Wednesday 25 December 2019

Sorry We Missed You


Sorry We Missed You is Ken Loach's follow up to 2016's I, Daniel Blake and it mines a similar vein of problems with modern British society. In this case, it's the 'Zero-hours economy', whereby companies can keep workers on call or franchise (virtually 'non-employed' employees), leaving the way clear for mass exploitation. Not a new thing, sure, but the loosening of regulations to allow this kind of economic fascism shows just what kind of politics rule the roost these days.

Loach is a master at this genre, he's been doing this kind of film for years, and he's getting even more angry if these last two films are anything to go by. The focus of this film is the Turner family, specifically husband and father, Ricky, shaggily played by Kris Hitchens. He naively (or desperately) agrees to the terrible conditions set out by the foreman of a parcel delivery company, Maloney, played by Ross Brewster. This guy is a prime prick but Brewster imbues him with the threat of sympathy before pulling the rug out from under us. It would be veering into black comedy if it weren't so realistic. The performances are very natural - characters occasionally stumble over lines, some of the younger actors mumble a bit (now there's a tricky dialect to follow - 'Mumble Geordie'). Many of the cast are making debuts here, the standout for me being Katie Proctor, who plays Ricky's daughter, Liza.

Sorry is written by Paul Laverty, Loach's usual scribe, and he joins cinematographer Robbie Ryan and editor Jonathan Morris as Loach returnees. The story plays out as you'd expect, riddled with despair, alongside the odd bright moment and one or two simmerings coming to the boil (hats off to Debbie Honeywood for an NHS-set eruption). It's hard to know how to judge the ending - without giving anything away, it's maddeningly, seat-punchingly, foreseeable.With a loyal crew and a (reasonably) novice cast, it would seem that box office isn't an issue - no need for bottom line, hence Loach can basically make what he wants. But here's the rub - he's been making left-wing, workers' rights, solidarity films since the 1960s. Fat lot of fucking good he has done when you look at what's going on in the UK and the world in general. And yet, if he isn't making these, if he does retire, like he planned after Jimmy's Hall, then we'd most likely be even worse off.

So overall, a bleak way to spend a Saturday morning but bleak Loach is better than no Loach at all.

See also:

Riff-Raff (1991) is another little Loach gem, as is The Wind that Shakes the Barley (2006).

SPOILERS IN POD!!! (and apologies for slightly different sound quality...)

Listen to "Sorry We Missed You" on Spreaker.

Monday 16 December 2019

Knives Out



So by my workings, this is Rian Johnson's fifth feature and his career would look explicable were it not for the lumping great behemoth of his fourth film. Brick in 2005 - low budget, clever reworking of hard-boiled detective fiction. The Brothers Bloom in 2008 - appreciably higher budget, more well-known actors but still quirky and indy. Looper in 2012 - interesting time travel sci-fi with Bruce Willis. So far, nice little trajectory. But wait, what's this? A FLECKING STAR WARS FILM!?! Fast forward a couple of years while the online invective wears off and here we are at Knives Out, which is, for me, his best film yet.

On the face of it, this is a murder mystery 'whodunit', set mostly in a lovely old country home. The quaintness goes a little further with Daniel Craig's Benoit Blanc, a southern US detective with an eloquent turn of phrase. But underneath, Knives Out is a scathing attack on the 'haves' of society and what they'll do to keep their pound of flesh. These 'haves' are manifested by the Thrombeys, who are gathered at the old house to see off the departed patriarch of the family, grotesquely rich Harlan Thrombey, played in flash-back by Christopher Plummer. The performances of the family members are fantastic - Jamie Lee Curtis, Don Johnson, Michael Shannon, Chris Evans and Toni Collette all arguably handing in their best performances. And their characters are quite well balanced too. There are conservative elitists and liberal elitists but, make no mistake, they are all cunts. When their way of life is threatened by an 'other', very much a 'have not', their true colours come to the fore. The 'have not' here is played by Ana de Armas, last seen in Blade Runner 2049, and a very different role it is. She plays Harlan's nurse from Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil or possibly somewhere else. It's a running theme that none of the family members actually know which country she's from. The film credits Craig and Evans first but it's de Armas's film. The story revolves around her and she carries it off with reserved ease.

While the acting is top notch, I reckon it's the script that is the star of Knives Out. The overarching storyline is complex enough to make you wonder if everything scans but satisfying enough to shrug off the improbabilities of it all. Johnson fills the narrative with neat tricks (the dogs as a Deus Ex Machina) and pay-offs (the baseball is almost a character in itself). The dialogue is littered with gems. Don Johnson's character assumes that his nephew has been "joylessly masturbating to pictures of dead deer". Blanc muses about "..the terminus of Gravity's Rainbow" (referring to a famously inaccessible Thomas Pynchon novel). And virtually everything Toni Collette says is annoyingly brilliant.

The credits provided some eyebrow raises. It seems Joseph Gordon-Levitt was an off camera voice at the beginning of the film, meaning he's been in all of Johnson's films so far. Frank Oz also made an appearance - he was the will reader. Not too often you get James Bond, Captain America, Detective Sonny Crockett AND Yoda in the same film.

