Saturday 26 April 2014

Filmdog Weekly #12 (Calvary, The Guard)

Welcome once again faithful Filmdoggers. Faith is once again at the forefront of this week's review as we unearth a modern classic in 'Calvary', the 2nd film in John Michael McDonagh's unfinished 'Suicide Trilogy'. We've also gone back to check out 'The Guard' from 2011 which opens the collection so look away now if you don't like Brendan Gleeson...



Calvary (Greenwich Picturehouse)
'There they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left'

What would you do if you knew you only had a week to live? That's the dilemma facing Father James Lavelle (Brendan Gleeson) in Calvary, a beautiful film about one priest's struggle to maintain his faith while his resilience is tested by his very own flock.

The opening scene sets the tone as Father James, while taking Sunday Confession, is told he's going to be murdered in 7 days time. The would-be-killer, his identity a mystery, revealing the pain and inner torture from years of sexual abuse at the hands of the Catholic Church. With his abusers already in the ground, he's decided to take revenge by killing a good priest, an 'innocent' one instead. "That'd be a shock."

What plays out is a very clever, blackly comic, reverse murder-mystery in which the audience is introduced to a variety of characters from this close-knit Sligo town, outwardly showing contempt and mockery for Father James and the outdated institution he represents, while inwardly dealing with the issues of their own faith, severely tested or lost altogether following years of scandal surrounding the Catholic Church. 

Our list of potential assassins includes a libidinous Ivorian mechanic, a local butcher in the middle of an emotional love triangle, a young man with murderous thoughts born out of sexual frustration, an antagonistic pub landlord, an atheist doctor, a mentally fragile rent-boy and a rich banker with a superiority complex. Intriguingly, Father James suspects he knows the identity of his would-be murderer yet carries on with his daily duties anyway, doing his earnest best to fulfil his spiritual calling and putting his faith to the ultimate test.

It's a wonderful film full of rich photography and showing the west coast of Ireland in its picturesque full glory despite the underlying grizzly theme. Religious imagery is put to good use to highlight the contrast between Father James and those he means to serve. He strikes a lone figure wearing the priest's soutane for much of the film, only changing into casual clothes at the point when his faith is most tested but the soutane serves as a uniform, reminding him of his duty. His room is sparsely decorated with a simple cross adorning a large white wall and you understand the integrity behind the man. He practises what he preaches and is fully committed to his servitude of God even if it means paying the ultimate price in the process.

Brendan Gleeson has never been better in my opinion and this is a real behemoth of a performance. He plays it serious but still manages to add a lot of humour to a film which is very sombre and sorrowful. The cast is excellent with noteworthy turns from comedy stars Chris O'Dowd, Dylan Moran and Pat Shortt, all of them convincing in serious roles, and I thought this was a pretty special film. It's very moving, powerful and full of great characters. Go and see it before it disappears from the cinemas.

* * * * *

(Calvary is showing at all Picturehouses and selected Odeon, Vue and Cineworld cinemas in the UK)



The Guard (Netflix Canada)
'Galway Confidential'

I recently downloaded a free Chrome extension called Hola Unblocker which allows my computer to access content from around the world that wouldn't ordinarily be available in my country. I've found it very useful, particularly for accessing a wider range of films that I can't watch on Netflix UK. The limitation is that I have to watch it on my laptop rather than through the Wii but I can live with that.

One film I wanted to watch after seeing Calvary was John Michael McDonagh's previous film The Guard which I accessed on Netflix Canada. Once again Brendan Gleeson plays the lead character Gerry Boyle, a maverick police officer from Galway whose work-life balance is firmly tilted towards the latter end of the scale. He supplements the everyday boredom of policing with drinking, recreational drugs and hookers, making no apologies for it.

Boyle is teamed up with Don Cheadle's FBI Agent Wendell Everett to track down a trio of drug traffickers (Liam Cunningham, Mark Strong and David Wilmot) who are responsible for the murder of Boyle's partner. Their relationship has traces of 48 Hours as Boyle's unintentional racism and laissez-faire attitude towards by-the-book law enforcement causes friction between the two of them, but they eventually bond, acclimatising to the other's habits. 

