movie review

Movie Review: MONEY MONSTER (USA 2016) ****

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Deadlines to Submit your Screenplay, Novel, Story, or Poem to the festival: http://www.wildsound.ca

moneymonster.jpgMONEY MONSTER (USA 2016) ****
Directed by Jodie Foster

Starring: George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Jack O’Connell, Dominic West, Caitriona Balfe, Giancarlo Esposito

Review by Gilbert Seah

MONEY MONSTER is a star-studded sharp Hollywood satire/drama that is as current as the stock prices on the stock market charts. Financial TV personality Lee Gates (George Clooney), who offers up stock advice on his hit show “Money Monster”, is held hostage by a viewer, Kyle Budwell (Jack O’ Connell). Kyle had lost all of his money, following a bad tip from Lee during his show. Kyle wants answers. As the police surround the TV studio, Lee eventually sympathizes and takes Kyle’s side in discovering the truth about the company’s $800 million loss explained on TV as a glitch in the company’s financial algorithm.

MONEY MONSTER is a odd film in that its middle portion is better than the end. The story is predictable enough once naive Kyle takes Lee hostage. It does not take a genius to figure out that Lee will take Kyle’s side and that the villain of the piece is the CEO of the company (Dominic West) who eventually confesses to his embezzlement. But as they say, the devil is in the details. It is all the little observations and various incidents that make the movie totally watchable thus covering up the predictability complaint of the story.

Directed by Jodie Foster (THE PANIC ROOM), the film contains strong feminine roles. The most obvious is Julia Robert’s Patty Fenn, a more than able producer. She is Lee’s neglected girlfriend who proves she that she is able to control the hostage situation as well as their relationship. The other is that of Molly (Emily Meade), Kyle’s girlfriend. Molly’s speech to Kyle, on the air, on how much a loser he is, is the arguably funniest to be found in a film this year: As in recent ‘female’ films, the males (Lee, Kyle, the show producer, Walt) are all egocentric ‘idiots’. But by putting them up high on the pedestal and making it all funny, Foster gets away with it.

Performances are top notch. Clooney and Roberts work their chemistry but top marks go to Brit actor Jack O’ Connell (STARRED UP) , playing the straight role of the victim/antagonist. He demonstrates how to keep attention from waning even when the limelight shifts to another character. The other supporting roles are well performed by Dominic West as the financial villain, Walt Camby and Caitriona Balfe as Diane Lester, the whistle blower.

The incidents leading to the expected results are however genuinely inventive. The parody on found footage is take up another level with a network camera following the hostage and kidnapper down the elevator and into the street, still shooting. Lee raps on stage and offers stock tips also satirizes the financial world well. The script by Alan Di Fiore, Jim Kouf and Jamie Linden is smart enough to include clips of “The View” as everyone watches the takedown on television. Walt’s defence statement that all these would not have happened if events had worked out with the stock going up instead of down rings so true. When something illegal occurs and everyone benefits, no one says anything.

For a thriller, editing is crucial. The camera shots of the snipers crawling into position, the movement of the target, the shots of the crew behind and in front of the camera and the dance routine (to show just enough but not too much) are close to perfect.

MONEY MONSTER ultimately satisfies as it delivers what it is supposed to – a sharp and witty satire on the financial world that is both funny and smart at the same time. It features Hollywood’s top and upcoming stars at their best. Highly recommended – take this as as a movie tip!

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Movie Review: DARK HORSE (UK 2014) ***1/2

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darkhorse.jpgDARK HORSE (UK 2014) ***1/2
Directed by Louise Osmond

Review by Gilbert Seah

If one is to check imdb the internet film database, there has been no less than 4 films since 1992 that have the identical title of DARK HORSE. But this 2014 documentary by Louise Osmond is the only one that is actually about a horse – and a dark horse, not destined to win any race. DARK HORSE is the inspirational true story of a Welsh group of friends from a working men’s club who decide to take on the elite ‘sport of kings’ and breed themselves a racehorse. And one that went on to win Britain’s Grand National, enriching a lot of lives.

