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THE TURNING (2020) FILM REVIEW

1/26/2020

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*

15, 99 Mins

A cop-out ending isn't the only thing that'd have Henry James "turning" in his grave...
If you want physical proof that a film's ending can completely "turn" around your opinion of the entire product, 'The Turning' (2020) is that in its most enraging form. Watching this cut to black, I went from merely underwhelmed to the level of livid that I wanted claw the screen to shreds! It's the kind of cop-out conclusion that makes 'Game of Thrones's corn-blazed finale look like Homer's 'The Iliad'. The result of either film-maker laziness or the cash-hungry cravings for yet another lifeless franchise...

I will try my utmost to remain objective with this review which means not dwelling on the bitter aftertaste left by undoubtedly the worst final minutes of any work in living memory. Any intrigue about the prospect of a contemporary adaptation of Henry James's classic chiller 'The Turn of the Screw' can be swiftly discarded. This is a mass-produced horror movie in all the worst senses with idle jump scares, a supremely unmenacing haunted house and a heavily objectified attractive woman whose pretty face is constantly bloodied, sweated and teared by the rather irritating interjection of bogeymen behind doors.

The attractive woman is McKenzie Davis who makes her best out of a retrograde role; remarkably managing to keep a straight face amid the tired conventions. She plays Kate - a former school teacher who leaves her job to become a governess to two children (Brooklyn Prince and Finn Wolfhard) housed in a "spooky" Victorian mansion. The youngest of the two kids Flora (Prince) has your standard dose of phobias, but it's the elder one (Wolfhard) who's the real wrong un' as he spends his spare time perving on Davis's Kate in her sleep. He's also apparently in touch with the spirit realm which has ghoulish apparitions hiding in every cliched corner, cupboard and crevas of this house...

The film's greatest lacking is the one thing that simplistically makes the horror genre tick - being scary. Sure it can jab you with a cattle prod all it likes, but there's no effort going into building an ominous atmosphere through the ambience, sounds and settings that its literary predecessor excelled in. Every time it prods you therefore is essentially like getting a bee sting - it shakes you a little, but you forget about it within seconds.

'The Turning' has its genesis in one of the most iconic ghost stories ever written. A novel which has inspired everything from 'The Haunting (1963) to 'Ringu' (1999) to 'The Conjuring' (2013). And yet - despite its roots coming before all these movies - every single trope in this film's book feels utterly derrivative of every horror film in the past 50 years. You'll find yourself playing a game of "spot the rip off"; wanting to shout "Hey! look! It's the haunted house" from 'The Haunting!". "Hey! look! See the interminable jump scares from 'The Conjuring' and 'Insidious' (2011)?!". "Hey! look! There's the creepy kids from 'The Exorcist' (1973)​!". In a better constructed movie, these references would be warm homages. However all this soulless and mechanical beast did was make me wish I was watching all those other movies it shamefully riffs of...And I don't ever say that about 'The Conjuring' or 'Insidious'!

As for the blonde damsel in distress at 'The Turning's centre, this is an appalling step backwards into the genre's un-PC back-catalogue. Last year 'Ready or Not' (2019) subverted this concept by having Samara Weaving's bloodthirsty bride strapped with shotgun bullets to her shoulder and shootin' the crap out of everything living in her path. 'The Turning' alternatively serves as a reminder of how not to do a horror heroine. Davis spends most of this movie skipping around in her undies and just the thought of her being sexualised by a teenage boy?! Let's not even go there...Safe to say, it's a disgraceful and distasteful waste of a talented actress.

Add all this to the laziest, most utterly inept ending of all time that will make even the stupidest viewers go "WHAT THE BLOOMIN' F**K!" and I'll be hard-pressed to find a worse cinematic experience all year. It's arguably not as nasty or as toxic as 'The Gentlemen' (2020), but at least Guy Ritchie's bullying sensibility knew how to frickin' end! This will truly leave Henry James "turning" in his grave...
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THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF DAVID COPPERFIELD (2020) FILM REVIEW

1/26/2020

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*****

PG, 119 Mins

A wonderfully absurd, tragicomic treat.
We currently seem to be in the mode of modernist spins on literary classics from film-makers who seem about as far away from the source materials as you can get. In the past two months, we've had the delectable 'Little Women' (2019) from indie darling Greta Gerwig and - in three weeks time - we're getting a revisionist take on 'Emma' (2020) from American photographer Autumn De Wilde making her directorial debut.

