The Keeping Room

(Daniel Barber/2014/USA)

During the US Civil War a General Sherman employed a campaign of terror and “total war” against civilian infrastructure that could be considered beneficial to the confederate army – railroads, mills, factories etc. The March to the Sea by the Union army employed “bummers” to scout ahead of the advancing army foraging and looting supplies. Daniel Barber uses this historical event to frame his film which is essentially a home invasion flick. He does the truth an injustice though as it is widely documented that the campaign, which psychologically succeeded in breaking the confederacy and their supporters and resulted in the end of the war, was conducted generally in a disciplined and controlled way. The two bummers on display here then could be taken to be an extreme exception rather than a rule for what happened but that’s just my bug bear with historical misrepresentations. Perish the thought that historical accuracy could get in the way of a good yarn. The film itself is wonderfully shot in darkened, stark tones and the sense of calm of the countryside being encroached upon and destroyed by the advancing terror of Sam Worthington and Kyle Soller’s bummers is ever present. 

Having rode off from their arrival and subsequent slaughter at a neighbouring farm Augusta (Brit Marling) battens down the hatches on the house she shares with her younger sister, Louise, and their female slave, Mad. The three women are forced to defend themselves from the attack of the two nasty yolks and what plays out is a brutal battle of the sexes. There are fine performances all round and as I said it is a good looking film but the script let’s it down; unevenly paced at times with some unnecessary sub plotting its repeated breaking of the tension gets a little wearing. Having expended the time to build the atmosphere and characters it becomes predictable at the finish as just another home invasion movie with the threat of violence from men towards vulnerable women the crux of the drama. Perfectly watchable, at times gripping but ultimately a bit disappointing.

(2.5/5)

Gangster No.1

(Paul McGuigan/2000/UK)

Released the same year as Sexy Beast and with much the same subject matter, aging criminals, Gangster No.1 builds its story from narrated flashbacks rather than rooting itself firmly in the present. This allows for lots of vintage costume styling and set decorating which looks great but also seems somehow over familiar. We’re not breaking any new ground here but there’s fine performances from Paul Bettany as the young sociopathic gangster of the title who manoeuvres his way into a position of power in the London crime scene. Malcolm McDowell is also impressive as the aged gangster in the present day but the montage and flashback style story telling lacks a build up of intensity and there’s a reliance on grisly violence to shock and engage the viewer. The culmination of the story is both a little confusing and deflating. It’s pertinent to make comparison with Sexy Beast which has a subtlety that’s absent here. The menace onscreen is in the possibility of violence from Ben Kingsley’s obviously lunatic character and whilst there are moments of viciousness there’s a restraint in the script from showing too much. There’s a lot more in what we don’t see than what we do sometimes and this I think is why Sexy Beast is a more enduring film than McGuigan’s Gangster No.1.

(2.5/5)

Uncle Howard

(Aaron Brookner/2016/USA & UK)

Part documentary, part family memoir Uncle Howard looks at the life and career of Howard Brookner. A film director in the 1980’s who made his mark with his portrayal of writer William S. Burroughs in the film Burroughs: The Movie, Brookner’s star shone bright in the artistic community of New York City but for a tragically short time. His nephew Aaron Brookner begins with the discovery of part of his archives, stored in The Bunker, Burroughs old residence in New York. Jim Jarmusch, sound recordist on the Burroughs movie, assists in examining what’s been found whilst recounting tales from the time of making that film. He opens a film reel canister and sniffs, “Smells okay, I think this one’s good”. It’s moments like this that compel you to watch and Brookner’s tale, with the search for lost footage and notebooks, becomes a metaphor for the importance of preserving culture and art that might otherwise disappear into the ether. Shots of Brookner’s nephew with Tom DiCillo or Brad Gooch, Brookner’s partner, watching the old reels and the emotions elicited give testament to this. The film is not just a memoir; it’s about the importance of memoirs.

