The Power of the Dog

Oscar favourite and eventual winner of only Best Director for 2022. A lot of things fell into place regarding the Academy Awards once I saw this but I’m not sure that I can draw too many firm conclusions about whether it is the masterpiece some critics claim it to be.  Regarding the Oscars, I have come to the conclusion that this year was not a vintage year and that some of the winners (Coda as Best Picture) were far from the best in their category.

Back to this film.  Jane Campion is an excellent director and has an eye that is original.  Here she takes a story set in Montana in the 1920’s in a male chauvinist western ranch society and gives it a touch that both retains the Wild West atmosphere but also focuses on other aspects that many films overlook.  Phil and George Burbank run a ranch owned by their parents who now live in town.  

George is the dapper figures-minded brother who administers the place.  Phil manages the physical side and is the boss of the farmhands.  Personality-wise Phil is a terrible bully and when George marries local barmaid Rose and she and her son come to live on the ranch, he makes their lives hell both publicly and in private moments.  Her son Peter discovers a secret about Phil and this surprisingly brings them closer together in a very unspoken way but all the time both sides are plotting ways of changing the reality of their lives. 

If we regard this film as a Western, this is not your typical battle between the ranchers, the Indians, rustlers and the sheriff.  It is an internal fight, between members of the same ranch and inside the individual characters.  Some critics have dubbed it a psychodrama and this is a fair description, meaning also that the movie is a very slow burn and not perhaps the exciting event that western lovers are looking for.  

Campion uses this backdrop to present us with a story of bullying and toxic masculinity which is timeless and she explores the psychological effects that this has on the people involved.  So, yes, there is plenty of depth as in her other movies and much of the story or plot is made up of small moments which can make it seem as if it is going nowhere fast.

As regards the acting, Benedict Cumberbatch gives us a mean character who will go down as one of the more memorable villains in recent times but a man who is wrestling with his own feelings and memories and the image that he has built up of himself in public which contrasts with his probable homosexuality. Kirsten Dunst as Rose, a figure he hates precisely because she is a woman does some of her best work in a long time.  

Jesse Plemons is also very solid as George and Kodi Smit McPhee is an unusual and effective character as Peter, future surgeon but also a boy unsuited to the rough macho world of the Wild West.  

The photography of Ari Wegner captures this unrelenting dry area well and Jonny Greenwood’s score is like a worrying feature constantly keeping us alert.

I think Campion’s best director Oscar was well deserved because although you could complain about the pace of the movie, she gives us so much richness in the images.  While it may seem that little is happening, in fact every shot counts, every image has relevance and there is plenty to go back and reflect on.

In summary, the film is a type of morality tale but in a most subtle way.  I’m not sure that it is a total classic though.  I found that I didn’t care too much for the characters which does not help a film last in the memory and may be the fact that much of the conflict is played under the surface makes it a little less engaging.  Nonetheless, it is a quality piece of film-making.

4 stars plus

The Quarry

This is a small but impactful movie set in Texas (and filmed in Louisiana which looks totally tropical). Based on the novel by Damon Galgut, which I don’t recall well, it seems to have changed a lot but tells a fitting story.  David Martin (Bruno Bichir) is a priest who is driving from Ohio to take up a new position as pastor to a small community in Bevel.  He picks up a down and outer who ends up killing him and taking his identity.  

The man (Shea Whigham) arrives in Bevel and assumes his new role despite the fact that everyone says he is unlike any other priest they have had.  

He seems to inspire them and is soon asked to conduct baptisms and burials.  On the other hand, the local sheriff is suspicious of the newcomer.  Two Mexican brothers get embroiled in all this too, first stealing from the fake minister and then being accused of killing a man (and we know whose body this is).   

Basically, the film continues in this way with the sheriff (Michael Shannon) getting closer to the truth and the man starting to be haunted by what he has done, especially since he is reading the Bible and being forced to face up to his actions.

Viewers who expected the film to be a sort of thriller or murder mystery will be disappointed.  The film is really about conscience, about responsibility for one’s actions and about truth.  Scott Teems, the director films at a pretty slow pace which fits the Southern mood and gives us the space to feel the psychological mood of the tale.  But it does mean the film gets to drag a little in parts unless you are right into the slow-burning mood.

