Movie of the Moth: November 2014

I haven’t been writing much over the past month, it isn’t because I have been busy watching films with only nine visits to the cinema all month.

Mr. Turner: Mike Leigh’s portrait of J. M. W. Turner is loving without being sentimental.  It is beautiful without being twee, but most surprising is just how funny it is mainly thanks  to Timothy Spall.  The 150 minute running time flies by.

The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman: I’m surprised by the mixed to negative reviews it has received, I really enjoyed it.  A trashy Euro thriller with a American lead, it is surprising Luc Besson’s name isn’t attached!  Shia LaBeouf, is finally showing some of the promise of his early films such as A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, Evan Rachel Wood is always worth watching even with a wafer thin character to work with.

Say When (released as Laggies in other countries): Introducing the idea of a “quarter-life crisis” as twenty-something Keira Knightley takes time off from her normal life by hanging out with teenager Chloë Grace Moretz.  Knightley is choosing some interesting roles and Moretz is proving there is more to her than Hit Girl.  The film is at its best when Sam Rockwell is in it, that sadly isn’t often enough.  Knightley was cast as a replacement for Anne Hathaway who was busy filming Interstellar, speaking of which:

Interstellar: Astronauts travel through a wormhole looking for a habitable planet to replace the dying earth.   A more personal and emotional film than we are used to from Christopher Nolan, but far from his most accessible.  The cast are all excellent particularly Mackenzie Foy as Matthew McConaughey’s 10 year old daughter.  The photography is stunning (Hoyte Van Hoytema in for Nolan’s regular Wally Pfister).  The end is sure to divide opinion.

The Drop: A low key crime thriller based on a Dennis Lehane novel, notable as James Gandolfini’s final film.  A film that seems to have divided critical opinion, it does have its flaws, but on the whole it is a very good film elevated by a great performance by Tom Hardy and a killer ending.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1: To take the weakest book in the trilogy and split it into two movie is a cynical commercial move top extract as much money as possible out of a profitable franchise.  That said the film is quite good, the tone is different to the first two.  The only real downside it doesn’t work as a complete film, it is part one.  This may not matter when it can be enjoyed with part two.

The Homesman: Tommy Lee Jones second feature as a director sees him return to the west, but he refuses to call the movie a western.  A harsh and sombre film, but one that is lifted by great performances from Jones and Hilary Swank.

Get On Up: The James Brown bio-pic seems to be earning praise for Chadwick Boseman’s fantastic performance but criticism for confusing chronology.  I agree with the former but actually think the disjointed chronology helps not hinders the narrative.

What We Do In The Shadows: Vampires get the mockumentary treatment thanks to the Flight of the Conchords team.  The deadpan Spinal Tap style delivery takes a little time to get into but when you adjust to it, it is very funny.

Some really good movies but there can be only one movie of the month, and there was only one real contender:

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Coming Soon…

As we pass the halfway point of the year one of my most anticipated films for a long time, Richard Linklater’s Boyhood has just opened and I will be watching it sometime this week. The end of the month sees The Avengers universe expand a little further with Guardians of the Galaxy, but what am I looking forward to for the rest of the year. Here are a few:

The Rover: Director: David Michôd: 15 August 2014 – Australia, 10 years after a global economic collapse, a man goes after the people who stole his only possession, his car. A sort of neorealist Mad Max.

A Most Wanted Man: Director: Anton Corbijn: 12 September 2014 – Political thriller based on a John le Carré’s novel. Sadly one of the last films to star the late Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Kingsman: The Secret Service: Director: Matthew Vaughn: 17th October 2014 – Vaughn and long time collaborator Jane Goldman adapted comic book about a veteran secret agent and a young recruit.

Gone Girl: Director David Fincher: 3rd October 2014 – A man reports his wife missing only to become the prime suspect. Adapted from a bestselling novel.

The Homesman: Director Tommy Lee Jones: 3rd October 2014 – A road/trail movie in the old west, Tommy Lee Jones stars as well as directs.

Interstellar: Director Christopher Nolan: 7th November 2014 – Space travel and wormholes and things like that, we can’t be sure because its Christopher Nolan, we don’t care because its Christopher Nolan!

The Hunger Games Mockingjay: Part 1: Director Francis Lawrence: 21st November 2014 – The first part of the final part of The Hunger Games, the revolution starts here.

Unbroken: Director: Angelina Jolie: 26 December 2014 – True story of Louis Zamperini, Olympic runner and WWII POW.

