Four more years (Fyra ar till)

A decidedly enjoyable and amusing Swedish comedy about two male politicians who fall for each other but are on different sides of the political fence.  Is it worse for their careers that they are gay (one is married to a wife of convenience) or that they come from different sides of the political spectrum.  This film really is humorous  and moves along smoothly managing to be unpredictable and innovative when many films of the same ilk are not.  Acting is good by the two leads Bjorn Kellmann and Eric Ericson, with Tova Magnusson-Norling, the director and also the wife of the lead character David proving to be a suitably different type of wife.  Wilhelm Behrman’s script is seriously witty in parts particularly on political clichés and Mauro Scocco’s music provides a great backdrop.  It is not a major film but is one that is competently made and enjoyable to watch.

★★★  +

Bachelorette

This film has its moments as a sort of chapter of accidents comedy about a wedding of Becky and Dale as experienced through the eyes of her so-called high school friends who turn out to be a bunch of envious bitches who almost sabotage the whole wedding but learn a few things about themselves on the way.  Not very credible but it is well-paced and a chance to see Kirsten Dunst, Rebel Wilson and other capable actors.  Its just that the main characters are not very nice and the rest are not well enough drawn for us to care.

★★

Won’t back down

Watchable and perhaps well-meaning film about a mother and a teacher trying to turn a school around and get the local board of education to allow them to take over from the disastrous current admin which according to the film is backed by an intransigent and protectionist union.    The trouble is that it is too simplistic, too one-sided and has irrelevant subplots.  In an effort to simplify things for the US public one suspects that director and co-screenwriter Daniel Barnz decided to cut out all the ambiguous details and by this it ends up being unfair to many of the players in education, regardless of the fact that the problem is a huge and real one.  I wanted this to be more measured and perhaps more political and legal than heart strings pulling but there you are.  What saves the film among all the low blows and cliches are the two leads.  Maggie Gyllenhaal does a good job of the feisty Jamie Fitzpatrick but it is Viola David who is the heart of the film.  Yet again, she steals the show and is just masterful in a couple of scenes.  Saves a patchy film.

★★

Magnifica Presenza

Ferzan Ozpetek is one of the most interesting directors working out of Italy.  He doesn’t always quite round it off with greatness in his film making but his work is constantly interesting and of a high technical level.

This latest film is a sort of fantasy in which a would-be actor from the south of Italy moves into a house in Rome which he soon discovers to be haunted by the ghosts of a theatre troupe that were mysteriously killed in the second World War.  Apart from the acting lessons he learns, he becomes intrigued to find out what actually happened and this leads him to learn about truth and lies, betrayal and faith and many other points.  Ozpetek blends humour and pathos in this movie but somehow the sense that he is pulling all the strings detracts a little from the overall effect.  Elio Germano does well in the lead and a competent cast surround him.

★★★ 

Contre Toi

Second feature film by Lola Doillon, daughter of famous director Jacques.  A Stockholm syndrome story in which gynaecologist, Anna Cooper (the ever competent Kristin Scott Thomas) is kidnapped by the widower of a patient who died some years previously giving birth.  Now hubby wants a sort of revenge but he is clearly adrift in his intentions and after a few days of mutual hate, the couple end up falling for each other.  When she escapes, will Anna report her ordeal or try to keep it secret?

This film shot mainly as a flashback would have been a great theatre piece but somehow lacks tension on screen.  Scott Thomas lifts the film above a failure with her intelligent performance and Pio Mormai does what he can as the hunky if disturbed young widower.  What really lets the film down is a lack of clear ideas and the indecision as to whether it is a psychological portrayal or a thriller.  Somehow it misses being either.  Photography and music are good but overall this is nowhere near the definitive work on the subject.

★★

Todo lo que tu quieras

Achero Mañas made a good feature debut, El Bola, once.  Ten years down the line and we have this effort that begs the question: Was it necessary to make this?

