Vice - Review

Adam McKay actually foreshadowed his work on Vice back in 2004 with his breakout comedy classic Anchorman. In the final moments of the film, the narrator informs the audience that Brick Tamland would go on to become one of the top political advisors... to the Bush administration.
Fast forward to 2019 and we have Steve Carell playing Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense for George W. Bush. Now that is one hell of a long game payoff for a gag.
That is just one small way of indicating to the audience that this is not going to be your standard rags-to-riches, rise and fall Oscar bait biopic (albeit one that has been nominated for 8 Oscars).
What McKay attempts instead is to try and give audiences some understanding of who Dick Cheney was as a person and the circumstances that led to him becoming, arguably, the most powerful man in the world and the puppet master behind Dubya.
This is achieved using a similar style to his Oscar-winning The Big Short, which tried to explain how the 2008 financial crisis occurred. There is narration from a third party, cutaways, flashbacks, Shakespearean soliloquies and even a wonderful premature end credit sequence where Cheney lived happily ever after and never entered politics again... before Bush calls him to be VP.
Compared to The Big Short, Vice comes up a little short in terms of the visual impact of its storytelling but what it does have is a true powerhouse of a performance from Christian Bale "channeling Satan" to become Dick Cheney.
Propped up by his devoted wife Lynne (Amy Adams), they are like a real life Frank and Claire Underwood as they plot and scheme their way to absolute power.
Bale is so good in the role that he simply disappears and becomes Cheney, and goes as far to make this reviewer doubt himself and nearly come away thinking, "well at least Cheney did have one redeeming quality, he was a devoted, loyal family man"... but then right at the end he shows his true colours!
Cheney might not have ever had the top job in US politics but there is a very good chance that Bale will take top honours on Oscar night.
Vice, like a drug, shows that power is an addiction but just like narcotics, it lures you in, gets you hooked but ultimately needing and wanting more from it.

3 stars

RSNO Sci-Fi Spectacular - Live Review

Tonight the Filibuster team from The Nerd Party were invited to the Usher Hall for the Royal Scottish National Orchestra's Sci-Fi Spectacular show celebrating some of the greatest and most iconic music cues from science fiction cinema.
For the last four years, the RSNO have performed at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, providing live scores to cinematic classics such as Back To The Future, E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, Raiders Of The Lost Ark and Jaws.
These events are always hugely popular and the Sci-Fi Spectacular was no different with a packed audience eager to hear the tunes from their favourite films and it always seems like the orchestra are having as much fun playing them as the audience do listening to them.
If you noticed a theme with the film choices for the live score events, it would be no surprise to learn that the first half of the show was dedicated to the music of John Williams and the Star Wars saga (prequels and originals).
From the Opening Titles of A New Hope (including Fox fanfare) through Across The Stars to Princess Leia's theme, Williams's contribution to the success of the saga is undeniable with the images and soundtrack unseparable in the mind.
In fact, based on tonight's concert, you would be forgiven for thinking that Williams soundtracked the entire genre as the second half also included his suites for Close Encounters Of Third Kind and E.T.
Yet other composers did make an appearance, from James Horner's work on Avatar to Michael Giacchino boldly going where one man had gone before with his rousing reinvention of the Star Trek theme to Jerry Goldsmith's work on Alien.
But there was time for the RSNO to take us back to a galaxy far, far away for an encore of the Imperial March.
Now that's value for money. A trip through the galaxy and time and space and you don't even have to leave your theatre seat.


The RSNO presents Sci-Fi Spectacular plays Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on Saturday 26th January, 3.00pm & 7.30pm. For more details visit rsno.org.uk/film. 

Listeners of The Nerd Party can get a 20% discount on tickets for the show by using the code JEDI20.

Glasgow Film Festival - Top Ten Films To See At #GFF19

This week the Glasgow Film Festival announced the full line up for this year and once again they never fail to deliver the goods.
From 20 February to 3 March, the city's 15th annual celebration of cinema will feature 337 events and screenings including 7 World premieres, 102 UK premieres and 49 Scottish premieres.

The full brochure can be viewed and downloaded here but for now, here are my top ten screenings you should grab a ticket for when they go on sale at 10.00am on Monday 28th January.
Tickets for all performances can be booked here.

Alien

Every year, GFF pull out all the stops when it comes to their Special Event screenings and 2019 is no different with 20th anniversary events for The Blair Witch Project and Fight Club but as someone called Dallas, the screening for me had to be a 40th anniversary celebration of Alien that includes a scary, interactive laser tag build up to the main event.

