LOVELACE

The weird thing about LOVELACE is that it isn't a film about the porn industry. It isn't BOOGIE NIGHTS.  It's a film about domestic abuse. It's WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT. And like that Tina Turner biopic, this Linda Lovelace biopic is rather melodramatic and grim and over-wrought - it moves you, and features a very good leading performance, but it it often feels like a TV afternoon movie.

So for anyone under a proverbial rock, Linda Lovelace was the 1970s porn star of DEEP THROAT, the commercial success that popularised a certain type of fellatio and made it chic to take a date to a porno.  She achieved a cross-over fame, but not success, and for a brief moment was a pop-culture icon.  However, she later wrote a book claiming that her abusive husband had long since been pimping her out, even forcing her to star in animal porn, and that she made DEEP THROAT under duress. She never saw a dime, eventually found the courage to leave him, and tried to make some kind of normal life as a wife, mother and anti-porn campaigner.  This story has been told before, in Linda's own best-selling book, Ordeal, as well as in the documentary INSIDE DEEP THROAT.

In this movie, writer Andy Bellin sticks closely to Ordeal but definitely leaves out a lot of the harsher material concerning the early years of hooking, the bestiality - which apparently, shockingly, involved Hugh Heffner - and the weird affair with Sammy Davis Junior.  Bellin focuses on the story of domestic abuse and uses a clever conceit to contrast this with the public image of Linda as a smiling, willing porn star.  So the first half of the film shows us the headlines - innocent naive loved-up Linda trips and falls into porn, has a blast, becomes famous! We then revisit those same events and see her husband Chuck Traynor's manipulation, abuse and coercion. In this view, Linda did porn under the threat of a gun, with bruises on her legs, and the crew knew about it. 

The resulting movie plays as a deeply affecting melodrama.  Amanda Seyfriend is utterly convincing and utterly desperate as Linda. Peter Sarsgaard seems typecast but efficient in his portrayal as Traynor, effectively amping up his performance from AN EDUCATION. The real scene stealer is Sharon Stone as Linda's mother - almost unrecognisable in her ageing domineering prude role. She has very little screen time and has to do some horrible things but we always understand her complicated motivations.  The rest of the cast just feels like a parade of famous faces in over-the-top 70s costumes - and this becomes, at times, distracting. Did we really need James Franco as the Hef, or Chloe Sevigny? As for the direction, other than the conceit of the folded back narrative, it's pretty pedestrian, but I did like DP than choosing to use a kind of sun-bleached 16mm look to give the movie some nostalgia contrasted with the higher-def look of the later "real" scenes. 

You can hear a podcast review of this movie here, or subscribe to Bina007 Movie Reviews in iTunes.

LOVELACE has a running time of 93 minutes and has been rated R in the USA and 18 in the UK for strong sex and sex references and domestic abuse.

LOVELACE played Sundance and Berlin 2013 and is currently on release in the USA, Canada, Croatia, the UK and Ireland. It opens in Brazil and Taiwan on August 30th, in Estonia on September 6th, in the Netherlands on September 19th, in Denmark on November 21st and in Sweden on November 29th. 

SOUTHCLIFE EPISODE FOUR: ALL SOULS

In the fourth of Channel 4's event drama, SOUTHCLIFFE, it is a year after Stephen Morton went on a mass shooting in the seaside town, and we see the devastating impact of those events on its victims' families.  The parents of the teenage girl, Anna Salter (Kaya Scodelario) take up most of the screen time.  Disturbed mother Claire (Shirley Henderson) becomes obsessed with an immigrant woman that she is believes has been forced into prostitution and takes desperate measures to infiltrate the so-called brothel and free her.  Her husband Andrew (Eddie Marsan) is supportive but uncomprehending and lost in his own grief.  The other major story is that of journalist David Whitehead (Rory Kinnear)  who returns to Southcliffe having received a mysterious note, ostensibly to investigate whether Stephen Morton is still alive, but really it's to pick at his old grudge against the town that covers up its own scandals.  

