Review: The Hateful Eight

Year: 2015

Certificate: 18

Director: Quentin Tarentino

Screenwriter: Quentin Tarentino

Cast: Samuel L Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Tim Roth, Demian Bichir, Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern

Tarentino returns for his (arguably) eighth feature with a frost-bitten tale of treachery in the outback of post-civil war Wyoming. Bounty hunter John ‘the hangman’ Ruth (Kurt Russell) is on the way to deliver captive outlaw Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh) to Red Rock for the pleasure of watching her hang when the arrival of a blizzard forces his stagecoach to spend the night at Minnie’s Haberdashery en route. Cooped up together under trying circumstances, suspicions begin to run rife between the Haberdashery’s incumbents. Is Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins) really the new sheriff of Red Rock? Why is Domergue so blasé about her situation? And- since this is Minnie’s Haberdashery- just where, exactly, is Minnie?

Tarentino’s trademark fondness for loquacious exuberance shines through, and the dramatis personae is littered with raconteurs who, by and large, feel well-realised and (although they are indeed as hateful as the title suggests) are entertaining to watch. This character-based drama drives the narrative until the splashy final half when everything goes to hell in a tainted coffee tin and the bullets (and viscera) begin to fly in typically hyperbolic style. The cast go all-in, with Samuel L Jackson putting in a commanding performance as Major Marquis Warren, a Union soldier turned bounty hunter who, facing a room partially populated by ex-confederate racists, is determined to give as good as he gets. Jennifer Jason Leigh is also mesmerising as the delightfully despicable Daisy Domergue, her scenery-chewing antics contrasting well with Kurt Russel’s perennially wry John Ruth, to whom she spends most of the film handcuffed.

Although the language and violence is unarguably gratuitous and the film is perhaps a little baggy at just under 3 hours, The Hateful Eight is a surprisingly coherent and entertaining piece featuring a well-told story and exciting performances.

Verdict: 4/5

Image credit: facebook.com/thehatefuleightmovie

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