DREAMSCAPE BLU-RAY review

Don't pay too much attention to the cheeky box art that makes this look like an Indiana Jones clone; apart from being made in the 1980s and co-starring Kate Capshaw, it has literally nothing else in common with those films. Venturing into worlds created in other people's dreams, the most obvious comparison would be to Christopher Nolan's Inception, but there's a ton of other influences to include when talking about this film, including Alan J. Pakula's conspiracy thriller The Parallax View, Stephen King's pulpier novels and Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street. There's no bones about it, Dreamscape is a very peculiar film.

Dennis Quaid (in an early lead role) plays Alex Gardner, a young man with psychic abilities but with no outlet to use them except for winning at the race track. When he is approached by a research facility hoping to unlock the secrets of its patients dreams, Alex becomes a reluctant contributor, but things take a turn for the sinister when Christopher Plummer's government agent sees their research as a way of controlling the President after he starts to have nightmares about a nuclear holocaust.

There's a lot to love about Dreamscape, and not all ironically. As well as some genuinely interesting sci-fi elements and ethical dilemmas, this film has an abundance of kitsch charm to offer, such as casting Cheers' Norm (George Wendt) as a Stephen King-esque author who unwittingly stumbles upon the dark government plot when researching his new book; Maurice (father of Jean-Michel) Jarre's banging soundtrack and the trippy, psychedelic dreamscape effects that although dated, still pack a punch and look great on blu-ray.

One of its aces is the strong cast, supplied by frequent David Lynch casting agent Johanna Ray, which  explains why future Twin Peaks supporting players Chris Mulkey and David Patrick Kelly appear here. Dennis Quaid puts in a solid performance in his first starring role, which when you consider his co-stars are Max Von Sydow and Christopher Plummer is no easy task. Getting the raw end of the deal is Kate Capshaw, who as Von Sydow's second in command is given little to do except serve as Quaid's love interest.

The best thing Dreamscape has going for it is it's captivating visuals. Connecting brainwaves and entering other people's minds you immediately think of Christopher Nolan's Inception, but rather than the steely, cold world his film portrayed, Dreamscape is all about colour. Although some of the dream journeys Gardner takes are played for laughs (like a hen-pecked husband who dreams of his wife having an affair with his brother) and resemble Bill and Ted's scramble through their cartoony darkest fears in Bogus Journey, others take cues and hues from A Nightmare on Elm Street by creating deep red, shadowy worlds. Even David Patrick Kelly's unhinged psychic psycho has a Freddy Krueger-esque quality to him, to the point where he even uses razor fingers to attack someone.

It's worth noting that Dreamscape co-writer Chuck Russell's first film as director was A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, a film considered by many to be the high point of the sequels and with similarly visually inventive dream scenarios, and it would be unfair not to state that Dreamscape pre-dates Freddy Krueger's debut in cinemas by a couple of months so any similarities must have fittingly been made subconsciously. With its identical scenario of killing people within their dreams to kill them in real life, it seems 1984 was not a good year to try and get a good night's sleep.

Although not the grand conspiracy thriller it aspires to be, Dreamscape has a great cast and excels at creating visually arresting worlds that still hold up 30 years later.

Verdict
3.5/5

Bonus Features include:

The Actor's Journey - A new interview with Dennis Quaid about his time making the film
Dreamscapes and Dreammakers - A look back including interviews with the director Joseph Ruben and co-star David Patrick Kelly
Nightmares and Dreamsnakes - looking at the creation of the Snakeman costume
Snakeman test footage
Stills Gallery
Trailer

NERUDA DVD review

From acclaimed director Pablo Larrain, Neruda is out now on DVD, Blu-ray and digital.

After opposing the new President in post-war Chile, eccentric poet and politician Pablo Neruda (Luis Gnecco) is forced into exile for his communist views, taking refuge whilst planning his escape from the country with Gael Garcia Bernal's police chief Oscar Peluchonneau hot on his trail. During this time Neruda enlists the help of his supporters to continue to spread his work, with Peluchonneau revealing scandalous details of his personal life in an attempt to discredit him.

The sixth film from Pablo Larrain (and third in two years), if his English language debut Jackie was your first exposure to his work as a filmmaker, Neruda is a solid introduction to his Spanish language films (see also, No and Tony Manero). Larrain's films have always erred on the political side, with most of his work studying the varying impact the Pinochet regime had on his home country of Chile. Neruda is no different, showing how the opposing sides in this cat and mouse game used propaganda to support their own ideologies and political beliefs.

Like Jackie, this is not a complete life story of the title character but more of a snapshot of their life during a time that would come to define them. It lacks the emotional connection that Jackie had, largely down to that film's Oscar worthy central performance of Natalie Portman. That's not to say the performances in Neruda are bad, but they are not as captivating as Portman, but then, not many things are. Larrain's direction is solid, with the story moving at such a pace that it rarely stays in one location for more than one scene; but this does make it dizzying at times, adding to a sense of disconnect as the film purposely never reconciles which of its two central leads we should be behind. You would think Gael Garcia Bernal's fascist officer of the state would be the nominal villain, but this story is never as clean cut as that. Pompous and acutely aware of the power of his celebrity, Gnecco's Neruda is far from the figurehead the uprising would want him to be.