Anyone half interested in the Beats will find a lot in the first half hour to engage them as lost scenes flicker by of Burroughs and others in various NYC haunts. The footage of Ginsberg and Burroughs on a rooftop, arms around shoulders as Burroughs recites and gets wrong the opening lines to Howl are particularly poignant. There’s conversation with avant garde theatre director Robert Wilson who was the focus of Brookners second film and there’s on set footage and more interviews and recollections from his third film Bloodhounds of Broadway. But Aaron Brookner’s narration on his uncle and the impact the man had on his own life paired with old home movie footage of the family together raise this beyond a mere documentary of a long lost film maker. We get a slice of the man on a personal, intimate level. The warmth of his memories combined with the affection and warmth also of the people who worked with and befriended him all those years ago culminate to betray exactly what a huge loss it was when Howard Brookner passed. The names of the people involved, Jim Jarmusch, Sara Driver and Tom DiCillo and the work they’ve gone on to do can only make you wonder what might have been if Howard Brookner had lived. More importantly though, it might encourage you to seek out his films and revisit them.

(3/5)

Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas

(Arnaud des Pallières/2013/France & Germany)

Hans Kohlhaas was a merchant who got rightly hacked off, first with a nobleman and then with the entire judicial system of Saxony, back in the 16^th century after some of his horses were detained as collateral for a fee to pass through the province. He waged a campaign of terror against the entire region in pursuit of justice and ended up being broken on the wheel for his sins. In 1810 Heinrich von Kleist wrote a novella based on this story as a covert political statement against dealings between Germany and Napoleon taking place at the time. The book, stylistically, was before it’s time and has resonated with many since, most notably Kafka. This film is an adaptation from the book and does well to build the frustrations of the horse trader, played by a quietly brooding Mads Mikkelson, as he methodically and at first calmly seeks recourse for the blatant provocations of the asshole nobility. Getting nowhere and with a wife dead at the hands of the court of the princess he musters a posse and goes on the rampage. It’s a generously paced film, starting slow and eventually bubbling to the bloody uprising. However once Kohlhaas gets his way and the story enters its final chapter the film sags somewhat and takes far too long to close out. This is a minor quibble though for an otherwise emphatic movie.

(3/5)

Incredibles 2

(Brad Bird/2018/USA)

Picking up more or less where the original Incredibles movie left off fourteen years ago the sequel maintains the blend of domestic soap opera and superhero PR issues. The Parr family have their security jeopardised by the shutdown of the Superhero Relocation Program which is perfect timing for an offer from the hotshot brother and sister team of DevTech to work together to swing public opinion in favour of superheroes. Elastigirl is chosen to spearhead the media campaign leaving Mr. Incredible to stay at home and mind the kids. The whole crisis of masculinity involved in Bob as stay at home dad is quite frankly shockingly anachronistic in 2018 but it’s a kid’s movie and it’s played for laughs so we’re not supposed to take it seriously right? Way to go for pushing against gender stereotypes. Anyway the mysterious Screenslaver becomes the foil to the superhero renaissance with a massive sting in the tale. If you enjoyed the first one you should like this too. It does run a bit long and outside of my male indignation at the dad struggles to be mum stuff I liked it a lot.

(3/5)

Bao

(Domee Shi/2018/USA)

Bao is a sweet and short animation pondering family, the schisms that can occur and the healing of those same familial fractures. It’s a very touching few minutes of film without being overly schmaltzy or maudlin.

(3/5)

Laserblast

(Michael Rae/1978/USA)

Surfing the then Star Wars wave of sci-fi zeitgeist but on a budget of magic beans Michael Rae’s Laserblast is a sometimes charming but wholly cringe inducing mess. There’s certainly a nostalgia kick in the production values for anyone who grew up in the late 70’s and 80’s and there’s laughs to be had at the woeful humour and outdated sexism on display but eventually the haphazard pace and clunky plot overtake and outweigh any ironic enjoyment to be got. There are some great scenes of a house party with all the kids by the pool that capture something of the ambience of American west coast sunburnt coolness. You could carve Newell posts out of most of the performances though and even the stop motion aliens suffer from some form of stuttered lethargy in dramatic delivery. It’s a piece of late 70’s flotsam, a curio of cinematic opportunism and shouldn’t be taken as anything other than b-movie doobie fodder.

