Review: Les Combattants

Released: 19^th June

Certificate: 15

Director: Thomas Cailley

Screenwriter: Thomas Cailley, Claude Le Pape

Cast: Adèle Haenel, Kévin Azaïs, Antoine Laurent, William Lebghil, Thibaut Berducat, Nicolas Wanczycki

In his debut feature director Thomas Cailley delivers a fresh, funny and poignant take on post-adolescent romance. Amiable but aimless, Arnaud (Kévin Azaïs) is contemplating joining the family’s timber business after the unexpected death of his father. However, he is knocked out of his summer reverie by a chance meeting with the fierce-tempered and survival skill-obsessed Madeleine (Adèle Haenel). Drawn to her sense of purpose, he follows her into a two-week boot camp for paratrooper hopefuls. But when the course turns out to be quite different from what either of them was expecting, they form a strong bond.

Anchored by a sharp script, Les Combattants is truly brought to life by the performances of its two leads, in particular Haenel as Madeleine. She perfectly embodies the character’s sense of extreme frustration with the world and everyone in it and her inner turmoil when her disappointment with the army (in one scene she is tartly told “this isn’t about survival, it’s about duty”) and her growing feelings for Arnaud begin to destabilize her single-minded focus on preparing for survival in the –to her mind- imminent collapse of civilisation.

This quest for purpose (or the desire to be free from the obligation it implies) is a running theme throughout the film, from Arnaud’s reluctance to contemplate his future, to his friend Xavier’s need to move abroad ‘(France is dead’), to his brother’s quest to keep the family business going, to Madeleine’s survival obsession. While this sounds a bit introspective, the wry humour with which these issues are expressed and addressed prevents the whole thing from becoming an exercise in navel-gazing. If anything, Cailley appears to be poking gentle fun at the existential angst of his contemporaries, the so-called millennial generation. The comedy is understated- found mainly in significant glances and a gentle situational absurdity- and the camera cleaves close to the actors’ faces to allow those looks to land.

This understanding of the intrinsic ridiculousness of life and well-drawn central relationship makes up for the occasional plot contrivance and the lightly-sketched supporting characters. A late-stage shift in tone brings a sense of gravity to the proceedings, underscoring the sympathy that Cailley feels for his characters, for all he likes to make fun of them, and the moments of genuine jeopardy underscore just how far Arnaud and Madeline have managed to get under each other’s (not to mention the audience’s) skin.

Verdict: 4/5

Image credit: allocine.fr

Review: Spy

Released: 5^th June

Certificate: 15

Director: Paul Feig

Screenwriter: Paul Feig

Cast: Melissa McCarthy, Rose Byrne, Jason Statham, Miranda Hart, Jude Law, Peter Serafinowicz

The latest from Paul Feig (Bridesmaids, The Heat), stars Melissa McCarthy as Susan Cooper, a brilliant CIA analyst who guides the every move of suave field agent Bradley Fine (Jude Law) through his earpiece. When criminal mastermind Rayna Boyanov (Rose Byrne) captures Fine while he’s out hunting a stolen nuclear bomb, and reveals that the identities of all active CIA field agents have been compromised, Susan convinces the top brass to send her out on a recon mission.

After playing second fiddle in hits for years, it’s a delight to see McCarthy in a centre-stage role with a satisfying character arc to get her teeth into. Watching Cooper go from retiring Midwestern modesty (baking cakes for colleagues’ birthdays while quietly pining after Fine) to growing confidence to all-out badassery is an absolute thrill. McCarthy is one of those comic actors who make humour look effortless, and the camera gives her space to mine every scene for its full comic potential. Supporting comedy stalwarts Byrne, Miranda Hart as office chum Nancy, and Peter Serafinowicz as amorous Italian agent Aldo all provide solid support, either as foils or co-conspirators. Jason Statham is an unexpected hit, lampooning his hard-man persona as gravel voiced agent Rick Ford, who can’t quite stomach being placed on the bench while rookie Cooper goes into the field. Unfortunately, although Jude Law has many strings to his bow, comedy isn’t particularly one of them, and encumbered by a bizarre American accent (presumably the producers realised that the CIA was becoming overrun with Brits) he fails to shine in this role, leading to a slightly unimpressive opening few scenes.

