Ill Manors

Bea says:  I had read a review of Ill Manors earlier in the day we decided to go and see it, and nearly put Cecil off by telling him there was lots of rap music in it - not his favourite! However, the music was great throughout - not that aggressive, misogynist rap I don't like either, but thoughtful rap, of the ilk of groups like Public Enemy (and I am showing my age here!). There was also a spellbinding spoken word scene ("Pity the plight of young men") filmed as an open-mike piece in a London pub which just rooted me to the spot and has stayed with me since.

This sad, sad story of the descent into drugs, violence and prostitution of so many young people on the London estates was harrowing to watch, but just about avoided bleakness by following the personal stories of the characters, and letting us see who got out, and how.

Director and writer Ben Drew apparently struggled to make this film, about his real life experiences growing up in London, and I am glad he stuck with it - someone to watch.
***

Cecil says: Riz Ahmed is becoming the Bill Nighy of the ethnic minority acting role - he seems to be in nearly every film we see these days - or is that more a reflection of the type of film we go and see? In any case he's good, as are the other actors, many of whom I gather from Wikipedia were basically East End friends of the director, so they knew the roles they were playing.

As Bea says, when I heard the film would be backed by virtually constant rap music, I almost turned the car round and drove home, but actually I was gripped from the outset and enjoyed the soundtrack - if you can use the word 'enjoy' about anything in this film.

If you want a cheery, happy-go-lucky film, Ill Manors is not for you. It is almost unbearably bleak, with some scenes making me grimace at how horrific they were, and how believable they were.

And in addition to liking the soundtrack, I was amazed that - on the whole - I managed to follow the dialogue of 'street' slang; I guess I might have struggled more if this had been set in LA or New York, but London is familiar enough and I couldn't help wondering how many incidents and characters like these I had walked past over the years without having any idea of them.

Good film? Yes, definitely.  But there were only 4 of us sitting in Stockton-on-Tees multiplex. Hmmm, more suited to the Tyneside Cinema or Gala in Durham I'd have thought.

***.5

Like Crazy

Bea says:  On a rare day off work, Cecil took me off to the "Senior Screen" at the Odeon, Darlington, where I'm pleased to report I won the raffle (free entry next time) and enjoyed tea and biscuits on the way in. No one seemed to mind that I'm actually not a Senior.

The film that day was one we had never heard of - "Like Crazy"; all we knew was that it was a romcom. It turned out to be a very good one. The film follows the story of two young people who meet at university in LA; but as one is not from the USA, they are forced to continue their relationship long distance, with distinct on and off periods, and a rushed marriage to enable immigration visas.

This film really spoke to me; as someone who lives in a country they were not born in, and I have experienced some of the difficulties the couple in the film run into, some of which anyone in a relationship could relate to (the scene at Camden market made me snort with laughter - I've had that conversation a few times!).

The writing was very good - the story strong and involving, and it is nicely filmed as well. The performances are sound, and the end well done; the end of something, the beginning of something else. One interesting point - despite our so-called enlightened times, it was notable that it was the young woman who gave up her promising career to move to LA, not the other way around.

Definitely worth a see, and a good DVD/Netflix purchase too.
***

Cecil says:  As someone who has had more than my fair share of 'international' relationships, I was gripped by this film from the word go, and could relate to lots of what was going on throughout.

I'm not sure it was appreciated by the Darlington 'seniors', though.  There were grumbles from people around us as the film finished, and I guess if your relationships have always centred around the boy or girl next door or at most from the next town 10 miles away, then many of the issues and exotic romance of the storyline would not mean much.

As Bea says, some of the dialogue and situations were banal, but that was almost the painful beauty of the plot and the script.

Let's face it, relationships with someone on another continent are pretty hard to manage and keep going.  It's not just visas (though my heart sank as they decided not to bother with their visa conditions quite early on in the film); it's the phone calls and texts abroad; the disconnect as you meet again after some long period apart.  All this and more are the story of Like Crazy.

Anton Yelchin and Felicity Jones do a great job as the passionate, but trans-atlantic couple. Their profiles on IMDb show that they're pretty busy and will be appearing in lots of films in the coming months, but they've not really made much of an impact so far (though I did actually see Felicity Jones at the premiere of Cheri some three years ago).

I'm not sure what happened to Like Crazy on general release. A good film, well worth seeing. But why did it end up at the Darlington Seniors morning??

***.5

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...

***

Trishna

Bea says: I was intrigued by the idea of this retelling of the classic Hardy novel Tess of the D’Urbervilles, set in contemporary India, so when Cecil proposed the choice of it or another film for a dreary Monday evening in Glasgow, I went for Trishna.

The Glasgow Film Theatre reminded me very much of our old favourite venue in London, the British Film Institute; hip, diverse clientele, and a short introduction to the film, delivered by someone who was clearly a fan of the director, Michael Winterbottom, and drinks and discussion in the café afterwards.

Despite being a film blogger I am afraid I have not seen any other Winterbottom films, although I remember the stir that 24 Hour Party People caused. It has also been a long, long time since I read Tess, and since I watched the Polanski version starring Nastassia Kinski, which is a fairly faithful period adaptation, but thinking the story over I could see how it might work in contemporary times in India – and indeed it did.

The story follows Trishna, the oldest daughter of a poor rural man living in village in Rajasthan. Her beauty catches the eye of young Anglo-Indian heir, Jay, who arranges for her to work at his father’s hotel empire when her own father is injured in a road accident and the family desperately need money.

