David recommends . . . . . . . . . . . . THE FIGHTER

The best film around. As good as BLACK SWAN or THE ROYAL SPEECH THERAPY, and this time not about posh people.

Yes, it's about boxing, but it's a lot less violent than those ballet gals. But THE FIGHTER is not really a boxing film, it's about family dynamics. It asks the question, "Is blood truly thicker than water?" Just that some of this particular blood is spattered on the canvas of pugilism. Most of the time we do not see any boxing, and when we do the punches are way more predictable than the truly shocking violence of SWAN.

It's a really good film, bleak and slow-paced, reminiscent of the best of Clint Eastwood's work - Mystic River or Gran Torino. We are in the US rust belt, the heartland, a world of economic collapse, urban decline, and crack houses. Think The Wire, but with mostly white folks.

The perennially under-rated Mark Wahlberg is excellent as dumb but determined but going nowhere boxer Mickey. He is the hub of a huge and nightmarish family, who could have been rejected by Jerry Springer for being too OTT.

Hysterically over-acting Christian Bale is his addict-brother-coach. Keeping it in the family as his manager is his hideously domineering working class matriarch of a mother. Let's say this is not the best team a boxer could have behind him. 

On top of that dreadful duo, poor Mickey has what seems like 100 sisters, all of them appalling, all big hair and constantly calling people "you fucking skank". They steal the show, providing a unique combination of Greek chorus and top-notch humour.

Best performance of all has garnered a third supporting actress Oscar nomination for the wonderful Amy Adams, following the great shifts she put in on JUNEBUG and DOUBT. With her giant, hyper-cute saucer eyes - even bigger than Anne Hathaway's - Adams normally plays adorable ingenues. But here she is as tough as they come, and as Mickey's new girlfriend is the agent of plot change encouraging her feckless man to stand up to the clan from hell. The best boxing action of the whole film happens when the harridans turn up to stop her interfering with family business. It's all, like, "You fucking skank!" "Don't call me a skank, you fucking skank!" Whack! Pow! Aaaagh! Grunt. "Oh my Gaaahd!" 

It's worth the ticket price just to see Adams' and Wahlberg's performances.

THE FIGHTER is an excellent film about relationships and family ties and the conflicts between them and personal aspirations. Wahlberg's Micky finds himself in a genuine dilemma, providing a sterner test than anything he meets in the ring. Will he resolve it? Watch and see, and if you think the plot is heading in typical Hollywood hype direction bear in mind that THE FIGHTER is a true story.

David recommends . . . THE BLACK SWAN

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Do you like ballet? Then this may not be for you. A high culture pal of mine reported that THE BLACK SWAN is one of the most violent films they'd seen. Relax, it's not Driller Killer, or even Reservoir Dogs. But I've not seen an audience look away from the screen so much since The Exorcist. This is the bunny boiler version of The Red Shoes.

I was completely gripped by TBS. I've never been able to take ballet seriously, not seeing how standing let alone shuffling about on tiptoe has aesthetic value. And as for the bit where they run the length of the stage to jump two feet into the air, well it's nature's way of showing that the human power to weight ratio means watching real birds take off will always be more beautiful. 

But TBS is not really about the ballet. It's about competitive women going bonkers through under-eating, pushy Moms, and sexual frustration. Yes, it's Black Narcissus with extra Freud on the side.  A great drama / thriller with a good script, well-directed. And I've always loved the music to Swan Lake, which here is edited into the off-stage action superbly, as well as the dancing itself.

Two criticisms. 

The first half is a wonderful interplay of relationships between 5 people, with Natalie Portman's troubled Nina at the hub. But i the second half we focus in on Nina's inner world so much that the other characters are shifted to the periphery. That's down to the script, but I can;t help feeling that a true master of the psycho-genre like Hitchcock would have been able to retain the interplay between inner and outer worlds.

Second caveat is, sorry here I go again, political. You may not notice this because of the terrific edge-of-seat drama, but TBS is yet another movie which features those dodgy cliches linking women with madness, creativity with madness, and madness with violence. 

But don't let that stop you from seeing it. TBS is even better than the King's Speech, being far more of a roller coaster ride in its passionate tensions. And it's worth thte ticket price just for the maturing Portman's excellent performance. She must be the front runner in a competitive field for the Best Actress Oscar.

David recommends . . . BLUE VALENTINE

If you are open to watching a film other than The King's Speech this week then I cannot recommend BLUE VALENTINE highly enough. TKS is a very good film; BLUE VALENTINE is a much better one. This is an excellent, low budget indie which has received considerable plaudits at Sundance and the Golden Globes. It is a searing, emotionally honest tale of a relationship at two stages, one very good, and the other, well, very bad.

What works so well in a very intelligent script is that the two stages, the happy and romantic early days, and the trouble and strife later on, are told in parallel via dramatic intercutting. It's not easy to watch at times but it is always gripping. A strong story, well told.

But the even better reason for seeing BLUE VALENTINE is the exceptional acting by the leads, Michelle Williams as Cindy and Ryan Gosling as Dean. Williams is turning into one of the best young actresses around and has an leading actress Oscar nomination for this role.

Williams is less known to many of you out there than other actresses because she is not Hollywood blockbuster material. She emerged in teen TV rom-drama Dawson's Creek (alongside Katie 'Mrs Cruise' Holmes), but came to movie prominence as a Heath Ledger's girlfriend in Brokeback Mountain (her first Oscar nomination).

Since then Williams has set about becoming the Queen of US Indie Cinema. She impressed in 2008's Wendy and Lucy as a metaphorically lost young woman wandering the Oregon landscape looking for her literally lost dog while trying to get to Alaska. She was even better in Mammoth (2009) as the harassed young doctor and mother who realises her long working hours mean her daughter is becoming more attached to her Phillipino nanny than to her. Both are excellent films which merit your attention if you can catch them.

In BLUE VALENTINE Williams portrays another mother, with her own ambitions (medical school) but struggling to make her own decisions rather than yield to events which overtake her. Included in which is Ryan Nelson's Dean, all manic energy and frantically romantic wooing.

Gosling gives an even stronger performance in my view, though no Oscar nomination for him, though, like Williams, he was nominated for a Golden Globe. A great performance because it is his character who changes the most, or perhaps the most vividly. For as we intercut between the two periods of the relationship the differences between Dean's behaviour and appearance are shocking.

All Dean wants is to be with the two objects of his love, Cindy and daughter Frankie. But he and Cindy are both changing, which asks the age-old questions: will they remain compatible, and can they stay together?



Not just another relationship in trouble story. BLUE VALENTINE is smart and engaging and thus a welcome antidote to appalling rom-com pap like Love and Other Drugs. The story contains a sudden reveal half way through which you will not anticipate even though I've just told you there is one. This is intelligent and mature film making which explores the difficulties of relationships, ironically via two young and less well-known actors. Please go and see it.