GLADIATOR II****

GLADIATOR II is glorious trash. I can't see it winning any Oscars, but the two hour plus running time flies by.  There's a ridiculous gladiatorial battle featuring a rhino an hour after it starts, and an even more ridiculous one featuring sharks an hour before it finishes.  There's a serviceable plot, lots of fan service from the original, and a juicy performance from Denzel Washington.  I don't think it will do for Paul Mescal what it did for Russell Crowe. He has precious little to say.  But I was, indeed, entertained.

The movie opens with an epic naval assault on a north African town led by Pedro Pascal's war weary Roman general Acacius.  It results in Paul Mescal's warrior Hanno being taken prisoner and his wife being killed. (Note in this version of Rome, women can be warriors too - but they still can't have meaningful impact on the plot.) Back in Rome, Hanno manages to impress Denzel Washington's political mover and shaker and Gladiatorial sponsor Macrinus. Hanno does this by fighting of a ludicrously CGI'd warrior monkey - the only duff note in the whole film. For me, the joy of these films is that they scrupulously bring dusty, vital, chaotic Rome to life.  I hate anything that brings me out of that.

And so the plot moves into gear.  Hanno wants revenge on Acacius, little realising that Acacius is as disenchanted with the corruption of Rome as he is.  Acacius has a loyal legion based in Ostia ready to launch a coup and install his wife, Lucilla (Connie Nielsen) as Marcus Aurelius' literal and philosophical heir.   

The corruption of Rome is represented by the young, feckless twin Emperors Geta and Caracalla (Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger) and a largely supine Senate represented by the bankrupt Senator Thrax (Tim McInnerny).

Somewhere between the two factions lies Macrinus, a power broker who bankrupts Thrax and gains the ear of the Emperors.  Is he on the side of Aurelius or opposed? Will he help Hanno or betray him?  

The resulting film is full of amazing visual spectacle and kinetic fight scenes. I loved John Mathieson's cinematography and the CGI rendering of ancient Rome is I found it curiously chaste for an R-rated movie though. We barely see Acacius and Lucilla kiss. Macrinus hints as his bisexuality but apparently a male-on-male kissing scene was edited out.  The twin emperors wear heavy make-up and one is meant to be gay, but it's all rather milquetoast. Still, I suppose sex scenes aren't the point in a sword-and-sandal epic. 

GLADIATOR has a running time of 148 minutes and is rated R. It is on release in the UK and opens on November 22nd in the USA.

Spoilers follow:  it's hard not to watch this film in light of the US election and to see clear parallels with the corruption of Rome and the newly installed kakocracy in America.  One could argue that Caracalla's appointment of Dondas is equivalent to Trump's nomination of Gaetz. And that the pure power philosophy of Macrinus, so Nietzschean, is that of Trump. And there's something tragic and true in Macrinus calling bullshit on the Dream of Rome.  Aurelius may have wanted to restore power to the Senate and People of Rome, but he wasn't about to end slavery.  Macrinus' nihilism actually makes more sense than all the Hollywood schmalz, especially if you know anything about Roman history.

THE ROOM NEXT DOOR** - BFI London Film Festival 2024 - Day 11

The anticipation of iconic writer-director Almodovar's first ever English language film starring two exceptional talented actresses in Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore was high. I am sad to report that while the film is handsomely produced and surface-glossy, it lacks any real depth. And without any crunchiness in the writing the actresses have little to do but be .... nice.  The result is a rather vanilla, unbrave film that skirts over the profound issue that it is tackling.

The film is based on a Spanish book and I wonder if the source material has more conflict within it.  In Almodovar's version all the big questions have been decided and all debate is shut down.  Tilda Swinton plays a war correspondent called Martha who has incurable cancer and decides to commit suicide.  She procures a tablet on the dark web and asks her friend Ingrid (Julianne Moore) to be in the room next door when she dies. That's it. That's the plot. (Although it's padded out with unnecessary flashbacks to her ex-partner's death). 

The decision has been made and Martha will not allow Ingrid to try and persuade her out of it.  And we are not going to see any of the unpleasantness and pain of actually killing yourself in this way. Don't get me wrong - I am in favour of euthanasia - but this film situates it in a beautifully designed house with a beautiful woman in a beautiful outfit lying on a deckchair in a beautiful garden with elegant pink snow failing. I find that rather disingenuous.

The real problem with this highly stylised depiction of the friendship and the decision is that there is no conflict and no depth to the conversations between the two friends, other than maybe a discussion about career vs motherhood that never really convinced me. Compare and contrast with Swinton's own discourse on this subject in WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN.  People have praised the performance - heck this film won the Golden Lion at Venice - but I really struggled to see what the fuss about.

