Fiddler on the Roof - Sunrise Sunset

Just finished watching Fiddler on the Roof.  Wonderful storytelling.  Felt the need to share the film's centrepiece song Sunrise Sunset.  Sung during the wedding of Tzeitel and Motel, the sung is sweet, moving and beautifully performed here with an Oscar-winning arrangement.  Tear-jerking for all the right reasons.

The Favourite - not quite my favourite

Earlier this year Olivia Coleman won an Oscar for her performance as Queen Anne in The Favourite.  She has been a stalwart of British TV and transatlantic film for years, and rightfully was honoured for the work she has been involved in.  It feels like there is a limit number of female actors who are allowed to be big stars as they age, Coleman is only 45, but the industry appears to be grooming her as the next Judi Dench.  Why else would she be cast as two versions of the British monarch in two years (she has since been cast as our very own Liz in the 4th series of The Crown)?  Watching The Favourite reveals why she was the Academy's choice this year, her character swings from the regal to the mad, from isolation to outrageous expressiveness, and crucially goes through a decent into weakness and madness that bares her inner self.  It's a classic Oscar-bait role.

The Favourite puts a 17th century spin on both the class and gender differences that lie at the heart of Western society.  Starring alongside Coleman is an actress who matches her step for step - Rachel Weisz is outstanding as Anne's confidant, secret lover and #1 adviser Sarah Churchill.  It's a story about how throughout history there have been women as powerful, driven and Machiavellian as any men in the modern era, and men as vain and love-stricken as any doting 1950s wife was expected to be.  The plot focuses on intrigue at court as Queen Anne's health fails and war in France comes to its final stages.  Churchill attempts to run the country and military over the lesser-qualified heads of the simpering men of parliament.  Into this lands Churchill's cousin Abigail Marsham (Emma Stone) - vying to regain influence in the only way a woman in the 17th century could rely, through the favour of a man (or perhaps woman) of power and wealth.

Filmed on site at Hatfield house in Hertfordshire, the production team have gone to extraordinary lengths to capture the location on screen.  The cinematography makes liberal use of a fish eye lens, often sitting in one locations and pivoting around to follow movement - bringing to the attention of the viewer the fact this is very much not a set.  Extensive use of candle light necessitates expert lighting to keep everything as dark as possible while picking out facial detail - perfectly executed here.  The film rightly won Oscars for both production design and costume.  Black and white costumes feature strongly amongst its female protagonists, emphasising their role as central power-brokers as opposed to simpering extras.

All this praise, and yet The Favourite didn't completely grip me.  Perhaps it was the niggling feeling that the use of the fish eye lens was mostly to show off Hatfield House rather than an artistic decision?  Perhaps 'intrigue at court' plot lines featuring British monarchs have become so commonplace that they bore me?  Perhaps there's a subconscious part of my brain getting discombobulated by the lack of patriarchy (all those simpering make-up-wearing idiots chasing adoringly after partially-interested women - is this what it is like to watch most films as a woman?).  Whatever it is, I'm sure it will recede upon a second viewing - there are simply too many good things to say about this film.  The Favourite is obviously a film I will recommend.

BlacKkKlansman - Spike Lee isn't it

Spike Lee has spent a career making the films America needed to see.  I have sometimes wondered if Lee's films would be as well-regarded if there was more black directors telling these stories.  His films are sometimes too shmaltzy and play to a contemporary audience at the expense of longevity (Do the Right Thing is extraordinarily dated in its style, 25th Hour is laden with visual cues that were powerful in the aftermath of 9/11 - less so as time goes on) - but he is always telling the story that America needs to hear.  His films are striking and carry weight to a contemporary audience.  All films are political - Lee's always more overtly than others.  Sometimes though, overt is good.  Overt is powerful.  Overt makes you think.

BlacKkKlansman was made in 2017 in the aftermath of the ascension of Donald Trump to the US presidency, and the ushering in of an era of regressive racial politics, reversal of social gains and unleashing of a new wave of racism on to American streets.  It seemed as if years of liberal social progress was being wiped out in a moment, with an increase in police murders of young black men and fascists emboldened on America's streets aping the president's codified racism.  It is against this background that Lee stepped up to make BlacKkKlansman - adapted from a true story of a black policeman who infiltrated a local KKK group in small town Colorado.  John David Washington is Ron Stallworth - Colorado Springs' first ever black policeman.  His first job is to spy on a civil rights rally, but soon stumbles across the local KKK cell - calling them to make contact and before long being invited along to meetings.  Adam Driver plays Stallworth's partner Flip Zimmerman, himself Jewish and as much an outsider to the KKK as Ron himself.  However Zimmerman is white, and so is able to infiltrate the KKK meetings in person, pretending to be Stallworth.

