The Favourite - Review

Similar to the main characters jostling for the affections of the Queen, The Favourite is currently living up to its title as one of the favourites for this season's Oscar race but one expects it will not have to lower itself to such underhanded tactics as Sarah and Abigail resort in order to curry favour with the voters.
Director Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster, Killing Of A Sacred Deer) brings his trademark sense of humour which is blacker than the Black Death to this acerbic retelling of this historical menage a trois.
The way that Abigail (Emma Stone) and Sarah (Rachel Weisz) scheme and play each other off Queen Anne in a continual battle for her affections, position and power makes it feel akin to the classic All About Eve. If the film had been about another famous Anne, it could have been called All About Cleves.
Queen Anne has a collection of bunnies named after her lost children and the metaphor runs deep as Anne herself at times feels like a frightened rabbit at the mercy of two cunning foxes stalking their prey, albeit too obsessed with fighting each other to truly go in for the kill.
The scenes between Stone and Weisz are electric. Trading witticisms, backhanded compliments and insults as barbed as Negan's baseball bat Lucille from the Walking Dead, and twice as dangerous.
Colman excels as the Queen who is portrayed in public as weak, stupid and cuckolded by Sarah but as the film progresses, questions are raised as to who is really playing who? This leads to an incendiary fallout in the conclusion and an audacious final shot from Lanthimos.
All three women will almost certainly be nominated for awards but it seems a disservice to have them face off against each other (ironically). They are equally great and arguably all leads in a film that aces the Bechdel test to the point the audience forgets that there are actually male characters as well (something the women seem as disinterested in at times). Of these, Nicolas Hoult is the standout as Harley, a man who has schemes of his own afoot.
A period piece as sumptuous to look at and full of romance as a Jane Austen novel but with a cut-throat sense and sensibility more often seen in Game of Thrones.

4 stars

La La Land - Review

"City of Stars, are you shining just for me? City of Stars, you never shined so brightly"

The bright lights of Hollywood draw in and seduce many a dreamer, like moths to a flame, but do their dreams come true and end up with their name in lights or do they go down in flames?

Films set in the City of Stars can go either way. The Neon Demon and Mulholland Drive show the dark side of what can happen to innocent souls in pursuit of fame and fortune but La La Land, from the outset anyway with a glorious opening number Another Day Of Sun set in a traffic jam, certainly feels like it is full of rays of sunshine, hope and optimism.

This is the L.A. from the movies where anything is possible if you believe you can make it.

Of course, we've all know that isn't strictly true and our main characters Mia, a barista and aspiring actress, and Seb, a jazz pianist who wants to open his own club, both have their own dreams and the film follows them as they face obstacles to their goals and the prospect that what they have been seeking all this time might not be success but actually each other.

If Hollywood still operates under the Studio System, Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone would be permanently paired together for the rest of time. The chemistry that was first showcased in Crazy, Stupid Love is off the charts here and is one of the major reasons that the film works so well.

Another reason it works is that it is not beholden to the pitfalls of a stage-to-screen adaptation. Sometimes musicals when they transfer from stage to screen (Chicago, The Producers) struggle to escape the feeling that you are just watching a show. La La Land follows in the footsteps of modern musicals such as Moulin Rouge, South Park: Bigger, Longer Uncut (yes, it is a musical and a damn good one at that!) and has a natural ebb and flow as it follows the central relationship through the seasons.

There were sequences in the film that caused a smile to break out across my face from ear to ear and fill me with a joy I haven't felt in a cinema screen since the final tap dance number in The Artist. And like that film, expect to hear "And the Oscar goes to... for La La Land" quite a lot as Hollywood loves nothing more than a film that celebrates the industry.

There are references to an entire library of cinematic classics; including Singin' In The Rain, Vertigo, Rebel Without A Cause and Casablanca. Like these films, La La Land remembers that the purpose of cinema is to provide an escape from everyday life, to transport you to another place and time and it certainly does that.

