LFF: End of Watch

Well, what a strong ending to the 56th LFF - with two five star films one after the other (and the two best that I saw from my eight film run). David Ayer, who has certainly cornered the gritty cop genre with Training Day, Harsh Times and S.W.A.T. is the writer/director behind End of Watch, arguably the best of the bunch. Using a handicam filming approach, his latest plays out like a stretched-out self-contained episode of The Shield, which certainly isn't a bad thing. Aside from the hyper-realism it creates, a jerky hand-held also acentuates the speed and velocity with which these South Central beat cops work, and as Jake Gyllenhaal's Taylor tells us, a cop working that beat can see more action in a day than other cops will see in a whole career. And boy he's not kidding. The film follows Taylor and Zavala (the ace Michael Pena) as they bring retribution to Mexican gangbangers, drug-slinging homeboys and the odd sociopath / psychopath along the way. It's not long before the Mexican Cartel operating in LA feel the thorn in their side, and our two heroes are green-lit for a kill-order. The action is relentless, as is the humour, but at no point does this stifle the plot or acting on show, which are both top-notch for the genre. The plot cleverly builds to an intense climax, and as we are invited ito the personal (out of uniform) lives of these two Los-Angeleans, there is a growing sense of dread that these worlds could come crashing down. 
Ayer smashes all the 'buddy cop' stereotypes, and we really feel that Talor and Zavala are indeed 'brothers' - so tightknit is their discourse. Only once have we seen such a realistic approach to cop partners, and that was Michael Mann's Miami Vice, but even then, it felt the banter was curtailed for the mood, whereas he it feels nothing short of organic all the way through. Ayer's movie has it all - humour, violence, tension - and the backbone of the film rests upon the two leads, who are nothing short of excellent at any point. * * * * * (5)

LFF: Seven Psychopaths

Martin McDonagh's follow-up to hit man comedy, In Bruges is as funny and violent as its predecessor. What a relief! His previous outing has been a favourite of mine since release, and I can now see this getting squeezed in somewhere as well. The basic premise sees Colin Farrell's Marty writing a script called Seven Psychopaths, although he's struggling to move on from the title. Consequently, his dognapper mate Billy, decides to use his initiative and help his struggling friend come up with some psychopaths for his script. Enter various psychopaths, an Amish preacher, a dog-loving gangster, crazy anecdotes, beautiful women and a Vietnamese priest. McDonagh doesn't let us down, that's for sure.
Aside from the genius that is McDonagh's writing - clear he cut his teeth as a playwright - which is never short of hilarious and compelling, we are also treated with Sam Rockwell up front and centre, which is something of a rarity, and he never fails to offer a charismatic and enjoyable performance. His pitter-patter with Farrell (and Walken) is laugh-out-loud most of the time, and its a wonder why Rockwell doesn't get more lead roles, as the guy is just fantastic in everything! Definitely my film of the LFF thus far, and to quash the naysayers, I say that this has been one of the best for 2012. Martin's brother John Michael, who made The Guard, needs to deliver a corker with Cavalry if he is to keep up with Martin. * * * * * (5)

LFF: Caesar Must Die

This docudrama from Italian brothers Paolo and Vittorio Taviani has a great ensemble of Rome's toughest prisoners, as they perform  Shakespeare's Julius Caesar from the confines of their prison walls. It's a perfect setting for the Roman classic, and the audition process is a particularly enjoyable piece, watching the tough men switch between a tearful, bumbling wreck, to a ferocious and angry orator. The dialogue is delivered with aplomb, with Caesar in particular rolling the words with such majesty and rhythm in the Italian tongue. Aside from the deliverance, the setting is also a master's touch, particularly given the fact that JC is all about betrayal and conspiracy - so perfectly conveyed amidst the corridors, knocks and crannies of the prison, as the scenes flit between cells, yards, the library, cages, window ledges and allies. There are occasions when the prisoners break down and stop rehearsals to cope with some of the scenes paralleling their own lives, and there are one or two occasions when it feels contrite and staged, but nevertheless, it's a fascinating performance and the old-timer directors should be applauded for their creativity and vision, as should the prisoners themselves. * * * *  (4) 