The film makes two crucial points.  One is that laughing at racists is good.  Two is that the racists of the 1970s never went away - they've just been waiting for their time to rise again.  The script borrows heavily from what any contemporary audience will recognise as Trumpian language, drawing parallels between the leader of the KKK and Trump.  The men and one woman of the KKK that we see are laughably idiotic in their views and behaviours, but never are they anything less than dangerous.  As it was in the 1970s so it is now, the danger posed by hatred on our streets is frightening and real, and should be countered wherever it is found.

I was initially disappointed that Stallworth's character wasn't more rounded.  He appears at the start of the film almost as a Deus ex Machina ready to kick KKK ass on the white bred streets of Colorado.  Who is he?  Why is he here?  My girlfriend pointed out that this is actually a strength in the film.  Stallworth could be anyone.  It doesn't matter who he is or how he got here, he's an average American Joe who wants to be a cop, meet a nice girl and build a future.  He could be any one of us.  He shouldn't have to justify his existence or feel a gripping fear when getting searched by the police just because of the colour of his skin.  The fact he does have to think and feel that way is what is wrong with America.  It has been wrong for a very long time, and a divisive president in the white house isn't going to heal those wounds any time soon.  The best artists like Lee can do is show a mirror to the US and get everyone to ask themselves if this is a society they want to live in.  Lee's final montage of real life events is powerful (to a contemporary audience - see above comments though) and underscores that this is story American needs to see.  We in the UK would do well to remind ourselves that democracy and freedom isn't something we should take granted.  Who knows if we will get our very own Trump one day.  And who knows what will become of this nation.

A Quiet Place - Way to ruin your film

Hello world!

Been a very very long time since I posted anything here.  I am still watching films, and still spending far too much time wondering about what they mean and what I think about them.  Trouble is that my job these days doesn't give me any chance to write reviews in my down-time.  I admit it - must be that 50% or so of reviews here were penned in downtime at my previous jobs.  New job is much more busy.  Much more interesting, but much more busy.  So fewer reviews.

A Quiet Place is - until almost the very last shot - a solid science fiction tale.  It is the near future and something (aliens, creatures from the beyond, something) has invaded the earth and brought humanity to the brink of devastation.  The something experiences the world be sound and vibration only.  So the survivors of the human race live a near-silent existence, wearing soft footwear, tip-toeing around padded environments in fear of making a sound that could be their last.

Emily Blunt and John Krasinski play the adults in a nuclear family that in the pre-credits escape attack at a terrible cost - their youngest son is killed by the alien invaders after he accidentally sets off a loud, toy rocket ship.  A year passes and they have set themselves up a silent subsistence existence on the remnants of a rural farm.  There is constant fear that any sound could bring back the destruction that killed their son, but at the same time life must go on.  The children are growing up, another baby is on the way.  How to carry on in these circumstance?

Bubbling underneath this though, the real story is about everyone actually blaming themselves for everything that has gone wrong.  If only I hadn't given my son that toy...  If only I hadn't left him by himself...  If only...  Everyone has regrets and 'what if's, and everyone hides them.  Here sound is kept to a minimum, communication is scant, there is ample space for family members to hide away themselves, their feelings and thoughts.  Science fiction isn't it?   It's a story about secrets and hidden fears set in a world that physically embodies those fears of speaking out of turn.

Until the final shot.  I'm not going to spoiler anything, even though it isn't exactly The Usual Suspects.  Suffice to say that the film ends on a siege in which the attackers do finally come to the rural idyll and the family finally must confront the issues - both internal and external.  Sacrifices are made, and new heroes arise.  For some reason though, this film of minimal crisp soundscape and thoughtful themes ends on one character cocking a shotgun as the soundtrack ramps up to 11-out-of-10 generic rock   It's utterly non-reflective of the film and a very odd way to smash-cut to black.  Perhaps the idea was to underscore that the family are no longer fearful of their own noise that held them prisoner for so long?  Perhaps.  But shifting the tone of a film towards Bayhem right at the final scene is a bold move.  I'm not sure it works in a film that's a straightforward but heartfelt exploration of  human love and communication.  Nope - not for me.

Way to ruin your film.

Red Sparrow - Largely satisfactory

When Red Sparrow was doing its rounds in the reviews last year, the opinion was largely universal.  All were agreed it was good that Jennifer Lawrence was getting her acting chops into something a little more edgy (though we shouldn't forget she was in Winter's Bone before she became a wannabee for a generation of teenage girls in the Hunger Games saga - hardly a Disney movie), but no one was quite sure if the film itself was actually any good.  Time to find out for myself. 

