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Review – Rush

Posted on September 28, 2013 by Three Rows Back

More than three decades after his feature debut Grand Theft Auto, Ron Howard once more feels the need for speed in this loud and proud biopic centred around one of motor sport’s greatest rivalries.

Although too conventional for a story such as this, Ron Howard’s Rush nevertheless fires on enough cylinders to make it a worthy study of what drove two men to risk it all to win

Perhaps more than any other sport, Formula One deeply divides opinion between those who would rather sit in a traffic jam to those who live for race day.

A typically laid-back James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) in Rush

Previously, motor sport movies such as Grand Prix and Le Mans generally tailored themselves towards the petrol head. That was until the 2010 British documentary Senna, a stunning and deeply moving film about the life and tragic death of Brazilian F1 driver Ayrton Senna. Crucially, Senna managed to make its subject accessible to the uninitiated and avoid dumbing itself down to the serious fans at the same time.

It’s a feat Howard just about carries off in Rush which, like Senna, chronicles an intense duel between two drivers – Britain’s James Hunt and Austria’s Niki Lauda.

Daniel Brühl as Niki Lauda in Rush

The film charts their professional rivalry from their days as young Formula Three drivers in 1970 to the topsy-turvy 1976 F1 season, during which Hunt suffered multiple setbacks and Lauda was involved in a horrifying crash that resulted in severe burns, before it all came down to the final race in Japan.

It-girl Suzy Miller turns James Hunt’s head in Rush

Howard has a capacity to imbue his more prestigious projects (Apollo 13, Cinderella Man, Frost/Nixon) with an admirable authenticity and he tackles Rush with a similar mindset. The saturated colours and grainy lens lend the film a 1970s air that’s complemented by a close attention to detail in the costume and production design.

Australian actor Chris Hemsworth’s acting talents are still relatively unknown beyond his performances as Thor in the Marvel film series and he has a ball as Hunt, the larger-than-life playboy who’s as gifted behind the wheel as he is between the sheets (he’s rumoured to have slept with more than 5,000 women). Hunt isn’t a one-dimensional cartoon, though, and Hemsworth evokes the highs and lows that came with his excessive lifestyle, while also showing why he chose to risk life and limb each and every race.

Feeling the need for speed in Rush

Normally it’s the Brits who are the reserved ones, but here it’s Daniel Brühl’s Lauda, who’s all about maximising performance, methodical preparation and driving within acceptable levels of risk. Brühl does a smart job of garnering the audience’s empathy for a character who, on paper, is a cool, self-controlled jerk with a singular purpose to win. In one effectively staged scene, a honeymooning Lauda stares worriedly out the window, realising that with new wife Marlene (Alexandra Maria Lara) he now has something to lose; while in the corner of the shot a fire burns, cleverly foreshadowing the appalling accident that is to come.

The intense rivalry between Niki Lauda (Daniel Brühl) and James Junt (Chris Hemsworth) in Rush

Howard reteams with writer Peter Morgan following Frost/Nixon, another 70s drama about high stakes and intense rivalry. Although not as powerful a script, Morgan’s spiky dialogue keeps things racing along at a fast enough speed in spite of the incessant exposition-heavy commentary that threatens to overtake each and every race.

The races themselves are when the film high truly hits top gear. Howard keeps the camera tight on Hunt or Lauda or low to the track (including some engine-specific digital effects work) to give a convincing impression of the terrifying speeds these horse-powered coffins were capable of, and almost overwhelms the senses with a ear-bleeding wall of sound.

This is Hemsworth’s and Lauda’s show, but Olivia Wilde impresses as it-girl Suzy Miller, who turns Hunt’s head, while Christian McKay is wonderfully fruity as Alexander Hesketh, the colourful owner of Hunt’s first racing team.

Although too conventional for a story such as this, Rush nevertheless fires on enough cylinders to make it a worthy study of what drove two men to risk it all to win.

Review – Spring Breakers

Posted on July 26, 2013 by Three Rows Back

The enfant terrible of American arthouse cinema is at it again in this shamelessly controversial witches’ brew of sexploitative teen drama, dreamscape and MTV’s Cribs.

A weird, hallucinatory trip down the trashy corridors of its director’s headspace, Spring Breakers is a one-of-a-kind and for that alone it deserves to be seen

Since making his name as the writer of Larry Clark’s headline-grabbing Kids back in 1995, Harmony Korine’s directorial career has crashed, banged and walloped through one two-fingered salute after another, most recently in 2009’s self-explanatory Trash Humpers.

