X-Men: Days Of Future Past - review

If I were to try and sum up the plot for X-Men: Days Of Future Past in one paragraph, I might say that Wolverine is sent back in time to persuade Charles Xavier and Magneto to come together to stop Mystique killing Bolivar Trask which prompts the creation of the Sentinel program which ultimately wipes out mutant kind in the future.

Follow that? No? Doesn't matter. You could try watching all the X-Men films, including the Wolverine ones, and all the end credits stings to re-familiarise yourself with the storyline and characters but it might just end up creating more questions than answers.

An action-packed opening sequence in the future which introduces us to some new and familiar faces under attack from sentinels poses such nerdy questions like "How has Wolverine got his adamantium claws back?", "How the hell is Professor X alive and looking like himself?", "Kitty Pryde has always been able to walk through walls but how can she now send people back through time?".

But before we are given time to think too hard about these questions, Bryan Singer quickly sends Wolverine back through time and presents the audience with a shot of Hugh Jackman's naked arse in order to distract us.

As much as this is the X-Men version of The Terminator storyline where someone is sent back in them to prevent the creation of robotic creatures that will wipe out an entire race, it is also paralleled with Singer's return.

Having left the franchise after X2 in order to make Superman Returns, he returns to a storyline where he uses the characters developed in First Class to retcon the universe to alter events that he wasn't happy with in X3: The Last Stand which mishandled The Dark Phoenix saga among other things, effectively giving him a clean slate to work with in the future in The Age Of Apocalypse (which I can't help but sing to the tune of Age of Aquarius).

But you can't make people excited for the future unless they enjoy the current film (take note makers of Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice).

Luckily this instalment is the most enjoyable since X2 from the opening attack which highlights the future sentinels and new mutants including Blink whose power of creating temporary portals is used to terrific visual effect or the sequence where Quicksilver infiltrates the Pentagon to break out Magneto with the best use of bullet-time since The Matrix.

Despite switching between the two time frames and featuring as many characters as you would find in a tweet, the main focus of the plot is the younger versions of Charles and Eric, who are further at odds than when we last saw them in First Class.

James McAvoy really gets to stretch his acting legs (pun intended) with the biggest character arc, starting as a drunk, disillusioned man who has given up his powers in exchange for the use of his legs (again not fully explained), completely uninterested in Wolverine's "future-shite" but must grow into the man who eventually becomes Patrick Stewart's calm, noble Professor X (with whom he shares a geek-tastic time-bending head-to-head).

The all-action climax helps to start reassembling the jigsaw pieces together to head towards the world already established in X-Men and X2 and it will be interesting to see if the next instalments feature the younger or older X-Men as this almost feels like a passing of the torch between casts.

An X-Cellent ensemble that successfully mutates between post-apocalyptic Sci-Fi and funky seventies blockbuster with the overall result being a bright future for the franchise.

If it was sitting an X-am, this would get a Days Of Future Pass.

4 stars

Frank - review

Let's be frank. This is not the Frank Sidebottom story.

Based on Jon Ronson's time spent as the keyboard player for Frank Sidebottom, this is a scathing satirical look at the music industry as seen through the eyes of Jon Burroughs who joins the band Soronpfrbs with enigmatic frontman Frank and a keyboard player problem as big as Spinal Tap's drummer crisis.

It ask questions about creative integrity versus commercial popularity, the role that social media has to play in generating success, the point between genius and madness and, of course, about masks.

I know "everybody wears a mask" but that is more metaphorical. Frank literally wears a mask and never takes it off, not even in the shower.

Given the cult of celebrity these days and programs like X Factor where we know every single detail about the acts before they've even sung a note, is it important for a band to keep an air of mystique in this fickle business.

It is the mystery of the man behind the mask that draws Jon (Domhnall Gleeson) into his world, along with those who find out about the band through Jon's social media posts.

When the band get a high-profile gig at SXSW, the cracks begin to show as the struggle between remaining true to what they are and becoming "likeable" threatens to fracture the band and Frank's mental state.

Fassbender manages to create a character that will make you laugh and cry without ever seeing his face, although he occasionally informs us of his emotions e.g. "Non-threatening grin".

Much like the esoteric sound that the eponymous Frank and his band are trying to make, there will be some people who find something special within this film and there will be others, like me, where the music falls on deaf ears.

Frankly my dear, I didn't give a damn.

