ClingFilm

Judas and the Black Messiah

The inimitable Lakeith Stanfield plays FBI Informant (or Judas) Bill O’Neal in this biographical drama surrounding the betrayal of Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya), chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party in 1960s Chicago – I’m not sure if this makes Hampton the Black Messiah or a very naughty boy.

In 1968, 19-year-old petty criminal O’Neal is arrested in Chicago after stealing a car whilst impersonating an FBI agent. In order for his charges to be dropped, including a potential five-year prison sentence, O’Neal agrees to go undercover for the Bureau and to infiltrate Hampton’s chapter of the Black Panther Party. It is a skilfully executed account of O’Neal’s plunge into a nasty circle of betrayal and deceit.

The film won two Oscars, in Best Supporting Actor for Kaluuya, and Best Original Song (Fight for You – H.E.R.). It also received a further four nominations, including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor for Stanfield. Although I’d argue that Stanfield was the film’s real lead.

As you might expect from a biographical drama, the film builds up to a real life end point, and as such is somewhat limited in its storytelling. Nonetheless, it is fiercely watchable and passionately performed.

Kaluuya has come a very long way from the days as Posh Kenneth in Skins and Postman Pat-parody Parking Pataweyo and his reinterpretation of Hampton is magnificent, and the spoken-likeness is uncanny. The audience will no doubt appreciate the rhythm, poeticism and charisma of his speeches, as well as the seemingly uncharacteristic shyness around his partner and mother of his child, Deborah Johnson (Dominique Fishback).

Stanfield (Knives Out, Get Out, Straight Outta Compton) goes all out in his role as O’Neal; the audience feels his nervy energy, doubt, relief and regret throughout the film. Some may even empathise and sympathise with O’Neal’s situation. It is an incredibly balanced reimagining of a man that was clearly in conflict with himself. He quickly flips between leading the rebuild of the Panthers’ Illinois headquarters following a fire, to expressing his visible thrill at being taken out for a lavish steak dinner courtesy of the Bureau, with Special Agent Mitchell (Jesse Plemons – Game Night).

He was clearly manipulated by the authorities, but revelled in the perks. His performance is much more complicated and compelling than that of Kaluuya. When asked why he posed as a federal officer rather than using a knife or a gun, O’Neal notes that “the badge is scarier” – a concept that still resonates for many. The film does not shy away from the violence that flowed in both directions and the film portrayed the lead characters’ flaws, flawlessly.

Interestingly, the film incorporates real footage of O’Neal during his first and only interview filmed for the documentary series Eyes on the Prize II: America at the Racial Crossroads 1965-1985. And, I will leave you with this thought-provoking quote from the film, paraphrased from a chairman Fred original:

“You can murder a liberator, but you can’t murder liberation. You can murder a revolutionary, but you can’t murder revolution. And you can murder a freedom fighter, but you can’t murder freedom!”

Clingfilm – That’s a wrap!

Sound of Metal

The exceptional Riz Ahmed plays a “Please Kill Me” tattoo-sporting American drummer (Ruben Stone) and one half of punk metal duo Blackgammon in this emotionally-draining indie film. Stone lives in and tours the United States in an RV with the band’s singer and his partner, Lou (Olivia Cooke, Ready Player One).

Darius Marder directs and co-writes the Amazon original in an incredible fictional feature debut which focuses on the intermittent and degenerative hearing loss and lingering drug addiction of Stone and his desire for expensive cochlear implant surgery, which represents a wider crisis of identity and faith. Ahmed, who has come a long way from his early days in films such as Four Lions – “Rubber Dinghy Rapids Bro!” – and Plan B’s Ill Manors, learnt American Sign Language (ASL) and drumming for the role, as well as providing live rock performances.

Stone who initially ignores medical advice to avoid loud sounds and continues to play in the band, eventually winds up at an addiction retreat for deaf individuals run by deaf Vietnam vet, Joe (Paul Raci). Raci himself was brought up by deaf parents. The character piece shines an interesting light on the deaf community, whilst Joe attempts to demonstrate that deafness is not a disability, only a difference. The time spent in the addiction retreat showcases Stone’s struggles to fit in with a new group of ASL-speakers, learning to listen and his attempts to find stillness.

