British wave the flag at TIFF

Posted on October 1, 2013 by admin

Can A Song Save Your Life, Keira Knightley xcliff

By Ray Bennett

TORONTO – The Toronto International Film Festival last month sometimes seemed more like the London International Film Festival with a steady parade of British films and filmmakers.

TIFF screened 288 feature films including 56 red carpet premieres and cemented its place as the biggest event that previews the movies that will fill cinemas and sell home entertainment through the next two quarters and beyond.

For the 36th year, Toronto audiences cast a ballot for their favourite festival film and the BlackBerry People’s Choice Award went to British director Steve McQueen’s “12 Years a Slave”, which Entertainment One will release in the UK on Jan. 24. Based on the track record of previous Toronto favourites, the award immediately made the film the front-runner for this season’s major awards including the Oscars and the Baftas.

Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Solomon Northup, a free black man from upstate New York who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in 1841. The cast also features Michael Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano, Paul Giamati, Alfre Woodard and Brad Pitt, who also is a producer on the film.

Although the picture, based on a true story, was received well in Toronto, its depiction of the harshness of slavery did cause some members of the public screening to leave but at a TIFF press conference, McQueen said: “Great! Certain things that speak to some people, [others] aren’t going to sit through, just like a bad movie. But the vast majority there gave us a standing ovation so I just take heart from that, really.”

In awarding the prize, TIFF said “The story is a triumphant tale of one man’s courage and perseverance to reunite with his family that serves as an important historical and cultural marker in American history.”

Stephen Frears’s “Philomena” was the runner up in the public choice award with Canadian director Denis Villeneuve’s “Prisoners” the second runner up. Judi Dench stars in “Philomena” as an Irish woman who spends a lifetime in search of the son she was forced to give up at a convent. The film received positive reviews in Toronto and will be in UK cinemas on Nov. 1 released by Pathé.

TIFF opened with Bill Condon’s film about Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, “The Fifth Estate”, due in the UK from Entertainment One on Oct. 11. Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays Assange, had a busy festival with “12 Years a Slave” and “August: Osage County”, starring Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts, which Entertainment will release in the UK on Dec. 26. His “Fifth Estate” co-star Daniel Bruhl also had another picture at the festival, Ron Howard’s racing film “Rush”, which StudioCanal released in the UK last month.

British names at TIFF included Keira Knightley (pictured), whose film “Can a Song Save Your Life?” had what The Hollywood Reporter called “one of the splashiest sales” at the event. Harvey Weinstein won the race for US rights. She plays a young English songwriter stranded in New York with a broken heart when a down-and-out record producer played by Mark Ruffalo hears her sing. Both her singing and the film received good reviews.

Ralph Fiennes received acclaim for his second film as director, “The Invisible Woman”, in which he plays Charles Dickens, and Felicity Jones won praise for her performance as the writer’s mistress. Lionsgate will release it in the UK on Feb. 7.

Idris Elba’s performance in the title role of “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom”, due from Twentieth Century Fox on Jan. 3, also was well received as was Colin Firth’s in “The Railway Man”, which Lionsgate will release in the UK on Jan. 3. Nicole Kidman stars opposite Firth in the true story of a man whose torture as a prisoner of the Japanese in World War II haunts him for years.

Jude Law was on hand for the premiere of “Dom Hemingway”, in which he plays a tough London hoodlum. Lionsgate will release it in the UK on Nov. 15. Tom Hiddleston (“Thor”) and Tilda Swinton made a splash as elegant vampires in “Only Lovers Left Alive”, which Sony Classics picked up for the US and which will screen at the BFI London Film Festival this month. Emma Thompson and Pierce Brosnan also provided amusement in the caper comedy “Love Punch”, which Entertainment One will release in the UK on Dec. 26.

British directors who garnered considerable attention at TIFF included Kevin Macdonald for his film “How I Live Now”, due from Momentum Pictures on Oct. 4, Richard Ayoade for “The Double” and Jonathan Glazer for “Under the Skin”, both films due from StudioCanal, and Roger Michell for “Le Weekend”, due from Curzon Film on Oct. 11.