City Of Stars might be gaining all the attention but it was the song Audition (The Fools Who Dream), which reminds me of The Rainbow Connection, I was transported back to Studio 54 watching Emma Stone perform in Cabaret, where she first proved that she could hold a tune. Gosling equips himself well too and while not quite Fred and Ginger, they are the modern day Fred and a Ginger.

To quote an internet meme, find someone who looks at you the way critics look at Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone look at each other on screen.

5 stars

Birdman - review

Much of the marketing of Birdman has focused on the meta-casting of Batman Michael Keaton in the role of Riggan Thomson, a washed up actor most famous for playing a superhero called Birdman, who attempts a comeback by writing, directing and starring in a Broadway adaptation of a Raymond Carver short story.

Yes, there is a critique of the current superhero boom (when needing a replacement for an actor, Riggan lists off a few names but is told they are all busy filming comic book movies) but in fact it is a much darker look at the current trend of Hollywood actors, or as one critic derisory calls them "celebrities", trying to legitimise their careers by having a crack at theatre on Broadway or the West End.

Currently finishing up runs on Broadway are Bradley Cooper (Rocket Raccoon) and Birdman co-star Emma Stone (Gwen Stacy) and the last couple of years in London has seen the likes of James McAvoy (Charles Xavier) and Tom Hiddleston (Loki) tread the boards when they are not part of the Marvel Universe.

A star name can help boost ticket sales and generate publicity for a show but it can come at a cost and that can be the feeling of resentment from old school thespians and theatre audiences who are unwilling to accept the baggage that can come with that type of celebrity and it is something that the film addresses head on as Riggan starts to unravel as he heads towards opening night.

Having put everything he has on the line to put on the show, the pressure builds and not only is he put under pressure by his obnoxious, pretentious co-star Mike Shiner (a hilariously pompous Edward Norton), his former-junkie daughter who he is trying to reconnect with (Emma Stone) and the voice in his head... Birdman (Keaton's own voice played with a Christian Bale's gravely growl).

Oscar nominations could be in store for Keaton's regenerative performance as well as Norton's (literally) scene-stealing turn but if there is one guaranteed Oscar destined to come Birdman's way it will be award to cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki (which would be a back-to-back win after Gravity).

When you become aware of the cinematography and editing and start wondering just how they did it, it can sometimes take you out of the film but what is amazing about following Chris Haarhoff's steadicam around the backstage corridors of the St. James Theatre in one seemingly continuous take is that it gives this sense of immediacy and realism that instead creates the feeling that you are watching a play (within a play/film).

And in a film featuring one "single" extended shot, it is the final shot that will leave audiences filled with that genuine sense of wonder because they have indeed witnessed something super.

There is a saying in the entertainment world - "Theatre is life, film is art and television is furniture" and Birdman beautifully blurs the lines between life and art, cinema and the theatre, creating an experience that truly soars.

5 stars

Magic In The Moonlight - review

A magic trick instantly loses its appeal when you can work out how it's done but it should entrance you and dazzle you so much that you aren't paying attention enough to notice.

Unfortunately the central casting of Colin Firth, as an incredibly obnoxious and unlikeable magician, and Emma Stone, a vapid medium who has less character than the sprits she claims to speak with, fails to create that magic resulting in very little chemistry (not helped that he is old enough to be her father).

Any potential love for this new slice of Woody Allen fades quicker than a non-existent spirit returning to the other side.

2 stars

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 - review

While the plot of The Amazing Spider-Man felt like an unnecessary retread of the Spider-Man saga with extra subplot about Peter's parents which was introduced then inexplicably forgotten, where it did improve on the original Raimi trilogy was in the casting of its two leads.

Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone are more natural and likeable fits for Peter Parker and canon first love Gwen Stacy and with their on-screen chemistry it's easy to see why it transferred off-screen.

Garfield grows into the role and really becomes the wise-cracking webslinging crime fighter from the comics and Stone makes Gwen one of the most independent and non-damsel-in-distress female characters in comic book movies (the complete opposite of Dunst's insipid Mary Jane).