It paints a bleak landscape for Neruda to occupy, but what the film lacks is any real dramatic tension in his pursuit. This could have been the compelling backbone to the film that acts as the driving force for the narrative, but The Fugitive this is not. It's a shame that as a necessity of the story Gnecco and Bernal do not share the screen more, for as representatives of opposing forces using similar methods to spread their word, they make for interesting counterpoints.

Never sure of what is truth, what is fiction and what lies somewhere in between, this is a film about the power of the word and as such suffers somewhat as a cinematic experience. Having said that, there is a level of playfulness with the form (Larrain's use of rear projection during the driving scenes is befitting with the era, if not a little jarring to see), and for those who are looking to expand their knowledge of the films of Pablo Larrain, this unconventional biopic is a great example of what he is capable of.

Verdict
3.5/5

SUNDANCE LONDON 2017

Bringing together a collection of films that impressed at Utah's finest film festival earlier this year, Sundance London is like a greatest hits version of the main festival, with the cream of the crop skimmed off and flown over the Atlantic. Sure, you miss out on a lot of the aspects that Sundance is known for, like oversized scarves and frostbite, but I'm okay with that. Plus, the whole event takes place at Picturehouse Central, which is definitely up there with the most beautiful cinemas in the country. I had arranged for myself a fairly meaty schedule of 11 films over 3 days, including a mammoth 5 films on the Saturday that would necessitate me skipping direct sunlight for the day. Sunavoidance, if you like.

The first film on my schedule was Marianna Palka's Bitch, about a married woman who de-evolves into a feral state when her life becomes too much of a dull routine. Directed by and starring Marianna Palka who also gave us Good Dick (it's hard to avoid innuendos when talking about her films), this film sees her re-unite with Good Dick co-star Jason Ritter, here starring as a boorish, unappreciative husband who finds his traditional gender role challenged when left to do all the things he took for granted. Like a 21st century Mr Mom, it's a much more absurdist, out there concept that misses the frission that the central relationship in Good Dick had, but was fun in a slightly Twilight Zone kind of way. Adding to that feeling was disorientation was the knowledge that Palka was seated directly behind me throughout the screening waiting for her Q&A, which doesn't half put you on edge when you're trying to critically appraise someone's film.

Continuing the Twilight Zone theme, next up was Marjorie Prime, a very thought provoking drama that wouldn't be out of place if it were an episode of Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror. Using holographic projections of lost loved ones to help people engage their minds and hopefully gain closure on events that have shaped their lives, it's an often sad drama about ageing and the fragility of memory that is set in one of those magnificent glass fronted beach house properties that you only see in films. Films about technology can come across as cold and sterile and Marjorie Prime is no exception, with the film's clear origins as a stage play adding to that disconnect. Still, it succeeds in its storytelling techniques, painting vivid pictures as it tries to evoke memories, with deliberately reserved performances from Geena Davis, Jon Hamm helped in no small part from a score co-produced by Under The Skin's Mica Levi.

Ending the first day of Sundance London was the surprise film, that through some clever reasoning I had narrowed down to two possibilities, Band Aid and Patti Cakes. Seated in the cinema waiting for the film to start, it turned out that my reasoning was sound as one of the off duty volunteers casually turned to me and told me what film it was going to be minutes before the credits began. Bearing in mind that I had never spoken to this guy before in my life, I chose to take his eagerness to share this information as a sign that the film was going to be a good one. And that it was.

Following the fortunes of wannabe rapper, Patricia "Killa P" Dombrovski, Patti Cakes is easily one of my favourites of the festival, and like The Greasy Strangler from last year's festival, it's one of those films that you want to help spread the word of as far and wide as possible. Desperate to free herself from the dead end job in a dive bar she has to help support her train wreck of a mother, Patti (Danielle Macdonald) yearns to follow her real passion in life, spitting rhymes with her best friend Jheri (Siddharth Dhananjay). Forced to endure cruel taunts about her weight all her life (Dumbo and White Precious spring to mind), Patti engages in street corner rap battles that leave her victorious but with her nose bloodied. Desperate to make something with her life, she teams up with the musical wunderkind Basterd the Anarchist Anti-Christ, Jheri and her Nana to create a new sound that will rock the New Jersey suburbs. The bratty little sister of School of Rock and 8 Mile, it's impossible not to get swept up in a film as joyously eccentric as this. The film is getting a release from Fox Searchlight, and has enough charm that it has the real potential to become a crossover hit.

Onto Saturday, where I knew I would be seeing two films featuring the up and coming Lakeith Stanfield, who impressed in Short Term 12 and had a memorably hazy supporting role in Donald Glover's Atlanta. The first of his appearances today was in Crown Heights, winner of the Dramatic Award at Sundance. Now set to be released by Amazon Studios, Stanfield stars as Colin Warner, a man wrongfully convicted of murder in 1980 and forced to spend many years behind bars despite protesting his innocence.

