LONDON CITY NIGHTS

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Man Down (2015) directed by Dito Monteil (Venice Film Festival 2015)

Tuesday, September 8, 2015 - by londoncitynights · - 0 Comments

Killers stroll down our streets. Men and women who spend sleepless nights mentally reliving the charnel houses of Afghanistan and Iraq, their fingers twitching with the muscle memory of squeezing that cold metal trigger. Who knows what atrocities they witnessed or perpetrated? Many sink into suicidical ideation; finding the lines between warzone and home blurred beyond recognition.

Man Down explores these ghosts of war, following Gabriel Drummer's (Shia LaBeouf) progression from starry eyed new recruit to dead-eyed, delusional maniac.

Director Dito Monteil takes a chronologically tangled route to get there, leaping between Gabriel's Full Metal Jacket style training, his pre-deployment home life with concerned yet strong wife Natalie (Kate Mara) and outrageously mopheaded son Jonathan (Charlie Shotwell), his deployment in Afghanistan, a post-battle psychological evaluation and a Mad Max style post apocalyptic quest to save his son from child slavery in the chemically scarred ruins of contemporary America.

Say what now? It's in that last setting that Man Down shifts gears into high concept cinema, presenting us with surreal chunks of action that appear airdropped in from a completely different movie.

Monteil is going somewhere with all this, and, to his credit, watching all that congeal into a coherent narrative is at least interesting. That's perhaps the nicest thing to say about it, as damn near everything else about Man Down is a load of hamhanded, hackneyed rubbish.

Most problems stem from a script that attempts to place us in the protagonist's shattered mind to directly experience his trauma, psychosis and dissociation. It comprehensively fails to do this: the film's depiction of mental illness would be offensive if it wasn't so patently ridiculous. Matters aren't helped by a cast of paper-thin supporting characters whose lives are spent gazing with vague concern at Shia LaBeouf.

LaBeouf, at least, comes out of this relatively unscathed. Gabriel Drummer is the kind of role he's been excelling at lately: a tightly wound, introverted (and bushily bearded) bundle of neuroses whose calm exterior cracks and eventually shatters. There are moments where he, through sheer force of will alone, makes the film watchable. This is most evident in an extended scene between him and a psychiatrist (played by Gary Oldman), where the restrained drama of a mentally wounded man being gently pushed out of his comfort zone works well.

But for the most part, he and everyone else in the film is lost in a swamp of directorial cliches, cheap looking sets and eye-rollingly dumb dialogue. It's hard to suppress the gag reaction when you watch slow motion scenes of soldiers training at sunset scored by dirge-y soft rock, or the embarrassingly broad way Monteil cuts between a dead family in Afghanistan and the hero's smilingly perfect one back home. Annoyingly, the film also displays zero regard for the audience's memory, constantly flashing back to important dialogue in prior scenes to absolutely ensure we connect the dots. Dammit man, the film's only 90 minutes long, we're not goldfish!

The cherry on the top of this unappetising cake is a clapped out visual style that's all desaturated colours, iffy digital compositing and largely pointless shaky-cam. This militaristic aesthetic was new and exciting in Black Hawk Down, but the 14 subsequent years of recruitment adverts and direct-to-DVD oo-rah clangers have drained all impact from it.

For all that I can't find it in myself to hate Man Down, which, for all its stumbles is a pleasantly loopy piece of cinema. Granted, it's an aesthetic failure with a strained narrative and deeply garbled message, but it's trying to do something interesting - at least it's not boring.

★★

Thursday, February 6, 2014

'RoboCop' (2014) directed by José Padilha

Thursday, February 6, 2014 - by londoncitynights · - 0 Comments

Somewhere deep within the metal heart of RoboCop lies the soul of a good movie.  This is a deeply frustrating film, not because it does anything particularly awful, but because it displays huge potential only to repeatedly squander it in a sea of poorly shot action and poor  production choices.  Paul Verhoeven left some big shoes to fill and Padilha tries his best to step into them, updating and rethinking the themes of the original for 2014.  At times he gets scarily close, equalling or maybe even briefly surpassing the original.  But more frequently the film ends up as a shadow of its predecessor, struggling desperately to carve out its own set of iconography.

