list.co.uk/fi lm Reviews | FILM
EROTIC THRILLER STRANGER BY THE LAKE (18) 97min ●●●●● ACTION THE MONUMENTS MEN (12A) 118min ●●●●●
A mixed-up tone is customarily a negative trait in a film, but here the combination of gentle comedy, racy sex and murder works extraordinarily well, delivering a sophisticated, unpredictable and original modern noir.
Pierre Deladonchamps plays Franck, a sweet young gay man who gets his kicks amid friendly strangers at a lakeside cruising spot. When the idyll of anonymous sex is disrupted by an act of extreme violence, the reaction of Michel (Christophe Paou) is unexpected: rather than fleeing the danger, he obeys an instinct that draws him ever closer to its source, and the film’s atmosphere shifts from sunlit sex comedy to shadowy erotic thriller. Without ever seeming prurient or punitive towards the sexual subculture
he is portraying, writer / director Alain Guiraudie thoughtfully interrogates the mysterious appeal of risky sexual connections, the nature of intimacy and blurred lines that separate sexual identities, practices and preferences. Some will balk at the sex, which leaves almost nothing to the imagination;
but the explicitness arguably forms an important dimension of a story that continually contrasts carnal with emotional closeness, attraction with affection, and what the body feels with what the mind understands. One hopes in any case that trepidation over a little erotic content won’t prevent a wide audience from experiencing such an unusual and intelligent film. (Hannah McGill) ■ Limited release from Fri 21 Feb. See interview, page 57.
Ocean’s Eleven does The Dirty Dozen sounds like a fun movie, right? And this George Clooney-directed WWII comedy-drama tries, all too hard, to deliver on that very idea. But even low expectations won’t help you here, with a story that’s neither amusing nor dramatic. Based on real-life events, a band of ageing art experts bomb into Europe
to protect valuable works before the Nazis get their hands on them. Clooney plays Frank Stokes (a fictionalised take on Harvard art conservationist George Stout), charged with the task of assembling the Monuments Men and leading them into occupied Europe. Joining him is architect (Bill Murray), a sculptor (John Goodman), an art expert (Matt Damon), an art dealer (Jean Dujardin) and an art historian (Bob Balaban).
Part of the problem is that the story separates off many of the characters in
the early scenes in Europe, which leads to any sense of camaraderie dwindling rapidly. Jokes also get reused to diminishing returns while other scenes lack the explosive impact you might expect. Yet what really is a concern is how the film fails to operate as a thriller – there is so little tension here. Unaided by Clooney’s earnestly sentimental voiceover, it wants to be a movie from Hollywood’s gol den age. But in the end it’s just a monument to bad filmmaking. (James Mottram) ■ On general release now.
SCI-FI / THRILLER UNDER THE SKIN (15) 108min ●●●●●
It has been ten years since British director Jonathan Glazer’s last film – the understated, enigmatic Birth – and for much of that time he has been working away at this adaptation of Michel Faber’s cult novel. It has been time well spent, as Under the Skin is a genuinely unique, full-on sensory experience that treads its own path between narrative clarity and pure visual expression. It is a film that will leave audiences dazed, disturbed and full of questions.
Glazer disorients us from the start as we see what appears to be the formation of a human eye and hear a voice practising phonetic sounds. He then shifts between documentary-like footage of a nameless female alien in striking human form (Scarlett Johansson), driving around Glasgow and rural Scotland picking up men, and stunningly surreal sequences that reveal what happens to them.
The film focuses on her disconnected perspective – in
one terrifying moment she stands on a shore with a look of curiosity as a family drown at sea – and develops into a weird story of loneliness and discovery, as her inherited human form begins to affect her in unexpected ways.
This is really a film to be experienced: Glazer expertly uses all the elements at his disposal, including an oppressive score by Mica Levi, to create an outsider perspective on humanity that feels uncanny and unnerving. He’s aided no end by Johansson, who not only looks entirely alien alongside all the hardy Scots that populate the cast, but also conveys a believable ‘otherness’ through her simple facial expressions. She is like the film itself: always looking (at things, at people and at herself) and her fascination is infectious. (Paul Gallagh er) ■ GFT, Glasgow, Sun 2 Mar, as part of Glasgow Film Festival. Limited release from Fri 14 Mar. See feature, page 12.
20 Feb–20 Mar 2014 THE LIST 55