Finally! Damo's LFF round-up...

Posted on Friday November 13, 2009, 13:59 by Damon Wise in Under The Radar

Fantastic Mr Fox
I didn't have high hopes for Wes Anderson's latest but it charmed me. With the exception of Jarvis Cocker's rotten song, it's a much more rounded film than The Darjeeling Ltd was, which I notice now was written by Anderson, Roman Coppola and Jason Schwartzman. Fox, co-written with Noah Baumbach (his co-writer on The Life Aquatic), doesn't quite seem to try so hard, and is much more of a fit with the earlier films (which, incidentally, were co-written by Owen Wilson, whose cameo here really sold me on the film).
Ooh rating: Ooh! Ooh!

The Men Who Stare At Goats
I was aware when I handed in my review of it that this would divide people, and I agree with many of the criticisms (the ending is especially weak). But! It has Jeff Bridges; George Clooney with a moustache (and dancing); Jeff Bridges; Stephen Lang running into walls; Jeff Bridges; Stephen Root killing a hamster with his mind; Kevin Spacey being the funniest he's been since Swimming With Sharks; and Jeff Bridges. I think it's a laugh and a four-star experience for anyone who likes Jeff Bridges. Which I do.
Ooh rating: Ooh! Ooh!

The Boys Are Back
Hmm... This was the first of a few disappointments. There are some fine performances, it's well made and it's extremely flattering to Oz, but The Boys Are Back feels like something's missing (like, oh, I don't know, a story). Clive Owen's pretty good as a widowed husband trying to raise two kids, but there's not really enough to get involved with. Happily, it's not based on a misery memoir, but the downside is that it just doesn't seem to go anywhere.
Ooh rating: Ooh!

Up In The Air
I'm still not sure what I think of this. The first 75 minutes are great, with George Clooney on top form as a confirmed bachelor whose routine is shaken up by the arrival of a smart young new work colleague (Anna Kendrick, so good in Rocket Science and as the “scary little girl” in Camp). That stuff's great, but when it threatens to turn into a formulaic romance (director Jason Reitman lies to us through montage!) it takes a dip that the bittersweet ending can't quite recover from. Oddly, it felt more like an Alexander Payne movie too (music by Rolfe Kent; a Nebraska setting; on-the-road split screen), a disconcerting disjunct that may have affected my viewing experience.
Ooh rating: Ooh! Ooh!

An Education
What can I say? I've seen this twice now and enjoyed it even more the second time, even though it fails to reach a very satisfactory ending and sort of ends the minute that you-know-who leaves the screen. Lone Scherfig is a very capable director, and even though the script seems to have tidied up Lynn Barber's life somewhat, the film still carries some unexpected nuances, mostly in the way Jenny (Carey Mulligan) struggles to find a female role model in life but also in its depiction of her not-so-innocent idealism: it's quite an honest depiction of teenage ego and greed.
Ooh rating: Ooh! Ooh!

The White Ribbon
A slight confession: I struggled to keep awake during this, in a furnace-hot screening room in Cannes with no air conditioning. But even though I know I dropped off for a few minutes in the middle, I don't think it mattered; what I like about The White Ribbon is that it's a film about atmosphere and location rather than narrative, which even its narrator doesn't have much of a clue about. It's a fascinating bad dream of a movie, and I love the fact that (unusually for a Haneke film) it raises questions for you to mull over, with no obvious answers.
Ooh rating: Ooh! Ooh!

A Prophet
Someone promised me that Jacques Audiard's last film, The Beat That My Heart Skipped, would be "like seeing Mean Streets for the first time”. Needless to say, it didn't live up, but A Prophet gets closer, a great prison movie that unexpectedly morphs into a great gangster movie over the course of two and half hours. It's authentic without being overly realistic and comes very highly recommended.
Ooh rating: Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!

Nowhere Boy
Ugh! I didn't like this at all. I'm looking forward to seeing Aaron Johnson in Kick-Ass, but here I think he's totally miscast as John Lennon. I didn't really buy any of it, and was especially put off by a) Anne-Marie Duff's somewhat over-excited portrayal of Lennon's flighty mum and b) Kristin Scott-Thomas's somewhat frosty performance as his Aunt Mimi. I came away knowing little more than I already knew about Lennon's parentage issues and surprised that Sam Taylor-Wood would make something so traditional and uninspiring.
Ooh rating: Oh dear!

Micmacs
Another one that's not for me, thank you. The aggressively whimsical tale of a video store clerk taking revenge on the arms dealers who supplied the bullet that became lodged in his head (long story), it left me cold. There's some mechanical messing about, a contortionist who can fit into a suitcase, and lots of zig-zagging camerawork, like the kind you see in a wacky bank advert. Even the presence of Yolande Moreau didn't alleviate all the fanciful tedium for me. Mind you, I didn't like Amelie much, so what do I know?
Ooh rating: Oh dear!

