LFF 2011: Terri, Bullets, and The Descendants

Terri
This is worth seeing for John C Reilly’s supporting performance as a school headmaster (quite probably) exorcising his own demons by trying to help the good-hearted fuck up kids at his school.

Reilly’s Mr Fitzgerald is introduced us as we watch the misadventures of the titular Terri, a tall, overweight teenager, who has become insular and withdrawn following years of teasing and bullying. Living alone with his medicated uncle in a cottage in the woods, Terri is singled out by the headmaster as a pupil needing special help and encouragement.

The film follows the John Hughes high school format, with the outsider making their journey to acceptance, but gently subverts it.

Terri is charmingly played by newcomer Jacob Wysocki, while director Azazel Jacobs maintains the melancholy beautifully throughout.
Score: 6.5/10

Let The Bullets Fly
Too long and trying to hard, but still strangely enjoyable: that’s my thoughts on this mad Chinese-Hong Kong eastern Western from director/star Jiang Wen.

Wen is a bandit who connives his way into being declared mayor of Goose Town, where he intends to make his fortune through taxation and bribes. But he hasn’t accounted for the local godfather, played for laughs by Chow Yun-Fat.

With manic gunplay, and a touch of wu-fu, the bandit and his gang repeatedly face off against the godfather and his gang – and ‘repeatedly’ is the key word here, as the plot keeps twisting, generating more and more battles.

Mood shifts are frequent and they jar: Wen lends enormous gravitas to his role as the noble bandit, but this sits ill with Yun-Fat’s constant manic mugging; we are expected to mourn gang members who we have been barely sketched out in comic tones, and so it goes on.

Some set pieces are brilliantly executed, while others are pedestrian or let down by poor effects.

If this had been cut to 90 minutes, its foibles might be forgiven. If nothing else, I want to check out Wen’s back catalogue – he has real screen presence.
Score: 6/10

The Descendants
Alexander ‘Sideways’ Payne delivers another funny yet painful look at the male mid-life crisis, buoyed by awards-worthy performances from a strong, indie-friendly cast, led by George Clooney.

Clooney is Matt King, a wealthy lawyer in Hawaii, who must cope with his wife’s coma and be the father he’s never been to his two daughters (both played with aplomb by Shailene Woodley – watch out for her in the future - and Amara Miller), while handling the most important decision he will ever make.

With pressure bearing down, and family truths revealing themselves, Clooney’s King is by turns angry, happy, disgusted and comforted as he deals with his troubled daughters, the in-laws (led by a scene-stealing Robert Forster) and business stakeholders (cue Beau Bridges).

The film skips lightly along never over-playing the humour, the drama nor the tragedy: the laughs are genuine and perfectly timed, the heartaches are razor-sharp and leave lasting cuts. Clooney, long the master of the insular everyman, delivers yet another fine performance, marked out by subtle facial reactions that speak of more hurt and remorse than any dialogue could possibly convey.

Much of what makes the film work is the life-like nature of the characters: nobody is that funny, good, evil, sad, etc – they are all composed unequally of those facets. And thus some Hollywood clichés and schmaltz are entirely avoided – and clearly the film is all the better for that.

I saw this twice – and it certainly more than withstood a second watch. Don’t wait for it to appear on DVD: see it at the cinema with a crowd; you won’t regret it. And you'll come away with a few new swearwords too!
Score: 8/10