'Midnight in Paris' released today!

For the best part of the last two decades almost every Woody Allen movie - with a few exceptions - has been hailed as a "return to form", so much that the claim rings a little hollow. However, 'Midnight in Paris' merits that claim. It's his freshest and funniest film in a long time, raising some genuine big laughs as opposed to knowing titters, and Paris is photographed as beautiful as you'd expect from the man who for long idealised New York for the popular imagination. It's been rewarded for its quality too, grossing over $100 million in the US - making it Allen's most commercially successful film since the 70s.

I reviewed it after seeing it upon its French release earlier this year (appropriately enough in a Pathé multiplex in Montmartre, Paris), but today sees it finally released in the UK. I urge even the most casual Woody Allen fans to go and see it.

The film has been rated '12A' by the BBFC and you can catch it at Brighton's Duke of York's Picturehouse from next Friday.

'Melancholia' review:

"Life is only on Earth and not for long" says Justine (Kirtsen Dunst) somewhere near the apocalyptic conclusion of Lars Von Trier's 'Melancholia'. Though much has been made of the film's superficial similarity to Terrence Malick's 'Tree of Life' - which also premièred at Cannes earlier this year and to more unanimous acclaim - this pessimistic musing on life, the universe and everything is as close as the films come to sharing theme. Malick conveys a reverence for life, whilst the Dane sees the stars as no more magical than the act of going to the toilet. Both may feature awe-inspiring CGI renderings of immense planetary bodies, but Von Trier's film is not about the grand religious concerns that defined Malick's; the director has long spoken of his struggle with depression and this, like 2009's 'Antichrist', is the cinematic product of that suffering.

An arch-provocateur with a, shall we say, dark sense of humour, Von Trier's claim to mental illness has been reported sceptically, with critics wary not to end up the butt of some obtuse, private joke. However, as someone who has long struggled with depression, I found 'Melancholia' to be a deeply affecting and well observed portrait of the condition - and as such it must rank as the filmmaker's most sincere work to date. Whilst 'Antichrist' was arguably a nihilistic, despairing outburst, 'Melancholia' is not merely depressing but about the experience of depression. With it Von Trier not only captures the feeling of being depressed but, crucially, captures the responses of others to a mental disorder that, like many others, is still not easily understood.



It'll no doubt test the patience of those unfamiliar with depression or lacking in empathy for someone with the condition. As Justine, Dunst is selfish, sulky, irrational, irresponsible and unfaithful - and all within the course her opulent wedding reception which takes up the opening chapter. Many will find her behaviour too frustrating to bear, though it's peerlessly well observed. As are the various reactions to it.

As her free-spirited, partying father, John Hurt avoids potentially depressing conversations with his daughter so as not to spoil his own mood, running away from his daughter at every turn. As the mother, Charlotte Rampling seemingly has her own problems with the illness: she has embraced a sort of hyper-rationalism that has robbed everything of joy and meaning, which is similar to Justine's own (literally) world-weary position later in the film. As her sister Claire, Charlotte Gainsbourg is condescending, unhelpfully terming Justine's lowest points as evidence of "causing a scene" and even expressing contempt for her. Meanwhile Claire's husband John, played by Kiefer Sutherland, thinks Justine is just a nuisance and potentially a destructive influence upon their young son Leo (Cameron Spurr).



Several characters seem to mistake Justine's mental state for an expression of want. Her well-meaning new husband (Alexander Skarsgård) buys her a plot of land where he claims the environment will make her happy. Claire and John believe the expensive wedding reception they have thrown her should raise more of a smile (John mentions more than once that his land hosts an 18 hole golf course). Her boss (Stellan Skarsgård) gifts her with a promotion during the occasion, but again this is not much of a boon. Here Von Trier's sharp sense of humour is in evidence as he satirises trite aspirations and our desperate attempts to give events meaning. Later Justine ridicules Claire's need for some sort of ceremony as the apocalypse nears, sarcastically suggesting they light candles and listen to classical music.

All of these interactions highlight popular, tragically Victorian misconceptions about mental illness: that it isn't illness at all but a failing of character or a sign of weakness. Justine's response is usually to find solitude, though she also takes comfort in the young Leo - presumably because he is not sitting in judgement of her. Justine's attempt at marriage doesn't survive the reception and, six months later, we find her no longer willing to fight this chronic sombreness and the film refocusses on Claire - now herself distraught by the threat posed by an oncoming planet.



