Categories
Cinema Reviews Thoughts

The Way Back

An epic escape from a Russian gulag during World War II forms the backdrop for Peter Weir’s first film in seven years.

Loosely based on Slavomir Rawicz’s book “The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom” (more of which later), The Way Back begins with an soldier named Janusz (Jim Sturgess) being sent to a remote Siberian prison camp on trumped up charges of spying.

After enlisting the help of inmates to escape, including an ex-pat American (Ed Harris) and a tough gang member (Colin Farrell), the group venture on a massive trek across Asia where they meet an orphan (Saoirse Ronan), struggle to survive and attempt to reach the safety of India.

Weir shoots everything with convincing detail: the prison camp is believably hellish and the landscapes form a frequently stunning backdrop as the prisoners venture across sub-zero Russia, the Gobi Desert and the Himalayas on their way to India.

Visually, the film feels grittier than one might expect, with D.P. Russell Boyd appearing to use a lot of natural light and the splendour of the landscapes are frequently intercut with shots of blisters and the physical cost of the journey.

The performances all round are solid: Sturgess and Harris stand out as the two lynchpins of the group; Farrell is charmingly gruff; Ronan has presence and depth and Mark Strong is believably seductive as a prison camp veteran with his own agenda.

As a narrative experience, the initial tension of the prison break quickly becomes a fight for survival as the group struggle to eat, stay warm and avoid all manner of hardships involving the harsh landscape.

This means that it lacks conventional tension, but there is a certain pleasure in the gruelling sprawl of the story as they keep moving across a bewildering variety of landscapes and adverse weather conditions on their 4,000-mile trek.

Sequences that particularly stand out are the initial prison break in a blizzard, a lake infested with mosquitoes, a harsh desert which drives them to the brink and the latter stages which involve some famous Asian landmarks.

For the most part it is absorbing and features well drawn characters, even though it occasionally suffers from the problem of mixing English and native dialogue, which in the modern era diminishes the overall authenticity of the film.

The film hinges on the central character’s desire to get back home (hence the title) to see his wife, which we see in a recurring vision, and it is hard not to be moved by the climactic depiction of the personal set against the historical.

But although The Way Back is an undeniably powerful experience, there is a problem at the very heart of the adaptation which directly relates to the original book that inspired it.

Although Rawicz’s account was acclaimed for a number of years, in 2006 the BBC discovered records that essentially debunked his version of events, even though there is evidence to suggest that the journey may have been undertaken by other people.

Peter Weir was fully aware of the controversy surrounding the book when he made the film, hence certain key changes, and overall it demonstrates the taste, tact and intelligence that has informed his career.

But given the extraordinary nature of the journey there is something dispiriting about finding out the truth about Rawicz, even if the actual trek may have been done by someone else.

It remains a powerful and handsomely constructed piece of cinema but also suffers from the shady origins of its source material.

> Official site
> The Way Back at the IMDb
> BBC News story on the controversy surrounding the book and its road to the screen

Categories
Cinema Lists

The Best Films of 2010

As usual these are my favourite films of the year in alphabetical order (just click on each title for more information).

THE BEST FILMS OF 2010

Animal Kingdom (Dir. David Michôd): The outstanding debut feature from director David Michôd is a riveting depiction of a Melbourne crime family headed by a sinister matriarch.

Another Year (Dir. Mike Leigh): A moving, bitter-sweet drama about relationships, filled with great acting, is arguably the peak of Mike Leigh’s career.

Biutiful (Dir. Alejandro González Iñárritu): Searing exploration of life and death in a modern European city, featuring a tremendous central performance from Javier Bardem.

Black Swan (Dir. Darren Aronofsky): Swan Lake is retold with glorious intensity, channelling Polanski and Cronenberg whilst giving Natalie Portman the role of a lifetime.

Carlos (Dir. Olivier Assayas): Scintillating and immersive depiction of a 1970s terrorist with a tremendous performance by Edgar Ramirez.

Enter the Void (Dir. Gaspar Noé): Technically dazzling depiction of a dead drug dealer that also features what is possibly the greatest opening title sequence of all time.

Exit Through The Gift Shop (Dir. Banksy): An ingenious and hilarious hall of mirrors which is brilliantly executed and so much more than a ‘Banksy documentary’.

