waterston. It's a touching and rarely seen story of shared burdens, sympathy, and female friendship and strength. 

Mahalia Belo’s debut directorial feature has a lot going for it - an assured visual style; some stunning landscape shots; and some haunting CGI-effect depictions of a post-flood London achieved on what was presumably a small budget.  Belo even elicits good performances from her cast - not least the deeply talented Jodie Comer in the lead role, but also Katherine Waterston who arguably has the best-written character.  

The problem with the film, based on a novel by Megan Hunter adapted by screenwriter Alice Birch, is that it feels underwritten. There is very little that is new in disaster movies, to be sure, and this film has nothing new to say about the likely human response other than combining it with he insecurities and trials of new motherhood. Even worse, the characters feel underwritten. I didn't feel that Comer had anything much to do here (contrast with her exceptional performance in THE BIKERIDERS).  Poor Joel Fry has even less to do. There's a moment at the end which is meant to be very deeply affecting but as I didn't really believe in the characters of their relationship outside of Comer and Waterston, that moment had no impact on me. We also have a handful of cameos, but none of them really amount to much. 

So, while I very much look forward to seeing what Belo does next, I hope she has a stronger script to work with.

THE END WE START WITH has a running time of 96 minutes. It played Toronto and London 2023. It will be released in the USA on December 8th and in the UK on January 19th 2024.

THE BIKERIDERS***** - BFI London Film Festival 2023 - Day 10

Writer-director Jeff Nichols (TAKE SHELTER, MUD, MIDNIGHT SPECIAL, LOVING) has produced his career best work with THE BIKERIDERS - a film or rare beauty, nuance and heart-break.  It's based on a book by photojournalist Danny Lyon, documenting a motorcycle club that slowly morphs into a full-on violent gang, much to the horror of its founder and leader Johnny (Tom Hardy).  The real star of the film is Jodie Comer with a flawless working class Midwestern accent, playing Kathy - a good girl who cannot resist the handsome, dangerous biker Benny (Austin Butler).  We see the story through her eyes and her narration to an on-screen portrayal of Lyon.

For the first half hour of the film, despite the occasional Iron Cross and bit of senseless violence, one can't help falling in love with this group of outsiders and goofy ne'er-do-wells. When Zipco (Michael Shannon) tells us how the army rejected him, your heart breaks for him. When Cal and Cockroach are goofing around, it's just loveable silliness. And yes, they do ride around on motorbikes and do the odd bit of in-and-out, but they also take care of their own. They are a found family: they vouch for each other. 

But the club is a victim of its own success. As the members and chapters increase, it's impossible to know everyone. And the new younger kids come back from Vietnam messed up and hooked on drugs. Nichols starts to show us the truly dark side of the Vandals, as they morph into full-on biker gang, complete with violent misogyny and horrific violence. 

All of which leads us to a true Succession fight, worthy more of THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD.  By this point, one wonders if Johnny is stuck in a role he can't escape, in a monster of his not-quite creation.  He tries to pass the leadership to charismatic loose canon Benny but even Benny knows better, and more the point, cannot be beholden to anything, not even his wife. 

All of this is photographed in the most beautifully warm, sepia-toned, lush manner by DP Adam Stone, and the needle-drop late 60s and early 70s pop and rock tracks capture the atmosphere perfectly. But really this is about a spare script that allows the actors to do all the work between the lines.  Comer is award-worthy but everyone is at the top of the game. This is truly one of my favourite films of the year.

THE BIKERIDERS is rated R. It played London 2023 and opens in the USA on December 1st.

FREE GUY****

FREE GUY is an absolutely hilarious, heartwarming, fast-paced, action-adventure film that perfectly entertains the family. If I've docked it a point, it's only because the plot and concept are highly derivative of films like THE MATRIX and THE TRUMAN SHOW, albeit repackaged in a fun zany mix all of its own.

Ryan Reynolds is typically superb as a guy named Guy who lives a mediocre banal life in Free City. Except what's pretty obvious to us, but not to him, is that he's a Non Playable Character in a computer game, whose only job is to be in the background as real life kids rob banks and smoke strangers in a Grand Theft Auto style shoot-em-up game. The twist is that his AI character comes to consciousness when he meets Jodie Comer's player, because some old code had pre-programmed him to search for love. Somehow, Guy manages to steal a real player's powers and realises that a) he's in a game and b) he has agency! But unlike fucked up real world people, he decides to play as the good guy, rather than as a criminal, levelling up with breakneck speed and attracting a real world following of fans who just can't get enough of "blue shirt guy".

Meanwhile back in the real world, the true baddie turns about to be Taika Waititi's pretentious egotistical video game developer Antwon, who I read as based on the decades old British satirical show NATHAN BARLEY.  Turns out Antwon bilked Jodie Comer's character out of some of her original code, as well as her best friend Keys (Joe Keery) and now they have to team up with Guy to stop him.

The resulting film is full of fun and imagination and I loved how it not to subtly criticised the way in which real world people play video games to indulge their worst imagined vices. What does it say about us that the nicest and kindest character in the film is an AI?! I also loved the way the ending respected the bounds of the concept that had been set up and gave all the main characters an ending that actually seemed fulfilling. So kudos to all involved, not least director Shawn Levy (STANGER THINGS) and writers Matt Lieberman (SCOOB!) and Zak Penn (READY PLAYER ONE).

FREE GUY is rated PG-13 and has a running time of 115 minutes. The film played Locarno 2021 and was released on Netflix earlier this year.