The skeleton of RoboCop's plot is lifted wholesale from the original; cop Alex Murphy is all but killed and resurrected in a robot body by an amoral corporation.  He's put back on the streets as a demonstration of corporation might and technical skill and proceeds to efficiently clean up crime. But stopping muggings and stick-ups is only putting a plaster on a gaping wound, and soon Robocop works his way up the criminal ladder, discovering that his corporate creators are the real criminals.

So far, so familiar.  But RoboCop 2014 is a remarkably different beast to Robocop 1987, less a remake and more a reimagining of what a robot cop means to a contemporary audience. Plucking visual and tonal references from everything from Apple, Fox News to Call of Duty, this is very much a film about 'now', with a surprisingly explicit condemnation of US imperial hegemony.  We open in a Tehran under US occupation, drones now occupying land as well as air - an army of robot Gestapo agents demanding to see the citizen's papers and forcibly subjecting them to invasive airport security style body scans, seeing through clothes and onto the flesh below.

As the Iranians are humiliated and dehumanised, Samuel L Jackson's ooh-rah Republican news anchor whoops and hollers from within his holographic news studio, explaining to us how happy these people are now that they've been brought under the cosh of good old American power.  But things go south, and before our eyes we see a child vapourised in a blizzard of bullets from an ED-209.  It's a ballsy opening that shocks you into sitting up and paying attention - you find yourself thinking in disbelief "have they actually nailed a RoboCop remake?!".

Unfortunately this is a fleeting joy, and from this great opening sequence things go downhill pretty quickly.  We're then thrown into the life of doomed undercover cop Alex Murphy, and things begin to drag.  As we watch Murphy battling a personality-free arms dealer the energy that the film had completely drains away.  The low point of the entire film is a really poorly shot gunfight that's honestly one of the dullest action sequences I've seen in a long time, packed full of shakycam and bad lighting.  We all know Murphy is doomed, but the film meanders in these doldrums for way too long - it's almost a relief when Murphy is taken out - finally we get the robot cop we've paid to see.

Just as we've written off the film it perks up again, with the sequences of Murphy adjusting to his new life some damn effective body horror.  This sharp uptick in quality shows us exactly what parts of this story Padilha is interested in.  Perhaps the most striking image of the whole film follows: Murphy gazing in suicidal horror at what remains of him, a small, quivering heap of guts.  Then, as soon as things get interesting we're thrown into another rather dull action sequence that seems to go on forever (though bizarrely soundtracked by the yodelling 70s rock of Hocus Pocus).

Soon the basic problem with the film becomes apparent; for every step it takes forwards it takes two back.  RoboCop is a film pulling in two directions; on one hand it wants to be a serious exploration of moral personhood, examining the difference between machine and man and on the other there's a crowd-pleasing blam blam action film.  In trying to cater to both audiences it ends up pleasing neither.  

Abbie Cornish as Clara Murphy is saddled with a thankless, one-note role (and a crap hairdo)

It's telling that whenever an action sequence begins you can't wait for it to be over; the spatial geography and even the number of combatants confusing.  There's a bizarre decision to have the 'big' gunfight of the film take place in pitch darkness, the action choreography somehow managing to make a scene where Murphy essentially walks down a straight corridor shooting faceless, personality-less goons impossible to follow.  Similarly, in the climactic scenes you can't even tell how many giant robots he's facing off against.  You find yourself counting the minutes until the film gets back to seriously exploring the philosophical ramifications of robot cops - a perverse feeling considering this is purportedly an action film.

Joel Kinnamon's RoboCop isn't a patch on Peter Weller, but that's not really his fault. There's a narrative decision mid-way through the film that functions as a directive to Kinnamon to stop acting, resultingly for quite a large portion of the film Robocop is less a character and more of a plot device: a talking point for the supporting cast to discuss rather than someone we identify with.  Fortunately RoboCop is blessed with an outstanding supporting cast; both Jackie Earl-Haley and Michael Keaton both welcome presences whenever they're on screen. The undisputed highlight is Gary Oldman as the doctor who resurrects Murphy and becomes a kind of techno-Dad to him.  He's so good, and so central to the plot you could probably make a case that he's the true protagonist.