Dragged Across Concrete

Following on from his incredible debut Bone Tomahawk and sophomore effort Brawl On Cell Block 99, can writer-director S. Craig Zahler make it three for three with his latest film?

At the very least, this tale of two police officers' descent into the criminal underworld should continue the welcome career re-Vaughn-aissance of Vince Vaughn following his revelatory turn in Brawl with another film that is as harsh and unforgiving as the concrete surface after which it is named.

Eighth Grade

As one half of The A24 Project, it is no surprise to see this film on the list. Originally released in the US in August 2018 having made its way through the festival circuit (picking up Golden Globe and Independent Spirit Award nominations along the way), UK audiences have to wait until 26th April to see Bo Burnham's stunning coming-of-age film go up against Avengers: Endgame... unless of course you are lucky enough to catch this screening complete with Q&A with Burnham!

Fighting With My Family

When it comes to cinematic tag teams, can you think of an odder but more perfect pairing than The Most Electrifying Man In Sports Entertainment and King of the Box Office Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Stephen Merchant? IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT YOU THINK!

Produced by (and starring) The Rock, Stephen Merchant directs Florence Pugh and Jack Lowden in this comedy-drama based on the true story of how Norwich-born Saraya-Jade Bevis defied all the odds to make it to the top of the WWE as Paige, becoming a WWE Divas Champion along the way.

Mid90s

This year's Opening Gala is Jonah Hill's directorial debut and another coming-of-age story for A24, this time set in the mid 90s and revolves a 13 year old kid finding a place in the world of skateboarding and the music that defined an era.

The Sisters Brothers

The cast list alone is enough for Jacques Audiard's Western to make the list as it includes Joaquin Phoenix, John C. Reilly, Riz Ahmed and Jake Gyllenhaal.

The Surprise Film

Place your bets now. Possibilities include Serenity, Us, The Kindergarten Teacher, At Eternity's Gate, Hellboy and High Life.

Under The Silver Lake

Completing the hat trick of A24 films screening in Glasgow, David Robert Mitchell's urban noir promises to subvert the genre in the same way as he did with his horror debut It Follows.

The Vanishing

What's this? A Gerard Butler film being a must see at a festival?! No, it's not a sequel to Geostorm. Butler actually has form when it comes to homegrown filmmaking, just check out Dear Frankie. In this film, he costars with Peter Mullan as part of a trio of lighthouse keepers who are assigned to a remote island but a terrifying discovery threatens to pull the trust and friendship between the men apart.

Vox Lux

Now I was lucky enough to catch this film in New York in December but I can heartily recommend this dark cousin to A Star Is Born to anyone attending the festival. My only caveat is, don't read or watch anything about this film before seeing it. It is best experienced, like revenge, cold.

Very surprised that Natalie Portman's performance in this has not made more waves on the Awards race this year and she is fantastic.

Fyre: The Festival That Never Happened - Netflix Originals Review

If one wanted to use a film quote to aptly sum up the failure of #FyreFestival that went from the "hottest party" to an example of the perils of PR, marketing and poor event management that will be taught in schools for years to come, one need look no further than Jerry Maguire:
"I'm finished, I'm fucked. Twenty-four hours ago, man, I was hot! Now... I'm a cautionary tale. You see this jacket I'm wearing, you like it? Because I don't really need it because I'm cloaked in failure!"
In 2017, the world watched on social media as a group of privileged American "influencers" had a meltdown on Twitter and Instagram as they arrived on an island in the Bahamas for an exclusive music festival only for it to go horribly wrong and quickly turn into a "first world problems" version of Lord Of The Flies as panicked Instagrammers ran around trying to find tents to sleep in and wept about the awful state of a cheese sandwich.
This Netflix originals documentary (one of two on the festival out this month) has been developed by one of the teams who were involved in the marketing of #Fyre so they have behind the scenes footage of owners Billy McFarland and Ja Rule as they plan to put on an event to help promote their music booking app #Fyre but just seem more concerned with having a massive piss up with supermodels on a deserted island than actually planning the logistics of successfully delivering a high-end, luxury event for people paying thousands of dollars to attend.
As the film counts down to the day of the festival, the sheer level of ignorance, ineptitude and stupidity on show is staggering as the team, under the leadership of McFarland, lurch from one disaster to another. McFarland, despite being in the face of an insurmountable number of problems, just keeps moving forward. It was as if he was the captain of the Titanic who could see the "Iceberg, right ahead!" and just continued on his current course, thinking everything will be fine, even to the point he goes down with the ship.
He is the physical embodiment of the dog in the house on fire meme "This is fine" and the festival-goers are Donald Glover walking into the room on fire meme!
The film has been described as a Jaws for millennials and the description is apt because the #Fyre team (including the affable, nice Andy King who has the single most shocking anecdote you will hear this year regarding Evian water) come across like the Murray Hamilton's Amity Island beach. He knows there is a shark that could kill everyone but still lets them in the water. The #Fyre team know the festival will fail, that they don't have enough accommodation and food for everyone (not even getting to the fact the accommodation is not what was advertised) and yet they still let them come to the island!

