By Louise McLeod Tabouis.

‘Buttercup Bill’, written and directed by Rémy Bennett & Emilie Richard-Froozan is a melancholic reflection on looking back.

After the death of childhood-friend Flora, cynical, besotted and tarnished Pernilla, is haunted by the memories she has from growing up with her neighbours, Patrick and now-dead Flora.

After years of Patrick-imposed no contact, Penilla arrives at his house to declare, “Everyone’s a waste”. Patrick’s response? “You should grow the fuck up”.  This sets the tone of the film. Now living in the middle of sweaty, sunny nowhere, he seems to be either working out who he is or running from what he was, far from the people who think they know him. His disconcerting ambivalence towards adoring Pernilla maintains the tension. The question is, is he free of the rot, or longing for more?

The film is an intriguing portrayal of a changing relationship in the space between adolescence and adulthood. Great soundtrack, pervasive, appropriate, dominating and rich, with well-created scenes and design. If you’ve ever had a long-term friendship that is in arrested development you’ll empathise with this film. A good portrayal of people who want to understand each other, but don’t.

By Robert Andrews.

Silence more often than not tells us things that a thousand words could not express. And silence was what lingered long after the credits for Macbeth began to roll. You could feel a genuine sense of awe that had crept into those audience members who sat utterly still as they came to grips with the spectacle they had just witnessed. Certainly Macbeth is a challenging film, especially to audiences usually associated with more mainstream affairs, however this is a challenge that should be embraced by audiences both young and old. In doing so audiences will be rewarded with an unforgettable cinematic experience, one that that embodies not only a stand out lead performance from Michael Fassbender, but a rich and beautifully tormenting portrayal of Shakespearian Scotland, which lends itself so well to the dark road Macbeth finds himself travelling down throughout the course of the story.

As a manifestation of art house style, Macbeth tackles Shakespeare’s play with a dark and colourful undertone, in which the setting of Scotland contributes as much to the character’s feelings and intentions as dialogue could manage, and it is the dialogue that poses the greatest challenge to the average cinema goer. As I sat down to watch Macbeth and listened as Fassbender first began to delve into blank verse, I too was immediately challenged with an unfamiliar form of speaking, and a barrier preventing myself from accessing the primary channel that communicates the character’s core feelings, interactions and thought processes. Based upon this, should Macbeth have disregarded Shakespeare’s blank verse so that the audience could more easily understand the narrative events and character development? Absolutely not. By losing the blank verse you lose the authenticity of the piece as a Shakespearian product, and more importantly the beautifully tongue twisting monologues and analogies that are an art piece in their own right. An art piece that Fassbender so elegantly paints with his dedication to the role, as his descent into a guilt ridden lunatic ruler is nothing less than glorious. His richly spoken portrayal of the mad King of Scotland is arguably one of his best performances to date in both the physical and verbal sense. Fassbender’s mentally tormenting monologues fall perfectly in line with his savagery as a fighter on the battlefield and as a ruler on the throne. One criticism however, not of Fassbender’s performance, but rather the character on the page is that Macbeth as a character rarely breaks free from his mad slumber and as a result offers little potential for change, and to some extent enhances a sense of predictability in regard to the story’s outcome. That is not to say that Fassbender’s prolonged mad slumber is not enjoyable, as in fact it is breath-taking to behold, it is just a matter of some more detail being paid to the man beneath Macbeth’s warped mind set in order to make this enjoyable character study more complex and multi-dimensional.

As an adaptation, the burden of loyalty to the original story and its characters usually weighs heavily on a piece like Macbeth, which attempts to breathe new life into the stage play. As someone who is not familiar with the story of Macbeth, I myself was free from this burden, able to judge the narrative for its merits and criticisms without being a slave to my preceding thoughts of the original stage play. The narrative is executed well enough, with enough alternative view points in the story to provide viewers with a variety of differing perspectives focused on Macbeth’s downfall. The narrative doesn’t necessarily lead us into totally unexpected avenues of Macbeth’s journey, but it does however present a compelling character study of a mad King intertwined with the mounting consequences of the manner of his chaotic reign. Following Duncan’s death, Macbeth’s chaos really does reign supreme and poses the same issue that arises as a result of Macbeth’s lack of potential for change. Macbeth’s uninterrupted downhill spiral offers few respites in terms of attempting to convince the audience that Macbeth may not be heading towards the doomed conclusion that we the audience associate the character with. Never the less the narrative does hold up on a basic level and if nothing less leads us towards a truly breath-taking and sensational narrative climax that sums up the raw ambition of the film.

It would be criminal to end this review without applauding the contributions of the usually overlooked elements of film production that on a visual and audial level are equally responsible for the film’s success. Melancholia is what Macbeth orders, and its soundtrack certainly accounts for that with melodies and instrumentals which are so in tune with the foreboding nature of the story and the burdened mind set of Macbeth himself. Make up and costume, from Macbeth’s royal robes to his rugged battle armour contribute immensely to the level of authenticity held up in the film’s spoken blank verse. Words which are spoken so elegantly by the characters and captured so well by those responsible for the film’s cinematography and editing. The framing and movement of feasts, battles, isolation and sorrow communicate so much to the audience that they might have missed in the challenging blank verse that is often spoken. Macbeth’s moments of isolation are captured in a manner which voids the necessity of dialogue and as the battle scenes too are shown in such a raw and unpleasant form, every frame in Macbeth truly is a painting and least of all a work of art.

