A past-it, washed-up, has-been actor is plucked from midlife obscurity to assist the police in capturing a suspected killer who mistakenly believes the fictional 80s TV character Mindhorn is a real person. Richard Thorncroft makes his way back to the Isle of Man to revitalise his career, relive past glories and rekindle an old flame while trying to get to the truth behind the murder.
While the fictional show comes across like Bergerac by way of Garth Marenghi’s Dark Place, the life and times of the elder Richard Thorncroft are more akin to Alan Partridge, with the well-worn plot taking strides in the Alpha Papa’s shoes. Julian Barratt and Simon Farnaby’s creation makes for a compelling character. Thorncroft’s delusions of grandeur and complete lack of cool make him an endearing idiot. The kind of idiot you’re happy to get whisked away with for 90 minutes as he bungles his way around the Isle of Man, swept up in the funk of his own hype.
Barrat’s physicality is only matched by his ability to throw quips like a comedic ninja as he utterly sells the titular role to hilarious ends. Simon Farnaby’s turn as Thorncroft’s Dutch ex-stuntman-turned-foil is part Goldmember, part pillock but all laughs, with the likes of Essie Davis, Russell Tovey and Andrea Riseborough rounding out the sturdy gaggle of islanders. Perhaps casting Steve Coogan as Thorncroft’s far more successful, former co-star was a little too on the nose but his inclusion allows for some great snips concerning British telly actors and the lure of Hollywood.
Overall, Mindhorn delivers some brilliant performances, quote-worthy scenes and a heavy dose of silliness despite a plot that feels overly familiar. To use a TV term, this felt more like a pilot to a revival series than a fully-fledged movie. In fact, I’d love to see the further adventures of Richard Thorncroft and Mindhorn on the small screen. This character should totally be a thing, action-doll, lunch boxes and all. One can only wish for a sequel with John Nettles as a Manx Cat stroking baddie.
God, I’d love to see how this pitch went. “We are going to make a film where Alec Baldwin is a baby!” I think that deserves a big budget from DreamWorks, don’t you? I would tell you the story to ‘Boss Baby’, but it doesn’t really go beyond Alec Baldwin being a baby. It wasn’t one I was looking forward to because, as I’m sure you’ve all seen, the advertisements for this film were horrible. This looked like garbage. It didn’t look funny, or smart, or have any reason to exist, all it did have was Alec Baldwin as a baby. But, the same could have been said about last year’s Storks and that was hilarious and smart so I risked it once again.
Okay, so what story there is involves a kid with an overactive imagination and his shock when his family extends with a new baby brother. The baby immediately takes over the house; as the adult version of the boy narrates in the film, he calls for meeting after meeting, he blows a gasket when his demands/requirements aren’t met, he practically controls the parents and he seems to be getting all of the love, giving the boy the feeling of being replaced with someone newer (an out-with-the-old scenario). But soon, the kid discovers that the baby can talk, and is indeed a boss of babies. He is on a covert mission to put a stop to a new type of puppy taking over the market. Yes, babies and puppies are at war for the love of people and a new breed of puppy from, I don’t know puppy headquarters, threatens to take all of love away from babies for good. The boy and baby must help each other and what follows is…just weird.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiQR_srtc-E
This plot is so needlessly complicated that I really did have a hard time remembering it, and an even harder time describing it. Alongside this, the story has a very strange structure, with numerous moments feeling like we have started another film. I had to mention that the kid had an overactive imagination because that is a surprisingly key part to the story. You see, the settings will change (sometimes even the animation too) to symbolise that we are in his imagination. This works in moments where we get an insight into the kid’s feelings (like him being in jail when he’s grounded), or in just delivering some fast-paced action or laughs. But, this is undone by the fact that, in what can only be assumed as the real world, there are some outlandish things happening. And I don’t just mean the talking baby; there is action, story and even fantasy elements that happen when the kid isn’t daydreaming. It becomes very confusing very quickly. Even the boss baby’s existence doesn’t make much sense; we get an entire baby world and corporation which basically gives a reason for how babies are born that kids will understand. But we also see the mother pregnant, how does that work?
The final third in particular feels very odd and clustered. There are some bizarre plot points brought in here, including a very odd villain voiced by Steve Buscemi, which are admittedly imaginative, but they don’t connect with what was given beforehand. And when they do, it feels a little forced. This could all have been fixed by the ending, which did annoy me. You see, we actually get a very good reason why all of this is happening at the end, and it’s smart and really heart-warming and, just works. And then it’s ruined in the last three seconds and nothing makes sense again. It’s a good example of sacrificing a story for a joke. On top of that the characters aren’t very good. They’re not bad, or at least the main characters aren’t, but they’re nothing new. We have seen these characters before and done better. The kid was basically the kid from Storks, but with less intelligent writing, and the baby doesn’t really get past that it’s just Alec Baldwin.
But, is Boss Baby funny? And to that I say yes. Sometimes it was because of how weird things were, but there are actually a lot of genuine laughs to be had here. I’ve gone on about the Alec Baldwin voice, but I really like Alec Baldwin. I hear the bad reputation he has as a person to work with, and I don’t doubt it’s true, but watching him as a professional actor (particularly for comedy) I think he’s actually really good. It’s the same reason I like Michael Caine, Baldwin plays himself in most roles (and especially this one, they don’t even hide it), but what a character he is. The acting is actually really good across the board on this one, everyone delivers their lines well and time their jokes perfectly. And the visual humour isn’t bad at all. It’s good, funny slapstick. This, of course, being helped by DreamWorks’ usual great animation. This is a beautiful film to look at.
