Oslo, August 31st

A gripping, stylish film from Joachim Trier revolving around 24 hours in the life of Anders, a recovering drug addict who has been given special leave from the rehabilitation centre for a job interview in the city of Oslo.  On his day out, he re-visits old friends who he knew before he went into rehab and whose prejudices towards him still exist.

Instead of the more cinematic favoured roadtrip, this is more of a walking tour of Oslo, as we follow Anders as he meets Thomas - an old friend who used to party with him, in his family abode with wife and two children - where they have an extensive discussion of life and remaining ambitions and Battlefied on Playstation.  As he meets more friends, we see him attempt to resist the urge and temptation to fall off the wagon.

His job interview is virtually a non-existing part of the plot and the least memorable dialogue scene, as Anders own prejudice to being a junkie haunts him.

Throughout the film, there is a wonderful use of sound as a marker of place and goings-on; the scene where Anders just sits in a cafe listening and ear-wigging to other patrons conversations is exhiliarating and technically marvellous, it harks back to the credit sequence of invisible narrators talking about memories of Oslo.

Anders Danielsen Lie, plays Anders, and is a leading performance of sheer naturalism - part rebel, part loner - a whirling dervish of nauseas and trauma.  We make quite a connection with Anders, who insistently states he does not want pity, which is all the more remarkable considering his shocking final act of the film that leaves you feeling both reflective and angry.

The Scandanavian way of film-making seems to be a permanent model of restraint and purpose, Trier (in his second feature following Reprise) here is quite deliberate in his direction allowing the character of Anders to be both leader and navigator; giving him the responsibility to lead the narrative and not let events force their hand.  This keeping of the cards close to his chest is methodial and the lead performance is ptiched perfectly for this outcome. 

Another clever stroke is Trier framing Anders in doorways and archways - an attempt to contain him yet also heighten his isolation from society as a lone figure and individual, tellingly the last shocking act of Anders is done in long shot as we look on from the end of a corridor through a doorway, a voyeuristic viewing for us and considering we have been so up close and personal throughout why are refused one last look?

However, this is a professional polished film shot superbly and with an excellent soundtrack reflecting the isolated youth of Norway - that was so shockingly exposed and disturbed for real in August of this year.

Oslo, August 31st will be distributed by Soda Pictures on November 11th nationwide.

Everywhere and Nowhere DVD review

The director of Kidulthood, Menhaj Huda, returns with a self-scripted movie for Everywhere and Nowhere; the story of Ash (James Floyd) who is a young Asian and is torn between his family values of tradition and his own dreams of becoming a DJ.

The film boasts a stong cast of well known faces who will be able to garner your attention; James Buckley (Jay from the Inbetweeners), Art Malik, Simon Webbe (from boyband Blue) and the exciting young talent of Adam Deacon from the hilarious Anuvahood.

The plotline of Ash living a double life of keeping the family happy by day, whilst partying at night doing all very un-Muslim things smacks of the storyline of East is East; British Asians torn between the old world and the westernised culture they have grown up in.

The scenes of Ash and friends in the nightclub are quite authentic giving a rawness and the joie de vivre of youth thriving doing what they like; it is a shame that the same passion is not apparent in the more family dominated scenes when a cut and thrust might have been better found in a swifter edit.

The soundtrack featuring underground artists like Sukh Knight and Engine-EarZ does bounce and feed the nightclub scenes some credibility, you just wish better care and attention was given to the domesticated scenes.

But whereas Damien O'Donnell's seminal 1999 picture was made with funny bones in mind, the need to overplay the melodrama does a disservice to the work of Floyd and Deacon who are good in their roles along with the ever-reliable Malik.

Everywhere and Nowhere is released from Icon Entertainment on Monday 3rd October on DVD for £12.99 and should sell well on the coattails of Adulthood and Four Lions.

The DVD features the cast talking about personal experiences, a music feature and interviews with Huda, Floyd and Deacon.

The Skin I Live In (La piel que habito)

Pedro Almodovar is reunited with Antonio Banderas in the Spanish auteur's latest filmic offering.

Banderas plays a plastic surgeon Robert Ledgard, who after suffering the death of his wife from burns sustained in a car crash, posits the idea of a transgenic skin (fusing human and pig genes).  Unbeknowst to his colleagues, who warn him off of doing the idea, he is testing the skin on Vera, a young woman he holds captive in his mansion El Cigarral outside of the city Toledo.

