Detectives Rebecca Faraway (Sarah Beck Mather) and Eli Smith (Andonis Anthony) are attending a crime scene on their patch of greater London. It’s grisly. A man lies supine, mostly rotted away having been left in a damp rat-infested cellar, and surrounded by ritualistic, perhaps even Satanic markings on the floor and wall. It’s not the first such scene Faraway and Smith have witnessed this week, either; they’ve a serial killer on their hands.
Charismata
Their investigations lead them to the smoothly confident Michael Sweet (Jamie Satterthwaite), a partner at the property development firm who own the site at which the rotted corpse was found. In fact as the bodies mount up, their investigations lead them back to Michael Sweet over and again. He seems unperturbed, though. What he DOES seem, however, is remarkably interested in Faraway. Who is he? What’s he up to? Why his interest in Rebecca?
Charismata
In addition to the case, Faraway has problems of her own. She is struggling with the sale of her house. a move forced upon her by a messy divorce which also has her on prescription medication. She is also met ceaselessly and by more-or-less everyone – including her own detective partner – with a distressing amount of misogyny. “I really need to get one of those,” leers Smith to a uniformed sergeant with reference to a nearby WPC. “I thought you already had one,” replies the sergeant, looking at Faraway. As the case progresses, Faraway’s grip on reality begins to loosen, and then crumble altogether. Fatigue brought upon by the many stresses each day brings? It would be perfectly understandable were that the case. But is there something else happening here?
Charismata
Charismata, co-written/directed by Tor Mian (The Milky Way) and Andy Collier (for whom Charismata represents a full-length debut in the director’s chair), is a gleefully creepy piece of grand guignol, evoking the style of David Fincher’s Se7en with the dread of a Clive Barker tale.
Sarah Beck Mather imbues the role of Rebecca Faraway with a hard-nosed shell disguising an increasingly justifiable panic which becomes evermore evident as events begin to engulf her. Detective Smith is something of a bigoted dickhead and yet Andonis Anthony succeeds from the off in keeping him relatable and even likeable, a necessary quality as Charismata moves into its final third. The movie is sprinkled sparingly with black humour – having been ribbed by Smith for vomiting at a previous crime scene, a deeply irritated Faraway proceeds to vomit at the crime scene – and, in that spirit, Johnny Vivash provides some welcome respite from the gloom and noir as a put-upon manager whose security firm appears to have been foiled by the serial killer at every turn. For the most part though, directors Mian and Collier ratchet up both the tension and the grue quickly and relentlessly throughout a crisply shot and framed picture. Charismata keeps on smacking away at you, literally up to the final frame.
Charismata
Now, it’s not perfect. In places, the dialogue feels clunky. “You’re in for a treat.” “Bloody?” “Like a menstruating virgin at a gang-bang.” Also, in one or two areas (not many, but enough), the visual effects are hamstrung somewhat by budgetary limitations. But these are minor distractions really which shouldn’t detract from what is, overall, a wonderfully atmospheric and gruesome horror/thriller. Recommended.
His breakout film Robots of Brixton became viral and that was all but a surprise; considering how mesmerizingly beautiful, thought provoking and unsettlingly appealing it was both in terms of image and sound. His name is Kibwe Tavares and he is known for his CGI-real action fused videos that tend to have a social message hidden beneath the magic of its scenes.
His latest project Robot and Scarecrow tells the story of an impossible love between the dittos. Specificities of the piece aside, this is an excellent example of how to narrate one of the nine or ten stories that exist (impossible love, war between brothers, coming of age, rise and fall…) in a different and unique way; consequently, the audience gets double satisfaction as they will be transported to a world in which the same old story will be as meaningful and surprising as it was the first time they heard it. And, as far as the writer of this article is concerned, this is why we tell stories: to put a frame in the things that matter to us without knowing we are; to enjoy a tale that once it’s over and we are in our bed staring at the ceiling, we will understand how it directly relates to us or someone we know (and still this won’t take our enjoyment at hearing it away).
Robot is an enslaved dancer, as so many amongst their race in fiction and present and near future real life, whose “product life” is about to expire; however, her “bosses” know they can still use her one last time to perform up on stage of this sunny, colored and badass looking music festival.