LFF: Everybody Has a Plan

Everybody Has a Plan is an Argentine crime drama written and directed by Ana Piterbarg which sees Viggo Mortenson portray twin brothers - Pedro is rough and ready, chain-smoking in dog-eared attire amidst the deep forests on Argentina's doorstep, whilst his brother Agustin is a married doctor in the city. When Pedro comes to see his brother to tell of his cancer, Agustin seizes the oportunity to leave his dull life and head back to the rural backwaters of his childhood, not expecting to be embroiled in a local feud when he gets there.  Unfortunately for us, neither the performance or plot is very captivating, and Viggo, although a good actor, doesn't do much to separate his twins - a beard and hat serve as the main difference between them - which, I suppose, is ideal when trying to impersonate your twin! What more, the motivations of the leads are completely opaque, never quite explaining why Agustin wants to leave his caring wife and smart apartment, other than the fact he's changed his mind about adopting a baby. We even see him locked inside his study for days in a sulk without really knowing what his afflictions are! There's no doubt that the Latinos steal the film, with Daniel Fanego and Javier Godino (The Secret in Their Eyes) both putting in decent performances as small town crooks.

The cinematography was quite smart, but even then, Piterbarg doesn't utilise the forests and backwaters to the same effect as in Winter's Bone, Lawless or Deliverance, reminding us that this is indeed an amateur director - an apt one nonetheless. Everybody Has a Plan tries so hard to touch on the emotion and hardships conveyed so brilliantly in Winter's Bone that it lets the plot slide into obscurity, flitting between crime drama, love story and family drama, which eventually ends on a rather flat note. At no point are we truly rooting for any of the characters, and I couldn't have cared less when anyone died - not the best sign. * * 1/2 (2.5)



LFF: John Dies at the End

Don Coscarelli's latest mind-f**k is an adaptation of David Wong's sci-fi-comedy-horror John Dies at the End. Set in a non-descript midwestern town, the film sees an alien manifestation of evil try and invade Earth through a drug called Soy Sauce, which if taken, allows the user to drift through time and travel across dimensions. Oh, and also see all the crazy aliens, mutants and monsters which are slowly inhabiting our world.
Set in three acts, and with a narrative so mind-bending that you may as well resign to ignorance, John Dies at the End is a tale for the modern generation, and with a script as tight as a banjo string and jokes galore, you'll be hard pushed to find a more enjoyable sci-fi-comedy-horror out there (!!). The special effects are great - only half of it is CGI - and the two lead actors really nail the two colleage dropouts, particularly Chase Williamson as the lead, David Wong. Director Don Coscarelli himself introduced the film at the Hackney picturehouse last night, and he mentioned how he loved the British phrase 'batshit crazy' - never has a term be more apt than it is here.  * * * * (4)

LFF: Nameless Gangster

Korean crime films have always been firmly on my radar after seeing the likes of Oldboy and A Bittersweet Life. This is another fantastic film for the collection, and like other Korean gangster movies, it is a pastiche of comedy, violence and drama. Min-sik Choi plays Choi Ik-hyun, a downtrodden civil servant who falls into the world of organised crime after a fortuitous find. It's not long before he's playing the game, and for all his blundering and bewilderness, he becomes a shrewd (if at times greedy) operator. Capturing Busan (S. Korea) during the 80s and 90s, we see organised crime become so rife that the government eventually declared war on it - reminiscent of Elliott Ness' war against Al Capone in 50s Chicago. The acting is superb from the leads (with ubiquitous hammy Asian performances from some of the supporters), but a great lead from the star of Oldboy seals the deal, and Ha Jang-woo's 'Big Boss' is excellent - oozing a quiet sense of menace. Nameless Gangster plays out like a Scorsese movie, and director Yun Jong-bin has become "one to watch", even giving Kim Ji-woon's gangster masterpiece A Bittersweet Life a run for its money.  * * * * (4)