The sound composition throughout the film is amazing. The viewer feels and hears the silences, differences and difficulties along with Stone. It is discomforting and disquieting and it is impossible not to empathise with the character as the film’s sound places the audience firmly in the lead character’s head.

It is an impressive directorial debut from Marder and we can expect bigger and better things further down the line from the 46/47 year old (Wikipedia isn’t sure). I wasn’t sure what to expect from the film, but in the end, I really enjoyed it. It was also an important reminder to me, that ‘Stillness Is the Key’.

*I know Ahmed doesn’t say “Rubber Dinghy Rapids Bro” but it is one of the highlights of the film.

Nomadland

A film that combines scripted reality and docufiction isn’t your typical Oscar winner – or more appropriately, triple Oscar winner (Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actress). Directed by Beijing-born Chloé Zhao and based on the 2017 non-fiction book ‘Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century’, Nomadland focuses on a woman in her sixties who joins the ranks of a society of mostly elderly citizens, turned by recession into wandering van-dwellers, or ‘Nomads’.

Francis McDormand is excellent as always as the film’s lead, Fern, for which she won her third Best Actress Oscar (Fargo, 1997 and Three Billboards, 2018) and became the first person in history to win Academy Awards as both producer and performer for the same film. McDormand was supported by David Strathairn (Sopranos, Billions and probably lots of things I haven’t watched) and a selection of real-life Nomads including Linda May and Charlene Swankie, who Zhao even invited to the Oscars red carpet, having both originally featured in the 2017 book that the film was based on, as interviewees.

Fern is somewhat propelled into Nomad life following the death of her husband and the collapse of her hometown, Empire, Nevada (which is surprisingly a real place, rather than the earliest nod to capitalism-commentary in the film). With the wide variety of climates encountered you’d be forgiven for thinking it was filmed over a period longer than a year. However, if you consider the actual content of the film you wouldn’t be shocked to find it was filmed in just four months – I mean, how long does it take to clean a campsite toilet?

McDormand carries the film, in which very little actually happens, alongside non-professional actors playing semi-fictionalised versions of themselves. The film reminds us that the Nomads are not homeless, only houseless and many are making the most of their various bad situations. It comments on the exploitative structures of seasonal work while also presenting a somewhat rose-tinted view of working in an Amazon factory (I wonder why!).

If you’re looking for drama, excitement or suspense this is not the film for you. But if you don’t mind a change of pace and slow paced gritty-realism of van-dwelling life (including a triple Oscar winner sh!tting in a van…) and the friendships and relationships made along the way, then this is well worth two hours of your time – even if just to appreciate McDormand’s acting and the wonderful cinematography.

The film beautifully documents the harsh scenery of the American Midwest. It is artistic but not arty, poetic but not romantic and theatrical but not overly flamboyant. Zhao skilfully identifies the cinematic that exists in the everyday and I am already looking forward to seeing her take on a Marvel film later this year – Eternals. I won’t say goodbye, instead, I’ll “see you down the road!”

Tenet

After a long absence I have returned to the cinema, adorned with a mask, and armed with a large tub of popcorn – not the best combination. The film I returned to the cinema for was the summer sci-fi blockbuster tasked with saving cinema, Christopher Nolan’s Tenet. It won’t save cinema. Hopefully it won’t need to. But it is well worth a watch.

Nolan has a habit of distorting time and reality (sometimes both) in his films, as he did with the likes of Memento and Interstellar, and Tenet is no different. Both the film’s name and narrative are palindromic. It could have easily been called ‘radar’ or ‘reviver’, or they could have rolled the dice with ‘Never odd or even’. The film moves both forwards and backwards in time as the protagonist, Denzel’s son and former St. Louis Rams’ running back*, John David Washington battles to save the world in an international espionage thriller.

