Let's be honest, when the words 'written, directed by and starring..' are followed by only one name, that usually sets off more alarm bells than an earthquake at the Chubb factory. And yet that wasn't the case when I heard of Alice Lowe's feature-project (alas I couldn't schedule a cinema viewing as it was a somewhat low-key release). Quite the opposite, if anything. It was also a good vibe that was borne out in full over 87 minutes of escalating, often eviscerating, existential dread and gore. Because with a film like Prevenge, you'll take all the good vibes you can get…
Lowe plays (and yes, writes and directs) Ruth, a recently bereaved pregnant woman who becomes convinced that her unborn child is urging her to kill. And who can say no to their own baby, right? It's not a random slaughter-spree, and the link between the victims is teased out over the course of the film as Ruth gets closer to the little one's arrival.
Having seen Alice in a (vaguely) similar role in Sightseers (which she co-wrote with Steve Oram), I have to say that this feels very similar and I wonder how much of Wheatley's directorial style has influenced this film. That's not to dilute Lowe's skills as a storyteller, but these are definitely movies you'd keep on the same shelf*2.
The film is accompanied by Toydrum's synth-driven soundtrack which brought to mind Giorgio Moroder's score for Scarface*3; growing heavier and more intense with each scene, you know things are only going to end one way.
It's a fascinating study into how repellent you can make a lead character (and not framing them as an anti-hero) without the viewer turning against them. Because Ruth is more difficult to like as the film progresses, yet the narrative angle never turns to one of pity. Just morbid, eyebrow-raising curiosity. The supporting cast are familiar faces from British TV comedy and/or drama, but with the exception of Jo Hartley's midwife and Kayvan Novak, they're in largely one-off appearances due to the nature of the story.
Although this is a comparatively short film (by today's studio standards - 90 mins seems to still be the standard for indies) it's structured almost episodically, as Ruth adopts a slightly different persona for each killing, with recurring anchors of her own flat and the pre-natal midwife's office. This almost makes it feel like Prevenge could have been a series of interconnected web-shorts at one point in its development, with the potential for wider tonal shifts in each sequence.
But all in all, Prevenge is an amazing, near-perfect achievement. Not least because Lowe made it while she was actually pregnant herself. Most parents show their kids photos of the baby-bump in an album. This will be an altogether different conversation…
Level 2: This film's got Alice Lowe in it, and she was in Kill List along with Michael 'The Rogue One Dr. Evazan' Smiley.
*1 Because I can't really complain about my local cinema not showing enough new movies and complain that I never have time to watch stuff at home, now can I? [ BACK ]
*2 Unless you're one of those insane people who keep all their DVDs and Blu-rays in alphabetical order irrespective of category or genre, just like no video store ever has… [ BACK ]
DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
And lo, did the distributors spake, "In ye Summer-time, specifically in ye monthe of Auguste, just after ye A-Level resultes are borne forth, ye shall release a filme which hath been made from a thing off ye tellye."
9 "Whether it doth be Ye Lemonne, Ye Partridge, Ye Inbetweeneres or even ye blaggard Whitehall Himselfe, thou shalt adapt the small screen to the large. For, 'tis the formula."
10 "And so it shall be that ye kiddes who scoreth badly in their exams shalt want to go out, and taketh their mind off despaire with laughter. Verily, those kiddes who passeth with flying colours shalt want to celebrate with goode feeling and merriment." Thus, the cinema shalt be all thinges to all children, the melting-pot and the force which bringeth together. And they shalt remember it fondly and with greate kindness.
~ The Book Of Film, Chapter 6, v8-10
Okay, various IRL events and time-management issues mean I've been procrastinating over this one for a week (with the exception of the pre-written introduction, above) and have now lost all momentum*1. These are my thoughts in brief on David Brent: Life On The Road, in no particular order of preference or severity…
• Like most of these things, this isn't really a film. More a TV special which has been strung out to a length that would be deemed acceptable for a cinema release.
• The mockumentary format is tried and tested, and Ricky Gervais inhabits his most famous creation with unique and practiced ease. But there's the feeling that all this is around ten years too late (the Office Christmas Specials, a coda to the two full TV series, aired in 2003). Although he's been continuing sporadically to expand the Brent canon in the meanwhile, the comedy landscape has changed a lot. While the original series is still held as a high watermark of TV comedy, it's done so in a historical context; ie you wouldn't get away with exactly the same format in 2016. And guess what…
• Life On The Road is always very watchable but never really felt like something i could laugh at, largely because by guffawing I was either going along with the awful jokes and mistakes Brent makes, or mocking the misguided fool making them. It feels like 'punching down', either way. In Gervais' directorial hands, the lead character's failures become an unironic swan-song that's more uncomfortable than amusing.
• Ultimately, the film's not that funny. The faux-pas*2 and awkward silences are there in abundance, but what made The Office so great was the reactions of every other character to Brent's excesses. Life On The Road has to introduce everyone other than Brent very rapidly, so we're never fully seeing events from their point of view. And apart from anything else, the audience wasn't rooting for Brent in The Office, they were rooting for Tim and Dawn. The closest this film has to their detached exasperation is Ben Bailey Smith's rapper/sidekick, Dom, who is underused as a comic foil at best.
• The closest comparison I could make in terms of tone, era and comic-persona would be Alan Partridge. And while it's funny watching Partridge fail because he's a terrible person reacting in exaggerated comedy situations, Brent is just a terrible person in an everyday one. David Brent has become a real version of a real thing (and that's a compliment to the acting and the writing, if anything). If I want to see people trying their hardest to politely ignore racist comments? It's 2016, I don't need to go the cinema, that shit's everywhere…
• Those awkward silences were probably exacerbated by an audience of around 20 people scattered over a 270-seat auditorium. The laugh-gaps in any movie feel more hollow in that situation. Maybe this would have worked better in a later (ie more populated) screening? Then again, the beauty of the TV series was that it was immersive even if you watched it alone.
