On The Big Screen, Reviews

Knife + Heart – Fragments Festival Review

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Yann Gonzalez has been a prolific filmmaker who has a keen and obvious eye for visuals and provocative cinema. From directing You and the Night to producing the criminally underseen We Are the Flesh, his work has stirred and offended in equal measures.

Now he returns with his absolutely delightful, funny, and brilliantly trashy Knife + Heart.

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Directed by Yann Gonzalez and starring Vanessa Paradis (of this fame,) Knife + Heart revolves around a third-rate gay porn director Anne in Paris during the Summer of 1979. After her lover and editor Lois leaves her, Anne is dismayed and looks to shoot her most ambitious film yet, alongside extroverted yet trusted friend Archibald. However, when one of her actors is found brutally murdered, Anne is thrown into an investigation that turns her life upside-down!

Knife + Heart is both a stunning depiction of the unbridled sexual seventies and over-the-top thriller films of that period too. Reminiscent of movies such as Brian De Palma’s phenomenal Phantom of the Paradise and the crazed antics of El Topo, Knife + Heart is a dream-like fantasy. Drenching in pastel colours, Gonzalez presents this almost fantastical slasher film that dives deep into the gay porn scene and confident self-identity plagued by blood and darkness.

Paradis is a brilliant anti-heroine. She is a somewhat crazed and grief-stricken character who is deeply affected by the murders that happen around her but gives off this loud offish personality that bristles all those around her.  It is fantastic to watch Paradis tackle this brutish woman who is unabashed yet still sympathetic and sensitive to her surroundings. Anne is a fantastic character who utilises scenes around her into her gay porn film Homocidal (which, I wish existed as its own movie.

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Most of all, Knife + Heart is a sumptuous watch brings this dream-like nature into fruition. There is a lot of beauty within her – whether it is the sun-soaked Parisian countryside or the white clothed walls of the intense film. Filled with freed sexuality and an abundance of earnest characters, Gonzalez has honoured the period setting and embellished it with modern colours and filming. Giallo in some aspects, De Palma in others, and even venturing into the world of Mighty Boosh (with its utterly bizzare villain,) the movie delves into the excess of porn and horror and marries them in gorgeous package.

Whilst it may not find a terribly big audience, Gonzalez’ film will find a terribly committed one.

Knife + Heart is playing at Fragments Festival 
Buy Tickets Now. 

On The Big Screen, Reviews

Teen Spirit – Fragments Festival Review

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By Sandra Collingham

It is a tale as old as time. A young pop starlet dreams of fame and fortune with their singing and are soon thrust into the terrifying world. We’ve seen it over and over again in movies such as the recent Oscar winner A Star Is Born, and before that the 1976 A Star Is Born, and before that Judy Garland’s A Star Is Born, and finally the 1934 movie A Star Is Born.

Anyway, regardless, pop stardom and ingénue fame have sparked many outings on the big screen. Teen Spirit is a film hoping to twist the narrative into a more contemporary feel with Elle Fanning leading the way.

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Directed by Max Minghella (best known for his acting roles in movies such as Horns and 10 Years,) the film revolves around Violet, a shy Polish born British teenager who dreams of life beyond her small town. Wishing to pursue her passion of singing, relegated to wailing in pubs, Violet enters a singing contest with the help of an unlikely mentor. Soon she is thrust into the competition and the bright lights of the pop-world.

Set to an outrageously catchy soundtrack that ranges from Ellie Goulding to Sigrid, Teen Spirit is a vivid and energetic film that captures the ferocity of a pop-singing and being a teenager in equal measure. Shot by cinematographer Autumn Durald, famed for crafting music videos such as Janelle Monae and Haim, Teen Spirit has a definite look and feel that embellishes colour and crafts this modern vivid feel to the film. It’s a stunning watch that matches the confidence of Minghella’s direction and the catchiness of whatever tune is blasting out. It is somewhat of an addictive watch.

Elle Fanning perhaps acts her hardest and brushes off any naysayers she has about her acting talent. Here she imbues Violet with a vibrancy, a hopefulness and also has pipes to match. Fanning also gifts Violet a complexity that may not have been there in the initial script and whilst Violet may seem like a character without too much writing, Fanning gives her personality which triumphs here.

