DRAMA ROMANCE BLACK SNAKE MOAN (15) 115min «o
Writer/director Craig Brewer does here for the blues what he did for hip hop in sleeper hit Hustle & Flow. In that film Brewer used the synoptic imagery contained in gangster rap to show the reformation of a pimp through music. Here he uses that most depressing of musical genres to pull together a story that is so far out and forlorn that the plot synopsis sounds like it was made up by a man coming down from a particularly nasty batch of heroin.
Christina Ricci has ditched her hourglass figure, gone on a crash diet and emerged as a stick insect, to star as Rae, a girl who jumps from the bed of her Iraq bound military boyfriend (Justin Timberlake) into that of her drug dealer (David Banner) and then heads off for a drunken spree. Outside of Fresher’s Week, benders like this just ain’t no good for the constitution. Salvation comes in the unlikely form of an old man named
38 THE LIST 11-2 i'.".:.
Lazarus (Samuel L Jackson) who takes it upon himself to save Rae.
Brewer uses these plot machinations to investigate ideas of race, religion and redemption in a way that for most of the film’s running time is unusually riveting. Ricci is a revelation here and Jackson does the path of the righteous man better than any other actor working today. It’s when Brewer decides to slow the action down and give Lazarus a guitar, three chords and the truth that the preposterous narrative begins to break down. The story never surprises, merely rambles from one painful juncture to the next. Of course, the point being made by Brewer is that the nature of the blues - accepting the woes of life - is central to the human condition. By avoiding the clichés of say Walter Hill's blues odyssey Crossroads, Brewer is refusing to pander to mainstream audiences. Fans of the blues will find much to admire, while others may despair, but such divisiveness may just be the intention of this contrivance of a film. (Kaleem Aftab)
I Selected release from Fri 78 May.
sci H i lORROR Tl lRlLLtR 28 WEEKS LATER . . . (18) 99min .0.
I General [0/0888 from Fri 1 I May.
DOCUMENTARY BLUE BLOOD (15) 91 min 000
Every year a bunch of ill asserted Oxford undergraduates train to take part in various boxing matches against Cambridge students in order to earn their ‘Oxford Blues'. This cheap looking. clunky. soundtrack- heavy documentary initially seems to be as inviting as the 1984 Rob Lowe vehicle. Oxford Blues. Then the many charms of Stevan Riley's amiable. amateurish but totally compelling film come into play. Shot purely from the viewpoint of the Oxford hopefuls and their ever optimistic coach this is a film driven by its oft centre subjects. There's the working class loner who just wants to impress his Judo loving dad. There's the gifted posh boy singer who can't resist a pointless challenge. There's the angry kid who's been brought up by a single mum and there's the obsessive American astrophysicist straight out of the military who is holding down (quite bizarrely) a hardon for Jesus. YOU start really caring for these boys as they are slowly animalised under the dreaming spires.
The finale grips like a knife. and like Riley's preVious film short documentary Rave Against the Machine (following a group of musicians as they try to Survive the four year siege of Sarajevo in the 1990s) Blue Blood usurps all your expectations and leaves yOu with a little tear to punch away on that padded glove. C'mon the blues.
(Paul Dale) I Showcase. Coatbridge & Showcase. Paisley from Fri .7 t May
As voracious as their flesh-eating éilllé-igOlllSlS. zombie movies can't help coming back for more until a franchise has been picked clean. In order to maintain some semblance of fine (lining from their 2003 sleeper hit 28 Days Later. . . director Danny 80er and writer Alex Garland exec produce the second course here. handpicking young Spanish tyro .Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (from stylish thriller liitacto) to serve up more human fast food for their fleet-footed. rage virus-infected hordes.
The virus has been contained and mainland Britain. decimated by the original outbreak. is now slowly being repopulated under US military command. Of course such stability wouldn't make for much of a film. so before long. a contaminated but strangely vii'iis resistant survivor breaks the quarantine and lily~livered wife deserter Don (Robert ()arlylei and his genetically advantaged kids attempt to avoid featuring on the menu.
A heartpounding opening sets the scene well and the frisson of London as abandoned wasteland still works. even if the geography - the Isle of Dogs to Wembley is apparently only a walk across Regent's Park —- is as tenuous as the plotting. Fresnadillo keeps things moving as rapidly, though Down in the Valley cinematographer Enrique ()hediak's frenetic work sometimes hinders more than helps and any loftier themes — giing~ho Americanism, nuclear family meltdown — are half-digested at best. Better to chew down on the film‘s strengths as a pacy. dirty. bloody B-movie, polishing off its bigger cast names with relish: but despite a sequel-baiting finale. surely no one really needs another helping 28 months later. (Leigh Singer)