In the House / Dans la Maison (2012) 59/100

Posted on April 2, 2013 by The Red Dragon

Rating : 59/100 105 Min

Arriving on the back of 2010’s ‘Potiche’, this is the latest French language film from director Francois Ozon, based on the play ‘The Boy in the Last Row’, by Juan Mayorga. It stars Fabrice Luchini as Germain, a slightly jaded failed novelist, now appropriately teaching English at the ‘Gustave Flaubert High School’, wherein he encounters a promising young student, Claude (Ernst Umhauer), whose potential gift reawakens a kind of hopeful excitement in his teacher, as he effectively takes him on as his protégé. The only problem is, his writing is a little subversive, and concerns the family of another pupil, creating a story within a story with the viewer not always sure what is real and what is fiction.

Unfortunately, the prose about this family, updates from which Claude continually hands to his teacher for feedback, which is supposed to draw the audience in, much as it is doing to the onscreen readers (Germain’s wife, played by Kristin Scott Thomas, also partakes), simply isn’t that interesting. The unfolding melodrama unconvincingly overstates both the skill of Claude, and the susceptibility of the adults around him so that, ultimately, it just becomes a little silly, a little hollow, and ironically, as Germain goes to greater and greater lengths to explain what makes a good story to his eager pupil, the characters onscreen become increasingly two dimensional.

Jack the Giant Slayer (2013) 68/100

Posted on March 23, 2013 by The Red Dragon

Rating : 68/100 114 Min

A fantasy adventure film from director Bryan Singer (‘The Usual Suspects’ 95, ‘X-Men’ 2000) surrounding the legendary children’s tales of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ and ‘Jack the Giant Killer’. Jack, played here by ‘Warm Bodies’ Nicholas Hoult, is forced to go on an errant hike up the mythic plant to rescue the young princess, played by relative newcomer Eleanor Tomlinson, whom he has, understandably, developed the horn for, accompanied by several of the perhaps less keen of the King of Cloister’s guards. Included in the entourage are old ‘Trainspotting’ (96) Scottish pals Ewan McGregor and Ewen Bremnar, along with Eddie Marsan, perhaps having acquired a taste for fantasy after appearing as one of the dwarfs in last year’s ‘Snow White and the Huntsman’, along with American Stanley Tucci as the next in line to Ian McShane’s throne. Tucci always invests in his roles with playful relish, and here is no exception with his tone perfect for the film, as is McGregor’s posh gallantry. Bill Nighy also voices the leader of the giants, with his accent wavering between the one he used for Davy Jones and a reasonably convincing Irish one.

The effects are good, I don’t believe seeing the film in 3D really adds anything, although that is hardly anything new, and the efforts made with the story to make it interesting are successful in a lot of ways, although despite good intentions a certain drag factor does creep in, which for adult viewers will probably not see this advance beyond the ‘likeable’ category, which is a shame. Overall though it remains an enjoyable fairytale romp, which should see both romantic hopefuls prove likeable and attractive enough to hold interest to the end.

Coriolanus (2011) 70/100

Posted on March 19, 2013 by The Red Dragon

Rating : 70/100 123 Min

You can’t really go too far wrong with Shakespeare, though this version of his acclaimed tragedy, a directorial debut from veteran actor Ralph Fiennes and starring him as the eponymous warlord and general of Rome, has great and, ahem, not so great performances to boast of. The story is a clash of warriors, egos and pride, and Rome’s defence against her enemies is relocated to a modern warfare setting, with location shots in Serbia and Montenegro providing the backdrop. Everything has a sort of artificial greyness to it, a haunted and low key ghetto like atmosphere, and at times the fighting feels like watching a game of ‘Ghost Recon’. However, I think generally this adds to the film rather than interfering or diluting the narrative, although there are one or two strange and perhaps over the top indulgences – such as a sort of orgiastic shedding of soldiers hair, courtesy of an executioner-esque, razor wielding barber.

Gerard Butler plays Coriolanus’ nemesis and military equal, Tullus Aufidius, and surprisingly it is he that has a bad time with Shakespeare’s lyrical lines – he doesn’t have too many of them, but he does make sure to take his time and brutally murder as many of them as he possibly can, lest they escape his bearded maw unharmed. Vanessa Redgrave appears as the mother of Coriolanus, with Jessica Chastain as his wife, and it is Redgrave who is consistently the scene stealer, with a convincing and committed turn from Fiennes for the most part too, and also from Brian Cox and James Nesbitt in support. A better, more intense finale over the last thirty minutes or so would not have gone amiss, and indeed here it gives the impression of Shakespeare almost veering on forced melodrama, but it’s still a good opportunity to see a performance of one of The Bard’s lesser known plays, and a mostly wonderful character portrait of Coriolanus himself. To have a look at the play itself, click here.