Director Osmond plays it safe for her documentary. The doc traces the beginning to end of the life of Dream Alliance (the horse’s name) with various highlights of him winning many races. There is also an obstacle portion near the end when Dream Alliance runs into trouble with a serious accident. “It is the end”, everyone thinks but miraculously, thanks to stem cell surgery, the horse emerges recovered and ready to race again. Will he continue to win?

The film is made up mostly of interviews by the owners of Dream Alliance oddly called the syndicate, made up of a good number of common Welsh folk. The rest is made up of archive footage of races. One wonders about the footage of the surgery of the horse undergoing stem cell surgery as it seems that it is something just put together like a re-enactment. But one can forgive Osmond for trying.

Osmond proves to be an expert at pushing all the right buttons. She primes the audiences at the very start of the film to get their hearts pumping. The narrative voiceover goes: the greatest race in the world; we were there; can be something, given the chance. She goes on to show, comically how it all got started, in a pub. It is hard not to root for common decent folk like this tight Welsh mining community coming up with a tenner a week to breed a race horse. It is wonderful to see a pub full of beer drinkers watching the television, cheering for their favourite horse at a race.

Osmond’s sense of humour works though odd at times. The funniest is her revelation of a subjects’s teeth (the subject shown at various points in the film with only two front teeth) at the end of the film.

DARK HORSE has been wowing audiences wherever it has been played. It has won the British Independent Film Award for Best Documentary and the Audience Award at Sundance for World Cinema Documentary. Everyone loves an underdog story, or in this case an underhorse story and the best thing about all this is that the story is a true life fairy tale come true.

 

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Movie Review: A BIGGER SPLASH. Starring: Tilda Swinton, Matthias Schoenaerts, Ralph Fiennes

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abiggersplash.jpgA BIGGER SPLASH (Italy/France 2015) ***
Directed by Luca Guadagnino

Starring: Tilda Swinton, Matthias Schoenaerts, Ralph Fiennes, Dakota Johnson

Review by Gilbert Seah

Luca Guadagnino’s new film after his acclaimed hit I AM LOVE is based on the 1969 Jacques Deray sex/murder flick LA PISCINE (THE SWIMMING POOL). The title A BIGGER SPLASH could mean that this film is a more modern take of the then subtle thriller, this one louder and with more sex, nudity and verbal intercourse. To be fair, both films are quite good. A BIGGER SPLASH should be examined on its own, despite the initial bad reviews it received after the Venice Film Festival premiere last year.

The story is updated and the famous Alain Delon role is now undertaken by newly popular hunk, the Belgian Mattias Schoenaerts who plays a character called Paul de Smedt. (Delon played a character called Jean-Paul.) Oddly the other three characters, Paul’s lover, Marianne (Tilda Swinton), his best friend, Harry (Ralph Fiennes) and his daughter, Penelope (Dakota Johnson) all retain their same names.

When the film opens, there is a shot of nude figure by the swimming pool. Rock legend Marianne Lane is recuperating from a throat operation on the volcanic island of Pantelleria with her partner Paul when iconoclast record producer and old flame Harry unexpectedly arrives with his daughter Penelope in tow. One can tell immediately that sex is going to be exchanged between different partners. And it happens as predicted.

The four characters (in the menage a quatre), are not particularly likeable personalities. Marianne can be considered a queen bitch, full of herself and served sexually by meek Paul which the audience will likely have no patience with, especially when he is subtly seduced by Penelope. Penelope is a spoilt rich kid. Harry is the most dislikable of the 4, being loud, offensive and abusive when he wants. On the other hand, these four are performed by 4 of filmdom’s top stars. Oscar Winner Tilda Swinton – I would see her in anything and she is always good in any film. She makes gargling sexy in the bedroom scene. Schoenaerts is now hot property after RUST AND BONE and DISORDER, proving himself apt in roles of brooding, sexy men. Fiennes and Johnson are also excellent to watch – especially them inhabiting horrid personalities.