When Tess subsequently returns home in trouble, an abortion is arranged, and she is packed off to work in her uncle’s factory and cook and keep house for him and his invalid wife. Jay crosses her path once again, and this time she goes to live with him in Bombay – a life of ease and leisure, and with her family well supplied with cash, but also a life of shame.

However, once Trishna tells Jay about the abortion, their relationship changes. He leaves for some time, and once returned, they leave Bombay for the hotel again, in a chilling reprise of their former roles as master and servant that surely can only end badly.

The end of Tess has fascinated me since I discovered at my local book club that two different versions of the book exist – one with a tragic end and one with a happier outcome. I won’t say any more about which one this is.

But it was a beautifully done, thought-provoking film which shows just how universal and enduring Hardy’s themes are – and how well he wrote about the lives of women.

***

Cecil says: I haven’t read Tess of the d’Urbevilles, so I could sit back and enjoy this film just for its storyline and filming on set in India, without needing to make any comparisons with the text of the book.

Actually, the guy who introduced the film on the stage of the GFT almost put me off staying to see the film. As Bea says, he was clearly an old fan of director Winterbottom, but the more he spoke of Winterbottom’s past films, the less I wanted to see this one…

It’s quite a nice touch to have these personal introductions to films, but somehow, rather like professional film reviewers, this kind of intro can tend to try too hard to impress an audience. Even if we’d had time to go to the bar afterwards to talk about the film, I don’t think I’d have dared to go along because I wouldn’t be well enough read or know enough big words to feel at ease in such company.

So, what of the film?

Well, actually, it’s an interesting plot; not often you see films about Anglo-Indians returning to the homes of their ancestors, with all the connections – but also disconnections – that involves. But in fact, we enter much more closely into the heart and mind of Trishna than we do of Jay. Our hearts sink – as probably hers would have – when Jay says, after reading the Kama Sutra, that all women are either ‘maids, courtesans or single ladies’ – “which are you?”

You sense that her big chance of escape from the dependence on others might be through her dancing, but then that way out also closes off. Was that her decision or would she have been doomed whatever she chose?

It all sounds rather depressing and hopeless, I know, but actually the setting of the film in India made it a colourful spectacle that was a pleasure to watch, from the beauty of the rural village to the chaos of Mumbai (though I’m sure someone at some point called it Bombay…).

I have only a vague memory of my brief trip to Bombay when I was 7, but what I’ll never forget is the heat. Colourful and exciting it might be, but I couldn’t help reminding myself at each scene change in Trishna that everything that was taking place, from bus journeys to hotel rooms, from dance studios to desert drives would be happening in intense heat. Not something that would affect the characters in a Thomas Hardy novel. But then I shouldn’t be referring to Hardy: this film is worth seeing whether or not you know his books.

****

The Woman in Black

Bea says: I was keen to see this after hearing a radio interview with the author of the book it was adapted from (Susan Hill, The Woman in Black). On the radio, Susan Hill was engaging and interesting, and I decided to see the upcoming film on the basis of the interview, and the anticipated thrill of a good, old fashioned ghost story, so I dragged Cecil down to our local cinema for the afternoon show.

The book is now on either the GSCE or A level syllabus, which perhaps explains its popularity and the amount of young people in the audience (or perhaps that is more to do with Daniel Radcliffe!) Radcliffe does a good turn as Arthur Kipps, a grieving and poorly performing young lawyer who takes a make-or-break case to settle the affairs of a widow in the north east of England. Arriving in town, he is greeted with suspicion and before long the eerie events begin. It is indeed a good old-fashioned ghost story (and actually not very original - but I am sure Cecil will say more about that!) with all the requirements of such a story: mist, derelict houses, Victoriana, strange children etc etc. The ending rather caught me by surprise; and I am still not sure whether I think it was an interesting departure from the usual ghost story formula or just a cop-out. I am a wimp and easy to scare, but I certainly got the chills and jumped out of my skin a few times (so much so that the young woman next to me laughed more at my reactions than got scared herself!).

The film is beautifully shot and worth seeing just for the scenery, costumes and Victoriana of the widow's house. Although set in the north east of England, a little bit of internet research has told me that the house and causeway scenes were shot in Essex, and the railway scenes on the Bluebell steam railway.
**1/2

Cecil says: To get really scared by a ghost story, I need to be immersed in the plot and for the surprises to work on me I need no distraction around me...

What were those eerie whispering voices all around us? Oh damn yes, it was the kids from Richmond High School lower sixth...

And those shady figures moving around the auditorium? Yep, same kids - and some younger - heading off to the loo (I thought it was older men who had incontinence problems??)

But hey that rustling and crackling noise is scary. Where does it come from? Oh darn, it's the kids behind us munching on popcorn...

I'll barely mention the flashing lights as Facebook pinged up on mobile phones all round the place every 5 minutes.

So, without total immersion in the atmosphere, I'm afraid this film did nothing for me. It just came across as silly and soooo like any other cheap horror, mystery film over the years (and yes, there WAS the usual Scoobie-Doo plot to it)...

In the evening after the film, we decided to watch an old DVD in the absence of anything good on telly. Herzog's Nosferatu was our choice. And blow me down if I didn't get the impression that the maker of The Woman in Black had nicked (no, sorry, been inspired by) idea after idea from Nosferatu: from tentative search room by room of a mysterious house; through tombs that have a convenient diagonal opening through the middle so you can open it; hell, Nosferatu even had a woman in black for god's sake. But Nosferatu was a great film...

*.5