Whilst unmistakably a Korine film, Spring Breakers is his most mainstream and accessible work to date and the first movie of his career to turn a profit.

Candy (Vanessa Hudgens), Brittany (Ashley Benson), Cotty (Rachel Korine) and Faith (Selena Gomez) let their hair down in Spring Breakers

Obsessed with ditching college for an epic spring break blowout – but short of cash to do so – Candy (Vanessa Hudgens), Brittany (Ashley Benson) and Cotty (Rachel Korine, wife of Harmony) put on pink balaclavas (bringing to mind the Putin-bashing Russian punk rock band Pussy Riot) and rob a fast food restaurant.

The trio, joined by the God-fearing Faith (Selena Gomez), head down to Florida for drink, drugs and wild beach parties and fall in with the charismatic Alien (James Franco), a self-proclaimed “hustler … a gangster with a heart of gold” who’s engaged in a turf war with Big Arch (rapper Gucci Mane). The craziness become too much for Faith, but for the others this is the chance to enjoy “spring break forever”.

“Spring break foreverrrr” – Alien (James Franco) in Spring Breakers

Spring Breakers shares a similar sensibility to Sofia Coppola’s The Bling Ring in its unvarnished portrayal of a group of young American teenagers consumed by self-entitlement and dazzled by all things materialistic. Candy and co see it as their right to go on spring break and feel no guilt at robbing the store, indeed they “pretend it’s a video game”.

There’s a certain gratuitousness to Korine’s camerawork, exacerbated by the fact the girls are dressed in flourescent bikinis throughout, but he also often uses harsh lighting to both desexualise them and highlight the ugliness of their characters. The film is shot through with blue and red filters (at one point a friend of Faith’s suggests Candy, Brittany and Cotty have “got demon blood in them” before we see them bathed in red, hellish light), while UV lighting is also used to add an otherworldly nature to the film.

Brittany (Ashley Benson) pretends it’s just a video game in Spring Breakers

Korine also uses repetition of dialogue to lend Spring Breakers a hallucinatory quality, while the increasingly fantastical narrative supports this notion.

While Candy, Brittany and Cotty are happy living in their own little fantasy worlds, their minds are blown when their encounter Alien, a gold-toothed drug dealer and self-styled personification of the American Dream who at one point tells the girls: “Everyone’s always tellin’ me you gotta change. I’m about stacking change. I’m about making money.”

Candy (Vanessa Hudgens), Brittany (Ashley Benson), Cotty (Rachel Korine) and Faith (Selena Gomez) in trouble in Spring Breakers

Alien is consumerism personified – his flashy car has hub caps with dollar signs on them, while his mantra “look at my shit!” is repeated ad infinitum while proudly pointing out all the stuff he owns. He also shows off his guns and love of Scarface (“I got Scarface on re-peat; I got it on constantly!”) as if he’s trying to convince not just the girls of his gangster credentials but himself too.

James Franco plays larger-than-life gangsta Alien in Spring Breakers

Franco brings just the right balance of humour, pathos, arrogance and fear to the larger-than-life Alien and he’s without doubt Spring Breakers‘ star turn. Hudgens and Benson are also impressive as the vacuous college girls blinded by self-delusional platitudes about the spiritual benefits their violent crime spree is providing.

There are moments when the film really hits the mark, not least of which in the oddly sweet (and tongue-in-cheek) moment when Korine intercuts a heartfelt Alien playing Britney Spears’ Everytime on his piano to the balaclava-clad girls with footage of them breaking peoples’ faces and robbing them of their stuff. The scene plays as a clever mirror image to a scene earlier in the film when the girls happily sing Spears’ Baby One More Time.

A weird, hallucinatory trip down the trashy corridors of its director’s headspace, Spring Breakers is a one-of-a-kind and for that alone it deserves to be seen.

Review – The World’s End

Posted on July 22, 2013 by Three Rows Back

The Cornetto trilogy comes to a minty conclusion in this typically homage-heavy sci-fi comedy about bars, buddies, brawls and beer – lots of beer.

“Where Wright, Pegg and Frost go together from here who knows, but as the Cornetto trilogy’s final flavour The World’s End is sweet indeed”

Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost followed-up their cult TV series Spaced with the 2004 rom-zom-com Shaun Of The Dead, a slice of genius that embraced George A Romero’s Dead films while at the same time doing something truly original with the formula.

