FILM | Reviews
MUSIC BIOPIC GOOD VIBRATIONS (15) 103min ●●●●●
In 1970s Belfast, as sectarian conflict escalated into terrorism and murder, Terri Hooley decided to open a record shop on the battle-scarred high street. ‘One love’ was his declaration, and Good Vibrations was the store’s name. It birthed a record label, creating a platform for a wealth of up-and-coming Irish punk acts, the most famous being Feargal Sharkey and The Undertones. Directors Lisa Barros D’Sa and Glenn Leyburn retell these events as an inspiring biopic of Hooley, showing the community-building power of music in an environment of fear and ever-present violence.
The film follows a formulaic biopic structure, and becomes less compelling when the narrative takes dramatically necessary downturns, but two things help Good Vibrations to rise above its flaws. The first is Richard Dormer (Game of Thrones), whose brilliant performance as Hooley dominates the film, conveying an irrepressible spirit that is nonetheless grounded in reality.
The second is the way that the directors draw on religious imagery to give weight to the moments of musical breakthrough. Hooley has a radical ‘conversion’ experience in a mosh pit, while the moment ‘Teenage Kicks’ first gets played on the radio sees Hooley bathed in light as if divinely ordained. The filmmakers subtly but effectively pose the suggestion that, in the midst of religious hatred, God was not to be found amongst the warring faith communities, but in the peace-loving endeavours of underground punks. (Paul Gallagher) ■ Limited release from Fri 22 Mar.
DRAMA REALITY (15) 115min ●●●●●
Meet Luciano (Aniello Arena), a Neapolitan fish-seller and minor scam artist. Encouraged by his family, he enters the local try-outs for the popular reality TV series Grande Fratelli (Big Brother), and is soon called to the Cinecitta studios in Rome for a second round of auditions. Convinced that he will be chosen as a contestant, he returns home and sells his business, because fame will surely provide endless riches. Much to his wife Maria’s alarm, he even starts giving away his material possessions to the poor to demonstrate his charitable nature.
Although set primarily in Naples, this magic realist fable is a much more stylised film than director Matteo Garrone’s acclaimed Mafia portrait Gomorrah. Favouring long, roaming takes, Garrone and his cinematographer Marco Onorato contrast the crumbling tenements of Luciano’s impoverished inner-city neighbourhood with the shiny, hyperreal world of mediated mass entertainment. Arena proves a compelling lead, conveying his character’s quick-witted likeability and his eventual descent into a delusional state. And the film itself serves as a powerful metaphor for Berlusconi-era Italy, in which Catholicism has seemingly been supplanted by a hysterical collective craving celebrity status. (Tom Dawson) ■ Limited release from Fri 22 Mar. See feature, page 61.
62 THE LIST 21 Mar–18 Apr 2013
DRAMA COMPLIANCE (TBC) 90min ●●●●●
Writer/director Craig Zobel’s indie drama is a low-key reconstruction of the infamous Mount Washington McDonald’s strip-search incident, one of a series attributed to an anonymous prank caller.
Becky (Dreama Walker) is an attractive teenager whose monotonous workday behind the counter is interrupted when her boss Sandra (Ann Dowd) receives a call from a man claiming to be a police officer who says he has evidence that Becky has been stealing. Becky denies this, but under the orders of ‘Officer Daniels’ (Pat Healy), Sandra allows Becky to be strip-searched. With none of the other employees willing to question the authority of the bogus policeman, Becky is subjected to a further series of sexual humiliations.
The content of Compliance is hard to stomach, and not just because Zobel’s camera is so firmly concerned with meticulously detailing the sexual degrading of an innocent woman. Compliance makes one forceful point: that there should be no shame in questioning authority, and unshowy performances from the cast certainly help get the cautionary message across. But a few moments spent researching the real-life case reveals information much more interesting than the film actually contains. By choosing to focus only on the initial incident, Zobel’s film shocks, but leaves the viewer to uncover the real story for themselves. (Eddie Harrison) ■ Limited release from Fri 22 Mar.
COMEDY ROAD TRIP IDENTITY THIEF (15) 111 min ●●●●●
‘You follow the rules? How’s that workin’ out for you?’ bawls Melissa McCarthy’s shameless criminal when straight-laced accountant Sandy Patterson (Jason Bateman) catches up with her free-spending ways with his money. Seth Gordon’s follow-up to credit-crunch comedy Horrible Bosses hits a considerably sweeter spot by unfolding a similar story of little people striking back, but with a simpler, more effective focus. The con only takes a few seconds: the opening scene
of Identity Thief sees Bateman’s character unwittingly provide McCarthy’s character with his credit card and social security information over the phone. She then renames herself Sandy Patterson and embarks on a spree of spending and crime. Although Sandy is able to convince the cops that he’s not responsible for the crimes, the paperwork involved promises to take a year out of his life – unless the male Sandy can apprehend the female Sandy by his own means.
Identity Thief boils down to a conventional road movie and, while it isn’t in the class of McCarthy’s Bridesmaids, it’s still a decent comedy. Even if the lack of big laughs in Craig Mazlin’s script tells, the cheerfully amoral ‘stick-it-to-the-man’ message papers over the cracks. (Eddie Harrison) ■ General release from Fri 22 Mar.