Prisoners

Canadian director and screenwriter Denis Villeneuve’s first English language film Prisoners (2013) asks the question that has been put to audiences in various movies including Gone Baby Gone (2007) and Clint Eastwood’s Mystic River (2003). When is a crime not a crime, is it when you kidnap and torture or kill a suspected paedophile?

 

Happier times for the Dover family.

In a suburban street in Pennsylvania there’s a sinister RV parked. The Dover and Birch families have come together to celebrate Thanksgiving. When six year old Anna Dover and Joy Birch go missing along with the RV, a loner called Alex Jones (Paul Dano an actor that really does a believable ‘weird’) the driver of the vehicle is suspected of abducting them.  Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) arrests Jones but has to let him go for lack of evidence.  Ann’s father Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman) believes that the mentally defective Jones knows were the two girls are hidden and abducts and imprisoning him in a deserted block of apartments where he carry’s out a violent interrogation with the help of Joy’s father (Terrence Howard).  

Joy and Ann.

Villeneuve’s previous film Incendies (2010) was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The mystery/drama film follows the journey of twin brother and sister as they attempt to unravel the mystery of their mother’s life. This was an extremely powerful film with a most intriguing and complex narrative, almost like a detective story, a thriller or a Greek tragedy that revealed it’s hidden secrets gradually. This latest film is equally powerful and deals with another very emotive subject, the abduction of young children. Cinematographer Roger Deakins highlights the bleak nature of the films subject matter and its settings, evoking a mood of dread that never seems to let up. It stars a great ensemble cast with a stand out performances from Gyllenhaal as the twitchy buttoned up police officer pitting him self against the hot headed carpenter Dover. The cast also includes Viola Davis and Maria Bello as the distraught mothers and Melissa Leo as Holly Jones. Mr Villeneuve is beginning to build quite a reputation for strong adult cinema.

The suspect is questioned. 

Red State.

Poster

Kevin Smith who describes himself as a ‘fat masturbating stoner’ is an American screenwriter, actor, film producer, director, and a lot of other clever things besides, that I have managed to avoid, that is until now. Apparently his best-known film is Clerks (1994) that he wrote, directed and appeared in. His latest film, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2011, is Red State (2011). It’s a rather unsettling independent action-horror movie about a religious cult who interprets the world of God in there own particular fashion.  Basically there against any ‘unnatural sex’, what on earth is deemed unnatural sex? Well it’s any form of sex that is not carried out for the direct procreation of children. The movie starts when three horny pubescent teenagers respond to an online invitation for group sex with an older woman named Sara. On the way to their hotly anticipated date they sideswipe a parked car in which a second male is performing oral sex on the local Sherriff. When the boys eventually arrive at Sara’s caravan they don’t get their promised night of bliss instead there given spiked beer and when unconscious are transported to the local Church of the above-mentioned cult who are just about to murder an abducted homosexual.  I think my short description sets the tone for the movie!!!!

To be fair to Mr Smith and his actors the film is a level above the normal B-movie exploitation flick. The film stars the legionary actor and singer Michael Parks best known for his work with Quentin Tarantino including both the Kill Bill movies and the Grindhouse project. Parks plays Pastor Abin Cooper of the Five Points Trinity Church a character that is allegedly based on the real life American Pastor Fred Phelps who is the head honcho of the Westboro Baptist Church whose brief is built around a core of anti-homosexual theology and runs a website called 'God Hates Fags'. Parks 15 minute sermon scene is certainly a great piece of character acting and could easily turn the viewer into a complete religious nutcase – so beware!!!!!! Academy Award winning Melissa Leo (21 Grams 2003, Frozen River 2008, The Fighter 2010) plays the Pastors daughter Sara.  

Beware of those that sermonise?

A very dark streak of humour runs throughout the film as you can imagine and there a great climax that involves Federal agents lead by John Goodman that’s alleged to be inspired by the 1993 Waco siege.  It works best taken as a satire on the American far right. It’s a film that never lets you get comfortable.

Melissa Leo see's the light.

Kevin Smith’s speech at the Sundance Festival was very interesting, he explained that his movie, cost around four million dollars to make and under normal circumstances would cost another twenty million dollars, that’s five times the amount the film cost, to distribute and market. So the movie would have to earn twenty four million dollars before it recouped its money.  It was because of this that Smith and his producer Jonathan Gordon decided to buy the rights of the film for twenty dollars and release the film themselves involving no major studio and only the private punters that invested in the film in the first place. A road show was set up to tour the movie from city to city before its release on DVD and VOD. Apparently their action coursed a lot of controversy provoking a backlash from the media! Who pays the piper?

The Fighter

Micky Ward.

Despite its important role within British culture, sport has never been nearly as prominent in British movie’s as it has in Hollywood. We seem unable to produce a successful film about our national sport: football, I think The Arsenal Stadium Mystery  (1939) probably qualifies along with The Damned United (2009), and maybe Bend it Like Beckham (2002) or Fever Pitch (1997) or perhaps a drama loosely linked to the sport like Ken Loach’s Looking for Eric does? Admittedly there some very good British sports films including Lindsay Andersons This Sporting Life (1963) a story about Rugby League football which was based on the novel by a former professional rugby league footballer David Storey who also adapted the screen play which gave it a great deal of authenticity. Another is Chariots of Fire (1981) which tells the fact based story of two athletes in the 1924 Olympics, Eric Liddell, a devout Scottish Christian who runs for the glory of God and Harold Abrahams, an English Jew who runs to overcome prejudice. A film that was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won four including Best Picture.

