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SCI-FI/THRILLER DISTRICT 9 (15) 112min ●●●●●
Under the guiding hand of producer Peter Jackson, South African writer/director Neill Blomkamp has expanded his 2005 Alive in Joberg short to feature-length for this dazzling sci-fi thriller. Set in 2010, District 9 takes place on an alternate-reality Earth on which a lizard-like alien race, the ‘Prawns’, has arrived only to find themselves decanted by the sinister Multi National United agency into camp-like shanty-towns on the outskirts of Johannesburg.
Blomkamp’s film focuses on MNU
operative Wilkus Van Der Merwe (Sharlto Copley), who is given a nepotistic promotion to help security forces move the reluctant aliens into camps. His enthusiasm fails to disguise his own inherent racism towards the ‘prawns’, but his attitude changes when a canister of alien goo starts to transform him into a Prawn. District 9’s admirably edgy, satirical tone is well matched by Blomkamp’s dynamic shooting style, using Cloverfield-style video footage to achieve a powerful you-are-there feel. Not since Starship Troopers have stark, political messages and sci-fi splatter action been so comfortably balanced. The result is at once a moving paean to the importance of human rights and a crowd-pleasing rollercoaster ride. The parallels between District 9’s alien invasion and the real-life problems of post-apartheid South Africa are hammered home with impressive force, and Blomkamp’s message, that it’s the abuse of power which creates the real monsters, hits home with shrapnel ferocity. (Eddie Harrison) ■ General release from Fri 4 Sep.
Reviews Film
WAR/DRAMA THE HURT LOCKER (15) 130min ●●●●●
After half a decade in the wilderness Kathryn Bigelow retreats, re-troops and returns with an excoriating vision of the war in Iraq as seen through the eyes of one particularly mental member of the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit (EOD).
It’s the early months of the post-invasion period in Iraq and Sergeant William James (Jeremy Renner) is the new team leader of the EOD unit with the US Army’s Bravo Company. He joins Sergeant Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) and Specialist Owen Eldridge (Brian Geraghty), who are to be his right hand men in the high stakes game of bomb defusal. Unlike his predecessor James plays fast and loose with protocol and tension soon arises between him and his men. What follows is less a tour of duty than a trip into hell for James and his platoon. Slowly and with great detail Bigelow orchestrates a frenzied, chaotic vision of war. James and his men encounter a confused British private military company (led with great relish by Ralph Fiennes), idiotic generals, disgruntled locals and of course bombs and suicide bombers of all descriptions.
Based, like HBO’s TV mini series Generation Kill, on the
accounts of a freelance writer who was embedded in Iraq, The Hurt Locker marks a major return to form for the remarkable Bigelow whose previous films include Blue Steel, Point Break and the brilliant Strange Days. Playing with the western genre convention by placing a gifted but insane renegade in a sea of hysteria, Bigelow creates an unromantic vision of modern warfare, which is both muscular and visceral while making us question just how close such heroisms are to lunacy. Though overlong, occasionally laborious, repetitive and beholden of a slightly off-putting, pumped up admiration for the troops, The Hurt Locker is as fine a vision of modern combat as we are going to get this close to the events depicted. No one does action set-ups and pay- offs better than Bigelow. The ex-Mrs James Cameron also has a lot of friends who have been waiting an age for her to make this film so there are a healthy bunch of cameos from, among others, the aforementioned Fiennes, Guy Pearce and David Morse. Cinematographer Barry Ackroyd (best known for his work with Ken Loach and Paul Greengrass) does a remarkable job in keeping things fluid and Sam Raimi’s regular editor Bob Murawski creates coherence through the sand storms and flying rubble. (Paul Dale) ■ General release from Fri 28 Aug.
DRAMA/COMEDY FUNNY PEOPLE (15) 145min ●●●●●
In his third film as director, Judd Apatow (The 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up) spreads his wings with a bittersweet drama about the moral vacuity of celebrity. Adam Sandler plays George Simmons, a stand-up actor gone Hollywood, whose success in films like My Best Friend is a Robot doesn’t disguise his loneliness. The hopelessness of his situation is brought into sharp relief when he’s diagnosed with a terminal illness, but Simmons’ unexpected friendship with struggling comedian Ira (Seth Rogen) re-awakens the veteran’s sense of his own worth. Apatow’s characters are often drawn from the fringes of the entertainment
industry, and Funny People benefits from well-drawn ‘insider’ humour, with Jonah Hill and Jason Schwartzman as Ira’s flatmates, and a plethora of cameos, including James Taylor as a cynical version of himself and a hilarious spat between a grouchy Eminem and Everyone Love’s Raymond’s Ray Romano. And while Sandler and Rogen inhabit their characters convincingly, a mid-story plot twist switches moods towards a protracted and bitterly set piece when George and Ira visit Simmons’ ex-girlfriend Laura, played by Apatow’s real-life wife Leslie Mann. Funny People feels like a brave and personal film from Apatow, and goes deeper than most bromances would dare. But the mixture of self-pitying, tears-of-a-clown introspection and endless dick-jokes soon loses its charm. (Eddie Harrison) ■ General release from Fri 28 Aug.
27 Aug–10 Sep 2009 THE LIST 29