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JUNE 2010 |
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FILMS
Brooklyn’s Finest
Director:
Antoine Fuqua
Starring: Don Cheadle,
Richard Gere, Ethan Hawke, Wesley Snipes, Ellen Barkin
Ace cast for
this return to his “Training Day” grittiness from director Fuqua. Three Brooklyn
cops tread a morally compromised line. Don Cheadle is in fine form as the
undercover cop who has to bring down his drug-dealing friend, Wesley Snipes.
Snipes hasn’t acted so well for years – he went down the pan for me when his
arrogance in Rising Sun opposite Sean Connery got in the way of the role he was
supposed to be playing. Gere has played the corrupt cop before – brilliantly –
in Internal Affairs but here he’s merely world weary as he tries to navigate the
last seven days on the job. Ethan Hawke, always an indulgent actor (don’t even
go near his novels) whose career best was his turn in Training Day, overacts but
just about gets away with it. Ellen Barkin, still sexy after all these years,
excels as a tough Fed.
You know almost from the off where the story is going but it’s still worth going
on the journey.
The Brothers Bloom
Director:
Rian Johnson
Starring: Rachel Weisz,
Adrien Brody, Mark Ruffalo, Rinko Kikuchi, Robby Coltrane
Hmm, my
personal prejudices get in the way of my proper appreciation of this second film
by the man who brought us “Bricks”, that fine conflation of film noir and high
school movie.
Ruffalo (one of those charisma-free actors whose success I just don’t
understand) and Brody (problematic for me as his arrogance often gets in the way
of his performances) play a couple of brothers scamming their way through
Europe. Their latest mark is Rachel Weisz, veteran of Confidenz, a superior con
movie. Here she plays a reclusive millionairess lured by the boys into a scam to
steal a priceless antique in Prague.
I worry for Weisz off-screen. The Oscar winning mother of one has been
celebrating turning 40 by appearing in a range of mags scarcely clad. The latest
interview I’ve seen with her she’s just wearing a basque unstrung at the back.
Why does she feel the need? Someone needs to tell her she’s a talented actress
and she has a beautiful face and she should leave it at that.
She can act too and plays cooky here very well. Rinko Kikuchi is also great as a
mute munitions expert.
The Brothers Bloom has the requisite twists but perhaps tries too hard. Worth
watching but don’t expect “The Heist” or “The Sting”.
The Losers
Director:
Sylvain White
Starring: Jeffrey Dean
Morgan, Chris Evans, Idris Elba, Jason Patric, Zoe Saldana
One of the Fantastic Four (Evans) gangs up with a bunch of other up-and-comers
(including Elba from The Wire)for a mildly amusing homage to films such as
Lethal Weapon and Die Hard, based on another comic book. A lot of
bangs-for-your-buck, some nice badinage between the bullets, a gang of
stereotype characters – this is an entertaining 90 minutes or so that you’ll
have forgotten you’ve seen a couple of days later.
Bad
Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Director:
Werner Herzog
Starring: Nicolas Cage Val
Kilmer Eva Mendes
Whilst I
enjoyed his “Kings of New York”, I never much cared for Abel Ferrara’s indie-films,
including his “Bad Lieutenant” in which Harvey Keitel went to the limit as a
drug-fuelled, sex-obsessed corrupt cop investigating the rape of a nun in a
church. The film was incredibly po-faced, soaked in Catholic guilt, and I’m
afraid back in 1992 I burst out laughing when Keitel’s character notoriously
masturbated beside a car he’d pulled over simply because it contained two
attractive young women. (I did an uncomfortable 3am interview – his preferred
time - over the phone with Ferrara about the film for the Indie in which he was
intense, bombastic and humourless.)
A relief then to find Werner Herzog’s remake/revisit/re-imagining has a sense of
humour. (Herzog insists it’s not a remake and that he has never seen the
original – nor, indeed, heard of Ferrara.) Ferrara wished him to hell and back
in May 2008 for doing it (guess he was feeling guilty about his own crap remake
of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” and his forthcoming “Jekyll and Hyde”) but
the result is far better than the original.
Cage is inspired casting, as is the decision to film in New Orleans. Cage’s cop
is a crack-addict (and heroin and coke) and whilst Cage’s performance is way out
there he doesn’t go entirely over the top in his characterisation. A massacre of
Senegalese drug-dealers replaces the nun-rape and the religious stuff goes. The
notorious scene this time around is an alligator observing the death of another
alligator in a freeway pile-up – so that’s the difference between Ferrara and
Herzog right there.
I like Kilmer’s recent character work and he bounces off Cage nicely as Cage
bounces off the walls. Eva Mendes does what she can with an underwritten part.
I’ve long been a major fan of Herzog. He was my go-to guy, in preference to Wim
Wenders and Fassbinder, during the German film explosion in the 80s. “The Enigma
of Kasper Hauser”, “Fitzcarraldo”, “Nosferatu” and, above all, “Aguirre Wrath of
God” are iconic for me. But none of them indicated that he would have the
ability to handle the rhythms of a mainstream thriller. (Wenders couldn’t when
he made “Hammett” for Coppola’s Zoetrope studio way back.) But he does, he does.
