Drama

BEL CANTO

Cert 15 100mins Stars 2

Opera is the music of love in this hostage drama which is a flat, tuneless and poorly paced exercise of uncertain rhythm which staggers to a muted crescendo.

Julianne Moore is luminous in a formal evening gown as Roxane Coss, an agreeably spiky and unsympathetic US opera singer, but for such an accomplished actress Moore’s a terrible mime, and we should gifted soprano Renee Fleming is doing the actual singing.

While on a tour of Latin America her private recital at an embassy is interrupted by revolutionary guerillas who take the international dignitaries hostage.

The surprisingly relaxed regime of the khaki-clad desperadoes leads to some midnight bed hopping and at it’s most unintentionally farcical this could have been named Carry On Up the Junta.

The script assumes opera is a great unifier so you may feel excluded if your musical tastes lie elsewhere, and bullet fire is a welcome relief to the preceding dirge.

TOLKIEN

Cert 12A 112mins Stars 2

Reeking of radioactive levels of unthinking snobbery, this dreary account of the early life of the acclaimed author of The Hobbit fatally overestimates the appeal of being cooped up for two hours with self-regarding and over-privileged public school boys.

Nicholas Hoult is sincere as J.R.R. Tolkien, Lily Collins is a bright spark as his sweetheart and Derek Jacobi’s professor is fun, but there’s nothing to learn and it lacks the epic grandeur of Peter Jackson’s Lord of The Rings trilogy.

Despite being orphaned and enduring the horrors of the First World War frontline, the film paints Tolkien’s earliest darkest hour as briefly having to slum it among the working classes of Birmingham.

He’s rescued by Colm Meaney’s kindly priest and sent to a posh establishment where he enjoys the fellowship of a semi-secret club who quaff champagne, mock waitresses and are as sympathetic as UK MP Boris Johnson’s Bullingdon Club.

Tolkien’s family have disowned the film and I don’t blame them. 

THUNDER ROAD

Cert 15 90mins Stars 4

There’s a darkness on the edge of town in this melancholy, funny, excruciating and wonderfully affecting comedy-drama which takes its name from a Bruce Springsteen song.

However there’s barely any music in the film which is made in a naturalistic almost documentary style far removed from the wildly romanticised epic tune of The Boss, in a successful attempt to more realistically portray small town US life.

However the song is interpreted through the medium of amateur dance, which is certainly something I never expected to see.

Based on his 2016 short film of the same name, it’s the remarkably accomplished directorial debut feature of writer and star, Jim Cummings, who delivers a bravura performance of dignity, shame and sarcasm as a socially awkward local cop.

With his life shaped by his relationships with his mother, daughter, sister and ex-wife, Cummings uses his characters mental breakdown to examine the psyche of repressed, gun wielding white males and bring the state of the US heartland into focus.

 

GLORIA BELL

Cert 15 102mins Stars 4

Julianne Moore negotiates the perils of middle-aged singledom in this intimate portrait of self-discovery in the latest drama from writer and director Chilean Sebastian Lelio, and is an English language re-imagining of Gloria, his 2013 film.

Gloria is a middle-class insurance agent with an unremarkable existence which Moore brings to life with a combination of charm, sensuality, fragility, vulnerability and rising fortitude.

Her new boyfriend is a slack bag of weakness with commitment issues which allows a marvellous John Turturro to demonstrate his versatility and wonderful lack of vanity.

The cast also includes Jeanne Tripplehorn, Rita Wilson and Michael Cera, with each offering understated excellence at awkward family gatherings where new beaus meet former spouses and adult children.

It’s hard to tell where on the scale of great-to-brilliant Moore’s performance lies, partly due to her having seemingly played similar roles before, and also because she’s required to repeat everyday snapshots of life, such as feeding a cat, and singing along to the car radio on her daily commute.

These scenes don’t allow for grandstanding fireworks of emotion but the small changes in these routines reveal Gloria’s gradually changing attitudes to life.

Bonnie Tyler’s epic rock ballad Total Eclipse of The heart soundtracks a wonderfully aggressive moment of catharsis, leading to a dance floor scene which is well, glorious.

