Author: BRWC

Panic of the streets of London

Cast: Charlie (Noel Clarke), Mark (Colin O’Donoghue), Shelley (Antonia Campbell-Hughes), Nikki (Laura Haddock), Chris (Alex Price).

The story revolves around central character Charlie (Noel Clarke), who is lets face it is rather heartbroken after his girlfriend, Shelley (Antonia Campbell-Hughes) has dumped him. With chances of her changing her mind unlikely Charlie heads to the storage facility where her belongings are being kept, taking his best friend for some much needed moral support the pair head to the storage locker not knowing that Shelley has beaten them to it with a couple of friends. A slightly awkward showdown between the couple takes place before the power shuts off and this is when things take a turn for the worst.

The facility is now on lockdown after the power failure which has been caused by the plane crash, the group along with a man who lives in the storage facility are now locked inside, what they don’t know is they are also locked in with another life form a vicious blood thirsty extraterrestrial who has escaped from the crashed plane and headed straight into Storage 24 and it won’t stop until it has killed each and every one of them.

A dangerous game of cat and mouse occurs with the group being picked off slowly. Didn’t anyone ever tell you safety in numbers?

“I just want to go home” – Charlie

After the remaining survivors from the group finally kill the alien and leave the storage unit they realise they could have an even bigger problem as a spaceship passes overhead and the camera pans away to scenes of London as it descends into chaos, was this just the beginning? And if this was just the beginning who will win to final fight?

Storage 24 is dark and creepy and truly British, with shocks and scares and strong characters Noel Clarke of course is the stand out character, along with Nikki (Laura Haddock) who you may remember from The Inbetweeners Movie. The relationship between Charlie and Shelley was slightly unbelievable at times and it was a shame the monster/alien was shown so early on in the film as I would have liked the build up to be slightly longer.

A thoroughly enjoyable home grown film, with a great cast and special effects.

Brave was 2012’s offering from studio behemoths Disney-Pixar, focusing on rebellious red-haired Princess Merida (voiced by Kelly Macdonald), who looks like Rebekah Brooks if she had grown up in medieval Scotland instead of the pits of hell.

The plot has dashes of Pocahontas, a twist of Mulan, with a slice of 21^st Century post-feminism. Young Merida just wants to be free to ride her horse around the highlands, shoot arrows at trees and steal cakes from the castle kitchens. Attempting to put her back in her place is her mother – hardline traditionalist Queen Elinor (Emma Thompson), who wants her daughter to grow up as a proper princess, rather than some wildling wench.

This maternal tension comes to a head when Elinor tells Merida that she must choose one of three suitors from the Scottish clans, in order to maintain peace within the kingdom. Merida is having none of it, and storms off in a fit of teenage wrath – helpfully encountering a witch/craft woman who provides her with a magic cake which will “change” her mother.  Elinor changes rather more than Merida was hoping for, and the pair are forced into hiding until Merida can work out how to reverse the spell. Cue some mother-daughter bonding and vague lessons about the importance of family and personal freedom.

It’s a solid piece, following in the Disney-Pixar tradition of creating children’s films that won’t make their parents want to pull their teeth out. The animation is frankly incredible, with some beautiful scenic shots reminiscent of Studio Ghibli films. My only qualm is that some of the character art might be bordering on the excessively exaggerated: Billy Connolly’s father figure is a hulking ginger giant, whose fingers look like over-stuffed sausages when he places them on his wife’s delicately drawn shoulder.

Brave is a decent offering but unfortunately not quite an instant classic, lacking the consistent laughs of Pixar movies such as Toy Story or Finding Nemo, or the emotional depth of Disney’s Pocahontas, Lion King or even 2009 Disney-Pixar release Up. Brave just doesn’t contain any convincing threat: there are no “adult” themes of loss, death, or war that made these prior animated films so powerful and ultimately enjoyable. You also don’t get the sense that little Merida has really learnt anything along the way – except perhaps not to take dodgy cakes off little old ladies (just say no, kids).

This isn’t to say that there is no positive message in Brave. It is refreshing to see a Disney Princess film in which there is no love interest, and the princess manages to end up as a badass single lady. It is also nice to see the relationship between mother and daughter looked at in this depth, although this does leave King Fergus (Billy Connolly) rather out in the cold. I was also disappointed by the lack of sassy animal companions (oh Timon and Pumbaa, can’t you appear in everything?)

In short, children will no doubt enjoy it, and Merida provides a strong female role model for young girls (and boys). For adults it’s watchable and easy on the eye, but don’t expect either belly laughs or heart-rending sobs.

Behold, another DVD review double-header! First up this time around is the British thriller G.B.H, directed by direct-to-DVD regular Simon Phillips (of Jack Falls). Centring on Damien (Nick Nevern) a former London toe-rag turned Copper trying to get his life on track, the film unfolds around 2011’s London Riots.

Phillips’ film attempts to show London as a city stretched to breaking point, full of crime and discontent as it builds its way towards the riots. Confusing title cards keep popping up saying things indicating how many weeks are left before the violence erupts. Unless you’ve worked out their purpose, it feels like the film keeps showing scenes out of chronological order and muddles the narrative. We see Damien trying to negotiate an almost double life – one side a typical lad who appears to have some of humanity’s worst mates, and the other a beat-walking policeman who observes (and keeps commenting on) society’s collapse.