I would suggest that if you are actually interested in this topic that you watch documentarian Ondi Timoner's desperately moving film LAST FLIGHT HOME.

THE ROOM NEXT DOOR has a running time of 110 minutes. It played Venice, Toronto and London 2024. It goes on release in the UK on October 25th and in the USA on December 20th.

NICKEL BOYS*** - BFI London Film Festival 2024 - Day 11

It is hard to believe that NICKEL BOYS is  the debut feature film from director RaMell Ross given its technical audacity and accomplishment. That Ross' major technical choice did not work for me is a shame but does not detract from the fact that we are witnessing a powerful and impressive new directorial voice. I understood the reasoning behind his decision and admire its bravery.  I will watch whatever he does next with interest.

The film is based on a deceptively short but searing novel by Colson Whitehead.  I read it on a flight from Munich to London and was deeply affected by it. It tells the fictionalised story of a brutal reform school in Florida where the black boys inside are abused, exploited and many of the murdered.  We see its horrors through the eyes of Elwood, an intelligent young man set for higher education whose path is diverted by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.  He scrupulously documents the abuses at the school and hopes to expose them, much to the horror of his best friend Turner, who is far more cynical and world-weary.  Decades later, the murders at the school are exposed and Elwood can finally give his testimony.

RaMell Ross begins his film with half an hour of context that shows the world in which the Nickel Academy exists.  Elwood is being raised by his beloved Nana (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor in the standout performance of the film).  He benefits from a kind and politically active teacher who encourages him to study. Ross chooses to tell the story by showing Elwood point of view.  As a result, his face is withheld for quite some time.  In a bravura shot, we see Elwood reflected in the back and forth of his Nana's iron.  

We then transfer to the Academy, run by the corrupt Spencer (Hamish Linklater - THE BIG SHORT) and our POVs increase to include that of Elwood's friend Turner. So at least we can see the boys in each other's points of view. I understand why RaMell Ross chooses the immediacy of this style, especially considering the plot reveal in the contemporary timeline. But it distanced me from the subject matter and the characters. It brought me out of the film rather than immersing me in it.  I also think that it maybe wasn't executed as well as it could have been done, balancing the hand-held constant motion with the needs of the viewer. I felt like I had motion sickness at the end of the film.

That said, I still think this is a film to be admired. Unfortunately the POV style gives the actors little to do, but Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor gives a deeply affecting performance.  The sound design and score are superb. And the final epilogue that gives us a montage of artefacts and revelations is stunning.  When the film ended and the credits rolled you could feel the shock and silence of the audience as they struggled to digest what they had witnessed. It was powerful stuff.

NICKEL BOYS has a running time of 140 minutes and is rated PG-13. It played Telluride and London 2024. It goes on limited release in New York on Dec 13th and in LA on Dec 20th and in the UK on January 3rd 2025.

MARIA***** - BFI London Film Festival 2024 - Day 10

Pablo Larrain's MARIA is a stunning film about iconic opera singer Maria Callas featuring a central performance by Angelina Jolie of such fragility and bravery that it destroyed me. It's a cinematic achievement at least on par with Larrain's Jackie Kennedy biopic, and arguably surpasses it. Every aspect is perfection.

The film focuses on the final week of Callas' life, sequestered in a grand Parisian apartment with her faithful housekeeper and butler (Alba Rohrwacher - HUNGRY HEARTS and Pierfrancesco Favino - WORLD WAR Z). Callas is dying of liver failure, ligament failure and is addicted to a variety of drugs.  Illness, dramatic weight loss, over-singing in her youth - whatever the reason - her voice has also failed her.  Publicly she claims that she will never perform again, but she is secretly rehearsing, with pitiful results. Added to the loss of her voice, we also know that she is suffering from heartbreak. Her big sister (Valerie Golina - PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE - in a deeply moving cameo) tells Maria to look forward but this entire film is of a woman trapped in her past.  Her mother pimped her out as a singer in Nazi occupied Athens and maybe more. Her first husband robbed her blind (though this is not shown here).  Her beloved Aristotle Onassis (Haluk Bilginer - The Turkish Detective) stopped her from singing, maybe made her have a forced abortion, and then left her for Jackie Kennedy.  Only her paid employees show her any love or concern for her health.

Robbed of love and health and finally her voice, Maria retreats into a drug-induced journey through her past.  Her drug Mandrax is personified by Kodi Smit-McPhee (Disclaimer) as a young interviewer. As befits a woman who has been a public persona her entire life, Maria chooses what to withhold, and what narrative to spin. She is deliberately enigmatic and mysterious. But this is a kind of defence mechanism and an act of desperation, and her spin is unsuccessful, not least in the way she discusses her maybe pregnancy.

