Category: REVIEWS

Covering the three titular killings of Tony Blair’s career, filmmakers Sanne van den Bergh, Daniel Turi and Greg Ward explore the fall of Old Labour, the abhorrent decision to lead the UK to war in Afghanistan and Iraq, which saw the death of countless thousands and the financial killing made as a public speaker and political adviser in the years that followed.

Produced, co-written and featuring George Galloway, this Kickstarter project was never going to be anything less than impassioned.

Having such a notable ex-MP steering the ship meant that while the documentary may be informative it is also un-tempered, the execution coming across something akin to the work of Michael Moore. There’s a charisma to

Striking within weeks of the Chilcot Report and the wholly divisive Brexit referendum the timing for this feature couldn’t be more perfect. It appears that a twenty-year roadmap to our current political malady and a nation’s disillusionment with the financial sector is laid out within this exposé. Teflon Tony’s dalliances with media moguls, banking behemoths and deadly dictators are recounted, reducing the man to a chameleon figure with a beaming grin and staggering net worth.

The filmmakers deftly handle the dynamic of news footage and contemporary interviews with notable figures including Francis Beckett, Noam Chomsky, Will Self and Rt. Hon. Clare Short. While the “new and unexplored ground” promised doesn’t quite live up to expectations there is still a great deal here to digest. With some occasional graphic footage of the horrors of war the execution of certain scenes is hard to swallow. Unflinching in its approach, this documentary illustrates the full extent of Blair’s ambitions and the grave consequences caused by his decisions over past two decades.

Unfortunately, of the three specific sections mentioned in the opening reel, the rise of New Labour in the shadow of Margaret Thatcher gets the least attention. The lack of balance in the subjects seems a pity, as the attention to detail laid out regarding the war and post-war are impressive, if far from exhaustive.

Overall, The Killing$ of Tony Blair manages an admirable barrage of shots fired into a political and economical ecosystem that requires more scrutiny from the public and greater consequences for those who abuse their position and power.

The Killing$ of Tony Blair opens in the UK, with a world premiere with Q&A at Curzon Soho, London July 27^th.  Followed by nationwide Q&A tour with George Galloway.  Released on DVD & DIGITAL HD on 15^th August 2016.

POOR COW (1967) set in the 60s working class strife of London’s East End, is a portrait of Joy (Carol White)  beginning with a baby and marriage at 18 to the wrong man. The shrill opening song by Donovan, urging the listener to “Be not too hard, for life is short, and nothing is given to man”, sets the tone.

Tom (John Bindon), who in a dramatic arrest as Joy discretely watches on, is sent off to prison and is rapidly replaced by Dave (Terence Stamp). Seemingly kinder and attractive, Dave whisks her off on a camping trip to Wales, where as she later says, “he woke things up in me”. In a shaming court scene, Dave’s character is revealed by a judge showing that Joy has again ended up with more trouble. The fact that she chooses career thieves who are rapidly imprisoned doesn’t help with having the consistent relationship she desires, yet Jonny, her son, does provide it, and she takes that seriously.  Seriously enough to deduce at the end that “all you need is a man, a baby and a couple of nice rooms to live. That’s all it comes down to.” Tellingly, she does not include love or happiness. Joy is totally convincing in the frank assessment she makes of her life, and thereby endearing.

Based on Nell Dunn’s novel of the same name, POOR COW was Ken Loach’s first feature film. He had previously adapted another of Dunn’s novels, UP THE JUNCTION for television. Interestingly Nell Dunn’s life was a complete contrast to Joy’s, and the stories were inspired when she moved to Battersea in 1959 and began working in a sweet factory.

Dunn also wrote the film’s screenplay and the use of Joy as a narrator on the soundtrack reflects the first-person narration of Dunn’s original novel, including the presence of the ironic inter-titles. Joy, a young Bardot look-a-like, had appeared in Loach’s renowned 1966 television play, CATHY COMES HOME. In a 2000 industry poll, it was rated the second-best British television programme ever made after Fawlty Towers.

During 50 years of making feature films, Ken Loach has not lost his gift, which is obvious in this film, for getting to the truth of a story and creating a non-judgemental portrait of a person. Joy is a character who is both raw and heartening. I, DANIEL BLAKE for which he won the 2016 Palme d’Or at Cannes, is a similarly sympathetic portrait of a person in a hopeless situation getting on with life in their own way.

For some other great portraits of young people in the 1960s, have a look at these:

François Truffaut made LES 400 COUPS, translated literally as THE 400 BLOWS, instead of raising hell or something similar, with Antoine Doisnel (Jean-Pierre Léaud), a masculine equivalent of Joy. He followed up with three more episodes.

Jean-Luc Godard’s film DEUX OU TROIS CHOSES QUE JE SAIS D’ELLE (Two or Three Things I Know About Her) also made in 1967, follows Juliette around as she searches for relief from her drab suburban existence.

By Donna Darling.

