Roll Film

Blood Diamond

2007-01-26T11:26:00.000Z

Director: Edward Zwick
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Djimon Hounso, Jennifer Connelly

Edward Zwick's (The Seige, The Last Samurai) latest film is one of the most powerful films you will see this year. It's Hollywood with a conscience - almost.

Blood (or conflict) diamonds are gems that are mined and sold by terrorists/freedom fighters (delete according to your political persuasion) to fund their cause. This film, set during the civil war in Sierra Leone in the 1990s, focuses on two completely different Africans. Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounso) is a fisherman, trying to raise a family and get a good education for his son. His life is thrown into turmoil when the village is attacked and he is captured by a militia group and forced to work in a diamond mine. While working he finds a large, rare pink diamond, which he hides, just before he is capture by the government forces and put in prison.

Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a white mercenary from Zimbabwe who gets caught trying to smuggle diamonds across the border and ends up in the same prison as Vandy. Archer hears about the pink diamond and tries to convince Vandy to lead him to it so that they can share in the wealth. What starts as a simple task becomes complicated when Vandy discovers his family is in a refugee camp and his son has been taken by the militia to become a child soldier, so the hunt is not only for a diamond but also for a boy. They are joined on the quest by an American journalist Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly).

As the story unfolds, the film addresses many issues relating to the political situation, the ethics of diamond mining, child soldiers and wraps them up in a fantastic action movie filled with powerful emotions. Zwick did a similar thing with his underrated film THE SEIGE, where he looked at the patriot act in the US and took it to a hypothetical conclusion where martial law was enforced in New York.

Although this film does highlight the situation that existed in Sierra Leone in a fictional setting it does not really give a completely impartial view of the situation and tends to favour the diamond companies' version of the situation.

The film portrays the local militia as barbarians, and there is no doubt that they have committed atrocities in the name of their cause, which was to stop the exploitation of their country and the local people by the diamond companies. This may sound like a simplification of a complex situation but one of the greatest fears the diamond companies had about the conflict diamonds was not that they were being used to buy weapons (what do they care if the locals want to kill each other), but that the market was being flooded with cheap gems. De Beers holds a monopoly on the gem market and controls the quantity that enters the market and the price they command. This is never really pointed out in the film. There is a similar situation occurring Nigeria with the crude oil, where local guerillas are attacking installations and kidnapping oil workers to draw attention to the exploitation being carried out by the US oil companies.

However, whatever your political views are about the situation in Africa and the dubious ethics of the diamond market, you can't help but be moved by what happens in the film. Djimon Hounso is superb as the father searching for his son at any cost. He fills the role with such believable passion you can't help feeling for him. DeCaprio's mercenary, Archer, is just that – mercenary – and he does it well, it's a pity his accent doesn't always hold up but it's not any easy one to get right, especially for an American. But that is nit-picking because for the rest of the role he is superb and really looks and acts the part. What's more, Archer starts to develop a heart under the influence of Vandy and Conelly's journalist.

There is plenty of action, which anyone who has seen Zwick's other films will know he does very well. The director also avoids having a clichéd Hollywood happy ending. There is some justice, but not for all.

Apart from my quibble with diamond mining politics – if you had any conscience you wouldn't buy any diamonds, conflict free or otherwise – the film is still one of the most powerful films you will see this year – and it's a great adventure story too. Not to be missed.

Blood Diamond is on general release from January 26 through Warner Brothers.

The Fountain

2007-01-26T11:16:00.000Z

Director: Darren Aranofsky
Cast: Hugh Jackman, Rachel Weisz

Throughout its history, film has been influenced by, and borrowed from, the literary world. Apart from acting as a source for some of the most the world's enduring movie classics (film was once described as storytelling for the illiterate), plays and novels are definitely the origin of film's three-act structure. And let's not forget the recent fascination with trilogies, (even five-part ones à la Douglas Adams). While many filmmakers are under the illusion (or delusion) that they are making works of art that can only be displayed within the refined and hallowed halls of the arthouse cinema and/or international film festivals, with his latest film, Darren Aranofsky seems truly to have taken the artistic convention of the triptych and created a highly original, if sometimes unfathomable, opus.

Spanning two millennia, the film tells the tale of three incarnations of a man (Hugh Jackman in excellent form) obsessed with immortality and the woman (a perfectly cast Rachel Weisz) he loves. In 16th century Spain, he is conquistador Tomas who receives a map from a Franciscan monk showing him the location of the mythical Fountain of Youth among the Mayan ruins of Mexico. (This part of the film makes a nice segue from Mel Gibson's latest directorial effort, APOCALYPTO.) In this section his love is Isabel, the Spanish Queen. Not only does Tomas have to battle against the Spanish Inquisition (and, no, we weren't expecting them), but also against the jungle natives who protect the old Mayan temples, in his search for the mythical tree of life, in order to fulfil his promise and win the Queen's hand.

In the present-day portion of the film Jackman is Tommy Creo, a scientist who is desperately trying to find a cure for the tumour that is killing his wife Izzi. Weisz really shines in this role. Although he makes breakthroughs in regeneration, his obsession with extending life is a marked contrast to his wife's acceptance of death. This is the most accessible section of the movie as it is a fairly straightforward love story, in the vein of LOVE STORY, but one still full of mystery.

The futuristic section is set in the 26th Century as Jackman floats around space in a giant bubble. It's not really clear if he is a cosmonaut or cosmic man, as he alternates between tranquil lotus-pose meditator and agitated tree hugger. This act is the hardest to fathom as it is metaphysical and mystical rather than just plain mysterious.

What I found interesting, in connection with the previously mentioned idea of the film as a triptych, is that film calls to mind Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights. When the panels of that artwork are closed they show a world enclosed in an orb. Whether this was planned by Aranofsky or simply a coincidence I don't know. Triptychs are also used as altarpieces, and the director has definitely created a symbolic and allegorical tale of man's quest for eternal life, one that serves as a warning to those who seek eternal life in the corporeal rather than the spiritual.

As it switches back and forth between the different time zones, the film can be hard to follow and its lofty concepts may alienate audiences as they struggle to get to grips with what is happening on screen. Aranofsky's films are never easy viewing, from the scratchy monochrome and mathematics of PI to the frenetic, drug-fuelled imagery of REQUIEM FOR A DREAM, but they are always thought-provoking and controversial, and THE FOUNTAIN is no exception.

The obsession of the film's protagonist(s) could be seen as a reflection of the director's own obsession with getting the film made. It has been a long on-again-off-again production, as Aranofsky wanted total creative control over the film, something that, for commercial reasons, most studios are reluctant to give to any but the most bankable directors, and even then rarely. To his credit, Aranofsky stuck to his guns and has produced a visually stunning piece of filmmaking; unfortunately it is going to struggle to find an audience. It is definitely not one for the popcorn crowd, but it will undoubtedly become a cult classic alongside auteur works such as Kubrick's 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY and Ken Russell's ALTERED STATES, which were both hits with the chemically-enhanced viewers of their time. While I would never suggest that the best way of seeing this film is in a state of altered consciousness, it's certainly not going to make any less sense if you do. In any case, an open mind is definitely advisable.

If the film appeals to you on any level at all, (unlike most of the critics who saw it at the Venice Film Festival last year), it is worth a second viewing. Alternatively, get hold of the graphic novel, to familiarise yourself with the concept. Aranofsky describes the graphic novel as his "director's cut", as it is based on the story as it was before it was rewritten in order to make it practical to produce as an affordable movie. Like the final film, the graphic novel is not a standard comic book adaptation thanks to Kent Williams stunning artwork. A review of the book can be found here. A cheaper paperback version is now available from Amazon.

Although the film may struggle to find an audience amongst the general cinema-going public, it will appeal to a discerning sci-fi audience who like evocative films that make them ponder life's bigger questions.

THE FOUNTAIN is on release from January 26 through Twentieth Century Fox.

Watch the trailer and exclusive clips from the film here. They are in Windows Media (WMV) format. Mac users should download the free Flip4Mac plug-in to watch them.

Trailer

Queen of Spain

The Dagger

Ambush

Bath scene

Stargazing

The Hospital

Surgery

The Tree

The Lives of the Saints

2007-01-26T11:08:00.000Z

The Lives of the Saints is the first original script by Tony Grisoni, Terry Gilliam's long-time associate (Tideland, The Brothers Grimm, Fear and Loathing). The film is set in one of the low-rent, multicultural areas of North London, inhabited mostly by that volatile combination of Greeks and Turks, and is a magical tale of wish-fulfillment and instant karma. The area is run by Mr Karva, a big, loud and brutal godfather-like man, played with mesmerising force by James Cosmo. He is a man who likes to have his own way and will go to any extreme to get it. Karva's stepson, Othello, has his own ambitions, as does his off-sider, the weak-willed Emilio. The story is initially recounted from the point of view of Roadrunner, an errand runner for Karva, who can't stand still, that is until one night when he stumbles over a lost child in the park, forever changing the lives of those who come in contact with him.

Nothing is ever explained about who the child is or where he came from. We only know he has some sort of mystical, desire-fulfilling power, which only seems to work on one person at a time, creating some great moments of tension and conflict. Young Sam MacLintock quietly underplays the child with equal parts of wide-eyed innocence and Damien-like menace.

The film is co-directed by celebrity photographer Rankin, and film and TV director Chris Cottam. Disappointingly, it is a fairly pedestrian affair, lacking the promise any real original or standout imagery to make the settings appear more magical, in line with the story. There are some powerful scenes, but most of it is fairly mundane, as is the acting, or at least in comparison to James Cosmo's larger-than-life performance. Or maybe that was the directors' intention, to make Karva an even more prominent character.

Having said that, this is one of the more interesting independent feature films to be made in London in recent years, which doesn't rely on familiar landmarks to establish its setting. Let's hope we can see more original movies that make the most of the city's diversity, without relying on stereotypical, urban stories about the obvious crime, racism and social injustices we see in our everyday lives. William Blake saw angels in the trees of Peckham Rye, new filmmakers just need to find that magic. The Lives of the Saints is certainly a step in the right direction.

The Lives of the Saints is on general release from Tartan Films on January 26.

Bobby

2007-01-26T10:11:00.000Z

June 5 1968 saw the end of the hopes and dreams of millions of Americans when Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated at The Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Coming so shortly after the shooting of Martin Luther King, not to mention JFK and Malcolm X, it seemed like the acid-inspired aspirations for universal peace and love had gone down in a hail of bullets. If anyone doubted there was a conspiracy to stop men living in peaceful harmony, they would only have to look at history. Since the Judeo-Roman killing of Christ, it is the great men of peace who have met untimely ends, and never the despots whom governments seemed incapable, or unwilling, to remove. Apart from the four previously mentioned, the names of Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, Pope John Paul 1 and John Lennon immediately spring to mind.

Emilio Estevez's film, Bobby, is not a conspiracy thriller, like Oliver Stone's JFK, nor is it a bio-pic like his Nixon. Bobby is much closer in look and feel to Irwin Allen's star-studded disaster movies of the Seventies, which were as much about the characters as the events surrounding them.

Bobby is set in The Ambassador Hotel during the day leading up to Kennedy's assassination, and focuses on the lives of hotel workers, guests and people from Bobby's campaign office, all of whom become affected by the tragic event. All these characters are fictitious, with only two of them being loosely based on real people, giving Estevez a lot more freedom and scope to develop the characters and story, by creating contemporary archetypes.

