film reviews, interviews, features | BRWC

Author: Rosalynn Try-Hane

  • Addicted To Fresno – Q&A With Director Jamie Babbitt

    Addicted To Fresno – Q&A With Director Jamie Babbitt

    Ahead of the UK release of her dark, emotional yet comic film, Addicted To Fresno, BRWC asked its director Jamie Babbitt about the joys of being married to a fellow storyteller, working with friends and why coming from an underdog city makes a person stronger!

    What attracted you to this project apart from it being written by your wife?

    We developed the script together. My wife Karey had written for South Park and Arrested Development and wanted to write a comedy feature for me [to direct]. Her first pitch was a wacky comedy about drug smuggling girls. I asked if she had any other ideas and she said: well I could write something about me and my sister. That relationship I know is so complicated and interesting that I knew whatever wacky stuff my wife dreamed up- the emotional story would be rich and complicated. That’s what always draws me in – comedy with an emotional center.

    Following on from that, given you’re married to the writer, Karey Dornetto, how challenging was it to suggest/make changes to the script?

    We had so much fun going back and forth about the script. We both care so much about our creative endeavours so to share that headspace with her makes us closer. Sharing your creative life with your partner is the reason to go out with a fellow storyteller. We fought, we cried, we celebrated. It all makes you closer.

    The cast is pretty impressive: did it take much convincing to get Judy Greer and Natasha Lyonne on board?

    Natasha is my old friend from But I’m A Cheerleader [a film directed by Jamie Babbitt] days and I was working with Judy on her show Married. We were all friends so that helped get them involved. [There was ] deep trust on all sides.


    Natasha Lyonne’s character is gay – was it important to you to have a gay character in the lead role of the film?

    My wife wrote from her experience. I think that helps the character [in] that it’s so specific to the writer and the writer is a lesbian!

    What’s the significance of the film’s title?

    The story is about one sister who stayed in their hometown and one sister who always wanted to leave.

    The Fresno tourist board won’t be calling you anytime soon. The film doesn’t paint a very good image of Fresno. Surely, there must be some good/interesting reasons to visit Fresno?

    I’m from Cleveland another underdog city. I love Cleveland only because when you have something to rail against you become stronger. Fresnians, like clevelanders, and Liverpool peeps understand what I’m saying…

    How did you pitch this film as for me it straddles two genres?

    I pitched it as a crime black comedy with heart.

    Addicted To Fresno is released in cinemas across the UK on 9 October. Read the BRWC review of the film here.

  • The BRWC Review: The Walk

    At the start of his fledgling tightrope career Papa Rudy (Ben Kingsley) tells Philippe Petit (Joseph Gordon Levitt) most tightrope walkers “die when they arrive” as he falters 3 steps before reaching safety due to his arrogance. The Walk reminds the viewer that, despite it sounding sickly sweet, every journey starts with a single step. After watching this film you’ll remember nothing is impossible.

    Philippe Petit in 1974 without a safety line walked a tightrope of 140ft between the Twin Towers in New York. They stood at 110 stories high. The 2005 Oscar winning documentary Man on Wire was incredible. The Walk fails to engage the audience. Everything about the story telling is linear as opposed to the Man on Wire documentary. It is obviously done with the blessing of Philippe Petit and based on his memoir Between the Clouds. However, what gives the film a competitive edge is the CGI and seeing it in IMAX 3D laser; you must there is no point seeing it in 2D. IMAX with laser represents a quantum leap forward in cinema technology – providing audiences with the sharpest, brightest, clearest and most vivid digital images ever, combined with a whole new level of immersive audio.The audience are able to sense, sort of, and see the same vertiginous view as Petit from the safety of the cinema chair. It is a totally immersive experience. Joseph Gordon Levitt does an admirable job as Philippe Petit although his French accent does verge perilously close into comic ‘allo ‘allo territory. It’s a shame we have to sit through nearly an hour of the film before becomes engaging. Robert Zemeckis is never more comfortable than when directing the CGI and action scenes. There are times when Levitt appears so CGI that it feels as if we’re watching a scene from Polar Express. Nonetheless, the technical brilliance in recreating the Twin Towers and special effects is awe inspiring.

    This film is even more empowering and uplifting given that Petit did actually walk the tightrope between the Twin Towers and spent 45 minutes up there. Yes 45 minutes! As I said impossible is nothing. The ending of the film is poignant given the awful tragedy that befell the towers on 11 September 2001. In a small way this film takes us back to an age of innocence and wonder. Since the movie, I remember the Twin Towers fondly because of Petit and that is a legacy he should be proud of.

    The film must be watched at an IMAX screening for the full immersive effect. You may not rush out after the screening to learn to walk a tightrope but, it will leave you thinking everything is possible and it starts with a single step.