2 stars

12 Years A Slave - review

Steve McQueen has never been afraid of making films about difficult subjects, such as the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike in Hunger or sex addiction in Shame.

Here he tackles the true story of Solomon Northup, a free black man who was separated from his family, kidnapped and sold into slavery. He is forced to suffer all manner of cruelty and indignities, all the while clinging to the hope that freedom will be regained.

Django Unchained this is not. There is no light relief, no moments of respite from the bleakness of the situation. The only exploitation here is that of the African-Americans like Northup.

Slavery is an ugly part of history, one that people would like to forget but this film makes the audience confront it head on.

Sean Bobbit's camera is unflinching. Where the instinct is to turn away from a brutal flogging, our view is focused on the flesh being torn from the back of a slave. As Northup is hung by a tree, toes barely touching the ground, gasping for breath, the camera remains fixed on him as life on the plantation goes on as normal.

Yet the cold gaze of commitment to the truth comes at a cost.

There is a sense of distance and detachment from the central character. The audience witnesses Solomon's struggle, yet never really learn too much about him.
Given the advice "to say and do as little as possible", Ejiofor's Northup is a masterclass in restraint and subtlety. The only times the anger and injustice felt inside manifest results in violence, sadly normally to himself or other slaves.
Keeping it all bottled up throughout the film, allows for the heartfelt emotional payoff at the end of the film when "freedom is opportune".

Due to his quiet nature Ejiofor is at times overshadowed, presumably intentionally, by the his owners/abusers.

Fassbender's Edwin Epps is a drunk, abusive, bible-ranting cotton farmer. He could easily have been the Calvin Candie of the film but fills his character with an air of self-loathing, a conflicting tenderness towards favoured slave Patsey that turns him away from the cartoonish to the chillingly real.

It could be argued that his malicious wife (played by Sarah Paulson), overseer Tibaults (Paul Dano) and Giamatti's slave trader are even more repellent.
Benedict Cumberbatch is Northup's first owner, showing him kindness and respect, but is just as guilty as the rest for taking part in the trade.

Guilt is one of the many feelings that will be felt during the film, along with horror, disgust, etc. Not an easy film to watch, 12 Years A Slave is an extremely important and powerful piece of filmmaking that is easy to admire, impossible to ignore but ultimately difficult to love.

4 stars

Shame - review

Brandon is a handsome thirtysomething working in New York in an unspecified job with a fancy apartment.  On the outside it seems he has everything, but in fact it is all a mask that he projects to cover up some deep seeded issues.

From that brief description you could say that Brandon has a lot in common with another cinematic/literary character... Patrick Bateman.
In American Psycho, Bateman mask of sanity covered up psychotic tendencies and the film/book was a vicious attack on the materialism of the Eighties.
Shame's protaganist Brandon's obsession though isn't murder but sex.  Which if recent reports and television shows are to be believed is becoming an increasingly common, serious and relevant addiction.
Whether it is hiring escorts, a one night stand, online sex forums, magazines, dvds or downloading gigabytes of pornography onto his office computer or masturbating in the shower, Brandon does everything to keep his sexual urges at bay. 
However the carefully constructed wall he has built up to shield himself from any form of outside connection comes tumbling down with the unexpected arrival of his sister Sissy, who has her own set of problems.
Steve McQueen (not that one) has crafted a truly haunting piece of cinema that holds a mirror up to Brandon (and in some respects the audience).  It is an incredibly beautiful film to look at, (his shot construction and framing is impeccable, whether it is a tracking shot following Brandon jogging along 31st Street or an unmoving camera capturing an argument that suddenly exposes a tear on Sissy's face), but there is also a coldness and detachment to it that never allows the sexual imagery to become erotic or titillating.  It provides us with no feeling of joy in the same way that Brandon can never achieve, no matter how hard and consistently he tries.

Fassbender bares all as Brandon (both metaphorically and literally) and it would be fair to say that from the evidence of the opening scene, Michael certainly has nothing to be, ahem, ashamed of.  He plays it very internalised to begin with, as Christopher Walken says in True Romance "a game of show and tell.  You don't want to show me nothing but you're telling me everything", but as cracks appear in his mask we get a tear here, a violent outburst there, until his whole world unravels during a flashback sequence over the night's events.
Sure it might not have those grand-standing, scenery chewing moments that Oscar loves so much but it is certainly the most compelling, bravest performance of the year.