With an ensemble cast made up of some of Hollywood's elder statesmen (Harry Belafonte, Anthony Hopkins, Martin Sheen), Brat Pack veterans (Emilio Estevez, Demi Moore, Laurence Fishburne, Christian Slater) and today's young stars (Lindsay Lohan, Elijah Wood, Freddy Rodriguez, Ashton Kutcher), you get characters that fill the screen without ever dominating it. The different story threads weave in and out of each other, with no one story being more important than another. Some are comic, some are tragic but every one carries a message, not only about the era but also about the human condition. Some moments are truly memorable: Laurence Fishburne's speech to the Mexican staff about how to nobly overcome racism, Ashton Kutcher questioning the two interns' reason for taking drugs, Martin Sheen talking to his wife about the futility of materialism. However, it is the words of Robert F. Kennedy that have the most impact, particularly during the final ten minutes.

Rather than use an actor to portray Kennedy, the writer/director uses actual documentary and television footage from the era, which gives the film even more power. As one of Bobby's speeches plays over scenes of war, poverty, racial inequality and corporate corruption, you can't help thinking that nothing has changed in the last 40 years, except for the lack of altruistic statesmen.

Estevez captures the mood and the look of the era, and the loss of innocence that ensued. The clothes, hair and makeup rendered many of the actors unrecognisable, such as Sharon Stone and Ashton Kutcher. Stone, as the beautician wife of the hotel manager (William H. Macy), is completely devoid of any of the glamour for which she is renowned. Kutcher, as the hippy drug dealer, complete with long hair, must have taken lessons from his That 70s Show co-star, Tommy Chong. Although there were early mutterings of Oscar nomination for Demi Moore's portrayal of an alcoholic chanteuse, it is hard to fault almost any of the performances, or to isolate one as better than another, especially as they are all essentially cameos. Never has it been truer that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Absorbing, entertaining and thought-provoking, Bobby is a film not to miss when it opens in cinemas from January 26.

Babel

2007-01-10T13:03:00.000Z

Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Cast: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Gael Garcia Bernal, Koji Yakusho, Rinko Kikuchi
In Moroccan, English, Mexican Spanish, Japanese with English subtitles

The film gets its title from the Biblical tower that was built by a united humanity to try and reach Heaven. As a punishment for their arrogance, God gave the people different languages so they could no longer communicate and continue with the building, and they were then scattered to different parts of the world. Taking its theme from the latter part of this tale, the film focuses on three apparently unrelated tales of people in Morocco, Mexico and Japan, whose lives soon collide. However, this is more a film about the butterfly effect, where one small action has much wider repercussions, rather than a modern-day parable.

What starts with an act of generosity ends up with two young Moroccan boys accidentally shooting an American tourist, not only creating an international diplomatic incident but also impacting on the lives of the shot woman's children, their Mexican nanny and the original owner of the gun.

In keeping with the Babel theme, the film is played out in the native tongues of the countries in which it is set, so we have dialogue in Moroccan, English, Mexican Spanish, Japanese and sign language – the daughter of the gun's original owner is a deaf mute. With an excellent international cast, including Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett (whose talents are sadly underused), Gael Garcia Bernal, Koji Yakusho and Rinko Kikuchi in a stunning performance. Supported by convincing performances from non-professional actors, the sense of drama is maintained throughout. Director Alejandro González Iñárritu (21 GRAMS) manages to keep all the threads together even if the story does get a little bit convoluted at times.

At nearly two and half hours long, it's not light entertainment, but it is engrossing and just about manages to avoid a convenient happy ending.

BABEL is released by UIP and opens nationally on January 19.

Black Book

2007-01-10T12:41:00.000Z

Director: Paul Verhoeven
Cast: Carice van Houten, Sebastian Koch, Thom Hoffman
In Dutch, German and English with English subtitles

Paul Verhoeven is best known for his big Hollywood films, usually involving sci-fi (Total Recall, Robocop) or sex (Basic Instinct, Showgirls). They might not have always met with critical acclaim but they were very popular cult movies. After the disappointing Hollowman, Verhoeven returned to his native Holland and made Black Book (Zwartboek), a film about the Dutch Resistance during the final months of WWII.

The story of Rachel Steinn (Clarice van Houten), a young Jewish cabaret singer, who infiltrates the invading Nazi headquarters as a spy for the resistance, is an amalgam of real characters and true stories. The film manages to avoid the usual clichés associated with wartime Jews. It shows acts of brutality, deceit and kindness from all sides of the conflict, along with plenty of surprises, making for an intensely emotional movie where you never know whom to trust, and your loyalties lie only with the lead.

None of the actors are known outside of their native Netherlands and Germany, but the performances are excellent, showing that it's not just the US and UK who produce quality talent. This film is far removed from the director's Hollywood output, but maintains all the technical prowess that made them popular, to create his most assured film to date.

Black Book is in cinemas from January 19.

Deja Vu

2006-12-19T15:01:00.000Z

Director: Tony Scott
Cast: Denzel Washington, Val Kilmer, Paula Patton, Jim Caviezel, Adam Goldberg

When Tony Scott and Jerry Bruckheimer get together to make a movie you can be pretty sure there's going to be plenty of action, from their first outing together with TOP GUN up to the conspiracy theory thriller, ENEMY OF THE STATE. DÉJÀ VU is their latest collaboration and they've thrown a bit of sci-fi into the mix to make it a more interesting. In this case, the science fiction is that old stalwart, time travel.

Within the first five minutes of the film a New Orleans ferry full of sailors and families is blown up (in a typically spectacular Bruckheimer/Scott way) and ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) agent Doug Carlin (Denzel Washington) is brought in to investigate. His investigation takes a new turn when the body of a woman turns up on the shore, apparently a victim of the blast, but who had died before the explosion happened. It's not until the FBI enlist his talents to help with their retrospective surveillance does Carlin suspect something is going on that he is not being told about. When they finally admit what they can do, Carlin wants to use the technology to prevent the bombing and not to capture the perpetrator after the fact.

The approach to the time travel conundrum is initially handled in a very believable way, where the Feds can only see back four days and are not able to deviate from that time frame. This is great for adding tension, as there are no second chances. What is interesting is the actual science behind the time travel, which kept reminding me of Nikola Tesla's experiments – the blacking out of cities, his theories on time (which were contrary to those of Einstein) and the fictional machine featured in THE PRESTIGE – all of which make the conceit all the more plausible.

Of course, there were incongruities that are inevitable with these concepts and don't really bare too much thought. They all stem around the, "but if he did that how come that happened" scenarios, and for those that like to nit-pick there are plenty of things that stretch poetic license but, to the writer's credit, they are generally handled well. And being a Tony Scott there really isn't too much time to give the scenes a lot of scrutiny. The visual style that has become his trademark is fully evident with the constantly mobile camera, colours shift and staccato editing, sets the pace as the story races against the clock.

As far as time travel movies go it's not as much fun as BACK TO THE FUTURE or as baffling as PRIMER but it is good entertainment that is a bit more thought-provoking than your average action blockbuster, with some good humorous moments and a great cast too. Unfortunately the ending is a bit typically contrived Hollywood, but that is only two minutes out of 120. Definitely worth a look, even if it is just to try and figure out the time travel conundrum.

DÉJÀ VU is in cinemas from December 15.

Watch the trailers here.

Apocalypto

2006-12-19T14:24:00.000Z

Director: Mel Gibson
Cast: Rudy Youngblood, Dalia Hernandez, Jonathan Brewer, Raoul Trujillo, Gerardo Taracena

Prior to its completion there was not a lot known about Mel Gibson's latest movie beyond the fact it was about the fall of the Mayan civilisation and it all the dialogue was in Yucatec, the principle language of the Mayan. Replicating the use of ancient and native languages, as he did with the phenomenally successful The Passion of Christ, is somewhat of a brave move on Gibson's part but one that he again pulls off with aplomb. While many will accuse Gibson of artistic indulgence, or worse sins, it is his drive for authenticity that motivates his decision. Despite winning multiple Oscars for Braveheart Gibson received a lot of flak for its historical inaccuracies in the name of making a good film. With so little known about the fall of the Mayans Apocalypto isn't likely to attract so much fervent criticism. Also, it is not really so much a film about the fall of a civilisation, but the survival of one man and his family.

Jaguar Paw is a hunter with a jungle tribe in what is now the Yucatan area of Mexico. As the film opens we follow him and other hunters from the village as they capture a wild boar, before returning to their idyllic village life. Gibson adds a lot of humour into these opening scenes, usually at the expense of Blunted, another member of the hunting party. But this frivolity is a marked contrast for what ensues, as the village is attacked and those who aren't killed are captured. Jaguar Paw manages to hide his pregnant wife and child before he is captured, but this leaves them alone and vulnerable. The men and women of the village are then taken to one of the Mayan cities, painstakingly recreated by Gibson's production team, to be sold into slavery or sacrificed to appease the gods for the drought and disease that is ravaging the country. When Jaguar Paw manages to escape, he is pursued by his captors as he desperately tries to return to his family. And this is where the movie comes into its own.

The themes of decadence, political power struggles and religious fanatacism that herald the demise of the Mayan civilisation, and others that have come before and after, do serve as a timely warning to Western civilisation, but it is not the driving force behind the film.

What at first appears to be an anthropological historical drama is really just a basic chase movie. From its gentle, humorous beginning through a dramatic and often brutal second act it climaxes with an incredibly energetic and thrilling chase through the jungle as Jaguar Paw races home on foot while systematically killing off his pursuers. Fantastic handheld camerawork further enhances the intensity, while the drama is heightened, for the audience, as the movie cuts to shots of Jaguar Paw's family in peril. It may be clichéd but adrenaline rush is an apt description. The sheer athleticism of lead actor Rudy Youngblood is something to behold as he sprints through the jungle and overcomes both human and non-human obstacles. The whole cast, made up of native Americans from all over the continent, do a very convincing job of both the action and the dialogue.

As a director, this is possibly Gibson's least controversial and therefore most accessible film to date. It has the spectacle and action of classics like Ben Hur, but in a simple and engaging story, shot with stunning and intimate cinematography. The subtitled Yucatec dialogue is minimal and does present any more problems for the viewer than watching any other foreign language film. It should be pointed out that the dialogue was originally written in English and then translated, so the subtitles are what the writers wanted to say and any deviations will be in the spoken word.

This is independent cinema made with passion and big budgets. There is no doubting Gibson's ability as a director, or his attention to detail in the design if not historical accuracy, so if you didn't fancy The Passion of Christ then go and see this one. It also makes a great companion film for Darren Aranofsky's The Fountain, which is released later in January.

Apocalypto opens on January 5 2007.

Visit the official web site.

Watch the trailer

Eragon

2006-12-13T13:29:00.000Z

Director: Stefen Fangmeier
Cast: Ed Speleers, Jeremy Irons, Sienna Guillory, Robert Carlyle, John Malkovich, Rachel Weisz

Dragon movies haven't been too successful in the past, apart from ENTER THE DRAGON. From PETE'S DRAGON to REIGN OF FIRE to DRAGONHEART, and many more in between, the public have not been enamoured by these fantastic beasts. Although chasing the dragon has always been popular with Hollywood, fantasy films were always a hard sell for the studios, or at least until THE LORD OF THE RINGS gave them new credibility and marketability.

The trouble with the fantasy genre is there is so much badly written and clichéd material out there. That doesn't mean it has a monopoly on tat, as all genres have their fair share of poor storytelling and substandard writing, but fantasy has even more stigma attached to it than sci-fi, with which it is invariably grouped. Most publishers specify in their submissions guidelines, "No fantasy or sci-fi", just to avoid being inundated with the aforementioned, badly scribed manuscripts that are invariably written by young men producing Lord of the Rings clones. Of course, this does mean that in their blanket denial of the genre the publishers miss out on some huge best-sellers, Harry Potter being a case in point. This is also true for Christopher Paolini's Eragon, penned when he was a teenager, and self-published until it was picked up by Knopf, where it went on to sell millions worldwide.