LFF: Rust & Bone

Jacques Audiard's anticipated follow up to A Prophet is a powerful drama about two unexpected lovers who undergo a shift in their lives whilst living on the beautiful sun-drenched Cote d'Azur. Marion Cotillard plays Stephanie, a whale trainer who loses her lower legs in a freak accident, whilst Matthias Schoenaerts (Bullhead) portrays Ali, an angry young Belgian who becomes the subject of her affections. Atypical of Audiard's films, the character's sit ambiguously in the 'grey', and it's not until later on that we decide if we empathise with them, let alone like them. There are a couple of implausible moments, which could fall down to the stupidity of the characters, but it seemed more like an easy path for the script to take a new direction. At times the misogyny is so unbearably realised, that you wonder what Stephanie actually sees in Ali besides his brooding manliness. However, Audiard still gives a well-shot and intriguing human drama, gritty and romantic,  but it isn't as good as his two previous films - The Beat That My Heart Skipped and A Prophet. Rust & Bone is a good addition to his CV; an accomplishment made all the more evocative by brilliant lead performances.    * * * 1/2   (3.5)

LFF: Frankenweenie (Imax 3D)

Tim Burton's first-time collaboration with Disney is an absolute gem. Another stop-motion adventure, like The Nightmare Before Christmas (producer) or Corpse Bride (Co-Director), Frankenweenie finds a young science-obsessed boy, Victor Frankenstein (see where this is going!), who manages to resurrect his dog Sparky by harnessing lightning to bring him back to life. Before long, the local neighbourhood lads are heading over to the pet cemetery to resurrect their old chums, and all hell breaks loose. Shot in black and white and with an eerie Addams Family-esque style, Burton has paid homage to all sorts of classics - from his own back catalogue as well as creature features and 1950s horror movies. It's a pleasure to watch and the creativity is outstanding, paying meticulous detail to the creation of the small town in which its set - New Holland. Fun and quirky, this will be enjoyed by kids and adults alike. * * * * (4 stars)

The 56th BFI London Film Festival

So, last night the 56th BFI London Film Festival (what a mouthful!!) kicked off with opening screenings of Tim Burton's new stop-motion feature, Frankenweenie. His first collaboration with Disney, it was a real gem to start off the festival, and stars such as Burton himself, wife Helena Bonham-Carter, Catherine O'Hara and Martin Short graced the red carpet in Leicester Square to kick off the show.

For those who haven't checked out the BFI website to see what's happening, can do so here and will see there's plenty of exciting movies to check out. My brother and I went to the IMAX viewing of Frankenweenie, and aside from some seriously dodgy camerawork from the red carpet (mostly featuring Lauren Laverne's legs, and some continual forward/rewind action) shown before the film, and a 30 minute delay to allow the stars to sit their famous posteriors down (the other screenings can't start before the offical red carpet opening), it was a very enjoyable opening.

My tickets have all arrived now, and I'm seeing (in order).........

1. Frankenweenie - Tim Burton's first Disney collaboration
2. Rust & Bone - Jacques Audiard's new French drama with Marion Cotillard and Matthias Schoenaerts
3. Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time - South Korean gangster noir with Oldboy's Choi min-Sik
4. John Dies at the End - Comedy horror from Don Coscarelli based on David Wong's crazy insane book
5. Everybody Has a Plan - Ana Piterbarg has Viggo Mortenson playing twins in this Argentine Drama
6. Caesar Must Die - Inmates of a high-security Roman prison put on Shakespeare's Julius Caesar
7. Seven Psychopaths - Martin McDonagh's anticipated follow up to In Bruges with Colin Farrell
8. End of Watch - David Ayer's LA-based police crime action with Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena

Although there are a few I missed out on due to either high prices, fast-selling tickets, or timings - Doomsday Book, Argo, Crossfire Hurricane, Sightseers, Midnight's Children - I'm extremely excited about the tickets I have films for, and am anticipating all of them equally.