I did have a couple of issues with the film, such as the repeated image of dejected phone calls between Colin and his friends on the outside bearing that most annoying of movie traits, no one saying goodbye before hanging up the phone. It sounds trivial (and it is), but there's so many interactions that end this way it becomes almost comical.

There are clear political connotations to his incarceration and the film shows us soundbites from Presidents Reagan, Bush and Clinton about their methods of combatting crime. What is missing from the film, particularly in a year when we have films like Ava DuVernay's 13th that highlight the issue, is an emphasis on how this is a reflection on Colin Warner being a black man, rather than an innocent man. The director made clear in his Q&A after the film that Warner's innocence was his focus, but it's hard to shake the feeling that a more pertinent story was there to be told. Stanfield's performance should be commended for its understated nature, as he believably embodies a man frustrated by a justice system that cannot provide justice for him.

The next film on the agenda was Walking Out, a modern day telling of a classic Montana short story, seemingly designed to teach the locals about respecting their unique habitat. Directed by twins Andrew and Alex Smith, the film stars Matt Bomer as a father trying to reconnect with his son by taking him on a hunting trip similar to the one his father took him on at the age of 14. I'll be honest that this was not a film I was expecting much from, but was pleasantly surprised by how moving it turned out to be. Once you have looked past Matt Bomer's impossible good looks to believe him as a man that lives near a mountain (he's like a supermodel cowboy), the film ventures out into the snowy wilderness to tell a story of father/son bonding that often rivals The Revenant for a bleak outlook on nature's will. I think it's best to go into this film knowing as little as possible, but let's just say that snow hits the fan and the pair are forced into a situation that they will have to fight to overcome. It's a solid performance from Bomer, but the bulk of the praise should go to his on-screen son Josh Wiggins, who often has to literally carry the story along.

The highlight of Saturday's line-up was a talk with director David Lowery ahead of the screening of his film Ain't Them Bodies Saints and the Sunday night screening of his new film, A Ghost Story, both starring Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck. Chaired by Empire Magazine's editor Terri White (who, it turns out, has excellent fashion sense), Lowery revealed how his career as a writer, director and editor has taken shape, starting with camcorder ghost stories he would film with his brothers to his time working on an excellently titled reality TV programme, Divorce Party. Deciding not to go to film school, his first script went through the Sundance Labs and although not making it all the way to completion, he decided he liked it enough to make it into his first feature film, Lullaby.

It was an honest and revealing chat, and Lowery was upfront about his cinematic influences (PTA and David Gordon Green rather than the often compared to Terrence Malick) and his move into the studio system when directing last year's Pete's Dragon, whilst also dropping into conversation at least twice that he was a vegan. This talk was followed by a screening of Ain't Them Bodies Saints which, although I have seen previously, got me really excited for what Sunday night's A Ghost Story might bring.

One thing that was apparent at this festival was the rise of the streaming giants, Netflix and Amazon, as major purchasers and distributors of content from Sundance. There were at least two films I saw with the Amazon Studios tag at the start, and one for Netflix; Saturday night's film, The Incredible Jessica James. The second of the day's films to feature LaKeith Stanfield (although in a much smaller role that Crown Heights), The Incredible Jessica James stars The Daily Show's Jessica Williams in the title role of a lively and spirited children's theatre teacher.

Now, there's certain things you expect from a Sundance film. Often they are weighty dramas that will become major players in awards season; often they are edgy comedies that may never be seen outside the walls of the festival. It's fair to say that The Incredible Jessica James defied expectations as this was one of the most straight forward but "subversive" romantic comedies I've seen in years, best described as Kimmy Schmidt meets Fleabag.

A bizarre blend of naughty language and inspirational life lessons for children, the film utilises fantasy scenarios for Jessica to make sense of her love life and her desire to reunite with her ex Damon (Stanfield) whilst also embarking on a new romance with recent divorcee Boone (a charming Chris O'Dowd). Now, I know I was just giving the film a kicking for being somewhat conventional, but it's perhaps a shame that the film wasn't just a straight romance between Williams and O'Dowd as they share undeniable chemistry together. It's just a shame there wasn't more of that and less of the children's theatre segments that portray Jessica James as an emotionally selfish brat, as it became incredibly difficult to reconcile the character's many foibles with the strong, forthright woman she was meant to be.

It was certainly well appreciated by most of the audience who got a lot of laughs from the film and Williams is someone who when given the right vehicle will be a major star, but personally it felt like less of a film and more of an extended pilot for a potential sitcom about life for a kooky MPDG in the big city, which given that Netflix already has Kimmy Schmidt is unlikely to happen.

Onto the last film of Saturday night going into Sunday morning, the second film of the day after The Incredible Jessica James to be set in the New York neighbourhood of Bushwick was the appropriately titled Bushwick. Knowing that the basic premise was "huge former wrestler battles terrorists" I was prepared for some midnight movie madness, introduced by the director as "a fucked up movie about New York on fire". Starring Brittany Snow (not a former wrestler) and Dave Bautista (a former wrestler), Bushwick sees Snow's Lucy team up with janitor and ex-special forces Stupe (Bautista) to make their way across town safely when an army of domestic terrorists descend on the borough and try to take it over.