Vera can only communicate via the intercom installed in her room, Robert who is slowly becoming more and more infatuated with her watches from the next room by way of a television screen (which might as well be a two-way mirror). 

Robert is helped by his mother Marilia (Almodovar stalwart, Marisa Paredes), whose other son Zeca arrives and wrecks havoc on the house by raping Vera and ending up shot by Robert.  It is not spoiling the film for you by saying this, as the rape begins a flashback that explains how all these people came to be at this precise moment.

We flashback six years to a private party where Robert attends with his unhinged daughter Norma, Norma is apparently raped by a young Vicente.  Norma dies shortly afterwards and as an act of revenge, Robert kidnaps Vicente.

Almodovar is clear in indicating that Vicente is a nice young gentleman, confused more by his feelings for the attractive lesbian who works in his mother's clothes shop.  What follows however, is a typical Almodovar storyline - that mixture of soap opera melodrama with highbrow stylistics.

This recently has been a criticism of Almodovar; that brand of style over substance.  Whereas, Volver and Talk to Her can be considered stylistic, they were nevertheless films of great substance and yet oddly full of restraint, something Almodovar is not known for.

In this instance, the auteur throws caution to the wind employing an adaptation of Tarantula by Thierry Jonquet, but only the basis of a surgeon using his skills to exact a vigilante revenge.  Banderas as Ledgard is cast against type as the evil/mad doctor; who is brilliantly skilled yet twisted in his interpretation of ethics and code of conduct.  Banderas is get that bit older now, so it is good to see him taking on roles of dramatic purpose that can stretch his evident acting chops and away from those matinee idol roles of the mid to late 1990s. 

Banderas is the centre of the film, holding our attention from the outset as we watch him experimenting in his homebound laboratory.  Ledgard is a mixture of all mad doctors - Dr.Moreau, the doctor from Franju's Eyes Without a Face and even a hint of James Stewart's Scotty from Hitchcock's Vertigo - that clinical determination mixed with personal obsession.

The other gripping presence is that of Elena Anaya as Vera, who in her yoga posturing and one piece suit, is that luminous beauty Almodovar so often finds in his films following in the footsteps of Carmen Maura and Penelope Cruz.

In spite of all the fine acting, for once the person who falls short is Almodovar himself as he for once becomes a victim of his own stylistic impulses.  The story becomes secondary, even the major plot twist so important a piece of narrative detail leaves the audience more bewildered and astounded at the sheer improbability of it all.  Which is a shame because there are artistic flushes you would expect from Almodovar, and seeing Banderas act with such lustre in his native tongue is always better than seeing him voice an animated feline.

Barney's Version - DVD review

Paul Giamatti first came to prominence with his role as Bob Zmuda opposite Jim Carrey's Andy Kauffman in Man on the Moon; but I first noticed him in two very small roles.  As Howard Stern's lamentable boss, Kenny, in Private Parts where he is all mouth but no bite and as a smoking bellboy in My Best Friend's Wedding who give Julia Robert's character some advice in a corridor.  Both small roles and typically throwaway but there is something endearing and charming about Giamatti - the actor who gets that role as the schlub, the schmuck, the fat guy with his unique shape.

Barney's Version is directed by Richard J. Lewis, and based upon the novel by Mordecai Richler with a screenplay by Michael Konyves.  The film stars Paul Giamatti as the synonymous Barney Panofsky, the unrepentant callous individual who despite being a somewhat drunk and acerbic in his intellect, is nevertheless irresistible to women.  During the flashbacks that Barney has during the film's duration we see him with three desirable women, all whom marry him. The third and final wife, is in particular a saint, and he ultimately ruins his happiness with her and their life together.  Ultimately, Barney's brain begins to slow down and he becomes a mere ghost in the world as his family and friends begin to shun him.

Giamatti pleasingly gets his teeth into the role, as we follow Barney from his bohemian musings in Rome in the late 70s and his first misguided marriage to Clara who he believes he made pregnant; to his second marriage to the Jewish princess played by Minnie Driver, like the novel (which saved its most acerbic comment for) is not granted a name.  The sequences with Barney and this princess and her family are the most cynical of the literature and the hierarchy of Jewish stereotypes; the father in law looks down upon Barney's father, Izzy (played with aplomb by Dustin Hoffman) with disdain when he bemoans his lack of career progression saying stating maybe his lack of integrity when assaulting criminals might have served him better than focus on predjudices.