"I'm pleased & happy to repeat the news that in spite of some rumours, we have plenty of tents & cheese sandwiches for everyone attending. It’s a beautiful day, the beaches are open and people are having a wonderful time. Fyre Festival as you know, means Friendship!"

There is an old adage in Hollywood that "you couldn't make it up" and that the truth is stranger than fiction and this is one of those stories which is so incredulous and unbelievable in how it all unfolded that you will be sitting slack-jawed and shaking your head in disbelief throughout.
It is a fascinating look at the world that we currently live in and a timely reminder of the power that social media can have over our lives and that sometimes we should take a step back and switch off every now and again to avoid getting burned.

4 stars

Mary Queen Of Scots - Review

Mary Queen of Scots got her head chopped off. *Spoiler* Only it isn't really. It is historical fact and it's the exact name of a play by Liz Lochhead so the new film by Josie Rourke is spoiling nothing by beginning the film with Mary Stuart's walk down the Green Mile to her death before jumping back in time 25 years to see the events that would lead her cousin Queen Elizabeth I to sign her death warrant.
Let's quickly address the elephant in the room shall we? No, not the fact that the Scot Mary Stuart is played by an Irishwoman and the English Queen is played by an Aussie in the greatest piece of Scottish cultural misappropriation since Highlander had a Frenchman play a Scot and the world's most famous Scot playing a Spanish-Egyptian! We're talking about the fact that despite introductory text saying that Mary moved to France as an infant, she returns to Scotland at the age of 18 with a perfect Scottish accent (well done Saiorse Ronan who puts Christopher Lambert, Mel Gibson and even Chris Pine admirable efforts to shame).
Historical inaccuracies aside, this account of Mary's rise and fall is well handled by Josie Rourke, who until this point is best known for her stage work directing for the National Theatre and the Donmar Warehouse but on this evidence will seamlessly transfer to further outings on the big screen.
In spite of what the trailers may have implied, with shots of Mary upon a noble steed riding with soldiers and talking about how "swords are not just for show", this is certainly no Braveheart or Outlaw King. The battles hear mainly take place within the walls of castles and parliament chambers as the two Queens become pawns and are maneuvered into opposition by the very knights, bishops, etc who they are meant to govern e.g David Tennant's John Knox and Guy Pearce's William Cecil.
Whilst some will claim that films like this seek to widen any discourse between England and Scotland, similar to the re-release of Braveheart just before the Indy Referendum, in fact what this film sadly highlights is the fact that even 450 years on, some men are still very uncomfortable being ruled and governed by a woman!
One need look not further than the scene where Elizabeth tells William Cecil that she has almost become a man whilst ruling as Queen, unwilling to take a husband as she believes all they will do is scheme and plot to usurp her and take her crown. The exact thing that happens to Mary with her husband Henry Darnley (played by louche, debonair swagger by the Scottish star of the moment Jack Lowden) and her court of supposedly loyal subjects.
As one would expect from a theatre director, Rourke really brings out the best from her actors allowing them to drive the drama forward and the cast is uniformly excellent but the male cast are outshone by the central pairing of Robbie and Ronan (which when written like that makes it look like the film is about a secret meeting between members of Take That and Boyzone during the Nineties).
Their (albeit perhaps fictional) face-to-face meeting is a masterclass that proves that the pen is mightier than the sword and a battle of words can make for just as thrilling a contest as an epic battle of swords and shields.
So while Mary Queen of Scots may have had her head chopped off, Mary Queen of Scots proves that Saiorse Ronan and Margot Robbie stand head and shoulders above the rest of the field proving themselves to be two of the finest actresses of their generation.

