THE OLD MAN & THE GUN - BFI London Film Festival 2018 - Day Four - Official Competition

In the words of Mr Phil, THE OLD MAN & THE GUN is "Wes Anderson directs Ocean's 80". What he means by that is that this is a wonderfully stylish, witty, smart caper film with a wry sense of humour and way too much charisma for its own good.  

The movie stars Robert Redford as the real life bank robber Forrest Tucker - a man so addicted to and made happy by robbing banks that he did it pretty much his whole life! Of course, he was also periodically caught by the cops, and so periodically busted out - not least in an audacious self-made small boat from San Quentin!  If the character sounds larger than life, Robert Redford looks like he's having an absolute ball in the role, and takes us along with him for the ride.  One of the funniest moments is when Tucker meets the cop who's trying to catch him - a wonderful Casey Affleck - and you can't tell if Affleck is laughing at the insanity of the encounter in character, or just at how much fun Redford is having for real. Add to this a super performance from Sissy Spacek as Redford's love interest and some truly authentic naturalistic performances from Affleck's character's kids, and you have a movie with a lot of heart.

Behind the lens, I loved David Lowery's sense of style and fun - his DP Joe Anderson's fluid, elegant camera-work, and a truly beautiful jazz-infused score from Daniel Hart. But to be honest, I can't single out everything I love because there's literally nothing I don't like about this film. In fact, it's one of my films of the year.

THE OLD MAN & THE GUN is rated PG-13. The film played Toronto and London 2018. It was released in the USA on September 28th 2018. It comes out in the UK on December 7th. 

CHRISTINE - BFF LFF 2016 - Day 6

In 1974, a field reporter on a local TV station committed suicide live on air.  This film, by director Antonio Campos, gives us the context for that notorious act, in a film of rare empathy with its subject - Christine Chubbuck.  Actress Rebecca Hall gives us a portrait of a smart woman of integrity, who volunteers with disabled children and truly cares about social issues.  But  who somehow can't quite connect with the world around her.  Even when people are reaching out to her, she becomes defensive or mishears the complement. And yet she is desperately lonely to the point of not even being able to have a cup of coffee with a co-worker.  And when her boss tells her to change the tone of her news reports to appeal to more viewers, Christine simply can't bring herself to compromise. This is most heartbreakingly depicted in a scene where a co-worker takes her to a kind of culty new-age therapy group where she has to take part in an exercise with another girl.  Christine explains that she's lonely, and so sick that she may not be able to have a child, and that she can't get the promotion she so desires and retain her journalistic integrity.  The other girl asks tells Christine that she should adjust her expectations of life but Christine simply can't comprehend this as an option.  And so we move to the grim finale of the film.

CHRISTINE is a meticulous film. The production and costume design perfectly recreate the mid-70s small-town milieu. I also really loved the almost tangible feel and sound of using clunky old recording and editing equipment.  We get a real sense of what it was like to be a journalist in that era, and more importantly, of Christine's desire to master journalistic techniques and her perfection in how to cut together a segment of television.  But this is first and foremost a nuanced character study by an actress of exceptional talent.  I felt genuinely moved by the film and by her performance and it's testament to the director's respectful tone that even though the suicide is explicitly depicted, it never feels exploitative. Kudos to all involved.

CHRISTINE has a running time of 119 minutes and is rated R.  CHRISTINE played Sundance, Toronto and London 2016 and opens next week in the USA.

BLEEDING HEART aka BOUND BY BLOOD

BLEEDING HEART is a surprisingly melancholy slow burning relationship drama between two newly united sisters. The former is a textbook bleeding heart liberal yoga teacher played by Jessica Biel. The latter is a sex worker played by Zosia Mamet.  Cinema cliche would have the former try to save the latter, but in increasingly antagonistic phonecalls to her boyfriend, we realise the yoga teacher needs as much saving as the hooker. The only tragedy is that writer-director Diane Bell can't think of a more narratively and emotionally interesting denouement for this tale of mutual female empowerment than the one she gives us.  Nonetheless, a nicely filmed and acted, if ultimately slight film.

BLEEDING HEART aka BOUND BY BLOOD has a running time of 80 minutes.  The movie played Tribeca 2015 and was released straight to video in the USA last year. It is now available on streaming services in the UK.