Scarecrow is tired of having the wind bringing to him the occasional beats and basses from the festival nearby; and so he decides to break the chains that tie him to a wooden stick and let someone else scare the crows while he has a good time crazily dancing as the people around him do.
Robot is on stage doing what she does best, what she was programmed to do, under the amazed and drug triggered stare of the ecstatic audience. Until all her circuits (Futurama, allow me the homage) fail and she is removed from stage. Meanwhile, Scarecrow is another extravagant individual in this party of music and color and seems to be finding his very own hip moving style.
As she defies neuroscience and walks once more towards the charismatic Scarecrow in the crowd; the wild audiences do what wild audiences do at some point during these events: tear this amazing piece of moving decoration apart. And therefore Scarecrow gets Glastonburied. But, as Chewbacca once showed us with C3PO, Robot is not going to let this one pass and she takes the remaining pieces of what once was the best Scarecrow dancer the world has ever seen and manages to bring him back to life.
Now, Robot and Scarecrow walk hand by hand through the tragic, and as unavoidable and beautiful as dawn, outcome of the music festival. Until, alas, neuroscience seems to be more powerful than love and Robot’s “product life” sadly reaches its finale; leaving Scarecrow to remember her by staring at the massive scream that shows the highlights of the festival. It never was easy to be non human in a world of dittos.
You can enjoy Kibwe Tavares work online for free and, as far as the writer of this article is concerned, you definitely should. It’s subtle, gorgeous, the sound design is absolutely impressive and all of this surrounds good and meaningful stories. There’s not much more you can ask for really.
Since the cinema experience was created in the late 19th century, the urge to thrill, shock and test audience boundaries has always been apparent. From the moment cinema goers ran for their lives at the sight of a train pulling into a station in the Lumière brothers’ L’arrivée d’un train en gare de La Ciotat, cinema has dared to test audience’s limits wherever possible.
Now, after 140 years at the forefront of entertainment around the world and surviving many tests to its existence, cinema is still daring to push audiences beyond their comfort zone. Paul Verhoven’s critically adored thriller Elle is definitely a film that dares to go against the norm, and so to celebrate its release on Digital Download from on July 3rd and on DVD and Blu-ray from July 10th, we’re looking at other masterpieces from cinema’s global back-catalogue that dared, keeping the art as bold as it can be.
Straw Dogs (1971)
During the 1960’s and 70’s Hollywood became a melting pot for artistic inspiration. As the political mindset of western society began to change with a new generation, so did the focus of film’s that represented them, as themes of rebellion began to be championed by directors with increasing artistic power on set. A telling example of this era is Sam Peckinpah’s intense thriller Straw Dogs, set in the sticks of the British countryside, as an American couple (played by Dustin Hoffman and Susan George) move into a small village and are immediately made to feel unwelcome by the locals. This tension escalates to the point where Hoffman has to turn his home into a fortress to defend against a gang of intruders with anything he can find (surely an inspiration to Home Alone?). As the tension continues to rise, the leader of the gang graphically and violently rapes George’s character, in a scene that was met with immediate outrage, with many feeling it glamorised sexual violence. Views on the film have since become a lot less negative, as it became an example of how the era was testing audience boundaries during a period of massive social change.
Kids (1995)
Much in the same vein as Vietnam War-era Hollywood, the 90’s proved to be another mass venture into the bold and beautiful for cinema, coinciding with the emergence of a new indie genre. Many filmmakers looked to rebel against the increasingly generic mainstream the industry was heading towards, culminating in a host of micro-budget, personable films centred around human issues, such as Larry Clarke’s Kids. Written by Harmoney Korine (Spring Breakers), the film follows a group of youths in New York City, one of whom, Telly, has a goal to de-flower as many virgins as he can. When one of his old encounters discovers that she is HIV+, after only one encounter with a guy, Telly ignores this and decides to continue on his mission. During a time where the message of ‘safe sex’ was everywhere, Kids used the fear of HIV in society to test audiences view on youth culture.
Since Oldboy’s release at the start of the 21st century, it has snowballed to become a huge cult hit, as gobsmacked reactions to the film helped fan the flames of word-of-mouth. The film uses mystery as its catalyst, following the story of Oh Dae-su, who is imprisoned in a cell which resembles a hotel room for 15 years without knowing the identity of his captor or his captor’s motives. When he is finally released, Dae-su finds himself still trapped in a web of conspiracy and violence. His own quest for vengeance becomes tied in with romance when he falls in love with an attractive young woman. The film’s particularly violent and disturbing ending asks questions of its audiences morals when new-found information is presented to them in a plot twist for the ages.