Inception (Dir. Christopher Nolan): The ingenious puzzles of Christopher Nolan’s early films were given the scale of his blockbusters in this hugely ambitious sci-fi actioner.

Inside Job (Dir. Charles Ferguson): Devastating documentary about the financial crisis which plays like a heist movie, only this time it is the banks robbing the people.

Tabloid (Dir. Errol Morris): The media feeding frenzy surrounding a bizarre 1970s sex scandal provided Errol Morris with the raw material for one of the most entertaining documentaries in years.

The Fighter (Dir. David O’Russell): A boxing story which follows a familiar path but remains energetic, inspirational and funny, with Christian Bale on career-best form.

The Kids Are Alright (Dir. Lisa Cholodenko): A perfectly pitched comedy-drama that explores modern family life with genuine heart and humour.

The King’s Speech (Dir. Tom Hooper): Wonderfully crafted period drama with two brilliant lead performances and a moving story filled with hilarious one liners.

The Social Network (Dir. David Fincher): The inside story of Facebook is a riveting tale of ambition and betrayal, which sees Fincher, Sorkin and a young cast firing on all cylinders.

Toy Story 3 (Dir. Lee Unkrich): The ground breaking animated series gets a worthy final chapter whilst maintaining Pixar’s impeccable standards of story and animation.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

127 Hours (Dir. Danny Boyle)
Blue Valentine (Dir. Derek Cianfrance)
Catfish (Dir. Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost)
Four Lions (Dir. Chris Morris)
Let Me In (Dir. Matt Reeves)
Restrepo (Dir. Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger)
Somewhere (Dir. Sofia Coppola)
The American (Dir. Anton Corbijn)
The Ghost Writer (Dir. Roman Polanski)
The Illusionist (Dir. Sylvain Chomet)
Winter’s Bone (Dir. Debra Granik)

> Find out more about the films of 2010 at Wikipedia
> End of year lists at Metacritic
> The Best DVD and Blu-ray Releases of 2010

Categories
DVD & Blu-ray

The Best DVD and Blu-ray Releases of 2010

Here are my picks of the DVD and Blu-ray released in 2010, which include Dr. Strangelove, Pierrot Le Fou, The White Ribbon, Dr. Zhivago, The Last Emperor, A Prophet, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Psycho, The Third Man, Se7en, The Exorcist, Carlos and Inception.

Just click on the film title to read the original reviews and the links on the side to buy them.

JANUARY

FEBRUARY

MARCH

APRIL

MAY

JUNE

JULY

AUGUST

SEPTEMBER

OCTOBER

NOVEMBER

DECEMBER

NOTABLE IMPORTS

N.B. As I’m based in the UK, all of these DVDs are UK titles (apart from the imports) but if you live in a different region of the world check out Play.com or your local Amazon site and they should have an equivalent version of the film.

> Browse more DVD Releases at Amazon UK and Play
> Browse all the cinema releases of 2010
> The Best DVD and Blu-ray releases of 2009

Categories
DVD & Blu-ray

UK DVD & Blu-ray Releases: Monday 1st November 2010

UK DVD & BLU-RAY PICKS

Carlos (Optimum Home Entertainment): An epic project from director Olivier Assayas, who has brilliantly recreated the life and times of the Venezualan revolutionary terrorist known as ‘Carlos the Jackal’ (Eduardo Ramierez). [Read the full review]

Three Kings (Warner Bros.): Set during Operation Desert Storm this brilliant 1999 drama is the story of four US soldiers (George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Ice Cube and Spike Jonze) who loot $23 million in gold hijacked from Kuwait by Saddam Hussein’s army. [Read the full review]

ALSO OUT

Baz Luhrmann’s Epic Romances (20th Century Fox Home Ent.) [Blu-ray]
Beauty and the Beast (Walt Disney Studios Home Ent.) [Blu-ray / with DVD]
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (EV) Blu-ray / Normal
First Blood/Cliffhanger/Lock Up (Optimum Home Entertainment) [Blu-ray / Box Set]
Get Him to the Greek (Universal Pictures) [Blu-ray / Normal]
Moulin Rouge (20th Century Fox Home Ent.) [Blu-ray / Normal]
Predators (20th Century Fox Home Ent.) [Blu-ray / Normal]
Romeo and Juliet (20th Century Fox Home Ent.) [Blu-ray / Normal]
The Pacific (Warner Home Video) [Blu-ray / Normal]
The Secret of Kells (Optimum Home Entertainment) [Blu-ray / Normal]
Watchmen: Director’s Cut (Paramount Home Entertainment) [Blu-ray / Normal]