Essentially Under Siege versus Cloverfield, like the latter film Bushwick is made up of series of long tracking shots blended together to appear like one long take. Well, mostly, as occasionally the film decides to ditch the gimmick for no apparent reason, only to return to it later. It's important to note that the handheld footage is not captured by a character's camera, but instead is a floating voyeur zooming in to collect gory detail when it's on offer. Before his rise to cinematic fame in the Guardians of the Galaxy films, Bautista had followed a number of ex-wrestlers into the slightly ropey, direct-to-video action genre. It's fair to say that Bushwick is of a higher calibre than those films, but only just. With its often ridiculous levels of violence and social commentary that will have you questioning whether the film is anti-military or pro-gun violence, its high concept will appeal to gamers and midnight movie fans alike.

After the screening of the film the Q&A was understandably cancelled due to the horrific attack that occurred on London Bridge and Borough Market. I most certainly don't want to make light of the tragic events that occurred in London on that night, but exiting a cinema into Piccadilly Circus and seeing the confusion on people's faces was a surreal experience I hope I never have to repeat.

Returning to Picturehouse Central on Sunday morning, it goes without saying that the mood was slightly different than it was the day before, but it was encouraging to see that an effort was being made by the city to carry on as usual. The first film of the day was  Beatriz at Dinner, a replay of the film that had opened the festival on Thursday night with a gala screening with star Salma Hayek in attendance. The story of masseuse Beatriz, who when her car breaks down is invited to have dinner with the upper middle class couple she knows, is a masterwork of social trauma that sees Hayek's spiritual character face off against a man who embodies everything she hates.

Miguel Arteta and Mike White excel at awkward social situations, although since their introductory film Chuck and Buck they have mostly played this for laughs; Youth in Revolt and Cedar Rapids spring to mind. Here, the tone has once again shifted darker; wholly appropriate considering the themes that are targeted here. Apart from Beatriz, the most central figure to this story is John Lithgow's hotel magnate Doug Strutt, a power hungry megalomaniac who, after asking Beatriz where she is from, sees no social boundaries in following up with, "where are you really from?".

Although White and Arteta have claimed that Donald Trump was not the target of the film (they were satirising the social set that holidaying dentists turned hunters were borne from), following his election this film has taken on a new meaning and a deeper resonance. Lithgow has always excelled at playing arch villains, but his Strutt is much more insidious man. Self aware whilst also being completely deluded, he boasts "I have opinions and because I have money people listen". It's a barnstorming performance from Lithgow that will enrage anyone who veers slightly to the left in the current political climate. This is a film about activism; about not sitting politely at the party while others openly mock your beliefs. It's a powerful and thought provoking film, and one that with any justice will earn Hayek some attention when awards season comes around.

The second film of my Sunday schedule was Michael Showalter's highly anticipated The Big Sick, starring Silicon Valley's Kumail Nanjiani and Ruby Sparks' Zoe Kazan. I'll prefix this review with the fact that I am a huge fan of Kazan's work, and despite being a self-confessed Manic Pixie Dream Girl apologist I thought her dissection of the character trope in Ruby Sparks was damn near spot on. Ditto the work of Michael Showalter who was one of the masterminds behind Wet Hot American Summer and its Netflix revival series, and who had recently found his dramatic layers in the Sally Field starring Hello, My Name is Doris and the excellent Alia Shawkat series Search Party.

I had avoided reading too much about this film as possible, including what the title was actually referring to, but knew this was based on Nanjiani's real life experience of meeting his wife Emily V. Gordon and the pressures of entering a relationship that was against what was expected from his family.

Nanjiani (playing a lightly fictionalised version of himself) is Kumail, an Uber driver who is pursuing a career in stand-up comedy and hoping to secure a place at the Montreal Comedy Festival. After being heckled by Emily (Kazan) at a gig they embark on a relationship that has everything either of them ever wanted, with the added wrinkle that his family assume he will accept an arranged marriage with one of the endless beautiful young Pakistani women his mother awkwardly invites around for dinner. It's refreshing to see a culture clash relationship so complex and conflicted, but it's important to make sure an appropriate amount of the kudos goes to Holly Hunter and Ray Romano as Emily's parents. It's hard to think of a film where the relationship with the potential future in laws is the most important aspect, but this is a film that values family connections more than even the Fast and Furious franchise.

It's been proven time and time again that the romantic comedy genre is able to inject some new and refreshing ideas, and The Big Sick is a perfect example of that. Yes, there's a formula that it follows to a certain degree, but as an immigrants story and a love story it works. It may be helped by the knowledge that it's based on his real life, but Nanjiani is an appealing presence on screen whose worldview is one that will hopefully find a wide audience.