Blue Is The Warmest Colour (2013)
None of the films on this list are to be advised to watch with one’s grandparents, but this is especially true for Abdellatif Kechiche’s Palme d’Or winner Blue is the Warmest Colour. The film runs for three hours, and it feels like at least 10% of that is filled with long and graphic sex scenes, as the lead character Adèle strives to explore her new-found sexuality. Although French cinema is known for its fairly constant examination of eroticism, this gives a much more grounded look at sex, stripped of any glamour. As beautiful and touching a love story as it is a top shelf favourite, the film was met with a mix of rapture and shock but it also represents an age of acceptance over titillation.
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
There are many things in Stanley Kubrick’s excessively bleak and crazed masterpiece A Clockwork Orange that make it a necessary mention. This obviously includes the opening 20 minutes where a gang dressed in top hats and jock straps take the term gallivanting to a whole new level, by beating homeless men to death and raping women in their own home. However, the rest of the film continues to test the audiences morals every which way, as after Malcolm McDowell’s gang leader is brought to justice, he get’s the brainwash treatment in a horrific Orwellian-like attempt at rehabilitation. Kubrick presents his audience with a vulgar human being, and then asks the audience whether they are able to sympathise with him in relation to the bigger social picture. Boundary-breaking cinema from the master himself!
Elle (2016)
Showing that filmmakers still thrive on the opportunity to shock, Paul Verhoven certainly doesn’t hold back with his visualisation of Phillippe Dijan’s novel Oh…. The film’s opening see’s the titular character being assaulted by a masked intruder. Whilst this assault is shocking in itself, it is Elle’s laissez faire response that has caused much of the debate around the film: she rises, sweeps up the broken glass, takes a bath and orders sushi, omits to tell the police but casually tells her closest friends over dinner. Elle appears to be, for the most part, unaffected by the incident, and takes on the task of tracking down the offender herself without help from the police, helping fuel reactions of a feminist masterpiece. Unlike traditional thrillers, it is not the violence that shocks or grips the audience (although violence is most certainly present), it is that Elle makes drastically different decisions to most people, subverting expectations and encapsulating the audience’s intrigue. Verhoven has since said that only the fierce Isabelle Huppert could have given the justification and accessibility to such a closed off character, something we can definitely agree with!
ELLE IS Available ON DIGITAL download jULY 3rd, 2017 AND AVAILABLE ON BLU-RAY AND DVD JULY 10th, 2017
If that sentence fills you with dread, or pity, or a desire to burst out laughing, then we’re probably of the same mind: Colin Trevorrow should not be directing Star Wars: Episode IX. Someone else should. Literally, anyone else.
It’s hard to name a major studio that hasn’t come under fire for hiring a white male director who’s made one moderately successful indie to helm their major blockbuster. Even as we speak, Kathleen Kennedy and her cronies are scouring this year’s Sundance line-up for someone young, cocky, and acclaimed, but not too acclaimed (god forbid they try to exercise a little creative freedom).
I’m being facetious. Star Wars has been a different matter. While other studios appear to be picking their directors based on how little they can get away with paying them, Star Wars seemed to care. JJ Abrams brought sweep and grandeur to The Force Awakens, and Rian Johnson is an Emmy award winner and writer/director of a number of acclaimed features (Brick, Looper). The Last Jedi is in good hands.
With such stellar talent behind the camera of the first two instalments of this new trilogy, they must have someone really special lined up for the grand finale! Let’s see, who is it again?
Oh…
Colin Trevorrow’s first feature Safety Not Guaranteed was a moderate Sundance hit, liked by some, not by me. He then made Jurassic World, which currently holds the honour of being the fourth highest grossing film of all time. But its critical acclaim is a different matter; even those who had fun with the film (there are a couple moments of tension that work, I’ll admit) won’t have much to say about it two years on.
But Lucasfilm evidently decided that the box office strength of Jurassic World could be attributed to its director, rather than simply the hunger for nostalgia that pervades every corner of modern pop culture.