Intriguing as the story is, the film could be shortened from its lengthy 2 hours. Two characters Mireille (Aurore Clement) and Sylvie (Lily McMenamy), Harry’s friends who show up invited by Harry could have been eliminated from the film without much effect. There is also a sudden shock in the plot at the film’s end when the chief Carabiniere announces the death of 7 Tunisian immigrants. One can only guess the purpose of this revelation as it is never made clear. It is likely that Guadagnino wishes to state that the problems of the rich, white elite are not the only problems faced by the police. The dead 7 make A BIGGER SPLASH. The snakes writhing by the pool probably is a metaphor for something else in the story.

Music and sound are appropriately used. The clanging sound invoking menace is one example. In another scene, Harry teases his listeners (and the audience) to identify “What is it? the drumming sound from a record he plays that turns out to be the banging of trash cans. The end credits Rolling Stones song “Emotional Rescue” is also suitably chosen.

The action slowly but surely unfolds in two hours of subtle sexual pleasure. Nudity, both male and female are abundant. Writer/director Guadagnino never makes it clear at the end what really happened between Penelope and Paul. It really does not matter in the long run, which makes all the guessing so neat.

A BIGGER SPLASH marks the return of the sexy moody thriller genre that was so popular in the 70’s and 80’s. Hope the film will make a return (I will refrain from using the obvious pun) to of more films in this genre.

 

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Movie Review: DHEEPAN (France 2015) ***

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dheepan.jpgDHEEPAN (France 2015) ***

Directed by Jacques Audiard

Starring: Jesuthasan Antonythasan, Kalieaswari Srinivasan, Claudine Vinasithamby

Review by Gilbert Seah

Audiard’s (UN PROPHET, RUST AND BONE) latest work, direct from Cannes and a Palme d’Or Winner, is likely the first and only French film shot largely in Tamil. In this one, as in other Audiard’s films, features a desperate protagonist trying to adapt, often successfully in a new environment after much duress and determination.

DHEEPAN is the name of the protagonist, an ex-Tamil Tiger from Sri Lanka (Antonythasan Jesuthasan) who with a woman, Yalini (Kalieaswari Srinivasan) and child (Claudine Vinasithamby) use false passports and pretend to be a family so that they can immigrate and stay in France where fraternite, legalite and egalite apparently rule. Obviously this is not the case. The three find it just as hard to assimilate, less survive in their new surroundings. They have to learn a new language a well.

The housing project they are assigned to is a front for drug trafficking. Dheepan is given the job as caretaker while his ‘wife’ a job of caregiver for a Mr. Habib (Faouzi Bensaïdi).

Dheepan works as the caretaker for ‘Block B’ and the woman as a caregiver for an old Frenchman while the girl attends school. Like Audiard’s best work UN PROPHET, he shows that prison need not occur behind closed walls.

The film contains other interesting characters besides Dheepan and his family. One is the mysterious Mr. Habib, the elder gent that the wife is hired to cook and look after The other is the Brahim (Vincent Rottiers) who develops sympathy for the wife, Yalini. Unfortunately, Brahim is done away with soon after in the film.

The film’s best segment is the one where the couple have a private talk. Dheepan confesses that he had understood an entire French conversation but finds nothing funny in the joke. The ‘wife’ tells him it is not the joke but that it is Dheepan who has no sense of humour, even in Tamil.

Lead actor Jesuthasan is himself a former child soldier with the rebel group Tamil Tigers (now an accomplished author who have written books Gorilla and Traitor) but his lack of training in acting shows. He is ill equipped to handle the dramatic scenes and ends up pouting or brooding most of the time.

Srinivasan who plays the wife fares better, eliciting both humour and sympathy in her role. But a bigger part in the film should have been written for Rottiers, who is the best actor in the film.

The film’s message appears to be that family is what one makes of it – not what is dished out in terms of blood relatives. Also, home is also what one makes of it. These come out loud and clear through the plot.

The last 15 minutes of the film goes against the grain and mood of what Audiard established so well during the rest of the film. The film opts for a cop-out happy ending after a ridiculous action film-styled shootout in which Dheepan utilizes his ex-Tamil Tigers fighting skills.