Saoirse Ronan stars in “How I Live Now” as a New York youngster in England at the outbreak of war. Jesse Eisenberg stars with Mia Waikowska in “The Double”, which is based on the Fyodor Dostoevsky novel about a man who meets his doppelganger. Scarlett Johansson plays an alien with a difference in “Under the Skin” based on Michael Faber’s eldritch novel. Jeff Goldblum, Lindsay Duncan and Jim Broadbent star in “Le Weekend”, which tells of a couple who try to recreate their honeymoon in Paris after 30 years.

This story appears in the October 2013 edition of Cue Entertainment

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THEATRE REVIEW: ‘Much Ado About Nothing’

Posted on September 24, 2013 by admin

James Earl Jones and Vanessa Redgrave in 'Much Ado About Nothing' at the Old Vic through Nov. 30.

James Earl Jones and Vanessa Redgrave in ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ at the Old Vic through Nov. 30.

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – To cast a pair of old-timers – James Earl Jones, 82, and Vanessa Redgrave, 76 – as Benedick and Beatrice in “Much Ado About Nothing” is pure theatrical mischief.

It makes nonsense of some of the dialogue and the two great stars must pace themselves through the performance. They are sometimes hesitant and often swallow their lines.

The ploy has outraged London’s posh theatre critics over the damage director Mark Rylance has done to the play with his effrontery. Michael Billington in the Guardian calls it “One of the most senseless Shakespearean productions I have seen in a long time.” Charles Spencer in the Telegraph said: “Frankly, it’s a relief when this laborious and misguided production grinds to a halt and everyone is still standing.”

They have no sense of humour. It is stunt casting but it cannot be denied that also it is good fun. Jones might need to sit down whenever he can and he speeds up his speeches at times but then he slows to deliver a punchline with the best of them. Redgrave  has great energy and relishes her lines.

Beth Cooke and Lloyd Everett make a fine Hero and Claudio while James Garnon’s Don Pedro and Sanny Lee Wynter’s Don John have plenty of bite. Peter Wight impresses as a Dogberry who is actually amusing and also as a serious Friar Francis.

The problems are with the set and the staging. Rylance plants the tale in an English village in 1944 with Don Pedro, Benedick and the others as US soldiers. The play requires characters to hide a lot and overhear things they shouldn’t but Ultz provides merely a large square box with front and back missing. It serves only to overwhelm the action. Mimi Jordan Sherin’s lighting design is even more curious as scenes that take place in the dark with flashlights are lit fully.

The papers have already written off the production as a flop and there was a story that restaurants near the Old Vic have flourished due to theatregoers who leave at the interval.

Spoilsports.

Venue: The Old Vic (runs to Nov. 30). Cast: James Earl Jones, Vanessa Redgrave; Playwright: William Shakespeare; Director: Mark Rylance; Designer: Ultz; Lighting: Mimi Jordan Sherin; Music and associate director: Caire van Kampen; Sound: Emma Laxton.

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Royal Opera House sets 10 shows for Live Cinema

Posted on September 19, 2013 by admin

Royal Opera House screengrab Cliff

By Ray Bennett

The Royal Opera House announced 10 titles for its 2013/14 Live Cinema Season including five live ballets and five live operas.

The season opened this week with Puccini’s “Turandot” starring American soprano Lise Lindstrom and the next performance to be made available from the Covent Garden stage to more than 1,000 cinemas across 40 countries will be a new production by principal guest artist Cuban ballet star Carlos Acosta of “Don Quixote” (Oct. 16).

Future titles include “Les Vêpres Siciliennes” (Nov. 4), Verdi’s first 5-act opera written for the Paris Opéra; Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker” (Dec. 12); Wagner’s “Parsifal” (Dec. 18); the ballet “Giselle” (Jan. 27); Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” (Feb. 12); the ballet “The Sleeping Beauty” (March 19); Christopher Wheeldon’s “The Royal Ballet” based on Shakespeare’s “The Winter’s Tale” (April 28); Puccini’s “Manon Lescaut” (June 24).

The Royal Opera House said that its UK live cinema network has grown from 45 sites in September 2009 to 240 sites in October 2012 to make it one of the widest releases of alternative content in the cinema in the country.