Hope is still on the horizon, though. Much of the film community was upset when it was announced that Phil Lord and Chris Miller had been pulled off of the upcoming young Han Solo movie four months into production, but their firing offered a light at the end of the tunnel. I had wondered whether it was too late for Colin Trevorrow to be fired, given that Episodes IX is set to start production at the end of the year. But if Lucasfilm is willing to switch directors (Ron Howard is now helming the project) four months into shooting, clearly it’s never too late.
With the recent release of Trevorrow’s critically maligned The Book of Henry – which I can confirm is silly beyond belief – hopes are high. The right thing can still be done, and every ounce of momentum is pushing towards it.
So, Kathleen Kennedy (if you’re reading this, and I’m sure you are), here are 14 proposals. I’m confident I could name at least a hundred filmmakers who could make a better Star Wars movie than Colin Trevorrow, but here are some realistic options, some great artists who could thrive within the boundaries that this universe has set up. Of course, I’d love to see an Andrea Arnold Star Wars as much as the next person, but it’s never going to happen. These ones just might.
Houda Benyamina
Houda Benyamina winning the Camera d’Or at the 69th Cannes Film Festival
Houda Benyamina has built her career on proving people wrong. Divines, her 2016 Cannes prize winning first feature, was ripped straight from the heart. Casting her extraordinary younger sister Oulaya Amamra as a struggling teen mixed up in a whirlwind of poverty, gang culture and sexual awakening in the French suburbs, she set the film in the world in which she grew up. She rose from that place to prove to the bourgeois French film industry that her voice mattered to.
The least experienced filmmaker on this list, she’s only made a single feature, but that hasn’t stopped Disney before. Divines (which was released by Netflix) is proof enough that Benyamina can take any scenario and infuse it with boundless energy and vibrancy, as well as wrenching tension evident within the final act. She’s cinematically inventive, ambitious, and the project she’s currently courting For Assia, a romantic epic centering on an Algerian female revolutionary – is proof enough that she’s looking to broaden her scope and focus on the strength of women amidst war – in other words, Rey would be a piece of cake.
Susanne Bier
Susanne Bier on set
In the 90s, a group of filmmakers joined forces with Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg to make films under the guidelines of the Dogme 95 Manifesto. Susanne Bier was one of them, and while von Trier has gone on to claim the status of a genius, being notoriously difficult with his collaborators but nonetheless respected for his experimental craft, it’s difficult to imagine a woman like Bier being afforded that luxury.
She’s been working since the early 90s but has never graduated from the same level of mid-budget filmmaking. There’s a couple misses in there – most notably Things We Lost in the Fire and Serena – but mostly she’s spent the last two decades being quietly impressive and going unnoticed in comparison to her wild counterparts. In a Better World won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, Brothers (which was later remade in English) and After the Wedding both earned critical plaudits, Love is All You Need is a perfect example of a filmmaker drawing the absolute most from a familiar story, and just last year The Night Manager (for which she was show runner and won an Emmy for directing all six episodes) was loved by many and proved her worth in genre filmmaking. Perhaps Bond might be a good fit, but I’m confident that Bier could make a slick and smart Star Wars film. She’s done her time, and now she deserves more.
Kathryn Bigelow
Kathryn Bigelow on set
Imagine if Kathryn Bigelow had directed Rogue One? Gareth Edward’s style of filmmaking has a quality reminiscent to hers – he attempts a gritty, handheld look at war in a similar aesthetic vein to The Hurt Locker, but not only is he not up to her level of technical skill, he also hasn’t a clue what to do with character or actors. Those might not often be cited as Bigelow’s strengths, but it’s worth noting that she’s directed two actors – Jeremy Renner and Jessica Chastain – to Oscar nominations.
Arguably the leading action director, her films are all about war, perfect for a franchise with the word in its title. She’s been working in the industry since the 80s and has helmed some of the best genre pictures that have come out since: Near Dark shows her interest in sci-fi, Point Break is evidence of an ability to have fun, and Zero Dark Thirty and The Hurt Locker (which made her the first ever female winner of Best Picture and Director) are masterclasses in tension, exploring the darkness and shaded morality of the situations they depict. She’s not free of controversy, both in terms of the torture sequences in Zero Dark Thirty and her upcoming Detroit (in theatres this August) being a story about black lives told by a white writer and director, with a lack of black women visible in the marketing. But whatever moral gripes you may have with Bigelow, her craft has never been in question.