Integrity is a key theme in McDonagh's films and similarly to Father James in Calvary, Boyle is the lone wolf among a flock of bent cops who feels compelled to be true to himself and his own beliefs despite the potential risks. The ending of both films shares a lot of the same beats, both putting on their uniforms for the final showdown, symbolising their dedication to their team.

While it shares many of the same cast and themes as Calvary, it's tonally different, opting for more openly comic moments and more eccentricity in its characters, most obviously in the way the drug traffickers have been written. The villainous trio are heavily clichéd and comic bookish in their dialogue, having existential discussions among themselves before committing brutal murders. They could easily be Dr Evil's henchmen from the Austin Powers films, so far removed are they from reality and this grates with the rest of the action, which while not enshrined in realism, takes itself a just little more seriously. The final showdown feels rushed, blundering through a barrage of machine gun fire and daft one-liners and it left me just a little unsatisfied.

The Guard is an enjoyable film but it feels more like a trial run for Calvary, in which writer-director McDonagh seems to have figured out what did and didn't work from this film, giving the characters to his follow-up more depth and it benefits from a better sense of pace. Don't be put off though, it's still a lot of fun and Gleeson is terrific as usual. Watch The Guard and Calvary in chronological order to maximise your enjoyment and you'll see how an exciting filmmaker improved over the course of 2 films.

* * * *












Tuesday 15 April 2014

Filmdog Weekly - Matthew McConaughey Special

The Paperboy (Netflix) ***
Magic Mike (Netflix) **
Mud (Netflix US) ****
True Detective (Sky Atlantic) *****



'Alright, alright, alright...'

It's about time for a Matthew McConaughey retrospective in light of his brilliant role as Rust Cohle in Sky Atlantic's terrific series True Detective which reached it's climax on Saturday night.

He's been cropping up in a number of roles over the past few years in critically acclaimed films that you may or may not have seen, and his Oscar win for Dallas Buyers Club set tongues wagging about his recent 'comeback', but in truth he's not been anywhere. If he has, it's was a few years basking topless in mediocre rom-coms such as The Wedding Planner (2001), How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003), Failure to Launch (2006) and Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009). 

Since then, however, I can only conclude that he had a light bulb moment and realised that typecasting himself as the go-to handsome guy for romantic comedies wasn't doing his career any favours. Either that or it was a brilliant piece of strategic planning, churning out forgettable film after forgettable film, knowing full-well that his resurgence in a number of serious, edgy roles would only compound his amazing transformation.

Anyone who's seen A Time to Kill (1996) will know that he's always been a fine actor, but maybe it's taken this long for him to grow into his face. His good looks may have until now stood in the way of him getting the kinds of meaty roles that his talent deserves and now in his 40's, McConaughey has developed an oaky, wizened complexion to toughen up those previously-soft features. Having a few creases in his skin and losing the surfer-blonde look has opened him up to a variety of roles and so I've gone back to watch a few a few films that initially slipped under my radar and which are available to view on Sky or Netflix.

The Paperboy

In 2012's The Paperboy McConaughey plays Ward Jansen, a Miami journalist who arrives back in his hometown to investigate the murder case of a death-row inmate Hillary van Wetter (John Cusack). 

Along with his writing assistant Yardley (David Oyelowo), his younger brother Jack (Zac Effron) and Charlotte (Nicole Kidman), a woman obsessed with the condemned man after an ongoing correspondence relationship with him, the quartet look into van Wetter's case and find that he may not be guilty of the crime after all.

It's shot through a filter, giving it a dated, hazy look and I quite enjoyed the way it made everything look humid and sweaty, providing a real sense of location. However the story is a little befuddled and it doesn't really know what kind of film it is. It's less intrigued in the actual murder mystery and more focused on the dynamic between these very different characters. There's no real tension despite touching on racism, homosexuality and murder, resulting in a pretty unsatisfactory climax.


