Headhunters - Hodejegerne

Bea says:  "A Norwegian thriller", Cecil told me, and that sounded a good prospect after the massive success of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Killing, and so on. So on a wet Saturday afternoon we did a little shopping, a little bit of lunch, and a damp walk around a bit of the city walls in York before heading over to the City Screen to catch this one for an afternoon matinée.

And a great rip-roaring tale it was too - Roger Brown is a headhunter for an IT type firm, Pathfinder, but lives well beyond his means with a beautiful trophy wife and gorgeous suburban house. To fund his lifestyle, he steals valuable works of art and sells them on. However, things quickly spiral out of control when the mysterious and enigmatic Clas arrives in town, a prime candidate for a Pathfinder job, he is both the temporary owner of a valuable piece of art and a rival for Brown's wife's affections. The intricate plot is quite fun to follow, and in fact kept me guessing most of the time, although there were a few "er - that wouldn't happen" moments. Not at all likeable at first, the sequence of events and trials makes us warm to Roger as the story develops.

Quite a lot of blood, gore and sex, but no overly fancy special effects - just a good story and a nice, tightly directed and well-acted piece. Definitely worth seeing, and a must-see if you have been enjoying the recent Scandinavian take on the thriller genre.
****

Cecil says: I thought at first that the director of Headhunters must also have made all "The Girl..." films, because the style is so similar, but I actually preferred the plot to this one, which never descended into what I always call 'Scoobie-Do' moments.

There's something low-key, but almost slapstick about Scandinavian humour, even if the two concepts sound like a contradiction.  And this film, although a thriller, was also comic at times, so disastrous were the various events that took poor Roger Brown from his racy, but unlikeable lifestyle to a desperate state where he is fighting for his life in some very unsavoury and blood-curdling moments.

For a crime-thriller, Headhunters did quite a good job at character development.  Roger Brown may have won our affections as the film progressed, but by the end, we didn't know who to trust from all the other characters: Clas was clearly pretty evil, but what of Diana, or Lotte? Who COULD he trust? Who should we like?

As Be a says, there were a couple of moments where the dialogue or the action didn't quite seem plausible, but on the whole this film raced along and pulled the audience with it. A good afternoon's entertainment.

And what a great cinema York's City Screen is. If you've never been there, check out all the posters on York's old independent cinemas, including this cinema in its early days. But did the church bells from next door always chime through into the auditorium as they did half way through yesterday's film? Took us a while to realise that they couldn't possibly be from the film itself...

****

Black Gold

Cecil says: We saw this with just four other people at the Stockton Arts Centre; great venue with lots of independent films, but obviously not what the people of Stockton fancy seeing on a Friday night.

I really enjoyed this film, which was a kind of mix of Lawrence of Arabia, if only for the epic, desert scenes and the war going on all around, and I, Claudius, for its depiction of the studious, but clumsy and nervous kid growing up to be a great leader. There was also a touch of Local Hero, which we had just re-seen the previous night on telly funnily enough.

On one level this was all about oil. Texans find oil in a disputed bit of desert and want to drill, baby, drill. Trouble is, the stretch of desert that covers the oil is a disputed territory that is supposed to be a no-man's-land according to a treaty signed between the warring factions some years earlier.

Like in Local Hero, there is a conundrum over which way to go: take the American money and feed/educate your people, or stick to your principles and maintain an old traditional lifestyle that has served your tribes for centuries?

There are so many big issues in this film. It's about life and death, brotherly love, loyalty, families, east v west, and probably a host more.

Best way to approach the film is just to sit back and let it flow over you. You can do all the analysis you like afterwards. Just enjoy the story and great location filming.

Casting was great: Funny that we only saw Riz Ahmed and Freida Pinto a few weeks ago in Trishna (he also playing a hip westernised guy, but in Trishna he was Indian of course); Mark Strong excellent as the Sultan. The only gripe I'd have is that they couldn't find any strong Arab actors for any of the lead roles. Antonio Banderas as an Arab? Hmmmm.

Anyway, great evening entertainment. People of Stockton, you missed out!

***.5

Bea says: As I have often said in this blog, it's good to see a film you know little or nothing about. Black Gold was a gem - the early days of oil in the desert, told through the story of two warring sheikhs and their sons and daughters, it was also a kind of Arabian Romeo and Juliet. It had not occurred to me that prior to oil the Arab sheikhs were poor - in our day and age that's hard to imagine, although the warring and infighting between the tribes is, sadly, very easy to. It's also about the universal theme of time passing, of progress, and how things change, and are lost, as that time passes.

It's beautifully shot, and well written and produced - although a quite slow-paced story the time doesn't drag at all - and the rich colours and fabrics of the Bedouins are a feast for the eyes, as are the old cities in the desert.

Made me want to leave for an oasis in the desert immediately.

***

The Hunger Games

Bea says: We could hardly have seen this in a more surreal environment - the beachfront cinema at Redcar is surrounded by a strange, industrial landscape, lit up at night, and with tankers and containers ships lit up out to sea. We felt as though we were in Blade Runner, and so it was a suitable scene set for The Hunger Games.

I don't know the book series, but had heard good things of this adaptation, but I only vaguely knew the storyline and had no real expectations. So I was pleasantly surprised by this post-armageddon tale of survival and a kind of reality TV game taken to the worst extreme - a kind of Lord of the Flies for a modern generation. I really, really enjoyed seeing a young woman as the hero of the story, and although she scrubbed up well in some scenes, in most she was strong, skilled and was suitably attired for what she was doing (I'm looking at you here, Angelina Jolie!).

Performances were competent, and it was nicely done overall, although as Cecil said after, it was an action story, without a whole lot of character development required. The story was engaging, although of course we knew all along who would "win" the Games. But the two and a half hours passed quickly, and I've even considered picking up or downloading the second book to catch up on the storyline - I doubt whether I'll get Cecil to Part 2!

A diverting film - take along some young people, or a sci-fi fan.

**1/2

Cecil says: Bea doesn't know me that well, clearly. I actually enjoyed this film and would be happy to attend any follow-up, if a Hunger Games II is indeed planned...

I had expected that this film would be full of crash-bang computer-generated animation, but apart from a ridiculous scene where the Games organisers suddenly conjure up a herd of wild beasts, the film actually felt quite realistic and fairly believable, in a futuristic kind of way.

Given its popularity among the late teens age-group - at least in the pre-publicity - I was half expecting a Twilight-type of plot and scenario. But there were no fantasy-based vampire kisses here; the romance was a bit predictable, but plausible, and of course in part II, we may find the romance is not what we think...Hey, you see, I can't wait for Part II...

Overall, the film felt like a mix between I'm a Celebrity, Get me Out of Here and Strictly Ballroom (but the latter may be down to the lead compere for the Games alone, though the outfits and make-up - on boys as much as girls - did feel a bit like the Ballroom glam scene).

In a way, this film couldn't go wrong, though. I was bewitched by the venue: the Regent Cinema in Redcar actually sits on the beach, and we hear that loos can occasionally flood - with sea water - during high tide! This cinema is a gem; it may not have been renovated for a few decades, but who cares? This kind of cinema is so rare in this country and long may it survive.

At £4 a seat, it's pretty good value and there was quite a good crowd there for this opening night of The Hunger Games. Hey, I hadn't queued to see a film since we waited outside the Byrd Theatre in Richmond, Virginia, where - by the way - ticket prices were about £2. Perhaps a lesson for those setting cinema ticket prices...

***