Well back from holiday – will be posting some thoughts and some photos from Riga on here later, but in the meantime some films to catch up on. We’ll start with the worst of the bunch:
Goya’s Ghost – 0/5
From the trailer, the subject and the pedigree of those involved this should have been a very interesting film. Goya is certainly a very interesting artist from his more classical work to the darker, more satirical edge to some of his prints. The period, covering both the growth of a new inquisition and the Napoleonic wars in Spain also makes a grand backdrop. Director Milos Forman is the man behind Oscar winning classics like One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest and Amadeus. Stars Javier Bardem, Stellan Skarsgard and Natalie Portman have hardly made a bad movie between them. OK, we’ll make an exception for Star Wars episodes 1-3 in Portman’s case. So where did it go so badly wrong – this is not just a poor film, it’s also a positively nasty one!
It starts solidly enough with the focus on Goya’s work both classical and more politically explosive. However as attention drifts more towards the work of the inquisition and the sufferings of Portman it begins to deteriorate, lifted briefly by an interesting discussion on the merits of confession obtained by torture, and finishes in a complete mess.
Bardem (The Sea Inside, The Dancer Upstairs) gives what is surely a career worst performance and why he felt the need to do a silly accent as a Spanish actor playing a Spanish priest beggars belief. Skarsgard looks perpetually baffled and despite being the eponymous hero has very little to actually do. But its Portman who suffers the worst – she spends the first half of the film mainly naked, being tortured and rapedand the second half insane, but with makeup and performance more suggestive of the portrayal of a comedy character with special needs from a much less politically correct era. She also plays her own daughter, differentiated from her mother when young by one of the most ridiculous sets of false teeth to grace a cinema screen since the last Dracula movie.
The attitude towards women throughout the film is rather objectionable – not only in their treatment, but also in their portrayal as either insane or whores. There’s probably some deeply buried feminist point about the patriarchal order that does this to them, but its not worth sitting through this to get to that point. This is a thoroughly objectionable and bleak film without a single grace note and where the most sympathetic character is largely passive. My advice – avoid at all costs.
The Upside of Anger – 3/5
Usually when a movie’s release is delayed for a year or two it arrives with the distinct aroma of turkey about it. Given that, this makes for a very pleasant surprised. The second film within a month from writer/director Mike Binder following Reign Over Me, although this was made over a year beforehand. Like Reign Over Me it is a neatly observed film that, largely successfully treads the delicate line between comedy and emotional drama. Also like Reign, a lot of its strength lies in two strong central performances.
Kevin Costner gives one of his strongest turns for years as the drunk ex-baseball star turned DJ who provides support for the family at the films centre. Whilst Joan Allen is just superb as the wife and mother of 4 al
most adult girls trying to come to terms with her husbands abandoning of them. She clearly relishes the opportunity to play a meatier role than actresses her age are usually afforded by Hollywood and demonstrates again what a talented performer she is both comically and dramatically.
The film starts at a funeral, before winding the action back three years. This immediately signals that this is not straightforward rom-com territory and also sets up an intriguing guessing game about just who is in the casket. After leading us down at least two potential blind alleys, the answer turns out to be genuinely surprising and might cause some re-evaluation of all that’s been before.
This is probably a slightly funnier film that Reign, but also slightly less poignant, but at least it isn’t crippled by a disastrous third act. All in all – a great title and an interesting and engaging film.
Goya’s Ghost – 0/5
From the trailer, the subject and the pedigree of those involved this should have been a very interesting film. Goya is certainly a very interesting artist from his more classical work to the darker, more satirical edge to some of his prints. The period, covering both the growth of a new inquisition and the Napoleonic wars in Spain also makes a grand backdrop. Director Milos Forman is the man behind Oscar winning classics like One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest and Amadeus. Stars Javier Bardem, Stellan Skarsgard and Natalie Portman have hardly made a bad movie between them. OK, we’ll make an exception for Star Wars episodes 1-3 in Portman’s case. So where did it go so badly wrong – this is not just a poor film, it’s also a positively nasty one!
It starts solidly enough with the focus on Goya’s work both classical and more politically explosive. However as attention drifts more towards the work of the inquisition and the sufferings of Portman it begins to deteriorate, lifted briefly by an interesting discussion on the merits of confession obtained by torture, and finishes in a complete mess.
Bardem (The Sea Inside, The Dancer Upstairs) gives what is surely a career worst performance and why he felt the need to do a silly accent as a Spanish actor playing a Spanish priest beggars belief. Skarsgard looks perpetually baffled and despite being the eponymous hero has very little to actually do. But its Portman who suffers the worst – she spends the first half of the film mainly naked, being tortured and rapedand the second half insane, but with makeup and performance more suggestive of the portrayal of a comedy character with special needs from a much less politically correct era. She also plays her own daughter, differentiated from her mother when young by one of the most ridiculous sets of false teeth to grace a cinema screen since the last Dracula movie.
The attitude towards women throughout the film is rather objectionable – not only in their treatment, but also in their portrayal as either insane or whores. There’s probably some deeply buried feminist point about the patriarchal order that does this to them, but its not worth sitting through this to get to that point. This is a thoroughly objectionable and bleak film without a single grace note and where the most sympathetic character is largely passive. My advice – avoid at all costs.
The Upside of Anger – 3/5
Usually when a movie’s release is delayed for a year or two it arrives with the distinct aroma of turkey about it. Given that, this makes for a very pleasant surprised. The second film within a month from writer/director Mike Binder following Reign Over Me, although this was made over a year beforehand. Like Reign Over Me it is a neatly observed film that, largely successfully treads the delicate line between comedy and emotional drama. Also like Reign, a lot of its strength lies in two strong central performances.
Kevin Costner gives one of his strongest turns for years as the drunk ex-baseball star turned DJ who provides support for the family at the films centre. Whilst Joan Allen is just superb as the wife and mother of 4 al
most adult girls trying to come to terms with her husbands abandoning of them. She clearly relishes the opportunity to play a meatier role than actresses her age are usually afforded by Hollywood and demonstrates again what a talented performer she is both comically and dramatically.The film starts at a funeral, before winding the action back three years. This immediately signals that this is not straightforward rom-com territory and also sets up an intriguing guessing game about just who is in the casket. After leading us down at least two potential blind alleys, the answer turns out to be genuinely surprising and might cause some re-evaluation of all that’s been before.
This is probably a slightly funnier film that Reign, but also slightly less poignant, but at least it isn’t crippled by a disastrous third act. All in all – a great title and an interesting and engaging film.
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