 

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DISNEY’S “ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS” PRESS CONFERENCE AND PHOTO CALL

festreviews 2016 movies, acting, Movie Review, Uncategorized , , , , , , , , , ,
Director James Bobin, producers Tim Burton, Suzanne Todd, stars Johnny Depp, Mia Wasikowska and Sacha Baron Cohen from Disney’s “Alice Through The Looking Glass” joined press for tea and a photo call today at the Corinthia Hotel in London.
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Cast: Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Mia Wasikowska, Rhys Ifans with Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen

Voice Cast: Alan Rickman, Stephen Fry, Michael Sheen, Timothy Spall

Director: James Bobin                            

Producers: Joe Roth, Suzanne Todd and Jennifer Todd, Tim Burton

Executive Producer: John G. Scotti             

Screenplay by: Linda Woolverton

Based on characters created by: Lewis Carroll

OFFICIAL BOILERPLATE:

In Disney’s “Alice Through the Looking Glass,” an all-new spectacular adventure featuring the unforgettable characters from Lewis Carroll’s beloved stories, Alice returns to the whimsical world of Underland and travels back in time to save the Mad Hatter. Directed by James Bobin, who brings his own unique vision to the spectacular world Tim Burton created on screen in 2010 with “Alice in Wonderland,” the film is written by Linda Woolverton based on characters created by Lewis Carroll and produced by Joe Roth, Suzanne Todd and Jennifer Todd and Tim Burton with John G. Scotti serving as executive producer. “Alice Through the Looking Glass” reunites the all-star cast from the worldwide blockbuster phenomenon, including: Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Mia Wasikowska and Helena Bonham Carter along with the voices of Alan Rickman, Stephen Fry, Michael Sheen and Timothy Spall. We are also introduced to several new characters: Zanik Hightopp (Rhys Ifans), the Mad Hatter’s father and Time himself (Sacha Baron Cohen), a peculiar creature who is part human, part clock. 

                 

Alice Kingsleigh (Wasikowska) has spent the past few years following in her father’s footsteps and sailing the high seas. Upon her return to London, she comes across a magical looking glass and returns to the fantastical realm of Underland and her friends the White Rabbit (Sheen), Absolem (Rickman), the Cheshire Cat (Fry) and the Mad Hatter (Depp), who is not himself. The Hatter has lost his Muchness, so Mirana (Hathaway) sendsAlice on a quest to borrow the Chronosphere, a metallic globe inside the chamber of the Grand Clock which powers all time. Returning to the past, she comes across friends – and enemies – at different points in their lives, and embarks on a perilous race to save the Hatter before time runs out. Presented in Digital 3D™, Real D 3D and IMAX® 3D, Disney’s “Alice Through the Looking Glass” opens in theatres on May 27, 2016.

Movie Review: X-MEN: APOCALYPSE (USA 2016) ****

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xmenapol.jpgX-MEN: APOCALYPSE (USA 2016) ****
Directed by Bryan Singer

Starring: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Rose Byrne, Oscar Isaac, Evan Peters, Sophie Turner, Nicholas Hoult,

Review by Gilbert Seah

From the first 15 minutes of X-MEN: APOCALYPSE, it appears that director Bryan Singer, the director of the new X-MEN movie (and the director of all the others except for X-MEN: FIRST CLASS) is going all out to outdo all the other X-MEN films in terms of yes, everything. The film begins with the first mutant born in ancient times (3600 B.C.) in Egypt. He is none other than En Sabah Nur (Oscar Isaac), and if that name is too difficult to remember, he is also called Apocalypse. He is entombed. Singer has the volume up full blast, the special effects at full throttle, 3D included, so there are tons of rocks, sharp objects and metal thrown out of the screen. If you think Singer will give audiences a break, forget it! The film is nonstop action, effects, noise and explosions all the way – the way an action super hero film should be. But he also builds in the storyline (script by Simon Kinberg), so that it is not just meaningless action.

The story involves Apocalypse resurrected in 1983. There is some humour and irony in him being disgusted by the human race ruled by weaklings. So, he decides to take over the world and rid the world of weaklings. This actually sounds not too bad an idea. So Magneto (Michael Fassbender) is conned into joining him. If Apocalypse gains the power of Professor X (James McAvoy) he can rule the world. So, it is up to Professor X aka Charles Xavier and the good X-Men to save the day. It is also good to see so many super heroes (or mutants) in a single movie – enough to satisfy any action fan. And it seems that it must be a requirement to look good to be in this film. Every male and female are drop dead gorgeous.

