Review: Interstellar

Released: 7^th November

Certificate: 12A

Director: Christopher Nolan

Screenwriters: Jonathan Nolan, Christopher Nolan

Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Mackenzie Foy, Anne Hathaway, David Gyasi, Wes Bentley, Michael Caine

Every now and again a film comes appears with such startling ambition that it is impossible not to take notice. A high-concept space opera made for the masses, Interstellar pulls off that most Nolanesque of tricks: achieving spectacle, intimacy and mind-bending mystery without being either condescending or deliberately obtuse. Set in a near-future America reeling from a famine-driven partial societal collapse, the film places the relationship between engineer-turned-farmer Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) and his daughter Murphy (Mackenzie Foy), firmly in the foreground. When Cooper is recruited for an intergalactic mission to seek out other inhabitable planets, he must face the possibility he will not return.

Cooper and Murphy’s relationship anchors the emotional stakes of Cooper’s mission to find a better home for humanity, without feeling overtly manipulative. This is mostly due to Foy’s astonishing performance- Murphy is capable, inquisitive and steely, so her palpable vulnerability when her father’s departure becomes inevitable is utterly devastating. Her refusal to capitulate and talk to him even as he drives away to a potentially terminal journey adds a hard edge to the proceedings, and a tinge of regret accompanies Coop’s every action afterwards, beautifully realised by McConaughey. Anne Hathaway delivers a layered and engaging performance as spacefaring scientist Dr Brand, who has an interesting and sometimes fraught dynamic with Cooper which stays mercifully well away from romance.

In the film’s second act the action really kicks off, with well thought out special effects illustrating hitherto unseen space and timescapes in a way that feels disconcertingly real: you could almost believe that Nolan showed his intergalactic holiday snaps to the VFX team for inspiration (although in truth the film’s scientific advisor, Kip Thorne, probably deserves the credit). This verisimilitude packs a punch: once you believe the characters are really there, the true horror of the void is front and centre. At one point Cooper says “we are not prepared for this,” and as an audience member you can’t help but feel the same; it is overwhelming and exhilarating in equal measures, and the innate hostility of exploration which has been present throughout human history finds a space-age echo here.

There are a few bum notes, however. The script at times veers towards the highfalutin, particularly when it comes to meditations on love. As is so often the case, showing is better than telling, and although the film does plenty of showing, the occasional clunky bit of dialogue on love-as-a-universal-force slips in. The robot assistants, although smartly written, struggle to look congruent despite being well rendered. However, in a project of this scope and audacity it is unsurprising that some elements don’t quite work, but those that do more than make up for it. Overall Interstellar is an occasionally overwhelming but utterly engaging experience, demonstrating the power of cinema to provoke horror, exhilaration and awe.

Verdict: 5/5

Image source: interstellar.hamiltonwatch.com

Review: Mr Turner

Released: 31^st October

Certificate: 12A

Director: Mike Leigh

Screenwriter: Mike Leigh and cast

Cast: Timothy Spall, Dorothy Atkinson, Paul Jesson, Marion Bailey

Mike Leigh’s latest film follows the later life of 19^th century painter JMW Turner (Timothy Spall), lauded as one of Britain’s greatest artists. Fittingly, it is no understatement to describe the film as a visual feast. This is not only in terms the works of art on show from Turner and his contemporaries, but also the sumptuous costumes and magnificent sets and locations. However to say the film is purely an aesthetic experience would be damning with faint praise; it is a lot more besides. Mr Turner wonderfully showcases Mike Leigh’s skill as a constructor of naturalistic and engaging social drama. The frequent tableau scenes between Turner and his many acquaintances are a delight to watch, whether they are as comedic as teatime in the parlour of the fatuous Ruskins or as fraught as the clash of artistic egos at the Royal Academy exhibition. At the centre of the film lies Timothy Spall’s performance, which is accomplished and compelling. He is able to encapsulate and indeed evoke the gamut of emotions from a laugh to a painful tug on the heartstrings merely by varying the cadence of his many ‘harrumphs’. His Turner is mercurial, mysterious, and utterly believable. The rest of the cast are also fantastic, particularly Dorothy Atkinson as Hannah Danby, Turner’s underappreciated housekeeper and occasional lover, and Paul Jesson as his put upon but uncomplaining father.

Leigh’s direction manages to be both cinematic and intimate depending on the demands of the scene. During a discussion in which the owner of a guest house reveals his regret over having been a builder of slave ships as a younger man the camera cleaves close to the actors’ faces, while elsewhere the camera is positioned behind Turner, as if all the world is merely a canvas he- and the audience- are looking out upon. Unfortunately, the spellbinding nature of the individual scenes is somewhat undermined by a lack of a clear overarching narrative, particularly in the third act. Leigh’s films are often loosely structured, and one can see why he wanted to avoid what can be the all too story driven nature of the traditional biopic, however the piece would have benefitted from a little more pace. Furthermore, although Leigh appears to be hinting at a connection between the complications and bereavements in Turner’s later life and the increasingly abstract nature of his paintings, this is not fully explored. Although we see a great number of Turner’s actions and emotions, his motivations remain frustratingly obscure.