*(I don’t think he ever got a game, just thought it was an interesting fact)

The film was built on a very clever concept (inversion) but unfortunately you could see the main twists coming a mile off. You couldn’t fault the ambition of the film, but the execution, in terms of the storyline, was underwhelming. The film spends an incredible amount of time explaining itself to the audience through various character cameos and at one point Robert Pattinson’s character, Neil, in a nod to the audience, even asks the protagonist “does your brain hurt?” Spoiler alert – it does. Don’t worry about brushing up on the process of inversion, in which an object or a person can have their entropy reversed, thus moving backwards in space while others move forward, but in a ‘twilight world’ where guns catch bullets and exploded buildings reassemble, it makes sense for your brain to hurt a little. The protagonist is in a race against time, where time stands still, moves forward and moves backwards. It certainly makes for an incredible car chase or three.

Pattinson has successfully broken out of his previous typecast as he segues to his new role as Batman, whilst BlacKkKlansman star Washington is fantastic as the unnamed protagonist, or in effect, Nolan’s very own James Bond. At one point Neil asks “what the hell happened here?” to which the protagonist responds “it hasn’t happened yet.” Ironically, for a film moving both forwards and backwards, a key phrase from the film is “what’s happened, happened,” which is less reassuring than the cast of Love Island telling you “it is what it is.”

The concept might be confusing and the key points in the story-line are somewhat predictable, but it is an enjoyable ride nonetheless. The film is packed full of mind-blowing visuals and a soundtrack that never gives you a moment’s rest. Don’t try and understand it, just enjoy it. I think it might be more enjoyable on a second viewing, as there will be a number of Easter eggs for second time viewers, and it might even make sense by the time you watch it a third time.

Parasite

Parasite is a somewhat genre-less film about a poor family, the Kims, and the way in which they con their way into the lives and household of a rich family, the Parks. This is until additional layers are revealed and it all begins to unravel for the Kims, like a cheap pass-the-parcel. I describe the film as genre-less, but it represents a number of different genres throughout the film, including satire, social commentary, comedy, thriller and maybe even horror.

As the first foreign language film to win the Best Picture Oscar, I was expecting good things and it did not disappoint. I loved the flawed and relatable family, the Kims, and the way in which director Bong Joon-ho lets the audience in on the con, like an early Alfred Hitchcock film. The Kims forge documents, invent aliases and rehearse their lines, as if they are appearing in the South Korean version of ‘The Hustle’ – back when The Hustle was good. However this isn’t the main storyline in the film, as it takes a sharp tonal swerve away from the quite easy-going in-on-the-con comedy, towards a thriller. However the social commentary remains.

The film is both a damning indictment on class divide and an exploration of class aspirationalism. The Kims are depicted as a close family, often crammed into small spaces or perching on furniture, whilst the Parks are more often than not very separate and as such much more easily manipulated. The film is packed with metaphors and symbolism, some of which I am sure will be lost in translation or underappreciated in the western world. We understand it, but we don’t get it (like in White Men Can’t Jump when Wesley Snipes is telling Woody Harrelson that he can listen to Jimi Hendrix but he can’t hear him). And it still won the Best Picture Oscar.

The film reminds me a lot of Jordan Peele’s Get Out, in that it is a social commentary comedy that straddles numerous genres, makes you think and is probably more enjoyable the second time you watch it. Admittedly, I don’t think a Jordan Peele-directed social commentary on the class divide in America with the exact same storyline would have been winning an Oscar, but that’s a debate for a different day. Throughout the film I was considering who the parasite was. I changed my mind a number of times. I feel like every character in the film is in some way the parasite. Even the concept of hope exists as a parasite.

At one point the Kims discuss the Parks, saying “they are nice because they are rich,” before adding “I’d be nice too.” They probably wouldn’t. But I still love the family. The film is well worth a watch. In the opening week in the UK, Odeon originally only showed it in 15 of 120 cinemas. It is in much more now and I’d recommend watching it while it is still in cinemas near you.

