Una pistola en cada mano

One of those choral films in which 5 stories tell of the midlife crises of 8 different 40-something men.  The idea is good but not all the scenes achieve lift-off despite the calibre of the actors.  It is not great that the best thing about a scene is a whimsical look at the end.  This doesn’t make up for sitting through the 20 minutes of each one.  So, very much like a collection of short stories – you get some good ones and some pedestrian ones.  Javier Cámara shines in his scene trying to win back his ex-wife.  Ricardo Darín and Luis Tosar show their acting chops in an insipid meeting in the park.  By far the best is Eduardo Noriega as the shy new father trying to initiate an affair with a co-worker (Candela Peña).  Somehow I expected more from Cesc Gay but there you are!

★★ +

Les Miserables

First off I have to reiterate that screen musicals are not my thing generally.  What works on stage in terms of suspension of belief tends to look completely artificial on-screen unless the director finds a smart ruse in which to dress it up.

What I discovered watching this musical was that the music is nothing special, the dialogue even less so and while it hurtles along at a pretty fast pace it actually seems to drag and is quite boring.  Many of the cast don’t sing well and while there are some excellently staged scenes, this did seem like an exercise in transferring a musical to screen rather than telling a good story musically.  Anne Hathaway is by far the best of the leads overacting and giving some life to her scenes.  To come out of this unscathed is an act of considerable merit.  Sacha Baron-Cohen and Helena Bonham-Carter as the Theveniers provide excellent comic relief.  Russell Crowe and Hugh Jackman don’t convince and I’ve never been a great fan of Amanda Seyfried. I think this is a film for the aficionados and the rest of us just take the best we can. 158 minutes is rather long and I heaved a sigh of relief when it was over.

★★ +

My Brother the Devil

Entertaining, well crafted film by debut film maker Sally El Hosaini. Of Egyptian origin she tells the story of two brothers in Hackney, London, who get involved in the local drugs trade and the gangs of the neighbourhood.  Rash, the elder is also going through a crisis of sexuality to add to a moral realization that what he is doing is not right.  Mo, his younger brother adores him at first and then starts to change his mind as he battles his own growing pains.  One merit of the film is the way the director manages to convey inner growth and turmoil in a natural way together with all the issues that living in a new country with such a mix of racial and national origins and often without much support from the older generations who are just battling to get by.  James Floyd is excellent as Rash, Fady Elsayed is also totally coherent as Mo and there is interesting support from Said Taghmaoui and Letitia Wright.  David Raedeker’s photography also merits a mention.

★★★★

Lincoln

Stephen Spielberg takes a moment in Abraham Lincoln’s life and makes a film about it.  This moment is precisely the period towards the end of the Civil War when he was, as President, spearheading the abolition of slavery by wheeling and dealing votes in congress to get the necessary amendment passed.  As a historical document this film has its interest although you can’t help feeling that some of the scenes are very much shot in a cinematographic way that filters elements from reality.  Speilberg has always been a string puller, sometimes very obviously so.  This time it is there but not completely annoyingly.  Much of the attraction of this somewhat overlong film is to see Daniel Day Lewis in yet another enormous interpretation (he is the Meryl Streep of male actors in his ability to metamorphose and yet still be himself), to see a very solid job by Sally Field as his wife and to enjoy Tommy Lee Jones. James Spader, Joseph Gordon Leavitt and other actors of real class deliver an intellignet script by Tony Kushner.  Nevertheless, something about the dark settings and photography and the undoubtedly exhausting struggle to win made this film a little heavy going and alienating in parts.  Or maybe too long.  I wanted to care more, I wanted to feel that the struggle was one I identified with and yet I didn’t.  The parallels with today’s politics are indeed relevant too.  A good film but too much of a sense of it being an exercise came through for me and so I feel that it falls short of a top score.  The actors perhaps do deserve more.

★★★★

Children of God

First time film from the Bahamas for me and what a little heavyweight it is.  Basically, the film is about the hypocrisy of the island’s people about sexual issues, especially homosexuality.  The film’s centre is a love story between troubled sensitive painter Johnny and Romeo, a bisexual black man who befriends him on the island of Eleuthera. The hesitancy between the two men, constrained by social mores and fears is well depicted. At the same time we meet Lena (Margaret Laurena Kemp) who is mounting a campaign against gay rights, while being two-timed by husband who is a reverend.  She knows that is happening but is too fearful and traditional to do more than mildly flirt with another church man. The characters inhabit a world that is full of posturing and is starkly contrasted with the physical beauty of the islands, the laid back optimistic music and so on.  The strong points of the movie are the good performances, the richness of the observations of local life and the beautiful cinematography of Ian Toll.  Unfortunately, the characters at times become ciphers for the director’s message and this makes the film seem clumsier than it is.  Nonetheless, it is a very good debut from Kareem J Mortimer and hopefully there will be more to come.

 ★★★

Iron Man 3

For someone who is not a great fan of these action movies this is the second I’ve seen of this series and it was not that bad.  Emphasising action over logic, the film zips along with plenty of action and some scenes and characterisations (notably Ben Kingsley as the Mandarin) which spice up the film.  Robert Downey Jnr has the wit and charm to make this an action film that you can’t take too seriously and Gwyneth Paltrow and Guy Pearce do their stuff as support.  Some of the set pieces were visually really impressive.  The audience went home happy and though its not a film I would rave about it seems to be a satisfying blockbuster with a few of its own special aspects.

★★★+