The international network has grown from 120 sites in 12 countries in September 2009 to more than 1000 in September 2013, it said.

“The Nutcracker”, broadcast live on Dec. 13, had an audience of more than 32,000 in the UK. It was the second highest grossing film that night between “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” and “Skyfall” in the UK Box Office chart, the ROH said.

More than 33,000 people in the UK watched “La Bohème” on Jan. 15 2013 to make it the second highest grossing film that night, behind “Les Misérables” and ahead of “Gangster Squad”.

The best performing broadcast to date was the Royal Ballet’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”, which had a UK audience of 40,000 on March 28 and the most successful opera screening was “Nabucco” with Placido Domingo, which claimed a UK audience of almost 35,000 on April 29.

This story appeared in Cue Entertainment.

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TIFF FILM REVIEWS: ’12 Years a Slave’, ‘The Railway Man’, ‘Philomena’

Posted on September 13, 2013 by admin
Chiwetel Ejiofor in '12 Years a Slave' due in UK cinemas on Jan. 10.

Chiwetel Ejiofor in ’12 Years a Slave’ due in UK cinemas on Jan. 10.

By Ray Bennett

TORONTO – Of three major films at the Toronto International Film Festival that deal with slavery – “12 Years a Slave”, “The Railway Man” and “Philomena” – it’s no surprise that the most gripping is the one that is the most angry.

Steve McQueen’s “12 Years a Slave” spits blood and spills a good deal more in its depiction of a 19th century free black man who was kidnapped and enslaved on southern plantations for more than a decade after the importation of slaves was made illegal but before the US Civil War.

The misery visited upon central characters in “The Railway Man” and “Philomena” is not much less but the difference between these two and “12 Years a Slave” is that they deal in forgiveness while the McQueen film does not.

Forgiveness is nobler but far more difficult to render persuasively on film and while “The Railway Man” tries hard with fine performances by Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman, “Philomena” is merely trite.

Chiwetel Ejiofor stars in “12 Years a Slave” as a middle-class musician in a small town in New York State who lives a contented life with his wife and two children. That all ends when he is inveigled to Washington D.C., where the slave trade remains active, and he is stolen away to Louisiana where he is sold into the bewildering horror of life as a slave.

Colin Firth in "The Railway Man", due in UK cinemas on Jan. 10.

Colin Firth in “The Railway Man”, due in UK cinemas on Jan. 10.

McQueen spares no punches and many scenes of brutality are hard to take, not least those that involve a pretty young slave girl (Lupita Nyong’o), whose owner (Michael Fassbender) is obsessed with her.

Benedict Cumberbatch plays a somewhat kinder slave owner, if there can be such a thing, and Brad Pitt, who is one of the producers, has a small role as a Canadian carpenter horrified by what he sees in the US South.

Ejiofor does a fine job although McQueen has him stare into space longer and more often than seems necessary. Fassbender makes a stab at a Louisiana accent at first but then lapses wisely into generic Southern. One of the achievements of the film is that thanks to Sean Bobbitt’s cinematography and composer Hans Zimmer’s understated score, the vileness of the behaviour on the plantations is heightened because the settings appear so idyllic.

Clearer context would be welcome and one of the flaws of the film is that the rabid slave owners and plantation staff are one dimensional. Fassbender’s character quotes scripture to back his brutality but McQueen does not trouble to explore the pathology of his malignant ignorance. Nor does he wonder why the man is so self-destructive. He’s not rich and he needs his slaves desperately to be productive in picking cotton but he whips them by day and exhausts them by having them dance for his entertainment by night.

Judi Dench, Steve Coogan in 'Philomena', due on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK on March 24.

Judi Dench, Steve Coogan in ‘Philomena’, due on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK on March 24.

The villains in “The Railway Man” are the Japanese soldiers whose treatment of Allied prisoners at work on the Burma-Siam railway in World War II is unspeakable. The film is based on a remarkable memoir by Eric Lomax – played by Colin Firth – who suffers mentally and emotionally for decades until he discovers that one of his tormentors (Hiroyuki Sanada) is still alive. In the film, his wife (Kidman) encourages him to go to Japan to seek a resolution to his pain.