First though, it's in with Armando Iannucci's 'The Personal History of David Copperfield' (2020). The combo of Iannucci + Dickens is by far the most abstract yet - a million miles further off-the-grids than Gerwig + Alcott or Wilde + Austin. The Scottish screenwriter-director behind 'The Thick of It' (2005-2012) and 'Veep' (2012-2019) has his feet in political satire, comedy and Television. Not in social realism, drama and literature. And yet the rococo blend of Victorian mud and soil and postmodern punk and steam couldn't be a match better made in heaven.

One thing everyone craves from an Iannucci production is witty, scabrous dialogue and 'The Personal History of David Copperfield' has this in spades. Iannucci understands the differentiation between the text and the cinematic adaptation; striving not to replicate the great Dickensian lingo word-for-word rather to subvert it. Dictionary-defining lines like "Annual income 20 pounds..." or "Barkis is willin'" have been subsided by 21st century zingers such as "this is a Donkey free zone!" and "We're runied? Like what? Like a castle. How can we be ruined? Like a big castle!"

There's more larynx-choking gags in this movie than in most multiplex comedies, but there's also a delicate string of pathos and tragedy. With his suitably ghastly Soviet satire 'The Death of Stalin' (2017), Iannucci proved he is as much the King of tears as of laughs and his tragicomic bite continues to sink its teeth into proceedings here.

I noted a genuine sense of jeopardy and peril in the film's retainment of the novel's real-world darkness as it addresses child poverty, abuse and exploitation in the most unflinching manner akin to a Ken Loach film. In the horrifically wincing beating scenes, Iannucci injects a reminder of Dickens's status as one of the 19th century's most profound social activists. Something that bodes sombrely well in a world where children continue to be impoverished, abused and exploited. Perhaps proof that some classics are truly timeless.

To the masses, Iannucci is arguably better known as a Screenwriter than a film-maker with his penchant for orally crunching up scenery better suited to the small screen than its bigger, brasher cousin. This Televisual flourish should go hand-in-hand with Dickens whose gruelling miserablism has inspired everything from The Muppets to 'The Wire' (2002-2008). The most unexpected joy therefore is quite how accessible and crucially cinematic 'The Personal History of David Copperfield' really is.

​This is the film that puts the Scottish political critic on the scene as a visual storyteller as much as a linguistic freak. In the early moments of Copperfield as a crib-bound baby, Iannucci puts us directly in the cot; combining a duplicately high and low lensed look at the absudity of the world through a child's eyes. Later on, he speeds up the frames during a drunken, balcony-clammbering trip to the theatre that has some of the slapstick sensibility of Chaplin or Keaton.

With its brand of absurdism and jet-black humour, 'The Personal History of David Copperfield' visually resembles what 'The Favourite' (2019) would look like if directed by Terry Gilliam (albeit with less sex, swearing and surrealism). The production design is as lavish as you'd expect from a period piece, but equally dream-like. It's littered with Lynchian apparitions such as a cottage carved from a ship-wreak on a pebbly beach.

Having watched 'The Personal History of David Copperfield', I'm actually egging to see what a James Bond or 'Star Wars' movie would look like in this film-maker's deft hands. In a capsizing boat vs. waves action sequence, Iannucci is the unlikely master of special-effects spectacle; juggling human awe and pain with audacious results. Such a set-piece is measured perfectly when it comes to dropping jaws in excitement while making you go "C'OR blimey Charlie!" at its neck-breaking physicality.

​Of course none of this film would work as well as it does without the most terrifically diverse cast in recent memory - the true definition of "colour-blind" casting in all its glory. Dev Patel, Benedict Wong, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Rosalind Eleazar...they're all in this and then some. However none feel like mere PC box-ticking. Each bring their own to this beautiful patchwork.

Everyone's so brilliant that it seems foolish to single out any one of them, but, you know what, I am foolish so I'll do it anyway! At the centre of it all is Dev Patel who makes the truly definitive Copperfield. He possesses the perfect judgement of lip-blubbering vulnerability and arch-eyebrowed rage essential for a character that has crawled up from the squallors of life.

A truly bonkers turn from Peter Capaldi as Micawber has the sinister edge of craziness disappointingly "eccentri-fied" by his Twelfth Doctor. Hugh Laurie is a delight as the kindly Mr. Dick in a performance redolent of the light comedic touch that made us fall in love with 'Blackadder (1983-1989). Meanwhile - in the role of dasterdly Heap - Ben Whishaw is a baddie for the digital age.

