Reviews: Under The Skin/The Zero Theorem

(Once again, in order of reccomendation)

The Zero Theorem (15/TBC) (***)

We venture once more into that incredibly unique mind of Terry Gilliam as we see the story of Qohen Leth (Christoph Waltz), a terminally-ill man in search of, at the request of his superiors, Proof that life is completely meaningless. Waltz, as usual, does a good job but his often manic performance clashes with his more sedate style which is shown in his best work. The film is unmistakably a Gilliam creation, even to a fault, with the film drifting perilously close in theme and style to Brazil (1985), Gilliam's undisputed master-work (at least outside of Monty Python). 

The film's alarmingly ambitious concept and the (at least slightly intentional) kitsch aesthetic may draw people away from the film and so I doubt this film will subvert Gilliam's history of good reviews but disastrous financial results but whilst the film offers nothing particularly  new, it has some interesting ideas.

Under The Skin (15/R) (***)

Lying somewhere between art cinema, sci-fi and horror, Under The Skin is the tale of an alien life form on Earth that seduces and ensnares victims in a thick black ooze. There are obvious stylistic comparisons to various other films, Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and The Shining (1980) are clear influences with the often stunning visuals and the film does bare some thematic comparisons with The Man Who Fell To Earth (1976), although swapping some of the mania of the older David Bowie vehicle for some truly gripping and sinister atmosphere.

 It does suffer from being ponderous and doubtlessly alienating whilst more could've been made of lead, Scarlett Johannson, but she does boast a surprisingly convincing accent. Sure to divide opinions and will simply be too strange for a lot of people, you have to check this film out to really get a thorough idea of the dark mystery in store.

Reviews (Friday 7th of March - Friday 14th of March) Best To Worst

Owing to a busy schedule. I'm probably going to be publishing a number of smaller reviews together, probably on a weekly basis for the time being. The reviews are in order of star rating and recommendation. Here's the first batch.

The Grand Budapest Hotel (15/R) (****)

Gloriously madcap comedy from cinema's king of quirk, Wes Anderson. Ralph Fiennes shows a rarely-exhibited comic talent as camp womaniser, Gustav Hand the film has an absolutely charming aesthetic and sense of comic timing, even if the film is slow to start.

 

Les S*laudes (B*stards) (18/TBC) (**)

Euro-thriller tries to be edgy and mysterious but instead provides an nearly-impenetrable first half with and never fully makes up for it later on. Two plots (one detailing an adulterous affair, the other the disappearance of a sexual torture victim) that would both make good movies but meshed together, neither is explored to their fullest.

Need For Speed (12a/PG-13) (**)

Whilst movies about video games are often good (Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (2010), Wreck-It Ralph (2012)) adaptations of specific games to the big screen has met with a more negative response (oh, way too many to count). The world has yet to find a truly popular adaptation (arguably the Resident Evil franchise has come closest) and will have to keep on looking beyond Need For Speed.

The film starts strong with a blistering race sequence and if the film was satisfied with dumb action for 90 minutes, it would be fine. Instead, the film limply drags around a cliched plot as if by obligation and pushing way beyond an appropriate run-time. Even Michael Keaton doesn't come out of this wreck unscathed.

300: Rise Of An Empire (15/R) (**)

No way was this cash-cow franchise going to lie still after 300 stormed theatres in 2006 and what we get is not really an improvement, but not a disappointment either. Instead we get a similarly dopy dose of style over substance where historical accuracy means little and character development means even less. CGI blood, annoying as ever, flies at the screen in an almost fetishistic way (although the film is not quite a thorough gore-fest) and lead Sullivan Stapleton stands around looking imposing and seemingly not putting in much acting effort beyond that. At least Gerard Butler had some bravado. Eva Green is perhaps the best thing about this movie and she has to slog through what will probably be the most awkward scene of "passion" in her whole career.

The film does side-step some of the more...uncomfortable political overtones of the first film, and if this is your thing, fine. It simply isn't mine.

Non-Stop (2014, Dir. Jaum Collet-Serra, UK/France/USA) (Cert: 12a/PG-13) ***

Starring: Liam Neeson, Julianne Moore, Michelle Dockery

An alcoholic with a hatred of flying, Air Marshall Bill Marks (Neeson) is nonetheless called upon by his superiors to board a non-stop trans-Atlantic flight from New York to London. At first everything seems routine, until Marks receives messages from elsewhere in the plane, demanding money or a passenger will die every twenty minutes.