    The Walk opened nationwide on 2 October.

  • Review: The Return

    The Return begins in the dark. This is after all a film noir and so Oliver Nias chooses to reinforce that by shooting the entire film in atmospheric black and white, highly stylised, telling the audience that everyone has a secret.

    What is this film about? Discovering this secret even if ten minutes into the film you’ve guessed the film and only stay until the bitter end to be proven right. What does this mean. It is predictable and a collage of the most famous gangster films you’ve seen that was shot in London sprinkled with an attempt at Christopher Nolan misdirection magic that after a while it is laughable.

    Oliver Nias wrote and directed his debut film and I have a lot of time for writer-directors. The direction is good as is the photography and sound. However, the script is weak aside from the opening scene everything is predictable and not in an enjoyable way. There are a lot of brooding silences, close ups. The editing gives this a film slicker feel than it deserves. The paired down dialogue works and Sam Donnelly as Jack, the protagonist in this film is certainly one to watch. He gives a stellar performance.

    Had the film been kept to a reasonable 60 minutes then possibly it might have been a little bit enjoyable. At the end of the day The Return is not just another gangster film it is a poor imitation and pastiche of all those that have been before.

    The Return will be screened at Raindance Film Festival 2015 and is nominated for Best UK Feature. It had its premier on 27 September and you can see whether I’ve been overly harsh at the public screening on 3 October.

  • Review: Macbeth

    Review: Macbeth

    Macbeth is all style over substance that pushes the meaning of adaptation too far that would leave even Shakespeare questioning what the premise of the film is. Not even the majestic and mesmeric performance of Michael Fassbender can rescue this film from the madness it descends into.

    Macbeth needs no introduction as the play by Shakespeare with the premise that ruthless ambitious leads to its own destruction. Justin Kurzel takes his turn, just as Orson Welles, Polanski and Kurosawa have gone before, in adapting and directing a play that contains so many iconic and important characters that have in turn inspired so many characters in modern English literature. In the casting Marion Cottilard as Lady Macbeth his adaptation faltered. For she was not mad, bad or dangerous enough for Macbeth to be married to. Her diction was terrible and whilst all around her spoke with authentic enough sounding Scottish accents she whispered and rasped her lines in her accented French. Also, where was the passion – it was lacking. Where was the woman who goaded her husband into killing the king and told him to man up by saying ”what’s done is done”. I can tell you she wasn’t in this film.

    The director along with the screenwriters seems confused about the premise of Macbeth. It is “ruthless ambition leads to its own destruction” and yet from the opening scene of the film he seems determined on trying to explain away Macbeth’s descent into madness as some sort of insanity brought on from the loss of a child or PTSD for the cool kids amongst us. We know that Macbeth lost a child and Lady Macbeth makes reference to it in the original play but the opening scene is an image too far and unnecessary. Herein lies the fundamental problem I have with the film, in tinkering with the premise and trying to mitigate Macbeth’s action by way of a soldier suffering from PTSD it confuses what the film is about. Is Kurzel asking the audience to feel sorry for Macbeth? Adapt by all means using new and innovative methods but once you go too far what you have is an original film loosely inspired by Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Kurzel’s voracity and failure to reflect and be slightly more nuanced is to his detriment.

    The stop start almost 3000 film inspired sequence of the battle scenes were too much. Kurzel seemed bent on showing every technique he had learnt at film school. This was a shame as less is more. The rolling scene straight from star wars streaming history but instead of a galaxy far away we were told battle of Ellon and King Duncan had given Macbeth the last of his men. Providing the audience with brief history of what had happened for those that couldn’t fathom that bloody battles usually mean some sort of war gives a hint of who this film is aimed at. The stylised version of the film should come as no surprise as Justin will be directing Assassin’s Creed yet all this imagery and chopping up and playing around with Shakespeare takes away from the power of the play. The out damn spot was laughable with Lady Macbeth appearing to look into space with no hands in sight and for me was akin to having Hamlet start his existential soliloquy of: “to be or not to be” without the skull. It just doesn’t work.

    However, this is Shakespeare light for the xbox generation who cannot hold their attention long enough to listen to the wonderful dialogue but need images and everything spelled out.

    There are bright spots in the film namely the cinematography awash with vibrant colours. Also Kurzel’s decision to film Macbeth mostly outside captures the harsh, 12th century setting of this film. The Weird sisters as well as an outstanding and stellar supporting cast including: David Thewlis as Duncan, Sean Harris as MacDuff and Paddy Considine as Banquo lifts this film. Michael Fassbender provides what is surely an award winning performance. When Macbeth’s final descent into madness happens Fassbender shows his range as an actor and his delivery of the original Shakespearian lines is pitch perfect.