The product of the absurd, real and funny places 'The Personal History of David Copperfield' in the pantheon of great screen Dickens. It's up there with David Lean's 'Great Expectations' (1946), 'Oliver Twist' (1948) and 'Scrooge' (1951) ​and I don't say this lightly!
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BAD BOYS FOR LIFE (2020) FILM REVIEW

1/23/2020

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***

15, 123 Mins

Will Smith and Martin Lawrence banter up the bromance in this flippantly fun actioner.
It's worth noting I have a soft spot for buddy movies. Specifically those featuring the age-old interplay of good cop/bad cop. The first two 'Bad Boys' (1995-2003) movies should've been right up my street therefore, but I was bored brain-dead by Michael Bay's leering camerawork, rapid-fire cuts and overload of explosions.

For 'Bad Boys For Life' (2020) - the 17 year belated sequel that reunites Will Smith's maverick detective Mike Lowery with Martin Lawrence's incompetently by-the-book Marcus Burnett - Bay has thankfully departed the directorial chair and made way for Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah. A duo who seem to better understand the balance between action and storytelling. There's still an abundance of "Bayisms" in the opening scenes such as overheated Miami colour schemes, bodily ogglings over "hot chicks" and a cameo from the bete noire of blockbusters himself. Yet there's also the odd dollop of heart and humour served up by Smith and Lawrence's irresistable chemistry.

The plot is refreshingly simple with the federal double act teaming up to take down a Mexican cartel who's killing cops. Again, the use of tasteless violence when real-world American Officers are being gunned down should set alarm bells ringing, but such moral dilemmas merely disappear in the aether thanks to the banterous bromance at hand.

After stinkers like 'Suicide Squad' (2016), 'After Earth' (2013) and 'Gemini Man' (2019), 'Bad Boys For Life'  allows Smith to flex his boisterous, big-smiled enthusiasm which has been deeply misery-fied in recent efforts. He even gets the most emotional moment in a cuddly bit of father-son bonding.

I've never been a Martin Lawrence fan if the torturous 'Big Momma' movies say anything, but his propensity for screaming lines at unearthly high decibles actually plays to his advantage here. He's the perfect bufoon to Smithie's shredded hunk.

The action, meanwhile, is refreshingly comprehensible - not sliced up by interminable editing or aesthetically looking as though a chip pan has caught fire. It's all very silly and very inconsequential, but, if you like your action movies big and brash, this is for you.

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A HIDDEN LIFE (2020) FILM REVIEW

1/23/2020

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****

12A, 174 Mins

Terence Malick's best film in 22 years.
With perfume ad whisperings kept to a minimum and a remarkable absence of blades of grass swaying in the wind, 'A Hidden Life' (2020) represents Terence Malick's best film in 22 years. On the surface, that's not saying much considering the notoriously cryptic auteur's last two movies - 'Knight of Cups' (2016) and 'Song to Song' (2017) - were essentially expensive Calvin Klein commercials fraudulently claiming to be art with a capital "F".

However there's enough film-making finesse and real-world grit here to offer itchings of the great cinematic maestro we all knew up until 'The Thin Red Line' (1998). Set in Nazi Austria, 'A Hidden Life' details the conscientious objection of real-life objector Franz Jaggerstatter (August Diehl) who is stripped of everything he holds dear when the regime learn of his refusal to serve Hitler.

Flashing between Jaggestatter's imprisoned life awaiting execution and that of his wife (Valerie Pachner) and children back on their quaint farm, the film is at its best when shining light on the psychological trauma of seperation. Actors Diehl and Pachner must be praised for their heartfelt performances which delve deep into the fractured minds of a loving couple torn apart by conflict.

As ever, clarity has never been Malick's strong point and non-devotees will surely be tested by 'A Hidden Life's refusal to play this story in linear fashion as it intercuts grounded horrors with existential monlogues that whiff of arty farty indulgence. Your bum will also be numbed by the rather excessive 174 min length.

And yet - while I certainly craved more rigour - I got so much else that any po-faced pretensions merely faded into the fog. No one understands the power of the moving image better than Mr. Malick and he serves up mouth-watering scenery accompanied by a score chiming with vertiginous Violins that will have eyes and ears twinkling.

Add all this to poignant human drama and, on a pure film-making front, this couldn't be better...
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WAVES (2020) FILM REVIEW

1/19/2020

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*****

15, 136 Mins

Two-folded gem heralds the coming of the new "weird" in African American cinema. 
Drawing paralells with 'Moonlight' (2017) is a risky business, but, you know what, I like risks so I'm going to do so anyway! It remains extraordinary beyond belief that what began life as a little, low-budget arthouse flick managed to scoop up Best Picture at the 2017 OSCARS. More impressive, though, is that this tiny film has had quite the profound cultural impact on modern movie-making it has; putting proof to my statement that it would "stand the test of time".