Airplanes are, for several reasons, ideal settings for the thriller genre. An enclosed space, miles above any kind of sanctuary and no means of escape as well as the potential for a fixed cast of characters for the same reasons. Film-makers have recognised that potential with the likes of Air Force One (1997) and Flightplan (2005), even Alien (1979) is sort of cut from the same cloth. Within this form of the thriller genre, lies Non-Stop and it's okay and serviceable fare, even if it doesn't really show you anything that surprising.

Liam Neeson is moving through the character type that he's been making his own these last few years. The aging action hero is somewhere around retirement from active duty. He's competent and capable and mutters things in his gruff Northern Irish accent (here, for a change he reason for the accent for a supposed American is at least briefly explained) whilst Julianne Moore is the likeable, slightly kooky, middle-aged woman.

Aside from the nuts and bolts, there's a lot of oddities that strain audience plausibility. Much of what takes place defies common sense, but rather than allowing a greater level of enjoyment, it instead leads to a lot of head-scratching frustration. However, the film is dealt with a competent enough hand with right mixture of drama and tension to help serve its purpose as an entertaining thriller. It just probably needed mor confidence in its intrinsic strengths and not resort to the ridiculous gimmicks that dot around the plot.

The Book Thief (2013, Dir. Brian Percival, USA/Germany) (Cert: 12a/PG-13) ***

Starring: Sophie Nélisse, Geoffrey Rush, Emily Watson

In the midst of Nazism, Liesel Meminger (Nélisse) the daughter of a communist is taken from her home to live in a small village. Initially illiterate, Liesel learns to read with the help of her kindly adoptive father (Rush). Developing a voracious love of reading, Liesel comes to hate the book-burning Nazis and helps her new family and neighbours house a runaway Jew named Max (Ben Schnetzer).

Given that when the original novel The Book Thief became a sensation after its publication in 2005, a film adaptation seemed like a fairly likely prospect. In being brought to the screen, The Book Thief is a handsome and sentimental film, but it also showcases a clear flaw that can happen when adapting from literature. The story's abstract and ambitious story causes the film adaptation to resultantly lose focus and come off as unintentionally strange in places.

In part the film seems to be about book-burning, at points it's about defying the Jewish race laws, and then it has moments about the blitz and conscription. Of course on their own, these would be fine but the film picks up and drops disparate threads of plots, leaving not much to focus on. The performances are from a largely non-German cast. Of our leads we have Sophie Nélisse (a French Canadian), Geoffrey Rush (an Australian) and Emily Watson (an Englishwoman). Although this does mean the film strays a little too far from authenticity (not to mention the bizarre switching between English and German, even mid-sentence) there are some good performances to be had.

Still largely unknown, Sophie Nélisse shows promise as a name for the future and is an engaging screen presence. Geoffrey Rush may have the strongest performance of the movie, his personal warmth radiating from the screen whenever he appears and whilst Emily Watson's character arc is extremely truncated (she goes from a dutiful citizen of the Third Reich to rebelling with very little sense of transition) she does okay. Roger Allam may come away from this however with one of the strangest castings in recent film history. He plays the narrator. The narrator is also the literal personification of death.

The film just manages to stay on the right side of tenderness without descending into schmaltz, with the intermingling of innocence and menace displayed in a scene of a children's choir singing a Nazi anthem (lending obvious comparisons to Tomorrow Belongs To Me from Cabaret (1972) even if it lacks some of the nightmarish power of Cabaret's number). John Williams provides a score which despite getting an Oscar nomination is far from his best work and just coasts along with the story. 

As a whole, The Book Thief is a decent film and it is attractive and does have some fairly good attempts at settling a very difficult mood and atmosphere to get right. All that's wrong is that it's a film that would probably say the right things, if it knew what exactly it wanted to talk about.

Next time, Liam Neeson is an Air Marshall looking to stop a terrorist attack up amongst the clouds in airplane thriller, Non-Stop.

Nymphomaniac (Volumes 1 & 2) (2013, Dir. Lars Von Trier, Denmark/Germany/France/Belgium/UK) (Cert: 18/NR)

Starring: Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stellan Skarsgård, Stacy Martin

Beaten and bleeding in an alleyway, a woman named Joe (Maja Arsovic, Ananya Berg, Gainsbourg, Martin, Ronja Rissman) is found and given refuge by a soft-spoken intellectual by the name of Seligman (Skarsgård). Unconvinced by Joe's rants of self-loathing, Seligman comes to hear the long story of a life lived in lust and addiction, leading to her situation.