Quotes

“Make you a sword of me?!” Ralph Fiennes/Coriolanus

“You might have been enough the man you are, with striving less to be so.” Vanessa Redgrave/Volumnia

“Pray, be counselled. I have a heart as little apt as yours, but yet, a brain. That leads my use of anger to better vantage.” Vanessa Redgrave/Volumnia

“Anger is my meat. I sup upon myself. And so shall starve with feeding.” Vanessa Redgrave/Volumnia

“This Martius has grown from man to dragon – he has wings. He’s more than a creeping thing. There is no more mercy in him, than there is milk in a male tiger.” Brian Cox/Menenius

Catch Me if You Can (2002) 71/100

Posted on March 18, 2013 by The Red Dragon

Rating : 71/100 141 Min

Spielberg directs a story ‘inspired by’ (which sadly means everything we see has to be taken with a pinch of salt, although the man in question is a fan of the film and its narrative embellishments) the tale of Frank Abagnale Jr., a man who discovers an early life of adventure as a con artist, taking that old profession to fairly epic and legendary new heights. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Frank, with Tom Hanks as the FBI agent closing in on him, who begins with a peculiar accent and then ditches it in favour of his own half way through. There are strong elements of farce in the way Hanks is evaded and tricked, and the whole film has a tangible and immediately accessible comedic vibe. A great job has been done of making DiCaprio’s age appear different in the various time frames concerned and, although it is a tad too long, the characters and comedy are dramatic enough to make it all work. Support is delivered by Amy Adams, Elizabeth Banks, Jennifer Gardner, Martin Sheen and Christopher Walken as Frank Abagnale senior. Interestingly, there seems to be a continuity between this and Spielberg’s later animated adventure Tintin, most obviously with the music by John Williams.

Peaceful Warrior (2006) 63/100

Posted on March 18, 2013 by The Red Dragon

Rating : 63/100 120 Min

‘Peaceful Warrior’ manages to be both corny and hackneyed, and yet still remain fairly enjoyable. It focuses on the journey of one American gymnastics hopeful, Dan Millman, who finds an unlikely mentor in the guise of a gas station attendant he nicknames Socrates, played by Nick Nolte. It’s the familiar Karate Kid esque tale, but this time with a slightly supernatural taint to it, and with some nice bits of philosophy thrown in there too. A low budget, imperfect film, but one that has its heart in the right place, made a little more compelling by being based on a true story, although I believe very large liberties have been taken with the truth of actual events…

The Paperboy (2012) 79/100

Posted on March 17, 2013 by The Red Dragon

Rating : 79/100 107 Min

This is the latest film from director/screenwriter/producer Lee Daniels, whose last film was the hard hitting, Oscar nominated ‘Precious’, back in 2009. Here we see a marvellous performance by everyone in the talented ensemble cast, including Nicole Kidman, Zac Efron, Matthew McConaughey, David Oyelowo, John Cusack, Macy Grey and Scott Glen in support. But no Oscar nods this time round? The reason is not that they aren’t merited, especially in the case of Kidman, but that the material is a little dark and overtly sexual for most people’s taste. For example, the story mostly revolves around the imprisonment of one Hillary Van Wetter, played by Cusack, and the investigation of his innocence or guilt by Miami Times journalists, spearheaded by the drive of Kidman’s character who intends to marry Van Wetter should he be found innocent and released – cue a most amusing scene in the prison featuring Cusack jerking off whilst Kidman flaunts her stuff for him, and the others not entirely sure what to do with this particularly sizeable elephant in the room (far from the first time Kidman has wonderfully portrayed a highly sexualised character, nor her first onscreen masturbatory antics – see the deserving but mostly overlooked ‘Margot at the Wedding’).

Daniels co-wrote the screenplay with author Peter Dexter, adapted from his novel of the same name, and the whole film has had a film grain texture applied to it, which is initially a huge distraction and irritant, but as the film goes on it gets easier on the eyes. This is to evoke the 60’s era it’s set in, but if we look at the success of ‘The Help’ set in a similar age and venue, the American south, which was edited with no gimmicky effects, we see its use was hardly necessary to recreate the feel they were looking for. Expect some brutal violence on the way, and they may have perhaps egged the pudding a little, but overall the great work of the cast make this vibrantly engaging and a possible career best for some of them. It’s especially good news for Efron, who is a good actor, but ever since ‘17 Again’ (09) he’s gone for safe and humdrum fare at best. ‘The Paperboy’ also marks another very noteworthy role for Matthew McConaughey, in a year that seen him with plaudits for both ‘Magic Mike’ and ‘Killer Joe’ (which premiered in Edinburgh incidentally, or Edinborow as I believe most of the cast liked to pronounce it), making 2012 almost certainly a career high for him.

Broken (2012) 82/100

Posted on March 13, 2013 by The Red Dragon

Rating : 82/100 91 Min

For anyone familiar with British cinema, the opening of this film will place you in very familiar territory. A happy young girl stops in her street to say hi to the teenage boy next door who has some kind of mental disability. We assume that a certain type of darkness is about to descend on the pair. Now, whether or not that assumption is borne out I won’t say, but from the title henceforth this film makes no attempt to hide the direction it is unwaveringly heading in. We know things are going to go bad, we just don’t know in which of the myriad possible directions the trajectory will be.