Magic Mike

On first appearance, it would be quite easy to dismiss Magic Mike as a chick flick given that much of the screen time is filled with muscular dudes dancing naked on stage, however appearances can be deceiving. 

Director Steven Soderbergh is an interesting filmmaker, if not always consistent and this is one to add to that list of films that don't quite work for me. While it's not bad, it isn't particularly interesting despite providing an insightful and (from what I can tell) fairly accurate portrayal of life in the male stripping business.

Channing Tatum plays beefcake-with-a-heart Mike, a savvy stripper as well as an entrepreneur and businessman who takes young and dumb Adam (Alex Pettyfer) under his wing, introducing him to the world of male stripping and all the perks that come with it - women, money and good times. 

Matthew McConaughey is Dallas, head honcho and compere of the Tampa strip group. It's a brave choice, given the solo routine he has to perform halfway through but he throws himself into the role of the wily old-hand who's shrewd enough to realise he requires younger flesh than his own to display if he's going to fulfil his dream of taking his show to the big leagues in Miami. 

It's a dream come true for 19-year-old Alex who ends up living la vida loca just a little too ferociously and the film follows his journey from naive and shy pretty boy to debauched sex machine.

It's loosely based on Channing Tatum's real experience as a Tampa Bay stripper when he was 18 and there's real authenticity to the film, showing the professionalism and pride that these guys take in their work as well as the partying lifestyle that accompanies it. The problem is it's a little too life-like. Most of the action that happens away from the club, the beach barbecues, the house parties, the general everyday life stuff, is mundane. The dialogue is boringly realistic and by the end I found myself wanting these guys to shut their yaps and start dancing again as the stripping scenes are by far the most entertaining part of the film.

There are plans for a sequel to Magic Mike (Even Magic-er?) and with Steven Soderbergh no longer on the scene to direct (he's happily retired) perhaps we'll lose some of the mumblecore elements that turned Magic Mike to decidedly Average Joe.

Mud

Just when you thought this Matthew McConaughey special was turning into a bit of a damp squib, Mud happily comes along to give this review a well-timed boost as our star is once again given a leading role to get his crooked fake teeth into.

The film follows two 14-year-old boys named Ellis and Neckbone, who find a large boat stuck high up in a tree on an island in the middle of the Arkansas River. They claim it for themselves but soon find out that it's being lived in by a mysterious stranger called Mud (McConaghey), a charismatic loner who inspires a sense of adventure in the boys, gaining their trust and befriending them. It soon dawns on them that Mud is living on the island for a more pragmatic reason and they agree to help him fix up the boat so that he can sail off with his true love (Reece Witherspoon) and evade his pursuers.

Mud is a great little adventure film. It has the feel of a Mark Twain story and while the ending seems to switch genres entirely, turning from slow burning character tale into a shoot-em-up, it's an enjoyable romp with some great performances from Tye Sheridan and Jacob Lofland as the mischievous teen duo and from McConaughey, who's great as the worldly-yet-naive Mud. 

Jump in with both feet.

True Detective

I came late to True Detective which was something of a blessing as it allowed me to watch the first 3 episodes all at once (my preferred method of watching a series).

It's remarkably good. Completely different from any other investigative police show on tv in terms of mood and the sheer brilliance of the writing.

Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey play detectives Marty Hart and Rust Cohle. Marty is the senior officer. On the surface he's a regular family man, hardworking and very much a typical genre-cop. Rust is foisted upon him, transferred in from another state having worked for years undercover, and immediately his style of police work and psychological mutterings begin to test their relationship to the limit, only surviving because of Marty's admiration for his partner's abilities as a detective.

The pair are assigned the case of a murdered young girl, killed in ritualistic fashion, leading to their investigation into disappearance several people across a 20 year period, seemingly connected to something altogether more sinister.