Birds of Prey

Or to give it its full name: ‘Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn’. Harleen Quinzel (Margot Robbie) is emancipated. However, she is dealing with the grief of separating from a long term partner as most people would do, by blowing up her Ex’s power plant, acquiring a hyena from a dog pound and feeding the creepy bloke from the dog pound to the hyena. Standard! It’s good to see the best character from Suicide Squad given her own movie, and effectively giving Suicide Squad a take two (which it probably needed).

The newly-single Harley Quinn is no longer protected by Mr J (The Joker); making it a free for all for one of Gotham’s most wanted. The film is a crazy exhibition of gratuitous violence, almost in the style of Tarantino’s Kill Bill, but instead of a sword, she is acrobatically wielding a mallet and instead of clean kills, there is a lot of maiming. Think Jackie Chan with roller skates, a mallet and a glitter gun (be right back I’m just off to write a film). Her foe’s grievances appear in comic-book style captions on the screen, including “fed brother to a hyena”, “broke driver’s legs” and “has a vagina.”

Harley Quinn is also the narrator, explaining what had happened before the film began and talking us through the various flashbacks that have led to her becoming Gotham’s most wanted. The film is fun, exciting, admittedly fairly silly, as well as being an exploration of contemporary feminist issues. The film is written by Bumblebee’s (enjoyable watch on a long flight) Christina Hodson, and you can see some of the same humour throughout. Birds of Prey is a comic book film that looks like a comic book, replacing the ‘Biff!’ and ‘Pow!’ signatures with glitter and confetti.

Like the main character, the film is a bit of a mess. The realisation from the ‘Birds of Prey’ is that there is no knight in shining armour coming to save them and they will be better off working together, combining their brains, combat skills and blatant disregard for humanity to great effect. The end fight scene is the scene it could have been in Avengers Endgame, where all the women turn up ready for battle and you think it could be a kick-ass scene, but then they have no additional impact.

The film is frenetic, kinetic and chaotic, but ultimately very enjoyable. Harley Quinn is the hectic anti-heroine, and provides the antidote to the anti-superhero film. Now that Dr Quinn has been emancipated, it looks like it could be the start of a franchise, and I can’t wait to see what she gets up to next.

Uncut Gems

Uncut gems is a Safdie brothers (Josh and Benny) film, about an enigmatic jeweller (Howard Ratner – Adam Sandler) that is always on the look-out for his next big score, whether that is chasing a seven-figure win and feeding his gambling addiction, or importing stolen uncut opals from Ethiopia, whilst attempting to balance his business, family, mistress and selection of enemies.

With Martin Scorsese as Executive Producer, it is great to see Adam Sandler in a much more serious role than we are used to seeing him in (crass comedies). I like him, but my partner doesn’t, so I watched it on my own. She’s missed out on his career-best performance (maybe 2^nd to Happy Gilmore…).

It is an unusual opening, where you see the commotion at the Ethiopian mine that created the opportunity to steal the uncut opal, before it zooms in on the gem, revealing the universe within it, before transitioning into Ratner’s colonoscopy. It is a potentially uncomfortable start to the film for many, and a fairly twisted metaphor, if intended as such.

His jewellery shop, is ultimately a heavily fortified sh!t-hole with a somewhat faulty door, to which his loyal-ish accomplice Demany (Lakeith Stanfield) brings high net worth individuals, and is rewarded with fake Rolexes. 15-time NBA All Star Kevin Garnett is introduced to Ratner, and is immediately drawn to the uncut gem. He wants to buy it immediately but the rock is already booked in for an auction the following week. Garnett says he has to have it, and borrows it for the night (leaving his 2008 NBA Championship ring and earrings as collateral), before going on to have one of the games of his life, in the 2012 playoffs. The way in which the NBA coverage and post-match interviews are incorporated makes you feel as if it is a true story. Kevin Garnett, admittedly playing himself, actually seems to be a very good actor.