It is a tale of despots and the fall of the dragon-riders. Eragon (Ed Speleers) is a teenage orphan (why do fictional heroes never come from normal, well-adjusted nuclear families?), who lives with his uncle under the tyrannical reign of Galbatorix (John Malkovich) and his enforcer, Durza (Robert Carlyle). A rock is stolen from Galbatorix by Arya (Sienna Guillory), who is hunted down Durza. As she is caught, she magically sends the rock to another place where it is found by Eragon. It turns out the rock is a dragon egg, which promptly hatches, making Eragon Durza's new target. Eragon and his dragon, Saphira, are taken under the wing (so to speak) of Brom (Jeremy Irons), an old dragonrider, as they go to seek out the Varden (a sort of Rebel Alliance).

I've not read the novel because I am not a huge fan of fantasy literature, and because I find so little time to read that I become very selective about what I choose. Seeing the ERAGON movie was my first introduction to the characters and plot, so I had no way judging how faithful it is to the book, which is probably a good thing. However, I suspect it is fairly close because the story does come across as if it was written by a teenager, and I hope my opinion wasn't clouded by the knowledge that it was.

Having said that, the movie is clearly aimed at a teenage audience that enjoyed THE LORD OF THE RINGS and the escape into fantasy realms these films offer. However, I wouldn't call it a family film, in the way that Pixar animations are. ERAGON doesn't really offer enough to keep the adults engrossed. That is not to say that visuals aren't stunning. The dragon is beautifully realised and believable, for a CGI character, which is further helped by Rachel Weisz's voice over characterisation. As she is a pivotal character this is very important. The battle scenes were well-orchestrated and used real people instead of CGI armies, but it was simply another fantasy battle scene that resembles Helm's Deep meets the Triwizard Tournament.

The main interest, especially among teenage girls, is the lead role played by Ed Speleers. He does a commendable job, delivering the often clichéd dialogue, as do the other actors. Malkovich camps it up as the evil ruler and Carlyle seems to be having fun as the heavily made up Durza. In fact he called his role, "playing, not acting".

Whether it falls under the curse of the dragon movies we will see in the coming weeks, but with plenty of eye-candy and plenty of action, along with impressive, and seamless, special effects it will certainly keep the under-twenties entertained during the holidays. And it may even appeal to older fans of LOTR, but Jackson's trilogy is a hard act to follow.

ERAGON is in cinemas from December 15

Visit official site

View trailer here.

Stranger than Fiction

2006-11-28T11:08:00.000Z

Director: Marc Foster
Cast: Will Ferrell, Emma Thompson, Dustin Hoffman, Maggie Gyllenhaal

Hollywood hasn't been known for its risk-taking in recent years. Between the remakes, sequels (and prequels), literary classic adaptations and comic book movies all the truly original films get passed over, only to be snapped up by the more visionary independents. Some of the more savvy studios have created their own indie divisions, realising there is money to be made (art doesn't usually come into the equation), but from the safety of distribution deals. It's thanks to this that we got to see some original, off-beat films like Donnie Darko, Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind. Stranger than Fiction is another movie of that ilk.

Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) is a tax inspector. His life is dull and routine, bordering on the obsessive/compulsive. He has no real friends, and a few work acquaintances. One morning he hears a woman's voice narrating his life, describing in eloquent detail the minutiae of his boring existence. Naturally, this causes him some concern.

Elsewhere in the city, renowned and reclusive author Karen Eiffel (Emma Thompson) is struggling with her latest novel, Death and Taxes, about a tax man called Harold Crick. Although she won't admit to writer's block, she can't find a way to kill off the main character because in her books the protagonists always die.

The trouble starts when Harold hears the words, "Little did he know that events had been set in motion that would lead to his imminent death". Harold figures out that what he is hearing is a story being narrated so enlists the aid of an eminent professor of literature (Dustin Hoffman) to try and discover what the story is about.

Added to this mix, Harold is auditing Ana (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a feisty young woman who runs a small bakery. In an unlikely turn of events the pair fall for each other, as Harold tries to break out of his routines and have a life, while he still can. He is also trying to track down the author to convince her to alter the ending of the story.

At the risk of sounding clichéd, this really is a great feel-good movie. It has romance, it has comedy and it is surreal enough not to make them cloying. Ferrell is brilliant, managing to get both laughter and tears from the audience as the put-upon everyman, playing it with just the right amount of deadpan. Hoffman seems to be building up a body of work playing intellectuals or pseudo-intellectuals. Gyllenhaal is vivacious as Ana, giving another mesmerising performance without overdoing the theatrics. Thompson's hand-wringing, chain-smoking author is just the right side of manic eccentric, without going over the top, which could be quite easy to do, turning Eiffel into a caricature rather than a character.

It helps that the cast has a great script to work with. Zach Helm has written a screenplay that is as surreal as Charlie Kaufman, but with a lot more love and laughter.

Highly recommended off-beat rom-com that even blokes can enjoy. On general release from December 1.

Official website

Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny

2006-11-28T10:55:00.000Z

Director: Liam Lynch
Cast: Jack Black, Kyle Gass, Jason Reed, Tim Robbins, Dave Grohl, Ben Stiller

Tenacious D (Jack Black and Kyle Gass) have always tried to assert their claim to being the greatest band on earth since the release of their first song< Tribute. However, even at their most deluded, they cannot claim this to be the greatest movie on earth. It is a frippery that could never be called a vanity project because it is far too self-mocking. According to the duo, it is a chance to answer the perennial question of how "The D" got started.

From the opening credits of an animated "D" farting around, it starts like a Jim Steinman musical, complete with Meat Loaf as the young JB's dad. Following guidance from Ronnie James Dio, one of his rock gods, the young JB heads off to Hollywood. Here, a chance meeting with boardwalk troubadour, KG, sees JB taken is as a rock 'n' roll apprentice, having to pay his dues in KG's apartment. With no money to the rent, the duo decides to enter a local talent contest but need a winning song. Studying pictures of their heroes on the covers of Rolling Stone, they discover they one thing in common, a peculiar-shaped guitar pick, a pick that was carved from the Devil's tooth. So they begin a quest to get The Pick for themselves from the Rock and Roll History Museum and the final showdown with Lucifer himself.

If you are familiar with Black's performances in HIGH FIDELITY and SCHOOL OF ROCK, can expect more of the same manic mannerisms. There is nothing fresh or original in his performance, after all he is playing an exaggerated version of himself, but it is what he does best. Gass's performance is a lot more subdued, as befits the character. As a comedy duo they do have that all-important chemistry that makes their gags work, no matter how puerile they are, and believe me they do get quite juvenile – the type of humour that appeals to teenage boys in particular. Not that there's anything wrong with that, the Farrelly Brothers have made a career of it. There are some great sight gags and humorous uses of film references. There are some great cameos from Ben Stiller and Tim Robbins, who are both almost unrecognisable. Stiller is Executive Producer and Black and Gass met at Robbins' Actor's Gang theatre troupe.

Of course, for most fans of The D, it's all about the music, and there's plenty of it as the duo deliver their own brand of Rock, with all its influences from the classics, but with lots of gratuitous swearing. If Kevin Smith had been brought up in California and played the guitar, this is the movie would have made.

It's not the most profound film of the year but it entertains and the 95 minutes pass so quickly you are left wanting more.

TENACIOUS D AND THE PICK OF DESTINY is on general release now.

The Prestige

2006-11-07T21:32:00.000Z

Director: Christopher Nolan
Cast: Hugh Jackman. Christian Bale, Michael Caine, David Bowie, Andy Serkis, Scarlett Johansson, Rebecca Hall

The 2005 Hugo Award for Best Novel went to a book about two rival magicians, set in 19th Century London. It was called Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke, and although there are some parallels with Christopher Priest's novel, The Prestige, they definitely should not be confused. For a start Clarke's story is about 'real' magicians, as in wizards and the supernatural, while Priest's is about stage magicians, illusionists and conjurors. Clarke's story may well get made into a movie, and no doubt has already been optioned as cast into development hell, where neither wizards nor magicians dare enter.

The Prestige, on the other hand, has seen the light of day thanks to the talents of prodigious British director Chris Nolan (of Memento and Batman Begins fame). With the help of his screenwriter brother, Jonathon, Nolan has created a stunning movie with the gothic look of Batman Begins and the twists and turns of Memento.

It is the tale of two young magicians in Victorian England; Alfred Borden (Christian Bale), a very talented, if somewhat rough-edged, magician capable of creating the most spectacular illusions; and Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman), the consummate showman. They start off as friends, protégés of a famous illusionist, under the watchful eye of Cutter (Michael Caine, in yet another archetypal mentor role), the magician's ingeneur (the one who looks after the technicalities of the illusions). When a trick goes horribly wrong Angier blames Borden and they go their separate ways, becoming bitter rivals always trying to discover the other's professional secrets and sabotage the shows, which takes a heavy physical, and emotional, toll on the both of them.

Being a Nolan picture, it jumps around the timeline so, from the beginning, we know that Borden is accused of killing Angier. It then flips backwards and forwards, as the whole story is revealed through the journals of the rivals. In fact the movie's three acts are divided into the three parts of the magic trick: The Pledge, where the audience is shown something ordinary, even if it isn't; The Turn, where the ordinary object does something extraordinary; and The Prestige, the part with the twists and turns that amaze and stun the audience. Nolan certainly pulls off a great trick, some of which you see coming while others are clearly shown but so well misdirected that they are all the more surprising at the end.

Apart from the rivalries between the two magicians, both professionally and domestically (wives and lovers), one of the highlights of the film, at least for me, was the first major feature film screen appearance of Nikola Tesla. For those not familiar with him, he was the greatest genius of modern times, whose inventions and discoveries are commonplace and yet he is rarely credited for them, for example – radio. During his lifetime his work was so advanced the he was widely known as the Wizard. In a sublime bit of casting, Nolan managed to convince David Bowie to play the part. If you want to find out more about Tesla click here.

This is a great looking movie that doesn't emphasise the fact that it is a period piece. There is plenty of attention to detail but it never dominates the action or character development. While it is almost impossible to convincingly portray magic on screen, because we are all aware of the tricks the camera can play, the film quite openly shows how the tricks are done, or may be done. It is Tesla's science that is the most mind boggling, although some creative licence has been taken with some of it. Caine, Jackman and Bale are all excellent, with Bale's cockney accent sounding as genuine as Caine's natural voice. The female supports are great and Rebecca Hall, as Borden's wife, is a revelation in her first major screen role. (She is also in Starter for Ten, which is in cinemas on the same day as The Prestige.)

Chris Nolan is definitely one of the finest young filmmakers to come out of this country in a long time, able to create movies that are intelligent, well-crafted and enjoyed by audiences and critics alike. Definitely one to see, just don't tell your friends how the trick was done.

Official site

Little Children

2006-10-28T00:15:00.000+01:00

Director: Todd Field
Cast: Kate Winslet, Jennifer Connelly, Patrick Wilson, Jackie Earle Haley

The problem with the suburbs is they aren't real. That's not to say they don't exist, Australia, the USA and our own home counties are covered with them, in all their WASPy glory. They are not real because they are created with this image of normality and safety, where there is a specific, yet often unspoken, code of conduct. The truth is the suburbs are homes to drones and wage slaves, to people forced to conform, to people who don't like free-thinkers or people who dare to be different. And heaven help anyone who doesn't fit into their view of the world. But, as anyone who has seen a David Lynch film will tell you, appearances are deceptive. Essentially, that is what Little Children is about.