Although consistently funny (particularly for lovers of slapstick and expletive-laden badinage), Spy’s humour is by and large rather broad, meaning it never quite matches Bridesmaids for acerbic rigour. However, it also places less reliance on pathos and is therefore by some accounts a lot more fun, although those who admired Feig for his hard edge may be disappointed here. This aside, as far as the Hollywood knockabout comedy canon goes it is gratifying to see a film in which a fat, female lead character is shown to be intelligent, competent and physically capable (not to mention desirable), and where the humour never sinks to cheap gags about weight. Unfortunately this achievement is undermined by a repetitive sexual harassment joke which feels a bit old-fashioned (although is almost worth it for Cooper’s incredulous response: “was Pepé le Pew not available!?”). Despite these reservations, Spy quickly recovers from its slightly slow start to deliver a fast-paced and funny two hours with laughs aplenty and some thrilling (and well choreographed) action set-pieces.

Verdict: 4/5

Image credit: foxmovies.com/movies/spy

Review: A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night

Released: 22^nd May

Certificate: 15

Director: Ana Lily Amirpour

Screenwriter: Ana Lily Amirpour

Cast: Sheila Vand, Arash Marandi, Mozhan Marnò, Marshall Manesh, Dominic Rains, Rome Shadanloo

A chador-clad vampire (Sheila Vand) stalks the streets of an Iranian frontier town populated by pimps, princesses and prostitutes, dealing out rough justice and slow dancing to songs by Farah and White Lies. Welcome to Bad City, the fictional town at the centre of Ana Lily Amirpour’s Eastern-inflected Western A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night. Shot in black and white and performed in Farsi by actors from the Iranian-American diaspora, Amirpour’s debut feature is a lithe, sinuous fever-dream of a film, punctuated by vampiric violence and underscored by a pin-drop soundtrack which is both apposite and invigorating.

Arash (Arash Marandi) is a young man struggling to get by despite the debts incurred by his father Hossein (Marshall Manesh), whose appetite for heroin and women have him owing a large amount of money to sadistic Saeed (Dominic Rains), a pimp-cum-drug dealer who routinely deprives Atti (Mozhan Marnò) of her cut of the profits from her work. In the opening scene, the camera follows Arash (iconic in a tight white t-shirt and aviator sunglasses) as he carries a stolen cat (credited as Masuka) through the arid streets and finally over a bridge, panning back to reveal the corpses littering the desiccated riverbed below. Hence Bad City earns its name and a sense of oppression settles over the piercingly bright streets. Lyle Vincent’s cinematography – all negative space and rack focus- captures the story with a choreographic precision, the largely static shots giving the cast space to emote around the sparse script.

Although this sparsity renders it largely a ‘mood piece’, the strength of the cast give A Girl… an appeal beyond its aesthetic sensibilities. Sheila Vand’s uncanny ability to communicate the reticent Girl’s internal dialogue brings (ironically enough) humanity to the inscrutable vampire, while Arash Marandi can play both cool and goofy (during his initial encounter with the Girl he is lost, high, and staring with moth-like wonder at a streetlamp) with equally convincing results. Rains’ turn as Saeed is magnetically repulsive and Mozhan Marnò brings a quiet dignity to the put-upon Atti. A few of the characters do fall by the wayside over the course of the narrative: Arash’s theft of Shaydah’s (Rome Shandaloo) earrings to pay his father’s debt never comes back to haunt him, and the balloon dance of the Rockabilly (Reza Sixo Safai), while mesmerising, is an odd digression unattached to the main action. However, an argument could be made that as dancing figures so centrally in the film- the Girl alone in her apartment, Saeed’s gyrations during his ill-fated attempt at seduction, and Atti’s dance for Hossein- the Rockabilly’s place in the wider symbolism justifies his presence. Speaking of symbolism, several scenes are all but stolen by the otherworldly gaze of Matsuka the cat, who perhaps is a cipher for the Girl’s preternatural awareness of the goings on in Bad City; its wide eyes mirror her own, and people unkind to Matsuka don’t seem to last long thereafter.

Composed of striking images and forceful performances, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is mesmerising, stylish, and feline in its grace.

Verdict: 4/5

Image credit: facebook.com/AGirlWalksHomeAloneAtNight