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The biggest problem with Teen Spirit is that it is desperately clichéd, presenting us with a story that has been told over and over again with only the flare to set it apart from the rest. This may make the film a predictable watch as well as a very shallow one too. The script and subsequent film somewhat wastes the character by never delving deeper than it should’ve done which is a great shame.

That being said, whatever surface level it skims, it does so gleefully – with all the talent of Elle Fanning and all excitement of the titular Teen Spirit.

Fragments Festival plays 7th – 15th June! 

Reviews

Late Night – Review

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Comedy-drama films are a great little subsection that are struggling. In between movies juggernauts such as Avengers: Endgame and small independent movies, mid-level movies that are perfect family watches seem to be struggling.

Hopefully, latest venture Late Night can change the curve.

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Late Night revolves around Katherine Newbury, a legendary talk-show host and pioneer in her field, being the only woman in the profession. However, her ratings are low and the head of network is firing her. In order to turn this around, Newbury demands more women in her writing team to shake-up the status quo. In comes Molly Patel, a chemical plant expert with a penchant for writing comedy. This is much to the chagrin of the other male writers. As the tough Newbury battles down on Molly, as well as the bullying from her co-workers, can she survive this new position?

Directed by Nisha Ganatra and written by Kaling herself, the film is a smart and ultimately hilarious movie about two women at two ends of their respective professionals, learning to work with one another. There is a lot of rapid-fire lines that truly make you laugh but there is absolute heart . It’s a very droll piece that gets to the soul of the characters.

These are played perfectly by Emma Thompson and Mindy Kaling. Thompson brings a brilliant charisma to Newbury whilst still balancing her cold aloofness as the talk show host learns to grow. As always, Thompson digs into the root of emotional turmoil for Newbury and fleshes her character out greatly. Kaling makes a good accompaniment, crafting her own path as the sweet but naïve Molly. Though you’d have to suspend true belief (as with all comedy films in this ilk) that her character could make a quick progression through her career, she is still an carefully written and performed character with all the charm of Kaling.

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Kaling and Thompson have loads of chemistry together which makes for an extremely watchable film. It’s sweet and tender, even if the movie may lag a little bit. Late Night particularly struggles when it tries to stick it’s highest emotional moment and has a seriously underdeveloped somewhat antagonist who is thrown away after he commits the worst act.

Still, Late Night is an endearing comedy that has all the right laughs. You’ll root for all the characters including it’s sweet romantic elements that aren’t necessary but still add a layer to the proceedings.

On a final point, it is great to stress how superb the outfits are here. Whilst this does lean more towards Emma Thompson’s outfits (they are literally gag-worthy), Mindy Kaling also has great   It is a phenomenal use to convey characters through their clothing.

OK, actually, one more final point – wouldn’t this make a lovely accompaniment to the highly underrated movie The Intern?

Late Night is in cinemas now! 

Reviews, Sundance London

The Last Tree – Sundance Film Festival London Review

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Writer-director Shola Amoo’s debut feature, A Moving Image, about the gentrification of Brixton, a neighbourhood of South West London predominantly occupied by Afro-Caribbean residents from the 1940s to the early 2010s, was a didactic and at times tedious work that straddled drama and documentary. It does not prepare you for his exceptional second feature, The Last Tree, in which Amoo redefines what we think of as a British film.

It tells the story of Femi (played as an eleven year old by Tai Golding and as a late teenager by Sam Adewunmi) who is reclaimed by his Nigerian birth mother (Gbemisola Ikumelo) and taken from rural Lincolnshire to inner city London. In his new home, where love isn’t demonstrated and his mother leaves him alone, Femi is expected to sweep the floor, keep his room tidy, feed himself and not watch television. In his new classroom, he is mocked for his name. Cut to several years later and he is sure of himself but drawn into unspecified criminal behaviour, which coincides with his disinterest with his exams. He is given a mobile phone by a criminal with the promise of an upgrade.

You might expect the story to be told in a social-realist way or else with an agenda. Not so. The stylised opening, set against golden wheat fields has Femi indulge in horseplay with white kids in an unproblematic manner. Each boy yells in sequence at the others whilst in a circle, the camera panning around them. In a second sequence, Femi breaks away from the group and yells alone. This prefigures the rupture to come.

