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Saturday 30 December 2017

Post-Christmas Assessment

Well I wasn't wrong. The most enjoyable film I watched over the holidays was indeed "Shaun the Sheep Movie" -- I must be a big baby at heart. Short enough to not outstay its welcome, it is full of great visual humour and sight gags to keep the adults in the audience amused. With no audible dialogue other than grunting and 'baaas' plus the occasional song lyrics from the well-chosen musical score, it lives up to the gold standard of the best of the Aardman Animations' productions. It's a jolly treat for all the family -- a re-watchable classic.

As for Sky Premiere's 'big' movies from the 23rd to the 26th, all were certainly watchable but none reached the same level of enjoyment. Of the four I was least attuned to "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" which was as whizz-bang eye-candy as the first film in the series but not particularly engaging. Similarly "The Lego Batman Movie" was full of visual style and all about Batman needing to find family and love; some critics place it amongst the best of the Batman flicks but I think that's taking things a little too far. After the first amazing Lego movie the originality of the concept of a Lego world is no longer fresh or surprising. As for the live-action "Beauty and the Beast" -- a fairly faithful translation of the original animation -- it was a little too long and too busy to replace the original (to say nothing of the classic Cocteau version) in my affections. Emma Watson looks pretty as Belle and makes a good stab at singing the tunes with her slightly reedy voice (but in the 'olden days' she would have been dubbed by Marni Nixon!) I was surprised however by how strong-voiced Dan Stevens' Beast and Luke Evans' very hissible villain are, as are the rest of the cast including those voicing normally inanimate objects -- Ewan McGregor, Emma Thompson, et.al. The set decoration and costuming were top-notch and will probably feature in next year's Academy Award nominations.

That leaves "Hidden Figures" rather surprisingly as the most interesting film of the four, even if I was not expecting the tale of black women at NASA to be overly life-affirming -- which it was. Taraji P Henson is always a proficient and engaging actress and the charismatic Octavia Spencer is never less than watchable (don't miss her in Del Toro's "The Shape of Water" when it comes your way). I was unfamiliar with the third of the lead trio, Janelle Monae, but apart from being very pretty she also proves herself a fine actress. Even Kevin Costner whom I normally watch through clenched teeth is likeable and strong in his role. I have no idea how accurately the film renders the true facts of their breakthrough and how much was 'black-washed' to coin a phrase, but the movie is very well done.

Just a brief word on the eight-part  "Feud: Bette and Joan" which I am half-way through watching. Again I suspect that some of the 'facts' have been manoeuvred for dramatic effect, but the end product is very engaging. Susan Sarandon as Bette and Jessica Lange as Joan are both better looking than the originals but they do a seamless job of evoking the two actresses in their make-up and mannerisms. I'm particularly amused by Bette constantly addressing Crawford as Lucille (her original and best-forgotten first name) or occasionally 'Crawfish'.

Although I didn't mention it sooner, the best time I've had at the movies this month was with "Paddington 2" which I caught at the cinema a few weeks back. I found it every bit as droll and charming as the first flick, but may have actually preferred the sequel since Hugh Grant makes a far more amusing villain than Nicole Kidman. In fact it's one of his best movie roles ever -- be sure to stay for the end of the back credits!

All that's left now is to wish for a happy, healthy and peaceful 2018 for all of us. Amen.

Saturday 16 December 2017

Christmas on the Box 2017

If I had not made a habit of checking out the annual Christmas schedules each year to recommend the best new film offerings, I probably should have given up by now...since each new set of listings reveals fewer and fewer delights.

From a purely selfish point of view and we all know that I have viewed nearly all of the likely suspects by now, there is but a single new movie on terrestrial TV that I actually have not seen and actually want to see: Shaun the Sheep (BBC1 on Boxing Day). That apart there are no other new-to-TV movies to tempt me. Thank goodness then for Sky with their 'a new premiere a day' credo. They have pulled out all the stops from the 23rd to the 26th and again from the 30th through New Year's Day...before reverting to the usual diet of pap. I've not yet seen any of the following and have reasonably high hopes: Hidden Figures, The Lego Batman Movie, Beauty and the Beast, and Guardians of the Galaxy Part2 in the first tranche and Boss Baby, The Zookeeper's Wife, and Kong-Skull Island in the second.

As for the 'big' premieres on terrestrial television they're a mixed bunch: yet another remake of The Great Gatsby on the 24th and Cinderella on the 25th. Boxing Day features Jurassic World which is a watchable but overblown late entry to the series. On the 27th is the animated Big Hero Six (which I have completely forgotten); the 28th gives us Denzel Washington over-emoting as a drunken pilot in "Flight"; on the 29th you might choose to watch "Gone Girl", a rather annoying movie not a patch on the novel; and on the 30th Avengers: Age of Ultron which has fused with all the other super-hero flicks in my memory. Not a bad choice for New Year's Eve with Into the Woods (surprisingly well translated to the screen) and The Lego Movie which is an entertaining bit of product-placing. Finally New Year's Day offers Maleficent (not terribly brilliant) and the most recent Bond - Spectre, the best bit of which is the opening Day of the Dead sequence in Mexico City.

