three rows back

Review – Bridge Of Spies

Posted on December 12, 2015 by Three Rows Back

Tom Hanks plays the (sort of) spy who came in with a cold in Steven Spielberg’s effortlessly polished and absorbing character drama whose themes, sadly, still resonate as strongly today as they did more than half a century ago.

Bridge Of Spies certainly won't leave you cold and finds Spielberg, unlike his protaganist, in rude health

Bridge Of Spies certainly won’t leave you cold and finds Spielberg, unlike his protagonist, in rude health

While the canvas may not be as broad as some of his blockbuster fare, the dramatic stakes at the heart of Spielberg’s latest are high indeed.

Bridge Of Spies shares more than a passing similarity to the bearded one’s previous feature, Lincoln (2012) – both involve backroom negotiations driven by an idealist where potentially world-changing consequences pivot on their success or failure.

“Would it help?”: James B. Donovan (Tom Hanks) and suspected Soviet spy Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance) in Bridge Of Spies

In this case, that responsibility falls to insurance lawyer James B. Donovan (Hanks), who takes on the defence of suspected Soviet spy Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance) against the wishes of his wife Mary (Amy Ryan). Instead of simply going through the motions to facilitate Abel’s guilt, Donovan vigorously defends his client and marks himself out as a troublemaker by the CIA and a Soviet sympathiser by the media and wider public.

His foresight in keeping Abel away from Death Row sees him drafted in to travel to the newly walled off East Berlin in 1961 to negotiate under the radar for the exchange of Francis Gary Powers (Austin Stowell), a U.S pilot whose U-2 reconnaissance mission was dramatically curtailed.

The public take against lawyer James B. Donovan (Tom Hanks) and his wife Mary (Amy Ryan) in Bridge Of Spies

For someone who has revisited World War Two so often throughout his career, it’s perhaps surprising Bridge Of Spies is Spielberg’s first Cold War movie. A desolated post-war Berlin is evocatively captured by the director and cinematographer Janusz Kamiński and the chaos surrounding the erection of a wall that would remain in place for almost 30 years is both unsettling to watch and masterfully handled.

Spielberg employs subtle touches to imply a deeper meaning, such as the use of mirrors to symbolise what is both real and illusion alongside Abel’s skill as a portrait artist to present both himself – and others – in a certain light. Abel’s sniffle at the start of the film is also nicely reflected later on when Donovan develops a cold whilst in sub-zero Berlin.

U-2 spy plane pilot Francis Gary Powers (Austin Stowell) has his day in court in Bridge Of Spies

The film’s themes of tolerance, fairness and what makes Americans American (an adherence to the U.S Constitution as Donovan not unreasonably sees it) draws inevitable parallels to events that continue to unfold in this turbulent century.

Donovan puts his head on the block in seeking to give Abel a fair trial arguing that, whilst his ideology may be anathema to that of most Americans, he remains “a good soldier” who is only doing what he believes to be right. Whether that sort of defence would be accepted by many in today’s society is among the many things that can be taken away from this spirited production.

Hanks, as always, delivers a highly watchable performance in a central role that could so easily have been played by Burt Lancaster or James Stewart had Bridge Of Spies been filmed some decades earlier. Aided by Joel and Ethan Coen’s polish of Matt Charman’s original script, Hanks has a blast in a part that allows him to deliver all-American dialogue with a twinkle in the eye.

Lawyer James B. Donovan (Tom Hanks) alongside the newly constructed Berlin Wall in Bridge Of Spies

As good as Hanks is, however, he’s acted off the screen by Rylance, who has been a king of the stage for many years but now appears to be increasingly transitioning to TV and film work (let’s forget his recent cheque-chasing turn in Sean Penn’s geri-action flick The Gunman though). Employing a less-is-so-much-more technique, Rylance’s quietly inquisitively body language and measured demeanour keep you transfixed as you try to work out what’s going on behind those eyes, while his scenes with Hanks are some of the best interplay you’ll see this year.

Special mention must also go to Thomas Newman’s pleasingly restrained score. So often, Spielberg’s films are ill-served by abundant soundtracks, but Newman keeps things relatively low-key and scenes are often allowed to play out without the use of a score.

Bridge Of Spies certainly won’t leave you cold and finds Spielberg, unlike his protagonist, in rude health.

Review – The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2

Posted on December 3, 2015 by Three Rows Back

For all the talk of this final instalment of the wildly popular Hunger Games series promising to be an ‘epic’ conclusion to the dystopian drama, very little generates a spark, let alone catches fire.