• The script even throws a few 'oh, it's not as good as the TV series' jibes in its own direction, as if pointing out the obvious somehow makes it less true.
• On an even more nit-picky level, there are far too many shot-angles for this to pose as an actual documentary (unless the standard docu-crew comprises four camera operators, these days?).
• By the time the closing credits come round, the lead character has done nothing to earn the social and moral awards given to him, nor the bittersweet ending which accompanies them, other than perhaps 'not giving up', which wasn't really an option open to him anyway. It has its moments, certainly, but I think the biggest problem with Life On The Road is that the writer, director and headlining performer are all the same person. Restraint is everything in comedy, and that's in ironically short supply here. Plus, you can't build up a nostalgic glow for someone who's meant to be a dick in the first place…
Well, The Office I suppose.
Although if you use that as your benchmark, you may come away emptyhanded.
No, it's not a film.
With the best will in the world, no.
Given that the director essentially is the cast and what that person's back-catalogue consists of, no.
Probably not.
Definitely not.
Level 2: Well, this movie stars Ricky Gervais (and won't let you forget it), who's worked on several projects over the years with Warwick 'Wicket' Davis.
*1 All week it's been 'and after I've done that I'll type up my Brent-review'. Don't even get me started on the words I haven't written for Swallows and Amazons…
*2 What's the plural of 'faux-pas'..?
DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
It's the 28th of March, and we in the UK have just performed the bi-annual ritual of padding around the house looking for wall-clocks, thermostats and microwaves to change the time on, as we stride into British Summer Time. And it might not be a massive coincidence that this week sees the Monday-release*1 of Olympic biopic Eddie the Eagle, because this is a film you can set your watch by...
Every single frame has been labouredly engineered for maximum cloying effect, with director Dexter Fletcher and producer Matthew Vaughn poring over the British Underdog Movie Handbook until the pages started to wear through. The titular Edwards' humble beginnings, his supportive parents, and never-say-die attitude are absolutely textbook, as is the pantomime-like performance of the sneering detractors and contemporaries that surround him at every turn*2, the mechanical structure of the once-failed-mentor archetype and the film score which tells you Exactly What To Think All Of The Time. Eddie The Eagle also uses the musically-backed-training-montage like it invented the damned thing. And then Christopher Walken turns up and plays Christopher Walken™.
The fact that this film is based around true events actually (or should actually) gives it less of an excuse to follow the tried and tested formula, as it feels like it's somehow not trying hard enough by relying on a structure we're all familiar with anyway. But on it ploughs, the phrase "Feel-good crowd-pleaser" seemingly red-stamped over every page of the script. Even if you know nothing about the history of Britain's favourite underdog, this film holds absolutely no surprises.
It's also really fucking good.
Much like its subject and the aspects of his situation he can't control, the film has its own inherent obstacles that have to be conquered before it can win the hearts of the audience. And much like its subject, the film succeeds on charm, rather than outright ability. You can be every bit as cynical and jaded as I was walking into this movie, but if Eddie's final 90m jump at the 1988 Winter Olympics doesn't have goosebumps on your neck and a tear in your eye, you're probably some kind of robot.
And it's all down to Taron Egerton in the title-role, with an insanely likeable performance that never gives in to mawkishness even when the rest of the movie does. To capture the raw essence of optimism, his is the hardest job in the film; and he's the one that does the best because of it. Hugh Jackman is amusing and reliable as his trainer, Bronson Peary (but as noted above, has little to bring to an already-clichéd role), and Eddie's parents played by Jo Hartley and Ceith Allen are great support, the surrogate-audience within the film willing Eddie to triumph. But the film really works because of Egerton's performance, and would be a dud without him.
Sure, Eddie The Eagle will be lauded by the kind of outlets you wouldn't normally take serious recommendations from*3, and will be a mainstay in the 'Ideas for Mother's Day' POS displays for years to come. But you owe it to yourself to see it just once. And those first-person-perspective ski-jumps look phenomenal on a big screen, so now's your chance...
Any British Underdog Movie™ of the 1990s.
The film deserves your support at the box-office, yes.
Against my expectations, and against its own obstacles, yes.
Dexter Fletcher is the man who directed Sunshine On Leith".
I'll just leave that there.
Nah.
Nah.
Level 2: Taron Egerton was in that Kingsman: The Secret Service along with Mark 'Skywalker' Hamill and Sam 'Windu' Jackson.
*1 A phenomenon we're seeing more and more of, lately. Traditionally, new movies would come out on a Friday, maybe a Thursday. Occasionally we'd even get a Wednesday release, but this was seen as a transparent ploy to extend the film's precious opening weekend takings, as anything before the end of the first Sunday counts toward that total. Are Monday releases just the studios' way of saying "fuck it, we'll have the week's worth"? Because once everyone starts doing that, the comparative figures will mean nothing again (although it's debatable if they mean anything to anyone outside of the accounting departments anyway). If only there was a collective push at making movies as artistically and aesthetically competitive, but hey.
*2 Really though, I know the role description is "Snooty and Dismissive Head of Olympic Selection Committee", but Tim McInnerny should be ashamed of his performance in this film, playing the part on 11 when it only needs 8. Mark Benton and Jim Broadbent are only a short way behind him, but are at least absolved by having fewer lines on-screen...
*2 And I self-deprecatingly include World Of Blackout in that spectrum. What's that? I'm doing a great job here and you value and respect my opinions even if you don't always agree with them? Oh, be quiet you lot, saying those things...
DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
*1