Based on the novel of the same name by Tom Perrotta, who co-wrote the screenplay with the director, the film is a witty, and sometimes shocking, look at middle-class American suburbia. Sarah (Kate Winslet) is married to a branding (not advertising) executive and has a comfortable existence. She is the mother of a young girl, and they spend their days at the park with other mums and children, except they don't really fit in with them. One day Brad (Patrick Wilson), a handsome househusband married to a beautiful filmmaker (Jennifer Connelly), comes to the park with his son. The other women call him "The Prom King", and have their own long-distance fantasies about him but, as part of a dare, Sarah goes and talks to him, then in order to shock the prissy mums, kisses him. And they develop an illicit relationship. This is one of the film's threads.

The other involves a convicted sex offender, Ronny (Jackie Earle Haley) who exposed himself to a young child. After being released from prison he goes back to stay with his elderly mother, and becomes the target of a hate campaign led by an ex-cop, Larry (Noah Emmerich).

The story is about outsiders trying to fit into a society that is both judgemental and hypocritical, and failing. It is about fulfilling desires and longing for freedom, all within the stifling confines of suburban streets, children's playgrounds and public swimming pools.

This may sound a bit boring and highbrow, like a lot of domestic dramas, such as Ordinary People or The Ice Storm, but it is elevated by a fantastic script that is witty and well-observed. It handles the issues of infidelity and ostracization sympathetically, and at times shockingly, neither condoning nor condemning the actions. What really sets the movie apart, though, is the acting from the little-known cast, Winslet and Connelly excepted. All the performances are natural and never overplayed. It could easily fall into melodrama, but the director and the actors managed to rein in the performances, even in the more traumatic scenes.

At 137 minutes the film does feel a bit long at times, but the impending doom the director develops in the build-up to the final climax more than compensates for that. It's one of those films that sticks in your mind well after the show has finished, not because it is particularly shocking but because it is so well done.

Little Children is on general release from November 3.

For Your Consideration

2006-10-24T22:44:00.000+01:00

Director: Christopher Guest
Cast: Eugene Levy, Bob Balaban, Jennifer Coolidge, Michael McKean, Catherine O’Hara, Parker Posey, Harry Shearer, Fred Willard.

When This is Spinal Tap first hit the screens back in 1984 it was a highly original concept and an hilarious film that has stood the test of time. It perfectly captured the excesses of rock music of the time and lampooned it with enough subtlety as to make it totally believable. Since then Christopher Guest has been targeting marginal groups, from dog-owners to folk singers, with his mockumentary format. Now he has turned his attention to Hollywood, a seemingly obvious choice for his brand of satire.

For Your Consideration differs slightly from his previous outings in that it does not fully utilise the documentary format. It all looks far too polished, and is rather a collection of vignettes showing the lives of the talent involved in making a very cheesy war-time drama called Home for Purim. Following a comment on a website that one of the principals, Marilyn Hack (Catherine O'Hara), a character actress who has never gained the respect she thinks she deserves, is rumoured to be a possible Oscar nominee. As the rumour mill gets turning, two of her co-stars are soon joining her, with all of them becoming darlings of the Hollywood gossip TV shows.

There are some very funny and acutely observed pieces, like the verbose interviewer talking to the scriptwriters without giving them chance to reply, but it lacks the real biting satire of Altman's The Player or John Water's Cecil B Demented. Part of the problem may lie in the fact that Hollywood and the whole awards circus is so unreal that it constantly makes a mockery of itself. Unless exceptionally well done, films about filmmaking are seen as narcissistic and even lazy filmmaking - or simply biting the hand that feeds you. Or maybe it fails to impress because all the characters and situations are completely fictitious, in a world where we know the most intimate details of Hollywood celebrities' lives.

Whatever the reasons, like the fictitious actors in the story, it falls short of the mark. It has some laughs but just can't match Guest and company's previous output.

For Your Consideration is showing at the London Film Festival, Odeon West End on Saturday October 28 and Sunday 29. It will be on general release in February 2007.

Special

2006-10-23T13:40:00.000+01:00

Director: Hal Habermann and Jeremy Passmore
Cast: Michael Rapaport, Paul Blackthorne, Josh Peck, Jack Kehler

Anyone who has ever read a comic has dreamt about being a superhero, and most manage to keep it just that, a dream. Then there are people who take drugs and believe they have superpowers. So when you get a drug-taking comic book fan you have a potentially lethal cocktail. The hero of Special, Les Franken (Michael Rappaport), isn't your usual stoner comic fan, but a rather lonely individual who works as a parking inspector. He volunteers to be part of pharmaceutical test for a new anti-depression drug, Specioprin Hydrochloride or "Special", which is supposed to "inhibit the chemical in the brain responsible for self-doubt". Unfortunately for Les, the drug has an unexpected side-effect, which makes him believe he has super-powers and therefore a mission to use them for good.

Creating his own costume, a silver-painted jumpsuit, he goes around protecting the innocent and accosting villains, or at least what he perceives to be. Our hero is more along the lines of Mystery Men, with no real discernible powers, although he does believe he can levitate, if not exactly fly, read minds and walk through walls. To enhance the conceit, the filmmakers, Hal Haberman and Jeremy Passmore, show his exploits from his point of view and from that of the rest of the world.

Les's antics soon attract the attention of the media and also of two shifty characters behind the drug and the research. Fearing adverse publicity for their product they try to eliminate Les, further adding to his paranoia, but for the most part he manages to not only evade them but confront them as well.

Shot on a relatively low budget, the filmmakers make the most of their limited resources to bring the strong script to the screen. There are some great comedic moments, interspersed with pathos and some impressive action and stunts, with Rappaport literally throwing himself into the role. Apart from the heroics the film serves up an indictment of the pharmaceutical industry and its often unethical practices. It also looks at people's need to be accepted and admired by society. These underlying themes are not forced and the main thread of the story, of a man wanting to do something heroic, remain at the forefront of the narrative.

It is not as complex a film as Primer, but its look and feel put it in the same category of original, independent sci-fi features that will appeal to more intelligent audiences wanting a change from the glossy, Hollywood blockbusters that fill the cinemas over the summer months.

Watch the trailer
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Special will be on UK release from November 17, from Revolver Entertainment.

Romanzo Criminale

2006-10-22T14:48:00.000+01:00

Dir: Michele Pacido
Cast: Kim Rossi Stuart, Pierfrancesco Favino, Claudio Santamaria, Anna Mouglalis
Italy/France/UK, 150 mins, Italian (with subtitles)

Culturally, Italy is one of Europe's richest countries, but it is also one of its most corrupt. Even though most people enjoy a reasonable quality of life and the support of the extended family unit, the social disparity brought about by a lack of welfare state means that crime has often been the career path of the disaffected youths. The fact that crime is rife in every strata of society, particularly in Rome and the south of Italy, meant that violence was often the easiest way to fulfil ambitions. Romanzo Criminale is the story of ambition, love and revenge, set in one of the most incendiary periods of contemporary Italian history.

The film opens with four boys stealing a car and running down a policeman, which leads to two of them being jailed. Flash forward to the Seventies and three of them are reunited and decide to establish themselves as leaders in Rome's underworld of drugs and prostitution. Ice/Freddo (Rossi Stuart), Lebanese (Favino) and Dandy (Santamaria) are clinical and brutal in their ambitions, achieving their goals with ferocity and the occasional aid of a mysterious bureaucrat. As major events in Italian history unfold (the kidnapping of Aldo Moro, the bombing of Bologna Station), in which out anti-heroes may or may not be involved, they are relentlessly pursued by Commissario Scialoja (Stefano Accorsi) of the Forze dell'Ordine (police). Scialoja is also pursuing Patrizia (Mouglalis), a high-class prostitute and Dandy's girlfriend, but not just for her criminal activities and associations.

Apart from Scialoja's illicit affair, there are moments of love and tenderness amongst the violence and power struggles. Freddo falls for his brother's innocent tutor, Roberta, which gives new depth and warmth to an otherwise cold and ruthless character. But don't let the film's title fool you into thinking this film is a romantic look at criminals. Romanzo Criminale translates as Crime Novel, - these are commonly referred to as gialli in Italy, because they have yellow covers, and are the equivalent of what we know as pulp fiction.

Parallels can be drawn between this film and Tarantino's eponymous masterpiece, as both have their gang violence and episodic, intertwined stories, but Romanzo Criminale is more comparable with Goodfellas (1990) and its story of the rise of three street punks through the ranks of organised crime. Scorsese's film is undoubtedly a classic of the genre but very much a product of American cinema, whereas Romanzo Criminale's roots are in the streets of Rome. The Italian is spoken with such thick regional accents that even for those who understand Italian it can often be hard to follow what is being said, and although the subtitles are distracting and never fully capture the onscreen dialogue, they do help.

The external changes (clothing, vehicles, architecture) in Italy are not as marked as those we are used to in American films covering the same period, but the film's colour grading alters to reflect the passage of time. The integration of actual news footage into the film, done to excellent effect with the Bologna Station explosion, along with the soundtrack, also help establish a recognisable timeline, or at least for those familiar with Italian history.

Although this film may never achieve the status of Goodfellas, it is a worthy adversary that is both well-acted and well-directed.

Romanzo Criminale is showing at the London Film Festival on October 31 and November 1 at Odeon West End and on general release from November 3.

All The King's Men

2006-10-22T13:37:00.000+01:00

Director: Steven Zaillian
Cast: Sean Penn, Jude Law, James Gandolfini, Kate Winslett, Mark Ruffalo, Patricia Clarkson, Anthony Hopkins

Re-make, re-imaging, re-interpretation, cover version – whatever you want to call them, shows Hollywood's fear of trying anything new, and yet it is the quirky and original indie flicks that are consistently "surprise" hits. They come as a surprise to the studios because they didn't have the foresight to recognise their merits and above all, their originality. What is even more surprising is how profitable they are, mainly because they are made on low budgets, free from studio excesses (and execs). But this isn't supposed to be about Hollywood politics, but Hollywood's view of politics.

All The King's Men was originally a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, written by Robert Penn Warren in 1946. Inspired by the story of Louisiana governor Huey P. Long, it was a complex tale of ambition, power and corruption - in much the same way that Citizen Kane was based on publishing tycoon Hearst. In 1949 the book was made into a film, starring Broderick Crawford, directed by Robert Rossen. It was nominated for seven Oscars and won three (best picture, best actor, best supporting actress). It also won five Golden Globes and a host of other awards. Over fifty years later and the story has been revived by Oscar-winning writer and director Steven Zaillian and features a heavyweight, award-winning ensemble cast. And it could well be nominated for plenty of Awards again this time around.

It is the story of the rise of a common man, Willie Stark (Sean Penn) as he battles the corrupt, established political and industrial powers by garnering the support of the common people by promising them the world, and for the most part delivering on his promise. However he does end up resorting to the methods he abhors in his opponents. The story is narrated from the perspective of a reporter, Jack Burden (Jude Law), who becomes one of Stark's aides. Despite being one man's view, the story is still multithreaded as characters from Burden's life become involved in Stark's quest for power and position.

