Best film this week, if flawed, is the witty and intelligent THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT. We're in LA. Julianne Moore and Annette Bening are married lesbians, neither in the first flush of youth, very much in love but with tensions emerging in the relationship. We know they are lesbians because Julianne wears no make up and sports chunky safari shorts, and Annette has short, slightly spiky hair. And because their sexual orientation is referred to about every 30 seconds.
Each has a child, product of the same anonymous donor's sperm. Joni, 18, named after Joni Mitchell (geddit? ma is a lesbian). "OMG I'm eighteeeeen, you have to let me make my own decisiooooons!". And the intriguingly named Laser (boy), 15 and all surging testosterone and moods.
Secretly the kids trace their donor Dad, Paul, and the fun starts. Cue Mark Ruffalo, an actor with much in common with Tony Blair: they both used to be the future. Ruffalo turns in an excellent performance which makes clear he should have been doing more comedy back when his career nosedived.
Is Paul a charming, right-on guy? After all he runs an organic vegetable nursery and his own restaurant. But cooking is the single best-known way to get into a lady's pants. So is he a preening narcissist who uses women? We are left in no doubt Paul is hotttt. First, we get to see his hairy chest throughout the movie. Second, the much younger woman at the nursery clearly longs for him. It's OK, it's not sexist cos she's a white chick with dreadlocks. Third, the much younger woman at the restaurant is sleeping with him. It's OK, it's not sexist cos she's a black chick with an impressively retro Afro hairdo - Angela Davis style.
THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT is great for people who like sitting around dinner tables discussing the wine and being witty. Because it's full of people having dinner and discussing the wine and being witty. Think Woody Allen, if his skin could handle the LA sun.
It's the sort of film Hollywood does very well, but not often enough these days. Harking back to the screwball comedies and 'social comedies' (Preston Sturges) of the 30s. Via genuine comedy serious issues are raised and discussed - sexual orientation, diverse families, sperm donation and the needs of the offspring, confidentiality, parenthood and adolescents, desire versus honesty. Think how appalling that would be if done without the humour.
Sister: "He donated sperm - that's, like, weird!"
Brother: "But if he hadn't, we wouldn't be here. So - respect."
But the film loses its way a little in the Third Act when suddenly it goes all earnest, letting go the wit for drama and emotion. And another flaw is to drop a major character somewhere before the traditional Hollywood resolution. But once you've seen the film you can ask whether that jettisoning is in fact the subliminal message of the film's social commentary. Answers on a postcard please.
Some may question why two lesbians get played by straight actresses. I guess Ellen Degeneres is not pretty enough, and Anne Heche has gone back to the Boy Side. But Moore and Bening deserve Oscar nominations for performances whose excellence ranges across both the comedy and the rising emotional tension of the piece. This is Bening's strongest outing since American Beauty and Moore is as good as, well, always. Maybe they can share Best Actress?
For CARLOS we turn to our guest reviewer, Simon King, who is Lecturer in Visual Culture at the University of Arts in London. Simon saw CARLOS for us and then answered our questions about this Biopic of Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, aka 70s terrorist Carlos the Jackal.
Before we go further you need to know there are two versions doing the rounds. There's the 2 hours 45 minutes version for softies. Or the 'extended version' at 6 hours 34. If you pick a screening with a break and some Q&A you are looking at an 8 hour experience (take a cushion).
DAVID RECOMMENDS: Give us your 25 word summary.
SIMON: It's one part Mesrine and two parts Baader Meinhoff Complex, liberally sprinkled with The Life of Brian, then simmer for several hours.
DAVID RECOMMENDS: Life of Brian?
SIMON: There's a slightly absurd element. Carlos is not actually very successful. He gets the nom de guerre of Carlos the Jackal because he is busted in London and the cops find the novel Day of the Jackal.
Philip French says he is a Scarlet Pimpernel character. The Bin Laden of his day - seen as behind all outrages, but actually was not. Always aiming at spectacular coups de theatre - but many actually go wrong. Partly because he's working with a bunch of disparate and unhinged Left wing groups - with those interchangeable names ridiculed in Life of Brian.
In the end he gets past his sell-by date and is shunted from country to country. The 1975 killing of a Libyan delegate at OPEC haunts him for the rest of life. So Libya won't harbour him.
DAVID RECOMMENDS: So would you recommend it?
SIMON: Definitely. It's very well done indeed. The viewer is immersed into that very different world. It seems extraordinary now that Carlos and pals keep getting away with amazing political blags. There's a couple of great set pieces - the OPEC kidnapping in Vienna - that just would not happen now because of advances in hardware and surveillance. So very relevant to the modern era, and political nostalgia at the same time.
Edgar Ramirez as Carlos gives an extraordinarily compelling performance. A truthful performance. At times he enables a faint identification. Someone taking on the Establishment. A Robin Hood figure. At times I wanted to root for him.
DAVID RECOMMENDS: Is he played as a hero? You mention the French biopic, Mesrine. (French bank robber and murderer, played by Vincent Cassel.) Those films display the cold brutality of Jacques Mesrine and yet there is no doubt he is portrayed as a hero, cleverly and audaciously outwitting the bumbling cops at every turn. Perhaps aimed at the disaffected youth of the Banlieu. Is there a moral ambiguity in CARLOS?
SIMON: There is no moral confusion. He stands against the Establishment, but I was not seduced at all. At the height of his powers Carlos explicitly imitated Che Guevara. In love with own publicity - presenting himself as an outlaw figure. In the film Carlos is good looking and seductive. But he is a bit of an idiot. Spouting soundbites like "guns are an extension of my body". A psychopathic idiot.
And now to BURKE AND HARE, a film which is much better than the sniffy reviews it is getting.
The Times gave it 2 out of 5, referring condescendingly to the Carry On films. BURKE AND HARE is both better and worse than that, if you know what I mean. High production values, and excellent design and photography make this rollicking comedy one of the best-looking British films I have seen in a long time.
But most of all it is funny. The tale of two grave robbers who morph into murderers zips along at an excellent pace. The comedy combines intelligent wit, social comment regarding both the 1830s and the present day, and no opportunity for a sick gag about death or corpses is overlooked. This is good, black humour. And it does sit well in the great British tradition of popular comedy. It is in fact an Ealing Studios production, and does not shy away from taking on that heritage.
Simon Pegg as Burke continues to establish his credentials as a serious actor in an understated performance. Which leaves the space for Andy 'Gollum' Serkis to push the envelope in the more outlandishly comedic role of Hare. Especially in one of the funniest sex scenes in cinema history. One which asks questions about today's worship of money.
Australia's pocket sweetheart Isla Fisher - surely the best contemporary comic film actress - puts in a decent shift as the strumpet / thespienne trying to put on an all-women version of The Scottish Play. And the three leads are backed up by a long list of British actors, comedians and celebrities to provide enjoyment just spotting and naming them. Another aspect in the great Ealing tradition. Just wait to see who runs into a coach-related disaster.
BURKE AND HARE lacks the sophistication of THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT. But it is an excellent and very funny piece of traditional British film comedy brought up to date via Pegg's now standardly fine input. Don't be put off by bad reviews. It's fun.
No comments:
Post a Comment