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Film REVIEWS
BIOPIC HOWL (15) 84min ●●●●●
Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman – the duo behind 1984 documentary The Times of Harvey Milk – were originally commissioned by the Allen Ginsberg estate to make a documentary to mark the 50th anniversary of Ginsberg’s most celebrated and notorious poem, Howl. Epstein and Friedman missed their deadline by three years because of the strange, incantatory nature of the poem at the heart of the film and the astonishing level of research they did in preparation. The resulting ode is a peculiar beast that is neither
documentary nor straight literary adaptation. What the filmmakers have tried to do is resurrect the poem from its now established status of ‘classic’, wrench it from the hallowed halls of academia and replace it within its proper, historical context.
The juxtaposition of James Franco’s passionate, mercurial and intelligent reading of Howl with a recreation of the court case that surrounded its emergence – the trial of publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti for printing ‘obscene’ material – helps to remind us of just how iconoclastic and controversial Ginsberg’s work was. Strange as this may make America of the 1950s look, this is still the land that most recently contested gay marriage in one of its courtrooms. In this sense, Howl emerges as a poem for and of our own
time, perhaps the most vital test of great ‘literature’. The animated translation of the poem is overly literal but still diverting, and Epstein and Friedman should be commended for bringing Howl to a new generation. (Anna Rogers) ■ GFT, Fri 11–Thu 17 Mar; Filmhouse, Edinburgh, Fri 25– Thu 31 Mar.
DRAMA/FANTASY THE TEMPEST (PG) 109min ●●●●● DRAMA ARCHIPELIGO (15) 115min ●●●●●
After her baroque but static stab at Titus Andronicus, Julie Taymor turns her attention to Shakespeare’s final play, with Helen Mirren centre- stage as not Prospero but Prospera, the island- bound magician who toys with a group of shipwrecked sailors, washed up on her shores by the tempest she created.
Prior to her current Spider Man: Turn Off the Dark debacle, Taymor's Broadway credentials have helped her ensnare a cast of strange bedfellows. Tom Conti, David Strathairn, Chris Cooper and Alan Cumming are the sailors, while Caliban (Djimon Hounsou), Stephano (Alfred Molina) and Trinculo (Russell Brand, awful) dither around drunkenly on the sidelines. Summoning the rough magic of Ariel (Ben Wishaw), Prospera faces up to the loss of daughter Miranda (Felicity Jones) as chaos reigns around her.
With such an array of talent, plus stunning Oscar- nominated costumes by Sandy Powell and lashings of CGI, Taymor’s The Tempest sounds lively enough, but flounders in poor line-readings, ugly visuals and a wretched pomp-rock score. Only Mirren and Conti rise above the pretensions of the project, which turn Shakespeare’s swan song into a deathly-dull plod. With hellhounds, frogs, and special effects trickery in abundance, there's plenty of novelty on offer, but little magic. (Eddie Harrison) ■ General release from Fri 4 Mar.
Joanna Hogg’s second feature film, and the follow- up to her critically acclaimed debut Unrelated, is a sharply observed drama of family dynamics that affirms the director as a distinct and visionary figure in British cinema. Archipelago is set on Tresco in the Scilly Isles,
where Patricia and her two grown-up children Cynthia and Edward are enjoying a break before Edward heads off for a year in Africa. Initially the middle-class niceties suggest that everyone is happy but gradually tensions begin to form and a more complex picture of the relationships in the family emerges. Hogg delights in letting awkward scenarios unfold;
sometimes this gives rise to moments of great humour, as in one memorable scene that takes place in a restaurant, where Cynthia insists on sending back her order and complaining to the chef, much to the discomfort of those around her. At other points the tension is raw, believable and all too recognisable.
The naturalism of Hogg’s film gradually draws its audience in, so that by its end you feel as if you too have endured this troubled family holiday. Archipelago isn’t always easy to watch, but it is honestly observed and has an emotional power that lingers. (Gail Tolley) ■ GFT, Glasgow, Fri 4–Thu 10 Mar; Filmhouse, Edinburgh, Fri 4–Thu 17 Mar.
THRILLER FAIR GAME (12A) 107min ●●●●●
The CIA leak that ended operative Valerie Plame’s career, and the subsequent fallout that revealed a line of corruption leading all the way from Republican low-lives Karl Rove and ‘Scooter’ Libby to the Whitehouse, hardly has the raw tragedy of our own Kelly affair, but it’s still a fascinating modern morality tale and, in director Doug Liman’s hands, makes for a serviceable political thriller. The film begins in 2002 when Plame (played with a
bloodless austerity by Naomi Watts) is involved in garnering evidence about Iraq’s alleged uranium enrichment programme and weapons of mass destruction (of which there was no evidence). Unable to give Bush Jr’s neo-cons the information they want to hear and resolutely standing in the way of them fabricating their own, she soon finds herself outed and so the process of vindication starts. Leading the counter charge is Plame’s dogmatic, slightly unhinged ex-Democrat senator husband Joe Wilson (a righteously menacing Sean Penn).
Tautly if clinically directed by Liman (The Bourne Identity, Mr & Mrs Smith) and well performed by all concerned, Fair Game is slightly derailed by Jez and John Butterworth’s tonally schizophrenic screenplay, which lurches from slick secret service speak to big emotive speeches that underline just how far Penn’s Wilson will go for the woman and children he loves. (Paul Dale) ■ General release from Fri 11 Mar.
3–31 March 2011 THE LIST 65