Over 90 minutes this wouldn't work. Across 8 hour-long episodes however, the characters are given a chance to develop and the tension allowed to quietly simmer away. It's shot in such a way that the audience only picks up clues as they are being fed to us by Rust and Marty while being interrogated in the present day about events surrounding the original 1995 case. For the entire first half of the series we still don't know why they are being interrogated and it's a terrific plot device, revealing pieces of the puzzle in flashback, letting the audience play detective as we try to figure out what's going on. 

It's the best television series I've seen since Breaking Bad and although the ending is a little underwhelming (the final episode is unfortunately the weakest of them all) it's a thoroughly well-written, brilliantly-acted and engrossing drama, playing more like an 8-hour film than a typical tv series. Woody Harrelson is excellent as Marty but the series belongs to McConaughey's brooding, lone-wolf Rust.

True Detective completes McConaughey's return from critical obscurity (the McConaissance?), establishing him as the best actor on our screens at this moment in time.

Friday 11 April 2014

Filmdog Weekly #11 (Noah, Muppets Most Wanted)

This week The Filmdog urges you to bring an umbrella as we get all biblical on your ass with Noah. Then it's another not-quite-as-great Muppet caper in Muppets Most Wanted...



Noah (Greenwich Picturehouse)
'You won't Adam and Eve it'

What is immediately evident on sitting down to watch Noah, Darren Aronofsky's take on the biblical story of God's genocide against humanity, is that the director is not particularly bothered about sticking rigidly to the source material. 

Unlike, say, The Passion of the Christ, Mel Gibson's telling of Jesus' torture, crucifixion and (SPOILER) eventual resurrection, which was as far as I could tell a fairly straight-up and accurate version of the events detailed in the Bible, Noah plays fast and loose with it's details in order to best serve the director's vision for his story.

I personally have no issues with that. A director should be able to deviate from the source material in order to tell a more entertaining story and in the case of the story of Noah and the ark, it's only a little over 2000 words long and so logic tells us that it needed to be fleshed out to fill 138 minutes of screen time, creating some fanciful characters and inventing some family drama to go along with all the rain and woodwork. 

Similarly to The Passion, this film received waves of criticism from various religious groups across the world prior to release, forcing the director and his leading man Russell Crowe to strongly defend the film throughout the promotional tour, suggesting people shouldn't criticise the movie before seeing it for themselves. He even gained a meeting with Pope Francis who gave the film his blessing.

The bad news for Aronofsky and Crowe, the latter of whom is one of my favourite actors (and a fellow Bristol City supporter), is that I have seen it, and dear God it is pretty awful.

My heart sank 2 minutes into the film after watching a terribly hashed montage sequence covering the genesis of the world involving a fluorescent stop-motion snake, a fairly unappealing apple and then the aftermath of Adam and Eve's ejection from paradise, leading to armies of bearded men wandering the world and being all kinds of evil. You'll know the evil ones. They are dressed in black.

However, that wasn't the worst of it. This came with the introduction of 'The Watchers', a race of fallen angels cast out of heaven due to their desire to help mankind, and now living on earth in the shape of huge rock-giants. It is from this that the film never recovers and became more of a fantasy-film than a biblical epic. These 'Watchers' would not look out of place in Tolkein's world, indeed they bare an alarming similarity in look and voice to Treebeard and the Ents from the Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. If you want to fuck up a film, put some rock-giants in it.

With all hope gone for mankind in the film and all hope gone for me as a viewer, the next 2 hours dragged by as we watch Noah go from child to man, speaking with God (never name-checked, always referred to as 'the Creator') through visions while asleep and proceeding to build an ark in order to carry out his master's grand plan to wipe evil of the face of the earth. This evil is personified by a poorly cast Ray Winstone as Tubal-cain, leader of the baddies, akin to those same clad-in-black beard-faced fellows that we saw at the start of the film. We know they're still bad because they still wear black and eat animal flesh without using a knife or fork. They're none too happy when Noah tells them of their watery fate and so they plot to take the ark for themselves.