Flashbacks show Jeremy Irvine as the young railway-loving Lomax as he undergoes the inhumane treatment visited on the abject prisoners. Lomax goes with the intention that he will kill the Japanese man but the whole point of his book and the film is that he finds forgiveness to be the best cure. There is much to admire in the film but it lacks urgency and spark and the tale simply rolls along.

Judi Dench stars in “Philomena” as a plain Irish woman whose child out of wedlock was taken away from her when she was held against her will in a convent for almost four years when she was young. Fifty years later, a snooty journalist (Steve Coogan) helps her look for her son. In fabricated scenes, it becomes a road movie for Dench and Coogan as they dust off class jibes and talk about religion and the meaning of life. It’s all quite dull, especially when compared to Peter Mullan’s furious and outstanding film “The Magdalene Sisters” (2002) on the same topic.

The slave-owners in “12 Years a Slave” and the Japanese soldiers in “The Railway Man” view their victims as sub-human while the nuns in “Philomena” view theirs as having abandoned God. All three are equally hateful but while the men in khaki and the women in black are deluded by fear and a pious devotion to a higher power, in McQueen’s film there’s no rational explanation for the bigots in blood. The film would be better for a stab at that.

12 Years a Slave

Venue: Toronto International Film Festival; Opens: US Oct. 18 (Fox Searchlight) / UK Jan. 10 (Entertainment One); Cast: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano, Garret Dillahunt, Paul Giamatti, Scoot McNairy, Lupita Nyong’o, Adepero Oduye, Sarah Paulson, Brad Pitt, Michael Kenneth Williams, Alfre Woodard, Chris Chalk, Taran Killam, Bill Camp; Director: Steve McQueen; Screenwriter: John Ridley, based on the memoir by Solomon Northup and David Wilson; Director of photography: Sean Bobbitt; Production designer: Adam Stockhausen; Music: Hans Zimmer; Costume designer: Patricia Norris; Editor: Joe Walker; Producers: Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Bill Pohlad, Steve McQueen, Arnon Milchan, Anthony Katagas; Executive producers: Tessa Ross, John Ridley; Production: River Road, Plan B, New Regency; Rating: UK-15 / US-R; running time 134 minutes.

The Railway Man

Venue: Toronto Film Festival (Gala Presentation); Opens: UK Jan. 10 (Lionsgate UK); Cast: Colin Firth, Nicole Kidman, Jeremy Irvine, Stellan Skarsgard, Sam Reid, Tanroh Ishida, Hiroyuki Sanada; Director: Jonathan Teplitzky; Screenwriter: Frank Cottrell Boyce, Andy Paterson, based on the memoir by Eric Lomax; Director of photography: Garry Phillips; Production designer: Steven Jones-Evans; Music: David Hirschfelder; Costume designer: Lizzy Gardiner; Editor: Martin Connor; Producers: Andy Paterson, Chris Brown, Bill Curbishley; Executive producers: Claudia Bluemhuber, Ian Hutchinson, Zygi Kamasa, Nick Manzi, Daria Jovicic, Anand Tucker Production companies: Andy Paterson, Pictures in Paradise, Trinifold Production, in association with Davis Films, Latitude Media; Rating: UK-15; Running time:116 minutes.

Philomena

Venue: Toronto International Film Festival; Opens: UK: Nov. 1 (Pathé) / US: Nov. 27 (Fox/The Weinstein Co.); Cast:  Judi Dench, Steve Coogan, Sophie Kennedy Clark, Anna Maxwell Martin, Ruth McCabe, Barbara Jefford, Kate Fleetwood, Peter Hermann, Mare Winningham, Michelle Fairley; Director: Stephen Frears; Screenwriters: Steve Coogan, Jeff Pope based on a book by Martin Sixsmith; Director of photography: Robbie Ryan; Production designer: Alan MacDonald; Music: Alexandre Desplat;  Costume designer: Consolata Boyle; Editor:  Valerio Bonelli; Producers: Gabrielle Tana, Steve Coogan, Tracey Seaward; Executive producers: Henry Normal, Christine Langan, Cameron McCracken, Francois Ivernel, Carolyn Marks Blackwood; Production companies: Baby Cow Productions, Magnolia Mae; Rating: UK-12A / US-PG-13; Running time: 94  minutes.