Bong Joon-ho
‘It’s a re-hash of A New Hope‘ is the phrase that grated on the ears of every Force Awakens fan for months after its release. On a factual level, that may be true, but as I was watching the film for the first time, without dissenting voices throwing me off, the thought never crossed my mind. Why? Because the characters were so vibrant, compelling and fresh that I was happy to watch them do anything. A year and a half on from that ensemble film, I still remember each of them vividly: Rey, Finn, Poe, BB-8, Kylo Ren, Maz Kanata… each one had moments that brought them to life.
Okja (released on Netflix just yesterday) is many, many things, but predominately it is an ensemble film in which almost every single player has something that makes them memorable. It’s wild, but as proven by almost everything he’s ever done, South Korean auteur Bong Joon-ho is able to fuse mad genius with fluid commerciality unlike anyone else. His Star Wars film would be a blockbuster for the ages, fit to bursting with fun, emotion and kinetic action. He’s likely more wary than anyone of re-entering the world of American studio filmmaking after the problems he faced making Snowpiercer, but if Disney allowed themselves to trust his instincts they’d be a whole lot better for it.
Niki Caro
Niki Caro on set
There are a few directors on this list with previous ties to Disney properties, but Niki Caro fits particularly snugly into that category. Recently she helmed Disney sports drama McFarland, USA, and at the end of 2018 she’s set to release a live-action remake of Mulan for the studio.
Caro has directed 3 actresses to Oscar nominations between Whale Rider and North Country, and in The Zookeeper’s Wife her lead Jessica Chastain gave a wonderful performance in a film that is commercial, large in scope and sweepingly emotional. It’s a real winner and I wonder why its studio didn’t have the confidence in it that they should have, when many other true historical dramas (often led and helmed by men) that are equal or lesser in quality have been pushed for awards consideration. Luckily, Caro’s talent in fluidly and efficiently pulling off large projects isn’t going unnoticed. Her skills would fit perfectly into the Star Wars universe.
Ava DuVernay
Ava DuVernay on set
When I saw The Force Awakens, I fell in love with one moment. In their climactic lightsaber battle, Kylo Ren and Rey are in deadlock. He tries to convince her to join the dark side, and for a moment she is lost. Her eyes waver, face blanketed in conflicting red and blue lights. Then, she closes her eyes, and opens them again, and they are set in a stare of icy resolve. When it was revealed that the inclusion of this moment was Ava DuVernay’s idea, conceived when JJ Abrams had shown the scene to her to try and work out if something was missing, it’s telling how little we were surprised. Of course it was her.
The Star Wars franchise has been praised for their newfound focus on women, but criticised for the fact that all those most visible roles have been given to white women. DuVernay, an outspoken advocate and just generally brilliant artist, would no doubt be insistent on changing that as much as is within her power. Having collaborated on The Force Awakens, and now working on their blockbuster revamping of A Wrinkle in Time (slated for March of 2018), Disney has certainly got their eyes on her. She’s a former publicist, and therefore the kind of artist who’s able to deftly balance her individual vision and the expectations of a studio. With Middle of Nowhere, Best Picture nominee Selma, all women-helmed TV series Queen Sugar and highly influential Netflix documentary 13th under her belt, she has more than enough clout to become one of our leading blockbuster filmmakers.
Patty Jenkins
Patty Jenkins (centre) on the set of Wonder Woman
Obviously. Writing about many of the filmmakers on this list, I’m trying to put together a convincing argument as to why they would make a good Star Wars film. I don’t need to do that with Patty Jenkins – Wonder Woman is argument enough. It took her 13 years to make her second feature, after the triumph that is her deeply felt, complex debut Monster (the film which won Charlize Theron her Academy Award), but it was worth the wait.
She’s being courted for several projects at the moment, and it’s no wonder she’s taking her time to decide. Riding off a high like this, everybody wants you, and she’s recently expressed her desire to direct a sequel to Wonder Woman, as well as a horror film. Nothing is confirmed yet, but we do know this: Patty Jenkins can do action, she can do adventure, she can do epic, she can do compelling women discovering new worlds and she can do compelling women discovering themselves. It’s a no brainer.