They teamed up again three years later for the even more successful Hot Fuzz, an action comedy that winked in the direction of cop buddy movies like Lethal Weapon and Bad Boys, but was still very much its own quirky beast.

Oliver (Martin Freeman), Steve (Paddy Considine), Gary (Simon Pegg), Andrew (Nick Frost) and Pete (Eddie Marsan) prepare to get annhiliated in The World's End

Oliver (Martin Freeman), Steve (Paddy Considine), Gary (Simon Pegg), Andrew (Nick Frost) and Pete (Eddie Marsan) prepare to get annihilated in The World’s End

As the years have ticked by, Wright, Frost and Pegg especially have eclipsed their humble TV beginnings to become Hollywood figures, but that hasn’t stopped them from getting the band back together one more time for this long-awaited final chapter in the Cornetto trilogy (so named for the appearance of the famous ice cream brand in each film).

The film starts with a lengthy exposition-heavy voiceover from Pegg’s Gary King, the rebellious cool kid who led his four mates Andrew, Steve, Oliver and Pete on an epic post-school quest to traverse the ‘Golden Mile’, a perilous pub crawl encompassing 12 pubs in their hometown of Newton Haven. Despite a brave attempt, the gang failed to make it to The World’s End, the Golden Mile’s final watering hole.

A young Gary (Thomas Law) and Andy (Zachary Bailess) consider what’s to come of their lives in The World’s End

Now approaching 40, Gary tracks down his estranged buddies and convinces a reluctant Andrew (Frost), Steve (Paddy Considine), Oliver (Martin Freeman) and Pete (Eddie Marsan) to finally conquer the Golden Mile. An uncomfortable start to the crawl, made more awkward by the arrival of Oliver’s sister Sam (Rosamund Pike), suddenly takes a loony turn for the dangerously extraterrestrial.

Gary (Simon Pegg) unveils the map of 'the golden mile' showing all 12 watering holes in The World's End

Gary (Simon Pegg) unveils the map of the ‘Golden Mile’ showing all 12 watering holes, culminating at The World’s End

It would have been so easy for co-writer/director Wright, Pegg (also a co-writer) and Frost to have reheated the magic that made Shaun… and Hot Fuzz so adored, but to their credit they instead go off in another direction entirely, while still delivering the sort of joke rate that most ‘comedies’ don’t get anywhere near.

Gary is a pathetic character, an adult straightjacketed by stubborn arrested development who’s never been able to get past 1990. Still wearing the same goth clothing and still driving the same clapped out car he had as a teenager, Gary’s obnoxious, hard edges are softened out by Pegg’s sympathetic portrayal.

Gary (Simon Pegg), Oliver (Martin Freeman) and Steve (Paddy Considine) realise something is rotten in Newton Haven in The World’s End

The top-notch cast work splendidly off each other, each bringing their own unresolved baggage to what gradually turns into a painful, but necessary reunion for them all. Normally cast as resentful and/or angry, Marsan lets his hair down in a role that actually allows him to have a giggle, while Frost shows that when he’s given the right material (usually co-written by Pegg and Wright) he’s an actor with range.

Sam (Rosamund Pike) kicks butt in The World’s End

The film cleverly manages to have it both ways; in the one hand it drums home the message that there’s little point dwelling on the past, while at the same time wallowing in the nostalgia of its early 90s soundtrack, in particular Primal Scream’s seminal track Loaded.

Wright has cited the legendary sci-fi writer John Wyndham as a big influence and there are definite nods to his paranoid tome The Midwich Cuckoos (turned into the classic movie Village Of The Damned), while other 1950s sci-fi classics Invasion Of The Body Snatchers and The Thing From Another World are also interwoven into the film’s DNA.

Despite being very amusing, The World’s End isn’t as instantly likeable as either Shaun… or Hot Fuzz. Maybe it was the special effects getting in the way, or the increasingly bonkers plot, but something felt missing. That being said, the first two chapters in the trilogy improved with age, so there’s no reason to think The World’s End won’t become a richer experience on repeated viewings.

Where Wright, Pegg and Frost go together from here who knows, but as the Cornetto trilogy’s final flavour The World’s End is sweet indeed.

Review – World War Z

Posted on June 25, 2013 by Three Rows Back

Zombie cinema has come an awful long way from the no-budget claustrophobia of Night Of The Living Dead to this globe-trotting action horror that’s as epic in scale as it is in expense.

