Racing Hearts

Another Belgian film.  About pigeon fanciers.  Sums it up really.  Jamie Dornan is the go-between who gets a Belgian fancier to part with his prize bird so that an Arab sheik can win an international race and invest heavily in an American company.  Money moves everything.  Or does it?  Dornan gets remorseful because he’s in love with the fancier’s granddaughter played by Charlotte De Bruyne.  Jan Decleir as the fancier does well as does the priest’s maid Viviane de Muynck but ultimately it fizzles out pretty quickly.  A few nice scenes of rural Belgium.

★ ★(just)

Two Days One Night

Deceptively important film from Belgium’s Dardenne brothers which plays out like a thriller as Sandra, threatened with losing her job, visits all her co-workers over a weekend to convince them to vote for her rather than accept a bonus that these lower middle class people desperately need.

It’s a story about personal dignity as Sandra, who has a history of depression and has just been off on sick leave needs to start fighting for herself.  It’s also a film about solidarity and human values when employers try to pull any trick they can to save themselves money.

Nothing much happens in the film as Sandra pleads her case and people react in different ways.  And yet the film, for all its holes (where is the union for example?) speaks to us about human behaviour and what is a decent action towards our fellow human being or not.  Marion Cotillard is her usual sublime self – utterly credible as this fragile woman who somehow finds the strength to grow and transform before our eyes. Fabrizio Rongione gives good support as the husband.  Maybe some of the public have misunderstood the film thinking that it is just about whether you hold a worthless job or not.  For me, it is a far deeper lesson for us to learn here.

★★★★+

Ginger and Rosa

A Sally Potter film with a host of good actors and some new talents.  But is it any good?  I felt it was a bit of an exercise really in recreating a sort of emotional state in the early 60’s in Britain with the CND and the threat of nuclear war, with jazz and no sign of the Beatles.  In a way, it portrays the dawning of the liberal era with its two teenage protagonists both from broken homes, one of the girls becoming a campaigner and subject to a panic about the future of the world and the other being more interested in bedding her friend’s activist father.  In the end, we get not much on the political issues and lots of teenage angst, albeit excellently acted by Elle Fanning and Alice Englert.  Support from the adults: Alessandro Nivola, Timothy Spall and Annette Bening among others is good and the dark dreary photography seems fitting but in the end there is no real lift off.

★★

The Judge

Oddly slated for its lack of originality, this is still a pretty decent court room drama by David Dobkin largely due to some excellent acting by the leads.  Hank Palmer is a brash big city lawyer with the usual disastrous homelife.  He has shaken off his Indiana hometown where his father (a majestic Robert Duvall) presides as the local doyen among the judges.  Hank returns for his mother’s funeral only to discover that his father has a murder charge against him, thereby necessitating that he stay on to defend his obstreperous father.  In the course of this and leading up to some quite dramatic courtroom scenes, a lot of dirty family laundry is aired, old grievances rise back to the surface and old loves are revisited.  Robert Downey Jnr holds the centre of this film beautifully and in the end we see that much of it is to do with parents and children and parental expectations.  Vera Farmiga is her usual dazzling self as the love interest and Billy Bob Thornton and Vincent D’Onofrio among others do well in supporting roles.  The father and son scenes are especially powerful.  Yes, it’s clichéd and yes we have seen most of this before but this is a competent and enjoyable version.

★★★★

Leviathan

A Russian tragedy in many ways but also a global tale of greed and powerlessness taking place this time in a small town by the Barents Sea in Northern Russia.  Drunk mayor wants the land that Kolya’s house is built on and shunts through an appropriation order.  Kolya who has built the place himself doesn’t want to move and his friend, Moscow lawyer agrees to help him fight the verdict.  Trouble is Vadim, the mayor has the local justice system and the police and when lawyer Dimitry comes in with loads of dirt on the mayor, things turn nasty.  The main story here is about the way that elected representatives do what they want corruptly and get away with it and the ordinary people don’t have their guarantees of justice in place.  But it is also about the extraordinary amount of vodka Russians drink – the universal panacea that warps their minds, the bleak lifestyle in much of the far-flung Russian republics, the macho mentality and the subjugation of women, disaffected youth and their road to alcoholism and violence and the complacent role of the church in supporting the status quo and not helping the downtrodden or mistreated to rise above this.  It’s all there, in a movie which seems small but packs a hell of a poignant punch.  Andrey Zvyagintsev has produced some excellent films before like The return and Elena and he does it again here.  Great script and direction, superb photography from Mikhail Krichman and as for the acting: Aleksey Serebryakov as Kolya is perfectly cast, Elena Lyadova as his wife brings a soulful pain and Roman Madyanov as the mayor is first rate.  A deep and meaningful melancholic gem.