The rule of superhero movies is that the sequel is better and the third instalment is not as good but this film lies somewhere between Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man 3.

It builds on the complex relationship between Peter and Gwen as he struggles with his responsibilities as New York's newest hero and his promise to Gwen's deceased father Captain Stacy but rushes the move to build up its extended universe as too many undercooked villains spoil the broth.

Dane DeHaan is excellent as Harry Osborn but his issues with his father and descent into madness feel rushed in the third act and would have worked if explored over two films.

Jamie Foxx's Electro follows in the long line of Spider-Man villains who are misunderstood scientists who become evil following a tragic accident and become a poor man's Dr. Manhattan.

Also can anyone explain why Martin Csokas was allowed to play his doctor character like he was appearing in Batman & Robin? It was completely out of place.

After a strong start with some fantastic webslinging sequences (that make good use of the 3D), the final action set pieces feel too CGI heavy and have a video game feel to them.

But the main draw of the film remains the central relationship of Peter and Gwen (even if some of the time Peter can come across as a stalker) and it helps build towards the climax of the film which plays out very similarly to one of the most famous story arcs and it is admirable that they follow it through to its moving conclusion and poses interesting questions for the next instalment.

It is not perfect but it spins enough of a web to keep me hooked for the The Amazing Spider-Man 3 because with the characters and storylines potentially on the way, lets face it Tiger, they might just hit the jackpot.

3 stars

The Help - review

I'm sure I have heard and read about several actresses complaining that there are "no good roles for actresses these days", that is either the romantic lead or the frumpy best friend, and sometimes the two are not mutually exclusive.

But after seeing The Help, I can conclude that these actresses must not have read the script for it, auditioned for it, or seen the finished product, as there at least 8 well written and strong female characters in it.
It is the estrogenic counterpoint to Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, which was criticised in some quarters for not having many female characters in it (the same now goes for Tintin too), as The Help features only a handful of male roles in it.  Somewhat ironically then, you could argue that the biggest role, a love interest for Emma Stone's character, feels tacked on and unnecessary and if cut out, could have improved the film if not just the overlong running time.
Some people out there will be quick to label this tale of a young white woman interviewing black maids in the Deep South of the USA for a tell-all expose during the early sixties as "an issue movie" and move on.  Yes, it deals with the touchy subject of Civil Rights, but this is certainly not Crash.  That Oscar winning yet incredibly overrated film repeatedly used a sledgehammer to reinforce its point that "Everybody is a little bit racist" over the course of two hours when Avenue Q did it in less than four minutes.
The Help was not actually based on a true story, as I initially though, but it does have an authenticity to it and yet it is hard to believe the attitudes and behaviour of some people back then.  The ignorant racism that was rampant back then is still shocking (although due to the 12A rating it shies away from the more physical brutality that many face) and is given a face in the form of Hilly Holbrook (played with relish by Bryce Dallas Howard).  She is like a Stepford Wife programmed by the KKK.
The film is smart enough not to become too preachy and presents a balanced side to the argument, so we get supportive white characters like Skeeter Phelan, played by Emma Stone (my infatuation with Miss Stone continues to grow, almost to the point where I might make a YouTube video confessing my love for her) and white trash Celia Foote (the omnipotent Jessica Chest-ain, who has some excellent underwire work in this movie), and during the maids' testemonials they tell nice stories as well as bad.
Like TTSS, The Help features one of the best ensemble casts this year, full of excellent performances from the likes of Stone, Howard, Chastain, Allison Janney and Octavia Spencer but if you want to place a bet come Oscar season, I would say the smart money will be on Viola Davis to feature highly on many people's voting slips.  Her Oscar clip will undoubtably be the scene where she recounts the day her son died.  Very moving and is a pivotal moment in the story.
The tagline for the film is "Change begins with a whisper", but I'm shouting it loud so all can hear... get yourself some Help and get down to the cinema to see one of the best films of the year!

4 stars