Review: The Signal

Released: 27^th March

Certificate: 15

Director: William Eubank

Screenwriter: Carlyle Eubank, William Eubank, David Frigerio

Cast: Brenton Thwaites, Olivia Cooke, Beau Knapp, Lawrence Fishburne

So far, 2015 appears to be the year for left-field sci-fi, with releases such as Ex Machina and Predestination bringing fresh and interesting takes on well-worn genre tropes. Unfortunately The Signal, despite its indie trappings, has neither the impact nor the excitement of the aforementioned films. Nic (Brenton Thwaites) is an MIT student and hobbyist hacker struggling with a recent diagnosis of an ALS-like (but unnamed) condition. While driving his girlfriend Haley (Olivia Cooke) across the country to Caltech in the company of their best friend Jonah (Beau Knapp), they take a detour in an attempt to ambush mysterious hacker Nomad, with whom they have a score to settle. One uncanny encounter later, Nic wakes up in a secret government facility where he finds himself being debriefed after an extra-terrestrial encounter, of which he has no memory, by the hazmat-suited Dr Damon (Laurence Fishburne).

While the individual sequences are undeniably atmospheric and, when required, creepy, The Signal is a case of style over substance. In the initial setup the characters are too roughly sketched, and not particularly likeable, lowering the stakes of their sequestration. More unforgivably, Haley is relegated to the sexist clichés of being the nagging girlfriend before their encounter with Nomad and the comatose motivation for the hero to fight back after it, and is clumsily sidelined in the denouement to make way for the actions of the principal male characters. Although there are some interesting concepts at play such as safety at the expense of personal agency, how humans react in the face of the inexplicable, and just who needs to be protected from whom, the execution does not produce a compelling synthesis of these ideas, instead devoting its energy to mood-building imagery for which there is no payoff.

Verdict: 2/5

Image credit: focusfeatures.com

Review: Appropriate Behaviour

Released: 6^th March

Certificate: 15

Director: Desiree Akhavan

Screenwriter: Desiree Akhavan

Cast: Desiree Akhavan, Rebecca Henderson, Halley Feiffer, Scott Adsit

At a time where the cinematic and televisual landscape seems teeming with stories focusing on young bohemian New Yorkers, it can be difficult to stand out from the crowd. However, writer, director and star Desiree Akhavan’s hilarious, wry and surprisingly sweet tale of a bisexual brooklynite (Shirin, played by Akhavan) attempting to recover from an explosive break-up with her first girlfriend, Maxine (Rebecca Henderson), is a true gem.

Told in jumbled flashback interleaved with current events in chronological order, Appropriate Behaviour uses a series of vignettes to build up an impressively comprehensive picture of Maxine and Shirin’s courtship and break up, and Shirin’s attempts to reset her life in the aftermath. The use of cues in the present to trigger flashbacks, while a much used device in cinema, is done with enough subtlety that the segues seem natural, and lends the film a cohesion in that it allows the audience to truly get inside Shirin’s head and become part of the action.

A piece like this can fly or fail on the success of its comedic beats, and thankfully Appropriate Behaviour triumphs in this respect. Eschewing mumblecore improvisation for a more deliberately engineered approach pays off in spades, as the carefully constructed turns of phrase have both a verisimilitude and a razor-sharp focus. In one scene, Shirin’s boss Ken (Scott Adsit), upon discovering her Iranian heritage, says ‘I was just reading this article in Vice about the underground hip-hop scene in Tehran… are you part of that?’ to which Shirin replies, ‘no… when I go [to Iran] I mostly watch Disney videos with my grandmother while she untangles jewellery.’ This deadpan delivery is a particular talent of Akhavan’s, and watching the emotions play about her face as Shirin reacts to the situations around her is an absolute joy. Special mention must also go to Halley Feiffer as Shirin’s best friend Crystal, who shines in the film’s more comically absurd moments, particularly one very funny sequence in which they encounter an unexpectedly intense lingerie shop assistant (Kelly McAndrew). Unsurprisingly considering the subject matter, the comedy is occasionally near the knuckle, but despite a few cheap shots the humour stays on the wry side of arch and never feels deliberately mean-spirited.

Although the comedy is great, there’s also a vein of pathos running throughout which adds depth to the piece. Shirin struggles to reconcile her queer identity with her interpretation of the Persian culture to which she belongs, and fears coming out to her parents. The strain this places upon her relationship with Maxine, and indeed with her family itself, adds a substantial undertone which grounds the more whimsical aspects of the film, bringing it a greater emotional impact than it might otherwise have had. The close camerawork underscores the dramatic moments, again placing the viewer within the scene to allow them to experience the way in which the characters react to one another. The subtle performances from the cast mean we can see every murmured sweet nothing or loaded barb land upon its recipient, bringing an almost theatrical sense of presence (both in the physical and temporal sense) to the proceedings.

Bittersweet, knowingly strange and frequently hilarious, Appropriate Behaviour is an accomplished first feature, balancing wry and bawdy humour with a nuanced portrayal of bisexuality, love and heartbreak.

Verdict: 5/5

Image credit: appropriatebehaviourmovie.com

Mini Review: Still Alice

Released: 6^th March

Certificate: 12A

Directors: Richard Glatzer, Wash Westmoreland

Screenwriters: Richard Glatzer, Wash Westmoreland

Cast: Julianne Moore, Alec Baldwin, Kristen Stewart, Kate Bosworth, Shane McRae

Based on Lisa Genova’s novel of the same name, Still Alice follows Alice (Julianne Moore), a professor of linguistics who receives a diagnostic of early onset Alzheimer’s disease just after her 50^th birthday. Moore’s performance is impressive, artfully charting Alice’s devastatingly rapid decline. She is such a skilled performer that a minutes-long single shot close up of the conversation with her neurologist in which he begins to suspect Alzheimer’s feels completely natural, and is utterly riveting. However, it is hard not to feel as if the film is built around that central performance, and perhaps would not be half as good without it. The cinematography serves to tell the story through Alice’s eyes, with episodes of blurred shallow focus enhancing the confusion and alienation brought on by her disease. Although the devastating impact of Alzheimer’s is clear, Alice’s life- loving family, understanding employers and the money to receive treatment and home care in America’s system- is one of such privilege that one can’t help but wonder about those affected by Alzheimer’s who fall outside of this elite socioeconomic bracket. However, the family dramas which arise both in relation to and despite her diagnosis are both engaging and relatable, and the supporting cast, in particular Kristen Stewart as Alice’s (relatively) wayward youngest daughter, help provide an arresting account of the effects of Alice’s illness.

Verdict: 4/5

Image credit: sonyclassics.com