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His middle-aged foster mother (Denise Black) doesn’t want to give him up. Femi does not want to leave. He is compelled to do so. The car journey to London in which the landscape changes from rural to urban, always out of focus, takes longer than you might ordinarily expect. Amoo does not obey the conventions of economical storytelling. He wants to give sequences a weight, as well as their own momentum. It is as if he wants you to forget about expectation, to break cinema’s shorthand of cause and effect and with it our understanding of Femi’s psyche, so that there is no clear cut way he will react. His destiny isn’t written by the things that happen to him.

The adjustment in the storytelling has the effect of challenging stereotypes. There are two sequences that exemplify this superbly.

First is a scene in which Femi is beaten up in the street and he lies off the curb in the road for the longest time, getting up slowly. In another movie, this would be the catalyst for a revenge attack, but the way Femi gets to his feet is considered. It is hard; Femi’s sense of hurt is conveyed. Yet the sequence stresses his endurance; he has taken the worst someone has thrown at him.

In a later sequence, in Lagos, Femi is in a front room and waits. In front of him is an ornamental elephant tusk. Behind him is a tall, ornate staircase. A maid asks him if he wants a drink. He refuses. She asks the question several different ways, but neither receives the acknowledgement nor gratification of receiving a request, as if he had rendered her purposeless. Femi then sits alone, waiting for the longest time before his mother reappears. Then he has cause to go into another room. Amoo makes the delay the point; what happens next is an anti-climax – one he has prepared us for.

With the un-naturalistic lighting and out-of-focus backgrounds (cinematography: Stil Williams) Amoo creates an atmosphere that is slightly dreamy. We are not entirely sure when the film is set – the mobile phone suggests the last decade. Femi is at odds with both his mother and his teacher (Nicholas Pinnock) but becomes protective of a girl in class who is mocked for her blue braids and called either ‘Blix’ (slang for a gun) or ‘blick’ (slang for smoking pot) – I’m not sure of the meaning; I may need that 2008 video by Dizzee Rascal to help me. Amoo isn’t interested is establishing a relationship between them, rather to show Femi’s changing state of mind.

The film does not pit two cultures – Nigerian and British – against one another. Femi questions his foster mother’s motives and receives an explanation that he sort of accepts. He isn’t defined by ‘street music’ either. Femi finds that he likes the synthesized sound of New Order, perhaps because he is culturally synthesized himself.

The Last Tree is a vividly alive film that pulls you away from a ‘reading’. It is not a film that anchors itself to a value system. Femi is no more defined by his Nigerian heritage than by his English upbringing. The film makes a really compelling case for making us rethink identity and for appreciating people in the here and now, not as individuals severed from an authentic, defining culture but as adaptable people who can, as Amoo does in a compelling manner, create something new. It also makes The Last Tree one of the most important British films of the year.

The Last Tree screens at PictureHouse Central, Piccadilly, Central London, on 1 and 2 June and is on general release in September 2019.

On The Big Screen, Reviews

Corporate Animals – Sundance Film Festival London Review

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Movies can be many things. They can be life-changing dramas that go on to win Oscars. They could be epic blockbusters, seeing phenomenal fighting sequences on the big screen. They could be whacky comedies, stirring spectacles, the batshit insane, and the ones filled with pain.

Sometimes, they are just dumb, That’s Corporate Animals – a nasty little comedy “horror” that is both hilarious and silly and owns it completely.

Directed by Patrick Brice the film revolves around employees of the Incredible Edibles – America’s premiere provider of eatable cutlery. CEO Lucy is an egotistical manager who takes her long-suffering employees on a retreat through the caving systems of New Mexico. Once inside, a cave-in happens, killing their guide. The employees now have to survive which would be easier if they didn’t all hate each other. Cue hilarious antics, sexual tension, business revelations, and as Wikipedia calls it, “casual cannibalism.”

Directed Brice has gifted us with many funny and different movies such as found-footage horror Creep and, my favourite, The Overnight. Corporate Animals may just be his stupidest movie yet that works because it is as hilarious as it is bonkers. Unfortunately for our ragtag bunch of employees (who don’t necessarily like each other,) everything that’ll happen in a daring cave-in rescue, happens. And it is comical to watch it unfold in this, frankly, bizarre manner. There’s the tasteless and the downright stupid as well as the inspired and bloody brilliant.

