Best of the fest part 2

Some more reviews of the films I saw during the London Film Festival fortnight...

The Men Who Stare At Goats is a distinctly Coens-esque offbeat, leftfield comedy that suffers from one essential problem: the casting of Ewan McGregor. Quite simply he can’t carry off a believable American accent; one might even speculate that he can’t carry off any role – he’s so unconvincing!
However, setting that to one side first-time director Grant Heslov (one of George Clooney’s gang – he co-produced the brilliant Good Night And Good Luck) has delivered an eclectic movie that mixes genres with abandon. Clooney, Jeff Bridges (clearly channelling the ghost of The Dude) and Kevin Spacey make the most of their almost cartoon characters, mugging and fooling around as if their lives are at stake. Their roles as the US military’s warrior monks (trained to stare at goats until their hearts stop and to run through walls) are uncovered by McGregor’s useless journalist, who then finds himself in an adventure with Clooney that he terms ‘the silence of the goats’.
Enjoyable, but it could have been better. It’s simply not satirical enough.
Score: 7/10

Unjustifiably ignored, The Soloist is top-notch adult entertainment from Joe Wright. The fundamental emotional detachment that killed Atonement for me actually helps The Soloist hit the heights, Wright’s English reserve creating more emotional impact than the more obviously heart-tugging approach the average US director would take with this Oscar bait script.
Robert Downey Jnr is a newspaper columnist who stumbles upon a mad homeless musical genius, Jamie Fox. Both broken in their own ways, the film charts the peaks and troughs of the pair’s relationship, and the impact that relationship has on them.
Neither are cured by the end, but have they made progress.
Downey and Fox both underplay their roles, just as Wright underplays the potential histrionics of the script, allowing the real emotions to gradually shine through, aided by a beautiful score.
Score: 8.5/10

Cold Souls is not ‘The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Soul’. While it shares some essential plot points with Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Cold Souls does not share the former’s beautiful love story.
Paul Giamatti plays a well-known US actor called, er, Paul Giamatti, who’s struggling with the preparation for the role of Uncle Vanya. He spots an ad for a soul storage facility – effectively your soul is removed and securely stored until you want to have it back.
Finding that the lack of a soul doesn’t improve his performance, he elects to try someone else’s soul… Inevitably he decides he wants his soul back – but it’s been sold on as there’s a burgeoning trade in soul trafficking…
This is a gentle, existential, downbeat comedy/drama – and will not be to everybody’s tastes. While ably supported by Emily Watson and David Strathairn, Giamatti is the brilliant hangdog lynchpin of the movie. If you like Giamatti, then you must see this.
Score: 7.5/10

Balibo is a village in East Timor; in October 1975 five Australian journalists were killed by the invading Indonesian forces. Respected Aussie hack Roger East investigates their deaths as the Australian government shows no interest, making the trip to East Timor even as the invasion is continuing.
From the first frame this screams ‘this is an IMPORTANT movie’ and the emphasis is on its message. Not that the message is unworthy: society needs reminding of the crucial role a free press can play – and how better informed we are by the work of brave, ethical journalists.
Anthony La Paglia is suitably stirring as East, delivering a memorable performance – although the manner of his exit from the movie just screams ‘Oscar’…
The supporting cast flesh out the Balibo five well, so we care about them and are shocked by the deaths.
Nevertheless, writer/director Robert Connolly hits the audience over the head repeatedly – I found myself curiously detached. A less politically pointed approach would have served the film better.
Score: 7/10

American: The Bill Hicks Story charts the laughs, life and times and eventual death of America’s greatest stand-up at the age of 32.
This documentary uses the photo animation technique first used in The Kid Stays In The Picture to illustrate hours of interviews with Hicks’ family and friends.
If you don’t know his work, you should: go to his website.
What you need to know is that he was a crusading comic who saw it as his job to hold Church and state to account – his years as a professional comedian were, after all, governed by Reagan and Bush Snr, and the Moral Majority. Indeed, it’s fair to say that his late-career renaissance in the UK saw him moving swiftly away from ‘pure’ stand-up, taking an overtly ‘political’, campaigning approach, attempting and mostly succeeding in converting his huge audiences to his cause.
He dared to ask the questions the media wouldn’t, he was an optimist, he was as committed a stage performer as there has ever been – and he simply was bloody funny.
Given the state of the world, this film’s extolling of his dream of world peace could not be more timely.
Score: 8.5/10

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