That all said, RoboCop is absolutely worth a watch, if only for the glimmers of actual brilliance that are within the film.  For every uninspired bit of set dressing and occasionally cheap looking special effect there's a beautiful sequence of an amputee learning to play guitar with prosthetic hands.  Though Padilha's Detroit is an boringly identikit urban environment, his Tehran and China are both striking and well-framed.  While the central gangster baddie in the film is bland as bland can be, there's a decent amount of nuance to Keaton's evil Steve Jobs turn and Oldman's ethically conflicted scientist.  For every boneheaded, antiseptic action scene there's an incisive bit of philosophy or razor sharp satire.   

This is a flawed, disjointed and cumbersome watch.  But much like its robot hero there's a core of humanity fighting for recognition deep within.  Ultimately Padilha's RoboCop is a failure, but undoubtedly a noble one.

★★★

RoboCop is on general release from 7 February 2014.

Monday, September 3, 2012

'Lawless' (2012) directed by John Hillcoat, 2nd September 2012

Monday, September 3, 2012 - by londoncitynights · - 0 Comments

'Lawless' tells the story of prohibition era moonshiners the Bondurant brothers.  The screenplay by Nick Cave is an adaptation of the book 'The Wettest County in the World', which is written by the grandson of our central characters, Matt Bondurant.  The director, John Hillcoat has a good track record, his last films being 'The Road' (2009) and 'The Proposition' (2005), both of which I enjoyed very much.  

John Hillcoat and Nick Cave share a 'blood n' guts' aesthetic, and their partnership on 'The Proposition' paid off magnificently.  Both of them seem to take a grim pleasure in realistic violence and men 'doing what they've got to do'.  So, it's not exactly a surprise that this film is packed full of men gritting their teeth and murdering each other graphically.  Our protagonist is Jack (Shia LaBeouf), the youngest Bondurant brother and "the runt of the litter".  His brothers, Forrest (Tom Hardy) and Howard (Jason Clarke) run a successful moonshining operation in Franklin County, Virginia.  Opposing the brothers is Special Agent Charlie Rakes (Guy Pearce), a corrupt and intimidating lawman enraged by defiance from what he sees as a bunch of 'hicks'.  In supporting roles we get big time gangster Floyd Banner (Gary Oldman), barmaid Maggie (Jessica Chastain) and Jack's sweetheart Bertha (Mia Wasikowska). 

All of the men in this film are violent, territorial and sadistic.  The only thing that separates our 'heroes' from the villains is that the villains are comically evil.  In both of the director's previous films we see environments that will chew you up and spit you out if you're not willing to sacrifice your humanity in exchange for survival.  The three brothers seem to be at various points along this process, Tom Hardy's Forrest being almost Terminator-like in his invincibility, while Jack begins as a weak and put upon wimp, and begins to transform himself into what the film paints as the masculine ideal.

The Bondurant brothers.

This masculine ideal, as told by 'Lawless' and in Nick Cave and John Hillcoat's wider work is, admittedly entertaining to watch on screen, but after nearly two hours of men either grunting terse dialogue at each other or cutting each other apart it gets a bit much.  We're encouraged to see the Bondurant brothers as loveable rogues even as they torture their rivals to death.  

In the opening scenes LaBeouf's Jack is unsure of himself, reluctant to resort to violence and seemingly quite sensitive.  By the time we're through he's a raging, materialistic killing machine.  This transformation is a classic gangster film narrative device, running right through the classics of the genre (all three 'Godfathers', 'Goodfellas', 'Scarface' et al).  Where these films succeed is that while we can take a certain sick pleasure in watching our protagonists bloodily claw their way up the ladder to the top, we also see the toll it takes on their family, friends and mind.  Traditionally, by the end of a gangster film like this we should clearly see the toll on the central character, and we realise that family, friends and loyalty are more important than glitzy material wealth.  That's because, for all the gleeful violence and voyeuristic hedonism, the gangster genre is at heart a morality tale.  This is where 'Lawless' falls apart.  As Jack learns the ropes, he begins to swan around in fancy suits, owning expensive cars and generally getting a bit full of himself.  So far, so gangster normal,  butthe film never condemns this materialism.  The cool cars and clothes are apparently steps on the path to a happy life.  This all-pervading amorality gets a bit depressing after a while, and even though our protagonists are being played by charismatic and likeable actors, it's hard to shake the conviction that they're unsympathetic monsters.