★★★★★

Voley

Argentine comedy based on the sort of bedroom farce in which everyone beds everyone else but this time set in a house on the delta of Tigre, away from the crowds.  It is a surprisingly fresh version written (at times very amusingly) and directed by Martin Piroyanski who plays the lead role. His character as the randy loser is very well drawn as is the lead female well played by Violeta Urtizberea.  Ines Efron is her usual fine self as the ethereal Pilar while Chino Darin is good but not great as Nacho.  The other two actresses are less well-known and have less important roles. For the most part, the film cruises along nicely though it does drag a bit at the end and could have had a little edited off it.  Overall, a promising work from a young director.

★★★+

Blackbird

American indie about a gay black teenager coming to grips with his sexuality in Hattiesburg, Mississippi in current day USA.  He’s a singer in the gospel choir, denies his wet dreams, has a loony mother whose daughter has been kidnapped and finds himself in not only a gay version of Romeo and Juliet but also making an independent film with a young trailer trash white who has a crush on him.  Add in a pastor who performs exorcisms (deliverance) and you can see the potential for the mess it is.  It has some good scenes but nothing really hangs together as credible and it zips in and out of dreams too.  Mo´Nique and Isaiah Washington can’t do much to save it and lead Julian Walker in his first role hasn’t got the shoulders to save it.  He sings quite well though.   Definitely a curiosity but that is all.

★+

American Sniper

Both loved and loathed, this latest from Clint Eastwood does have its merits and will probably go down in future as an effective portrayal of the minds of some military men and what happens to them in combat.  Sure, it is one-sided focusing on the “sniper” or American legend rather than the Iraqis or the other soldiers, or his family or what happened to the real Chris Kyle which is a story with shadows and lights.  Our Chris, excellently played by Bradley Cooper is single-minded, because it’s a case of survival and because this justifies his going on four tours and killing at least 160 people.  He sees it as protecting his family, home and country.  His fanaticism is like that of the enemy.  He finds it hard to back down from this stance when he’s home on leave which puts enormous stress on his wife (a capable Sienna Miller) and family.  Eastwood peppers the psychological side with great war scenes and tension which is his specialty making it also a film that will appeal to those who want to see recreation of combat.  Like the Bin Laden killing and some other recent Iraq/Afghan movies I was left with two overwhelming sensations.  One is the dirt and poverty of life in many parts of the world which reduces many to this violence and the other is the thought that it is long time for mankind to find other less sordid and brutal ways of sorting out its differences. Not a brilliant film but as always Eastwood gives you something to ponder on.

★★★★+

Danny Collins

This was a pleasant surprise.  The storyline is not that promising – washed up 70’s rocker trying to redeem himself, imposing himself on a family who never knew him, terminal illnesses, cutesy granddaughters, etc, etc.  It had all the makings of a schmaltzy cake but David Fogelman casts well and gives us an enjoyable piece that is worth the watch.  Al Pacino does a smooth job in the lead role and is very well supported by the always compelling Annette Bening, here playing a straight-laced hotel manager.  Christopher Plummer, Bobby Carnavale and Jennifer Garner are there too providing good balance to our star.  The soundtrack of John Lennon songs and some witty lines make for an overall competent mix that affords a good evening’s entertainment.  No classic but good to see Pacino is solid form.

★★★ +

Eat with Me

Rather insipid American Asian film by David Au about a cook whose mother comes to stay when she has problems with her marriage.  She is unaware that her son is gay and is also somewhat naïve in the ways of the world.  At the same time son Elliot has many issues of trust, with himself, with his family and with potential boyfriends. The film meanders around all of this and more with loads of foodie shots cooking and eating.  Sharon Omi is suitably awkward as the mother and the best scenes are with Nicole Sullivan as Maureen, the wacky neighbour.  George Takei has a cameo as himself to shed light on the gay Asian connection and all the traditional stuff.  As you are probably guessing, the plot is rather clichéd and there is a lot of padding.  But solid acting, excellent photography and good intentions make up for the plot holes.  Could have had a quarter of an hour lopped off.

★★