The action sequences especially the climax in which all the X-MEN have to join powers to destroy Apocalypse, are super well executed, much better than all the recent super hero films. The film also works because all the actors seem to take their roles seriously. But the oddest is Jennifer Lawrence as the blue Raven. She looks as if she does not want to be in the film, as she is making so much money being famous right now. She gives Professor X the kind of look: “You want to recruit me again to save the world? I have better things to do.”

Unlike DEADPOOL, BATMAN V SUPERMAN and CAPTAIN AMERICA, Singer’s film has action segments that are imaginative and cinematically stunning. The best of these has Quicksilver (Evan Peters) save his fellow X-Men amidst slow motion or stopped background to the song “Sweet Dreams”. The final fight scene in which a big silver X falls from the sky would definitely draw cheers from a packed house of elated fans. The one with Professor X’s wheelchair pulled backwards with his head tilted to the side is yet another inspirational storyboarded sequence.

The film also contains great scenes of the world being destroyed. The dialogue also contains lots of quotable lines like: You are no longer students, you are X-Men”, “I have never felt so much power in my life, “ etc.

APOCALYPSE costs a whopping $234 million to make. Singer makes sure it shows. And the results are worth it. This is the best Super Hero Action Movie so far this year. Let’s hope it pays off at the box-office.

 

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Movie Review: The People Garden. Starring: Dree Hemingway, Pamela Anderson, François Arnaud

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THE PEOPLE GARDEN (Canada/Japan 2015) ***
Directed by Nadia Litz

Starring: Dree Hemingway, Pamela Anderson, François Arnaud

Redview by Gilbert Seah

Nadia Litz’s low budget mystery drama is yet another film set in the foothills of Mt. Fuji, Japan. The recent horror film THE FOREST and the yet to be released Cannes premiered Gus Van Sant’s THE SEA OF TREES are the other recent two. What is fascinating about the film’s setting though not specifically mentioned in THE PEOPLE GARDEN, is that the Japanese with the intention of committing suicide go there to commit the deed. Director Litz’s heroine, known as Sweetpea (Dree Hemmingway) ventures to Japan to break up with her boyfriend, Jamie (Francois Arnaud). Her film is bookended by the couple dancing in a club to the an old 80’s dance song.
When the film opens, Sweetpea lands in Tokyo. But Jamie does not meet her at the airport. A Japanese called Mak (Jai Tatsuto West) shows up instead to pick her up, only to leave her at the forest parking lot. Apparently, Jamie is shooting a rock video there and is missing. Sweetpea gets to meet the film crew.

Nothing much happens in the first half of the film. Sweetpea finds nothing and is giving the runaround by everyone. But Litz’s film is far from boring as she weaves some interesting mysteries around the plot. It seems that everyone is hiding something.

Litz ups the angst with a confrontation between Seetpea and one of the stars in the shoot, Signe, played by Pamela Anderson who, Sweetpea finds out has slept with him. Pamela Anderson parodies her bombshell sex image and is simply hilarious.

Litz clearly leaves her imprint in the film. It is a feminine film without being offensive to the males. Sweetpea is a strong character but her vulnerability comes across as well, as in the scenes where she breaks down. As strong a woman that she is, the audience can see she is unable to break her love for Jamie. Jamie, though appearing fleetingly in the film, is shown as a charming character that flirts around, but not spineless. The other male characters have strong personalities too, such as the Japanese guide, Mak. This balance is quite rare films with a strong female character written and directed by female directors – credit to Litz.

Litz keeps her film an absorbing mystery to the very end. The stunning forest segments are shot by cinematography Catherine Lutes. Music by the Dirty Beaches is sufficiently upbeat to offset the mood of the film.

THE PEOPLE GARDEN has a limited run at TIFF Bell Lightbox and is the sort of small budget Canadian feature (shot in Sudbury, Ontario) that gets overlooked. But this is Litz’s second film as director (her first being HOTEL CONGRESS) and she proves a director to be reckoned with.