While movies like 'The Last Tree' (2019) and 'The Last Black Man in San Francisco' (2019) cashed in on Barry Jenkin's universal approach to tackling racial politics, there hasn't yet been a film that can officially sell itself as 'Moonlight's spiritual successor. That is until 'Waves' (2020). The similarities between Director Trey Edward Shult's film and Jenkin's masterpiece are too gapingly obvious to ignore. For one thing, it's an A24 production which - with the success of 'Room' (2016) and 'The Florida Project' (2017) among countless others - is quickly becoming the seal of quality in arthouse circles. The first of this film's symphony of two acts also centres around an angry black male in Miami.

And yet this is where the comparisons end because 'Waves' is unquestionably a more accessible and - dare I say - slightly better film than 'Moonlight'. For one thing, it heralds the coming of the new "weird" in African American cinema. In the place of race, sex and class that so often takes centre stage in movies made about black people is pure, sea-swept experimental film-making that's ripples will waver with you long after leaving the cinema.

Even 'Moonlight' succumbed to stereotypes by setting itself amidst Miami's ghettos. 'Waves' subverts this by having the African American family it follows throughout being a middle-class one housed in a sun-lit suburbia not unlike that of the Burnhams in 'American Beauty' (1999). On top of this, the aforementioned angry black male's pushy parental force is not a domineering tiger mother, but a shredded father (Sterling K. Brown) placing pressure on him to achieve in studies, not in wrestling and working out as Tyler (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) strives to be best at and the media seems to want him to too.

Fulfilling the pulse-racing promises of 'Luce' (2019), Kelvin Harrison Jr. continues to establish himself as one of the most underrated young actors working today. The strength of his performance here hinges on the juggling of the professional and personal. While he crunches his knuckles and bones on the wrestling mat, a far more violent fight for his life is cranking up on a relationship front as his unruly girlfriend Alexis (Alexa Demie) tip-toes back and forth over her unplanned pregnancy. Something Tyler is dead-set against.

It is with one crackling blow to the face that 'Waves' wrong-foots its audience as Tyler is sent to prison for beating Alexis to death in a nightclub toilets. What initially seemed to tip its hat towards a testosterone-fuming tale of flawed masculinity becomes a wrenching portrait of familial grief; encapsulated through the eyes of younger sister Emily (Taylor Russell). She's understandably devastated by her brother's sentence and seeks solace in Tyler's old wrestling mate Luke (the always excellent Lucas Hedges).

Once again, Director Shults breaks tropes embedded in 5 decades of movie history. There's no malice held by the family towards Emily and Luke's interracial relationship - the concept of which has been poked and prodded at in most notorious fashion in the Samuel L. Jackson-starring 'Lakeview Terrace' (2008). There's also a dramatic shift from tradition in an emotionally drenched late scene where Emily overhears her parents arguing over their role in Tyler's fall from grace. 

Where in the vast majority of pictures it would be the father of the house taking flack for not being there for his children, here it's Brown's hard-nosed dad accusing mother Catherine (Renee Elise Goldsberry) of lacking presence in their son's life. She rebutes him with accusations of putting too much pressure on the young man to succeed. Something which raises tantalising questions about the familial role in Tyler's history of violence. Was he "pushed" one step too far?

As easy as it is to pick apart the family politics at the heart of 'Waves', it needs to be cherished first and foremost as a slice of cinematic experimentalism. A film that adds "weirdness" to the pot of political correctness that largely accompanies movies led by African Americans; prioritising mood and ambience over standard storytelling beats. 

A high watermark of this is unquestionably a rooftop down night car journey through the overheated colour schemes of Miami. The camera spins with the dexterity of a merry-go-round around our characters's stoned, drunken boisterousness with the intention of dizzyingly filming the anarchic moral traffic blocking virtually every young person's rugged road into adulthood.

Underwriting it all is Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross's score; intricately woven into the film's fabric with the precision of Mica Levi's shotgun-ridden existential explorations in 'Monos' (2019) and the sonic finesse of Ronald Bernstein's work on 'Uncut Gems' (2020). From heart-pumping anxiety to woozy disorientation to gospel-grinding aspiration, the duo's music is as terrifying as a Sci-Fi nightmare, but as grounded in reality as any pre-twentysomething male or female needs to be as they approach the most challenging chapter in their life.

​By all accounts, 'Waves' is a "weird" film. Yet this far from a criticism. In the world of #BlackLivesMatter, its a revelation to find a "black film" with its feet soaked in surrealism rather than simple social realism. Let's champion this "coming of the new weird in African American cinema" and set 'Waves' as an example for other works to follow...