As aforementioned Macbeth poses the average filmgoer a challenging viewing experience in regard to the conventional mainstream characteristics that the film disregards. However I feel that even those unable to enjoy Macbeth due to the viewing challenges it poses have a duty to respect it for its bold, individualist and raw approach to an already fascinating story of guilt, madness and emotional decline. Films like Macbeth are rarely this accessible to mainstream filmgoers due to the film industry’s increasing demand for excessive box office returns. For that reason Macbeth really should be appreciated for its visually gripping and tonally fascinating adaptation, an adaptation that will certainly remain long in the memory of those who appreciate its raw cinematic power. All hail Macbeth.

Directed by Ridley Scott, Written by Drew Goddard, Out Now

Ridley Scott’s The Martian is a welcome return to form after a run that has been average at best. Scott has done away with the plodding pace and self-important tone of his most recent Exodus: Gods and Kings and instead has embraced a much more popcorn friendly and warm tone. It tells the story of a mission to Mars that goes wrong; after a rushed evacuation, one astronaut, Mark Watney, is left stranded presumed dead and must battle against one of the universe’s most hostile environments until NASA can save him. Much like Apollo 13, cutting between NASA and the astronauts plays to the movie’s favour.

Goddard’s screenplay is a great adaptation of Andy Weir’s source novel, thinning moments where necessary but remaining true to Weir’s spirit.  The dialogue is sparky, witty and very funny.  A recurring gag about disco music is funny at the best of times and just bizarre at others: if you’d have told me beforehand that I’d have had Abba’s Waterloo and Donna Summer’s Hot Stuff blasted at me through the Dolby Atmos system, I would have laughed you off. All I can say is that I think it’s the best those songs will probably ever sound. The Martian‘s knowing and self-depreciating humour comes to a brilliant head when Sean Bean has a discussion with other scientists about the council of Elrond.

Matt Damon seems very comfortable in the title role of Mark Watney.  Most of Damon’s lines are delivered directly to the lens, through the form of video logs; Damon is one of the only actors that could pull off the honest comedy the role requires.  Jeff Daniels is on stunning form as NASA chief, Teddy Sanders, who is stuck in a bureaucratic nightmare. The performances are, in general, very strong but some actors are perhaps a little wasted:  Kirsten Wiig suffers the most as NASA’s PR Guru, Annie.  Scott has mentioned in interviews that most of her scenes ended on the cutting room floor because she would improvise a devastatingly funny line that ground the scene to a halt.  Hopefully, she’ll get the chance to shine in the DVD extras. Kate Mara has an unnecessary love story tacked on in the final reel of the film. The Martian should be celebrated though, for casting Jessica Chastain as the captain of the Ares Crew.  She gives a muscular and measured performance and is one of the movie’s highlights.

It is great to see Scott roll up his sleeves and tell a streamlined and propulsive story.  He seems to have been reinvigorated by the project and I am now eagerly anticipating his second Prometheus film Alien: Paradise Lost.  Harry Gregson-Williams’ score is great and underpins the stark landscapes captured by Dariusz Wolski’s cinematography. The Martian’s scenes in space have a great weightless and soundless feel; Scott employed Framestore to do this because of their previous form capturing that environment so vividly with Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity.

The Martian  is a brilliant ride.  A late edition to a somewhat lacklustre summer season for popcorn movies, it is well worth the watch for its rollercoaster thrills.

Everest tells the story of a 1996 attempt to summit the world’s tallest peak that went disastrously wrong.

Directed by Balthasar Kormákur, written by William Nicholson and Simon Beaufoy, Out Now

It centres around two rival climbing companies, Adventure Consultants, lead by Jason Clarke’s Rob Hall and Mountain Madness, lead by Jake Gyllenhaall’s Scott Fischer.  As they battle to descend from the mountain’s peak, hampered by a brutal snowstorm.

Kormákur took his cast to the real mountains in Nepal, shot them extensively climbing the Alps and, when shooting in Pinewood Studios, chilled the sound stage to blast real snow at the actors.  This is all done in an attempt to increase the realism of the film and his hard work paid off visually.  The movie looks stunning.  Salvatore Totino’s photography makes the whites of the snow look menacing.  Whilst the movie’s photography is elegant, the rest of the movie leaves more than a little to be desired. Marianelli’s score is syrupy and is often distracting.  Although the performances are all very good and the actors commit to their roles, they aren’t given much to do.  Even though we spend a lot of time with them before they begin their ascent, we frustratingly don’t really learn more about or get under the skin of the characters: most of Hall’s clients can be identified as the journalist one, the one who coughs a lot, the brash Southern one, the older experienced one so when the mountain begins to pick them off, it isn’t as affecting as it ought to be.  If this movie is anything to believe, climbing Everest is something for men to do, women must sit at Base Camp or at home on radios and phones, panic and cry.  The real heroes of Everest, the Sherpas, are brushed aside as though they aren’t hugely important to keeping the business of the mountain ticking.

Everest deals very well with the commercialisation of the mountain and amateurs’ climbing of it but it feels as though Nicholson and Beaufoy devote too much time establishing and telling us how much of a threat Everest will pose rather than letting Kormákur show us.  The movie lacks the drive and suspense of similar survival stories like 127 Hours or the climbing docudrama Touching the Void, which is a shame.