Spotlight!

So when I reviewed Beasts of No Nation recently I commented on how it would be hard to be funny whilst reviewing it, and I was right, it was. This was because it was about child soldiers, and there is pretty much no way you can make a joke whilst talking about that. So anyway, I am going to talk about a film which bases its story on the historic sexual abuse of children associated with the Catholic church, so, yeah....

Sexual abuse by priests and church members seems kind of like old news these days. Its almost as if its expected and no longer a surprise when we hear about it. Make of that what you will, but there was a time when it was perhaps the biggest news story in the world and The Boston Globe in the United States were at the forefront of this discovery. Specifically the ''Spotlight'' team which are as far as I can tell a special in depth investigative team who produce scandalous stories after a long period of research and evidence gathering. This is what the film is about, rather than dealing directly with the abuse of children, instead the plot focuses on a small group of journalists who work their collective arses off the find out the horrible truth, and find out they do. It is discovered initially that at least 13 priests were known to have abused children, however further snooping reveals the numbers are in the thousands.

This film is therefore hard to categorise for me. Its described as a drama - which it is - but I always feel that this is too broad. Its not a thriller, though it is thrilling. I suppose the best way to describe it, is as a investigative thriller, character driven drama (yes Andrew because that's a really good way to describe a film). Anyway, that's the best I can do.

But did I like it?

Yes...

Spotlight is a quite excellent film. From start to finish it draws you into the investigation and keeps you there, wondering what will happen next and what piece of evidence will rear its head. Its not action packed, but its not that type of film anyway. The main thing that really works is that this is a small group of people taking on a large and powerful organisation, i.e. the Catholic Church. I believe its quite common for audiences to root for the little guy and in this case the little guy is a group of 6 people against an institution that wields considerable power. The suspense is dealt with expertly, every time it looks like the Spotlight team have hit a wall, a new bit of information comes to light, or a new witness agrees to share what they know. This is never overly convenient and you don't feel as if they are lucky. Instead you see just how hard these people worked and just how good they were at their jobs. Another thing you feel is utter contempt and shock at the actions of the church. There was an audible gasp in the cinema at one point when I was watching it and you certainly feel that way considering the subject matter.

As for the acting, that is spot on. I recently criticised the ensemble cast of The Hateful Eight as I felt it weakened the film, not in this case though. Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton and Rachel McAdams are the stand out performers, though the rest of the cast are just as good in their roles. The film flips between each character and their respective investigations and ties them together nicely to create the case against the church and create a voice for the victims.

Ruffalo is particularly good in my opinion.It's obvious he has gone full method in this role, right down to the way he clearly imitates the way the real Michael Rezendes (his character) stands and walks. Some may find it a little off putting, but I felt once you really got into the film it was no longer an issue.

There is a lot of buzz around this film, and it has been a near constant on the awards circuit. I don't think it will win any of the big ones - by which I mean the Oscars -  but its not just there to make up the numbers. Serious thought has gone into this movie, and the result is a very tight and compelling piece of cinema, its well worth a watch.


Jeez, I couldn't even manage one humorous observation, I guess my standards are slipping. What I need is a really crap film to review so I can rant, maybe I'll watch Grimsby.

Room - No not that one!

For those of you slightly confused by the title of this post. I am of course making a reference to Tommy Wiseau's 'The Room' the best terrible film ever made. It obviously has nothing to do Lenny Abrahamson's film, but I just wanted to reference Wiseau either way because I'm slightly obsessed with him. Anyway, lets talk about Room.

Spoilers ahead!


Set largely in one room (hence the title) the film deals with a young woman called Joy (Brie Larson) - though she is mostly referred to as ''Ma'' by her 5 year old song Jack (Jacob Tremblay), both of whom live in a tiny space referred to simply as ''room''. It soon becomes clear that they are in fact being kept prisoner by a mysterious man called Old Nick (Sean Bridgers) who kidnapped Joy 7 years earlier and fathered Jack through the numerous rapes he commits. Despite some close calls both Joy and Jack are able to escape and we witness their struggles to adapt to the real world, one which Jack has never seen.

The first thing I thought when reading about this was that this was a hard subject matter to cover in a film. Everyone has heard of the Josef Fritzl case in Austria and although its an interesting story, you would think that a film would be in poor taste. Room isn't based on that story, but the similarities are clear and the film deals with it admirably. This is never a gratuitous in any way, and in actual fact that main motivation of the story is the relationship between Joy and her son and how they each cope with their existence. Joy has experience of the real world and knows what she is missing, but still tries to raise her son the best she can. Whereas Jack lives in a fantasy world that his mother concocted in order for him to at least have some pleasure in life. It really is a fascinating insight into how people cope with adversity and abuse, and the juxtaposition of the ages of the characters provides a really interesting back and forth.