The final film of the day and of the festival was also the most highly anticipated, especially after the Q&A from the day before; David Lowery's A Ghost Story. Again, this is a film that I knew little about going in except for the information I got from the poster and the basic synopsis of Casey Affleck dying and returning to the house he shared with Rooney Mara as a ghost under a white sheet. Shot in Academy ratio (a square format that resembles an old slide), the basic set up is one that immediately piqued my interest, and seeing Lowery re-team with Mara and the controversial figure of Affleck made this a must see.

The most immediately striking thing about the film is how subdued and elegantly haunting it is. I assumed that the depiction of the sheet ghost would be played with a modicum of humour, but in the context of the film it is not at all, instead conjuring an image that is instantaneously recognisable to anyone and providing a story (a life story) that will have audiences questioning everything they know about time, space, death and everlasting love. Lowery must have been well aware of what an audacious idea this was, but he has managed to avoid any of the possible pitfalls of embarking on such a risky project and delivered a meditative piece that is both formally creative and incredibly touching. If you want a film that has an extended scene where Mara devours an entire pie with Affleck's sheet ghost looking on, and for it to be entirely captivating, look no further.

And so my extremely hectic weekend at Sundance London drew to a close, with a whole barrage of thought provoking cinema and some stand out future classics mixed in too. There were a whole host of other films I wasn't able to see that I'll be checking out when possible, such as the Woody Harrelson comedy Wilson, the documentary Dina, about an autistic married couple and Icarus, the doping scandal documentary that took home the audience award people were voting for across the weekend. Of the films I saw, I'll be posting more in depth reviews of my favourites over the next few weeks, so please keep an eye out for those.

Sundance London, I'll see you again next year.

IT WAS FIFTY YEARS AGO TODAY! THE BEATLES: SGT. PEPPER AND BEYOND review

Cannily arriving just in time to tie in with the anniversary of the release of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, It Was Fifty Years Ago Today! The Beatles: Sgt. Pepper and Beyond is now in cinemas.

 

As proven by Ron Howard's excellent 8 Days A Week documentary from last year, nostalgia around The Beatles is at an all time high, and given that Ron Howard's doc had such a purposely abrupt conclusion and there's such a wealth of footage available from the time, creating a documentary using archive footage should give you a variety of options. Well, unless you've got rights issues, of course.

Picking up at approximately the point where Ron Howard's doc left off, with the band shifting focus away from being a constantly touring entity, "Fifty Years Ago..." shifts its focus away from the band's impact in the US back to the UK, and their move from family friendly mop top image into the psychedelic moustachioed stage. It was during this time that the band pursued other interests, like spending time with the Maharishi and taking LSD, before coming back together for the album that would become Sgt. Pepper.

If this new documentary should be commended for one thing, it's the ability to make it at least 20 minutes in before you realise something is quite amiss. Perhaps coasting that far through by riding on the high left over from Howard's documentary, the filmmakers have set themselves up for a fall by failing to get access to those most important of cultural artefacts; namely any images or music associated with the Sgt. Pepper's album. Given that this is billed as a study of the creation of that album, you'd think that would be an integral component.

The omission could almost be forgiven if that talking heads were of a higher quality, and this film relies on a never-ending stream of anecdotes from people who were there on the periphery at the time, like their official biographer and John Lennon's sister. All of the gossipy stories are delivered in a flat and lifeless fashion and are of the "I probably shouldn't say this, but..." variety, including one completely scandalous statement about Brian Epstein that will surely have his family's lawyers on the phone. It's hard to shake the feeling that these stories have been told a thousand times before in some dark, cavernous pub in Liverpool.

The film is not with completely without merit and the footage of The Beatles ascending the stairs of Abbey Road is great to see, but "Fifty Years Ago..." has failed to make itself as crucial an experience as Howard's rabble rousing doc. Apart from having a similarly unwieldy title, the films are more chalk and cheese than they are Lennon and McCartney.

Aimed at an audience who are established Beatles fans, perhaps of a particular age who look back on this time fondly, it will certainly find its admirers. But a documentary about an album that contains none of the music from that album cannot be anything but a bit of a duff.

Verdict
2/5

MISSION CONTROL: THE UNSUNG HEROES OF APOLLO review

Neil Armstrong may have been the first man on the Moon, but it goes without saying that he didn't get there by himself. Now in cinemas and on VOD, Mission Control: The Unsung Heroes of Apollo looks at the efforts of the team that helped define the space program through the Apollo missions.

When Kennedy set the challenge of exploring space and putting a man on the Moon before the end of the 60s, the Apollo program was born. Based in Houston Texas, Mission Control consisted of 17 men with an average age of 30, charged with monitoring each flight and its diagnostics. These engineers and flight controllers were faced with achieving something that had never been done before; finding a way to safely get a man to the moon and back again, and perhaps politically most important; beating their opponents to it.

