FILM | Reviews
COMEDY DUMB AND DUMBER TO (15) 109min ●●●●● CRIME THRILLER SON OF A GUN (15) 109min ●●●●●
THRILLER ENEMY (15) 90min ●●●●●
Twenty years have passed since Dumb and Dumber provided Bobby and Peter Farrelly with a box- office smash. Since then, their brand of comedy has become an endangered species with both the writer-directors and star, Jim Carrey, no longer guaranteed hits. This reteaming only recaptures the magic intermittently. Harry (Jeff Daniels) has spent two decades looking
after his best friend Lloyd (Carrey), who has been catatonic since the failure of his romance. When Lloyd snaps out of it, the imbeciles set out to find Harry’s daughter Penny (Rachel Melvin) in the hope of her providing him with a kidney transplant. The Farrellys’ best work marries their sight-gag
inventiveness with humanity. Dumb and Dumber To takes a step back, retaining the signature bad taste but losing the heart. There are plenty of simple, effective gags, including a meth-addicted cat and a hitman with an improbable knack for disguise, and the laugh-count compares favourably to the original, but the plot offers too much contrivance for not enough pay-off. Early on Lloyd announces, ‘Comedy is all about timing’: sadly it feels like this sequel has arrived a little too late. (Eddie Harrison) ■ General release from Fri 19 Dec.
Locked up for a misdemeanour, naive young Aussie JR (Brenton Thwaites) only survives his hellish prison experience under the wing of notorious criminal Brendan (Ewan McGregor). Such protection doesn’t come for free, however, and JR soon finds himself embroiled in a dangerous series of events.
Writer-director Julius Avery won international
awards for his short Jerrycan, but his feature debut is unlikely to garner such acclaim. It plays like a homage to the full throttle work of Tony Scott and Michael Bay. While the story nods at more interesting themes of patriarchal relationships and the intricacies of organised crime, it’s delivered via a barrage of clichés.
JR and Brendan are drawn in broad, obvious strokes, while the film's female lead – the excellent Alicia Vikander (A Royal Affair) – is reduced to eye-candy. As an escort with the compulsory heart of gold who falls for JR, she is nothing more than male-fantasy writ large. Australia has produced a raft of exceptional crime movies in recent years, including Animal Kingdom and The Square. Son of a Gun is not one of them. Dull and unashamedly derivative, this is a complete misfire. (Nikki Baughan) ■ General release from Fri 30 Jan.
‘Chaos is order yet undeciphered,’ states the film’s opening epigraph, a quote taken from José Saramago’s novel The Double, on which Enemy is loosely based. It’s a sentiment that Québécois director Denis Villeneuve boldly transfers onto this thematically rich psychological thriller, which examines identity, responsibility and desire, and recalls the early work of David Cronenberg. When history lecturer Adam spots his double in
a film, he decides to track him down. Adam lives a lonely existence in a smoggy Toronto, his fractured disposition pushing him closer to the abyss as he finds himself unable to control his compulsions. Jake Gyllenhaal stars as both Adam and Anthony, a confident actor expecting his first child. This is a surreal voyage into the psyche of a man cracking under pressure and fearing for his future. Villeneuve layers his film with meaning, scrutinising the modern world and the increasing disconnect brought about by new technology. The overbearing high-rises combined with the doom-filled score convey such intense turmoil and dread, it’s enough to leave a ringing in your head post-viewing. (Katherine McLaughlin) ■ Selected release from Fri 2 Jan.
THRILLER WHIPLASH (15) 106min ●●●●●
Captured with a riveting, rhythmic intensity that mirrors its protagonist’s ferocious focus and surging drive, Whiplash is an audaciously edited, voraciously performed story of blood, sweat and beats that makes you feel every last pummel and thrash. It’s set in the dark womb of the fictional Shaffer Conservatory, an elite musical academy whose soundproofing ensures that no one can hear you scream. Damien Chazelle’s second feature as writer-director (after Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench) is a gleefully unpleasant story of maverick mentorship. His screenplay for the recent Grand Piano showed a knack for high-concept, high-octane musical thrills, and Whiplash is a close relation. Chazelle once again assumes a tight focus and draws excitement and unease from pressurised playing as aspiring drummer Andrew Neiman (Miles Teller) attempts to prove himself to psychotically particular conductor Terence Fletcher (JK Simmons), whose jazz band he’s invited to join.
Like his character – a young man of unique, obsessive
determination who plays until he bleeds and runs from a car- wreck to take his place behind the drum-kit – Teller rises to the occasion. He thrives under the unwavering glare of the mighty Simmons, who’s not had a cinematic role to match his towering achievement as neo-Nazi Vern Schillinger in HBO’s Oz – until now. Simmons has a voice of booming authority that forces you to sit up straight, and his vigour as a performer is harnessed to formidable effect as Fletcher terrorises his students and the audience alike. Expanded from Chazelle’s 2013 short, Whiplash is everything its snappy title suggests, and comes complete with a thunderous ending that’ll leave the entire film reverberating in your consciousness. (Emma Simmonds) ■ General release from Fri 16 Jan.
82 THE LIST 11 Dec 2014–5 Feb 2015