It is not a spoiler to mention that the Earth is destroyed in 'Melancholia': it's an event that takes place (and quite majestically) at the very start of the film, with the human drama on the planet's surface played out as an extended flashback. The conceit here is that a hitherto unseen planet has come into view from its position behind our sun and is on a collision course with the Earth, though really this apocalypse forms part of an extended metaphor, emphasising the gloomy mental state of Justine and Claire. The planet serves as a great, oppressive weight pushing down on them throughout. The world outside Claire and John's impressive grounds is never seen and both attempts to leave (by horse and later by golf car) are halted by some unseen power, which I would suggest is representative of a depressive's tendency to sink into themselves and shun the outside world.

Von Trier has long been able to dazzle critics with his technique and 'Melancholia' is an immensely beautiful film, comprised of haunting and truly spectacular images from start to finish. Taken at face value the impending apocalypse plot is also dramatic and terrifying. But more significantly, what we have here is his most candid and revealing film. It's thought-provoking, personal, earnest and far less oblique than some of his previous work. It's a shame this movie has been overshadowed by those ill-advised and misjudged attempts at humour during that infamous press conference earlier this year that saw Cannes declare him "persona non grata". The Danish director occasionally seems to be his own worst enemy and 'Melancholia' leaves me in no doubt at all why that is. I haven't been able to get the film out of my head in the days since I saw it, making it easily the most powerful film of the year so far.

'Melancholia' is rated '15' by the BBFC and is out now in the UK.

'Melancholia': End of the World feature - Telegraph Online

Ahead of the UK release of Lars Von Trier's apocalyptic 'Melancholia' tomorrow, a feature I wrote about end of the world movies has been published on the Daily Telegraph website. It's about films where the world is actually destroyed - or else seems to be on an irreversible decline - so it's pretty spoiler heavy. Also, whilst the title on the site says "top 10", the majority of these are imperfect movies united by this loose theme and don't form any kind of list of recommendations (though all are worth seeing).

The link for that piece is here.

'Melancholia' is rated '15' by the BBFC and is released in the UK from tomorrow.

'Drive' review:

It's been called an arthouse version of 'The Transporter', though Nicolas Winding Refn's thriller 'Drive' has much more in common with the cool Californian car chases of 'Bullitt' and the professional criminal tropes of Michael Mann (in particular 'Thief'). Despite a seemingly contemporary setting, the car stereo music, the shocking pink opening titles and star Ryan Gosling's racing jacket all give it a very strong 80s vibe. Though despite all this loving homage, it's very much a film from the Danish director of 'Bronson' and 'Valhalla Rising', with Refn favouring long takes, limited dialogue and short bursts of intense violence centred around one enigmatic male lead.

'Drive' is the story of Gosling's LA stuntman and part-time mechanic known in the script as Driver. Driver is a man of few words (Gosling's dialogue through the entire film wouldn't comfortably fill half a page), never racing to fill silences or even answer direct questions as he chews on a toothpick. His motivations aren't altogether clear, beyond wanting to protect/possess his attractive neighbour (Carey Mulligan) and her young son as they come under threat from a criminal gang, and neither are his origins. By the end of the film you may even wonder whether he is a person at all as opposed to some mythical force of nature. Whatever he is, he isn't a conventional good guy.



Even if you look past the fact he moonlights as a getaway driver for criminals, a day job that gets him into a whole lot of trouble with Ron Perlman's petulant Mafia boss, this is a guy who thinks nothing of threatening a woman with violence when his back is against the wall. And his shy, quiet demeanour is undeniably disturbing given his capacity for sudden ultra violence, with the character seeming more than a little unhinged - particularly as he caves a man's skull in with his boots whilst a horrified Mulligan looks on. Perhaps the character has been looking for a fight all along as he usually has a hammer handy and - under Refn's unflinching gaze - you never have any doubt that we will see him use it.

Ultimately though 'Drive' for all its charms feels like a triumph of style over substance. Gosling's blank slate protagonist offers nothing emotionally and equally thinly drawn supporting characters are archetypes elevated only by the calibre of actor asked to portray them: Albert Brooks, Christina Hendricks and Bryan Cranston are all excellent but have little to do, whilst Mulligan is just a bit wet throughout. However, there is no denying everything looks great, especially during the thrillingly choreographed car chase sequences, and the retro feel combined with the synthesizer heavy soundtrack is compelling. It isn't difficult to see why Refn won the best director prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival, as some of the individual shot choices are truly inspired, whilst his direction somehow manages to seem both nimble and meticulously composed.

'Drive' is rated '18' by the BBFC and is out now across the UK.

'Colombiana' review:

Before I start the review some blog housekeeping: I'm on holiday for the next week in Barcelona and so I won't be updating anything (here, twitter etc). I have lots of reviews and what-not up at What Culture in the coming days (wisely prepared in advance) so you won't miss me too much if you know where to look. In the meantime, if you're too lazy to look, here is a fawning feature I published today about my love of 'Jurassic Park'.