World War Z aims to be the last word in zombie-geddon, but in sacrificing character for spectacle World War Z aims to be the last word in zombie-geddon, but in sacrificing character for spectacle it ends up lacking the bite of the genre’s true classics

Once regarded as little more than a niche genre presided over by George A Romero, the zombie flick was reanimated for modern audiences by Danny Boyle in his 2002 horror classic 28 Days Later and since then has lurched its way into the mainstream, to the extent that even TV has embraced it in the form of the hugely popular cable show The Walking Dead, based on the comic book of the same name.

While the undead were doing their thing on the big screen, Max Brooks’ 2006 novel World War Z took a wholly new and plausible approach by presenting itself as an oral history of a 10-year global zombie war; a collection of personal accounts compiled by a United Nations agent examining the various geo-political, religious and environmental changes that occurred as a result.

Fleeing the initial zombie outbreak in World War Z

Adapting a book with World War Z‘s particular structure was always going to be tough, but it’s nevertheless surprising just how fast and loose the filmmakers have played with the source material, to the extent that virtually the only thing connecting the two is the title.

The novel’s only common thread is its narrator, so it makes sense the driving force for the movie is former UN investigator Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt), who’s portrayed as a loving father to two girls and husband to Karin (Mireille Enos), presumably to remind both us and him what he’s fighting to save when it all goes down.

Devastation-porn in World War Z

And boy does it all go down right from the first few minutes when, sitting in heavy traffic in downtown Philadelphia, they are suddenly and violently attacked by a growing horde of rabid zombies. The family barely make it to the roof of an apartment complex, where they are extracted in the nick of time by helicopter (whose complement includes a blink and you’ll miss him Matthew Fox) to a US Navy vessel, where they discover the terrifying scale of the worldwide pandemic. Told that he and his family will be forcibly evacuated off the ship unless he co-operates, Gerry reluctantly agrees to join the needle in a haystack search for Patient Zero, starting at a US military base in South Korea. From there, Gerry travels to Jerusalem and (randomly) Cardiff in a race against time to find anything to give them an advantage against “Zeke”.

Karin (Mireille Enos) and husband Gerry (Brad Pitt) seek escape in World War Z

A general rule of previous zombie movies has been to suggest the disturbing degree of the outbreak through emergency radio broadcasts or fuzzy television pictures. Not so World War Z, which tries to live up to its hardcore title by wallowing in the devastation, be it the military bombing the hell out of a city or an anthill of zombies furiously piling on top of each other to traverse a massive wall the Israelis have constructed to supposedly keep the undead out. Before you have chance to catch your breath, though, Gerry’s off again on his whistle stop tour.

Going after “Zeke” in World War Z

As the film progresses, however, the focus gradually narrows from CGI-heavy mass destruction and chaos to a relatively claustrophobic third act set within a laboratory, which was bolted on after the movie’s original ending was jettisoned by the studio and producer Pitt.

Gerry (Brad Pitt) and co in World War Z

Although clearly financially motivated (a static indoor location is far cheaper than horrendously expensive reshoots on the scale of the rest of the film) and somewhat derivative of many a great horror movie that’s come before, director Marc Forster makes the best of what he’s given and does a solid enough job ratcheting up the tension, although this is dampened by one unintentionally humorous zombie’s endless teeth-clicking.

While Brooks’ episodic narrative gave the reader a thorough sense of each individual and their story, World War Z’s script doesn’t have time for such distractions as character. Despite his commendable efforts to get the thing onto the big screen, Pitt feels like the wrong fit for Gerry. An actor with more range would have better suited the material and given the audience a greater sense of the personal impact this unimaginable horror must be having. And with the exception of Daniellla Kertesz’s Israeli soldier, no-one else is given the chance to make any impact.

Probably the most memorable image of World War Z

Watching World War Z, I couldn’t help having the feeling that it would have worked better as a cable TV mini-series. The famous Battle of Yonkers chapters aside, wherein US soldiers make an Alamo-style stand against tens of thousands of ghouls (which is missing from the film anyway), Brooks’ novel largely stayed away from massive spectacle, concentrating instead on ordinary men, women and children fighting for survival.

As fast-moving as the thousands of undead who swarm across the screen, World War Z aims to be the last word in zombie-geddon, but in sacrificing character for spectacle it ends up lacking the bite of the genre’s true classics.