(2/5)

The Ghoul

(Gareth Tunley/2016/UK)

Blurring the lines between fact and fiction Ghoul delves into the unsettled mind of Chris, a former detective working for a friend on a double homicide case. He goes undercover as a patient to a psychotherapist he believes is linked to the killings. By feigning mental health issues he gets an opportunity to find evidence and a lead to a suspect. But gradually things start to lose focus for Chris as he becomes immersed in the life of his undercover character to the point where it’s hard to tell which narrative is the truth. Is he really investigating a murder or is he genuinely mentally unwell? Combined with this are clues and conversations that point to an esoteric and far more sinister scenario. It ends with a mind bending twist and is a very accomplished piece of psychological horror for a debut film.

(3/5)

Harry Brown

(Daniel Barber/2009/UK)

Michael Caine goes all Chuck Bronson in this London vigilante tale but he has quite a few years on his Death Wish predecessor so it’s more bus pass and pension than Smith and Wesson, not unlike Eastwood in the previous year’s Gran Torino really. At its heart Harry Brown is a revenge story as Caine takes on a local gang of hoodied youths in a sequence of events that become ever more bloody and tense. It’s all a bit over the top and the bleakness of the lives and surroundings on display coupled with full on torture and violence diminish any chance of spinning it for a laugh. The narrative is too restrictive to pass as decent social comment so you’re left with a slightly absurd set up that plays out in an overly dramatic way. Michael Caine is absolutely brilliant as the aggrieved old codger though and his performance is worth the admission price alone.

(2/5)

The Future

(Miranda July/2011/Germany & USA)

A couple in their early 40’s, who seem stuck in a scene from their 20’s, decide to adopt a cat and the fabric of everything begins to come apart for them. It’s a hipstery, nerdish analogy for parenthood anxiety that encompasses all sorts of quirk and weird. The result is a cute film but I’m not sure of the substance of it to be honest. I mean are there seriously people like that walking around, folk who are so emotionally invested in their laptops that they can’t function properly, can’t look after themselves? It’s overloaded with twee and self mocking and there’s a lovely twist but overall it lacked something. I guess I just didn’t really care what happened to anyone in it and no amount of warped timelines or musing on whether precognitive knowledge makes accepting the present easier was going to save the film from that.

(2.5/5)

Wolf Creek 2

(Greg Mclean/2012/Australia)

I had very little time for the first Wolf Creek film due to its palpable relish in indulging morbid fantasy around the details of real life murder cases. By meshing two killers into a fictional composite it imagined the horror of their actions writ large on screen. Using tragic events for mass entertainment never sits well with me but combined with the penchant for gore and violence in Australian films in recent years it’s a very unsettling cocktail. This sequel is nothing new to the first but it does include a scene where killer and victim play a quiz which to a small extent betrays the psyche and motivation of the killer. It’s not enough to make this film any easier to watch though.

(2/5)

Made in Dagenham

(Nigel Cole/2010/UK)

Focusing on the unrest of female workers in the Dagenham Ford factory in the 1960’s which resulted in legislative changes to rules for those women and eventually to further unrest in the 80’s that brought in more radical changes for equity between the sexes in the workplace, Made in Dagenham sidesteps any heavy handed political tub thumping through light hearted comedy. By bringing levity into the story of the women the social mores of the time get presented for derision in a gentler way and so the film doesn’t laugh mockingly. It laughs in the knowledge of hindsight that says “Of course these women got upset and demanded change, look at the silliness they had to put up with!” Taking artistic licence to fictionalise multiple personalities into the single character of Rita O’Grady allows Sally Hawkins to flex her acting muscle whilst diluting the authenticity of the story but it’s a tactic that works fine. The film is a recounting of a crucial and interesting event in the history of British labour and it’s done very adeptly and in an engaging, funny way. The attention to detail on costumes and sets is spot on and I loved seeing the old news footage from the actual strikes on the end credits.

(2.5/5)

Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House

(H.C. Potter/1948/USA)

This is a quick fire comedy about middle class New Yorkers relocating to the countryside. By fixing up a run down house going cheap the Blandings find themselves in a litany of complications and extra costs that push their marriage to the limits. Cary Grant and Myrna Loy are brilliantly matched and the verbal pot shots run back and forth effortlessly. The misconstrued ménage a trois aspect with long time friend and ex suitor to Mrs. Blanding, Bill Cole played by Melvyn Douglas, adds to the tension and hilarity. It was interesting to see the similarities between on-site construction problems back then and today but that’s just me. Thoroughly enjoyable and straight laced fun.