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TIFF FILM REVIEW: Streep, Roberts in ‘August: Osage County’

Posted on September 12, 2013 by admin

Entertainment August Osage County cliff

By Ray Bennett

TORONTO: At the start of “August: Osage County” an ageing poet and lifetime alcoholic leaves his family home to go drown in the lake and as the film goes on, the puzzle is why he hadn’t done it sooner.

Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts head a large cast of accomplished actors as members of the dead man’s family who proceed to tear each other apart even as they mourn. Tracy Letts’s play of the same title won five Tony Awards in 2008 including the one for best play. Letts wrote the screenplay for the film directed by John Wells, known best as the longtime executive producer and occasional director of TV’s “ER” and “The West Wing”, but between them they’ve taken the pleasure out of it.

The play, which also was a London hit at the National Theatre, ran for three hours onstage where distance from the audience, theatricality and suspension of disbelief all worked in its favour.

Its depiction of vicious infighting amongst the women of a family raised in the harsh winters and searing summers of the American plains plus Letts’s dialogue full of poison and invective allowed full-blooded performances. Also, it was very funny.

The movie, which runs for two hours, is not. In a voice-over as the film begins, poet Beverly Weston (Sam Shepard) describes a life of increased bitterness as his wife Violet (Streep) has surrendered to a limitless cocktail of prescription drugs and now battles oral cancer. He has hired a full-time care-person for her, a dignified and capable young Cheyenne (Misty Upham), as Violet’s tantrums cut too much into his drinking time.

Upon his death, daughters Barbara (Roberts) and Karen (Juliette Lewis) arrive to be with their mother along with their sister Ivy (Julianne Nicholson), the only one to stay close to home. Barbara brings uptight husband Bill (Ewan McGregor, pictured with Roberts and Streep) and rebellious teenaged daughter Jean (Abigail Breslin) while Karen arrives with “this year’s man”, Steve, (Dermot Mulroney) a glib-talking salesman. Also on hand are Violet’s talkative sister Fae (Margo Martindale), her quiet, indulgent husband Charles (Chris Cooper) and their sensitive son known to all as Little Charles (Benedict Cumberbatch).

The play aspired to be in the Tennessee Williams mould with a family torn asunder by mendacity and it worked because of the humour, pacing, colourful characters and big performances. The film is a relentless assault of unpleasant people most of whom are beastly to one another.

To steal from Ricky Gervais, they are deeply shallow and the lack of background information about the characters begins to grate. Even Gustavo Santaolalla’s always pleasing music plays more to drama than to comedy. As the few laughs diminish, more questions arise. It’s a pleasing thought that a poet could have funded such a household but difficult to imagine. What has Violet done all her life and why does she condemn Barbara for getting as far away as possible? When was the last time the younger members of an American family threw an older relative’s uppers, downers and painkillers into the toilet?

Aside from a few car rides, the scenes all take place in the large rambling family home. The savagery commences almost at once as Violet has a bad word for everyone including her late husband. Barbara responds in kind but with a great many close-ups the clashes appear more stagey on film than in the theatre and pretty soon Streep and Roberts are in a claws-bared contest for the upper hand.

Before long, everyone is at it with developments including a stolen inheritance and sub-plots about Barbara and Bill’s unhappy marriage, a love affair that smacks of incest, and a dubious incident in which the salesman and the teenager share a spliff. Unlike the wise poet, they all stick around for their punishment.

Venue: Toronto Film Festival (Gala Presentation); Opens: US: Jan 10 (The Weinstein Co.); UK: Jan 17 (Entertainment); Cast: Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Ewan McGregor, Chris Cooper, Abigail Breslin, Benedict Cumberbatch, Juliette Lewis, Margo Martindale, Dermot Mulroney, Julianne Nicholson, Sam Shepard, Misty Upham; Director: John Wells; Screenwriter: Tracy Letts, based on his play; Director of photography: Adriano Goldman; Production designer: David Gropman; Music: Gustavo Santaolalla; Costume designer: Cindy Evans; Editor: Stephen Mirrione; Producers: George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Jean Doumanian, Steve Traxler; Executive producers: Bob Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein, Ron Burkle, Claire Rudnick Polstein, Celia Costas, Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel; Production: Jean Doumanian, Smokehouse Pictures, in association with Battle Mountain Films, Yucaipa Films; Rating: UK-15 / US-R; running time 121 minutes.

