Movie Review: London Road

Director: Rufus Norris

Writers: Alecky Blythe

Stars: Olivia Colman, Clare Burt, Rosalie Craig

Verdict: Real good fun

London Road is such an interesting widget of a film it would be hard to see through the gimmick of it’s premise. Which is interesting because that’s normally a problem encountered by 70s sci-fi movies like Westworld, Logan’s Run, or Planet of the Apes, or even modern slasher films craving some relevance like Unfriended, Saw, or Final Destination, (which is actually a lot better than people give it credit for). A couple of genre’s where that’s not often levelled are musicals, and crime dramas, both of which this seems to be, with some of the pitch black farce of Dr. Strangelove. Despite this, London Road thrives off off inventive musical numbers, a self-knowing that never becomes ironic, and strong film making. 

London Road follows the true life tale of 5 murders in Ipswich, and the ensuing sense of the town turning upon itself, a la M. Doesn’t sound like appropriate material for a musical? Well it’s not, and to make it worse all the songs are taken from actual interviews done around the time of the murders, which leads to the ever classic chart topping banger, “everyone’s very very nervous and um quite scared, basically”. Occasionally that’s very clear where some of the things that are said could only have been said to an interviewer which is very striking, and equally occasionally if not more frequently, the songs very accurately take what was actually said in very candid interviews and contextualises them in a way that makes them genuinely seem like they’re part of some internal monologue. At the end of the film thy let you hear the audio from the actual interviews and it shatters the illusion in a way that is really quite striking. The way the songs are orchestrated are actually quite expertly done.

I am informed this isn’t unique to London Road, I haven’t seen it but I am told that The Arbor does something similar, and occasionally the way the film tries to capture natural dialogue in song is eerily reminiscent of Les Misérables.  

The film is very dark, it has moments of real drama, it’s a musical about murders infesting a small residential area. I’d say Blue Velvet the musical but that’s only slightly over exaggerating. There are red herrings a plenty, and actually some of the casting choices act as red herrings purely because you think of how well known they are, they have to have a role like a villain that requires real acting. Also some of the things that Olivia Coleman, (Locke, The Lobster, Hot Fuzz), says is quite striking but also believable in a way where it’s kind of awful that it’s so believable. That being said, there are moments of genuine comedy, very very British comedy, where actually it’s funny because of just how sort of middle-class-nevuax-riche-twat British it is, but there’s also some genuine slapstick that means that I think I’m allowed to laugh at just how balls to the wall weird some of the musical numbers are. The presence of other jokes implies that some of the songs are played for jokes, and in a way that uneasiness of whether I’m meant to laugh helps the over all tension of the film. Whether that’s meant to happen I HAVE NO IDEA  but it works very well. 

In the end London Road is really entertaining, whether it’s just through how quirky it is or the genuine cinematic craft there is to be found. It’s well acted, well put together and a really good film to watch with friends. Trust me, you’ll pick up the lyrics really, really easily. 

Movie Review: Mean Girls

Director: Mark Waters

Writers: Rosalind Wiseman, Tina Fey

Stars: Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams

Verdict: Nearly a masterpiece 

Whenever I seem to review a female-centric sassy teen flick these days I seem to keep referring back to Mean Girls. I remember reviewing The DUFF when I was on Tumblr and noting just how much it was making an effort to set itself in a post Mean Girls world but at the same time distance itself from Mean Girls. Just last month I reviewed Clueless and noted how much Mean Girls didn’t have the problematic plot points that Clueless did, how much Mean Girls clearly improved on the formula Clueless set down. I mean I saw this at the same cinema and the cult following Mean Girls comes with was demonstrable. People laughed at Clueless but not like they laughed at Mean Girls, not like I laughed at Mean Girls, they applauded at the end of Mean Girls in way they definitely didn’t at Clueless. The only teen film in recent memory I can recall that definitively didn’t exist in the large shadow cast by Mean Girls would be Juno, and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World if we stretch the definitions of a teen film, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower purely by virtue that the book it’s based on was written in the 80s. 

Mean Girls follows Cady played by infamous train wreck Lindsay Lohan, (The Parent Trap, Freaky Friday, The Canyons), before she went off the rails, (see what I did there?). Cady until now has been home schooled in Africa with her parents and now comes to high school to find it’s not so different from Africa. 

Mean Girls succeeds through, firstly, assured direction from Mark Waters, (Freaky Friday, The Spiderwick Chronicles) who has a real sense of when to mix in the more satirical naturistically played segments with the expressionistic, stylistic moments. Secondly, the great performances her elicits. The film benefits from a very likable and sympathetic lead in Lohan and a truly magnetic turn from villainesse and high school queen bee archetype Regina George, whose name has now become infamous, played with scenery-chewing glee by Rachel McAdams, (Sherlock Holmes, Spotlight, About Time), who was just nominated for an oscar for another fantastic turn in best picture winner Spotlight, she has really matured as an actress in a force to be reckoned with. There’s also a myriad of wonderfully game supporting players from; Amanda Seyfried, (Mamma Mia!, Les Misérables) and Lacey Chabert as George’s hapless minions; Tina Fey, (Saturday Night Live, 30 Rock, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) and Tim Meadows, (Saturday Night Live, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story) as the equally hapless teachers; with Lizzy Caplan, (Cloverfield), Daniel Franzese, (I Spit on Your Grave), and Amy Poehler, (Inside Out) rounding off the fantastic ensemble, each one turning in memorable and career defining performances. 

