After the loss of her husband, 83 year old Edie rediscovers a postcard which awakens memories of a life half lived. Packing her old camping gear, she leaves the doldrums of her life behind and sets her sights on conquering Mount Suilven in Scotland.
At its heart, Edie sits amidst a sub-genre of feature films whose core audience is close to the age range of the protagonist. Whether it’s Peter O’Toole in Venus (2006) or Dame Maggie Smith in The Lady in the Van (2015), there is an emphasis on a prominent elderly character persevering through their Winter years while forming unlikely companionships with a generation they had previously been alien to. The obvious reversal of this trope is the excellent Harold and Maude (1971) where Ruth Gordon’s spritely and fun-loving septuagenarian (Maude) who manages to change the heart of the death obsessed Harold, played by Bud Cort. But I digress.
The key strength of Edie stems from the wonderful performances from Sheila Hancock and Kevin Guthrie. Their characters are written with dimensionality and while their arc may be clichéd, the chemistry between them makes the journey a rewarding one. Edie’s journey from the guilt and regrets of her past into the re-ignition of her near-forgotten dreams is one of colour. When we meet Edie, her world is drab, muted and predominantly filled with greys and browns. As her reticence fades we get a wonderful montage of Edie trying on a cascade of bold coloured outdoor wear. It’s a simple visual cue but one that highlights the evolution of her character.
August Jakobsson’s cinematography will do wonders for the Scottish tourist board as the camera sweeps across the gorgeous landscapes, giving a sense of the vastness of scale that Edie plans to traverse. In addition to this, the sound design evokes the character of the environment, the sound emphasising the emotion, the memory and the seemingly insurmountable challenge faced by the protagonist.
Edie is a touch more than octogenarian wish fulfilment. The emotional journey of the character is engaging without ever seeming too overwrought and despite a secondary plot element that goes boldly nowhere, proves to be a worthwhile adventure.
Andrew Fleming’s new comedy drama ‘Ideal Home’ is a heart-warming look at an eccentric, extravagant gay couple whose glitzy lifestyle is totally disrupted by the unexpected arrival of a long-lost grandson. The fact that both of them act like children themselves makes it particularly amusing to watch them blindly attempt to navigate their new roles as parents to a ten-year-old boy who rarely speaks, won’t tell them his name, and refuses to eat anything other than Taco Bell.
The boys blinkered approach to cuisine is a particular blow for Steve Coogan, who plays Erasmus, a hilariously egotistical celebrity chef. His long suffering partner Paul, played by Paul Rudd, simultaneously adores and resents Erasmus’s vanity and emotional immaturity. Whilst hosting a lavish dinner party at their Santa Fe home, a bewildered child claiming to be Erasmus’s grandson shows up. The pair knows that they must at least attempt to accept this new responsibility, but of course it puts an immense amount of strain on their already turbulent relationship. But of course, they grow more and more fond of the child, who decides to call himself Bill, and he teaches them a few things about themselves too.
There are several laugh-out-loud moments, especially involving Coogan’s character, one of which being a bizarre filming session for his high profile cooking show. He rides into frame on the back of a horse, dressed in full cowboy attire, chaps and all… you’ve got to chuckle. Surprisingly, Rudd and Coogan make quite a convincing couple, with their juvenile bickering again creating some of the films more amusing moments. The duo yoyo between the good-cop/bad-cop stances that all parents will be familiar with, rarely agreeing on much, apart from a particularly touching scene when they have been called into school to discuss Bill’s bad behaviour, only for them to erupt into fits of hysterical laughter.
Yes, the story line might be one that we have seen many times over the years, but the inclusion of same sex parents provides a fresher and less explored approach to this family dynamic. It may contain a few cheesy moments, a few stereotypes, but it was difficult not to fall for its charm. It’s a feel-good film, and Coogan and Rudd conjure up an unlikely chemistry and warmth together. I would recommend this film for a rainy day, it’s sure to put a smile on your face if you are willing not to take it all too seriously.
Filmworker is a documentary by Tony Zierra based on the life and career of Stanley Kubrick’s right hand man: Leon Vitali.
Vitali had made a name for himself in British film and Television, with no shortage of job offers. On being selected for the role of Lord Bullingdon in Barry Lyndon, the 27 year old was star struck at meeting the maverick director. Meanwhile Kubrick saw something in Vitali and created a space for him to fill. Though this began with the role in the film, it soon expanded to become much more than that.