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TIFF FILM REVIEW: Thompson, Bronson in ‘The Love Punch’

Posted on September 12, 2013 by admin

eOne The Love Punch x650

By Ray Bennett

TORONTO: An embarrassment for all concerned, “The Love Punch” is an irredeemably stupid concoction that aims to please the older crowd by showing middle-aged, middle-class people behaving as foolishly as possible. Continue reading →

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TIFF FILM REVIEW: Ron Howard’s ‘Rush’

Posted on September 11, 2013 by admin

RUSH

By Ray Bennett

TORONTO – Ron Howard’s Formula 1 racing picture “Rush” is top-class entertainment as it relates the 1970s rivalry between two very different drivers with intense drama on and off the track.

Chris Hemsworth (“Thor”) stars as charismatic English racer James Hunt whose competition in 1976 was as much with his own reckless personality as it was with the perfectionist World Champion Niki Lauda, played by Daniel Bruhl (“Goodbye Lenin”).

The two were great friends in life but Peter Morgan’s well-crafted screenplay presents them as fierce competitors whose determination to win sours their relationship in the paddock as well as behind the wheel.

The events of 1976 have been documented fully and are known well to F1 fans but Howard does a great job to make the story feel fresh and newcomers will be caught up immediately in the action and the drama.

There’s plenty of racing as Anthony Dodd Mantle shoots the F1 circus in all its glamour and frenzy while the special and visual effects team recreate astonishing racing scenes including the fiery crash that almost cost Lauda his life. Howard also makes sure his audio crew captures the inimitably thrilling sounds of F1 motors.

There’s lots of drama and laughter, too, as the film follows each driver’s path towards their potentially deadly meeting in the championship season and Lauda goes through harrowing treatment to save his life.

Hemsworth has all of Hunt’s posh English swagger as he consumes champagne, women and life in general and never reveals the effort and toll it takes.

Bruhl nails Lauda’s stony perfectionism as the wealthy Austrian, having earned his spurs along with Hunt in Formula 3, buys his way onto the Ferrari team just as his rival lucks into a seat on the F1 circuit in a McLaren car. Hemsworth’s Hunt is all blond good looks and flare while Bruhl’s Lauda is fussy and precise with an overbite that causes his rival to name him “the rat”.

The film also shows Lauda’s subtle charm and there’s a terrific scene in which he woos the beautiful woman (Alexandra Maria Lara) who became his wife after two Italian fans urge him to show off his driving skills. Hunt’s personal life is littered with long-suffering but loyal friends, skittish rich backers, and lovely women including wife Suzy (Olivia Wilde).

With a pulsating score by Hans Zimmer, the film depicts the fun, drama and danger of a deadly sport and with two fine lead performances it shows why some men are willing to risk their lives in order to win.

Venue: Toronto International Film Festival; Opens: UK Sept. 13 (StudioCanal); US Sept. 20 (Universal); Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Daniel Bruhl, Olivia Wilde, Alexandra Maria Lara, Pierfrancesco Favino, David Calder, Natalie Dormer, Stephen Mangan, Christian McKay, Alistair Petrie; Director: Ron Howard; Screenwriter: Peter Morgan; Director of photography: Anthony Dod Mantle; Production designer: Mark Digby; Music: Hans Zimmer; Costume designer: Julian Day; Editors: Dan Hanley, Mike Hill; Producers: Andrew Eaton, Eric Fellner, Brian Oliver, Peter Morgan, Brian Grazer, Ron Howard; Executive producers: Guy East, Nigel Sinclair, Tobin Armbrust, Tim Bevan, Tyler Thompson, Todd Hallowell; Production: Revolution, Working Title, Imagine Entertainment; Rating: UK-15, US-R; 123 minutes.