A couple of other premieres which might go unnoticed are A Royal Night Out (Channel 5 on the 26th) -- an interesting bit of fictionalisation and The Hundred-Foot Journey on 1 January (also Channel 5) an unusual showcase for Helen Mirren. Surprisingly the first two Guy Ritchie Sherlock Holmes movies from 2009 and 2011 are receiving their television premieres on ITV2 of all places. Finally there's Ron Howard's love-letter to the Beatles on 5 January, which I've not seen but don't know that I want to see -- I probably will succumb. Otherwise it's pretty much a case of the usual culprits: a surfeit of animations (some good, some poor), a run of Harry Potter and Hunger Games movies, and very few films made in the 'olden days' before Star Wars  Interestingly the only foreign-language movie apart from Sky's earmarked Wednesday slot is Chevalier on Film 4 on the 27th, a Greek film that I know nothing about.

For compensation I shall gorge on the 8-part mini-series (showing in double dollops starting tonight) "Feud: Bette and Joan" concerning the trumped-up rivalry between Davis and Crawford starring Susan Sarandon and Jessica Lange with other Hollywood personages also portrayed. (I understand that Olivia DeHavilland -- still alive at 101 -- is suing). Other film-related goodies (ignoring those previously screened) are Darcy Burrell on Fred Astaire on the 21st and the Sky Arts Channel celebrating the Spielberg/Williams collaboration on the 27th and a new feature documentary (there are actually a number extant) on Clint Eastwood on the 28th.

Since I  am unlikely to write again until just before the New Year (and maybe not then) let me wish you all happy holidays and hopefully happy viewing.

Saturday 9 December 2017

Documentaries

Perhaps it's some kind of mental/optical illusion, but it does seem that there are more and more documentary films being made and released in recent years than say ten years ago. Of course these have always existed from quasi-documentaries like Robert Flaherty's  "Nanook of the North" back in 1921 to rather less 'staged' ones in the intervening years. There were always the masters of the medium like the Maysles Brothers, Errol Morris, and Frederick Wiseman plus numerous serious one-offs, but they never seemed dominant cinema players -- and I'm still not convinced that many cinema-goers visit their local theatre to view the latest offerings. Yet they seem to abound.

As proof of the pudding, Film Four has run a 'documentary season' over the last five nights (late evening of course) showcasing the 'best' of current docs. I've yet to view "All This Panic" (2016) or "Precinct Seven Five" from the same year, but can and will give you my verdicts on the first three:

First up was "20 Feet from Stardom" (2013) which of course won an Oscar for best feature-length documentary. This was a not-too uplifting look at the unsung (no pun intended) heroines of pop music the mainly black backing singers who made so many hits from the 60s forward so memorable. Their musical talents were evident and we can sing along with their choruses without having any idea who these splendid anonymous ladies were. Names like Darlene Love, Lisa Fischer, and Merry Clayton mean little to most of us and these fine singers almost never broke through to mainstream recognition, despite their excellent voices and their valiant attempts. It is for this reason that I used the term 'not-too uplifting' above. Yet there were numerous talking heads like Mick Jagger and Bruce Springsteen telling us that these singers made a major contribution to the development of pop. Interesting viewing but not a real winner unless one is fascinated by popular music of the second half of the twentieth century.

The second offering required the patience of a saint to sit through: "No Home Movie" (2015) by the late Belgian director Chantal Akerman. She burst into the art-house scene in 1975 with "Jeanne Dielman...". I must confess that I've seen few of her (very long) movies and am no expert on her passions, but I do know that she often referenced her mother, a Holocaust survivor. This documentary was her last film and lets us see her mother for the first time as she potters about her Brussels apartment -- on her own or reminiscing with Chantal or her other daughter. Talking about watching paint dry! The old gal seemed chipper enough, but how to explain the five-minute opening shot of a tree blowing in the wind (her mother's resilience?) or the occasional long-shots of arid desert landscapes. Her mother's health deteriorated sharply during the making of the film; shortly after her death (not on screen) Akerman committed suicide, making the doc's title ironically prescient.