And yet, this film does have a unique heart.  Barney meets his third and final wife, Miriam Grant (stunning Rosamund Pike) at the wedding of his second wife.  He leaves his wedding and tracks her down saying run away with me, when cooler heads should prevail.  Barney later calls Miriam as he is signing his divorce papers for a date a few years later, and on their first date he retches up all the whiskey he hoped would give him courage.  Barney is an old romantic, and that is where the heart comes from, and once he and Miriam are married these are shown to be the best years of his life - two kids, success with his television production company (Unnecessary Productions - which gets a good pun) and respect from his peers.

The only cloud that hangs over him is the unsolved disappearance of his friend Boogie (Scott Speedman), who fell into the lake by his country house after an argument involving a gun.  We are led to believe that Barney shot Boogie, and the unrelenting pursuit of a Detective O'Hearne (Mark Addy - yes that guy from the Tesco's adverts and The Full Monty) to prove Barney's guilt makes us believe that maybe Barney did do it.

These questions are lightly glossed over by the film's conclusion, which is a reflection on the at times whimsical screenplay and light direction, both of which are helped by a stunning central performance by Giamatti who is at times beguiling yet never less than charming.  He is helped by Pike, who in a role that could easily be wafer thin on paper is elevated by her elegance and radiance she brings to the role; two tropes lacking in a lot of North American cinema lately.

It is important to note, that this is a Canadian production, and the film never over states that fact in the production unlike other films that may blare out the nationality of the piece, but the attention to period detail and set design puts some American productions to shame.

Barney's Version is for you if you like films similar to Mr.Holland's Opus that tells the story of someone through the decades and is helped by a powerhouse central performance by an under-rated performer, this is for you although it does include a little bit more swearing and sex than the Richard Dreyfuss film.  And as to why Giamatti did not get a Leading Actor nomination from the Academy, well that is as tragic as Barney Parnofsky's life wants to be.

Paul Giamatti, is one of my favourite actors to come out of Hollywood in the last ten years.  My favourite performance of his remains Miles in Sideways, a performance that wrongly was ignored by the Academy awards that year whilst his co-star Thomas Haden Church did get a nomination.  This year Giamatti won a Golden Globe for Best Actor in Comedy, and rightly so, alas he was again ignored by the Academy for this performance, admittedly a good field of actors but should not it be time to give a guy his due.

Barney's Version (15) is released on DVD and Blu-Ray on 23rd May from Universal Pictures International Entertainment with a £19.99RRP (DVD) and £24.99(Blu-Ray).  The bonus features include a special featurette.

A Screaming Man

The acclaimed director of Daratt, Mahamat-Saleh returns with a telling meditation of an ageing African male that has a deftness and humanity within it, which won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2010.

Said screaming man is Adam (Youssouf Djaoro) who is a happy pool attendant at a fancy hotel in civil war Chad.  Adam shares the duties of his job with his 20 year old son, Abdel (Diouc Koma), yet there are fears over the future of job security owing to the investment of Chinese money into the infrastructure of the hotel.  Many workers fear for their job, one is David (Marius Yelolo), a chef who in the few scenes he shares with Adam gives wisdom and advice - upon hearing the unwanted news, David says to Adam, 'the problem is we put our fate in the hands of God'.

After this news, Adam is told he has been demoted to the role of gatekeeper of the hotel - the man who must raise and lower the barrier for cars and other motor vehicles - whilst Abdel has been given sole responsibility of the pool.  Hence, Adam feels embarrassed and devalued as a man as well as a trusted worker.  His role as moneywinner is further but into question by the demands of a local district chief who keeps pestering him for money to help with the war effort.  (It should be noted that there is never any mention or reason given as to why Adam keeps saying he is broke and cannot pay.)  Yet the conversations with the chief lead to Adam making a decision that will lead to a terrible act of betrayal.

Haroun has a real assuredness behind the camera - he cleverly shows a difference between the workplace environment and the home environment; one is vibrant, the other is still - but he does this without going to lengths of changing the tone or colour of the palette, instead relying upon the performances of his actors who are front and centre.  A good scene at the start shows Adam with his wife, Mariam, as they eat food together you feel the warmth of their love, but in the background is a television with news of the civil war ongoing.  The scene tells you two things; the personality of Adam is enhanced as a loving husband and provider, nevertheless the civil war intrudes upon their sanctuary, as it will do later on with more tragic consequences.

