list.co.uk/fi lm Reviews | FILM
DRAMA BERNIE (12A) 99min ●●●●●
DRAMA GIMME THE LOOT (cert tbc) 101min ●●●●● DRAMA REBELLION (15) 136min ●●●●●
We’re all familiar with the clear-cut outrage that follows a heinous crime perpetrated by a twisted monster against a dewy innocent. But what if it’s the other way round? What if someone hugely popular does something terrible to someone widely hated? When, in 1996, violence marred the improbable
but close friendship between the much-loved funeral home worker Bernie Tiede and wealthy, mean- tempered widow Marjorie Nugent, their neighbours in the small town of Carthage, East Texas, knew where their sympathies lay . . . and it wasn’t with the victim. Richard Linklater turns this strange true-life story
into a nicely-mounted but oddly bloodless film, with Jack Black and Shirley MacLaine well cast but underused in the leads. Black’s performance as Bernie, though diligent, is lacking in layers: we never acquire deeper knowledge of him than did the locals who fell so comprehensively for the charming show that he put on. The film’s low-key humour is intermittently pleasing, but to treat a real murder with this blend of down-home kitsch and light comedy is either a missed dramatic opportunity or a display of questionable taste but possibly both. Linklater had an interesting story here, but unfortunately this work lurks towards the Fast Food Nation end of his oeuvre. (Hannah McGill) ■ General release from Fri 26 Apr.
In a clip at the beginning of Gimme the Loot, a trio of New York graffiti artists discuss the art form’s holy grail: tagging the Mets’ Apple (a gimmicky trophy that appears whenever the baseball team hit a home run). Sofia (Tashiana Washington) and Malcolm (Ty Hickson) are two Bronx teenagers who aim to take on the challenge, but face numerous obstacles along the way: rival crews, angry drug dealers, thieving kids, overbearing mothers and uptown snobbery, to name a few. Of the two leads, Washington is the stronger
while Hickson initially appears ill at ease in front of the camera but warms up as time goes on (and comes into his own when indulging in unscripted banter with Washington). The third character of note is New York itself, gorgeously shot by cinematographer Jonathan Miller and brought to life with all the sounds of the city, from soul and disco through to classic 90s hip hop.
There’s not a lot of drive to the plot but this is not necessarily a bad thing, lending the film a more meandering, Duplass brothers vibe than the gritty urban setting might initially suggest. There’s a last- act development that feels a bit forced but it’s hard to bear a grudge when the rest of the film is pulled off with such naturalistic grace. (Niki Boyle) ■ Limited release from Fri 3 May.
Ben Affleck isn’t the only actor/director capable of turning living history into gripping drama. In Rebellion (L’Ordre et la Morale), Mathieu Kassovitz revisits events from 1988 on the French Pacific territory of Ouvéa in New Caledonia when a small local uprising was met by the full force of the French army. Argo has been criticised for a depiction of the Iranians so heavy-handed that it effectively dehumanised them, making it so much easier to paint them as villains. Kassovitz deftly handles the complexity of what occurred but his sympathies clearly lie with the islanders in a politically-charged tale similar in approach to the work of Costa-Gavras.
After an incident in which four gendarmes were killed and others taken hostage, negotiation specialist Captain Philippe Legorjus (Kassovitz) is among those dispatched to Ouvéa. Events are largely seen through his eyes as he attempts to mediate between Alphonse (Iabe Lapacas), a rebel leader with legitimate grievances, and callous French rulers for whom a military assault was always more of a first instinct than a last resort. The film makes unfamiliar events accessible and urgent, with Rebellion even offering a particular resonance for Scottish audiences as New Caledonia will finally hold an independence referendum in 2014. (Allan Hunter) ■ Limited release from Fri 26 Apr.
HORROR EVIL DEAD (18) 91min ●●●●●
Plumping for back-to-basics terror over quips and innovation, Evil Dead transcends its remake status with exuberant displays of blood lust, dousing a largely bland cast in buckets of the stuff. The feature debut of acclaimed shorts director Fede Alvarez doesn’t quite live up to the hype but arrives with the original’s director Sam Raimi and star Bruce Campbell as producers. And if it’ll do for them . . . Suburgatory’s droll Jane Levy is a i ne choice as heroine
Mia, a drug addict drying out with the help of some friends. It’s a smart conceit which has her freaking out before the undead have even come a-calling. Those joining her in the familiar cabin in the woods are a truly forgettable, miscellaneous bunch: there’s her brother David (Shiloh Fernandez) who promises not to leave her, and the idiotic Eric (Lou Taylor Pucci) whose ill-advised interest in the Necronomicon (Book of the Dead) kick-starts their nightmare.
Instead of attempting the impossible and seeking to exorcise Raimi’s i lms from our minds, Alvarez (whose short ‘Panic Attack!’ was a YouTube sensation) teasingly references the trilogy, offering (vaguely) new twists on old ideas and lines. No one character rises to the fore in the manner of the incomparable Campbell, with our ostensible ‘i nal girl’ spending a lot of time in her ghoulish, possessed persona. Evil Dead has ample cheap shocks and few bloodcurdling frights but it builds to something gorily bravura and, if that's your bag, you’ll come away satisi ed. It’s a while before anyone picks up a chainsaw, but boy is it worth it when they do. (Emma Simmonds) ■ General release from Thu 18 Apr.
18 Apr–16 May 2013 THE LIST 61