 

 

 

 

THE OLD MAN AND THE GUN

Cert 12A 92mins Stars 4

Hollywood legend Robert Redford pulls the curtain down on his long acting career with this wonderfully warm and spirited character-driven comedy drama.

The remarkable tale of a real life career criminal, it’s a deft, funny and surprisingly life affirming caper which is every bit as smart and accomplished as its star.

Redford plays bank robber Forrest Tucker, the dapper leader of a team of geriatric bank robbers who the media nickname, ‘The Over the Hill Gang’, after they go on a courteous spree of low-tech bank heists across five US states.

They’re slowly pursued by Casey Affleck’s hangdog detective cop who is determined to catch the thieves after letting them slip though his fingers.

And a luminous Sissy Spacek shares a marvellous sparkly chemistry with Redford as a horse whispering widow who catches Tucker’s eye.

Director David Lowery previously made the Disney terrific live-action 2016 remake of Pete’s Dragon in which Redford had a minor role.

As camera moves and jazz score offer reminders of Redford’s 1970’s heyday, the tone of nostalgic lament deliberately echoes that of 1969’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

The cowboy classic saw Redford in his most enjoyable and best remembered role as a gunslinging outlaw alongside Paul Newman, and Tucker is clearly intended as a septuagenarian spin on the Sundance Kid. 

Occasionally if understandably indulgent with many other nods and winks to Redford’s prestigious career, this misty-eyed eulogy offers an explanation as to why he first took to acting and then stuck with it.

The tremendous supporting cast includes Danny Glover, Tom Waits, Elisabeth Moss, Keith Carradine, Tika Sumpter and John David Washington – but it’s Redford’s show all the way.

They don’t make films like this or film stars like him anymore, and it’s all credit to Redford that after an astonishing career of nearly sixty years, the Kid leaves us crying out for more.

 

PETERLOO

Cert 12A Stars 3

Director Mike Leigh takes a blunderbuss to a historical slaughter and kills the drama stone dead in this sincere and serious epic which is devoid of subtlety.

A period companion piece to his superior 2014 Oscar-nominated biopic of the 19th century artist, JMW Turner, this centres on the Peterloo massacre of Monday August 16, 1819, when 60,000 people gathered peacefully in Manchester to demand Parliamentary reform and voting rights.

And in one of the most infamous acts of violence committed by the country against its own people, families were charged down by British cavalry, leading to hundreds of injured and fifteen deaths.

It’s a long wait for the grandly staged and suitably shocking sequence, and too much of what precedes too often feels like a heavy-handed history lecture with too little thought given to entertainment.

There are multitude of people milling about and seemingly all of them get to proclaim their political position, and at bum-numbing length. 

The closest we have to a lead character is Joseph, a PTSD-suffering infantryman who we follow from the battlefield of Waterloo in 1815, to his home town where he witnesses more carnage.

Joseph is a great example of how Leigh values dramatic irony over melodrama, spectacle and appealing characters.

And with barely a dark satanic mills in sight we’re told why the masses are crying ‘liberty or death’, but we never see or feel it.

However Leigh is good at showing how historical events are extraordinary messy affairs, full of competing egos, factions and agendas.

It’s suggested we don’t have to look far to find contemporary parallels of violent state oppression or blustering self-important politicians, but Leigh caricatures the upper-classes so broadly it undermines any intention to condemn them. 

Peterloo is a moment of British historical significance which will benefit from being far more widely known, but also one which deserves a far more compelling account.

 

 

BLACK ’47

Cert 15 100mins Stars 4

The Western is bracingly invigorated with this bitter, brutal and brilliant Irish revenge thriller which swaps the Wild West desert for Ireland’s bleak midwinter of 1847.

When a soldier returns home from fighting for the British overseas, he finds the remains of his family in desperate circumstances due to the potato famine and the despotic land clearances of the English aristocracy.

It’s an impressively physical and taciturn performance by Aussie actor, James Frecheville, as the veteran, Martin Feeney, who begins to wage a one-man war across the land and has his sights set on Jim Broadbent’s callously indifferent lord of the manor.

