A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night

(Ana Lily Amirpour/2014/USA)

I loved every minute of this, a Persian language film shot entirely in California and a great debut from Amirpour. Set in fictional Iranian back water Bad City she mashes up spaghetti western vibes with modern day vampirism. Shot in black and white, because it’s cooler, we follow Ashram as he works for a wealthy family by day and takes care of his heroin addicted father by night. We also see the titular girl as she wanders the streets at night. The two meet and some kind of crazy love blossoms in this hip, genre bending, Tarantino does Persepolis flick. The skate scene is one of the coolest things I’ve seen on screen in a long time.

(4/5)

West

(Christian Schwochow/2013/Germany)

A middling drama about a single mother who defects to West Berlin in the 70’s with her son and gets detained in refugee accommodation and subjected to questioning about her sons father who is suspected of being a spy. Interesting to note the conditions of detainment compared to today’s refugee camps and hard to sympathise with those in the film given the relative luxury. A good performance in the main role by Jördis Triebel but even though the story hits the right notes about their plight, the eventual theme of not judging a book by its cover washes out into the final scenes with a somewhat weak sentimentality rather than a resonant emotional twang. Not a bad film but nothing extraordinary either.

(2.5/5)

Mother

(Bong Joon Ho/2009/South Korea)

Do-joon is a slow witted young man, mollycoddled by his mother who tries to guide him to a good life and to behave well. He is impetuous, silly and prone to anger when called out for being dim. When a girl is murdered locally the police lazily peg the crime on him and get him to sign a confession which sends his mother on a mission to unravel the mystery of the murder herself and free her son who has been framed. Bong Joon Ho is playful with the mood throughout this at times dark crime thriller and as a result it becomes deceptive and capable of twisting the narrative to surprise the viewer. Subtlety layered, this film creates ripples of thought that carry on for a time after viewing. I am still wondering why the mother is dancing in the field? Bong Joon Ho is one of my favourite modern directors and has proven himself across a range of genres; he is always telling a good story so Mother is a recommended watch.

(3.5/5)

Weekend

(Andrew Haigh/2011/UK)

Following a weekend long romantic tryst between Glen and Russell as they connect on a level that both recognise as life changing and which forces them to reconsider their respective trajectories. Costing £120,000 to make it sidesteps any limitations of that budget by keeping things simple in terms of settings but creating a warmth and intimacy that pervades the movie and carries the increasingly intense dialogue between the two leads. It’s a lovely, accomplished piece of work that resonates emotionally without ever being twee or schmaltzy.

(4/5)

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

(Tom Stoppard/1990/UK)

Stoppard’s screen adaptation of his own play focusing on the two minor and interchangeable character’s from Hamlet. It is a theatrical riff on Beckett’s Godot with many similar aspects and themes. The two lead’s dialogue often focuses on confusion at who they are and what they are doing and there is a sense of waiting for the inevitable conclusion of the piece. It’s darkly comic with shades of existential querying and a great mash up for fans of Hamlet and Beckett, or just theatre in general. Stoppard transitions the play to screen effortlessly. The tennis scene is hilarious and the device of the “play within the play” is given extra layers and deepened and played with brilliantly. Oldman and Roth are great too in roles far and away from their usual.

(3.5/5)

Ex-Drummer

(Koen Mortier/2007/Belgium)

Deliberately, provocatively repulsive, it’s as if Koen Mortier wants you to react against this film. On the surface it seems like a depraved attack on audience sensibilities but there’s more at play if you can sit it out. Based on a novel by controversial Belgian author Herman Brusselmans Ex Drummer tells the story of 3 odd balls that have formed a band called The Feminists and consider themselves handicapped. They are without a drummer and ask famous writer and the film’s narrator Dries to join them; mistakenly thinking he is an ex-drummer. He accepts motivated by cynicism and mockery of the three involved and the possibility of material for a new book. The singer is a violent misogynist with a stammer, the bassist has a paralyzed arm and a warped oedipal complex and the guitarist is a half deaf junkie and domestic abuser; pond life at the lowest ebb of society’s tide. Through a mish mash of cinematic tricks (the entire introduction section is shown with the film running backwards and the guitarist is often shown upside down to everybody else for example) and an assortment of grotesque secondary characters Ex Drummer reels you in before clobbering you. It is an explicit descent into the lower echelons of deprivation for the amusement of Dries and by default the viewer. The violence and depravity of the characters within the film can be taken as a reaction to that or equally as an indictment of those same characters. That’s the provocation, which premise is true in the mind of the viewer? I’m never really sure if films like this work, it involves a balancing act that requires a bit of subtlety; another Belgian film, Man Bites Dog, does it brilliantly but subtlety is not a word that applies to Ex Drummer. It is a sustained assault in an attempt to question the audience, in order to question society, to follow a thought process to its logical end. If people like the ones in the film who live their lives and go from birth to death with the same ups and downs and emotions and needs and wants as us all, are really as stupid and ugly as Dries claims then wouldn’t they end up much as the films characters do - In a bloody, messy quagmire of their own fateful making? Ex Drummer is laced with black humour and has an infectious soundtrack created for the film by a handful of Belgian punk bands. It’s abrasive, energetic, addictive viewing but it’s also repellent. Press play and ask yourself do you really want to keep watching?

(3.5/5)

Gladiator

(Ridley Scott/2001/USA)

Scott tackles ancient Rome and delivers an upgrade of older historical epics that Hollywood once had a penchant for back in the late 50’s and early 60’s. Gladiator is fictionalised but rooted in historical fact; most of the characters are real but the story is a daydream of sorts, a big budget, action packed daydream with revenge at its heart. Russell Crowe is great as the grizzled fighter with a grudge working his way from the bottom rung of pit fighting all the way to the glorious fanfare of the Coliseum in Rome where he gets his audience with the Emperor. If you grew up with and enjoyed Charlton Heston’s Ben Hur and Kirk Douglas’ Spartacus then Gladiator should tick a few boxes. It inspired a new wave of interest in Greek and Roman tales in both TV and film in the years that followed due to its success but it is essentially a gum chewing Hollywood summer blockbuster.

(3/5)