The real joy of Mean Girls though is in Tina Fey’s biting screenplay. The humour isn’t nearly as safe as something like Clueless and many of the jokes causes one to go ‘hang on did someone actually just say that in a studio teen flick?’ one of the most memorable being ‘I can’t help it if I have a heavy flow and a wide set vagina’. The fact is that this film isn’t afraid to address the way it’s protagonists would speak in real life, the things they’d talk about and the jokes they make. You could write off a lot of the jokes as crass and vacuous if they weren’t just so on point. It’s a joke a minute and some of the jokes are actually as sharp and scabrous as something from John Micheal or Martin McDonagh, (In Bruges , Calvary, War on Everyone). The jokes will make you cringe as much as some of their jokes but the reason here is more that it will remind you of your own time at high school, your own mistakes and awkward moments and times you let down your friends. The film has an emotional truth as well as a comedic sense. 

There’s an attempt in the last act to humanise the roughest edged characters to a degree and there’s one scene that sticks out in everyone’s mind as being extraordinarily cheesy but you just read that as a tongue in cheek poking at how teen flicks end with a big cheesy set peice, (I really need to stop forgiving films by saying it’s satirical, post-modernism means never having to say you’re sorry), or it might just be a fop to the studios. However, for the most part, Mean Girls is a biting, edgy, lough out loud hilarious teen comedy that stands out from the crowd by not holding back and having an ensemble game cast, along with a director who understands how to construct a joke really well and will go completely over the top if that’s what it takes to get a laugh. In short, Mean Girls is a joy. 

Movie Review: Hugo

Director: Martin Scorsese

Writers: John Logan,  Brian Selznick

Stars: Asa Butterfield, Chloë Grace Moretz, Christopher Lee, Ben Kingsley, Ray Winstone, Emily Mortimer, Helen McCrory, Michael Stuhlbarg, Frances de la Tour, Richard Griffiths, Jude Law

Verdict: A beautiful family friendly treat

Hugo is an infamously family friendly (how often do you get to say that?) movie from the master of dark character studies Martin Scorsese, (Goodfellas, The Departed, The Wolf of Wall Street). It follows orphaned clock-making whizz kid Hugo Cabret with Asa Butterfield, (Ender’s Game, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas) bringing to life the titular role. He steals from the wrong, old, curmudgeonly, embittered toy maker with a damaged heart of gold, Georges, played by the always mercurial and inimitable Ben Kingsley, (Gandhi, Schindler’s List, Sexy Beast), more than making up for Iron Man 3. Hugo lives in a train station patrolled by the warden, bought to life by Sacha Baron Cohen, (Borat, Les Misérables) in fine knockabout form. 

In fact the cast is star studded, and generally fantastic. Helen McCrory is an absolute standout, maybe the best performance in the movie, and it’s a travesty it’s really hard to find many credits for her beyond Draco Malfoy’s anonymous mother because she is a real talent. The cast is rounded out by; Chloë Grace Moretz, (Kick-Ass) doing her best ‘Chamber of Secrets‘ era Hermione Granger impression, Ray Winstone Ray-Winstone-ing, Emily Mortimer being at her most fabulous since The Newsroom, (and she’s normally pretty fabulous), Richard Griffiths and Frances de la Tour off doing their own little thing, fabulously, Michael Stuhlbarg bringing the same sense of childishness he did to A Serious Man but this time instead of a childish sense of impotence and naivety, he gives a sense of wonder and awe that matches the tone of the film perfectly, Jude Law as Hugo’s father doing that thing Jude Law does of just being really warm and likeable, when he’s not playing Dom Hemingway or Dan from Closer, and last but not least, Christopher Lee, who’s just, well, Christopher fucking Lee. 

It’s not like anyone thinks Martin Scorcese is a one trick pony, he’s pulled off fare that deviates from his usual tropes with period drama The Age of Innocence and Kundun which was scripted by Melissa Mathison of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and The BFG fame. And Hugo is very, very well directed, it’s interesting how Martin Scorcese, who’s been making films for decades, makes a film about the origins of cinema whilst effectively mixing old and new techniques; such as tableaux vivants and long tracking shots, arranged by an oscar winning Robert Richardson, (Django Unchained, Natural Born Killers, The Aviator), mixed with colour correction and a sepia tinted, computer generated vision of Paris, which also won oscars for it’s visual effects team. These go together to create the mood of classical era cinema with a contemporary polish, including that sense of joy for and love of the medium from films like Casablanca, Citizen Kane, and The Big Sleep, this is a joy which also infects the plot of the film and the viewer themselves. 