The Best DVD and Blu-rays of 2009
UK Cinema Releases for Friday 29th October 2010 including The Kids Are Alright and Saw 3D

Categories
DVD & Blu-ray Reviews

Blu-ray: Carlos

Carlos (Optimum Home Entertainment): An epic project from director Olivier Assayas, who has brilliantly recreated the life and times of the Venezualan revolutionary terrorist known as ‘Carlos the Jackal’ (Eduardo Ramierez).

It charts his early years as a violent revolutionary in Europe as he proves his worth to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP); missions for states such as Iraq, Libya and East Germany; an infamous kidnapping of OPEC oil ministers in Vienna in 1975 and his gradual decline as he sought refuge in Eastern Europe, Syria and Sudan as he struggled to cope with the end of the Cold War before finally being caught by French agents in 1994, where he currently resides in jail under a life sentence.

An ambitious French TV project, it got two kinds of theatrical release: a three part five and a half hour cut and a shortened 165 minute version. Now the DVD and Blu-ray versions are out there isn’t much excuse feasting on the full version.

The extras include:

  • Making-of featurette
  • Interview with Edgar Ramírez
  • Interview with Olivier Assayas (BD-exclusive)

The specs are:

  • Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
  • Video resolution: 1080p
  • Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
  • Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
  • French: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
  • French: DTS 2.0
  • Subtitles
  • English
  • 50GB Blu-ray Disc
  • Three-disc set (3 BDs)

* Read my full review of Carlos from the LFF *

> Buy Carlos on Blu-ray or DVD from Amazon UK
> IMDb entry

Categories
Cinema

UK Cinema Releases: Friday 22nd October 2010

NATIONAL RELEASES

Paranormal Activity 2 (Paramount): The sequel to last year’s low budget horror hit begins 3 months before the haunting of Micah and Katie, the married couple in the first film. It focuses on Katie’s sister who lives in the same neighbourhood and starts to experience similar problems in her house.

Paramount screened this one very late for UK critics, often a bad sign, but it is actually a passable sequel that uses the same bag of tricks as the first one: a central conceit that you are watching ‘found footage’; plenty of scary bumps and  a premise which is basically The Blair With Project in a house. Given the low budget, Paramount will be expecting to reap significant profit from this sequel and it may even replace the Saw franchise as a regular fixture around Halloween. [Nationwide / 15]

Legends of The Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole (Warner Bros.): Zack Snyder’s 3D animated debut is about a young barn owl who escapes from an orphanage to the island of Ga’Hoole, where he fights alongside its nobler and wiser elders.

Featuring the voices of Hugh Jackman, Hugo Weaving, Emile de Ravin and Jim Sturgess, it will be shown in 3D and is likely to claim the number 1 spot given its appeal to the half-term family audience. [Nationwide / 15]

Easy A (Sony Pictures): A sharp and surprisingly funny high school comedy about a pupil (Emma Stone) who spreads a rumour about losing her virginity and finds her life resembling Hester Prynne’s in ‘The Scarlet Letter’ – a book she is also studying.

Directed by Will Gluck, it plays like a cross between Mean Girls and Superbad (although not quite as good) with sharp one liners and ribald humour. The supporting cast is very good, featuring Stanley Tucci, Patricia Clarkson and Thomas Haden Church. [Nationwide / 15]

Red (Entertainment One UK): An action-comedy loosely based on the DC comic book series about a former black-ops agent (Bruce Willis) who reassembles his old team.

Directed by Robert Schwentke, it features an impressive supporting cast which includes Morgan Freeman, Mary-Louise Parker, John Malkovich and Helen Mirren. [Nationwide / 15]

Alpha & Omega (Lionsgate UK): A 3D animated comedy about a pair of wolves (voiced by Hayden Panettiere and Justin Long) who are captured by park rangers and taken far away, where they bond despite their differences.