The Road
I liked this a lot. It's hard to make a film with no humour in it in these cynical times, but John Hillcoat makes the best possible job (I think) of a potentially unfilmable novel. It doesn't wallow in the horror of its post-apocalyptic scenario but at the same time it doesn't flinch. Viggo Mortensen deserves some of the credit too, in his best role since A History Of Violence.
Ooh rating: Ooh! Ooh!

A Serious Man (Pictured)
I seem to be the only person I know, bar two, that doesn't like this film. The Coen brothers have done it all before. It's sort of based on something (The Book Of Job) but not really (like Fargo/O Brother); there are people running round not knowing what they're doing (like Burn After Reading/Miller's Crossing/Barton Fink); there's a comedy encounter with an Asian (like Fargo); there's a gun nut next door (like the Big Lebowski)... etc, etc. I was often bored, and I didn't get involved with any of it. I laughed at the line “Accept the mystery”, however. So all was not lost.
Ooh rating: Half an ooh...

44-Inch Chest
I wanted to like this more than I did. On the surface, it's another sweary British gangster film, but underneath there's an interesting Lynchian fever dream going on. I wanted more of that, and although Ray Winstone is terrific as a petty criminal coming to terms with his wife's infidelity, I think the film often cleaves too close to the post-Lock, Stock model for comfort (even though the filmmakers would no doubt take offence at that). Good score by Angelo Badalamenti though.
Ooh rating: Ooh!

Air Doll
It's nowhere as good as Kore-Eda's serious films but there's something deceptively engrossing in this daft but strangely moving film, in which a rubber sex doll comes to life. I have no idea what the ending is supposed to be telling us, however, so send in your answers on a postcard.
Ooh rating: Ooh!

Bunny And The Bull
Cold Souls
I'll do these two together; both suffer from being Kaufmanesque – Bunny And The Bull closely resembles The Science Of Sleep, Cold Souls is very Eternal Sunshine – but both have their grace moments of originality. The Might Boosh (especially Noel Fielding) are hilarious in the former, while Paul Giamatti is unsurprisingly great in the latter, playing himself, albeit in a pompous and deluded form.
Ooh rating: Ooh! Ooh!

Enter The Void
I really thought this was great, just in terms of sheer sensory overload. Technically, it's brilliant, and although the acting veers wildly from average to dire to super-terrible, there are so many awesome visual ideas in here. I thought the first-person camera would annoy me, but Enter The Void has a unique kinetic language of its own, and some of the editing is just astonishing.
Ooh rating: Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!

The Informant!
Yep, I like this too, even though it's being somewhat dissed as a minor work from Steven Soderbergh. I think Matt Damon is great, and what Soderbergh is doing here is perhaps too subtle to work on a grand scale, hence the bad/underwhelmed reviews. I think there's an interesting tears-of-a-clown story being told, although I can't really say why without going into major spoiler territory.
Ooh rating: Ooh! Ooh!

The Limits Of Control
Not my favourite Jarmusch by a long chalk, but I have a sneaking regard for this. There are heavy shades of Ghost Dog (it's about a lone hitman) and Broken Flowers (he's on a mission), but there's an interesting atmosphere, even if the parade of cameos (John Hurt, Gael Garcia Bernal, Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton) seems more hip than is truly necessary.
Ooh rating: Ooh!

Life During Wartime
Two thumbs up for this. I loved Todd Solondz's Happiness, hated Storytelling, thought Palindrome was OK, and was expecting the worst. Amazingly, this sequel to Happiness is almost as good as the original, despite a total cast overhaul. The performances are wonderful and Solondz's writing has really mellowed; there's an affection for the characters that really drives the comedy, and as a portrait of post-9/11America it's quite deceptively spot-on.
Ooh rating: Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!

Mother
Hitchcock meets Lynch meets Almodovar in this cracking Korean mystery. There are five ending when at least one would do, but it's a fine underrated find from Cannes.
Ooh rating: Ooh! Ooh!

Precious
I can't say this is a particularly good film because it isn't; it's not especially well made or acted. However... there's something about Precious that really gets under your skin, and its good heart and enthusiasm carry it a long way. Look out for Mo'Nique's incredible speech at the end; it's like the spaceship at the end of Close Encounters...
Ooh rating: Ooh!

Surprise Film
This was Capitalism: A Love Story, which I liked a lot. There's a lot of Michael Moore's usual flim-flam but the guy does have a good, if often heavy-handed, sense of humour.
Ooh rating: Ooh! Ooh!

Taking Woodstock
Again, I seem to be in a minority on this one. Ang Lee's take on the Woodstock generation, in the guise of a 'coming of age' movie, is perhaps the most misunderstood film of the year. This is a film in which a young man comes out as gay, takes class-A drugs and finally walks out on his parents, and yet, for some reason has been described as Lee's most toothless film to date by people who harp on about the fact that there's hardly any music in it. He's baffled about this, as am I.
Ooh rating: Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!

Samson & Delilah
I'd be hard pushed to say I enjoyed this study of urban deprivation, in which two petrol-sniffing aborigines end up on the streets of the big city, but newcomer Warwick Thornton has a definite eye, and his sparing use of music is extremely novel and inventive.
Ooh rating: Ooh! Ooh!