However, Whigham, Shannon, Bobby Soto and the underrated Catalina Sandino Moreno all act very well, the photography is fine and Heather McIntosh’s music, though a little overused adds to the atmosphere.

Overall, I would rate this as a solid enough movie and a little better than some of the poor reviews it received.

3 stars

Made in Italy

Were it not for the gorgeous scenes of Tuscany and the idealized images of village life this film would probably be close to a wash out.  It fits perfectly within the sub-genre of “finding oneself under benign foreign skies that are preferable to Britain” which has given us so many movies set in Italy, the South of France, Spain, and Greece.  Very much fantasy stuff but it serves to show how characters change and grow.

This film has a backstory that gives it a little more interest is that the two lead actors are father and son – Liam Neeson and Micheál Richardson, playing father Robert and son Jack mourning the dead wife and mother.  Which reflects real life as Neeson was married to Natalia Richardson who died in a skiing accident in 2009, when Micheál was a teenager.

In this film by debut director and actor James D’Arcy the main point is that the potential sale of a family home in Italy allows Robert to let go of all his unexpressed grief and for the son to reconnect with his father and fill in some gaps. (When the mother died, Robert shut the Italian home, returned to Britain and packed Jack off to boarding school).  

We have a love interest in the form of local restauranteur Natalia, a single mother and humor in the form of sharp local expat real estate agent, Kate (Lindsay Duncan) and the rest is all pretty predictable.

And this is where the problems lie with this film. It is so predictable that it is like a paint by numbers film.  The script is lacking also in originality and quality.  Apart from some of Kate’s lines, the actor’s struggle to impart authenticity into the clichéd dialogues. 

 Moreover, there are some gaps in the story which detract from us believing in it.  Characters like Jack’s ex-wife come across as one dimensional too. Finally, I have never been a great Neeson fan and I would need to see more of Richardson to see if he is up to the level of some of his illustrious forebears like Michael and Vanessa Redgrave.

Beautiful photography and that’s about it.

2 stars

Blackbird

This is a remake of the Danish film Silent Heart about a woman with a terminal illness who gathers her family together for a last weekend before she plans to take medicine to end it all.  

Understandably staring assisted suicide in the face brings up a lot of juicy issues for a film or screenplay (in fact this plays more like theatre than anything).  Roger Michell of Notting Hill fame directs this and the writer Christian Torpe is the same.  I saw the original with Ghita Norby in the lead and found it acceptable enough.  This is a different kettle of fish in some senses given that it has a Hollywood cast!

Susan Sarandon is Lily, the dying woman, Sam Neill, her doctor husband trying to keep things together.  

Kate Winslet plays Jenny, her uptight bossy older daughter and Mia Wasikowska her unstable younger daughter, Anna.  

Lindsay Duncan appears as Lily’s best friend Liz and there are 3 other cast members: Jenny’s husband and son and Anna’s on-off partner.  It is a pleasure to watch these actors at work and Sarandon especially conveys the nuances of her role with dignity and authenticity.  Winslet is cast against type but convinced me, Neill and Duncan give solid support in their roles, Wasikowska has some good moments and newcomer Aaron Boon has a couple of solid scenes.

The critics tended to rubbish the movie and it got me wondering why.  Obviously, the fact that it’s a melodrama probably turned some off but the trouble is that this topic and melodrama go hand in hand and Michell is careful not to turn this into an all-out weepie. 

I think the point relates more to an American aversity to facing death in their culture.  Mostly, death in films is connected to violence or to humour.  When do they discuss the simple fact that all of us pass on one day and how do we handle that.  Many of the films to broach this topic have been by foreigners: Away from Her by Sarah Polley of Canada, The Father from the UK and the original of this film.  

I wouldn’t rate this a masterpiece but it is well-made by the South African director and no one who acts in this could feel ashamed at the result.  A sensitive, thoughtful film.

3 stars plus

All the Old Knives

Le Carré style spy thriller of the old school.  Turned out to be pretty elegant and gripping too though in hindsight not a masterpiece, just a cleverly told story well put together.

Henry (Chris Pine) is interviewing Celia (Thandiwe Newton)

who was working with him in the American Embassy in Vienna 8 years previously when there was a failed mission regarding hostages on a plane.

At that time, they were lovers and then Celia broke up with him from one day to another and left the service to become a housewife and mother in Carmel, California.