Directed by Anthony Bell, it also features the voices of Christina Ricci, Danny Glover, Dennis Hopper and Larry Miller. Another film aimed at the lucrative half-term family market. [Vue West End & Nationwide / U]

Africa United (Warner Bros/Pathe): A drama about three Rwandan kids who walk 3000 miles to the World Cup in South Africa during 2008.

Directed by Debs Gardner-Paterso, it stars Eriya Ndayambaje, Roger Nsengiyumva, Sanyu Joanita Kintu, Yves Dusenge and Sherrie Silver. [Nationwide / 12A]

Ramona And Beezus (20th Century Fox): An adaptation of the books from the Ramona series of children’s novels by Beverly Cleary which follows the misadventures of a young pupil named Ramona Quimby (Selena Gomez). [Empire Leicester Square & Nationwide / U]

ALSO OUT

Carlos (Optimum Releasing): An epic project depicting the career of Carlos the Jackal, it brilliantly recreates the life and times of the Venezuelan terrorist (Eduardo Ramierez) to paint a fascinating portrait of a historical figure.

Directed by Olivier Assayas, it charts his early years as a violent revolutionary in Europe with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP); his missions for states such as Iraq, Libya and East Germany; an infamous kidnapping of OPEC oil ministers in Vienna in 1975 and his gradual decline as he sought refuge in Eastern Europe, Syria and Sudan, as he struggled to cope with the end of the Cold War before finally being caught by French agents in 1994.

An ambitious French TV project, it is getting two kinds of theatrical release: a three part five and a half hour cut and a shortened 165 minute version. It will then get released on DVD and Blu-ray soon after along with a variety of on demand options in several countries. [Curzon Mayfair, Picturehouse Greenwich & Nationwide / 15]

* Read my full review of Carlos here *

Mary & Max (Soda Pictures): A claymation feature film about a tale of friendship between two pen pals: Mary, a lonely, eight-year-old girl living in the suburbs of Melbourne, and Max, a forty-four-year old, severely obese man living in New York. Featuring the voices of Toni Collette, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Eric Bana and Barry Humphries. [Odeon Covent Garden & Selected Key Cities]

The Arbor (Verve Pictures): An avant-garde documentary exploring the life and legacy of Rita, Sue And Bob Too! playwright Andrea Dunbar. [Curzon Renoir, Gate, Odeon Panton St., Ritzy & Key Cities / 15]

Chasing Legends (Arts Alliance); A documentary following the 2009 Tour de France largely through the eyes of riders and staff of the HTC-Columbia team. [Nationwide / 15]

The Stoning Of Soraya M (High Fliers): A drama adapted from French-Iranian journalist Freidoune Sahebjam’s 1990 book La Femme Lapidée, based on a true story. Directed by Cyrus Nowrasteh, it stars Shohreh Aghdashloo, Jim Caviezel and Mozhan Marnò. [ICA Cinema & Selected Key Cities]

> UK DVD and Blu-ray picks for this week including Amores Perros
> Get local cinema show times for your area via Google Movies

Categories
Cinema Festivals London Film Festival

LFF 2010: Carlos

An epic project depicting the career of an international terrorist, Carlos is one of the most riveting films in recent memory.

Director Olivier Assayas has brilliantly recreated the life and times of the Venezualan revolutionary (Eduardo Ramierez), born Ilich Ramirez Sanchez and later nicknamed ‘Carlos the Jackal’, to paint a fascinating portrait of a historical figure.

It charts his early years as a violent revolutionary in Europe as he proves his worth to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP); missions for states such as Iraq, Libya and East Germany; an infamous kidnapping of OPEC oil ministers in Vienna in 1975 and his gradual decline as he sought refuge in Eastern Europe, Syria and Sudan as he struggled to cope with the end of the Cold War before finally being caught by French agents in 1994, where he currently resides in jail under a life sentence.

An ambitious French TV project, it is getting two kinds of theatrical release: a three part five and a half hour cut and a shortened 165 minute version.

It will then get released on DVD and Blu-ray soon after along with a variety of on demand options in several countries.

Despite its origins, it was shot on 35 mm film and to all intents and purposely feels like a sprawling historical epic. Assayas doesn’t just recreate the period, he plunges us head first in to the era with an exhaustive attention to detail.