There's probably no-one in modern cinema quite as notorious for causing controversy as Lars Von Trier. A man who has made extremely provocative work and has made some equally shocking statements (such as when he declared he was Nazi at Cannes, a joke but one that it says something that a lot of people took it at face value). The thing about Nymphomaniac is, as technically accomplished as the film is, given Von Trier's ability to shock, Nymphomaniac is actually rather tame.

Okay, so there is nudity of a rather plentiful amount, but those expecting an all-out smutfest may be surprised on how much more of an emphasis there is on the dramatic aspect of the film, which is an asset. Charlotte Gainsbourg and Stellan Skarsgård make for two engaging leads (Skarsgård in particular is in fine form) as the film winds its way through multiple chapters that divide the film whilst incorporating comparisons with topics ranging from religion to fly-fishing. The film may be publicising itself on its visual power, but its the writing of Nymphomaniac that stands as its true strength.  

The film seems to be set in the UK, but what's on screen appears to be some strange UK/Continental hybrid. The cast springs from many varied places; Anglo-French Charlotte Gainsbourg, Swedish Stellan Skarsgård, English Jamie Bell and several American actors (Willem Defoe, Christian Slater, Uma Thurman) all in their natural accents but with Shia LaBoeuf giving a really odd attempt at an English accent that seems already on the way to a Dick Van Dyke level of poor mockney.

Encompassing a number of years, Nymphomaniac has a wide scope that is well-managed and although some of the points that Von Trier makes are (unsurprisingly) controversial, they're also articulately put across although the debate about the gender double-standard when it comes to promiscuity (i.e: men playing the field is admirable, women doing the same is terrible) is way too tired and it goes without saying that the film's sheer length alone can be seen as endurance test to some. A film of mixed success as it is, Nymphomaniac is flawed in its perceptions and execution, but the film has enough intrigue, visual merit and amusing dark humour to at least be seem as a credible film.

Next time, a young girl in Nazi Germany discovers a love of reading and comes to the aid of a Jew seeking sanctuary in The Book Thief.

Ride Along (2014, Dir. Tim Story, USA) (Cert: 12a/PG-13) ***

Starring: Kevin Hart, Ice Cube, Tika Sumpter

Wanting to be a cop, Ben (Hart) works as security at a local high school and spends his free-time with FPS video games. His invitation to begin police training doesn't go down too well with his potential brother-in-law James (Cube), a veteran cop who isn't too keen on Ben marrying his sister, Angela (Sumpter). Eager to make a good impression, Ben agrees with James to go on a "ride along" accompanying James through various investigations, including a case against a dangerous and mysterious crimes boss named Omar.

The buddy cop genre is old hat. A time-tested formula that runs its course through decades of formulas and is one that audiences may be the most savvy about, given he repetition of the genre's conventions present in these films. Ride Along doesn't offer much in the way of originality and is far from the funniest film of its kind, but the film does tread its way at least inoffensively through the old routine.

As a performer, Kevin Hart will probably reside in the "love him or hate him" file, with an obvious comparison to Chris Tucker (especially, in this case, given Tucker's work in the Rush Hour films (1998 - 2007)) and for all his shrill squeaking, Hart can be a grating presence. However, there's an underlying core that's barely glimpsed in this film that shows that he may have more potential playing more straight-laced roles.

Ice Cube on the other hand, may not be the most dynamic actor of all time but is extremely well-suited to a role as a tough and unorthodox cop, even if his role here is little than just to stand back and look cool. Unfortunately the film falls flat with its supporting cast. You join James in not quite seeing what Tika Sumpter's attraction is to Ben, because we don't really see how she ticks as a character. As a fellow cop in the picture however, you can see how John Leguizamo (here not at his best) is going to turn out from the first moment he pops up on screen.

As far as comedy goes, the film lacks the banter of Lethal Weapon (1987) and is short on belly-laughs, but is far from the very worst that "comedy" is capable of. No fart jokes, no gay jokes and there is occasionally the spark of something spontaneous. The film also plays decently as a cop thriller. even if the central plot doesn't quite have the strength to support the more serious side of the film as a whole. Mostly, Ride Along is simply okay. It doesn't need repeating (although a sequel already seems possible) but there are worse films out there.

Next time, the return of the controversial director Lars Von Trier as Charlotte Gainsbourg examines her life of extreme sexuality in the two-part four-hour piece, Nymphomaniac.