One issue here is that Damien is massively unlikeable. While Nevern is a capable actor, a squinting, grimacing former hooligan who won’t even stick up for his girlfriend when is dreadful, leery pal (Peter Barrett) intimidates her doesn’t make for the most engaging protagonist. Presumably he’s supposed to appear complex; not your normal hero. He just seems like a bit of a dick.

Speaking of dicks, Damien’s aforementioned friends are, in fairness, impressively played. They’re slimy to the point that they practically leave a smear on your screen.

As the story boils towards the explosion of violence in the city through recycled overhead shots of The Gherkin and dimly lit grubby council estates, we can see that things aren’t going to end well for Damien. There is some reasonable tension building here as the film swerves into revenge-flick territory, but ultimately it is devoid of much intrigue or interest. Another one to add to the growing stack of Brit-gangster-hooligan-crime thrillers that all appear to star the same people who say things like ‘you muggy little caaaant’ a lot.

King of Devil’s Island may be similarly grim in tone, but has a lot more to offer. Set on the Norwegian prison island of Bastøy in 1915, it deals with the day-to-day lives of young offenders as Stellan Skarsgård’s Governor attempts to reform them.

Starring a largely young and excellent cast (the ‘reform school’ was for children and teenagers) the film zones in on Erling (Benjamin Helstad) a young sailor who appears to be guilty of murder. Spared adult prison, he is set to work on the island in order to reform into a ‘good Christian Norwegian boy’.

As is often the way with prison dramas, things don’t being well for Erling, who soon finds himself in trouble for fighting and lack of discipline. Billeting with ‘C barracks’ and taking on the name C19, he befriends Olav (Trond Nilssen), who has been on the island for six years.

The stark and hard-edged Norwegian landscape seems the perfect setting for a film such as this, the cool colour temperature really leaving a chilled impression. The boys look the part – their glazed eyes reflecting childhood’s lost. Some are more vulnerable than others; particularly newcomer Ivar (Magnus Langlete) who it appears may be being abused by one of the older male staff.

As the boys become increasingly aware and angry with this, tension starts to rise, and it becomes apparent that a small staff of old men is no match for an island of put-upon teenagers.

It’s no surprise that King of Devil’s Island takes its inspiration from the real life Bastøy uprising in 1915. The moments leading up to this event are largely on the shoulders of the young cast, who do a fantastic job balancing the roles of vulnerable kids and hardened, institutionalised workers. Helstad and Nilssen in particular are magnetic, with solid supporting work from Skarsgård.

If the film has one problem it’s that this is an oft-told story. It’s setting however allows for intrigue, especially given the history of Bastøy, and the performances give heart that burns through the freezing vistas the film presents.

G.B.H and King of Devil’s Island are out now.

I don’t want to say that 2011’s Margaret is a bad film. Admittedly, I have warned my friends and family never to watch it, but I don’t actually believe it is awful. There are parts within it which are moving, interesting and well-acted, but somewhere along the line writer and director Kenneth Longeran apparently forgot how to edit.

The premise has potential: a teenage girl witnesses a bus accident – which she in part caused – and subsequently has to deal with her guilt and existential angst, emotions exacerbated by her youth. There is a stellar cast: Anna Paquin portrays Lisa, the 17 year old protagonist, while Matt Damon, Mark Ruffalo, J. Smith-Cameron and Jean Reno provide an impressive supporting line-up. It could have been this decade’s Crash (spoilers: it’s not).

My father picked up this DVD in Sainsbury’s for £3: this represented a decent bargain, at a mere £1 per hour of entertainment. Three hours is more than enough time to create a thoughtful atmosphere, examining in-depth Lisa’s solipsistic brooding amid the middle-class, post-9/11 New York world in which she moves.  However, by focusing so intensely and realistically on every aspect of Lisa’s reaction to the bus crash, it lacks momentum and climax, feeling more like a snapshot of someone’s life than a thought-out script.

30 year old Paquin portrays the tormented teenage soul with impressive accuracy, but this doesn’t necessarily warm you to her rather pretentious character. Lisa reminded me of the dangers of being an intelligent yet ultimately ignorant 17 year old (I remember this experience with shameful clarity): the naivety and nihilism that can lead to emotional turmoil, but also how bloody annoying you are to everyone around you – including, in this case, the audience.

The supporting cast simply aren’t given the space to develop and their characters remain, on the whole, two-dimensional, seen only through the prism of Lisa’s introspective “journey”. At one point, the character Emily argues with Lisa, telling her “this isn’t an opera! And we are not all supporting characters to the drama of your amazing life!”. The film itself would have done well to heed that advice.

On the whole, it does feel like Lonergan was attempting to create an opera or play, rather than a movie. The intense dialogue, the frequent use of interior sets and the sprawling philosophical themes all combine to create a sense that you are watching something intended for the stage, rather than the screen.

Perhaps this is the only way to appreciate Margaret: have some little tubs of ice-cream at the ready, build in an intermission time, and prepare yourself for the long-haul. If only I had known this beforehand, I may have fully enjoyed this potentially moving and insightful piece of cinema, rather than wondering when it would finally end.