With Hidden Figures also hitting cinema screens this year, perhaps 50 years on it's a good time to reaffirm what an amazing feat the people of NASA were able to achieve. Unlike Hidden Figures, this documentary does not tell an important story of race or gender, but has more than its fair share of triumph over adversity, although in comparing the two as pieces of cinema this does come off the worst. Never mind In The Shadow of the Moon, try existing in the shadow of Hidden Figures. The tale of Katherine Johnson and the Project Mercury flights (the flights are briefly covered here) is a hard act to follow, and it's hard not to notice that the not as insidiously hidden figures here are predominantly white men in short sleeved white shirts with buzz cuts. They're all Kevin Costner's.

However, as crowd-pleasing a film Hidden Figures was, that should not diminish the inspiring story of the Apollo missions, the achievements they made and tragedies this team had to face. After a tragic fire on Apollo 1 took the lives of three astronauts, one member of the team looks back and says "I think we killed those three men. It's almost murder". For a team who are supposed to be scientists and mathematicians taking a bold step into the unknown, that's some heavy guilt to deal with.

By using modern day interviews with an encouragingly large number of the team involved, this documentary follows the risks and planning of each Apollo mission from 1 to 13 (the dramatic conclusion of Apollo 13 serving as this films best example of the team at work), using the large amount of archive footage available to tell the story. Maths and looking at monitors isn't the most cinematic of things, but this doc does a fine job of recreating the tension that came along with such events by using a wealth of footage from within mission control, as well as the exhilarating images of the launch pad. Less effective are the shots recreated with CGI, as having been thoroughly convinced of the scale of their achievements via the interviews, there is really no need to fake the moon landings.

Due to the number of contributors there's no one central figure to focus on, something that helped make the Gene Cernan (who is one of the talking heads here) documentary The Last Man on the Moon such a joy. But there are a great array of characters in Mission Control: The Unsung Heroes of Apollo that speak of their passion for discovery and help make this an interesting and inspiring story.

Verdict
3/5

SWISS ARMY MAN DVD review

Easily one of my favourite films of last year, out now on DVD and Blu-ray is the tale of Hank and Manny embarking on a story of friendship, love and hope whilst trapped alone on an island.

Paul Dano stars as Hank, a man stranded on an island and close to suicide when farting corpse Manny (Daniel Radcliffe) washes up on shore, quickly realising that he may be his only hope of survival and escape from the island. From directing duo Daniels (whose background is in left of field TV comedies like Children's Hospital and NTSF:SD:SUV, and yes, they're both called Daniel), Swiss Army Man could quite easily have been little more than Weekend at Bernies meets Cast Away. Both excellent films in their own special way, but thankfully this is neither as slapstick as Bernies nor as isolated as Cast Away. The film, largely a two hander between Dano and Radcliffe's beached boys, is full of invention, and a bizarre and unique idea that pays off massively.

I'm not one who's easily amused by fart jokes, and although it's understandable why Swiss Army Man has become known as the farting corpse movie, it's much more. So much more. Despite delivering a number of fantastic performances in recent years, it hasn't been the easiest of tasks for Daniel Radcliffe to free himself from the shackles of the boy wizard. Well, nothing announces yourself as a fearless actor more than appearing in a film that features a close up of your hairy arse crack and an erection that doubles up as a compass.

Rather than just emitting bodily gas, Hank soon learns that Manny is able to provide him with everything he needs to survive; drinking water, chopping tools, and eventually conversation, as he starts to relearn the ability to talk. Showing himself to be a highly talented comic actor, as Radcliffe's Manny regains sentience and a boyish innocence to romance and the world, his ability to deliver a one-liner that would be a social faux pas in polite company is both hilarious and signifying of the burgeoning bond between himself and Hank.

Dano is one of the most talented actors working in independent cinema today with a near impeccable taste in projects; however, it appears that he is well aware of his typecasting as the lonely, hopeless romantic type, and Swiss Army Man both plays to and subverts that image. Hank is in love with a woman he rides the bus with every day, and it is the exploration of his relationship with her that provides an introspective commentary between himself and Manny that helps solidify their bond.

A story of the power of friendship and what it means to be alive, together Hank and Manny create a makeshift world from trash, recreating scenes from Hank's life that allow him the chance to do things differently this time. In this respect the film taps into a Gondry-esque charm, recalling the creativity of Be Kind Rewind along with the emotional introspection of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. This approach also applies to the soundtrack which largely consists of a vocal chorus, provided by Andy Hull from Manchester Orchestra. It's dreamlike and ethereal and unexpectedly touching.

Based on its synopsis alone, it is understandable why audiences may be sceptical, but they needn't be. Paul Dano is dependable as ever and Daniel Radcliffe provides what is undoubtedly one of the bravest performances I've ever seen. Surprisingly deep and introspective, Swiss Army Man is a philosophical, funny and flatulent delight that deserves to be talked about as one of the greatest films of the year.

Verdict

5/5

ALL THIS PANIC review

Following a group of young women as they make the important decisions that will impact the rest of their lives, the vibrant and moving documentary All This Panic is out now.