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Movie Review: FIRE SONG (Canada 2015)

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Deadlines to Submit your Screenplay, Novel, Story, or Poem to the festival: http://www.wildsound.ca

firesongFIRE SONG (Canada 2015) **
Directed by Adam Garnet Jones

Starring: Ma-Nee Chacaby, Morteesha Chickekoo-Bannon, Brendt Thomas Diabo

Review by Gilbert Seah

Calgary born Cree-Metis filmmaker Adam Garnet Jones’ first full length feature (he has made a few shorts) begins with a teen suicide in a First Nations community. Her brother, Shane (Andrew Martin), a young Anishinaabe man is at a crossroads at to whether to start school in Toronto or stay in the Reservation after the family comes across some inheritance money. But the family also needs the money for the family house which is in shambles, as seen by a pail collecting water from a leaking roof, at different points in the film. Shane has a girlfriend who wishes to leave with him, but Shane has a gay relationship with David (Harley Legarde-Beacham), the grandson of the community’s leader. Short of cash, Shane tries peddling drugs.

The film is a universal story about youthful dreams confined by reality, set in a remote Aboriginal community and the first LGBTQ drama by an Indigenous, two-spirited filmmaker in Canada.

Despite director Jones’ sincerity, the film is crushed by the weight of the manifold issues it tries to address – teen suicide, small town captivity, drug use, teen angst, gay love, son/mother relationship, native tradition, familial duty and perhaps a few more I might have missed. (They come so fast!) The significance of the title FIRE SONG will become apparent when you see the movie.

When a man has both a girlfriend and a gay lover, it is only a matter of time before the girlfriend finds out. And David faces this confrontation in one of the film’s better scenes.

Performances from the cast of unknowns are fair at best. The gay scene with Shane and David is nothing short of embarrassing. In fact, it is the most unrealistic gay scene I have ever seen in a movie – the two lovers just sit next to each other looking lost as to what to do next. So, finally mother decides to sell the property for the son to go to school. She should have done that long ago and saved every one so much trouble!

But FIRE SONG has played at various festivals including the Toronto and Vancouver International Film Festivals. It is also the Winner of the Air Canada Audience Choice Award at the ImagineNATIVE festival and the Winner of the Best Feature Narrative at the Reel Out Festival. Am I the only one who dislikes this film?

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Movie Review: BRIDGEND (UK/Denmark 2015) ***

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bridgendBRIDGEND (UK/Denmark 2015) ***

Directed by Jeppe Ronde

Starring: Hannah Murray, Josh O’Connor, Adrian Rawlins

Review by Gilbert Seah

BRIDGEND is the name of a Welsh town in Bridgend County in south west Wales. It is a beautiful town and the setting of the new English language Danish film photographed by Magnus Nordenhof Jønck and directed by Jeppe Ronde. If I knew how stunning the area was, I would have visited the place when I vacationed in Wales two years. ago.

But it is not the beauty of the town that is on display here. The beauty contrasts with dark goings-on that cannot be explained. Between December 2007 and January 2012 seventy-nine suicides were officially committed in the area. Most of the victims were teenagers, they hanged themselves and left no suicide notes. Danish documentary filmmaker Jeppe Rønde followed the teenagers from the area for six years and wrote the script based on their life stories.

Is it the water? What was the intent? Is it a mass murderer? Is there a cult at work? And why is it that it is always the parents who discover the suicides. The suicides take place in the woods. These are a few of the questions that spring to mind as Ronde’s film opens. But as the film progresses, it becomes clear that he wants the audience to focus on the people of the village, and how ordinary folk can turn angry and unpredictable.

When the film opens, teen Sara (Hannah Murray from GAME OF THRONES) follows her dad, Dave (Steven Waddington) as they arrive in the small town in Bridgend County. The town is haunted by suicides amongst its young inhabitants. As Sara starts hanging around teens her age, she eventually falls dangerously in love with one of the teenagers, Jamie (Josh O’Connor from THE RIOT CLUB) while Dave as the town’s new policeman tries to stop the mysterious chain of suicides.