Peppered with rich dialogue, wonderful settings and elevated by an extraordinary central performance, Mr Turner is a beautiful, albeit slow moving, film of wit, imagination and spirit.

Verdict: 4/5

Image credit: http://www.facebook.com/MrTurnerFilm

Before I Go To Sleep Mini Review

You Can’t Handle The Truth

Released : September 5th 2014

Certificate : 15

Director : Rowan Joffe

Cast : Nicole Kidman, Colin Firth, Mark Strong

Plot : Christine (Kidman) wakes up in bed with a man she doesn’t recognise, in a house she does not recall. The man awakes to inform her that he is her husband, Ben (Firth). Christine has a meory condition in which every time she goes to sleep she forget everything about her life, with the help of Dr. Nash (Strong) she sets out to find the truth about her identity.

Another memory thriller stage in which the heroine clambers through her past to grasp at the truth of her past, with a Memento like approach through the main characters employment of pictures, and also video diaries. The film took a mostly recognisable storyline and used top actors to tackle the roles to add reality to the mind teasing thriller.

The film itself had no originality, merely recycling the story of a characters chaotic scramble for the truth of themselves, which when executed correctly can make for cult classic films. This film unfortunately lacked the intelligence or any original spin in order to set this film about from any mind bending thrillers before it. To the films credit, the actors did hold there own to portray the different characters in a way that made it difficult to predict the final outcome. So it that sense the film succeeded in being an effective ‘who done it thriller’.

But in order for a film like this to become memorable, it needs to be different from what has come before it, despite being for the most part a well acted thriller. The film tried to recreate a chaotic, frantic feel to thrill the audience, but instead due to its formulaic structure it became merely a cast almost a model for how mind thrillers are made. An film that offers good performances and entertainment as you try and guess the villain of the story, but there is not much else to see here.

Verdict : 2/5

Quote : N/A

Review: Maps to the Stars

Released: 2^nd October

Certificate: 18

Director: David Cronenberg

Screenwriter: Bruce Wagner

Cast: Julianne Moore, Mia Wasikowska, Evan Bird, John Cusack, Olivia Williams, Robert Pattinson

Agatha (Mia Wasikowska), an eighteen year old Floridian with mild burn scars, arrives in Los Angeles, setting off a twisting and cataclysmic chain of events.  She begins working for Havana Segrand (Julianne Moore), an ageing actor seeking to re-establish her credibility by taking a role as her late movie star mother Clarice Taggart (Sarah Gadon), who may or may not have molested her as a child, in an upcoming biopic. Segrand works through these painful memories in the company of masseuse and motivational speaker Dr Stafford Weiss (John Cusack) who, along with shrewd but caring Christina (Olivia Williams), parent child star brat Benjie (Evan Bird), who is newly sober and struggling to secure his next movie deal.

In Maps… Cronenberg and Wagner revel in crafting a tale of isolation, alienation and madness. Several of the characters are haunted by the apparitions of dead children or dead parents, but it is Wasikowska’s creepy Agatha that appears to be the real harbinger of doom, although arguably the film’s message that no bed is messier than the one we make for ourselves, no matter which handy scapegoat we blame our destruction on. Underscored throughout by a poetical incantation lifted from the bizarre black-and-white movie that made Taggart’s name, which is repeated by various characters, the ensemble seem to be themselves drawing down the oblivion that is hurtling towards them. The film’s title is a good example of its sardonic humour: despite the eponymous maps, Hollywood’s stars (and the film’s characters) remain as distant as the celestial ones. The directorial quirk of never having more than one actor in frame unless absolutely necessary further enhances this. Characters perform outwards from centre frame, like a prison mugshot, and the audience is drawn in, the camera subjecting the stars to the same scrutiny that they crave and fear in equal measure.

It is undeniable that this all adds up to a potent atmosphere, supported by well-observed dialogue (particularly between Benjie and his party-addled friends) and some remarkable performances. Olivia Williams brilliantly walks the line her character has drawn between love for a flawed creation and the need to protect the life she has painstakingly constructed out of the literal and figurative ashes of her former one. Christina’s panic is palpable and brilliantly played. Julianne Moore throws herself into Havana Segrand’s neuroses, managing to produce a character who is overly dramatic without the acting itself becoming pantomime, and Mia Wasikowska (as usual) makes everything look easy.

However, despite many admirable aspects, the film revels a little too much in its own nastiness, spiralling into destruction with no clear point. This renders what could be a whip-smart critique of fame and celebrity oddly ho-hum. Pattinson’s limo-driving Wagner cipher is also weirdly vestigial, an unnecessary straight man to the howling, grease-painted clown that is the main plot, and he is unfortunately out-acted by both Moore and Wasikowska in the scenes he shares with them.

Populated by improbable occurrences and fascinating grotesques, Cronenberg’s latest is a wry meditiation on Hollywood’s cynicism and self obsession.

Verdict: 3/5

Image credit: http://mapstothestarsfilm.com/