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REVIEWS Film
DOCUMENTARY INSIDE JOB (12A) 108min ●●●●● COMEDY/DRAMA WEST IS WEST (15) 103min ●●●●●
DOCUMENTARY WASTE LAND (PG) 98min ●●●●●
‘I like to take people into places they can’t access on their own’, is how British documentary filmmaker Lucy Walker (Blindsight, plus the forthcoming Countdown to Zero) recently described her films. Her Oscar- nominated Waste Land transports the viewer to the Jardim Gramacho in Rio de Janeiro, the world’s largest rubbish dump, which receives 7000 tons of trash per day.
This is the setting for a remarkable creative collaboration between Brazilian-born and Brooklyn-based garbage artist Vik Muniz and several impoverished catadores (recyclers), who live and work at this location. They include labour organiser Tiao, resident cook Irma, book-loving Zumbi, teenage single mother Suleem and fashion-conscious Isis. It’s these individuals who act as models for Muniz’s recreations of classic paintings such as The Death of Marat and The Parable of the Sower, which are then transformed with their assistance into large-scale photographs to be exhibited in galleries.
Walker displays a genuine concern for the daily struggles and
aspirations of her subjects, whilst Muniz and his wife express their worries about how sudden success and fame might impact on these peoples’ lives. Powered by a soundtrack by Moby, Waste Land engages a range of visual perspectives on the enormous and teeming Gramacho site: it’s photographed from the air (ensuring that the humans resemble ants scuttling across giant mounds of rubbish), by car, and on foot. Ultimately this is an uplifting work, which demonstrates how art can transform lives and self-perceptions, even if the end credits indicate the future for many of these catadores remains very uncertain. (Tom Dawson) ■ Filmhouse, Edinburgh, Fri 25 Feb–Thu 10 Mar; GFT, Glasgow, Fri 4–Thu 10 Mar.
East is East was one of the British box office successes of the late 90s, and found an even bigger audience on video and DVD, but it’s hard to believe that there is much, if any, anticipation for this belated sequel. That is probably for the best, as this plodding, bland drama has little in common with its predecessor, featuring none of the anarchically inventive comedy or keen social observation that caused that film to strike a chord with so many. In 1976, five years after the events of
the first film, Salford chip-shop owner George Khan (Om Puri) decides that he should take his unruly 15-year-old son Sajid on a character-building trip to Pakistan to discover their heritage. As played by newcomer Aqib Khan, Sajid is an irritating central character, charmless and constantly whining, and director Andy DeEmmony offers precious little else – save a blink and you’ll miss it Jimi Mistry cameo – to elicit audience sympathies. Writer Ayub Khan-Din’s secondary
focus is to have George face up to what has become of the family he left in Pakistan 30 years earlier. This theoretically fertile dramatic ground yields nothing fresh though, simply forcing the character to retread his emotional journey from the first film, as he once again confronts his shortcomings as a husband and his unreasonable attitude towards women. There are a few nice moments – a visually delightful wedding sequence stands out – but for the most part this is an uninspired and unrewarding sequel. ■ General release from Fri 25 Feb.
The causes of the global financial crisis of 2008, which has been the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s, are rigorously explored in this absorbing documentary from American filmmaker Charles Ferguson. That we are continuing to suffer globally from the economic consequences of these events, whether in lost jobs, public service spending cuts, or decimated pension funds, gives this film a powerful urgency. Narrated by Matt Damon, the elegantly shot documentary puts the case forward that the crash was in no way an unavoidable accident. Tracing the history of the American finance industry over some three decades, during which it was massively deregulated by both Republican and Democrat governments, Ferguson argues that what happened was criminal fraud on a catastrophic scale and asks why there have been no prosecutions of those responsible. Combining archival footage and probing interviews with financiers, Ivy League academics (whose conflicts of interest are laid bare), lawyers and politicians, Ferguson’s approach is the antithesis of Michael Moore’s grandstanding. Nor does he see President Obama as a saviour for his country’s dysfunctional financial system, pointing out that several of the president’s key economic appointments are individuals who were executives in the very companies whose recklessness triggered the crisis. (Tom Dawson) ■ Selected release from Fri 18 Feb. See feature, opposite.
DRAMA/THRILLER CONFESSIONS (15) 106min ●●●●●
Japan’s contender for Best Foreign Language Film at this year’s Academy Awards is a real departure for its director, Tetsuya Nakashima, whose candy- coloured comedy Kamikaze Girls and musical Memories of Matsuko previously brought him international recognition. Nakashima’s latest is a very dark drama, which, adapted from Kanae Minato’s novel by the director himself, is a story about murder and revenge set in the school classroom that has some seriously disturbing things to say about Japanese youth culture and about the callousness of teenagers in general. Following the death of her four-year-old daughter, teacher Yuko (Takako Matsu,
recently seen in retro superhero adventure K-20: Legend of the Black Mask) announces to her classroom of unruly teenagers that she knows two of them were responsible for killing the child. Teach then announces she’s quitting her job, but she also reveals she has set in motion a terrible plan to avenge her baby. Thereafter, Yuko’s revenge unfolds in inexorable fashion as the guilty and now ostracised killers begin to crack under pressure.
From the bombshell opening, Nakashima ratchets up the tension creating what
proves to be pretty uncomfortable viewing. But it’s an expertly executed and satisfyingly complex psychological horror. (Miles Fielder) ■ Selected release from Fri 18 Feb.
17 Feb–3 Mar 2011 THE LIST 45