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The acting talent is on-point: Demi Moore leads the cast as the insufferable Lucy whilst Jessica Williams and Karan Soni play her hapless assistants vying for a better position – with Soni being the true star here as he realises exactly the trauma Lucy has put them through. But the movie also features Ed Helms, Isiah Witlock Jr, Nasim Pedrad, and more who bring their own different energies from the deadpan to the whacky.

The film does dive into power-structures and how bosses can manipulate their employees into working hard, doing sexual favours, and also venturing down a great big cave. This iota of meaning does give some depth to our characters and why they may behave in a certain way. However, it isn’t fleshed out as well as it could be and with our gang of helpless lead characters, you can’t help but want more from them.

Still, Corporate Animals is a romp. Well – not a romp – because they are stuck underground, but an adventure nonetheless. It’s laugh out loud hilarious whilst also making your toes curl in the most exquisite and perfect way. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea but for fans of Brice’s previous work and those who can appreciate the outright perfect dumbness of this movie will absolutely adore it.

It is as though 127 Hours took one big bong hit and just kept going…Corporate Animals is a comedy delight!

Corporate Animals plays at Sundance Film Festival London 
30th May – 2 June 

On The Big Screen, Reviews

The Death of Dick Long – Sundance Film Festival London Review

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Swiss Army Man is arguably one of the best (and misunderstood) movies of 2016. The black comedy titled from directors’ Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (collectively known as Daniels) revolved around Paul Dano’s castaway character who finds a dead body (played by Daniel Radcliffe in what is, again, arguably his best performance) and uses it to get off the island.  The movie is a splice of magical realism that balanced the downright bizarre with an absolute emotional journey, Swiss Army Man was a tender and hilarious film that most need to see.

I’m saying this because the minute Scheinert’s name appeared on the screen for The Death of Dick Long, I knew it was going to be an absolute fucked-up ride with emotional beats throughout.

Part sick comedy, part mystery, and part family drama, The Death of Dick Long revolves around three friends, Zeke, Earl, and the titular Dick who are in a band together. After practise, they decide to kick their drinking up a notch and things get a little weird.  Starring Michael Abbott Jr, Virigina Newcomb, and Andre Hyland,

The Death of Dick Long is a ultimately about two dopey men who have fucked up massively and continue to do so as they try to cover their tracks. The pair are a naïve and bumbling duo who come across as teenagers stuck in men’s bodies. There’s a scene where the flippant Earl has to lie to Dick’s suffering wife. The scene is treated as though Earl is a child who avoids eye contact because he knows he has messed up and it’s great to watch Andre Hyland play with this adolescent filming. It’s even set at a school! Their absolute travesty in shirking responsibility and their crimes make for a compelling watch.

What pulls Dick Long out of the ham-fisted slapstick territory is Scheinert’s ability to flesh these characters out, namely Zeke. Played greatly by Michael Abbot Jr, Zeke’s journey here is a complex one and yet surprisingly a tragic one too. The film may be about that moment allude to in the title but it’s also about Zeke accepting that parts of himself are just…fucked up. As he tries to hide it from his family – getting into all sorts of hi-jinks along the way. Not the most likeable of heroes, but certainly one that you empathise with most, Abbott is terrific alongside Scheinert’s confident direction.

The Death of Dick Long is picturesque too which does wonders in juxtaposing the tone. As mentioned before, this could easily have become silly. Yet linger shots that allow the actors to open up, the back-streets of small town Alabama, and reflections across a quiet lack leave inedible impressions.

With shades of The Coen Brothers, The Death of Dick Long is a reverent film that subverts its own twist. By piecing together beautiful cinematography and incredible performances from Michael Abbott Jr, Newcomb, and Andre Hyland, Scheinert’s film burns with an almost poetic heart.

Those special “things got weird” nights have happened to the best of us and what Scheinert’s does here is humanize the weird and whilst Dick Long is a funny watch, it is also an impossibly tragic one too.

The Death of Dick Long is playing at Sundance Film Festival London 30th May to 2 June! 

Talking Movies and Making Them Too