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TIFF FILM REVIEW: Daniel Radcliffe in ‘Kill Your Darlings’

Posted on September 10, 2013 by admin

The Works 'Kill Your Darlings' Cliff Edge

By Ray Bennett

TORONTO – Poetry and poets have seldom fared well in movies and “Kill Your Darlings”, in which Daniel Radcliffe plays “Howl” creator Allen Ginsberg as a young man, is no exception.

Directed by New York filmmaker John Krokidas, who graduated from short films, the movie tells of the murder of a man who becomes obsessed with a contemporary of Ginsberg named Lucien Carr, played by Dane DeHaan (pictured above with Radcliffe). The two are among the Beat writers of the time, who included William Burroughs (Ben Foster) and Jack Kerouac (Jack Huston).

They are all completely self-involved and arrogant as they stumble to find their voices and figure out their sexuality. As the time was 1944, when the world was in violent turmoil, their insularity appears to be even more precious and their utterances pompous.

Radcliffe is a gifted young actor but he appears to choose his roles now according to their ability to help establish that he is no longer Harry Potter. This one includes a nude sex scene with another man.

It’s all a bit overheated and underwhelming although Michael C. Hall is typically creepy as the obsessed man and DeHaan continues to stake his claim as a new Anthony Perkins, all fey fragility and inner rage.

His character is more interesting than Ginsberg as he has a sense of his own ability to use his androgynous appeal to manipulate people on top of an understanding that even though he cannot write, words can have an impact beyond their original intent.

Elisabeth Olsen as Kerouac’s girlfriend and Kyra Sedgwick as Lucien’s mother, unfortunately, have little to do. Nico Muhly’s score conveys the period in counterpoint to recordings from a much later era from bands such as TV On the Radio and the Libertines.

The beats come across more like twats, however, as they break into the Columbia University library at night to replace staid classics on display with contentious and erotic works by James Joyce, D.H. Lawrence and Henry Miller. It just seems silly.

Venue: Toronto International Film Festival

Opens: UK: Nov. 8 (The Works); US: Oct. 16 (Sony Pictures Classics)

Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Dane DeHaan, Michael C. Hall, Jack Huston, Ben Foster, David Cross, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Elizabeth Olsen, Kyra Sedgwick, John Cullum, David Rasche; Director: John Krokidas; Screenwriters: John Krokidas, Austin Bunn; Director of photography: Reed Morano; Production designer: Stephen Carter; Music: Nico Muhly; Costumes: Christopher Peterson; Editor: Brian Kates; Producers: Michael Benaroya, Christine Vachon, Rose Ganguzza; Executive producers, Joe Jenckes, Stefan Sonnenfield, Jared Ian Goldman, Pamela Koffler, Randy Manis; Production: Benaroya Pictures, Killer Films, in association with Sunny Field Entertainment. Rating: US R; 102 mins.

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TIFF FILM REVIEW: Alfonso Cuaron’s ‘Gravity 3D’

Posted on September 10, 2013 by admin

Warner Bros. 'Gravity' x650

By Ray Bennett

TORONTO – Digital and 3D filmmaking will win more fans if the movies are anywhere as good as Alfonso Cuaron’s spectacularly fine “Gravity”.

The picture shows none of the seams of CGI as it depicts with breath-taking breadth and depth what it must be like tethered to machines a long, long way from Earth

Co-written and co-edited by the director, “Gravity” mixes propulsive drama and high tension with moments of balletic grace within the immense sweep of endless space. At 90 minutes, the time flies by and many viewers will not wait long to see it again.

Sandra Bullock gives a strong and nuanced performance as a doctor and inexperienced astronaut whose carefully nurtured first venture into far space explodes suddenly into a world of danger. All the gleaming and superbly efficient pieces of machinery on which she relies are abruptly torn and mangled when large chunks of debris from a broken Russian satellite swarm into her path.

The actress must work often in silence and close-up in a spacesuit and helmet as the claustrophobic terror of diminished oxygen belies the peace and beauty of her expansive surroundings.

George Clooney is the only other actor on screen in a warm and polished performance as a veteran astronaut whose expertise, experience and calmness are the doctor’s best bet for survival.

The work of cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, production designer Andy Nicholson, costume designer: Jany Temime, visual effects supervisor Tim Webber and their teams is all first-rate. Composer Steven Price’s score cleverly uses electronics to imply sound where there is none.