Karyn Kusama
There are some filmmakers who deserve a stint in ‘director’s jail’ (*cough* Colin Trevorrow *cough*), and some who spend years there but never deserved to be condemned in the first place. After her debut Girlfight tied for the Sundance Grand Jury Prize (with Kenneth Lonergan’s You Can Count On Me), Karyn Kusama went straight on to Aeon Flux. And it did not end well.
Legend has it that Kusama was being supported by the studio in her attempts to take the film in a more experimental direction – at least, as experimental as a studio picture can get. But during her time working on the project, the studio went through a change in producers and she ended up being pulled out of the editors chair and having her film desperately hacked up into the critically maligned creature that it is today. Kusama was horrified at what they did to it, but still saw the project through in an effort to salvage what she could. In the end, it was her that got the blame, and it wasn’t until last year’s masterfully sleek one location thriller The Invitation that she fell back into good favour. At least she’s with us now, and any studio would do good to hand someone like this a large scale production: a classical stylist with a complete grasp of her craft.
Ang Lee
Ang Lee on set
Ang Lee can do anything. Yes, you can probably point to a couple of times when he fell flat on his face, but that’s nothing compared to the number of times when he’s soared. He can pull off unparalleled heights of sweeping emotion in Brokeback Mountain, and some of the most graceful action ever put to screen in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. His work with CGI in Life of Pi is legendary. He has directed five actors to Oscar nominations and won two Best Director trophies himself.
While Lee isn’t afraid to experiment – recent ventures into newfound technology resulted in a rare flop with Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk – he also tends to know when to pull back. Brokeback Mountain may be known as an actor’s movie, but it belongs just as much to its director. Lee never makes his presence known, but he calibrates every decision to exact perfection, pulling back at the right times to appreciate the beautiful, sprawling vistas of Wyoming. The landscapes presented by the Star Wars universe practically beg for that kind of treatment, and while the franchise’s films might exist amongst a community of flashy modern blockbusters, they tend to thrive within the more classical stylings of someone like JJ Abrams – or Ang Lee.
Mira Nair
Mira Nair on set
‘I grew up in a very small town which is remote even by Indian standards. I always dreamed of the world’. What’s more Star Wars than that? Those are the words of Mira Nair, and just like Phiona Mutesi, the focus of her Queen of Katwe (another Disney production), Star Wars has always centred on dreamers who long for a life bigger than their own. Queen of Katwe was released to disappointingly little fanfare last year, but it’s a genuine delight, bringing the vibrancy of Uganda to life in a way that many other directors making a film about poverty would never consider. There was a full-bodied, earnest use of colour in that film that would translate perfectly to the landscapes of Star Wars.
There was a time when it looked as if Nair would make Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. That fell through, but after proving yet again – in her career that has spanned three decades – that she can get the most out of populist entertainment (certainly a theme on this list), she deserves to move up to the big leagues.
Gina Prince-Bythewood
After her recent appointment as director of upcoming comic book film Silver & Black, Gina Prince-Bythewood’s place on a list like this became a given. Having taken on predominantly acclaimed romantic-dramas up until now – see Love & Basketball and Beyond the Lights – she has the ability to give heft to the finale of whichever romantic thread the franchise decides to follow. But the experience she’ll gain in the superhero genre will likely make her one of Hollywood’s most sought after action directors too, if all goes to plan. It should do – she’s built a career on winning us all over.
Lynne Ramsay
Lynne Ramsay at Cannes
Not only is Lynne Ramsay the best director on this list – she’s arguably the best director working today, of any kind. All three of the features she’s made in the past 18 years – Ratcatcher, Morvern Callar and We Need to Talk About Kevin – have been artistically flawless, and her You Were Never Really Here just premiered to near universal acclaim at Cannes, picking up both the Best Screenplay and Best Actor awards (the latter for Joaquin Phoenix).
She’s had a turbulent career, dropping off of The Lovely Bones and later leaving Jane Got a Gun the night before shooting started. These attempts to go broader in scope have failed, but in a strong producer/filmmaker partnership she could flourish, joining Denis Villeneuve as a rare director capable of mixing the arthouse and the commercial without compromise. She’s clearly interested in sci-fi, having tried to get her Moby-Dick-in-space passion project Mobius off the ground for years, so while her involvement in something as huge and widely seen as a Star Wars movie might seem like a crazy idea – maybe it’s not so crazy after all?