Like the character he plays, Penn's performance oozes charisma. So much so that he overshadows the rest of the cast, which is no mean feat. Of course the fact that they are all supports, and foils, for the protagonist doesn't help. This in no way demeans the other performances; it's just that the characters never really get a chance to fully develop in Stark/Penn's shadow. The other problem is the accents. Now I'm no expert on US regional accents but none of them, apart from Penn, sounded convincing. The production went into great detail with the design, settings and locations to make it look as real as possible, but the voices didn't always convince. None of the Brits (Law, Winslett and Hopkins) had it down, and Gandolfini seemed to be struggling to shake off Tony Soprano's physical and vocal mannerisms.

Quality acting aside, the story felt a little to episodic and sometimes lacking any real cohesion. I was often left wondering how the scenes related, especially with the occasional jumps in the timeline.

On an interesting note, the film was shot in the New Orleans area before Katrina hit it, and the film's story of corruption and shifty deals between government officials and the consequences of those actions on the underprivileged had even more resonance.

It's a great looking film with some stellar performances, but telling us that politicians and big corporations are corrupt, and power can corrupt even the best-intentioned is hardly breaking new ground.

All The King's Men is on general release from October 27.

Candy

2006-10-15T22:03:00.000+01:00

Director: Neil Armfield
Cast: Heath Ledger, Abbie Cornish, Geoffrey Rush, Noni Hazlehurst
Australia 2006

For most people in this country their impressions of Australia are formed by afternoon soap operas and lager commercials. That constant sunshine, easy-going "she'll be right" attitude and endless suburbia is not that far from the truth, but it is the glossy surface. Underneath that easy-going exterior is a seedier world of bigotry, racism and a lack of cultural identity. A large number of youth become disillusioned with both that insular world and either leave the country to travel, or drop out of society, head for bush communes or simply turn to drugs. With a good standard of living, a welfare state and great weather those alternative lifestyles aren't such a struggle, even when in the grip of drug addiction.

Candy is a drama and a love story film, with drug addiction as its motivating force. But the title refers to the lead female character rather than euphemism for drugs. Candy (Abbie Cornish) is an artist who falls for wannabe poet Dan (Heath Ledger). They are madly in love, but with a taste for heroin. As their relationship with each other develops so does their dependence on heroin and they start on that cliched slippery slope of a life of petty crime and prostitution to feed their habit. With the films three acts clearly signposted as chapters (Heaven, Earth and Hell) it is all a bit too predictable. The performances from the two leads are emotionally convincing, although they are two of the healthiest and best looking junkies you are ever likely to see, even in the throes of withdrawals.

Geoffrey Rush is excellent as the gay chemistry professor who mentors the two young lovers, supplying them with pure H when they needed it. Tony Martin and Noni Hazlehurst, two well-known and respected Australian actors, give good turns as Candy's parents: the slightly naïve father, who can’t see his daughter and her boyfriend's deceptions and the mother who sees it very clearly. Interestingly, one of the roles that established Noni Hazlehurst's career was in the 1982 film Monkey Grip, where she played a young artist who fell in love with a junkie.

With such strong performances from the cast this would probably work better as a piece of theatre, where you may feel closer to the characters, because in the film it is hard to develop any real empathy for them or their situation. The movie goes some way to showing the depravity of drug addiction, but it is no match for Aranofsky's Requiem for a Dream or the excesses of Gilliam's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Candy is showing at The Times BFI London Film Festival on October 19 at the Odeon West End and October 21 at the ICA.

Kabul Express

2006-10-15T16:44:00.000+01:00

Director: Kabir Khan
Cast: John Abraham, Arshad Wari, Salman Shahid
Hindi, Darri, English (subtitled)

Most people's perceptions of Indian cinema are the gaudy, melodramatic musicals of Bollywood or the cinema verite of Satyajit Ray. And to be fair that is a pretty accurate view. Sure there are historical and religious films, or action-packed dramas but they invariable feature song and dance routines because that is what the punters want. Ray's works are more appreciated outside of his homeland, where the lack of colour and spectacle are of little interest to audiences. Cinema is their escape from the everyday life portrayed in Ray's films.

Over the last decade India's place in the world has grown significantly. There is also a new generation of Indian filmmakers who were born or raised outside of their cultural homeland, who are making movies of much broader appeal, M. Night Shyamalan being the most successful, but there are others like Mira Nair (Salaam Bombay, Monsoon Wedding), Asif Kapadia (The Warrior) and Deepa Mehta (Water) have also created films that use their cultural heritage and settings to tell powerful and dramatic stories. With a huge population of NRIs (Non Resident Indians) brought up on both Bollywood and Hollywood, the market for straight drama in Hindi is growing.

Kabul Express is one of this new wave of Indian cinema. Produced by Yash Raj Films, the largest and most successful studio in India, it is a drama based on actual events that was shot on location in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban, which is central to the film's story.

Two Indian TV journalists, Jai (Arshad Warsi), the cameraman, and Suhel (John Abraham – who also appeared in Water), are in Afghanistan trying to get the big, career-building story by interviewing the fleeing Taliban. With the help of their guide, Khyber (Hanif Hum Ghum), an Afghani who drives the titular Toyota 4x4, they find some Taliban, but it all goes wrong and they end up being captured by one of them, Imran (Salman Shahid), who wants to be taken over the border to Pakistan. Along the way they are joined by an American photojournalist, Jessica Beckham (Linda Arsenio).

Essentially it is a road movie, set over 48-hour period, but it manages to incorporate many themes with a strong message. Its view of the Afghani/Taliban situation is never judgemental nor particularly biased, and while there are some scenes of quite brutal violence against the Taliban it is counteracted with some well-conceived comedic scenes that never become flippant. The switching between heavy action drama and levity holds your interest, and the overall message that we are all essentially the same is handled well without falling into sentimentality or melodrama.

The cinematography is stunning and captures the rugged beauty of the land as well as the ravages of decades of war. The acting is good, for the most part, and the actors use their native tongues (Hindi, Darri, English), further adding to the authenticity of the piece. The biggest let down is the American actress who seems unable to deliver any of the lines with conviction, which isn't the fault of the script. There are a few other little things that niggle, but these are what the Italians call "deformazione professsionale", where you notice inaccuracies according to your work. For example, in the opening shot the two journalists throw their backpacks onto the ground from the helicopter. We then see Jai with his big Sony DigiBeta camera under his arm. Throwing such a delicate piece of equipment from a great height, even if it was in a flightcase, is not a good idea. Throughout the film he never changed tapes or batteries, or even attempted to recharge them. Similarly things happen with the photojournalist. Small points I know, and although they tend to spoil the realism they don't detract from an otherwise cracking adventure filled with both laughter and tears.

Kabul Express is showing on Thursday November 2 at the Odeon West End as part of The Times BFI London Film Festival.

Marie Antoinette

2006-10-12T10:33:00.000+01:00

Director: Sofia Coppola
Cast: Kirsten Dunst, Jason Schwartzman, Judy Davis, Rip Torn, Asia Argento, Steve Coogan

With bookshop (and supermarket) shelves being filled with (mostly ghost-written) autobiographies of people in their twenties and thirties, whose main claims to fame are appearing on television or kicking a ball, it is good to see that biographies of people who had some real impact on the history of the world are getting made into movies. OK there is the film about Zidane, but that is as much about the filmmaking process as the subject, and it is just one match.

There have been some excellent bio-pics made over the years, and most of them seem to have had Richard Attenborough's name attached to them. They have been films about truly great people who altered the lives of everyone they came into contact with. There have also been films about equally evil people who had the same effect only not always for the better. Of course, history is very subjective and open to revision. Nelson Mandela has been called both a terrorist and freedom fighter and is now considered one of the world's greatest statesmen. Sadam Hussein was an American ally for many years until it didn't suit the political and economic ambitions of a handful of greedy men. Revisionist history will always continue, much like Orwell's Department of Truth in 1984. Now it is the turn of Marie Antoinette, best known for her misquoted crack about cake.

Based on Antonia Fraser's meticulously researched historical biography, Marie Antoinette: The Journey, this new film by Oscar-winning screenwriter and director Sofia Coppola, tries to redress the misconceptions about France's last queen. While it does go a long way to achieving its aims, showing her mostly as a slightly naïve teenager who was a victim of circumstances, rather than a manipulative despot, it does not fully explore her greatness. Not having read the book on which the film is based I cannot comment further, but it is not covered in the film.

Marie Antoinette (Kirsten Dunst) was sent by her mother, Maria Teresa of Austria (Marianne Faithfull), to marry Louis (Jason Schwartzman) the teenage heir to the French throne when she was a mere 14 years old. She had to leave everything behind and become part of the decadent life at the court of Versailles. The film shows she was initially bewildered by the extravagance of court life, but living in a marriage that went unconsummated for seven years she took solace in clothes shopping, as any teenager would. In fact, the whole conceit of the film is that Marie Antoinette behaves as any perfectly normal teenager would, placed in the same situation. The use of a soundtrack by 80s' New Romantic bands was meant to enhance this, but when it was mixed period music it came over as too much of a mish-mash and certainly didn't work as well as soundtrack to A Knight's Tale.

Unfortunately, like most teenagers, the film is a bit superficial. It focuses too much on the glamour and opulence of court life without giving the characters any real depth or personality, which I am sure Marie Antoinette had, even if none of the others did. Although the film showed that she was not as bad as history had described, it didn't fully show the good that she did and it lacked any real drama, even when mobs were at the palace gates.

The film looks sumptuous, from the costumes to the Versailles locations. The actors did their best with the material, but in the end it comes across as rather soulless, like a video of a Saga guided tour rather than an in-depth documentary.

Marie Antoinette is on general release from October 27 from Columbia Pictures.

Pan's Labyrinth

2006-10-11T16:08:00.000+01:00

Director: Guillermo del Toro
Cast: Sergi López, Maribel Verdú, Ivana Baquero, Doug Jones
Spanish with English subtitles

From the time Lewis Carroll first sent Alice down the rabbit hole there has been a fascination for young girls visiting fantasy worlds, and those stories inevitably draw comparisons with the aforementioned Alice's adventures. This year alone we have seen MIRROR MASK from Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean and, more recently, Terry Gilliam's TIDELAND. Now Guillermo del Toro (CRONOS, HELLBOY) presents his take on subject.

PAN'S LABYRINTH (El Laberinto del Fauno) is set in 1944, at the end of the Spanish Civil War. Young Ofélia and her pregnant mother, Carmen, are sent to a remote country outpost. Carmen's new husband, and father of the expectant baby, is a captain in Franco's army battling against insurgents. Near the mill where they are living Ofélia is lead into a maze where she finds a faun, who tells her she is a lost princess and has to complete three tasks to be returned to her kingdom.

Like both MIRROR MASK and TIDELAND, this story is essentially about a girl who withdraws into a fantasy world in order to escape the harsh realities of the world around her, with all three films involving sick and/or dying parents. The idea that these children are using their fantasy worlds to escape 'reality' is a particularly adult view and one that comes with the loss of innocence.

In MIRROR MASK, which is aimed at a teenage audience of the protagonist's age, childhood innocence is already fading, and the escaping aspect is more clearly visible. In that story, Helena does not seem to fully believe in what she is seeing and the dangers of the alternative world are not a real threat, much like in a dream. In the other two films, which are made for adult audiences, especially PAN'S LABYRINTH, the children are fully aware of the perils of the world around them, but it is their innocence that protects them, and their alternate worlds are integrated into the 'real' world. For them there is no separation between the two, and this is more apparent in PAN'S LABYRINTH, especially during a scene involving the discovery of a mandrake root.

The historical drama of PAN'S LABYRINTH is filled with harsh brutality that is often graphic, causing the more sensitive souls in the audience to look away. It is a dark film, visually and not just metaphorically, which resembles the paintings of Goya, whereas TIDELAND is more akin to the works of Edward Hopper, full of light but with a sinister foreboding.