A Single Man
My choice for the awards season; Tom Ford's debut is a nicely observed, brilliantly played chamber piece, starring Colin Firth as a suicidal college professor. The confident direction style makes it clear what Ford's influences are (Todd Haynes, Wong Kar-Wei, Almodovar) but the performances make it: Julianne Moore, Matthew Goode and Nicholas Hoult are all amazing.
Ooh rating: Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!

We Live In Public
A great internet-age doc about Josh Harris, the most pioneering dotcom millionaire you've never heard of. The follow-up to DiG!, Ondi Timoner's latest is another research-intensive study of obsession, raising some interesting points about the dangers that life ahead of us in the cyber age.
Ooh rating: Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!

When You're Strange
A good refresher course if you like The Doors, a bit of a sponsored love-in if you don't. I was happy with it.
Ooh rating: Ooh! Ooh!

Oil City Confidential
Does the world need a doc about Dr Feelgood? I didn't think it did, but Julien Temple's film makes a good case for the Canvey Island rockers. It's a bit long, and is a little repetitive in it use of film noir footage, but there's enough to satisfy hardcore fans as well as the merely curious.
Ooh rating: Ooh! Ooh!

The Scouting Book For Boys
There are two films here, one I really like and one I'm not so sure of. The one I like is a fantastic, rose-tinted rites-of-passage film, in which Thomas Turgoose acquits himself surprisingly well as an Antoine Doinel-type figure who's in love with his best friend and Holly Grainger is a total find as the object of his affection. In the second half, the film becomes something else, and if I were to reference the film it sort of turns into, you probably wouldn't believe me. However, I haven't made up my mind whether the whole films works, so I may have to see it again. In the meantime...
Ooh rating: An ooh and a half!

She, A Chinese
Very boring, this. Not for me.
Ooh rating: Oh dear.

Valhalla Rising
Nicolas Winding Refn's latest is nowhere near as immediate as Bronson or his trilogy of Pusher films. If anything, it's more like his psychological thriller, Fear X, using a mute Viking (Mads Mikkelsen) as the anchor for a heavy-metal psychedelic odyssey that transplants the cryptic mythology of 2001: A Space odyssey into the mists of the 12th century.
Ooh rating: Ooh! Ooh!

Hadewijch
A fabulous, if austere study of religious fanaticism, this new film by the critically inconsistent Bruno Dumont is an arthouse crowdpleaser, telling the story of a wealthy Parisian girl who is kicked out of a convent and winds up in the hands of Muslim extremists. It sounds a bit far-fetched, but Dumont expertly handles the descent, and his framing is immaculate.
Ooh rating: Ooh! Ooh!

Applause
Denmark's Paprika Steen gets the showcase she deserves in this very Cassavetes-influenced drama about an actress recovering from a massive problem with drink. It's harsh, and the camera is very unforgiving at times, but, being Danish, Applause never allows its dark tinges to dominate: there's a light at the end of the tunnel, and Steen takes us with her. Surely some character roles in Hollywood must follow: Coens? Soderbergh? Payne? Anyone? She's on Facebook!
Ooh rating: Ooh! Ooh!

Burrowing
Quite an experimental work, this, but it came together for me in the end and I was sold. Set in a leafy Swedish town, it's a very episodic and quite surreal film, in which the lives of various outsiders in a small community are explored over the course of what seems to be a single day. It's heavy going (the main dialogue is a boy reading poetry by Thoreau), but the performances are natural and involving, with a very real sense of tension at the end, when tragedy is only very narrowly averted.
Ooh rating: Ooh! Ooh!

The Double Hour
Mixed feelings about this one. The middle section is fantastic, and should be ripped off by Hollywood immediately, but ultimately it was a bit too contemporary for my taste, in terms of Italian cinema, that is. I preferred Italian cinema when it was brash and ragged, but these days it wants to be too slick and tries too hard to distance itself from genre, which used to be its mainstay. When you see the disappointing end of The Double Hour, a decent enough thriller that wants to be something much more profound, you'll know what I mean.
Ooh rating: Ooh!

Men On The Bridge
This was a pleasant surprise, a very nice, semi-improvised film, starring non-professionals, about working-class people trying to make a living in modern-day Istanbul. Though the setting is exotic, the problems are familiar and very real, and its humanity is very affecting.
Ooh rating: Ooh! Ooh!

Trash Humpers
Well, whatever it is, I sat through it and wasn't especially bored by the latest 'film' by Harmony Korine. What happens? Some young people in old people make-up wander round a neighbourhood, shagging the bins and shrieking, “Make it, make it, don't fake it!!!” Then there appears to be a murder, and, well, that's about it. It's all shot on horrible, grainy video, with lots of scratches and colour bars, like some kind of weird home movie. I have no idea what to say about it, other than I suppose this is what film festivals are all about.
Ooh rating: Erm...