Fassbender's acting is elevated by having the sublime Carey Mulligan to bounce off.  I think it is fair to say that when we are first introduced to Sissy, Carey has come a long way from Sally Sparrow in Blink (still my all time favourite Doctor Who episode).  From their initial encounter when Brandon finds Sissy in his apartment, it is clear this is not your normal brother/sister relationship.  There is a troubled history between them but McQueen and screenwriter Abi Morgan wisely leave the details up to the audience's imagination.
Like recent sports dramas The Fighter and Warrior, Shame manages to transcend its genre origins to become more than just "the sex addiction movie" by having a gripping family drama at its core.
Sissy is the yin to Brandon's yang (and the win to his wang).  Where Brandon is a very internal person, Sissy wears her emotions on her sleeve.  She is a poster girl for the neurotic, needy and vunerable, perfectly illustrated by her long haunting rendition of New York, New York in a trendy bar.
At one point Brandon attempts to have a normal relationship with a woman at his work but via an uncomfortable dinner date and hotel tryst, it is doomed to fail.  Brandon's redemption however may in fact lie in repairing his relationship with Sissy, but is he too far down the path to self destruction?
Shame is not a film that seeks to provide the audience with any easy answers.  It is a challenging, thought provoking and stunning piece of cinema that will haunt you for days and will require multiple orgasms viewings, and there is certainly no shame in that!
5 stars

Move over Gosling, Fassbender and Hardy...

There is a new heartthrob in town!

 

"F*ck!  Seriously?!  It's like you're photoshopped"

REVIEW: X-Men: First Class - Vaughn gives this franchise a reboot up the arse.

Ah, what a difference a couple of months can make.  It was only back in March that people (The Incredible Suit included) were despairing over the terrible marketing campaign Fox were putting out for X-Men: First Class.  Could it be that an insanely tight production schedule had resulted in a turkey of mutant proportions?
Fast forward to the end of May and First Class debuts to a 98% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and critics hailing it as the best comic book movie since The Dark Knight.
So what's the truth?  While it is certainly not as good as The Dark Knight, it is closer to Batman Begins than Batman & Robin.
A lot of the reviews so far have made comparisons to Christopher Nolan's reboot of the Batman franchise and a lot of them are justified.  Both Tim Burton's Batman and Bryan Singer's X-Men started with the heroes already existing in society.  Nolan went back to the beginning to look at what makes a man dress up as a bat to fight crime, and Vaughn looks at the formation of the X-Men (the recruitment montage features one of the best ever cameos and uses of the F-bomb) and the pivotal moment that turned friends Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnser into the enemies they were are the start of the first film.

"I loved you in Band Of Brothers", "I was going to say the same thing!"

Matthew Vaughn is really coming into his own as a director and delivers a summer blockbuster that nearly manages to break out of the comic book genre and become just a really great movie.  The period setting allows for Vaughn to fulfill his Bond fantasies (to the extent that the villain has a secret submarine in his yacht).  Kick-Ass proved he could do action but he manages to create a fun, action-packed summer blockbuster that never has to sacrifice story or character development. 
He has an impressive ensemble cast that help provide a lot more threads in the Six Degrees Of Kevin Bacon game but top marks however must go to the James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jennifer Lawrence.  Despite the iconic performances of Stewart and McKellen, their younger counterparts quickly make the parts their own.  McAvoy has an impish charm to him, using his power to get girls until fate shows him that he is destined to use this power for a greater purpose, and Fassbender has the steely eyed look of a man who could be the next James Bond, and in this film he becomes a bona fide star.
There is a moment in the film where Xavier helps Magneto achieve the full extent of his powers and the look on Fassbender's face played out with Henry Jackman's music underneath is a truly touching moment which cements their friendship which makes the tragic turn events take all the more sad.
Jennifer Lawrence also makes the most of a terrific story arc that focuses on what has always been at the heart and soul of the X-Men stories: the struggle and fight for acceptance in a world that fears what is different.
First Class is not a perfect film.  Due to the rushed production schedule (it was rewritten, filmed, edited and post production all within a year), unfortunately there are some niggling issues like dodgy CGI, Beast's make-up, missing love story lot between Charles and Moira, a couple of underwritten minor characters, and Fassbender's accent going rather Oirish at times.  But I think that if Vaughn had had a little more time to polish rounds the edges then this could have been a five star film... but unless he gets the chance to tinker with it before the DVD release then he'll have to make do with a rating of 4.5 stars.

4.5 stars