(2.5/5)

Marshland

(Alberto Rodriguez/2014/Spain)

Marshland is a gripping crime mystery with a socio-political subtext that lifts it above normal, run of the mill cop drama fare. The methodical unravelling of the story behind the murder of two teenage girls in the swampland of the Guadalquivir River leads to a radical change in awareness and conscience of one the investigating officers. And so his relationship with his partner is altered forever. Made in the same year as the first season of True Detective you’d be forgiven for thinking the Spanish writers of Marshland were in some kind of mental synchronicity with those of the renowned TV series in the U.S. There are so many overlaps in style, setting and storyline I won’t begin to list them but the similarity of the area south west of Seville to the deep south of America is uncanny.

The shadow of Franco hangs over the lives of everyone in the film and the direct references to the past in many of the scenes build to a subtle but overriding implication. For a country or in this case a village, to transition from a traumatic phase of history then accountability and justice are integral parts of the healing of that trauma. The bigger question leading from this, on a human level, is if a person can exonerate themselves of previous bad deeds by being a better person and doing good to balance the karmic books. Can real forgiveness take place in the absence of justice for past sins?

A nice trick by Rodriguez is to use overhead shots at distance to visually notch the narrative every time something of significance occurs or is said. It’s quite a layered film with plenty going on underneath the story being presented onscreen to keep you musing long after the credits.

(3.5/5)

The Paperboy

(Lee Daniels/2012/USA)

I don’t know how close Lee Daniels film adaptation comes to Pete Dexter’s novel The Paperboy but the author did co-write the screenplay so it’s gotta be close, however having seen the film I am unlikely to ever pick up the book and find out. The Paperboy is a lurid splatter of cinematic vomit with the one redeeming factor being Nicole Kidman’s portrayal of steam pressed southern belle sexuality in the form of Charlotte Bless. Everyone else does enough to keep afloat in a swamp of Southern Gothic clichés and overblown, garish Jim Crow camp but not near enough to bring any degree of subtlety to the exaggerated, sensibility bashing plot turns. Daniels is like an excited child drawing outside the lines of the picture. A large dose of restraint might have produced something of far more guile and charm.

(2/5)

Les Combattants

(Thomas Cailley/2014/France)

What starts as a fairly typical boy meets girl scenario gradually evolves into something a lot more interesting and downright quirky in this directorial debut from Thomas Cailley. Set against a summer heat wave in the countryside of Northern France Arnaud and Madeleine meet, antagonise each other and eventually recognise a mutual attraction before setting off on a shared adventure which solidifies their respect for each other. It’s great to see Adèle Haenel (Madeleine) again after her excellent performance in Céline Sciamma’s Water Lillies(2007) and Kévin Asaïs (Arnaud)acts as an equally intense foil for her here. It is a comedy of sorts as the pair don’t quite gel and find themselves slightly off key with each other which leads to humorous moments but what marks this out from other romantic narratives is exactly that “off keyness”. The story is allowed develop at a pace as languid as the heat of the summer it’s set in and the couple patiently map out each other’s quirks and foibles before allowing the obvious physical attraction to take over. The subtext of environmental disaster, apocalyptic fore warnings and survival training just add to the mix of this very accomplished and idiosyncratic love story.

(3.5/5)

The Greasy Strangler

(Jim Hosking/2016/USA)

Serial killing, an obsession with grease laden hot dogs, lurid sex scenes and rampant dysfunction, The Greasy Strangler is an exercise in grotesquery that wilfully and gleefully attempts to churn audience’s sensibilities along with their stomachs. You can’t deny this film its quirk of style and definite sense of the absurd and surreal but it also provokes the question as to what it’s all about or what’s the point of it? Is it really worth trying to break it down to some sort of allegory for the disaffection of modern life or analysing it as a comic horror parable of modern America? Nope, you either go along with it for the kicks or you don’t and it works its churn on you. Hosking sets out his stall with no small degree of assuredness and competence as a film maker. He’s no John Waters though and you wonder what boundaries he’s pushing at exactly as he’s on old ground really. I’ll admit to a sense of relief when the end credits rolled.

(2/5)