Due to moving flat (twice!), starting a new role at work and a load of band rehearsals, the reviews won't quite be to the standard of previous due to simply not having the time, so I have opted to do short Paragraph Reviews with a gist and general opinion on the movie. That way I can stay on top of the films I see. If you get the chance, do try and attend - it's great fun and something every film-loving Londoner should take advantage of.

REVIEW: Looper

(*contains spoilers*)

Rian Johnson broke onto the scene in 2005 with his high-school noir Brick. The film was made for $500,000 and featured Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a high-schooler who turns detective when his ex-girlfriend goes missing after a cryptic phone call. The film was a fantastic achievement – combining the elements of detective drama, film noir and high-school comedy, and launched JGL into the mainstream. Johnson even created his own fifties-inspired vernacular for the film, much like an old Raymond Chandler novel. His second feature was the con-men extravaganza The Brothers Bloom which had a strong central trio with Mark Ruffalo, Adrian Brody and Rachael Weisz, and played out like a Bourne film directed by Wes Anderson. His characters pulled off greater and greater 'cons' whilst globetrotting between obscure and secluded locations. With his latest feature, Looper, Johnson’s scope has widened and his horizons broadened. It’s certainly his most accomplished and successful film to date – catapulting him into the public eye of cinemagoers all over the world.

Looper’s premise is as follows: In the year 2072 time travel is accessible but outlawed, only used by the most nefarious of organisations. Due to the lack of disposal grounds, the mob use time-travel to send back their targets to 2042, where a looper (assassin) waits to eliminate and dispose of the body without any future trace of their existence. However, when an organisation feels the heat or gets indicted, they will often tie up the loose ends and ‘close the loop’, which involves sending the looper’s future-self back to his younger self to be killed. The young looper gets a grand payday and a pat on the back to live out the remaining thirty years in retirement. There is only one rule: never let your loop escape. If you do, then Abe (the mob-placed man in charge of 2042) and his Gat Men (think black-clad heavies with large heavy revolvers, or gats) will hunt you down and either kill you, or chop off your limbs to stop your older self from escaping. Either way, it ain’t pretty. Lo and behold, it’s not long before our hero, Joe, confronts his older self for elimination, but as his older self is Bruce Willis, he isn't so easy to kill. Cue wild chase scenes, mind-bending time travel narratives and a gun fights aplenty. 

Aside from an utterly original plot, Johnson is up to his usual tricks and brings us a cinematic pastiche of cold-as-ice one-liners, sharp dress,  high-grade weaponry, cool backdrops,  even cooler names – La Belle Aurore is the club – and a strong ensemble cast (here we have Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt, Jeff Daniels, Paul Dano and Piper Perabo). The principle city remains unnamed, and looks like an extended slum meets a dilapidated business district (the future doesn’t bode well for us), but still Johnson makes it the perfect setting for a futuristic crime thriller; old fire escape ladders, abandoned vehicles, neon signs and sparse empty streets make up the sprawl. Despite their being no real focus on the city (New Shanghai gets the best treatment in a very cool montage sequence), its presence is felt, especially when the action relocates to a secluded Kansas farm where Joe and Sara (blunt) are both dressed in faded khaki attire in keeping with the scenery, but the Gat Men who follow from the city are head to toe clad in black. Johnson’s eye for detail is impressive, and each knook and cranny of Looper makes for very unique viewing, simultaneously evoking excitement, fear and suspense. 