Cuaron demonstrated with “Children of Men” that he is a master of action-filled long takes and he demonstrates that skill again especially in an opening sequence of startling clarity and extraordinary beauty. He shows what 3D can do when it is used discreetly.

Venue: Toronto International Film Festival
Opens: UK: Nov. 8 / (Warner Bros.) / US: Oct. 4 (Warner Bros.); Cast: Sandra Bullock, George Clooney; Director: Alfonso Cuaron; Screenwriters: Alfonso Cuaron, Jonas Cuaron; Director of photography: Emmanuel Lubezki; Production designer: Andy Nicholson; Music: Steven Price; Editors: Alfonso Cuaron, Mark Sanger; Costume designer: Jany Temime; Visual effects supervisor: Tim Webber; Producers: Alfonso Cuaron, David Heyman; Executive producers: Nikki Penny, Chris DeFaria, Stephen Jones; Production: Esperanto Filmoj, Heyday Films; Rating: UK 12A; US PG-13; 90 minutes.

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TIFF FILM REVIEW: Denis Villeneuve’s ‘Prisoners’

Posted on September 10, 2013 by admin
Jake Gyllenhaal and Hugh Jackman star in 'Prisoners', which opens in the UK on Sept. 27.

Jake Gyllenhaal and Hugh Jackman star in ‘Prisoners’, which opens in the UK on Sept. 27.

By Ray Bennett

TORONTO – The positive reviews of Canadian director Denis Villeneuve’s second film, a police procedural titled “Prisoners”, are a puzzle since “Criminal Minds” has done this stuff better week in and week out on TV for a decade.

Two young girls go missing on Thanksgiving Day in a small Pennsylvania community and the film spends 153 minutes in the murk as the story plays out. Hugh Jackman plays one of the fathers, Keller Dover, established in the first scene as a survivalist who never saw a deer he didn’t shoot, with Jake Gyllenhaal as the dedicated but troubled Detective Loki, established in his first scene as a cop who never met a case he couldn’t solve.

Gyllenhaal acts as if he wonders where all the good scripts went after “Brokeback Mountain” and “Zodiac” while Jackman still has a case of “Les Misérables” as he pitches his performance to the back row. There’s a constant fear that he will burst into song. Not for one moment is any of the cast plausible except for poor Paul Dano, who takes a beating well.

Expert cinematographer Roger Deakins captures the rainswept suburb and nearby woods dutifully as a simple young man named Alex James (Dano), who was seen in the neighbourhood in a camper, is apprehended quickly.

When Loki releases James on the grounds that there is no evidence and the young man appears to lack the intellectual capacity to plan a kidnapping, Dover takes the law into his own hands. He captures the lad, ties him up and beats him brutally.

At home, Dover’s wife Grace (Maria Bello) falls apart while neighbours and fellow victims Franklin (Terrence Howard) and Nancy (Viola Davis) are benumbed and gradually fade from the story. Melissa Leo looms ominously as the boy’s mother.

Dover’s temper increases as Loki drives about slowly in the rain with a serial killer on his mind and a possible new suspect. There is the sense that it will end with an arbitrary villain and there will be a chase. Johann Johannsson’s workmanlike score strikes every obvious note but it’s difficult to care and such is the lack of tension in a supposed thriller that terminal boredom sets in around the half-way mark.

Venue: Toronto International Film Festival; Opens: UK: Sept. 27 (Entertainment One), US: Sept. 20 (Warner Bros.) Cast:  Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Viola Davis, Maria Bello, Terrence Howard, Melissa Leo, Paul Dano, Dylan Minnette; Director: Denis Villeneuve; Screenwriter: Aaron Guzikowski; Director of photography: Roger A. Deakins; Production designer: Patrice Vermette; Music: Johann Johannsson; Editors: Joel Cox, Gary D. Roach; Costume designer: Renee April; Producers: Broderick Johnson, Kira Davis, Andrew A. Kosove, Adam Kolbrenner; Executive producers: Edward L. McDonnell, John H. Starke, Robyn Meisinger, Mark Wahlberg, Stephen Levinson; Production: Alcon Entertainment. UK rating: 15; US rating: R; 153 minutes.

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