Incredible that as much as Kubrick offered an opportunity to the young actor, Vitali felt that he should take such a leap into devoting his time to the director. The youngest of four, losing his father while still in primary school must have been enormously heartbreaking, and his desire to become Kubrick’s protege suggests that there was a need in his life for that type of dynamic. However, it is staggering to discover the lengths he went to to be of service to Kubrick – dogsbody; messenger; editor; bodyguard; personal attendant, on call 24/7. Herein lies the reason he would state ‘Filmworker’ as his job title. He saw himself in service not to Stanley Kubrick, but to the films of Stanley Kubrick – an abstract concept. Vitali witnessed the genius of the director, and devoted his whole career to seeing it realised.
Filmworker maintains a good balance between archival footage and talking heads, with much of the narrative coming directly from Vitali. Kubrick fans will enjoy various behind the scenes disclosures, and although there are no huge surprises, it is pleasing to hear Vitali’s memories of events in vivid detail. Equally, newcomers to the director’s work will not be put off by too much insider jargon or unnecessary spoilers.
For the time since Kubrick’s death in 1999 Vitali has existed as custodian of what remains. His passion never extinguished, although more than a few have tried to snuff it out. He has overseen 4k reproductions of the Kubrick back catalogue while some have sought to leave him out of the picture entirely (see Kubrick retrospective).
The unanswerable question that hangs over the whole documentary is this: How did Kubrick view his relationship with Vitali? To play such an important part in the making of iconic films such as The Shining and Full Metal Jacket, yet be left struggling to get by after the director’s death certainly gives pause.
It’s been ten years since an eye-patch wearing Samuel L Jackson told Iron Man he was assembling a team to save the world. Now the accumulation of that ten years has lead to the third Avengers film, Infinity War.
Ten years and nineteen films. Never has a film series been so successful, critically praised, fan loved and box office destroying. Enough is most certainly enough now! We have one more year and three more films before this MCU’s third phase ends and our true ending is given. But very recently I’ve watched all the films in preparation for the release of Infinity War. I feel that now is the best time for me to rank them all from very worst to absolute best.
It’s no secret that I’m not exactly fond of this series. On the whole I like them, but there are too many of them, and honestly, they’re mostly just average films for me. There are certainly those I love, just as there are those I hate. Every single one has its pro’s, and every single one has its cons. This is all opinion of course, so feel free to disagree with me on any point. Or agree. I’ll also mention that I’m not really a comic book reader. I’ve read a handful, but most of them didn’t involve superheroes and those that did so far haven’t been Marvel.
So this will be judgement by film only.
Let’s begin.
Thor: The Dark World
19/ THOR: THE DARK WORLD. DIR: ALAN TAYLOR.
I really hate this film. It’s the only MCU film that I think is completely insufferable. When I watched it last, I couldn’t finish it in one sitting. It’s dull, it’s boring, it has no lasting consequence to the series – outside of introducing us to one of the six Infinity Stones. It’s a very made-by-committee film. Nothing is artistic or creative, it’s all just a calculated story to get bums in seats.
The film’s director Alan Taylor, who gave us some of the best Game of Thrones episodes and the awful Terminator Genysis, is very much a hand for hire director. A studio wants something done and he just shoots it, with most of his own ideas getting side-lined. He clearly has talent – he did give us the death of Ned Stark – but there is none of that flare here. He does bring some of his Game of Thrones strengths to the sets, but they’re too grey and uninteresting that they don’t stand out.
The acting is the worst of the whole series. It feels more in place in a soap-opera than an Avengers film. Hemsworth feels out of his element while his chemistry with Natalie Portman is non-existant. Portman is clearly not happy being here – the same sadly goes for Sir Anthony Hopkins, giving one of the worst performances of his career. The less said about the woefully miscast Christopher Eccleston the better, as he provides the series worst entry in the long list of bad villains. We do thankfully have Tom Hiddleston’s Loki on top form. He supplies the best scenes of the whole film. Sadly he’s not in it very long. I know it has its fans, but to me it’s just so boring, ineffective and just plain bad. It’s the only one I would call unwatchable. Thankfully, it’s only up from here.
18/ IRON MAN 2. DIR: JON FAVREAU.
Admittedly Iron Man 2 shares a lot with Thor: The Dark World. It’s a mess, at times embarrassingly so, with a very committee feel and a lack of artistic vision behind it. I would even argue that it may be a more boring film, with a huge dead zone of interest in the latter half of act two. But I do give it some interesting ideas and much better acting. Most of the original cast and crew return for this one, and it’s not like they forgot how to make a film.
The action is pretty solid, with a very cool fight scene on a race track. While Mickey Roarke is clearly not too happy to be here most of the other cast members do a good job. Downey Jr is still pitch perfect as Tony Stark and Don Cheadle is a far better casting of Rhodes than Terrance Howard. Sam Rockwell does a typically great job at playing the corporate sleaze villain. I also appreciate the idea of the celebrity superhero, which was something very new at the time.
