list.co.uk/fi lm Reviews | FILM
POLITICAL SATIRE OUR BRAND IS CRISIS (15) 107min ●●●●●
PSYCHEDELIC FANTASY THE FORBIDDEN ROOM (TBC) 130min ●●●●● HORROR THE HALLOW (15) 97min ●●●●●
David Gordon Green’s fictional variation on Rachel Boynton’s 2005 documentary aims to blend the snappy banter of screwball comedy with the multi- layered sophistication of Robert Altman. It succeeds only in creating a slick, painless concoction that glides along on the charisma of its star Sandra Bullock. Bullock’s brash political strategist ‘Calamity’ Jane Bodine has left the rat race behind when she is asked to run the campaign of Bolivia’s former president Pedro Castillo (Joaquim de Almeida). The fact that Castillo's biggest rival is soaring in the opinion polls and has hired the services of Bodine’s arch nemesis Pat Candy (Billy Bob Thornton) makes it irresistible.
Our Brand Is Crisis takes easy shots at a political age in which perception is more important than reality and personality trumps conviction. Unfortunately, none of this feels like news and Peter Straughan’s screenplay is never as cutting or caustic as you might have wished, especially as Bodine is nudged towards redemption. Bullock’s comic instincts are as winning as ever and she has feisty chemistry with the snake-like Thornton, but this enjoyable film never quite delivers a killer blow. (Allan Hunter) ■ General release from Fri 22 Jan.
Poisonous leotards and frightening flapjacks are just a taste of the magnificent madness on display in Guy Maddin’s The Forbidden Room. A swirling, mutating apparition conjured from a crazed mind, it showcases a wealth of imagination as it drags us down through ever deeper, ever stranger layers of storytelling, shaped by splashy intertitles and brought to life by game performers. The tales that unfold include that of four terrified submariners who have lost their captain and are tasked with guarding the mysterious ‘blast jelly’.
Featuring actors of the calibre of Charlotte Rampling and Mathieu Amalric, like the ordeal of the seamen aboard the SS Plunger, the film is a discombobulating, almost suffocating experience as story springs from story, before we breathlessly claw our way back to the surface. Maddin is known for his love affair with the techniques and stylistic quirks of early cinema, while his latest (co-directed with Evan Johnson) started life as a museum installation. This acid-infused effort explodes onto the screen in fireworks of vivid colour – it’s archaic and innovative, silly and searing. If watching it is entirely overwhelming, it’s an experience like no other. (Emma Simmonds) ■ Selected release from Fri 11 Dec.
A muscular horror that keeps its nerve, this feature debut of British visual artist and pop promo director Corin Hardy (who’s currently working on The Crow reboot) should be sought out by genre fans who like to cast their nets beyond Hollywood. The concept comes from a real-life controversy: shelved plans by the Irish government to sell off public forests. In Hardy’s film, an ancient piece of woodland is sold, and tree surgeon Adam (Joseph Mawle) moves to the area with his wife Clare (Bojana Novakovic) and their baby son to work on the site. The locals are hostile toward the newcomers – mainly because the disturbance is really going to irritate the ghouls and sprites who live there. Hardy and co-writer Felipe Marino set the scene deftly, without taking the easy route into parody; a brief but striking turn by Michael McElhatton helps immensely. Sadly the threat itself is sometimes confusingly realised and the film suffers from a long succession of similar scares. But there are well- judged set-pieces and original ideas, often small ones: for all that the film has in store for her, one of the most chilling moments for Clare is the early discovery of drips of pitch-black goo in her baby’s cot. (Hannah McGill) ■ General release from Fri 13 Nov.
BIOPIC – SPY THRILLER BRIDGE OF SPIES (12A) 141min ●●●●●
Whenever Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks combine forces, the outcome is impressive. And so it goes with their latest, Bridge of Spies, a Cold War thriller that feels like a worthy companion piece to their WWII efforts, Oscar-winner Saving Private Ryan and the HBO series Band of Brothers. Shot on celluloid, this is filmmaking full of old-fashioned craft. Set in 1957, it tells the real-life story of a delicate prisoner
exchange that took place after a spy plane was shot down over Soviet territory, leaving airman Francis Gary Powers (Austin Stowell) imprisoned. Meanwhile, in New York, the Americans arrest a Russian spy, Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance), a rather gentle soul who seems resigned to his fate.
Hanks, who has long been compared to Jimmy Stewart,
plays his most Stewart-like character yet in James B Donovan, the insurance lawyer who provides Abel with pro bono legal representation and soon finds himself in the midst of a power- play, with Abel a bargaining chip. Events are complicated further when a second American –
economics student Frederic Pryor (Will Rogers) – is captured by the Berlin Wall. The upstanding Donovan, who heads to Germany to conduct the negotiations, wants a two-for-one exchange, and much of the film’s escalating tension derives from this stand-off. Boasting a script polished by the Coens, the end product is taut
and engaging. Hanks is as dependable as ever but it’s Rylance who shines. Already cast by Spielberg in next year’s adaptation of The BFG, his work here is beautifully nuanced. After years of acclaim in the theatre, and his recent outstanding turn in TV’s Wolf Hall, it would seem now is the time for him to soar on the big screen. (James Mottram) ■ General release from Fri 27 Nov.
5 Nov 2015–4 Feb 2016 THE LIST 93 5 Nov 2015–4 Feb 2016 THE LIST 93