THE GREY

Joe Carnahan (THE A-TEAM, SMOKIN' ACES, NARC) delivers a raw, pure, man versus nature thriller that delivers on every level - empathetic, tense, emotionally affecting, beautiful, brutal. Based on a short story by Ian Mackenzie Jeffers, the movie follows a group of workers in the arse-end of Alaska. Their plane home crashes into the snowbound wildnerness, leaving the handful of "survivors" to battle against extreme cold and some hard-core mean wolves. Against such extreme stakes, we learn a little about their past lives, and a lot about their characters. We start to care about them just as it becomes clear that the Joe Carnahan is not going to pull any punches. A lot has been said about how this is a classic "man versus nature" epic, wrestling back Hollywood from the pretty boys. But to me, it played more like a character study set against some awesome landscapes and with a lot of genuine scares. Particular kudos to the cast of "B-listers" who add real pathos to the film - Joe Anderson, Dermot Mulroney, Frank Grillo, Nonso Anozie, and in particular Dallas Roberts (Alicia's brother in THE GOOD WIFE.) But no-one's going to deny that this is really Liam Neeson's film. His transformation from Irish character actor to Hollywood action hero is surprising until you see him in action. There is no actor who drips more integrity, competence, and - in a stunning final scene that drips into a post-credit shot - more bad-assery. I loved every minute of it. 

THE GREY was released this weekend in the USA, UK, Canada, Ireland and Turkey. It opens on February 3rd in Lithuania; on February 16th in Australia and Poland; on February 23rd in Belgium, Denmark, Singapore, Romania and Spain; on February 29th in France; on March 8th in the Netherlands; on March 20th in Norway; and on April 12th in Argentina and Germany.

LOVE HAPPENS - undeserved

LOVE HAPPENS is the excruciatingly dull and self-important debut feature from writer-director Brandon Camp. It features Aaron Eckhart as a self-help guru who coaches grieving Americans on how to reclaim their lives. Irony being that he has yet to confront the death of his own wife. He will do this through his nascent romance with an earnest florist (Jennifer Aniston in a beanie hat and pigtails, which is how we know she's earnest and tree-hugging). Their budding romance is egged along by her quirky girlfriend (a typecast Judy Greer). The final act emotional breakthrough is nursed along by the grieving father-in-law (Martin Sheen). In a movie filled with trite one-liners about the grieving process, and written to a quality that is undeserving of its profound subject matter, the only really authentic emotion is expressed by John Carroll Lynch (SHUTTER ISLAND) in his role as a grieving father.

LOVE HAPPENS was released last autumn and is available on DVD.

CONTROL left me wondering why Toby Kebbell and Samantha Morton aren't more famous than, say, Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley

CONTROL is a bloody brilliant biopic of Ian Curtis. I'm assuming everyone who is thinking of seeing this is already a fan and doesn't need me to explain how iconic Curtis is and what a tragic story this is. Suffice to say that this adaptation does him no dis-service. It's based on the book by Curtis' wife Debbie and directed by Anton Corbijn - the Dutch photographer and video director. Corbijn completely understands how to capture the grime and the beauty of ordinary life, and does so in stunning black and white photography. He also understands how to photograph gigs and how to make an ordinary Northern lad, still working at the labour exchange, look like an idol once the stage lights go on. Another big directorial choice is to let the young cast recreate the songs rather than mime them. This might piss off purists but it helps the performances hang together. The casting is perfect. Samantha Morton gives another outstanding performance as Curtis' young loyal wife; Sam Riley is heart-breaking in the central role; Joe Anderson as Hooky portrays a diametrically opposed character to the dappy hippy of ACROSS THE UNIVERSE, showing his range; and Toby Kebbell steals every scene he's in as Rob Gretton. The only slight problem I have with the movie is its decision to perpetuate the Tony-Wilson-signing-the-contract-in-his-own-blood myth. But the scene is so funny what can you do?! Seriously, folks, this movie demands your time and earns your respect. I would, however, love to hear how anyone who hadn't heard of Curtis reacted to the film.....

CONTROL played Cannes and Toronto 2007. It is currently on release in Belgium, France and the UK. It opens in the US and the Netherlands next week and in Greece, Australia, and Norway later in October. It opens in Germany on January 10th 2008.

The best bit in ACROSS THE UNIVERSE was when the stupid hippie blew himself up

Oh dear. ACROSS THE UNIVERSE is a bit of an embarassment. Director Julie Taymor of FRIDA fame decides to make a high-concept film. She'll paint a love story against the backdrop of Vietnam and the summers of love, people it with rock stars and set it to re-worked Beatles songs. I was a bit dubious about the concept from the start, mainly because I hate the way in which West End theatres have been filled with lazy musicals. Take MAMMA MIA or WE WILL ROCK YOU or the countless imitators. All they do is stitch together the greatest hits of whoever, making trite love stories out of corny lyrics. The plot and character development are hostage to the next three-minute number. Of course, you could argue that The Beatles would respond better to such a treatment. After all, the songs are of infinitely higher quality than your average pop song and they are peopled with colourful characters. Moreover, the Beatles story is iconic precisely because it reflects back the fall of innocence of a generation and the nasty hangover that was the 70s.

So maybe it could work. Maybe. Maybe not.

Julie Taymor, Dick Clement and Ian le Frenais simply fail to fashion a convincing story that hangs together apart from the songs. Basically, what we have is a very thin love story between an american girl called Lucy and a travelling scouser called Jude. (Yes, yes, it's THAT obvious.) Lucy's elder brother gets shipped off to Vietnam and their flatmate Sadie is in a rock band with a quasi-Hendrix and a sapphic ex-cheerleader. The lovers meet, they hang out, she becomes an activist, he doesn't, he gets deported back to Blighty, and then they all get back together again because, after all, ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE.