And there was actually one theme to the story that I really liked. I think it was really smart parodying a baby as the house’s new boss, which did lead to a lot of laughs down the line, but it’s what comes with it that I really appreciated. The feeling of being the older sibling to a new-born. Particularly when the older sibling gets past an age when the baby is born. It makes the kid, and the story as a whole actually pretty relatable. It’s nice to see, as not many films use this or don’t use it well. It’s a nice, heart-warming anchor for the rest of the film to work around, which to its credit it rarely strays too far from this theme.
It’s hard to say whether or not I recommend ‘Boss Baby’. If you want a nice, easy, fun time then I’d say check it out. But if you want something more, then I think the cluster bomb of a plot will get you down. If you can say to yourself “Alec Baldwin is the boss baby” and think that might be funny, then you’ll enjoy it. If not, there’s more on the horizon.
I just got home after the Cambridge Arts Picturehouse screening of Lost in London and a Q&A session afterwards with Woody Harrelson himself and I must say, I really really enjoyed the movie!
There is so much to talk about but basically what it boils down to is he has created a funny, philosophical, and personal piece of cinema that not only entertains but actually does something new with the medium.
Back on January 20th 2017 the film was shot in one complete take over 2 hours from 10:30pm and the whole time it was filming it was livestreamed to select cinemas across the globe. The edit I saw today had the benefit of added sound and music but apart from that it was completely untouched. There are moments where slight mistakes were made (one very big one) but they’re kept in and have a lot to do with the charm that makes this film so likeable.
Woody Harrelson is absolutely brilliant in it! You can tell it was a personal story cause he owns it from the very beginning. I have always been a fan but he really does exceed expectations at times here. The fact that he was a producer on the film as well as writing it and making his directorial debut with it is nothing less than incredible! It’s a huge success and really bodes well for what he might want to do next in terms of directing and writing. I doubt he will do the “one take” or the “live” thing again though as the man himself said it was hell! I must also mention that Owen Wilson crops up in a very funny bar scene and Bono’s voice is quite surreally heard over a phone call on loudspeaker. There a few other cool little celeb moments too but I won’t spoil them for you.
Lost In London With A Woody Harrelson Q&A
The only real comparison you can make to this film is Victoria from a couple of years ago and unfortunately when put side by side it would be Victoria that comes out on top just from the sheer spectacle of how far that takes it whilst still remaining within the one take restraint but Lost in London is definitely funnier and really has a lot to say about family, friendship and fame as well as just showing how things can get out of hand so quickly if we don’t keep our cool.
I really hope this gets a proper release and it sounds like it might as Woody is in talks with Picturehouse as the response from these Q&As has been so good. I would happily sit through this again in the theatre and I’m definitely going to go through Woody’s filmography and rewatch some of his classics. The man is a legend!
“The house I live in is an island. My dad says we’re trapped…He says a man who can read, write and kill has got it all”. So begins the story of a teenage-boy (Barry Keoghan) and his zombie-like hallucinating father (Dénis Ménochet), whose lifeless eyes we first encounter as he appears to watch six televisions at once. He eventually becomes coherent when recounting a complex dream. His wary son remains dubious.
A pink beach ball unites the lonely and thoughtful boy with a girl (Goda Letkauskaitė), a fellow field worker referred to by his father as ‘a stray cat’. As they drift in a boat, the boy comes out with a declaration of his gentle desire for her, not realising that two pairs of eyes in the bushes, Bill (Sean Buckley) and his wife (Eileen Davies) are gazing at him with the same longing. From that point on, I was hooked. Clues provided suggested that their life was not always as bleak – a tattooed wedding ring, a framed photo, an articulate boy.
Nominated at the 2015 Edinburgh Film Festival for the Michael Powell Award for Best British Feature, writer and director Martin Radich has created a beautifully tragic and thoughtfully worded story in a bleak but scenic Norfolk. This is his third feature film after Crack Willow (2008) and The Conundrum (2011) and inspired by an image of a soldier Radich found in a book and hung onto: “…I want to listen to a story that might say something to me, that might educate me, that might offer up an alternative approach to a conundrum. That’s what cinema should do.” The boy’s simple and sincere speech, beginning with “I’m not really sure what I’m supposed to say to a girl…”, is worth learning by heart.
Cinematographer Tim Sidell’s images – video mixed with the Alexa film-style digital camera – are really striking. Have a look at his website (timsidell.com) for an unnerving and well-crafted image not included in the film. Barry Keoghan delivers and receives with delicate vulnerability. Watch out for him in Yorgos Lanthimos’ film The Killing of a Sacred Deer, screening at Cannes in May, as well as Christopher Nolan’s upcoming film Dunkirk. Dénis Ménochet, seen in Inglorious Basterds and Assassin’s Creed, amongst many other films, is chillingly tender: ”On the surface I am clinical, underneath I am rotten”. Special mention to the casting director Layla Merrick-Wolff, who appears to be a genius for creating an eclectic group. Did I mention the soundtrack? Someone had a good time creating it.
After a 30 year hiatus, Pierce Brosnan is back on our tv screens in The Son. His role as Eli McCullough the patriarch of the McCullough clan is certainly worth coming back to the tv for: he’s a survivor, mean, gentle, confused, conflicted and larger than life. With the addition of The Son, it truly feels as if we are in the platinum age of television.
The Son is set on the Pulitzer Prize-shortlisted book of the same name. It tells the story of Eli McCullough who at the age of 13 loses his family after a band of Comanche Native Americans storm his Texas homestead. The first episode shows the capture and then jumps forward 70 years showing his success and the family he now presides over. The opening episode is slow in parts but the attention to detail astounding.
The opening episode is slow in parts but the attention to detail astounding. Whilst this is a retelling of the Western story, it is so much more than that. It is a story of survival, parental desire for their children to succeed and greed. The Son is destined to be must watch television.
The Son airs Tuesdays at 9pm on AMC exclusive to BT.