See also:

Johnson's, Brick (2005) is an assured debut feature and have a look at Robert Altman's Gosford Park (2001) for more class-based mystery.

POD TO FOLLOW.....??

Tuesday 10 December 2019

The Irishman


I feel a bit guilty about this now but I decide to skip the option of seeing Martin Scorsese's latest film at the cinema and wait a week or so for its Netflix release. As with any film, it would have been better on the big screen but it's what it is.

The Irishman tells the story of Frank Sheeran, an Irish-American mafia hitman, and his links to the disappearance of union boss, Jimmy Hoffa. The film is based on a book by Charles Brandt called 'I Heard You Paint Houses', which refers to the blood from the exit wound of a hit. Martin Scorsese returns to the themes of criminal loyalty, machismo and the side effects of this kind of lifestyle, which pervade films like Goodfellas, Casino and even back to Mean Streets. The running time of 3 and a half hours may seem off-putting but there was nary a point where I felt my attention flagging and credit must go to writer, Steven Zaillian and Scorsese's (anything but) regular editor, Thelma Schoonmaker. And, of course, Scorsese knows his onions too.

The performances are roundly excellent, even Al Pacino's scenery-chewing wasn't too out of place for his character, Hoffa. In contrast, Robert De Niro is all hunched, unsure, conflicted - a great, nuanced turn from him. The stand-out though is Joe Pesci. As Reece Shearsmith said on Twitter,
Some of his looks in this film are extraordinary, like he's completely at home in the skin of the character. Like his well-known roles are Hulked inside of him. The conscience of the film is Sheeran's youngest daughter, Peggy, played icily well by Anna Paquin. As has been mentioned, she has very few lines but her enmity towards her father is felt via her silence. Other tips of the hat must go to Harvey Keitel, Stephen Graham and Ray Romano.


The time shifts throughout the film are handled well, and not just due to the 'de-aging' CGI techniques. It takes a little time to get used to seeing a 'younger' De Niro on screen but the gimmick wears off quickly enough. The locations and set design are fantastic and, along with the digital effects, go some way to explaining why this is supposedly Scorsese's most expensive film. The way Scorsese and Zaillian weave these characters through historical events such as The Bay of Pigs and JFK's (SPOILER!!) assassination is a real boon to history buffs and I think this brushing up to reality is one of the reasons it cracks along without the viewer drifting. There's a lot to cover story-wise and it's done with aplomb. Kind of wish I'd seen it at a cinema.

See also:

Can't go wrong with many Scorsese films but I'll say Goodfellas (1990) and Taxi Driver (1976), both with De Niro hitting worldies all over the fucking shop.

SPOILERS IN POD!! (Listen out for the different sound quality - human quality remains the same)

Listen to "The Irishman" on Spreaker.

Monday 9 December 2019

Finding Santa

So, here's an odd thing. A week or so ago, I got an email from a film distribution/production company in California asking if I was keen to review a film they are rolling out. I figured I'd give it a go. The film is a Danish animation called Den Magiske Juleaeske, or anglicised to Finding Santa. Now, right off the bat, I admit to not being a fan of Christmas, and therefore Christmas films in general. Clearly, this film wasn't made with my demographic in mind. The director, Jacob Ley, has form with this kind of children's animation in Denmark and I assume there's a market for it, especially at this time of year. But it's not for me.

The story follows an irritating orphan named Julius who loves Christmas but has to confront the possibility that Santa isn't real. He's bullied by other kids in the orphanage and is drawn into a magic realm where he's lumped with the task of rescuing Santa and Christmas. The antagonist in all this is a camp Krampus, a creature I hadn't heard of until recently. The voice performance of Krampus is one of the highlights - he seems to be in a different film, playing it like a stroppy goat diva. The elves in this section of the film are also kind of batty. I'd have been more on board if the whole film was played like this but, again, it's aimed at small humans. Incidentally, Krampus has been making some trouble in Austria, according to this report in The Guardian.

The dubbed English dialogue in Finding Santa is somewhat clunky and I assume it's the translation from Danish that's caused it. The whole film is an unusual diversion into a more naive, unironic style of animation, worlds away from the Pixar or Aardman type. The animation is a kind of stop-motion, drawn rendering and while it looks nice in the landscapes, it comes across as a bit jarring, even creepy, with the characters. 

One more thing to note - I couldn't work out the significance of two speaking snow statues named Joan and Kurt. Some kind of Danish folklore? 

Thanks to Tricoast Entertainment for the screener and the chance to watch something I'd never normally go for. Finding Santa is available on digital streaming platforms such as Amazon, iTunes, DirecTV, Vimeo on Demand and others.

See also:

If you like Christmas animation, have a peep at Arthur Christmas (2011), directed by Sarah Smith and Barry Cook (and co-written by Partridge alumnus, Peter Baynham) and, though I haven't seen it, Krampus (2015), directed by Michael Dougherty, could add some festive balance.