The teens are shown by Ronde as teens are. They hang around their own, get drunk, have sex and the occasional high, from swimming naked in a cold stream or doing dangerous stunts with a speeding train. Ronde also show how irresponsible they are, often forcing his audience to take the side of the adults. The local vicar (Adrian Rawlins) has good intentions but the teens mock him. When it comes time to really help, he is at a loss what to do. “Go home,” is the best advice he can give to Sara when she is in time of need.

BRIDGEND is an accomplished debut about the mystery of the suicides. It reminds one of the classic Australian film. Peter Weir’s PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK. Like that film, there are certain mysteries in life that can never be explained. Both films do not offer closure on the mysteries, but provide clues in helping the audience interpret the happenings. BRIDGEND finishes with a dreamy sequence that spoils the authentic feel Ronde had created. That is the main flaw of the film.

Jeppe is a director to watch. In 2013, he won a Gold Lion for Best Direction, plus a bronze for cinematography for Come4 ‘The Lover’, a seemingly seedy look at one man’s obsession with sex and prostitution, with a twist. The film also won the Craft Grand Prix at Eurobest.

BRIDGEND does not open in Canada this weekend but in NYC at Cinema Village on May 6th. However, the film can be viewed on the SVOD platform as it is released as a Fandor Exclusive Digital SVOD release on the same day. Fandor is available in Canada and North America only.

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Movie Review: SUNSET SONG (UK/Luxembourg 2015) ****

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sunsetsong.jpgSUNSET SONG (UK/Luxembourg 2015) ****
Directed by Terence Davies

Starring: Mark Bonnar, Agyness Deyn, Peter Mullan, Kevin Guthrie

Review by Gilbert Seah

Terence Davies does David Lean in this adaptation of Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s novel of the same name. SUNSET SONG is considered one of the most important Scots novels of the 20th century.

The central character is a young woman, Chris Guthrie (Agyness Deyn), growing up in a farming family in the fictional Estate of Kinraddie in The Mearns in the north east of Scotland at the start of the 20th century. Life is hard, and made even more difficult as her family is dysfunctional. An early scene shows the patriarch (actor/director Peter Mullan) beating his son Will (Jack Greenlee) for using the words, “Move over, Jehovah,” to a horse in the barn. “I hate him,” Will confesses to Chris that night. But an almost unwatchable scene has Will being flogged later on. Davies shows that more harm comes about from human beings than the land, which is the star of his movie.

SUNSET SONG is Davies’ first film to have a setting in the countryside. All his other works were city bound. Yet Davies manages to bring out great beauty in his films despite their limitations. In THE LONG DAY CLOSES, for example, he has an extended lengthy shot of a carpet in the room, as the sun sets through a window. SUNSET SONG allows him the entire open country as his new playing field. And he uses it at the start of the film, for example, with the wide expansion of wheat in the fields before the camera lingers on its heroine lying in a spot in the field. Davies again shows his fondness for song as his characters often break out into a ditty, though not as often in this film as in THE LONG DAY CLOSES. Davies is also well known for his beautiful tracking shots. These can be observed in segments when his camera scans the deserted battlefields or the village paths where the villagers march to church on a Sunday morning.

A lot happens in the story as time progresses. The First World War arrives and goes. Its impact on Chris Guthrie comes in the form of her husband Ian Pirie (Chae Strachan) who leaves her and returns a different person, often beating her as a result of his postwar trauma. This part is particularly difficult to take by the audience but it follows the style of the book. It is the frailty of human beings that cause trouble. Only the land endures.

Davies omits the incestuous relationship between Chris and her father in the film. In the book, the father tries to persuade Chris to have incest with him, but is unable to force her after suffering a stroke. In the film, the audience sees the father falling out of bed screaming for his daughter, Chris, reaching for the door knob only to have the door locked from the outside by Chris. Davies leaves the scene to be interpreted by the audience.

The film strongest moments occur between Chris and her father. During his funeral, Chris breaks down crying at her father’s casket, unable to leave him a farewell kiss. In reality, she is unable to feel the love for this man who has given up his life for the land and his family.

The title of the film and novel indicates the fond passing of the old, traditional ways and the coming of the new. SUNSET SONG is the first of Gibbon’s trilogy “A Scots Quair”. It would be very welcome if Davies undertook the next book in a sequel to this beautiful SUNSET SONG.

 

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