Our heroine is sexy. She is so sexy in fact that this is her defining character trait and sole redeeming quality. As a result she must be naked in every scene, or at least clad in some kind of skimpy catsuit. Within one barely five minute section of the movie you can see her do a sexy dance as she undresses in her apartment, before we cut to her naked in the shower, then cut to a shot of her polishing the barrel of a gun suggestively whilst sucking on a lollipop. The very next shot is of her aggressively dry-humping a man in his apartment in her lingerie.

This is a typical sequence from 'Colombiana', the hitman movie starring Zoe Saldana, directed by Olivier Megaton ('Transporter 3') and produced/co-written by Luc Besson. Saldana is a Colombian woman who lives to get revenge for the death of her parents at the hands of a stock evil Latino drug lord figure. We see her parents die in an overlong, extremely cumbersome sequence at the start of the film, which takes place in some very clean, colourful favelas and features the parkour stunts now associated with every Besson production since 'Taxi 2' and the 'District-13' films.



Anyway, as a girl Colombiana escapes the fate of her parents, running to America, where she vows revenge and trains as a killer for hire. We then cut to sometime in the future: she is a grown up hitman now and, as luck would have it, the drug mogul is living in the US, being sheltered by the CIA (for some reason). We're told that the lithe assassin has gone on a killing spree of late, killing 23 people to gain the attention of her nemesis, though as this figure increases baddie henchman are never included - because, you know, they're not people apparently, but cattle to be mown down.

Even if you ignore the terrible supporting actors (for whom English is surely not a first language), the bland cinematography (that basks everything in a sickly golden light) and the seen-it-before-done-better actions sequences: it's just a pretty nasty film and not very fun with it, compared to, say, the Besson-produced 'Transporter' series. Our hero is certainly not very nice and neither are the people she works with and purports to love. Yet the kills aren't particularly imaginative or cleverly staged either, borrowing liberally from the language of video games. Even when one villain - who we know is evil because he's fat, decadent and sleeping with big-booed models - is fed to some rubbish CGI sharks, the action fails to register even a raised eyebrow amongst the mediocrity. Even with sharks.



To make matters worse, Megaton (great name by the way) unwisely focusses a lot of time on a romance sub-plot, which whilst crucial for Colombiana's "character" (the tragic, isolated victim of her own revenge obsession) isn't very interesting and slows everything down. The film's misogyny is a similarly big mood killer. If you read physically strong women as strong female characters, then Colombiana is as powerful a female role model as they come. However, her male director/writers/producers have her firmly within their exploitative gaze.

I don't want to be misogynistic myself by implying overt female sexuality is always aimed at men: women enjoy sex and seeing sexy female characters, who can be wish fulfilment figures in the same way many men enjoy Bond. But this is unquestionably one for the lads, with other female characters (like the girl's mother) overshadowed in a film of earnest, inherently wise patriarchs. This is even more of a shame when you consider Besson has written some genuinely strong female characters across his career, from young Natalie Portman's breakout role in 'Leon', to his recent and winsome female Indiana Jones adventure story 'The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec'.

I'll say this for it though: 'Colombiana' has the strength of its convictions, with the film getting the down note finale its self-destructive character deserves.

'Colombiana' is out now and rated '15' by the BBFC.

'Warrior' and 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy' interviews

Way back in June I was invited to see the Gavin O'Connor directed mixed martial arts drama 'Warrior' and interview the film's stars Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton. Both that interview and my review can be read over at What Culture.

More recently (Monday), I had the pleasure of interviewing Oscar winner Colin Firth about his role in upcoming Cold War ensemble 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'. You can also read this interview, as well as another with the film's director Tomas Alfredson and screenwriter Peter Straughan, over at What Culture now.

I reviewed that film earlier in the week for this blog.

'Warrior'is released on September 23rd in the UK and is rated '12A' by the BBFC. 'Tinker Tailor Solider Spy' has a '15' certificate and is out from Friday.

World Film Locations: London available now

A while ago I began contributing reviews and essays to a number of glossy film publications from Intellect. The first of these was released yesterday: World Film Locations: London, edited by Neil Mitchell. I've not seen the final version, but I wrote an essay about the way Richard Curtis films - 'Notting Hill' in particular - have used London and how they represent it as a cultural space.

I'm really impressed by the reviews the book has received so far and feel really privileged to have been a part of it:

'Handsome and intriguing, like an elegant ghosthunter's companion to a world that is - and isn't -there. ' – Francine Stock

'A superb book, indispensable for any cinephile interested in London's psychogeography. I could pore over it for hours.' – Peter Bradshaw

Why not purchase the book here?