The fantasy creatures in this new film are certainly scarier than those of MIRROR MASK. Both the faun, or Pan, and the bizarre Pale Man are both played by a heavily costumed and made-up Doug Jones (Abe Sapien in HELLBOY). Even the fairies have attitude. The faun, although there to help the Ofélia, is not always friendly, and according to Greek legend Pan was not of a genial disposition. He hated being woken from his sleep and would let out a terrible cry causing fear, or panic, in those around him. Pan was also quite the hedonist when it came wine and women, which made him popular with the pagans, who also worshipped him as their god of nature, but the early Christians demonised him (literally) and used his part-goat features as their representation of Satan.

The worldly level of the story does not have a happy ending but the fantasy thread does, which does make it a satisfying film, because both outcomes are true to their realities.

The cast is unknown to those unfamiliar with Spanish cinema, but the performances are excellent and, like her TIDELAND counterpart, the young Ivana Baquero carries the film on her delicate shoulders.

Although HELLBOY is a great comic book movie, this is probably the director's best film to date. Not only is it made in his mother tongue but it is a more personal project and a revisiting of the themes of his previous film, THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE.

Highly recommended for fans of quality fantasy/horror.

PAN'S LABYRINTH is out on November 24 through Optimum Releasing.

Starter for Ten

2006-10-10T12:15:00.000+01:00

Director: Tom Vaughan
Writer: David Nicholls
Cast: James McAvoy, Alice Eve, Rebecca Hall, Charles Dance, Lindsay Duncan, Dominic Cooper, Catherine Tate

It seems that we are going to get a rash of Eighties nostalgia movies now that the people who were young then have reached an age and position where they can get feature films made. Right now we have The History Boys, although to be fair Alan Bennett is a bit older than thirties, and Starter for Ten.

Where The History Boys focussed on the last year of secondary school, Starter for Ten is set n the first year of university. The connections go even further because Dominic Cooper and James Corden appear in both films, although in Starter for Ten they play a pair of Essex seafront losers.

Starter for Ten is also a much lighter film, with its main conceit being Brian Jackson's (James McAvoy - Shameless) ambition to appear on University Challenge. While this is the driving force behind the story it is also a romantic comedy and a nostalgia trip for all those who went to university during the turbulent Thatcher years.

Coming from the Essex coast, Jackson wants to prove to himself, and his mum (Catherine Tate), that he is clever, by not only getting into university, even if it is Bristol and not Oxbridge, but also getting onto University Challenge. He wants to display that all the useless bits of information he has memorised over the years of watching TV quiz shows can be put to good use. Trouble starts when he becomes enamoured with his blonde, buxom teammate Alice (Alice Eve).

After years of being subjected to American college teen comedies it is great to see a uniquely British take on the genre and one that we can actually relate to. The squalor of student life, the angst that accompanies infatuation and love, binge drinking and the first experiments with illicit substances, protests (against everything) and the need to impress your peers. It is all done without the over-the-top antics of our US counterparts and with a good dose of old-fashioned British class-system snobbery. And of course there is plenty of music from the era from the likes of The Cure and The Buzzcocks.

McAvoy's performance is the right mixture of wide-eyed innocence and down-to-earth honesty, all done with a totally believable Essex accent. Catherine Tate is great as his mum, but sometimes hard to disassociate from her comedy show characters. Charles Dance and Lindsay Duncan put in a great cameo as Alice's parents in one of the funniest scenes in the movie.

Starter for Ten is a lot lighter and funnier than The History Boys, but still has its moments of drama and emotion. Both are definitely worth seeing and are released far enough apart so as not to over-inundate you with nostalgia.

Also keep an eye out for Art School Confidential from the writer and director of Ghost World, for an American view of the art school experience.

Starter for Ten is on general release from November 10

Official website

The History Boys

2006-10-06T14:25:00.000+01:00

Director: Nicholas Hynter
Cast: Richard Griffiths, Frances de la Tour, Stephen Campbell Moore

School days are supposed to be the best days of our lives, the vital formative years that set up us for our future as members of society, functional or otherwise. Are we being manipulated into believing everything we are told without ever really questioning, by being taught what to think and not how to think for ourselves? Very likely. If you have your own ideas, the chances are you will fail your exams, if you your fail your exams you won't be able to go to university where you become so in debt you have to become a wage slave for the rest of your life. Alan Bennett obviously had some concerns about the education system when he wrote his play, The History Boys, and a lot of people must have been interested in what he had to say about it because it was a huge theatrical hit on both sides of the Atlantic. His ideas can now reach an even wider audience with the release of the film version, which is the second collaboration between Bennett and director Nicholas Hynter, the first was The Madness of King George.

The History Boys is set in Cutler's Grammar School, in the north of England, during the mid 1980s. It focuses on eight boys who are pursuing undergraduate places in Oxford and Cambridge, as they are pushed to succeed by the school's over-zealous headmaster (Clive Merrison). In order for his school to rise up the ranks he enlists Irwin (Stephen Campbell Moore), a young, new teacher, to get them into to the right mindset for passing the university entrance exams. Although they find the new teacher interesting they still have loyalties to their old teachers, the eccentric and often unorthodox English teacher Hector (Richard Griffiths) and the by-the-book history teacher, Mrs Lintott (Frances de la Tour).

Being adapted from a theatre play it is dialogue heavy and light on action. Plays are contained within a restricted space, although clever set design does expand the possibilities. Movies, on the other hand, have very few limitations and are presented in a far more familiar, if not necessarily tangible, reality that allows for greater scope in the storytelling.

There are lots of verbose scenes in classrooms that give the characters plenty of opportunity to spout Bennett's ideas and his literary knowledge. There are the inevitable matters of teenage male sexuality raised, in both persuasions, which plays a significant part in the story. There are moments of humour but I wouldn't call it a comedy, at least not in the sense that the TV series Teachers was. Inevitably, comparisons have to be drawn with The Dead Poets' Society, although The History Boys is not quite as dramatic, the similarities are clearly visible.

This is definitely a British film, with its seemingly unavoidable grey pallor, but one that should appeal to a wide audience: those that have been through the system and those about to enter it. Of course it has the seemingly obligatory soundtrack of contemporary music plus a selection of show standards performed by Jamie Parker, one of the boys.

With the benefit of the well-rehearsed original cast the performances are very assured and totally believable. If you never got a chance to see the theatre production then definitely see the film version. The only let down is the slightly contrived ending.

The History Boys opens nationwide from October 13.

Idlewild

2006-10-02T21:51:00.000+01:00

It would be very easy to class this as a vanity project, and given the way OutKast's two leading men dress, vanity would not be understating the case. Of course, musicians crossing over into the world of movies has been going on for years with varying degrees of success. In the pre-MTV days legends such as Elvis and The Beatles made movies to promote new songs, and movies like KID CREOLE and A HARD DAY'S NIGHT have even stood the test of time. Other musicians, Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Sting, Roger Daltry, opted for purely dramatic roles, again with varying degrees of success. More recently it is rap and hip-hop singers that have been expanding their careers onto the screen, and with their blustering being mostly an act it seems like a natural progression.

OutKast's videos were certainly different to most of the other hip-hop promos, avoiding the urban bump and grind of scantily-clad booty. Theirs were major production numbers reminiscent of the golden age of Hollywood musicals so it seemed logical for Bryan Barber, the director of those pop-videos, to want to move onto something more substantial, so he wrote IDLEWILD as a vehicle for OutKast's multi-discipline talents.

Set in a world of a 1930s prohibition era Southern speakeasy, the film follows the lives of the club’s shy piano player, Percival (André Benjamin), and his childhood friend, the club’s showy lead performer and ladies’ man, Rooster (Antwan Patton). Following the death of the club's owner at the hands of ambitious mobster Trumpy (Terrence Howard) Rooster is made manager and it is up to him to keep the club running without giving control of it to Trumpy. At the same time singing sensation Angel (Paula Patton) arrives at the club, with a four-week contract, and Percival, who works in his father's funeral parlour during the day, falls for her.

Like most musicals, the story is fairly inconsequential, which does not mean it is overpoweringly weak but it doesn't break new ground looking like BUGSY MALONE meets HARLEM NIGHTS. It does have its good share of characters that attracted some of the cream of America's black performing community, with the likes of Ving Rhames, Faizon Love, Bill Nunn, Ben Vereen, Cicely Tyson and divas Macy Gray and Patti LaBelle. Even amongst this distinguished cast Benjamin and Patton give very convincing performances, with first-time actor Patton being surprisingly good.

Of course their main strength is their music, which is what the film is really all about. There are new songs and some from previous albums as well as fresh interpretations of songs by Bessie Smith and Cab Calloway. There is also some amazing dancing, a hybrid of swing and hip-hop, called swop, choreographed Hinton Battle. This is high-energy movement that works perfectly with the music to give the film and added sense of theatricality and fantasy.

The film should have a fairly wide appeal, from OutKast's legions of fans to lovers of musicals and romantic comedies. It has a bit of everything (except horror and sci-fi) and while it may not be the best movie of the year it looks like being the most vibrant musical. If you overlook the fairly standard story it is fantastic entertainment, which is a good reason to go to the cinema. And it looks great too.

IDLEWILD from UIP/Universal Pictures opens in the UK and Ireland on October 13 2006.

Hoodwinked

2006-09-30T10:57:00.000+01:00

Ever since Disney made his first animated feature, Snow White, fairy tales have been a popular source for children's and family movies. Disney sanitised the original tales for the delicate minds of American children, (the same ones that have grown into killers, but that's another discussion for another place). Terry Gilliam's The Brothers Grimm went some way to showing how dark fairy tales are, and Neil Jordan's The Company of Wolvesgave the story of Red Riding Hood a distinctly gothic and adult feel. Hoodwinked gives the same tale a more post-modern interpretation, which owes more to Shrek than anything else.

In this new animated version of the popular story, created and directed by Cory and Todd Edwards and Tony Leech, there is a thief that has been stealing the recipes from all the cooks of the forest, and Granny's collection is considered the best in the land. In order to stop it being stolen, Red decides to hide it in the bottom of a picnic basket and take it to her grandmother, who lives alone in the mountains. She is accompanied by a rabbit who has lost everything. Along the way they meet a wolf who wants to take away her basket, but Red escapes and eventually makes it to her grandma's cottage, where she finds the wolf disguised as her grandmother, while Granny is tied up in the closet. A bit of rough and tumble ensues until the axe-wielding woodsman crashes through the window. So far this sounds like the same old story except just at that moment the police arrive, lead by their Chief, Grizzly Bear and his assistants, the three little pigs (you see where this is going). The Chief is about to lock them all up when the suave, debonair frog detective, Nicky Flippers, arrives. Looking very much like a cartoon Poirot, but as everyone knows Poirot is Belgian and not a frog. Each of the suspects is interviewed and given a chance to tell their version of what happened up to the climactic moment, which leads Flippers to deduce who the real culprit is.

Like most contemporary Western animation this is of 3D CGI variety. Unfortunately it is not of a standard we have become used to from Pixar or Dreamworks, and it does look decidedly low-budget, along the lines of Jimmy Neutron. Saying that, I have seen some outstanding CGI animation that have been done on almost no budget, such as Rust Boy, which was made using cheap off-the-shelf software and a Mac.

Hoodwinked is saved by its script, and although the whole concept is not entirely original - there is a children's play called Wolfie that uses a very similar storyline - it does have some great moments of humour and plenty of film references to keep the adults amused. It also has a substantial voice cast including Anne Hathaway (Princess Diaries, Brokeback Mountain, Glenn Close (101 Dalmations, Mars Attacks, Jagged Edge, Jim Belushi (Red Heat) David Ogden Stiers ( MASH TV series) and Xzibit (MTV's Pimp My Ride) to deliver the gags.

