Carlos (Parts 1-3)

(Olivier Assayas/2010/France & Germany) 

This series of made for TV films recount the career in terrorism of Carlos the Jackal, or Ilich Ramirez Sanchez to give him his full and proper name, starting in Paris in 1973 when the young Venezuelan proposes himself as a replacement for the recently assassinated Mohamed Boudia in the PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine). It paints the man as a committed revolutionary with the theoretical and political invective to motivate and justify his actions, often killing innocent civilians. It shows how he was a catalyst for several different revolutionary groups across Europe to work together during a period of great unrest and violence. Played by Edgar Ramirez, the charm and wilfulness of Carlos in his younger days is captured really well and as the trilogy moves through his life we see this charm subside into ego along with a progressive loosening of ideals. By the end he is seen to be nothing more than a mercenary sidling up to anyone who will fund his revolution, and lifestyle, with the crimes committed conveniently suiting both sides involved. 

It’s a great set of films but not without flaws. There's an excessive interest in his love affairs with no other reason than to make the films “sexy”. Also the soundtrack uses a bizarre amount of indie tunes for sequences which would ordinarily be orchestrated. The result is the impression that the protagonists onscreen are really cool, with reoccurring themes of jangly upbeat indie music. You’d almost think Olivier Assayas was trying to make Carlos into a sort of anti-hero with a noble cause no matter how horrific. Aside from these quibbles though, they are an engaging and revealing sequence of films.

(3/5)

Nymph()maniac Parts I & II

(Lars von Trier/2013/Denmark, Sweden, France & Germany)

Danish avant garde prankster Lars von Trier finishes off his Depression Trilogy with a four hour comedy about a sex addict. This hilarious plot includes scenes so ludicrous that at times I couldn’t actually laugh out loud because my brain did a double take thinking maybe the joke was on the audience. If you have a free afternoon and like having someone trying to shock you with subpar Freudian shtick then fill your boots. If however, like me, you’ve run out of patience with a Danish nincompoop who openly positions himself next to geniuses such as Bergman and Kurosawa and considers himself “provocative” then give it a miss. Each part gets a point for the respective performances of Stacy Martin and Charlotte Gainsbourg.

(2/5)

Ted

(Seth MacFarlane/2012/USA)

Do you like weed and sexual innuendo? Yeah? Ted should blow some smoke up your alley then. The humour’s adolescent, the idea of friendship getting in the way of romance is nothing new and an anthropomorphic toy is hardly original but there is something strangely endearing about Ted. The sum is more than the parts here. The direct conflict between Lori, who embodies marriage, responsibility and being grown up or “manly” and Ted, a stuffed toy who conflates the life of a single man with childish things like a fear of thunder and living without purpose or direction, getting stoned, talking shite etc, is on the face of it insulting and puerile but it’s subverted by the end of the movie. But hey, no one is taking anything too seriously here and for the most part it avoids being cringe worthy, sometimes makes you laugh out loud and it has Sam fucking Jones in it. If you grew up with Flash Gordon with a Queen theme tune it’s hitting a button right there. 

 Ted shouldn’t work when you put any thought to it but it’s a bit of fun with a nice happy ending. It’s full of clichés, old jokes, silly jokes and plain stupid stuff but it’s totally aware of all that and doesn’t care and nor should you. There’s recognition by the end that a man can have time in his life just for goofing as well as be mature and responsible; that one doesn’t go without the other and that men who allow time for kicking back with the lads are all the better for it. It’s not a particularly revelatory point but it’s the most mature part of a film about a dumbfuck from Brooklyn who nearly screws up the ride of his life because of a fucking teddy bear.

(2.5/5)

Yakuza Apocalypse

(Takashi Miike/2015/Japan)

You don’t press play on a Takashi Miike film and expect a run of the mill cinematic experience. The man is known for his derangement of genres and narrative and in Yakuza Apocalypse he seems to pack almost every style and conceit he’s ever previously employed into the one sitting. Without trying to elaborate on every twist and turn, because we’d be here all day, the basic premise is this: Kageyama works for local gangster Kamiura, who happens to be a vampire. A rival cartel, consisting of a coffin carrying witchfinder general, an geeky assassin and a kappa water demon, rolls into town challenging Kamiura’s reign. They kick his ass but before he dies he bites Kageyama, turning him into a vampire, who then vows to destroy the cartel with the remnants of the yakuza gang. The cartel summon "the modern monster" who is a man in an oversized mouldy frog suit, he needs help up and down stairs but has unbelievable martial arts skills. The rest of the movie is taken up with the battle between Kageyama’s crew and the cartel and the frog. Have you processed all that? Because that is the bare bones of what goes on. At the start of the movie Kageyama says “My life was like tepid water. Then I met the boss.” Well Takashi Miike boils the bejaysus out of that water over the course of two hours and there is absolutely no point in trying to make sense of it. Strap yourself in and enjoy the ride because it is at times frustrating, at times hilarious and all the time fun. It ends in mid skirmish, suggesting there could be a sequel but for me the scenes towards the end take on the feel of a video game. The monster levels up and the final cut is as if someone pressed pause to make a cup of tea during an epic battle on a games console. This is a marmite flick, even Miike fans will rankle at it I suspect but if you can let the attention deficit style wash over you there’s lots to enjoy.

