FILM | Reviews
MUSIC DOC MISTAKEN FOR STRANGERS (15) 75min ●●●●●
A film about making a film, about a band making it as a band, and about brothers getting along as brothers – Mistaken for Strangers may be one of the smartest, funniest, most heart- warming rock docs ever made.
As American indie-rock quintet the National – which uniquely features two pairs of brothers, singer Matt Berninger being the odd man out – prepare to tour, Berninger invites his younger sibling Tom to roadie. Tom’s a metalhead slacker with no ambition in life save for amateur filmmaking. He decides to self-shoot a tour doc, to the detriment of his roadie responsibilities – at one show, he loses the guestlist, leaving Matt’s wife, Werner Herzog and the cast of Lost locked out.
After several heated exchanges, Tom’s fired. But as he
edits his footage, he realises it shows not a tour so much as his own life lived in the shadow of his ostensibly golden-boy brother. It’s questionable quite how unscripted the film is, but it only makes you admire how everyone convincingly plays their part in telling a nevertheless very truthful story. A story about the often mundane life of a touring band, about believing in your art, and about how blood – so much of which courses through this film – is thicker than water. (Malcolm Jack) ■ Limited screenings on Sat 14 Jun.
COMEDY CHEF (15) 114min ●●●●●
BIOPIC GRACE OF MONACO (PG) 103min ●●●●●
There’s been much written already about Grace of Monaco and director Olivier Dahan’s clashes with US movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, a man notorious for getting his own way in the cutting room. Quite whose version we’re seeing here is hard to say, but watching this intermittently interesting tale of actress Grace Kelly, you suspect it’s more Harvey than it is the French director who brought us the Edith Piaf biopic La Vie En Rose. Nicole Kidman is a fine choice to play Grace; few other actresses embody that old-
fashioned Hollywood glamour as she does. But the problem is, this isn’t a Kelly biopic. The film begins with her gracefully walking off set (in an elegant tracking shot) and into another life: marriage to Monaco’s Prince Rainier III (a tache-wearing Tim Roth). Her first visitor is Alfred Hitchcock (Roger Ashton-Griffiths), trying to convince her to take the lead in Marnie, much to Rainier’s quiet displeasure. Largely, the film deals with Rainier’s clashes with French president Charles de Gaulle, who wishes to tax Monaco and reclaim the principality, with Grace’s potential return to Hollywood seen as poor timing as this diplomatic crisis looms. Political drama, a portrait of a marriage, a Hollywood tale . . . Grace of Monaco doesn’t quite know what it wants to be.
Shot with soft-focus lenses, the recreation of the era is credible, but Dahan seems unable
to summon the grit that he brought to his Piaf film. Instead, he seems to believe shoving the camera close-up into Kidman’s face – particularly in the film’s protracted middle sequence, where she questions her marriage – constitutes emotional depth. Ultimately, despite the gravity of the situation, Grace of Monaco feels rather flyweight. (James Mottram) ■ On general release now.
ADVENTURE T.S. SPIVET (12A) 104min ●●●●● Its full title – The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet – may be a bit of a mouthful, but this latest effort from French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet is still packed tight with his usual crazy energy.
Sandwiched right in the heart of this amiable comedy-drama by Jon Favreau is a big, fat career metaphor. The writer- director-actor plays Carl Casper, a divorced chef who works for a plush Los Angeles restaurant – until a food blogger (Oliver Platt) eviscerates his menu. Following a bust-up with the owner (Dustin Hoffman), Carl decides to find himself by opening up a food truck.
Based on the novel by Reif Larsen, it’s Jeunet’s Favreau is, of course, the director of Iron Man, Iron Man 2
first movie set in the United States and his first aimed at the younger market. Despite these debuts, there can be no mistaking this as anything but a Jeunet film, with its multicoloured palette and its bountiful inventions. No wonder Jeunet was drawn to the titular young boy (played by Kyle Catlett) at the heart
of the story, a would-be inventor who has managed to conjure up a perpetual motion machine. Living on an isolated Midwest ranch with his rather preoccupied family – including his
entomologist mother (Helena Bonham Carter) – T.S. gets a call from the Smithsonian museum, proclaiming his invention is to be recognised. Neglecting to tell them he’s still only a child, T.S. packs his bag and hops on the nearest train to Washington. So begins his awfully big adventure, one that Jeunet delights in, even if the emotional impact of T.S.’s backstory (involving his twin brother) never quite hits home. (James Mottram) ■ General release from Fri 13 Jun.
58 THE LIST 12 Jun–10 Jul 2014
and Cowboys & Aliens, who – presumably – got tired of serving up Hollywood dishes and decided to go and make the filmic version of a food truck. Still, if you ignore this slab of self- indulgence, Chef is amusing and occasionally charming. Yes, be advised to eat beforehand; the dishes prepared here
will have you drooling into your popcorn. But that’s really the garnish; the filling is a father-son story, as Carl looks to mend his patchy relationship with his young offspring at the urging of his ex-wife, Inez (Sofia Vergara), with Favreau offering one of his most affecting performances since Swingers, the film that launched him. It’s not all perfectly seasoned – Favreau is sometimes too heavy on the schmaltz – but, largely, Chef will leave you hungry for more. (James Mottram) ■ General release from Fri 27 Jun.