It’s a real shame a franchise that has given us so many great moments, and in the case of its second movie Catching Fire a genuinely top-drawer slice of blockbuster entertainment, should cross the finish line with such an exhausted stumble.

Those who care about such things will no doubt have an opinion over whether the decision to split the final part of Suzanne Collins’ trilogy into two films was right or wrong from an artistic perspective. However, it’s essentially a moot point as we have to judge Mockingjay – Part 2 on its merits – which are sadly lacking for the most part.

Girl on fire: Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2

The film picks up almost exactly where Part 1 left off, with a brainwashed Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) having tried to murder Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence), who is finding the burden of being the face of the resistance a heavy weight to shoulder.

With the pieces being moved into place, the final assault against the Capital and President Snow (Donald Sutherland) gets underway, but this is a fight fraught with danger, not only from the deadly traps set within the Capital, but also from inside their own ranks as Katniss, Peeta and Gale (Liam Hemsworth) struggle to address their love triangle while trying desperately to survive.

President Coin (Julianne More) and Plutarch (Philip Seymour Hoffman) take command in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2

It almost goes without saying, but Lawrence is once again excellent in the role that has defined her career to date. The shell shock that Katniss has been experiencing since her first, horrific encounter in the Hunger Games has only grown more acute as time has gone on and left her as a husk, whose only motivation is to assassinate Snow.

Lawrence effectively conveys both the terror of being sucked into a violent and unpredictable situation, as well as the dead-eyed resignation of someone desensitized to events around her. In the hands of a lesser actor, Katniss could easily come across as miserable, but Lawrence has continually imbued the character with an intriguing mix of vulnerability and steel.

Dastardly President Snow (Donald Sutherland) in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2

The supporting cast provides suitable back-up, most notably a lively, but under-utilised turn from Jena Malone as the mentally damaged Johanna; a reliably excellent Sutherland as the pitiless Snow; and the late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman in his final screen appearance as puppet master Plutarch Heavensbee (a scene towards the end involving a letter from Heavensbee would have worked so much better had Hoffman appeared in it).

The film finds an extra gear when the assault on the Capital finally begins in earnest and the springing of the traps laid down by Snow’s Gamesmakers recapture some of the magic of the first two movies. Likewise, an extended sewer sequence where Katniss and co must overcome creatures borrowed from The Descent is pulse-quickening stuff and nods heavily in the direction of Alien/Aliens.

Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) and Gale (Liam Hemsworth) lead the resistance in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2

However, just when the film feels like it’s ready to lift off, the foot is taken off the gas as the characters talk themselves into a stupor. As such, the pacing of Mockingjay – Part 2 is all over the place, veering disjointedly from moments of tension to swathes of glacial tedium. A similar issue affected Part 1, although it was saved in part by the subtle commentary on how the media war and actual conflict help to fuel each other.

The final section feels anticlimactic (a symptom of adhering so closely to what is considered the weakest of the books) and underwhelming, while the much-discussed final scene, although earned on Katniss’ part, feels like it belongs in a lesser Young Adult adaptation.

After the mouth-watering treat of the previous three courses, it’s a shame The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 concludes this banquet in such an unsatisfactory way.

Review – Steve Jobs

Posted on November 26, 2015 by Three Rows Back

Anyone expecting a messianic hagiography about the life and times of the man who helped to define the digital revolution should prepare themselves for a far more complex – and fascinating – portrait of a brilliant, but deeply flawed man.

It’s difficult to know just how much of the real Steve Jobs is captured here, but Sorkin, Boyle and Fassbender’s im-mac-ulate film means you can never take your eyes off him, which is kind of the point, no?

Four years after his death, Steve Jobs remains a controversial and divisive figure and it is this multi-faceted approach, rather than the simplicity of a black and white biography that electrifies Danny Boyle’s and Aaron Sorkin’s superb film.

Just as he highlighted the irony of Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg being anything but people-friendly in The Social Network (2010), so too does Sorkin explore the dichotomy of a man who creates machines that help people to connect, whilst singularly failing to communicate with so many of those around him, not least his estranged daughter.

Steve Jobs (Michael Fassbender) in his iconic polo neck and jeans phase

The film’s distinct three act structure, set around the backstage meltdowns that occur shortly before the public launch of a trio of Jobs’ products – the Macintosh in 1984, the failed NeXT machine four years later and the launch of the iMac in 1998 – is purposefully theatrical in both its setting and narrative set up, with Jobs the bloody-minded tragi-heroic lead seeking both revenge and redemption whilst still embracing the character traits that have seen him ascend to the very top.

