Inland (Fridtjof Ryder, UK, 2022)

 

Debut film from highly touted Fridtjof Ryder released 16th June

Set in rural England, Inland explores the troubled reality a young man faces following the strange disappearance of his mother some years previously.

Following a prelude where the boy whose character name is the Man played by Rory Alexander is released from an institution after a period of time, he returns to his home town to settle down with a father figure named Dunleavy played by Oscar winning actor Mark Rylance.

The film is shot with an unforgiving close up of its actors throughout, the audience being made to feel uneasy by what is transpiring, the man is having to cope with a lot following his mother's strange disappearance, and this is a point of view film in that respect with Alexander featuring in every scene.

Mixed with experimental footage to depict his fragile mental psyche of visions and memories splintering his day-to-day life; Ryder has moulded a modern folk tale within this rural landscape for the modern era.

Following on from the January release of Mark Jenkin's Enys Men and even Alex Garland's MEN, the clash of individual and nature and what that collision causes is certainly in vogue currently.

Most folk tales incorporate a quest of sorts, the Man in this instance is searching for answers with a cast of characters eager to look after him for the best. Rylance in particular is channelling his famous role of Rooster from Jez Butterworth's Jerusalem to a degree, and acting as Executive Producer also, he is guiding the man in more ways than one.

The journey the man must navigate is unsettling at times helped by the ambient score utilised by Bartholomew Mason, evoking a disharmony amidst the harmonious surroundings of the woodlands. Coupled with the haunting voiceover of the mother by Kathryn Hunter and you have an eerie creation that is both stylistic and substantial.

An atmospheric and moody tale of life, grief and family, Inland is a film of great promise and character from a first-time director.

Inland is out on Friday 16th June on limited release from Verve Pictures.

Pond Life

Directed by Bill Buckhurst and written by Richard Cameron based on his own stage play; POND LIFE tells the story of a summer tale in 1994 in the North of England as teenagers have a summer of fun as life begins to take hold.

Trevor sits at Decoy Ponds awaiting the presence of the legendary carp, Nessie. Trevor is the adult of the group a man in his early 20s but with no room at his home, needs to make a life decision. He is surrounded by younger children, Pogo the enigmatic young girl who records audio as she takes walks; Trevor's sister Cassie is kissing Maurice and Malcolm is also in love with Cassie, as he imagines transporting himself telepathically into her bedroom and learning the words to Wet Wet Wet's dominating hit single 'Love Is All Around'

Buckhurst shoots the film with a rose-tinted view, this is a beautiful summer with no rain, the only pain being behind closed doors as familial struggles are common place.

Yet, for a setting where the socio-cultural climate is changing as this mining town comes to terms with its new status without the landmark pit industry about, families struggle to make ends meat and end up down the local working man's club most nights to play bingo and win the meat raffle.

These little moments and observations elevate this film above the normal, helped in no part to the excellent acting turns by the young cast mostly Esme Creed-Miles as Pogo and Angus Imrie as Malcolm; these stunning turns of youth disorientated by the growing world around them as they combat love and loss.

Richard Hawley composes a sumptuous soundtrack to couple the film's summer tinge; and this viewer was left with a warm feeling that exceeded expectations.

POND LIFE is out now in selected cinemas.

Kelly + Victor

 

Kieran Evans' first fictional film following a career in documentary cinema is one of startling vision and originality that renews faith in young British film-making and bodes well for the future of the director and cast.

Evans adapts Niall Griffiths novel of the same name, about a young couple who meet each other by chance on a nightclub dancefloor and end up becoming a couple experiencing a new found liberation by way of sexual freedom in each other.

Evans' work in documentary holds him in good stead, as his keen visual eye for his surroundings is helped by his use of Liverpool and its nearby locales as a vital part of the piece and is as much a character as either Kelly (Antonia Campbell-Hughes) and Victor (Julian Morris).  This writer has family who lives in Liverpool, and was not aware of such beauty in Merseyside such as when Victor and his mates sit in the countryside waiting for a drop on drugs; or when Kelly and Victor sit near a lake in beautiful sunshine, so kudos to Evans and his cinematographer, Piers McGrail.

Campbell-Hughes and Morris are both excellent in the leading roles.  Kelly who was a character somewhat underwritten by Griffiths in the original source novel, becomes an altogether more intriguing person owing to the restraint showed by Campbell-Hughes.  She morphs from timid female to an altogether stronger person during intercourse, finding herself during the act and certainly wants to put her mark on her behaviour.  Morris gives a real strength and resilience to the role of Victor, who is sometimes put in a difficult position and yet you sympathise Victor and the rough decisions he has to make.

The two actors also cleverly reflect the disillusionment and alienation suffered by many young twenty-somethings in the UK currently; neither have a solid career in employment, not close to family but closer to friends, have burnt bridges with past friends due to serious acts and yet yearn for a connection with someone in terms of intimacy.  This film makes the point of stating that in this digital anonymous age, the closest you can be to someone is by sexual contact.  So often in film, young men are seen to be seeking women as sexual conquests, for Victor he is a young man who wants to be held, comforted and loved - a rare thing portrayed in cinema.

Whilst some of the subject matter may leave a bad taste in the mouth of some, the journey of the film and the chemistry of the two leads is worth watching.  It is rare of a British film to be so brave in its portrayal of sex in a young couple (not since Lynne Ramsey or Michael Winterbottom's Nine Songs) with such candour and honesty, but also the emotional complexity of a physical relationship can have. 

