London Film Festival review - 50/50

Films about cancer aren’t usually much fun. And they are certainly never funny. 50/50 is something no-one ever expected to see and perhaps never wanted to – a cancer comedy. It’s also one of the best films of the year.

Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a health-conscious 27-year-old who suddenly receives a spinal cancer diagnosis. Everyone in his life reacts differently to the news. His best friend (Seth Rogan) urges him to use his newly found pity power to pick up chicks, his already emotionally distant girlfriend (Bryce Dallas Howard) becomes even more flaky, and his mother (Angelica Houston) desperately wants to take care of him. Adam himself is not sure how to deal with the situation, but knows that no-one’s strategy is helping. He is none-the-wiser after meeting with the hospital’s newest therapist (Anna Kendrick), a doctoral student who has read a lot of books but hasn’t quite got the knack of the therapeutic relationship.

Of course, as Adam goes through chemotherapy he starts to reassess his life and discovers what and who is important. This doesn’t happen in the usual sappy, soppy way we’re used to, but in a way that feels authentic. Humour is used as a defence mechanism just as in real life, and the surreal aspects of the disease, treatment and other people’s reactions produce some very funny moments. The authentic feel is not surprising – screenwriter Will Reiser based it on his own experiences of going through cancer with the help of his best friend Seth Rogan.

A great screenplay is elevated further by wonderful performances.  Joseph Gordon Levitt plays Adam in a very understated way, and is quietly outstanding.  Everything is going on inside the character but still shines through in a very naturalistic way. Seth Rogan is very funny as always, and Anna Kendrick, who so impressed in Up In the Air, gives an equally great performance here showing she can do comedy extremely well. Angelica Houston is excellent as the overbearing mother too.

The director Jonathan Levine has captured all this on film with a lovely little indie aesthetic. A rainy Seattle location and some perfectly chosen music really complement the story.

50/50 isn’t about someone bravely overcoming adversity, but about someone who suffers through some very scary times and learns a bit about other people and himself along the way. Treading the line between hilarious and heartbreaking beautifully, it is poignant but never sentimental.

Film review - Red State

As a mega mental fan of Kevin Smith’s View Askewniverse films, seeing Red State is a strange experience. It goes without saying that this is unlike any film he’s made before, but in many ways it is unlike any film anyone has made before.

The story begins with three desperate teenage boys answering an online ad by a woman willing to have a four-way. After some awkward small talk with the lady (Melissa Leo) and some drugged beers, they awake to find themselves held captive by a bizarre church which wants to punish them for their sins.

So far, so Hostel. But this isn’t another torture porn film per se, firstly because the violence isn’t the film’s raison d’être, and secondly because it soon becomes clear that no horror clichés will help you anticipate the plot. You see, this is a satirical message film about the loony Christian right, inspired by the kind of congregations that want to burn other people’s holy books just for the publicity – the kind of people who get followed around by Louis Theroux.

Melissa Leo enraptured

In this case, the church is led by Abin Cooper (Tarantino fave Michael Parks), a snarling, sneering, singing, sermon-ing (that should be a word) patriarch who has been holed up in the woods his whole life and doesn’t take kindly to our modern ways. He and his family believe we are reaching the end times. So when the Feds come calling (led by John Goodman), they are happy to pull a Waco and go to glory in a hail of bullets.

Red State’s genre shifting and strange plot trajectory make it an engrossing watch. The great performances help – Parks is a believable and charismatic monster, Leo is wonderfully stoic and creepy, and Goodman is at his deadpan best as a sad-sack ATF agent. Perhaps most impressive and surprising is Kerry Bishé as Cheyenne, the eldest of Abin’s grandchildren. Last seen in the ill-fated final series of Scrubs, Bishé is just radiant on screen. Confusion, fear and determination are alive in her eyes.

The violence is relentless but not over-the-top. Like the whole of the film, it is very 70s in aesthetic – lots of red blood on brown backgrounds. Photographed by long time collaborator David Klein, it really is Smith’s best looking film to date.

The writing confirms what all his fans know but which might have escaped some critics: Kevin Smith can be serious when he wants to be. But not for very long, as funny moments keep popping up Unsurprisingly the humour is a lot darker than in his other films – think The Wire rather than Walt Flanagan. Although there could have been some trimming (the sermon scene definitely goes on too long), this is interesting, thoughtful work.

Smith has stated that this will be his penultimate film, which is a shame. Worn down by the battering he received for Jersey Girl (a sweet film which was the victim of circumstance – though not a patch on the similarly themed Jack and Sarah) and Cop Out (which was just bad), he’s going to concentrate on his internet radio business and whatever else takes his fancy. With Red State he’s put these ghosts to bed and done himself proud, which I think was really the point.

Bad trailer alert - One Day

Anne Hathaway sure does a great job with that accent, don't cha think?

Bad trailer alert - Fright Night

Is this a comedy or a thriller? The marketing team can't make up its mind.

Film review - Super 8

Super 8 travels the satisfying “life lessons through adventure” path of Stand By Me and The Goonies. And while it might not quite live up to those classics, it is still a great kids’ film which is a little too scary for kids.