The script, also written by Haroun, asks questions about duty (to work, to family, to your country), the idea of loyalty to the same factors and the father and son dynamic (an ongoing trope of Haroun's previous work).  Adam is jealous of Abdel as much for his youth as for being selected for the job of pool attendant; but once Abdel's pregnant girlfriend, Djeneba (Djeneba Kone) appears this affection for his son is reassessed leading to the final act of the film.

This conclusion of the film - whilst an eventual part of the narrative - is handled deftly offering the chance of reconciliation with a distinctness and deftness you rarely see, giving ample opportunity to his DoP, Laurent Brunet to shoot some wonderful landscapes of the Chadian landscape.

Djaoro as Adam gives a strong central performance as he morphs from the the life and soul of the hotel to an aged man broken by promises and his own selfish acts.  At the end a screaming man (because if the title of the film was 'The Screaming Man' it would lose that universal feel), wonders the plains and wading in the river.  But he wonders around in the best African film since Moolaade.

A Screaming Man is released on Friday 13th May by Soda Pictures.
Click on the title of the film to watch a trailer.

Blue Valentine DVD review

Blue Valentine is released by Optimum Entertainment on Monday 9th May for £12.99RRP and is also available on Blu-Ray

Director, Derek Cianfrance, has taken a long while to get his screenplay to the screen - supposedly nine years from treatment to production; what has to be asked is why did theoretically a two-hander between the man, Dean (Ryan Gosling) and wife, Cindy (Michelle Williams) take so long to get to the screen. The dual narrative tells the story of a breakdown of a marriage, whilst also showing how they came together in the first place.

This narrative of a breakdown of a marriage due to an overblown ego of a male and a derailment of romance has been seen previously in American independence cinema and is a familiar trope to be executed, most notably by John Cassavettes' Faces and most recently in Francois Ozon's memorable 5x2, which showed the breakdown of a marriage in chronological order but in reverse - starting in the divorce lawyer's office and ending with the meet cute.

On this occasion we start with the couple with their child and then sending child to grandfather to indulge in a romantic getaway at a fleabag themed hotel, ironically they choose the 'Future Room' which is exactly what they do not have by journey's end. This narrative is interrupted by flashbacks to the time when they first encountered each other, the meet cute and personal dilemmas involved once Cindy becomes pregnant with someone else's baby.

After she refuses an abortion, Dean offers to be a father to a child that is not his and husband in a new family. The film shows them 6-8 years after this life-changing decison and the effect it has had on Dean is startling; a shadow of his younger, viral self with a receding hairline and alcohol addiction, which is alluded throughout the film and admonished by the film's chronological end.

This is a bold and brave piece of filmmaking, especially by the two leads who helped with the film's flow in terms of improvising dialogue but at times some scenes come across a little too self-indulgent, such as when Dean serenades Cindy with a solo ukelele performance with a high voice as she dances in a doorway; whilst this is romantic, could the flashback just be too indicative of how perfect it all was back then and perhaps too sentimental to punch the message home.

Cindy wants to be a doctor but ends up as a nurse who is hit upon by her new boss, another example of a man in this film who is a douchebag. Most of the men in this film are douchebags, especially Dean who at times is both irritating and selfish, as is Bobby (the man who impregnated Cindy), a boy all full of testosterone. And Dean could be a renaissance man, but puts his idea of virtue above providing financial stability for his family by becoming a house painter.

Interestingly, the scene where Cindy bumps into her child's father, Bobby (Mike Vogel) in a liquor store is a weird scene but played perfectly by Williams - her eyes lighting up at meeting an old flame with excitement burning in her heart for the first time in quite a while.

However, even good production values such as switching of camera style - from handheld video for the contemporary scenes giving it a harsher, grittier quality and then harking back to 16mm for the flashback scenes giving them a warmer, happier tone - cannot save the film from the requirement of a tighter script that on occasions in the modern day scenes pleads for the less is more approach, as Dean repeats another vital line to death. Sometimes the audience, especially the independent cinema one should be respected enough to get the message straight away.