When Leo’s wife, Alicia dies of an epileptic seizure (graphically acted out), Leo finds him,self in charge of Dafne, their four year-old.  When the girl can’t sleep or wants to see Mummy, Leo has the great idea of dressing up as Mummy and even going to the lengths of getting training from a cross-dresser.  Although the girl’s school teachers show some askance, no one seems to nip it in the bud as they should have long before.  And obviously, the consequences are not good.  How a seemingly sensible lawyer and clear alpha male could get to this stage is not well set up in the film and we are left with a work that clearly takes itself very seriously but is highly dubious in both realistic terms and in taste.  Juan Diego Botto as Leo and cross dresser José Luis Gómez do what they can and Lucia Fernandez as the little girl blithely swims through her part in this rather pointless exercise

★+

Blutsfreundschaft (Initiation)

The most interesting thing in this rather pedestrian Austrian film is to see the place that neo-Nazi groups have in modern society and how they seem to be able to grow unimpeded and act without any great control by the state.  Frightening really that if, as the film suggests, the police turn a blind eye to their vandalism, violence and harassment, individual citizens have to stand up for themselves, many of these being immigrants and people who presumably don’t feel so safe and confident in their new home.

The film is about Axel, a 16 year-old from a dysfunctional home who gets swept up in such a group and has to perform certain acts of initiation.  At the same time he is given work and shelter by Gustav, an 80 year-old dry cleaner who sees in him, a boy he fell in love with in the war when they were Nazi cadets.  Gustav (intriguing Helmut Berger) is a figure in the GLBT underground bar scene and is hated by the Neo-Nazis and things come to a head when they discover Axel is staying with him.

The ideas behind this film are fine, some scenes are well done, others seem rather embarrassing and naive and others taka a lot of poetic licence.  It is not really a film to be grabbed by but one to see as a window to a world that we know little of but is clearly simmering away under the surface of Austrian society.

★★

Le gamin au vélo

The latest film from the great Dardenne brothers, this tells the story of 11 year-old Cyril, abandoned by his father to a state home.  Cyril spends his time worrying about his bike and how to trace his father.  In his frenetic search he falls into the arms of local hairdresser, Samantha (Cecile de France, excellent) who agrees to take him over the weekends. Between them a relationship develops, not always easy, but one which will provide him with a future and shows that someone can believe in him, unlike the many unsuitable substitute father figures he finds.  Thomas Doret is another great child actor this year, very natural as the restless and yet ingenious Cyril.  As always with the Dardenne, the plot meanders in a documentary style but is realistic.  We are also left pondering about the matching up of parents and kids – why sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, of abandonment and of selfless acts of love.  Not their best film, but a thoroughly worthy work all the same.

★★★★+

Infancia Clandestina

I was not convinced about this film at the beginning. It’s seen through the eyes of a twelve year-old boy whose parents are members of the Montoneros rebel group being hunted by the military and paramilitary during the Dirty War.  Juan is obliged to take on another identity and is constantly at risk of having to move house and uproot his life just when he wants to settle down, belong to a group and have his first girlfriend.  It’s based on a real story that occurred to the director Benjamin Avila. Now, there is something of a predictability about the whole story and the script together with mawkish music and obvious photography.  But what saves the movie are the performances of the main actors.  Teo Gutierrez Romero is an interesting child in the lead role without a trace of precociousness.  Natalia Oreiro does a great job as the ardent yet scared mother and Ernesto Alterio shows his chameleon qualities as Uncle Beto.  Cristina Banegas has a fine intervention as the grandmother too and her scenes make up the dramatic heart of the story.  These moments and the poignant story give the film the quality that it needs for such sensitive subject matter

★★★★

Hermano

A decent enough Venezuelan movie about two brothers living in a Caracas slum.  Both are very good footballers  aspiring to rise out of their situation to become successful  However fate threatens to derail this dream in part due to the violence of their world and it is left to the younger, more thoughtful and more talented brother played by Fernando Moreno to try to keep the dream alive and get brother Julio away from the violent milieu.

The story and script are hardly original but the film does have an authentic feel and the football scenes and the shots in the barrio are entertaining.

★★ +