Edgy is right.  Lawrence plays Dominika Egorova, Russian ballerina who's leg is broken in an 'accident', takes bloody revenge on her partner and is then recruited into the Russian secret service after the state tells her that the care her ill elderly mother relies on will be taken away if she refuses.  So she goes along, initially being raped by a man who is then strangled to death in front of her, then being further coerced into training as a 'Sparrow' - an expert in seduction, working out what it is that people want and using that to be the best spy there is.  Cue multiple scenes of Lawrence being beaten up, beating people up, sexualised violence, torture, the lot.  How will she escape this world?  Will she escape this world?  Edgy indeed.

I'm always happy to see an actor who could easily settle down into the Hollywood mainstream take on different roles.  Viggo Mortensen is the go-to case-in-point here.  Lawrence has a long way to go before she matches his shunning of the mainstream, and Red Sparrow is hardly an indie movie, but its difficult material mean its a film the audience who made her famous are unlikely to seek out.

As usual with a film like this, plenty of people are given ample opportunity to engage in - I presume - awful Russian accents.  Alongside Lawrence herself, Charlotte Rampling, Ciaran Hinds and Matthias Schoenaerts all get to ham it up as various arms of the Russian secret services, pledging allegiance to the state and the president, doing it for the motherland etc.  Do they even try to market these finds in CIS countries?  Probably not.

Perhaps the most surprisingly thing about Red Sparrow is that there's a lot of politics to dissect if you're willing to sit and think about it for a bit.  It's about the way that women are still treated, and are expected to allow themselves to be treated in the modern era.   Even in a post-me-too world, Dominika and her sexuality are commodities that are expected to be of use to the state (i.e. older men).  The plot flirts nicely with the idea of her being 'rescued' by the handsome American spy, with the central turn being about what she can do to beat a system she has being coerces into - go to the Americans, the nice American spy, the Russians, or something else entirely?  Perhaps it's something hinting at #MetToo, something that suggests she is far from turning into the next generation of the brainwashed automaton of the state played by Charlotte Rampling - a new generation with new ideas.  I found the result largely satisfactory, even though the film descends into spy cliche for portions at the start of its final act.

"Largely satisfactory".  Yep - that.

Hereditary - I need to stop comparing all horror to The Witch...

Everyone went mental for Hereditary last year.  Given the absolute and unchanging aversion that my girlfriend has to horror films, not only was I unable to get to the cinema to watch it, I had to wait until she was working late and safety out of the house for several hours before the DVD even got close to the player.  Scares she does not like.  Probably best she never watches this then.

Toni Collette plays Annie, mother of two and daughter to a controlling, steely-gazed matriarch who's funeral opens the film.  Her presence looms over the family, seemingly able to influence daughter Charlie from the beyond.  When further tragedy strikes the family, Annie looks to one of her mother's friends to make contact beyond the grave.  Psychosis, visions, time and space then begin to warp around Annie as she eventually realises the true motivations her own mother had towards Charlie.

It's a film that understands how to do horror, and its place in the genre.  The most obvious comparison is Don't Look Now, but its themes of loss and devil worship also lead to Rosemary's Baby.  There are numerous well-executed unnerving asides, visual illusions and tone-setting changes of lighting / camera movements - Hereditary is a very well-made film, a lot of attention has been paid to the smallest of details.  Milly Shapiro is well-cast as Charlie, her quizzical and slightly awkward appearance defy us to decide if she's about the be the victim or instigator of horrors to come

The opening shot zooms into a dolls house and enters the bedroom in which the film begins.  The implication is that this is somehow unreal, a story within a story or that the characters herein are playthings of puppeteers unknown.  This ties into the eventual themes of demonic influence, action from beyond the grave and loss of control.

I really don't want to do this, but I have to admit that I felt let down by the final few scenes.  Everything kind of gets spelled out nicely, and the camera lingers slightly too long and with too much lighting & focus on the demonic cult that has led Annie down the path of madness.  The mystery of the first two acts is unravelled just a little too much.  I don't want to keep going on about it, but Robert Eggers' The Witch has completely reset my opinion of how much a horror film can and should reveal at its close.  If you can tease just enough to maintain the mystery beyond the closing credits, and allow multiple plausible explanations, then you've aced it.  The fact that the final shine is taken off Hereditary simply because it isn't as strong at its close as The Witch shouldn't detract, but after having expected so much it would be a lie of omission to fail to state it.

