FILM | Reviews
PERIOD HORROR PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES (15) 108min ●●●●● BIOPIC CONCUSSION (12A) 123min ●●●●●
COMEDY DRAMA A BIGGER SPLASH (15) 124min ●●●●●
Jane Austen’s classic gets the big screen treatment once more – this time with added horror. Adapting Seth Grahame-Smith’s parody novel, writer-director Burr Steers retells the story of Elizabeth Bennet and her sisters in Regency era England, which just so happens to be afl icted by a plague of the undead. If that sounds bizarre it’s more faithful than you might imagine. Elizabeth (Lily James) is the same i ercely independent heroine Austen crafted, only with added i ghting skills (learned from her time in China, apparently), while Mr Darcy (Sam Riley) is just as aloof as ever, even if he’s now preoccupied with rooting out zombies – or the ‘manky dreadfuls’, as they’re called here. It’s a curious mix, truth be told. The Bennet sisters (including Bella Heathcote and Suki Waterhouse) are fun to watch. Sally Phillips is a hoot as their mother, Matt Smith has a ball as the effete Parson Collins and Riley makes Darcy his own. But it all rather jars with the presence of the zombies, which are reasonably crafted but neither particularly scary nor especially comic, getting in the way of what is a half- decent take on the original story. For the most part, it feels like the Sleepwalking Dead. (James Mottram) ■ General release from Thu 11 Feb.
Awards season is traditionally the time for i lmmakers to get their teeth into the meaty issues they hope will draw the admiring gaze of audiences and voting committees alike. Concussion follows the established playbook to such a degree that it turns an incendiary story into something of a damp squib. The i lm’s failings have nothing to do with star Will Smith. He is excellent as Nigerian-born pathologist Dr Bennet Omalu, whose attention to detail uncovers that professional American footballers are suffering lasting brain damage categorically denied by the NFL. Unfortunately when the focus moves from Dr Omalu’s work to his personal life and the scrambling machinations of the NFL, the l at, plodding nature of the narrative reveals itself. It is so ruthlessly earnest that it lacks the vital, passionate punch of similarly themed contemporaries like Spotlight and Truth. This is compounded by writer- director Peter Landesman also attempting to use this as a celebration of the enduring dominance of the American dream. While it doesn’t detract from Dr Omalu’s towering achievements, it does lend his story an uneasy, jingoistic tone at odds with his own liberal outlook. (Nikki Baughan) ■ General release from Fri 12 Feb. Jacques Deray’s hot and heavy La Piscine (1969) is merely the jumping-off point for this tale of sex and drugs and rock ‘n’ roll, which nicks its name from the Hockney painting. Luca Guadagnino (I Am Love) is an expressive force at the helm of a i lm which reunites him with muse Tilda Swinton and features unforgettable dance moves from the newly game Ralph Fiennes. Swinton plays a rock star recovering from an operation on an Italian island, with her adoring hunk o’man (Matthias Schoenaerts) by her side. Their retreat is both lusty and peaceful, an idyll shattered when her l amboyant ex (Fiennes) bounds into view with his daughter (Dakota Johnson) in tow. Although Fiennes is an irrepressible scene-stealer, Guadagnino and writer David Kajganich act as modernisers as the story becomes all about the women, who are imbued with far more personality and potency than their passive counterparts in the original. Tonally it’s lighter and more eccentric than Deray’s i lm, while his enigmatic approach is taken to task. The cast sizzle and, in the spirit of hedonism and equality, all get their kit off. Shot with sun-kissed aplomb, A Bigger Splash is every bit as exuberant and refreshing as it sounds. (Emma Simmonds) ■ General release from Fri 12 Feb.
ANIMATION ANOMALISA (15) 90min ●●●●●
Charlie Kaufman’s latest idiosyncratic experiment gives the mundane an infusion of emotional grandeur as it meticulously blends the surreal and the sombre. Written and directed by the man himself, and co-helmed with animator Duke Johnson, Anomalisa captures a man’s painful, pervasive despondency, as well as the i rst l ushes of what could be love. What began life in 2005 as a play (part of composer Carter
Burwell’s Theatre of the New Ear project) has been transformed into a spectacularly sensitive animation. It follows l ailing customer service expert Michael Stone (David Thewlis) – author of self-help book How May I Help You Help Them? – who’s speaking at a conference on the subject and whose crippling disinterest leads him to haplessly pursue an ex and l irt with a pair of conference groupies, one of whom Lisa (Jennifer Jason Leigh) has a voice that marks her out from the crowd. There’s an overriding sense of the uncanny and some wonderful absurdist interludes but Anomalisa gets to the heart of existential angst and personal weakness as it conveys the monotone drudgery of daily life (Tom Noonan voices all the supporting characters, both male and female, in the same soft, l at key), how depression can lead to destructive folly, and the terror of baring your soul. The eerily lifelike stop-motion style really is something to behold, with its l aws and quirks enhancing the humanity on display; the characters’ sad, strange 3D-printed faces seem to shimmer with l uctuating emotion, with prominent join lines that expose their vulnerability. Achingly melancholic and philosophically ambitious, Anomalisa moulds reality into something magical. (Emma Simmonds) ■ Glasgow Film Theatre, part of Glasgow Film Festival, Sun 28 Feb. General release from Fri 11 Mar. See feature, page 22.
60 THE LIST 4 Feb–7 Apr 2016