By Ray Bennett
The jazziest American filmmaker since Robert Altman, David O’Russell makes it three top-flight jams in a row with his rambunctious and hugely enjoyable comedy “American Hustle”.
Like Altman, Russell assembles expert side-men and women, provides the key notes and lets everyone riff as he leads them through solos and harmonies to a rousing payoff. Continue reading
British director Steve McQueen’s “12 Years a Slave” (pictured), which 20th Century Fox will release in the UK on Jan. 10, has claimed nine London Film Critics’ Circle Awards nominations including best film.
Other films with multiple nominations include “Philomena” with five, and “Blue Jasmine”, “Filth”, “Gravity” and “The Wolf of Wall Street” with four. Continue reading
By Ray Bennett
Alexander Payne’s “Nebraska” is as rich and engaging as its monochrome images of the American northwest are crisp and daunting. A road picture about dashed aspirations and misguided dreams with some kind of redemption, it’s like a walk in brisk winter that ends at the warmest of hearths. Continue reading
By Ray Bennett
American comedian Will Ferrell gives fans what they want in December with a return to his cult alter ego Ron Burgundy in “Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues” while Ben Stiller fulfils a long held dream to re-make “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”. Continue reading
By Ray Bennett
LONDON – Prince Philip once landed at Heathrow and someone asked him how was his flight. The Prince said, ‘Have you ever been on a plane? It was like that.” Much can be said of movie sequels. If you saw the first “Hunger Games”, the second one is like that.
Not to say that’s a bad thing. Almost two and a half hours of Jennifer Lawrence (pictured) onscreen is no bad way to spend cinema time and “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” has lots of splashy visuals and exciting action. Continue reading
By Ray Bennett
GENT, Belgium – Canadian composer Mychael Danna was named best film composer of the year and won the best original film score award for “Life of Pi” at the World Soundtrack Awards. Continue reading
By Ray Bennett
Warner Home Video said it will release all three of James Dean’s movies re-mastered for Blu-ray Disc in an “Ultimate Collector’s Edition” on Oct. 28.
“East of Eden” (pictured with the late Julie Harris), “Rebel Without a Cause” and “Giant” will be on a limited and numbered 6-disc set along with three feature-length documentaries about the actor who died aged 24 in 1955, screen tests, wardrobe tests, commentaries and features on each film. Continue reading
Donald Sutherland in Nicolas Roeg’s “Don’t Look Now” (1973)
By Ray Bennett
Think of Rome and Federico Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita” comes immediately to mind. Think of Vienna, it’s Carol Reed’s “The Third Man”. In Venice, it’s Nicolas Roeg’s “Don’t Look Now”. Continue reading
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
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.
