My Neighbour Adolf

This is a neat little 'Is he or isn't he?' comedy-drama about an elderly Jewish man living in the Colombian countryside who comes to believe that Adolf Hitler has moved in next door. Director (and co-writer) Leon Prudovsky opens this Israeli/Polish co-production in Germany in 1934, then swiftly time-jumps to 1960, just after the capture of Adolf Eichmann in Argentina. 

The premise is faintly ridiculous but mixing potential farce with holocaust themes is brave, to say the least. Mr. Plonsky lives a fairly ascetic lifestyle, and crucially, alone (the flashback opening shows him with a large family), when he is made aware of a buyer, a Mr. Herzog, for the rundown house next to his rundown house. He's a proper misery-guts, the only thing he seems to care about are the black roses in his patchy garden - a nice visual link to the past. Imagine then, the shit that hits the fan (well, hand) when he finds that his new neighbour's dog (German Shepherd, obviously) has been messing with the flowers. It's during the resulting confrontation that Plonsky realises he's living next to the Fuhrer.

David Hayman (Plonsky) and Udo Kier (Herzog/Hitler) are really understated, even quite melancholy, while the other satellite characters - including Olivia Silhavy as Herzog's assistant Frau Kaltenbrunner, and Kineret Peled as an Israeli intelligence officer - play things a tick broader. There are a couple of nice little touches that make this a cut above the average. Plonsky is collecting books on Hitler to gather research when the bookstore attendant surreptitiously hands over a copy of Mein Kampf; Plonsky's amateur surveillance of Herzog reveals his height, eye colour and artistic bent, but not (yet) his lack of one testicle; simple close-ups of sliding eyehole slots and antique buzzers on wooden doors, crappy metal cups for vodka, and egg shells being crushed give this an authentic look, not to mention the functional but funky looking chess sets. 

But the key point in the film is how they deal with the crux of the issue - is he, or isn't he, Hitler? During the course of Plonsky's 'investigation', the two men strike up a kind of rapprochement, mainly over games of chess, and at one point he comes to believe he may have got it all wrong. Until he overhears something that swings the pendulum back the other way. I'll say no more, only that the climax is completely satisfying and somewhat believable too. Well worth your time.

My Neighbour Adolf starts at the Luna on April 27th

See also:

Chris Weitz's Operation Finale (2018) is a tense film about Eichmann's capture, and Udo Kier is in the underrated Shadow of the Vampire (2000), directed by E. Elias Merhige. [David Hayman is also in Time of the Eagle (1979) about Nazi refugees hiding in South America, but I haven't seen it, I just thought it was a coincidence.]

The Innocent

This film is proof that the romantic comedy genre doesn't always need to be insufferable Hollywood shite, if indeed The Innocent can even be classified as a rom-com. It's about a young bloke, his best friend, his mum and her new hubby. There's pathos, mild threat, humour and romance, all balanced and pitched just about right. 

Director and co-writer, Louis Garrel also stars as Abel, widower and perhaps the innocent of the title. His best friend (and also best friend of his late wife) is Clémence, played by a stellar Noémie Merlant, and while their relationship is a potential for juice, the story actually revolves around Abel's mum's new partner, and his status as an ex-con. Mum Sylvie (Anouk Grinberg) teaches theatre in prisons, where she has met and fallen in love with Michel (Roschdy Zem), and upon his release - they've said the vows in prison - they start a new life, and business together. Abel, meanwhile, doesn't trust Michel and therefore starts tailing him. Of course, things don't work out so well.

The laughs aren't played for guffaws, there's a milder tone to the whole film, but there are some standout moments, one in particular might just be the best set piece of the year so far. Garrel must have built the film around this one scene - a 'fake' couple's argument in a late night truck stop. It's a proper zinger, it really hits on the perfect blend of giggles and emotion. The stretchy premise is that Abel and Clémence need to distract a trucker to give Michel and his dodgy mate enough time to steal some gear from said dude's truck. The scene starts out silly, almost slapstick until things take a deeper turn and we are left to guess where the act ends and real feelings begin. Superbly played by all.

The film as a whole is not an epic in scale or substance but it is light, sweet and not entirely predictable, with Merlant as the stand-out, she's more than watchable in most things these days. The Innocent is a surprisingly pleasant example of this kind of film done in a raw sugar fashion, no artificial sweetener for this bunch.

The Innocent is playing now at Palace and Luna cinemas.