Ratner continues taking from Peter to pay Paul in what seems to be a pyramid scheme against himself. He pawns Garnett’s NBA ring and uses the money to place a 6 selection parlay (same game multiple bet) on the Celtics and Garnett. As we already know Garnett has a great game and with all six selections winning, Ratner thinks he’s won $1m. However, he later finds out that someone he already owed money to has cancelled his bet before the game had began. After being abducted, they took his expensive watch, all his clothes and left him in the boot of a car. Ratner all the while remains unflustered, like these sorts of things happen all the time – they probably do.

Ratner is semi-separated from his wife Dina (Idina Menzel), whilst his mistress Julia (Artist and Actress, Julia Fox) remains at his bachelor pad. I’m not sure how they came up with the character names… Ratner has an untrustworthy grin, you know not to believe anything he says, you urge him to not do a number of things he decides to do, but you end up rooting for him, and for Julia regardless.

You wonder how it could possibly have a happy ending – he’s Del Boy in a rush, with a gambling problem. Will he sell the gem, win a million dollar bet and live happily ever after with Dina and/or Julia? The film is exciting, non-stop and nerve-wracking. If you like sports, betting, sports betting or crime thrillers, you will enjoy this film. I would love to have a Bandersnatch-style go at navigating my way through the series of decisions that Ratner has to make, but he leaves you with the impression he would just do his own thing anyway. As my mum always says, “Do what you want, you usually do!” That’s Ratner all over.

The film has gone straight to Netflix in the UK, so you can watch this for ‘free’ straight away.

Bad Boys for Life

It’s great to have detectives Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and Marcus Bennett (Martin Lawrence) back together after 17 years (Bad Boys 2 – 2003) where we have no idea what the guys have been up to. Lowrey remains single and is now going through some sort of midlife crisis, whilst Lawrence becomes a granddad and has his sights set on retirement. The film maybe has a little bit more of a story than you might anticipate from a Bad Boys film, but remains filled with the stupidity and excitement you had come to expect.

I must admit to some level of bias here, with Bad Boys being one of my most watched films – I’m not sure how this happened really, we had a lot of long journeys when we (my sister and I) were at school and we seemed to have two DVDs to choose from for the car; Bad Boys or Peter Kay: Live at the Bolton Albert Halls. Even now, whenever I hear Shane Lowry’s name mentioned while watching Sky Sports coverage of the golf, I say his name as if I’m Marcus Bennett pretending to be Mike Lowrey in the original film.

The film has a fairly standard revenge plot, with the wife and son of a Mexican drug lord seeking to avenge his death, by killing any person with an involvement in his trial and imprisonment including ‘MIKE Lowwwreeee!’ Like the other two films it is a perfect ‘take your brain out’ film, sit back and enjoy, and don’t take it too seriously. Bilall Fallah and Adil El Arbi have replaced Michael Bay as director, and in a way similar to the Die Hard films, which I still see as a trilogy, even though there are about 17 of them now, I don’t think this becomes a trilogy just because they made a third film. This is more of an homage to the earlier films – friends reunited (if anyone remembers that) for one last ride.

The camaraderie between the pair of detectives is what carries the film, even when the script temporarily separates them. There are a number of moments of silliness in the film to look out for including a toast of “we ride together, we die together, bad boys for life” at a wedding, the pair exclaiming “we fly together, we die together” as the pair board a plane to Mexico, realising you probably shouldn’t say such a thing, and Lowrey later convincing Bennett to do something stupid that he doesn’t want to do and justifying it by saying they are like the “bad boys of the bible.” One of the highlights of the film, however, is when Bennett helps Lowrey to dye his beard (spoiler alert) in a coma (spoiler alert – he doesn’t stay in it), after he had earlier claimed that he doesn’t dye it.

The terrible twosome was joined by the Advance Miami Metro Operations (AMMO) team. If you’ve seen the trailer for the film, it is the group of young cops that sing “Bad Boys” in an incredibly cringey way. I thought I was going to hate them. I didn’t. I actually grew to like them and the relationship they had with the old-timers, Lowrey and Bennett.

The film signs off with the dynamic duo singing the soothing sounds of “Bad Boys” to stop Bennett’s new grandchild from crying. It really is a shame Smith and Lawrence have not been in more films together. The film is deliberately daft and extremely entertaining – if you like the bad boys films, you will love this too. I think it is the best of the ‘trilogy’.