When we look to America it would appear they include any number of sporting activities into movies. For example Pool: The Hustler (1961) and its follow up The Colour of Money (1986). Baseball: The Kevin Costner films Bull Durham (1988) and Field of Dreams (1989) Golf: Caddyshack (1980) and Tin Cup (1986) Horseracing: Seabiscuit (2003) Skiing and Bobsleigh: Downhill Racer (1969) and Cool Running (1993) Ice Hockey: The Paul Newman comedy Slap Shot (1977) National Football League: Blind Side (2009) for which Sandra Bullock won the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. Motor Racing: Days of Thunder (1990) and Le Mans (1971) starring Steve McQueen and considered to be the most historically realistic representation in the history of motor racing. Wrestling: Mickey Rourke won a BAFTA for Best Leading Actor in 2009’s The Wrestler. If we include bowling then what better film than the Coen Brothers masterpiece The Big Lebowski (1989). But I would warrant an opinion that the best sports films have involved boxing in the story line.

From drama to biopics, boxing has been a subject that movies lovers and critics alike seem to have a great affinity for. The movies are generally a metaphor for the social struggle and for life it self. The best known is probably Martin Scorsese’s ultra violent Raging Bull (1980) certainly one of the best pictures of the eighties. It’s a complex portrait of the self-hating world champion Jake La Motta, a role that brought an Oscar for Robert De Niro who put on weight to play the boxer in decline. The fights are said to be the most brutal ever filmed. This role matched De Niro’s brilliant portrayal of Travis Bickle in Scorsese’s Taxi Driver (1976) that has just been re-released and should be in the next RBC programme. Other great pugilistic masterpieces are Robert Rossen (The Hustler) 1947 Body and Soul; it starred John Garfield, one of the great actors of his generation as a corrupt fighter and uses boxing to indict capitalism and the distortions of the American dream. A lot of people connected with this film ended up on Hollywood anti-communist blacklist. Incidentally the fight scenes were shot on roller skates!  The Set-Up (1949) directed by Robert Wise (West Side Story Co-director (1961), The Sound of Music (1965)) has the great Robert Ryan as a washed up fighter trying to regain his self-respect while his manager has done a deal with some local gangster believing that he will lose his next fight Champion (1949) directed by Von Ryan’s Express (1965) director Mark Robson, it starred Kirk Douglas as an ambitious fighter mixed up with corruption.  Then of course we have Rocky (1976), which won three Oscars including best picture, and spawned five sequels.   Although there have been fewer boxing movies in recent years there have been some of note including Ali (2001) the biographical film, directed by Michael Mann, about the boxing icon Muhammad Ali from 1964 to 1974 including his capture of the heavyweight title from Sonny Liston and the George Foreman fight in 1974 documented in the film When We Were Kings (1996). Inspired by another real life fighter James J. Braddock Ron Howard directed Cinderella Man (2005) with Russell Crow playing the boxer. One of my own personnel favourite is Million Dollar Baby (2004) directed by and starring Clint Eastwood in the tale of a 32 year-old women determined to become a great boxer.  Which brings us to tonight’s film. 

Dicky Alice and Micky.

Directed by David O Russell (I Heart Huckabee’s (2004)) The Fighter (2010) is a biographical drama that centres on the life of professional welterweight “Irish” Micky Ward with all the ups and downs, and hopes and disappointments normally associated with a boxer’s life but mainly centres on his dysfunctional family. As well as Ward there’s his older half brother Dicky Eklund a crack head living off the memory of the night he floored Sugar Ray Leonard and now attempting to train his younger brother. There are also seven sisters and Micky's father but mother Alice dominates the family. Mark Wahlberg dedicated over four years of training to obtain the physique to convincingly play Ward. Christian Bale is the older brother another role he had to lose weight for as he did in The Machinist (2003) and Rescue Dawn (2007) but a role that won him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Melissa Leo, whose breakthrough film role was in the 2003 film 21 Grams and she was previously nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in the exceptional Frozen River (2008), plays Alice, mother to both fighters and the seven sisters. She collected an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for this role. Amy Adams (Junebug 2005, Doubt 2008) plays Micky Wards love interest, a tough sexy bar maid who’s not afraid to stand up to Alice.  Time Warner Sports Illustrated dubbed the film ‘the best sports movie of the decade’ while Philip French described this as an ‘actors film’.

It certainly was an actor’s film with great performances from every one involved; Christian Bale and Melissa Leo deserved their Oscars for Best Supporting Actor and Actress respectively but the greatest revelation was Mark Wahlberg, whose early private life must of helped in what is his best performance to date other than possibly The Departed (2006). I was not sure if the title of the film referred to the boxing or the in-fighting within the family something that set this film apart from other movies in the same genre. But the highlight for me had to be the fight scenes, beautifully choreographed and shoot, wonderfully exciting completely mesmerising this viewer who was very nearly shouting verbal support for Ward during the screening. I can honestly say this was a very enjoyable evenings entertainment made even better by a slice of delicious chocolate cake!