Do we seek sex as a release from the mundanity of the real world and do we become a different person when we return to a primal role?  Evans is not afraid to ask these questions and for that, we should embrace this new talent accordingly.  Seek it out, it will leave its mark; as will the utterly brilliant soundtrack.

Kelly + Victor is out on DVD on Monday 13th January, and Kieran Evans was nominated for Best Outstanding Newcomer at the BAFTAs

Las acacias

Following in the footsteps of fellow Argentinian directors - Lisandro Alonso, Pablo Trapero - to garner critical acclaim with a debut feature (Las acacias won the Sutherland Award for Best First Film at the London Film Festival in 2011), Pablo Giorgelli's debut receives a home entertainment release today on DVD and Blu-Ray.

Giorgelli co-wrote the script with Salvador Roselli (who also authored Bombon el perro (2004)), tells the slight story of truck driver Ruben (German de Silva) who delivers lumber from Paraguay to Buenos Aires.  He is informed by his boss he must transport a young mother Jacinta (Hebe Duarte) and her five month old son also.

Little is informed or given to us of the two actors pasts, so we are told details about them as they learn about each other.  The film refuses to leave the confines of the truck cab, not allowing location photography to overshadow the human story being told here.

Giorgelli was given the gift of De Silva, a professional actor, who uses his presence and nobility (not to dissimilar to the same acacias' he transports), to tell you more when very little is said.  Duarte is an untrained actor but her striking, alluring face makes you want to know more about her.

In the same vein as his contemporaries, in terms of physical restraint and keeping narrative clues close to his chest Giorgelli portrays the blossoming of a beautiful friendship taking place between two strangers; Ruben never got to know his son that was taken away from him, so the connection between the five month old child, allows us and him to see how good of a father he could become or could have been.

Neither flashy, nor boring the film is another creative exponent of the cinematic explosion occuring right now in Argentina and surrounding South American countries with so much good viable work being released and viewed - a willingness to put individuals first with universal storylines about loneliness, isolation, love and companionship.

Las Acacias is released on DVD by Verve Pictures on Monday 9th April
My thanks to Rabbit Publicity for the disc

Mother and Child

Rodrigo Garcia's fourth full feature is a mulit-narrative storyline you would expect from executive producer Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (21 Grams, Babel), in the form of a cross-generational, cross-cultural boundaries in Los Angeles which revolves around the lives of 3 women who are unexpectedly entwined based upon the roles of mother and child.

Featuring some amazing performances by Annette Bening and Naomi Watts, the film intially starts off in this ambivalent mood as all three women - add in Kerry Washington for the multi-racial point of view - fail to endear themselves to the audience let alone the men in the picture.

The men in question are playing by formidable men who are playing weaker male stereotypes and inversions of their screen personas; Paul (Samuel L. Jackson) and Paco (Jimmy Smits) are rather secondary to proceedings, yet in spite of this lack of narrative thrust the natural charisma of both actors do shine out of very one-dimensional characters.

The first half with Karen (Bening) playing the spinster and lonely old maid comes to the fore, whilst Elizabeth (Watts) the daughter that Karen gave up at birth plays a bunny-boiler with a real coldness and hostility; yet both females have to go through an abundant change in their identity and character. 

Karen loses her mother so can embrace the opportunity of romance with Paco instead of refusing it as she is indebted to the law of the mother, whilst Elizabeth surprisingly as a career woman yet one who has been abandoned at birth - does not want to do the same to her unborn child.  Watts reaction to the doctor who presumes she wants and will have an abortion is noteworthy.

Bening also starts to win us over by becoming a surrogate grandmother to her cleaner's daughter, allowing her the chance to play mum which she refused herself. 

Lucy (Washington) is planning to adopt with her husband, yet she has to alter her social circle.  Unfortunately, Lucy's strand (much like me mentioning her in this review) is somewhat lost in the shuffle - and yet Ms. Washington provides the most cathartic moment in the movie when she breaks down at the hospital following the birth of her surrogate child.

The theme of abortion in the film is neither for nor against, yet it is clear to point out that no-one wins and that everybody loses out at some point.

This is more a film about female roles in society and the social dynamic of the family group.  Karen becomes a Mother only after she stops being a child once her mother dies; Elizabeth is ready to become a Mother only when it is thrust upon her by an unplanned pregnancy; whilst Lucy is not fit to be a Mother and is only told to be one and act like one by her own Mother.

It can be interpreted as a Terms of Endearment without the bond that was in that film between Shirly MacLaine and Debra Winger - whereas that had larger than life male characters who desire women; in Mother and Child the men are both middle-aged and content to settle down.  Paul offers the world to Liz if she is pregnant with his child, and Paco is anointed an angel sent to comfort and support the spinster Karen.  Lucy's husband, Joseph (David Ramsey) disappears altogether at one point and Elizabeth's affair with her neighbour Steven (Marc Blucas) is swept away - so there are narrative flaws in a two hour film, albeit a two hour film that does not drag nor have you checking your watch after barely one, as with some Hollywood films.

The female empowerment aesthetic does begin to grate after a while, although the respect Garcia has for his character's is never in doubt and it is is exhiliarating to see an actor like Bening firing on all cylinders.

The plot can be described as hackneyed and telegraphed, yet a plot full of cliche is elevated by the 3 main women and notable support by Cherry Jones as Sister Joanne, a Nun who encounters each at various moments in the film.

Mother and Child is released nationwide in selected cinemas on January 6th by Verve Pictures and is a Mockingbird Pictures production in association with Everest Entertainment.

http://www.vervepics.com/

My thanks to Rabbit Publicity for allowing me to attend the preview screening.