Joe (Joel Courtney), a troubled boy living in a small town is spending the summer holidays helping his best friend (Riley Griffiths) make a zombie short on the titular film stock. One night while filming with major crush Alice (Elle Fanning), the gang witnesses a horrific accident which is a lot more sinister than it first seems. As the military takes over the town and people begin to disappear, it is up to the friends to piece together the mystery and save the day.

Like Stand By Me, the film is set around 30 years before present. While this journey into the past is unnecessary, 1979 is obviously a year dripping with nostalgia for writer/director J.J. Abrams just as 1956 was for Stephen King. The main character is also recently bereaved and is distant from his father, like Gordie before him.

If the set up isn’t unique, the execution mostly makes up for it. By combining Abram’s knack for giant creatures (see Cloverfield) and characterisation (see Star Trek, but not Lost, which was dire) we get a, dare I say it, rollercoaster ride as the children come to the rescue. The performances are also great, particularly from Fanning who is just luminous on screen.

Sweet, funny and exciting, Super 8 is a well-told adventure that just falls short of amazing.        

Film review - Bridesmaids

When I saw the trailer for Bridesmaids, I thought it was just producer Judd Apatow’s answer to the accusations of mysogeny that followed Knocked Up. “Look, I can’t hate women – I’ve made a film showing them being just as stupid and gross as the men in my films.” Well, it’s so much more than that. The creation of SNL regular Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo, this is that rarest of things - a comedy about women that is genuinely hilarious and truthful.

The film follows Annie (Wiig), a single 30-something who is at a seriously low ebb. Her business has failed, she’s back to flat-sharing with randoms (including a strangely placed Matt Lucas), and she’s sleeping with a horrible hunk (the delicious Jon Hamm). When her best friend Lillian (Maya Rudolph) announces that she is getting married and wants her to be the maid of honour, Annie is forced to organise the wedding with a rag-tag group of bridesmaids, including alpha bitch Helen (Rose Byrne).

As the wedding plans and Annie’s sanity crumble, we are treated to some great set-pieces, including some classic gross-out moments. But there are lots of little exchanges that obviously stem from Wiig and Rudolph’s improvisational background which are even better.

The friendship between the two provides the main emotional story and feels very real. Perhaps the film could have been improved slightly by focusing more on that. The romance between Annie and the Irish cop (Chris O’Dowd from the IT Crowd) is totally adorable but a little too good to be true. Likewise the character of Megan (Melissa McCarthy), the oddest of the bridesmaids, is funny but feels forced – she’s too obviously a stand in for Zach Galifianakis in The Hangover.

Despite the distractions, this is a sweet, funny, uplifting and partially disgusting film which can be appreciated by more than just girls.

Film review - Submarine

All you need to know about the lovely Richard Ayoade’s debut feature is that if it had been American, the lead character would have been played by Michael Cera.

This coming of age film is mildly wacky, mildly funny, mildly moving, but extremely derivative. The only thing that differentiates it from 100 American indie films is that it is set in Wales.

Firstly, there’s Oliver (Craig Roberts) the main character – an intelligent but awkward teen trying to lose his virginity with a pretty, detached girl (Yasmin Paige). From this aspect the film reminds me most of 2009’s Youth in Revolt. As in that mess of a film, here the main character is extremely unlikeable.

Oliver spends most of his time staring wide-eyed at people, or in his room listening to French records and reading philosophy. This character is a fairly standard template in cinema, because lots of filmmakers liked listening to French records and reading philosophy in their teens, or at least like to think they did.

Oliver has an uncanny similarity to Bud Cort in the cult Harold and Maude, a film which taught Wes Anderson (and apparently in turn Ayoade) everything he knows. In Harold and Maude, the soundtrack was a collection of gently lilting songs made by Cat Stevens. In Submarine, Alex Turner from the hideous Arctic Monkeys picks up an acoustic guitar and has a go at being sensitive instead.

Of course, Oliver has troubles at home. His almost catatonic father (a mesmerising Noah Taylor) suffers from depression, and his mother (a much too young Sally Hawkins) has dowdy clothes and a bad haircut. Added to this, her old flame (Paddy Considine) has moved in next door. He’s a trendy twonk with a terrible mullet and a mid-Atlantic accent who works as a motivational speaker, offering people a chance to change their life through the power of light (so basically Patrick Swayze in Donnie Darko, then).

Just as coming of age films from the 70s were set in the 50s, so Submarine is set in the 80s. Not the real 80s, mind you, but the faux-80s of Napoleon Dynamite (basically today but without mobile phones). There aren’t any fun pop hits to set the scene, just a few odd outfits which wouldn’t seem out of place in any indie film set today. Annoyingly, one of the characters uses the phrase “it’s all good”, which would never have been said in Wales then.

Oliver walks around his depressing seaside town for most of the film – sometimes with the girl, sometimes thinking about the girl or his problem parents, but mostly thinking about himself. And maybe that’s the real problem. Oliver is selfish and doesn’t react how you would want him to react to the genuine dramas around him. If this was slightly wackier and played fully for laughs, maybe it would be ok, but it isn’t.

Submarine brings nothing new to the genre. It doesn’t innovate, and it certainly doesn’t impress. It’s nice that Ayoade was trying to make an interesting British film, but unfortunately he failed by simply copying the Americans.

Watch Harold and Maude instead.