The Imitation Game: Director: Morten Tyldum: 14 November 2014 – The true and ultimately tragic story of Alan Turing, one of the men responsible for cracking the Enigma code during World War II.

Snowpiercer: Director: Joon-ho Bong: Date TBA – The remnants of humanity fight a class war on , a train that travels around the globe. (on my list of anticipated films 18 months ago, I hope to see it this year).

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Luc Besson

3 Days To Kill opened a couple of weeks ago to universal derision, it surprisingly isn’t that bad. With a script by Luc Besson and a plot featuring an aging CIA hit-man, comparisons with Taken are unavoidable. Kevin Costner does a good job with a flimsy and derivative story that loses its way in the middle. The action scenes and the family bonding both work on their own merits but the film fails to join the two elements together into a coherent movie. Not as nasty as Taken but also not as focused, it is worth seeing for any fans of either Costner or Besson, but we should expect so much more from Luc Besson.

Both as a director and writer/producer Besson has been responsible for some great films. Subway (1985) was the beginning of the style over substance tag (known as Cinéma du look movement ) that has followed Besson for his entire career, but with this much style how much substance do you need? Five years later came the film that introduced me to non English language cinema: Nikita (1990), I rented the VHS when I was 15 years old (I know it is an 18 and I was 15, but the video shop man didn’t notice or care!) about a year after its cinema release, I was drawn to the movie mainly because I liked the cover. Often criticised for lack of originality, Nikita has surely influenced more movies than it was influenced by. Anne Parillaud’s reluctant government assassin has spawned a Hollywood remake, two TV shows and countless imitators. Léon(aka The Professional) (1994) is widely regarded as Besson’s best film thanks to the just over-the-top enough turn by Gary Oldman and the sensational feature debut of 12-year-old Natalie Portman. It is also notable as Besson’s first film in English. Again in English, this time with an even less restrained Gary Oldman, The Fifth Element (1997) saw a new direction for Besson, a big budget Sci-Fi adventure. it has its problems but on the whole is a fun with some interesting ideas. Better know as a writer and producer in recent years, he is still able suprise as a director as he did with the bizarre but brilliant Angel-A (2005) and The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec (2010). Sadly less well know, possibly because they are in French, I would recommend both movies to anyone who hasn’t seen them.

Probably the best know of his writer/producer movies is The Transporter (200, 2005, 2008), starring Jason Statham, they are exactly what you expect from Besson and Statham, slick, glossy, well made, dumb action. Also falling into that category but with more comedy is Taxi (1998) and its three sequels (2000, 2003, 2007). Also notable for early appearances from Marion Cotillard nearly a decade before La Vie en rose. I wouldn’t bother with parts 3 and four or the American remake (2004) but the first two films are great. There were three films released in the UK in 2006 to feature parkour: Breaking and Entering (2006), Casino Royale (2006) and District 13 (2004) (original title Banlieue 13, also known as District B 13). Only District 13 stars parkour founder David Belle. Belle and writer/producer returned for a sequel District 13: Ultimatum (2009) and Brick Mansions (2014), neither were as good as the exciting and innovative original film. Lockout (2012) is a B Sci-Fi starring Guy Pearce and go-to kidnap victim Maggie Grace. The story is derivative and the effects terrible, but the film itself is tremendous fun and really Enjoyable.

Working across multiple genres, Besson also wrote, produced and directed the Arthur and the Invisibles movies (2006, 2009, 2010), and the biopic of Aung San Suu Kyi, The Lady (2011). I haven’t seen any of these films so can’t comment on them other than to say they were not well received critically. Returning to the director’s chair for his next film Lucy, set for release in August (in UK). Starring Scarlett Johansson in the title role it looks from the trailer like a riff on the ideas of Limitless. A return to large budget Sci-Fi and yet another film to feature a strong female lead, I am looking forward to it.

All this producing isn’t an act of randomly placing his name on movies to help distribute them, in 1999 he founded the Paris based EuropaCorp, one of the few independent studios that both produces and distributes movies. As well as the films Besson has creative infuemce over, he has also produced Nil by Mouth (1997), directed by Gary Oldman; The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, by Tommy Lee Jones (2005) (and Tommy Lee Jones’ upcoming The Homesman) and Tell No One (2006), by Guillaume Canet. Three fantastic films that may not have been made if not for Besson and EuropaCorp. While I respect what Besson is doing with EuropaCorp, I would just like to see a few more great films directed by him and a few less mediocre ones written and, or produced by him.

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