This is a smart, intelligent, ironic thriller. It pretty much bombed at the US
box office but give it a look.
The
Killer Inside Me
Director: Michael
Winterbottom
Starring: Casey Affleck,
Jessica Alba, Kate Hudson, Ned Beatty
It’s a
truism that non-American directors often make the most
insightful and striking US crime and thriller films. The
likes of Fritz Lang pretty much founded film noir but in
the past 30 years think Peter Yates’s “Bullitt”; Roman
Polanski's “Chinatown”; John Boorman’s “Point Blank”;
Ivan Passer’s “Cutter’s Way”; Michael Ritchie’s “Prime
Cut”; Karel Reisz’s “Dog Soldiers” (aka “Who’ll Stop The
Rain”); Alan Parker's “Angel Heart”; Tony Richardson's
“The Border”; Paul Greengrass’s two Bourne films (though
they are mostly European-based); Ridley Scott’s
“American Gangster” (and others) – and so on!
So here
we have renegade Brit director Michael Winterbottom with
a visceral, violent and absolutely unmissable film
version of pulp writer Jim Thompson’s The Killer Inside
Me. The beating–a-woman to death scene has caused a lot
of controversy but such psychopathic acts are central to
the pulp ethos and, especially, this story.
Kubrick
was a fan of the novel (Thompson scripted his The
Killing) as a chilling, first person account of a
sociopathic mind – Affleck’s well-liked but murderous
cop, Lou Ford. Marilyn Monroe was cast to play the
prostitute Joyce Lakeland (Alba’s part) opposite Marlon
Brando as the killer cop in the late fifties. Elizabeth
Taylor was to play the Kate Hudson girlfriend part.
There was a 1976 film version starring Stacey Keach and
Susan Tyrell. It was pretty good, especially given that
it was directed by Burt Kennedy, best known for comedy
westerns. But then Keach was feeling his oats as an
actor back then. (He’d just been great alongside Jeff
Bridges and Tyrell in “Fat City”.)
Tom
Cruise was attached with Demi Moore as the hooker in the
mid-80s – they did “A Few Good Men” instead. Tarantino
wanted to do it after “Pulp Fiction” with Uma Thurman as
the girlfriend, Juliette Lewis as the hooker and Brad
Pitt as the killer. (Lewis and Pitt had done thrill
killers in “Kalifornia” in 1993.)
Affleck
got attached when Marc Rocco (“Murder in the First”)
took up the reins. He had Reese Witherspoon as the
girlfriend and Maggie Gyllenhaal as the hooker. Rocco
died, only 46 years old, and Winterbottom came on board.
Affleck is perfect casting as, although he has a weak
voice, he does cold-eyed chilling really well – think
the Assassination of Jesse James (in which, spooky, he
plays a killer also called Ford…) and even parts of
“Gone Baby Gone”. (Interestingly, Assassination director
Andrew Dominik wrote a script in 2003 for DiCaprio, with
Drew Barrymore as the hooker and Charlize Theron in the
girlfriend part.) Personally, I’ve found Affleck scary
in every film he’s done, including the Ocean films – his
eyes and that weird half smile indicate a guy with
serious issues.
I’m not
suggesting he’s a serial killer sheriff in real life but
I believe him in the part. His character is involved in
a sado-masochistic relationship with hooker Alba but sex
games aren’t really enough for him and when he persuades
her to blackmail a wealthy man whose son is involved
with her you know there will be blood.
A must-see film.
Revanche
Director: Gotz Spielmann
Starring: Johannes
Krisch, Ursula Strauss.
A nifty noir Austrian
thriller that has taken a while to get to the UK after
being nominated for the 2008 Best Foreign Language
Oscar. Revanche (Revenge) is a character-driven tale in
which Krisch is the bouncer for a Viennese brothel who
tries for a new life with his Ukrainian prostitute
partner by robbing a bank in his grandfather’s small
country town. Of course, it isn’t that easy. There’s a
killing and revenge becomes inevitable. Great stuff
City
of Wars: The Story of John Rabe
Director: Florian
Gallenberger
Starring: Ulrich Tukur, Daniel Bruhl, Steve Buscemi,
Anne Consigny
Typical – you wait ages for a film about the 1937
Nanking Massacre then two come along at once. This one
is from the point of view of John Rabe, the Nazi factory
manager in Nanking who helped set up an International
Security Zone that saved thousands and thousands of
Chinese lives from the cynical barbarity of the Japanese
invaders. The irony of a Nazi as a Schindler to the
Chinese is well-presented but the reluctant hero is a
bit two dimensional, despite Tukur’s fine acting. Steve
Buscemi is thrown away as the appalled doctor observing
the Japanese actions. The utter horror of the Japanese
action (so terrifyingly described in Mo Hayder’s novel
Tokyo) is shied away from to a degree but the film
remains powerful, if flawed.
City of Life and Death (aka Nanjing! Nanjing!)