    If Macbeth is your favourite out of all the Shakespare’s plays then view this as an original film inspired by Shakespeare’s Macbeth rather than a true adaptation. Or maybe I am wrong and misunderstood as Pollock was when he first came along and people will see and appreciate it for the art it is.

    Macbeth is out in cinemas on 2 October.

  • Interview: David Blair, Director Of The Messenger

    Interview: David Blair, Director Of The Messenger

    It’s rare that you get to interview both the lead and director of a film separately and in depth during a festival. I was lucky enough to sit down with Robert Sheehan and then David Blair, director of The Messenger a film with a complex narratives of love, loss with a supernatural edge. We sat and chatted like old friends about film genres, great working relationships and intense shooting schedules.

    How did the project come about?

    One of the producers, Mike Knowles, I’d worked with. We’d done a film a couple of years ago and we did a little sky thing about John Lennon. During that time he showed me this idea and I kind of liked the notion that it could potentially be about the dead contacting the living as opposed to the other way round which is usually done. It is a strange one and wasn’t headhunted or through an agent,[just] having a chat and reading a script. It was originally sent to me as an example of the guy’s work. I’d already worked with Robert [Sheehan] and I sent it to Robert and asked him if it was something that would interest him.

    He already said to me this afternoon – that he had already worked with you and that was one of the reasons why he wanted to come and do this project.

    We might be working at the end of the year

    You two will be the new Fassbender / Mcqueen duo.

    Yeah it’w weird sometimes you get that. At the end of the day and because budgets are tight and time’s tight now having the short hand of working with somebody who knows you and you know them. You know [like] you can actually just with a look express a shift or a change that you don’t need to go through a huge demonstration of what needs to be done.

    How long did it take to shoot this film?
    It would be 24 days I think

    So Pretty quick?

    The one I’ve just done was 24 days but this [The Messenger] was 4 six day weeks so pretty intense. 24 days is a challenge.

    It’s an intense subject matter when you take away the: I see dead people part and are left with the main narrative and subplot.

    It’s difficult but you’re trying to not genrefy the film to too great an extent. It’s quite interesting and a lot of people in film actively want genre and I never quite get a handle on that. I understand that but there’s a lot of people saying it’s [The Messenger] a horror but I don’t think it’s a horror. It’s all about psychology and about relationships and if you wanted to add mystery into that mix then that’s fine. There’s a great danger, not that you under sell it but, that you miss sell it so you don’t reach your audience because of your own wrongdoing.

    How do you pitch this film or how was the film pitched to you? Someone asked me to describe it and I said you could say it was a mash up between ghost and the sixth sense but actually it’s more than that.

    Robert [said to me] I might have a little tick etc. I said don’t have any of that because I’ve done a lot of stuff that’s involved mental health and the overriding question [is]: by whose definition are we mad. So therefore what [I said to Robert] you should do is play it dead straight let the circumstances by all means dictate the peaks and troughs of the performance but leave the audience with the opportunity to explore what the ultimate mental state is. I’ve met loads of mental patients over the years and 90% are like us. I didn’t want to heighten and stylise it and try and make it become a) something it couldn’t be. It was important and why Robert is so great in the film because he’s fundamentally grounded without eccentricity.

    Robert was saying this afternoon he wanted to have the character with broken teeth and that kind of stuff and that was viteoed so what were the other clichés you tried to avoid?
    I remember the discussion about the teeth and certain body language and limps and all that. We did have [a] debate. I think you’re looking for something you’ll think that nobody believe I’m mad unless I do dot dot dot. Well sometimes that’s the worst type of thing and you don’t need the audience to do anything because in fact you’ve told them it all. I think let the audience explore the type of person you are and where you come from.

    I found myself lauging at inappropriate times during the film.

    That’s good I think

    In the screening I was in people were a bit upset I was laughing but I have a dark sense of humour. Why do you think humour goes in hand in hand with hard times.
    Because I think you need something to lift you out of the hard times and what’s better than laughing or joking. The places in Britain renowed for their humour are the hardest places – Glasgow, Liverpool do you know what I mean so maybe of course its’ origin. That also was not an intention but was not something to avoid [either].

    Peoples’ perceptions of Robert’s character feature heavily in the film. How do want the film to be perceived

    It would be good if there was no attempt to generalise or try to create some kind of perception for it. I would hope it [was] with the slight supernatural elements and done in an unpretentious way. There’s no desire to preach [or] tell somebody else what to think. It wasn’t flippantly put together. But I suppose engage and have some measure fulfilment having [seen it].


    The Messenger is out in cinemas on 18 September