list.co.uk/fi lm Reviews | FILM
LO-FI INDIE FRANCES HA (15) 86min ●●●●●
ACTION PACIFIC RIM (12A) 131min ●●●●● SHIPWRECK DRAMA THE DEEP (12A) 93min ●●●●●
Imagine Miranda Hart’s TV sitcom alter ego as a gauche, gallumphing gal from Brooklyn and you have Frances Ha, a sweet, self-conscious charmer from Noah Baumbach (Greenberg) that provides a tailor-made showcase for the comic skills of Greta Gerwig, who is also credited as co-writer. There are nostalgic echoes of vintage Woody Allen, early Jim Jarmusch and the freewheeling fizz of the French nouvelle vague in a film that is beautifully shot in black and white and celebrates the ramshackle existence of a woman with no immediate intention of growing up. Frances is 27, still living from hand to mouth and convinced that she will have a career as a dancer even though the evidence to our eyes suggests the contrary.
Filled with acid-tongued one-liners,
eccentric whimsy and moments of toe-curling embarrassment, Frances Ha is executed with deadpan aplomb. The goofily endearing qualities of the central character occasionally tip towards a Chaplinesque straining for pathos but Gerwig keeps you on side in what becomes an affectionate salute to messy lives and an endearing underachiever. (Allan Hunter) ■ General release from Fri 26 Jul.
From Cronos and The Devil’s Backbone through to Pan’s Labyrinth and the Hellboy films, director Guillermo del Toro has had quite the run. However, with his eighth film he finally falters. In mere minutes we’re taken from the initial,
present day invasion of the Kaiju (gigantic aliens who emerge from a portal in Earth’s seabed) to the year 2020 where the battle continues to rage. In order to fight the monsters, humanity has created its own: towering robots which match the enemy in strength and size. They’re piloted by two-man crews whose minds merge in a process known as The Drift. Charlie Hunnam plays handsome maverick Raleigh Becket, kicking arse under the command of Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba).
Del Toro and Travis Beacham’s screenplay is so humourless and cliché-riddled that the cast buckle under the strain. The promising idea of The Drift is underexplored and worst of all, the movie’s skip-to- the-end approach to story and family-friendly peril means it’s almost totally devoid of tension. What a shame that the latest from a director famed for his imagination has turned out to be such a crashing bore. (Emma Simmonds) ■ General release from Fri 12 Jul.
Charting a rather similar course to Life of Pi but minus the tiger and meta-fictional trappings, The Deep is the true story of one man’s survival in perilous waters after a shipwreck. Behind it all is director Baltasar Kormákur, who sprung to international recognition with 101 Reykjavik and Jar City, before following those up by remaking his own film Reykjavík Rotterdam as Contraband, starring Mark Wahlberg. Rugged fisherman Gulli (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson)
enjoys some drunken shore leave before heading off on a fishing trawler, setting sail on the treacherous seas off the south coast of Iceland. When their net gets snared, the boat is dragged beneath the water, and Gulli finds himself the only crew member with a chance to survive.
The final third of the film, with doctors trying to figure out how Guilli managed to survive this trauma, is the least satisfying section. It's nothing more than a longwinded exposition of information that could have been more dramatically handled. The Deep is a reasonably compelling drama for the first hour, mainly thanks to Ólafsson’s star-making turn. (Eddie Harrison) ■ Limited release from Fri 12 Jul.
PIXAR ANIMATION MONSTERS UNIVERSITY (U) 110min ●●●●●
It’s a Pixar film, so Monsters University of course has verve, comic confidence and copious visual polish. But less of its home studio’s famed precision has been applied when it comes to establishing who the film is actually for. Kids weaned on 2001’s Monsters Inc might well be on their way to university (just like the characters in this prequel) but they’re hardly likely to be lining up to watch animated romps about it. No doubt, part of the point here is to sell DVDs of the original to a whole new fresher market; but those younger children won’t relate to the lectures, exams and fraternity initiations that are central to this movie.
Big doofus Sulley and nippy little know-it-all Mike each has what the other needs to make it as Scarers, who after graduation will be qualified to appear in kids’ bedrooms at night. Sulley, voiced by John Goodman, is naturally imposing, but no good at book-learning; Mike (Billy Crystal) is a hardworking swot with little brawn. Initial rivalry must be overcome if they and their hapless fraternity brothers are to outdo the academic competition. There are, of course, a few nice moments along the way, but minor
characters simply lack solidity, and the structure of the story is as vague as its message (er – winning counts? Pretend to be what you’re not? You can be good at something even if you’re not actually good at it. . . ?). And if the Monsters Inc concept was never Pixar’s most graceful one, the original film at least had a pleasingly high quota of warmth, which is harder to locate amid all the snide jocks vs nerds stand-offs here. Oh, and male bonding is all. Female monsters are palely represented by some squeaky sorority girls, a dragon-like Dean of Studies (played, with voice by Helen Mirren, like a fusion of Severus Snape and Professor McGonagall), and a cuddly mom. (Hannah McGill) ■ General release from Fri 12 Jul.
11 Jul–22 Aug 2013 THE LIST 67