(3.5/5)

The Darkest Universe

(Will Sharpe & Tom Kingsley/2016/UK)

A slightly weird, and at times unsettling, film that follows a man called Zach as he attempts to make sense of his mentally unwell sister and her boyfriend’s disappearance on a canal boat. His frustration and impatience with the police investigation leads him to direct his energies into an online campaign. It becomes all consuming to the detriment of his personal and work life. At the same time, through flashbacks, the characters of his sister, Alice and her boyfriend, Toby and the build up to their going missing is shown. As Zach begins to experience a breakdown and falls further into a black hole of video blogs and clue hunting the metaphor of a black hole reflects a lot of what is going on. Their boat was last seen going into a canal tunnel, Alice’s disappearance leaves an emotional void in his life and one of Toby’s hand drawn comics depicts aliens consumed by a black vortex. It becomes apparent that rather than being seriously mentally ill, his sister might just be a socially awkward, introverted girl who finds a perfect match in the equally awkward and nerdy Toby. The idea that they have run away to escape the pressure, mainly exerted by Zach, to engage in society “normally” becomes viable. This realization pushes Zach’s breakdown to its limit and a swell of memories brings a catharsis. The Darkest Universe’s slowly evolving black humour shows how traumatic events in the past can have such long reaching effects, quietly buried, not far from the surface and waiting to be uncovered. It also to a lesser extent queries the, oft times false, hope of social media campaigns and depicts the compulsion to help as a mental condition in itself. Although the humour in the film pokes fun at Zach his breakdown is not mocked and provides the pathos which lifts this movie from quirky comedy to affecting drama. It’s very well put together. The mystery of Alice and Toby is the focal point about which Zach loses and discovers himself and although there are no concrete answers given for their disappearance my hunch is that the very first suggestion, given by the police, is the right one. They simply don’t want to be found in this darkest of universes.

(3.5/5)

Arrival

(Dennis Villeneuve/2016/USA) 

Big squids from space come and teach us about time being a dimension not a continuum so we can take an evolutionary baby step. All tied into the personal story of the translator played by Amy Adams. It’s really well done with a feisty performance from Adams. Villeneuve is great at setting up big mood twanging scenes. The whole first contact scenario plays out pretty much as you’d expect if you’ve seen Close Encounters of the Third Kind but with some lovely updates such as the gravity kink in the entrance tunnel. I really enjoyed this and as schmaltzy as the ending is it works and you stand up to leave with your heart a bit fuller than when you sat down to start watching.

(3.5/5)

Grand Central

(Rebecca Zlowtoski/2013/France & Austria) 

Telling a story of infidelity in the midst of dangerous work in a nuclear power plant Grand Central wins out on style but falls short in terms of substance. The opening sequence shows Tahar Rahim as Gary arrive at the plant seeking short term contract work. The detail and unhurried observance of the process of induction and safety training brings some of Ken Loach’s films to mind and it is as much an exercise in social realism as a set up for what’s to come. The dangerousness of the work is reinforced in the mind of the viewer and for the rest of the movie much of the tension will be scored in the scenes of Gary and his work mates on the job. Outside of the plant the lives of the migrant workers, living in caravans on a site across the river from the plant, are in focus as they socialise on their time off. A liaison develops, quite suddenly and without any preamble, between Gary and Karole the fiancé of Toni, one of the other workers. As the tension of the work in the plant begins to parallel the tension between the characters due to the affair it seems as if things will come to a head and a twist or revelation or some physical aggression will occur. There are some excellent uses of a jagged avant garde score to reflect this build and bubble of tension throughout. Gary’s past is hinted at as being unsavoury. “You don’t know who I am” he says to his pal Tcherno as he holds a knife to his throat after a minor falling out. However the eventual snap of tautness in the plot is a letdown as the film reveals itself as a simple tale of illicit love. It doesn’t have enough impact for the levels of tension built up throughout. Also the characters of Karole and Gary, in terms of the affair, are paper thin. It’s hinted that Karole and Toni, who is sterile, could be using Gary to have a child but it’s such a brief and wispish plot suggestion that it passes by without effect. The brooding mood and tone throughout Grand Central is effecting and really well done but unfortunately the characters and story get lost in the shadow of that aesthetic as it dominates the film much as the imposing structure of the nuclear plant both visually and sonically dominates many of the scenes.

(2.5/5)