Film REVIEWS
DRAMA SHAME (18) 101min ●●●●●
Sexual imagery oozes from every blockbuster and frat boy comedy, but serious discussion rather than cheap titillation is a rarity. Cinema actually finds it hard to confront sex, partly because the American censorship board takes such a puritanical view on adult sexual content, and partly because it’s very hard to get right. Yet visual artist and film director Steve McQueen has done just that, making a film that succeeds through its realness.
Brandon Sullivan (Michael Fassbender) is trapped. He has a high-powered job in an anonymous New York office, but he’s mired in his own world of addiction. His compulsion for sex rules his life, leading him from prostitutes to net porn to masturbation. It’s mechanical, sad and loveless. He lives in fear of his former conquests, haunted by their disembodied voices on his answer phone.
Then his sister, club singer Sissy (Carey Mulligan), drifts into his life and apartment upsetting the precarious knife edge of his existence. She’s equally damaged, demanding and vulnerable, but in her own way. There’s an uncomfortable tension between them, fuelled by something dark and foreboding hanging over their past. Her presence throws his life into turmoil. Without the space for his own psychosis, his cravings drag him into darker, more dangerous territories.
Fassbender’s performance is (as we’ve come to expect)
stunning – detached yet wrought with pain. Mulligan is also on spellbinging form. Her rendition of ‘New York, New York’, shot in close up, is heartbreakingly gorgeous, though not pitch perfect which increases its effectiveness. Shame is the very definition of adult filmmaking, tackling uncomfortable themes with intelligence and bleak realism. It doesn’t provide easy answers but McQueen has made a strangely lyrical film about ugly desperation. (Henry Northmore) ■ General release from Fri 13 Jan.
ADAPTATION WAR HORSE (12A) 146m ●●●●●
BIOPIC J EDGAR (15) 137min ●●●●● COMEDY-DRAMA THE DESCENDANTS (15) 115m ●●●●●
As War Horse begins, with soaring shots of rolling English hills and a sweeping John Williams overture, director Steven Spielberg sends a clear message: settle down for some large-canvas, old-fashioned big-screen storytelling. Over the following 146 minutes that is exactly what he delivers, and it’s absolutely wonderful cinema. Using both Michael Morpurgo’s 1982 novel and the more recent acclaimed theatre adaptation as sources, Spielberg and writers Richard Curtis and Lee Hall have crafted a stirring family drama that celebrates bravery and companionship while powerfully condemning the brutal devastation of war.
The titular horse is Joey, bought by debt-ridden farmer Ted Narracott (Peter Mullan) in a peaceful England unwittingly on the brink of WWI. Ted’s son Albert (Jeremy Irvine) connects with Joey, but when the war comes the horse is required to serve. The war takes him through different masters on all sides of the conflict until the pair are reunited amidst the horrors of the trenches. Through it all Spielberg shows his unparalleled ability to capture specific humanity within large-scale drama. (Paul Gallagher) ■ General release from Fri 13 Jan.
64 THE LIST 5 Jan–2 Feb 2012
Clint Eastwood’s biopic on former FBI head J Edgar Hoover offers a skewed perspective on American history that eventually buckles under the weight of its own misguided ambition.
Written by Oscar winner Dustin Lance Black (Milk),
the film recalls some of the defining moments in Hoover’s career as seen through the often-blinkered eyes of the man himself. As such, the film is upbeat and sentimental for most of its length. While some of Hoover’s greatest exploits (the creation of a finger printing database, hunting down John Dillinger) are touched upon, some of his more questionable methods and policies are forgotten. Black and Eastwood do explore Hoover’s sexuality, and develop a mostly unspoken ‘romance’ between Hoover and his second-in-command, Clyde Tolson, while also referencing his cross-dressing tendencies and his influential but domineering mother.
This subject matter is handled sensitively, and the film is well acted (especially by Leonardo DiCaprio) but overall feels unfocused and lacking the type of authority that made Hoover himself such a formidable figure. (Roberto Carnevale) ■ General release from Fri 20 Jan.
In Alexander Payne’s first film since 2004’s Sideways, George Clooney plays Matt King, a Hawaii-based businessman and heir to a hugely valuable piece of Hawaiian land. On the eve of a deal to sell the land and make his many relatives rich, crisis hits: a boating accident leaves his wife in a coma from which she may never wake. Self- confessed ‘back-up parent’ Matt must take responsibility for his two daughters, the older of whom (Shailene Woodley) reveals that his wife had recently been having an affair. This rich mix of relationship drama, character
comedy and weighty meditation is fertile ground for Payne, whose already shown aptitude in such areas. But The Descendants is most strongly defined by Payne’s unexpected compassion; at every turn, through authentic dialogue and surprising story developments, Payne undercuts our desire to make snap judgements about these characters. Clooney gives arguably his strongest performance to date as Matt, a flawed father reaching to do good, and he’s brilliantly supported by 20-year-old Woodley, a star in the making for certain. (Paul Gallagher) ■ General release from Fri 27 Jan.