Film REVIEWS
Film Books
As is always the way in Scotland, summer is kind of here, and now is the time to lie in the grass with that growing pile of tosh novels. But let’s face it, you are going to win a lot more kudos from your film-obsessed mates if you create a tower of ciné-lit under that recalcitrant sun.
Best to start with something thin to get you
going. Matthew Lloyd’s 80-page How the Movie Brats Took Over Edinburgh (St Andrews Film Studies ●●●●●) takes its lead from Kieron Corless and Chris Darke’s excellent 2007 book Cannes: Inside the World’s Premier Film Festival by making a case for change by looking back to look forward. Though initially academic in style Lloyd builds an intriguing portrait of how, between 1968-1980, the Edinburgh International Film Festival became a leading proponent of influence and change through a total commitment to cinéphilia and political agendas. For anyone who cares about the continued health of Scotland’s leading film festival, it’s a compelling and well-researched read, and one that the new team in charge of the festival have no doubt studied at great length (the book is even proudly on sale at the box office of Edinburgh’s Filmhouse). Lloyd certainly knows where the bodies are buried.
Stefan Kanfer’s Tough Without a Gun: The Extraordinary Life of Humphrey Bogart (Faber ●●●●●) takes a chisel to the profile of one of the golden age of cinema’s most cherished performers and details the real story: how a privileged middle class child of academics became Hollywood’s number one tough guy. Like his other biographies of Marlon Brando, Lucille Ball and Groucho Marx, this is a sober and measured account of a conflicted personality that deserves to find a readership.
Charles Drazin’s heavyweight The Faber Book of French Cinema (●●●●●) is an indulgent, occasional draggy evaluation of the very essence of Gallic cinema, and that’s what makes it so good. Drazin traces a line of artistic pride and dissent from Georges Méliès to Jacques Audiard which is defined not by financial worth but by intelligence and a sense of natural identity. Drazin’s book will have you revisiting those French jewels of yesteryear quicker than you can say ‘Lumière brothers’. (Paul Dale)
84 THE LIST 26 May–23 Jun 2011
COMEDY BRIDESMAIDS (15) 125min ●●●●●
Kristen Wiig (Adventureland, Whip It!) comes close to grasping the comedy crown from her Saturday Night Live colleague Tina ‘30 Rock’ Fey with this hilarious reinvigoration of the chick flick. As co-writer and star, Wiig disposes of traditional schmaltzy predictability, replacing it with the kind of frank raunchiness that’s led to success for blokey comedies like The Hangover and I Love You, Man. With the added input of gold-plated comedy producer Judd ‘Knocked Up’ Apatow, Wiig clearly has her sights set on similar box office glory. Wiig plays Annie, a thirtysomething singleton who has settled for less than her ideal, working as a shop assistant since her self-run cake shop went bankrupt, and occasionally falling into bed with commitment-phobic sleaze-bag Ted (Mad Men’s Jon Hamm, stealing every scene he’s in). When her newly-engaged best friend Lillian (Maya Rudolph) asks her to be chief bridesmaid
Annie is delighted, until she meets Helen (Rose Byrne), Lillian’s new best friend; a beautiful, rich bitch who seems intent on driving a stake between Annie and Lillian. Bridesmaids has all the hallmarks that the association with Apatow suggests: the main characters act in a refreshingly realistic and believable manner, the cast list overflows with comedy talent – Brit Chris O’Dowd is a stand-out – and the jokes are very funny, unapologetically resisting the boundaries of taste and decency (you won’t quickly forget the dress-fitting scene). The only flaw is that the film is let down by weak storytelling; the script fails to connect Annie’s personal journey with the overarching wedding story and, more problematically, director Paul Feig allows scenes that should be moving the story forward to outstay their welcome for the sake of dragging out a joke. Like a drunk wedding guest, Bridesmaids is very funny, but someone should really have kept it under control. (Paul Gallagher) ■ General release from Fri 24 Jun.
COMEDY/DRAMA MAMMUTH (15) 92min ●●●●●
Directors Benoît Delépine and Gustave De Kervern have shown a talent to amuse with politically-incorrect, deadpan delights like Aaltra (2004) and Louise-Michel. Mammuth offers more of the same with the addition of a star turn from Gérard Depardieu. The result is engaging and frequently hilarious but leaves a slight suspicion that the move towards the mainstream has blunted some of their spiky irreverence. Sporting flowing fair hair and an ample belly, Depardieu seems to be enjoying himself enormously as the boorish, lumbering Serge. Just turned 60, Serge has retired from his job at a slaughterhouse but discovered that his pension is in doubt because of the bureaucratic incompetence of his past employers. Mounting his trusty Mammut motorcycle and biding au revoir to his wife Catherine (Yolande Moreau), he sets off on a trip to collect affidavits testifying to his claim.
Naturally, the journey becomes one of enlightenment, guided by the ghost of an old girlfriend (Isabelle Adjani) and inspired by his unconventional niece, Solange (Miss Ming). Piecing together the value of his past allows a transformed Serge to face the future in a film that nicely balances melancholy with mischief. (Allan Hunter) ■ Selected release from Fri June 3.