In the end that’s the joy of the film, the very tone of joy which leaps of the screen, and a heart warming story that’ll melt the iced over cynicism in anyone. The performances, the side stories of the side characters who inhabit the train station like it was their only home and existence which take on the form of something Chaplinesque. I shed a tear, and if you don’t you’re either a robot or really must have something against this film. The master that is Martin Scorcese adds another string to his bow with aplomb, and despite the classical sense the film has, shows he’s as burningly contemporary as Chris Nolan. 

Film Review: The Prestige

Director: Christopher Nolan

Screenwriters: Christopher Priest, Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan

Stars: Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Rebecca Hall, Scarlett Johansson, David Bowie, Andy Serkis

Verdict: Stunning

The Prestige is a film I’ve always wanted to come back to. I saw it when I was young, before I knew who director Chris Nolan, (Inception, The Dark Knight, Interstellar), was, and it stuck with me in a way that very few films do. It stars Christian Bale, (Empire of the Sun, The Machinist, Batman Begins), Hugh Jackman, (Les Misérables, X-Men, Prisoners), Scarlett Johanson, (Avengers Assemble, Lost in Translation, Under the Skin), Michael Caine, (Alfie, The Ipcress File, The Italian Job), Rebecca Hall, (Vicky Cristina Barcelona, The Town, The BFG), Andy Serkis, and David Bowie. Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman play two warring stage magicians in Victorian London, in this film that combines Period Drama, Science Fiction, Fantasy and a good deal of genre thrills. 

I would say that there are three images that have stuck with me from my childhood from movies, in a really disturbing, thorny way. One’s from Ben Wheatley’s Kill List which I’ve mentioned on the blog before, the other being this shot from The Incredibles:

Shocking stuff right? The third image is one from The Prestige that upon a re-watch I realised I’d actually misremembered, I’m not going to spoil it for you because it’s kind of the main crux of the film’s resolution, but watching the film again, knowing the answers to some, (I’d also forgotten some pretty major ones, luckily), of the film’s mysteries the ending made me feel sick to my stomach.

It’s so interesting that now with Chris Nolan becoming very much the premier Hollywood director working at the moment, that you can go back and look at his earlier, darker, twisted films like The Prestige, Insomnia, and Memento.  This film being particularly interesting as he’d just made Batman Begins so he’s acquired some level of stardom and Hollywood shique, but he hadn’t shaken off his earlier grit completely, which is also really, really interesting to see in a period piece of all things. It’s a wonder it’s a 12 I tell you, and that tells to the deftness with which Christopher Nolan can convey emotion without being gratuitous. The benefit of this is that he has this wonderfully star studded cast, it’s not often you’ll see Batman, Wolverine, and Black Widow on screen together. I was so pleased to see Andy Serkis in this film without CGI because as good as he is at motion capture he is a wonderful performer whose face I want to see just once in a while! Is that too much to ask!? (For proof, watch 24 Hour Party People), Bale and Jackman are fabulous, Johansonn’s British accent clearly improved some before Under The Skin but she’s still really good in this, (I did think Rebecca Hall was a bit shit though), and David Bowie is clearly having the time of his life playing a somewhat kindred spirit in Nicola Tesla. 

The film is told in sort of concurrent flashback’s as Jackman and Bale read eachother’s diaries, this forms about 4 layers of time frames, which means that in the first 5 minutes you’re flicking back between them at an incredible rate just to set the scene, which creates this dreamscape feel to it as you get lost in malaise of it all, which is a wonderful pairing with the magic in the film, which is rigorously explained but seems fantastical as Caine says “now you’re looking but you don’t see anything because you’re not really looking”, and he’s right, I’m convinced that upon inspection the narrative of this film would be wonderfully airtight and aside from the flights of fancy make complete narrative sense, but I don’t really want to pick it apart because I just enjoy being so baffled at the achievement. Memento is famous for it’s bifurcated narrative that comes backwards and forwards at once to meet in the middle, but I honestly think this a more ambitious, more skillful, and less attention grabbing achievement in narrative structure and I actually think Nolan does a more professional job of it in The Prestige. In this film the narrative isn’t all the film is, it’s just a tool to tell the story properly. 

I keep flitting between this and Inception as my favourite Christopher Nolan film, but I think I prefer the gut punch in this to Inception, which it took a few runs to love as much as I do, but that’s for a different review. This film is a truly remarkable achievement, and not just in style, (it is shot beautifully on some well used film stock Wally Pfister), but also in the quality of the story and storytelling, which at the end of the day is all style should be, a tool for good storytelling, (take that Lars Von Trier). I can’t really convey this enough, WATCH THIS MOVIE. 

P.S. Jonathan Nolan wrote this film with Chris, his brother, he also had a hand in the writing of Memento and is responsible for Person of Interest, which I am reliably informed is sublime. His new show Westworld will be coming out soon, it’s based of a Michael Crichton, (Jurassic Park), film of which I am very fond, and this show looks, if anything, better than the original, and Person of Interest, which I promise I will watch and review for you one day. So keep an eye out for Westworld, I know I will be.