Papusza is a film based on the life of Bronislawa Wajs (Jowita Budnik), a Polish Romany gypsy who became known for her poems and songs. Papusza is the name she goes by. We follow the gypsies on their travels across Poland in Papusza’s early years and throughout World War II. Filmed in black and white the scenes are put together like snapshots. The camera remains still making the scenes look like a painting. We see the travelers at a distance, theirs being the only movement across the screen, bringing it to life

We see Papusza’s uncommon early interest in being able to read and write being frowned upon by her family. If she’s seen with a book they take it away from her. Even those who are willing to teach her see her as unique but they try to dissuade her from learning by telling her a woman who has knowledge leads a life of misery. Unfortunately for Papusza those words haunt her and play out in her life. She is made to marry Dionizy Wajs (Zbigniew Walerys) a man much older than she is. Her knowledge and her unhappiness combined inspires her creativity. She writes and sings songs but she doesn’t see her words as poetic.

On their travels they are joined by Jerzy Ficowski (Antoni Pawlicki) who is on the run from the authorities. He hears some of Papusza’s songs and encourages her to write them down. When he no longer fears being captured he leaves the gypsy community but he stays in touch with Papusza by post.

She sends her poems to him. He endeavors to get them published so more people can appreciate her talent. His intentions fail to come across as good to the gypsies. They see it as exposing their culture to the rest of the world and that’s not what they want. Their desire is to be left to their own devices and they feel Papusza is responsible for showing the rest of the world their way of life. The songs that she enjoyed singing are turned against her and used to cast her out from the life she loved to sing about.

In a world of nostalgia-bait rebootquels and unashamed fan mollycoddling comes a reboot that dares to not be a sequel AND isn’t exactly an out-and-out remake of the original. If only the filmmakers hadn’t felt the need to pander to my generation by throwing in an unwieldy collection of cameos.

Ghostbusters (2016) works best when it severs ties to what came before and does its own thing. The four leads play very differently to what we’ve seen before and if you’re going for a reboot then this can only be for the best.

The last thing I wanted was to see four pale imitations of Venkman, Stanz, Spengler and Zedmore, and my wish was truly granted.

Kristen Wiig is a loveable, prim and proper doofus, Leslie Jones plays a veritable fount of NY knowledge and Kate McKinnon absolutely steals the show in every scene. Sure, she’s more quirk than character but it’s her rambunctiousness that really drives the movie forward as she’s the weird glue that binds the team. The one weak link in the chain is Melissa McCarthy, and I know that’s just a personal taste thing. I just find her humour a little too broad for my tastes.

Visually, the ghosts are impressive. It would be ridiculous to expect physical effects and puppetry in this day and age but what we get is an amplified version of the vision laid out in the original features. I mean… If you can’t get cartoonish ghosts on point in the 21st century then all hope is lost.

The sound design was crisp and added nuance to the vibrant imagery. There were some standout moments near the beginning that allowed the rules to be established, the world to be sketched out and the balance between humour and childish nightmare to be weighed out.

As much as I enjoyed my time with Ghostbusters I cannot reiterate enough that the fan-service utterly marred this movie going experience. Too many nods, winks and callbacks to the original, too many cameos which pulled me right out of the picture and that god-awful Fallout Boy rendition of the Ghostbusters theme doesn’t seem to be aimed at any demographic targeted by this movie. It is utterly befuddling.

Oddly enough, my enjoyment levels kicked into silly overdrive in the final third of the movie, which seems to be exactly where a lot of critics lost interest. As chaos descends on New York and the threat ramps up, Ghostbusters really comes into its own. The team dynamic, their gadgets and the utter silliness of it all builds to a satisfying crescendo and earn this team the hope of a sequel in my book.

It’s fun, silly, gorgeous and engaging. Hopefully the sequel will shake loose the fanboy bullshit and allow for breathing space so this new take on the premise can be its own thing. Although I guarantee, after the 21 Jump Street/Men in Black crossover, we’ll be seeing a Jump Street/MIB/Ghostbusters movie in the near future. You heard me speculate it here first!

Ghostbusters (2016) launched in the UK Monday with a Worldwide release from Friday 15^th July.

Hard Time Bus is the directorial debut from Dean Charles; written by Owen Mowatt.
The film stars Neil Reidman, Roger Griffiths and Naomi Ryan.

After a rude awakening, Mark Bishop’s carefree and complacent lifestyle comes crashing back to reality, forcing him to make hasty plans to marry devoted girlfriend, Denise. He turns to best mate Fitzy for advice only to be ridiculed for not following the ‘Fitzy Rules’ – “never marry and never settle”. Mark’s life begins to unravel as he tries to manage the expectations of those closest to him and soon learns that with complacency comes risk.

This is at best an intimate portrait of modern relationships that may from the outside seem simple enough but in reality and behind closed doors are much more complicated.

A cautious Mark (Reidman) bounces off the wild and electric character of Fitzy (Griffiths) in the age old struggle between friends and lovers which is stirred up by his current love interest Denise (Ryan). A wiry and crazed performance from Griffiths contrasts poorly with a rather bland performance from Reidman here who fails to show the screen presence required or to portray properly the more intense and emotional scenes which the script allows for.

The plot for Hard Time Bus uses timeline devices to tell the story of a single day from various angles which adds some extra interest to the telling however it is jarring to begin with.

The cinematography is visually dark (not in an artistic sense I feel…but simply badly lit?) and boring to the point of being monotonous; no grand set pieces here but plenty of drab interior shots.

Overall I was left unsatisfied; however the film does offer us a slice of reality and reminds us things are not always as they first seem.