Meanwhile Freddie Fox’s foppish sergeant is sent to hunt down Martin, and recruits Hugo Weaving’s disgraced policeman, who is also a former army colleague of the renegade.

During the course of his personal vendetta, Martin’s patriotic shift is clear from his use of his native Irish language, and those caught in his violent wake also experience a political radicalisation.

One such example is Barry Keoghan’s squaddie, whose conscience-driven actions suggests the working classes on either side of the Irish Sea have a great deal of common cause against the English landed gentry.

Adopting a suitably spartan style, director Lance Daly brings a harsh mournful beauty and mythic overtones to the magnificently photographed epic landscapes, while not forgetting to feature plenty of shoot-outs and horse rides.

A lean script doesn’t waste a word of dialogue is full of contemporary concerns such as bigotry, torture, the clash of religions and a refugee crisis. It also includes moments of gallows humour and there’s a novel use for a pig’s head, which even the English members of today’s broadminded political elite would shy away from.

Though lacking the romance, melodrama or grandstanding speeches of Mel Gibson’s Oscar winner, this is very much an Irish Braveheart, and is intense, timely and terrific.

FILM STARS DON’T DIE IN LIVERPOOL

Cert 15 106mins Stars 4

The unwieldy title of this moving real life romantic drama refers in part to the reticence of actors to leave the limelight.

And true to form we have two headliners wrestling for the spotlight in this adaptation of Peter Turner’s touching memoir.

Veteran Annette Bening is terrific as the sexy and vulnerable Gloria Grahame, a 1950’s Oscar winner now eking a living on stage in northern England in 1981.

Falling ill Gloria seeks respite at the Merseyside family home of her former lover, Peter.

In flashback we see their romance begin with a brave invitation to dance from the 55 year old Gloria.

Especially as 26 year old Peter is played by the former Billy Elliot, Jamie Bell. The Teesside born star gives his most complete performance yet.

This is a rare excursion from the world of James Bond for producer Barbara Broccoli. Given Bell now has a physique to rival 007 Daniel Craig, maybe she was scouting for his replacement.

 

 

MUDBOUND

Cert 15 134mins Stars 4

Poverty, prejudice and PTSD are stuck in deep in this epic and moving period drama.

Sweeping landscapes and intimate voice overs are used to bring Hillary Jordan’s 2008 bestselling novel to life, which sees two families finding their fortunes yoked together across the racial divide.

Full of betrayal and violence the script navigates it’s way through the misery of the Mississippi mud, though green shoots of optimism are eventually found in the fertile soil.

Well crafted throughout, this is a prestige production by Netflix as the streaming service seek to add awards glory to their market influence, and so are releasing Mudbound in cinemas and online today.

Brit actress Carey Milligan takes top billing ahead of a strong male cast, and with female talent flourishes in the major departments of direction, script, editing, cinematography and music.

This sends a powerful message of empowerment to old Hollywood and its current troubles.

20th Century Women

Director: Mike Mills (2017) BBFC cert: 15

My heart sank when I read this drama described as a ‘poignant love letter to the people who raise us’. But it’s even more insuffrable and indulgent than I feared.

Set against the US energy crisis of 1979, this is a mawkishly nostalgic  semi-autobiographical riff on the teenage life of writer/director, Mike Mills.

The charm of Annette Bening alone isn’t enough to enertain us. She stars as bohemian single mum, Dorothea, who lives in a dilapidated mansion.It is strewn with the director’s favourite records, books and clothes of the era.

She rents spare rooms to a hippie handyman and a forthright photographer, while inviting complete strangers to her frequent parties. Meanwhile her son Jamie has an unrequited crush on sulky girl next door, Julie.

Greta Gerwig, Elle Fanning, Lucas Jade Zumann and Billy Crudup play the unlikely cohabitees. Indulgent and under plotted, it feels like an actors workshop.

Everyone spends their time over analysing each other’s behaviour and fertility and feminism are much discussed. Little else happens and most of what does occur is dull.

★★☆☆☆

@ChrisHunneysett