Sorkin’s script, inspired by Walter Isaacson’s authorised biography, isn’t backwards about coming forwards when it comes to giving a voice to supporting characters with an axe to grind, including fellow Apple co-founder Steve ‘Woz’ Wozniak (Seth Rogen, never better) and engineer Andy Hertzfeld (Michael Stuhlbarg). Even marketing executive Joanna Hoffman (Kate Winslet), his staunchest ally and only friend, arguably, often tears her hair out at Jobs’ ardent single-mindedness.

Co-founder of Apple, Steve ‘Woz’ Wozniak, ain’t happy with Steve Jobs

As frustrated as they may be, however, they each remain satellites orbiting around the star attraction, seemingly unable or unwilling to fully cut their ties.

Each act follows a similar pattern, almost down to the order in which Jobs either barks orders, receives home truths or dispenses opinions to his supporting players. Some of the best exchanges take place between Jobs and Apple CEO John Sculley (Jeff Daniels), most notably a mesmerising shouting match shortly before the NeXT launch.

Dude, where’s my accent: Apple marketing chief Joanna Hoffman (Kate Winslet) in Steve Jobs

However, it’s Jobs’ relationship with his daughter Lisa that provides the human core of this particular apple. A stubborn refusal to recognise her as his biological offspring (right down to his ill-advised suggestion that 28% of the male population in America could be the father, based on an algorithm that unsurprisingly insults Lisa’s mother Chrisann Brennan (Katherine Waterston)) slowly gives way to acceptance and then affection.

Whilst this is seen more as Sorkin’s film, Boyle’s direction is effortless, both in the roundly excellent performances he draws out of a top-notch cast and in his visual style. Boyle has often been unfairly accused of relying too much on flourishes, but he lets the script do the heavy lifting and instead finds a wealth of subtle moments that build upon the strong foundations of the screenplay.

Not The Newsroom: Apple CEO John Sculley (Jeff Daniels) in Steve Jobs

An on-stage refusal to acknowledge the team behind Wozniak’s baby the Apple II, much to the chagrin of Woz, is nicely undercut when the presentation playing out behind Jobs fades to the iMac’s slogan ‘Think Different’, while the camera often stays for a beat on Lisa’s cumbersome Walkman, knowing as we do the world-changing innovation that would follow (a point rammed home at the end in one of the film’s few duff notes).

Despite looking next to nothing like Jobs, Michael Fassbender’s commanding performance means it never becomes distracting. Fassbender imbues the character with a zeal that wouldn’t look out of place in an evangelical church, while the faltering attempts at human interaction with Lisa never feel forced.

Review – Macbeth

Posted on November 13, 2015 by Three Rows Back

Shakespeare’s Scottish play has had a long association with the big screen spanning more than a century, with some adaptations more tragic than others.

The Scottish play has never have looked so eerily cinematic, but the sound and fury at the savage heart of Kurzel’s vision fails to truly lift off the page, denying this Macbeth a place among the truly great screen Shakespeares

Alongside the more traditional imaginings of the Bard’s timeless tale of treachery, misguided ambition and revenge – most notably Orson Welles’ 1948 offering and Roman Polanski’s celebrated 1971 depiction – Macbeth has, like so many of Shakespeare’s plays, also lent itself to more dynamic adaptations, in particular Akira Kurosawa’s masterful Throne Of Blood (1957), which transposes the setting from the Scottish highlands to feudal Japan.

This latest conceptualization, courtesy of Australian director Justin Kurzel, is arguably the most visually arresting Macbeth yet seen on screen.

Michael Fassbender has his 300 moment in Macbeth

Whilst Mel Gibson’s Braveheart (1995) has been invoked, presumably more for the use of war paint, while the slo-mo combat brings to mind Zack Snyder’s battle-porn 300 (2006), the film that most resembles Macbeth, both in its brutally beautiful visual style and tone is Nicolas Winding Refn’s underseen Valhalla Rising (2009).

Working with Director of Photography Adam Arkapaw again following their collaboration on Snowtown (2011), Kurzel shrouds many of the early scenes in an eerie mist that pours over the unforgiving landscape and symbolises the confusion and madness that takes hold, while later scenes resemble Dante’s Inferno, with a hellish blood-red palette engulfing the characters.

All’s well that ends well? Macbeth (Michael Fassbender) and the good lady wife (Marion Cotillard) in Macbeth

This militarised adaptation, all shock and awe, is scored to suitably portentous effect by Kurzel’s brother Jed, with a generous use of drums that sound like distant explosions drawing ever closer.

