Film REVIEWS
DRAMA MEEK’S CUTOFF (PG) 104min ●●●●●
Kelly Reichardt (Old Joy, Wendy and Lucy) is one of the most interesting American filmmakers working today and her latest feature film delivers on all fronts. Meek’s Cutoff belongs to that slender sub strata of the Western genre previously inhabited only by Jim Jarmusch’s seminal 1994 film Dead Man. Reichardt adopts the myth-making framework in order to empty it out from within: this is subversive, highly intelligent filmmaking. Set in 1845 on the harsh and arid Oregon planes, the film
plays out as a major drama in a minor mode. The landscape here is not a reflection of the main characters’ inner emotional worlds as it would be in the classical Western (as best exemplified in the films of Anthony Mann and John Ford). Nature in Meek’s Cutoff remains indifferent to the embattled and deeply flawed protagonists (played by a uniformly excellent cast including Reichardt’s regular collaborator Michelle Williams). The film is also a study in ambiguity: just as Reichardt casts her characters into a liminal zone in which they cannot find their bearings, so too does she throw into crisis the established moral compass of this genre. Tellingly, the film’s conclusion attests to the impossibility of a clear-cut moral code, which is its real triumph.
Reichardt’s meticulous and, it must be said, beautiful visual style requires that the viewer pay attention to the most infinitesimal of details – words that go unspoken, subtle gestures, which remains on the periphery of the film frame. By eschewing the use of widescreen (the traditional format for the Western), the director also renders this cinematic world claustrophobic and fraught with an atmosphere of impending peril. Despite its small scale though, there is something epic about this film (in part due to its political subtext), which certainly warrants and rewards multiple viewings. (Anna Rogers) ■ GFT, Glasgow and Filmhouse Edinburgh from Fri 15-Thu 21 Apr.
DRAMA ORANGES AND SUNSHINE (15) 104min ●●●●● DRAMA/COMEDY PASSENGER SIDE (12A) 85min ●●●●●
SCI FI/THRILLER SOURCE CODE (12A) 93min ●●●●●
Jim Loach’s debut was always going to be compared to his father’s immense body of work, even more so given this adaptation of Nottingham social worker Margaret Humphreys’ book Empty Cradles is by Rona Munro, who previously scripted Loach Snr’s harrowing 1994 film Ladybird Ladybird. Set in 1986, Humphreys (Emily Watson) uncovers a dirty secret in our past. Back in the 1950s, British children in care were shipped off to Australia, told that their parents no longer wanted them and housed with strict Catholic institutions. Thirty years on, Humphreys decides to reunite as many former child migrants as possible with their families. The ever-dependable Watson is a rock here – and the best scenes are between her and the two male leads, Hugo Weaving and David Wenham, cast as men who’ve had very different emotional reactions to being victims of this shameful scandal. Like his father, Loach directs simply and without fuss, even if this unremittingly bleak tale lacks the Kes director’s trademark humour. But as first films go, it’s impressive and accomplished. (James Mottram) ■ GFT, Glasgow from Fri 1–Thu 14 April; Filmhouse, Edinburgh from Fri 1–Thu 21 Apr.
64 THE LIST 31 Mar–28 Apr 2011
Before the road movie was carjacked by the American gross-out comedy, Easy Rider and its offspring helped establish a genre of American outsider cinema, with its portraits of the big country beyond the confines of the Hollywood system. Cars have been a central part of the American dream and after the demise of Detroit no modern metropolis is more associated with driving than Los Angeles, and it’s the setting for this smartly written comedy by Canadian Matt Bissonnette.
Bissonnette continues his fascination with sibling rivalries in this tale starring his brother Joel Bissonette as Tobey, a recovering drug addict, who commands his writer bro Michael (Adam Scott) to forgo his birthday plans and drive him around town on bizarre errands. The brothers argue against a LA backdrop that showcases the city as sharply as Alex Holdridge’s In Search of a Midnight Kiss. As much as the film is about the malaise within their relationship it’s also a comment on how American independent film in the home of commercial cinema has become another casualty of materialism. Even road movies offer no bastion. (Kaleem Aftab) ■ Grosvenor, Glasgow from Fri 1 April. See profile. page 62.
Duncan Jones’ dazzling debut Moon is, by any standard, a tough act to follow but while sophomore effort Source Code can’t quite match up, it does ensure the director’s career remains on the right track. Source Code is an intriguing race-against-time
thriller with sci-fi and philosophical elements. It stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Colter Stevens, a helicopter pilot serving in Afghanistan, who suddenly wakes up on a busy Chicago commuter train in someone else’s body. When the train explodes, Stevens is transported back to a dark capsule where military commanders tell him that he is on a mission to prevent a larger catastrophe. He can do this using a source code, which enables him to keep returning to the train.
While undoubtedly silly in a Groundhog Day meets Deja Vu kind of way, Source Code grips by virtue of its sharply drawn characters and because of Jones’ ability to mix wider ethical and scientific issues with clever twists and turns. It’s a shame that a feel- good, crowd-pleasing ending prevents it from being even smarter. (Rob Carnevale) ■ General release from Fri 1 Apr.