Dee Rees
A lot of this choice is on good faith alone – Mudbound has only been seen by a select few at Sundance, and will be released later this year by Netflix – but everything I’ve heard about it hints that Dee Rees could handle Star Wars with grace. Not that she hasn’t pulled off anything impressive beforehand: her debut Pariah is beautiful and personal, and follow-up TV movie Bessie earned Emmy attention. But Mudbound is an epic, showing her ability to tackle war scenes choreographed with many simultaneous planes of action, as well as constantly shifting perspectives between an ensemble, all things needed in a Star Wars helmer. She could maintain the sweep that makes the franchise great.
Lorene Scafaria
I didn’t expect much going into Lorene Scafaria’s debut Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, but this end of days comic-drama (its title should be taken literally) reaches unexpected emotional heights. Her follow-up The Meddler is the real stunner though – it’s a film that refines all of Scafaria’s potential into a perfect package, executing an unassuming story with the absolute maximum amount of vibrancy, wit, humour and insight, all set to a perfect pace. It’s buoyant beyond belief, with a killer lead performance from Susan Sarandon, and it made me hope and pray that Scafaria would land the directing gig on Captain Marvel that she was shortlisted for. If anyone could work within the creative parameters that Marvel maintains and elevate them, it would be her.
She didn’t get it. But there’s still plenty of time to recognise and use this rising star, and a Star Wars movie could be the perfect place. Scafaria knows as well as anyone what makes commercial entertainment tick. She understands each beat, and how to gently subvert it. She’s a sturdy pair of hands who’s never failed to exceed expectations yet.
Thanks to the acceptance of my short film to EEFF 201 7(East End Film Festival), I had the chance to request tickets for some of the screenings featuring in the still ongoing event. So I decided to take a look through the website and pick the ones that looked most interesting; amongst many options I ended up deciding for three different movies. From my P.O.V those were: one about an Iranian taxi driver in one of his night shifts; All Eyez on Me (the Tupac biopic) and a movie about an apparently super famous bare-knuckle boxer in East London. Much to my delight, I managed to get a ticket for the latter: My Name is Lenny. And off I went to the indicated venue of which I didn’t know a thing: York Hall.
I didn’t pay much attention to the “come early as there will be security in the door” notice as sadly, the recent events in London made that sound more than logical. I arrived early indeed and took my seat in the balcony of the venue. Slowly, the other attendants started to arrive. Of course, when I heard the accents, saw the size of arms and chests and witnessed the attitude, I thought to myself: what were you expecting? This is a movie about a bare-knuckle boxer from East London. Well, the party was just getting started.
As a side note, I’m a boy from a normal neighborhood in Barcelona that, even though I’m no street cred master, I’ve seen my things and I live in a South London area that caused a big effect on me the first weeks of living there. My point being, I’m no Avon Barksdale but I’m not Milhouse either. Now believe me, I was impressed, to put it gently, for what I witnessed that night.
So, as probably everyone in England but me knows, this is a movie about Lenny McLean, legend of the East End, the Guv’nor, and Barry the Baptist in Guy Ritchie’s Lock Stock amongst other memorable roles. My Name is Lenny is his life story and its produced by his own son Jamie McLean alongside Van Carter and Nick Taussig. The movie it’s alright. It is what you would expect from it and judging by the non-stopping cheers of friends, family and regular attendants of York Hall during the movie (which made almost impossible to hear the “Oi Want Me Mony” lines delivered by the Australian-not-from-the-east-end Josh Helman) it fulfilled the expectations of the crowd. A crowd that, for what I saw from the balcony, being absolutely picky and speaking from the perspective of a complete ignorant of this world, could well have starred in the movie themselves.
So the film finished and I didn’t stay to the Q&A because: A- If it was difficult to hear the dialogues, my hope of understanding what the cast and crew said was quite low. B- It was late. And C- I was a bit scared. Once I got home to my dear South London I thought: OK, maybe I was exaggerating. After doing some research on The Guv’nor and York Hall I understood I really wasn’t.
Being as it may, it was an experience worth living with no doubt at all. This is of course my point of view seasoned with a few poetic licenses to make this article, hopefully, somehow interesting. Apologies if I have hurt someone feelings though.