Beginning with a scene of teenagers riding around on bikes, you could be forgiven for thinking you've seen this story before; and although there is a Spike Jonze/Mike Mills-esque "kids found in a skate park" vibe to the film, there so much more to it. Not an expose designed to shock parents, these New Yorkers manage to steer clear of Larry Clark's Kids territory and are much more on a par with the subjects of American Teen, although this film covers little of their collegiate life and is more focused on their familial relationships and friendships. They are both caught in a race to see who can be the most grown up first and feeling like they need more time to grow up. Fighting against the current and with the fear of being left behind, they embark on impossibly sweet first romances, figure out their identities (both sexual and societal) and have existential crises. It feels like a real life Lena Dunham story, as if the characters in Girls had a documentary prequel.

Filmed over three years as their lives undergo drastic changes and make huge choices, the girls we meet at the start of the film are hugely different to the young women we know at the end. There is a lack of outsiders in the film, instead choosing to focus on a group of friends with similar backgrounds. All of these young women have had a largely upper middle class upbringing, surrounded by their friends with top schooling and the freedom to explore many avenues, but it's the disparity between them that provides the most interest.

Although it is an ensemble featuring many interesting paths, Lena and Ginger dominate the story, largely due to them being the first subjects director Jenny Gage followed and best friends who go in diametrically opposed directions. Lena starts the film as an impossibly awkward teenager who throws a party for her friends with beer and cute little cupcakes, musing on her all so short life with statements full of naivety and confidence, like "for a long time I thought I'd be a philosophy professor, and for a long time before that I thought I'd be an actor". However, they've seen enough teen dramas to know that life doesn't always follow the best laid plans, and it's a joy to follow her progress as she blossoms into an incredibly strong and independent young woman.

Ginger is slightly more of a hellraiser; an outspoken and resolute firebrand who accuses her younger sister Dusty of "pretending you're Margot Tenenbaum", completely oblivious to the fact that with her own secret romances, artistic leanings and droll outlook on life that she's such a Margot Tenenbaum. Her path is very different to her friends', seeing the supposed four year journey through college as more time for self growth and to figure out who she wants to be. Her younger sister Dusty is one of the less explored characters in the film, but has a really interesting arc. Seemingly more emotionally together and grown up than her older sister, she is observing and learning from her mistakes in a way that only those with an older sibling can.

It's a beautiful, bohemian New York where the sun beams down constantly despite taking place over many seasons, and with such growth over a short period of time it feels as if it has an almost unreal and dreamlike narrative that could have been constructed. But, shot handheld and free as if director Jenny Gage and DP Tom Betterton were class friends on the same journey, there's a real intimacy and honesty on show that you can't fake.

The title suggests advice a parent would state to their teenage daughter after a dramatic conflict. "All this panic, and what's to show for it?" In this case, it's a thoroughly engaging coming of age story.

All This Panic is in cinemas and on VOD now.

Verdict
5/5

THE EYES OF MY MOTHER review

In cinemas from Friday 24th March is Nicolas Pesce's beautiful and disturbing horror, The Eyes of My Mother.

"Everything we see passes through here" says a mother to her young daughter as they dissect a cows eyeball at the start of this film. A surgeon in her home country of Portugal, she is now living in small town America with her husband and daughter, Francisca. When a seemingly kind and well mannered stranger called Charlie approaches the house, this film shows the level of tension that can be induced by being both eerily still and sinister at the same time.

Presented in black and white, The Eyes of My Mother is a startlingly atmospheric film that is both grisly and gorgeous, and one that is deeply unsettling in its ability to shock whilst showing you very little. By stripping the film of a normal colour palette, your brain is required to fill in the blanks and left to imagine what colours are being cleaned off the kitchen floor. And that is among the film's greatest strengths; the ability to play on the audience's fear of the unknown, refusing to conform to traditional horror expectations. Just as you think a character is about to see their end, the film cuts away to the aftermath. It also plays on some basic human fears, such as eye trauma (especially eye trauma) and the danger of picking up a stranger in your car. Add to that the perceived mundanity of Francisca's life as she cares for her father, and there are many factors that the audience may find disconcertingly familiar.

Separated into chapters (I. Mother. II. Father III. Family) that see Francisca at different times of her life, there are prolonged periods of silence interspersed with distant hums in the background, as if someone is playing music in a room at the end of a long, dark corridor. The passage of time is fluid and able to jump forward, leaving you to ponder the consequences that have befallen some of the less fortunate characters.

Often drenched in darkness both figuratively and literally, the extent of the trauma Francisca is able to inflict is slowly revealed and is utterly horrific in nature, from a place that will linger in the mind of the audience for a long time. As played by Kika Magalhaes, Francisca appears to be a quiet, pure woman, hiding the most awful of her deeds in the barn and the life she lives behind a shroud of innocence. It's a fantastic performance of a complex character, reserved with the capability of shocking us through the simplest of actions.

With photography and some tonal elements that recall the work of Jonathan Glazer and directed with tremendous skill by first timer Nicolas Pesce, The Eyes of My Mother is a genuinely terrifying film with startling visuals of retina pervading power that travel deep into the darkest recesses of the soul.

The Eyes of My Mother is in cinemas from 24th March.