But there is no denying that this film is just a colossal mess. There’s three separate stories at play, and they don’t really connect at the end. Half of the film is just dedicated to setting up The Avengers and other future superhero films. I really cannot express how bored I was during watching this film! The dissatisfying ending did not help matters at all. It just feels like the first Iron Man film, but with far sloppier writing and worse effects. Just like Thor: The Dark World, if you put a gun to my head and forced me to tell you specifics that happened in this film, then I would be dead. They’re both beyond forgettable. I know it has gained a following of late, but it’s one I’d say you can definitely skip.
17/ AVENGERS: THE AGE OF ULTRON. DIR: JOSS WHEDON.
This one is a hit or miss film. Everyone agrees that it has its issues, but typically people either really like it, or really don’t. Placing it here should give away where I fall in that. While the films starts off well enough – with a decent action scene, a fun party at Avengers Tower and a legitimately creepy introduction of the film’s titular villain – but it all quickly goes down hill from there. Most of the Marvel assembly films have their own issues, but they don’t feel clustered and hard to follow. This one does.
Age of Ultron sadly demonstrates everything I don’t like about the MCU. There’s so little character development given to anybody in this film. The only characters who aren’t ignored are Iron Man, Hawkeye and Scarlett Witch. I still don’t care for Hawkeye, he’s just a very bland action hero to me – someone who I could see more in a film like Taken or Bourne than an Avengers film. Iron Man has a good learn from your mistakes story – which gets completely undermined when he doesn’t learn from his mistakes. In fact he makes the same mistake as he did at the beginning – which created Ultron – but now it works, apparently. Ultron is the crutch that the film leans on – and it suffers for it. Outside of his introduction he is such a poor, non-threatening, almost laughable villain. Admirably played by James Spader, but still poor.
Scarlett Witch is really the only new thing I liked in this film, giving her interesting powers and dilemmas. The action is fun I suppose, but it’s very CG heavy and towards the end feels very poorly choreographed. This is easily the worst film I’ve seen with Joss Whedon’s name on it – I include Alien And Predator Ranking in that. I’m not a fan of Whedon as a writer or director. He has talent – particularly for television and especially with teen audiences, such as Buffy. He is the wrong man to write and direct a superhero film, especially of this magnitude. I don’t hate Age of Ultron – well until Vision arrives, then I tune out completely. But this is an Avengers film! This is what the films before were meant to build up to. It could have – and should have – been so much better.
57,000 people currently call the streets of Skid Row Los Angeles home. Yes, 57,000 are homeless. Frankly, if the state can’t or won’t do anything, how can you or I as an individual make a difference. Well, Judge Craig Mitchell does – as a one man marathon running machine he has managed to make a world of difference. You will be inspired and humbled when you hear the stories of Ben, Mody, Raphael and others. People are what they do and Judge Mitchell shows that by giving a little of yourself, you end up giving those less fortunate or battling their own issues some dignity. As he says at the end of the documentary – give a little of yourself – an encouraging word or a little time may make a huge difference. What would happen if you gave a little of yourself?
As a judge – his day job consists of sentencing people to whole life terms, but in his private life helps those who society has rejected by teaching them discipline through running marathons. The opening scene of this documentary sets the tone – even in sentencing someone to 75 years to life you can see how much it weighs on his mind. Then we get to discover how by being a little bit open to the world around him, the judge was invited by a former criminal he sentenced to come and visit the Midnight Mission on Skid Row, which people off the streets of skid row. He combined his love of running by giving those who had given up on life something to work towards; training for a marathon in Ghana and then Rome.
The individuals followed have had difficult lives some of their own making through being part of a gang, self destruction through drug use and the list goes on. Some of the individuals’ stories that we follow in the film are not particularly likeable and that is what makes the documentary so attractive. What the documentary does is not shy away from showing the reality but also what can happen when one person stands up and says I am willing to help you. In this fast paced world it is often easy to forget your humanity. Everyone deserves dignity and sometimes it takes a stranger to show them how to achieve that. Mark Hayes’s investigative and informative direction manages to convey life on skid row – the highs and the lows. It is hard to watch this and now become fully invested, you will cry with joy and frustration and most of all with joy that there are people with Judge Mitchell who says to another – you matter.
Skid Row Marathon is a must see. Make the sacrifice for one night and get inspired to see how giving a little bit of your time can change and improve the lives of those around you.
Skid Row Marathon will be in UK cinemas on 9 May – FOR ONE NIGHT ONLY. Tickets can be bought here: www.skidrowmarathontickets.co.uk. Judge Craig Mitchell completed his 74th marathon at the first London Marathon of his career on behalf of The Skid Row Running Club, The Big Issue and The Running Charity. Donations can be made here: https://www.gofundme.com/skidrowmarathon
This is one of the best documentaries I’ve seen in recent years. Inspiring, empowering and hopeful.
