FILM REVIEWS (Monty Python And The Holy Grail/Pan/Sicario/Suffragettes/The Walk)

Monty Python & The Holy Grail

Having received a fortieth anniversary sing-along (don’t worry, no-one does) rerelease, this is a great time to go back and revisit this daft surrealist take on Arthurian legend, courtesy of the Monty Python troupe. Graham Chapman leads the cast as King Arthur, sent on a quest to retrieve the Holy Grail. On his way, he and his band of knights must confront one bizarre challenge after another. Not quite a traditional linear plot and not quite a collection of sketches, this is a madcap film packed with memorable scene after memorable scene and has gained something of an endearing charm with age. *****

Pan

Sadly, Pan has already been pipped as a box office disappointment and has garnered a slew of negative reviews for a film that is, in all honesty, not all that bad. Joe Wright’s break from Lean-esque period dramas takes on the Peter Pan mythos with Levi Miller as Peter whisked away to Neverland and prophesised destiny. With definite stylistic influences from Hook (1991) and Stardust (2007) this also has a touch of Baz Luhrmann to it with the vibrant colours and use of contemporary music. Scores of children chanting Nirvana and The Ramones in a Peter Pan film is as clumsy as it sounds, but the film has a sense of swashbuckling, high-spirited adventure that is sadly rare in film these days. Also features Hugh Jackman, Garrett Hedlund, Rooney Mara, Kathy Burke and Amanda Seyfried. ***

Sicario

Following up on his sleeper hit Prisoners (2013) Denis Villeneuve returns with a new crime thriller set amidst the drug-choked streets of Mexico. Emily Blunt stars an idealistic operative sent on a mission to weed out a top drug kingpin, but her colleagues played by Josh Brolin and Benicio Del Toro seem to have much more secretive intentions. Much like Prisoners, Sicario is a stunningly presented film courtesy of the legendary cinematographer Roger Deakins but somewhere along the line, the sense of confusion becomes muddled between intentionally playing games with the viewer and protagonist and just getting lost. The one-note depiction of Mexico also does it little favours, but this is still a film of impressive style and rather raw impact. Fans of Michael Mann’s classic thriller Heat (1995) would particularly love this. ***

Suffragette

Carey Mulligan takes centre stage in this historical drama about the Suffragettes and the movement to get women the vote. Mulligan’s fictitious role of Maud Watts provides something of an audience surrogate but is thankfully far from a passive figure thanks to the writing and Mulligan’s powerful performance. It is a slightly glib take on the Women’s Suffrage movement and doesn’t quite have the emotional impact that a film like this might be expected to have, but it’s still short on compromise and well-presented. Also features Helena Bonham-Carter, Brendan Gleeson, Ben Whishaw, Anne-Marie Duff and Meryl Streep. ***

The Walk

Robert Zemeckis has long been one of the best known Hollywood directors for spectacle and his latest film The Walk, is perhaps the film that indulges this the most and also holds its own (despite not surpassing) alongside Zemeckis’ best works like Back To The Future (1985) and Forrest Gump (1994). The story of French high-wire artist Phillipe Petit (played here by Joseph Gordon Levitt) and his walk between the two towers of the World Trade Centre, The Walk has been advertised as a tense nail-biter, in fact it’s a great deal more charming and light-hearted. Levitt’s charismatic enough to carry the potentially troublesome narration and the film’s frequent lapses from French into English (the film explains that Peitit and co are practicing their English for New York, but one has to wonder if it’s not at least partly to concede to those in the audience who dislike reading subtitles).

Ultimately, the film builds to the walk itself and rather than a scene of tension or nerves, it came across (to me, at least) as beautiful magic and art, more moving than heart-stopping. That may not necessarily be to everyone’s liking, but it still makes for a wonderful experience and one of my highlights of the year. **** (pick of the week)