Angelina Jolie is magnificent and fearless in this role.  Her final aria sung in a nightdress to an empty apartment (and a crowd outside, unknown to her) had me in tears. We believe in every ounce of lifelong heartbreak.  She is a diva and she is desperate. She is vulnerable and commanding all at once. Kudos to the technical team who found a way to blend Jolie's own singing with Callas' iconic recordings, particularly in her final week, where her voice is unsteady and uneven. I always believed that Angelina was singing, and this is no mean feat. We see her lips and vocal chords and body tremble and convey emotion.  It absolutely makes the film credible and moving.

Kudos also to cinematographer Ed Lachman (CAROL) for so beautifully capturing sunlit 1970s Paris, but also the crisp black and white flashbacks to Callas at her peak, and the grainy dreamed interviews with Mandrax.  This is a film whose technical brilliance is completely at the service of the narrative. And what a narrative.  Steven Knight - of Peaky Blinders fame - creates a script that in a short time gives us a lifetime of pain and hurt. And that uses music, always Callas' own music - to express her feelings and propel the narrative. For those of us who know these aria by heart, the lyrics, the knowledge of Callas' life, and Jolie's performance, blend into something transcendent.  

My only question is whether the film will work as well for those not familiar with Callas' work, given Pablo Larrain's refusal to give subtitles and translations of the opera. He explained before the screening that he tried to avoid surtitles when watching opera as a child and wanted to relate purely to the performance. I kind of agree, but feel this may be a barrier to some audience members.

MARIA has a running time of 124 minutes and is rated R. It played Venice and London 2024. It will have a limited theatrical release on November 27th and then will be released on Netflix on December 11th.

QUEER** - BFI London Film Festival 2024 - Day 10

This is a long film for little plot or interiority.  It proceeds as follows:  ageing disheveled junkie called Lee hooks up with younger man called Eugene who may or may not actually be queer in 1950s Mexico.  They travel to a tropical jungle to take ayahuasca, have a trippy experience, then part. Decades later the older guy is apparently still in love with the boy. And even this overdoes the level of narrative propulsion which is basically nil. I never felt as though I had a handle on whether Lee was actually in love or in lust until the final five minutes of the film. I didn't feel invested in the relationship or the intricacies of whether Lee was a trick or a love interest for Eugene.  There's a limit to how far you can watch Daniel Craig drink tequila in a linen suit.

Still, there are a few redeeming features to this film.  The needle drops featuring Nirvana and Prince are anachronistic but effective.  There's a wonderfully unexpected and bonkers and against type cameo from Lesley Manville (Disclaimer).  Director Luca Guadagnino and his leads, Daniel Craig and Drew Starkey, are admirably brave in depicting gay sex. And as I said before, the final five minutes were genuinely moving. But boy there was a lot of self-indulgent, handsomely produced, but utterly dull chaff to wade through to get to the grain.

QUEER has a running time of 135 minutes. It played Venice, Toronto and London 2024. It goes on release in the USA on November 27th and in the UK on December 13th.

WE LIVE IN TIME* - BFI London Film Festival 2024 - Day 10

WE LIVE IN TIME is a sub-Richard Curtis attempt at a tragicomic romance from director John Crowley (BROOKLYN) and writer Nick Payne (A SENSE OF AN ENDING). The film is so mannered and meet-cute and interior designed to within an inch of its life that I was utterly alienated from it. Its utter lack of authenticity robbed me of emotional engagement with what should’ve been a deeply emotional film.

Andrew Garfield (THE EYES OF TAMMY FAYE) gurns his way through the film as the nerdy and conventional Tobias (oh yes!) who is run over by the 2024 version of a Manic Pixie Dream Girl played by Florence Pugh (DUNE: PART TWO).  Pugh’s Almut Bruehl (oh yes!) is a cool, unconventional, highly competitive, bisexual hipster chef. They fall in love, break up over whether to have children, she gets cancer, they have a kid, she gets cancer again, wins a cooking competition and dies.  That’s literally it.  

There’s no emotional growth or even emotional tension beyond a small spat at the start when the man asks the woman if she wants kids.  The excruciatingly embarrassing and improbable meet-cute is trumped by an even more excruciating and improbable birth-cute?  Worst of all, there’s no dramatic tension because the film has a non-linear structure.  

What a waste of a fine actress.

WE LIVE IN TIME is rated R and has a running time of 107 minutes. It played Toronto and London 2024. It was released in the USA on October 11th and will be released in the UK on Jan 1st 2025.