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BOMBSHELL (2020) FILM REVIEW

1/19/2020

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**

15, 108 Mins

'Bombshell' is all glitz and glam, but where're the stories?
Screenwriter Charles Randolph has an irksome habit of coercing comedic directors into dramatic projects frankly out of their depth. First with 'Anchorman' anchor Adam McKay and 'The Big Short' (2016) - a shallow spin on the 2008 Financial Crisis - and now with 'Austin Powers' man Jay Roach and 'Bombshell' (2020) which details the 2016 Fox News sexual harassment scandal that precipitated the #TimesUp and #MeToo Movements.

''Bombshell' isn't as smug and overrated as that earlier film, but similarly only sensationally scratches the surface of its subject matter. It's a three-sided coin that's title is both a play on journalistic bombshells, but also refers to the blondeness of its trio of heroines (one of whom is fictional) who brought down loathsome CEO Roger Ailes (John Lithgow beneath fatty prosthetic layers).

Charlize Theron leads the pack as the hard-nosed anchorwoman Megyn Kelly; breaking the fourth wall to preach the channel's reactionary propaganda 'House of Cards'-style. She nails the blunt accent, swaying gait and sycophantic smiles, but I never bought the fact that I was watching anything more than an impersonation as opposed to a true disappearance into character.

I felt a similar way about Margot Robbie who is playing Kayla Popisil - a composite of several women at Fox News who spoke out against Ailes. She's frustratingly wasted on sex appeal.

The only female character with an inkling of depth here is actually Nicole Kidman's Gretchen Carlson - the first woman to come forward. Her role sadly ends up fading into the hollowness of Theron and Robbie, though.

Like its women, 'Bombshell' is a glitzy and glamourous affair replete with colourful newsroom sets. Maybe a bit too glitz and glam as it seems to either gloss over the psychological horrors of sexual harassment or sensationalize the stories without digging any deeper. Is it wrong to want it all to be a tad more horrifying?

Thank goodness for John Lithgow then who brings a corpulent lechery to Ailes himself. It digs this terribly tabloidized and sucrose affair a decent bit of dirt.

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AMANDA (2020) FILM REVIEW

1/5/2020

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**

15, 107 Mins

Cutesy familial bonding and Islamic terrorism don't gel.
Believe it or not, despite my love of all things dark and gothic, I'm actually a softie for schmaltz. There's nothing wrong with the odd dapple of syrupy sunshine, Sigur Ros songs getting the tears trickling or mushy moments of wayward rogues realising their true calling due to a sweet child's voice.

The problem is when these mushy moments soften and sentimentalize real-world woes. It's what made me feel sickly sweetened during 'Marriage Story's otherwise bitter commentary upon the psychological impact of divorce, but, believe me, any of that film's indulgence in father-son treacle is nothing compared with the gooeyness that turns this tale of terror attack bereavement into a nutmeg and honeyed spoonful of mum's apple pie cinema.

It centres around an aimless 20 year old Parisian (Vincent Lacoste) who is forced to question everything he ever stood for when his sister (Ophelia Kolb) is killed in the 2015 Paris terror attack. And yet this is a film oddly shy of exploring the traumatic toll such an atrocity has upon the victim's family. Instead it chooses to spend time watching Wimbledon games and playing in children's parks as if the world of the central character's motherless neice - the titular Amanda (Isaure Multrier) - is all poppies and roses.

Call me a cynic, but I was greatly reminded of Marc Webb's 'Gifted' (2017) - another slice of syruped child prodigy bonding that failed to scratch the surface of its young star's psyche beyond manipulative tear-jerking. The chemistry between Lacoste and Multrier is unquestionably lovely, but that's not enough to balance out the necessary grit treatments of terror attacks need to function successfully and sensitively.

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JOJO RABBIT (2020) FILM REVIEW

1/5/2020

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****

12A, 108 Mins

Sneer if you want, it's your loss...
Having spiced up the intergalactic escapades of 'Thor: Ragnarok' (2017), New Zealand's King of Quirk Taika Waititi returns to his indie roots established in 'What We Do in the Shadows' (2014) and 'The Hunt for the Wilderpeople' (2016) with a spiky "comedy" about a Nazi youth bonding with a Jewish girl. Yes really!