Whilst there can be no denying Macbeth‘s visual impact, the film’s greatest strength also, inversely, becomes its most pronounced weakness as it comes to dominate everything and takes away from the work being done by Michael Fassbender’s title character and his supporting cast.

Banquo (Paddy Considine) ain’t too happy in Macbeth

Fassbender and Kurzel have spoken of their Macbeth as being the victim of post traumatic stress disorder, left hollowed out by the soulless savagery of war and the loss of a child. Instead of playing this in an exaggerated fashion, Fassbender instead internalises his pain; however, this more introspective portrayal of the King of Scotland can get drowned out by everything else going on.

Marion Cotillard makes some interesting choices as Lady Macbeth and the overly ambitious malevolence found in so many other portrayals is stripped back here, but her character’s slide into madness feels rushed and inauthentic and a lack of chemistry with Fassbender means it can be difficult to buy into their relationship.

Sound and fury: Michael Fassbender stars in Macbeth

On a more positive note, Sean Harris strikes the right note as Macduff, while Paddy Considine does a lot with what he’s given as Macbeth’s man-at-arms Banquo.

The Scottish play has never have looked so eerily cinematic, but the sound and fury at the savage heart of Kurzel’s vision fails to truly lift off the page, denying this Macbeth a place among the truly great screen Shakespeares.

Great Films You Need To See – Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970)

Posted on November 11, 2015 by Three Rows Back

This is my latest contribution to The Big Picture, the internationally recognised magazine and website that shows film in a wider context and is this month running a series of features and reviews with the theme of ‘technology’. This piece about 1970 sci-fi oddity Colossus: The Forbin Project was written as part of The Big Picture’s Lost Classics strand, although I am including it within my list of Great Films You Need To See.

It may have been released back when computers were still the size of refrigerators, but the dire warnings this cautionary slice of Nixon-era paranoia expounds have only become louder.

Colossus: The Forbin Project – a one-off that has been allowed to slip through the cracks

Professor Stephen Hawking’s apocalyptic exhortation that artificial intelligence could possibly spell the end of mankind if allowed to evolve unchecked will come as little surprise to anyone versed in science fiction’s fixation on our own destruction.

The poster bot for machine-led world domination is, of course, Skynet from the Terminator series, but James Cameron surely borrowed a thing or two from the supercomputer at the heart of the curious, fascinating 1970 flick Colossus: The Forbin Project.

Colossus makes its intentions clear in Colossus: The Forbin Project

Based on the novel of the same name published four years earlier, Colossus centres on the growing nightmare that unfolds following the activation of the titular machine; designed by egghead Dr Charles Forbin (Eric Braeden) to monitor worldwide missile systems and control America’s nuclear arsenal.

No sooner has the “perfect” mainframe been switched on, than Colossus dramatically announces via its ominous electronic ticker tape system that another, near identical system has been launched by the Soviet Union called Guardian – which it starts to communicate with. While Forbin and the other smartest guys in the room try to work out what to do next, Colossus coldly and logically begins to make the President (Gordon Pinsent) wish he hadn’t handed over his country’s entire defence system to an A.I system with a penchant for megalomania.

Dr Forbin (Eric Braeden) and Dr Cleo Markham (Susan Clark) embark on their ‘affair’ in Colossus: The Forbin Project

One can only imagine the special effects-laden actionfest that would undoubtedly constitute the long-mooted remake of Colossus: The Forbin Project should it ever see the light of day. Without a particularly generous budget to play with, director Joseph Sargent instead strips back the razzmatazz and focusses on the escalating human drama by largely setting the film in the crucible of the Colossus Control Centre (with exterior shots filmed at the coldly futuristic looking Lawrence Hall of Science).

The film isn’t afraid to take a few eyebrow-raising turns, notably an extended sequence in which the surveilled Forbin and fellow team member Dr Cleo Markham (Susan Clark) attempt to fool Colossus into believing they are lovers in order for clandestine information to be shared.

Saucy! Machine love in Colossus: The Forbin Project

This is preceded by an amusingly deadpan exchange between Forbin and Colossus wherein the supercomputer, unable to understand the concept of love, negotiates with the increasingly tetchy scientist on what private time he is allowed to engage in carnal pleasure with Markham.

To say the film’s ending is abrupt, meanwhile, is putting it mildly as it reaches its conclusion with an admirable adherence to its internal narrative logic.

Colossus: The Forbin Project is a genuine oddity in the overladen sci-fi genre; a one-off that has been allowed to slip through the cracks, but nevertheless has something important to say about the inherent dangers of playing Dr Frankenstein and taking for granted our precarious presumption as the dominant force on this planet. Lest we forget, the machines are coming…

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