Not to do a disservice to Williams and Gosling in their performances, whilst Gosling is all brooding and showy with his sunglasses hiding inner turmoil, Williams is brilliant as a young woman whose ambition and drive to be a better person and wife than her own browbeaten mother is shot to pieces by the sheer over-inflated ego of her husband. But it is these two performances from two esteemed actors of their generation that raises this film above from passable to watchable.

Released on May 9th by Optimum Entertainment on Blu-Ray and DVD

EASIER WITH PRACTICE

Last Thursday (4/11/10) I was granted the privilege of watching a preview of a well reviewed film on the festival circuit. The film was EASIER WITH PRACTICE directed by feature length debutant Kyle Patrick Alvarez and is based upon the autobiographical essay by Davy Rothbart which was pulished in GQ.

A road movie (my first instinct was it reminded me of a younger version of 'Sideways') following Davy Mitchell (Brian Geraghty) as he treks across New Mexico reading at book clubs peddling his book of short stories entitled, 'Things People Do To Each Other'.  The book clubs smack of boredom, and with his brother Sean (Kel O'Neill) in tow the nights are long and full of bars with literature students adoring the young writer, whilst his engaged brother indulges in adultery.  From the outset, there is a difference and tension between the two brothers; one is intellectual, one is an easy going spirit. One is shy around women, the other has no sort of problems.  One night at another motel, Sean goes out to get some cigarettes and leaves Davy watching television and then the phone rings.  Davy answers it and a female voice is on the other end, she calls herself 'Nicole' and she is horny; Davy initially put off is intrigued and so starts entertaining her notions of masturbation.  And so we are met by one of the bravest scenes in recent American independent cinema; the camera is fixed on Davy, initially in long shot, it slowly zooms into have just his chest and head in the shot as he masturbates in unison with Nicole, culminating in a mutual climax. 

Often in independent cinema, there is a greater freedom and honesty with sexual activity (you need only see any mumblecore film for reference), but rarely do you see a male character(actor) do a scene that is so raw and real at the same time; a scene that could have been so easily played for laughs, tells us a lot more about Davy than any conversation with a periphery character.  Davy is lonely, but has love to give and finally feels like he has made a connection with someone, albeit with a voice somewhere.

Ultimately, the film leads to a climatic scene that is again a scene of such openness and social embarassment, the like of which is rarely seen in American film full stop.  The final reveal of Nicole is both powerful and startling, in that the twist is the last thing you saw coming. 

There is more drama than comedy, although the laughter is more witty than laugh out loud because of the urbane intellect of Davy's surroundings - if you were to pigeon hole the film it would be in the same vain as the work of James L. Brooks.

I would like to touch upon the character of Davy - whilst in theory and genre he is a million miles from the characters of the Apatow universe, he does provide a missing link in my theory of the 'Noughties Oh-No man', a character very prevelant in the first decade of this century's American cinema. He is an intellectual based on genuine talent, but nevertheless a talent that remains undiscovered, however, he is a man easily made a fool of by his peers and family (much like Andy in 'The 40 Year old Virgin'), and is but in context of his situation by contrasting him with an alpha male to his beta (in this film Sean is alpha to Davy).  Unfortunately, these highlighted flaws in his beings lead to him being unsuccessful in his career and love; such as when he attempts to reignite an old flame Samantha in the film.

Brian Geraghty, whom I first recognised getting high with Shia Labeouf in 'Bobby' and matured to appear in 'The Hurt Locker' gives an extrarordinary performance from an actor under the age of 30, he is still young in face but his manner shows a built in world-weariness that the character requires, but the requirement of him to be in every frame/scene of the film could have been a tough ask for a less accomplished actor. 

Alvarez who shows some assured footing in this his debut feature is lucky to have such a performance, but his sureness of touch and feel is good to see in a film that is both sincere and human.  Some of the scenes/montages which show Davy and Sean cruising around motorways and motels are expertly shot and remind me of music videos in there framing and composition, coupled with a hip indie soundtrack that full of male voices externalise most of Davy's feelings.

There are some moments that will leave you scratching or shaking your head in disbelief, but believe it not because you have to but because the conviction and honesty of both direction and performance commands it.  Recommended and try and hold out for the ending, unlike the two or so people who walked out shaking their head.

EASIER WITH PRACTICE is due for release on 3rd December 2010, a Forty Second Production it is distributed by Axiom Films, whom I thank for the preview seat.