Indeed, on paper, 'Jojo Rabbit's populist brand of imaginery Hitlers, anti-semetism and cutesy romance sounds like the most woefully misjudged mesh of ideas ever pitched to screen. It's perhaps unsurprising therefore that many critics have accused the film  - in the words of The Telegraph's Robbie Collin - of "sentimentalising the Holocaust". Having heard nothing, but gripes, one shuddered at the thought of another shameless exercise in awards-bait emotional manipulation in vein of Roberto Beningi's OSCAR-showered, but ill-conceived Holocaust heartbreaker 'Life is Beautiful' (1997). A fear that appeared to be backed up by 'Jojo Rabbit' scooping up the Toronto Film Festival's People's Choice Award (a well-known predictive of future OSCAR winners).

It's a relief to report that Waititi's film is neither nasty nor mean-spirited. In fact, you'd have to be pretty nasty and mean-spirited not to be touched by it. It's an unlikely coming-of-age winner with an uncomfortably raw edge.

Roman Griffin Davis stars as Johannes Betzler - a ten year old living at the heights of Nazi Germany in WW2. His titular nickname "Jojo Rabbit" comes from his puppyish refusal to snap a rabbit's neck when taking part in a Nazi youth camp overseen by Sam Rockwell's tyrannical army officer Captain Klenzendorf. These animal cruelty scenes - playing out against the chirpy sound of Germanized musical hits such as The Monkees's 'I'm a Believer' - are amongst the few occasions that the balance between schmaltz and button-pushing realism didn't sit right and almost had me walking out the cinema in disgust.

How thankful was I that the film should shift its attention to the domesticity of Jojo's home life. We discover his father is absent serving on the Italian front while his older sister recently died of influenza. Living in a passionately pro-Nazi household under the strict regime of an iron-fisted mother (Scarlett Johansson), Jojo finds himself conflicted between childhood innocence and the hatred preached by Nazi ideologies. A manifestation of this takes shape as a Schizophrenic-like apparation of Adolf Hitler (played by Director Waititi himself) who rather awkwardly provides Jojo's moral compass.

The greatest test of the young boy's life, however, comes when a Jewish girl named Elsa (Thomasin McKenzie) comes crawling out the basement like Alice Webster from 'The Missing' (2014-2016). Hiding from the Gestapo, Elsa and Jojo grow close and the latter begins to question everything he ever stood for...

As with any film about Nazism or the Holocaust, the question that begs for answers is whether such a film has sensitivity when approaching its subjects. In the case of 'Jojo Rabbit', however, calling it "sensitive" would defeat its purpose. This is a film that strives to absurdify the atrocities amplified by Waititi's gruelling, gurning Hitler hallucinations. It suggests that we should no longer take Hitler's hate at face value rather we should see it as something destined for the litter tray. Innevitably such an interpretation of these absurdities has proved problematic for a sizeable chunk of viewers and its unquestionable that this film will provide marmite responses far and wide.

Thank goodness then that a string of pathos should undercut the Martin McDonough-style insensitivity. Scarlett Johansson provides this pathos in spades as mother Rosie; balancing maternal love with steely resolve to wrenching effect. It's a role which's stoic lack of empathy wouldn't seem a stretch for Johansson's trademark toughness, but an unexpected twist adds a surprising dollop of warmth to a cold, calculating character. The actress's recent work in 'Marriage Story' (2019) isn't a patch on anything she accomplishes here.

Sam Rockwell's cartoonishly accented part is far more one-dimensional and, on the surface, requires audiences to simply heckle with horrified relish. And yet anti-semetic sacrafices made on his part to keep our protagonist from harm exemplify the film's most emotive bite.

The real stars, though, are the youngest cast members serving up two of the finest child performances I've ever seen. Roman Griffin Davis is outstanding as Jojo delivering the pefect encapsulation of conflict both domestic and world-weary through the doe eyes of a child. He has remarkable chemistry with the brilliant Thomasin McKenzie who - building on the success of 'Leave No Trace' (2018) - injects a welcome dose of nuance into a character who could have easily ended up a hackneyed Jewish stereotype.

There's an element of barbed wired 'Boy in Striped Pyjamas' buddying to the central 'Romeo and Juliet'-style pairing, but I found comparisons in the most unlikely places such as the guerilla-ridden gunfire of 'Monos' (2019). Like that film, a universality prevails in 'Jojo Rabbit's heartfelt portrait of stripped innocence to the point that, if you were to dispose of the Nazi Germany backdrop, poignant themes of children coming to terms with love, repressed rage and adolescence would still pack a weighty punch.

For a film pitched as a "comedy", it would seem, dare I say, "funny" that I should find none of it a laughing matter. Yet like 'Four Lions' (2010) - another "comedy" that absurdified real-world horrors - the fact that the film's subject matter makes you feel so genuinely unsettled is less a criticism of its comic prowess, rather an epitaph of its earthy grit.