Ostensibly,the long lunch date around which this film is set is to establish if there was a mole in the Embassy spy team who was giving data to the terrorists and Henry has been charged with pumping Celia to see what she knows.  

The film therefore has many flashbacks to Vienna and even to Russia before it with a dose of romance thrown in.  We get the usual twists and red herrings but on the whole the story satisfies.

Olen Steinhauer’s screenplay is tight and well-constructed, Janus Metz directs well and photography by Charlotte Bruus Christensen adds atmosphere.  I also liked the music of Jon Ekstrand and Rebekka Karijord, which had a Nordic pulse.

Perhaps the story overall is not so big and leaves us feeling that this movie is more of an exercise in the genre than an important new contribution.  Nonetheless, it engages and entertains. Newton acts very well and it is good to see Lawrence Fishburne and Jonathan Pryce in action.

3 stars plus

Bergman Island

French director Mia Hansen Love directs this interesting film about a couple who embark on an artist’s residence on the island of Faro in Swede, where famous film director Ingmar Bergman lived and often filmed.  The island now organizes tours of Bergman’s home and locations and there are places to stay and hold conferences.  So, on one level the film remembers Bergman and debates such topics as the darkness of his films and whether he could have had any joy as a family man (6 children from 9 different women).  There is also an honouring of Bergman in the presence of his son in one of the final shots.

But the centre of the story is Chris and Tony.  Tony (Tim Roth) is a successful film maker and seems to have no creative blocks as he prepares for his next venture.  Chris (Vicky Krieps) is a screenwriter and is finding it hard in her partner’s shadow.  For her, inspiration is quite a torture and she is currently blocked.

She also has doubts about her relationship. Tony is older and more extrovert and she tends to get overlooked.  

As we piece together this information often delivered as we get tours of Bergman Island or lectures and film screenings Chris finally gets an idea which she explains on a walk with Tony.  Hansen Love gives us this outline in the form of a film within a film.  

We get to see two former lovers meeting up again at a wedding on Faro and working around their relationship, the sparks, the gaps, the secrets.  This part brings the whole film to life and is a great counterpart to the main story.  

Anders Danielsen Lie and Mia Wasikowska play the protagonists in this part and the latter shines as she conveys the mixed emotions of her character.  Roth doesn’t have such a big impact on the film but is fine and Krieps shows she has definite skills in her central role.

I’m not sure the film quite reaches the heights it could have.  Sometimes the script is a little flat and some editing of the long walking scenes could have occurred but I do think that the film combines a number of interesting themes and makes the spectator work a bit in the way that older European films used to do. 

 Some of the scenes will remain in the mind for a time and it was also good to have little reminders of Bergman like the ticking clocks.

4 stars (just)

Heartstopper

Netflix teen LGBT series which has been a furore this season.  A sort of British Love Victor mixed with aesthetics of Skam and set in Kent.  

It is indeed a very enjoyable and quite ´nice´ show, which despite the existence of homophobia, largely among the rugby team of the boy’s school is actually populated with genuinely caring people.  

The main stories and characters seem to exist in something of a bubble but this does allow us to closely follow the process of growth and development of these young people.  

Charly Spring (Joe Locke), out and gay and quite geeky

and Nick Nelson (Kit Connor), sensitive rugby jock are the main characters and their relationship is sweet and suitably central.  

Charly has a support group featuring Elle (Yasmin Finney), Tao (William Gao, excellent)

and Isaac.  Then there is a lesbian couple who befriend Elle in her new school.  Charly also has a sympathetic art teacher who allowed him to hide in the art room at lunchtime when he was bullied last year.  Of the bullies, I guess they are typical but seem very Malfoy of Harry Potter fame.

  Finally mention must be made of Stephen Fry doing the voice of the headmaster and the wonderful Olivia Colman as Nick’s mum.  

So, it’s feelgood but is it any good.  Yes, it moves along nicely and follows the rules of the genre.  

Its comic-book origins can be seen in the use of cartoon effects lighting up the scene and there is modern alternative music used through the 25 minute episodes.

Like many films and series today, Alice Oseman the writer and Euros Lyon, the director have learned their lessons and create a smooth believable product.  It doesn’t really break any new ground or have any stand out feature but the whole show is sensitive and relevant.