The final episode of SOUTHCLIFFE peters out and merely comes to an end without any kind of resolution. Maybe that's the point that writer Tony Grisoni wants to make - that a town never really recovers or moves on or gets closure from such events. The wounds are deep and fester and even decades later the grudges are still there. The problem is that this makes for a drama that is alternately hysterical and melodramatic (Claire Salter) or almost numbingly dull (David Whitehead.) I am not sure what, at the end of this series, has been achieved, other than four hours of unrelentingly grim, dour and depressing drama.  It was not engaging, it did not reveal any great emotional insight, and certainly wasn't entertaining. 

THE THIRD EPISODE OF SOUTHCLIFFE ORIGINALLY AIRED IN THE UK ON AUGUST 18TH. 

KICK-ASS 2

You can listen to a podcast review of this film by clicking here, or by subscribing in iTunes.

KICK-ASS 2 is a movie about two kids who happened to be masked vigilantes, working out whether to turn their backs on a life of danger and try to be "normal". In other words, should they stop subverting justice, stop swearing and stop beating people up?  The movie itself happens to be grappling with exactly the same problem.  And while writer-director Jeff Wadlow has his hero and heroine throw off the shackles of society and embrace their destiny, he himself has the balls of a little girl - well, any little girl except Hit Girl.  Wadlow chokes, giving us the same egregious violence and swearing as the original, but couching every single scene with heavy-handed parental guidance, quite literally giving Hitgirl a swear jar. 

The resulting film is not without its fun.  I had a good enough time during its 100 minute run-time. I loved Chloe Moretz as Mindy, struggling with the Mean Girls at school, and spoofing one of my favourite teen movies, FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF.  She steals the show as the teenage girl who gets her first crush, goes on her first date, and puts the mean girls in their place.  Brilliant!  I even liked the nascent romance between Aaron Taylor-Johnson's Kick-Ass and Night-Bitch.  There was a little dust in the theatre when Dave/Kick-Ass faces the consequences of his continued vigilante activity, and I really do want to see what happens to Dave and Mindy in the inevitable threequel.

But most of the rest of the movie falls flat. Ser Jorah Mormont looks completely out of place - far too good/serious a performance - as Chris/Red Mist/The Motherf***er's uncle.  By contrast, Jim Carrey is utterly anonymous as Colonel Star-and-Stripes. In fact, I literally forgot he was in the movie.  And the subversive swearing just seemed gratuitous once it lost its shock value from the first film.  

So, overall, a mixed experience.  KICK-ASS is what it is. It needs to stop doubting itself, and pandering to its critics, and just revel in its gonzo madness. Bringing back the original director, Matthew Vaughn, would be a good start. 

KICK-ASS 2 has a running time of 103 minutes. It is rated R in the USA, and somewhat generously, 15 in the UK for strong bloody violence, sex references and very strong language.

KICK-ASS 2 is on release in the UK, USA, Ireland, the Philippines, Austria, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy, Switzerland, Canada, Cyprus, Finland, India, Latvia, Mexico, Romania, Sweden and Turkey. It opens on August 21st in Belgium and France; on August 22nd in Australia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, the Netherlands, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia and Thailand; on August 23rd in Estonia, Iceland, Norway, Poland and Taiwan; and on August 29th in Denmark, Malaysia and Portugal; and on August 30th in Spain and Lithuania. It opens on September 5th in Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Russia, Serbia, Ukraine and the UAE. It opens on September 11th in Egypt; on September 12th in Croatia; on September 13th in Indonesia and on September 27th in Panama and South Africa. It opens on October 4th in Colombia; on October 9th in South Korea; on October 10th in Argentina and Chile; on October 17th in Peru and on October 18th in Brazil.

SOUTHCLIFFE EPISODE THREE: SORROW'S CHILD

In the third episode of Channel 4's event drama, SOUTHCLIFFE, we see further fall out from the mass shooting. A grieving father stages a macabre funeral in which everyone wears morning dress and the organist plays hear comes the bride, before descending into suicidal madness. Another grieving father speaks to his teenage daughter's corpse as if she were alive.  The towns turns against the press, particularly brooding and resentful returning son David Whitehead (Rory Kinnear.) His buttoned-up repressed anger turns into a violent accusing rant in a local pub that goes viral. And rumours of a conspiracy surface - is the killer really dead?