Richard Jewell

Richard Jewell is a tale of the security guard that found a suspicious package under a bench in Centennial Park during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. He managed to secure a perimeter before the bomb exploded, saving hundreds of lives. However, he was afforded just a couple of days as a hero, appearing on national news and being offered a book deal, before the FBI ‘unwittingly’ named him as the no.1 suspect and the trial by media began.

Clint Eastwood has successfully told an incredible story of a guy I feel like I should have already known about. I’m not sure if there was any greater meaning intended or a particular agenda, but taken at face value it is a fascinating account of the Centennial Park bombing and the three months that followed in the life of the security guard-cum-prime suspect. It also provides somewhat of a preview to the fake news, and notion of guilty until proven innocent that seems so popular nowadays.

Within the film, Richard Jewell is effectively painted as the weirdo, failed-law-enforcement-officer, somewhat socially-awkward security guard and potential lone bomber, that you grow to really like and feel incredibly sorry for as the film goes on.

There is an incredibly cringe-worthy scene in which Kathy Scruggs (Olivia Wilde) secures a front page story regarding Jewell and the whole office/newsroom applauds as she revels in the adulation. It was incredibly over-the-top and not particularly believable. I mean someone gets the front page every day, no? Another Scruggs-related disappointment came later in the film, after earlier breaking the ‘bomber as lead suspect’ news story and securing multiple front pages, she very quickly changes her mind on the case, based on some evidence that was available the whole time…

Sam Rockwell was exceptional as always as one of Jewell’s few friends and case lawyer. I think I’d happily watch anything he is in for the rest of his career. Cathy Bates was great as Jewell’s mum, but I don’t think it was worthy of a nomination for Best Supporting Actress at this year’s Oscars.

I mainly watched the film because we had early access with our Odeon Limitless memberships and I wanted to see how easily that worked. Unless you for some reason get to watch films for free, have a dodgy box or really love watching films, you should probably wait until this one makes its way to TV.

1917

Having written positively about both the Gentleman and Jojo Rabbit, I was expecting to be doing the same for this year’s favourite for the Best Picture Oscar. Alas, I am not. I appreciated the camerawork and the realism and as such understand why it is 1/10 favourite to win Best Cinematography at the Oscars; I just didn’t care much for it.

The gist of the film is that two Lance Corporals, Blake (Dean Charles-Chapman – Tommen Baratheon, Game of Thrones) and Schofield, are tasked with hand-delivering a message to a battalion of the Devonshire Regiment, to call off a planned attack that could cost 1,600 lives including Blake’s brother. The pair needs to navigate no man’s land and vacated German trenches in order to get to the Devonshire Regiment. If you’ve seen the trailer, you’ve seen the film.

If you’ve seen the trailer, you’ve seen Lance Corporal Schofield running across a battlefield, running across the path of fellow Brits. It’s probably the most memorable part of the trailer, so for a long time within the film, you know you’ve still got this to scene to come, killing the suspense somewhat.

Disappointingly, there wasn’t really any character development within the film. You find out at the very end of the film that Schofield has/had (simply avoiding a spoiler) a wife and two daughters. However, throughout the film you find out next to nothing about their past, their relationships or their thoughts – you’re just straight into the thick of the action. I guess you naturally want the mission to succeed, but I couldn’t get myself to care about what would happen to either of the two main characters.

I appreciate why so many people like it and why it is going to pick up numerous Oscars, but it really wasn’t for me. It reminded me of when I was much younger, going to a friend’s house and thinking you’d be playing a multi-player game like FIFA or Mario Kart, and you end up watching them playing on a first-person shooter for a couple of hours instead. Oh, and for some reason they’re trying to complete the level of the video game whilst firing their gun as little as possible.

Although the film is set to scoop numerous Oscars, I think I would have rather gone to a friend’s house under false pretences for a couple of hours to watch them play a video game – at least I would have been able to talk.