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

Journeyman - review

Paddy Considine follows up his incredible debut feature Tyrannosaur with a film that cements his position as one of the best British writer-director-actors in the business. A true triple threat.

Born from his love of boxing, Journeyman is the story of Matty Burton, a middleweight champion who faces a brash, young upstart for the title but will find that his biggest fight will come outside the ring.

He suffers a debilitating brain injury brought on by a vicious blow to the head and is faced with the task of rebuilding his health, his life and his relationship with his wife and daughter.

Rocky III this is not.

It certainly does not fit the format of your standard boxing movie. Yes, there is the scenes of the press conference where Burton verbally spars off against "The Future" Andre Bryte, deflecting jabs left and right about how the match will be "life changing". Then there is the fight which is deliberately shot in a different style to the likes of Raging Bull and Rocky.

But following the fight, there is no "training for a rematch", there are montages but they are of Matty's rehab as he trains for one goal and one goal alone. Winning his wife back.

The heart of the film is the relationship between Matty and his wife Emma played by Jodie Whittaker.

Considine proved with Tyrannosaur that he can write and direct incredible performances for woman with Olivia Colman, and he has done it again here.

Whittaker gives an award-worthy performance here and goes toe-to-toe every step of the way as she tries to find her husband in the man who stands before her.

Their relationship takes some very difficult, shocking turns along the way and the audiences allegiances may shift between the two fighters more than a Russian crowd siding with Balboa vs Drago.

It builds towards the final rounds which features two of the most heartbreaking and moving scenes that will leave audiences in tears after delivering some devastating gut punches.

Journeyman is a real contender for the title of Best British Film of 2018 and may well be standing tall at the end of the year thanks to two genuine knockout performances.

4 stars

Locke - review

On paper, a film which just features a man on the phone in his car should not work at all. Thankfully Locke doesn't require any roadside assistance thanks to an excellent screenplay and mesmerising performance from Tom Hardy.

Ivan Locke is a building site manager who is responsible for creating structures which stand the test of time but sees his entire life collapse down around him over the course of one 85 minute car journey to London.

Tom Hardy is the only person on screen during the film and creates a fully realised character with the minimal of dialogue, backstory and a spot-on

Driving towards his final destination, Ivan tries to sort out a disintegrating relationship and career whilst safeguarding the creation of new life and a new build.

Who would have thought that having Bane trying to talk Moriarty through prepping a concrete pour would be one of the most interesting and exciting subplots of the year?

Tom Hardy never once lets his performance slip into cruise control as he subtly shifts through his emotional gears to cement his position as one of the UK's best actors.

From the off the film hits Top Gear and never lets up. This is one car journey you won't be asking "Are we there yet?".

4 stars

Cuban Fury - review

An extreme incident of bullying causes child salsa champion Bruce Garrett to pack it all in. 25 years later, a grown up, slovenly Bruce (Nick Frost) finds himself dusting off his Cuban heels in try and win the heart of his Salsa-loving boss Julia (Rashida Jones) but faces competition from office lothario Chris O'Dowd.

You can imagine this a sequel to Billy Elliot on the "what if..." he had listened to his dad and given up dancing and ended up working in a lathe manufacturing plant.

In his first real leading man role, Nick Frost goes Hot Fuzz to Hotstepper and to his credit does the majority of his fancy footwork himself and would do rather well on the next series of Strictly Come Dancing.

With many hours spent in the dance studio learning the steps, it would have been nice if as much time and effort had gone into the script as the character of Julia isn't really fleshed out beyond she's his boss, American and likes salsa. Plus there is sadly also a lack of real laughs which is surprising given Frost's involvement with most of them coming from O'Dowd doing his best 80's sleazeball douchebag impression.

There is no "Ten from Len" or even a "SEVEN!" for this comedy which has a good heart but sadly takes the odd misstep when it comes to laughs thus finding itself rather flat footed leaving us with a salsa that is sweet rather than spicy.

3 stars

Tyrannosaur - review

It would be easy at this point to pull out phrases like "hard hitting" and "a film that pull no punches" but that would be in incredibly poor taste because Tyrannosaur is a film where one of the main themes is domestic violence, so I won't.
But make no mistake, this new film by actor-turned-director Paddy Considine, can be very hard to watch, and stomach, due to some unflinching violence, both physical and verbal.

Joseph (Peter Mullan) is not a nice guy, by his own admission.  He drinks, gambles, fights and alienates everyone around him.  One day he stumbles into a charity shop run by Hannah (Olivia Colman).  She offers to pray for his soul and he writes her off as a God-loving goodie-two-shoes but Hannah is hiding a secret.  She's the victim of horrific domestic abuse from husband James (Eddie Marsan, cornering the UK market on playing absolute creeps).

Much has been made of Olivia Colman and she deserves all the praise and accolades she gets.  Primarily known for comedic work as Sophie on Peep Show, she shows a completely different side to her and delivers a completely raw and devastating performance.  One scene in particular that stands out is when James is apologising for hitting her and she is telling him she forgives him but her face is telling a different story, a mixture of hate for him and herself for allowing it to happen.
Mullan is also terrific as Joseph, a simmering volcano of rage that could erupt at anytime and on anyone whether that be his dog, a neighbour or random down the pub, and pitches it just right that he doesn't alienate the audience completely and draws them into his plight, trying to turn his life around and keep his temper at bay and Hannah may be his solution.
It seems that British actors who turn to directing are drawn to the theme of domestic violence, see Gary Oldman's Nil By Mouth, and in addition to drawing terrific performances from his actors, Considine also wrote the script (which is good except for a slightly clumsy final segment which ties up one of the plot threads) and has crafted an affecting film from grim subject matter but has injected plenty of heart and even a dash of humour that helps to alleviate the risk of the film descending into pure misery porn.
Don't be surprised to hear someone call out Paddy Considine's name when announcing the winner of the Best First Feature at next year's BAFTAs.

4 stars