FILM OF THE WEEK (07/04/2013): Shadow Of A Doubt (1943, Dir. Alfred Hitchcock, USA) (Cert: PG) ****

 

Starring: Teresa Wright, Joseph Cotton, Macdonald Carey

 

After years away from home, Charlie (Cotton) returns to the sleepy town of Santa Rosa to his cosy family. But is he quite the man that he seems?

This intriguing early American Hitchcock film finds the auteur deep in familiar territory. The small town idyll, the humorous side characters to relieve the tension (here played by two precociously intelligent kids and a literary critic obsessed with murder-mysteries) and the mental analysis of the darker instincts of man whilst also adding some unique flairs, such as a brunette female lead in Teresa Wright (Hitchcock notoriously favoured blondes) and a sweeping and beautiful score by Dmitri Tiomkin to contrast with the more brooding scores of Bernard Hermann who worked more prolifically with Hitchcock. It hasn’t aged as well as some of Hitchcock’s films, but Joseph Cotton plays Charlie marvellously in a performance that owes comparisons with Anthony Perkins’ performance in Hitchcock’s iconic, Psycho (1960).

The Odd Life Of Timothy Green (2012, Dir. Peter Hedges, USA) (Cert: U) **

 

Starring: Jennifer Garner, Joel Edgerton, CJ Adams

 

Despite trying every biological method available, Cindy (Garner) and Jim (Edgerton) Green are unable to have a child. Devastated by this, the couple compile a written series of notes of the qualities they would want their child to have and bury it in a box outside. When a freak rainstorm hits that night, the two discover a young boy named Timothy (Adams) who claims to be their child.

 

The Odd Life Of Timothy Green is indeed odd; as you would expect of a film where its titular character has leaves sprouting off of his ankles. Aside from the eccentricities however, the film is rather mawkish and very poorly written. Jennifer Garner in particular seems to be trying really hard to put in a great performance, but you can only do so much with material that lurches into one-dimensional characters and weird holes in terms of logic. The female, sort of, love interest for Timothy is initially regarded as troublesome, though there’s no real reason for it, and various other characters are just mean-spirited adversaries with no motivation or cause for such hostility. On a technical level, there’s nothing really poor about the film but with a soppish and badly constructed story around a not very engrossing cast (the brilliant M. Emmett Walsh has way too little screentime) make this one to miss.

Spring Breakers (2012, Dir. Harmony Korine, USA) (Cert: 18) ****

Starring: James Franco, Vanessa Hudgens, Selena Gomez

 

College students Faith (Gomez), Candy (Hudgens), Brit (Ashley Benson) and Cotty (Rachel Korine) go down to Saint Petersburg, Florida to party at spring break, aided by money stolen in a robbery. During their wild time of partying, the girls are arrested on drugs charges but bailed by local rapper and narcotic kingpin, Alien (Franco). Intrigued by the four attractive young women, he takes them under his wing in a life of crime and violence.

 

A heady cocktail that mixes up Nicholas Winding Refn’s film, Drive (2011) with a Girls Gone Wild video, Spring Breakers is one of those films that tries to bridge the gap between arthouse and exploitation to mixed, but mostly positive, results. The film files at you with vivid colours, and a barrage of nudity, coarse language and drug abuse but James Franco’s performance as Alien lies as the film’s centrepiece; able to make such a larger-than-life creation (in the mould of the similarly over-the-top but less believable performance of Gary Oldman in True Romance (1994)) and actually make him seem completely plausible. Selena Gomez, here breaking out into more adult territory also puts an impressive performance. The intense fashion that the film hits you with does leave you rather perplexed as a viewer for quite a while until the main plot kicks in and, with the exception of Selena Gomez’s Faith, a devout Christian, the female leads don’t seem to have that much in terms of individual personas (Hudgens’ Candy is a little edgier, but only marginally) but the film is memorable, if a little strong; but that’s to be expected.

Good Vibrations (2012, Dirs. Lisa Barros D’sa, Glenn Leyburn, UK/Ireland) (Cert: 15) ***

 

Starring: Richard Dormer, Jodie Whittaker, Mark Ryder

 

In 1970’s Belfast, sectarian politics and social issues between Catholic and Irish Republican movements and opposing forces from Protestant and British Loyalist groups has made the Northern Irish capital effectively a no-go area for musicians. Eccentric music-lover, Terri Hooley (Dormer) takes it upon himself to open a record store named “Good Vibrations”, which leads to Hooley creating a record label and making Belfast a major location for the burgeoning punk movement.

