www.list.co.uk/film Reviews Film
ALSO RELEASED Treeless Mountain (PG) 89min ●●●●● One summer young sisters Jin and Bin are left with their bad tempered aunt when their mother goes in search of their estranged father. As they wait for their mother’s return they fill up their piggy bank and acclimatise themselves to their new environment. But things don’t go as expected and soon they are moving again to their grandparent’s farm. Quiet, moving and thought- provoking drama from Korean filmmaker So Yong-kim, the acclaimed director of In Between Days. GFT, Glasgow, Fri 8–Thu 14 Jan. Daybreakers (15) 97min ●●●●● It’s 2017, and the undead now outnumber the living. A virus has spread across the earth, turning its inhabitants into vampires. With their blood supply dwindling, the vampires must find a way to sustain their source of food. Intelligent, gory and thoroughly entertaining horror from the talented Spierig Brothers, the German sibling filmmaker duo whose previous work includes celebrated horror Undead. Ethan Hawke stars. General release from Fri 8 Jan. The Book of Eli (15) tbcmin ●●●●● Man has destroyed the earth and all that is left is a ravaged post apocalypse landscape. Loner Denzel Washington wanders through Mad Max style communities with just one aim – to protect the sacred tome that could hold the key to the survival of the human race. Silly but fun futuristic action thriller from Albert and Allen Hughes, the sibling filmmaking team who gave us From Hell and Dead Presidents. Gary Oldman, Mila Kunis and Ray Stevenson co-star. General release from Fri 15 Jan.
44 Inch Chest (18) 94min (unable to review) Ray Winstone reteams with Sexy Beast screenwriters for this gritty crime film. Also stars British favourites John Hurt, Tom Wilkinson and Ian McShane. Unable to review at time of going to press, reviewed next issue or on www.list.co.uk before then. General release from Fri 15 Jan. OSS 117: Lost in Rio (15) 101min ●●●●● New French comedy film franchise begins to unfurl with this follow up to the equally silly OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies. Jean Dujardin returns as France’s dumbest super spy, this time he’s looking for ex-Nazi’s in Brazil with a sexy Jewish female spy and the hippie son of an ex-Nazi in tow. GFT, Glasgow, Fri 15–21 Jan. 7–21 Jan 2010 THE LIST 47
The rub comes when we learn that Bingham’s life on the road is being threatened thanks to a new scheme by grad-school whiz Natalie (Anna Kendrick) that will see all future firings done via video conferencing. If that presents a shock to his system, further change comes when he starts falling for a like-minded executive named Alex (Vera Farmiga).
Admittedly, the notion of a loved-up bachelor forced to reassess his priorities sounds like the stuff of Hollywood sentiment. But Reitman’s mature approach to the material – deftly balancing humour and pathos – makes for a very satisfying experience indeed. With first-rate acting throughout, and production values to match, Up in the Air barely hits a bum note. Poignant, prescient, sharp, incisive, for once, a Hollywood film hits the nail squarely on the head. (James Mottram) ■ General release from Fri 15 Jan.
COMEDY/DRAMA UP IN THE AIR (15) 109min ●●●●●
Rarely has a film felt so timely. After his satirical study of an unscrupulous tobacco lobbyist in Thank You For Smoking and the charming teen angst tale Juno, director Jason Reitman delivers an absorbing examination of our recession-hit world in Up in the Air. Adapted from Walter Kirn’s novel, the film centres on well-groomed executive Ryan Bingham (George Clooney, in fine form). Flying from city-to-city, Bingham is hired to fire, with cowardly companies employing him to let people go in a professional yet clinical manner. Affording him a nomadic lifestyle he relishes – not least for keeping him apart from relatives he cares little for – it seems his biggest ambition in life is to amass ten million frequent flier miles.
DRAMA THE SEA WALL (UN BARRAGE CONTRE LE PACIFIQUE) (12A) 115min ●●●●●
A measured if unexceptional adaptation of Marguerite Duras’ semi-autobiographical first novel by Cambodian- born director Rithy Panh (S-21:The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine), The Sea Wall unfolds in French Indochina in the early 1930s. Isabelle Huppert plays the unnamed widowed landowner, whose two children, beautiful teenage daughter Suzanne (Astrid Berges-Friseby) and aggressive older brother Jo (Gaspard Ulliel), are restless to leave the countryside. When floods destroy her rice crop, Huppert’s character faces bankruptcy and repossession.
The sea wall of the title is both the system of defences the mother and the Cambodian villagers construct to protect the vulnerable fields, and a metaphor for the rising forces of nationalism, which are destined to sweep the nation. Here the colonial system exploits both the local people, who are arbitrarily expelled from their territory, and expats like the mother, who are at the mercy of crooked French bureaucrats. Despite Huppert’s and newcomer Berges-Friseby’s strong performances, the film itself surprisingly lacks the necessary dramatic urgency, and compares unfavourably to Claire Denis’ forthcoming colonialist drama White Material. (Tom Dawson) ■ GFT, Glasgow and Filmhouse, Edinburgh from Mon 11–Thu 14 Jan.