Director: Lu Chuan
Starring: Hideo Nakaizumi, Ye Liu, Wei Fan, Yuanyuan
Goa
John
Rabe also features in City of Life and Death. The second
film about one of the worst atrocities of the 20th
century, when the invading Japanese army systematically
raped and murdered its way, street by street, through
China’s Nanking. (It’s estimated some 20,000 women were
raped.) Director (and scriptwriter) Lu Chuan films the
unfolding events head-on, sometimes with gruelling
explicitness, drawing the audience in partly by his
decision to film in black-and-white as if the film were
a contemporary account. It dwells a little much on the
hand-wringing of Japanese soldier Nakaizumi but remains
visceral, unrelenting and not for the faint hearted.
The
Disappearance of Alice Creed
Director: J. Blakeston
Starring: Gemma Arterton Eddie Marsan Martin
Compston
This
reminds me of those little black-and-white quota
quickies from the fifties the British studios used to
churn out – Tomorrow At Ten, for instance. In fact, we
Brits have been quite good at kidnapping girl for ransom
movies – Séance on A Wet Afternoon and The Collector
also come to mind. Arterton, on fierce form, is the
kidnap victim who gradually starts to turn the tables on
her white van men kidnappers. The problem is that the
film is a three-hander so you know there will have to be
twists to move the narrative along. Still, even though
you’re half-expecting them they still work well. Not
great but not bad for a debut film.
DVD
The Cry of
The Owl
Director: Jamie Thraves
Starring: Paddy Considine, Julia Stiles,
Patricia
Highsmith story, filmed by Chabrol in 1987 as Le Cri
du Hibou (that’s, er, The Cry of The Owl) now gone
straight to DVD in this new version, despite the
starry cast. Considine is a troubled obsessive,
recovering from a nasty ex-wife, Stiles the object
of his fantasy in his new home-town. He snoops on
her and she invites him into her life. Then her
jealous ex-boyfriend arrives and the temperature
rises. Considine is always worth watching and the
gorgeous Stiles has acting chops when she’s allowed
to show them. The movie is well worth checking out.
Law Abiding
Citizen
Director: F Gary Gray
Starring: Jamie Foxx Gerard Butler
Gerard Butler
produced and stars in this high testosterene, wanna-be
Seven-like chiller. I should own up to my prejudices
here. I loathed director Gray’s wholly unnecessary
remake of The Italian Job; think Jamie Foxx has lost
all nuance in his acting since he became a star; and
don’t get slab-like Butler’s popularity. But, hey,
I’m open-minded. (Hmmm.) The film – a revenge story
– is functional enough and things blow up and Foxx
looks anguished and fierce and Butler looks, well,
slab-like. Passes the time.
SPIRAL
Director: Adam Green & Joel Moore
Starring: Joel Moore, Zachary Levi, Amber
Tamblyn
This
curious little film - obviously close to Avatar
star Joel Moore’s heart as he produces,
co-directs and stars in it – could be terrific
but is too skewed for that. Moore plays a
tormented, twitchy lonely telesales worker who
paints obsessively at night. His latest model is
a co-worker (Amber Tamblyn) who strikes up a
friendship with him. As their friendship, and
the sittings, progress it’s clear that Moore is
struggling with dark emotion. Very dark. Okay,
the viewer is thinking he’s going to kill her,
that he is in fact a serial killer.
There is an excellent twist at the end and the
film holds your attention throughout but its
weakness is that, however innocent or guilty
Moore’s character is, he exudes such creepiness
that no woman would go near him in the first
place with a barge-pole. Which leaves Amber
Tamblyn with the thankless task of making you
believe that her irritatingly kooky love
interest would really be drawn to someone with
Mass Murderer written all over his tormented
face.
Personally, I found her so irritating I was
hoping he would knock her off in the first reel
but you can’t have everything.
An okay time-filler of a film. [Release delayed
until May]
The Men Who Stare
At Goats
Director: Grant Heslov
Starring: George Clooney, Jeff Bridges, Ewan
McGregor, Kevin Spacey
Okay, not really a thriller
or a crime movie but, hey, there are guns and
fights. Besides, this film is pretty un-categorisable
– but it’s well worth seeing. Based on Jon
Ronson’s quirky account of US military
investment in psychic warfare, it’s a darkly
humorous, sometimes laugh out loud funny, movie,
with Clooney on cracking form as the man who can
kill a goat by staring at him. Jeff Bridges,
building on his Big Lebowski persona, is great
as the hippy military commander bringing New Age
babble into the US military. McGregor keeps up
with these two and Spacey (who is a bit
short-changed on screen time). The film’s
shortcoming is that the story that brings
terrific acting and wonderful individual scenes
together is uninvolving and, actually, a bit
tedious. So any individual scene is worth
watching but they don’t really hang together
into an involving narrative. Still worth viewing
though. Usual extras but nice alternative
commentary from Jon Ronson.
Sherlock Holmes
Director: Guy Ritchie
Starring: Robert Downey Jnr Jude Law Mark Strong
Rachel McAdams
I liked this more on DVD –
Downey Jnr and Jude Law are a great double act
and Ritchie presents a suitably fog-shrouded and
spooky London. Ritchie looms large in the extras
where you learn more than you might wish about
the details of the film production. There’s a
great tutorial on baritsu, Holmes’s self-defence
of system – but don’t try it at home.
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