It is flashy and fast-paced enough to keep kids entertained, with the dialogue being knowing enough to keep the adults amused. With the sometimes frenetic pace of the movie, the younger viewers aren't going to be too bothered by the quality of the animation.

It is an entertaining children's film, just not a highly original adaptation or with great animation. And that hyperactive squirrel seems somehow familiar.

Nina's Heavenly Delights

2006-09-30T02:08:00.000+01:00

It seems not a year passes without a new British Asian feature film coming to the market, with varying degrees of success. Bend it Like Beckham and East is East are probably the best-known, along with My Beautiful Laundrette. These are all films about Indians and Pakistanis living and surviving in Britain, rather than films about the Raj, like Passage to India, with the British trying to survive in India. Let's face it, without its Asian population Britons would probably still be unable to buy bread and milk after five o'clock, or get a decent takeaway meal. Although some people's perceptions are that Indians only run corner shops or curry restaurants is completely misguided, it is a stereotype that Nina's Heavenly Delights plays on quite well.

Nina (Shelley Conn) is the prodigal daughter of a Glasgow Indian restaurant owner, who returns from London to her home for her father's funeral, only to find he has used his beloved family business, The New Taj, as collateral for a bet, which he lost. Nina also discovers that her father had entered the restaurant into the Best of the West Curry Competition, hoping to win the award for the third time in a row, but the new half-owner of the restaurant, Lisa (Laura Fraser) isn't immediately convinced about entering the competition until Nina persuades her it will increase the restaurant's value. And so the pair prepare for the competition with the help of family and friends.

The movie is filled with plenty of colourful characters that show the diversity of the British Asian community, except they are more caricatures and stereotypes than real people - the gay friend (Ronny Jhutti), the understanding mum (Veena Sood), the jolly aunty (Elaine C Smith), the suave adversary (Art Malik), the savvy, rebellious little sister (Zoe Henretty) – but this doesn't really matter because most Bollywood films have the same sorts of characters, and ultimately this is a British version of real Indian, much like the curries.

The whole food part is my biggest complaint about the movie. It is the central conceit of the film and a vital part of the story and even though it is supposed to be a fantasy it does need some grounding in reality to help with the all-important suspension of disbelief. Maybe I am just being hypercritical but many of the cooking sequences lacked authenticity. For a start the two girls never wore proper kitchen apparel, never mind aprons. Cooking Indian food without an apron is a recipe for disaster, especially working with spices. And speaking of spices, an award-winning restaurant would use freshly ground spices, not keep large plastic jars of "Madras Curry Powder" on the work bench. Non-stick aluminium pans on electric hobs – definitely not on. And for a diet that is primarily vegetarian the menus were decidedly non-veg. But, like I said, I am just being picky.

Culinary disasters aside, the movie has some nice moments of comedy and some emotional ones too, which do tend towards sentimental, but Bollywood is never afraid to reduce its audiences to tears, and this movie manages to squeeze in a few misty moments of its own. Yes, it is predictable and clichéd but it is entertaining and will especially appeal to British Asians and even a wider general audience. Just like the local curries, it is Bollywood adapted to cater for the British palate.

The director, Pratibha Parmar, and her crew have created some lush imagery to enhance the fairytale nature of the story, which is even more impressive given it was shot on HD video. The music is a good mixture of Bollywood classics and contemporary British songs, including an interesting remix of the Nolan Sisters, which enhances the cross-cultural references.

Overall, it is a fun piece of undemanding light entertainment, but not really one for younger kids, in spite of its PG rating - unless you are prepared to explain why the two lead actresses are putting their tongues in each other's mouths.

NINA'S HEAVENLY DELIGHTS is on general release from September 29.

Brothers of the Head

2006-09-30T01:50:00.000+01:00

The mockumentary format has been around for quite some time now and is usually associated with comedy or satire. For some reason music, and rock in particular, has been the inspiration for some of the best of the genre. This is Spinal Tap is the film most people think of when mockumentary is mentioned, and so it should as it is a highly original piece of comedy that highlights the excesses and nonsense of the rock 'n' roll lifestyle. Brothers of the Head takes the rock/mockumentary format and uses it to stunning dramatic effect.

The story, taken from a novel by science fiction writer Brian Aldiss, revolves around conjoined brothers who have been living in isolation on the east coast of England until a music impresario decides he needs singing Siamese twins on his books. The story is told by a documentary filmmaker and through interviews with people who knew the brothers, Tom and Barry Howe (played in bravura performances by Harry and Luke Treadaway), during their heyday. The majority of the film is made up of "archival" footage of the twins as they learn to play music and develop into the punk band "The Bang Bang", complete with rehearsals and gig footage, then their inevitable demise as they get caught up in the world of sex and drugs and record company demands.

Apart from the amazing performances from the two leads, what makes this film work is total believability of the footage. Directed by Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe, best known for their two documentaries on Terry Gilliam, The Hamster Factor and Lost in La Mancha, who use their experience and skills at the format to full effect. Even though it is a fictional drama, adapted by another Gilliam collaborator Tony Grisoni (Fear and Loathing, Tideland), it has the feeling of something that is spontaneous and unscripted. This is further enhanced by the cinematography of Anthony Dod Mantle, who is best known for his DV work with Lars von Trier and on Danny Boyle's Twenty Eight Days Later. The "archive" footage really does look like it was shot in the 70s, which is why it seems so believable. And the appearance of Ken Russell, as himself, further bolsters the illusion.

The movie might not be to everyone's taste but there is no denying it is a fantastic piece of filmmaking. It perfectly captures the essence of the era of the rise of punk, as well as being an indictment of the manipulative nature of the music industry, and its ability to destroy lives. With great writing, direction, cinematography and acting it is definitely worth seeing.

Brothers of the Head won the Michael Powell Award for Best British Feature Film at this year's Edinburgh International Film Festival. It is on general release from October 6

Children of Men

2006-09-17T16:06:00.000+01:00

Fictional views of the future, and particularly the near future, are usually devised by the writer taking the contemporary socio-political situation and creating a logical path they consider events will follow. This is usually dictated by the author's general disposition. The pessimist creates a dystopian future and the optimist a utopian one. The dystopian vision, while bleak, does better to serve as a warning as to where we could head if we don't stay alert. Orwell's 1984 is a prime example, and although he may have missed the mark by some twenty years, his vision of the future is a much truer reality than most would care to admit. From the fascist government disguising itself as a caring socialist party, to the endless surveillance cameras and erosion of civil liberties, and many other correlations Orwell's future is very much here.

And although the writers of MAX HEADROOM only looked twenty minutes into the future, it was already 1985 when that show first hit the airwaves with its prescient view of a world of haves and have-nots controlled by television and media conglomerates. So the reality of our present world sees the collision of these two future-visions where Big Brother is watching us and we are watching Big Brother. And while we are living in the media-controlled illusion of a great Britain, the reality that this country is fast becoming a third world country devoid of industry and resources is being hidden from us. The Britain created by Alfonso Cuarón for his adaptation of P.D. James' novel CHILDREN OF MEN is also bleak but, under current conditions, one that is entirely feasible.

The film is set in 2027 in a world where humanity's survival seems impossible: women have stopped bearing children. The last child born is a global celebrity, who is assassinated in the film's opening, which really does start with a bang. Britain is one of the few countries that is surviving the global meltdown thanks to its military might and its brutal and totalitarian treatment of refugees by incarcerating them detainment camps for deportation (sound familiar?)

Our hero, Theo (Clive Owen), a former activist turned bureaucrat has steeled himself against his painful past and the reality of a senseless future by simply ceasing to care. Owen is a perfect choice for the lead as he has knack for delivering lines devoid of emotion. His only pleasure is visits to his friend, Jasper (Michael Caine), an old hippy who lives in self-sufficient hideaway miles from London. Caine, looking like an old John Lennon, seems to relish the role and is a great counter-balance to the morose Owen.

The action kicks off when Theo is bundle into the back of a van and taken to meet Julian (Julianne Moore), his ex-partner in both love and war, as they not only shared a bed but a passion for rebellion. Julian is still a revolutionary and wants her ex to help her get transit papers for Kee (Clare-Hope Ashitey), a young woman who she needs to get safely out of the country, because as it transpires she is eight months pregnant.

So begins the race against time and an assortment of organisations with a vested interest in getting their hands on Kee and her baby. Knowing whom to trust becomes harder and harder as they battle their way to a rendezvous with an almost mythical group called the Human Project.

This film is very much Cuarón's, with his vision and direction dominating. His vision of future Britain is really not that far removed from our present reality, complete with fields of cattle being incinerated. The action pieces are brilliantly executed, especially towards the end, with some amazing handheld camerawork that gives it a real sense of a battlefront documentary. There are a lot of long takes, which along with grainy photography, further enhances the documentary feel. A lot of British films have a flat grey look to them, which reflects the general climate, however this film is dark but contrasty, which seems to highlight the bleak mood of the piece.

Apart from Theo and Kee, characters come and go and very little empathy is attached to them, with the exception of Caine's character. Chiwetel Ejiofor plays a character almost as nasty as the one in SERENITY, but not quite as cold, calculating or ruthless, but close.

Clive Owen's emotionless performance aside, this is a powerful and thought-provoking movie that will keep you engrossed. It also has some moments of humour, even if they are of a schadenfreude nature, such as when Theo has to escape shoeless. As is fitting for a film of this type it does not have a happy ending but rather one that is open and undetermined, although resolved and with hope. Definitely worth seeing.

CHILDREN OF MEN opens nationwide September 22.

Official website

Allegro

2006-09-11T15:26:00.000+01:00

Denmark's biggest contribution to contemporary filmmaking is undoubtedly Dogme 95, von Trier's and Vinterberg's philosophy, or rules, on how to purify filmmaking. It was an interesting idea, although one that didn't always produce particularly enjoyable films. It did, however, give independent filmmakers a sense of freedom to make movies that didn't conform to the demands of the Hollywood studio-dominated film industry. The 10-point Vow of Chastity was meant to be a reaction to the megaliths, and as with Moses' Ten Commandments, very few people follow the rules to the letter, but the basic tenets have created a much freer approach to filmmaking.

Of course Denmark's other major exports have made inroads into the film world. Bacon and pastries are a staple of early morning location calls, and Carlsberg has been known to turn up during the evenings. Lego has been endorsed by Spielberg and used by Michel Gondry (ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF A SPOTLESS MIND) for a White Stripes video.

Apart from the aforementioned Dogme 95, Danish films rarely make it to the screens outside their homeland, as with many other northern European productions, with Viggo Mortenson being the country's best-known actor (Brigitte Nielsen doesn't really count). Now international super-model, and former Miss Denmark, Helena Christensen has joined the acting world in a new Danish sci-fi film, ALLEGRO.

Directed and co-written by Christoffer Boe, ALLEGRO is the story of a famous, technically perfect but rather soulless Danish pianist Zetterstrøm (Ulrich Thomsen), who has an idiosyncrasy of playing hidden from public view. After ten years in New York he is enticed back to his native Copenhagen to give a gala recital. He is also allured by an invitation from a person within the mysterious, impenetrable off-limits area known as "The Zone", where he is confronted by his forgotten past and his love for the captivating Andrea (Helena Christensen).