The production design is especially outstanding, with costumes, locations and sets all used to present the period with remarkable authenticity.

At the centre of all this is a captivating central performance from Ramierez, who not only bears an eerie resemblance to Carlos, but anchors the film as it criss-crosses through many years and locations: he captures the vanity, obsession and physique of the man rarely in a portrayal that rarely hits a wrong note.

The supporting performances are also strong with stand out turns from Juana Acosta (as an early lover); Alexander Scheer (playing his longest serving colleague) and Nora von Waldstätten (as his increasingly beleaguered wife).

Discerning viewers should catch the full version as the editing gives sequences a fluid sense of movement and pace which belies its long running time. Although the third part sags a little compared to the first two, it moves with an incredible fluency and pace which makes many 90 minute films seem ponderous by comparison.

Some memorable set pieces include his first mission, a botched airport attack, a betrayal, an extended kidnap sequence and the final entrapment of Carlos as the net gradually closes in.

Based on extensive research, with the filmmakers allowing for an interpretation of some events, the attention to detail reaps rich dividends because it never feels burdened by obvious movie tropes.

Many sequences are intercut with news footage from the time, which provide a counterpoint to the perspective of Carlos and his inner circle, as well as rooting us in the historical record.

The handheld cameras and sound design all helps give the action an added urgency which is tingling throughout, and neatly conveys the anxieties of a life on the run.

Also interesting is the widescreen lensing by Yorick Le Saux and Denis Lenoir: some sequences have an epic feel which is contrasted with others that are more much claustrophobic and intimate. Throughout the visuals are handled with a dynamism and skill rare in modern cinema.

In the last decade the gap between television and cinema has narrowed. Not only have higher end shows become more like films, but cinema has struggled to compete with the range and narrative scope offered by series like The Wire and Mad Men.

Carlos represents an interesting hybrid: it screened at Cannes just before premiering on Canal+ in France but in many countries will be seen as three part film project.

It is very hard to imagine a US or UK broadcaster (even HBO or BBC) making a project as ambitious as this: not only is the protagonist a revolutionary terrorist, but it makes no concessions to being obviously ‘prestigious’ or uplifting, in the conventional sense.

But the lift comes from the audacious way in which Assayas and his creative team have relentlessly focused on a character who in some ways, reflects the creeping ambiguities and dangers of modern terrorism.

Although a period piece, Carlos asks awkward questions about the nature of terrorists and does so by featuring an enigmatic central figure: What made a Venezuelan Marxist so passionate about the Palestinian cause? How much of his motivation was vanity over ideology? Is terrorism at its core, a form of narcissism? In what way do nation states use terrorists for their own ends?

These are never fully answered but teased out for audiences to form their own perspective. A running theme seems to be that Carlos was both a practical tool used by various governments complicit in his activities (such as Iraq, Libya) but also a useful myth whose frequently botched acts were more about perception than reality.

This is contrasted with his own motivations, which often seems to be an egotistical individualism at odds with his professed solidarity to the global Marxist struggle.

As the film draws to a close and Carlos becomes like a faded rock star shunned from countries once sympathetic to him and his mystery actually deepens as the enigma fades.

Had he merely stopped serving a purpose after the Cold War ended? Or was it merely a matter of time running out and his crimes catching up with him? Was Carlos an individual who hijacked causes for his own egotistical ends?

The questions are tantalising and although after five and a half hours the audience might be expecting some answers, the film is satisfying precisely because it avoids lazy conclusions, almost reflecting the mysteries and myths that grew around the man himself.

The use of post-punk and new wave songs (especially Wire’s anthem Dot-Dash) provide bursts of energy throughout, whilst the lack of a conventional score infuses others with a raw sense of immediacy and tension.

A mammoth logistical undertaking compressing over thirty years of history into around 330 minutes, Carlos is also an absorbing portrait of a mythological figure, who seems to embody the unsettling mysteries and reality of terrorism.

More than just an accomplished historical biopic, it is also an essential drama about the times in which we live.

Carlos screened at the LFF on Saturday and Olivier Assayas gives a screen talk on Saturday 24th October

** The extended and abridged versions will both be released at UK cinemas on Friday 22nd October **

> Carlos at the LFF
> Carlos at the IMDb
> Pre-order Carlos on Blu-ray or DVD from Amazon UK