Very important to the film’s brilliance is Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Joe. It’s his story we follow, and he’s a very likeable guy – a sharp-dressing, quick-witted looper with the time and dedication to learn French and save half of his fortune. His lifestyle is that of a bachelor, with drug-taking, drunk-driving and clubbing in abundance, and he’s the coolest cat of a gang of cool cats – some of whom have weak telekinetic powers (a new mutation called TK) enabling them to float quarters. What was so impressive about his performance, was how accurately he nailed Bruce Willis’ nuances and facial expressions – its uncanny – made all the more effective by a prosthetic nose to look more like his older self. Joe is also a man of nostalgia, driving a cherry red Mazda MX-5 Miata and dressing in fitted leather jacket and tie – as Abe points out “the movies you’re dressing like were copying other movies. Goddamn twentieth century affectations”. It’s interesting, film fans will always be in search of that perfect film garment – whether it’s the Drive scorpion jacket, Wolverine’s leather biker jacket, or even Tyler Durden’s red leather blazer. Even if you Google ‘Joe’s jacket Looper’ or something to that effect, there are loads of forums and blogs with people in desperate search for Joe’s garments from the film – especially the three jackets we see him wear: how ironic. Rian Johnson must be smirking at that. 

It’s not only the wardrobe which is drumming up web-based searches, but the high-grade weaponry on display is a boy’s dream. The looper’s weapon of choice is the blunderbuss – the looper's street-weapon, long, clunky and extremely effective at short distance. By contrast, the Gat Men use a gat (like the G-Men of the fifties) - a huge nickel revolver used for more accurate shooting at a greater distance. Kid Blue even shows us some skills with his piece, and takes pride in the gat he carries.  Another cool pistol is seen during the film’s best sequence – a thirty year montage that sees Joe move to New Shanghai, run out of money, join the mob, and start racketeering with a gang wearing sleek black uniforms – Joe carries a very modern pistol which looks like a cross between a Sig Sauer, a cowboy's revolver and a flare gun. This presence of gunplay would suggest homage to the Spaghetti westerns of Leone, where the way of the gun is the only way of life.

Aside from awesome weapons and a great lead performance from JGL, we also have Bruce Willis as the heavy-hitter, the old faithful hero whose presence alone can up the ante for any action sequence. As per usual, Willis is superb as the seasoned assassin, now very worldly and all the more sardonic as a result. In one scene reminiscent of Michael Mann’s crime opus, Heat, we see Young Joe and Old Joe sat in a diner as they exchange rhetoric and try and figure out each other’s game plan. It’s a master-class of scriptwriting, and very touch-and-go as to who will have the upper hand when the inevitable clash happens, much like with Neil McCauley and Vincent Hanna in the aforementioned crime saga. The Joe's even touch on the subject to time-travel, but Willis quickly stomps out the discussion - “we’ll be here all day making diagrams with straws” - showing Johnson wasn't planning on the audience getting bogged down in the concept - it's either Terminator rules or Back to the Future rules after all (Looper is Terminator rules - the time machine stays in the future). It’s Bruce doing what he does best – a one-man mission to kill the big boss of the future – only this time he has his younger self, all the city’s Gat Men, and an eager young rat of a man called Kid Blue all on his trail. As you can imagine, it gets messy but Johnson never loses sight of the goal. Lose ends are tied, wrongs are righted and this isn’t all done with a ‘nice easy’ ending, but instead with a rather shocking conclusion, in keeping with this brutal world they all inhabit.

Looper is my film of 2012, and a shoe-in for one of my favourite films of all time. I’ve been a strong advocate for Rian Johnson since he debuted with Brick, and have been following production on this latest film for the past couple of years. It doesn’t fail to deliver, and you’d be hard done by to find a cooler sci-fi movie out there. There are no good guys here, even the innocent Sara is riddled with guilt from her past, and everyone else is as shady as hell – loopers, Gat Men, strippers, hobos – it could be a neighbour to Sin City. There is no question that Looper deserves five stars (only my second of the year after The Raid); it’s a blend of sex, wit, style, crime-travel on the rocks with a slice of cucumber.