list.co.uk/fi lm Reviews | FILM
ANIMATION JUSTIN AND THE KNIGHTS OF VAL- OUR (PG) 90min ●●●●●
Despite its very British cast, Justin and the Knights of Valour is the work of Spanish company Kandoor Graphics – the Granada-based animation outfit behind 2008’s The Missing Lynx. Freddie Highmore voices Justin, a young lad who
dreams of becoming a knight like his grandfather. Desperate to impress the rather haughty Lara (Tamsin Egerton), he sets out to learn the code of the armour-sporting warriors – even though he’s barely able to lift a broadsword. But when a banished former knight, Sir Heraclio (Mark Strong), returns to threaten the kingdom – having previously crossed swords with Justin’s grandfather – his quest is given genuine emotional resonance. It’s a rather by-numbers script in parts but some of
the support cast revel in their roles – notably David Walliams as bizarre wizard Melquiades and Rupert Everett as Sir Heraclio’s minion, Soto.
Producer Antonio Banderas also voices a
pompous knight, although his presence inadvertently recalls the superior Shrek series, in which he starred. Sadly, this is never quite as funny or knowing as that franchise, but it’s still a sweet-natured film that kids in the 8–12 age bracket will fall for. (James Mottram) ■ General release from Fri 13 Sep.
CRIME PAIN & GAIN (15) 129min ●●●●● DRAMA AIN’T THEM BODIES SAINTS (TBC) 105min ●●●●●
Love him or hate him, there’s no denying that Michael Bay can pull together a huge-scale production, and bring a certain style to it. Synonymous with explosions, pneumatic women, bad-taste comedy and rah-rah patriotism, Bay’s reputation is questioned by his latest effort Pain & Gain, which sees him dialing back his fireball-juggling act for a true-life crime story in which he appears to be aiming for a Coen Brothers level of verisimilitude.
Daniel Lugo (Mark Wahlberg) is an ambitious bodybuilding coach whose pumped-up physique is matched only by his gullible mentality. He enlists fellow musclemen Paul Doyle (Dwayne Johnson, aka The Rock) and Adrian Doorbal (Anthony Mackie) in a hare-brained kidnapping scheme. The execution of the crime is as slipshod as the idea, and soon the trio’s bloody antics come to the attention of private detective Ed DuBois (Ed Harris).
Pain & Gain is reasonably compelling for long stretches but Bay’s weaknesses for over-length and excruciating comedy asides eventually show. The Coen Brothers can sleep easy; Bay’s bid for credibility results in more pain than gain. (Eddie Harrison) ■ General release from Fri 30 Aug.
On the back of his debut with festival favourite St Nick, writer/director David Lowery creates another intense drama with Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, a fictional slice of Americana which creates a dreamlike atmosphere around a traditional story of love, crime and redemption. Rob Muldoon (Casey Affleck) and Ruth Guthrie
(Rooney Mara) are introduced against a backdrop of rural Texas; only the cars and clothes give any sense of the early 1970s period. Their fragile relationship is threatened by the revelation of her pregnancy. When the couple takes part in a robbery, they end up holed up in an abandoned homestead. Apprehended by the police after a violent shoot-out, Muldoon is jailed, but four years later escapes and closes in on the remote location where Guthrie is nursing their daughter. Lowery paints a striking picture of young love
in exile, with Mara and Affleck giving powerful performances as the lovers. While some will be frustrated by the sparse, laconic tone of the movie, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints is a thoughtful mood-piece that adds up to more than the usual outlaw story; it haunts the mind like the half-forgotten folk song the title suggests. (Eddie Harrison) ■ Limited release from Fri 6 Sep.
DRAMA THE GREAT BEAUTY (15) 142min ●●●●●
Paolo Sorrentino dares to court comparison with maestro Federico Fellini in The Great Beauty, a sprawling, virtuoso fresco of modern Rome that feels like a 21st century companion piece to La Dolce Vita. The lush visual elegance that has become a Sorrentino trademark is well deployed as the camera snakes through a city populated by the rich and famous, wearily drifting towards yet another party in search of something, anything, that will inject excitement into their dull evening or lend meaning to their vacuous lives. The film offers an exhausting but often exhilarating wallow in the decadence of a doomed society but it is served with a hint of admiration for the sheer grotesque spectacle of it all. Our guide through the whole gaudy circus is jaded writer and incorrigible party animal Jep Gambardella, played with wry, world-weary aplomb by Toni Servillo. The dapper Jep once wrote an acclaimed novel but has never found the energy to repeat the feat. Now, he dabbles in journalism as the kind of society columnist and commentator who is welcomed in all the best places.
Plunging into Jep’s world we witness the corruption of the church, the pretensions of the glitterati, the hollow dazzle of fame, the fading grandeur of impoverished aristocrats and the whole infuriating mess of the way we live now in the developed world. It is a modern cinematic echo of Proust or Lampedusa as it captures the dying light of a disappearing world. The Great Beauty is way too long and positively infatuated with excess in its ravishing visuals and hysterical emotional drive and yet it lingers in the imagination long after more disciplined, well- behaved films have faded. (Allan Hunter) ■ Limited release from Fri 6 Sep.
22 Aug–19 Sep 2013 THE LIST 57