Verdict
4/5

GLEASON review

Charting his diagnosis with ALS/MND and subsequent battle against the disease, Gleason follows former New Orleans Saints player Steve Gleason as he prepares for fatherhood amidst the deterioration of his body.

Diagnosed in 2011 with ALS/MND at the age of 33, former NFL player Gleason and his wife found out 6 weeks later that they were expecting a baby. Realising he may never have a conversation with his unborn child and faced with the prospect of being unable to be the father figure he wants to be, Gleason started to record video journals that his son can look at later on in life. His aim was simply to "give you as much of myself as I can, while I can".

His wife Michel's pregnancy is such an important part of the early stage of his diagnosis and of the film, providing us with a firm timeline of how far the body can grow in 9 months, but also how fast it can deteriorate in the same amount of time. As a recently retired professional athlete, we see Steve take part in a triathlon 4 months after his diagnosis and be notably fatigued in a way he never has been before, and the emotional realisation from Michel of what lies ahead.

It would be doing her a disservice to simply state that Michel shows great strength throughout this experience. Faced with having to care for her husband as well as a new baby, it's remarkable how composed she remains. When baby Rivers arrives (and is possibly the cutest kid on the face of the Earth), Steve actively tries to find ways around his physical limitations to ensure that father/son bond is solid.

This parental connection and what it takes to be a good father is what drives the film. It's clear that Steve had issues with how he was raised by his own father, and is desperate not to repeat the same mistakes. Steve's mother hardly appears in the film, but it's clear that there was an active choice to pursue the often combative and strained relationship between Steve and his father. This lingering resentment occasionally boils over, and although the two men are able to openly discuss what has caused the atmosphere between them in a frank and honest manner, it is evident that Steve is keen to not see history repeat itself when concerning his own son, Rivers. The ALS/MND may distance him from his son against his will, but Steve is willing to fight against what may be inevitable.

With differing opinions on matters of spirituality and faith and on how Steve's treatment should progress, when taken to a faith healer by his father (much to the chagrin of Michel), it's heartbreaking to see Steve push the limits of what his body can manage in front of the congregation. Gleason covers similar ground to the also excellent documentary Jason Becker: Not Dead Yet, and shows a man who even before his ALS/MND diagnosis was a symbol of triumph over adversity for the role he played in the New Orleans Saints' comeback, post Hurricane Katrina.

As professional athletes go, Steve is a relatively calm and composed individual with a love for the simpler things in life (he loves his wife, he loves football and he loves Pearl Jam), but when put to the test his fighting spirit and desire to win is undeniable. Equal parts love story, fight against the odds and search for that connection that fathers and sons have, this extraordinarily powerful documentary is a testament to what family and the human spirit is able to achieve.

Verdict
4/5

HELGA, SHE WOLF OF STILBERG DVD review

The second release on the new Maison Rouge DVD label, Helga, She Wolf of Stilberg is out now on DVD.

AKA The She Wolf of Spilberg and not to be confused with Ilsa, She-Wolf of the SS, Helga is part of the Nazisploitation genre that sprung up in Europe in the 1970s (Basically, they still like to wear military uniforms with symbols on their arms, but their moustaches are different), and is still going to this day to some degree, although often with added zombies. 

Helga stars Malisa Longo as the nymphomaniac prison warden title character, dominating the women that are rounded up and sent to her to be used as currency with the local farmers who line up the women and decide who they are going to rape in a barn. I'd go as far to say that Helga isn't the main character, as the focus drifts onto Elisabeth and her attempts to free herself and her fellow prisoners from this cycle of abuse.

Something of a recurring theme in the exploitation world, Helga, She Wolf of Stilberg is a hell of a title that may garner more enjoyment from saying it out loud than actually watching it. That's perhaps to be expected from Patrice Rhomm, the director of bawdy titles like Captive Women 4 aka Elsa, She Devil (also in the Nazisploitation genre). Under various pseudonyms including the frankly amazing Homer Bingo, Rhomm directed a number of films in and around the "adult" movie genre of Italy, and that's fine, but hopefully they contain better sexual politics than Helga.

There's whipping, leather, sexual and physical domination and the sexual procurement of women, and although there is an inevitable fight back against this patriarchal regime by some spirited young prisoners tired of their treatment, their knee high leather boots and high hells slow down their attempts to escape, and they are easily recaptured. Typical.

The sexual violence here is often displayed as something sensual, and that's a very clear and disturbing issue you have to try to come to terms with in order to enjoy this film. In one scene the prisoners are forced to strip off one by one for examination by a moustachioed officer, but the fact that this clinical procedure is meant to excite and potentially arouse the audience says it all, really.

As a document of the era in which it was made that's fair enough, but by modern standards it can make for uncomfortable viewing. Unlike the first release on the Maison Rouge label, Bare Breasted Countess, that could be appreciated as tittilating fluff, Helga's focus on sexual domination may leave a bitter after taste. There's some value in Helga's exploitation tropes, but only as long as it's viewed by an audience who can distinguish that this is a product of its location, genre and time.

Verdict
2/5