comedy drama

THE HIPPOPOTAMUS

Cert 15 89mins Stars 3

Sex among the upper classes is explored in this comedy drama which mixes a film noir detective story and the novels of Evelyn Waugh with mild successful.

It’s based on a novel by Stephen Fry, and his over bearing smug pomposity weighs down every line of dialogue.

Roger Allam plays a failed poet who wallows in the caustic mud of his own cynicism. His voice over is full of cruel asides and flowery language, which delights in its public schoolboy humour and obsesses over bodily fluids and functions.

The whiskey sodden writer is employed by a glamorous blonde to investigate a miraculous healing which took place at a large country house.

Fry previously directed a big screen adaptation of Waugh’s Vile Bodies, called Bright Young Things. And there as here, he fails to make us care about his herd of posh idiots.

However the jolly jazz era inspired soundtrack help make it surprisingly brisk on its feet.

 

GHOST STORIES

Cert 15 97mins Stars 4

Investigate the paranormal with this devilishly scary supernatural British thriller.

Andy Nyman stars as a TV presenting Professor who is evangelical in his mission to debunk psychics and the existence of the afterlife.

But his faith in science is tested when he is challenged to solve three separate cases of ghostly experience.

As the tremendous trio of Paul Whitehouse, Alex Lawther and Martin Freeman anchor each segment, the spectre of A Christmas Carol haunts the story and Charles Dickens would have appreciated its bleak and dark turns. 

Beautifully played and with a theatrical insistence on in-camera special effects, it’s inventive and funny as events become increasingly bonkers.

Asylums, churches, caravan parks and the Yorkshire Moors provide a suitably damp and downbeat environment alongside a more traditional fog-bound forest.

We’re asked to contemplate the emptiness of life without the possibility of an ever-after. And by the time Ghost Stories have scared you to death, you’ll be praying there is.

A DOG’S PURPOSE

Cert PG 100mins Stars 2

Time seems to pass in dog years watching this fluffy-minded fable featuring a mutt which ponders the meaning of life while repeatedly reincarnating.

This sun kissed sentimental soap opera is directed in typically treacly style by Lasse Hallstrom, who last made a sentimental meal of Helen Mirren’s The Hundred Foot Journey.

Josh Gad voices Bailey the dog with puppyish enthusiasm. Each time it’s born again, the pooch changes breed, gender, and owners.

This allows this mongrel of a film to move from it’s setting from suburban drama to Chicago cop show. There’s also a Sex and the City style interlude where Bailey experiences some doggy style puppy love.

There are Lassie type heroics involving burning buildings and arresting wrong-uns. He also chases his tail, rolls in the mud and chases chickens.

Dog lovers may enjoy it, but for cat people such as myself it will raise your hackles and make you want to hiss.

 

SWISS ARMY MAN

Cert 15 Stars 3

In this remarkably odd black comedy, former Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe takes on his most fantastical role yet.

He plays a farting corpse called Manny, who inspires a shipwrecked soul to use him as a jetski to the mainline. After this curious beginning, it all becomes a bit weird.

On his mission to return home, Paul Dano’s Hank utilises the cadaver as a host more practical devices, such as a compass and a gun.

There’s a wonderful chemistry between Dano and Radcliffe, even if the biology and physics are tested to their limits.

OPERATION AVALANCHE

Cert 15 Stars 3

This playful mockumentary plays on the conspiracy theory the 1969 Apollo 11 Moon landing was faked by NASA.

Posing as documentarians, two less than special FBI agents are sent to infiltrate NASA. They’re tasked to find Soviet spies, and clearly aren’t rocket scientists.

Instead they discover it’s impossible to return a man safely from the moon, and are roped into a politically expedient plot to fake the landing.

The commendably straight-faced actors take it all very seriously, and the photography captures the grainy feel of  1960s home movie.

Lacking any stars, this is an enjoyably knock-about enterprise.

 

STAN AND OLLIE

Cert PG 98mins Stars 4

Hats off to Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly who don the famous bowlers of Hollywood’s  most popular double act and do delightful justice to the supreme slapstick talent of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.

Blessed with two modern performers at the top of their game, this funny, affectionate and respectful tribute is also surprisingly moving as it touches on age, fame and friendship, with an array of headwear charting the state of their messy relationship.

Sixteen years after an acrimonious split at the height of their big screen stardom, it’s now 1953 and the pair arrive in Newcastle Upon Tyne for a live tour of England’s low rent theatres, intended to showcase their talent with the hopes of catapulting them back to the big time in film.