Stalingrad (IMAX 3D) (2013, Dir. Fedor Bondarchuk, Russia) (Cert: 15/R) **

Starring: Maria Smolnikova, Pyotr Fyodorov, Dmitry Lysenkov

Amidst the fighting of the Second World War, the military of Nazi Germany have attempted to travel eastwards, facing off against the armies of the Soviet Union. Having taken the major city of Stalingrad, a young woman (Smolnikova) and a small band of Soviet soldiers seek to defend the city, whilst holed within an old house, at all cost.

Having made a name for itself in at home in Russia, Stalingrad has been able to secure some major distribution in he UK, playing on IMAX Screens in 3D. It would seem that nothing less than a monumental scale would suit this Russian war drama, but beneath its bluster and scope, there's a film that is significantly flawed.

Director Fedor Bondarchuk seems to feel at home with the war genre. The son of director and actor Sergey Bondarchuk, director of Waterloo (1970), the younger Bondarchuk creates an environment of machine gun fire and chaos that sets the scene, but pulls from a very small bag of tricks. Namely, his work seems to imitate that of Zack Snyder. Set pieces against backdrops seemingly plucked from 300 (2006), the gimmickry of 3D whizzing past and the film plays way too much in slow-motion.

The film also plays uncomfortably close to propaganda. Understandably, when your villains are the Nazis, there's only a certain amount of humanity with which you can paint them and still get out of it well (Das Boot (1981) such a rare example) but our heroes are mostly square-jawed and macho archetypes whilst the Nazis don't come off as having much character. The lone exception, besides a decadent senior officer, is the siege commander played by Thomas Kretschmann, a man who has played murderous rapists (The Stendahl Syndrome (2005)), Nazi playboys (Downfall (2004)) and even evil automobiles (Cars 2 (2011)). Even if in this he is given a romantic subplot, it's a distinctly unsettling one that lumbers into rape and loathing.

When Stalingrad actually calms down and bathes in the cold, frosty atmosphere of its surroundings, its clear that there is promise here. Had the film been made at an earlier time before CGI allowed you to see everything, I feel this film would've benefitted from the isolation and only rare glimpses of spectacle. Unfortunately, the film puts too much on show and with too much style and gloss and consequently loses much of the atmosphere and soul. A potentially great film, brought low by too much flash.

Next time, aspiring cop Kevin Hart is invited to prove himself to veteran officer and potential brother-in-law Ice Cube in Ride Along.

L'inconnu Du Lac (Stranger By The Lake) (2013, Dir. Alain Guiraudie, France) (Cert: 18/TBC) ***

L'inconnu Du Lac (Stranger By The Lake) (2013, Dir. Alain Guiraudie, France) (Cert: 18/TBC) ***

Starring: Pierre Deladonchamps, Christoph Paou, Patrick d'Assumçao

There's a remote location on the side of a picturesque lake that is a popular destination for gay men to "cruise" and have sex. A visitor to the lake, Franck (Deladonchamps), is drawn to the handsome and muscular Michel (Paou). One evening, Franck witnesses Michel commit murder in the lake. Attracted to Michel but, in turn, terrified and eager to do right Franck is further conflicted and alarmed when Michel expresses an interest in him as well.

Having wowed the jury at the Cannes Film Festival, Stranger By The Lake has emerged as an intriguing gallic mixture of LGBT drama and a thriller verging towards horror. Set entirely in the outdoors, our action takes place in and around a lakeside gay cruising spot and nudist area. As you can expect given these criteria the film has a great deal of male nudity and the sex scenes are frank and graphic in a way seldom seen in cinema and given the sparsity of male frontal nudity in movies (and regular hang-ups held by men), some may be discomforted by the constant displays of flesh and flapping body parts.

Those able to get past that alienating factor will find rich rewards as Guiraudie displays a skilled hand with tension. The postcard setting and the fact that most of the film takes place in the daylight doesn't detract (in fact, it often adds) to the nervous and on-edge atmosphere. Deladonschamps is fairly innocent seeming but intelligent whilst Christoph Paou as Michel is able to pull off a detailed (though slightly under-baked) role looking for all the world like a murderous take on Olympic swimmer Dave Spitz. However, the fullest and most intriguing character isn't the leads, but rather Patrick d'Assumcao as Henri; a doughy and glum friend for Frank. A slight mark against the film is that our leads are just outlines of characters with the film getting a little too lost in its themes on superficiality and one-dimensional lust, feeling that we're often looking st faces and bodies, but not exactly characters.

Despite the acclaim this film has received, I doubt Stranger By The Lake will stand the test of time. However, as a technical exercise and as a rather original take on the thriller genre, Stranger By The Lake is still worth a recommendation.

Next time, a major chapter in the Soviet theatre of World War II is given a big-budget movie in Stalingrad.