It was pretty depressing to see this great anthem, that always struck me as hugely outward looking and political, reworked as introspective, trivial love song. But that pretty much sums up the film. The backdrop may be radical but the action is petty. There are hints early on that the film will tackle the black and gay experience of the decade but it barely scratches the surface. It's examination of the Vietnam war experience is pretty sketchy too.

So, story aside, what of them musical numbers? Most of the songs are straightforward renditions to screen and the visualisations, like the naming of the characters, is pretty ham-fisted. On occasion, the performances are also under-whelming. Joe Anderson as Lucy's brother Max simply can't match the raw energy of HEY JUDE and perhaps surprisingly Bono is pretty lacklustre in his rendition of I AM THE WALRUS. (Although he turns out to be surprisingly good as Doctor Roberts.) Having said that, the only song that I thought was really badly staged was I'VE JUST SEEN A FACE, purely because it seemed to rip on the infinitely better bowling sequences in LEBOWSKI.

There are exceptions though, that almost, but not quite, make this movie worth seeing. I thought the most honest and movingly sung number was TV Carpio's rendition of I WANNA HOLD YOUR HAND, sung as a love-song of closeted homosexuality. After that, I really liked the grungy angry version of COME TOGETHER, sung by Joe Cocker. Dana Fuchs and Martin Luther clearly also rock. In terms of the visualisation of the numbers, as I said before, I was disappointed to see that most were pretty banal. But I WANT YOU stands out as a bit of fantastic cinema. It's imagined as a song sung by Army recruiters to conscripted young men and its full of great choreography and real imagination. Eddie Izzard was also fantastic as Mr Kite. It's a shame Julie Tayor didn't let rip more often.

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE played Toronto 2007 and is already on release in the US and UK. It is realeased in Australia, Slovenia, Turkey, Estonia, Germany, Italy and France in November and in Belgium on December 19th. It is released in Singapore on Janary 10th and in the Netherlands on February 14th 2007.

COPYING BEETHOVEN - copying AMADEUS more like

COPYING BEETHOVEN is an insulting film on every level. Everything from its very concept to the minutiae of the acting performances offends the viewer. At worst, the writers lift scenes wholesale from the brilliant AMADEUS. The theft is all the more offensive because they have taken a work that is subtle, sophisticated and brilliantly executed and turned it into something crude and, at times, laughable.

The film opens with a young woman in a carriage rushing to the death-bed of a famous composer in Vienna. Not Constanze to Mozart, but a young composition student called Anna Holtz (Diane Kruger) rushing to the bed of Ludwig van Beethoven (Ed Harris.) There are some touching words. Sadly, they do not touch us because we are not yet involved in the story and do not yet empathise with the characters

We then switch back in time. An even younger Anna Holtz is sent to be Beethoven's copyist: to transcribe his hastily written scrawl into clear notation that can then by copied for all the musicians who are about to premiere his ninth symphony. Ed Harris' Beethoven takes on the vulgar mannerisms of Shaffer/Hulce's Mozart - mooning the prudish copyist and farting through her work. Harris' accent is also uneven. Kruger's is merely jarring, as is the entire concept that a young woman would have the liberty to attend a composer alone in his apartment or that she would dare "correct" LVB's work or that he would have her conduct his symphony covertly, but then bring her onto stage! (And no, Kruger is NOT convincing in the pivotal conducting scene.) The whole concept is as laughable as the excruciatingly embarassing "wash me" scene.

As the drama progresses we meet an under-used Matthew Goode as Anna's doting but uncomprehending boyfriend and an under-used Phyllida Law as Anna's Mother Superior aunt. Joe Anderson (BECOMING JANE) over-acts horribly as Beethoven's scrounging but sadly oppressed nephew Karl.

LVB arrogantly proclaims to be the commanded by God to compose, making Anna God's secretary. Anna, suffering from another vicious attack from LVB, questions her relationship with God in a scene that echoes Salieri's conversations in AMADEUS - why have you given me the talent but not the opportunity replaces why have you given me the desire but not the talent. And then, in a final act of "inspiration", writers Christopher Wilkinson and Stephen J Rivele (ALI, NIXON) directly quote the Salieri-Mozart death-bed composition scene. There is even the same use of words: "I have you."

What is left to praise in this wishy-washy vulgar film? Well, in an era of DV cinema, Ashley Rowe's superb cinematography is to be praised, as is Alex Mackie's editing and Paul Ghirardani & Lorand Javor's art direction. But absolutely everything else is a shameless quotation from a far better film.

COPYING BEETHOVEN was released in the US in autumn 2006 and has since been on global release. It is currently on release in Belgium and the UK. It is also available on Region 1 DVD.