Dogged by ill-health and financial issues, their fans believe them long retired,  younger generations don’t recognise them, and to add to the pressure their formidable wives are flying in with high expectations.

Played by the waspish Shirley Henderson and Nina Arianda, they’re a scene-stealing double act whose comic chemistry is a venomous echo of the mens.

Coogan and Reilly bring out the competitive best in each other and perfectly capture Stan and Ollie’s famous mannerisms to an almost unnervingly accurate degree.

Their affecting and testy relationship have us believe they’ve spent years together honing their act as they deliver the familiar evergreen gags with great skill and immaculate timing.

Stan And Ollie is nominated for Best British film at this year’s BAFTAs which also sees Coogan nominated for Best Actor as he again demonstrates what a skilled dramatic actor he is, while Reilly was nominated for Best Comedy Actor at this weeks Golden Globes.

But as Stan says, ‘you can’t have Hardy without Laurel’, and it’s as a team they bring heart and humanity to this poignant portrait and a long overdue celebration of a pair of comedy giants.

 

 

 

 

WILD ROSE

Cert 15 100mins Stars 4

Music and motherhood create spiky discord in this honest, raucous and irrepressible British musical drama, which is as full of heartache and hardship as the foot-tapping Country tunes which power the story.

Irish actress Jessie Buckley won renown last year for her riveting big screen debut turn in the terrific thriller, Beast, and here she’s staggeringly great as Rose-Lynn, a Glaswegian sweary single-mum who aspires to singing stardom in Nashville.

No retiring wall flower, Rose is immature and untamed as she struggles with the harsh truths of choosing between her kids and her dreams, but her passion and vulnerability makes us root for her.

And she’s the thorn in the side of her put-upon mother, Julie Walters, who responds by giving her most affecting performance in years as she copes with her daughter’s chaos.

The grandkids are generally un-impressed by the adults except when Buckley’s extraordinary voice belts out her own compositions, as she demonstrates why this Rose is blooming marvellous.

COMMON PEOPLE

Cert 12A 89mins Stars 3

This bittersweet comedy-drama is a celebration of England’s green and pleasant public places and wears its micro-budget roots as a badge of honour.

Different stories are linked by an escaped parrot in one afternoon on London’s glorious parkland of Clapham Common, and we’re offered  defiant optimism, romance and humour in the face of homelessness and heartache.

Among the disparate groups we encounter are a birdwatching Scout troop, a philosophical party of drunks, and a woman in labour.

In his final screen role, British acting acting stalwart Sam Kelly joins a cast including Diana Payan, Iarla McGowan and Melody Weston Shaw, who jolly us along while radiating charm, raising a smile and warming the heart.

EIGHTH GRADE

Cert 15 94mins Stars 4

Youtube star turned filmmaker Bo Burnham, writes and directs this US coming-of-age comedy-drama, and it’s an impressively assured debut from the 28 year old performer.

In the UK, 8th grade is the final year of middle school and the equivalent of Year 9, a difficult time for awkward and shy 13 year olds, such as the lonely Kayla.

Played by Elsie Fisher with painful honesty, she’s a social media-addicted tangle of anxiety with imperfect skin and an ordinary physique. An absence of female confidantes and positive role models means she has to negotiate life as best she can.

Kayla’s single-parent father is as equally out of his depth at parenting as she is at growing up, but the script has huge sympathy for the pair and is happy to forgo plot in favour strong character work and a high level of emotional articulacy.

It’s a shame those who would most benefit from watching this are too young to see it in the cinema.

 

A DOG’S JOURNEY

Cert PG 108mins Stars 3

Friendship wears a furry face in this live action family fable full of love and loyalty which will have dog lovers wagging their tails.

A sequel to 2017’s A Dog’s Purpose it follows the many lives of the eager-to-please and  excitable pooch, Bailey, whose thoughts we hear thanks to the comic voice-over of Josh Gad.

Each time Bailey dies and reincarnates in a variety of breeds in different locations, he remembers his masters command to protect his granddaughter, CJ.

Bailey turns up to help her at moments of crises but they’re all bark and no bite and balanced with lots of bum-sniffing comedy to entertain your pups.

CJ is winningly played as an adult by former TV Skins star, Kathryn Prescott, with veterans Dennis Quaid and Marg Helgenberger going full pelt to pour on the treacle.

Despite being an avowed cat person, even I could feel this soppy shaggy dog story pulling on my heartstrings. Doggone it.