I have to say that I am really struggling with Southcliffe, and outside of a couple of beautifully staged set-pieces - the wedding-funeral and tghe  - the pace is too slow, the emotional reactions to predictable, and worst of all, the accusations of a conspiracy just too melodramatic for a production that has sought to remain gritty, realistic and profound. The performances are strong, despite the writing.  I'm still not convinced that Anatol Yusef has the chops to carry the conflict and violent mood swings of grieving father Paul, but Rory Kinnear remains compelling. Once again, he's the only reason to wade through this dour, slow and ultimately rather tedious mood-piece. 

THE THIRD EPISODE OF SOUTHCLIFFE ORIGINALLY AIRED IN THE UK ON AUGUST 12TH. 

YOU'RE NEXT

You can listen to a podcast review of this movie below, or subscribe to Bina007 Movie Reviews in iTunes.

YOU'RE NEXT is a properly laugh-out loud funny, sometimes spoofy, sometimes properly scary horror movie from  director Adam Wingard.  Once you get attuned to the fact that he's playing it for laughs, abetted by straight-faced actors, you can sit back and enjoy this wonderfully camp twist on the final-girl home invasion horror.

In writer Simon Barrett's set-up, a preppie extended family gathers in an isolated swanky mansion for a reunion.  They soon descend into jealous sniping and convey their contempt for the hipster indie film-maker boyfriend of one of the daughters (a nice touch, that!) But we know from the obligatory adulterer-and-slut-slasher prologue that mayhem is about to be unleashed.  The plot unfolds for an enjoyable fifty minutes or so, with a satisfyingly gory pile  up of bodies, and the brilliant fun of watching the sweet Aussie girlfriend (Sharni Vinson) transform into a practical no-nonsense heroine. I also love how the snarky competitive elder brother remains snarky and competitive even with an arrow through his back: "I'm the fastest runner but I have an arrow through my back!" Joe Swanberg at his finest.

Sadly, the first of the three twists - or really the major twist that sets up the two sub-twists - is a bit predictable, and also a bit rootless. In other words, it coulda been anyone, and it's clearly just a convenient plot point rather than anything more meaty.  The second twist is even more predictable - absences in horror always are.  The final twist was the funniest and most tragic and I kinda wish Wingard had stuck with it, but there we are. I can see the emotional justification for the alternative route.  

All of which is coded language that signifies the following:  the acting and dialogue are sometimes deliberately obvious, but Sharni Vinson in particular is absolutely superb and a charismatic screen presence.  The movie may jump the shark in terms of going Full Comedy in the final twenty minutes - all that 80s synth music when the Final Girl goes MacGuyver - but I had a fantastic time watching it, and could easily watch it again just for that blender scene. There's many a studio comedy that never approaches this level of entertainment, and there's brilliantly inventive gore too.

YOU'RE NEXT has a running time of 96 minutes and is rated R in the USA and 18 in the UK for strong bloody violence.

YOU'RE NEXT played Toronto 2011 and opens in the USA on August 23rd, when it also plays Frightfest. It opens on August 28th in Belgium, Ireland and the UK.  It opens in Spain on August 30th, in France on September 4th, in Greece on September 5th, in Poland on September 6th, in Argentina on September 12th, in Denmark and Italy on September 19th, in Chile on September 26th, and in New Zealand on October 17th. 

SILENCE

SILENCE is a high concept arthouse movie that for 90 minutes sees a sound recordist called Eoghan stand contemplatively in the gorgeous Irish countryside trying to record the sound of pure nature, without man's intervention.  This is interspersed with random old duffers reading poetry or hinting at Irish folklore.  I really wanted to like the flick - you've got to admire such an unashamedly challenging and purist project, as well as be fascinated by some of the (simulated?) old footage of Irishmen on the move.  But my god, was I bored.  The fact that Collins doesn't bother to create characters or plot is, of course, his point, but without any conventional narrative to cling to, I soon became bored of bored looking Eoghan staring into space.  Of course, there are ways to do a successful nostalgic homage to the land of our fathers. I am reminded of Guy Maddin's MY WINNIPEG.  But this really just isn't one of them unless you are the most masochistic of arthouse cinephiles.

SILENCE has a running time of 87 minutes and has been rated PG in the UK.  It was released in Ireland in November 2012 and is currently on release in the UK, as well as being available to download on demand.

This movie review is available as a podcast below, or by subscribing to Bina007 Movie Reviews in iTunes.