That back and forth is truly what pushes the film and makes it so good.This is a movie that is all about the performance of its two lead actors and let me tell you, they are two of the best acting performances I have ever seen. Brie Larson really showcases her considerable range of acting talents, it appears that she is equally confident in comedies and dramas and she deserves the Oscar this year in my opinion. She tackles a really difficult subject matter with grace and confidence and you spend the whole film rooting for her and hoping that she gets what she needs to move on with her life.

Beside her is Jacob Tremblay who puts in a quite amazing performance for an 8 year old child, and in actual fact you could argue that he is the lead in the whole story. The fate of all the characters relies on what he does and how he approaches life. It is he who saves his mothers life by escaping ''room'' and getting help, and he later saves her life when she attempts suicide by showing her that they can be strong together. That's one hell of an in depth character for such a young man to take on and he is pretty much faultless.

So yeah, Room really is worth the hype that its been given because its fantastic. Its not an easy film to watch and there are some uncomfortable moments, but given the subject matter that's to be expected and as I've said its dealt with well. And even though normally I will question the traditional Hollywood happy ending, I was totally OK with it in this case. The ending is so hopeful that you cant help but smile, and sometimes you really need that, especially when you look at the events in the film that preceded it.

Go watch it innit

Beasts of No Nation

Its going to be hard to be funny and irreverent about this film as its about African civil war, child soldiers, rape and murder. I am obviously a comedy genius, but I think I will struggle to make that shit funny, so maybe I'll just review it and you can laugh at my attempts to be serious, deal? OK!

I'll get the plot out of the way first. In an unnamed African country a war begins in which government troops fight with guerrilla forces set up by locals who hope to stop them enforcing the will of an unnamed military junta on countries many small villages. Much like in real life, this leads to the recruitment of a number of child soldiers, who are turned into killing machines from a young age.

Beasts of No Nation is a film that achieved considerable attention in 2015/16 for a multitude of reasons. One of which is that critics were pretty universally positive about the film, it currently has a score of 91% on Rotten Tomatoes and there has been particular praise for the performances of the actors. Idris Elba has drawn a lot of attention because of his performance as the character simply known as Commandant. Now, a lot of the attention recently has been because he did not receive an Oscar nomination for the role, and this has then been tied in with the argument that the Oscars are universally biased towards white people. Now I wont get into that debate, but I will say that I don't think his performance really warrants a nomination. Nothing to do with him being black, but I just think as far as performances go, the awards should go to Abraham Attah who plays the films lead Agu. This kid is seriously good in this movie in which he plays a child soldier whose life is turned on its head when he is forced to separate from his mother, only to see his father and older brother killed by government forces. Attah completely stole the show for me and gave an utterly captivating and chilling performance of a child forced into actions that no child should have to undertake.
Unfortunately in all the arguments about race (rightfully so) people have seemingly missed a really wonderful performance from a teenager in what must have been an intensely difficult role and that's quite sad.

Nevertheless, that's one of the best things about Beast of No Nation, the performances. It is known that writer/director Cary Joji Fukunaga used real victims and ex soldiers of war in his cast and it shows, at points you do get lost in the performances and you really feel like you are in a war zone where anybody could die at any moment. This is the films biggest strength as I feel it covers up pretty well its most obvious flaws.

Yes, despite its glowing reviews, there are some flaws.

I am loathe to criticise a story that highlights a serious subject, but I just felt that the storyline was a bit slow and thin, despite plenty happening. Though that might sound like a contradiction I just mean that although plenty happens to the characters, its just the same thing over and over again. They move from one area to the next, you think they are going to improve their lives and end the war they are fighting, but the Commandant ruins this. This is at points gripping and at other points boring, there is a slight lack of balance of what the characters are doing and it lets the film down slightly.

As for the other glaring flaw and I cant believe I have to keep saying this, its too long! At 137 minutes long Beasts of No Nation simply does not have enough to warrant such a bloated running time. This could have easily been much shorter and I think with that the repetition of scenes problem would have been eradicated. Directors and studios really need to realise that if a film is going to be 2 hours or over it better have a bloody good reason to do it, this unfortunately didn't have that reason.

Despite the attention and ratings the film has received recently, I don't think it will stand the test of time with regards to movies made about subject of child soldiers and African civil war. I haven't seen hundreds of movies with that as a theme, but I would personally recommend films such as Johnny Mad Dog and Blood Diamond over Beasts of No Nation.

It is by no means a terrible film, and its worth a watch just for the performance of Abraham Attah, but it didn't live up the the expectations I had before I watched it. Obviously I am just one man and I am sure there are many out there who would totally disagree with me, but that's what movie reviewing is all about folks, please put away the pitch forks, I have told you about that before.

Sayonora


Bonus fact: I am listening to J Pop/Metal crossover music as I write this, weird right?