So, here’s the second half of my London Film Festival 2012
top 10.
This Wirral-based policier features a star turn from Paul
Bettany and marks an impressive follow-up to The Awakening for director Nick
Murphy.
This dark, moodily-lit drama is styled as a fable, musing on
masculinity and morality: Murphy’s Joe Fairburn is hard-nosed and hard-drinking
detective who wants the big cases; he works with his brother, in the same team
that their now Alzheimer’s-ridden father used to run.
Still scarred from failing to catch the child-killer in a
previous case, he is very keen to nail the killer this time round and
preferably ASAP.
Through a combination of rumours, Chinese whispers,
assumptions and his own need to dispense justice and absolve himself of his
lingering guilt, he takes matters into his own hands in a moment of anger.
The film then charts his descent as the horror of his
mistake comes home to roost.
Support is top notch from Stephen Graham (as Bettany’s
brother), Brian Cox (as Bettany’s father), and Mark Strong as the only
detective on the team who uses his brain rather his brawn to solve a case.
The film looks fabulous: indeed the clarity of presentation
was absolutely stunning. The choice of locations and production design
emphasise the story’s fable-like qualities.
Strong stuff and certainly not a happy film, but one I’m
happy to endorse. I cant wait for the next Nick Murphy feature.
Score: 8/10
No release set yet.
I do not recall the last time a film gripped me as much as
End Of Watch. Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena star as two police officers
charged with patrolling the meanest streets of LA. We gatecrash their world:
the film kicks off with a car chase and shoot-out witnessed by their in-car
camera. It is FULL ON!
Director David Ayers (he wrote Training Day) uses a number
of different POVs to tell his story, heightening the story’s sensory impact:
in-car POV, surveillance cameras, personal cameras, etc. However, he doesn’t
follow this through to shoot the entire film from real POVs and does fall back
on third person narration positioning shots.
The film moves at an almost breathless pace from case to
case, but always makes time for Gyllenhaal’s and Pena’s in-car chats, building
the audience’s rapport and empathy with the heroes. The performances are so
good that one can only assume that the two are great friends in real life: they
are quite possibly the best buddy team since Newman and Redford.
The rapport the two have with each other and the increasing
empathy we feel for them only serves to heighten the tension as their derring
dos drive them into ever more treacherous waters: you’re never quite sure where
the next gunshot will come from.
There are a few time-outs from the action for parties and
marriages, but they simply make us more concerned for our heroes as they face
the final, visceral shoot-out.
The conclusion is unexpected, as is the formal conclusion.
Stay for the end titles as there is a final clip of the
heroes chatting that adds further context to the conclusion.
Score: 9/10
Opens 23 November.
This was quite possibly the most charming film of the
festival. The very great Frank Langella plays a cat burgular in his later
years, suffering from memory loss. His son, concerned about his father’s
condition but living too far away to offer close and constant care, invests in
a healthcare robot to look after him.
Naturally, Langella doesn’t take kindly to the robot being
thrust upon him but after a few awkward steps a relationship slowly builds
between the two – to such an extent that the robot and Frank become quite the
professional pair.
How Susan Sarandon’s librarian and a local developer work
into the script is best left to you to find out.
While clearly riffing on The Odd Couple with its gentle
comedy of opposites, the film reflects not only on old age and loneliness, but
also on the advance of technology and how easy it is to get left behind.
The film’s UK release date suggests that the distributors
are hopeful of multiple awards noms for Langella; for what it’s worth, Frank
will be in the running for the Golden Stans.
Score: 8.5/10
Opens 8 March 2013.
Think you’re a movie geek? Think again! How much do you
think you know about Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining? What is it a metaphor for:
the massacre of the American Indians or the holocaust or a heavy hint that the
moon landing was faked by Kubrick with funding from the US government?
According to The Shining experts in this scintillating
documentary, it’s all of the above and more.
Director Rodney Asher visualises their theories by using
clips from both The Shining and other films by Kubrick in a witty and inventive
way.
Some of the theories are quite bizarre, but Asher does not
judge the validity of the theories nor their authors: he simply offers them up
to the audience and invites us to judge for ourselves.
The Shining reappears in UK cinemas in time for Halloween in
the full US cut never seen before on UK screens.
Score: 8/10
Opens 26 November.
This year’s blub-fest, Song For Marion could be 2013’s Exotic
Best Marigold Hotel and its key participants are primed for BAFTA noms.
If you’ve read my blog before, you’ll know that I have a
deep-seated fear of ill health and mental frailty brought on by old age, so
this story of terminally-ill Vanessa Redgrave, her singing classes and her
embittered husband Terence Stamp’s opposition to those classes skewered me very
early on.
Treading on territory previously essayed by Brassed Off and
The Full Monty, Song For Marion’s plot is 99% predictable, but this film is all
about how it gets to where it’s going, not the destination itself. The raw
sentiment is not as mushy as it could be, the laughs are as good as you could
hope for, and the tragedy and the triumph are played out with commendable
restraint.
Redgrave and Stamp will be front and centre at the BAFTAs.
They bring considerable gravitas to the film, while the key supporting cast of
Gemma Arterton (the seemingly unrelentingly positive singing instructor) and
Christopher Eccleston (as Redgrave and Stamp’s son) are splendid too.
This is not great art: it is quite simply a traditional
crowd pleaser and one of those rare opportunities to bask in the glow of Mr
Stamp. Don’t wait for the DVD; see it at the cinema.
Score: 8/10
Opens 8 February 2013.
The first half of my top 10 included Argo, Compliance, Kiss
Of The Damned, Seven Psychopaths and Sightseers.