4 stars

Glass - Review

Even by Unbreakable, writer-director M. Night Shaymalan's films had become synonymous with a twist ending. In fact, The Sixth Sense arguably began the current *SPOILER WARNING* culture we have now, albeit at a time when social media was in its infancy.
However with his 13th feature film Split, he pulled off his greatest trick. Revealing at the film's conclusion that James McAvoy's Kevin Wendell Crumb existed within the Unbreakable universe and it was a secret, stealth sequel to the film setting up more possibilities than Kevin had personalities.
Unbreakable is one of the finest superhero movies (coming at a time before the genre would see its resurgence through X-Men, Spider-Man and the MCU) and the best movie *about* comic books ever made.
The prospect of seeing this expanded universe of Bruce Willis's David Dunn and Samuel L. Jackson's Elijah Price share the screen with Hedwig, Barry, Dennis, Patricia, The Beast et all is a tantalising prospect.
Therefore it would be fair to say that Glass shatters those expectations as easily as Mr. Glass's brittle bones. Shaymalan does not deliver his version of Avengers Infinity War but instead gives us a superhero version of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest as new character Dr. Ellie Staple (the always terrific Sarah Paulson) forces the captured trio to face the possibility that their superhuman powers are simply in their mind. A result of trauma coupled with an over-exposure to comic book culture which has come to oversaturate the world.
It is very pleasing to see Bruce Willis deliver his best performance in years. In fact, one could go as far to say that his last great performance was Unbreakable back in 2001 but it is good to know that he can still turn it on when he gives a damn about the project and not just in it for the paycheck.
Samuel L. Jackson is also on fine form but spends much of the first act in a rather comatose state but soon gets the opportunity to start monologuing before too long.
However the real star of the show, once again, is James McAvoy. Having spent time with the characters in the first movie, his skill and craft has been honed even more that the audience can know instantly tell which of the main characters within Kevin are emerging each time just by his body language. It is an incredible sight to behold and if the world was a just and fair place, this is the type of performance that should be considered when it comes to Awards season. No one else has done anything like what McAvoy has done with a character(s) over these two movies.
Yet the multiple/split personality is perhaps where Glass ultimately loses its superpowers as the film struggles to settle on a tone, changing almost from scene to scene as quickly as Kevin's personalities come into the light. Although titled Glass, it is very much a Split sequel and the sheer energy of McAvoy seems at odds with the quiet and stillness of the other two characters. The film's pacing is languid and more in keeping with the slow burn of Unbreakable but starts with a bang and builds to a third act "showdown" that is full of the traditional twists and turns you would expect from this filmmaker but in a way that is so bold and unexpected that it will undoubtedly Split opinions, pardon the pun.
While it might not quite shatter the glass ceiling of the perfect superhero trilogy, Glass is a fascinating and thrilling analysis of comic book culture and the way we view "heroes".

3 stars

Colette - Review

Rather surprisingly, Colette is not based on the fallout of the shocking Oscar snub of Toni Collette for Hereditary but the true story of Colette Willy, the wife of the famed French author and his muse and ghost writer who created and wrote his finest work, the Claudine novels.
Despite the fact that Colette is apparently one of France's biggest selling authors of all-time, this reviewer was shockingly ignorant of her and her story (particularly when a Wikipedia search post film revealed she wrote the novel that was turned into the Oscar winning film Gigi).
Yet that does not matter as the film does an excellent job of taking the audience through Colette's story. From timid, meek ingenue to muse and ghost writer (sometimes to the point of tortured slave labour), through her burgeoning sexual awakening to the point where she truly discovers herself and stands up to her husband demanding full credit for her work.
*Note - these are not spoilers as it is all in the trailer*
Now men taking credit for other people's work is certainly nothing new and what Colette does very well is remind us that sadly not much has really changed in the 119 years since the publication of Claudine a L'Ecole.
Yet Henry Willy, played with relish by Dominic West, is playful, charming, seductive and persuasive in his controlling ways and arguments to keep his name on the books, claiming he is a "brand" and any suggestion that he did not pen the work could be catastrophic and ruin their lifestyle which the books pay for.
He is in many ways the perfect abuser and despite his obvious charms, one hopes that Colette will find a way out from under his grip.
Knightley impresses as Colette, coming into her own just as Colette does when she experiments with her sexuality and gender role. She has always seemed more comfortable and fitting within a period setting and it is no different here, doing a fine job of reminding people of this trendsetter and inspirational role model.
Colette. The best a woman can get. Or should that be the best women can be?

3 stars