​That's not to say this should be viewed as worthy "issuetainment". It needs to be championed as a tragic fable with an optimistic message about finding love in the most troubling of times. Sneer if you want, believe me, it's your loss...


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THE 2010s: A DECADE IN FILM REVIEW

1/1/2020

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Superheroes, sequels and reboots stole the big bucks, but, thanks to Christopher Nolan and Denis Villeneuve, art still thrives in the Multiplex.
It wouldn't be a "decade in film" round-up of the 2010s without mention of the slightly depressing coup staged by big-budget franchises against middle-budget, original,  adult dramas for the Box Office throne. Where the 1970s spawned 'The Godfather: Parts 1 and 2' (1972-1974), 'Taxi Driver' (1976) and 'Chinatown' (1974) as poster children for the masses, the most financially successful movies of the 2010s were 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' (2015), 'Jurassic World' (2015) and 'The Avengers: Endgame' (2019) - a sequel, a reboot and a superhero mash-up.

What that says about the tastes of multiplex audiences increasingly participating in - in the words of Martin Scorsese - "amusement park films" is questionable. Have cinema-goers become dumber? If we were to judge audience intelligence on the $4.84 billion Box Office figures of Michael Bay's head-bangingly boring and soulless 'Transformers' (2007-) movies, the answer would be a resounding YES. However there is some reason to be cheerful if the combined critical and commercial success of Christopher Nolan's 'Inception' (2010), 'Interstellar' (2014) and 'Dunkirk' (2017) is anything to go by.

This decade Nolan has represented the finest living exponent of blockbuster film-making's artistic appeal - the anti-"Bayification" of Hollywood who treats casual ticket-buyers with the brains of a cineast. Physical proof that you don't have to be "big and dumb" to be both bankable and entertaining.

The 2010s saw a multitude of technological advancements - some revolutionary (Digital Cinema and IMAX), others fads (3D). However the greatest technical triumph was the victory of a black-and-white silent film called 'The Artist' (2011) at the 2012 OSCARS. Its success boldly suggested that the traditional formats need not be relics of the past, but could co-exist in the glitzy world of CGI.

For 7 years, Michel Hazavanicius's film seemed like a one-hit wonder for historically popular film-making. That is until September 2019 from the cliffs of Cornwall came Mark Jenkin's brilliant 'Bait' (2019). Shot as a silent movie on hand-crafted 16mm film with dialogue and sound effects added in post-production, this was a grain-soaked marvel as much as a gruelling tale of communal and class tension. I pray that it heralds the return of 16mm cinema and its unlikely Box Office appeal is reason alone to worship the high heavens.

Despite my generation-standing scepticism of the Academy Awards, the real treat of the 2010s has been seeing Mr. OSCAR's notoriously safe tastes line up with one's own. Composing my "best of the decade" list, I noticed several high-profile nominees and winners whether they be Lenny Abrahamson's beautiful 'Room' (2016), Steve McQueen's suitably horrific '12 Years A Slave' (2014) or Richard Linklater's lovely 12 year labour of love 'Boyhood' (2014).

The big prize among awards contenders, however, must go to the mesmerising 'Moonlight' (2017). Amongst all the nonsensical whinings about #WrongBestFilmGate, the only fact of any relevance is that a seemingly obsolete arthouse gem about homosexual, black masculinity swept the rug right from under the feet of a whitewashed musical (#'La La Land'). A feat that would've been thought impossible two decades ago.

The Academy certainly became more inclusive in the latter half of the decade thanks to pressure placed on it by movements such as #BlackLivesMatter, #TimesUp and #MeToo in the wake of #OSCARSSOWHITE and the Weinstein Scandal. The Best Picture triumph of Guillermo Del Toro's 'The Shape of Water' (2018) with its barnstorming central performance from Sally Hawkins was both a giant leap for women's empowerment, but also attested against OSCAR's previous negligence of blockbusters of this kind.

Ironically, the ceremony's next hurdle now is not that it needs to be more PC, but that it needs to be less so. Take a corny comedy like 'Green Book' (2019) beating a sociopolitical study of Mexican past, present and future such as Alfonso Cuaron's 'Roma' (2018) largely by virtue of the former film featuring a gay, black man as one of its leads.

As 'Roma' demonstrated, the 2020s will be the decade of Netflix Film which has fallen under scrutiny from a wide range of film-makers including Steven Spielberg for not being "real cinema" and essentially "made-for-TV movies". I would certainly support such claims if I was judging the quality of Netflix productions on the likes of 'Marriage Story' (2019) and 'The Two Popes' (2019) (both major contenders at the forthcoming awards season!). However I can't fault Martin Scorsese's 208 minute mob epic 'The Irishman' (2019) which has the literature-like longevity of 'The Sopranos' (1999-2007) and would never be as polished were it screened to the mainstream.