The girl in question is the main character and the focus of our attention, brought to life by a masterful performance from Eloise Laurence in her film debut. She lives in a town in England with her brother, her father (played by Tim Roth), and a live in nanny who’s dating her soon to be schoolteacher played by Cillian Murphy. Her family, together with that of the aforementioned teenage boy and the perforated powder keg family from hell across the street, form the crux of the drama. A lot of the plot doesn’t make much sense, especially when it comes to the role of the police, who seem to be particularly docile and hapless throughout. Interestingly, at one point they ask someone if they want to press charges. Here the law in England and Wales may differ from that in Scotland – north of the border it’s the police who decide if action is taken against the perpetrator of a crime, rather than a citizen pressing charges. At least, that is the case for the types of crime we see take place here.

Surprisingly, despite its downfalls, including some fairly ropey choices of music, the film manages to be both hard hitting and down right amusing, predictable and yet moving – all at the same time, which makes it somewhat stylistically unique. There are a lot of nice touches too, such as a scene when we just see Cillian Murphy walking to his car, but the real focus of the shot is on one of his kids cheerfully, and amusingly, dancing away in the car park beside him. The whole film acts like a sort of tornado of destruction, but one full of life and energy and fast changing events – it knowingly plays to the comedic nature of its melodrama but balances it with just the right amount of empathy. Rare and unique, perhaps not in some ways fully deserving of the high rating The Red Dragon has given it, but nevertheless a diamond in the rough desert of gritty British suburban dramas.

Robot and Frank (2012) 67/100

Posted on March 9, 2013 by The Red Dragon

Rating : 67/100 89 Min

An original story set in the near future that sees a concerned son buy a robot companion for his memory troubled ageing father, a father who had an infamous cat burglar career and ponders the possibilities of his adroit and loyal new friend. The character of the father is a little acerbic, but our sympathies still lie with him, and the robot is humanly likeable enough for their relationship to feel real. Interesting and at moments touching, although there is a subdued feel to the conclusion – it’s easy to dismiss it but it’s worthy of much more thought. Frank Langella plays the lead, with Peter Sarsgaard as the voice of the robot (though he does sound a little like Kevin Spacey, a la the computer in ‘Moon’), James Marsden and Liv Tyler are his siblings with Susan Sarandon in support. One feature of the plot sees the local library recycling all but the most precious of the books, once they’ve all been scanned as ebooks, a concept which may well come into reality in our modern digitised era. The film is also the first from two friends – writer Christopher D. Ford and director Jake Schreier.

Side Effects (2013) 74/100

Posted on March 9, 2013 by The Red Dragon

Rating : 74/100 106 Min

Rooney Mara stars as Emily Taylor, a sufferer of depression after husband Martin, played by Channing Tatum, is sent to jail for insider trading. The film opens with his release and we see Emily dealing with the consequences of the whole ordeal, and also the possible side effects of the anti-depressant drugs she has been prescribed with as increasingly erratic behaviour develops. Jude Law and Catherine Zeta-Jones play her current and former psychiatrists respectively, and we are treated to a developing mystery and an insight into the pharmaceutical industry. Compelling, well paced and well acted, ‘Side Effects’ is a pleasure to watch.

Sadly it is set to be the last film from director Steven Soderbergh (‘Traffic’, ‘Oceans 11-13’, ‘Haywire’) as he has stated he has had enough of studio interference with his work and is switching to television instead. Given most of his films remain very good, it would be interesting to see what they may have been like without this suggested creative meddling. Far from the first director to bemoan the power of producers, surely he has had enough success and made enough high profile friends, George Clooney for example, that he could afford to finance a film or two of his own, even if they were smaller scale ones? Woody Allen famously was so irate at the direction the producers took with his first movie that he vowed to never again work on anything where he didn’t have complete creative control, and he has since enjoyed decades of critical and commercial success doing just that. Come on Soderbergh, don’t give in just yet…..

See the TED talk below and the following link for some topical, and very important, insights on the potential dangers of prescription drugs.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-20497086

Safe Haven (2013) 53/100

Posted on March 4, 2013 by The Red Dragon

Rating : 53/100 115 Min

This is the latest film adaptation of one of Nicholas Sparks’ novels, which will justifiably see many self respecting men, and women, avoiding it like the plague. Like all his previous adaptations, this follows an identical template – the young lovers who could be together were it not for some exterior threat which gets in the way and leads to a confrontation at the end. Ever since ‘The Notebook’ (04), which was actually quite good, the stories have been going steadily downhill, but this isn’t too bad, with both leads, played by Josh Duhamel and Julianne Hough (‘Footloose’ {11}, ‘Rock of Ages’ {12}) proving likeable enough to at least hold some interest. Sparks now has his own production company which appears on the credits here, so we can look forward to seeing all of his stories turned into films with the same predictably nice locations, nice music, good looking actors and hollow drama for the perfection of his feel good, but largely flimsy, fare. Disappointingly, Lasse Hallstrom (‘What’s Eating Gilbert Grape’) directs – his work generally carries a lot of respect, but since this is his second Sparks adaptation (the other being ‘Dear John’{10}) one can’t help but feel they function as mere potboilers between his other projects. A sudden plot twist at the end also reveals Sparks has largely been taking the piss all the way through.

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