It's telling that they have to construct a fairly ridiculous and obviously evil villain so that we've got someone to side with the brothers against.  In a mostly realistic and unglamorous world Guy Pearce's Agent Rakes stands out as a cartoon character.  He's played with the same kind of eccentric evil as Dick Dastardly.  If Agent Rakes had a moustache in this film, he'd be twirling it at every opportunity.  I'll say this for Guy Pearce, he looks like he's having a ton of fun here.  He manages to disgust and creep out everyone he interacts with, even those supposed to be allied with him.  This visceral hate effectively translates through the screen into the audience, and I was amused to hear people gasping in shock when he turns up on screen.  He's tremendously fun to watch, although the way in which Hillcoat distinguishes him from the central brothers is a little questionable.  While the brothers are uncomplicated masculine men, Agent Rakes is neat, perfumed and fussy.  He's described to his annoyance as a 'nance'.  I guess this character is part of a long tradition of the effeminate metrosexual psycho, but even so it does quite clearly delineate what the film paints as the 'correct' gender roles'.

Guy Pearce as Special Agent Graves

Women don't fit well into the masculine world the film constructs, and both Jessica Chastain's Maggie and Mia Wasikowska's Bertha are pretty much one-dimensional character sketches.  Maggie in particular seems to exist mainly to get abused by other men, thus giving the brothers a reason to inflict grisly revenge upon them.  It's all a bit problematic and although Chastain stands out as particularly beautiful amongst all this dirt and carnage she is more of a dramatic device than a developed character. Wasikowska's Bertha does get a little more development, although this is restricted to her growing affection for LaBeouf's Jack.  As Jack becomes more violent and materialistic, the more she likes him.  Again, this seems to show us a very narrow definition of a 'correct' masculinity'.

For all that, there is much in this film to enjoy.  Tom Hardy can express more emotion with the back of his head than most actors can with their whole body.  He's the magnetic centre of every scene he's in, and things become electric every time he's on screen.  His total confidence and invincibility complex are hugely entertaining to watch, especially as he throws himself into seemingly suicidal situations.  He's so fun to watch that you can't help wishing he was our protagonist rather than LaBeouf.  Gary Oldman is in the film surprisingly briefly, although in his few scenes he manages to convincingly portray a combination of ruthlessness and power, especially in a great action scene when, cigar clamped in mouth, he empties a tommy-gun into a moving car.  It's an iconic gangster image, and Oldman totally sells it.

A moment of kindness with Mia Wasikowska's Bertha

Hillcoat's direction is sure-footed and confident.  The film is shot digitally, recalling the visual tone of Michael Mann's 'Public Enemies' (2009).  Shooting digitally seems to somehow make things more relevant and modern.  It sounds like cliche to say that it brings the past to life, but it definitely has a different feel to traditional film.  The desaturated tones make the blood seem more immediate.  I've got a pretty strong disposition when it comes to gore in films, but some of the violence in this film turned my stomach.  Again, this seems to translate out to the audience, with gasps and moans from the audience as the more disturbing scenes play out.

The only stylistic choice that feels odd is the soundtrack, certain scenes have lilting bluegrass songs played over the top of them.  At these points the film seems to get a bit cheesy; the atmosphere transforms into that of a Jack Daniels advert.  It's a weird choice, especially as the soundtrack is composed by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, who've previously collaborated on film soundtracks to fantastic effect.   

Tom Hardy as Forrest

'Lawless' is a very well put together film, with at least two brilliant performances from Tom Hardy and Guy Pearce, but there's a disturbing nihilism at the core that's hard to ignore.   I should mention that even within all the blood it's frequently darkly funny, with Tom Hardy getting most of the laughs in the film.  Even so, this is a film with an extremely pessimistic view of human nature, and the absence of empathy in the film means it's hard to like these people.  This in turn makes it hard to become emotionally involved in the narrative,  which hurts the film.  The poster loudly exclaims: "BROTHERS. GANGSTERS. HEROES.".  They should be prosecuted for false advertising.  There are no heroes here.