list.co.uk/fi lm Reviews | FILM
THRILLER TOM AT THE FARM (15) 105min ●●●●●
DRAMA BEFORE THE WINTER CHILL (15) 103min ●●●●● COMING OF AGE DRAMA WE ARE THE BEST! (15) 102min ●●●●●
Filmmaker Xavier Dolan errs a little on the self- important side here, but so might you if you were only in your early twenties, on your fourth feature film as a writer / director (adapting from a stage play by Dolan’s fellow French-Canadian Michel Marc Bouchard), and starring in it to boot. Dolan plays the eponymous Tom, whose farm visit
is no jolly day out in the country, but a fraught trip to the childhood home of his deceased boyfriend. Tom arrives expecting to speak at the funeral, but quickly gathers that his existence has been kept secret; not only was his lover’s family unaware of the relationship, but they appear to function in a seething cauldron of denial and pretence. The film can be mannered – it rams home its Hitchcock-iness too hard, with an oppressively Herrmann-esque score by Gabriel Yared; and Dolan really likes lingering shots of his own pretty visage – and, in the end, it doesn’t quite know what to do with all its murky layers of mystery. But it looks darkly lovely, its performances are fiercely charismatic, and its examination of the ways in which fear, deceit, violence and desire can mingle is insightful and intriguing. (Hannah McGill) ■ Filmhouse, Edinburgh, Fri 18–Mon 21 Apr.
Writer and director Philippe Claudel enjoyed a successful collaboration with Kristin Scott Thomas in I’ve Loved You So Long, and they re-team for this domestic drama, in which a family crisis is somewhat awkwardly meshed with thriller elements. Scott Thomas plays Lucie, a bored housewife
whose surgeon husband Paul (Daniel Auteuil) believes he’s being stalked by a young bartender called Lou (Leila Bekhti), who claims that Paul saved her life on the operating table. Paul confronts Lou and after being convinced that it’s a case of mistaken identity, he reluctantly strikes up a chaste friendship with her, while Lucie finds herself the subject of romantic overtures by Paul’s best friend Gerard (Richard Berry).
Whether Lucie and Paul can keep their marriage together is the central focus in Claudel’s film but the final scenes of Before the Winter Chill lurch abruptly from sophisticated domestic drama to conventional thriller, with hidden motives revealed that cast a very different light on the story. It’s a rather odd film: excellent performances, a convincing milieu, and then a final twist that is so improbable that all Claudel’s careful work seems undone. (Eddie Harrison) ■ Limited release from Fri 9 May.
You could be forgiven for thinking Swedish director Lukas Moodysson has spent the last decade under a black cloud, making films like teen prostitution tale Lilya-4-Ever and the nihilistic Container. But from its joyous, uproarious title onwards, his latest is a genuine feelgood pleasure. Based on Never Goodnight (his wife Coco’s
graphic novel), We Are The Best! is set in Stockholm circa 1982. Punk music is dead but don’t tell the film’s trio of 13-year-old girls, who come together to form a band. There's the bespectacled, boyish- looking Bobo (Mira Barkhammar); rebellious, spiky- haired Klara (Mira Grosin) and Hedvig (Liv LeMoyne), a Jesus-worshipping, talented classical guitarist. This isn't really a film about fulfilling musical ambitions or smashing the state with radical ideas. What gives We Are The Best! its flavour is the beautiful everyday details; whether it’s the girls cooking fish fingers in the toaster or cutting Hedvig’s blonde locks to make her more punk, it’s a film full of adolescent mischievousness and growing pains. Moodysson seems to revel in these spirited characters. And you should too. It’s a delight from start to finish. (James Mottram) ■ Limited release from Fri 18 Apr.
ODDBALL COMEDY FRANK (15) 95min ●●●●● Hiding Michael Fassbender’s striking mug inside a papier-mâché Frank Sidebottom head for potentially an entire movie might seem like a crime against handsomeness. Instead, it’s the appealing centre of the fourth feature from versatile Irish director Lenny Abrahamson (What Richard Did, Garage), with a script penned by journalist Jon Ronson. Loosely based on Ronson’s own experiences of gigging with Sidebottom, Frank is a story of musical chaos and mental instability that’s often hilarious and ultimately rather moving.
Domhnall Gleeson is excellently employed as Jon, a wannabe musician saddled with an ordinary job whose lack of talent is evident from his hapless attempts to compose a song. But a chance encounter with a volatile avant-garde band with an unpronounceable name, whose keyboardist is trying to drown himself, sees him recruited as the replacement. Unfortunately Soronprfbs are a difficult bunch:
there’s the magnificently furious Clara (Maggie Gyllenhaal) and the unpredictable Don (Scoot McNairy), but most striking is frontman Frank (Fassbender) who permanently sports the aforementioned fake head. They’re as much cult
as band, with Frank their leader. Frank is a peculiar pleasure, furiously funny from the start before drifting seamlessly into more sorrowful territory. Fassbender delivers a highly sympathetic performance that captures the troubled singer’s many moods: remarkable given the obvious constraint. Abrahamson adds considerable bounce to a story with its fair share of darkness and Ronson’s first screenplay (written with Peter Straughan) shows great insight. Like its titular showman, Frank is charmingly, even heroically unconventional: an absolute one-off. (Emma Simmonds) ■ Limited release from Thu 8 May.
17 Apr–15 May 2014 THE LIST 59