 

Based on the true story of Terri Hooley, Good Vibrations does somewhat traditionally hit the mould of a lot of modern British movies about rock music, lending some stylistic comparisons with The Boat That Rocked (2009) on a visual level, if a little more under-stated. Given the reality of the story however, and the contentious period that is its backdrop, it isn’t afraid of going after drama, even if the actual devastation of The Troubles isn’t exactly laid bare (except for one very graphic montage of news footage). Like a lot of these films, there’s also a genuine love for the material with the music being underscored by Northern Irish punks bands such as Rudi, The Outcasts and The Undertones; especially their most famous number, “Teenage Kicks”, which provides a major plot point. Good Vibrations doesn’t really live up to its potential or really make a mark for itself, but the love and spirit of the subject matter are still very much there.  

Dark Skies (2013, Dir. Scott Stewart, USA) (Cert: 15) ***

The Barrett’s live a quiet, suburban life. Lacy (Russell) is trying to sell an old house that’s been on the market for a long time whilst Daniel (Hamilton) is struggling with the bills and his hopes for a big promotion are slim. After hearing horror stories about “The Sandman”, youngest child Sam (Rockett) seems to be the main target for some strange goings on around the house when some weird paranormal signs start to appear.

 

In the late 1970’s, director Steven Spielberg envisioned a project known as  Night Skies. Intended as a pseudo-sequel to Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (1977), Night Skies would follow on the idea of alien contact but on a more nefarious and horror-centric note. Ultimately, the project came to nothing and instead the idea flowed into two separate films; the Spielberg-directed, E.T: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) and the Spielberg-produced, Poltergeist (1982). Although Dark Skies doesn’t seem to have any real connection with Spielberg, it’s hard not to look at that title and see the setting of quiet all-American suburbia and think that this film essentially is trying to answer the question of what if Spielberg had in fact made his Close Encounters sequel.

 

Night Skies does tip its hat towards those films; especially Close Encounters and Poltergeist as well as also showing strong influences from The Birds (1963), The Shining (1980) and The Exorcist (1973). Night Skies is not in the same league in terms of quality as those films, but they are all genre classics. The film takes from so many horror films in influence that it doesn’t really make itself stand out, but there’s nothing that’s that troublesome about the film on a technical level. It looks good and has a fairly engaging story with some pretty clear, if intended, subtext (the film is set on the 4^th of July weekend. It’s hard not to see a film set in suburban America where someone’s fending off aliens with America The Beautiful playing in the background without seeing some sort of political slant). Overall, enjoyable but nothing special.

Dans La Maison (In The House) (2012, Dir. François Ozon, France) (Cert: 15) ***

Starring: Fabrice Luchini, Ernst Umhauer, Kristin Scott Thomas

 

Despondent over the poor quality of his students’ work, Mssr. Germain (Luchini) sets an assignment for them to write about their weekends. All of them returned poorly written pieces, usually no more than a couple of sentences long. One student however, Claude (Umhaur) writes in detail about tutoring a fellow student (Bastien Ughetto) in maths whilst also exploring the boy’s more affluent home and family. Initially alarmed by the personal and faintly offensive tone, Germain soon comes to admire and nurture Claude’s writing talent, egging on his pieces of writing about his experiences, even as they wade into darker territory.

 

Entertaining and engaging, Dans La Maison is well-structured but does have a major problem in defining itself within a genre. Films, obviously, shouldn’t be definitively pidgeon-holed, but the film does stumble awkwardly between thriller and comedy, though the former genre does eventually take hold. Elsewhere, the film is strong; kept alive partly through the powerful and disturbing presence of Ernst Umhauer who, as a protagonist, is borderline, if not outright, sociopathic, meanwhile Fabrice Luchini’s Germain remains likable and sympathetic despite not having much to redeem him as a character either; a testament to Luchini’s acting. Doubtlessly an acquired taste but a rich one.

Side Effects (2013, Dir. Steven Soderbergh, USA) (Cert: 15) ***

 

Starring: Jude Law, Rooney Mara, Catherine Zeta-Jones

 

A long-time sufferer of depression, Emily Taylor (Mara) is referred onto psychiatrist, Dr. Jonathan Banks (Law) following what appears to be a potential suicide attempt, shortly after Emily’s boyfriend (Channing Tatum) has been freed from prison. At the advice of Emily’s former psychiatrist (Zeta-Jones), Dr. Banks prescribes Emily to a new anti-depressant, Ablixa; however, Emily starts to display strange symptoms owing to the the medication. Not only sleep-walking, but some far more serious.

 

Intended as the final feature film for veteran film-maker Steven Soderbergh (best known for Sex, Lies And Videotape (1989) and Ocean’s 11 (2001)), Side Effects is not really enough of a masterpiece to serve as a grand finale, but it is a competent, provocative and intriguing thriller. Like a lot of thrillers of this nature, the story does become rather too convoluted and in its attempts to weave an interesting, complex story there are a couple of minor holes in the plot in terms of realism. However, the film is well-handled with an interesting character in Rooney Mara’s Emily Taylor and some interesting yet under-stated imagery.