THE BIRTH OF A NATION - BFI London Film Festival 2016 - Day 7

THE BIRTH OF A NATION is a film that comes to us laden with controversy. And while I tried to watch it and assess it purely on its own terms, for reasons I will go on to explain, this was impossible. Accordingly, it’s hard to defend this as an objective review of a work of art - rather, it’s a summation of my thoughts on the work and its political context.

THE BIRTH OF A NATION is itself a provocative title for a film. It refers, of course, to D.W.Griffiths’ film, released a century ago. That silent film told the story of a noble Southern family who suffered during the Civil War, and a protagonist who joined the Ku Klux Klan to keep his sweetheart safe from the ravening predatory bestial freed slaves. The film - which I watched earlier this year at the BFI Southbank - is disturbingly good. Like watching a good production of Wagner’s Ring, you find yourself swept up in the artistry and carried along in a wave of emotion in spite of your awareness of the noxious political beliefs held by the creator and woven into the fabric of the work. In the case of the Griffiths’ film, the infamous presidential review - that it is “history written in lightning”, holds true. The images of gallant knights riding to rescue fair maidens of burning crucifixes - of a young heroine jumping to her death to avoid rape - these remain potent symbols. Great art moves people and BIRTH OF A NATION moved them to join the KKK and cemented and exacerbated prejudices. It’s simultaneously a technically brilliant and horrifying film.

BIG HERO 6

You can listen to a podcast review of the film below or subscribe to Bina007 Movie Reviews in iTunes:



BIG HERO 6 is an animated super-hero origins story wherein a genius teenage boy called Hiro uses his late brother's sumo-shaped gentle robot Baymax to catch an evil scientist.  In doing so, Hiro teams up with his brother's friends, giving them superhero costumes and harnessing their scientific achievements, rather than relying on mutations or alien powers.   The movie is clearly in love with its own heritage - there are friendly nods to E.T. and anime, not to mention a nostalgic reference to those quirky VHS-vanquished video players of the early 1980s.  But it's far more in love with the concept of love - what it really means to grieve, forgive and move on.

CAPTAIN PHILLIPS - LFF 2013 Day One

Tom Hanks as the freighter captain boarded by Somali pirates.

You can listen to a podcast review of the movie below:

The word to describe the new Tom Hanks-Paul Greengrass true-life thriller CAPTAIN PHILLIPS is "tense".  You get about five minutes of mildly tense chat between a lovely decent husband (Hanks) and wife (Catherine Keener) and then we see him land in Oman to pilot a commercial freighter through perilous Somali waters to the Kenyan coast.  We then get about an hour of petrifying highly tense terror as a band of Somali pirates tries and tries again to board the gigantic freighter, and then another hour of killer tension as the US navy try to save our erstwhile hero, who's now been forced into a large lifeboat with the pirates - the key question, can the Navy Seals end the attack without also killing Phillips as collateral damage? 

There's no comic relief.  No five minute pause for reflection.  No calm waters.  Even if you know how this true-life story works out, I guarantee that Paul Greengrass' handheld up-close filming style will keep you on the edge of your seat.  And when you finally get that moment of catharsis - perhaps the finest ten minutes of acting in Tom Hanks' career - the emotion is overwhelming. 

Is the film perfect? No.  The opening dialogue between husband and wife is hamfisted - so blatantly shoehorning a discussion about tough times in post financial crisis America.  The dialogue on the ship in the opening scenes is also a bit "Basil Exposition", as the crewmates try to take us in babysteps through how a ship like this works.  At one point, if I recall rightly, Tom Hanks even says "walk me through the plan".  But one the film settles into the stride it hits an even-handed complexity and nuance that is truly admirable.  The chief pirate, Muse (Barkhad Abdi) is painted as an intelligent man with few options, boxed into a corner and never likely to benefit from the money he's making - something Phillips calls him out on.  And a particularly touching relationship forms between Phillips and the younger, shoeless pirate. 

Overall, CAPTAIN PHILLIPS is just what you'd expect given the talent attached to it.  Classy, intelligent, brilliantly directed, superbly acted, and deeply immersive.  And a special shout out to cinematographer Barry Ackroyd who takes us to the heart of the action. 

CAPTAIN PHILLIPS has a running time of 134 minutes.

CAPTAIN PHILIPS will be released on October 11th in Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Peru, Portugal, Russia, the UAE, Finland, Iceland, Jamaica, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the USA. It opens on October 18th in France, Brazil, Ecuador, Ireland, Mexico and the UK. It opens on October 25th in the Philippines, Argentina, Denmark and Colombia. It opens on October 31st in Chile and Italy; on November 7th in Switzerland and Italy; on November 10th in Taiwan; on November 15th in Bulgaria and Uruguay; on November 20th in Belgium, the Dominican Republic, the Netherlands and Turkey; on November 29th in Japan and on December 5th in Singapore.