I was rather more taken with "Uncle Howard" (2016) with its focus on my own passion: movies. The 'Howard' in question was Howard Brookner who was part of the New York hippie scene of the late 70s and 80s and who died of AIDs in 1989 aged only 34. This documentary is an attempt on the part of his nephew Aaron, who adored his uncle but who was only 7 years old when he died, to honour his memory and his era. Howard spent five years making a documentary about William Burroughs which was well-received on its eventual release but which has subsequently disappeared from view, assisted by the now well-known directors Jim Jarmusch as his sound recorder and Tom Dicillo as his cinematographer. He only made one Hollywood movie "Bloodhounds of Broadway" which he did not live to see released. This compendium of four interlinked Damon Runyan stories, starring the likes of Matt Dillon, Madonna, Rutger Hauer, and Randy Quaid is not a particularly great flick but it makes one stop to wonder what Howard and so many more of his lost AIDs generation might have gone on to accomplish had federal funding to find a cure been more readily available.    

Friday 1 December 2017

Creepy Indian Longlegs

Unlike a fortnight ago, I've watched several films this week which are worth discussing.

First up is "Bhaag Milkha Bhaag" (2013) an Indian movie which translates to "Run Milkha Run", a biopic of the runner Milkha Singh, known on the sub-continent as 'the flying Sikh'. I've previously mentioned that Channel Four runs the occasional Indian film season, usually buried in the wee hours of their schedules. I no longer watch all of them although they've screened some amazing classics in the past, but do try to 'set' the more promising ones on my Digibox and try to get them cleared when I can. This movie, all three hours plus of it, was certainly a worthwhile and inspiring watch, although I have no long-buried interest in Indian athletics.

The film opens with Milkha competing at the 1960 Olympics where he appears destined for gold, until he looks back over his shoulder to see the rest of the field overtaking. However from this disappointment the film looks considers the triumphs of his career and the very dark factors that shaped him. Born in a poor Sikh village on the new border between India and Pakistan after the Partition, his extended family choose to fight rather than be forced to live in Pakistan and to convert to Islam. He watches them being slaughtered by soldiers on horseback, creating the first occasion where he was beseeched (by his dying father) to 'run Milkha run'. After a hand-to-mouth existence as a refugee, he joins the Indian army where his talent is spotted and he sees this as a way to make something of his life. He succeeds despite various setbacks including being nearly maimed by a group of bumptious athletes and discovering that the village girl he loves has been forcibly wed to another. The crunch comes when Nehru asks him to run for India at a meet in Pakistan which is meant to repair the strained relationship between the two countries and Milkha is hard-pressed to agree to go back to a country which holds such terrible memories.

Milkha is played by the versatile actor Farhan Akhtar, who is not himself a Sikh, but who is believable with his large topknot -- covered by what looks like a small tea cosy when he is not wearing a turban. Of course no Indian movie would be complete without frequent musical interludes -- which is part of the problem I have with Indian movies in general since my Western ear is not attuned to what often sounds like caterwauling. However in this movie, most of the music came from the male characters and was made all the more enjoyable by their very muscular and athletic dancing.

While I'm on the subject of Indian movies, let me very briefly mention one that I watched a few weeks back: "Piku" (2015.). What made this tale of the high-flying female executive kept in domestic thrall by her demanding father whose main topic of conversation revolves about his bowel movements highly watchable was the presence of veteran actor Amitabh Bachan as the dominating, poo-obsessed bully.

Let me swiftly move on. When I noticed that "Daddy Longlegs" (1955) was being aired, I wondered why this was one of the very few Hollywood musicals of the period which I did not have in my own collection. So I watched it again to conclude that although Fred Astaire is always highly watchable and although Leslie Caron makes one of his more charming dance partners and although the pair are nicely supported by Fred Clark and Thelma Ritter (always good value in any movie) and although there is a fine Johnny Mercer score including the Oscar-nominated standard 'Something's Gotta Give', the director Jean Negulesco was a poor choice with his tendencies towards schmaltziness. The film if overly long, poorly paced, with hideous décor to fill the new cinemascope format and far too much time is devoted to Caron's badly staged ballets. It's a true parson's egg!   

I'm running out of time and energy, so I'll only briefly mention the Japanese film "Creepy" (2016) directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa -- no relation to the great Akira K. A retired police detective, now a university lecturer on serial killers, moves to a new house with his young wife and their big fluffy white dog. They try to make friends with their new neighbours but mainly encounter hostile rejection. In particular the wife tries to befriend Mr Nishino next door with his invalid wife (whom she never gets to see) and his teenaged daughter Mio. Nishino is played by Teruyuki Kagawa, who also starred in the director's odd "Tokyo Sonata" (2008) and here he makes your skin crawl. Seems he is himself a serial murderer who never kills his victims himself but who somehow insinuates himself into families and gets them to kill each other. Mio briefly confides that he is not her father and a complete stranger, yet she is completely within his power as the young wife is beginning to be. This is not a particularly good or well-made film, but it certainly holds one's attention and yes, it is seriously creepy.