The film is more of a surreal fantasy than science-fiction, bringing to mind the quirkiness of BEING JOHN MALKOVICH in the way that Zetterstrøm moves between the two worlds. There are some obvious Dogme influences with the use of handheld cameras, existing light and the sense of almost impromptu performances (Thomsen starred in the Dogme classic FESTEN). The whole movie has a dark, grainy look, probably due to most of it being set at night-time, or indoors, which does enhance the overall surreal feeling of the movie.

It is by no means a gripping action-packed story, but a subtler one that leads you, almost trance-like, to its conclusion, as Zetterstrøm solves the mystery of "The Zone" and his lost memories. There is some imaginative use of line animation to thread the elements together and explain what is happening.

For those that like their sci-fi/fantasy films to have European art house sensibilities then you should catch this now.

ALLEGRO is showing at the ICA in London from September 15. There will be a Q&A with the director, Christoffer Boe, on the opening night. The film will show at cinemas nationwide later.

Snow Cake

2006-09-03T13:24:00.000+01:00

Director: Marc Evans
Starring: Alan Rickman, Sigourney Weaver, Carrie-Anne Moss
Rated: 15

Movies about human drama are nearly always traumatic affairs filled with angst and a full gamut of other emotions that invariably involve shouting and crying. It takes a certain frame of mind to go and watch people suffering for an hour and a half (or more), but it's a mindset that appeals to people who give out movie awards and justifiably so. A well-written drama will stretch the actor and if they are not up to the task it will be patently obvious.

There is one such film that should be appearing on all the upcoming award nominations, just on the strength of its leads performances, and that film is SNOW CAKE with Sigourney Weaver and Alan Rickman.

Rickman plays Alex, a jaded and taciturn Englishman, a role that comes effortlessly to him, who is driving across Canada to visit the mother of a deceased son he never knew. On the way he meets a young goth girl, who is hitchhiking to a small town called Wawa, to visit her mother. On the girl's insistence, and against his better judgement, he gives her a lift. They are involved in an accident (stunningly executed on film) and the girl is killed. Filled with remorse, Alex takes the gifts the girl had bought for her mother, in the hope of somehow consoling her and absolving himself of blame. But when he arrives he discovers that her mother, Linda, is autistic. Wanting to help her with the funeral arrangements, he convinces Linda to let him stay with her, and a funny, bittersweet relationship starts to develop between them, within the confines of Linda's condition. At the same time Alex has fallen for Linda's neighbour Maggie, played by the thinking man's sex symbol, Carrie-Ann Moss (THE MATRIX). Within the the short period of time he is in the small town, the two complex relationships open Alex's heart and get him to face his inner demons.

The dramatic scope of the story is fairly limited, compared to other similar films, but this tends to ground it more in reality, especially given the personalities of the three main characters. Rickman is good but hardly stretched and the sardonic wit he does so well is put to good use. Moss is still sexy without her skintight leather and shows that she is a diverse actress whose skills were underused in that sci-fi trilogy. But it is Sigourney Weaver who steals the film, capturing, with great subtly, the childlike innocence and obsessive behaviour that characterises autism. When we first discover her autism it comes as surprise and Weaver continues to surprise throughout the film. It is hard to believe this is the same actress that played the alien-conquering Ripley.

Even if this type of dramatic film is not usually to your taste, go and see it just for Sigourney Weaver's performance and then be surprised at how good the whole film is.

On general release from September 8.

Little Miss Sunshine

2006-09-03T13:08:00.000+01:00

Dir: Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris
Starring: Greg Kinnear, Steve Carrell, Toni Collette, Paul Dano, Abigail Breslin, Alan Arkin
Rated: 15

Hollywood, and its movies, has always been about the American Dream; the freedom to do and be what you want. Come the Sixties and Seventies and the new generation realised that the dream was going bad and set off to look for America and for themselves. First in literature with Kerouac and Thompson, then with films like EASY RIDER came the start of the road movies (not to be confused the Crosby and Hope films). As the youth were off in search of the truth and a new dream they found that family units were breaking down or were simply becoming dysfunctional, and creating a new sub-genre to be explored in writing and film, whether as drama or comedy. LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE takes all these elements and rolls them up into a funny, dysfunctional family, road movie about the American Dream.

Douglas Coupland wrote a book called All Families are Psychotic and the Hoover family of this film certainly fit into that category. From the heroin-snorting, foul-mouthed grandfather, brilliantly portrayed by Alan Arkin, to his eternally optimistic son Richard, the motivational speaker (Greg Kinnear) to Richard's own son Dwayne, a typical sullen, angry teenager who reads Nietzsche and has taken a vow of silence until he achieves his goal of getting into the Air Force. Richard's wife Sheryl (Toni Collete) tries to keep the family together with her open, honesty policy, whilst trying to hide the fact that her Proust-scholar brother (Steve Carell) tried to commit suicide after being rejected by his gay lover. Perhaps the only bit of sanity is the youngest of the family, Olive, a plump, spectacle-wearing girl with dreams of becoming a beauty queen. It is her dream that is the driving force behind the movie.

After winning, by default, the local round of a pre-pubescent beauty competition, the titular Little Miss Sunshine, Olive has to go to California, from Albuquerque, but financial and familial situations dictate that the whole family have to go together in their car, a tired, old VW Kombi bus, which becomes as much a star of the show as the actors. As they try to race the clock to arrive on time for the pageant, whatever could possibly go wrong does, to create a great, almost farcical, comedy tinged with moments of powerful emotion.

There have been a string of disastrous family, road movie comedies recently (ARE WE THERE YET, R.V.), but LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE absolves those sins by being smart and funny. Although it is a movie about a family it is by no means a family movie (it has a 15 certificate). And it has a particularly disturbing ending in that it shows to what a low level American society has sunk to with the junior beauty pageants. Luckily Olive's routine restores some balance.

Just the film to renew your faith in humanity, with lots of laughs to boot.

LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE is on general release from September 8.

Clerks II: The Second Coming

2006-09-03T12:58:00.000+01:00

Director/writer: Kevin Smith
Starring: Brian O'Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Rosario Dawson, Jason Mewes, Kevin Smith, Trevor Fehrman, Jennifer Swalbach
Rated: 18

Ten years after Kevin Smith's debut film CLERKS made him darling of the independent film world, he has carved himself a nice little niche in New Jersey-based movies that feature a motley crew of reprobates, including his alter ego Silent Bob and his (non-gay) partner Jay (Jason Mewes). CLERKS was so successful it even spawned an animated series and a comic book (comics being one of Smith's passions). After the original film, Smith produced a bunch moderately successful follow-ups, which peaked creatively with DOGMA, a film that showed his writing had reached a new maturity and depth. The movie created a lot of anger among the religious right, which can't be a bad thing.

Wanting to break away from stock in trade dick and fart jokes he made JERSEY GIRL, which was a critical, and some say a total, failure. It was partly because of this that the director reassessed the type of films he really wanted to make.

CLERKS II: THE SECOND COMING is a return to his roots, a movie with plenty of talking and potty-mouth humour, but tempered with his new writing maturity, with profundity among the profanity. In this latest outing for Dante (Brian O'Halloran) and Randal (Jeff Anderson), the two fan-boy slackers have to take a new job at a Mooby's takeaway (the same fast food chain that felt the wrath of Loki in DOGMA), after the film's opening scene of Dante's inferno. Although some things haven't changed, (Jay and Silent Bob are still hanging out in front of the store), Dante is engaged and planning to move to Florida with his new bride-to-be. Randal is upset with this, but still plans to give his best buddy an unforgettable send off, involving inter-species erotica. This new story introduces two other characters into the dynamic, if you can call what these slackers do as dynamic. Apart from the Mrs Hicks-to-be (Jennifer Scwalbach - the real life Mrs Smith), the first is Elias (Trevor Ferhman), a geeky and totally naive Christian, who is a fan of TRANSFORMERS and LORD OF THE RINGS. The other is Becky (Rosario Dawson), the manager of the Mooby, with whom Dante has developed a strong friendship that goes beyond a standard employer/employee relationship.

It is these two new characters that act as the catalyst for the film's best moments of humour and emotion. Yes, there is emotional content in a Kevin Smith film! It was something he explored in JERSEY GIRL and CHASING AMY, but slipping it in between the dick jokes it doesn't get a chance to get mawkish, not even the rooftop dance sequence. There are also some philosophical discussions, the likes of which made DOGMA such a great film. And of course there are plenty of fanboy debates (the battle of the trilogies is priceless), which no View Askew project would be complete without. Askew alumni Ben Affleck and Jason Lee (and his onscreen Hickey brother, Ethan Suplee) make cameo appearances.

In some parts of the film I laughed till I had tears in my eyes, which seemed to hang around for some of the other scenes (that's my story and I'm sticking with it). It's not a film to everyone's taste, with some of it guaranteed to upset people who think what happens in movies is real. Kevin Smith fans will definitely not be disappointed. For those unfamiliar with the Askew universe this is a good place to jump in, Smith's writing and direction are assured and matured and once you accept his juvenile brand of humour, it is a lot of fun, but definitely not for those who are easily offended.

On general release from September 22 through UIP

Check the official website.

CLERKS II won the Standard Life Audience Award at this year's Edinburgh International Film Festival, with almost 70% of the votes. The Award was presented to UIP by film legend Sir Sean Connery.

Right at Your Door

2006-08-31T17:59:00.000+01:00

Director: Chris Gorak
Starring: Rory Cochrane, Mary McCormack, Max Kasch
Rated: 15

In this current time of paranoia about terrorism from largely imagined enemies, the government is running its own form of terrorism by creating a climate of fear amongst the public, which allows it to introduce new laws and measures that undermine our civil liberties and human rights. Tried getting on a plane lately? Just watch Adam Curtis's documentary, The Power of Nightmares if you think I am the one that is paranoid. It can be downloaded from archive.org.

However, after that opening diatribe the movie RIGHT AT YOUR DOOR is not really about terrorism, in the way that THE SIEGE is, but about the effects of dirty bombs that are exploded in downtown Los Angeles. After artist Brad (Rory Cochrane) sends his career wife Lexi (Mary McCormack) off to work, he hears an announcement on the radio about the explosions. In a fit of panic he races off to find his wife, only to be turned back by the rapidly enforced martial law and told to seal up his house from the toxic ash and stay inside. Using gaffer tape, plastic sheeting, and the help of a neighbour, Brad seals himself in the house with his assistant and awaits the arrival of help, while he despairs for his missing wife. Then she arrives at the house, where Brad is torn between letting her in and making her stay outside, as instructed, until medical aid arrives.

It is here that the film's tension really gets started as Brad wrestles with his conscience and love for his wife and his own fears and survival instincts. Most of the action takes place around the house, both inside and out, with a very limited cast, making for very intense and claustrophobic drama. The whole issue of terrorism and any of its political implications are not broached in the film. The continuous news reports heard on the radio only talk about practical things rather than speculate on who caused it. Interestingly, the film was finished just shortly before Katrina hit New Orleans and the emergency services inability, or lack of desire, to help seem to have been reflected the movie's events. But that is about the extent of the film's political input, with survival being the key theme.

With the streets deserted, it seems even the looters and anarchists are more interested in surviving the conditions created by the bombs than amassing material gain, or maybe it is just because it is suburbia. When news of a mysterious virus that is spreading with the ash is out, it appears the chances of survival are further reduced for those exposed, or so it seems right up to the riveting finale.

The intense drama is carried by the two lead actors, who give compelling performances that could easily be transferred to the intimacy of the theatre stage. For a small film it certainly raises some interesting issues, like what would you do in the same situation?

Watch the trailer
QuickTime | Windows Media

RIGHT AT YOUR DOOR is on general release from September 8.