4 stars plus

El Angel

Argentine movie produced partly by the Almodovar brothers and directed by Luis Ortega.  It is about a young angel-faced criminal Carlos Robledo Puch who was a serial killer in the 70’s and who stole and murdered with complete aplomb and disdain for the consequences.  

This film is perhaps a triumph of style over substance as we get little in the way of an analysis of the character nor any real concern over what he did.  Simply a description of how he got into the game and how he acted until caught.  

Despite that El Angel is a polished production recreating the times and the music effectively. It moves smoothly through the early days of his ´career´ as a schoolboy and then the short time after that.  

Photography by Julián Apezteguia is excellent and the editing good.  What really lifts this film is a great cast, many of whom play against type.  

Lorenzo Ferro is a find as Carlos, funny, carefree, angelic and demonic at the same time.  

Chino Darín as his partner in crime, Ramón is a well developed character and Mercedes Morán, Cecilia Roth, Luis Gnecco and Daniel Fanego as the parents all impress.  Peter Lanzani as a fellow crim also surprises playing a different character to the usual.

All in all a very competent effort.  Perhaps the limits of the subject matter prevent this from becoming a greater film but it is worth a look all the same.

3 stars plus

Downton Abbey – a new era

I don’t have very much to say about this movie other than it fulfils the expectations of fans and is a good example of how well the British do period (melo)dramas.  This is the second film based on the long-running series and taking the story up to the beginning of the 1930s.  Probably it is the last “episode” for the moment.

As you know it is all about a gentrified family who live in a mansion in the countryside and have a large staff of servants whose stories are as familiar as the noble stories are.  

In this film there are two main plotlines: a) the bequeathment to Lady Violet (Maggie Smith, sharp as ever)

of a villa in the south of France, product of a liaison she had before marrying some 60-odd years before.  Part of the family travel to Toulon to discover what it is all about on her behalf and we get a cameo from Nathalie Baye to enjoy here.

B) is the use of the stately home Grantham as a film set, which means actors and film crew coming in to shoot a movie that starts as a silent film and ends up being a talkie with the help of staff and family.  

Both stories are sufficiently engaging for the two hours and allow the small stories of all the other cast members to have bits and pieces of attention throughout the two hours. 

 While some of the stories seem incredibly telescoped and could have benefited from expansion, it is professionally done and editing, costumes and photography stand out as major features.  

Acting is uniformly good and Maggie Smith, Michelle Dockery and Penelope Wilton stand out. The script is typical of soap operas, easy to follow and nothing too archaic or intellectual.  

The servants and lower classes get their accents recognised.

This type of film is best watched as entertainment and not analysed too much.  What we are doing 90 years later lapping up cinema glorifying class distinctions and old fashioned customs is best not addressed here. 

 If that upsets you too much give this a miss, if you like BBC style period pieces, then this will keep you happy.

4 stars

Last Night in Soho

A film that begins as a sort of nostalgia trip to Soho in the 1960’s as seen through the eyes of a contemporary young woman from Cornwall, morphs into a thriller searching for murder victims from that period and ends up as a horror movie.  

All with a coating of some of the top hits from that period like Downtown by Petula Clark, Eloise, Puppet on a String and There’s always something there to remind me.  If that was not enough at least three iconic actors from that period of the Swinging Sixties in Britain appear: Rita Tushingham, Terrence Stamp

and Diana Rigg in her last film appearance.

Held together by young New Zealand actress Thomasin McKenzie as Ellie and supported by Anya Taylor-Joy as a sort of 60’s wannabe alter ego,

the film dabbles in the multiverse, in a sort of time travel through dreams or a portal and yet also tries to create a modern presence setting Ellie in a fashion school.

Edgar Wright directs and co-wrote this entertaining, somewhat garish and definitely uneven movie, which nevertheless in its way pays homage to one of the centres of liberated London at that time, a freedom from the past and austerity of the wars and rationing but also a freedom for the gamblers, pimps and underworld to move in and act as they pleased.

I’m not sure that it all quite fits together.  

McKenzie is gallant in holding the centre and given her role as a naïve ingenue and rather too many scenes of her awaking from nightmares screaming her head off, the fact that comes across still as a person and not as a cipher is some credit.  

It’s fun to see the re-creation of the times and the appearance of actors from that period but something nagging in the back of my mind feels that the director went a bit overboard here and that a little restraint in key moments would have been good.

3 stars