Some sub-plots involving Noah's children fill up the rest of the running-time. There's Shem (the handsome one), Ham (the horny one) and Japheth (the one who doesn't get a line in the film). There's also Emma Watson as Ila, a girl Noah saved and took in as his own daughter and Sir Anthony Hopkins as Methuselah, their hermit of a grandfather who possess magical powers that nobody cares to explain. 

Russell Crowe is generally good in these kind of films but the dialogue lets the whole cast down, making them only slightly less wooden than the ark they've built. Jennifer Connelly and Emma Watson are wasted in secondary roles and ironically the only person who isn't guilty of ham-acting is Logan Lerman who gives a human performance as Noah's troubled middle-son. Everyone else is reduced to long stares, dramatic turning and earnest statements. It's very theatrical and doesn't quite convince on the big screen of being anything other than actors pretending to be characters.

Noah is grand in scale but I'm not sure it's really a film that needed to be made. Much like the Hobbit trilogy extending itself thinly across 3 films, this suffers from a lack of substance in terms of its source and so is forced to invent a new mythology, one which ultimately won't appeal to those who believe in the bible and which will also fail to excite the imagination of those who enjoy a good fantasy film. 

I've tried to stick clear of puns and cliche but I'm afraid Noah almost made some members of this audience walk out two by two. 

* *

Muppets Most Wanted
'Muppets least needed?'

Following a successful return for The Muppets in 2011, combining the much-loved characters with the Flight of the Conchords team of director James Bobin and songwriter Brett McKenzie, who together injected some much needed life into the ailing franchise, Muppets Most Wanted returns to cash in on their current popularity, and they're not the only ones.

The amount of cameos in this film is quite astounding with familiar faces popping up at every turn. Cynics will claim that the majority of them are simply trying to give their careers a little boost but it doesn't really matter. The Muppets has never worked without having a host of celebrities to make fun of and this film is no exception. Even when there are some odd cameo choices, it's all the better because the joke is really at their expense. Ray Liotta returns for another stint (he appears in Muppets in Space) but looks quite bewildered as a singing, dancing inmate of a Siberian prison.

The plot follows the similar shenanigans of all Muppet films as the gang naively sign up with nefarious music agent Dominic Badguy (Ricky Gervais) who takes them on a tour of Europe. Can he be trusted? Meanwhile, criminal mastermind Constantine the frog has escaped from prison and plots to steal the Crown Jewels of England by switching places with his doppelganger Kermit and performing a number of raids in Berlin, Madrid and Dublin before the climax at the Tower of London. Hot on their heels are Interpol agents Sam Eagle and Jean Pierre Napoleon (Modern Family's Ty Burrell) who get the movie's best song while conducting an interrogation, whilst in Siberia, Kermit tries to persuade prison warden Nadya (Tina Fey) that they've got the wrong frog.

While it's not as good as The Muppets it's still a lot of fun. The decision to sign up with Bobin and McKenzie for these last 2 films was the best thing the studio could have done as the humour and songs that made Flight of the Conchords so successful translates perfectly to the surreal, madcap stylings of the Muppet world. Ty Burrell is the real star for me as the Clouseau-like detective, directing some well-placed gags at the expense of us Europeans. Tina Fey is also very good (as usual) and Ricky Gervais once again plays himself under a different name. 

Picking 3 of the best comedy actors on television was a clever piece of casting and it's these periphery characters, human and Muppet alike, that provides us with the most fun. Sadly the real weakness of Muppets Most Wanted lay at the door of it's leading stars. Kermit and Piggy, while likeable enough, have little to do here except go through the usual romantic dilemma that occurs in every muppet outing. Frankly I'm just a bit bored of them. Give me more Pepe the King Prawn. Give me more Sam Eagle. Give me more of everyone else. It might not please traditionalists but give me a Muppet film where Kermit and Piggy take a nice long honeymoon for the duration and let everyone else have a bit more screen time.

* * *