Away from the awards, British cinema continued to be a force to be reckoned with. Ken Loach delivered arguably his finest film in an over 50 year career with the stirring 'I, Daniel Blake' (2016) - a deeply moving tale of people struggling to stay afloat on Benefits. The Bond franchise, meanwhile, has never been better. 'Skyfall' (2012) represented the very best 007 has to offer with jaw-dropping action, a classic villain and an oedeopal venture into our favourite superspy's tortured psyche. 

Top of the cannon for us Brits was unquestionably away from the Multiplex with the emergence of Director Carol Morley as the most unique female voice in modern cinema. Her film 'The Falling' (2015) appeared on the surface to be a quirky tale of a fainting epidemic in a girl's boarding school, but really turned out to be a swooning exploration of sexual awakening and female gender identity. There really is nothing quite like it.

As far as Foreign Film is concerned, the 2010s have been lifted by the outstanding presence of Park Chan-Wook's 'The Handmaiden' (2017) (South Korea), Alejandro Landes's 'Monos' (2019) (Colombia) and Celine Sciamma's 'Girlhood' (2014) (France). My heart lies oddly enough, though, in the English speaking world with a European helmsman behind the camera. Danish auteur Nicholas Winding-Refn proved himself to be a formiddable talent when it came to melding action and arthouse. His 'Drive' (2011) made a glistening case for a 21st century 'Taxi Driver' and I was among the few to lap up the materialistic horrors of the director's fashion freak show 'The Neon Demon' (2016).

In a galaxy far, far away, the 'Star Wars' saga (1977-2019) continued to rule the roster when it came to pop cultural intergalactic overdrive. The sequel trilogy (2015-2019) was buoyed with surreal panache by its second chapter 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' (2017) which was essentially a slice of experimentalism disguised as a billion dollar behemoth. 

None of that film's artistic flourish could compete, however, with the immaculate majesty of 'Blade Runner 2049' (2017). Arriving 35 years since Ridley Scott's seminal original changed the face of Science-Fiction and remarkably outdoing everything its predecessor ever stood for, this was  a mosaic tapestry of magisterial proportions. Goya and Da Vinci would be left drooling at every milemeter of Denis Villeneuve's labyrinthine frames which have the delicacy of the Sistene Chapel. It will have to be a decade of golden roads if anything from the 2020s matches this flawless work of art...
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Honourable Mentions...

Without question, it would've been impossible for me to view every film released within the past 10 years which innevitably means my finished list is rather incomplete. It's equally unfair to exclude at least 10 movies which - in any other decade - would have easily encompassed my top 10. Here's a look at them...

Honourable Mentions: The Neon Demon (2016), 12 Years A Slave (2014), Widows (2018), I, Daniel Blake (2016), Shame (2012), The Handmaiden (2017), What Richard Did (2013), Skyfall (2012), Girlhood (2014), The Irishman (2019)
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10 Best Films of the 2010s

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10. The Shape of Water (2018)
A magical fairytale with a real-world subtext.


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​9. The Falling (2015)
A swooning exploration of sexual awakening and female gender identity with fainting fits as its cover.






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​8. Monos (2019)
A 'Lord of the Flies' for the 21st century.
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​7. Room (2016)
Brie Larson is sensational in this beautiful portrait of mother and son.






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​6. Drive (2011)
Nicholas Winding-Refn's culmination of action and arthouse is this generation's 'Taxi Driver'.






​5. Boyhood (2014)
Richard Linklater's lovely  12 year labour of love.








​4.Inception(2010)/ Interstellar(2014)
Christoper Nolan's Sci-Fi masterpieces prove brains and bucks go hand-in-hand.








3. Moonlight (2017)
OSCAR-winning coming-of-age gem is a revelation in symphonic storytelling.



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​2. Bait (2019)
Grain-soaked Cornish marvel could change the landscape of modern cinema.


FILM OF THE DECADE: THE 2010S...

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​1. Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
Denis Villeneuve's flawless cinematic mosaic would leave Goya and Da Vinci drooling...


TURKEY OF THE DECADE: THE 2010S...
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​Pain and Gain (2013)
Michael Bay's hateful slice of torture porn propaganda.
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    Meet Roshan Chandy

    Freelance Film Critic and Writer based in Nottingham, UK. Specialises in Science Fiction cinema.

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