Hereditary is an extremely good horror / thriller that will scare the pants of anyone unfamiliar with the genre.  The end of the first act is particularly chilling, and the constant return to death and dread throughout are emphasised by occasional and effective visual jump scares.  It definitely kept me on edge throughout - not bad for this veteran of the genre.  I think the real take-home of this review is that I need to stop comparing every scary movie that comes out from here to the end of time to The Witch - Hereditary is brutal, fascinating, gripping, unflinching and horrifying.  It's great.

It comes at night - horror of the inner self

There is little more terrifying than the loss of civilisation.  The threads that hold our world together are thinner and more frayed than many would want to believe.  The world as humanity knew it has fallen apart for great civilisations of the past.  It could fall apart again for ours - we are not special.  It comes at night is a horror / thriller that's huge in scale but minute in focus.  It concentrates on a small group of people hiding out in a remote cabin in a forest, they have survived day by day since the world outside collapsed.  Disease, chemical attack, alien invasion - it hardly matters.  This family just wants to live and do what they can to avoid losing their son, sanity and humanity.  When a stranger appears asking for help, which will they give up first?

It's a simple premise that's short on answers but asks a lot of pertinent questions about society, family and the lengths one would go to live in peace.  The story is less interested in teasing the viewer with the potential horror of a killer virus, rather we are teased with the very real horror of the reaction to its potential.  For the family, read the civilised world.  With all our interconnections, just-in-time deliveries and instant access, how quickly would a civilised world turn in on itself if even a sliver of that was wrenched away overnight?  Even in a world of plenty, the 'strong men' decry outsiders as invaders 'taking away' the rightful property of the 'natives'.  What horrors lie ahead in a world of chaos and disharmony ravaged by disease?

To anyone looking for a straightforward horror film with the usual signposts - look elsewhere.  The true horror here lies in inner space, amongst the comforting fires of the hearth and surety of the family unit.  By keeping the space of the story locked into a single cabin and its nearby woods, and by using fire-lit interiors whenever possible, the director maintains a singular focus on this.  The horror is knowing that this is now the entirety of the world one can feel safe in, and knowing that to defend it one might have to lose one's humanity.  And if we lose the thing that makes us human, then what is left?

Taxi Driver - the fickle tides of chance

Started the new year in film by ticking off another entry from the list of classic films my girlfriend has never seen.  Being made over 40 years ago now, it is hardly a surprise that only those with a keen interest in film have sought it out.  Robert De Niro's performance was a cultural touchstone for years, but the sheer number of films (and indeed films starring De Niro) that exist for people to consume these days means that Taxi Driver has fallen off the cultural radar.  You lookin' at me? might still be a line that trips off the tongue of the Millennial on the street, but the reason why they know it is slowly being lost in time.  It's not too much of a surprise - after all 43 years is a long time.  Consider for a moment that 43 years before Taxi Driver was made, cinema was only just out of the silent era.

The story told in Taxi Driver remains as powerful now as it ever was.  Robert De Niro is peerless as Travis Bickle - a character who is cipher for a world gone wrong in so many respects.  He is a war veteran who should be respected and offered a path in society.  Instead he is offered a view of the dregs of society, a vision of the world at its lowest, of people acting without fear of consequence in a place where no one would notice the bitterest of crimes, he is a taxi driver in New York circa 1976.  Bickle is introduced without fanfare, without background and without detailed regard for his drive in life other than simply to be able to be.  One wonders if he was nearly a nameless character in a script full of hollow people drifting through these mean streets.  He struggles to sleep and struggles to connect in a world that seems intent on ruining itself through a combination of vice and disregard for others.

Bickle's attempts to connect with Betsy (Cybill Sheppard) are initially naive and sweet, and then eventually coloured by the world around him.  He has come to assume that the scummy world of cheap blue flicks in dingy cinemas must be 'normal', otherwise why would everyone tolerate such things.  The fact that Betsy recoils at this world baffles him.  When Bickle meets the 12 year old Iris (Jodie Foster) he recoils at her scant disregard for being pimped out on New York's streets - even Bickle knows this is a step too far.  He knows he needs to do something to right these wrongs, but what difference can one man on a dark street really make?

Never lurking far from the story of society gone terribly wrong, the film's central theme is chance and the fickle fates that can turn us into heroes or villains, princes or paupers.  Bickle was born into working class drudgery and insomnia rather than into suburbia and opportunity - that's how the cosmic dice rolled.  Bickle is nearly a motiveless murderer, nearly a 1970's Lee Harvey Oswald; instead he is lauded a hero and given a chance at redemption - that's how the cosmic dice rolled.  Anyone could be Travis Bickle.  And while we live in a world insistent on condemning those who's luck wasn't there at life's crucial moments, we continue risking sending those people down a path in which they will do anything (or commit any atrocity) to be noticed.

Taxi Driver remains one of the greatest films ever made.