See also:

Merlant is excellent again in Céline Sciamma's Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019), and Zem is also in Fred Cavayé's fantastic Point Blank (2010).

Beau is Afraid

Ohhhhh, the humanity! I try not to pile on a film, especially if the people behind it mean well, and sure, everyone's entitled to a 5 nil drubbing now and then, but this one severely tested my patience. I haven't seen Hereditary or Midsommar, writer/director Ari Aster's previous two features, so I didn't know what to expect. Beau is Afraid is based on one of the director's shorts, Beau, from 2011, and how he went from a 7 minute runtime to an eyeball-burning 180 (or near enough) is pretty astounding.

Possibly the most egregious issue is that it starts so well. The first quarter (and a smidge) of the film is darkly funny, clever and brutally promising. At the natural break point between the first and second acts, a thought popped into my noggin *There's nowhere to go from here* and I was unfortunately bang on. Oddly, it looks like there are four acts in the film, each one exponentially decreasing in quality.

Joaquin Phoenix does his best with the material but he's asked to wander, sometimes stagger, occasionally bolt through the film in a state of panic, and after three hours, even this fine actor begins to wear thin. The film sets up Beau (Phoenix) as an anxiety-riddled, doughy bloke, who lives in an absolute shithole, with nutters filling every frame - the journey from his therapist's office to his grubby apartment is one of the rare highlights. The story centres on him trying to get to his mother's house and how events, real or imagined (it's anyone's guess), stymie his attempts. 

Now, I'll admit, when a film bores me to near insensibility, analysing it seems moot, so it's very possible that I've missed a lot of the 'meaning' behind all the garbage that infests this film. There are elements of Barton Fink, Misery, The Truman Show, Hard to Be a God, Kafka and Orwell perhaps, I even felt a bit of Aphex Twin or The Jesus and Mary Chain with the musical disturbances enacted by composer, The Haxan Cloak (Bobby Krlic). That mess of a list I've just mentioned has a some quality on it (Fink reigns supreme) and this film had a chance to be something more than a disparate collection of bits patched together in a psychiatric motley. Sadly, it looks like hubris or pretentiousness or just a lack of judgement has won the battle in the edit suite of Aster's brain.

Beau is Afraid opens on April 20 at Luna and Palace cinemas.

See also (or instead):

Phoenix is possibly the best American actor going around, as his turn in Lynne Ramsey's fantastic You Were Never Really Here (2017) illustrates. Spike Jonze dealt with a pair of Nic Cages, one suffering almost Beau-level anxiety in Adaptation (2002).

November

This tautly directed police procedural is based on the aftermath of terrorist attacks in Paris in 2015, specifically how the anti-terror squad dealt with the investigation and a potential follow-up bombing. Director (and co-writer with Olivier Demangel and number of 'scenario consultants'), Cedric Jimenez is carving a niche for himself in the 'no nonsense, muscular but cool crime/terror' genre, with films like The Connection, BAC Nord and Under Watch, as well as an adaptation of the Laurent Binet book, HHhH, The Man with the Iron Heart. 

As with many films of this ilk, it's full of impassioned phone conversations, whippy camera movements indicating a melee of barking activity, and tension-raising scenes where something goes momentarily wrong, only to be saved at the last minute. The performances are suitably stoic, to the point of near parody (honestly, there's a rizla paper between Jean Dujardin's work here and his great turn in Deerskin), but on the whole, there's the right amount of dourness for the subject matter. Anaïs Demoustier and Lyna Khoudri provide the heart, as a junior detective and a desperate informant respectively.

Aside from the predicament involving Khoudri's Samia, there's precious little screen time allocated to the motives of the terrorists or even the effects the hunt had on the minorities of France. Sure enough, murderous fundamentalists may not deserve too deep a dive, but the whole film was pretty obdurate in its militarism, wrapped up with an uncomfortable 'promise' at the climax. 

A reasonably solid doco-inflected drama. Enjoyable, though not without reservations. 

November was part of the Alliance Francaise French Film Festival and is showing at Palace and Luna cinemas from May 11th.

See also:

There are similarities with Peter Berg's surprisingly watchable The Kingdom (2007), and for a different era of terrorism, have a peep at Fred Zinnemann's The Day of the Jackal (1973).

VERY MILD SPOILERS IN POD...