Review – Star Trek Into Darkness

Posted on May 16, 2013 by Three Rows Back

After achieving the sort of franchise rejuvenation in which Christopher Nolan would be proud, J.J Abrams has boldly gone bigger, badder and bolder for his breathlessly enterprising Star Trek sequel.

Star Trek Into Darkness – As smart and engaging as it is outrageously entertaining, blockbusters don’t come much better than this

It looked like the final frontier was upon one of cinema’s longest-running film series when 2002’s Star Trek: Nemesis tanked at the box office. But as the Batman franchise had so effectively demonstrated, when stuck in a creative cul-de-sac the best way out is to wipe the slate clean and start again (this summer’s Man of Steel being a case in point).

Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto) come face-to-face with John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch) in Star Trek Into Darkness

The task of delivering ‘Star Trek Begins’ fell to Abrams, a major player in television with such cult shows as Alias and Lost, but whose only previous big screen experience in the director’s chair had been with the underrated Mission: Impossible III. A self-confessed Trek neophyte, Abrams’ lack of fan-baggage essentially made him the perfect man for the job.

With the help of a finely tuned script by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman that wasn’t afraid to take risks, 2009’s Star Trek managed to please both hardened Trekkies and newbies alike with its impressive mix of epic action set-pieces and emotionally engaging characters.

Abrams wisely retains the core of what worked last time around, while upping the ante considerably with Star Trek Into Darkness, which sees Starfleet under attack from Shakesperean-esque villain John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch). Seeking vengeance, Kirk (Chris Pine) leads Spock (Zachary Quinto), Bones (Karl Urban) and the Enterprise crew into a deadly conflict against the cold, calculating terrorist.

Deadly terrorist John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch) in Star Trek Into Darkness

Trek is often at its best when subtly preaching tolerance on issues reflecting the times we live in. In the 1960s it was civil rights and feminism, here it’s terrorism, specifically the desire for revenge when cooler heads are needed. It’s an issue that gives the writers plenty of scope to play with the dynamics of the cast, in particular the relationship between the hot-headed, unvarnished Kirk and logical Spock. Kirk’s impulsiveness is what gets results, but it’s also what gets them into trouble in the first place.

New crew member Carol Marcus (Alice Eve) hasn’t yet fallen for Kirk’s (Chris Pine) charms in Star Trek Into Darkness

One of the things that really worked in the rebooted Star Trek was the generous screen time given to the supporting cast. It’s good to see the same approach being taken for the sequel, with Scotty (Simon Pegg), Uhura (Zoe Saldana), Sulu (John Cho) and Chekhov (Anton Yelchin) all integral to the story and given their moments to shine.

Spock (Zachary Quinto) ready for action in Star Trek Into Darkness

Pine finds the chinks in Kirk’s armour and makes him more likeable this time around, while Quinto’s become so comfortable as Spock it’s as if he’s never taken off his Vulcan ears and makes you believe the tumult of emotions under the surface could erupt at any time. Cumberbatch relishes his role and gives the impression he knows he’s always two steps ahead of everyone else. When he tells Kirk that “I’m better … at everything”, you believe him.

Needless to say the film looks stunning, with Abrams’ signature lens flare present and correct in virtually every frame. His long-time production designer Scott Chambliss manages to make the Enterprise beautifully functional (lots of white) without it becoming sterile, while the digital effects team outdo themselves with their realisation of a 23rd century London and San Francisco that feels entirely authentic.

“Damn it Jim!” Bones (Karl Urban) Star Trek Into Darkness

No Abrams film would be complete without a nod to his hero Steven Spielberg and here it’s in an opening scene lifted straight from Raiders Of The Lost Ark in which Kirk and Bones run for their lives from the inhabitants of a primitive planet. Abrams also seems to have a thing for filming long takes of his actors running (remember the extended scene of Tom Cruise legging it in Mission: Impossible III?) and visits that upon poor old Pegg here. There’s even a wink at The Godfather Part III.

On the negative side, Michael Giancchino’s score is way over-the-top. I’m normally a fan of his work, but there were times when the soundtrack was too big even for a film of this scale. Likewise, the finale gets a little too ridiculous for its own good and could have done with being trimmed.

Abrams leaves enough breadcrumbs to whet your appetite for the next installment, even if he’s likely to pass in favour of that other franchise starting with ‘Star’. As smart and engaging as it is outrageously entertaining, blockbusters don’t come much better than this.

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