The Super Mario Bros. Movie (Me) (Kids)

I was expecting a celluloid headache from this 'content venture' but only the rainbow Bifrost was an optical assault, the rest was simply bright animation. It should be noted that the content creators have shoe-horned the word 'movie' into the title. I've been trying to avoid any reference to it being a 'film' but that's perhaps a little unfair. Let's face it, this is a cash grab that will most likely succeed, where the live action version from 1993, starring Bob Hoskins, didn't. The target market - children - will gobble it up, if the audience I saw it with is anything to go by.

Now, if you're familiar with the Mario Bros. Nintendo game or any derivation thereof, you'll recognise elements from those irritating seizure-events. There are many of the characters from the games, so my kids tell me, such as Bowser, Toad, Princess Peach and Donkey Kong (even I know that last one). These big-eyed attempts at cuteness are voiced by (in order) Jack Black, Keegan Michael Key, Anya Taylor-Joy and Seth Rogen, not to mention the plumbers, Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day). All are fine, Black even gets a couple of comic piano turns to show off his musical chops. 

So, plot. Mario and Luigi get accidentally spirited into the Nintendo world, where Bowser is attempting to wrest control of the whole place AND marry Peach for good measure. The Kong crew are approached to join Peach (in a Black Panther echo) and Luigi is in some strife in the Darklands. As Mario travels through a kaleidoscopic pipe and lands in a mushroom field, it's no stretch to read this all as a cinematic drug trip.

I feel this will be one of the most critic-proof pieces of entertainment in recent memory. Kids will want to see it, parents will have no choice and the gaming runoffs will run into the billions. It matters not one jot whether it's any good or not. As Joe Pesci says in The Irishman, it's what it is. And, in fairness, it's not the worst kids' film I've seen. But I wouldn't want to see it again.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie is showing everywhere.

See also (well, not strictly recommendations):

According to a bloke at work, there was an odd film made in 1989 called The Wizard, directed by Todd Field, to promote the release of Super Mario Bros. 3. Also, as a weird companion piece, you could check out that live action 1993 version, Super Mario Bros., directed by Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton. I wouldn't, though.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves

Full disclosure - I know bugger all about the game on which this film is based, except that it's loved by nerds all over the world. Well, nerds rejoice, because this is the start of a franchise that will likely peak around film number three and peter out slowly until the money dries up. But let's not think about the future, this first one is a great lark. Plot contrivances aside, it's a breezy little number that didn't outstay it welcome (it's just over 2 hours) and it doesn't try to be anything more than a jokey, charming action fantasy. There are numerous rip-offs or homages - Lord of the Rings, The Princess Bride, even Serenity, at a pinch, and it's all held together by Chris Pine's endearingly failure-laden chancer, Edgin.

The opening hammers through the backstory, introduces the main characters and antagonists, and positions the heroes' journey, all in a functional, albeit slightly muddled manner (I didn't quite catch the reasoning for their initial plan with the vault). The world-building is mercifully brief (not a lot of fan-service so far), yet nice enough to look at, and the action scenes have had a bit of thought put into them. There's one 'reverse' heist involving a carriage and a 'hither-thither staff' that zings along with ingenuity (though it's slightly reminiscent of Rick and Morty).

The cast is pretty handy - late-career, no-fucks-given Hugh Grant is loving the craic as Forge; Michelle Rodriguez is constantly inches away from corpsing as Holga; Regé-Jean Page plays it straight and stiff as ultra-cool Xenk; Justice Smith as half-arsed sorcerer, Simon, and Sofia Lillis as a shape-shifting druid round out the main players, with Pine at the epicentre. There's also his daughter, Kira (Chloe Coleman), and a fearsome wizard, Sofina (who looks like Claire Foy but is actually Daisy Head) to provide the peril.

There are tropes we've all seen before and some folk may bridle at the sentimentality, though it's reasonably mild in this. The co-directors, John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein are responsible for the surprisingly fun, Game Night and they have a few other writing successes to their credit too (Horrible Bosses, Spider-Man: Homecoming). With D & D, they've gone and put together an old-fashioned fantasy romp that should satisfy enough pan-generational tits to engender further trips to Westeros, or Middle Earth, or Florin, or whatever the fuck this land is called. When a bear owl pulls a bit of the old 'Hulk-on-Loki', you can't really quibble. I had a near-complete ball with this.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves is playing now in most cinemas (though I saw it at the excellent Palace in Raine Square).

See also:

I was mainly thinking of Rob Reiner's brilliant The Princess Bride (1987), but occasionally drifting towards Richard Donner's underrated Ladyhawke (1985), starring Roy Batty, Catwoman and Ferris Bueller (!).